Spider-Man!
Word on the street is that "Spider-Man 2" is going to rock my sweet world tomorrow at 10 a.m., when I go down to CinemaStar to check out the first non-midnight screening of the day. My ex-girlfriend called me tonight to let me know A) how wonderful a film it was, and B) that Tobey Maguire introduced the film at their screening in Los Angeles. This is the third time that I've missed out on seeing celebs by not attending a screening with somebody. I missed out on a screening of "High Fidelity" with John Cusack back when I was living in L.A., and likewise missed out on Nicole Kidman and Ewan Macgregor at a screening of "Moulin Rouge". However, as I wasn't invited to the screening of "Spider-Man 2" tonight in question, I can't very well berate my poor judgment in not going.
In other news, I had a wonderful dinner at the home of some friends, and they sent me home with apple pie and brisket. Full of good food, I drove home and cranked out some 2,000 words on a short story I wanted to share at a writers' group tomorrow. Mission accomplished.
That screening of "Spider-Man 2" I'm so keen to attend starts in less than five hours. Perhaps I should sleep...
Posted by patrick at 05:39 AM | Comments (2)
June 28, 2004
Ah, the joys of dentist
Ah, the joys of dentist appointments. Suffice it to say that my hygienist did a very thorough job this morning--brutally thorough, one might say. My gums should stop hurting in time for my next appointment, some six months hence.
I got confirmation on my appearance at Anime Expo this weekend. I'll be on a voiceover actor panel this Saturday afternoon from 2:30 to 4:30 in LP 1 (ACC Room 303). That combination of letters and numbers doesn't mean anything specific to me yet, but I'm hoping they'll be a little less arcane once I scope out a map of the AX grounds. I'll be getting there early in the day, so I'll have a good buffer of time in which to establish up from down and left from right. Or maybe I'll just have Taliesin or Jonathan fire a signal flare for me.
Apropos of nothing, I think I stumbled across an Oingo Boingo cover of "Don't Fear the Reaper". It certainly sounds like them. It was an exciting discovery, as I thought I'd heard everything they'd ever done that had ever been commercially released or dissiminated on the internet.
Posted by patrick at 01:31 PM | Comments (2)
June 24, 2004
Waterloo!
I had my first Raging Waters experience today. It's much closer to my apartment than I had thought, with the drive to San Dimas only taking me about half an hour (not counting my surface-street adventure halfway there, looking for a gas station). For some reason, perhaps because I hardly ever have occasion to drive that stretch of the freeway, I'd always figured San Dimas to much further away. Not that I'm complaining--I did a round-trip into Universal City yesterday for a few hours of voiceover work, so the shorter drive today was a pleasant surprise.
I usually grow increasingly agitated as the theme-park fees add up. But not today. Seven dollars for parking, $23 for entry ($27, were it not for a coupon I printed out from their website) and $11.75 for lunch later, I was still in a very good mood. Even the $8 sandals I broke down and bought after the sun, sand and cement wrecked the soles of my feet couldn't ruin my sense of calm. Dropping fifty bucks at the water park? Pshhht, a mere trifle! I must have fancied myself a turn-of-the-century robber baron who'd lit cigars more expensive than that with bills of greater value than that.
I did feel pangs of remorse when the ride attendants, sun-bronzed teenagers of about half my size, tried to give me a starting push down the slide in question. Thanks for your good intentions, oh ye seasonally employed water nymphs, but you'd do as well to head out to the parking lot and try to clean-and-jerk my car over your head. I'll launch myself, if it's all quite the same to you.
Speaking of other first experiences, it looks like I'll be on a VO artist panel at the Anime Expo in Anaheim (or AX2004) over the July 4th weekend. I'm not sure if it'll be a R.O.D. TV panel, or a more general New Generation Pictures panel. Either way, I'm jazzed about it. Not only is this my first panel appearance, but my first time at any anime convention. Should be a hoot and a half!
Posted by patrick at 03:00 AM | Comments (2)
June 23, 2004
Ceremonial bugles, back in the news...
One of Yahoo!'s homepage main news headlines is for an article about ceremonial bugles--a device that, frittered into a bugle and discreetly activated, will play digital rendition of "Taps" for military funerals for which no honest-to-goodness bugler could be found. This caught my attention, as it was an invention I discussed in my blog back on September 5th of 2003.
