Time for more Thoughts and Things on the new TV season. But first, a complaint. I'm going through painful withdrawal. The forums (discussion boards) on Television Without Pity have been down for about a week, as they're moving them to new servers, or something. They say it'll be faster and less likely to forget which page you want to go to next, but they've also taken a lot longer to get up and running again than they predicted. They now say they'll open on Thursday at noon. And they also said they'd be open by noon on Tuesday. And by Monday. And by last Saturday at the latest. Gotta have my TWOP.
HBO started two new series last Sunday. The jury is still out on both of them, so far as I'm concerned. One is their political semi-reality show, K Street. Executive produced by George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh, and starring the fun couple of James Carville and Mary Matalin (gee, those two deserve each other), Michael Deaver, some real actors, and continuous guest appearances by politicians playing themselves. The best part is that it's timely: they start filming a Sunday night episode on the previous Monday. Can't have "coming next week" promos, as a result. But the shows can address actual issues in a timely manner. The first episode focused on Howard Dean and his performance at the 9-candidate debate in Baltimore. Carville helps Dean with some debate prep and suggests a couple of "spontaneous" lines that he could use, and then does, to great efffect. (Yes, I understand: they watched the debate in real life, found those lines, and then filmed the debate prep scenes. It still came across pretty well.) Haven't yet decided what I think of this show, yet. I'm enough of a poltical junkie to enjoy the behind-the-scenes maneuvering of the political consultants and lobbyists, but they'll need to have a more coherent story line and characters to effectively bring the series to life.
The other new HBO series is Carnivale. Set in the 1930's, a traveling carnival picks up a young man from a Dust Bowl farm - a young man with an amazing power of healing. At the same time, a minister in California discovers that he has mysterious powers. An opening monologue talks about the balance of Good and Evil and there always being one leader of each power on the earth, at least until the first atomic bomb blast. Wonderful production values, good cast, very odd characters (as you'd expect in a traveling carnival). Sort of a strange combination of The Grapes of Wrath for the Dust Bowl and going-to-California settings, Something Wicked This Way Comes for the feeling of evil in a carnival, and Twin Peaks, because it's all just so darn strange. Don't know how the show is going to go. It sort of depends on which year of Twin Peaks it decides to emulate: the first year, which was edgy, spooky, and chilling, or the second year, which was stupid, pointless, and pretentious. I'm hopeful it'll be like the first year, especially since David Lynch isn't connected to this production.
Thursday, September 18, 2003
Wednesday, September 17, 2003
Hurricane Donald.
I suppose there are worse things to have raining down onto your house than, well, rain. Think: Synchronized flying ducks. And a bathtub full of water won't help you much.
Traveling music.
About 10 years ago, I finally got a CD player put into my car, so I could listen to music on long-distance trips without having to look for local radio stations every 50 miles or bringing along a stack of cassette tapes. With an in-the-trunk-mounted player and a cassette of six discs, I could drive a fair distance before having to stop and put in new discs. Depending on what kind of trip I was on, I'd measure a day's travel by going through the stack of six discs - if I was already at my destination and was just noodling around and finding interesting places, finishing the sixth disc was the sign to find a place to stop for the night. And if it was a day when I was trying to get to my destination, finishing the first stack of discs indicated I should stop for a meal, and then get back on the road to drive another stack's worth.
About 4 years ago, I discovered that music wasn't the only thing I could listen to on long drives: I could listen to recorded books. I quickly discovered that, just as when I'm reading a book, I much prefer listening to an unabridged book rather than a condensed version. I never had much luck listening to taped books - the tape was thin, and seemed often to be stretched, so that the voice sounded odd - but about 3 years ago, a lot more books started coming out on CDs.
Listening to a recorded book while driving is a different experience from reading the same book. You aren't paying as much attention to it (at least, you shouldn't be, if you're driving), so books that are not terribly well written can still be enjoyable. (For me, one example of that is anything written by John Grisham. I've listened to a half-dozen of his books on disc, and they're a fun way to while away the miles. You're paying sufficiently little attention to the story that you don't realize how bad the plot is or how poor the characterization is. You'll get caught up in the excitement in the reader's voice, and then it's over. Actually having to read his books, where you're giving the story a lot more of your attention, is torture.) And you're forced to experience the entire book, at a fairly steady pace - you can't easily skip ahead or read faster, if you want to.
Over the past few years, I've listened to a lot of books, from All Quiet on the Western Front to various science fiction books (which don't really work for me as well in a recorded format) to thrillers and mysteries. (I've heard most of the Alex Cross series from James Patterson on disc, for instance.) I'm currently listening to Bill Bryson's In a Sunburned Country, and enjoying it immensely. I've read the book before, but it's a new and different experience to hear the author reading the book.
About 4 years ago, I discovered that music wasn't the only thing I could listen to on long drives: I could listen to recorded books. I quickly discovered that, just as when I'm reading a book, I much prefer listening to an unabridged book rather than a condensed version. I never had much luck listening to taped books - the tape was thin, and seemed often to be stretched, so that the voice sounded odd - but about 3 years ago, a lot more books started coming out on CDs.
Listening to a recorded book while driving is a different experience from reading the same book. You aren't paying as much attention to it (at least, you shouldn't be, if you're driving), so books that are not terribly well written can still be enjoyable. (For me, one example of that is anything written by John Grisham. I've listened to a half-dozen of his books on disc, and they're a fun way to while away the miles. You're paying sufficiently little attention to the story that you don't realize how bad the plot is or how poor the characterization is. You'll get caught up in the excitement in the reader's voice, and then it's over. Actually having to read his books, where you're giving the story a lot more of your attention, is torture.) And you're forced to experience the entire book, at a fairly steady pace - you can't easily skip ahead or read faster, if you want to.
Over the past few years, I've listened to a lot of books, from All Quiet on the Western Front to various science fiction books (which don't really work for me as well in a recorded format) to thrillers and mysteries. (I've heard most of the Alex Cross series from James Patterson on disc, for instance.) I'm currently listening to Bill Bryson's In a Sunburned Country, and enjoying it immensely. I've read the book before, but it's a new and different experience to hear the author reading the book.
Purple People Eater.
They don't write 'em like that any more. Sheb Wooley, who sang Purple People Eater in 1958, died yesterday. I wouldn't have guessed, but he'd had a career in TV and movies, appearing in High Noon, Hoosiers, and Giant on the big screen and in Rawhide on the small one.
Tuesday, September 16, 2003
Kool-aid, redux.
Oh, goody. Our favorite lunatic is back in the news. The mother who breast-fed her infant while tooling along the Ohio Turnpike without benefit of a driver's license or child restraints is appealing her conviction on the grounds of ineffective assistance of counsel. Well, sure. That's because she represented herself, after rejecting her court-appointed attorney. (Why? Because he wanted to defend her using, you know, Ohio law, while she wanted him to use only the Bible.)
Better still: she's trying to appeal as an indigent, because all of her property passed to her husband when they married, and he's unwilling to fund her appeal. And yet, he claims to be the only person who can speak for her - she's not permitted to - and he gave his permission for her to pursue the appeal. So the husband takes the wife's property, presumably would take the wife's income if she were to work, and is the "sole voice" for the couple, and the taxpayer is supposed to pay for her appeal, specious as it is?
And best of all: this was a pre-emptive strike of an appeal. The judge has apparently not sentenced her yet, so it's difficult to see why (and what) they're appealing. But why should they start acting reasonably now?
Better still: she's trying to appeal as an indigent, because all of her property passed to her husband when they married, and he's unwilling to fund her appeal. And yet, he claims to be the only person who can speak for her - she's not permitted to - and he gave his permission for her to pursue the appeal. So the husband takes the wife's property, presumably would take the wife's income if she were to work, and is the "sole voice" for the couple, and the taxpayer is supposed to pay for her appeal, specious as it is?
And best of all: this was a pre-emptive strike of an appeal. The judge has apparently not sentenced her yet, so it's difficult to see why (and what) they're appealing. But why should they start acting reasonably now?
A tale told by an idiot.
Okay, now I'm prepared for the hurricane. I've gotten even more cat food piled up ["We need more," says the little voice from near the floor], and I've mowed the yard. They don't often tell you how important that last step is - when the insurance adjuster comes to inspect the damage, he'll often give you as much as $10,000 more if your lawn is neatly cut underneath the downed limbs and debris from your neighbor's house. But the best widely-available advice is here. Oh, well. We're ready for the storm now. Bring on the sound and fury.
(Speaking of mowing the lawn, I haven't seen any evidence of Rosslyn, the neighborhood bunny in the last couple of weeks. Perhaps she's just moved a block over, where she can more easily raid someone's garden. Or perhaps she has hopped off to bunny heaven.)
(Speaking of mowing the lawn, I haven't seen any evidence of Rosslyn, the neighborhood bunny in the last couple of weeks. Perhaps she's just moved a block over, where she can more easily raid someone's garden. Or perhaps she has hopped off to bunny heaven.)
Monday, September 15, 2003
Hurricane Isabel.
I'm ready for Hurricane Isabel in the event it comes this way. I've got cat food enough to last through the weekend, and I've been assured that's the most important thing.
Reminds me of other hurricanes, though. I went to college in Houston, and each of the four years, we had one day off for weather related reasons: two for hurricanes, two for city-paralyzing snowstorms of 2 and 3 inches, respectively. Being as responsible as most college kids, we had hurricane parties. Water balloon fights, Frisbee throwing. (Not surprisingly, when you throw a Frisbee into winds of over 75 mph, it doesn't go where you aimed it.) And I seem to recall that there was drinking involved.
Hmm. Wonder where I packed away my Frisbees.
Reminds me of other hurricanes, though. I went to college in Houston, and each of the four years, we had one day off for weather related reasons: two for hurricanes, two for city-paralyzing snowstorms of 2 and 3 inches, respectively. Being as responsible as most college kids, we had hurricane parties. Water balloon fights, Frisbee throwing. (Not surprisingly, when you throw a Frisbee into winds of over 75 mph, it doesn't go where you aimed it.) And I seem to recall that there was drinking involved.
Hmm. Wonder where I packed away my Frisbees.
Sunday, September 14, 2003
Duke 27, Rice 24 (overtime).
Well, it's not as though either school is a football powerhouse. Last night's game was much more a competition to see which team would play slightly less bad, which team's inconsistent offense could overcome the other team's bad defense. And Duke wins in overtime, when the Rice kicker missed the tying field goal from 34 yards. On the other hand, Rice wins the moral victory, as Duke was favored by 11 or 12 points.
Rice had its opportunities to win during regulation, such as a 60-yard drive in the second quarter which ended with a fumble at the Duke 8 yard line. Rice was up 14-7 at that point, and a score there would have aided their cause immeasurably. Duke had its chances, too - stretching their lead to 10 points with 10 minutes to play should have been enough.
Evenly matched teams make for an exciting game, though, even if it wasn't an especially good game. Rice's final drive included converting a 4th-and-7 at midfield with a minute and a half to play and a 4th and 1 at the Duke 25 with 35 seconds left and no timeouts remaining. And the tying score came with 3 seconds left in the game.
Oh, well. It was a fun evening. The Rice Alumni Association barbecue beforehand had some 250 alumni and family attending, which was a pretty good turnout. Didn't see anyone I knew from my time at Rice, but I suppose that wasn't much of a surprise. On the other hand, I did see two people from my class from Duke's business school, so I got to catch up with some alumni, after all. (One of them is also a Rice graduate, albeit some mumblety-mumble years after me, so that wasn't a huge surprise.)
Rice had its opportunities to win during regulation, such as a 60-yard drive in the second quarter which ended with a fumble at the Duke 8 yard line. Rice was up 14-7 at that point, and a score there would have aided their cause immeasurably. Duke had its chances, too - stretching their lead to 10 points with 10 minutes to play should have been enough.
Evenly matched teams make for an exciting game, though, even if it wasn't an especially good game. Rice's final drive included converting a 4th-and-7 at midfield with a minute and a half to play and a 4th and 1 at the Duke 25 with 35 seconds left and no timeouts remaining. And the tying score came with 3 seconds left in the game.
Oh, well. It was a fun evening. The Rice Alumni Association barbecue beforehand had some 250 alumni and family attending, which was a pretty good turnout. Didn't see anyone I knew from my time at Rice, but I suppose that wasn't much of a surprise. On the other hand, I did see two people from my class from Duke's business school, so I got to catch up with some alumni, after all. (One of them is also a Rice graduate, albeit some mumblety-mumble years after me, so that wasn't a huge surprise.)
Saturday, September 13, 2003
Matchstick men.
Went to see Matchstick Men last night. Good movie, well worth seeing. Nicolas Cage does a wonderful job, as usual, playing offbeat characters. He certainly takes chances with his roles, and when he connects - as he does here - it's a delight to see. The script does a fine job of weaving together three separate stories - Cage as con man, Cage as a man with neurotic obsessions (think Adrian Monk on speed), and Cage as a man who discovers he has a teenage daughter.
Directed by Ridley Scott, who's been known to make a few good movies, too. Nice to see him making a relatively small, character-driven movie for a change, instead of a big blockbuster.
Directed by Ridley Scott, who's been known to make a few good movies, too. Nice to see him making a relatively small, character-driven movie for a change, instead of a big blockbuster.
Homemade ice cream, the easy way.
No muss, no fuss. And a whole lot quicker than having to drive to the store for Ben & Jerry's. Just be careful pouring in the ingredients.
Wednesday, September 10, 2003
More good news for red wines.
Researchers at UC-Davis have found a group of chemicals in red wine which are thought to help in the fight against cholesterol. These chemicals, saponins, work to prevent the absorption of cholesterol. The study announced this week at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society indicates that saponins are found in higher concentrations in red wines - especially zinfandel - and in wines with higher alcohol content.
Film quiz.
How good are you at identifying films from stills? How about if the characters are made invisible through Photoshop? Maybe you should start with Invisibles # 111, with scenes from black-and-white classics. Elsewhere on the site are other quizzes, such as Name the Missing Film, where they give year and name of three films by a director, surrounding a fourth year - you provide the name of the film the director made in that year. Definitely tests your movie knowledge. Fun little site.
Tuesday, September 09, 2003
More TV-watching.
Yes, the siren call of the idiot box has been calling me this week. But there have been some things worth watching: two were 9-11 related, and one's a miniseries. And none of them were on major commercial networks.
