Lemme ‘Splain.

    July 5, 2008 – 11:49 am ·

    Got this email from Dolly as I was working on the new “I’m outta here” splash page:

    love your site – just happened upon it randomly this morning
    thanks for posting music…

    Simple. Nice. Complimentary. Strangely, it’s the first time I’ve received an email like that. And it came at the most perfectest time. Just as I was shutting things down.

    It’s not for a lack of blogging love that I’m doing this. No, no, indeed, I love the whole blogging process. I love the act of designing blogs, I love the publishing, I love sharing the tunes, I love processing the pics, I love all of that.

    But I love the fiction-writing more. I’m good at it. And at the end of the day, when I’ve done my work, I’ve got something that feels good and heavy in my hands.

    A blog demands attention like a bully, like a class clown, like a co-dependant partner. And attention equals time. And I’d rather spend that time working on the two-dozen writing projects I’ve got stored up. They want attention, too. And when I think about what would make me happier, what I’d enjoy doing more, it’s the writing that wins. Hands down.

    I’ve certainly done the hiatus thing before. But I’d always point out that a return was imminent. This time, no such promise. I may still blog, but anonymously, and far away from here. And there are always the other sites.

    I’ll leave this stuff up. I happen to like the blog, and too many peple visit the Thomas Newman stuff to let it all go away. And the email will remain, so you can always write me. Say hello.

    But to quote Dennis Miller, “That’s the news and I am outta here.”

    For fun, courtesy of the (finicky) Internet Archives:

    Sixsquare 2002 – The site’s earliest incarnation, when I knew more about the migratory patterns of the black-faced spoonbill than I did about HTML.

    Sixsquare 2004 – The blog looked like a screenplay back then. Cool design. The Wayback Machine may not be able to pull off a full reconstruction, alas.

    Sixsquare 2005 – When I was blogging about HOLLYWOODLAND.

    By Will | Posted in blog |
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    • It’s Quittin’ Time July 1st, 2008 at 11:50 pm · · Big ol’ Sixsquare announcement coming soon. Soon’s I get it all organized and pretty. · (0)
    • Earlimart’s ‘Hymn and Her’ Around the Corner June 28th, 2008 at 8:20 am · · Just wanted to point out that the new Earlimart album is getting a solid review from Andrew Leahey over at Allmusic, which only serves to whet the edge of my anticipation of Tuesday’s release of Hymn And Her. They’ll be at Spaceland mid-July to kick off support of the album. Guess you know where I’ll be. · (1)
    • Coolest WordPress Plugin Ever June 27th, 2008 at 9:08 pm · · Hey, this is off-topic, I suppose, but I swapped out the static, boring, life-throttling category list in the footer of this blog with a Flash-based revolving Tag Cloud. Scroll down and check it out. It rotates. It swirls. It moves. It’s so shiny. And it underscores the sad fact that I don’t have near enough of my posts tagged. Get it here. · (0)
    • Words

    Fear Of English: complement vs. compliment

    June 25, 2008 – 11:12 pm ·

    This came up today at work. I was working on a subtitle file for an audio commentary on an episode of Private Practice. Which episode is not important. Okay, it was called “In Which Dell Finds His Fight.” The title pretty much summarizes the thing, but here’s TV Guide’s summary:

    Oceanside focuses on fertility and starts a dads-to-be class; Sam and Naomi struggle to figure out where their relationship is heading; Addison is conflicted about her status in the dating world; Cooper begins a secret affair with a colleague.

    That’s not really relevant. I just wanted to share.

    On the commentary are Taye Diggs (pictured, far right) and Chris Lowell (far left). And there comes a scene in which Kate Walsh and Audra McDonald are walking down a hall. You can almost hear Diggs and Lowell drool as they discuss the outfits the women are wearing. Diggs says, “Complementary outfits” and Lowell adds, “Complementary outfits, yes. Flattering.”

    That’s how the subtitles were written. COMPLEMENTARY. And I had to fight the urge to change it to COMPLIMENTARY. I know the difference. If I compliment the dinner you just cooked, I loved it. If I complement it, I brought french fries. So in what way is the word being used here? What is the meaning?

    There is such a thing as complementary clothing. As one might imagine, it’s clothing that belongs together, or is part of an overall outfit. But these were two outfits–dresses, actually–worn by two women, and they didn’t necessarily go together in that sense.

    And Lowell actually says, “flattering,” which implies that the clothing was paying Walsh and McDonald a compliment, and not just a compliment but possibly an undeserved one. In fact, this clothing may have been downright sycophantic. Still, I think that was the meaning they were after. And though I can see the angle that suggests the dresses went with the natural “womanhood” of the actresses in question to form a complete whole, I doubt that’s the answer.

    In spite of my misgivings, I left it COMPLEMENTARY, partly because, as Diggs himself says on the commentary track, all of ten people will probably listen anyway, and by my own estimate, of that ten, maybe only, like, eight, will turn on the subtitles.

    But also, I didn’t want anyone to think they meant that the outfits were free.

