tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-227102402024-03-13T11:29:11.893-04:00The Richard Buran Blog of CuriositiesRichiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11821845158568897202noreply@blogger.comBlogger28125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22710240.post-32628298651572597822017-03-12T03:58:00.001-04:002017-03-12T04:05:47.299-04:00Guinness(esque) Bottle and Shamrock Shake(esque) GarlandFor St. Patrick's Day, I wanted decor that went beyond just shamrocks and leprechauns.
What truly evokes the meaning of the holiday, at least here in the U.S.?
The answer lies typically in getting shit-faced and - as with practically every holiday - looking for an item that screams, 'Yes, this is the all-encompassing, immediately recognizable symbol of (fill-in-the-blank holiday)!'
So, I came Richiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11821845158568897202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22710240.post-15384220611381113372011-04-03T01:23:00.014-04:002011-04-03T04:42:40.690-04:00Cel Wall Art (as in animation cel, not prison cell)After hanging a few framed pieces of poster art in my apartment last year, I stood back and realized that I still had a really bare patch of wall space in a corner. I started to think about ideas to fill this space which at floor level is occupied by a set of three nesting end tables. Since space is limited and I like to plant my tree in that corner annually in December, I decided against a tall Richiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11821845158568897202noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22710240.post-71775476742971357212008-09-28T23:54:00.011-04:002008-10-03T22:36:14.070-04:00A Weekday Morning in PhotographsDo I take the car or not?With gas prices the way they are, I opt for the train. I depart from the Bronx via the 6 train.I arrive in Long Island City about one hour later.Breakfast consists of a buttered Blueberry Bagel and Orange Juice from Panera Bread.After breakfast, I begin my walk to work down 35th Avenue. What's this? Looks like I can definitively tell you how to get to Sesame Street. It's Richiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11821845158568897202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22710240.post-49674753846658370472008-04-14T00:26:00.012-04:002008-06-30T02:18:37.519-04:00Go, Summer Blockbuster Cereal Premiums, Go!According to the cereal aisle, the summer blockbuster season is upon us. For those keeping tally, so far General Mills has the Speed Racer movie tie-in - offering premiums such as the "Turbo Racers" pictured above (actually in the box!) and a Speed Racer Cereal Bowl mail-in offer - while Kellogg's has the Indiana Jones tie-in and is offering a "free" Indiana Jones and The Raiders of the Lost Ark Richiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11821845158568897202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22710240.post-87881273122705382642008-03-25T03:22:00.006-04:002008-06-30T02:16:34.559-04:00The BlockerRichiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11821845158568897202noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22710240.post-48903662478014246032008-03-20T23:46:00.012-04:002008-03-21T03:44:08.017-04:00Ringling Bros. Elephant MarchRingling Bros.' arrival in New York City was marked early Wednesday morning with its annual march of its elephants (and - to much less fanfare - its horses) across 34th street to Madison Square Garden. I claimed a spot around 11:30pm Tuesday night - the time the 'no parking' signs stated this was scheduled to happen - and I proceeded to wait. A small scattering of spectators lined the sidewalks Richiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11821845158568897202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22710240.post-69752609938877952342008-02-21T19:43:00.031-05:002008-02-24T01:57:27.372-05:00Everything Old Is New Again...Or Something Like ThatI've been watching a lot of Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies Cartoons lately. One in particular sparked a weird parallel in my mind between the cartoon shorts of the 1920's/1930's and today's feature-length computer animated films. The short in question is the Hugh Harmon-Rudolph Ising produced It's Got Me Again (1932 - on Disc 2 of Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3). As the short begins, a Richiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11821845158568897202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22710240.post-6897483669085405702008-02-07T03:13:00.000-05:002008-02-07T03:38:43.134-05:00I Tawt I Taw...A Yogurt Ad?I've been meaning to post these images - and given Coke's Super Bowl Ad, it seems like a perfect time to do so. They are from a billboard in the Times Square area for Fage Yogurt. I'm assuming it's been up since the fall - I, myself only noticed it for the first time about two weeks ago.It's situated along the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade route, a little more than half way before the parade's Richiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11821845158568897202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22710240.post-4172762472577043262008-02-03T20:36:00.002-05:002008-02-04T05:58:57.483-05:00"It's Mine"I love this commercial so much that I could end this posting here - but I won't because there is just so much that was done right with the production of it. As usual, it involves three things I'm extremely passionate