HiWire

Happy Birthday!

Powerful. Wikipedia: "'An Enemy of the People', produced by Berlin's Schaubühne theater, was performed in Beijing from September 6 to September 8, 2018, but the subsequent touring of the show was cancelled due to its themes. The audience in Beijing reportedly showed overwhelming support for the character Dr. Stockmann, and shouted criticism of the Chinese regime during interaction parts. Even in subsequent censored performances, audiences yelled "for personal freedom!" The regime's censorship officers would not agree on any more subsequent touring unless it was doctored in favor of the regime's thought on what a play should be." but also: "Ibsen took a somewhat skeptical view of his protagonist, suggesting that he may have gone too far in his zeal to tell the truth. Ibsen wrote to his publisher: 'I am still uncertain as to whether I should call [An Enemy of the People] a comedy or a straight drama. It may [have] many traits of comedy, but it also is based on a serious idea.'" On a lighter note, this is my favorite British drama (looks like there won't be a revival, though): http://britishperioddramas.com/news/blackadder-writer-confirms-if-that-rumoured-new-season-will-happen/

I think it's the reverent gloss on the show. The show means to satirize the upstairs/downstairs genre but actually revels in its conventions. I think it was very popular everywhere at the time it was on air (I completely missed the boat as a TV contrarian), but I took a quick look at some of the Downton parodies on YouTube and none of them are as clever as the show itself (i.e., it is self-parody). It's easy to make fun of the show because it wallows in minutiae and melodrama, but I admire the commitment of the actors. Most of the show is ridiculous, which is why everybody plays it with an absolutely straight face. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/18/style/better-check-the-beds-edwardians.html "Mary has such a punchable face"

OK, I'm pretty sure Downton Abbey is crack for hardcore Anglophiles. But I keep thinking that it would be even better with a guest appearance from Wallace and Gromit 🧀

Aja – Steely Dan

Rage In Eden – Ultravox I like this album cover a lot more than the other versions

Warhammer 40,000 9th Edition – people seem to take Warhammer literally, which is weird (I can see where it's necessary to flesh out the universe for the video games and books). It's meant to be silly fun. The rules are meaningless to me as I haven't played Warhammer since the first edition, but I do enjoy the videos and absurd Spice Marine memes. Regarding the commenters' complaints about the video (too clean) – I think Games Workshop is trying to bring in a younger group of new players (again), so having too much blood and gore in the intro would make it difficult to bring them in.

Harlequin is worth listening to in the background just for the soundtrack:

According to Wikipedia, John Foxx worked on the Bitmap Brothers' Speedball 2 and Gods soundtracks under his new pseudonym, Nation 12, in the early 90s:

This album is too short! Straight into Lament...

Quartet – Ultravox

I'm halfway into the third episode and suddenly it's Weekend at Bernie's – I suspect we are being trolled. The cast must have had fun shooting it (no smiles allowed). Gives fresh insight into the term "corpsing." I've somehow managed to dodge ten years' worth of spoilers by living in the matrix.

I liked her baked eggs recipe. I'll go back and watch the rest of them, too. She's very charming and she presents well on the video. The first episode of Downton was very serious and melodramatic, but the second episode showed more comedic potential. I joked to a friend that I am looking forward to six seasons (and a film) of British people being mean to each other in the nicest settings. A brief meme search on Google also gave me the term "posh frock porn."

True enough. I've opened quite a few Macs, but none of the models after 2016. Not much point when everything is glued and soldered. Apple just announced a Radeon Pro 5600M 8GB HBM2 upgrade ($800 USD) for the 16-inch MacBook Pro – they are claiming up to 75% increased performance from the 5500M, which makes you think the 5500M was weak sauce. Not cheap, though. They'll probably offer the 5600M in the next iMac refresh.

Yes, I sometimes wonder what really goes on in the back of the Apple Store. I looked up the battery replacement procedure (suggested by OWC) for my MacBook and it was horrific – you have to disassemble almost the entire computer and use solvent to remove the glue. 😦

Her latest post was quite heavy: https://www.ladycarnarvon.com/algorithms/ The building and grounds look lovely – must cost a fortune to maintain. I'll stop by if I'm ever in the area. After watching a little of the second episode, I do feel that the show is subversively satirical, which makes it kind of fun to watch.

Partway through the first episode and I'm already thinking, "Serve yourselves, you useless fucks."

I learned a few things... I assume SACDs are similar to regular DVDs.

I only heard about the copyright strikes on his channel recently... it's tricky to navigate music rights at the best of times. 🥺 I watched his breakdown of Sting and the Police's song composition earlier this week. Fantastic stuff.

I enjoyed this one... even with the volume turned really low, my heart started beating faster as if a real set of drums was in the room... that's a crazy feeling when the drum sounds are going through your body

When he said the Jaeger's movement was relatively simple I was scared of what a complicated one would look like. I really like his conservationist approach to watch maintenance and restoration.

Hard to say. The lockdown affected a lot of the supply chain, so it's possible that shipments of the old iMacs have been held up as well.

I can't be absolutely sure – they might be different people. The channel info on YouTube is relatively vague (and the spelling of the channel is slightly different and there are no mentions of the YouTube videos on the Naked Watchmaker site): "The mission of The Nekkid Watchmaker is to strip away all the BS and snobbery in watchmaking and to encourage a new generation of watchmakers in to this wonderful art. In essence we are all Nekkid watchmakers. I'm a watchmaker specialising in service and restorations. I am a bit late to the youtube party but I thought I would start this channel for any watch lovers out there looking for some help, advice or just a discussion about watches. I have many years at the bench and also handle many watches each day, so I thought it would be a good idea to talk about some of the watches that pass through my hands. I will be doing reviews and tutorials on the subject."

I'll just leave this here:

One man's search for an elusive tune from 30 years ago (basically like every day of my life):