It's an AP article, but my hometown managed to get mentioned:
"It's the closest and next best thing to the real thing," said Mark Maynard, director of the Riverside National Cemetery in California, where a few of the Iraq casualties have been buried. "A bone of contention with veterans organizations and families was just the sound and tackiness of the military carrying boom boxes to play taps."
Riverside National Cemetery is, interestingly enough, the cemetery at which my father was buried back in December of 1992. While I'm no great fan of the ceremonial bugle, I will agree with Maynard that "Taps" via a boombox is tacky as all hell. At my father's funeral, it pushed an already surreal event--for "surreal" is the only word to describe watching a box containing your father's ashes being placed in the ground when you're the tender age of 14--into the domain of the darkly absurd. One wonders if "Insane in the Membrane" will play as the encore, or if it would be appropriate to toss down a piece of cardboard and start breakdancing.
Of course, the priest's book of prayers with variables flagged in bright red ink with the appropriate choices (a la "Lord, let [deceased's name] know the comfort of your love, and cradle [his/her] soul to Your bosom...") didn't help any, either...
Posted by patrick at 04:20 AM | Comments (1)
June 22, 2004
Race is a funny, murky
Race is a funny, murky subject, made all the murkier with each passing generation as racially homogenous cultures slowly go the way of the dodo bird.
A friend of mine recently received an award from my university's African Student Union for having the highest GPA of any African-American undergrad. As said friend is a melange of races, and doesn't look the slightest bit African, he opted to skip the awards ceremony. An ostensibly white guy walking up to accept the ASU's GPA award would not have gone over well, or so he figured.
Now, I read this article from Yahoo! News, which explains how some Native Americans are opting to switch out of their current tribe in favor of another one--usually one in better financial condition. One of the men mentioned in the article, Charles Leno, has switched into a tribe that will cut him a $5,000 casino profits check each year just for being a member--as is his newborn son, who will have quite a hunk o' cash waiting for him by the time he reaches adulthood.
This sort of thing bothers me. Don't get me wrong; the Native Americans suffered mightily at the hands of those who came here after them, and I'm not going to begrudge any of them their cut of some boorish tourist's gambling losses when held up against the broken treaties and promises, disenfranchisement, biological warfare (smallpox-infested blankets, anyone?) and all-out genocide to which Europeans subjected them. Still, this tribe-swapping for the sake of filthy lucre seems like a slap in the face of the ideals of cultural stewardship that I associate with tribal identification.
As the article explains, "Tribes set their own rules for membership. They usually require one-quarter tribal blood for membership, but the requirement sometimes is as little as one-256th." It goes on to mention that "there are 1.8 million enrolled members in 562 federally recognized tribes in the United States."
I did some math, and unless I erred somewhere, meeting that 1/256th requirement would require a person to have had no stronger blood tie to a tribe than a sole great-great-great-great-great-great grandparent. I don't know the details off the top of my head, but from what I've heard, I have enough Native American blood on my dad's side to more than meet that requirement. I think I'll do a little research this summer and find out which tribes I'd be able to join based on nothing more than my racial makeup.
The way things are going in the world, I wonder how long it will be until the old battle-lines of race have been largely set aside for differences of religion, which seem to be much more bitterly divisive as of late. At the rate things are going, we'll end up with a bunch of Mulatto Christians fighting a bunch of Mulatto Muslims.
Speaking of which, I wonder about those children who were between the ages of eight and 12 when 9/11 occurred. What will they ever know of Muslim culture, save what an increasingly pandering media tells them at the behest of an increasingly crusaderesque U.S. administration?
These kids aren't going to read the hanged poems or look through books to find photographs of Moorish architecture, or order jallab on a whim at a Middle-Eastern restaurant, only to find out they like it. The Middle East is full of terrorists, or so they're being passively/actively told, with no positive examples/contributions of Muslim culture being presented in the name of equanimity. But as long as we have plenty of Buschjugend chafing at the proverbial bit to go blow away the towelheads as soon as they're old enough to enlist, nobody cares that they're being indoctrinated to throw the baby out with the Ba'athwater.
Posted by patrick at 01:55 AM | Comments (1)
June 21, 2004
No fears, gentle subjects!
