Observations 3.13

If you're just a fan HBO's Game of Thrones it would be a dream job. Throw in being a fan of Annie Leibovitz, or just a fan of photography, or just a photographer and it becomes simply a dream. The cover story of the April issue of Vanity Fair, available March 13^th, is a GOT preview called "The Gathering Storm" and the cover was shot by Leibovitz in Northern Ireland.

One bit of trivia in the article is that President Obama, always known to be a GOT fan, receives early screenings of the show. In an e-mail to Vanity Fair the creators of the show replied, "One perk of being the most powerful man in the world: yes, you get to see episodes early."

Above the Leibovitz video is a link to a fourteen minute trailer for Season 4 of Game of Thrones which premiers April 6^th on HBO.

Game of Thrones Season 4: Ice and Fire, A Foreshadowing

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Published on Mar 10, 2014
Watch Annie Leibovitz photograph the cast in Northern Ireland.
Subscribe to the all-new Vanity Fair channel here.

Observations from the Coffee Shop 9.9

Over the weekend I tried very hard to not pay any attention to the news. Let's just say it's been all too depressing lately, primarily the Syria debate. Cable news and politics in America has gotten to the point that Syria itself isn't the news, not chemical weapons, not the tens of thousands dead, or the millions of refugees. No the news about Syria is primarily about the debate about Syria. Much like Edward Snowden himself became the story and overshadowed the NSA spying the Syria debate is about the debaters themselves. Who is for or against an attack, who was for or against the Iraq war, one big round of look at us because we matter. Another way of putting it is I always found politics entertaining but now, at least at times, it seems politics has become just another form of entertainment. But don't worry, I still love Rachel.

Last Thursday Rachel Maddow finished her show with a commentary. She did it after Donald Rumsfeld appeared on Fox News and called President Obama a "so-called commander in chief" and it should be required watching for every American. The transcript hasn't been posted yet so below is my own attempt at transcribing the finish of it. I should note that in this case I don't guarantee my work. You can watch the full commentary here.

"If you're an architect or a conspirator or one of the primary actors in the Iraq war. In arguably the grandest and most craven foreign policy disaster in american history. Your opinion is no longer required on matters of war and peace. Please enjoy painting portraits of dogs or something. Painting portraits of yourself in the bathroom trying to get clean. Please enjoy the forgiving company of your family, your loved ones, and your god. But we as a country never, ever, need to hear from you about war ever again. You can go now."

You can go now, if only.

Sunday Observations 8.4

So you should know by now I have a thing for movies where things go boom but rarely if ever has that included French films. Live and learn. I watched a movie called Forces Spéciales (Special Forces) which is about a fictitious hostage rescue mission into Pakistan. I have to admit I did enjoy it even if I was bit confused at times because it's in French but also English and Persian. As for the plot, well if you have ever seen the Bruce Willis movie Tears Of The Sun you get the idea, just substitute the Hindu Kush for Africa. What's also funny is that the French reporter who is taken hostage by the Taliban is played by Diane Kruger who also happened to play Marie Antoinette in the movie I mentioned last week, Farewell, My Queen. For the record Kruger is a German actress.

It may seem like a weird quirk but when I read a magazine article about a woman I always look to see if the writer and photographer were men or women. What made me think of that? Currently a short bio of Kate Upton in the June issue of Vogue which mentions her breasts quite a few times. Both the writer and the photographer were women. The same issue has a nice fashion layout by Peter Lindbergh, "Stardust." I can't say I've ever really wanted to do fashion photography but if I did I like to think it would look something like that. Maybe it's just the motorcycles, or Edie Cambell's eyes, or her short dark hair, I'm not sure.

Who says an advanced art degree is worthless? It seems more and more people are willing to pay to have someone give them a private tour of a museum or a 'cultural excursion' as it is called. A couple of examples are Art Tours in Europe and Art Smart in New York City. The going rate in New York, about $200 per hour with a two hour minimum. I could handle that kind of money but I wonder how much I would have to talk to people because, well, anti-social.

Something in the same line of thought, art degrees not money. It's that time of year when everybody comes out with a list of worst college majors. I wont bother with links but just say that there is a common thread in all of them, art degrees. All the worst ten degree or major lists include Fine Arts, Film, Photography, and Theatre. None of the lists include Art History which either means they think it's a good degree to have, highly doubtful, or they don't even want to admit it exists.

