Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Instead of watching the Oscars the other night, I watched the 1937 version of A Star Is Born. Fun backstage stuff about a young girl being remade in a Star. The alcoholism of her husband (Fredric March) sends his career into a tailspin though he was a bigger Star than she was at the beginning.
I was amused by this Suck.com piece about the Star is Born phenomenon. "The only one of the screen Esthers plucky or innocent enough to carry off the corniness of the conceit, [Janet] Gaynor renders the conquest of Hollywood as the continuation of a frontier narrative, with the grandmother character providing a thematic link to what could still be called without sarcasm 'the American spirit.' (Granny's life hearbreak came when 'some Indian devil put a bullet in' her sodbuster husband.) Connoisseurs of alcoholism appreciate the script's many boozer gag lines. (Written at a time when a whole nation of Barton Finks had taken a stab at movie writing, the script was variously claimed by, credited to, and disowned by Ben Hecht, Budd Schulberg, Ring Lardner Jr., Dorothy Parker, and others, while producer David O. Selznick stated that '95%' of the dialogue was taken from life; but the film's lines were pretty obviously written by people familiar with the end of a bottle.)
(tags: StarIsBorn, JanetGaynor, FredricMarch, SuckCom)
Posted by Anita @ 10:23 AM PST [Link] [Add a Comment]
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Karen A, the Mysterious Traveler, discusses how conventions, festivals, dance camps and the like affect her. "I believe what happens to me after the first day or two is that I run out of energy. All I know is that suddenly I'm not hungry (even though I should be), and I can't make decisions about anything. (Frequently that's why I can't eat.) I might experience pain, like the start of a migraine. I experience slight depression, even mild paranoia. At this point, I realize I need to get food, get to a quiet place (like my hotel), take a bath, and go to sleep. But I am so distraught about missing out on everything that's supposed to be happening in the next several hours (dancing, meetings, social events, tours) that it takes an hour or two of wandering around in an increasingly debilitated daze to accept that I must have a time out."
The Traveler is a very sensible woman so I'm not sure why it's taken her so long to figure this out. Even when my health has been at its best I've known that I can't keep up the pace all day and all night. But then, I know I'm an introvert!
(tags: MysteriousTraveler)
Posted by Anita @ 03:22 PM PST [Link] [2 comments]
Thursday, February 22, 2007
We had a good time talking away at the Weblog Meetup last night at Ralph's Grocery and Deli. My husband Jack was traveling to Detroit, but luckily my sister Betsy is visiting me this week so she was able to go with me. Those in attendance:
- Karen Anderson
- Clark Humphrey
- John DeRosa of Cogito Optimus and TrenchMice -- his report
- Paul Andrews
- New to the meetup, Roy W of Deft Courier, a Seattle bike messenger blog. He's also doing open source software for the use of such couriers.
- and me, and grandson R.
John describes our topics -- LPs, tech, and films shot in Seattle. Plus, (disclaim) the owner of Ralph's promo'd me a slice of pie!
(tags: WeblogMeetup, SeattleMeetup, Blogs, Weblogs, Meetup)
Posted by Anita @ 12:26 PM PST [Link] [Add a Comment]
Happy Birthday to Bill Humphries aka Whump of More Like This. Bill was the first one to ever talk to me about weblogs, I do believe, way back in 1999.
(tags: Whump, MoreLikeThis, BillHumphries)
Posted by Anita @ 06:15 AM PST [Link] [Add a Comment]
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
On our trip home from Vancouver BC we made a stop at Aberdeen Centre in Richmond. This was mainly so I could visit Daiso! My friend Roland Tanglao has posted an extensive set of photos from the Chinese New Year celebration that happened at Aberdeen Centre a few days ago. Gorgeous color, lots of dancers, check it out!
(tags: RolandTanglao, ChineseNewYear, AberdeenCentre)
Posted by Anita @ 04:26 AM PST [Link] [3 comments]
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Wednesday, February 21, it's the Seattle Weblog Meetup, New Year Edition! Start time is 7 pm, location is Ralph's Grocery and Deli, 2035 4th Ave (map and directions), in Seattle's Belltown neighborhood, diagonally across from the Cinerama. Free WiFi, and food and drink are available (you can buy anything in the store and consume it in the deli area, so that includes wine and beer if you want). Local and visiting webloggers talk about blog topics and lots else.
