War of the Worlds

Came home and the wife and daughter were watching Eloise at Christmastime. I'd just made it to the lbrary in time to pick up War of the Worlds (2005) the one directed by Spielberg. The wife and daughter were tired from their swim lock-in and sleepover and went to bed early. I watched it and it's quite good and fast passed.

Browsing channels, there's quite a bit on, commercial breaks not withstanding. Bravo has Apocalypse Now (1979) but too many commercials and full screen (ugh). I think this is the redux version. I thought I watched that some months back, but I don't remeber Clean's burial or Willard talking with some women French woman. AMC has Taxi Driver (1976) but again commercials and full screen. TCM is running Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982) in letterbox.

Football: Ohio State vs Michigan

After hearing on NPR that a Bo Schembechler, who coached Michigan from 1969 to 1989, died yesterday, I predict that this will rally Michigan to a win. We'll see later today.

Went in and worked. Found that the score was Ohio State 42, Michigan 39. Close. I wish I'd seen some of it.

T.G.I. Friday's with David

(Woo hoo! This is my 100th post!)

Worked late and called David who was doing the same. Went over to Vineyard and chatted for a few while we decided where to go. We went to T.G.I. Friday's and the bacon chesseburger was so-so. I think I got the heart of a mediterranian onion. It was acrid and terrible. Normally, I love onion, but not this time. I think I'm just spoiled by Chesseburger in Paradise. They are just excellent. And the Cuban sandwich was great too.

Conversation was all over, including his cool new phone with videos from YouTube. I need to be using Firefox. We talked about being able to save videos off of YouTube and hopefully other sites using it. There's a couple of Miracle Legion videos I've seen streaming elsewhere that I'd like to keep.

Aluminum foil makes an excellent "lamp-shade". David will understand this.

I'm off to get some sleep as I will need to go back in to finish up several things that all showed up in the past couple of days at work. But, I'm wearing sweats!

(written early 11/18/2006; back-dated to late 11/17/2006)
(I need to adjust the time or this will show before my other post for 11/17)

Found - Shawn Colvin

I've been wanting to play Sunny Came Home for nearly a week and last night I found the CD. I kept looking when I was in a hurry for a yellow CD, but it's only yellow on the inside. I brought it to work and added it to my music here. I immediately played Sunny Came Home and enjoyed it, and I was thinking that I didn't need to keep any of the other tracks from it since I've tried to listen to the entire CD for years and have never been able to get into it.

Growing tired of my current "stuff3" playlist over the past new weeks, I've been looking for some new music and had the player jumping randomly after each song later in the day. It picked If I Were Brave which is so simple and yet so powerful.

I'm so glad I found this song today.

Retro Post - 12/24/2004

I was looking over some older files and found photos from the ice storm we had over the night of December 23 and 24th, 2004.

Click here to see the post and photos.

Morning Radio

Heard most of Tracy Chapman's song Fast Car this morning on the drive into work. I like that song and I love the way she sings. Hope Vitellas, from the free show in June at the Carabar, reminded me of Chapman with her power and presence. It goes back to something I read about the mid or late 1990's concert at Woodstock - the commercial one. There was something about how she and her lone guitar went out after other bigger name bands, U2 comes to mind, and that she still captivated the audience. I checked on Wikipedia and there were several Woodstock Festivals. Looking over Tracy Chapman, I don't see her listed there. The event that I read about may have been either the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute or the Amnesty International Human Rights Now! Tour. Both of these took place in 1988. Or she could have been on tour with U2.

One station is playing Christmas music already and I caught most of John Lennon's Happy Xmas (War Is Over).

Vanity Plate - R WE THER

Saw this on the way to work: "R WE THER" short for "Are we there?" I wonder if anyone has "THERE YET" or similar?

(writtten 11/15/2006; back-dated to 11/14/2006)

Ed Bradley (1941 - 2006)

Just found out that Ed Bradley [wikipedia] died yesterday. Damn.

Happy Halloween from Number 21

Below are a couple of pics of Monarch Henchman #21 which were my inspiration. It looks like I need to re-dye the shorts, top, gloves and "boots" in a shade of orange. Rit's Golden Yellow #42 is not the color I needed.

