And who stole his orchestra?

HOOOOOMEEEEEEERRRR!!!!

EDIT: Sunrise, Sunset.

Vacation time, ladies!

Need a rest, girls? Some time to get away from it all and reflect? Why not visit The always lovely Congo?

Go by yourself, though. I'm not tagging along.

EDIT:Maybe I will come along...

Haha, Neat!

Some student of Shakespeare and Tarantino has translated some memorable scenes from Pulp Fiction into delightful Shakespearean Style quotes.

I'm naming my kid Harris Paramentier or whatever that was. I know the first word was "Hachis" but what cruel parent would name their kid Hachis?

Summertime!

The Whole World features a great, infectious summertime beat. It is, however, a depressing sorta song about oppression and greed now that I actually pay attention to the words.

Anyway, I often think of it as a summery song. And seeing as how it's warming and sunny and generally loverly outside, I'm posting it.



Watching the video, it's no small wonder they made Idlewild. Perhaps they should've just made a lot more music videos like this, though, because Idlewild was kind of crap.

Hallelujah

Lore, of the long extinct Brunching Shuttlecocks acclaim, has resurrected the ratings system from said website in video form for Wired.com. "Oh frabjous day, callooh, callay!" he chortled in his joy.

The latest review Optical Illusions is well worth your time. I'm not embedding it because he apparently desperately needs the hits. So both of the hits he gets from this site will be completely worth it, I'm sure.

Enjoy.

If I have to go, let it be from this

Apparently there's a horrible disease called Frontotemporal Dementia. A mathematician and composer both died of it about 75 years apart. And the mathematician, who died more recently, became obsessed with a work the composer made while in the throes of said illness.

Link to BoingBoing write-up

Buttmachine

Buttmachine is a song by That 1 Guy. Some sort of musician/artist playing a self-made musical instrument. It's a wonderful little video. Well worth a watch. I guess, as a warning, there are butts. But they are all clothed. And some of them are his.



It's also worth checking out this video of him playing his instrument *snort* live to see whatall he does to make such noises.

And thanks to Ectoplasmosis for the linkstravaganza.

New post

New post over at Grungy Noir. Little poem. Think it maybe should be a song. It's old and I recently uncovered it.

There's parts of it I think work really well. There're parts of it that I don't think work as well. All in all I'm in favor of it. Please do comment, though. You can leave comments there or email me or leave them here. I'll get them eventually.

Rock and Roll. I'm going to bed.

Magnetic North

Last night I went to the Portland Stage Company and saw a (free!) play. The play is called Magnetic North by one William Donnely and follows four people as they discuss what it means to be in love.

Of course there is more than that. But I think when boiled down, that's the heart of it. And that heart is really solid. Before I get much further, I want to point out that I don't particularly like stage acting and I don't have much training in dissecting plays. I'm going to try it anyway.

The writing is sharp. The characters are all distinctive and the humor (you will laugh, methinks, unless you're an insufferable curmudgeon) comes out in genuine and endearing ways. Magnetic North (almost) never feels like a real conversation. But when you go to a play, you don't want to see that. This is witty and intelligent stuff. If you want to see real people talk, hang out with your friends and let them carry the conversation for a bit. If you want to see how you wish you talked, go see a play. This play.

The plot is simple. Simple is often good and sometimes great. I'm not sure this is great, but it's better than good. A married couple - James and Leigh - has hit a snag in their relationship and the husband happens upon a significant ex-girlfriend - Mara - from his youth. James has a work buddy, Emmet, who bears witness to James and Leigh's turmoil. They use him as a confessional. Emmet is the audience, but he gets to participate. He is also the strongest character in the show. He's unique and funny and honest. Quincy somethingorother, the actor who portrayed him, did a masterful job.

Mara is a vibrant and vivacious (can that word be used non-ironically?) 30 something ex-lover of James. She plays the part well. She's persuasive and seductive and attractive and a little bit hurt. Daniella... somethingorother (no relation) does a wonderful job. I never questioned her role but never celebrated it, either. That might be a defect of the character who's driving for a rupture in James' marriage and not a portrayal issue. The jury's still out on that one.

Leigh is the beautifully wounded wife of James. She's had a miscarriage and is still picking up the pieces. Jesse Whats'erface only sufficed in acting the part for a while for me. Then she delivered this monologue about her initial encounter with James. About falling in love with him. It was the sweetest thing I have seen on stage and one of my favorite monologues of all time. From that moment on, Leigh was all right with me and Jesse was more than redeemed. It's one of those moments where you realize how cool love can be.

James, played by Tom... um... Tom, was the weak link for me. He seems like a charming enough guy but he's nonresponsive. Or he responds to stimuli that's not there. I understand he's a drama teacher or something from NYU so he might've had a snobbish attitude about this role way up in Little Ol' Maine. But if that's the case, what's he doing up here? He was more or less sufficient for my tastes, though.

The stagecraft was pretty cool, too. A giant lazy susan was built on top of the stage and used to rotate the sets. There's a spartan living room, a barebones bar and an office copy room. They spin hither and yon, as rooms are wont to do. The ladies pretty much stay in their worlds. Domestic Leigh at home with the Jane Goodall documentaries and Mara (except for one quick jaunt to the street outside her apartment) remains at the bar with the wine and tunes. It's an engaging and clever way to break up the scenes and there is an interesting scene of interwoven dialogue that plays off the openness of the set.

The play resolves in the way you'd expect. There's no let down or surprises for students of structure. Well, there are pleasant surprises. You root for the right people and you still care about the wrong ones.

All in all, I'm for it. If you're feeling rich and looking for a quick thrill, the play's only an hour and a quarter and you'll laugh and you'll get lost in it. You might even find your heart is drawn to magnetic north even though it's easier to see geographic north.

Best Day Ever!

Happy Act Like a T-Rex Day, evybudy!



This is a great example of internet fueled instant culture. There's not even an official website for this day but thanks to the social networking site Facebook (in particular) and several others too, most likely, there are people across the country - maybe even the globe - celebrating Act Like a T-Rex Day.

Shorten your arms. Stalk and stomp. Roar. Shake your (meaty) food with your mouth before swallowing it.

Eat a lawyer.

Philosophize! Make innocent and erroneous assumptions about the nature of being, the nature of language and the creepiness of octopodes only to be corrected by your friends!

note: Krister does not condone the eating of lawyers or uncooked food. Unless it's sushi.