Early in the movie, the Army Sergeant hero going undercover ends up at The Moonfire Inn to infiltrate those rapscalious (?), brother-killing bikers in their local haunt. When watching bad 70s movies and I see a named restaurant or bar, or a phone number, I get obsessed with a search for any remnants of it that may still exist. Either to see a record that it once-had-been or to see it manifest in its current form. When I was reading S.T.A.R. Flight (1969), there was an insert for the DeVry Institute (yes, that one) that was to be mailed back to 4141 Belmont Ave. Chicago, IL 60641 and I had to screen cap the current street view. (When my dad no longer was, one artifact left behind that fascinated me was a jar of matchbooks from various restaurants and hotels he ate and stayed at as a salesman throughout the 70s and 80s. Since then, I wanted to create a blog with an entry for each matchbook and what could be discovered of its origin. Still a good idea (and TBD) but probably a manifestation rather than source of my obsession.)
Continue reading The Hellcats (1968), MST3K, The Moonfire InnImpeachment
(diary)
Fri 7 Feb 2020
Every week is exhausting and I don’t want to write and think about what is happening.
Just today, in casual conversation, I spoke with a guy who said–politics not having been broached prior–that it’s stupid to think that the political climate is worse than it’s ever been. This is the same guy who once said that he doesn’t follow political news because you can’t trust anyone. Yes, those two ideas express an internal, intellectual contradiction. This is what we’re up against. (Unrelated: he also felt that it was stupid to encrypt medical data because everyone “shares all of their personal information on social media anyway.” I pointed out that encrypted data gives them the choice to reveal what they’re comfortable with revealing. His response was a defensive retreat, explaining that he just found it “humorous” that people stress over medical privacy while at the same time revealing medical conditions. This is a corollary to reality TV syndrome: watch people make bad decisions in life so that you can feel superior. This form is: label others’ decisions bad so that you can feel superior. (The mood of the conversation ended poorly.))
Continue reading ImpeachmentOrchestral Study #2, updated audio
Impeachment
(diary)
Fri 31 Jan 2020
For the past 3+ years political events have compounded daily to the horrible then more horrible; this week compressed that and moved the catalyst of horribleness from Trump to (mostly) the Republican Senators. What they’ve done is shocking.
Continue reading ImpeachmentOrchestral Studies, updated audio
I’m working on updating the audio for my 12 Orchestral Studies from their original MIDI output, using Dorico notation software and its HALion instrument libraries. I will probably just work on a few of the 12 in order to learn the new software and to not re-hash the pieces that really don’t deserve re-hashing. First one is the first one.
Continue reading Orchestral Studies, updated audio