themediamademecrazy.com

this monday, i caught the zappa plays zappa show at the berkeley community theater up in norcal. it was awesome! dweezil was accompanied by ray white, and they played for about 3 hours. the performance was supplemented with videos featuring frank, in a very nat king/natalie cole sort of interaction. it was powerful to watch dweezil turn and play with his father. although the videos highlighted the difference between the two men. every time i see frank wail out a solo, he seems to get lost in it. i only got that feeling from dweezil 2, maybe 3, times, on tracks like carolina hardcore ecstasy and pygmy twylyte. but overall, the show felt great, the crowd was a mix of ages, all of which were excited to be there. thanks to dug for the tickets and his tommy-two-thumbs set list.

NOTE: before the show, we were watching meerkat manor, an anthropomorphized soap opera featuring meerkats in the kalahari on animal planet. the main troop (whiskers) encountered a rival troop known as the zappa, whose dominant male is named frank. it was delightfully perfect!

Dog Breath
City of Tiny Lites
Advance Romance
Dumb All Over
What’s New in Baltimore
Carolina Hard-Core Ecstasy
Son of Suzy Creamcheese
Brown Shoes Don’t Make It
America Drinks and Goes Home
Pygmy Twylyte
Dupree’s Paradise
Heavy Duty Judy
[raccoon improv]
Dupree’s Paradise
Uncle Remus
Willie The Pimp
Joe’s Garage
Wind Up Workin’ In A Gas Station
San Ber’dino
The Illinois Enema Bandit
Wild Love
Yo Mama
encore:
Cosmik Debris
G-Spot Tornado
Muffin Man

http://www.zappaplayszappa.com/

today, south carolina announced that the state would move its primary to january 19 in response to florida’s recent shift, ensuring its role as the first primary in the south.

NYTimes: South Carolina G.O.P. Moves Up Primary

i’m excited for this primary leapfrog, i think that it keeps the the candidates on their toes. instead of skipping from state to state based on its position in the primary ranking, they must now focus on major issues that will speak to a national audience, changing minds through national media. of course there is the argument against a 9-month general election; that’ll suck pretty bad, but i can’t see how it would be worse than the current campaigning culture.

today i completed a feat that i had only dreamed about since moving to los angeles 3 years ago: riding my bike from downtown to venice beach. it is about 15 miles straight down venice blvd, and it took me just over an hour. when i arrived in venice, i realized that i had forgotten my wallet and had no bus fare in case of emergency. i placed a variety of semi-frantic messages to friends and found a hook up. i meandered north on the beach bike path to santa monica (another 3 miles or so) and decided to catch the express big blue bus.

after riding up as it pulled away, i got on a metro bus instead, but it was local. by the time we reached fairfax, i had been riding for about 45 minutes and realized that i could make it home much faster on my new marin san rafael city series. i hopped off (to the surprise of the bus driver as he knew my downtown destination) and cruised down fairfax to the grove and then rode my bike home down 3rd. another 10 miles or so.

in total, i rode my bike almost 30 miles today. it felt good. i think this will be my new saturday morning ritual. there are so many interesting things that you miss when you are zipping along in an automobile. for instance, there are 2 bowling alleys on venice, one of which has a roller rink (World On Wheels).

tonight’s premiere episode, “a clean escape,” starred sam waterson and judy davis as patient and psychiatrist, where the former cannot remember the past 24 years. it was interesting at best. disregarding the gaping plot holes (like where does he go when he leaves her office, or why has it taken 10 months to utilize what seems like the most probable solution?), the style of the program was poor. for me it began with davis’ character. a actress of 57 should be allowed to look 57; every close-up, especially her emotionally distraught ones, only offer further evidence that she is far to old for the role asked of her. it really prevents one from suspending disbelief.

furthermore, i think that the director put too much faith into the plot of the story and oversimplified the shooting, causing the entire project to collapse under poor visuals. in fact, i was much more interested in the story after listening to the dialogue on NPR (yeah, i listened to NPR yesterday… that’s another blog) than after watching the exact same scene.

however, i did commit to watching the whole episode and it generally improved from 2 1/2 to 3 stars (on a 5 star scale). but i have hope, and i will continue to watch the remaining 3 episodes, saturday nights in august at 10pm on abc.

Four thought-provoking tales of present and future Earth are brought to life in “Masters of Science Fiction,” an all-new anthology series featuring a stellar lineup of actors and directors, and narrated by acclaimed physicist Professor Stephen Hawking. The series premieres SATURDAY, AUGUST 4 (10:00-11:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network.

i was very excited for the final installment; although there were a few parts that fell flat, overall, i thought it was a great conclusion to the trials and tribulations of harry at hogwarts. having said that, i’ve heard quite a few complaints that the book was substandard and closed in a desperate manner that leaves the reader disappointed. i felt that the ending, “nineteen years later,” is less of a conclusion and more of a prompt. rowling has left 19 years for spin off books, television shows, and other stories to emerge. however, i can only hope that this is a nod to the millions of children worldwide who utilize the narrative to create their own fantasy world.

one of many online communities:

http://www.harrypotterfanfiction.com/

according to henry jenkins in “convergence culture” fan culture is an essential part of any good media franchise and offers the reader a chance to become deeply involved in the story and the characters. there are 19 years to fill with adventures and magic, this was not lost on rowling or the publishers. and like any good series, the character will always survive, and live happily ever after.