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Graph of the day

2010-08-13T12:18:00.001-04:00

Best Magazine Articles

2010-08-04T10:33:00.004-04:00

Here's an excellent list of the greatest magazine articles of all time. I'm a huge fan of long form journalism, so this is right up my alley. Here's what I've read off of this list:

****** David Foster Wallace, "Federer As Religious Experience." The New York Times, Play Magazine, August 20, 2006.

***** David Foster Wallace, "Consider the Lobster." Gourmet Magazine, Aug 2004.

****** Gay Talese, "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold." Esquire, April 1966.

** John Hersey, "Hiroshima." The New Yorker, August 31, 1946.

** John Updike, "Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu." The New Yorker, October 22, 1960. About Ted Williams career framed by his last game. I read it every opening day without fail.

** Norman Mailer, "Superman Comes to the Supermarket." Esquire, November 1960.

** Tom Wolfe, "The Last American Hero is Junior Johnson. Yes!" Esquire, March 1965.

****** Gay Talese, "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold." Esquire, April 1966.

*** Hunter Thompson, "The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved." Scanlan's Monthly, June 1970.

* Hunter S. Thompson, "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." Rolling Stone. Part I: November 11, 1971; Part II: November 25, 1971.

*** Richard Ben Cramer, "What Do You Think of Ted Williams Now?" Esquire, June 1986.

* David Foster Wallace, "Ticket to the Fair." Harper's Magazine, July 1994.

** David Foster Wallace, "Shipping Out: On the (Nearly Lethal) Comforts of a Luxury Cruise." Harper's Magazine, January 1996.

*** David Foster Wallace, "The String Theory." Esquire, July 1996.

** David Foster Wallace, "Tense Present: Democracy, English, and the Wars Over Usage." Harper's Magazine, April 2001. A tome to the politics of language.

***** David Foster Wallace, "Consider the Lobster." Gourmet Magazine, Aug 2004.

****** David Foster Wallace, "Federer As Religious Experience." The New York Times, Play Magazine, August 20, 2006.

** Gene Weingarten, "Pearls Before Breakfast." The Washington Post, Magazine, April 8, 2007. Joshua Bell is one of the world's greatest violinists. His instrument of choice is a multimillion-dollar Stradivarius. If he played it for spare change, incognito, outside a bustling Metro stop in Washington, would anyone notice?

* David Grann, "The Chameleon: The many lives of Frédéric Bourdin." The New Yorker, August 11, 2008.

** Michael Lewis, "The End." Portfolio, November 11, 2008. Breaks down supposedly complex economic cause and effect into very engaging, easily understood analysis. Real life characters as interesting and entertaining as the best fiction. A must.

** Michael Lewis, "Wall Street on the Tundra." Vanity Fair, April 2009. It's an in depth analysis of the financial collapse of Iceland. Excellent. There are some great one liners (this isn't actually one of them, but it'll give you the idea): "This in a country the size of Kentucky, but with fewer citizens than greater Peoria, Illinois. Peoria, Illinois, doesn’t have global financial institutions, or a university devoting itself to training many hundreds of financiers, or its own currency. And yet the world was taking Iceland seriously."

* Michael Lewis, "The Man Who Crashed the World." Vanity Fair, August 2009. About the collapse of AIG.

* Matt Taibbi, "Wall Street's Bailout Hustle." Rolling Stone, February 17, 2010.

* Michael Hastings, "The Runaway General." Rolling Stone, June 22, 2010. An entertaining read and because of impact it had on Army leadership it has become historically important.

I couldn't possibly recommend one of these pieces over another, so just start at the top and work your way down - this is great beach reading. Also, I know that there are more than a few all-time-greats missing from this list, so I'll have to give it some thought and write an update.

Also, I just realized how many of my posts contain the journalism tag. It looks like I've already written about several of the items on this list. Nice.

(via Kottke)

Class

2010-07-28T15:30:00.003-04:00

There's nothing too remarkable about this dialogue between Gail Collins and David Brooks, but I really liked this little snippet from Collins:

Racially, the country is moving up to the next step and it would be silly to imagine we’d get there without conflict. In the future, the great divide is going to be class, post-racial class. Poor people are stuck, while everybody else moves up, whether they’re black, white or Hispanic. Not sure that’s something to brag about, but there we are.

I would argue that the "great divide" that Collins' speaks of has always existed. The problem is that there is absolutely no appropriate place in Western Society to discuss "class." Public discourse on race ranges from ignorant polemics to pseudointellectual fluff, but at least people discuss it. Talk about class and you're labeled a socialist or something. Lame. Anyway, this was something that one of my favorite professors said once and I never forgot it.

The Decision

2010-07-27T11:08:00.004-04:00

Everyone's justifiably sick of talking about Lebron's idiotic television spectacle by now but the ESPN Ombudsman offers an interesting take. It's nice to read a thoughtful and original perspective that's not an emotional diatribe against contemporary sport, Lebron James, and where we went wrong as a society. There are many ways that we can read the news and watch television, either as a lazy, passive consumer of infotainment or as an active, intellectually curious citizen of the world. It's easy to see this dichotomy play out with regard to mainstream media, but this article reminds us that the foundational tenets of journalism operate in the realm of sports and entertainment as well (or at least they should).

Thanks to Brad for sending me the article (this post is just my email response to him).

Please wait until I've been dead for 100 years

2010-05-24T17:26:00.001-04:00

Apparently Samuel Langhorne Clemens (pen name: Mark Twain), author of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and other giants of the American canon, demanded that his autobiography not be released until at least 100 years after his death. Well, since he kicked the bucket in April of 1910, publishers are preparing to release the first volume of his 500,000 word autobiography.

I'm not particulary interested in poring over 5000 pages of Twain's twaddle, but it's really interesting that he would make such a stipulation in his will. Anyway, he was interesting, candid, controversial and funny in his time, so I'm sure that his autobiography will not disappoint.

Banksy Gives Back

2010-05-12T10:14:00.004-04:00

The most famous, and elusive, street artist in the world just gave a $320,000 painting to a British band for using their name, Exit Through The Gift Shop, as the title of his new documentary. Banksy apologized for unwittingly "stealing" their name and asked them if they wouldn't mind changing it. Exit Through the Gift Shop (the band) is now known as Brace Yourself. Seems like a fair trade.

Free Stickers from Obey

2010-05-12T10:05:00.006-04:00

From the Obey Giant Facebook page:

Obey would like to give you some free Obey Human Rights Campaign stickers!

Send us a self addressed stamped LEGAL envelope to:

Obey Giant Art
C/O I want free stickers please
PO BOX 26897
LA, CA 90026

The Uniqlo Machine

2010-05-12T09:44:00.002-04:00

I've been shopping at Uniqlo since I moved to NYC, and it's by far my favorite clothing store. I've often wondered how they produce such great stuff (excellent quality, style and cut) at such low prices (often the same or cheaper than places like H&M or The Gap). The answer, of course, is kaizen.

Uniqlo is a company that prescribes, records, and analyzes every activity undertaken by every employee, from Ahmed’s folding technique to the way advisers return charge cards to customers (Japanese style, with two hands and full eye contact). To some extent, management science is an element of all international companies, but Uniqlo’s obsession is more like a turbocharged version of kaizen, the Japanese concept that translates roughly as the continuous search for perfection. (Kaizen is often invoked in business schools when describing Toyota, though less so recently.) Uniqlo has a relatively flat power structure and encourages employees to suggest ideas for improving productivity. Experimentation, however, must go through the proper channels. There is a poster in every Uniqlo manager’s office outlining the Ten Accountabilities. No. 8 reads, As a store manager, always follow company direction. Do not work in your own way.

The article is interesting throughout. The discussion of Japanese management theory reminded me a lot of NUMMI, an automobile manufacturing plant in Fremont, CA that was a joint venture between General Motors and Toyota. If such a partnership sounds odd, that's because it is. Check out one of my favorite episodes of This American Life for a fascinating story.

Meet Shepard Fairey

2010-05-03T14:18:00.004-04:00

In the past year, my friend Adam Tracy and I have gotten to meet two of our favorite artists. Last October we got to chill with Chuck Close at his studio on Bond Street. This time, we got to watch Shepard Fairey work on the new mural at Bowery and Houston, then we got to meet him at the opening of his show at Deitch Projects, and then we kicked it at his after party in Chinatown. We also snagged a couple of signed prints.

And some more amazing news. When Adam asked Shep if he was planning to return to Providence anytime soon, he said that he'd be there in August to work on a mural with AS220. Adam's gonna try to get involved with the project somehow. What a weekend.

Exit Through the Gift Shop

2010-04-12T15:35:00.007-04:00

I attended a premiere of the Banksy documentary in Williamsburg last night with a certain type of film in mind - I was pretty far off.

I had expected an exploration of the elusive and brilliant street artist, Banksy, including a chronicle of his works, techniques and philosophy. I also hoped for a good dose of my other favorite street artist, Shepard Fairey. Well, I got both, and then a whole lot more.

The film begins with the story of a quirky French immigrant named Thierry Guetta. Thierry is presented as a sort of bumbling fool - the narrator speaks whimsically about his childlike fascination with video cameras and his interviews are (intentionally) edited so that most of his statements devolve into repetitious gibberish. Thierry became obsessed with the street art subculture and began filming the likes of Invader and Shepard Fairey, while the most famous artist of them all, Banksy, remained shrouded in mystery. Through a series of coincidences, Thierry finally meets Banksy and earns his trust. Guetta amasses thousands and thousands of hours of video footage and his subjects reasonably assume that he is planning to create some sort of grand documentary about their work. As it turns out, Guetta is simply insane and has no intention of creating a film, or even using or labeling the footage - it just sits in storage in his garage.