Defragging Smart Media Cards

My camera is so very old. It's way past time to get a new one. It's an Olympus D-320L from 1997 - older than my daughter. A lot older than her. It uses up to 8MB smart media cards. I've got four of these - 3 in 8 MB and one 2 MB card. I've begun to notice that the camera is erroring out on these cards more often. I'm not sure if it's the camera or the cards. But I take a picture and then I get a rapid tweeping and the display flashes. I have to close the camera and that picture is gone. This happened before, but it would also come back up in low-quality mode.

I talked to David and he suggested defragging the cards, especially since I'm still using a 3.5 floppy adapter to read them. I tried this today and got the following message:

Disk Defragmenter cannot run on this volume type.

So, it looks like it may very soon be time to shop around.

Venture Brothers - Look Away

On Sunday, I caught the opener of season two of The Venture Bros on Adult Swim. I had seent he final episode some time ago and wish I'd been following this all along. I can't stop playing the song Look Away by Nick DeMayo. Here are the lyrics:

Two angels are plucked
From the heavenly sky
In an instant they're gone
In the blink of an eye
If you listen close
You'll hear cherubs cry
Oh, look away

(The rest of the song contines on the mp3...)

My head is heavy
Their bodies bruised
Our spirits shattered
When we heard the news
The chorus is singin'
Its final tune
Oh, look away

We ran to the mountains
We shouted on high
We pled to the gods
And in answer replied
What was once is now lost
Yet could never die
Oh, look away

Look away
Whoa-whoa,
look away
Look away-hey

Quite a song for a pair of cartoon brothers who die in their prime.

You can find the mp3 out at The Venture Bros page at Adult Swim.

(edited 10/9/2006)

Local Music at Carabar

Earlier in the week, Ryan Smith did a friend invite on my MySpace site. I checked his page and official site and was quite taken with his music. I listened to California all week and went to the show on Friday. The flyer said 10 PM and I was driving like a loon so as not to arrive late. As it turned out, Ryan played last (the order on the flyer was reversed.) and I was in plenty of time.

Here was the line up:

• Jonathan Hape [Offical Site, MySpace]
• Hope Vitellas [Offical Site, MySpace]
• Ryan Smith [Offical Site, MySpace]

I picked up Ryan's and Jonathan's CDs there. I wish Hope had CDs there. She was amazing! Jonathan is going to Chicago in August. I'll drop another letter to Darren to see if he wants to check it out.

(written 6/30/2006; back-dated to 6/9/2006; updated 7/18/2007)

IMDB submission - Kiki's Delivery Service

My one and only submission to the Internet Movie Database.

Reference: 060523-222343-275000
Date/Time: 2006-05-23 15:23:43
Summary: Majo no takkyûbin (1989)

Alternate Versions - 1 item added

Fun Stuff: Alternate Versions
Action: New #1
Alternate Version:

When the Disney dubbed version aired on the Disney Channel, shortly after the VHS release, there were two brief lines of dialog removed. After "rescuing" Jiji and replacing him with the stuffed cat, Kiki and Jiji are flying home and she tells about meeting the artist and adds that she (Ursula) wanted to paint of picture of her (Kiki). Jiji's question, "Naked?" and Kiki's embarrassed reply, "Jiji!" are both removed with a jump cut.

Submitted 11 months ago and this still hasn't been added to the IMDB.
Perhaps they don't believe me? :)

(written 4/27/2007; back-dated to 5/23/2006)

Edwin J Hill Social Club Bash

Margaret, a friend at work, who is leaving Wednesday has a son who acts in local theater, as does his roommate. And together, with others, they have created 7 episodes, 30 or so minutes each, of a local sitcom titled The Edwin J. Hill Social Club [MySpace Group]. There was a free showing at Studio 35 [Official Site] this evening.

We got to see:
Episode 2 - the Sliding Doors parody
Episode 3 - George's Mom
Episode 4 - Hypnoboobs
Episode 7 - Vice Versa

As for Edwin himself, he is shrouded in mystery. But you can check out his MySpace Profile.


(written 5/24/2006; back-dated to 5/23/2006)

Sunday Watercolors

The daughter and I did a some watercolors in the afternoon. She still paints much faster than me - at a rate of 4 to 1. These are not done, as I want to outline them with a fine tip black pen or marker. The scanner is on the blink again. Can you tell that these were photographed?



I'm not overly happy with the evergreen trees. I put the trunks in after the fact and it really shows. But I think I did a good job on the still-life. What started as a banana in the fruit bowl is looking more like a pear every time I look at it.

