LONELYPOND PRESENTS

Actually curled up with a book last night instead of hunching over the half light of my computer screen — actually, it’s 20 inches of incandescent shiny iMac glow, but half light sounds better, or at least gives a better visual. Decided to really try the Peter Drucker book, Adventures of a Bystander. It’s a collection of essays — episodes really, full of people he knew, ranging from his elementary school teachers to Freud and the upper management at GM in the 40’s. Drucker thinks and analyzes and remembers and parses life lessons with both astringency and warmth. It’s a good combination for me — bracing analysis plus a genuine enjoyment of the people Drucker has met and the situations he has experienced. His chapter on teaching and two of the women who inspired him to be curious and passionate about even dull subjects — although they never managed to improve his handwriting — reminded me how much I love reading Montaigne. The best essayists have a gift for mixing the personal with their philosophies. I’m looking forward to finishing the Drucker book; one of my favorite things about essays is you can read them in any order and even if you only have time for a few. And I’m going to see if I can find my Montaigne — I have one edition with illustrations by Salvador Dali - that’s a little mind blowing — and another with the translation that Shakespeare would have read. Bookman’s Alley in Evanston was the perfect environment for serendipity back when I rambled through it regularly.

Thanks to Sally of McGraw-Hill UK, I am working my way through “A Sense of Urgency” by John Kotter(and yes, I am susceptible to being cheered by getting a gift book in the mail), which impressed me in its FT review by Stefan Stern. The review is posted on my Opportunity Door, along with some ideas for next year’s Animation Magazine pitch party.

I am hoping the book would help with the focusing problem I seem to have about PROJECT PYE, which according to my blog on the subject, I’ve been wrestling with since August 18, 2006. It’s a great story — much of the trouble is all the other things I do, the other stories I want to tell, a lack of help, and an abundance of visuals. And I just really want to sit down and get the darn thing done. I think Calvin (one of the Lonely Ponders and my cohort in all things Gullible and Twitchy) doesn’t ever believe it will get done. I kept throwing so many possibilites at him that he just started to duck, I think.

While the Kotter book has a GREAT idea — be urgent, not hasty and avoid complacency at all costs, the style of the book doesn’t suit me; it’s very academic, I think, and I spent most of my college years in Northwestern’s gloriously tri towered library, wandering the Lakefill and writing poetry or in the few classes with professors I respected. My reading choices were Dante and Spencer and Shakespeare and Machiavelli and Lao Tsu and Hobbes and DeQuincey and Donne and Horace so modern business writing seems to stutter along without much style. I am finding “Urgency” goes a little better as I continue along but Drucker suits me so much better. People have names and problems are real and one or two words aren’t hammered at you as if there will be a quiz. And you are left to your own devices, conclusions and whatever list of bullet points or size of brain map you care to draw on your own.

Well, I guess we’ll leave the writing I found this morning while looking for a new notebook for reporting for another day…there are so many half started stories that get tangled up in other stories or left for other projects or just get lost. Even if “A Sense of Urgency” proves useful, I fear that I have already heard the only piece of advice that works and it comes from a character a person of sense might hesitate to take advice from, Lady MacBeth:

“Screw your courage to the sticking place.”

That’s what it’s really about. That’s the only thing equired: COURAGE. Nike’s “Just Do it” may be simplistic, but it is priceless advice. “Coraggio, bully monster, coraggio!” as Stephano says in the Tempest.

*Open free directing sample: The full Lady MacBeth phrase is this: We fail! But screw your courage to the sticking-place, and we’ll not fail.’ Which makes me think is that the but is not the usual conjunctive but (there’s a phrase that sounds like a disease), but the adverb which acc. to wikipedia and Merriam means merely or only. And this fascination with the right phrase/meaning/inflection is why I spend many of my summers directing Shakespeare. Close free directing sample*

One of the best things about Drucker’s book for me is that he didn’t make the obvious choices or walk where expected. He followed the things that interested him and here I am, looking at his name on the cover of a book and learning from his successes. That encourages me. And as I reread this last sentence, I’m saying hmmm, look encourage — I recognize part of that, I bet it shares the same root: (and answers.com agrees: “[Middle English corage, from Old French, from Vulgar Latin *corāticum, from Latin cor, heart.]” Close word lover sample*

