January, 2009: 14 posts.
$year++2009Jan01
Happy New Year from El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles de la Porciúncula, Alta California, Los Estados Unidos, La Planeta Tierra!
Renaming2009Jan02
I have this concept of a post where in an Andy Rooney-esqe manner I complain about things that get renamed. But really I’m not complaining so much as I think of things with their original name. Some examples of this are:
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
Leah’s camera, a Canon 30D has been dead for two months, about which she’s been very sad. The error was “Err99” – a mysterious error message others have had with other Canon cameras. She had looked at some forums and tried some things but had no luck fixing. We’d talked about having to take it to Samy’s Camera in L.A. to get it looked at.
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
I really liked this Sinfest comic, turning Buddha into the little drummer boy, drumming a Japanese style Taiko drum. I keep re-reading it and figured I should post a link:
Trains, Wicked2009Jan07
I remember taking the train, trolley, and buses in San Diego, and 10 years ago I used to take a bus from Cheviot Hills to downtown L.A., but for the past few years I’ve been doing a driving commute. I took Metrolink Ventura Line to work this morning. I got off at Union Station and transferred to the Metro Red Line subway. I was impressed by how well it all ran.
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
In 1986 and 1987 the comics series Watchmen came out. I was 16 years old at the time and the work was mindblowing. I had been looking forward to it since I had read it was coming in DC Spotlight #1, a freebie I’d acquired at Comic Con the year before. It looked like it would be incredible, and serious, and awesome. It absolutely delivered, and I was happy to buy each issue as they came out. I encourage you to read the series, and read about it, for example on Wikipedia. There has been talk of a movie for as long as the series has existed, with excitement about Terry Gilliam possibly directing at some point. And honestly, I always thought that the thing was unfilmable due to the density of events, dialogue, and texture in the story.
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.
Three From Moorpark2009Jan26
I like these three shots of Moorpark, taken with my cellular telephone’s camera.
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).
