There must be a constructive way to up my posting frequency... Breaking news, Romney wins Maine, nobody cares... More than a week later and I am still wondering if I saw all of Sleep No More... The Syrian President's password was really 1-2-3-4-5? That ought to be on some kind of pre-test... I wish Pinterest had a flood control... Maybe birth control will bring us to the tipping point that gay marriage hasn't. I just can't imagine the likely amount of hypocrisy on that particular topic... Really I can't relate to the love of snow... Why can't you subscribe to a lottery? I'd to a $52 annual subscription... Mrs. TANBI kicked over a rock just as we were dropping off the candidate... My nephews are growing really fast... Really liked the first episode of SMASH, which is good since as a CMU Drama alum it might sort of be required... We got a new treadmill, I ought to use it... A full two days after the end of CMU Playground my Frosh were still pretty much toast... I've come to the realization that I am putting too much content into the ScenoFab class... Whitney Houston is dead? how sad... The time of year Yinzers have to become hockey fans... Are you watching House of Lies? I'm trying to decide if I should stay with it... This spring at work we're bringing in something on the order of 16 teaching applicants. As it turns out that's something less than like 5% of the number that applied for just one of the gigs... Did you know that a DirectTV DVR maxxes out at 50 shows? Neither did I... Mario Batali thinks the election is over and that Obama will win in a walkover. I hope he's not too far off... I watch a lot of TV... The comment of the week thing is a nice addition to the Greenpage routine... It's amazing to me just how different my picture of Chicago has become... Any thoughts for vacation ideas in Denver in the Spring? Now taking suggestions... Rick Santorum? Really? Sometimes I just don't understand... I have a PADI cart and summers off, maybe I should be a Bering Sea gold dredger... That professional development list is only getting longer...If you know where we put the remote for the little DVD player, shoot me an email, thanks...
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Tuesday, February 07, 2012
Worth a Look
Here are a few posts from the past two weeks of the Greenpage that might be worth your time...
After 320 years, Paris theatre's stage hands demand égalité
The Independent: The most prestigious theatre company in France, the Comédie Française, has been thrown into confusion over a 332-year-old pay agreement.
The classical theatre company has cancelled its published programme after backstage staff called an indefinite strike against a pay and bonus system which has been unchanged since 1680.
Ownership Mentality: Art Gallery Prohibits Sketching
Techdirt: I've always been a bit baffled by No Photography signs in museums and art galleries. Presumably they exist to make the exhibits more exclusive and attractive, but that misses the point of why people visit museums: they want to see these things in person, which is a vastly different experience from simply knowing what they look like. Nobody has ever seen a photo of a dinosaur skeleton or Michelangelo's David and thought "oh good, now I don't need to go see that for real."
10 Takeaways from TEDxBroadway
Ken Davenport - Opinions from a Broadway Producer: I had high expectations for the first ever TEDxBroadway, but we were blown away by the presentations given by our big-brained speakers. It was an exciting and inspiring day and all of us were so thankful to each and every presenter, and especially to each and every audience member who gave up a day's worth of work and $100 to focus on what Broadway could be in twenty years.
How Do We Identify Good Ideas?
Wired.com: I’ve always been fascinated by the failures of genius. Consider Bob Dylan. How did the same songwriter who produced Blood on the Tracks and Blonde on Blonde also conclude that Down in the Groove was worthy of release? Or what about Steve Jobs: What did he possibly see in the hockey puck mouse? How could Bono not realize that Spiderman was a disaster? And why have so many of my favorite novelists produced so many middling works?
Eiko Ishioka dies at 73
Variety: Eiko Ishioka, who earned an Oscar for the costumes in "Bram Stoker's Dracula," a Grammy for her design of Miles Davis' album "Tutu" and two Tony nominations for her work on "M. Butterfly," died of pancreatic cancer on Saturday in Tokyo. She was 73.
Thursday, February 02, 2012
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.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Making a List
FMEA
Agile/Waterfall/SCRUM
ETCP Arena
FTSI 2D/3D/IO
CAD 2D/3D
SketchUp
Assesment/Curriculum
CNC 2D/3D
Arduino
Sunday, January 29, 2012
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...
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
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.
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.
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?
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.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
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
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.
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Sunday, January 01, 2012
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!
