Sunday, December 29, 2002 ::: so I was reading the script for sunset blvd for work and came across these fabulous photos of gloria swanson, silent film diva:
ok, so I've been up and down the coast over the past few days and haven't had much of a chance to make new posts. At the moment I am visiting my sister and brother-in-law in nyc. Speaking of which, there's a weblog that I've started reading of late: tales from the city. Espied at the gawker sidebar.
Tuesday, December 24, 2002 ::: I also feel the need to post a quote from a recent new yorker article in which dr seuss meets litcrit:
"These semiotic felines do exactly what a deconstructionist would predict: rather than containing the stain, they disseminate it. Everything turns pink. The chain of signification is interminable and, being interminable, indeterminate. The semantic hygiene fetishized by the children is rudely violated; the "system" they imagined is revealed to have no inside and no outside. It is revealed to be, in fact, just another bricolage. The only way to end the spreading stain of semiosis is to unleash what, since it cannot be named, must be termed "that which is not a sign." This is the Voom, the final agent in the cat's arsenal. The Voom eradicates the pink queerness of a textuality without boundaries; whiteness is back, though it is now the purity of absence—one wants to say (and, at this point, why not?) of abstinence. The association with nuclear holocaust and its sterilizing fallout, wiping the planet clean of pinkness and pinkos, is impossible to ignore. It is a strange story for teaching people how to read."
this is the sort of thing best not taken too seriously.
So I was looking around American Memory at the Library of Congress, and they have a collection of photographs from the Chicago Daily News, spanning from 1902-1933. There are a lot of Police/Crime photos, but I came across this curious photograph of a man in drag. His handlebar mustache precludes any attempt at passing, and there is a great deal of mystery behind how he got to be in the situation that he is now. Unfortunately, the article that accompanied this photo has not been included, so his story is unknown. His expression is one of abject humiliation - he must have been arrested, but under what circumstances? Was it a raid on a gay bar? Was he just coincidentally having a little fun at home when the police arrived unexpectedly and carted him off? Was he a fugitive in disguise, nabbed as he was about to board a train out of town?
so gawker looks new and worthwhile, being a sort of new york-centric weblog-magazine. I particularly recommend exploring the links on the sidebar to the right. link from jason kottke who is its ghost in the machine.
Monday, December 23, 2002 ::: So I saw the latest installment last thursday - and I was a little disappointed, but I'm one of those people who demands slavish attention to the book. I didn't care too much for the unplanned detour towards the end of the movie. It needed more Christopher Lee being evil, also. Gollum was amazing. Also, I came across a weblog apparently written by Ian McKellen (with ugly background) - spotted earlier at Reenhead.
Tuesday, December 17, 2002 ::: So the dec 16 new yorker has a profile of harvey weinstein (mr miramax) and it's all about the semi-independent movie business and is all quite
interesting, a sort of continuation of the bumble ward article from sep 23. Definitely worth a read, although the article isn't on the new yorker website.
Speaking of movies, there are a lot that I want to see and I don't know where I'm going to find the time to do it - but I am totally seeing the two towers, tolkein nerd that I am. And Gangs of New York, since that I'm all about 19th century new york, in all its grubby unwashed glory. Oh, and adaptation looks good too - what with the same writer/director team as being john malkovich.
on the other hand, I feel the need to quote from this user review of rob schneider's "the hot chick":
"while I can't quite say that I enjoyed it as much as some of Rob Schneider's other movies such as Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigalo..."
what? no deuce bigalow, you say? I'm shocked, SHOCKED.
Monday, December 02, 2002 ::: NO WAY. Multicolored dollars are going to take some getting used to. I remember what a shock it was when the new york times went color. The gray lady just couldn't, could not be, in color. It was just wrong.
Sunday, December 01, 2002 ::: one of the more interesting biographies I have read was one of truman capote where his life was recorded by friends, former friends, associates and enemies reminiscing about various events in his life. There is an excerpt available online about the magnificent black and white ball (given for katherine graham, who mentions it in her memoirs, also excerpted, but not concerning the ball). via memepool.
Sunday, November 24, 2002 ::: So I just finished reading a fascinating book about the new york neighborhood called "Five Points" which is now present-day chinatown, but was previously known as an overcrowded tenement slum populated by whichever poor immigrants happened to be coming in droves at the time. It's also the neighborhood where gangs of new york is set. Anyway, it makes for a pretty fascinating read as far as immigrant communities and networks go, and how the system of remittances and families pulling in chains of relatives is as old as new york itself. It's also a pretty interesting from an urban planning and public policy perspective as well, to see how over time these issues were dealt with by both private and governmental forces. There's a lot of Jacob Riis and How the Other Half Lives, which I'm now quite interested in seeing more photographs from. As a book I strongly recommend, as it's good history, but also well written and entertaining to read. The one area that it really seems to skip over is Five Points' role as a starting off point for immigrants who have just arrived in the US, a place where they make arrangements for further travel. Clearly, this was very much a central role for Five Points as far as immigrants as a whole in the country are concerned, and although it is a far more difficult issue to address owing to the transience of its subjects, I would nonetheless like to know a little more about that aspect of things.
Friday, November 08, 2002 ::: Sometimes things are cruel and horrifying and completely hilarious, like the list of british medical slang that appeared in this month's harpers. note to the mermaid: thanks for putting this up.
I haven't really been writing since the elections made me all grumpy. All the more so since I don't even have a senator or a real house member to vote for. In what was a stereotypical experience with the dc government, I had also been left off the voter rolls despite having registered several months ago and receiving not one but two voter registration cards. So I filled out a special ballot. There were no real close races, so I pretty much voted for whoever I felt like and who seemed like they deserved the office, which even led me to vote for a smattering of greens and republicans. I felt very magnanimous.
Friday, November 01, 2002 ::: So on tuesday I saw the high heel races, which were quite good - I'd say better than last year, since all the half-assed drag queens didn't show up owing to the cold and rain. Which meant that only the most dazzling, sequinned and gaudy, the creme de la creme chose to make their appearance. And what appearances they made - flirty stewardesses, a well-coiffed metallic medusa, a mme de pompadour, hello kitty (who required some leading around, but nonetheless looked adorable) and a host of others that I can't recall. The event just highlighted my need for a digital camera. MUST get digital camera. The actual race kind of reminded me of the scene in my fair lady where the crowd has a song and dance at the horse races.
