OK Go!

Happy Birthday Mom from Rio....
I wish you could see all this up close...

My Mom was born April 1, which is NOT April Fool's Day here (December 28th is, and they call it Day Of The Innocents) Ah Rio ....beats the hell out of my cubicle!


Speak of the Dictator... It was 40 years ago today Brazil saw a military coup that would last 21 years. Newspaper ran a special section which I found fascinating. Will talk more about this era when I'm back. It's something Americans never got the whole picture of....

Lovely scenery all around as the cab took us back and forth across the 10 miles of sprawling coastline that IS Rio de Janeiro. For those unfamiliar, 10-20 blocks from the beach are huge hills that are sharp, steep, and covered with vegetation, an explosion of green and brown. So Rio is very long and very thin at some points. The bay surrounding Rio is peppered with these same hills, jutting right up out of the water.


The largest of these is called Paõ de Açucar, or Sugarloaf, after its shape, and offers a gorgeous view to those who brave two successive cable car rides. Sugarloaf also houses a mini-zoo and mini-botanic garden.

We ate at Porcão, literally, Fat Pig, a meat restaurant arranged so that waiters keep bringing you different cuts of meat until you can eat no more. You then turn your green signal to red, and beg for coffee. Porcão has an amazing view of Sugarloaf. Here's Porcão from the inside

Of course, I just admired Rio's sights from afar, busy as I was exploring the wonders of Brazilian telecommunications, petroleum, and mining. Here's the building of Petrobras, the state oil company, a wonderful funky modernist assortment of cubes:

Tomorrow I have a day trip to Porto Alegre, about 600 miles south of here, halfway to Argentina, to see a steel company. Like the Argentines, people here call themselves "gauchos" and eat a lot of meat. Many Germans settled here in the 1800s, and there are many, many blonde people....


Friday, before leaving, I have a day trip to Belo Horizonte, about 400 miles north of here, to visit another steel company. People from this state, Minas Gerais, are legendary for being cautious, laconic, and stubborn. Minas was the cradle of Brazil's independence.




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Alice The Cook R.I.P.

This dish is called "Muqueca," fish, spices, and vegetables in a rich, thick broth. Many regions of Brazil claim its authorship, and each has a unique recipé. More good meetings today. People remember me. : - )

While I was busy having my diapers changed, in 1960, a newly-constructed Brasilia replaced Rio de Janeiro as Brazil's capital. President Juscelino Kubitschek (koobie-checkie) ran for President promissing to build this miracle city within four years. His good pal, modernist architect / visionary Oscar Niemeyer, created the basic design. But the seed was planted when Brazil became a republic in 1889 - I never knew this It was actually written into the constitution that a new capital was to be founded inland, to drag Brazil's population away from the coast (to this day, 85% of Brazil live within 150 miles of the Atlantic, even though Brazil is the size of the U.S. without Alaska.)

One huge irony of Brasilia is that even though its art and architecture are a valentine to progress, forward-thinking, and democratic institutions, Brazil became a dictatorship in 1964, just four years after Brasilia's inauguration, a situation which was to last 21 years and five dictators. Since the military always justified a coup with promises to reinstate democracy when "it was safe," these inscriptions were never altered, in Brazil or elsewhere. Incidentally, voting is compulsory in Brazil and in most of Latin America. It is considered a duty as much as a right.

Tomorrow I'm up at 5:30am, flight to Rio, four long meetings, and back to Sao Paolo at 7pm. If I post at all, it'll be brief. My hotel, L'Hotel (which they pronounce Ellie Hotellie) has cable TV, and I recieve the news in five languages. In all cases, the perspective seems more international and more balanced. We Americans, for all our world dominance, have a very inward, parochial perspective, reinforced by our media.... Alice The Cook, of course, is who Archie Bunker thought Mike and Gloria were referring to when they mentioned Alistair Cooke. : - )


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¡Feliz Cumple, Tomás!

Here's a plate of empanadas to celebrate... It's a funky morning in Brazil. In the atrium of our corporate HQ a throng of women are practicing Tai-Chi in gym suits. Steam is rising from the grey and white mosaic stones of the sidewalks as the Paulistas scurry off to work. On my menu today: beer and petrochemicals. More to follow...

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Good first day. Lots of hand-shaking, card-distributing, and self-promotion. Learned a lot about sewage management and had a great session with VCP, Brazil's leading paper company. This will intensify, especially Wednesday, with four meetings on a day trip to Rio.

Modernist Ghost Town

Digesting Brasilia (and lunch) Brasilia has some wonderfully creative modernist buildings, such as this Cathedral, but on the whole, as a city it left me cold. Perhaps the most strictly zoned capital on earth, Brasilia was built in the form of an airplane, with the government in the cockpit, residential sections in the wings, and commerce in the main cabin. Six-lane highways criss-cross around this outline, distances are enormous, leaving the pedestrian at a disadvantage. Thus, we have a car city where at least two-thirds of the people are probably too poor to own one.

