The Mystical World of George MacDonald (on DVD)

The movie I made on the life of 19th century Scottish author, George MacDonald, back in 2007 is now out on DVD at Amazon:

The Mystical World of George MacDonald

So Proud of Our Neighborhood School

This is the marque on the grade school across the street from my house. That a public school anywhere in the USA these days would have enough common sense and guts to post this on their marque kind of gives me a warm fuzzy. I like warm fuzzies.

Men in Coats and Nina Conti - A Comedy Weekend Post!

Men In Coats - Hilarious Magic Act

Ventriloquist, Nina Conti - Live at the Apollo

How To Kiss A Girl!!!

The Best Orchestral Performance You Will Ever Hear

Raymond Scott's "Powerhouse" being performed by an unknown orchestra led by Lawrence Rapchak.

Little Boy (film)

I don't often blog about films, but I just watched this and thought it should easily win the Oscar for best picture of 2015. Sadly, given that humanity's state of devolution seems to be centered in Hollywood, I wouldn't count on it. But don't let that stop you from seeing it. Netflix has it available to stream right now, and I'm sure you can rent it anywhere. Here's a description of the movie copied from Google:

When auto mechanic James Busbee (Michael Rapaport) is sent to fight the Japanese during World War II, he leaves behind his wife (Emily Watson) and two sons, London (David Henrie) and Pepper (Jakob Salvati). Pepper feels his father's absence most keenly, and can't wait for him to return home. An encounter with a magician (Ben Chaplin) and advice from a priest (Tom Wilkinson) convince Pepper that the power to bring his dad back safely may be within himself and his actions.

I Bought a Counterfeit Shure SM57 Microphone off eBay

I am so freakin' MADDD!!! Can't the Chinese find legit ways to make money? Every time you turn around some Chinaman is selling fake goods on eBay. And their counterfeits are very hard to disinguish from the real deal unless you know what to look for. They manufacturer and sell a LOT of musical oriented items. Microhones, guitars, and amplifiers are constantly counterfeited. I should have known better than to buy a mic off eBay. Some items you should just stay away from! As you can see, externally this mic looks just like any other SM-57.

But if you open it up you'll see that the wires are the wrong colors inside. They should be yellow and green. This one has blue and green.

Also, the counterfeiters use the same serial number on every box. (Every mic should have its own unique number.) Have a look at the serial number here. Then look at the picture below it. It comes from another post I found on the interweb from some guy who bought three of these counterfeit mics. All three have the same serial#, and mine is the same as his. The only difference between his boxes and mine is that his says Made in Mexico and mine says Made in China. (Shure probably has offices in both locations.)

I should be able to get my money back, but it may take Months while the case is in dispute. According to the retail sales page for the mic, this guy/gal has already sold 42 of them at $85 each. Here are some more pics of my microphone just so you can see how much it looks like a real SM-57. Once they get the wiring colors down, it's going to be next to imposible to tell the difference between the real ones and the fakes. And beneath the pictures of the mic I'll post a screen capture of my conversation with the Shure rep who confirmed my mic is a fake.