Whatcha Watchin?

The tablet and Netflix are a dangerous combination.  When we moved to the new house we made the decision to not have a TV in the master.  Somewhere I'd read that you sleep better if when you go to bed you go to sleep (other nocturnal activities not withstanding).  In any case, between the iPad, Slingbox, and Netflix - maybe throw in HBOGO and the TBS and TNT and various other channel apps; it's become fairly clear to me that one of the tablets major functions is television.

So I've been just pounding down TV series (and simultaneously really skewing the Netflix "you might like" engine).  I started with Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.  Then I moved on to Sportsnight.  Next up was all of Red Dwarf.  How i missed Red Dwarf all those years ago escapes me.  

After that I went on a little X-Men cartoon binge, you can see those titles in the last post.  When I came to the end of the last X-Men series I had a real choice to make.  I was thinking about going through all the Star Trek Deep Space Nine episodes.  I really like that show.  I did watch the one where they sail the lightship to Cardassia, and then also the Tribble episode. I probably will surrender and watch the whole thing, but for the time being I put it off.

For what you ask?  Something even further into my past:

I decided to rewatch Star Trek, The Animated Series.  I remember watching these AGES ago.  Some things really strike me now.  First is that the voices are mostly the actors from the series.  Second is that the look and feel of the cartoon so closely matches the live action show.  The set up and transition shots of the Enterprise are nearly identical, and they've been very faithful to the design.  I even recognize the pattern of windows on the ship.  It's possible that the scoring is better for the cartoon.  I'll have to watch an original episode to be sure.  The one huge difference is their adoration for shots like the one above, with one character's face filling nearly the entire frame.  That'd look different with live actors.

Something else that's struck me is that the writing isn't dumbed down at all for the cartoon.  One of the first episodes dealt with wiping and restoring Spock to the timeline, fairly complex stuff for Saturday morning consumption.  I'm only halfway through season one and we've seen the Guardian of Forever, Tribbles, and the Shore Leave world as well as left the universe entirely for a story with witches and Satan.

Seem how I just don't think later generations got the same things out of The Smurfs.

Making a List

FMEA
Agile/Waterfall/SCRUM
ETCP Arena
FTSI 2D/3D/IO
CAD 2D/3D
SketchUp
Assesment/Curriculum
CNC 2D/3D
Arduino

Ellipses...

I saw a thing today that said blogging is good for you, so I should blog more (although the article was about teenage girls)...  Last week at work was 32 hours of FTSI Navigator training.  One of my most interesting purchases...  Went to Goodwill today with some things I packed away in Chicago and moved to PA.  That they have Goodwill in IL does not escape me...  A little bit I don't think anyone running in the Florida Primary will be the eventual Republican nominee...  If college theatre had an annual pro-bowl in Hawaii I might apply myself a little bit more...  I finished X-Men, X-Men Evolution, Astonishing X-Men, and Wolverine and the X-Men on Netflix.  What should I watch next?  I appear to be right out of X-Men...  I need new tires for my truck.  If you have shopping suggestions send them my way...  This week at work is "Playground."  Everyone is really excited.  I've never really gotten the bug...  Apparently if you do internet research on buying a treadmill what you come up with is: don't buy a treadmill...  Trying to decide if "Lost Girl" should make the cut on our DVR.  Not really feeling it so far...  Time to start thinking about spring home projects...  Is there any subject cable can't tack "wars" onto it and make a show?  I am hanging in for "Blog Wars"...  I'm going to NYC for interviews.  Now accepting activity suggestions for the trip...  Going to have to learn about Craislist, Ebay, and Freecycle for this summer I think...  I'm making a list for myself, so far it has things like: FMEA, Arduino, Navigator, SketchUp.  Could be weeks, maybe months...  I now have a Pinterest.  Now you know...  I missed the State of the Union this time around.  Probably for the best...  Apparently I don't plan far enough in advance to use Wheel Deliver...  Facebook is going public.  I wonder how you get in on that...  The steering wheel of my car, as long as it is parked, makes a wonderful mount for an iPhone for Facetime...  Mitt Romney, in all likelihood, makes more money in a day than you probably make in a year.  How can he possibly represent the public of the US?  I mean there's rich and then there's rich... 

Worth a Look

With the return of classes comes the return of Worth a Look.  Here are some articles from last week's Greenpage that might be worth your time:

Diversity in the Booth

Stage Directions: Imagine that someone charges you with the task of hiring a Black production manager. Once you have successfully navigated the why’s, wherefores and “say whats?” that making such a charged request would elicit in our current socio-political climate, you would find that you had very few options before you. Your hiring pool would be extremely meager, albeit spectacularly talented. Your hiring pool would consist of two individuals: David Stewart, production manager and SM instructor for the University of Wisconsin–Madison; and Tayneshia Jefferson, production manager/stage management lecturer for Indiana University’s Department of Theatre and Drama. Us.

Posted by David at 1/18/2012 02:43:00 PM  

The Rise of the New Groupthink

NYTimes.com: SOLITUDE is out of fashion. Our companies, our schools and our culture are in thrall to an idea I call the New Groupthink, which holds that creativity and achievement come from an oddly gregarious place. Most of us now work in teams, in offices without walls, for managers who prize people skills above all. Lone geniuses are out. Collaboration is in.