At Banksy's urging, Guetta takes a stab at creating a documentary - the result is an abysmal, unwatchable movie. Banksy tells Guetta not to give up and to continue to pursue a art. Guetta changes his name to Mister Brainwash and embarks on an ambitious program to churn out a career's worth of pop art in just a few short months.

MBW (Mister Brainwash) sells all of his possessions, hires a crew of designers, builders and artists, and directs them in the production of his debut exhibition. He is starting from scratch. Brainwash turns out to be a mad genius of sorts - a master of hype and a savvy businessman, he essentially derives a formula for pop/street art success and executes it with great skill. In just a short time, he has created enough art, and more importantly, buzz, to launch his own highly successful show in LA. MBW blows up, makes a cool million dollars from the sale of his hastily produced art, and earns the ire of Shepard Fairey, Banksy and the rest of the street art scene in the process.

The film begins as a chronicle of the medium, but then flips to a takedown of Mister Brainwash. An interesting twist because the rise of Brainwash calls into question the nature of art, commercialism, pop culture, etc. Is MBW an artist? A savvy businessman? A delusional genius? Or all of the above?

I urge you to check out the film when it comes to your area. The movie is shot with terrific pacing and every interview is useful. Of course, the works on display by Shepard Fairey and Banksy are truly amazing - I have an even deeper admiration for them both.

Also, I waited in line a couple of months ago when Mister Brainwash's ICONS show opened in NYC. I was once the proud owner of two of his signed prints. Now I'm not so sure how I feel about them.

To The Limit

2010-04-06T09:53:00.003-04:00

A New York Times blogger is going to be exploring the basics of calculus over the coming weeks. The first installment covers a proof of the approximation we call pi. If you feel like high school and college math passed you by, then take a look at this really simple explanation.

The Kidney-Shaped Stone That Moves Every Day

2010-04-05T17:04:00.002-04:00

By Haruki Murakami. It's the best short story I've read in a long while. Head on over to my friend Dustin's blog for the full text.

"...what matters is deciding in your heart to accept another person completely. When you do that, it is always the first time and the last."

Spring Photos

2010-04-05T13:45:00.001-04:00

From The Big Picture: Signs of Spring 2010.

I'm Over Pandora

2010-03-31T13:15:00.003-04:00

Although I listen to 6 or more hours of streaming music a day, and Pandora is still the go-to option for millions of users, I just don’t use it anymore. So what do I listen to while I work? Two things.

NPR Music

I love NPR for morning news (it’s my clock radio's default station) and its programming, especially This American Life and The Moth (subscribe to their weekly podcasts - you will not regret it). But if you dig around on their website, you’ll find that they offer dozens of amazing, commercial free stations of nearly every genre.

My pick: KEXP out of Seattle. I catch their morning show when I get in the office, and I might hear anything from Johnny Cash to Metric to Death Cab to KRS One to Sharon Jones. Not only do they feature a fantastic mix of indie and classic rock, but they also have a great catalog of live, in-studio performances.

Why is it better than Pandora?

Well, because Pandora’s catalog is actually quite small and although their predictive algorithm is fascinating (I even wrote about it), I don’t think it’s the best way to find new music. I get my recommendations from some very passionate DJs with years of experience and quirky yet sophisticated tastes. Also, there’s something to be said for the occasional 60 second interlude of banter, which provides a nice bookend for a three or four song set.

How do you listen?

You can go directly to KEXP’s website and begin streaming immediately (go to the Listen Now link on the top left of the page). If you want a change of pace, check out NPR’s music page and find a station that suits your interests.

Side note: I’d also recommend that you download VLC Media Player (an open source alternative to Windows Media Player), and use it stream music. Windows Media Player is terrible. Trust me, this is much better for music, videos, etc.

What if you want to hear a specific song or artist?

Are you not on the Grooveshark train yet? Go there immediately and start streaming artists and albums, or create a profile and share playlists and favorites. It’s fantastic, and if you really miss the suggestion feature of Pandora, then you can click on the radio button and Grooveshark with automatically add some tracks to your playlist.

If you work a desk job like I do, then give NPR Radio and Grooveshark a shot. They might make your day a little bit better.

Also, props to Dustin for turning me on to KEXP.

Lost and Found

2010-03-12T12:03:00.010-05:00

I was standing on the 4 train this morning listening to This American Life, when the doors opened at Brooklyn Bridge/City Hall and a woman rushed by me to exit the train, pulling my iPod from my jacket pocket. I watched helplessly as it slid across the grimy floor, bounced onto the platform for a brief moment and then disappeared onto the tracks below.

I remained calm and thought about the MTA public service bulletins I've seen posted on the walls of subway cars. In effect, they say something like: "If you drop something on the tracks, don't be an idiot and try to get it yourself, just contact an MTA employee and we'll help you retrieve it." Makes perfect sense to me. I always wondered what types of people would jump six feet down onto the tracks under any circumstances. Well, a fellow passenger turned to me and said "You gonna get that?" and pointed to my iPod, which was perched atop a concrete slap directly underneath the edge of the platform. "You mean, jump down there?" I replied. "Yea man, why not?" he said. While the answer seems self evident, I just replied by saying "Um, naaaah."

So anyway, I headed over to the station operator and explained what happened and she sent somebody over to shine a flashlight on my iPod. "There it is. It's in a metal case so it's probably not broken. I drop it all the time" I explained. While my aluminum case nearly doubles the girth of my iPod and cancels out all of the aesthetic appeal of the device, it really has saved it from certain destruction at least a dozen times over the past couple of years. So I'm a very practical nerd, if nothing else.

The MTA employee explained that they are no longer allowed to go onto the tracks to retrieve items, so he would have to contact somebody from the "track services department." (This new policy probably has something to do with this incident from yesterday.) He said it might take a half hour or more before they arrived, so I decided to head over to my office and check back a little bit later. Sure enough, I came back around 11:30am and my iPod was waiting for me at the station booth, completely functional, and still on the same spot of This American Life that I had been listening to when it was ripped from my jacket during my morning commute.

So there you have it, a real life tale of a lost item on the NYC subway tracks.

Bicycle Routes Come to Google Maps

2010-03-11T16:28:00.004-05:00

What better way to test it than to chart a course from Bristol to Providence, RI. You should be able to make the entire journey via the East Bay Bike Path. Voila!

A serious review of the new functionality can be found here.

United States Infrastructure Saddens Me

2010-02-23T21:23:00.004-05:00

From the New York Times:

42: The number of high-speed rail lines recently opened or set to open by 2012 in China. By contrast, the United States hopes to build its first high-speed rail line by 2014, an 84-mile route in Florida linking Tampa and Orlando. How fast are the Chinese bullet trains? They average speeds of up to 215 miles an hour. The train that connects Guangzhou, the southern coastal manufacturing center, to Wuhan, in the interior, takes a little more than three hours to travel 664 miles, roughly the distance between Boston and southern Virginia.

I could travel from NYC to Providence in under an hour. Right now, it takes me almost four.

New Yorker Profile: Paul Krugman

2010-02-23T20:59:00.007-05:00

A nice feature in the New Yorker begins as a fluff piece but eventually turns into a very lucid examination of contemporary economics. I particularly liked this explanation of "freshwater" versus "saltwater" economists, which I always thought was an interesting and convenient way to divide the field.

To some extent, this difference [micro vs. macro] also maps onto the divide between the “freshwater” and “saltwater” schools of thought in macroeconomics. Freshwater economists—who live near lakes, particularly at the University of Chicago, but also in Rochester and Minneapolis—are more likely to insist that macroeconomics be based on microeconomic foundations, which is to say that one should study large phenomena like recessions and inflation as functions of the behavior of many perfectly rational individuals. A freshwater economist might argue, for instance, that debt-financed government spending to stimulate the economy won’t have a significant effect, because people will realize that they will have to pay off that debt with higher taxes in the future, and so will save more in anticipation, leaving net spending essentially unchanged. Saltwater economists—who are to be found in coastal areas, especially at M.I.T., Harvard, and Berkeley—are more likely to allow that, at this stage of our understanding, it is excusable to study some macro phenomena without giving a complete account of their causal logic. Saltwater types are also more likely to include irrationality or other market imperfections in their models: they believe, for instance, that since it is clearly the case that prices do not fall immediately following a decline in demand but tend to be “sticky,” you should incorporate this fact, even if you haven’t yet got an account of why it should be so. It isn’t that freshwater types believe that actual people are perfectly rational—they just believe that making that assumption enables a more rigorous economics than is possible without it. After all, while there is only one way to be perfectly rational, there are an infinite number of ways to be irrational, and how do you choose? It all begins to look awfully arbitrary.

That last sentence does an excellent job summing up my frustration with the study of economics. Mapping out intersections of supply and demand curves can be satisfying for some, but those results always felt fraudulent to me.

R.I.P. Howard Zinn

2010-01-28T17:12:00.003-05:00

I have very few all time favorites. When it comes to movies, television, food, vacations, and music – anything that could be the subject of a top ten list – I can never settle on a number one. However, I have known for over a decade that my favorite book is, and will remain, A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn. From the first time I read it as a freshman in high school, it changed me.

“History is written by the victors” is a cliché, often said with a sense of resignation and inevitability. Zinn chronicles the history of our nation from the perspective of those that do not typically have a voice – the factory worker, the soldier, the migrant laborer – and in doing so flips American history on its head. Columbus was a scoundrel, the Revolutionary War was fought for the benefit of landowning white men, and American incursions in Latin America were frequent and unjustified – all sacrilegious statements.

Zinn taught me to ask questions that wouldn’t have otherwise crossed my mind. He made me question my government, my education and myself. That is why A People’s History will never be displaced as my number one favorite book.

