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Over Shabbat I finished The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. It was a very good book, although not as strong as the exceptional The Angel's Game. Still, both books are good enough that now that they're back at the library I'm going to buy them. I also tried to read Manon Lescaut on the basis of it being featured in one of the Wimsey mysteries. Got about 1/4 of the way in before deciding enough was enough.
For those who don't usually do Merl Reagle's Sunday Crosswords, or even for those who don't often do crossword puzzles at all, allow me to strongly recommend Merl's instant classics from last week and this week. Do them in order, and do them from the top to the bottom.
This week is Shabbat Shirah, the Sabbath of Song, and as has been my custom these past few years I use this week to take stock of my music-making. Kabbalat Shabbat is fully composed, except for the editing. ( Details behind a cut to keep your friends page short )Pesukei d'Zimrah remains stalled. I'm starting to feel bad again about the prospect that it might never get performed, so once KabShab is done I hope to return to PDZ and get it rolling again. Bible Bystanders is also stalled. That's got better prospects than PDZ, I suppose, so I should get back to it; I have some ideas that I haven't had time to flesh out. And my kids are soon going to be too old to appreciate it. I am not singing. Well, I sing to myself, and I sometimes am shaliach tzibbur, but this year I haven't been taking voice lessons and I'm not in a chorus any more and I'm not in a small group. That sucks. ( Again, cut for length. )And so, my fellow netizens, the State of Andrew's Music is mixed. I'm excited and proud about KabShab; I'm depressed about PDZ, Bystanders, and about not singing.
Over Shabbat I read "People of the Book" by Geraldine Brooks. It's historical fiction, using the real-life story of the Sarajevo Haggaddah as a jumping-off point to visit various periods in (mostly Jewish) history. Very well-written, it paints (so to speak) a series of vivid pictures. But it is a bit of a downer. If I had to summarize, I'd have to quote the Haggaddah. "And thus has it been for our ancestors and for us. Not only once, but in generation after generation there have been those who arose to destroy us." I need something happy-making and uplifting to read next.
The Scarlet Pimpernel. Never read it before. I found it surprisingly readable and enjoyable, even when it was being predictable. And I was on tenterhooks wondering how it would end. The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart. Started off promisingly, reminding me of Eric's Winston Breen books. But after the first third, it got bogged down, formulaic, and ridiculous. I plodded through to the end, but it wasn't worth doing so.
Earlier today, I posted the following on my Facebook feed:
"The Angel's Game" by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, translated by Lucia Graves. You must read this novel. Yes, you. I will say no more because I don't want to spoil it.
I don't want to post an actual review, because I really don't want to spoil it for any of you. But I will say this: I was captivated by Zafón's lush writing. The book is fantastic (in both senses) and for a while I was wondering how long he'd be able to stay balanced on the knife's edge of plausible impossibility -- or is it implausible possibility? In any case, the answer is... well, read the book.
Really. Reserve it at Minuteman right now. Because I want to discuss it with everyone, and I can't until you've read it!
The NYTimes has announced that they will start charging for "frequent" use of the site beginning next year. It will be interesting to see how they walk that balance beam. Print subscribers will continue to get unlimited access (*phew*) but I wonder how they'll handle multiple users from a single subscribing household.
The puzzles aren't reposted yet, so I can't link to them nor can I use them to jog my memory, but I want to capture what I can while I remember it. [The puzzle site always goes down once the Hunt is over, and some time later the puzzles are posted in the official archives, but that intervening downtime is frustrating.] ( Behind a cut for spoilers and length )So, overall impressions? A nicely done hunt. The theme was entertaining and well-executed. For the most part, people seemed to feel that the puzzles were hard but fair. I had a good time. ( Cut, again, for length. )Most importantly, I had a lot of fun. Even when I was feeling frustrated with "The Arena", I was enjoying the camaraderie of my teammates and admiring the elegance of the puzzles. And that's why we do this to ourselves every year. So, until next year, this is 530nm330Hzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, heading for bed.
