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Where, When, How Much, What Flavor.
A bunch of people I knew in college ventured up I-95 after college and became bankers in New York. I wished them well and hope to hannah they didn't end up like this.
I'm speechless. It's like some dark corner of 1983 come back to life. I've read this book before. He takes her home and disembowels her in the shower right?
Title: "Forgive Me"
Author: Amanda Eyre Ward
Synopsis: A journalist returns to South Africa, where she first worked as a younger woman, to investigate the truth and reconciliation hearing of an American murdered by a mob during the anti-apartheid protests of the 1980s.
Backstory: Amanda is a friend. Her first two novels are favorites of mine.
Verdict: Like everything Amanda touches, this book is beautifully written and breezy to read without feeling trite. Bizarrely though, I found the narrative confusing and disjointed. I didn't quite get why I should care about which character and got lost more than once in the flashbacks/forwards. I'm a little dense when it comes to these things so it might be entirely my own fault. But since I'm always excited to read something new from Amanda, I felt a bit let down.
I eagerly await book #4.
I care what this article actually says. I'm interpreting it as homework is a relic of an educational past. I'll be keeping an eye out for schools with a similar philosophy when my future kids (if they exist) are ready to be placed in school.
Any parents out there? What do you think?
I just heard an interview on KQED's Forum with Chip Conley founder of the San Francisco hotel chain Joie De Vivre that was one of most inspiring things I ever heard. I'm writing him a giant fan letter tomorrow.
"We could stretch our legs if we'd half a mind
But don't disturb us if you hear us trying
To instigate the structure of another line or two
Cause writing's lighting up
And I like life enough to see it through."
(Thought of after guest speaking to my friend Victoria's UCLA writing class. Thanks for having me everyone!)
"So when you reach the bottom line
The only thing to do is climb
Pick yourself up off the floor
Anything you want is yours."
--Big Audio Dynamite
The transmission of the crew of Apollo 17, the last men to set foot on the moon is one of the most beautiful moving things I've ever heard. Remember it was 1972. America was in the final gasp of Vietnam. Watergate was on the horizon, the cold war raged. And yet all you hear is curiosity, optimism, and boundless hope for our collective future.
I'm going to be listening this as we move into 2008, a new administration on the horizon, a renewed concern for the future of our planet and a reawakening of the belief, however naive, that we all, as John Kennedy once said, ""We all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal." (via Radio Lab).
"As I take man's last step from the surface, back home for some time to come — but we believe not too long into the future — I'd like to just [say] what I believe history will record — that America's challenge of today has forged man's destiny of tomorrow. And, as we leave the Moon at Taurus-Littrow, we leave as we came and, God willing, as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind. Godspeed the crew of Apollo 17."
– Eugene A. Cernan, Apollo 17 Commander
"The same rocket technology that delivers nuclear warheads has also taken us peacefully into space. From that perspective, we see our Earth as it really is -- a small and fragile and beautiful blue globe, the only home we have. We see no barriers of race or religion or country. We see the essential unity of our species and our planet; and with faith and common sense, that bright vision will ultimately prevail."
--President Jimmy Carter
This is the trailer for the movie Vantage Point, in theaters February 15. The screenwriter is Barry L. Levy, a close friend of mine from high school whom I am amazingly proud of.
I'd be interested to know what the folks at NYPL Labs think of this report that 13% of the material in the Library of Congress catalog can't be located. Would they laugh? shudder? Josh?
100 of the world's greatest klezmer musicians posed in front of the legendary Eldridge Street Synagogue in lower Manhattan. Inspired by the A Great Day in Harlem photograph, taken in 1958 and the subject of a great documentary.
(hear about on the Nextbook podcast).
"There is nothing easier than denouncing the evil doer, nothing more difficult than understanding him."
--Fydor Dostoevsky (via Criminal Minds)
Fans of the Pandora internet radio service should check out this month's issue of Inc. Magazine. Founder Tim Westergen is on the cover as part of a very interesting story about the company's future.
"The true terror of man lies first in his imagination"
--Joseph Conrad (as heard in Berkeley Rep's performance of "After the Quake")
Men's Weekend begins tomorrow so posting will be light until Monday.
