so back to work and applications. for a second there it seemed like I was going to have some interesting company but unfortunately it seems that the Madge PhD is a hoax.
Friday, December 05, 2003 ::: Ah, Now is the Winter of our Discontented Elf has a great entry today about scenes of Class Struggle in a New York Department Store, and Santa-Elf tensions.
Wednesday, December 03, 2003 ::: Still busy, but have had some time to do stuff in these past few weeks. I saw Master and Commander, which was quite fun - especially Joseph Morgan, who plays Warley, the strapping lad who drowns rounding Cape Horn. Sent off application #1, which was quite a relief, especially as it was done a few days ahead of schedule. Had a good thanksgiving despite being a little sick. On sunday I saw the fabulously campy and over the top Die Mommie Die, which is a complete riot - I think the mediocre reviews are from those who don't get the concept. Everyone plays their part as if they were chewing the scenery for a Lifetime special. Crowning the lot is Charles Busch as faded Garlandesque star Angela Arden. Sadly, there seem to be no quotes available anywhere, and I have forgotten the lines, which means I'll probably have to go see it again. The five-martini funeral was priceless.
Oh, and I almost forgot last night's viewing of the Simple Life. There's already a drinking game! I hate to admit it, but I find Nicole Richie somewhat charming. Paris, of course, is another story altogether.
Monday, November 10, 2003 ::: So right now, I am up in NYC visiting people at NYU since I am trying to go to graduate school there. As well as some other places. The ride up was lovely, and I really really wish I had brought my camera, but I'm sure I'll have another chance at some point.
Anyway, back to working on applications, writing essays and stressing myself out.
Sunday, October 12, 2003 ::: very interesting piece in the post magazine about the world of classical music competitions, focusing on the perspective of a struggling canadian concert pianist.
I also saw an excellent movie last night about a Russian soldier, a Finnish soldier and a Lapp woman who at the end of the Second World War who are stuck together in the Finnish wilderness and don't speak a word of each others' languages. Ville Haapasalo, who plays the Finn, is smoking hot and has an incredibly sexy voice, too. Anyway, check out the reviews on metacritic and judge for yourself.
I was thinking afterwards that it would be a very interesting experience to have been a native Finn, Lapp or Russian and to see this film without subtitles - It would have been considerably more mysterious.
So it seems that I am rather unexpectedly single again. Not entirely sure what to make of it. I don't really plan on dating anyone new right away but I'm sure the time will come soon enough.
Thursday, September 25, 2003 ::: some quick links:
so everybody's already seen search google by location. Seems to work best for urban areas rather than suburban ones, judging by some rudimentary searching.
so there's now a chicago blog map. Not too many posted yet - I used to live in Hyde Park, which doesn't really have an immediate El stop. Saying I live at Garfield on the Red Line, surrounded by housing projects and a giant highway sounds a little incongruous to me. Luckily it's a moot point.
the morning news links to straight talk, an AIDS awareness campaign in Uganda whose frank discussion of sex has engendered some controversy. The letters section excerpted in this month's Harper's Magazine highlights some pretty harrowing situations, often involving teacher-student sexual harassment.
Sunday, September 21, 2003 ::: I just finished reading the bondwoman's narrative by hannah crafts, which according to editor henry louis gates, jr is the first known novel written by a black person anywhere in the world. That it may be, but it is also particularly good one, although at times it starts out a little predictably and has its weak parts. Gates' introduction at the beginning of the book should also not be overlooked - I believe an abridged version appeared in the new yorker a while ago, and discusses his obtaining of the manuscript and subsequent research in discovering more about its author, a task helped immensely by the very autobiographical elements of her book .
I guess I've been on a bit of a spending spree of late - although I borrowed the bondwoman's narrative from alex my boyfriend, I've bought a ton of other books which I haven't cracked open yet. I also went cd shopping and bought the recent ed harcourt cd, which is excellent, and lowlife by new order which I already have on book and record, and a single gun theory cd that my sister used to have.
This weekend I rearranged my furniture a little bit. I have a lot of books now, and not a lot of bookshelf space. I moved my stereo and some milk crates around as well. I've come to really dislike the milk crates - they clash horribly with everything else, but the closet is stuffed to overflowing and there just doesn't seem to be room for them anywhere else right now. oh well.
Saturday, September 20, 2003 ::: ack, the posts I was about to make just got deleted it seems. Anyway, I'm back and should be writing stuff as soon as things don't get deleted by blogger/google.
Thursday, September 11, 2003 ::: So a lot's happened recently.
This morning I got a call from my mother and found out that my grandfather, Thomas O'Keefe, had died this morning in his sleep. He was about to turn 94. He was born in South Baltimore to Irish immigrants - his father worked at the Bethlehem Steel Plant shoveling coal into a furnace, along with a black man with whom he became friends despite the segregation of the time. My great-grandfather died in the flu epidemic of 1918 and so his wife took in laundry to support the family, and my grandfather was sent to collect and sell coal that had fallen off trains rounding a bend in the nearby railroad tracks. Money was tight, and my great-grandmother was eventually forced to place my grandfather in an orphanage. His aunt and uncle later obtained his release. My grandfather's uncle worked for a bootlegger, operating a miniature brewery in the basement and taking the streetcar across town with a load of beer. The uncle began to drink heavily, and his wife decided to put a stop to the beer brewing by taking an axe to the brewery in the basement. Once my grandfather graduated from the eighth grade, his education was considered complete and he was sent out into the working world. He found work in the shipyards, although once the depression hit jobs became scarce and he became involved in trying to unionize the other dockworkers and the shipyard managers blacklisted him. At some point he became a policeman, and also met my grandmother, who had immigrated from Ireland in 1932. I forget when they married exactly, but it was about 1938 or so. My uncles were born in 1942 and 1944, and my father, the youngest, was born in 1946. The family had moved to Hampden, a Baltimore neighborhood near Johns Hopkins University mostly consisting of poor white protestants who worked in nearby mills along Jones Falls. (The neighborhood remained this way for quite some time, but in the past five years or so has become very trendy all of a sudden.) My father and uncles grew up in Hampden while my grandfather worked for the Baltimore police until his retirement.
