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My stepsister Maria, visiting from Britain, arrived last night. I haven't seen her in 12 years! I made breakfast for her, my Dad, Gary and Denise in the morning and came into work in the afternoon.
Then I read 's post (http://sabotabby.livejournal.com/689274.html), and then read the following in today's Tyee, reflecting thoughts I have had over the last couple of years. Murray Dobbin's columns often overstate the case I think, but still, something to think about here.
The Ugly Canadian
Nine ways we are ruining our once enviable reputation in the world.
By Murray Dobbin, Today, TheTyee.ca
It was really just a matter of time. The deep well of affection and respect around the world that Canada has drawn on for decades has been slowly poisoned by the Harper government (and the Liberals immediately before it) and the world is now taking serious notice. In the words of the famous Yes Men (who pulled off the brilliant hoax in Copenhagen): "We've always kind of grown up looking up to Canada... We've always thought that Canadians were such nice people and had much better policies than we did -- national health care and all that. And this is just a real disappointment for us, energy policy and learning that Canadians' carbon footprint per capita is higher than us." The Copenhagen conference may just be the final burden that brings us to critical mass, that qualitative leap where Canada is suddenly seen as a mean-spirited, disingenuous, and reactionary force in the family of nations.
Here are some of the most important image-busters in Canada's foreign policy bag of nasty tricks.
( Read more... )
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Yaaaaayyyy!!!!
CBSnews.com LOS ANGELES, Dec. 11, 2009
Pee-wee Herman Back, and Bigger than Ever
New Live Show in L.A. Costs Millions to Produce; Pee-wee "Ready to Get Back Out There"
(AP) The star may be Pee-wee, but his new live stage show is absolutely huge.
"The Pee-wee Herman Show," opening next month in downtown Los Angeles at Club Nokia theater, cost millions to mount. It boasts 11 actors, 20 puppets and marks the show's first production since 1982.
So, why now?
"Well, you know, I really want to make a movie version of 'The Playhouse,' my Saturday morning kid show!" said actor Paul Reubens, in an interview earlier this week in which he stayed in his exuberant Pee-wee persona.
"This seemed like a great way to do it: reintroduce it, get back out there, introduce Pee-wee to the new generation that didn't know about it."
An impulsive, sometimes naughty child living a fantastical world, the Pee-wee character first made a big splash with the live "The Pee-wee Herman Show," which debuted at Groundlings theater in Los Angeles in 1981. An HBO broadcast of the show spread the Pee-wee gospel across the country later that year, and a 1985 Tim Burton-directed feature film, "Pee-wee's Big Adventure," was an acclaimed and popular success.
Then came the television series, "Pee-wee's Playhouse" (1986-91), which ran for five seasons, earned 22 Emmys and attracted not only children but adults to Saturday-morning television.
Pee-wee was shelved after Reubens' July 1991 arrest for indecent exposure in an adult-movie house in Sarasota, Florida, resulting in a small fine. Reubens, now 57, continued to act, playing characters other than Pee-wee, scoring successes as the Penguin's father in "Batman Returns" (1992) and a 1995 Emmy nomination for a recurring guest role on "Murphy Brown." But Pee-wee would ultimately rise again.
"Well, I went back and forth between wanting to do it and not wanting to do (the new stage show)," Pee-wee said. "I had a producer that was calling me every two months for two years. And every two months, I would change my mind. And then, finally, one day I woke up and decided, 'This is it, I'm coming back."
As with the original stage show, the new production spins around Pee-wee's desire to fly. The menagerie of "Playhouse" characters is back, as are some of the original cast members, including Lynne Stewart as Miss Yvonne, John Moody as Mailman Mike and John Paragon as Jambi the Genie.
"I think I am grateful for my friends," Pee-wee said. "I am grateful for my fans. I am grateful that people still support me. I am grateful that people are going to buy tickets to come see my fabulous, fantastic, unbelievably incredible show at Club Nokia opening January 12th, playing until February 7th. I hope people have tickets and that is pretty much what I am thankful for."
"The Pee-wee Herman Show" is scheduled to run for a limited four-week engagement, Jan. 12- Feb. 7.
***
Where do I go when I wanna do what I want?
Pee-Wee's Playhouse, that's the place for me
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Just because we haven't had any DPRK news lately...
People's Security Ministry Gives Performances
Pyongyang, December 8 (KCNA) -- Performances were given by the art squad of the Ministry of People's Security in different cities and counties of North Phyongan and Jagang Provinces.
The performances were enjoyed by leading officials of party, power and economic bodies and working people's organizations and working people of different strata in local areas.
Put on the stages of the performances which began with mixed chorus "We Have Longed for You, General" were colorful pieces demonstrating the might of the interior forces that have grown strong under the leadership of the great brilliant commander of Mt. Paektu and firmly defended the forefront of the class struggle, glorifying the tradition of devotedly defending the leader for over six decades.