Brasilia's glories are clustered around the "Plaza of The Three Powers" This refers to the three branches of government, represented by two out-sized pavillions with futuristic white columns that serve as the Presidential Palace and Supreme Court, and in between are the twin towers of Congress and their half-dome lawn ornaments. The grass-free concrete plaza also contains sculptures, a pantheon of national heroes, two museums, of which one contains a scale model of the city, and an odd brown pigeon shelter shaped like a clothespin.

Like so many dominoes, the dozen or so ministries are stacked up on both sides of the wide highway that leads to the Plaza. The ministries are identical white marble rectangles with green shutters, and on a Sunday there was almost nobody around, and it felt oddly like some eerie housing project right after a neutron bomb explosion. Two ministries, Justice and Foreign Affairs, have distinct and beautiful pavillions, the latter surrounded by a pond with greenery and sculpture. More on Brasilia to come...
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Getting Down To Business

It's going to be an action-packed week. My meetings are wall-to-wall, and all in Portuguese. My Brazilian co-workers are very nice. This morning we visited Sabesp, Sao Paolo's water and sewage company, housed in a beautiful modern chrome-and-glass building on red columns, near the University. You'll be happy to hear that Sao Paolo's two rivers, puny as they are, are becoming less polluted thanks to Sabesp, and the fish count is steadily rising. Next time, maybe we'll get to see the sewage plant. Lunchtime! I'm getting hungry. More later, especially about my Brasilia visit
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I made it to Brasilia! On my 17th visit to this country, I´ve final seen its capital. How can I describe it? The set of Star Trek IV? A gleaming white UNESCO-protected love letter to modernism? A white elephant of galactic proportions? A quirky curiosity? Failed urban planning? Probably, all of the above.. Further details when I'm back in Sao Paolo. Até logo, chauzinho....
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Run, Run, Run.... Well, slept through my 6am alarm, missed my 8:20am flight to Brasilia. But no matter. Improvise, improvise. I´m off to Congonhas airport, I should be able to buy my way on to the 12:45pm flight for $150 or so. You only live once!
More later, stay tuned!
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Back In Bwazeew!

They actually pronounce it that way here! It´s nice to be back here! I missed the color, the flavor, the chaos, and the contrasts. Sao Paolo is bursting with life, bold postmodern buildings everywhere reflect tropical flora and rushing traffic on Avenida Paulista, where my hotel and the bank are located.

I strolled through hilly, sloping Trianon gardens, a lush green haven in the midst of the hubbub where thick green vegetation filters out the noise, children play, young lovers make out, and friends talk heart-to-heart. Outside the gate, a vendor turns coconuts into giant take-out drinks by punching a hole and inserting a straw. I visited MASP, Sao Paolo´s beautifully designed and endowed museum, a red and grey rectangle on cement stilts, and enjoyed its small but impressive collection of French Impressionists, other European artists, and Brazilian 20th century art.

Fingerprinted at the airport and subjected to a 2 hour immigration line, Americans are paying here for Bush´s decision to do the same to South Americans. Brazilians have pride and stand up for it. I was sad when one Argentine youth complained loudly about the line, and the immigration guards decided, as a lesson, not to let him into the country.. Someone asked "Don´t we have freedom of speech here?" and the reply was "Not on this line, you don´t!" I was sure glad I had eaten breakfast on the plane, and brought music to while away the time. Lunch was thin steak filet with rice, veggies, and "farofa," which is basically mandioc flour fried with sundry ingredients. Very filling. That´s all for now. Will probably make it an early night, since I´m getting up at 6am tomorrow to go to Brasilia for the day! Chauzinho!
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Happy Birthday, Celia! Enjoy!

Celia's cumple is actually tomorrow March 27. And, it's Galería time! So, I'm off to Brazil! I'm falling asleep I'm so tired... But it's a good thing. I will be posting daily as technology permits, and I think it will.. Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy this ‘roundup’ of wonderful photos taken from some of my favorite photoblogs. The artists are: Pixpopuli, Mused Pixelflake, TopLeftPixel, Myopic, ExitWound, InConduit, Funny Time Of Year,Chromogenic, and Holland’s Martijn Lammerts. All of these are consistently great.




























Brazilian sayings:

Quem com porcos se mistura, farelos come.
Who with pigs mixes (gets together), crumbs (must) eat.

Em boca fechada nao entra mosca.
In a closed mouth a fly never enters.

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"Military justice is to justice what military music is to music." - Groucho Marx
"It used to be a good hotel, but that proves nothing- I used to be a good boy." - Mark Twain

stealth parenting - (STELTH payr.un.ting) n. Performing childcare duties while pretending to be at a business meeting or other work-related function. See also stealth errands.
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Czech Out These Great Films

In the mid-60s what was then Czechoslovakia won two best foreign film Oscars in 1965 and 1967, a powerful one-two knock-out from a country which was about to get knocked pretty badly itself. I finally saw the later of these films, “Closely Watched Trains,” which keenly observes the lives and lusts of a sleepy backwater train station in Nazi-occupied Czech-land. We meet the unforgettable matchstick-shaped young Milos and live through his frustrated attempts to lose his virginity. What’s striking is how honestly human sexuality is presented, at a time when Hollywood labored under a morals code that all but banished the subject from the screen. And I don’t mean explicitly showing sex acts or nude bodies, but rather showing how sexuality informs human behavior, feeling, communication, and self-image.

