M. L. Reed

"Dans le doute, mon cher, abstiens-toi." [1]

2006-12-01T19:05:00.000-05:00

There are some days when events work themselves out with almost mathematical precision. It is 1 December and winter is blowing in as I write. And all the loose strands of November tie up nicely, with a head cold as denouement. My words wouldn't begin to describe the mood, this moment requires poetry:

Whoever has no house now, will never have one.
Whoever is alone will stay alone,
will sit, read, write long letters through the
evening,
and wander the boulevards, up and down,
restlessly, while the dry leaves are blowing.[2]

In the huge gap
between the flash

and the thunderstroke
spring has come in
or a deep snow fallen.

Call it old age[3]

No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;
Am an attendant lord, one that will do
To swell a progress, start a scene or two,
Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,
Deferential, glad to be of use,
Politic, cautious, and meticulous;
Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;
At times, indeed, almost ridiculous-
Almost, at times, the Fool.

I grow old... I grow old...
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.[4]

Betwixt the stirrup and the ground
Mercy I asked, mercy I found.[5]

[1] "When in doubt, my dear friend, do nothing." General Kutuzov from Tolstoy's War and Peace
[2] Rainer Maria Rilke
[3] William Carlos Williams (forgive me but I can't get the spacing correctly in blogger)
[4] Eliot, of course.
[5] William Camden

Bye, bye

2006-01-23T21:10:00.000-05:00

I've been blogging for coming up on 1 year, and I've decided that 1
year is quite enough for now.

Now that I've basically moved in to a new city and I'll have a little more time on
my hands, I'm going to start putting together something a little more
structured (that is the site i've been promising ever since I've been
blogging).

I'll temporarily be posting my 100 films reviews here, so (to you 8
people who read this) you may want to check in from time to time.
Yojimbo is coming up.

Cheers.

Gov't v. Google

2006-01-21T11:59:00.000-05:00

Another reason to prefer Google:

The internet search engine Google is resisting efforts by the US Department of Justice to force it to hand over data about what people are looking for.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4630694.stm

Orpheus does about-face -or- How I learned to stop worrying and got a license plate

2006-01-21T11:01:00.000-05:00

Before he was a blockbuster children's story writer, for a while C. S. Lewis was a nobody Oxford don. He was made famous by his newspaper stories of a fictional correspondence between two demons in a rather banal and bureaucratic hell. But that's not what I want to talk about. My reason for bringing up Lewis' Screwtape Letters is to point out that bureaucratic descriptions of hell (in addition to geometric descriptions) are not unheard of. Therefore, perhaps I wasn't too far off when, in the spring of 2000, I alluded to Hades apropos of Pennsylvania in a song [1]:

I lost my memory
On the shores of the Allegheny
I dig the symmetry
I'm going home

Alas, home is now Pennsylvania, and it is no wonder that Pennsylvania styles itself as a Commonwealth and not a State: surely it has a leaning toward totalitarian communism ("The Commie-wealth of Pennsylvania" is how someone put it). It is true, PA has its conservatisms, but they often seem to be of the most embarrassing sort. By some ridiculous logic car registration is considered ripe
for privatization, but alcohol distribution must be seriously regulated and controlled.

If the United States indeed has secret torture prisons (and that looks likely) I wouldn't be terribly surprised if at least one of them is located in the basement of the PA State Office Building, where I spent a pleasant morning a few weeks ago trying to get a drivers license. Their solution to the problem of not accepting cash or credit was to plaster the room with signs to that affect. The amount of money they spent of fancy signs [2] could have put as a down payment for a nice credit card machine or a cache register.

Getting my car registered (the work of the rest of that day off frittered away by bureaucracy) is still too close and painful to talk about. I will share the following anecdote: a gentleman sitting next to me at the AAA trying to get his truck registered was reduced to stammering incredulously, "This is... This is..." "Ludicrous?" replied the clerk helpfully, "This is Pennsylvania so, yes, it is ludicrous."

---------------------------

[1] The song is aptly entitled "Pennsylvania"

[2] Putting up 10 signs didn't do the trick, though: nearly everyone who was in the waiting room asked the clerk if they could pay with cash.

Musee des Beaux Arts

2006-01-13T00:12:00.000-05:00

I made my film debut today: see here for more information. It contains bad French. So, if you're in Pittsburgh, you might want to go see the film along with Joanna's play. It's about suffering. Who doesn't like that?

Alternatively, you could see what Auden has to say about suffering...

Summa Aught Five Part I: Music

2006-01-10T20:31:00.000-05:00

(Unable to make the hard hitting decisions necessary for ordered top
lists, I humbly offer these lists alphabetically).

Top 10

Architecture in Helsinki. In Case We Die
Andrew Bird. And The Mysterious Production of Eggs
Bright Eyes. I'm Wide Awake It's Morning
Calexico\Iron. and Wine In The Reins
Camera Obscura. Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi
The Decemberists. Picaresque
My Morning Jacket. Z
M. Ward. Transistor Radio
Spoon. Gimme Fiction
Sufjan Stevens. Come On Feel The Illinoise!

Honorable Mentions

Kathleen Edwards. Back to Me
The Futility Parade. The Land Before Time VII: Prehistoric Pandemonium
Rouge Wave. Descended Like Vultures
Regina Spektor. Soviet Kitsch
Belle & Sebastian. Push Barman To Open Old Wounds

Would Probably Be A List If I Owned It

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. [1] Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Wilco. Kicking Television: Live in Chicago

Would Be On A List If The Release Dates Weren't 2004

Arcade Fire. Funeral
Kings of Convenience. Riot On An Empty Street
Joanna Newsom. The Milk-Eyed Mender

-----------------------------------

[1] Yeah, they annoy me too, but they remind me of The 39 Steps and
anyway some of the songs are fairly addictive.

100 films: The Invasion of the Body Snatchers

2006-01-03T23:53:00.000-05:00

There was a time where Pod People did not mean "owners of iPods." Invasion of the Body Snatchers [1] is about that time. One one level, it is a movie that helped make the sci-fi/horror picture the noble film genre that it is today. I don't watch sci-fi /horror pictures generally, but I am assuming Invansion is a better movie than most in that line which are released today. It also had the advantage of being short. On another level (like many sci-fi movies, especially old ones), seeks to give deep and important lessons about life: individuality is important; conformity is bad; some time the craziest person in the room is also the sanest; don't go to sleep or the aliens will get you; and so on. The movie more or less succeeds. Should you see it? I guess, if you're into that sort of thing, or, if you feel like watching 100 films, but there are dozens of better movies you should watch first. At any rate, remember: don't go to sleep or the aliens will get you.

-----------------------

[1] More from IMDB and Lucas...

Hello Resolvers. Hello to you all.

2006-01-03T23:27:00.000-05:00

If the revolution comes, I won't be too suprised or all that disappointed. Indeed, I tried to write a patriotic poem on 4 July 2004 that started:

And if America should fall,
Make haste! Make haste!
Let it fall swiftly

But as for resolutions, I'm often caught off guard. The gym, which last week was nearly empty with certain implements of exercise covered in dust and cobwebs, was today teaming with life [1]. If I were just a little more misanthropic, I would avoid gyms, pools, health food stores, and the more literary sections of books stores until March. I'm not, though, so I don'. Though there is a danger in appearing to be one of "those people", those fairweather resolvers. No, no--one wants to say--I eat organic grains all the time, and I read real books by authors like Turgenev and Fitzgerald, Really! It is good to be young and vain. So: hello fellow resolvers. Let's fail together!

"Wake up the King. Wake up the Queen.
Everybody laugh. Everybody sing.
It's over." [2]

------------------------------------------------

[1] Truthfully, I only joined the gym last month and only went a couple times. Still, I feel I have a right to feel superior to all those new yearies, even though I am just as out of shape as they are.

[2] Beulah. Hello Resolven.

100 Films: Baby Face

2006-01-02T23:45:00.000-05:00

I can't help feeling a certain kinship with Baby Face's [1] Courtland Trenholm, a polo-playing old money playboy turned bank president, who (albeit after a scandalous marriage, an indictment for some shady bank business, and a botched suicide attempt) moves to Pittsburgh with his formerly Nietzschean Überwench bride to "work out their love together" and work in a steel mill [2]. Starring Barbara Stanwyck, it is a surprisingly entertaining movie for one organized around a cliché: the main character Lily literally sleeps her way to the top of a multinational bank, with the sort of cinematic economy only found in old movies, floor by floor. The coldness and straightforwardness of her rise is more shocking than her means, and I doubt a mainstream movie like this would be made today (even in 1933, the censors apparently objected to Lily's power more than the sex).

With such a simple plot the film is kept to a short 75 minutes and that is enough: Stanwyck's clever delivery and disinterested acceptance of the ruin she causes to others provide most of the entertainment, while most of the other characters are stereotypes with at most one dimension. The "lesson" we are given at the end, we accept only because it seems to be the only satisfactory ending ready to hand, although it is not particularly believable.

It is useful to compare Baby Face to The Lady Eve, a far superior film also staring Stanwyck in a very similar role [3]. In The Lady Eve, the plot has more depth and richness, the message is more complex, and the characters are more nuanced. Baby Face might be seen as a sketch and precursor to Eve which would be made 8 years later. It is also helpful to notice that Eve did not need to censored, yet it dealt with similar subject matter in a more mature [4] way.

So it goes. Watch it, if you watch it, for Barbara Stanwyck.

----------------------------

[1] More from Lucas and IMDB... The name of the movie is the name of her nickname which was given to her, Lucas tells me, by John Wayne.

[2] Although some of these details we only learn in the ridiculous censored version of the film.

[3] The movie, incidentally, is also on our 100 Films list.

[4] And I mean a more traditional use of the word "mature" than the one given by contemporary ratings boards.

Prospectus -- December 2005

2006-01-01T21:53:00.000-05:00

Books:
(none completed this month)

Movies:
Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
Syriana
King Kong
Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Museums attended:
Palmer Museum of Art (State College, PA)

Misc for the month

Drinks in the Mug Club: 1
US States: MD, PA, VA
Number of uses of the word 'bitches' in casual dinner conversation New Years Eve: 7
Place those seven sayings got me in the game: 3rd
A new years resolution I'm willing to make public: Begin blogging again

100 Films: Citizen Kane

2005-12-11T19:09:00.000-05:00

This is the way Mr. Hitchcock relates the concept of the McGuffin to François Truffaut [1][2]:

It might be a Scottish name, taken from a story about two men in a train. One man says, 'What's that package up there in the baggage rack?' And the other answers, 'Oh that's a McGuffin.' The first one asks 'What's a McGuffin?' 'Well' the other man says, 'It's an apparatus for trapping lions in the Scottish Highlands.' The first man says, 'But there are no lions in the Scottish Highlands,' and the other one answers 'Well, then that's no McGuffin!' So you see, a McGuffin is nothing at all.

Most mystery storied have a McGuffin, and Citizen Kane [3] is no different. Apparently there is a debate about whether the message of the film is that our essential humanity is an enigma, or if the message is that our essential humanity is a sled [4]. The thematic debates aside, the Rosebud McGuffin at least allows the movie to break the normal biopic mold. What moves the story is the meaning of Charles Foster Kane's life, rather than chronological details of his life. In fact, we learn all the details of his life from the news real footage during the first ten minutes. What follows is a collage of memories from the people who knew him. In a way the structure is like the puzzles that Susan Alexander passes her time with at Xanadu, it begins with the full picture and then continues with flashbacks as though they are puzzle pieces spilled out on a table. We are left to try to put the pieces together intelligibly. At the close of the film the mystery of the meaning of Rosebud is solved, but there are no lions in the Scottish Highlands and Rosebud is nothing at all.

Pauline Kael wrote "Citizen Kane is perhaps the one American talking picture that seems as fresh now as the day it opened. It may seem even fresher." Indeed, it seems fresher every time I watch it. And sadder. Jean Renoir, in La Règle du jeu, has a character say "in this world there's one thing that's terrible, that everyone has their reasons." Citizen Kane seems to imply something even more terrible: that even our reasons, however innocent or however evil, in the end cannot even be understood or explained.

---------------------------

[1] See Truffaut's Hitchcock

[2] Slavoj Zizeck defines it as 'the empty pretext which just serves to set in motion the story, but has no value in itself.' See also the wikipedia definition.

[3] More from Lucas and the IMDB.

[4] Truth be told, though, they don't make sleds like they used to.

More Songs

2005-12-04T23:13:00.000-05:00

Ok: I've finally uploaded all of ours songs from the Oil City sessions onto the internets. So you can now get ahold of them here:

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=312793

Oh, and if you are interested, you can read about some of the stories behind the songs as told by eye-witness Chet/Jason.

Prospectus -- November 2005

2005-12-01T18:20:00.000-05:00

Books Read:
Way of the Ascetics Tito Colliander.

Movies seen for the first time:
Umberto D.*
Jarhead
Walk the line
Sweet Smell of Success*

* denotes a 100 films review was written

Concerts attended:
Spoon (New York, New York)

Museums attended:
Guggenheim (New York, New York)

Automobiles Purchased:
2006 Civic Hybrid

Misc For the Month

Workdays spent unemployed: 10
US States: MD, PA, NY
Major Cities: Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, New York City
Minor traffic altercations: 1

Commentary is forthcoming.

100 Films: The Sweet Smell of Success

2005-11-29T23:36:00.000-05:00

I just checked the statistics and it seems that as many as 10 people read this web log on a daily basis. So it is a little surprising that press agent leeches are hanging around trying to get me to name drop for them (example: 'speaking of Italian neo-realism, nothing is better than watching a good movie and having a slice of white pizza from The Pizza Company, by far the best deliverers in the South Hills' and so on). It is true: I tried to ruin a health club here, but that was a freebee and anyway the last time I checked my vitriolic posting hasn't effected those rotten swindlers at Frederick Athletic Club. But suppose I had 60 million faithful readers instead of 6? And suppose I was a newspaper gossip columnist in the 1950's? Well, those health club folks would be sorry then. At least that is what I've been lead to believe by watching The Sweet Smell of Success [1], a noir movie released in 1957. Incidentally, this was the same year that On the Road was published, and only 20 years after marijuana was made illegal. The film is about egotistical gossip columnist, J. J. Hunsecker, his slow moving kid sister, Susan, her would be fiance and aspiring jazz musician, Steve Dallas [2], and press agent/sycophant Sidney Falco [3]. J. J. won't publish Sidney's press agent tidbits in his column until Sidney breaks up Susan and Steve. This is a noir movie, so it doesn't end well. It is significant that the title mentions the sweet smell of success, but says nothing of its taste.

All that said, the movie actually works, which is interesting because:
a) It doesn't give us any characters to root for
b) It is shows contempt for both its characters, and by implication it's audience. People like J. J. exist because people like us read US Weekly. Or at least flip through it in grocery store lines when no one is looking.

It probably works because it is satisfying to see bastards fail, and because the writers pack it with relatively memorable pulp dialog. Still, like jazz wannabe Steve Dallas, the writers perhaps try a bit too hard to be cool.

------------------------------------------------

[1] See Lucas's Review and IMDB.

[2] He doesn't make much of a jazz player: in a shocking twist ending, rumors that he smokes pot turn out to be false.

[3] To my knowledge there is no relation to Falco the hit German pop star.

100 Films: Ladri di biciclette

2005-11-20T17:40:00.000-05:00

The scenario of The Bicycle Thief [1] is that age old question of whether it is ethical for a man to steal a loaf of bread to feed his starving family. The difference is in the film our man is stealing a bicycle to keep his job to earn money to buy bread, and preferably bread with mozzarella on it. This is Ethics 101 territory and if I ever have to teach such a class I'll consider screening this movie. However, if this was only a simple moral tale, a well meaning message for folks in post-war Italy, it wouldn't likely be available on DVD or present on our 100 films itinerary, nor would would it probably play to a packed house in New York's upper west side where I saw it several weeks ago. Ideas don't make movies great, movies make ideas great. Sometimes. This time, on top of the standard tropes of Italian neo-realism, the story is driven by the grace and humanity of the performances. The characters are so real, so interesting, and so sympathetic that this movie could have been released yesterday and we wouldn't have to attempt to suspend our disbelieve or give anyone the benefit of the doubt. But even the great performances don't explain the appeal of The Bicycle Thief. The film radiates with life and, even in a world where men must steal bicycles, life is a miracle.

