Mile 377: Flagstaff, AZ

    April 12, 2010 – 11:00 am ·

    For the record, the bathrooms at the gas station at Little America hotel are the nicest at any gas station, anywhere. Flagstaff marks the halfway point between Santa Fe and Los Angeles. In Radiolab terms, that’s about six episodes.

    By Will | Posted in travel | Comments (0)

      Testing via iphone

      April 10, 2010 – 7:55 pm ·

      Just want to test blogging from the iPhone.

      By Will | Posted in blog | Comments (0)

        Reborn like Jean Grey?

        April 5, 2010 – 8:04 pm ·

        I’m thinking about bringing this thing back to life. I’m not sure yet, but I feel the pull of the old blog. There’s some stuff i want to say and some things I want share… Hmm…

        Phoenix

        By Will | Posted in blog | Comments (0)

          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. · (2)
          • 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 |
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          • 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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