Finally my sister is off on a fishing expedition this weekend. She texted me a photo of her holding a bass she caught and I'm terribly jealous. For a change that isn't sarcasm.

Sunday Observations 7.21

At the moment the temperature is 79° so I want to quickly claim the temp is below 80° for the first time in days before it has a chance to rise. Today's high temp is supposed to be in the mid 80s, the first time in a week that it hasn't been above 90°, which will break the longest heat wave in the Village since 2002. We shall see.

A few weeks ago I had the totally brilliant idea of getting tickets for a Phillies game when they visited the Mets this weekend. Looking back it probably wasn't one of my better ideas. Granted I had no idea what the weather was going to be like but also Philadelphia sports teams have notoriously bad luck when I'm at the game. I thought things looked good after the Phillies beat the Mets 13-8 in Friday night's series opener. My positive attitude continued as I watched Jimmy Rollins hit a lead-off home run to give the Phillies the lead just a few pitches into the game. Then Cole Hamels took the mound for the first time looking like he had just stepped out of the shower and immediately gave up 3 runs to the Mets. Four hours of hundred degree heat later the Phillies had lost 5-4. It was still a good time.

One thing I noticed at yesterday's game that I'd like to mention. The Mets' home at Citi Field is a wonder of modern architecture. Built facing Flushing Bay in Brooklyn it manages to catch only the non-existent northern wind and have no shade whatsoever. Well done.

I also had a different kind of experience with a movie last night. The movie was Farewell, My Queen (Les Adieux à la reine) a French film by Benoît Jacquot based on a novel of the same name about Versailles during the first few days of the French Revolution. While the trailer is French with English subtitles the version we saw was dubbed in English and I had a hard time following it. The only reason I can think of is that I was reading their lips meaning what I was seeing didn't go with what I was hearing, now I need to find the French version. I'd honestly always rather have a subtitled version of a film.

Another movie I saw recently was the zombie apocalypse World War Z. The movie was good but I just started reading the book because I had heard of some major ways the book and the film were different. What I have found is that the book is so much better. Actually neither the film or the book ruins it for the other because they are written in such different styles.

Last week I read a lot about Tumblr, Yahoo, and the 'quarantining' of adult blogs on tumblr. The short version is that tumblr removed adult blogs from Google and other web searches and also removed them from internal tumblr searches unless you actually follow the blog. I just had a little secret that I wanted to pass on that you may or may not know. Every tumblr blog has an archive page whether there is an archive link or not. Here is an example of one of mine. If you don't want to follow a blog yet you still want to keep track of it just bookmark the archive page. If a blog doesn't link to its archive simply add /archive to the blog's address and hit enter.

No politics today but I do have a quick question, why are so many guests on Sunday morning talk shows Republicans? I rarely watch the shows but it irritates me just the same.

7/23 update - Another tumblr idea I thought I should add to this. If your blog isn't completely adult or 'nsfw' keep tags to a minimum on 'nsfw' posts. That way they don't show up in search, nobody complains, and the gods of tumblr don't find out. Everybody remains happy.

Observations 7.2

From Huffington Post Gay Voices; "Whether "Same Love" hits number one as a result of the Supreme Court rulings and the general feelings towards gay marriage in the United States remains to be seen, but if its leaps up the charts is any indication, "Same Love" may be a gay marriage wedding present from the unlikeliest of places: the hip hop world."

I can honestly say I've never been much of a hip-hop fan but I suppose I can evolve too. Just watch.

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Observations from the Coffee Shop 6.10

I've missed my Sunday Observations lately and have a mess of notes that I either have to throw together or shred and I hate an unused note. Anyway some odds and ends, some old, some new.

First I need to apologize for a typo in a previous post. In the post about Miya Ando I called her Maya even though I know her name is Miya and looked over it a few times before I posted. I shall blame auto-correct as my only other excuse is that sometimes I'm just terrible at this writing thing.

