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July 6th, 2009
tcpip
 | 11:57 am - Socialising Over The Past Few Days...
Thursday's D&D3.5 game had the party mop-up the remains of the dragon lord's forces; still waiting to go toe-to-toe with the the ancient green dragon - must say in third edition dragons are seriously powerful - the PCs are mainly about 14th level and I think they'll have their work cute out for them. Sunday's RuneQuest game witnessed ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) darknova666 in the guise of Balastor begin the campaign against the Lunar occupation of Pavis.
Went to 2600 on Friday night and spent time with the good company there; afterwards watched El Orfanato, a ghost-story which was very good in terms of suspense and narrative consistency. Following day went to Brendan's place to watch Let The Right One In and The Onion Movie. The latter was quite amusing, the former was serious. As _zombiemonkey has remarked; There's a really good vampire romance story and it's not fucking Twilight .
On Sunday about one hundred people turned up at the Unitarians for a concert to raise money for Médecins Sans Frontières; I gave a brief speech on the current activities of the organisation; congregation collection came to over $1700. Sunday was also ![[info - personal]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png) redcountess's v2.0 gathering at Polly's. Afterwards dined with _zombiemonkey, severina_242, usekh and caseopaya. Intend to drag some of these people along to Liquid Architecture, an installation art-music event recommended to me by _nightflower_
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bollox
 | 01:22 am - Fed wins 15th slam
So Federer won in Wimbledon and now sits at the top of the Grand Slam tree - 15 titles vs Sampras' 14. He made a hell of a big production out of it though. Considering that the opposition today was Andy Roddick - and I don't care how good a player A-Rod is or how improved - the fact remains that Fed had an 18-2 record against this guy going into the match. He's eaten Roddick for breakfast, lunch and dinner many times in the past. Given this, there can be little excuse for stretching out the match for as long as he did.
( Read more... )
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kopyor
 | 08:08 am - OH NOES!!!!!
LOUDTWITTER SERVER CRASHED
Loudtwitter is down
Thanks for visiting...
Loudtwitter experienced a server crash and future of loudtwitter is being discussed. Follow progress on the blog http://loudtwitter.typepad.com/loudtwitter/
Yann
[[[so that's why there have been no tweets by kopyor posted here since the end of June!]]]
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/square/b/aggravated.gif) annoyed
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July 5th, 2009
violachic
 | 04:52 pm - my brand-new great-nephew
Nathan Lee McGlothlin
6 lbs 10 oz
July 4th, 2009
Welcome to the world!
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benpayne
 | 10:58 pm - Speaking of Music
So a few blogs around the music scene are quoting their midyear picks for best albums of 2009 so far.
Fwiw, here's my list of my favourites of the year thus far. They may change later as albums grow on me or fade.
Dimensions - The Lovetones (actually this one came out Christmas eve, but I'm counting it as 2009)
Merriweather Post Pavillion - Animal Collective (not loving it as much as a lot of critics but still interesting enough to make the list)
Tonight - Franz Ferdinand
Get Guilty - AC Newman
Major General - Franz Nicolay
The Rebirth of Venus - Ben Lee
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
Hold Time - M Ward
Grand - Matt & Kim
It's Blitz- Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Hazards of Love - The Decemberists
The Jasmine Flower - Heather Nova
Outer South - Conor Oberst & the Mystic Valley Band
University A Capella - Ben Folds etc
Yours Truly, The Commuter - Jason Lytle
Rearrange Beds - An Horse
How about you?
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benpayne
| 10:44 pm - The Thing About the Jazz is
So my search for contemporaryish jazzish singers has been going on for about three months now. I've found a couple of good articles but in general found the topic hard to google. I kind of started with some of the obvious suspects and then followed recommendations and similar artist links from them, as well as picking out a couple of others from articles.
I thought I'd share the list, for those who might be interested. I haven't yet decided which I like and which I haven't, other than I think I like Mark Murphy (who is contemporary by virtue of me buying an album he made recently, although he's been performing for decades) and Jamie Cullum.
Here are the artists I've "discovered" as a step toward making my contemporary jazz vocal cannon. (I'll also list the album I have as they may not be indicative)
Bebel Gilberto - Live Session EP
Cassandra Wilson - Closer to You
Ceu - Ceu
Diana Krall - Quiet Nights
Eliane Elias - Bossa Nova Stories
Holly Cole - Temptation
Ian Shaw - Drawn to All Things
Jamie Cullum - Twentysomething
Jane Monheit - Surrender
Kurt Elling - Live in Chicago
Luciana Souza - An Answer to Your Silence
Madeleine Peyroux - Bare Bones
Mark Murphy - Love is What Stays
Matt Dusk - Back in Town
Melody Gardot - My One and Only Thrill
Sara Gazarek - Yours
Sophie Milman - Live at the Winter Garden Theatre (EP)
Dena DeRose - Live at Jazz Standard vol 2
Dave Mooney & John Pizarelli - Last Train Home
Any recommendations?
