LT Saloon

E-books or No E-books, That Was the Question

I have to admit that e-Readers are a little tempting. Relatively small and light weight, I can carry an entire library in one book size gadget, promise to not hurt the eyes like reading on the computer, instantly download from the e-cloud. They are just a little more expensive than I would spend on a “gadget”. And here’s why…

“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”

This mini review and comment was posted by a friend of mine over at Cybil Discourse.

It is reposted here with permission.

“Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”

I went to see the Swedish movie “Män som hatar kvinnor“, based on the book “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” by Stieg Larsson. I had read the book a year or so ago, and had heard about the film from co-workers, so I knew it was a disturbing and violent film.
I am not sure how I would have reacted if I had not read the book. I loved the film. What I liked most is that the film was gritty. Unlike American films the actors had flaws, they did not look plastic. Nor did the scenery. The buildings looked as if they actually existed warts and all. The movement of the characters looked real.
One effect of this reality was to portray the sexual violence as violent. To my sensibilities this film evoked the very disturbing nature of sexual violence. This film has a scene of sexual violence against a man. It is very graphic.
Watching that scene made me think about why men just don’t grasp the reality of sexual violence aginst women. I realized that it is because most men do not experiance it. If you are a woman who is fortunate enough to have not been raped, assaulted or abused, you most likely know several women who have.

According to RAINN: The nation’s largest anti-sexual assault organization.

1 in 6 women will be sexually assaulted in therir lifetime. (1 in 33 men)
Every 2 minutes someone in the US is sexually assaulted.
44% of sexual assault victims are under 18.
15% are under 12.
Only 6% of all rapists ever spend a day in jail.

See the film. Afterward think about that scene. Look around you and think of 1 in every 6 guys you know having experienced something akin to that. Then think about how you would feel if women routinely sat around masturbating to those images. Then you will have a slight idea of what it means to be a woman in the US and trying to have a healthy relationship with sex.

Ghost Writer Needs Better Writers

Ana took time off from lobbying and blogging to have a quiet night out at a local cinema. Having seen the trailer for Ghost Writer, I expected to see a finely honed, suspense filled drama, loosely based on recent politics.

Directed by Roman Polanski, and starring well qualified actors such as Ewan McGregor as the ghost writer, Pierce Bronson as a Tony Blair type former Prime Minister, Olivia Williams of Dollhouse fame, and even Jim Belushi almost unrecognizable in is role as a publisher (the voice gave him away), all of whom performed well.

Even so the film was disappointing. The suspense was just not there. There were plenty of twists and turns so I would have to say the writing was the problem. I just could not beleive that McGregor’s character would take the risks involved to solve the plot.

On another note I was happy to see that the film did not go in for a lot of cheap sex, though I also could not buy that McGregor’s character would risk sex with Lang’s wife given that he thought his life might be in danger.

If you have the chance – go see another film.

Libraries

Reading is entertainment, as well as educational, right? I wasn’t sure where to put this on site. I admit: this is a cousin, but it also explains how libraries, last bastion and depository for our knowledge, our imagination and creativity, are dealing with budget cuts in a time where we only seem to have money to occupy, kill and decide for others what form of governance they should have.

Nothing in the article is that partisan in nature. That’s me. And I stand by that statement as firmly as supposed patriots stand by theirs.

HARTLAND, Maine — John Clark often says he runs Hartland Public Library more like a hardware store than a library.

“At a hardware store, you don’t want to find a predominance of washers that fit faucets from 10 years ago,” said Clark. “That’s my theory with books.”

In addition to his hardware store theory, Clark has another scheme at work: swap shop.

“I can turn a paperback into an audio book,” said the bearded, bespectacled librarian who’s more likely than not to throw a well-intentioned barb at incoming patrons. “I ship books all over the world.”

And from all over the world, he receives as well.

He toted Friday’s receipts, each clad in its own postal packaging, in a plastic shopping bag: An Ethan Hawke movie, audio books by Garrison Keillor, Ted Dekker and Dave Luckett, and books by Lori Foster and Clinton McKinzie.

“This cost $36.95,” said Clark, glancing at the back of Keillor’s 2007 audio book called “Pontoon.” “I traded two books for this.”

