Banjo versus TV at Touhy Toastmasters

At the Touhy Toastmasters we choose a different theme topic for each month's meeting. This month the theme was new year's resolutions, so it was only natural that I give a speech about my Banjo versus TV project. Here are the slides from that speech and the tabulature from the song I (kinda) wrote.

YouTube videos in PowerPoint

I needed to put a YouTube video in a PowerPoint presentation. After a little web surfing and a couple of false starts, I finally hit upon KeepV Flash Converter, which does the job perfectly. And it's free.

Pix from my banjo-playin' world debut

Chris Bell from Flatts & Sharpe just gave me these pix of me at my banjo-playin' world debut from last month. Thanks, Chris!

Quisp lasagna conquers Santa's random Zombo copter

Seven links:

1. lasagnacat
2. Copter
3. Films considered the worst ever
4. Santa Claus Conquers the Martians
5. Quisp
6. Random xkcd
7. Zombo.com

Banjo versus TV: Week 2

A weekly check-in on the Banjo versus TV project -- J.R.'s resolution to spend more time in 2008 on his banjo than on TV.

I started the week with a banjo lesson in which Mike gave it to me straight: I've been biting off more than I can chew.

Me: Plink. (pause) Plink. (pause) (scramble to change keys) Plink.

Mike: Stop. Stopstopstopstop!

Because of our vacation schedule it's been a month since our last lesson and, apparently, I've been running amok. (And by "running" I mean "going very, very slowly".) I was trying to teach myself Foggy Mountain Breakdown when I hadn't accomplished the basics of bluegrass rolls.

So my emphasis this last week has been on the basics. I've practiced 7 hours, mostly in repetitions of rolls. The redhead thinks I've been improving.

Also in the last week:

• Got Ralph Stanley's CD While the Ages Roll On, just so I could have a copy of the song One Drop of Water. I heard this song on the Sirius Bluegrass Gospel Train on Sirus Bluegrass and loved it. (It's one of the redhead's favorites, too.) I haven't been able to find the tabs for it. I found the lyrics here. Among his many accomplishments, in 2002 Dr. Ralph Stanley won a Grammy Award for "Best Male Country Vocal Performance" with the song O Death, which he sang in the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou?
• Coincidentally, I've been watching O Brother, Where Art Thou? this week. Some great banjo work there.
• Added O Brother, Where Art Thou?: For Banjo (Paperback) to my wish list at Amazon.
• Placed some Flatt & Scruggs stuff in my queue at Netflix. More on that when I watch it.
• Used some Christmas cash to treat myself to an Olympus WS-311M digital voice recorder, which I'll use to record my progress.

Frank Jenks

Here's something new for my wish list. I'd like to gather all of Frank Jenks' appearances. So if you're ever wondering what to get me, root through the bargain bins at your local used DVD store and see if you can find any of the more-than-160 movies and TV series that Frank Jenks appeared in.

Frank is a somewhat-distance relative of mine who started off in vaudeville. From 1933 to 1962 he was in movies and TV. He died of cancer before I was born and is buried in Inglewood Park Cemetery in the Los Angeles County, California.

Gathering all of his appearances will take a while. This post will be sticky; that is, I'll keep it updated as I round out the collection.

What I've got

1. Christmas in Connecticut (1945), which I recorded from TCM On-Demand on 1/12/2008
2. The She Creature (1956), which I'll be recording off of AMC on 1/16/2008 4:45 AM CST.

What I need

1. Everything else listed here

The Funniest Blog

Help support the funny by going here right now and voting for the funniest blog. I'll be voting for The Sneeze.

The candidates:

• Violent Acres
• The Dilbert Blog
• I Can Has Cheezburger?
• Waiter Rant
• Overheard in New York
• The Sneeze

There's a write-in option, too, but why bother typing when the obvious winner is The Sneeze?

Update: I visited each blog and charted the funny. Here are my results, ready for peer review:



Update #2: Polls are now closed, the results are in and the voters got it pretty much right:



Overheard in New York is more funny than the poll indicates and I Can Has Cheezburger? isn't as played out as the voters think it is, but the voters weren't off by much regarding the other candidates. It's not fair that Violent Acres was even on the list because it was obviously doomed from the start. (Insert Dennis Kucinich joke here.)

I'm joining Technorati

Gaze upon my Technorati Profile.

Banjo versus TV: Week 1

A weekly check-in on the Banjo versus TV project -- J.R.'s resolution to spend more time in 2008 on his banjo than on TV.

One week into 2008; so far, so good. I've been practicing my Scruggs style and watching some reality television. The redhead says it's sounding "almost like music."

