Archive for April, 2013

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Art, damn it, art! roundup: April 11, 2013.

Thursday, April 11th, 2013

Three things in one blog post:

1. Julie Taymor and the producers of “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” have settled their lawsuits. As you might expect, “terms of the settlement were not released”. However, according to the NYT:

Ms. Taymor, who filed the lawsuit in 2011 after being fired by the producers, will receive a “significant” monetary settlement that could amount to millions of dollars if “Spider-Man” goes on to wide popularity, according to one person close to her. The producers, meanwhile, no longer need Ms. Taymor’s approval of future tours and versions of “Spider-Man” — especially any that involve altering the show’s script, which she helped write, or her staging. (The show’s music is by Bono and the Edge of U2.)

The paper of record goes on to suggest that the producers will use their new-found artistic freedom to transform the show into “an arena-style special-effects extravaganza that might fit well in Las Vegas, one of the places that the producers are considering for a future ‘Spider-Man’ run”. In addition, there’s some discussion about “reductions and adjustments in royalties and payments that are factored into the weekly expenses”, which the producers hope will reduce those expenses and allow the show to – eventually – make a profit.

The show costs between $1.1 million and $1.2 million a week to run, the highest expenses on Broadway, because of its aerial stunts and technical complexity, and a problematic amount now that ticket sales are fluctuating between $1 million and $1.5 million during most weeks. With those expenses and box-office grosses, the musical is only inching toward recouping its $75 million capitalization.

2. In 2001, the American Museum of Folk Art opened a new building near the Museum of Modern Art.

“Its heart is in the right time as well as the right place,” Herbert Muschamp wrote in his architecture review in The New York Times, calling the museum’s sculptural bronze facade “already a Midtown icon.”

But things did not quite go as planned.

The folk art museum, which had once envisioned the building as a stimulus for its growth, ended up selling the property, at 45 West 53d Street, to pay off the $32 million it had borrowed to finance an expansion. It now operates at a smaller site on Lincoln Square, at West 66th Street.

MoMA bought the building. Now they plan to demolish it and put up a new building that better fits the MoMA aesthetic. (Also, “The former folk museum is also set back farther than MoMA’s other properties, and the floors would not line up.”)

“It’s very rare that a building that recent comes down, especially a building that was such a major design and that got so much publicity when it opened for its design — mostly very positive,” said Andrew S. Dolkart, the director of Columbia University’s historic preservation program. “The building is so solid looking on the street, and then it becomes a disposable artifact. It’s unusual and it’s tragic because it’s a notable work of 21st century architecture by noteworthy architects who haven’t done that much work in the city, and it’s a beautiful work with the look of a handcrafted facade.”

3. Architect Paolo Soleri has passed away.

A onetime apprentice at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West compound on the edge of Scottsdale, Ariz., Soleri founded his own desert settlement, called Arcosanti, in 1970 at a site roughly 70 miles north of downtown Phoenix.
…In a series of feverishly detailed drawings, Soleri instead proposed denser, vertical settlements that would leave more land untouched at ground level. He called this approach “arcology,” a term combining architecture and ecology.

Arcosanti never got larger than about 100 permanent residents, according to the LAT, which also asserts Soleri’s work has been influential in the “green architecture” movement. Personally, I think this is the best thing to come out of Soleri’s work, but that’s just me.

Posted in Art, Clippings, Obits, Theatre | Comments Closed

I hope you like poop.

Wednesday, April 10th, 2013

At the moment, I have about $121 in my pocket change container. I could probably scrape up another $30 or so.

What could I do with that money?

I could take a Carnival cruise!

A four-night trip on Carnival’s Inspiration, leaving Miami on April 22, costs $149 a person, including meals and some beverages, according to the cruise company’s website yesterday.

This might be kind of a fun adventure. Sitting on the deck, getting a little sun, reading a good book on my Kindle Fire…

Of course, that price is FOB Miami. The cheapest Southwest round-trip I could put together adds another $248 to that price, and Southwest only flies to Fort Lauderdale, not Miami. And by the time you add it all up, tips for the staff will probably add another $150 to that price. And I’d be away from the blog and the job hunt for close to a week.

