Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Baron Dave Romm's LiveJournal:

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Thursday, November 19th, 2009
2:48 pm	The Prisoner (2009) Non-spoiler review: Ignore the first four episodes of The Prisoner and see the last two, shown in a block, "Schizoid" and "Checkmate". Still not great, but at least they're a semi-worthy follow-up. ( slightly more spoilerish review, but won't give away much ) AMC is showing the last two episodes in a block tonight (Thurs) and all six will be repeated. Presumably, they'll be on DVD fairly soon. No real hurry, except to have seen them before spoilers become common. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
8:40 pm	Well, that makes sense "Why did you resign?" "To drink beer." -- The Prisoner (2009) Slogging my way through the new series at 4/6. Slow going. Not very interesting. More sex, less coherency. The best parts are the nods to the original. At least I can zip through the commercials. I'd be tempted to give up about now, but the only other show I'm recording tonight is V. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, November 12th, 2009
11:07 am	Do you have a sense of smell in your dreams? I generally dream in black and white. Occasionally, I dream in color, and it's notable. (This is, of course, when I remember dreams at all, which is not particularly common. If I don't write them down soon after waking, even those dreams slip away.) Last night I had a dream, that I barely remember so I won't go into the subject matter. But I do remember it involved some pungent odors. And those odors weren't part of the dream. What should have been fairly smelly was merely an unpleasant visual. Does LJ Assembled remember smells in their dreams? Tactile sensations? Or is it straight visual processing? Can you get dizzy in a dream? (18 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, November 5th, 2009
3:09 pm	NaLiWriMo Day Five: Dirty Limericks, Strange Intercourse Excerpted from The Limerick: 1700 Examples with Notes, Variants and Index. The Famous Paris Edition, Complete and unexpurgated To inspire and cajole during National Limerick Writing Month, I turn to a book which I literally found on the steps of the Bozo Bus Bldg nearly 30 years ago. Chock full of dirty limericks, it has barely survived several moves and is falling apart. I present a few of them here, from the chapter "Strange Intercourse", behind a cut because I must protect innocent eyes (yes, you). ( 'ware dirty limericks ) Okay, enough for today. Maybe more later during NaLiWriMo. No promises. (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 4th, 2009
11:49 am	NaLiWriMo Day Four Still contemplating the second line suggestions from yesterday (on FB). So let me take this opportunity to post two of my favorite limericks. They have to be together. I believe I heard these from markiv1111 (quoted from memory): There was an old lady of Perdue Who's limericks stopped at line two There was an old man of Verdun (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, November 2nd, 2009
7:41 am	NaLiWriMo Day One The first day of National Limerick Writing Month went quite well. I solicited suggestions on how to start, and received numerous suggestions, some of them legitimate. My goal is to write a complete limerick by the end of the month. *whew* Words written: 1 (sort of). (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, November 1st, 2009
8:30 am	MN-StF Halloween 2009CE pictures MN-StF Halloween public gallery on Facebook. I have four times the number of Facebook Friends as LJ Friends, and posting pics is easier, so preliminary galleries will probably go there for the nonce. The party was great! Having the celebration on the same night as the trick or treating was lots of fun. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, October 31st, 2009