[1] IMDB: Ladri di biciclette

You can't take it with you

2005-11-10T21:02:00.000-05:00

So I'm psuedomoving tomorrow and I've been having to make a lot of decisions. For instance, which DVDs should I bring with me? I have tons. I went out and bought a 25 DVD case (up to two disks per dvd). The trick is to pick ones that are rare and essential. There will be an Annie Hall where I'm going, but will there be a The Sorrow and the Pity? And so on. I also had to take into consideration movies I'll be watching for 100 films.

Here is my list (unordered):
1. Notorious (Criterion)
2. The Thin Man (Criterion)
3. Seven Samurai (Criterion)
4. Smiles of a Summer Night (Criterion)
5. The Seventh Seal (Criterion)
6. Wild Strawberries (Criterion)
7. Vertigo
8. Yojimbo (Criterion)
9. Persona
10. The Purple Rose of Cairo
11. The Rules of the Game (Criterion)
12. 8 1/2 (Criterion)
13. Bon Voyage
14. Jules and Jim (Criterion)
15. Gosford Park
16. Charade (Criterion)
17. I am trying to break your heart
18. Hannah and her Sisters
19. Crimes and Misdemeanors
20. The Russian Ark
21. The Sorrow and the Pity
22. La Strada (Criterion)
23. The Lady Vanishes (Criterion)
24. Manhattan
25. My Night at Maud's

Well? What would you bring?

Excerpts from the Correspondence of Matt Reed 2001-2002

2005-11-10T02:45:00.000-05:00

Annie: "The greatest joke of all is that we are here and fools... The joke part is that we forget."

O lost and waste of life, o ruthless and barren world, that such is the state of human creatures as we drag ourselves through our desperate business among the thin towns and desolate plains! O worthless existence for which every man and woman is a stranger, where even our dearest friends are unknown to us, lost in the retched world in which nothing is held dear. When beer is not cherished, what is there left for us to cling?

I haven't had a job literally since the last millennium. I have only six dollars and some change. And although being alone for me usually doesn't translate into loneliness, I often feel like I have no where to turn. Aside from the fact that I am poor, I feel no need for independence, but I do need newness. To tell you the truth, I am about 2 months away from giving up, selling everything I own, and moving to Argentina.

"Grain upon grain, one by one, and one day, suddenly, there's a heap, a little heap, the impossible heap." Well, another week has slipped by. For that matter, six months have slipped away. It has almost been six months since I started working, and I feel like I've accomplished nothing, and perhaps lost ground.

Dante placed Ulysses in the eighth circle of hell because his quest for knowledge had no limits. I would say that about half my problems are caused by thinking too much.

The difference between fact and Truth. (I just remembered that splendid sentence: "Hello," I lied). Yes, and I understand exactly what you mean what you mean when you say "what abstraction is better than facts." I have felt the same thing. But the problem is the number of facts that exist. When you say this is a fact and therefore a truth, you are being untruthful because you are pointing about one fact among an infinite number of facts and saying it alone is relevant.

Nothing is changed with me. Probably everything I wrote to you last, or said to you last, as the case may be, is still true.

It is difficult to write a sentence these days without sounding trite. "Count it a blessing that you're such a failure your second change might never have come." Hmm.

An easy victory is never a great victory.

Opposition, Party of 2

2005-11-08T17:02:00.000-05:00

It seems to me that the main problem with political parties is that they are run by politicians, which gives me an idea for a new party tentatively named the Opposition Party [1][2]. The rules would be something like:

A. No member could run for office: No candidates, no majority or minority power, no chance of being corrupted by being in charge.
B. The party would be vocal contrarians of whoever has political power.
C. The party would endorse politicians from other parties, but it would only endorse incumbents in the most extreme situations.

It wouldn't work of course, but that's okay. It's not as if the current parties are working, either.

--------------------

[1] OPP for short?
[2] I am thinking specifically of the US, but perhaps it would work in other democracies as well.

100 Films: Umberto D.

2005-11-03T21:44:00.000-05:00

If you ever find youself in Paris, try to drop by the Musee d'Orsay. It is a great art museum, and it has a number of things going for it over the more famous Louvre:
1) The d'Orsay is smaller, so there is not so much walking involved.
2) At the d'Orsay you don't have to pretend you are interested in Italian Renaissance paintings. [1]
3) Unlike certain Lourvrian Venuses, the sculptures tend to have all their arms in tact.

The Musee d'Orsay contains art and art objects from the late 19th and early 20th century, and there are a good many masterpieces to be seen. But it is easy to forget that many, if not most, of the masterpieces were controversial at best in their own time [2]. It is easy to label a painting as impressionist or post-impressionist or what have you, and happily roller-state on to something else, forgetting that these artworks were at one time shocking and revolutionary (you won't see many scandalized bourgeois fleeing the Musee d'Orsay these days). One wonders what is a worse fate for a Monet painting: being rejected by the Parisian establishment, or a century later having its print decorate the wall of a Dentist's wanting room?

The point of all this talk of French painting [3] is to note that in viewing art it is important to understand the artwork both in its relation to youself, but also in its relation to all viewers who have ever observed it and especially to its original audience.

And Umberto D. [4] is a work of art, a masterpiece actually, a masterpiece about a poor elderly man and his dog. As most reviews will tell you, it is a masterpiece of Italian neorealism: the actors were not professionals, the filming was done on location, the subject was impoverished post-war Italy. But at the time of its original release, it was not an old foreign art film to be filed away as "Neo-Realist" in an unread cinema textbook, and like the great artworks of late 19th century France, the film was controversial. Unlike those paintings, however, no one can accuse Umberto D. of being "pretty". [5] The theme is poverty. Many of the characters are cruel and indifferent. There isn't a particularly happy ending. And unlike pastel paintings of lilies and sunsets, it is easy to see how this film could be controversial: Italian society does not come off very well.

But so much for the 20th century Italians. One could see this film without knowing anything about Italy or neo-Realism or post war economics or the Louvre, and still be caught up in it and still think it a work of art. Unlike many characters from films, Umberto is a real person. While it is not wrong to use stereotypical characters in film, it is certainly limited. In the end Umberto Domenico Ferrari loses almost everything, but he is more heroic than most action movie protagonists: he is a hero because he is a person, not a category. The movie is not about the plight of the poor or the elderly or the pitiable "other" or the ethical treatment of pets. The movie is about Umberto D.

Today, when the our most popular documentaries are self-righteous polemics like Fahrenheit 911 or escapist animal narratives like March of the Penguins and "reality" programming has degenerated the craft of television to a state of increasingly ridiculous and tasteless one-upmanship, the lesson of De Sica's Umberto D. is sorely needed: reality is a good thing in film only to the extent that its subject is humanity. If an artwork, no matter how real, ceases to be humane, it ceases to be worthwhile.

----------------------------

[1] Admit it: once you've seen one, you've seen them all.

[2] Manet's The Luncheon on the Grass, which was rejected by the Paris Salon, is a starting example, but the history of impressionism is punctuated by a good bit of rejection.

[3] In interest of full disclosure: I really don't know what I'm talking about. Please don't hold the fact that I'm full of crap against me.

[4] See IMDB info or Lucas's Article.

[5] It runs the risk of being sentimental, of course, but that is to be expected when the story is about an elderly man and his dog.

Portrait of a Voter as a Young Man

2005-11-02T16:26:00.000-05:00

I voted yesterday in my local elections even though I am moving soon and it won't effect me. Even so I was one of less than 30% of registered voters in the city to actually show up. The bad news is: most of my picks lost. The outsider Republican won in an upset, so I am guessing a lot of people just assumed his popular opponent was going to win and decided it wasn't worth it to vote. Perhaps there was something good on TV? The good news is I actually got to vote for James Joyce (who lost, which is odd--you'd think he'd do well on name req alone. I blame the education system in this country) and the local Green candidate (who also lost, but that isn't surprising out here in suburb country).

October Progress

2005-11-01T13:37:00.000-05:00

Books Read:
The Open Door Frederica Mathewes-Green
Mary The Birthgiver of God St. John Maximovitch

Movies Seen for the First Time:
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Proof
The Interpreter
Underworld
Batman Begins
Nonotchka
Kingdom of Heaven
Melinda and Melinda
Happily Ever After
Dot the i

Concerts attended:
David Mead (Vienna, VA)

Museums attended:
Museum of Fine Art (Boston, MA)

Bottles of Single Malt Scotch:
Glenkinchie (Lowland)
Glen Moray (Speyside)

Misc For the Month

Days spent employed: 5
Job Interviews: 2 1/2
Job Offers Accepted: 1
US States: MD, VA, PA, NH, VT, MA
Major Cities: Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, DC, Boston
Ideas for Pulp Mystery Novel: 1 (Par for Corpse: Murder on the 9th Green)

Commentary

The books were good but short and I haven't been reading enough lately (been too busy not doing what I need to do). The David Mead show was great, and I might write more about it. Same with the MFA. I liked most of the movies I saw. 'Dot the i' was billed as 'This year's Memento.' It wasn't. So it goes. The Glen Moray was a good find. It is fairly similar to Glenlivet, but I got it for about 25$. I don't know why anyone would buy something blended like Dewars when you can get a good single malt for only five dollars more.

100 Films: The Awful Truth

2005-10-29T14:48:00.000-04:00

As far as I can tell, the 'awful truth' is that Jerry (Cary Grant), rather than spending the past two weeks in Florida as he told his wife, has been bumming around New York, presumably playing golf [1]. The truth about his wife Lucy (Irene Dunne) is that in between wearing expensive evening dresses and fur coats she has been spending a little too much time with her European singing teacher. As this is not merely a superficial romantic comedy about the idle rich, the story has morals:
1) A marriage must be based upon faith.
2) If a couple has a beloved pet, they should make sure to put some language about it in their prenuptial agreement.
The Awful Truth [2] begins with Jerry and Lucy failing both 1 and 2, and the movie takes off when a Divorce Judge gives Jerry visitation rights to their dog, Mr. Smith (the Judge, who obviously lacks have the wisdom of Solomon, doesn't even attempt to cut Mr. Smith in half, and Lucy gets custody). You don't get this sort of story anymore except in bad sitcoms, but even in 1937, they weren't even trying to be original[3]: we watch it for the performances. Cary Grant is at his best, but Irene Dunne steals the movie. Dunne is perfect at being nervous (reminds me of Diane Keaton at her funniest, as in Love and Death) most of the film, but launches into full screwball neurosis near the end. The scene where she pretends to be Grant's sister has got to be a comedy classic. Near the end she gets a bit too over the top for me, and it raises that age-old question: Is it overacting when you're playing a character who's overacting?

------------------------
[1] See The Awful Truth on IMDB or Lucas's review.

[2] Not to be mixed up with The Awful Tooth, Little Rascals movie from the following year, or the Michael Moore anti-corporation TV series.

[3] Thanks to IMDB, I learned that this is a remake of a 1929 film (which I believe was based on a play).

Tales of Two Cities (or 'Movies I Rented Today')

2005-10-27T22:15:00.000-04:00

Kingdom of Heaven (Ridley Scott)
Melinda and Melinda (Woody Allen)

In Ridley Scott's Jerusalem any blacksmith can fight uncannily in slow motion, advise Kings, and give self-righteous speeches at the drop of a helmet. In Woody Allen's New York every out of work actor has a huge Manhattan apartment and a better wardrobe than me. Kingdom of Heaven, eh? I happen to like New York.

The setup for Melinda and Melinda is a pretty standard Woody Allen Broadway Danny Rose-esque cafe banter framing story of writers dreaming up two versions of the same story, one tragic, one comic. The acting isn't bad if you ignore Will Ferrell, and Radha Mitchell is very good as both Melindas [1]. It is hard to expect much from a movie whose two biggest names are Ferrell and Amanda Peet, and yet we still hold Allen movies to a higher standard because, well, he is Woody Allen. But you can't go through life hoping every movie is Crimes and Misdemeanors. Life's too short. Anyhow, the film's worth renting if only for the Pygmalion limping joke.

In Kingdom of Heaven Orlando Bloom, as a blacksmith turned would-be king, declares 'Jerusalem is a Kingdom of Conscience or it is nothing.' Here is how a Kingdom of Conscience works: you are allowed to sleep with the King's sister [2], but you can not and must not kill her husband. Rules are rules, and Bloom takes it in stride, saves the day, and so on. It is standard Hollywood fare: they dress like peasants and talk like Americans and no religious characters, Muslim or especially Christian, are portrayed in a good light (it is fairly intolerant for a movie about tolerance). Still, what it lacks in plot and integrity it makes up for in flags and garments and armor. The costume and set designers deserve Oscar nominations, and when we get passed all the slow motion fights and computer generated arrows, there is some genuinely beautiful photography. Further, Liam Neeson and Jeremy Irons are always good. In general, the film (like the CG archers) is hit or miss.

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[1] She looks and acts like a movie star, but I'd never heard of her before.

[2] There is a rule in this genre that if there is a Queen, she has to have an affair with hero (who tends to be a widower and man of the world). Kingdom of Heaven is no different.

100 Films: Ninotchka

2005-10-26T21:26:00.000-04:00

The setup for Ninotchka[1] is simple: we need to corrupt three Soviet emissaries to a decadent Parisian lifestyle, and we need to do it in the space of a lunchtime. The comic possibilities for such a lunch are endless, and there are a lot of ways to handle it. This is how Lubitsch does it: the camera is on the door of the emissaries' hotel room, and we watch as various hotel staff enter, to a crescendo of Russian exclamations from behind the door, and exit, often with barely restrained looks of amusement: waiters with gourmet roasts and bottles of champagne, and first one, then three, cigarettes-girls. When we finally get to look in on the party, the party is about over, and one of our Russian emissaries is lying drunk on the floor. This same technique is used later in the movie, when Garbo (also drunk) enters a night club powder room and seconds later there is an exodus of scandalized socialites (we soon learn she has been rambling communist slogans at everyone ready to hand). In both situations we are essentially sitting in a dark room watching a door, but watching the door turns out to be just as interesting as watching what is going on behind it. This is all to say that though the writing in this film is sometimes very clever, the most interesting parts are the parts that have no dialog; this is a silent film--the Wilder and gang dialog can be thought of a part of the score (it is significant that what breaks Ninotchka into laughter is a slapstick pratfall, not a clever story).

So, how does the movie hold up after 65 years? Ok, I guess. The love story isn't believable, nor is the central conflict, but that isn't really the point in a screwball comedy. The scenario has the clockwork precision of Studio System Hollywood: we don't ask for, expect, or receive anything either original or credible. We are supposed to want to see Garbo laugh, and that is exactly what is delivered. The problem is I don't find Greta Garbo particularly appealing. Frankly, I would prefer to see Carroll Lombard laugh (or for that matter Ina Claire). But that is my own problem, I suppose. Still, would this make anyone's top 100 list if Greta Garbo wasn't the star? I doubt it, but there are enough treasures here, mostly due to the director and also perhaps to the Wilder jokes[2], to make it worth watching if you happen to like old movies.

Because this is a Hollywood film, we are dealing with stereotypes (the man about town, the shrewd noblewoman, the shrew that need taming, the bumbling bureaucrats) rather than real people. To show that the corruption of our emissaries is complete, we see the a coat-rack with three ragged workaday hats dissolve into a coat-rack with three new top hats (the classic symbol of capitalists in political cartoons). All this is fine because both the filmmakers and the audiences know they are stereotypes and view them a such (just as their children didn't believe that any mice looked like Mickey). That is why I think it is unhelpful to view this movie as propaganda. Both capitalistic and communist caricatures are revealed as hollow, and the joylessness of Russia was playful and, anyway, present for technical reasons (when you need a cold woman, you have to go cold country). Further, the filmmakers use stereotype to comic effect (the scene at the train station comes to mind: a man looks like a good communist until he greets his wife with an exuberant 'Heil, Hitler!').

In the end, what disturbed me about this movie wasn't the anti-communist flavor (you get the feeling while watching that the filmmakers are good sports and would just as happily be anti-Canadian or anti-Dentist if given the opportunity). Instead, the blows that land against the Soviet Union strike me as way too light-hearted. After arriving in Paris, Ninotchka mentions, "The last mass trials were a great success. There are going to be fewer but better Russians." A great one-liner to be sure. But is the murder of tens of millions of Russians something to chuckle about?

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[1] See the listing on IMDB or Lucas's review

[2] Comedies are always filled with clever lines, so a few good gags are par for course. I assume there are many old comedies with merely adequate jokes that will never see the light of DVD.

100 Films Intro

2005-10-26T21:22:00.000-04:00

You can read about our 100 Films project on Lucas's Blog. But, briefly: we are going to watch Time's top 100 American movies [1] and report back on what we witness. My method is going to be laziness. Rather than find the list myself, I'm just going to check Lucas's page from time to time and watch the movies he has watched. Perhaps one day I'll get to Time's website and read the list for myself, but who knows.

