Words: Describing Roy Orbison's voice -- and a really smooth wine...

As writers, we always appreciate a well-turned phrase.

I'm reading the Wikipedia entry for Roy Orbison, and at one point they quote various singers attempting to describe what most referred to as his "operatic" voice -- some of these images are amazing:

*Roy Orbison's voice*

Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel both commented on the otherworldy quality of Orbison's voice; a particularly poetic comparison was Dwight Yoakam's, who stated Orbison's voice sounded like "the cry of an angel falling backward through an open window". Barry Gibb of The Bee Gees went further to say that when he heard "Crying" for the first time, "That was it. To me that was the voice of God."

Bob Dylan marked Orbison as a specific influence, stating that there was nothing like him on radio in the early 1960s:

"With Roy, you didn't know if you were listening to mariachi or opera. He kept you on your toes. With him, it was all about fat and blood. He sounded like he was singing from an Olympian mountaintop. [After "Ooby Dooby"] (h)e was now singing his compositions in three or four octaves that made you want to drive your car over a cliff. He sang like a professional criminal... His voice could jar a corpse, always leave you muttering to yourself something like, 'Man, I don't believe it'."

Angel falling backwards. Drive your car over a cliff. "He sang like a professional criminal." -- I don't even know what that *means* yet it stuns me!

Sigh.... Reminds me of a phrase the Europeans sometimes use when describing a particularly smooth wine, a phrase that is so weird it could only have been dreamed up in another language: "Prior to the French Revolution, the Vigne de l'Enfant Jesus vineyard [Beaune-Greves, Burgundy] belonged to an order of Carmelite nuns especially devoted to the Infant Jesus. Legend has it that the nuns were so enamored of the wine's silky texture that they exclaimed, 'It slips down the throat as easily as the Infant Jesus in velvet pants.' " You still hear this phrase at trade tastings; I just hear an Italian winemaker say it the other day.

mac mccarthy

'Gourmet' Demise: What Causes Magazines to Fail?

Much coverage of folding publications seems to focus on the editorial: They didn't do this, they made that mistake, they didn't really embrace the Web, etc.

This puzzles me: Is Conde Nast's Gourmet being folded because subscribers were fleeing? I didn't see that data point in any of the coverage so far. Because readers are unhappy? Not mentioned either.

Because advertising revenues fell 25% at the beginning of the year, and continued in freefall for the rest of this year? That is what I do see. As with almost every publication dying off, the abrupt loss of ad revenue seems to be the fatal bullet. What has this to do with whether you enjoyed reading it, or whether the right editor was in charge?

It's true that if one shifts the editorial mix with the intention of shifting the mag's demographics, that affects how ads are sold, for better or worse; publishers make those tweaks all the time, especially when the market makeup changes, and if they are lucky they find a way to adjust.

But with every single print magazine and print newspaper losing advertising revenues at shocking rates and bleeding red ink like they've never seen before, focus on the editorial or even the business management seems to be missing the point. Even Conde Nast's famously spendthrift ways aren't what's killed its pubs: Having your revenue drop in half in a very short period is hard to manage, even if you cut costs like mad.

As for the "failure to embrace the Web," no print publication has successfully shifted its center of gravity to the Web with consequent Web-derived revenues that adequately replace the former print revenues. As far as I know, none. I'm not counting pubs like InfoWorld, whose revenues in print dropped so precipitously over a few years that they finally dropped below the very slowly rising online revenues -- so IW is now a formerly $100M print pub that is now a $10M web pub.

As far as I can see, nobody has resolved the economic crisis represented by the Web, not even those who have enthusiastically embraced it.

And as far as I know, nobody has come up with a successful business model for the print publishing world yet. Or for print-Web as a combo business. Not even those criticizing the management, the editorial team, or the oldfashioned love of print publishing.

Michael "Mac" McCarthy
mac.mccarthy@gmail.com

3 Best Comedies on TV: Big Bang Theory, Better Off Ted, Community

Big Bang Theory! One the 3 (surviving) Funniest Shows on TV, along with Better Off Ted, and the new Community -- all share the same knack for unexpected jokes, some of which you can savor for a moment.

Big Bang makes jokes a lot of regular TV watchers won't even get, which seems brave to me even though there are lots of nerds around--and lots of people who have to live & work with nerds and spend much of the show shaking our heads in amused dismay.

Better Off Ted goes off down insane paths of immorality that just get deeper and more nutty all the way down to the final moment. I love how they handle the voiceover; the two lab guys, especially the African-American one, steal the show every minute they're on screen, and the actress who plays the boss is so over the top it's a wicked joy to watch her go.

Community puts many of its punchlines just off to one side of where the obvious kind of joke would ordinarily be.

Chevy Chase: "You remind me of me when I was your age."

Joel McHale: "I deserved that."

Which takes a moment to sink in. And the guy from Palestine who is hyperobservant, and who labors to understand what's going on culturally by shoehorning the moment into American movie he's seen. I look forward to how they will pay off the other characters over time. Any comedy that starts with a disgraced lawyer who got his law degree from Columbia -- the country, not the university, and, as one character points out, "as an email attachment" -- can't help but make you laugh.

And a running gag that the lead actress looks like Elizabeth Shue (she does) plays off a similar scene at the end of The Office that preceded the premiere, where three morose employees complain of being referred to by their boss by the name of whatever actor they happen to resemble (and they do, too!). Wheels within wheels!

Heroes & Villains: Why Can't We Act Well More Often?

My friend Johnny Perian sent me a clip about fishermen who heroically helped untangle a humpback whale off the Farralones near San Francisco back in 2005, and concluded:

It's a damn shame that we can't have more news like the whale story.....but happening between members of the same species, i.e., us. We're so busy trying to screw somebody.... figuratively or literally.... swindle them, verbally or physicaly abuse them, murder them, torture and torment them, bully them or bury them. Human beings are deep down inside a jealous, greedy bunch of bastards, who get an almost morbid ejaculation when they can make another human being bend over in pain and humiliation. We're worse than chimpanzees. The only difference is that they are hairier than we are and physically stronger....and sometimes are prettier than some of the girls I've dated.