The performers impressively represented their great honor and self-respect as people's security men who live and struggle as revolutionary soldiers faithful to the party and the leader and reliable defenders of the people in such numbers as real story "Echo of Life", Oungum ensemble "The General Star beyond the Clouds" and trumpet and female solo "Soldiers Live near the General".
They showed well the firm faith and will of the people's security men to share intention and destiny with Supreme Commander Kim Jong Il and breathe the same air with him for all ages as well as to successfully fulfill the mission and duty as frontline unit in the class struggle in such pieces as male guitar quintet ensemble "Let's Defend Socialism" and choral recitation of poem "Long Journey for Devotedly Defending the Leader".
They also gave a performance at the construction site of Huichon Power Station No. 2.
Call up the Art Squad!
Those lucky sods at Power Station #2, they get all the perks... but I guess they were all pulled off the job to see the performance:
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OK, so, no more Luminara, at least not in the way it was...
It's lights out for money-short Luminara festival
By Sandra McCulloch, Times ColonistDecember 9, 2009 8:50 AM
StoryPhotos ( 1 )
The lights have gone out on the Luminara festival, a popular decade-old event featuring illuminated lanterns in Beacon Hill Park.
"We can't afford to do it this year based on the funding changes," festival director Karin Scarth said yesterday. "We've had 10 years ... of a lantern celebration on the fourth Saturday of July. Next year it won't happen that way."
( Read more... )
Glad of the qualification at the end, as in prior years it seemed that way (http://ltmurnau.livejournal.com/68027.html). I've had fun at Luminaras past, been to about half of them I suppose, but the event always struck me as over-organized for what it actually was. I think I had more fun making things for the event than actually walking around with them.
It did bring out the lemmings though, almost 15,000 this summer I read, but maybe one in 20 of them had done something other than come to gawk, even to the extent of putting on a glowstick bracelet. How would it be if 750 people came to a non-Luminara 2010, each one participating, performing, and appreciating? Well, I suppose it would be a bloody miracle to get that many people to do something creative at the same place at the same time without it being trite, and not leaving a huge mess (yes, like you I was thinking about the Zombie Walk this year that pulled in a couple of hundred people, everyone worked hard and had fun doing largely the same thing but zombies are rather overdone by now IMHO).
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This is interesting....
Autism and schizophrenia linked to faults in same genes: Study
By Randy Shore, For Canwest News Service
December 3, 2009 8:12
METRO VANCOUVER – Simon Fraser University researchers have found that autism and schizophrenia are both caused by faults in the same set of genes, raising hopes that an effective test or treatment for one may be adapted for use on the other.
The finding is a radical departure from conventional medical thinking about the two disorders as separate and distinct illnesses, according to evolutionary biologist Bernard Crespi, but it opens the door to new avenues of research into the cause and potential cure for each.
( Read more... )
I have always been of the tendency that both were genetically caused, at least enough for a predisposition. I agree it would be nice if some form of therapy could be discovered for either, or both. However, I don't know if I like the metaphor of "dialing human evolution up and down", but then again, I'm not supposed to be able to comprehend figurative language in the first place.
CBC wrote it up a little differently:
Mutations link autism, schizophrenia: study
Last Updated: Thursday, December 3, 2009 | 11:44 AM PT
CBC News
Autism and schizophrenia may be genetic opposites, an evolutionary biologist in British Columbia says.
Bernard Crespi of Simon Fraser University and his colleagues analyzed data on all known genetic variants linked to both conditions.
Crespi thinks that autism and schizophrenia are diametric opposites in how they affect gene activity in specific regions of the brain.
The researchers looked at four regions in the human genome where mutations known as copy number variants can arise — stretches of DNA that contain accidental duplications or deletions. Instead of the usual two copies, one or three copies may be found.
The investigators found deletion mutations in people with autism and duplications in people with schizophrenia, the team reported in this week's online issue of the Proceedings of the of the National Academy of Sciences.
Crespi said the immediate importance of the finding is that if autism and schizophrenia are proven to be opposites, then researchers working on a therapy for one illness may be able to consider new directions for the other.
"The conceptual framework of one disorder will illuminate the study of the other," he told CBC News.
This could be true for both drugs and cognitive behaviour or talk therapy, since drugs working on receptors in the brain could be dialled down for one condition and made to work more for the other.
The findings fit with data from studies of head and brain sizes that show autism is commonly associated with developmentally enhanced brain growth while people with schizophrenia tend to show reduced brain growth.
The copy number variants are very rare events. When they do occur, the odds of getting autism or schizophrenia increase dramatically, Crespi said.
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The Class Wargames people uploaded the MP3 files of the interview they did with me on September 2.
http://www.roddickinson.net/gow/resources/radio/September_2nd_2009.mp3
or more broadly
http://www.classwargames.net/pages/radio.html
I think I sound awful. Nasal voice, stilted delivery, I am obviously working off a script I wrote and go on for far too long. Dull, dull, dull. Obviously, I haven't feard form these folks since.
