Neil Fein's Blog

Had friends over for dinner on Friday, including my Mom, who for once agreed to come over for dinner. Derek made us all mudslides, and we played Fluxx 2.1. I haven't played that game in years, I forgot how much fun it is!

Games

Folks, do any of you know how to recover a zapped memory stick from a digital camera? Elianna has been looking in vain for a solution to this, and the memory stick in question has photos of their trip to Israel.

Specs:

Manufacturer: SanDisk
Website: http://www.sandisk.com/retail/msp.asp
Diagnosis: No Media Detected; Corrupted
Exception: 69 photos retrieved

Thanks.

photo

Was it just me, or was that a very short weekend?

Mine started with dropping a vertical file folder's hook through the web of my right hand. Pure clumsiness on my part. I brought myself and my 1.2 cm cut over to health services. I didn't need any stitches. They filled out paperwork and then took care of my hand. Very nicely, I might add.

I finished up a few things, and then headed home. Maybe I was acting odd, but I went to an office supply store for paper for Martha, and ended up bringing home a digital camera. I think I'm turning into one of those annoying people with a camera. Hi, howya doing? Smile!

Expect to see more some pictures up here soon, when I figure out how to do it more elegantly. (iPhoto makes you jump through hoops to export photos.) Although... there are two studio photos here, and new illustrative pics on these pages. I particularly like the one on the music page.

People (students, friends, strangers) often ask me what to do about getting a new guitar. Here are a few things to keep in mind when looking for an inexpensive starter guitar. This article assumes you have little to no knowledge of guitars.

Note: Originally written on 18 July 2005, have kept this updated as needed.

Electric or Acoustic?

You've likely heard this before: I suggest you start with an acoustic guitar. What you don't hear is why. If its been your dream to shred away on a Strat, keep the following in mind:

• Because you need calluses. Badly.
  
  When you play chords, you press on the strings with your left hand. That's flesh pressing against steel. And acoustic guitars use heavier strings, and are harder to play, so this may seem like silly advice, but you'll build calluses fast on an acoustic. On an electric, it'll be a slow and gradual process. And it's far easier to go from heavy strings to lighter strings than the other way around.


• When you need to motivate yourself to practice, you need to remove all barriers.
  Electric guitars are inherently more complicated. To play an electric, you need to plug in the guitar to the amp, turn on the amp, fiddle with the settings, and so on. Don't even get me started on effects and processing. By contrast, you pick up an acoustic and start playing it. That's it.

Renting

There are many music stores that rent guitars. Make sure you get the kind of guitar that makes sense, and be aware of the differences between classical and folk guitars.

Renting has the advantage that you can try before buying, and the best way to understand what you're looking for in a guitar is to play one for a while.

If you're trying guitar on a whim, this also makes sense.

New Guitars

You can spend about $200 and get a new, inexpensive steel string guitar. Most stores have models along these lines for new guitarists. Stick with a brand like Yamaha, Fender, Martin, and so on. (If you haven't heard of the maker, stay away. The unknowns can make excellent instruments, but a good guitar now, in the store's acoustically perfect room, may not be so wonderful a year of three down the line, playing in your living room or in a coffeehouse.) Check out the full-size "baby taylor", or maybe a low-end Yamaha or an Ovation copy. Not the best, but they'll stay in tune and they won't break after a week of playing.

General advice for any guitar

Always check that a guitar's neck is straight. You do this by "sighting" down the neck.

Neck Width: Necks are pretty much a standard width. If you have trouble getting your hand around a neck, look for something with a thin neck. If your arms are short, go for a guitar that has a slimmer soundbox.

Also keep in mind that tuning machines can be replaced later if they suck.

Tone

Pluck a few strings. If it sounds tinny, move along. If it makes a buzzing noise, that's no good either. If you get a nice, deep tone, take another look maybe.

(If you have no ear for this, train your ears with a CD. With the music playing, turn the bass down, then up. Do the same with the treble. If you have something with an actual equalizer, even better. Your ears will learn to differentiate tones, and you'll be able to tell quickly when a guitar sounds "hollow" or just plain bad.)

Neil's Soapbox

The better guitar you have, the easier it will be for you to learn and the more likely you'll be to stick with it. "Better" doesn't necessarily translate into "more expensive", not in the range of $200.

Finally, the best and only way to tell if a guitar is good is by playing it. Bring along a friend who plays if necessary, but it's all down to you.

Best of luck!

1602
by Neil Gaiman, Andy Kubert, and Richard Isanove

At first, the idea seemed a good one. What if the Marvel Universe superheroes came into being in the 17th century, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth?

We're introduced to Sir Nicholas Fury, the Queen's spymaster; Peter Parquagh, his assistant; Doctor Stephen Strange, master of the Queen's medicines; Carlos Javier, mentor of the Witchbreed; not to mention analogs of the Fantastic Four and many others. The story is, essentially, that the Good Guys only know of their current time, and when they find out they have been displaced in time, they have to figure out why.

1602, while well-written, suffers from the simple problem that This Has Been Done Before. The mediocre Gotham by Gaslight and A Nation Divided come to mind, as does the excellent Red Son.

At times, the story seems too clever for its own good, but that's not necessarily a flaw in a Marvel Universe story. The pencilled art by Andy Kubert is excellent, moody and vague. Richard Isanove's digital coloring, while very pretty, tends to detract from the story in that it is too garish at times.

Overall, 1602 is good but not great. It's too typical of most Marvel comics in that it's a good yarn, but there's no substance beyond that.

books

The Mac OS X Tiger Book
by Andy Ihnatko

I used to subscribe to the now-defunct US version of MacUser magazine, and the best part of it was always Andy Ihnatko's columns. Eventually, MacUser folded and Andy went on to writing for other publications.