From the introduction of A People's History:

My viewpoint, in telling the history of the United States, is different: that we must not accept the memory of states as our own. Nations are not communities and never have been. The history of any country, presented as the history of a family, conceals fierce conflicts of interest (sometimes exploding, most often repressed) between conquerors and conquered, masters and slaves, capitalists and workers, dominators and dominated in race and sex. And in such a world of conflict, a world of victims and executioners, it is the job of thinking people, as Albert Camus suggested, not to be on the side of the executioners.

Thus, in that inevitable taking of sides which comes from selection and emphasis in history, I prefer to try to tell the story of the discovery of America from the viewpoint of the Arawaks, of the Constitution from the standpoint of the slaves, of Andrew Jackson as seen by the Cherokees, of the Civil War as seen by the New York Irish, of the Mexican war as seen by the deserting soldiers of Scott's army, of the rise of industrialism as seen by the young women in the Lowell textile, of the Spanish-American war as seen by the Cubans, the conquest of the Philippines as seen by black soldiers on Luzon, the Gilded Age as seen by southern farmers, the First World War as seen by socialists, the Second World War as seen by pacifists, the New Deal as seen by blacks in Harlem, the postwar American empire as seen by peons in Latin America. And so on, to the limited extent that any one person however he or she strains, can "see" history from the standpoint of others.

In addition to his refreshingly radical viewpoint, Zinn was also a master of primary source material, letting the poor and downtrodden speak for themselves. He used beautiful poems, songs and letters to convey the defiance, heartbreak and resolve of the people’s movements he chronicled.

In college, I had the opportunity to see Mr. Zinn speak. I still remember how eloquent, wise and feisty he was. At 80+ years old, he was not on a farewell tour – he was intent on inspiring the next generation of grassroots activism. After his talk, I had the privilege of shaking his hand and asking him to sign my copy of A People’s History. I told him it was an honor to meet him.

Howard Zinn will always be my favorite author and A People’s History of the United States will always be my favorite book because I know what a profound impact it has had on my life. I’m far from perfect and my development is nowhere near complete, but I value intellectual curiosity and compassion above most other traits. This is what Howard Zinn taught me.

Best Music of 2009 According to Music Bloggers

2010-01-27T15:37:00.003-05:00

Don't let the indie rock heavy lineup intimidate you - there's some great stuff on there. Why not check out a few albums while you're at work? The streaming interface is excellent.

Here's the stuff I've listened to over the course of the year.

Kid Cudi • Man on the Moon: The End of Day
Monsters Of Folk • Monsters Of Folk
Mos Def • The Ecstatic
The Avett Brothers • I and Love and You
Wilco • Wilco (The Album)
St. Vincent • Actor
Pains of Being Pure at Heart • Pains of Being Pure at Heart
Passion Pit • Manners
Yeah Yeah Yeahs • It's Blitz!
The XX • XX
Dirty Projectors • Bitte Orca
Phoenix • Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Grizzly Bear • Veckatimest
Animal Collective • Merriweather Post Pavilion

Hunter Mountain Hike

2010-01-27T15:19:00.000-05:00

This past weekend, for the second year in a row, fourteen of my friends and I stayed at a beautiful vacation house in the Catskill Mountains of New York. As you know, I don't like to ski, so I once again stayed behind while most of the crew hit the slopes. Instead of relaxing in the house, I decided to go on a hike by myself nearby.

This beautiful hike along Diamond Notch to Buttermilk Falls was one of the most peaceful, challenging and beautiful things I've ever experienced. More than two hours passed before I saw another human being and at times the silence was so complete that my ears were ringing. As I ascended the mountain, the snow became deeper and deeper and my trek more arduous; I became out of breath more than a couple of times. I ultimately passed more than a dozen other hikers, and I was the only person that was not equipped with snow shoes. All told, the hike was a little over five miles round trip and it took me about four hours to complete the journey.

Enjoy the photos.

Diamond Notch Trail - Catskills

North Korea

2010-01-08T10:22:00.004-05:00

During my recent trip to Spain, a girl at our hostel told my friend that she was from North Korea. We were all shocked and incredulous. Turns out she was lying. Anyway, it got me thinking about the "land of no smiles" and some of the interesting things I've read about it.

Two Time photos essays here and here.

A look across the border from The Big Picture Blog.

An arresting little clandestine photo essay from a guy posing as a businessman.

The Wikipedia entries on Kim Jong-il and North Korea are also fascinating.

And of course, one picture that sums up the entire situation.

SNL Digital Short: Adam and Reba

2009-11-23T14:15:00.001-05:00

This is a strong SNL cast, but Keenan is king. This is the best Digital Short I've seen in a while.

Parliamentary Plotting

2009-11-22T19:15:00.002-05:00

I enjoyed this infographic of tactics that can be used by the majority and minority to stall legislation, stifle debate and frustrate colleagues. It's amazing to me that such important decisions can ultimately come down to the exploitation of protocol rather than a triumph of debate and ideas.

Belichick Mic'd Up

2009-11-14T12:54:00.003-05:00

If you watch just one video of an NFL coached mic'd up this year, then please, make it this one. Bill Belichick is a goddamned mastermind.

Rent the Runway

2009-11-09T09:49:00.003-05:00

I guess it was only a matter of time.

The mail-order service, which finishes the testing phase on Monday, allows women to rent dresses from notable fashion designers like Diane Von Furstenberg, Hervé Léger and Proenza Schouler for roughly one-tenth of what they would cost to buy in a retail store.

The rentals run $50 to $200 for a four-night loan and are shipped directly to the customer’s doorstep. After wearing the dress, she puts it into a prepaid envelope and drops it in the mail. Dry cleaning is included in the price, but damage insurance costs $5, and in the case of outright destruction of the dress, the renter is responsible for the full retail price.

The Berlin Wall: 20 Years Later

2009-11-07T17:13:00.004-05:00

An excellent interactive photography feature from the New York Times. Check it out.

Decent Proposal by Senior Discount

2009-11-06T10:40:00.005-05:00

Decent Proposal - watch more funny videos

Another video from my good friend Chuck Staton and the boys in Senior Discount. Enjoy.

Senior Discount's old nemesis, Bradley Stevenson (leader of the the Rhode Island League of Decency) gets an order from his uppers to spend a week trying to change the members of S*D into decent citizens. Senior Discount, who would normally reject such an idea, are forced to accept Bradley's presence, in exchange for a letter they desperately need in order to play their homeshow. When Brad has had enough of their shenanigans, and his love interest comes into play, things take a more serious turn.

Congrats to Christian, Alan, Tom and Chuck on a fantastic (sold out) show at the Boston House of Blues last weekend. They were hand picked by Gregg Gillis himself to open for the wildly popular Girl Talk. I wasn't able to make it home for the concert, but I hear that they absolutely killed it.

Also, kudos to Brad, Casey, Brian, Abe, Patrick, Alyssa and Jamie for their wonderful acting in this sketch.

Rhode Island Man Wins Accordion World Championship

2009-10-27T18:11:00.003-04:00

Normally I wouldn't write two Rhody posts in a row, but these are extraordinary circumstances involving alligators and accordions.

If anyone can confer sex appeal upon the stodgy old squeezebox, though, it just might be 23-year-old Rhode Island native and jazz accordion wunderkind Cory Pesaturo. Last month Pesaturo won the World Digital Accordion Championship in New Zealand, dazzling judges with his rapid-fire playing style and showmanship. It marked the first world accordion title won by an American in 25 years, earning Pesaturo, who’s been playing professionally since age 11, $1,500 in prize money and a priceless measure of coolness.

(via Boston Barstool)

Alligator wrangled near Fall River highway; R.I. blamed

2009-10-26T23:05:00.001-04:00

The Providence Journal

FALL RIVER, Mass. (AP) - A five-foot long alligator wandering near a Massachusetts highway has been wrangled safely away from the public.

Robert Schenck, owner of the Fall River pet store Animal Instincts, helped capture the small alligator Sunday after being called by animal control officers.

Schenck told WPRI-TV he went into a swampy area off Route 24 in Fall River, grabbed the gator and used electrical tape to bind its jaws shut.

Schenck said the animal likely came from Rhode Island, where it is legal to keep them as pets.

Schenck also said the alligator probably had been on the loose all summer and may have been feeding on rats or other rodents.

A Fork in the Road: Afghanistan

2009-10-26T14:34:00.002-04:00

Although Iran and Iraq garner most of the attention, in many ways, Afghanistan and Pakistan are the most significant threats to worldwide security, peace and American prosperity. After eight years of US military intervention in Afghanistan, the Taliban is as strong as ever and continues to wage an increasingly sophisticated and destructive guerrilla campaign. In Kabul, the United States-backed president, Hamid Karzai, is widely regarded as an inept leader and complicit in a fraudulent election.

“I keep going back to Yogi Berra. You know: ‘When you reach a fork in the road, take it.’ I bet there are days when Obama wakes up and sees the fork in the road and decides he’s not going to take it. Because both choices are so bad.”

You can read this excellent article from last week's New York Times Magazine or you can scroll through The Big Picture's photo essay. Either way, you get a clear sense of how bleak this is.

Cental Park and Harlem

2009-10-25T23:39:00.001-04:00

Central Park and Harlem

Distinctive/Distiguished Academics

2009-10-23T09:45:00.006-04:00

MR pointed me to this post about "possible models for Freakonomics 3." I'm not particularly interested in this topic, but what struck me was that the top three "models" (i.e. public intellectuals) are people that I read almost every day. I'm pretty sure that I could pick a Krugman, Gladwell or Cowen article out of a lineup nearly 100% of the time. Their styles of writing, research, critical thinking and debate have played a substantial role in furthering my post college education and sharpening my mind.

