Monday, February 28, 2005
All Good Things Must...
A Toast to Thomas: His going-away party yesterday was a lovely coda to a great period of fun and charming experiences that I will not soon forget. Tomorrow, weather permitting, Thomas sets sail for new horizons and new wanderings, that will begin in Argentina and Brazil and likely lead through most of Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.. But Thomas' spirit of adventure will live on in these parts, the trail of goodwill, good company, and good ideas he always leaves in his wake... My digital camera was on the blink yesterday, so here's a reproduced home-made party decoration:
From a recent issue of The Onion, my favorite feature, “What Do YOU Think?"
Question: “With obesity among children rising steadily, health experts say our school's physical education programs are woefully inadequate. What do you think?”
Answer 1: "Well, what do people expect? How are today's gym teachers supposed to motivate kids, now that homophobia, verbal harassment, and physical abuse are off limits?"
Answer 2: "I don't want my kids missing out on all that gym class offers. That's why I give them cruel nicknames, make them shower together, and snap them with wet towels."
Answer 3: "Oh good. It's our nation's schools that are to blame for my 200-pound son. Phew!"
Answer 4: "The dubious benefits of a mandatory exercise program weighed against the undeniable fattening of America's kids? Sounds like it's time for an in-depth shirts vs. skins debate."
Answer 5: "You know, sex burns a lot of calories. Teens love sex. I can't see why no one has thought of this before." 
Answer 6: "There are many reasons that a school should have an extensive Phys Ed program. For one thing, it's the best way to increase kids' interest in reading and math." this entry's permalink
Sunday, February 27, 2005
Saturday, February 26, 2005
Happy Birthday, Deena!
Here's my baby sister on one of her happy birthdays, back in 1966...
Cartoons!
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Friday, February 25, 2005
Dr. Projecto Rides Again...
Did some intense financial projections yesterday. This involved identifying key variables of a sugar company, calculating what drives each one and how they might change, and expressing this as a dynamic, multi-worksheet Excel file that shows what happens to this company, if, say, the price of sugar rises or falls..
In my younger days they called me "Dr. Projecto." My motto, from an old finance professor: "Never confuse precision with accuracy..."
Today marks 14 years since my Dad (pictured left with 2-year-old me)passed on.. In 1991, on a snowy day, as US forces captured Kuwait City....Tomorrow's my sister's birthday - there's a long history of calamities befalling her on or around Feb 26, of which Dad's passing was the low point...
Great quote Peter saw in a bookstore window: "Don't judge a book by its movie."
Cartoons, Personal & Political:
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Thursday, February 24, 2005
Wry, Wistful, and Sung In Brogue
Meet my favorite book of the past two years, Julia Glass' smart, wry, honest, Booker-Prize-winning "Three Junes," which hops around in time, perspective, and location, etching out the complex relationships of a Scottish family whose gay, bookish son is exiled to Greenwich Village in the AIDS-stricken 1980s. Gourmet funerals, a sardonic dying opera critic, the last heir of a local newspaper, a pony-tailed avant garde photographer, veterinarians, artificial insemination, literary disillusionment, Lockerbie, all of these are but background details as the story focuses squarely on the thoughts, hopes, dreams, and failures of its central characters. Special bonus: the audio-CD is read by a charming young actor with a delicious Scottish brogue. I look forward to/am fearful of the movie version.
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Wednesday, February 23, 2005
Glug Glug!
Earnings Season! 3 simultaneous conference calls as I write this (so why am I writing this? :-) ). Major downsizing here yesterday. I sit in a sea of empty cubicles... Hung w Thomas last night - can't believe he's leaving in 6 days to see the world...
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Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Dude, Where's My Weekend?