I obviously have no future in radio!
Elsewhere, they review two other games of mine, thankfully without my presence:
http://www.roddickinson.net/gow/resources/radio/August_26th_2009.mp3 (Red Guard)
http://www.classwargames.net/radio/july_15th_2009.mp3 (Freikorps)
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This is interesting, in a silly way:
Mathematical formula predicts the perfect toy
Last Updated: Tuesday, December 1, 2009 | 11:26 AM ET CBC News
(Associated Press)A British psychologist has come up with a mathematical formula to help parents choose the toy that best matches their child's nature and their wallet's cash level.
Dr. Cliff Arnall was asked to devise the formula by British toy company Worlds Apart. The company had sponsored a survey that found a majority of youngsters received Christmas presents they didn't like or didn't play with.
"For a number of years now people have been saying, particularly parents of younger children, that a lot of the toys they buy end up not lasting too long," said Arnall in an interview Monday with CBC Radio's As It Happens.
Arnall, who has also developed mathematical formulas to predict the happiest day of the year (June 19) and the most depressing day of the year, (Jan. 24), took six basic criterion [sic] into consideration to come up with the best toy for your child.
The perfect toy formula was devised by British psychologist Dr. Cliff Arnall. (Worlds Apart)
Each criterion was assigned a letter and parents could plug in a number between one and five.
Pi: Does the child prefer individual play?
Po: What is the child's ability to play with others?
CR: Does the toy stimulate a number of senses?
S: Does the toy promote social activity?
U: Can a child play with the toy all year around? Is it easy to store and easy to transport?
H: Is the toy robust enough to be handed down. Will it still be relevant for younger siblings in years to follow?
Then, and this is where a calculator comes in handy, you add all these numbers up, and then add them to (T multiplied by L), where T is the estimated number of hours the child will play with the toy in a week, and L is the number of months the toy will likely be played with.
That number is then divided by the square root of C, where C is the cost of the toy.
Even with a calculator, it's not so easy. The Worlds Apart toy company has a website where parents can simply plug in their numbers and get the answer with a few clicks.
A rating of 40 is considered a very good score, said Arnall. The simplest toys, like playing cards, tend to score highest. And a score will drop sharply if a toy is expensive.
Arnall is hoping the mathematical formula reduces the stress of gift buying, rather than raising it, as can happen when people are forced to figure out math.
"It's really to help discriminate between toys and give parents an opportunity to take a step back and have a think about their child, matching up a toy that's going to meet the needs of their children rather than some very complex and irritating formula," he said.
Pi + Po + CR + S + U + H + ((T x L) / sqrtC) = Play Value
Interesting, but it couldn't apply to all toys - let's take one of my newest games, Battle for China:
Pi = 5 (yes, it can be played solitaire easily)
Po: 5 (yes, it's meant to be played with others and it assumes the player-nerd is sufficiently socialized)
CR: 2 (eyes and brain, mostly)
S: 5 (yes, if "social activity" can be defined as two player-nerds staring at a map and arguing for several hours)
U: 5 (oh yes! Just don't play it in the rain)
H: 4 (OK trade value, to go by BGG.com)
And for T and L, let's say it's played once a week for two months, before the next issue of Strategy and Tactics comes out. Per-issue cost is $25.
So, 5 + 5 + 2 + 5 + 5 + 4 + ((4 x 2) / 5) = 27.6
So, not bad but not great either. Hope your stress level wasn't unduly affected by being "forced to figure out math".
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Last night we went to see Billy Bragg at the Alix Goolden Hall.
The place was packed, and it was a great show that went until after 2300.
He did not sing all "softie" stuff as I thought he might; he played a lot of his political songs and showed his background as a busker through his commentary and patter with the audience between songs.
The evening was marred only by some youngster in the pew behind me who absolutely stank of stale alcohol - it was like sitting next to a box of rotten fruit. Guaranteed instant headache: some are sensitive to aftershave or perfume, for me it's the aroma of used booze.
