It's wonderful to look into your eyesFree Download: "It's Wonderful" - Amazon.com
And realize you care a little bit
It's wonderful to know that you love me
It's glorious to feel that I'm a part of you sweetheart
To share your happiness
It's marvelous how lovely love can be
Who dreamed that I'd be allowed
Through the doorway of heaven
I'm drifting high on a cloud
You're an angel and this is heaven
It's wonderful to have your lips divine combined with mine
And dream forever more
It's wonderful to know that you love me
08 October 2005
It's Wonderful
The text for today's lesson comes from the late 1930s... it's Ella Fitzgerald and her Savoy Eight performing "It's Wonderful."
07 October 2005
The return of Wallace and Gromit
Carrie and I are huge fans of Nick Park and Aardman Animation Studios... and I'm not ashamed to say that we've been counting the days until the release of the first feature-length Wallace and Gromit film, "The Curse of the Were-Rabbit."
So you can imagine how delighted I was when Carrie e-mailed me a link to A.O. Scott's rave review of the new W&G movie, which includes this rather incredible statment:
The film has just opened in New York and Los Angeles, and goes into wide release October 25th.
I think I have plans for Sunday afternoon... ideally, this sort of film would be seen with a small, giggling child, but as I tend to turn into a small giggling child myself while watching Aardman films, this should present no major logistical problems.
A New Challenge for an Englishman and His Dog (A.O. Scott, New York Times, 5 October 2005)
So you can imagine how delighted I was when Carrie e-mailed me a link to A.O. Scott's rave review of the new W&G movie, which includes this rather incredible statment:
[Gromit the Dog's] feature film debut, after appearances in three sublime half-hour shorts, is thus a solemn occasion (even if the movie itself is utterly silly). His face now enters the pantheon of stars whose charisma transcends speech - Keaton, Chaplin, Garbo - let them now make room for Gromit.
Welcome to the pantheon.
(Can a knighthood be far behind?)
(Can a knighthood be far behind?)
The film has just opened in New York and Los Angeles, and goes into wide release October 25th.
I think I have plans for Sunday afternoon... ideally, this sort of film would be seen with a small, giggling child, but as I tend to turn into a small giggling child myself while watching Aardman films, this should present no major logistical problems.
A New Challenge for an Englishman and His Dog (A.O. Scott, New York Times, 5 October 2005)
How Dad is doing these days
Dad is sleeping a lot of the time now; he is increasingly confused and disoriented, unfortunately, and does not always know who we (me, other relatives, his caregivers) are.
We did have a minor victory the other night; he had been struggling for days to tell us the name of some kind of soft-drink that he wanted, but he couldn't come up with the name or even describe it much. We had named every kind of soda and cola that we could think of, including some regional Southern and North Carolina brands like Cheerwine and Sun-Drop, but no, none of them were it.
Finally he remembered. He wanted a Grape NeHi.
Object of desire.
Y'all, if I had had to go to Mars to get him a Grape NeHi I guess I would have. But while you can still order it over the Internet, apparently, they sure don't sell it around here.
So I bought him some grape soda, anyway, and fixed him a glass of it. He got a big smile on his face as he sipped it out of the straw. "Is it good, Pop?" I asked him. 'It's just like I remembered it!" he said happily.
So if you're ever in this situation, I can tell you that Fanta Grape tastes a lot like Grape NeHi, apparently.
We did have a minor victory the other night; he had been struggling for days to tell us the name of some kind of soft-drink that he wanted, but he couldn't come up with the name or even describe it much. We had named every kind of soda and cola that we could think of, including some regional Southern and North Carolina brands like Cheerwine and Sun-Drop, but no, none of them were it.
Finally he remembered. He wanted a Grape NeHi.
Object of desire.
Y'all, if I had had to go to Mars to get him a Grape NeHi I guess I would have. But while you can still order it over the Internet, apparently, they sure don't sell it around here.
So I bought him some grape soda, anyway, and fixed him a glass of it. He got a big smile on his face as he sipped it out of the straw. "Is it good, Pop?" I asked him. 'It's just like I remembered it!" he said happily.