I'm not so sure that's the right way to look at it, though I've heard this sentiment before: Animals get along better than humans (you may have seen the YoutTube video of the panhandler with his dog-cat-rat act).

I watch the chickadees fighting over the seed thing out front, and the hummingbirds divebombing each other at their feeder. My (de-balled) cat gets in terrific squalls with a neighbor cat who dares to enter his territory, and has almost lost an eye arguing with a raccoon.

Meanwhile, you can go to a ballgame where 20,000 people sit there in perfect peace and harmony -- even on days when a couple of drunks get into a fight in the parking lot, the other 19,998 people are rubbing shoulders with no problem. Walk at the mall and see hundreds of people milling with no bad intentions in their minds.

When a disaster happens, watch as, at first, everyone freezes. But that's just because nobody knows what to do in an unfamiliar situation, or how even to evaluate the situation. But as soon as one person "takes charge" and starts directing, everybody jumps in to help out with a will -- rescue the people trapped in the car before flames blow it up, try to save a person having a seizure in that same mall, comfort a neighbor whose house is on fire, though they haven't exchanged two words with that neighbor in ten years.

People are mostly good,most of the time, just as you and I are. GIven the chance, and with good leadership or knowing what to do, they will *want* to do the right thing. And sometimes people are assholes - greedy, fearful, resentful, jealous, territorial. And a few people are assholes all the time, just as a few people are saints all the time.

Some fishermen see an entangled whale. If somebody shouts out, "Keep away, that tale will crush you! Don't be a fool! He'll get away eventually, leave it alone!" and they'll all back away and watch in confusion, guilt, and fear. If somebody shouts, "Let's save him! He'll die! We've got to do it! Here, give me a hand! Where's that knife? Joe -- hold this end for me!" and everybody will jump in and rescue the whale in spite of personal danger and a lack of reward other than feeling good about it. Tell them they're heros and they'll brush it off -- they just felt they *had* to do something. Most people feel that way, most of the time.

Leadership matters -- I give you Hitler versus Roosevelt; the American Army in WWII vs a lynch mob. Knowledge matters--I give you an RN at a disaster site, instantly and instinctively going into triage mode, vs. the average Joe who has no idea what to do and is waiting for somebody who *does* know. And whom they can follow, and will follow, willingly.

Gabe Askew's Astonishing CGI Music Video to Grizzly Bear's "Two Weeks"

I can't believe one animator created this amazing MTV-level music video. Watch this, you will never forget it:

Two Weeks - Grizzly Bear from Gabe Askew on Vimeo.

OK, so many levels: How can one man invest so much work into one work of art? How can one man have inside his head this level of creativity and beauty? It took me several minutes before I realized it was CGI and not actual cutouts.

Small Publishers Finding Success--Sierra Mountain Times

I just ran across a web site called Sierra Mountain Times, http://mysierramountaintimes.com/ , which puts in large letters just below its flag, this slogan (on every page):

180,000 Hits a Month * Over 8,000 Unique Visitors Every Month!

Nice, for what appears upon examination to be an elaborated blog, run by four people, with a two-page classifieds section, up in the Twain-Harte area!

It's the Web site for a print giveaway of the same name, whose flag includes the price per copy: "Priceless!"

Too cute!

Oakland Magic Circle Annual Competition Sept 1!

The Oakland Magic Circle presents

The Annual Inter-Club Stage Magic Competition and Spaghetti dinner banquet!

Tues Sept 1, at Bjornson Hall, 2258 MacArthur Blvd (near Fruitvale), Oakland 94062

Doors open at 6 - Dinner at 7 - Show at 8.

Must buy tickets in advance. $15 adult, $10 children under 12. Includes dinner. Cheap! Yum!

Get tickets at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/75152

or call 1-800-838-3006.

I'll be there -- hope you are too!

mac

The Down Side of reading Local Police Reports...

Our local weekly newspaper carries, like many local papers, a "Sheriff's Report" of local arrests. There's usually not nearly enough real info to figure out what's going on -- many are of some guy picked up for drunkenness and found to have three outstanding warrants, so he's taken to jail -- and released on bail! What the--?

But this week we get this entry (my emphasis):

"Teen Arrested for Drugs, Weapons

"Tues Jul 21 at 7:50 pm, sheriff's deputies arrested a 19-year-old man at the corner of Carlwyn Dr and Clifton Way for multiple counts of drug possession including marijuana, cocaine, and various narcotics. Sheriff's deputies also found weapons and unidentified explosives during their search. He was handcuffed and taken to jail."

The location is down at the end of my street.

Explosives?!?

I'm almost sorry I read that. I've heard a kid down in that direction has drug problems. Fine. But explosives???

Ai!

And of course one gets no more info than that.

If local papers want to endear themselves to their readers, they will go find out what the heck is going on down there and tell us.

(Nah.)

Musical ‘Almond Eyes’ Wows Sold-Out Crowd

Bernice and I attended the musical 'Almond Eyes' that played at CSUEB (Cal State Hayward) in July and greatly enjoyed it.

It's still in "workshop," according to the two authors, Jay Chee (book and lyrics) and JoAnn Yuen (music), who made an appearance after the standing-ovation close. Apparently they are looking for more opportunities to present the play--this was the premiere, for which Cal State Hayward's theater department should be proud.

Based on the life of an Asian song-and-dance act, Toy and Wing, before and after World War II on the West Coast of the U.S., Almond Eyes opens our eyes to a world little known to most of us: The so-called Chop Suey vaudville circuit, and the difficulty non-white entertainers had in being taken seriously. The writer did a very good job of telling a story that, being a real one, doesn't have an entirely neat Hollywood ending. It was warm, charming, amusing, disturbing in parts, and entertaining. The acting was very good too, with the leading man and lady doing a terrific job, with an unexpected boost near the end of the show from Lawrence-Michael C. Arias, whose boozy MC sings a heart-breaking swan song that is pitch-perfect poignant.

The show ended with Dorothy Toy's elderly dance troupe stomping all over the stage to the delight of the crowd.

