Crowded House released their first CD in nearly a decade a few weeks back and it has been in heavy rotation at our house since. I thought it would be fun to take Ann to see them in concert and found out last week that they were playing at Foxwoods in just a week's time. That sealed it. I got on the phone, got tickets and made reservations to stay overnight in the Great Cedars hotel (I figured we wouldn't want to drive back so late after the concert was over).
We had a complete blast. Crowded House is absolutely wonderful live and lead singer Neil Finn is quite funny as well. Somehow he got on the subject of bassist Nick Seymour being hungry and needing fish and chips as well as how all of the band could use mojitos or, at the very least, tequila. Shortly after, tequila shots and limes were delivered to the front of the stage and at least Neil and Nick partook. A few songs later, a nicely dressed room service cart with fish and chips was rolled out on stage and Nick ate the fish and had a few chips. Neil then took the plate, had a few himself and then began walking along the front of the stage passing out chips to whoever wanted them.
I managed this picture with my iPhone during the concert:
All in all, the concert was wonderful and it ended far too soon. And while they played a nice mix of old and new favorites (and a few songs I never remembered having heard before), they didn't play Into Temptation, my all time favorite song. Ah well, as Ann pointed out, they could have played for four hours and have left us not having heard all of our favorites.
It was also our first visit to Foxwoods itself. That was a trip. We ended up not bothering to play any games in any of the casinos. It was just too smoky. Cigarettes were everywhere and smoke was everywere. It got pretty gross. But this morning we went to the Grand Spa and Ann got a massage while I “read” (listened to an audio book) and then took a dip in the whirlpool and swimming pool. I even sat in the steam room for a bit. By the end I didn't want to leave the spa and have become addicted to the whole idea of the place. I haven't been that relaxed in I don't know how long.
Alas, we had to head home again and I am dog-tired now. But it was a wonderful way to start the weekend.
Technorati Tags: CrowdedHouse, Foxwoods
We just got home from the final production of The Fantasticks at the Trinity Rep Company in Providence RI. The Fantasticks has long been my favorite musical play far beyond anything else I have ever seen. I was in it my junior year of high school and I have seen no less than 4 other times (once in Woodstock, VT, twice at the Sullivan St. Playhouse where it ran for 42 years, and once in Boston) and this was, without a doubt, my favorite of all of these productions.
The idea of the play is that the first half is a fantasy. A love story set in moonlight, soft focus, and romance. There is a heroic struggle and a happy ending. The second act is set in sunlight and is harsh reality. Hearts are broken, walls built, and, finally, a happy ending but one through true understanding, not childish fantasy. This production used magic (actual sleight-of-hand and people vanishing in a box magic) as the shifts and it worked splendidly. The parts of El Gallo/The Narrator and the Mute were so perfectly cast. Both had a wonderfully energetic, emotive style that was so engaging. You saw how much El Gallo cared about these four people and how it hurt him to hurt them when he had to. The Mute was a perfect reflection of the emotions on the stage. The blocking and choreography was just wonderful. The only downside for me was the fact that the Boy (Matt) was played by someone of lesser vocal ability which stood out like a sore thumb among the other more accomplished singers. Other than that, it was a truly marvelous production.
It's been years since I've been to see a show anywhere and I hadn't realized just how much I missed it.
What a wonderful evening.
Technorati Tags: Fantasticks, Fantastics, Fantastiks, TrinityRep, Theater
On December 10, 1993 I recorded Hearts of Space on Vermont Public Radio (I was living in Lebanon, NH at the time). The episode was called “A Simple Beauty” and was a winter-themed celtic music show featuring a lot of Clannad, Loreena McKinnitt, Enya, and such. I loved it. That tape became a mainstay for me. Every Christmas it found its way into heavy rotation. It's perfect for night time sitting with the tree on and candles lit moods. I haven't listened to it the last few years mainly due to having lost the tape. I found it the other day under a seat in the car and it's suffered from too many hot days during the summer. It warbles now and sounds vaguely intoxicated. So, I located the playlist online and set about to get all of the music. I owned a lot of it already and was able to get most of the rest via iTunes and the last two from a used CD I found via Amazon.com. Now it's on my iPod and thus the Bose Wave in the living room and sounds better than ever. Simple things like this just make me happy.
