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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
Baron Dave Romm's LiveJournal:
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| Monday, May 14th, 2012 | | 5:48 pm |
| | Monday, April 30th, 2012 | | 8:02 am |
Review: Tom Swift (original series), first three books
Having acquired a Kindle, I was greatly amused to read books published almost exactly a century earlier. I started off with a few free books that I had shared with Carole, then went hunting on Project Gutenberg Free Kindle classics. I'm several centuries behind in reading said classics, so naturally I immediately glommed onto the Tom Swift books. The original series, starting in 1910. And yes, herein are SPOLIERS. The first two books are Tom Swift and His Motor Cycle; or, Fun and Adventure on the Road and Tom Swift and His Motor Boat; or, The Rivals of Lake Carlopa. I was a major fan of the Tom Swift Jr. series, when I was a lad, many of which were contemporaneous. I've always wanted to read the originals; encountered one or two along the way, but this is the first time I've been able to simply read them all starting from the beginning. I was struck by how different the world was in 1910. The action takes place in New York State, a day's motorcycle ride from Albany. Probably not too far from where I grew up, fifty years later. In 1910, the roads aren't paved. Tom is constantly getting stuck in the mud or hitting a rock. Near Albany he encounters "macadam". Tom's father is an inventor, and independently wealthy. Therefore, Tom didn't go to college, preferring to learn at home. Tom also has his own patents, and his own money. Gasoline powered motors had been around for a decade or so, and lighter-than-air flight for longer. So the motor car, motor bike, motor boat and aerial balloon he encounters in the first two books aren't quite cutting edge, but they are sill toys for the rich. Common fo'k would have seen them and been envious, but may never have ridden in a private car themselves. ( more on the first two books and Our Hero Tom )The third book, Tom Swift and His Airship; or, The Stirring Cruise of the Red Cloud is more cutting edge. Heavier-than-air flight had only been around since the Wright Brothers, seven years earlier; within the lifetime of most of the readers. Action starts in the first chapter, when the aerialist Mr. Smart (the balloonist from the previous book) and Tom are trying to build an airship… and the aluminum tank explodes. The term "science fiction" hadn't been coined, but there are several "novel features" of the airship itself that transcend the story from a mere pulp adventure. The airship is a double propeller biplane, capable of going (sit down now) 80 miles per hour! The aluminum tank (when it doesn't explode) holds a new fuel, and makes it very light; so light that can ascend straight up and float, like a balloon; this is why it's an "airship" and not an "airplane". They can manufacture fuel on board, and stay aloft for two weeks. The initial exhilarating test flight reminded me of Tom Sawyer Abroad, but they have to deal with the thinner atmosphere. Electric lights are rare; if you travel by night, it's dark. This is before the Titanic; telephones are rare (and for the rich) and airships don't automatically have radios. Technology is coming into its own as an application of science. The world is changing as you watch. When Tom invents a "simple thing" to fix the rudder and doesn't want to bother patenting the improvement, his aeronaut partner says, "Airships are going to be used more in the future than you have any idea of." The future! Ideas! Sensawonda! I'm not going to recommend Tom Swift as high art, or even good YA fiction for today, but I was surprised at how easy a read they were. I will eventually read more in the series, whatever Project Gutenberg has. Oh, and I didn't encounter any "Tom Swifties". At least not in the first two books. The writer doesn't use adverbs all that often anyway, and not for humorous effect. | | Sunday, April 22nd, 2012 | | 6:27 pm |
Joining the 2010's by reading a book from 1910