One was this week's American Experience: The Center of the World, the final episode in Ric Burns' series on New York City. This 3-hour episode was on the World Trade Center - its genesis, construction, life, and collapse. Very interesting, very detailed. Excessively detailed, in fact, the way that Ric Burns' documentaries usually are. I took a nice nap during the early part of the second hour. Awoke in plenty of time to watch the 15-minute segment on the Frenchman who did the unauthorized high-wire act between the buildings. Certainly one of the obvious differences between news reporting today and reporting in 1974 when the action took place is that it was covered then with still photographs, while today there'd be a lot of video cameras around recording every instant. The still photographs were more than vivid enough for me - seeing them made my legs go weak and my feet tingle, and they weren't even pointed down at the ground (which was, of course, 1200 feet straight down). The last hour was devoted to the events of two years ago, and I thought they were done in a good, low-key, straight-forward documentary style, although the sentimentality of an American production was definitely present. All in all, I thought it was worth seeing, although there were times I'd have like to have had both a pause button and and a fast-forward.
Another was BBC-produced Clear the Skies, a 1-hour look at 9-11 focusing on the civilian and military control of the sky above the US, and the reactions and decisions of the FAA, the military, and the Secret Service. Interviews with the four pilots of the military jets that were the only quickly-airborne defense for the northeastern US, eventually patrolling 2 over NYC and 2 over DC. Interviews with and videotape from the reporters' section of Air Force One, which had taken on enough food and supplies to stay aloft a week (presumably being refueled in midair). Pilots of additional military jets already in the air on training missions - and unarmed - realizing that they might have to ram their planes into hijacked commercial jets to prevent them from reaching their targets. A speeded-up tape showing nationwide traffic control radar as all of the non-military flights were grounded in the space of a couple of hours. Good show. Absolutely straight reporting. An angle to the story I hadn't seen done before, and well worth watching.
Finally, the fun one is the mini-series on Bravo this week, The Reality of Reality, an in-depth look at so-called reality shows, how they're manipulated through cast selection and copious editing, artificial drama, and the occasional re-filming of scenes "for better television". The higher-tier shows (Survivor, Big Brother) tend to play it more legit than the knock-off series. What people who take part in those shows expect will happen to them (wealth, fame, happiness), and what usually happens (adrenaline rush, followed by a tremendous let-down). As one of the folks who did well on Big Brother put it, "It's a pathetic attempt to get your life validated by strangers." Great fun if you've enjoyed any of the reality shows.
One was this week's American Experience: The Center of the World, the final episode in Ric Burns' series on New York City. This 3-hour episode was on the World Trade Center - its genesis, construction, life, and collapse. Very interesting, very detailed. Excessively detailed, in fact, the way that Ric Burns' documentaries usually are. I took a nice nap during the early part of the second hour. Awoke in plenty of time to watch the 15-minute segment on the Frenchman who did the unauthorized high-wire act between the buildings. Certainly one of the obvious differences between news reporting today and reporting in 1974 when the action took place is that it was covered then with still photographs, while today there'd be a lot of video cameras around recording every instant. The still photographs were more than vivid enough for me - seeing them made my legs go weak and my feet tingle, and they weren't even pointed down at the ground (which was, of course, 1200 feet straight down). The last hour was devoted to the events of two years ago, and I thought they were done in a good, low-key, straight-forward documentary style, although the sentimentality of an American production was definitely present. All in all, I thought it was worth seeing, although there were times I'd have like to have had both a pause button and and a fast-forward.
Another was BBC-produced Clear the Skies, a 1-hour look at 9-11 focusing on the civilian and military control of the sky above the US, and the reactions and decisions of the FAA, the military, and the Secret Service. Interviews with the four pilots of the military jets that were the only quickly-airborne defense for the northeastern US, eventually patrolling 2 over NYC and 2 over DC. Interviews with and videotape from the reporters' section of Air Force One, which had taken on enough food and supplies to stay aloft a week (presumably being refueled in midair). Pilots of additional military jets already in the air on training missions - and unarmed - realizing that they might have to ram their planes into hijacked commercial jets to prevent them from reaching their targets. A speeded-up tape showing nationwide traffic control radar as all of the non-military flights were grounded in the space of a couple of hours. Good show. Absolutely straight reporting. An angle to the story I hadn't seen done before, and well worth watching.
Finally, the fun one is the mini-series on Bravo this week, The Reality of Reality, an in-depth look at so-called reality shows, how they're manipulated through cast selection and copious editing, artificial drama, and the occasional re-filming of scenes "for better television". The higher-tier shows (Survivor, Big Brother) tend to play it more legit than the knock-off series. What people who take part in those shows expect will happen to them (wealth, fame, happiness), and what usually happens (adrenaline rush, followed by a tremendous let-down). As one of the folks who did well on Big Brother put it, "It's a pathetic attempt to get your life validated by strangers." Great fun if you've enjoyed any of the reality shows.
Screwcaps on wine.
Here's a report on a comparative tasting - by expert tasters - of wines sealed with natural cork vs. wines sealed with synthetic corks, screwcaps, and crown caps (as on bottled beer or soft drinks). Of the 40 wines where they could make a comparison, the wines with screwcaps were preferred 21 times, a wine with a natural cork was preferred once, and crown cap was preferred once.
One of the real surprises was that older wines did much better with screwcaps - wines that have aged, and one theory of wine aging holds that wines need to be able to breathe through the cork, which they cannot do with a synthetic cork or a screwcap. That theory may well be incorrect, and protecting the wine from breathing may be a better thing for winemakers to do. And if the wines can be protected from cork taint, so much the better.
One of the real surprises was that older wines did much better with screwcaps - wines that have aged, and one theory of wine aging holds that wines need to be able to breathe through the cork, which they cannot do with a synthetic cork or a screwcap. That theory may well be incorrect, and protecting the wine from breathing may be a better thing for winemakers to do. And if the wines can be protected from cork taint, so much the better.
Opus the Penguin to return.
Grand news. Some of the best comics news in a long time. Opus the Penguin is coming back. A Sunday-only strip, alas, but once-a-week is better than not at all. With luck, Opus will be bringing back all of the Bloom County gang with him.
Now if we could only get Watterston to bring back Calvin and Hobbes.
Now if we could only get Watterston to bring back Calvin and Hobbes.
Saturday, September 06, 2003
Someone old, someone new, someone sleazy, someone blue.
The Game Show Network has announced the remaining four candidates who will take part in the network's debate.
Joining the previously announced candidates Gary Coleman and porn star Mary Carey are artist and blue-clothes-only Trek Thunder Kelly, weapons collector Carl Mehr, college junior Bryan Quinn, and Bill Walton's son Nathan Whitecloud Walton. Their debate will be held on Oct. 1, and the winner of the debate - viewers get to vote on the network website - will receive a "donation" of $21,200.
Joining the previously announced candidates Gary Coleman and porn star Mary Carey are artist and blue-clothes-only Trek Thunder Kelly, weapons collector Carl Mehr, college junior Bryan Quinn, and Bill Walton's son Nathan Whitecloud Walton. Their debate will be held on Oct. 1, and the winner of the debate - viewers get to vote on the network website - will receive a "donation" of $21,200.
Yet another contractor update.
A month and a half ago, they came to dig up my leaking heating oil tank. A couple of weeks later, they came back in to dig a well for monitoring purposes: to see whether any of the leaked oil was migrating its merry way down to the stream at the back of the property. Fairly impressive compact drilling rig, which they had to maneuver around to put the well in the likely path of migration while avoiding damaging my trees or knocking down my power lines. Dug a 20-foot well, abour 5 inches in diameter. Barely big enough for the neighborhood bunny rabbit to fall into, if it weren't for the fact that the hole was covered with a locking cover and a cement seal.
A couple of weeks later, they came back to test the water in it. The testing lab decided that there wasn't any oil in it, and the Dept of Environmental Quality decided that was good enough for them; I could abandon the well. So yesterday, the contractor came out and did those things necessary to abandon the well properly: filled it with gravel and clay, topped that off with about a foot of cement, took out the top foot of pipe, more clay, gravel, and dirt, and covered it over so you can't tell it's there.
Having a well for a month, from which one sample was taken for testing? Between $1500 and $2000, your tax dollars at work.
A couple of weeks later, they came back to test the water in it. The testing lab decided that there wasn't any oil in it, and the Dept of Environmental Quality decided that was good enough for them; I could abandon the well. So yesterday, the contractor came out and did those things necessary to abandon the well properly: filled it with gravel and clay, topped that off with about a foot of cement, took out the top foot of pipe, more clay, gravel, and dirt, and covered it over so you can't tell it's there.
Having a well for a month, from which one sample was taken for testing? Between $1500 and $2000, your tax dollars at work.
Thursday, September 04, 2003
Middle-of-the-night phone calls.
Few things get my heart pumping faster than an unexpected phone call in the middle of the night. Between the time that the sound penetrates my sleep enough to waken me and the point that I pick up the phone, all sorts of possibilities are going through my mind, none of them good. Did something happen to my parents? Is my house on fire? (Look: I'm not awake enough to figure out that fire is not likely to be the problem, it still being dark and all. I'm barely awake enough to find the telephone, and it's making noise.) And whoever it is inevitably hangs up just before I pick up the phone. Thank heavens for Caller-ID and voicemail messages.
Last night's phone call (around 5 a.m.) was identified as originating at one of the local hospitals. Because I'd successfully stumbled into the kitchen to almost catch the call, I decided to wait around for a minute or two to see whether they'd leave a message on my voicemail. They didn't. Figuring anyone I knew who was likely to be calling me from a Richmond hospital would have left a message or called back, I decided not to be concerned. (And they still haven't called me back.)
Over the weekend, I got a phone call from someone in Toms River, NJ. It would appear that I can be a pretty sound sleeper on occasion, because this one didn't wake me up. I found out about it when I went to call someone and heard the beep telling me there was voicemail for me. And a wonderful voicemail it was: they evidently started talking when the voicemail recording started, not realizing that it probably wouldn't record much while my voice was telling them I was away from the phone and please leave me a message and wait for the beep to start. Near as I could tell, they were telling me that there was a street light burned out in front of their house, and I should replace it right away. They called to tell me this at 4:30 in the morning. (I suppose one couldn't tell whether the light was broken or just turned off during daylight hours.)
One of my worst experiences was some 20 years ago. Phone rang at 2:00 in the morning on a Wednesday. Took me a while to figure out that the odd shrill repeating noise was the phone, downstairs in the kitchen, and I probably ought to go answer it. I counted 12 or 14 rings, ceasing only when I got to within 3 feet of the phone. No caller-ID or answering machine at this time, naturally, and I was convinced it was my parents. I had dialed half of their number when enough blood made it to my brain that I considered that just maybe it wasn't them after all, and I probably didn't need to get them as upset as I was. (And if it had been them, they'd call back later.) About 2 hours later - yes, 4 a.m. - the phone started ringing again. I was quicker to the phone, and got it before they hung up again. Turns out it was a high school buddy of mine, then living in Louisana so it wasn't as late there (but only by one hour), and he was up vacuuming his place and thought he'd just call to shoot the breeze. It didn't occur to him that I might be sleeping in preparation for the next day's work: He wasn't asleep, why should anyone else be? I read him the riot act. And you know? I haven't heard from him since. (It's okay, Charlie. You can call. But only between 9 a.m. and 11 p.m.)
Last night's phone call (around 5 a.m.) was identified as originating at one of the local hospitals. Because I'd successfully stumbled into the kitchen to almost catch the call, I decided to wait around for a minute or two to see whether they'd leave a message on my voicemail. They didn't. Figuring anyone I knew who was likely to be calling me from a Richmond hospital would have left a message or called back, I decided not to be concerned. (And they still haven't called me back.)
Over the weekend, I got a phone call from someone in Toms River, NJ. It would appear that I can be a pretty sound sleeper on occasion, because this one didn't wake me up. I found out about it when I went to call someone and heard the beep telling me there was voicemail for me. And a wonderful voicemail it was: they evidently started talking when the voicemail recording started, not realizing that it probably wouldn't record much while my voice was telling them I was away from the phone and please leave me a message and wait for the beep to start. Near as I could tell, they were telling me that there was a street light burned out in front of their house, and I should replace it right away. They called to tell me this at 4:30 in the morning. (I suppose one couldn't tell whether the light was broken or just turned off during daylight hours.)
One of my worst experiences was some 20 years ago. Phone rang at 2:00 in the morning on a Wednesday. Took me a while to figure out that the odd shrill repeating noise was the phone, downstairs in the kitchen, and I probably ought to go answer it. I counted 12 or 14 rings, ceasing only when I got to within 3 feet of the phone. No caller-ID or answering machine at this time, naturally, and I was convinced it was my parents. I had dialed half of their number when enough blood made it to my brain that I considered that just maybe it wasn't them after all, and I probably didn't need to get them as upset as I was. (And if it had been them, they'd call back later.) About 2 hours later - yes, 4 a.m. - the phone started ringing again. I was quicker to the phone, and got it before they hung up again. Turns out it was a high school buddy of mine, then living in Louisana so it wasn't as late there (but only by one hour), and he was up vacuuming his place and thought he'd just call to shoot the breeze. It didn't occur to him that I might be sleeping in preparation for the next day's work: He wasn't asleep, why should anyone else be? I read him the riot act. And you know? I haven't heard from him since. (It's okay, Charlie. You can call. But only between 9 a.m. and 11 p.m.)
Woo-hoo! New shopping mall!
Well, okay, maybe only "Woo", or possibly half-a-Woo. One of the two big shopping malls opening in Richmond this month opened today. The Short Pump Town Center is big and flashy, all right, and brings some stores and restaurants to Richmond that haven't been here before. But it's oddly designed, and today was a good day to show off the flaws.
The mall is designed to bring back memories of old-time small-town town centers - storefronts to look like different buildings, a band-shell for concerts, open-air walking - and the mall is not enclosed. As a result, as you're walking from store to store, you're outside. That's fine on a nice spring or fall day, but what if it's raining, or snowing, or 100 degrees? Well, a lot of the walkways are covered - but not all of them, and the covering is strangely incomplete. You can walk under cover along half a "block" of buildings, and come to a covered crosswalk which goes to the other side of the open space. If you stay on the same side, though, the cover goes away, and if you want to get to any of the stores on the remaining half-block, there's no cover for you. If it's raining as hard as it was this afternoon (during the storm which produced a tornado in the county to the south), you'll have the choice of opening your umbrella or getting drenched. Or, of course, not going to that store, which ought to delight the store manager.