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nwhyte
 | 11:28 am - July Books 8) Turlough and the Earthlink Dilemma, by Tony Attwood
It's not surprising that the "Companions of Doctor Who" series of books was dropped; if anything it's more surprising that another two were published (Harry Sullivan's War by Ian Marter and Terence Dudley's novelisation of K9 and Company) after this very unimpressive start. The evil female leader's name is Rehctaht, which probably tells you all you need to know. The plot, such as it is, has Turlough, back on his home planet, reinventing the Tardis and trying to prevent nuclear destruction. There is much confusion of timelines, and too much material hastily thrown together. I think there are about three different novels in here, but it is difficult to tell if any of them would have been any good.
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nwhyte
 | 10:14 am - Historical books poll
Poll #1425261
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: AllWhich of these books first published in 1959 have you read?
View AnswersThe Elements of Style, by William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White
   42 (41.6%) Naked Lunch, by William S. Burroughs
31 (30.7%) A Separate Peace, by John Knowles
17 (16.8%) Starship Troopers, by Robert A. Heinlein
60 (59.4%) The Sirens of Titan, by Kurt Vonnegut
39 (38.6%) A Canticle for Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller
56 (55.4%) Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters, by J.D. Salinger
14 (13.9%) Die Blechtrommel/The Tin Drum, by Günter Grass
20 (19.8%) My Side of the Mountain, by Jean Craighead George
22 (21.8%) Alas, Babylon, by Pat Frank
9 (8.9%) A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry
18 (17.8%) Hawaii, by James A. Michener
15 (14.9%) Goodbye, Columbus, by Philip Roth
11 (10.9%) Cat Among the Pigeons, by Agatha Christie
34 (33.7%) Henderson the Rain King, by Saul Bellow
9 (8.9%) Cider With Rosie, by Laurie Lee
32 (31.7%) The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson
28 (27.7%) Time Out of Joint, by Philip K. Dick
20 (19.8%) Titus Alone, by Mervyn Peake
43 (42.6%) The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag , by Robert A. Heinlein
28 (27.7%) The Menace From Earth, by Robert A. Heinlein
27 (26.7%) The Longest Day, by Cornelius Ryan
4 (4.0%) Las Armas Secretas, by Julio Cortazár
0 (0.0%) Dorsai!, by Gordon R. Dickson
28 (27.7%) The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, by Alan Sillitoe
19 (18.8%) Goldfinger, by Ian Fleming
31 (30.7%) The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, by Mordecai Richler
6 (5.9%) And which of these books first published in 1909 have you read?
View AnswersAnne of Avonlea, by Lucy Maud Montgomery
46 (55.4%) A Girl of the Limberlost, by Gene Stratton-Porter
10 (12.0%) The Road to Oz, by L. Frank Baum
40 (48.2%) Martin Eden, by Jack London
5 (6.0%) Three Lives, by Gertrude Stein
1 (1.2%) La porte étroite/Strait Is the Gate, by André Gide
7 (8.4%) The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies, by Beatrix Potter
56 (67.5%) Tono-Bungay, by H.G. Wells
7 (8.4%) The Ball and the Cross, by G.K. Chesterton
4 (4.8%) The Tale of Ginger and Pickles, by Beatrix Potter
27 (32.5%) So which of these books first published in 1859 have you read?
View AnswersA Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens
60 (70.6%) On the Origin of Species, by Charles Darwin
28 (32.9%) The Woman in White, by Wilkie Collins
44 (51.8%) The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, as translated by Edward Fitzgerald
33 (38.8%) On Liberty, by John Stuart Mill
19 (22.4%) Adam Bede, by George Eliot
21 (24.7%) Обломов/ Oblomov , by Ivan Goncharov
2 (2.4%) Idylls of the King, by Alfred Tennyson
28 (32.9%) Семейное счастье/Family Happiness, by Leo Tolstoy
2 (2.4%) Дворянское гнездо/ Home of the Gentry, by Ivan Turgenev
1 (1.2%) And finally, which of these books published in 1809, 1759, 1609 and 1509 have you read?
View AnswersElective Affinities (1809), by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
2 (2.8%) A History of New-York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty, by Diedrich Knickerbocker (1809), by Washington Irving
3 (4.2%) Candide (1759), by Voltaire
39 (54.2%) The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (vols 1 (1759), by Laurence Sterne
23 (31.9%) The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia (1759), by Samuel Johnson
7 (9.7%) Pericles, Prince of Tyre (1609), by William Shakespeare
32 (44.4%) Troilus and Cressida (1609), by William Shakespeare
46 (63.9%) In Praise of Folly (1509), by Erasmus
12 (16.7%) Was 1859 a particularly good year?
