Julie and Julia (the movie)

The
movie was more fun than the book. Or to be more precise,
the movie is based on two books, and probably the one about
Julia Child was more fun than the one about Julie Powell.

My favorite scene was the one where Julia has just started at
the
Cordon Bleu cooking school and she’s trying to chop
onions and everyone else is going “chop, chop, chop, chop” and
Julia is going “sli——-ce, sli——ce” and is clearly never
going to finish. So the teacher demonstrates how to hold the
knife, and the movie cuts to Julia’s kitchen and she’s going
“chop, chop, chop, chop” and there’s a foot high pile of already
chopped onions next to her.

There is good stuff about cooking in Queens as well as about
cooking in Paris. So if you like the idea of this movie, you’ll
probably enjoy the movie.

Meryl Streep doesn’t actually look much like Julia Child, but
she does do the sound and the attitude quite well.

http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=laymusicorg-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B002RSDW80&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr

What ereader device do I recommend

You would expect a one-a-day blog project like this to run into
trouble in December, and this year is worse than most for that.
In addition to the party (and attendant cleaning and
cooking) and shopping and spending several days in Fall River, I
also lost a day on Tuesday officiating at a special election and
I have the December 17 concert and I’m trying to wrap up Bonnie’s
estate by the end of the year.

One of the tricks I’ve learned for writing a blog post when you
don’t have time to write a blog post is to take something out of
an email you wrote someone. This morning someone asked me to
tell them what ebook reader I recommend, and this is what I
wrote:

I don’t recommend any of the special-purpose e-readers, but the Sony
is probably better than the Kindle if you want to get locked into a
single-purpose, black and white device that doesn’t fit in your
pocket. Everybody who’s actually seen a Barnes and Noble Nook seems
to hate it, and apparently you won’t be able to get one until January
at the earliest.

What I use is a Nokia N810 Internet Tablet. They aren’t making them
any more, but you might still be able to buy one somewhere. They’ve
been replaced by the N900, which is also a phone, but not a phone
anyone in this country would want to actually use.

The iPod Touch is another one to think about. It’s a bit smaller and
lower resolution than what I have, but of course you can use all those
thousands of apps in the app store. John really likes one that has a
candle on the screen and you can blow on it and snuff it out.

Or of course, if they already have iPhones they should try the reading
applications on that. Stanza seems to be the one a lot of people
like.

If you don’t insist on putting it in your pocket, some of the netbooks
are good deals, and give you a lot more functionality for less money
than the Kindle or the Sony.

The best website for reading long discussions about this is
teleread.org.

I later added:

The other thing wrong with the e-ink devices (Sony and Kindle and
Nook) is that you need a reading light to read in bed.

And I should have added that some of them have fairly limited
support for using larger fonts, which is strange since being
able to read at your preferred font size is one of the major
advantages of ebooks over dead tree ones.

Disclosure

Last October, there was a ruling from the FTC that proposed
hefty fines for bloggers who fail to disclose “compensation” for
their reviews. It’s described in indignant detail on the
Teleread blog.

I’ve been ignoring that ruling. It certainly doesn’t apply
directly to me. I’m not organized enough to ask for free copies
of the books and DVD’s I review, and I certainly don’t have any
other direct compensation for what I do on this blog.

I don’t know how to explain my relationship with Google Adsense
in terms that won’t violate my agreement with them, but I found a
place to point
to that does.

When I link to products on Amazon.com, I allegedly get a cut if
you order them. But I really don’t think I’ve been telling you to
order the products unless I really like them, and I certainly
haven’t been telling anyone to get books or movies there unless
that’s really the way they like buying books and movies.

It’s been a long time since I actually got a check from either
of these programs.

I personally get almost all the movies I watch from Netflix. When I buy ebooks,
I get them from Fictionwise, which has a
much more enlightened policy on DRM than does Amazon, and a
discount structure that allows you to at least pretend you’re
getting a lot of free books. I get most of my hard copy books
from the library; if I think I really want to own a dead tree
copy, I either go to a bricks and mortar bookstore or order
online, often used.

Lots of the other things I buy I haven’t gotten from Amazon,
either, even if I pointed to the picture that Amazon keeps
online for us.

Bon Cop, Bad Cop

I would have enjoyed
this
movie a lot more if there hadn’t been quite so much graphic
violence.

