Louis LaSalle's Pre-posterous Postings

Random ramblings, circus animals, some filler...

Dante was a Renter

How can I possibly know? Because there isn't a Circle of Hell reserved for contractors.

I've recently been replacing some of the original, cheap, builders light fixtures in my home. Last summer I replaced a couple of wall sconces. I was slightly annoyed when I did that, when I found the ground wires hadn't been connected on the old sconces. Not super critical, but annoying nonetheless.

Now I'm replacing the bathroom vanity bars. The builders used those generic, chrome and steel light bars. The bulbs literally cost more than the fixture. So I do the usual turn off the power, etc. I unscrew the old fixture and pull if off the wall. WTF!? The receiver plate is screwed directly to the drywall. I unscrew the receiver plate. What do I find? No junction box! The electrical cable is streaming out of a hole punched through the dry wall (punched mind you, not drilled, the back of the drywall was all broken up). So what should have been a 15 minute job turns into hours of work...
• Finding the stud (fortunately it's in the right place)
• Cutting out the drywall
• Feeding the electrical cable to the new hole (fortunately it was long enough)
• Installing the junction box and finally...
• The 15 minutes of actually light installation

On second thought... The Fourth Circle of Hell is Greed and the Eighth Circle of Hell is Fraud. Maybe bad contractors find themselves stretched between the two levels, taut as bow strings while imps make music on their bodies by beating them with hammers, screw drivers and wrenches.
OK... that's a little harsh. How about if they have to spend time in Purgatory fixing every problem they caused 10 times over? Oh... and they have to make 3 trips to the hardware store for every job!

Hugh Jackman in Performance - Recap

On Sunday May 15th, with 6 great friends, I saw the final performance of the World Premiere of Hugh Jackman in Performance at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco. For those of know of Hugh Jackman as merely Wolverine, they will be shocked to learn that long before the adamantine claws came out, Hugh Jackman was an accomplished song-and-dance man, who was the toast of London's West End as Curly in Oklahoma. And with a nod to that early star turn, Hugh Jackman opened the show with "Oh What a Beautiful Morning"; and with the consummate sense of a true showman, and a nod to the traditional staging of Oklahoma, Hugh started the song from offstage, letting his voice alone carry the opening.

From there, the show progressed with equal parts of Broadway classics, a longer bit as Australian icon Peter Allen who Hugh played on Broadway in The Boy from Oz (in full character), the so-called American Songbook and pop tunes. This is intermixed liberally with endearing, personal storytelling. In person, the man has amazing charisma and an unbelievable megawatt smile. But at the same time, he's very down to earth and makes an immediate connection with the audience, which he maintains for the entire 2 hour show.

Highlights of the performance:
• Hugh's rendition of "Soliloquy" ("My Boy Bill..) from Carousel -- in his words (paraphrased) the best male solo in all of musical theatre.
• A terribly shy and terribly brave young woman in the front row who insisted on unbuttoning Hugh's shirt... which lead, after much stumbling to Hugh singing to her with both of them lying on stage doing dance kicks.
• A half second switch into full on Wolverine in the middle of a song, when someone yelled out the character's name. Instant character change and back again to singing, with a laugh. Haven't seen the like since I saw Sir Patrick Stewart do his one-man A Christmas Carol in it's pre-Broadway tryout in Pasadena.
• And speaking of Wolverine, hearing how his initial audition for Wolverine occurred with his hair in a perm to play Curly in Oklahoma, and had to be sandwiched between the Wednesday matinee and evening performances.
• And... while he was in character as (the gay) Peter Allen, having Hugh look right at me (from a balcony directly above our seats) and say "Yeah... I mean you!" My friend Brian swears it was him. It had to be one of us, and maybe it was both. I don't really care -- what an adrenalin jolt!

It was a really wonderful 2 hours of entertainment, which ended with one of San Francisco's rare, and well deserved, standing ovations.

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Book: Mr. Chartwell

I just finished reading an amazing first novel by Rebecca Hunt, Mr. Chartwell.

In the past 10 years, novelists have rediscovered the true value of fantasy and the fantastical in a serious novel for an adult audience. Rebecca Hunt has used that tool to great effect in her debut novel, Mr. Chartwell. Mr. Charwell  follows twin narratives, in the week leading up to the formal retirement of Sir Winston Churchill from political life. One of the narratives, of course, follows the great man himself. The other, follows Esther Hammershans, the Westminster Palace (think Library of Congress) librarian who unexpectedly crosses Sir Winston's path. They unexpectedly have in common, a very large and unpleasantly familiar and genial black dog, Mr. Charwell. To say much more, would be to give away a bit to much, a bit too soon. If you enjoyed The Life of Pi by Yann Martel, I hazard to guess you will enjoy Mr. Chartwell. And should you recognize Mr. Chartwell, remember, as Sir Winston says, "It is war!"

