Leaguers, I hope your week has found you well.
Apparently there's a good deal going on in the sports world right now. Basketball playoffs, Brett Favre causing trouble, baseball steroid scandals, and probably something with Dancing with the Stars. But I'm blissfully unaware.
I did watch every episode of "Lost" this season.
Spoilers below
I'm still enjoying the show. My complaint today is the same complaint I had with the show when it started. Somehow the writers have a very hard time getting the pieces of their show to flow organically from a character standpoint, and so, a bit like on a soap opera, characters tend to simply move about the playing board to create new and different conflicts instead of making rational decisions. Someone explain to me why Kate wanted to save people on the island? Aside from that it made a vehicle for the trio to return to the island? I know the show needs to be heavy on plot just to wrap up, but sometimes I wind up feeling that its all plot and they kind of fake the character bits unless it comes to Locke and Linus.
Also: I am deeply concerned that the season spent so much time on Time Travel issues this season, and not once did a single character point out that they couldn't actually be successful in resetting the clock, or none of them would be there to try, which would mean that, hey... this isn't going to work. Too often, time travel is a narrative dead end.
And no Juliet next season? Do not approve.
End spoilers.
I also think I'm... sigh... giving up on Ghost Hunters.
After five years or so of watching these guys scare themselves in other people's homes, businesses, and now THEIR OWN BUSINESS (they inspected the inn Jay and Grant's wives are now, apparently running), I think I'm going to have to say its been fun, but I'm checking out.
The show seems to increasingly ignore their own investigative techniques and use stuff like "I think I saw..." and questionable audio blips as evidence. I'd think that with as many hours as they've logged and as many of these investigations as they've undertaken, there'd be something of a payoff, but they seem to be moving in the opposite direction. And why they think a single night in any location is sufficient to gather enough evidence suggests some vestigal past from a lower budget operation, that I assume they no longer are.
I don't personally buy into the paranormal, but it doesn't mean I didn't want to see something amazing and inexplicable on TV. But at this point... well, alert me when and if it actually occurs.
I guess I'll just return to watching Mythbusters blow up cars and whatnot.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Troubles Taste Tests Trek
Jamie tastes the all-new Trek breakfast cereal. Here.
And, yes. The communicator, tricorder and phaser are all mine. I waited 25 years to have a communicator, tricorder and phaser, so shut up.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
High School Musical
Here's an interesting bit.
Apparently, Amanda Palmer of Dresden Dolls and solo fame, teamed with her old high school drama teacher to put on a musical based on a Neutral Milk Hotel album, which was inspired by the story of Anne Frank. Or something.
Here.
Reading about it and watching a few minutes online did, indeed, make me miss the brief period of footlights and greasepaint from my own youth. I would have loved to have been involved in anything this interesting for a production in high school, and while we didn't stick to kiddie-stuff, I was often disappointed we weren't tackling material I might have had more interest in actually performing.
It is true that I, myself, tried my hand at acting in high school. Nothing as elaborate as bringing in a popular indie rock star, but we did several shows a year. We had auditions and rehearsals before school ever started, and usually ran two shows before the winter break, tucked a musical in there, had a spring show and maybe another. Its hard to recall exactly how it all went down, but we ran a lot of plays.
Admittedly, I wasn't much of an actor. I had a hard enough time getting "off book" (I plead made-up learning disability), and was never comfortable with the pantomime that has to occur in stage acting so that every facial movie, every line delivered, etc... reaches the person in the last row. And inhabiting other people's skins wasn't something, I suppose, I was terribly good at.
Also, my assumption is that my line delivery was akin to the sing-songy line delivery which marks most high school and community theater.
I still recall the look of horror on the basketball coach's face when I informed him I was (a) quitting the basketball team, and (b) that I recognized I needed an activity to keep me off the drugs, so I was going to try out for a play.
Amazingly, I landed an understudy role in a 40-minute version of "Midsummer Night's Dream", which actually had The Big Bang Theory's Jim Parsons in it as "Flute" and Broadway actor Charlie Pollock as "Bottom". And, come to think of it, Jeff Miller of Christian rock band Caedmon's Call.
Huh. never thought of it that way before.
Anyway, it was for a UIL competition, and we had an honest-to-god scandal and were booted out of state competition for a minor rule infraction. All very dramatic.
Its probably important to note that I was not quite of the proportions then that I am now, so people were not looking for me to play "Thug #2" or "Man-Child #7", as I have no doubt I'd be cast now (and did, in fact, get cast a a man-child in a friend's scene in college). We did "Rimers of Eldritch", "Rumors", "The Crucible", "You Can't Take it With You", "All My Sons", "Watch on the Rhine", and, I am sure, one or two others.
