"L.A. Noire is an interactive detective story set in the classic noir period of the late 1940's. L.A. Noire blends action, detection and complex storytelling and draws players into an open-ended challenge to solve a series of gruesome murders. Set in a perfectly recreated Los Angeles before freeways, with a post-war backdrop of corruption, drugs and jazz, L.A. Noire will truly blend cinema and gaming."
I'm crazy for Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe novels (either The Long Goodbye, or Farewell, My Lovely is possibly my favorite book), which are set in the Los Angeles of the late '30s, early '40s. I'm fairly psyched to play this game!
Here in Nac, a couple of weekends ago, someone thought this:
January 2006
would look better like this:
September 25, 2006
This is the local paper's (The Daily Sentinel) report (because they don't archive, here it is):
Talk of vicious gang likely just rumor No evidence links 'VASH' to a gang, but there is a cartoon character called Vash
By JOHNNY JOHNSON The Daily Sentinel
Monday, September 18, 2006
Who is "VASH?"
His name appeared literally all over the historic downtown area this weekend. The graffiti was painted on business walls, and while police may not be sure exactly what the word means, they are well aware of the rumors.
Police have "heard" from some concerned citizens that the group behind the vandalism are a "vicious and well-funded" gang with Cuban connections. Its members murder innocents as a part of a gang initiation, prostitutes underage girls and drives around town late at night without headlights — waiting for some good Samaritan to flash their headlights so the gang can follow the motorist home and kill them.
The first hole in the rumor, according to NPD Assistant Chief Mike Kelly, is that police have no information or any evidence that ties the criminal mischief to any particular gang, group or activity.
"This type of activity is typical of a 'tagger' who is just putting his marks on buildings," Kelly said. "As for this person being part of a violent or dangerous group or gang — I'm really not sure where that came from."
The other problem with the rumor is that police have never heard of any gang called "VASH"— and apparently, neither has the Internet.
Public Information Officer Sgt. Greg Sowell said he did some Internet research on "VASH," and he could not find anything to connect the name with any gang activity.
"I looked it up — it's a cartoon character," Sowell said. "And it looks like the kind of thing kids would be into."
Sowell was referring to Vash, the Stampede — the main character of the Japanese sci-fi series — "Trigun."
Dispelling rumors about the headlight killers, Sowell said local police have never heard of any substantiated cases of someone being killed for flashing their headlights, and he noted that snopes.com listed the urban legend originating out of Florida as "false."
"So as far as the presence of some new gang, we don't have any concrete information that would say their presence is even in Nacogdoches," Sowell said. "We're aware of the rumors, but as of right now, that's all it is — unsubstantiated."
In an interview in June, police said there are currently four criminal street gangs active within the city limits of Nacogdoches — Latin Kings, Vatos Locos, Brown Pride and the West Side Bloods.
One of the previous gangs, the South Side "13," which was once comprised of about 38 Hispanic males, has all but disbanded, and most of those members are now associated with either the Vatos Locos or Brown Pride.
Police also said the gang members have learned that wearing gang colors and painting graffiti was not really lucrative, so many of them have turned to "more economically minded" activities, such as distribution and selling of illegal narcotics and illegal weapons, and money laundering.
This summer police received a federal grant for surveillance equipment that they were going to use to help combat gang-related crimes.
As for the downtown cleanup, Main Street Manager Sarah Hueber said the city is working with utility companies to clean up utility poles and boxes that were tagged, but as for the individual businesses, it's pretty much up to the property owners.
"And we hope it is possible for them to clean it up," Hueber said. "If they have to use sandblasting, it could be hard on a historical building."
Hueber said the city is available to help business owners figure out the best option for their individual buildings.
Crime Stoppers is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of those responsible for the downtown graffiti, Hueber said. Anyone with information regarding the downtown spray painting can call 560-INFO.
Yes, here in East Texas, we fall for urban legends like the headlight thing.
Some people think graffiti is art, and in big cities, such as New York, where there are so many old, abadoned buildings, and so much graffiti, I can sort of understand. But here in Nac, this is pretty shocking. If it is a gang, isn't it ironic how they are attempting to gain respect through tagging their "territory" by doing something so mindlessly disrespectful? It has to be ignorant (and I mean that in the best way) kids. It just has to be. Who else would do something so senseless and stupid??