I read my first book on a Kindle today: Tom Swift and His Motor Cycle or, Fun and Adventure on the Road. I found the Kindle Carole had lost, and she had bought another, so I inherited it. Naturally, I downloaded a whole bunch of free books I always wanted to read. Being the anal retentive series reader, I started with the first Tom Swift book. From 1910. Whee! Charles Dickson and Jane Austen, here I come. On a non-related note, here is a video that may be safe for work, but is definitely not save for mundanes. Bouncy Japanese Pop, but weirder than usual You are warned. PonponponEnglish lyrics | | Thursday, April 12th, 2012 | | 2:03 pm |
Encore: The Encore
A Minicon 47 Moment Encore: The Encore click on picture for larger picture
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Team Chas, Minicon 4/24/11
The Encore game at Minicon 46, Team Chas, second place finishers |
Last year, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=91.6) chasophonic and chirosinger introduced the game Encore to Minicon. They tapped me, a radio dj, to host the event. The game is so easy that I felt compelled to make up rules and bend the old ones as I saw fit. ( rules and additions to rules )I kept track, and here is the list of words I slung at the contestants. Number by the word is the how many songs the group came up with that had the word in the lyric, minimum six words. A parenthetical number is how many of those songs they "filked", ie wrote a song on the spot, minimum 12 words and a rhyming couplet. Hotel 6 (1 filk) Brother 10 NCAA 1 (1; not merely filked but choreographed)
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Filking the lyric
One of my rules for the game of Encore is that you can filk (ie make up) a song with the word in it, as long as the lyric is 12 words and has at least one rhyming couplet. Here, Chas and Becca not merely filk to "NCAA", but choreograph the song. |
Basketball 2 (1 filk) Italy 2 (1 filk) Shit 3 (1 filk) Redemption 1 (1 filk) Minnesota 8 Eggplant 2 (1 filk) Halloween 3 Highway 17 Death 3 Bivalve 0 (though a good attempt from pieeyed) ( ETA from mle292 song with the word 'bivalve' in it) Circle 7 Bob Dylan 2 (note: merely "Dylan" would have generated more songs) Hound 2 Happy 18 (ending on a high note) ( another picture )After the last year's game, Team Chas kept encountering the words from the game in songs they hadn't thought of. At the filk circle at this year's con, they had already come up with several more from this list. Though not "bivalve". | | Wednesday, April 11th, 2012 | | 11:06 am |
Minicon 47: Galleries up, more to come
I was going to do a longer Minicon report,and may still, but not right now. For the nonce, let me announce the completion of my photo galleries. Public Facebook galleries: 20120404-6 Minicon Wednesday-Friday, which include the work party Wednesday and the pre-con party Thursday. 20120407-09 Minicon Saturday-Monday. Still to come: Art of the Snapshot 2 photos and narrative; Encore: The Encore. Maybe even some pics from the upcoming Post-Mortem on Sunday or other stuff. For my birthday on Friday, I may just get some sleep. *yawn* Added 4/12 First pass through The Art of the Snapshot 2, with the images shown at the panel, now up. I'm likely to add more later. | | Thursday, April 5th, 2012 | | 2:41 am |
Minicon 47: Wednesday Work Party gallery up
Public Facebook gallery: 20110404-05 Minicon Work Party and Pre-Con Party (only the Wednesday stuff up at the moment, of course.) Please go and tag people; I'm too tired to do good annotations. Had a great time, and got a lot of Minicon prep done. Thanks to Carol and Jonathan for hosting. Tomorrow: Shopping, more Seder preparation (hey, it's getting bigger) and Other Stuff. Carole and I will stay here until mom arrives in the early evening, then we'll pick her up and all go to the con. Whee! Edited on Thursday to add: In the same gallery, added Thursdau Pre-con party pictures. | | Wednesday, March 21st, 2012 | | 8:44 pm |
Goat and Lamb Coconut Curry over Quinoa
Last week, I made a sort of goulash -- tomato soup base and more than a pound of ground beef -- with a little coconut milk and quail eggs. The quail eggs were deemed less than successful, but I really couldn't taste the coconut. Still, Carole loved it and wanted me to start keeping *shudder* recipes. I'm not sure I can do that, but I can try to remember what I did along the way. ( recipe and narrative under the cut )For next time: Use more meat (the 1.34 lbs of ground meat is sufficient), yogurt, play with spices. I'll experiment with using turmeric and/or cumin as a sub-flavor. Is that possible? Hope you (plural) don't mind me posting these now and again. Might as well have a record. | | Monday, March 19th, 2012 | | 11:46 am |
