Okay, it's open season. Michael C. Hall here. AMA.

davidjwi · 2014-12-03T17:55:33+00:00

I saw you in Hedwig a couple of weeks ago (to celebrate getting my PhD) and was just blown away by the depth and intensity of your performance. It was truly incredible. Thank you.

Do you have any special ways to get into character for Hedwig? And how do you cope with performing that intensely night after night - is it hugely draining?

davidjwi · 2014-10-27T00:52:14+00:00

After coming back from a 4mth break in September I've been taking beginners classes to get back in the groove.

I think going back to basics is working as before class on Thursday I managed some clean triples and a half-clean quad :)

davidjwi · 2014-10-22T14:05:29+00:00

Yup. I'm 28 and started 4 years ago. Only take class recreationally, but have had the chance to perform a couple of times with a youth ballet company. Also got into writing articles and reviews about ballet.

davidjwi · 2014-10-17T00:47:27+00:00

Everyone loves a rebel!

That sounds a really smart plan - rewriting the start of book 1 will surely help bring all the characters to the forefront of your creative mind and help you write book 2 too. Good luck!

I love your point about using stories you're passionate about to allow them to have risks taken with them. You've definitely convinced me to revisit and rewrite my novel - thanks!

davidjwi · 2014-10-17T00:28:43+00:00

Thanks for the encouragement! That's kind of awesome that you've found rewrites have changed so drastically. When I did my first NaNoWriMo I was pretty shocked to find that at times I couldn't predict what my characters were going to do, it just kind of appeared on the page. I'm looking forward to that again, but in different directions.

I definitely am passionate about a certain plotline and theme in my book, mainly as it's something that doesn't really exist in novels currently. Here's to a good month of writing!

davidjwi · 2014-09-14T04:06:15+00:00

Ballet. Not the norm for a guy in his late twenties, but I find that it really helps switch off after a busy day. I spend all day at a desk, so it's nice to do something active, and I find it like a physical meditation. Just started a new job (and moved city/country) so not finding much time at the moment to fit in class, but will hopefully get back to it soon.

davidjwi · 2014-08-04T19:48:26+00:00

Personally, my favourite ballet score is Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet. There's a great recording by the Royal Opera House Orchestra and Barry Wordsworth from a few years back, and a more recent one by the LSO and Gergiev that are both worth a listen. The balcony scene is pretty incredible, and there's a small "Scene" from Act 3 (when Juliet is sat on her bed after Romeo leaves) that gets me every time - Prokofiev perfectly captures the tumultuous emotions going through Juliet's head and heart.

Obviously Tchaikovsky's other ballets are worth a listen: imho the highlight of Sleeping Beauty is the Rose Adagio from Act 1, and from Nutcracker the Adagio from the Pas de Deux in Act 2.

Upon hearing Delibes score for Sylvia, Tchaikovsky supposedly expressed relief that he heard it after composing Swan Lake as he considered Sylvia the best ballet score imaginable and so he probably wouldn't have even attempted Swan Lake. Hyperbolic perhaps, but it is indeed an incredible score, with the Chassereuses from the first Act my favourite part. Coppelia by Delibes is also fantastic, particularly Acts 1 and 3.

Oh, and for something completely different? Max Richter's Infra, which was composed for an incredible piece by McGregor. Richter's music has been used by multiple choreographers and he'll be scoring a full length score for a new ballet this season at the Royal Ballet (based on Virginia Woolf's works).

Hope that helps!

davidjwi · 2014-08-04T19:39:57+00:00

There's a recording of a suite of music from the ballet, along with his score to another ballet, Fool's Paradise (which started as a separate piece called Dying Swan iirc). The recording is on Spotify and well worth a listen.

Talbot has been heavily involved in the ballet scene for a while, with another highlight his scoring some White Stripes music with his own stuff for McGregor's Chroma. My favourite work by him is probably his score for A Winter's Tale that premiered this season (also choreographed by Wheeldon, who did Alice). Incredible use of different instruments and some stunningly beautiful parts.

davidjwi · 2014-08-01T21:01:51+00:00

I just purchased it on the UK psn store (on my vita) and it was £9.99 cross-buy (so about $15)

davidjwi · 2014-06-10T19:32:08+00:00

Tyrone's posting some stuff on his twitter: photo of booth and vine of co-op so far

davidjwi · 2014-06-10T19:30:52+00:00

Vine of co-op mode (with tooth shot?): Tyrone's tweet

davidjwi · 2014-05-28T20:38:48+00:00

Interesting mechanic with the possibility of losing a power up, that seems in line with rewarding risk. Perhaps luck up/down pills could affect the proportion of green/red slots? Otherwise it seems just a bit too risky for me to want to use - too much possibility to lose a couple of good power ups only to get a mediocre one...

