it's not all bad
Jan. 5th, 2019 09:55 pmThe cough from the Xmas Plague lingers, but that's typical for me and coughs. I think I'm more or less recovered other than that.
Yesterday I finished a very good biography of Jim Henson. I wish he'd had more time. The book is pretty clear that the eighties were a period of decline (attributed to the need for Jim to run his evergrowing company, at which he was good but not efficient, and to a tendency for his technology to overwhelm his artistry and storytelling). But it suggests that if he'd lived, if he'd successfully navigated the Disney deal, he wouldn't have had the burden of the company, and could have gotten back into the strictly creative side of things again.
(Sometime in the late 2000s Emily and JMax and I went to see a Henson exhibit at, mm, probably the Museum of American History? They were running some of Henson's old Wilkins Coffee commercials, and they mentioned that "our sketches tend to end in one of two ways: someone blows up, or someone eats someone else." That sensibility comes through clearly in the book, especially in the early days.)
I unloaded around two-thirds of my Go-Away Books at the local used bookstore, in exchange for $50 and volumes two through four of Greg Rucka's spy comic Queen & Country. Also another copy of The Dragon Waiting, because it's a good thing to have spare copies of. And I acquired a mixing bowl and two more black silk shirts at the thrift store, because I can never have too many black silk shirts.
Perhaps most importantly I got the stereo adapter thing installed in Hactar. The first two car stereo places refused to touch it, claiming bad experiences with the company that makes it, but the third said "sure, we can do that, we've got an opening today even." So, for as much in labour as the parts cost (shipped from the states), I now have a stereo that will play music off my phone, and even skip to previous and next tracks in the current playlist with the steering wheel buttons. I believe there's a way to switch between playlists but it looks like it requires a bit of setup on the phone itself, so I'll likely just leave it be.
And maybe tomorrow I'll do my annual State Of The Tucker post.
Yesterday I finished a very good biography of Jim Henson. I wish he'd had more time. The book is pretty clear that the eighties were a period of decline (attributed to the need for Jim to run his evergrowing company, at which he was good but not efficient, and to a tendency for his technology to overwhelm his artistry and storytelling). But it suggests that if he'd lived, if he'd successfully navigated the Disney deal, he wouldn't have had the burden of the company, and could have gotten back into the strictly creative side of things again.
(Sometime in the late 2000s Emily and JMax and I went to see a Henson exhibit at, mm, probably the Museum of American History? They were running some of Henson's old Wilkins Coffee commercials, and they mentioned that "our sketches tend to end in one of two ways: someone blows up, or someone eats someone else." That sensibility comes through clearly in the book, especially in the early days.)
I unloaded around two-thirds of my Go-Away Books at the local used bookstore, in exchange for $50 and volumes two through four of Greg Rucka's spy comic Queen & Country. Also another copy of The Dragon Waiting, because it's a good thing to have spare copies of. And I acquired a mixing bowl and two more black silk shirts at the thrift store, because I can never have too many black silk shirts.
Perhaps most importantly I got the stereo adapter thing installed in Hactar. The first two car stereo places refused to touch it, claiming bad experiences with the company that makes it, but the third said "sure, we can do that, we've got an opening today even." So, for as much in labour as the parts cost (shipped from the states), I now have a stereo that will play music off my phone, and even skip to previous and next tracks in the current playlist with the steering wheel buttons. I believe there's a way to switch between playlists but it looks like it requires a bit of setup on the phone itself, so I'll likely just leave it be.
And maybe tomorrow I'll do my annual State Of The Tucker post.