October 02, 2003
I like to read.
Well, since I've been unemployed, I've had a lot of time to catch up on my reading. Of course, even while I was in school, I'd have a recreational book on my person at all times, so it wasn't like I ever STOPPED reading for fun. My consumption rate has just about tripled, that's all.
I just finished Tom Clancy's Teeth of the Tiger. (Note: I know you all can search for books on Amazon, so links will be to author's pages when possible. Not like THOSE are hard to find on Google either...) Now, I've been reading Clancy since about 10th grade or so. His first five books were all pretty good, but after that he'd started to lose steam. My dad (who turned me on to Clancy in the first place) and I both think that it's because he's a prominent enough author that he doesn't need an editor. Hate to break it to you, sir, but a good editor is Your Best Friend. Teeth of the Tiger wasn't as amazingly long as most of Clancy's books (just over 400 pages, as compared to nearly 1000 for most of the other novels), but rather than being edited better, the book pretty much stops halfway through the story arc. It's pretty disappointing, to tell you the truth, and had I paid $20 for it rather than checking it out of the library, I'd be pretty pissed off.
Next on my agenda is Neal Stephenson's new opus, Quicksilver, courtesy of my Best Friend of the Week Sarah. I think my friend AnthonyC turned me on to Stephenson to begin with, and I've read everything the man's ever written. Even those sneaky ones he tried to publish under pen names, like The Big U (now republished under his own name) and Interface (as Stephen Bury). Can't fool me! (BTW, Neal, I'm not a big fan of your new site. That's OK, you're probably not a fan of mine. Still love your books, homey.) He's written about undersea cable laying (which I never thought would be interesting, but it was) for Wired, and explains everything you need to know about computer operating systems. (Note that you can download and read the whole essay for free. It is worth your time.)
So yay new Neal Stephenson.
Terry Goodkind has a new book out. I was really enjoying his epic fantasy, until he got all objectivist on me. I've got a history with objectivists, and the philosophy pretty much annoys me. We'll talk about that some other time though.
Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series is also in desperate need of an editor. After writing four great (and great big) books, he's been marking time for SIX VOLUMES. No substantial character development. Just meandering around, nabbing small bad guys (or not!) and Not Telling the Story. Come on, Mr. Jordan, let's go ahead and wrap this one up and go on to something else. You let me know when you're done, and then I'll start reading again. Not until.
One reliable new author I've discovered is David Weber. Think Horatio Hornblower meets Star Wars. Good space opera/melodrama. Clever storytelling, fun pretend physics, neat characters, and much buckling of swashes and derring-do. What's not to like? (Another parenthetical: The Baen Free Library is a really good place to check out a bunch of writers in a similar vein. Many authors have each ponied up a couple novels each, and made them free to download. w00t!)
Got to mention Orson Scott Card. Ender's Game is the prototype geek book. I doubt there's a literate outcast male computer geek over the age of eighteen that hasn't read this book. It's absolutely awesome. The rest in the series? Well, ehh. But Card's "Prentice Alvin" series is brilliant alternate history. Enchantment is a wonderful fairy tale. Pastwatch is great speculative historical fiction. On and on...all good stuff.
Sheri S. Tepper was my first love (well, unrequited "I love this author's work!" love). The Gameworld series is brilliant. I finally found the first three books at Half Price. You may borrow them from me if you leave a sizeable pile of money in escrow, or your car. She's written dozens of books, each different and weird and feminist. Great stuff.
Rudy Rucker is the Man. He's a math professor at San Jose State, which is enough to make me want to go back to school and study math. Oh wait, no it's not. Anyhow, his cyberpunk goodness is peerless. Trippier than Sterling, funnier than Gibson, and short. Nice.
