Culture Maven

Quick update...again

2007-05-02T22:00:00.000-04:00

I know it's been on for a few weeks, but I have found myself to be a big fan of Shear Genius. I really thought it would be dumb, and after the disappointments of Top Chef and Top Design, I was very surprised (because my idea for them is Top Exterminator at this point). But seriously, Jaqulyn Smith, always my favorite Angel, was a brilliant choice as a host. They found someone to mentor them in the salon who is not a judge (I hate that Tom Coliccio walks around and asks them questions and makes them feel bad and then uses it against them at the judging table). It's oddly addictive.

As a side note, I noticed on the website that Bravo links to TWoP, which is pretty cool for them.

In other news, I am currently under attack by gypsy moth catepillers. They are everywhere and they are gross. I was sitting on the patio and I looked up and suddenlyr realized about ten of them were bearing down on me. And then there was one on my foot, at which point I threw in the the towel and decamped back to the living room. And it SUCKS, because it is beautiful out in the evenings right now, and dammit, I want to drink martinis on my patio. Stupid invasive bugs.

And finally, I'm about to attempt, this weekend, to make a Black Forest Cake. I've never made such a thing before, but it's what the boy wanted, so it's what he gets. Well, what he really wanted was cheesecake, but he got that on his actual birthday at his parents' house (his sister really does make a killer cheesecake. I gotta get that recipe.). I thought about making a deconstructed cake, but decided that it was probably too odd. But I am sort of making my own take on it - I can't find one single recipe that I like everything in (uses Bing cherries, or uses buttercream frosting), so I decided, what the hell. I'll take the best of what I've seen and do my own. How wrong can I possibly go with chocolate cake, sour cherries and whipped cream? Not too much, I don't think. She said, being possibly overambitious.

Bono, Kelly, and the 300

2007-03-17T12:23:00.000-04:00

Okay, so apologies for the no postings for the last...um...four months. In my defense, I got a new job that pretty much completely wiped me out and has somewhat taken me off the track in terms of following a lot of my favorite pop culture websites. However, read a book this week that is worth commenting on, saw a movie I need to talk about, and heard a song that must be highlighted. So, from slightest to most interesting:

1. Kelly
Okay, so I've never been hugely up on music, but the Altguy has gotten me hooked on Sirius radio, and has thus introduced me to completely silly songs by Kelly. Shoes is about, well, a bitchy mean girl who wants to buy shoes, and Let Me Borrow That Top is about, yes, you guessed it, a bitchy mean girl who wants to borrow her friend's top. I will say, Let Me Borrow That Top is a better song than Shoes, but both crack me up. They're totally silly, and sometimes I think that music, and indeed, a lot of popular art in general, will collapse under it's own self-seriousness.

Which, actually, brings us rather handily, to item number 2 on my list, a completely overblown and too serious movie:

2. The 300
Let's make sure the record is straight here. I like a lot, not all, comic books. Readers of this blog know my love of Neil Gaiman and the Sandman, and maybe are not as aware of my complete admiration for Alan Moore (even if he does look like a crazy hermit in his photographs). I think The Watchmen is still one of the most amazing comic books ever written. Also, let me say that I like stylish looking films. My problem with The 300 is that it's all style over substance. I'm not even going to get into any historical inaccuracies. I am interested in classical history, but I know crap-all off the top of my head about the Battle of Thermopylae, but I do know that my emotional reaction to the film was, "And then what?" I didn't care about one character, Spartan society is so unappealing that I didn't care that they were beating off the barbarian hordes, and Persian hordes so unbelievable that I didn't take them seriously as a threat (mutant monsters? For real?). The movie took itself way too seriously, with a speech that echoed, even if unintentionally, Henry V's exhortation to his troops to battle the French (Sort of a combination of "Once more into the breach, dear friends" and "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers") that left me wishing that I was actually watching Henry V. I just couldn't care, because, as stated, I wasn't emotionally involved with the film in any way. I will say that it's technically a very interesting movie - I hesitate to call it beautiful, but it's leaps and bounds ahead of a lot of green screen films. I just didn't really know what to make of it. In my mind, a movie that doesn't elicit some sort of reaction, either positive or negative, qualifies as an abject failure.

3. Killing Bono
Speaking of art that threatens to collapse under its own self-seriousness, U2 has always sort of fallen into that realm for me. Don't get me wrong, I like them. I always tear up at New Year's Day, I think The Joshua Tree is brilliant, but when Bono started meeting with the Pope and campaigning for debt forgiveness for the third world, I thought to myself, "Hold on here, why is Bono the spokesperson for these causes?" I just thought it was weird that a rock star suddenly had the ear of all these well placed politicians. And I couldn't get past the fact that Bono is, well, a rock star, and not an economist. I'll admit, a rock star is sexier and more well known than a economist, but still, it's weird. Well, I just finished reading Killing Bono by Neil McCormick, a school friend of Bono's. McCormick, now a music critic for a British newspaper, wrote a book about his own frustrated attempts to break into the music business, and his jealousy of U2 in general, and Bono specifically, and how this hounded him through his young life. I will say, he managed to change my opinion of Bono's self seriousness. It's clear from this book that Bono doesn't really understand why he's the one in the position to lobby for these political changes, and that went a long way towards increasing my goodwill toward him. But don't read the book for insights into Bono, he's a presence but a minor player. Read it because McCormick's memoir is and affecting and funny book about almost making it in the business.

Art Deco Chicago

2006-11-29T19:14:00.000-05:00

Chicago is very cool. I spent a really fun weekend there, and took the Art Deco walking tour (which I highly recommend, by the way. They are given by the Chicago Architecture Foundation.), which give a great overview of a very exciting time in Chicago's architectural history.

That last one is actually called "Echo Deco", which is a modern building built in the Art Deco style. It's built as an homage to a building design that was submitted to the Chicago Tribune for it's competition in the 1920s.

This is the building that won:

But it's a beautiful city. I wish I'd had more time to see it, so I hope to go back.

Welcome, Ninja Librarian

2006-09-21T15:25:00.000-04:00

The Culture Maven, infected by her friend the Ninja Librarian, suddenly is posting in the third person. She promises the post will be short and sweet. To wit: her good friend, the Ninja Librarian, has started a blog. See the link over there on the left at the bottom? You know, where it says Ninja Librarian? Click on that. The Ninja Librarian wishes to keep his identity a secret, but the Culture Maven was wily and figured out instantly his real identity. (In case you didn't know it, the Culture Maven is herself a librarian. Not a ninja librarian, but a librarian nonetheless). She will now spread the rumor that the Ninja Librarian is really Batman.

Adventures in Atlanta

2006-09-14T21:24:00.000-04:00

Okay. Atlanta sucks. Sorry if anyone lives there, but my experience is that it sucks. Now, partially that’s because I only saw a narrow slice of it, but narrow slice I did see was horribly sketchy. Like, it’s not fun to be walking down the sidewalk and have some homeless guy decide that you need his help, for which you will give him money, even though you didn’t ask him, you don’t need help, and you certainly don’t have money handy to give him. Furthermore, being given a lecture on race politics that somehow stemmed from a comment to my dinner companion along the lines of “Let’s cross the street,” was also not terribly fun. Additionally, being regaled by my waiter over dinner about how he’s saving up money to convert his car over to bio-diesel, while admirable, is not exactly my idea of a dinner conversation I want. It seemed like every interaction I had in the city was rife with personal peril of some sort. Also, the downtown area is not very pretty, given that it’s full of empty lots and sort of scary looking buildings, and thus does not inspire the spirit of exploration.

However, all this is mitigated by the fact that in terminal A of the Hartsfield -Jackson Airport is a vending machine that SELLS IPODS! iPods, you guys! At first I thought it was just skins and power cords and such, and then I looked more closely and no, they sell actual iPods. And not just, you know, “cheap” ones like Shuffles. Oh no, my friends. They sell Nanos and video iPods. And people were buying them! Like, they got to the airport and were like, “Nmmm....I sorta wish I had an iPod. Why look! There’s a vending machine that sells them. Why, I think I’ll go ahead and buy one!” It’s like in Wayne’s World when Wayne gets his money from the television show and goes and looks at the Stratocaster that he craves and, when asked by the clerk if he can put it away now says, “Not today my good man. I’m feeling saucy. I think I’m going to buy it. Do you take-” and then pulls out the wad of cash, “-cash? Cha-ching!”

So, severe homeless problem and feeling like I was being accosted at every turn = Bad
However, a vending machine in the airport sells iPods = Awesome

Maybe that balances out?

In other ATL news, I had two mediocre dinners (one at Azio ($$$) and one at the Landmark Diner ($)) and one great one where I got sushi that was amazing (Ray’s in the City ($$)). Nice bonus was that the meeting had great food for breakfast every morning, coffee that flowed all day (and miraculously didn’t taste like ass), and pretty cheap and good cafeteria (great barbecue).

I think I’m done traveling for a bit. Vacation was great, obviously, but having to go away for four days so soon after getting back from vacation was kind of tough. I think my kitty probably misses me, and I know I certainly miss her, my real bed and cooking in my own kitchen. Also, as I sit here and write this, I have my headphones in and am listening to the latest NYUB podcast, and a woman is sitting, like, right next to me, and is barking into her phone all self importantly about something that happened at work. and, you know, she sat right next to me even though there were, like, a gazillion other seats available. I don’t know if she thinks that I won’t be able to hear her b/c I’m listening to music (so she thinks) or what, but it was odd. Oh, Hallelujah. She just moved away from me. Maybe my glances at her notified her that I could, in fact, hear every word she was bellowing into her phone.

Also, I saw a fashion emergency in the security line of airport. This woman, who looked sort of like Ann Coulter (blond and thinks she’s prettier than she actually is) was wearing, what I’ll call for the sake of an argument, a suit. A black suit that had a bolero style jacket with a Peter Pan collar and three quarter inch sleeves, worn over a cream colored shirt and a skirt with a hem that was shorter in the front than in the back by about two inches and had lace edging and a belt with a giant flower on it. Now, I feel like I see this sort of thing on Project Runway all the time (see the suit that Angela, Laura and Michael made for the Macy’s challenge), but seen in the real world it was extremely jarring. I don’t know if I would take someone seriously at first who walked into my office wearing that. It looked like Romy and Michelle’s idea of what businesswomen wear, as opposed to women in business actually wear. It was a little bit mindblowing, to be honest.

Flightiness

2006-09-07T14:27:00.000-04:00

I forgot to say, in my last post, the funniest thing I saw while in Hawaii. Well, two funny things, one that happened, and one I saw. Both at the Kona airport. So I'm in the security line, trying to avoid the sun that's beating down, and this woman, with her giant suitcase, gets into line behind me saying, "Is this the line for United?" I said, "Well, I believe that these are the United gates. This is the security line." She sighs and replies, "Oh, good." I eyed her for a second and said, "If, you know, you've already checked in." She says blithely, "Oh, I haven't done anything, I just got here." "Well, you have to check in first and get your boarding pass. This is the line for security." She looked at me blankly, not processing what I had said. I turned and pointed to the ticket agents behind us. "You have to check in for your flight and THEN come and go through security to go to your gate." She said, "Oh," and then wandered off. I'm still not sure if she really understood what I was saying to her, and then I had to wonder if maybe she'd never flown before, which I also found unlikely, because if she was FROM the Big Island surely she'd had to fly one of the other islands at some point in her life and if she WASN'T from the Big Island, then certainly she should have, you know, FLOWN there, and thus experienced the airport before.

The funniest thing I saw? The security guys had a table, and on it were displayed all the things they'd confiscated from people's carry on bags. You had a good amount of sunblock there, and a fair amount of lotion and hair care products. And a lone can of Easy Cheese.

I really, really wanted to meet the person who just couldn't concieve of flying anywhere without their can of Easy Cheese. In my mind, a Shatneresque monologue of "Must. Have. Easy. Cheese!" ensued.

Sun, Fun, and Surf

2006-09-05T20:00:00.000-04:00

So I apologize for disappearing for a month, but things were getting a bit dreary there for me in the dog days of summer. However, I now have two full weeks of vacation under my belt, and I have really had an opportunity to recharge, reconfigure my thinking patterns, and completely get off my sleep schedule. Basically, I spent two weeks in beautiful Hawaii, where I acquired Kona coffee, numerous mental and actual snapshots of amazing scenery, a brand new faded bathing suit, and a sunburn.

My parents, in an display of complete sponaeity, bought a time share in Kauai two years ago when they were partaking of my uncle's hospitality at their time share. So they saved it for two years so we could get two weeks in a row, and invited my entire nuclear family. After much dancing around about "well, maybe we'll go for one week and then spend the other week doing other stuff," from both me (myself and I) and my brother's family, it came about that I was the only one who actually got off the stick and booked flights and hotels and car for myself on the big island. Thus, I'm the only one who got bona fide genuine alone time (of course, I was also the only one, in a two bedroom condo containing eight people, who was sleeping on the floor, so you do the math).

Most awesome things about Hawaii, in no particular order:

- I got to take my long coveted surfing lessons
- The discovery of shave ice, which is about the tastiest treat ever, especially the li ming hui and coconut over macnut ice cream
- The accessibility of the wild world. I saw nenes, monk seals, and sea turtles, and most of them were fairly close.
- The outstanding scenery
- The weather, which was beautiful 98.9% of the time
- Being pretty much right at the beach
- Even at its worst, the traffic is nothing compared to DC

So let's start off by showing you the place I was staying, the Marriott Waiohai:

This is a shot going toward the Pacific from the middle of the resort complex.

Sunset on Poipu beach

Where I did the majority of my pool time (and right outside our patio door)

Kauai, also called the Garden Island, really is beautiful. In fact, most of the time I was there, I would look into the distance and not really believe that what I was seeing was real, because it looked like a matte painting. Like this:

We took a great drive early in the first week up to the Waimea canyon, which Twain described as the Grand Canyon of Hawaii. It is hugely impressive and beautiful. One of the coolest thing about Hawaii is that you'll start driving and you'll be at sea level, and twenty minutes later you're at two thousand feet and the temperature has dropped by about fifteen degrees. when you drive up the canyon road, that's basically what happens.

I decamped to the Big Island, as I said, and spent two days in Volcano National Park and two days in Kilauea on the Kona Coast. The Big Island is pretty barren, actually, and it has a desert in the middle of it. Everywhere I went there were big rock fields from eruptions. The volcanos are pretty amazing, but they don't really make for great images, so here are some petrogylphs that are one of the stops on the Chain of Craters road.

Also: Nenes!

Oh, okay. I'll give you a couple volcano pictures. Here's a giant crater:

Here are some steam vents:

And here's the plume from the volcano that has been in constant eruption for the last twenty-three years:

And I'll leave you with this:

Define "Classic"

2006-08-02T20:57:00.000-04:00

American Movie Classics? We need to have a little conversation here. Becase I'm worried. Worried about your programming choices, which are, to put it kindly, inconsistent.

Exhibit A: Last weekend you showed a true classic. The Great Escape, starring Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough, James Garner and Charles Bronson. It's a movie I've always meant to watch, but had never gotten around to. And suddenly I turned the channel, and there was Steve McQueen. And my very first thought was, "Sweet! It's just starting," and my second thought was, "Do I have any popcorn?" (I loved the movie, by the way. It inspired a little thought project, which is below.)

Exhibit B: Three nights later you showed Hard to Kill, starring Steven Segeal (aka Chipmunk Cheeks). It's a movie that I have managed to watch once all the way through, but have never been able to watch again. When it came on my first thought was, "Is AMC hard up for programming? Do they just show the cheapest movies they can? Because in what way does this movie have any enduring value? Is this really a movie I want to show my nieces and say, "This is an example of the best the movie industry at the time could give us."? I mean, unless AMC stands for "American Cheese," I don't want to see Chipmunk Cheeks on it.

Which brings us to my new favorite game: Recast the Movie. Inspired, of all people, by Jean Claude Van Damme, who, apparantly, wanted at one time to remake The Great Escape. Presumably starring himself as the Steve McQueen character. A more inapt casting i could not think of. And that got me thinking, who could you cast in a remake and make it good? And who could be miserably miscast to make a horrible remake?

It's not complete, and maybe not perfect, but it's my first thought on this.

Original Cast -- Good Recast -- Bad Recast
Steve McQueen -- Jude Law -- Jean Claude Van Damme
James Garner -- George Clooney -- Ben Affleck
Richard Attenborough Hugh Laurie Greg Kinnear
James Coburn -- Guy Pearce -- Heath Ledger
Charles Bronson -- Russell Crowe -- The Rock
Donald Pleasance -- Willie Garson -- David Cross
David McCallum -- Ewan McGregor -- David Hyde Pearce

Other suggestions welcome.

Comedic Confusion

2006-07-21T20:44:00.000-04:00

Okay, so it's Friday night, and I, yes, am sitting at home watching the Colbert Report rereun on Comedy Central, and suddenly there was an ad for Talledega Nights. And suddenly I starting thinking about it, and realized: What is up with the comedies being released lately? I'm not sure when it started, but suddenly there's this weird tier of comedies coming out, and they mostly star Will Ferrell and Ben Stiller (they also have some or all of the following:, Steve Carroll, Paul Rudd, Seth Rogan, David Koechner, Luke/Owen Wilson, and Vince Vaughn in them). Anchorman, The 40 Year Old Virgin, Dodgeball. It's a long list.

Now, don't get me wrong, I actually really like all three of those movies (though Anchorman is the hardest to watch), but...where to do they come from? Why a sudden explosion of these sort of lower tier comedies (Zoolander, Mystery Men, Old School)? Did these movies exist in the 80s and I just didn't know about them? Movies seemed to be...bigger, when I was in highschool. Comedies, at least (I suppose there have always been schlocky, cheap horror films. Evil Dead, I'm lookin' at you.), were major studio releases. But, suddenly, in the mid-90s maybe, comedies became inexpensive and silly. Not all of them, obviously. I don't think Ben Stiller was exactly vying for an Oscar in Mystery men. But I also don't think he was just vying for a quick paycheck. I mean, it seems to me that these guys really feel like they're doing real work. And they are, because a lot of it, not all of it, is really funny. I think in all the movies I've named, I've found a lot to like. They've all made me laugh, and some I happily watch again (not all of them, but many of them). I think they offer decent comic roles for women I really like (Christine Taylor, Christina Applegate, Janeane Garafalo). But ultimately, they're confections. High in calories, low in actual food value. Meaning, of course, that they don't have any real lasting value or impact. They're not about characters, they're about stereotypes. They're not about ideas, about skewering presumptions and exploring society, they're about cheap laughs (and, I guess, they're cheap to make, as well).

I mean, will Anchorman even be funny in ten years? Or just painful? Some of these have more merit than others. I think the 40 Year Old Virgin is truely a funny movie, but Old School wasn't all that funny when it was released initially - how will it hold up?

I'm not sure what this says about us as a culture or a society. I was going to say that it seems like we used to make more nuanced and sophisticated comedies (Some Like it Hot, Philadelphia Story, Tootsie), but then I remembered Herbie the Love Bug. So maybe my whole premise is completely off base, and we've always made stupid, silly dumbass comedies, and I just never really noticed it.