John Carter: A worthy effort
John Carter is better than the book. In fact, since all the Edgar Rice Burrough's Mars books were written to the same pulp formula, I could say that John Carter is better than all the books. So I will. "You're ugly, but you're beautiful." Which is not to say that John Carter is a great movie. It's a good movie, and many people will admire the great things about it and others will denigrate the poor things about it all with complete justification. The movie's weaknesses are, in many respects, the weaknesses of ERB, with a few more tacked on. The movie's strengths are ERB's strengths, where new-fangled CGI technology can bring to the screen what florid language could only describe a century ago. It's a worthy effort, and a fitting tribute to Edgar Rice Burroughs. It's not the brilliant homage to George Melies of Hugo nor the nifty movie magic of the 30s serials that the Indiana Jones movies brought to the big screen. But the parts that work are really good, and if you go in with low expectations you'll have a grand ol' time. ( more review, some spoilers )So: Recommended. See it, and see it on the biggest screen you can find, before it goes off into limbo. If you've read the books, you'll appreciate how well they have been brought to life. If you haven't, you'll be swept up in the world. | | Saturday, March 17th, 2012 | | 4:38 am |
"Diamond Star": Forming a band in a sea of musicians
Diamond Star, Marscon 2012
Catherine Asaro sings from the soundtrack to her novelThere is a story behind this video. I shall put it behind a cut, since it's long and has more pictures. ( Behind the scenes )And so I got a great hug for my efforts. Oh, and set in motion the formation of a great impromptu band, which I originally called (for lack of a name) "The Skyfall Touring Band" and Catherine changed to "The Marscon Apocalyptic Band".
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Diamond Star, book and CD
Catherine Asaro's novel "Diamond Star" comes with a soundtrack.
photo by cavandal |
| | Sunday, March 4th, 2012 | | 2:30 am |
| | Wednesday, February 29th, 2012 | | 11:44 am |
20120228 Hennepin History Museum gallery
Prompted by minnehaha K, cavandal, mle292 and I hopped over to the Hennepin History Museum. We had lunch first, to see if Carole's leg could handle being out and about, and a building with stairs. It was, so we went. Public FB gallery: 20120228 Hennepin History Museum. mle292's LJ report/gallery: A surprising number of animals. The fun part of a history museum is the connections one can make with the present. A painting of Minnehaha Falls suggested comparisons with a more recent picture in a different FB gallery. The library had a fair amount of material about the Nicollet Ballpark, which was on the location where Carole and I live. So I updated one of my Hidden Minneapolis exegeses. And we found source material for Emily's user icons. A fun visit! A guided tour would still be interesting. And there are other History Museums around we haven't explored. | | Monday, February 20th, 2012 | | 10:56 pm |
Baron Dave: Responsible Adult (to a point)
This afternoon, one of Carole's former HS students came over. Post-grad, she's been having a hard time of it, and got mugged on Friday. Carole consoled her, and I tried to feed her, but she didn't like tomatoes so my grilled cheese sandwich went for naught. She decided that she did, indeed, need to go to the emergency room. The snow started to come down; not terribly heavy, but it would make bus travel annoying. I offered her a ride. Amid taking care of Carole and being chief cook and bottle washer at home, I'm still paying off my Car Karma from the years I was vehicleless. Yes, despite my best efforts, I've become a *shudder* Responsible Adult. But still. She likes rap/hip-hop and has eschewed my collection. Fine as far as it goes, but if she's going to ride in my car, she's going to listen to my music. I still have some Sirius XM from the trial subscription, currently set to the 50s station. A Patsy Cline song came on, I Fall To Pieces. "You know," I say conversationally, "later in her career she became a major rap star." "Really? "Well, no. I just made that up." Kids. | | Sunday, February 19th, 2012 | | 3:44 pm |
Pool Party Pics!