1:35 pm	A Halloween Slab At dreamshark's request, I have put together a CD of Halloween and otherwise related songs. I'll probably bring a spare. If anyone wants to trade mix CDs, let me know. A Halloween Slab Monster Mash – Bobby "Boris" Pickett And The Crypt Kickers 3:15 Werewolves Of London – Warren Zevon 3:28 False Knight On The Road – Tim Hart & Maddy Prior 2:59 Rue The Day – Folk Underground 3:12 Gay Vampire Boogie – Cynthia McQuillan 3:01 Butterfly Road(edit) – Folk Underground 4:48 It Could Only Happen On Halloween – Gregory's Funhouse 3:59 Dead Rock N Roll Stars – Wally Pleasant 4:07 Folk Underground – Folk Underground 2:53 Sleep Walking Zombies – Carrie Dahlby 4:07 Zombie Pete – Boogie Knights 3:58 Banshee – Flash Girls 4:12 Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner – Warren Zevon 3:48 Idumea/City Of The Damned – Folk UnderGround 3:12 Song of Many Deaths – The Foremen 3:22 The Masochism Tango – Tom Lehrer 3:30 These Ghoulish Things – Kathy Mar & Zander Nyrond 3:01 On Halloween Night – Joe Scruggs 2:07 Alison Gross – Steeleye Span 5:29 Put A Wooden Stake Through His Heart – Boogie Knights 3:01 Bonus track: Zombie Apocalypse (live) – Beth Kinderman and the Player Characters 5:56 It's actually a fairly wide field, and I had to leave out a lot of Steeleye Span (esp. "Demon Lover", "King Henry" and "Wife of Usher's Well".) and "Necronomicon". "False Knight On The Road" is by request; only peripherally a Halloween song, though it is about the devil. A slightly different mix would have "The Devil Went Down To Georgia" and variants. One of the versions of "With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm" would have fit. Maybe "Ghost Riders In The Sky". I couldn't find any good songs about costume parties. Sharon has a 2-CD set waiting at the MN-StF party. (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 20th, 2009
1:09 pm	On Photography: Definitions I've been meaning to write an essay about photography for some time. Much has already been written about the subject, and much of it is quite good. I hope this adds to the field, or at least clarifies some of the terminology as I'm using it. Image The word photograph is no longer useful as the generic term in photography. With the rise of digital photography, the file that is displayed on your computer screen is no different than a drawing or a .pdf. I try to use the term image for the raw data file. You push a button, and an image is stored on the chip. Later, the image is transfered to your computer, for editing and/or printing. Many terms from chemical photography are still in use, and still apply to digital photography. Here are three aspects of an image, allowing the viewer to apply criteria as warranted. Snapshot By far the most number of images are snapshots. A snapshot is a recording of an event and the people at the event. The technical quality and artistic composition are rarely a major consideration. You want to know who was at the party. You want to see Uncle Morty back when he had hair. You want to remember the people around you at your birthday. You want to remind yourself of your vacation. Snapshots don't have to be good pictures or good photographs, but it helps. Picture A picture tells a story. Within a single image, the viewer understands what is going on. The story can be an action, a mood, a time, a location or any combination. What makes a good picture is largely subjective, much like any art form, and not all pictures work for everyone. However, most good pictures are widely recognized as being great shots. The technical aspects of the image are secondary to the moment being captured. Pictures don't have to be good snapshots or good photographs, but it helps. Photograph A photograph is judged on objective criteria: Lighting, clarity, composition, etc. You don't have to be a camera geek or a Photoshop expert to produce a really fine photograph, but the skillset necessary to produce consistently great work is more than just an expensive camera. Some great photographs are pretty to look at but boring outside of their didactic milieu. Photographs don't have to be good snapshots or good pictures, but it helps. Most images are a combination of snapshot, picture and photograph. You can compliment a good picture of a friend without implying anything about the snapshot or photograph aspects. Nonetheless, the distinctions have value. It is better to have a grainy and static snapshot of your grandmother than none at all. It is better to have a really interesting picture that stays with you even if you don't know anyone in the shot and the lighting isn't so hot. It is better to have an accurately detailed photograph that's worth looking at even if you don't care about the subject matter and it doesn't do much but look pretty. Comments welcome. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, October 18th, 2009