I’m not saying it was gratuitous violence — part of the point
of the movie is that the cops are violent in roughly the same
way as the criminals. I’m just saying I didn’t enjoy watching
the violence. I almost turned it off after the first scene, and then I
thought I hadn’t yet seen any of what had been recommended to me
about the movie, namely the relationship between the
Quebeçois and the Ontarian policemen. I thought they
might show less violence when describing the police than when
showing the criminals.

In terms of percentages, that was true — part of how the
relationship is developed is having the two cops meet each
others’ families, so you see not only gruesome scenes of murder
and other mayhem but family dinners and teenage ballet
recitals.

So if you don’t mind gruesome, this is a very well-done movie.
I particularly enjoyed the bilingual nature of the
relationship.

http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=laymusicorg-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B0015UKX4M&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr

A Christmas Tale

I think I liked this
movie as much as I did because it’s so much like a large
family-saga novel. You can get a review about how good the
acting, directing, costumes, and set decoration are lots
of places.

I’m going to tell you a story about the soundtrack, because I
think it illustrates how a good movie can be both better and
worse than a good novel.

One thing mentioned in the movie, which probably would be
expanded on at more length in a novel, is how musical the family
is, and how they all play instruments. The playing is only demonstrated
occasionally in the movie, but there is a lot of listening to a wide variety of
recorded music.

In one scene, there’s a background that sounds like Christmas
carols in English. When I watched the credits, it turned out to be English
Village Carols, recorded live in the pubs around Sheffield,
England, where there’s an active tradition going back several
hundred years of singing carols in the pubs.

A friend of mine owns that CD, and he tells the story that he
was listening to it when a friend came over. The friend said,
“That sounds like a bunch of drunks singing Christmas carols.”

And then she looked at the liner notes, and exclaimed, “It
is a bunch of drunks singing Christmas carols!”

My point is that a novel would have a lot more explanation of
how some member of this elegant French family happened to be
interested in this off-the-beaten-track genre of music, and it
might well be part of the description of the various kinds of
tension between the various family members. But you wouldn’t
have anything like as much idea of what the music actually
sounded like.

I’d say this is one of the best films I’ve seen this year. It
isn’t a typical Christmas movie, but it isn’t as depressing at
the one-sentence plot summary (A mother dying of liver cancer
(played by Catherine DeNeuve) celebrates Christmas with her family) would imply, either, so you might
enjoy it for Christmas viewing.

http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=laymusicorg-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B002PHVGYA&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr
http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=laymusicorg-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B00000JY6D&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr

Christmas Shopping Status

It’s a busy day (the afternoon at the Pub
Carol Sing and the morning turning an old
client site into a the
new wordpress-based site).

So I’ll just tell you how the Christmas shopping is going.

I don’t do all of it online, but I have a firm rule
that I never go into any store that I don’t like. Which is most
stores during the Christmas shopping rush. After all, what would
I be doing buying presents for someone who doesn’t share enough
of my tastes to want something from one of the places I
like going to?

I don’t have that much to do, since I only buy things for my
mother and my sister. Occasionally the dogs, and occasionally a
stocking stuffer for someone else, but nothing very strenuous.

My sister’s birthday is December 15, so that means waiting
until the Christmas deadlines is out for her. And she’s a
musician who makes about 60% of her income in the month of
December, so I try to get her something for her birthday that
she can enjoy without spending time on it.

She doesn’t read this blog regularly, but there’s no
guaranteeing that she won’t peek at it sometime, so I can’t give
you details at this point. But I got her an article of clothing
similar to something I’ve really enjoyed wearing, and a book I’ve really enjoyed reading. Then she
asked for an LED
piano lamp, so I ordered her that. I’ll be going down
there next weekend, so if the lamp arrives in time, that will be
the birthday present, and the surprise items will be the Christmas
presents. Otherwise the article of clothing will be the birthday
present and the book and the lamp will be for Christmas.

My mother pretends to not be able to turn her computer on, so
there’s no chance of her reading this blog item by accident, so
I can tell you in a little more detail about her presents. Her
asthma is even worse than mine, so I’m passing on the Asthma
book I talked about a few days ago, and a roll of the surgical
tape I’ve been using since I read it, and
I got her some Tea
Tree Therapy Eucalyptus Chest Rub, which I use as a lip
balm.

Incidentally, using the surgical tape to keep my mouth closed
when I sleep is working well — I seem to sleep better and wake
up more refreshed.

