Posted by barb on Aug 1, 2003 in
Crafty Me I started my second basket yesterday. When I made the Adairondack basket a couple weeks ago, I bought a second kit from the instructor. I thought I ought to start on it before I completely forgot what I was doing. Last night I stopped after I had about 6 rows of weavers added, so that the basket started to take shape. Tonight, I couldn’t stop until I was done….
I don’t think I’m the only person who does this. Whenever I’m into a crafting or sewing project, I mean really into it, I don’t want to stop for anything. Tonight I started on my basket at about 4:30 pm. From about 5:30 pm on, Andrew started asking when he should start supper. My response was always, not yet. Finally I realized that he had never witnessed the power of crafts. I finally told him, “Honey, I’m never going to be ready for dinner until this is finished, so you should probably make dinner whenever you’re ready, and then make me have some of it.”
I have no idea when I had dinner, but I’m sure that Andrew made me have something (skipping meals is one of my migraine triggers, though I’ve never had a migraine after skipping a meal for a craft…weird). I do remember Andrew heading off to bed at about 10:30 pm (our normal bedtime is about 10 pm). I called after him that I’d be up when the basket was done. I don’t think I was much past 11 pm, but I would have stayed up however long it took.
Posted by barb on Jul 30, 2003 in
TV I was a big fan of Battlestar Galactica when I was growing up. As a girl, I had a huge crush on Starbuck, and an only slightly smaller crush on Apollo. I would imagine myself getting caught up in some mess with the Cylons, and subsequently getting saved by Starbuck.
About two years ago, I heard about Richard Hatch‘s (Apollo) vision for a new BG series where we completely ignore the existence of Galactica 1980 (if only that could be scrubbed from the brains of all who saw…). Instead, the series would pick up with the Galactica 25 years later, still searching for Earth with its rag-tag fugitive fleet. There is now a new generation who have grown up in space, and an old generation that is perhaps wearying of the journey. The idea sounded compelling.
Unfortunately, SciFi is not doing this version of BG. Instead, they are doing a complete remake of the original series. They’ll be pulling some of the story lines from the original series and updating the show for a new generation of audience.
Now, I will watch the new show. I’m trying not to predispose myself to hating it, but I have several concerns. Perhaps the biggest concern is that when David Eick (executive producer of the new series) was asked why they decided to make Starbuck a woman, he responded with, “In truth, there was less agonizing over this decision than you might imagine.” That answer tells me that the new producers are not in touch with fans of the original show. Starbuck was a womanizing scoundrel and every girl I knew had a huge crush on him. He was probably the favorite character among my friends (and brothers). To make such a huge change in a favorite character should take a bit of thought (and perhaps shouldn’t have even occurred to them in the first place). It would be like someone re-making the original Star Trek series and turning the Dr. McCoy or Spock characters into women. You just can’t do that.
There were other answers that Eick gave on the SciFi BG “Ask David” page that put me off because it clearly showed that most of the people involved in this remake were not just not fans of the original series, but indeed had not even watched the series. While I realize that their goal is to make a new, updated version of the show, one might think they would be a bit more sensitive to the existing fans.
Posted by barb on Jul 30, 2003 in
Saxophone I still need to work on this one. I can play something very similar to what’s written, but I want to get the dotted notes down better (I tend to turn the dotted quarter note and the following eighth notes both into quarter notes).
I need to work on making a bigger sound. I seem to play under the impression that if I play quietly, then no one will notice if I play badly. Unfortunately, this means that I can’t do much about playing quieter when the music calls for it.
Fred is taking off the next three weeks, so it’s going to be a struggle for me to make myself practice. I hope I take advantage of the time, though, to make some progress through my book. I should also look for a good “play-along” book at my level.
Posted by barb on Jul 27, 2003 in
Movies 4/5 stars
Actually, I saw this when it first hit the theaters. We rented it so that Andrew could see it before we see Terminator 3. Though, one wonders what’s left…
Posted by barb on Jul 27, 2003 in
Movies 3.5/5 stars
This is a different sort of love story. I mainly watched this for James Spader, but it was actually a pretty good movie. Lee Holloway (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is a masochist who cuts herself when life gets painful. She becomes E. Edward Grey’s (Spader) secretary. Their relationship begins to turn into that of a top/bottom (read: domination). As with any love story, there are complications. Spader and Gyllenhall both give excellent performances, and the topic of domination is treated with complete respect. (However, many of the plot summaries I’ve seen are simply calling Grey a “demanding lover” or an “angry lawyer” — these reviewers don’t understand domination at all.)
Posted by barb on Jul 26, 2003 in
Movies 1.5/5 stars
This really had the potential to be a good movie, but it wasn’t. For the most part I liked the actors, the sets, and the art direction. The main problem was that at several points it felt like about 20 pages of the script were skipped. Much of the background was missing, and the plot jumped without smooth transitions between the main plot points.
Posted by barb on Jul 24, 2003 in
Movies 4/5 stars
I’d actually seen this one already, but remembered that I quite enjoyed it. Andrew had it in the house because he’d heard the commentary was entertaining. I let him watch it alone, since I can’t stand having someone talking through a movie (unless it’s me :-).
I might want to consider purchasing this one…
Posted by barb on Jul 23, 2003 in
Saxophone The last two weeks of lessons were cancelled, so I wasn’t expecting much this week. (I tend not to practice much without the fear of humiliating myself at an upcoming lesson.) However, I really surprised myself! Not only did I finally get that Mozart Minuet out decently (on my second try), but I also was able to play Sailing, Sailing (yes, the cheesy song I remember humming as a kid whenever I was in a boat) quite well, even though I’d only played it through a couple times at home.
In fact, Sailing, Sailing was a bit of a triumph for other reasons. It’s written in G major, which has F#. Unfortunately, the first F I came to, I played it natural, and I could hear that it was wrong. Instead of going with my first instinct of stopping, uttering an expletive, and going back a couple measures, I played it as if I hadn’t done anything wrong, continued the song, but the next F I came to, I played F#. Cool! (This might not sound like a triumph, but my first instinct of stopping is not the right thing…playing through is.)
Fred also mentioned that of his adult students, I seem to be getting the best sound. That, despite my old, notoriously out-of-tune horn.
Posted by barb on Jul 20, 2003 in
Movies 3.5/5 stars
Well, it was much better than the critics would have you believe. I rather enjoyed it, in fact.
While I’m not sure that setting this Robert Louis Stevenson classic in space added much to the story, I’m not sure that it took anything away either. I’ll have to read the book to decide. Also, they did play fast and loose with the laws of physics….I suppose I’ll have to just forgive them that.
Posted by barb on Jul 20, 2003 in
Movies 5/5 stars!
Wow! What more can I say?
Johnny Depp was incredible. Orlando Bloom was dreamy. Keira Knightley’s “damsel in distress” character wasn’t just a helpless woman. The story was original — one of few that is not a sequel or based on a best-selling novel this summer. And it was pirates!
Highly recommended!