So once you've gotten "inside" the mall, you cannot get to all of the stores without exposing yourself to the elements, and you cannot even get from one end of the mall to the other without being rained or snowed upon (in the appropriate weather). And do you really want to have your paper store bags rained on as you're going from store to store, and end up wondering whether they're going to disintegrate before you get back to the car? I can't believe that anyone thought about any of this when the mall was at the design stage.
The Streets at South Point mall in Durham, NC, which opened in 2002, does a much better job of capturing the feel of a town square, with different shop fronts and an overlying theme of shops built in old warehouses (complete with stressed-looking bricks and faux weather-faded tobacco and patent medicine advertisements). Old time street lamps and park benches add to the atmosphere. But the mall is enclosed, so you don't have to worry about buttoning up your coat to go from one store to another in the winter, or bringing an umbrella to go shopping at the mall.
Bottom line: I'm not impressed by the design and layout of this new mall, I'm not especially impressed by the stores in the mall. Once all the restaurants open, I think there'll be a couple I want to check out, like the Copper Grill lobster and steak house, the Firebirds Rocky Mountain grill (this is their third restaurant in the country, and the second is in the South Point mall in Durham), and Maggiano's Italian restaurant. I won't downgrade the mall for not having any movie theaters, when the Short Pump theater complex is only 100 yards away (as the crow flies; a mile and a half and 25 minutes if the crow has to drive a car). When the restaurants open up, I'll be back. Until then, I probably won't.
The mall is designed to bring back memories of old-time small-town town centers - storefronts to look like different buildings, a band-shell for concerts, open-air walking - and the mall is not enclosed. As a result, as you're walking from store to store, you're outside. That's fine on a nice spring or fall day, but what if it's raining, or snowing, or 100 degrees? Well, a lot of the walkways are covered - but not all of them, and the covering is strangely incomplete. You can walk under cover along half a "block" of buildings, and come to a covered crosswalk which goes to the other side of the open space. If you stay on the same side, though, the cover goes away, and if you want to get to any of the stores on the remaining half-block, there's no cover for you. If it's raining as hard as it was this afternoon (during the storm which produced a tornado in the county to the south), you'll have the choice of opening your umbrella or getting drenched. Or, of course, not going to that store, which ought to delight the store manager.
So once you've gotten "inside" the mall, you cannot get to all of the stores without exposing yourself to the elements, and you cannot even get from one end of the mall to the other without being rained or snowed upon (in the appropriate weather). And do you really want to have your paper store bags rained on as you're going from store to store, and end up wondering whether they're going to disintegrate before you get back to the car? I can't believe that anyone thought about any of this when the mall was at the design stage.
The Streets at South Point mall in Durham, NC, which opened in 2002, does a much better job of capturing the feel of a town square, with different shop fronts and an overlying theme of shops built in old warehouses (complete with stressed-looking bricks and faux weather-faded tobacco and patent medicine advertisements). Old time street lamps and park benches add to the atmosphere. But the mall is enclosed, so you don't have to worry about buttoning up your coat to go from one store to another in the winter, or bringing an umbrella to go shopping at the mall.
Bottom line: I'm not impressed by the design and layout of this new mall, I'm not especially impressed by the stores in the mall. Once all the restaurants open, I think there'll be a couple I want to check out, like the Copper Grill lobster and steak house, the Firebirds Rocky Mountain grill (this is their third restaurant in the country, and the second is in the South Point mall in Durham), and Maggiano's Italian restaurant. I won't downgrade the mall for not having any movie theaters, when the Short Pump theater complex is only 100 yards away (as the crow flies; a mile and a half and 25 minutes if the crow has to drive a car). When the restaurants open up, I'll be back. Until then, I probably won't.
Wednesday, September 03, 2003
Ah, the new TV season is upon us.
Almost upon us, for the major networks. But the smaller nets have already started up their new shows, presumably to get us hooked so we'll watch them instead of series on the big three, or four, or five networks. I've seen a couple of series enough to know that I like them, one because it's done well, and one as a guilty pleasure.
"Playmakers" started on ESPN a week ago. It's the story of a football team - its owner, players, coaches, and families - in a league that really looks like the NFL but isn't (those pesky lawyers!), what people will do to get onto and stay on the team, and what happens to them as the team casts them aside. Rich production values, pretty good performances, pretty good writing, although the characterization is a bit thin: many of the characters are stock characters from sports movies: the Aging Veteran, the Cocksure Young Phenom, the Coach With a Secret, etc. The language is a bit saltier than what you'd get from the major networks, but not as earthy as you'd hear on HBO; the amount of flesh you see is similarly a bit more and a bit less. Been interesting to watch so far, and they have enough repeats of it during the week that you'll still be able to see your network favorites when their seasons start up.
The guilty pleasure started tonight, on Spike TV. It's called Joe Schmo, and the concept is that it's yet another third-rate, cheesy "reality" show - nine people living in a mansion, one voted off every couple of days, silly contests for bonuses, winner gets $100 grand. The twist is that it's not: Eight of the "contestants" are actually actors, and the goal is to keep him from figuring it out that it's all rigged. It's "The Truman Show" done as a reality game show. They've got an over-the-top mix of sterotyped reality show players - a retired Marine, a flamboyant gay, a beautiful virginal religious babe, a marriage-and-family counselor who has herself had three divorces - and they have equivalents for the other trappings of such shows: secret video diary/confessionals (when our hero does his, the rest of the cast huddles with the director and writers to figure out the day's plot twists), lots of cameras recording all the scheming going on (of which only the scheming with the victim counts), secret voting (with pre-arranged ballots being substituted for the ones cast by the actors), etc. It will be fascinating to see how much more they can do to embarrass the victim without his catching on, although as he comes across as an amiable-but-dim fellow who has no inkling that anything odd is going on, I'm guessing they'll be able to do a lot.
But for my money, what's the best TV show to have started in the past month? Reruns of The West Wing, on Bravo. As I didn't start watching the series until late in the second year, I'm really enjoying catching up from the beginning. Great writing, great acting, and four new ("new to me", in NBC-speak) episodes a week, at least until the middle of October.
"Playmakers" started on ESPN a week ago. It's the story of a football team - its owner, players, coaches, and families - in a league that really looks like the NFL but isn't (those pesky lawyers!), what people will do to get onto and stay on the team, and what happens to them as the team casts them aside. Rich production values, pretty good performances, pretty good writing, although the characterization is a bit thin: many of the characters are stock characters from sports movies: the Aging Veteran, the Cocksure Young Phenom, the Coach With a Secret, etc. The language is a bit saltier than what you'd get from the major networks, but not as earthy as you'd hear on HBO; the amount of flesh you see is similarly a bit more and a bit less. Been interesting to watch so far, and they have enough repeats of it during the week that you'll still be able to see your network favorites when their seasons start up.
The guilty pleasure started tonight, on
But for my money, what's the best TV show to have started in the past month? Reruns of The West Wing, on Bravo. As I didn't start watching the series until late in the second year, I'm really enjoying catching up from the beginning. Great writing, great acting, and four new ("new to me", in NBC-speak) episodes a week, at least until the middle of October.
Change is good.
Of late, I've been getting some odd coins in my change. I'm not sure why they're showing up in Richmond, which you wouldn't think has all that many people gallavanting around the world and bringing home coins to use in their daily purchases. But I've been getting them in change, which I apparently look at only closely enough to see that there are approximately the correct number of quarters and maybe dimes, and no closer.
Yesterday, I received a Netherlands 1-Euro-cent piece. Odd-looking coin: about the size of a punched hole from a three-hole-punch, and not a lot thicker. Made of some sort of coppery compound, so it looks like a shiny new cent, but it seems light, as though it's half aluminum. Feels like it's really not worth a whole lot, which I suppose is just as well.
And about a week ago, I got a Belize 25-cent piece. Just slightly smaller diameter than a U.S. quarter, but otherwise pretty easy to mistake for one, especially when it's discolored from being in circulation.
Yesterday, I received a Netherlands 1-Euro-cent piece. Odd-looking coin: about the size of a punched hole from a three-hole-punch, and not a lot thicker. Made of some sort of coppery compound, so it looks like a shiny new cent, but it seems light, as though it's half aluminum. Feels like it's really not worth a whole lot, which I suppose is just as well.
And about a week ago, I got a Belize 25-cent piece. Just slightly smaller diameter than a U.S. quarter, but otherwise pretty easy to mistake for one, especially when it's discolored from being in circulation.
Sunday, August 31, 2003
Tyler Hamilton out for season.
Sad news about Tyler Hamilton. He's gotten a hairline fracture on his hip bone and will be out for the rest of the year. He's had tough luck with broken bones over the years. This year, he broke his collarbone on the first stage of the Tour de France but continued on, finishing fourth.
Hope he recovers well for next year.
Hope he recovers well for next year.
And in the darkness bind them - to their seats.
Mark December 16 on your calendars, Lord of the Rings buffs. You'll be able to spend all day in the theater, watching the LOTR movies back-to-back-to-back. And the first two movies will be prints of the extended versions, previously found only on the DVDs. Fellowship of the Ring was 208 minutes, The Two Towers will be 214 minutes when it's released on DVD in November, and The Return of the King will be over 3 hours in its regular release (opening Dec. 17, or for this special showing, starting at 11 pm on Dec. 16).
I think it's good that the extended versions are getting a theatrical release, and I think it's a good marketing strategy to get the films back in the theaters (FOTR starts on Dec. 5, Two Towers on Dec. 12) to rev up people's interest in the film trilogy. (I might have released them with more than one week between the episodes, but that's a minor quibble.)
But 10+ hours of Lord of the Rings in 11 hours (the distributor's guidelines tell theater owners to start FOTR at 3 pm, TTT at 7 pm, and ROTK at 11 pm, ending around 2 am) strikes me as a bit too much of a good thing. I'm sure it'll make for good local TV coverage, with shots of people in costume in line, waiting for the marathon to begin.
And I'm sure that when the ROTK extended-version DVD finally comes out (I'm guessing Nov. 2004 - after the next presidential election, when we'll all want to escape to a fantasy land), I'll have my own, in-home Lord of the Rings marathon. But it will probably be a Friday-Saturday-Sunday, one movie per day, event.
Star Wars aside # 1: When Star Wars Episode 2 came out a year ago, I saw it on its first day of release (of course). I went to the second showing of the day at the sole theater in Durham showing the movie, and was disappointed that no one at either showing was in costume, and that near as I could tell, I was the only person even wearing a Star Wars T-shirt. Such a long way from people camping out to see Episode 1.
Star Wars aside # 2: Okay, I confess: I've been to a back-to-back-to-back marathon of the classic Star Wars movies. Mid-80's, as I recall, at the AFI theater at the Kennedy Center. It was great fun, but it made for a very long day - and it was only about 7 hours of movie to sit through. That'll be about the equivalent of only the first two movies of the Lord of the Rings cycle.
And one final aside: Can you imagine a back-to-back-to-back showing of the Matrix movies? Perhaps the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment comes into play here.
I think it's good that the extended versions are getting a theatrical release, and I think it's a good marketing strategy to get the films back in the theaters (FOTR starts on Dec. 5, Two Towers on Dec. 12) to rev up people's interest in the film trilogy. (I might have released them with more than one week between the episodes, but that's a minor quibble.)
But 10+ hours of Lord of the Rings in 11 hours (the distributor's guidelines tell theater owners to start FOTR at 3 pm, TTT at 7 pm, and ROTK at 11 pm, ending around 2 am) strikes me as a bit too much of a good thing. I'm sure it'll make for good local TV coverage, with shots of people in costume in line, waiting for the marathon to begin.
And I'm sure that when the ROTK extended-version DVD finally comes out (I'm guessing Nov. 2004 - after the next presidential election, when we'll all want to escape to a fantasy land), I'll have my own, in-home Lord of the Rings marathon. But it will probably be a Friday-Saturday-Sunday, one movie per day, event.
Star Wars aside # 1: When Star Wars Episode 2 came out a year ago, I saw it on its first day of release (of course). I went to the second showing of the day at the sole theater in Durham showing the movie, and was disappointed that no one at either showing was in costume, and that near as I could tell, I was the only person even wearing a Star Wars T-shirt.
Star Wars aside # 2: Okay, I confess: I've been to a back-to-back-to-back marathon of the classic Star Wars movies. Mid-80's, as I recall, at the AFI theater at the Kennedy Center. It was great fun, but it made for a very long day - and it was only about 7 hours of movie to sit through. That'll be about the equivalent of only the first two movies of the Lord of the Rings cycle.
And one final aside: Can you imagine a back-to-back-to-back showing of the Matrix movies?
Friday, August 29, 2003
Thursday, August 28, 2003
No corkscrew needed.
The NY Times has an article about the coming new thing with wine: wine in a box. Or, as the article takes great pains to make clear, wine in a bag in a box. (The bag is air-tight, and contracts as wine is drawn off, so the remaining wine is never exposed to air and thus doesn't oxidize.) They claim that 20% of all wine consumed in this country comes from a box, and a third of all wine in Norway and a half of all wine in Australia. Can't prove it by me: all the wine consumed in my house comes from bottles, and to the best of my knowledge, all the wine I consume at restaurants does too.
The article says that the wine in a box concept grew as a replacement for jug wines in the 80's, and that they expect that consumers will appreciate the concept as they realize that wine is more important than the packaging. As proof of this, they point to the success of a silver-medal winning chardonnay now being packaged in 5-liter boxes for $25 (that works out to about $3.75 per normal 750-ml bottle), as a step up from Gallo's Delicious Red, which is 5 liters for $9.
Yeah, I don't think so. Maybe it'll work for the current equivalent of jug wines, or things like that Delicious Red (described on the website as "grape wine and natural flavors", a red wine best served chilled, and - I think - with 3.5% residual sugar, which to me is pretty sweet for a white wine and death in a red wine). But not for real wine.
The article says that the wine in a box concept grew as a replacement for jug wines in the 80's, and that they expect that consumers will appreciate the concept as they realize that wine is more important than the packaging. As proof of this, they point to the success of a silver-medal winning chardonnay now being packaged in 5-liter boxes for $25 (that works out to about $3.75 per normal 750-ml bottle), as a step up from Gallo's Delicious Red, which is 5 liters for $9.
Yeah, I don't think so. Maybe it'll work for the current equivalent of jug wines, or things like that Delicious Red (described on the website as "grape wine and natural flavors", a red wine best served chilled, and - I think - with 3.5% residual sugar, which to me is pretty sweet for a white wine and death in a red wine). But not for real wine.
Old cat, new tricks.
I suppose Mia isn't all that old, although she'll turn 11 at the beginning of October. She continually learns new tricks, though. I just wish they were tricks that I taught her, instead of ones she thinks up on her own to torment me.
Normally, she's a good sleeper. An excellent sleeper. At night, she sleeps at the end of the bed, and not only doesn't stir when I get up, she sometimes will sleep in until 10 or 11 before deciding that it's time to get up and eat. Last week, she learned a new behavior: she wakes me up fairly early and demands that I feed her. And she doesn't just jump up and yowl at me - she's more subtle than that. She sits close to me and tickles my shoulder with her whiskers. Or she walks around the bed, and carefully steps on my hair, making sure to pull it enough to wake me. Very passive-aggressive of her. "Oh, no. I didn't wake you. But since you're up anyway, why don't you take this opportunity to feed me?" Once she dines, she goes back to sleep, of course. But I can't, so I get to see what 6:30 looks like.
On the other hand, she seems to be fairly brave, at least during thunderstorms. Last night and again this evening, we've had huge, violent thunderstorms nearby. The kinds of storms where the thunder arrives no more than a quarter-second behind the lightning, which itself was bright enough to light up my bedroom at 2 a.m., where the thunder sounds like an artillery brigade on the street behind me, and the rain is coming down so hard that I cannot see the house across the street from me. Sabrina, my previous cat, would bolt at the first, faraway sound of thunder, and hide shivering under a bed until the storm had passed. But the storms don't faze Mia in the least. She happily sleeps through the thunder, and wakes only when I pet her to comfort her. She glares at me that I should go back to sleep, the better to be rested and ready to feed her every three hours the next day. I don't think she's hard of hearing, although she certainly pulls that particular trick if I try to call her. But since she can hear the opening of a refrigerator from the opposite side of the house, or the click and opening of a can of cat food while asleep on another floor, I'm discounting the possibility.
Always interesting to see what she'll do next. I just hope that her next trick allows me to sleep relatively uninterrupted at night. Well, I can always hope.
Normally, she's a good sleeper. An excellent sleeper. At night, she sleeps at the end of the bed, and not only doesn't stir when I get up, she sometimes will sleep in until 10 or 11 before deciding that it's time to get up and eat. Last week, she learned a new behavior: she wakes me up fairly early and demands that I feed her. And she doesn't just jump up and yowl at me - she's more subtle than that. She sits close to me and tickles my shoulder with her whiskers. Or she walks around the bed, and carefully steps on my hair, making sure to pull it enough to wake me. Very passive-aggressive of her. "Oh, no. I didn't wake you. But since you're up anyway, why don't you take this opportunity to feed me?" Once she dines, she goes back to sleep, of course. But I can't, so I get to see what 6:30 looks like.
On the other hand, she seems to be fairly brave, at least during thunderstorms. Last night and again this evening, we've had huge, violent thunderstorms nearby. The kinds of storms where the thunder arrives no more than a quarter-second behind the lightning, which itself was bright enough to light up my bedroom at 2 a.m., where the thunder sounds like an artillery brigade on the street behind me, and the rain is coming down so hard that I cannot see the house across the street from me. Sabrina, my previous cat, would bolt at the first, faraway sound of thunder, and hide shivering under a bed until the storm had passed. But the storms don't faze Mia in the least. She happily sleeps through the thunder, and wakes only when I pet her to comfort her. She glares at me that I should go back to sleep, the better to be rested and ready to feed her every three hours the next day. I don't think she's hard of hearing, although she certainly pulls that particular trick if I try to call her. But since she can hear the opening of a refrigerator from the opposite side of the house, or the click and opening of a can of cat food while asleep on another floor, I'm discounting the possibility.
Always interesting to see what she'll do next. I just hope that her next trick allows me to sleep relatively uninterrupted at night. Well, I can always hope.
Monday, August 25, 2003
Gimmick du jour.
Interesting new gadget from MetaCork: a wine bottle closure that is a combination cork and screwtop, without exactly doing away with the drawbacks of either.
You twist off the solid plastic capsule on top of the wine, and when you do, it pulls the cork - attached to the plastic capsule - out of the bottle. You can then take the capsule apart, and the sleeve can go back onto the bottle as a drip-protector. You're left with the cork, which is screwed onto a plastic lid, and a screw-top. If you want to reseal the bottle, you can use either the cork or the screw-top.
So you have some of the convenience of a screw-top enclosure (you don't need a corkscrew to open the wine, and you can close the bottle with the screw-top) and some of the romance of a cork (Look! It's a cork!). But you still have the potential for cork taint. Oh, and it's more expensive for the winery than either a cork enclosure or a screw-top. Enclosure.
I'm betting I don't ever see one of these in the flesh.
You twist off the solid plastic capsule on top of the wine, and when you do, it pulls the cork - attached to the plastic capsule - out of the bottle. You can then take the capsule apart, and the sleeve can go back onto the bottle as a drip-protector. You're left with the cork, which is screwed onto a plastic lid, and a screw-top. If you want to reseal the bottle, you can use either the cork or the screw-top.
So you have some of the convenience of a screw-top enclosure (you don't need a corkscrew to open the wine, and you can close the bottle with the screw-top) and some of the romance of a cork (Look! It's a cork!). But you still have the potential for cork taint. Oh, and it's more expensive for the winery than either a cork enclosure or a screw-top. Enclosure.
I'm betting I don't ever see one of these in the flesh.
California dreaming, again.
I knew it was too good to last. The fun is starting to die off in the California recall race. Yes, you can still get fun bumper stickers. But, even so. Gary Coleman wants to be taken seriously, although luckily no one is. People are looking at polls and parties are trying to consolidate their candidates.
You know who would have been the ideal candidate for this recall election? Pat Paulsen. I'm sure he would have loved the circus atmosphere, and would have reveled in the utter absurdity of it all. Lord knows he'd have been a better candidate than most of those on the ballot. And he's a member of the Norwegian-American Hall of Fame. Let's see Arnold touch that!
You know who would have been the ideal candidate for this recall election? Pat Paulsen. I'm sure he would have loved the circus atmosphere, and would have reveled in the utter absurdity of it all. Lord knows he'd have been a better candidate than most of those on the ballot. And he's a member of the Norwegian-American Hall of Fame. Let's see Arnold touch that!
Red wine, greenlight.
Great news about red wine: one of the natural substances found in red wine, reseveratrol, may activate a survival reflex in humans, and act as a fountain of youth. It apparently mimics the life-extending effect that reduced-calorie-intake diets have. (Added bonus: it makes your cells more resistant to radiation blasts, in the event of nuclear attack.) It's found in the skins of grapes for both red and white wine, but is more concentrated in red wines because of the extended contact that reds have in the manufacturing process. Different wines have different levels of reseveratrol: pinot noir has a higher level than cabernet sauvignon, and wines made in regions that are cooler or have more stress on the vines (they cite New York or Burgundy) have higher concentrations than wines made in hot, dry climates (like California or Australia).
Great! A reason to drink pinot noirs! And to celebrate, tonight I'm having a 2001 Twin Islands Pinot Noir, from the Marlborough region of New Zealand.
Great! A reason to drink pinot noirs! And to celebrate, tonight I'm having a 2001 Twin Islands Pinot Noir, from the Marlborough region of New Zealand.
The Wine Wars.
Robert Bork vs. Ken Starr! What more could you ask for? They're on opposite sides in the continuing controversy over direct interstate distribution of alcohol. Starr says that the interstate commerce clause should prevail, mandating free interstate trade; Bork says that the specific language of the 21st Amendment should prevail, which grants states the right to control the importation of alcoholic beverages.
I hope that Starr's side wins: I really despise the current three-tier system of trade - wineries and breweries have to sell to distributors who have to sell to retailers - and if no distributor wants to purchase and resell wines from, say, the Mount Palomar Winery, then I'm out of luck, as I can't have it delivered directly to me or go even have a local wine shop order some for me. On the other hand, alas, I think the better legal argument is that the 21st Amendment, being specific and later-adopted, prevails over the earlier, general provision of the Commerce Clause.
I hope that Starr's side wins: I really despise the current three-tier system of trade - wineries and breweries have to sell to distributors who have to sell to retailers - and if no distributor wants to purchase and resell wines from, say, the Mount Palomar Winery, then I'm out of luck, as I can't have it delivered directly to me or go even have a local wine shop order some for me. On the other hand, alas, I think the better legal argument is that the 21st Amendment, being specific and later-adopted, prevails over the earlier, general provision of the Commerce Clause.
Sunday, August 24, 2003
Lessons learned from mowing the yard.
This year's odd weather - all the rain, no excessively hot stretches - has not only made for an unusual summer, but for good conditions for having the lawn grow. And that, of course, leads to spending a lot of time mowing the lawn. My yard is big enough that it takes about 3 hours to mow it all, and I've had to mow it about every week through the end of June and every week and a half since. Huge difference from last year, when my yard was mowed once during the last six months of the year.
So that's been a lot of time trudging along behind the lawn mower; a lot of time to think. A lot of time to reach some conclusions:
Mowing the back yard isn't as important as mowing the front yard. Keeping the front yard relatively neat makes the neighbors content, but virturally no one sees the back yard, so it has less impact on my neighbors. Mowing the back yard two-thirds as often as the front yard, or even every other time I mow the front yard, works out pretty well. Mowing the back yard every third time I mow the front doesn't work out quite so well: the grass (and weeks) grow sufficiently high that it takes a lot longer to get through it all. Back to every-other-time-I-do-the-front-yard, I guess.
I should have gotten the riding mower, like the previous owner had. With the self-propelled mower that I do have, I can do either the front yard and maybe 10 percent of the back yard or the rest of the back yard before my patience and energy run out. With a riding mower, I could probably do the whole yard in the time it now takes me to do half the yard. Plus, it'd be cool.
On the other hand, mowing the lawn as often as I do makes it so I get to know the neighborhood wildlife a bit better. I've mentioned the neighborhood bunny rabbit a couple of times; there are also squirrels, chipmunks, and the occasional possum. So today, I was out doing the back yard, cutting down the last of the foot-high grass and weeds. I noticed that the mower seemed to throw a stick out sideways (as it sometimes does). Oddly, though, this stick didn't go in a straight line: it went in sinuous curves, and stopped about two feet away from me. Oh, wait a sec. That's not a stick looking up at me. It's a SNAKE! I simultaneously shoved the mower forward a yard and leaped backwards two, happily noting that the mower's automatic cutoff switch does, in fact, work, not that I was mowing uphill at the time. We stared at each other for a moment, as my breathing and heartbeat came back to normal. He stayed still, hoping that if I thought he really was just a stick, I'd leave him alone. I decided on a policy of live-and-let-live. Well, live-and-let-live-in-somebody-else's-yard, to be precise. So I stomped my foot in his general direction, and he hightailed it (presuming that's an appropriate action for a snake) to the fence. And that led to yet another conclusion: Cut the grass before it gets tall enough for snakes to hide in.
So that's been a lot of time trudging along behind the lawn mower; a lot of time to think. A lot of time to reach some conclusions:
Mowing the back yard isn't as important as mowing the front yard. Keeping the front yard relatively neat makes the neighbors content, but virturally no one sees the back yard, so it has less impact on my neighbors. Mowing the back yard two-thirds as often as the front yard, or even every other time I mow the front yard, works out pretty well. Mowing the back yard every third time I mow the front doesn't work out quite so well: the grass (and weeks) grow sufficiently high that it takes a lot longer to get through it all. Back to every-other-time-I-do-the-front-yard, I guess.
I should have gotten the riding mower, like the previous owner had. With the self-propelled mower that I do have, I can do either the front yard and maybe 10 percent of the back yard or the rest of the back yard before my patience and energy run out. With a riding mower, I could probably do the whole yard in the time it now takes me to do half the yard. Plus, it'd be cool.
On the other hand, mowing the lawn as often as I do makes it so I get to know the neighborhood wildlife a bit better. I've mentioned the neighborhood bunny rabbit a couple of times; there are also squirrels, chipmunks, and the occasional possum. So today, I was out doing the back yard, cutting down the last of the foot-high grass and weeds. I noticed that the mower seemed to throw a stick out sideways (as it sometimes does). Oddly, though, this stick didn't go in a straight line: it went in sinuous curves, and stopped about two feet away from me. Oh, wait a sec. That's not a stick looking up at me. It's a SNAKE! I simultaneously shoved the mower forward a yard and leaped backwards two, happily noting that the mower's automatic cutoff switch does, in fact, work, not that I was mowing uphill at the time. We stared at each other for a moment, as my breathing and heartbeat came back to normal. He stayed still, hoping that if I thought he really was just a stick, I'd leave him alone. I decided on a policy of live-and-let-live. Well, live-and-let-live-in-somebody-else's-yard, to be precise. So I stomped my foot in his general direction, and he hightailed it (presuming that's an appropriate action for a snake) to the fence. And that led to yet another conclusion: Cut the grass before it gets tall enough for snakes to hide in.
Wednesday, August 20, 2003
Monday, August 18, 2003
Wine festival.
Went to a wine festival over the weekend, the 28th (!) annual Virginia Winegrowers festival. Over 50 wineries present, lots and lots of people. And the weather was extremely cooperative for the middle of August: neither torrential rains nor over-100-degree temperatures.
I go to festivals like this one to try new wines from familiar wineries and wines from new vineyards, and to enjoy the wines I'm having, but not to seriously taste the wines I'm trying. The middle of a field, ninety degrees, and too many people smoking cigars nearby all work against serious evaluations. With those caveats, then, I came up with some observations:
Wineries that make good wines continued to show their quality at the festival. Among them: Barboursville, Cardinal Point, Am Rhein, Wintergreen, Burnley, Breaux, and Villa Appalaccia. I was especially pleased by Cardinal Point (open only since May) and Am Rhein (relatively new to me, and willing to take risks to experiment: bottling a 100% petit verdot, for instance).
Those wineries that haven't done such a good job continue to do poorly. One such winery is trying to sell off its back stock of a chardonnay by offering it at $6 per bottle and calling it "Six Buck Chuck". You should get that wine only if they're paying you the six bucks, and you can quickly discard the unopened bottle. There's a good reason why so much of this wine was in unsold stock, and it's not that it was too expensive. (It was yummy, if you like the taste of freshly-sharpened pencils.)
And on a reasonably-warm August afternoon, a good chilled white wine is wonderful. (Unless, of course, it's "Six Buck Chuck".)
I go to festivals like this one to try new wines from familiar wineries and wines from new vineyards, and to enjoy the wines I'm having, but not to seriously taste the wines I'm trying. The middle of a field, ninety degrees, and too many people smoking cigars nearby all work against serious evaluations. With those caveats, then, I came up with some observations:
Wineries that make good wines continued to show their quality at the festival. Among them: Barboursville, Cardinal Point, Am Rhein, Wintergreen, Burnley, Breaux, and Villa Appalaccia. I was especially pleased by Cardinal Point (open only since May) and Am Rhein (relatively new to me, and willing to take risks to experiment: bottling a 100% petit verdot, for instance).
Those wineries that haven't done such a good job continue to do poorly. One such winery is trying to sell off its back stock of a chardonnay by offering it at $6 per bottle and calling it "Six Buck Chuck". You should get that wine only if they're paying you the six bucks, and you can quickly discard the unopened bottle. There's a good reason why so much of this wine was in unsold stock, and it's not that it was too expensive. (It was yummy, if you like the taste of freshly-sharpened pencils.)
And on a reasonably-warm August afternoon, a good chilled white wine is wonderful. (Unless, of course, it's "Six Buck Chuck".)
Thursday, August 14, 2003
California recall election.
I promise. I'm not going to have every other posting be about the California gubernatorial recall election. It'd be too easy for one reason, and will probably stop being funny pretty soon, for another. But we can still ridicule it while it's topical.
It would be easy enough to make fun of Larry Flynt, or porn star Mary Carey (whose campaign website has a video of her doing naked jumping jacks). Or the 100-year-old candidate. Or Donald Novello, famous for playing Father Guido Sarducci on Saturday Night Live, or Leo Gallagher, famous for smashing watermelons and not using his first name, or Gary Coleman, famous for, I don't know, being short, I suppose. (I said it would be easy.)
But let's take the high road, the one Gary can't reach. (Easy, I say.) Let's just make fun of ... ah, examine closely ... some of the less well-known candidates.
So here's one for you: Trek Thunder Kelly. Trek, to his friends. A 33-year-old artist, who shows his dedication by wearing only blue. Not entirely clear what that dedication is to, but he certainly shows it. His "Know Your Candidate" page has flying tacos on it, perhaps because "I eat only tacos and steak. I drink only water, salsa, and Cran-grape juice. I love traveling in politically unstable countries; I sleep with socks on my hands." Sounds eminently qualified to me.
And then there's Nathan Whitecloud Walton, whose sole claim to fame is that he's Bill Walton's son. He is mentioned on his father's website, but doesn't have a site of his own. He's also planning to attend graduate school at Stanford this fall, and I guess he thinks that being governor wouldn't take much time away from his studies.
Oh, and if you were wondering: Yes, someone is already selling "Recall Arnold" bumperstickers.
Update: Alas, Don Novello - a.k.a. Father Guido Sarducci - didn't make it onto the ballot after all. What a disappointment that must be to California voters.
It would be easy enough to make fun of Larry Flynt, or porn star Mary Carey (whose campaign website has a video of her doing naked jumping jacks). Or the 100-year-old candidate. Or Donald Novello, famous for playing Father Guido Sarducci on Saturday Night Live, or Leo Gallagher, famous for smashing watermelons and not using his first name, or Gary Coleman, famous for, I don't know, being short, I suppose. (I said it would be easy.)
But let's take the high road, the one Gary can't reach. (Easy, I say.) Let's just make fun of ... ah, examine closely ... some of the less well-known candidates.
So here's one for you: Trek Thunder Kelly. Trek, to his friends. A 33-year-old artist, who shows his dedication by wearing only blue. Not entirely clear what that dedication is to, but he certainly shows it. His "Know Your Candidate" page has flying tacos on it, perhaps because "I eat only tacos and steak. I drink only water, salsa, and Cran-grape juice. I love traveling in politically unstable countries; I sleep with socks on my hands." Sounds eminently qualified to me.
And then there's Nathan Whitecloud Walton, whose sole claim to fame is that he's Bill Walton's son. He is mentioned on his father's website, but doesn't have a site of his own. He's also planning to attend graduate school at Stanford this fall, and I guess he thinks that being governor wouldn't take much time away from his studies.
Oh, and if you were wondering: Yes, someone is already selling "Recall Arnold" bumperstickers.
Update: Alas, Don Novello - a.k.a. Father Guido Sarducci - didn't make it onto the ballot after all. What a disappointment that must be to California voters.
Tuesday, August 12, 2003
Who are you really, and what were you before?
Casablanca. With a commentary track by Roger Ebert. A new DVD release; one that I'll have to add to my small-but-growing DVD collection. Yes, I already have a DVD version of Casablanca (I'm enough of a traditionalist that it was the first DVD I bought), but it'll be worth it to hear Roger's commentary.
On the other hand, there's a report that J.Lo and Ben Affleck will do a remake of Casablanca. One can only hope that their recent success with Gigli will stop that particular train wreck before it starts.
On the other hand, there's a report that J.Lo and Ben Affleck will do a remake of Casablanca. One can only hope that their recent success with Gigli will stop that particular train wreck before it starts.
Monkey Shakespeare Simulator.
Just what I needed: a new time-wasting site. This one purports to be a simulator of monkeys typing Shakespeare, luckily in an accelerated format. And it'll keep going in the background, so you can have it busily typing away while you're working on your resume, or whatever.
Monday, August 11, 2003
Herb Brooks.
Sad story this afternoon, Herb Brooks - best known for coaching the 1980 Olympic hockey team to a gold medal - died in a car accident today.
In a bizarre coincidence, HBO has a one-hour special on this evening on the 1980 Olympic hockey team. A rebroadcast of the 2001 special, and scheduled for only this one showing this month.
In a bizarre coincidence, HBO has a one-hour special on this evening on the 1980 Olympic hockey team. A rebroadcast of the 2001 special, and scheduled for only this one showing this month.
Redlight, Greenlight.
One of this summer's guilty pleasures has been watching the HBO reality series, "Project Greenlight." This year's independent-movie-making contest picked separate winners for the script and the director. Or, as it turned out, co-directors. And to create some artificial drama, the screenwriter stayed around to have input on the directors' choices and changes. (Okay, officially the writer was around to make verbal some of the directors' thought processes. But it was really to inject some conflict.) And some of the other time constraints seemed artificially tight, to create additional tension and thus better TV.
When you get past the artificial pressures, though, you get a good look at the real-life problems in film-making: casting, finding locations, getting shots set up and filmed within the film-making day, getting the right material to be edited into a complete film, making sure the suits at the studio are happy with the final product so they'll market it. Great fun. I'll recommend it. Can't yet recommend the movie they're making; it'll be released in a couple of weeks. And, of course, no telling how widely it'll be released. But the original script is pretty good.
When you get past the artificial pressures, though, you get a good look at the real-life problems in film-making: casting, finding locations, getting shots set up and filmed within the film-making day, getting the right material to be edited into a complete film, making sure the suits at the studio are happy with the final product so they'll market it. Great fun. I'll recommend it. Can't yet recommend the movie they're making; it'll be released in a couple of weeks. And, of course, no telling how widely it'll be released. But the original script is pretty good.
Astronomy photo of the day.
I've always been a sucker for astronomy photos. Here's a cool one: a time-lapse series showing the face of the moon as it goes through its monthly cycle. And there's an archive of photos at this photo-of-the-day site; great fun to browse through.
Sunday, August 10, 2003
Don't drink the Kool-Aid.
Well, the trial of the summer is over. No, not Kobe. Ohio v. Donkers. You know, the woman who was arrested for breastfeeding while driving her car at 65 mph on the Ohio Turnpike, and whose husband claimed that according to their faith, he should be the one to stand trial because he is responsible for his wife's conduct and he's the only one allowed to punish her for her deeds. She was charged with child endangerment and a handful of lesser charges; sadly, he was not charged with being a lunatic.
Fascinating trial. Donkers ended up representing herself, as the public defender wouldn't use only the Bible as their defense, and her husband wasn't allowed to represent her. (Didn't stop him from calling out comments from the gallery of the courtroom, until the judge informed him that this wasn't The Jerry Springer Show.) She admitted to breastfeeding while cruising along at 68 mph, while simultaneously talking to her husband on the cell phone and writing down notes about another lawsuit they're involved in. And that she'd taken both hands off the wheel when she was moving the baby, while tooling down the highway. She had the car in cruise control; that makes it okay. And with all of this, she thinks she didn't behave recklessly. The court acquitted her on the child endangerment charge (he said that the State's case didn't show it, as the troopers saw only the child on her mother's lap, but no feeding -- and yet, she testified to the breastfeeding while driving while on the cell phone while taking notes), and found her guilty on the others: violating the child-restraint laws, driving without a valid driver's license, and fleeing from the police. Sentencing has been postponed pending further investigation of the defendant.
It's interesting that the husband has threatened to take this case all the way to the Supreme Court. Howso? Because he believes that the Supreme Court doesn't exist (at least the way the rest of us do - as established pursuant to Article III of the US Constitution). On one of his "voluntary tax" argument websites, he argues that the Article III Supreme Court has never been established.
What a bizarre little cult they belong to. In addition to the husband-is-responsible-for-the-wife strictures, other tenets of their faith that came out during the trial include a disregard for governmental licensing (they don't believe in, and thus don't have, driver's licenses, and they married themselves without benefit of a marriage license), and for governmental regulation (they don't believe in, and thus don't have, social security numbers). The cult believes you don't have to pay taxes, and you can become a "Sovereign in good standing" (what we mortals would call a "member") by sending them $100 every year - and you don't even have to leave your real faith to become a member.
This trial been immortalized in Dave Berry's blog.
Now, they've moved on to California. Arriving too late to register for the gubernatorial recall election, it appears. Too bad: they'd have made what looks to be an otherwise boring recall campaign interesting.
Fascinating trial. Donkers ended up representing herself, as the public defender wouldn't use only the Bible as their defense, and her husband wasn't allowed to represent her. (Didn't stop him from calling out comments from the gallery of the courtroom, until the judge informed him that this wasn't The Jerry Springer Show.) She admitted to breastfeeding while cruising along at 68 mph, while simultaneously talking to her husband on the cell phone and writing down notes about another lawsuit they're involved in. And that she'd taken both hands off the wheel when she was moving the baby, while tooling down the highway. She had the car in cruise control; that makes it okay. And with all of this, she thinks she didn't behave recklessly. The court acquitted her on the child endangerment charge (he said that the State's case didn't show it, as the troopers saw only the child on her mother's lap, but no feeding -- and yet, she testified to the breastfeeding while driving while on the cell phone while taking notes), and found her guilty on the others: violating the child-restraint laws, driving without a valid driver's license, and fleeing from the police. Sentencing has been postponed pending further investigation of the defendant.
It's interesting that the husband has threatened to take this case all the way to the Supreme Court. Howso? Because he believes that the Supreme Court doesn't exist (at least the way the rest of us do - as established pursuant to Article III of the US Constitution). On one of his "voluntary tax" argument websites, he argues that the Article III Supreme Court has never been established.
What a bizarre little cult they belong to. In addition to the husband-is-responsible-for-the-wife strictures, other tenets of their faith that came out during the trial include a disregard for governmental licensing (they don't believe in, and thus don't have, driver's licenses, and they married themselves without benefit of a marriage license), and for governmental regulation (they don't believe in, and thus don't have, social security numbers). The cult believes you don't have to pay taxes, and you can become a "Sovereign in good standing" (what we mortals would call a "member") by sending them $100 every year - and you don't even have to leave your real faith to become a member.
This trial been immortalized in Dave Berry's blog.
Now, they've moved on to California. Arriving too late to register for the gubernatorial recall election, it appears. Too bad: they'd have made what looks to be an otherwise boring recall campaign interesting.
Friday, August 08, 2003
The good news about global warming.
Article in the NY Times today talks about the recent benefits of global warming, at least with regards to wine. Wineries in historically cool climates - Germany, Oregon, Champagne, mountainous regions in Italy - have seen warmer weather ripen their grapes better, so much so that areas that considered themselves lucky to get two good vintages out of ten saw nine good or great vintages during the 90's.
The winemakers will tell you that it wasn't just the weather; improved vineyard techniques account for some of the improvements. They'll also point out that the warmer seasons make it more difficult to make other wines, like eisweins.
Whatever the reason, we end up with bigger, riper, richer wines.
The winemakers will tell you that it wasn't just the weather; improved vineyard techniques account for some of the improvements. They'll also point out that the warmer seasons make it more difficult to make other wines, like eisweins.
Whatever the reason, we end up with bigger, riper, richer wines.
Thursday, August 07, 2003
WW I.
Best line I've heard today on the zoo that they call the California recall election:
"If it's Arnold against Arianna, it will be like fighting WWI all over again, with the Austrian-Hungarian Empire battling the Ottoman Empire."
"If it's Arnold against Arianna, it will be like fighting WWI all over again, with the Austrian-Hungarian Empire battling the Ottoman Empire."
Wednesday, August 06, 2003
Gotta love California.
The state where anyone can become Governor. What a zoo. Arnold. Larry Flynt. Both Huffingtons. Gary Coleman. All running in the circus that is the recall election. Makes one proud to be from somewhere other than California.
Tuesday, August 05, 2003
Harry Potter, again.
I've just finished the latest Harry Potter book. Really very good. I've enjoyed the way the series has turned darker, that the themes mature as Harry does. I'll be intrigued to see how this book translates into a movie, and I hope that J.K. Rowling can continue to keep close control over the movies as they're produced.
Harvesting mushrooms.
Yes, it's that time again. To mow the frickin' yard. (Especially since the weather weenies are predicting thunderstorms everyday for the next week.) This time, the two weeks since the last mowing and all the rain have combined to give me lots and lots of mushrooms in the front yard. Oddly, though, they were all whole, which makes me wonder where the neighborhood bunny rabbit is? I saw it last week, gamboling in a neighbor's yard, so unless it's done so recently, it hasn't gone to bunny heaven. Perhaps it's just that there are mushrooms everywhere, so it doesn't need to come and chow down on mine.
Monday, August 04, 2003
Too much time on their hands. As it were.
There is a "World Rock Paper Scissors Society", complete with web page and an "Official Rock Paper Scissors Strategy Guide". Yes, official rules and all. A discussion of the philosophy of opening moves. ("Rock ... is seen ... to be a sign of aggression.") Gambits. Historical archives, with such tidbits as a photograph from the Potsdam conference, showing the differences in personality types of the three leaders: Churchill (scissors), Stalin (rock), and Truman (paper). Not surprisingly, you can buy T-shirts and stickers, if you're so inclined. More surprisingly, they're having what an International World Championship" at a bar that actually exists in Toronto (instead of someone's basement, as I'd have suspected).
More interesting, I think, is the report a couple of links away to a Rock-Paper-Scissors programming competition held in 1999 (and a second in 2001). The winning program was a lot more complex than the Tit-for-Tat programs that always win Prisoners' Dilemma competitions - this one was called "Iocaine Powder" (which should mean something to film buffs), and includes built-in second- and third-guessing of your opponent.
More interesting, I think, is the report a couple of links away to a Rock-Paper-Scissors programming competition held in 1999 (and a second in 2001). The winning program was a lot more complex than the Tit-for-Tat programs that always win Prisoners' Dilemma competitions - this one was called "Iocaine Powder" (which should mean something to film buffs), and includes built-in second- and third-guessing of your opponent.
Sunday, August 03, 2003
Vertical tasting at Burnley Vineyards.
Went to a vertical tasting of cabernet sauvignons at Burnley Vineyards yesterday. As usual, it was both fun and informative.
A vertical tasting is when you taste the same wine from the same vineyard over a number of different years. (Similarly, a horizontal tasting would be tasting the same wine from the same year from a number of different wineries.) This tasting had cabs from 1995 through 2001. The winemaker - Lee Reeder - pours the wines for you, and tells you something about that year's vintage that makes it different, and which you may be able to tell in the wine: whether the summer was hot and dry, or cool and wet, or when they changed to a heavier toast in the barrels the wine ages in, or when they changed to a better, more gentle wine press.
It's this focus on education, making sure you have a written description of the differences in each year's production and allowing you to study and savor one year's wine before going onto the next, that makes their vertical tasting so good. I've been to vertical tastings at a couple of other Virginia wineries, and they tended to be poured by people whose knowledge of the wine was limited to what was on the label ("This is the 1998."); not nearly as good an experience.
A vertical tasting is when you taste the same wine from the same vineyard over a number of different years. (Similarly, a horizontal tasting would be tasting the same wine from the same year from a number of different wineries.) This tasting had cabs from 1995 through 2001. The winemaker - Lee Reeder - pours the wines for you, and tells you something about that year's vintage that makes it different, and which you may be able to tell in the wine: whether the summer was hot and dry, or cool and wet, or when they changed to a heavier toast in the barrels the wine ages in, or when they changed to a better, more gentle wine press.
It's this focus on education, making sure you have a written description of the differences in each year's production and allowing you to study and savor one year's wine before going onto the next, that makes their vertical tasting so good. I've been to vertical tastings at a couple of other Virginia wineries, and they tended to be poured by people whose knowledge of the wine was limited to what was on the label ("This is the 1998."); not nearly as good an experience.
Thursday, July 31, 2003
And speaking of Star Wars.
Ran across this CD on Amazon.com. It's the soundtrack to Star Wars: Shadows Of The Empire. Don't recognize it? Or perhaps you do? Yes, this is a soundtrack to a novel, not to a movie or live performance of the novel or something similar. And no, it's not music written by John Williams or music performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, as you might have expected. It's the Royal Scottish national Orchestra, and the music is written by Joel McNeely.
There are four 30-second snippets from the CD on the Amazon.com site, and one of the four is the John Williams main Star Wars theme, probably not the best choice they could have made if you were expecting to hear the newly-written stuff. And the sound bites you do get to listen to in the other three choices makes you realize that John Williams really does know his stuff (in comparison, at least).
There are four 30-second snippets from the CD on the Amazon.com site, and one of the four is the John Williams main Star Wars theme, probably not the best choice they could have made if you were expecting to hear the newly-written stuff. And the sound bites you do get to listen to in the other three choices makes you realize that John Williams really does know his stuff (in comparison, at least).
Type Casting: Geek Star Wars.
So there's this guy in New Zealand who has even less of a life than I do. He is re-creating the movie Star Wars as animated ASCII characters. It's taken him only six years so far, and he's about two-thirds of the way through. Very bizarre.
I can't imagine he'll do the other Star Wars movies if and when he finishes this one, but he has done a short piece showing the death of Jar-Jar. And of course, there's always his jet-powered beer cooler.
I can't imagine he'll do the other Star Wars movies if and when he finishes this one, but he has done a short piece showing the death of Jar-Jar. And of course, there's always his jet-powered beer cooler.
Wednesday, July 30, 2003
Growing mold.
We've already had more rain already this year than in the entire year last year, and more is on the way. It was like Seattle all spring, and summer hasn't been a whole lot better - over 9 inches already in July alone. On the other hand, I'm getting a lot more exercise mowing my lawn every 8 to 10 days this year than I did last year, when my yard was mowed exactly once in the last six months of the year.
Vive le Lance!
What a great Tour de France this year. Excitement everyday, where you could see team strategies at work, shifting not just every day, but minute-by-minute, with every new attack or breakaway on the road. Drama, where the Tour championship was decided on the last "real" day of the Tour, in an individual time trial on a rain-slicked road, and the sprint championship was decided by two inches on the final sprint in Paris. Personal stories of pain and triumph, with Tyler Hamilton breaking his collarbone on the first stage of the Tour and willing himself not only to continue, but to come in fourth overall.
But what has impressed me the most this year was Lance. Not just Lance-the-Athlete, who excelled at enough different parts of the Tour to win (at one point, Lance was second in the polka-dotted-jersey competition, for mountain climbing, and he ended up fourth), and Lance-the-Organizer, who put together one of the best supporting teams ever in Tour history, but Lance-the-Communicator, who now speaks French well enough that he talks to the French TV coverage at the end of a stage before he talks to English-language TV, and he goes out of his way to talk to the French press (enough so that while he was awarded the "lemon prize" in 2001 by the Tour's press corps as being the least accessible and most unpleasant rider that year, this year they awarded him the "orange prize" as being the nicest and most accessible rider) and Lance-the-Person, who views himself as wanting to do things "right" if he's going to do them at all, not because he's a champion or a hero, but because it's what he expects it of himself.
Boy, I'm looking forward to next year's Tour already: to see whether Lance can pull it all together one more time, to become the Tour's first six-time champion, to see the continuing struggle with Jan Ullrich and Joseba Beloki (who we hope recovers to race again), to see the development of Tyler Hamilton. To see whether next year's Tour can top the standard set this year. Until then, I'll just have to be satisfied with watching Breaking Away.
But what has impressed me the most this year was Lance. Not just Lance-the-Athlete, who excelled at enough different parts of the Tour to win (at one point, Lance was second in the polka-dotted-jersey competition, for mountain climbing, and he ended up fourth), and Lance-the-Organizer, who put together one of the best supporting teams ever in Tour history, but Lance-the-Communicator, who now speaks French well enough that he talks to the French TV coverage at the end of a stage before he talks to English-language TV, and he goes out of his way to talk to the French press (enough so that while he was awarded the "lemon prize" in 2001 by the Tour's press corps as being the least accessible and most unpleasant rider that year, this year they awarded him the "orange prize" as being the nicest and most accessible rider) and Lance-the-Person, who views himself as wanting to do things "right" if he's going to do them at all, not because he's a champion or a hero, but because it's what he expects it of himself.
Boy, I'm looking forward to next year's Tour already: to see whether Lance can pull it all together one more time, to become the Tour's first six-time champion, to see the continuing struggle with Jan Ullrich and Joseba Beloki (who we hope recovers to race again), to see the development of Tyler Hamilton. To see whether next year's Tour can top the standard set this year. Until then, I'll just have to be satisfied with watching Breaking Away.
Tuesday, July 29, 2003
A philatelist's nightmare.
Make-it-yourself stamps. There's a suggestion that the USPS adopt a plan already in use by the Canadian postal service whereby you can send in a picture and have the USPS turn it into a stamp. It would cost more than a regular stamp - presumably, enough more that the USPS would make a tidy profit on the deal (Canada charges $25 for 25 48-cent stamps) - and couldn't have a copyrighted image. This would have to be tough on stamp collectors, who would have to limit themselves to collecting "official" releases instead of "authorized" stamps. But Hey! A new outlet for my photographs, in addition to Christmas cards.
Bambi Hunt is elaborate hoax.
Well, the good news is that the Bambi Hunt is just an elaborate hoax, designed to sell videos of such supposed hunts. The bad news is that somebody thought these videos up in the first place, and then conned a TV news team into believing that it was real. The sad news is that there actually appears to be a market for this kind of video.
Monday, July 28, 2003
Pelusa the Purple Polar Bear.
I don't make 'em up. This poor polar bear turns purple as a side effect of some drug given her for a skin infection, or so the story goes. Looks more like a dyed Easter chick. So long as she doesn't start singing a Barney song, I suppose.
Homeowners Associations.
Interesting article in the NY Times about homeowners associations and the occasional disasters that come when the associations enforce their rules against homeowners. I can see both sides - the homeowners who don't realize just what it means to move into a development that has a homeowners association (HOA) with the power to make rules like a miniature government, and the association boards who may become a bit too zealous in enforcing "the will" of the association. I know that when I was involved with the board of the HOA when I owned my townhouse, the board often wanted to do things to "punish" absentee homeowners or to make excessively intrusive rules ("you can have only one cat or one dog, but not both") even if those rules violated rights given by the development's restrictive covenants. I usually fell back on an argument of "you don't have the power to do that" when the board wanted to do something silly, and it was sometimes even true. On the other hand, I got to experience trying to deal with homeowners who didn't want to believe that the HOA had the power to do those things it was supposed to do (charge quarterly dues in order to pay for trash collection and lawn maintenance, or approve architectural changes), or to enforce its rightful decisions.
It was an interesting experience, living in a neighborhood with an HOA that had such powers, and it was enough to make me realize that any future house I own won't be in a neighborhood with an HOA.
It was an interesting experience, living in a neighborhood with an HOA that had such powers, and it was enough to make me realize that any future house I own won't be in a neighborhood with an HOA.
Thursday, July 24, 2003
Cakebread wines.
One of my favorite wineries got a lengthy (and favorable) mention in one of the Washington Post's wine columns yesterday. Cakebread Cellars -- great wines, great people, great tour. I heartily recommend their wines, and a visit to their winery if you should be out in Napa.
Jack Cakebread came out to Fuqua both years I was there, to lead a tasting for 50 people and a dinner for 12 at the Washington Duke showcasing his wines. Wonderful wines, and great to be able to try the wines paired up with food. Jack made the blanket invitation to anyone at the tastings to let him know in advance if we were heading out to Napa, and he'd arrange a special tour. Sounded like a plan to me: The summer of 2002, I went out to Napa and Sonoma for a week and a half, going to wineries during the day and brewpubs at night. And while I had wanted to do that trip for some time, the special invitation to tour Cakebread Cellars was the push I needed to make the plane reservations.
The wine highlight of the trip was the tour at Cakebread. (The beer highlight was the pilgrimage to Lagunitas Brewing Co. But I digress.) I was met at the winery by Mike and family (why I have to go to California to spend time with friends from upstate New York is a question whose answer does not bear close inspection, but again I digress), and we made up our own little tour group. We talked with Jack for a few minutes, and had a delightful little tour and special tasting. Mike and I spent the rest of the day touring, including the Niebaum-Coppola winery across the street. While seeing the Coppola museum (memorabilia and Oscars from his movies) was cool, the entire experience was much less fun. As Mike noted at some point during the day, at both Cakebread and Coppola, they've clearly spent a lot of money. At Coppola, they've spent the money to make you think they are important; at Cakebread, they've spent the money to make you think you are important.
Good people, good tour, good wine. Go visit them if you get the chance.
Jack Cakebread came out to Fuqua both years I was there, to lead a tasting for 50 people and a dinner for 12 at the Washington Duke showcasing his wines. Wonderful wines, and great to be able to try the wines paired up with food. Jack made the blanket invitation to anyone at the tastings to let him know in advance if we were heading out to Napa, and he'd arrange a special tour. Sounded like a plan to me: The summer of 2002, I went out to Napa and Sonoma for a week and a half, going to wineries during the day and brewpubs at night. And while I had wanted to do that trip for some time, the special invitation to tour Cakebread Cellars was the push I needed to make the plane reservations.
The wine highlight of the trip was the tour at Cakebread. (The beer highlight was the pilgrimage to Lagunitas Brewing Co. But I digress.) I was met at the winery by Mike and family (why I have to go to California to spend time with friends from upstate New York is a question whose answer does not bear close inspection, but again I digress), and we made up our own little tour group. We talked with Jack for a few minutes, and had a delightful little tour and special tasting. Mike and I spent the rest of the day touring, including the Niebaum-Coppola winery across the street. While seeing the Coppola museum (memorabilia and Oscars from his movies) was cool, the entire experience was much less fun. As Mike noted at some point during the day, at both Cakebread and Coppola, they've clearly spent a lot of money. At Coppola, they've spent the money to make you think they are important; at Cakebread, they've spent the money to make you think you are important.
Good people, good tour, good wine. Go visit them if you get the chance.
Weather. Bah. II.
Took them a day and a half to send someone out. They eventually diagnosed that the cable wire inside the house wore out. So, the lightning strike fried something? No, it was just coincidence that lightning happened to strike at the exact same moment that the wire "wore out". Okay.
At least the cable is back. *knock on wood* And I can watch the Tour de France without thinking that I'm getting the television signal sent directly from Paris.
At least the cable is back. *knock on wood* And I can watch the Tour de France without thinking that I'm getting the television signal sent directly from Paris.
Wednesday, July 23, 2003
Tyler Hamilton.
Every day, something new in the Tour de France. Totally unlike so many Tours in the past, where it seemed that someone got a 10-minute lead and went through the motions to get to Paris.
Today, Tyler Hamilton came from lagging behind the peleton (catching up through the assistance of his team) to going on a breakaway that lasted 140 kilometers and gave him a 2-minute win over the field. Amazing enough that someone could keep up a solo breakaway for that long and keep it for the win, but he's doing it with a collarbone fractured in two places from the crash in Stage 1, two weeks ago. He's moved up into 6th place with today's stage victory, and as he's a good individual time trialist, there's a chance he could make it into 3rd place by the end of the Tour. You really have to admire someone who can struggle through the pain he's suffered in this Tour.
Today, Tyler Hamilton came from lagging behind the peleton (catching up through the assistance of his team) to going on a breakaway that lasted 140 kilometers and gave him a 2-minute win over the field. Amazing enough that someone could keep up a solo breakaway for that long and keep it for the win, but he's doing it with a collarbone fractured in two places from the crash in Stage 1, two weeks ago. He's moved up into 6th place with today's stage victory, and as he's a good individual time trialist, there's a chance he could make it into 3rd place by the end of the Tour. You really have to admire someone who can struggle through the pain he's suffered in this Tour.
Weather. Bah.
Living in a house built 50 years ago has its charms and its disadvantages. The latter showed up last night. Big thunderstorm. Lightning strike, somewhere back behind the house. Knocked out the cable momentarily, then part of the cable came back. Enough came back that I can get maybe 20 channels, albeit with a lot of snow and static, including the broadcast channels and OLN, but not HBO. Also knocked out - and not returning - was the cable connection to the internet. Bummer. When I looked at the junction from the main cable line to the one coming to my house, I could see disconnected wires hanging down. So now I'm reduced to going to the library to get online.
Called Comcast this morning to report the outage. Went through their telephone menus to report the problem as a TV-cable problem. Ended up putting in my phone number so they could locate where the call came from, and I got a recorded voice telling me that no outage had been detected in my area. Well, excuse me: I'm looking at my TV right now, and there's an outage. So I had to call back and go through the internet-cable series of menus, and after going through - by actual count - 14 menus, I got to a real, live person. She confirmed that it sounded like a problem, even though her system didn't show an outage near me, and said they'd send someone out to repair it. Tomorrow.
Called Comcast this morning to report the outage. Went through their telephone menus to report the problem as a TV-cable problem. Ended up putting in my phone number so they could locate where the call came from, and I got a recorded voice telling me that no outage had been detected in my area. Well, excuse me: I'm looking at my TV right now, and there's an outage. So I had to call back and go through the internet-cable series of menus, and after going through - by actual count - 14 menus, I got to a real, live person. She confirmed that it sounded like a problem, even though her system didn't show an outage near me, and said they'd send someone out to repair it. Tomorrow.
Monday, July 21, 2003
More Tour de France.
Holy cow. Just when you think this year's race couldn't get any better - and over two weeks into the race, only 18 seconds separated first place from third, going into today's stage - today, it did. Ullrich attacking on the mountain before the last mountain. Armstrong being taken down by a kid and run over by Iban Mayo who was just behind him. Armstrong getting back up and starting to work his way back to the leaders when he almost goes down again, when his foot came loose from the pedal. Ullrich, adhering to the unwritten rules of cycling, not taking advantage of accidents and equipment failures - and returning the favor from when Armstrong waited for Ullrich to return to the pack after a flat tire two years ago - slowing the leading group down until Armstrong could get back. Another attack by Mayo, Armstrong counterattacks, and Ullrich can't join them. Armstrong zips away, and ends up extending his lead to 1 minute 7 seconds. Enough to win? Some years, yes. This year? I don't think it's over yet. We've seen Ullrich beat Armstrong in an individual time trial already this Tour, it could happen again. I don't think it'll happen, but there's been so much this year that no one could have predicted ....
Harry Potter movies, I and II.
Well, sure, I haven't made it out to too many movies of late. I plead frugality. But this past weekend, I stayed at home and watched a double feature of Harry Potter movies. I'd already seen the first one, HP and the Sorcerer's Stone, and enjoyed it for the depth of detail shown in Potter's world. But I hadn't yet seen the second one, HP and the Chamber of Secrets. I enjoyed it immensely. Because they didn't need to establish the world of Hogwarts, they could instead use the time to delve deeper into the detail of the world and traits of the characters. Dark and intricate, the movie was long enough (at 2 hours and 41 minutes) to cover it all well and still leave you wanting more. (Take note, Tarantino and Miramax.) And what a wonderful casting decision to bring in Kenneth Brannagh as this episode's professor of Defense against the Dark Arts.
Okay, I'm ready for the next episode to come out. June 2004, apparently.
Okay, I'm ready for the next episode to come out. June 2004, apparently.
Sunday, July 20, 2003
Contractor update
They promised they'd show up on Friday between 9 and 10. Sure enough, they arrived promptly at 10:30. I suppose the good news is that they installed the new oil tank, apparently competently, and I now have hot water again. Bit of a shame that it took 2 days what should have been done in one, but I guess I should be happy that it only took 2 days.
Thursday, July 17, 2003
Pay twice to see a single movie? Not me.
Quentin Tarantino and Miramax have come up with what I'm sure they think is a nifty idea: release his upcoming movie "Kill Bill" in two parts, the first part in October and the second part between two and six months later. It's now a 3-hour movie, and this will split it into 90-minute parts. And all they're going to do is chop it in half - no filming additional scenes to ease the transition, or anything.
What an amazingly bad idea, on so many levels. If the movie really needs to be 3 hours long, let it be that long, and go ahead and release all of it. Aren't movie patrons still willing to watch a long movie, if it's good and the story justifies the length? Or would viewers need to have The Godfather cut into bite-size pieces for them? Or split The Longest Day into The Longest Morning and The Longest Afternoon? I have a higher opinion of movie viewers than Tarantino and Miramax do, apparently.
An alternative plan would be to cut the movie to a studio-acceptable length of 2 or 2 and a quarter hours. A good editor could help him do that. But I guess Tarantino is too big a director to work with an editor.
I certainly don't plan to watch the movie, not if I have to buy two separate admissions six months apart to see it all. I suppose I'll consider renting the DVD when it comes out and the two pieces are merged back into a single movie.
What an amazingly bad idea, on so many levels. If the movie really needs to be 3 hours long, let it be that long, and go ahead and release all of it. Aren't movie patrons still willing to watch a long movie, if it's good and the story justifies the length? Or would viewers need to have The Godfather cut into bite-size pieces for them? Or split The Longest Day into The Longest Morning and The Longest Afternoon? I have a higher opinion of movie viewers than Tarantino and Miramax do, apparently.
An alternative plan would be to cut the movie to a studio-acceptable length of 2 or 2 and a quarter hours. A good editor could help him do that. But I guess Tarantino is too big a director to work with an editor.
I certainly don't plan to watch the movie, not if I have to buy two separate admissions six months apart to see it all. I suppose I'll consider renting the DVD when it comes out and the two pieces are merged back into a single movie.
Cat translator.
A Japanese toy company has come up with a handheld machine that translates your cat's meows and purrs into English, or so it claims. I suppose that, at $75, it's a bargain compared to its similar machine that translates dogs' barks ($125). But can this machine really tell the subtle difference between "Feed me", "Feed me now", "Feed me NOW", and "Feed me right now or else you'll find a surprise the next time you put your black shoes on"?
Contractors. Bah.
I bought my house almost a year ago. As part of the pre-contract dance, we tested around the 50-year-old underground heating oil tank to see if it was leaking, and sure enough, it was. Got the seller to credit some amount of the purchase price to me so I could get the tank replaced. Around October, I got in touch with someone to talk about having that tank dug up and the contaminated soil removed, and a new, above-ground tank installed, and somewhere around Christmas, I signed a contract with them.
Since then, weather has made it somewhat difficult for them to come out here, between the rain and cold of the winter and the rain and cold of the Seattle-like spring. No point in bringing in a backhoe if it's just going to sink out of sight in the back yard.
So they finally show up today, dismantle the back steps to the deck so they can get to the tank, and start in. After they've dug the hole, drained the oil tank, and dented and holed it enough to completely put it out of commission, they knock at my door. "Um, have you made plans for a new heating system? Are you going to get a new above-ground tank installed sometime?" Well, yes. You're going to do it. "Oh, no. Not us. We've never heard of that." Well, yes. It's part of the deal. "It's not in the contract." Well, yes, it is. Let's look at it. "Oh, hmm. I guess we are. You know, this should have been taken care of six months ago." You don't say. "And, is this how you heated your water? Well, whatever hot water is now in the tank will be it until you get the new tank put in, and it probably won't stay hot too much longer." Well, I guess I'll go take a shower now, and try to remember what it feels like to be clean.
As it now stands, I'll have a new tank installed tomorrow morning, complete with enough oil to compensate me for the oil they weren't able to transfer out of my old tank (because I didn't have a new tank to transfer it to), and a bit more. I'm already looking forward to tomorrow's hot water.
Since then, weather has made it somewhat difficult for them to come out here, between the rain and cold of the winter and the rain and cold of the Seattle-like spring. No point in bringing in a backhoe if it's just going to sink out of sight in the back yard.
So they finally show up today, dismantle the back steps to the deck so they can get to the tank, and start in. After they've dug the hole, drained the oil tank, and dented and holed it enough to completely put it out of commission, they knock at my door. "Um, have you made plans for a new heating system? Are you going to get a new above-ground tank installed sometime?" Well, yes. You're going to do it. "Oh, no. Not us. We've never heard of that." Well, yes. It's part of the deal. "It's not in the contract." Well, yes, it is. Let's look at it. "Oh, hmm. I guess we are. You know, this should have been taken care of six months ago." You don't say. "And, is this how you heated your water? Well, whatever hot water is now in the tank will be it until you get the new tank put in, and it probably won't stay hot too much longer." Well, I guess I'll go take a shower now, and try to remember what it feels like to be clean.
As it now stands, I'll have a new tank installed tomorrow morning, complete with enough oil to compensate me for the oil they weren't able to transfer out of my old tank (because I didn't have a new tank to transfer it to), and a bit more. I'm already looking forward to tomorrow's hot water.
Wednesday, July 16, 2003
Barry Bonds is an idiot.
Barry Bonds thinks he's better than Babe Ruth. Don't think so, Barry. Come back when you have won as many games as a pitcher as The Babe did, and with an ERA to match. Until then, you don't have the standing to compare yourself to Ruth as an overall baseball player.
Tuesday, July 15, 2003
Commodore 64 Makes a Comeback.
Cool. The company that now has the rights to the Commodore 64 brand name is going to relaunch the brand to try to take advantage of an upsurge of interest in the C64 computer and its games.
I still have my C64 and its games. Okay, I haven't taken the system out of its box and turned the power on in at least 3 years, but I still have the stuff around and, as of 3 years ago, it worked. Maybe I'll be able to sell it all and get more than the $20 the whole load would have brought the last time I checked on eBay. Yeah, maybe. Still, it's nice to see that one of the pioneers of the home computer isn't completely forgotten.
I still have my C64 and its games. Okay, I haven't taken the system out of its box and turned the power on in at least 3 years, but I still have the stuff around and, as of 3 years ago, it worked. Maybe I'll be able to sell it all and get more than the $20 the whole load would have brought the last time I checked on eBay. Yeah, maybe. Still, it's nice to see that one of the pioneers of the home computer isn't completely forgotten.
Hunting for Bambi.
In the immortal words of Dave Barry, I am not making this up. Out in Las Vegas, men are paying thousands of dollars to shoot naked women with paint ball guns. Sad, sick, and bizarre. And pathetic. Mostly pathetic. There's even a website - not linked to here - for the organization behind it, complete with photos of the bozos in their camouflage outfits, standing over their prey. And - just wondering here - where do these goons get the kind of money that it takes to take part in this sick activity?
Dolphin Stress Test.
A quick little diagnostic tool, the Dolphin Stress Test should help you determine whether you have too much stress in your life.
2003 Tour De France Map Pint Glasses.
I like souvenirs as much as the next person, so when I saw that there were 2003 Tour De France Map Pint Glasses available, I had to go look, didn't I? They really do look kind of cool - pint glasses with the map of this year's TDF, the centennial logo, and all that. Then I took a look at the price: $50 for a set of four. Ouch. And my guess is that postage and handling is on top of that. Double ouch. Don't think I'll be getting them.
One for $5, two for $15 shipping included, something like that would have been reasonable. But this is treating a potential customer rather like the way the road treated Beloki yesterday.
And if you're interested, they also have a matching pitcher ($40) and coasters ($7).
One for $5, two for $15 shipping included, something like that would have been reasonable. But this is treating a potential customer rather like the way the road treated Beloki yesterday.
And if you're interested, they also have a matching pitcher ($40) and coasters ($7).
Monday, July 14, 2003
L'Alpe d'Huez.
Y'know, I really like the Tour de France. Tremendous athletes, who batter their bodies day after day for 21 days, exerting more in a single day than the professional "athletes" of baseball, basketball or football do in a week. Team players - domestiques - who really do give their all for their team. Stories of individual glory, like French riders who want more than anything to win a daily stage during this centennial Tour. Absolutely unbelievable stories of individual bravery and achievement, of overcoming adversity. Lunatic crowds of fans, like the half-million who lined the road up L'Alpe d'Huez on Sunday, creating a tunnel of people and noise unlike anything seen in other professional sports: where else do fans get to squirt water onto the overheated athletes, or run alongside them, urging them on? (Not in football or baseball, where fans placidly sit in their seats, or in soccer where - in South America, at least - players are separated from the crowds by chain link fences. I guess in the U.S., empty seats serve the same purpose.)
While I'm pleased that Lance Armstrong has finally taken the yellow jersey, and think that the U.S. Postal team has been riding a great tactical race, understanding that the race lasts another two weeks and that what's important is who leads at the end of the race, and not who leads at the end of the first week, what has completely dumbfounded me is the Tour that Tyler Hamilton has been having. He was in a crash at the end of the first stage, and broke his collarbone in two places. He's stayed in the race (yes, the race physicians have looked closely at him and his x-rays), and a week later, he's not only still racing but still racing at the front of the pack. He went up L'Alpe d'Huez with Lance Armstrong's group at the front of the race today, and even took off on a couple of challenges to Lance. All while being unable to stand up in his seat to accelerate without incurring incredible pain. It takes tremendous courage and stamina for him to stay in the race, and I look forward to watching his success in future Tours de France.
While I'm pleased that Lance Armstrong has finally taken the yellow jersey, and think that the U.S. Postal team has been riding a great tactical race, understanding that the race lasts another two weeks and that what's important is who leads at the end of the race, and not who leads at the end of the first week, what has completely dumbfounded me is the Tour that Tyler Hamilton has been having. He was in a crash at the end of the first stage, and broke his collarbone in two places. He's stayed in the race (yes, the race physicians have looked closely at him and his x-rays), and a week later, he's not only still racing but still racing at the front of the pack. He went up L'Alpe d'Huez with Lance Armstrong's group at the front of the race today, and even took off on a couple of challenges to Lance. All while being unable to stand up in his seat to accelerate without incurring incredible pain. It takes tremendous courage and stamina for him to stay in the race, and I look forward to watching his success in future Tours de France.
Sunday, July 13, 2003
Reading list: *A Short History of Nearly Everything.
Bill Bryson is best known for his travel books and books on English. His latest, *A Short History of Nearly Everything, is a combination science overview and history of science, and is written with his usual wit and touches of his breezy humor.
He does a good job of explaining difficult concepts like superstring theory without causing your eyes to roll back into your head, and puts scientific discoveries into the context of the times and the personalities involved. And he sprinkles in loads of anecdotes and fun factoids (e.g., the Pacific Ocean is a foot and a half higher on its western edge than on its eastern edge, due to forces from the earth's eastward rotation) to lighten the writing.
At 500 pages, it's not really a short book, except when considering what it's covering, and is not as conversationally light as his travel books. But it's good at catching you up on what you should have learned in your various science courses, and what's happened in those fields since you took those courses (a longer time for some of us, of course).
And you may just decide to stay away from Yellowstone.
He does a good job of explaining difficult concepts like superstring theory without causing your eyes to roll back into your head, and puts scientific discoveries into the context of the times and the personalities involved. And he sprinkles in loads of anecdotes and fun factoids (e.g., the Pacific Ocean is a foot and a half higher on its western edge than on its eastern edge, due to forces from the earth's eastward rotation) to lighten the writing.
At 500 pages, it's not really a short book, except when considering what it's covering, and is not as conversationally light as his travel books. But it's good at catching you up on what you should have learned in your various science courses, and what's happened in those fields since you took those courses (a longer time for some of us, of course).
And you may just decide to stay away from Yellowstone.
Running with the bulls, thinking like the turkeys.
The Fiesta de San Fermin. Running with the bulls. The rite of passage made famous by Hemingway. Darwinism in action.
One of the more fascinating things I've seen while watching OLN's coverage of the Tour de France is its daily coverage of the running of the bulls in Pamplona. Part ESPN-overkill (with its slow-motion replays, animated graphics, and block-by-block analysis of the course, complete with fatality statistics), and part Comedy Central (mocking the participants, acknowledging that it's better to be in the commentary booth than down in the street), the show covers the bull running as though it were an actual sporting event. They even introduce the day's bulls, showing each one's name, photo, weight, and interesting fact.
I end up rooting for the bulls, hoping that they get in one last blow for their dignity, as they run terrified from the stockyard to the bullring, where they will be poked, stabbed, and eventually skewered by the matador ("balletic torturer"), picadors ("henchmen"), et al., to the delight of the bloodthirsty crowd.
One of the more fascinating things I've seen while watching OLN's coverage of the Tour de France is its daily coverage of the running of the bulls in Pamplona. Part ESPN-overkill (with its slow-motion replays, animated graphics, and block-by-block analysis of the course, complete with fatality statistics), and part Comedy Central (mocking the participants, acknowledging that it's better to be in the commentary booth than down in the street), the show covers the bull running as though it were an actual sporting event. They even introduce the day's bulls, showing each one's name, photo, weight, and interesting fact.
I end up rooting for the bulls, hoping that they get in one last blow for their dignity, as they run terrified from the stockyard to the bullring, where they will be poked, stabbed, and eventually skewered by the matador ("balletic torturer"), picadors ("henchmen"), et al., to the delight of the bloodthirsty crowd.
Friday, July 11, 2003
How can you tell when it's time to mow the lawn?
I had thought there were two answers to this question: 1) When your parents come to visit, and 2) when you feel guilty upon turning into your driveway.
Turns out there are at least a couple more answers: 3) When the neighborhood bunny rabbit can hide in your front yard, and 4) when a 12-year-old offers to mow the lawn for you.
With any luck, this spring's constant rain has ceased, and I won't have to be out cutting the grass every week. It all rather makes me long for last summer's drought, when my yard went from the end of June to the middle of October between mowings.
Turns out there are at least a couple more answers: 3) When the neighborhood bunny rabbit can hide in your front yard, and 4) when a 12-year-old offers to mow the lawn for you.
With any luck, this spring's constant rain has ceased, and I won't have to be out cutting the grass every week. It all rather makes me long for last summer's drought, when my yard went from the end of June to the middle of October between mowings.
Thursday, July 10, 2003
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
"A typical wine writer was once described as someone with a typewriter who was looking for his name in print, a free lunch, and a way to write off his wine cellar. It’s a dated view. Wine writers now use computers." - Frank J. Prial, New York Times Wine Critic.
Tour de France.
I don't have a whole lot of patience for those who say that world-class cyclists somehow aren't athletes because all they do is ride a bike, and anyone can do that. And yet, baseball and football players are? When they stand around doing nothing 95% and 75% of the time, respectively? I'd sure like to see any of them - columnists or baseball and football players - ride a bike for 125 miles, ride the bike up a mountain that is steeper than they would want to either drive or walk up, and have the energy left to sprint to the finish line. And then do that for 21 days in a row.
On the other hand, some commentators do get it, and get it well enough to realize the beauty of a well-designed team supporting the team's star. Given that those team members don't get much recognition for their work, it's wonderful to see that one of them (Victor Hugo Pena) now leads the Tour, one second ahead of the star teammate (Lance Armstrong), and that Armstrong is clearly delighted that Pena has gotten the chance to wear the yellow jersey.
Anyway. There's been remarkable coverage of this year's Tour: the helicopter shots are amazing: rock-steady telephoto shots from ten feet off the ground make it look as though the camera is in the peleton, and there are enough cameras around that you don't miss any of the action. And the commentators do a reasonably good job of explaining the various strategies in a manner that casual viewers can understand without boring people who are familiar with stage racing.
Great fun watching yesterday's team time trial, and the U.S. Postal team turning on the speed. They clearly were better prepared to work as a team, always in a tight aerodynamic line, while many of the other teams - including the good time trialing teams, like ONCE - rode in packs, rather than lines, and occasionally dropped team members from the pack to finish more slowly, on their own. (One of the sadistic, guilty pleasures was watching the U.S. Postal team, an hour into their run, zip past a dropped member from a team that had started 15 minutes earlier.) With the tremendous finish, Armstrong looks well poised to grab the lead of the Tour when they make it to the mountains in a few days.
On the other hand, some commentators do get it, and get it well enough to realize the beauty of a well-designed team supporting the team's star. Given that those team members don't get much recognition for their work, it's wonderful to see that one of them (Victor Hugo Pena) now leads the Tour, one second ahead of the star teammate (Lance Armstrong), and that Armstrong is clearly delighted that Pena has gotten the chance to wear the yellow jersey.
Anyway. There's been remarkable coverage of this year's Tour: the helicopter shots are amazing: rock-steady telephoto shots from ten feet off the ground make it look as though the camera is in the peleton, and there are enough cameras around that you don't miss any of the action. And the commentators do a reasonably good job of explaining the various strategies in a manner that casual viewers can understand without boring people who are familiar with stage racing.
Great fun watching yesterday's team time trial, and the U.S. Postal team turning on the speed. They clearly were better prepared to work as a team, always in a tight aerodynamic line, while many of the other teams - including the good time trialing teams, like ONCE - rode in packs, rather than lines, and occasionally dropped team members from the pack to finish more slowly, on their own. (One of the sadistic, guilty pleasures was watching the U.S. Postal team, an hour into their run, zip past a dropped member from a team that had started 15 minutes earlier.) With the tremendous finish, Armstrong looks well poised to grab the lead of the Tour when they make it to the mountains in a few days.
Monday, July 07, 2003
Stoner Cellars beer.
While it's been three years since I made any beer at the late Monticello Brewing Company in Charlottesville, and most of the beer I made there was meant to be consumed while fresh, some of them were well-suited to age: the imperial stout, the cherry stout, and the barleywines. The stouts were brewed with so much flavor that even though they've faded over time, they still have a lot of flavor, and the barleywines needed a couple of years - well, four or five - to mellow out.
I recently discovered a small stash of my aging beers (okay, I'm still in the process of unpacking), and had a couple of them last night: a cherry stout, from about 1997, and a barleywine, from 1996. The cherry stout has lost all of its cherry characteristics - the hint of fruit, the juiciness, the slight tang of acid - but was still drinkable. Wish I'd had it a couple of years ago, though. In comparison, the barleywine was wonderful. All of the harshness was gone - and this beer's hallmark flavor was its rough edges. Now it's settled down to have a dark caramel flavor to match its color, the sharp alcohol flavor has disappeared, and there's a hint of pineapple on top of the gentle sweetness that remains. Yum.
I recently discovered a small stash of my aging beers (okay, I'm still in the process of unpacking), and had a couple of them last night: a cherry stout, from about 1997, and a barleywine, from 1996. The cherry stout has lost all of its cherry characteristics - the hint of fruit, the juiciness, the slight tang of acid - but was still drinkable. Wish I'd had it a couple of years ago, though. In comparison, the barleywine was wonderful. All of the harshness was gone - and this beer's hallmark flavor was its rough edges. Now it's settled down to have a dark caramel flavor to match its color, the sharp alcohol flavor has disappeared, and there's a hint of pineapple on top of the gentle sweetness that remains. Yum.
Friday, July 04, 2003
How to make banjo playing interesting.
And this is possibly the only way. Thanks - although that perhaps isn't the right word - to B3ta.
Mia and the great outdoors.
Mia should learn not to ask too often for something, she just might get it. Over the past month or so, she's occasionally meowed plaintively for something, and near as I can tell, she's wanted to go out. (Surprisingly, she didn't want to be fed, and she didn't want company. She'd lead me to the sliding glass door and look at me and then look outside and then look back at me, and then slowly shake her head when I'd open the glass door but leave the screen door closed.) And evil person that I am, I wouldn't let her out. Of course, I'm not entirely sure why she wants to go out. When she sits in an open window and sniffs the outdoors, she doesn't react to any of the interesting things happening on the other side of the screen, like the neighborhood bunny rabbit and squirrels. Hmm. Maybe she's near-sighted, and needs little kitty glasses. Old as she is, she probably would need little kitty bifocals.
Anyway, today, she got her wish. Early in the afternoon, I carried her out to meet the neighbor, who had heard of Mia but never seen her, as Mia doesn't sit in open windows on that side of the house. The neighbor fussed over her and told her how pretty she was; all Mia wanted to do was to squirm and twist and get away. I was holding her too tightly for that. Later in the afternoon, we went out again, just onto the back porch. I put her down on the top of the railing, and she didn't like it much. It wasn't too narrow for her - it's maybe 4 or 5 inches across. She looked over the railing at the ground 8 feet below, and walked quickly along it back towards the house, jumped down onto the porch, and went back into the dining room. Perhaps she realized that it's actually more fun to stay inside where there's a pillow to sleep on, air conditioning for comfort, and what's-his-name to wait on her hand and foot. (Well, "paw and paw," to be precise.)
Anyway, today, she got her wish. Early in the afternoon, I carried her out to meet the neighbor, who had heard of Mia but never seen her, as Mia doesn't sit in open windows on that side of the house. The neighbor fussed over her and told her how pretty she was; all Mia wanted to do was to squirm and twist and get away. I was holding her too tightly for that. Later in the afternoon, we went out again, just onto the back porch. I put her down on the top of the railing, and she didn't like it much. It wasn't too narrow for her - it's maybe 4 or 5 inches across. She looked over the railing at the ground 8 feet below, and walked quickly along it back towards the house, jumped down onto the porch, and went back into the dining room. Perhaps she realized that it's actually more fun to stay inside where there's a pillow to sleep on, air conditioning for comfort, and what's-his-name to wait on her hand and foot. (Well, "paw and paw," to be precise.)
ACC expansion.
I just can't get all that excited about the ACC's addition of the University of Miami and Virginia Tech, or what it all means to other conferences. To the extent that it makes the existing ACC schools' football programs better, that's fine and dandy, but I don't see how this is going to help Duke's 2-for-the-21st-century record. (They can't beat Northwestern, how can they possibly beat Miami?) And it certainly doesn't help the ACC's basketball reputation. Duke (like most ACC schools) will end up adding four more automatic wins to its schedule, but at the cost of removing four other games from the schedule - and Duke schedules some stiff non-conference games for experience. If they end up not being able to play Michigan State or Boston College so they can instead play Miami, Duke - and ultimately the ACC - ends up becoming weaker.
And all the hullabaloo about how wrong it is that the Big East was raided, and this will be the death of the Big East - utter baloney. Funny how the people decrying the ACC expansion are either sportwriters in Big East cities or administrators in Big East schools. If what was "done to them" was so evil, why is it all right for the Big East to raid Conference USA, for Louisville? And where were these voices when Virginia Tech bolted from the Atlantic 10 Conference to join the Big East in 2000? Or when the Southwest Conference was torn asunder in the mid 90's? Oh, that's right: Hypocrites don't need to be consistent, just loud.
And all the hullabaloo about how wrong it is that the Big East was raided, and this will be the death of the Big East - utter baloney. Funny how the people decrying the ACC expansion are either sportwriters in Big East cities or administrators in Big East schools. If what was "done to them" was so evil, why is it all right for the Big East to raid Conference USA, for Louisville? And where were these voices when Virginia Tech bolted from the Atlantic 10 Conference to join the Big East in 2000? Or when the Southwest Conference was torn asunder in the mid 90's? Oh, that's right: Hypocrites don't need to be consistent, just loud.
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