Chances are, those two books were duplicates of what’s on the Hartland library’s shelves. Or maybe Clark decided there wouldn’t be enough interest from patrons, vis-a-vis his hardware store theory.

On the same day, Clark had packaged seven books to ship out — paying all the postage personally — though he said both the incoming and outgoing stacks were smaller than average. Web sites make it possible. Clark has 800 books listed on www.bookmooch.com, 1,500 on www.swaptree.com and 2,500 on www.paperbackswap.com. He keeps a wish list of items he’s looking for, as do librarians and individuals all over the world. Computers do the matching.

In an era when any publicly funded institution has to spend wisely, Clark manages to make a lot out of a little. His annual buying budget of $4,400 comes from donations, grants, and proceeds from the library’s endowment. His salary and other operating expenses are covered by contributions from the towns of Hartland, St. Albans and Palmyra.

While he said the library has enjoyed steady public funding in recent years, it still operates on a bare-bones budget. Clark is the only employee, paid for 34 hours a week. There are situations like that all over Maine, said Stephanie Zurinski, the Maine State Library’s central Maine liaison.

Link

Soupy Sales: 83

Courtesy latimes and AP

Soupy Sales is dead at 83, one of my icons I base my routines on.

It was rare when my middle brother and I agreed as kids. When Bullwinkle offered two alternate titles for the next episode we would choose different ones. I’m surprised we even agreed about Bullwinkle or Crusader Rabbit. Since he ran the TV early Saturdays, I finally saw Howdy Doody at the end of the last show.

“Hey that looks like it might have been good!’
“No, it’s stupid.”

(Hence I’m the children’s entertainer with puppets and he’s not.)

But we agreed about Soupy. Soupy Sales offered one of the best versions of slapstick, deadpan looks at the camera and fiction narratives about, amongst many things, his pretty much never seen dog “Fang” during the 60s. I think at best we may have seen a huge paw coming from off camera. “Fang” was specifically funny for us because we had had a dog named Lucky who probably bit everyone in the family we eventually had to put down, adding humor to a very unfunny, tense, then sad situation. He even managed to make pies in the face funny sometimes, amazing even back then when it was already a ho hum cliche’.

I’ll never forget that we were watching when he got kicked off the air for a brief while. He looked into the camera and, with what should have been a trademarked smirk, he said; paraphrased…

“Do you know where your Mommy’s purse is boys and girls? Find the thing inside with green stuff sticking out, put it into a stamped envelope and send it to Soupy Sales, Channel 5…”

I turned to my brother and said, “He’s going to get in trouble for that…”

How’s this for irony…

“He was born Milton Supman on Jan. 28, 1926, in the North Carolina backwater of Franklinton. The Supmans were the only Jews in town. Sales’ father ran a dry goods store that sold sheets to the Ku Klux Klan.”

“The family name was often mispronounced as “Soupman.” To make matters worse, his parents, who had nicknamed his brothers ‘Hambone’ and ‘Chickenbone,’ dubbed him ‘Soupbone.’ Eventually, Milton became just Soupy.”

Link
Because any good comedian knows where the line is between acceptable and not, they walk that line and may step over it occasionally. I find those who don’t usually beyond “un-funny.”

Soupy knew where that thin line was and his dance down it was a marvel to watch. Since some of his shows were live, if I remember right, his missteps and trips were even better.

So let’s be serious for a moment and remember Soupy…

Courtesy i.zdnet.com

Hard isn’t it? Good. Soupy would have wanted it that way.

Sound Off About Sound On: An Amplification Journal

This edition: EQ

Must be nice to have “roadies” and tech support like engineers to mix you live.

Well at least some idiot isn’t dropping my amp: I am.

Or some moron isn’t scewing up the sound or dropping a minature Stonehenge with dancing midgets: I am… well except the midgets/Stone part.

But I have become convinced that I need to do more EQ. I always have, and of course I’m very focused on it when I mix. But live, well it’s one more piece of tech to fail and set up when sometimes I’m left with little time. But I have found every room is so damn specific. I have yet to find one setting that works for all.

In reality each room needs to be tuned to. The gigs I have done that too sound so superior to my ears I would dop it every time. But…

The show must go on no matter what.