What I Love Now - July Edition

2006-07-13T17:57:00.000-04:00

Killing Yourself to Live - Chuck Klosterman: Klosterman's drive across the country in a silver Taurus (called the Tauntaun) was ostensibly for the purpose of visiting places where rock stars died. And he does. Seeking out room 100 at the Chelsea hotel to see where Sid Vicious stabbed Nancy Spungeon, to the Lynryd Skynrd crash site, and the greenhouse where Kurt Cobain shot himself, Klosterman muses about his relationships with three separate women. I was impressed both Klosterman's ability to classify every woman with whom he has been involved as a member of KISS and with the volley of music references, only half to two-thirds which I caught (I am not the Music Maven). A fast and entertainng read, I fell in love a little bit with Klosterman.

Project Runway: A new season of draping and cutting and sniping by talented designers who will, one by one, fall by the wayside as they are auf'd by the beautiful Heidi Klum. Early favorites include a Barbie designer (Robert Best), a disturbingly restrained and elegant architect (Laura), and an Atlanta based hip hop designer (Michael Knight). Early dislikes? A snotty guy with a tattooed neck who barely escaped the chop in the first episode (Jeffry), a man teetering on the edge of madness, if he hasn't already fallen over (Vincent Libretti), and a creepy British guy who looks like the puppet from Saw (Malan). The casting special featured updates with season one and two finalists (Wendy Pepper has continued to drop weight and possibly has had some post-divorce surgery done, she looked great. Maybe she has a hideous portrait in her attic.), Jay McCarroll says his new line is coming out, Chloe Dao continues to live in Houston and run Lot 8, and Austin Scarlett has found his passion in designing wedding dresses.

The Dark Tower Series - Stephen King: after reading the first six books in six weeks, I thought it might be prudent to sit back and wait a bit on the last one, lest I overdose. But the story of Roland, the last gunslinger, and his journey across a multitude of worlds and realities with his ka-tet (we are one from many) of Eddie, a former junkie; Susannah, suffering from MPD (incorrectly defined as schizophrenia) and phantom pregnancy; Jake, a boy he let die once only to reclaim him; and Oy, the faithful billy bumbler who is smarter than they suspect, and his search for the Dark Tower and his hopes of saving not just his world, but all worlds, is compelling. King considers this series his masterpiece, and the more he wrote, the more he discovered that all his characters could, in the end, have a place in Mid-World. And I can't wait to find out how it turns out.

Brunch: No reason. I just really like brunch. Had a wonderful brunch at Harry's Tap Room in Clarendon, and while the eggs benedict were divine, I'm eager to go back and have the pancakes. Mmmmm.....pancakes....

Monty Python: Specifically, Spamalot. Following that fabulous brunch, I saw Spamalot, and man, it was so fun. Silly, profane, well staged, fun set, great music - pretty much everything I'm looking for in a musical. Some complete reproductions of dialog (Arthur's conversation with a sparrow obsessed guard, the taunting of a French night, the anarcho-communist collective, and, of course, the Knights who Say "Ni"), and new plot points to help a play along. Also, a rendition of "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life." The addition of the Lady of the Lake, and numerous songs. add to the complete silliness of the show. And, of course, the unmistakeable voice of John Cleese as God giving Arthur his mission to find the Grail in the first place.

Looking forward to: My Hawaiian vacation, Clerks 2 (I do love Kevin Smith), and my next book club.

Who Chooses to Call Themselves "Lizard King" Anyway?

2006-07-06T20:41:00.000-04:00

So, I've recovered from my July 4th weekend. I celebrated our independence day this year in a time honored american fashion: a road trip. A nice little easy drive to, well, okay, Cleveland. Except for a couple of brief slowdowns around Frederick, the drive was actually quite smooth. It was also, appropriately enough, the fiftieth anniversary of our highway system. I figured that it was as good a time as any to avail myself of it.

My visits to Cleveland are really for the sole purpose of visiting the only people left there that I actually know and like: the Aikido twins, Nif and Laura. Nif has about a thousand friends, so she's always got stuff going on. Saturday night was a party at the house of a woman for whom Nif did some legal work. This woman's house was the sole regular house on a street filled with newly built townhouses. Inside her back gate was a fabulous garden with pathways, a waterfall and koi pond, a bar, and a garage that had been converted to a patio. The kitchen was amazing, and her downstairs space absolutely beautiful. I have never been so jealous of a rental property in my whole life. Sunday was a drive over to, well, we'll call it west of the city, to take a ferry over to an island called Put-in-Bay. Put-in-Bay is an old resort island with lake houses, little kitschy shops, some restaurants, and whole bunch of bars. Put-in-Bay, for the historically minded among you, was from where Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry launched the American fleet to fight the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812. There's a big tower called the Perry Victory and International Peace Monument there, and it's the tallest thing on the island. Unfortunately, it's currently closed because lightening struck it and big chunk of rock fell off of it (I know! No one was hurt, so I wish I'd been there to see it.) When it's open you can climb up it and see across the lake to Canada. That evening featured a mini pub crawl (well, two bars and a brief stop off in a place playing that stupid "Proud to be an American" song, to which I said, "Oh, hell no," and with which everyone agreed. Our first stop was the Crescent, which featured a house band called The Maxx Band. And they featured... Wow, now that I'm actually to this point in the post, I'm not sure quite who to say this. They had a Jim Morrison imitator. Who called himself, yes, the Lizard King. The Lizard King wears leather pants and a pirate shirt. Where do you even buy a pirate shirt in this day and age? It was strongly reminiscent of the Puffy Shirt. I'll give him this, he certainly, um, committed, to the act. And he worked the crowd. In fact, the whole band was in the habit of leaving the stage and wandering the crowd. And, well, maybe you don't know this about me, but I get intensely embarrassed for performers who sing to people int he crowd. And, frankly, when you suddenly are confronted with someone singing at you and he is literally a half an inch away from your face, nightmares are sure to ensue. So, martinis were drunk, cover bands listened to, and fudge was bought. Isn't that what you do at the beach? We wound the weekend up with a viewing of Superman Returns. Long story short: Brandon Routh is a cutie (but should get his eyebrows waxed), Kate Bosworth is too young, Kevin Spacey rocks, Parker Posey also rocks but is under-utilized, and James Marsden needs to get a role in which he gets the girl.

So I once again availed myself of the highway and drove back home on the Fourth. Hit a quick barbecue at my brother's neighbor's house, saw some fireworks, fought the traffic through Falls Church, and finally made it home to a very, very annoyed cat.

So, a great Fourth of July, all told. Hope you all had a great one as well.

The Kathy Griffin Conundrum

2006-06-27T20:52:00.000-04:00

I don't know what to do with Kathy Griffin. On the one hand, she is, forgive me, I can't believe I'm saying this, pretty funny. On the other hand, she is a famewhore. Like, she positively knows her place in the shimmering celebrity firmament, and on the other hand, she thinks she should be way higher in it than she is.

This is coming up because I'm watching what I presume is a rerun of the episode of her show where she, Michael McDonald from MadTV and someone else who I don't know who she was (oh, she's just been identified as Kari Turner, from JAG. Another show I don't think I've ever seen an entire episode of, despite it's consistent presence for something like seven years. Anyway...), go to Iraq to do a tour for the troops. So, this is, on the one hand, an admirable thing to do to go over and entertain the troops, because, damn, those guys do not have it easy, but, on the other hand? Famewhore. Because Henry Rollins, who has gone over to Iraq and done, like, eight shows, has not done two episodes of his non-existent reality show on this.

Though, that does make me think. What would a Henry Rollins reality show even look like? And what does his show for the troops look like?

Anyway, Kathy Griffin confuses me. Good that she went over and did shows in dangerous places, bad that she used it to make herself look important. She's funny until she starts to bug. And that's the Kathy Griffin conundrum.

Poor Satorial Choices

2006-06-07T21:24:00.000-04:00

I can't even begin to discuss the public dialog going on right now in this country, because I find it so embarrasing and distressing.

And, in order to relieve this distress, I am forced to make fun of people who work around me for poor satorial choices. I see it much more in the summer than I do in the winter - presumably because everyone is scurrying around covered up by their winter coats in the middle of January. But in the summer...out it comes. Now, the men pretty much look the same year round, so, unfortunately, there's not a lot to make fun of there. The women, though...

There's a woman who works on my floor, and she evidently has several outfits that consist of formal wool shorts, worn with a blazer (buttoned) and a scarf around the neck, white tights, and black shoes. She was standing by the front doors the other day and she was clutching, I'm not joking, a straw hat with a black grosgrain ribbon on it. I don't quite know what to make of this. She has sort of an equestrian kickiness to her, but it's the white tights that keep getting me. The shorts, which hit a little above the knee and are cuffed are also pretty questionable. I feel like she's from the eighties.

One More Reason

2006-06-01T20:51:00.000-04:00

NPR had a story this morning that Exxon posted 8 billion dollars in profit. And today is the anniversary of the Exxon Valdez. Oh, and gas at the Exxon station I passed today was $3.12.

So...yeah. One more reason to hate the oil companies.

The No Camera Lament

2006-05-15T18:13:00.000-04:00

Why oh why did I not have my camera on Saturday when I drove past a bank on route 50 that had obviously just been robbed. The parking lot was cordoned off with yellow police tape and there were cops all in the parking lot. Would have been a great picture.

TV Reality....or something

2006-05-12T20:34:00.000-04:00

The TV reality season is definitely winding down. I'm sort of sad, but also sort of happy. Sad because it will be four months until I can once again enjoy Phil Keoghan of the Amazing Race in my living room. But also...no more Donald. And, more importantly, no more crazy Paula Abdul/Simon Callow/Randy Jackson. So let's take these one by one.

1. The Amazing Race
I'm an unabashed fan. I love Phil, I love the competetion, I love the vicarious travel. I mean, I know I would never want to eat giant bowl full of deep fried crickets, but through the magic of television I can enjoy dirty hippies doing this exact thing. With Three teams left. Eric and Jeremy (aka the Frats) - previously annoying because of their constant attempts to convince the home audience they are straight and can get plenty of chicks, thank you very much. My reaction? Just admit you are gay and in love with another because you're a totally cute couple and would be much more tolerable if you weren't totally overcompensating. Ray and Yolanda - she's awesome (amazing legs), he's a stiff, they've probably already broken up. Get a personality please, haven't offended me, but I don't love them either. Bj and Tyler (aka the Hippies) - yikes. A divisive team, since I hate them, all my friends like 'em. I'll give all three teams: they seem to be enjoying the race, and they don't have a tendency to yell at each other and blame each other for small mistakes.

Verdict: I don't have a clear favorite. I'd be less thrilled if the Hippies won, but they are less objectionable than other teams that have won in previous seasons.

2. American Idol
The whole reason this post exists. Because there were two brilliant articles in the Washington Post today: this one by Robin Ghivan (who so completely deserves her Pulitzer prize because she has an incisive eye for decoding the meaning of fashion): We Get the Idols We Deserve, and Lisa de Moraes continuing series of We Watch So You Don't Have To, which analyzes each episode. I don't really have a favorite in American Idol, I'm not really invested. But Robin Ghivan's article made me laugh outloud on the bus this morning, and that, alone, is reason to highlight her and spread the Cult of Robin (I've been a member for several years.).

3. The Apprentice
Ah, The Donald. I'm old enough to have had a subscription to the late, lamented Spy magazine (warning: the Wikipedia article has a nude picture of Schwarzenegger), which lambasted the Donald as a "short fingered vulgarian", a term I still apply to him. However, I am completely addicted to the antics of the Apprentice. The horrible people who apply to be on the show (though last season had the nadir of the awful, useless Toral) are the main attraction. I freely admit that I have bought products because they were highlighted on the show, so they're accomplishing their goal: to get Americans to buy Trail Mix Grape Nuts. And I'll tell you this not for nothin': those Grape-Nuts were downright tasty. We're down to the last five contestants: it's hard to know quite who will go next. I can only hope the weasly Lee goes next. Or the oily Sean. I will say that I do quite like Trump's improbably named daughter Ivanka. She's very sensible with good observations and comments.

The season winds up in the next few weeks - different endings for different shows - but all will certainly come to an end. It's been a decent season for reality television. Especially since The Amazing Race was recovering from the hideousness that was the Family Edition. The Apprentice is par for the course, and every edition of American Idol is "the best" ever, so I take that with a grain of salt. But all of them hugely entertaining, which is all I really require.

It must be Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays.

2006-05-11T09:23:00.000-04:00

Just a quick middle of the morning post because I found this awesome site with many Douglas Adams quotations. And this makes me happy.

I've been IMing on GoogleChat lately, and all week I've been doing daily quotes for my status that correspond to the weekeday (Monday was "Another Manic Monday"), and today I didn't think I had one until I was like, ah yes, "It must be Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays." One of my friends asked about the quote, never having read Hitchhiker's, which sent me out on a search for a list of Douglas Adams quotations, since the man seems like he was a reincarnation of Oscar Wilde, what with the pithy quotes at the ready and all.

Water, Water Everywhere

2006-05-02T20:38:00.000-04:00

You know, I've had my share of water related disasters. The water seeping into my bedroom from the condo above me. Waking up at 5:30 am and hearing dripping coming from inside the house, signaling that my pressure release valve needed to be replaced, like, right then. And then, yesterday, I got home and I heard this sound by the couch. At first I thought the cat was scratching the couch, and I hollered "Stop!" And the cat walks in from the bedroom like, "What?" So then I'm like, what the hell is that noise? Yeah. Water is dripping in through my window casement from upstairs. Luckily it was mostly dripping on the window sill. So I went upstairs, rang the bell, no one home. I came back, put a towel under it, wrote a note, and went to the gym. When I got back they were like, "Oh my god! We're fixing it right now! Is everything okay?" They came down and looked at it and apologized and were very nice about it. I actually think there's no damage, since it wasn't coming though the ceiling. So, that's my three, right? My three water related things? I'm done, right? My own and then one each from the two sets of condos above me, right? At least I didn't cry this time.

I'm going to level a book recommendation at y'all. I missed my last book club because I had to work, so I put off reading the book. So I finally did read it, and I have to say, I highly recommend Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (most well known for The Remains of the Day). I will admit, I have never read him before, but I just loved this book. He's deceptive. The book seems very artless, but it builds the tension of the story and is essential to how the plot of the story unfolds. I can't really say more than that without revealing more about the book, but...go out and read it. Great book.

Also, I'll go ahead and recommend Akeelah and Bee. It is sort of predictable, but solid performances. Angela Basset is beautiful and could kick my ass blindfolded (she's got some guns on her), Larry Fishburne solid, as always. Keke Palmer was cute and believable. And the guy who plays the Crab Man in My Name is Earl was in it as a gangster, which I just realized randomly this morning at work.

Edited like, ten seconds after I posted the above:

The Washington Post has an article about Sopranos stars running into trouble the dude who plays Artie Bucco got pulled over with a blood alcohol level of .12 (limit is, of course, .08), and the kid who plays Tony's new driver (recipient of a beat down from the big guy), for breaking into a woman's home. However, to me, the funniest part of this article is this:

"Robert Iler, who plays Tony's rebellious son, pleaded guilty to mugging two other youths and stealing $40. He was given three years' probation."

Damn. What was he thinkin' on that one? Forty bucks isn't even worth it.

The Persians

2006-04-17T19:21:00.000-04:00

I saw The Persians last night at the Shakespeare Theatre, and I just loved it. I really had low expectations - a heavy night of Persians lamenting at the loss of their armies at the hands of a smaller force - eeesh. But, really. It was really, really good. I thought the set was imaginative, the costumes (as usual) beautiful, and the actors well cast. It could have been so boring, a bunch of men standing around talking about whatever did happen to all those men we sent to make war on Athens, and disputing whether or not they were both justified and right to go to war against a smaller inferior nation. But it really wasn't. I found it so compelling, as they went back and forth and finally settled on the answer that made them feel best. And when they finally find out the result of the battle, and find that their magnificent army has been destroyed, and their best men are currently floating dead in the mediterranean ocean, they are overwhelmed with grief and mourn that their mighty empire has been brought low.

I think it's hard to connect emotionally with very old plays. They're from such a different time, and they had different purposes. There is a debate about The Persians, and whether Aeschylus' purpose was to celebrate Athens' great victory and imagine the lamentations in Persia when the defeat was discovered or whether it's meant as a mediation on the futility of war and the mortality of even the greatest empires. I think it could certainly be interpreted either way (the first one seems sort of mean spirited, but the Persians didn't really have a defensible cause to attack Athens). The production left that open to the audience's interpretation. Certainly, it was difficult to imagine any current politician wailing at his failure and weeping for the future of the country he's failed. Not that that was going to change a thing, of course.

I think the one thing I took away from this is that humans never change. A leader depends so much on his counselors, but when it goes poorly, everyone will be looking for the culprit and the blame starts flying. I would say that that is something that never changes. It seems to be hardwired into our psyches. Despite our cultural biases and how we view the world, it seems that that never changes. Everyone is trying to find the best position, the right place to be, hoping that when things go bad, they land on the right side of the fence and are pointing squarely at the designated fall guy.

Wow, I just realized what a cynical view of politics and humanity I have.

Medieval Obsession

2006-04-14T19:09:00.000-04:00

Not a lot to see here, I'm afraid. I'm a bit fed up with current political discourse at the moment (generals saying Rumsfield sucks, various pols being prosecuted for various crimes), and I sort of ran out of "Shut up" for the administration. I just can't stay outraged for that long.

But I can get passionately partisan about battles long since fought, settled and made obsolete. Outrage over King John's (and Edward III's) obession with bringing Wales under English rule? Check. Sudden Yorkist partisanship for Edward IV and Richard III, inspiring me to label myself as a Ricardian? Check. (Though it's sort of sad that I am using my reserve "Shut up's" for Margaret d'Anjou, because she's been dead almost a thousand years.)

Okay, I'll admit that it's all contained between 1150 and 1500 and in the British Isles, but at least I'm not going to get in a huge fight that really matters about the relative merits of Henry of Lancaster versus Edward York's claims to the English throne. Especially since they're both descended from Edward III, and had maybe not equal claims, but were at least equally royal. And I don't think someone's going to pick a fight with me about King John's desire for an island empire, happily giving up Anjou and Avegnin to the French. Because...does anyone have the energy to really argue about things that happened almost nine hundred years ago? So I can get privately outraged about it, but it's sort of impotent.*

What else is going on right now? The weather is getting good. I sat outside and read for a while tonight. Made the Max Cat unhappy, since, even though she doesn't want me to actually touch her, she wants to be in the same room as me, and when I'm on the patio, she's can see me, but is not sitting in the same room as me. So she gets frustrated and starts pawing the door and whining in a really irritating manner. Thus making me take pity on her and coming inside. Of course, now she's being all cute and is sleeping on the footstool next to me.

Hmm. The Sopranos is very good. And, drawing on the above mentioned medieval obsession, has anyone else noticed how the mafia resembles feudal relationships? There's Tony, sitting at the top, commanding the loyalty of his men, but retains the position on their sufferance. Sort of like a medieval king, who retained his crown because his dukes agreed that he should have it. No standing army, all his soldiers came to him through his dukes, who were responsible for raising men. He has men that he knows are loyal, but he also has his enemies. If enough enemies get together and have enough strength, they can mount an opposition to his leadership (presumably they think they've got a viable replacement). Either the leader has enough men loyal to him, and is lucky enough in his fights, that he retains supremacy, or, if enough men desert him, he loses his leadership postion (and possibly his head). If he loses, men who were loyal to him have two choices: maintain their loyalty and maybe die, or be pragmatic and accept the new leadership for the sake of their families. Is it possible that the Mafia is the last functional feudal organization?

