March 2011
9 posts
opening day
And one win in the books. Sabathia struck out the first batter he saw, Granderson dove in the grass to down the second, and later he and Teixiera went yard.
Say what you will about the Yankees’ bloated salaries and propensity for chasing marquee players (I won’t deny it), but don’t forget my favorites. I cheer for the low-key guys like Nick Swisher, who sacrificed himself in a...
dog stalker monday
With the running of the Iditarod Race, the international dog sledding season comes to a close. Reminds me of this great scene from The Simpsons Movie.
steep and cheap
I don’t normally encourage commodity, but this site is too helpful not to pass along. Steep and Cheap offers one sale item at a time related to the outdoors, until its gone.
This is so cool. Congrats to my alma mater.
Without the care of folks like Shelby Foote, Ken Burns, and my own dad, I doubt I’d marvel so much at the tragedy of the Civil War. I can’t count how many times I’ve veered off a booming interstate just to visit some tiny place tangentially related to that great story, much to the boredom of fellow travelers. Battlefields like...
accounting & war
I haven’t said much about our military involvement with Libya, though for the most part I agree with the way it has been handled (with the support of regional groups like the Arab League and with real leadership from some international allies), albeit somewhat slowly. It’s worth noting the shell game we’re playing in “handing things off to NATO,” the military arm of...
dog stalker monday
Woodrow belongs to my buddy Gabe, and is currently featured in Garden & Gun’s “Dogs Being Dogs” photo contest. If you like dogs - or the south - you owe it to yourself to check it out. Having met this dog, I can say I have no idea how they got it to sit still or wear such a ridiculous raincoat.
“All the forces in the world are not so powerful as an idea whose time has come.”
– Victor Hugo, obviously a constructivist when it came to International Relations.
WatchNational Geographic shows us the most typical face in the world. Things are changing fast on the geo-political stage, though. Within two decades, the face will be Indian.
February 2011
5 posts
WatchThere’s science in art, I often forget. Using a scene from the wonderful There Will Be Blood, this essay comments on how movie-watchers view a film, by cataloguing where the eye gazes, and for how long. In other words, it measures perceptions of art.
“Now when we hear something that sounds like a fart, we have to blame it on you...”
– Nolan to his father, after the family dog died.
Bill Maher: “100 million Americans will watch the Super Bowl - 40 million more than go to church on Christmas and 85 million more than watched the last game of the World Series. In that is an economic lesson. Football is built on a model of opportunity, and baseball is built where the rich always win and the poor have no chance. To put it another way, football is more like Democratic...
what does egypt mean?
Does it mean that, despite a beneficial relationship with the regime in power, the US recognizes the need for reform? Or does the administration’s “neutrality” signal complicity?
Or is it a third thing all together? A lesson in leadership as a younger generation takes its protest world-wide by internet, commands a thoughtful strategy, and demands free elections from a...
January 2011
15 posts
three-peat, as coined by pat riley
Awesomesauce roared back with a full roster and a 9-point win at trivia last night. For those counting, it means three in a row and an undefeated 2011. There were clutch performances all around, too, with Kim the only one of us to correctly list past Super Bowl winners, Jeff naming the last astronaut to walk on the moon, Ben nailing references to Camus and The Black Keys, and John making Martin...
beauty in restraint
This week (on my favorite Yankees Blog of all places), I ran across an article appreciative of “negative space in writing,” that is, the very fine art of economy of words. In it, the author references Chris Jones, who says: ”we’re taught to believe that words have a value, a power, a weight. Logically, then, the more words, the better the story.”
One reason I...
“If you wanna talk to me…then shut your f**kin’ mouth!”
– Raymond Huffman, recording arguing with his roommates by his neighbors. This very strange story has been turned into an underground world of comics, videos, and now even a documentary at the just-completed Sundance Film Festival. For background and some clips, visit Slashfilm here.
saturday's playlist
Why Is It So Hard - Charles Bradley
Rum Hee - Shugo Tokumaru
Rain Song - Bambi Soundtrack
Halloweenhead - Ryan Adams
Apple Valley - The Red River
Bummer - Best Coast / Jeff The Brotherhood
Backin’ Up Song (feat. Diana) - The Gregory Brothers
South Dakota pt. II: Chicago & Minnesota - Cousin Dud
When I Go - Slow Club
Really Realize - Lab Coast
Walk On The Ocean - Toad The Wet...
film: true grit
True Grit is a truly great Western, and a wonderful film. In the month since I’ve seen it, it was completely shut-out for nominations at the Golden Globes and I’ve heard many friends express disappointment. I’ve wondered if the reason behind the lack of love has to do with the face that - despite knock-out performances and a script with more poetry and weight that I’ve...
film: white material
White Material is in many ways like the collection of stories by Nadine Gordimer I’m reading right now. Both use action, not dialogue or exposition, to reveal character; and both are set (primarily) in an Africa full of racial and political tension.
Where they differ, in my opinion, is in their view of what motivates their characters. Gordimer always leaves puzzles and unanswerable...
“It is the law of the land and it is the platform, the fundamental platform, upon...”
– Doctor and former Republican Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, on the health care reform law.
Cousin Dud sings South Dakota Part II: Chicago and...
important neighborhood discoveries
The guy that runs the liquor store is also the guy that runs the art supply store.
hipster dinos!
