File under I Wish I'd Thought of That: Vampire Cupcakes.

Here's one thing that's abundantly clear about the current administration: no one has the stones political capital to tell the Vice President to put down the goddamn gun until January of 2009.

NYTimes: "Boras made his announcement by e-mailing The Associated Press during the World Series game."  Just as soon as everyone figured out that Lowell would win MVP.  You stay classy, A-Rod.

How can I use spreadsheets to answer some of my many questions about the world? 

• =GoogleLookup("life"; "meaning")
• =GoogleLookup("God"; "existence")
• =GoogleLookup("Beatles"; "iTunes launch date")
• =GoogleLookup("one hand clapping"; "sound level")
• etc.

I had the pleasure last night of seeing Glenn Kotche and the Kronos Quartet perform Kotche's new piece, Anomaly. Kotche's description of the piece in the liner notes is worth quoting at length.

After seeing a Kronos Quartet performance in early 2006, I got the idea to compose a string quartet. I wanted to do it from my perspective as a percussionist, treating the four members of the quartet like the varying relationships and roles of my limbs when I play the drum set. I also thought it would be interesting to arrange it with the addition of an optional drum set part. ...

My closest uncle, Eddie Kotche, died around the time of that Kronos performance.  I went home and improvised a short melody on the vibraphone. This would become the dominant, recurring theme in what would eventually be titled Anomaly. ...

My uncle was an anomaly. He had an incredible zest for life and an uproarious sense of humor despite being severely challenged throughout his life by cerebral palsy. ... After losing him, I began to think about my reliance on physical motion and coordination for my self-expression and livelihood, and about the dichotomy between our physical circumstances. ...

Although the origins of Anomaly are deeply personal...I wrote the piece to be broad in its emotional range and appeal. ... I wanted the individual instruments to experience both freedom and restriction. I wanted Kronos to be dependent on each other for the execution of certain melodies and musical passages. The main motif that appears in each movement is, for me, symbolic of the love and experience that those dear to us leave behind. ...

As the first piece I've composed outside of the realm of percussion, it is for me also an anomaly.

If you're in SF, there is another performance tonight at Herbst Theater. If you're into this sort of thing, check out Kotche's album Mobile, on the Nonesuch label. And for those looking for context, I've posted about Kotche before, in his role as the drummer for the band Wilco.

Oh. Hey. You just caught us blogging.

It shouldn't surprise any of you that this made me laugh out loud. (Via pasc.)

I just saw a television commercial for the upcoming DVD release of Ratatouille that was unabashedly aspected 16:9. It stuck out because most movie commercials (esp for DVD releases) are formatted to fit your 4:3 screen... Of course the different look distracted me from the actual release date, though I'm assuming it'll be out in time for Thanksgiving.

Second order question: will the DVD drive incremental sales of Thomas Keller cookbooks?

There's nothing better than chatting with customers...especially when you're reading their book at the same time. (OK, not at exactly the same time. You know what I mean.) Now on Everything TypePad, a brief interview with Alex Ross.  (And that, ladies and gentlemen, makes Ross the direct or indirect subject of three of the last five posts here. I'll move on soon, I swear.)

It's not quite as simple as text, but TaskPaper seems to add just enough on top of plain text to make it worth using for keeping lists.  Of things.  To get done.

« September 2007   November 2007 »

(un)filtered is a product of michael sippey. there are older things at sippey.typepad.com/filtered, with archives back to 2003, and even older things at stating the obvious.