January, 2009: 14 posts.
$year++2009Jan01
Renaming2009Jan02
The Del Mar Fair has been renamed “The San Diego Fair” and calling it “San Diego” just sounds wrong given that it’s held at the Del Mar Fairgrounds.
Another one is Qualcomm Stadium, which to me will always be Jack Murphy Stadium.
ArcLight Hollywood will always be just the Cinerama Dome to me.
Grauman’s Chinese Theater was renamed Mann’s Chinese Theater for a few years, but now it’s been re-renamed (un-renamed?) to Grauman’s Chinese Theater. I’ve no right to complain about that one.
Leah’s camera est non mortuus2009Jan03
I’ve not given it much thought or used my troubleshooting skills on the thing, but last night, as part of a lovely 4-day holiday weekend, I applied myself to the problem.
It appears to be fixed now, as a result of upgrading to the 30d’s firmware up to 1.0.6. The instructions on the Canon website were easy-to-follow and it seems to have worked.
For those of you disappointed by the lack of photos from leah, the good news is we may see pictures from her again soon.
Sinfest Comic from 28 Dec 20082009Jan04
Trains, Wicked2009Jan07
Here are a few photos from the trip that don’t necessarily represent the trip very well:
Why did I take the train? Because I wanted to carpool home after Wicked tonight with Leah and Al. Coincidentally, the Hollywood & Vine Metro station exits directly across from the Pantages:
Charming 1956 Disneyland Home Movie2009Jan10
And it turns out there’s an instant of young Steve Martin in the film.
Also watch or download it at archive.org.
Found via the always wonderful waxy.org
Who Watches the Watchmen?2009Jan25
Well the film is set to come out in March, and I think they’ve got it right. They appear to have stuck to the alternate timeline, and the broad effects the character of Dr. Manhattan has had on world affairs. Witness this purported piece of footage from 1970:
The verisimilitude of that is compelling to me. The main narrative of Watchmen is set in 1985, where Richard Nixon remains President of the United States. This past footage is similar in feel to the background information each issue of the comic. Watchmen contains excerpts from memoirs, news reports, newspapers, political cartoons, political treatises. The comic contained a whole world to explore, in some sense very similar to our own 1980s world, but in many respects quite different too. At the time the threat of nuclear annihilation was very much on our minds. This difference from our own time is possibly the most profound change since I was a teen. It was just assumed that we’d all get killed in a nuclear war eventually, by accident or aggression. Fiction like War Games and Mad Max are predicated on such apocalyptic thoughts. Now the threat people fear most is terrorism, possibly nuclear, but then it seemed quite plausible that the US and USSR would eventually come to war. How the story will play to audiences who don’t have the notion of government-sponsored armageddon in their minds I don’t know, but I can’t help but be moved by the work. Watchmen (the collected version) is the comic I’ve read and re-read most in the last 25 years. Perhaps the film will be one worth watching and re-watching over the next 25.
Beetlejuice & The Joker2009Jan26

I’m sorry to report I forget where I found this last week. But I love this image of two of my favorite tricksters: What’s a trickster? In mythology, and in the study of folklore and religion, a trickster is a god, goddess, spirit, man, woman, or anthropomorphic animal who plays tricks or otherwise disobeys normal rules and norms of behavior. (Other fave tricksters: Loki and Coyote).