Thoughts on the arts, society, politics, and various geeky topics.
This is the blog of Janice Dawley. Why is it called “Central Cortex”? Well, the Cortex was the interplanetary equivalent of the internet in Firefly, a show I was totally into back in 2003 when I first created this blog, and I’ve never changed the name since then. Strangely enough, I’ve barely written anything about Firefly here, but I’ve written a LOT about other TV shows and movies, as well as literature, politics, various cultural topics, and my own life.
I recently returned from a week-long vacation in Germany, in the Frankfurt/Darmstadt area. This is a list of cultural observances I wrote down while I was there. Doors overlap their frames on one side, creating a very solid seal when they are closed. Light switches are often OUTSIDE the room. Trees are planted everywhere, even in private parking lots, etc. Urban spaces are pleasant and well...
This news is precious:
David Bradley, the Inventor of Ctrl+Alt+Del, Retires from IBM
‘At a 20-year celebration for the IBM PC, Bradley was on a panel with Microsoft founder Bill Gates and other tech icons. The discussion turned to the keys.
“I may have invented it, but Bill made it famous,” Bradley said.
Gates didn’t laugh.’
Well, I did.
The other day I was inspired to dig out my old tape of They Might Be Giants‘ Lincoln. I recorded it way back in 1988 at the Hamilton College radio station, WHCL. From vinyl. (Music piracy was a lot harder and less rewarding back in those days.) Despite the occasional pop and hiss, the album is great, in my opinion better than their follow-up album, the far more popular Flood. The music is...
It’s been very cold here the last couple of weeks. We’re talking less than zero degrees Fahrenheit for days at a time, with wind chills of much lower than that. A friend of mine was joking that we might see temps so low that weather men in Canada and the States would be saying the same number. (The Celsius and Fahrenheit measurement systems coincide at -40°. Ha ha!) I have a warm...
Just gave another $50 to Howard Dean’s campaign. It’s my fourth donation in the past six months. I’ve also given to the Democratic National Committee, though I’m less than impressed with their efforts so far. They haven’t got any fire apart from James Carville, and he’s just one man. He does make me laugh, though. His latest letter began, “If I run into...
I saw The Return of the King for a second time with my sister yesterday. It was more enjoyable than my first viewing, maybe because I had already identified my major nitpicks and could move beyond them. What affected me most this time was the relationship between Frodo and Sam. Yes, there is some undeniably romantic subtext there (“There are times when […] you want to stand up and...
Just saw The Return of the King. As with the other two Jackson films, I had some serious gripes, but I do agree with Orson: it was the best of the three. Things I liked: Minas Tirith looked just as I thought it should, complete with the concentric levels, the forward-thrusting blade of rock, and the white tree. The first shot of the tower of Cirith Ungol, when Frodo glimpses it between the...
If you are the same kind of geek I am, you might be able to tell from the name of my blog (currently “Central Cortex”) that I am a fan of the tragically cancelled show Firefly. Over the past week I’ve been watching the DVD set and marvelling all over again at what a great show it was and how clueless Fox was to cancel it. Tonight I listened to the DVD commentary for the pilot...
Behold the first post to my new blog! Marvel at its beauty! Bow before it!
To give credit where it is due: this blog would not exist if Jim Troutman had not urged me to create one. Thanks, Jim!