”Shop On Main Street” is also a masterpiece with a very different Nazi occupation story. It concerns an old, nearly deaf Jewish lady who owns a button shop and the Mayor’s brother-in-law, who hopes to get rich being the shop’s “Aryan owner;” it turns out the shop is broke, and only exists out of the kindness of Jewish neighbors, who buy what they don’t need to help the lady out. The relationship that ensues, and where it leads, are a powerful story and the acting is nothing short of miraculous

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Celebrity Sighting!

Walked right into a Queer Eye location shooting and met Carson personally…
… while buying a well-needed work shirt at Brooks Brothers. The straight guy looked really stereotypical, baseball cap and all. Carson is equally queeny when the camera’s off. Alas, I totally forgot that I had my digital camera with me in my bag. Darn! I saw the catered food for the crew outside under a canopy to protect it from heavy rain. Everyone looked like they were having grand fun.

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Brasilia Bound!

I’m rewarding myself for this work crunch with a day trip to Brasilia, the retro-futuristic urban conundrum that replaced Rio de Janeiro as Brazil’s capital in 1960. I’ve never been there before, and it’s an hour’s flight from my base in Sao Paulo. I will be writing you from Brazil, but since I won’t have time for many pictures and links, I thought I’d treat you to a brief pictorial Brasilia visit below. Check out as well Thomas' excellent Brasilia fotos from his old site.

Congress:

Cathedral and Government Buildings:

Inside of Cathedral:

Brasilia Postcard:

Statue of Brasilia’s founder, former President Juscelino Kubitschek (pronounced Kubi-checkie) : - )

Their White House – The Palacio do Planalto:

And by night, again, The Palacio do Planalto:

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"It's a beautiful day, don't let it slip away..." - U2, 2000
"It's a friggin' roller-coaster..." - Aaron Holsberg, 3/24/2004
Have just seen the two extremes in less than three hours. At 1pm, I had a surprise lunch with Fitch at Tao, the nicest Asian place in town. At 2:30pm, I met some new co-workers, and was given major new projects on a very tight deadline, and was told about some major difficulties in this place. That's Wall Street for you, to a T...
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I Dream Of Blonde Iraqis...

The first I heard of Baghdad was at age 5, on the TV series "I Dream Of Jeannie"... : - ) True to mid-1960s TV "realism", Jeannie made constant references to her childhood, family, etc being in Baghdad. So I guess she was my first exposure to the Iraqi people (and probably to the female belly button as well). "Jeannie" was created, btw, by trashy novelist Sidney Sheldon.










What’s the biggest creature that ever lived on earth? T-Rex? Brontosaurus? Nope… At 100 feet long and 125 tons, the Blue Whale, alive today in an ocean near you, is double the size of the largest dinosaur. Its heart is the size of a Volvo and pumps 10 tons of blood! And its penis… well, twelve feet long, supported by two tons of testes. Despite these foreboding dimensions, the Blue Whale is threatened, hunting has reduced the population to 2,000, and it will require decades of protection to be safe from extinction… I learned this watching "Life Of Mammals", a superb 10-part documentary by Sir David Attenborough available on DVD.
I'm a big fan of Sir David, and my collection also includes "Life Of Birds" and "Blue Planet"; some of you will recognize "Planet" from your visits to my place as the marine life on the muted TV that I use as "ambient video"

"If you want the last word, apologize." - Anonymous
"A moment's thinking is an hour in words." - Thomas Hood
"What's another word for Thesaurus?" - Stephen Wright

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Paulista Vistas, For You Armchair Turistas

On my Brazil business trip, my base will be Sao Paulo, its biggest city and center of business and culture. I will be staying near fabled Avenida Paulista, which in 1902 was a tree-lined row of coffee baron mansions, but in the 1960s became their 'Park Avenue meets Wall Street.' Paulista, then and now:






"When a poor man eats a chicken, it means one of them has been ill..." - Brazilian Proverb

Sao Paulo's treasure-filled art museum is called MASP, pronounced Masp-ee (rhymes with raspy) because Brazilians are loathe to end any word with a hard consonant. Trying to pronounce English, they say desk (desk-ie), flashback (flashie-backie) and my favorite, the mega-movie Titanic (chee-ta-nee-kee) :- )




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This Is My View!

One of my party guests from last week, Luc, posted my panoramic window view on his blog (which is in French, btw)! Here it is:






Here's your gracious host, with Luc in the chair, and catered food, books, and CDs in the background : - )

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All The News That Fits, We Print...

This is the Shaheed Martyrs monument at left. You should definitely visit it on your next trip to Baghdad... : - )

Human Creativity may be infinite... ...but the possible combinations of our 26-letter alphabet available for Internet domains are quite finite, as anyone who’s tried to name a new product or business has discovered to their chagrin. Check out "Get Out Of My Namespace,” a fascinating NYT article about name battles, silly and serious, and internet ‘squatters.’ Remember how I enjoyed “Frozen”, the superb play with Swoosie Kurtz I saw in previews? It finally opened, and the NYT gave it a great review.