Hillary Clinton joined twitter today, joining Bill, Chelsea, the Clinton Foundation, and the Clinton Global Initiative. Its exciting for a number of reasons including her black and white profile pic, you just have to like that. Of all the twitter profiles I have read over the years this may be the best; "Wife, mom, lawyer, women & kids advocate, FLOAR, FLOTUS, US Senator, SecState, author, dog owner, hair icon, pantsuit aficionado, glass ceiling cracker, TBD..."

During the tornado that hit Moore, Oklahoma I saw a video that showed a perfect funnel cloud. A local reporter on the scene described it as "the finger of god" and I thought I had never heard a more apt description of a tornado. It also struck me that this tornadoes and other extreme weather events have something in common with guns. Don't talk about guns after a massacre and don't talk about climate change after severe weather.

My current favorite journalist, other than Rachel, is Chris Hayes because I feel like he wants to understand both sides. Even if he doesn't agree with a position he wants to understand it and that's how I like to think I am. I only mention that because I wanted to bring up my current least favorite journalist, at least my least favorite non-wingnut journalist. I can say I have never been thrilled with The Guardian's Glenn Greenwald and his handling of his current NSA stories have just solidified that opinion. His arrogant, holier than thou, there is no other side to the story approach is something I expect from wingnuts and is the polar opposite of Chris Hayes.

I was told that I need to clarify something. A while back I mentioned that I did not like Woody Allen or his movies but technically that's untrue. Midnight In Paris is the exception to that rule. It's Paris, Ernest Hemingway, and Woody Allen isn't in it. Also I may be the only person who can watch both V for Vendetta and The Devil Wears Prada at the same time. I got yelled at for that one.

Finally a fashion sign of the apocalypse, CK's summer scented nail polish. The closest I've ever been to scented nail polish was using paints while painting but if I remember correctly they didn't smell like watermelon. Enough said.

Observations 5.17

It's been a long time since I mentioned my alter ego and totally fictitious long lost step sister Sara. I only bring her up now because along the way she seems to have dyed her hair blonde and found a new career. Girl is still wearing my jackets though.

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Sunday Observations 4.28

We finally got a gorgeous spring weekend in the northeast. The way things seem to go now it will probably be the only one we get before the weather jumps right into summer so I decide it was time to check on my shore, the first time I have since Sandy. I knew it was still there but I wanted to see for myself and the need to get Foxy on the road, combined with the weather, made for a good excuse. I'll post more on what we found later.

Last Sunday HBO's Game Of Thrones finished with possibly the so far best scene of the series. I've read five of the books so I knew what was coming but Daenerys' kick ass "I understood every word you said and now you are going to die" scene was done to perfection. Here is a link to the scene, until YouTube takes it down, but the real reason for writing this was I get to use a pic of the mother of all dragons with this post. The problem with GOT is that now we probably wont see Daenerys again for a couple of weeks. Hopefully I'm wrong because that would be such a shame.

On a totally different topic the Out Magazine Gay Power list for 2013 is out and it looks like the news and political people are taking over with Senator Tammy Baldwin, Fox News' Shepard Smith, The New York Times' Nate Silver, CNN's Anderson Cooper, and Rachel Maddow all in the top ten. You can find the complete list here. By the way, I'm not sure if that out pun was intended or not.

A few months ago there was an article in The New York Times T Magazine about a site called Gidsy which I never got around to playing with. As the article says Gidsy "enables travelers and other novelty seekers to find activities organized by what it refers to as "real people." Rather than get into it I'll let you read the article but what is fun is picking a city and searching for tours to see what comes up. Paris has a number of catacomb tours (one called the "Empire of Death" tour), a Monet's Garden bike tour, a chocolate and pastry tasting tour, and to finish the day either a pub crawl or a champagne tasting tour. A visit to New York could be highlighted by the Jewish Gangstas of the Lower East Side Tour, a mobile scavenger hunt, or a paranormal and ghost tour. After any of those tours the three hour historic pub tour, in which you "hear stories of the pubs' histories and the famous drinkers who frequented them," might be a necessary end to your day in New York. It seems like a bargain at $75 but only if drinks are included.

Have you ever read "Reamde" by Neal Stephenson? If you have you seriously need to read this article in Times about former Phillies and Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, "Rhode Island and the Fall of 38 Studios." I swear when I read the article I immediately thought of the Stephenson novel because it seemed like Schilling's company was writing its very own version of T'Rain. If you never read the novel that makes absolutely no sense but the article is worth reading if only for the political side of it.