Some cads have suggested that I'm going to have trouble keeping my banjo and TV hours in balance once the writers' strike ends. I'll show them. I'll show them all!

Learning with PowerPoint

Much has been said about the inappropriate use of PowerPoint, but there's something I really like to use PowerPoint for: learning.

I like to read a technical book with PowerPoint open. Basically, PowerPoint is where I take my notes, creating a presentation as I go. I might use that presentation to teach at a future technical lunch (t'klunch, we call them at AgileTek) or I might not. The important part is that it helps me to organize my thinking and it helps me to learn.

Pinky and the pain

My pathetically weak and soft left pinky continues to impair my banjo playing, just as it did last October when I was attempting an F major chord for my banjo debut. I got through the debut by changing the piece from the key of C to the key of G (and therefore avoiding that F chord), but now it's time to get serious and build up that weakling pinky of mine.

I'm going to try out some exercises that Old Woodchuck put together and posted at Old Woodchuck's Tabs. He used to call them "Mold a Mighty Pinky" but has since renamed them to "Old Woodchuck's Left Hand Exercises" when he expanded the exercises to include the other fingers.

The first exercise, which Old Woodchuck calls "the banjo-less finger exercise," is similar to one recommended to me by one of my cello-playing nephews, who called it by the catchier name of "finger pops." Here's his description:

Touch your pinkie and thumb together. Now your ring finger and thumb. Now your middle finger and thumb. Now your index finger and thumb. Repeat ad nauseum. That's finger pops.

I'll try 'em both and see if I develop a pinky of steel.

Women in scanty costumes

A new year is a time for self-examination across the blogosphere. What have I accomplished? What will J.R. Jenks' Blog be remembered for? Will it be my observations about technology? My demonstration of personal organizational techniques? Or maybe even my banjo-playin'?

For the answer, let's look at the popularity of my Flickr photos from the last year and see if we can spot a common theme.

	#1: Princess Leia at Wizard World 2007 Chicago •  1742 views  /  6 people count this as a favorite  /  1 comment
	#2: Poison Ivy at Wizard World 2007 Chicago •  553 views  /  5 people count this as a favorite  /  0 comments
	#3: Woozy Winks, Plastic Man and Power Girl at Wizard World 2007 Chicago •  511 views  /  1 person counts this as a favorite  /  2 comments
	#4: Birds of Prey at Wizard World 2007 Chicago That's Black Canary on the right, yes? •  672 views  /  3 people count this as a favorite  /  1 comment
	#5: Emma Frost at Wizard World 2007 Chicago #1 of 2 •  404 views  /  2 people count this as a favorite  /  0 comments
	#6: Red Power Ranger, Supergirl and Aurra Sing at Wizard World 2007 Chicago •  1123 views  /  1 person counts this as a favorite  /  2 comments
	#7: Emma Frost at Wizard World 2007 Chicago #2 of 2 •  274 views  /  2 people count this as a favorite  /  0 comments
	#8: Superman and Flash at Wizard World 2007 Chicago #2 of 3 •  156 views  /  1 person counts this as a favorite  /  1 comment
	#9: Galactus hungers! •  23 views  /  2 people count this as a favorite  /  1 comment
	#10: Supergirl and Iron First Wizard World 2007 Chicago 135 •  252 views  /  1 person counts this as a favorite  /  0 comments
	#11: Poison Ivy and Catwoman at Wizard World 2007 Chicago •  301 views  /  1 person counts this as a favorite  /  0 comments
	#12: Plastic Man and Woozy Winks at Wizard World 2007 Chicago •  73 views  /  1 person counts this as a favorite  /  1 comment
	#13: Supergirl at Wizard World 2007 Chicago •  300 views  /  1 person counts this as a favorite  /  0 comments
	#14: Indiana Jones, Black Canary and Kon-El at Wizard World 2007 Chicago •  288 views  /  1 person counts this as a favorite  /  0 comments
	#15: Elektra at Wizard World 2007 Chicago #1 of 3 •  128 views  /  1 person counts this as a favorite  /  0 comments
	#16: 2007-08-11 Wizard World 2007 Chicago 084 •  110 views  /  1 person counts this as a favorite  /  0 comments
	#17: Elektra at Wizard World 2007 Chicago •  152 views  /  1 person counts this as a favorite  /  0 comments
	#18: 2007-08-11 Wizard World 2007 Chicago 083 •  91 views  /  1 person counts this as a favorite  /  1 comment
	#19: Zatanna at Wizard World 2007 Chicago #2 of 3 •  122 views  /  1 person counts this as a favorite  /  0 comments
	#20: 2007-11-05 So You Think You Can Dance tour 021 •  83 views  /  1 person counts this as a favorite  /  0 comments

Banjo versus TV: The Rules

The rules, shown as a Venn diagram, from a presentation I gave for Toastmasters.

