Blog

Moment of Zen – Steve Jobs’ Courage

Posted on by

 

My first computer was a Mac 780 running OS 7 in 1995 that I got as a High School graduation gift. From that day to this I have always loved Apple products, and have only started buying PCs after I graduated from college because the companies I ended up working for all used Windows as their main user interfaces. However, my mom has a iMac, and I have an iPod (that I need to upgrade as soon as I can).

These words from Jobs’ commencement speech are words to live by . . . because for a time in my life I made the mistake of living my life – making decision in my life – in response to what I thought would make other people happy. Thankfully, it was something I realized was a mistake to do, but it is still two years of my life that I wish I could have over in order to make the decision I really wanted to make . . . and not the one I thought would make other people happy.

A Little Priest  - Sweeney Todd (1982)

Posted on by

A Little Priest  - Sweeney Todd (1982)

So, I like the movie version of Sweeney Todd. Unlike a lot of stage musicals made into movies, I think it made the translate into a film very well … which probably had a lot to do with Sondheim himself having some say in things, since he notoriously hates a lot of film versions of stage musicals, being that he’s a huge film fan as well. I thought Johnny Depp acquitted himself very well on the vocals. No he wasn’t George Hearn or Len Cariou, but I thought he held his own. I was especially impressed with his version of the song “Epiphany,” a song that is quite hard to sing since, for half of it, you’re singing counterpoint to the orchestra and, therefore, have little to no support. 

But if there was one thing I could point to about it that I didn’t like, it was the excluding of most of the hysterical funny punny dialog during “A Little Priest.” I remember getting into a disagreement with someone on a movie forum I used to post to a lot about the fact that they cut it when I preview clip of the song was released. They insisted the dialog was still there, I could tell by the way the score was playing that it had clearly been cut. And I was vindicated when I was able to get some early preview screening tickets for it and went to see the movie about two and a half weeks before it opened wide.

The video of above if from the filming of the original tour of the show back in the early 80s, and the first version of the show I ever saw … about 10 years before the movie was made. And this song was pretty much where I fell in love with the show … and even more in love with Stephen Sondheim. It was just so clever and funny, and yet still grim all at the same time. (If there is one thing that creeps me out above anything, it’s even just the implication of cannibalism, never mind people actually performing the actual act of it). And I do love the attention the movie brought to the show (as I understand, it’s now the Sondheim show that is most performed in High Schools these days, passing Into the Woods now).

The Muppets – The Pig With The Froggy Tattoo

Posted on by

Have I mentioned lately how happy the advertising for the new Muppets movie makes me? And I honestly think this is the best of the “parody” trailer out of the four that have been released. It’s a parody of the The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo trailer that was released a few months back (which is a pretty cool trailer in and of itself).

Raul Esparza – “Being Alive” Company (2006)

Posted on by

Raul Esparza – “Being Alive” Company (2006)

Out of all the version of this song I’ve heard, (and I’ve heard more than a couple), this version is the one that has really brought me to tears. Maybe because I’m older now than I was the first time I saw this show (preformed by a local theater group) and became obsessed with it – (which was just more fuel to add to my growing Sondheim obsession). In six months I’m going to be the same age as Bobby is at the start of this show and even though I got, in an abstract way, what he was talking about wrt relationships in this song when I first heard it, I get it so much more now over a decade later.

On another note, I really wish I could have gotten to see this version of the show live. Too bad they never did a tour. 

I wish I had the power to make this happen

Posted on by

Interesting little write-up about the popularity of Manga in the US that I found:

http://rashels-dnb.blogspot.com/2011/02/mangas-popularity-in-america-where-did.html

I knew Manga was popular, but I didn’t know it made up 2/3rs of the industry! I’m going to keep checking to verify that’s true, but if so – wow.

This whole thing with DC Comics and their reboot (in which the latest news is that they are openly admitting to be doing this mainly to appeal to males 18-34 only) has me – again – thinking about how much I wish I could create a Manga-type format for some DC titles – particularly Superman.

What I immediately liked about Manga when I first took the plunge and started reading some (back in 2007) was the wide range of stories that could be found if you did some research. And not just the stories were diverse, but the target readerships were diverse too. Girls, boys, young women, young men, adults, even gay or lesbian . . . chances are there was some manga out there that appealed to a person. There’s a series out there for every type of reader. And it was all mainstream at that (well, mainstream in Japan at least).

I’ve thought for a while now that Superman is something that could easily be broken into three distinct types of Manga series:

1. A shonen manga (maybe in the style of something like Fullmetal Alchemist) which would be the “main” series – lots of action and adventure, etc.

2. A shojo manga focused on Lois, (maybe in the style of something like Skip Beat), focusing on her career as an investigative reporter and all that, along with being Superman’s girlfriend/wife.

3. A second shonen manga that would be more “adult” in it’s themes and stories, kind of an AU and maybe even more seinen than shonen in it’s make.

With those three types you could reach a wide (wider) variety of readers and do many more diverse stories than can be done now – or will be done in this new reboot I bet.

Page 1 of 7:12345...7Next »