Stratovania

I guess I might as well do a life update. On Friday, Beth and I saw It Chapter Two with Tavie, and you can read my review of that on my WordPress. On Saturday afternoon, we visited Governors Island, a place in the river between Manhattan and Brooklyn (although it's officially considered part of Manhattan) that is only open to visitors in the summer. There was actually a work event there last week, but I didn't go to that. You can reach it by a ferry from the Battery area, and when we took it, it was also taking a bunch of horse trailers. I think there are equestrian events there this coming weekend.It's sort of like a theme park, except without rides. Well, maybe even that isn't entirely true, as they have surreys and go-karts for rent. They looked fun, but we didn't use any of them. The two fortified installations, Fort Jay and Castle Williams, were closed at the time, although we did see the outsides.



We mostly walked around, and saw some of the art installations they had there, including this dog made of trash. A lot of people were taking their kids' pictures with it, and I had Beth take my picture as well, even though I am technically an adult.

We also went down a slide, even though it was recommended for ages eight to fourteen. Well, if you reverse the digits in that latter number, you get my age. They were also having an award ceremony for food trucks while we were there. After leaving the island and returning to the much larger one where we live, we ate at a place called Black Iron Burger, which was all right. Really classy sense of humor, too.


I sort of watched the Emmys on Sunday night, but I was in and out of the room a lot. I can't say it mattered much anyway, as I don't watch much TV these days. Well, I've been watching Lost in Oz on Amazon Prime, and that won some Emmys a few years ago, but they never show the award presentations for animated shows. I'm more likely to go to the Internet, and it doesn't have an awards show yet. Or maybe it does, but not a high-profile one. Maybe they should just televise those food truck awards. I did find a podcast about the Super Mario Bros. Super Show on the Hard Times. I've only listened to a few episodes so far, but the hosts have been pretty positive about it, although not without calling out the stupidity. They don't seem to remember the Super Mario Bros. 2 enemies that well, though. I'm listening and thinking, "Hey, those are Flurries, not ghosts!" I've considered doing an episode-by-episode review of the show myself, but the last time I brought it up, nobody seemed particularly interested. Speaking of the Super Show, I also came across this 1989 Nintendo of America art depicting Wart, where he looks kind of like King Koopa in the cartoons.

Since they were using characters from both of the first two SMB games, he might well have originally been intended as a combination of Bowser and Wart, although the SMB3 cartoon kept the same design and called him Bowser a few times. The frog was given Wart shrift. Well, it looks like he IS in the Link's Awakening remake.


Yesterday, Beth, Tavie, and I went to the last late night the Brooklyn Botanic Garden this year, and didn't really see all that much. We probably should have planned out the walk a little better. Oh, well. It was still fun.

Happy Martin Luther King Day! In honor of this esteemed civil rights leader, here's a post about...living kitchen utensils. Hey, they can't ALL be relevant to the specific time of year. Anyway, a forest clearing in the Quadling Country of Oz is the location of the Kingdom of Utensia, with the name quite likely being a play on "Utopia." It also appeared right before Utopia in The Dictionary of Imaginary Places, if I remember correctly. The ruler is King Kleaver, a cleaver (no surprises there, huh?) who spends most of his time sitting on a chopping block and smoking a pipe (quite a feat for a being that doesn't breathe, I would imagine, but I guess it's no more absurd than the cleaver being able to move and talk).


The kingdom is largely comprised of ovens, cabinets, cupboards, and tables, where the subjects live. The episode in The Emerald City of Oz in which Utensia appears is a humorous one, with the utensils speaking primarily in puns. A pepperbox named Mr. Paprica makes "piquant and highly seasoned" remarks, Mr. Popp the corkscrew is a crooked lawyer, Sir Jabber the can opener has a "prying disposition," and the colander is the high priest because he's the holiest inhabitant of the kingdom. Incidentally, I believe this is the only mention of a priest in Oz, at least in the Famous Forty, and there's no indication as to what religion he practices. The Utensian army is the Spoon Brigade, led by Captain Dipp, who patrol the area around the kingdom. They carry guns, and insist that they're powerful enough to kill much larger creatures.


So how did this odd country of live kitchenware come to exist? There's no explanation in the book, but an article I remember reading proposed that it might have initially been a dump for old kitchen equipment. I like this idea, although for the most part there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with the Utensians, so why would they have been thrown out? Maybe it was a factory site instead. Regardless, Utensia isn't too far from Bunbury, where the inhabitants claim to be made in ovens. My explanation is that these ovens were capable of bringing things to life, and one that had a magic leak was thrown out in a nearby clearing, where it animated all of the utensils in the area.