Feel free to join in: even if you don't like the movies, it will at least be good for you.

---------------------------------

[1] And, by the way, I do believe a Time reported went to prison recently to protect her anonymous sources for this list. Also, I don't know how to put pictures in my post so my reviews will be monomedia.

Mensch und Übermensch

2005-10-26T21:13:00.000-04:00

This is what Zarathustra spoke:

Man is a rope, fastened between animal and Superman -- a rope over an abyss.
A dangerous going-across, a dangerous wayfaring, a dangerous looking-back, a dangerous shuddering and staying-still.
What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal; what can be loved in man is that he is a going-across and a down-going.[1]

Zarathustra was a silly ass. Still, I'm the one who was cheated out of $150, the result of bad health club contract.

In such cases I've noticed that when people act like a complete jerk and resolve "not to take 'no' for an answer" they often get what the want. I worked myself up for it: I got good and angry, I stood my ground, and in the end I mailed them their check. Alas, Herr Reed isn't much of an Übermensch. But I will say this[2]:

FREDERICK ATHLETIC CLUB is an incompetent and deceitful establishment. What is worse: they PLAY INCREDIBLY BAD MUSIC. So if you ever move to Frederick, MD I suggest you avoid the place.

As for me I am moving to Pittsburgh in November where, on that difficult path from animal to Superman, I'll begin reading the fine print on all contracts I sign. For, as another German philosopher, a Mr. Schopenhauer, wrote:

Money is never spent to so much advantage as when you have been cheated out of it; for at one stroke you have purchased prudence.[3]

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[1] Nietzsche. Thus Spoke Zarathustra (trans. R. J. Hollingdale)

[2] This is a passive aggressive attempt to make this post high in the search engine rankings for this company

[3] Schopenhauer. The Wisdom of Life and Counsels and Maxims (trans. T. Bailey Saunders)

Film and the Theology of Violence

2005-10-24T20:08:00.000-04:00

We've been talking a little about Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, mostly as it relates to religion and art. It occurs to me, though, that there are some broader cultural and political connections. My biggest problem with the movie (which I did not see), was the myopic fixation on the physical crucifixion, the limitations of the medium being at least partly responsible.

Now I doubt that the movie was made as a response to the problem of terrorism, but it is interesting that last year's two biggest and most controversial movies were The Passion and Fahrenheit 9/11. Both these films, along with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the insanity resulting from the 9/11 and Anthrax attacks, the vitriolic rhetoric from all sides of American politics, are rooted in and nourished by the same cultural milieu. An increasingly violent culture will tend to believe, when it believes anything, a violent theology.

What was most disturbing to me about the evangelical response to The Passion was not that they supported it, but they supported it so enthusiastically. The (almost) ubiquitous and passionate defense of the movie revealed an unconscious tendency in that community which is worrying. So focused on using any means to an end, they proselytize with shallow pop music, self-help books, and violent rated R movies! A religion whose most celebrated artistic expression is a violent "He is crucified" is an unhealthy religion and in this context the war in Iraq becomes slightly more understandable: means not only justify ends, the intended ends sanctify means. Is it surprising that a culture which uses Mel's movie to "change lives", will readily support the cluster bombing of cities to change regimes?

James Carroll, in a recent book, writes on this link between violent theology and violent political ideology:

Before the Crusades, Christian theology had given central emphasis to the resurrection of Jesus, and to the idea of incarnation itself, but with the war of the cross, the bloody crucifixion began to dominate the Latin Christian imagination. A theology narrowly focused on the brutal death of Jesus reinforced the primitive notion that violence can be a sacred act. The cult of martyrdom, even to the point of suicidal valor, was institutionalized in the Crusades, and it is not incidental to the events of 9-11 that a culture of sacred self-destruction took equally firm hold among Muslims...

Here is the deeper significance of Bush's inadvertent reference to the Crusades: instead of being a last recourse or a necessary evil, violence was established then as the perfectly appropriate, even chivalrous, first response to what is wrong in the world. George W. Bush is a Christian for who this particular theology lives. While he identified Jesus as his "favorite political philosopher" when running for president in 2000, the Jesus of this evangelical president is not the "turn-the-other-cheek" one. Bush's savior is the Jesus whose cross is wielded as a sword. George W. Bush, having cheerfully accepted responsibility for the executions of 152 death-row inmates in Texas, had already shown himself to be entirely at home with divinely sanctioned violence. After 9-11, no wonder it defined his deepest urge.

-- From "Crusade: Chronicles of an Unjust War"

Travel Plans

2005-10-12T15:23:00.000-04:00

I am going to be in Pittsburgh until Saturday (15 Oct.) morning, more or less in and around the Mountain of Gold. I can be contacted via the usual channels.

Long shot: I'll also be in Boston on 21 Oct.

The Ocean Blue

2005-10-10T20:30:00.000-04:00

Columbus Day is this week. So here is an appropriate quote from Mr. Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions:

The founders were aristocrats, and they wished to show off their useless education, which consisted of the study of hocus-pocus from ancient times. They were bum poets as well.

But some of the nonsense was evil, since it concealed great crimes. For example, teachers of children in the United States of America wrote this date on the blackboards again and again, and asked the children to memorize it with pride and joy:

1492

The teachers told the children that this was when their continent was discovered by human beings. Actually, millions of human beings were already living full and imaginative lives on the continent in 1492. That was simply the year in which sea pirates began to cheat and rob and kill them.

Living by Symmetry

2005-10-09T22:53:00.000-04:00

So I was down and out and unemployed, listening mostly to NPR and reading Russian Novels and drinking, when I drank, in the local pub on Wednesdays when good beer was only 2 dollars a pint, down almost to the last dollar, deciding to drop any pride left and apply for a part-time job shelving books at the local library. The library at the time was at a temporary location in a corporate office park while they built a new building in flawed imitation of the Hagia Sofia on the banks of the mighty Carroll Creek. It was Summer, 2001.

I had to cancel my job interview because rew called and wanted to go on a road trip for Labor Day. Who wants to shelve books anyway? But moments before we left, I got a phone call from my future boss and had a interview scheduled for mid September, a very nice job at a somewhat major corporation. What happened next was that terrorist flew some planes into buildings and my interview was delayed, but came later in the month, went well, and I started working 1 Oct 2001. Four years went drifting by.

It is 2005: the day before Labor Day I announced my intention to quit. A few weeks later, nearly four years to the day since my interview, I handed in my letter of resignation. And, 7 Oct 2005 was my last day, only a week off from 4 years as well.

When it became known that I was leaving, a lot of people at work were surprised, and I had a difficult time giving good reasons why, and I was never satisfied with my responses. I didn't tell any of my colleagues the least misleading of the many honest reasons for my resignation: that I was in a certain sense living by symmetry, planning my life around a elaborate joke that most people wouldn't find all that funny.

Four more years. For more years. Perhaps I'll be down and out again. Perhaps I'll become poor, or perhaps I'll become rich; both have their own advantages and disadvantages. Perhaps I will become a cog in an enormous corporate machine, or perhaps I'll be a lever in an enormous corporate machine. I shouldn't mind either. Perhaps I'll stay in one place all my life, or perhaps I'll travel to the utmost parts of the world. I shouldn't mind it either way. How oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? until seven times? I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven. But the important thing now is that it's a soft October evening.

Good night.

Last Day

2005-10-07T05:14:00.000-04:00

this is how my job ends:
not with a bang, but with a meeting

Zeitgeist

2005-10-05T23:04:00.000-04:00

1) Due to the large number of Anonymous folk clamoring to leave Anonymous messages for varied and anonymous reasons, and a general feeling that an end of elitism is an idea whose time has come, anyone can post messages on this humble blog.

2) Um, about all that elitism stuff? Well, you still have to know how to read. Nothing can be done about it. Sorry.

The September of my Year

2005-10-02T21:22:00.000-04:00

Books Completed:

'Illuminated Heart' Frederica Mathewes-Green
'The Bridge of San Luis Rey' Thornton Wilder
'The Coma' Alex Garland
'The Great Divorce' C. S. Lewis
'Quick and Easy Texas Hold 'Em' Neil D. Myers

Movies viewed for the first time:
Broken Flowers
Pygmalion
[Maybe others, but I forgot to write these down]

Misc.:
Resignation Letters Written: 1
Ideas for the misc. section: 2

Top 25 Songs:

[Due to a Walking Malfunction my iPod died, so I have no top 25 list. The story has a happy ending. Due to the great folks at The Apple Store, a free replacement was the work of a moment.]

Cheers

Too Late for Lists

2005-10-02T01:34:00.000-04:00

The report for Sept. will have to wait. To tide you over, here is a poem entitled "2nd December 2004":

Scotch
A winter evening

Fell in love with Clara Schumann

Poem

2005-09-22T11:33:00.000-04:00

Today is the Autumnal Equinox. This is good because it is hard to find opportunities to use the word 'autumnal,’ so any chance to do so is a gift. Happy Autumnal Equinox! And what better way to welcome the new season than a poem, my favorite fall poem, by Mr. Hopkins[1]?

Spring and Fall: to a young child

Margaret, are you grieving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leaves, like the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Ah! as the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By and by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you will weep and know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sorrow's springs are the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
What heart heard of, ghost guessed:
It is the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.

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[1] That would be Gerard, not Anthony. I don't know if Anthony writes poems. He acts well, though, and that is good enough for me.

September Songs

2005-09-14T21:45:00.000-04:00

As I've mentioned before, I write from Frederick, Maryland, USA, which was immortalized by John Greenleaf Whittier in his poem 'Ballad of Barbara Fritchie':

Up from the meadows rich with corn,
Clear in the cool September morn,
The clustered spires of Frederick stand
Green-walled by the hills of Maryland.

It's also the sometime hometown and resting place of Francis Scott Key (who was an ancestor of F. Scott Fitzgerald). The upshot of this is we have a mall named after Key, am I occasionally buy jeans there.

Key wrote[1] the poem 'The Defence of Fort M'Henry' on this day back in 1814 (during the unfortunate results of a pre-emptive war against Britian). It was renamed 'The Star-Spangled Banner' and put to music, and then became the USA's national anthem in 1931. This is what Vonnegut has to say about it:

There were one quadrillion nations in the Universe, but the nation Dwayne Hoover and Kilgore Trout belonged to was the only one with a national anthem which was gibberish sprinkled with question marks.

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[1] Key wasn't a particularly good poet, which is why it was good that he had a day job. He was a lawyer. Of course, it was his bad poetry that got a mall named after him.

Beside the rivering waters of, hitherandthithering waters of. (Election) Night!

2005-09-13T11:44:00.000-04:00

One nice thing about being an independent is you don't have to vote in primaries. For lazy citizens like me this is a huge selling point. One less thing to do. (As a bonus, being an independent you get to feel smugly superior to all the Democrats and Republicans who are busy with calling each other names rather than putting their shoulders to the wheel.)

Sounds great, right? It has its disadvantages, though. It's Election Day in Frederick, and if I were a Republican I would be able to vote for James Joyce as City Alderman. This is an opportunity that comes around once in a lifetime, and I am going to miss it. Can you imagine the possibilities?

Zoning Commissioner: We propose to enact a partial moratorium on new construction in the Historic district and along Carroll Creek, due to the long term availablity of water--

Alderman Joyce: riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.

Zoning Commissioner: Er, well, I suppose new construction would include castles, Alderman. But--

Alderman Joyce: Rot a peck of pa's malt had Jhem or Shen brewed by arclight and rory end to the regginbrow was to be seen ringsome on the aquaface.

Zoning Commissioner: I give up.

Hope and Pessimism

2005-09-08T23:17:00.000-04:00

1) Those who cite the fall of the Soviet Union as proof that Socialism is a failure, should take a good look at the puzzling case of Norway. Here is an interesting personal perspective on the world's most prosperous country. Interesting. It raises the question: is it possible to get there from here (aside from flying to Norway)? It doesn't seem likely.

2) Oh. So there is Boycott of Exxon. I am I going to do it? Yes. Do I think it is going to work? Not really. I see it more of (in the words of the poet) 'a gesture when there is nothing else to do.'

3) The decade is just over half over and how is the US doing? The most devastating attack on our soil in 60 years; two major wars; one endless pseudo-war; a recession; a large increase in obesity rates; the worst natural disaster in a century; a space shuttle disaster; a multi-year drought in the southwest; an upsurge in Atlantic hurricanes; enormous federal deficits accompanied by record government and personal debt; Republicans infesting all branches of gov't. To make matter worse Frederick, the town where I live, doesn't have a decent Thai Restaurant. Oh, Lost! The 00s are turning out to be just like the 90s, but without hope.

But we have better music and movies now than we did in the 90s. There is that.

August Lists

2005-09-01T20:57:00.000-04:00

He is my status report for the month of August.

Books Read:

Carry on, Jeeves (P. G. Wodehouse)
The Lamb's Supper: Mass As Heaven on Earth (Scott Hahn)
Leave it to Psmith (P. G. Wodehouse)
Murder on the Orient Express (Agatha Christie)
Jeeves in the Morning (P. G. Wodehouse)
Do Androids Dream Electric Sheep? (Philip K. Dick)
The Man in the High Castle (Philip K. Dick)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (J. K. Rowling)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (J. K. Rowling)
Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix (J. K. Rowling)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (J. K. Rowling)
The Murder of Dan Ackroyd (Agatha Christie)
The A.B.C. Murders (Agatha Christie)

Movie's Seen for the First Time
My Wife is an Actress (Yvan Attal)

iTunes Top 25 Most Played:

1. Sister Jack. Spoon
2. Sleep The Clock Around. Belle & Sebastian
3. The Boy With The Arab Strap. Belle & Sebastian
4. Big Boat. M. Ward
5. Radio Campaign. M. Ward
6. Goodbye West Coast. Matt Sharp
7. Drown. Sun Volt
8. It Could Have Been A Brilliant Career. Belle & Sebastian
9. Questions. Papas Fritas
10. New Slang. The Shins
11. Fake Palindromes. Andrew Bird
12. Failure. Kings of Convenience
13. Here Comes The Sun Again. M. Ward
14. Caring Is Creepy. The Shins
15. Tables And Chairs. Andrew Bird
16. A Summer Wasting. Belle & Sebastian
17. Dry The Rain. The Beta Band.
18. The Trapeze Swinger. Iron & Wine
19. Homesick. Kings of Convenience
20. Massterfade. Andrew Bird
21. Neihborhood #1 (Tunnels). The Arcade Fire
22. Wishbone. Architecture In Helsinki
23. Do the Whirlwind. Architecture In Helsinki
24. Baby bye bye. Dan Bern & The IJBC
25. Eva. Dan Bern & The IJBC

Misc.:
Hours spent in the car with two year old: 20+
States passed through: 6
Roadside breakdowns: 2
Dollars spent on automobile repairs: too many to bear
Weddings attended: 1
Blood Donations: 1
Times horrible-looking-mental-state commented upon[1]: 4 or 5
Number of days until I give notice that I'm quitting my job: 0

Commentary

The only reason I got so many books under my belt last month was because (a) i had a week of vacation, and (b) all the books were quick reads. Thoughts on this month's reading:

Wodehouse: How can you not love Wodehouse? The books are pretty much all the same, but somehow that doesn't matter. I would recommend 'Right ho, Jeeves' as a starting point, and also 'Leave it to Psmith' for a non-Jeevesian specimen.

Christie: I rarely read Mystery novels (although I come from a long line of devourers of that genre), but I've been big into Agatha Christie this month. I bought Orient Express on a whim, and I'm glad I did. I recommend Orient Express and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. I hate 1st person narratives generally, but Ackroyd was on of the best experiments in narration I've read (the book says a lot more than a great deal of 'post modern' literature).

Philip K. Dick: The Man in the High Castle was interesting. Still, I wouldn't read this author unless you have a stomach for Science Fiction.

Potter: What is there to say that hasn't already been said?

The Lamb's Supper: It was interesting, but the writing was only so-so (I am saying this in a snobbish way: what is the use of comparing every religious book one reads to Annie Dillard? Life's too short) and it was a bit too brief. Still, the premise was interesting: A liturgical interpretation of Revelation and an Apocalyptic interpretation of Liturgy.

Slow movie month. I rented more than I saw, but I haven't had any solid blocks of 90-120 minutes in order to enjoy any movies. Fall and Winter are coming and the good movie season will be here soon, so this should pick up.