*open directing and word lover postscript — as I think over this, it comes to me that while courage is the essential quality required, the verb and the action — screw, do, dare –are what turns intent and whatever qualities you bring to it into success. Close directing and word lover postscript*

Had a song stuck in my head (thank you ever so radio) so Googled the lyric I could remember and found the first non lyric a youTube video with the song mixed with part 12 of the Absolute Boyfriend series. Normally not my sort of manga, but I was impressed with how the song suited the art so I watched a couple more; very nice song and story matching by mangaREDFIREFOX. “Stay With Me” (#27) excellent song to be reminded exists. Kind of a cool odd little trip somewhere else. Maybe tomorrow, I’ll try Howl’s Moving Castle.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTkWeWp9jiI]

Done for tonight, new HAT HAIR video up, with the song.

And yes, welcome to what I think is the last Middleman episode review…yes, there can be a sigh; there can also be a hope that somehow there will eventually something worthy of the EM scale again. Watched Episode 4 last night, The Manicoid Teleportation Conundrum, with its lovely Dr. Phil parody — major + for that. I think this episode might have had the best music..pause while I see if I can find out who it was…Russian Futurists again, Arm’s Way, Scientific and Islands. The Middleman music and links can be found at heard on tv…it links you from the song to last.fm, which is handy — it also links you to various buying options but I’m a test drive first with music.

Back to Middleratings…I think this might be Lacey’s best episode– she doesn’t really do anything except sit around and poke her nose into Wendy Watson’s life and it’s GREAT. Plastic surgery aliens very funny; training day and the Middleman’s excitement about it also fun. Bad boyfriend taste lingering also works.

+ for Rendezvous Point, + for Lacey-Middleman interaction, + for Manicoids, + for training wheels, + for rescue entrance (spaceship plus “clean living was his credo and justice was his ride”), + for day in the life feel, + for timing (Dr. Gil blasted at just the exact right moment), ++ for MiddleMatt’s gleam as he enjoys “training day,” + for Wendy’s interrogation of the droid — The Middleman really excels at things you don’t want to miss going on in the background — +for Xanadu reference, - for cheesy moustache, oh, they’re always a minus, unless one turned up on Ida.

And the score, on the EM scale of (-6 to +6): +5.5; good all around episode, chock full o’ Middlelore. We like it. I think I’m going to have to go back and watch the “Cursed Tuba” episode and see if I like it better the second time around.

As the Middleman might say, “walk with purpose” folks and have a darn good time.

Very Short List plugging Buster Keaton’s The General deluxe DVD; sounds cool.

A Halloween gift for you: the perfect pumpkin, painted by me:

Sarah Hemming reviews are a good and bad thing — they give me a view of the edge of what’s happening theatrically and make me maybe want to go see plays (A Disappearing Number) about things like math that I might not be initially inclined to consider, but as these events are usually happening in London, it’s a hard craving to get.

Watched two of the rentals — Prairie Home Companion was elegiac and slow. Actors off stage aren’t always that interesting and combine that with Altman’s loose actor improvisational character building
tendencies and a Guy Noir who hadn’t any zing (and I love Kevin Kline in comedies– as should anyone who has seem “A Fish Called Wanda”) and it just never clicked. So we switched to “Taking Five” which was a hoot, a great fun romp that made very little sense, couldn’t really ever happen and yet was just fun to watch develop (I loved the peacock costume). The Click Five acted very well for a band and excellent performances were turned in by Alona Tal and Daniella Monet. Have had “Just the Girl” in my head for days now; sadly last.fm doesn’t have that one so I’ll have to dig out my Click Five CD (yes, I have a Click Five CD) and “scrobble” it. (NOTE: Ah, there is the YouTube video version, click on previous link) What exactly is the etymology of scrobbling…Googlesearch, here I click. last.fm might have made it up. Here’s a blog post referencing scrobble and the urban dictionary.

And the rest of my sentences are just turning to goop to wash away in the rain outside; maybe I’ll reedit on the morrow. Very tired day; a little unfocused after vacation. So I’m going to go downstairs, do no math, drink my tea, and then bring Gayle upstairs to fall asleep to the fourth episode of “The Middleman” on my iPod. What else is Monday night for.

