Jan 29, 2005

Traveling thespian

My HS and NYC friend Clint just started a 6-month tour with the theatre company TheatreworksUSA playing Templeton the Rat in "Charlotte's Web." It's his first professional acting job, so I'm pretty proud of him (he was waiting tables for about a year after graduating from the prestigious Tisch School). He'll be traveling all around the country--including his hometown of Augusta, GA--but I'll probably get to see his performance in the city within the next month.

Jan 23, 2005

Stranger cover


so perfect

Jan 20, 2005

Morning of Mourning

Machuca

Saw a fantastic Chilean film at Film Forum with Zach tonight.
By far one of the best I've seen here in NYC.

Machuca is the story of two Chilean boys--one privileged and one impoverished--who become close friends during the brutal transition from the socialist Allende to the authoritarian Pinochet in 1973 (for those of you rusty on your modern Chilean history, click here).

Bizarre anecdote: The class bully who ruled the school in the film had an UNCANNY resemblence to Nick. Zach and I couldn't believe our eyes.
(I'm ceaselessly searching for a photo of the kid online.)

Babcock 3A

The lovely, soon-to-be-Dr. Katie finally sent me the photos of when she and Nate were here in New York for New Year's.

Here's my favorite:


2005


2002

Jan 17, 2005

Zach in New Yorker!

Funny Boys: Success in the City




New form of photoblogging?

PillCam

Jan 16, 2005

DODGEBALL!!

My favorite childhood passion was rekindled today, when I played about an hour-and-a-half of dodgeball in the basement of MLK High (conveniently about 10 blocks from my place). I responded to a craigslist ad yesterday for a dodgeball league sponsored through Zogsports, and took Zach along for the ride.

My DB skillz were pretty rusty (partly due to my hangover from Ukrainian potato vodka), but it felt great to get back in the game. We all went out for beers afterward, and I'm looking forward to getting to know the teammates more (the captain is a photo editor at the NYT--#8 on my list of dream jobs). Next game is next Thursday, when we play "Balls to the Wall" and "Feun Schnickens."

Game #1 highlight:
Zach "Headhunter" Klein nearly decapitated a poor girl with a 70 mph fastball (she apparently didn't get the "dodge" part of "dodgeball").


Here's the best pic I could muster with my modest Elph:



Jan 15, 2005

Blog Business Summit

I'm trying to get my new employer, GlutenFree Passport, to send me to the Blog Business Summit in Seattle next week. (It's absolutely perfect for what we are doing right now with the website, and it couldn't have been a better coincidence.) I think they'll bite.

1/19 update: Woohoo! I'm goin to Seattle.

BBS 05 Badge 3

Pop's Blog

My lovable curmudgeon of a grandfather (we call him 'Pop') is a frequent follower of my blog, and just recently voiced his interest in starting a blog of his own!

Needless to say, I was quite excited to hear this. He's by far the best story and joker teller I know, not to mention rabidly and vocally anti-Bush (and as a veteran of both Korea and Vietnam, I think he has a little more credibility than most).

So between Pop's jokes and anti-Bush rants (which are often one and the same), I think his blog would be really entertaining.

But I sense that he's dragging his heels on this one, so I need the single-digit number of people who read this blog to VOICE YOUR SUPPORT!



c'mon, you totally wanna see this guy go off on bush

Jan 13, 2005

Balltop

Attention fellow male bloggers:
Laptops heat the testicles and may cause infertility

Opening paragraph:
Are you sitting with your computer on your lap? A small research project from Yefim Sheynkin at the State University of New York has found that the heat from your laptop can elevate the temperature of your scrotum by up to 2.8 degrees. That may be nice but the problem is that there is a well demonstrated link between high testicular temperature and infertility.
[italics mine: i love that line]

More friends in foreign lands

My college buddy Nick is currently in Mumbai, India, exploring the world while developing his nifty software venture, BuddyGopher.

Recently, he's been taking paragliding lessons!!
Check out his page.



(nick's the albino indian)

Jan 12, 2005

Annoying Liberal Cartoonist

over at the Village Voice.


(I love the irony of Sutton mocking the cliched humor of his characters.)

Marg in London

My dear friend Margaret arrived in London on Saturday to begin a semester-long sabbatical at Wake's Worrell House. (In fact, she's in the same room that Zach stayed in 3 years ago.)

Other than playing in London for four months, I'm jealous she's also taking a class with Angus Lockyer, one of my favorite professors from Wake (he now teaches at the SOAS of the University of London).

Apparently Lockyer is making everyone in his class ("History of London") maintain a blog of their happenings in the city, which makes him that much cooler. Here's hers.

A few camera-phone pics from her new digs:


Scenic Marg


Scenic London

Jan 11, 2005

Zach in Time Out!

the good kind.

I never get tired of these photos.



(the full-size version, naturally)

Audioscrobbler

Another rad site passed along by ZAK.

Simply by downloading an iTunes plug-in, Audioscrobbler updates and sorts all the music you listen to into various categories--current tracks, top artists, top tracks--and shares the information with a community of other Audioscrobblers. For me, it's a good way to see what my music-lover friends are listening to, and find out what other bands are associated with the bands I like. The options are limitless.

(My online id is steadily spreading throughout cyberspace, as I willingly submit to the inevitable. )

Jan 10, 2005

43 Things

I have 5 so far.


via ZAK

Jan 9, 2005


Jan 7, 2005

So hilariously good...

Go Sox!

Jan 6, 2005

No CIA Left Behind

A1 story in the Times airs the dirty laundry of the CIA, which just released an internal investigation report that concludes "officials who served at the highest levels of the agency should be held accountable for failing to allocate adequate resources to combating terrorism before the Sept. 11 attacks."

The most obvious irony of the article points out that George Tenet--former CIA director who abruptly "retired" July 11 to "spend more time with the family"--received a Medal of Freedom (the highest civilian honor) by the president last month. Ignoring accountability is one thing, but rewarding failure for political pimping is outright insulting.

But the more subtle irony lies in this paragraph:

"The vast bulk of Mr. Helgerson's report was completed last summer, intelligence officials said, but its completion was delayed while the document was reviewed first by John E. McLaughlin, who became acting intelligence chief after Mr. Tenet's departure, and then Porter J. Goss, who became director of central intelligence in September." [italics mine]

Goss made a career in the CIA before becoming a long-running Republican congressman from Florida,* appointed by Bush (George, not Jeb) in September.

So what was going on September-November that would Goss to delay such a pivotal report?



*your former representative, Pete

Crossfire cancelled

Looks like Jon Stewart gets the first and last laugh.


for NYT non-subscribers:

Mr. Klein [new president of CNN] specifically cited the criticism that the comedian Jon Stewart leveled at "Crossfire" when he was a guest on the program during the presidential campaign. Mr. Stewart said that ranting partisan political shows on cable were "hurting America."

Do you speak American?

Everyone should try to catch the new PBS special, "Do you speak American?," which premiered tonight. It totally fed my already-piqued interest in pursuing a MA in Linguistics several years down the line.

I called my father tonight to wish him a happy birthday (HAPPY %*TH, DAD!!) between the 2nd of 3 one-hour episodes, and discovered 15 minutes into the conversation that we had both been watching the same thing (he was startled to get my call RIGHT when the second episode ending). He's an English teacher in inner-city Kansas City, and obviously passed on his linguaphilia to me.



birthday bum

Andy the Kiwi

Andrea Murray--a friend of mine teaching for the JET program in Hokkaido, Japan--just got back from a three-week jaunt to New Zealand.
So very, very jealous.



Andy skiing the glacier, minus the skis

Jan 5, 2005


Maori (or "New Zealand Injuns", for all you anthropologists) reenacting a traditional welcome ceremony


Tsunami
(by the time it got to New Zealand)

Jan 4, 2005



Tsurfnami

My roommates' good friend Travas--a Brit art dealer that I've hung out with many a time this past autumn--was in Phuket, Thailand when the tsunami hit.

On the beach.
In the water.
On a surfboard.

A SURFBOARD!

The last time I saw him, we ate at this great little Thai place near my apartment. Thank the gods it won't be the last time; he made it to safety on high ground, and will be in town this weekend. I can't wait to hear his story.

(I doubt we'll be eating Thai this time).


not Travas

Jan 2, 2005

Newest issue of CJR



The second and final issue published under my internship, which ended just before Christmas.

It was a great experience, and I learned a lot, but I'm glad it's over.

HAPPY BIRTHDAYS!!


2005 turns 0


Marg turns 21



A New Year's resolution: resurrecting my blog