Thursday, June 26, 2008

I blame society

How can American Idol auditions be "underway" if they haven't started yet?

I too worry about the fate of the semicolon today.

That is all.

Posted by jwb at 8:30 AM  · 0 Comments   

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Get away from me

What a week! We're one David Tyree TD pass away from having all three (if we exclude hockey, which, as far as I can tell, is mainly of interest to Canadians and people from Michigan) of the big pro sports championships in Boston. Some blogger I read--I can't remember which one--notes that this, like much else, is George Bush's fault. Boston teams, he notes, didn't win any championships under Bill Clinton but have won six under Bush. Depending on your point of view, more reasons to dislike Bush, Boston, or both. Anyway, congrats to the Celtics. This meditation on Boston fandom is well done. (If you don't get it, call me and I'll try to explain it.)

This is pretty hilarious. Conrad Black checks in from his extended holiday in Florida with a rather petulant review of Rick Perlstein's Nixonland. You'll recall that Sir Conrad is in the slammer for essentially stealing money from his shareholders. I imagine he's got plenty of time for reading and thus we'll be seeing more of this kind of thing. (He's due to be released in October 2013.)

REM was indeed pretty awesome. They played a lot of old school stuff, including some of my favorites from Life's Rich Pageant, including "Begin the Begin" and "Cuyahoga". Our friend who got the tickets had the foresight to buy a "premier" parking pass (at $40 an outrage), which, despite my fears, made the whole parking scenario fairly painless.

On Saturday, we saw Chris Rock at the humorously named Wang Center--Get it?--and he was pretty funny. However, if I were his mother, I'd wash his mouth out with soap. He has a really dirty mouth. Mario Joyner opened for him and had a very funny bit about Home Depot that rested on the insight, which I suspect may be familiar to some of you--that it's an enormous challenge to get someone to assist you at Home Depot. It's almost as if they have some sort of special training that they skip at Lowe's.

Posted by jwb at 8:57 AM  · 0 Comments   

Friday, June 13, 2008

What's the frequency, Kenneth?


Man, the "Top Chef" finale was a doozy, no? I'll say no more for the moment, for the sake of the people I know who have not watched it yet. But wow!

In spite of my protestations here, we're off to see R.E.M. tonight at the Comcast (nee Tweeter) Center. I gather, from reading about, that they've been playing a lot of old school (read "IRS days") stuff. Aside from the probability that I will pee in my pants during the five hours it will take us to get out of the parking lot, it should be awesome.

Go Celts!

UPDATE: I see, on re-reading this post, that I am being rather casual with statistical jargon here. I should have said something along the lines of "the probability approaching one" or some such.

Posted by jwb at 7:59 AM  · 0 Comments   

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Those are some serious, serious dudes

Surfing around in the seemingly infinite variety of the interwebs, I came across this documentary from Vice (though I am not sure what Vice is) about North Korea, a country that seems to be governed by crazy people. I intended to only watch one or two episodes (it has 14, though they're not very long), but got hooked. It's fascinating. I should admit that sneaking into a totalitarian society does not seem like a very good idea to me, but tastes will differ.

We watched the penultimate episode of "Top Chef" last night. Jenn was kind of angry that Lisa survived, though I think Antonia's lets-dump-everything-on-the-same-plate strategy was unwise. I still think Richard will win, though I'm rooting for Stephanie. If Richard makes any mistakes, the coveted title could be hers. Short of sabotage, I don't see how Lisa can win.

In violation of my policy of avoiding movies with Russell Crowe in them, we watched American Gangster on Sunday evening. I wasn't expecting a great deal, but it was actually a pretty good movie. Later, I googled Frank Lucas, but there doesn't seem to be much information about what he's been up to since, from which I surmise that he is in the witness protection program.

I was going to say something about tomatoes (apropos of this) and gardening (apropos of this), but I have to go mow the lawn. Maybe next time.

Posted by jwb at 5:00 PM  · 0 Comments   

Thursday, June 05, 2008

I went to a fight the other night and a hockey game broke out

The first part of the two-part Top Chef finale was on last night. I was watching what ended up being the Stanley Cup finale and missed it.* I'll just say that I still think Richard will win it, though Stephanie has a real shot. I'll eat my shirt if Lisa wins. Antonia's a wild card. I don't have any actual data to back this up, but my impression is that she was among the leaders in challenges won, but I don't feel like she's knocked anyone's socks off. We shall see.

In comments here, Susan suggests that our commenters are intimidatingly erudite, though I think she's just being nice. Don't be shy, Susan. Comment away. We have rather .... um .... eclectic tastes here. If something strikes your fancy, please jump in. I'll admit that we occasionally make fun of our commenters--mainly Marty, though it's usually his own fault--but we try to keep things somewhat elevated around here.

* BTW, in hockey, after nearly killing each other for three period, the teams line up and shake each other's hands. I find that quite appealing. Perhaps I am wrong, but I can't think of that ever happening in the ultimate game of any other sport. Typically, the winning team goes crazy and the losers slink off to the clubhouse.

Posted by jwb at 6:28 AM  · 0 Comments   

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

I am large, I contain multitudes

When I was a kid, I saw the movie I Spit on Your Grave somewhere--must have been at a friend's house; my mother would not have approved--and thought it was pretty awesome. As a mature adult, I now realize it was meretricious trash. (Roger Ebert called seeing it "one of the most depressing experiences of my life.") Anyway, I see that a remake is on the way. I think this is a sign of the decline of Western civilization, though I may be wrong.

The new Alan Furst book--which we may have mentioned before--arrived in the mail yesterday. I am in the midst of another book, so it'll be a few days before I get to it, but am pretty excited. Relatedly, you can find an interesting interview with Furst here, whence he talks about, among other things, how he doesn't like lemon meringue pie--though, again, I may be wrong.

Posted by jwb at 4:39 PM  · 1 Comments