We had a few musicals. I sort of preferred backstage work. (A) It was less likely I'd screw up while standing in front of however many people came to the play. (B) Building sets, hanging lights, messing with all that stuff, was a lot more fun than running over the same lines, over and over. There's a lot less in the way of access to power tools when all you're doing is acting.
I don't know how or why, but I wound up in the "fly booth" when we did "Bye, Bye Birdie". This meant I did only two or three things during the duration of the play, but I couldn't leave the actual booth as I couldn't turn on the lights needed to make it from point A to Point B. So for about three hours I had to just sit in this box, and on cue, move signs up and down on a few cranks.
Its a job that is supposed to go unnoticed, but a few pals came to the show, and when I dropped the first sign onto the set, I heard a chorus of "Steeeeaaaaannns" erupt from the audience, just as they'd done when I was shooting free throws on the basketball team. It was sort of gratifying.
What I'd say to our younger readers: I've only seen small bits of the Disney hit, "High School Musical", but... the movie doesn't really reflect much of what happened during any of our plays. There was less dancing, singing about our love, and a lot more snarkiness and sitting around backstage chatting and missing our cues. I don't if the fiction of Disney's musical is particularly helpful, and I'm sure its led to all kinds of confusion for eager-faced kids ready to sing and dance, and finding out that its mostly standing around and occasionally getting yelled at by a tired drama teacher who doesn't want to wrangle any more kids.
I also worked backstage at a bizarre cash grab by the Performing Arts teachers at our school. Someone cooked up the idea to do a revue. Which meant a large cast, lots of set changes, and getting practically any kid who auditioned into the show. And then $8 a head for their parents and friends. And with a cast, band, crew, etc... of around 100 students doing 4 shows, we went SRO all four shows and did okay. Apparently it helped fund our next show or two.
We had a complete set change between every number or two, which was interesting. We had to recruit a bunch of freshman who'd never worked a play before, but we got our act together, and our little unit never missed a beat. I'm still proud of those kids.
Oddly, I blame this play for my recurring nightmare. Its not dissimilar to the standard "I'm back in school, and I need to take a test" dream that, reportedly, you never shake. About 3 or 4 times a year, I still wake up in a cold sweat having dreamed that I showed up to work backstage at a play, but I was supposed to be in a musical, singing and dancing. I have neither skill, so I feel frustrated that someone put me in the position of being in the play in the first place, and I am not clear on how it got to be opening night and I never knew I was in the show.
Backstage, its very much like the "Bit O' Broadway" musical revue. But on stage, I have no idea what's happening. Its something else entirely.
To my credit, I refuse to give up in this dream, declare that the show must go on, and always sort of wander out on stage, waving my arms around and sort of shuffling to the music. I will be happy to demonstrate sometime.
Not wanting to draw attention to my lack of rehearsal, I always kind of hang around the back of the chorus, just try my best to lip synch to the rest of the kids, and get off stage as quickly as possible. Sometimes I have to improvise a solo, but most times, not.
What's weirdest is that some mental sub-routine always actually has songs going to some made up dream musical that some part of my brain is writing. There are sets and costumes and the whole nine-yards that my conscious brain is incapable of putting together. I'd really love to know what this musical is, sometime. Which reminds of the library in the Sandman comics, of the books that people had dreamed but which had never existed.
Anyhow, it always has a sad lack of Amanda Palmer.
Apparently, Amanda Palmer of Dresden Dolls and solo fame, teamed with her old high school drama teacher to put on a musical based on a Neutral Milk Hotel album, which was inspired by the story of Anne Frank. Or something.
Here.
Reading about it and watching a few minutes online did, indeed, make me miss the brief period of footlights and greasepaint from my own youth. I would have loved to have been involved in anything this interesting for a production in high school, and while we didn't stick to kiddie-stuff, I was often disappointed we weren't tackling material I might have had more interest in actually performing.
It is true that I, myself, tried my hand at acting in high school. Nothing as elaborate as bringing in a popular indie rock star, but we did several shows a year. We had auditions and rehearsals before school ever started, and usually ran two shows before the winter break, tucked a musical in there, had a spring show and maybe another. Its hard to recall exactly how it all went down, but we ran a lot of plays.
Admittedly, I wasn't much of an actor. I had a hard enough time getting "off book" (I plead made-up learning disability), and was never comfortable with the pantomime that has to occur in stage acting so that every facial movie, every line delivered, etc... reaches the person in the last row. And inhabiting other people's skins wasn't something, I suppose, I was terribly good at.
