Gina Harris's Blog, page 174

Band Review: Tales Untold

After I reviewed This Good Robot, I had this nagging feeling that if my former classmate, sketch comic, actor, and DJ Ted Douglass were in a band, it would be that band. He agreed they were close, but really, it would be Tales Untold, with whom I was unfamiliar. That made it necessary to check them out.
They're really good.
This Portland, Oregon (via McMinnville) band list themselves as pop rock, but recently that implies a lack of substance; that is not a problem here. I detect a folk influence, which manifests as a mellow feeling. They are more pop than the Traveling Wilburys, and less classical than ELO, but I believe Jeff Lynne would like this group.
(And fans of This Good Robot probably would like them, but they might be a better fit with Science.)
I found thirteen tracks on ReverbNation. I found references to other songs that I could not locate, but the band was active at a time when digitizing everything wasn't happening. There may be a lot of music out there that isn't online, but "Going Out Tonight", the one track that seems to have a fan video on Youtube, is in fact on Reverb Nation.
It is also a really good tune, so I strongly recommend checking it out.
My favorite was probably "Too Good". Please note the way the guitar wails, and then how the different instruments layer together to build a rich sound. It can be easy to get caught up in the emotion and not notice the skill, but it's there.
They have a good selection overall. Some tracks, like "Sister Satellite" and "Matahari" sound more exotic, and faintly psychedelic. Many of the songs bring in additional instruments, "Circus Freak" brings in animal noises, and it does sound like the circus. Mainly, the songs just rock.
Overall, Tales Untold is a good find. Their page says they are back from hiatus, so this is a good time to catch up.
I could only find two active URLs for now.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tales-Untold/169451609795322
https://www.reverbnation.com/talesuntold

UPDATE: More songs can be found at...

https://soundcloud.com/don-schwarz/sets/tales-untold
Related links:
http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2014/12/band-review-this-good-robot.html
http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2014/10/band-review-science.html

Becoming a writer

I disconnected from my body because I hated how it looked. I'm not recommending that; it's just what I did.
One thing that made it easier was finding that I had non-physical things going for me. I had been pretty sure that I was smart all along, but there were ways in which it did not seem to pay off.
I don't mean just that it doesn't make you popular, but I could see a lot of areas where smart wasn't enough. I could never think of good science fair projects. Through TAG we would get exposed to what at they time they called Olympics of the Mind and now (I believe due to trademark issues) call Odyssey of the Mind, but the things they did there baffled me. I have never needed to do an egg drop, which I feel is a lucky break because break is exactly what that egg would do.
Essentially, I knew answers to questions, but I had no practical applications. Fortunately, we got exposed to many types of endeavors, and at least one stuck. When I was going through old photos for the Throwback Thursdays, I found some other things that I had been holding onto, and almost forgotten.


In 1984 I entered a Saturday Academy writing contest, and did well.
Mainly this gave me a T-shirt, which I never wore, but it also gave me feedback.
"Your Alien story was a favorite of the judges for the way you used dialogue between Angie and her mother."
"We hope you continue to write funny and imaginative stories."
"I hope she keeps writing stories."
"Well written & easy to follow."
I hope I write better than a sixth grader now, but those are still some of the things I hear.
The next big coup was in 1987. When we were studying The Canterbury Tales, everyone had to write a sample prologue and five characters (we did not write any actual tales). Then one of each student's characters, and one prologue was chosen for a book. I can't remember if it was student votes or teacher selection. My prologue was chosen.