Speaking of cyberpunk, I love William Gibson. I named my car after one of his characters (Rei Toei, from Idoru). His most recent novel Pattern Recognition is outside the loose trilogy of trilogies he's been writing since, like 1985. It's quite accessible, unlike some of his other stuff, with equally beautiful wordsmithing. I owe much of my sense for clever turns of phrase to Mr. Gibson. j00 ROOL! (Mr. Gibson has started blogging recently, which I don't believe is a good showcase of his munificent cleverness.)
Can't talk about William Gibson without talking about Bruce Sterling, Gibson's contemporary, collaborator, and general Less Angsty Brain Twin. Actually, these authors share little other than a loose genre affiliation, but Sterling's work is easier to read, and equally brilliant. Heavy Weather is probably my favourite.
What else is on my stack right now? Robin Cook, who has written about four medical thrillers, and then chops up plot threads and makes 'em into whole new books with the same stories, is on my shelf. Don't know why...call me an optimist. Got a non-fiction Clancy book about Special Operations soldiers. That should be fun. A novel called Chinese Takeout that somebody recommended to me...don't know why. I'm going to strap on Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves again. Rusty has commended unto me a four inch stack of books that I can rely on to be good, hard sci-fi, because that's what Rusty really likes. I've got a book about antigravity research, a book about how to get a private pilot's license, a great big book about maritime knots (yes, I'm a geek), and some space opera by a guy named Iain Banks.
What just came off my stack? Well, I finished Harry Potter book 5 (and if you can't find a link for that, you're just beyond help). Enjoyed it thoroughly. Wonder of wonders, I even got Tommy to read all five books. The man has many virtues, but he's never been in the habit of reading. Well, he's roped me into dancing, and now I've finally gotten him to read some books. Everybody needs friends like that. Let's see...I read Soul Music by Terry Pratchett, another in the interminable series of Discworld novels, most of which are pretty amusing. Mr. Pratchett has done other things I like better (like Good Omens, with Neil Gaiman, who by the way is brilliant and you should run out immediately and read everything he's ever put on paper. Start with Neverwhere, read Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and then start on the Sandman graphic novels. Get back to me in a year when you're done.)
Maybe I'll keep this up with other books You Need to Read In Order To Be Cool Like Me. Oh yeah, go read a bunch of Chuck Palahniuk. He's teh roolz.
Posted by Lee at 03:29 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 08, 2003
English. Johnny English.
Rowan Atkinson can be hit or miss. The Mr. Bean movie was awful, but Black Adder was comic genius. Erin, Teel, and I went to see Johnny English tonight. (Yes, yes, mine is a difficult life when two charming young women rely on me to guard them from the blandishments of, well, whatever things there are that blandish.)
Erin and I met at the Flying Saucer (not the Gingerman, right?) for a beer before the movie. Beer then turned into ice cream (through an amazing transmogrification, and a walk around the shopping center), and then we met Teel for yet more beer and movie. See what I mean about a tough life?
So, we went into the almost TOTALLY empty Loews theatre in Arlington, which was PRECISELY IDENTICAL to the one a few blocks from my house where my friends all seemed to work at one time or another during high school. The three of us were feeling pretty rowdy, so it was a good thing that the theater was pretty emtpy. (Teel and I both have rather, uh, distinctive laughs. Cackles. Whatever.)
I did the yawn trick. Twice. I rule. Didn't even get smacked.
So we yukked it up through the movie, which was pretty much exactly what we expected (although John Malkovich as the bad guy was a nice touch. I want to see if I can get some of those fake British pound notes with his face on 'em.) Then, alas, I walked the ladies to their cars and we headed our separate ways. (If I don't do the walking-to-car thing, they take away my shiny armor and white horse. And Arlington's kinda scary sometimes.)
Good times, good times. I really need a job.
Posted by Lee at 01:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 04, 2003
Movie BAD. Movie GOOD. Movie REALLY GOOD.
Sunday night is MOVIE NITE. This week, we watched Doomed Generation, Spinal Tap, and Attack the Gas Station. Audra brought her possums coloring book. We ate gumbo and red beans AND rice. Brittany brought fruit pies. Heather brought a yummy fruit plate. People who arrived while I was still asleep brought an oreo-y cake and brownieses. Yum yum! We ate lots of sugar. Then we watched movies.