Not going to bother catching up on LJ. Wed, Jan. 6th, 2010, 03:06 pm
Useful words
Recently, I've found myself reaching for Talmudic terms in conversations with friends and co-workers, because there's no good English equivalent. nafka meenah -- the practical consequence that turns an otherwise academic distinction into a question whose answer matters. (This came up in the discussion of the wording of a rule in a game, where there was an edge case where the interpretation of the rule affected the strategy of play.) kal va-khomer -- if you think it's important in the case we've been discussing, it's even more important in this other case that I'm about to bring up! (This came up in a discussion of turning off write access to a source code branch.) And of course there's the classic machatunnim, who are your child's parents-in-law. Conversely, I had to explain retconning in shul a few weeks ago when it came up in a discussion of the narrative of Judah and Tamar. So now I'm curious: What jargon have you used in a general context because it's the most precise or concise way of explaining something?
No, it isn't. Hitchcock's, I mean. What it is is a silly romp through the Hitchcock oeuvre by four talented actors with a clever choreographer. It plays a lot like The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged). One scene in particular is intensely evocative of Adam's "dry, vomitless" moment. On the other hand, 39 Steps depends in places on the 1970's stereotypical portrayal of gays. (You know what I mean, right? I guess I'd describe it as "simpering effetes" but there must be a better term. Help?) There was so much else going on that was genuinely clever, witty, silly, or funny, and these points ruined the moment for me. Anyway, it won two Tonys and is closing next weekend, so it's water under the Forth Bridge.
Over the last few weeks, on the recommendation of my rabbi, I read Ex-Libris by Ross King. Overall, I enjoyed it. It's a mostly well-written book about books, after all. ( As hahathor might say, I'm a friend to your friends-list. Medium-length review behind the cut. )In sum, this was an entertaining book to read despite its flaws, and I think it would appeal to many of my friends. There's a nice mix of books, codes, science, history, and action.
Tani's question was about the double-slit experiment. The top two pictures are of an unobserved experiment, in which an interference pattern is formed; the bottom pictures have an observer watching each slit, and the resulting pattern is bimodal.
Alissa, earlier today, was pretending to have a son. She then explained that her son is older than she is. I asked how that could possibly be, and she replied: "Every day we put him in a spaceship traveling near the speed of light for an hour until he became older than I am." I didn't bother pointing out that she had the twin paradox backwards, because I was so proud that she remembers the twin paradox. Meanwhile, Tani had a question about... well, here are some photos I just took of the ad-hoc "visual aids" that I made. See if you can guess what his question was about. ( Cut to spare your friends page )
Among other things on our Manhattan day, H and I spent an hour or so at the NYPL, taking in the portrait gallery on the third floor and the "Mapping NYC" and "Candide at 350" exhibits off the lobby. Well worth it, and one thing from the Candide exhibit that struck me was the placard that described some of the early Candide-inspired derivative works as "among the earliest fan fiction." First, how awesome is it that the concept of fanfic is mainstream enough that it can be referenced in this way? Second, it got me wondering what earlier works could be considered fanfic. Was there contemporary fanfic on Shakespeare? Homer? Are midrashim fanfic on the Bible? "Hey, check out this Adam/Lilith slash I found!"
Yesterday, H and I saw the matinee of Fela! on Broadway. ( My review )
As I've mentioned here recently, I'm currently trying to wrap up a bunch of long-open projects. For December, my goal has been to complete composing my setting (for a cappella sextet) of Kabbalat Shabbat, the selection of Psalms and paraliturgical texts that "Welcome the Sabbath". Well, for those who don't follow my hour-by-hour progress on Facebook, this week I finished the basic work on the three remaining movements. (The first movement stops halfway through the chapter, though, so I will probably revisit it.) I have created a real homepage for the project, containing a complete set of mp3s, as performed by my computer synth, and preliminary PDFs for many of the movements. I've got a week left in December to write the missing half-movement and format the score for the new ones. (In many cases the PDF will show everything on a piano reduction, which I need to explicitly split out into the six voices and to which I must add the lyrics.) Lookin' good for meeting my self-imposed deadline.
