Happy Halloween

My list of Top 5s

Almost all the lists are in order of preference

ACTRESSES
1. Cate Blanchett
2. Toni Collette
3. Jodie Foster
4. Monica Vitti
5. Chloe Sevigney/Rosario Dawson

FILMS
1. 2001: A Space Odyssey
2. L'Avventura
3. Heat
4. The Conversation
5. Thin Red Line

ARTISTS (ALL MEDIA)
1. Joan Miro
2. Michelangelo Antonioni
3. Stanley Kubrick
4. Edgar Allen Poe
5. Philip Glass

HOLIDAYS
1. Halloween
2. New Year's Day
3. Thankgiving
4. Fourth of July
5. Labor Day

COLORS
1. yellow
2. blue
3. green
4. red
5. orange

ROLE-PLAYING GAMES
1. Gamma World
2. Dungeons and Dragons
3. Orpheus
4. Transhuman Space
5. Unknown Armies

MUSIC BANDS
1. Sonic Youth
2. Le Tigre
3. They Might Be Giants
4. The Doors
5. Cowboy Junkies

CITIES
1. San Francisco
2. New Orleans
3. Los Angeles
4. Philadelphia
5. Atlanta

COUNTRIES
1. USA
2. Korea
3. Japan
4. Germany
5. United Kingdom

CONSTELLATIONS
1. Orion
2. Cassiopeia
3. Big Dipper
4. Cygnus
5. Andromeda

AUTOMOBILES
1. BMW Z8
2. Aston Martin DB7
3. Mini Cooper S
4. Porsche Cayman S
5. BMW Z4 M Coupe

TIME PERIODS
1. Victorian
2. 1960's
3. 1980's
4. now
5. 2104

ANIMALS OR ROBOTS
1. cat
2. Z'Gok
3. cyborg cat
4. dog
5. Ork Killa Kan
6. jellyfish

OFFICE SUPPLIES
1. scotch tape
2. pen
3. legal pad
4. scissors
5. stapler

PROBLEM TICKETS OR SERVICE REQUESTS AT WORK
1. laptop request
2. archiving failed
3. install MS Project
4. expense report java error
5. apply SAS license

LINDSAY'S TOP 5 TOYS
1. ice cube
2. string
3. quarter
4. me
5. tennis ball

2 item combo: the Purge II and Ebay 0

I noticed that my room has suffered from the effects of entropy and will need a second purging. I can feel the obsessive-compulsiveness coming on as I got a rush out of vacuuming the other day.

As for my grand plan to corner the painted miniature market on ebay, well, I'm this close >< to hanging up my miniature painting for some time. I couldn't ever get to finishing my Space Marine Veterans because they are pretty boring to paint. Then I bought two more minis (a skink shaman and a goblin shaman) and while they are base coated nicely, I just couldn't get back into finishing it up. :o(


UPDATE: I cleaned up quite a bit tonight, put away a lot of junk. I still have more miniatures than I would like and I finally put away my painting station.

OCTOBER 24TH

Happy 1024 everyone! Today is one of the greatest days on the planet.

An anti-promular festivities created for the sole identification of the acknowledgement of the undenial truth, heretofore referred to as, "Arbitration" that fateful day when braven souls decided willfully and undeniably marked the end of nomalcy of the tyranny of that which is high-schoolular edicts brought upon by the Evil Corporation, Judsonco, Newtondor, et.al.

It's hard to believe that over fifteen years have passed since we were a bunch of goofballs taking not-so-serious things seriously and vice versa. Arbitration realigned these discrepencies and it is used to this day by all Arbitrators to perform the Jig of Life.

So celebrate with your friends your family your loved ones your pets. If there is one day out of the year to be joyous, it is today.

1999 Best Actress - Cate Blanchett for Elizabeth

ok, so it was for The Aviator, but we all know she should have won it for Elizabeth.
(click on photo for more Cate, probably the last Cate blog entry in a bit).

... and the winner is... Julia Roberts for Erin Brockovich!

ok, I can see how Julia Roberts could have won for Best Actress in 2001 for Erin Brockovich.

Winner:
Erin Brockovich (2000) - Julia Roberts

Other Nominees:
Chocolat (2000) - Juliette Binoche
Contender, The (2000) - Joan Allen (I)
Requiem for a Dream (2000) - Ellen Burstyn
You Can Count on Me (2000) - Laura Linney
from imdb.com

I thought Joan Allen was great in The Contender. I was outraged that Ellen Burstyn didn't get it, but after seeing Erin Brockovich, I concede that that is a one of her best roles. For a brief second I was worried that Cate Blanchett was on the list that year. I'm not sure this post would exist if she was.

have a GOOD NIGHT'S SLEEP ON US MATRESS DISCOUNTERS!!!

I received Il Grido (the Outcry) from amazon yesterday. I was planning on saving it until Thanksgiving when I go visit my mom in L.A. but I wanted to catch just a bit and ended up watching the first hour.