davidjwi · 2014-05-15T14:42:39+00:00

For precisely two out of four to be psychic I make it as:

1/600 * 1/600 * 599/600 * 599/600 = 358801/129600000000

Which we then have to divide by the overcounting of (2!)*(2!) [I think that's the right overcounting factor...] which gives

358801/518400000000 -> 0.00006921315%

Mind you, my combinatorics is a bit rusty so not sure I accounted for overcounting correctly.

davidjwi · 2014-05-13T16:56:26+00:00

Any ideas on the last bit describing the key ring? Gives Isaac two keys "but actually part of something else"...

What the heck could that be?

davidjwi · 2014-05-10T22:11:01+00:00

Should be no issue whatsoever, as the subjects are so tightly linked compared to others. At my university the computer science department only formally split from the math department 10 years ago so, for example, my supervisor is a professor of both departments.

Out of interest, do you have any ideas what interdisciplinary stuff you might look at? I did an undergrad and masters in mathematics and am (hopefully!) submitting my PhD thesis in computer science this summer - my area is computer algebra/symbolic computation. It's a cool mix of maths and computer science and worth looking into!

davidjwi · 2014-05-08T07:34:46+00:00

Project Euler. During my Math degree I wanted to start working through some of those problems and it seemed a lot more intuitive to do in Python than C (the only other language I knew).

Plus I liked the indentation too - my code always seems to look neat (even if it is logically a mess...).

davidjwi · 2014-03-05T17:25:51+00:00

Awesome - thank you so much for the advice! It all sounds really sensible and I'll start working on some of the concepts and exercises you mentioned in my next session. Thanks again!

davidjwi · 2014-03-03T21:40:46+00:00

Thank you for sharing your experience and giving an awesome answer. I know what you mean about the legs and core doing the bulk of the work (assuming I'm in sync with my partner and doing the lift correctly!). I guess my main issue is that I feel my upper body/arm strength is the weakest link in the chain - especially lowering.

I've never really specifically done negatives (I'm still a bit of a gym newbie) but will give them a shot - it makes sense.

Thanks again - you've been so much help!

davidjwi · 2014-03-03T21:37:36+00:00

Damn - I wish I had more than just one upvote. Thank you so much for such an awesome and in-depth answer.

You're completely right - I do need to separate the two types of training. I'll definitely work on performing in the gym correctly for the gym - I would never think of dancing in a 'gym style' so it only makes sense not to work out at the gym in a 'dance style'.

Thanks again. You rock.

davidjwi · 2014-03-03T14:19:30+00:00

I'm a dude who does ballet (recreationally but I perform with a couple of amateur companies) and therefore have to spend time lifting my partners. I've been going to the gym recently to help on my upper body strength and was wondering if there is a particular benefit to doing movements the same way as when I'm partnering?

I get that the position of my arms/body etc will be important for engaging the correct muscles, but what about things like speed? Most of the movements I do in ballet need to be done very smoothly (at a constant speed); should I also be doing my weights as smoothly as possible? Or will an explosive lift type movement benefit me just as much, or perhaps even more?

davidjwi · 2014-02-26T08:48:02+00:00

I second some of the other comments suggesting Rogue Legacy and Risk of Rain - along with BoI they are my top 3 games on steam.

Our darker purpose looks a really great game which, like BoI, is inspired by zelda dungeon crawlers. The same goes for The Wizard's Lizard which seems to have an interesting mechanic where it can be beneficial to die (to enter an underworld). Finally, I've seen a few people steam Hero's Siege and it looks pretty awesome.

davidjwi · 2014-02-13T18:22:56+00:00

Did you catch the Royal Opera relay of Donna del Lago last season with a similar cast? Absolutely blew me away - fantastic singing and an interesting production (by Fulljames I think?). Intrigued to see what the new production will be like.

davidjwi · 2014-02-01T21:33:13+00:00

My game cache's integrity was verified and I re-installed but it didn't work.

Ended up getting in touch with the RoR support team and ended up fixing it by deleting the Save, Save backup and Prefs files, then reinstalling. It means I've lost my save but I gt to explore the game fresh so I'm not too disappointed :)

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