Rhapsodies

Handicapping Game of Thrones

by wpmorse on April 3, 2014 at 3:14 pm

Posted In: Test

Well it’s just another four Days until season four Game of Thrones and as I said before I am indeed psyched. To pass the time I’ve been entertaining myself with guessing what the creators will have to change from the book based on logistics, budget, continuing with things they have already changed and due to an actor’s performance they are very different characters than they are in the book.

There are a number of things I could talk about but I’ll stick to the least spoilery item I can think of. In this case the songs. So far starting with season two a song from the book has been featured. In season Two it was “The Rain’s of Castimere” serving as the Lannister leitmotif for the rest of the show. In Season Three it was “The Maid and the Maiden Fair”. For this season I suspect or at least hope that it will be “Hands of Gold are Always Cold”. I can’t be completely sure… The character who sings it to blackmail Tyrion with it hasn’t appeared when he should have. But they could certainly introduce him anytime in the first four episodes like they did with the Reeds.

I sincerely hope they use it since it has a nice double meaning… first figuratively as a song about the tragedy of Tyrion and then literally with a Lannister with a real hand of gold.

But however it goes I’m sure Ramin Djawadi will make it sound great!

└ Tags: Game of Thrones, Music, Ramin Djawadi

Comments Off

Tuesday Rhapsodies

by wpmorse on April 1, 2014 at 9:11 am

Posted In: Test

For this week’s Rhapsody we have something fun.
Full disclosure here, I’m comfortably sure this doesn’t count as a rhapsody. The score is one of Carl W. Stalling‘s brilliant arrangements (in this case based mostly on Modest Mussorgsky‘s Boris Godunov I think.) and as always he delivers.

So sit back and enjoy one of Warner Brothers’ best pieces of World War II propaganda, Bob Clampett‘s Russian Rhapsody! Also known as Gremlins from the Kremlin.

└ Tags: Animation, Bob Clampett, Carl Stalling, Gremlins, Looney, Looney Tunes, Modest Mussorgsky

Comments Off

Upgrade

by wpmorse on March 31, 2014 at 2:44 pm

Posted In: Test

Malware Well, part of my weekend was made more interesting by finally biting the bullet and upgrading my machine to the new OS X Mavericks (I was curious what name the Apple marketing team would use once they ran out of big cats!) I’d been putting it off due to general luddite paranoia but after being reminded several times I decided to take the plunge.

The results were good but not without consequence. The first thing that happened was the software warning me that some of my existing software was incompatable with the new operating system. This included an older version on Photoshop which I don’t use anyway and my old version of Poser which I do. The Poser thing was a blow. It’s been a useful tool and I probably will put off upgrading on my laptop so I can still use the copy I have on it until I finally get the new version.

The second surprise I got was at the end of the reboot it expected me to sign the new agreement again no problem except that another piece of software Mavericks had declared obsolete was the driver to my tablet.

I hadn’t used the mouse that came with my computer for anything besides a paperweight for years and it took me some time to find the thing and put fresh batteries in it in order to manage to use my machine again. Finally I got through and reinstalled the driver and everything is working just great. There’s a whole lot of improvements including incredible improvements to safari and the calendar as well as a lot of cloud specific tech which includes some really cool syncing with my social networks, so for the most part worth the headache.

The only downsides I have so far was a glitch in Photoshop which I was able to fix with a downloaded plugin and thanks to being more cloud-centric and what is probably some Apple planned obsolescence is that cool calendar I was bragging about isn’t syncing with the one in my iPod.

└ Tags: Apple, Operating System, Software, Upgrade

Comments Off

I’m Not Sure I Can Wait Ten More Days

by wpmorse on March 28, 2014 at 4:47 pm

Posted In: Test

I just saw the latest trailer for Game of Thrones and quite frankly I’m getting a little crazy with anticipation. One thing I enjoyed about the last season was not being a purist. I’d read all the books. (Okay, I still have halfway to go through Dance of Dragons but since The Winds of Winter won’t come out til next year I’m not in a hurry.) But what I’ve found fascinating is that changes have had to be made while the outline’s the same, things have become very different. So one thing I find myself doing while waiting for the fourth season to start one of my favorite activities is handicapping it. Because the fun thing having read the books I know what is going to happen but I don’t know when and how.

http://youtu.be/Z1Y_qhzxn2c

└ Tags: Game of Thrones, HBO, Television

Comments Off

House Hunt

by wpmorse on March 27, 2014 at 2:30 pm

Posted In: Test

Well for the last couple of weeks the drama of my life has been putting out preliminary feelers for a new house hunt. This all started on a Sunday night when my landlords came to my door to tell me personally in the most polite, diplomatic, no hard feelings, you’ve been a great tenant really, way possible that since they will be overhauling all of the units (reasons given: retirement fund and sending son to college) they won’t be renewing any leases. So anyway now I have just over sixty days to find a new apartment.

The first week was the worst despite having taken at well I was pretty useless for the first couple of days afterwords going back and fourth between anxiety and depression but for the most part started working my basic plan and countdown. Since they had given me plenty of warning while I would certainly start packing asap I would not let myself get rushed into anything. Having said that I started studying the ads just to get a feel for the market. This went back and fourth from having me feeling hopeful to being told in numerous different ways how the market had changed for the worst.

So anyway today I went to what was supposed to be an open house again the plan was this was practice and nothing more. Just as well since when I got there there was no evidence of any such an activity but I got to get a very good look at the unit. On the way home I couldn’t get Pete Seeger‘s “Little Boxes on the Hill Side” out of my head.

I’m pretty sure he was singing about Levittown and similar planned communities when he wrote it, but I think it applies to today’s craze for overpriced condos as well. On the way home I saw way too many of those god damned little boxes.