Riba Rambles:
Musings of a Mental Magpie

Wow-cappella!

If you're in the Boston area, listen to the All A-Cappella program on WERS (88.9 FM) Saturdays 2-5pm. What these people are doing with their voices (and body parts) is utterly astonishing. So far, they've played covers of:

• Evanescence, "Bring me to life"
• Naked Eyes, "Always be a part of me"
• Mr. Mister, "Kyrie"

If you are at all familiar with any of those songs, imagine them a-cappella. If you haven't listened to modern a cappella, you might be surprised by how good they sound.

And that was just the first fifteen minutes of the program. Their now in the midst of a hysterically funny six-minute all-male rendition of The Wizard of Oz

Added later: Among other tunes played in the first hour: a medley of the Disney afternoon theme songs (Rescue Rangers, Gummi Bears, Talespin and Ducktales), a very funny Spice Girls parody ("I've given up waitressing ), a drum solo by Rockapella, "Living La Vida Loca" and "Roam" by the B-52s.

Lap kitten!

Camera is sitting on my laptop -- you can see my external keyboard; my right hand is clicking the mouse to take the snapshot:

And boy does her breath reek! Just washing herself in my lap, and it stinks! I think we're going to make an appointment for her at our vet for next week, in part to investigate the possibility of getting her teeth cleaned. [What, us suckered?]

Boopsie is still hissing and growling at the sight of her. She's even advanced and taken a swipe at the kitten a couple times (that we've seen) but hasn't actually laid a paw on the kitten (if you follow). Committed a minor oops last night when we went to kick Sephie out of our apartment, not realizing that Boopsie took the unprecedented decision to venture downstairs.

In good news, Dave called us this morning sounding both cheery and... well... himself. Dunno whose computer he used, but he even updated his LJ with his condition. I think we're going to stop by and visit later today.

Oh sadness...

Avenue Victor Hugo Bookstore is closing! [I just found out from Amy via Boston Common.] I thought people would want to know.

Doh!

Just seen over on sinboy's journal:

The official merchandise Web site for President George W. Bush's re-election campaign has sold clothing made in Burma, whose goods were banned by Bush from the U.S. last year to punish its military dictatorship.

According to the Newsday article reporting this, "Violators of the import ban are subject to fines and jail, according to the U.S. Treasury Department." Wonder what the penalty will be in this case. Anything? Anybody?

The Bush/Cheney campaign and Republican party have so far refused to comment.

Then again, I don't remember many comments last August when the GOP outsourced telephone fundraising calls to India.

They're not even trying to help domestic employment, are they?

I keep being reminded of this quote, seen on Suburban Guerrilla, credited to Nick Confessore over at TAPPED:

Another question: Is there anybody on the Bush administration's economic team thinking about ways to create new jobs, instead of thinking about ways to fool people into thinking they've created new jobs?

Two great tastes that go great together

Somebody has tested out a social networking visualizing tool by analyzing all of Shakespeare's plays! They've been presented as animated AVI movies (may require DivX codec to view), so you can watch as interactions change from scene to scene.

Dance, little characters, dance!

Social informatics, CMC research and Shakespeare: what could be geekier!

Friday cat blogging

I no longer recall where this image came from, but I thought it was nifty:

Searching the online news sites for any good kitty photos, I found this article from yesterday's St. Pete Times about a day old kitten found trapped inside the drive-through tube at a former bank. Here's the Times photo of "Teller" (as he's now been named):

Finally, back to my personal life, my weekday workday starts at 8:30 AM, meaning I'm usually the earliest one awake. And it's really hard to leave the house on time because once I get out of bed, Boopsie makes herself at home. And who can resist such a warm cuddly sight as this, especially on a cold morning:

Meanwhile, introducing the cats remains an adventure with its own audio track, largely consisting Persephone's whimpering mews and Boopsie's hisses and growls (occasionally ending in an amusing snort).

oh wow

New trailer for Troy. I know it's historically inaccurate, but it looks jaw-droppingly gorgeous...

It opens May 14th. Anybody in the Boston area interested in seeing it that weekend. [Note: this does not guarantee I will successfully arrange such a showing, but it's an offer to attempt one.]

Oh, and speaking of opening night showings of films, the third Harry Potter flick opens June 4th and the Witching Hour, a 2005 HP symposium/conference, is planning opening night parties and showings in several cities, including Boston.

Added later: Zolok made an excellent point in the comments to this post. Drive-in season begins shortly, and a gladiator flick seems the perfect drive-in film! Milford Drive-In (opening April 2, "weather permitting") already lists it as a "possible feature", and if they show it, Mendon Twin (opening April 23rd) probably will as well.
Of course, now that I've mentioned this possibility, Ian wants to see the film in this little college town in upstate New York...

Favor/request?

While flipping through the airport magazines, I noticed that this Sunday at 8pm Eastern Time, the A&E Network will be airing The Last King, a four-hour movie about King Charles II of England. This looks to be the BBC miniseries that aired last fall under the title Charles II: The Power & the Passion.

I would very much like to see it, not only out of my interest in the period, but because it looks to have some very delicious eye candy. [Several actors from the Harry Potter franchise have roles in this production.] Unfortunately, we don't actually have cable (or satellite) TV. Would anybody in the Boston area be willing to videotape or TiVo the program for me? It's Sunday, 8pm -- midnight on A&E.

Thanks!

The Speed of Dark

What a rare and delightful occurrence: reading two utterly excellent books in a row.

First The Amulet of Samarkind, (described here) and then on the plane I read Elizabeth Moon's The Speed of Dark.

Wow.

The story is set in the not-too-distant-future and is largely told in a first-person narrative by a character with autism. [The viewpoint does shift occasionally to third-person limited to provide information or perspectives that the lead character doesn't have.] It raises some very interesting questions about what it means to be normal -- and thus, what it means to have certain disabilities.

But the narrative and POV itself is most fascinating. I have one friend (with whom I mostly communicate online) who has autism, and many of the things I'm hearing from this character sound oh-so-similar to things I've heard from my friend. I'd like to loan a copy to him and get his reaction.

The deadline for Hugo nominations closes one week from today. I hadn't planned to vote in them because I hadn't read anything that I really felt deserved the recognition.

Now I have.

The Speed of Dark was published in 2003, and is one of the best works of new SF/F I've read recently.

There's one week left. If you're eligible to vote for the Hugos (attendee of the previous or next WorldCon) and haven't cast your ballot yet, may I strongly recommend The Speed of Dark?

[And if you hadn't cast your ballot, may I recommend my friend Elizabeth Bear for the John W. Campbell Award.]

Added later: Regardless of how our friend with autism responds to the narrator of The Speed of Dark when he finally reads the book, I still found it to be a convincingly and consistently... alien... point of view, and thus I remain convinced that it's Hugo-nomination-worthy. That said, I hadn't been planning on voting for the Hugos before, so recommendations for the other category would be most welcome. Thanks.

Hello. I'm back

Yes, I have returned from Florida -- I got in late Tuesday night (almost Wednesday morning given the weather-related delays). And yes, there's a fair bit I intend to write about my family and Florida and so forth.

However, I've managed to come down with a cold in the process, and though I'm finally back at work, I'm still a little too muzzy-headed to organize the lengthy post that will require.

So henceforth maybe a few shorter posts on other items of interest before I get into the meat of the matter.