TV marathon headache
Mood:  caffeinated
Now Playing: Josh Groban's Noel

Belatedly, Merry Christmas to all. And in advance, Happy New Year!

I just finished watching a marathon of Adrian Paul's "Tracker" series. For those cave dwelling types, such as myself, Adrian Paul is better known for his Highlander TV series, as the immortal, Duncan MacLeod.

"Tracker" was a series that ran on the Sci-Fi channel around 2000-2001. The premise intrigued me because it reminded me of an old Kyle Maclachlan movie, "The Hidden." I enjoy "fish out of water aliens learning to adapt to human culture" flicks.

In interviews, Paul objected to the series being pigeonholed into the sci-fi genre. Given, it's shown on Sci-Fi stations, it's hard to ignore the sciency-fictiony aspects of the series.  Just as Gene Rodenberry passed his morality plays off as science fiction, Tracker wraps similar messages in many of its episodes. The hyperspeed effect, which Paul self credits, is neat. And something about the way he wields his weapon and liberates life forces during the takedowns, is very cool, indeed. 

There's plenty of eye candy. Two stunning actresses and a star with the build of a... well, an underwear model. In one episode, he's strapped down, and looked much lot like Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man. Paul reminds me of a cross between Tommy Lee Jones, and Sean Connery.  He's multi-lingual, and a bit of a Renaissance man. His background in jazz/ballet dance and martial arts, allows him to  inject plenty of motion into the series. This bloke knows how to move on the dance floor and the alleyway!

What I'm trying to say is, my mind is reeling once more. Videos are forthcoming.  

Now for Companion business.

- I added a link to the first page, to C's newest project with Patty. He plays a principal, and she stars as a schoolteacher. It was filmed in Long Island, NY.

- I toyed with the idea of actually shelling out bucks for the site, to get rid of the annoying advertising, and getting more space. At four bucks a month, it didn't look too bad, but then, the yearly cost, was a bit daunting. $48 a year could be spent on other endeavors (like a shiny box set of Highlander!). Yeah, them pennies hurt when I pinch them.  

Squeeeeal!
Mood:  happy
Now Playing: E.S. Posthumus

Squeeal?

That's the sound of a Josh Groban fan containing excitement at the newest CD release.  And it's full of Christmas songs! Christmas done come early this year. Made a special trip to THE MALL just to buy it on its official release date.

The CD is lounging on my writing desk, in its pristine shrinkwrap, like a box of Godiva chocolates...taunting me. I know if I open it I will not/can not contain myself and want to engorge myself with the whole box, all in one sitting. Take a deep breath. The feeling will pass. 

Back to "now playing". My umhhum birthday just passed, and I received the latest (and only) CD by E.S. Posthumus.

I know, the group's name sounds morbid, but the "E.S" stands for "Experimental Sounds".   The album is "Unearthed", which again, falls into a death theme. But again, a ruse. Each of the songs is named after an ancient city: Pompeii, Ninevah, Ebla, Menouthis,  Nara (which you'll recognize as the theme song for the TV series "Cold Case").  

Genre? I call it movie trailer music, or classical/rock, in the vein of The Trans Siberian Orchestra.  It's been classified as world music or electronica. Primitive, punctuated rhythms, layered orchestral. Give it a taste.

Check out their website:

http://esposthumus.com
 

I just finished another youtube video. I've learned a lot over these past months. Technically, I'm still experimenting, and improving in small steps. To break from my current fixation, I may embark on a C. youtube project, for the fans.  If I hear some show of support, it will encourage me to do so. Otherwise...not! It's your call, kiddies. 

ciao, 

Eve 

Crunchy flakes
Mood:  a-ok
Now Playing: The Inner Light Suite

The Inner Light

That's the flute and piano version, but I'm listening to the orchestral version. What in tarnation is the Inner Light Suite, you may not be asking? The Inner Light, as episodic TV,  is a tearjerker of a tale of a man who, in short,  falls asleep and has a most vivid dream about living a whole other life, experiencing the span of love to marriage to children.  The expanded soundtrack to this episode is poignant, bordering on falling-on-one's-sword morose.  I believe the correct phrase would be "haunting melody."

The series is Star Trek, the Next Generation. The man is Captain Jean Luc Picard. The story is that he gets "attacked" by a sort of space probe, that infuses him with memories of a race long gone. You have to see it, to feel it. This is classic Star Trek. Another aside, the original Ressikan flute that doth touched Picard's own lips,  sold for about 40 grand at Christie's auction. Holy non-functioning blowing instrument, Batman! Them Trekkers got deep pockets! Okay, I may have flute envy. 

The post title:"Crunchy Flakes". I was rereading my entry of 2 September, and thinking, "Well, who tossed nails in her cornflakes that day"? Did I come across as that caustic?  Must have been that darned alternative rock soundtrack.

Enough of salad, onto to the meat. I'm sure most of  you fans are looking forward to C's "The Atheist." If critics are to be believed, it looks to be a winner. To paraphrase Sally Field, "They like him, they really, really like him!"

Sorry, no new developments on the Companion front. I've been alternately woolgathering and working on my Youtube video. It's not as tedious once I acquired the correct toolsets. And I discovered a trick of tweaking memory usage under Moviemaker, which has not only speeded up the load time, but it hasn't frozen up at all, when I added clips and transitions.  

A bunch of MovieMaker tips from Papajohn

Here's the anti-freeze one:

"Control Panel > System > Advanced tab > Performance > Settings > Advanced tab > change Processor scheduling from Programs to Background services, and Memory usage from Programs to System cache. The computer needs to be rebooted to activate these changes."

I am indebted to PapaJohn for all his tips and his sample Transitions. 

The point of this post? Apology for no new updates, and a little view into what's been occupying hobby time.

Who's kidding whom
Mood:  chillin'
Now Playing: Alternative rock

Well, it ain't exactly rock, and it ain't punk. It's alternative. Thanks to the influence of my two teenagers, I am now listening to music I couldn't have imagined I'd be listening to, or even liking. Bands like Snow Patrol, and Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. They're creative, if anything, in the names of their bands. Their music, as it were, is good for road rage driving. Gets the blood pumping. 

Okay, back to business. Who am I kidding? How much of these C. photos am I going to move into albums. It's tedious work,  and I'd like to think I will do it.  I also have a half dozen ideas spinning in my head about music videos I want to make for my latest obsession.  This website, unfortunately isn't at the top of  my priorities.

This begs the question: how qualified is a site designer, to build a hobby fan site, if she is not a real fan? I suppose this is my one small contribution to the world wide net of misinformation. As C. is wont to say, and I'll mangle the phrase, I do it for the scads of money rolling in from web traffic. 

Actually, tweaking the look and behavior of a website is a form of relaxation for me. If someone paid me, it wouldn't be nearly as interesting. 

Moving furniture
Mood:  celebratory
Now Playing: Canto Alla Vita - Josh Groban

This is probably the 12th incarnation of this website. I hope it's the last because I tire of moving and reformatting text. I got to manipulate some CSS parameters. Could someone tell me how to get the background not to change colors when I hover over a table element (see Contact page).

If you've been following this site from its beginning, you'll probably notice I came full circle with the book theme. It's back. The original was done with frames,  and of myown design. This free theme set is much nicer, thanks to DemusDesign.

Eventually, I'll have all the furniture moved into place. Right now, things are a bit bare. I'll be moving the photos into a web album, and I hope to move the movie files and audiobook page that are on the Geocities server, into themed pages that match the main site.  The Articles need an overhaul. The Screen page needs to include his TV credits (e.g. Six Degrees).