Doomed Generation was AWFUL. Avoid at all costs. It was supposed to be this allegorical tale about how, uh, evil, um, some stuff was...ugh. Dreadful. Spinal Tap was, as usual, awesome. The big hit, though, was Attack the Gas Station. This is a Korean flick about four thugs who rob a gas station, and then the next day, they rob it again. After robbing it again, they hang around and fill cars with gas, taking their money. Havoc ensues. Movie is full of culturiffic shenanigans. Must see.
PAGO!!!
Posted by Lee at 11:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 02, 2003
Strangeheart
So Tommy and Gene get it in their heads that we all need to go see this movie Strangeheart. As you might guess, it's a spoof of Braveheart. It's a spoof of Braveheart shot on bad digital video cameras digitized on a pocket calculator starring a bunch of drunken louts located around the DFW Metroplex.
The movie was beyond awful. The experience, however, was quite another thing.
We were informed that there's one way to enjoy this movie: under the influence of, uh, beverages. So we met at Gene's apartment (a short stagger from the movie theater) and started, uh, refreshing ourselves. Then we walked over to the theater and continued with the libations, and collected reinforcements. I guess we numbered about a dozen people now. Then we sat down and joined the crowd in mocking the film. I'm pretty sure that there were some cast and crew in the audience, and they mocked right along with us. Although we were outnumbered, our group was far and away the funniest in the crowd.
I'm still trying to figure out what the English were doing riding beanie babies. I did learn an interesting little historical tidbit, though: Apparently, Adidas are the official shoe of the British Army. Did you know that?
Dreadful movie. Do not rent it. However, if you can find a bunch of weirdos who want to get dronk and watch it with you, you could have some fun. Be warned.
Then, with brazen disregard for the fact that I have to be at work in about three hours, I went to Cafe Brazil with Tommy Audra Allison Joe and myself. We had a grand old time entertaining the diners as we waited for our table, and our server Daisy was very nice to us, although she'd had a rotten evening. Seeing as how she had to deal with noisy louts like us pretty much all the time, it's not hard to imagine how those evenings get so rotten. But, we were nice to her too, so there was much love. Audra and Joe did terrible things to their potatoes. Don't know what's up with that.
This is Joe's favorite picture of cats. Enjoy.
See that guy behind me? I just farted!
Posted by Lee at 04:33 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 11, 2002
Another Golden Harvest Opus
Sunday, August 11, 2002
Ah, martial arts cinema. People flying around on wire harnesses waving swords and attacking each other with articles of clothing and really distressing hairpieces.
Found another good one tonight. The Asian Film Festival of Dallas puts on a weekly movie nite with some very recent martial arts classics. Tonight, Tommy, Rusty, Sarah, Dave, and the afore-mentioned Snoopy Kiss Girl (who forgave Tommy after he promised not to lick her face anymore) along with my sister Liz all went to see Storm Riders at the Magnolia Theater. The Magnolia has installed a Digital Light Processor-based projector in one of their theaters, making it possible to play a DVD movie with very nice picture quality on a full-size screen.
So we got to see Storm Riders (aka "Feng yun xiong ba tian xia" if you speak Cantonese). I was THRILLED to see that it was a Golden Harvest Production. Golden Harvest did just about ALL of my fave wire-fu pictures. Most of Jackie Chan's older stuff, Bride with White Hair, Warriors from Magic Mountain...Golden Harvest did 'em all. I'm guessing that Raymond Chow (the producer on, like, all these flicks) has some sort of, ah, arrangement, with the, ah, more colorful elements of Hong Kong...
Well. No sense offending The Triads.