But it is kind of fun to think about.

(Subject line hattip.)

Posted in Clippings, Ships, Travel | Comments Closed

Broadway watch.

Wednesday, April 10th, 2013

“Hands on a Hardbody“, the Broadway musical, is closing this Saturday. The musical opened March 21st, and played 28 regular performances and 28 previews.

The total cost of mounting “Hands on a Hardbody” on Broadway has not been revealed, and the producers also did not say on Monday whether the show would close at a total loss to investors, which appears likely. The musical grossed only $240,040 for eight performances last week, or about 22 percent of the maximum possible amount — almost certainly not enough to cover its weekly running costs.

Background:

“Hands on a Hardbody” the movie.

“Hands on a Hardbody”: why they don’t do that any more.

Posted in Clippings, Schadenfreude, Theatre | Comments Closed

My humps, my humps…

Wednesday, April 10th, 2013

Back in February, French President François Hollande visited Mali. While he was there, “grateful Malian authorities” gave him a baby camel.

This was, of course, a bad idea. “… the animal screeched constantly, and did not seem to enjoy the president’s attempt to pat it on the head.”

So he left it in the care of a local family.

The family, evidently misunderstanding the purpose of the custody arrangement, proceeded to slaughter the camel and feast on it. According to local reports, it was fashioned into a tasty tagine, a regional type of slow-simmered stew.

The authorities in Mali are upset and embarrassed.

“As soon as we heard of this, we quickly replaced it with a bigger and better-looking camel,” an official in Timbuktu told the Reuters news agency. “We are ashamed of what happened to the camel,” said the official, who asked Reuters not to identify him because he was not authorized to speak to the news media. “The new camel will be sent to Paris. It was a present that did not deserve this fate.”

Posted in Camels, Clippings, Food, Mammals, Stupid | Comments Closed

Crossing the streams.

Tuesday, April 9th, 2013

Two of my favorite websites intersect today.

XKCD’s “What if?” answers the question “What’s the worst thing that can happen if you misuse a pressure cooker in an ordinary kitchen?”

Fill the cooker with oxygen up to 5 PSI, then pump in fluorine until it starts escaping through the safety valve. Put the vessel over an open flame until it reaches 700°C (That’s °C, not °F. Yes, this will probably set off the smoke alarm.) Now, pump the hot gas over a liquid-oxygen-cooled stainless steel surface.

I want to start a Kickstarter in order to get someone to do this and put it on YouTube, where I can watch it from a safe distance. Anyway, this is how you get dioxygen difluoride, or FOOF.

The fun part is that XKCD goes on to quote Derek Lowe’s discussion of FOOF (yet another in the “Things I Won’t Work With” series). A part XKCD left out, discussing a scientific paper on the properties of FOOF:

The paper goes on to react FOOF with everything else you wouldn’t react it with: ammonia (“vigorous”, this at 100K), water ice (explosion, natch), chlorine (“violent explosion”, so he added it more slowly the second time), red phosphorus (not good), bromine fluoride, chlorine trifluoride (say what?), perchloryl fluoride (!), tetrafluorohydrazine (how on Earth. . .), and on, and on. If the paper weren’t laid out in complete grammatical sentences and published in JACS, you’d swear it was the work of a violent lunatic.

This also gives me a transparent excuse to link another more recent Derek Lowe post, with YouTube video from France of some scientists doing science! Specifically, the French scientists in question are reacting chlorine trifluoride with various common laboratory objects: plexiglass, wood, and a gas mask, among other items. The results are entertaining, for values of entertaining that include “Gee, I’m glad these guys are doing it and not me.”

Somebody in the comments posted this link to the older version of Air Products Safetygram #39: the newer version is described as “sanitized”, and lacks the photos of raw chicken on fire.

One eyewitness described the incident by stating, “The concrete was on fire!”

