Psychics

I found this really interesting article about how psychics read you.

I find particulary interesting the different experiments. They give people a fake personality test, but give everyone the same personality profile. Everyone thinks the profile accurately describes them! (Unlike other personality tests that actually have different results.

Although in another experiment, they had people pick a horoscope personality and had zero correlation to actual birth dates. Unless they knew which horoscopes they were supposed to be. The placebo effect works quite well. If you believe in it.

I read the horoscope aloud to blind people each week. They are much less convincing when you read all 12, because they're all the same. Especially on New Year's Eve, when all the horoscopes had really bad corny phrases about old acquaintances and resolutions.

Weird puppet night

I saw Drunk Puppet Night. It was strange.

A grab bag of hit or miss puppetry for adults. To be fair, we had pretty bad seats, next to some loud, disrespectful hecklers. So I couldn't see some of the acts well at all. Which is rough for puppets. Although, loud disrespectful hecklers are probably part of the traditional puppetry experience if you consider puppetry historically.

Some of the acts were really awesome. The Adventure of Diamond Joe, while not exactly puppets, was awesome, charismatic and inspired. The story about Cora Gated, with puppets made of "found materials", clearly all recycled trash, was pretty damn awesome performance and construction. Paper Kant was a really cool stop motion animation. And there was a shadow puppet display about a guy on the beach that showed an amazing sense for rhythm.

Puppetry is animation before the invention of film. Just as theatre has become eclipsed by film and TV, puppetry captures the same imagination and skills as animation.

Apple v. Apple

At long last, Apple Computer and Apple Records have settled their trademark dispute.

Although I suppose it's now Apple, Inc. instead of Apple Computer. I'm just glad Steve Jobs and the Beatles are getting along.

Is Obama Black

Stupid article in the Oregonian on Senator Obama not being black.

I like Leonard Pitts' take on the question.

He's always an insightful commentator. And he's a member of a UCC church!

Day break rocks!

Why did no one watch this show? Why must the Oregonian critic call it an "insta-dud"? It's so awesome!

More episodes will be posted online Monday, and I am ready. The last one was brilliant. He solves the crime, figures out how all the pieces fit together, is master of his domain.

And then he wakes up. Still stuck in his violent Groundhog Day, still framed for murder.

I love how the music, the cinematography of the last 10 minutes of the episode is that of a finale. They make you think it's over. The music is soothing, the shots are longer. The action slows. Lots of flashbacks, summing up and tying off. Everything is taken care of, the story is over, we're ready to say goodbye.

Because I knew there were more episodes coming out, it was brilliant suspense. I knew this was a false ending. But it unfolded very engagingly.

I wonder what they'll think of next.

Deja Vu

Groundhog day is the perfect day to write about Day Break. I finally started watching the episodes that ABC finally posted online.

I really enjoy the intelligence behind the ambiguity of the first episode that never aired. Hopper, the lead character who's repeating the same day over and over, meets a crazy homeless guy. He met him before, but now he's in a different place. Because he's living the same day over and over. Or is he just a crazy brain injured guy who thinks that? Brilliant scripting and acting, never giving clarity to the answer. Definitely giving Hopper the question: is this real, or are you crazy too?

I have a beard

I've had a beard for a while now. Over a year, continuously. And the majority of the time for the past 15 years.

And yet this afternoon I forgot that. Thought I didn't. Weird.