For some unknown reason the isn't a Sunday Times to be had in South Jersey today and I have no idea how I am supposed to function without one. I suppose I'll have to make do with sticky buns and coffee.

Observations from the Window 2.26

Paperman, the mixed animation film from Disney that I love, won the Best Animated Short Film award at Sunday night's Academy Awards. If you haven't seen it, or if you saw my post after the video went private, I updated my original post with a new embed/link and you really need to see it. Besides, the little story I'm about to tell you will make much more sense if you do.

Paperman director John Kahrs accepted the award as Kristina Reed, the film's producer, began throwing paper airplanes with kisses on them from her seat on the balcony. As paper planes tend to do they didn't fly well at all but dove straight down into Hollywood's finest. While the crowd didn't seem to notice, or understood the planes meaning, security wasn't thrilled at all with the 'stunt' and Reed was evicted from the auditorium. After ten minutes of protest the party pooping guards allowed Reed back to her seat with a slap on the wrist.

Consider this a warning, if you ever win an Academy Award don't even think about confetti, noise makers, or any other form of celebration other than some polite clapping. It may be the night of your life but proper decorum will be displayed at all times.

Observations from the Coffee Shop 2.25

I wasn't planning on writing anything more about last night's Academy Awards but I have to get something out of my system. Before I get to that I'll mention Anne Hathaway won as expected and looked adorable as always, I really don't care if most of twitter seems to hate her. I was a little disappointed there was no Scarlett Johansson sighting but I totally forgot about Cat On A Hot Tin Roof so that was understandable.

What I need to get out of my system started with a very late night tweet by The Onion concerning nine year old Quvenzhane Wallis who was nominated for Best Actress; "Everyone else seems afraid to say it, but that Quvenzhane Wallis is kind of a c***, right?" The tweet has since been deleted. Yes it was totally offensive, especially when directed at a nine year old girl, but come on it was The Onion. I'm sure whoever was tweeting for The Onion was drinking just as much as everybody else and, looking at my tweets from last night, tweeting and drinking is never a good idea. As I said the tweet has been deleted and hopefully they apologize to her in some way. Wallis is attacked with almost as much relish as Hathaway and I'm sure it was meant as sarcasm but sometimes sarcasm goes too far.

End of story right? This is America, of course that isn't the end of it. The rapidly becoming irrelevant Keith Olbermann jumped on the soapbox he hasn't been on since the Penn State scandal broke and demanded a full public apology which I'm sure wouldn't satisfy him anyway. It has also been said the tweet was only acceptable because Wallis is a "woman of color" even though nobody anywhere has remotely considered it acceptable at all. Others are demanding to know who wrote the offensive tweet and want him, personally I'm sure it was a him, fired and severely punished. Whether or not the writer is fired is up to how The Onion handles the fickle court of public opinion but otherwise punished? What happened to the supposedly liberal Hollywood's love of the freedom of speech? If somebody can be punished for writing something stupid or crude I'm totally screwed.

It was offensive and totally over the line but was it surprising at a all? Not really, not in the world we currently live in and what is considered normal conversation and I'm quite sure the person tweeting thought it was his edgiest ever. Not in a world where gays and women seem to be perfectly acceptable punchlines of stupid stereotypical humor. Maybe it was me but I don't ever remember watching a more white and male dominated Academy Awards show than the one last night. I shouldn't be surprised, current Oscar voters are 90% white, 77% male, and have an average age of 62. Change the age and I probably just described the writing staff at The Onion too.

I may be totally wrong about all of this. If I am feel free to tell me.

There is something to be remembered here, something we all should remember sometimes. As Yahoo Canada's Greg Hughes wrote; "The Onion made a pretty significant faux pas tonight on Quvenzhane Wallis. They deleted the tweet, but the Internet doesn't ever forget."

update - For what it's worth, since I posted this morning Steve Hannah, CEO of The Onion, apologized by way of its Facebook page. "On behalf of The Onion, I offer my personal apology to Quvenzhané Wallis and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the tweet that was circulated last night during the Oscars. It was crude and offensive." You can read the full letter here.