I should still get something more major for her, maybe a
houseplant or a heftier, prettier book. And I don’t have any
good ideas for the dogs. But this is farther along than I
usually am at this time of the year.

http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=laymusicorg-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B000P0HL2U&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr
http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=laymusicorg-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B00137P5HC&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr
http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=laymusicorg-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=1573243728&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr
http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=laymusicorg-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B0009Q2OOK&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr

We are a Schwerpunkt

A couple of days ago, I added the Counterize
II wordpress plugin to this blog, so I’ve been wasting
time looking at all the information they pull out of the logs
for me.

It turns out that one of the top sources of referrals is a site
called notenseiten.de,
which says:

* laymusic.org
Von Laura Conrad transkribierte Stücke, Schwerpunkt Renaissance.

My German comes mostly from singing Schubert, but this might
mean something like “From Laura Conrad, transcribed pieces,
Focal Point for Renaissance music.” Instead of “Focal Point”, you
could say “Center of Gravity”, too. There might be some more
idiomatic translation, but I like both of these too well to go
looking for it.

I had to look up “Schwerpunkt”, since Schubert and his
publishers don’t use the word. And the first definitions I
found were from the military use of the word as one of the
possible tactics in a blitzkrieg. So I wasn’t sure it
was much of a compliment, but I decided they probably meant that
this was a good site to go to for transcriptions of Renaissance
music, which is a good thing to have people say.

I did write them and point out that the music transcriptions
have been moved to SerpentPublications.org,
so they might want to change their link.

Party Invitations are up


Wycinanki of tree with roosters

It’s only one party, but I put the invitation into two
different forms.

This
one is my regular version that can be folded into 4 and put
in your pocket. I usually use it as my Christmas card.

This
one is a one-page flyer, with the December
17 concert flyer on the back.

Please come if you’re someone who’d enjoy a party with good food, drink, conversation, and music.

Another opinion on Ubuntu 9.10

I reported on my
experience with the October release (9.10, Karmic Koala)
of ubuntu linux. The
respected hardware site Tom’s Hardware has
benchmarks
relative to 9.04.

If you don’t have time to read the whole article, the
conclusion is that this time the Ubuntu developers bit off more
than they could chew in 6 months, and while most of the
innovations they attempted would have been good if they’d come
through, the release is too buggy to be recommended either as an
upgrade or to a new user.

The reviewer rolled back his production system to 9.04. I was
concerned enough about the problems I found on the laptop that I
never upgraded my desktop. I haven’t rolled back the laptop,
but if I were doing anything more critical than browsing or
reading PDF’s on it I probably would.

I was interested that he didn’t
seem to find the same problems I’ve hit, unless his experience with
the system hanging was the same bug I found with the
screensavers. I haven’t had hangs since I told the screensaver
not to run. But of course, the screensaver is the most
sophisticated graphics I ever do, and that might not be the case
for him.

So if you’re thinking you should try Linux, I agree with the
recommendation in this review that you use Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope).

Cutting a program

When I ran through the program I had drafted for the December
17 concert, I found it took me 55 minutes to play. That’s
with playing everything roughly the right number of times
through, but without the 2 pieces I wasn’t playing, and without
doing any patter between pieces. Since we’d like the actual
performance to run about 50 minutes, and absolutely can’t go
over an hour, this meant it was too long.

We postponed making a decision about what to cut until last
night, but since there will be at most two more full rehearsals, and
possibly only one, it’s time to make the cuts.

There was one obvious piece (Susanna
Fair by William
Byrd) that I hoped we’d have time to learn, but we were
still fumbling for notes last night. So doing that will take
time away from doing ensemble work, so that one’s out. Another
piece (Judith
and Holofernes) was put in to go with
Susanna, so it’s out, too.

About half the program is going to be Morley Canzonets of two
and three voices. I’d love to do a whole program of
these, but I was a little worried that the set was too long for
people who don’t listen to this kind of music all the time. The
other sets are broken up with catchy dance tunes, but this one is
all 16th century polyphony, all the time. So I cut a couple of
those, too.

There’s still one more piece that’s pitched a bit high for my
current vocal
difficulties, and last night when we sang it our pitch
drifted sharp, so the high D’s that sounded a bit
strained in the first verse, I couldn’t even hit in the second
verse. We’re going to try singing it a step down, which will
make it on the low side for our tenor, so if we turn out not to
like it at either pitch, we’ll cut that one too.

If you’re recording and don’t feel like using a stop watch to
time things, the program exiftool will tell you all kinds of
things about a number of file formats, including MP3 files.