So if you're ever in this situation, I can tell you that Fanta Grape tastes a lot like Grape NeHi, apparently.
06 October 2005
Google declares war on Microsoft
The Courier-Mail (Brisbane, Australia): Google declares war on Microsoft [06oct05]
Internet search engine Google has declared war on Microsoft, announcing plans to launch free spreadsheet and word-processing software online.
Google has joined forces with US-based technology giant Sun Microsystems to allow web users to access Sun's OpenOffice from any personal computer.
Sun will offer Google's search toolbar with downloads of its free Java software, which now powers more than 2.5 billion gadgets around the globe, including 700 million PCs."
Disquiet interviews: Kenneth Kirschner
Disquiet: interviews: Kenneth Kirschner
New York-based composer Kenneth Kirschner is a believer. "If I have a religion in life," he says, "it's the iPod." Asked to detail the tenets of this faith, he quotes science-fiction writer William Gibson, who once noted, "The Walkman changed the way we understand cities." Gibson's much-referenced comment touches on how personal technology has allowed music to provide an unprecedented running commentary on everyday life, accompanying us in our heads as we make our way through the physical world, shaping perspective, mood and experience.Related site: KennethKirschner.com (where you can download many of his "fixed" compositions, as well as listen to Flash streaming audio of his "indeterminate" ones.)
If Gibson's futurist fiction is informed by technology, Kirschner's art is enabled by it. In Kirschner's case, that technology is Flash, the ubiquitous multimedia software language that powers countless Internet websites. Kirschner uses Flash to compose ever-changing pieces of music. These compositions generally consist of a set number of MP3s that are randomly layered simultaneously, and that can play for as long as the listener desires. A piece of music that is indeterminate — to borrow a word from John Cage, one of Kirschner's role models — has no inherent end.
I guess the blog doesn't count
More from the Campbell Archives.
Postcard received from author Madeleine L'Engle, who I dimly remember writing a gushing fan-letter to as a 13 year-old, confessing that I, too, wanted to be a writer when I grew up:
Postcard received from author Madeleine L'Engle, who I dimly remember writing a gushing fan-letter to as a 13 year-old, confessing that I, too, wanted to be a writer when I grew up:
Carter-era Catblogging
We're giving Mister Gato the week off from catblogging. Since I'm in Raleigh this week, and he's back in New York with Carrie and the Chows, his self-appointed duties as "man of the house" leave little time for modeling work.
But never fear, fans of feline-related bitmap graphics. While digging through some boxes of old papers and records the other night at Mom and Dad's house, I discovered, among other things, a huge bundle of unredeemed S&H Green Stamps... and... a treasure trove of family photographs, spanning a time-frame from the early 1950s to the present day. And I got busy with the scanner.
Everybody, meet Tippy. Tippy is the first cat who ever owned me; she joined our family when I was only three or four years old, and she was just about my best friend in the world.
Black cat, dark night, poor contrast.
The headline on the paper she's sitting next to reads "Carter
offers budget to curb U.S. growth," which puts the date around 1978.
(I almost titled this post "Malaise and the bad old days.")
In my childhood and early adolescence, I was a lonely little geek without many friends--the neighborhood consensus seemed to be that I was too weird to make much a of a playmate out of me--and I spent a lot of time sitting around and reading and listening to my parents' records on the stereo.
Tippy, a gentle soul and also a complete lap-baby, liked this just fine. There was always room in the chair for a cat, along with a child and his book(s). We must have passed hundreds, if not thousands, of hours in just such a configuration.
But never fear, fans of feline-related bitmap graphics. While digging through some boxes of old papers and records the other night at Mom and Dad's house, I discovered, among other things, a huge bundle of unredeemed S&H Green Stamps... and... a treasure trove of family photographs, spanning a time-frame from the early 1950s to the present day. And I got busy with the scanner.
Everybody, meet Tippy. Tippy is the first cat who ever owned me; she joined our family when I was only three or four years old, and she was just about my best friend in the world.
Black cat, dark night, poor contrast.
The headline on the paper she's sitting next to reads "Carter
offers budget to curb U.S. growth," which puts the date around 1978.
(I almost titled this post "Malaise and the bad old days.")
