ceci n’est pas un rêve passant

Caroline likes that I drew her freckles and her friend said the drawing looked just like her. She has a choker with a six-petaled flower on it and a nose ring.
I got a soujuk shawarma for dinner.
In my drawing, Emily looks rather short compared to Amanda, who is dark-haired and dark eyed and has earrings made from interlocking square bits, and Briana, who has a pendant with a flower on it. Briana said the train wanted to tell me its name too, which was Urrrrrrrhhhgh. We were at that curve near Boylston.

I saw this in 2022 and then checked that post and here are some new things about Mahler's 3rd symphony.

We all know the opening tune of Mahler’s third symphony and we can all sing along.
There’s two kinds of music, as there are two seasons if you’re talking climatology. There’s the music of winter; funereal with menacing horns, ominous, foreboding. tam-tams, violence from the violins. Music that has ceased to be music. And there’s the music of summer, full of life and creativity and tenderness, with marches and birdsongs and joy.
Pan lent his name to panic and pandemonium, and that’s what we see. But summer is too powerful.
The day of the concert was 60 degrees. The day after was 50. So summer has not yet triumphed in the real world.
In a story, the cuckoo dies and the birds ask the nightingale to take over. If they were American, they’d use the catbird instead. Brazil would ask the uirapuru and only the uirapuru, definitely not the capuchinbird or the bellbird or the screaming piha or horned screamer. Maybe if someone puts on Cantus Arcticus or the Amerindia symphony.
There’s a video on Youtube of a male Kauai ‘o’o calling out to a female but he’s the last of his kind so he’s answered only with the chirps of crickets.
Somehow, the oboe makes a glissando.
Had Mahler lived longer, maybe he’d have composed like Schönberg.

burning question: if the right hates refugees so much, why the fuck do they love creating them?
I feel there is an actual answer in that it leads to more power for them.

15 hours until the vernal equinox
It was 75 on March 10. Then it went back to winter.

( Click for art. You know the drill. )

burning question: what could possibly compel someone to watch all seven Police Academy movies? Maybe if you like the first one, I can see you persevering through the first few sequels. Maybe you just really like the guy who makes sound effects. bszzooom. Woo woo. Pfft pfft. Honk honk! k’plll-kaBOOM!

32 days until the vernal equinox

I saw Madison and she remembered me but I said that I do this so much that I don’t immediately remember everyone I draw. She asked me about long-form art like paintings and I showed her a few of them and I said I’d like to get back into it someday, but it’s obviously easier to just bring a sketchbook and some pens than to bring a canvas and entire sets of paint or colored pencils. And I’m also blaming the death of Deviantart and the fact that the modern day interbutt is AI and Elon turning a dial that says “RACISM” on it now. Madison has two dogs. I believe one is named Melody and I forget the other one's name but I think it's a human name. I said that in New York, there were little you-are-here lights on the train maps and I think that we need them.

I had fish masala curry (made with white fish, tamarind, green chilies, and tamarind) along with some garlic naan and a can of coke. It’s a two on Mumbai Spice's spicy scale, which means it has a kick to it but it won’t turn you into Trogdor the Burninator.

Ben was talking about the time he heard the opera Pelléas et Mélisande but it was two pianos instead of the orchestra.

I’d rather have the 23rd because Death of Stalin but whatevs. This is (a) one of 2 concertos in a minor key and (b) as close as Don Giovanni as he’d get. It really speaks for itself. The second movement is a romance, the third is virtuosic.

The encore was Mozart's Allemande which reminded me of Bach and not just because Bach also wrote an allemande for keyboard.

I know I’ve heard a Bruckner but I have no idea what it was (A search of my notes and a trip to the Internet Archive tells me it was the 8th. As for the 9th, he dedicated it to God, has a cup of tea, worked it on it, and then croaked). But it isn’t seven because the last performance was 12 years ago, the last BSO performance was 15 years ago, and the last BPO performance was 14 years before that.

Symphony Hall is by far the best space for Bruckner, along with many others. He spent his life in the church, which has long reverberations, thouh it was conceived for the concert hall. Make a good decision.
Here's what the critics said:
“antimusical ravings of a halfwit” - Hans von Bülow
“interminable stretches of darkness, leaden boredom, and feverish overexcitement” “- Eduard Hanslick, a much-feared critic in Vienna.
“a symphonic boa constrictor” - Brahms.
However, in modern times, there are people coming in from Denmark to hear this. Denmark!
On the subject of Denmark, if there's a silver lining to Trump's Greenland fiasco, it's that Europe's far rightist like Jonatan Palessen are rueing that it's hurting far right European parties.
It opens with a tremolo, giving a sense of anticipation and wonder. A shimmer of sound. The cellos backed up by the low horns. They start a melody, joined by the violas and it goes on for 25 bars. Not too slow that it can not be free. And then repeated with everybody, in E-major.
The B theme moves in step motion on the clarinet and oboe. It goes up in one long line and then hesitates. The horns are going ba-ba-ba-ba stifling freedom.
There’s a counterpoint from the orchestra and a gigantic climax with a pedal note that sounds like the full might of an organ.
The 3rd theme repeats three times and then changes. The minimalists would understand.
He played fiddle in dance bands and this is a dance theme.
2 oboes play the second theme upside down, like they’re in Australia and not Austria (fun fact: Australia comes from the Latin word for south but Austria comes from the German word for east)
The second violins take on the main melody but in C minor while the first play a heartbreaking melody.
The dance then builds to a gigantic climax.