11:48 am	Convivial 2009: Day 2 (almost) Added most (but not all) shots from Saturday to Convivial 2009 FB gallery. This is the same public link as yesterday, and will contain any additions I make later. Saturday at Convivial started late for me, as I didn't get home from Friday until early am. Then was soporific until Scott, Irene, Mark and I went to the Outback for dinner. Mainly, I needed coffee, but I ordered their smallest steak. As usual, I ordered it "as rare as you can legally make it". It came what I would call Medium Rare. Usually, I don't bother complaining, but Outback prides itself as a steak place, so I sent it back. And got a real Rare steak! And coffee! Oh, I was awake. Sat around discussing sharp point things at the Geek "Show Me" panel, so it's a good thing I was alert. Then Brother Seamus (in some configuration) played. They're pretty good, and managed to do versions of several of my favorite songs. Yay! Well, now I'm headed back to the con. Hope K is feeling up to her collage panel. (Comment on this)
Saturday, October 17th, 2009
12:07 pm	Convivial 2009: Day 1 Friday Convivial pics up over on Facebook. Anyone can see the pics. Had a great time. Was up late. Missed breakfast, will probably miss most of Sat. pm programing. Will be out there later in the afternoon. Notable achievement: In a game of Epyc/Money Duck/Croupier Otter, the phrase "The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over The Lazy Dog" made it around a table of nine players to return as "The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over The Ugly Dog" (Comment on this)
Monday, October 12th, 2009
9:02 am	Snow seen from my porch: Merry Columbus Day click on picture for larger picture View of Lake Street Snow on trees and bundled bus-waiters on Lake Street in the first major snow storm of the season. Mpls, 10/12/09 My Tree The tree just outside my window (view from my porch). Mpls, 10/12/09 Close up of tree on Lake Street Frosty tree on Lake Street in front of the KMart. Mpls, 10/12/09 Facebook isn't letting me upload pictures, so LJ gets larger than usual files. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, October 10th, 2009
7:54 am	Snow! In 3D! October 10, 2009CE: Snow is on the ground in Mpls, and has lasted the first hour or so of sunrise. Most snow is predicted. This may impact my plans for today, but only slightly. My condo is resurfacing our parking lot, so I have to be out of the garage by 9am this morning. (What, you think I'm normally up this early on the weekend?) We can't come back until Monday, when the surface has settled. Time for an oil change. I'll drop my car off and get picked up by Johanna. We'll have an early lunch. Toy Story and Toy Story 2 have been remastered in 3D, and are playing as a double feature in several venues. I've never seen either in a theater, and the 3D effects of recent movies such as Up! have been pretty effective. Both movies are short, but together it's a long afternoon. Then it's back here, where I'll be stuck car-less until Monday. Thanks for all the suggestions about Amigo Car Service (many moons ago). I have to get my football picks in by the time games start on Sunday, and I have incentive: I'm currently in first place, tied with a few others. Four weeks does not a season make, but it's nice to be off to a fast start. (Comment on this)
Saturday, October 3rd, 2009
11:26 am	Nazi = Coward :: American = Love and Cookies I took too long to find a parking space and missed the nazis. By reports, there were four of them, who showed up early, looked around at the large crowd and piled into one car and fled the scene. The Anti-Nazi Rally took place anyway. Here are some pictures. click on picture for larger picture More (but smaller) pics on Facebook. Love and Cookies Some Americans at the anti-nazi rally brought signs and cookies to share. Hand-drawn sign says "Love not Hate". Mpls 10/3/09 Victor, one of the ad hoc organizers No one was actually in charge, to my knowledge, but some people were more involved in the organizing and crowd control. Victor (iirc), wearing his "death before dishonor" biker's jacket, helped move the crowd along. Note police cars blocking the street behind the Y. Mpls 10/3/09 Perhaps 100 to 1 Four nazis showed up and slunk away in one car before the announced time. Meanwhile, a crowd of perhaps 400 (and more who showed up later) were on hand to protest. Mpls 10/3/09 Sign After the non-event, at the rally at Lake and 22nd. Mpls 10/3/09 After the nazis left, a rally Many people had left, by this time, and more were milling about, but the police unblocked 31st and were just cruising. Speakers, with megaphones and/or amps, were on the corner of 22nd and Lake. Mpls 10/3/09 (Comment on this)