--mac

CSUEB's press release does a good job of summarizing the event:

Bolstered by Dorothy Toy’s huge extended family and the exuberance of an Asian community thrilled to celebrate one of their own, the July 24-25 run of “Almond Eyes” – based on the life of ‘40s performers Dorothy Toy and Paul Wing - drew three sold out crowds to the Highlands Summer Theatre on the California State University, East Bay stage.

The cast of 23 ranged from two professionals to an elementary school student, and drew from across the Bay Area, including 10 CSUEB students, plus 10 CSUEB technicians and crew, two City College of San Francisco students, one from San Francisco State University, one from Laney College, and even one CSUEB staffer, Annie Manning from ethnic studies.

Top that off with a post show performance by 70-year old showgirls from the Grant Avenue Follies, a San Francisco troupe of Asian American chorus girls who began performing in San Francisco as early as the 1940s, and the opening night appearance of Dorothy Toy, herself, now 91 and attired in a spangled black and silver evening gown and six-inch heels, the performance took on the air of an event and drew considerable attention to the CSUEB Theatre and Dance Department.

As if this didn’t make for sufficient buzz, Ray Gin, production manager for “A Chorus Line,” made a surprise visit to the show’s final performance looking for Asian American artists who develop socially responsible programs with an outreach appeal. Prompted by Baayork Lee, Broadway choreographer and originator of “Connie” in the original "Chorus Line", Lee’s organization, The National Asian Artist Program fosters emerging artists who speak to underserved communities.

Almond Eyes was also invited to participate in the San Francisco Theatre Festival at Yerba Buena Gardens on the Sunday following closing night. Another venue in San Jose has also approached the Department to remount the production in San Jose, pending funding, according to Director A. Fajilan.

Fajilan praised her team of musical director Chris Erwin and choreographer Laura Ellis for fixing, refining, re-envisioning and keeping the students on task as they brought Jay Chee and JoAnn Yuen's script to life and showed why Toy and Wing were dubbed the Asian Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire.
The production and design staff also rose to the challenge and did not let the "workshop" label impede their designs and visions, according to the director.

“Asian Americans have such few shows that focus on their American experience,” said Fajilan. “I hope to change that by presenting new works every year. It is quite a task to take on a premiere musical and workshop shows that have the potential to leave a lasting impact on American Theatre and History. We all were fortunate to have ‘Almond Eyes’ as the first installment in our Artists of Color Series,” she said.

Best Cruise Destinations does NOT include Malta!

At the site Boomster, writer Pam Baker wrote a good article on 'Best Cruise Destinations,' including Bermuda, Dubai, and The Poles.

Unfortunately, she also included Malta as one of her favorites.

No.

She writes, "The island is gorgeous with its magnificent ornamental gardens, ancient walls, historic ruins (from different periods over many centuries) and its beautiful churches."

I hate to disagree, but Malta is NOT a favorite destination -- not for me, anyway. Not when I visited in the 1990s.

The capital (and only significant city) was flattened during WWII -- I mean, flattened. When you take the historical walk, every single "ancient" building was rebuilt, from the ground up, in 1946-1950 timeframe (by the Brits, in appreciation for the island's brave populace). There is *nothing* on the island from prior to WWII - unfortunately.

The churches etc. are, however, good imitations of what they looked like in previous eras. It's a kind of Disneyland of old Malta. Pity, that.

We weren't impressed with the food, either. We figured, Malta has been conquered by the Arabs, the Italians, the French, the Visigoths--it should have the most wonderful blend of cuisines in the world!

We forgot that the most recent conquerer of Malta was -- the British, in the early 1800s. As a result, Malta is the last refuge of legendarily bad English cooking. Awful.

Also a pity.

I pictured a quaint Mediterranean island. I got a soft-limestone rock where the elegant homes looked like upscale prison blockhouses.

Oh well.

In Defense of Twitter... Good read!

"In Defense of Twitter" is a *terrific* shootdown of an *idiotic* NYT editorial by Maureen Dowd, aka Pompous Ass. Fun read!

And in her editorial (linked in the above post), Dowd interviews the founders of Twitter, who just wipe up the floor with her!

Idiot.

Update on Amazon Pulls Books from Kindle Story

This from Endgadget, following up on its original story about the incident:

Update 2: Drew Herdener, Amazon.com's Director of Communications, pinged us directly with the following comment, and now things are starting to make a lot more sense. Seems as if the books were added initially by an outfit that didn't have the rights to the material.

These books were added to our catalog using our self-service platform by a third-party who did not have the rights to the books. When we were notified of this by the rights holder, we removed the illegal copies from our systems and from customers' devices, and refunded customers. We are changing our systems so that in the future we will not remove books from customers' devices in these circumstances.

--

Comment: Well, now: Doesn't sound so bad, does it?

As I suspected, something went wrong and the copyright holder exercised their rights -- in which case Amazon had no option but to accede.

Of course, Amazon screwed up, or rather, got screwed up by the third-party submitter who didn't have the right to submit the books; Amazon will need to figure a way to check that sort of thing more closely. And Amazon arguably screwed up by not promptly announcing the nature of the problem so as to dampen criticism.

Yet, there are still complaints: Under the invisible headline You Can't Win, Endgadget goes on to conclude:

Still, what's upsetting is the idea that something you've purchased can be quietly taken back by Amazon with no explanation and no advance notice. It's a rotten policy, regardless of the motivations behind this particular move.

The 'no explanation' part is the only part I think is worth complaining about. The 'no advance notice' is only wise, under the circumstances: Many commenters talked about wishing they had offloaded their copy of the books so they couldn't be taken back. Amazon would have been foolish to announce in advance, thus enabling customers to put Amazon in noncompliance with copyright law.

The real bottom-line complaint from most complainers is that Amazon is able, in this technology, to 'unsell' you a book. In their minds, All Sales Are Final. But this is also nonsense: If I sell you a book I stole from someone, the owner could have the police come to you and take it back. Only legal sales can be considered final. The only thing unusual about this particular Amazon sequence is that the reclaiming was done in a novel (sic) virtual way that isn't an option in the physical world. People hadn't thought to consider this as a possibility, and now they're taken aback. Understandably. But they are also crying foul, which is understandable also (because people lash out) but wrong.