The second movement is when you see the tuba player walk over to the other side of the stage to join the Wagner tubas, which was comissioned by Wagner when he wrote the Ring Cycle to bridge the gap between a tuba and a French horn. Wagner himself just called them tubas. Anyways.
When he started writing this, Wagner’s health had declined. Wagner died on Feb 13, which was not a Friday and a guy in the audience wondered if that was a deliberate choice.

I don’t know what it is about Wagner that Viennese society objected to but it sure as hell wasn’t his politics.

The contrasting theme is a lilting Viennese melody. The coda is unimaginable radiance.
It was played by German radio when losing the Battle of Stalingrad and on the death of Hitler so in Poland associated with just desserts (listen, I was making a Final Fantasy VII reference and I know it's actually just deserts and the meaning of desert in that context is lost and really only exists in that phrase), payback, and victory.

The first movement is 20 minutes long and the adagio is 25 minutes.

The third movement is a scherzo with a fierce rhythm and trumpet fanfare, then a tender trio, and then back to the trumpet.

The final movement brings back the tremolo and has three themes.

I feel like this always happens. Lavish attention on the first and second movements but run out of steam and time for the later movements.


It's about 70 minutes in total and I didn't get out until 10:30 and this is why Bruckner doesn't get performed that much. It's too short to be put on its own but it's hard to pair it with things because otherwise it goes on too long.

Jason was the name of one of the T Ambassadors and I thought he is the last name I’d want to encounter on that day. Maybe Pamela.
Emma has long fake eyelashes.
Reese, or however you spell her name, has beet red dyed hair and eyebrow piercings and works with clay and is extra-impressed that I drew the frog on her bag as well.
On the ride home, the train kept stopping for a few minutes at each stop and someone sang “I’m a loser, baby, so why don’t you kill me?” and she told her friend that Beck had much better songs. That’s how I feel about Jane’s Addiction. Jane Says and Been Caught Stealing are nowhere as good as say, Hypersonic.

burning question: who the hell thought it was a good idea to play Kanye West’s Hitler song? Did they think it was a satire like Springtime For Hitler or Der Führer’s Face?

66 days until the vernal equinox


That’s not a confidence builder.


Warlock is a movie, not to be confused with the 1959 western with that name or Project Warlock or anything else. It’s no masterpiece or anything but it does have some fun gore effects. You know, a perfect choice for the family friendly Nintendo console.


The sun aligns with the moon more than once a millennium. it’s called an eclipse. Yeah, it feels like every millennium in New England only it’s more like every ten thousand to fifty thousand years but they do happen in places like the Sahara, the Arabian Peninsula, and Patagonia.


Massachusetts readers, you’re going to have to wait until 2079.


The game’s based loosely on the sequel Warlock: The Armageddon, which is kind of like the first one, only with even more blood, gore, and explosions. And in 1999 came Warlock III: The End of Innocence, which is direct to video trash. Doesn’t even have Julian Sands.


Note that this game is rated K-A, which was basically E for Everyone. Also note that this game came out in the SNES era, before Nintendo was known for shovelware and borderline pr0nz0rz.


There’s a Genesis version with some differences but I won’t be playing them both. Once is enough, thank you very much.

( click )

burning question: and in the end, aren’t fun gore effects what count for horror?

75 days until the vernal equinox


Or Bad Omen if you’re in Japan.
It’s a Breakout or Arkanoid clone with a couple of twists.

( Clickity )

burning question: why the hell is the AI overview for this game talking about a giant rotten cheesecake?

77 days until the Vernal Equinox


While this game is Japanese, it only got released in the United States for whatever reason. There are prototypes out there and there are a lot of changes.


In Japan, Mark’s name was Hiroshi and the opening was a bit more complex because Japanese can cram more into the same amount of space, and the monster’s name was Varyu and not Bert.

( clickity )

burning question: Why does Bert need Mark's help, anyway?

79 days until the vernal equinox


This is not, as you’d expect, a game about the Astyanax from Greek mythology, it’s a game about an ordinary high school student who is named after the Astyanax from Greek mythology.
Even if he was born in August, he’s rather old for a high school freshman. Somebody explained it as “Japan’s high school is only three years and starts at our equivalent of 10th grade,” and whoever translated it didn’t understand that.


Or is it?

I’d have to play it to find out.