Monday, September 28th, 2009
9:19 am	Joe Romm: Hero of the Environment Time Magazine names Joe Romm a Hero of the Environment, with the segment on Joe Romm and picture of him and Tua. From my brother's blog, ClimateProgress.org: One final comment on the subject of heroes. When your father is a newspaper editor and your mother is also a journalist and your older brother collects comic books, it’s hard not to see journalists as heroes. (I haven't actually collected comics since 1986, but what the heck.) Congrats Joe! (Comment on this)
Monday, September 21st, 2009
1:50 pm	Dunn's Conundrum, by Stan Lee (no, the other one) One of the most interesting things about Dunn's Conundrum, a novel by Stan Lee, is the confusion over who wrote it. FantasticFiction.co.uk lists it as a novel by the comic mogul Stan Lee. The copyright is under Stanley R. Lee, a completely other person, perhaps most infamous for his involvement in the Daisy ad during the 1964 election. Amazon.com doesn't care. I'm inclined to believe the latter, since the book is remarkably non-cinematic and doesn't sound like ol' "Nuff Said" himself. Whatever. Dunn's Conundrum is pretty good. Published in 1985, it makes a bunch of assertions about politics and the spy game that are still basically true. The spy novel chugs along, perhaps not quite the thriller John LeCarré or Tom Clancy might write, but certainly better than the science fiction of its time. The science fiction/spy literature circa 1982-1992 is quite interesting, in an historical sort of way. This is the period between the rise of the internet and personal computer but before the world wide web. Reagan's anti-Soviet saber rattling until the fall of the Soviet Union. Most speculative fiction didn't get the internet right. 80s cyberpunk seems almost quaint. SF writers, especially the right wingers, tried to rattle their own sabers with varying results. ( more behind cut ) As speculative fiction: Not too shabby. Holds up better than most cyberpunk and the political commentary rings true. As an historical set-piece it can be read as a snapshot of the times, and so works as well or better than, say, Bonfire of the Vanities. The implications of the changing nature of privacy are well thought-out and apply to today's social networks as well as our spy networks. Whichever Stan Lee wrote this, he did a good job. If you're into privacy/technology issues or just like political thrillers, you'll probably like Dunn's Conundrum. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, September 19th, 2009
10:17 pm	Shockwave Radio Theater Samplers 1-4 For the 20th Anniversary of Shockwave in 1999, I used the new (to me) technology of digitization to develop four Samplers. I thought these four 15 min. files would remind long-time fans of their favorite bits, explore some lesser-known aspects of the show over two decades and introduce a new audience to Shockwave Radio Theater. Whee! I gathered these, plus a few other files such as my interview with Gov. Jesse Ventura, in a Distribution CD called The 20-Year Free-Fall. The Samplers are now available as mp3 for the first time. I've added the links to the Shockwave Radio audio page. The direct links are: Shockwave Sampler 1: an intro to Shockwave Shockwave Sampler 2: more obscure references Shockwave Sampler 3: The Time Traveler Cycle Shockwave Sampler 4: movie parodies and more Annotations for The 20-Year Free-Fall, listing all the bits in the Samplers and where they came from. Full interview with Gov. Jesse Ventura, conducted 9/9/99 (Real Media, 17:37). Real Audio circa 1999; you might need to download the .ram and open that. Enjoy! (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, September 17th, 2009