As I'm a sucker for puns, the Utensia episode is one of my favorites in the series. A few months ago, I read it out loud as a part of this podcast. Honestly, my reading isn't that good, mostly because I'm way too fast. Still, I'd appreciate it if you'd give it a listen, if you haven't already.

In this post, I offer reviews of two They Might Be Giants podcasts and two Captain N episodes. I have a feeling a large number of you aren't going to bother reading the post now, but hey, better to know that beforehand, right?

There isn't that much new in Podcast 36A. In fact, several of the songs were already played in other podcasts. There is one number I hadn't heard before, though, and that's "Kids Go" from PBS Kids. Podcast 36B is more interesting, as it plays songs from the Hello CD of the Month Club. This was something John Flansburgh ran back in 1993, four years before I got into TMBG. It's too bad I missed out on that, as it had a LOT of cool artists, and while some of the tracks have since been released elsewhere, not all of them have. Andy Partridge, Frank Black, the Minus 5, and Laura Cantrell all had material out on Hello discs. How can you possibly go wrong with a lineup like that?

And now, on to the Game Master!

( Gameboy )
( Queen of the Apes )

1. The newest They Might Be Giants podcast includes a demo of "Doctor Worm" from after the bridge had been added, and a bizarre unfinished dance remix of "Twisting" that retains very little of the original song. Also in the episode is something called "Prisoners Of Graphic Design," which the band wrote for The Chopping Block, and interesting in that it contains the second known John-penned reference to the "tote that barge, lift that bale" line of "Old Man River." The only other thing in there really worth mentioning is the theme from The Oblongs, which I always forget that TMBG even did. I never thought that show looked like anything worth watching, and apparently the Nielsen families actually agreed for once.

2. I guess the newest trend on American Idol is having guest singers who have bugger-all to do with the show. A little while ago they had Leona Lewis, who had somewhat of a connection because Simon Cowell "discovered" her. This week, though, they had Natasha Bedingfield, and I don't see how she's related to anything. Mind you, I found Leona to be incredibly dull, while I can't say I really have anything against Natasha. While I can't say that hit of hers about feeling the rain on your skin (which you might recognize from easy-listening radio or commercials for skin care products) is a great song, I've always thought it was pleasant enough. I never quite understood who it was who thought someone else COULD feel the rain on their skin for them, though. Man, people think they can outsource anything these days. :P

3. One problem with my writing (which I might have mentioned before, but I don't feel like going back through my journal to find out) is that I'm kind of spastic. When I'm writing one thing, I often feel like another would be a lot more fun. And if I try working on that other piece, I feel like something else would be more fun than THAT, as well. Maybe my main problem is that I find thinking about writing to be more enjoyable than actually doing it. That said, I think my second draft of Prince Pompadore in Oz is coming along pretty well.

4. While I'm as annoyed at the high gas prices as anyone else (well, okay, probably less so than SUV owners, and more so than the Amish), I sometimes wonder if it wouldn't be better for them just to raise them a whole lot, and leave them alone for a while. At least that way it wouldn't be a surprise every time you went to the gas station. They also say that gas prices are much higher in other developed countries, but they (a largely different "they" in this case) also say that a lot of these countries have a higher standard of living and more reliable public transportation.

5. I found this to be pretty funny, and a good illustration of how I feel about people in this day and age invoking Pascal's Wager.

6. Courtesy of slfcllednowhere, here's ( my Musickum index. )
Speaking of last.fm, my page is still showing me stuff from February as "top artists this week." Is there any way to update that?

Last night's Simpsons episode wasn't great, but it's wasn't terrible either. Marge wanting to be a ballerina and Lisa having a certain amount of natural talent for it did come out of nowhere, but I don't think it really contradicted anything in previous episodes. It's not like the writers suddenly decided that Marge went to college in the nineties while Homer fronted a grunge band, or anything like that. :P It's odd that Marge wouldn't have mentioned her dream back when Bart did ballet, but hey. I think the beginning was one of the more amusing parts, having done the midnight pick-up of the latest Harry Potter book a few times. I do think, however, that it's kind of odd when the Simpsons universe has its own equivalent of a pop culture phenomenon, even though the real-world one also gets mentioned. It's like when Homer, Bart, and Lisa went to watch "Cosmic Wars," despite some previous and future mentions of the real Star Wars. But then, it's not like Harry Potter and Star Wars didn't spawn plenty of imitations in our own world as well.