And yes, I’m back…guess the time. I’ll make a note..winner gets sketch, DVD or something. Watched The Middleman, fun, review to come…alas, I think it was the last unreviewed episode so now I’ll have to get my comic book guys to order me the graphic novels…there’s so few new cool comic books to order anymore; Friends of Lulu (I spent two years on their Board of Directors) New York List was lamenting DC ending the Minx imprint of graphic novels. I liked the art and the ideas; bought a couple; Clubbing had great art but predictable story, never could bring myself to buy the Plain Janes, but I really enjoyed (Click Five note: “Catch Your Wave” that’s actually the peppy pop blender that caught my ear) ReGifters, tale of love, family and hapkido with a Korean American heroine. Very nice story. Had been thinking about trying the New York Four but never saw it in the store to flip through.

last.fm just rolled “just the girl” when I typed in Click Five…the telepathic powers of the internet - hey telepathetic is a cool word…hmmm, poser telepath who can’t get a happy thought anywhere — can’t get a date is too often done — hmmmmm…maybe time to write that sci fi book…or go back to short stories…HAT HAIR in telepathetic, there we go…

I was going to expand on my “Taking Five” review before I got distracted by a tangent stream. Good collection of characters, nicely done by director Andrew Waller, script that didn’t hit any of the predictable roadblocks I expected (now listening to McFly, too peppy, skipping, Busted kind of fun — “She Wants To Be Like Me” I like a sense of humor. I hope it’s a sense of humor.) It’s nice to see a movie where it’s just sort of a fun scenic trip into someone else’s world — not too demanding and very entertaining. Good band movies are like that — “A Hard Day’s Night,” “Help,”; good bad band movies are like that although I can’t think of one at the moment…hmmmm…well, I suppose Help and the first season of the Monkees fits in that category; Purple Rain is a category all to itself; Quadrophenia falls into the good bad category I think — we watched it for mod inspiration (also for mod inspiration Scooter Girl, a comic by Chynna Clugston-Major — we need more Blue Monday) for the second revisit of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and ended up with Rolling Stones records which had to be cut because the Mendelsohn and clarinet fairy line was too strong and we couldn’t switch back and forth without slowing down the pace. For the punk rock “Taming” we’re considering for next summer, Gayle’s excited at the thought of iPod assisted DJing.

And the Shakespeare reference makes this vintage late night lonelypond rambling. Hope you’ve enjoyed your visit.

What to title this one? Yes, I’ve been affected too — parts of Gayle’s 401K lost 40+% of their value and my brother just got laid off from his construction job. Fortunately, I moved a large % of the 401K into boring bonds before the financial crisis broke, but now we are back to investing in the mutual funds purchasing American and European stocks — the theory being here’s the opportunity to buy in cheap — and we came to this conclusion without needing the stern lecture from Mr. Warren “Snowball” Buffet. It’s really the only conclusion to come to — do you have faith in the system or no. It seems to me from my perusal of the Financial Times and The Economist that the bulk of the world’s finances seem to be run by people unable to maintain their course or keep their lunch down in the face of bumpy weather — it’s sad, greed induced ethical crisis turns into crisis of confidence turns into genuine world shaking hoard your gold under the mattress apocalypse and all a person can think is, have bankers and stockbrokers ever really earned their pay?

James Altucher turns out a serious column to hearten those of us still taking a chance on capitalism.

The most cheerful thing so far about all of this is that Gayle took the news that the French Finance Minister has replaced the conductor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in the newspaper photo subjects that catch my eye category fairly well. She did frown at my offering to send Ms. Lagarde the French flag I inadvertently pastelled (and yes, it is possible to inadvertently pastel the French flag and if you’re really interested, I’ll tell you how.)

It’s band movie weekend here at Lonely Pond Central — or at least musical movies…wandered through Blockbuster and came out with an eclectic collection — The Stains, a 15 year old Diane Lane, Laura Dern and a whole collection of punk rock names, a movie with the Click 5 that I can’t remember the name of so pause here while I try to find it…(play Jeopardy theme — ah, got it, Taking Five), and (finally) an anime choice — Howl’s Moving Castle.  And there was a fourth movie, but Gayle picked it out and I really don’t remember what it was as she refused to agree to either Empire Records or Josie and The Pussycats to keep the band theme going. (CORRECTION: I picked it, it does follow the music theme and it is Prairie Home Companion.)