Observations on Art 1.31

It was said that Pixar had killed traditional animation with its computer generated imagery. This simple fact was proved when Disney bought Pixar in a deal that made Steve Jobs Disney's largest shareholder. But somebody forgot to tell traditional animators that there art was dead.

Paperman mixes traditional and computer animation using a new software called Meander which was developed by Disney software engineer Brian Whited. While still 'secret' Meander allows CGI animation to be finished with traditional drawings to add detail. The process gives the finished film the look and feel of drawing but the stability and smoothness of computer generation. Paperman director John Kahrs said "There is something so primal and expressive about drawing, and our hope was to get it back into the CG animation process."

The short was first shown at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in June and is nominated for the Best Animated Short Film in next month's Academy Awards. Disney released it to all on Tuesday.

It's pretty damn awesome.

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disneyanimation
Uploaded on Jan 29, 2013

Observations 1.14

If you didn't see the Golden Globe awards last night Jodie Foster's acceptance speech for the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award is worth watching. Actually you may have to watch it more than once to get it all because it's a bit rambling. Sometimes you start saying things you have had on your mind for years and when you start you just can't stop. Sometimes it's also a beautiful thing.

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Sunday Observations 1.6

So I woke up to a perfect storm of hockey this morning. After a 113 day lockout and a 16 hour negotiating secession came this from The New York Times, "Breaking News: NHL and Players Union Reach Tentative Agreement to End Lockout." As I was reading the headline it was snowing slightly in the Village, a documentary on the Philadelphia Flyers was on HBO, and today just happens to be Flyers owner Ed Snyder's 80^th birthday. No details on when the season will start or how long it will last but this is critical information as my brother owes me a trip to a Flyers game which was last year's birthday present and I have every intention of collecting it.

I really don't watch a lot of TV other than sports and the usual Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O'Donnell, Alex Wagner MSNBC lineup but suddenly I find myself swamped with things I want to see. I had been watching Revolution from the start but I never got back to it after a storm named Sandy took out our cable. I always thought Falling Skies looked good so when it showed up free on Amazon Prime I started watching that and burned through season one in a week. Now Bo is coming back in season three of Lost Girl and I haven't seen any of season two yet. But Lost Girl just appeared free on Netflix so I'm torn between watching the second seasons of Falling Skies and Lost Girl. Netflix also has all the seasons of Nikita for free so if I can't make up my mind I can always watch that. Than again soon I can just watch hockey.

While I'm on entertainment, I mentioned before I was reading Salman Rushdie's "Joseph Anton" which is actually a memoir of Rushdie's after he wrote "The Satanic Verses." If you like memoirs or history it really is very good but it's a hard book to start. Joseph Anton is the name Rushdie came up with at the request of his guards from the Special Branch of the British Metropolitan Police. What you have is Rushdie writing a biography of Anton who is actually Rushdie and sometimes reads like Anton writing a memoir of Rushdie who is at the same time Anton. Once you get past all that it's an easy read and sometimes reads more like a spy novel than anything else. Just take my word for it.

Happy Birthday Mr. Snyder, somewhere Reggie Dunlop is smiling.

You can look that one up.

update - I'm not sure if this is an update to this post or yesterday's on Penn State and the way stories twist around each other. No NHL schedule has been announced yet but it will either be a 48 or a 50 game season. If it is a 48 game season the Flyers will open with an early afternoon game against the hated Penguins on January 19^th in Philadelphia. Early afternoon because that night the new Terry Pagula financed Penn State ice hockey team plays Vermont at the Wells Fargo Center.

Sunday Observations 12.29

It's officially cold this morning. When I go get my paper if it's below freezing and breezy, windchill is 16°, it's officially cold. That makes me wonder about our New Years Eve plans because ice skating at Bryant Park or going to Times Square were both options but who wants to freeze in the new year? Than again my brother is in State College and the Village is rather balmy compared to the mountains.

