Snippets:
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Music: Jens Lekman. Swedish singer/songwriter. Some hilarious lyrics.
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Music: Mrs. Pilgrimm (nee Sophie Williams). Cello, vocals. Signed at Hinterhoff Records. Experimental singer/songwriter. Current CD: Alone Queen.
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Music: 75 Minutes. Weekly podcast from NYC on independent music.
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Music: Rob Wilkerson. Talented jazz saxophonist.
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Music: Phroyter (Shiny Thing). Scottish indie band, now out of Vancouver, Canada. Favorite song: 'There's Always Someone Else'.
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Music: Samantha Murphy. American singer/songwriter. Born in Hawaii to Australian parents. Also has her own Podcast called SMtv. Album: 'Somewhere between Starving and Stardom'.
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Theater: Monthy Python's Spamalot. Sam S. Shubert Theater, NYC. Losely base on the movie 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail '. Book and lyrics by Eric Idle. Music by John Du Prez and Eric Idle. w/ Simon Russell Beale as King Arthur. Lauren Kennedy as Lady of the Lake. Winner Tony Award 2005 (Best Musical). Memorable quote: 'Fetchez la vache'. Unusual combination of Broadway acting and silly comedy. Does not take itself seriously. Entertaining.
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Technology: iTTUSB. USB Turntable from Ion. Helps to convert vinyl records to CD. Includes Audacity as recording software. No drivers needed.
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DVD: Monthy Python's Flying Circus. Episodes 1, 2, & 3 from Season 1. 1969-70. Classic comedy. Includes Bicycle Repair Man.
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DVD: Alaska. Spirit of the Wild (1997). 40 min. Director and co-producer: George Casey. Narrated by Charlton Heston. As presented in IMAX Theaters. Intriguing wild life pictures.
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DVD: The Bourne Supremacy (2004). 108 min. w/ Matt Damon. Directed by Paul Greengrass. Novel by Robert Ludlum. Jason Bourne seeks revenge when his girlfriend gets killed. Movie offers nothing new compared to its predecessor. Pointless. Boring. Waste of time. Overall rating: 3 out of 10.
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Music: Karmyn Tyler. Vocalist from Texas. Also does commercials, theater, film and TV. Great voice, but do not always agree with her selection of tunes. Also has made a jazz album.
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Video: Citizen Kane (1941). 119 min. w/ Orson Welles. Directed by Orson Welles. Rise and fall of a newspaper giant. Inspired by the life of William Randolph Hearst (1863-1951). Probably an important movie for its time. Dramatic portrait of a powerful man, but too obvious and predictable at times. Overall rating: 5 out of 10.
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Video: The Madness of King George (1994). 107 min. Nigel Hawthorne (George III), Helen Mirren (Queen Charlotte). Story of the mental illnes of King George III, presumbably caused by porphyria. Good acting. Funny at times. Dwells on one theme for too long. Overall rating 5 out of 10.
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Computer: Sysinternals. Provides advanced utilities, technical information, and source code related to various versions of MS Windows.
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Literature: Yasunari Kawabata (1899-1972). Japanese writer. Nobel Prize in Literature 1968. Often balance of beautiful and sad impressions. Kawabata committed suicide in 1972, but left no note of explanation.
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Snippets:
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DVD: Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance (1983). 87 min. Directed by Godfrey Reggio. Music by Philip Glass. A piece of art, telling a story of nature, man, and technology. No actors, no words, just a stream of images and music. Most scenes might just as well be still photographs. Large portion of the film is made in time lapse mode, showing motions in accelerated fashion, thereby creating interesting effects. Title from Hopi Indian language: ko-yaa-nis-qa-tsi: n. 1. crazy life. 2. life in turmoil. 3. life out of balance. 4. life disintegrating. 5. a state of life that calls for another way of living. Life out of balance. Some spectacular scenes, but too long at times. The music is rather annoying, repetitive and monotonous. Overall rating: 5 out of 10.
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Literature: Librivox. Free audio books of classics recorded by amateur readers. Good selection.
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Art/Science: Bodies: The Exhibition. Southstreet Seaport at the Exhibition Center, NYC. $24.50. Showcase of human bodies, body parts and organs, preserved and prepared through a procedure called plastination. Principle: Remove water and fats from the tissue and replace them with polymers, through an intermediate step using acetone. Acetone is replaced by polymer in a vaccum chamber ('forced vacuum impregnation'). Complete exchange takes few days for thin slices, but weeks for whole bodies. Technique developed by Gunther von Hagens, Germany, in 1978. Von Hagens exhibits his specimen in different venues.
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Thought: Two useful qualities: Diversity and moderation.
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DVD: Million Dollar Baby (2004). 132 min. Directed by Clint Eastwood. w/ Clint Eastwood, Hilary Swank, Morgan Freeman. Woman (Swank) is determined to become a boxing champion, and is supported by a headstrong trainer (Eastwood). Story takes a U-turn, when she gets severely injured during a fight. Movie well done, but too focused on boxing genre. Some critical points (e.g. assisted suicide) are treated too superficially. Overall rating: 6 out of 10.
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Poetry: Poetry Archive. Collection of poets reading their own work. Also some historic readings. Unfortunately, audio is not downloadable.
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Technology: Skype. Free Internet phone. Also, with SkypeOut, an ordinary phone line can be called, and with SkypeIn, customer receives a regular phone number to be called by any phone. Charges apply.
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Science: Oliver Sacks, a neurologist at New York University (NYU), Mt. Sinai Medical Center, is preparing a new book on memory and music. Recent interview at Science Friday. Described Clive Wearing, who suffers from severe amnesia since a herpes simplex encephalitis in 1985. Can only remember the last 5-30 seconds. Lives entirely in the present. Curiously, his musical memory is intact, i.e. he can play entire tunes on the piano, and even conduct an orchestra.
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Medicine: Cognitive reserve and lifestyle. "The concept of cognitive reserve (CR) suggests that innate intelligence or aspects of life experience like educational or occupational attainments may supply reserve, in the form of a set of skills or repertoires that allows some people to cope with progressing Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology better than others. There is epidemiological evidence that lifestyle characterized by engagement in leisure activities of intellectual and social nature is associated with slower cognitive decline in healthy elderly and may reduce the risk of incident dementia. There is also evidence from functional imaging studies that subjects engaging in such leisure activities can clinically tolerate more AD pathology. It is possible that aspects of life experience like engagement in leisure activities may result in functionally more efficient cognitive networks and therefore provide a CR that delays the onset of clinical manifestations of dementia." Scarmeas N, Stern Y., J Clin Exp Neuropsychol. 2003 Aug;25(5):625-33.
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