His blog has also been entertaining for years. When I read there that Andy had a book out about Tiger -- the latest version of the Mac OS, which I'd just installed -- Why, I drove right over to a local MegaBookAndCoffeeStore, snagged a copy off the shelves, sat down and read and sipped.

Andy (you don't mind if I call him that, do you?) is an old friend. I share many tastes with him, They Might Be Giants among them. And how can you not like a guy who goes on and on about Terry Gilliam's work, and also about This Is Spinal Tap? To top it all off, he also drinks Dr. Pepper. Oh, yeah, he loves the Mac, too. He has one called "Lilith".

Actually, I've never met the man. But I get the nagging feeling I should have, from the way he writes. Reading the intro chapters to The Mac OS X Tiger Book feels a little like I'm stalking him or something. But once you get used to this feeling of intimacy, pretend an old buddy is telling you about Steve Jobs's latest Insanely Great Thing... why, it's al very nice and comfy.

The book is aimed squarely at neophyte Mac users. Even so, I did learn a few things, about multiuser setups and networking and contact management and a few others. But I read this book because it's just damn fun. When's the last time you read a book from cover to cover? (Okay, I read the Macintosh Bible all the way through once. I'm not proud of it, and please don't tell anyone.)

And it's funny! Yes, a funny computer book. I kept interrupting my wife to read her little bits, to the point where I started annoying her greatly. Only on the Mac can you combine Operating Systems, humor, and marital dysfunction?

If you have a passing interest in the Mac, buy this book. Highly recommended.

books

You may have noticed I've resumed posting; sorry about the long hiatus! Much has been going on, including C&P's new babies (yes, that's a plural), Martha's looking for a job, very hot weather, and job stuff.

I've put up a couple of reviews, including one for a graphic novel. This isn't the first time. In general, I've resisted putting these up, because these are reviews of prose books.

But I've been reading comics and graphic novels and whatever-the-hell you want to call them for years. And the genre is indeed a serious art form. Reading Persepolis is what finally changed my mind. This book is a masterpiece, and I'd like to have my say about it. And if The Wolves in the Walls, a children's book that is essentially graphic storytelling for younger folk, gets a review, why not 1602, by the same author?

I'll tend to stay away from superhero-driven drivel. Although that genre has produced some masterpieces, I feel it's in general overextended. It's fun popcorn reading, and while I do read my fair share of Justice Society and Fantastic Four, Mr. Terrific and Mr. Fantastic aren't really pushing the envelope.

(Although, although... check out Planetary and Watchmen for some excellent takes on superhero mythology.)

What else... I put up a "Currently Reading" thingy on the reviews page... dunno if I'll keep this, but I'll live with it for a while. (What do I do when I abandon a truly awful book?)

Thanks for reading, and drop me a line if you have anything to say.

Red Thunder
by John Varley

The Chinese are about to land on Mars, beating the US spacecraft Ares to the punch! Ex-astronaut Travis Broussard, a man with issues of his own, agrees to fly a privately-financed rocket, the Red Thunder, to the red planet, crossing the finish line ahead of the Chinese and maybe saving the Ares in the bargain.

Varley's characters are fascinating, including viewpoint mouthpiece Manny, which is no surprise to Varley fans. And much of the technology is simply black-box engineering. While this book invites, nay, demands comparison with Heinlen juvenile novels, Red Thunder (the book) is its own entity. Varley has started out with a pastiche of the grandmaster, but ended up with a book that has a lot of (surprise!) social and political commentary, all of it fitting very well into the narrative.

Those expecting a retread of the opus Steel Beach will be very dissapointed. But for those who like a bit of a smaller stage, Red Thunder is very good, and a step forward for the author, who has needed to explore new literary worlds for some time now, as the middlin' Golden Globe showed. Reccomended.

books

A Contract With God
by Will Eisner

Having heard so much about Mr. Eisner's work, this volume seemed a good place to start exploring it. When a copy turned up in Bruce's bookshelf, I asked him what he thought of it. "You haven't read it?" I affirmed that I hadn't, and he insisted I borrow it and read it.

The story is simple. It's really the tale of a building on the fictional Dropsie Avenue in New York, and its tenants, mostly Jewish Immigrants. The book is divided up into four stories, so I don't know if it's really a "graphic novel" per se. But it's certainly the progenitor of the form.

The book is printed in a black-and-white, but the ink is almost dark brown color, as it it had been in the sun too long. The book feels old, and the copy I read was well-read.

Dialogue is inseparable from these sepia pictures. When a pious Jew, mourning his wife, forsakes God, it is in the midst of a wonderful stew of language and linework. And never has a resort in the Catskills looked so erotic.

The greater theme is that of the Jewish-American-immigrant experience. Escaping poverty, persecution, and war, there was an implied contract with this new land of hope. Perhaps it has been kept, perhaps not. There are laws and rights and wrongs, precedents and recourses in America that didn't exist in central Europe. But the cost of this has been village life, life as a Jewish People. The Jewish Community of today is both more sophisticated and more superficial than that of old.

While all these themes are hinted at, A Contract With God is never polemic, and never places message above story. And the characters...! The super taking advantage of his tenants, the musician conning a rich lady, the Jewish teen looking for a rich "catch". These are the themes of Mr. Eisner's work.

Highly recommended.

books

Have a new song going, working title A Thousand Times. The music's been rattling around my head for a year or two, but I could never make it work. I think it's starting to work, will post a demo when I have a first draft of the lyrics.

Right now, I have half of two verses, a chorus, and a reasonably well worked-out melody and chords.

music