Can't wait. It's only like the most fun weekend of the year.
Perfidious (adj.): Deceitful, underhanded
Usage: My vote for Best Perfidious Sports Moment (BPSM) goes to the Billy Martin Sucker Punch (BMSP).
I've been frightened of seeing classical music most of my adult life. Convinced attending a performance would be a perfect meeting of my three least favorite things (sitting still too long, wearing uncomfortable clothes and not understanding why), I stayed far away, feeling that if I didn't feel welcome, I didn't want in anyway.
This year I began dating a wonderful woman who is trained as a violinist. Classical music is her passion. I figured if she liked it, it couldn't be as soaked in snobbery as I thought and hell, relationships are about sharing interests, no? So I've been attending symphonies, learning about composers and realizing that music played by an orchestra can be downright thrilling. Especially if it's real loud, which I seem to favor. It's reinforced for me that classical music is not an offering on the altar of a dead art, to be worshiped then shuffled away from, head down.
Case in point: The San Francisco Conservatory of Music invited me and a bunch of local bloggers last weekend to the opening performance of their BluePrint Festival, which focuses on new music by living composers. It's the brainchild of Nicole Paiement, who conducted several of the pieces we saw.
While I didn't love all the music we heard, I was captivated by the idea of a living classical tradition, of musicians and listeners in dialog with composers as part of our contemporary culture. If the last decade in music has taught us anything, it's that the razor wire we used to hang between genres of music is now an illusion instead of a barrier. Asking "Is this pop/indie/hip-hop/electronic/classical is now a silly question. On a given album The Roots or Radiohead contain elements of all of these.
The performance we saw featured a piece by Philip Glass (whom I love) complete with multimedia visualizations, and an interpretation of a Rimbaud poem featuring vocals by spoken word artist WiseProof. Some of it lifted me out of my seat and some left me cold. But I did have a feeling we should all have in the presence of music but rarely do--that anything could happen and if it doesn't, we can imagine someone making it so. Next time. Or sooner.
Ms. Paiement said to be during the Q & A afterward "Art is a living thing. We're building a place for music to be talked about, thought about but most of all experienced. So don't worry if you don't "get it." What do you experience? How do you feel?"
What a blessed relief.
The Blueprint Festival has two more shows this season. Tickets are way affordable and there's about 90 places nearby to have dinner beforehand.
Congratulations to the staff of the San Francisco Conservatory and my fabulous girlfriend for making this possible. I look forward, in a little wonder and a lot of gratitude, as the possibilities of what's next.
Someday I will do something notable that will earn me admission into the Heeb 100. Until then, I will have to be content with congratulating friend and fellow Ann Arborite Davy Rothbart (second row, second from left) for his accomplishments.
Well done, old chum.
Trailer for the PBS Documentary Oswald's Ghost. Ever since I saw JFK as a high school student I've been fascinated by this story. Will be Tivoed this January along with the return of PBS's American Experience program.
"I never read a book I must review; it prejudices you so."
--Oscar Wilde (on his birthday).
Who knew that Oscar Wilde and Eugene O'Neill and had the same birthday? Wow (via The Writer's Almanac).
The Pink Panther (1963): "Is it me or did nothing happen for the first hour of the this movie?"
Seen: As part of my mission to see the entire AFI 400. Thought it would be as zany and madcap as A Shot in the Dark. It is not.
Happy birthday today to Virgil, Nietzsche, Italo Calvino and P.G. Wodehouse (via The Writers Almanac).
On the pathological need to be first on any internet relating commenting or discussion. Hilarious (via Enric).
Title: "Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came inTo Being and Why No One Saw it Coming"
Author: Paul Hawken
Synopsis: The godfather of green capitalism, Hawken did some rough calculations and found out there are more people worldwide working for social change than there are at Wal Mart.
Backstory: Hawken's idea that business can and should be a force for social good has always intrigued me as much as the fundamentalist "money-is-evil" attitude of my leftist brothers has revolted me. When I heard him on the radio (don't remember where) discussing how this book and how he sees this movement as an unalloyed endorsement of the progress our world is making, I had to see for myself.