I don't know where the time went, and didn't do much... I saw "The Gates" again in the frigid clarity that was Sunday morning, this time from the northern, 'emerging' end of Central Park, at 110th St and Malcolm X Boulevard. You know you're in deep blue state territory when a major artery can be named for Malcolm X... I had a nice Thai dinner with friends Sunday evening. I finished the movie "Reality Bites" on Netflix Saturday, which I will review this week. I watched about 14 episodes of "Rocky & Bullwinkle & Friends" - about 3 1/2 minutes per episode, but I had to press the 'menu' button a lot. It's interesting watching 'Rocky' as an adult - I get the double entendres now, but take the action less seriously. I didn't see any Oscar candidate movies. I hung out with Bart Saturday afternoon and listened to the likes of Liza Minelli and Judy Garland on Rhapsody (with my computer's sound card gloriously restored). Congrats, Bart (you know what for, though you rarely read my blog, so this is kind of tree-falling-in-the-woods-y). this entry's permalink
Monday, February 21, 2005
Sunday, February 20, 2005
Saturday, February 19, 2005
Sure, Man
Good morning. Check out Thomas' picture of Keren Ann, who we saw Thursday night at Tonic, as well as his pictures of The Gates.
Also, check out my friend Peter's new blog!
Note that both Thomas' and Peter's blogs are among the links on the left side of this page.
The Gates await! At 3pm I'm braving 19F weather and meeting Bart at 110th St & 5th Ave to take in the Gates with the southern sunlight in our faces. In a few minutes the Computer Guy is coming to solve all of my Computer Woes (sound card, driver, sudden crashes). Look here later this weekend, I expect interesting posts. Peace, Aaron
Political Cartoon:
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Friday, February 18, 2005
I Think Of You, And Let It Go....
On my way to work, late as usual, I 'let go' of my birthday, literally, by releasing two helium party balloons into the air in between my building and the 23rd St subway entrance. Up, up, up, the balloons drifted and wafted, amazingly high for something that had just left my hands, up above my coop's 20 stories and the honking, rushing din of 8th avenue, smaller and smaller, then blown eastward until I could no longer discern them on the horizon.
Last night Thomas and I went to Tonic, a struggling small venue way down on Norfolk St in the Lower East Side. There, we saw Keren Ann (pictured left), a winsome chanteuse of Russian-Dutch extraction by way of Israel and Indonesia, sing her quietly sad, pretty repertoire in French and English. With her shy wisp of a voice, she projects intimacy with just enough distance, world-weary but not without humor and subtle playfulness. Her combo was lovely, including players of viola and french horn, as well as cute Jason, master of the synthesized keyboard as well as the xylophone (!)this entry's permalink
Thursday, February 17, 2005
Galvanize!
I got back from Brazil at 6am, this time via business class, so I'm feeling coherent if not refreshed. Lots of work awaits me, all piled up, physically and electronically. Tonight, I'm going to take in some live music with Thomas, our last such outing before his imminent before he begins two years of wandering the world... This shot of Christo's Gates comes courtesy of BlueJake, one-half of the team that brings you NY-themed group blog Gothamist.Petit Dessein du Jour:
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Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Lula... La La La Lula...
With apologies to the Kinks. : - ) Lula, of course, is Brazil's President, a lifetime socialist who kind of looks like my late Dad, and who Dad surely would have appreciated. Today is the end of my 19th trip to Brazil, my 28th to South America, my 47th to Latin America, and my 87th trip overall. Brazil now ties Mexico as my most visited country. This 'competition' will surely heat up this year, as I have further business to do in both places.
Upon my arrival I was puzzled by the painted faces, in jigsaw puzzle shapes and nursery school colors, of swarms of upper-middle-class Brazilian teenagers, stopping cars in the streets with bizarre requests. The explanation, it appears, is that universities just began a new school year, and these face-painted escapades correspond to initiations of fraternities in the US.
I am home tomorrow at 7am. The Gates await.
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Tuesday, February 15, 2005
Faraway Is The New Nearby
Greetings from São Paolo's sun-drenched daylight-savings-time splendor and its inviting 80 degrees with a breeze summer climate. This aerial photo is Ibirapuera, São Paolo's answer to Central Park, minus the Gates. It's a relaxed but focused trip - instead of running to meetings, I'm here interviewing job candidates (for a shared-resource-to-be) and writing reports on my laptop. I leave tomorrow on the 11:59am flight (why not just make it midnight?), arriving in NY right before 7am Thursday morning. I look forward to savouring the Gates early one weekend morning. Check out Thomas's terrific photos, including fabric samples, unfurlings, and many shots from the (relatively) deserted north side of Central Park.this entry's permalink
Monday, February 14, 2005
No Free Lunch
Or dinner, or peanuts, or pretzels. Just cramped space, and long, long lines. Such has been my experience flying coach all of last week, and now last night from New York to Sao Paulo, Brazil. Result: massive jetlag.Be nice to your flight attendants. Their orders have the authority of federal police instructions, and defying or verbally abusing one can land you ´behind bars.´ Case in point: a loudmouth 60-year old woman on the NY-Fort Lauderdale flight made such an incessant fuss that the flight attendant, already in a bad mood, arranged for federal police to meet the lady at the gate...