So I'll leave you with thought for the nonce. Discuss.

*If you're interested in historical fiction, and this period, I recommend Sharon Kay Penman, who is the author I've been devouring of late. I highly recommend her Welsh trilogy (Here Be Dragons, Falls the Shadow, and The Reckoning) and the aforementioned War of the Roses novel, Sunne in Splendor. She's given herself over to writing mysteries lately, which are good, but don't have the same weight or interest to me.

Whoops

2006-04-04T13:56:00.000-04:00

Okay, I got called out, so to speak, by Mickey, on my last post, which was about Jonathan Antin, and I thought I should address it here, so it doesn't become a deal or anything. (Wow, that's a lot of commas.)

I said that I was surprised that Jonathan Antin had a kid, because I totally thought he was gay, and Mickey reminded me that yes, gay people have kids as well. What I failed to mention was the presence of the mother in Antin's life. It would appear that he has the whole kit and caboodle: the girlfriend/wife (not sure which, he didn't mention getting married at any point), the kid, and his deeply closeted self.

I just wanted to air that out, and thanks for keeping me honest. I fully support the rights of everybody who wants them to have kids and families, no matter what their sexual orientation, support gay marriage and all that good stuff.

But Jonathan Antin is still a big crybaby. Never have I seen one person cry so many times on one one-hour show.

Jonathan Antin is a Giant Crybaby

2006-04-03T21:53:00.000-04:00

I swear, that guy cries at the drop of a hat whenever he talks about how he's achieving all his dreams and how he built up from nothing and he's worked so hard and sob, sob, sob. Dude, man up!

Also? I was shocked to hear that he had a kid, because I totally thought he was gay. Deeply closeted, but gay nonetheless.

God I Love the Sci Fi Network

2006-03-31T21:27:00.000-05:00

Because they make movies like this. And...oh my god, it stars Corin Nemec. Man, didn't he used to be, like, C list? I think he's on the F list now. I remember when he was on Parker Lewis can't lose.

Gettin' my Geek On

2006-03-26T10:19:00.000-05:00

Okay, it's no secret I'm a giant geek. If you doubt it, read that profile over there on left, or, well, just read any of my blog entries. I'm comfortable with my geekiness, I embrace it. Let this serve as a warning. It's getting a little geeky in here.

So I spent the last week at the Computers in Libraries conference. Basically it's librarians getting together and looking at the technology we have, and the technology coming down the pike and wondering how we're going to leverage it for use in libraries. Some interesting and worthy topics discussed were things like the mobile web and how to make a library's system accessebile via mobile devices. Of course, five years ago, everyone was about PDAs, and now it seems that phones are the most common way to access the web wirelessly. There were numerous conversations about the best way to organize a library catalog (and the underlying assumption that OPACs suck and they are "putting lipstick on a pig"), how to "surface" taxonomies (more on that in a minute), and how this here interweb is going to evolve over time.

Okay, this is my new leas favorite buzz word in the library world: "We needed to decide the best way to surface the controlled vocabulary." Whaaaa? It's like everyone decided that the word "display" is not longer, um, technical? enough. I can imagine them sitting around in meetings, concerned that they're bosses aren't taking them seriously, because they're librarians, and they need to make what their doing sound very difficult and complicated so they come up with some word that makes what their doing sound really hard. And then everyone drinks the Kool-Aid and suddenly these words start popping up, and in two years everyone is going to be using it and it's going to be common parlance. It's something I hate about my profession. It's like we have the lowest self esteem of all the professionals, no one really understands what we do and don't really understand the value we add, and since it seems like it's impossible to explain it to anyone, we just wrap ourselves in the "mysteries" of the profession. I sometimes feel like I'm in the Masons or something.

The other interesting, though I'm not sure of the best way to apply it, technology I saw was a demonstration of the Croquet Project. It's a three dimensional workspace that lets you create avatars and then interact with one another, sharing documents across the space, creating new spaces in which to work, all in a peer-to-peer network eliminating servers. It was crude, but sort of cool. Of course, as I said, I'm not sure how we're going to use this kind of technology in the library. It doesn't really let you represent information in a three dimensional way, which would be a true leap in how we interact with information on the web, it simply creates a virtual three dimensional space in which to view traditional flat documents. So, a lot of flash, but it didn't truly seem to be a huge step forward for the web.

Finally, the real innovation that we talked about was the Web 2.0 concept, which is the idea of programs that you can use over the internet no matter what your operating system is, kind of like, well, this system I'm using right now. Blogger is a classic Web 2.0 function, along with things like Google Maps. I think that this development in the web is more interesting and exciting than the croquet stuff above, maybe because I see and understand the utility of things like blogs, wikis, and community tagging. I think that these really bring back the community to the web, allowing people to share information in an aggregate form.

How libraries use all this stuff, of course, is the real challenge. I mean, wikis? Cool. How libraries use wikis? Eh, not sure. Community tagging like flickr and del.icio.us? Totally uncontrolled and very neat. Utility in a highly structured library system? Again, not sure. Is there a place to allow the community to tag records to allow them to search the catalog in a different way? Is that a good idea, especially applied to physical objects? Not sure.

But that's what I like about going to conferences like this, because they get me thinking about other stuff that's out there, how these leaps in technology can affect us and how we can use them. And then, of course, I get frustrated because in my current job I'll never use any of this stuff.

Something ELSE Americans are Stupid About

2006-03-19T10:46:00.000-05:00

Cooking. According to the Washington Post, Americans are cooking illiterate. With the explosion of cooking shows, great restaurants, and food magazines, it's interesting that people actually have less cooking knowledge than they used to. I suppose that as people have had increased income and percieve cooking at home as time consuming and difficult. And since many people didn't grow up with a parent who cooked, they don't know what basic cooking terms mean. I mean, I knew someone who said that he made a dish by 'frying the crap' out of the ingredients.

So, I'm sitting here watching the food network, and I just finished watching Paula Deene who used some of those dreaded stop words highlighted in the article, such as "cream" and "fold". But I see that next on is my cooking nemesis (you didn't know I had a mortal enemy on the Food Network, did you?): Sandra "Semi-Homemade" Lee. What the hell is "semi-homemade"? I once saw her make a dessert out of baked puff pastry (she might have actually BAKED the puff pastry herself out of the package, which is about as far as she seems willing to tax herself), and a bought apple pie which she broke up and put into the puff pastry. Why? Why wouldn't you just, I don't know, EAT the apple pie? I mean, it's a perfect form, why do you need to break it up and stuff it into puff pastry shells? I mean, I've got nothing against using packaged food, but...seriously? Her food is not appealing. Oh, and I can't forget her obession with "tablescapes". I actually think she's more excited by decorating the table than she is with the actual food.

I wasn't surprised by the article, but I did find how this loss of knowledge is affecting people who write recipes interesting. I guess the recipe writers assume a basic knowledge of cooking (like, when you say to butter the bottom of the pan, most writers would assume that the cook knows this means the INSIDE of the pan), and are finding that that's not the case.

I am eternally grateful to my mom, who taught me how to cook and encouraged me to explore and try new things. I definitely had my failures (and still do), but I'm not really intimidated by recipes (daunted by huge, exotic ingredient lists, yes, but not by techniques required). I'm not trained by any means, I'm completely self-taught, and I've picked up ideas from friends, but I haven't taken a class since I was in elementary school. I'm not building giant wedding cakes, though, either, because I do know my limits.

I do wonder why cooking shows and cooking magazines are so popular while actual cooking knowledge goes down. It's like the explosion of book stores and publishing while evidence shows that the number of people who choose not to read has been rising. They can read, they're fuctionally literate, but they don't read for pleasure. But they're buying books. And, apparantly, cookbooks.

*******************
Off the topic of cooking, let's take a moment to mourn the end of GWU's stellar season. They just couldn't bring it against Duke, but I applaud them for losing by only nine points. Here's hoping that they can be stronger next season and that they're not hounded by NCAA scholarship issues.

Really, it's just the nadir of the crappy week

2006-03-10T19:01:00.000-05:00

Well, it was really just the last nail in the casket. The straw that broke the camel's back. After a really shitty week at work (which...I don't talk about work here, but it was really overwhelming), wherein I got my back up about pretty much everything (I found out later it was at least partially PMS induced, but still, I was called on my insane ireateness by one of my friends), I opened the washingtonpost.com, and what did I see? That the Colonial's had gone down to Temple in the first round of the A-10. The FIRST round. I mean...they couldn't muster up enough to make it past the first freakin' round of a tournament that they SHOULD HAVE WON?

Sigh.

Now, I guess here's the problem. I can see the problems in the team. I mean, they had a light preconference schedule. Ridiculously light. And they struggled in important games. And with Pops injured, and Montrell McDonald on what seems to be an indefinite suspension for god only knows what (seriously, how badly did he piss Hobbes off?). Of course, I didn't actually see the game, but I can deduce from coverage that they didn't do well. So, congrats Temple fans. You took us down. And reduced me to sadness.

So let's find the good in the world.

Failure to Launch was called, in the Washington Post, Wilderesque. I was utterly surprised at the praise heaped on it, becuase...Matthew McCounaghy? Yuck. But, I see on metacritic it's getting a 48, which is more in line with what I expected. I was going to write in excitement over the release of V for Vendetta, but it doesn't come out til next week. I just hope it doesn't suck, becuase it's one of my favorite books, and the butchering of Evey Hammond by Natalie Portman is something I might not be able to handle.

It's Friday, and that's never bad. Of course, I'm most excited by the approach of the finale of Battlestar Galactica, but hey, I'll take what I can get.

It was utterly beautiful out today. Like, I wanted to leave work early and just bask in the sunlight. We opened the windows at the office at the end of the day which, honestly, is about the most wild that office ever gets. And it's supposed be more of the same tomorrow? Yeah, I'm takin' a bike ride tomorrow.

My rediscovery of Jepordy! I love Jepordy!, and I don't always watch it, but lately I've been catching it, and it's such a fun show. Sometimes I feel totally superior, and other times like a complete uneducated moron. For example, my first instinct for the president sworn in in 1923 was Wilson, but then I remember the League of Nations and World War I and know that's totally incorrect. It was Harding, in case you're interested.

So I'm sad that Battlestar Galactica is done, but Sunday! The Sopranos! Twelve new episodes! How can I be sad when I'm about to re-enter the world of Tony Soprano and his family. Well, I don't care as much about Tony's actual family, because, Meadow? I couldn't care less. But Silvio? Paulie Walnuts? Christaphah? Uncle Junior? Bobby Baccala? These are the people I care about. Though, after the end of season five and Adriana's ignomious exit? I sort of find myself wishing bad things on the characters. Drea de Matteo said in her commentary in season five that she felt that Adriana was a true innocent, and after discussion with my fellow Sopranos fans, we agree with her. That was the one character who really believed in the best of people, that people meant well. So, yeah. I'm excited that it's starting back up.

And, just to seal my geek credentials...Dr. Who! Making a reappearance! I haven't heard a thing about it, I have no preconceptions of it. All I do know is that world is divided into two groups. Those who understand what it means when, describing what "cab forward" design in a car is by saying, "It's like the TARDIS", and those who don't. And if you don't know what it means, then I can't help you. Not only does it take too long to explain, it's also totally pointless. You don't care. However, those of who thrill to the idea of the Daleks rendered better than as crappy prop pieces with people in them, sort of secretly and geekily thrill to the idea of a well produced Dr. Who. So, March 17th.

And, with apologies to Sars over at Tomato Nation, but staleBREAD and I had a marvelous time inducting John Bolton into the poltical chapter of the Girl's Bicycle Club yesterday. Because John Bolton? Riding around on a pink girl's bike with streamers coming off the handlebars and a white basket with platic daisies in it? Come on, that doesn't make you happy? I know that as he plunges us into a totally unneccesary conflict with Iran, it makes me feel better. And it's my vision, so I'll keep it, thank you.

Well, I think that might be enough lemonade. Too much and you get an acid stomachache.

GW Takes Charlotte

2006-03-04T18:12:00.000-05:00

Barely.

A final score of 86-85 won on the buzzer in overtime after technical fouls and a GW possesion was called is not exactly a route. GW struggled, the lead went back and forth, three point shots were missed, easy layups were missed, and free throws were missed. The impression by the fans was that one ref was resolutely not calling walks on Charlotte (can't vouch for the truth of that) and missing other violations. The technical came in overtime after Mike Hall yanked a Charlotte player's jersey, and that kid responded with elbows to Hall's head. But in the end, Carl Elliot saved the day when he tipped in Noel Wilmore's missed three point attempt. I didn't think they would miss Pops this much, but the truth is that he is an important piece of the puzzle, and they're going to to have learn to function without him next year.

It was seriously heartpounding, suspenseful and, at one point I was like, "whoa, it's hot in here and I feel a little dizzy." Probably lack of oxygen from all the screaming I was doing.

On to the A10!

Cleanup

2006-02-28T22:31:00.000-05:00

sorry for the random and sporadic posts. I'm not sure why, to be honest. I've been...distracted. I'm not sure why. I guess I've been feeling not much like writing for some reason. So some totally unconnected and random things.

1. Reality TV heaven
Both The Apprentice and The Amazing Race premier(ed) this week. Though some folks on the TWoP boards were lukewarm, I really liked the first episode. Wonderfully bitchy, and I already have an evil person I don't like (I'm sorry, but going around and bragging that you're in Mensa is sort of annoying, and being smart does not mean you are a good leader or the right person for this show. I'm not in Mensa, but I'm relatively smart and have a grasp of random things like being able to talk coherently for five minutes about the Runnymede treaty, but it doesn't mean I can lead a team to victory in some lame Apprentice assignment), and a couple potentials that I do like.

The Amazing Race. I'm astounded. The first episode is almost over, and not one person has screamed at their partner in a way that I find irritating and annoying. Some couples I don't like (Lake and...Michelle? Annoying, especially him. Eric and Jeremy? Hate.), but some I do like (Dave and Lori? Totally cute nerdy couple. Bj and Tyler. Self styled hippies, but seem pretty savvy and are well traveled, but not Guido well traveled (we lived in Paris for two years)). And some I don't actively dislike, but are annoying (southern screamy sisters, Boston guys). I will say, that John, one of the Boston guys, even if sort of irritating, is really embracing the spirit of the race in the first leg. He seems like someone who has sort of lived in self imposed fear, and is using this opportunity to sort of free himself of his fears. Which I can appreciate. Oh, and one couple that's been dating long distance for five years (five years? What's the point in that? Someone has to move eventually) and are "getting to know each other better". Yeah, a national tv show is ALWAYS the best place for that.

But for the return of Phil Keoghan on Tuesday nights I am truly thankful.

2. New music.
Specifically, the podcast NYUB. I don't love everything he plays, but it's all independent and unsigned music, and I rather gather he was an early propenent of the Arctic Monkeys, who are being hyped as the The Next Big Thing. He's a kiwi, but is broadcasting out of London. He pulls music from all over the world, but it is not, by any stretch of the imagination, "world music". He's very personable, for the four minutes he talks during a podcast that runs anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour or more. I don't respond to everything he's playing, but I like enough of it to keep listening.

3. GW Colonials. Currently sitting at 23-1, beaten only by Charlotte, who we'll be meeting again on Saturday, March 4. Great season for them. I'm so happy for the seniors on the team, who have stuck with it and really played hard and well for the team. They'll get a bye into the NCAA tourney, and they'll play well in the A-10 tournament, I'm sure.

That's it. Hey, I directed you to a cool podcast, so just shut up.

Form, People! Form!

2006-02-23T20:45:00.000-05:00

I love going to the gym and watching people lift weights. Now, I had a whole theory until tonight about the difference between men and women lifting weights. Usually, when I see women lifting, they're diligent about "doing it right". They've talked to a trainer, they've learned exactly the right way to do it, and they do it the same way every time. Men, on the other hand, tend to be interested in showing how much weight they can handle. You're never going to see a guy at the gym who is doing bicep curls using 12.5 pound weights. No way. They are doing at least twenty pounds, and they are going to impress everyone with how easily they lift them. And I sit there and watch them power their way through their sets, rocking back and forth, counting on momentum to carry the weight. It's actually sort of painful to watch them, because I wonder, are they sore from it the next day? What kinds of results do they get?

Anyway, my gender theory was completely blown to crap tonight. Because this woman appeared (my trainer, who was there with a different client, said that she suddenly is there all the time), and her form is....atrocious. Not only that, but she hogs the equipment. And she doesn't let people work in, either, from what I hear. And, worst of all, she wears a weird visor.

So, I guess bad lifting form isn't completely gender keyed. Unles....she's a transsexual. That's what it is! All is righth in my world again.

The Verbization of a Noun

2006-02-14T20:47:00.000-05:00

Dear Sports Commentators,

I am writing to warn you, in this Olympic year, that it is grammatically incorrect to make verbs out of nouns. Specifically, the repeated usage, begun sometime in mid-1990's, of the noun "medal" as a verb. As in: "Bode Miller lost his chance to medal in this year's Olympics when he was disqualified in the Alpine Combined event." Now, does that really read correctly to you when you actually say it to yourself? To medal? I medal, you medal, we medal? It makes no sense. May I recommend the addition of three small words that would make the sentence grammatically correct, but still concise? "To earn a." See how that helps the sentence make sense? To earn a medal. It practically trips off the tongue. Good grammar costs nothing.

Love,
PopCultureMaven

Joey Cheek: Official Olympic Cutie

2006-02-14T20:40:00.000-05:00

I'm in love with the guy. Last night I thought he was a cutie, and then I was completely moved by his donation of his Olympic bonus money to Right to Play. And then tonight they just showed the medal ceremony, and he was totally heartbreaking. He is so happy, and he was sort of crying and beaming and was totally proud as they played the national anthem.

Also? His name sort of sounds like something out of a 40s gangster movie. I just keep imagining Edward G. Robinson saying, "It wasn't me that done it! Yeah, it was Joey the Cheek that done it. Yeah."

Ahem.

Okay, I'm better now.

What Do You Mean Football Isn't An Olympic Sport?

2006-02-13T14:16:00.000-05:00

So, I had this dream on Saturday morning. One of those "I'm only awake right now because the cat poked at my nose and I'll be asleep again in about five seconds" mornings. Just, you know, so you know. Anyway, it was one of those really vivid dreams you have when you've managed to convince yourself to go back to sleep for a while even though you really should be getting up.

So, I'm at the Olympics and I'm in this really square and really, really tall stadium. And the American football team is playing...some other country. Hard to determine. All the American players are wearing Redskins uniforms. All the players from the other country...aren't wearing football uniforms. One guy is in a gray business suit and he's wearing this massive sunglasses. Another guy is wearing some sort of traditional clothing that looks like it landed on the field after making a stop off in the Stargate SG-1 costuming shop (natives section), and he has this fabulous headgear that sort of looks like Nerfertiti's hat, only with a bunch of fringe on it. And I get worried because these guys are going to be a symphony of broken bones in about two minutes when the Americans plow into them.

So, this dream could mean many things. It could mean that I'm worried about Americans beating the crap out of less fortunate countries at the Olympics, or economically. It could mean I'm worried about the war and possible other actions that could be coming down the pike. It could mean that, despite my best efforts to avoid football, it's encoded into my DNA, much like my fight or flight response. It could mean I ate too close to going to bed the night before. Or I could have visited an alternate universe where all this really happened. If only I'd woken up clutching the game ball.

I'm Only Going To Say This Once, People

2006-02-04T21:51:00.000-05:00

STOP PAYING MONEY TO SEE THE FINAL DESTINATION MOVIES IN THE THEATER!

It just encourages them, and really, do we need three of these films in this world?

Some Random Filmic Thoughts

2006-01-30T21:37:00.000-05:00

I.
I can't believe that both Underworld and Transporter made enough money not only to warrant sequels, but also apparantly have directors with very deep pockets because they managed to attract back their original stars. And, while Kate Beckinsale and Jason Statham aren't really A-list stars, they're not exactly giant pieces of crap either. I mean, they're not exactly...I don't know Paris Hilton and Vin Diesel. Anyway, who went to see these movies? And who in Europe is so desparate that they're willing to go see them? I mean, don't they have better movies in Europe? Hollywood economics sometimes baffle me, I'll admit.

II.
Old movies. To be specific, Auntie Mame. Now, Auntie Mame is one of my absolute favorite films of all time. I first saw it in elementary school, and I immediately wanted my own Auntie Mame. And I wanted to grow up to be Auntie Mame. she was my role model. Mame was the poster child for "Be yourself and awesomeness will follow." She was, of course, fabulously wealthy. But that was really incidental to her person. I love how she flitters about, absolutely sure that everything will work out exactly as she intended, until she runs up against the reality that is the Knickerbocker Bank and her nephew's trustee. She continually battles against what "society" wants her to be in order to fully become herself. It was a powerful message for me, to see that it was okay to be yourself and not what everyone else wants you to be. Of course, I can never live up to Mame's standard of living (she redecorated ever six months, it seems, whatever her latest obsession was), or the extent of her travels, but I can try a little to live up to her motto: "Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death!"

III.
New movies. To be specific, Match Point. It's nice to see Woody Allen return to form, in a way. He's so hit or miss, and and his later films have not been as enjoyable. I think I saw my first Woody Allen film when i was about twelve. I'm fairly sure it was Sleeper, which remains one of my favorite of his films. I also saw Take the Money and Run at around the same time, which I also enjoyed, but...no giant bananas or robots, you know? Plus I like that he posited a world where hot fudge sundaes were good for you. Annie Hall, of course, because I thought that Diane Keaton as Annie Hall was very much who I envisioned myself being, she was so cool. I loved her clothes, that whole Annie Hall look that really only Keaton could pull off. And, I don't know how Ms. Keaton would feel about this, but I still imagine her as Annie Hall. I didn't really understand the film the first few times I saw it (hey, when your thirteen you don't exactly have a nuanced experience of relationships), but now...well, now I do. But even that movie retained some measure of Allen's slapstick sensebilities. Hannah and her Sisters was a high point, I recall, as was Crimes and Misdemeanors, the film that introduced me to the great, great Jerry Orbach. But a disturbing premise, that film. The Sweet and Lowdown, which was the film that made me completely re-evaluate Sean Penn, so completely did he inhabit Emmet Ray and make me believe that he was, indeed, the second best jass guitarist in the world (after Django Reinhardt, of course). And now Match Point, which, while not a departure in some ways, is a radical departure in others. I think that the central emotions of the film are not unfamiliar territory for Allen. The questions of desire versus obligation, what we others and what we owe ourselves, how far are we willing to go to protect or get something we want. All ground previously covered by Allen over the last thirty years in various combinations and genres. Where Match Point is a departure is in its setting (London), it's casting (Jonathan Rhys-Davies instead of an aging Woody Allen), and it's soundtrack (opera). It's a fairly interesting examination, without being obvious or irritating or judgemental about it, of class in the UK, and how an outsider tries to fit himself into a life he was not born to, and didn't really realize he aspired to. For I do believe that Rhys-Meyers does not particularly have designs on the Hewett family, he's not a grifter or a con artist. He never represents himself as anything other than what he is, which is a poor Irish boy who was good enough at tennis to play professionally for a while. He's not loath to be attached to the family so he lets himself be carried along without really thinking about what he's walking into. The Hewetts are wildly wealthy, but also very generous and kind people who want nothing more than for their children to be happy. And then there's Scarlett Johanssen, who is so much more of a bombshell than I ever imagined she would be when I first noticed her in Ghost World. I'm not sure how Woody Allen manages to get such good performances out of his actors, since it would have been easy to reduce all of these characters to two dimensional stock characters, and each person managed to turn in a nicely nuanced performance.

IV.
The conclusion. Go see Match Point, it's an excellent film, and has much more to it than it might initially seem. Rent Auntie Mame because it's a fabulous and funny movie, and any world that doesn't have Rosalind Russell crying, "Ah, Patrick, my little love!" isn't a world I'd want to live in. And...ponder the weirdness that are sequels to bad action/fantasy movies and wonder how they could possibly justify it.

The Soundtrack of Your Life

2006-01-25T17:16:00.000-05:00

Ah, the miracle that is the iPod. Or, really, any mp3 player that lets you carry a large amount of your music library with you without all those annoying CDs or tapes. More importantly, it allows you to more fully explore your library. I mean, you scroll through and think, yawn, I listen to this all the time, but wait...man, I'd forgotten about that. I was listening to music during lunch today (well, since I got the thing, I'm surgically attached to it), and I was scrolling around, no, I don't want to listen to pop, no, I've overlistened to the Leonard Cohen one, maybe...wait, what's this? Wish. Hmmm, wow. The Cure. I haven't listened to this in a long time. So I chose it and started to listen, and suddenly "Friday I'm in Love" came on. It's only the reason I bought the CD to begin with (I mean, the whole CD is pretty good, but nevertheless). And...I just love that song so much, and I had totally forgotten it even existed in this world. I feel like I rediscovered a piece of myself.

I also have learned to like albums that I bought and didn't like very much. I mean, some albums are beyond hope, it's possible that I'll never really come to like some albums. But others really have grown on me. Aqua's second album, Aquarius, which I think I like better than Aquarium (for Cartoon Heroes alone). LCD Soundsystem, something that got really great reviews when it came out, and I just didn't like it that much. But I listened to it several times all the way through, and, at some point, the switch flipped and I was like, "Oh. I get it. It really is good." I'll admit that I will give albums several chances, on the idea that I just might not be in the mood for whatever it is I might be listening to.

And then I discovered podcasts. First there was, of course, the Project Runway podcast, in which Tim Gunn gives a relatively unvarnished version of what happened on the show that week. He can be quite honest in his assessment of what is going on, and sometimes disagrees with the judges. Then I started listening to the Battlestar Galactica podcasts (...shut up). You're supposed to listen to them in conjuction with the show, but it would require watching the show twice (once without and once with). But it's definitely a cool idea, it's like he's doing DVD commentary for the original broadcast. It's fun to listen to because he acknowledges when they've made mistakes, where they took shortcuts, but he also gets really gleeful when they've gotten things right. It's a great glimpse into the creative and production process of the show. And then I found out that Ricky Gervais (the creator of the UK version of The Office and Extras, among others) has a podcast, and so I started listening to those. They're bascially a smarter version of a morning zoo type show (only once a week), because I think it's mostly Ricky Gervais and his writing partner Stephen Merchant making fun of their friend Karl Pilkington. But I find myself laughing outloud at it, which is not a good thing when you're walking down the street and people have no idea why you're giggling hysterically. Not maybe the most businesslike face to be putting forward.

Of course, the other cool thing about the iPod is the video capability. The screen is pretty small, about two square inches, but has great resolution. I've only downloaded two videos so far, but I can definitely see loading up before going on a trip. Of course, the battery doesn't last quite as long with the video (okay, it's a lot shorter), so you have to have a power source to recharge it (and the right charger, of course).

Of course, what I'm really enjoying is the opportunity to listen to a broad range of my music library without carrying a lot of crap around with me.

The Colonials Take

2006-01-17T21:03:00.000-05:00

Okay, y’all have to forgive me another basketball post. We’re deep in the season now, and there have been a couple of conference games, and a bunch of non-conference games, which I can only think of as warm up games. Pretty much everything from now on “counts”, so the games are getting important. So. Here’s the thing. I worry. I worry about their preconference schedule, which was very soft. They struggled against teams they should not have been having trouble with (I mean, Norfolk State? Why was that such a tough game for them?). I think that their loss at North Carolina State, and then the near losses that followed (they went into overtime two of their next three games) really got them back on their game. I mean, it can’t be fun to be away from home, be losing badly, and having the opposing crowd chanting “Overrated” at you for five minutes can’t exactly be building your confidence.

That said, they played an outstanding game against St. Joseph's. I don’t know if St. Joe’s just isn’t as good as they were last year, but GWU simply dominated them. It was beautiful. And Stony Brook? Yeah, that club needs a few years of building. It’s possible they might be good at some point (their new coach used to be an assistant coach for GWU), but now is not it. I felt sort of bad for them, because they didn’t even score for the first eight minutes, and we got up by twenty points and never really looked back. I think at some point we were ahead by thirty points.

But I made a discovery last night. I really like to watch basketball, but I don’t like watching players who have no personality. For example, Omar Williams has made great strides in his four years at GWU. Hobbes played and played and played him, never really gave up on him. And I’ll give him credit, he’s a lot better than he used to be. But he’s sort of boring. it takes a lot to get him going, he has these occasional flashes of greatness, but he’s not consistent. And he fouls a lot, but there’s not a whole lot of return there. Now, Mike Hall is fun to watch. He’s dependable and steady, and, now hear me out. You’d THINK that would make him boring, but it’s not. He scopes out the strategy and he tends to put himself in a place where he can get the ball to the basket. He doesn’t push plays, he waits for his opening. He can slam the ball, make three point shots, fade away jumps, and he’s a reliable foul shooter. He plays clean, too, so he’s not likely to be giving away those free foul shots to the other team. Danilo Pinnock? Elegant. And, again, smart. Also a good three point shooter, solid on the foul line. Fluid. Carl Elliot? Something of a hothead, goes for broke, he’ll drive down the lane if he think he can get in, but he’s got self control, so he can pull back if he needs to. Mo Rice? Fun, very much like Elliot, actually. Both good point guards. Pops? Well, he used to be a lot of fun to watch, but...he seems flat this year. The problem with Pops is that he’s the big inside guy, and he’s only good if he isn’t guarded. He gets shut down, he can’t do anything else. He can slam the ball in like no one else, but I’ve yet to see him even do a lay-up. and when he tries something further away? I don’t even know why he bothers. He shoots 50% from the foul line if he’s lucky. So, he was fun last year, but this year, not so much. Alex Kireev I have a certain affection for because, hell, he’s better than Roma was (I mean, he does have the ability to handle the ball). Last year he seemed to improve dramatically because he’d played with the Ukrainian national team, but he sort of fizzled. He doesn’t suck...okay, he does. But I like him anyway. He’s an underdog. Decent freshman talent. Montrell McDonald has been getting a lot of time. My dad likes Rob Diggs, and thinks he’ll get time on the floor next year. We’ll see.

The big fear, of course, is that Karl Hobbes will decamp next year to a bigger program. Now, this fear is currently being stoked by my Big Brother, who...we’ll see. It’ s not like he’s got the inside line What Karl Hobbes Is Thinking About His Career, so I’ll just nurture the hope that he’ll stick around for a few more seasons.

We’ll see how they do up against some tougher teams coming up and going into the NCAA rounds. My guess is that their early season was too soft, and they might fall apart against tougher teams.

Hobbes, what the HELL are you thinking?

2006-01-11T23:01:00.000-05:00

Okay, first let me say this, before I get to the subject of my post. DAMN YOU, MARLA, for getting Diana eliminated on Project Runway. I didn't think Diana would make it to fashion week, but for sure I thought she'd outlast stupid Zulema. At least dumb Cara is out too, since she was Marla's horrible model.

Anyway, on to the subject at hand, which is what the hell is going on in Karl Hobbes' head? Seriously? Okay, for those who don't know, I am a huge George Washington University men's basketball fan. I've been going to games for almost six years, so I've seen them really evolve over the years, and under Hobbes they've really blossomed. One of Hobbes' strengths, as a coach, is his ability to recruit players who are versatile, and can play a range of positions, shoot from all over the court, and has enough of them that he can rotate in and out. No one on the team is ball hog or a glory hound, different people have the high score each game. They're team players, and they're really fun to watch. Most of the time. Because there are nights when I watch them, and I think to myself, what is going on with these guys. And tonight it was Hobbes who confused me. For example, this St. Louis team we were playing was really good. Really, really good. Good shooters, great defense, fast. And they shut us down for much of the first half. Pops Mensah-Bonsu, who, when he is not being shut down, is spectacular at one thing, and that is getting the ball inside and slamming it in the basket. Which, is great, and fun to watch. When he can get it done, which he hasn't all season because everyone is onto him, and they put three guys on him and then he gets the ball, and he's compelled to put the ball on the floor, and then he's done. He can't just get the ball, turn, and take the jump shot. There was a period last season where he got out of it, but he goes back to it, every time. Plus, he can't free throw for shit, and I'm sorry, if you can't do the one thing you're on the court to do, the LEAST you could do is make the freakin' shots where no one is on top of you. And damn that I never noticed that the boy lumbers around the court. He is slower than molasses.

Okay, so there are some amazing players on this team. Mike Hall, Danilo Pinnock Mo Rice, Carl Elliot, all solid, smart players. Omar Williams is adequate, with flashes of greatness when he gets fired up, which is about once a year. Kid can jump when he wants to. And there are some really promising freshman who are getting play: Montrell McDonnell and Rob Diggs. McDonnell gets a lot more play, but Diggs has a lot of talent that might come out next year.

So, tonight, some of our good players were not doing well, Mike Hall among them. We couldn't get a break, St. Louis was ahead of us by about five points, and we are out there just, well, sucking. Suddenly, Hobbes puts in McDonnell, Diggs, Elliot, Rice and the new guy whose name I don't know yet, and suddenly they are on fire. Suddenly we're climbing in points, then we're tied, and then we were ahead. They are blazing, everyone is on their feet, we're all screaming, clapping, shouting for them, and then, at a time out, Hobbes dismantles this team, and puts Williams, Pops and...someone else who was sucking, and all the life goes out of them. The hell? Why would you take a team that was doing amazing things, running the ball, intercepting, having an incredible run, and dismantle it, never to be seen again? I find it baffeling.

Incredibly, we ended up with a tie at the end, and in overtime we won, but it was pure luck and a couple of bad breaks for St. Louis. And, in terms of stragegy, this was Hobbes' fault. In court play, if we'd lost, it would have been Omar's fault. He made some really bad moves that cost us a lot (and let's not forget McDonnell's intentional offensive foul, which was pretty egregious).

This GWU team has so much talent and potential, and sometimes I don't know what Hobbes is seeing when he looks on the court. It was a mystery to me why he wouldn't let that bizarre combination play out a little longer to see how long they could maintain the energy and run. So, GWU, saved again by the other guy being a little worse, but, like Wendy Pepper from season one of Project Runway, eventually you will come up against your Jay McCarroll, and you will never recover from it.

I bet you wondered how I was going to work Project Runway into the end of a post about Basketball, weren't you?

Just a Couple of Things

2006-01-04T17:04:00.000-05:00

Okay, this is a collection of some random things. First things first. I got home today and turned on the tv, and realized that Yes Dear has now been on the air long enough to be syndicated. How did this happen? Who is watching this show? I don't think I've watched it for more than five minutes at a stretch. Whoever is watching it, please stop. Now.

Other things that need to stop. Tapered jeans. I have seen a disturbing renaissance of this style in my wanderings in downtown DC and at my local Y (and, by the way, who exercises in jeans? I mean, if you're going to do it, at least wear something comfortable so you come back! But I guess it's good that people don't use the lack of comfortable clothing as an excuse not to do it.), and that is a style that looks good on no one. Really, I don't care how skinny you are, you still have shoulders, and you look like a wedge. Stop wearing them!

I will admit that the incidences of cropped/gaucho pants which I noted in the fall has fallen quite a bit. Are they not winter wear? Well, whatever. They're gone, and I, for one, am pleased about it.

A Million Little Pieces by James Frey. I'm a hundred pages in, and already it's a very disturbing account of drug addiction and recovery. I didn't think much of the style at first, but it's really very powerful, and he's a very evocative writer.

I mentioned a few weeks ago my excitement at the return of Project Runway on Bravo. I have come to really appreciate Tim Gunn on this show. He is the salt on the reality show slug. All that drama swirling around, and he's like this slice of acid through the show. He's not mean. He's very nice, just firm. As someone on the TWOP forum said, he would tell you that you suck. Very nicely. Not to be mean, but because it's true. I find it sort of comforting that real people exist on television.

Abramhoff Goin' DOWN

2006-01-03T21:35:00.000-05:00

And he's taken Congress with him. He's pleaded guilty to three felony charges, and they're addresseing the charges down in Miami connected to the casino boats later. More importantly, he's naming names. According to NPR up to twenty members of congress could be implicated, including Tom DeLay. You can read the very extensive article here. Additionally, you can read about the 1980 Abscam convictions here and here. I'm actually sort of surprised that there's not more, to be honest. I mean, I was only twelve when the indictments were handed down, and I definitely remember it. It was even in Blook County (Milo dressed up as an Arab trying to bribe Senator Thornhump. Awesome.). Anyway, this is huge, and it will be very interesting to see how this unfolds in the coming months. I, of course, am so cynical that I pretty much assume that everyone is corrupt anyway, so it'll be fascinating to see who goes down.

The 2006 Resolution List

2006-01-02T20:34:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year everyone! I hope that everyone had a fabulous evening on New Year's, and you spent it exactly how you wanted to, and that the long weekend has been unprofitably spent. I know mine was!

So, I was pressed New Year's Day for my resolutions. I'll admit that I hadn't given it a ton of thought when asked, and threw out about six things, at which time I was told that I had choose two, because I'll never keep all of them. There is truth to that. Which is why I've never really done formal New Year's resolutions. However, I do have several sort of broad goals, though, that I'd like to work through this year.

THE LIST
1. Vary my exercise more by starting to swim again and getting outside more.
2. Get my meal planning in hand
3. Get my career under control
4. Revise the novel

Of course, what my list should look like is:
1. Continue to hone self-taught bartending skills
2. Get the cushion on the couch in front of the TV just right

Because it seems that those are the two things I spend way too much time on right now.

However, because I'm blogging without much of a point, I thought I would go ahead and give you a couple of recipes that I made on New Year's Eve. For the martini recipes I used Absolut vodka simply because I like the flavor better, but feel free to use whatever you like best.

Orange Martini
2 shots orange vodka
1 shot Cointreau
1 shot Rosa's Lime Juice

Combine in a martini shaker with ice and shake well till combined. Pour into glass and garish with maraschino cherry.

