I am … unhindered by talent

Wednesday-Friday, plus Sunday, was the wonderfully funny student production Complete works of Wllm Shkspr (abridged). Last night was an excellent production of A turn of the screw by The Acting Company brought to us by CAC Performing Arts. Over the weekend a community theater group was doing a production that I would guess was quite good, although I didn’t have time to see it. Tomorrow (Monday) various student groups are sponsoring a showing of “Afropunk: The Rock and Roll Nigger Experience” (with the director coming for discussion, if memory serves), followed by a live performance down at the Old #1 including, among others, members of DoomTree. Thursday, CAC Convocations is bringing Nadine Strossen (head of the ACLU) to speak, and immediately after is this months open mic night.

And that’s just the few things that I’m aware of off the top of my head.

And people say there’s nothing to do in Morris…

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Via a Kuro5shin article, I just ran across an article on Wired.com entitled “The Long Tail” that says some really nice things about the impact of digital media on its sales and distribution.

The short version is that there’s at least some reason to hope that the vanishing distribution costs can break the stranglehold of Big Media with its emphasis on the big hits. At some level it’s all stuff I’ve heard (or even said) before, but it’s a nice analysis with more actual evidence and support than me just ranting.

If you haven’t thought about or read about these issues, you probably should, and these are nice places to start.

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WeatherGirl and I saw The aviator last night in its epic three hour glory. I didn’t really know what I was going to think of it, in part because I didn’t really know much about Howard Hughes’s love for and understanding of aviation, and was therefore somewhat confused by the title. (To me, he was an incredibly rich recluse, probably because what little sense I had of him was probably formed by news of his death when I was a kid.)

The film focusses on what is probably the most productive period of his life from when he inherits the family business and money in the 20’s through the Second World War and the beginning of his descent into increasingly debilitating psychological problems. In this period he made movies that won Oscars, cost millions, and got him in trouble with the censors (although not always at the same time), pushed the envelope in both commercial and experimental aviation, and courted both famous movie stars (Cate Blanchett as Kathrine Hepburn is quite amazing) and political trouble.

All of which made for an incredibly gripping story under Scorsese’s direction. It was a (quite literally) white knuckle ride in several places, despite the fact that we all know (at least in vague terms) how it’s going to turn out. DiCaprio was excellent (and I can’t say I’ve been a big fan of his), and the cast (and acting) is full of wonderful surprises. And, perhaps most importantly, I never once wanted to look at my watch and see how much longer we’d have to be there.

Check out WeatherGirl’s thoughts on the film.

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The three of us saw A series of unfortunate events last night. It’s not a good sign when the end credits are more interesting than the film itself.

Visually wonderful with some cool people in it, it had potential. Unfortunately the script was a disaster (SubEvilBoy could have done a better job) and the vast majority of those opportunities were wasted. Sunny’s probably the funniest thing in the movie, and she can’t actually talk. Billy Connolly had huge potential as Uncle Monty, as did the whole Reptile Room sequence, but it was given less attention then it would as a TV “Film of the week”.

Go visit the film website. It gives you a good sense of the visuals without costing nearly as much, and you can bring your own snacks.

Sigh.

Currently listening to “Who is this America dem speak of today?” from Antibalas’ excellent Who Is This America? album. OK, I obsess, but it is really good.

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Just got back from Motorcycle diaries, which was a nice if not great film. The two main characters are pretty thinly drawn, but the (often very) brief sketches of the lives of the various poor and unfortunate they encounter are actually quite effective.

One thing it does drive home is the difficulty of dealing with the fact of the unfortunate. Acknowledging the existence of oppressed peoples raises that annoying question of whether our good fortune is in some way the cause of their misery. And while we know that our decision to eat or not eat the food before us will have little effect on the food on the plate of starving children in Mongolia, there’s the nagging worry that the fullness of our plate (regardless of what we choose to eat) comes at the expense of theirs.

Now I needs get back to the GECCO paper - the deadline is hard upon us! At least I’ve essentially finished all my files for my seven year post-tenure review. It’ll be interesting to see what the review committee’s response is.

