Monday, January 23, 2006

81.



Consider it in the rafters.

Choose Your Own Admirer here.

My personal favorite:
”Bryant justified the INVENTION of satellite dishes, TV, and possibly electricity itself.”
(if link doesn't work, try http://blogs.mercurynews.com/bay_area_sports/2006/01/kobe_bryants_81.html)

Daily Dime provides The Complete Kobe

Casey0 recently pointed me to a timely article 82games.com wrote last week – The Value of Kobe Bryant

I think he deservedly joins LeBrizzle as the centerpieces for Team USA. I think he pushes his team to the 6th seed in the West. I think the second round of the playoffs are going to be veeerry interesting...

Saturday, January 21, 2006

Scoring for Film and Multimedia
Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions
New York University


Scoring for Film and Multimedia," is a 45 point Masters level curriculum, designed within programs for Music Composition and Music Technology. The Music Composition program places an emphasis on composing for Film/TV and multimedia, including interactive performance, silent film, and multimedia & web-based media. Within the Music Technology program, areas such as music editing, sound design, recording & mixing, and sound synthesis are addressed. However, in today's ever changing professional environment, a composer often takes on roles lying far outside of traditional training. Students are encouraged to develop an eclectic skill set: composing, engineering, editing, orchestrating, MIDI-mockups, sound design, and producing.

A broad variety of workshops and conferences have been presented for both composers and scholars. In an ongoing collaboration with NYU's Tisch School of the Arts' Maurice Kanbar Film Institute, student films with live accompaniment are presented yearly at The Film Society of Lincoln Center's series: Toons, Tunes, and Trikfilms. Collaborations with ASCAP, the Local 802 A.F. of M., and the Film Music Society have resulted in such large-scale projects as the annual NYU/ASCAP Film Scoring Workshops. These and other opportunities often culminate in recording sessions with orchestras comprised of New York City's top-tier musicians. Our Film Scoring classes regularly feature live recordings with ensembles, simultaneously training our instrumental majors in the rigors of studio recording.

At the nerve-center of practice and theory, the Film ScoringProgram in Steinhardt offers M.A. and M.M. degrees, and a composition faculty who have worked on over 60 feature films, and have garnered three Guggenheim Fellowships. The faculty includes Sonny Kompanek, Deniz Hughes, Justin Dello Joio, and Marc Consoli. Industry guests regularly present seminars, and have included Leonard Rosenmann (Rebel Without a Cause), the late Buddy Baker (The Fox and the Hound), Marco Beltrami (Terminator 3), and Mark Snow (X-Files). Music editor Roy M. Prendergast (Shakespeare in Love) has offered numerous seminars. Ron Sadoff and renowned conductor and musicologist Gillian B. Anderson serve as the co-directors of the East Coast branch of the premiere preservationist Film Music Society, housed in the Music Department.

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Feminism 101

- On Last Names

- On Home Equality



3 minutes 31 seconds. 0 rebounds, assists, steals, blocks. 0 turnovers. 0 free throws.

1-1 from the field.

Of all the lines Shaq, Kobe, Wade, or Odom put up last night (nevermind the rest of the starters), this stat line was the most impressive.

After getting follow-dunked on with authority by one of the 50 greatest players in NBA history, 18 year-old 3rd string Laker center Andrew Bynum not only hustled down court, posted up the most dominant center of our era, proceded to fake him out of his socks and politely dunked the basketball, BUT ALSO ran back on defense and threw an exuberant elbow in Goliath's thoroughly miffed ribcage. Sure he only scored once. Sure he took O'Neal's retaliatory forearm blow to the neck. Sure he only played 3 and a half minutes--but in that fragment of the game, I witnessed the emergence of the next great center in the NBA. Knock on wood to avoid jinxing it with a foot injury, but by the 2008 season Bynum will be THE center to reckon with in the league.

He'll have competition of course:

Rising Centers of the Next Generation
1. Amare Stoudomire
2. Dwight Howard
3. Greg Oden
4. Andrew Bynum
5. Samuel Dalembert

Speaking of centers, here's a good read on the decline of center productivity in the league and a few steps Mr. Stern could take to remedy the situation.

Monday, January 16, 2006



NBA 05-06 SYNOPSIS (for RM)
This post will be updated with pictures, links, and actual content on the below subtopics as I see fit to procrastinate. Feel free to comment regarding missed areas of interest or extra factoids I should include. Our goal here is to capture the essence of the 2005-2006 NBA season to date for someone who loves basketball but has paid little to no attention this year due to his inconvenient work/PhD courseload.




Great Coaching(?)
-Flip "On the O" Saunders
-Mike "D'Genius" Antoni
-Home Town Brown vs the Zenmaster
-The Riley Factor





Elevation & Dissent
-Elton Brand, Tony Parker, Chauncy Billups, Marcus Camby
-Bottom Dwellers Raise the Floor:
Clips, GSW, Hornets, Bobcats
-Yaosers, the un-Franchise,
& What Went Ron?




Most Virtuosic Balla'
-A PG Behind (Billups, Parker)
-The Regulars (The Big Ticket, The Big Fundamental, The Answer, & Dirk Diggler)
-The Flash
-La Mamba
-The King

Sunday, January 15, 2006


Corporate Focus = Strategy for Education?

As one of my favorite co-workers Charlie Mojkowski pointed out, IBM has posted its new corporate values:

1. Dedication to every client's success
2. Innovation that matters--for our company and for the world
3. Trust in personal responsibility in all relationships

These three values are completely concurrent with what Big Picture is trying to do with education in America, and I think it's something a good teacher use to model the direction of their work. Dedication, innovation, and trust are what push the leading corporate teams to success--why not apply the ideas to school?

Wednesday, January 11, 2006


First weekend of the New Year featured a slumber party in Providence with the likes of Mario Rojas, Brad Tytel, Eilis Cahill and Sarah "Spanish Import" Cassel, pictured having fun outside our house here. It was a full house, especially with Eilis' two dogs that came up from New York as well. Shannon, the elder, is a humble german sheppard who spent most of the time on the couch unless we offered her a walk in the snow.
Tenoby, the younger, is a black lab pup whose four months on earth have yet to teach him how to control his bladder. Needless to say our kitchen has seen its fair share of bleech over the past few days. Amidst cute animals, homemade waffles, and good friends, we really enjoyed ourselves. Good times.



Work is, by its nature, less fun -- but you wouldn't be able to tell from these pictures. We held our first retreat of 2006 at Dave & Busters, a video arcade at the Providence Mall. When not tending to my camera man duties, I was beaten sorely at the hoop-it-up game by our 61-year-old director, Dennis Littky (check out his book). The racing games were the best because up to four of us could compete at a time, and you know how those Rhode Islanders are behind the wheel. It was very amusing to see these peaceful non-profit workers waste mutants with virtual handguns. There was also a machine that morphed ("mawph'd") co-workers' faces together to see what their babies would potentiall look like. While not the cutest, out directors certainly produced an intersting offspring.




Business as usual up in RI, just trying to get into gradschool, get the bronchita-saurus out of polly's chest, and do good work.

Wednesday, January 04, 2006


HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOUIE BRAILLE!


To find out more,click here!