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At lunch today I was shuffling through the stack of 45s every thrift store still seems to have, and came away with two interesting items:
The Glencoves, "Hootenanny" b/w "It's Sister Jinny's Turn To Throw The Bomb" (JOY J 724) - from 1963; and
Johnny and the Hurricanes, "Beatnik Fly" b/w "Reveille Rock" (Barry BAGT-556X) - from 1959. Instrumental versions of old tunes ("Blue Tail Fly" and the Army bugle call), featuring the then-new Hammond organ. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_and_the_Hurricanes
Haven't heard either yet (still have to haul the record player out of storage), but I did find the lyrics to the first one:
It's Sister Jinny's Turn To Throw The Bomb
In an old chemist's attic, so dreary and so mean,
Oh smell the fearful odors of nitroglycerine
They're busy building bombs, and filling cans with nails
And little starving kiddies set up this tearful wail:
[chorus:] Oh, it's sister Ginny's turn to throw the bomb
The last one it was thrown by brother John (brother John)
Mother's aim is bad and the coppers all know Dad
So it's sister Ginny's turn to throw the bomb
In a dark and dreary attic, all filled with nitro fumes
They spend each waking hour planning others' dooms
They build bombs every morning, so not a day goes by
That from some smoking building goes up this mournful cry:
[chorus]
They're taught bomb-building from the day they're born
And peace is something they all learn to scorn
They can hardly wait to see the blast and hear the noise
And watch the heads go flying off little girls and boys
[chorus]
She was maiming little children one fine day
When her older brother swore she'd have to pay
Grit his teeth and pulled the pin
The whole darn house caved in
And I'll bet she's building bombs below this day
[chorus]
What they used to call "sick humour" in 1963, I suppose. The flip side (actually, it was their big hit) is just stupid:
Hootenanny
There's gonna be a big
Hootenanny, hootenanny
Everybody's gonna come along
All join in at the
Hootenanny, hootenanny
Sing a hooting, hollering song
Put on your hat
Put out the cat
Bring a little money
Cause you might need that
Throw out the blues
Kick off your shoes
Sing a little, sing a little
Make a little love a little
Bring a little honey to
The hootenanny, hootenanny
Everybody's gonna have a date
Hurry hurry, hurry to
The hootenanny, hootenanny
We don't wanna be late
You get the girls
I'll get the car
Bring a banjo and an old guitar
Get out the spoons
You know the tunes
Hey diddle diddle with
A fiddle in the middle
If you can't fiddle
At the hootenanny, hootenanny
Play a little paper and comb
Once you get to the
Hootenanny, hootenanny
You'll never wanna go home
You get the girls
I'll get the car
Bring a banjo and an old guitar
Get out the spoons
You know the tunes
Hey diddle diddle with
A fiddle in the middle
If you can't fiddle at the
Hootenanny, hootenanny
Play a little paper and comb
Once you get to the
Hootenanny, hootenanny
You'll never wanna go home
You'll never wanna go home
You'll never want to go home
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- yoinked from ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) emmabovary:
1. What is your LiveJournal username? How did you come up with it?
http://ltmurnau.livejournal.com/21097.html#cutid1
2. Have you renamed before? If so, what were your old names? If you haven't renamed, what names would you want to rename to?
Never renamed. I don't know if I would want to rename.
3. How much does your userinfo say about you?
Enough, I think. Anyone with enough patience to trudge through the rest of the LJ itself (823 entries now, counting this one) could build up a portrait.
4. How long have you been on LiveJournal?
First entry was May 26, 2003.
5. What is the longest amount of time you've gone without posting?
Probably several weeks.
6. On average, how many entries do you post per day?
I seem to end up posting something at least once a week, sometimes several times a week.
7. What are your posts normally about?
To go by my tag usage counts, I do a lot of memes (167), but also write about game design (34), movies politics and music (27 each), and the War on Terror books and art (24 each). Normally I post when I find something that amuses me, in the news or otherwise, and present it with some more or less snarky comment. But I also post a lot of "commemoratives": for example, when I publish something, or my birthday, etc..
8. Is your LiveJournal friends only? Why or why not?
Some of my posts are friends only, but only if they are really personal (infrequent) or nasty (almost never).
9. How long do you see yourself staying on LiveJournal?
As long as Livejournal is around, and working properly, I plan to be posting. I don't care if there are "better" or more popular blog sites; this one does what I want it to, I am connected with a lot of people I like (and where the connection has failed, usually it was because they stopped blogging, not because they moved someplace else), and I've put a lot of whinging and effort into this one. I do the LJBook backup thing every so often.
ABOUT YOUR FRIENDSLIST
1. How many people are on your friendslist?
56 friends, 47 of them mutual, 22 "also friend of". Most of the last category are inactive; I usually purge from the flist for this reason.
2. Why do you choose to add a person to your friendslist?
If I see someone make a good comment on someone else's LJ, and they have a number of common interests with me, I will probably friend them. I used to troll around looking for people with large numbers of common interests or common obscure interests, but that was not a reliable indicator of whether they were actually interesting or had anything to say. Also, people I meet and like in real life would be friended (though there aren't many of these on my list who still post a lot).
3. Is your friendslist an actual list of people you consider friends, or more of a reading list?
I have met about 20 of the people on my flist in person, though as I said few of them post much anymore (at least on LJ). I think I could be very good friends with the other people on my list whom I haven't met. Some of them are excellent writers too, so it's a good reading list as well. I also belong to about 50 communities, but many of them are quiet or almost completely inactive.