Sun, Dec. 20th, 2009, 05:05 pm
Asking Dr. LJ
What sources do you use to research whether a given retailer is socially responsible?
Last night, I was reading a book about how one observes Israel Independence Day and stumbled across a beautiful discussion of one of the central prayers of Chanukah. I want to share it, even if it’s a little late. ( Read more... )
Sun, Dec. 13th, 2009, 09:33 pm
Who knew?
According to Wikipedia, the familiar English rendition of "Maoz Tzur" (it can't in all fairness be called a translation) was coauthored by none other than Jastrow of lexicographical fame.
[I just posted this as a comment on another blog, but wanted to also share it with those who read my thoughts here.] As a reader -- not a reader of Kirkus, just a reader of books - as one who is passionate about patronizing local bookstores over Amazon, and about chatting with the local librarians -- I was in shock when I heard the news that Kirkus is ceasing publication. At this once-removed distance, I always thought of Kirkus as how the people on whom I depend to suggest things I would enjoy reading would themselves find out about the hidden gems by little-known (and small-publicity-budgeted) authors. This is a sad day, indeed.
I know that in these tough economic times, people find it hard to get motivated to actually get up off their seat and gather the energy to celebrate the holiday. But somehow I don't think this was the message the local supermarket really intended to share with us: ( Image behind cut to save your bandwidth )
As you may have noticed, I'm trying to wrap up a bunch of my long-standing projects, such as the siddur and my setting of Kabbalat Shabbat, the Psalms and other texts that introduce the Friday night service. ( Moderately lengthy details behind a cut tag to spare your friends page. In the end, though, ... ) I really like the new setting. It's a shade under 2 minutes and here's an MP3 of the computer playing it on the piano. [This recording is missing the incipit Mizmor shir l'yom ha-Shabbat, if you're going to listen to it with the text in front of you. Just be sure the text you use has all the verses.]
Tue, Dec. 1st, 2009, 11:24 pm
7deck update
Played some Sevendeck games tonight with ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) rikchik and some other friends. We refined some of the rules for "Seven and Seven" and renamed "Attack!" as "Monoculture"; we also got some action shots --- excuse me, "action" shots --- which I'll use to update the website. Earlier in the day we placed the production order, which came to 66 decks. That's more than we'd originally expected, so we're quite pleased. Thanks to everyone who ordered; I'll let you know when the printer tells us they've shipped.
Sun, Nov. 29th, 2009, 07:14 pm
Siddur update
So, I've had the galleys for about two weeks now. I've distributed most of them, and feedback is starting to come in. And.... oy. Of course, you always expect there to be more things to fix than you expected, even when you take into account that there will be more things to fix than you expected. But then there are more things to fix than even that. I had been hoping to publish in late January; now I'm hoping by Purim. Looking on the positive side, I have been getting lots of wonderful and useful feedback -- corrections of my errors (both embarrassingly egregious and subtle) and suggestions for improvements that I didn't see. I have been getting encouragement from people I respect to press forward, that I really have created something useful and new and worth the extra effort to make it ready to share more widely.
And there are problems, of course. Some margins got shifted in the imposition step, and some of the colors are not quite what I had expected (CMYK notwithstanding). But I can fix those. And the books feel beautiful. I am very very pleased, even though there's still quite a bit of work ahead.
 You may recall rikchik's post about the "Seven Ordered Suits." Well, now you too can order them. We're almost done with the design work on the Sevendeck, and more information is on our website. We'll be taking pre-orders through the end of November, and placing the production order on 1 Dec.
I want to apologize for the tone of my "lunch with co-workers" post last week. Reading Joel's blog post got me fired up with one of those "Yes! I'm not the only one who feels this is important!" feelings, and I shared while still overenthusiastic at finding a fellow traveler. But I think I came across as smug and know-it-all. I was proselytizing. And, as several of you pointed out here on LJ and over there on FB, I was wrong. So, sorry for those noses that I put out of joint. |