(tags: SeattleMeetup, Blogs, Weblogs, WeblogMeetup)
Posted by Anita @ 07:42 AM PST [Link] [Add a Comment]
I'm on the ballot again in Round Two of Blarch Badness, which is open until February 20. Please vote for me! Right now I'm trailing behind Seattle Daily Photo.
Update: Feb 20, Seattle Daily Photo has won and is now up against Chris Pirillo.
(tags: BlarchBadness, SeattleBlogs, SeattleMetblogs, AnitaRowland)
Posted by Anita @ 06:11 AM PST [Link] [Add a Comment]
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Between today and next Monday you should print out copies of Lincoln Sees His Shadow and Falls in Love, make some shadow puppets, and perform the only play that includes all February holidays! This was one of the most fun things we ever did as a Seattle Cacophony event. Yasha Cunningham did most of the writing.
Posted by Anita @ 04:47 AM PST [Link] [Add a Comment]
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
On our way back from Vancouver, I requested a stop at Aberdeen Centre in Richmond, mainly because they have a Daiso store there. Daiso is like a Japanese dollar-store type store, but with high quality control and a really wide product range. There is a Daiso store in Seattle at Westlake Center downtown and one at Alderwood Mall in Lynnwood north of Seatle, but I figured it might be a while until I get to either so this was my chance. I wandered around for an hour while Jack waited in the car (he did get some Aran single-malt scotch and a coffee while he drove around the area). He didn't want to leave the car unsupervised with all our stuff in it -- so many of our friends have had their cars broken into in Vancouver. I bought some stickers (overpriced at 2 bucks Canadian for one sheet but I wanted them for making Valentines), a small plastic bin with handle and rollers (I'll use this for spice storage -- the handle and rollers make it handy for pulling off a high shelf), and a remote control caddy. The last turns out not to fit well with our remote, but I'm sure it will find a home.
The Seattle and Vancouver Metroblog also enjoy Daiso. Yelp in Seattle and Lynnwood, too! But the Daly City CA Yelp folks prefer their local store called Ichiban Kan.
Knitting and craft related: Girl on the Rocks bought some cork tiles at Daiso and uses them to block knitted items. They can be assembled in different shapes -- long for a scarf, square for a sweater or knitted bag! Very clever! But to all you bloggers out there, "stationary" means it doesn't move, and "stationery" means writing paper and such. Please, I am begging you. I think I saw this mistake about a dozen times when scanning Daiso-related blog posts at Technorati.
(tags: Daiso, AberdeenCentre, WestlakeCenter, JapaneseDollarStore)
Posted by Anita @ 06:42 AM PST [Link] [Add a Comment]
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Jack and I had a blast in Vancouver BC the past few days! I picked out an extra-nice (but not foofy!) Bed and Breakfast in the West End, Barclay House. We were in the Beach room -- I chose that so Jack would be able to set up the seating area and sleep in the chairs if that was better for his back, and he did do that part of each night. There was a slight snag when Metta who was checking us in couldn't figure out how to start the electric fireplace, but the owner JJ showed her how there was a switch behind the glass door that needed to be on before the remote control could work. The fireplace did make the room extra cozy! We had a half bottle of champagne both evenings, and I drank my share without sneezing fits. Maybe my alcohol allergy is lessening? More photos of Barclay House.
Have you heard of Montreal Chicken? It's not a McCormick seasoning, but the featured menu item at Roosters Quarter on Denham Street where we ate dinner Friday night. Jack had a Montreal-style smoked meat sandwich (what kind of meat was it? beef, I think), and I had half a chicken with Montreal sauce on the side. I tried to find out what exactly is Montreal-style roast chicken, to no avail. It was tasty and tender, and the sauce was slightly spicey and tomato-y. The decor in the restaurant was wild, with a bunch of random chickens on the walls, made from wood, metal, papier-mache, you name it.
My plan for Saturday was for us to get day passes (Adventure passes! Ahoy! Twelve bucks!) on the False Creek Ferries, and it worked out well, especially because the day turned very sunny and mild. There are actually two companies that run small ferry boats back and forth to all the tourist attractions on False Creek; the other is Aquabus. I'd love to see a water battle between these two business rivals, with squirt guns and water balloons. False Creek contains Granville Island, Vanier Park, and other tourist areas.
