Category: Life with Pratts

Superman Family Doings

Bear with me for a bit of silliness. Here is a message thread that started with my father pointing out the news about the gigantic Antarctic ice shelf collapsing.

—–Original Message—–
From: George

You might want to think twice about purchasing any waterfront property right now.

Shortcut to: http://www.news.com/2300-11395_3-6235636-1.html

My father’s cousin commented on it.

—– Original Message —–
From: Lawrie

Well, we smart owners of real estate in Arizona are hoping for beachfront property when the “big one” finally cracks down the San Andreas fault and dumps California into the Pacific Ocean.

Here I am, changing the direction of the exchange…

—– Original Message —–
From: Doug

Hey, I saw that movie! It was Superman I. Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor, putting a nuke in the fault. “Bye, bye, California. Hello, new west coast. MY west coast. Marina del Lex.” OK, so I’m a fanboy.

… and this is my younger sister elaborating on what I said…

—– Original Message —–
From: Marianne

Remember “Otisville” on the map? Lex didn’t even allow his loyal follower one measly town!

(Fangirl, sister of fanboy)

…to which I say…

—–Original Message—–
From: Doug

OtisBURG, with the “R” backwards. I’ll check to be sure.

… and Lawrie finishes it off.

—–Original Message—–
From: Lawrie

You guys are just too funny!

Well, we fanboys take this sort of stuff seriously, so I did indeed check, and here’s how that scene in the movie really goes. (Isn’t Gene Hackman impressive? Some actors would have considered this role to be a throwaway job, but Hackman is completely compelling. No wonder Kevin Spacey, who played Lex Luthor in last year’s Superman Returns, borrows from Hackman.)

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2008/MAR/Otisburg.flv 448 252]

I was wrong! It’s not the “R”, but the “S” that’s reversed; which, now that I think about it, makes sense because it’s a sly reference to Superman’s “S” emblem.

This week the family of Jerry Siegel, Superman’s co-creator and original writer, won a victory in court. A lot of people have linked to the New York Times article about it, and I will too.

Superman was a sensation from the get-go, as was Batman. Bob Kane took sole credit for creating Batman, but a writer named Bill Finger actually had a lot to do with it. The characters were teamed up early in their existence, as heard in this brief clip from an old radio show.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2008/MAR/SupermanBatmanRadio.mp3]

Failover and Over

Wish I could blog more, but I’m afraid that unless you know everything about Microsoft Cluster Service for failover, on Windows 2008 Server, under VMware ESX 3.5, on EMC shared storage, over iSCSI, I can’t talk to you right now. And Sunday is the big 21-mile training run from the starting line of the Boston Marathon. While I’m doing that, the Web host service will be switching my account over to a new management platform. Will anything work Sunday night?

“Are You Enjoy?”– Pillows Autographs

Special blog post by Eric!

Well, the Pillows thankfully were able to do a second autograph session on the Anime Boston con’s final day, when the crowds were far thinner as many failed to return, probably either due to Easter or frustration/fatigue over the madness of the last two days. The con organizers finally managed to do something efficiently: the hundred people who were allowed autographs each got a ticket that guaranteed them one.

There was a short Q&A panel immediately before, where we learned that neither the name “the pillows” nor the “Sweet Irene” mentioned in one of their songs have any real significance. When asked of what they thought of their American fans that can’t understand Japanese, they replied with “Well, we’re fans of all this American music we can’t understand!” And on their frequent use of big sunglasses: “Rock Star!”

The Pillows at Anime Boston 2008

It’s rather jarring to see how grizzled Suwao and the others have become in the eight years since the anime FLCL rocketed their popularity around the world–compare the vibrantly youthful, scrubbed-clean faces in the “Ride On Shooting Star” video to the craggy jowls, Mick Jagger hair, and flagrant unshavenness in the picture I took. Clearly this isn’t just the result of the trio having two hours of sleep in almost two days, they look exactly like this in their latest music videos. They’re getting older, the band’s had its twentieth anniversary last year. Though for all I know, this could be an intentional, gradual “image” update to coincide with that!

Autographed Pillows CD

I bought their spectacular latest album “Wake up!” at double the list price (you have to expect such things buying Japanese imports at cons), and as you can see, it was signed shortly afterwards by all three of them! Interestingly, the only discernible signature is that of vocalist-guitarist-frontman Suwao, first from the right in the photo.

“Are you enjoy?” was an amusing bit of Engrish repeatedly shouted by them at the concert.

The Pillows Rock Boston!

After yesterday’s nightmare four-hour wait to get registered at Anime Boston, today’s live concert by the Pillows made up for it. For Eric this was the highlight of the weekend, for sure. The Pillows were first mentioned way back in this post when the blog was only a month old.

Carol and I heard some of the show through the doors, and we were able to sneak in for the last two songs. The hall at the Hynes Convention Center is huge! It seats 5,000, and before some of the audience left early to beat the crowd to the merchandise table, the place was totally packed.

I managed to record the audio to the last minute of “Ride On Shooting Star,” the Pillows song that’s at the link above. This is how it sounded from outside the hall, with all of the doors closed. The show was plenty loud, and with Eric sitting in the eighth row, it was a good thing he wore ear plugs.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2008/MAR/pillows.mp3]

Anime Boston 2008 Purgatory

Today we waited in line four hours to register for Anime Boston! Four hours! And we were pre-registered. It’s been 35 years since I attended my first fan convention, and I’ve never waited even half that long to get a badge. I won’t get into the details of exactly how registration is being handled, but it’s completely bogus. We left the Hynes Convention Center after 8 pm, and it appeared that people were still waiting in the registration line!

Slate of Hand, by Judy & Ted Buswick

As alluded to previously, way back in the past century I got talked into joining the high school drama club. I was in two or three plays, and I had a great time doing them. The Proscenium Circus, as it was called, was the brainchild of an English teacher at Acton-Boxborough Regional High School in Massachusetts. His name is Ted Buswick. His wife Judy had been my eighth grade English teacher. She cured me of spelling hump day “Wendesday,” and she was approving when she caught me reading Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. It’s funny how memories like those stick.

Ted and Judy Buswick

Judy and Ted have written Slate of Hand, Stone for Fine Art & Folk Art; which is, as the author of the forward says, “so timely and fills such a gap, why has nothing of the sort been previously undertaken?” Having taken a lot of art history classes in college I really enjoy Slate of Hand. I’m particularly impressed by the work of Ivor Richards, and everything in the chapter called “Stacked Sculpture.”

Slate of Hand, by Judy & Ted Buswick

After teaching for fifteen years, Ted quit the profession in 1982 to pursue another career, but his influence as an exceptional teacher and drama coach lives on in myself, my sisters Jean and Marianne, and many, many others. There’s a short written interview with Ted at this link.