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Wednesday, August 16, 2006
my youTube problem and the west wing love
Yes, I have one. Mainly because you come across clips like this which remind you just how great the show was in it's peak. I have passed on my love of this show to my boss, my last roommate, two best friends and my girlfriend; just as it was passed to me by my old roommate, John. Of course it should be understood I started watching the show way back when the second season was first airing and not during the last few seasons when it became more of a plot-driven drama and less of a character-driven drama.
This clip is from that season a few episodes in, "The Midterms". The end of the snippet where Bartlett addresses Toby briefly with "That's how I beat him.", deal with the President's sometimes here-or-there public debating problems. The Him refers to a conservative political bully Bartlett bested back in his original run for congress in his home state of New Hampshire. A liberal lion and a Nobel Laureate, he often had trouble voicing his opinions, though popular, against Republican bombast - his thinking that "nobody likes the smartest kid in the class".
Here he uses the best part of his intellect to dismantle the skewed logic of a Dr. Laura stand-in, the ficticious Dr. Jenna Jacobs, who's visiting the White House as part of a reception for important figures in the media.
Yes, I have one. Mainly because you come across clips like this which remind you just how great the show was in it's peak. I have passed on my love of this show to my boss, my last roommate, two best friends and my girlfriend; just as it was passed to me by my old roommate, John. Of course it should be understood I started watching the show way back when the second season was first airing and not during the last few seasons when it became more of a plot-driven drama and less of a character-driven drama.
This clip is from that season a few episodes in, "The Midterms". The end of the snippet where Bartlett addresses Toby briefly with "That's how I beat him.", deal with the President's sometimes here-or-there public debating problems. The Him refers to a conservative political bully Bartlett bested back in his original run for congress in his home state of New Hampshire. A liberal lion and a Nobel Laureate, he often had trouble voicing his opinions, though popular, against Republican bombast - his thinking that "nobody likes the smartest kid in the class".
Here he uses the best part of his intellect to dismantle the skewed logic of a Dr. Laura stand-in, the ficticious Dr. Jenna Jacobs, who's visiting the White House as part of a reception for important figures in the media.
Monday, August 14, 2006
memory
When I was 2 my favorite toys were Bristle Blocks. Being like legos they were made of a soft plastic, not hard plastic, thus kid-safe. I was proud of myself when I made a Spanish galleon to copy the one I'd seen in a book.
At age 4, when could make my way to the kitchen cabinets, I created the poor man's (kid's?) version of raisin bread. I would push the raisins into regular white Wonder Bread, spinkle with cinnamon and sugar and slide them into the toaster-oven. I never would've remembered that without the photographic evidence.
Being 5, the fictional character I most admired would've been Zorro. Quite possibly because my father looks latino with his dark black hair and tan complexion. I think that moustache I'm wearing is more convincing than the one I could try to grow now.
In the third grade, 7 years old, I had a my first teacher crush in Miss Glickman. The amazing power time has to wipe away or dillute our remembrance of events is never more clear in her huge, awful glasses. How I managed to forget them is beyond me. That said, I do remember how I used to finish her sentences for her and the soothing, comforting thanks I received for doing so.
At my 10th birthday I can't for the life of me remember what I got. All the dollars in my pockets for all the dollars in your pockets it was either Transformers or G.I Joe related. I will also include runners-up M.A.S.K. and He-Man, though I think He-Man had come and gone by 1988. Observe closely and you can spot the nearly hidden, but obviously god-awful, rat-tail creeping from the back of my head and down over the collar of my blue polo. Blue is the best color of all time.
I'd like to thank my mother for the repeated e-mails that include photos from what seem like another lifetime.
When I was 2 my favorite toys were Bristle Blocks. Being like legos they were made of a soft plastic, not hard plastic, thus kid-safe. I was proud of myself when I made a Spanish galleon to copy the one I'd seen in a book.
At age 4, when could make my way to the kitchen cabinets, I created the poor man's (kid's?) version of raisin bread. I would push the raisins into regular white Wonder Bread, spinkle with cinnamon and sugar and slide them into the toaster-oven. I never would've remembered that without the photographic evidence.
Being 5, the fictional character I most admired would've been Zorro. Quite possibly because my father looks latino with his dark black hair and tan complexion. I think that moustache I'm wearing is more convincing than the one I could try to grow now.