Also, my assumption is that my line delivery was akin to the sing-songy line delivery which marks most high school and community theater.
I still recall the look of horror on the basketball coach's face when I informed him I was (a) quitting the basketball team, and (b) that I recognized I needed an activity to keep me off the drugs, so I was going to try out for a play.
Amazingly, I landed an understudy role in a 40-minute version of "Midsummer Night's Dream", which actually had The Big Bang Theory's Jim Parsons in it as "Flute" and Broadway actor Charlie Pollock as "Bottom". And, come to think of it, Jeff Miller of Christian rock band Caedmon's Call.
Huh. never thought of it that way before.
Anyway, it was for a UIL competition, and we had an honest-to-god scandal and were booted out of state competition for a minor rule infraction. All very dramatic.
Its probably important to note that I was not quite of the proportions then that I am now, so people were not looking for me to play "Thug #2" or "Man-Child #7", as I have no doubt I'd be cast now (and did, in fact, get cast a a man-child in a friend's scene in college). We did "Rimers of Eldritch", "Rumors", "The Crucible", "You Can't Take it With You", "All My Sons", "Watch on the Rhine", and, I am sure, one or two others.
We had a few musicals. I sort of preferred backstage work. (A) It was less likely I'd screw up while standing in front of however many people came to the play. (B) Building sets, hanging lights, messing with all that stuff, was a lot more fun than running over the same lines, over and over. There's a lot less in the way of access to power tools when all you're doing is acting.
I don't know how or why, but I wound up in the "fly booth" when we did "Bye, Bye Birdie". This meant I did only two or three things during the duration of the play, but I couldn't leave the actual booth as I couldn't turn on the lights needed to make it from point A to Point B. So for about three hours I had to just sit in this box, and on cue, move signs up and down on a few cranks.
Its a job that is supposed to go unnoticed, but a few pals came to the show, and when I dropped the first sign onto the set, I heard a chorus of "Steeeeaaaaannns" erupt from the audience, just as they'd done when I was shooting free throws on the basketball team. It was sort of gratifying.
What I'd say to our younger readers: I've only seen small bits of the Disney hit, "High School Musical", but... the movie doesn't really reflect much of what happened during any of our plays. There was less dancing, singing about our love, and a lot more snarkiness and sitting around backstage chatting and missing our cues. I don't if the fiction of Disney's musical is particularly helpful, and I'm sure its led to all kinds of confusion for eager-faced kids ready to sing and dance, and finding out that its mostly standing around and occasionally getting yelled at by a tired drama teacher who doesn't want to wrangle any more kids.
I also worked backstage at a bizarre cash grab by the Performing Arts teachers at our school. Someone cooked up the idea to do a revue. Which meant a large cast, lots of set changes, and getting practically any kid who auditioned into the show. And then $8 a head for their parents and friends. And with a cast, band, crew, etc... of around 100 students doing 4 shows, we went SRO all four shows and did okay. Apparently it helped fund our next show or two.
We had a complete set change between every number or two, which was interesting. We had to recruit a bunch of freshman who'd never worked a play before, but we got our act together, and our little unit never missed a beat. I'm still proud of those kids.
Oddly, I blame this play for my recurring nightmare. Its not dissimilar to the standard "I'm back in school, and I need to take a test" dream that, reportedly, you never shake. About 3 or 4 times a year, I still wake up in a cold sweat having dreamed that I showed up to work backstage at a play, but I was supposed to be in a musical, singing and dancing. I have neither skill, so I feel frustrated that someone put me in the position of being in the play in the first place, and I am not clear on how it got to be opening night and I never knew I was in the show.
Backstage, its very much like the "Bit O' Broadway" musical revue. But on stage, I have no idea what's happening. Its something else entirely.
To my credit, I refuse to give up in this dream, declare that the show must go on, and always sort of wander out on stage, waving my arms around and sort of shuffling to the music. I will be happy to demonstrate sometime.
Not wanting to draw attention to my lack of rehearsal, I always kind of hang around the back of the chorus, just try my best to lip synch to the rest of the kids, and get off stage as quickly as possible. Sometimes I have to improvise a solo, but most times, not.
What's weirdest is that some mental sub-routine always actually has songs going to some made up dream musical that some part of my brain is writing. There are sets and costumes and the whole nine-yards that my conscious brain is incapable of putting together. I'd really love to know what this musical is, sometime. Which reminds of the library in the Sandman comics, of the books that people had dreamed but which had never existed.
Anyhow, it always has a sad lack of Amanda Palmer.
