Hmm. I don't have much to say today, but it's been too long since I said anything. Let's recap the last week:
"AmeriKafka" rehearsals are going well. Only 5 more left before we open next week! Check out the Trap Door Theatre website for details. I can't wait to find out what people think of it. If anyone wants tickets, just let me know!
Adrian Ahern, one of my best friends from high school, was in town over the weekend (he lives in Minneapolis now). We had a great time hanging out and catching up. I did my best to convince him that he needs to move to Chicago, but I'm not sure how well it worked.
My Aunt Sherrie got married on Saturday and I was able to attend the reception (though not the ceremony, due to a wrong turn on the highway). It's always nice to see the extended family. I have a lot of relatives that I only seem to catch up with at weddings and funerals!
Here's an interesting story. I'm not exactly sure how I feel about it right now -- at the moment I'm on the "Do they really expect me to believe this?" side of the fence.
So. That's my life in a nutshell for today. Good night, and have a pleasant tomorrow.
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Blogosphere.
You know, I've been tempted at times to think of a blog as a sort of diary. Somewhere to get your thoughts down, and thus out of your head. But now that I have one, I understand better why they are being treated as a form of journalism: unless you have your blog hidden away and never give anyone the address, then you're always writing for an audience. And the problem I have is that I don't know who that audience will be. I know some of my friends and my family check it occasionally, but I also know that, for example, this blog can be found by "Googling" my name, and people I barely know have mentioned that they read it because of that. So it's sometimes hard to know what to NOT say here that I might otherwise like to say, because I don't know who I'm saying it to. Does that make any sense? I mean, what if I start venting about my job, and some of my students read it? I think about that kind of thing. It may also have something to do with my desire to compartmentalize people -- or to compartmentalize myself, rather. There's no "absolute Shane" that anyone can see; instead there's "friend Shane" and "family Shane" and "work Shane," etc. I've always been that way. [It's one of the things that makes me suspect I may suffer at least slightly from Asperger's syndrome.] But I have to find a Shane to be the voice of this blog who can relate at least partially to all of the people who know each of those various other Shanes, as well as to strangers. Yikes!
ANYWAY, I had a terrible day today. And I'm not going to share all of the details, because of the reasons mentioned above, but it was one of those days where a thousand little things go wrong. Like you forget your keys and have to go back to the house even though you're already running late because you overslept because you couldn't fall asleep until after 1:00am because it's so hot in your tiny attic bedroom and then once you got to the train station you had to put more money on your train card because your monthly pass that you've already paid for isn't working for some reason and so you miss the train you were hoping to be on because you were busy paying twice to get on it. One of those days where you spill things, and you drop things, and your cd player skips, and you get bad news, and you roll a piano over your big toe. Yep. One of those days.
ANYWAY, I had a terrible day today. And I'm not going to share all of the details, because of the reasons mentioned above, but it was one of those days where a thousand little things go wrong. Like you forget your keys and have to go back to the house even though you're already running late because you overslept because you couldn't fall asleep until after 1:00am because it's so hot in your tiny attic bedroom and then once you got to the train station you had to put more money on your train card because your monthly pass that you've already paid for isn't working for some reason and so you miss the train you were hoping to be on because you were busy paying twice to get on it. One of those days where you spill things, and you drop things, and your cd player skips, and you get bad news, and you roll a piano over your big toe. Yep. One of those days.
Friday, June 03, 2005
Road trip to Canada, anyone?
I heard about this on NPR this morning. I think this article says it all. "It hast been one week since thou look'd at me....." :)
Niet zo gezellig.
Because I spent a couple of years living in Amsterdam, I have a special affinity for the Dutch; and have been following their recent referendum on the EU constitution as closely as I can (given the lamentable state of international coverage in the American media). For those of you who don't know, they voted against it -- just days after France did the same. Many of the news reports mention that the Dutch are afraid of losing their national identity if the European "super-state" becomes too all-encompassing. This seems like a pretty reasonable concern to me, since they seem to have already lost their national identity in America..... In today's Chicago Tribune Red-Eye edition, the article on the Netherlands referendum was headlined "Denmark rejects EU constitution." [emphasis mine]
Sigh.
Sigh.
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Intelligence and design.
Wow. I just accidentally came across this story from '92, and was struck by its implications for the current debate over the teaching of evolution.
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
And eat it too.
On a related note, I highly recommend the crime thriller "Layer Cake." It was directed by the producer of "Lock, Stock and 2 Smoking Barrels" and "Snatch." I enjoyed those films, and was interested to see what Matthew Vaughn would do without Guy Ritchie (especially as Vaughn is also directing the next X-Men movie).
While "Layer Cake" was certainly not as visually flashy as the other movies mentioned, it really got under my skin on an emotional level. It had its funny moments, and it had its cool moments, but in the end it managed to make an interesting movie about crime without ever making it seem like a good idea to be a criminal (which Guy Ritchie's movie always do). I really enjoyed it, and couldn't stop thinking about it for days.