In the third grade, 7 years old, I had a my first teacher crush in Miss Glickman. The amazing power time has to wipe away or dillute our remembrance of events is never more clear in her huge, awful glasses. How I managed to forget them is beyond me. That said, I do remember how I used to finish her sentences for her and the soothing, comforting thanks I received for doing so.
At my 10th birthday I can't for the life of me remember what I got. All the dollars in my pockets for all the dollars in your pockets it was either Transformers or G.I Joe related. I will also include runners-up M.A.S.K. and He-Man, though I think He-Man had come and gone by 1988. Observe closely and you can spot the nearly hidden, but obviously god-awful, rat-tail creeping from the back of my head and down over the collar of my blue polo. Blue is the best color of all time.
I'd like to thank my mother for the repeated e-mails that include photos from what seem like another lifetime.
Friday, August 11, 2006
Q&A
The following is a list of questions asked by the people of Powells.com of noted writers. I came across it while looking up the author of a quote "... when hope and history rhyme", Seamus Heany. Really, I'm answering them because I like what they reveal.
What fictional character would you like to date, and why?
The last written female to really impress upon me probably would've been as long ago as Dominque Francon in The Fountainhead. Her indomitable spirit that breaks through a blanket of the best-articulated feminine practicality, that's the allure.
Introduce one other author you think people should read, and suggest a good book/place to start with.
Dave Eggers' writing in his debut, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. He may be overrated, but he's got the stuff and I want more of it.
Offer a favorite sentence or passage from another writer.
"The helpless part of trying to do anything about it was that she did it all herself. She was not a girl who could be won in the kinetic sense-she was proof against cleverness, she was proof against charm; if any of these assailed her too strongly she would immediately resolve the affair to a physical basis, and under the magic of her physical splendor the strong as well as the brilliant played her game and not their own. She was entertained only by the gratification of her desires and by the direct exercise of her own charm. Perhaps from so much youthful love, so many youthful lovers, she had come, in self- defense, to nourish herself wholly from within."
- F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story Winter Dreams.
It's the longest passage from any literary work that I have memorized.
What is your favorite literary first line?"
"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,..."
How did the last good book you read end up in your hands and why did you read it?
Hunter S. Thompson's The Rum Diary. It being his first, it's just a straight up narrative about his time in the Carribean. Beth loaned it to me and hasn't gotten it back yet, who's to say if she ever will.
What makes your favorite pair of shoes better than the rest?
They're shiny and spiffy and I only bought them two months ago. Most importantly, Teri likes them.
Describe the best breakfast of your life.
Eggs Benny with potatoes on the side, has-brown style please. Go easy on the hollandaise too. Doing a crossword with the love of my life, both coffee and orange juice.
What is your idea of absolute happiness?
Not worrying about money at all, ever.
What is your favorite indulgence, either wicked or benign?
Really good bourbon.... I mean, REALLY good.
Why do you write?
Because the alternative, not writing, is unthinkably unbearable.
What do you dislike most?
When people lie to you. It shows a fundamental disrespect to me, thinking I would be so dumb, ignorant or stupid to believe you. I am smarter than that and I deserve people in my life who never lie to me. Public officials and the media offend me in the same way but to a lesser degree, it's much more impersonal.
Talk about your vision of the ideal life.
An awesome apartment my wife and I own, great and demanding jobs that we both love. We have dinner parties, I do the cooking and she picks the wine and desserts. We go to both classical music concerts in our Sunday best as frequently as we go see rock bands at dive bars. We talk all the time, we never get tired of talking to each other. We read, we both write, she encourages my writing and my artwork. We travel at least three times a year, there are pictures on our mantle of us at Easter Island, in Rome, on a boat in the Indian Ocean, at a Buddhist temple in Japan. People are jealous of us and have a right to be. We are stars and we are burning bright.
Who are your favorite characters in history? Have any of them influenced your writing?
The following is a list of questions asked by the people of Powells.com of noted writers. I came across it while looking up the author of a quote "... when hope and history rhyme", Seamus Heany. Really, I'm answering them because I like what they reveal.
What fictional character would you like to date, and why?
The last written female to really impress upon me probably would've been as long ago as Dominque Francon in The Fountainhead. Her indomitable spirit that breaks through a blanket of the best-articulated feminine practicality, that's the allure.
Introduce one other author you think people should read, and suggest a good book/place to start with.
Dave Eggers' writing in his debut, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. He may be overrated, but he's got the stuff and I want more of it.
Offer a favorite sentence or passage from another writer.
"The helpless part of trying to do anything about it was that she did it all herself. She was not a girl who could be won in the kinetic sense-she was proof against cleverness, she was proof against charm; if any of these assailed her too strongly she would immediately resolve the affair to a physical basis, and under the magic of her physical splendor the strong as well as the brilliant played her game and not their own. She was entertained only by the gratification of her desires and by the direct exercise of her own charm. Perhaps from so much youthful love, so many youthful lovers, she had come, in self- defense, to nourish herself wholly from within."
- F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story Winter Dreams.
It's the longest passage from any literary work that I have memorized.
What is your favorite literary first line?"
"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,..."
How did the last good book you read end up in your hands and why did you read it?
Hunter S. Thompson's The Rum Diary. It being his first, it's just a straight up narrative about his time in the Carribean. Beth loaned it to me and hasn't gotten it back yet, who's to say if she ever will.
What makes your favorite pair of shoes better than the rest?
They're shiny and spiffy and I only bought them two months ago. Most importantly, Teri likes them.
Describe the best breakfast of your life.
Eggs Benny with potatoes on the side, has-brown style please. Go easy on the hollandaise too. Doing a crossword with the love of my life, both coffee and orange juice.
What is your idea of absolute happiness?
Not worrying about money at all, ever.
What is your favorite indulgence, either wicked or benign?
Really good bourbon.... I mean, REALLY good.
Why do you write?
Because the alternative, not writing, is unthinkably unbearable.
What do you dislike most?
When people lie to you. It shows a fundamental disrespect to me, thinking I would be so dumb, ignorant or stupid to believe you. I am smarter than that and I deserve people in my life who never lie to me. Public officials and the media offend me in the same way but to a lesser degree, it's much more impersonal.
Talk about your vision of the ideal life.
An awesome apartment my wife and I own, great and demanding jobs that we both love. We have dinner parties, I do the cooking and she picks the wine and desserts. We go to both classical music concerts in our Sunday best as frequently as we go see rock bands at dive bars. We talk all the time, we never get tired of talking to each other. We read, we both write, she encourages my writing and my artwork. We travel at least three times a year, there are pictures on our mantle of us at Easter Island, in Rome, on a boat in the Indian Ocean, at a Buddhist temple in Japan. People are jealous of us and have a right to be. We are stars and we are burning bright.
Who are your favorite characters in history? Have any of them influenced your writing?
If the History Channel is running something about World War II, I'm stuck watching it. Other than that, historical figures don't really boost me into the creative stratosphere, though I do like hearing their stories. I've been tempted to steal from them outright.
Aside from other writers, name some artists from whom you draw inspiration and talk a little about their work.
Tchaikovsky, the second movement from his 6th Symphony (Pathetique) is called Allegro con grazia. At about two and a half minutes in the strings begin this sad, drawing inward then outward, up and soaring. I used to lay on my bed as a teenager and listen to it in the dark with my headphones on over and over again. At that age my angst always gave quickly away to melodramatic brooding. Then at almost five minutes in it lifts out and into the the whimsical hope that the movement began with. No one knows if Piotr died of cholera or if he was asked to kill himself by the court of honor at the conservatory where he was schooled for his undocumented homosexuality. This final Symphony is the height of the torturous ordeal that was his life. All that said, this piece of music stirs me to write.
In the For-All-Eternity category, what will be your final thought?
But,... but... I'm not done yet.
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
the impossible
Sunday afternoon my self-confidence went soaring as I did what I never even thought I'd have to do. That I had accomplished what I only imagine to be the pinnacle of music-snobbery. I had successfully and to much acclaim...
DJ'ED FOR A TEA PARTY
Now let me explain - There were twenty-six ladies ranging from ages 20 to 55, all wearing obnoxiously lady-like hats of varying colors and sporting sun-dresses with little white gloves. This was to be one of the younger ladies' bridal shower, it was overly cute the whole idea.
Fifteen minutes before the festivities began a 2pm the owner of the resturant passes me as I'm making preparations for the event and goes, "Umm, yeah... tea party music...? Any ideas?" Nothing appropriate on any ones of our three iPods that we use for the bar's soundtrack, I started to scour mine.
Ten minutes into the event, I've got it. I come bursting into the office door where John sits contemplating some other problem and raise my right index triumphantly, "Django Reinhart!!"
"Oh hell yes! Perfect!", he replies. I plug in my iPod and turn it up, switching off the somewhat too mellow and folksy Iron and Wine and setting it to play my two Django albums on random repeat.
It's a hit, the mother who planned the event loves it. They are now swaying and doing the kind of half-dancing only old white women can do.
Thanks, Django. Your gypsy swing jazz came through in a clutch.
(I am also now prepared to "battle" any DJ who may come calling)
Sunday afternoon my self-confidence went soaring as I did what I never even thought I'd have to do. That I had accomplished what I only imagine to be the pinnacle of music-snobbery. I had successfully and to much acclaim...
DJ'ED FOR A TEA PARTY
Now let me explain - There were twenty-six ladies ranging from ages 20 to 55, all wearing obnoxiously lady-like hats of varying colors and sporting sun-dresses with little white gloves. This was to be one of the younger ladies' bridal shower, it was overly cute the whole idea.
Fifteen minutes before the festivities began a 2pm the owner of the resturant passes me as I'm making preparations for the event and goes, "Umm, yeah... tea party music...? Any ideas?" Nothing appropriate on any ones of our three iPods that we use for the bar's soundtrack, I started to scour mine.
Ten minutes into the event, I've got it. I come bursting into the office door where John sits contemplating some other problem and raise my right index triumphantly, "Django Reinhart!!"
"Oh hell yes! Perfect!", he replies. I plug in my iPod and turn it up, switching off the somewhat too mellow and folksy Iron and Wine and setting it to play my two Django albums on random repeat.
It's a hit, the mother who planned the event loves it. They are now swaying and doing the kind of half-dancing only old white women can do.
Thanks, Django. Your gypsy swing jazz came through in a clutch.
(I am also now prepared to "battle" any DJ who may come calling)
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
my bag
... is a black Technics dj bag that came second-hand through one of my girlfriend's friends. Despite the fact that it is uber-functional and so sweet, she gave it to me as a present a few months ago. Any city-dweller, even in Baltimore, realizes the importance of these readily available items :
inner front pouch, velco, small (originally intended to store spare needles)
-USB cable for iPod
inner front pouch, velco, long (originally intended to store deck arms)
- tools of ignorance : bottle opener and wine key
- not one, but now two AC chargers for cell phone
inner front pouch, square, velco
- prescription for amoxcillin, anti-biotic to reduce infection of tooth
- prescription for ibuprofen, pain relief of tooth
- prescription for vicadin, or generic hydrocodone, extreme pain relief for tooth
- either eclipse mints or dentyne ice gum
inner front pouch, square, zip-up
- Obsidian, 60gig Ipod i bought myself for christmas w/ earbuds
- Camel Lights
- keys, both work and personal
- paycheck or cash tips from work
(this in addition to other valauables makes me feel like a walking pinata in certain neighorhoods or at certain hours of the night)
main pouch, zip up
- blue Boston Red Sox hat with white "B", purchased at Fenway by the Teri
- green hanky for wear upon the head or unscrewing hot radiator caps, blowing of the nose, etc...
- AC adapter for laptop
- Janus, the laptop i bought myself for my birthday, i love him... (hims?)
... is a black Technics dj bag that came second-hand through one of my girlfriend's friends. Despite the fact that it is uber-functional and so sweet, she gave it to me as a present a few months ago. Any city-dweller, even in Baltimore, realizes the importance of these readily available items :
inner front pouch, velco, small (originally intended to store spare needles)
-USB cable for iPod
inner front pouch, velco, long (originally intended to store deck arms)
- tools of ignorance : bottle opener and wine key
- not one, but now two AC chargers for cell phone
inner front pouch, square, velco
- prescription for amoxcillin, anti-biotic to reduce infection of tooth
- prescription for ibuprofen, pain relief of tooth
- prescription for vicadin, or generic hydrocodone, extreme pain relief for tooth
- either eclipse mints or dentyne ice gum
inner front pouch, square, zip-up
- Obsidian, 60gig Ipod i bought myself for christmas w/ earbuds
- Camel Lights
- keys, both work and personal
- paycheck or cash tips from work
(this in addition to other valauables makes me feel like a walking pinata in certain neighorhoods or at certain hours of the night)
main pouch, zip up
- blue Boston Red Sox hat with white "B", purchased at Fenway by the Teri
- green hanky for wear upon the head or unscrewing hot radiator caps, blowing of the nose, etc...
- AC adapter for laptop
- Janus, the laptop i bought myself for my birthday, i love him... (hims?)
album
permanent :joy division
literature
breakfast at tiffany's :truman capote
single
big casino :jimmy eat world
worthwhile
they're playing my songpop occulture
i kan't spell
dispositive
pitchfork media
oblivio
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