I'd never been to Granville Island, where an old industrial area has been converted to arts, crafts, performance, and a public market. We walked around and looked at things, but Jack was the one who bought something, a small notebook and pen at Paper-ya. No link love for you, Paper-ya, opening a new browser window with no controls on it, even for the non-flash site! I did like all the cool papers and treasures, though. I couldn't find a yarn store on the island, which surprised me. We did see a silk weaving studio, though.
We took the ferry to Yaletown, without figuring out ahead of time what was the actual attraction in that neighborhood. After walking around a bit we found the Roundhouse, an actual roundhouse that is now a community center. It contained an actual steam locomotive, Engine 374 which pulled the first transcontinental train into Vancouver in 1887. Very cool!
Three ferry hops took us to Vanier Park, which is home to three museums. Of course we bought the three-pack which meant we did rush around a bit. You can touch a real moon rock at the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre! Jack was very impressed by the Ben Franklin submersible at the Maritime Museum. We both liked the paintings of Allen Sapp at the Vancouver Museum.
We walked up Robson, Jack trying to find a jacket (he'd forgotten his at home). We finally decided to eat at Ichiban-ya, which I remembered from Northern Voice 06 last year. I think we went there because it was Boris Mann's favorite? Funky, busy, lots of good food! I liked my spider roll sushi and curry rice.
Another good night's sleep and driving home completed the trip. But Jack thinks I should mention how lucky we were that we were able to get off I-5 just north of Everett, thus avoiding being trapped in the backup from a huge accident for several hours.
(tags: Vancouver, GranvilleIsland, BedAndBreakfast, BarclayHouse, Ichibanya, RoostersQuarters, VanierPark, FalseCreekFerries, Aquabus, )
Posted by Anita @ 09:42 PM PST [Link]
Friday, February 9, 2007
I was digging in the archives of Positive Fanatics (an IKEA fan blog named IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad's wish that employees should be positive fanatics about the store) and was pointed to a great icon of Saint Tokig of Älmhult created by Jen Segrest. This is the old Orthodox church type of icon, not one for your computer desktop. In the saint's hands are a great big allen wrench and a scroll of wordless furniture assembly instructions. His halo is gold and blue, natch. You might say a short prayer to him before diving into your local IKEA maze.
I already read IKEAhacker. I might have to check out IKEAFANS, also.
(tags: IKEA, JenSegrest, SaintTokig)
Posted by Anita @ 05:48 AM PST [Link]
Thursday, February 8, 2007
I'd have liked to attend the recent festival of short Science Fiction films, but it was on the first Saturday of the month and I usually like to go to Vanguard (a local SF fannish social gathering) on those evenings if I possibly can. But blogger Jeff Youngstrom did see the movies and has a good rundown on what he saw. "As with last year's lineup I found something to appreciate in every single film. And that made me a little bummed for the film makers who didn't win one of the five awards the festival gives. A number of excellent films didn't get any recognition at all. Except for being chosen for the festival which I guess is something. Still, it disappoints me to see so much great stuff get brushed aside when it comes time to give the awards. The festival also makes me really curious about the economics of short films. Does anyone make any money off a short film? If so, how? You don't seem to be able to buy them. Is there a market on some cable channel somewhere? As with last year, I'd love to be able to buy a DVD of all the films. Only a couple of the films are available online. Are they just portfolio pieces? If so, why aren't they all online? Color me confused."
(tags: JeffYoungstrom, ScienceFiction, ScienceFictionShortFilmFestival)
Posted by Anita @ 05:06 AM PST [Link]
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
We had a good time last night at the East Side Weblog Meetup! Lots of talking about Vista (or as we like to say, "Veesta!") and who should or shouldn't be thinking about upgrading right now. Also, more people than I thought really like watching CSI despite shows of that type being unrealistic. We dug deep into technical issues about digital photography, photo storage, and an upgrade path for Gallery. Those present:
- Joe Heck
- John DeRosa -- his report
- Jules Maas
- Daniel Marsh
- Tommy Williams
- My husband Jack William Bell
- and grandson R and me!