Mad Because Amazon Pulled A Book Back from Your Kindle? Why?

Apparently, Amazon was forced by a publisher to delete copies of George Orwell's books 1984 and Animal Farm from the Kindle electronic readers of customers who had already bought the book. Details at David Pogue's NYT blog.

Tech observers are furious. I mean furious.

How dare Amazon reach into my Kindle and take away a book I paid for? True, they refunded the money I paid for the book, but -- this is wrong! Not much detail in the reports, beyond a note that apparently the original publisher/owner of the copyright changed its mind about offering the book electronically, and Amazon lost the argument.

Columnists around the blogsphere are spitting nails. They'd never have bought a Kindle if they had known Amazon would (and would be able to) take back a book they had "bought." It's mine! You can't take it back, I bought it! Various analogies have been offered: What if a publisher came into your house and took back a book you had bought from your shelf? What if Microsoft (there is always a Microsoft angle) accessed your computer and forced an upgrade from Windows XT to Windows 7? Amazon is cowardly to yield to the publisher; they are kissing the publisher's derriere; Amazon "caved." Suggestions for hiding downloaded books from Amazon's eraser mechanism have been discussed.

I'm sorry, I don't understand. What was Amazon supposed to do? Defy the copyright holder?

Shouldn't you be annoyed at the publisher? They're the ones who pulled the book. Yes, the technology makes it possible, which physical books couldn't. But that's inherent in the technology, isn't it? Should Amazon have defied the owner and- - I don't know, gone to jail? And lost the right to the books anyway? Should Amazon have deliberately designed the product to not be able to rescind books if the rights to publish went away? Or is the problem, maybe, copyright and distribution laws that aren't current with technology?

The publisher/rights owner clearly has the right to allow or not allow Amazon to distribute its books electronically. If they had decided not to distribute them electronically, would the publisher be a bad company? They apparently changed their minds - no info on why, or whether they had the contractual right to do so, or - well, anything, just the bald fact. And no info from Amazon, either -- participants in business arguments rarely find it valuable to baldly describe their business disagreements in public.

But let's leap to the assumption that Amazon would not have had to pull the books but chose to do so -- because Amazon is wicked. Yeah, that's the ticket. I'm not buying any more product from a wicket company that can sell me something, then take it back later and refund my money. Bastards.

Strange world. When somebody gets some more facts, I will read them with interest, and maybe then be able to make up my mind who, if anyone, to be mad at. Meanwhile, I am just confused at the fury.

mac

"Almond Eyes," A Love Story from the Chop Suey Circuit

Cal State Hayward (Cal State East Bay, Hayward, CA) premieres “Almond Eyes,” an original musical about an generally little-known aspect of the mid-century vaudville circuit that catered primarily to Chinese audiences on the West Coast.

The original musical by Jay Chee and JoAnn Yuen, directed by A. Fajilan, is based on the life of dancer

Dorothy Takahashi and her partner, Paul Wing Jew (shortened to Toy & Wing for marquee appeal), who were known as the Asian Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire.

Dorothy Toy, now 91, will attend opening night, July 24!

Discrimination on the West Coast during World War II dashed their dreams of fame in Hollywood and their careers concluded with the demise of the famed Chop Suey Circuit in San Francisco where Asian American performers (known as “Orientals”) entertained in elaborate supper clubs during the ‘40s and ‘50s.

Through Broadway-style music, dance and comedy, “Almond Eyes” tells an uplifting story of love, breakups, and reunions that are interwoven with California’s Asian American history.

Several members of the Grand Avenue Follies, who are now aged 60-76, will recreate a number to close CSUEB shows. Toy, now 91, is to attend opening night.

Tickets to the performances at 8 p.m. Friday, July 24 and 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, July 25, are $18 general, $15 youth, seniors and alumni, and $10 for CSUEB students with I.D. They may be reserved at http://class.csueastbay.edu/theatre/Ticket_Reservations.php or at 510-885-3118.

This is your chance to see an all-new play, and meet an amazing figure from a past most of us could hardly guess.

http://class.csueastbay.edu/news/almondtoweb.pdf

Kate with her Michael Jackson Ceremony Ticket!

So Kate went down to the Staples Center the day before the Michael Jackson ceremony to pick up her ticket - in the form of a gold-colored wristband. Here she is showing off the artifact. (Which will presumably end up on eBay someday.)

She said the pickup was a well-organized drivethru, rather than making you find parking and stand in a line. Her pix of the dealio are on her Facebook page (Kate McCarthy, if you're a Friend).

Twitter is for Dogs

(Courtesy of Bill Machrone)

I was talking with my dog the other day. He said, "The owner of Rascal, the Jack Russell on the next block has Twitter. Can you help me send him a message?"

I agreed, of course, knowing how his paws were ill-adapted to the keyboard.

"Sure, what do you want to say?"

"Woof woof woof woof
woof woof woof woof
woof woof woof woof
woof woof woof
woof woof woof
woof woof woof woof
woof woof woof woof."

"That's 130 characters. Did you want to add another woof or two?"

He looked at me strangely. "But that wouldn't make any sense."

My Kid's Going to the Michael Jackson Circus!

Handing out the tickets. Image by Getty Images via Daylife

My kid, Kate, who lives in LA and is The Luckiest Person in the World, won a pair of tickets to go to the Michael Jackson memorial in LA tomorrow!

The gold tickets are much coveted, as you can imagine in light of the hysterical media coverage following Jackson's recent death. How lucky is Kate? Let's put it this way: There were 8,000 pairs of tickets offered; 1.5 million people applied.

The Luckiest Person said she would not be scalping her tickets, but will attend tomorrow instead -- this is one of those events that, many years from now, you can still talk about. And she'll take pictures, because twenty years from now, it will be like Woodstock: The number of people who claim to have attended will greatly exceed the population of the LA basin.

I told her to be sure to Twitter the event while there; and blog it after, with lots of pics -- this will generate more followers and traffic for her than anything else she could hope to do. And she'll send me some of her happy snaps; when I post them to my blog, I'll get a lift too!

Weird world!

Mr. Deity Complains about The Book

Image via Wikipedia

This latest episode of the funny Mr Deity web show has Himself complaining about how bad he looks in The Bible.