Currently listening to Antibalas’ Who Is This America again. This album really rocks!

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In a fit of flattered silliness I agreed (several months ago) to give a talk tonight at the PRCC on “Music in the Civil Rights Movement” in honor of MLK day. I then mostly ignored it for ages, and of course had to scramble all day today to get it together.

There was a nice crowd of about 15 people that were attentive and appreciative, so I think it went well. I played some very cool music, which was the easy part, although whittling the huge pool of cool music down hurt lots. In the end I probably had 5-10 minutes more music than I should have, even after deciding to only play excerpts from two pieces to make more room, but people still stayed to chat for a bit at the end so I don’t think it was out of control long.

I wish I’d had more time to practice my talk and transitions, and I wish I’d somehow made more time for audience discussion, since many of the pieces really needed a chance to talk about them. (Sadly, I am a professor at heart, and will lecture at people when given half a chance.) Still, I think it went well, and I certainly enjoyed the excuse to think about the topic in some detail and pull together a playlist.

And to think that Bernice Johnson Reagon will be on campus for two weeks later in the semester. If she’d been there tonight I quite clearly would have so intimidated that I would have simply wet myself and run.

I wonder if I should post my playlist to the iTunes store? I have no idea how many of the songs I played are available through their store, but it might be fun. I’ve got nothing else to do, right?

And classes start tomorrow. Syllabi? What syllabi?

Help.

Currently listening to See through by The Necks. This is yet another of their hour long epics (in a double CD with the equally epic Mesquito. See through is odd in that it (intentionally) includes long (multi-minute) silences at points that I at least don’t fully understand. An interesting idea, but I’m still struggling to decide if I buy the execution. The non-silent bits are classic Necks, though, and that’s certainly a good thing.

Oh, all three of us saw Finding Neverland night before last, and it’s definitely on the recommended list.

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We saw Ocean’s 12 last night and, well, it was a movie. Parts were pretty fun, but in the end the plot presentation was pretty unsatisfying and certainly not at the same level as Ocean’s 11. I had this sneaky feeling throughout that they had a ton of fun making it, and that the outtakes and commentaries may be better than the movie itself :).

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As reported on MichaelMorre.com, Moore’s excellent “Fahrenheit 9/11″ won the favorite movie award Sunday night.

Ain’t life amazing? I certainly find it remarkable that this film could do so well in the same country that elected W. two months ago. Says much about the complex nature of our ~300 million souls.

I’d love to know more about the way in which the ballots were collected and the possibilities of fraud here. I know that I voted for 9/11 on-line and it wasn’t clear that it would be all that difficult to electronically stuff the ballot box. Not that I have any reason to believe that anything like this happened, it just didn’t seem the most secure system to me.

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As
WeatherGirl mentioned, we had this massive Lord of the Rings festival yesterday, watching the director’s cuts of all three films in one massive day of craziness. Sub-Evil Boy invited J.A. over and Paula Argie joined us for the entire day as well. Ellery showed up near the end of the second film, and Dori came over for the third. There was ton’s of excellent food, and huge thanks to the WeatherGirl and everyone else who brought stuff for ensuring that we happily consumed far more calories than we burned :-).

I think I found it a bit much all at once. I was putting a lot of attention into working on UnhinderedByTalent.com, though, and while I’m sure that was good in terms of getting these things up and running, I’m not sure whether it made it easier or harder to deal with the overload of LotR.

All that said, though, they are really quite spectacular films and wonderful accomplishements. It seems clear, for example, that the rendition of the Smeagol/Gollum is a pretty landmark event, combining excellent wriring, Andy Serkis’s acting that was both incredibly physical while being sensitive to the complexities of the character, and the excellent CG randering of the on-screen individual.

Actually I might want to re-watch the third film sometime this week while all the back story is fresh in my mind, but I have the energy to actually focus on the last film. Can’t see having the time, but a guy can dream.

Currently listening to Allies - Music For Dance, Vol.2 by my hero Fred Frith.

I need to go have a shower.

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