Trivia that matter
Friends University Ballet fall concert dress rehearsal, October 5, 2017. Click to embiggen and to see with better color; right-click and open in a new window to see at maximum size.
Friends University Ballet fall concert dress rehearsal, October 5, 2017. Click to embiggen and to see with better color; right-click and open in a new window to see at maximum size.
Friends University Ballet fall concert dress rehearsal, October 5, 2017. Click to embiggen and to see with better color; right-click and open in a new window to see at maximum size.
Friends University Ballet fall concert dress rehearsal, October 5, 2017. Click to embiggen and to see with better color; right-click and open in a new window to see at maximum size.
Further pictures from the dress rehearsal for the fall dance concert at Friends University.
Further pictures from the dress rehearsal for the fall dance concert at Friends University.
More pictures from the dress rehearsal for the Friends University fall dance program. (Click to embiggen, and also to see the pictures with better color. For some inexplicable reason, the WordPress algorithms make the reduced-size pictures look dull.)
More pictures from the dress rehearsal for the Friends University fall dance program. (Click to embiggen, and also to see the pictures with better color. For some inexplicable reason, the WordPress algorithms make the reduced-size pictures look dull.)
If the first episode is indicative, Kino’s Journey II1 survived the loss of Ryutaro Nakamura, who directed the 2003 anime. It felt very much like old times, with a little more detail, and a little more blood. Once again, I was reminded of The Twilight Zone. This week’s thought experiment involved a country where murder is legal. It’s not necessarily a paradise for psychopaths. The story inevitably brought to mind a certain Heinlein comment. If the show maintains the level of the first episode, there finally will be something worth waiting for every Friday.
Watching Kino’s Journey has the unfortunate side-effect of making everything else seem trivial. Nevertheless, there are a couple of other first episodes I watched all the way through which deserve comment.
Urahara is yet another variation on the majou shoujo theme, this time set in a pastel version of the Harajuku neighborhood in Tokyo. Aliens, called “scoopers,” who have no culture of their own, invade the Earth and scoop up anything that interests them, such as the the Arc de Triomphe, the Statue of Liberty, or a pyramid or two. It falls to three girls in Harajuku, one with little horns, one with nekomimi and a tail, and one who sews, to defend their world, Harajuku style.
It’s a silly show. The counterpart of Sailor Moon‘s Luna and Cardcaptor Sakura‘s Kero-chan is a talking fried shrimp, for instance. Silly doesn’t mean stupid, though, and absurd though the episode was, it was always entertaining and visually playful. I probably will continue watching it. For a discussion of Harajuku and this episode, see Emily.
Recovery of an MMO Junkie concerns a young woman who drops out of society to play an online fantasy RPG game. Although it’s not explicitly stated in the first episode, it’s strongly implied that she and her online friends all visit (or work at) the same convenience store, though they aren’t aware of that yet, and that their online and offline lives will get muddled together. I might watch more to see how it develops.
The Ancient Magus’ Bride will have to wait until I have more time. Hozuki no Reitetsu II will have to wait until the discs are released in North America and I can budget their purchase. (Amazon Strike Hi-Dive, grrr.)
The 2017 fall ballet performance at Friends University was a lecture-demonstration covering the history of ballet, including a look at forms of dance that preceded ballet. (Click pictures to embiggen.)
The 2017 fall ballet performance at Friends University was a lecture-demonstration covering the history of ballet, including a look at forms of dance that preceded ballet. (Click pictures to embiggen.)
I shot too many pictures at the dress rehearsal Thursday evening for the Friends University Ballet fall program, and it will take the rest of the weekend or longer to go through them all and process the best. They’ll be at my photo site, soon, I hope.
I spent Thursday evening photographing the dress rehearsal for the Friends University Ballet fall program. Expect a lot more pictures here soon.
I spent Thursday evening photographing the dress rehearsal for the Friends University Ballet fall program. Expect a lot more pictures here soon.
I took the day off and spent the morning taking pictures at the botanical garden. You can see them here.
