Hi Folks.
This page is a sorta info center for my students.


Mr. Seezen's Choppin' Blog

Wednesday, March 31, 2004

I believe someone is trying to kill me. [more]

Posted by Daev @ 06:03 PM CST [Link]

Tuesday, March 30, 2004

As I am sure you have already heard, Pete Ustinov died yesterday. This morning, we learned that Alistaire Cooke, mere days after retiring, has followed suit.

[more]

Posted by Daev @ 09:59 PM CST [Link]

Three is a magic number. Somewhere in that ancient mystic trinity you get three, 'cause it's a magic number. The past, present, the future. Faith, hope and charity. The heart, brain and body give you three. A man and a woman have a baby. There were three in the family, it's a magic number.
--Paraphrased from Bob Dorough, writer for Schoolhouse Rock!

I happened upon this very lengthy but very good article about the editing and rewriting of old children's classics. ( you have to sit through a lame ad to get the day pass to read the whole thing, but it's worth the wait )It is nothing new. In my youth I knowingly read editions of Frankenstein, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Red Pony, all which were edited or abridged. Looking back, it is as if I never read them at all. When I read Farenheit 451, Ray wrote an afterword condemning the act of condensing or editing literary works. His notion, it was not much different than what his "firemen" were up to.

[more]

Posted by Daev @ 08:00 PM CST [Link]

It's poetry time again, kiddies. Garrrison reads Victor W. Pearn'sReceiving.

Posted by Daev @ 06:41 PM CST [Link]

Monday, March 29, 2004

This is a rabbit with a pancake on its head.
Oolong

Posted by Daev @ 02:58 AM CST [Link]

Wednesday, March 24, 2004

Tonight after English Club I hopped on 'round the corner to seeAnnamateur, my buddy Anna Maria's trio. I've known her since the time I studied at the conservatory here in Dresden. She has one of the best voices I have ever heard up close, and a captivating stage presence. The club was packed with people, going all the way back to the door. Rock on, Anna Mari!

I found this story from the Guardian. Early April Fools? Apparently not.

Violinists at a German orchestra are suing for a pay rise on the grounds that they play many more notes per concert than their musical colleagues - a litigation that the orchestra's director yesterday called "absurd".

Paid by the note? That's like an old music school joke. Below are a few [more]

Posted by Daev @ 06:16 PM CST [Link]

Tuesday, March 23, 2004

As I was sitting at a bar alone tonight, waiting for my friends to arrive, I let my mind wander. At one point I remembered a story told by a journalist back in ought one. Coincidentally, I found out later, he has written a little recap on the affair here.

...I had the chance to shake Bush's hand, I said,
"Mr. President, I'm very disappointed in your work so far. I hope you
only serve four years." His smiling response was swift: "Who cares what
you think?"

After I read the piece, it prompted me to remember the last time I shook hands with a president. That would be back in `97, when I graduated. I shook the hand of the president of the University as I received my diploma. As I did so, I whispered in his ear, "convocation sucks." Not missing a beat, he grinned and said "sorry!"

Posted by Daev @ 07:54 PM CST [Link]


Happy Birthday to Akira Kurosawa, director of Yo Jimbo (above), Rashomon, The Seven Samurai, the basis for the Magnificent Seven, and Ran, which retells the story of King Lear.

He's one of my favorite directors, you might have guessed.

Posted by Daev @ 06:49 PM CST [Link]

Monday, March 22, 2004

This entry goes out to the late Kenneth Koch, who among other things wrote the selection below, "Permanently".

It's a charming Schoolhouse Rock! type homage to the parts of speech, leading up to an earth-moving conclusion:

You have enchanted me with a single kiss
Which can never be undone
Until the destruction of language.

Which gives me the willies. [more]

Posted by Daev @ 09:04 PM CST [Link]

Score!




My esteemed colleague Sarah found this little fella in a Kinder Surprise. He is the size of a guitar pick.

[more]

Posted by Daev @ 03:58 PM CST [Link]

How long? Not long, 'cuz what you reap is what you sow.

The new class today was a real hoot. I must have been so excited that I wasn't getting enough oxygen to the brain apparently. So let's recap the different forms of to fly just to be on the safe side:

I fly, you fly, he flies (not flys 8-o) they fly; fly, flew (not flied), has flown.

There was an incredible rainbow out this afternoon. It was so bright it had double arcs, the lower one so brilliant that as it spanned the Elba (from the bridge at least) you could almost hear how it launched out of the heath (with a harp sound) and pounded into the middle of Striesen with a loud bonk(?).

Posted by Daev @ 02:49 PM CST [Link]

Sunday, March 21, 2004

Check it out kiddies, the easter bunny spotted at the park.



