...have come to my attention which are worthy of more comment than a linkage yet I don't have time to develop fully while they're fresh.
First, and oversight. In my list of links below, I unaccountably failed to include Bandini's masterful The Great Taco Hunt. The author returned last night from a self-imposed forty day "taco exile" in order, he says, "...to train and get in tip top shape for the summer taco season." This site will make you sad if you don't live in SoCal and anxious to jump in your car and head to Maywood or Highland Park if you do. Me? My already embarrassingly large clothes have gotten too snug and so I'm stuck with salads and chicken and fish for a few weeks.
Second, Ezra Klein on his own blog, in response to something else, has a very insightful set of comments of one of my favorite books, Nick Hornby's High Fidelity, and on the nature of adulthood. And to jump right in, I think he's right about Rob and Laura, but I think the key difference is not the higher highs and lower lows of Rob's uncommittedness (which he basically says is all bollocks at the end of the book) but rather that Laura has found something she can be passionately committed to while Rob is stuck with commitments (his store, his sensibilities) which are not worthy of passion nor commitment. Go read it to see what I mean. Hopefully more later.
Update (11:53 am): Why oh why can't I see elipses and "their" for "they're" before I post? Why?
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Linkage XXVIII
"Tigers are tough and tigers are fierce..." Calvin and Hobbes, all right here. (via Brad DeLong). The bummer of this is that it has to violate copyright law, right?
"Duuude, you're not gonna get cancer." "Whaaat?" Ezra Klein cites an extensive new study which indicates that marijuana smoking not only does not cause lung cancer but that it may actually prevent it. Who knew? Although now that the members of the cannabis community know, they'll probably forget that they knew. You know?
Anima-morphism? Some time back, I took note of some of the silly "lessons" people were taking from the March of the Penguins. Susan Kitchens saw the dvd over the weekend and applied the documentary's style of observation and commentary to herself and her "male". Good stuff.
"Over-rated - clap, clap, clapclapclap" In this week's New Yorker, Malcolm Gladwell reviews Wages of Wins, a statistical analysis of relative worth of basketball players. The books says that Kevin Garnett is The Man - the problem is his teammates get worse and worse. Gladwell follows up on the review and the comments it has generated here and here on his blog. And btw, Carmelo Anthony is only the second most overrated player in the game, which comes as something of a surprise to me.
More Commentary on the WBE Fred Clark of Slacktivist continues his discursive close reading of Left Behind - the worst book ever. This week, he reflects further on conversion stories, and references his earlier post in which he likens testimony stories with porn. No, really. Just go read it.
"Duuude, you're not gonna get cancer." "Whaaat?" Ezra Klein cites an extensive new study which indicates that marijuana smoking not only does not cause lung cancer but that it may actually prevent it. Who knew? Although now that the members of the cannabis community know, they'll probably forget that they knew. You know?
Anima-morphism? Some time back, I took note of some of the silly "lessons" people were taking from the March of the Penguins. Susan Kitchens saw the dvd over the weekend and applied the documentary's style of observation and commentary to herself and her "male". Good stuff.
"Over-rated - clap, clap, clapclapclap" In this week's New Yorker, Malcolm Gladwell reviews Wages of Wins, a statistical analysis of relative worth of basketball players. The books says that Kevin Garnett is The Man - the problem is his teammates get worse and worse. Gladwell follows up on the review and the comments it has generated here and here on his blog. And btw, Carmelo Anthony is only the second most overrated player in the game, which comes as something of a surprise to me.
More Commentary on the WBE Fred Clark of Slacktivist continues his discursive close reading of Left Behind - the worst book ever. This week, he reflects further on conversion stories, and references his earlier post in which he likens testimony stories with porn. No, really. Just go read it.
Thursday, May 25, 2006
While I Was Out...
A couple of old friends stopped by and I discovered some new places on the internet.
Hillary and Dave, it was great to hear from you. Hillary, I've been reading your blog in short bits - that white text on black background hurts my eyes. Dave, you've got the right me. I would be very happy for both of you to send me an email. I don't post my address here, but if you think about how people often use their first initial along with their last name and often have their email service through the university where they work (mine being in Azusa near the Pacific ocean), I think you'll be able to figure out what mine is.
And here's an even dozen sites I've added to my list:
Balloon Juice - a group blog (well, two guys) one a liberal and one a conservative, but the conservative, John Cole, has been driven into what they call on the internets "stark raving shrillness" by the mendacity of the current Administration. A similar blog is Belgravia Dispatch, but I only read the one regularly because I'm trying to cut down on sweets.
CharlieFrancis.com - Why do you remember that name? He was Ben Johnson's sprint coach, and Johnson was the guy who was caught using steroids at the 1988 Olympics. His site is the home of a great discussion forum on sprint and speed training - something I've become re-engaged with to help my son with his training.
Church of the Masses is written by screen writer and fellow APU adjunct Barbara Nicolosi. She writes about cinema and culture and has been a little wound up about The Da Vinci Code - she was the one who proposed an "other-cott" of the film.
David Byrne Journal - Yes, that David Byrne. It's as you would expect.
Fitted Sweats is the place for random thoughts from writer Jeff Johnson. Warning to those given to the vapors or the easily offended - not everything here is nice, and he sometimes uses bad words. But his rifs on 70's music and his open letter to Richie Sambora are clearly worth the price of admission.
The Happiness Project is a journal of Gretchen Rubin's attempt this year to be, well, happier.
gladwell.com is the personal blog of New Yorker writer and author Malcolm Gladwell. Most of the posts are followups to his magazine pieces in which he takes on reader comments and in at least two instances, changes his mind about what he's written. Good stuff.
Kung Fu Monkey is a another screen writer blog. I think I came here for a link to one of his blasts at the "gubmint" but I stayed, well for the blasts, but also for the main purpose of the blog, which is essentially a series of short clinics on story telling. There is also a bunch of comic book geek stuff but you can click right past that.
Michael Berube's "Web" "Log" - Berube (sorry can't do accent marks) is a teacher at Penn State and one of the wittiest writers on the 'nets. You get snark, hockey, cultural criticism, and beautiful/heartrending reflections on raising a disabled son. David Horowitz has labeled Berube one of the most dangerous professors in America, and that's like five gold stars for me.