Moving right along. The movie starred Sonny Chiba, the Grand Old Man of HK action flicks. He played Lord Conquer, the nefarious martial arts master who kills the fathers of the two boys he wants as disciples, raises the boys to be powerful martial arts masters so he can fulfill his destiny and defeat Sword Saint, Lord Conquer's arch-nemesis.
Havoc ensues. The plot defies anything like rational description. Fiery hell-beasts, fiery monkeys, flying through the air, swords, troublesome women, severed limbs, fiery monkeys, dozens of improbably named swords, Shaolin monks, 200 foot tall Buddhas, a guy named Mud Buddha, a light-in-his-loafers chief adviser, and a fiery monkey.
Did I mention that there was a monkey? On fire? How could you not like this film, I ask you?
So. Of course, the two boys discover Conquer's treachery, and harness their own inner strength to defeat him in combat. I mean, duh! You figured that out ten minutes into the movie. But getting there was considerably more than half the fun.
The movie was GREAT! *Lee points one thumb up and one thumb down. If you don't get the joke, you'll have to ask me next time you see me.*
Posted by Lee at 01:39 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 18, 2002
Eight Legged Freaks is EXACTLY What It Sounds Like.
Thursday, July 18, 2002
So the previews roll. There was an ad for a new Stephen King movie, Dreamcatcher. Among my friends, it is not considered poor form to talk (even loudly) during previews. Your mileage may vary. At any rate, I observed to my pals that Mr. King hasn't written a good book in about 20 years. (A couple conspicuous exceptions are The Eyes of the Dragon and Misery. Green Mile was pretty good too.) This movie looked absolutely horrible. No idea what the foozle (bad guy/force/entity) was. Just a bunch of people looking scared. At one point, this guy was emoting open-mouthed horror to the camera for what seemed like fifteen minutes. I mean, I was counting the dude's molars and checking for tonsillitis. It was dumb, and did not want me to watch the movie. So I stage-whisper, pretending to be our on-screen friend: "How did I get in this horrible movie?" Well, the people in front of us heard me too, and laughed heartily. Life is good when you're me.
So we're watching the movie. And it's just what we want. Spider farmer feeds biohazard-infected crickets to pet spiders. Spiders escape. Havoc ensues. Spiders grow to improbable size. More havoc ensues. Humans make series of catastrophically stupid decisions to combat new arachnid threat. Havoc ensues. You get the picture. In other words, you're TOTALLY rooting for the spiders. At one point, this fellow with long hair and a long beard shows up on screen. Simultaneously, no less than five people from our two naughty rows of film-goers scream "JESUS CHRIST!" and giggle uncontrollably. More havoc. Repeat ad nauseam.
So, anyhow, if you have seen a commercial for the movie, you already know if you want to see it or not. Just be glad you didn't have to watch it with us.
Posted by Lee at 01:32 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 20, 2002
Bruce Campbell is The Man
Thursday, June 20, 2002
I just spent all night reading If Chins Could Kill; Confessions of a B-Movie Actor. It's Bruce Campbell's autobiography.
I won't restate his filmography here, but his acting prowess is manifold. (That means he's been in more movies than me)
So, after reading his book (in one sitting, starting at about midnight), I kicked off a little note.
Subject: You just kept me up all night.
But not in any weird or creepy way. I picked up your autobiography at the library (gimme a break, I'm a starving college student) yesterday, and read it in one sitting tonight. (Well, mostly this morning. Really really early morning.)
I just wanted to write and tell you how much I appreciate your insight into your craft. Our chosen fields of endeavor are pretty different (I'm working to be one of those rocket scientists you mentioned briefly), but I really like hearing about people who truly love their work being able to DO that work, and do it mostly on their own terms. For that, if for no other reason, you kick holy ass. I really enjoy your work, but I don't think I could enjoy it as much as you seem to. Good job, Ace.
Oh yeah, and that Duke Nukem punk is a pretender to the throne. Line-stealing wuss...
Best regards, Lee Gibson
PS - If and when I do get to move to Mars, I'll name a crater after you. Then you won't be so bitter about me not buying your book.
