the pod bay door

:: I took another baby step tonight, preparing for the move to another host. Yesterday I successfully loaded Moveable Type 2.64 onto the new server. Today, with a dose of patience, I was able to initialize the system so that I can reach the MT prompt on the new host. Patience was important: I encountered two errors while working, and was pleased that I was able to determine their source, and correct them. One was a typo (I had typed DBI:mysql instead of DBI::mysql – damn extra colon!), and the other was an incorrect URL I had loaded into the mt.cfg file. Whatever. Details, details.

This is too much detail, but forgive me the indulgence: this blog, the one you are reading, is running on as a Berkeley db (whatever that means). The new one will run as a MySQL db (whatever that means – Geoff, he knows what that means; so does Kenton.)

What’s next is that I have to create a weblog on the new site, and then try to import the entries from here to there. As well, I want to import my templates. I hope I can do it without much grinding and gnashing of teeth.

:: Perhaps the best nutrition site I’ve ever seen is this one: NutritionData. It features a db of 7,154 foods, and “generates nutrition facts labels and provides simplified nutritional analyses for all foods and recipes.” The only drawback: no foods found only in Canada are in the db (such as Vector or Optimum cereal).

:: This article on “geezer rock” is more annoying than anything else. It’s been interesting watching rock music age, from its beginnings in the 1950s, to present day. The musicians who create and play pop, rock and folk rock music, seem to be the only ones who get slagged because they get older. Musicians working in classical, bluegrass, country, blues, soul, rhythm and blues, opera, klezmer, whatever, are never bashed around because they get on in years. But in rock, journalists like to lambaste them, as Jim Derogatis does here, almost just for the exercise itself.

Derogatis’ thesis: that “the best rock ‘n’ roll is immediate, urgent and vital–it is music that celebrates living in the moment“, is a good one, but it doesn’t necessarily need to apply across the board. I mean, do the Artists That Matter need to rebel 24/7? I’m biased towards Steely Dan, but damn it if their new album doesn’t haul ass, and sound better than most of the shyte being fobbed on music fans by artists and acts half their age. Derogatis offers five geezer lists, from Geezers who still matter, to Geezers who never mattered and are now less relevant and more offensive than ever. In the end it’s all subjective. Who’s to say the music being made now by (some of the) artists who’ve been active in these genres for 25-40 years can or cannot stand on its own merit?

Check out these responses from the Hoffman forum, many with which I agree. My favorite comment: “Terrible article. I wish I could have written something so shallow and negative when I was 15 and get paid for it. Might as well tell us that Jazz is for dead people. Go fling yourself in front of a schoolbus.”

:: I heard from my new host, and have the necessary information to begin setting up on their server. I’ve installed MT 2.64, and will begin configuring it tomorrow. Wish me luck, I hope it all works.

:: I spoke with a personal trainer at the Y today, and will meet with him on Sept 11 for an initial consulation. Tomorrow it’s another meeting with the nutritionist.

:: Last night I sat on the edge of my bed, and stared at the bookcase next to it. I looked at, maybe 10 different books of interest that I’d like to read. Couldn’t decide which one to read next. So I went to sleep instead. I’m no further ahead tonight.

:: The e-mails with the SobigF worms seems to be diminishing in number. Maybe the creator did discover girls. Or something. Maybe not.

:: School started today. Yesterday 23 new bright, flat-screen terminals were installed on our main floor. Today the new students attacked them with a fervor. The days of wondering if the new cohort of students is familiar with computers and peripheral devices is over. Already today, a student asked if he could plug his memory card into a USB port on the new machines (which aren’t configured yet for said cards). Most of us don’t know a USB port from a bottle of port. So the learning curve is steep again.

:: A couple of days ago, I started receiving random e-mails, 82 of them since Aug 31st, each infected with the W32.Sobig.F@mm worm. What a pain in the ass. I’ve run the removal tool, which confirms that the worm isn’t on my machine, but the feckin’ e-mails keep coming. Every one gets caught by Norton Antivirus and automatically deleted, but I don’t know how to prevent them from coming in. The Symantec page includes a list of IP addresses correlating to the master servers, so I added those to my firewall restricted zone.