20120218 Pool Party public Facebook gallery now complete. It took longer than the usual 151 picture galleries to complete because the Pool Party was the first major outing for my new camera (a gift from cavandal for taking care of her while her knee is healing). I played with a zillion settings and all sorts of flash positions. Whee! Thanks to bonz_lizard and guppiecat for hosting, mle292 for the mead and ice cream drinks, and to everyone who showed up and partied down! | | Tuesday, February 14th, 2012 | | 4:53 pm |
Glee vs. Smash
After two episodes of Smash, I think some comparisons have been drawn. Glee, now in it's third season, has a tag "A biting comedy for the underdog in all of us." Well, sort of. Even while trying to explain how juniors have been around for three years, the high school musical show has had tremendous ups and downs. The "book" (the non-musical sequences) range from embarrassingly bad soap opera to hysterically funny farce to brilliant social commentary... but mostly the former. The musical numbers range from exceptionally well done covers to plot-driving songs to good dances to decent fill-ins. The singers are superb, and Glee numbers have sold 36 million digital singles and eleven million albums. A year ago, Glee surpassed Elvis with the most numbers on the Billboard Hot 100. With the success of one song and dance show, another has popped up. Smash premiered this month. Where Glee is about outcast teens trying to overcome issues, Smash is about Broadway producers trying to overcome issues. Tagline: "Stars Aren't Born, They're Made". Two producers, amid trying to adopt a child from China, also get talked into holding auditions for "Marilyn: The Musical", about Marilyn Monroe. Backed by a person in a messy divorce case (her husband has the rights to a revival of "My Fair Lady"), the show deals with all the various strong personalities involved. Meanwhile, casting Marilyn is the first big problem. On one hand, you have an experienced actress who looks and sounds a lot like Marilyn. She's the better actress (imrho), and knows Broadway. Her rival is a relative newcomer, who is (imrho) the better singer and projects the innocence worthy of Marilyn, but isn't as up on the sleeping-with-the-director ways of Broadway. The show features songs from the upcoming musical, with Broadway dancers; sometimes rehearsals and sometimes in full costume. Mostly, the songs are original and very very good. The prime distinctions between the shows are deliberate: One is on a high school budget where they need to hold fund raisers for bus money. The second is about Broadway, where $200,000 is barely enough to cover rehearsals. Both try and, for the most part, succeed in the look and the feel of their milieu. Where Glee is heads over heals better than Smash is in the camerawork. Smash's dance numbers feature fast cutting and medium shots: No sense of rhythm or space. Worse than Dancing with the Stars or any of that ilk. Glee establishes the dancer's space and the movements within the stage full of people: Excellently done, especially considering that they're in a high school gym most of the time. I've seen all the episodes of Glee, and tend to slide over the stupid ego trips and appreciate the brilliant production numbers. After two episodes, Smash is on the bubble (replacing Hawaii 5-0 on the DVR, which has de-bubbled for the nonce) but Carole and I will probably give it another episode or two before closing the house. | | Saturday, February 11th, 2012 | | 11:17 am |
| | Sunday, February 5th, 2012 | | 1:22 pm |
| | Saturday, January 28th, 2012 | | 9:30 am |
Mary and Max: A disturbing and brilliant movie
Carole and I have just finished watching an extraordinary movie, Mary and Max (IMDb) Mary and Max (Netflix). The story unfolds slowly, alternately disturbing and uplifting. I can't, in good conscience, give a blanket recommendation. A very powerful film that flew beneath my radar during its release in 2009, and we saw it on DVD. Mary and Max tells the story of two people who form a pen pal relationship. Mary, an 8-year-old girl with strange (in a bad way) parents who has no friends and lives in Australia. Max, a 44-year-old atheist Jew with Aspergers, who has severe neurosis and who lives in New York City. Slow and deliberate, the 92-minute movie sucks you in right away and never drags. Like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, the film centers around mental illness. But Mary and Max is nothing like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. An Aardman production, the film is in claymation, like Wallace and Grommit. But Mary and Max is nothing like Wallace and Grommit. Written and directed by Adam Elliot, Oscar winner for the animated short Harvie Krumpet (included on the DVD); Elliot does a good commentary track. He has a sick mind, but knows how to tell a downer story that somehow makes you feel better. Mary and Max is told sequentially in voiceover, cross-cutting between Australia and New York. The whole movie was shot in camera; that is, no digital images. They built all the sets and figures. You see what the camera saw. Very little actual animation or post-production digital clean up. Even the rain is claymation. The movie took 57 weeks to