Verdict: A wonder. Richly written, filled with research in history, biology and culture. Beautiful. Important. I'm just gushing now but I can't help myself. This book changed my life and inspired me to take part in the next however many years I'm alive on this planet. I hope Mr. Hawken some day, just so I can say thank you.
Read it. Please. I think you'll feel the same.
Reading and playing around with this week...
"Education is not meant to turn men into carpenters but carpenters into men."
Wow. And stop with the "Will he run?" business. Let the man enjoy his prize. And his life. He's having so much more fun as an ex-president than he ever would holding the job.
UPDATE: The LA Times, in this column, chose instead to focus on how Gore's reputation seems to rise inversely to the president's. Smart.
Ever wish you were whom you used to be?
According to the NY Times, Persian-born English novelist Doris Lessing has won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Lessing is 88, still writing and is the 11th woman to win the prize. Unlike most Nobel winners, you may have even heard of her.
"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do."
--Eleanor Roosevelt (whose birthday is today).
More evidence that San Francisco is where it's at: Wikipedia is leaving it's homebase of St. Petersburg, FL and moving here.
I'll pay top dollar for the first sighting of Jimmy Wales at the Apple Store. Or the gay pride parade.
Should those of us on the left coast not already have a swelled head, this story in the New York Times will put the topper on it. Apparently, we are leading the nation in recycling and related green efforts. And we're making money at it too.
The larger picture is that the West Coast is a recycling bellwether, given the emphasis placed on it in Washington, Oregon and California. That includes legislation in California that requires 50 percent of waste statewide to be recycled.
“People are just a little greener on the West Coast,” Mr. Croll said.
But there is a more practical reason for recycling’s success in the West. Seattle and the rest of the West Coast have Pacific Rim ports at their disposal, and freighters plying routes to Asia have found a profitable cargo in recycled paper, particularly for the Chinese market. Waste paper is now commanding about $90 a ton throughout the United States, which makes it possible to turn a profit by loading it onto ships instead of dumping it into landfills.
"You never when you've had enough until you've had more than enough."
If you needed any more proof that DRM (i.e. why you cant transfer a song you downloaded from iTunes to another computer) is dying, try Amazon's new DRM-free music store (where I will do all my music downloading from now on), check out Radiohead's new plan to offer their new album for download (DRM-free) for whatever you'd like to pay for it. And check out Yahoo Music VP of Product Development Ian Rogers's presentation "Convenience Wins, Hubris Loses" which says, without hesitation that Yahoo is no longer doing business with locked-down music or its providers.
Game over. We win. Nah Ne Nah Ne Boo Boo (via TechCrunch).
Gentlement Prefer Blondes (1953): "As the real star of this movie, Jane Russell wuz robbed!"
Seen: As part of Smokler's Sunday Cinema's salute to the great women of Hollywood.
Oh and if that wasn't enough, the entirety of the New Yorker Festival is available for free on iTunes.
Because you really needed more evidence that I'm the world's biggest nerd, I have a deep, abiding love for lectures. Nothing makes me happier than a long boring drive, the stale car air filled by an hour of a really smart person telling me about string theory. Or their new essay collection that I'll never read.
My moons ago I spotted a link to Listening to Words, a giant clearinghouse of free recorded lectures, on Jason Kottke's site, forgot to bookmark it and hated myself. But this week I stumbled back across it again and saw that they've added rss feeds for the newest and featured lectures.
Still not as convenient as it could be. Still doesn't let you create a podcast of the lectures you want and have them downloaded without having to seek them out. But its still a peek over the cliffs into my personal Brigadoon in the valley below: The voices of a thousand genius cooing "Kevin, listen. Let me teach you something."
Litquake, San Francisco's awesome literary festival, is in full swing. Check the schedule and find an event that works for you.
As someone whose less patient with readings that I'd like to admit, my heart leapt at this fabulous post by my friend Michelle Richmond on proper reading protocol.