Funny, mean, true. Love it!

(Mr Deity is a satirical series about goings-on at God's HQ; hard to describe, easy to enjoy! Highly recommended. Here's a snippet from the Wikipedia entry: "...A series of short comedy films about God surveying the universe with his assistant. The first episode, called Mr Deity and the Evil, features only Dalton and his friend, cinematographer Jimbo Marshall, making decisions about what evils to allow.")

mac

Mark Mason Dazzles Fellow Magicians

Mark Mason demonstrated his magic prowess to members of the Society of American Magicians, Assembly 112 (Diablo Chapter, SF Bay Area, CA) in June at a special lecture sponsored by the Assembly at the California Magic showplace in Martinez, and he dazzled, delighted, charmed, and amused us – and knocked us over with amazing trick after eye-popping trick. And then he knocked us over again showing the magicians how each trick is done.

Among the amazing effects he showed, and then explained, were his Ace of Hearts; the Think-of-a-Card trick; the signed card in the shoe; Blind Spot, a wowser in which he transferred a coin from his hand into a soda bottle; and a bit where he placed a card between two other cards that had large holes cut in their center, so the sandwiched card could be seen; a flick of his wrist, and the sandwiched card—disappeared, right in front of our eyes! The trick was amazing – and his demonstration of how he did it was even more amazing!

There were more clever gimmicks and astonishing bits of magical imagination stuffed into one two-hour evening than you can imagine. It was very worth the $20 ticket price (and for your correspondent, the 45-minute drive through rush-hour traffic!).

SAM112 sponsored the lecture, and while we got a decent crowd and broke even financially, we were disappointed that more members didn't take advantage of this rare opportunity to learn at the hands of a real master. Mason was not only informative, delighting in showing his clever gimmicked coins and cards to an appreciative audience of magicians – he was also witty and entertaining. Members should try harder to make time for these lecture events, as they are all top-quality evenings, vetted by Dr. P and guaranteed to be worthwhile.

Mark showed another effect using a unique method of holding a coin hidden in the hand, using a crooked thumb. He showed an adaptation of Ben Harris' Fandango involving flicking a card through a cut deck just as it is being put back together.

Mark's Double Deception uses a unique form of coin clipper; in performance, he has two audience members hold open a silk between them, drops a pair of coins into the center, reaches under the silk, and yanks – the pair of coins in the silk instantly becomes a single coin, and Mark shows the second coin which he magically "pulled" through the silk. He demonstrated "Perfect," with a very unusual gimmicked deck of cards that manages to turn up a "2" card every time, though when spread out on the table the deck seems perfectly normal.

His flair for adding his own twists to classics was obvious when Mark did the torn-and-restored newspaper gag—but instead of tearing up a newspaper in front of us, he started with bits of torn newspaper sticking out of various parts of his outfit—put them together one by one, apparently just reading off funny headlines from each one – then restored the stack of torn papers and surprised the audience.

He also did an interesting twist on "Pocket Money," where he displayed six coins, each a different size and from a different country, had an audience member choose one, then put all six into his pocket, only to find, when he took the coins out one by one, that the one he had selected was now missing—from his own pocket!

Mark did his amazing Come Fly With Me, a sleight of hand in which he appeared to transfer three coins back and forth between his wide-spread hands. He finished up his wow performance with Cardiograph, where he shows three cards, signs one, has an audience member sign another, then somehow both signatures end up on the same card – which the audience member had been holding down on the tabletop the whole time.

Mark offered for sale DVDs and packaged versions of most of his tricks, including a truly baffling one involving a card that ends up inside an empty card box sitting to the side on a table. (His material, including DVDs detailing many effects, is available at http://www.jbtvusa.com.) It was a satisfying evening of magical performance and education, evidenced by the many exclamations of astonishment by our members during the evening. Thanks to Mark Mason for coming by, to Dr. P for persuading him, and to Gerry for the use of California Magic's facility for the evening.

Are Tweets and Facebook updates telling burglars when to strike?

Sam Diaz blogs on ZDNet: "The burglary of an Arizona video editor made headlines because he thinks that his Facebook and Twitter update habits may have led to it. He not only told his network of social media friends that he was going out of town but also shared some adventures of his road trip."

READ FULL BLOG

Personally, I find this a very plausible scenario -- It can be like putting up a sign on your front door, "We are out!" It's like the old stories of people who go on cruises only to return to a burgled house, thanks to tipsters at the docks selling to gangs info about who's just headed off on a cruise and won't be home for a week!

Fair warning, folks!

Digital TV Conversion Disaster Still To Come: USING Is CONFUSING!

All the info you hear and read about the analog-to-digital television conversion taking place this weekend consists of how to hook up an analog-to-digital converter, if you need one, and the fact that you will have to rescan your channels after the changeover.


Just one problem: As anybody who is using an antenna-based TV by now knows, you have an additional problem once you've converted: The actual use of your TV is now very different.

This is completely ignored. Not surprising, because everything is apparently written by engineers, who are very interested in technical details and not at all interested in the user experience.

What I mean is this: The favorite channel of my mother-in-law, who is Chinese, is channel 26, which in San Francisco is the Chinese network (in the evenings). She knows how to enter "26" into the clicker to get there.

Since she uses a rooftop antenna, we got her a converter box and scanned the channels. But now, instead of Channel '26,' she has Channels '26-1', '26-2', and '26-3'. Only '26-3' is her regular Chinese channel; the others are other channels, not identified, and not familiar.

So we bought her a new digital TV--and got the same results. Now we have to teach my mother-in-law to enter "26" and then click the 'Channel Up" button twice (or press '26' - 'dash' - '3' -- with the "dash" being represented, intuitively, by the "100" button on the clicker).

Did you know that? Not if your information comes from the voluminous propaganda about this conversion. Because nobody has bothered to mention it. You'll be surprised! Woo hoo!

Similarly, she now has channels 2-1, 2-2, and 2-3, 3-1, 3-2, and 3-3, 4-1 and etc. Some of these are the still-continuing analog channel (which will go away), the new digital channel for that station, and an HD channel if that station has one. But in many cases, the extra channels are random other channels I never heard of, don't recognize, and don't know what they are supposed to be: There are all-news channels I don't recognize, all-weather channels I don't recognize, and just channels that are unexplained and unidentified.

