Puttering in the Study

The "GREAT DEBATES"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wanted to let readers know that the debate teams from Wiley College of Marshall and Southern Methodist University of Dallas will stage two “Great Debates” on April 29^th and 30^th in the majestic county courtroom of the historic Harrison County Courthouse.  The city will sponsor a reception in the rotunda of the courthouse at 5:00 p.m.   Debates will begin at 6:30 p.m.

A month ago, the Wiley team placed first and the SMU team placed second at the Pi Kappa Delta national championships in Lexington, KY.  The Friday and Saturday night debates will culminate a weeklong celebration of James Farmer, Marshallite and founder of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).  The Wiley team that included Farmer in the 1930’s was the subject of the movie “The Great Debaters” starring Denzel Washington.

Marshall’s very own Paramount Theater will be showing a different film each night the week of April 25-28, ramping up to the “Great Debates” on April 29^th and 30^th.  The films will begin at 6:00 p.m. each night and there is no charge; however, donations to the Wiley College Great Debaters are welcome!

TICKETS FOR THE DEBATES ARE AVAILABLE AT THE HARRISON COUNTY HISTORICAL MUSEUM OR FROM GAIL BEIL AT [email protected]

Seating in the chairs in the jury box, in the middle of the courtroom during the debate, will be offered for $100 each and may be purchased through the Harrison County Historical Museum or through the website of Wiley College’s Great Debaters.  All other seating is $25.00.

Peter Grant series - Ben Aaronovitch

I have been reading/listening to the first four books in this urban fantasy / police procedural series featuring a London policeman who becomes a trainee wizard. The author is a former writer for Doctor Who, but it is actually the police angle that I have found more interesting in the books. While it has a paranormal aspect, not unlike the Laundry novels or other similar series, the repeated grounding of the character in London police procedure is very interesting.  As Peter goes from situation to situation, he is constantly explaining how his experience as a police officer is influencing what he does and what he is thinking about, and I have found that very entertaining.  Overall a good series.

Galaxy Quest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Parker has watched this movie recently, and so he, Grayson and I sat down and watched it again. What a great movie.  From the first second I couldn't imagine how much fun the original Star Trek cast would have had watching this. From the pasteboard sets to the egregiously bad acting, to the cartoonish characters, the original TV series that the movie is built on is just a delightful spoof of Star Trek.  And as always, the late Alan Rickman is just a joy to watch, and Tim Allen does a terrific William Shatner.  If you have any familiarity at all with Star Trek, you really have to see this.

The Annihilation Score (a Laundry Files novel) - Charles Stross

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the latest Laundry Files book by Stross, and it has apparently gotten some negative reviews, but I enjoyed it.  It changes the point of view from Bob to his wife Mo, which I didn't mind, and I actually enjoyed the story from her perspective.  I have gotten to where I enjoy this series so much that I am concerned that nothing too bad happens to anyone so that I can look forward to the next installment.  I think this book didn't do any lasting damage to anything.

Unlike some recent non-Laundry Stross novels I have read, it was easy to follow, well-written, and I had trouble putting it down while reading it.

Midway- Blu-ray version

 

 

 

 

 

Again, ten years ago this summer I posted http://mcsmith.blogs.com/general/2006/07/midway_collecto.html about the collectors edition DVD of the 1976 movie. I picked up the Blu-ray version a few months ago, and finally got around to watching it this weekend with Grayson and Parker. I really enjoyed it this time – I didn't notice the better image quality initially, but as the movie went on, I realized that I was seeing a lot of details and things in the background that I had never noticed before.

The older I get the more I appreciate the movie because it tells the story as accurately as it can, and although it is technically inaccurate in terms of the hardware, candidly, that is really secondary to the story. The better image quality did make one thing a lot clearer, which is that almost everything that the characters say, and this is especially true for Nimitz, Halsey and Spruance, is something that the real historical figures would never have actually said, but it is necessary exposition for the story. For the first time, it comes across almost like a stage play.  Again, I am starting to appreciate that a little better the older I get.

But, again, the thing that the Blu-ray release really does is bring out a lot of the detail in the background – from crowd scenes, to flight deck scenes, to panoramic shots of ships in action, and even to the historical footage. For some reason, I just never really noticed all the detail before

Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway - Jonathan Parshall & Anthony Tully

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ten years ago this fall, I posted http://mcsmith.blogs.com/general/2006/09/shattered_sword.html

on this new book about the battle of Midway, told from the Japanese side with access to new records and analysis. I reread it this past weekend – yes, the entire book – and really enjoyed it once again. The analysis didn't seem quite as earth-shattering as it did ten years ago when it was new, but I did really enjoy it.

 

Study ceiling update

I realized this morning that I hadn't posted about the most recent additions to the study ceiling.  So here goes.

Pope John Paul II

Over the religious books - with "Sanctus" in gold lettering.   But he was way to cool for "Ioannes Paulus" so I didn't go with Latin for the proper name.  The picture to the right shows the posterized image I worked from, with the paint color stick.

Frederick Law Olmsted / Andrea Palladio

The landscape and architecture stacks got theirs last year, and I am particularly happy with Olmsted's.

Tom Landry / Roger Staubach

Simply couldn't choose one over the other, so the Dallas Cowboys stack has both.

 

 

Cartouche

The long term plan is to continue to add detail in the form of more panels and "carvings" and other embellishments as I find appropriate models, and the most recent is a decorative cartouche that will eventually be above every section.  It may eventually contain a Roman numeral for the stack, and later maybe a Latin label on a scroll, but at the moment it's just something I am working on getting up and done as quickly as possible using a template that allows me to outline it quickly, and then just sketch in the highlights and shadows quickly.

The Future?

As I mentioned, the cartouche needs to keep working its way around the room - currently I'm doing every other section.  But after that I have a couple of ideas.

Panel Rosettes

The shadowing in the panels (see foreground and background in photo at right) doesn't look as good as I'd like, so I'm considering redoing them with rosettes like the attached.  Principally to redo the shadow detail, but if I can come up with a simple rosette that doesn't take too long, it would add a lot of interesting detail.

Seraphim/Angels/Allegorical Figures

The corners are not symmetrical, and would provide an opportunity for some winged figures to take advantage of the space.  I am still looking for some good models, as well as some appropriate subjects, such as allegorical figures (arts, science,justice, whatever).  A possible selection is the four virtues from the library of Celsus in Ephesus, which are wisdom (Sophia), knowledge (Episteme), intelligence (Ennoia) and valor (Arete).  But I am still working on that.