Going completely in the other direction in terms of holiday music is Santa's Boots, an excellent collection of highly obscure Christmas music. Includes mostly radio or live recordings that were never released. I've been really enjoying this collection this holiday season. My favorite should come as no surprise to people who know me: Tom Waits singing Silent Night.
Finally, Aimee Mann released a Christmas album which is excellent. Her voice lends itself very nicely to the material and it made for a nice early Christmas present to Ann who's a big fan.
Technorati Tags: christmas, iTunes, nostalgia, music
When I was 9 years old, I stood on the longest line I'd ever seen to see the new movie everyone was talking about. When the word went down the line that Star Wars had sold out, I think my mother was actually relieved. Still, she did try again and I was able to see the movie finally. She took me a total of three times. Later, during the summer, I visited my sister Ann on Martha's Vinyard where she was living that summer and as we walked by a movie theater, I heard the sounds of light sabers and begged her to take me in to see it. She bought me a ticket and I went in, half-way through the movie and then sat through it again from the beginning. (Continues...)
Technorati Tags: StarWars
That halloween, with the help of a brunette wig (I was a bright blonde at that age) I was Han Solo. I turned the bottom bunk of my bed into the Millennium Falcon. I wrote stories about the adventures of Han and Chewie (in which my cat was usually some alien villain they had to defeat). I read the book, had the action figures, had the sheets and lunchbox and owned all of the play sets (including my favorite, the Falcon itself. When in the 4th grade I developed a huge crush on my newest classmate, Courtney from Australia. I sent her an anonymous note declaring my love for her, I blew my cover by accidentally putting the tails on my R's and S's as in the Star Wars logo. Everyone in class knew of my obsession so I knew that she must have known it was me. Of course, she never said anything to me about it.
I doodled in school as everyone does but my drawings were nearly always X-Wings, TIE Fighers, the Death Star, the Falcon and Imperial Cruisers. (Though, sometimes, they were also Battlestar Galactica vipers because, well, I could draw those.) I created posters and dreamed up techniques for filming space battles and other sci fi goodness, were I ever to actually get my hands on a camera.
The years went on and episodes V and VI came and went. I loved those movies too (in fact, to this day, Episode V has always been my favorite) but those early days of obsession were never matched at any later time. And I grew up. I watched Star Wars many times over the years, can still quote the entire movie. I still remember that they were in trash compactor 3263827 and that "some of the other guys were talking about [the BT-16 and that] they said it is quite a thing to see." [That's a sample of the worst ad-libbed dialogue of all time, spoken by two Storm Troopers as Obi-Wan is deactivating the tractor beam in Episode IV]. I saw the special editions in the late 90s and saw the new episodes with a mixture of excitement and some disappointment in recent years. And every time I saw "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away" I got excited and felt like a little kid again. For Jack's sixth birthday back in March, I let him watch Episodes IV through VI and have been enjoying every moment of his new obsession with the movies.
Today we visited the Boston Museum of Science to take in the Star Wars exhibit. I've been pretty sanguine about the whole thing. When we were trying to figure out our schedules to make this happen, I told Ann to take Jack and not worry about me. I need to work and don't want to deprive Jack of this fun. But she insisted we all go and so I worked from 6AM today so I could knock off at 2:30, get Jack at school and all head to Boston. And I am so glad I went. I had no idea that that little kid still lived inside me and that I would get such a thrill out of this show. I had figured that they had some actual items from the movies but I really never thought much about it. I was completely unprepared for the actual models of the ships, the actual costumes, the actual landspeeder, actual light saber props, the actual Yoda puppet, and so much more.
