Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Creativity
My creative energy has been sloping off for a while now, and this disturbs me. Back in high school, and immediately post-high school, I averaged 4 or 5 plays a year. That's pretty good. Then later it sloped off to two or three. Last year, I acted in one show, and, as I recall, did music for one. Unacceptable. I am in withdrawals from my 5 play a year habit.
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Uncle Dave Macon Days
Holy Hell, I love Uncle Dave Macon.
The entirety of what I knew about him was two tracks from the Anthology of American Folk, but I have recently discovered that there is now a 4-CD of his recordings.
His ouvre is about half songs about his love for Jesus, and half songs like Old Plank Road, about cheatin' women and getting drunk. Just fun, energetic music. My favorite Uncle Dave lyric:
My wife died last Friday night,
Saturday she was buried.
Sunday was my courtin' day,
Monday I got married.
An amazing factoid: Uncle Dave began his career as a musician at age 50, in the year 1920. Up to that point, he had been a farm and played the banjo as a hobby.
Do yourself a favor - check out Uncle Dave.
The entirety of what I knew about him was two tracks from the Anthology of American Folk, but I have recently discovered that there is now a 4-CD of his recordings.
His ouvre is about half songs about his love for Jesus, and half songs like Old Plank Road, about cheatin' women and getting drunk. Just fun, energetic music. My favorite Uncle Dave lyric:
My wife died last Friday night,
Saturday she was buried.
Sunday was my courtin' day,
Monday I got married.
An amazing factoid: Uncle Dave began his career as a musician at age 50, in the year 1920. Up to that point, he had been a farm and played the banjo as a hobby.
Do yourself a favor - check out Uncle Dave.
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Do I Look Like a Stephanie?
My dad found a badge to the Siggraph convention laying on the sidewalk on 4th ave this afternoon, and suggested that I take it and do a spin around the San Diego Convention Center. So I walked down to the end of the Gaslamp Quarter, put the badge around my neck, and became Stephanie Simpson.
Con-Vis security guards, as it turns out, don't really give a crap whether you look like a Stephanie. They mostly care if you have a plastic pouch slung around your neck.
Holy crap, that thing is cool. People demoing software for designing CG models - one guy was putting the finishing touches on a shockingly lifelike 3D dinosaur man's armor, as fifteen or twenty spectators watched. People demoing mo-cap suits and software (most people, when they get a chance to get their motion captured, do a strange, awkward sort of dance.), including mo-cap that does not require a spandex suit with ping-pong balls on it, since it can capture any motion at all, including the motion of facial expressions. There was even a Lucasfilm booth, with a huge crowd watching a guy explain how they made the Transformers transform.
Wicked cool. Sorry Stephanie.
Con-Vis security guards, as it turns out, don't really give a crap whether you look like a Stephanie. They mostly care if you have a plastic pouch slung around your neck.
Holy crap, that thing is cool. People demoing software for designing CG models - one guy was putting the finishing touches on a shockingly lifelike 3D dinosaur man's armor, as fifteen or twenty spectators watched. People demoing mo-cap suits and software (most people, when they get a chance to get their motion captured, do a strange, awkward sort of dance.), including mo-cap that does not require a spandex suit with ping-pong balls on it, since it can capture any motion at all, including the motion of facial expressions. There was even a Lucasfilm booth, with a huge crowd watching a guy explain how they made the Transformers transform.
Wicked cool. Sorry Stephanie.
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