Looking back now I cringe at the awkward rhyme schemes, and the fascination with brand names that I gave my Yuppie character. I mean, she probably would have been into brand names, but I may have picked the wrong ones, or oversold how shallow she was, so there's that. I feel the same way about the prologue, actually, but everyone thought it was the best. That still feels kind of good.
That wasn't the only encouragement. I remember my English teacher the previous year, Mr. Cowles, was very encouraging. We had writing journals, and I would start new story ideas that would be all exciting, and then they would fizzle, because it was always rebellion but then when you get into the actual mechanics of revolution things fall apart. There were so many music videos with oppressive regimes that you fought by singing and dancing that this sort of plot was kind of inevitable until you get more life experience.
What he could see, though, was good invocation of a character or a mood, and that those skills can eventually go somewhere. And I remember him paying attention to other students too, and asking questions about where they were going to go with it, and I know I'm not the only one who still writes, so I'm grateful for that.
With writing I knew there was something I could do, and it was rewarding. It taught me things about myself. It still does.
Is it irrevocably linked to my nerdiness? It might be. When someone asks me about a new idea, I hear myself geeking out about it. I can't stop it, but I know I'm doing it.
That is how I became.

No more good pictures

I am not quite to the halfway point of my Throwback Thursday pictures:
http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2015/01/43-photographs.html
The last good one was already posted. I'm not sure which that one is. The Santa one is okay, but the one in the Redwoods is not horrible. 

After that, from the 5th grade TAG picture forward, there is not a photo of me where I don't notice and hate how fat I look.
I know that's not necessarily what other people see. A lot of people liked the TAG picture. 

I liked my pictures before first grade. I thought I was cute. I wasn't positive, but people would respond positively to the curls sometimes, and I liked looking at old photos. After I started school, and was told that I was fat, I started being nervous about pictures. I wouldn't like new school pictures at first, but I could go back the next year and think it hadn't really been so bad.
After that, whether it was because the adultery had happened and that sent some shock waves through the family, or because other teasing had built up, or puberty gave me a reason to be more self-conscious, I don't like how I look in pictures ever.
The inner voice wonders why I tucked my shirt in, or why I wasn't wearing bangs to cover my enormous forehead, or marvels over how even my hands look fat. One of my older sister's friends made a beaver joke about my teeth many years ago, and even though my smile gets more compliments than any other physical attribute of mine, I think of myself as buck-toothed so sometimes my teeth bother me. Still, it's mostly the fat.
One thing I hate about the TAG picture is that it's where I really see the resemblance to one of my aunts. I have been told many times that I look like her. I do not find this flattering. But one thing I can see is that I am not relaxed. I am concentrating, but there is also that tension that became a thing any time there was a camera around because I am so ugly in pictures. So maybe my aunt's problem is just that she was never happy. I mean, there can be some satisfaction in looking down on other people, but it's not really joyful.
And for all of the lack of self-esteem and discomfort with photos, I wasn't unhappy all the time, but cameras make me unhappy. They still do.
Of course, that's why  I'm doing this. If I keep forcing myself to post the pictures as they become even fatter, I have to get used to that. When I transition to doing regular selfies, I will have to get used to that look. I mean, other people do not hate the way I look, though it could just be that they're less invested.
Anyway, here are some pictures that I didn't use, but thought about. I didn't want to use too many studio portraits because they seem kind of artificial.
I think this one kind of looks like the Gerber baby.

Actually, my understanding was that at the Wilsonville school parents could bring younger siblings on picture day and get packets for them too, and that's why we were able to keep up with the pictures pretty well.