When I looked up from the model of the Imperial Cruiser (they only made one for Episode IV so when you see a cruiser, any cruiser, it was this particular cruiser) and saw the Millennium Falcon I got this crazy smile on my face. It was an incredible feeling. Almost, dare I say it, religious. This was it. This was the very ship that had so captured my imagination. I loved looking at my toy of it. I loved drawing it. I loved everything about this ship. And here it was. The real Millennium Falcon. I was not expecting nor was I prepared for my reaction. I couldn't take my eyes off it it. I walked around a few times and snapped a number of detail photos (for full photos, see my flickr photoset).
After the exhibit, we rode a quick, silly Falcon simulator in which Anthony Daniels told us about the Universe and then we headed on home. All three of us had an amazing time. Ann and I are old fans and Jack is a fresh new one. And no matter how much my childhood was infused with Star Wars, I think my favorite memory of the entire Star Wars universe will be the image of my son, sitting in the robot theater watching a presentation about robot and what they can do today, waving at the C-3PO model sitting in front of us, moving, and voiced by a recording of Anthony Daniels because he truly believed that that was the real, actual Threepio.
This is how I assuage my lack-of-blogging guilt: updates posts.
So, in no certain order, here goes...
1) Wallace and Gromit: Go see it. It's fantastic. And stay to the VERY end of the credits. Trust me on this one. Jack loved the movie. He kept leaning over to me during it saying "This is great!" The puns are fast and furious and there are plenty of quick visual jokes you barely catch (it will be a DVD slow-mo movie for sure)... our favorite was the sticker on Wallace's truck: "Eat more cheese. Ask me how." All in all, a fantastic movie and highly recommended.
2) Serenity: Also amazing. I will say nothing else lest there be spoilers.
3) Our floors upstairs have been sanded, stained, and the first coat of poly is drying (and we need to escape the house in a few moments as the fumes are killing us). With the rain due the next seven days, I have no idea how long it will take before we can actually use the floors again. In fact, with the weekend and holiday, it may be some time. Ugh. But then again, once it's done, we can finally move in! So far the floors look amazing and if I knew where the camera is, I'd post a picture. I was so pleased at the good condition of the wood under the rugs. There was only the back room where there are significant stains (even after much sanding). Given the smell of urine when the rugs were taken up, we're guessing that the former owner had issues with her dog in that room. We chose a stain dark enough to not entirely hide the stains, but make them look like normal variations in the wood.
4) The TV season so far:
* Family Guy: Welcome back! Still funny. Still a favorite. As a newly naturalized Rhode Islander, I especially enjoy the Rhode Island in-jokes (after Ann explains them to me).
* Smallville: So far, so good. This season has started quite interestingly and I'm enjoying where the season appears to be headed. I especially liked the homage to the movies with the fortress of solitude looking virtually identical (or is that ripped from the comics directly?)
* How I Met Your Mother: I find this amusing but I enjoy the chemistry between the lead and Robin and it annoys me that she isn't the actual future wife and mother. But I'll get over it. I'll keep watching a bit more as I think it has some potential and I'm a sucker for Alyson Hannigan.
* Out of Practice: Predictable and somewhat flat but I like Henry Winkler (I grew up on Happy Days) and am willing to give this a bit more time to mature. If they can just avoid the obvious jokes about Paula Marshall's character being a lesbian any longer, that would certainly help.
* Joey: Ditched. I officially dropped it. The next two shows replace my two Thursday 8PM slots (we have two TiVos). I just don't care any more.
* Alias: Only watched the opener but looks to be a good season.
* Everybody Hates Chris: Brilliant. We absolutely love this show. It replaced Joey 15 minutes into the first episode.
* Commander in Chief: I am amazed I like this show as much as I do. It is somewhat heavy-handed but at the same time, Geena Davis is wonderful to watch. We both liked the second episode a lot and if the quality stays at that level (and we see more Bruce Boxleitner) we'll be happy.
* Veronica Mars: Excellent as always. And with Charisma Carpenter now too. How can you not love that?
* Lost: Wow. Even with the answers coming fast, the questions out-pace still. Excellent writing and it is weaving a fascinating mystery.
OK. That's enough blather for right now. On with your lives!
