Rowan is looking to provide an accordian Slackademics class, but first he has some people interested in doing a general music theory class. Stephane provided one a few months back but I’m wondering if anyone (including Stephane) would be willing to do another! Anyone? Anyone?
Art Tutor?
Hey here’s a question for you. I saw a ‘wanted: art tutor” ad on a billboard at a comic shop and I thought – maybe I could do that. So the question is, what’s a reasonable tuting rate to ask for?
Secondly, I’ve been slowwwwwwwly reading “Your Call is Important to Us: The Truth About Bullshit” and now so are you:
My objection to advertising is not merely aesthetic. Each and every shill is a tax-deductible cost of doing business, and thus a double insult. The billions that companies spend to convince you that you are a smelly, yellow-toothed porker translate into millions fewer for the public purse and drive up the price of products. A pair of Nikes only costs a few bucks to make, but it costs a lot to get Michael Jordan…. Advertising attempts above all to sanctify mass-produced crap with a halo of uniqueness and beauty, or deliciousness and comfort, or coolness and Xtremity. Ads determine…how we perceive ourselves and even what we do. There is, for example, mounting evidence that we may be making ourselves ill with our ad-induced scrubbing. While we scour the world to a sterile gleam and mock the mammal scents of our continental friends, research tells us that kids in slightly grimy houses have a lower incidence of asthma than those who live in immaculate surroundings. And antibiotic hand washes only accelerate the development of more resistant bugs, a process already well underway thanks to the mass prescribing of antibiotics.
Just a note: I am not inherently against advertising (obviously since I do it myself to some extent, and I was in a commercial). Also there’s too much rhetoric and not enough citations. But…I am enjoying the book.
Also I saw Blades of Glory and it made me guffaw. It’s playing at the Rio still. I didn’t realize Tuesdays were $5 there. Or did I?
Art Appreciation
As part of an experiment/stunt, international virtuoso Joshua Bell and his nigh $4 million violin spent some time busking with some interesting results.
For many of us, the explosion in technology has perversely limited, not expanded, our exposure to new experiences. Increasingly, we get our news from sources that think as we already do. And with iPods, we hear what we already know; we program our own playlists.
I don’t know if I agree with that entirely, but it’s food for thought.
Rockonomics: Music Video for "A Marine Biologist"
Stewie had an idea for a music video for “A Marine Biologist” and I think it’s possible. The idea is to send an email out to as many marine biologists as we can find, along with a copy of the song. We ask them to send us some footage of them working. The music video becomes a series of such footage, kind of like a cross between a music video and a documentary, with credits at the bottom of the screen for each marine biologist. So for example we could have some footage of Dr. Steve O’Shea disecting a giant squid and in text at the bottom would be something like
Dr. Steve O’Shea
systematics and biogeography of cephalopods
(whatever institution he may be working for)
New Zealand
I don’t even think there’s a need to have any band footage in there, but if there were it should be us at the Vancouver Aquarium wandering around in fishy mascot costumes. Or at least wet suits.
So, feedback? And do you know any marine biologists?
Friendster, Orkut, there’s too many of these “friend” sites to keep track of, and they keep emailing me to tell me I have a new friend. Most recently I was invited to join Facebook and I thought, why not? At least it has a fanclub for The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets on it. I had no idea there were so many people I know on Facebook, it seems every day I get a new request. Some of whom I don’t even know!
The point is, don’t let me forget to tape “Nature: Encountering Sea Monsters” tonight!
The Marine Biologists Are Stumped
There is a heated discussion on The Octopus News Magazine Online (tonmo.com) as Dr Steve O’Shea tries to identify just what the hell this could be
Size- 30-40cm long and around 5-10cm thick around anterior end, and 2-5cm thick posterior skirt.
Grey colour on dorsal side of body. Pale ventral. Red/white bands around edges of skirt Orange/brown patch on ventral surface behind the vent.
Skirt This appears to be a membranous tissue on the posterior end of the body, mostly grey but with banding around the edges. On close inspection of the photographs this looks like a thin layer of skin that flaps like a ray. The banded area looks like 2 separate appendages that do not join, but the ends meet.
Anterior very distinctive nose/ trunk like protrusion which appears to be able to move independently of the rest of the body. Small grooves run from the tip of the underside of the nose, towards the middle underside and around the side of the body towards the vent. There was a notable inflation of the melon as the animal surfaced and this then deflated as it dived.
2 (visible) circular indentations on dorsal surface near the beginning of the skirt
Movement slow swimming, possibly using the vents on the side of the body to propel it forward. It moved with the nose end leading. One photograph shows a footprint left behind the animal.
Behaviour – First spotted just below the surface (~ 30cm), it then surfaced and swam towards the boat, stopped and lifted the nose towards us as if sensing something in front of it.
There was a group of about 200+ bottlenose dolphins in the area, feeding on small fish. They did not appear interested in the creature, nor it by them.
Relatively calm sea conditions, sea state 1, slight easterly swell. Water depth, <25m.
A Day of Being Too Early
I biked out to Burnaby today. I didn’t know how long it would take so I left early. It took 40 minutes and I arrived 50 minutes early for my audition to Stargate: Atlantis.
I went to see Married to Music [link] and Nomeansno at the Red Room today. I didn’t know the order of the bands (some other band named The Jolts was playing) so I arrived at the time it said on the ticket. 8pm. I was the first one there. I was so early that I couldn’t stand it. I didn’t bring my bag so when I wanted to write my thoughts down I had to go to a corner store to get some paper and a pen. They didn’t have any notepads so I had to buy 200 sheets of lined paper, and at the show I swear there were like 4 people who were reading over my shoulder. Some even asked me what I was doing. Hey, mind your business! But in fact I was working out a business plan for a World Wildlife Federation of Justice comic. Which I will go into detail here at a later date.
The rock show, in the meantime, was fantastic. I pity all of you who missed it. Nomeansno still has it, and Married to Music [myspace link] is one of my new faves. I talked with two of the gents from MtM about them opening for our CD release party in June and they were keen. Now let’s see if we can get our album done by then.
PS – auditions are surreal things.
April Fuel's Day
Here’s some interesting things happening this month:
April 4 (Thursday) – Chris Wood’s art show opening gala at the Diane Farris Gallery!!!!!!! 6-8pm
Currently – Blades of Glory at The Rio (who wants to go?)
Tuesday April 17 – Vancouver Ukelele Circle at Our Town Bakery
Saturday April 21 – Vancouver Comic Jam at Jolly Alderman Pub 8pm
Sunday April 22 – Vancouver Comicon at Heritage Hall (daytime)
Who knows of other things?
ps – here’s [link] a short and insightful interview with George Lucas about what characters will be appearing in the Clone Wars live action series.
DVD!
Here [link] is an interesting (short) article on one of the many problems with DVDs. Basically, as you may have guessed, the people who produce DVDs hold goodies back from a box set so that you will buy the next edition.
Here’s another:
Spaceship Zero Comic Page 4
Here’s the last page. Inking style changed from the brush to the pen on this one, except the big expanses of black.
Other pages:
Page 3: http://www.thickets.net/toren/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/ssz-page-3.png
Page 2: http://www.thickets.net/toren/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/ssz-page-2-small-no-tone.jpg
Page 1: http://www.thickets.net/toren/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/ssz-page-1-inks-balloons-72dpi.jpg