For those of you who are looking forward to my eventual world domination with some trepidation, fear not. No longer will you have to wait for my public coronation as Generalissimo Seitz to know my politics. Thanks to the folks at the Political Compass and their diagnostic test, you can see how my policies will compare to those of other notable world leaders.
Posted by patrick at 03:41 AM | Comments (4)
June 20, 2004
Beef! It's what's in mah belly!
I attended a friend's graduation party this afternoon, followed almost immediately by dinner at another friend's apartment. There were beef/veggie kabobs at the former, and carne asada at the latter.
I don't eat red meat when I'm at home, and with my sushi addiction in full bloom, I don't have much occasion to eat beef when I'm out and about, either.
That said, I must 'fess up to eating a simply prodigious amount of beef today.
In honor of my atypical beef bacchanal, I'm trying to locate as many different covers of Aaron Copland's "Hoedown" (a.k.a. the "Beef--it's what's for dinner" theme song) as possible. I've already downloaded versions by Mad Pudding, Bobby McFerrin and Yo-Yo Ma, and Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Let me know of any others that might be lurking around out there.
Posted by patrick at 05:49 AM | Comments (1)
Sing it, Maugham!
I started into a collection of W. Somerset Maugham short stories last night, the first of which--"The Book-Bag"--yielded up the following quote. It reminded me of a conversation I had with my friend Dian a few years ago, in which we both admitted how lucky we were that our (or, indeed, anybody's) addiction to books is held to a uniquely benign standard.
"Some people read for instruction, which is praiseworthy, and some for pleasure, which is innocent, but not a few read from habit, and I suppose that this is neither innocent nor praiseworthy. Of that lamentable company am I. Conversation after a time bores me, games tire me and my own thoughts, which we are told are the unfailing resource of a sensible man, have a tendency to run dry. Then I fly to my book as the opium-smoker to his pipe. I would sooner read the catalogue of the Army and Navy Stores or Bradshaw's Guide than nothing at all, and indeed I have spent many delightful hours over both these works. At one time I never went out without a second-hand bookseller's list in my pocket. I know no reading more fruity. Of course to read in this way is as reprehensible as doping, and I never cease to wonder at the impertinence of great readers who, because they are such, look down on the illiterate. From the standpoint of what eternity is it better to have read a thousand books than to have ploughed a million furrows? Let us admit that reading with us is just a drug that we cannot do without--who of this band does not know the restlessness that attacks him when he has been severed from reading too long, the apprehension and irritability, and the sigh of relief which the sight of a printed page extracts from him?--and so let us be no more vainglorious than the poor slaves of the hypodermic needle or the pint-pot."
In light of that quote, it's hard not to think of public libraries as state-subsidized book exchange program for bibliophiles.
Posted by patrick at 04:11 AM | Comments (0)
June 14, 2004
I is good on grammar!
You are a GRAMMAR GOD!
If your mission in life is not already to
preserve the English tongue, it should be.
Congratulations and thank you!
How grammatically sound are you?
brought to you by Quizilla
I already figured this, of course, but there's nothing like some random Quizilla test to lend credibility to one's private hunches.
Posted by patrick at 08:17 PM | Comments (3)
June 11, 2004
Thus ends my two-week-long fixation with Dick...
In honor of my just having e-mailed off my two hideous Philip K. Dick essays, thus ending my quarter's work and signifying the official start of my summer, enjoy this quote (circa 1981) from Philip K. Dick: In His Own Words, a collection of transcribed interviews with the author:
"The moment you know dissent is regarded as treason, you know right away you've got totalitarianism, and then it's incumbent on your to dissent your ass off. Just protest everything. At that point, a really moral person, once he notices that trend, of the equating of dissent and treason, has a moral obligation to oppose the authorities."
I'm glad we don't live under those sorts of conditions today. Whew!
Posted by patrick at 05:39 AM | Comments (0)
Silence of the Lakers
This is the guy who ate the Lakers' livers with some fava beans and a nice chianti this evening.
Posted by patrick at 01:14 AM | Comments (0)
June 10, 2004
Because Max von Sydow's old...
My brain is fried from this damnable essay I'm trying to write. I'm currently slogging through the portion on "Minority Report," and I got to thinking about Max von Sydow. He's a great actor, but he's looked like he does now ever since his appearance in "The Seventh Seal" in 1957, back when he was an old man of 28.