[more]

Posted by Daev @ 03:26 PM CST [Link]

Saturday, March 20, 2004

Yummy. Ice cream hippy raps about cookie allocation.

Posted by Daev @ 10:25 PM CST [Link]

Bigass cat here.

Then there's this 'spanation. So there.

Posted by Daev @ 09:48 PM CST [Link]

Friday, March 19, 2004

Finally got that darn chat program installed. What was the problem, you may ask. Well, files were corrupted when extracted from the .zip file, that's what. So, you got files magically turning into folders and the like. Weird. Time to celebrate.

Oh boy, Friday night link-o-rama!

Sorry, that band name's been taken, Rob. Huh

On this day in 1945 the U.S. Franklin got hit. Here's more about that and a great picture of a bigass boat about to sink.

Traveling Museum of the World's Smallest Versions of the World's Largest Things!

As if we needed to here it again, it was about state's rats. Actually, it's a very well written editorial, and a refreshing departure from ol' Bubba Battleflagbumpersticker's vitriol.

Snicker...

Monkeybot!

Watch as the poet gets a bit hot under the collar and squirm.

Posted by Daev @ 06:21 PM CST [Link]

Here's the plan, Stan.

ss2004 (34k image)

Posted by Daev @ 01:56 PM CST [Link]

glow_in_the_dark_angel (21k image)

Posted by Daev @ 01:54 PM CST [Link]

Thursday, March 18, 2004

Dude Dude Chick (pic) Made a gallant effort this Thursdee at the handsome Reise Kneipe. Alliances were made, hearts were broken.
69's fatal flaw was to put all the kick ass bumpin' song in the first set. He realised after that set, that all the songs left in the book were pretty mellow. That left them tired when playing the second set, flubbing chords and changes, missing harmonies, and altogether boring the audience. But they stuck to it, hacking their vocal cords and fingertips to hamburger, and left the crowd beggings for them to stop. They'll be back on the 22nd of April.

Posted by Daev @ 07:02 PM CST [Link]

Wednesday, March 17, 2004

If you've look up at the clear night sky as often as I have this month, you've probably been wondering which planet that is up there all bright and shiny and stuff. I know I have, so I consulted my trusty almanac. The answer is, it could be any damn one of the five; they are all quite prominent throughout the month. And check this out:

Late this month, all five bright planets are arrayed along the zodiac like a sting of pearls in the twilight.

Doesn't that sound romantic? I hope to catch a glimpse of that, but alas, the zodiac is a might low on the horizon in this northerly land of five storey appartment houses.

Also, vernal equinox is on Saturday, the beginning of Spring. Dude Dude Chick is playing the Side Door that day. Perhaps they can work that in to the gig's theme? Maybe play Coltrane's Equinox, or we could call the theme "hey Vern(al)!"?

Lastly, another bit of almanac wisdom as long as I have her sitting on my lap: don't say that spring has come until you can put your foot on nine daisies; which suggests that spring comes sooner for some of us than for others.

Posted by Daev @ 01:31 PM CST [Link]

Oh boy oh boy oh boy.

It is Spring. We've now had about two perfectly sunny jacketless afternoons in Dresden. It was so nice on the way home from my job interview this morning I to my axe to the park and woodsheded (correct spelling) for a few hours in the sun. Now I am all brown and befreckled and have no need to go outdoors for the rest of the year.

This old stone house still has the chill in its bones, compelling some to keep heating some. But the sun is now out and shining on the chimney, causing the smoke to go downstairs and out of my oven. The Stube is full of coal smokey stench. So I built a small fire, now isn't that better, Norwegian wetter.

Posted by Daev @ 09:36 AM CST [Link]

Tuesday, March 16, 2004

More Dude Dude Chick action! Plug Away! (1.5 Mb mp3)

Posted by Daev @ 01:55 PM CST [Link]

Oh crap oh crap oh crap that was frightening...
Yesterday while hurredly trying to finish an animation for this on the side job I was doing, the comp crashed and started up with a BSOD. I tried restarting in safe mode, but it apparently froze up while booting. After restarting again, The computer wouldn't respond at all after loading the Bios. Not knowing what to do, I tried restarting again several times. I sweated, and tried to relax by practicing chromatic scales on my axe, which was a bad idea because chromatic scales are rather annoying to listen to over and over again. Then I looked under the hood and saw that dust was keeping the fan from turning. I remedied that sitch, and now we are back in beeswax.

Posted by Daev @ 01:50 PM CST [Link]

Friday, March 12, 2004


It's a beflippered swimbot! More agile than your garden variety propbot, you see.

Posted by Daev @ 09:15 AM CST [Link]

Thursday, March 11, 2004

Oh boy, I gots a new ECard done for my award winning virtualingua site!

