Gunna reuse this title cuz it fits. Pretty nice group of soulful music all around.

Greyboy - Soul Mosaic
Various - Blue Note Revisited
Boozoo Bajou - Satta!

Saw it tonight and thought it was pretty blah. The beginning was really lame and not funny at all. Once the story gets going and the characters have more of a purpose then it becomes a bit better. No comparison to the original though.

** Side note. Not sure why, but Cameron Diaz voice behind the female orge character just really doesn't jive with me. I found myself constantly annoyed by this throughout the film.

I actually finished this before my Australia trip, but didn't write anything. Anyways, this was a very good little series. It falls under that category of anime called "Everything is a metaphor for the meaning of life." Honestly though, this is another pretty heavy anime, much like "Now and Then, Here and There" it presents a whole string of themes about the cycle of life and figuring out where you fit in.

I thought the whole concept of the town and the Haibane and everything was very slick and really made for an interesting setting. As is becoming a bit of a trend, I actually thought the ending would be a bit more tidy and wrap up more of the storyline. We do have a climax and resolution at the end of the series, but I guess I just imagined things would end in a different time and place.

All in all it's a very well done anime and totally worth watching. plus it's a short 13 episode series.

-- AG

Finally on the dvd writing bandwagon. I've had this item researched and on the buy list basically since the beginning of the year or around there whenever it came out, but for one reason or another I didn't get it until now.

I was most happy about the fact that I simply powered down, unplugged my old cd writer, plugged in the new dvd writer, power on, and everything worked! No drivers, moduled, options, settings, configs, etc, blah. So far I know that cd and dvd playback works, as well as cd writing. I haven't burned a dvd yet, soon enough though.

I now have an actual backup option ... sigh.

-- AG

From a fortune cookie ...

"Not to engage in the pursuit of ideas is to live like ants instead of like men."

Got this off the drawing board some time ago and wanted to put it here. I need to read this like *every* day.

!! --

Don't be afraid to sketch in public places such as museums, parks, restaurants, etc. And don't let wind, .rain or cold or heat deter you --those conditions sometimes yield the best sketching. Let someone else drive when travelling so you can draw. Capturing a scene while moving at.high speed will sharpen your eye. But also take time to do a more detailed sketch. First draw a rectangle and work within that to force yourself to make a composition, relating one thing to another and to the borders. If you feel a need for toning the sketches, use cross hatch or carry a couple of gray felt tip pens. Get in the habit of using a pen. It is much more direct and does not rub off like a soft pencil. Sketch at home too. Never sit in front of the t.v. without a sketch pad on your lap. Sketch faces, figures, stage settings. If your dog or cat is lying on the floor nearby, sketch them. Sports events are especially fun to sketch --boxing matches, football games, etc.
You may shun landscapes --saying that you are interested only in figures or cartoons, but trees and mountains, rivers and clouds have gestures that can be beneficial for analyzing action. Mountains stand erect, lean, lie down, sprawl, spill out onto valleys in alluvial forms. Trees loom, twist in agonized or humorous gestures; they stand erect,. stretch, lean; some are tired, some perky, some bear fruit or flower, wbich in itself is a gesture. Even the atmosphere of a landscape has a (spatial)
gesture.

Vehicles have gestures of their own. Some cars seem to slink along, some move proudly. Some are raised way up on springs --look like they're holding up their skirts so they can cross a stream. Special equipment like skip-loaders and semis and .derricks and delivery trucks --all doing their own thing. They're as different from each other as a farmer is from an office worker; or a military man is from a hobo. Don't sketch vehicles as if you were doing a Ford ad --go for their personalities, their gesture. Sketching can not only be fun, but it will help you master those blank sheets of paper you're going to be spending the rest of your life battling.
People usually do what they are in the habit of doing. That may seem like an obvious thing to say, but it is significant in a number of ways. Arguing in its favor, it is a comfortable way of living. There are a minimum of decisions that require attention, and hopefully the things you are in the habit of doing and the
manner in which you do them are compatible with your idea of the '.ideal'. life. And if you're studying to be a concert pianist or
a rock band drummer or a pro-tennis player, you had better submit to some rigorous habit forming --such as hours and hours of
practice.