Naturally, none of this is in the newspaper TV listings. Less naturally, all this comes as a complete and puzzling surprise because it is not mentioned in any way in the documentation for the TV or in any newspaper articles about the conversion, or on DTVAnswers.com or any other Web site on the topic that I've been able to find.

Everyone is worried about those 2 million Americans who haven't converted yet, but what about the additional Americans who have converted but will be faced with this odd system with nobody in authority seeming to be aware of it? I guess all the "experts" on this topic get Cable, which doesn't have this mixed-channels problem.

Can anybody tell me where info about this is published? Can anybody explain why the widely distributed discussions about the conversion completely ignore this interface problem? Is it really that the experts all have cable and are talking entirely theoretically but haven't actually *used* the systems they're explaining? Or is it really that the engineer mentality causes everyone to ignore the customer experience?

Or is this published everywhere and I have somehow entered an info-free zone?

I've got a dollar that says that starting Monday, June 15, our info channels will be filled with belated info about what the heck all those extra channels are. And while they're at it, maybe they can explain to my mother-in-law how to arrange it so she can just type in "26" and get her TV channel again!

Irritatedly yours,

Mac McCarthy

Debunking "Mars Big as the Moon in the Sky!" Email Spam!

Image via Wikipedia

The excellent Bad Astronomy blog in Discover magazine posts this week about the notorious email spam that asserts (from time to time) that Mars is coming so close to the Earth in its orbit that later this year it will "appear" to be as big as the Moon appears.

Yes; as big-seeming as the Moon seems in the sky. That would be something!

If it were true. But it's not even close to being true.

As astronomer Phil Plait explains in his blog, "I tire of debunking this every freaking year, so just read this post from last year, or from 2007, or 2006, or 2005, or 2003, when this evil viral thing got started by someone who I hope is now covered with a copious slathering of honey and ensconced in the ground near a fire ant mound, preferably surrounded by quicksand, a tar pit, and a bunch of TV sets all tuned to the Oprah show."

Geez, he's been countering this thing for five years. And it won't die.

Pity the rationalist.

He also mentions the amusing series going on in the comic strip NonSequitur on the same subject....

Image via Wikipedia

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• Mars Hoax Circulates: 'Big as the Moon!' (space.com)

Do Education and Science Cause Atheism?

From an article on Atheism on the CreationWiki, a Creationist version of the Wikipedia:

"...A Gallup poll found a clear trend demonstrating that higher education and belief in evolution as the source of human existence were concurrent. From these statistics it would appear that higher education, and particularly specialization in the natural sciences, will indoctrinate students into naturalism or an atheistic view of the world."

Wow.

How about another conclusion: The more educated you are -- the more you learn -- and especially the more you learn about the world around you from scientific study -- the more you realize that evolution makes sense. And the more obvious it becomes, if you happen to think about it, that most religious beliefs are Stone-Age superstitions with no compelling arguments on their behalf.

The article also emphasizes the very large percentage of scientists who are atheists or secularists (have no religious commitments) or, as they refer to science, "believers in naturalism" rather than religious explanations of the world. Their argument is that education in science includes "indoctrinating" students.

More plausibly (to me), the more you learn about the world around you, the more likely you are to drift away from religious explanations of that world. Because you find the naturalist explanation and view more reasonable, more rational, and more sensible. Sooner or later, you become unable to deny your observation of the stone-age superstitious underpinnings of mainstream religions, because you just know better. And that is why you lose your religion--you've got a better explanation--not because of propaganda or indoctrination or even social pressure -- considering that most atheists in the USA are quite reluctant to openly express themselves on the topic because of the irrational hostility you are likely to provoke from random quarters.

People are so strange....

A Love Letter to Klutz Press, Who Inspired the First Dummies Book!

Image by lazytom via Flickr

Dear Folks at Klutz!

Ran across your site today and it reminded me to tell you how your first book, Juggling for the Complete Klutz, inspired the first in the bestselling tutorial series of all publishing history: DOS for Dummies.

I was founding editor of IDG Books, back in 1991, and needed an idea for a beginner series of books for computer users. Long story short: My uncle suggested the title to me, and because years earlier I had bought a copy of Juggling for the Complete Klutz (complete with two red juggling sacks)(although I never learned to juggle, darn it!), I was prepared mentally and morally to listen to and act on my uncle Hugh's suggestion.

Your book, and the VW Repair book with a similar title (can't remember exactly: VW Repair for hte nonmechanical? No, something snappier. But aimed at the same audience) inspired me to follow up on the idea, and we took DOS for Dummies in one year to become the alltime bestselling computer book. The series produced a dozen million-sellers, and eventually hit nearly 500 titles before being pruned back recently to a more reasonable number by new owners.

If I hadn't seen and bought the Klutz book (and the VW repair book), I might very well not have recognized my uncle's title idea for the genius that it was. In fact, in later years I found that the phrase "DOS for Dummies" was a joke insider title among longtime publishers for beginner computer books – and it certainly never would have occurred to them to actually publish a book with a name like that. But that's because they were too close to it, and didn't really understand their audience. Luckily, I had come from outside the computer-book-publishing industry and wasn't smart enough not to do something that dumb.

But I always remembered the Klutz book that helped make it possible for me to *see the possibilities*! And for that, I – and millions of happy book buyers for the past 15 years – owe YOU a big THANKS!

Best regards,

Michael "Mac" McCarthy

Screenwriting versus other forms of writing

"But screenwriting isn't about words. It's about the beauty of the unspoken. That's cinema. Words are just the terse transcript of the visuals and sounds that will appear onscreen. Screenplays are sonnets, and [you've] writing the Illiad. Both forms are valid, but not interchangeable. "

--Kate McCarthy, Culver City, May 2009

How I Got Started in the Writing/Journalism Game

I'm not one of those who wanted to be a writer since he was 8. I didn't even think about writing until I was in the Army, in a clerk job, stationed in Frankfurt, Germany, and it came close to time to get out. I wanted to stay an extra year there, and I was an avid reader of the weekly GI scandal Rag, The Overseas Weekly. And that's where I got my start in journalism.