Let’s face it, we’ve all been to those readings, at Litquake or
elsewhere, with four or five or six featured readers, where each person
is supposed to read for six minutes and some bozo reads for 15, or 20,
or blathers on for half an hour. No matter how wonderful you are,
unless you’re actually scheduled to read for half an hour, no one wants
you to read that long! The audience is getting antsy, and the other
authors are realizing that you think this is your event and
nobody else’s. And when people talk about it afterward, they’ll be
like, “Did you see so-and-so? I thought he was never going to get off
the stage!”
She's so much nicer about it than I am. I just get angry at the offending reader and swear to hate them forever.
My Litquake resolution: A dose of Ms. Richmond's light yet firm touch in dealing with tone-deaf bozos. Better than coming off as a tone deaf bozo yourself.
Prolix (adj): prolonged, protracted, wordy
Seen: In a fantastic column by Meghan Daum.
Feast of Love (2007): "Love is about courage, the courage to feel pain and the acceptance that it will occur."
Seen: At the glorious Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland, California.
Buffy-winning series (and yes, the best show on television) Friday Night Lights is back for its second season and (I would guess) continually in danger of being canceled. The premiere airs tonight at 9 on NBC.
If you haven't seen seen Friday Night Lights, you must. I know you don't care about high school football or dead-end towns in Texas. Neither do I. FNL is a show about relationships, marriages, friendship, loyalty, and betrayal. It is a human drama, a teenage Tennessee Williams play. It's largest audience is women and college graduates.
See it and see it again. I can't recommend it enough.
Bill Maher spells out why I don't own a pair of Crocs.
"Do we really need clothing we can hose down?"
Laloo's Ice Cream is made from goat's milk in Sonoma County just north of here. Uses evaporated cane juice instead of sugar.
According to their nutritional information, there are 4 servings per package, with 5 grams of fat and 14 of sugar per serving. A serving of Ben and Jerry's has about 13 grams of fat and 20 of sugar.
I haven't tried Laloo's and have no idea how it tastes. But if it's good, they may have cracked the riddle of the desert sphinx, something that's tasty and not terrible for you. No nutritionist is going to prescribe a daily dose of something with 14 grams of sugar. But maybe, just maybe....
Have you tried it? (via Buzzfeed).
I was fascinated by this story in the New York Times about Newark Mayor Cory Booker who is mentoring three high school students during his political tenure.
Unless his public schedule gets in the way, the mayor and the boys get together every weekend, usually on Friday nights, when they take in a movie and dinner. The mayor sometimes brings them to lectures or award dinners, and on many nights, they will end up back at City Hall playing the board game Risk until midnight.
On Sundays, after he drags them to morning church services, they loll around Mr. Booker’s apartment watching sci-fi movies and playing video games. Members of the mayor’s security team drive the boys to the outings and weekly tutoring sessions. Over time, they have become mentors as well.
I remember reading an interview with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom (same age as Booker, also single without kids) shortly after his election where he talked about working 14 hour days, barely eating and socializing only when the job demanded it. Booker is either better at time management, neglecting his mayoral duties, running a more manageable city. Maybe sleeping less?
I'm not sure. I'm just impressed.
"Not a shred of evidence exists in favor of the idea that life is serious."
--Brendan Gill (via The Writer Almanac).
I had business in Los Angeles this last weekend and my friend Jenny tagged along with me, to check out some art galleries and have some fine meals. A few stats from our trip.
Art galleries visited: 9
Enjoyed: 1 (Something's up with Bergamont Station. It went from being Los Angeles's greatest concentration of galleries to a sad knot of half-empty rooms where no one says hello to you when you come in).
Family members visited (collectively): 5
Old friends who canceled: 4 (Bad moon-alignment or something).
New restaurants dined at: 4 (Jenny raved about Ammo. Bloom was a new gem for me.)
Celebrity sightings: 5 (Dana Carvey on our plane down, Jay Mohr at the Brentwood Country Mart, Mike White in Kitson looking at overpriced clothes, Lauren Graham and David Caruso both eating at Ammo, but not together).
Speaking Gigs: 1
Hotels we both really liked: 1
New Favorite Airline: 1
Hours spent in traffic or looking for a place to park: 83 gabillion.
How glad we were to be back home: 83 gabilliionzillon.
Bookmark Now: Writing in Unreaderly Times edited by Kevin Smokler
