the creaming method

some windows-specific minor emacs-fu of particular interest to clojure programmers

2010-04-01T20:27:00.006-04:00

The problem: since Cygwin 1.7, the use of Windows-style path names (e.g. C:\foo\bar rather than /cygdrive/c/foo/bar) has been deprecated. If you run a cygwin utility from within Emacs, it will do this now deprecated thing. The utility will still work, but will print a warning message on stderr.

This is particularly annoying if you're developing in Clojure, and are fond of using slime-edit-definition (usually bound to M-.). If the definition is inside a jar file, slime will use the unzip command under the covers to get at it. As unzip is not one of the random utilities that ship with the Emacs+W32 package, it quite nicely gets picked up out of my Cygwin install. But, this ends up inserting the warning message at the top of the resulting buffer.

Because of the extra lines, my cursor ends up (horror!) in the wrong place.

Possible solutions:

Get an unzip.exe without this problem.

Nice idea, but I'd have to maintain it myself; the unzip from cygwin gets updated whenever i update cygwin. Not that unzip is constantly getting updated, but still.

Make a wrapper shell script for unzip that runs the appropriate argument through cygpath

Simple, but this leaks outside of my emacs setup. Since the problem is coming from emacs, I'd like to fix it there.

defadvice

Now you're talkin'!

I put the following in my .emacs:

2009-10-22T16:45:00.000-04:00

i'm 28 and listening very carefully

John Hughes

2009-08-07T20:24:00.002-04:00

2009-06-23T22:28:00.003-04:00

As a bit of a subway geek, this article in the Times about selling corporate naming rights to the Atlantic Avenue station got me thinking: What other stations, through quirks of history, actually have commercial names, even if we don't realize it? For the purposes of this exercise, non-profit entities (like Columbia or the Museum of Natural History) don't count, though no-longer-existent commercial entities do. Fact checked using Wikipedia, the Encyclopedia of New York City, nycsubway.org and Forgotten New York.

Train stations

There are two subway stations that are part of old railway stations, each of which is named for the railroad company that built them. Penn Station is, of course, named after the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, a fact which makes possible the elocutively bewildering experience of going from New York Penn Station to Newark Penn Station. Grand Central-42nd Street gets its name from Grand Central Terminal, which gets its name in turn from the New York Central Railroad of Vanderbilt fame.

Newspaper squares

When Adolph Ochs moved his newspaper to Longacre Square in 1904, he got the city to rename the area Times Square, a name that has been retained even though the Times hasn't actually been on the square since 1913. I would speculate that the cost of redoing all of the name plates in the Times Square-42nd Street station had something to do with it.

Herald Square was named after the New York Herald, which was headquartered there from 1893 to sometime in the 1920s. I want to say that the city renamed the square after the success of Times Square in a successful attempt to get the Herald to move there, but I can't find any references to back me up on that story at the moment.

Sports stadiums

An interesting thing to note about Barclay's purchase is that it's consistent with MTA practices of the past in naming stations after professional sports venues. Prior to this year, both baseball stadiums in New York City had their names on their respective subway stops, though it does not appear to be the case that Ebbets Field was so lucky (actually, looking at some old maps it looks like Yankee Stadium wasn't so lucky at the time either).

However, when the name of Shea Stadium's replacement was announced, the MTA balked at the idea of putting the name of a giant bank on the wall without being compensated, an idea I applauded. A beleaguered Citibank failed to pony up, and the Mets-Willets Point station was born. 161 Street-Yankee Stadium remained of course.

For some reason, while posting the trademarks of corporate sponsors requires payment, the MTA is fine with the trademarks of the teams themselves. Both team names are trademarks; whether those marks are registered to the team owners or to MLB is unclear to me.

Other commercial place names

63rd Drive on the R and V trains (the IND Queens Boulevard line) has the subtitle Rego Park, a neighborhood named after the Real Good Construction company, which built it. On the same line is Steinway Street. Including that station on this list is a bit of a stretch, because it seems as if the street is named after Steinway the man who owned the piano company that dominated the neighborhood to the north and not the piano company itself.

Are there any that I missed?

yet another reason i am not as cool as john cusack

2009-06-13T16:13:00.002-04:00

A lot of these are pretty bad. Thanks, WLIR!

Grammys drop polka album award; Folk/Americana category split into two

2009-06-06T11:39:00.002-04:00

Seriously, what goes on at a recording academy meeting?

2009-06-02T01:25:00.000-04:00

The Lord Justice Hath Ruled: Pringles Are Potato Chips

2009-05-20T01:51:00.001-04:00

so, anyone know where I can get a good taco in philadelphia? or not. fuck.

song obsessions update

2009-05-10T16:01:00.005-04:00

i am a horrible person, reason #435

2009-05-08T00:44:00.003-04:00

Every time I see the Merchant of Venice and they get to the part with the people picking among the three boxes, I think “haven't any of you ever seen Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade?”

celebwatch 2005!

2009-04-27T11:22:00.001-04:00

Jason Bateman at 1st and 1st (the nexus of the universe).

Dramatic Television

2009-04-07T03:18:00.007-04:00

400

2009-04-04T00:00:00.002-04:00

It's a centennially historical season here in New York. For those of us who enjoy refried beans, last Friday was the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Queensboro Bridge. But for all of New York, this year marks a special historical occasion: the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's voyage from the Netherlands. Today is the 400th anniversary of the day he left from Amsterdam.

Here's a photo I took a couple of years ago of the spot from which the Half Moon disembarked. The plaque on the left reads:

From this ancient “Tower of Trade” Erected 1442(?) A.D. HENRY HUDSON set sail April 4th 1609 A.D. on the vessel “Half Moon” on that voyage of discovery destined to bring him to the harbor of New York and the Hudson River; This memorial erected September 1927 by The Greenwich Village Historical Society of New York City, U.S.A., Catherine Parker Olivette, Founder.

On the very bottom is the name of the sculptor which I can't quite make out, even with a magnifying glass and a copy of the actual photograph (Samuel Jameson Heinemann?). The plaque on the right is 50 years old today:

Presented to the City of Amsterdam on the 350th anniversary of Henry Hudson's voyage to North America by the Port of New York Authority, April 4th, 1959

Robert B. Meyner,
Governor, State of New Jersey

Nelson A. Rockefeller
Governor, State of New York

Under that there's the list of PA commissioners from New York and New Jersey, whose names are far too small to make out in my picture. Interestingly, at first I thought the plaque said 300th anniversary, but I couldn't figure out who the names could be; they weren't the name of New York's mayor in 1909 (George B. McLellan) or the Governor (Charles Evans Hughes). I kept looking at it, eventually realizing that the name on the right could be Nelson Rockefeller. Sure enough, Rockefeller's governorship started in January of 1959, right before the 50th anniversary, and the governor of Jersey at the time's name could then easily be recognized.

As a lot of really smart people have noted, the fact that New York (or rather, New Amsterdam) was founded by the Dutch and not the English is the basis for much of what makes it a special place. While other places where founded on ideas of religious liberty, New York is where religious liberty actually happened. While other colonials came to the new world to find the freedom to practice their own religion, it was often at the expense of practicing others; the Dutch, on the other hand, came to make money. As a result, they didn't really care what religion you were, as long as you helped 'em make money. During his governorship, Peter Stuyvesant actually tried a few times to restrict religious practices, but it seems as if he was always rebuffed by his Dutch masters. One of those instances involved admitting the first Jews into the city; another would lead to the Flushing Remonstrance, referred to in the Encyclopedia of New York City as “The first Declaration of Independence.”

2009-03-16T20:11:00.001-04:00

depressing science for the day.

2009-03-12T17:36:00.001-04:00

the best and worst thing about hamantaschen is that you can't break one in half.

fun unix tip of the day

2009-02-23T23:54:00.001-05:00

countmail

try it it is awesome.

everyone loves lyrics

2009-02-11T03:21:00.001-05:00

Leslie causes me to do a lyrics quiz. These are all first lines. And there are 27 of them.

How many tequilas in the place?
sweetness, sweetness i was only joking when i said i'd like to smash every tooth in your head
On nights like this/when the world's a bit amiss
i know you're born in 84/half polish half danish
two dozen other dirty lovers/must be a sucker for it
bah bababababa (bah bah bah) bababa bah bah baba bah bah bah bah/bah babababababa baba bah bah/ba baba bah bah bah ba ba ba ba ba
when i get to the bottom i go back to the top of the slide
O Mount Kailas/uncover me
Can't you hear me calling your name girl?
Pressure pushing down on me
turn your watch, turn your watch back/about a hundred thousand years
my my my, we're treating each other just like strangers
sleeping is giving in/no matter what the time is
i heard there is no christmas in the silly middle east
This town is coming like a __. All the clubs have been closed down.
well my temperature's rising and my feet on the floor
i believe, i believe/i could see, i could see/forever in my hand
ever since i was a young boy/i've played the silver ball
She don't believe in shootin' stars
something ain't right/i'm gonna get myself/i'm gonna get myself/i'm gonna get myself...
desert loving in your eyes all the way
ultraviolet/radio light
never knew i could feel like this/like i've never seen the sky before
was a long and dark december/from the rooftops i remember
see the people walking down the street/fall in line just watchin' all their feet
Alarm goes off at seven and you start uptown
Look at me/here I am/right where I belong.

The Day the Music Died

2009-01-05T09:07:00.001-05:00

QRS has ended production of player-piano rolls

I should invent a way

2008-12-30T15:55:00.001-05:00

I should invent a way to program by singing into the computer.

2008-12-19T23:59:00.000-05:00

57th Street and 5th Avenue, Friday November 28, 2008.

2008-12-18T23:59:00.000-05:00

Battery Maritime Building, Friday August 8, 2008. 2:32 PM.

2008-12-17T23:59:00.000-05:00

Flushing, Wednesday July 16, 2008. 2:17 PM.

2008-12-16T23:59:00.000-05:00

Central Park, Thursday June 19, 2008. 6:59 PM.

ALL HAIL THE PORK WAFFLE

2008-12-16T13:21:00.001-05:00

ALL HAIL THE PORK WAFFLE

2008-12-15T23:59:00.000-05:00

Chat 'n Chew. Friday May 23, 2008. 6:42 PM.

People are going to listen to your song and go "Who produced this, the pope?"

2008-12-15T23:30:00.001-05:00

2008-12-14T23:59:00.000-05:00

Lyceum Theater, Tuesday May 20, 2008. 9:58 PM.

2008-12-13T23:59:00.000-05:00

Shake Shack. Tuesday April 29, 2008. 6:15 PM.

2008-12-12T23:59:00.000-05:00

Central Park, Monday March 3, 2008. 12:17-12:21 PM.

2008-12-11T23:59:00.001-05:00

2626 Broadway, Thursday February 28, 2008. 7:15 PM.

2008-12-10T23:59:00.001-05:00

Fulton Street Station, Monday February 18, 2008. 12:01 PM.

2008-12-09T23:59:00.000-05:00

594 Broadway, Monday, January 21 2008. 2:02 PM.

2008-12-08T23:59:00.000-05:00

Washington Square, Wednesday January 2, 2008. 4:07 PM.

2008-12-07T23:59:00.000-05:00

Virgin Megastore, Monday November 5, 2007. 1:02 PM.

2008-12-06T23:59:00.001-05:00

Central Park, Monday October 15, 2007. 9:58 AM.

2008-12-05T23:59:00.000-05:00

Riverbank State Park, Friday September 7, 2007.

2008-12-04T23:59:00.000-05:00

Bohemian Hall, Saturday July 28, 2007.

2008-12-03T22:59:00.002-05:00

Union Turnpike and 188th Street, May 2007.

2008-12-02T13:06:00.002-05:00

F train, May 2007.

2008-12-01T00:55:00.002-05:00

and it's time once again for a series of photographs taken with my phone. i'm kind of guessing on the dates on the first few.

Union Turnpike subway station, May 2007.

BBQ pork waffle == fail

2008-11-25T13:57:00.001-05:00

BBQ pork waffle == fail (no truck!)

Occurs to me as i

2008-11-22T19:37:00.001-05:00

Occurs to me as i pass the giant signs that the one good thing that could come out of the demise of citi is that they'd have to rename citifield.

2008-11-18T16:33:00.003-05:00

This morning I realized that “Love Lockdown” by Kanye West is the best Depeche Mode song in years. It also makes for at least one good mashup.

in which i attempt a vaguely Schenkerian analysis of White Christmas and fail before the third measure

2008-11-12T23:26:00.005-05:00

We start at the beginning: the song is in C major. And the first chord (of the sectional chorus, which is the part of the song everyone knows; for the purposes of this exercise, we're ignoring the first verse) is indeed C major (I) (“I'm…”). And yet, right there in that chord there's an A. There are no A's in a C major chord. If you had that chord on a first semester music theory exam and asked “What chord is this?” a student might very well answer Am7 in first inversion and you would have to mark him correct.

But it's not an Am7. No way no how. It just isn't. So the A, it's a non-chord tone. Is it a neighbor tone, or one of those other things whose names I forget? The next chord is a Dm7. There's totally an A in that, so maybe that's the purpose of the A: to lead us into the Dm. That sounds like a plausible theory, except for the fact that the C w/ the A in it repeats 4 times before we get a chord change. Four fucking times. A, A, A, A. None of which belong there.

So, after that first bar, the song moves to the aforementioned Dm7 (ii7) (“Dream-”). A little weird to be the first thing in a song like this, but whatever, it's a totally diatonic chord change. I understand that, let's move on with the analysis. The song moves back to C (I) (“-ing”) and then, on the word “of”, to… B major (VII)? “Okay,” I think, “Don't let it throw you. Berlin is just throwing in a little chromaticism. No big deal. This must be an applied chord or something. What's the next chord... oh crap.” Yes, it goes right back to C (“a”), and I am completely lost.

Now, granted, it's been a few years since I studied music theory in any serious way, and it's quite possible there's some obvious thing that I'm forgetting here, but damn. That's some serious songwriting right there. And the most amazing thing about it is that it sounds like the simplest song in the world.

greatest domain name idea ever

2008-11-07T21:44:00.002-05:00

change.gov

wow. it's like the entire campaign in 10 characters.

2008-10-22T03:46:00.003-04:00

I'm 27 and I wish I had some pie.

bad domain name idea of the day

2008-10-19T15:30:00.001-04:00

almostbutnotquiteentirelyunlikeart.com

"Brooklyn's like this only more

2008-10-10T22:16:00.001-04:00

"Brooklyn's like this only more fun and with less people." -woman with a nose job, 9th street.

Wtf xmas lights on 52nd

2008-10-07T17:53:00.001-04:00

Wtf xmas lights on 52nd street.

movin' on up

2008-09-02T01:03:00.002-04:00

what with the demise of muxtape, i've moved my last mix over to 8tracks. cover up, soon to be joined by a new mix as well. stay tuned.

UPDATE: it has come to my attention that 8tracks blows. You should be able to get to the mix now (no signup necessary) but i am looking for a replacement. suggestions welcome.

And a car goes by

2008-08-21T22:25:00.001-04:00

And a car goes by on qns blvd blasting alive and kicking by simple minds. life has become a john hughes movie, unfortunately not ferris bueller.

dear lazyweb,

2008-08-12T01:25:00.001-04:00

The restroom at my corporate job has the kind of sinks that turn on automatically when you stick your hands under them (well, they're supposed to turn on when you stick your hands under them). Every time I use the sink, I think of a scene from some movie where the character is walking out of an empty men's room and as he walks past the sinks he triggers the motion detectors on each one. Problem is, I can't remember what movie this is from. Anybody?

2008-08-10T21:30:00.001-04:00

New muxtape: cover up.

Just imagine how much more

2008-07-25T14:59:00.001-04:00

Just imagine how much more war there would be if there were no such thing as cookies.

my first muxtape

2008-07-04T02:30:00.003-04:00

to be updated semi-regularly. this time round: cavity-inducing pop music.
bgruber.muxtape.com

2008-06-17T22:27:00.001-04:00

I too have apparently devoted myself to memes. I keep meaning to post pictures from my phone, but that requires not blogging from emacs, and I mean who wants to blog from something other than emacs.

Name a movie that you have seen more than 10 times.
Clue
Name a movie that you've seen multiple times in the theater.
Embarassing answer: Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. Hip answer: Control.
Name an actor that would make you more inclined to see a movie.
Scarlett Johansson
Name an actor that would make you less likely to see a movie.
Tom Cruise.
Name a movie that you can and do quote from.
Clue, though i don't quote from it as often as i used too because few of my current circle of friends know it nearly as well as i do.
Name a movie musical that you know all of the lyrics to all of the songs.
The Muppets Take Manhattan.
Name a movie that you have been known to sing along with.
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Name a movie that you would recommend everyone see.
Super-hip answer that is basically impossible to see unless someone happens to do a screening: High School. More easily obtained: The Third Man.
Name a movie that you own.
Life of Brian
Name an actor that launched his/her entertainment career in another medium but who has surprised you with his/her acting skills.
Leslie's answer of Bill Murray is excellent. So as to not be completely unoriginal, I'll also throw in David Bowie.
Have you ever seen a movie in a drive-in? If so, what?
Yeah they don't exist anymore. And I'm not from the sticks.
Ever made out in a movie?
No. But when Leslie and I and Ming and I think Brian Maniscalco went to see Star Trek: Insurrection, she kept complaining that there weren't enough explosions. So that's the same thing.
Name a movie that you keep meaning to see but just haven't yet got around to it.
8 1/2
Ever walked out of a movie?
no.
Name a movie that made you cry in the theater.
Ghost World. I didn't actually cry, but I was awfully close.
Popcorn?
Not really. The only popcorn I seem to really like is the Newman's Own microwave popcorn with real butter. That is delicious, probably because it's mostly salt and butter.
How often do you go to the movies (as opposed to renting them or watching them at home)?
Once a monthish sounds right.
What's the last movie you saw in the theater?
Indy 4.
What's your favorite/preferred genre of movie?
Good ones.
What's the first movie you remember seeing in the theater?
The Muppets Take Manhattan, which was the first one I ever saw. I was kind of scared of movie theaters when I was a little kid. The next one I think I remember going to see was Masters of the Universe.
What movie do you wish you had never seen?
Transformers.
What is the weirdest movie you enjoyed?
In the Beginning was the End: The True Story of De-Evolution. There's probably something weirder, but that's what I came up with off the top of my head. There's always Forbidden Zone, sometimes accurately described as the Citizen Kane of B-movies.
What is the scariest movie you've seen?
I don't particularly like scary movies. So I'm just gonna say naked Frank Langella at the end of the Adrian Lyne version of Lolita.
What is the funniest movie you've seen?
Life of Brian, Anchorman. I know there's some other stuff I've seen that's just left me on the floor, but I can't think of any at the moment.

French tourists are the slowest

2008-04-10T20:40:00.001-04:00

French tourists are the slowest of them all.

the culture of the time

2008-03-29T13:16:00.001-04:00

papal skateboards

money and art

2008-03-23T22:14:00.001-04:00

I felt that it was time for a bit of a status update. Not that I ever spoke much on here about what I spend my days doing, but nonetheless.

I am still a student at NYU, though I am not registered for any classes right now. The health insurance is cheap though :). I probably won't graduate this semester, but that's okay. I am making slow and debatably steady progress towards my masters.

I am working 3 days a week in IT infrastructure at a Very Large Bank, creating a somewhat peculiar software testing system. It's no great contribution to society but it pays well.

I can live with that because the rest of my time working I am making art, at least indirectly. On Tuesdays I work at Harvestworks where I work on any and all manner of things technical. This includes mundane IT stuff like fixing the wireless ethernet and some more interesting stuff like tutoring a resident artist in Max/MSP, and possibly working on an internet video piece being created by another (more details on that if I actually end up doing it - it's still in the planning stages).

A lot of people (myself included) thought I was crazy when I turned down a full time job at The Very Large Bank a couple of years ago. But you know what? There's a difference at the end of the day. At the end of the day at the bank I maybe helped out some other programmers to do their jobs better/faster/whatever. Which is alright. I certainly don't mind doing that, and I don't mind being well paid for it. But at the end of a Tuesday, I've helped someone make art, and that feels very different.

So just last week was a bit of a milestone. For the first time ever I got paid to work with an artist. It wasn't much, and the work was kind of mundane (embedding audio files in a webpage). But I got paid to help a musician with computer crap. And I think that's what I want to do.

/brian
musically inclined computer programmer

choice eats

2008-03-12T21:56:00.002-04:00

Last night I went to the first Choice Eats event in the Puck Building. This was a food festival curated by Village Voice critic Robert Sietsema. It was, in a word, gastronomical.

First, a quick highlights rundown:

Most disappointing

I'm sure that the toasted walnuts with local honey and fennel pollen is a bar-snack masterpiece of subtlety when you actually have it at Jimmy's No. 43, but when the guy to your left is serving spicy chorizo and the guy to your right is serving an obscenely good rib (see below), it just doesn't cut it.

Kinda disappointing

I've been meaning to go to Hummus Place forever, given their rave reviews and rock-bottom prices. In fact, given the way people seem to swoon about it, I imagined that tasting this hummus was going to be a bit of a revelation about what hummus really could be. Unfortunately the hummus tasted like, well, hummus. And not especially flavorful hummus at that. Furthermore, perhaps its a hummus faux pas, but I think I prefer my hummus cold. This was hot.

Gone too fast

Everyone who I've seen cover the event said that Fette Sau was awesome, but they were gone before we got to them.

Best taco

Ok, it was the only taco I was aware of, but Mercadito had a pretty awesome one with shrimp and avocado.

Best food (honorable mention)

In comparison with my top pick (below), Fatty Crab's short rib "rendang" is much more composed dish, creative even. The short rib has, besides some kind of a sauce, some toasted coconut, lime and chili. It came with some coconut sticky rice. At first bite I was ready to say "well it's good, but too sweet..." but then came just the perfect amount of heat on the finish. Delicious.

Best food

The rib. Oh man. I almost melted when I tasted a wonderful, sticky, sweet, crunchy, unctuous, perfect rib from Kampuchea. I mean I am sucker for a really good rib in general but this was just a whole other level of awesome. So awesome that for my last piece of food I physically finagled my way past the line to get what turned out to be the very last one. Curiously, it doesn't seem to be on their regular menu

John and I agreed that neither of us had ever been that full in our lives, probably owing to the fact that we were eating at a pretty ridiculous rate. We also had plenty of alcohol (I'm talking shots of Jäger here), but were eating so much that it didn't seem to effect us much at all. The beer was actually one of the highlights of the event. There was a large number of varieties available, few of which I had even heard of let alone tasted.

And there you have it. Photos of the event on john's flickr.

song obsession update

2008-03-09T14:54:00.001-04:00

Otis Redding - Try a Little Tenderness
The Police - Roxanne
Daft Punk - Harder Better Faster Stronger (Alive 2007)
Flying White Dots - Tonight We Play
Harry Nilsson - Midnight Cowboy (Everybody's Talking)
Jens Lekman - The Opposite of Hallelujah

Celebwatch 2005!

2008-03-07T14:31:00.002-05:00

Peter Dinklage, walking a dog longer than he is tall.

2008-03-05T13:23:00.001-05:00

George W. Bush is the Haman in the unending Purim that is the Democratic Primary process.

2008-03-04T00:27:00.001-05:00

The relationship between checks and balances on the one hand and the reliance on the rule of reason on the other is the Da Vinci Code of American democracy.

- Al Gore

Attend the tale

2008-02-24T14:51:00.001-05:00

Now that the writer's strike is over, and just in time for the Oscars, I can finally bring to you my much-delayed analysis of Sweeney Todd.

One thing I could not understand for the longest time was why so many people seem to dislike the 1989 Tim Burton film version of Batman (which I think is bloody genius). This perplexity came to a head with the release of Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins, which everyone seemed to like but me. Finally, someone explained it to me with perfect clarity: Batman fans don't like Burton's Batman because it is a Tim Burton film first and a Batman film second.

While I now understand the objections these fans had, I am still unable to fully accept them. I like auteur-ish directors, and have long felt that the fact that Burton makes Batman fully his is what makes it a film worth watching rather than a giant exercise in cross-market corporate synergy.

While I sat and watched Burton's adaptation of Sweeney Todd, I could not help but wonder if I was succumbing to the same tendencies as those Batman fans. Was I bothered that Burton had erased Hal Prince's Sweeney Todd, Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd, my Sweeney Todd?

The answer I think, is no. Besides the fact that I don't really think I have such a great attachment to the musical, the problem that I had with the Tim Burton adaptation of Sweeney Todd is that it never really becomes a Tim Burton film in full. At best, it is a filmed version of the musical, very well adapted to make it less theatrical and more cinematic, with a veneer of production design from the Tim Burton School of Fantastically Wild Hair and Low Camera Angles From Which You Can See The Sky.

Don't get me wrong; the result of this is a very entertaining movie. I still love the musical, and the music. Most of the cuts were well chosen, the cinematic touches well executed (the montage-of-sorts for By the Sea, for example, is hilarious), the special effects cool (the beggar woman's death was particularly pretty). The problem is that while choices like these obviously betray the hands of filmmakers skilled at their craft, and all of the stylistic hallmarks remain, I simply could not shake the feeling that this was Sweeney Todd executed by a studio in the style of Tim Burton rather than Sweeney Todd by Tim Burton.

Some notes about the performances:

Johnny Depp

An admirable if less-than-awe-inspiring performance. Suitably dark and freaked out, managed not to be out-acted by his hair, itself a feat.

Helena Bonham Carter

Passable, but not much more. I'm all for hiring good actors who can't really sing, but only if they're comfortable with the fact that they can't really sing (in Sondheim, see Elaine Stritch, Judi Dench). Carter seemed really uncomfortable during most of the musical numbers. In particular, I felt like I could see her counting the beats during The Worst Pies in London. Did an admirable job in portraying the devil to Depp's Faust.

Sacha Baron Cohen

Again, passable. He was funny, and a very good casting decision, but I don't think he really brought anything to the role; it seemed exactly the same as every other actor to do it. I was going to say that, well, most of his screentime is sung and there's no room in a Sondheim score for ad-libs. But you know what? His numbers are stocked with little pauses that are obviously intended for the actor to fill with (mostly physical) comic flourishes.

Alan Rickman

Everything and more. I mean, he's just doing his normal Alan Rickman thing, but who cares?

Timothy Spall

Again, suitable but nothing more. Would have liked to have seen him kill a bird with his bare hands but that's not his fault really.

Jamie Campbell Bower (Anthony)

Excellent performance. I don't really remember much about it other than that I thought it was good.

Jayne Wisener (Johanna)

Don't really remember much about her except that she was pretty and sang well enough.

Ed Sanders (Toby)

As they say on the interweb, A+++. Simultaneously one of the best and worst thing in this movie. Best because he was really good, and worst because he made the "stars" look pitiful by comparison, particularly with Nothing's Gonna Harm You.

As good as the adaptation was, it did lay bare some of the perils of the theater-to-film adaptation business. For example, again taking The Worst Pies in London as an example, the pies onstage are much more believably disgusting, since we are coerced into trusting Mrs. Lovett's lyrics and Sweeney's reactions. On screen, we have to actually be shown how gross they are with a campier and (I think) more unbelievable shot of a cockroach crawling out of the pie. Similarly, Mrs. Lovett's death seemed a little too fantastical for me, and read more like an effects shot than a horrifying end. In the stage version, the real horror of that scene is Sweeney's madness, exemplified by the traumatized Toby's repeated lines (excised from the film) about grinding the meat - "Three times. Three times. Smoothly, smoothly."

Partially to show I'm not just against change altogether, let's talk about a cut I particularly liked: the removal of Kiss Me. Besides making Anthony and Johanna's love affair seem much more romantic and eliminating the more farcical side of Johanna's character (at the climax of Kiss Me she realizes she doesn't even know Anthony's name), doing this essentially pares down the musical expression of Anthony and Johanna's love to one very strong leitmotif, that of Anthony's "I feel you/Johanna." Hearing this theme repeat over and over reinforces the obsessive nature of Anthony's love for Johanna, which we are then forced to compare to that of Sweeney and the Judge.

But did he really have to cut the third verse of Priest?

2008-02-24T11:06:00.001-05:00

I know the subway conductor is really saying "E train to Parsons-Archer," but I swear it sounds like he says "E train to the Parthenon."

celebwatch 2005!

2008-01-27T23:27:00.000-05:00

Mandy Patinkin in the audience of a performance of Particularly in the Heartland. I sang with him! Well, the whole audience sang together, so technically it's true.

Why do I do these stupid memes?

2008-01-21T21:08:00.001-05:00

... because leslie tells me to (but not really).

Your rock star name (first pet, current car): Alpha the Bus. I play bass.
Your gangsta name (fave ice cream flavor, fave type of shoe): Cookies 'n Cream Jack Purcell.
Your Native American name (fave colour, fave animal): Black Monkey
Your soap opera name (middle name, city where you were born): Seth Manhasset.
Your Star Wars name (the first three letters of your last name, first two letters of your first name): Grubr (the Hutt).
Superhero name (second fave color, fave drink): Blue Scotch.
NASCAR name (the first names of your grandfathers): Stanley Samuel. If I was feeling obstinate I would have put “Stanley Schmeelik” but that's just silly.
Stripper name (the name of your fave perfume/cologne/scent, fave candy): Gyro Fudge. HA.
TV weather anchor name (your 5th grade teacher's last name, a major city that starts with the same letter): Simon Seattle.
Spy name (your fave season/holiday, flower): Fall Titan Arum.
Cartoon name (fave fruit, article of clothing you're wearing right now): Pear Pocket Tee.
Hippie name (what you ate for breakfast, your fave tree): Nothing Baobab (i like that quite a bit).

also not about sweeney todd

2008-01-15T22:44:00.001-05:00

There's a lot you can do with a hypnotized chicken. You can use it as a paperweight, or you can use it as a doorstop, and either way, the chicken will sit there motionless, staring blankly. (What you can't do is use it as a football. Something about being thrown through the air seemed to wake that chicken right up.)

- Albert Gore, Jr.

random unix tip

2008-01-13T23:41:00.001-05:00

Thing I just learned: man 7 ascii

2008-01-13T02:09:00.000-05:00

via leslie, but as a show of blog support for laura. answer these questions by putting your music on random.

Will I get far in life?

Billy Joel - 2000 Years. how literal.
How do my friends see me?

Dean Gray - Dr. Who on Holiday (a mashup of Green Day's Holiday with The Timelord's (aka KLF) Doctorin' the Tardis, itself a mashup of The Doctor Who theme and Gary Glitter's Rock and Roll Part 1). I am a mashup of a mashup. And a particularly awesome one at that.
Where will I get married?

djBC - Chanukah Song (GoyiMix) (a mashup of Adam Sandler's Chanukah Song with Van Halen's Jump, and some samples from Spartacus, The Godfather, Star Trek and Happy Days). a not particularly interesting, pretty messy mashup, which sound like a marriage to me.
What is my best friend’s theme song?

Passion - I Wish I Could Forget You. no comment.

(At this point, every other song was christmas related, so i exercised some editorial control and skipped a bunch.)

What is the story of my life?

The Dead Kennedys - MTV Get Off the Air. "If we have our way even you will believe this is the future of rock and roll." "You've turned rock and roll rebellion into Pat Boone sedation."
What was high school like?

Christina Aguilera, Lil' Kim, Mya & Pink - Lady Marmalade (Moulin Rouge soundtrack). unfortunately my sexual escapades in those years were basically nonexistent.
How can I get ahead in life?

U2 - Grace. "It's a name for a girl; it's also a thought that could change the world." Dammit bono, which is it?
What is the best thing about me?

DJ Danger Mouse - Encore (The Grey Album - mashup of Jay-Z's Encore with The Beatles' Glass Onion). "Oh yeah."

(At this point I am exercising editorial control again and eliminating any more mashups.)

How is today going to be?

Thomas Newman - Black Angel (Angels in America score). Today will be very dramatic with some really dissonant violins.
What is in store for this weekend?

The Apples in Stereo - Energy. partay! also, it's very kid disco friendly.
What song describes my parents?

we are scientists - riffmaster b. "settle down. settle down."
My grandparents?

Survivor - Eye of the Tiger. Not that appropriate really.
How is my life going?

Brian Eno - 2/2 (Ambient 1: Music for Airports). well, until last week i guess this pretty much summed it up.
What song will they play at my funeral?

Cutting Crew - I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight. Again with the literalness! Well I hope I do, even if I hope they don't play this song.
How does the world see me?

Abba - Dancing Queen. laura i will totally trade you.
Will I have a happy life?

The Beatles - I Want You. well that's only vaguely twisted.
What do my friends really think of me?

stellastarr* - My Coco. "I sat alone and i didn't care. i sat 2 years in the same old chair."
Do people secretly lust after me?

Regina Spektor - Samson. "You are my sweetest downfall."
How can I make myself happy?

John Williams - Finale and End Credits (Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom). dum dadum duuum, dum daduuuum.
What should I do with my life?

Regina Spektor - Music Box. "life inside the music box ain't easy. the mallets hit the gears are always turning. and every one inside the mechanism is yearning to get out."
Will I ever have children?

The Cranberries - Linger. "you know i'm such a fool for you. you got me wrapped around your finger."
What is some good advice?

Fairground Attraction - Perfect. "Young hearts are foolish, they make such mistakes; they're much too eager to give their love away."
What is my signature dancing song?

The Blues Brothers Band - Peter Gunn.Fine I will stand here and menacingly tap my foot in time.
What do I think my current theme song is?

She Wants Revenge - I Don't Want to Fall in Love. Well that's not true. man these guys need to chill out. then again, they know exactly what they're doing. ok, i can't listen to it anymore, on to the next one.
What does everyone else think my current theme song is?

The Who - Sally Simpson. well that makes no sense at all. oh well. i always laugh at the line "Sally got married to a rock musician she met in California."
What type of men/women do you like?

The White Stripes - Your Southern Can is Mine. mwahahaha.
What did you think of this meme?

The Righteous Brothers - You've Lost that Lovin' Feeling. Damn straight phil spector. damn straight.

song obsession update

2007-12-20T22:50:00.000-05:00

man this is all i do on this blog anymore.

Radiohead - 15 Step
Jim James & Calexico - Goin' to Acapulco (I'm Not There soundtrack)
Beirut - Scenic World (Lon Gisland E.P. version)
The Rolling Stones - Wild Horses
Party Ben - (Do Ya) Think I'm Sexy (In the Morning)

Still have the other one... Harry Nilsson on there.

song obsession update

2007-11-05T00:23:00.000-05:00

Psychedelic Furs - Love My Way
M.I.A. - Boyz
We Are Scientists - This Means War
Harry Nilsson - Everybody's Talking
Blur - The Universal

I have been crushing particularly hard on those last two.

2007-10-22T23:19:00.000-04:00

i'm 26 and i haven't watched life of brian yet today.

Who doesn't like kabobs? I'll

2007-10-17T16:14:00.001-04:00

Who doesn't like kabobs? I'll tell who didn't like kabobs, the nazis, that's who.

2007-09-25T02:38:00.000-04:00

This statement still leaves some respite for the free will of the composer even if this free will is buried under the rubbish of culture and civilization and is only a shadow, at the least a tendency, a simple stochasm.
–Iannis Xenakis

2007-08-27T16:06:00.000-04:00

And it's a silly meme from leslie. Directions:

Bold all of the following TV shows which you've ever seen 3 or more episodes of in your lifetime.
If you want, add up to 3 additional shows (keep the list in alphabetical order).

24
7th Heaven
8 Simple Rules
Adam-12
Aeon Flux
ALF Brian should be a kid, not a republican!
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Alias
American Idol/Pop Idol/Canadian Idol/Australian Idol/etc.
America's Next Top Model
America's Test Kitchen yes i'm obsessed.
Angel
Are You Afraid of the Dark?
Arrested Development
Babylon 5
Babylon 5: Crusade
Battlestar Galactica (the old one)
Battlestar Galactica (the new one)
Baywatch
Beavis & Butthead
Beauty and the Beast
Beverly Hills 90210
Big O
Blackadder
Bonanza
Bones
Bosom Buddies
Boston Public
Boston Legal
Boy Meets World
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (just 2. but man, that one w/ jerry orbach.)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Bug Juice
Caitlin's Way
Chappelle's Show
Charles in Charge
Charlie's Angels
Charmed
Cheers
Clarissa Explains It All
Columbo
Commander in Chief
Coupling
Cowboy Bebop
Crossing Jordan
CSI
CSI: Miami
CSI: NY
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Dallas
Dancing with the Stars
Danny Phantom
Dark Angel
Dark Skies
Davinci's Inquest
Dawson's Creek
Dead Like Me this show was great. ellen muth really needs to do more stuff.
Deadwood
Degrassi Junior High why was this not on here, but the other one was? i mean seriously.
Degrassi: The Next Generation
Designing Women
Desperate Housewives
Dharma & Greg
Different Strokes
Doctor Who (1963)
Doctor Who (2005)
Dragnet
Due South
Earth 2 (oh good god tim curry)
Eerie Indiana
Emergency!
Entourage
ER
Everwood
Everybody Loves Raymond
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
Facts of Life
Family Guy
Family Ties
Farscape
Father Ted
Fawlty Towers
Felicity
Firefly
Flash Forward
Forever Knight
Frasier
Freaks and Geeks
Friends
Full House
Futurama
Get Smart
Ghost Whisperer
Gilligan's Island
Gilmore Girls
Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.
Green Wing
Grey's Anatomy
Growing Pains
Gunsmoke
Hannah Montana
Happy Days
Heroes
Highlander
Hogan's Heroes
Home Improvement
Homicide: Life on the Street
House
I Dream of Jeannie
I Love Lucy
Instant Star
Inuyasha
Invader Zim Let's make biscuits! Let's make biscuits.
Invasion
Hell's Kitchen
JAG
Jackass
Joey
John Doe
Just Shoot Me why?
Keen Eddie
Keeping Up Appearances
LA Law
Laverne and Shirley
Life With Derek
Little House on the Prairie
Lizzie McGuire
Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman i think it was the first 3 episodes. then i gave up.
Lost
Lost in Space
Love, American Style
M*A*S*H
MacGyver when i was a small child growing up in brazil, macgyver was my hero
Malcolm in the Middle
Married... With Children
Melrose Place
Miami Vice
Mission: Impossible
Monk
Mork & Mindy
Murphy Brown
My Life as a Dog
My So-Called Life
My Super Sweet 16
My Three Sons
My Two Dads
Mythbusters
NCIS
Nip/Tuck
North Shore
Numb3rs
One Tree Hill
Oz
Perry Mason
Phil of the Future
Pokemon
Power Rangers
Prince of Tennis
Prison Break
Primeval
Profiler
Project Runway
Psych
Quantum Leap
Queer As Folk (US)
Queer as Folk (UK)
Red Dwarf
ReGenesis
Remington Steele
Rescue Me
Road Rules
Robin Hood
ROME
Roseanne
Roswell
Salute Your Shorts
Saved by the Bell
Scarecrow and Mrs King
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?
Scrubs
Seinfeld
Seven Days
Sex and the City
Six Feet Under
Skins
Sliders
Slings and Arrows
Smallville - the only episode of this i ever watched was the one with christopher reeve
So Weird
South Park
Spaced
Spongebob Squarepants
Star Trek
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Voyager i think i've watched 3 of them. i don't really know.
Star Trek: Enterprise - not a one.
Stargate Atlantis
Stargate SG-1
Superman they probably mean the old george reeves one? or maybe not. but between the newer cartoon and the old fleischer cartoons...
Supernatural
Surface
Survivor
Taxi
Teen Titans
That 70's Show
That's So Raven
The 4400
The Addams Family
The Andy Griffith Show
The Apprentice
The A-Team
The Avengers
The Beverly Hillbillies
The Bionic Woman
The Brady Bunch
The Closer
The Colbert Report
The Cosby Show
The Daily Show
The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd
The Dead Zone
The Dick Van Dyke Show
The Dukes of Hazzard
The Famous Jet Jackson
The Flintstones
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
The Golden Girls
The Honeymooners
The Invisible Man
The Jeffersons
The Jetsons
The L Word
The Love Boat
The Lucille Ball Show
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
The Mighty Boosh
The Monkees
The Munsters i just remember this being on the tv a bunch. i barely remember the actual show at all.
The O.C.
The Office
The Office (US)
The Pretender woohoo!
The Real World
The Sentinel
The Shield
The Simpsons
The Six Million Dollar Man
The Sopranos i think 3 is the exact number of episodes i have seen
The Suite Life of Zack and Cody
The Twilight Zone
The Waltons
The West Wing
The Wonder Years
The X-Files
Third Watch
Three's Company
Top Gear
Torchwood
Twin Peaks
Twitch City
Two and A Half Men
Ugly Betty
Veronica Mars
Venture Bros.
Whose Line is it Anyway? (US)
Whose Line is it Anyway? (UK)
Will and Grace
Wings somehow i'm sure i watched 3 episodes of this, though i don't remember anything about it except that steven weber was on it. he was, right?
Without a Trace
WKRP in Cincinnati

Basically everything on here I'm embarrassed by i watched in the 80s after school or whatever. hmm i'm gonna break the rules and add a 4th one as well, cause i don't think adding degrassi jr. high really counts.

taco map updated

2007-08-22T23:21:00.000-04:00

New blurbs include Calexico and a revisit to Tehuitzingo, now my favorite taco place in the city. see the map here.

song obsessions update

2007-08-18T05:30:00.000-04:00

Feist - 1234
The Polyphonic Spree - Five Years
The Rapture - Whoo! Alright - Yeah... Uh Huh
Stevie Wonder - If Your Love Cannot be Moved

EDIT: I somehow completely forgot to include 2HB by Roxy Music.

2007-06-10T01:09:00.000-04:00

Central Park, Monday May 21, 2007. 11:57 AM.

2007-06-08T01:59:00.001-04:00

Central Park, Monday January 22, 2007. 11:35 AM.

2007-06-07T02:19:00.000-04:00

Waldbaum's, Wednesday September 13, 2006. 7:12 PM.

2007-06-06T03:36:00.000-04:00

Barnes and Noble, Tuesday September 5, 2006. 6:54 PM.

2007-06-05T03:53:00.000-04:00

Tucson AZ, Sunday August 20, 2006. 3:52 PM.

And so it begins... Ithaca

2007-06-04T11:37:00.001-04:00

And so it begins... Ithaca is gorges tally: 1.

2007-06-04T02:30:00.000-04:00

Union Square, Wednesday August 2, 2006. 1:06 PM.

2007-06-03T05:35:00.001-04:00

Riverside Park, Thursday July 27, 2006. 1:36 PM.

2007-06-02T01:07:00.000-04:00

Key Food, Saturday July 1, 2006. 3:01 PM.

2007-06-01T01:04:00.000-04:00

Bohemian Hall, Saturday June 17, 2006. 9:32 PM.

2007-05-31T01:51:00.000-04:00

east village restaurant, Saturday June 3, 2006. 7:36 PM.

2007-05-30T02:03:00.000-04:00

Riverside Park, Friday April 20, 2006. 3:52 - 3:58 PM.

2007-05-29T01:01:00.000-04:00

NYU Library, Tuesday April 18, 2006. 10:54 PM.

2007-05-28T00:20:00.000-04:00

NYU Library, Monday April 10, 2006. 3:43 PM.

picture pages

2007-05-27T01:48:00.000-04:00

i just dumped a bunch of pictures from the last year and a half or so (not too many) off of my phone. i thought hey, let's do a series of those pictures here on my blog, in roughly chronological order.

Bus stop, Friday March 31, 2006. 12:22 AM.

no ramones, no mercy

2007-05-10T01:05:00.000-04:00

this started life as a brief comment in an email, and quickly ballooned to rant-sized proportions so i thought it would make good blog-fodder.

i thought spiderman 3 was really good, but then again i haven't agreed with the general consensus on recent superhero movies. i thought spiderman 2 was just 'ok' except for that one scene in the operating room which was amazing, and i really didn't like batman begins much.

but in any case, yeah, i really liked spiderman 3. there were definite cheese moments, and toby maguire really can't cry and that did come close to ruining the movie. but in the end, i think sam raimi did a fairly good job of making a movie not about a superhero but about a young guy who happens to be a superhero, and the people in that guy's life.

and honestly, i think that's what's most interesting about spiderman. does anyone really care about his powers? can his one-liners (in retrospect somewhat lacking in this installment) sustain anything more than a half-hour children's show? for me, spiderman works best as a kind of teenaged version of the watchmen, albeit more of a morality play than the watchmen can allow for in its bid for complexity.

were there bits that made me cringe? oh yes. but within the context of a comic book movie, i could accept most (most) of them. and the ones i couldn't, well, whatever, they were over fast enough. and with any movie like spiderman, where I am familiar with the content before seeing it, I am definitely going to think about the choices i would have made in contrast to the director's (the only really important complaint i had was that there was just not enough queens in the movie at all :).

a lot of reviews, professional or otherwise, seem to focus on how there seems to be "too much" going on, with multiple villains and romantic subplots and whatever, but frankly I had absolutely no problem following it, and i didn't feel it lacked cohesion in any way. i recall being specifically impressed at one point with the ease with which raimi seems to be able to careen from the humorous to the tragic. furthermore, the way significant events pile up on top of each other seemed to me like a conscious decision. confluence was in a way one of this movie's major themes.

as an aside... there is a little bit of a dance sequence in the middle of this movie, and some comments i've read might lead others to believe that it is a scene out of a musical. they would be wrong. the way it is framed and shot struck me as more like a fight scene without the violence than a fred astaire number. if i had to pick one moment from a movie that was close to the dance sequence in this movie, it might be the jazz flute scene in anchorman.

tacotacotaco

2007-04-28T17:41:00.000-04:00

somewhat inspired by jim leff of chowhound's jackson heights map, I present to you my work-in-progress map of tacos in manhattan. yes i know all of the good ones are in east harlem.

new favorite wikipedia entry

2007-04-28T15:29:00.000-04:00

List of foods named after people

spam spam spam spam

2007-04-21T17:24:00.000-04:00

A (not so) new breed of spam uses some real-sounding text and an image as the ad. Here's the particularly interesting text of one I just received, which says a lot of nonsense about programming. The subject was game jeannedarc.

Iron Mountains See Ered Engrin.
Information Processing - 8-bit single byte coded graphic character sets.
Yes, assembly language is definitely worth the effort.
It was a walk in the park.
But as soon as I hung up, Higgy straightened up importantly.
If the nCode parameter is less than zero, the filter function should pass the message to DefHookProc without further processing.
Sets the background image for situations where the browser does not support windowless controls.
Here as elsewhere, everything was bathed in the golden glow of a myriad motionless candle flames.
Here are the steps to create DocObject container using MFC 4.
Iron Mountains See Ered Engrin.

trapped in the closet

2007-04-19T16:54:00.000-04:00

I had to take some stuff out of the bottom of my closet because someone was coming today to run some cables through there. Among the stuff I found was remnants of this one time when I dressed up as Ford Prefect for a dress up day at camp.

Ford Prefect is of course a horrible costume choice, because it isn't really so much a costume as a bag (sorry, a "satchel") of specific things to carry around. I probably initially thought I would be Zaphod Beeblebrox, but then realized that getting a second head and a third arm was a bit beyond my reach for what I could do. In any case, here are some picture of my props.

First, there's the Hitchhiker's Guide itself, for which I used an old Wizard tip-calculator. I made a black case for it with large, friendly letters which read "Don't Panic."

Apparently I did not make an electronic thumb, but I did make a sub-etha sens-o-matic out of a foam-rubber brick wrapped in electrical tape, and labeled with a Dymo!

I was real thorough though, check out the back!

2007-04-13T23:45:00.000-04:00

you ever listen to a song you've listened to many times and all of a sudden hear a really cool lyric you've never noticed before? that happened to me the other day, when I realized that in the last verse of Daysleeper, Stipe sings that the ocean machine is set to nine which i think is great.