When Sunday morning rolled around, we weren’t sure what we were going to do. We had originally intended on spending the day at the Con, but the one main event we wanted to see, George R. R. Martin discussing Game of Thrones, had been cancelled by George the day before (and what a hassle that was to find out – It was listed in the printed program but then Ruta had shown me the Con’s app for making life easier and it was not listed there so we ended up at three different locations and talked to four different people before someone confirmed it had indeed been cancelled). And while there were bits of programming we wanted to see, we also wanted to see more of London (it’s a big place, after all). Continue reading “London 2014: Day Five – Hitching a ride with Hugo”
Category: History
“It doesn’t have to be good, it only has to be finished.”
Yesterday I did something I haven’t done in quite a while – I finished an original script (first draft) for a TV pilot. 60 pages written in 23 days, from starting the outline to typing “Fade Out.” In those 23 days, I wrote a total of 16,514 words – in addition to the script, I wrote two lengthy blog posts, an original short story for David Magazine (which will be out on September 1) and a book review.
Now, the blogs and reviews, I do those with regularity, so no need to mention them in any detail but the other two, that’s what I want to talk about, for my own sake, not necessarily for any one else’s. Continue reading ““It doesn’t have to be good, it only has to be finished.””
Old Reviews
For about a year, from April 2007 – April 2008 (okay, so exactly a year) I wrote movie reviews for a website called FirstShowing.net. They are still going strong and doing some good stuff, but since I’ve got my blog up and running, I figured I’d migrate those reviews over here. So for the next week or so, you may see that I’m posting reviews of movies which are 6-7 years old. Sorry. But If you’re interested in seeing what I thought of the films of that era, feel free to click the link. All of those reviews will be tagged with the FirstShowing tag so they’ll be easy to find and each will include a link at the bottom to the original review so you can see all of the original user comments. The comments on my review of There Will Be Blood are priceless!
40 Years of Improv Comedy: An Oral History of the Groundlings | Vanity Fair
40 Years of Improv Comedy: An Oral History of the Groundlings | Vanity Fair.
One of the first jobs I got when I moved to Los Angeles in November 1987 was working here, at The Groundlings. The first week I was in LA, I was walking along Melrose when I came across a sign proclaiming “Theatre.” Now, I’d been involved in theatre since I was 9 and after a successful run as the Teddy Bear in elementary school holiday play (thank you Mr. Kaiser, for making me audition) I joined the Rainbow Company Children’s Theatre. I grew up on and behind the stage so when I was feeling alone and scared in the big city of Los Angeles, I thought a theatre was the place to be. If nothing else, I figured I could paint sets, usher, do whatever. And I could meet people and begin my Los Angeles Adventure.
Continue reading “40 Years of Improv Comedy: An Oral History of the Groundlings | Vanity Fair”
15 Retronyms for When You’re Talking Old School | Mental Floss
15 Retronyms for When You’re Talking Old School | Mental Floss.
These are really interesting. I wonder how the relate, linguistically, with things like “Hamburger Meat” and “Tuna Fish” both of which have the addition of unnecessarily specifying to which group they belong.
It’s also an interesting conversation starter to think about which words are going to need Retronyms in the future. We already specify 3D vs 2D films, but I could see that becoming something we’d need to be even more specific about in the future. It might even become immersive vs. flat. What about books? Are we already moving into Retronym territory by having to specify print book instead of e-book?
In any case, I think it’s a fascinating look at the way we interact with the words around us.
Thoughts of Lithuania and its place in the global culture
A week or two ago, I was talking to my friend AAron. We try to keep up on a semi-weekly basis and this time there other people with him and his family and one of these other people, upon finding out I lived in Lithuania, had a question for me.
“Do you know any left-handed, redhead dentists?” she asked. Puzzled, I asked her why. She said when she needs to explain something as rare, the phrase which has become second nature to her is “rare as a left handed, red haired Lithuanian dentist.” I acknowledged that I did not know anyone who fit that particular description and we chuckled, but it started me thinking.
Then, a couple of days ago, AAron sent me the above ad from a magazine and those thoughts came back. Continue reading “Thoughts of Lithuania and its place in the global culture”
Happy Independence Day, Lietuva
24 years ago today, March 11, 1990, The country of Lithuania declared its independence from the Soviet Union with the Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania. It was the first of the satellite nations which had been occupied by Russia to stretch its wings and test the limits of Gorbachev’s glasnost policies.
This declaration was not immediately acknowledged and was even declared illegal by Gorbachev, who demanded the Act be rescinded. 10 months later came the “January Events,” when soviet forces invaded Vilnius’ TV Tower, killing 14 and injuring hundreds more.
Eventually, in February of 1991, Iceland became the first nation to recognize Lithuania’s independence. The United States followed September 2, 1991 and on September 6, 1991, Russia acknowledged it as well.
Lithuania served as a model for other nations and ultimately led to the collapse of the USSR.