Paul Krugman writes an Op-Ed piece for the New York Times every Monday and Friday. He's also published about two dozen books, won the Nobel Prize in Economics, and cemented a spot as one of the most important economists of the late 20th/early 21st century.

Malcolm Gladwell's virtuosic ability to write about nearly any conceivable topic is almost maddening. His books are perpetual best sellers and every one of his New Yorker features is worthy of a careful reading.

Tyler Cowen is certainly the least well known of the this trifecta, but he may be the most prolific intellectual blogger in the world. His site, Marginal Revolution, is a treasure trove of interesting links, thought provoking analysis, and spirited debate. Other notable attributes: he reads no less than six novels at a given time; he's a film and music buff (old/new, American/international, indie/blockbuster...), he's also an expert on ethnic cuisine. I would bet that he sleeps less than four hours per night.

Google Street View is Now in Bristol, RI

2009-10-21T14:24:00.003-04:00

Well, only the main roads for now. But I ask you: what's prettier than Colt State Park on a sunny day?

View Larger Map

What Up With That?

2009-10-20T11:45:00.006-04:00

The highlight of Saturday Night Live this week.

Kenan Thompson kills it, but Jason Sudeikis dancing in the background almost steals the sketch.

Kandinsky

2009-10-20T10:44:00.005-04:00

From top to bottom, the entire Guggenheim is filled with Wassily Kandinsky, and it is magnificent. I started at the bottom and worked my way up, which ended up being the best route to take because the stuff towards the top was unlike anything I had ever seen before. Kandinsky's range was much broader than I could have imagined, as many of his works were very dark and geometric as opposed to the more airy abstract stuff that you typically see.

Favorite Words: Brobdingnagian

2009-10-20T10:40:00.004-04:00

–adjective
1. of huge size; gigantic; tremendous.

–noun
2. an inhabitant of Brobdingnag.
3. a being of tremendous size; giant.

Origin:
Brobdingnag + -ian

[After Brobdingnag, a country in Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, where everything was enormous.]

Pandora Genome Decoded

2009-10-17T14:20:00.002-04:00

If Pandora internet radio is one of the few things that gets you through your workday, then perhaps you'll enjoy reading this article from the New York Times Sunday Magazine.

The music genome project, the back end of Pandora, is an unbelievably labor intensive endeavor that identifies and rates hundreds of musical elements for more than 700,000 songs.

Some elements that these musicologists (who, really, are musicians with day jobs) codify are technical, like beats per minute, or the presence of parallel octaves or block chords. Someone taking apart Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” documents the prevalence of harmony, chordal patterning, swung 16ths and the like. But their analysis goes beyond such objectively observable metrics. To what extent, on a scale of 1 to 5, does melody dominate the composition of “Hey Jude”? How “joyful” are the lyrics? How much does the music reflect a gospel influence? And how “busy” is Stan Getz’s solo in his recording of “These Foolish Things”? How emotional? How “motion-inducing”?

I Love the Large Hadron Collider

2009-10-16T15:01:00.003-04:00

I don't care if it tears the universe apart at its seams. I really don't. Fire that baby up and find the God particle.

Anyway, I loved this essay from the New York Times.

I’m talking about the notion that the troubled collider is being sabotaged by its own future. A pair of otherwise distinguished physicists have suggested that the hypothesized Higgs boson, which physicists hope to produce with the collider, might be so abhorrent to nature that its creation would ripple backward through time and stop the collider before it could make one, like a time traveler who goes back in time to kill his grandfather.

Holger Bech Nielsen, of the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, and Masao Ninomiya of the Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics in Kyoto, Japan, put this idea forward in a series of papers with titles like “Test of Effect From Future in Large Hadron Collider: a Proposal” and “Search for Future Influence From LHC,” posted on the physics Web site arXiv.org in the last year and a half.

Marty McFly meets Stephen Hawking.

Animal Day

2009-10-16T13:48:00.002-04:00

The Big Picture celebrates World Animal Day. I had never heard of this holiday before, but it's an excellent pretext for looking at pictures of animals.

Count to 12

2009-10-15T11:03:00.004-04:00

I could spend hours watching old Sesame Street clips on YouTube. Today, let's count to 12.

The Ladybugs' Picnic

Pinball Number Count

Gladwell on Football, Dog Fighting and Brain Damage

2009-10-13T14:14:00.003-04:00

Bill Simmons called it the best sports piece of 2009. I call it just another Gladwell masterpiece. The first hand accounts of life in football's trenches (i.e. the line) are crazy and the details of dog fighting are grim and repulsive.

“Lately, I’ve tried to break it down,” Turley said. “I remember, every season, multiple occasions where I’d hit someone so hard that my eyes went cross-eyed, and they wouldn’t come uncrossed for a full series of plays. You are just out there, trying to hit the guy in the middle, because there are three of them. You don’t remember much. There are the cases where you hit a guy and you’d get into a collision where everything goes off. You’re dazed. And there are the others where you are involved in a big, long drive. You start on your own five-yard line, and drive all the way down the field—fifteen, eighteen plays in a row sometimes. Every play: collision, collision, collision. By the time you get to the other end of the field, you’re seeing spots. You feel like you are going to black out. Literally, these white explosions—boom, boom, boom—lights getting dimmer and brighter, dimmer and brighter.

Malcolm Gladwell also wrote the forward to Simmon's upcoming Book of Basketball. I've already preordered my copy and hope to have it signed by the Sports Guy when he visits Professor Thom's on October 28th.

Columbus Day

2009-10-12T18:00:00.003-04:00

I usually send an obnoxious email to my friends on Columbus Day reminding them that we are probably observing the accomplishments of a mass murderer and scoundrel. This year, I'll post it on my blog. Enjoy this essay by my favorite author, Howard Zinn.

This is less about the somewhat scandalous implication that Columbus was a bad guy, and more about the importance of questioning conventional historical wisdom. That's the lesson I learned from Howard Zinn that changed the way I thought about the world.

The Onion on Favre

2009-10-09T14:24:00.003-04:00

I'm ashamed to admit that I owned a #4 Packers jersey back in 97'. Now I hate Brett Favre, or rather, the ridiculous amount of coverage he receives. The Onion, as usual, sums it up perfectly.

"I was looking at a newspaper, and it said, 'Favre Sacks Former Team,' and at that point I realized we really missed one," ESPN president George Bodenheimer told reporters. "I just want to apologize to our viewers. Had the Favre-Packers connection dawned on us sooner, fans could have enjoyed the same quality sports journalism they have come to expect from ESPN: driving storylines into the ground and exploiting every one of their subplots to the point of nausea."

Small Plates

2009-10-09T13:20:00.003-04:00

Thoroughly enjoyed the Japanese tapas at Village Yokocho (twice in the last week actually).

Followed it up with the tasting menu at ChikaLicious Dessert Bar. Great stuff just a few blocks from my apartment.

Sufjan Stevens Again

2009-10-06T15:42:00.004-04:00

I should have posted a song or two in my previous post about Sufjan.

I'm not sure what's up with the fruity outfits, but this is a great recording from Austin City Limits.

Casimir Pulaski Day - Sufjan Stevens

Here's a solo acoustic version of "To Be Alone With You."

Sufjan Stevens-To Be Alone With You

Sketch Comedy Writing 101

2009-10-06T13:38:00.002-04:00

I had my first class at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater last night. Incredible! We viewed and analyzed the following sketches:

Ass Pennies by UCB (One of my all time favorites)
The Audition by Mr. Show (This one blew me away. I had never seen it before.)
Comfortable by Kids In The Hall (I hadn't previously seen this one either. Not bad.)

We also have a packet of UCB sketches with Matt Besser's notes. Last night we did a table reading and analyzed "Astronaut Prejudice." I forgot how great that sketch is.

I'll be writing at least one sketch per week, so perhaps I'll end up posting a few here.

Sufjan Stevens is a Musical Genius

2009-10-05T13:26:00.004-04:00

Wow. This show blew me away last night. Sufjan played four or five different instruments with virtuoso skill, sang flawlessly and jived perfectly with his eight piece band (guitar, french horn, bass, drums, two female accompanists, saxophone, synthesizer, trombone...). While it wasn't a high energy show, it definitely ranked among the top two or three most impressive musical performances I've ever seen.

Brooklyn Vegan has the review, photos and setlist here.

Shoot

2009-10-05T10:10:00.003-04:00

I finally purchased a digital SLR - the Canon Rebel XS. It feels hefty and looks fairly professional, so I feel like I'm already a 50% better photographer.

###

There are over 400 community gardens in New York City and my neighborhood, the East Village, has the highest concentration. Here are some photos from two of the larger gardens: The 12th Street Garden and El Jardin de Paradiso.

East Village Community Gardens

Fall 2009 in NYC

2009-10-02T15:20:00.006-04:00

Here's what I'm looking forward to over the next couple of months, in no particular order.

Vermeer's Milkmaid at the Met
- It's just one painting, but it's iconic, and I'll be there anyway to see Robert Frank.
*check*

Philip Seymour Hoffman - Othello - Public Theater
- Not gonna happen. Tickets are nearly impossible to get.

The Informant
- Good cast. Darkish comedy. Should be good.

Fatty Cue
- BBQ and bourbon in Billyburg.

Deitch Projects
- A really cool gallery that I've been meaning to check out.

Where the Wild Things Are
- I'm not buying the outrageous hype, but I do like Spike Jonze. His first commercial film was the music video for Sabotage.
*check*

The Road
- One of my favorite books by one of my favorite authors. Do not ruin this Hollywood.

New York, I Love You
- Paris, je t'aime is one of my favorite films of all time and New York is my favorite city. This shouldn't be too hard.