Arguments against forming daily habits that guide you
through life without having make any new choices are quite
numerous, The old adage "use it or lose it" is applicable here.
If one has formed pretty solid days worth of habits that carry
him through the days and months and years --he is going to grow smaller and smaller as age sets and the more habitual he is the
sooner age will set in.
Someone said, "Change will help keep the balance sheets in order," or something like that. We're not talking change for the
sake of change --but for improvement. For expanding the consciousness; for an ever fresh and open-minded attitude to your piece of the universe. Habits are a blessing when they relieve us of the burden of having to relearn everything we do every day. But if they lead us down the narrowing road of complacency, they
become a drag.
.4
.
That great teacher and the great guy, T. Hee, told his students to be like a sponge --soak up all the knowledge and information you can. Never allow yourself to get into a self- . satisfied or complacent state. He advised never to drive home from work by the same streets twice. Take alternate routes --
observe the new houses, trees, gardens, etc., and don't just
drive by them --look at them, ~ them. When walking along a sidewalk, look into the store windows, not just a glance, but a good look, to see what's there -the set up, the merchandise, the signs. Sketch it in the mind's eye. Observe passers by. Notice their walks, their postures, their rhythms --look for their history on their faces. Observe, observe, observe. And of course there is no better way to observe than to carry a sketch
book with you wherever you go.
Whether your heart is set on the fine arts or on animation, quick sketching is the shortest route to training yourself for capturing those spontaneous gestures and poses that are so essential to good drawing. Break one of your bad habits today.
Which one? The habit of not sketching.
Also relative to drawing is the sharpening of your sense of dramatics and humor and of science and psychology. What are your
reading habits? If they are narrow and limited, make a
determined effort to expand them. Read a book on acting. Read a
mystery; read a book on the life of pissarro. Have a few books
of New Yorker cartoons in your library. Read Van Gogh' s "Dear Theo". Read a few self-improvement books. Call 244-2816 once in
awhile.

Listen to some jazz, some symphony, a string quintet, some country music. Stop everything and just listen. There are some delightful irish and scottish recordings. Feel the leaves of a sycamore tree, a wad of cotton, a piece of sandpaper. Pick up a stone from the beach or from the mountains and fondle it. See if it has a message for you. Notice its color and texture --imagine doing an abstract painting of it, or actually do it. Sharpen your senses in all ways. Life will open up its vistas of adventure and courage and venture someness. Then when you make a sketch you will feel an authoritative confidence flow into it. It will have the rhythms of the music you have heard, the drama of the books you have read, and the tactile influence of all the
things you have touched.
Sounds like a dream? No way! You have been given all these things --these possibilities, and for the small price of a few
new habits ...who knows

I was a bit suprised by this one based on the lackluster reviews I had been getting from people. I guess I can understand why many ppl thought it was just okay, but aside from the first 20 mins or so I would say this was a very enjoyable film. I give big bonus points for the fact that it had an epic feel and didn't rush the story for the "benefit" of an impatient audience.

The beginning was quite rushed and had me a bit worried, but once the Greeks set out for Troy then everything falls into place and we get to enjoy seeing battle after battle as the Trojan war takes place. So with a little patience I believe this film is more rewarding that watching say ... Gladiator. My opinion anyways.

-- AG

From the autobiography "Roses and Buckshot" by illustrator James Montgomery Flagg

ART CAN'T BE TAUGHT
by James Montgomery Flagg
1938

There are no art teachers. Art cannot be taught.

Artists are born that way. They educate themselves, or else they do not become educated.
The pressure of tradition is so strong that young artists succumb automatically to the universal routing of going to art school. The gigantic ignorance of the public- which includes misguided and innocent-minded school boards and schools- is equally absurd. The feverish communistic urge of the moment, which seems to be taken at it's face value, of forcing millions of school children to "study art," fitted or unfitted (overwhelmingly the latter) is a crime against art itself.