UPDATE: Matthew Vaughn dropped out of directing X-Men 3 on June 1. No word yet on who will replace him, although his interesting casting choices of Kelsey Grammar as Beast and Vinnie Jones as Juggernaut will remain. (I had heard that they finalized Maggie Grace as Kitty Pryde, but the IMDB doesn't show it yet. Also no word on who will play Angel.)
While "Layer Cake" was certainly not as visually flashy as the other movies mentioned, it really got under my skin on an emotional level. It had its funny moments, and it had its cool moments, but in the end it managed to make an interesting movie about crime without ever making it seem like a good idea to be a criminal (which Guy Ritchie's movie always do). I really enjoyed it, and couldn't stop thinking about it for days.
UPDATE: Matthew Vaughn dropped out of directing X-Men 3 on June 1. No word yet on who will replace him, although his interesting casting choices of Kelsey Grammar as Beast and Vinnie Jones as Juggernaut will remain. (I had heard that they finalized Maggie Grace as Kitty Pryde, but the IMDB doesn't show it yet. Also no word on who will play Angel.)
Revenge.
Per my friend Stephanie's urging, I present my current thoughts on "Star Wars, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith."
First, let me say that I need to see it a second time. My first viewing of a film is always VERY critical -- especially ones I have been highly anticipating. Once I've seen it, the second time I go I can stop listening to the story and start appreciating the details. I have not been able to (as Steph demands on her blog), "Drop your disbelief, abandon your desires for perfection in entertainment, and just track this story." :)
(I especially have problems with that part about not demanding perfection!)
So, my thoughts after only one viewing are:
-- Episodes IV, V, and VI worked because they had simple, archetypal characters dropped into an epic plot; and simple archetypal characters are all that Lucas can handle. With the prequels, he wrote a good, solid, interesting story about one man's battle with his fear of loss, but he couldn't script or direct or even cast it in a way that was at all interesting (to me).
-- Lucas is trying too hard to have things both ways. You either write the whole trilogy for kids, or you write the whole trilogy for adults. You don't write Episodes I and II for kids, and then write Episode III for adults, complete with PG-13 rating (people being burned alive, little kids getting killed), but still put its toys into Happy Meals. This is a common problem in Hollywood movies (gotta appeal to as many people as possible so we can make as much money as possible, even if it means that none of the people will actually enjoy the product), and it's one of the things that drives me the most nuts!!! (See also "Goldeneye" and "Shrek" and "Gangs of New York") The original trilogy appealed to both kids and adults by BEING GOOD. Why can't someone in a movie studio figure that out?!
-- Above and beyond the bad dialogue and acting, there were a lot of weird moments in Episode III that pulled me out of the world of the film:
1) Obi-wan saying "Killing Sith lords is our spec-ee-al-ity" (technically that falls under bad dialogue, but it really bothered me).
2) Anakin destroying what looked like an air traffic control tower while trying to crash-land, and no one being at all concerned about all the people he might have just killed -- I thought Jedis "think only of others."
3) Similarly, why all the concern for R2 when he tries to zap the little buzz-droid in the opening space fight sequence? No one cared about the poor astromech on Obi-wan's ship that got his head ripped off, nor did anyone seem to worry about whether they were losing the entire battle by wasting time focusing too narrowly.
4) On the other hand, those stupid droids in the Separatist Army never really seem like much of a threat, so maybe they don't need to worry.
5) Natalie Portman's pregnancy a) varying in size from scene to scene, and b) never slowing her down even a little bit.
6) Vader's Frankenstein moment when he stands up in the mask for the first time.
7) Mace Windu throwing the Jedi code casually out the window and deciding to kill Palpatine.
8) Palpatine being aged and deformed by using the blue lightning was an interesting idea, but why does it only happen to him that one time?
9) I miss lightsabers having some WEIGHT to them -- there's too many damn limbs getting cut off in the prequels. It takes away the intensity and horror of Luke losing his hand in "Empire."
10) Anakin and Obi-wan have flaming bits of lava raining down on them through their entire duel, but nothing's even giving off smoke until the lava touches Anakin's pant leg at the end, and then his entire body instantly bursts into flames.
10.5) And what's with the Jedis' outfits, anyway? It made sense for Luke and Obi-wan to dress that way on Tatooine -- it's a desert planet and those are desert robes. But whose dumb idea was it that all Jedis should dress that way no matter what kind of planet they come from?
-- While I like how the title "Revenge of the Sith" echoes the later title "Return of the Jedi" (which was originally going to be titled "Revenge of the Jedi" until Lucas decided that Jedi don't seek revenge), what exactly were the Sith seeking revenge for in this film?
-- I hate apologists. Lucas spent a lot of time defending Episodes I and II when they came out. Now I read interviews with him, and he's talking about how he knew all along that they would be bad because he didn't have enough story to fill out three prequel movies and he wanted to save the most interesting parts of the story for the third movie, so the first two would have to be mostly filler. What a dickhead. Either stick to your guns and defend your damn movies, or don't inflict them on us.
-- Good points:
1) Ewen McGregor rocks!
