More FSM silliness.

The Marshmallow Chair.

Thanks to Lugnet I was able to find a Goozle. About a year ago I indulged in Lego apart from the mainstream.

Saw Spiderman. Liked it.

Drove into Ginny's driveway, closed the car door and heard a little wheezing sound and then a steady hissing sound. Front left tire finally gave way. Kudos to the guys at Firestone for working the holiday, because I would have been screwed otherwise. And it wasn't too much money.

Pictures of a work outing are here. They aren't very good, I'm afraid. (The pictures, I mean.) Same night as the fire on the docks.

CDs Ordered. Madness!

The madness continues. Gormenghast* (Richard Rodney Bennett) (ordered from the UK - how exciting), The Classical Film Music of Victor Young conducted by Bill Stromberg, Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2** Meredith Willson. In the offing: John Williams - Winter Olympics, Michael Nyman - Ravenous, and Christopher Young - Hellraiser II. These are all damnably indulgent and I feel terribly guilty ordering them.

* received 20020605 ** received 20020604

It's been a while since we've heard anything from Mata Nui:



Frankly, it's business as usual.

Episodes Zero, One and Two.

Today was a good day because I could (in my imagination) run up to the door yelling, "My tome is here! My tome is here!" My copy of "A New Kind of Science" arrived today. This review on Slashdot brought it to my attention. My usual reaction to self-important science-that-is-not-science would be to dismiss it, but something about Wolfram's bio and his wunderkind cred won me over. It'll be interesting as an artifact, if nothing else. I ordered it from Amazon because it was convenient, sue me.

I am so easily amused. Click here for an especially silly thread on the FSM bulletin board.

Grr. Another broken belt caused by motor running non-stop. I blame my bad programming.

CD Ordered.

The best thing about the various message boards is that I can get recommendations from people whose taste I can trust, or at least depend on not to be commonplace, thoughtless or trivial. Today, a board member at moviemusic.com suggested Doyle's Needful Things.* This movie was the Mathias Rust to my Soviet radar defenses. I don't recall ever hearing anything about this, even though I'm a reasonably enthusiastic fan of Patrick Doyle.

* received 20000531

Ginny Scores a Score at Goodwill.

I almost forgot a CD that Ginny found at Goodwill: a sealed copy of Moulin Rouge by Craig Armstrong. Who was interviewed in the recent issue of FSM.

CD Ordered

Some CD shopping blowthrough: Iron Giant - Kamen.*

* received 20000531

2002 Through May

moviemusic.com sells used disks. More weakness of wallet:*

• ExistenZ - Shore



• The Matrix - Davis



• Powaqqatsi - Glass



• X-Men - Kamen



• Field of Dreams - Horner

* received 20020528 and 20020603

I'll probably regret Field of Dreams. Horner!



An earlier order from mm was subjected to a casual winnowing poll:



"Oooh! The ways of Thunderdome are hard. Atlantis almost made it out but was cut down at the last moment. Shanghai Noon Pagemaster didn't have a chance and were just thrown in to get the crowd's blood lust started. Deep Impact and Field of Dreams ran afoul of an unfortunate prejudice of mine and were tapped in the middle of play. Grand Canyon went farther than any of the losers but just couldn't make it - maybe because of its dated sound. Sorry, you old geezer!

I present to you the newst champions of CD Buying Thunderdome!!"

• Dinosaur. Cine vouched for this which amounts to a shoo in.



• Event Horizon. Flawed but interesting.



• Mission to Mars. I have a Mars thing. Totally unfair that it beat out Atlantis, but there you go. Mars thing beats Atlantis thing minus Disney thing.



• Unbreakable. We'll see.



• Whisperers. Not the lowest underdog, but the most deserving.

And from various Amazon sellers so far in 2002:

• The Scarlet Letter - Barry



• Lake Placid - Ottman



• Incognito- Ottman



• The Greatest Story Ever Told - Newman



• Babylon 5: In The Beginning - Franke



• Hans Salter & Frank Skinner: Classic Scores of Mystery and Horror



• Dragonheart: A New Beginning - McKenzie

and of course, 2002's FSM CD's to date:

• Demetrius and the Gladiators - Waxman



• Farewell, My Lovely/Monkey Shines - Shire



• Logan's Run - Goldsmith



• Lust for Life - Rozsa



• Joy in the Morning - Herrmann



• The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing - Williams, Legrand



• The Traveling Executioner - Goldsmith



• 36 Hours - Tiomkin

I'm so glad that Vince and Manjit have come back to the fold after long absences. The blogger interface is no picnic (although I'm enthusiastic about the service) and I thank them for their perserverance. If I were paying for Blogger Pro, many of the usability questions would evaporate.