A much more detailed, on the ground report can be found here, courtesy of 15min.lt
Happy Independence Day to my adopted home! In light of recent events, let’s keep this flag waving high and remember all who fought to get it there!
Where are you going? Where have you been?
Recently, I was thumbing through an old journal and came across an entry from many, many years ago. It seems I was on the horns of a decision, a crossroads between two conflicting paths. I had mused to myself, at the time, if only I could see the future, see where each path led and where I was supposed to end up. I figured this would help make my decision easier. Continue reading “Where are you going? Where have you been?”
Fish
It’s no secret I am a big fan of the band Marillion. I have followed them from their 80s Prog Rock beginnings up through their current, more straight forward rock and roll albums. In fact, I first discovered them in late 1984 when I was working at the Waldenbooks in the Meadows Mall and I had a reciprocity deal going with the guys who worked at the record store. When they needed books for school, I would strip the covers or give them my discount (this was before I knew how the author end of things worked – I would never do that today!) and in return, whenever I’d go into the record store, I’d bring a stack of LPs and a 45 to the counter and the guys would ring me up for the single (about $1.49 or so in those days) and throw the entire stack into a bag. Continue reading “Fish”
Review: The Mysterious Island
The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Seems like I’ve been on a Jules Verne kick lately, slowly working my way through the classics. I’d heard about Mysterious Island before, and seen several of the films, but like watching the movie version of Around the World in 80 Days, the book is very much different! Continue reading “Review: The Mysterious Island”
Spirits of Ireland – Day nine in Dublin
This is where that little surprise comes in. I was all set to call it quits after Liverpool and was resigned to a long train ride back to Edinburgh but Jennifer had other plans. She had done her research (she’s good at that) and discovered we could fly from Liverpool to Dublin, spend the day in Ireland and then fly back to Edinburgh that night with plenty of time to spare to make the 6:30am flight back to Kaunas. All of a sudden our trip became 4 cities, 3 countries, 2 plays and 1 knight! I was beyond stoked! Continue reading “Spirits of Ireland – Day nine in Dublin”
Eight Days a Week – Day eight in Liverpool
As long as we were in the north of England, I had figured we might as well see Liverpool. When we were planning this trip, all sorts of possibilities were presenting themselves but time, cost and feasibility had narrowed things down to flying in and out of Edinburgh with a trip to Manchester and Liverpool thrown in. This was okay by me. I’d never been to any of these places while Jennifer had been to Liverpool and Edinburgh but it was years ago. Jennifer had also take care of planning the latter half of the trip and so she had booked us on an early morning train to Liverpool, about an hour or so away. The idea being to make the most of our day since odds are, we were going to spend most of monday on a train back to Edinburgh for my 6:30am flight back to Kaunas on Tuesday. Continue reading “Eight Days a Week – Day eight in Liverpool”
The Borderlands – Day two in Scotland
Leaving the hostel early enough to not only make our 9am bus tour, but to find breakfast and the place to meet our bus tour wasn’t as easy as it sounds. Not that leaving was hard, nor getting up in time (I don’t sleep late anyway, thank you, Laika) but just figuring out what to do for food and where the bus stop was accounted for a slight bit of frustration. In the end, we opted for jumping in to a local supermarket (Sainsbury, for those playing UK Location Bingo) and grabbing some eat on the go stuff and then figuring out that our tour pick-up point was actually quite near Calton Hill… and we were a little early so we decided to eat up on the hill with the view of the nearby body of water which is called the “Firth of Forth” (try saying that three times fast!). Firth means estuary and Forth is the bay which leads out to the ocean so that’s what we were looking at before heading back down and joining our group. Continue reading “The Borderlands – Day two in Scotland”
The History of Typography, in Stop-Motion Animation – Ivan Kander – The Atlantic
The History of Typography, in Stop-Motion Animation – Ivan Kander – The Atlantic.
I’m a font geek, I admit it. Back in my design days, I was certainly guilty of over doing it and I’m sure, even now, my computer (and certainly my back up drive) is full of fonts I’ll never use but that just look cool!
This video is a must see for anyone who loves fonts, history, books, printing, design… whatever. It’s less than 6 minutes. You can thank me later.
Happy Lithuanian Statehood Day
There are advantages and disadvantages to being a relatively new country with a very long history. This is Lithuania. The records go back nearly 1000 years and even the castle in my backyard was first recorded in 1361, but for all intents and purposes, the country came into being in the modern age 22 years ago, when the Russians were finally driven out and Lithuanians could, at long last, rule themselves again.
So how do you celebrate your new/old independence? You have a holiday! Or several holidays. But today is a pretty cool one. July 6th is the supposed coronation day of Mindaugas, the one and only king of Lithuania! It was 760 years ago today that he was crowned and so today, since 1992, has been Lithuanian Statehood Day, a federal holiday!
Getting the Hang of Thursdays 