Giant Octopus vs. Mega Shark (or something like that)
...all I know is that I am going to watch this movie.
God bless you, little Debbie Gibson.
God bless you, little Debbie Gibson.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
I have absolutely nothing of interest to say
Which, I suppose, is nothing new. This is a blog with a readership of about 12.
You're on your own for the next 24 hours or more.
I'm going to read a book or something.
You're on your own for the next 24 hours or more.
I'm going to read a book or something.
Monday, May 11, 2009
hat and san francisco
Howdy, Leaguers!
Retiring Pontificatin' Hat Mark I
Leaguers who've made it out to League HQ or run into me at Barton Springs or ACL fest will be familiar with my Pontificatin' Hat.
I look faaaantastic here. Also, in my hand? That is "Pontificating Fuel", kids. Ask your mom where you can get some!
As you can see, the Pontificatin' Hat Mark I didn't ever fit exactly right. With summer here and ACL Fest tickets secured, I decided it was time to step it up a bit. Get a bit more in space around my noggin' and a bit more acreage out of the brim.
The Pontificatin' Hat was dubbed as it somehow tended to make appearances at the end of parties when we'd find ourselves on the back porch, chatting. One does not wear a "thinking cap" for such occasions, Leaguers. I recommend securing a Pontificatin' Hat of your own.
I'd expect Pontificatin' Hat Mark II, a Guatemalan Palm Cattleman's style hat, to start making appearances as early as this weekend. Heck, I just wore it outside at 9:30 at night to water the trees.
For fashion and lifestyle reasons, I resisted a cowboy hat for many a year. But after living in Phoenix and dealing with the relentless sunshine there, and deciding I kind of missed cowboy hats instead of grass-weave bermuda hats that were common in golf-mad Arizona, upon my return to Texas I felt it necessary to obtain and employ the traditional hatwear of my home state.
I'm certainly hanging onto the Mark I. I have a lot of affection for that sweaty, beat up hat.
San Francisco CA
It looks like Jamie and I are actually taking a vacation of sorts this summer. This is not something we normally do. We have a lot of logistical issues to resolve every time we leave town for more than 48 hours as Jamie needs dialysis Monday, Wednesday and Friday every week. That requires her to find a clinic where she can go that takes our insurance, etc...
Traveling is also tiring for Jamie, so add in a dialysis day, which usually means a lot of resting, and we need to plan in pretty good detail what we're up to.
Luckily for us, The Dug and K. live in the Bay Area, and so we were already thinking that heading out that way was a good idea. Throw in that they became engaged a week or so ago (something I'm still excited about) and its a good time to fly out there for a visit.
No idea what I'll do, and what Jamie will want to do and see, but we've got a pair of Bay Area regulars to show us around, and that ain't bad.
In truth, my knowledge of San Francisco, etc... comes mostly from movies, TV and Mythbusters. But I'm not too worried about running out of activities. I had lunch with David G. today, and he had a very specific place he recommended for breakfast that I have to remember.
Anyhow, if I disappear for a few days in July, now you'll know why.
I should probably look up Bankston while I'm out there.
Also, I'm going to do this...
Retiring Pontificatin' Hat Mark I
Leaguers who've made it out to League HQ or run into me at Barton Springs or ACL fest will be familiar with my Pontificatin' Hat.
I look faaaantastic here. Also, in my hand? That is "Pontificating Fuel", kids. Ask your mom where you can get some!
As you can see, the Pontificatin' Hat Mark I didn't ever fit exactly right. With summer here and ACL Fest tickets secured, I decided it was time to step it up a bit. Get a bit more in space around my noggin' and a bit more acreage out of the brim.
The Pontificatin' Hat was dubbed as it somehow tended to make appearances at the end of parties when we'd find ourselves on the back porch, chatting. One does not wear a "thinking cap" for such occasions, Leaguers. I recommend securing a Pontificatin' Hat of your own.
I'd expect Pontificatin' Hat Mark II, a Guatemalan Palm Cattleman's style hat, to start making appearances as early as this weekend. Heck, I just wore it outside at 9:30 at night to water the trees.
For fashion and lifestyle reasons, I resisted a cowboy hat for many a year. But after living in Phoenix and dealing with the relentless sunshine there, and deciding I kind of missed cowboy hats instead of grass-weave bermuda hats that were common in golf-mad Arizona, upon my return to Texas I felt it necessary to obtain and employ the traditional hatwear of my home state.
I'm certainly hanging onto the Mark I. I have a lot of affection for that sweaty, beat up hat.