4. How often do you read your friendslist?
Every day, several times.
5. Do you use filters when viewing your friendslist?
No.
6. How much do you talk to people on your friendslist off of LiveJournal?
I talk to flist people in real life, as opposed to private emails. But there aren't many of them.
I'm not sure where this fits, but I have an abiding belief that the people on my friendslist look like their userID photos. So if I ever meet you in real life, I will be disappointed to find out that you are not actually a living cartoon or movie still.
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Yeah, I had an Ayn Rand phase. For several years I read and reread all there was to find of her stuff. I'm not ashamed to admit it, no more than I am to admit that I was generally an obnoxious introverted know-it-all in my teens, like so many of my peers though perhaps a bit more obscurely read. But I did get better. What's your excuse?
I found the best comment ever, in an interesting site called Dangerous Minds referencing an Ayn Rand related article in GQ:
"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: “The Lord of the Rings” and “Atlas Shrugged.”
One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves hobbits, elves, and wizards."
Hee hee hee.
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I never thought I would see something like this....
Canadian military no longer accepting infantry recruits
By Matthew Fisher , Canwest News Service
November 12, 2009 12:10 PM
KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan — So many young Canadians want to become trigger pullers in Afghanistan that the army is not accepting any new infantry recruits at the moment, according to the army's top general.
"I am 1,600 infantrymen over my establishment," Lt.-Gen. Andrew Leslie said Thursday, adding that the high numbers of recruits who want to "serve at the tip of the spear . . . completely refuted" any notion that there were problems getting people to serve in a wartime army.
"I still want young Canadians to show up at recruiting offices, but it just so happens that right now if you want to join the infantry, we're completely full," Leslie said.
The military also has many more volunteers for Afghanistan duty than there are places, the general — an artillery gunner by trade — said during an interview conducted after he had spent several days "outside the wire" in Kandahar with combat troops.
Canada's three infantry regiments have about 6,000 infantrymen, so these units — which have traditionally suffered the most in battle, as has been the case in Afghanistan — are presently more than 25 per cent oversubscribed.
To correct this unusual imbalance, the military is "slowing down recruiting for regular forces infantry for the next year or two," Leslie said, adding that the army is "encouraging folks from the infantry" to transfer to military jobs where there are still shortfalls, such as vehicle technicians and fire control system technicians.
So many Canadians still want to be part of the country's first major combat mission since the Korean War that the number of recruits and their quality is like nothing Leslie has seen in his three decades in the armed forces.
The military's success with recruiting follows a long television advertising campaign that has frequently highlighted the combat side of military operations. The ads, which have often run during hockey games and other sporting events watched by young men, have depicted troops taking part in missions on land and at sea in distant places that were made to look something like the Middle East or Southwest Asia.
"I find myself in a unique position in comparison to most of my fellow army commanders across NATO," Leslie said. "I have more volunteers every tour than I have positions. To come to Afghanistan is a competitive process."
The keenness of many soldiers to serve in Afghanistan may also be having an effect on attrition rates. For the infantry, the rate has fallen to 10 per cent from 12 per cent over the past 18 months, the general said. Across the entire army, attrition is down to eight per cent from 10 per cent, he said.
An informal survey of troops who have been in Kandahar during the past few months found many of those serving in combat arms were already angling to return to the Afghan province one more time with the battle group or as army or police mentors before Canada's combat mission is supposed to end in the summer of 2011.
The desire to get back to Afghanistan one more time is especially true of the last two infantry units scheduled to serve combat tours here — the Royal 22nd Regiment — the Van Doo — and the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry.
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service
I have to say, I find this amazing, as in my experience the infantry regiments were always understrength. And while 6,000 may seem a lot, remember that Metro Toronto alo9ne has over 5,700 "trigger pullers".
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I took a couple of days off to go to Seattle and see DEVO. It was Reading Break, so Lianne was happy to go too! This time we went on the Victoria Clipper - usually this is far too expensive but in the off-season they have some deals. We got transport there and back and two nights in the Ramada downtown (not great, but close to everything we needed) for about $320. Saved going on the Coho ferry, driving almost three hours to get to Seattle, and then parking at a hotel. The only problem is that the Clipper's schedule is very inconvenient if you are going to Seattle - it only leaves Victoria at 1700, and only leaves Seattle at 0800, so a day trip is impossible, and an overnighter just silly.