When it comes to the tunes I listen to I can be a bit strange because I can jump from Ellie Goulding to Linkin Park in one playlist. Thing is my iTunes holds almost anything including sadly country and Tom Jones but there is no opera. Last night I was listening to a playlist that may have been stranger than any of mine. Like some of mine it was all over the music rainbow but yes it included opera, opera shuffling to dance shuffling to indie which is my whole point of writing this. I heard a cover of Neil Young's "Into the Black" that was awesome so I asked who it was and was told it was a band fro Oregon called the Chromatics. We ended up listening to there entire newest album, Kill For Love, and it's really quite good, worth a listen, or maybe it was just the wine. (video)

I was reading an old article from the Guardian about career tips for art school graduates when I came across this one, it's a rule I follow at all times. "It's crucial to remember that everything you do online can be seen by everyone. So no political rants, no passive-aggressive behavior, keep it light, fun, happy and professional at all times." I'm very good at their first tip, multitasking.

So you thought this was a non-political post? Wrong because here we are looking into the national financial abyss without a parachute and the House is just coming back tonight. Well maybe not an abyss, as with the whole mess the 'fiscal cliff' is totally self inflicted drama. It would take months for all the spending cuts and taxes to take effect and in the end it's just not going to happen, take my word for it. But there are a couple things to notice.

The first is that if nothing happens tax rates will go up and than will be cut again for most people. But as the new year begins, if nothing happens, the Bush tax cuts cease to exist. When they take effect again they will be forever known as the Obama tax cuts.

The other thing to do is sit back and enjoy the beauty of a second term president. I may have mentioned before that a second term president is a totally different beast because he/she is never going to run in an election again. When President Obama made his fiscal cliff statement on Friday he threw down the gauntlet, actually he put a noose around the tea party's neck and dared them to jump. Come up with something he can support or allow a yes or no vote on his tax rates before we hit the curb. That leaves them very few options none of which are good for Republicans because either we play Thelma and Louise or they raise tax rates on the wealthy. Republicans get the blame for the first but no credit for the second. It's a beautiful thing.

Finally, Saturday morning at 12:25 AM Eastern Time the first same sex couple was married in the state of Maine. Next up the sate of Maryland on New Years Day. Congrats.

12/31 update - I wanted to add this yesterday and never got around to it. This week a bill legalizing gay marriage will be introduced in the Illinois State Senate. It is a rare thing for a sitting president to voice their opinion on state matters but on Saturday President Obama privately urged lawmakers in his home state to pass the bill. Also Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel asked major state CEOs to sign a letter which calls passing the marriage equality bill an economic imperative for the state. Among the signers so far are Google, Groupon, Morningstar founder Joe Mansueto, and PrivateBancorp Chairman Norman Bobins. This letter follows the release on Saturday of another letter signed by 250 state religious leaders supporting the bill which would make Illinois the tenth state to legalize same sex marriage.

Observations 12.11

Tomorrow night at Madison Square Garden is the 121212 Concert benefiting Hurricane Sandy relief through the Robin Hood Relief Fund.

The current list of performers includes the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Kanye West, Chris Martin, Roger Waters, Alicia Keys, Billy Joel, Eric Clapton and Bon Jovi. Also appearing Susan Sarandon, Chris Rock, Kristen Stewart, Quentin Tarantino, Brian Williams, Jessica Chastain, Chelsea Clinton, Jake Gyllenhaal, Seth Meyers, and Jon Stewart. Expect the usual array of 'surprise' guests, maybe a certain Governor from Jersey.

The concert will be broadcast on 34 U.S. TV networks including AMC, Encore, Fuse, HBO, Showtime, Sundance, and VH1. A full list of networks, radio stations, and streaming sites is here. The "Concert for New York City" after the 9-11 attacks was broadcast on just one network, VH1, and raised $32 million.

"12-12-12" The Concert for Sandy Relief

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Observations from the Coffee Shop 12.6

It's the end of the year so every place you look is another one of those end of the year lists which I really don't like all that much. I can't say I'm thrilled with the thought of looking at them for another month but this video makes it all worthwhile because I love movie trailers almost as much as movies. I sat and watched it over and over as I tried to figure out what each movie was. He does an awesome job.

This is the third year that he has made the video so if you want to see more just follow the link to The Sleepy Skunk's YouTube channel, "Movies That Come To The Rescue" is a good one.