2:37 pm	Shockwave Radio Theater's 30th Anniversary Anokon II, September, 1979. Everett Forte and Chris Dronen were programmers on the upstart radio station, KFAI-FM. Fresh Air Radio, a non-profit, community sponsored organization dedicated to serving the underserved, was barely a year into existence. Everett and Chris came to the con and asked if anyone wanted to help them with a science fiction show. The next Wednesday, Sept. 19, 1979, six of us showed up. Everett and Chris never did another show, though they stayed as producers and engineers for many years. September 19, 1979 Shockwave Radio Theater on archive.org . Thirty is an odd anniversary. Sure, you can send us pearls or diamonds. Heck, I encourage you to do so. But still, 25 seemed like more of a milestone than 30. Perhaps not having the broadcast show takes some of the edge off. Perhaps I'm just lazy. This year, Sept. 19 is also a) Rosh Hashanah, the new year (starting at sunset), b) Eid al-Fitr, the end of Ramadan (starts at sunset), c) Talk Like A Pirate Day. Coincidence? I wish all Jews and Muslims the happiness that comes with their religious holidays. On Shockwave, we're more likely to make fun of religion (or at least the practice of religion) then celebrate, so let me slide over those. Talk Like A Pirate day is stupid and frivolous, so we embrace it. Indeed, for the 30th Anniversary, I'm going to dig into our archives for one of our Minicon Stage Shows that feature incredibly cheesy pirate accents. Generic Movies, from Minicon 21, 1986. mp3, 27:43. I've created a Shockwave Radio Theater fan page on Facebook. (Oh, I wish I'd written that sentence 30 years ago...) Still on the nascent side, it will eventually have pictures and more soundfiles and such. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, September 12th, 2009
10:55 am	Saturday Morning Quiz Stomping Yet another in the series. Various quizzes, challenges and other bits of anarchy from over on Facebook. Collect them all! Trade your Friends! Baron Dave Romm... ... took the challenge, "How many planets besides Earth have you visited?" with the reluctant answer, "None; Pluto isn't a planet". ... took the quiz "Which Road Not Taken Are You?" with the result being "the long and winding road". ... took the quiz, "Which of the Great Pyramids are you?" with the result "Pyramid of Khafre". ... ponders the backstory behind, "Of all the gin joints in all the towns of the world, she walks into mine" and realizes that some women like booze no matter who's pouring. ... took the challenge, "How clean are you?" with the result "Zestfully clean". ... is not Bill Gate's Facebook Friend. And neither are you. ... took the quiz "MMPI" and was forced to admit that yes, he is indeed a secret messenger of G_d. Please don't tell anyone. ... didn't move to Minnesota to be warm. [on a day where the temperature hit 90] ... took the quiz, "Which of Brett Favre's former teams is laughing the hardest?" with the result: The Atlanta Falcons. Finally, their trade is paying off in Packer apoplexy. ... took the quiz, "Which is more likely to get you arrested: Showing up to a Bush speech in an anti-Bush t-shirt or showing up to an Obama speech with a picture of Obama as Hitler and packing an automatic weapon?" with the result, "Obama has balls, Bush is a girly-man". ... notes wryly: In the last couple of weeks, Mpls sports teams have acquired an aging football player from Mississippi and lost a young basketball player to Spain. Both moves are touted as strengthening the respective teams. Go fig. ... took the quiz, "Does Rep. Joe Wilson kiss his mother with that mouth?" with the result, "Eeewwwwww." ... realized, suddenly, that 3.58% of his Facebook Friends were mother/daughter combinations (20/559). Father/son or other relationships are well represented but aren't quite as high. I don't have an explanation. And I don't know all of you enough to completely peg your relatives. Previous batch (Comment on this)
Tuesday, September 8th, 2009
8:25 pm	Battlestar Galactica: Epic Fail Battlestar Galactica season 4.5 finally came out on DVD and I flixed them almost immediately. The three-part finale is presented (on the last disc) in two ways: As aired, with a podcast commentary by Ronald D. Moore. And the unaired version, all three hours together, cut slightly differently with about 20 extra minutes of footage, with commentary by Moore, the other producer and the show's director. Awful, simply awful. I was going to write a longer review with spoilers under a tag, but I just don't have the energy. So you only get a quick spew with no spoilers. I watched the whole DVD, which means seeing the finale four times. The unaired version is better, but still just dreadful. If you liked the show, pretend season 4.5 does not exist. Maybe even the last year. Then it might have a shot of being remembered as a good show. My comments all along proved true: The mini-series pilot was great, and it was all downhill from there. ( Okay, one quick snarky spoiler comment behind a cut ) (3 Comments |Comment on this)