Posted by David at 1/18/2012 02:37:00 PM  

Should theatre leave more to the imagination?

guardian.co.uk: Ordinarily, the prospect of Rupert Goold tackling CS Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, as he will do in Kensington Gardens this summer, would be a lip-smacking one. From the hellish industrial kitchen of his Macbeth to the tawdry glitz of his Las Vegas Merchant, the places Goold creates are always vivid, inventive and full of high-definition detail. So who better to create the grand landscapes of Narnia, Lewis's fantastical world within a wardrobe?

Posted by David at 1/19/2012 04:59:00 PM  

Stage role for TED

Variety: This week, Broadway types are just as likely to be talking about holograms and genomics as they are about ticketing and "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" lawsuits.
TEDxBroadway, a day-long conference organized by a trio of legiters, aims to get theater folk thinking ahead -- way, way ahead: The theme of the Jan. 23 event is "What Can Broadway Be in 20 Years?"
It's an unusual confab for the small, close-knit industry, which usually focuses more on day-to-day concerns of putting up and running a show. It's also an event that could make waves precisely because the community of Broadway movers and shakers is relatively small.

Posted by David at 1/21/2012 10:59:00 AM

Beyond the Bechdel Test

2AMt: Soon after I wrote this Forum Theatre post on the Bechdel Test, the question arose: what might be a similar test for LGBT characters? Being both gay and up for the challenge, I gave it a try. Here it is:
The Test – Does the movie have?
1. An identifiable LGBT character
2. Who has a conversation with someone else*
3. About something other than sexuality

Posted by David at 1/20/2012 03:29:00 PM 

Pretest

I gave the Scenic Fabrication & Installation class a pretest today.  How do you think you'd do?

F&I PretestS12

Everyone in the class has had a year and a half of crew, Stagecraft I, Stagecraft II, and Basic PTM and yet I see a lot of blanks.  I may have to do a histogram.  Maybe we have some gaps in our curriculum.

This Could Save You Some Time

First Night 2011-12

Mrs. TANBI and I have a New Years tradition - she goes to work and I hang around like her entourage. It seems like each year the project grows just a little. This year the work crept out all the way down Penn Ave to 9th.

One of the coolest parts of the job is watching other people take photos. This year there were several families where they kids would lay down in the street for a picture. I didn't get one of those, but here's a very meta photo of someone else taking a photo.

Sometimes the pictures aren't really enough to see what's going on...



Of course the end of the evening is fireworks. This time ringing in the New Year was Rusted Root...




Things are usually too busy for me to really make sure I get it in, so once again: Great Job Mrs. TANBI! And Happy New Year!

Ellipses...

Finally signed up for Skype: david.boevers if you want to be the one to have the awkward first conversation...  The news people should be doing a story on how much time they are spending covering candidates they clearly think are ridiculous...  Ran by the office for an hour today.  Very sleepy in Purnell.  Calm before the storm...  Just can't get excited about the Iowa caucus.  Fairly certain most of these folks can't get the nomination...  If you have Twitter and you do like 5 tweets or more in a couple of minutes or less you are a) certainly being scrolled right over in my world & b) probably really annoying people with push notifications or audible alerts.  Just sayin...  A little bit things are coming apart in the Middle East, aren't they?  Heard more about Russell Brand on the news today though...  The county just mailed out property reassessments.  Apparently our house is up 50% in 14 months.  Think I could get someone to buy at that price?  Me either...   Really sad to hear how badly things are going for Sears.  I hope they pull it together...  The Local and The Trust are sniping at each other again and it is going to spill over into our New Years.  At least it's not too cold this year so far...  I think my end of semester cold is finally vacating my person...  Today I turned around and drove home to get a club card that when I got to the store they told me I didn't need because it was on file...  I'm trying REALLY hard not to gum up the new laptop and have it bog down.  I don't think I'll be able to keep that up for long...  On that note, does anyone know what MS OneNote is?  It came with my new MS Office...  Looking for the right things to follow on Pinterest.  Not really doing that well (or trying that hard)...  17th Precinct looks good.  Too bad NBC passed on it.  Like a BSG holodeck episode...  I figured out why my Satellite box and my Slingbox weren't playing nice.  Now I just have to figure out a way to fix it...  There's a mic somewhere on this laptop, but I don't know where...  Remember all that consternation over the debt ceiling last time?  Curiously absent this time.  Makes you wonder why it was such a big deal last time (oh wait, he thought better of it - consternation in January)...  Mrs. TANBI is out doing the dancing numbers again.  Even bigger and better this year...  If I were Samoa I would have skipped a Monday rather than a Friday...

BTW, PIPA not much better than SOPA

Dear Senator Casey:

Hello.

I just happened across your name on a list of supporters for PIPA today.  I wanted to drop you a note to let you know that although I believe some kind of remedy is necessary for online pirating, I believe (like many others, especially those with a working knowledge of the technology) that the legislation as written is too heavy a regulatory hand.  The processes laid out in PIPA are too likely to be abused to the detriment of free speech and open networks.  The US should not be following behind such regimes as China and Syria for our network policy - that's just embarrassing.

Please work with the other members of the Congress to come up with a better bill.