Sidetracked by a superhero

I should refer back to something else as a lead in. When I was writing about "Grimm", and when I was thinking about writing some spec scripts, I repeated that they always say that you shouldn't submit a script for the show you want to write for, but instead submit one for a similar show. I had seen that more than once, and the reasons given made sense.
In Showrunners, two of the people profiled ignored that advice. Maybe they had never heard it. Steven DeKnight submitted a spec script for "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" to "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and ended up writing on several Joss Whedon shows before becoming the showrunner for "Spartacus". Ronald D. Moore sent a spec script for "Star Trek: The Next Generation" to "Star Trek: The Next Generation", and worked on that and "Deep Space 9" and "Voyager" and other things before reviving "Battlestar Galactica".
Perhaps if you are good enough at it you can ignore advice, and perhaps advice being repeated a few times doesn't make it good. I mention it because other advice I have seen is that you just write one thing at a time. If you get a great idea in the middle of something, you finish that something first before going after the next great idea.
I know other people ignore it. One of the television writers I follow, Akela Cooper, always seems to have six or seven writing projects going on. This is important, because even though I totally intend to be focused on screenwriting now, I am getting into a comic.
It's because of the MOOC.
Part of studying the history of the rise of superheroes in comic books is creating your own. I was having a hard time getting to it. First of all, the assignments are given via PowerPoint slides, and they only release one week's worth at a time, and I had to upgrade PowerPoint, and some of the slides are less than user-friendly. I do have that set up now. Then it was just a matter of a character I could live with.
There are several things that came together. One of the 6 page screenplays I wrote in October was for a comic I have in mind, with depressed teenagers who love music and start a band. When I was thinking about it I was thinking about my teens of course, and I wondered if I should bring in issues like eating disorders and self-harm and mental illness. It didn't feel right for that one, but it seemed like something I could do later.
http://www.wattpad.com/74893306-theme-park-the-beginning-of-a-beautiful-friendship
Another source of inspiration was Gerard Way. He recently changed his Twitter handle to "Goth Claudia". The name stuck with me, like, "Yeah, I remember her." At least two of his friends have also changed to names apparently representing 1994 alternative selves, so that may be a thing. (Theme Park starts in 1994.)
So I was thinking about those things, but the person that was taking shape was more Emo than Goth, but that kind of led to her power. What if she could throw emotions at people? Take a bully and throw the anguish they are causing right back?
It's not that super a power. I mean, she won't defend the earth from an alien invasion. She might be able to interrupt a crime in progress, but mainly it would be a very personal thing, trying to help people.
I'm afraid this makes my work on her altar ego very lackluster, because she doesn't really need one. At this point, people aren't aware of what she is doing when she does it, and her scale is small. Teenagers hide so much anyway, a secret identity would be redundant.
I got concerned when we had to tie our hero to a mythic deity. Because of the Gerard Way song "Maya the Psychic", it totally made sense that Claudia would have Mayan ancestry on her mother's side (and that her mother had some psychic ability as well). Looking at the Mayan pantheon, the only good fit was Ixtab, the goddess of suicide. I don't want to make suicide an option. Too many teens look at that too much anyway. Claudia can't do it or glorify it. But in other ways it was a fit. She might not try it, but she's thought about it.
Ixtab ended up completing the look. She has a black mark on her cheek that represents decay. Claudia has a bruise that won't heal. The rope around Ixtab's neck becomes a necklace for Claudia. The bracelets Claudia wears are familiar to a lot of hurting girls.
I worry about how triggering this could be for some readers, but I also believe it can be helpful. Coming out of Family Ghosts, with Allison and Sarah they were both healing, and what I know from what's coming up is that they are going to become very powerful in different ways. They needed to heal first. For Claudia, it's finding her power that is going to help her heal.
It will change her. She will become more aware of other people, and that's going to lead to a desire to interact more and not be so withdrawn. Her nemesis will exploit that, but there will be growth.
I can see her getting to know her mother's family. Part of her problem is a lack of connection, but she does have a heritage and a history. Going to the Yucatan could be transformative for her.
We needed to specify her vulnerability - she is a teenage girl; she is all vulnerability. She will miscalculate how much she will affect someone and feel guilt over that. She will not always exercise good judgment. Her arch nemesis is a good looking teenage boy who took the same experimental medication, only he was abused instead of neglected so he is a sociopath. She is full of vulnerability! But that's not all there is to her.
So, I need to work on this. I believe I can work on both it and the screenplays that are coming up. Today I just did a sheet of dialogue that would be about three pages of panels. That gives her background right until her counselor recommends the pills. A page of script a day, plus drawing whatever is in the assignment, should be manageable.
I believe we will be drawing a confrontation with the nemesis for the last week. Frankly, she will lose their first one. I guess I should draw the last one instead. I'll have to see what it says.
For now I have only drawn one picture, but it's her. And I still feel like I draw like a 14 year old girl, and it's inadequate, but there's still something there. I recognize her. Claudia King. Code name Emo.