Technorati Tags: television, homeimprovement, movies
A grab bag of stuff...
Technorati Tags: friendszone, iron&wine, rhodeisland, subpoenas, t-mobile, washingtondc
Some incredible ray traced imagery: POVCOMP 2004: Hall of Fame.
Technorati Tags: pov, computergraphics, raytracing
Orson Scott Card, a writer whose works I've always enjoyed but who's opinions I've usually disagreed with, often vehemently, expresses an opinion I find myself agreeing with this time around. He asks why Star Trek was so popular given how truly awful it always tended to be. As a long-time Trek watcher (my sister grew up with the original series and got me into it and she and I read and shared many of the books over the years. In recent years my interest has waned and I have barely ever watched Enterprise) I initially began disagreeing with what Card was saying but found myself beginning to agree more and more. I am disappointed he didn't actually mention Babylon 5 in his piece given that it is the one show that has a complete through-line across all five seasons having been conceived as a five-season single "novel" rather than as a series of make-it-up-as-you go episodes or seasons. But, either way, I have to agree with his opinions of Star Trek. (My only caveat is that I still enjoy Star Trek, not as deep thinking television but more as fun brain candy, more for escapism and nostalgia than for true Science Fictiony goodness.)
Technorati Tags: http://www.technorati.com/tags/Babylon5, http://www.technorati.com/tags/Buffy, http://www.technorati.com/tags/StarTrek
My mother is going into the city to see The Gates today. I actually am very interested in seeing it. May have to plan a trip to visit family up north soon to see them. In the meantime, I'll just have to settle for "The Crackers" and "The Somerville Gates"
(Via BoingBoing.net.)
Yahoo! News - Dutch Discover Vermeer Studio in Delft Garden:
I don't often post news stories (lately) but this was too good not to pass on."An art restorer says he has solved a centuries-old mystery with the discovery of the studio of the 17th-century Dutch master Johannes Vermeer.
Ironically, Daan Hartmann had been working in the same studio for over two decades before he made the Vermeer link."
Here are my three iMixes in the iTunes music store. Go, check them out and vote. They don't show up on any list and I feel this irrational need to have them show up as popular. Indulge me. Feed my ego. Or at least check them out. I like 'em. :)
Here are my three iMixes in the iTunes music store. Go, check them out and vote. They don't show up on any list and I feel this irrational need to have them show up as popular. Indulge me. Feed my ego. Or at least check them out. I like 'em. :)
So, catching you up on all things me, because I know so many of you out there have been wondering...
OK. That's enough for now. Thanks for listening.
From Kevin Schofield comes this link: TFN FanFilms | Batman | Grayson.
A trailer for a movie that isn't actually being made (though the idea is so interesting, I imagine that it's entirely possible that someone will pick it up in some form at some point... one can only hope...)
Who knew that NASA had an artist in residence? Who knew it was Laurie Anderson? I've long been a big fan of her work. Like my Tom Waits fixation, it's just another thing that makes my wife either look at me funny or endears me to her. Depends on the day...
The Austrian Yodel Rap tape I have that my friend Lali gave me... yes, THAT one is worth the funny look...
Anna Kaufman put it best in The Daily Californian today:
So I’m willing to accept that like all new technology, iPods and their ilk have their benefits and their drawbacks, their soaring musical highs and their crushing anti-social lows. And even if an acclaimed academic study came out proving that my precious [iPod] Jack was causing me to lose friends and alienate people, I’d still have a hard time giving him up. Not now, not after he’s been there for me so many times, like when I got stuck at the airport last weekend and his arsenal of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones was the only thing between me and my dear friend Britney slaughtering “I Love Rock and Roll” over the terminal’s loudspeakers in what can only be called a ritualistic sacrifice to stave off the end of her hopefully fading career.
Yeah, I've only had mine about 24 hours after it's whirlwind tour of the world from Shanghai to Anchorage to Indianapolis to here. I went out for drinks with a client and left it (I almost wrote "him") on my desk charging and I felt that something was missing.