PPS - If you'd be so kind, tell Mr. Raimi that I really appreciate the way he didn't screw up Spider-Man. I know he'll have been waiting on pins and needles for my assessment. Great job! If he does well on the next one, he'll get a crater too.
Then, half an hour later, I get a reply.
In a message dated 6/20/2002 4:45:37 AM Pacific Daylight Time, lee@ringofsaturn.com writes:
|Oh yeah, and that Duke Nukem punk is a pretender to the
|throne. Line-stealing wuss...
Lee,
You hold him, I'll hit him...=)
Hey, thanks for the feedback.
Best,
Bruce
So, I have to take my hat off to the man. Not only did he rouse himself to answer my note, but he did it at an ungodly hour in the morning. The world would be a better place with more of that kind of graciousness.
Thanks, Mr. Campbell. You're good people.
Posted by Lee at 01:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 07, 2002
South Park is Funny.
Friday, June 7, 2002
I like South Park. So sue me. It's tasteless, and offensive, and obnoxious, and sophomoric...
What's not to like?
OK, so the movie was full of the worst language ever. And it talked about racism, and the media, and how grown-ups look at kids.
But, they shot Bill Gates. How can that not be funny?
OK. Maybe I'm not making my case very well. That's fine...you don't have to agree with me. I think I'm going to go watch a few episodes...I'm feeling way to intelligent right now. Need to dial that back a notch.
Wanna make your own South Park av? You know you do.
Posted by Lee at 01:23 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 06, 2002
Polyphonic Spree in Concert!
Thursday, June 6, 2002
So I'm finally getting around to writing about what I did last Friday. Sarah, Rusty, Matt, Tommy, and I went to see the Polyphonic Spree at the Gypsy Tea Room. We'd been looking forward to this for a while. I think it was Sarah who first mentioned them to me, after seeing them at Fry Street Fair in Denton. I checked out their web site, and an archived concert. In the process, I found this awesome record store (which happens to be right across the street from Matt's loft). I'm not a big fan of much of anything you might hear on the radio. I really like Japanese punk and electronic music, like Cornelius, Shonen Knife (who, by the way, did a song for the PowerPuff Girls, who rule), Fantastic Plastic Machine, and the Pizzicato Five. I was thrilled out of my pointy little skull to find some great stuff on the shelves, and reasonably priced to boot! So, even without going to the show yet, I'm happy. I bought The Beginning Stages of the Polyphonic Spree, the first album from the similarly-named band. After listening to it, I was in an outrageously good mood. The music was really really really really happy. I mean, REALLY happy. So I was looking forward to seeing how this would go down on stage.
So, last Friday, I got to check them out. Tommy, Rusty, Sarah, and I first went to see Undercover Brother, which was a scream. They finally told all the funny racial jokes we've all been hoping to see in public. I can't recommend the movie enough. Put on some funk, tease out your 'fro, and go check it out. Then we grabbed some dinner and headed to chez Matt.
We strolled over to the Gypsy Tea Room and heard two opening acts that I didn't really get much out of. The third, Mandarin, was not at all bad. The fourth act was Miguel Antonio and Kalinka. It was a trio, with Mr. Antonio on guitar, one fellow with an accordion, and Kalinka had this weird triangular Russian ukulele looking thing. These guys brought the house down. I've never seen people play Flight of the Bumblebee on the accordion, or on a weird triangular Russian ukulele looking thing, but it was pretty amazing.
(OK, it's Ukranian, and it's called a balalaika. I only found that out upon further research. It's amazing how Google can cull the wheat from the dross...)
Finally, at about midnight, it was time.
The Spree is fronted by Tim DeLaughter of Tripping Daisy reknown. He's assembled a motley crew of musicians, told them to bring whatever instruments they had lying around, stuck 'em in choir robes, and just...PLAY. I say "play" in the sense of "Have an outrageous amount of fun". These folks piled onto the stage, and just entertained the hell out of the crowd for two hours. The music has this stupendously upbeat outlook...the closest I can describe it is as secular hymns. It's extremely uplifting, yet humanistic at the same time. Very very neat vibe. If you're a jaded cynic, you probably won't like 'em, but as something to amplify a happy mood, I think they just can't be beat.
