About the impending release of Back To The Future trilogy on DVD this year (possibly following a theatrical rerelease) that has everyone talking: An “Ultimate Edition” collector’s set in high-definition blue-laser DVD will subsequently be released in 1955.
(Normal DVDs use red lasers, by the way. Blue lasers have a shorter wavelength, thus allowing more data to be written in the same area.)
Happy Vestalia! I’m celebrating by seeing a Star Wars exhibit in Brooklyn. How are you celebrating Midsummer?
Does it really matter who Deep Throat’s identity was? Stories like this only tend to distract us from things that are really going on.
Did I mention I truly dislike politics?
This just in from Ernie: The video game Dance Dance Revolution (the game that stole its initials from West Germany) can now be “taken” for credit in middle school gym classes.
Well, it is good exercise and it gets the kids interested in physical education, so I see where they’re coming from. But what about the bad music? What about Britney Spears-lookalikes looking like whores? Will the tight tank top be the new gym sweatshirt? Will people trade in their “Athletic XXL” tee-shirts for “Dance Dance XXS?” Will the gym classes take field trips to the Jersey Shore boardwalks? These are the important issues, folks.
I saw Lewis Black at Town Hall in the City with our friends Darren and M-D. He followed two openers, one of whom was amusing, with an extra-long set including much of the routine he did back at the beginning of the year (I think that’s when it was) when I saw him last.
On Saturday, I worked on my Project, saw Insomnia with Darren and Denise which was interesting but not special, and worked on my Project some more.
Yesterday was a day for sleeping and a nice Father’s Day dinner with my dad. Also, I worked on the Project.
I saw Ben Folds last night at the Roseland Ballroom. What can I say? The show was amazing. He’s such a talented musician, and it’s really obvious that he loves what he does (especially now that he’s free from his recording contract). The show was being recorded for a live album, and the audience was fantastic. It’s going to be a great CD.
Now I have to get caught up with all of his albums that I don’t have (many of which have been sitting on my wish list for about two years).
After the concert, I went to a diner closeby where the waiters are aspiring Broadway singers. The food wasn’t so great, and neither was the singing (yes, the waiters sang karaoke to Sinatra, Elvis, The Beatles, and that song about the Son of a Preacher-Man), but it was fun nonetheless.
They’re always trying to influence you–even the photographers. Look at the picture of Bush on this MSNBC article. While the article talks about Bush’s approval rating slipping, the photograph has his head low in the frame to capture the word “Protect” (which is only the first half of a longer word) right above him. Clever, these photographers are. The thing is that the photograph is a from the Reuters file, that is, not related to the article. So someone at MSNBC picked out that picture and decided to use it for the article.
I’d rather see one of the photographs where he’s in midspeech, looking like a monkey. So take this as a warning: don’t let the photographers try to influence your thoughts with their “slightly subliminal” messages.
I saw La Bohème performed by the Metropolitan Opera for free in Central Park last night. When you see the performance for free, you don’t get special things like sets or staging or translations; you get the singers standing at microphones in front of the orchestra, but that’s not a complaint.
I never realized how much Puccini “preemptively borrowed” from Jonathan Larson’s Rent. Not only does the story match up almost precisely, but the character names also match up.
The weather was really nice even though I had feared it would be too hot. I had wanted to get there early to get a good seat, but we were almost late to the concert though, as we first took the Express subway instead of the Local. Even if we had taken the right train, it still would have been packed. Apparently there are a lot of people in New York, and they all seem to like free events in the park.
I’m thinking about seeing The Barber of Seville on Monday, and of course the Philharmonic in the Park series whenever that happens to be. If anyone else is interested, feel free to join me.
Why is favorability not a word*? It should mean The level or measurement of being favorable or something resembling that. Vulnerability is listed as a word, so why not favorability? It’s not listed in Merriam-Webster or dictionary.com.
* Technically, favorability is a word, now that I have used it three times within sentences (and since it probably has been used by others before), but it still does not appear in any dictionary.