Anyway, we left on Sunday, and came back on Tuesday. Monday we shopped around for a bit - we went to the surplus place on 1st Avenue where I got Aki a birthday present (Russian gas mask in its original container, filter still in its wrapping paper) and Lianne bought me a black M-65 field jacket (Chinese Alpha Industries copy fo the real article, but well enough made). Then we looked around in the Pike Place Market and went to Left Bank Books, my favourite lefty bookstore down there (http://www.leftbankbooks.com/) and got a few things (wishing I had gotten that Dori Seda biography after all), then lunch and out to Wallingford to Archie McPhee (http://www.mcphee.com/), where we always go but seems to disappoint just a bit each visit because there are so few weird old items left - the first time I went, in the late 80s, the store was full of bizarre old ephemera and surplus weird stuff, which I liked. But I did get an East German M43-feldmutze style cap and a Lenin all-day sucker. Then Lianne wanted to look for some clothes at Nordstrom's etc. so I went down to the Barnes and Noble and got a copy of US Army FM 3-07, Field Manual for Stability Operations, and looked around for some other things. Every second book in their "Current Affairs" shelf was something by some foaming right-wing moonbat, including four different titles by Glenn Beck.
Then it was time to go back and change for the concert - DEVO at the Moore Theatre, which I think is where we saw Kraftwerk in 2005 [check - no, it was the Paramount, in 2004]. They were playing two nights in each city: the first night they would play the entirety of their first album (Are we Not Men?) and the second night the third (Freedom of Choice). I like that album better, so this was the night we went. First we met our friends Lissa, Angie and Susan and had a drink and some izakaya snacks beforehand.
We were up in the gallery but not too nosebleedy, not a bad view. I had made two molds for casting Devo energy-dome style pins, like this
but 2-D, an inch wide and in tin. I made two models, one plain and one with "DEVO" marked on it. I made about 20 of these, painted them up with spray paint or nail polish, and gave them all away, to our friends and to people I saw wearing energy dome hats at the concert.
The show was great. I have been listening to Devo continuously for almost thirty years, was even in the Official Fan Club and this was the first time I had ever seen them live. For a bunch of pudgy nerds pushing sixty, they have still definitely got it! They had some character wearing only underwear and the Goofy Face rubber mask they called "Spudsie Pud" who came out with show cards to announce each track. Mark Mothersbaugh flung a few Energy Domes into the crowd, and after the album was done vanished from the stage for a few minutes and then came back as Booji Boy. They played a few more pieces but nothing from the new album, the last piece was a long version of "Beautiful World" and at the end of it Mark started digging out handfuls of little Superballs and beaming them into the crowd. One made it all the way up to the balcony, where it bopped Lianne above her left eye, then vanished!
As we were saying goodbye outside the theatre, someone with a digital camera and microphone setup came up to me and asked my opinion about the show and what I thought about Devo. Apparently they were making some kind of documentary or tour film, as I signed a model release later. But I bet I end up on the cutting room floor, AGAIN (http://ltmurnau.livejournal.com/60416.html, http://ltmurnau.livejournal.com/139044.html). Why, oh why did I tell them I liked "Mr. B's Ballroom"?
Going home was uneventful - we had left Akito on his own for two days and the house was in fine shape when we got back, just some dirty cooking pots and TV dinner shells. He got himself to school and all. He seems to be growing up well - yesterday, after we got home from the Remembrance Day parade, I went out with him on his first day of doing his paper route, which is also his first paid job!
So, not a bad time.
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I posted a news story yesterday to the effect that punk drummer Chuck Biscuits had died.
It appears this was a hoax, and Biscuits is alive and well (but apparently doesn't get out much anymore).
I have deleted said post.
Thanks to Anonymous who pointed me to the story clarifying the matter.
Let us all reflect on the drawbacks of "instant news", for the time it takes to peck out another 140 character message about the salad you had for supper last night.
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Well, a few things have been a-happening.
I'm slowly getting out from under this stupid cold; figure I have produced enough phlegm in the last 10 days to fill a large salad bowl. Now I'm waiting for the "hinny" to strike. Argh. The high point of my birthday weekend was a short trip to Dairy Queen - I had a small Blizzard. But I got some nice books, though - The Fighting Canadians by David Bercuson, Kilcullen's very good The Accidental Guerrilla, and a history of the AK-47 rifle (there are actually several such in print right now, I think I got a good one).
Also recently is issue #259 of Strategy and Tactics magazine, containing my game Battle for China and my large accompanying article on the Sino-Japanese War 1937-41. Seems to have been well received, at least no one has written in demanding to know why I didn't use his favourite reference book or that I missed mention that the 1st Parachute Battalion was dropped in the second battle for Changsha, Or Something. I think this is the high point of my gamer notoriety - World at War has a circulation of about 5,000 I think, and S&T about 15,000. This will be the last time these games will be published as I sold the copyrights to the publisher - but this marks the third time for the Spanish game and the fourth for the China game, not bad for an amateur effort.
Now I need to get going on an article on the impact of the Dieppe raid on Allied doctrine - I'll have some time to work on it next month maybe. Meanwhile, finishing up a game on the Finnish Civil War (January-May 1918) that tries to do something a little different. Also worked on the cover artwork for my Greek Civil War (1947-49) and Balkan Gambit games; they ought to come out in early 2010.
