Today’s Rhapsody is Rhapsody in Ragtime by Eubie Blake performed by Richard Dowling.
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Today was first Thursday aka free Thursday at the museums so I took the trek down town to do my push ups at the Seattle Art Museum. I had fairly good run their enjoying an exhibit of modern Indian photographers and sketching some Native-American carvings as well as taking another crack at Fogini’s “Baptism of Christ” and I’ll be more than happy to share them later because what happened next.
As I headed downtown I couldn’t help noticing the number of Seahawks jerseys and realized I’d completly forgotten that the season started today (as I’ve mentioned more than once I’m a terrible fan!) AfterI finished at the museum to watch people watching the game. After about ten minutes I decided to take out my sketchbook and started drawing what I saw.
Sketches like this rarely go very well. Not getting into the whole moving subject thing You’re trying to finish the sketch faster by drawing everything all at once which usually leads to one big mess. (not to mention the whole “while still on your bicycle thing. I swear this has to be the first time I ever experienced my groin falling asleep.) But the rewards are great because even if the sketch itself isn’t going to win any contests it frequently provides a layout for something promising.
But along with this the game and the fans were great to watch and if what the Hawks did to the Packers is any indication of what is to come we’ll have to start following the point spread to keep things interesting.
First picture outside the J & M Cafe, 1st Ave, Pioneer Square
Second Sketch across the street from Occidental Park
What the second sketch was a sketch of.
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While I certainly enjoyed the first Hobbit movie it was one of those movies I never had an overwhelming need to go see it again and again the way I did with the Lord of the Rings films. This carried over with the second film, The Desolation of Smaug, and I never got around to seeing it in the theater.
There were several factors behind my lack of temptation. One of the problems I ha with the first movie was wondering where they were going to put the “to be continued” point in the story being as familiar with the material as I was, it affected my entire viewing of the film. On the same theme since the first film ended on what was essentially the halfway point in the book I found myself wondering just how even with the material from Tolkien’s appendixes they were going to stretch the second half of the book into two more films. On top of this I had heard numerous complaints from friends whose opinions I generally trust, so I was finding myself more than happy to wait and watch it when the library got a copy of the DVD.
So I finally when I was housesitting for a friend. (the biggest perk of this gig being the complete cable package) Again like the first movie I enjoyed it as a fun roller coaster ride with great design, special effects, and a great cast doing their job very well.
My biggest problem was all of the padding, and when I say this not the added scenes from the appendixes but the way they seemed to want to change every scene into a fifteen minute action scene.
Take the barrel scene for example. In the book it’s the company escaping their prison sneaking out the back in the empty wine barrels the elves are sending back to Lake Town. In the movie it is a white water rapids chase with both the elves and a band of orcs going after the escaping dwarves and the dwarves defending themselves with amazing acts of barrel fu.
The other problem I have with it is just how the original material is translated onto the screen. One thing I find fascinating about the book the Hobbit is that it serves as a fascinating transition from 19th century fantasy, which was essentially fairy tales for all ages, to high fantasy that Tolkien pretty much invented. I don’t have a problem with most of the retconning in the movie since Tolkein retconned the story extensively himself. But having said that the Hobbit is still one of the great children’s books and I didn’t think the film should have abandoned it’s roots completely.
But despite all of this nitpicking (and trust me I can go on for hours with this) this was a fun film to watch. I especially enjoyed the spider scene and despite it being an example of the excessive padding I mentioned, Bilbo confronting Smaug the dragon was appropriately epic. (though the number of filters they ran Benedict Cumberbatch’s voice through I almost wonder why they bothered casting him.)
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Hope everybody’s enjoying their long weekend but while you’re enjoying your barbecue or festival take a moment to remember what it’s all about.
And who better to remind us than one of the champions of the cause, Woody Guthrie, with “Union Burying Ground”
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A very Happy Birthday to Mr. Charlie Parker.
So let’s celebrate with Bird of Paradise from his 1947 album, The Charlie Parker Story: Volume 2
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