Here's a link to another blog of mine. The original purpose was to record film score notes. It's turned out to be more a log of my CD purchases.

Ordered CDs

Massive failure to control my buying impulse.* The lucky recipient of my desperately hard-earned dollars? Varese Sarabande.

• Die Hard - Kamen



• Joe vs the Volcano - Delerue



• Ballad of Cable Hogue - Goldsmith



• Cast a Giant Shadow - Bernstein



• The Virgin Queen - Waxman

* received 20020528

John Dvorak, arch crank, has a few choice words to direct at the DMCA. (Darn* those plutocrats!) Tim O'reilly linked to this story on Businessweek. Jack Valenti is what nice people call a complete tool.
* I now have confirmation that the webcam has a PG audience, so I'll be watching my language.

The camera controls are down due to complete belt failure. The camera's pants have fallen down. Send complaints to someone who cares.

This Lego abomination has been discontinued:



and now I want one because it is so completely wrong. It is called "Goozle." It is purported to have been designed as a child's toy, but that is clearly an obfuscation. If you see one for sale, please buy it and I'll reimburse you. If it is currently holding your chilld's psyche hostage, I'll remove it from your home safely and discreetly for a fee that you are sure to find reasonable. It is your child's welfare, after all.

Put up some new Toa Maiden pics here. I'm not sure why she decided to knock over the stone arch. Maybe it was a hazard.

Ginny got back from Italy last week. Among the loot she brought back was this really neat Majolica dish:





I'm pretty sure it's a dog, maybe even a greyhound, but it kinda could be a really angry deer.

Found a gag gift for Whitney's birthday. Which is today. A Star Wars™ The Phantom Menace™ Qui-Gon Jinn™ Buddies® stuffed toy.



I guess it's a reasonable likeness (of someone with an intestinal problem) although in a dark alley it could be mistaken for Osama:



But the hair is silly:



Star Wars™ Buddies® butt:

No. 2 in a series of appalling ads on Yahoo:



What are they thinking? It's not OK to terrify your customers. The image may be truthful, even accurate, but it's not in good taste in a commercial context. At least she's not wearing a red white and blue bikini. I'll let alone the issue of the very questionable orthography.

Friday night, while taking a co-worker home from pool and beer, came across a terrible sight: burning docks and boats on Lake Union. Our vantage point was at the intersection of Franklin Ave E and a little dead-end stub of E Shelby St. I took some pictures which you can see here.

Coming soon: anniversary of this blog. I'm sure there will be some kind of retrospective.

"reasoning" behind an "enhancement" included in yesterday's patch to IE is here. I'm not a big fan of frames (this site notwithstanding) and this is just more incentive to rewrite my pages.

Vahi Masks Look Like Swiss Cheddar!

Behold! The power of cheese!

How to thwart evil just a teensy bit.

from Time: "... Natalie Portman (right) ..."

Slight change to the format of the blog. Each day is no longer in reverse chronological order. Although reverse chronological order makes sense for this front page, I find that it makes the archives clumsy. When I'm real smart about style sheets, I will no doubt be able to make the front page and the archives behave in their own distinct ... own distinct ...
"Idiom, sir?"
idiom!

And if they had Star Wars: Bounty Hunter Pursuit (7133), I would have gotten that, too.

Fred Meyer's 20% discount on Lego, Episode II:
Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter (7143)

Lego was 20% off at Fred Meyer's. I did not go too overboard, although there always is tomorrow and tomorrow ...

Star Wars: Twin-Pod Cloud Car (7119)
Star Wars: Jedi Duel (7103)
Harry Potter: Flying Lesson (4711)
a mask pack (had the long sought after gold Hau!)
Pahrak Va (8553)
Lehvak (8564)

I'm a goof:

For a post on the Filmscoremonthly.com message board:

Apple blossoms. Last tree to bloom. Also a bee.

Looks like I threw a belt early this morning. Up and down works, though!

Bought the score to Star Wars: Attack of the Clones at Target. The jewel case was not in perfect condition:



but there was a reason to get it from Target:





The only cover I was interested in was the one that is based on the movie poster:



I also discovered some Lego sets on sale:
Tarakava.

Finished The Red and the Black this morning. Spoiler: He dies.

Here are some pictures of early flowers in my yard:

A Poem

End of the Recession

Both in dungarees and caps
carrying coffee
up the grade to Aurora Avenue
laughing
in the rain


©2002 Kyle Beatty

The Red and the Black ½ Done

I'm halfway through The Red and the Black.