The standard of creative art has been so lowered and debased since the "Nude Descending the Staircase" that illogically and inevitably it has become in the alleged mind of the public a minor trade into which hordes of it's offspring can be shoveled with a forlorn hope that they can make a living in that racket if other similar jobs are overcrowded.

I happen to have been born an artist. Ask anyone who doesn't know. I wasted six years of my life in art schools. As far as any benefit accruing to me from them- I was working on the outside all the time, anyway. Nothing but total disability or death could have stopped me. I had to be an artist- I was born that way. Such a pity!

But I heard about art schools- about Paris ateliers- there was propaganda I was too young to resist. So I went. I didn't take them very seriously. When the hired "master" had gotten within two seats of mine, I rose and went out and smoked a cigarette until he had passed my drawing- on an upturned chair. I didn't like to have him ruin my drawing with his silly mechanical marks. I had to teach myself. All artists have to. Egotists? Sure. Not conceited. Entirely different thing.
You can't breed an artist. You can only breed mediocrity. And how they are breeding it! I have weakly acquiesced to demands to be a judge of kid's posters, etc.- believe me, there isn't a potential in the carload! I have no patience with "pretty good" artists- like the curates egg. The artist and the artisan are confused in the world's mind. An artist is a creative monster. Who can have the effrontery to claim to have taught Velasquez, Michelangelo, Phidias, Da Vinci, Rembrant, Correggio, El Greco, Reaburn, Sargent?- to name a few of the "big shots." Or, in other angles of art, who taught Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Brahms? Who? Who taught Homer, Voltaire, Shakespeare, Dickens, Poe, Emerson?

Who?

Saturday morning was A.J.'s high school graduation, so congrats to him on finishing that up and moving on to the next step in life.

I remember feeling that my high school graduation was not really an accomplishment because it was something that everyone had to do. I felt that just graduating wasn't showing that I had gone above and beyond, and I remember resenting the fact that school was easy for me so I never really got a sense of accomplishment out of it.

Looking back now I would say that my attitude was at least slightly unjustified. High school certainly wasn't an accomplishment scholastically, at least not for me, but I think you can't realize until you're older that it definitely is a milestone in your development as a person. And perhaps its not the fact that you graduated that makes it an accomplishment, but rather the experiences that you take from it that make it so momentous. Never underestimate the importance of any experience ... that's what I say.

And as a side note ... I think I should be a graduation speaker, because the boneheads they pick now must have zero understanding of their audience. Of course maybe it's just a curse and all graduation speeches are doomed to boredom.

-- Al G

On to the main event ... 1 month of travel in Australia featuring Melbourne (pronounced Melbun), Hatch & Jane, the Great Ocean Road, the Grampians, Adelaide, Damo & the Adventure Tours gang, Uluru, King's Canyon, Coober Pedy, Parachilna, 2200 miles of nothing, and Perth.

I find it a bit amusing that I barely consider this trip "travelling" because if its short length, however almost nobody that I know at home goes on trips longer than 2 weeks ... :)

So this time it was just me, Chels, and Jacks bummin' around Australia with some rucksacks. We saw tons of great sites and met so many great people ... special love to Hatch&Jane, Rachel, Sue, Helle, Martin, Ulrich(spelling?), Anna, Sally, Jemma, Sabina, Jean-marc, Liza, Sarah, Bert, Damo, Tiffany, Amy, and good 'ol Dr. Bala.

Such a blast, can't wait to do it again. Isn't travel the greatest?

-- Allen

!! --

Work in progress ;)

Itinerary:

Apr.21 - leave SJ
Apr.22 - arrive Sydney
Apr.23 - Sydney -> Melbourne via overnight bus
Apr.24-27 - Melbourne
Apr.27-30 - Great Ocean Rd & Grampians
Apr.30 - Adelaide -> Alice Springs via overnight train
May.01 - Alice Springs
May.02-07 - Damo & the Adventure Tours gang do the outback; end in Adelaide
May.07-10 - Adelaide
May.10 - Adelaide -> Perth via plane
May.10-15 - Perth
May.15 - Perth -> Sydney via overnight plane
May.16 - Sydney -> SJ ... arrive back home