My Wife is an Actress was okay. Nothing spectacular. See it if you like French movies or unattractive nudity (these things typically go together anyway). The best thing about the movie was the lead actor (who also directed, I believe). The comedy comes not so much from the dialog or the scenario, rather than from the actor's personality. I hope he keeps making films.

Cheers.

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[1] Examples: 'Are you okay?', 'What's wrong?', 'You look like your mother just died' and so on. I am not sure why; maybe it's the beard.

Stop Grinning at Persians

2005-08-31T21:35:00.000-04:00

1) I very nearly got into a email discussion about Protests: Pros and Cons (the opposite of protests, of course, are contests but we didn't discuss these). As it turns out people don't tend to like email discussions. So, rather than bringing up the topic again, I thought I'd bring up Mr. Woody Allen's take on the matter from his 'A Brief, Yet Helpful, Guide to Civil Disobedience' in the section 'Demonstrations and Marches':

A fine example of a demonstration was the Boston Tea Party, where outraged Americans disguised as Indians dumped British tea into the harbor. Later, Indians disguised as outraged Americans dumped actual British into the harbor. Following that, the British disguised as tea, dumped each other into the harbor. Finally, German mercenaries clad only in costumes from The Trojan Women leapt into the harbor for no apparent reason.

When demonstrating, it is a good to carry a placard stating one's position. Some suggested positions are: (1) lower taxes, (2) raise taxes, and (3) stop grinning at Persians.

For Civil Disobedience, Mr. Allen also recommended 'Dressing as a policeman and then skipping.' This is good advice.

2) Speaking of that, at this time of year it is my custom to watch Allen's 'September.' A chamber piece, set entirely in a Connecticut cottage, really interesting, but not exactly funny. It contains this uplifting piece of dialog--

PETER: You feel so sure of that when you look out on a clear night like tonight and see all those millions of stars? That none of it matters?

LLOYD: I think it's just as beautiful as you do, and vaguely evocative of some deep truth that always just keeps slipping away, but then my professional perspective overcomes me, a less wishful, more penetrating view of it, and I understand it for what it truly is: haphazard, morally neutral, and unimaginably violent.

Anyway, good-bye summer.

Thank you, US Postal Service, in advance...

2005-08-30T21:55:00.000-04:00

1) Great news everyone! Illinois is on it's way, thanks to our helpful friends at Amazon.com! And already I can't wait for Vermont...

2) In is about the 60th anniversary of the end of WWII, and our good president is expected to start comparing this war and that war in upcoming speech. [Pause, to roll eyes] I think this is a good idea, but I am afraid we might hare learned the wrong lesson. Rather than 'Even well intentioned members of a great generation end up doing terrible, wicked acts in the name of God and Country and Power' but instead the Administration learned only 'The ends justify the means.' A bad business.

(I just got a new translation of 'The Brothers Karamazov' so I'm going to be posting what my hero Alexei Fyodorovich (Alyosha) has to say on the matter soon...)

'Truth turns into Beauty in unexpected ways.'

2005-08-24T19:05:00.000-04:00

'I didn't care what they said, I just couldn't believe that this was what the worship of the early church looked like--all the cluttered doodads of gold, incense, and fancy vestments. My vague assumption was that early Christians just sat around on the floor, probably in their blue jeans, talking about what a great guy Jesus was. It was embarrassing to review Scripture and realize that from Exodus to Revelation worship is clothed in gold, silver, precious stones, embroidery, robes of gorgeous fabric, bells, and candles; I don't know of an instance of scriptural worship that doesn't include incense. God ordered beauty, even extravagant beauty, in worship even while his people were still wandering the desert in tents. Beauty must mean something that no-nonsense, head-driven Christians fail to grasp.'
-- Frederica Mathewes-Green. (in Facing East)

Tables and Chairs

2005-08-18T20:53:00.000-04:00

Okay:

1) I have been really into Andrew Bird's latest album lately. Here is a review:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8556790/

It raises an interesting point: if the record companies really wanted to get rid of music pirating, they would put more effort into making quality CD jackets...

2) I just read on BBC that there has been a proposal to introduce big game back into the American west. It is a insane idea, but I hope they pull it off.

3) Also from BBC, the great Italian Cinematographer Tonino Delli Colli has passed away. We should all rent a few Italian movies as a tribute. Actually, I think Life Is Beautiful is the only one of his movies I've seen. Here is a list of them all.

'thanks for the tunes, and thanks for the time'

2005-08-17T17:12:00.000-04:00

So, I haven't been writing much of late and I'll try to do better, but for now...

1) I meant to say earlier, but Monday was the Feast of the Dormition of Mary.

2) More on the end of the war (60 years ago):

http://www.godspy.com/reviews/Blessing-the-Bombs-by-George-Zabelka.cfm[1]

3) He says it's not a 'serious blog', but why not check out our old friend Leigh's web log?

4) My iPod Top 25 Most Played:

1. Dry The Rain. The Beta Band.
2. Big Boat. M. Ward.
3. Goodbye West Coast. Matt Sharp.
4. Hear Comes The Sun Again. M. Ward.
5. A Summer Wasting. Belle & Sebastian.
6. Beverly Hills. Weezer.
7. Radio Campaign. M. Ward.
8. Wake Up. The Arcade Fire.
9. Hear Comes the Sun. The Beatles
10. The Cemetery. Architecture In Helsinki.
11. Maxwell's Silver Hammer. The Beatles.
12. Sovay. Andrew Bird.
13. Wishbone. Architecture in Helsinki.
14. Do the Whirlwind. Architecture in Helsinki.
15. Cathedral 4 (The Unbreaking Branch And Song) Castanets.
16. Sebrina, Paste And Plato. Jellyfish.
17. Fake Palindromes. Andrew Bird.
18. Tables and Chairs. Andrew Bird.
19. The Boy With The Arab Strap. Belle & Sebastian.
20. Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels). The Arcade Fire.
21. Sweetness. Dan Bern & The IJBC
22. Masterfade. Andrew Bird.
23. It'5! Architecture In Helsinki.
24. It Could Have Been a Brilliant Career. Belle & Sebastian.
25. Sleep The Clock Around. Belle & Sebastian.

I'm now going to reset the counts and see what happens. I am still not convinced that these counts are accurate, by the way. Still I'm okay with the list. A bit worried about 'Beverly Hills' being at number 6. So, please pretend that number 6 is actually 'Sister Jack' by Spoon. Thanks.

--------------------------------------------------

[1] Thanks to my brother for sending this to me. I've actually heard of this guy before. It is a pretty moving testimony.

have mercy on us

2005-08-09T19:00:00.000-04:00

It is the 60th anniversery of the Nagasaki atomic attack.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4133572.stm

'Nagasaki mayor Iccho Ito asked US citizens whether their security was enhanced by their nuclear arsenal.

"We understand your anger and anxiety over the memories of horror of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Yet, is your security actually enhanced by your government's policies of maintaining 10,000 nuclear weapons, of carrying out repeated sub-critical nuclear tests, and of pursuing the development of new 'mini' nuclear weapons?"'

Some thoughts:

1) Such will probably not change the hearts of the Administration with it's perverse moral system, which claims to favor a culture that errs 'on the side of life' while simultaneously pouring billions (or your money) into Nuclear Arms research.

2) The comparison between 9/11 and Nagasaki is apt: in terms of human life, the United States Government's terrorist attach against that City was about 50 times worse than what happened in New York a few years ago (over 100 times if you include Hiroshima). The OED defines terrorism as "a policy intended to strike with terror those against whom it is adopted; the employment of methods of intimidation; the fact of terrorizing or condition of being terrorized." When it comes down to it, it is difficult to distinguish Truman from Bin Laden...

Monthly Summary

2005-07-29T18:49:00.000-04:00

How we did this month[1]:

Books Completed:
'On Bullshit' (Harry G. Frankfurt)
'The Magician's Nephew' (C. S. Lewis)
'The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe' (C. S. Lewis)
'Prince Caspian' (C. S. Lewis)
'Voyage of the Dawn Treader' (C. S. Lewis)
'The Silver Chair' (C. S. Lewis)
'A Horse and his Boy' (C. S. Lewis)
'The Last Battle' (C. S. Lewis)

Book's Started:
'The Big Sea' (Langston Hughes)
'Foucault: A Very Short Introduction' (Gary Gutting)

Movies Seen for the First Time:
'Bringing Up Baby' (Howard Hawks)
'To be or not to be' (Ernst Lubitsch)
'Crash' (Paul Haggis)
'JSA' (Chan-wook Park) [2]
'A Very Long Engagement' (Jean-Pierre Jeunet)

Okay, so a lot more books this month, but they were all short so it would reduce down to a couple properly sized books. Still, it was better than last month.

I recommend 'On Bullshit.' It is funny and interesting and you can knock it back in a couple hours. I realized from reading the book that my blog is very similar to Bullshit! I'm okay with that...

I enjoyed the Narnia series a great deal. It has been something like 20 years since they were read to me as a child and I'd forgotten a lot. A few thoughts:

1) I would be amazed if a similar set of children's books could be published today and still receive the same acclaim among Evangelicals. The Narnia series benefits from being old, written by Lewis, and having overt Christian allusions. However, the series also has a lot of swearing, drinking, smoking, and violence. Further, there is just as much Platonist and Pagan imagery as Christian (probably more Pagan imagery). It also has kind words to say about magic and astrology.[3] Still, you won't see anyone protesting the upcoming Narnia movies as you would of the Harry Potter books.

2) What I admire about C. S. Lewis is that he has internalized his ideas (about morality, philosophy, literature, and Christianity) so well that the seem to arise in his fiction, not out of some agenda, but naturally.

I already wrote about most of the movies. 'A Very Long Engagement' was good.

Cheers.

----------------

[1] A little early as I'm going on vacation tomorrow (see you in a week).

[2] Awful name, right? It's Korean, so let's hope something was lost in translation. The original: Gongdong gyeongbi guyeok

[3] Not that there is anything wrong with that. Still, it is sad to see people so quickly reduce the books to religious allegory. It goes to show you how little adults use their imagination.

Now It Can Be Told

2005-07-27T23:04:00.000-04:00

'"Harry," said Dwayne. "I have some news for you: modern science has given us a whole lot of wonderful new colors, with strange, exciting names like red!, orange!, green!, and pink!, Harry. We're not stuck any more with just black and gray and white! Isn't that good news, Harry?"'
- Kurt Vonnegut (Breakfast of Champions)

I just saw the movie "8 Women" this week and, aside from becoming my favorite Ozon movie so far [1], it made me realize how nice it is to see a movie take advantage of Color. It doesn't happen much and I can think of a few reasons:

1) We've had it for decades and the novelty has begun to where off.
2) Realism is the fashion these days and reality (or the kind of reality that is in fashion) is fairly drab. [2]
3) Thinking back, though, I don't think that American directors since the decline and fall of the Musical have been very good at colors.

Some of the Best Movies To Use Color Which I Can Think of Off the Top of my Head
Hero
The Red Shoes
Raise the Red Lantern
Pierrot le fou

Are there others?

-----------------------------------

[1] And speaking of 8 Women, it stars Virginie Ledoyen who has suddenly become my favorite French actress. She was also in Bon Voyage (go rent this movie) and, I just learned, was the girl from The Beach.

[2] Does anyone know why everyone, faced with reality 24-7, seems to want to be entertained by "reality" in film and TV, also? Hardly makes sense.

Of Time and the River

2005-07-25T06:51:00.000-04:00

And you thought Congress was doing nothing about Global Warming? On the contrary, they have recently proposed an amendment to their recent energy bill to add more time to daylight savings time. Gee, thanks, Congress.

By the way, here is a funny website of a group trying to stop 'this madness of changing the time twice a year.'

Lost and Found in Translation Part II

2005-07-23T10:54:00.000-04:00

'It may be that there are fundamental limitations in the structure of any particular language that make it simply incapable of certain sorts of expression. Indeed, it seems likely that this is so -- that, for example, there are things in Goethe's or Rilke's German that simply cannot be adequately put into English. Heidegger maintained -- though it is hard to see how he could know -- that only ancient Greek and German were adequate for the discussion of Philosophy.'

- Gary Gutting (Foucault: A Very Short Introduction)

This is part of the reason that diversity is so important, and not just in language. Can you imagine a more terrible world than one with only one language, one culture, et cetera?

More about Linguistic Diversity:

Foundation for Endangered Languages

Terralingua (which is more ambitious: 'Terralingua supports the integrated protection, maintenance and restoration of biocultural diversity of life -- the world's biological, cultural, and linguistic diversity...')

Some relevant quotes:

'All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise him.'
- Hopkins

'If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.'
- Donne

Lost and Found in Translation

2005-07-18T20:50:00.000-04:00

This weekend I found a Rilke poem displayed on some friends' bathroom wall. Called 'Autumn Day' I liked it very much and so I couldn't wait until Autumn to post it here.

Here is a page with several English translations and the original German.

I am partial to the Stephen Mitchell version, partly because it was the first version I read and partly because I think it is the most effective.

Anyway, here's Rilke's original:

'Herbsttag'

Herr: es ist Zeit. Der Sommer war sehr gross.
Leg deinen Schatten auf die Sonnenuhren,
und auf den Fluren lass die Winde los.

Befiehl den letzten Fruchten voll zu sein;
gieb innen noch zwei sudlichere Tage,
drange sie zur Vollendung hin und jage
die letzte Susse in den schweren Wein.

Wer jetzt kein Haus hat, baut sich keines mehr.
Wer jetzt allein ist, wird es lange bleiben,
wird wachen, lesen, lange Briefe schreiben
und wird in den Alleen hin und her
unruhig wandern, wenn die Blatter treiben.

If you have a few minutes try to sound it out as best you can. (With my tiny knowledge of German, I could only get the first line, but the important thing is the sound).

A couple thoughts:

1) Notice the free verse translations are very different in form than original. We get the sense but not the sound, which is too bad but unavoidable I guess. It is funny though: I'm sure a few poetry snobs would love the English version but wouldn't stand the original's structure and rhyme.

2) Perhaps we should treat poetry more like music and package all English translations with audio of the original?

3) For some reason when I read the English version, I see it from my own perspective, as if I am saying or thinking it, while with the German version it seems as if someone else is saying or thinking it. The German version seems to me to be more melancholy.

Optimism

2005-07-13T22:03:00.000-04:00

Does anyone else think that it is odd that every year the droughts and forest fires get worse in the West, and every year the Hurricanes get worse in the Southeast, and yet those are the fastest growing areas of the United States?

And yet last year I vacationed in the West and this year I am vacationing in the Southeast…

File under what I've been watching of late

2005-07-11T20:22:00.000-04:00

1) I expect Paul Weitz might end up making some good movies. The reason I think so is because there was a lot I didn't like about 'About a Boy' and most of it had to do with the direction. Certain scenes were shot inexplicably in one take. There were random camera effects done and they only seemed to be done because they could be done. There was a lot interesting film work that was out of place and unhelpful. Then 'In Good Company' he used much the same style (longer than usual takes, unexpected odd shots), but put the style to good use.

Oh, one more thing about 'About a Boy': the problem with most romantic comedy isn't that it is romantic comedy, there is actually a good bit of great romantic comedy out there. The problem is that so much of the romantic comedy that Hollywood puts out is so bad that it is hard for anyone to bother watching it anymore. But, that does have the affect of making the good ones more satisfying when it comes along.

2) The thing about old movies is that they tend to be good only because most of the bad ones didn't survive long enough to be available anymore. That's why I think we should give the old movies we see the benifit of the doubt (and not cut and run when we see the boring opening credits). Consider Howard Hawkes' 'Bringing Up, Baby' staring Cary Grant and Kate Hepburn. I was fully prepared to like this movie: 1) It was a screwball comedy and I am a fan of 'The Lady Eve', 'My Man Godfry' and 'Sullivan's Travels'; 2) It was a Howard Hawkes comedy and I am a big fan of 'His Girl Friday'; 3) It has been on several top comedy lists; and 4) it is popular enough to be avialable at my local library. On the other hand, I find both actors hit or miss. And this movie definitely missed me. With 'His Girl Friday' when it wasn't extremely funny it was at least clever and intelligent. Nothing much was funny in 'Bringing Up, Baby' and the rest was pointless and annoying. The best I can say about it is I can kind of see why some people might have found it funny fifty years ago. And that isn't saying much.

June Report

2005-07-06T20:26:00.000-04:00

1) How we did in June:

Books Completed:
The Lonely Guy. Bruce Jay Friedman.
Pride and Prejudice. Jane Austen. (1.5 times)

Books Started:
The Wind in the Willows.

Movies Seen for the first time:
"About a Boy"
"In Good Company"
That Star Wars Movie

We can do better.

2) I admire Judith Miller a great deal. Regardless of your feeling about the media, journalists, their so-called rights, and the so-call Bush Administration, it's hard not to admire someone who would go to jail for her principals. That the dirt bag(s) in the White House don't deserve her protection makes her imprisonment even more poignant.

Who knows? Maybe this will help the New York Times a small piece of their credibility back. Well, they have a long way to go.

the concept of sacrilege

2005-06-30T21:03:00.000-04:00

'Since the Enlightenment, it has been normal for Europeans to think of society as a contract. The novelty of the idea is two-fold: first, it implies that social membership is a free choice. Second, it suggests that all members of society are currently living. Neither of those thoughts is true. But, without religion, people tend to believe that they are true. Even if we recognize the social contract for what it is -- a fiction that hides the empty heart of modern politics -- we nevertheless find it hard to formulate our social and political obligations in other terms. Burke reacted violently to the social contract as interpreted by the French Revolutionaries. By making the 'people' sovereign, he argued, the Revolution had disenfranchised the dead and the unborn. Care for the dead and care for the unborn go hand-in-hand... By respecting the dead and their wishes we keep intact the accumulated resources of society, and place an obstacle before the living, in their desire to seize all savings for themselves... The concept of sacrilege is therefore a safeguarding and conserving force. Without it all resources are open to pillage -- a fact of which we, heirs to the Enlightenment, are acutely aware.' [Roger Scruton. Modern Culture.]

Words, words, words...

2005-06-27T22:52:00.000-04:00

I am not sure how many of you are academically inclined, but if you are I recently ran across a really neat website called CiteULike. This is a free service that helps you keep track of papers and citation information you find on the web. If you are like me, you have a long list of papers you want to read but probably never will, so your hard drive is cluttered with PDFs named "A Bayesian Methodology towards Automatic Ontology Mapping" or "Introduction to Social Network Methods." Well, this website helps you keep track of all these papers and their reference information.

The Sporting Life

2005-06-24T23:54:00.000-04:00

Recently I came across the website of the United States Croquet Association where you can look up official rules, club locations, and national rankings (yes they have rankings). You can also read a short history of the sport:

'Croquet as a public sport suffered a setback in the 1890's when the Boston clergy spoke out against the drinking, gambling, and licentious behavior associated with it on the Common.'

Of course some of us prefer the 'extreme' or 'cross country' croquet variety.

'Often called cross country croquet in Europe, extreme croquet is croquet on steroids. It can really be an outstanding challenge to any player. It is played not on lawns, but out in the wild. Easy courses can be layed out in a field, more challenging ones in a park. But to be a real afficianado, you have to take to the woods.'

Here is another 'extreme croquet' page, and they give the following rule called 'The Stump Rule' that I think should be more widely adopted:

'If a player's ball comes in contact with a tree stump, boulder, or other distinct object (i.e., not a dirt mound), that player has the option of placing the ball on top of that object on his or her next shot and teeing off. We recommend that they warn any other players in the vicinity with a courtesy shout of "fore!"'

'Haven't been gone very long, but it feels like a lifetime'

2005-06-23T21:23:00.000-04:00

1) So, the Summer Solstice was a couple days ago and so from now on the days will be getting shorter. I'll be sad to see them go. I suppose there is nothing to be done about it, though.

2) Some years ago, while in college, I constructed an elaborate joke where I did an allnighter for a class I wasn't in to do an assignment I was never given. The class was 'Creative Writing: Poetry', the assignment was a chapbook (mine was called 'coffee stains'), and the joke didn't do over too well (I don't think many people got it). Still I thought it was a good gag, and an okay book for a single night, and I printed a couple dozen copies and it is being made into a film. Unfortunately, I gave all my copies away. I want to revise some of them, so I was wondering: if any of you have a copy could you send me a photo copy? Or send it to me, I'll photocopy it, and then mail it back. Or you could transcribe the poems for me and email them to me. Or you can do nothing. Anything is just fine.

3) 5 Books I wouldn't mind reading over and over and over (unordered, not superlative): Annie's Holy the firm, Anna Karenina, Chatwin's In Pategonia, Vonnegut's Timequake, Merton's translation of Wisdom of the Desert.

Almost Summer

2005-06-16T18:57:00.000-04:00

In honor of the lengthening days, I've uploaded another one of my old songs for your downloading enjoyment. The tune is called 'Summer'[1].

Cheers.

------------------------------

[1] Not the cleverest song name ever. I know.

Summer Teeth

2005-06-14T19:16:00.000-04:00

A list for this hot summer evening:

1) About how many books do you own: ~1100 (Method: I counted bookshelf and multiplied by the number of shelves I have plus boxes in storage). [1]

2) Last book purchased: Grendel by John Gardner [2]

3) Last book finished: Pride and Prejudice. [3]

4) Five books I wish I could re-read for the first time (this is off the top of my head so gain of salt it. also, i cross posted it here): The Brothers Karamazov (Dostoevsky). The Wisdom of the Desert (Merton translation), The Sun Also Rises (Hemingway), One Hundred Years of Solitude (Garcia Marquez), Immortality (Kunera)

5) Book you are embarrassed to own: 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

---------------------------

[1] If you happen to want a bigger personal library and have thousands of dollars to throw around why not buy them all? (Thanks to my brother for this link).

[2] Technically this is a lie. I bought other books as well. I picked this one because it was the last I took off the shelf before checking out.

[3] Incidentally I used a letter sized envelope as a bookmark and wrote down every word I didn't know. Ended up filling both sides. Laugh if you want, but it's like you happen to know what connubial and panegyric mean?

Okay, Last Post on Depravity. I promise.

2005-06-09T17:02:00.000-04:00

More from C. S. Lewis [1]: "If God's moral judgment differs from ours so that our 'black' may be His 'white', we can mean nothing by calling Him good; for to say 'God is good', while asserting that His goodness is wholly other than ours, is really only to say 'God is we know not what'. And an utterly unknown quality in God cannot give us moral grounds for loving or obeying Him. If He is not (in our sense) 'good' we shall obey, if at all, only through fear--and should be equally ready to obey an omnipotent Fiend. The doctrine of Total Depravity--when the consequence is drawn that, since we are totally depraved, our idea of good is worth simply nothing--may thus turn Christianity into a form of devil-worship." [2]

------------------------

[1] Thanks go to Luke Tallent for the recommending the reference

[2] The Problem of Pain

A Summer Wasting

2005-06-08T23:39:00.000-04:00

I took time and it was a buzzer finnish, but I completed my entry in the Great Mike's Music Giveaway, and not a moment too soon. Unfortunately, I couldn't narrow it down to one disk. I hope I won't be disqualified...

M. R.[1] Mix: Disk The First: 'American Roots, Twigs, Fallen Leaves, and Petty Thievery"

1. Dry The Rain, The Beta Band
2. Failure, Kings Of Convenience
3. California Stars, Billy Bragg & Wilco
4. Feel Free, Jay Farrar
5. Cathedral 4 (The Unbreaking Branch And Song), Castanets
6. Radio Campaign, M. Ward
7. Handshake Drugs, Wilco
8. Don't Be Sad, Whiskeytown
9. Old Soul Song (For The New World Order), Bright Eyes
10. Outta My Head, M. Ward
11. Upward Over The Mountain, Iron & Wine
12. Look At Miss Ohio, Gillian Welch
13. Gone For Good, The Shins
14. In The Backseat, The Arcade Fire

M. R. Mix: Disk The Second: '"Without Fear of Wind or Vertigo"'

1. Diamond In Your Mind, Solomon Burke
2. A Summer Wasting, Belle & Sebastian
3. A Good Man Is Easy To Kill, Beulah
4. The Go In The Go-For-It, Grandaddy
5. Do the Whirlwind, Architecture In Helsinki
6. Big Boat, M. Ward
7. Race For The Prize (Remix), The Flaming Lips
8. The Book of Right-On, Joanna Newsom
9. Eighties Fan, Camera Obscura
10. Retrieval Of You, The Minus 5
11. The Soldiering Life, The Decemberists
12. Good Comrades Go To Heaven, Solex
13. Mayfly, Belle & Sebastian
14. Hey Joe, Tahiti 80
15. Questions, Papas Fritas
16. Parrallel Lines, Kings Of Convenience

[1] Note the ambiguous initials to keep the Recording Industry lawyers off the scent.

10 Books I Haven't Read

2005-06-07T18:14:00.000-04:00

Ten Books I Haven't Read (Unordered, Psuedo-Random [1]):

* The Lord of the Flies (Golding)
* The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Gibbon)
* Catcher and the Rye (Salinger)
* The Pickwick Papers (Dickens)
* The Aeneid (Virgil)
* Faust (Goethe)
* Portrait of a Lady (James)
* The Gulag Archipelago (Solzhenitsyn)
* Middlemarch (Eliot)
* As I Lay Dying (Faulkner)

We often talk about the books we've read, etc., but I thought I might give some equal time to the books I haven't read, as there are a great many more of them out there. Of course, I can't really say these are the "Top" books I haven't read without reading them and removing them from the list, so you'll have to be content with the books that came to mind this morning. Cheers.

Cosmology and Cosmetology

2005-06-05T20:54:00.000-04:00

1) Now and then most thinking Christians have to ask themselves "Am I a Calvanist?" [1]. If a person discovers that he or she is in fact a Calvinist, the person typically goes to work purchasing dark, plain clothing and starts to practice their frowning [2]. After asking the question recently and researching the subject, I found out with relief that I'm not a Calvinist. Indeed, if I had to choose I would be an Armenian before I would be a Calvinist, but I try my best to stay out of Dutch theological debates so luckily I don't have to make that choice [3]. Calvinism, to me, is like a man who goes to visit a great Cathedral, witnesses the Church grounds, the magnificent architecture, looks at the great artworks and stain glass, breathes in the incense, and listens to a large choir's beautiful polyphony, then returns home to describe passionately to his friends the Cathedral's dimensions to the centimeter, convinced that 175 X 100 yards sums it up neatly. If a fellow traveller tries to contradict him saying, "But what about the frescos? what about the alter?" the first might reply, "Fool! Do you doubt the accuracy of my measuring stick?!" In other words, Calvinism is a fantastic exercise in missing the point.

2) In other news, today I was actually able to use the sentence "Well, there is money in hair" successfully in conversation [4].

-----------------

[1] Of course this isn't the only or even most important question we sometimes have to ask. Other good ones are: "Should I be a Christian at all?", "Am I a Catholic and, if not, should I be?", and "If I stay up extremely late on Saturday night should I really go to Church the next morning as 11 is awfully early?"

[2] This new Calvinist might decide to develop some sort of acid reflux condition, but it isn't a requirement. Frequent impersonations of Mussolini are also optional.

[3] Speaking of the Dutch, I recently learned that a pneumonic acronym for the five points of Calvinism is TULIP. I prefer the flower.

[4] Okay, this doesn't relate at all but I have to say that the best line I've heard from a television show in years is from the show Arrested Development: "Say what you will about America, but $13 will still buy a hell of a lot of mice!"

An Ergonomics of Suspicion

2005-06-02T22:01:00.000-04:00

Writes C. S. Lewis[1]: 'No poem will give up its secret to a reader who enters it regarding the poet as a potential deceiver, and determined not to be taken in. We must risk being taken in, if we are to get anything. The best safeguard against bad literature is a full experience of good; just as a real and affectionate acquaintance with honest people gives a better protection against rogues than a habitual distrust of everyone.'

So. The difficulty is we have on one side those critics who try to unveil literature and other artwork[2] as really being something else (politics, gender, et cetera), and on the other those that dismiss it all as charlatanism. Right or left, the both make the same mistake, treating the artist as a deceiver. The interesting thing is that it works a little. But only a little, and if you learn a bit about art from your program, the drawback is that you destroy art in the process. Although it is possible to live in a world where everything is suspicious, containing some sinister hidden meaning, yet that is a pitiful world. You'll end up like Richard Nixon: stiff neck, embedded scowl. That's no way to live.

On the other hand, I am a very trusting person, and yet I can often be seen with a scowl. Further, the dentist says I grind my teeth. Ah well.

Cheers.

[1] An Experiment in Criticism. Ch 8.

[2] This is just as relevant to paintings as it is to poetry. Vonnegut wrote that he thought modern art was "a conspiracy by the rich to make poor people feel stupid." You'll have to read Breakfast of Champions to find out why he was wrong on that point. But you get a lot more enjoyment out of art if you take it on faith that the artist isn't a swindler. Perhaps realism is so important to some because it is an easy litmus test for deciding whether a piece of artwork is 'good'? We have to remember that in the history of art, Realism only makes a few cameo appearances.

Status Report

2005-06-01T20:16:00.000-04:00

Books Completed In May

War and Peace, Book One only (still a long way to go, but I am still working away at it)
An Experiment in Criticism, C. S. Lewis
The Very Short Poems of A. R. Ammons

Books Started in May

War and Peace, Book Two
The Lonely Guy, Bruce Jay Friedman
Pride and Prejudice, Austen

The Lewis and Friedman books are proof that I am getting better at reading books loaned to me, and the War and Peace proves it is easier to read a massive Russian novel when you have no day job; still I am confident I'll complete it (the last 50 pages will be tough, I'm sure). I've actually never read anything by Jane, but there was a Prof on NPR a week or so ago who was so enthusiastic I thought I should do my duty and read something. Good news: at used book stores, paperbacks are cheap at only a couple dollars, and you don't have to feel guilty about killing trees (if you happen to be inclined to that sort of guilt).

No Music this month because I forgot to reset my counts and anyway I am having synchronization troubles which I won't talk about on the grounds that it could incriminate me. I'll work all this out and give a fresh list next month...

Cheers.

Matt's Top 5 All Time Favorite Poets

2005-05-31T21:28:00.000-04:00

Matt's Top 5 All Time (English Language) Favorite Poets [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]

Emily Dickinson
T. S. Eliot
Gerard Manley Hopkins
Denise Levertov
William Carlos Williams

The suggested criteria for making a similar list if you choose to post your own: poets you keep coming back to over and over even though there other perfectly good poems or books or television programs you could be entertained by, whose poems seem to pop up all the time in your mind inexplicably[8]. Of course, you can use your own criteria. Perhaps you like people whose first name and last name are the same? Or maybe you only go for epics? You know best.

Cheers.

[1] I am trying out a new way of initiating side notes. Parentheticals get annoying after a while.

[2] 5 because I'd probably have a hard time coming up with 10 and remaining honest. For numbers 9 and 10, I would have to resort to flipping randomly through the Norton Anthology ("And who can forget John Milmot, Earl of Rochester!"). Still, I should probably give honorable mentions to Robert Frost and A. R. Ammons.

[3] Yeah, I know: very 20th Cent. But honestly, if I had said Shakespeare or Donne or Shelley no one would believe me. And rightly so: you should be happy I even read poetry.

[4] Yeah, I also know these are pretty much all safe ones. So it goes.

[5] These are ordered by Alphabet only.

[6] Notice the adjective "Favorite" is used over "Best": No value judgments are intended or implied.

[7] Confined to English sadly, because I am an American, and English is the only language I speak, and translation is cheap. Even, say, Basho just isn't the same.

[8] At this point you might take into account quantity. For instance, I am always humming Elizabeth Bishop's One Art, Amiri Baraka's Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note, and who hasn't seen fit to mumble lines from Howl when one is feeling particularly down and out? But these are isolated incidents (due to ignorance on my part perhaps) and so these fine poets don't make the cut.

Silent Films

2005-05-29T13:25:00.000-04:00

[Editor's Note: this is a post from months ago which I was planning to expound upon and edit. I never will, but I think you might be interested in the subject. Just imagine some pretentious crap at the end about film being a primarily visual medium. Cheers.]

Even though it is annoying, it shouldn't be surprising that so many good young directors started out in the music video racket (I'm thinking of Michel Gondry and Spike Jonze. Are there others?). Of course, this is all anecdotal and admittedly there have been some awful movies from music video directors, but I think the reason is that music videos, the good ones anyway, are essentially short silent films. The Beastie Boys are just organists. That's the reason I think Gondry and Jonze are so good (well, that and an insane writer named Charlie).

All this is as a way to introduce two great movies I saw over the weekend (thank's to my friends at the C. Burr Artz Public Library, which has an amazingly well-stocked DVD section): Tati's "Mon Oncle" and Jules Dassin's "Rififi." Both are French, from various parts of the 1950's, have held up extremely well over the past fifty years, and have very long parts with no dialog. Both of them put into practice what everyone knows about movies: if you show us something interesting, you don't have to tell us also.