I don't think I wrote about my fruit trees. I have a large apple tree and a smaller pear tree in my backyard, and while neither one has been properly pruned or looked after in years, they both bore lots of good fruit. I made many, many crisps, since I can't be arsed to make pies or cakes. This spring we will have them looked at by a tree surgeon, and they should do well. Will also cut back that large maple tree that overhangs my backyard and made my vegetables waste most of their effort growing sideways to get out of its shade.
Been listening to Gang of Four's early albums lately - if the Situationists had had a house band, they would be it.
The problem of leisure
What to do for pleasure
Ideal love a new purchase
A market of the senses
Dream of the perfect life
Economic circumstances
The body is good business
Sell out, maintain the interest
Remember Lot's wife
Renounce all sin and vice
Dream of the perfect life
This heaven gives me migraine
The problem of leisure
What to do for pleasure
Coercion of the senses
We are not so gullible
Our great expectations
A future for the good
Fornication makes you happy
No escape from society
Natural is not in it
Your relations are of power
We all have good intentions
But all with strings attached
Repackaged sex keeps your interest
Repackaged sex keeps your interest
Repackaged sex keeps your interest
Repackaged sex keeps your interest
Repackaged sex keeps your interest
Repackaged sex keeps your interest
The problem of leisure
What to do for pleasure
Ideal love a new purchase
A market of the senses
Dream of the perfect life
Economic circumstances
The body is good business
Sell out, maintain the interest
Remember Lot's wife
Renounce all sin and vice
Dream of the perfect life
This heaven gives me migraine
This heaven gives me migraine
This heaven gives me migraine
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Top 100 science fiction movies of all time, as discerned by the Online Fim Critics' Society. Bold the ones you've seen. In all cases the movie title refers to the original, not the shitty remake (exceptions: Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Thing):
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension - This movie is God.
A.I. - Artificial Intelligence
Akira
Alien
Aliens
Altered States
The Andromeda Strain
Back to the Future
Blade Runner
Brazil
The Cell
City of Lost Children - this was brilliant, I liked Delicatessen too.
A Clockwork Orange
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Contact
Dark City
The Day The Earth Stood Still
The Dead Zone
Donnie Darko
Dr Strangelove (Or How I Stopped Worrying and Love the Bomb) - one of my favourites!
Edward Scissorhands
The Empire Strikes Back
Escape from New York
ET: the Extra Terrestrial
eXistenZ
Fahrenheit 451
Fantastic Voyage
The Fifth Element - ???
The Fly (1986) - Great Cronenberg!
Forbidden Planet
Gattaca
Highlander
The Incredible Shrinking Man
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
The Iron Giant - c'mon, everybody cried when the robot died....
Jacob's Ladder
Jurassic Park
King Kong (1933)
Mad Max
The Matrix
Men In Black
Metropolis (1926)
On the Beach
Pi - brilliant movie! A-and it has Go in it!
Planet of the Apes (1968)
Return of the Jedi
The Road Warrior/Mad Max 2
Robocop
Seconds - saw this a few weeks ago and it was very good! Scenes had imprinted on my mind from when I saw some of it on TV over 30 years ago, once.
Silent Running
Sleeper
Slaughterhouse-Five
Solaris (1972) - finally watched it but I still can't see what the fuss is about.
Starman
Starship Troopers - ???
Star Trek II - The Wrath of Khan
Star Trek IV - The Voyage Home
Star Trek - First Contact
Star Wars
Strange Days
Superman - The Movie
The Terminator
The Terminator 2
They Live
The Thing (From Another World)
John Carpenter's The Thing
THX 1138
Time After Time
Time Bandits
The Time Machine (1960)
Total Recall
Tron
The Truman Show - not SF if you ask me
12 Monkeys
2001: A Space Odyssey
Until the End of the World
Videodrome
Village of the Damned
War of the Worlds
And some "zero star" flicks, from the Sci-Fi Movie Reviews page: http://www.scifimoviepage.com/movies.html
Alone in the Dark
Anaconda 3: Offspring
Batman (1966) - C'mon, it's campy fun, and certainly not SF
Communion
Cyborg
DeepStar Six
Eve of Destruction
Future Fear
Masters of the Universe
Meteor
Red Sonja - Well, I agree it was dumb, but so was Conan
Robot Carnival - ??? Aki and I liked this a lot when he was little
The Shadow Men
Within the Rock
XTRO - I have this on VHS at home somewhere; I'll have to look at it now
Young Einstein - this I'm prepared to take on faith
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Yesterday on the way to work I saw a police wagon outside the Hillside Liquor Store. Why was one there shortly after 8 am? Here's why:
Saanich man pushes way into liquor store to guzzle and puke
By Katie DeRosa, with files from Louise Dickson, Times Colonist
October 23, 2009
A man who forced his way into a liquor store and guzzled several bottles of booze before vomiting over 37 bags of chips has pleaded guilty to theft.