    Was I right to leave it? Is there an obvious meaning of complementary related to couture that I’ve missed? Let me know. I’m still working on the file, so there’s time to change it.

    By Will | Posted in Words, fear of english |
    Tagged , , , ,     | Comments (3)
    • Music

    Mix-Tape Madness (The Covers Project)

    June 24, 2008 – 8:00 am ·

    Thanks to Will (the other one) I got clued in to Ryan Zeinert’s mix-tape madness, so I thought I’d jump in on the action. Couple quick notes: What I created was not actually a tape. But then I don’t think anyone expected that. I’ve made more than my share of actual tapes, but I finally ditched my Aiwa dual cassette deck a couple years ago because after more than a decade of solid use, it was giving up the proverbial ghost.

    Also, though I’m happy with the initial effort, if I did it again in a week, it would no doubt be something completely different. Moods change, ideas evolve, that sort of thing.

    Anyway, that’s that. Here are the tracks, annotated in a fit of exhaustion, after the jump:

    Read More »

    By Will | Posted in Music, playlist |
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      George Carlin, RIP

      June 23, 2008 – 7:05 am ·

      Good gravy, I’m gonna miss this man. I have a lot more to say about him, but I haven’t the time this morning. I’ll write something decent later. In the meantime check out one of his best routines:

      By Will | Posted in gone, heroes, inspiration |
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      • Cinema
      • Music

      X-Files: I Wanna Believe

      June 19, 2008 – 7:52 am ·

      By now most people have seen the trailer for the new X-Files flick. And thanks to a comprehensive poll (some guy at the gym, a friend at work and Sparky, an overweight blue-point Siamese that lives in the neighborhood) I can say with authority that the public anticipation is luke-warm, tempered mostly by the worry that Chris Carter’s script might sink under the weight of his usual clunky rhythms and stilted dialogue.

      Mostly, these are Sparky’s concerns, though I share them. Carter isn’t good with the cinematic stuff. It’s kinda like George Lucas and his directing. He’s best when he doesn’t actually do it himself. Remember the last movie? He had a chance to introduce us to Scully and Mulder in the grandest of fashions, with big-screen flair and hair-raising drama. Instead, when they make their first silver screen appearance, they’re … brace yourself … chatting on the cell phone. It was one of the biggest wasted opportunities in film history (this also determined through diligent polling.)

      Still, though I expect more of the same, this X-Phile will be at the first available screening, legs kicked up, ready for action. Let’s hope Carter’s matured a bit in the ten years (ten!) since the last flick.

      By Will | Posted in Cinema, Music, new movies, trailers |
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      • Music

      Boy On A Plane: An Airborne Fixx

      June 17, 2008 – 8:12 am ·

      ‘D’y'ever do something once and have such a vivid experience doing it that you do it again? And then again and again until it becomes a sort of ritual? I’m not talking about something big, like surviving a plane crash in the Andes and then meeting with your fellow survivors once a year for happy hour at Chili’s. Nothing like that. I’m talking about small, nonsensical, peculiar, the kind of ritual that only you, yourself in this wide, overpopulated planet ever do, the kind that seeks to reclaim, without ever succeeding, something of the magic that befell you the first time you did it?

      I thought so, but I bet yours doesn’t involve The Fixx and a PSA jet.

      Here’s mine. Every time I fly, whether it’s from LAX to Sydney or Denver to DC or down to the Whole Foods on the corner, I have to listen to “Woman On A Train” by The Fixx. That’s right. Man on a plane listening to “Woman On A Train.” Yeah, I said I was unique. Here’s the song:

      The Fixx – “Woman On A Train”

      It all goes back to a trip my brother and I took way back when I was fourteen. We boarded a plane bound from New Mexico to California to visit friends, and we did it alone, without parents. Not our first orphan flight, but the first for me since making it into a roiling adolescence, and since discovering the raw, sexy, seductive allure of music.

      As the plane pushed off from the gate I had my Walkman in my hand–not an official Sony model; it was a Panasonic, I think–and a tape-recording on a Maxell C-45 of Phantoms by The Fixx scrolling insde on continuous auto-reverse infini-play. As the plane lifted off the ground, the song in question kicked in with its meticulous percussion, oleaginous synth pulse, ethereal guitars and deep, rolled-back bass. Synapses connected with a crackle of ozone.

      The song has since reminded me of airports and flight and Mr. Pibb in very small plastic cups and the wonder and fear and amazement at the mystery of onrushing adulthood, whose harbingers were giddiness, confusion and the soul-crushing grip of first love.

      Lyrics after the jump.

      And by the way, the first word in this post is pronounced “JEV-er” (Did You Ever?)

      On the web:
      buy the song on iTunes (not this version, which is inexplicably unavailable)
      official site
      tour schedule (they’re coming to LA, folks)
      Erlewine’s take on the album

      Read More »

      By Will | Posted in Music, flashback, mp3 |
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      • Cinema

      For Princess Bride Fans

      June 15, 2008 – 8:48 am ·

      Give it a moment. Very nicely done.

      By Will | Posted in Cinema, humor |
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