about: New York City, Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and cartoon characters. In a previous posting, I made clear what I believed to be some of the biggest problems with CG animationRichiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11821845158568897202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22710240.post-91050223029648370542008-01-01T05:05:00.000-05:002008-01-01T18:32:55.427-05:00A Tale of 2008 (More or Less)TWO years ago, right around the second week of January, I was in Times Square crossing from the corner of West 43rd Street to the traffic island that sits between Seventh and Broadway. Now, perhaps it was because it was raining, or because the holiday tourism crunch was well over or a combination of both, congestion (pedestrian and vehicle) was uncharacteristically light.Upon reaching that Richiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11821845158568897202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22710240.post-10012927979644621022007-12-31T05:06:00.000-05:002008-01-01T18:37:15.274-05:00Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot, At Least Remember to Take Down Your Christmas Decorations Before EasterBack in early December 2004, temperatures had climbed to an unseasonably warm 60 degrees in New York City. I can recall almost every neighbor of mine out on their front lawns, gaily hanging decorations in shorts, swimwear and white clothing. Even people who don't usually celebrate Christmas religiously, spiritually, commercially or otherwise, took advantage of the nice weather and 'decked the Richiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11821845158568897202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22710240.post-19418563302686020822007-11-21T04:30:00.000-05:002007-11-21T04:36:14.850-05:00Parade Rehearsals!I captured this video on my digital camera Monday night. It's the cast of Broadway's Legally Blonde: The Musical rehearsing "What You Want" for tomorrow's 81st Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Also rehearsed that evening was Young Frankenstein: The Musical and Xanadu: The Musical. Surreal, it is, when every musical highlighted in the parade is based on a film property produced in the last forty Richiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11821845158568897202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22710240.post-56382156173423993022007-11-18T07:02:00.000-05:002007-11-20T00:06:53.326-05:00Parade Week Begins!What can be expected over these next four days (or actually, next month and two weeks) in New York City? CROWDS!Unbelievable, sidewalk-clogging 'OMG!-I've-never-seen-indoor-plumbing-and/or-buildings-over-four-stories-tall before,' crowds. I'll tolerate it this week because a large percentage of them are what will add to the electric energy of Thursday's 81st Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Richiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11821845158568897202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22710240.post-19166607258188953272007-10-31T15:47:00.000-04:002007-11-11T23:37:59.138-05:00Halloween Takes a Year OffWhat happened this year? It's as if Halloween decided to spend the season leading up to its own day in the pumpkin patch. Merchandise was lackluster. Residential displays were minimal. Fall foliage was...non-existent.Pushing forward anyway, I created my own decorations. Two rolls of postal paper, one-half dozen paper towel tubes and several tablespoons of wheat paste and water later I wound up Richiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11821845158568897202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22710240.post-48569555927994375452007-10-13T22:31:00.001-04:002010-06-13T23:20:13.938-04:00Asleep at the Grid: Map ErrorsLast spring, someone demonstrated for me that if you typed "New York, NY to London England" into Google Maps' directions search, it would return driving directions to somewhere along New York City's furthest eastern waterfront and then instruct you to "swim." Recently I tested this again and apparently Google has corrected this, with search results now revealing that they "...could not calculate Richiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11821845158568897202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22710240.post-80239811602618586172007-10-10T03:03:00.000-04:002007-11-11T23:50:53.688-05:00It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like...I know – we still have Halloween to contend with, but this gets me just as excited. Macy’s has redesigned its Thanksgiving Day Parade website for 2007 and it went online today: http://www.macys.com/campaign/parade/parade.jsp. The site features some of last year’s elements – namely the 80th parade line-up and some of the character balloon art – but also features a new layout and the television airRichiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11821845158568897202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22710240.post-32905430376038773382007-07-16T17:48:00.001-04:002015-05-20T03:35:11.734-04:00At 140 Feet High and 120 Feet in Diameter, It Really Isn't All That 'small'Walt Disney: (answers phone) It’s your dime - talk.
Robert Moses: Walt! It’s Moses.
Walt Disney: The guy who parted the Red Sea?
Robert Moses: No! The guy who parted the Bronx. Have I got a proposition for you…
That of course, is a loose interpretation of the beginning of Walt Disney’s association with 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair.