Posted in Clippings, Geek, Obits, TV | 1 Comment »

Speaking of guns…

Tuesday, April 9th, 2013

…stolen from my great and good friend RoadRich:

This is why I am such a big advocate of stricter knife control, and most importantly, a ban on assault knives. People don’t need knives that powerful for hunting… what are they planning to do, overthrow the caring, benevolent government? And those clips that hold more than one knife? Those… what are they called, ‘leatherman’ clips? Who needs those for so-called ‘hunting’? What are they hunting anyway, speaker wire and Phillips screws? Ban those too… because if even one person gets stabbed, even while trying to get at the tweezers, it is too many. Too many. Only the Army should be trying to clean a fish or strip a wire anyway.

The only thing I’d add to that is that I’m waiting for the victims of this particular act of violence to show up at a State of the Union address and testify before Congress, etc. etc. etc.

Posted in Clippings, Guns, Knives, Law | Comments Closed

We have met the enemy…

Tuesday, April 9th, 2013

The LAT just put up a profile of noted gunsmith Terry Tussey.

I’ve heard of Mr. Tussey before. I’ve never had any work done by him, or handled any guns he’s worked on. But he is frequently mentioned in the pages of American Handgunner. I gather that he and the editor of AH are friends.

(I’m not implying that there’s anything wrong with that. Just saying.)

I’m happy to see this kind of thing in the LAT. I’m glad anytime I see gun ownership shown positively in the media.

But there are a couple of things that give me pause.

“Assault rifles and plastic guns are machines that shoot bullets,” Tussey says. “There is a big difference between machines that shoot bullets and firearms that shoot quickly, accurately and are beautiful.”

This comes across as kind of snobbish to me, even within the full context of the article. (Tussey is referring to “two revolvers purchased online” that cost “cost under $400 apiece” and are made of “polymer and metal”. No brand name is given.)

The reference to “plastic guns” also seems odd, given that:

He keeps a loaded 9mm Glock on his workbench and a 9mm Rohrbaugh in his pocket.

And then there’s this:

Tussey is sympathetic to efforts to restrict gun ownership, but he doesn’t believe any legislation would stop gun violence.
He favors background checks and hunter safety courses, and he can’t see a purpose for assault weapons or large-capacity magazines, but he is a passionate supporter of the 2nd Amendment.

“can’t see a purpose for assault weapons or high-capacity magazines”, but “is a passionate supporter of the 2nd Amendment”. Uh-huh.

I am hesitant to jump down Mr. Tussey’s throat: it is possible that he was misquoted or misrepresented by the LAT. I’ve used the contact form at his site to ask if this is the case, and will report back if I get any response.

Posted in Clippings, Guns, Media | Comments Closed

High speed low drag tactical stuff.

Monday, April 8th, 2013

So Lawrence and I watched the latest SyFy channel disaster, “Chupacabra vs. the Alamo” Saturday night at the home of our friends who shall remain anonymous. (Thank you, anonymous friends!)

I’m hoping Lawrence will write a review so I don’t have to, but there’s one thing I did want to highlight.

Have any of you tactical operators given any thought to how you’re going to perform your tactical operations with an iPad (or other tablet) in one hand?

Are iPad operations something that’s covered in training these days? (Karl, I sense a great need.)

Posted in Guns, Movies, Sarcasm | Comments Closed

This Sporting Life.

Monday, April 8th, 2013

The Houston Astros won their opener…and have lost five straight games since.

(There are no MLB teams that have gone winless in this first week of the season. Houston, Miami, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, and San Diego are all 1-5. Also, the blog widget I was using to display MLB standings hasn’t been updated in two years, and doesn’t seem to work with the current version of WordPress.)

Why should competing against men — “pushing the envelope,” as Griner called it — be a yardstick for her when the question people should be asking is: how will she fare next summer in the W.N.B.A. against the likes of Tina Charles and Sylvia Fowles?

Perhaps because nobody pays attention to the rapidly dying W.N.B.A.? This entire NYT article strikes me as condescending: Brittney Griner can make her own decisions about where she plays, and who she plays against. She doesn’t need the NYT telling her what to do.

(Seriously, I don’t understand why people are paying so much attention to Mark Cuban’s comments. He didn’t say anything that every other owner in the NBA hasn’t thought. If Fred Phelps could hit the 3-point shot and sell tickets, Cuban would be waving bundles of cash under his nose. So would every other NBA owner.)

Magnus Carlsen is the top-ranked chess player in the world, and “the first world No. 1 from a Western country since Bobby Fischer“.