Band Review: Loose Logic

Loose Logic is a hip hop artist (Ian Westbrook) from Orange County.
I find him musically more interesting than most hip hop artists. Check out the intro to “Cali Dreamin’”, the keyboards on “Enemy”, and “Ava’s Song” in general for some good examples of that.
He also has something to say, with deeply personal songs about love lost because of that person’s self-destruction, and the changes made by having a child.
Those are points in his favor, but it also makes me more aware of how much is possible. Working through these issues feels like it should lead to somewhere higher, but I am bothered by the continuing drug references, the apparent lack of compassion for the lost love, and the frequent vulgarity, especially in “Shake That”.
That being said, those things may not be issues for other people, especially hip hop fans, because this is ultimately done well.
http://www.looselogiconline.com/
https://www.facebook.com/TheRealLooseLogic?ref=ts
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRM49ZSHlL4wNiu4WbhLPbw
https://twitter.com/LooseLogic

Band Review: The Orion Correlation

I have been thinking of The Orion Correlation as Hammy Havoc, but Hammy Havoc does multiple things, and The Orion Correlation is the musical side. I am including links for both to be more complete.
The Orion Correlation plays crossover electronic rock. Beats are catchy. The tracks are not strictly instrumental, but when there are words they tend to be simple and not the main focus.
I generally enjoyed listening. My favorite track was probably “Horns Of A Heart”, but the Divine Debris EP covers a fair range of sounds and plays well together.
There is also another EP featured on Soundcloud, Asplosion. While there are only two tracks, both are versions of something you have heard before. “When You’re Gone” is okay, but his version of “Moonlight Sonata” is one of those rare tracks that makes me want to commit violence. (It did not help that it was almost thirteen minutes long.)
I don’t love the original version, as I feel it hovers between boring and grating, but the electronic components really amplify the grating. I did listen to it my customary three times, and it never grew on me. So, if you love the original, it might be worth checking that track out, but otherwise I strongly recommend skipping it.
If you like electronica, you will probably really enjoy Divine Debris, and should check it out. It is available on Spotify as well.
https://www.hammyhavoc.com/
https://www.theorioncorrelation.com/
https://www.facebook.com/TheRealHammyHavoc
https://twitter.com/TheOCorrelation
https://twitter.com/hammyhavoc