And then I got to thinking about how the news stations often will prepare an obit piece for a famous old person prior to their death, so as to not have to scramble around to toss it together once they finally pass away.
And then I got to thinking about how Max von Sydow's 75.
He's not getting any younger. Best to be prepared, I say.
Posted by patrick at 04:42 AM | Comments (0)
I'm people who know quoted people!
My friend Jon Bastian was quoted in the Los Angeles Times this morning, in Richard Fausset's article "Farewell to a President":
Many African Americans like Williams remain bitter over Reagan's perceived neglect of the poor. And many gay men like playwright Jon Bastian still feel Reagan "did nothing, basically" about the AIDS epidemic that exploded during his eight years as president.
"I keep hearing people say, 'Reagan changed America,' and he did," Bastian said. "But the thing is, he didn't change it for the better."
You tell 'em, Jon!
Later in the article, the reporter quotes one of the actors in a show of Jon's currently in rehersal--and explicitly mention that it's in rehearsal, if not its title.
Quotes and free publicity? Ladies and gentlemen, it's a good day to be Jon Bastian. Every day is a good day to be Jon Bastian's waistline, I might hasten to add, but that's a rant on our respective metabolisms for another time...
Posted by patrick at 03:11 AM | Comments (0)
June 06, 2004
My friend Jon's blog needs traffic.
I've been meaning to put up this link for quite some time, but better late than never, I guess.
My friend Jon has a blog, the purpose of which is "hanging the fascist campaign spin out to dry." If you have to ask yourself which campaign, you haven't been paying attention. It could use--and what's more, deserves--some traffic and comments, so check it out.
If Bush frightens you, you'll be heartened by Jon's literary swordplay, with which he slices through the current administration's shameless chicanery.
If you're a Republican, you'll probably get mad enough at something Jon's written to try and refute his logic. If so, Godspeed and good luck. You'll need it.
Posted by patrick at 11:59 PM | Comments (1)
You go, "Avenue Q"!
"Avenue Q" won the Tony for Best Musical tonight. All is right with the world.
Click here to listen to "What Do You Do With a BA in English?" the song that first enamored me of the show, or here for an article listing some of the other winners.
Posted by patrick at 11:52 PM | Comments (2)
Zeno, philosopher princess...
It's good to have my computer back. After my half a week of not being able to log onto the internet without having my computer reboot itself, I only enjoyed a few days with a fully-functioning machine before the whole damn thing decided to die on me.
One week and $400 later, everything is running as it should. The folks at Best Buy were able to salvage my documents and scripts and transfer them onto my new hard-drive. It's a whopping 80 gigs, which means the next time my machine crashes, the potential will be there to lose twice as much stuff. I can hardly wait. Actually, the 80-gig hard-drive came with $50 of mail-in rebates, rendering it less expensive than replacing my 40-gig drive with another of its ilk.
Being without a computer for a week was a harrowing experience. I have a 20-page essay due in my independent study class and a major revamp due for my playwriting class--both of which are due by the end of the week. They were originally due last week, but both of my professors took pity upon me and granted me extensions. A good thing, too.
However, before I can start on my essay, I need to finish grading essays for another class. I'm thankful for the opportunity, as always, but I think the school year's cumulative ennui has caught up with me. Somehow, my essay grading has morphed into one of Zeno's paradoxes.
Let's say I have 60 essays, and I grade half of them. Cool--30 essays down. Okay. Now let's say that I grade half of what's left, or 15 essays. Hey, I'm almost done! Forty-five out of 60 essays graded, right? I'm on easy street!
That's what Zeno wants you to think. Tricky 2,500-year-old bastard.
Now I grade half of the 15 remaining essays; I'm left with 7.5 ungraded essays.
I grade half of those, and I'm left with 3.75 essays.
Half of 3.75? A mere 1.875.
Halve that, and you're looking at 0.9375 essays left to grade. Less than one whole essay between me and freedom.
But if I keep only getting half of it done, and then half of the half, and then half of that half, I'll never finish.
That's pretty much how I feel right now. I have a mere seven essays left to grade, but I seem to get slower and slower with each one. I'm hoping to knock them out tonight, but I'm suffering from a decided lack of gumption.
Posted by patrick at 11:48 PM | Comments (4)