Hey there Netflix subscribers and other rental enthusiasts: 21 Grams is out on DVD, you should see this if you haven’t. It’s a riveting film about failing hearts and broken souls, with three powerful intertwining stories shown out of chronological order, like a puzzle, and features some 2003’s best acting, courtesy of Sean Penn, Naomi Watts, and Benicio del Toro. See it, See it, See it….Finally, TV On The Radio, the new group I’m dying to see live, is profiled in NYT today!

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Coming soon: Galería and Good Reads....

G'morning. Nice out today. I must sally forth. Sally forth. Open my eyes. And ears. Brian sent me 6 CDs yesterday. Time to play Album Soup!



"You were so poorly cast as a malcontent..." - The Shins, 2003


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Here Comes The Spotless Sunshine

In the glow of Eternal Sunshine…. Believe the hype! : - ) “Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind,” which I saw last night, is loopy, intelligent, directed with frenetic brilliance and beautifully acted. The premise of disenchanted lovers erasing their memories makes a good ‘relationship story’ twice as engaging by stretching your mind with sci-fi and presenting the flashback memories out of sync, forming a compelling jigsaw puzzle.










A nearly unrecognizable Kate Winslet stretches her considerable range and Jim Carrey finally feels natural in a serious movie after several years in purgatory for his early cinematic sins. : - ) The supporting cast is excellent and well-used, notably Mark Ruffalo (who I loved in the highly unrated You Can Count On Me, which you should see on DVD) and Tom Wilkinson (the father in In The Bedroom).

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And I Quote...

Hope you're enjoying the humorous quotations I 'mini-posted' late this week. I found a couple of good quote finders and random quote generators... Another follows below. This long week may extend into tomorrow, as I cram to prepare for my trip. But I'm relaxing tonight and seeing "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" across the street. Full report coming tomorrow. Picture at right by PixPopuli.

"You can lead a horticulture but you can't make her think." - Dorothy Parker

And our Wordspy nifty new word of the day...

encryptlish - noun - Encrypted english. Correspondence from a non-native English speaker that, although well-intentioned, makes creative use of English grammar and spelling. cf "I am you thanking for help is give me and hoping happiness is on you now."

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This is where I store my 'short takes' template

Two-Tone Title

heading 1
paragraph1

heading 2
paragraph2

heading 3
paragraph3





My Brazil business trip is set. I leave for Sao Paolo Fri. March 26, a week from today, at 10pm, and get back eight days later, Sat. April 3, at 6am. Details to follow..

"Climate is what we expect. Weather is what we get." - Mark Twain
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"The most affectionate creature in the world is a wet dog." - Ambrose Bierce
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I'd Rather Be Blue...

Bad Art Comin' At Ya...My 1998 visit to Greater Boston's Museum Of Bad Art was a memorable one. After hours of searching, we found MOBA "in the basement of the Dedham Community Theater, conveniently located just outside the men's room. The nearby flushing helps maintain a uniform humidity." At left is "Mama and Babe," of the of MOBA's many excruciating portraits! As the curator notes, "The flesh tones bring to mind the top shelf liqueurs of a border bistro. With an astonishing emphasis on facial bone structure, the artist flirts with caricature and captures features of Mamma's face which remind us of a former First Lady". More on MOBA to come - for background check my Tuesday March 16 post.

Today marks two months of blogging!
Woo-hoo!

Seeing An Art Film. Yes, Art Film. This week I watched "Mirror" by Soviet (remember that word?) director Andrei Tarkovsky, a classic 1970s Art Film. It mixes dramatic scenes from the director's life (out of chronological order), WW2 footage, poetry, and interesting camera shots. This hadn't often been done before 1974, so Tarkovsky's opus was received as brilliance and a breakthrough, and not self-indulgent as such films are often dismissed today. I didn't find it tedious, thanks to good acting, pacing, and the film's short length. But I can't imagine this movie getting wide release today. More on this topic later.
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"I have had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn't it." - Groucho Marx
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The End Has No End...

'Twas an underslept, cold, slushy, and work-filled St Patty's for yours truly... I did, however, enjoy a cupcake with green frosting... The photo at right is by PixPopuli aka Neil Baylis, whose photoblog I consistently like.

Interesting today: NYT article on how language and writing norms reflect contrasting attitudes of Chinese and Japanese. Also in NYT, why Diane Keaton's a movie star it's OK to like...

Go everywhere! And see everything with breaktaking sharpness and clarity! On Q.T. Luong's spectacular and beautifully organized site, you can click through amazing high-quality pictures of 57 US National Parks, all 50 States, unseen Southeast Asia, European Backcountry, and Tall, Pretty Mountains... I've been featuring his images here, but I have to stop - he wants to be visited, but not hot-linked... I just put him on the links in my left margin as "Earth On Film"
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Happy St Patrick's Day!

Aaron Go Bragh!






Scroll ye downe, and turn Emerald Green with laughter... : -)
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Museum Of Bad Art

You read correctly. Greater Boston, my hometown, is the proud home of the Museum Of Bad Art - MOBA, exclusively dedicated to "the collection, preservation, exhibition and celebration of bad art in all its forms..." But you won't find any velvet paintings, Elvis images, or well known kitchy motifs here. MOBA features the work of artist who clearly have painting skills but took a major wrong turn in the creation process. This masterpiece on the right is entitled "Sunday On The Pot With George." Pithy commentary parodies museumspeak: "This pointillist piece is curious for meticulous attention to fine detail, such as the stitching around the edge of the towel, in contrast to the almost careless disregard for the subject's feet." More on MOBA to come.

The World At Your Feet, Art In Your Face. You are indeed lucky to be living in these times. Most of the World's Greatest Museums have websites which literally let you browse thousands of works of art, in the comfort of your swivel chair. Here's another global museum gateway. Particularly user-friendly are the Met, Hermitage, and Rijksmuseum, but that's just the tip of the art-berg... More suggestions of things to do in your swivel chair to come... Thomas posted excellent museum photos today...

Wordspy Homegrown New Word Of The Day...

mental hairball - noun - A word or phrase coughed up at random.

I leave you with a the Mexican movie poster of an early 1960s US musical hit by Stephen Sondheim, one with a very long title. Can you guess what movie it is?



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Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read. - Groucho Marx : - )

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It's snowing... 3-6 inches expected... It's not very cold, I like it. NYC looks great in white...
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I Shot An Arrow In The Air...

I feel like I've lived a lot in 48 hours, and slept very little... Nothing dramatic, just mental and social stimulation that left many insights to chew on. There were many interesting combinations at my party yesterday, I thank my friends again for converging and mixing it up. I also had a close-but-no-cigar date on Saturday in Park Slope, a late night heart-to-heart with a friend... Perhaps it was something I consumed, but I had a particularly bad tongue day:

bad tongue day - noun -
A day in which a person frequently mispronounces words and stumbles over sentences.

Bad tongue days are exacerbated by awkwords...

awkword - noun -
A word that is difficult to pronounce.

Shopping with Mrs. Suharto... The party's biggest surprise was the grand entrance of our colorful and flamboyant mystery neighbor, Greg Johnson, he of the tall boots, fur coats and dramatic scarves. Turns out he and his partner have been to Indonesia literally 100 times, every two or three months for over 25 years, as they have two second homes in Bali. Greg is a musician/minister/work in progress who kept my guests spellbound with his surprising narrative. Turns out he knew ex-dictator Suharto and his family quite well. He joked that Mrs. Suharto liked to invite him to go mining. They'd go into town and she'd point at things and say "that's mine.. that's mine... and that's also mine" : - )

And before I crawl into bed, I leave you my friends with this interesting photo from mused pixelflake...



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Silver and Gold

The party went well. It nice to see great friends from different orbits meet and break bread together (tortilla chips, really).

At Josh's good suggestion, I have shortened the page to the last 10 posts. For earlier posts, use the archive links in the left margin. I wish you good night, and leave you with some interesting photos from mused pixelflake:








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All We Are Saying,
Is Give Pez A Chance...

Wo-ho! I'm feeling much better! And just in time for my party. The bizarre photo to your right is from John Perkinson's wonderful Orbit 1 photoblog. Two more of his photos close out today's posting.

Kooky Gallic Kaleidoscopic Whismy With A Bite! That's the only way I could describe the movie "Amélie", which I saw this morning, via Netflix. I had (wrongly) stayed away from it, thinking it was a cloying fairy tale, when it's actually anything but. I'd call this stylized, innovative, kinetic, humorous and very French experience "The Opposite Of Boring." Not to be missed. And yes, I think Matthieu Kossovitz is too cute for words : - ) The original French title, btw, translates as "The Fabulous Destiny Of Amélie Poulain."






Pez-cific Coast Party! Yes, there are Pez collectors and Pez conventions. (Pez, for you non-US people, is silly pellet candy in a colored plastic tube with a goofy head). Yes, adults do this. Yes, I know one. My ex's current beau Joe is a Pezophile, and today attened the Pez-cific Convention in Long Beach, California. Below you can see one of the US's larger Pez collections.











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A Date With Wilbur

Banished from my apartment while the cleaning lady works her magic for Sunday's party, I sought refuge at Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, where I enjoyed the debut of "Wilbur Wants To Kill Himself." Not at all what I expected, this neat little film grows organically from black comedy to wistful but life-affirming drama. The film quickly draws us in to the lives of a would-be suicide, his timid caretaker brother, and a single-mom hospital janitor, amidst the post-industrial burntscape that is Glasgow. This is Danish director Lone Scherfig's followup to her wonderful "Italian For Beginners," it's her first English-language, non-Dogme-95 movie (for background, I posted about Dogme on Tuesday), and it's a promissing step forward, indeed.

See The Whitney Biennial 2004 At Your Computer! Their site is excellent, seamless and user-friendly, a gift to art-lovers far from New York and those of us New Yorkers who hate crowds. Just click here to enter.

