I think you're supposed to do this with one word answers.
Where is your cell phone.........................pocket
Your hair............................................unmanaged
Your mother........................................ADHD
Your father.........................................Admiral
Your favorite thing................................Jamie
Your dream last night.............................non-existent
Your favorite drink................................neat
Your dream/goal..................................invincibility
The room you are in..............................living
Your fear...........................................entropy
Where do you want to be in 6 years..........Sirius
Muffins.............................................badstrippername
One of your wish list items......................Power Ring
Where you grew up..............................Texas
The last thing you did............................brushed the dog
What are you wearing...........................standard uniform: fall/ winter
Your TV............................................omnipresent
Your pets..........................................quite mad
Your computer....................................work-owned
Your life...........................................steady-state
Your mood.........................................code red (its always code red)
Your car............................................Babar
Favorite store.....................................Austin Books
Your summer......................................frikkin' too long and too hot
Your favorite color...............................blue
When is the last time you laughed.............Venture Bros. 4 Season Premiere
Last time you cried...............................no idea
Three of my favorite foods.....................fresh bread, fish, canned green beans
Three places I would rather be right now......Oa, the park w. Team Steans, seaside in Costa Rica
Monday, October 19, 2009
The Red Death is Going to Ruin Your Party
This is a scene from one of my favorite movies, the 1925 Lon Chaney starring "Phantom of the Opera".
If you skip to 2:10 in the timeline, you'll get right to the Phantom upping the ante.
While we think of films as "Black and White", two-toned color processes were being experimented with even then. And the use of tint on a scene to indicate day, night, etc... was par for the course. In the past few years, Universal found original reels that had not been re-printed to simple black and white emulsion, and the effect is simply stunning.
I'd seen this movie a half-dozen times, but the two-tone color gives it a definite kick the graytones don't really capture.
If you skip to 2:10 in the timeline, you'll get right to the Phantom upping the ante.
While we think of films as "Black and White", two-toned color processes were being experimented with even then. And the use of tint on a scene to indicate day, night, etc... was par for the course. In the past few years, Universal found original reels that had not been re-printed to simple black and white emulsion, and the effect is simply stunning.
I'd seen this movie a half-dozen times, but the two-tone color gives it a definite kick the graytones don't really capture.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Birthday Girls
Happy Birthday to Ms. Lauren Roth, who had a birthday last week, and who was so kind as to invite us out to Austin's premier Karaoke bar, Common Interest, on Friday night.
Steven sang two songs in my presence, wowing the crowd in particular with Hank Williams Jr's immortal classic "A Country Boy Can Survive", peppered with a lot of "Thank you, Austin!" thrown in.
Lauren, who looked lovely, gave us some rockin' 80's before tuning introspective with "Yesterday".
I am sad to say The League never screwed up enough courage to get on the mic and sing any of the tunes he was considering, and only upon departing did he realize "I totally should have sung 'Tomorrow' from 'Annie'".
Thanks for the invite, Team Roth-Harms!
Saturday we joined FunHeather and friends to celebrate the birthday of Heather Wagner, newly returned from Lubbock and now a practicing speech therapist. It was a lovely dinner, but a lot less singing happened. Except for the requisite "Happy Birthday" rendition, I suppose.
Met some new folks, felt a little old, and enjoyed a lovely meal at one of Austin's favorite spots, Fonda San Miguel.
Happy B-Day to both, and thanks for making sure we had an action-packed weekend!
Steven sang two songs in my presence, wowing the crowd in particular with Hank Williams Jr's immortal classic "A Country Boy Can Survive", peppered with a lot of "Thank you, Austin!" thrown in.
Lauren, who looked lovely, gave us some rockin' 80's before tuning introspective with "Yesterday".
I am sad to say The League never screwed up enough courage to get on the mic and sing any of the tunes he was considering, and only upon departing did he realize "I totally should have sung 'Tomorrow' from 'Annie'".
Thanks for the invite, Team Roth-Harms!
Saturday we joined FunHeather and friends to celebrate the birthday of Heather Wagner, newly returned from Lubbock and now a practicing speech therapist. It was a lovely dinner, but a lot less singing happened. Except for the requisite "Happy Birthday" rendition, I suppose.
Met some new folks, felt a little old, and enjoyed a lovely meal at one of Austin's favorite spots, Fonda San Miguel.
Happy B-Day to both, and thanks for making sure we had an action-packed weekend!
Balloon Boy
Judge Not, Lest Ye Be...
Ha ha. Just kidding. What kind of blog would this be if I weren't judging everyone who caught my attention for a split second? This means you, Emily!!!!
But, like everyone else, I've been thinking about Balloon Boy.
In case you had not heard, the Sheriff of Larimer County, Colorado has deduced that the entire balloon chasing production on Thursday wasn't just a hoax, but one intended to land the family involved a television contract. And apparently scrambling the air force, shutting down the Denver airport, involving a massive portion of the police force and untold numbers of public servants isn't exactly legal. Thus, the Sheriff is throwing the book at the Heene family.
Marshall had a post on this, responding to an article on gawker.
My own brother had this to say.
Mostly, I'm admiring the entire scenario as a perfect encapsulation of how I believe a portion of the populace has viewed the post-Survivor/ Richard Hatch era of pointless celebrity. And, as countless other navel-gazers have concluded in regards to the sort of Z-level fame and meritless notoriety sought by the those such as Heene: this isn't actual celebrity.
There's no word for what this is, but if eskimos have a few dozenw ords for snow, for the number of fame-seeking jack-asses there are in the world, we need a word that better describes the Z-Level fame via reality show. You know... the kind of famous that earns you a life being known as "Juice-a-Licious" from your run on "Flava of Love" or assuming people will know or care who you are because you were a jackass on Survivor six years ago.
There's no real name for that kind of fame. Please send in your ideas.
What's so beautiful about the Balloon Boy story is how jumbo-sized hubris, ineptitude and counting on a six year old to keep a story straight spun out into a yarn that, if you made it up, people wouldn't buy it... And now, when and if the tale is folded into someone's TV movie of the week or Oscar winning picture, what with charges filed, nobody actually needs to pay Heene for his side of the story. And Papa Heene may well wind up in jail (and will most certainly go broke on legal costs).
Sounds like a Coen Bros. project to me.
The Gawker article blames "us", which I don't buy. If we hear a kid is pilotlessly drifting across the Colorado sky in a runaway balloon, we're going to tune in every once in a while to see if that kid is okay. The dimensions of our displays don't matter. Yes, "we" watched a balloon floating across the landscape (well, I didn't. I saw the headline and then walked into a two hour training presentation, and by the time I was done, it was all over). That's like blaming "us" for Baby Jessica falling down a well back in the 80's.
Yes, it was something exploited by Heene, but there is more than voyeurism in this, or guilt the media should feel for breaking a live story. "We" don't need to feel shame for clicking on a hyperlink to understand a headline in bright yellow at the top of CNN.com. I understand that because Heene fooled us, Gawker is trying to turn that into a "we should have known better" story of personal shame, but... I'm not buying it this time. There are a lot of things "we" should have known better than that nobody has bothered to shame anybody about.
Reality TV isn't what created someone like Heene, but it did make the myopic pursuit of fame-by-any-means-necessary seem like it may have a greater likelihood of success, once you realized you may lack any actual talent. And, it cut out the middle-man of asking people to love a character, and let them get right to the business of loving you directly. Had Heene's grasp not over-extended his reach, no doubt he would be cutting a deal with somebody right now to feature his wacky family and their exploits. Unfortunately, in believing he and his brood were smarter than, apparently, literally everyone in Colorado and/ or America, he screwed up. (Not to mention appearing twice before on TV, pitching shows about his family to basic cable networks, and leaving a trail of videos seemingly demonstrating exactly what sort of jackass he was molding his children into).
If any of the Heene kids wanted a chance at not ending up in the fail column, maybe humiliation and a little jail time for their old man on a national scale will give them a moment of pause before they decide they, too, can outsmart laws of physics and a background check.
Heene's actions weren't harmless (all the resources that had to be brought forth to deal with the situation), and had he succeeded, if he was willing to exploit his kids in this situation, what would have been next? If the book is thrown at him, so be it. And if it gives the next idiot inflating a balloon and actually sticking his kid into the balloon a moment of pause, all the better.
I think Jason posited that people were mad at the Heene's because they had become invested in the gripping story of danger that turned out to be false, but I'd suggest that was only part of the story. That may be true, but its also possible there is a population out there who doesn't buy the E! channels narrative, or that of the Insider, Entertainment Tonight, etc... and who have grown quite tired of the cult of celebrity and the past decade's insistence that we know about people like Richard Hatch, Kardashians, the awful New York woman of VH1, any Real Housewife in any city, Jon & Kate and a thousand just like them. And seeing someone cut down before they had an opportunity to pop up on our Yahoo News page, in our headlines on CNN.com, etc... that they somehow managed to take care of themselves sits okay with many of us.
Sorry your dad is going to jail, Balloon Boy. God bless you for doing what kids do so often and telling some part of the truth. Lord knows CNN barely bothers with it anymore. Heck, Wolf Blitzer was so baffled he didn't even have a line of questioning he could follow immediately when the cat was out of the bag and wandering around the table.
Ha ha. Just kidding. What kind of blog would this be if I weren't judging everyone who caught my attention for a split second? This means you, Emily!!!!
But, like everyone else, I've been thinking about Balloon Boy.
In case you had not heard, the Sheriff of Larimer County, Colorado has deduced that the entire balloon chasing production on Thursday wasn't just a hoax, but one intended to land the family involved a television contract. And apparently scrambling the air force, shutting down the Denver airport, involving a massive portion of the police force and untold numbers of public servants isn't exactly legal. Thus, the Sheriff is throwing the book at the Heene family.
Marshall had a post on this, responding to an article on gawker.
My own brother had this to say.
Mostly, I'm admiring the entire scenario as a perfect encapsulation of how I believe a portion of the populace has viewed the post-Survivor/ Richard Hatch era of pointless celebrity. And, as countless other navel-gazers have concluded in regards to the sort of Z-level fame and meritless notoriety sought by the those such as Heene: this isn't actual celebrity.
There's no word for what this is, but if eskimos have a few dozenw ords for snow, for the number of fame-seeking jack-asses there are in the world, we need a word that better describes the Z-Level fame via reality show. You know... the kind of famous that earns you a life being known as "Juice-a-Licious" from your run on "Flava of Love" or assuming people will know or care who you are because you were a jackass on Survivor six years ago.
There's no real name for that kind of fame. Please send in your ideas.
What's so beautiful about the Balloon Boy story is how jumbo-sized hubris, ineptitude and counting on a six year old to keep a story straight spun out into a yarn that, if you made it up, people wouldn't buy it... And now, when and if the tale is folded into someone's TV movie of the week or Oscar winning picture, what with charges filed, nobody actually needs to pay Heene for his side of the story. And Papa Heene may well wind up in jail (and will most certainly go broke on legal costs).
Sounds like a Coen Bros. project to me.
The Gawker article blames "us", which I don't buy. If we hear a kid is pilotlessly drifting across the Colorado sky in a runaway balloon, we're going to tune in every once in a while to see if that kid is okay. The dimensions of our displays don't matter. Yes, "we" watched a balloon floating across the landscape (well, I didn't. I saw the headline and then walked into a two hour training presentation, and by the time I was done, it was all over). That's like blaming "us" for Baby Jessica falling down a well back in the 80's.
Yes, it was something exploited by Heene, but there is more than voyeurism in this, or guilt the media should feel for breaking a live story. "We" don't need to feel shame for clicking on a hyperlink to understand a headline in bright yellow at the top of CNN.com. I understand that because Heene fooled us, Gawker is trying to turn that into a "we should have known better" story of personal shame, but... I'm not buying it this time. There are a lot of things "we" should have known better than that nobody has bothered to shame anybody about.
Reality TV isn't what created someone like Heene, but it did make the myopic pursuit of fame-by-any-means-necessary seem like it may have a greater likelihood of success, once you realized you may lack any actual talent. And, it cut out the middle-man of asking people to love a character, and let them get right to the business of loving you directly. Had Heene's grasp not over-extended his reach, no doubt he would be cutting a deal with somebody right now to feature his wacky family and their exploits. Unfortunately, in believing he and his brood were smarter than, apparently, literally everyone in Colorado and/ or America, he screwed up. (Not to mention appearing twice before on TV, pitching shows about his family to basic cable networks, and leaving a trail of videos seemingly demonstrating exactly what sort of jackass he was molding his children into).
If any of the Heene kids wanted a chance at not ending up in the fail column, maybe humiliation and a little jail time for their old man on a national scale will give them a moment of pause before they decide they, too, can outsmart laws of physics and a background check.
Heene's actions weren't harmless (all the resources that had to be brought forth to deal with the situation), and had he succeeded, if he was willing to exploit his kids in this situation, what would have been next? If the book is thrown at him, so be it. And if it gives the next idiot inflating a balloon and actually sticking his kid into the balloon a moment of pause, all the better.
I think Jason posited that people were mad at the Heene's because they had become invested in the gripping story of danger that turned out to be false, but I'd suggest that was only part of the story. That may be true, but its also possible there is a population out there who doesn't buy the E! channels narrative, or that of the Insider, Entertainment Tonight, etc... and who have grown quite tired of the cult of celebrity and the past decade's insistence that we know about people like Richard Hatch, Kardashians, the awful New York woman of VH1, any Real Housewife in any city, Jon & Kate and a thousand just like them. And seeing someone cut down before they had an opportunity to pop up on our Yahoo News page, in our headlines on CNN.com, etc... that they somehow managed to take care of themselves sits okay with many of us.
Sorry your dad is going to jail, Balloon Boy. God bless you for doing what kids do so often and telling some part of the truth. Lord knows CNN barely bothers with it anymore. Heck, Wolf Blitzer was so baffled he didn't even have a line of questioning he could follow immediately when the cat was out of the bag and wandering around the table.
Disguise!
I would get this, but Jamie's patience with me is thin as it is.
Bully!
But, yes, I would like to see how far one could take a TR impersonation around town. Its too bad congress is no longer in session...
Bully!
But, yes, I would like to see how far one could take a TR impersonation around town. Its too bad congress is no longer in session...
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Red River Rivalry 2009
Well, the Texas/ OU game is done for another year. Texas claimed a victory at 16-13.
I'll be curious to review the statistics later, and I am sure fans will have differing opinions as to what the game meant.
In my opinion, the Texas offense played mostly poorly, and it was clear OU's defense had done their homework in preparing for the offense. To compound things:
Passing game:
Whether its due to having an offense that can't run a pass play, or Greg Davis going senile, UT ran play after play aimed at passing for only a few yards. This included when UT would earn yet another penalty or sack and wind up with 20 yards between themselves and a first down.
The issue with running these short routes seemed to be that OU anticipated every route, meaning that our receivers could never truly get open, or do much more than wind right back up at the line of scrimmage.
At any rate, UT's passing game is looking a bit sad compared ot last year.
Running Game
If you give the ball to Fozzy every play, they will figure it out.
The Pitch Play
Greg Davis, it seems you are letting the kids with whom I played backyard football circa 1982 design your "trick" plays. They don't work, they make Colt look unhappy. Stop it.
Penalties
For a game that, at last check, wound up with 215 yards in penalties, I didn't think the refs were particularly whistle-happy. Whatever thought might have once been a part of football that meant "just let them play" has been scrapped, but apparently nobody notified Texas's line, who had multiple holding calls, costing us 5-10 yards on what seemed to be a play per drive (at least), and which injured almost every opportunity Texas had all game to move the ball.
OU was responsible for what had to have been an equal or greater number of penalties, leading to UT's victory, as UT moved the ball almost entirely off of penalties during some drives.
UT's Defense
Played very well. Aside from a few mistakes, which are just inevitable, I don't think I've seen those guys play this well all year. If they can keep that up, its going to help make up for the weak offensive line, and whatever is going on with the 5 yard offense.
Colt
It's hard to tell if Colt McCoy is struggling, or if he simply has no help. In the first half, the line was offering him no time to find a receiver, but whether the receiver was open or not, he wasn't able to make much happen until he decided to start running. Unless he's a threat to do more than pass, it seems like the opposing defense isn't having too hard of a time shutting Colt down and/ or sacking McCoy.
But...
Look, OU didn't look any better than UT. At least not after Bradford went down with an injury early on. I am of the opinion that, had Sam remained healthy, UT would have gone down in flames.
I am happy that UT won. I'm just not impressed at all with how UT's offense played. I like a "W" as much as the next guy, but as this isn't as straightforward playoff situation, and this widely-televised game is going to be considered by voters, how the game was played is an issue.
The bottom line is that UT hasn't had a game where they looked terrific this season, and I remember laughing out loud along with everyone else when I saw the cream-puff schedule Mack brown got for his team.
When UT won the Rose Bowl and took the 2005 Championship, part of what made the year so amazing was that expectations were not for a championship, UT had a rigorous schedule, and right up til the week of the game, ESPN (who is always looking at Pete Carroll with dewy eyes) didn't think UT stood a chance. Getting a soft schedule and looking bad when you win those games doesn't make the ranking feel terribly legit.
There's a lot of season left yet for the Horns to either make it or break it.
UT fans have a reputation, I guess, for being fair weather fans because of the nature of the fan base to be critical. Yes, its easier to be a fan when they are winning and playing well. But find me a UT fan who doesn't find a reason to complain about Greg Davis once per game, and I'll show you someone who doesn't watch the games and care.
A truly great Texas team is still fresh in the minds of many UT fans, and, unfortunately for the team, every play is compared a bit with WWVYD? And, of course, the knowledge that when you're on top and there's this much season left, there's nowhere to go but down.
I, personally, don't want to see UT wind up in another Texas or Alamo Bowl. And certainly don't want to see another team we've beat wind up ahead of us in the rankings once again.
Let's all also hope Sam and other injured players get healthy soon.
I'll be curious to review the statistics later, and I am sure fans will have differing opinions as to what the game meant.
In my opinion, the Texas offense played mostly poorly, and it was clear OU's defense had done their homework in preparing for the offense. To compound things:
Passing game:
Whether its due to having an offense that can't run a pass play, or Greg Davis going senile, UT ran play after play aimed at passing for only a few yards. This included when UT would earn yet another penalty or sack and wind up with 20 yards between themselves and a first down.
The issue with running these short routes seemed to be that OU anticipated every route, meaning that our receivers could never truly get open, or do much more than wind right back up at the line of scrimmage.
At any rate, UT's passing game is looking a bit sad compared ot last year.
Running Game
If you give the ball to Fozzy every play, they will figure it out.
The Pitch Play
Greg Davis, it seems you are letting the kids with whom I played backyard football circa 1982 design your "trick" plays. They don't work, they make Colt look unhappy. Stop it.
Penalties
For a game that, at last check, wound up with 215 yards in penalties, I didn't think the refs were particularly whistle-happy. Whatever thought might have once been a part of football that meant "just let them play" has been scrapped, but apparently nobody notified Texas's line, who had multiple holding calls, costing us 5-10 yards on what seemed to be a play per drive (at least), and which injured almost every opportunity Texas had all game to move the ball.
OU was responsible for what had to have been an equal or greater number of penalties, leading to UT's victory, as UT moved the ball almost entirely off of penalties during some drives.
UT's Defense
Played very well. Aside from a few mistakes, which are just inevitable, I don't think I've seen those guys play this well all year. If they can keep that up, its going to help make up for the weak offensive line, and whatever is going on with the 5 yard offense.
Colt
It's hard to tell if Colt McCoy is struggling, or if he simply has no help. In the first half, the line was offering him no time to find a receiver, but whether the receiver was open or not, he wasn't able to make much happen until he decided to start running. Unless he's a threat to do more than pass, it seems like the opposing defense isn't having too hard of a time shutting Colt down and/ or sacking McCoy.
But...
Look, OU didn't look any better than UT. At least not after Bradford went down with an injury early on. I am of the opinion that, had Sam remained healthy, UT would have gone down in flames.
I am happy that UT won. I'm just not impressed at all with how UT's offense played. I like a "W" as much as the next guy, but as this isn't as straightforward playoff situation, and this widely-televised game is going to be considered by voters, how the game was played is an issue.
The bottom line is that UT hasn't had a game where they looked terrific this season, and I remember laughing out loud along with everyone else when I saw the cream-puff schedule Mack brown got for his team.
When UT won the Rose Bowl and took the 2005 Championship, part of what made the year so amazing was that expectations were not for a championship, UT had a rigorous schedule, and right up til the week of the game, ESPN (who is always looking at Pete Carroll with dewy eyes) didn't think UT stood a chance. Getting a soft schedule and looking bad when you win those games doesn't make the ranking feel terribly legit.
There's a lot of season left yet for the Horns to either make it or break it.
UT fans have a reputation, I guess, for being fair weather fans because of the nature of the fan base to be critical. Yes, its easier to be a fan when they are winning and playing well. But find me a UT fan who doesn't find a reason to complain about Greg Davis once per game, and I'll show you someone who doesn't watch the games and care.
A truly great Texas team is still fresh in the minds of many UT fans, and, unfortunately for the team, every play is compared a bit with WWVYD? And, of course, the knowledge that when you're on top and there's this much season left, there's nowhere to go but down.
I, personally, don't want to see UT wind up in another Texas or Alamo Bowl. And certainly don't want to see another team we've beat wind up ahead of us in the rankings once again.
Let's all also hope Sam and other injured players get healthy soon.
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