Out of Ur is a group blog hosted by Leadership Magazine. The blog combines a number of voices reflecting on new leadership and church models in our rapidly evolving era. There's some good stuff, and little bit of clueless stuff, and a little too much whining for my taste ("Why are those Moderns so mean to us when we tell them their worldviews and the very focus of their lives are worthless and wrong") but good stuff nonetheless.
This Blog Sits at... (the intersection of Anthropology and Economics) is the work of ethnographer Grant McCracken who mostly puts his amazing observation and analytical skills to work for The Man to help him sell things. But read this. McCracken knows why we do things and why we don't do things and what one can do to encourage others to do or don't do things.
Unclaimed Territory by Glenn Greenwald is the fastest rising voice of the blog world. He has done incredible work in breaking down and making plain the erosion of civil liberties and the shredding of the constitution currently underway in our country. Or if you are the kind of person who has yet to find that the President has done anything wrong other than not be conservative enough and who even if the President murdered a child on the front lawn of the White House in the plain view of TV cameras and an audience of hundreds would respond by reminding us that thousands died on September 11th and that the terrorists have done worse and that you're tired of people trying to take partisan political advantage over serious issues like child murder, than Greenwald is just another Bush hater.
Hillary and Dave, it was great to hear from you. Hillary, I've been reading your blog in short bits - that white text on black background hurts my eyes. Dave, you've got the right me. I would be very happy for both of you to send me an email. I don't post my address here, but if you think about how people often use their first initial along with their last name and often have their email service through the university where they work (mine being in Azusa near the Pacific ocean), I think you'll be able to figure out what mine is.
And here's an even dozen sites I've added to my list:
Balloon Juice - a group blog (well, two guys) one a liberal and one a conservative, but the conservative, John Cole, has been driven into what they call on the internets "stark raving shrillness" by the mendacity of the current Administration. A similar blog is Belgravia Dispatch, but I only read the one regularly because I'm trying to cut down on sweets.
CharlieFrancis.com - Why do you remember that name? He was Ben Johnson's sprint coach, and Johnson was the guy who was caught using steroids at the 1988 Olympics. His site is the home of a great discussion forum on sprint and speed training - something I've become re-engaged with to help my son with his training.
Church of the Masses is written by screen writer and fellow APU adjunct Barbara Nicolosi. She writes about cinema and culture and has been a little wound up about The Da Vinci Code - she was the one who proposed an "other-cott" of the film.
David Byrne Journal - Yes, that David Byrne. It's as you would expect.
Fitted Sweats is the place for random thoughts from writer Jeff Johnson. Warning to those given to the vapors or the easily offended - not everything here is nice, and he sometimes uses bad words. But his rifs on 70's music and his open letter to Richie Sambora are clearly worth the price of admission.
The Happiness Project is a journal of Gretchen Rubin's attempt this year to be, well, happier.
gladwell.com is the personal blog of New Yorker writer and author Malcolm Gladwell. Most of the posts are followups to his magazine pieces in which he takes on reader comments and in at least two instances, changes his mind about what he's written. Good stuff.
Kung Fu Monkey is a another screen writer blog. I think I came here for a link to one of his blasts at the "gubmint" but I stayed, well for the blasts, but also for the main purpose of the blog, which is essentially a series of short clinics on story telling. There is also a bunch of comic book geek stuff but you can click right past that.
Michael Berube's "Web" "Log" - Berube (sorry can't do accent marks) is a teacher at Penn State and one of the wittiest writers on the 'nets. You get snark, hockey, cultural criticism, and beautiful/heartrending reflections on raising a disabled son. David Horowitz has labeled Berube one of the most dangerous professors in America, and that's like five gold stars for me.
Out of Ur is a group blog hosted by Leadership Magazine. The blog combines a number of voices reflecting on new leadership and church models in our rapidly evolving era. There's some good stuff, and little bit of clueless stuff, and a little too much whining for my taste ("Why are those Moderns so mean to us when we tell them their worldviews and the very focus of their lives are worthless and wrong") but good stuff nonetheless.
This Blog Sits at... (the intersection of Anthropology and Economics) is the work of ethnographer Grant McCracken who mostly puts his amazing observation and analytical skills to work for The Man to help him sell things. But read this. McCracken knows why we do things and why we don't do things and what one can do to encourage others to do or don't do things.
Unclaimed Territory by Glenn Greenwald is the fastest rising voice of the blog world. He has done incredible work in breaking down and making plain the erosion of civil liberties and the shredding of the constitution currently underway in our country. Or if you are the kind of person who has yet to find that the President has done anything wrong other than not be conservative enough and who even if the President murdered a child on the front lawn of the White House in the plain view of TV cameras and an audience of hundreds would respond by reminding us that thousands died on September 11th and that the terrorists have done worse and that you're tired of people trying to take partisan political advantage over serious issues like child murder, than Greenwald is just another Bush hater.
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
It Really Is Better...
...when Christians don't act stupidly.
In fact, when we don't, it can be enough to bring genuinely surprising results. For today's example, go read Joel Stein's column in today's L.A. Times. I rarely can finish one of Stein's columns. If they held a contest for silliest columnist in the world, and by "silly" I don't mean the kind that obsesses about the threat on the Mexican border or about the treasonous behavior of the Dixie Chicks - I mean every day, garden variety, empty-headed silliness. Stein's sensibilities seem to be willfully trivial, so much so that I wonder if he really exists or if he is just an amalgam of what people in fly-over states think we're like here in SoCal. Ah, but my point.
Stein writes about a day he spent with Ken Baugh, a pastor from Orange County with whom he watched and talked about The Da Vinci Code. Stein is a classic consumer, so almost every sentence contains a reference to a commercial product or a product of entertainment culture, yet Baugh's conversation was able to entice Stein out of his world which is usually bounded by movie grosses, Starbucks, personal grooming and what people are driving into something more, well, real.
After the movie, Stein writes that he and Baugh broke down the film's (obvious) deficiencies, but then says, "Our conversation was far more interesting than the movie." What is Baugh's secret? He listens. He doesn't shout. He's open to real questions. He makes his points with evidence rather than brute force. He's nice to be with.
Baugh offers to continue their conversation, and Stein says, "...and I really wanted to because it was nice to be reminded that people who believe in Jesus aren't simpletons impressed by magic tricks."
You see. It's not that hard.