(written 5/24/2006; back-dated to 5/21/2006)

Retro Post - PLANETES theme

Look here for the post on the theme music for the Anime Planetes that I simply can't stop playing.

Old friends from Qwest

I can't recall the last time I was over at Nutt org, but it can't have been all that long ago. I'd say less than three weeks - tops. It looks like Eric, is reinventing his website again. For six years it's been like Madonna - changing, different, moving. I always like what he does. I should use this inspiration on my own neglected Tripod pages. I'll stay tuned and see what takes shape.

Thinking of Eric makes me want to check in on Jeremiah. I've not seem him online in ages. And he never has sent me any commentary on my short story.... Hmm.... DesignBox Media is still there and has some changes made this year. I will send him an email before the month is out.

I also had an instant message from Tony, another Qwest alumni. I will get back to him before the week is out.

Kochi Photos

Chatted with Matt for a bit this morning. He sent me a pair of huge (file size) photos from his 5 mega-pixel camera. He's getting a great eye for photography. I will eventually post those other photos from his Camera Phone.

He said that he would get the daughter's letter to his student who wanted to correspond and I should have a reply back for her soon.

Here are his photos:

Click for larger views. These are reduced to about 30% original size but still nice.

Time Traveling with Netscape 4.76

I'm over at the city library and browsing around a few sites. My blog and others look totally different on this older PC. Some dont' even load completely. It's running Windows 98 and Netscape 4.76 - in fact, blogger is telling me that this post might not save so I'll be brief.

Funny thing is that my friend David's site looks pretty good in it. I'll try either Publishing first and if that doesn't work, I'll at least try to save. Here goes.

Amazing! It worked. It's funny how different this all looks though. Like just now, I saw the link for editing this post while I'm signed in, but it was just the underline - the in-line image was not there. It's also funny how the images show up and all can be clicked and load up in driectly in the browser window. Backgrounds, at least in Blogger don't seem to show and tables are all funky

V for Vendetta

Met David over a the IMAX in Easton and arrived just in time for the opening credits of V for Vendetta. (Are there previews for IMAX?) It was quite good. Natalie Portman was good and I was pleased to see Stephen Fry up on the big screen. I was very surprised to find out in the credits, that "V" was played by Hugo Weaving. I did not recognize his voice. But he speaks differently in the Matrix movies and in The Adventures of Prisilla, Queen of the Dessert.

Fry's character's comments about the Koran were great. In the society depicted in the film, it was a banned book - carrying with it a punishment of death. The collections of forbidden objects were wonderful, especially the poster of God Save the Queen. John Hurt was powerful as the British "Chancellor". This was in contrast to his role as Winston Smith in 1984.

After reading about Alan Moore's views on what the film became, I want to read the graphic novel. However, I don't know how much of the politics of it I will understand.

This film belongs with Gattaca in that is scares the hell out of me. There are things in it that could become part of everyday life and erode personal freedom and liberty even more than the are today.

After the film, we swung by California Pizza Kitchen but a look at the prices made me suggest we go someplace else. The average price was $10.49 and a soda was $2.19. It could have been worse since many places don't list the prices for soft drinks. After spending $9.50 for the ticket, I was wanting to save a bit of green.

We walked over to the Apple Store and looked around for a bit, killing time for me since I don't have a Mac. We did have a good chat with one of the ladies working there.

On the way out of Easton, David and I discussed ordering a pizza. We decided to meet back up at the church, where I was supposed to meet him before the film, but time and distance had been against me. We first went up to Fazoli's who turned out to not have what we wanted and instead headed up to a local Cici's Pizza. That was well within price range for me - $5.75. I'm glad that David indulged my fickle pallet.

While on the road, I played him a couple of mp3s from my keychain drive. One was the theme to Boondocks. The other was the opening theme music to Planetes, which I will need to blog about. I've been playing that music for weeks nearly non-stop.

(written 5/10/2006; back-dated to 4/29/2006)

No Movies for You - Work!

David surprised me with a call to see if I was free to go and see a movie or do something tonight. I've very glad he called. He gave me a call last week too I think. Sadly, I'm so swamped with work now that I can't get away. I'd like to, but I can't. But, I will go and see V for Vendetta with him at least by the time it gets to the dollar theaters.