I'm going to lay down some rules for Banjo versus TV.

What counts as banjo:

• Banjo practice.
• Banjo lessons.
• Going to a banjo concert.
• Banjo Open Mic Night and Windy City Jammers on Mondays at the Lincoln Restaurant in Chicago.
• Creating tabs.

What counts as banjo but not TV:

• Banjo-related instructional DVDs and shows.

What counts as TV:

• TV.
• TV shows or movies on the Internet, on DVD or on video.*
• TV shows on a plane.*

What counts as both banjo and TV:

• TV shows that are about the banjo. (I'm going to stretch this to include, for instance, the 7 episodes** of The Beverly Hillbillies that feature Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs.)
• Banjo-related TV shows or movies on the Internet, on DVD or on video.*

What count as neither banjo nor TV:

• Blogging about it.
• Instructional DVDs and such. (For example, I'm trying to learn American Sign Language and I have some ASL DVDs.)
• Listening to banjo music. Too easy. (No, not even the Sirius Bluegrass Gospel Train on Sirus Bluegrass, which I tape every Sunday Morning.)
• Movies on a plane.*
• Movies in the theater.*

* Added this clarification on Jan 9, 2007.

** Jed Throws a Wingding (6 February 1963), A Bride for Jed (18 March 1964), Flatt, Clampett, and Scruggs (31 March 1965), Flatt and Scruggs Return (16 March 1966), Foggy Mountain Soap (14 December 1966), Delovely and Scruggs (29 March 1967) and Bonnie, Flatt, and Scruggs (20 November 1968).

Banjo versus TV

My new year's resolution for 2008 is to spend at least as much time playing my banjo as I spend watching TV.

So today I present, in the spirit of the P-meter and the Santa Tracker: Banjo versus TV. I'll be updating the scale throughout the new year.

Soaking It In: Children of Heaven

Children of Heaven (1997) by Majid Majidi: 89 minutes, 7.9 IMDB, 87% fresh tomatoes

My notes:

• 0:04:10 It's the grocer's fault. If he hadn't made Ali pick from the poor potatoes, Zahra's shoes wouldn't have been taken.
• 0:05:00 The grocer gets his comeuppance in the form of spilled vegetables.
• 0:23:50 The TV shows shoes, then the shoes being wiped out with static, then a storm. Then there's rain in the real world. Not sure what that means, but there it is.
• 0:28:00 Two strangers help to rescue the shoe from the gutter.
• 0:36:45 "I am the flower of this country." "Obedient to the leader." I like this scene, as it shows the universal tendency of kids to treat their national pledges as rote.
• 0:43:45 Message: Not all teachers are assholes. But administrators, yeah.
• 0:45:40 Ari and Zahra see that the other girl's father is blind and is worse off than they are. Reminds me of a guitar-playing comedian I once heard, who sang, "I wept for I had no shoes. (STRUM!) 'Til I met a man who had no feet. (STRUM!) And I said to him, (STRUM!) 'Can I have your shoes?'"
• 0:59:10 A bicycle mishap robs the poor family of their hopes and dreams, just as things were looking up. What film is this, anyway?
• 1:09:20 Today's lesson, kids: crying works!
• I learn from IMDB that "[i]n the English DVD version of the film, the epilogue is not translated. The epilogue explains that Ali eventually achieves the larger-scale success of having a racing career." That's an annoying oversight on the part of the translators.

The cousinnephew summary:

• It was pretty simply made. Had a good script.
• Went to some effort for certain scenes, like the entire racing scene.
• The directing and editing that I found cool was the underwater shot and, during the race, the slow motion. Goes from a shot from the side to a POV shot.
• They didn't do music for the entire race, probably so you could get the effect of the sounds of the running. They did do music right at the very end of the race.
• I was surprised that they didn't have music to relate his feelings during the race.
• I wish they'd wrapped a few more things up. Did his dad keep the gardening job? I didn't see the point of the whole bicycle, oh-my-brakes-were-out.
• If his dad hadn't had shoes at the end you'd think, "Oh, that's terrible." And the sister would be, "Okay, you failed."

Soaking It In: Sense and Sensibility

Sense and Sensibility (1995) by Ang Lee: 136 minutes, 7.7 IMDB, 100% fresh tomatoes

The early-19th-century trials and tribulations of two spoiled brat daughters who must deal with their expulsion from wealthy English society to (gasp!) merely well-off English society.