[I'm sure this is less than fascinating to all of you, but it's my life, and I think it's mesmerizing!]

I started by pitching the idea for a weekly grab-bag column of oddities--curious facts, interesting quotes from the news, and notes about when US bands were coming to town. The editor said, bring back 3 samples -- which, it turns out, was his stock answer to the many who came by pitching column ideas.

Apparently none of them ever came back: They quickly found that the first column was easy to write, the second column was hard, and the third impossible; so they would give it up. I, on the other hand, came back a week later with 12 finished columns. The editor was so surprised, he hired me.

After a couple of months I got a job there as a reporter too, covering courts martials. When the headquarters shifted to Oakland, CA, I moved there and got an editor gig.

But this was the 70s, and when the paper folded, journalism jobs were hard to find; I didn't have a degree, the Jschools after Watergate were spewing out graduates, and a major recession had just started in the mid-70s. I freelanced, and worked as a Kelly Girl, until the early 80s, writing ad copy, radio commercials, business proposals, and a feature story about dedicated word processors, which I managed to re-sell to the SF Examiner, the Arizona somethng, and a paper in Alaska that never paid me. Working as a Kelly Girl kept me alive, as freelance work was still scarce.

I ended up at Osborne Computers, first writing training scripts for the sales team, then working on the documentation team -- I wrote Wordstar and a Supercalc documentation for the Osborne 2 - the one that never sold, ya know. When Osborne collapsed, I ended up working for Adam on his Paperback Software project, documentation again. Our doc team them moved en masse to Dysan, which was publishing software on its new 3-inch (not 3.5 inch) floppy disk format in competition with Sony's 3.5-inch version. I continued to write freelance, including a history of spreadsheets for Personal Computer.

Then in a stroke of luck I got the News Editor job at a weekly computer trade journal called InfoWorld, and it's been downhill ever since! I spent 14 years at IDG, the mother company, as head of Reviews for InfoWorld (when its reviews were famous and influential), became founding Editor of IDG Books, where I dreamed up DOS for Dummies and hired Dan Gookin to write it -- and found out he had already had the same idea and had it rejected by all the other publishers already. Later I was editor of SunWorld, then when the Unix mags all folded, I founded WPI (Web Publishing Inc.) and made SunWorld into an online-only pub -- the first commercial online-only computer publication in the US.

I've fiddled around in journalism, especially online, ever since.

Newest Nigerian Scam uses FBI!

A friend and I used to collect those Nigerian Scam emails -- you know, the ones that said they were from the wife of an imprisoned or executed or exiled Nigerian government or bank official, and needed to get millions out of the country, with your help, and away from the oppressive Nigerian regime, etc, so contact them, they will give you 20% of $10 million or so. 

The scammers, who initially at least were from Nigeria (thus the name), shifted to other identities over the years, succeeding in finding idiots with more greed than sense, despite the stupidity of their pitch. I've gotten tired of them, but this one that came in my email box this morning was a novelty: It purports to be from "FBI Director Robert S.Mueller" (with a supposed email address of "fbi.robertmueller@sbcglobal.net" but a 'reply-to' of somebody called "elvinwilliams17@sify.com".

The subject line is a good one: "Approved By FBI". Isn't that rich?

Here is the somewhat confused message, for your entertainment. I like how it warns you against *other* scam artists!

Attn: Beneficiary,

This is to Officially inform you that it has come to our notice and we have thoroughly Investigated with the help of our Intelligence Monitoring Network System that you are having an illegal Transaction with Impostors claiming to be Prof. Charles C. Soludo of the Central Bank Of Nigeria, Mr. Patrick Aziza, Mr Frank Nweke, none officials of Oceanic Bank, Zenith Banks, kelvin Young of HSBC, Ben of Fedex,Ibrahim Sule,Larry Christopher, Puppy Scammers are impostors claiming to be the Federal Bureau Of Investigation. During our Investigation, we noticed that the reason why you have not received your payment is because you have not fulfilled your Financial Obligation given to you in respect of your Contract/Inheritance Payment.

Therefore, we have contacted the Federal Ministry Of Finance on your behalf and they have brought a solution to your problem by cordinating your payment in total USD$10.5million in an ATM CARD which you can use to  withdraw money from any ATM MACHINE CENTER anywhere in the world with a maximum of $10000 United States Dollars daily. You now have the lawful right to claim your fund in an ATM CARD.

Since the Federal Bureau of Investigation is involved in this transaction, you have to be rest assured for this is 100% risk free it is our duty to protect the American Citizens. All I want you to do is to  contact the ATM CARD CENTER via email for their requirements to proceed and procure your Approval Slip on your behalf which will cost you $570 only and note that your Approval Slip which contains details of the agent who will process your transaction.

CONTACT INFORMATION
NAME: Kelvin Williams
EMAIL:

Do contact Mr. Kelvin Williams of the ATM CARD CENTRE with your details:

FULL NAME:
HOME ADDRESS:
TELL:
CELL:
CURRENT OCCUPATION:
BANK NAME:

So your files would be updated after which he will send the payment informations which you'll use in making payment of $570 via Western Union Money Transfer or Money Gram Transfer for the procurement of your Approval Slip after which the delivery of your ATM CARD will be effected to your designated home address without any further delay. Please if you know you cannot be able to afford the $570 for the delivery of your ATM card via FedEx then do not bother to contact Mr. Kelvin Williams as we are at the End of the year and he should be busy with some other things.

We order you get back to this office after you have contacted the ATM SWIFT CARD CENTER and we do await your response so we can move on with our Investigation and make sure your ATM SWIFT CARD gets to you.

Thanks and hope to read from you soon.

FBI Director Robert S.Mueller III.

Note: Do disregard any email you get from any impostors or offices claiming to be in possesion of your ATM CARD, you are hereby adviced only to be in contact with Mr. Kelvin Williams of the ATM CARD CENTRE who is the rightful person to deal with in regards to your ATM CARD PAYMENT and forward any emails you get from impostors to this office so we could act upon and commence investigation.