shoot, but only cost $8 million (Aus). A labor of love by professionals at the top of their craft. The music under the DVD menu is Swinging Safari, instantly recognizable by anyone of a certain bent as the theme song to The Match Game. You don't hear that particular piece again until the end credits. Thematically, the music selection is very good, part of an excellent sound design. The voice actors are perfect. On the first viewing, I couldn't decide whether it was one of the best movies ever made, or to give it an Avoid listing. After all the extras on the disk, including watching the movie again under the commentary, I'm going with the former. On the Shockwave Radio Theater scale of 9 to 23, with 23 being top, I'd give Mary and Max about a 21 or 22. Not for children; probably not for all adults either. | | Friday, January 20th, 2012 | | 7:56 pm |
Fringe Show (sort of) at the Walker Art Center
cavandal and I went to "A Think and A Drink" event at the Walker Art Center. Basically, if you're a member you can get invited to a small cash-bar party beforehand and a meet-the-cast party afterward. Both take place on the fourth floor, with lounge-type seating, in view of the stage on the first level. A member of the Japan American Society gave a very general overview of Japanese culture as it relates to the workplace. He didn't say anything I didn't know, but was a good reminder. Walker listing: chelfitsch: Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner, and the Farewell Speech. "chelfitsch" is pronounced like "shellfish" though sometimes with a harder "tch". My public FB gallery 20120119 chelfitschOn the Fringe Festival scale with five kitties the best, I'd have to give Hot Pepper about three kitties; maybe three and a half for being very "fringie". One of which is for performing in Japanese with English "subtitles" (really "supertitles" as they're projected above the actors). The program notes, an extensive pamphlet, say, "The theme of this triptych is the disposable work force." Yes, four of the six roles (in two of the skits) are temps. I really didn't see anything that resembled a "theme". The English translation was (they said afterward) only part of what was said in Japanese, but got the gist of the speech. Certainly, they talked really fast and put a lot in, whatever they said. Still, at no point (in the English) was anyone complaining about being a temp or longing for the old days of permanent employment. click on picture for larger picture
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20120119 chelfitsch cast and crew
The cast and production company of Hot Pepper at the Walker Art Center 1/19/12 |
( longer review under cut )
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20120119 Carole
Carole and one of the actors in Hot Pepper at the Walker Art Center afterparty 1/19/12 |
I'm glad we went. Partially, this was Carole's first time actually going out to an event since her operation more than a week earlier. We struggled with getting the wheelchair in the car; it can be done, but it's hard. It could never have fit in my Protege, and needed to lower the back seats to get it in the trunk of the Camry. After two months, my new car is already a bit beaten up. *sigh* The play itself was… not to my sensibilities. I didn't find it particularly funny or illuminating. Were I to have written a similar set of plays, the whole thing would be less than ten minutes and would say more about the subject. On the other hand, I wouldn't be internationally acclaimed and have performances in countries where they didn't speak the language it was written in. Oh well. | | Thursday, January 19th, 2012 | | 3:59 pm |
| | 1:12 pm |
A great episode of Glee!
It's been a long time since Glee! had a great episode (and the good ones only arrive intermittently), but Tuesday's episode Yes/No. was one of the best in the series. Generally, you watch Glee! for the musical numbers, not the plot. The show works best when the characters and subplots drive the musical numbers, and this is a perfect example. Will is thinking about asking Emma to marry him, and asks the glee club members to come up with songs that will serve as a proposal. All their suggestions are great. One of them features a rarity on Glee!: Singers in harmony. "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" was better than Roberta Flack's original. Romance is in the air, and the characters are set in motion. The show opens with the cast doing a pretty good version of "Summer Nights" from Grease, about a summer romance between two of the characters, one of whom wants to continue. The poignant moments are from Becky, the character with Down's Syndrome. She has an inner voice (Helen Mirren) who decides which guy she wants. That plays out with a verisimilitude that Glee! only occasionally achieves. I won't spoil the ending(s), but all of the subplots reach decision points, and all of them work wonderfully. I don't watch Glee! for internal consistency, and a show about High School kids now in it's third year is already stretching my belief suspenders. Still, a show worth watching, even if I have to wade through a bunch of mediocre soap opera to get to the good stuff. |
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