Carlsen sits at the center of a campaign carefully constructed by him and his handlers to use his intelligence, looks and nimble news-media-charming skills to increase his profile outside the sport, as if he were a tennis or golf star. Not since the days of Fischer, Kasparov and Karpov has a player managed to move so deftly beyond the world of chess into the world at large.

More:

Carlsen has been profiled on “60 Minutes”; has modeled (along with Liv Tyler) for a major clothing label; has met Jay-Z at a Nets game; and has been offered a role, as a chess player, in the coming “Star Trek” film (the role fell through because of work-permit issues).

I’m waiting for him to show up in a commercial for Citizen Eco-Drive watches, myself.

Posted in Admin, Clippings, Loser, Sports | Comments Closed

Also noted.

Monday, April 8th, 2013

Anne Smedinghoff was killed by an IED in Afghanistan on Saturday. Four other Americans, who have not been identified, were killed as well. Ms. Smedinghoff and the others were part of a “delegation accompanying the governor of Zabul Province to inaugurate a new school in Qalat, the provincial capital. She was to help deliver donated books.”

I note this here because I actually heard about it before the NYT covered the story. I don’t know exactly how I found this, so I can’t give credit, but there’s a very nice tribute to Ms. Smedinghoff at a blog called “Email From The Embassy”.

I think there’s a lot that could be said about the importance of books, but I will let the author of “Email” say much of what I want to say:

We find them where they are, and we give them these small gifts from America, about America. We teach them to read, to think critically, to smile broadly. We show them, through our books, that America is a vast and wonderful place, full of all sorts of people and amazing ideas. So: a small, small program. And yet so big. What could be bigger than a book, really?

This is what Anne died doing. It is important. Her work was important. And I’m betting that if she’d reached that school yesterday, she would’ve had an amazing story to tell. Those schoolchildren would have each gotten their own books, still smelling of glue from the print shop. At least one of those kids would have hugged her by way of thanks. And she would have gone home smiling.

Awful damn dusty in here. Maybe I need to clean the HEPA filter.

Posted in Books, Clippings, Obits | Comments Closed

Obit watch: April 8, 2013.

Monday, April 8th, 2013

It hasn’t been a good few days for the movies.

Noted documentary filmmaker Les Blank passed away on Sunday. NYT. LAT. Edited to add: A/V Club (they were late in getting their obit up).

My favorite Les Blank story:

Perhaps his best-known films concern Mr. Herzog, the German director of films like “Aguirre, the Wrath of God” and “Stroszek.” To encourage his student and friend Errol Morris to finish his long-talked-about film on pet cemeteries, Mr. Herzog had said that when it was done he would eat his shoes. The impetus worked: Mr. Morris finished the film (“Gates of Heaven”) in 1978, and Mr. Herzog kept his promise, boiling his leather desert boots in duck fat (and stuffing them with garlic) at Chez Panisse, the celebrated restaurant in Berkeley, and consuming them — partly, anyway — onstage at a local theater. Mr. Blank turned it into a comic, and rather touching, 20-minute film about what artists do for the sake of art, appropriately titled “Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe” (1979).

Blank’s most famous film is another one involving Herzog: “Burden of Dreams” about Herzog and the making of “Fitzcarraldo”.

Margaret Thatcher: LAT. NYT. Battleswarm. I apologize if I seem to be giving her short shrift: my feeling is that everyone who doesn’t live under a rock is aware of her passing, and I am just linking to the obits here for the historical record.

Posted in Clippings, Movies, Obits, Politics | Comments Closed

Sniper followup.

Sunday, April 7th, 2013

Two points of followup on “The War Within”:

  1. The “This Ain’t Hell” blog has a post up with some good discussion of the article by people who read it before it was pulled, pointing out various bits of bullshit.
  2. Speaking of reading the article before it was pulled, a source who wishes to remain anonymous provided me with a PDF of the original article. (You can also find a PDF attached to the “This Ain’t Hell” post.) Thank you, Anonymous Source! Unless and until I receive a DMCA request, you can find the article here.

Posted in Clippings, Guns, Media | Comments Closed

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »