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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
Nathan's LiveJournal:
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| Friday, November 20th, 2009 | | 12:05 am |
| | Thursday, November 19th, 2009 | | 12:13 pm |
32 New Moons Shining in 32 Skies
Yesterday was my birthday. I hung one more year on the line. Seriously, though, it was mostly uneventful, as I expected. I did get a lot of cool presents from ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) bethje, though. I'm now the proud owner of Terry Pratchett's Nation, Talking Heads' True Stories, Cracker's Low EP, The Annotated Brothers Grimm, and a GPS. Her Uncle John gave me the first part of Eric Shanower's Age of Bronze: Betrayal and the Pee-Wee's Playhouse Christmas special. I guess it's about time to clean up the old wishlist. And my brother gave me an Amazon gift card, so maybe I can get something for myself, too. I miss doing that. Not that I don't still do that occasionally, but I really miss having a steady income and being able to buy a book or a CD without thinking about it first.  That evening, we went to see Amanda Palmer at the TLA in Philadelphia. It was obviously just a coincidence that she was in our area on my birthday, but I like to pretend it was intentional. {g} She's been touring with a group called the Nervous Cabaret, and while I can't say I was a huge fan of their own opening set, they added quite a bit to Amanda's own songs. They include horns and everything, which meant more complex arrangements for familiar tunes. I can't remember everything she played, but I know "Missed Me," "Coin-Operated Boy," "Mrs. O," [1] "Ampersand," "Astronaut," "Guitar Hero," "Runs in the Family," and "Oasis" (with "Twist and Shout" improvised during the bridge) were all included, as was a new song that I think was called "Trout Heart Replica," and covers of "House of the Rising Sun" and the Ting Tings' "That's Not My Name." For the beginning of the encore, Amanda sat on the balcony ( right next to us at first, although she moved around a bit) and played "Makin' Whoopie" [2] on the ukelele. [3] During her Ask Amanda segment, she ended up auctioning off a kiss, which someone paid either $300 or $400 for. Amanda had originally said the kiss would be during the encore, but it ended up being after the show. This was the only picture I got, and it was actually after the kiss itself. Before we left, Beth bought me a copy of the Who Killed Amanda Palmer? book, and we waited for some time to get both Amanda and photographer Kyle Cassidy to sign it. I overcame my shyness enough to tell Amanda it was my birthday, and she drew a cake next to one of the pictures in the book. I also hugged her, which puts her in an exclusive category with Carolyn Mark. {g} But I think Amanda kissed me as well, and Carolyn never did. It was worth the wait for me, but I'm not sure Beth would agree. On our way home, we stopped by Denny's for my birthday dinner, because we know how to eat in style. {g} Seriously, though, what else would have been open at that time of night? And I like Denny's, not to mention that it's referred to by name in a Dresden Dolls song. Also a Rilo Kiley one. And when Tori Amos mentions a restaurant that serves "breakfast every hour" in "Purple People," maybe that's what she's talking about. Someone needs to arrange a meet-up of musicians at Denny's. {g} So, yeah, I'm thirty-two now. Isn't that crazy? Well, probably not to many of you, since you've already been there and done that, but it's new to me. [1] I just realized that Yes, Virginia apparently isn't on my computer, even though it's on my MP3 player. What's up with that? [2] I've been listening to Allan Sherman quite a bit recently, and he actually did two parodies of this song. "Taking Lessons" was on his live LP recorded in Nevada, and "Makin' Coffee" was on an EP that he did for the Scott Paper Company. Yeah, I know I'm a dork. [3] The Firefox spell check doesn't recognize the word "ukelele." What's up with that? Current Music: Talking Heads - Radio Head | Powered by Last.fm | | 12:04 am |
| | Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 | | 12:05 am |
| | Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 | | 6:39 pm |
More Fun with Bands
This meme was shamelessly appropriated from SamuraiFrog. List 10 musical artists (or bands) you like, in no specific order (do this before reading the questions below). Really, don’t read the questions below until you pick your ten artists!!! 1. XTC 2. Frank Black 3. "Weird Al" Yankovic 4. Neko Case 5. Dresden Dolls 6. Nellie McKay 7. They Might Be Giants 8. Fastbacks 9. Tori Amos 10. Stephin Merritt What was the first song you ever heard by 6? I think it was "Ding Dong." What is your favorite song of 8? I'd say "Old Address of the Unknown." What kind of impact has 1 left on your life? A fair amount, I'd say. I associate them very closely with my college years. What is your favorite lyric of 5? "Coke and Pepsi finally found a compromise." (From "Modern Moonlight") How many times have you seen 4 live? I think maybe seven? Once was with the New Pornographers. What is your favorite song by 7? It's Not My Birthday Is there any song by 3 that makes you sad? By Weird Al? No, I don't think so. What is your favorite song by 9? Black Dove (January) When did you first get into 2? My senior year of college, when I bought Teenager of the Year used How did you get into 3? Not even sure. While I didn't actually get any of his albums until high school, I've been familiar with his work for much longer than that. What is your favorite song by 4? Deep Red Bells How many times have you seen 9 live? Several. I've lost count, but I saw her once in college, and bethje and I have seen her most of the times she's come to the area in the past few years. What is a good memory concerning 2? Seeing him at both an in-store and a regular concert in November 2002 Is there a song by 8 that makes you sad? I can't think of one, but some of them are kind of melancholy. What is your favorite song of 1? Burning with Optimism's Flames How did you become a fan of 10? I heard a few Magnetic Fields songs through the magic of the Internet, and eventually decided to buy the albums. Current Music: Kelly Hogan: Dirty vs. Clean | | 12:22 pm |
Jinxin' the Land
First of all, happy birthday to annamatic! Next, I think I'll follow up my Oogaboo post by featuring another kingdom on the outskirts of Oz. This time, it's Jinxland, an area in the southeastern Quadling Country with a rather tumultuous political history. It's largely separated from the rest of Oz, being surrounded by mountains and a great gulf, aside from where it borders the Deadly Desert. Because of this isolation, it's a popular dwelling place for illegal witches, most prominently the one-eyed Blinkie. Jinxland is a quite beautiful land, but when Trot and Cap'n Bill arrive there in The Scarecrow of Oz, it has a quite unpleasant ruler, with the rather telling name of King Krewl. Not too long before, the ruler had been the beneficent King Kynd, but his Prime Minister Phearse pushed him into the Great Gulf, and usurped the throne. Phearse later got into an argument with his own Prime Minister Krewl, and the latter buried the former under rocks at the bottom of a lake. During the course of the book, Krewl himself is eventually deposed by the Scarecrow, with help from a flock of Orks.  Another significant part of the plot of Scarecrow involves Kynd's daughter Gloria, who is being raised by her uncle King Krewl, falling in love with Phearse's son Pon. At this time, Pon is working as a gardener's boy, and the King is determined to marry Gloria to the old and rich Lord Googly-Goo. The American visitors don't think much of Pon, who's somewhat of a wuss. Really, though, I can kind of identify with him, and he's quite loyal despite his fragility. Anyway, after the Scarecrow shows up and conquers King Krewl, Gloria is crowned Queen of Jinxland, and Pon becomes her consort. Krewl himself is demoted to gardener's assistant, and forced to change his name to Grewl.  As with Oogaboo, Jinxland also makes some return appearances in apocryphal books and stories. Most significantly, Phyllis Ann Karr's The Gardener's Boy of Oz provides a lot of additional details about the history of the kingdom. According to this story, King Kynd's wife and Gloria's mother was named Tralynda, and she was also largely responsible for raising Pon. Phearse never married or had children of his own, Pon actually being a child he bought from the Wicked Witch Blinkie so that he could marry Pon to Gloria and legitimize his own reign. One issue that remains confusing, however, is how Krewl and Gloria are related. She refers to him as her uncle in Scarecrow, but since there's a reference in Gardener's Boy to Krewl wanting to marry Tralynda, he's obviously not her brother. So he's either not technically her uncle (which is certainly possible), and Kynd and Krewl are brothers. While this latter would make sense, I don't recall anyone in Gardener's Boy acknowledging it, and wouldn't Krewl's being a blood relative of Kynd's mean he would have been ahead of Phearse in line for the throne? Then again, that's assuming we really know how the laws of succession in Jinxland work. Anyway, Gardener's Boy reveals the fates of Kynd, Tralynda, and Phearse; and the former two are restored to the throne, leaving Pon and Gloria much more free time.  Current Music: The Young Fresh Fellows - Celebration | Powered by Last.fm | | 12:06 am |
| | Monday, November 16th, 2009 | | 1:38 pm |
Life in the Oogaboonies
First of all, happy birthday to goldenmoonbear!  For my Oz post today, I'm going to take a look at Oogaboo, a small valley nestled in the mountains in the northwestern (not southwestern, as I originally wrote) corner of Oz. While Oogaboo is officially a kingdom, it's a tiny one. At the beginning of Tik-Tok of Oz, the population is given as eighteen men, twenty-seven women, and forty-four children. All of the men are named Jo, with their surnames being the crop in which they specialize. While a few of them grow normal items like apples and plums, others farm anything from ice cream cones to sandwiches to banjos. The kingdom is ruled by the Soforth family, whom I've guessed might have been named because they were the ones who handled all of the crops not covered by the others. After King Jol Jemkiph Soforth left Oogaboo, later followed by his wife, their daughter Ann became Queen. Part of the plot of Tik-Tok involves how Ann, being dissatisfied with her own kingdom, set out to conquer the world with an army comprised of the few men in Oogaboo (aside from Jo Candy, who absolutely refused to enlist). Not surprisingly, she didn't succeed, but she and her army DID play a role in conquering Ruggedo, and were allowed to take some of the wealth of the Nome Kingdom home with them. I'm not entirely sure what good the jewels would have done in what basically seems to be a closed, self-sufficient economy, but I suppose we can't underestimate the appeal of shiny objects. Also, Jo Files, the only Oogabooite who decided to become a private soldier instead of an officer, met his wife Ozga, the former Rose Princess, while on the Queen's foolish mission.  Despite the lack of size and prestige for Oogaboo, its location in the very corner of the land makes it a convenient landmark, and I can recall references in Tin Woodman, Glinda, and Gnome King to locations being identified relative to the small valley kingdom. It even appears on the maps in Gregory Maguire's Wicked series, although he changed the spelling to "Ugabu." There are also several apocryphal books and stories that feature Oogaboo prominently. In "Nero Zeero, Snoz of Oz," Queen Ann marries the title character, the king of the nearby valley of Snozland, where the people believe that intelligence is relative to nose size. Karyl Carlson and Eric Gjovaag's Queen Ann has the Queen search for her parents, and gives some interesting additional details about the kingdom, as well as bringing in some of the children as significant characters. Kids in Oogaboo are encouraged to cultivate their own new crops, after which they take the names of these crops, like their parents did before. The name "Jol Jemkiph Soforth" is also explained, with "Jol" being identified as a more archaic form of the standard Oogabooish name "Jo," and a jemkiph being a date book. Jol's wife and Ann's mother is named Dede, and the search party eventually locates both parents. In David Hulan's Glass Cat, Oogaboo is invaded by Bad Lads with guns, and it takes the efforts of several Ozian celebrities to drive them off. Finally, Melody Grandy and Chris Dulabone's Thorns and Private Files has Jo and Ozga Files trying to unravel the mystery of the nearby Kingdom of Cyrune, which is finally resolved in Zim Greenleaf.  Not much detail is given about the history of Oogaboo prior to fairly recent years, but its organization suggests that it might have been started as a commune of sorts, which developed into a kingdom over the years. While small and not too prosperous, it appears to be largely self-sustaining, and the people are quite content when not being roped into Ann's crazy schemes. Queen Ann has the title character making Oogaboo somewhat less insular by setting up trade with other nearby kingdoms. Current Music: The Young Fresh Fellows - No One Really Knows | Powered by Last.fm | | 12:05 am |
| | Sunday, November 15th, 2009 | | 10:34 pm |
You're getting cozy with Sarkozy
Today was the birthday of my wife bethje, and therealtavie came to visit. We met her in Philadelphia, and went to eat at the Palace Diner in Berlin. (That's Berlin, New Jersey, with the dubious claim to fame of being the hometown of Kelly Ripa.) After dinner, we stopped by the Berlin Farmers' Market, which Tavie seemed to enjoy. Unfortunately, most of the stores were closing up, but we DID get to see some of the crappy bootleg T-shirts, like gangsta Spongebob and Tom and Jerry lighting cigars with dollar bills. I often have to wonder if the makers of such items even know who the characters they shamelessly rip off are. I wonder the same thing about the decals of Calvin peeing on things. Anyway, happy birthday to Beth, and thanks to Tavie for coming to see us! It's rare we actually get to hang out with anyone. In my dream last night, I was in a city inhabited mostly by rabbits who hated humans. Actually, I don't think I ever SAW any of these bunnies, so maybe it was just an elaborate hoax, but the people only felt safe riding on a bus. I was there for some class or something, and they issued us weird guns during the time we were attending. I think there might have also been a section of town populated by dogs. The Sunday night cartoon lineup was really kind of weak tonight. Both the Simpsons and Family Guy episodes gave me a real sense of nothing happening. I liked the idea of Carl becoming Homer's boss, but the plot was neither particularly funny nor dramatic. I assume the calendar subplot for Marge was intended to tie in with her recent Playboy appearance, but while some of the jokes about the calendar were pretty good, that plot was pretty much totally dropped when Homer's busy work schedule became the focus. And the bit with Marge and Ned Flanders was just tacked on. I didn't watch most of the Cleveland Show episode, but Family Guy was pretty lackluster. I know they tend to reset everything at the end, but it seems like there wasn't even any real conflict along the way in this one. Quagmire has a baby he can't take care of...so he puts her up for adoption. Stewie makes clones that don't turn out that well...and then they die. Granted, plot has never been FG's strong point, but unfortunately the jokes weren't very good either. American Dad was also not one of the better episodes, but at least Roger was amusing. But then, I've seen some reviewers mention that they don't like episodes heavy on Roger's invented personae, so maybe they wouldn't care for this one at all. Current Mood:  tired | | 12:05 am |
| | Saturday, November 14th, 2009 | | 1:05 pm |
I Do the Ragnarok
Today, we take a look at the end of the world. More specifically, it's the final war of Norse mythology, Ragnarok. One fascinating thing about the myths of Ragnarok is that the descriptions are so specific, and the gods know all about them, but they're simply resigned to carrying out their roles. No point in messing with fate, I suppose.  According to the myths, the great war will be preceded by three years of harsh winter, during which morality will break down. Then the bonds holding some of the most fearsome monsters will break, and the creatures that have been trying to cause chaos for centuries will finally succeed. The wolves that have been chasing the Sun and Moon will devour them, and the serpent Nidhogg will chew through one of the roots of the World Tree. The monsters will join forces with the frost and fire giants, including Loki, who will escape from his prison. Sources mention two ships, one made of the nails of the dead, that will convey the giants and their allies to the final battleground; as well as the giants invading Asgard by way of the rainbow bridge Bifrost, which would break behind them. The gods will be assisted by the Einherjar, the virtuous dead who had been dwelling at Valhalla. The exact order and location of the events seems to vary from one source to another, but the last battle will be fought on the plain of Vigrid, which is ten thousand square leagues in area, and fills the same basic role that Armageddon does in Christianity. While we know that Armageddon refers to Megiddo in Israel, where many battles have been fought over the centuries, I haven't seen any speculation as to whether Vigrid might be a real place. At some point in the fighting, the wolf Fenrir will kill Odin, who will in turn be avenged by his son Vidar. Thor and the Midgard Serpent Jormungand will take out each other, with the thunder god killing the serpent but falling to the dead snake's venom. Eventually, after many more deaths on both sides, the giant Surtr will end the whole thing by setting all nine worlds on fire with his magic sword.   As is generally the case with mythology, this death of everything is followed by a rebirth. Some of the younger gods will survive the destruction, as will two humans, who will repopulate the world. In the new world, crops will grow by themselves, and peace and happiness will reign. The main dwelling place of the new gods will be Gimli, a hall that shines more brightly than the sun (and the source of the name for the main dwarf in Lord of the Rings). I seem to recall seeing some different takes on the new world from after Christianity started to gain prominence in Scandinavia, in which there's only the one god after the Aesir die. While an interesting way to try to reconcile old and new beliefs, wouldn't that mean Ragnarok would have to have happened already without anyone noticing? ("Hey, did you hear that a giant wolf ate the sun the other day?" "No, I was inside all day.")  The Norse apocalypse has become a popular theme, and the name "Ragnarok" has also been used for things that don't have an immediate connection to the end of the world. Indeed, most of the Google results I found when searching for the term did not refer to the battle, but to the RPG Ragnarok Online. Other references that come to mind are the Esper Ragnarok from Final Fantasy VI, Ragnarok Canyon in Battletoads, and the avian villain Ragna Roc in Piers Anthony's Two to the Fifth.  Current Mood: apocalypticCurrent Music: Nellie McKay - Change the World | Powered by Last.fm | | 12:07 am |
| | Friday, November 13th, 2009 | | 12:05 am |
| | Thursday, November 12th, 2009 | | 9:19 pm |
Twitters Never Win
Is there a trick to getting celebrities to reply on Twitter? Yeah, I'm sure there isn't, but I'm still kind of amazed that I've received two replies from Amanda Palmer, who has 192,162 followers. The occasional reply to a fan is actually a really clever marketing technique, though. Even if you only reply every once in a while, it presents the illusion of actual conversation. I guess Amanda has always tried to maintain a good rapport with her fans, but I think it could also work for less sociable celebrities. The constant changes to the Facebook interface just reinforce what I've pretty much thought from the first, which is that it's SUPPOSED to be confusing. It's chaos with small bits of order, which is the worst kind of chaos (except possibly the end boss of the first Final Fantasy). I have more contacts on Facebook than any other site, yet I check and update it considerably less than I do LiveJournal, Twitter, or Tumblr. I do try to link to my more interesting LJ entries, but I'm not sure how many people go here from there, although I know a few have. This past weekend, I read through the archives of Questionable Content. I'm pretty sure I'd seen it linked from various communities before, what with its plethora of references, but I'd never read it with any regularity before. I'm actually kind of pleasantly surprised at how much I liked the characters; as bizarrely exaggerated as some of them are, they seem like people I'd want to hang out with. Too bad they're, y'know, fictional. That's the story of my life, though. As much as I love the magic, humor, and weirdness in the Oz books, a large part of their appeal for me (especially in my junior high years) was always how accepting the fairyland was of characters who didn't fit in elsewhere. Speaking of web comics, Captain SNES has FINALLY resolved the standoff between Alex and the Sinistrals, and Chaos has shown up in 8-Bit Theater. Now that latter one is a comic where I DON'T want to hang out with the cast, as amusing as they might be. Too much chance of being stabbed or Hadokened. {g} Current Mood:  lonelyCurrent Music: The Smiths - How Soon Is Now? | Powered by Last.fm | | 12:04 am |
| | Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 | | 7:02 pm |
Taking Lives with a Smoking Pen
Well, it's Veterans' Day again today. Not that I ever do anything for it, but hey, it's important to honor veterans. They did a dangerous job that the rest of us don't want to do, after all. Sure, you hear the stories about bad apples like the torturers at Abu Ghraib, but I'm willing to accept that they're in the minority. And could behavior like that possibly be blamed on the methods employed by the military? When you're teaching soldiers to disobey one of the most basic customs of polite society (i.e., don't kill people), is it any wonder that they might disobey others as well? Maybe I'm wrong, but it's not like dirty tactics are anything new in war. Just look at the early books of the Bible, for instance. Under the supposed command of Yahweh, the early Israelites slaughtered entire populations and burned their towns, sometimes saving the virgin women to rape. In general, war strikes me as very primitive, and the idea of removing soldiers' individuality and turning them into killing machines is disturbing. But if an enemy won't react to anything else, what do you do? I won't give up hope that there's a more peaceful alternative, but damned if I know what it would be. I seriously doubt I could ever be an effective fighter, and I sincerely hope I'll never get the chance to find out. Fortunately, I grew up in an era with no draft, although that doesn't necessarily mean there won't be one in the future. I don't think anyone over thirty was drafted in Vietnam, but they were earlier in the century. Really, why would a country want to involve so many people in a war when they don't even believe in the cause? It doesn't exactly ensure the best troops, does it? But if there's a draft and you manage to get out of it, does that just mean some other unlucky person will end up going in your place? That's one reason I sort of like the idea of requiring everyone to become involved in SOME sort of national service, but not necessarily military. That way, even if you didn't go abroad and shoot somebody, you can still say you've served your country. Or is there something I'm missing here? On a more pleasant note, today is also the fifty-sixth birthday of Andy Partridge, formerly of XTC. Happy birthday, Andy! While I put about as much stock in astrology as I do in the position of my feet on the sidewalk having the potential to give my mom spinal cord injury, I do think it's kind of cool that Andy and I are apparently both the same Occidental AND Oriental zodiacal signs. Scorpio Snakes, represent! If our venom doesn't get you, our pincers will! Current Music: Stan Freberg: Elderly Man River | | 12:09 am |
| | Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 | | 11:00 am |
The Hopper-Horner Express
Some time ago, I had a dream somehow involving a bus labeled as the "Hopper-Horner Express." I'm not sure if this is something that would really work in Oz, considering that the Hoppers and Horners live in a cavern in the rocky mountains of the Quadling Country, but who knows? Anyway, the Hoppers and Horners are perpetual rivals, with their villages separated by a marble picket fence. The Hoppers have only one leg each, and hence have to hop to get around. They live in marble houses, of which there are only about fifty. The only Hopper mentioned by name in the Oz series proper is Hip Hopper, the Champion Wrestler.  The Horners are called that because they each have one horn, about six inches long, in the middle of their foreheads. They have light brown skin and three-colored hair, with red at the bottom, then yellow and green. They dress in white robes, and wear no shoes. Radium mining is their chief industry, and they decorate the insides of their houses with the radioactive metal. (At the time when the book was written, radium was considered a miraculous substance, and its hazardous qualities were not yet known. Perhaps, being Ozites and all, the Horners are immune to radiation poisoning, but I have to wonder if their odd appearances are due in part to the heavy radioactivity of the area.) While the radium makes their homes quite pretty on the inside, the outsides are simply made of dull gray stone. The Horners argue that they actually LIVE indoors, and that the Hopper houses are actually quite ugly inside. The Horners are known for their terrible jokes, at which they all laugh uproariously. Oddly enough, as raucous as the adult Horners are, they raise their children (or their daughters, at least; we don't see any sons in the story) in a quite puritanical fashion, forcing them to be quiet and polite. During the time of Patchwork Girl, the Horners are led by a chief named Jak. (Get it?)  It was actually one of the Horners' bad jokes that led to war at the time Ojo and Scraps visited the cavern. Diksey Horner joked that the Hoppers had less understanding than the Horners, because they had fewer legs. His thinking was that the legs are UNDER a person and used for STANDING, but not surprisingly, the Hoppers didn't get it. Diksey eventually explained the joke and conflict was averted, but it wasn't the last time that trouble would arise between the two groups. In Royal Book, the Hoppers and Horners are at war once again, and it takes Glinda's magic to bring them into line. Hopper-Horner conflict has since become sort of a running gag in Oz stories, with mentions of wars between them appearing in Forbidden Fountain and Blue Witch, among others. They're pretty much always offstage, though, so we don't know the details.  Fred Otto reused the Horners in his short story "Mombi's Purple Polkadot Vest," in which it's revealed that Mombi's four-horned cow (mentioned in Land) is actually a four-horned Horner named Phogg under enchantment. Because of his extra horns, Phogg was a wizard, and served as town leader. At the end of the story, he is planning to take back his old position, so that raises the question as to what would happen with Chief Jak. Current Mood:  blahCurrent Music: Fastbacks - Defy's Gravity | Powered by Last.fm | | 12:06 am |
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