2) Ian McDiarmid was also fan-freaking-tastic.
3) The battle between Obi-wan and General Grievous was really nice
3.5) In fact, General Grievous was cool all around.
4) All of Yoda's stuff was very well done (finally!).
5) I loved the touch that all of the clones were played by the same guy who played Jango Fett (who they were all cloned from).
6) I loved the touch that Anakin's ship was obviously a precursor to TIE fighters.
7) I actually quite liked Jimmy Smits.
8) Thank goodness they killed the most un-scarily named villain ever: Count Dooku.
9) Natalie Portman, no matter how bad the film or her performance, is always a pleasure to look at. Ahem.
10) And of course, all the backgrounds and effects were very well done. I just wish they had been well done in the service of a better film.
That's what I've got for now. If I can think of anything more later, I may write more. I certainly will have more to say after seeing it a second time.
First, let me say that I need to see it a second time. My first viewing of a film is always VERY critical -- especially ones I have been highly anticipating. Once I've seen it, the second time I go I can stop listening to the story and start appreciating the details. I have not been able to (as Steph demands on her blog), "Drop your disbelief, abandon your desires for perfection in entertainment, and just track this story." :)
(I especially have problems with that part about not demanding perfection!)
So, my thoughts after only one viewing are:
-- Episodes IV, V, and VI worked because they had simple, archetypal characters dropped into an epic plot; and simple archetypal characters are all that Lucas can handle. With the prequels, he wrote a good, solid, interesting story about one man's battle with his fear of loss, but he couldn't script or direct or even cast it in a way that was at all interesting (to me).
-- Lucas is trying too hard to have things both ways. You either write the whole trilogy for kids, or you write the whole trilogy for adults. You don't write Episodes I and II for kids, and then write Episode III for adults, complete with PG-13 rating (people being burned alive, little kids getting killed), but still put its toys into Happy Meals. This is a common problem in Hollywood movies (gotta appeal to as many people as possible so we can make as much money as possible, even if it means that none of the people will actually enjoy the product), and it's one of the things that drives me the most nuts!!! (See also "Goldeneye" and "Shrek" and "Gangs of New York") The original trilogy appealed to both kids and adults by BEING GOOD. Why can't someone in a movie studio figure that out?!
-- Above and beyond the bad dialogue and acting, there were a lot of weird moments in Episode III that pulled me out of the world of the film:
1) Obi-wan saying "Killing Sith lords is our spec-ee-al-ity" (technically that falls under bad dialogue, but it really bothered me).
2) Anakin destroying what looked like an air traffic control tower while trying to crash-land, and no one being at all concerned about all the people he might have just killed -- I thought Jedis "think only of others."
3) Similarly, why all the concern for R2 when he tries to zap the little buzz-droid in the opening space fight sequence? No one cared about the poor astromech on Obi-wan's ship that got his head ripped off, nor did anyone seem to worry about whether they were losing the entire battle by wasting time focusing too narrowly.
4) On the other hand, those stupid droids in the Separatist Army never really seem like much of a threat, so maybe they don't need to worry.
5) Natalie Portman's pregnancy a) varying in size from scene to scene, and b) never slowing her down even a little bit.
6) Vader's Frankenstein moment when he stands up in the mask for the first time.
7) Mace Windu throwing the Jedi code casually out the window and deciding to kill Palpatine.
8) Palpatine being aged and deformed by using the blue lightning was an interesting idea, but why does it only happen to him that one time?
9) I miss lightsabers having some WEIGHT to them -- there's too many damn limbs getting cut off in the prequels. It takes away the intensity and horror of Luke losing his hand in "Empire."
10) Anakin and Obi-wan have flaming bits of lava raining down on them through their entire duel, but nothing's even giving off smoke until the lava touches Anakin's pant leg at the end, and then his entire body instantly bursts into flames.
10.5) And what's with the Jedis' outfits, anyway? It made sense for Luke and Obi-wan to dress that way on Tatooine -- it's a desert planet and those are desert robes. But whose dumb idea was it that all Jedis should dress that way no matter what kind of planet they come from?
-- While I like how the title "Revenge of the Sith" echoes the later title "Return of the Jedi" (which was originally going to be titled "Revenge of the Jedi" until Lucas decided that Jedi don't seek revenge), what exactly were the Sith seeking revenge for in this film?
-- I hate apologists. Lucas spent a lot of time defending Episodes I and II when they came out. Now I read interviews with him, and he's talking about how he knew all along that they would be bad because he didn't have enough story to fill out three prequel movies and he wanted to save the most interesting parts of the story for the third movie, so the first two would have to be mostly filler. What a dickhead. Either stick to your guns and defend your damn movies, or don't inflict them on us.
-- Good points:
1) Ewen McGregor rocks!
2) Ian McDiarmid was also fan-freaking-tastic.
3) The battle between Obi-wan and General Grievous was really nice
3.5) In fact, General Grievous was cool all around.
4) All of Yoda's stuff was very well done (finally!).