In my childhood and early adolescence, I was a lonely little geek without many friends--the neighborhood consensus seemed to be that I was too weird to make much a of a playmate out of me--and I spent a lot of time sitting around and reading and listening to my parents' records on the stereo.
Tippy, a gentle soul and also a complete lap-baby, liked this just fine. There was always room in the chair for a cat, along with a child and his book(s). We must have passed hundreds, if not thousands, of hours in just such a configuration.
05 October 2005
Famous in Moldova
Nations Joining With Nations: Using "Statehood" To Improve Your Position (EuroJournal.org)
Abstract: International agreements are ways to gain advantages in exchange for aspects of sovereignty. Smaller countries employ a variety of methods to band together and compete with larger countries. For the country considering joining a restrictive union, there is more than one option--and in the United States, several independent countries profited from becoming States within the union. The process of becoming a state has sometimes been prolonged, particularly with cultural differences; countries joining the European Union may see similar timelines. This process, and the relative advantages and disadvantages of joining a particular union, can prove useful for a country trying to negotiate optimal entry conditions.
Abstract: International agreements are ways to gain advantages in exchange for aspects of sovereignty. Smaller countries employ a variety of methods to band together and compete with larger countries. For the country considering joining a restrictive union, there is more than one option--and in the United States, several independent countries profited from becoming States within the union. The process of becoming a state has sometimes been prolonged, particularly with cultural differences; countries joining the European Union may see similar timelines. This process, and the relative advantages and disadvantages of joining a particular union, can prove useful for a country trying to negotiate optimal entry conditions.
Deadly 1918 Epidemic Linked to Bird Flu, Scientists Say - New York Times
Deadly 1918 Epidemic Linked to Bird Flu, Scientists Say - New York Times:
Two teams of federal and university scientists announced today that they had resurrected the 1918 influenza virus, the cause of one of history's most deadly epidemics, and had found that unlike the viruses that caused more recent flu pandemics of 1957 and 1968, the 1918 virus was actually a bird flu that jumped directly to humans.
The work, being published in the journals Nature and Science, involved getting the complete genetic sequence of the 1918 virus, using techniques of molecular biology to synthesize it, and then using it to infect mice and human lung cells in a specially equipped, secure lab at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
The findings, the scientists say, reveal a small number of genetic changes that may explain why the virus was so lethal. The work also confirms the legitimacy of worries about the bird flu viruses that are now emerging in Asia.
Great Obituaries
The International Society of Obituarists maintains a running list (and an archive) of great obituraries.
Unsurprisingly, British newspapers are disproportionately over-represented.
Unsurprisingly, British newspapers are disproportionately over-represented.
Keeping Jews out of Harvard
So it turns out--if you believe Malcolm Gladwell, and he makes a pretty compelling case--that the modern college admissions process, with its emphasis on "character" as well as grades and test scores, was pretty much designed to allow the Ivy Leagues to keep themselves from being overrun by Jewish students:
In 1905, Harvard College adopted the College Entrance Examination Board tests as the principal basis for admission, which meant that virtually any academically gifted high-school senior who could afford a private college had a straightforward shot at attending. By 1908, the freshman class was seven per cent Jewish, nine per cent Catholic, and forty-five per cent from public schools, an astonishing transformation for a school that historically had been the preserve of the New England boarding-school complex known in the admissions world as St. Grottlesex.The solution? Read on: Getting In: The Social Logic of Ivy League Admissions (The New Yorker, October 10, 2005)
As the sociologist Jerome Karabel writes in “The Chosen” (Houghton Mifflin; $28), his remarkable history of the admissions process at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, that meritocratic spirit soon led to a crisis. The enrollment of Jews began to rise dramatically.By 1922, they made up more than a fifth of Harvard’s freshman class. The administration and alumni were up in arms. Jews were thought to be sickly and grasping, grade-grubbing and insular. They displaced the sons of wealthy Wasp alumni, which did not bode well for fund-raising. A. Lawrence Lowell, Harvard’s president in the nineteen-twenties, stated flatly that too many Jews would destroy the school: “The summer hotel that is ruined by admitting Jews meets its fate . . . because they drive away the Gentiles, and then after the Gentiles have left, they leave also.”