San Francisco CA
It looks like Jamie and I are actually taking a vacation of sorts this summer. This is not something we normally do. We have a lot of logistical issues to resolve every time we leave town for more than 48 hours as Jamie needs dialysis Monday, Wednesday and Friday every week. That requires her to find a clinic where she can go that takes our insurance, etc...
Traveling is also tiring for Jamie, so add in a dialysis day, which usually means a lot of resting, and we need to plan in pretty good detail what we're up to.
Luckily for us, The Dug and K. live in the Bay Area, and so we were already thinking that heading out that way was a good idea. Throw in that they became engaged a week or so ago (something I'm still excited about) and its a good time to fly out there for a visit.
No idea what I'll do, and what Jamie will want to do and see, but we've got a pair of Bay Area regulars to show us around, and that ain't bad.
In truth, my knowledge of San Francisco, etc... comes mostly from movies, TV and Mythbusters. But I'm not too worried about running out of activities. I had lunch with David G. today, and he had a very specific place he recommended for breakfast that I have to remember.
Anyhow, if I disappear for a few days in July, now you'll know why.
I should probably look up Bankston while I'm out there.
Also, I'm going to do this...
Sunday, May 10, 2009
The League sees the All-New Star Trek
Vroooom! Vrooom! Vroooooooooom!
Spoilers Ahoy. Be forewarned.
So, okay. I really liked the new Trek.
There's a lot of plot and story issues with the movie, I'm not going to fib. Characters' motivations don't make sense (especially our villain, the catalyst for the plot), and its sort of derivative. And, if what they did is what I think they did, it would give longtime Trek fans a long, long moment of pause.
But...
If you're like me and felt the past ten years or so of Trek has taken a turn for the not-so-great, and you never quite got over the original series, then this is a welcome change.
Prior to the new movie, I watched "Star Trek: The Motion Picture", the Alan Dean Foster penned, post "2001: A Space Odyssey", post "Star Wars" relaunch of the Star Trek franchise. And the differences between the two movies really couldn't be more pronounced in structure, pacing, philosophy, etc... The new movie is much, much more in the vein of the high-octane action movies of the past few years that had left the Trek franchise limping pretty far behind.
The movie does do a great job of introducing the characters and distilling down a lot of character bits developed over the decades into one cohesive narrative. There may be new actors in the Starfleet uniforms, but the writers were pretty intent on making sure that the characters that they'd loved for so many years are still intact, even if its coming from a slightly different angle. This most likely won't throw off too many viewers, what with the relaunch of other popular franchises of late, from Batman to James Bond (and us comic fans are very, very used to the whole "Earth 1, Earth 2" concept. As Trek fans should be, from "Mirror, Mirror".)
My all-new imaginary friends
The story moves at Warp 10, so its possible to miss the plotholes and/ or not care too much about them. And... this should give you an idea regarding how pleased I was with the movie, it really doesn't matter a whole lot whether the plot adds up or not. The movie isn't here to spin a crazy new plot for the Star Trek franchise, its here to get a new generation of viewers hooked on the antics of Kirk, Spock, Bones, Uhura, Sulu and the rest.
One of the things I'd loved about Star Trek: The Motion Picture was the scale of the thing. From the interior of the Enterprise (something rarely explored, and - oddly- not emphasized much in any other incarnation), to the vastness of space and the possibilities for craft size, etc...
While the FX of ST:TMP still hold up, the new film takes advantage of the power of CG in a way that the past fifteen years of Trek have struggled. Its a really great looking movie, even if the battle scenes do become a bit unnecessarily chaotic at times (but less so than the average Michael bay travesty).
The interior of the Enterprise, etc... actually makes some sort of sense and the designers must have considered what actual engine rooms on battleships, etc... look like, rather than just imagining a living room with glowy things. And the bridge is representative enough of the classic bridge, with what seems like a reasonable update in technology, etc...
I was genuinely pleased with the performances of everyone, even when a few scenes may have gone a little slapsticky for the Trek franchise. But it also generated humor in a film that wasn't going to count on laughs just from a fawning fanbase laughing at some insider joke.
It's a fast-paced popcorn flick that does its job admirably. And, after having paid the same amount to see "Wolverine" last week, I can verify that you could do a lot, lot worse.
Whether or not they dug themselves into all kinds of complications for a sequel remains to be seen. They certain had enough issues with the plot, how they handled... ahem... different versions of characters, etc... could be incredibly problematic. But I don't want to assume the worst until we get another installment.
For more, I recommend reading Jason's spoiler-rific review. Also, my rundown of my moderate Trek fandom.
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