BTW, read this book, then read the Wikipedia article on Sir Winston Churchill. Don't read Wikipedia before you read the book. You've been warned.

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Theatre - Next to Normal

This posting is a little overdue... my apologies...

This show is best summed up by my response as my friend Brian and I leapt to our feet at the curtain call, "And that's how a musical wins the Pulitzer prize for drama," (2010 Pulitzer for Drama). For those that don't know, San Francisco audiences don't give away standing ovations. For an ovation to start before the leads are taking their bows is unusual. For an ovation to start at curtain drop is unheard of -- and Brian and I were far from alone...

Very few shows defy description, but this is one of them. A careless word will give far too much away. But as the New York Times put it,  “It is much more than a feel good musical, it's a feel-everything musical." Cliche as it is, I both laughed, and I cried genuine tears. Despite the emotionally draining content, I left the theatre feeling elated; and I was not alone, my friend Brian commented on that as well. And I've found myself haunted by the music ever since. Not because it is stunningly brilliant music, but rather, the haunting melodies are accompanied by lyrics distilled down to the essentials of pure, honest, human emotion. Brian and I were driven to see the show again, catching tickets to a weekend matinee.

Breakout songs from the show include:
I Miss the Mountains
I Am the One (and even more so, it's reprise)
Superboy and the Invisible Girl
I'm Alive (I'd love to see Glee take this one on)
Light (the hopeful closing number)

This show was beat out for the Tony for Best Musical in 2009 by Billy Elliot, which we'll be seeing later this summer. With all due respect to Billy Elliot, it has hard work ahead of it to prove it deserved the Tony over Next to Normal. 

This is one of a very small number of shows I have seen more than once. And I'm honestly afraid it will be a hard sell for revivals. The more forward thinking rep company will hopefully make it a staple. I feel privileged I got to see this in the theatre, and with Alice Ripley, the original Broadway lead (2009 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical). The rest of the cast gave sterling performances as well. And Curt Hansen, in the role of Gabe, gave us an electric performance that left us wondering "This guy was the Broadway understudy?" This is a young man to keep an eye on. His YouTube turn as Jean Val Jean in a high school production of Les Miserables, leads me to hope I'll live to see him take on the role as a mature performer.

If you happen to read this, and are within reach of the touring company see this show! If you are a theatre junkie, and and can't make it to the show, I highly recommend you buy the script (available from Amazon), the cast album (available from Amazon and iTunes), a generous supply of your favorite libation, and prepare for a wonderful evening of emotional catharsis.

Touring Company official site:

Diana_next_to_normal_0912072-1

Hallmark Star Trek Ornament 2010

I've been collecting the Hallmark Star Trek Ornaments since 1992. I missed out on the initial Starship Enterprise release in 1991 because Hallmark massively underestimated demand. I of course eventually picked one up on EBay, at an exorbitant price, to complete the collection. This year's release is predictably the Starship U.S.S. Enterprise from last year's hit movie, rebooting the franchise.

Hall10-cc1701

The full history of the Star Trek ship ornaments*:
1991 - Starship U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 (TOS)
1992 - Shuttlecraft Galileo (TOS era)
1993 - Starship U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D (TNG)
1994 - Klingon Bird of Prey (TOS Movies onward)
1995 - Romulan Warbird (TNG)
1996 - Starship U.S.S. Voyager (Voyager)
1997 - Starship U.S.S. Defiant (DS9)
1998 - Starship U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-E (TNG Movies)
1999 - Runabout U.S.S. Rio Grande (DS9)
2000 - Borg Cube (TNG)
2001 - Space Station Deep Space Nine (DS9)
2002 - Delta Flyer (Voyager)
2003 - Romulan Scorpion (TNG Movie - Nemesis)
2004 - Vulcan Command Ship (Enterprise)
2005 - Starship U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-A (TOS Movies)
2006 - TOS 40th Anniversary U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 (essentially a reissue of the first ornament)
2007 - Starship U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D Future (TNG series finale)
2008 - Starship U.S.S. Reliant (TOS Movie - The Wrath of Khan)
2009 - Klingon K'Tinga Battlecruiser (TOS Movies)
2010 - Starship U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 (TOS Reboot)
* These are the Star Trek ships Hallmark released as Christmas Tree ornaments in the ship line. They also released several ships over the years that were intended as desktop displays.