5) I loved the touch that all of the clones were played by the same guy who played Jango Fett (who they were all cloned from).
6) I loved the touch that Anakin's ship was obviously a precursor to TIE fighters.
7) I actually quite liked Jimmy Smits.
8) Thank goodness they killed the most un-scarily named villain ever: Count Dooku.
9) Natalie Portman, no matter how bad the film or her performance, is always a pleasure to look at. Ahem.
10) And of course, all the backgrounds and effects were very well done. I just wish they had been well done in the service of a better film.
That's what I've got for now. If I can think of anything more later, I may write more. I certainly will have more to say after seeing it a second time.
YIKES !!
In "My Dinner With Andre," there are two moments that always give me chills. The one that's applicable here is when Wallace Shawn asks why people are so blasé about the world's problems (I may be paraphrasing a touch):
"Are we like bored, spoiled children who've been playing with our bathtoys in the tub all day and now just can't be bothered to care?"
And Andre Gregory responds:
"Alright, yes. We're bored. But has it ever occurred to you that a person who is bored is basically asleep? And that a person who is asleep will not say no? And that we are being kept in a state of perpetual boredom by a world totalitarian government based on money? And that all of this is much more dangerous than you might think?!"
I was reminded of that quote after reading this article. (You can read the full text of the Amnesty International report here.)
UPDATE: It's been pointed out that the article linked above is one-sided, only recapping the Amnesty report. The New York Sun has an article that offers critics of the report a chance to weigh in. It still didn't sway me, but we should at least let them defend themselves.
"Are we like bored, spoiled children who've been playing with our bathtoys in the tub all day and now just can't be bothered to care?"
And Andre Gregory responds:
"Alright, yes. We're bored. But has it ever occurred to you that a person who is bored is basically asleep? And that a person who is asleep will not say no? And that we are being kept in a state of perpetual boredom by a world totalitarian government based on money? And that all of this is much more dangerous than you might think?!"
I was reminded of that quote after reading this article. (You can read the full text of the Amnesty International report here.)
UPDATE: It's been pointed out that the article linked above is one-sided, only recapping the Amnesty report. The New York Sun has an article that offers critics of the report a chance to weigh in. It still didn't sway me, but we should at least let them defend themselves.
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
Geekdom.
So the three most interesting news stories of the day have to do with:
a) wormholes and time travel;
b) downloading your brain into a computer; and
c) people injuring themselves trying to make their own lightsabers.
I was going to post about seeing "Star Wars: Episode 3" over the weekend, but I'm feeling a little too geeky at the moment. ;-)
a) wormholes and time travel;
b) downloading your brain into a computer; and
c) people injuring themselves trying to make their own lightsabers.
I was going to post about seeing "Star Wars: Episode 3" over the weekend, but I'm feeling a little too geeky at the moment. ;-)
Friday, May 20, 2005
Anglophile.
Man, the British are just so much cooler than we are. When this guy hung his "fake" art in American museums, it was removed right away. The British Museum's response? "Thanks for the free artwork." They praised his piece and his ingenuity and found a permanent place for it. They are cooler than we are.
[It reminds me of the whole "F for Fake" thing -- in the 70's there was a guy forging artworks and selling them. An art dealer was concerned that he might have some forged Picassos in his gallery and asked the real Picasso to come over and verify them for him. Picasso was sorting the paintings into piles of real and fake. As he put a certain painting into the fake pile, the dealer said, "Wait a minute, Pablo, I was there when you painted that. I know it's not a fake." And Picasso famously replied, "Well, I can fake a Picasso as well as anyone else can."]
[It reminds me of the whole "F for Fake" thing -- in the 70's there was a guy forging artworks and selling them. An art dealer was concerned that he might have some forged Picassos in his gallery and asked the real Picasso to come over and verify them for him. Picasso was sorting the paintings into piles of real and fake. As he put a certain painting into the fake pile, the dealer said, "Wait a minute, Pablo, I was there when you painted that. I know it's not a fake." And Picasso famously replied, "Well, I can fake a Picasso as well as anyone else can."]
Monday, May 16, 2005
Curtain's rise.
Wow - a chance to see some theater. Who knew? It's more difficult than you'd think; and not just due to scheduling. Something akin to people who work at an ice cream shop not wanting to eat ice cream when they're at home.
Thursday was a going-away party for my friend Brendan Dowling, who's going off to perform for Second City on a cruise ship for four months. I'm happy for him, proud of him, envious of him, and scornful of the whole idea all at the same time. But it was a great party! Not a performance per se, but there were a lot of actors there.
Friday I saw "Dark Ride" by the Box Theater Company at the Actor's Studio of Chicago. It was a scrappy low-budget production of a script that could have used some judicious editing, but I really enjoyed myself all the same. My friends Chris and Jarrett were in it and both did excellent work.