Robert Frank: The Americas
- I love photography and America history.
*check*

Kandinsky at the Guggenheim
- Abstract awesomeness.
*check*

Mitchell Algus Gallery: Paintings and Works on Paper
- I don't know much about this, but it looks like a cool show at a cool gallery.

Sarah Anne Johnson: House on Fire
- I read about this in New York Magazine. It's not at the top of my list but I wouldn't mind checking it out.

30 Rock
- Along with The Office, Sunny and South Park, one of very few consistently funny sitcoms.
*check*

It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia
- So far, so good. I'm not sure how the noose scene at the beginning of episode 3 was allowed on TV.
*check*

Curb Your Enthusiasm
- How can you not watch the Seinfeld reunion within the show?
*check*

Sufjan Stevens at Bowery Ballroom
- $15 tickets. Tiny venue. Should be an excellent show.
*check*

Inside the Artist's Studio: Chuck Close
- Probably the thing I'm most excited about on this list. A once in a lifetime opportunity to see one of my favorite artists. And I'm not even half as pumped as Tray Funk is.
*check*

Sufjan Stevens: BQE
- This could be an interesting film/album combo.

Monet's Water Lillies at the MoMA
- I loved the Water Lillies exhibit at the Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris and I'm hoping this is similar.

30 for 30
- One of my favorite writers, Bill Simmons, has been working on this series for the past 3 years. 30 mini sports documentaries by 30 acclaimed directors.
*check*

Another Podcast

2009-09-09T10:18:00.003-04:00

I recently made my second guest appearance on Agreeing to Disagree: The Chuck and Brad Podcast. Check out episode 30 here. My previous appearance is here.

Synopsis:

Chuck and Brad welcome podcast return-visitor Aaron Arcello to the show. After the Senior Discount/Sky Punch and Chuck/Brad updates, the three discuss some upgrades to the podcast set-up, then proceed to make fun of the new S*D/Agreeing To Disagree home in Fall River, MA.

The amigos talk about the newly-released Halloween 2, as well as the original Halloween remake. They go on to present a timely discussion about the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies and television show, the fact that Disney has acquired the rights to Marvel, a young man who is crying blood, and reality show violence.
The podcast ends with a short re-hash of last week's Max Hardcore debate, with the addition of Arcello's point of view.

Bacon and Klimt

2009-08-12T22:10:00.003-04:00

I made a very enjoyable solo visit to the Met on Sunday - throw on some music to drown out the ambient noise and you're good to go.

The Francis Bacon retrospective is only there until August 16th, and it's well worth a look. Bacon's work is intensely melancholy and haunting. Check out Painting and Head VI for a good sampling of his style.

I then headed a few blocks north to the Neue Galerie, which houses a collection of Austrian and German modern art. I've always enjoyed Gustav Klimt, but after seeing several of his works up close, he may be my all time favorite. This small museum houses the famous Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, which sold for $135 million dollars in 2006. Stunning (the painting and the price tag).

Check out the list of the most expensive paintings of all time.

Handerpants Might Be The New Snuggie

2009-07-25T16:40:00.001-04:00

All we need is a creepy infomercial.

I Knew It Was You Fredo

2009-07-24T14:18:00.004-04:00

John Cazale is best remembered for his portrayal of Fredo in the Godfather, but did you know:

...he appeared in only five films, all of which (The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, The Conversation, Dog Day Afternoon, The Deer Hunter) were nominated for a Best Picture Oscar.

(via @sportsguy33)

Apollo 11 Disaster Speech

2009-07-20T23:02:00.004-04:00

Written by current New York Times columnist William Safire, this speech was part of a contingency plan in the event that the Apollo 11 astronauts became stranded on the moon.

Fate has ordained, that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay to rest in peace.

In ancient days, men looked at stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood.
Others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man's search will not be denied. But these were the first, and will remain foremost in our hearts.
For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind.

Would an unsuccessful Apollo 11 mission have led to the early decline of the American century? Would failure have had a greater impact than success? Regardless, this is one very eerie speech.

Space Race About Face

2009-07-20T22:46:00.002-04:00

I don't feel the least bit sorry for posting back-to-back Tom Wolfe articles. If you read one space race piece this week (the anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission to the moon) then make it this one.

Intuitively, not consciously, Kennedy had chosen another form of military contest, an oddly ancient and archaic one. It was called “single combat.”
The best known of all single combats was David versus Goliath. Before opposing armies clashed in all-out combat, each would send forth its “champion,” and the two would fight to the death, usually with swords. The victor would cut off the head of the loser and brandish it aloft by its hair.
More than two millenniums later, the mental atmosphere of the space race was precisely that. The details of single combat were different. Cosmonauts and astronauts didn’t fight hand to hand and behead one another. Instead, each side’s brave champions, including one woman (Valentina Tereshkova), risked their lives by sitting on top of rockets and having their comrades on the ground light the fuse and fire them into space like the human cannonballs of yore.

In the truest spirit of "single combat" here's Buzz Aldrin punching an idiotic conspiracy theorist in the face.

The Last Great American Hero is Junior Johnson

2009-07-20T22:43:00.003-04:00

I thoroughly enjoyed this famous Esquire piece by Tom Wolfe. Yes!

The legend of Junior Johnson! In this legend, here is a country boy, Junior Johnson, who learns to drive by running whiskey for his father, Johnson, Senior, one of the biggest copper still operators of all times, up in Ingle Hollow, near North Wilkesboro, in northwestern North Carolina, and grows up to be a famous stock-car racing driver, rich, grossing $100,000 in 1963, for example, respected, solid, idolized in his hometown and throughout the rural South, for that matter. There is all this about how good old boys would wake up in the middle of the night in the apple shacks and hear an overcharged engine roaring over Brushy Mountain and say, "Listen at him -- there he goes!", although that part is doubtful, since some nights there were so many good old boys taking off down the road in supercharged automobiles out of Wilkes County, and running loads to Charlotte, Salisbury, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, High Point, or wherever, it would be pretty hard to pick out one. It was Junior Johnson specifically, however, who was famous for the "bootleg turn" or "about-face," in which, if the Alcohol Tax agents had a roadblock up for you or were too close behind, you threw the car into second gear, cocked the wheel, stepped on the accelerator and made the car's rear end skid around in a complete 180-degree arc, a complete about-face, and tore on back up the road exactly the way you came from. God! The Alcohol Tax agents used to burn over Junior Johnson. Practically every good old boy in town in Wilkesboro, the county seat, got to know the agents by sight in a very short time. They would rag them practically to their faces on the subject of Junior Johnson, so that it got to be an obsession. Finally, one night they had Junior trapped on the road up toward the bridge around Millersville, there's no way out of there, they had the barricades up and they could hear this souped-up car roaring around the bend, and here it comes -- but suddenly they can hear a siren and see a red light flashing in the grille, so they think it's another agent, and boy, they run out like ants and pull those barrels and boards and sawhorses out of the way, and then -- Ggghhzzzzzzzhhhhhggggggzzzzzzzeeeeeong! -- gawdam! there he goes again, it was him, Junior Johnson!, with a gawdam agent's si-reen and a red light in his grille!

Revolutionay Guard

2009-07-20T22:36:00.003-04:00

With so much coverage of the Iran recently, why is this the first piece I've read that paints the Revolutionary Guard as potentially the chief architect of the fraudulent election?

Frank Sinatra Has a Cold

2009-07-12T22:57:00.005-04:00

Gay Talese flew to Los Angeles to write a feature about Frank Sinatra, but soon discovered that Old Blue Eyes wasn't receptive to an interview. Talese hung around near Sinatra for many months and talked with his closest family, friends and business associates, and ends up painting an unbelievably rich portrait of the man. The imagery of Sinatra swaggering through The Sands with Sammy Davis Jr. and Dean Martin is cartoonishly debonair.

By four A.M. Frank Sinatra led the group out of The Sahara, some of them carrying their glasses of whisky with them, sipping it along the sidewalk and in the cars; then, returning to The Sands, they walked into the gambling casino. It was still packed with people, the roulette wheels spinning, the crapshooters screaming in the far corner.

Frank Sinatra, holding a shot glass of bourbon in his left hand, walked through the crowd. He, unlike some of his friends, was perfectly pressed, his tuxedo tie precisely pointed, his shoes unsmudged. He never seems to lose his dignity, never lets his guard completely down no matter how much he has drunk, nor how long he has been up. He never sways when he walks, like Dean Martin, nor does he ever dance in the aisles or jump up on tables, like Sammy Davis.

Zinn on the American Revolution

2009-07-08T22:11:00.002-04:00

Howard Zinn always put things into perspective. He's one of the few eminent historians to ever question the motivation behind the American Revolution and World War II. I'm not saying I agree with him, but I do agree with his argument that the scale is tipped soooooo far in the other direction, that his perspective does little to change the overall balance of opinion. I always think he's worth listening to.

Who actually gained from that victory over England? It's very important to ask about any policy, and especially about war: Who gained what? And it's very important to notice differences among the various parts of the population. That's one thing were not accustomed to in this country because we don't think in class terms. We think, "Oh, we all have the same interests." For instance, we think that we all had the same interests in independence from England. We did not have all the same interests.

One of my favorite Economics professors once made the comment that we are not allowed to talk about class in America. We can have discussions on race, gender and sexuality, but not class. In fact, you rarely hear people talk about class unless they're referring to the "middle class", of which everyone is a member apparently. I need to write a separate post about the concept of "middle class" in America because it's something that drives me crazy.

Anyway, happy (belated) Independence Day!

McNamara Retrospective

2009-07-08T21:58:00.003-04:00

Errol Morris offers a brief but poignant retrospective of the recently deceased Secretary of Defense. If you've never seen it, The Fog of War, a documentary by Morris, is a fantastic examination of America's Vietnam War policy, of which McNamara was a primary architect.

In a 1966 speech in Montreal (delivered while he was still secretary of defense), he returned to the theme of rationality:

“Who is man? Is he a rational animal? If he is, then the goals can ultimately be achieved. If he is not, then there is little point in making the effort. All the evidence of history suggests that man is indeed a rational animal but with a near infinite capacity for folly. His history seems largely a halting, but persistent, effort to raise his reason above his animality. He draws blueprints for utopia, but never quite gets it built. In the end he plugs away obstinately with the only building material really ever at hand: his own part-comic, part-tragic, part-cussed, but part-glorious nature.”

History certainly hasn't exonerated LBJ and the rest of the folks at the helm of America's incursion in Vietnam, but it's refreshing to see McNamara, a true statesman, offer a thoughtful perspective.

I doubt Rumsfeld, Bush and Cheney will ever get to this point. They probably still think that they're doing God's work. How convenient and intellectually lazy of them.

Vanity Fair Tackles Sarah Palin and AIG

2009-07-07T17:38:00.009-04:00

I don’t read Vanity Fair regularly, but maybe I should. It’s published a few of my favorite articles in recent memory, and this month’s issue smashes two home runs with It Came from Wasilla and The Man Who Crashed the World.

The first piece, about Sarah Palin of course, is as damning to John McCain and his impetuous nature as it is to the (soon to be) former governor of Alaska. I think we all knew that Sarah Palin was a bit insane and certainly not qualified to be vice president, but good God, this piece exposes her as a bona fide whacko.

I particularly enjoyed the following tidbit about Alaska and I can say with some certainty that we won’t be seeing a national political figure from that state again in my lifetime.

The first thing McCain could have learned about Palin is what it means that she is from Alaska. More than 30 years ago, John McPhee wrote, “Alaska is a foreign country significantly populated with Americans. Its languages extend to English. Its nature is its own. Nothing seems so unexpected as the boxes marked ‘U.S. Mail.’” That description still fits. The state capital, Juneau, is 600 miles from the principal city, Anchorage, and is reachable only by air or sea. Alaskan politicians list the length of their residency in the state (if they were not born there) at the top of their biographies, and are careful to specify whether they like hunting, fishing, or both. There is little sense of government as an enduring institution: when the annual 90-day legislative session is over, the legislators pack up their offices, files, and computers, and take everything home. Alaska’s largest newspaper, the Anchorage Daily News, maintains no full-time bureau in Juneau to cover the statehouse. As in any resource-rich developing country with weak institutions and woeful oversight, corruption and official misconduct go easily unchecked. Scrutiny is not welcome, and Alaskans of every age and station, of every race and political stripe,unself-consciously refer to every other place on earth with a single word: Outside.

So, of all the puzzling things that Sarah Palin told the American public last fall, perhaps the most puzzling was this: “Believe me, Alaska is like a microcosm of America.”

Believe me, it is not.

The Palin piece came out just a few days before she inexplicably decided to resign as governor, which makes this article seem even more bizarre. It’s well worth the read if you’re at all interested in the previous election. There are also quite a few head-scratchers and chuckles in there.

Bill Simmons recently described Michael Lewis as “the Albert Pujols of writers.” If you’re not familiar with contemporary journalism or baseball, this means that Lewis is unbelievably prolific and a threat to hit it out of the park at any moment. I think I’ve read half a dozen exemplary pieces by him in the last six months (his overview of the financial crisis in Portfolio magazine was terrific).

In The Man Who Crashed the World, Lewis focuses on a man named Joseph Cassano, the head of A.I.G. Financial Products. While it’s impossible to blame a single person or organization for the mess we’re in, Michael Lewis makes a compelling case, albeit with a bit of journalistic sensationalism, that Joe Cassano is the reason why seven of your friends got laid off this year.

As recently as August 2007, A.I.G. F.P. traders were feeling almost smug: all these loans made in 2006 and 2007 were going bad, but the relatively more responsible 2005 vintage that they had insureddidn’t look as if it would suffer any credit losses. They were, they thought, the smart guys at the poker table. Joe Cassano even went on an investor conference call and said, famously, “It is hard for us, without being flippant, to even see a scenario within any kind of realm of reason that would see us losing $1 on any of thosetransactions.”

And yet the A.I.G. F.P. traders left behind, much as they despise him personally, refuse to believe Cassano was engaged in any kind of fraud. The problem is that they knew him. And they believe that his crime was not mere legal fraudulence but the deeper kind: a need forsubservience in others and an unwillingness to acknowledge his own weaknesses. “When he said that he could not envision losses, that we wouldn’t lose a dime, I am positive that he believed that,” says one of the traders. The problem with Joe Cassano wasn’t that he knew he was wrong. It was that it was too important to him that he be right. More than anything, Joe Cassano wanted to be one of Wall Street’s big shots. He wound up being its perfect customer.

Oddly enough, I think there’s a common theme in these two seemingly unrelated pieces: the fundamental personality flaws that lead to bad decision making exist at all levels of society.

John McCain couldn't field a staff that was capable of properly vetting a vice presidential candidate; that is, the person who would stand a fairly good chance of rising to the most powerful elected office in the entire world. McCain himself failed to properly weigh his options, and while it's impossible to know how much of an effect the Palin pick had on the election, I think most people would agree that it didn't help the Republican cause (thanks Sarah!).

The architects of the global financial system have created a machine that processes unfathomable amounts of money each day, yet a lone despotic sociopath in an obscure unit of a single investment bank managed to slow the world's economy to a screeching halt. (There's that sensationalism again).

The lesson: Never assume that people know what they're doing, and the more they act like they know what's happening, the more dubious you should be.

P.S. 22 Chorus

2009-07-06T22:40:00.004-04:00

Try to spend a few minutes watching the 5th graders from Staten Island's P.S. 22 sing Coldplay, Fleetwood Mac and Crowded House, and not get goosebumps.

New York Magazine just did a short piece on them that focuses way too much on Perez Hilton and Lady Gaga, but it's interesting nonetheless.

An Infographic Tribute to MJ

2009-07-06T11:59:00.001-04:00

A map of Michael Jackson songs that have been sampled by other musicians.

Nadal. Federer. Nadal. Federer.

2009-06-22T20:26:00.005-04:00

They're both fantastic and they're the only two reasons to watch men's tennis these days.

Federer was profiled by David Foster Wallace back in 2006, and it's safe to say that very few other 21st century authors could have properly captured the grace and artistry of this man's game.

Although not as splendid as DFW's piece, Cynthia Gorney wrote a wonderful profile of Rafael Nadal in this week's New York Times Sunday Magazine. As I was reading about Nadal I thought about the Federer article and I found it interesting that two of the best pieces of sports journalism in the past 5 years were written about these two tennis players who have occupied the number one and two spots in the world rankings during that time period.

Were they just particularly good subjects? Does tennis as a sport lend itself to more literary sports journalism? Was it just a coincidence?

The sports website Deadspin made the point I was searching for:

With this story, The Times Magazine — and its Play, R.I.P. — has published two of the finest long-form profiles of Nadal and Roger Federer. What's more, the authors of the profiles (Gorney, a creative writing professor, and the late David Foster Wallace, he of no further introduction), are not sportswriters but writer's writers.
And those running a sports magazine could take yet another hint from this type of standard: Sometimes, it pays to turn your pages over to outsiders. Not all the time, mind you, but sometimes, for a fresh take. They might not know anything about sports — still, DFW did — but they can make sentences cha-cha real smooth. Or squirt a variety of juices in your face.

That's what matters most.

So true. Some of my favorite pieces of sports writing were written by the likes of John Updike, David Foster Wallace and David Halberstam. While all of these writers clearly had a passion for sports, they were, as Deadspin points out, "writer's writers."

Senior Discount

2009-06-19T17:18:00.005-04:00

Senior Discount is a band from Warren, RI that's comprised of four close friends of mine: Chuck Staton, Christian Staton, Alan Sousa and Tom Wells. They've been together since we were in high school and I think they've managed to produce an incredible amount of consistently creative content over the years in the form of music, film, art, performance, writing, etc.

Anyway, Senior Discount recently released a new EP and it's available as a free download on their website, www.seniordiscountmusic.com. It's a pretty strong album that really shows off their range and creativity. The EP features six original tracks, including a bluegrass version of one of their classic songs, as well as a cover of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. It's free. It's fun. What are you waiting for? Just check it out.

In addition to the music, they've also managed to create some fantastic short films over the years (and one feature length), which are also freely available on their website. Me and my disturbingly bad acting make a few appearances. Their most recent video, Mexico City Standoff, really shows off Chuck's increasingly sophisticated touch behind the camera and in the editing room. Nicely done.

Also, Chuck does a weekly podcast called "Agreeing to Disagree" with another friend of ours, Brad Rohrer. You can subscribe to it on iTunes or find it on the Senior Discount website. For a real treat, check out episode 15 to hear me discuss topics ranging from time travel to Dane Cook. It's like having a one-sided, hour and forty minute conversation with Aaron Arcello!

Mexico City Stand-Off - watch more funny videos

New York City Homicides

2009-06-19T14:10:00.003-04:00

Back to back map posts. Whatever.

This is a pretty cool interactive map from the Times that allows you to filter homicide incidents by month, age, weapon, race, etc. I'm happy to see that there haven't been any murders in my zip (10009) since last year, although back in the day I heard the Mackerill and Gas House gangs used to bring the ruckus.

US States As Countries of Equal Population

2009-06-19T11:52:00.001-04:00

An interesting and colorful map. Rhode Island is represented by East Timor, which is fitting since it was a Portuguese colony.

Photo Essay: Iran's Disputed Election

2009-06-15T16:30:00.001-04:00

Boston.com does an excellent job here.

There's also some great pictures available via Twitter.

...the Iranian government is trying to shut down all practical formats of electronic communication in order to discourage political organizing/reporting. The way that they do so is by limiting bandwidth to a point where it’s virtually impossible to access the internet – users get timed out of websites or are faced to wait a year and a day for a site to load.
It appears that the relatively inane simplicity of Twitter is defeating that tactic because of its simple format and 140 character limits. Essentially, the thing that I hate most about Twitter (it’s attempts to limit information and denigrate the English language by forcing people to use maligned acronyms and text speak) is actually working to dissident Iranians advantage.

The Breaks of the Game

2009-06-12T16:53:00.005-04:00

Why did I just read 450 pages about the 1979 Portland Trailblazers? Because David Halberstam is one of the most magnificent writers of the 20th century and he beautifully tells the tale of a young team and a tumultuous season that transcends American sport. This is the story of a Trailblazers organization that is just two years removed from a magical championship season, and is now being torn apart due to trades, injuries, contractual strife and racial acrimony.

My favorite contemporary sports writer, Bill Simmons, often raves about The Breaks of the Game as being the finest sports book ever written. I agree. We'll probably never again see such a comprehensive study of a professional American sports team. Players can't be bothered with extended interviews and organizations are far too guarded to grant even a legendary journalist the kind of access that Halberstam had - the stakes are just too high now.

Anyway, if a 450 book by Halberstam seems like a bit too much, I'd recommend reading one of the last articles he wrote before he passed away in 2007. It's a Vanity Fair piece called The History Boys, and it's one of my all time favorites. Enjoy.

I Wish You Way More Than Luck

2009-06-10T14:28:00.004-04:00

My little sister is graduating from high school this weekend, and I intend to give her this. It's a commencement speech that David Foster Wallace delivered at Kenyon College in 2005. I've passed this on to several friends, and they have all enjoyed it very much.

The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day.
That is real freedom. That is being educated, and understanding how to think. The alternative is unconsciousness, the default setting, the rat race, the constant gnawing sense of having had, and lost, some infinite thing.

I know that this stuff probably doesn’t sound fun and breezy or grandly inspirational the way a commencement speech is supposed to sound. What it is, as far as I can see, is the capital-T Truth, with a whole lot of rhetorical niceties stripped away. You are, of course, free to think of it whatever you wish. But please don’t just dismiss it as just some finger-wagging Dr. Laura sermon. None of this stuff is really about morality or religion or dogma or big fancy questions of life after death.

The capital-T Truth is about life BEFORE death.

It is about the real value of a real education, which has almost nothing to do with knowledge, and everything to do with simple awareness; awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us, all the time, that we have to keep reminding ourselves over and over:

“This is water.”

“This is water.”

It is unimaginably hard to do this, to stay conscious and alive in the adult world day in and day out. Which means yet another grand cliché turns out to be true: your education really IS the job of a lifetime. And it commences: now.

I wish you way more than luck.

Web Comics Revisited

2009-05-30T20:25:00.003-04:00

A couple of months ago I wrote a post about web comics. Well, I've added another one to my Google Reader, and its creator is a friend of mine. Check it out at www.doombucket.com.

Conspicuous Conservation

2009-05-30T19:26:00.003-04:00

I've heard this phrase a few times recently and I love it.

It's a contemporary twist on "conspicuous consumption", a concept introduced by a somewhat obscure, but very interesting economist by the name of Thorstein Veblen.

Conspicuous consumption is a term used to describe the lavish spending on goods and services acquired mainly for the purpose of displaying income or wealth. In the mind of a conspicuous consumer, such display serves as a means of attaining or maintaining social status.

Veblen articulated this concept in his 1899 book, The Theory of the Leisure Class. Although the concept was invented to describe the exuberance of his day, it could just as easily apply to the decadence of the 1990's tech boom,and might be the key factor in the subprime mortgage crisis.

Wall Street ruled the 90's and most of the 2000's. People who provided very little tangible value to society were heralded as geniuses and envied by nearly everyone. The modern day robber barons spent lavishly, partied hard and projected an image of infallibility. They created an entire new market for over-the-top goods and services, which inexplicably created public fascination, rather than a public outcry. Not only were these people purchasing obscenely unnecessary luxuries, but the average citizen was watching them do it on countless reality TV shows, magazine features, and internet sites. Americans of limited means emulated these folks and soon became mired in debt. The appearance of wealth and status could be purchased via credit card loan.

That was then. Now the market is in relative shambles, millions of Americans are out of work and it's no longer chic to display one's grotesque wealth. Now, "conspicuous conservation" is the name of the game. Considerations of thrift and environmentalism are now lauded as "recession chic". Is this a good or a bad thing?

Well, from a personal responsibility and environmental standpoint, it's great (although many people are being driven to these practices not out of altruism but by trendsetting). However, from a national economic perspective it might be bad in the short term. Much of the waste that was created over the past decades of irrational exuberance funded development and created millions of jobs. It's an interesting way to think about our cyclical economy.

How does the economy get better? Hopefully not with a return to conspicuous consumption, because that model is simply unsustainable and ultimately destructive. Our current era of conspicuous conservation is not the solution either, but it might well be the first step towards one. If this economic malaise lasts for a while, and trendy frugality evolves into a legitimate practice, then perhaps we can move our economy where it needs to go, that is, shift the workforce and prioritize new and sustainable sectors.

Homage Shirts

2009-05-29T10:06:00.003-04:00

There's an 88% chance that I'll be purchasing the Archie Griffin tee.

The full line of vintage goodness is here.

Maps of Countries That Use Things or Do Something a Certain Way

2009-05-18T22:33:00.001-04:00

Power plugs.

Metric System.

Driving Orientation.

Ducktales for Nintendo

2009-05-18T22:30:00.000-04:00

In retrospect, that soundtrack was off the hook.

Dead Man's Switch

2009-05-13T22:22:00.003-04:00

This seems a tad...macabre, paranoid...smart? It's a free service that automatically sends email messages to preselected recipients in the event that "something happens to you."

Here's the deal:

How?
This is how this works. You write a few e-mails, and choose the recipients. These emails are encrypted with military-grade algorithms, so you can be sure that no-one except the intended recipient will ever read them. Your switch will email you every so often, asking you to show that you are fine by clicking a link. If something were to... happen... to you, your switch would then send the emails you wrote to the recipients you specified. Sort of an "electronic will", one could say.
When?

The emails are sent in configurable intervals. If you don't answer the first, you will get a second and a third one. If you don't answer those either, your switch will be activated. Of course, you can have your switch postpone its activation (if, for example, you'll be away for some time) by telling it to not try to contact you for a specified period of time.

subway systems of the world, presented on the same scale

2009-05-13T22:15:00.003-04:00

Great perspective. I'm also thrilled that the designer saw fit to include the entire PATH system along with the NYC subway. In fact, he went so far as to include the light rail into Jersey City.

I've ridden on the following subway systems:

London
Paris
Stockholm
Washington, DC
San Francisco
Los Angeles (apparently nobody else does)
Montreal (actually, that's a lie. my friends and I tried to find this elusive subway but it was like a phantom. nobody wanted to talk about it.)
Boston
Brussels

Another Google Killer?

2009-05-13T22:04:00.003-04:00

No, nothing can kill the Google, but Wolfram Alpha sounds intriguing. Check out the screenshots here. It's supposed to launch this month, but so far there's no word of the exact release date.

It's not exactly a "Google Killer" like Cuil* purported to be, but it looks as if it could occupy an interested niche somewhere between Google and Wikipedia. However, if I were the person behind Wolfram, I'd be terrified that Google would take one look at it and decide to throw $200 million behind the development of a superior competitor.

*O yea, remember Cuil? It was supposed to be awesome when it launched last summer, and thus far it's been an utter failure.

Update: Here's the first official screencast video from Wolfram Alpha. Looks pretty cool.

Good idea: Digsby

2009-05-13T21:58:00.003-04:00

Digsby is a single application that allows you to communicate through AIM, MSN, Yahoo, Google Talk, ICQ, Jabber, and Facebook Chat. Digsby also supports e-mail notifications and alerts from MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Also, you can rename the contacts whatever you like, and then link contacts who have multiple screenames across different IM clients. Very useful.

It's 100% free and you should download it immediately. I've been using it for about a year now and it just keeps improving.

Depraved Decadence

2009-05-04T23:00:00.004-04:00

Watching the Kentucky Derby this Saturday reminded me of one of my favorite articles of all time: The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved, by Hunter S. Thompson (full text here).

How often does the written word elicit a belly laugh? I wish I'd taken better note of this through the years, but I do know that this is an article that certainly made me laugh out loud more than once.

For another laugh-out-loud piece, try David Foster Wallace's A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again. The chess scene always cracks me up.

RI Pros

2009-05-01T18:54:00.001-04:00

O hey, it looks like prostitution is finally going to be outlawed in Rhode Island. One of the best kept secrets about my home state is that it's the only place in the US, aside from a few counties in Nevada, where prostitution is legal.

Most importantly, this new law will make it easier to prosecute the horrendous number of human trafficking crimes that occur within Rhode Island's borders.

French on US

2009-04-25T22:11:00.003-04:00

The feature length content in Harper's Magazine has been hit or miss the last couple of years, but I consistently enjoy the short stuff at the front - the Index and Readings. This month, I was struck by a snippet by French essayist Charles Dantzig entitled “Liste des Américains," from his Encyclopédie capricieuse du tout et du rien, published in France last winter by Grasset &
Fasquelle. The encyclopedia explains the world in a series of 800 lists."

They are a people without balconies. Yet they cannot help interfering in other people’s business, according to the Protestant custom. And on courthouse steps one sees people brandishing signs that say, as if they knew, GOD HATES ABORTIONISTS. It is a country fascinated by lust.

