Saturday, May 01, 2004
Screw-ups and more screw-ups. got the wrong friggin night for the concert, now I have a major conflict. Shitfuck. I lay in bed all day today trying to kill this bug with rest. Disoriented. Got no work done. At least I had a good language day. This little cartoon amused me.
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Friday, April 30, 2004
Happy Birthday, Queen Beatrix. And thanks for the ice cream cake (ah, the fringe benefits of working in a Dutch bank...). In Holland, April 30 is one big outdoor party, especially dear to my Dutch gay broeren en zussen (brothers & sisters). Peace. this entry's permalink
Ali Baba's Jaipur Address...
Happy Friday! I slept 11 hours last night, to ward off a looming flu/bug - it seems to have helped a great deal. Sunday I leave for Venezuela/Colombia and I have to be in tip-top shape. This weekend I will lay low and read all about the petroleum and beer industries. Here are some pictures of the Palace of the Winds in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India, which I visited in August 2001. There are many palaces in Rajasthan, it's a patchwork of fairy-tale Ali Baba sultanates and shiekdoms along the eastern border of Pakistan. (Bin Laden is supposedly hiding on Pakistan's western border with Afghanistan). My friend Biz from Vassar married a Pakistan and lives in Karachi by the sea, Pakistan's southern border, if you will. It's a far cry from the Rye, New York of her childhood. Biz is short for Elizabeth. Later, dawgs. 
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Thursday, April 29, 2004
All Aaron's Acres...
Ever wonder how big an acre really is? I don't think you get a good sense just by saying that 1 acre is 43,560 square feet. You get a better sense by saying it's 58 times as big as my apartment, which is 750 square feet. That's right, 58 of Aaron's apartment. Next, there are 640 acres to 1 square mile. Manhattan's area is 23 square miles, or 14,720 acres. So next time some mentions 1,000 acres, just think "A slice of Manhattan from 30th street to 50th street" to give yourself an idea. I hope y'all found this interesting. Can you calculate how many copies of your home would fit into an acre? Send this to me, showing the calculation, and I will send you a present whose dollar value is at least the same number as 2% the area of my apartment in square feet. This is awfully creative of me, as I face down 12 hours of work with a congested throat... Later, y'all... this entry's permalink
Wednesday, April 28, 2004
Do The Two-Country Two-Day Hop
You read correctly. It's confirmed. To Venezuela Sunday. To Colombia Monday. To New York Tuesday all-night flight. Too Tired Wednesday Pictured above: a shantytown. also known as favelas, villas miseria, and pueblos jovenes, the latter two translating as "povertytown" and "young town (because squatters spring up so quickly)."
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Tiny Places, Big Emotions
Sounds like an exhibit at the Museum Of Bad Art... If only it were.... Just for perspective: Israel is the size of Massachusetts, about 8,000 sq. miles. The West Bank is 1/4 as big, about 2,000 sq. miles or the size of Delaware. The Gaza Strip? This tiny hellhole is all of 138 sq. miles, slightly larger than Queens... No wonder they all feel cramped... this entry's permalink
Playing Ripley's Game... Here's a picture of Reykjavik, Iceland, where I plan to spend Memorial Day Weekend. So... I was very enthralled last night by the first half-hour of the seldom-seen 2002 gem "Ripley's Game" with John Malkovich as our the brilliant, clever, and somewhat psychotic title character. Bedtime, not boredom, made me stop at 10pm, but I hope to finish tonight. Malkovich is probably far closer to Patricia Highsmith's original book version of Ripley than Matt Damon, colder and meaner. So far, oddly, he seems both more effeminate and less gay than Damon's version - there's the odd presence of a pretty young wife. More to follow. this entry's permalink
Tuesday, April 27, 2004
To The Shores Of Tripoli...