Saturday I got to catch up with some old friends from the Aardvark Artistic Collective at this year's "Estrogen Fest." The show has moved downtown to the Storefront Theater, which is a really nice space, so it looked a lot more polished, but still was a true "fest," which means you go to watch a lot of different stuff and hope that the good outweighs the bad. The fest is performed in two programs, but on Saturday nights you can catch both back-to-back. Since I wasn't sure I'd have another chance to get down to the show, I saw both that night. My friend Mandy went with me, and we had a good time dissecting the performances and planning how we would have done it better (how many theater people does it take to change a light bulb? eleven -- one to change the light bulb and ten to tell you how they would have done it better). It was a very enjoyable evening, and let's just say that if you ever get a chance to see the band "Soft Serve" in concert, don't let them pull you up for the audience participation part!
Yesterday I had rehearsal (which is still going really well -- knock on wood). And then I bought a grill. It's getting to be that time of year, and I wanted to have one for Memorial Day. We're planning to try it out on Wednesday. Yum!
Thursday was a going-away party for my friend Brendan Dowling, who's going off to perform for Second City on a cruise ship for four months. I'm happy for him, proud of him, envious of him, and scornful of the whole idea all at the same time. But it was a great party! Not a performance per se, but there were a lot of actors there.
Friday I saw "Dark Ride" by the Box Theater Company at the Actor's Studio of Chicago. It was a scrappy low-budget production of a script that could have used some judicious editing, but I really enjoyed myself all the same. My friends Chris and Jarrett were in it and both did excellent work.
Saturday I got to catch up with some old friends from the Aardvark Artistic Collective at this year's "Estrogen Fest." The show has moved downtown to the Storefront Theater, which is a really nice space, so it looked a lot more polished, but still was a true "fest," which means you go to watch a lot of different stuff and hope that the good outweighs the bad. The fest is performed in two programs, but on Saturday nights you can catch both back-to-back. Since I wasn't sure I'd have another chance to get down to the show, I saw both that night. My friend Mandy went with me, and we had a good time dissecting the performances and planning how we would have done it better (how many theater people does it take to change a light bulb? eleven -- one to change the light bulb and ten to tell you how they would have done it better). It was a very enjoyable evening, and let's just say that if you ever get a chance to see the band "Soft Serve" in concert, don't let them pull you up for the audience participation part!
Yesterday I had rehearsal (which is still going really well -- knock on wood). And then I bought a grill. It's getting to be that time of year, and I wanted to have one for Memorial Day. We're planning to try it out on Wednesday. Yum!
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
Life
Things have been busy at work. Two big student productions going on: "Angels in America, Part 1" (in the Classic!) and "Lovers & Executioners;" as well as tech rehearsals for the next mainstage show, "She Stoops To Conquer." As I get more and more involved with the department, I'm spending more time here. It's fun :)
Rehearsals for "Amerikafka" are going very well. What a great group of people! I can't wait to get the show in front of an audience and see what they think.
Saw the newest Redmoon show, "The Cabinet," last week. It was very good, although I did think that $20 for a one hour show was a touch steep. It was the first time they've held performances in their new space, however, and it was neat to see that.
Dad and Wendy were in town for a visit over the weekend. Dad and I went to see "Lost Land" at Steppenwolf. It was good and it was certainly pretty, but ultimately it left me a little flat. I'm feeling a little jaded lately -- everything I see has a "been there, done that" feel to me.
Then we had dinner at Flattop (my favorite). It was excellent as always. I just never tire of eating there! My current favorite sauce combination is 2 parts Korean barbeque, one part peanut sauce, and one part hot mustard. It's delicious.
Rehearsals for "Amerikafka" are going very well. What a great group of people! I can't wait to get the show in front of an audience and see what they think.
Saw the newest Redmoon show, "The Cabinet," last week. It was very good, although I did think that $20 for a one hour show was a touch steep. It was the first time they've held performances in their new space, however, and it was neat to see that.
Dad and Wendy were in town for a visit over the weekend. Dad and I went to see "Lost Land" at Steppenwolf. It was good and it was certainly pretty, but ultimately it left me a little flat. I'm feeling a little jaded lately -- everything I see has a "been there, done that" feel to me.
Then we had dinner at Flattop (my favorite). It was excellent as always. I just never tire of eating there! My current favorite sauce combination is 2 parts Korean barbeque, one part peanut sauce, and one part hot mustard. It's delicious.
Entertainment 2
I saw "Sin City" on Sunday. I liked it a lot, but I have to say that CGI effects still leave me cold. They still look like animation most of the time. They're getting closer and closer, and I know that people have to keep trying to use them or they won't ever get to the point where they're completely indetectable, but I'd still rather see a movie that was all animated or all live action. I think "Sin City" could have been done with a technique like that used on "Waking Life," where they film the actors live and then layer the animation over the top of them (it's called Rotoscoping). I would have liked that better.
Entertainment 1
In this week's Entertainment Weekly, they have an article about the series finale of "Everybody Loves Raymond." In it, Patricia Heaton is reminiscing about an episode where her character gave birth in the backseat of a car. She had this to say:
"I got to spend hours in the backseat of this car with Ray and Brad looking up my [skirt]."
So, what I want to know is: what did she really say instead of skirt?!
