The voice of Werner Herzog

Some voices are instantly recognizable, whether you hear them on commercials, in animated films, or as voice-over narration for nature documentaries. We were watching an episode of The Simpsons (as usual) when I heard a voice I recognized as Werner Herzog's. I remember vividly first hearing his voice when I saw Les Blank's documentary Burden of Dreams, about the making of Herzog's film Fitzcarraldo (1982). Blank screened the rough cut in the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley, and because I didn't own a TV, and the amazing student price made the PFA was like my second home. I was absolutely fascinated and enthralled by this bit toward the end of the film, in which Herzog says Nature is "not erotical." Gracias a YouTube, I can relive that moment.

Which one do I love more, JGL doing Axl Rose? or Jimmy Fallon doing Bowie?

Coincidence: Jimmy Fallon does a masterful Bowie impression singing "Pumped up Kicks," while Joseph Gordon-Levitt continues to be utterly adorable.

Misheard lyrics: "Faster than my puppy"

The band Foster the People has had a huge hit with the incredibly catchy song "Pumped up Kicks.' We've been listening to it on the car radio and singing along, even though we couldn't really decide what they were singing in the chorus. We got the first part:

All the other kids with the pumped up kicks, they'd better run, better run, faster than....

but then what were they singing? faster than my brother? faster than my puppy? faster than my puppet? What does it sound like to you?




Turns out that the song is really a dark little psychodrama. Ann Powers has a brilliant take on it posted in her NPR blog The Record, where she compares it to The Talking Heads' "Psycho Killer." (but Talking Heads made paranoia a musical style while this is shiny).
I looked up the lyrics, and it's "faster than my bullet."
Note the discussion of the lyrics' meaning in the comments to the lyrics post.

This dubstep remix is great, the dancing is, too.

Goodbye to Facebook, once again.

The first time I tried Facebook, I ended up deleting my account in disgust at the underhanded way the company changed its terms of service. I got back on again because a few dear people communicate that way more than with blogs or Twitter, and I wanted to keep in touch. But, once again, I have deleted ---or "deleted"-- my account because of the untrustworthiness of Facebook. As a Twitter buddy answered instantly when I tweeted that I'd deleted (heh heh), my Facebook account will outlive me. Literally.
In my explorations before I made this decision, I found out about an add-on called Ghostery that can make visible most of the tracking mechanisms you don't even realize are harvesting data from you without your knowledge, and block them if you choose.  This review on CNET gives more details, if you're interested. Without all the third-party tracker crap, I wonder if my browser will run faster?

re: plans

Amanda Palmer and her ukelele: "In My Mind." Read the story of the making of the video here.
(via The Bloggess)

Diana y Sandy--CIUDAD DE LA NIEBLA

Ciudad de la Niebla, Episode 1: Diana y Sandy from BAMM.tv on Vimeo.

Two musicians who now live in my lovely San Francisco tell their stories, in their lovely, lovely voices, via Bamm.TV

Danny Hart rides his bike down a mountain

I don't know what it better, the ride or the commentators' hysterical joy. Danny Hart won a world championship in Champéry, Swizterland with this amazing ride.

[Whoa, Blogger has a new interface, checking it out.]
I have now met my students for the first week, and I'm happy. I'm learning their names, and getting an idea of what the groups will be like. The novelty this semester is teaching at 8AM for the first time in ages, and having classes meet back to back in the same room. I have to flog myself to get up early enough to be lucid by the time I start, and I have to make sure I have something to eat in between so I don't feel faint, but so far, so good.
This semester, it will be Fridamania.

I am also teaching freshman for the first time in a while, and brings its own challenges. But I also know others are teaching five/four/three loads. I would never be up to the physical challenge--my sleep has been poor for the last two weeks, and my pain levels when I wake are daunting; my shoulder problems with rotator cuff impingement are back.  I will get into the rhythm.
Tonight, Ms R. begins a drawing class that will meet once a week. Exciting! I have a new notebook from moleskine that folds out Japanese-style, and I have done exactly two sketches in it: one of Ms. R's face, and another of a chair. It has been ages since I tried to draw anything. I'm so used to thinking of everyone else as the artist, and of myself as the critic.