Day 84: My mother-in-law is visiting for a couple days. After a pleasant dinner and walk around the neighborhood, we came downstairs to watch the World Aquatic Championships and work on a puzzle for a while.
Year 50 Day 83
Day 83: Well, it was bound to happen eventually – not only did I forget to post, but I forgot to even take a photo on this day! As penance, a shot from my childhood, as my mom introduces me to the wonderful world of pornography.
Turn on the lights!
This YouTube video shows how impressive of a job the Strange New Worlds/Lower Decks crossover did with reworking the opening credits in the Lower Decks style.
But part of what stands out to me is how well this highlights how woefully under-lit the live-action Enterprise is. There’s a ton of detail in the animated version that I’m sure is drawn directly from the live-action version (especially since, really, they’re both animated versions, just in different styles), and it’s gorgeous!
I understand that it’s a stylistic choice on the new shows (Discovery and Picard also did this a lot) to go for more “natural”/”realistic” lighting on their ships, and a ship traveling through deep space isn’t likely to have a convenient light source nearby to make it all pretty and shiny.
But — spoiler alert — none of this is real! (I know, I know, I struggle with this as well.) I’m entirely okay with adding “we can actually see the ships even when they’re in space” to the same base-level suspension of disbelief necessary for enjoying visual science fiction in general.
Update: Thanks to @kamartino@mastodon.online for pointing me to this video from Douglas Trumbull where he discusses directing the space dock sequence in The Motion Picture. At four minutes in, he specifically notes that they wanted to create a lighting design so that the Enterprise appeared to light itself, so even when the Enterprise was out in deep space, it would still be visible.
Year 50 Day 82
Day 82: We braved I-405 and the I-90 bridge on a busy summer weekend to come out to Mercer Island to see Seattle Shakespeare‘s production of The Tempest. Another gorgeous day for an outdoor play!
Year 50 Day 81
Day 81: A bit of home improvement we’ve been meaning to do for a long time — mounting an antique cast-iron bell that my wife inherited from her great-grandmother. It hung outside her door for years, and this is the second home we’ve had where it’s hung outside ours. To mangle a Crocodile Dundee quote, “That’s not a doorbell. This is a doorbell.”
🎥 Barbie
If you’d told me a year ago that I’d be excited enough about a Barbie movie to see it on opening day, or that I’d come out of it this impressed, I’d have likely laughed and waited to wake up so I could tell you about the weird dream I’d just had.
However, the marketing has been spot-on, the articles have been intriguing, and the reviews have been excellent (well, most of them — but if every review is positive except those from right-leaning organizations or people, I consider that a good sign), so off we went.
And it absolutely lived up to and surpassed my expectations. It’s an impressive veneer of completely over-the-top ridiculousness laid over a remarkably aware, intelligent, and subversive core. Even after having read several articles with the general theme of “how did this even get made?’, you still walk out of it wondering how they managed to do it. It’s a bubblegum pink, glittery explosion of everything that makes todays political right explode, it’s wonderfully aware of that, and it pokes at them with great glee.
I don’t want to say too much more, because really, the less you know about the overall plot or the specific gags, the more fun it will be. If you’re at all curious, it’s well worth seeing. And if you think you aren’t curious because it’s Barbie, well, get over yourself and give it a go.
Year 50 Day 80
Day 80: I’ll say a little more in a separate post, but in brief, Barbie is excellent. The less you know going in, the better, but even if you’ve been reading reviews and articles about it, there’s so much in here that will surprise you. If you’re even remotely curious, it’s worth your time.
Year 50 Day 79
Day 79: Tasty homemade mango/tangerine/canteloupe popsicles for dessert! Just blended fruit, a little orange juice, and a day in the freezer.
Year 50 Day 78
Day 78: Got to work and found that just about ten minutes before, the entire campus had lost power. The power company had been notified, but had no idea of the cause and no solid ETA for a fix, so it was back home for me! By the time I got home, campus was officially closed until 10 a.m., and we’ll see what sort of notices we get as the day goes by. Either the power comes back and I head back to campus, or I just work from home after ten.
Year 50 Day 77
Day 77: I don’t normally go directly to brushing my teeth immediately after coming home from work. But then, I don’t normally get surprised by suddenly getting a clumsy bug for an impromptu snack during an afternoon walk outside. Ew.