This is a woman who is famous for her conservative views. She refused to appear on the Emmys because Eminem was performing. She walked out of the AMA telecast after being offended by rude jokes told by Sharon Osbourne and Ryan Seacrest (!). She organized a fast in protest of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube being removed. So it gives me a little thrill of joy to imagine the Republicans' foremost booster in Hollywood saying something vulgar to a reporter.
"I got to spend hours in the backseat of this car with Ray and Brad looking up my [skirt]."
So, what I want to know is: what did she really say instead of skirt?!
This is a woman who is famous for her conservative views. She refused to appear on the Emmys because Eminem was performing. She walked out of the AMA telecast after being offended by rude jokes told by Sharon Osbourne and Ryan Seacrest (!). She organized a fast in protest of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube being removed. So it gives me a little thrill of joy to imagine the Republicans' foremost booster in Hollywood saying something vulgar to a reporter.
News 2
Yesterday's Chicago Tribune front section contained this headline:
"Dim sum warning hard to swallow
In a fast-paced culture steeped in tradition, an official advisory that some dim sum is unwholesome nearly gags Hong Kongers, who revel in the meals' noisy society"
Sounds pretty dire, yes? I have had dim sum on a number of occasions and really enjoy it. In fact, my roommates and I have a dim sum brunch planned for the 21st. (You have to schedule pretty far ahead when you're as busy as we are) So I was anxious to read the article. Do you want to know what the shocking news was? Scientists have discovered that the deep fried parts of dim sum contain -- brace yourself -- fat and sodium!!!
I mean come on, people. I was expecting salmonella risk at the least. Fat and sodium?! Hell, my toothpaste contains that. Just another example of American media scare tactics. ("Bowling for Columbine", anyone?)
"Dim sum warning hard to swallow
In a fast-paced culture steeped in tradition, an official advisory that some dim sum is unwholesome nearly gags Hong Kongers, who revel in the meals' noisy society"
Sounds pretty dire, yes? I have had dim sum on a number of occasions and really enjoy it. In fact, my roommates and I have a dim sum brunch planned for the 21st. (You have to schedule pretty far ahead when you're as busy as we are) So I was anxious to read the article. Do you want to know what the shocking news was? Scientists have discovered that the deep fried parts of dim sum contain -- brace yourself -- fat and sodium!!!
I mean come on, people. I was expecting salmonella risk at the least. Fat and sodium?! Hell, my toothpaste contains that. Just another example of American media scare tactics. ("Bowling for Columbine", anyone?)
And we're back.
So, I know it's been awhile. Twice during the time between my last post and this one I've written a lenthy diatribe, only to lose it into cyberspace. It's frustrating, but it's the way computers are. So I'm going to endeavor to keep my posts short and sweet, maybe even making multiple posts in a day, in order to avoid losing everything all at once.
Today's first subject: criminals. Why can't American criminals be more like Australians? Remember the running joke in Austin Powers about Dr. Evil never knowing how much ransom to ask for? He's got nothing on these guys!
Today's first subject: criminals. Why can't American criminals be more like Australians? Remember the running joke in Austin Powers about Dr. Evil never knowing how much ransom to ask for? He's got nothing on these guys!
Friday, February 04, 2005
4 - reasons not to fly Delta airlines.
I'll try to keep this short. We flew Delta out to Georgia and back from Florida. Both ways we had a layover in Atlanta and changed planes. All four flights were delayed, and they lost part of our luggage going down and all of our luggage coming back.
Now, I know that Delta can't control the weather, so the delays are not entirely their fault, but the way they handled the delays was simply idiotic. I don't understand why they wouldn't announce that the flight was being delayed until it was time to board. For example, leaving Tampa we were supposed to get on a plane that was coming in from Atlanta. Well, since we're flying to Atlanta, I know from my itinerary that it takes an hour and a half to make that flight. That means that if the plane is supposed to arrive in Tampa at 3:00, then it needed to take off at 1:30. But Delta for some reason didn't announce the delay until 2:50. I don't get it. Then in Atlanta, they had their message board showing for a while that the incoming flight was scheduled to arrive at 10:20, and that we were scheduled to depart at 10:45. Now, I've never cleaned up an arriving plane before, so I don't know how long that takes, but I know it takes at least a half an hour to board everyone, so it just seems ridiculous to expect us to believe those times. This kind of thing went on consistently throughout the trip.
And then they lost our luggage. They said that it would go out on the first delivery trip of the morning, which left at 7:00am and could take up to 4 hours to get around to reaching us. Fine. No problem there. At 12:30 I called to find out where the luggage was. The woman said, "Well, you know sir, it can take up to four hours." I almost couldn't control my temper. I explained to her that four hours had been up an hour and a half ago and asked her to please find out where our luggage was. She called the delivery company and came back to tell me that they were swamped and it would be there by 2:00pm. You know what? If they had just told me that in the first place, I would have been fine with it. If they had just told me that our plane was being delayed as soon as they knew, I would have been fine with it. Really, the reason I feel compelled to now tell everyone I meet not to fly Delta is because they insisted on treating us like children.