Also not great but not terrible is the latest They Might Be Giants podcast, which includes some demos and alternate versions of songs. It starts with a fast take on "Where Your Eyes Don't Go," and also features a demo of "Extra Savoir-Faire." The latter was cool to hear, but really didn't sound too much different from the album version. It's kind of interesting that John Flansburgh hosts this podcast as himself, without putting on a character or using a goofy digitized voice. At the end is "Lee Harvey Was A Friend Of Mine," the first Laura Cantrell song I ever heard (as far as I can remember, anyway), which has Flans on guitar and his wife on backing vocals.

Finally, I'd like to wish a happy birthday to rockinlibrarian, who turns 30 today.

I had a dream where last night where I was attending some event, and instead of it being down on a stage, it was up above the balcony, so we all had to sit in the balcony facing upwards. I think the event itself was some political thing, which is becoming somewhat of a recurring theme in my dreams nowadays.

Speaking of political events, I didn't watch all of Bush's final State of the Union address last night, but from what I saw, it looks like he's sticking with the classics. Those evil people hate us for our freedom! Come on, even Pat Buchanan essentially said that was bunk, and when your attitude is more prejudicial than Pat Buchanan's, you KNOW something's wrong. I also saw a clip of Bush's buddy in believing that terrorists hate freedom, Rudy Giuliani, talking about how we have to be on the offensive in the war on terror. I really hope that guy's strategy of concentrating entirely on Florida doesn't pay off. I wonder if it's a bad sign for him that Firefox's spell check still doesn't recognize his name.

I've been talking a lot about politics and religion as of late, haven't I? I'm now going to change the topic to They Might Be Giants. I'd say that's a less controversial subject, but considering some of the flame wars I've seen on various online forums dedicated to the band, I'm not so sure. Anyway, there's a new regular podcast out (not to be confused with the children's video podcasts that they've been doing for the past few weeks). It's mostly songs from The Else and previews of Here Comes the 1-2-3's, which is coming out in February. "Nonagon" might be my favorite of the songs I've heard from that release, although maybe that's just because of the title. (By the way, Firefox? Your spellcheck not recognizing "Giuliani" was kind of funny, but it makes no sense that you wouldn't recognize "nonagon." And why am I addressing a program as if it's a person? I don't know!) There's also a repeat of "Turtle Songs Of North America," which I can't say I understand. Wouldn't it make more sense just to direct people back to the older podcasts, rather than repeating material? The Johns seem to like latching on to new ideas--websites, streaming radio stations, street teams, podcasts, themed projects, etc.--and then not sticking with them for very long. I guess they're really kind of like me in that respect, actually. {g} Dial-A-Song is no longer around either, and while I rarely called it anyway, it was nice to know that it was there, always a constant in the world of TMBG. The impression I get is that it got too difficult for them to keep getting new phone machines only to have them malfunction shortly afterwards, but it's still quite disappointing. O John, why have you forsaken me? Is it because I'm one thousand years old? The podcasts do occasionally include some of the previews and weird stuff you could get on DAS (the most recent podcast's song about invisible people on stage looking for a trapdoor, for instance), but it's not really the same.

I think bethje will be happy with this quiz result:



And finally, happy birthday to onib!

Okay, it looks like I've gotten the state tax thing sorted out. I certainly hope so, anyway.

There are really only two things particularly worth mentioning about the latest They Might Be Giants podcast. The first is that it includes a soundcheck version of "I'm Impressed." I still haven't heard the studio version, but I like it better than I did when I heard it at a concert last month. Does anyone else think this song is a not-so-subtle reference to the current President? I'm sure plenty of other politicians throughout history have been compared to apes, but the fact that it's a common insult towards Bush makes it pretty much impossible NOT to think of him when a recently-written song refers to a leader as a chest-beating gorilla. If so, it seems more politically overt than usual for the Johns (not counting the occasional spoken-word bit during live performances of "Why Does The Sun Shine?"), but I think they might have already scared away all their pro-Bush fans by appearing on that Move On compilation. {g} The other thing worth noting is that the TMBG wiki reports that Cecil says my name, although I'm not totally convinced that's actually what he's saying.

You know something that it seems like I'd enjoy, but I'm really not good at? Casting hypothetical movies based on stuff I'm interested in. On one of the Oz mailing lists I'm on, the Question of the Week involves imaginary casting for Oz characters in books other than the first one, and I guess I just don't know enough actors to come up with any good answers. In a way, I kind of think it would be better for a new Oz film to use unknowns, although I guess they could do something similar to what they did with Harry Potter, and have veteran actors in supporting roles. Both series tend to have children as the main characters. Of course, it's all just wishful thinking anyway, as I doubt they'll make a new feature film based on Oz anytime soon (well, with the possible exception of Wicked). Return to Oz wasn't particularly well-received, even though I liked it a lot when I first saw it (and I still do, really).