I'm still trying to shake this bug/virus, the dreaded 'ear', that is sapping my energy, impeding my work flow, and looming over Sunday's party and what could be a promissing date tomorrow afternoon in Slope of Park. So tonight I will lay very low. DVD-watching, books-on-tape, reclining position, and perhaps I'll order a 'love meal', aka something with chicken and/or hot soup to make those evil germs just scram.. I have all sorts of interesting things in store for you tomorrow....
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Fragile (Frágil)

In the darkest hours of grief and fear, flowers speak volumes. Words run a high risk of sounding trite, or at least inadequate. My heart goes out to the 1,600 innocent and unlucky commuters and their loved ones, so much personal devastation inflicted. It's ironic how truly awful things tend to strike like a bolt from the blue. They're not the things we spend our time worrying will happen... There's a lesson in there somewhere... I also thought of the François Fenelon quote from the end of "Collateral Damages," the 9/11 documentary I saw last week:

All wars are civil wars, because all men are brothers.

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My Analyze Over The Ocean,
Oh Bring Back My Anatomy

¡Viva Jane! Last night I saw "Sense and Sensibility" via Netflix and really enjoyed it. Great acting, plot, dialogue are complemented by cinematography and set design that basically re-create late-18th century rural England. Kate Winslet and Emma Thompson are so pitch-perfect that you'll feel every emotional twist and turn of the story. Colorful supporting characters are a Jane Austen mainstay, and "Sense" features brilliant turns by a snooty sister-in-law and meddling old biddy who never knows when to shut up. Jane Austen resources abound on the web, such as Pemberley, with bio, details, tidbits, and above all, the text of all six novels, which have long been in the public domain.

Summer and Smoke, the Tennessee Williams classic has been revived in NY and is getting good reviews.
I am very fond of the 1961 movie version with Geraldine Page. And here's the Mexican movie poster for that 1961 classic:

This afternoon I spoke to Andres, my first boyfriend, who lives in Argentina, and is relaxing before he starts is new semester as an undergrad in psychology. I may see him soon. This is because I'm travelling to Brazil the week of March 28th for a week of company visits. I plan to post my adventures down there in real-time, though probably with far less links and photos...


Nuke it! Pill time. That's what I say on the sixth day of being sick with ear and throat discomfort. In Aaron-Brian language I would say "I have ear" and he'd say "I'm sorry you have ear." : - ) My party is in three days. And I coughed up green. So I called my lovely MD Dr. Laura Fisher and asked permission to take my reserve antiobotic. I said to her "If the sputum's green, you must come clean...." I know, I'm oversharing again... : - )
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Random E-Harvest

Cyberspace abounds with random pleasures, but lately I've been discovering the pleasure of randomness itself... I would erect a statue to the inventor of the 'shuffle' feature on my CD walkman. Today I saw a site that generates random adorable kitten pictures! Another site concocts random meaningless business phrases... And that's just today...

Speak of the Dogma.... Yesterday I posted on "Italian for Beginners" and Dogme 95. Flavorpill is obviously channeling my Danish energy, as this week's event selections include a both retrospective on Dogme founder Lars Von Trier and the NY debut of the followup to "Italian," director Ms. Lone Scherfig's black comedy fairy-tale (what a combo) entitled "Wilbur Wants To Kill Himself." The Retrospective runs March 13-28 at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria. "Wilbur" opens Friday at the Angelika at Mercer & E. Houston.

I howled with laughter at Burritoville tonight, as I read the "person in the street interview" in this week's Onion, a wicked commentary on the possibility Milosevic may go scot-free...
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My Karma Ran Over My Dogma : - )

A breath of cinematic fresh air... Last night, via Netflix, I saw a delightful Danish romantic comedy, Italian For Beginners, where a handful of troubled Danes find solace and a chance at love by taking Italian lessons at their local community center. Not at all cloying, this movie was closer to Veal Marsala than to a box of canolis : - )

It was filmed under the tenets of Dogme 95, the Danish movement that is perhaps the antitode to predictable, vaguely pavolvian Hollywood films with treacly, manipulative music. Dogme is the cinematic "vow of chastity" - this means on location, hand-held camerawork, no flashbacks, no optical filters, no superficial action, and nomusic that does not naturally occur in the scene. The supreme goal is to 'force the truth out of characters and settings.' Founded by Danish filmmakers Lars Von Trier (Pelle The Conqueror) and Thomas Vinterberg (Celebration), Dogme 95 issued certificates (actually, reprimands!) to 32 films from around the world before declaring their mission had been accomplished and closing down. I've seen several acclaimed Dogme-certified films, and highly recommend Celebration, The Idiots, and Mifune, all of which were thoroughly satisfying - click on those links for a plot description.


I am on a new kick: films 90 minutes and under. Suggestions are welcome. Had a great lunch at Cosí today with a charming former colleague who appears to have flown north for the summer : - )


Thomas Hobbs has uncovered more New York gems in 2 years than I've seen in 20! Check out some great photos he took at 'Phun Phactory', a graffiti-art center in Northwestern Queens



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L.A. = LightRail Adventure?

