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| the blog - June 2004 |
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New
Stuff Really Is the Best Stuff
The Amazing Race is getting started on July 6! Yay! The brother of someone I kinda know almost got to be on the show! I hate being repetitive, but I really think Losing the Cow is just amazing writing. If it was a book, it would be a best-seller. It's profound writing and the comments section really proves it out. All of the stupid advice she attacks in the latest entry are ripe for assault. The best dumb statement "Open a window." Pamie's got another book drive. As the one for Oakland was so successful, she's spreading her goodwill to San Diego's library system. (Pamie's also a TWOP writer.) And I think we've hit a delightful point in the evolution of human society and our love of setting records. THE
ONLY THING BETTER THAN SWEARING IS WRITING ABOUT SWEARING OH
AND BY THE WAY My TV Is So Proud
The coverage was pretty entertaining. The main commentators were "San Francisco legend" Donna Sachet, who, well, while not born a woman, walks in stilettos and pointy toed shoes better than I ever will; Susan Blake, who was sort of the voice of polished responsibility who kept things on track; and Jan Wahl, who was wearing too many colors (basically patriotic red, white, and blue and Pride rainbow hues), an awful hat (as usual), and was very loud (also as usual). The field reporters were Vicki Liviakis and Liam Mayclem, who were interviewing the people on the floats while the booth trio read some very important information about said floats and the organizations behind them. I learned important lessons about us all being the same while having a variety of communities we belong to, not all gay men look like the Queer Eye guys (politely they said GQ), and, um, some other stuff about equality that I already knew, but what else can you say? The best parts, though, were when the interviews went awry. Liam's got that whole "he's British so everything that comes out of his mouth is so cute" thing going for him. Like when he was talking to Gavin Newsom and he said "Driver, please slow down!" or when he called district attorney Kamala Harris "Pamela Harris." Priceless. And his interview with Graham Norton—another example of the you can't get mad at him Brit—was adorable. SFGate.com has some good pictures and a roundup. I Love Legitimate Theater
Anyway, our seats, being important parts of any theatergoing experience, were pretty perfect, third row center. Just high enough so that we didn’t have to look up or down because we were at the actors’ eye level and far enough back so that we could take in the perspective of the entire set and avoid the, well, um, spit. The story—told in a primarily linear fashion—is about two friends unloading unwanted money by taking a trip across the globe to give it away. As with all interesting stories, nothing quite goes as planned and everything is more difficult than expected, and not always in the ways you might think. The story is periodically interrupted by internal monologues and a sort of interesting bit of narrator-challenging and sharp commentary from the future. It’s hard to describe, but it created a really neat texture to the play that influenced how you saw the action and made you question what was really happening. It was fantastic. And the acting was great. A quartet of strong performers, Sean San José, Danny Wolohan, Tina Marie Murray, and Michael Torres, made the show even more amazing. I remembered why I really like theater, especially small venues. I saw A Doll’s House in February at A.C.T., which was a great play (and the guy who played Nora’s husband Torvald, Stephen Caffrey, was in the TV movie Columbo Goes to College—I totally recognized him!), but despite the awesome seats, it was a different feel from Sacrament! I like the intimacy of a small place, as if you’re part of and in the story. Which I think is why I always loved books as a kid. I was in and of them. And some of the best movies do that as well, but really only in the theater where it’s dark and it’s just you and the movie, regardless of who else is there (provided there aren’t kids there making dumb jokes or people narrating to their companions). Maybe the little venue lets the play cheat and it’s not really any more honest or intimate or personal but it feels like it is. And I’ll take that. My one moment of personal distraction was when Torres first came on playing a Chilean by way of Florida in Dakar with his open blazer and loud button-down shirt exposing half his chest. I completely got a Grand Theft Auto: Vice City vibe. I laughed privately at my own little joke and then tried to pay attention, but I kept thinking about it. Because I haven’t played in so long and I really used to like that game. AND