Key Lime Martini
2 shots vanilla vodka
1 shot Rosa's Lime Juice
1 shot half and half (either regular or fat free is fine)

Combine in a martini shaker with ice and shake well. The cream will curdle a little bit, but the shake smooths it out, so don't be alarmed. Pour into glass. If you're foward thinking, garnish with a lime rind.

Vietnamese Stir-Fry (roughly based on the Washington Post recipe from 12/29/05)
3 Tbs. dried lemon peel
1/3 cup fish sauce (nam pla)
1 tsp. chili pepper or hot pepper flakes (or less or more to taste)
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 medium shallots, minced
2 Tbs. peanut oil
2 pork tenderloin chops sliced thinly
1/4 cup brown sugar
Sesame seeds
Chopped mint for garnish
1 package flat rice noodles

Combine lemon peel, fish sauce, chili pepper, and garlic and set aside. Now, the original recipe called for fresh lemon grass, which I could not find, so I should have added extra liquid to this mixture before adding it to the meat stir fry.

Sprinkle the brown sugar on the pork and turn to coat it. Heat the peanut oil in the frying pan. When hot, add the shallots and cook until the scent releases, and then add the pork. Saute the pork until cooked through, add the sauce and toss to combine.

Cook the noodles as instructed on the package, and toss the pork and sauce with the noodles, and garnish with the mint and sesame seeds.

Eat immediately. Serves three or four really polite people who have been eating appetizers and drinking for several hours and is totally delicious.

Merry Christmas

2005-12-25T22:56:00.000-05:00

I know this has been a thin month for blog entries. I can only plead stress and irritation brought on by the season, which, thankfully is pretty much over as of...well, right now. I hope everyone had a great holiday, though, whether you celebrate Christmas or Hannukah or the solstice, or somewhere out there, a Roman re-enactor who celebrates Saturnalia (which, I gotta tell you, sounds like my kind of holiday). It was rainy and foggy here in DC for the holiday, but not too cold, which was nice. So since I don't have a lot to say, here's a picture of Max, who was sadly negelged to day because she was home alone, and is now acting like a freak.

How could a face like that not make you happy?

What the Hell Happened to December?

2005-12-14T21:11:00.000-05:00

Seriously. I feel like, two days ago, it was Thanksgiving, and now, suddenly, I'm being confronted by the fact that Christmas is next week. How did that happen? What has happened to the last two weeks? I'm on top of stuff, in terms of my shopping and stuff like that, but I'm feeling extremely pressed for some reason. Probably this has something to do with the gym and me not going to it for two days in a row. But, on the up side, my stupid ceiling is finally finished. Now I can do things like...paint my wall! Move my furniture back! Whooo!

I wonder if I stress myself out by watching things like The Apprentice? So stressful, watching these people possibly failing.

Anyway...I've also accumulated a rather large list of films out in the theatres I want to see right now. King Kong. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Brokeback Mountain. Syrinia (okay, I will admit that I don't want see the torture scene particularly. I still haven't recovered from a viewing of the Marathon Man from when I was twelve. Plus, Geroge Clooney looks disturbingly like Sadaam Huessein, and, ew.).

However, the end of November does mean I've had some chances to actually read. Unheard of, I know. I don't know that I love what I'm reading, but it's entertaining.

Well, I think that's enough stream of conciousness with no point from me. I mean, rambling is all well and good, but I doubt anyone wants read it for ages.

Return of Project Runway

2005-12-09T19:23:00.000-05:00

Oh my. Can I just tell you how happy, excited, pleased I am at the return of Projct Runway? The personalities are definitely coming out, of course. But I love the judges, Nina Garcia and Michael Kors. I mean, I know they're very intimidating and all, but I think they're ultimately fair. But I think the thing I love about this show is how collaborative the designers are. One designer was having problems with his design, and one of the other designers helps him do the sewing so he can get it done. I just really like that spirit of helping out and working together that this show fosters. I love Tim Gunn, who is the guy from Parsons. He's so helpful, saying, "I'm worried about this. Do you need it? You'll have to defend this to the judges." But it's not mean or judgemental, just, hey, I'm concerned.

I'm not sure that ANY of these people are going to replace Jay McCarrol in my heart. None of them have displayed that unique sort of thing he had going for him, which was fun and quirky and feeling solid in his talent, but also funny as hell. But some of them are emerging as great personalities (early favorites are Nick and Emmet), and villains (Zulema and Guadalupe). And huge egos, like Santino. And the one guy, Daniel Franco, who came back from Season One and is trying again. I actually sort of like him, because he's so humbled from his experience, and he's trying so hard to impress them and not get eliminated early. I almost think he'd be happy to stay through half the show. But honestly, I think he'll gain confidence and get better as the show goes on.

I think it will be a very very interesting season on Project Runway.

Damn you world! ::shakes fist::

2005-12-07T21:58:00.000-05:00

Actually, I'm not really in that bad a mood. I mean, I was earlier, but now I've been to yoga and gotten some exercise, so I feel better. I don't know what it is, I just feel this sort of general malaise. I think I can track it pretty accurately to a couple of things. In November I was all full of purpose because I was doing the book, and I was very driven. Stressed, but with purpose.

And then the month ended. And the project was done. And I had my birthday, which is always a time for me to reassess my life. And this past Monday it snowed, which is just...ugh. I start to feel all closed in and trapped and tight when it gets cold, and I just have to sit at my desk and do my pointless job, and I start dreaming that I had enough guts to just sell my condo and flee to Fiji and...I don't know...teach scuba diving. I don't know what it is. I just get this itch at this time of the year, and I find myself sort of dissatsified with everything.

So I have to list the good things in my life. And I'm not talking big things like my family and friends. I'm talking about the little things that help me get through the week.

1. Comfort food. I'm talkin' risotto, mac and cheese, pizza, sushi, thai food.
2. The return of Project Runway. Yes, today. (But please, what is Daniel Franco doing back?) Tim Gunn makes me happy.
3. Good books. Thank god for the library, and for the fact that I have a lot of stuff on my shelves, both things that I've read before that could take a re-reading, and things that I haven't read yet. I feel like with the cold weather setting in, I should tackle something really imposing and long.
4. Wait! Wait! Don't Tell Me and This American Life. Must hear radio on Saturdays. I feel incomplete when I don't get to hear these shows.
5. Rediscovering old music. Finding my Gin Blossoms CD, They Might Be Giants, and hey, is that my copy of Pink Floyd The Wall? Bring it on! Sometimes I forget how music can make me feel. It can take me back to a time in my life that was different, or I find new siginificance in the music. It's not secret that I love cheesy, trashy Europop. Usually it's a no-brainer for lifting my spirits, but for some reason I'm not going for it right now. Maybe I should, though.
7. The gym. A must have. I remember in high school having a friend who elected not to take gym his junior year (since it wasn't required), and he regretted it because he got hyper and nervous during the day, and having gym class helped him blow it off an focus. I have become that sort of person. I get short tempered and annoyed when I don't get enough exercise. And then I go to the gym and I magically feel better. It's like natural crack or something.
8. Diet Coke. My lifeline.
9. Netflix. It's like I don't have to keep my list of things that I want to see in my head anymore, because Netflix has yet to not have what I want. Not only have I been able to catch up on shows that I wasn't able to see due to lack of cable, or scheduling conflicts, but also get to see movies that I missed in the theatre.
10. Seeing movies in the theatre. I know, I could rent it, but there's something about the big screen and the group experience that has a huge attraction for me. Plus the colors are more vibrant, images are more striking, and action is more exciting on the big screen.
11. Live theatre. Ditto to the movie experience, except I can't see it on netflix. You snooze, you lose.
12. Speaking of snoozing, sleep. I'm disgracefully low on it.
13. Yoga. Though I miss my old teacher terribly. I don't like doing fourteen sun salutations, speeding through balance poses, and holding stretches for only three seconds. I end up not feeling relaxed and stretched, which is sort of what I'm after. The answer, of course, is home practice.

Man. I need a lot in my life to get by.

Wooo Hooooo!!!!!

2005-11-29T20:35:00.000-05:00

That's right, babies! I finished that bad boy. 50,158 words.

I'm really pleased with myself. I mean, the book is nowhere near done, but I feel like I accomplished a lot, and managed to do it without completely stressing myself out. Okay, I will admit there were some moments where I felt like a lunatic, and I definitely panicked in the third week, when I was sitting at something like 36,000 words, and 50,000 seemed so far away, and unattainable. And then I hit 40,000, and then I turned the corner this past weekend and hit 46,000, and suddenly it didn't seem so unattainable.

I'm really happy about it! Yay me!

Torqued Off

2005-11-25T21:03:00.000-05:00

You know, I wonder about people who make really really bad movies. And I wonder how cheap they are to sell to HBO. Because HBO has been showing Torque, I'd say, pretty much every day. It's like the summer I lived in Marietta, OH, and they showed Harry and Hendersons every single day without fail. I keep seeing portions of Torque, and it's a movie I'm determined to see in five minute increments, because it would otherwise give me a brain aneurysm, and I would be dead on the floor being eaten by my cat. Because it's really horrible. Highly stylized, all primary colors, and really bad acting. Probably the best person in there is Ice Cube, and well...that's not saying a whole lot.

On the other hand, I saw Capote tonight. Amazing film. Philip Seymour Hoffman did a fabulous job as Truman Capote, and Catherine Keener was very sympathetic as Harper Lee. I had no idea that she was so involved with the writing of the book, for I don't remember him mentioning her at all. But I think the movie did a great job capturing Capote's character. The end was especially sad, where he was so eager to be done with the book, he needed Smith and Hickock to be executed so he could have resolution, and yet he still needed to talk to them and convince them that he was their friend and there to help them. But I can't help but think that if Capote weren't such a drama queen, this process wouldn't have been as destructive to him as it was. On the other hand, it's also possible that he wouldn't have written such an amazing book. He was horrible to Harper Lee at the end, with her biggest triumph with the film of To Kill a Mockingbird. Hoffman was very true to the character of Capote, which I found admirable, because he was a difficult person.

Updated word count at left, as always.

ARGH!

2005-11-22T21:00:00.000-05:00

I'm behind. So, so, so behind. 2,764 words, to be exact.

Two Thousand Seven Hundred Sixty Four words.

Behind.

If I can just make it to...I don't know, 42k, I'll feel like I can finish. It is, at least, not a complete two days behind, but it's daunting. It seems to be the theme of this year's challenge for me - can I catch up?

Non book stuff. I'm definitely doing the holiday challenge at the Y this year to stay motivated over the holidays. I guess they're doing it later this year. They used to start the day after Thanksgiving.

And, in other news, The Amazing Race sort of sucks this season, and my sentiment in watching it is that my show is broken and and the Weavers SUCK. I hate them, and as they've whittled down the teams, the more screen time they get, and the more I hate them. And the race is much less fun when I'm actively rooting against a team instead of cheering for one to win.

Cool

2005-11-19T16:43:00.000-05:00

My number for today is a palindrome!

Catchup and Random Crap

2005-11-17T19:11:00.000-05:00

Okay, first off, this is something totally random I thought about this morning, spurred by a picture of the man. Do you think G. Gordon Liddy dyes his mustache? I saw a giant picture of him on the back of a bus this morning, and man, dude's got to be in his seventies, and his mustache is all luxuriant and black. However, every time I see him, I think of him in Miami Vice (yeah, don't ask which of the two episodes he was in this is from), and he tosses this...thing...on a conference table, and says, "You know what those are? Ears." Pause for effect. "Sandanista ears." Ewwwww.

Also totally randomly. I'm sitting on my couch, and it's 7:27pm, and I can totally see the moon out my window, which I've never noticed before in the whole five years I've lived here. That's sort of nice.

Okay, other things. Well, the only other thing, really. The book. The book is...hard. I mean, I feel bad. Emilia is a really sweet person. She's a little one dimensional right now, but overall, she's nice. And I had to marry her to an asshole. An asshole who's going to kill her. And I had make Iago, who is, believe me, an asshole, rape someone. Which was . And then I had to give Emilia a miscarraige, and the girl's got a lot of woe ahead of her. However, I am on track.

Last night I needed to get out of the house to write, because history bears out my inability to write at home (well, I did tonight, but last night it wasn't happening). So I decided to try a new place, the Greenberry's down in Rosslyn off of Rhodes. So I got down there. Plenty of parking (that's good), went in and not very many people were in there, which was fine. I got myself a vanilla caramel latte (YUM! Excellent coffee), and sat down. Not so much on the plugs, but that was okay, I was pretty charged up. The a guy sitting at another table gets up and goes outside, and comes back in with a gym bag, which he leaves by the door, and he sits back down at his table. Hmmmm. Weird. About five minutes later, he get up again and goes back outside and comes back in with...a mic stand. A mic stand? Shit. Is there going to be music tonight? He goes back out and comes back in with a reading stand. For....music? Maybe? Then another guy comes in, and they greet each other, and one of them says to the other, "Well, we might be reading to each other." My mind at this point is whirling with possibilities. Is it Bloomsday? No, that was in the spring, and Greenberry's is not an Irish bar. Some other obscure author that they are going to be reading? The Beowulf society? More people come in, and some of them have instruments. I am completely confused by this, put my headphones in and ignore it, because, frankly, I have my word count to think about. Then the music starts, and it's, not offensive. A keyboard and a flute. It's...whatever. And then the first guy gets up and welcomes us to "Poesis." Yeah, and it's not just a poetry reading. It's a jazz poetry reading. Yeah, that was pretty much the end of the writing, and finally at 8:45 I bailed because, frankly, I was not missing The Apprentice: Martha in favor of an old guy who bore more than passing resembalance to Mark Twain read sex poetry.

Leave it to me to wander in the one night of the month the place is hosting a poetry reading. A jazz poetry reading. ::shakes head::

Updated word count at left. Same excerpt up at nanowrimo.org.

Do You Have Any Idea How Fast 1666 Words a Day Adds Up?

2005-11-13T17:52:00.000-05:00

Yeah. I was really bad this week. I avoided writing earlier this week, despite being under the gun on word count and time. I had so much to make up. And part of the reason I was sort of avoiding it was because I wasn't sure where to go next. I had to fill in the back story on Iago. It's hard to write this, because Iago needs to be horrible without being a monster. I can't believe the character would be totally one sided and horrific from the beginning. He has to evolve into the person he becomes by the end. And it's really hard to put Emilia into his power, because she's not a stupid person, but he preys on her weakness. It will require a lot of rewriting, because it's such a delicate balance, and it has to be believable. I don't know - when you know how far your character is willing to go to get is own way, getting him there is...hard. I don't know, if I were not writing something where the end was predetermined, I don't think I would be able to write this. So it's definitely a stretch for me.

I am now caught up, but I wrote for almost four hours straight, and that? Is really hard. A lesson, I suppose, that trying to write four thousand words in one day to catch up is maybe not the best idea.

Anyway...good long weekend, despite the lack of writing activity. Friday I got my hair cut and went out with my ASP buddies. It was awesome seeing them again, because we basically did not stop laughing the entire time we were there. They had great stories about the new crazy people at the company, and all the changes and weirdness that drove me crazy when I worked there. Hung out later with some of the people that I'm closer to there, which was awesome. Such a good time. Saturday I headed up to Maryland for a baby shower, which was full of good food, but wow, lasted a really long time. But it was great to see her, because the last time I saw her, she barely looked pregnant at all, and now she has totally popped out. The baby started to kick, and we could actually see her belly bulge out, which was totally weird and Alien-like. But I got her Harold and Purple Crayon, which was well recieved. I love that book still. It did lead to stories about how her husband used to write on the walls, which was totally funny, and also exactly the kind of kid I would expect him to be. Spent the night up with my friends up in Maryland, and went out for a fabulous dinner of tapas. I'm amazed that Frederick has such a varied restaurant scene and such a cute downtown. It's really much more of a community than a lot of other areas around here. I guess it's why I like Arlington so much. They've spent time creating neighborhoods, and it makes such a difference to live somewhere that has a center of some sort.

So that's it. I'm done writing for the day. I'm watching the Miami Ink marathon on TLC, and I'm gonna go cook myself some dinner.

Victoreeeee!

2005-11-08T22:24:00.000-05:00

You know, some days it's good to be a Democrat. Kaine seems to have won pretty handily here in Virginia, Corzine won in New Jersey, Bloomberg won in NYC. Seriously, this is very good. The Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General races look like they haven't called them yet (seriously, did I see one ad for either of the Lt. Gov. candidates, or for the Dem candidate for Attorney General?). Why do I live in the one state where you elect each person separately? Virginia is so weird.

But..woo-hoo democrats!

Other stuff. The looming horror that is NaNoWriMo. I'm in a good place, but I worry. I do. How do I make Iago sneaky snaky enough without him tipping his hand that he's a manipulative bastard? And my poor Emilia. She's so sweet and stupid, and it's going to end so badly for her. Damn Shakespeare for creating someone like her. And her family is so nice. Well, except her sister, who is a drunk bitch. But her brothers are nice. But it does progress. I think the most difficult thing are the, ahem, sex scenes. But they're sort of important. New word count to left, as promised.

You know, everything else I have is random observation, like, the leapfrog "game" system that really teaches kids math looks disappointing and stupid, and that I hate the Weavers on the Amazing Race, and that I probably really, really need to get out more.

In December. When NaNoWriMo is over.

Ermmm

2005-11-07T18:13:00.000-05:00

No word update yet tonight. I haven't written a word yet.

But I had to post this. It's fun!

Other minor things: I was the recipient of a campaign phone call from the Jerry Kilgore campaign. What I gleaned from this incredibly offensive call was: Kilgore hates gay people, immigrants and women. Oh, and add to that he doesn't seem to have plan to pay for the crap he wants to do, and he wants to take the bike path along I-66 away because he wants to widen it. My reaction to that? Fuck people who live in Fairfax and drive into the city on I-66. Take public transportation like the rest of us. Grrr.

Sorry. Bad tempered about this campaign. I think Kilgore is so completely sleazy and smarmy.

Other, less important things. I can't link to it, but the Washington Post Sunday Source section ran a story about how hip leggings are. And, really...I just...I know I've been ranting about women's fashions a lot here, but the leggings look just wasn't good in the eighties, and it's so not good now. With little short skirts. ::shudder:: At least I didn't wear the spandex ones with heels, though one of my roommates did.

On Track and Chugging Along

2005-11-06T20:23:00.000-05:00

It's going well. I didn't get too much writing done yesterday, but I had a massive session today and wrote almost three thousand words. I feel like it's pretty good, as well. Some issues, some depth that I'm going to have work out, but that's for the second draft. I found leaving the house and getting a change of scenery was a great idea. I went up to Commmon Grounds (or it might be called Murky's now, I'm not entirely sure), and camped out there for about three hours, with a history teacher on one side of me, and a medical student on the other, and a caramel latte in my fist. However, not having access to the internet and other distractions resulted in a large amount of productivity. I spent a few minutes figuring out my weekly word count goals (12,500 words a week, if anyone cares), and I am well on track for the week.

Anyway. I have an excerpt up, and you're welcome to go take a look at it. There is at least one misspelling, and please, remember it's a first draft. :) Go to the NaNoWriMo website, click on the "Team 2005" link at the top, and do an author search for "Culturemaven", my profile should come up. Click on my author name, and you'll find my profile and the excerpt.