Los Angeles discovers the joys of public transit... L.A.'s MTA Rail links a vast swath of Greater L.A., now reaching as far east as Pasadena! And it's a big hit! Ever the adventurer, my dear friend and ex Brian sallied forth on Saturday and rode the whole 32 miles from his Long Beach apartment south of LA, eastward to Pasadena and its charming historic center, museums, gardens, and indie movie theaters. It took him 90 minutes, changing twice, including once at beautiful Union Station (see pictures).










Brian could have also ridden 32 miles due north to Hollywood, hung out there, and then travelled 16 miles east to Pasadena, completing the triangle. Light Rail Now has an excellent website which touts success stories coast-to-coast and argues that it's a very good expenditure of taxpayer dollars...


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Happy Birthday, Nikki!

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Podunk!

What a beautiful day! Yeah, it's down to 48F from 65F yesterday, but it's so sunny. I'm going outside!

High Tea served by Mother Goose? It was perhaps the most charming moment of the year so far, courtesy of my dear friend Bart. We sipped flavorful teas and sampled a cornucopia of baked sweets and dipping sauces, in the relaxation and regression chamber known as Podunk Café, located at 231 E 5th St.
In a room warmly filled with children's books and unusual seating devices, owner and hostess Elspeth Treadwell really dresses the part of the Old Woman In A Shoe. : - ) She takes her time with each order and gives everything her personal touch. This was in honor of my Bart's visiting childhood friend Chris, who is totally charming, and was also to celebrate the new job of Ashley, Bart's partner, at the Brooklyn Historical Society. I had pineapple papaya tea with shortbread cookies and chocolate sauce. This was my dinner. Highly recommended.

Links du jour: Good cartoons, one and two. How to read nursery rhymes to children. The Complete Mother Goose text.
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Waiting For A Signal Or A Sound, Pt. 2

Burning The Candle At Least At One End... Just learned that TV On The Radio, one of my very favorite new groups, is playing Tuesday night at 8:30pm in Park Slope, at Southpaw, with Coco Rosie. Quoting the critics, TVOTR "mixes post-punk, electronic and other atmoshperic elements in such a creative way," "have rich melancholy vocals," and "don't sound like any other band out there" They are also visual artists. I know it's a weeknight (I rise at 6am), but I really want to see them... I'd go alone anyway, but does anyone want to come along? Most of you have one song by them, "Young Liars" on my New Year's gift CD. (If you don't, let me know!) Two more postings follow, including great photos. Read on:

Fathoming The Unfathomable...

Last night at Film Forum, I saw two unusually, beautifully filmed documentaries about 9/11. No cliches, commentary, flaming jet planes, or horror here. Just the numbing, otherwordly physical and emotional hellscape left in the wake of a catastrophe. In "The First 24 Hours" a handheld camera roams through the dust and debris, following the rescuers, and capturing poignantly incongruent details, such as the remains of a gym, and exhausted firemen sleeping on the floor of a convenience store. Then, "Collateral Damages" introduces you to a handful of surviving firemen working at Ground Zero, who feel very familiar, immediate, and palpable. They open up to us about coping, about trying to making sense of it all. Read the review.

Feast Your Eyes...

...on these wonderful photos taken from some of my favorite photoblogs. The artists are: Pixpopuli, Mused Pixelflake, A Beat Experience, Myopic, Low Resolution, Ziboy, and Chromogenic. All of these are consistently delightful.

























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The 10 Minute Post

Rainy Days and Fridays are a soft landing into a hopefully interesting weekend. I got several ideas from Flavorpill, a great site that sifts through mounds of listings to come up with 15-20 great suggestions per week, sorted by day and art form.

You won't see that much on this blog about Election 2004. It's well covered elsewhere, and I want this blog to be stimulating and entertaining, not nerve-wracking : - )

For great photos of Time Warner Center and other NY curiosities, check out Thomas's (sp?) blog. Should've thought of that yesterday. You'll see one very twisted alarm box.

Later, dawgs
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Pals-heimer Disease And Other Puzzlements

Today I visited the majestic 21st-century mallspace that is Time Warner Center. I like it. It upgrades Columbus Circle from an uneven potpourri to a world-class crossing-of-the-ways. Expansive glass vistas, impossibly high ceilings and supersized stores all contribute to a sense of space, light, and grandeur. In lieu of a food court, there's a Whole Foods Market set up with the ultimate hot and cold food bar. For a tour, click here and/or here, because I decided to picture instead Oak Alley Plantation in Louisiana bayou country, a 98F highlight of my summer cross-country wanderings.

On my links bar (left), you see Today's Brand New Word, a brilliant site that I check daily for newly minted phrases for our time. Here's a real gem of a expression:

Palsheimer's Disease (n) affliction which causes a person to let a great pal drift from the mind, as a result of the passage of time, lack of time, relocation, a new 'friendscape' (field of acquaintances) and/or changed values.

Boing Boing - A Roundup Of Worthwhile Links: An 80s music industry monster tells all, scientists get a clue about acupuncture, how life has changed (or hasn't) for the Afghan kid in Osama, and 2 acclaimed new 9/11 documentaries I may see this weekend.



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Cry Me A River : - )

This week's ONION is laugh-out-loud funny from beginning to end. Lead stories are "Jesus Demands Creative Control Over Next Movie" and "Bush To Make Up Missed National Guard Service This Weekend!" Also, awesome responses in the "person on the street" interview about Haiti. Not to be missed... but sorry about their annoying pop-ups : - (








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My Milkshake

Now That's A Skyscraper!

While Ground Zero reconstruction plans drag on forever, a few blocks eastward visionary architect Santiago Calavatra hopes to erect a daring, 835-foot colossus of stacked cubes, in which function most certainly follows form!

Rime Of The Ancient Technology (and other fun stuff) I learned today that I can't sync my Palm Pilot to my work computer - my employer's hard and software are 5 years behind Palm's current release... (Ancient Mariner fans click here) Today's worthwhile links roundup includes food to eat at a bris (circumcision), the Vermont town that wants to secede and join New Hampshire, and some marriage amendments we can really use, along these lines:

Amendment XXIX- No in-law shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house without the consent of the nonblood-related relative.

The Powerful Head Of The Mafia! This is the Brazilian title for "The Godfather" chosen by Paramount's Brazilian subsidiary, in an apparent effort to leave Brazilians with no doubt as to the subject matter of that film classic. : - ) Brazil's odd translations of American film titles are legendary. Here are some recent oddities:

• from Mystic River to Of Little Boys and Wolves


• from Lost In Translation to Encounters and Misencounters


• from Chepear By The Dozen to Twelve Is Too Much


• from Along Came Polly to I Want To Stay With Polly


• from The Human Stain to Revelations

Sometimes, titles get gratuitously longer..

• from Big Fish to Big Fish and His Marvelous Stories


• from Rebecca to Rebecca, An Unforgettable Woman

...or strangely shortened...

• from The Cat In The Hat to The Cat

...or just inexplicably altered...

• from Freaky Friday to Very Crazy Friday

if you like these, I can make it a regular feature...

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Spring Springs Eternal...

It's great to be home... ...when Spring is in the air... Highs in the mid-60s! 11 1/2 hours of light, with sunset at 5:50pm and civil twilight until 6:17pm! I'm rested again, and am re-tracing my steps, pondering how I could actually enjoy a bit of London with better planning of future mini-trips...

Today is a major work crunch. But I'll post tonight with all manner of tidbits and lore. Below is some 'graphic' entertainment.























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Virtual Norwegian Summer

When In Oslo… Today I will be awake for 22 hours, the length of a summer’s day in Oslo. Up at 6:30am London time, will hop on the 8pm flight to New York here, and arrive home at 11:30pm New York time, assuming no flight, luggage, or taxi mishaps. Powered by Starbucks Latte. Management meetings went extremely well.

250 Bishopsgate, ABN-AMRO’s London headquarters, is a marvel of post-modern architecture, pictured at right. It’s all about glass panes set off at interesting angles, high ceilings, and trading floors where the sun indeed shines. Extra-wide escalators and transparent elevators add a note of whimsy, like something out of a Jacques Tati film. The atmosphere in London’s City (financial district) is several degrees less tense than that of Wall Street and Park Avenue. For a quick tour of City architecture, click here.


For years my NY business address was 270 Park Avenue, a black modernist pillbox where Darth Vader would feel right at home (pictured left). I much prefer Chase Manhattan Plaza downtown, Rockefeller’s shiny white 60-story vision, with its welcoming plaza and modern art centerpieces: Dubuffet’s 25-foot cartoon cutout and Noguchi’s circular sunken garden (pictures below).

I see New York is enjoying sunny, warm weather, must take a Central Park walk this weekend, or maybe go to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens.





























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Crumpets, Jet Lag, and Iron Ore

Well here I am on ABN AMRO's London trading floor, a gypsy parked at a vacationer's work station, busily researching Brazilian mining and chemical companies on paper and online. Traders and salespeople are jabbering in Russian, Turkish, and English all around me. My sleep-deprived body is fueled by latte and crumpets. But my concentration level is high. It's cold, but sunny. I had a lovely taxi ride along the Thames, watching Trafalgar Square and St. Paul's Cathedral zip by as I listened to Derek and the Dominoes, courtesy of my friend Thomas.

Below are some photographs of Brazil's Carajas iron ore mining complex in the Amazon. Latin Americans started making steel during World War II, when they suddenly couldn't buy it from the US since we needed it to make ammunition, tanks, and planes. Facing massive shortages, the Latins began to develop their huge iron ore wealth forward into steel production. I hope you find this as fascinating as I do.

Probably no theater tonight... I need to be well-rested for my management meetings tomorrow. But I'll try to see a play in New York this weekend.

Yesterday I drifted into personal territory. Is this a diary? Is this a travelogue? Do I just share what I find interesting and fun, or do I pour my heart out too? Questions, Questions. I always shied away from keeping a diary, life always seemed to messy to record. But now I understand everybody's life is messy, and if noone were willing to paint life in all its messy glory, we would be deprived of much great literature, music, and theater. More on this theme later... Toodle-loo

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