(Lists from a combination of Wikipedia and LibraryThing, with fairly arbitrary cutoff points which meant I missed off The Manchurian Candidate etc. Interpret the word "read" to your own satisfaction.)
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benpayne
| 11:04 am - Music
Hip-hop group Atmosphere are offering free downloads of their new EP, Leak at Will, here.
Haven't listened to it yet, but I loved their last album, When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold.
In other news, likely to be of very limited interest to my f-list, Childish Things have released the new version of International Cricket Captain.
Word.
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July 4th, 2009
thewayne
 | 06:21 pm - There, I fixed it!
This is a rather interesting web site showing some unusual solutions to problems that might have been better left to being fixed by professionals. Very clever photo site.
http://thereifixedit.com/
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world_tourist
[yathin]
 | 02:44 pm - Monument Valley, USA
Here are a few images from a recent trip to Monument Valley on the border of the US states of Arizona and Utah.
US route 163
( More images... )
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nwhyte
 | 09:45 pm - The Democratic Unionist Party
For as long as I can remember, I have been aware of the Democratic Unionist Party, founded by the Reverend Ian Paisley in 1971 and now the largest Unionist party in Northern Ireland.
Now I discover that there is another Democratic Unionist Party (referred to by its members as الحزب الإتحادي الديموقراطي) in Sudan, founded in 1967. I doubt very much that Ian Paisley and Desmond Boal were aware of it when they rebranded and slightly expanded the Protestant Unionist Party four years later, but I shall be on the lookout for parallels as I do my weekend reading of African history.
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nwhyte
| 03:31 pm - July Books 7) The Price of Paradise, by Colin Brake
A decent enough Rose/Ten novel, based a little bit on Planet of Evil with human invaders disrupting a world that should have been left to itself. A couple of references to the Doctor's friendship with Shakespeare (this is pre-The Shakespeare Code).
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hiraethin
 | 09:30 pm - Top 10 Manly Movie Deaths
A lot of people seem to be talking about this post at Alltopmovies.com.
While it's an interesting subject, I have to disagree with many of their choices, and I feel there are some notable absences. ( Clicky for my take. )
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nwhyte
 | 02:56 pm - The Torchwood Three
The BBC have broadcast three Torchwood plays over the last three days, available only with difficulty for those of us outside the UK. But my determination overcame the difficulty, and I managed to listen to all three.
Individual discussions of each below the cut, but one common slightly disappointing factor is that John Barrowman seems to be under sedation for all three plays. I guess he is just one of those actors for whom the visuals are essential - certainly, having seen him on stage, he seems to love the thrill of interaction with his fellow-performers, which perhaps is rather different in a sound booth (and I'll note again that I wasn't impressed with his reading of The Ancestor Cell). In the first and third plays it doesn't matter so much since Jack is less prominent, but it rather takes the shine off The Golden Age. (I will add that the female guest stars in all three plays were excellent.)
( Asylum: the girl from the future )
( The Golden Age: Torchwood Delhi and the Duchess )
( The Dead Line: killer phones and 70s flashbacks )
So, three worthy additions to the Torchwood canon. There is no internal order to the plays, so if you can only listen to one make it The Dead Line.
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nwhyte
 | 12:31 pm - Улетай на крыльяхь вҍтра
For years I have been fascinated by the Gliding Dance of the Maidens chorus from the Polovtsian dances of Borodin's opera, Prince Igor. That earwormy tune has been subject to various interpretations over the decades since it was first produced. ( Here are several of them. )
This entry is long enough, and if you have listened to even one of these clips you are probably thoroughly earwormed for the rest of the day, but I just want to give one last shout out to Natasha Morozova, here performing in Sydney. I'm off to enjoy the good weather now.
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emush
 | 07:06 pm - free to good home (and I mean good, not just any home!)
so yesterday i left work to go to a meeting and found this little lady sitting on our doorstep, shivering, terrified, filthy and starving. I think she was dumped - and if she wasn't dumped, she hasn't been receiving any love.
I volunteered to take her home - i've fed her, bathed her, spent hours picking all the fleas off of her that i could find, have wormed her and given her loooooots of cuddles.
i have to find her a home before i get attached to her - i haven't named her for this reason and didn't let her sleep in our bed last night. So please, if you know anyone that is a kind animal lover who just so happens to want a kitty (remember - a kitty is at LEAST a 10-15 year commitment!), pass them my contact details.
she is SUCH a smoochy cat that I am thinking of exchanging Jet for her (not really!).
She's a domestic long hair, brown tabby with a white chest - and the smoochiest kitten I've met in a while. My guess is that she's 9 weeks.