LEGITIMATE FILM The part I found the most intriguing was when, through some pretty inventive editing, they made Chantal Kreviazuk’s “In This Life” about Jesus, even though I’m pretty sure it’s not. It’s more of a super-devoted-to-you-love-song. They left in the more vague lines while taking out lines like “You're in the basement watching the TV” which I’m pretty sure Jesus doesn’t do, but I don’t know that I really know. And the last scene played out to Travis’ “Flowers in the Window,” another great song, so I was happy. The good movie also made me happy, but I liked that part too. Reality Retreads Are
So Awesome
Maybe not too smart. Doesn't she only need two wishes or on the outside five if she doesn't get it quite right. I hope she was laughing when she said eternal thinness. Heck, hopefully she was laughing during the whole answer. And on the first season of ANTM, while I saw it when it was on and loved it, I'm enjoying rewatching it, partly because it's with people who haven't seen it, and I forgot how much I loved Elyse and her holier-than-thou attitude. Also, Television Without Pity's recapping it, which makes it even more fun and enjoyable. I didn't like Adrianne much at the beginning (and I'm totally remembering why). I didn't dislike her, but I think I didn't notice her or think much of her. I'm going to enjoy growing to like her and root for her again. Ugh, and I still can't stand Robin. SEE,
I WANNA STOP, BUT I JUST CAN'T And Lewis Black's excellent (as always) Back in Black on the Daily Show last night pointed out that one of the advocates for Regan on the $10 bill was so wrong when he said Alexander Hamilton should come off because he's the only non-president on a bill, Black pointing out correctly that Ben Franklin (never president) was on the hundred. Also, because I'm a nerd like that, I had to point out to Mr. Sassy, who didn't care, that Chase (who I'm pretty sure is the Chase of Chase Manhattan Bank, but am too lazy to investigate) was on one of those higher bills. Thanks to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing I can proudly tell you that Salmon Chase (U.S. Treasury Secretary under Lincoln) is on the ten thousand dollar bill. Also, I'd like to make the point that for balance's sake, we should keep the bills as they are because the portraits are evenly split between modern Republicans and Democrats when you toss the outliers (George Washington on the $1 bill, Thomas Jefferson on the $2 bill, Hamilton, Franklin, James Madison on the $5000 bill, and Chase—though he lost the Republican nomination to Lincoln in 1860 and got Secretary of the Treasury as a consolation prize so he's technically totally a Republican, but we'll ignore that) and of those, more Republicans are in circulation than Democrats.
Note that's one Democrat in print versus two Republicans. I'm just saying. On coins, Democrats do have an advantage, Franklin D. Roosevelt on the dime and John F. Kennedy on the half-dollar to Lincoln on the penny. (Jefferson's on the nickel, Washington's on the quarter, poor Susan B. Anthony on the old dollar coin [I love her, the dollar coin thing just didn't work out and people curse their Suebucks] and, unable to redeem the form, Sacagawea on the new dollar. By the by, the Treasury Department uses the old [wrong] spelling "Sacajawea" on their website. Way to keep up.) Let's just say it all evens out and we should keep it even. MY
NEW FAVORITE WEBSITES IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD NEW
MUSIC THINGS The Show Must Go On,
But That Doesn't Mean I Have to Be Cheery About It Tyler didn't seem too affected, but I'm sure the two girls he took backstage probably helped. Really, he did. It was so cute it was funny. He was talking to this girl by the merchandise/bathroom/coat check area and then he went to talk to a woman, who I think might have been his mother—pointing in the direction of where the girls were waiting for him—appeared to get some passes from her, and went back to the girls who dutifully followed him backstage. It was weird. I dunno. It was just sort of awkward, faux rock star behavior. There were a group of kinda drunk girls who were up front for part of Gary Jules' performance and they were pretty funny because they were at the point where you're really observant, but lack self-control. When he took of his jacket revealing greatly tattooed arms, one of the girls began to say, in what can only be described as a stage whisper, "Oh, look he has--" but was interrupted by an abrupt "shhhhh!" from her giggly friend who was slightly more aware and realized it was a real whisper situation. REAGAN
REASSESSED I
DON'T MEAN TO PIMP TWOP AND GLARKWARE
The Simpsons Archive is great, by the way. Glarkware's TWOP section also has these "seemingly random thingies" which have little TV related phrases on them and come in button and magnet form. They have a few including one that mocks The Apprentice's Omarosa (I Got Hit In The Head With Drywall. . . And Now You're A Racist) and one that makes a slightly more obscure reference to Meredith's grandmother's passing (and here) on kissy Bob Guiney's season of the Bachelor (Nana?). They've added a new one to mock poor Frankie from The Real World: San Diego (I've watched all of three episodes), who, after deciding to leave the house, told her former housemates that she realized she was indeed "a little too punk rock for that kind of stuff," thus the I'm Too Punk Rock for This thingie. PRETTY
PRETTY PICTURES Eight Years Is a Long
Time to Wait NOT
THE DIME AGAIN! REMEMBERING
WHY I LOVE SLATE Francis Fukuyama (still hoping we've all forgotten about the fallacy of naming an article "The End of History," but not literally meaning that) has this really interesting review of Samuel P. Huntington's Who Are We? I've read a few Huntingon pieces in my life, way back in college in this class in the Peace and Conflict Studies department (a ridiculous class that made a lot of people feel a lot better about themselves for being so smart and liberal and open minded while being, well, pretty unjustifiably self-congratulatory about it all). In one of the few instances where I agreed with the professor, he pointed out that he read this Huntington article and thought it was great until he got to the end where Huntington's basically says we'll all end up fighting because we're different and don't like each other (simplistic "analysis," I know). From Fukyama's article and my experience, I get the feeling that sometimes Huntington's great with premises, but lousy with conclusions. But I'm also loving Seth Stevenson in Ad Report Card (I dug Rob Walker's pieces too). I've always liked that section, but lately, he's really been delivering some witty, laugh-out-loud advertising commentary. His latest, "Castles Made of Ampersands," does a great job of dissecting AT&T's new campaign all about how they connect stuff for you or something, noting:
And on KFC's latest efforts on rebranding and whether we'll all fall for it:
Finally, I'm glued to their Kerryisms. He's better (or rather not as bad) as Bush, but he just needs to learn to spit out what he's trying to say and not qualify stuff to death. And Sometimes I Just
Don't Know When to Do a Tad More Research Sometimes Lawyers Just
Don't Know When to Say No The thing I hate most about what this show seems like it'll be is that it promotes one of the worst facets of your average law firm—intra-team competition. Yes, it's good for everyone to be their best and for some that comes from a sense wanting to beat others and that skill has its value in law firms (you've got to want to beat the other side), but I've always thought it unnecesarily destructive to foster a desire to beat people in your own firm. That's just unproductive and drives people out of the practice. How nice can it be to work at a place where you resent your colleagues' success? (I guess that's true in a lot of places, but it's artificially created in law. It's not a zero sum game. Advancement can come from doing good work and getting good results.) It'd be much better for everyone to want to do their best, want their best to be better than or at least as good as everyone else, and try to shine and collectively beat the other guy. I'd rather admire and learn from successful co-workers than be frustrated by their victories. The law is supposed to be adversarial, but your adversary shouldn't use the same letterhead that you do. And then for something that's even more unfortunate, there's this "resignation e-mail" from someone who plans to not get a law job ever again (see 11:32 a.m. post on the page). Choice excerpts:
It's making its way around law message boards and blogs and showed up in The Recorder (no archives online). I'm not saying that anyone knows the firm did anything wrong or bad and I'm sure its practices were hardly unusual, but plenty of people hate their firms. A lot. Look no further than Infirmation.com's Greedy Associates message boards (By the way there are also Greedy Associates pages here and here, and slightly less greedy ones here, so make of that what you will. There's also the less aesthetically appealing but oh so noble Generous Associates site.). The alleged response is classic, understated spin—"He is obviously very angry about that outcome"? Yeah. Things I Could Have
Said Earlier THIS
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