And then there was High School Musical 3, where all bets are on Zac Efron and you’ll walk away with the feeling that he’s won something besides the girl, the state championship and a solid opening weekend (guesses in our house range from 30 million to 55.)  We went to the pre school lets out matinee and the popcorn scarfing under four and a half feet crowds were gathering on our exit.  Real pause now while I hunt down the Click 5 movie name.

Back to High School Musical 3 — better than HSM 2, not quite as magical as the original, but surprisingly complex — very meta, as I told Gayle, a lot of external(as in sung out loud) internal conflicts rather than conflict between characters. I like part of the wikipedia meta definition: “The term meta also refers back to Roman Times. A “meta” was a structure mounted on the ends of the central spina in Roman chariot races. In many of the Romance languages, the term “meta” is basically an aim or goal. Roman Charioteers would aim their chariots for this pole-like structure during their races, in order to stay on track.”  HSM 3 is a lot about goals and what to aim for.

Sharpay finally gets to do a love song with someone other than her brother.  Actually, over the course of the three movies, I have gained respect for Ashley Tisdale as a comedian and actor.  These movies wouldn’t be nearly as much fun without Sharpay to triumph gloriously over and Ms. Tisdale throws herself into the part with verve and panache (those are very Sharpay words, yes?)

Where was I? High School Musical 3…more complex, but it basically comes down to Troy. Zac Efron gets a show stopper number in “Scream” as well as the opening shot. It was fun to hear the little kids behind me go “ick” on the limited occasions Troy and Gabriella kiss. The Troy-Gabriella relationship still sparks, it’s still a world where everything mostly works out and there’s a lot of singing and dancing, but I don’t think anyone really minds, except for the substitute Financial Times movie critic who mostly commented about how Zac Efron is too short to be a basketball player, which just proves he’s missing several key points the most important of which is the first: no one really cares.

Corbin Bleu didn’t seem to be able to access his sense of humor as well in this one as the other two — which brought down the junkyard number a bit as Mr. Efron managed to make there be funny moments and Mr. Bleu just seemed to be dancing. Vanessa Hudgens still has an amazing voice and is underused as a comic actress — she managed to be funny in a 2 second French maid bit. And contrary to Mr. French’s view, her character is not ever smiling, actually she usually seems a bit too glum, especially in this movie, where she’s leaving everything she likes behind her.

Lucas Grabeel doesn’t get as much to do in this one, but he does it well, including a very nice duet with his female counterpart Kelsi the composer (Olesya Rulin). Anything else — oh, the dresses seemed awfully short for a G rating, but I think the costuming was weaker in this one. Kenny Ortega’s point the camera straight at Zac and keep it there style worked for the dance numbers but was a bit static when fewer actors and less movement were happening in a shot. I thought the end songs were the weakest, but that’s why traditionally Act 3 is the climax, although the audience around us seemed to really get into the already nostalgic final number.

So, in summary, better and more complex than I expected, I still like the first one best and minor points off for the costumer(what was with the one purple sleeve in all the graduation red and white — apparently, I’m color sensitive and it was distracting). Good old fashioned, new fangled fun.

On a household note, Flash apparently did not understand that HSM 3 would not be the Disney Channel Friday night movie and we had to get a rush copy of HSM 2 to avoid fluffy unhappiness (Flash + stress = seizures; there was the day we turned off the “Bet On It” video tricked out with seizure inducing traffic lighting effects to prevent triggering an episode and Flash expressed her displeasure VERY liquidly…from this we gathered Zac Efron plays well with the Maine Coon crowd) so she settled down with the HSM 2 substitute.

And now I probably count as HSMed out and due for dreams with singing trees and basketballs. Good night.

N.B. I realized that I neglected to mention Monique Coleman but that’s probably because she does an excellent job of not being flashy and giving other actors someone to play off of. This is an under appreciated talent and her Taylor is essential to the whole ensemble.