John Gushue . . . Dot Dot Dot

Suggestions

"Traffic signals in New York are just rough guidelines."
- David Letterman

 

Way out yonder in the pumpkin patch

[Surf’s Up, as published in the St. John's Telegram, on Thursday, October 18, 2012.] 

While it’s evidently customary now for stores to start draping products in orange and black pretty much as soon as the back-to-school sales feel tired, I actually try not to pay attention to Halloween until, well, about this time of October. 

While I applaud my self-control for not (yet) buying a box stuffed with tiny chocolate bars – as if the entirety would make it to the door! – I’ve been checking out a few treats online.

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
iTunes

Last year, I loved playing with an app that breathed new life into A Charlie Brown Christmas, which turned the iconic TV special into an interactive storybook. This year, the same makers are back with a take on that other seminal Peanuts holiday classic, It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. 

As with the first, it’ll cost you some money (about $5 in this case), and while I had no trouble recommending the Christmas edition, I’m not as enthralled at all with the Great Pumpkin.

I have nothing against Linus’s hero, I should note. Rather, I have a few gripes with how this particular app is designed, and what it expects users to do.

Again, the app opens with a wonderfully nostalgic tableau: a child’s record player gently spins while you hear a jazz theme by Vince Guaraldi. If you want to be transported back to the Sixties, this will do the trick. 

The problem is that as soon as you get started, you’re taken not to the story, but instead to a staging area where you first must create an account (or log in via Facebook, which I somewhat reluctantly did).

This left a little grit in my mouth, and that uneasy feeling got worse. I could not proceed until I had created an avatar – and I was not at all amused to see the creators trying to sell upgrades, all within moments of getting us to pay for the app in the first place.

Fortunately, you can create a decent avatar and trick-or-treating costume (your character will join the famously dressed Peanuts gang) for no extra cost. Still, by the point that I was finally able to get into the story itself, I was ready to toss an egg at someone’s house. 

The saving grace is that the main part of the app is wonderful. The graphics are crisp and in high-definition, presented as if the elements were layered paper cutouts. The original voices from the TV special are used, as well, and a reader can move through the chapters (tug on the bookmark to advance) or skip to favourite moments. I think this will appeal more to the nostalgic, but maybe children will love the story, too.   

In all, I liked it – but having to go through all those hoops left me feeling a bit like Charlie Brown on his back, foiled yet again by the football-swiping Lucy.

Elsewhere this week 

Shock Till You Drop
When did getting the pumpkin scared out of you turn into such a huge business? Even beyond their home base of October, frightening things demand a lot of our pop-culture attention, and if you need proof, just try keeping up with the movies, shows and games based around zombies alone. Shock Till You Drop caters to the fans who can’t get enough of what scares them, from trailers of upcoming movies to tidbits and links to horror-genre goodies.

 

Ultimate Pumpkin Stencils
Carving a pumpkin used to involve a steak knife and a few minutes. The artistry of a few, though, is now widely accessible thanks to the web, where templates for fairly complex patterns are easy to find. Search for free pumpkin stencils (or templates, as an alternate keyword) and you’ll no doubt find something nice, but if you want something cool and of the moment, you may well have to pay. I’m recommending this site, which sells templates for several dollars, often in batches.

All the Angry Birds, for instance? Got them. Same goes for comic-book heroes, movie characters, music fads (Gangnam Style, meet One Direction) and even oddball choices, like Walter from Breaking Bad. (That, I guess, is if you want to scare the wits out of the higher-brow TV aficionado.)

Scary screensavers

Even scarier

Give your monitor or laptop an all-hallows makeover. Again, you can find an endless supply of options with a search engine, and these are just two options you might like.

I hope to have some more Halloween options in next week’s column. Now, off to watch our son turn a pumpkin into a spaceship! 

 

John Gushue is an editor with CBC News in St. John’s. Twitter: @johngushue.

 

Burning Down The House

In September, Martha and I had the good fortune to be able to see David Byrne play live in Toronto, as part of a tour with Annie Clark of St. Vincent ... and an eight-piece brass section that blew us away. Most of the songs were new, from the Byrne-St. Vincent album Love This Giant, but Byrne dusted off a few Talking Heads songs, including This Must Be The Place, Road to Nowhere and Burning Down the House. 

This fan-shot video, from a performance in Minneapolis last month, shows what the touring band was like. Quite the show. 

 

Debt free

"Just because you like my stuff doesn't mean I owe you anything."
- Bob Dylan  

If this is cool, then that might interest you

[Surf’s Up, as published in the St. John's Telegram, on Thursday, October 11, 2012.] 

Whether we recognize it or not, we’re surrounded by programming. Code keeps many things around us running, from our phones to our computer networks, from traffic lights to TV signals. 

The featured site this week is one that helps you put a little topspin on the digital content all around you, while making daily life that much more enjoyable.

IFTT

IFTT stands for If This Then That, which plays on the type of logic that is one of the cornerstones of programming languages, as well as math. That is, if [x] is an input, then [y] is the action, or output.

OK, don’t panic. You don’t need to know any programming at all to enjoy IFTT, but it will work better if you use a social media network or platform or two.

Or several dozen, even. IFTT is basically a connecting device between more than 50 different “channels,” as it calls them, and lets you configure them any way you can think of.

Actually, you don’t have to even do that. You can piggyback on the recipes – yes, that’s what they’re called here – that others have devised. Some examples: if Amazon posts a free MP3 (which they do all the time, by the way) then you can have a notification sent straight to your email.

Weather alerts? Meet Twitter. Your Instagram pics? Have then backed up in Dropbox.