I really liked how Stein found the conversation more interesting than the film. The Gospel is an amazing story. Perhaps if we were a little better at telling it with our words and our actions, silly stuff like The Da Vinci Code and Stein's usual obsessions wouldn't seem so appealing.
Update: For a further example of what I'm not writing about, go read Glenn Greenwald, who helpfully explains the new rules of political discourse in which it is shameful and incivil to boo and criticize John McCain but it is perfectly OK to boo and threaten a Democratic Congressman who speaks against the war.
In fact, when we don't, it can be enough to bring genuinely surprising results. For today's example, go read Joel Stein's column in today's L.A. Times. I rarely can finish one of Stein's columns. If they held a contest for silliest columnist in the world, and by "silly" I don't mean the kind that obsesses about the threat on the Mexican border or about the treasonous behavior of the Dixie Chicks - I mean every day, garden variety, empty-headed silliness. Stein's sensibilities seem to be willfully trivial, so much so that I wonder if he really exists or if he is just an amalgam of what people in fly-over states think we're like here in SoCal. Ah, but my point.
Stein writes about a day he spent with Ken Baugh, a pastor from Orange County with whom he watched and talked about The Da Vinci Code. Stein is a classic consumer, so almost every sentence contains a reference to a commercial product or a product of entertainment culture, yet Baugh's conversation was able to entice Stein out of his world which is usually bounded by movie grosses, Starbucks, personal grooming and what people are driving into something more, well, real.
After the movie, Stein writes that he and Baugh broke down the film's (obvious) deficiencies, but then says, "Our conversation was far more interesting than the movie." What is Baugh's secret? He listens. He doesn't shout. He's open to real questions. He makes his points with evidence rather than brute force. He's nice to be with.
Baugh offers to continue their conversation, and Stein says, "...and I really wanted to because it was nice to be reminded that people who believe in Jesus aren't simpletons impressed by magic tricks."
You see. It's not that hard.
I really liked how Stein found the conversation more interesting than the film. The Gospel is an amazing story. Perhaps if we were a little better at telling it with our words and our actions, silly stuff like The Da Vinci Code and Stein's usual obsessions wouldn't seem so appealing.
Please Note: Careful readers will have realized that there is interesting subtext to the article, which connects to the fact that the film makers have actually recruited Christian leaders to generate discussion about the film. I hope to discuss this later. Perhaps Sean Combs, back in his Puff Daddy days was right. It's all about the Benjamins. But for today, I was so happy to find a Christian leader not acting like an idiot in public that I wanted to focus on the conversation.
Update: For a further example of what I'm not writing about, go read Glenn Greenwald, who helpfully explains the new rules of political discourse in which it is shameful and incivil to boo and criticize John McCain but it is perfectly OK to boo and threaten a Democratic Congressman who speaks against the war.
Monday, May 22, 2006
Back At It?
Well, I hope.
As I'd said below, the mendacious clown show in Washington had reduced me to pure ranting anger. Beyond, you know, my actual work, the evidence of which rarely showed up here, all I could produce was rant after rant about our lying/torturing/spying leaders. And there's plenty of that on the internets, so you don't need anymore from me. (But before I go on to make my point, you should go read this in which the Attorney General this weekend threatened to imprison any journalist who writes about anything based on a leak, and no, he wasn't talking about Robert Novak).
So today, I rise from my slumber to embrace the greatest use of the blog side of the internet beyond ranting and vanity: snark.
Yesterday, the Dodgers completed a three game sweep of the Angels. As they say online:
I've been a Dodger fan for a long time. I know that part of the deal is going up and down with your team, although I've found the current regime even more dispiriting than the previous. But the thing that has really gotten to me is watching the Angel band wagon fill up over the past few years.
Ever since their World Series victory, I've seen more and more Angel caps around my community (and USC gear) too. More and more people saying transparently false things like "Oh I've always been an Angel fan". Or worst of all, hearing my own Father claim recently "I've always really supported both teams" when I know that is, um, not the case. And now that I'm part of a church in Orange County, I have to deal not only with the indignity of being with people who think wearing an untucked raw silk short sleeve shirt is dressing up, but I also have to worship with a whole bunch of Angel fans.
As I'd said below, the mendacious clown show in Washington had reduced me to pure ranting anger. Beyond, you know, my actual work, the evidence of which rarely showed up here, all I could produce was rant after rant about our lying/torturing/spying leaders. And there's plenty of that on the internets, so you don't need anymore from me. (But before I go on to make my point, you should go read this in which the Attorney General this weekend threatened to imprison any journalist who writes about anything based on a leak, and no, he wasn't talking about Robert Novak).
So today, I rise from my slumber to embrace the greatest use of the blog side of the internet beyond ranting and vanity: snark.
Yesterday, the Dodgers completed a three game sweep of the Angels. As they say online:
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
I've been a Dodger fan for a long time. I know that part of the deal is going up and down with your team, although I've found the current regime even more dispiriting than the previous. But the thing that has really gotten to me is watching the Angel band wagon fill up over the past few years.
Ever since their World Series victory, I've seen more and more Angel caps around my community (and USC gear) too. More and more people saying transparently false things like "Oh I've always been an Angel fan". Or worst of all, hearing my own Father claim recently "I've always really supported both teams" when I know that is, um, not the case. And now that I'm part of a church in Orange County, I have to deal not only with the indignity of being with people who think wearing an untucked raw silk short sleeve shirt is dressing up, but I also have to worship with a whole bunch of Angel fans.
So to all of you I say - "Three wins in three days - BOOYAH!"Amen.
Monday, February 27, 2006
The Meme of Four
Edited on 5/30 to correct a misspelling which I discovered when I followed a reference to my blog which came about because the person doing the search misspelled what they were looking for. I find this embarrasing.
Last month, just before I fell into blogging silence, Susan Kitchens of 2020 Hindsight (and a former neighbor) "tagged" me with the "Four Things" meme that had been bouncing around the internets for most of the past year. Now that I'm waking again, here are mine:
Four Jobs I've Had:
Four Movies I Can Watch Over and Over
Four Books I Have Read Over and Over (This is from Susan. Does not include books you've read to your children when they were small).
Four Places I've Lived (Pretty lame list)
Four Places I've Vacationed (again, pretty tame, pretty lame)
Four TV Shows I Love
Four Favorite Dishes
Four Websites I Visit Daily
Four Places I'd Rather Be Right Now
(My addition) Four Things That Make Me Warmly Happy
Four People I'm Tagging with This
Last month, just before I fell into blogging silence, Susan Kitchens of 2020 Hindsight (and a former neighbor) "tagged" me with the "Four Things" meme that had been bouncing around the internets for most of the past year. Now that I'm waking again, here are mine:
Four Jobs I've Had:
- Fireworks delivery truck driver
- Baskin Robbins ice cream scooper (2 days!)
- Track Starter (I was packin' a real .38)
- Van's shoe seller (during the first Off the Wall craze)
Four Movies I Can Watch Over and Over
- Local Hero
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail
- Chariots of Fire
- Pulp Fiction
Four Books I Have Read Over and Over (This is from Susan. Does not include books you've read to your children when they were small).
- Gaudy Night - Dorothy Sayers (Me, too, Susan)
- Wonder Boys - Michael Chabon
- High Fidelity - Nick Hornby
- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis
Four Places I've Lived (Pretty lame list)
- Denair, CA
- San Dimas, CA (where Bill and Ted are from)
- Pasadena, CA
- Azusa, CA
Four Places I've Vacationed (again, pretty tame, pretty lame)
- Yosemite
- So. Utah, Denver, Santa Fe, Phoenix - all in four days
- Kern River (caught a fish when I was five)
- San Franciso
Four TV Shows I Love
- The Daily Show
- The West Wing
- Law & Order
- Gilmore Girls (But only the secondary characters. I'm sick of Lorelai and Rory)
Four Favorite Dishes
- Penne Arrabiata (cooked by me)
- Special Pizza at Casa Bianca
- Oki Burrito at Manuel's El Tepeyac
- La Lasagna de Tutte Lasagne (cooked by me)
Four Websites I Visit Daily
- L.A. Riot Squad's discussion board
- Talking Points Memo
- Slate
- Soccernet
Four Places I'd Rather Be Right Now
- Traveling, almost anywhere (that's more than four, but whatever...)
(My addition) Four Things That Make Me Warmly Happy
- People being nice to my kids
- Watching our pet guinea pig walk around and hearing her "sing"
- Watching the sun come up (on some days)
- Meeting wild rabbits
Four People I'm Tagging with This
- Robert - Through a Glass Darkly
- Jeff - Evil Twin of William Jennings Bryan
- Gregg - Gregg's Gambles
- Johann - Can you believe?
Friday, February 24, 2006
Multiple Discoveries
Here's a few things I've encountered/discovered during my blogging silence:
Urban Red Bull We went on a mini-vacation this past weekend. We were supposed to go to San Francisco but the rain and cold scared us off. (Good thing - there was snow on Mt. Tam Friday). So instead, we visited SoCal like tourists and got a cheap room via Hotwire.com in Long Beach. On Sunday morning, we had breakfast at Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles, and the menu featured a new energy drink: Pit Bull. We ordered one and shared it. I can't vouch for the jolt (I'd already had about six cups of coffee), but it tasted pretty good, lacking that chemical taste of Red Bull or Monster. You can get it at Von's and Albertson's here in SoCal, and show people that your down.
Guinea Pigs! On Saturday, we went to the Getty Museum. We were a little disappointed that more of the garden was not in bloom. I was also a little bummed that their Classical and Ancient Near Eastern collections are now at the new/old site in Malibu. But that aside, the views from the site on a stormy day were absolutely stunning, and the art was amazing as always. We did have one wonderful discovery. Our daughter Katie has a pet guinea pig, and I was commenting to her that it is a shame that guinea pigs have not featured more prominently in the Western artistic tradition. About five minutes later, she excitedly came up to me and said, "Dad! We've found the guinea pigs!" She led me to a large seventeenth century painting by Rubens and Brueghel, "The Return from War: Mars Disarmed by Venus", and sure enough, there were two guinea pigs sharing a lettuce leaf in the foreground of the painting. Go take a look for yourself.
Random Sightings Also at the Getty, Katie thought we saw K-Fed, Britney Spears (estranged?) husband. I guess if she cut off the credit cards he can't afford to run with strippers in Vegas any more, or perhaps all the haterzz of his hip-hop joints have prompted him to look beyond Brazilian thong wearer's for inspiration for his work... On Sunday afternoon, we walked around the uber-mall of LA - the Beverly Center. We saw the usual suspects: packs of wealthy Beverly Hills Persian girls, cruising gay men, suburban gawkers (whenever we walked by a reflective surface) and a number of purse dogs. But then completely unexpectedly, we saw a hyperstylish couple conveying their purse dog around in a baby stroller!... On Sunday night, we had dinner at The Stand (which I reviewed here). Great dogs, and we sat next to a father/son duo of character actors - you know, the kind you vaguely recognize but can't pin down. I had a knish for the first time, and I'll just say that a knish ain't no empanada.
Urban Red Bull We went on a mini-vacation this past weekend. We were supposed to go to San Francisco but the rain and cold scared us off. (Good thing - there was snow on Mt. Tam Friday). So instead, we visited SoCal like tourists and got a cheap room via Hotwire.com in Long Beach. On Sunday morning, we had breakfast at Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles, and the menu featured a new energy drink: Pit Bull. We ordered one and shared it. I can't vouch for the jolt (I'd already had about six cups of coffee), but it tasted pretty good, lacking that chemical taste of Red Bull or Monster. You can get it at Von's and Albertson's here in SoCal, and show people that your down.
Guinea Pigs! On Saturday, we went to the Getty Museum. We were a little disappointed that more of the garden was not in bloom. I was also a little bummed that their Classical and Ancient Near Eastern collections are now at the new/old site in Malibu. But that aside, the views from the site on a stormy day were absolutely stunning, and the art was amazing as always. We did have one wonderful discovery. Our daughter Katie has a pet guinea pig, and I was commenting to her that it is a shame that guinea pigs have not featured more prominently in the Western artistic tradition. About five minutes later, she excitedly came up to me and said, "Dad! We've found the guinea pigs!" She led me to a large seventeenth century painting by Rubens and Brueghel, "The Return from War: Mars Disarmed by Venus", and sure enough, there were two guinea pigs sharing a lettuce leaf in the foreground of the painting. Go take a look for yourself.
Random Sightings Also at the Getty, Katie thought we saw K-Fed, Britney Spears (estranged?) husband. I guess if she cut off the credit cards he can't afford to run with strippers in Vegas any more, or perhaps all the haterzz of his hip-hop joints have prompted him to look beyond Brazilian thong wearer's for inspiration for his work... On Sunday afternoon, we walked around the uber-mall of LA - the Beverly Center. We saw the usual suspects: packs of wealthy Beverly Hills Persian girls, cruising gay men, suburban gawkers (whenever we walked by a reflective surface) and a number of purse dogs. But then completely unexpectedly, we saw a hyperstylish couple conveying their purse dog around in a baby stroller!... On Sunday night, we had dinner at The Stand (which I reviewed here). Great dogs, and we sat next to a father/son duo of character actors - you know, the kind you vaguely recognize but can't pin down. I had a knish for the first time, and I'll just say that a knish ain't no empanada.
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Yikes! It's Been Over a Month...
First, apologies to the loyal readers of this site. I should have said something.
Two factors have conspired to create this blogging break. First, as I've said before, I'm sick of ranting. Actually, I still like ranting, and over the past month I've begun each morning by briefing my family on the latest atrocity from our government. Today it was the report in this week's New Yorker of how the Administration lied to their own politically appointed lawyers in approving torture. Of course, I won't get to read that article in the actual magazine until some time next week since the New Yorker rarely gets to my house any more before the following Monday. Rant, rant, rant.
But I didn't and don't want this blog to be about ranting, and that was all I could come up with. I don't have time to do something substantive on the issues that have me ranting, and every time I've tried, I find that Glenn Greenwald has already said it better than I.
Second, I have been busy with "real" pursuits and writing. You see, blog ranting and trivia are easy because they're done in the moment. The more important kinds of writing that I would like to do here take more time and reflection, and those projects keep losing out to my other work.
So, this adds up to a month without blogging. I'm hoping to find another rhythm for blogging, and have written a few quality pieces, but I'm gonna save them up until I'm at the place where I could do it with some regularity. I may arrive at that place as early as next week, so please check back from time to time, but I'm not there yet.
Two factors have conspired to create this blogging break. First, as I've said before, I'm sick of ranting. Actually, I still like ranting, and over the past month I've begun each morning by briefing my family on the latest atrocity from our government. Today it was the report in this week's New Yorker of how the Administration lied to their own politically appointed lawyers in approving torture. Of course, I won't get to read that article in the actual magazine until some time next week since the New Yorker rarely gets to my house any more before the following Monday. Rant, rant, rant.
But I didn't and don't want this blog to be about ranting, and that was all I could come up with. I don't have time to do something substantive on the issues that have me ranting, and every time I've tried, I find that Glenn Greenwald has already said it better than I.
Second, I have been busy with "real" pursuits and writing. You see, blog ranting and trivia are easy because they're done in the moment. The more important kinds of writing that I would like to do here take more time and reflection, and those projects keep losing out to my other work.
So, this adds up to a month without blogging. I'm hoping to find another rhythm for blogging, and have written a few quality pieces, but I'm gonna save them up until I'm at the place where I could do it with some regularity. I may arrive at that place as early as next week, so please check back from time to time, but I'm not there yet.
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Herding Cats
One of my favorite commercials* is the one from several years ago of a group of cowboys (catboys?) herding cats.
This commercial is now available on Google Video. Take a look. (HT: Discourse.net)
This commercial is now available on Google Video. Take a look. (HT: Discourse.net)
*I know it is evidence of several magnitude of lameness to even have a concept of what one's favorite commercials are, but such is the state of my life and my sensibilities.
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Linkage XXVII
Post-It = Problems John Holbo, writing at Crooked Timber, relates the story of a friend who was called in by an enraged university librarian for... leaving a Post-It note in a book. Seems the glue on those things can mess up the pages of the books. Who knew?
Hey, do you know a guy...? Need help with a software or application problem? Don't know how to do a particular task? Need some bodies to make something happen? Check out Favorville, a new social networking site, which gives you another way to ask for and to give favors. This is a great idea. (Via AJ Schwanz)
Wanna Hear Whitman? Here's a link to poet Walt Whitman reading four lines from his poem "America", taken from a wax cylinder. (Via Marginal Revolution)
Worst. Argument. Ever. On balance, I think that state sanctioning of same-sex marriage is a bad idea. But if this article (Nero? You gotta be joking!) is the best argument that cultural conservatives can come up with, I may have to change my mind. (Via Crooked Timber)
What Could Have Been (and wouldn't have needed to have been) Want to hear a politician deliver a thoughtful and coherent speech, one with complete sentences and correctly pronounced words? Go read Al Gore's MLK day speech where he calls on President Bush to stop trashing the Constitution (or listen to it here).
Hey, do you know a guy...? Need help with a software or application problem? Don't know how to do a particular task? Need some bodies to make something happen? Check out Favorville, a new social networking site, which gives you another way to ask for and to give favors. This is a great idea. (Via AJ Schwanz)
Wanna Hear Whitman? Here's a link to poet Walt Whitman reading four lines from his poem "America", taken from a wax cylinder. (Via Marginal Revolution)
Worst. Argument. Ever. On balance, I think that state sanctioning of same-sex marriage is a bad idea. But if this article (Nero? You gotta be joking!) is the best argument that cultural conservatives can come up with, I may have to change my mind. (Via Crooked Timber)
What Could Have Been (and wouldn't have needed to have been) Want to hear a politician deliver a thoughtful and coherent speech, one with complete sentences and correctly pronounced words? Go read Al Gore's MLK day speech where he calls on President Bush to stop trashing the Constitution (or listen to it here).
Monday, January 16, 2006
King Day
"Perhaps a new spirit is rising among us. If it is, let us trace its movements and pray that our own inner being may be sensitive to its guidance, for we are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness that seems so close around us."-Martin Luther King, Jr.
Saturday, January 14, 2006
Golazo
I wrote with obvious pride a couple of months ago when my son Chris made his high school soccer team. It's time for an update.
Chris started well, playing forward and scoring twice and assisting once (his best play) in the opening match. Then his team started playing other teams who knew how to play, and they started getting pounded - the next five matches were 1-3, 1-6, 1-5, 1-5, and 2-5. Unlike most other high school programs, none of our boys have played club soccer, and they are really lost out there. Sadly, they're not being very well coached, either. Our coach means well, but she seems to lack an understanding of how to teach kids how to play.