I haven't settled on a name yet. I originally thought of "Mini Me" and then thought that there are probably thousands of iPods out there with that name. So, right now it's named "Leopold" -- you know, from What's Opera Doc?. Ok, so, I'm weird. It's all Daniel's fault. He was always going on about that cartoon.
But, really, why do I feel like I need to give hi-- it a name? Why am I anthropomorphising this little bit of plastic and metal so? It's just a tiny little computer slapped onto a hard drive which can really only do a few things, one of which is play music. It's not like my laptop which could do that and a whole lot more. There's something about the size, the utility, the freedom... No matter where I am I can listen to virtually any random thing I can think of. Kaufman uses the example of being able to hear "Tubular Bells" anywhere. What's scary is that we recently bought that from the iTunes Music Store. I think it's on Leopold now.
Leopold... hmmm... I'm not so sure about that one. Maybe I'll name it Daniel. Wouldn't he just love that...
Wired News: Bull Session With Professor IPod
An interesting interview with someone who has researched walkman use and now iPod use.
FedEx now projects a Friday morning delivery. It's still listed has having China. No other news to report. :)
Someone asked me why I didn't just go over to the Apple Store two blocks from my office to get one. Three words: Free Laser Engraving.
Two interesting pages about steet photography.
I often find the most inspiring scenes on the street. There are so many people who have such fascinating faces or there are so many momentarily ironic or moving scenes. But I am always too shy to take out the camera and take a picture. I am hoping to really get into this in the spring when it isn't too cold (and when I am sans big coat so I feel like carrying extra gear with me).
Salon.com Arts & Entertainment | The Coppola clan's best director?
A nice interview with Sofia Coppola, writer and director of Lost in Translation.
Ann and I went to see Lost in Translation the other night. We loved it. The movie tells the story of a fading TV-star, Bob Harris, in Japan to film a Whiskey Ad who is as much there to do the job as he is to "take a break" from his wife. He meets Charlotte, the wife of a photographer who tagged along with her husband for fun but who is left alone when he moves on to another city for work. Both of them are completely at sea in a strange land and both suffering from a mixture of boredom and loneliness. It isn't until they meet and start to hang out that they begin to begin to actually enjoy themselves and see something of Japan. The tension of their growing relationship is wonderfully handled and both Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson turn in fantastic performances. I really can't say enough good things about this movie. It was just such a treat. (And, yes, Chris, I do want to see it again so don't worry, you still have a date for the movie ;)
After Life: Streatham Cemetary by Jonathan Clark.
This is the most beautiful site I have seen in a long time. The subtle animations he adds to the pictures just makes this entrancing. Take your time and really enjoy each and every picture. It's well worth your time.
David Edelstein writes "Prisoner of Japan" a review of the film Lost in Translation which I very much want to see. I have read only good press about this movie.
Revisiting Faber College (Toga, Toga, Toga!)
Cool! New DVD with tons of extras.
Chris Miller, one of the screenwriters and Dartmouth alumnus, came to Dartmouth to do a story for Rolling Stone (which I never saw) about how the frats had chanced since he was there in the 60's. A few of us sat in the Chapter Room of our coed house, the house filled with granola hiker types, computer science majors, medievalists, and bleeding heart liberals (on a campus at a time when liberals were a rare (or at least a more quiet) breed) and I realized that we were going to get savaged in that article. That's probably why I never went looking for it.
panoramas.dk is not only beautiful (some of the panoramas are breathtaking) but inspirational. I want to know what kind of equipment I need to make these myself. I rarely spend more than a few minutes at any given site these days (how sad is that?) but I've been looking at this site for over an hour now. Just amazing.
This weekend I was the videographer at my neice's 10th birthday. The music she selected as the background for her video is Evanesence's Bring me to Life. Now, I would likely never have heard of them or this song if I didn't have to do the video. In fact, the first few seconds of it I just scoffed at it considering it something akin to most of the fluff that passes for popular music today. And then I began to really hear it and realized that I liked it. I then listened to the rest of the CD and discovered that I really, really do like it. So, serves me right for being judgmental. Time for me to start paying attention again. Looks like there's still good stuff out there.