I'm looking forward to seeing them on the 16th of June before they head to London on their first overseas tour.
Posted by Lee at 01:23 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 11, 2002
Fun with Absurdity
Friday, January 11, 2002
What a great evening.
Tonight, my friend Ann took a bunch of people and myself to a play that her friend, Matthew, was performing. So we (where we=Kirsten, Ann, Tommy, and myself) all go over to Tommy's house, pile into the car (after Ann cries about us not being dressed as nicely as she is...sorry, sweet, but NOBODY dresses as nicely as you do!) and head over to Matt's house. Not to be confused with Matthew, Ann's friend, Matt is a friend of mine through Rusty's. Now you know more than you could possibly want to about my friends.
Don't worry, this is all just exposition...the content comes later.
Find out that ol' Rusty is not feeling well, so Loun Loun stood in for him. She did a fine job. So we all head over to the Undermain Theater, where Our Endeavors was performing. Such a deal...we got two plays for the price of one. (Well, none, actually...Ann's name was on The List of Infinite Power. How cool is that?) We saw Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.'s "Fortitude", and Gertrude Stein's "What Happened".
Leaping headlong into why I'm writing this article, after the shows the six of us were chatting in the lobby, and some of the performers strolled out. I think that perhaps Matt and I were the only ones that even sorta grokked the second play, since it was pretty different from your run of the mill theatre. So, I was talking with Erin, one of the actresses, and I told her a joke that I thought was appropriate, considering the surrealist nature of the play we'd just seen. It's my favourite joke ever, so that tells you what kind of sense of humor I have. Here goes:
Why is there only one Eiffel Tower?
Give up?
Because they eat their young.
*waits for puzzled blank looks from audience, then cackles uproariously*
I love that joke, for one reason only: I love the looks I get after I lay down that punch line.
So anyhow, I told this joke to Erin. Instead of getting a TOTALLY blank look, I got a thoughtful one. She thought that the joke was pretty good, considering the surrealist play we'd just seen. That was why I enjoyed the play so much...it was a 45 minute Eiffel Tower joke. So Erin told me to be sure to put that in my review. I sorta laughed it off...until on the way home, I decided I'd do just that.
This is the content, people. Stick with me now.
Don't get me wrong...the play was ODD. That's not surprising, because Gertrude Stein was an odd woman who hung out with odd people. So am I, so it works out well. Well, I'm not a woman, but you get the point.
Right, so the play was ODD, and I liked it. Half way through, I felt like I had a weird epiphany...all of a sudden, instead of seeing a bunch of actors cavorting on stage spouting weird poetry, I got the joke...I felt like I was on the inside. Maybe I only appreciated it on a superficial, fish-joke level, but I did understand what we were doing now. We were, like many surrealists have done, trying to break the link between an image and its representation...between objects and symbols. It was only a little epiphany, and I only barely grabbed it with my fingernails, but through the rest of the show I was chuckling to myself, enjoying my cleverness at actually appreciating this very avant-garde (at least for my experience) performance.
The performers put a lot into the show. They did a great job conveying the confusion and the strain of drawing meaning from existence. The set was fairly minimal, but quite effective. The music was well done...haunting and confused, which is just what was needed for this material. I'm the furthest thing in the world from a drama connoisseur (or reviewer!) but I found the entire production quite enjoyable. Read some existential poetry, turn off your rationalization faculties, and go enjoy this very different performance.