Our coach also seems to lack a very clear understanding of process. She only sees the final part of a play, and not what leads up to it. Two examples from last week. In the first, we gave up a soft goal on a counter attack because all three of our central midfielders (we play a 3-5-2) were caught way up field, leaving our center back exposed on a 3 v. 1 situation, and she yelled at the center back for giving up the goal. Second, our only goal of the match came when Chris, playing the left midfield spot, won the ball, cut inside, yelled at the right forward to make a run and then hit a beautiful curling diagonal ball over the defense directly into the path of the forward who then shot weakly at the keeper only to have the keeper miss badly and give up the goal. There was not a word for Chris but great praise for the goal scorer.
Chris has fared rather badly in our coach's "system". He has bounced around both forward spots, both wide midfield spots, and even a brief spell a right back, where had the only assist in one of our 1-6 debacles. In fact, Chris has all our team's assists this year but one, but that doesn't seem to count for much.
Today he got a bit of redemption. He started at left forward, assisting on the first goal by beating two defenders in the corner and then hitting a hard cross which the other forward mishit but it went in anyway. He assisted on the second when he dropped back into midfield, won a ball and then played a perfect through ball to the other forward. He should been able to score the third goal - he was running free down the middle and screaming for the ball but the other forward shot into a crowd and the ball bounced off of a defender and wrong footed the keeper. Chris was rewarded for his good play by being taken off immediately after the third goal.
In the second half, Chris returned to play right midfield and had several good runs unrewarded by the forward looking for his fourth goal. And then finally came his first whiff of a scoring chance, not only of the match but of the last month. A bouncing ball had been played outside to the forward and Chris made a run inside of him. The forward played the ball on in the air. Chris saw it coming and slowed his run to allow the ball to come over his right shoulder. He then let it bounce and on the short hop from just inside the penalty area smashed it past the keeper just inside the right post.
As they say on TV, un vero golazo.
Chris started well, playing forward and scoring twice and assisting once (his best play) in the opening match. Then his team started playing other teams who knew how to play, and they started getting pounded - the next five matches were 1-3, 1-6, 1-5, 1-5, and 2-5. Unlike most other high school programs, none of our boys have played club soccer, and they are really lost out there. Sadly, they're not being very well coached, either. Our coach means well, but she seems to lack an understanding of how to teach kids how to play.
Our coach also seems to lack a very clear understanding of process. She only sees the final part of a play, and not what leads up to it. Two examples from last week. In the first, we gave up a soft goal on a counter attack because all three of our central midfielders (we play a 3-5-2) were caught way up field, leaving our center back exposed on a 3 v. 1 situation, and she yelled at the center back for giving up the goal. Second, our only goal of the match came when Chris, playing the left midfield spot, won the ball, cut inside, yelled at the right forward to make a run and then hit a beautiful curling diagonal ball over the defense directly into the path of the forward who then shot weakly at the keeper only to have the keeper miss badly and give up the goal. There was not a word for Chris but great praise for the goal scorer.
Chris has fared rather badly in our coach's "system". He has bounced around both forward spots, both wide midfield spots, and even a brief spell a right back, where had the only assist in one of our 1-6 debacles. In fact, Chris has all our team's assists this year but one, but that doesn't seem to count for much.
Today he got a bit of redemption. He started at left forward, assisting on the first goal by beating two defenders in the corner and then hitting a hard cross which the other forward mishit but it went in anyway. He assisted on the second when he dropped back into midfield, won a ball and then played a perfect through ball to the other forward. He should been able to score the third goal - he was running free down the middle and screaming for the ball but the other forward shot into a crowd and the ball bounced off of a defender and wrong footed the keeper. Chris was rewarded for his good play by being taken off immediately after the third goal.
In the second half, Chris returned to play right midfield and had several good runs unrewarded by the forward looking for his fourth goal. And then finally came his first whiff of a scoring chance, not only of the match but of the last month. A bouncing ball had been played outside to the forward and Chris made a run inside of him. The forward played the ball on in the air. Chris saw it coming and slowed his run to allow the ball to come over his right shoulder. He then let it bounce and on the short hop from just inside the penalty area smashed it past the keeper just inside the right post.
As they say on TV, un vero golazo.
Friday, January 13, 2006
Well, There's Truth and then there's The Truth
The truth has had a tough week.
This week, it has turned out that key events James Frey's memoir A Million Little Pieces didn't happen; that the famous South Korean researcher has not cloned anything human, and that a formal legislative hearing in Pennsylvania could only turn up one student, who had not filed a complaint, who would accuse liberal professors of intimidating and indoctrinating their students. Oh, and Dick Cheney is back to peddling a Saddam/al-Qaida connection.
So, ho-hum. People with agendas shading the truth or even flat out lying. It happens. This kind of stuff is bad because it poisons the well for everyone else, but it happens. This makes me sad, but on questions like this, I'm trying to follow the advice from my youth from Elvis Costello - "I used to get disgusted, but now I try to be amused".
But I cannot find anything amusing in the responses of supporters of the people discredited this week.
Oprah Winfrey, who had promoted Frey's book, said whole controversy is "much ado about nothing". Koreans have rioted and threatened the people who exposed the fraudulent researcher. A representative for the group which agitated for the Pennsylvania investigation against "liberal indoctrination" insisted that even after the hearings that the burden was still on the universities to prove they weren't indoctrinating the students, rather than on the students to prove their claims. And the Vice President? Well, just as I commented earlier that a "cat is going to be a cat", Dick Cheney is going to be Dick Cheney.
What are we to make of this? Somebody help me out here.
This week, it has turned out that key events James Frey's memoir A Million Little Pieces didn't happen; that the famous South Korean researcher has not cloned anything human, and that a formal legislative hearing in Pennsylvania could only turn up one student, who had not filed a complaint, who would accuse liberal professors of intimidating and indoctrinating their students. Oh, and Dick Cheney is back to peddling a Saddam/al-Qaida connection.
So, ho-hum. People with agendas shading the truth or even flat out lying. It happens. This kind of stuff is bad because it poisons the well for everyone else, but it happens. This makes me sad, but on questions like this, I'm trying to follow the advice from my youth from Elvis Costello - "I used to get disgusted, but now I try to be amused".
But I cannot find anything amusing in the responses of supporters of the people discredited this week.
Oprah Winfrey, who had promoted Frey's book, said whole controversy is "much ado about nothing". Koreans have rioted and threatened the people who exposed the fraudulent researcher. A representative for the group which agitated for the Pennsylvania investigation against "liberal indoctrination" insisted that even after the hearings that the burden was still on the universities to prove they weren't indoctrinating the students, rather than on the students to prove their claims. And the Vice President? Well, just as I commented earlier that a "cat is going to be a cat", Dick Cheney is going to be Dick Cheney.
What are we to make of this? Somebody help me out here.
Thursday, January 12, 2006
This Makes Sense
"The sane appear as strange to the mad as the mad to the sane."-Joe Orton
"What the Butler Saw"
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Exegetical Smackdown: Robertson vs. Ramsey
When Pat Robertson recently asserted that Ariel Sharon's stroke was God's reaction to Sharon's policy of "dividing" the land of Israel, he was roundly condemned. (Well, maybe not as roundly as one would wish, but there you go).
Here's what Robertson said (you can watch the clip here):
The quick answer is "No".
Here's the text Robertson is citing, in it's broader context - Joel 3:1-3 (4:1-3 Heb):
This passage in Joel appears to be answering another text in an earlier prophet: Amos 7:17:
Well, first, you have to ignore verb tense. Joel 3:2 (4:2) promises God's judgment against those who "have divided" God's land. This phrase seems to refer to a past event, in all likelihood the division of the land by the Assyrians and Babylonians when the conquered different parts of Israel in the 8th and 6th centuries bce. Notice in Robertson's quote, he claims Joel says "divide" - present tense - a significant difference.
So how does he take this contextually specific phrase and turn it into a blanket statement? Well, a whole lot of "ifs" have to fall together. Here we go:
Robertson is right... if it was God's plan to fulfill the promises of the prophets by re-establishing a modern nation-state called Israel and not to merely roll all of those promises into the Second Coming as the New Testament seems to indicate; ...if one is willing to take the essential eschatological tension of the New Testament, in which some of the things promised in the Old testament are present realities but will not come into ultimate fulfillment until Christ's Second Coming and turn that tension into license to be non-sensical; ...if the current nation-state of Israel is in fact that fulfillment; ...if the promise in Joel can be fulfilled in stages; ...if parts of even the same sentence can be fulfilled in stages, wherein the phrase "I will restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem" is understood to have already happened in 1947, or 1967 or in 1973, but that the rest of the sentence is held back until some later time when all of the other things will come to pass; ...if somehow during that in between period one assumes that being OK with Israel's 1967/1973 boundaries and not the much larger set of boundaries addressed in Deuteronomy and Joshua is not also somehow "dividing the land"; ...if one assumes that only giving up land gained by the wars in 1967 and 1973 is "dividing the land"; ...and if, again, one assumes that one can speak coherently by citing one part of a sentence and not the other, or that one part of sentence may be in force but that the second part will not be in force until some murky time in the future, and one can assume a number of other odd ways of reading the Bible that I am suddenly too tired to go into...
...if all of that is true then yes, Pat Robertson could be right.
But for me, that's too many ifs.
Here's what Robertson said (you can watch the clip here):
But I think we need to look at the Bible and the Book of Joel. The prophet Joel makes it very clear that God has enmity against those who, quote, "divide my land." God considers this land to be his. You read the Bible, he says, "This is my land." And for any prime minister of Israel who decides he going carve it up and give it away, God says, "No. This is mine."Now, Robertson is a kook, and it looks like this time, even more so than when he issued a fatwa against Hugo Chavez, he is being regarded as such. But all of the discussion I've seen has been about the "appropriateness" of his remarks. I too, think that what Robertson said was inappropriate, but note that he wasn't interested in asserting that his remarks were socially appropriate. He was saying that the Bible, and not Pat Robertson, in the book of Joel says that God has enmity for those who "divide my land". And so this leads me to ask, does the Bible really say that?
The quick answer is "No".
Here's the text Robertson is citing, in it's broader context - Joel 3:1-3 (4:1-3 Heb):
For then, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jersusalem, I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat, and I will enter into judgment with them there, on account of my people and my heritage Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations. They have divided my land, and cast lots for my people, and traded boys for prostitutes, and sold girls for wine, and drunk it down. (NRSV)So in context, what the prophet Joel "makes very clear", to borrow Robertson's phrase, is that one day the Lord will come with power and re-establish his people and pay back the nations for what they did to His people Israel.
This passage in Joel appears to be answering another text in an earlier prophet: Amos 7:17:
Therefore, thus says the Lord: 'Your wife shall become a prostitute in the city, and your sons and daughters shall fall by the sword, and you land shall be parceled out by line; you yourself shall die in an unclean land, and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land'.The translations have obscured it, but the same Hebrew word occurs in both texts, translated "divided" in Joel and "parceled out" in Amos. So it appears that Joel is saying that, one day, the Lord will undo the damage to which Amos looked forward. This is a very common theme in the biblical prophets and rather a nice thing, too. So then, how does one read this as a threat against any leader or nation who is willing to cede land held by the modern nation-state of Israel, land held within the original 1947 borders or through the 1967 war?
Well, first, you have to ignore verb tense. Joel 3:2 (4:2) promises God's judgment against those who "have divided" God's land. This phrase seems to refer to a past event, in all likelihood the division of the land by the Assyrians and Babylonians when the conquered different parts of Israel in the 8th and 6th centuries bce. Notice in Robertson's quote, he claims Joel says "divide" - present tense - a significant difference.
