>As always, when Hollywood turns its gimlet eyes on a favorite work, I'm worried that it won't get it—so discover Stardust now before it gets the star treatment and then hope for the best.
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Neil Gaiman's lovely little fairy tale is going to be a movie. This could be good news, since Stardust has a deliberately simple storyline, unlike most of Gaiman's oeuvre and offers the best chance of a straight movie adaptation.
When I worked as a corporate speechwriter, my hardest job was weaning people off of their PP dependency and getting them to tell me what they did in conversational rhythms rather than bullet points. The people who downloaded the most data in pre-speechwriting interviews and delivered the best speeches at the events were the ones who'd never used that "gateway" program.
Besides, as far as I'm concerned Edward R. Tufte is a god. Read his books, if you haven't already.
1. My system, with the Moscode in it, seems to achieve greater soundstage width. In Ryan Adams' "Mockingbird," a tambourine rattles away far in the righthand corner of my room. It startles and impresses me every time.
2. In the Foo Fighters' "On the Mend," the highs seem much more alive; almost painfully beautiful. And the echo-y effect on Dave Grohl's voice is warm, well-controlled, and subtle but absolutely distinct.
3. There are incredibly tight and lifelike bass and drum sounds on Beth Orton's "Conceived."
4. I first noticed a kind of trickling, warbling, running…
"Centuries from now, scientists may point to this as the moment in time when the pickiness gene became dominant. In the end, it will come down to one really old, lonely guy and his list.
"'She must have blue eyes. She should like animals, but not in a weird way. No thin lips. No lawyers,' he'll be writing, just before he keels over and the human race comes to an end."
Disgruntled with its former label, Cracker has re-recorded its greatest hits to compete with Virgin's release of its Cracker's greatest hits package.
Infectious blue-eyed soul from Jamie Lidell's Multiply. Gee, I wonder if the white cat is a metaphor for something. Ah, who cares?
Roy Blount, one of my favorite writers, was just elected head of the Author's Guild, to which I belong. Yay us!
If you haven't read Be Sweet, Blount's rumination on memories and memoirs, go ahead and treat yourself. If you have, Blount's comments on how many snippets it takes to be A Million Little Pieces become even funnier.
Chet Raymo has a nice essay rebutting Larry Dossey's screed about why science doesn't accept the wisdom of alternative medicine gurus such as Depak Chopra et al.
And no, I'm not arguing that alternative medicine is bunk—the people I respect who practice it still do serious science attempting to understand it.
Alan is very laid-back. I almost typed "laid-baked," which would be an equally appropriate description. It seems to me that this laid-backness, not to mention laid-bakedness, is a fine quality in a bass player.
Typically, during a performance, Alan chills somewhere near the back of the stage, kind of disappearing while holding everything together, quietly. This behavior also holds true for Alan in other circumstances — parties, at the bar, in restaurants, etc.
This is not to say that Alan is inattentive, but I was pretty damn surprised when he came over to my place one night…