2012 Movie Trailer Mashup


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Published on Dec 2, 2012 by sleepyskunk
FULL LIST OF MOVIES AVAILABLE HERE: SleepySkunk Tumblr
1. 'Pruit Igoe' - Composed by Philip Glass (Nonesuch Records)
2. 'Tick Tick Boom' - Performed by The Hives (Polydor Records)
3. 'Outro' - Performed by M83 (Naïve Records and Mute Records)

I dedicate this video to my cat Gaston who normally sits by my side when I engage into crazy long editing ventures (he even assisted me on The Amazing Spider-Man in 25 minutes!). Unfortunately, the poor thing had to be treated for colon disease a few weeks ago and was obligated to sit this one out. I hope to edit many more videos with him in years to come. Cheers Gaston :)

Have a safe Holiday Season moviebuffs!
T.S.S.

12/7 update - I didn't realize until later that one of the better movie mashups from last year wasn't by this, emm, sleepy skunk. Rather than embed another complete video I'll just drop the link here. This is probably the best mashup from 2011. The 2011 Portfolio. Hopefully the link works, YouTube just updated yet again and everything is different.

Observations from the Window 12.1

This is one of those totally strange posts I throw in now and than. The kind I come up with, I should say the kind Ash comes up with when I suddenly have no idea what to write about. She just throws something around like "hey, what are your top played songs on iTunes and what the hell does it mean?" So here you have my ten most played songs from iTunes but I have no clue as to what they mean other than I don't seem to have a fav genre of music. Keep in mind I do wipe out the play numbers now and than so Carly Rae Jepsen is pretty much a fluke that I'm going to blame on the Olympics. Also, I removed any Lady Gaga or Britney tunes from the list because I just didn't want to seem weird.

Call Me Maybe (Manhattan Clique Remix), Carly Rae Jepsen
Miss You Paradise (Shogun Remix), Emma Hewitt
Impossible, Anberlin
Pray Tell, Anberlin
Colours (Armin Van Buuren Remix), Emma Hewitt
Drive By, Train
Hypocritical Kiss, Jack White
A Lot of Things Different, Kenny Chesney
Amerika, Rammstein
That's Life, Frank Sinatra

I thought about adding a top Christmas song list to make it seasonal but than I realized too many of the top tunes were Mariah Carey. I dropped that idea because, like I said, I didn't want to seem strange or anything.

So there you have it. My first, and hopefully last, iTunes top ten list. Plan your holiday parties accordingly.

Observations from the Window 11.27

A cloudy and cold morning in the Village as I went for my morning paper and you could just feel it, the first snow of the year is on its way. You know that feeling if you live anywhere that gets snow, the crisp calm air, the quiet. The city has its own version of the quiet, call it loud quiet. The horns and sirens are just as loud but they sound totally different, somehow distant. My sister tells me there is already a few inches on the ground where she is so it's only a matter of waiting here.

I never watch the Today Show but I have it on this morning for a very good reason. Scarlett Johansson is guest hosting and as I write about the weather she is, you got it, doing the weather forecast. She is guest hosting because she will be doing Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at the Richard Rogers Theater. I think I may need tickets for that even though I'm not a big fan of the theatre. Maybe Chloe would like to go but than maybe I should be saying I just love the theatre.

While I'm on the subject of entertainment, or girls, Lindsay Lohan's performance in Liz & Dick was evidently so bad it had twitter in an uproar. It got so bad Dan Savage tweeted "The mob on Twitter will have the decency to feel bad when Lindsay Lohan kills herself, right?" Sad but I only bring it up because my sister showed me this R.E.M. video over the weekend and Lohan happens to be in it. It's a rather fitting if disaffected video given R.E.M. no longer exists and Lohan's current reviews. The tune, which features Patti Smith, was released last year but the video just surfaced last week, that according to my new entertainment editor Kayla.

Lohan always did look good in black.

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Published on Nov 15, 2012 by remhq
Directed by James Franco. From 2011 Warner Bros. Records release

11/29 update - So it seems Lindsay Lohan was arrested for assault last night at a club in Chelsea. Apparently after a disagreement with a woman in another booth she got up and punched her in the face. Troubled girl she may be but I can't help but like her.