So how does he take this contextually specific phrase and turn it into a blanket statement? Well, a whole lot of "ifs" have to fall together. Here we go:
Robertson is right... if it was God's plan to fulfill the promises of the prophets by re-establishing a modern nation-state called Israel and not to merely roll all of those promises into the Second Coming as the New Testament seems to indicate; ...if one is willing to take the essential eschatological tension of the New Testament, in which some of the things promised in the Old testament are present realities but will not come into ultimate fulfillment until Christ's Second Coming and turn that tension into license to be non-sensical; ...if the current nation-state of Israel is in fact that fulfillment; ...if the promise in Joel can be fulfilled in stages; ...if parts of even the same sentence can be fulfilled in stages, wherein the phrase "I will restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem" is understood to have already happened in 1947, or 1967 or in 1973, but that the rest of the sentence is held back until some later time when all of the other things will come to pass; ...if somehow during that in between period one assumes that being OK with Israel's 1967/1973 boundaries and not the much larger set of boundaries addressed in Deuteronomy and Joshua is not also somehow "dividing the land"; ...if one assumes that only giving up land gained by the wars in 1967 and 1973 is "dividing the land"; ...and if, again, one assumes that one can speak coherently by citing one part of a sentence and not the other, or that one part of sentence may be in force but that the second part will not be in force until some murky time in the future, and one can assume a number of other odd ways of reading the Bible that I am suddenly too tired to go into...
...if all of that is true then yes, Pat Robertson could be right.
But for me, that's too many ifs.
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Lessons Learned This Past Year
- Get your wisdom teeth pulled when you have the chance. If you wait too long, they can't take them out and it leads to lots of trouble.
- Don't give up too early - witness the L.A. Galaxy's championship this year.
- When committing human ashes to the sea from a boat, make sure you do so from the downwind side of the boat.
- Expect your students to amaze you once a week. I consciously tried to do this last semester and I was amazed in each of my classes at least eleven of the fourteen weeks of the term.
- When something mechanical goes wrong, don't make the mistake of combining temperamental pessimism with a limited sense of mechanical insight. Don't assume it can't be helped. Get someone else to take a second look so you won't, for instance, end up bending a car door hinge beyond repair.
- Go ahead and ask God for good things, and don't let your circumstances determine your horizons. I had failed to pray about a constellation of issues for some time because I couldn't see any way they could happen. After several years of grumbling and sadness about this, I prayed and asked and things fell together for me within a month. This gave me the unique feeling of feeling profoundly blessed and profoundly stupid at the same time.
- A cat is going to be a cat, whether you like it or not.
- Don't give up too early - witness the L.A. Galaxy's championship this year.
- When committing human ashes to the sea from a boat, make sure you do so from the downwind side of the boat.
- Expect your students to amaze you once a week. I consciously tried to do this last semester and I was amazed in each of my classes at least eleven of the fourteen weeks of the term.
- When something mechanical goes wrong, don't make the mistake of combining temperamental pessimism with a limited sense of mechanical insight. Don't assume it can't be helped. Get someone else to take a second look so you won't, for instance, end up bending a car door hinge beyond repair.
- Go ahead and ask God for good things, and don't let your circumstances determine your horizons. I had failed to pray about a constellation of issues for some time because I couldn't see any way they could happen. After several years of grumbling and sadness about this, I prayed and asked and things fell together for me within a month. This gave me the unique feeling of feeling profoundly blessed and profoundly stupid at the same time.
- A cat is going to be a cat, whether you like it or not.
Monday, January 09, 2006
Linkage XXVI
Oh, the Nerdity Star Wars has a disturbingly strong pull on the hearts and wallets of many men of a certain age and inclination. Here's more grist for the mill - www.starwarsholidayspecial.com - a site "...created as a labor of love in homage to the 25th anniversary of The Star Wars Holiday Special, which aired one time only on November 17th, 1978 and has been virtually lost ever since. The intent was to gather as much as there is to possibly know about the Holiday Special and document it in great detail, since this has never really been done before." (Via Susan Kitchens)
Cy or Blinky? Jeff links to a picture of a cat born with only one eye. (I can't imagine what he was searching for to arrive at that image, can you?)
Archie's Boy Discourse.net links to this breakdown of the Colts quarterback - Peyton Manning: the Man and the Brand. I find myself thinking about things like this, and I love it when I come across someone who is smarter than me and can do it in ways that I would never think of.
Insulin Required To counterbalance Jeff's one-eyed cat, here is a photo of a horse and a cat that love each other. And they're Australian, no less, so as we anthropomorphize them we can imagine they have cute Aussie accents. (via BoingBoing)
Barbie Torture No, not Klaus Barbie, the "Butcher of Lyons". I mean little girls torturing their dolls. Read about it here. I'm not sure what the fuss is - this just seems to be the counterpart to boys messing up GI Joes, but since I did neither as a kid, I may be missing something here. (from Marginal Revolution)
Cy or Blinky? Jeff links to a picture of a cat born with only one eye. (I can't imagine what he was searching for to arrive at that image, can you?)
Archie's Boy Discourse.net links to this breakdown of the Colts quarterback - Peyton Manning: the Man and the Brand. I find myself thinking about things like this, and I love it when I come across someone who is smarter than me and can do it in ways that I would never think of.
Insulin Required To counterbalance Jeff's one-eyed cat, here is a photo of a horse and a cat that love each other. And they're Australian, no less, so as we anthropomorphize them we can imagine they have cute Aussie accents. (via BoingBoing)
Barbie Torture No, not Klaus Barbie, the "Butcher of Lyons". I mean little girls torturing their dolls. Read about it here. I'm not sure what the fuss is - this just seems to be the counterpart to boys messing up GI Joes, but since I did neither as a kid, I may be missing something here. (from Marginal Revolution)
Friday, January 06, 2006
As I Walk This Earth... (Episode II)
... I note that:
- many of the people who work in parking garages around SoCal seem to be Ethiopians (or Eritreans, or perhaps Somalis). Why is that?
- in an ad in the LA Weekly, Ozomatli is playing at the same club as Foreigner and Eddie Money. I know I'm a little behind on the rock en Espanol scene, but aren't Ozomatli cooler than this? Are Indian casinos next?
- in the 1/6/06 LA Times crossword, the answer to 53 down, "He played Obi-Wan", is Ewan, not Alec. Hmm.
OK. so...
...it's been one month since I last did a post of any real substance, or at least one that is of the kind of thing I really hoped to do by starting this.
I'm still having trouble for the same reasons I cited before, now even more so.
But, Pat Robertson has once again goaded me to action, like he did last summer. Look for my own exegesis of the Joel text he cited in this space either later today or tomorrow.
I'm still having trouble for the same reasons I cited before, now even more so.
But, Pat Robertson has once again goaded me to action, like he did last summer. Look for my own exegesis of the Joel text he cited in this space either later today or tomorrow.
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