Tonight is also the first Columbus Cinema club (not the actual name) meeting. Per David, it's someplace in, did he say Granville? That doesn't sound right. I checked the Sonny Boo site, but can't find it. However, there is another Look At My Shorts on April 30th! Yeah! But I can't open the page. Back to work!

I am the stone that the builder refused...

After the weekend, and getting too much sun, I napped for over 4 hours Sunday night. Is it really a nap if it's that long? I was awake from about 9:30 PM until 2:30 AM or so and had cartoon network on for a some of the time.

After Family Guy and American Dad (I've missed that show more than I realize.) I watched most of Boondocks. I don't know if it was a new episode or not. It was an alternate history wherein Martin Luther King, Jr. was not killed when shot but rather lapsed into a coma for nearly 40 years. The story was intreging and would have been more engrosing had I focused on it. The only other episodes I've watched of Boondocks are the one on the restaurant called The Itis and the one about the girl's Lemonade stand.

I should have paid more attention to it. I'll see if this going to be on again.

The title of my post is the opening line from the theme song. You can find it here: http://www.myspace.com/asheru1

(Thanks Adult Swim!)

Profile Update

I finally added some to my profile, including an older cartoon-style self-portrait. Presently I have much less hair and no goatee.

For some technical reason, "U2" is not showing in my profile under favorite music.

(Written and posted in the same day - a rarity!)

Hedwig and the Angry Inch

A co-worker of mine and I had been talking about Hedwig and the Angry Inch off and on over the past couple of months. I borrowed it from the library and we watched it this evening after the daughter went to bed. It was depressing, but the music was great. Some of it reminded me of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, but this is not really a far comparision. The story is different. Hedwig, born as Hansel in East Berlin, is the victim of a botched sex change in his bid to come to the United States, who becomes a punk diva icon in Amerca.

I want the soundtrack to this.

(written 4/13/2006; back-dated to 4/1/2006)

Brokeback and Outback

The daughter had her first "official" sleepover, that is a non-family one, with a friend tonight and so the wife and I went on a date. We both wanted to see Brokeback Mountain and so off we went to the dollar theater. The film is being released to DVD on 4/4/2006.

I wish I'd not known that there was CG sequences in the film. There are CG sheep, CG vistas and some CG set pieces. And knowing this, I found myself looking for them. Still, cinematically, the film has some beautiful scenery.

NO SPOILERS HERE. The story was engaging and not a problem with me. The characters were interesting people and I thought they aged them well, especially Anne Hathaway. When she was talking on the phone to Ennis, you could see coffee or tea stains in her teeth. Randy Quaid seems to be in everything. I was remined of his role in Midnight Express.

SPOILERS HERE. High-light the lines with your mouse to read.

Jack's death immediately made me think of Matthew Shepard.

The switching of the shirt-within-shirt was poignant.

END OF SPOILERS.

The music was serene and I'm on the list at the library for it.

Afterward, we went over to the Outback Steakhouse for a late dinner.

<>
Mmmmm, steak....
< /homer >

I've not reviewed a movie or blogged in a while and I'm feeling pretty rusty. I should look at this in a couple of days and re-write this post.

(written 4/5/2006; back-dated to 3/31/2006)
(edit 9/11/2007 - hidden text didn't match the background color)

Music - TV & Anime Themes

Surfing around for the new theme to the 2005 Doctor Who series and I found this which I've listened to so much that the TV theme sounds foreign: Evan Spence's Tardis Crash. Most excellent indeed, or in the words of the Doctor - "Fantastic!"

Also, while surfing around for the music from Kiki's Delivery Service, I found this page with the both opening theme and closing theme from the original Japanese version. It also has them in French, I believe. But the coolest thing I found there was the theme to Planetes [wikipedia]which is an amine from 2003 that sounds so very good. Oddly, there is no IMDB entry for this show that I can find.

I also found a old page from 1998 on astronomy that talked about using Greek letters in your HTML which is quite easy and lets me write Planetes as it is shown on the anime and magna as: PLANHTES

Spiffy!

(written 5/15/2006; back-dated to 3/28/2006)

Animated Gnome

It was a GIF that, when posted, was coverted to a JPG by the Blogger software. It was over 500 KB, and that's a but much to ask of Blogger, so I'll code up a page someplace, put it there and link to it.