Posted by Daev @ 08:03 PM CST [Link]


Cowardice asks the question - is it safe? Expediency asks the question -
is it politic? Vanity asks the question - is it popular? But conscience
asks the question - is it right? There comes a time when one must take a
position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must
take it because it is right. - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Posted by Daev @ 07:49 PM CST [Link]

My comp has been all bleep and blop this last day or so. It got to the point that she wouldn't start up at all. I went into safe mode and deleted a bunch of crap, and let her run defrag for about two hours, only getting a forth of the way through. So far so good.

So I might be offline for a while. But as long as the old rechner holds out, I might add:

Douglas Adams, author of Hitchiker's guide to the Galaxy, screenplay writer for Doctor Who,
Keith Rupert Murdoch, Australian fascist,
and Mary Shelly, romantic wife, mother of a monster,
were all born on this day.

Posted by Daev @ 07:27 PM CST [Link]

Tuesday, March 9, 2004

It seems that the conservatives are preaching to the peanut gallery.

"Another rich, *** elitist from Massachusetts who claims he's a man of the people. Priceless".

Anyone accustomed to the rich hither and thither banter of the internet would cringe at such a cheap rip from that saturated credit card commercial. Anyone, at least, who isn't a fratboy date-rapist, seeing as they are the ones who in their own way have given said marketing slogan a whole new--albeit base--life of its own. I'll not have sink to such levels as to have to prove my point. The fact is, at least on the net, widely known. So...

The only response I could deign to type is: how trite is that?

I can't wait to see what they have in store for the latino swing-vote... Hey muchachos, vote for me and we'll make this land "spic-and-span"?

Posted by Daev @ 07:54 PM CST [Link]

Spalding Gray is dead. I can offer no eulogy, alas, I hardly knew him.

Posted by Daev @ 07:34 PM CST [Link]

Tomorrow English Club meets in Trotzdem in Alaunstrasse. I've never been in there before, but I am long overdue for missing a week of EC.

This coming Sunday is Pi Day. Get it? 3.14? So, Dude Dude Chick's theme for the gig on Saturday will be "Pi Eve". We always do a theme, and we always make up an ill-conceived song on the spot to go with the said theme. This time we went as far as recording our poorly written pi song. Lord help us.

Posted by Daev @ 03:41 AM CST [Link]

Friday, March 5, 2004


Rabbits on Mars!

Posted by Daev @ 07:53 PM CST [Link]

Thursday, March 4, 2004

Once again my favouritestest axe to bump and gripe and grind.

B'lieve me, I love this topic.

OK, P2P is "piracy." But so was the birth of Hollywood, radio, cable TV, and (yes) the music industry.


It's no surprise from over here; I studied this in college.

Posted by Daev @ 07:33 PM CST [Link]

Tuesday, March 2, 2004

Hey grumpy, have a tater.

Posted by Daev @ 08:20 PM CST [Link]


Anyone who publishes material from a country under a trade embargo is forbidden to reorder paragraphs or sentences, correct syntax or grammar, or replace "inappropriate words," according to several advisory letters from the Treasury Department in recent months.

"A story, a poem, an article on history, archaeology, linguistics, engineering, physics, mathematics, or any other area of knowledge cannot be translated, and even if submitted in English, cannot be edited in the U.S.. This means that the publication of the PEN Anthology of Contemporary Persian Literature that I have been editing for the last three years would constitute aiding and abetting the enemy."

Posted by Daev @ 04:05 PM CST [Link]

Monday, March 1, 2004

Oh boy I just love my bitchin' new free couch.

Posted by Daev @ 08:38 PM CST [Link]

Da'ek teleyfoon methta'naanaak, pquud. Guudaapaw!
is Aramaic for
Please turn off your mobile phone. It is blasphemous.

Posted by Daev @ 06:22 PM CST [Link]

Tuesday would be the 100th birthday of Theo Geisel, aka Dr Seuss. He was the author of many children's book that were widely read and loved throughout most of the English-speaking world. They are famous for their flippity slip nimble playful use of language.

However, Geisel had several careers before that, one as an editorial cartoonist, and another making propaganda films for the army during and after WWII.
It is perhaps these experiences which influenced him to give many of his children's books such important morals dealing with the likes of anti-fascism, bigotry, enviromentalism, and civic duty. My favorite was Hop on Pop.
Here is one of said cartoons. I picked this one out because it is the one I find most unsettling and seemingly out-of-step with an otherwise rather *** Seuss.
Listen to story

Incidentally, for my non-German speaking Readers, Geisel is German for "hostage".
That reminds me, yesterday I went to the see Das Fliegende Klassenzimmer, the old one from '54. Kästner plays himself. What a cute little film.

And under other miscellany: a Reuters story about how them old nursury rhymes are actually full of
naughty bits.

Posted by Daev @ 04:45 PM CST [Link]

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