My Word with Douglas E. Welch

In the early 20th-century English fireworks company C.R. Brock and Company (now known as Brocks Fireworks) published colorful catalogs displaying designs from Japanese companies such as Hirayama Fireworks and Yokoi Fireworks. Six catalogs of diverse pyrotechnic diagrams have been digitized and made available for download thanks to the city of Yokohama’s public library. If you don’t read Japanese, you can download each publication’s PDF by visiting their website, clicking one of the book’s English titles near the bottom of the page, and then clicking “本体PDF画像” link below the image. Each catalog is a tremendous and varied selection of the firework shapes and colors of the time, with several designs you might recognize no matter where you view contemporary fireworks displays. (via Open Culture)

My Los Angeles 43 – Bradbury Building, Downtown Los Angeles

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See all the 2017 Gift Guide Entries

18 BOOM 2 Wireless Bluetooth Speaker and other

I have a smaller bluetooth speaker that I specifically was gifted for kitchen use. I love listening to podcasts and music while I cook and the little speaker did a perfectly good job. That said, due to the noise of running water, food processors and others, it would be nice to have a speaker with a bit more oomph. The BOOM 2 series of speakers is just one such speaker, but it was included in many other gift guides on the internet and will likely be my, more powerful, replacement for the kitchen and garden.

• Insanely good, loud 360degree sound with deep bass
• Portable design so you can bring the music anywhere
• Waterproof*, shockproof, designed for adventure (* IPX7 rated waterproof up to 30 minutes and a depth of one meter)
• 15hour battery life and 100 ft. Bluetooth wireless range (Actual battery life will vary with use, settings and environmental conditions. Rechargeable batteries have a limited number of charge cycles)
• Maximum Sound Level: 90dBA. Frequency Range: 90Hz – 20kHz. Drivers: two 45mm (1 3/4″) active drivers and two 45mm X 80mm (1 3/4″ x 3″) passive radiators.

While I was intrigued by the Amazon Echo, I couldn’t really make a case for buying one. That said, when a friend offered me their Echo Dot, which they didn’t want, I quickly jumped for it. I had been wanting to play around with the technology and see what it could do.

So far, for me, the Echo Dot has been used for listening to music from Pandora.com, providing weather and commute traffic info for my wife and sun each morning, game playing with Jeopardy, Lie Swatter, Sing Quiz and Screen Test Movie Quote Quiz and it also interferes with the Etekcity switches and Hook I mentioned earlier in the Gift Guide. I have been very happy with my Dot and, knowing what I know now, I probably would spend my own money to get one — perhaps to expand Alexa into other parts of the home.

The new Echo Plus looks neat due to its added capabilities as a smart home hub for many available systems.

09 Amazon Echo, Echo Plus, Echo Dot

You can save a few dollars if you want to buy a couple of Echo units or by buying factory refurbished units.

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Our friends, Keri Dearborn and Michael Lawshe just released their annual Halloween show, Ghosts of the Internet.

This year it is a live recording of Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, adapted by Keri Dearborn.

If you listen, you might hear 2 familiar voices among the cast (wink, wink)

Listen to Ghosts of the Internet 11: Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

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Also available in many versions from the LA Public LIbrary 

TV Worth Watching: The Doctor Blake Mysteries

Another in a long line of mystery shows I love, The Doctor Blake Mysteries comes from Australia. The show follows the life of Dr. Lucian Blake, recently returned to Australia after living — and working in intelligence in Shanghai during World War II. His life there was thrown into turmoil when he was captured by the Japanese and imprisoned, losing touch with this his Chinese wife and young daughter.

Dr. Blake is a bit unconventional for the small, Gold Rush town of Ballarat in the 1950s. He works as a police surgeon for the local force, but find himself often in conflict with his coworkers and townspeople. The stories, acting,  writing, and production are top-notch.

Season 5 of the series (its last)  is currently airing in Australia, but Seasons 1-3 are available via Netflix and 1-4  available for sale on Amazon. The Dr. Blake Mysteries also airs on many public television stations in the US.

A great presentation on sign language and the power it can bring to artistic expression and life in general. – Douglas

Physical Communication is Universal | Andy Dexterity | TEDxSydney

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Andy Dexterity offers a glimpse into the ways humans communicate and interact using just our physicality. He also loves translating music and song into movement and finishes with an epic performance to Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody at TEDxSydney 2017.

Thanks to Queen for permission to use the song.

Animation by Brendan Harwood.

Andy Dexterity is a Green Room Award-nominated performance maker primarily recognised for his unique brand of movement, fusing dance, physical theatre and signed languages. Andy is fascinated by the way we communicate and interact as a species and creates work with the intention to connect and empower.

Hailing from a theatre background, Andy has performed roles in award-winning shows for Melbourne Theatre Company, Sydney Theatre Company, Opera Australia and Belvoir Street Theatre, including the Australian premieres of Urinetown and Altarboyz.

Andy conceived original “signdance” choreography for Grammy Award-winning pop singer, Kimbra, conducted the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra for The Wiggles Meet The Orchestra, was special guest in the 2014 Outgames Opening Ceremony, performed “signdancing” with Tina Arena and opened the 2015 Australian Dance Awards at The Sydney Opera House. As a choreographer, he devised en-masse “signdancing” for the opening ceremony of the 2015 World Netball Cup, choreographed the Australian revival of RENT – the musical and You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown, both for The Hayes Theatre Company and is currently coordinating and conducting The Sydney Auslan Ensemble for The Sydney Philharmonia’s production of Elijah. As artistic director of the 2016 Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras, Andy’s main focus was festival accessibility, incorporating Auslan (Australian Sign Language) into as many aspects as possible, including a sign language spectacular for the opening ceremony.

Andy is also an ambassador for Deaf Australia, teaching Auslan (Australian Sign Language) as a part of this role. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. 

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Ghost in the Shell Display at Weta Cave

Another great display at the West Cave in Miramar, New Zealand for this recent movie. 

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Another troll at the Weta Cave

Love the detail on all parts of this statue.  

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* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!