*sigh* One wishes those who waste their lives creating destructive worms and viruses might do something productive, like discover girls, or breath through their noses instead of their mouths. Or at least consider getting a life.

:: Tomorrow I’m on campus to deliver a couple of short presentations during Orientation’03, and then teach to 110 Chemical Engineering 200 students. Classes don’t actually begin until Wednesday. The hordes are back, long live the hordes.
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:: So far this long weekend, I’ve seen Open Range, Bend It Like Beckham (2nd time), Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde, and Capturing the Friedmans. I’m trying to catch up on letters to be written, and a bit of sleep. I finally finished Eyes Wide Open: A Memoir of Stanley Kubrick, by Frederic Raphael, Oscar-winning screenwriter and author, who co-wrote the screenplay for Eyes Wide Shut with Stanley Kubrick. The book, published after Kubrick’s death, enraged his family, and apparently legions of fans, but I found it fascinating. This review sums it up quite well for me. More insight is available in this brief 1999 interview of Raphael.

I’m also frustrated about having registered on Sat morning for another hosting service for my site, but have yet to hear back from them with any instructions or information… 🙁

:: I’m going to take Geoff’s lead, and take a few days off from blogging. That said, don’t be surprised if something turns up here within a day or two.

:: One of the great hot dog stands in NYC loves Al Franken. BTW, I like Al Franken, too.

:: Moose and Squirrel Go Digital! My favorite cartoons have always been those produced by Warner Bros, and I reported recently that a 4-DVD set of classic Looney Tunes will be released in October. Next to Bugs & Co., I loved the Jay Ward cartoons, led by Rocky and Bullwinkle, and including Mr Peabody and Sherman, Fractured Fairy Tales, George of the Jungle, Hoppity Hooper, and many other brilliant creations. I learned today that Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends: Season One is now available on DVD as well. Reviews I’ve found have been very favourable. Another item to add to the always lengthening wish list…

:: I forgot to mention that a highlight of the weekend in Calgary was visiting an old friend: dr T, aka Terry K, my first roommate in Edmonton. We met in residence in 1978, and shared an apartment from Dec 78, for about a year, until he moved on to bigger and better things. Terry and I played much gee-tar together “in those days”, and he still has the chops. I met his wonderful wife Bev (also a guitar player, of the classical variety), and their beautiful daughter, Nicole. I was amazed that he remembered the words to a song I wrote that year – dr T, I bow in your general direction!

The past two years have seen me re-establish contact with many important people from my past. I reconnected with my dear friend Cathy G last year in Winnipeg (hadn’t seen her since 1973 or so), and this past July, with dozens of old high school friends, most of whom I hadn’t seen since 1971. I hadn’t seen Terry since the early 80s. It’s nice to know that one can go home again, in the sense that true friendships last a lifetime.

:: I returned from Calgary this morning, having attended bits of two days of the Blues and Roots Festival. Los Lobos, Richard Thompson and Solomon Burke were the acts I caught, all exceptional performances. Los Lobos rocks with the best, and began their set by inviting fans down from the stands in Burns Stadium (a baseball diamond) and onto the grass, right up to the stage. It made sense. They played with energy and conviction, and with smiles on their faces – they had fun. They closed with a great version of Mas Y Mas, and encored with a blistering take on Neil Young’s Cinnamon Girl, a song which they may have now co-opted as their own. Thompson’s songs are powerful, and he weaves magic on his guitar. He performed one of his signature pieces, 1952 Vincent Black Lightning, leaving me almost breathless as he played a solo that featured twists, turns and surprises not heard on the recording. Burke, the King of Rock ‘n’ Soul, surrounds himself with a great band, and is in true love with the audience – he hands out red roses to dozens of women while he sings, and each show ends as a big on-stage love-in. I learned from his harpist, Julia Cunningham, that their previous gig, in Beirut last Tuesday, was a great success. However, they were 35 hours in transit, arriving in Calgary on Friday quite exhausted, and without their luggage or instruments! Nonetheless, they played a great show for the last stop on their current tour.
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