I'm costume director for a musical one of my friends wrote, called The Ones Left Behind:
http://theonesleftbehind.com/
(There are some demo videos up, if you're curious.)
It's set in 1840s Nantucket, so lots of hoop skirts and waistcoats. Anyhow, we're raising money to cover the cost of the production, via Kickstarter:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/298015226/the-ones-left-behind
If you're at all interested in helping us make this happen, please consider pitching in -- even a dollar or two will help us meet our budget.
The show runs in Spring Quarter. I'll post more about it as it gets in full swing. :)
Edit: Nix the hoop skirts. They'll have petticoats, but hoops are probably out of reach. They are whaler's wives, after all.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
The Evolution of the English Language, as Demonstrated by Austen
I was reading the novel Emma for an English class, and happened upon the following phrase, which made me laugh:
What "a sudden freak" actually means is more along the lines of "a capricious fancy."
A sudden freak seemed to have seized him at breakfast... (Vol. II, Chapter 7)At first glance, it would appear that a character was kidnapped from the breakfast table by some sort of lunatic. (Yes, the use of "sudden" is a bit of a giveaway that something is amiss in this interpretation.) Not quite the sort of scene one would expect in a Jane Austen novel.
What "a sudden freak" actually means is more along the lines of "a capricious fancy."
Thursday, January 26, 2012
io9: Why Are Monkeys' Faces All So Bizarrely Different?
Just a fun science-y piece I found:
http://io9.com/5875354/why-are-monkeys-faces-all-so-bizarrely-different?tag=biology
It makes me wonder about people who are ostentatious with regard to personal ornamentation (especially facial ornamentation). Are heavily bearded men less expressive? For that matter, is it possible that women's supposedly superior communication skills have something to do with our lack of facial hair? (Is this why Santa Claus's interpersonal communication is largely relegated to the iconic "Ho ho ho"?)
Also, that monkey's face is priceless. :)
http://io9.com/5875354/why-are-monkeys-faces-all-so-bizarrely-different?tag=biology
It makes me wonder about people who are ostentatious with regard to personal ornamentation (especially facial ornamentation). Are heavily bearded men less expressive? For that matter, is it possible that women's supposedly superior communication skills have something to do with our lack of facial hair? (Is this why Santa Claus's interpersonal communication is largely relegated to the iconic "Ho ho ho"?)
Also, that monkey's face is priceless. :)
Monday, January 23, 2012
Ames Room Optical Illusion
A fairly straightforward optical illusion known as the Ames room, but the execution is especially well-done:
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Artists on PIPA and SOPA
There's been a lot of buzz about PIPA and SOPA, especially here in Silicon Valley. The online protests, most notably the Wikipedia blackout, have gotten a lot of people interested, if not involved. A perspective that hasn't gotten as much attention as it should, methinks, is that of the artists themselves, whose intellectual property is what's ultimately at stake. This (found via Neil Gaiman's blog) is worth reading:
http://stopthewall.us/artists/
They say it better than I ever could -- internet freedom means free publicity. I'll just add that I've discovered some of my favorite songs and musicians (such as Heather Dale and Jonathan Coulton) via YouTube, and some excellent television online (such as the BBC's Sherlock). If it weren't for the internet, if not for YouTube, I would not have gone and bought a Heather Dale album on iTunes, or bought some tracks from Jonathan Coulton's website. That would have been a net loss for the music industry. (Yes, I acknowledge that YouTube, being more akin to a streaming service than a downloading site, isn't necessarily what people mean when they say "pirating music.")
The greater part of the illegal download problem in America, and in the Western world at large, is not piracy so much as accessibility. By and large, we in the developed world don't balk at paying $0.99 for a track on iTunes, or $9.99 for an e-book; compare those to a $12 CD with about a dozen songs on it or an $8 (mass-market) or $12 (trade) paperback. What is problematic, rather, is when music, books, or films are not readily available for purchase -- leading those who really want to obtain said materials to seek other means to get them. (This, as far as I'm aware, often becomes an issue where foreign rights and such are concerned.) By and large, if there is a convenient venue for purchase at a fair price, Americans will pay for the electronic media they consume.
A side-note to the above: one of the truly significant illegal download problems in the developed world, is that of children or teenagers who don't have their own source of income. In the past, they would have asked their parents for money, or saved up their allowances, or done a bit of babysitting in order to purchase the media they want. I'm sure many adults today have fond childhood memories of going to the record store, for example, and buying that album they wanted with their hard-earned cash. Nowadays, it's much easier to bypass the work required to get the money to buy books or music by illegally downloading. I agree that children who don't grow up with a certain moral framework in which content creators should be compensated for their work might one-day become income-earning adults who pirate all of their media despite having the funds to pay for it. But in that case, much as children who commit petty crimes (vandalism and disruption of the peace come to mind) are generally granted more legal leeway than adults who do the same, I don't think that PIPA and SOPA are the right tools to use to crack down on underage media pirates. That's in the realm of killing an ant with a sledgehammer. Also, I would argue that children and teenagers without income fall somewhere towards the middle of the spectrum of "consumers who can afford to pay for all the content they want" and "consumers who would not consume content if it cost money."
In other, mostly developing countries, the concept of copyright is still rather hazy in the public consciousness. Photocopying -- or pirating -- of textbooks, DVDs, &c. is the norm, rather than the exception. Citizens of many of these countries wouldn't buy these products even if they were impossible to pirate -- they're prohibitively expensive. If people in, say, China were prevented in any meaningful way from illegally accessing copyrighted American media, they would just turn to other shows, other books, other music -- non-American media. The income for artists and media companies wouldn't substantially increase as a result of the largely outwards-facing bills. In these markets, increasing profits would mean substantially lowering prices, perhaps to a point where there would be no point in producing said content for these consumers, because it would not be cost-effective.