"Vows, which covers the marriages of wealthy people with hyphenated names, is great entertainment. I try to read it as a different person every Sunday. Sometimes I’m a 15-year-old aspiring starlet in Florida, wishing my life was as glamorous as the young couples described, with their careers in publishing (her) and finance (him), or I’m a fundamentalist Muslim condemning the godless capitalist Jews and their decorated whore-brides, or a radical animal rights activist, lamenting the likelihood of slaughtered animals at the after-dinner meal, planning to arrive and throw fake blood on the bride. But it’s most fun to read as an anarcho-syndicalist with Marxist tendencies, because the Times makes it so easy:
These two people, Terence Trevor-Mills and Lauren Grape-Expury, the ignorant, self-righteous recipients of a false system of wage exploitation, will be united in April during a massive wedding spectacle funded by the profits stolen from the proletariat employed by their capitalist fathers. The union, which will culminate in the corporate-and-state-supported subjugation and sexual slavery of Ms. Grape-Expury to Mr. Trevor-Mills, will be sanctioned by a paid-for church father despite the thieving hypocrisy of the celebrants, and will be attended only by other ruling capitalists, who will be served by even more proletariat, each at chafe under the rule of their masters. The wedding will be followed by champagne, and then by revolution, as the workers arise and take what is rightfully theirs, including the beaded Mischka wedding gown and the heaped platters of canvasback duck."
Speaking of juries, I had jury duty last week but didn't make the cut, despite a half-hour game of musical chairs in which potential jurors were asked to take a seat in the jury box, after which the lawyers and clerk would whisper quietly to each other, and then rearrange the seating pattern, unseating and reseating potential jurors according to their whim. The DC jury pool, by the way, is by and large a very ugly lot of people.
Saturday, October 26, 2002 ::: So yesterday was all dramadrama in weblogland what with the hacking and all. Guess I should switch to movable type one of these days, but oh well. Maybe after I update my archives and get my own domain name and do all those things that I've been meaning to do but haven't.
Last weekend was also dramatic and mysterious, but I missed most of drama and mystery - came home late on saturday night (was at madonnarama) and found a considerable amount of clothing scattered about the front steps of my building, which on closer inspection proved to be revoltingly filthy. I decided that that was enough for one evening and went upstairs to wash my hands and then got the story from my basement neighbor the next day. Seems there was a fight and the clothes were thrown from a third floor balcony along with a VCR which was chucked at a parked car, making quite a dent. The guy who lives on the third floor is very much the quiet, middle-aged type who seems an unlikely culprit. Perhaps the third floor balcony in question is that of the rowdier building next door, but I haven't really gotten to the bottom of the mystery. I'm sure I'll find out one day.
Oh, yeah, and the caught that guy. and the kid, too.
I also saw sleater-kinney at the 930 club, but that was considerably less dramatic.
On an entirely different note, those esteemed researchers over at search engine showdown have come up with a (fresh) freshness index, earlier posted to at the resource shelf.
Saturday, October 19, 2002 ::: So all this week there have big red posters reading "FAITH FOR MAYOR" and I must say they are the best looking posters of the campaign. Certainly better than those ugly Carol Schwarz posters.
Speaking of violence, I saw bowling for columbine last night and it was for the most part good. There were a few cheap shots and some emotionally manipulative bits, but otherwise it was very clever in making its points. Perhaps the best scene was filming a newscaster who was throwing a fit about his hairstyle while about to do a story on a school shooting.
Monday, October 14, 2002 ::: Uh, so it was national coming out day on the 11th, so as a belated tribute, I'm posting the commercial closet, a repository of gay-related advertising. Seen on metafilter.
Sunday, October 06, 2002 ::: There have been a spate of excellent articles in the new yorker these past few weeks. The downside to all this is that the new yorker doesn't post all their articles, and by the time I have read the issue for one week, the next one has already been put up.
But I've been so impressed of late I can't help but gush even if there isn't as much to link to as I would like. So, without further ado:
There was a very interesting review by malcolm gladwell of the book Heat Wave, which is all about the heat wave in Chicago in the mid-nineties in wich some 600 people died, and how various neighborhoods were affected differently because of numerous factors, such as whether there were reliable city services, how tightly knit social networks in immigrant neighborhoods helped prevent deaths, etc. All chock full of maps, tables, and graphs for the public policy nerd hidden in all of us. I went to an alumni thing this weekend and I hear that the book is just the talk of the town back in Chicago. It does appear to slam mayor Daley and his administration, which is the sort of thing that's bound to ruffle a few feathers.
And then in the sept 23 issue, there was a very fascinating article about an LA publicist (strangely named "Bumble Ward") and what it's like to be a publicist for movie directors. There was a lot of focus on how publicists must selectively present the truth and occasionally (or often) resort to outright lying to promote their clients, and it makes for a rather unsettling piece of journalism - as I read the article, I kept on thinking, "So then how do I know if what this article says is the truth? How do I know that this isn't also some careful presentation of an assortment of hollywood directors masking as a profile of highly skilled and possibly manipulative publicist?" Not that I really thought of Hollywood being a place concerned about the truth, but I finished the article feeling like I knew less than when I started.
And then in the sept 30th issue, along with an interesting article about stephen jay gould, there was a fascinating piece called "Bumping into Mr. Ravioli" which discussed the author's three-year-old daughter and her imaginary friend, one Charlie Ravioli. The author (Adam Gopnik) would come home and ask his daughter how her day was, and she'd say, "Oh, I ran into Charlie Ravioli and we had I nice little chat" or something to that effect. But after a while, she'd start saying things like "I tried to call Charlie but I keep getting his machine" or "I ran into him, but he had to run." It seemed rather odd to her parents that her imaginary friend didn't have the time to talk to her. Eventually, her imaginary friend started to have an imaginary assistant who would say that Mr. Ravioli was in a meeting and would get back to her when he could. All quite a lot for a child psychologist to mull over.
There was also at some point and article by jonathan franzen about how people had been writing him to tell him that his book sucked and he was a pretentious new york snob writing books that would only be appreciated for being hard for ordinary people to read. This all led to a very interesting essay about what people would like out of their books - that they either convey "status," which consists of books being long and difficult and having a great many allusions and references to other long and difficult books, or that the follow an informal agreement between the reader and the writer that the book be interesting and fun or satisfying to read, and not be a difficult and resentful chore. There's an online interview that continues the discussion.
Friday, October 04, 2002 ::: hm. someone else's page shows up as me in the google cache. odd. and I have a lot of posting to do but no real time to do it.
Wednesday, October 02, 2002 ::: okay, so I haven't really finished tinkering with the pictures, but I thought I'd put them up and give links, cause it's a good idea. So:
05 - issyk kul
08 - valley - rotate 90 clockwise
09 - mining camp
10 - petrov lake and glacier
12 - same - very good! - rotate
13 - me and glacier
23 - gold pour
32 - mountains
33 - more mts - rotate
36 - red cliffs one
39 - calves
40 - giant cliff - rotate
42 - cliff with stream
43 - apple orchard
44 - orthodox church
46 - inside church
47 - inside church - rotate
48 - gate to chinese mosque - vg
49 - chinese minaret - rotate
51 - prayer times - rotate - vg
63 - mountains, clouds and nazgul
68 - mountains and clouds - rotate - vg
69 - ram petroglyph - shrink 67%
70 - many many petroglyphs - shrink 67%
71 - deer petroglyph - very good! - shrink 67%
72 - christmas tree deer petroglyph - shrink 67%
77 - blurry stack of money
78 - outside mausoleum - tashkent
79 - mausoleum entrance
80 - mausoleum tiles - detail
82 - arabic sign - rotate
83 - madrassah door - detail - rotate
84 - tashkent - madrassah entrance - rotate
85 - madrassah interior
86 - tashkent market - hope chests
87 - samarkand - sink - rotate
88 - mausoleum interior
89 - mausoleum interior
90 - samarkand main square
91 - street of mausoleums
92 - bukhara - bazaar
93 - carpets for sale - rotate
94 - madrassah - rotate
95 - execution square
Sunday, September 29, 2002 ::: So saturday I tried to go to the Corcoran since it was the last weekend to see the Jackie Kennedy dressed before the exhibit closed. Little did I know that the museum had been barricaded inside the world bank/imf perimeter. So I walked down 17th street and discovered a big barricade with an awful lot of policemen and no obvious way to get to the museum. I tried to get to the white house but the way was barred too. They sent me a few blocks west and I ran into a bunch of other people who were trying to get to the corcoran also and who were talking to a policeman who was telling us we couldn't go the way they had said we could. We had to go around the white house, down to the mall and up from there. It seemed needlessly difficult, and nobody seemed to know anything. Eventually I did walk around the white house and found out that the way to get in was through the ellipse to a little corner that was in now way clear or obvious to anyone. But I did see the dresses and they were all quite something, but then that's what you would expect from jackie.
But I have to say that the whole police presence seemed like overkill and the police seemed like JUST TOO MUCH. I saw about two thousand police and about thirty protesters on saturday. And the helicopters weren't helping things, as they were loud and everpresent and over my apartment when I came home and they were still very loud and I had to close my window and apartment really needed the breeze since my building tends to be rather hot.
There was, by the way, a demonstration in dupont circle today at which things seemed much more civil and reasonable. There were police, but they were actually kind of friendly compared to the day before and everyone seemed generally pretty reasonable. It seemed a much better way to do things.
Thursday, September 26, 2002 ::: I'm in the process of putting up and organizing pictures from my vacation, but they aren't ready yet. But they are very very good. They'll be better when you don't have to view them sideways. So hang on.
Friday, September 20, 2002 ::: I made it back last sunday, became very very sick, spent the night in the hospital and the next couple days recuperating, and I'm all better now. That's why I haven't really been posting. But the trip was superamazing anyway. Will write more soon.
Saturday, September 14, 2002 ::: So we arrived in Samarkand and first visited the site of the observatory built by astronomer and ruler Ulugbek, which was set atop a hill overlooking the city. From there we went to go see the partially excavated ruins of the old city of Samarkand, destroyed by Genghis Khan. We also visited the nearby museum, which was filled the usual assortment of historical artifacts - pottery, small clay figurines, various metal objects and perhaps not as exciting as we had hoped. We eventually went on to our hotel and dropped off all our stuff, and then went out for lunch at an outdoor cafe, where there was shashlik but also an assortment of salads, which in uzbekistan are very very good (and for which vegeterians are eternally grateful.) I'm going to look up some recipes and post them when I get the chance.
After lunch we went to go do some more sightseeing. I had noticed some tallish buildings on the horizon as we were driving in, but wasn't looking at them very closely and hadn't really thought about what they might be. I now realized that they were monumentally tall mosques, mausoleums and madrassahs - All meticulously restored in the past ten years.
I must confess that many the monuments of Samarkand have sort of blurred together in my memory, but they have a number of similary featurs - immense pointed archways marking the main entrance, surrounded by majolica tiles decorated with an elaborate floral motif. The madrassahs, ancient schools, have rooms around a central courtyard, and many of them have been given over to artisans who sell their works there.
The most next day we went to bukhara, which had been a semindependent emirate under the czars. The Emir's palace was part of a great walled citadel, which was as imposing and impressive as it no doubt was intended to be. As the city was also a great emporium along the silk road, we visited the restored bazaars, which while smaller than the tashkent market, were much more beautiful than the decayed soviet-style building. We also walked around the narrow, crooked streets of the town.
We then had a truly wonderful dinner in the old jewish quarter of the city, in a house that had been beautifully restored. We had more uzbek salads and some very good plov, all the while marveling at the carpets and the intricate wall patterns, and looking out the windows past the columns and into the courtyard.
The next day I came back to kyrgyzstan, where I have been doing some more low-key hanging out and relaxing and generally enjoying myself. I'm going to a wedding this afternoon, and then flying back to states from almaty in the wee hours of the morning.
Wednesday, September 11, 2002 ::: I've been traveling for a while, and have finally had the chance to write a bit and the chance to get some internet access at the same time, and it seems high time I say what I've been up to. It's about 4pm here, and so far it has been a thankfully dull september 11. Hopefully it will continue to be so. I have a lot more to write, but I'm going to post what I have so far below:
I arrived in almaty, kazakhstan after my flight from amsterdam and from there proceeded on to bishkek in kyrgyzstan, where we spent the night and then headed out towards issyk kul the next morning. The drive was a long one, but very beautiful - Steep mountainsides and sheer cliff faces, badlands, and high desert. We came to a flatter area and the desert gave way to green fields and treelined roads, with beautiful high mountains shrouded in clouds to our left. We drove throw small town after small town, taking care to dodge flocks of sheep and cows as they crossed the road, as well as stubborn, slow-moving and rather careless gaggles of geese, who proved the most dangerous obstacles of all along the road. Eventually we turned off the main road and began to head up a valley to our destination - a high plateau 12000 feet above sea level. The valley was stunningly beautiful - as we drove along the road to either side waterfalls cascaded down cliffsides next to which stands of pine clung precariously. It began to rain and misty clouds mingled among the peaks as we drove higher and higher along the increasingly narrower and sharper switchbacks. Eventually we came to the plateau and it began to snow. We drove on and it began to get dark and we finally arrived at our destination, a mining camp where we were going to spend the night.