Panic!/Don't Panic!

It's hard covering something like a swine-flu outbreak turning into a pandemic that could reprise 1918 (the epidemic in which my great-uncle, the youngest graduate ever from the Philadelphia medical school, died assisting patients) -- or could turn out to be a big nothing.

So: Have it both ways!

Here is the front page of The Hayward (CA) Review's Morning Report, April 30, 2009:

Big headline to first article above the fold: "Warning: Pandemic imminent"

Smaller headline on second story, below the fold: "Local officials urge public: 'Don't panic' "

Heck, why panic? It's just a PANDEMIC!

"Taking the Resistance Out of Drug-Resistant Infections"

Taking the Resistance Out of Drug-Resistant Infections
April 10th, 2009 By Mick Kulikowski
(PhysOrg.com) -- It started out as a research project focused on getting rid of harmful bacterial accumulations called biofilms. Now it has the potential to make conventional antibiotics work against stubborn, drug-resistant bacteria.

See story at http://www.physorg.com/news158594722.html about how studying how simple sponges in the ocean can keep themselves bacteria-free may lead to new ways to knock out the biggest threat to our future health.

Just can't get good gas mileage, can you?

Well, we *tried* to go the speed limit enroute from San Francisco to LA -- but that big, wide open Route 5 down the middle of the state frowns on you when you do that.

Doing 80 you feel like you're just cruising along slowly. Go 65 and you feel like you could open the door, step outside, walk around the car, and get back inside without having to hurry much.

So we did 70, and 75, and 80 (except inside LA, where you do whatever everybody else is doing, or risk your car!). 

And we got around 20mpg. Worse, to my surprise, than when we were coming in from Death Valley at 80. 

Baffling.

Thank goodness gasoline prices have dropped in half, or we'll never be able to drive around the country. Not that we'll be doing that this year (2009), until our savings have recovered. If they recover.

Close Call in the Fast Lane

As we were coming back, up Route 5, which is two lanes in each direction and mostly very straight and open, Bernice, driving, notices something up ahead, in the fast lane, where she is. She slows, suspiciously. And a good thing: It's a small car stopped in the fast lane.

You know how you react in a situation like that -- You want to veer over into the righthand lane, but you haven't been paying close attention the last 125 miles, so you don't know if somebody has crept up on you and is sitting in your blind spot. So you slow down, check your rearview mirror and your right side, tap the brakes repeatedly to warn people something is up, and finally move to the right. And hope you do it fast enough not to crash into the guy parked in the fast lane.

Bernice managed to do that, thank goodness, and as we flew by, we saw the driver get out of the car.

Note that the car didn't have any emergency lights on or anything. Why he hadn't managed to limp over to the left breakdown lane I can't imagine -- it's only two lanes, no matter how abruptly he lost power he would have been able to drift to the side one way or the other. And no emergency lights either! What on Earth was going on?

We woosh by and that remains a mystery forever for us now. I called 911 on my cell phone, and thank goodness I get them, even though we're in the middle of the California Central Valley. 911 Emergency wants to know the type and color of the car. Heh. Don't know -- it's the only car parked in the fast lane northbound just above whatever that last exit was (I knew then, I forget now). 

Wow. No fun. Bernice just kept saying, What if it had been at night? And he didn't have his lights on? I would have plowed right into him, at 80!

Not a fun experience!

TO LA to visit Kate

We'll be driving down to Los Angeles (from our home in San Francisco) to visit our older daughter, Kate, who lives in Culver City, for just a few days. 

Kate's working on her short-film script, Hollywood Bandits, from a notion I suggesed to her, and it's looking very good -- she's really enormously gifted at storytelling and creating interesting characters from a mere notion. I hope she'll be able to shoot this as a short and submit it to the festivals. She's so good -- her USC student films were the best you've ever seen. 

While we're driving down, I'll try to keep the RAV4 at a steady 65 or 68, see how the fuel use reacts -- we got 24 mpg coming in from Death Valley, but we were closer to 70 the whole way, so I want to see if even a few mph lower will help lower fuel use. 

If it matters, that will be an incentive to drive slower when, in a couple of years, we revive our plan to drive all over the country. 

If it has no significant effect, then we know we can do 68 or 72 when permitted without worrying about wasting gas.

Good recent quotes: "You Gotta Give 'Em Hope!"

"You gotta give 'em HOPE!"

-Harvey Milk

--

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

-Robert A. Heinlein

---

"Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate"

The Italian of Dante's inscription over the gates of Hell: 'Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.'

---

'Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.' 

Philip K. Dick (1928 - 1982) "How to Build a Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later" 1978.

---

"...On display were new works by KAWS (government name Brian Donnelly)..."

Chris Lee, LA Times article on opening of artist KAWS exhibit in Culver City, Feb 24, 2009. "Government name" -- that's good!

Google Latitude's Real Best Feature: It's a free GPS

Google's new location feature for cell phones, Latitude, has been getting lots of press, good and bad.

Because one of its features--the one they talk about most--is that you can invite friends to know where you (or your cell phone) are at, exactly, I've seen a number of the usual "my privacy is being invaded--arrrgh!" blog postings. Idiots. You can choose who to let know where you are, how accurately they find you, and you can turn it off selectively any time you want. Sheesh.

But the "find a friend" function, for all the publicity, is not the Cool Feature. Latitude is --> a free GPS on your cell phone! Its most widely useful (but non-Social Web2) feature is, no doubt about it, the fact that it will give you turn-by-turn instructions (with map if you like) to any destination on Google Maps. For free.

It works with any smart phone -- mine is a nearly obsolete Palm Centro -- and your phone does NOT have to have GPS features enabled! Google Latitude uses 'cell-tower triangulation,' rather than GPS satellites, to figure out where your phone is. 

It's not the most feature-filled GPS -- no voice speaking turns aloud, and the accuracy of the location feature is less than that of a GPS satellite -- but - did I mention it's free? And you don't have to have carry around a second device.

This is a *great* light-duty GPS-in-your-Cell Phone product. Free. (Except you have to have data services enabled on your cell phone, so you'll pay data charges if you use it heavily.)

I personally like it plenty!

mac