I've been doing a lot more Sims-playing as of late. One of my Sim couples (Cid and Jara Jamb-Smith) had a baby and successfully raised her into childhood. Taking care of babies in the original Sims was kind of irritating, or at least it was until I found out that it's six game-hours in between when you finish calming a baby and it starts crying again. In The Sims 2, I really don't know how long it is, but it actually seemed a little less difficult. And raising a toddler in the game is pretty easy, because you can see their needs, and have a certain amount of control over their actions (I had to keep stopping this particular one from playing with the toilet). The parents potty trained her and taught her to walk and talk. I'm not sure what would have happened if she'd grown to childhood status WITHOUT learning those things.

Anyway, what with all of my recent Simming, working, and convention-attending, I just got around to listening to the They Might Be Giants Valentine's Day podcast, and I must say it's a good one. Both John Flansburgh's "Valentine" and John Linnell's "Microphone" are cool songs, probably among the best new ones I've heard in recent podcasts. (Actually, I'm pretty sure I've heard "Valentine" before, but it was a while ago.) "Mexican Drill" sounds kind of like a whispered version of "Tigerella." "Contraption" is incredibly short, but fun. It reminds me of the songs they did for McSweeney's. And the Eugene Chadbourne song isn't bad, although I still haven't been particularly thrilled by anything of his that I've heard. The fact that he's worked with both TMBG and Camper Van Beethoven is definitely a point in his favor, but that doesn't automatically make his music good.

I just slept for what must have been upwards of ten hours, although it's hard to measure for sure, since it kept getting interrupted. I guess I needed it, but I get a little annoyed at myself when I end up spending most of my free time in bed.

To expound upon something that I mentioned in my recent voice post, Friday the 13th Part 7 must carry some kind of record for the number of times the protagonist THINKS they defeated Jason, only to have him get right back up again. And the defeat that finally takes (at least until the beginning of Part 9) is the dumbest one of all.

The new They Might Be Giants podcast (which is number 21A, depsite the fact that the last one was, like, 11 or something) has some new stuff in it, which is always a treat. "Vestibule" is kind of cool, and I'm liking it more after repeated listens. I like that it mentions Arlen Specter in such an apparently random way. "Greasy Kid Stuff," written for a radio show, has a nice build-up to it. The music at the beginning kind of reminds me of "Tiny Doctors." Bob Dylan introducing "Bangs" is pretty weird.

I've done alphabet surveys several times in the past, but this one that lozenger8 posted had enough interesting questions I hadn't seen before that I thought it was worth doing. The answers are from before I went to bed this morning.

( Read more... )

And speaking of alphabet-related memes that I've already done, there's this from petie_s:

Comment, and I'll give you a letter; then you have to list 10 things you love that begin with that letter in your journal and give out some letters of your own.

My letter is T, so here we go:

( What begins with T? )

Since I just did this not too long ago, I'll understand if no one wants to take a letter this time around. But if you do, just let me know.

I never really took to the whole podcast scene, but there are two of them I listen to regularly, those being the They Might Be Giants one, and the one put out by frankblack.net. The latter has some cool stuff, including interviews with Frank and people associated with him. In the most recent one, the hosts talked with Rich Gilbert from the Catholics, and played an instrumental song of his, which was actually pretty cool. I downloaded the first Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven podcast, but there either never was a second one, or my computer just never managed to find it. And Neko Case's site has been saying her podcast is "coming soon" for months now. I'd definitely listen to both of those if they ever updated. Are there any other podcasts that I really should be listening to, but of which I am not aware? As you might have guessed, I tend to be drawn more to music-oriented podcasts.

I've seen some people say that they enjoyed making podcasts because they always wanted to have their own radio shows. I can definitely see the appeal here. I wouldn't mind doing my own podcast, if I had the technical savvy and thought anyone would want to listen. Plus, I'd probably want to play music, and wouldn't that involve licensing fees?

Anyway, since I've committed myself to commenting on every TMBG podcast, I'll say a few words about number 10A. It includes a new song, "Homunculus," but I'm not really sure what I think of it. I believe Robin Goldwasser's "I Hear A New World" was the theme song to John Flansburgh's short-lived radio show. The introductory music puts me in mind of the Magnetic Fields. Then there's the demo for "Cyclops Rock," which I've heard many times before. I've always thought Flansy's voice sounded kind of thin and nasal on it, as if he had a cold when he recorded it. The Mink Car version is probably better overall, although I don't like Cerys Matthews or the omission of Nixon. And as for "Larger Than Life," well, I'm not exactly a fan of reggae.