Currently listening to:
Bring Me To Life from the album "Fallen" by Evanescence
This article is a great review of Babylon 5.
I also think the show is required watching for anyone who doesn't think really scary things are coming from the Bush Administration. But I've said that here before.
Now that season 2 is out on DVD, it may be time to start that collection...
In 1996, Ann and I were walking through the streets of Siena in the ruddy evening sunlight after returning from a day trip to Firenze. As we neared a record store, we head what we later learned was "My Baby Just Cares for Me" played by Nina Simone being played inside the store as well as outside on their external speaker. On impulse, we just started dancing to the song right there and then in the street. We went into the store to find out what the song was so we could make sure we could buy it when we got home.
In 1999, when we got married, we played that song for our first dance at the reception. It has always remained a favorite of ours.
Nina Simone died at the age of 70 in her sleep last night. Rest in peace.
I rarely ever buy cds on impulse. But on Saturday I grabbed the Norah Jones CD. The fact that she won a ton of grammys was actually a deterrent to my buying it. So much of popular music today is this crap that sounds like endless clones of Mariah or Celine or the boy bands and I just hate it all. But a friend of mine who really appreciates my taste in music (hi Brandi!) told me that I would really like Norah Jones. So, when I was in Borders with Jack on Saturday, I listened to a little bit of the first track in the headphones and fell in love. By the time we'd gotten home, I'd listened to half the CD and was just thrilled with it. Damn good stuff.
A really interesting take on Top Gun in Caleb Crain's Weblog.
Why is this movie, a pretty bad one from almost every perspective, so bloody popular? Heck, I love watching it. What's up with that? What I never understood is why Kenny Loggins was so popular? His voice is so popcorn-pop sounding. He sounds like a souped up Dan Fogelberg; an effeminate man who was accidently given electric guitars and a drum track when he should have been given an acoustic guitar and soft lighting.
Ah well... now I'm going to have to rent it and see it again. It's been years since I had my fix of cool planes doing things. And, hey, it's always fun to see Anthony Edwards with actual hair on his head...
Well, that was fun. I think Steve Martin did an excellent job of keeping the tone just light enough.
Of course, Two Towers was the only one of the nominees I actually saw... we have got to get a regular babysitter...
There is nothing more wonderful than starting to watch the Oscars about 40 minutes after they started and then using the Tivo to blow through the commercials, dance numbers, acceptance speeches, and Iraq War updates. Well, there are other more wonderful things, I mean let's have a little perspective here. I'm just saying that in the context of the right here and now...
Some random thoughts.
I'm sure I'll have more later. Aren't you happy? Oh crap. We just caught up with reality. We can't skip anything anymore. Time to watch a pre-taped show and come back to this afterwards...
This Washington Post article is the most beautiful and moving thing I have ever read.
Two interviews with Tom Lerher: Stop clapping, this is serious (from an Australian paper) and from the Onion.
My new favorite British Comedy is Coupling. Find it. Watch it. I've seen two episodes now and both have just killed me.
"We are men. We are different. We have only one word for soap. We do not own candles. We have never seen anything of any value in a craft shop. We do not own magazines full of photographs of celebrities with their clothes on."
This is excellent and it makes a lot of sense. Some of my neighbors are bothering me as well. This is the perfect solution.
Just came back from watching The Two Towers. Wow. Incredible movie. I have very little to quibble about. In fact, the only thing that really is worth mentioning is the Ents. I thought they looked silly. But then, is there any way to make trees walk and talk that doesn't? I think that we, jaded westerners as we are, can suspend our disbelief for quite a lot. But talking and walking trees? So, I think this is a case where there's nothing they could have done to make the trees not be somewhat silly looking. All in all, very satisfying movie. And now I repeat what I said a year ago: I have to wait a whole year for the next one? UNFAIR!
We managed to score a babysitter tonight and went out to see Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets tonight.