So what do you have to do to find happiness?
So what do you have to do to find happiness? - Sunday Times - Times Online
Excerpt:
I have always thought that Hobbes' description of the life of man in the state of nature--"solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short"--would make an excellent name for a law firm.
"Anger, Fear, Disgust and Sadness LLC" gives it a fair run for its money.
I digress. The excerpt quoted above is from a really fascinating article on the subject of happiness: what it is, how it can be measured, and how it can be attained. Happiness seems to have a very sound neurological and biochemical basis, unsurprisingly, and some very bright people seem to be closing in on understanding it.
Here's an irresistible detail on what works, in terms of increasing your happiness:
It is glib and reductive, but I have always conceptualized happiness as a rather simple equation (this isn't original, but I'm damned if I can find an authoritative citation for the original source):
Happiness = (reality - expectations)
In other words, the amount of happiness that you are experiencing can be expressed as the "amount" by which the perceived quality of your current situation meets or exceeds what it is that you want. This seems to suggest that you could be happy all the time if you abandon your expectations, which, you know, I think I may have heard somewhere before.
Related site: Dan Kohn's Happiness Page (he also likes the Happiness Equation)
Excerpt:
Although most people rate themselves as happy, there is a wealth of evidence to show that negative thinking is deeply ingrained in the human psyche. Experiments show that we remember failures more vividly than successes. We dwell on what went badly, not what went well. When life runs smoothly, we're on autopilot — we're only in a state of true consciousness when we notice the stone in our shoe.The ruthless evolutionary logic of being a sad-sack. Whew.
Of the six universal emotions, four — anger, fear, disgust and sadness — are negative and only one, joy, is positive. (The sixth, surprise, is neutral.) According to the psychologist Daniel Nettle, author of Happiness, and one of the Royal Institution lecturers, the negative emotions each tell us 'something bad has happened' and suggest a different course of action. Fear tells us danger is near, so run away. Anger prompts us to deter aggressors. Sadness warns us to be cautious and save energy, while disgust urges us to avoid contamination."
Joy, according to Nettle, simply tells us, "something good has happened, don't change anything". The evolutionary role of pleasure was to encourage activity that was good for survival, such as eating and having sex. But unlike negative emotions, which are often persistent, joy tends to be short-lived. We soon get sick of cream cakes or blasé about our pay rise.
I have always thought that Hobbes' description of the life of man in the state of nature--"solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short"--would make an excellent name for a law firm.
"Anger, Fear, Disgust and Sadness LLC" gives it a fair run for its money.
I digress. The excerpt quoted above is from a really fascinating article on the subject of happiness: what it is, how it can be measured, and how it can be attained. Happiness seems to have a very sound neurological and biochemical basis, unsurprisingly, and some very bright people seem to be closing in on understanding it.
Here's an irresistible detail on what works, in terms of increasing your happiness:
In one internet study, two interventions increased happiness and decreased depressive symptoms for at least six months. One exercise involves writing down three things that went well and why, every day for a week. The other is about identifying your signature strengths and using one of them in a new and different way every day for a week. A third technique involves writing a long letter to someone you're grateful to but have never properly thanked, and visiting them to read it out in person.My thoughts:
It is glib and reductive, but I have always conceptualized happiness as a rather simple equation (this isn't original, but I'm damned if I can find an authoritative citation for the original source):
Happiness = (reality - expectations)
In other words, the amount of happiness that you are experiencing can be expressed as the "amount" by which the perceived quality of your current situation meets or exceeds what it is that you want. This seems to suggest that you could be happy all the time if you abandon your expectations, which, you know, I think I may have heard somewhere before.
Related site: Dan Kohn's Happiness Page (he also likes the Happiness Equation)
Ning
Ning is a web-based toolkit for building "social applications."
Ning is a free online service (or, as we like to call it, a Playground) for people to build and run social applications. Social "apps" are web applications that enable anyone to match, transact, and communicate with other people.All right, then, y'all. Go get yourself a beta developer account, and let us know if you come up with anything really cool. (Check out this prototype for a restaurant review site, with maps thoughtfully provided automagically by Google.)