Remember, remember

2005-11-05T14:17:00.000-05:00

It's Guy Fawkes day. I don't know why, but I'm sort of fascinated by Guy Fawkes day. So, I guess, happy Guy Fawkes day?

Just some random things here. New word count posted at left. I feel good about it. I just spend a decent chunk of time writing, and spend to spend a substantial chunk of time tomorrow as well. However, I think I will betake myself from my domicile and find someplace else to write. Someplace without internet access of the constant staring presence of my television set. However, it's going nicely, I'm in a pretty good place with it.

Some other things:

1. I love Marueen Dowd. I identify with her. This article in the Washington Post just makes me like her more. I sort of like that she does what she does, and doesn't feel like she needs to have a particular ideology in order to back up how she feels about something.

2. I saw The Dying Gaul last night. Beautiful beautiful film, but missing something emotional at the core. I didn't really connect to any of the characters, and they did such terrible things to each other, that I was having difficulty feeling empathy for any of them. But I will say that Patricia Clarkson in da bomb. She is beautiful, and I can only hope to look that good when I'm that age. Also, the house in which Campbell Scott and Patricia Clarkson live, beautiful and antiseptic, has a pool I would kill for. One of those pools that seem to have no edge and the water just runs over the side. God, I love those pools. I coveted the whole house.

3. I finally got my ceiling fixed. Well, partly. It's been patched, and he has to come back a few more times to sand and put a skim coat of putty on, but mostly done. The big stuff. Though it was incredibly awkward to deal with the payments, since Paul and Kasha payed him directly, and I was like....uhhhhhhhh...AWK-WARD. Money complicates things.

4. I got a notification on Thursday that I have a job interview coming up. It was very weird, but I'm looking forward to it. Of course, my mom said, "Is this going to be another job you don't like?" and I was like, "I don't know until I go and talk to them, do I?" I mean, how do I know whether or not I'll like the job until I talk to them? Of course, sometimes you don't know until you're acutally in the job. But an interesting opportunity, nonetheless. It sounds like there's an information session I have to go to, and then possibly a long time of...who knows what? But should be interesting.

Back on Track - I Hope

2005-11-04T18:02:00.000-05:00

Okay, feel a little bit better, more back on track. Though I managed to forget my Palm at work today, so I don't have what I wrote at lunch time. But I managed to bang out about 1500 words, plus what I wrote today, so I feel better. I actually did the calculation, and I have to do 1666.666666 words per day to finish on time. Hopefully I can buy some time on the weekends.

But I feel like I'm in a solid place right now, though I am thinking about slightly changing the tack of the story. But I think right now I need to concentrate on what I'm doing and not try to alter stuff that's already been done. It would change the tone of the book if I do what I'm thinking of (which is to concentrate on two characters instead of just one.)

New total over at the left!

Behind! Three days in and I'm behind!

2005-11-04T10:43:00.000-05:00

I think that says it all. I only wrote half of what I was supposed to write yesterday. Grrrr...Stupid reality television. Stupid Survivor (stupid people voting off Brandon instead Jamie, who's a jerk and deserves it).

On the other hand, I traded it in for the sweet relief of Markus getting canned on The Apprentice. So really, I guess either way, I was a winner.

I have a feeling I'll be spending an intimate Sunday with just me, my iBook, and several large cups of coffee.

I don't know my word count as of today. I will amend tonight.

Aaaaaand....We're Off!

2005-11-01T19:32:00.000-05:00

A great beginning today for the novel. I wrote some on my commute. I would have written during lunch, except I had to go to a farewell lunch today. So far it's...good. I like it, so far. I feel like I got a good start on it. I sort of feel like the first four or five pages, if I can keep them on track, are a good sign.

Anyway, I'm keeping a daily count over on the left over there, below the NaNoWriMo particpant button. I promise to do my best to keep it up. I don't have an excerpt yet (c'mon, I've only written three and half pages!), but I promise to send you over to them when I have them.

Time for the Insanity to Begin

2005-10-30T18:26:00.000-05:00

Yep. It's that time again. It's almost November. Now, to most people, November is the beginning of the holiday season. Halloween is just the tip of the iceberg. A harbinger, if you will, of the excess to come.

For me, however, November means one thing. It's novel writin' time! Yep. One novel in thirty one days. It's a great way to drive yourself crazy, actually. I have managed to get through it once before, and wrote a completely egregious novel that I would be horrified if it ever saw the light of day. Really. It's terrible. This year though...this year I had a really good idea. I'm not going to reveal it here, however, until I've started writing it. But I am excited about it.

Some of the ground rules for Nanowrimo, at least my ground rules, are:

1. No reading back - it just leads to attempts to revise instead of writing
2. Set aside a specific time during which to write
3. Concentrate on the writing while you're doing it - don't make half-assed attempts with the tv on, with internet connectivity, etc.
4. If you're feeling the flow, don't stop yourself. Because then you're buying yourself some space for;
5. If you can't get anything down, it might be better to abandon the attempt for the moment. Hopefully, you've bought yourself some time by following rule 4.

Additionally, I usually have a good opening sentence of paragraph worked out in my head so I have something decent to lay down to get me started. Prime the pump, so to speak.

So, I will make an effort to post my progress here, and sort of talk about the process, but please forgive me if I disappear or write short posts. When I'm at the point where I have an excerpt I'm happy posting, I'll direct you to it.

Stop the Madness

2005-10-25T10:22:00.000-04:00

Really. I mean it. It has to stop. Now.

Wait. Did I mention what I was talking about? No? Okay. I'll say it. Gaucho pants. Yes. Gaucho pants. Now, I don't care that they're trendy and were on all the catwalks in Milan last year. I don't care that perfectly reputable stores and brands are marketing these frankenstein creations. I don't care that you think they look kicky with boots. They don't. They're abominations.

I'll come clean. I did have a pair of gaucho pants. When I was about nine. In third grade. Yes, they were denim. I begged and begged for them, and damn, I thought I was the shit in them. And I wore them for a year, and then they went out of fashion. Thank god. But I was...you know...nine.

I see perfectly respectable women in my building wearing gaucho suits. Trotting along in their pointy toe pumps (a rant for another time, because GOD they look uncomfortable, not to mention making someone with a size ten shoe size look like Sideshow Bob), and their...gaucho suits. I spotted a pair on The Apprentice last week, and no, it wasn't the fashion forward Alla who was wearing them.

I want to go to these women and ask, "Oh my god, did the dry cleaners shrink your pants?" Because that's what it looks like. And I'm honestly not sure which kind are worse: the ones that pretend that they're pants that, oops! accidentally got cut off at the knee, or the ones that are flowy and try to pretend that they're also skirts. I will say this, they all look bad on everybody. I realize that seventies fashions are back in, but really, this is one trend that could have gone unrevived, and I would have died a happy woman.

I mean, seriously. Capris I can deal with, but what's next? Jodhupurs?

Pathetic Admission

2005-10-18T21:05:00.000-04:00

I'll admit it. I hate AOL, but I love their ads.

You may chastise me as you see fit.

Update to Wallace and Gromit

2005-10-11T08:39:00.000-04:00

Well, this just sucks for Aardman Animation. Imagine having your life's work go up in flames. Though I admire Nick Park for saying that yes, it's terrible, but it's not like it's on the scale of the Pakistan earthquake. So kudos to someone in entertainment with a sense of scale.

Cracking Good Film

2005-10-09T10:27:00.000-04:00

Well, Friday night I went to see Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit. And it was awesome. I just love the Wallace and Gromit films. I find them so clever, the plays on words and the visual references are so wonderful. The animators get so much expression out of the clay model faces, espcecially Gromit, who can convey more emotion in a cocked eyebrow than most real people can with actual lines. One of the things I love most about the films (and I suspect that most people feel this way) are Wallace's inventions. They're elaborate contraptions that rely on a well placed kettle, sleeping in the correct position and never, ever gaining any weight. One of the things I loved about this movie (and the shorts) is that they are uncompromisingly British. The characters have a very distinctive look (especially the town vicar, with his cloud of white hair and bushy eyebrows), the houses with their gardens are quintessentially British, and the language, for the most part, has been retained. From what I read, the only word they replaced was "melon" for "marrow." I also loved the rabbits in the film. They're up there with the seagulls from Finding Nemo. Only they have more expression.

It was well worth waiting for for five years. Stop action can be so tricky - it's either cheap and creepy (pretty much every Christmas special ever made between 1964 and 1970), or it can turn out like this: charming, quirky and amazing.

Parker Stevenson! Shaun Cassidy!

2005-10-07T14:11:00.000-04:00

Ah, I don't know what I'd do without Television Without Pity. I really really don't. Especially since they've chosen to recap one of my favorite childhood shows. Yes. Miss Alli has recapped an episode of The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. I had such a huge crush on Parker Stevenson when I was a kid. Shaun Cassidy was okay, but Parker was da bomb!

Unmarried Moms Need Not Apply

2005-10-06T10:19:00.000-04:00

This new proposed law from the Indiana State legislature is...wow. I'm not even sure I know what to say to this. Beyond the fact that it will be almost impossible to enforce (and what's to stop people from going out of state for infertility treatments or surrogacy or in vitro? If you can afford these treatments, you can afford to go to Chicago to get them.), who are they to say who can and cannot reproduce? It's an outrageous law, and it will certainly have unforseen and unintended consequences. I simply do not understand the amound of energy being put toward regulating women's bodies and lives through legislation. It's very very bothersome to me. As the end of this blog says, why do people put so much time and effort into trying to regulate how other people act? You can't legislate stuff like that. It's so intensely private, you know? And what if you get pregnant by accident, and it's your boyfriend, or a one-night stand? Do they force you to abort? How in the world are they going to enforce any of this? With privacy laws as they are, how can they prove how someone got pregnant? It's...jaw dropping.

Collection of Miscellany

2005-10-03T18:50:00.000-04:00

First off, a worthwhile site to check out is Drink at Work. Very silly, and short.

Second off, I'm sick. I made it through work today, but at about 2pm I was really thinking that this was just not a good idea. I made it through the day, but it was tough and pretty unproductive. Adding to my misery is the fact that I can't taste anything, so everything tastes...well, sorta like cardboard. Diet Coke? Yuck. Coffee? Double yuck. Cold food? Nope. Not interested. About the only thing am interested is soup. I'm not a good sick person, in case you were wondering. I'm a little grumpy. Because I'm pretty sure I picked this evil virus up in New York. Oddly, my horoscope before I left for my trip told me to avoid hotel bedspreads. I pretty much did, but I can't help but suspect.... Coincidence? I think not.

That said, my trip to New York was actually very nice. I went up on Saturday and stayed with my cousin Kyle and his fiancee Tracy. The weather on Saturday was absolutely beautiful, so we took the train down to the village and just walked around for a couple of hours, window shopped, walked through a street fair, and took in the atmosphere. Kyle managed to trip off a curb and hurt his ankle, but he seemed okay.

We stopped at an Italian restaurant and had some pretty good appetizers. Sunday Tracy went for a run while Kyle and I went up to the Cloisters in Fort Tyron Park. It's pricey, but totally worth it. We managed to take two tours, one was a highlights tour of the collection (it's a pretty small museum, so you pretty much see everything anyway), and the other was a garden tour. In fact, that was the coolest thing about the whole museum: the fact that they had about four cloister gardens, which they use to demonstrate both the social use of the cloisters and to give a historical view of how gardens were planted and what they grew. It was actually very interesting.

Sunday was also the day that I was revealed as an evil influence. Whenever I'm with Kyle, something bad happens to him. It's like we have bad cousin karma. Which also translated to the weather (humid, hot and cloudy), and then communicated to Tracy, who had a bad blister and then hurt her leg because she tried to avoid running on the blister. I try to keep my evil under wraps, but I was exposed.

Monday we checked out the UN and also took the tour (Kyle's big on the tours, in case you couldn't tell, there). That was sort of interesting. I'll say this about the UN building: it's like stepping back in time to 1960. The whole building is powder blue with very sixties style seating. You can tell they tried to make it very modern, but in doing so, totally datd themselves. But I admire their mission. I wish they had more power and weren't so hamstrung. After that we walked up to Central Park and walked all through the Park, up to the statues of Alice in Wonderland and Hans Christian Anderson, Belvedere Castle, Strawberry Fields and the Imagine Circle. So that was all very cool.

The rest of my time? Meh. I was in a meeting for work, and it's not very interesting, except I learned a little more about folksonomies, such as del.icio.us, which...interesting. Not practical from a structured professional point of view, but a cool toy.

And the evil overcharging Hilton? Made me sick...

New York Minute

2005-09-30T09:27:00.000-04:00

I have more to say about my time in New York, but I quickly wanted to post a picture of this really cool mural that I saw down in the East Village, because I just love the Clash so much.

Kitties!

2005-09-29T18:37:00.000-04:00

Short entry, shamlessly stolen from Gene Weingarten's WP chat from Tuesday, September 27. Cats in Sinks.

Bizarre Lunchtime occurence

2005-09-23T20:48:00.000-04:00

So I went to lunch today at the newish pub across the street from my office called Elephant and Castle. Call it a foolish nostalgia for the pubs of my college days during my semester in London. Foolish, being the key word, since I found it to be just average in terms of the food and worse in terms of the service.

But to the occurrence. So I was sitting at the bar, and my lunch had just arrived (buffalo chicken wrap with a side salad, which, for some reason, had asian dressing). I had my book open (P.D. James for those keeping score, An Unsuitable Job for a Woman) and was reading. All of a sudden there was this tremendous crash from the end of the bar. I looked over in time to see the guy at the end flip backwards off his stool, hit the wall, and then the floor. About three of the staff ran over there, along with three or four customers, one of whom who seemed to have some medical background.

This raises one of these bizarre ethical questions. What do you do in this case? There were people caring for him who actually knew what to do. I could bring nothing to the situation. Going over would have been gawking at someone who probably didn't need to be gawked at. So I rather guiltily finished my meal, asked the bartender if the guy was going to be okay (and was told that he was concious and seemed like he would be fine), paid my bill and left. I mean, what could I do? It's interesting, because it actually very much made me think about what I could/should do in this situation. In this case, there were plenty of people to help. The employees rallied fast and efficiently. There was someone with some sort of medical training there. I would have been in the way. Am I justifying? Or being practical? Not sure yet.

Of course, this week Achewood had a story arc with very similar theme. Though I'd like to think that I wouldn't actually desert a dying man...

Argh, Mateys!

2005-09-19T08:45:00.000-04:00

Hee. It's Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Cease drip

2005-09-17T16:39:00.000-04:00

Well, the mystery has been solved. My upstairs neighbors, thank goodness, came back from a week's vacation late last night. I heard them upstairs, so I headed up and knocked on the door. So we chatted about what we though it might be, and agreed that there was nothing we could do about, so we might as well go to bed and we'd deal with it in the morning.

So this morning I woke up and the dripping had stopped, which was nice. Turns out they turned off their air conditioning, because they thought that's where it was coming from. They called their airconditioning company, the guy came and pinpointed a clogged drain, so it was seeping out onto the floor. So they've gotten that fixed, the water is no longer dripping out of my ceiling, and all is well, I'm going to give it a couple of days to dry out and then assess the damage. I think it'll pretty minimal, I don't think I'll have to be ripping out dry wall or anything.

All's well that ends well, right?

Drip, drip, drip

2005-09-16T23:39:00.000-04:00

You know the worst thing you can hear as a homeowner? Yep. Drip. Drip. Drip. Apparantly, I have bad water karma. About four weeks ago, I woke up for work, and I heard this dripping noise, and was like, "Is it raining?" No. Because, normally? It doesn't rain inside the closet where your hot water heater is contained. But then I could see the leak, where it was coming from, and I figured out pretty fast that it was my pressure release valve. And this was something, while annoying, and initially panic inducing, I could take care of.

But tonight? I came home and was checking something on my phone, and suddenly I felt/heard this drop of water. In my bedroom. Coming from the ceiling, where no water should be coming from. I looked up, and saw a drop of water form on my sophet, pool up, and the drop down. On my antique cherry desk, which my parents refinished and gave to me for my birthday when I turned twelve. This is not a minor thing. So, I sort of panicked, as this was really beyond me. The PRV? Call a plumber. It's in my unit. I own it. This is something I need to take care of.

But dripping from above? Where I don't have a water line? Yeah, this is something from my neighbors upstairs. So I went upstairs. And my neighbors? Seem to be gone. For...who knows how long. A week? Two weeks? A month? Who even knows when they went away? But...yeah, I'm pretty sure my water is originating there.

And yes. I panicked, pretty hard. I'm not sure what to do. It's my problem, but...also not. I mean, it's coming into my house, but it's not my water line. So I called my brother, and no one was there. And then I called my sister-in-law's phone, and she didn't pick up. And then called my dad (who promised, cross my heart, honest injun, that he would have his phone on this weekend while he and my mom are in Rochester). Yeah, no one is picking up their phone. My dad's phone isn't even ON (we'll address the topic of "My Dad, the Phone Liar" in a later entry). And I'm supposed to be meeting people for a movie at the Cinema and Drafthouse. So I had to get in touch with my friends and be like, well, I have this problem. They were awesome, and totally threw over the plan to drink cheap beer and watch Batman Begins at the Cimena and instead come to my house and drink cheap wine and watch This is Spinal Tap.

My sister-in-law called me back and managed to mitigate the panic (which, of course, took the form of crying. I'm such a girl), and advised me to punch a hole in the sophet, put a bucket under it, and chill, because I can't do jack shit about it until my neighbors, source of the leak, come back. Then I called my management company, and my property manager, who was working late, basically said, you can't do jack shit until they get back, and you did the right thing by punching a hole in the sophet and putting a bucket under it, so chill. We'll deal with it.

Sigh. Being a homeowner, as much as I usually don't mind it, sometimes sucks like a bitch.

On the other hand, I drank some red wine and watched me some Spinal Tap, and effectively got my mind taken off of it. But still. Not what you want to come home to.

Othello

2005-09-13T17:56:00.000-04:00

So I saw Othello on Sunday night. Starring Avery Brooks and Patrick Page. It's a gorgeous production. Really spare and traditionally costumed, but very simple. They really decided to allow the story and the words take center stage. I know this play better than I thought I did, as I realized that I've seen it four times. I've never seen my favorite play, Hamlet, ever produced live once. Which...I find sort of fascinating. I think people think it's overproduced or overdone, and everyone knows it. Anyway, Othello has a lot going for it. It's a pretty compact story, for one thing. I mean, if you really look at it, it's about six people, and how five of them allow the sixth one to completely play them. It has two great characters who present a huge challenge. Othello has to be self confident enough to command respect, but with a tinge of wariness, of knowing that he is tolerated, not seen as an equal. Iago has to hide his malelovence, his anger, his sense of injustice and being wronged and put on the apprearance of loyalty and friendship. I think they're both terrifically difficult to pull off. The first two times I saw it, separated by ten years (the first time at the Stratford Festival in Canada, the second a reverse race production at the Shakespeare Theatre where I saw it on Sunday) were earnest but flawed productions. The first crippled by a poor Othello, the second by a wooden Iago. In both, I was baffled by the trust everyone placed in Iago. He didn't come off as trustworthy in either of these productions. He came off as sneaky and oily and someone I wouldn't trust as far as I could throw him. As a result, I thought the play was terribly flawed.

