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That is what the highest criticism really is, the record of one's own soul. It is more fascinating than history, as it is concerned simply with oneself. It is more delightful than philosophy, as its subject is concrete and not abstract, real and not vague. It is the only civilised form of autobiography. |
Tuesday, June 9, 1998
One year ago: Back to "Normal"
I've subscribed myself to a few more journal-related mailing lists, but I've created new filters to make sure that list mail goes directly into a folder for each list. This makes it so clear that I'm not getting enough personal mail! So feel free to write me.
I added more demos to my team's internal website, and linked in the presentations that teammates gave at the recent TechEd conference in New Orleans. I've asked the presenters for text versions of their talks. Bullet points are great to look at while someone is talking, but they can be remarkably opaque when viewed on their own. An easy way to retrofit a Powerpoint presentation that needs this done is to switch to outline view, save as an RTF file, then open in Word and use the outline as the bones of your writing. I've converted several presentations to HTML in this fashion.
I was the one calling Wally today, instead of the other way around. I wanted to compliment him on his latest funny stuff, and console him for blowing a job interview.
I Married a Strange Person
Bill Plympton is a brilliant artist and funny animator, but this feature got pretty repetitive for me. The songs were good, though, and the "music video" portions amused me the most.
Wilde
Very good biopic! I've read the Richard Ellman biography that this was based on. The movie succeeded in explaining Wilde to a mainstream audience, I think. I was glad they didn't do a whole survey of the circle around him, omitting Beardsley, Whistler, etc, and concentrating on Oscar, his wife, a few friends, and the oh-so-unworthy Lord Alfred "Bosie" Douglas. It's one of those stories that make me want to go back in time and fix it! Poor Wilde died just a few years after his imprisonment. He could have written so much more! I have the same fantasy about Mozart and Jane Austen. Even for historical characters I want to be Little Miss Fix-it!
Stephen Fry was in the house at the Egyptian, giving a short speech before the movie and answering questions afterwards. He hardly needed the questions to prompt him to talk; the problem was getting him to stop! I was amused by this parallel: he told us before the movie how when D'Oyly Carte was putting on the Gilbert and Sullivan opera "Patience" in America, he sent Oscar Wilde on a lecture tour to explain the Aesthetic movement of which the opera is making fun. The speech he was making was really doing the same thing! He was explaining the Wilde phenomenon to people who weren't all that familiar with him (not including myself, of course).
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