Americans spend less time arguing over things than over the right to speak about those things.

It is the only country in the world where no one remains a foreigner. A person can go by the name of Zgrabenalidongsteinloff and no one will raise an eyebrow. “In New York there are no impossible names,” as I was told by a novelist whose name
raised the eyebrows of elegant racists in Paris. This is what makes everything possible. They walked on the moon because they are the moon. One admires their courtesy.

Anecdotal generalizations like this are usually specious and almost always obnoxious, but I found Dantzig's observations both insightful and charming.

His entire list is well worth reading, but unfortunately I can't link to it because it's behind a subscribers-only wall.

Blogging at 30,000

2009-04-25T22:00:00.004-04:00

I'm currently enjoying my third flight this month aboard Virgin America, but this is the first time my plane has been equipped with WiFi - it's pretty cool. It costs $12.95 to connect, which isn't terrible considering it's a six hour flight. There hasn't been a single hiccup in the connection so far and the speed is good enough to stream videos on Hulu. I also ordered a delightful fruit and cheese platter and an Italian sandwich on focaccia bread. As a bonus, the flight is less than half full so I have an empty seat next to me. Throw in the leather seats, mood lighting and pleasant crew, and this has to be the best flight I've ever been on. The only negative so far is that half of the satelite television channels do not work, so I'm not able to watch ESPN's draft coverage.

Bravo Virgin America. Bravo.

South Park

2009-04-22T23:46:00.005-04:00

Every episode of season 13 (part 2) was superb. South Park remains among the most consistently funny and creative shows on television.

Mar 11, 09 - The Ring
Mar, 18 09 - The Coon
Mar, 25 09 - Margaritaville
Apr 1, 09 - Eat, Pray, Queef
Apr 8, 09 - Fishsticks
Apr 15, 09 - Pinewood Derby
Apr 22, 09 - Fatbeard

There were multiple belly laughs jokes in each of these episodes, and as always, the social commentary was intentionally heavy handed from both sides. I think Eat, Pray, Queef and The Ring standout as my favorites, but tonight's bonus episode about Somali pirates was brilliant too.

The nature of South Park's animation has allowed it to be more responsive to current events than virtually any other sitcom in history - cartoon or otherwise. While an episode of The Simpsons takes 4-6 months to create, a South Park episode can be animated in less than a week.

Also, they stream every episode for free at SouthParkStudios.com.

Olympic Design

2009-04-21T23:59:00.004-04:00

During a recent visit to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, I was delightfully surprised to stumble into a small exhibition on Otl Aicher's design work from the 1972 Munich Olympics. Aicher created some of the finest poster art I've ever seen, but his real genius is highlighted by the spectacular pictograms he created for each event.

I took a some photos of the exhibition. This site also has a nice survey of his work.

iGoogle Tweak

2009-04-20T23:50:00.001-04:00

If iGoogle isn't your homepage, then I don't know what to tell you. Anyway, here's a way to make it even better by eliminating that annoying space-wasting sidebar. Just change your link to:

http://www.google.com/ig?gl=all

(via Some Bits)

North Korea

2009-04-20T23:36:00.002-04:00

Kim Jong Il reigns over an isolationist wonder. These photos are chilling:

Renowned documentary photographer Tomas van Houtryve entered North Korea by posing as a businessman looking to open a chocolate factory. Despite 24-hour surveillance by North Korean minders, he took arresting photographs of Pyongyang and its people—images rarely captured and even more rarely distributed in the West. They show stark glimmers of everyday life in the world’s last gulag.

Also, North Korea has the fourth largest standing army in the world?

Time Travel Cheat Sheet

2009-04-19T23:15:00.002-04:00

Like most people, I've daydreamed about traveling back in time. However, I've often considered that after a certain date, my advanced education and knowledge of history would be rendered nearly useless. For example, as Back to the Future taught us, time traveling backwards 30-40 years can be quite profitable, especially if you bring along a sports almanac.

On the other hand, imagine if you were transported back to Colonial America circa 1650. What use would your knowledge of US history be? If you traveled to a time in the Middle Ages, you'd be aware of the scientific advances on the horizon, but would you have any practical knowledge in the ways of mechanics, chemistry and aviation? Could you create gun powder from scratch? Make steel? Build a flying machine? Probably not.

That's why you should never travel through time without one of these. Now you can build a quartz clock, radio, compass and air foil. Pretty cool.

Nintendo Hip Hop

2009-04-19T23:05:00.002-04:00

Enjoy the sweet sounds of Chamillionaire, Jay-Z and Kanye via 8-bit Nintendo sounds.

(via Kottke)

Tamil Tigers

2009-04-19T22:49:00.003-04:00

The Sri Lankan government maintains a Battle Progress Map of their campaign against the secessionist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The Tamil Tigers have been in the news more and more recently as they are apparently on the verge of being defeated after 33 years of guerrilla warfare.

This has been an extremely destructive rebellion (or civil war) that has waged for decades, so it's interesting to see the conflict portrayed in the style of Panzer General.

Fair and Balanced

2009-04-19T22:45:00.001-04:00

This screenshot collage sums up everything you need to know about Fox News.

Things You Never Knew Had Names

2009-04-19T22:40:00.003-04:00

Some might come up in everyday conversation:

15. KICK or PUNT - The indentation at the bottom of some wine bottles. It gives added strength to the bottle but lessens its holding capacity.

Others, not so much:

30. SPRAINTS - Otter dung.

The Visitor

2009-04-19T21:49:00.004-04:00

The Visitor is a terrific film that is driven by the spectacularly understated performance of Richard Jenkins. It'd be tough to give much of a summary without spoiling the plot, but the only thing you really need to know is that the story is a perfect vehicle for Jenkin's character to bare his soul.

I'd say it's definitely worth seeing, but with the following disclosures:

1. I'm somewhat biased because of Richard Jenkins' strong Rhode Island connections.

2. His character reminded me of a guy I used to work for.

Also, as good as Sean Penn was in Milk, I think Jenkins or Mickey Rourke were more deserving of the Best Actor Oscar.

Germany's Phantom Serial Killer/Cotton Swab Factory Worker

2009-03-30T14:15:00.004-04:00

Police in Germany have been hunting an elusive and prolific female serial killer based on DNA evidence linking her to the scenes of dozens of crimes. It turns out that the DNA in question probably belongs to a factory worker at the cotton ball production facility. The cotton has been used in the crime lab that was investigating the crimes.

Stars and Stripes

2009-03-30T14:05:00.002-04:00

Adrian Champion's mashup album, Stars & Stripes, combines the White Stripes with classic hip-hop tracks. It's definitely worth the free download.

(via Uncrate)

More Shepard

2009-03-18T14:42:00.003-04:00

I wrote a small entry about the Shepard Fairey exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, and now the New York Times has a nice piece about the show. Go now.

One Year

2009-03-16T20:06:00.004-04:00

Tehching Hsieh has done the following "one year performances"

1978–1979 - Lived in a cage with nothing but wash basin, pail and a bed. A friend brought him food and water, and photographed him each day, but no human interaction took place.
1980–1981 - Punched a time clock in his studio every single hour.
1981–1982 - Lived outdoors on the streets of NYC and did not set foot inside a vehicle or building of any kind.
1983–1984 - Tethered himself to another artist with an eight foot piece of rope, but did not physically touch her.
1985–1986 - Did not view, discuss or produce art.

Pretty incredible.

The catch is that for each piece Mr. Hsieh also established very particular living conditions that required absolute focus, discipline and dedication. These conditions give each piece a stripped down, shocking clarity — a single, obdurate form.
This form was extreme deprivation. For “Cage Piece” Mr. Hsieh deprived himself of nearly all contact with the world. In the next four pieces he eliminated, in succession, concentration, shelter, privacy and finally art itself. In each case he altered the nature of time radically for himself and, retrospectively, us.

Heathen Nation

2009-03-15T18:57:00.002-04:00

Here's USA Today doing what it does best by creating a colorful graph to showcase the results of a survey. In this case, it's actually interesting.

Having grown up in the only state with a Catholic majority, Rhode Island, I can say that I find the steep decline unsurprising. The Catholic Church has had a very rough couple of decades and in my opinion, the election of Cardinal Ratzinger to replace John Paul II was a tremendously arrogant move. Amidst fading prominence and allegations of abuse, the Counsel of Cardinals chose the oldest and most conservative candidate of the bunch. Why not a person of color, a younger man with new ideas, or somebody from the developing world?

Oscar Wao

2009-03-13T15:55:00.004-04:00

This book is about storytelling. It's told in the earnest, authentic vernacular of a Dominican immigrant with a flair for urban slang and science fiction allusions. Poorly executed, such a voice would come across as gimmicky and ineffective, but Junot Diaz assures that the narration is both heartfelt and real.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao chronicles the tragic love story of Oscar de Leon, as well as the cursed fortunes of his ancestors. While Oscar is the focal point of the novel, the story interweaves the heartbreaking tales his elders who endured great suffering under the despotic regime of Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo.

A few things:

Rafael Trujillo was a ruthless dictator that ruled the Dominican Republic from 1930 until his assassination in 1961. I'm sorry to say that I knew very little about La Era de Trujillo despite the nation's proximity and the fact that I have many Dominican friends. His regime was a classic cult of personality.
The historical perspective coupled with a conversational tone create a rich and personal history of Oscar's family. Effectively, the reader feels the weight of three generations of anguish culminate with Oscar's demise. Very moving.
I loved the fantasy and sci-fi allusions. Some of them I didn't get, but most of them were very effective. Diaz described a character as "taking Gollum-like pity" on somebody.

A worthy winner of last year's Pulitzer Prize for Literature.