( Read more... )
Honestly, I don't know why this doesn't happen more often.
Meanwhile, I've been sick myself all this week. It's a bad cold, not the Coughing Pig Death, but I ended up taking two days off work. It came on very quickly: at 9 pm Sunday night I had a little tickle in my throat and in three hours it was uh oh, Burning Cauldron of Phlegm-Death time... It's Friday now and I'm still coughing up crap. Tomorrow's my birthday too, boo hoo hoo.
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http://www.rottentomatoes.com/guides/worst_of_the_worst/ for covers and plot poionts and stuff.
How many of these have you seen? Bold them, BOLD THEM!
In order, from the least very worst to the very, very worst:
( Read more... )
Quite frankly, I have never heard of most of these movies, or remember them only vaguely from TV ads or pawing through the $5.99 bin at Rogers Video.
Well, go on, make it a meme!
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Yes, they were just stringing us along after all...
This time, Archie plans to marry Betty
Canwest News ServiceOctober 6, 2009 12:02 PM
For those of you who bet on Betty, congratulations.
It looks like Archie is going to marry her, too.
According to the New York Times, Archie Andrews, that indecisive comic book character, will marry his other longtime high school sweetheart in an edition of the Archie comic book to be released next month.
Back in May, it was revealed Archie would finally ditch his wishy-washy Riverdale High School persona and get hitched. The pronouncement caused a huge media buzz and led to editorial columns debating the virtues of marrying the pleasant, blond Betty versus hooking up with Veronica, the often-bad-tempered brunette.
It also resulted in the sale of an estimated 54,000 copies of the comic book, a 20-fold increase that doesn't even include newsstand, supermarket and international sales.
Archie chose Veronica, right? So, what's going on?
Well, it seems the redhead with the checkerboard hair is living some sort of a six-part dreamlike existence in which he is walking down a road called Memory Lane. In the first scenario, released in an edition last month, Archie walks toward a fork in the road and turns left, allowing him to see his life after a marriage to Veronica. This time, he walks to the right and envisions a future with Betty as his bride. In each sequence, Archie ends up with twins.
Archie Comic Publications has received so much attention over the latest developments in this six-decades-long love triangle that the comic-book company is expanding.
"What the story has done is to introduce Archie on a global level," Jon Goldwater, co-chief executive of Archie Comic Publications told the Times.
He adds the company plans to introduce new titles in international markets and to seriously pursue film and television deals.
Archie will now be printed in five languages in India and will open an office in New Delhi next year. It also is preparing some exclusive comics for that market that will include Indian characters.
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service
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A couple of weeks ago issue #8 of World at War magazine, featuring a leading article and full-size wargame on the subject by Yours Truly, hit the stands. Yes, you probably missed it because the mag has a circulation of only about 7,000, but it was nice to see some of my game work hit the relative big time.
https://www.strategyandtacticspress.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=64
And you know, it wasn't long after the magazine came out that I got an e-mail from the publisher, passing on an e-mail he had received from a person billing himself as a visiting professor in Spanish studies at Indiana University. He had found the magazine at a Barnes & Noble and had written in to correct me on where he thought I was wrong, on separatist movements in the autonomous regions of Spain, and suggesting I refer to the works of Stanley Payne and Pio Moa, a Spanish writer. They were fairly minor points but Stanley Payne (who I did not use) has defended the work of Pío Moa, a controversial writer who is viewed by many academics as a pseudo-historian, revisionist writer and apologist for Franco. It's obvious that the war is not over yet!
I've been writing articles for this magazine's sister publication Strategy & Tactics for 16 years, and I have to say this is only the second time anyone has commented to me on the content of the article - and the first time it was to complain about a misdrawn provincial border on a map of 1848 Germany that I never even saw until it appeared in the magazine!
One of the best references I did use in writing the article was Anthony Beevor's relatively recent book The Battle for Spain. I found an interesting review of it online (from The Independent, published: 21 May 2006), not least for his comments on Kids Today:
Antony Beevor: On the joys of history
The Left isn't going to like Antony Beevor's book on the Spanish Civil War, but he's used to controversy - his account of the fall of Berlin elicited heated protests from the Russian ambassador. Danuta Kean talks to him about the joys of digging in the archives, his despair about history students today and his brush with Jackie Onassis
Antony Beevor is horrified, but, for once, it is not accounts of rape, torture or political betrayal uncovered in the archives of Berlin and Moscow that exercise the author of Stalingrad. What angers him is the state of British education, especially the teaching of history. "Britain is the only country in Europe, with the exception of Albania and Iceland, where history is no longer compulsory after the age of 14." His words are rapid as machine gunfire. "There is an extraordinary conviction, which has come partly from teacher training colleges, that history is elitist and reactionary and not worthy."
( Read more... )
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waggish