The ideas go on and on, and show some creativity. One of the things that pleases me is the reliance on some underrated favourites. One of them is good ol’ RSS, or really simple syndication (to use one of its names), which is far from trendy but which is the backbone of how a lot of what’s online gets to audiences. Here, you can get RSS to pull needles out of digital haystacks, and deliver them to you neatly and the moment they’re found.

Give it a shot. You might discover a very valuable tool … or three.

The Simpsons do Halloween

Last month, I wrote about a Simpsons game called Tapped Out, which has been rebooted after an awkward start. I noted that it was fun, and kind of addictive. 

Well, it’s now even more entertaining. Over the last week, an upgrade for Halloween has rolled out, and if you’ve ever seen the annual Treehouse of Horror specials, you’ll know the Springfield crowd go all-out for the bewitching season.

There are new characters, games-within-games and spooky incentives, but the most fun has to come with the zombie onslaughts that roll out twice a day or so (including, ahem, from the pet cemetery – that’s right, Snowball 1 is back!). If they touch regular characters, the zombiefication takes over. 

You can squish a zombie with your finger (and turn Homer and others back to normal with a tap), and the reward might include a roll of toilet paper or a package of eggs – perfect for “sharing” with your virtual neighbours! 

Tapped Out is still only available for Apple devices, but it appears to have overcome its shaky start from last winter; it’s currently the highest-grossing app for iPhone and iPad, which is remarkable because you can play it for free. (The money comes from upgrades, where are packaged in a clever way. I confess to splurging a few bucks to get another zombie generator. Less than a movie ticket, I rationalized.)

As with the regular game, what makes the Halloween edition of Tapped Out so charming is astonishing attention to detail. It also differs from many games in that it is actually written; that is, the show’s writing staff comes up with the gags and scenarios, and there appears to be as much care with the Halloween sequences on your screen as with the latest Treehouse of Horror. (In fact, the two are connected, with some of the new jokes riffing on plot details from the actual show.)

As I plant a new pumpkin patch around Willie’s shack, it’s hard not to get in a fiendish mood … and also start wondering what might be coming to Springfield when the Christmas season kicks into gear.

 

John Gushue is an editor with CBC News in St. John’s. Twitter: @johngushue.

 

Dr. Seuss, as rewritten for hobbitses

I Wish That I Had Duck Feet, a book I remember having when I was little, is the source for a Lord of the Rings-inspired parody on TeeFury today.

Behind the scenes of Playing for Change

Playing For Change remains a remarkable project, particularly as what I assume was a one-off project (to connect street musicians from around the world, playing "together" through a well-edited video) into something that truly now has legs, with ambitions to do something substantial about international equity and musical education. Along the way, it has continued to connect musicians, including a project last year built around the Rolling Stones' Gimme Shelter.

Check out this video, posted earlier today, on how Playing For Change is maturing.

Legacy

"Dad taught me everything I know. Unfortunately, he didn't teach me everything he knows."
- Al Unser, Jr.  

Formidable

"Language is resilient, and poetry when it is pressured simply goes underground."
- Diane Wakoski 

A Thursday evening lift

Because sometimes that sneezing panda cub is just what you need. :)

Steady

"Set your course by the stars, not by the lights of every passing ship."
- Omar Bradley 

Sultans of Swing

A very crisp transfer from a Dire Straits appearance on the Old Grey Whistle Test.

 

Hotter Than 'Ell

Here's a recording that's almost 80 years old. It's Fletcher Henderson, from 1934.

Lifted

"Stealing things is a glorious occupation, particularly in the art world."
- Malcolm McLaren  

 

Coiffed

"If truth is beauty, how come no one has their hair done in the library?"
- Lily Tomlin  

Blerg, gazerk, myirt!

It's a 30 Rock dictionary, with these and many other words and phrases, via Entertainment Weekly's website. 

 

 

 

Hurts Like Heaven

Brand-new from Coldplay, here's a video for Hurts Like Heaven that is (believe or not) linked to a series of comic books that will come out in the winter, to be released by Bongo, the publisher co-owned by Matt Groening. 

 

A few thoughts on Looper

Nick and I enjoyed one of the best things about a holiday weekend: a Monday matinee. We (and half of St. John's, I think) went to the mall for the movies. Our choice was Looper, which has been on our list since we first saw a trailer for the sci-fi/crime/thriller.

We liked it. I won't give much away - we benefited from not knowing much about the plot beyond the starting point, and that Joseph Gordon-Levitt had prosthetics to look more like Bruce Willis, who plays his older self  - and I quite liked the plot twists. A few involve Emily Blunt, playing a woman trying to run a small farm while raising her son.

One thing I quite liked: a plot pot that is mentioned in the early minutes turns out to be absolutely critical, and nothing is made of it for about (I'm guessing) an hour and a half. It also turns the movie on its head, which is impressive, since the audience is already being given food for thought on things like time travel, fate, destiny, paradox, parenting ... and organized crime in the decades to come.

Black Man Ray

This China Crisis reminds me a lot of 1985, and in particular hanging out at an apartment some of my friends rented downtown.

 

Drink to that

Something for the long weekend. As seen here.

And if you thought you were good with a spray can ...

... get a load of this guy.

Robert Crumb's notebooks

Here's a collector's item I learned about, like the author of the piece: an edition from three decades ago of Robert Crumb's (or, R. Crumb's, if credibility really, really matters to you) sketchbooks from his truckin' prime.     

Putting a finger on it

"If it keeps up, man will atrophy all his limbs but the push-button finger."
- Frank Lloyd Wright

KD, dramatically

Break time! The ingredients of Kraft Dinner get the dramatic-reading treatment, as if the martini-quaffing hero just had his heart served to him on a platter.

(And do stick around till after the credits.)