Ruminations on Brand

A couple weeks ago I treated myself to an iPad. One of the functions of the iPad, is a digital photo frame. It can operate in this mode while idle and charging. Of course, in that mode, you want some sort of stand to hold it. Shopping at the Apple store, I saw Griffin Technologies A-Frame (http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/a-frame#). I thought it looked great. And it's really solid. It's well designed -- there is even a cutout giving access to the dock/sync connector. The price was a little hefty at $49, but it was clean, elegant and solid. I decided to go ahead and buy it. Then I got it home and set it up. A design flaw turned up. There is nothing to grip the dock/sync cord. So, when you unplug the iPad, the dock/sync cable is liable to slip away. So I ended up looping it around the legs of the stand, to prevent that. Alright... annoying, but nothing serious. I set the iPad up, turned on the slideshow and let it rip. Ahh... beautiful... then it hit me... "Gawd that Griffin logo is annoying!" It's stark black on a silver surface. It really jumps out. It's just wrong. "Those aren't Griffin's photos, those are my photos!" And that got me thinking about brands, logos, sizes and where we as a culture seem to tolerate them, and where we don't.

 

Many products we use on a daily basis have highly visible brand identification. The advantages to the maker are obvious. But why do we tolerate glaring logos in some cases, and not in others? I realized after a bit, that this comes down to two issues
• The ability of the product to transfer cachet (prestige, identity) to the user
• How important aesthetics are to the function of the product

Products where aesthetics are not very important tend to have conspicuous (large or bold) logos. Products with the ability to transfer cachet to their users tend to have conspicuous logos. Disregarding that there isn't a product in the world where packaging aesthetics are of zero value (look at me!), and conversely, that there is no product in the world that doesn't confer some level of cachet, we end up with a relationship between aesthetics, cachet and logo size something like this:
Logosize
Now, that said, it turns out that "all bets are off" at the 0/0 origin (example: laundry detergent is all logo); and the same thing is true at the 100%/100% point (example: designer clothing may be 100% logo [an Armani Exchange t-shirt] or 0% logo [a Dior gown]).

Most products where aesthetics are a primary function are free of logos or the logos are small and discreetly placed. Furniture is a prime example in this area. Aesthetics are extremely import to the function and sometimes surpasses the functions of utility, comfort and durability. Most furniture is devoid of logos or the logo is placed where it will not be seen in common usage -- the unfinished back, the lining of a drawer, the axle hub of a recliner lever.

The same is true of most clothing. Aesthetics are a primary function. In that capacity, clothing is intended to enhance the personal brand of "you". Some specific products have diverged from this. Notable in this area are jeans, men's underwear, athletic wear and accessories. That's where we get into that cachet thing. Our brand of jeans is sometimes selected on the basis of what it says about us -- "I'm practical" or "I have money" or "I'm rockin' style baby!", as much for how it fits and makes us look.

So, getting back to the Griffin A-Frame, how did they blow it? This product has aesthetics as a primary function. I certainly wouldn't tolerate a big, stark "Nielsen" on the edge of my beautiful wall frames. And I shouldn't tolerate it in this product. Griffin was thinking like a maker of computer and A/V products, not like a maker of frames and presentation materials. They aren't the only company screwing up like this either (those this logo is more discreet): http://www.laptopdesk.net/ipad-ereader-recliner1.html

My suggestion to others looking for a similar product... I realized after the fact that all you need is a desktop easel. These have been in production for about a 1000 years or so and you can find them in thousands of varieties, in every price range and choice of aesthetics. You're liable to find them anywhere frames are sold.

As for me... I wonder, will acetone remove paint without removing powder coat?

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Movie: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo?

It looks like Hollywood is taking on Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy, which starts with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. And Hollywood's best and brightest actresses under 30 are lining up to play border-line sociopath, hacker, heroine Lisbeth Salander, while the over 40 leading men are lining up to play muckraking journalist, hero Mikael Blomkvist. 

Brad Pitt is said to be considering the lead to play Blomkvist. Readers of the books may tend to think Pitt a little too pretty to play the part. But I think it makes good sense. It adds a degree of believability to the several incredible women, who all but throw themselves at the man -- the male protagonist of the books is the author's alter ego, so some degree of mid-life crisis male fantasizing is at work.

The female lead is still wide open. Several names have been floated as possibilities -- Keira Knightley, Ellen Page, Carey Mulligan, Natalie Portman, and Kristen Stewart. But rumor has it that studio Sony is looking for an unknown for this potentially star-making turn.