And then about three years ago I saw a production at the Folger Library, and it transformed my perception of the play. Iago! The reason everyone liked him was because...he's likeable! He's everyone's friend, he invites confidences, confides in his turn. He's got something for everybody, an answer, a helping hand, a plan. None of them realize that he's sitting in the middle, orchestrating their every move. His wife craves his attention and approval, Cassio needs his connection to Desdamona, Othello trusts his consul, Rodrigo pays to get Desdamona for himself. Only Desdamona doesn't need him for the continuation of her future. In fact, he is the impediment to her future. It's a delicate balance, to maintain all those different plots. In addition, it was an inventive production. A revelation, in fact.

Patrick Page managed to continue this trend of playing Iago well. Other aspects of the production were uneven, to me. Avery Brooks was the central weak point, as he didn't seem to really connect with the emotional core of the character. I felt there was a lot of bombast and play acting, but not a lot of truth, in the portrayal. He didn't really connect with Desdamona, either. I never really bought the love affair, it was...too cutsey. There didn't seem to be a deeper emotional bond between Othello and Desdamona. But Page. Wow. He was really wonderful. He was so easy with everyone, always ready with the right word, a handy drink, a word of concern. He was so smooth, drawing everyone in, taking pleasure at every downturn of their fortunes. In the end, you never really know what motivates him. Even once he gets what you think he's after, he's not done. In some cases, I think that Iago was truly shocked at what happened. Not displeased, but astonished that it worked as well as he thought it would, maybe even better. At the end, when he sees the final tableau of what he's wrought, Page looked fascinated and satisfied, as if saying, "Job well done," to himself.

Another aspect of the play that fascinates me is the relationship between Iago and Emilia. He keeps her off blalance, and she is constantly vying for his attention, and he knows that if he withholds it, she's likely to continue trying to please him. I've always wondered at Emilia's seeming complicity in Iago's plan, but seeing her played this way, I understood more her desire for affection for her husband. I which she'd been more pained by seeing Othello and Desdamona's relationship, since it seems to be everything she wants and doesn't have.

I guess that's why it's a classic. Every time I see it I get something else from it, and my understanding of it deepens. And as i get older, I have a greater appreciation for Shakespeare's art, for his ability to see the nature of people.

Oh Thank God

2005-09-09T19:10:00.000-04:00

The Scientologists are ministering to the hurrican survivors. From Radar Magazine. I know I'll sleep easier tonight.

And then there's this

2005-09-08T18:13:00.000-04:00

“And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this--this is working very well for them,” from our lovely former first bitch, Barbara Bush.

And then this lovely quote, (thanks Wonkette):
Barbara Bush may think the poor black diaspora from New Orleans will "be doing very well," but at least one member of the city's white power elite says the city will be doing very well without all those unpleasantly needy folk returning to a rebuilt Crescent City. Behold one Jimmy Reiss, head of the New Orleans Business Coulnel, speaking from within the subscription-only gated community of the WSJ online:

The new city must be something very different, Mr. Reiss says, with better services and fewer poor people. "Those who want to see this city rebuilt want to see it done in a completely different way: demographically, geographically and politically," he says. "I'm not just speaking for myself here. The way we've been living is not going to happen again, or we're out."

So really, it would seem that the whole thing was really a win-win situation for everyone. The underprivileged will magically be doing so much better in Houston rebuilding their lives, and the elite can continue to cower in their gated communities grateful that at last, they have a moat.

And, finally, courtesy of the Princess:
What I Did on My Summer Vacation

Daily Dose

2005-09-07T21:21:00.000-04:00

So I've had my daily dose of Katrina coverage, since the tvs at the gym are pretty much permanatly tuned to CNN (unless they're on Fox, in which case...well, I think we all know how I react to Fox News). And what I'm seeing is a lot of mad spinning by this administration, rather than, I don't know, any actual compassion for the victims who seem to be out of a home, and anger at the obvious failures in our emergency response system. However, what I saw today was Tom DeLay giving a totally bogus explanation that the emergency response system works from the bottom up, so it was the responsiblity of the local authorities to ask for help from the state, and the state ask for help from the feds. So, does this mean that I am to assume that the feds just don't pay attention to weather reports and the news until the governor of a state picks up a phone and calls and formally requests assistance? How does that conversation go? "Hello, Mr. President. I don't know if you're paying attention to the news right now, but we seem to be flooded out, and are sort of desperate for someone to coordinate relief efforts, and to actually get some relief. Oh, you haven't seen it? I see. Well, we do seem to have people sort of starving to death here. Three or four days you think? Okay. Great." Like, do they think that the state is going to turn down the federal aid? "No, no, thanks Mr. President, but we don't think we need it. Yes, we are under fifteen feet of water, but we're a very proud people, and prefer to do this with our meager state resources." I mean, come on.

I'm pretty angry at the administration, but really, Miss Alli said it best over at This is Not Over on September 6.

Hmmmmm...No.

2005-09-05T22:52:00.000-04:00

I have to register my opposition to the statement VH1 is making right now that Showgirls is a "movie that rocks.

Big Surprise

2005-09-01T21:13:00.000-04:00

I have an admission to make, one that may shock you. I...I hate Bill O'Reilly.

Okay, I know you weren't really shocked at that, but my hatred for the man really came into full bloom tonight. My gym is very small, and we all have to watch a common television in the cardio room. Some jackass has been choosing Fox News lately. I can usually ignore it, but with the aftermath of Katrina, and all the chaos in New Orleans, the visuals have been very commanding, and the situation changes so fast that I have been tending to pay attention to the news instead of burying my head in the current issue of Entertainment Weekly. But tonight I was exposed to giant braying head that is Bill O'Reilly. I really feel like the job of the media is to report on what is going on down there. I mean, it's all still unfolding, and it seems a little early to start throwing blame around and to politicize it. Yet, that is exactly what Bill O'Reilly was doing in the fifteen minutes I was able stomach before debarking from my ellipitcal trainer and changing the channel (anything anything anything, I muttered to myself. I will watch virtually anything so long as it isn't this jackass.). I could not believe the crap he was spewing as he positioned himself to lay blame on the Democratic governer of Lousiana for...I'm not sure what he expected...for not stopping nature from taking it's course? For not being able to personally control the actions of a dozen different agencies? O'Reilly sanctimoniously sat there talking to the reporter in the field (because, you know, God forbid he emulate someone like Anderson Cooper and actually go down there) asking stupid questions like, "Why didn't they declare martial law and just shoot looters on sight?" The reporter, sort of weakly, tried to explain that martial law is declared through Congress, and O'Reilly totally brushed that off. It's like he didn't get that a lot of these people were looting things like...water. And food. And baby formula. You know, stuff that's essential to continue living. Which, I guess, Mr. O'Reilly doesn't think they should because...I don't know? They're poor and weren't able to get out before the storm hit? I'm not endorsing stealing, but if your choices are A. take the bottle of water from the store or b. die, I'm pretty sure I know what my choice would be. (There was a really interesting article on looting and what it means and the roots of looting.) I'm not saying that I'd be stealing flat screen TVs and crap like that, but food and water? Hell yeah.

And instead of offering thoughtful commentary, or just reporting what was happening, he sat there judging the choices made by the law enforcement officers and the rescue teams that instead of gathering up dead bodies, that they try to rescue the living and get them out, and then maybe go and pick up the dead. Yes, the bodies have to be picked up and identified and given proper respect. But shouldn't the first efforts focus on saving the living first? Am I crazy, that this should be the first priority?

So my dislike of Bill O'Reilly, which sort of hovered around at a back-of-my-mind-six has now risen to a front-of-my-mind-eleven. Because, really. How dare he sit there and judge the actions of the people on the ground, who are ill-prepared for this sort of disaster. Our forces are stretched thin (you know, that little action you are all so gung-ho about O'Reilly? Gee, it really sucks the man power out of the country, doesn't it?), and, let's face it. This is unprecedented. I think no matter how well prepared you think you are, there's no way you can be sure. No one knew the levees would break (I mean, they certainly worried about it, but there's not anything that could have been done about it. It just really really bothers me that this whole thing is already being spun, and the actual real human tragedy that is unfolding is being cheapened by people grasping for a political advantage.

Katrina Relief Resources

Magically Historical

2005-08-30T22:10:00.000-04:00

I just finished reading Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Chase, and I am...well, I'm stunned. It is an amazing book. Really. I mean, I sort of avoided it, because it was really long, and I just thought it might be slow, and boring. I'm going to make a confession here. I have trouble getting through Jane Austen. I mean, I like it when I'm reading, I love the stories, but I get sort of...bored with it. It doesn't really hold my attention. So, naturally, I was wary of a book that presented itself as having an Austien voice (is that a word? Austien? It seems like it should be.), especially one that was about magicians.

I could not have been more wrong about my perception of the book.

From the beginning, with the introduction of the good natured and affable Mr. Honeyfoot and the eager and honest John Segundus, I was hooked. The book is a pleasure from beginning to end, and was difficult to put down when it was time to get off the train, finish lunch, go to sleep. The book is packed with footnotes, each of which is almost a short story in and of itself that sets the context of magic in English history, since the whole conceit of the book is that magic is real, it exists, and it is centered in England. Most gentlemen who style themselves as "magicians" are theoretical magicians, who can't actually make any of the spells work, until they call out the reclusive Mr. Norrell, who claims to be a practical magician. Norrell is deliberative, quiet, secretive, and, above all, uninterested in sharing his art with anybody at all. Until the energetic Jonathan Strange enters his life, anyway. Strange takes up magic almost as a lark, and is expansive and lively where Norrell is self contained and dry. Between them they help Wellington defeat Bonaparte, with Strange rearranging other countries at will. Throw in faerie enchantments, clever servants who should be given their due, and the overarching presence of the mysterious John Uskglass, the Raven King who brought magic into England hundreds of years earlier.

One of the things that struck me as read this book is that I do think of magic as being a peculiarly British thing. When I think of magic I think of the standing rings, my idea of Faerie is completely interwoven with British mythology. Even the landscape I think of when I think of magic is British. I'd really never thought of it before. I mean, other cultures must have traditions of magic. Certainly the Germans burned plenty of witches back in the day. But English magic is sort of, well, friendly. Cozy. Domestic. Familiar.

Sort of like this book.

Here's a link to the book on Amazon.

Fugalicious

2005-08-30T10:49:00.000-04:00

Oh, please, please go look at the most recent pictures on Go Fug Yourself, because the VMA pictures are up and...well...words fail me. But I do ask myself if Jessica Simpson fell over two seconds after this picture was snapped, because she looks like she's about to topple. Maybe her clothes are ashamed of themselves.

Miscellaneous Bits

2005-08-26T13:41:00.000-04:00

Oh my. I watched So You Think You Can Dance tonight. Addictive. I hate the "Simon" guy, but the contestants are amazing. I think I have a higher appreciation for the dance than I do for the singing on American Idol. Of course, I don't really know what they're competing for. I mean, it's not like you're going to soar to fame and fortune as a lyrical jazz dancer. But fun to watch.

The National Book Festival is coming up on September 24th. Probably about the only good thing to come out of this administration. Some great authors: Neil Gaiman, Diana Gabladon (shut up, I know she's romance, but I'm addicted), and Tony Hillerman among others. I went last year, and spent a great day listening to some great authors. I guess I'm going to have to get there extra early this year if I want a shot at getting Neil Gaiman to sign anything, since the line was crazy last year, and I finally gave up because I wanted to hear him read. Worth it, since he's a great reader. The other highlight last year was Connie Willis, who gave a wonderful talk about books that influenced her. It was a tsunami of authors and book titles. She was amazing and inspiring.

I got roped into Celebrity Poker Showdown on Thursday night, and when I looked at everyone, I was transfixed by the fact that Howie Mandel, Bryan Cranston and Meatloaf were all wearing...surgical rubber gloves. And then Bryan Cranston ripped his off, and I think Meatloaf's came off soon after. So it appears that Howie Mandel was the perpetrator. Did he think they were all going to put them on their heads and blow them up with their noses?

And, finally, Pat Robertson. You just never disappoint me. Evangelical preacher, foreign policy specialist, and, now, diet doctor. Shall wonders never cease?

Childish Tantrum

2005-08-24T20:09:00.000-04:00

I'm in an unaccountably bad mood. No particular reason. Just...in an ugly mood. And in this spirit, I present you with the rant occasioned by this article about Pat Robertson suggesting that we (well, not we as in the populace, but the US government) assassinate Hugo Chavez. And THEN he denied it. Even though...it's on tape.

Pat Robertson is LYING LIAR who LIES. He is totally a liar. I don't understand how this stuff can be captured on tape, witnessed by hundreds of people, and then they say "I never said that." It's like when Frist claimed he'd never offered a diagnosis of Terri Schiavo BASED ON A VIDEOTAPE. And he was ON CAMERA when he did it. In front of his SENATE COLLEAGUES. I'm sorry for all the caps, but I hate when people say things, and they're on tape doing it, and then they say, "I never said that." And people BELIEVE them, because they are dumb and listen to and believe LYING LIARS telling HUGE GIANT LIES. And...I'm sorry? No contest divorces are a result of gays lobbying? Why would people lobby for a change in law that DOESN'T APPLY TO THEM? That just makes no sense at all. And he's the religious mouthpiece of this administration! AAAAAUUUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

shut up shut up shutupshutupshutup!!!!!!!! SHUT UP!

It makes me think to myself that when Pat Robertson dies, I hope God yells at him. And it makes me think of a eulogy from Mystery Science Theatre 3000: "I hope you die a sad, lonely death confident in the knowledge that nobody loves you."

I told you it was childish.

Random Monday Bits

2005-08-22T18:07:00.000-04:00

This I'll post without comment: Crying While Eating, mainly because I'm not really sure what to make of it.

Onto other things, a great article in Slate on things overheard, The Word on the Street. It does remind me of a Lewis Black bit where he talks about being in a mall and overhearing a scrap of conversation out of context, and it's the stupidest thing you've ever heard. More can be found at Overheard in New York.

Credit to Tij for finding both of these and amusing me pretty much all morning with it.

I'm coming off a four day weekend, and I was hating life this morning at 5:40 when my alarm went off. However, I did spend Saturday at the Virginia Wine Festival, where it was hotter than the surface of the sun, tasting a lot of wine. Some good, a lot bad. The one winery I did buy from (in fact, everyone I was with bought from them), was Chrysalis, since they were the best of the ones I tasted. I didn't like a lot of what I tasted, and as the day went on, I was less willing to taste wines from grapes I didn't like very much (Vigionier, Cab Franc, Chardonnay). However, it was a very fun day, I ate a very large and very delicious Polish sausage, and hung with some friends.

Sunday I went to see Broken Flowers, which I liked immensely. I don't think the raft of little old ladies behind me liked it very much, given their reaction at the end of the film. But Bill Murray did a great job, and it really felt like a Jim Jarmusch movie, in that it was sort of small and humane. I saw Mystery Train when it came out and really admired it. Of course, the story there is that I went to see it with my friend Michael when we were in college and living in New York. As we sat down I thanked him for taking a flyer on a film that we knew nothing aout, and he replied, "Just so long as it doesn't have subtitles." And the movies starts and is...in Japanese. Sigh. I think he enjoyed it anyway, though.

Story Update

2005-08-21T15:41:00.000-04:00

I've been told that a story I related earlier in this forum was not told to its full justice. Now, in Metro Observation 3, I related my general annoyance with people who insist on rolling their teeny tiny little bags that probably weigh about a pound everwhere on the metro. And then I told the story about my experience on a plane to New Orleans. I have now been reminded of the details of this story, and would like to do it justice now.

Okay, so I am going to New Orleans with my friend, and we are getting on the plane. We are seated in the back third of the plane. As we're boarding, there is, ahead of us, a really tall skinny guy ("Stretch"). Stretch has a fold up luggage cart, on which he is carrying...his laptop. The laptop is secured to the luggage cart with an elaborate arrangement of bungee cords (I know, very hi-tech). And, apparantly, the world has to stop while Stretch undos all the bungee cords, takes his laptop off the luggage cart, fold up the luggage cart, and had to then resecure the now empty luggage cart with the bungee cords, as they have to go back on in an equally elaborate manner (because...they're going to get lost in the overhead luggage compartment?). As he goes into the elaborate wrap up of the bungee cords, my friend is all "aughhhhh", and we're leaning on the backs of the seats as we wait to get about two rows behind him on the other side of the plan. People are stacked up behind us, but Stretch is totally oblivious to the inconvience he's causing.

So, we do the whole flight thing (I might add that flight had, like, the best snack I have ever had on flight. It was a box with cheese and crackers, a box of raisins, and piece of chocolate.), had our encouter with the drunk passenger, who drank because she claimed she was nervous flying (well, gee, I know I'd feel safer drunk and not in complete control).

And now it's time to get off the plane. We land, and we're out of our seats. Stretch has gotten up, and is trying to get his luggage cart down, but he can't quite reach it. We'g gotten into the aisle, and we're so close to getting past him, and my friend is muttering "Oh, don't give him that luggage cart. He can just wait for it. No, don't..." as some "good samaritan" reaches up and gets...the luggage cart. We collapse against each other with another "Auuuggghhhh." Down it comes, into the aisle. The untangling of the bungee cords. No one is moving, we're all being held captive by the bungee coard luggage cart freak. And he's undoing the bungee cords, and undoing the luggage cart, and suddenly the flight attendants realize that no one has walked past them in about five minutes, so one of them comes back and sees this production happening. She asks him if he would mind just taking everything off the plane and doing it once he get out to the jetway, and she gestures to everyone standng there staring at him and waitng for him to get his ass in gear and let us off the plane. His response to her is to say, "Oh, okay," and then to continue to secure the laptop to the luggage cart, because, apparantly, he's happy to put it together on jetway, but first he's got to get it put together here on the plane. Finally it's secured to his satisfaction, and he decides to release us from the purgatory which is us trapped on the plane.

And that, my friends, is the updated extended story of The Hell That is Rolly Bags (And Luggage Carts).

New Cars

2005-08-20T09:13:00.000-04:00

This is a quick one, because I need to go get ready for the Virginia Wine Festival, as I need to leave in about a half hour, and I haven't showered yet. Anyway, I was lying in bed this morning listenng to Car Talk, and they mentioned that they have a new Auto Advisor. So when I got up I jumped online to take a look at it, and it's really cool. You get to set all sorts of preferences, including price range, body type, brand, importance of things like reliability, turning ability, all sorts of things that might be important to different people with different car expectations, and then it'll recommend cars that fit your criteria. Oddly enough, it DID recommend the car I currently drive, the Toyota Corolla LE. It also recommended the car wanted to buy, the Mini Cooper. So I'd call it pretty reliable, actually. Enjoy.

Queer as Folk Finale

2005-08-17T23:05:00.000-04:00

I'd like to consider last week's finale of Queer as Folk and how horribly disapointing it was. Now, for those of you who don't know the show, I'll sum up very quickly. Brian is an asshole that people stay friends with for reasons unknown to me, because he does things that are so unforgivable that I would never talk to him again. Michael is his best friend, and is sort of sweet and a little dumb. There's a large supporting cast that I"m not going to get into here.