Post from Sunday afternoon:
I'm off to Brazil, back Thursday and can't wait for a 3 day weekend at home, sweet home
Go see The Gates if you can - just lovely
I'll try to post daily. Até logo
Don't Blink You Might Miss Me
Post from Sunday morning:
Got back last night from LA, and this evening I leave for three days in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where I am to help interview a new hire. This is actually kind of tedious, I'd rather be with friends, enjoying the Gates in Central Park...
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Saturday, February 12, 2005
Friday, February 11, 2005
Quote of the Day:
"Miss Davis, why do you think you have played women who could be considered bitches so well?" - Interviewer
"I play bitches well because I am not a bitch, perhaps that’s also the reason Miss Crawford has done so well at playing ladies." (puff, puff) -- Bette Davis
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Thursday, February 10, 2005
Uruguay and the L Word
I'm in Miami, business dinner lasted until 11 last night, didn't get to see my friend or sleep very well. I have two meetings here this morning, an afternoon presentation in Houston, and dinner in LA. Today, pre-recorded, comes Part 2 of my very liberal translation of Andres' impressions and thoughts following his recent visit to Uruguay. "When Argentine diva Sandra Mihanovich (on the right) and rock firecracker Celeste Carballo (to her left) declared their love in song, they chose for lyrics a poem by one of my favorite authors, Uruguay's Mario Benedetti. It runs like this... " "If I love you it's because / you're my soul mate, accomplice, and everything / and in the street walking elbow to elbow / we're much more than just two..."
Well, it does sound more poetic in rhyming Spanish. "This song recalls my own love story with someone who had come to Buenos Aries - he adored the song and we sang it in the streets... and so, 'elbow to elbow,' I was soon swept away to New York. But, back to Uruguay. Benedetti is a keen observer of character and social mores in this sleepy little Republic, and is best known for his brilliant short stories, which, among other things, look unflinchingly at Uruguay's 'Dirty War' in the 1970s and its many 'disappeared' ones.
But for many, Benedetti will always be the author of "La Tregua (The Truce)", a memorable short novel from 1959 about a May-September romance, as chronicled by the September party, a widower with three children who has eschewed relationships for a long time. The widower's favorite son turns out to be gay, which hurts him deeply, and remains unresolved, which is observed fairly and open-mindedly by Benedetti. In 1970 La Tregua was made into an unforgetable classic of a movie (nominated for a best foreign film Oscar) by Argentine director Sergio Renan, who is also gay, and its cast is practically a 'Who's Who' of a generation of Argentine acting talent.
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Wednesday, February 09, 2005
Oriental Continental
This afternoon, I am off to Miami, the next leg of customer visits. Today's post is the first installment of Andres' musings on, and photos of, his recent trip to the Oriental Republic Of Uruguay. That's actually this very European South American country's official name, though 'oriental' is used here in its original meaning of 'eastern' - the opposite of occidental and western. Uruguay occupies the eastern strip of the sea arm and gulf known as Rio de la Plata. (Tomorrow, we look at gay portrayals in Uruguayan literature and their influence on regional music, and cinema, but today, some basic background.)"Montevideo, capital of Uruguay, stands at the mouth of Rio de la Plata, and is the country's industrial and commercial center. Its population in the early 19th century was scarcely 300,000, but today, with its suburbs, it stands at 1.5 million, roughly half the country. (Pictured left is Andres in front of the monument to José Artigas, Uruguay's liberator and national hero. ) Right beside colonial buildings such as the Cabildo stand modernist architectural gems such as Congress, the University, the Customs House, and the Clinic Hospital. This hospital today also performs sex-change operations, which are still illegal in Argentina. Beautiful parks, like Rodó, Battle, and Ordoñez, act as the city's lungs. Founded in 1726, Montevideo has an excellent port and is among South America's most beautiful and interesting capitals."
