A DISEASE OF METAL?

After signing-out of my e-mail service this headline caught my eye...
"Metal guitarist gets flesh-eating disease."

My first thought was a question: "How can metal get a 'flesh-eating disease'? That makes no sense!"

I would have been embarrassed had I were to have had to click on this link to figure out what it was the headline was talking about...
http://inmusic.ca/news_and_features/slayer_guitarist_recovering_from_flesh_eating_disease/3fe4031d

Too much coffee.

VALENTINE'S DAY - 2011

Valentine's Day?! Again? Is that special day a cause of celebration or simply a reminder?

THE VIDEO EDITING WAY

With all this video editing technology available on your laptop computer, I ask, "what the heck did we do before?"

I answer: "We rented a very expensive editing room/suite." Even the cheaper ones still nailed you for 50 to 80 dollars an hour. That makes me believe that I paid off my laptop a long time ago!

We can do so many more things now, too. The degree of manipulation is fantastic. I remember when I was in Cable Television back in 1977 and we received our first Sony 2850 editing controller. Pretty exciting stuff at the time. (One cannot forget the path we took to get to where we are now. It's all a long line. A succession of new and improved pieces of equipment. I'll bet that nothing was as exciting, at least in television technologies, since development of the electronic camera, as when studios received their first Ampex video tape recorders back 1957/58. The game changed.)

TAX WISHES

You know things are different when you actually wish that tax time would hurry up and get here.

NEW TELEPHONE NUMBERS

I have ditched my home phone. A phone number I have had for over two decades. What a strange feeling, not having that sequence of numbers anymore. As a friend told me a few years ago, "I was dialing your number and I realized it has not changed since I first met you (in 1987)... and I've had many different numbers".

It just did not make sense anymore to maintain a "sales-call receiver".


(I was telling a friend recently that I will miss my old telephone number, and he responded with, I think, a sarcastic comment: "I'm sure someone will take good care of it for you".)

CREATIVE BLOCKING

A good friend of mine told me last week that he is going through a bit of a 'creativity' crisis. I feel.

Creativity is the spice of life (as so-and-so once said). But if you are in a crisis, as in lack of focus, or a mental block, it is not simply something you can break out of and rectify by pulling out a calculator; fixing through some mathematical formula or solving a 'problem set'. Which is why creativity is something special. And non-hierarchical.

BEST WORST TROLL 2

Best Worst Movie is a very good documentary. While it does talk about the fandom of the Troll 2 and all its badness, the focus is really on lead actor (and dentist) George Hardy. He actually has a special fondness for the picture -- even while very conscious of the movie's less than stellar reputation (there is a moment in the doc where he says at the time of shooting, the cast would get together for a meeting and ask what exactly the script "Goblins" was about) he makes no bones about the fact that he very much carries fond memories of working with the cast, and likes appearing at special screenings as a guest of honour.

Now I want to see the movie Troll 2.

BEST WORST MOVIE

While leaving my local public library, I decided to brush by the video section. Something caught my eye: The DVD case's spine glowed "Best Worst Movie". Thinking it was a discount release containing two or three really bad movies, I reached for the case. It was the documentary made of couple of years ago about Troll 2 and its incredible cult-ness.

I'll file a report very soon.