Our goal with Ning is to see what happens when you open things up and make it easy to create, share, and discover new social apps. These might include for any city, your own take on Craigslist...for any passion, your own take on Match.com...for any interest, your own take on Zagat...for any event, your own take on Flickr...for any school, your own take on the Facebook...for any topic, your own take on del.icio.us...for any mammal, your own take on Hot or Not or Kitten War.
You choose the app, decide for whom it's most relevant, create the categories, define the features, choose the language - or just clone an app that's already up and running on Ning - and be on your way.
A perfectly cromulent article
Wikipedia: Made-up Words in The Simpsons
Skittlebrau, n. Skittlebrau is a type of beverage that looks like beer with candy floating in it. It is implied that Homer imagined it by mixing Skittles and beer (brew in German is bräu) in "Bart Star". However, later episodes show Skittlebrau as an actual product being sold at the 33 cent store. Another episode shows Homer asking Apu for some at the Kwik-E-Mart, only for Apu to tell him that it does not exist. It is assumed the combination derives from the known phrase Life is not all beer and skittles from E. Cobham Brewer.Hat tip: ScreenheadThis has been tried in the real world, here among other places.
A real band named Skittlebrau toured in the southeastern U.S. during 2002, composed of Zak Frentz, Ed Dean, Jesse Edgerton, and Ryan Lohbauer.
04 October 2005
Seven years
October 4, 1998 was a cool, foggy morning with a hint of drizzle. Carrie and I woke up early and took a quiet walk together from our West Village neighborhood down to the Hudson River, strolling through a yet-to-be gentrified and decidedly unhip Meatpacking District to get there.
We had a pretty crazy, overscheduled day ahead of us, and wanted a little time to ourselves. With cups of deli coffee in our hands, we stood on the bank of the Hudson and watched the sun rise over New Jersey. And shortly thereafter, we saw a rainbow, an actual rainbow.
A good omen.
A little later that morning, we schlepped downtown, signed the ketubah, and then, in front of about seventy-five of our closest friends and loved ones and a pretty good jazz combo, we got hitched. The jazz players, whom we had hired for their facility with Cole Porter and Jimmy Van Heusen standards, actually managed an entirely credible (and unasked-for) "Hava Nagila" in a style that can only be described as Cocktail Lounge Klezmer.
After we did a little drinking and dancing, fed everybody brunch, and sent them off to their respective homes, we went back to our tiny little apartment. A few hours later, having sent our youthful Chows to sleepaway camp and packed our bags for our honeymoon flight to Paris, we were sitting in the living room in our pajamas, eating takeout Chinese and giggling over The Simpsons on cable.
(Yes, I know, I'm the last of the red-hot lovers. But believe me, just being in the same room with Carrie is pretty blissful, and I'd give just about anything if I could hang out with her and watch stupid cartoons tonight.)
A situation with my parents (I'm in North Carolina at the moment) means we're apart on our anniversary today. But I'm thinking of you, dearest one, and this has been the best seven years of my life, without a shadow of a doubt. I do love you so. And I'll be home Sunday.
The happy couple
San Francisco, summer 2004
We had a pretty crazy, overscheduled day ahead of us, and wanted a little time to ourselves. With cups of deli coffee in our hands, we stood on the bank of the Hudson and watched the sun rise over New Jersey. And shortly thereafter, we saw a rainbow, an actual rainbow.
A good omen.
A little later that morning, we schlepped downtown, signed the ketubah, and then, in front of about seventy-five of our closest friends and loved ones and a pretty good jazz combo, we got hitched. The jazz players, whom we had hired for their facility with Cole Porter and Jimmy Van Heusen standards, actually managed an entirely credible (and unasked-for) "Hava Nagila" in a style that can only be described as Cocktail Lounge Klezmer.
After we did a little drinking and dancing, fed everybody brunch, and sent them off to their respective homes, we went back to our tiny little apartment. A few hours later, having sent our youthful Chows to sleepaway camp and packed our bags for our honeymoon flight to Paris, we were sitting in the living room in our pajamas, eating takeout Chinese and giggling over The Simpsons on cable.