I enjoyed the first movie but felt that the plot kept lurching to a halt so they could shoehorn in exposition here and there. Also, there was such a slavish devotion to keeping everything as identical to the book as possible, the movie had no flow and instead felt like a series of vignettes. A "Socercer's Stone Best Hits" type thing.
Not so with this movie. The movie had much better flow. The plot kept moving forward and I never felt any jarring lurches through the entire movie. In fact, I was so tuned to how the first movie was constructed that I was actually amazed when we went from "If A, then B therefore we must do C" followed immediately by "C" rather than a digression to visit "L, M, N, O, and P."
They also made a very smart decision: they dispensed with much of the exposition. Harry just whips out his father's invisibility cloak. There's no brief digression into the fact that he got it mysteriously in the first movie and, gosh, it makes the wearer invisible. Nope, they just say they're going to use it and POOF! they're invisible. Over and over again the movie relied heavily on your knowing what's going on. And I, for one, am thankful. The number of people coming to this movie who have never read any of the books or seen the first movie are far fewer than those who have seen or read. And even for those few who haven't, they'll catch up pretty quickly.
I won't rate it as I always love movies when I first get out of them. It will take me a few days to find more flaws in it and start bitching about them.
There's only one movie I ever actually hated during and immediately after and that was Brannagh's Frankenstein, a truly abysmal movie. Luckily, he turned in a much better performenace as Gilderoy Lockhart!
Oh, look at the time. I need to get to sleep. My five days off from work are now over and I must return to that which pays for all of this.
Ah... she was such a great character on that show. I'm amazed that she didn't start acting until after she retired! That's amazing.
Like I have a choice in this one. Like my wife will be the voice of reason and say "No, dear, we should not get this." Right. She's just as bad a B5 junkie as I am...
Sarah Michelle Gellar on this being the last season of Buffy...
"It was the first I'd read about that as well. There have been absolutely no decisions made. Conversations haven't even begun." Gellar's statement appeared to rebut earlier reports that she would not return to the show after her contract expires at the end of the current seventh season.
One of the sites Tufte likes. I'll be looking these over in the coming days and blogging them as I go.
Moving away from religion, let's talk Muppets.
In college I was in the Marching Band. Part of the Dartmouth Marching Band tradition is to be as silly as possible. I took that seriously. In addition to the usual green jacket all covered with buttons, I also wore a welding helmet with a Froot Loops toucan nose taped onto it and I wore Animal around my neck. I also played a giant Kazoo I built from many smaller Kazoos and a slide whistle. I still have it and I can still play it.
Fun article. I missed the show when it came through here this summer and I'm sorry about that.
Is it me or does he look like William Shatner in the picture with this article?
This is our current favorite show.
Ever few years we seem to do this. We find some show we just fall in love with and go deep with it. Some years back I got Ann hooked on Babylon 5. She's hardly the sci-fi type so I was very surprised that she got into it at all. But the politics behind the plot were fascinating and it was one of the only shows to ever have a fully planned plot over five seasons which made it much different from other shows. And, really, she loves Bruce Boxleitner. So, we taped the show every day and have an impressive stack of some 30 tapes with the entire series on it.
Now Ann's taping this show every day. We have three or four seasons already and know that in a week or so it will wrap back to season 1 and we'll pick up the first three or four seasons.
What's cool about this site (aside from the highly detailed plot summaries for each episode) is the fact that it has the first three of the new season currently in taping.
Oh, and Ann? You might want to avoid reading the Season 9 stuff. There's one hell of a whopper of a spoiler in there for what's coming... :)
Wil Wheaton writes quite beautifully about being cut from the upcoming Star Trek film. He also delivers a rather simple yet profound message on life and feelings of self-worth. We'll ignore the part about driving while talking on the cell phone through residential neighborhoods ;)
Galen Rowell, a photographer known for sumptuous color pictures of the remotest corners of the earth, died on Sunday in a plane crash outside Bishop, Calif. His wife, Barbara Cushman Rowell, was also killed.
This is sad. Ann bought me one of his books (pictures from the North and South arctic regions) some years back and the pictures are stunning.