"Mon Oncle" is one of those charming French comedies that some of can't get enough of. Basically, it is about the clash of modern and traditional society, with hilarious results, but no plot: mostly a series of vignettes about a boy whose parents are gadget-crazy philistine bores, and whose uncle is an eccentric character always smoking a pipe and never keeping a steady job. It's basically Charlie Chaplin if Chaplin was French and made movies in the post war era.

The story behind "Rififi" is the old Local Boy Makes Good. More precisely: Local B-Movie Director Gets Blacklisted And Moves To Europe Where, Down On His Luck, On The Cheap, And Without Pesky Studio Executives To Mess With His Film, Creates The Greatest Heist Movie Ever Made. And I'm not kidding: it really is the greatest heist film ever made. The most interesting part is the half hour with no dialog and no score when the robbery takes place. Brilliant? Yes. Do you care that no one is talking? Nope. Do you care that there isn't any music? Not at all. If you're local library or Netflix has this movie, I suggest you see it (It's a Criterion DVD so it probably would be expensive otherwise).

Places to go on the Internet...

2005-05-27T00:26:00.000-04:00

1) For those of you who own PCs, you may want to participate in the World Community Grid. Most of the time our computers sit around doing nothing. This program let's you donate your computers idle time for (humanitarian) scientific research. There are other programs like this out there, but I think this one is good because it has the United Way and the ACM behind it. Sadly, they have no plans to add Mac support anytime soon.

2) Here is an interesting column my brother sent me about terror alerts. I am not sure how reputable the source is, but I wouldn't put it past the Bush administration. Other than the two "uses" of the alert system mentioned in the column (to protect the administration's ass if another attack happens, and to keep people afraid and voting republican), I'll add one more: it gives something for the alarmist graphic designers at the cable news chanels to put on their marquees.

3) Time Magazine has dreamt up a top 100 Movie list. It is interesting the choices they made. It was strange that they pick the Purple Rose of Cairo over Annie Hall or Manhattan, and Psycho over Vertigo or Rear Window. I was pleasantly surprised that they included the Decalogue (not the Three Colors though), City of God, The Lady Eve, and Day for Night. Good Grief, though, The Lord of the Rings? Drunken Master II? And no Spike Lee? What were they thinking?

Also worth reading are the email comments (someone was mad because "the Lion King" wasn't on the list! Well, I guess it takes all kinds...)

The Big Sea

2005-05-20T18:29:00.000-04:00

Regardless of where you stand in the political spectrum, it is always nice to see a Senator be publicly put in his place. Congress, these days, seems to be becoming increasingly self-righteous and arrogant. So, this past week Norm Coleman, in an investigation with regards to Oil-for-food scandal, called UK MP George Galloway before his committee. Senator Coleman came out looking like a prize fool.

Here is a transcript of Galloway's prepared remarks

My favorite parts:

'As a matter of fact, I have met Saddam Hussein exactly the same number of times as Donald Rumsfeld met him. The difference is Donald Rumsfeld met him to sell him guns and to give him maps the better to target those guns. I met him to try and bring about an end to sanctions, suffering and war, and on the second of the two occasions, I met him to try and persuade him to let Dr Hans Blix and the United Nations weapons inspectors back into the country - a rather better use of two meetings with Saddam Hussein than your own Secretary of State for Defense made of his.'

And:

'I told the world that Iraq, contrary to your claims did not have weapons of mass destruction. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to al-Qaeda. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to the atrocity on 9/11 2001. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that the Iraqi people would resist a British and American invasion of their country and that the fall of Baghdad would not be the beginning of the end, but merely the end of the beginning.

'Senator, in everything I said about Iraq, I turned out to be right and you turned out to be wrong and 100,000 people paid with their lives; 1600 of them American soldiers sent to their deaths on a pack of lies; 15,000 of them wounded, many of them disabled forever on a pack of lies.'

If John Kerry had spoken half as well or shown half the convictions as this, he have been president.

In Praise of Criticism

2005-05-19T18:07:00.000-04:00

I have been looking forward to the reviews of the new Star Wars much more than the movie itself, but so far the reviews have been uninteresting. Luckily we have the New Yorker, and Anthony Lane doesn't disappoint.

Here are my favorite bits:

'The general opinion of “Revenge of the Sith” seems to be that it marks a distinct improvement on the last two episodes, “The Phantom Menace” and “Attack of the Clones.” True, but only in the same way that dying from natural causes is preferable to crucifixion.'

'what’s with the screwy syntax? Deepest mind in the galaxy, apparently, and you still express yourself like a day-tripper with a dog-eared phrase book. “I hope right you are.” Break me a fucking give.'

'it takes a vulgarian genius such as Lucas to create a landscape in which actions can carry vast importance but no discernible meaning, in which style is strangled at birth by design, and in which the intimate and the ironic, not the Sith, are the principal foes to be suppressed. It is a vision at once gargantuan and murderously limited, and the profits that await it are unfit for contemplation.'

And yet, I will go see it eventually. Hey: every once in a while we all want to indulge in a "tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." Don't you think?

The Medium is the... uh next slide please

2005-05-17T22:09:00.000-04:00

1) Ahh. The NPR pledge drive starts tomorrow. What am going to do with myself?

2) Although I am not a prolific public speaker, I've done my share of presentations and talks, and I've seen my share of them also. Almost without exception I've found that the best talks are done without PowerPoint and the worst talks are done with it. The only way I am able to give a speech with PowerPoint (in situations where there is no way out of it) is to fill the slides with jokes and references to literature and then speak on other matters.

Here is a good article by Peter Norvig on why PowerPoint is so bad. This article is right on, and also has the advantage of being brief.

Referenced in that article is an other aptly title article: Is PowerPoint the devil? from the Chicago Tribune.

'What sort of world is reflected in PowerPoint? A world stripped down to briefly summarized essences, a world snipped clean of the annoying underbrush of ambiguity and complication. But is that the world in which we want to live?'

PowerPoint is getting harder and harder to avoid, but for those of you have been able to avoid it: consider yourselves lucky.

Possible Mathematical Definition of Poetry?

2005-05-16T20:38:00.000-04:00

(Sound > Sight > Trope > Metaphor > Subject)

AND

(Sound = Sight = Trope = Metaphor = Subject)

This is how the Giveaway ends...

2005-05-15T23:38:00.000-04:00

This is how the Great Matt's Blog War and Peace Giveaway ends not with a bang, but with a wimper. I was about to give the final book away to my old friend Rew (I had gleaned the books from all the used book stores in town), before I realized to my shock and amazment that the final book had a section missing and, indeed, started on page 56. Oh, Lost! And by the wind greived ghost come back again!

What can one do? No more books to give away. The Count Bezukhov society is on hold until next year. Dear reader, don't worry. I will make this giveaway a yearly event. And even though only four people were winners, they did win big. Thank you to everyone who participated.

Unasked Questions (UAQ) -or- Right ho, Truffaut!

2005-05-11T19:39:00.000-04:00

Q: Have you heard any good quotes of late?

A: How about:

'I begin a film believing it will be amusing -- and along the way I notice that only sadness can save it.'
-Truffaut

'People say, "I dislike rhyme. It won't let me say what I want
to say." I answer, "Yes! You've got it! That's what's great about it!"'
- X. J. Kennedy

Q: Say, isn't there a Criterion version of Jules et Jim now?

A: Yes.

Q: I have a lot of time on my hands and I wish read the works of Chesterton. Unfortunately, I have no cash. What can I do?

A: Hey, Presto:
http://www.dur.ac.uk/martin.ward/gkc/books/index.html

Q: Where did you get that Kennedy quote and where can I read more about his excellent collection of Poetry "The Lords of Misrule"??

A: Answer.

Q: Have you heard any interesting news about theater?

A: Yes, actually. August Wilson has completed his 20th Century cycle and the final play opened last week. I wonder what he'll be working on next? Here is a review from the New York Times. Here's one from the New Yorker.

Q: So, I isn't funny how our Big Brothers in the senate will vote for anything that even remotely relates to terrorism.

A: Yes, (sarcasticly) thanks congress for spending 300 billion on Bush's war and de facto national identity cards thrown in! And no debate. Amazing what they are calling democracy these days.

Five May Aught Five

2005-05-05T18:49:00.000-04:00

Today is an important day:

The Feast of the Ascension

Holocaust Rememberance Day

Cinco de mayo

Bevrijdingsdag (The Netherlands' Liberation Day)

I guess these cover the best and worst of humanity.

It's also the Liberation day for Denmark and Ethiopia, Europe Day, and Japan's Children's Day. Plus, it's election day in the UK.

That's a lot for one day.

Accounting for Everything

2005-05-03T22:13:00.000-04:00

1) How did we do this past month?

Books Read in April
"Very Good, Jeeves", P. G. Wodehouse
"Right Ho, Jeeves", P. G. Wodehouse
"Code of the Woosters", P. G. Wodehouse
"Mulliner Nights", P. G. Wodehouse
"Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves", P. G. Wodehouse
"Art History: A Very Short Introduction", ??

Books Started in April
"Blink", Malcolm Gladwell
"War and Peace", Lev

Notes: Ever read anything by Wodehouse? Why not? Also, the only reason I am reading Blink (which is currently out in Hardback), is because I found an advanced proof copy in paperback at the used bookstore. We've already gone over Tolstoy a lot, so no need to get into it here.

2) I found out ipod/itunes keeps a running total of "Top 25 Most Played." So file this under what i've been listening to:
1. "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)", The Arcade Fire
2. "Wake Up", The Arcade Fire
3. "Neighborhood #2 (Laika)", The Arcade Fire
4. "A Summer Wasting", Belle & Sebastian
5. "Une Annee Sans Lumiere", The Arcade Fire
6. "Happy New Year", Camera Obscura
7. "Homesick", Kings Of Convenience
8. "Crown Of Love", The Arcade Fire
9. "Slung-lo", Erin McKeown
10. "Eighties Fan", Camera Obscura
11. "Passing Afternoon", Iron & Wine
12. "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)", The Arcade Fire
13. "Do You Realize??", The Flaming Lips
14. "Haiti", The Arcade Fire
15. "Rebellion (Lies)", The Arcade Fire
16. "Such Great Heights", The Postal Service
17. "Portions For Foxes", Rilo Kiley
18. "Vincent O'Brien", M. Ward
19. "The Group Who Couldn't Say", Grandaddy
20. "Bird Stealing Bread", Iron & Wine
21. "We Are Nowhere And It's Now", Bright Eyes
22. "Houseboat", Camera Obscura
23. "Decent Days And Nights", The Futureheads
24. "The Book of Right-On", Joanna Newsom
25. "It's A Hit", Rilo Kiley

An idea for a short idea

2005-05-02T22:57:00.000-04:00

From Williams: 'only one man--like a city." The city: a railroad town, in the days when railroads meant something, and there was room for growth. The man: a beggar, blind from birth, who sits in the railroad station. He gets money for travelers, enough to get by, but mostly he receives stories, because for some reason people tend to confess things to him.

Now: it is impossible to trust our own memories. Haven't you ever realized while restlessly flipping through some old books that a cherished childhood memory was actually lifted from a novel? And towns forget also. So, as the years go by the man forgets that he has lived his life as a poor beggar and annexes so many of the traveler's memories as his own, both the most shameful regrets and the stunning redemptive successes. And the town, which has grown into a small city, generations come and gone, has also forgotten and has grown to see him as its most worldly and wise, most revered and respected citizen.

Some possibilities:

1) As an allegory for the life of the mind.
2) As the framing story for a novel, the main narrative being the man's urgent confessions as he nears the end of his life.

Et cetera

2005-04-28T22:19:00.000-04:00

1) No less than 3 people have have signed up for the Great War and Peace Giveaway, so far. Okay, exactly 3 people. And their books are on the way. I've bought up all the usable War and Peaces in town, so there are more to go around. Hey, if this goes well, maybe I should start up a society called "The Count Bezukhov Society" whose vocation is to put a War and Peace in every hotel in North America... And who is Count Bezukhov? Here is how to find out.

2) Personally, I think that copyrights are a bad business. While ostensibly encouraging art, they actually encourage the art industry (two very different animals). And the movie, music, and publishing industries haven't been doing us many favors in recent decades. Now, rather than focusing on making quality products, they have taken to suing college students. However, if you are going to have intellectual property laws, you should at least be consistent about it. Enter a Republic Congress. A recent bill has been signed by the President that allows companies to sell sanitized "filters" for DVDs which automatically cut out material that might be objectionable. Okay: this is very very dangerous. There was a time when black performances were cut out of films when they were shown in the south, because people there found them "objectionable." There was a time when classic novels were sanitized for public school libraries.

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/movies/ny-ettel4232774apr26,0,932653.story

Here is a novel concept: If you don't want you kids watching a movie, don't let them watch it! Take some responsibility. There are plenty of movies out there that don't need to be cut up in order to be seen by kids. I'd suggest you make your kids read the Bible instead, but you may have a lot of crossing out to do...

Still I would have no problem with this law, if congress went ahead and made all copyrights illegal (i would question the ethics of the companies who made the filters, and the maturity of the parents who purchased them, but they would still have the legal right to screw up their children). As it happened, this is a losing scenario for everyone involved.

3) Here is an interesting article about the rise of right wing media.

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2005/042805.html

I actually don't get how people are taken in by the right's garbage media. I saw part of a Bill O'Reilly tv show a little while ago and I was shocked at how bad it was. I mean even setting aside his politics: his tone was patronizing and arrogant; his ideas were trite; his debates were superficial and unhelpful. And let's face it: if you have to mention how fair and balanced and intelligent you are every other sentence, you either have a very extreme self esteem problem or you are try to hide that you have nothing useful to say. In this case, I suspect it's a little of both. At any rate, the Right's Media machine would be merely pathetic if it wasn't so dangerous. Hey, America: these emperors are stark naked, and they're robbing you blind.

Oh boy, Tolstoy!

2005-04-26T20:19:00.000-04:00

When I graduated from college four years ago, what followed (there was a recession, you'll remember) was four months of having no money but all the time in the world. I took the opportunity to read just about the entire cannon of Russian novels, so I consider that summer time well spent. Poverty has its good and bad points. What happened was that in Sept. 2001 I got a very nice job and terrorists smashed airplanes into the New York skyline.

So, it has been four years now and to celebrate being out of college longer than I was in it (and also my recent completion of graduate school), I am dusting off that old War and Peace paperback and rereading it. Now, I know what you are asking yourselves: what does this have to do with me? The answer is, I am pleased to announce:

The Great Matt's Blog War and Peace Give Away

I will send you your very own copy of War and Peace if you can figure out a riddle. The riddle is, 'Send your mailing address to Matt.' So what is my email address? If you already know it, then this a really easy riddle. Otherwise, here is a hint:

Matthew Dot L Dot Reed At GMail Dot Com

There are a few rules and caveats...
1) I am allowed to discontinue the contest at anytime and for any reason.
2) If for some reason I decide not to send you a book, even though you figured out the riddle and everything, well too bad.
3) I will send the book via US Mail, but that doesn't imply an endorsement of the US government.
4) I will very likely send a used book and probably a paperback.
5) If I've already given you a copy of War and Peace (you know who you are), I'll only send you another one if you can convince me that the one I already gave you has been lost or stolen.
6) You have to at least try to read it.
7) It is okay if you skip the sections where he goes into rather dry philosophy of history.
8) All books are given 'AS IS.' Okay, I don't know what that means either, but if for some reason your book arrives broken or contains anthrax or something, you can't sue me.

Cheers.

"No one ever died for the ontological argument"

2005-04-21T21:51:00.000-04:00

Today is the feast day of St. Anselm (1033/4 - 1109), Archbishop of Canterbury 1093-1109, Doctor of the Catholic Church, intellectual giant.

Anselm is credited (among other things) for developing the Ontological Argument for the existence of God, which happens to be the wittiest, most paradoxical, and most profound argument for the existence of God (although it wasn't named Ontological until later, by Kant I believe). Further, all traditional arguments for the existence of God rely on the ontological argument. It is the last line of defense; if it is invalid (as modern logic says) then there goes the ball-game (if the ball game is Certainity of the Existence of God).