So, Frank Zappa’s kids are thinking of presenting holograms of him in concert, just like Hatsune Miku? Holograms of Miku are fine, since she’s computer-generated anyway, but re-animating Frank seems ghoulish to me. I doubt that he’ll ever dance as well as Miku, either, no matter how skillfully his hologram is programmed.
Speaking of Miku: While it’s not difficult to make songs with Vocaloids on your computer, it’s not so easy to perform with Miku live, in real time. Yamaha is making it a little easier with a new “keytar.”
There was also a Miku guitar stompbox released a few years ago.
And now for something completely different: The Lord of the Rings Silent Movie. (Via the Local Malcontent.)
Gunung Agung on Bali may be ramping up to an eruption. If so, this could be more than interesting on the densely-populated island. Agung’s 1963 eruption was VEI5, i.e., at least as large as Mt. St. Helen’s in 1980. It has some noteworthy neighbors nearby on the Sunda arc. Rinjani is visible from Agung’s summit when the weather is clear. Tambora is a bit further east.
Meanwhile, there is a state of emergency on Ambae in Vanuatu.
If Flickr decides that there has been suspicious activity involving your account, or if you want to access Flickr from a different browser or a different computer, you need to prove to them that you are indeed whoever it is that you are. It’s a simple matter. In my case, I need only respond to emails sent to either of two long-defunct addresses.2 This doesn’t quite make sense to me; I used a different address, which they have, to launch my account there. But the ways of IT are mysterious and not for ordinary mortals to comprehend.
At this time, I can log into Flickr only with one browser and only on one computer. It’s just a matter of time before I’m locked out of my account entirely. Therefore, I’ve started a weblog for my photography, here. I’ll occasionally post a picture or two on Zoopraxiscope, but the full galleries will be at the new site. You can see the rest of the pictures from yesterday’s visit to the Great Plains Renaissance Festival there, for instance.
September 23, 2017 in Wichita, Kansas.
September 23, 2017 in Wichita, Kansas.
At the Great Plains Renaissance Festival in Wichita, Kansas, September 23, 2017.
At the Great Plains Renaissance Festival in Wichita, Kansas, September 23, 2017.
Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Wichita, Kansas.
Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Wichita, Kansas.
Grown from seed many years ago.
Grown from seed many years ago.
From 20 or more years ago at an SCA event. It most likely was taken at the annual Valor Tournament hosted by the Barony of Vatavia, the Wichita branch of the SCA, but I’m not certain of that. It could have been at Lilies, north of Kansas City.
From 20 or more years ago at an SCA event. It most likely was taken at the annual Valor Tournament hosted by the Barony of Vatavia, the Wichita branch of the SCA, but I’m not certain of that. It could have been at Lilies, north of Kansas City.
Can a cat be both a solid and a liquid? That was a topic investigated by one of the scientists honored at the 2017 Ig Nobel Prizes last Thursday. Other researchers receiving Ig Nobels studied such topics as didgeridoo playing as a treatment for sleep apnea and snoring, how exposure to a live crocodile influences gambling behavior, the size of old men’s ears, walking backwards with a cup of coffee, whether identical twins can tell themselves apart, and other recondite topics.
This past weekend was the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield. Never believe anything the weatherman says. He promised clear skies and highs in the lower 90°s. Yeah, right. Here’s what I heard at Stage One Saturday afternoon, when The Outside Track were scheduled to perform:
I decided not to bring the real camera along, which turned out to be a good call, given the weather. So, no pictures this year. I did bring my little sound recorder. Here’s a bit of what goes on all night long at Carp Camp. The tunes are “Planxty Fanny Po[w]er,” featuring Amanda Roberts, this year’s hammered dulcimer winner, and “Liberty,” with an unconventional bluegrass instrument toward the end. The sound is mediocre and the recorder cut the second tune short (grr), but it should give you some idea of what it’s like there.
In a week or two, there should be videos with better sound quality on YouTube and elsewhere.
Other highlights of my visit to the camp included everyone joining in on the theme to “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” and a couple of guys singing Randy Newman’s “Political Science.”
Update: a brief video of the Friday evening contra dance, shot with my toy camera. It’s not great quality, and it shows why I ordinarily use that camera only for snapshots.
There should be plenty of better videos at YouTube soon.
