Sunday, June 14, 2009
Hulu: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
I just discovered this, although it is not new. It's not a blog, it is a moving 42 minute web only musical black comedy with superheroes, starring Neil Patrick Harris as Dr. Horrible, who wants to join the Evil League of Evil, defeat his nemesis Captain Hammer and win the girl of his dreams. It's been haunting me since I watched it; I wake up with a funny feeling and can't put my finger on it, then I remember watching this.
From Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and other TV shows that many people love but I have never seen.
margaret 6/14/2009 05:42:00 PM
Friday, June 05, 2009
The Sartorialist visited Fort Greene and really captured the spirit of my beloved 'hood:
Fort Greene, Brooklyn
Dekalb Ave., Fort Greene, Brooklyn
Moving Images, NYC (everything about this says Fort Greene; the guy is probably French)
On the Street......Blue Byrne, Brooklyn (again, this must be Fort Greene)
Fulton St., Brooklyn (outside Cafe Habana)
S. Portland Street, Brooklyn (tough guy on a bicycle; the jesus t-shirt is probably not ironic)
Lafayette St., Brooklyn (I know the spot well, there's almost no room to walk because of the trees)
margaret 6/05/2009 11:35:00 AM
Friday, May 29, 2009
Ration-book chic on show in Paris: Images from an exhibition, running from now until November 15 in Paris, which shows accessories made by Parisians during the Nazi occupation in WWII. Shoes, handbags, hats, scarves and gloves were made from recycled materials, or showed resistance sentiments, and are really exquisite, like this exquisitely carved wooden platform shoe.
I hope they come out with a book, I doubt I will be in Paris anytime soon and I'd love to see more.
margaret 5/29/2009 02:04:00 PM
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Oh dear I could spend hours on How To Impress A Hipster.
It's not a hipster bashing site (I think that's gotten a little old, and it was getting kind of scary, as if only people who towed the straight and narrow were OK); it's a gentle look at what hipsters like, and I was inwardly oohing and aahing at such gems as Rock'n'Roll High School, A Tribe Called Quest, Heathers, Einsturzende Neubaten, etc. It would appear that I am still a hipster!
Only I'm not, really. I'm a little curious why so much of that was so familiar to me and I'm quite old. I was kind of hoping that all of it would be totally alien to me and I could have a laugh at what the young people think is cool nowadays. The only alien thing to me was the ironic/retro appreciation of 80s?90s? Hair Metal. I lived through the somewhat ironic but current fascination with Hair Metal and it brought back bad memories. I got to the point where I could just barely tolerate it... actually I'm thinking I should go back and comment on that entry.
Anyway, endless fun!
margaret 5/17/2009 02:57:00 PM
Sunday, May 03, 2009
Pete Seeger Celebrates His 90th Birthday -- New York Magazine
margaret 5/03/2009 09:33:00 PM
Saturday, April 25, 2009
first day of summer (unofficial): open the windows and crank it up.
margaret 4/25/2009 06:25:00 PM
Saturday, April 18, 2009
wabi sabi
margaret 4/18/2009 08:47:00 PM
The dogwoods are in full bloom today and it makes my heart sing to see them.
An English couple walking behind me on Flatbush were talking about the relationship of looks to talent.
He was saying, "David Beckham is a great soccer player because he's worked hard at it all his life, he just happens to be very good looking. Victoria Beckham is a mediocre singer who happens to be very good looking..."
Well I never considered Victoria Beckham to be all that good looking but I see that's beside the point.
When I saw the Susan Boyle video, a day or so before the major hype, I was expecting low comedy, or at best a good rock'n'roll song... and of course I cried for the next thirty minutes. It was a rainy Tuesday morning and I felt like a fool. I am easily manipulated by music, and my feeling was that it was a very moving song from a musical about the French Revolution, sung very well, with heartfelt emotion, by a woman who looked like she'd never been given the benefit of the doubt, like the scullery maid in a Victorian novel. But I could burst into tears listening to a gospel choir sing the weather report, so I certainly didn't expect the media frenzy that followed.
The performance, to me, was wabi sabi, the japanese aesthetic of rustic beauty, the beauty of every day: "if an object or expression can bring about, within us, a sense of serene melancholy and a spiritual longing, then that object could be said to be wabi-sabi."
It was as if the plastic wrap of superficiality that covers everything on tv was torn away and we got a glimpse of the real world that can be amazing, but is jarring in the context of Simon Cowell and manufactured reality show starlets. And the media frenzy that has followed has been nauseating in equally amazing fashion, as if they are scrambling to put the plastic wrap back on because they're a little uncomfortable with the fact that they don't quite understand why everyone is sitting and crying into their laptops, for all the dreams that have been killed.
Having re-watched the clip I can see all the edits they used to manipulate the viewer but I still think it's great storytelling, start to finish.
Here's another uplifting video from youtube
margaret 4/18/2009 07:47:00 PM
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