My notes:

• 0:28:00 Oh, those poor poor dears. The four of them are forced to live in a beautiful English cottage and they can only afford one male servant and a maid!
• 0:35:08 And they must endure picnics overlooking the countryside. Oh, the horror! (Really, I have got to get over this attitutude of mine or I'll never make it through this picture.)
• 0:52:40 I read about the flatulence while shooting this scene and couldn't resist making "pfffft!" sounds.
• 0:55:30 It's Hugh Laurie! Hurrah! The picture is saved.
• 1:42:55 Upon hearing of Elinor's mistreatment by Edward Ferrars, Colonel Brandon cries out, "By Grabthar's hammer...by the Sons of Warvan...you shall be...avenged!" OK, not really.
• 2:00:00 Has Margaret been in that tree house for the last year? We haven't seen her in a while.

The cousinnephew summary:

• (At the midpoint [1:10:45] check-in:) Good job. Good actors. Good costuming. Good setting. As for the story, they don't need to complain so much; they've got a pretty good life, there. It's not like they're wearing rags.
• It's a good movie. Not exactly my cup of tea. Nonetheless, it's a good movie.
• (Asked about the five:) Acting stood out. You have to be good because there's scenes where there's no background noise, no music. Script was pretty good.
• (What would you emulate in your own filmmaking and what would you avoid?) Emulate the attention to details. Again, they didn't get lazy.
• (Avoid?) I don't really take the love relationships very seriously. I'm not big on the plot of, what? how wealth and good breeding matter?

Some links:

• BBC - Comedy - Blackadder the Third
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chick_flick

Soaking It In: Crooklyn

Crooklyn (1994) by Spike Lee: 115 minutes, 6.5 IMDB, 88% fresh tomatoes

My notes:

• 0:16:00 Glue-sniffing scene takes us into an altered reality.
• 0:28:30 I can't hear "Hey Joe" without thinking of Weird Al.
• 0:30:20 David Cassiday, teen heartthrob.
• 0:49:20 I have got to get this soundtrack. It comes in two parts: 1 and 2.
• 0:55:40 Another trip into an altered reality; this time as a fevered dream.
• 0:58:50 The dog is named Muttley. (Heh. If this were an Ingmar Bergman film the dog would be named Gegga.)
• 1:07:45 Another altered reality. This time it's not glue-sniffing or fever; it's Virginia.
• 0:55:50 I love the the-what-now? expression on Troy as her cousin is singing along with the white-bread Christian TV show.
• 1:26:00 Queenie provides a horrible cautionary tale about being crushed by Southern living.
• The altered-reality scenes come and go towards the end of the film. It's hard to distinguish what's real and what's not after Momma goes.

The cousinnephew summary:

• Spike Lee is a very impressive director, judging on what you see here.
• Incredible film work at the beginning. During the opening credits, you notice the camera work he did with the kids counting off and running. The camera's on a crane, then on a movie car. He has enough takes that when the girls are. He must have done at least four different angles for the girls-slapping-hands. Did an overhead shot of the rope jumping. Shows that these people all know each other.
• Did their own custom opening titles, which made a statement about the time period.
• In the household they do a lot of moving shots, though the dinner scenes seem to be stand-stills.
• The camera follows the mother behind the stairs.
• Acting was pretty incredible for the amount of youth. The kids were great actors.
• It had such a realistic home/family feeling to it. It seemed so natural.
• (Asked what he'd emulate or avoid in his own filmmaking:) I'd capture his style of doing different kinds of moving shots.
• The editing was really pretty impressive.

Soaking It In: The Joy Luck Club

The Joy Luck Club (1993) by Wayne Wang: 139 minutes, 7.2 IMDB, 89% fresh tomatoes

Great film!

My notes:

• 0:07:50 Playing Antonín Dvořák's "Humoresque". Makes me think of Slappy Squirrel.
• 0:09:15 Song: I Enjoy Being a Girl, which is from The Flower Drum Song, so I guess it's kind of Chinese-American.
• 0:32:55 I like the way that, while she was doling out the punishments, Lindo Jong struck a blow against the matchmaker as well. Fight the power!
• 0:56:00 Ying-Ying St. Clair's whole married-a-cruel-man sequence is so powerful, it makes me really regret the time we just spent watching Daughters of the Dust. Actress France Nuyen put more power in this scene than director Julie Dash put into that entire film.
• 1:05:50 "Seven and a half." Ha! So she is good at math.
• 1:14:39 The power continues. Oh, I like the whole St. Clair family.
• 1:31:00 Andrew McCarthy is playing a pretty complicated character, here. He's turning in an excellent performance.
• 1:49:25 Too overwhelmed by a great movie to blog.