Breifly stated it goes something like this (simplified of course and I don't know the complexities): We will call God 'something than which nothing greater can be conceived' (from Boethius). Now every attribute of God must of the greatest conceivable quality. Now consider the attribute of "existence." Since a being who is "nonexistent" is not as great as one who is "existant," it follows that God must be existent, or else there would have to be something greater and we could conceive, which would contradict our definition. [See Blackburn's excellent "Dictionary of Philosophy, from OUP]

Ridiculous, right? Well the interesting part comes when we consider the other tradition approaches to proving God's existence. Take "Design", which is very popular these days among certain red state school boards. Basically: the complexity of the natural word implies that a designer had to do the dirty work. Seems reasonable, right? Now think: what does this get us? It doesn't prove anything. Instead, it gives us a an Idea of a Designer, but it doesn't get us a Designer. To get from the concept of God to God Himself, we need something more. We need, hey presto, the Ontological Argument. [A side note: This argument from design is an interesting one, because it isn't an all that great argument, even if it is a beautiful idea. As science, it is pure balderdash. And as philosophy, it has been roundly demolished by Hume and Kant. As religion, it is only helpful when we work backwards: If we take it as a given that there is a Good God and he is the Creator of the world, than Creation and it's design has an importance than it might otherwise not have.]

Too bad that, while it is insanely beautiful, the Ontological Argument doesn't hold water (from a "Certainty" perspective). But, guess what? That's okay. Uncertainty isn't the worst thing in the world.

Anyway, I'm glad Anselm existed.

Information on St. Anselm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Anselm
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01546a.htm

Information on the Ontological Argument
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontological_argument
http://www.formalontology.it/ontological_proof.htm

[This is just a general disclaimer that goes with everything I write. I could be way off. I am not wedded to my writing or my ideas. I'm a natural born flip-flopper. If you feel I am (especially if you know that I've made a logical or historical error), please let me know! I'm wrong a lot.]

Life's Two Certainties: Death and Context Free Grammars (or something like that)

2005-04-18T18:16:00.000-04:00

1) On death: A great article on Iraq by one of the Terrys from Monty Python, courtesy of my brother.

2) On Context Free Grammars: Okay, this one's a longshot, but some among you may find this interesting: simple rules governing the development of complex designs. This guy made up the language that generates really neat looking pictures. My favorite are the trees:

http://chriscoyne.com/cfdg/page2.php

Questions

2005-04-16T09:48:00.000-04:00

Okay, I've got two questions.

1) I just bought a Diet Pepsi and won a free i-Tunes download. So. What should I get? Anyone have any suggestions?

2) There has been a (petite) controversy of late (sorry i don't have a link, the book was about food i think) about a memoirist who used fictional devices in her book. Some people would then call it fiction (me too, but I also call it "who cares?"). Anyway, the questions is: why would anyone want to write a memoir when they could write an autobiographical novel instead? Is it that idiotic tendency in our culture to equate Fact with Truth??

The Game of Plato

2005-04-13T17:26:00.000-04:00

The Game of Plato is easy to play and is a shore-fire deliverer of seconds (if not minutes) of enjoyment. It was invented by my old friend Bill and myself a few years back. The a game is for any number of players above one (although I suppose you could play it solitaire if you felt like talking to yourself). The rules:

1) Each person gets a turn and each turn consists of the following:

a. The player pick a intellectual figure at random (or not at random, the player's judgment here is required).
b. The player then picks a word or phase or understandable non-sensible device of some recognition that has a sort of poetic relationship with the word picked in step a (use your discretion when picking the trope: rhyme, alliteration, et cetera: all is fair game; but, you should try for the most funny and, or if funny is impossible, the most relevant relationship).
c. Say a and b together with an exclamation point.

2) Repeat until a player is stumped and then the other players mock him or her by saying "Read a book Moron!" Then they laugh at and with the stumped player.

3) It is good form to start of with 'Way to go, Plato!' and 'Gobble gobble, Aristotle!' These are freebees.

Example:
Person A: Way to go, Plato!
Person B: Gobble gobble, Aristotle!
Person A: And how, Chairman Mao!
Person B: Girl Power, Schopenhauer!
Person A: I say, Hemingway!
Person B: Um, Er. Well. Something like...
Person A: Read a book, Moron! (ha ha ha ha)
Person B (ashamed but nonetheless pleased): ha ha. You really got me there. I didn't see that old Earnest coming. Good show. ha-a.

And so on.

Enjoy!

Letter to a Young Googlist

2005-04-13T17:17:00.000-04:00

When I want to find general information about something online (for instance, Daylight Saving Time or Robert Browning), I don't usually go to Google first. For general information, I perfer wikis to searches:
1) Wikipedia for instance is a free encyclopedia with a very non-elitist view on stories.
2) Wikinfo is similar but with a slightly different philosophy.
3) Answers.com is nice because it includes information from a number of sites like dictionaries and encyclopedias

Now, these things have been criticized because there is no gate keeper and other reasons. Basically, the way they work is if you have something to add or change, you can add or change it. Typically, there are moderators to keep the crazy stuff out. Also, there is typically discussions for each article where people can voice concern about content and objectivity, etc. (Still, just in case, I have a copy of the Encyclopedia Britannica on my laptop. It's pretty cheap, actually).

If serious research is in you line, here are a couple google sites you may like to know about:
1) Google Scholar which lets you search citations and scholarly papers.
2) They are also sitting around and scanning books that can be searched and read at Google Print.

A lot of researcher and acedemic types are making there papers available for free online. You just need to know where to look. For instance, here is a neat page for all of you (any of you?) who are interested in the Cognitive Sciences (Neurology, Psychology, AI, etc.) I am sure there are others like it for other fields.

If you want to find a rare book, alibris is a good place to look.

Life as a Zero Sum Game

2005-04-12T21:11:00.000-04:00

"The year's at the spring
And day's at the morn;
Morning's at seven;
The hill-side's dew-pearled
The lark's on the wing;
The snail's on the thorn;
God's in his Heaven -
All's right with the world!" (Robert Browning)

It is about this time that the world, with her classic sense of humor, pulls an old ashes-ashes-all-fall-down. After all, the weather can't be this nice without making some other parts of the day worse to compensate. In this case, I feel lucky. But I am getting ahead of myself. Let me draw your attention to the salient facts:

1) A sunny warm Sunday late morning.
2) Somewhere near the town of Amaranth, PA near the Maryland border on home stretch from a visit to State College. Note the Biblical name of the town, sounds like a humble village with high-place near Ur.
3) Two flat tires simultaneously, inexplicably. A half empty spare, which wouldn't matter anyway considering aforementioned tires, but still insult to injury. (and of course anyway the flat spare was my own fault. still.)
4) Only two bars left on the cell phone power (Although, I will point out to frequent and observant said cell phone that had been lost was found after only a mere two weeks of being lost).

I'll spare you the details of the upshot of these facts, but suffice it to say it involved several hundred dollars and 6 hours and a sunburned left arm. So it goes.

And so it went. And yet:
5) A online order seemingly lost in the mail. Yes, the Godfather DVD Collection and new John Vanderslice and Les Sans Culottes albums may be gone for ever.
6) A positively horrendous awful week in the day job department. (And it is only Tuesday!)

What's next?? The mind boggles.

So-called 'German Engineering' and other thoughts on Globalization

2005-04-07T20:08:00.000-04:00

1) Writes Alan Watts(1951)* in his 'The Wisdom of Insecurity':

'I have always been fascinated by the law of reversed effort. Sometimes I call it the "backwards law." When you try to stay on the surface of the water, you sink; when you try to sink you float. When you hold your breath you lose it--which immediately calls to mind an ancient and much neglected saying, "Whosoever would save his soul shall lose it."'

He goes on:
'...insecurity is the result of trying to be secure, and..., contrariwise, salvation and sanity consist in the most radical recognition that we have no way of saving ourselves.'

Why do I bring this up, today? Two recent news headlines reminded me of this quote:
a. Currently there are a bunch of reactionary nit-wits prancing around the Southwest calling themselves Minutemen (historical note: the Minutemen they are alluding to were a revolutionary terrorist, er, insurgent group that fought the British occupation a couple centuries ago. I believe they were called 'Minutemen' because while at war they swore by Instant Rice and gobbled it up at every opportunity).
b. Starting in 07 we will need passports when returning from Canada.

'Freedom' continues to march on.

2) Did you know that Nora Jones is half Indian? I honestly had no idea. Turns out her father is world famous Sitarist Ravi Shankar. Twenty years ago today Ravi Shankar taught the Beatles to play (the sitar). Actually probably a lot longer than twenty years...

3) As the price of oil continues to be close to record levels, I have one thing to say to my fellow Americans who drive SUVs: Hahahaahahahaha aha. Asses. Also, visit this hilarious web site.

4) Here is a good example of how small the world continues to grow: The other week on (American) National Public Radio there was a story about the Turkish population living in Germany. It was followed by a brief part of the song Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels) by The Arcade Fire an excellent group based in Montreal, Canada and sing in both English and French although the main chap in the band is from Texas. Further, the very next song on that album "Neighborhood #2 (Laika)" is a song about (at least partially) a Russian dog which traveled into outer space (and the song is the group's single in Britain). [Editor's note: Go buy this CD right now. What are you waiting for?] I listened to this NPR story on a Japanese radio in a German car. Don't buy a German car. Sure they are nice to drive, but when time to get something repaired they guzzle dollars like there is no tomorrow.

* his age when he wrote the book. You can't step into the same river twice.

Springtide

2005-04-04T19:00:00.000-04:00

I have a difficult time sticking to books in the winter and I am generally more concerned with getting through the season in one piece. Reading is just a bit too high up on old Maslow's Hierarchy at least in the colder months, though I confess that even in the spring time I am rather far from self-actualization, but what can one do? At least I can read again and I'm very happy to have had the opportunity to go from Puzo to Wodehouse. First, early springtime isn't the time for heavy literature (like Dostoyevsky, say, or Mann). Second, they're fast, light reads that go well together despite being complete opposites.

From The Godfather I was left with the following impressions:
1) For whatever its merits, the book was not as good as the movie
2) Examining my life, I doubt that Vito would have anything approving to say about it
3) On the other hand, for all my faults--and I will note in passing that I have more than few faults--I have never committed murder.

The Jeeves books were funny and pleasant and clever, and of course I found myself sympathizing with the narrator, because like Bertie Wooster I am always landing in the soup. There are some key differences between the two of us though:
1) Unfortunately, unlike him I don't have a sagely servant to solve all my problems
2) Also unfortunately I am not one of the idyll rich. A drawback.

And so forth. Et cetera.

Spring Forward

2005-04-03T23:09:00.000-04:00

I dare say there couldn't be a more rotten event than the Spring Daylight Savings Time observance. I still haven't recovered. Note that this post comes one hour late. Blast.

'Our Aspirations Are Wrapped Up In Books' (Semi-Weekly Roundup April One 2005)

2005-04-01T17:31:00.000-05:00

1) You will be happy to note that I'm not posting an April Fools joke.
2) Well the year is a quarter over, if you can believe it. Anyway, I've started keeping strict accounts of the sorts of media I've been ingesting, but I didn't keep track of all of March, so this should be more accurate in the future (Note: I am leaving out technical books I have to read for work):

Books Read, March 2005 (Semi-Ordered by Time)
"Plato: A Very Short Introduction." Annas, Julia.
"Galapagos." Vonnegut, Kurt.
"The Godfather." Puzo, Mario
"The Inimitable Jeeves." Wodehouse, P. G.

Books Started Not Yet Finished, March 2005
"Aristotle: A Very Short Introduction." ?? (lost it at the gym)
"Art History: A Very Short Introduction." ?? (almost done. i read these great little books while riding fake bicycles)
"The Lamb's Supper." Hahn, Scott. (I'm borrowing this one from a colleague, and I really need to finish it and return it. It's an interesting book on Eschatology and Liturgy. Though a bit heavy on puns for my taste.)
"Orthodoxy." Chesterton, G. K. (almost done)
"Rembrandt." Bockemühl, Michael

3) A good Wodehouse passage:

'...For do you realize, Jeeves, that my aunt says I mustn't smoke while I'm here?'
'Indeed, sir?'
'Nor drink.'
...
'Too bad, sir. However, many doctors, I understand, advocate such abstinence as the secret of health. They say it promotes a freer circulation of the blood and insures the arteries against premature hardening.'
'Oh, do they? Well, you can tell them next time you see them that they are silly asses.'
'Very good, sir.'

4) I definitely prefer the British way of starting with single quotes rather than double quotes. It certainly makes more logical sense.

Some Notes on Socialism

2005-03-28T22:13:00.000-05:00

[Note: Recently I was asked, albeit as a joke, if I was ever a member of the Communist Party. As it is a fair question and no doubt and edifying question as well, I thought I'd post my answer for the community to read]

Books stores, especially the big ones, a really hilarious places to visit, and I am surprised more people don't go for their inherent comedic value alone. For instance, at the local Borders here in Frederick, the Philosophy section to nestled nicely between the Linguistics section (which is quite small) and the sex section (which is fairly extensive). You often get to see very funny juxtapositions like Rawl's Theory of Justice displayed proudly beside The Idiots Guide to the Perfect Orgasm. Also, just about every History book in trade paperback is about how something or other changed the world. Examples: The Irish, the Greeks, the Scots, the American Women’s Soccer team. Some things about the bookstore are funny in a sad way. People still buy books by people like Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter. I doubt the buyers of these books know how to read, but I have to admit the books are so ridiculous and inane that I am glad they are in print. In a couple decades folks will laugh their head of off. For instance, there is this great quote from a Middle Age Crusader (Someone The Pious), who boasted that he never attacked nuns unless it was provoked.

This past weekend I was in the Latin American history section and saw a funny book titled something like "Fidel's Hollywood" which was written to expose one of the most important scandals in American History: some movie execs kinda like Castro. A quote on the back called this scandal "The Left's 'Abu Ghraib'." I'm not making this up. Well, one of the sections was a spirited criticism of Che Guevara (an actual section title: "Motorcycle Bore"). The main argument seemed to be that the movie "Motorcycle Diaries" didn't point out that Che wasn't a very good General. Thanks, guys.

But all this leads to some important questions, actually, and I will answer them in a convenient Q & A format:

Q. Did you see the movie "Motorcycle Diaries"? If so, did you enjoy the picture?
A. I did see it (not in the theater, sadly). I liked it quite a bit.

Q. So then you are a socialist like Robert Redford and the rest of those nit-wit commies in California?
A. I am not a socialist. And I happen to think Robert Redford is a very intelligent and talented actor and filmmaker. I thought Quiz Show was pretty good.

Q. So, I guess you are not a socialist because socialism is impractical?
A. On the contrary, practicality has nothing to do with it. I'm a little embarrassed that you asked this question.

Q. Well, then, would you mind telling us why you are not a socialist?
A. Certainly. I am against socialism for at least three reasons:

Matt's All Time Top 3 Reason for Not Being a Socialist

1. In my lifetime there have been four (okay, five) US presidents and every single one of them has committed outrageous abuses of power which often involved dropping expensive bombs on innocent people or selling expensive weapons to poor countries to help them destroy other poor countries or destroy that country’s own citizens. The Federal Government has also been the number one polluter in our nation’s history, and has repeatedly abused its police powers. It also happily executes its own citizens. Just recently, our current President has admitted to using government funded propaganda against American citizens. And get this: we supposedly live in a Democracy. Do I want to give our government (or any government) still more power? Not if I can help it.
2. I don't believe that just because you are against the crimes and abuses of major corporations, you must necessarily be for the crimes and abuses of the federal government.
3. There are some subtle moral issues regarding Liberty and the justifications for government sovereignty. Personally, I think a solution might be found by reassessing what we mean by Liberty in light of Wittgenstein’s private language argument, or rather, to use the Private Language problem as a template for investigating individual Liberty. Who knows?

Q. Who cares?
A. Touché.

Q. You are always criticizing. Don't you have anything positive to say?
A. Um.

Q. And by the way, how can you say you are against corporations when you work for one almost every day?
A. That's easy: I'm a hypocrite.

Q. Aren't we all? Well, that satisfies me. Wanna get a drink?
A. Cheers.

One way to be for Christianity is to be against what passes for it*

2005-03-23T20:55:00.000-05:00

1) My brother sent me a link to a great article about the Left Behind series, "a twelve-novel extravaganza combining a blandly paranoid worldview with crackpot theology to produce a form of biblical infotainment." Admit it: you've thought the same thing. Doesn't it feel good to have someone write it? Here are some of my favorite parts:

- 'In America, of course, with commercial success comes a degree of cultural respectability. If millions of consumers succumb to a childish revenge fantasy that takes the Christ out of Christianity and treats the Bible as a cosmic Daily Racing Form, we dare not scoff at the merchandise.'

- 'Today it reads like very bad literary criticism, although it’s admittedly tempting to admire the sheer ingenuity of a biblical “system” that turns Beelzebub into a “peacenik” and Jesus Christ into a bloody-handed avenger.'