This is a YouTube-heavy post (five). What would this blog be without them? So, if YouTube is down, or you visit me from work, and your employer has chosen to filter out things such as YouTube (as does mine; it's as if they expect us to be working, as opposed to watching videos), you're going to see a lot of white space.
Fiddler on the Roof, Jaws, Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind , Superman: The Movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Born on the Fourth of July, Jurassic Park, and Schindler's List are among the many films for which John Williams has conducted, composed, and/or arranged the music.
Any film with a John Williams soundtrack would be completely different (not as good) if anyone else had done the music. Some of my favorite movies are favorites probably because of the John Williams soundtrack. I actually worried about him dying before the Star Wars prequels were completed. That's how important his contribution to those films are to me.
To coincide with the release of The Hollywood Sound, an album on which Williams conducted the London Symphony Orchestra through an assortment of classic movie soundtracks, the PBS program Evening at Pops featured interviews with Williams and showed him conducting the Boston Pops as they played choice selections from the CD.
Here Williams, being interviewed by Gene Shalit (I tried to edit him out as much as possible), discusses working with Steven Spielberg, and the music from Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jaws, and E.T. the Extra-Testicle Terrestrial:
In this brief clip, Williams reveals that Christopher Reeve told him he knew how to play the "can you read my mind?" scene from Superman: The Motion Picture after hearing Williams' love theme:
Here John Williams sits and talks movie music, while at the piano:
The theme from Schindler's List is one of the most beautiful and moving pieces of music Williams has yet to write. Itzhak Perlman plays the lead violin part. Watch him play it live:
This last clip features a brief discussion between Shalit and Williams about the significance of the score Williams composed for Star Wars, and then you'll see Williams and the Boston Pop doing a medley of Star Wars music (some obvious and odd choices):
Founded as a shipping point on the Houston, East and West Texas Railway in 1885, the community was named for Tenehaw Municipality, the original name of Shelby County.
A post office was granted in 1886 and by 1890 the population was 200. By 1896 it was publishing it's own weekly newspaper and had become a major shipping center for lumber and produce. The population had increased to 680.
Lumber-manufacturing and a large canning operation bolstered the local economy through the 40s and 50s. Toledo Bend Reservoir and the fishermen that it attracts are now a permanent economic mainstay.
Tenaha, Timpson, Bobo, and Blair are communities in Shelby County whose names were appropriated for a plea by crapshooters for good luck when seeking to roll double fives. Similarly, dice throwers hoping for an "eight" would sing out, "Eighter from Decatur, the County Seat of Wise." Later the alliteration in the sing-song phrase "Tenaha, Timpson, Bobo, and Blair" helped a folk song recorded by Tex Ritter popular.
"Put Your Dreams Away (For Another Day)" (Lowe/Mann/Weiss) is one of several tunes Frank Sinatra recorded many times during his fifty-plus-year career. It was used as the closing number for his Old Gold Presents Songs for Sinatra radio program from 1945-1947 (the opening song each night being "Night and Day," the song he recorded the most versions of, including one with a disco beat during the seventies).
He recorded it at Columbia (1945), Capitol (1957), and finally for his own record label, Reprise (1963). My favorite is the one he did at Reprise. As with most of his Reprise work, his voice is darker, and the singing jazzier (he could play around with the notes of the songs he'd sung hundreds of times by the sixties). Also, the orchestra is much more lush, and the recording cleaner and crisper.
A collaboration of sorts between Peter Sellers and director/writer/producer Blake Edwards (you could throw in Henry Mancini as well), The Party was released on April 4, 1968. The movie takes place at a prototypical, swingin', mid to late '60s era party (duh). And this is exactly what I find very appealing about it. You can sort of imagine you are there, at the party. I love the mid-60s architecture, furniture, interior design, clothes, colors, music, etc. It's very 1968. And at the center of it all is Peter Sellers, in one of his lesser known roles:
Terri Irwin (C), wife of 'Crocodile Hunter' Steve Irwin, her children Bindi (L) and Bob attend a memorial service for Steve at Australia Zoo in Beerwah September 20, 2006. A khaki-clad choir, Hollywood stars and thousands of ordinary Australians bid farewell to Irwin at a memorial service for the TV naturalist at his 'Crocoseum' on Wednesday. The service, broadcast live around Australia as well as across Asia and the United States, brought the nation to a standstill 16 days after Irwin was killed when the serrated barb from a stingray's tail pierced his heart. REUTERS/Dave Hunt/Pool (AUSTRALIA)