But probably not because the Greek myth Astyanax was thrown off the walls of Troy as an infant because the Greeks were like “if this guy lives, he might avenge his father and rebuild Troy.”
I don’t know if it was intentional but the Greeks were assholes.

the game is called The Lord of King or maybe the Road of King in Japan. For what it’s worth, Astyanax translates to Lord of the City in Ancient Greek.


( clickity )

burning question: Don’t you think you really want to say “July” over the snow? Isn’t that the fun of it? I think it’s so nice that–that you see a snow-covered field and say “every July peas grow there.” We’re talking about them growing and she’s picked them.

81 days until the Vernal Equinox

I took over 700 screenshots and even though I giffed a lot of them, I'm still amazed this posted. And the result is this: a walkthrough of Maniac Mansion that may not be the most comprehensive out there but it does show off a hell of a lot.


Back before they were called LucasArts.


There was a tv show. I actually knew about the tv show before I knew about the game and when I saw the game, I was like “hey, is that based on the tv show I never watched.” I want to say it was on the same station as the Super Mario Bros Super Show but I can’t say for sure when it’s been this long.


And by loosely, I mean “there’s a Dr. Fred and he lives in a mansion and there’s a seckrit lab powered by a meteor that may or may not be purple but it’s very definitely non-sentient and isn’t turning Dr. Fred evil.” but everyone else is different. The children are Tina, Ike, and Turner.
They don’t even have the tentacles. I mean, it’s a Canadian sitcom and they probably don’t have the budget for that kind of stuff.

( Click )

that’s how it could have happened
( but how about this? )

( but here’s what really happened )

( odds and sods )

burning question: what do you think the arcade games played like? In my headcanon, Meteor Mess is an Asteroids clone and Tuna Diver plays like Jaws for NES.

83 days until the vernal equinox


there’s a pirate cart of this game called Flash Batman in which I guess Flash and Batman team up to fight evil.


I hope there’s a storyline to that hack and if there is, I hope the plot is that the Joker built a shrink ray.


and since Batman and the Flash have the same powers in that game, the Joker also built a ray that takes away the Flash’s superpowers. Also the ray had the side effect of swapping red and blue so maybe he had Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s help on the shrinkinator. Or maybe he stole Doofenshmirtz’s Inator-inator, which randomly generates -inators and the inator he got was an inator that swaps red and blue and he’s like “well, it would make Campbell’s soup cans confusing. That’s evil, right?”


This game was on Nick Arcade a few times. I watched and the kid who was playing was really timid about attacking enemies and didn’t actually achieve the quite resaonable score.

( clickity )

burning question: How did John Boyne see that list of ingredients for red dyes and not realize that something was amiss? Thistle and nightshade? Ok. Keese wings, swift violet, and silent princess plant? Fine, maybe they’re some real life plants he’s never heard of. So far, so what?. There are 380,000 plant species out there, after all. But did he not bother to look up what octoroks and lizalfos even were? Peppers, which were confined to the Americas at the time this novel was set? Sapphires?!?!

85 days until the vernal equinox

Krissy brought up the version of Blue Christmas that is sung by Porky Pig and Emma told us about how, twelve or so years ago, her brother called up Kiss 108 asking them to play it and they’re like “we don’t have that record” and he was heartbroken.
That’s a thing I’m familiar with but haven’t heard in over twenty years.
Also, I recently learned because the guy died that Driving Home For Christmas is not only older than I thought it was, it’s more British than I thought it was. I seriously thought it was from 2005 or so because fetishization of rural white southern culture and American because we’re the ones obsessed with living a hundred miles from anything.

Krissy brought this movie up, featuring the voice talent of Mark Hammill and Nancy Cartwright of all things. Rapsittie Street Kids: Believe in Santa. Eesh, this is worse than Dire Straits and their video is from the 80s. I’m genuinely surprised Video Brinquedo isn’t responsible for this atrocity.

Emily had physical copies of Calvin annd Hobbes but ruined them by looking at them in the bath.
Lou was once in a rock version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
On Elf, Sam says no pianist wants someone singing in their ear like that. She’d be on the other side of the piano. Or else.
I called Polar Express “Uncanny Valley: The Movie.” Emily says that the music is good but the animation is terrible because they tried and failed to have it look like the book and they couldn’t do it with the technology at the time. Maybe the animators of The Wild Robot could pull it off.

Kiki once took a bite out of Sam’s birthday cake. Jiji took raw chicken and ran around with it. Julia’s cats would grab things like the skewers for Chinese food. Drake gobbled up half a cheese sandwich that some kid dropped in three bites and he stole a tuna sandwich.

Emily forbids Sam from giving Jiji bunny-shaped toys. So he has a squirrel shaped toy instead.

Sam appreciates the Andor signs from the Boston protest. Geez, that feels like forever ago.

Sam brought up the 1970s Scrooge musical and FUCK YES to that.

burning question: who actually played Mouse Trap instead of just setting up the Rube Goldberg machine and setting it off?