Library CDs

by on February 13, 2013 at 6:01 am
Posted In: Test

As I’ve mentioned several times is there’s nothing I like to be introduced to new sounds, I also like to make playlists to listen to when working on my ongoing projects. I described my use of Pandora for this last week one of the things I frequently do whenever Pandora shows me something new that I like I check to see if the Library has it in their collection and If they do I put it on hold. This allows for a steady stream of interesting CDs

Of course there are a few flaws in this system. One of these is that there is enough of a lag on these CDs that when I finally get them I frequently don’t remember why I put any of them on hold. The other problem Is that CDs are kind of small and, despite my best precautions of keeping all of my library material in a special place, can easily fall through the cracks and when they do there’s too many chance that I forgot about it entirely by the time it comes due. To make matters worse it’s very easy for the CDs to fall through the cracks at the Library so there have been a few times I’ve  gotten overdue notices even though I’ve returned the CD. The possibility of the CD getting lost on the Library’s end makes it even easier to forgot whether the CD is still in the house.

This happened to me just the other day. I had checked out something that sounded interesting (this time it was Caravan Palace) and with it due the next day I could not find it anywhere. I was in a bit of a rush so I admitted defeat fairly quickly and did my usual stalling technique of renewing it so I had a few more weeks of looking for it (a word of advice, renewal for this purpose should be on the list last resorts. It gives new meaning to out of sight out of mind.)

Of course I found the disk five minutes later. Which prove once again that the universe is capricious at best.

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Super Sirens’ Drawing Session

by on February 11, 2013 at 6:00 am
Posted In: Test

Well I had a fun Sunday afternoon at a model session at my favorite comic book shop, The Dreaming, featuring the cosplay modeling superstars, the Super Sirens! I really have to attend more model sessions since they always do me a world of good. Sure I get good workouts from the whole drawing from life thing be it at art museums or the great out doors but a series of five minute poses back to back are like doing a hundred pushups.

It wasn’t quite as long as I would have liked. I think I was barely getting warmed up when the final pose came and went but the opportunity to draw  a quartet of cuties dressed as the Endless cannot be passed up!

Siryns5 Siryns4 Siryns3 Siryn2 Siryns1

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Friday Museum Sketches

by on February 8, 2013 at 5:21 am
Posted In: Art

Venus&Ares
Today’s Sketch is a detail from Nicolas Poussin‘s Venus & Ares from the Boston Museum of Fine Art.

Poussin was one of the artists that introduced me to Greek Mythology. My mother was a docent at the National Gallery and she would walk me and my sister through the gallery showing us how to recognize the deities by their symbols and tell us all of the dieties by their symbols and telling us all of the stories that these paintings were illustrating. I was hooked for life.

Of course now that I am very familiar with the original material a lot of this stuff comes off as just a little over the top and tacky… but in a good way.

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Pandora

by on February 7, 2013 at 11:03 am
Posted In: Test

As I work on tomorrow’s strip I am enjoying my Yoko Kanno channel on Pandora. For the most part I like Pandora. I fancy myself having fairly eclectic tastes in music, so while I can be an annoying snob about classical music, I also consider Metallica tame when I have my metalhead hat on. Because of this, there’s nothing I like better than being introduced to a new sound and on this alone Pandora has introduced me to numerous new musicians who I enjoy very much.

Unfortunately it is not a perfect system. While Pandora selects songs that are “like” the artist you are listening to they are not necessarily like the song you are listening to.  This can be very frustrating when I am putting a new playlist together. For example I am always looking for new material for my “Tuesday Rhapsody” segment. I get most of my material going through library archives, but I’d like to find much newer modern material and I know that not all Rhapsodies have the word “Rhapsody” in their title. You would think that Pandora would be the perfect tool for this hunt. Regrettably I’ve found that this is mostly not the case.

Let me put it this way… When I create a channel around “Bohemian Rhapsody” what I did not ask Pandora for is a channel based around the “Best of Queen” For some reason it doesn’t listen.

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Behemoth

by on February 6, 2013 at 7:49 am
Posted In: Test

I have to say one of the things that really scratches my blackboard are Young Earth Creationists. It’s not just that their dogma driven need to institutionalize stupidity is an attack on American exceptionalism it’s that listening to them go on takes all of the fun out of being interested in comparative religion and mythology. To make matters worse there is a complete lack of imagination behind their arguments that makes them fall back on scripture like a broken record thinking that if they only say their stale old talking points loud enough people might actually start taking them seriously. To make matters worse you get the feeling they haven’t really looked at their arguments very well. Take their favorite bit of proof of dinosaurs in the bible, the description of Behemoth in Job 40: 15 to 80

Behold now the behemoth that I have made with you; he eats grass like cattle.
Behold now his strength is in his loins and his power is in the navel of his belly.
His tail sways like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are knit together.
His limbs are as strong as copper, his bones as a load of iron.

Yeah, I suppose that could be considered a good description of a sauropod but here’s the thing… It’s an even better description of a hippopotamus. And since the writer of Job very likely knew what a hippopotamus was (for all I know may have traveled to Egypt and actually seen one) well… I’ll take Occam’s Razor for 500, Alex.

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