While PIPA and SOPA are largely well-intentioned -- an attempt to secure for creative individuals the rewards of their work -- they're very problematically written. They were written by politicians -- not the artists they're supposed to protect, or the technologists who are supposed to enforce it. In their current incarnation, they cause more harm than good, especially where censorship and due process are concerned. Additionally, as most of my techie friends would tell you, meaningful enforcement would be basically impossible. As the internet has become an essential component of life in this country and around the world, the law needs to reflect an understanding of how to govern the web. Someone in Washington really ought to put the lawmakers, the technologists, the media companies, and the artists all in the same room to hammer out a solution that addresses everyone's needs and comes with a thorough understanding of current technology. That's the only way it'll work.
http://stopthewall.us/artists/
They say it better than I ever could -- internet freedom means free publicity. I'll just add that I've discovered some of my favorite songs and musicians (such as Heather Dale and Jonathan Coulton) via YouTube, and some excellent television online (such as the BBC's Sherlock). If it weren't for the internet, if not for YouTube, I would not have gone and bought a Heather Dale album on iTunes, or bought some tracks from Jonathan Coulton's website. That would have been a net loss for the music industry. (Yes, I acknowledge that YouTube, being more akin to a streaming service than a downloading site, isn't necessarily what people mean when they say "pirating music.")
The greater part of the illegal download problem in America, and in the Western world at large, is not piracy so much as accessibility. By and large, we in the developed world don't balk at paying $0.99 for a track on iTunes, or $9.99 for an e-book; compare those to a $12 CD with about a dozen songs on it or an $8 (mass-market) or $12 (trade) paperback. What is problematic, rather, is when music, books, or films are not readily available for purchase -- leading those who really want to obtain said materials to seek other means to get them. (This, as far as I'm aware, often becomes an issue where foreign rights and such are concerned.) By and large, if there is a convenient venue for purchase at a fair price, Americans will pay for the electronic media they consume.
A side-note to the above: one of the truly significant illegal download problems in the developed world, is that of children or teenagers who don't have their own source of income. In the past, they would have asked their parents for money, or saved up their allowances, or done a bit of babysitting in order to purchase the media they want. I'm sure many adults today have fond childhood memories of going to the record store, for example, and buying that album they wanted with their hard-earned cash. Nowadays, it's much easier to bypass the work required to get the money to buy books or music by illegally downloading. I agree that children who don't grow up with a certain moral framework in which content creators should be compensated for their work might one-day become income-earning adults who pirate all of their media despite having the funds to pay for it. But in that case, much as children who commit petty crimes (vandalism and disruption of the peace come to mind) are generally granted more legal leeway than adults who do the same, I don't think that PIPA and SOPA are the right tools to use to crack down on underage media pirates. That's in the realm of killing an ant with a sledgehammer. Also, I would argue that children and teenagers without income fall somewhere towards the middle of the spectrum of "consumers who can afford to pay for all the content they want" and "consumers who would not consume content if it cost money."
In other, mostly developing countries, the concept of copyright is still rather hazy in the public consciousness. Photocopying -- or pirating -- of textbooks, DVDs, &c. is the norm, rather than the exception. Citizens of many of these countries wouldn't buy these products even if they were impossible to pirate -- they're prohibitively expensive. If people in, say, China were prevented in any meaningful way from illegally accessing copyrighted American media, they would just turn to other shows, other books, other music -- non-American media. The income for artists and media companies wouldn't substantially increase as a result of the largely outwards-facing bills. In these markets, increasing profits would mean substantially lowering prices, perhaps to a point where there would be no point in producing said content for these consumers, because it would not be cost-effective.
While PIPA and SOPA are largely well-intentioned -- an attempt to secure for creative individuals the rewards of their work -- they're very problematically written. They were written by politicians -- not the artists they're supposed to protect, or the technologists who are supposed to enforce it. In their current incarnation, they cause more harm than good, especially where censorship and due process are concerned. Additionally, as most of my techie friends would tell you, meaningful enforcement would be basically impossible. As the internet has become an essential component of life in this country and around the world, the law needs to reflect an understanding of how to govern the web. Someone in Washington really ought to put the lawmakers, the technologists, the media companies, and the artists all in the same room to hammer out a solution that addresses everyone's needs and comes with a thorough understanding of current technology. That's the only way it'll work.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Happy National Hug Day!
Yes, it's that time of the year. So go hug someone -- a friend, a family member, a random stranger who might need a hug. Spread the love and increase the total happiness level in the world!
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Washington Post: Writers on Writing
A collection of interesting and occasionally enlightening thoughts on writing, from a diverse list of authors:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/2011/08/24/gIQAJoEUYK_story.html
Some of my favorites:
"The dream of becoming a writer as a young boy has been realized. I am so pleased I did not let my young self down." ~ Jack Cantos
"I once watched a 6-year-old laugh so hard at my book “Diary of a Worm” that milk shot out of his nose — and I mean projected out like a jet stream. Hilarious." ~ Harry Bliss
"My mother was a living “book” of poems for me — and I grew up swimming in the ocean of poems she knew by heart." ~ Carol Muske-Dukes
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/2011/08/24/gIQAJoEUYK_story.html
Some of my favorites:
"The dream of becoming a writer as a young boy has been realized. I am so pleased I did not let my young self down." ~ Jack Cantos
"I once watched a 6-year-old laugh so hard at my book “Diary of a Worm” that milk shot out of his nose — and I mean projected out like a jet stream. Hilarious." ~ Harry Bliss
"My mother was a living “book” of poems for me — and I grew up swimming in the ocean of poems she knew by heart." ~ Carol Muske-Dukes
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