Other things I’ve been doing

Technically a lot of this has been things I have been watching.
I think taking the online classes has helped me get better about finding ways to work in things I want to watch. The first two MOOCs I took had introductory videos, and then some interviews, but most of the material was reading comics and articles, and then writing on discussion boards. The other classes have been a lot more video lecture style, with less reading.
As I have found ways to fit the class videos into my day, I have also found it easier to incorporate other things I have been meaning to watch. That has included documentaries about school re-segregation, the Italian American immigrant experience, the lost stories of early black settlers in Canada, pollution in Detroit, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the MOVE bombing in West Philly, and even a collaboration between David Byrne and Bryan Eno.
There are a lot of thoughts and feelings about most of those, and so they may come into other writing. Right now they are just expanding my background understanding of how everything fits together. I still feel like there is this process of coiling up for a launch, but if it never becomes something dramatic, and is just me learning more and growing more over time, that has merit.
I do see how things are going in different phases. A lot of these things have been on my list for a long time, but I had to finish the month of reading screenplays first, or I had to finish the classes.
There is some relief in seeing old items checked off, but then new items join them. For example, I finally wrote out a card to my friend in Poland, and have it stamped and addressed. I have been meaning to do that since she sent me a Christmas card in 2013. I have finally written my letter to University of Oregon telling them how disappointed I am with them for going after a rape victim’s therapy records to use in their defense against mishandling the rape case. I got the information on upcoming activities out to two single adults I’d been meaning to write to. At the same time, now I find that I really need to write to people involved with “Grimm” and express my feelings about how they are losing their way. I have some notes.
I have written to the two people whom I know have read my un-reviewed books and asked them to post reviews on Amazon. (The Family Blood one just went up!) I still need to go over the ideas that KDP itself provides, which will probably at least mean posting previews on Goodreads.
I have sent a link to the Out of Step screenplay to Derek Hough after feeling like I should do that. I sent it via both Facebook and Twitter, neither of which will necessarily be effective, but I didn’t know how else to do it. (http://studios.amazon.com/projects/59569, by the way.)
Sometimes it’s exhilarating, and sometimes it’s discouraging, but in general I feel like there is forward momentum. Some things need to wait, and that can be okay assuming you are setting the right calls when you prioritize. I hope I am.
Things I am still working on:Contacting all of the single adults in the ward. There are 44 left out of 115, and all the easy ones have already been done. This is one where you just have to do a few at a time.Learn more about the anti-inflammatory diet, but coconut oil has already been incorporated for dementia. There are some other anti-dementia tasks I need to look at, but there is a bigger issue there that I am not ready to write about yet.Learn more about chakras.Read the full version of Ta-Nehisi Coates “The Case For Reparations” (I have read a shorter version.)Write to my Plan kids.Go through this list of accounts that haven’t been active for a while and check on them. That will be another “Pace yourself” one.Organize the temple names.Create a vision board. I feel it will help.
There are some other documentaries that I have on my list to watch, but I think I will save them for a lead-in to my Native American Heritage reading, which I think I will start in about six weeks.
What is magical about that six weeks? And what about writing new stuff? Good questions! I shall answer them on the blog Monday, but first, there will be music reviews of Hammy Havoc and Loose Logic (apparently this week is unusually alliterative), then Padova on the travel blog, and I am not sure about the Provident Living blog yet, but I think I might start some posts about living as a disciple.
For now, if you would like some videos to watch….
Separate and Unequal: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/separate-and-unequal/Speakers for the Dead: http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/watch-speakers-for-the-dead-50-minute-documentary-on-hidden-history-of-blacks-in-canada-20140707The Godmother of Rock and Roll: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/sister-rosetta-tharpe/film-the-godmother-of-rock-roll/2516/The Italian Americans: http://video.pbs.org/program/italian-americans/How David Byrne and Brian Eno Make Music Together: http://www.openculture.com/2012/05/how_david_byrne_and_brian_eno_make_music_together.htmlThe Bombing of West Philly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eHpRjxk7N413 in the Hole: http://www.cultureunplugged.com/documentary/watch-online/play/12686/13-In-The-Hole
Coming up:http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2015/04/10/10-fascinating-documentaries-about-native-americans-you-can-watch-right-now-159964http://news.nationalpost.com/silent-no-more