Funny thing is I was going to delete the JPG but then thought, how do I delete the copy that I uploaded in the first place? Hmmm. (4/5/2006)

(posted 3/26/2006; back-dated to 3/18/2006)

Book Discussion - Time and Again

Book discussion today at the city library. We are going over Time and Again [Amazon] by Jack Finney. What amazed me was that this was written in 1970. Truly a bit of time travel.

I received this late after two other attempts. The city library doesn't keep books as long at the other library I go to does. I've only got three days to pick it up instead of a week.

I've read about 45 pages of this and have over 350 to go, but I'm enjoying it so far. However, the Amazon reviews are boths sides of a pendulum. I'll have to see myself just how wordy it is.

I just looked up Jack Finney [wikipedia] and had no idea that he had written Invasion of the Body Snatchers. It looks like most copies of the book on Amazon were published in February of 1995 - just 9 months before he died.

Look at My Shorts III

Called David to see what he was doing today. I just didn't feel like going to Chinese class. I've been working a lot of hours outside of the regular work hours and needed a break from everything.

He said there was a short film festival Look At My Shorts III, over at the theaters near his apartment. I cleaned up and headed over to his place. We stopped off at Chipotle and ate and then headed over just in time for the start of the films. It was from 4pm to 8pm. There were 19 films ranging from just over a minute to just over 20 minutes with breaks every hour.

Some of the films were absolutely amazing. The last hour only had three films, all of which were shot on celluloid and then transferred to video. The last one, A Cold Blood is one that I will look into buying.

(written 3/3/2006; back-dated to 2/26/2006)

Henderbot

Andy did a little caricature of me and emailed it to me today.

I have a habit of wearing my headphones back on my head and he said it looked like Lobot from The Empire Strikes Back.

Cool, a second Andy original after the Gnome.

(written 3/3/2006; back-dated to 2/13/2006)

A Dozen Eggs Minus 1

If the year 2006 were a dozen eggs, one would already be gone. Oh, how the time does go.

I've been keeping a journal in a notebook - well, a couple of notebooks, and I do have entries for each day of the year. Will post them as time permits.

(Written 2/3/2006; back-dated to 2/1/2006; actually posted 3/3/2006)

Fourth Week of Miyazaki

TCM ran the last two films in their nine film tribute to Hayao Miyazaki, with these:

• Pom Poko (1994) [Amazon] [IMDB]
• Only Yesterday (1991) [Amazon] [IMDB]

(written 3/10/2006; back-dated to 1/26/2006)

Third Week of Miyazaki

Tonight at 8pm Turner Classic Movies ran a set of three more Miyazaki films:

• My Neighbor Totoro (1988) [Amazon]
• Porco Rosso (1992) [Amazon]
• Whisper of the Heart (2000) [Amazon]

All were in letterbox and dubbed in English. These will be reran, again in letterbox and Japanese with English subtitles tonight. I was quite surprised to see Totoro. I knew that it was close to release (March 7, 2006) and didn't think that they would run it. There was a "TCM" watermark in the corner at 45 minutes into the show and again 63 minutes. The picture was wonderful, but I'm not crazy about the dub. I'm used to the version from 20th Century Fox [Amazon]. It's Full Screen and dubbed, but I'm so used to it. I suppose that I could get David to create a widescreen version using my preferred soundtrack.

I watched just a bit of Porco Rosso, it looks good. I knew nothing about it. This was released on DVD back on 2/22/2005.

I'd heard of Whisper of the Heart, but not thought about it much. It too is not released yet but will come out with My Neighbor Totoro.

(Written on 1/19/2006; no need to backdate.)

Watercolor Trees

The daughter and I did a few watercolors this Sunday. She paints two or three for each one I finish.

This is based on a certain tree I keep seeing on the trip to and from work. I've got several photos of it. I'll add one when I find one I like.

This was the first watercolor I've done that I tried to paint in my outlining, with mixed results.

(written 4/5/2006; back-dated to 1/15/2006)

Second Week of Miyazaki

Two more Hayao Miyazaki anime films on TCM:

• Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1985) [Amazon]
• Castle in the Sky (1986) [Amazon]

(written on 1/19/2006; back-dated to 1/12/2006)

Miyazaki on Turner Classic Movies

Two more Hayao Miyazaki anime films on TCM:

• Princess Mononoke (1999) [Amazon]
• Spirited Away (2001) [Amazon]

(written on 1/19/2006; back-dated to 1/7/2006)