Because, central to my problem with this last season is the about fact they made with the Brian character. Now, this is a character who refused to say things like "I love you," or acknowledge anyone else in the universe. But suddenly, in the fourth to last show, they decided that this character needed to be redeemed. Why? Who knows? I actually felt they betrayed the character in some ways. I'd really come to rely on him as the asshole of the week, and suddenly, with the contrived use of a bomb in the local gay dance club, he's declaring his love to the person that he's been sleeping with for the last four seasons, and suddenly he's all "I love you", and "let's get married." It was such a fundamental betrayal of the character they'd created. And no matter how they tried to end it with the character backing out of the marriage, I just couldn't buy it. I never believed that the character could change in the first place, but once they put the change in motion, they couldn't very well at the last minute make a half hearted change back.

So, even though i've been a pretty faithful QAF viewer, at the end I felt very unsatisfied by the way it ended. And it sort of taints my view of the whole series.

And, finally, the final fantasy dance scene was totally stupid, and was not worthy of the show.

Baaaaaad Date

2005-08-17T18:08:00.000-04:00

So, I've been sort of synthesizing this experience, and I think I have it in hand enough to actually write about it here. So here's the deal. A little over a week ago, I got an e-mail from someone on Hurry Date, which has an online component something like that of Match, in addition to the parties. I was surprised, because it wasn't a profile I'd put a lot of work into, and didn't really take it that seriously, because I figured I would be meeting people in person before they actually looked at the profile itself. But anyway, this guy contacted me through the system, and I took a look at his profile and was like, well, okay. I'll give it a try. So we e-mailed back and forth for a few days, and then we agreed to meet up on the following Tuesday. He sent me his phone number and said, well, give me a call this weekend and we'll set it up. So I called him on Sunday afternoon, and discovered that he was in Pennsylvania, and he had terrible reception on his phone. So he says, Call me on Monday. Now, I personally felt that my phone call obligation was fulfilled by calling him on Sunday, but fine. So I called him on Monday around lunchtime and left a message that said, essentially, Hey, I'm calling to set something up for tomorrow night, give me call back. I have a meeting at around 2pm, but just leave a message. And I heard...nothing. No acknowledgement, no phone call, no e-mail, nothing. So I was...annoyed. Because this was ridiculous. On Thursday I got an e-mail titled "Your Back", and in the message it said, well, you came back, so drop me an e-mail. To which my reaction was....what? Back? From where? What did I say that made him think I was leaving town? And furthermore, there is a grammatical error in the title of the e-mail.

I, of course, immediately told all my friends, who were like, what a jackass. I discarded it and was like, whatever.

Fast forward to Saturday morning, when I am lying in bed reading becase, frankly, 10 am is too early for me to get up (shut up. Like you're not slothful on Saturdays if you can be.), and my cell phone rang. I, foolishly, picked it up, and yep. You guessed it. It's the guy. So I told him that I didn't think that I was ever going to hear from him again, given that he'd blown me off, and that this was not a great first impression I had of him. So he apologized, and I felt sort of bad, and, well, I thought it would be nice to go out, so I agreed to meet up with him at the Continental (only an awesome pool hall down in Rosslyn, which I love).

So, I show up for the evening, wearing jeans and a black button down shirt. He is wearing...a giant yellow t-shirt and cargo shorts. Way to look nice there, Skippy. Makes a girl feel special. So I get up to the bar, and got some water and a cider, he's pretty much sticking to water. So we chat, and get some food, and whatever, normal early first date stuff. And then he's done drinking water, and he's ready to start drinking for real.

And he commences to drink. And drink. And drink. I'm talking, he had about four or five vodka and fill-in-the-mixer-heres. And it's getting late at this point, and he asks if I want to see a movie. And I was like, well, okay, that might be fun. So we decide to go see The Wedding Crashers (I'll sideline here to say that it is a very funny movie, and that I enjoyed it, and it's not nearly as raunchy as it was made out to be). But we have to sort of wait around a little bit before it's worth it to go over to the movie theater. In that time he manages to suck down a couple more drinks, having switched to Long Island Ice Teas (which makes me think of the Sex in the City episode where Miranda brings Staten Island Ice Teas, sips it, and declares, "Hello, I'm drunk."). So we settle up the bill, and he says, hey, can you contribute to this? I was like okay, well, I did have three drinks and some chicken tenders, so I threw in twenty bucks.

So we head over to the Georgetown theatres, and we see the movie. After the movie, he's like, Let's go over to Chadwick's. I was like, man, I'm really tired. I'd like to head back. He totally overruled me, and dragged me into Chadwick's. Where I ordered a Diet Coke, and he ordered a vodka and cranberry. And he turned into the obnoxious drunk guy who randomly strikes up conversations with strangers, asking them totally inappropriate questions, harrassing the bartender and being really annoying. It is at this point that I am getting sympathetic looks from other people at the bar, and I start to feel desperate. Like, I really need to go home. Now.

It is at this point that I turn into someone I don't like, and this person is called Bitchy Girl, who looks on everything the guy does with a disapproving look, says in a bitchy and sort of whiny tone of voice that she's ready to go, and puts on an air of infinite patience when the guy she's with turns around and asks a random girl, "Where are you going now?"

Did I mention that in the course of forty minutes he drank four cranberry and vodkas? And not just rail vodka, oh no. Grey Goose vodka.

Closing time comes, and he throws his money on the counter and announces, "I don't have enough money, you have to pitch in." Well, before he said this he yelled at the bartender for charging us for the Diet Coke (because, yeah, $1.95 was going to make all the difference), and tried to say that he didn't have enough and could the guy help him out. Klassy. So I'm like, well, I can see that I'm going to chipping in here, too, so I throw down another twenty dollars, and we leave.

Outside he randomly introduces himself to two other people, and says I'm English, and one of the guys tries to be all British to me, and I'm like, "Yeah, I'm not British." We find a cab, which I'm pretty sure isn't supposed to be picking us up, because it's a Virginia cab. There's some altercation with the people getting out, where they try to short the cabbie, so that takes some time to straighten out, and we get in the cab and go back to Virginia. I ended up just giving the cabbie my last twenty and sent the guy home, because, at that point, I would have paid any amount of money to go home.

And, astoundingly, he thought it went really well, and called me the next day. So I ended up writing him an e-mail telling him that I didn't think we should pursue it.

Really, just one of the worst nights I've ever endured. I mean, I can drink, and I've hung out with people who can put it away, but I don't think I have ever been with someone who sucked down that much alcohol in that short a period of time and got that drunk. I mean, what was he thinking?

People make me tired

2005-08-16T21:04:00.000-04:00

When I saw this article on "Reparative Therapy" I just got...really really tired. Seriously. I'm just so annoyed at people who seem to spend all their time worrying about what the hell other people are doing, what their sexuality is, who they're sleeping with and how. How is any of this in any way anyone's business but the people involved?

I have never been bothered by the idea of homosexuality. I don't know why that is, but it has just never bugged me. I completely believe that sexuality is a continuum, and people fall on different places on it, and it's never bothered me where anyone fell. People I knew from high school turned out to be gay later in life, people I went to college with came out later, and I've always had friends who were gay. I don't understand why anyone cares. It's as if they're affronted by anyone having any sort of physical activity that they themselves have not experienced.

I also don't understand the argument against gay marriage - that it, in some way, diminishes straight marriages. I have yet to have this explained in a way to me that makes one iota of sense. I don't consider myself to be a really dense person, but this is an argument that has continued to elude me. The way I see it, let everyone jump in and take the tax hit, and if they run into problems, get divorced with all the attendant expenses and issues that accompany that. Let's let everyone participate in the grand American social experiment.

So when I see articles like the one I linked to above, I just get, sort of irrationally angry, because I really don't understand the obsession with it.

So, shut up, stupid religious right people.

Metro Observation 3

2005-08-15T17:48:00.000-04:00

If you must have a rolly bag with you, for god's sake please remember that there are people not only behind you, but also trying to get around you, so, could you please just pick up the eight pound bag and carry it the six feet required, instead of insisting on rolling it onto the escalator, across the platform and onto the train? Just because it has wheels doesn't mean that it can't be picked up from time to time.

It reminds me of the time I went to New Orleans with a friend, and we got stuck behind a guy, who we'll call Stretch, who insisted on assembling his entire luggage cart in the aisle of the plane in order to pull his tiny little computer bag behind him, even as the flight attendant begged him to do in on the jetway, as he was holding up half the plane.

Drives me crazy.

Metro Observation 2

2005-08-11T21:12:00.000-04:00

If you are a woman, and you choose to wear a sheer white linen outfit, you get five points for thinking to wear a cami on top. However, you get minus several thousand points when you choose to wear a thong on the bottom.

Why Work Can Suck

2005-08-10T09:46:00.000-04:00

Amy Joyce has a column in today's Washington Post, Boredom Numbs Work World, about how many workers feel underused, unchallanged, and undervalued by their organizations.

Junkfood Meditations 1

2005-08-09T15:33:00.000-04:00

And who, by the way, is buying enough of Andy Capp's Hot Fries out of a vending machine to warrant them to continue stocking it?

Metro Observation 1

2005-08-09T07:48:00.000-04:00

Now, I'm not a reading snob, and I think people should read what brings them joy. But I find it really funny that some guy on my bus has chosen a Calvin and Hobbes anthology as his source of morning joy.

The Last Day

2005-08-08T21:12:00.001-04:00

So I went with my friend GradSchoolBill to see Gus Van Sant's The Last Day on Saturday night. It's taken me a couple of days, obviously, to synthesize what I thought of the film because, well, it's hard to know how to react. We're so programmed to expect certain tropes and storylines (and I'm not blaming Hollywood, it's just the story telling tradition we have as humans), that when we're confronted by an alternative piece of storytelling, that doesn't get us to become emotionally invested, we don't really know what to do with it. Let me correct that. I didn't really what to do with it.

That said, it is an interesting movie. We are never allowed inside the characters. There's little to no dialogue, no exposition, interactions among the characters are fleeting, and don't mean much to us. It's as if we're just observing the characters going about their daily lives, and events unfold with with a similar pace to that of everyday life. Characters are introduced, and we have no idea who they are. Interactions with people from the outside world are surreal, as when a Yellow Pages salesman appears at the door and mistakes the main character, who looks almost exactly like Kurt Cobain, and is called Blake, for the owner of an automotive parts distribution company. Now, how someone could come to the door, be confronted with someone wearing combat boots, a thrift store overcoat, and his wife's slip, and who is barely responsive, and continue to sell him a advertisement, is sort of beyond me. But it's sort of typical of the film. The conversation with the salesman turns into a little discussion on the relativity of success. These sorts of interactions don't last nearly long enough, since they're about the only time you get a clue into Blake. We are never let into the character, he's entirely within himself.

Much of the movie we're treated to him sort of wandering around his crumbling mansion, avoiding the hangers-on who are crashing there and asking him for money for flights to Utah, of for assistance writing a bridge on a song. He avoids his bandmates, who want him to commit to dates. His absent wife sends a friend over looking for him, and Blake manages to avoid him, as well.

The film is very well put together, in that it's a masterpiece of editing, and there is some really nice camerawork. Scenes that would be happening in real time concurrently are shown from both sides, not always together. So often you think you've seen the scene before, and you have, in a sense, but only part of it. You saw the end of a conversation, or someone entering a room. So you get to see everything that happens, nothing is hidden. But...nothng much really happens.

I wasn't really invested in the characters, because I knew next to nothing about them. Blake is obviously in intense psychic pain, because he can barely function. he has completely shut down, because he's so totally overwhelmed. I don't know that he could even articulate what it is he wants to happen to fix the problems. I think he feels his problems are so huge and insurmountable, that there's nothing that he can do to fix them. He can't muster up any energy to have an argument with anyone, because that would suggest that he was actually invested enough to care how it turned out. But he's barely engaged enough to fix himself a box of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. We know how the movie ends, so we're always expecting the end. We even know how he'll do it. And when it does come, my main feeling wasn't the sadness I felt when I heard that Kurt Cobain had killed himself, but relief that Blake had ended his pain. Because he's such a cypher, I didn't feel bad that he hadn't gotten help, and sorry that he didn't see that there were people who cared about him enough to try to help him. I was mainly happy that he wasn't in pain anymore.

And I'm not entirely sure if that was what Van Sant was after. But I'm glad to see Van Sant return to his roots. I loved his first two movies, and this feels like he's coming home.

Sad Moment

2005-08-08T10:02:00.000-04:00

A moment of silence for Peter Jennings. Nice obit in The Washington Post this morning.

After hearing this, and the story about the how the Galapagos Islands are being destroyed on NPR this morning at 5:40am, it was not a good start to the day.

Washington Post redesign

2005-08-05T18:29:00.000-04:00

Now, y'all may not know this about me, but I am an unabashed fan of The Washington Post. It was one of the things I missed most when I lived out of the DC area, and, as you can see, it's the first link in my sidebar. I think the Post is an incredibly valuable local resource. Their online site is a constant souce of entertainment for me. So it's with trepidition that I hear that they are changing things. When they added color pictures to the front page, it was clear attempt to keep up with USA Today. When they added the Sunday Source, and moved the Carolyn Hax column into it, it was a clear play for under-30 readers (and, in fact, I have a friend who wouldn't even read the section, even if it did have recipes. So it's heartening that Hank Steuever, one of the best writers they have penned this screed about the Post's over-reliance on people who don't even read the paper to determine the direction of the paper.

Project Runway Recapped

2005-08-05T08:34:00.000-04:00

Oh, I'm so happy. Television Without Pity is recapping Project Runway as a Tubey's Kids promotion. I couldn't be happier, because I loved loved loved Project Runway. I cannot wait for the second season, though I doubt they will be able to produce another eeeeevil Wendy Pepper, or another Jay, who is only the most hilarious reality show contestant ever.

Back to School

2005-08-04T20:56:00.000-04:00

Well, first off, a big giant huge thank you to JohnOk again, for helping me figure out the vagaries of the Blogger template. I know just enough to be dangerous, so I was very frustrated that I couldn't get the links sidebar to show up. But now it does. So that makes me happy. (well, that and the fact that GSN is rerunning all the episodes of The Amazing Race, which I am obsessed with, and season three is starting...RIGHT NOW!)

But on to what I was actually thinking about. Which is the primacy of children's oriented entertainment in the mainstream. I have next to me, on my purple couch, a copy of the July 29th, 2005 issue of Entertainment Weekly. It has a picture of Daniel Radcliffe on it, dressed as Harry Potter, natch. Now, the new movie doesn't come out until November, but the new book just came out three weeks ago. Now, I'll say straight out right here that I am a fan of Harry Potter, both the books and the movie (yes, I preorder the books, yes, I see the films opening weekend, opening night if possible). And I'm not disturbed that Harry Potter rates the cover of Entertainment Weekly (though I sort of wish they'd had a picture of the author and not the actor portraying the character). But I've been struck, in the last five or six years by the interest generated by something directed at kids excites in the adult population. I'm not sure when it started, but I don't remember, in college, being particularly interested in kid's stuff. But when I moved to Cleveland, my then-SO would get up on Saturday mornings and watch The Tick. And got me hooked. On that, and the X-Men, and some Canadian cartoon in which all the characters were anthropomorphized computer programs. And then Toy Story came out, and every adult I knew (because god knows I didn't know any kids at that time) wanted to go see it. And we did. In droves. And we went to see ever Pixar film. And we taped Wallace and Gromit off of PBS. And we read Harry Potter and Philip Pullman and Lemony Snicket.

What is the pull these have over adults? And it's specific to adults of a certain age. CultureMaven Dad surprised me by reading the first Harry Potter book, "just to see what the fuss was about." Now, granted, he wasn't much impressed, but he doesn't read science fiction or fantasy, but he was struck enough by the hype to want to read the first book. I wonder if it has anything to do with a desire to hold on to some sense of innocence from our childhoods. I mean, does a single childfree adult need to stay au currant with 10 year olds? Are we going to have a scholarly discourse with them on the portrayal of good vs. evil in Harry Potter? On the vilification of organized religion in the His Dark Materials trilogy? Are we proposing a symposium on the nature of friendship as portrayed in Pixar films? A conversation about the origins of nonsense in literature from Aristophanes to Wallace and Gromit?

All of these, I might add, worthy conversations. I actually do believe that good children's literature endures and has appeal to adults. I think very little is produced. But I'm fascinated by the fact that, for the first time that I've noticed, that it's really entered the mainstream consciousness.

I think there are two things at play here. First, adults who are in their thirties and younger tend to be more open to kids stuff, maybe because we have such fond memories of popular entertainment from our own childhoods. Second, it's sort of a scary world out there these days. And while the best children's lit does reflect this, there's a clear demarcation between good and evil, light and dark. That's a comforting thought, that somewhere it's easy to tell who your enemies are, and where good will triumph at the end of the day.

Reciprocity

2005-08-03T22:39:00.000-04:00

A big thanks to my good friend JohnOk, who gave me a shout out. His blog is erudite and funny, kind of like him... Thanks John!

Jailhouse Apprentice

2005-08-03T16:08:00.000-04:00

So, Bush just had a press conference, in which he was, as usual, all faux folksy and down to earth, joking with the reporters, and yet, not really answering any of their questions. I noticed that he's done more press conferences since the last election, and I've always sort of thought that his handlers steered him away from doing them due to their inability to actually control what comes out of his mouth when he's up there. I imagine them, off to the side, clutching their heads and averting their eyes as he, yes, dare I say it, uses the wrong word (May 31, 2005) and then defines it for the press. However, I think he's getting more comfortable. By the end of his term he'll stop caring entirely, show up for press conferences with a beer in one hand, a bong in the other, dressed in a toga with underpants on his head. And then he'll give us the finger, moon us, and run off whooping, his secret service detail hot on his trail and giving himself a new secret service nickname: "Nut Case."

And then the question came up, what is he going to do after he leaves office? Will he just sit back and be like, hey, I'm worth millions, I don't gotta work, I'm going to enjoy myself. I was e-mailing my buddy SY, and I said, you know, he should go on the Apprentice! And they could pair him up with, you know, Omorosa. And then I thought about it, and I was like, they could do a failed CEO version of the Apprentice, where former CEOs try to regain a modicum of power through the show. And the SY made the best suggestion ever: Whichever one can run the most successful jailhouse business. I was like, wow. That is brilliant. You could have the Enron guys, the World Com guys, the toy guy.... I would totally watch that.

Awash in Produce

2005-07-31T20:14:00.000-04:00

CultureMaven Mom and CultureMaven Dad are taking off for a very long vacation. In August. And have I mentioned the giant vegetable garden kept by CultureMaven mom? This means a never ending flow of fresh grown tomatos, spinach, beets, red peppers, jalapeno peppers, spring onions, zucchini...this is the best thing ever. There's a price, of course, in that I'm taking care of the house for them. You know water the plants...and, ummm, well, that's prety much it. I guess that's really not much to ask, in the long run, for an unlimited supply of produce for several weeks.

As I stood there gazing at the plants, I started concocting in my head what I was going to do with them. Tomato salads. Tomato soup. Tomato and cheese sandwiches. Roasted beets. Roasted mixed vegetables. Big salads.

Mmmmmm...tomatos....