They are cooler than you.
film: black swan
Mirrors and reflections loom large in this dark treatment of an artist’s ability to lose herself in her art. In the end, the film doesn’t add up. There is the plot, of course: a mystery placed in a pressure-cooker and split into several personalities; but there is also the performance of Natalie Portman: brave, as you’ve heard, but still not as good as her performance in...
snap judgments
Harvard Magazine highlights Professor Amy Cuddy’s work on our immediate perceptions of warmth and competence in others, and how those perceptions shape our responses to others. Together, she says, warmth and competence account for 80% of our overall initial evaluation of someone we meet.
She also explores the tendencies of alpha-type personalities in positions of power to stereotype more....
December 2010
4 posts
film: tron legacy
I saw Tron Legacy. I really liked the music. Daft Punk made the music and I liked it. The movie was good, really much better than I anticipated. The movie has some deeply weak moments that really hurt the thing overall.
Also, uncanny valley. The face-capture stuff used for Jeff Bridges/Clu just creeped me out more than anything.
Beep boop beeeeeeeep boop boop clang beep. (That’s how...
christmas cards from wonderful aunts, part i
film: the fighter
Anyone that walks out of this movie thinking Christian Bale deserves the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor is crazy. What he deserves is Best Actor.
Bale shares 95% of his scenes with “lead” actor Mark Wahlberg, and has a lion’s share of the dialogue, fantastically inhabiting a charachter who is both local legend and recovering addict. Maybe Bale’s overshadowing of...
goodbye, don't ask don't tell
And good riddance.
July 2010
1 post
rage, rage
Today is the day I give up on basketball. I used to believe LeBron James was okay; maybe even an anti-superstar, but I find this whole drawn-out, free agent production insulting and self-aggrandizing.
I never really loved basketball, anyway. The dribbling part always seems so arbitrary, as if James Naismith came up with all the rules and then added, “Oh yeah, and uhhhh, you have to BOUNCE...
June 2010
9 posts
the band of heathens
9:00 tonight, at Sticky Fingers. They even cover “Look at Miss Ohio,” a personal favorite. See you there?
ruh-roh
Sunspots follow an eleven year pattern of activity, giving us a glimpse at the interior workings of our star at their nadir, and overwhelming the Earth with energy and magnetic activity at their peak. But what happens when the sun has trouble starting its next cycle? Are we in for an epic burst in activity?
no future, no guilt
Is the human desire for offspring an abusive, unethical remnant of an evolutionary desire for survival of the species? By dismissing the conditions into which we’re bringing children, are we being reckless? Are we ignoring the rights of a future generation? Should we all just sterilize ourselves and “party our way into extinction?”
South African philosopher David Benatar...
drawing lines →
Seth Masket’s blog post on why conservatives might hate soccer includes this money quote from Bill Clinton:
“America has two great dominant strands of political thought:…conservatism, which, at its very best, draws lines that should not be crossed; and progressivism, which, at its very best, breaks down barriers that are no longer needed or should never have been erected in the...
stuff no one told me
Stuff No One Told Me (But I Learned Anyway) is an alright blog, in a pinch.
take me out to the crowd
Over the weekend, I made my first visit to new Busch Stadium in St. Louis. It got me thinking of the science (and quirks) behind the ballparks I’ve seen. Now comes this article to explain it all…
For the record, Wrigley is my favorite park. However, the atmosphere before the games at Camden Yards is hard to beat.
i'm back, with bacon
That’s right, its rainbow bacon.
February 2010
6 posts
what can we learn from chickens?
“Simple lessons like these: competition without co-operation is nonsense; you can’t win by simply eradicating all the opposition - that’s a pyrrhic victory. Economic and management theorists subscribing to the view that unbridled competition offers the greatest efficiency should be made to watch chickens. In life, winning really isn’t everything - it isn’t even...
“It’s a special day. It’s a day to understand the person who means...”
– Raekwon, on Valentine’s Day
oscar - best supporting actress
I find the supporting performance categories to be tougher choices, year-to-year, as quality among nominees is both high and evenly-matched. This year, however, it’s no contest.
Who will win: Mo’nique, Precious
Who should win: Mo’nique, Precious
I was absolutely surprised and terrified by her chilling turn as the title character’s mother. Did anyone see that coming? ...
“To go in the dark with a light is to know the light, / To know the dark, go...”
– Wendell Berry, To know the dark
Looking for a last minute Valentine’s Day gift? Waffle House is again offering candlelit dinners on February 14th.
Goodness, but memories are precious: I recall a post-prom trip to WH with Becca and Sam. Tender.
i had a dream last night
I was staying at an expensive ski resort/soccer stadium - the kind of place that only exists in dreams. I shoplifted a sweater from some fancy shop. On my way out and to the ski lifts, I was confronted by a cop. Instead of coming clean or running away or freaking out in general, I recalled that the easiest way out of trouble would be to wake up. So I did.
It’s open for interpretation.
January 2010
3 posts
haiti
I haven’t spoken much of the tragedy of it. I feel ashamed that I’m uncomfortable doing so. I have an overwhelming desire to get down there.
But I haven’t spoken of the lives lost or the incredible logistical logjams facing relief organizations (docks destroyed, anemic airports, streets crowded with the homeless) or the very real political extinction facing the country.
...