Silly Me. I must have dictator-ruled wastelands on the brain...Or not. Libya reportedly does its charms. Since you might not get there in the near future, I thought I'd offer you a picture of its capital, the Tripoli whose shores our US Marines always sing about... Tripoli is an ancient city. It was the Carthage of antiquity, beaten by the Romans in the 2nd century BC punic wars. Some 2100 years later they were invaded and brutally occupied by the armies of another famous Italian, Benito Mussolini. But with independence, they found happiness and... Muammar Qaddafi! Some countries have all the luck! More pictures below:
I worked a long 13 hour day today. I am preparing to publish my first articles. But I am feeling engaged in the new job, which is a good thing. Moving from an office to a cubicle turns out to be a good thing, as being less isolated seems to help my concentration. This is the best I've felt about work since the 2001 Chase-JPM merger that ended my long good luck streak there. Happily, half a million frequent flyer miles and twenty fewer pounds later, I feel kind of re-invented. Many budding interests poked their heads through in the wake of the wreckage, including photography, hiking, kayaking, art galleries, and stick-shift driving... ... and, of course, blogging.... Like the fabled Phoenix of Arizona, I rise from the ashes... I may be going to Dangerous Venezuela and Dangerous Colombia on Sunday. I should know tomorrow. Details to follow.
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Michael Jackson's new disguise? No, it's Muammar Qaddafi, back in Europe, closing the door on 20 years as an international pariah. Hopefully, he'll take the opportunity to get a well-needed hairstyle update... : - ) Good morning, everyone. I'm not going to a show tonight after all.. My friend had to cancel : - (
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Monday, April 26, 2004
I'll Take Nunavut
I ain't seen None of It yet... About five years ago Canada gave a new name to a very very large piece of ice with intermittent natives and tundra. This used to belong to the "Northwest Territories" which stretched from the Yukon to Hudson Bay, but now Canada has broken off the eastern part of this huge space. They named it, Nunavut. No, they named all of it, but named it Nunavut. You know... Nunavut is due north of Manitoba and Western Ontario, which in turn is due north of Minnesota and Wisconson. Nunavut reaches to the North Pole. Well, some of it does.. : - ) You can vacation in Nunavut, usually in the summer. here are pictures:
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It's raining. My alarm clock failed to ring. I wish I were wandering through the bizarre and beautiful spires of Bryce Canyon in Utah....
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Sunday, April 25, 2004
Mom pointed out that the 1990 picture of her and Dad posted Saturday wasn't my Dad's last Father's Day, which was spent on a day trip from New York to relatives near Boston. Still, it was a nice family day, in Chinatown and I think South Street Seaport, at the time still a novelty here. My dear friend Bart invited me tonight on the spur of the moment to see two new plays by Terrence McNally. More on that tomorrow. Last week Bart and I saw "Between Us" (pictured above), a searing and riveting look at the marriages of two art school friends and how they change. I was spellbound, but the Times critic thought it was a pale Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolff knock-off. To each their own. While walking along the Central Park edge to the subway, near the many horses and buggies, we could smell the Republican platform : - ) Have a good night. I sure wish this weekend were just starting....
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House Of _____ And _____
It's been a Netflix sort of weekend...
Roles that Ben Kingsley was born to play aren't easy to come by. Colonel Moussad Behrani is such a role.
"House Of ___ And ____" is a masterwork, a tragedy in which two wrongs fail to make a right, a work of unflinching honesty but also of great subtlety and dignity. Best of all, it serves generous helpings of 2003's best acting. Highly recommended
I'm happy to report I've resumed stick-shift driving lessons, and that I felt the right reflexes kick in immediately the second my foot touched the clutch! See, knowledge and skill sometimes 'incubate' and 'marinate' in your brain. I know it's that way with languages... Great, sounds like my Iceland gamble is going to pay off!
Another great movie I rented was 1978's "Soldier Of Orange," a gripping epic of six young Dutch college students whose guts, wits, and loyalties are tested by the 1940-45 Nazi occupation and the Dutch resistance. Five stars all around for edge-of-your-seat pacing, revelatory acting, precise period recreation, and a European honesty about human character, behavior, and sexuality. Another "must see rental...." Its director, Paul Verhoeven, made one more great Dutch film, "The Fourth Man", before selling out his substantial talent to Hollywood and producing "Robocop," "Basic Instinct," and the infamous "Showgirls." this entry's permalink