I suppose I'm a big fan of post-war Italian films. I love De Sica's the Bicycle Thief (having watched it first in European Film History class at Georgia State. Altman/Tolkin pokes good fun at the fans of the film in The Player. Il Grido is less formal stylistically and is considered to be Antonioni's neo-realist film.

I've been meaning to watch Antonioni's films back-to-back while I'm down in L.A.

The Streets of San Francisco

The Streets of San Francisco is my guilty pleasure. Whether it's on KRON4 or KCBS, I'll stop at the drop of a dime for this show. A TV cop drama starring the awesome duo of Michael Douglas and Karl Malden bustoing crime on the streets of San Francisco.

The series ran from 1972-1977. The acting isn't half bad and it's worth watching just to see what San Francisco was like back in the 1970's. And you will recognize many of the backgrounds.

K-9 dog let go due to laziness

photo of Buster from BBC news

(10-17) 11:01 PDT ROTHERHAM, England (AP) --

Buster the German Shepherd could have had a great career as a British police dog had it not been for one flaw: his complete lack of interest in fighting crime.

The canine cop took early retirement after bosses at South Yorkshire Police noted his poor motivation — and a fondness for making friends with rowdy drunkards, his former handler said Monday.

Buster, who spent some six months on the beat, has been placed with a family in Sheffield, near this town in northern England, Police Constable David Stephenson said.

"He has a lack of drive and motivation when asked to do operational work," Stephenson told The Associated Press. "He's just a lovely pet."

Two-year-old Buster performed well at the start of his 14-week training program, but his work gradually deteriorated and the problem worsened once he started patrolling the streets, he said.

On one occasion, Buster walked straight past a suspected criminal hiding in the garden of a house late at night and went off to cock his leg.

"I searched the garden myself and found the bloke. The dog had walked past the spot where I found him," Stephenson said. "You would have expected him to use his nose to locate him."

During a separate tracking operation, also in the early hours of the morning, Buster gave up while in mid-chase across a golf course . "He just downed tools," Stephenson said. "He just lay down and there was nothing we could do. He has got a very low drive for finding people."

When patroling Rotherham at pub closing times — when the streets are often crowded with drunken revelers — Buster wagged his tail when people came up to him and ate their fries, instead of deterring potential trouble makers, his former handler said.

"He just showed no interest in doing the job," Stephenson added. "He had no fire in his belly."

South Yorkshire Police employs some 50 German Shepherds for tracking criminals, searching buildings and helping maintain public order at soccer matches and other events.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2005/10/17/international/i110101D32.DTL

Michelangelo Antonioni

I scored BIG at Amoeba Music store today. I found an out of print copy of Il Deserto Rosso (the Red Desert) for US$35 + tax.

It is directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, one of my favorite directors (L'Avventura) (Kubrick (2001: A Space Odyssey) being the other) and Red Desert is considered to be the "4th" flim in his trilogy of films made during the 50's and 60's dealing with relationships. It is also his first color film, and stars Monica Vitti who incidentally resembles Cate Blanchett especially in her expressions.


The DVD has been out of print since 1999 and regularly goes for 150-200 bucks on Ebay. The cover has some scuff marks, but I now have the complete "trilogy" of 4 flims (the other hard to find item being La Notte thanks to Alecia). muhahahah *cough cough*

Screw it, here is the list of his trilogy:

1. L'Avventura (The Adventure), 1960
2. La Notte (The Night), 1961
3. L'Ecclise (The Eclipse), 1962
4. Il Deserto Rosso (The Red Desert), 1964

L'Avventura is probably the best of the four. I can watch this film over and over again (I still am). Really, I can watch any of the films above and find something new every time.

I also have Blow Up the first Antonioni film I saw and the one that started my obsession and I'm waiting for Il Grido (the film before the trilogy) from Amazon, which I recently found out is still in print.

w00tcut!!!

I couldn't resist and went to Stacey's bookstore down on Market Street and picked up this book:

http://www.fireflybooks.com/advance/bookdetail.asp?id=8639

I could have saved 9 bucks + tax from Amazon, but I just couldn't wait. and it's everything I was expecting from the book. Soon after I hurried over to my local art shop which is on the same block as where I work and to my disapponitment they did not have any supplies for woodcutting. The salesperson there was nice enough though to recommend Pearl artstore. I'll probably check out Flax artstore since it's closer.

I have to say I'm pretty jazzed about woodcutting because it combines craft, fine art, sculpting, print making, etc. etc.

woodcuts

Canterybury Tales, artist unknown

I've been a huge fan of strange and weird woodcuts from the "dark ages," nothing too detailed, but crude and mysterious.

I would love to dabble in it, but the whole process seems a bit intimidating. I don't really want to go to school for it nor can I really afford to at this point. I guess I can always start with a simple woodcut of Lindsay (circle + 2 triangles)...

print by Art Hazelwood

color photos from the 1910's

Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii, a Russian photographer, documented his country shortly before World War I using a "color camera." The site also explains the technique used.

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/

Check out the section for Ethnic Diversity and People at Work especially. You can click on the images to enlarge them.