When I was young my grandfather and grandmother would occasionally take care of me for my parents when we spent our summers in Baltimore. We would ride around in his enormous chevy with black vinyl seats that get searing hot after several hours of sitting in a summer parking lot. We would go to what at the time seemed fascinating places to child like me: the Rotunda, Lexington Market, Lake Roland. My grandparents lived in a long, narrow rowhouse full of long, narrow rooms and hallways. The back yard had cement paving with oyster shells embedded in it, and I thought if I looked carefully enough I might discover a pearl. The basement had a bathroom with an ancient bathtub supported by wrought iron feet. The bookshelves were filled with books I liked to read. We would also go to the nearby dairy and get chocolate milk, walking out the back yard and through a little alleyway. Our family has kept this house after my grandparents moved out and my cousin lives there now.
As my grandparents grew older, they were less able to support themselves physically and eventually had to move to a retirement community, but thankfully one which allowed its residents a certain independence - visiting them was not the horror that one experiences when visiting a nursing home. My grandfather's memory began to fail him, and my grandmother, whose mind remained as sharp as ever, looked after him. And he did likewise with her, because although her mental faculties were excellent, she had become very weak and frail. When she died two decembers ago, he was devastated and hasn't really been the same since. It seemed that now his time has come and he can rest in peace.
Monday, September 08, 2003 ::: The new york times (from a while ago) has an article about rufus wainwright who is out of rehab and and trying to stay clean and sober. we'll see if it lasts. the new album is coming out soon - as I understand it, a double album. should be excellent as always. link from rebel prince.
Thursday, September 04, 2003 ::: So as I'm writing this, I'm also watching the democratic presidential candidates' debates. Some general thoughts on the matter.
The more the candidate actually stands a chance of winning the nomination, the more vague and evasive the answers to the questions posed, especially those pertaining to specifics on iraq reconstruction/possible pullout. No great surprise there.
Ostensibly this debate is focussed on issues pertaining to the latino community, and none of the candidates seem to be doing a very good job of that.
As far as the candidates go, among the long shot candidates, kucinich is the one who seems to be doing the best, and getting the best response from the audience. Moseley-Braun and Graham don't really seem to be saying terribly unique or exciting. Al Sharpton is a no-show. I'm sure at the very least he would have livened things up a bit.
among those with a chance, Dean is the front-runner and his recent moderation of his earlier stances are mostly coming through with greater emphasis of the more moderate aspects of his record. I haven't really been all that excited about him (or really any of the candidates). Kerry and Lieberman seem to be the most informed and wonky. Kerry has a much better on-screen presence than in print, where he looks like a mummy with an andy warhol wig. Gephardt and Edwards aren't really shining like they could be. Edwards seems pretty glib and I think this more of a practice run for him.
Oh, lieberman just started getting in a few digs on Dean regarding labor, jobs and international trade. The whole thing is going a little too fast to report on in real time. Everybody wants to bring more jobs to america and eliminate economic exploitation elsewhere in the world. No shocker there. And we love the environment. TV is better for sound bites than for long policy discussions on the matter.
Much discussion of health care, and once again, people are generally saying reasonable things, although being very vague once again. All the proposals that are going to make a significant dent in the uninsured are certainly going to cost a lot of money. Single-payer systems, like the one suggested by Moseley-Braun are the most reasonable, although not knowing the specifics of her plan I can't really say that it is unquestionably the best.
I'm going to cut out here, as the discussion begins regarding immigration issues, as I have some work to do. In short, if I were going to vote right now, I think I'd vote for Kerry, although I have some concerns about his ability to win the general election. I'd be pretty happy with Dean, though.
Monday, August 25, 2003 ::: overheard on the tube. I hear the most amazing things all the time on the metro - I've got to start writing things down. link via mefi.
So I haven't really been doing the linguistics posts like I said before - but I guess the time has come - The Gender Genie will analyze a sample of your writing and determine your gender for you, in case perhaps you weren't sure. The results window would seem to indicate a 60-40 accuracy rate. Whoever designed the genie was probably working from a limited corpus or some such. If part-of-speech taggers have to be at least 90 percent accurate (or so say these boys I would hope someone else could do a little better with this gender algorithm
So today I was working from home again, went out for a little walk, and discovered that a television show was being filmed next to my bank just off dupont circle. A cast member was getting her nails done by the official stylist while she sat in a little director-style chair that said "cast" on it. Seems I miss a lot when I'm at the office.
Tuesday, August 19, 2003 ::: So my work schedule has been rearranged so that I can work from home now! It's all very exciting. Of course, all the things that I had meant to take care of didn't get done despite my best intentions. However, I did manage to make it to the store to buy a new air conditioner filter, and on the way back saw someone get arrested! It was a middle-aged white woman and her alleged crime was to me unknown, but there were about five cop cars there (all the previous arrests I've seen have involved about two or three cars) so I guess it was a big deal, or maybe there isn't much for the cops to do around 5pm. I'll be checking the police blotter this week with a keen eye to get the full story.
Friday, August 15, 2003 ::: so I saw dirty pretty things the other night. Very nice camera work, sets, etc. The side of london you don't see, etc. intriguing plot twists. Audrey Tautou is in it, but Sophie Okonedo is the one who really steals the show, right from her first line to hotel clerk okwe.
Some of Coreper's rituals and names are reminiscent of the quirkier sort of London club. At Pratt's, near The Economist in London, the servants are always called “George” or “Georgina”. Similarly the senior civil servants working for Coreper 2 are always referred to as “Antici”, after the Italian civil servant who first did the job; their counterparts in Coreper 1 arealways, for similar reasons, called “Mertens”.
Tuesday, August 05, 2003 ::: I'm in new york right now. having a good time. yesterday I went down to brighton beach and went wading in the water, and bought russian groceries and absorbed the atmosphere. today will be mostly shopping.
Wednesday, July 30, 2003 ::: So, I was talking about a recent issue of the new yorker (july 28) and the excellent articles contained therein, although most of them were not available online.. and then I got distracted. So to begin again: There is a very detailed and researched and informative article by Seymour Hersh about the Syrian government and the administration and so on. Followed by a somewhat less informative but nonetheless enjoyable article about the three-hundredth anniversary of St. Petersburg and the celebrations that accompanied it. The next article is simply amazing - Oliver Sacks writing about blindness and internal visualization, and how the experience of blindness and the methods of experiencing, processing and imagining the world vary with each and every individual. Followed by an article about Australian Aboriginal artists, accompanied by a vivid photograph of the artists sitting atop an immense collaborative painting. There is also thoughtful piece by Louis Menand concerning dictatorships and those who desire them, who often veers toward insufferable pretentiousness, but this time stays fairly down to earth.
Tuesday, July 29, 2003 ::: So I'm going up to NYC this weekend, and kottke.org has been so kind as to guide me to the free store which I may pay a visit while I'm up there.
So I got my new computer, and it's a G4 powerbook - I ended up spending more than I thought I would, but that sort of things tends to happen. I also got Civ III, which the real reason why I haven't been posting very much.
This week's New Yorker (July 28) is jam-packed with good articles, the best of which aren't linkable. Which I will discuss at length when I have the time.
Tuesday, July 22, 2003 ::: so it looks like the old computer is dead. Or, it would cost so much to fix it that I might as well buy a new computer. The old one, an iMac, I had had for five years, so its time had come, I guess. Luckily, the hard drive is still ok and I should be able to retrieve whatever I hadn't backed up. It also looks like a new computer won't be too expensive, either - I just have to decide what I'm going to get. Probably another Mac since I'd like a place to put all my old files, although if it weren't for that I'd probably switch to PC.
The computer is also in Baltimore right now. Long story. But hopefully I'll have it back soon enough.
Friday, July 18, 2003 ::: so my computer at home has died which means less posting owing to limited time at work. Lots going on though. Found out my cousin is in Iraq. War is terrible.
a schematic of the paris opera house. There's a movie in the works of the (alw) phantom of the opera, and although filming hasn't started so it may very well never see the light of day, it will supposedly star alan cumming and minnie driver (wtf?). I have some difficulty wrapping my mind around the idea of such a film ever coming into existence.
Sunday, July 06, 2003 ::: Oy, it's been a lazy lazy weekend. I lounged around for the most part and didn't really go outside very much since it was so damned hot. Hung out with Alex a little despite his overwork from summer classes. I did make it down to the mall with a couple of other folks. My parents came back from their posting in Central Asia and are about to enjoy a little vacation before they settle into their suburban American stylings.
Bought some DVDs - Run Lola Run (Lola Rennt), in which sexy Franka Potente and her sexy cherry-red hair run and run and run through the streets of Berlin to save her scruffy little boyfriend from his own ineptitude which has gotten him in bad with the Berlin criminal world. All set to thumping dance music with Franka chanting overtop.
I also got Waiting for Guffman, which I have never seen, but since I liked best in show and it's supposed to be funnier (if much much crueller) I figured I couldn't really go wrong. Plus it was cheap cheap.
and the older stuff I've been meaning to post for a while:
some fishermen in thailand can see underwater without blurred vision. Apparently, this ability is not genetic and can be achieved through some sort of training process.
This weekend was pretty good. Finished reading the new JK Rowling. Went walking along the C and O Canal with my friend Cynthia and her young son Harry, and we saw assorted wildlife - turtles, toads and herons. Saw a great many Kayakers down by the river, which was unfortunately very muddy along its banks.
great moments from great movies, although the straightboy compilers have used film stills which are not always safe for work. nonetheless an interesting read.
Wednesday, June 25, 2003 ::: I have been doing a lot of reading lately. I bought a bunch of books off amazon as sort of a preparation for applying to history programs, a lot of books dealing with history of sexuality and the like, including the usual foucault for walking the walk and talking the talk, and well as a book called men like that: a southern queer history and george chauncey's gay new york. Oh, and also the gay metropolis by charles kaiser. I'm really looking for books that cover the era from about 1870 to 1920 or so, and unfortunately these books cover a later time period, although they are useful nonetheless. I have sort of been ignoring them of late, though, and instead I've been rereading katherine graham's personal history, which is quite a good read although it tends to be a little skimpy when dealing with events after watergate - the eighties sort of get a short shrift. I also have all the president's men and the final days sitting on my bookshelf so I'm pretty well stocked when it comes to reading about the post in the seventies.
Sunday, June 22, 2003 ::: Right now I'm listening to Rachmaninov's second piano concerto and it is SO GOOD. My non-classical cds far far outnumber my classical cds, but I have a fondness for piano concertos and for some reason whenever I would come across people discussing their favorite composers or classical pieces, rachmaninov's concertos would always seem to come up, among connoisseurs and those who generally don't care for classical music but have one particular favorite. I've become really almost obsessive, listening once, twice or three times a day. I really really like it.
I've also started reading Bel Ami by Maupassant. Good read, and quite decadent for something written in the nineteenth century. The whole novel has an air that can be summed up in the following sentence, on page 108 of the penguin classics edition:
"And, leaving the realm the elegant theories of courtly love, the conversation descended to the primrose path of elegant smut."
I'm not done yet, but I'm hoping that there won't be too much in the way of moral lessons to be learned by any of the characters, who for the most part of much richer in depth and engaging to read about without any of that happening. There is, however, a certain bonfire of the vanities feel about the whole thing.
Today I watched Rear Window on DVD which I had confused plotwise with some other Hitchcock movies. It starts out quite slow but as the murder mystery deepens I found my self rapt and unable to stop watching, even to make dinner. My apartment actually has a similar view even though so far as I know none of my neighbors is a scantily clad ballerina or aspiring songwriter or possible murderous jewelry salesman or crippled photographers. I generally accord my neighbors the privacy I would hope to be accorded myself and do not spend hours peering into their windows. Nobody seems to be doing much of anything anyway.
I went to a party last night and stayed out almost till dawn for pretty much the first time since college. Had fun though, even though it made me feel kind of old. I'm an old 25 I guess.
Sunday, June 15, 2003 ::: So it's been quite a weekend. I went to the city museum with my old college roommate Adam - they have a blown up aerial photo of the city that you can walk across and see where you live. The exhibits are quite well designed, informative, and the building is quite beautiful, having once housed the city libary. Adam chatted with the volunteer question-fielding person.
My father has also been around this week. and there was a family brunch. Pictures coming soon, and let me say that my sister is an excellent cook.
Oh, and I also saw winged migration, which is quite a beautiful film, with minimal commentary, just birds flying and flying and flying. The shots are simply amazing, it's like being one of the flock, and the birds seem quite unconcerned that an alien video camera has infiltrated their midst. The film also succeeds in making canada geese appear as something more than mean-spirited rats with wings that shit on your lawn and attack small children. A goose gets separated from his flockmates during a stopover in the grand canyon and honks and quacks in the vain hope that perhaps there is someone out there who has been waiting for him. No such luck.
So I have for the most part omitted posting details of my personal life, mostly because I felt that the weblog as an exhibitionist confessional does not have as great an appeal to me as it does to others. (Which is not to say that are necessarily a bad thing. They certainly make for excellent reading). Nonetheless I have boyfriend of several months and he is a sweetheart and his name is alex. So get used to hearing about him.
Sunday, June 08, 2003 ::: I just finished reading Truman Capote's Answered Prayers without meaning to. I sat down this afternoon and just read and read and read. It is a shockingly offensive and utterly fascinating book, consisting mostly of thinly veiled vile gossip spilling from every page. Each little story within a story sounds like the plot of a smoky film noir from the forties, filled with murderous scheming golddiggers and men on the make. It's truly a shame that he never finished it - the yawning gap between the early chapters and the later makes for a lacuna of lost potential.
There have also been a number of other books I've read earlier that I've been meaning to have my say about. Walt Whitman's America I found to be somewhat of a disappointment, on two levels - As I got to know more about Whitman, I came to admire him less as a person and as a writer, a man who was more trapped in his time than I had thought - overly nationalistic and given a rather traditional view of interaction between the sexes, although I think that the author David Reynold's treatment of the latter should be viewed with some skepticism owing to Reynold's bending over backwards to avoid characterizing Whitman as homosexual as much as possible, to the point of sounding like a loving but still prejudiced mother discussing how her son is just waiting for the right girl to come along.
I happened to catch a bit of the Tony Awards this evening. Weren't they something?
Thursday, June 05, 2003 ::: oh, the editing screen is all new and pretty-looking. If I knew how to take a screenshot I would. Just imagine for now, gentle reader. Anyway, I have a few more links that have been sitting around.
Jason Kottke's rules for the subway. Metro has recently added big huge signs to floors in front of the escalators which say "STAND TO THE RIGHT" in big letters. People seem for the most part to have taken the hint. But there are still a few ignore such suggestions and generally stare stupidly at the world slowly drifting around them while angry washington bureaucrats grumble passive-agressively behind them.
Sunday, May 25, 2003 ::: I finished reading the Gay Metropolis by Charles Kaiser. It was in some ways an excellent depiction of gay life in New York in the twentieth century, but I think the subject matter becomes too vast to effectively cover, especially after Stonewall. The middle part of the twentieth century, however, is well written, informative and interesting, especially for readers with an interest in artistic life of the time - the ghettoization of those sufficiently out at the time almost forced them into the creative worlds of dance, art and theater, or at least it seems that way as described in the book.
The description of the AIDS epidemic as it hit in the eighties is also quite amazing, even if it resorts to focusing on a few individuals and their stories, it nonetheless captures the jarring effects of the disease on the gay community at the time, and how it changed the way gay men live. Kaiser also includes the entire New York times article first describing AIDS in July of1981, in which I happened to notice the most interesting sentence, which Kaiser does not choose to comment on -
"There is no national registry of cancer victims, but the nationwide incidence of Kaposi's Sarcoma in the past had been estimated ... [at] about two cases for every three million people. However, the disease accounts for up to 9 percent of all cancers in a belt across equatorial Africa, where it commonly affects children and young adults."
Considering the current prevalence of HIV and AIDS in that very same region of the world, it is a wonder that it took so long to make the connection between the disease which was having such a devastating effect on the gay community in North America was already so well established in Sub-Saharan Africa. Of course, the extreme poverty of the region and prevalence of other lethal diseases such as malaria and general tendency of that region of the world's problems to be ignored by wealthier nations would seem to account for the discrepancy. Many books could be written on the matter. Some probably have already.
But back to the book. I would have been happier with a more academic rather than journalistic approach to the subject matter, and I think more discussion of women and minorities would have made it a better book, but that I think is almost always a place where there is room for improvement in such a book.
Friday, May 09, 2003 ::: I've finished a lot of books that I'd been reading on and off for a while. I also just read Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi and it's amazing! an account of the Iranian Revolution from the perspective of a young teenage girl, Persepolis is I think most gripping because of the empathetic egotism of the young girl. She wants to the last prophet of god (who wouldn't). Yes, (poorer) boys her age are dying on the battlefields, but she got invited to her first exciting teenage party ever, and it was a blast. And yes, toilet humor is universally funny and also universally frowned upon.
I've also just started reading Mrs. Astor's New York and noticed this rather interesting entry in the index:
aristocrats:
anglophilia 5-6 ,130-1, 142, 240; bad taste of 3; coaches, passion for 6;
coats of arms, fondness for 63; Dutch origins, pride in 158-159;
exclusivity, thirst for 7-8, 10-11, 27, 87, 121, 149, 150, 156, 194, 211,
218; extravagance of 176; genealogy, interest in 156-157; Greek shawls,
vogue for 6, 141; hauteur of 5; Hungarian bonnets, vogue for 6, 141;
incoherence 8, 26-27; luxury, anxiety about 97, 104; neighorhoods as symbols
of 67; ostentation 3, 21, 84, 97, 210; parvenu, dread of, 8, 24, 27, 63,
150, 156, 180, 184-185, 187; perimeter of, 5; polo 6; press attention to 21;
pretensions of 3; public interest in 6; 7, 11-12; tiaras, fondess for 3;
wealth an 60, 98; yachting 6
Thursday, May 01, 2003 ::: Today's post has a fascinating article about the culture of accident runners, a vocation apparently unique to the District of Columbia. These people comb police reports and arrive at the scene of car accidents, offering their services to help those obtain the best reimbursement and treatment from their insurance companies.
I spent last night watching manor house, which is all about recreating an english country home in 1906 complete with upstairs downstairs tension. I swear the house they used is a dead ringer for the house in gosford park, but hasty internet research seems to indicate otherwise. Lessons learned from the 2 hours - Being a scullery maid sucks, and liveried Edwardian footmen are hot. I recommend having two, perhaps a few more if you have the means.
Speaking of superficial entertainments and guilty pleasures, I did snag a copy of radar. Briefly summarized, the articles were too short, and the focus was sort of haphazard, but I think the next issue will probably be a little more coherent. I like it best when it's dishy, so hopefully they'll being do more of that.
Thursday, April 24, 2003 ::: have some links saved up from the past couple of days:
the morning news links to a rather longish atlantic monthly article about oscar wilde. I have to say that the amount of analysis given to the wilde/lord alfred douglass relationship compared to heterosexual writers' relationships seems quite inordinate, especially since it was such a brief and dysfunctional one. But I still like to read about it anyway. more on this when I have some time to expostulate on the matter.
people it seems have been foiled in their search for radar magazine, which seems trashy but fun, despite a few pans here and there. A cursory search at the lackluster korean news stand near the kind street metro revealed nothing. I'm planning on stopping by a better-stocked news stand later this evening since I have an errand or two to run anyway.
Similarly, Ms. Lewinsky, who is the host of "Mr. Personality," was brought up in Beverly Hills wealth and privilege, but those advantages did not inhibit her from dallying with President Bill Clinton like a saucy Edwardian upstairs maid.
I actually caught this show and I have to say it was rather dull, and featured very little of the esteemed ms lewinsky. Mostly just a lot of strange, creepy guys in strange, creepy masks and a woman who didn't seem especially desirable to begin with. What's more, it doesn't look like it's going to get a Television without Pity recap either, which is a shame, a damned shame.
interesting story about a transgendered candidate for office in japan, a man in the street sort of interview. The japanese public seems pretty accepting, though I'm not entirely sure how representative the sample is.
Wednesday, April 23, 2003 ::: Haven't written substantially in quite a while, despite a fair amount going on. I saw the new christopher guest movie, which wasn't quite as funny as I'd hoped, although I think a lot of the humor is subdued and subtle in nature, the sort of thing that really requires a second viewing, preferably not in a crowded and boisterous theater. Jane Lynch was great, and unfortunately there wasn't enough of jennifer coolidge's half-brained publicist. Many of the other characters were a bit more disappointing. I decided to rent Best in Show again to compare and contrast and it really is a much better movie, altough there are definitely some jokes which are just run into the ground, such as the Jerry and Cookie Fleck marriage schtick. Of course, Jennifer Coolidge as a poodle-owning trophy wife and John Michael Higgins as the flamboyant half of a gay couple were especially good in that movie. There's a new clerk at my video store who is FTM which took me a long time to realize. I hope I wasn't staring, but I also noticed that he was wearing a bright yellow shirt that I also happen to own but hardly ever wear because I can't really pull that sort of thing off.
Tuesday, April 15, 2003 ::: ack. sick. staying home and resting to get ready to face the world tomorrow.
yesterday I sent off my taxes and it really sucked since I owed lots of money to the feds and to dc. All the more so since I was sick yesterday and had to drag myself to kinkos to photocopy my returns and then trudge over to the post office which had a long line and no air conditioning and then was told by the almost inaudible clerk that I didn't want registered mail but the other kind of recordkeeping mail that I forget what it's called and if I wanted that I would have to get back in the long long line. So I just bought stamps and put a couple extra on in case the post office decided that my tax returns were too hefty for just one stamp each.
right now I'm listening to my old (london) suede album. I forgot how catchy the songs are, especially film star. love that song. I should get the album with metal mickey on it.
the latest new yorker (april 21 and 28) has an article about the bridal industry, which is pretty interesting. The gist of it is that people buy too much crap for their weddings and spend too much money, but the industry would of course like them to spend even more. Thank god gay weddings are generally done on the cheap. Oh, and the article also says that there's a big chain wedding chain store threatening to take over America which should be no great surprise to anyone.
Friday, April 11, 2003 ::: I saw Miyazaki's Spirited Away the other day and it's amazing! I'm not really an anime fan but I loved this movie, which had a sort of psychotropic fairy-tale aspect to it.
There's more neighbors on the dc metro blog map every day, including the recent addition of the cultural elite, which I guess just makes the rest of us nearby that much tonier.
Monday, April 07, 2003 ::: I did a lot this weekend - Saw the Yeah Yeah Yeahs last night and the show was amazing, well, except for some drunken bantering with the audience. Catherine liked them when they played in NYC. But I loved loved loved the music, especially the drums. The Ex-Models, the first opening act, were horrid, and I have to say it's so disappointing when a band with a good name makes bad music. The Kilts were good and catchy and it seems indie-rocker singers these days are all going for the Chrissie Hynde look. At the T-shirt and CD booth they were selling pins for a dollar, and I just realized now that I forgot to buy one.
I also went on a long long hike in the Shenandoah yesterday. 9 miles, and up 2500 feet to Skyline Drive and back. Right now I am very very sore.
Lastly, I just ordered and received the limited edition DVD of the Lord of the Rings and it's worth every penny. Running commentary from Peter Jackson for the whole length of the director's cut, as well as more from the cast and still more from the production and sound crew. And I haven't even looked at the third and fourth DVDs yet.
And I went to the Opera also - Don Giovanni. Despite some sound and lighting problems, the production was a good one if a bit overlong. It was also free, which is wonderful since it seems like decent opera tickets are so expensive these days.
Wednesday, April 02, 2003 ::: I now have some space to put up some of my pictures that I've taken with my digital camera - and here's the very first one, some buildings on my block.
Friday, March 28, 2003 ::: oh, it's been a long week. lot of work. speaking of which, in my april 2003 harper's which arrived some time ago, there is an excerpt of a wonderful little diatribe that I remember hearing about a while ago, by one Fletcher Vredenburgh who had been in charge of the Mayor's Action Center in NYC until his screed had been brought to everyone's attention:
"Recently I took a new position. I was promoted to director of the Mayor's Action Center. That means I am responsible for overseeing practically any call, letter, fax, or email mad by griping, often whining, often stupid New Yorkers, and that they to the right person/agency, whatever, to be addressed.
"If you look up the mayor's phone number in the telephone book you get mine.
"I you get cut off by a city truck that has a sticker blaring HOW'S MY DRIVING? the number it shows is mine.
"Yesterday I personally took several calls from people with enough time to call up pitch a fit at the mayor for honoring the Bronx Little League team before anyone knew the pitcher was a ringer. One dumb fuck called to let me know all of Seattle (that's right, the whole city) was mad at the mayor.
"All that valuable writing time has been taken up with dealing with dumb fucks from the public ro dumber fucks that work for the city. I've had two cases where cops took in cars that had been stolen and then were at a loss to even give a hint to their owners about where they might be. Every day someone gets thrown off welfare improperly because an imbecilic caseworker can't tell her ass from a hole in the wall..."
the screed then goes on to catalogue the writer's health problems, which are myriad, and then concludes:
"So I take painkillers, sleep a lot, and think about killing every citizen and employee of New York City every minute I'm awake."
Monday, March 24, 2003 ::: So all this war and the like: It makes me ambivalent and uneasy and I find it disturbing. There is a certain injustice in sitting comfortably in one's apartment in one capital city watching another go up in smoke and flames. I really don't know what to think of it all and consequently haven't been saying too much on the matter here.
So the Oscars:
-That Michael Moore loves to stir things up, doesn't he?
-Poor Kathy Bates and her followup scripted teleprompter musings about what people say when they get their Oscar.
-Halle Berry is suprisingly composed when unexpectedly confronted with long, sloppy kisses from Adrien Brody. She was obviously seething privately.
Friday, March 21, 2003 ::: Some enterprising new yorkers are renting closet space, and allowing you to view all the items in your closet and then request them as needed. Spotted at rebel prince, who claims to have spotted it at kottke.org, although I don't see it anywhere there. rebel prince, btw is a recent addition to the metroblogmap at my stop.
Wednesday, March 19, 2003 ::: The latest of my history books have arrived, and they are much more nineteenth century than the last bunch, which makes me very happy. Walt Whitman's America is what I'm reading right now. I don't have an opinion on it yet. I'm getting there. I also got City of Eros, a scholarly study of prostitution in nineteenth century New York. I haven't started it yet, but it's more of a historical reference than anything truly salacious, which is what I was looking for anyway. Browsing on Amazon, I also happened to notice that Last Days of Disco DVDs are going for fifty bucks! I was hoping they'd be dirt cheap like the videos.
Sunday, March 09, 2003 ::: I went to go see supergrass and the coral on thursday. I was pretty disappointed with supergrass - I think most of the people there were, especially the british guy next to us who declared their performance "an embarrassment to english music" although I wouldn't quite go that far. The opening act, however, was another story entirely - I hadn't really been listening to them at first, mostly just chatting with my friend mark but once I did I really really liked the songs and their was good rapport with the audience. I went and bought the coral's album the next day and it's pretty good, sort of doors-esque which normally isn't my sort of thing but it appeals to me nonetheless even though the lyrics are kind of soso. It is the sort of album that you can put on and listen to the whole way through without disliking a single song.
I just bought both dvd player and a digital camera. I went all over dupont taking pictures and took a stroll over to georgetown to snap a few more. Once I figure out how to upload everything I'll be putting up a few pictures.
Thursday, March 06, 2003 ::: I recently finished reading edie, which is all about warhol hanger-on edie sedgwick and her larger-than-life headed-for-destruction persona. The whole warhol scene is one that is very interesting to read about but I think would be very unpleasant to experience personally - too much backstabbing, dishonesty and betrayal to deal with on a daily basis. The book is put together is an interweaving of oral histories, which I think makes for an excellent way to get to know a biographical subject - a personal and intimate portayal on one hand, and on the other, the complex multifaceted person that appears from the numerous perspectives given by each friend, acquaintance or enemy who has something to say. Another Plimpton-edited biography of Truman Capote is done in the same style and makes for a fascinating read as well.
sharpeworld links to the museum of hoaxes, which has a section on spirit photography. It really was a very popular phenomenon in its time, and here is a letter from the abolitionist lydia maria child who had a certain skepticism on the matter, although she was still fascinated nonetheless:
June 11, 1875.
Finding Robert F. Wallcut very desirous of a photograph of me, and having none to give him, I went to have some taken. A neighbor here told me wonderful stories about a spirit-photographer. So I thought I would go to him to have my photograph taken, and, without saying anything, see what would happen. When he showed me the negative, I said, "There is no other figure than my own on the plate." "Did you wish for any other?" he asked. I thought to myself, "So they don't come unless they are bargained for!" But I merely said, "If any departed friends had been reflected on the plate, it would have been gratifying, of course."
"It takes a longer time to procure the photographs of spirits," he replied, "and therefore I charge as much for six as I do for twelve of the common kind." I told him I would like to have him try, on condition that I neither took them, nor paid for them, unless there came the likeness of somebody I had known. He demurred, and said people must take their chance. A young clerk in the establishment looked at me twice and smiled very significantly during our conversation. The photographer seemed embarrassed and impatient; but he finally consented to my terms. He took the second plate out and carried it into another room, where he remained three times as long as he had done with the negative of my first photograph. When he brought it to me, at last, there were two heads behind my own; one of them a vulgar-looking man, the other a fat-faced girl with fluffy hair; neither of them faces had I ever seen before, or ever desired to see again. The whole proceeding indicated trickery. Still, notwithstanding the great amount of trickery practised, and the unsatisfactory nature of all the communications, there are real phenomona connected with the subject which are to me inexplicable, and which indicate some laws of the universe at present unknown to us.
Sunday, March 02, 2003 ::: So my wisdom teeth came out on friday. The whole weekend has been a little surreal in consequence. The painkillers seem to inhibit my ability to carry on a normal conversation as I discovered at a party last night - which was the first real washington party I've been to in ages - one where everyone works for the govt doing interesting things, or works for nonprofits doing interesting things.
Monday, February 17, 2003 ::: snow snow snow snow snow snow! I decided to go for a long walk in the snow and it was kind of neat to see just neighborhood people out on the streets for a change. There were a lot of people out, the snow finally having stopped and everyone was out shoveling out their cars and doing some shopping at the corner stores. It was really kind of weird. Dupont circle is not normally like that at all. I felt like I was on some kind scripted television show - yesterday my old college roommate had come over from baltimore and we decided to get some breakfast at luna but upon discovering it was closed went to trio instead. We ended up sitting near where the waiters and waitresses were hanging out and having breakfast on their own, congregated around one woman was holding forth about the snowstorm while she sipped a cup of coffee and smoked a cigarette.
I've been doing a lot of reading while I'm all cooped up looking out window into my snow blanketed alley. I also just joined a book group and am supposed to have finished reading Giovanni's Room by tomorrow. James Baldwin is such a wonderful writer - often books that are viewed as the first widely read novel dealing with a Big Intellectual Issue such as a Sexual Identity Crisis tend to rather skimp on the quality or become somewhat dated but the prose sparkles with charm and literary craft and Paris which is usually just described to death in everything and which I am rather contemptuous of when wheeled out as a scenic backdrop seems in this case entirely appropriate. I hope tomorrow's discussion will be worthwhile.
I got Katharine Graham's Washington as a birthday present for my father but couldn't help reading a few passages here and there. There was an awful lot about socialites which I hadn't really been expected. I was expecting more mover and shaker kind of stories.
It really is kind of strange to read about this world that exists around me in which I participate very little. Aside from volunteering for a few political fundraising dinners and occasionally running into a few people who have political jobs at parties, I don't really intersect with the political life of the city. I wonder to what degree political Washington enters into the life of the average Washingtonian - As the child of mid-level public servants (non-political appointees) I do occasionally, when I spend time with my parents, experience more of all that when they are in town, but since they're living thousands of miles away right now I don't see much of that either. As for mass protests and the like these events seem to affect me as more of an inconvenience than an exhilarating expression of democracy, which I guess I should.
On saturday there were a lot of greenpeace activists out with petitions to sign. They all looked so cold and I felt really sorry for them. I filled out a petition card after some prodding.
I'm coming to the realization that this post is becoming very diarylike and I have to say that I have been doing some thinking about what sort of direction I want to take with this weblog. I have to say that I do want to keep a sort of professional distance in my posts as they are public writing and while I think I would like to address some more serious subjects it difficult to do so without sounding sanctimonious and preachy. I think I will save ranting for my diary. I do like the sort of longer more writey sort of posts that appear in gawker and the morning news and I think that I should really make the time to do something more on those lines. Additionally, I've realized that I've really been drifting away from my interest in linguistics and that mainting a weblog on the subject has really been sort of a chore. I am getting ready to apply to programs in american history and would perhaps be interested in maintain a separate weblog in that but otherwise like to mainly concentrate on this particular weblog which I also think is due for a name change.
some more good articles from the post - what it's like writing cards for hallmark, which I recommend reading until the end. There was also a very good article in the food section last wednesday about a day in the life of a line cook, which is an excellent insight into how restaurants are run and what has to go on in order to get your food to the table.
Tuesday, February 04, 2003 ::: This weekend I saw Queen Christina, which is a fabulous fabulous movie, starring Greta Garbo, who spends a lot of time walking around in pants and being androgynous, or at least as much as the film codes would allow. Perhaps not entirely historically accurate, but the general gist of it is there. good good movie. I also saw slacker again, which I should probably own, since it's usually my backup when I want to watch a movie but not anything in particular. Goes very well with repeat viewing, I guess.
Man Who Never Watches TV starts. He is advised by a television academic and develops a love for the sopranos and a tolerance for the simpsons, but eventually decides to stop watching TV again.
Tuesday, January 21, 2003 ::: So it was quite a weekend what with losing money at poker and popping by to a bar night and doing an awful lot of shopping and finally seeing johnny marr and the healers at the black cat. I have to say I was a little disappointed with his band as there was none of the impressive smiths or electronic guitar work I had heard previously - although I wasn't feeling all that great and so I left a little early. So maybe they rolled out all the really good songs after I left.
Very interesting article in tuesday's health section about Asperger's syndrome, a condition similar to autism where children tend to be very shy and pedantically obsessive about a chosen subject of interest. I've also just recently heard of narcissistic personality disorder as well.
so, this little piece in the new yorker says that, according to bloomberg financial news, george w. bush will be giving himself a tax break of $44,500, which is more than my entire annual income. and dick cheney will get a tax break of $327,000. and I will get about $150. I am so thrilled.
Friday, January 10, 2003 ::: So I got my sister a book for christmas and I read a little bit before I gave it to her - And it's so good! I really really recommend nowhere man by aleksandar hemon. It starts off with an amazingly apt description of riding through the northwest side of Chicago via El and Bus and it's all narrated in a flowing style that swerves high elegance and pulling the reader down to earth. There's an excerpt available online, from which I quote:
"I sold, for the total of seventy-four dollars, a decaying futon with a rich cat-barf pattern; a hobbly table with four chairs, inexplicably scarred, as if they had walked through fields of barbed wire. I was late with my rent, and had already looked up the word eviction in the dictionary, hoping that the secondary, obsolete meaning ("The action of conquering a country or of obtaining something by conquest") would override my landlord's primary meaning and save my ass."
Wednesday, January 08, 2003 ::: The Onion AV Club has an interview with Bloom County creator Berkeley Breathed. Oh, how I fondly remember childhood days of reading my sister's bloom county books and missing the political aspect of everything entirely. The fansite has a few strips available for viewing, including some from the Iran-Contra escapade to Antartica.
Monday, January 06, 2003 ::: so it's been a busy past few weeks and I haven't been posting much. but I did just add some december archives to the sidebar.
oh, and there's this guy who wears a nametag all the time. his name is scott. he does book signings among other things. seen at memepool.