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world_tourist
[en_viktor]
 | 01:05 pm - Petropavlovsky Cathedral in Kazan, Tatarstan
Petropavlovsky Cathedral (Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral) in Kazan is an masterpiece of Moscow (Naryshkin) Baroque. The temple is consecrated in honour of heavenly Tsar Peter I patron.
Petropavlovsky Cathedral is builded in 1722. Constracting were operated by merchant Mikhlyaev, the head of imperial factories in Kazan. Most likely, orientally beautiful cathedral and its bell-tower were constructed by in common Moscow and Kazan masters.
( Photos )
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benpayne
| 12:56 pm - Upside Down
It's Saturday, and coutesy of Boing Boing, I'm looking at pictures of celebrities with their heads turned upside down.
Current Music: David Bowie - Diamond Dogs
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July 3rd, 2009
violachic
 | 06:36 pm
I can't get away from my asshole/emotionally abusive ex no matter what I do, it seems. Ten years later, it turns we have a mutual friend on Facebook (no, nobody here, so don't scramble to figure out who it is). I don't want to know anything about him, I don't care what he's doing, I don't even care if he's alive, quite frankly; I also don't want him to know where I am, what I'm doing, or how to find me. Part of me is seriously contemplating taking that mutual friend off my list, considering its not someone I would actually interact with these days, anyway.
When it rains, it sure fucking pours.
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tabouli
 | 11:55 pm - Junior's half birthday!
I resolved not to turn my LJ into an extension of the nursery after Junior made his appearance, but it seems I've gone a bit far the other way and barely mentioned the wee lad at all! He's six months old today, and thriving in wiggly baby fashion. Eating solids with gusto. Fascinated by the Creature, who has surprised me by being quite solicitous towards him. Grabbing plates and glasses off tables. Making strange little noises.
I do have a backlog of entries I plan to write about various aspects of motherhood, but as the last few nights have been decidedly sleep-deficient due to his first cold, tonight is not the night to embark on one. Instead, I'll leave you with a selection of photos. Enjoy!
( Juniority: Six months today! )
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/punquinheads/blue/cheerful.gif) celebratory
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July 2nd, 2009
nwhyte
| 08:13 pm - July Books 3-6) Four "Doctor Who Files" books
Doctor Who Files 1: The Doctor, by Jacqueline Rayner with a story by Stephen Cole
Doctor Who Files 2: Rose, by Jacqueline Rayner
Doctor Who Files 3: The Slitheen, by Jacqueline Rayner
Doctor Who Files 4: The Sycorax, by Jacqueline Rayner with a story by Stephen Cole
These four 50-page hardbacks, published very early in the Tennant era, originally retailed for £5.99 each. I got the lot for 99p plus postage from eBay, which is just about what they are really worth. They would be an interesting element (though a small one) in a study of the rhetorical practices of Who merchandising as exercised under the RTD regime (perhaps with a comparative element considering the precedents set by JNT and others). The first 30 pages of each book consists of reheated Who lore (almost entirely of the first year and a half of New Who) of greater or lesser relevance to the topic, based on the TV series (and for the Slitheen also incorporating elements from Stephen Cole's novel The Monsters Inside). The final section of each book has a short story, the two by Rayner being decidedly ordinary (the one in the Rose book is tediously educational on philately), but the two by Cole much better - his story at the end of the Sycorax book retells The Christmas Invasion from the monster's point of view, which is a welcome shift of perspective and carried off smoothly. But really, I'd hesitate even to recommend these to completists, unless you can pick them up as cheaply as I did.
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ticklethepear
 | 02:21 pm - the freecycle chronicles
I love how freecyclers in DC always explain their requests. Today's messages included the one below:
[freecycledc] WANTED: blender
1 message
2 juillet 2009 13:57
À: freecycledc@yahoogroups.com
Mine just exploded and caught on fire!
Thanks!
I also enjoy how freecyclers' usernames are often literary characters. My two favorites are "Dean Moriarty" and "Carson McCullers."
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bollox
| 01:22 pm - links
- The new buzzword in finance circles is macro-prudential regulation. We'll see how that works.
- FT on Iran.
- Fascinating piece on stem cells.
- The size of the British state, aka why we are fuckkked.
- The legacy of Madoff.
Mr Madoff’s most important legacy may in the end be suspicion. A man known as “the Jewish T-bill” and considered so trustworthy that his clients clamoured for him to accept their friends and family has helped destroy the clubby atmosphere on Wall Street and elsewhere, bankrupting entire families and charitable foundations in the process.
Regulators, investors and fund managers alike will have to live with the consequences: more inspections, higher legal fees and a host of tougher new regulations. As one industry professional says: “Trust has gone out the window.”
- Fed just went two sets up vs Haas in the Wimbledon semis. Hurray. Fuck Murray!
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