Phew. I'm glad I got that off my chest.
Now, I know that Delta can't control the weather, so the delays are not entirely their fault, but the way they handled the delays was simply idiotic. I don't understand why they wouldn't announce that the flight was being delayed until it was time to board. For example, leaving Tampa we were supposed to get on a plane that was coming in from Atlanta. Well, since we're flying to Atlanta, I know from my itinerary that it takes an hour and a half to make that flight. That means that if the plane is supposed to arrive in Tampa at 3:00, then it needed to take off at 1:30. But Delta for some reason didn't announce the delay until 2:50. I don't get it. Then in Atlanta, they had their message board showing for a while that the incoming flight was scheduled to arrive at 10:20, and that we were scheduled to depart at 10:45. Now, I've never cleaned up an arriving plane before, so I don't know how long that takes, but I know it takes at least a half an hour to board everyone, so it just seems ridiculous to expect us to believe those times. This kind of thing went on consistently throughout the trip.
And then they lost our luggage. They said that it would go out on the first delivery trip of the morning, which left at 7:00am and could take up to 4 hours to get around to reaching us. Fine. No problem there. At 12:30 I called to find out where the luggage was. The woman said, "Well, you know sir, it can take up to four hours." I almost couldn't control my temper. I explained to her that four hours had been up an hour and a half ago and asked her to please find out where our luggage was. She called the delivery company and came back to tell me that they were swamped and it would be there by 2:00pm. You know what? If they had just told me that in the first place, I would have been fine with it. If they had just told me that our plane was being delayed as soon as they knew, I would have been fine with it. Really, the reason I feel compelled to now tell everyone I meet not to fly Delta is because they insisted on treating us like children.
Phew. I'm glad I got that off my chest.
Thursday, February 03, 2005
3 - people getting drunk because pirates didn't invade.
Well, actually no one seems to be clear on what the pirates actually did, but everyone was definitely getting drunk.
Every year in February, Tampa celebrates "Gasparilla." Basically, it's a rip off of Mardi Gras with a pirate theme. Apparently, there was once a pirate named Jose Gaspar who terrorized the Florida coast. And for no apparent reason, in 1904 when Tampa city officials were looking for a motif for their spring festival, they chose pirates and named the festival after old Jose.
What happens each year is this: the "pirates" sail into the harbor on a replica pirate ship and "invade" the city. Then they parade through town sharing their "loot" in the form of beads thrown to the crowds. Then everyone gets drunk.
We were there for it. It was silly.
Every year in February, Tampa celebrates "Gasparilla." Basically, it's a rip off of Mardi Gras with a pirate theme. Apparently, there was once a pirate named Jose Gaspar who terrorized the Florida coast. And for no apparent reason, in 1904 when Tampa city officials were looking for a motif for their spring festival, they chose pirates and named the festival after old Jose.
What happens each year is this: the "pirates" sail into the harbor on a replica pirate ship and "invade" the city. Then they parade through town sharing their "loot" in the form of beads thrown to the crowds. Then everyone gets drunk.
We were there for it. It was silly.
2 - two more movies that I saw, and 4 CDs that I bought.
While in Bunnell, we drove down to Daytona and saw:
1) - "Meet the Fockers." I wasn't expecting much from this movie, and I got even less. The big surprise was how good the cast was. Streisand especially impressed me. I'd just like to pause here and quote the Onion's review of the movie: "Watching a cast this good tackle material this bad is like watching the 1928 Yankees play the Special Olympics softball team."
2) - "Sideways." I had been dying to see this. And I have to say that it didn't live up to the hype. Part of it may have been that I was not in good surroundings -- there were a lot of people in the theater talking, which was very distracting. And part of it may have been that nothing could live up to that hype. And part of it may have been that I just felt like it was good but not great.
While in Athens, I bought:
1) - "Our Endless Numbered Days" by Iron and Wine. They're featured on both the "Garden State" and "In Good Company" soundtracks, so I wanted to hear the whole album. It's great! Super mellow, folksy, acoustic stuff. Really beautiful.
2) - "In Good Company" soundtrack. This was not as awesome as I'd hoped. But it's still really good. There are 3 Iron and Wine songs on the soundtrack, and two of them are on "Our Endless Numbered Days," but the third song, called "The Trapeze Swinger," is a 9 1/2 minute epic that was worth the cost of the whole album. It's amazing.
3) - "Travel Edition 1990-2005" by Saint Etienne. This is pretty good stuff. Trancy jazzy songs. Some are pretty, some are punchy. After awhile, they all start to sound the same, but the first 4 or 5 songs are really good.
4) - "Push The Button" by the Chemical Brothers. Not the Brothers' best work. A couple of the songs are good, but over all this whole album just sounds like everybody else. Not nearly the kind of work I expect from them.
There you have it.
1) - "Meet the Fockers." I wasn't expecting much from this movie, and I got even less. The big surprise was how good the cast was. Streisand especially impressed me. I'd just like to pause here and quote the Onion's review of the movie: "Watching a cast this good tackle material this bad is like watching the 1928 Yankees play the Special Olympics softball team."
2) - "Sideways." I had been dying to see this. And I have to say that it didn't live up to the hype. Part of it may have been that I was not in good surroundings -- there were a lot of people in the theater talking, which was very distracting. And part of it may have been that nothing could live up to that hype. And part of it may have been that I just felt like it was good but not great.
While in Athens, I bought:
1) - "Our Endless Numbered Days" by Iron and Wine. They're featured on both the "Garden State" and "In Good Company" soundtracks, so I wanted to hear the whole album. It's great! Super mellow, folksy, acoustic stuff. Really beautiful.
2) - "In Good Company" soundtrack. This was not as awesome as I'd hoped. But it's still really good. There are 3 Iron and Wine songs on the soundtrack, and two of them are on "Our Endless Numbered Days," but the third song, called "The Trapeze Swinger," is a 9 1/2 minute epic that was worth the cost of the whole album. It's amazing.
3) - "Travel Edition 1990-2005" by Saint Etienne. This is pretty good stuff. Trancy jazzy songs. Some are pretty, some are punchy. After awhile, they all start to sound the same, but the first 4 or 5 songs are really good.
4) - "Push The Button" by the Chemical Brothers. Not the Brothers' best work. A couple of the songs are good, but over all this whole album just sounds like everybody else. Not nearly the kind of work I expect from them.
There you have it.
1 - the scary motel we stayed at in Bunnell, FL.
Well, technically the motel was in Flagler Beach, FL. But our show was in Bunnell, and it's all really one big area.
The area was pretty standard Florida beach zone. Crappy tourist traps and dive bars for the locals. A few chain places by the highway. Lots of beach.
The Topaz Motel was right across the street from the beach. It consisted of three buildings and a pool. The two side buildings were pretty standard motel-type room areas. But the main building was an old mansion. On the outside of the building hung two huge paintings, portraits of a man and a woman in Victorian outfits. I have no idea who they were. Inside, the first floor held the lobby and a restaurant. I think the owners lived on the second floor. Every time I looked in the restaurant, everyone in it was over the age of 60. The lobby was decorated as if your grandmother's evil twin lived there. It held three kinds of items:
a) lots of religious signs and stickers -- pretty hard core stuff, too, like "The end is coming, how's your soul?"
b) framed articles and clippings that all dealt with horrible disasters -- including a large display devoted to the Titanic.
c) framed pictures and mementoes of two children -- a boy and a girl. We're pretty sure the girl was the woman who checked us in, and we met the boy the next day. He's easy to pick out because he's a midget. Nothing terribly unusual about that (there was also a midget working at the hotel in Charlotte), except that he looked very creepy in the pictures of him as a child. And the mementoes included letters sent home by his teacher in which the teacher would say things like, "Mark spends too much time talking and doesn't concentrate on his work." It's odd enough that someone would save bad reports from the teacher, but then in each frame are young Mark's rebuttals: "Teacher lied." "Teacher always had it in for Mark." And I have to say, picturing the creepy young midget crying, "Teacher lied!" was almost enough to send us running back up the highway.
The rooms were actually pretty nice for a motel, and it was nice being so near to the beach, even though the weather didn't cooperate. But man, that was one creepy lobby.
The area was pretty standard Florida beach zone. Crappy tourist traps and dive bars for the locals. A few chain places by the highway. Lots of beach.
The Topaz Motel was right across the street from the beach. It consisted of three buildings and a pool. The two side buildings were pretty standard motel-type room areas. But the main building was an old mansion. On the outside of the building hung two huge paintings, portraits of a man and a woman in Victorian outfits. I have no idea who they were. Inside, the first floor held the lobby and a restaurant. I think the owners lived on the second floor. Every time I looked in the restaurant, everyone in it was over the age of 60. The lobby was decorated as if your grandmother's evil twin lived there. It held three kinds of items:
a) lots of religious signs and stickers -- pretty hard core stuff, too, like "The end is coming, how's your soul?"
b) framed articles and clippings that all dealt with horrible disasters -- including a large display devoted to the Titanic.
c) framed pictures and mementoes of two children -- a boy and a girl. We're pretty sure the girl was the woman who checked us in, and we met the boy the next day. He's easy to pick out because he's a midget. Nothing terribly unusual about that (there was also a midget working at the hotel in Charlotte), except that he looked very creepy in the pictures of him as a child. And the mementoes included letters sent home by his teacher in which the teacher would say things like, "Mark spends too much time talking and doesn't concentrate on his work." It's odd enough that someone would save bad reports from the teacher, but then in each frame are young Mark's rebuttals: "Teacher lied." "Teacher always had it in for Mark." And I have to say, picturing the creepy young midget crying, "Teacher lied!" was almost enough to send us running back up the highway.
The rooms were actually pretty nice for a motel, and it was nice being so near to the beach, even though the weather didn't cooperate. But man, that was one creepy lobby.
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