"Perhaps Uruguay's greatest luminary was José Henrique Rodó (pictured left), writer, thinker, and humanist, who lived from 1872 to 1917 and wrote "Ariel", "The motives of Proteus" and "Men of America." Rodó eventually embraced idealism, and began South America's best modernist poet and one of its greatest intellectuals. "Cartoon!
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Tuesday, February 08, 2005
Smoke Gets In Your Ice
Tuesday morning, I'm sleepy and cold. Although, cold is relative. This mountain of frozen H20 can be found in Glacier Bay National Park, which can only be accessed by water, and is nestled in Alaska's tail. I've never seen a mountain of ice continually shed its boulders into the frozen sea. I did, however, see a mini-glacier in Norway five years ago, of which I'll have to dig up and scan a photo. Anyway, Daddy's gotta bounce. Time to breakfast, shower, and catch the PATH train to my first meeting, in Newark. Later.Car Tune:
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Monday, February 07, 2005
I Only Have Ice For You
I drew a blank on Saturday when Thomas asked me where I want to go on my next major vacation. On further thought, Seward's Icebox, aka that national-park-kissed wonder that is Alaska, seemed just the place. My vaca pal, Erik, would prefer St Petersberg. Either way, I get 20 hours of sunlight in late June.
I'm just back, exhausted, from a whirlwind Boston trip after working all weekend on my presentation. five meetings in eight hours, on very little sleep. It went pretty well. Had a drink with my friend Erik in the lobby of the Langham, where I stayed. We didn't have to pay for it, since they had already closed the register, and felt lazy.
Cartoon du Jour:
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Sunday, February 06, 2005
Why? Why? Why?
... must I work all weekend? because I have to make two dozen presentations this week in four cities and the people attending might want me to have something to say, and some printed matter to acompany my geeky Wall Of Data..
At left, you can see I'm not the only person who wonders Why?. Welcome to Why, Arizona, 40 miles from the Mexican border, on the edge of the scorpion-infested desert that IS Organ Pipe National Monument. Population? Maybe 50. Why was it built? Copper mining. But that was 40 years ago, when there used to be as show.... Why does it exist today? To sell Mexican driving insurance to US motorists crossing the border.
Check out Thomas' wonderful photos of Keith Haring's orgiastic homo masterpiece, "Once Upon A Time," curiously located in the men's room of the GLBT community center on 13th St.
You won't be lacking for pharmacies over the Mexican border... the theme of today's Cartoon du Jour:
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Saturday, February 05, 2005
How Aaron and Deena Became Entertainment Junkies
I have to work this morning - my presentation for next week still isn't finished! Am off to Boston, overnight, tomorrow afternoon and will have dinner with Erik there. I had a nice dinner with Bart last night at a cozy seafood place on the Upper East Side.
NYT had some great obituaries yesterday. Max Schmelling, 99, the Nazi's great heavyweight boxing hope, who hated the Nazis, lost to Joe Louis in the 1936 Olypmics, and later hid Jews from the Gestapo during the war, went broke, and got rich selling Coca Cola. Brilliant actor/writer/civil rights leader Ossie Davis, the husband of Ruby Dee, died at 88 - check Ossie and Ruby out sometime in "Do The Right Thing," Spike Lee's high-water mark, an indelible snapshot of a 1989 New York fraught with racial tensions. Finally, Ernst Mayr died at 100 - the greatest evolutionary biologist since Darwin - and is probably already turning in his grave over US curricula and teaching practices..
You can also read older obituaries - Charles Schulz from 2000, Ethel Merman from 1984, and even Geronimo, from 1909!
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Friday, February 04, 2005
Listen To What The Man Said...
"Cuz when I was single / my pockets did jingle / oh I wish I was single again..." - brother/sister avant-garde duo Fiery Furnaces, aka Matt and Eleanor Friedberger. Reknowned for 7-9 minute-long songs that shift texture, structure, and melody often, and overall quirkiness. Next project: an EP with their grandmother!
"How can you grow old, you were my tri-umph" - The Delays, two sets of Scottish brothers carrying the mantle of the Hollies and the Byrds. One of them is named Aaron. I saw them warm up for Franz Ferdinand back in September with Thomas.
"Happiness has a smell I inhale like a drug"
"I found music / and he found me" -
gay band/performance artists Hidden Cameras, a blast of erotic fresh air riding a Phil Spector-like Wall Of Sound, and led by Joel Gibb of Toronto, who I am excited that I am seeing in LA with Brian in just one week!
"I see.. in a garden.. fields in glass.. where the sun shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiines... fields in glass for everyone" - neo-60s mod-psychedelic revivalists
The High Dials, just a few hundred miles east of Hidden Cameras and their very different take on the decade of love.
Cartoon:
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Thursday, February 03, 2005
Feliz Cumple, David!
Yet another birthday salute to a good friend. David is an erstwhile co-worker and New Yorker who has flown south to Miami for the foreseeable future. He may be even more fascinated with (and knowledgeable about) music and all things cultural than me or Bri. With David, I even have to look up a vocabulary word now and then (like 'anodyne'). It's quite refreshing. Today he turns 28 - that was a most special age for me, when I began to travel, and I fell in love with Andres (the lovely person seated next to David, in the yellow shirt, during David's recent visit to Argentina for a wedding. Andres and I were together for four years, way back when, and are still very close).
As you can see pictured left, David adapts well to local customs. That silvery cup in his hands with the silver straw is what Argentines and Paraguayans call 'yerba mate' (pronounced YER-ba MAH-tay), an odd, bitter, green tea that fills the silver cup and into which one pours boiling water. Some Latin Americans pour sugar into the mate, accounting for the high cavity rate along the River Paraná. David has seen and done much for a 28-year old. Just last year he visited six countries for the first time, five of them on business: Argentina, Chile, South Africa, Jamaica, the United Kingdom, and Trinidad. That same year, he worked at three different jobs, moved back and forth 1,200 miles, and never missed a beat. It's hard not to admire his creativity, gumption, and overall good, open-minded vibe. Happy Birthday, David.... (this is our friend Sergio Bungs's loft, btw, in the charming, tree-lined, cobblestoned, colored-cement laden wonder that is the Palermo Chico area of Buenos Aires)
Coming soon: Andres' pictures from his visit to Montevideo, Uruguay, the charming, sleepy, socialist, intellectual city on the other side of the Rio de la Plata gulf/sea arm from Buenos Aires.
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Wednesday, February 02, 2005
Welcome Back, My Friends...
...To The Show That Never Ends
C, That Wasn't So Bad... C, It Was No Big Deal... Such are NYC's headlines as the C train, knocked out by fire nine days ago, comes back into service! You read that correctly: nearly full service (80%), 4 years and 50 weeks earlier than they originally thought : - ). Maybe our MTA should handle media for the Bush Administration... : - ) All that worry, for nought
The C Train was still running 10 minutes ago when I did an errand - obviously it wasn't scared by its shadow...
Below: a cartoon for the ocassion, and two photos from my birthday party taken by Thomas, who also posted one of these on his own blog. (my camera connection is still down).
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Tuesday, February 01, 2005
Happy Birthday, Day !
It's Day's birthday, and my pictures of her are still locked in my digital camera. So, instead, I'll salute Day with a beautiful photo of historic homes Charleston, South Carolina, since Day's family lived in the Carolinas, and Day's recommendation piqued my interest in spending a long weekend there one day. I've known Day longer than any other friend I have in New York - we met 23 years ago, just weeks before my 22nd birthday, during my first week at Manufacturers Hanover Trust, a company I stayed with for 20 years through countless mergers, downsizings, and name changes. Day was also my career counselor in 2003 when I was "between gigs." Day, like many of my close friends, is interested in all things cultural, and is a bit of a Hispanofile (actually she was once a professor of Spanish literature...)Japan-tastic
Ah, Japan and Japan-imation: They set the standard for breathtaking, innovative imagery and stories with gut and heart that ring true. "Spirited Away," which I saw last week on DVD, was magnificent, and, with no intention of hype, I felt engrossed the way, as a kid, I was enthralled by "Willy Wonka" and "Wizard Of Oz." Don't miss out on this great experience - It left me hungry for me. It's the anti-Disney!. Note as well that the American actors who dubbed the cartoon for US audiences did a superb job.
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