The transit strike is off. Now I’ll be able to see TTT tomorrow night at 23rd St. without running across the city Three Hunters-style.
Tag: KcM
Family Affair.
My apologies for the lack of updates in the past few days. I spent the weekend visiting home for a family reunion (Happy 80th once again, Grandma), and have since been trying to make up all the work I should have done during my sojourn. But I’m back now, and, aside from two papers, exam grading, and a slew of movies I’m looking forward to (Adaptation, Gangs, Nemesis, and, well, you know) I should be around.
Native Dems.
In South Dakota, one of the few victories for Dems last Tuesday, Native Americans made the difference. Reading this reminded me of a story I heard the other day. A friend of a friend who hosted our election night viewing had had some dealings with Crossfire host Robert Novak in his prior job. (I had met Novak a few times back in the Carville days, but he always just scowled at me like I was the help.) When this fellow mentioned Native Americans, Novak barked, “I’m a Native American. They’re Indians.” And you wonder why the Lakota voted overwhelmingly Democratic.
Ghosts in a Machine.
Particle physicists plan to build a “neutrino factory” in the UK. I almost spent a summer in high school searching for neutrinos in a Spanish mine (as part of a mandatory science thesis), until at the last minute I switched to an astrophysics project instead. Examining cosmic background radiation for fractal patterns…very trendy at the time.
Reality Bites.
Andrew Leonard of Salon pretty much sums up my thoughts on the Winona Ryder trial. I too grew up a Winona teenager…after Princess Leia, she was my second crush (and between the two of them, they pretty much locked in my predisposition toward wry, witty brunettes.) She was definitely the female icon of a certain generation of brainy, awkward guys (all the more reason why I always thought John Crichton naming his gun thus was one of those grace notes that made Farscape such a wonderful show.) Ah, well. On the bright side, fellow eighties icon Mia Sara appears to be making something of a comeback these days, even if it is on a show as lousy as Birds of Prey.
Greetings from Vice City.
As I suspected, ever since last Tuesday GTA: VC has been seriously undermining my attempts to get anything of purpose done. But I just finished the main narrative arc of the game, leaving only the side missions, rampages, and such, so I might now be able to wrench my life back. Fortunately, Columbia students get the Monday and Tuesday of Election Week off, so I still have time to catch up on all the research I should’ve been doing over the weekend. At any rate, if you love GTA 3, you’ll love GTA: VC. It’s the same…but different.
Trust Elvis.
The Elvis Costello show at the Beacon the other evening was superb (set list here)…I was surprised how good he sounds live. I expected his voice to be a little more off, but he could hit all the notes and wavers from the studio versions. If I could pick three Elvis songs I had to hear, they’d be “Man Out of Time,” “Indoor Fireworks,” and – most importantly – “I Want You,” so I was not disappointed. (Yeah, “Alison,” “Beyond Belief,” or “Everyday I Write the Book” would’ve been cool too, but I’ll take what I can get.) The third encore in particular, the blue-lit, NIN-esque version of “I Want You” paired with “Almost Blue,” was truly a thing of beauty. As for Underworld the other night, I was underwhelmed…mostly by the venue, which was way too small and overbooked for a dance show. In fact, I’ve pretty much given up on the Hammerstein as a venue by this point. (More on the Underworld show in the comments of this post at Do You Feel Loved.) Did I mention that Elvis is King?
Convalescing.
Ok, I think I’m a day away from beating this flu bug. Unfortunately, I appear to have infected a number of people in my program. If you’re reading this, my bad, y’all.
Sick as a Dog.
It’s been quiet around these parts again, hasn’t it? Well, I’ve been trying to beat the flu all of the past week, and the moments I haven’t spent in a Dayquil/Nyquil delirium have been centered on grad school type stuff. Feeling a bit better today, though…hopefully it’ll continue through the week.
Clipped Left Wing.
Bloggers of the Left, Unite! (Via LinkMachineGo.) As Lake Effect has noted before, I’m positive Lefty bloggers aren’t the rare breed the author thinks they are – a quick browsing through the portal will lead you to dozens of well-written progressive and liberal blogs (Ethel the Blog, Tomb of Horrors and Monkeyfist, for example, to name three off the top of my head.) In fact, I’d hazard to say that the majority of blogs are probably of a lefty bent. Unfortunately for balanced discourse, though, Sullivan and Reynolds both seem to have captivated huge (by blog-standard) audiences almost right from the start. I’d be lying if I didn’t find their immediate popularity considerably annoying, but oh well…that’s just sour grapes. After several years of writing this blog, I’ve found its best not to dwell on the (lack of) readership…Therein lies madness.