- 'By no means are all, or even most, evangelical Christians comfortable seeing their faith turned into fortune-telling. Rossing[a theology professor] quotes an array of contemporary theologians who reject what one disapprovingly describes as “this perverse parody of John 3:16: ‘God so loved the world that he sent it World War III.’” As noisy zeal overwhelms more reasonable voices, however, the Left Behind hubbub strikes me as symptomatic of the degraded state into which American Puritanism has fallen.'

2) So, wisdom is proved by its children. And shouldn't art be considered children? Here's a fun game: match up the art of American Evangelicalism (of course, we'll have to use the term "art" very loosely to find candidates) vs. Catholicism. I am going to pick examples at random, but you can play along, too. I missed a lot. (Sorry, I don't have the strength to put in links). Here goes: Your local Mega-Church facility and parking lot vs. Sacre Coeur (or Notre Dame or St. Peter's Basilica). PowerPoint clipart vs. mosaics, frescos, and stain-glass. Thomas Kinkade vs. Cezanne (or Giotto or Any of the Mosaicists and Icon Painters or Grunewald or Michelangelo). Michael W. Smith vs. Mozart (or Josquin or Palestrina or J. C. Bach). The Left Behind Series vs. The Divine Comedy (or The Lord of the Rings, or the Canterbury Tales). Billy Graham vs. St. John Chrysostom (or St. Augustine or John Henry Newman). Mel Gibson (okay, it's tricky where to put this guy) vs. Any of the Evangelists. Dobson vs. Pascal (or Annie Dillard or Jacques Maritain or Thomas Merton or G. K. Chesterton or Dorothy Day). Frank Peretti vs. Flannery O’Connor (or Walker Percy or Andre Dubus or Graham Greene or David Lodge or Sigrid Undset). Grape Juice vs. Wine.

I can't think of any Evangelical poets. But just try to top Gerard Manley Hopkins, Thomas Merton, Denise Levertov, St. Francis of Assisi, and T. S. Eliot (okay, he was technically only Anglo-Catholic, but I think that counts. I guess Auden might count, too. Judges?)

3) Here's another game. Dream up a crazy theology (say, dispensationalism, invented in the late 1800s). Now, who do you think is closer to the truth: (the apostles AND the early fathers AND the Bishops of the Church Councils, the compilers of the Bible and the Creed AND the doctors of the Church AND St. Jerome, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, St Clare, and St. Francis of Assisi, and so on) OR (You)?? Fundamental to the concept of Tradition is the virtue of humility.

Cheers.

*With apologies to Wendell Berry for the title

Holy Week

2005-03-20T21:46:00.000-05:00

Today is the beginning of Holy Week. This weekend also marks the 2nd anniversary of the War in Iraq. Lord have mercy on us.

The following is a prayer attributed to Saint Francis of Assisi. I thought it might be apt.

Lord, make us instruments of your peace.
Where there is hatred let us sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is discord, union;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.

Grant that we may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are
born to eternal life.

Good News and Bad News

2005-03-16T19:10:00.000-05:00

First the bad news:

The president finally succeeded in getting funding for ANWR drilling with a thin 51 to 49 senate vote. It is a major victory for Bush, but (probably) a defeat for the American people. This sort of thing happens all the time: remember the missile defense shield?. Does anyone really think we need Cold War era nuclear weapons system? Especially after 9/11? Of course, not. But Bush dropped out of a major treaty and is spending something like 10 billion dollars a year on a crummy, outmoded piece of junk. Why? Hubris, maybe. Myopia? I don't know. But in 10 years and how many more billion we may get a few drops of oil from Alaska. Good grief. Anyway, it is largely symbolic, to make it look like he is doing something useful about our oil problem (as if a war wasn't enough?). Also, this is supposed to be a key part of his energy policy. Yes, that would be the energy policy that Enron dictated to Cheney.

A silver lining: 7 Republicans defected!

The good news:

The new Woody Allen movie might be worth watching.

David Denby (our old pal) writes in this week's Current Cinema:

[Compared to the last several Allen pictures] “Melinda and Melinda” is fuller, more intricate; it has monologues, party scenes, good moments for actors. And it’s emotionally more alive than anything Allen has done since “Sweet and Lowdown,” in 1999. I was absorbed in it, and I liked parts of it. And I wish to God it were better.

On the Apparent Immutability of the Self

2005-03-13T23:08:00.000-05:00

1) I've been feeling guilty about living so close to DC and not taking advantage of it, so I went to the National Museum of Art yesterday. I caught the exhibit on Rembrandt's late religious paintings. Excellent. I definitely would recommend it to anyone who is in the DC area. The only downside was that I missed an Agnes Varda movie that was showing at the Art Museum that I didn't learn about until I was on the subway home.

2) Agnes Varda is still making films! Can you believe it? You should thank her by going out and renting Cleo from 5 to 7.

3) I wrote my first letter to the editor today. It was fun because I had to edit my over six hundred word first draft to something around two hundred. It was extremely helpful. My final letter, a little under 250, was about ten times better written than the original. If I ever become a professor or teacher, I'll make my students write 200 word essays on long books and grade on completeness of the subject covered. I'll bet they would know it a lot better than if they had to write 10 pages!

4) Matt's All Time Top Five Places to Film a Masterpiece (unordered)
- Ontario, Canada
- Paris, France (Too easy, I know)
- Amsterdam, Netherlands
- New York City, USA (Also too easy. Yeah, yeah.)
- Pittsburgh, USA (Q: What the $@#^%?! A: Alas. I'm only human...)

Details on these and other masterpieces will be forthcoming...

5) I would write more but I've spent all evening looking for my phone, which, along with my checkbook and self-respect, I seem to loose fortnightly. Is it because I am too much of an intellect to concern myself with the petty things of this world? Nope. It's plain old fashion irresponsibility. Ah, well. There's time: NPR told me a few weeks ago that 30 is the new 20.

6) Here's an interesting sociological experiment: compare the BBC News' coverage of a new Chinese anti-secession law with a Chinese News network's coverage. Pretty funny. Somewhat related topic: Does anyone know if the US has an anti-secession law? I have a vague memory of a war happening about this, right? The Sybil war, right? When the US became briefly schizophrenic?

File Under "Music I Was Making a Couple Years Ago"

2005-03-10T22:05:00.000-05:00

Writes G. K. Chesterton: "Even a bad shot is dignified when he accepts a duel." I say this as a caveat to the announcement that I've posted a couple songs from the album which Dave Young, Jerome Wincek, and I recorded over a couple of long weekends in the springs or early summers of '02 and '03 in Oil City, PA. I am not sure how good the quality of the download is (it's a free service after all), but I am planning to post all the songs up there when I have time (I have to go to the library or a coffee shot in order to get broadband). At worst, this is compelling evidence not to mix large quantities of Jug Wine and warm beer with making hit records.

The songs were written various times between the late nineties and 2002. I did the singing and the bad acoustic guitar on some of the tracks (I also scratch tracked all the songs, so the mistaken-er, eccentric--timings are mine also). Jerome played Bass guitar and did backing vocals on at least one song. Dave did almost everything else, including production, mixing, acoustic and electric guitars, harmonica, drum set, some backing vocals and probably other things I can't remember. He also co-wrote two of the songs (but I haven't posted either of them yet). The folks at the Oil City Arts Council (or something like that, I forget the name) let us use the Vault studio which was really great of them.

There aren't any credits or info posted on that Soundclick site, but I'll update it eventually and I'll also upload the rest of the songs at some point.

Also, if the songs are particularly terrible or the sound quality is bad or that Soundclick site isn't very good, let me know and I'll find some place else to put them.

Cheers.

[Note: you will have to wait for the semi-weekly roundup: it's coming, but the statisticians and reporters and rainmakers and such like are still poring over the events of last week.]

Chilling

2005-03-09T20:12:00.000-05:00

I read a very chilling article about the use of Depleted Uranium shells by the US and UK military (see below). And the president has the audacity to call himself pro-life! This is not surprising: once you start admitting that some weapons (like land mines and biological and nuclear weapons) are immoral, it is a slippery slope to the position that all violence is immoral. Indeed, the administration has no problems with weapons of mass destruction, as long as long as they stay out of the hands of evil doers (I wonder if it is that NRA influence? "WMDs don't kill people, People Kill People"?).

I was so shocked by this article that I did some research (okay, I'm being a bit of a googlist here, I admit). Here are some good resources:

This is a good article on the topic.

Here is the position of the White House, DOD, and DOE. Plus, links to actual scientific research. There are links to the appropriate government sites and sources. Notice how flippantly the white house throws around the word "truth."

Here is Amnesty's position on the issue. It is right on (within, that is, as Wendell Berry puts it, "the narrow logic of warfare"). Even if there is a chance, even a small chance, that DU weapons have toxic effects on civilians (not to mention troops!), they should not be used.

More information is at this link but I don't know much about the source.

You can also just do an internet search on the topic.

But what can be done about it, except to get good and angry?

Note: Here is the original article. The photos, I'm told, are very disturbing.

File Under “What I’ve been listening to lately”

2005-03-07T19:11:00.000-05:00

An iPod Playlist I Just Made Yesterday:
1. Vito’s Ordination Song. Sufjan Stevens.
2. The Book of Right-On. Joanna Newsom.
3. A Summer Wasting. Belle & Sebastian.
4. Homesick. Kings Of Convenience.
5. Bird Stealing Bread. Iron & Wine
6. The Group Who Couldn’t Say. Grandaddy
7. Such Great Heights. The Postal Service.
8. Slung-lo. Erin McKeown.
9. Do You Realize?? The Flaming Lips.
10. Vincent O’Brien. M. Ward.
11. We Are Nowhere And It’s Now. Bright Eyes (w/ Emmylou Harris)
12. Kamera. Wilco.
13. Born to Hum. Erin McKeown.
14. Apology Song. The Decemberists.
15. The Late Greats. Wilco.
16. Helicopter. M. Ward.
17. Flint (For the Unemployed And Underpaid). Sufjan Stevens.
18. Stay Out of Trouble. Kings of Convenience.
19. Passing Afternoon. Iron & Wine.
20. I Don’t Know What I Can Save You From. Kings of Convenience.
21. Such Great Heights. Iron & Wine. (Postal Service cover)

Literally listened to this song 20 times in a row (an iTunes oversight) saturday over Islay Scotch and Pipe Tobacco, and it didn't get old:
1. Look At Miss Ohio. Gillian Welch.

Good Albums I’ve Purchased Lately, Say, Over The Past Couple Months (unordered)
“Funeral” by The Arcade Fire
“Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi” by Camera Obscura
“Woman King EP” by Iron & Wine
“When The Roses Bloom Again” by Laura Cantrell
“The Futureheads” by The Futureheads
“The Milk-Eyed Mender” by Joanna Newsom (Okay, I admit it: it took some getting used to at first)
“Books” by Belle & Sebastian (I mostly buy B&S albums for the album covers, these days, and this one doesn’t disappoint--even has an obscure Annie Hall reference, but the music is okay too)

Idea for an Opening Scene of a Movie

2005-03-04T17:04:00.000-05:00

Morning. A door. An alarm goes off for the seventh or eight time. The alarm stops mid-beep. The Character, young man with no signs of age, staggeres out of his room and down a flight of stairs into his kitchen. The only light is morning window daylight. He manages to find and turn on the coffee machine, to get a carton of 2% milk out of the refrigerator. He brings the milk carton with him into the living room, a room with a couch, a love seat, but no TV. Only bookshelves. He sets the milk carton on the coffee table and stares lazily, slowly waking. After several seconds of morning sinking in, and at least a sliver of alertness coming into his eyes, he gets up and walks to one of the bookshelves, which stands about 5 feet tall, with a stack of bowls on top. He takes one of the bowls in one hand and with the other hand he uses his thumb to trace the top shelf books. We see in a close up the flotsam of past intellectual fashions. Structuralism. Existentialism. Lacanian Psychoanalysis. Frankfurt School Marxists. Derrida. Foucault. Baudrillard. Et Cetera. Zizek. (Here we are citing that under appreciated movie, "Barbarian Invasions." Please, go see it). And after Zizek, his thumb reaches two boxes of cereal (Frosted Flakes, say, and Rice Chex). He takes a box and bowl back to his seat at the coffee table. A close up of the coffee pot buzzing that it is done. Titles.

"but the old devils, they found me in my room"

2005-03-03T21:58:00.000-05:00

Okay. Time for the semi-weekly roundup:

1) According to the statisticians, short lists play better on this blog than long sarcastic rants about gambling. Go figure. I guess I'll have to give the people what they want. But, not yet. Oh, and from now on I'm going to try to do better in the red states.

2) This is great news! Until now, I think we were the only country outside of the so-called axis of evil that executed juveniles. Here is Amnesty International on the issue.

3) While we are on the subject of human rights. If you want to help in just a little way, why not take a little time and petition to call for the release of Yury Bandazhevsky who has been wrongfully imprisoned on dodgy "anti-terrorism" laws. Thanks!

4) Sophia Coppola. As a director, she's very good. As an actress: not so good.

5) File under odd coincidences: I rented two random old movies this week. Both of them had Celeste Holm in them. Very good. She was a much better actress than Sophia. Related: When did the chatterbox blonde go out as a hollywood stereotype? I can't think of any recent examples, but then I'm no connoisseur, so maybe I am way off.

6) With regards to part 1: sorry read states, but your president is incompetent . Uck.

7) I'm thinking of putting my graduate degree to good use by writing a neural network to pick March Madness brackets. Anyone have any presuppositions I can automate?

8) Due to bad chemicals, I haven't been thinking too much about this blog lately. More lists and recommendations to come. Sooner or later.

Cheers.

"The art of losing isn't hard to master"

2005-03-01T21:41:00.000-05:00

When I was young I was never any good at video games; my family didn't have a video game appliance, and we never went to the arcade. So I only played when I visited friends, and of course I never won. However, I was able to devise a strategy that worked for most games: it consisted of pressing buttons at random and pretending I knew what I was doing. "Take that," I would say. Meanwhile my character would be jumping haphazardly around a barrel quite far away from the action. I mention all this because I hoped I would be able to make a positive transfer of learning from my Sega experiences fifteen years ago to my participation in a Texas Holdum Tournament this past Saturday. There are some similarities, but I have noticed two major differences so far:

1) With Sega, you are more likely to get carpal tunnel.
2) With Poker, you can loose money.

How much money? Well, somewhere in the vicinity of 30 dollars. (However, having just watched Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels again a week ago, I was happy to escape with all my fingers and toes).

Indeed, I consider myself a winner, and for several reasons. First, there is that great pleasure of learning something new and being terrible at it. (On this subject, I'm an expert. For instance, I am famously terrible at Chess). I had the following qualifications for participating in the tournament:

1) Dim memories of 5 card draw
2) I own the movie "Rounders" on DVD (but not the Special Edition)
3) 30 dollars in my pocket
4) I won three Euros playing slots in a seedy Amsterdam gambling establishment a couple years ago (the current shape of the Dollar notwithstanding).
5) A two hour crash course in Texas Holdum Saturday afternoon
6) A half an hour of internet poker Saturday evening (notice the synergy? I got to randomly press check, fold, bet!)
7) I saw the German-dubbed version of Maverick back in 1994

With this solid foundation, how could I loose? It started out well. I knew from Rounders that "if you don't spot the sucker when you sit down at the table, you are the sucker." Unfortunately, the only suckers I could spot were energetically playing beer-pong on the other side of the room. A minor setback. I decided to play it cool and proceeded with our strategy.

The strategy we decided to use involved playing a 'tight' game (but I swear I didn't touch any alcohol the whole night) and I was to 'fold' if I didn't get a '9' or 'above.' There was also something relating to a 'flop,' 'three little blind mice,' 'big deaf,' 'under the sand,' and 'dealer.' But, I don't want to get too technical, as I wouldn't want to confuse the laymen. Long story short, I never followed the prescribed strategy and ended up pulling the Holdum equivalent of "push the Sega A and B buttons randomly." I lasted exactly an hour and a half. Which brings me to the second reason I consider myself a winner. I lost all my money in a really interesting way: a thoughtless and quixotic suicide ('all in' as they say). I am guessing everyone does something from time to time without any logic or passion or habit behind it. I have no idea why, but I believe it should be appreciated when it happens.

Now, I would like to say that I will dedicate my life from this day forward to mastering the art of poker and return triumphantly like some contemporary Dantes returning wealthy after years in the Chateau D'if to have my way with the final table in New Brighton, PA. But although I'd like to do all that, I probably won't. The pot odds just aren't there.

So it goes.