Via Alex Halavais, here’s a news report stressing the health benefits of playing the Australian didgeridoo.
Category: REVIEWS
Carnivàle
On a whim at the local Carrefour department store, I picked up a heavily discounted copy of the first season of the HBO series Carnivàle. I hadn’t heard of it, but it looked like something that would be up my alley, especially with the tagline, “1934. The Dustbowl. The Last Great Age of Magic.” Turns out that, at least after the first episode, I definitely do not regret picking it up. Carnivàle is the kind of show that, while it seems to be plodding along slowly, is actually bristling with information, full of all kinds of entrancing politlines and threads, …
In Honor of Watching Donnie Darko for the Nth Time: A Quiz
Here’s a neat quiz. I post my result on the evening on which I watched the brilliant movie Donnie Darko for the Nth time in my life. You are Karen. You are just trying to help kidsfind themeselves. “A linguist once saidthat out of all the combinations of words inthe English language, “Cellar Door”was the most beautiful.” Which Donnie Darko Character Are You? brought to you by Quizilla
Carla Bley and the Korean Prison Chef
As I live in Korea, this may amuse me more than those in North America. Or not. On what I think is the Carla Bley Band site, which is built on the theme of a musical prison — don’t ask what the heck that is all about — there’s a piece about how a deal was worked out, with Carla Bley scoring a musical residency in in Germany, and the WXW prison in America getting — you got it — a Korean prison chef. I told you it was weird. The rest of the site is bizarre, too. One more …
You know you’re a successful DJ when…
You know you’re a successful DJ when nightclubs you’re not booked for put you down as a headliner on their New Year’s Eve party advertisements. This has happened to one of my oldest friends this year. I just got the clarification mail and was deeply entertained. Happy New Year, everyone! 새해 복 많이 받으세요!
Baritone Insanity
I’ve decided I simply must get all of the Hamiet Bluiett Baritone Nation albums. This page has some audio samples that finally convinced me that I need CDs in which the majority of the band is playing baritone saxes. (More samples of another Baritone Nation CD here.) This is some heavy stuff. I like it. I shall have to order these or something, since I doubt any music shop will have ’em just sitting on the shelf.
Weird Things You Learn Reading Comic Books Graphic Novels
Wearing silk beneath a suit of armor can make the removal of arrowheads much less damaging and much easier, since the head of the arrow gets “wrapped” in the miniscule threads of the silk. No, really. Learned that little fact in David Mack’s Kabuki, Vol 1: Circle of Blood graphic novel, which is not what I expected but is interesting enough, I suppose.
Checkin’ Out Mr. Lee
One of the difficult things about living in Korea is that quality film just rarely makes it over here. For example, I don’t think a Spike Lee movie since Malcolm X has made it into cinemas in anyplace except maybe Seoul. A friend and I were talking last night about Lars von Trier, and she and I agreed that probably the next film he puts out won’t get released here because, well, someone made the mistake of putting Dogville in cinemas in Korea. Dogville — an experimental movie with no sets, just chalk lines on the wooden floorboards. Putting that …
Pinter demands war crimes trial for Blair
Sometimes artists still do act as prophets, calling people out on wrongs: The Nobel prize-winning playwright Harold Pinter has called for Tony Blair to be tried for war crimes, in his acceptance speech to the Nobel committee. Go, Pinter, go!
What is this thing called… SF?
Kat has written a wonderful post about the question of the difference between fantasy and SF, and why some people like one and not the other. I’ll throw in my own two cents: I think these kinds of fiction speak to different areas of the imagination. I started out as a reader and writer of fantasy, simply because I loved imagined worlds; the more complete an imagined world, the more I loved it. (I’m sure this was at least in part fueled by my fascination with the Forgotten Realms line of products from TSR. I regard it now as a …