(tags: SeattleMeetup, Meetup, Weblogs, Blogs, EastSideMeetup, WeblogMeetup)
Posted by Anita @ 04:52 AM PST [Link]
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
Today is your one chance to vote for me in the Seattle Metroblogs Blarch Badness poll. It's just for fun. Why am I up against Seattlest? Probably Dylan did some random picking.
Posted by Anita @ 05:38 AM PST [Link]
I guess Jack found he had seen too many episodes of Law and Order and Law and Order Horrible Victims Unit, because somehow he began watching CSI reruns much more often. He likes the main investigator on the original Las Vegas show ("He's a geeky guy!"), but does swear loudly when there are too many instances of magic software. I have to look away when things get too gory.
Larry Osterman (long-time MS dev) saw the magic software thing happening in real life lately! Funny to read the comments from people actually making the same mistake again (and I don't think they were being sarcastic).
Recently someone internally proposed that windows automatically filter the output of the speakers from the audio samples being captured.I was chatting with Valorie at dinner last night (we had dinner at The Herbfarm for a combined 20th anniversary and 45th birthday celebration - major yum) and their proposal came up. All of a sudden I realized that I was seeing a perfect example of the CSI Effect.
The CSI effect is SO cool. The CSI techs get a 911 recording of a phone call, and they ask Archie the digital magic guy to "clean it up". Archie starts playing it back, and the cool waveform shows up on the screen. Catherine Willows says "Get rid of that road noise", Archie clicks his mouse a couple of times, and Voila! all of a sudden you have a perfectly clear representation of the voice of the kidnappers accomplice.
This shows up in other ways, but most often, it's a variant of asking the lab rat to "remove that guys voice", and magically he (or she) does it.
For CSI shows, it's easy. Why? Because the CSI special effects people created the tape in the first place by taking all the original elements as separate tracks (the kidnappers voice, their accomplice, the road noise) and merging them into a single tape. Then when it comes time for them to extract the specific sound that is necessary to advance the plot, what do you know, there it is!
Larry also pointed to a newish blog, The CSI Effect, written by Andrea Campbell who is a real crime writer and forensics specialist. She's got a book by the same name.
(tags: LarryOsterman, Csi, CsiEffect, AndreaCampbell)
Posted by Anita @ 04:40 AM PST [Link]
Monday, February 5, 2007
Jack and I have a weekend trip to Vancouver BC coming up. We've been there before (I was at Northern Voice 06, we were at Santacon in 2000) including day trips when Jack was living in Bellingham. I've got the B-n-B booked in the West End, and I'm interested in cruising around on the False Creek Ferries to Granville Island and other touristy locations nearby. I'd like to visit a yarn store. Otherwise we are open for ideas. Any suggestions on cool places to eat, shop, and see stuff?
(tags: Vancouver, GranvilleIsland)
Posted by Anita @ 03:53 AM PST [Link]
Saturday, February 3, 2007
King County has a Virtual Map Counter. That means a central web page for digital maps of the county, like for recreation or public safety or the ever-popular miscellaneous. I like having the recreation maps handy, for finding parks or trails. Now if we only had our printer hooked up....
(tags: KingCounty, Maps)
Posted by Anita @ 09:36 AM PST [Link]
Friday, February 2, 2007
Seattle Metroblogs (or is it Metroblogging Seattle?) has decided to do some voting on "best" Seattle weblogs after wondering why Seattle wasn't more strongly represented in the national weblog awards.. I'm not a big fan of this type of event (though I confess I've voted in the Bloggies in previous years), but the blogs they have seeded are certainly worthy of your consideration! The first round will be one-day voting this coming Monday, February 5. (I think I should be best Seattle blog emeritus!)
Monica "Net Native" Guzman gave Bloggies founder Nikolai Nolan a call. "Nolan said he doesn't keep track of which nominees have been from Seattle. 'Every year the bloggies get nominated from all over the place,' Nolan told the Net Native. 'I don't remember any year where Seattle dominated.' But he does remember that the very first-ever Weblog of the Year award went to a Seattleite, #!/usr/bin/girl."
Oops Update: I didn't notice when I first was writing this post that I actually am nominated in the West Seattle Regional bracket. Because I used to live in West Seattle, perhaps?
(tags: Bloggies, BlarchBadness, MonicaGuzman, SeattleMetblogs, Weblogs)
