Yesterday, back to school. "Pick a project", they said. "Choose an original from those boxes to do it yourself, or join one of the permanent projects."
By the gods, I will not choose an original, read it, determine if it is good or bad, call the author, speak to him, ask him to rewrite what needs to be rewritten, read it again, proofread it, do the graphical project, prepare it, deal with the author all through these, and when hopefully it is reay to ship, sometime in the next year, call the paper sellers and printing companies to find the best prices, deal with the school department to get the funds, ask the printing company for its PDF profile, close and distill the document, send them it, call them constantly regarding it, have the book shipped here, and whatever else comes after this, or I missed.
Therefore, I will probably join the comics magazine team. It may be more work in the end, but at least I will have someone to turn to other than the teachers when something goes wrong and/or I do not know what to do next (nor how to do it). And comics are probably more fun to deal with than raw text from amateur authors.
That more or less out of the way, I was pulled aside to the parking lot where a devious trap had been set for me. One big gift with my name on it; one digital camera; one really big and fluffy and adorable and cute and huggable plush sheep in the bag. The eventual publication of those pictures will result in deaths. But until then, my sheep is sooo adorable and huggable it is absurd. The biggest in my flock now. More many thanks to those who set the devious trap.
(And yes, the guy who supposedly runs the Vineyards actually is fonder of sheep than of grapes. But back then the "Shepherd of Loures" just did not sound noble enough. For those who have no idea what I am talking about, I will explain sometime soon.)
Another subject. I do not like Mp3. I mean, of course I have lots of them, find them useful, et al. But I usually only download songs I already know (and would not buy the album for, mind you). Usually, then, the process goes like this: radio on, nice song; "Oohh, nice song!"; keep some part of the lyrics in mind, since they never say who the singer is; Google for the lyrics, if a match is found download the Mp3.
It goes like this, then. I heard a song on the radio I was very sure I knew, but it was making no sense to me. "If you go away, then you might as well take the sun away", etc. It was very cute, but I was confused, for I was sure I knew the song, but not with those lyrics. Until the singer saved the day, by singing on the original lyrics, "Ne me quitte pas". "Aahh, that is the one!" I had no idea anyone would make an English version of that old French song. I went to look for the lyrics. Okay, this is the one. P2P: "If you go away". I was very impressed by the range of singers that recorded it in English - even Bobby Goldsboro! But I was after the one I heard on the radio, and had no idea which female singer that way, so I downloaded nearly everything I could find.
Among them, I found the one from the radio. Great. I also found one by a completely new name. When she said the first verse I thought, "The filename and tag are wrong! This is Bjork!". It was not: I quickly found out the comparison is often made. Emiliana Torrini was the name. Very impressive. I got curious, threw her name into P2P. First song that came up was "Gollum's Song". That surely was unexpected. That is the last song in the "The Two Towers" soundtrack, amazing how I did not link the two (both by "the girl who is not Bjork"). Either way, a list of songs by Emiliana Torrini popped in front of me. And I threw out half an online lifetime of belief and just downloaded random songs by her, having no idea what to expect. After a half a dozen songs, I must confess I really liked her - even if it meant doing something I had not done since "Jewel - Who Will Save Your Soul" was uploaded to the BBS I used; it was its first Mp3 file.
Yet another subject. After lunch yesterday, I went to see "Treasure Planet" a second time. Yes, twice in the theatres to see the same movie. And I hope to see it again before it is gone. I thought of a tremendous lot to write here about it, and about Disney in general, but not right now, this post is long enough already. Maybe some other time.
Posted by Etienne at February 25, 2003 05:28 PM