(Yes, I know, I'm the last of the red-hot lovers. But believe me, just being in the same room with Carrie is pretty blissful, and I'd give just about anything if I could hang out with her and watch stupid cartoons tonight.)
A situation with my parents (I'm in North Carolina at the moment) means we're apart on our anniversary today. But I'm thinking of you, dearest one, and this has been the best seven years of my life, without a shadow of a doubt. I do love you so. And I'll be home Sunday.
The happy couple
San Francisco, summer 2004
03 October 2005
My thoughts on the Miers nomination
The Supremes, and the Republic, will survive Harriet Miers if she's confirmed; there have been plenty of mediocrities on the Supreme Court before and we've muddled through.
The sound that you hear from the far-right-wing blogosphere and traditional conservative media commentariat, however, is the sound of a bunch of extremist religious and cultural conservatives finally waking up to the fact that the Bush family has been using them like a cheap whore at a bachelor party.
For years now.
Poor paleocons. They were spoiling for a fight, and now they're all dressed up for Kulturkampf with no place go to. Bush has nominated a cipher, a person whose sole qualifications are a pair of X chromosomes and a demonstrated history of loyalty to Dubya.
I realize that this analogy may offend some, but it's just become too obvious to ignore:
Religious conservatives are to the Republican Party as African Americans are, largely, to the Democrats. The party makes extravagant promises to them, and a big show of caring about them, but rarely delivers anything important or substantial to them; they depend on them to vote as a bloc in their favor, because, you know, what are they gonna do, vote for "the other side?"
For all the noise that the Religious Right makes, and for all the apparent energy and enthusiasm that the GOP leadership devotes to kissing their collective asses, the Republican Party has yet to deliver on one single issue of primary importance to them. Not one.
And they won't, either. They need the scary issues like abortion and gay rights to stay active, so that they can rattle peoples' cages and whip them into a frenzy of check-writing indignation and get out the vote on Election Day.
You know, sooner or later, that's going to stop working.
Can you hear that? The sound of hoofbeats in the near distance?
The sound that you hear from the far-right-wing blogosphere and traditional conservative media commentariat, however, is the sound of a bunch of extremist religious and cultural conservatives finally waking up to the fact that the Bush family has been using them like a cheap whore at a bachelor party.
For years now.
Poor paleocons. They were spoiling for a fight, and now they're all dressed up for Kulturkampf with no place go to. Bush has nominated a cipher, a person whose sole qualifications are a pair of X chromosomes and a demonstrated history of loyalty to Dubya.
I realize that this analogy may offend some, but it's just become too obvious to ignore:
Religious conservatives are to the Republican Party as African Americans are, largely, to the Democrats. The party makes extravagant promises to them, and a big show of caring about them, but rarely delivers anything important or substantial to them; they depend on them to vote as a bloc in their favor, because, you know, what are they gonna do, vote for "the other side?"
For all the noise that the Religious Right makes, and for all the apparent energy and enthusiasm that the GOP leadership devotes to kissing their collective asses, the Republican Party has yet to deliver on one single issue of primary importance to them. Not one.
And they won't, either. They need the scary issues like abortion and gay rights to stay active, so that they can rattle peoples' cages and whip them into a frenzy of check-writing indignation and get out the vote on Election Day.
You know, sooner or later, that's going to stop working.
Can you hear that? The sound of hoofbeats in the near distance?
The Strata-Sphere » RINO Agents Reporting!
This week's batch of RINO Sightings may be perused at the Strata-Sphere.
I have long suspected that some of us were receiving signals directly from outer space.
I have long suspected that some of us were receiving signals directly from outer space.
John Dvorak:The New Music Download Battle
After finally discovering that money (lots of it) can be made from music downloads, the RIAA and some of its members are rethinking the entire concept, and the iTunes deal in particular. At least a few RIAA members think that Apple is double-dipping, because it makes most of its money selling the iPod and, well, that's not fair! So the music companies are rethinking—uh, complaining about—the whole downloading model.John Dvorak, PC Magazine: The New Music Download Battle
Hat tip: Rock and Rap Confidential newsletter
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