I find the major problem with a room is the mid range and that can vary from high mids to low. Gyms are a nightmare and always will be. But cutting lows and mids does help. You would think highs since the there are so many more paks to the “waves,” if you want to refer to them as waves. In reality sound isn’t “waves” unless it’s one frequency and fairly pure: “white” in nature. Almost all sound is beyond “pink” in my opinion.

More on specific frequecies later on, if I get a chance.

But, for now, on with the show!

-30-

Sound Off About Sound On is a column by Ken Carman that offers advice regarding unusual amplification needs: especially for smaller audiences of a unique nature.

©Copyright 2009
Ken Carman
all rights reserved

Sound Off About Sound On: an Amplication Journal

This edition: “Where the %$#@! do I put my amp?“

(Or: Getting a little more specific about “where?”)

If you use FM, or transmitted, amplification you may be thinking too one dimensionally.

I phrased it that way because various people have various terms for “sound without wires.”

Let’s start out by admitting that this has gotten a lot better tech-wise. Used to be every little am/fm or other broadcast had a chance to change what you were amplifying: other than just you. Rooms sometimes were impossible to amplify depending on what was inside the walls and the room itself. Hell, trucks passing by were a headache, especially with my first very cheap Radio Shack fm. The new stuff is so much better. Ask your dealer what’s best. I use the high priced end of the Audio Technica line myself, though I’ve never been the biggest fan of their other equipment: specifically microphones.

If you do use it, please stop placing your amps on stage near you. That’s not taking advantage of your system. I often place it in back so the audience gets a little bounce-echo from both directions: live and amplified. It can cause feedback. I do recommend headsets. The lavalier is problematic: not directional enough.

A word of warning: they do not make great recordings overall. The more cardiod specific a mic, generally the less I’d use it for recording. Think of it: the very design of your mic is editing out part of the sound.

I actually place it to the side more than to the back, but pointed a bit towards the back, or at least slightly angled towards it.

Also remember, if you interact with your audience a lot like I do you might have to walk there. Be prepared to try your best to keep your back to the mic without being too awkward.

And may you have better sound in your next gig.

-30-

Sound Off About Sound On is a column by Ken Carman that offers advice regarding unusual amplification needs: especially for smaller audiences of a unique nature.

©Copyright 2009
Ken Carman
all rights reserved

Playing with Dolls

I don’t own a TV so what shows I see are those available through free on-line sites like HULU.com. I have been intrigued by a program called Dollhouse. The premise is that there are a group of people “dolls” who have their memories erased. When they are off duty they relax in a spa setting with people who speak quietly and enjoy sauna’s and swimming. When they are engaged in an assignment, their brain is programmed with the minds of people who are experts in the field. In this way the very wealthy can hire the best secret agent, ransom negotiator or sex toy that can be. The tension comes through an disgraced FBI agent who is intent on proving the existence of the Dollhouse, and through the problems that result when the programming doesn’t go exactly as planned. 

I like the interaction between the lead players. The director is suitably hard nosed but with a hint of underlying humanity though perhaps tainted by sadism. Echo the most visible doll is played well by Eliza Dushku and her relationship with her “handler”  played by Harry Lennix is sweet without being sticky. Topher , the computer geek, played by Franz Kranz is way to freaked out to be accepted in the crucial position he holds but I can deal with that.

For a while it seemed they were going to take the plot down the wrong road with too much emphasis on sex. Oh here’s Echo as a pole dancer, and this week she’s a prostitute etc. It seems like this has been ironed out and the plots seem to continue in a more thought provoking way. I especially liked episode 10. Echo is imprinted with the memories of the director’s murdered friend and goes back to her own funeral. Good imagination of things you might want or not want to learn about how your family percieved you.

All in all an interesting thought experiment with pretty girls and handsome men, action and adventure, and, PLOT and DIALOGUE! Not what we’re used to getting from tv. Oh and the characters are good looking in different ways – not just boobs in low cut shirts, including a love interest who by Hollywood standards is plus sized, an oddly rugged hansome lead and Mr. Lennix who’s appeal is communicated by a face that expresses volumes without words.