First things second...the Vonnegut piece (which is the one that initially caught my interest) was very nicely done. The Undermain Theatre is, as you might guess from the name, under Main street in Deep Ellum. The space is broken up by huge load-bearing columns, which I thought at first were going to pose a real problem for the staging. However, the production very cleverly used the space as a theatre in the three-quarters round. Most interesting to me was the use of lighting to break up one stage, with fixed props, into three very distinct sets. Very clever and engaging. The performances were superb. The cast did a splendid job of illustrating the spaces they occupied with a fairly minimal set dressing. The performances were uniformly very strong, with special mention going to Dr. Frankenstein, played to the hilt by Mr. John Flores.
Right, so that's about it. I'm looking forward to seeing more from Our Endeavors, as they gave me access to a form of drama that I never would have thought I'd like. For me, Vonnegut is a pretty sure hit, but Gertrude Stein was something of a stretch. I'm just glad that I was paying enough attention to catch the joke.
Reminds me of another great surrealist joke. Hey, I've strung you along this far, right?
How many surrealists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
HAH! I love that joke too.
Posted by Lee at 01:20 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 14, 2001
I'm SINGIN'!
Wednesday, November 14, 2001
I'm the guy in the middle. Look at that embochure, ladies and gents! Stand back, I am a trained professional.
We sang Magnificat by Johann Sebastian Bach. Wonderful piece of music. Baroque is good stuff.
My friend Emily came in to visit, and listened to the concert. She's an aspiring professional singer, and she has a stupendous voice. She performed the soprano solo for the third movement, Quia Respexit, for one or another of her recital labs at school. I got to hear her at her church a few weeks ago, and she was pretty impressive. You go, Emily!
I also found out that we've got a good recording from the Brahms Requiem at the Meyerson. Yay! Make much happy.
Posted by Lee at 01:16 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 28, 2001
Brahms Requiem at the Meyerson
Sunday, October 28, 2001
That was pretty cool. I just got home from performing "A German Requiem" by Johannes Brahms at the Meyerson Symphony Center. The architecture of this place is just stunning.
The local United Methodist Churches pooled their choirs and orchestras to put on this performance, and it was an absolutely amazing experience.
The music, tonight, was profoundly moving...mostly because I was making it. I love this piece of music. I must confess, until I get a chance to study a piece of classical music closely I don't really get a lot out of it. Performing it, of course, entails MUCH study, and it paid off in spades tonight.
Wow. I'm still buzzin'. Soon, I hope, I'll get pictures and recordings of the performance. More info will follow here.
Must run. Socializing commences presently..
Posted by Lee at 01:13 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 03, 2001
Lobster Magnet!
Wednesday, October 3, 2001
You'll love Lobster Magnet.
Today, I went to a meeting for my AIAA chapter's Design Build Fly competition. We're going to design an electrically powered remote controlled airplane capable of carrying 24 softballs. We're permitted 5lbs of NiCad battery packs, 55lb gross takeoff weight, and we have a specific set of motors we can use. Note: This is a big model airplane, and it's going to be incredibly underpowered. It's going to be quite a challenge to design a plane clean enough to get off the ground with its rather substantial payload, and also complete the six laps of the field (two loaded, and four unloaded) in the allotted 10 minutes. But that's why they pay us the big bucks, right?
Hey, who gets big bucks? I didn't see anything about big bucks! I want the big bucks option, please!
We spent today hunting the Internet for suppliers of engines, propellors (I want to use a ducted fan) and other accoutrements. I found this amazing site where a guy is building an RC model of the Boeing X-32a Joint Strike Fighter. The model will be capable of vertical takeoffs and landings, as well as conventional wing-borne flight. This is an amazing achievement for even a large scale model. I can't wait to see how it works for him!
Word for the day? Kazakhstan. I found some web sites today for my speech class touting business services in Kazakhstan. Now I'll know what to do if I'm ever in Kazakhstan and I need somebody to write me a business plan. God bless the Internet!
Music for the day? Lean On Me by Rockapella. These guys are awesome.
Fun toy for the day? Launch a penguin into orbit. You'll be glad you did.
Posted by Lee at 12:51 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack