Walking down the street, and some Greenpeace person says to you "Can you spare a minute for the environment?" The automatic answer when anyone asks you a question on the street is "NO," of course, but then you sound like a dick. Uh, yes, I hate the environment...most especially when I'm trying to get lunch and you are insisting on blocking my way with a petition.
Same thing with the comedy show guys up in Times Square. "Hey, do you like comedy?" At least those guys never knew how to respond when you said NO and sailed right on by them...
Friday, May 11, 2007
Derby Talk
Nice piece from John Pricci on MSNBC.com on why this Derby was a really good one. Couldn't agree more. I'm still grumbling about the 2005 Derby when Giacomo won, then went on to only capture one more race in his career. In my perfect world, the Derby would only be won by great horses, not lucky, mediocre ones. As for Street Sense? He's damn good, and a viable candidate for the Triple Crown. I'm not automatically ruling it out this year, as I did for Funny Cide or War Emblem (the gay one).
P.S. I finished 7576 out of 21238 in the Kentucky Derby Fantasy challenge.
P.S. I finished 7576 out of 21238 in the Kentucky Derby Fantasy challenge.
Book Club
Was fortunate to have enough sitting around time while traveling in the past few weeks to rip through some books. Brookland was by far the best one, although the last third of the book gets a little heavy into bridge construction. I read most of The Great Bridge by David McCullough (and liked it a lot), and you know what? I'm not enough of an math geek or engineer, to really care about all the intricacies of building the Brooklyn Bridge, especially in my fiction. (McCullough always spins a good tale, though.) The bridge holds me up: 'nuff said. That said, Brookland is worth a read.
Moved on to Hunting and Gathering by Anna Gavalda. This book was a huge bestseller in France--I got roped into reading it after being drawn in by the good-looking cover design at the fantastic McNally Robinson. Only okay, it's a a bit too sentimental "chick-lit"-ey for me, telling the story of three roommates who bond together to create their own family. I often found the writing banal with lots tired images, although the three main characters were interesting and decently portrayed. Claire Danes in the main female role in the movie? Sure to be an Oprah pick.
Then I checked out The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova after a friend mentioned the title in passing. I would love to read a good historical novel that actually works and doesn't embellish facts, but this piece of shit does neither of those things. A page turner, written in the best blockbuster style, with truly awful writing and a plot line that barely holds itself together as the story travels all over the world in search of the still-alive 'Dracuyla.' I have never understood the vampire fascination, all that Anne Rice shite back in the early 90s in SF, yuck...This must be being made into a movie with Angelina Jolie and Ralph Fiennes.
Moved on to Hunting and Gathering by Anna Gavalda. This book was a huge bestseller in France--I got roped into reading it after being drawn in by the good-looking cover design at the fantastic McNally Robinson. Only okay, it's a a bit too sentimental "chick-lit"-ey for me, telling the story of three roommates who bond together to create their own family. I often found the writing banal with lots tired images, although the three main characters were interesting and decently portrayed. Claire Danes in the main female role in the movie? Sure to be an Oprah pick.
Then I checked out The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova after a friend mentioned the title in passing. I would love to read a good historical novel that actually works and doesn't embellish facts, but this piece of shit does neither of those things. A page turner, written in the best blockbuster style, with truly awful writing and a plot line that barely holds itself together as the story travels all over the world in search of the still-alive 'Dracuyla.' I have never understood the vampire fascination, all that Anne Rice shite back in the early 90s in SF, yuck...This must be being made into a movie with Angelina Jolie and Ralph Fiennes.
Breathe
The breakneck pace of the past few weeks is finally slowing down a bit. I'm tired. And my allergies are murdering me this week. It's hard to find time to sit down when the weather gets warm, and then add in two major fuckups (maybe because of tired eyes?) on the current issue of V. Urgh. With both errors being ultimately my fault after four stages of errors that happened BEFORE the last one, it is still a good issue overall with the best cover in a long time (above), but has been a long (tho' awfully fun) month. The deck goes in this weekend and it's free compost day tomorrow. What could be more fun? It occurred to me the other night when out with Gina discussing the bougainvillea on the deck at UPB that we used to go out and check out boys. Now we talk about the plants. Sweet.
Monday, May 07, 2007
Derby Pix
1. Carving big ol' ham in party dress, as Strath anxiously awaits his meat. Don't ridicule the electric knife until you try to carve off more ham (four juleps in on Derby Day) without one.
2. Loretta n' ham. Two great tastes that go great together.
3. Atmosphere. Mirror by Craig Falbe.
4. Mr. Kentucky Derby 2007, WAC4, in the finest seersucker with a garland of roses and biscuits.
1-3 courtesy Miss Alyssa.
Ham ® Kurowycky Meat Products
2. Loretta n' ham. Two great tastes that go great together.
3. Atmosphere. Mirror by Craig Falbe.
4. Mr. Kentucky Derby 2007, WAC4, in the finest seersucker with a garland of roses and biscuits.
1-3 courtesy Miss Alyssa.
Ham ® Kurowycky Meat Products
Friday, May 04, 2007
Running for the Roses
I'm exacta boxing Circular Quay, Any Given Saturday and Street Sense in tomorrow's Derby.
At least that's the plan right now without digging too deep into the Form. May throw a couple more in there.
The Derby Pie is baked, and the bourbon is a-ready. As they say to you in Louisville all day on the first Saturday in May, Happy Derby!
At least that's the plan right now without digging too deep into the Form. May throw a couple more in there.
The Derby Pie is baked, and the bourbon is a-ready. As they say to you in Louisville all day on the first Saturday in May, Happy Derby!
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
The Loneliness of Technology
I've been tossing these ideas around in my head a lot lately, especially the more I travel and and rely on technology to keep me in touch with my "real life". So my postulaton is that all the technology today -- internets, texting, blackberry, myspace, facebook, online communities, caller ID, dating sites, etc. etc. -- that should lead to greater connectivity is actually more isolating. The more connected we are, the less we actually connect.
I think back to when I had no answering machine in college; then only had an answering machine with a landline that I shared with 5 other people. I met my first TWO boyfriends in SF in 1991-92 (yes, a nerd fucker from way back) using a thing called SF Net where you could chat with people at home and coffeehouses via a 1200 baud modem connection and a Procomm account. Got on the online with a UNIX shell account in '95 using some form of gopher (those commands Sparky wrote out for me!); remember the first use of a buggy browser called Mosiac that became Netscape; and so on. With each advance, the world became smaller and the personal circle bigger.
Back in my younger days (says granny), you'd call up people, make plans, meet up when you planned without calling back 5 times to check in, and that'd be it. You'd actually talk to someone to make plans. Or you'd walk down the street to see if they were at home sitting around. Eventually, we all "progressed" into being able to screen calls, or pick up messages using the answering machine, but I don't think that became a regular occurrance until the mid 90s. Before then, if you missed a call, you tried to guess who might have called but really have no way of knowing so didn't think about it much.
Most of my friends know that I hate the lengthy text message conversation, for to me, it seems to be a way to hold someone at arm's length, to not engage too TOO much (And my thumbs get sore, as they did composing this post almost entirely by Bberry.) I've surely used texting to keep distance with someone. Who hasn't been puzzled by the perceived 'tone' of a text, and asked a friend to help interpret? With the more ways we can send messages now, the less we actually communicate face to face. What we're missing is the ability to gauge and understand a person by their body language, an emotion written clearly on their face, or a catch in their voice: the most basic forms of human interaction are unavailable for interpretation.
We're so connected that if someone's out of touch for a few days or you are getting the high hat, you become painfully aware of it. Nope, no text. Nope, no message. Nope, no email. Yep, I'm out at 2 am, and I know there's been no reply because my damn phone is ALWAYS WITH ME. And you always know you didn't miss a message, because there are 5 different ways for someone to reach you, each finally appearing as a little yellow envelope on your phone signaling a hi. I do think, in retrospect, that I liked it better when I came home to a single blinking light, or a letter in a handmade envelope from a 40 oz bag in my mailbox, or a $50 phone bill because I spent 15 hours talking and laughing with my best friend in San Francisco.
I realize we have put ourselves in this position by getting Blackberries or whatever for work and personal use and, honestly, I do love (and by love, I mean addicted to) the positive things my little square waffle-iron like machine adds to my life. I seriously have a semi-panic attack when the phone goes out. I've always been an information junkie, so having Google Maps at my fingertips in any city in the world to help me find a street, or to text a friend for a quick confirmation, or to get on the web from the subway platform and find some dumb fact, or having a phone that works in every country (but Japan), or having email, or a blog, to keep in touch with people and dump your thoughts out on a page is often pretty durn cool. And sure, you could leave the phone at home, as I'm trying to do sometimes. Should be an easy habit to break, right?
Yet I'm thinking that all this technology leads to greater loneliness simply because we are all more aware of any silence or downtime. The times alone with no instant always-available connections are just that much louder.
I think back to when I had no answering machine in college; then only had an answering machine with a landline that I shared with 5 other people. I met my first TWO boyfriends in SF in 1991-92 (yes, a nerd fucker from way back) using a thing called SF Net where you could chat with people at home and coffeehouses via a 1200 baud modem connection and a Procomm account. Got on the online with a UNIX shell account in '95 using some form of gopher (those commands Sparky wrote out for me!); remember the first use of a buggy browser called Mosiac that became Netscape; and so on. With each advance, the world became smaller and the personal circle bigger.
Back in my younger days (says granny), you'd call up people, make plans, meet up when you planned without calling back 5 times to check in, and that'd be it. You'd actually talk to someone to make plans. Or you'd walk down the street to see if they were at home sitting around. Eventually, we all "progressed" into being able to screen calls, or pick up messages using the answering machine, but I don't think that became a regular occurrance until the mid 90s. Before then, if you missed a call, you tried to guess who might have called but really have no way of knowing so didn't think about it much.
Most of my friends know that I hate the lengthy text message conversation, for to me, it seems to be a way to hold someone at arm's length, to not engage too TOO much (And my thumbs get sore, as they did composing this post almost entirely by Bberry.) I've surely used texting to keep distance with someone. Who hasn't been puzzled by the perceived 'tone' of a text, and asked a friend to help interpret? With the more ways we can send messages now, the less we actually communicate face to face. What we're missing is the ability to gauge and understand a person by their body language, an emotion written clearly on their face, or a catch in their voice: the most basic forms of human interaction are unavailable for interpretation.
We're so connected that if someone's out of touch for a few days or you are getting the high hat, you become painfully aware of it. Nope, no text. Nope, no message. Nope, no email. Yep, I'm out at 2 am, and I know there's been no reply because my damn phone is ALWAYS WITH ME. And you always know you didn't miss a message, because there are 5 different ways for someone to reach you, each finally appearing as a little yellow envelope on your phone signaling a hi. I do think, in retrospect, that I liked it better when I came home to a single blinking light, or a letter in a handmade envelope from a 40 oz bag in my mailbox, or a $50 phone bill because I spent 15 hours talking and laughing with my best friend in San Francisco.
I realize we have put ourselves in this position by getting Blackberries or whatever for work and personal use and, honestly, I do love (and by love, I mean addicted to) the positive things my little square waffle-iron like machine adds to my life. I seriously have a semi-panic attack when the phone goes out. I've always been an information junkie, so having Google Maps at my fingertips in any city in the world to help me find a street, or to text a friend for a quick confirmation, or to get on the web from the subway platform and find some dumb fact, or having a phone that works in every country (but Japan), or having email, or a blog, to keep in touch with people and dump your thoughts out on a page is often pretty durn cool. And sure, you could leave the phone at home, as I'm trying to do sometimes. Should be an easy habit to break, right?
Yet I'm thinking that all this technology leads to greater loneliness simply because we are all more aware of any silence or downtime. The times alone with no instant always-available connections are just that much louder.
Standings
Who woulda thunk that the Yanks would be 5.5 out and in last place; Cleveland would be 1.5 up on the Tigers and Twins; and the BREWERS would be 4 up on the 2nd place Reds, with the Cards 6.5 back in the NL Central??
I know it's early but still.
I know it's early but still.
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Fringe Benefits
It is cool or pathetic that on my 12th trip through the Montreal/ Dorval/ Pierre Trudeau airport in the past 18 months, the following happened?
1) The dude at customs said "oh, you come up here a lot for your magazine, right?"
2) The rental car guys at Enterprise upgraded me to the fanciest car they have, saying "we haven't seen you since March, and we want you to have a nicer car" Of course, I didn't mention to them that we continually rent there only because my assistant and I decided they were the cutest and nicest car-renters, but its swell we are all such pals now. Der.
If only I could get some airline employees to make sure I always get to sit in business class. Now that would be real pull.
Good news is my friend Dave is on the overnight shift tonight, so there's someone crank out good work with, and to talk to all evening.
1) The dude at customs said "oh, you come up here a lot for your magazine, right?"
2) The rental car guys at Enterprise upgraded me to the fanciest car they have, saying "we haven't seen you since March, and we want you to have a nicer car" Of course, I didn't mention to them that we continually rent there only because my assistant and I decided they were the cutest and nicest car-renters, but its swell we are all such pals now. Der.
If only I could get some airline employees to make sure I always get to sit in business class. Now that would be real pull.
Good news is my friend Dave is on the overnight shift tonight, so there's someone crank out good work with, and to talk to all evening.
Slouching Towards Bethlehem
I'm off to Montreal in 2 hours to print V47. Two nights away with little sleep, back Thursday evening, Mom arrives Friday AM and then begins one of my favorite things of the year, the Derby Party on Saturday.
It's been amusing trying to organize my thoughts, make lists and avoid cracking up, but for now, there's too much to do, and I can't even think about planning the next thing until the prior stuff is completed. Very hard for little miss organized to do.
But in this order: Vienna. Kate. 12 hour train ride. Verona. Printing job. Day off. Milan. Blow off tentative date. Garden. Main Drag Party. Catch up with friends. More Garden. Catch up with work. Shrink. Make some phone calls. OK deck plans with carpenter. Montreal. V47. Hair appointment. Clean. Mom. Plan menu. Shop. Cook. Figure out Derby bets. Throw party. Muddle through hangover. Clean up ham/jello/mint bits from floor. Broadway play. Mom back to Ohio Monday PM.
Pass out cold on Tuesday. Until Anne arrives for a week in about 10 days.
It's been amusing trying to organize my thoughts, make lists and avoid cracking up, but for now, there's too much to do, and I can't even think about planning the next thing until the prior stuff is completed. Very hard for little miss organized to do.
But in this order: Vienna. Kate. 12 hour train ride. Verona. Printing job. Day off. Milan. Blow off tentative date. Garden. Main Drag Party. Catch up with friends. More Garden. Catch up with work. Shrink. Make some phone calls. OK deck plans with carpenter. Montreal. V47. Hair appointment. Clean. Mom. Plan menu. Shop. Cook. Figure out Derby bets. Throw party. Muddle through hangover. Clean up ham/jello/mint bits from floor. Broadway play. Mom back to Ohio Monday PM.
Pass out cold on Tuesday. Until Anne arrives for a week in about 10 days.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)