Things I’ve been studying

I mentioned this earlier, but I signed up for some massive open online courses (MOOCs) that I couldn’t resist.
I felt like I had enough going on that I shouldn’t take on anything else, but they sounded interesting, and I wanted to.
Microbes Rule the World: Effects of Disease on History
This came through the Canvas Network, through which I had taken my previous comic book courses. It was affiliated with Weber State University, taught by microbiology professor Craig Oberg and history professor Gene Sessions.
The information was interesting. I think the great weakness of the course was a tendency to oversell. They would go over events and things that were happening with disease, and then make a connection and say “There can be little doubt…” but there was room for doubt, especially when the effect they ascribe to the plague happened 200 years later. It doesn’t even mean they’re wrong, but if they were truly convinced of the impact they should have been able to make a stronger case. The things that happened are interesting enough even if there were other important contributing factors.
Religion and Hip Hop Culture – RELI157x
I learned about this course on Twitter. Hip Hop is a musical area where I feel my knowledge is pretty lacking, so it felt important to take it. That sense of need is what pushed me over the edge to sign up for any class, and so I signed up for the microbe class at the same time. However, this class is through EdX, and associated with Rice University, taught by Dr. Anthony B. Pinn and Professor Bernard “Bun B” Freeman, from UGK. (No, I’d never heard of UGK before, but it was clear it was a big deal.)
Defining religion as the search for complex subjectivity, we studied how hip hop was influenced by Christianity, by Islam, and how it all interacts.
As a way of communing with others, celebrating, and expressing yourself, hip hop can be a part of the search, but I felt that it made more sense to think of hip hop as art. You can discuss religion and painting together, but you would not expect painting to replace religion. However, within days of completing the class, Bill O’Reilly blamed the decline in Christianity on hip hop, so shows what I know.
I liked the way the class made you think, and then grade yourself. That sounds like a cop-out (and you can pay a fee for them to grade you and get real credit), but the criteria were so clearly explained that it was easy to know whether you had met them or not.
The Rise of Superheroes and Their Impact on Pop Culture – POPX1.1x
Once I registered with EdX, I saw this, and comic books are how I got into MOOCs in the first place. How could I not? This class is through the Smithsonian Institution though, mainly led by Dr. (and Batmanproducer) Michael Uslan, with participation from David Uslan, Dr. Christopher Robichaud, and Stan Lee.
It is too early to tell how the class is going to go. We have only had one full week of instruction, and I have not been able to work on the assignment yet because I needed to upgrade Office. I guess when 2013 is out you need to let go of 2002. Anyway, I expect to enjoy it.
Master Tailor Package: 300+ Sewing CoursesThis was probably the most foolish. I don’t even have a sewing machine, and unlike the MOOCs, this course had a fee. It was just a really good deal, I have a year to complete it, and I don’t know – it felt like too good an opportunity to pass up. I am not even going to look at it until after the Comics class wraps up, and then I’ll see.
The problem is I really like learning stuff. All kinds of stuff. Still, I have a lot of things that I am trying to accomplish in a fairly short period of time. Sometimes there are dilemmas.
All I can responsibly say is that because of time constraints I absolutely will not sign up for any new classes for at least a few months, unless they sound super-awesome or directly correlate with areas of interest where I feel greater knowledge is important.
(For anyone wondering, I finished the dolls last night at a little over one hour into Newsies. I’ll probably finish the movie tomorrow, possibly without working on anything while I am doing it.)

