Wednesday, March 18, 2009

We're Missing the Chile #8

Travel log: Pichelemu
-Meant to go surfing but didn't end up getting to. Shopping ensued.

New Discoveries:
-They had these 1/2 monies called 1/2 escudos! The escudo (Eº) was the currency of Chile between 1960 and 1975. This came between old pesos (1000 pesos = 1 escudo) and new pesos (1000 escudos = 1 peso). Ahh inflation...

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Dr.Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

A brilliant online mini-series by Joss Whedon about the musical misadventures of Dr.Horrible (played by Neil Patrick Harris) and his dreams to be inducted into the Evil League of Evil, thwart his nemesis the egomaniacal superhero Captain Hammer (played by Nathan Fillion), and find love at the laundromat. Hi-larious! Here's the official website. There is also a related promo comic book about Captain Hammer from Dark Horse Comics called Be Like Me! (it's free). The show was conceived and produced by Joss during the heat of the writer's strike and released briefly on the internet in July. Here's an excerpt from Joss' Master Plan letter of explanation:

A LETTER FROM JOSS WHEDON

Dear Friends,

At last the time has come to reveal to you our Master Plan. BEWARE! Those with weak hearts should log off lest they be terrified by the twisted genius of our schemes! Also pregnant women and the elderly should consider reading only certain sentences. Do not mix with other blogs. Do not operate heavy machinery while reading this blog. You must be this tall to read. ‘Kay?

It is time for us to change the face of Show Business as we know it. You know the old adage, “It’s Show Business – not Show Friends”? Well now it’s Show Friends. We did that. To Show Business. To show Show Business we mean business. (Also, there are now other businesses like it.)

And from the FAQ in the aforementioned letter:

1) Why, Joss? Why? Why now, why free, why us?

Once upon a time, all the writers in the forest got very mad with the Forest Kings and declared a work-stoppage. The forest creatures were all sad; the mushrooms did not dance, the elderberries gave no juice for the festival wines, and the Teamsters were kinda pissed. (They were very polite about it, though.) During this work-stoppage, many writers tried to form partnerships for outside funding to create new work that circumvented the Forest King system.

Frustrated with the lack of movement on that front, I finally decided to do something very ambitious, very exciting, very mid-life-crisisy. Aided only by everyone I had worked with, was related to or had ever met, I single-handedly created this unique little epic. A supervillain musical, of which, as we all know, there are far too few.

The idea was to make it on the fly, on the cheap – but to make it. To turn out a really thrilling, professionalish piece of entertainment specifically for the internet. To show how much could be done with very little. To show the world there is another way. To give the public (and in particular you guys) something for all your support and patience. And to make a lot of silly jokes. Actually, that sentence probably should have come first.

Here's Act 1 Part 1:

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Pi and Comedy

Fun times catching Dan Quinn (and openers Amanda Perrin and Brendan Clark) at the Laugh Shop at the Parktown Hotel.


Also, a shout out to my cousin Daniel for "Pi Day". The comic is from Savage Chickens.



















Fun facts about pie:
Pies date back to Egyptian times (around 2000BC) and then spread to the Greeks then the Romans (there is archaeological evidence of Roman pie dishes from sites in Kent). These were probably only meat pies and fruit pies were invented later. They say Queen Elizabeth I made the first cherry pie (yeah I bet she did a lot of baking...nothing but ruling England and baking). Other great moments in pie history include, Oliver Cromwell's banning of mincemeat pies in 1657 (he also canceled Christmas but Charles II brought it back). They say the law was never repealed so mincemeat pies are still illegal (mmmm...forbidden pie). But Cromwell was really only against for gluttonous Christmas-celebrating pagans in England so most of us are off the hook I think.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

We're missing the Chile #7

Travel log: Isla de Chiloé (continued) and Southern Chile
-Checked out Ancud, Castro (already mentioned), and Quellon.
-In Southern Chile saw Colbun and Puerto Varas

Puerto Varas:
-Stayed 2 days in a mansion-y hotel with the best shower encountered so far in Chile. Good times.
-Went swimming in the lake
-Thumbs up to this beautiful little city.
Check out this virtual 360degree tour of Puerto Varas.

Then a short detour to Valdivia to meet a buddy.

Colbun/Lago Colbun
-Hot and humid!
-Man-made lake was super muddy and gross (turns out that was a good thing - FYI bikinis are not for diving in).


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What the ?! ..... Chickens! by CP is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.