The cousinnephew summary:

• Great director. Good script. Good actors.
• Main thing is the way the story was told. The time.
• Going through each story from her mother's friends. Going through the mother's life, then the daughter's life, through each family.
• It wasn't, "Look at how many film elements we can do with the camera angles." If you create the right past and present time sequence, it turns out this good.
• (Asked which of the film's techniques he'd emulate and which he'd avoid:) I just have to say that I'm impressed with the way they created an entire set for China in the 1940s. They recreated it entirely for certain parts of the movie. They went through that much trouble to let you feel the mother's experience.
• To emulate: Don't get lazy.
• Also, the make-up.

Soaking It In: Daughters of the Dust

Daughters of the Dust (1991) by Julie Dash: 112 minutes, 5.6 IMDB, 87.5% fresh tomatoes

Daughters was a low point in the film fest. I didn't like it much; the cousinnephew actively hated it.

My notes:

• 0:04:30 The cousinnephew spots a POV conflict between the people on the shore and the cross -- the camera angles just aren't right. It seems like the POV camera from the boat is actually a few feet in front of the boat, which seems like a bad piece of editing.
• 0:25:00 I am not understanding a lot of this, so I turn to a Daughters of the Dust scene log for help. How the heck were we supposed to know that "[t]he bottles were a place for the ancestors' spirits to dwell and watch over the family," eh? If the film told us that, I missed it. If it didn't, shame on the film.
• 0:35:00 "All that yellow, wasted." Huh?
• 0:37:00 Following a Peazant women saying that Yellow Mary "must have come back for something", we see a fade to white then a fade in to a man (Eli?) on the beach. It seems to be telling us that Yellow Mary wants Eli, but I don't think that's the case. It's just confusing.
• 0:58:30 I like this scene, in which we see snippets of traditional games and activities. It's OK that they don't show us the details and the rules; we get the idea. The lack of an explanation isn't a problem. Contrast that with the earlier bottle tree scene, in which we weren't given an explanation of the important of the bottles. In that previous case, the lack of explanation robbed the scene of its impact.
• 1:22:00 Crib and tombstone showing dates (1866: first year of freedom, 1867: second year of freedom)
• 1:26:55 The photographer shouts to everyone, asking them to remember Ibo Landing. Looks like he's departed from his original task of capturing the new and has instead taken on the task of documenting the old. Sounds like a filmmaker's statement, eh?

The cousinnephew summary:

• I'd like never to see it again. That was hard for me to watch.
• I'll give it: It had beautiful shots. Other than that I just wanted it to stop.
• The music. It seems fitting, but there's just such a lameness to it. (He particularly disliked the overuse of chimes to indicate something magical happening.)
• I just really didn't want Eula to continue with her speech.
• I would rather see Bicyle Thief and 400 Blows many more times than watch Daughters of the Dust again.

Soaking It In: The Brother from Another Planet

The Brother from Another Planet (1984) by John Sayles: 108 minutes, 6.7 IMDB, 91.3% fresh tomatoes

My notes:

• 0:05:00 Steel drum music is brilliant.
• 0:36:15 Longing after the lost Harlem.
• 0:53:50 White guys from the Midwest. "That's what it's all about." "Give me five, brother."
• 0:55:30 "Where are you from." The child is the only one on Earth who understands The Brother's answer to that question.
• 0:57:29 The Brother frees the chained dog. That's a pretty poignant scene.
• 1:02:26 Wobbly camera; use of halo effect to indicate The Brother's intoxication.
• 1:03:15 The Rasta guy who guides the Brother through his intoxication is named Virgil; the name of Dante's guide through Inferno.
• 1:08:42 The men in black don't have The Brother's ability to understand other languages.
• 1:19:15 I wonder what The Brother wrote on that wall.
• 1:29:10 I ask the cousinnephew why The Brother is following the guy. He's not sure.
• 1:35:00 The men in the bar try their movie fight skills (in front of a Bruce Lee poster) and find that they don't work in this situation.
• 1:40:10 The Brother uses his camera/eye to make the man see "the big picture," which is as straightforward an artistic statement as you could ask for.
• 1:43:10 A whole group of Harriet Tubmans!
• 1:44:40 The men in black have to make their last stand in front of a "No Standing" sign.
• 1:45:30 The New York subway is the underground railroad, of course.

The cousinnephew summary:

• Feel like a lot of it didn't need to be played out that much. A lot of it seemed unnecessary.
• Him liking the singer. Being at the bar and fixing things. That was all just extra.
• I think a lot of the camera work. Like the end shot, they kinda needed a tripod.
• Some of the sound effects were kind of B-grade; a lot of that at the beginning.