Sunday Observations 10.21

I'm going to try something a bit different that maybe will continue on Sunday's or maybe not, we shall see. I've mentioned before how I constantly take notes on my comp, phone, and even a tablet I always have in my pack. Some of the things I use, some never are thought of again. Some things are worth mentioning but don't really need a full post and those will be the things I use here.

Rihanna by Annie Leibovitz

I have never been fond of cats, I just don't like them, but in the November issue of Vogue there are some shots of Rihanna where she reminds me of, well, a cat. A sexy cat I wouldn't at all mind having wander around the apartment.


I could have used this is my previous post but didn't. Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin (D) is running for U.S. Senate in Wisconsin. I read an opinion from The Washington Times that calls her a 'radical lesbian' and and all but predicts the end of the Christian world should she win. Baldwin would be the first openly lesbian senator in history. What I wanted to share was a comment from a man whose name I forgot to keep and which is now buried deep in the comments section. "Thanks for letting me know about the lesbian menace. I normally don't contribute to out-of-state campaigns, but your article prompted me to donate $100 towards her election. Keep up the good work, and God bless." Sounds like something my dad would write.

Art Review magazine released its annual 'Power 100' list this week and once again I wasn't on it. I don't know what they are thinking.

If you haven't seen it yet President Obama's "Romnesia" speech is totally worth a look. Too funny and it spawned yet another hashtag at Willard's expense, Romneyshambles was the first and still the best. Little known fact, the Romney campaign has actually purchased the rights to certain hashtags, AreYouBetterOff is one, and has them promoted by Twitter. It backfires every time.

Finally, next Saturday night Ohio State will travel to Happy Valley to play Penn State in a game now known as the Ineligible Bowl. The two best teams in the Big Ten, both ineligible for the conference championship or any NCAA bowl bids. Rather fitting. I'm sure there is some lesson in that but I have no clue what it is.

Observations from the Window 10.1

Saturday I mentioned how one of the fun things about the NY Art Book Fair is its lack of auctions, super high priced items, and "celebrity" booths. I hadn't read my brochure ahead of time so I was in for a bit of a surprise when we walked downstairs. In the basement was a faux library called "Homage To Mike Kelley" and assembled by Larry Gagosian. Kelley died of an apparent suicide in January of this year. The room was dominated by two cases filled with books and music selected by friends from Kelley's personal collection and included a copy of Milton's Paradise Lost, Nietzsche's The Birth Of Tragedy, and a complete collection of The Stooges' CDs. It was a cool idea, even if Gagosian came up with it, so I suppose I was pleasantly surprised.

Another fun element of the NYABF is watching people deal with the cash only policy. There was a time I loved going to flea markets and yard sales back in Pennsylvania, collecting old CDs and books, so I'm totally used to that. Art people in New York don't often seem to have cash so after dropping whatever they have on a vintage program or book they madly scramble for the one ATM machine in the building.

Than there is the Outdoor Co-ed Topless Pulp Fiction Appreciation Society. Leave any questions you have on this in the comments, otherwise some other time.

Later I was again pleasantly surprised, this time by a movie we watched after dinner. I'm in no way a fan of Woody Allen but I really wanted to see Midnight In Paris, probably as much for the gorgeous scenery as anything else. Well now I can honestly say I have seen a Woody Allen movie that I would watch again, actually I already have. Most of the nostalgia scenes take place in the Montmartre district, the same district of Paris as Christopher Moore's "Sacre Bleu" just forty years later, so next time I'm in Paris I must go there at midnight, I'll meet Hemingway yet. If you haven't seen it yet it's well worth renting, the cinematography is at times is just totally stunning, and it's a fun story to think about.

Before I finish, one line that did irritate me, yes even movies do irritate me sometimes, was when a present day intellectual type says that nostalgia is nothing but denial of one's present life. Now it's true I can be nostalgic to a fault sometimes, so that was one irritant, but I also figure that if nostalgia is denial than art history is denial on a grand scale. Than I had to remember that it was a Woody Allen movie and I also remembered why I don't like him. That 'I want to be somewhere else' feeling sparks creativity in more artists and writers than almost anything else, in all likelihood including Woody Allen.

At some level I could just relate to the movie. Seriously, who wouldn't want to drift back in time and visit some heroes in their element?