Things I have been watching

There has been more going on over the past month or so than reading screenplays. Some were things that I wanted to make happen, and have only started being really successful since finishing reading screenplays, which probably contains some sort of lesson about how I am bound by the laws of time and the need for sleep. Anyway, the next few posts will cover some of the things I have been up to.
I used to buy things more readily, which I see now as a bad habit not only for financial reasons but also for clutter. There was a time when it seemed reasonable to buy a movie that I had never seen but wanted to, especially if it was on sale. Often I would get to see them, and even enjoy them, but I did not really need to own them. And of course, I had no idea that the technology would become obsolete.
I had already gotten rid of most of my video cassettes a while back, but there were four that I was determined to watch, and they have been hanging around. This is also the time of year that we work on dolls, and with the table set up in the family room, where we have the old television with the VCR built in that we only use for videocassettes and video games, I found a way to be productive.
The Christmas Wish(1998) -
This was actually a gift from a friend, so I needed to watch it. There were good things about it, but it was also somewhat artificial and contrived. There were some fun familiar faces though, including a guy who has been in four episodes of "The A-Team", and the love interest is Naomi Watts before she was famous.
Emma (1996)
This is the Kate Beckinsale one. I saw the Gwyneth Paltrow one in theaters, and I read an interview with Kate where she felt like her adaptation was better. I specifically remember her saying something like just because the other shows Emma doing archery it doesn't make her an independent woman.
Kate, you were so, so wrong. I say this as someone who hasn't been able to take Gwyneth seriously for years, but that version - adapted and directed by Douglas McGrath - made it possible for me to finish reading the book. Since Jane Austen is my favorite author, but that one book kept tripping me up, that was a big deal for me. It was light and charming.
The problem with the book is that the characters are difficult. Austen heroines are really different from each other, which I have to believe was deliberate, and here I think she wanted to see how unlikable she could make some people and still have you like them. She cuts it pretty close, which could make an adaptation difficult.
The Beckinsale version is terribly dreary. The characters are generally annoying, and then the way they try and lighten it up is with fantasy sequences, but it doesn't work at all. It was badly done.
Little Women (1994)
It wasn't horrible. The book is very episodic, and that can result in disjointed movies. This was fairly smooth, but a lot of the casting didn't work for me, especially Winona Ryder as Jo. Still, I don't think you're going to get a much better movie out of the book than this one.
It's a Wonderful Life(1946)
Actually, I had seen the ending many times, getting in as early as when Clarence and George are at the bar, but I had never seen the whole thing. It does feel long leading up to where the money goes missing, but they are carefully constructing the difference that George makes, and how much he didn't want to make it.
I could tell from the parts I had seen that George had saved his brother's life, and kept Mr. Gowers out of jail, but it was not clear coming in late how much he had wanted adventure, and to leave town, and how often he kept deferring his own dreams because of the needs of others.
That might make it worse, because it seems like you should be able to get something you want every now and then while still thinking of others, but maybe that made it easier to forget that it was a wonderful life. I just see it in a different light now.
The other thing is that I kind of assumed George had done something special for Violet to keep her from being that girl picked up by the vice squad, and that didn't seem to be the case. The difference appears to have been the town. A town where people have a chance of making it, and getting their own house and their own business, instead of being at the mercy of a slum lord like Potter, seems to be one that is happier in other ways.
That tracks. I have been reading about real estate practices and predatory lending, and Pottersville seems completely plausible without something working against it like Bailey Savings & Loan. There aren't enough businesses like that, actually. I know people think of Capra as corny, and you can make a case for that, but that doesn't make him wrong.
As you can see, these VHS tapes may not have been the best investment back in the day. Also, it's odd how much of a Christmas theme there ended up being. Since our favorite VHS find is Muppet Family Christmas, maybe that's where our real impulse trigger is.
There were two other non-VHS things in here.
Showrunners: The Art of Running a TV Show (2014)
I helped back the Kickstarter here, and part of that was receiving a flash drive with the movie on it. I really liked it. There are great interviews, including with the makers of "Person Of Interest" and "White Collar", so that resonated for me, but also it's just really good information.
Newsies (1992)
A lot of people seem to love this and I noticed it was playing so set it to record on the DVR. I hoped to watch it last night while finishing the dolls, but Misty worked on stuffing while watching other things. There are still ten dolls that need stitching up. I may do that tonight.

Band Review: Palaye Royale

Once a band follows me and ends up on the review list it generally takes about six months to get to their review, but I am following them and seeing updates during that time. Palaye Royale has really stood out during the wait. They have been active, and building a strong base of loyal fans, based largely on their being accessible to fans and caring.
With roots in Las Vegas and Toronto, Palaye Royale self-describes as a Fashion-Art Rock Band. In this case, that seems to mean primarily that the visual components, including clothes, are important. Many art rock bands are notable for their focus on the atonal (and a-melodic). Other than an odd transition in "Die for Something Beautiful", that is not the case here.
I can't think of any bands where I can make a good sound comparison. In some ways there is an alt-rock vibe, but with strong elements of funk and excellent use of piano. Many of the songs are really beautiful.
(I suspect that fans of Black Veil Brides and Farewell My Love might enjoy Palaye Royale.)
The band is unsigned and relishing it, having released two singles and a six-track EP, as well as being featured in a Samsung commercial. Current touring should strengthen ties with fans and add more. The band should be able to do very well.
I really only have one criticism to make. I wouldn't even know about it if I hadn't watched the videos, a few of which feature Native American headdress. It isn't even a major part of the videos, which could be a couple of years old (most of their songs are from 2013), but there is growing awareness about that issue, and it's something to think about. Rock is better used for sticking it to the man than disrespecting minorities, regardless of whether or not there is malicious intent, especially in the service of a fashion statement. That's all I have to say about that.
Otherwise, this is a good band, and worth checking out.
http://palayeroyale.com/
https://www.facebook.com/PalayeRoyale
https://www.youtube.com/user/PalayeRoyale
https://twitter.com/PalayeRoyale