When fair president and master planner Robert Moses decided Richiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11821845158568897202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22710240.post-54990462976540868912007-06-27T00:42:00.000-04:002007-06-30T03:34:02.645-04:00Uh-oh Should I, a self-described, obsessed (well, one of my obsessions, anyway) Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade fan, be worried? Although I try to be an optimist, I take nothing for granted – especially with two news items like these: A possible Macy’s buyout and a decline in American parade attendance.Last Friday the Associated Press reported that “Shares of Macy’s, Inc. jumped 9 percent Friday amid Richiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11821845158568897202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22710240.post-48880951733855246662007-05-25T01:39:00.000-04:002007-05-27T04:23:32.759-04:00(Insert Phoenix Simile Here)“The fires were set by landlords who were tired of trying to evict delinquent tenants. They were set by vandals who intended to return for the plumbing systems, which were easier to extract and sell once the firemen had knocked down the walls. They were set by idle kids who wandered the streets aimlessly after school….Sometimes ignition was preceded by the ritual removal of property, meaning thatRichiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11821845158568897202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22710240.post-82565083917366161852007-05-24T23:21:00.000-04:002007-05-25T00:38:00.010-04:00Shrek the Third's Writing is "Royally F#&@%d" What do Shrek (2001), Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (2006) have in common?Tight, sharp and funny writing. Namely that of the screenwriting team of Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio (they also penned the screenplay for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, but I can't speak for that one yet).Sadly, Shrek the Third (and its Richiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11821845158568897202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22710240.post-80294363653051905482007-05-07T10:54:00.000-04:002007-05-07T11:05:17.329-04:00Emo Spider-ManIt is time to put the Spider-Man film franchise to sleep. Sure, Spider-Man 3 will set records in terms of ticket sales and potentially even DVD sales, but the film suffers from an ill-conceived story, excessive length and digital effects that often don’t blend well with the live-action shots.Spider-man 3’s plot can be explained in a single sentence: Peter Parker, over-taken by a hostile space Richiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11821845158568897202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22710240.post-28181056991200078042007-05-05T23:14:00.000-04:002007-05-07T11:06:22.253-04:00Supernumerary or 'Cractor' ?The Merriam-Webster online dictionary (http://www.m-w.com/) defines supernumerary as [noun] “1: a supernumerary person or thing” and “2: an actor employed to play a walk-on.” I coined a slightly different term for my dual responsibilities on The Juilliard School’s production of La finta giardiniera: 'cractor'.What exactly is a cractor? Simple: A cractor is a hybrid of stage crew and actor. How Richiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11821845158568897202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22710240.post-55717726689948109722007-04-30T00:27:00.000-04:002007-05-06T03:55:48.229-04:00Cereal Premiums: A Part of This Complete BreakfastIt’s fitting that on a Saturday afternoon, the day of the week associated with cereal and cartoons, I would come across an almost extinct pairing: a character-based premium in a box of cereal. None of this five-UPC-codes-and-an-order-form-then-wait-six-to-eight-weeks business. It was right there in the box, hermetically sealed either for my protection or that of the toy.For me to extol the Richiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11821845158568897202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22710240.post-78898381414258629502007-04-15T02:56:00.000-04:002007-04-15T03:41:26.837-04:00The Robinsons Help Disney to 'Keep Moving Forward' “We didn’t want to appear to be setting up a Disney department that ‘did what Pixar does,’ primarily because we wouldn’t want to spend a lot of effort on anything so impossible…John Lasseter and his crew are simply geniuses, and so unparalleled at what they do that trying to ape them would have been an exercise in foolishness.”Thomas SchumacherFormer President, Walt Disney Feature AnimationThe Richiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11821845158568897202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22710240.post-84833245701384924372007-04-11T18:32:00.000-04:002007-04-11T21:23:27.404-04:00Poke 'Em...One Of Them Is Bound To Giggle.Sometime during the winter, while passing a Burger King I noticed a banner advertising their new breakfast menu. I hate eggs, so fried chicken embryo on a biscuit scaled up 800% serves no purpose other than triggering my gag reflex. But something else on that banner made me do a double-take: Cini-Minis. For those unfamiliar, they were (and are once again) four bite-sized cinnamon rolls with icingRichiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11821845158568897202noreply@blogger.com2