The next day we saw some of the camp and equipment, and also visited a glacial lake with the glacier feeding into it on the other side, and everything ringed all around with icy, snowcapped peaks. The whole landscape was stark and barren.
Although my father had a slight case of altitude sickness, he was feeling better later, and after lunch we headed on our way back down through the same valley, with the same amazing scenery. We got back onto the main road, after making a brief detour to buy a shirdak, and came right up against the shoreline of issyk kul, and we all got out of the car and walked up to the beach. I put my hand in the water and it was just a little too cold to go swimming in.
We spent the night in a town called Karakol, at the eastern end of Issyk Kul, and saw the chinese mosque there. The next day we drive along the north shore of the lake, up into another valley, then back along the shore and stopped at a lakeside resort for some lunch. Later we went and saw some petroglyphs. Oh, and we had seen some sogdian grave mounds earlier that day. We drove on back to bishkek and got there in the evening.
So then we set out for uzbekistan the next day - uzbek airways from bishkek to tashkent, a short one-hour flight in a plane that had no air conditioning, but oriental tekke carpeting on the floors.
Tashkent is big and elegant in a way that I had not been expecting. I had been forewarned that it was going to be hot and desertlike and that I had better dress accordingly, but the weather was mild and the city is full of irrigated gardens and canals. We took the metro into the center of town, and the metro is quite beautiful, much like the moscow metro, but with more subdued decoration. The trains were full of schoolchildren since it was early afternoon and I guess most of them were headed home. We strolled around the main part of the city and enjoyed ourselves.
The next day, things were a bit more organized, and I went with my mom and a small group of other americans around to see the sights - some mausoleums, some madrassahs, but the big highlight of the day was the tashkent market, where everything was chaos, with carts of produce being wheeled through thick crowds of shoppers, while the stalls were full of everything imaginable. We spent a good deal of time looking at spices, and we bought some saffron.
Our guide was an uzbek woman of a certain age, who seemed to be rather fond of showing out some of the old soviet monuments and squares, which were admittedly rather grand and imposing in their own way. She also enjoyed telling us in her gossipy way about past people she had shown around uzbekistan, taking care to linger over some of the more scandalous events that had transpired in her career as a tour guide.
The next morning we set out on our drive to Samarkand. There were a LOT of cotton fields, and I came to a realization of sorts as we made our way through the countryside, namely: It is a very easy thing to look at environmental problems from a distance and say that things are bad and that they should be fixed and that people shouldn't be wasteful and all that. The Aral sea is going dry and the reason is is that water is being taken from the main river flowing into the Aral Sea and diverted into irrigating the cotton fields which would otherwise be desert. And before coming out here it seems to be fairly simple to say that people shouldn't do that. But now that I have seen these fields for myself, I realize that things are not so easy - This is how people support themselves and earn a living. Where is everyone going to live if all this lush farmland becomes a desert again? How are they going to get enough to eat if they can't irrigate their produce? To let the fields go dry is a very difficult thing indeed.
Saturday, August 31, 2002 ::: I bought some books for the plane - daughters of britannia, all about the lives of british diplomat's wives over the past couple of centuries; Gotham, a history of new york city up to 1898, and word freak, which is all about professional scrabble players. I'll opine about them when I'm not quite so tired.
The post went cho-crazy this weekend now that the notorious cho has hit dc theaters - including a little interview tucked into the weekend section.Oh, and weekend section review and style section review and all that, no surprise there. I already saw her live when she came to town a while ago, so I haven't seen the movie. But I love the posters, though, what with the long long nails and threatening facial expression. Margaret Cho is a dangerous woman, girls!
Wednesday, August 28, 2002 ::: so there hasn't been much in the way of updating this week because I'm about to leave for vacation and have to get everything in order and have been kind of stressed out and worrying about other things. But I'm borrowing my brother-in-law's digital camera so I can duly record all that transpires.
Tuesday, August 20, 2002 ::: who wants to write in for boring old anthony williams, when you can vote for a bugler/dancer/whatever who wears very coordinated outfits with her husband? And is friends with Marlon Brando? The photograph is a must-see - white garden-party hat and american flag scarf around her neck as she schmoozes with local politicos, her husband all the while accompanying her with a guitar. strum strum.
Sunday, August 18, 2002 ::: it was very very hot today, especially walking to georgetown and back to go to the furniture store which unfortunately had the ugliest futons known to man. Ikea had nicer ones though they were not in stock. But no one has exactly what I want - a smallish futon that folds into a V during its intermediate folding stage. And is not ugly. I think I'm going to have to buy some drapey cloth fabric to cover the futon when not in use. And figure out how to rearrange my furniture.
oh, that supergood japanese punk girl band that I saw last weekend is called byokie. they don't show up anywhere helpful in google. But they apparently just relocated to dc and hopefully they'll be playing a few shows around town. hopefully not when I'm on vacation.
Friday, August 16, 2002 ::: *sigh*. dotcom reminiscence. Oh, those giddy giddy days when dreamed of stock options and drank champagne on company time. It was too good to be true. Seen on ampersand.
Thursday, August 15, 2002 ::: My New Yorker came in the mail yesterday, and there's an article about a day in the life of city restaurant inspector, and they have posted an interview with the author. The article was accompanied by a rather unsettling photograph of a cockroach scurrying across a health inspection form, which made me think that I was going to be truly horrified, but things weren't quite as bad I thought they might be.
saw josie and the pussycats this weekend - and it was as rightfully campy as I had hoped. The music and singing was a little lackluster, but that's not what I rented if for anyway. What I rented it for was that, simply put, Parker Posey is the best-dressed supervillainess to walk this earth. Of course, that is to be expected if you are secretly running an organization that is controlling all trends, fads and fashions through a discreet but effective subliminal messaging campaign incorporated into popular song lyrics - the best scene in the movie is the slang committee decreeing "the word for cool will be jerkin', as in: 'Dude, that's totally jerkin'.'" But enough spoiling the plot. Finding it in the video store requires a bit of digging around the shelves, but it is truly a hidden gem of movie.
Speaking of girl bands, I was walking home this afternoon, and what did I happen to come across but a band of japanese punk rocker girls playing a set in a nice shady section of the circle. Turns out it was part of ladyfest dc which I had heard about but didn't realize was so interesting. I'm trying to find out what what they were called - will post if I know.
Friday, August 02, 2002 ::: So I've fixed up the sidebar a little bit. Added some recent archives and pruned a blog or two that had moved adresses or wasn't updating or whatever.
right on. I have to say that even though I am a man of no uncertain political opinions, I generally don't post much on political issues. But every now and then I feel a need for fiery invective. I feel some brewing at the moment.
Wednesday, July 31, 2002 ::: someone in london has been having fun with the subway maps. spotted on mooselessness, where there is also a link to some one-star amazon reviews of great novels. My least favorite book of all time is pride and prejudice, and I can still recall those painfully boring days of assigned reading, desperately forcing myself to finish each page of austen's writing in time for class. of course, that was ten years ago, and perhaps I may give it another try someday. someday.
Monday, July 29, 2002 ::: so my family is off vacationing in kyrgyzstan right now, and my brother-in-law has been taking a lots of pictures. Here's the best of the lot (oh, and these pictures are BIG, so they will take a while. be patient.)
Sunday, July 28, 2002 ::: so here's some late posting that I discovered lying around on some concealed deskstop notes on my computer. There have been a spate of articles concerning janet reno's dance party - pre, post and another in this week's blade.
Oh, and since this keeps on showing up in my referrer logs - if it's pictures of stephane rideau you want, I recommend google image search. Just keep in mind that not everything that pops up may be safe for work, although at last check things weren't too steamy.
today's lesson is that if you take a sunday afternoon nap, you will wake up too late to go to all the stores that are now closed because they all close too damn early. Also that making chili requires more time and energy than I thought. Also, that if you are having a sunday nap, you may be awakened by the unannounced and sudden and loud arrival of your landlord who has suddenly decided to catch up on two years' worth of building repairs and is here to announce to you that the apartment is going to be repainted next weekend and you may want to spend the night somewhere else unless you like dying of paint fumes. I was also napping in my boxers, so there was some hasty getting dressed interspersed with all this painting discussion.
But I did have a good time shopping for new drinking glasses and looking at the trendy 14th street boutiques. Gentrification does have its advantages, I guess.
They were also out of the royal tenenbaums at the video store and I was very disappointed as that was what I really wanted to watch this evening.
Ach, no posts for a while. Had a good deal of fun last week - I went to go see Neil Finn at the 930 club and it was a good concert all in all. It turns out that the opening act was one Ed Harcourt (earlier concert review from NYC) and he was a pleasant surprise, as the songs were consistently good - he is sort of a straight and british rufus wainwright, what with the sexy swagger and wavy black hair. The crowd, however, was waiting for Neil Finn - half of them, I would say, were there to hear all the old songs of their teenage days. They were not disappointed - there was plenty of split enz, and don't dream it's over and all that. I myself had bought the new album the other day and really really liked it and was glad to hear all the new songs. There were also a goodly number of songs off the last crowded house album, which I have to say is an excellent one.
Tuesday, July 16, 2002 ::: very useful link: how to search google by date, or perhaps more accurately, how to search google and only retrieve documents that have been recently cached. I forget where I saw this, but whoever spotted it receives my thanks.
Monday, July 15, 2002 ::: Had quite a weekend, as I went up to New York. Left friday, got together with my old college roommate, and gossiped about everyone. Then on saturday me and my sister went to the tenement museum and got together with mike benedetto and got to see the much-heard-of duplex. Then I went to go see All About Lily Chou-Chou, which had been billed as japanese teenagers obsessed with a female pop star. Sounded light and frothy and entertaining in the review, but the movie turned out to be a searing introduction to hazing in japanese junior high schools and was truly horrifying, but an excellent film with stunningly beautiful cinematography. Still hard to watch, though.
Tuesday, July 02, 2002 ::: Just discovered the link paradise that is sharpeworld, where I learned that carol channing was on nixon's enemies list. Ms. Sharpe has just added some more real estate agent pics to her collection, including one who is trying to make the job seem a little more exciting. this is all courtesy jockohomo.
for some reason, I didn't know that metacritic existed until this week. I had been wondering if there was something like rotten tomatoes, but a bit more quantified for the snap superficial movie attendance judgments I am apt to make. Oh, on closer inspection, rotten tomatoes does have a "t-meter" it just requires some clicking around. so never mind.
Monday, June 24, 2002 ::: lyd has written a very fond and nostalgic reminiscence of that eighties cartoon staple, jem. I always secretly rooted for the misfits, but I guess that's just the bad girl inside me trying to break out.
Monday, June 17, 2002 ::: I saw two movies this weekend. The first was All About Eve, which was indeed a classic. Bette Davis plays up the diva just a touch past her prime in such a way that she seems a bit more human and reasonable in her tantrums. Anne Baxter's Eve was very good, although unfortunately the character was a bit too saccharine at the beginning. Once she turned into a fame-hungry manipulative monster, however, she became much more likeable. Of course, they always are, aren't they? Addison DeWitt, the evil genius of a film critic, was that sort of character that seems to epitomize gay stereotyping of the time, but is nonetheless elegantly charming - effeminate, foppish, plummy accent, occasionally draped with a woman at his side for appearance's sake, etc, etc. Not entirely sure what to make of him.
The other was the Importance of Being Earnest. I must first say that I don't care very much for Judi Dench. Other people seem to, though, seeing as how she could probably use her oscar for a garden spade and they'd still give her another next year for another thirty second appearance as some british monarch. I myself do not generally understand the Judi lovefest and find her a touch overrated. But I LOVED her in this movie. Aunt Augusta is so wonderfully boorish and lacking in charm and yet Dench brings out these qualities as a sort of charm. The rest of the cast also did a wonderful job. Colin Firth, of course, can do no wrong. I was a little leery of Reese Witherspoon at first, since not everyone can pull off the English accent, but she performed admirably. Anna Massey was excellent as Miss Prism, but Miss Prism is my favorite character anyway. The play exists online, and it makes for good reading, as some of the witticisms seem to fly by a little too quickly on screen.
Sunday, June 16, 2002 ::: the latest read has been Greek Fire, an account of the affair between Aristotle Onassis and Maria Callas, the latter being dumped for Jackie Kennedy. The book has been a very good read, full life dramatic tales of love and war, stormy marriages, long mediterranean cruises, picturesque greek ruins, and of course, glamor, style and panache. The book is full of pictures sprinkled liberally throughout instead of stuck all together in the middle as a great many books like to do. Anyway, I'm not done yet, but I have been enjoying it immensely.
Friday, June 14, 2002 ::: So there have been a slew of vanilla coke ads in which young men are "rewarded for their curiosity." They seem very homoerotic. The ads don't seem to be viewable on the Vanilla Coke site, which has unnecessary flash in large amounts.
When I heard about sushi-making robots, I thought perhaps they might look a little more humanoid than this. Perhaps one of those little bandanas might have made a nice touch at least.
Wednesday, June 12, 2002 ::: some people I've been meaning to link to:
Yeah, totally (a blog of note from a while back)
L'hiver, Voila! Which is unclear on name, so I'm kind of guessing. It was inactive for a while there, but seems to be back up and running
Ultrasparky, who is dealing with some major life issues and so may not be lite reading at all times but is nonetheless good reading.
Tuesday, June 11, 2002 ::: I almost forgot to mention the brunch with brad. There I am on the left amidst a bunch of dc bloggers, who seem to be a fairly cordial bunch. Oh, and that link is fixed now. Sorry about that.
Wednesday, June 05, 2002 ::: An artist named Anissa Mack has set up a kitschy little cottage in brooklyn where she bakes that american staple, apple pie, and sets it out on the windowsill to cool and perhaps be taken by passersby. A large crowd gathers on weekends and it sometimes gets vicious, as dozens wait to fight over the next pie as soon as it's placed on the windowsill. courtesy the ever-sassy washington post style section.
Tuesday, June 04, 2002 ::: so while I was up in New York, I went to an exhibit at the New Museum of Contemporary Art which featured karaoke in sound-proof pods, which was lots of fun. Additionally, I also hung out in chinatown and soho and that general area and did a fair amount of shopping. All in all, an enjoyable weekend.
Tuesday, May 28, 2002 ::: So I finished jeb and dash, and let me say again what a wonderful book it was. Unfortunately, I had to give it back to the library, so I read the last part rather quickly, which was mostly punctuated by an ill-timed vacation to europe in august of 1939. Which was an interesting vacation to say the least. I have since started reading the poisonwood bible and and am enjoying it also - I wasn't expecting to like a southern preacher's family, but I have found the characters all quite charming. And the milieu of the tropical congo just adds the texture of the book.
so there's this new search engine, alexa, which looks pretty snazzy, showing related websites, popularity rank, etc. As previously noted on Brainlog. I should warn that the potential for wasting time is terrifying.
Tuesday, April 30, 2002 ::: I was at the gym last night and saw part of frontier house, where several families have opted live just like it was 1883, and experience all the pains and hardships of frontier life. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see the whole episode, but was hoping they'd get to the parts where everyone starts complaining. I guess this is the american take on 1900 house, where I recall all the women tired of living in a world where it takes a whole day of beating clothes against a metal board to get them only half-clean, and as a consequence became suffragists. And hired a maid.
Wednesday, April 24, 2002 ::: I saw sunset boulevard, which I thought a little overblown, as if it were The Worst Thing Ever to be a kept man. maybe in 1950 it was. But I do like some of billy wilder's other films, especially some like it hot and the apartment.
Monday, April 22, 2002 ::: I have been reading quite an amazing book, Jeb and Dash, a diary of a gay man and his life in washington between the wars. There is a lot to sympathize with, frustrated ambitions in writing and love affairs which always seem to sour at their brightest moments. The portrait of the city and the culture at the time I find quite fascinating, as well as Jeb's drift from his conservative southern family's politics towards things more progressive. They were particularly horrified by his wearing a black tie in mourning for sacco and vanzetti's execution.
Saturday, April 20, 2002 ::: I recently had the chance to catch up on reading my new yorker magazines, and there were some good articles in there - an excellent article by malcom gladwell entitled the social life of paper, which was also a book review for the myth of the paperless office, which is now on my reading list. Gladwell's writing is superb as usual, and puts other reviews to shame.
I also noticed that the person on the cover of the march 18, 2002 issue is wearing pikachu pelts.
Friday, April 19, 2002 ::: Speaking of The New Yorker, they've put up a profile of Hugo Chavez from their archives, and I remember what a fascinating portrait it was.
Tuesday, April 16, 2002 ::: 'Asked whether the administration now recognizes Mr. Chávez as Venezuela's legitimate president, one administration official replied, "He was democratically elected," then added, "Legitimacy is something that is conferred not just by a majority of the voters, however."'
That was a quote from this article in today's new york times. At first, I thought that the Bush Administration, while conservative in its foreign policy, was not going to be stupid. But now not only are they doing stupid things, they are following up by saying even stupider things.
Monday, April 15, 2002 ::: So I've been reading about some more Washington twenties fixtures, since I finished with Florence Harding. I am on to her arch-nemesis, Alice Roosevelt Longworth, daughter of Theodore Roosevelt. Alice was, it seems, a wild, uncontrollable youth and continued to be quite a vivid character throughout her life, and she lived just a few blocks away from my apartment. Oh, and this is the book I'm reading about her, although there seem to be a number of others around, but they were not at the library.
ready-made. Forget halfhearted spice racks, these people are seriously heavy-duty. Issue No. 1 I recommend especially, as the second has more features than actual things to make and do.
today's shopping lessons: nice cheap shoes are very hard to find. expensive shower curtains all look like they've been stolen from a new orleans bordello, but cheaps ones are either nicely understated or outrageously fun, and so I got one with some nice fish patterns. The old curtain was getting kind of scary and something just had to be done about it.
Thursday, April 11, 2002 ::: So I didn't really talk about my trip to new york. It was really quite nice. I visited the new york historical society, which has quite a collection of schlocky washingtoniana and nineteenth century board games, and did plenty of shopping, and saw the lights, which are quite beautiful - they really appear as they did in the original design - two pillars of light that seem to go on up forever.
Monday, April 08, 2002 ::: I had often wondered, where does kitty litter come from? does it fall from the sky like manna in some part of the world, to be gathered by wandering nomadic peoples, and slowly make its way by caravan and ship to our fair american shores? Is it manufactured by some chic german factory, running along an assembly line like clockwork? No, it lies beneath the earth, like gray, crumbly gold. And this mine could be coming to a suburb like yours. Sometimes the truth ain't pretty, folks.
This lego builder is incredibly incredibly distracting, and loads of fun. It takes a minute or two to figure out how the 3-d elements work, but after that it's pretty much clean sailing. via felafel.
less frequently seen muppets, via hit or miss. It seems that statler and waldorf have been enjoying a more prominent role in popular culture of late, or at least they seem to be referred to in various articles, websites and the like that I have been reading in the last few weeks or so. They do have a certain gruff charm.
Some very nice pictures of wtc lights, via catherine's pita via rion. I should mention that I plan to go to nyc this weekend (visiting my sister and brother-in-law), and among other things, visit century 21 now that it's open again. Oh, and probably hit williamsburg and a few other spots. really, anything that would be recommended and not mobbed with tourists, and even a few places that are.
Tuesday, March 26, 2002 ::: Something I forgot to post from a while back: found magazine, which publishes things people have found lying around on the street or wherever.
Tuesday, March 19, 2002 ::: I've been reading more of the florence harding book, and it seems she had a
interest in astrology which bordered on obsession. She received astrological
advice and predictions from one "madame marcia" who lived just a few blocks
from my apartment. I decided to take a little field trip and see what sort
of residence should befit madame marcia, who supposedly predicted harding's
election and death in office. I was expecting a sort of overdone victorian
gothic, but instead was greeted with a rowhouse painted a disappointingly
cheery baby blue. Nonetheless, it's nice to know that the neighborhood has a
bit of unexpected and colorful local history.
Monday, March 18, 2002 ::: This weekend I rented Sitcom, which I am not entirely sure I liked. I was under the impression that it was supposed to be a french sendup of american sitcoms or something to that effect, but aside from its being about a well-off family with two children and a minivan, I failed to sense much of a connection. At least Stephane Rideau, cast as teenage daughter's hunky boyfriend kind of made up for it.
Wednesday, March 13, 2002 ::: I've been reading a very interesting biography of florence harding, who is, I believe, the only first lady to have had a child out of wedlock, among other things. Most peculiar of all was her friendship with Evalyn McLean, owner of the cursed Hope Diamond. I've only gotten to the start of their meeting, but it's been a great read so far and should hopefully continue to be interesting.
Monday, March 11, 2002 ::: This week's new yorker has an article on japanese street fashion. Whenever my new yorker arrives, I always read it in the following fashion: first, flip through and read all the cartoons, removing the little subscription inserts, meanwhile looking at the pictures and the headlines to see what articles are going to be interesting and worthwhile. Then go back and read those. Then read all the nonfiction. Fiction is always last, and I think it's because it is impossible to tell what the story is about or where it's going to go. I'm terrible about reading fiction, really. I should try more.
Friday, March 08, 2002 ::: So y'all have probably noticed a lack of updates this week. Seems my job involves doing actual work now, so I won't be updating quite so much as before.
Tuesday, March 05, 2002 ::: I saw metropolitan, as it seems that whit stillman films are simply just unavoidable. Loved the dialogue, all the characters were wonderfully articulate. Liked Charlie's earnest discussion with the alleged failures in the bar, and continuous theorizing about the future of his social class. Liked everything.
Sunday, March 03, 2002 ::: The city paper's article this week is all about cvs and how it sucks. I must concur. What I really hate about cvs is the way their stores are not adjusted to fit in to the neighborhood, and what few concessions that are made are done so most begrudgingly, like the sad little faded displays giving a nod to neighborhood history at the store right off dupont circle. I hate the cluttered aisles, I hate the surly service, and most of all I hate the ugly decor, right down the red that is everywhere and the clashy carpet.
Monday, February 25, 2002 ::: So I've started going over to adams-morgan to rent videos from the better-stocked video store, and so the movie-watching has been good of late: The first movie I rented was la dolce vita, which I found to be simply excellent - amazing imagery, particularly the miracle-seekers ripping apart the tree where the virgin mary was said to have appeared, as well the flooded apartment that marcello visits at the beginning. And I have to say that I really really liked Marcello in this movie, even though he was a rather despicable character. It's the hair, the swanky suits, the casual indifference towards everything, the way everyone smiles and calls out his name whenever they see him. It's irrestistible.
Sunday, February 24, 2002 ::: The Post business section has another exotic marketing safari today, about marketing types looking into how people shower.
The Library Of Congress has put up another amazing collection of photographs - this one from Ansel Adams, who in addition to taking shots of national parks and such, also took a large number of documentary photographs of the Manzanar internment camp where Japanese-Americans were forced to live during the second world war. Adams donated his photographs to the libarary in 1965, saying: "The purpose of my work was to show how these people, suffering under a great injustice, and loss of property, businesses and professions, had overcome the sense of defeat and dispair [sic] by building for themselves a vital community in an arid (but magnificent) environment. . . . All in all, I think this Manzanar Collection is an important historical document, and I trust it can be put to good use."
Thursday, February 21, 2002 ::: So I was watching skeleton on the olympics last night, and I have decided that the best hair award goes to austrian martin rettl. The red and black stripes don't quite come out as well in this picture as they did on tv. I should also point out that he was wearing some sort of bizarre shimmery cape thing during the medal ceremony, why, I don't know.
Tuesday, February 19, 2002 ::: so things seem to have cleared up in some mysterious fashion which I do not understand. I would be happier if I knew how, but maybe that is just asking too much.
Monday, February 18, 2002 ::: On Saturday I went to see Rufus Wainwright, which was an excellent concert. My great fear about seeing an act live is that performance will not live up to my expectations from hearing the cd - the songs will simply be rather shoddy live versions of the tracks on the album, the band will have no personality, etc. Thankfully, this was not the case in this instance, as Rufus Wainwright and his entourage sang and played beautifully, with some additional live flourishes, chatted constantly with the audience in the most natural-seeming fashion and also seemed to be having a good time themselves. There were also some unexpected covers, as well as an impromptu audience request. Martha Wainwright was very amazing and I am thinking of buying her cd.
Saturday, February 16, 2002 ::: So things are looking ugly at the moment as I was tinkering with the template. Things should look better once I figure out where I went wrong.
Inconspicuous Consumption is a site devoted to consumer product stories and the like, which is more interesting than it sounds. In particular, I recommend this column on "classic" brands which discusses their recent ubiquitousness and the like. This link from the guestbar weblog on boing boing; I have a tendency to ignore the sidebar completely, even though there are often worthwhile links there.
Thursday, February 14, 2002 ::: UT has put up some central american maps and drawings from the late 1500s. Intriguing designs and perspectives, to say the least. When I took historical linguistics, all our textbooks had rather psychedelic mayan hieroglyphs on the covers, and I find these images very reminiscent.
Wednesday, February 13, 2002 ::: The was an amazing picture in the post today accompanying their story about the westminster dog show. Unfortunately this photo is not available online, but apparently at a party thrown by some dachshund handlers, where they dressed their dogs up as thomas jefferson and dolley madison. Sounds even more excessive than anything out of best in show. The photographer was Helayne Seidman, but searching for her work on the post site proved fruitless.
Monday, February 11, 2002 ::: Not too much new to link, but I realized I forgot to put this up from a while ago - The creator of blogdex has a weblog of his own, and a lot of interesting things to say, including most recently a post on the origin of memes and which weblogs produced the most, etc.
Sunday, February 10, 2002 ::: Today I went down to do laundry and discovered that the laundry room is covered with an inch of water; recently there have been numerous problems with the washer and dryer alternately ceasing to function but I was by no means expecting such a dramatic turn of events. I also have a new neighbor moving in, and I met her dog, which a dachsund whose rear legs are paralyzed but is nonetheless a charming and friendly little creature.
Friday, February 08, 2002 ::: Your name in cookies!. no q or z, though, as the swedes who made this I guess deemed it unnecessary. Of course, there are those lovely scandinavian letters, such as å and ø. Via netbib, which is in german.
Montgomery County, MD is a hotbed of bizarre crimes. Like the bizarre murder/kidnapping plot that sounds like it came out of a bad straight-to-video thriller. I've been posting things late this week, but the article is truly worthwhile.
recaplet (76) x nifty (4,860,000) = 355,680,000. I looked over for some choice words to search for and discovered a spelling error or two. So, just for the record: there is no reubenesque, only rubenesque.
Wednesday, February 06, 2002 ::: Archives are working! Feel free to browse through the past year or so that exist. I particularly recommend the Dave Eggers reading I went to a while ago (April 24, 2001 entry), which I believe is my longest single entry from one single day.
I recently bought some more records, as there was a sale at the used book store down the street. I bought La Traviata and the Mikado for two bucks each, plus another free record of my choosing.
Tuesday, February 05, 2002 ::: So I saw Moulin Rouge this weekend, which was a campy overspectacle. I enjoyed it immensely, gaudy covers of pop tunes and all. John Leguizamo I liked in particular. I wasn't expecting much of a movie since the reviews I remember as being somewhat middling, which kind of lowered my expectations and meant that I was pleasantly surprised.
Friday, February 01, 2002 ::: so I have been fiddling with the archives and it seems not to have been so smart an idea. I did seem to create some, but getting them to show up as I want them, or to bring up the main index page at all, is proving to be somewhat of a challenge. here are the january archives, though.
Mooselessness has a good link to an article (written by, of all people, alan alda) about how fads come into popular culture. Moreover, this article gives a nod to malcolm gladwell's recent book, the tipping point, which I enjoyed reading immensely. Gladwell has written numerous articles in the new yorker, mostly pertaining to business. Normally, I avoid reading articles on business, but Gladwell is an excellent writer and manages to turn subjects that would normally be unreadably dull and make them absolutely fascinating. He has a website with excerpts from his book and other articles which I recommend most highly.
so a while ago someone came across my weblog while looking for "harper's bizarre." And it turns out there really is a harper's bizarre, albeit in portuguese. I don't know if Harper's Bazaar is, though.
the time has come, I think, to reupdate the sidebar, since I am reading so far and wide these days. There are always changes that I've been meaning to make. Like the color scheme, which I have been meaning to change ever since I started using this template.
Wednesday, January 30, 2002 ::: So there's this ode to seinfeld in salon, which I saw on kottke.org. I saw an episode last night that I hadn't seen before, the episode in which elaine starts hanging out with some new people who are all oddly similar to jerry, george, and kramer. I just found the script right here.
ok, having some problems with my email, to which I usually send my links. But I will be posting nonetheless. It's been very busy around recently, esp at work.
Tuesday, January 22, 2002 ::: the post had a very interesting article in the health section about synesthesia, a condition where people experience sound as a visual sensation (and other similar combinations of the senses)
I also saw Gosford Park this weekend, which is a very entertaining movie. Maggie Smith's character was my favorite, as she was so delightfully bitchy. Other people must have thought similarly, what with a golden globe nomination for best supporting actress and all.
Friday, January 18, 2002 ::: boing boing has a good link to disgruntled housewife, which I had forgotten all about. A similar and also very good site (and zine) is mystery date, social satire on dating conventions in the 50s and the like. swell. nifty.
Thursday, January 17, 2002 ::: The post has an article on why mr. brady is missing from all that brady memorabilia. On the team, it seems, but the article really only touches on that rather briefly.
right now, I am waiting for the full mightybigtv recap from the chicago real world episode. all there is now is a recaplet. I don't get cable, so this is what I live for. I really wonder if they decided to cover the demonstrators, the murder that occurred outside the building, all that. my guess is no.
Monday, January 14, 2002 ::: So this weekend, I had been meaning to see gosford park, but it was sold out so we saw the royal tenenbaums instead. Good movie, I liked it a lot more than rushmore. Intriguing plot. imdb says it was filmed in nyc, but looks more like philadephia or something. Gwyneth Paltrow was unrecognizable, and also not irritating, which was nice of her. Everyone else was also very good and the characters were generally a good bunch. Not too sure about the wardrobe, though. Oh, and the soundtrack is simply awesome. lots of nico and also a very good elliot smith song, needle in the hay, which I have been singing as I walk down the street.
Wednesday, January 09, 2002 ::: This morning's post had a big article in the style section about drag kings. at chaos, down the street from me, no less.
So, I finally saw the Lord of the Rings. Actually, I saw it last week, but I've been Very Busy. General Thoughts - on the whole, pretty good. There did seem to be an awful lot of foreshadowing, but I guess that was necessary for those who hadn't read the book it was necessary. Ian McKellen was excellent, and I was glad to see Christopher Lee's character given a bit more in the storyline, just because villains are always more interesting. Oh, and I saw this on librarystuff -- it seems that Tolkein's manuscripts, which I assumed were tucked away in some dusty corner of England somewhere, are actually in Milwaukee.
Tuesday, January 08, 2002 ::: Oh, the university of georgia has scanned in old maps, including this neat one. nice drawing of a turkey in north carolina.
Oh, it seems that many have received wonderful gifts from those people over at archie mcphee, which sells fezzes, miniature trash cans and assorted novelty items of interest. complete with pictures of happy, sometimes reubenesque models enjoying said products in all their glory.
