Wednesday, August 30, 2006

More random blogging


We’re leaving for a week on Martha’s Vineyard on Saturday, so no blogging for a week or so. (I’m sure you’ll miss me.) Anyway, before we head out, a few items that I found interesting and that may or may not be of interest to our readers:

1. Mark Kenny is married to my cousin Mary. Amongst his other accomplishments, Mark holds the world record for inverted stair walking (which means walking down stairs really fast on your hands). (No, I'm not joking. Here's the story--with a couple of pics--from CNN when he set the record in 1999.) Anyway, Mark has been nominated for a Relly award on the Regis and Kathy Lee--I mean Kelly--Show. If you happen to be siitting at your desk on Friday morning after 10 AM, please click here and vote for Mark. Mark's category is "Favorite Real Person-Male"--very pithy. (His competition is the Watermelon Smasher, the Chicken Clucker, Kid Stuck on a Tram, and the TV Watching Guy. Seriously.) And you might win a free trip to the show, if you're into that kind of thing.

2. I’ve been meaning to blog a bit about Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma since I finished it a few weeks ago, but haven't had time. It was a truly eye-opening experience. And it’s brillianty written. Highly recommended. In related news, courtesy of The Guardian, the most unethical things you could eat. (From the same author, some thoughts about what the most ethical meal on earth might look like. A bit much, I agree.)

3. Here's a good article on Slate about properly watering your garden.

4. I read Alan Moore's "V for Vendetta" a few weeks ago and we finally watched the film version--with the fetching Natalie Portman--last weekend. I enjoyed the movie--I gave it four stars on Netflix--but can understand why Moore was so pissed. (I'm assuming that Moore was upset with this particular movie rather than the existence of any movie based on his story.) It didn't entirely make sense in certain parts--for one, Evey's motive for macing the cop, and thus saving V, weren't clear to me--and I missed some of the subplots and details that were left out. I understand, of course, as an abstract matter, that you cannot make a movie based on a book without typically cutting things and making some changes to the story. However, some movies pull this off better than others. According to a scale of my own creation that is admitedly completely arbitrary and capricious, I would award "V for Vendetta" a B-. (For comparison's sake, I would award LA Confidential and the Lord of the Rings Trilogy both As. The dreadful "Bonfire of the Vanities" gets a D.) Discuss.

5. We haven't blogged about Bond in a while--not much occassion to until Casino Royale comes out--but Robert Farley of Lawyers, Guns, and Money has some interesting thoughts:
I'm sitting here watching Die Another Day on Spike, and thinking to myself that Brosnan-era Bond really failed to live up to its promise. Of the four films one is genuinely excellent (GoldenEye), one is a solid contribution (Die Another Day, with an outstanding first half and a terrible second half), and two are mediocre to poor. Brosnan was certainly a superior Bond to Dalton, but that's not saying much; it's hard to evaluate Dalton's films as part of the canon because they simply don't feel like James Bond films.

I would rate Moore's tenure marginally higher because of the quality of the first two films, although Roger appeared in some awful clunkers. In any case, the Brosnan era was characterized by exceptionally well crafted opening bits. The title sequences in GoldenEye and Die Another Day are probably the best in the franchise, although the mediocre Tina Turner song detracts from the former. There's nothing really surprising about this, given that so many directors today have gotten their starts in music videos, and that a Bond opening sequence is really just a video with some extra action thrown in.

I still don't know what to think about Daniel Craig.


Raphy makes about a good a case for Dalton as one can imagine--mainly in reference to his resemblence to the literary Bond--but I think I agree with Farley. There's something off about the Dalton movies. Discuss amongst yourselves.

6. From the always reliable Popbitch: "Consecotaleophobia = having the fear of chopsticks." Hmm. Learn something new every day.

See you in a week or so.

Posted by jwb at 4:11 PM  · 2 Comments   

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Fart Jokes

Sigh:

He loves to cuss, gets a jolly when a mountain biker wipes out trying to keep up with him, and now we’re learning that the first frat boy loves flatulence jokes. A top insider let that slip when explaining why President Bush is paranoid around women, always worried about his behavior. But he’s still a funny, earthy guy who, for example, can’t get enough of fart jokes. He’s also known to cut a few for laughs, especially when greeting new young aides.

Posted by jwb at 1:54 PM  · 0 Comments   

Monday, August 21, 2006

Random Blogging


Sorry for our somewhat extended absence from this space. Been kinda busy pretending to work on my Ph.D. Anyway, here are some various items that may or may not be of interest to our readers:

1. I watched a very interesting documentary on PBS a few weeks ago about the Belgian cartoonist Herge (pron. Er-zhay; there should be an accent egu on the second e, though I haven't figured out how to do it in html), the creator of a series of books about the young reporter, Tintin. Herge had a very interesting life and the documentary is well worth watching if they show it again. (Here's the review from the NY Times.) It also had me reading through my stash of the Tintin books, which I probably haven't looked at in 15 years or so. They are still quite wonderful, though I suspect I'm picking up on some of the plot holes that I missed as a kid. If you are unfamilar with Tintin, you might start with the two parter, "Secret of the Unicorn" and "Red Rackham's Treasure."

2. If you didn't get your fix of international football during the World Cup, the English Premier League kicked off this week. Deadspin has some very silly commentary on the various games from the weekend. I watched the second half of Chelsea v. Man City and agree that it was a little like watching a Harlem Globetrotters game.

3. Via the Fiddler, you might be interested in a history of mockumentaries. One small cavil: The words "winning presence" and "Kristen Dunst" do not belong in the same sentence.

4. If you haven't checked in with them in a while, the Spectors have been quite busy in the first month of their six-month honeymoon. Lots of cool pics of South America (Chile, Argentina, etc.). Bonus: In the most recent post, there are some pics of Jeff Spector, known to some as "the hottest spector".

Posted by jwb at 12:13 PM  · 0 Comments   

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Twins

Congratulations to Katherine and Andy (who, among their many accomplishments, introduced Jenn and I). They are the parents of Cynthia Hobson Gabron and Andrew (Drew) Epler Gabron. Katherine--sense of humor intact--e-mails: "They made their presence known at 6:14PM/6:15PM respectively on Thursday, August 3, 2006. Cynthia weighed 4lbs 13 oz while Drew weighed in at 5lbs 10oz. They will likely remain in the NICUnit at Georgetown Hospital for another week or two as they bulk up in preparation for keeping their parents up all night :)... Pictures will be forthcoming when new digital camera instructions are translated."

Good luck! I know a little Mandarin, if that'll help

Posted by jwb at 10:20 AM  · 0 Comments   

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Vin Blanc


There's a lovely, short essay by one of my (and, I think, Raphael's) old favorites, the novelist Jim Harrison, in the August issue of Kermit Lynch's wine newsletter. Harrison is a well-known (for lack of a more appealing term) foodie. He writes about his new-found, though limited, love for white wines. You can find it here (pdf). Some of the asides ("eco-ninnies") are priceless.

Also, if you've never encountered any of his writing on food and drink, I recommend Harrison's The Raw and the Cooked. In case you ever wondered, he explains how to make head cheese.

CORRECTION: Jim Harrison is not a favorite of Raphael's. In fact, he's so out of favor, he's been purged from Raphy's (quite considerable) collection of modern literature.

Posted by jwb at 10:00 AM  · 1 Comments