Thursday, March 31, 2005
Happy Birthday, Thomas!
Faster than a speeding shutter! More powerful than inertia and conformity! Able to endure 30 hour bus rides in a single bound! Look, up in the Rio sky.... It's a bird, it's a plane... it's Super-Thomas! : - ) Thomas is out there somewhere, making Sao Paolo a more fun and interesting place. Happy birthday to you, whereever you are....
And, Thomas' favorite New Yorker cartoonist.....
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Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Yes, It's This Saturday
Saving the Daylight: We spring forward in the wee hours of this coming Sunday., losing an hour's sleep and gaining an hour of (hopefully) post-work sunlight. Today, the sun sets at 6:17pm, there is clear light until 6:45pm (civil twilight), and there is some visibility until 7:17pm (nautical twilight). On Sunday evening, suddenly, it will seem like daytime at 7pm. That's a good feeling. Click here for more about sunsets and twilights.How Will I Know, Whitney Houston once asked. The answer: Spring forward the first Sunday in April, fall back the last Sunday in October. That's April 3 and October 30, this year. Yes, it's longer than it used to be. Note as well that Halloween's on a Monday.
How Did This Happen? Click here to read all about it...
Quote Of The Day:
"Just because I diapered my daughter for three years, doesn't mean I want her to return the favor." - Gersh Kuntzman, the Newsweek columnist, in the humorous 'living will' he published this week.
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Tuesday, March 29, 2005
That Unstable Alloy
Well, last night Brian was lucky enough to see - and thoroughly enjoy - an advance screening of Palindromes, the new Todd Solondz new movie, to be released April 13. Solondz is fearless in his choice of subject matter - here, a 12 year old that wants to get pregnant (and is played by 8 different actresses). Solondz is the auteur of two bona fide masterpieces - "Welcome to the Dollhouse" about the agony that is junior high school, and "Happiness" about family dysfunction, dates from hell, and pedophilia. Solondz' genius is his unflinching look at our contradictions, hypocrisy, and distorted perspectives. One reviewer said he show how people are "an unstable alloy of insight and obtuseness, of tenderness and cruelty."
Check out Thomas' Sao Paulo "helipads" and Peter's court architecture.
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Monday, March 28, 2005
What Is A Whirling Dervish?
In case you were wondering, click here. I don't know how that expression popped into my head.I also had occasion to look up "hagiographic," when my friend David used the term to describe "The Motorcycle Diaries," which is about Ernesto "Che" Guevara's long motorcycle journey through Latin America as a med student. My first look-up attempt produced the unhelpful 'of or pertaining to hagiography,' and a second attempt defined it as 'biography of a saint,' which gave me a good idea what David was trying to say about how the movie pictured Guevara. My third and last shot, www.answers.com,, came up with the much better "a worshipful or idealizing biography."
Speaking of Guevara, two interesting facts: 1) He was called "che" because his Cuban fellow revoluationaries were making fun of how he and other Argentines talk. Argentines of that era interjected "che" into sentences much as we intersperse "like" or "man" or "yaknow." 2) One of Argentina's military rulers from the 60s and 70s made it illegal to name a child "Ernesto," solely because of Guevara. I think this has been repealed.
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Sunday, March 27, 2005
Saturday, March 26, 2005
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Friday, March 25, 2005
The Landlocked and the Double Landlocked
In case you were wondering where it was. So poor they couldn't afford a 'stan' - this ex-Soviet Republic was initially known as Kyrgyzia. Kyrgyzstan is landlocked, but not 'double landlocked.' To be 'double landlocked' is to be not only landlocked, but also surrounded by other landlocked countries, so that, to reach open sea, you have to go through at least two countries, in any direction. Only one nation on earth has this distinction: Uzbekistan. Kazakhstan, on the other hand, has the distinction of being the world's largest landlocked country, at 1 million square miles - roughly the size of India, or Argentina, or the U.S. east of the Mississippi. That's it for today's Geography Lesson. Here's a cartoon:
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Thursday, March 24, 2005
Build Me A Bridge
Bleary-eyed from work and mainlining "Carnivale," I soldier on in quietude... There's a kind of hush all over the office as Holy Week kicks in throughout the Latin World. (Soaking up atmosphere in the splendor of Rio de Janeiro, Thomas shows us some uniquely Brazilian fast-food and soft drinks. Peter shows us a panoply of rock star kids.)
Cartoon:
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Wednesday, March 23, 2005
It's Always Something...
Hey there. I'm feeling steadily better. Haven't done much besides work and watch Carnivale, which continues to fascinate me. That show's talented ensemble includes (pictured left) Nick Stahl, the ill-fated son from 'In The Bedroom,' and Adrienne Barbeau, who 30 years ago played Bea Arthur's daughter on 'Maude' on TV. Speaking of TV 30 years ago, my compliance (ethics) officer here at ABN is a cousin of Roseanne Scarmardella, the 70s NY local TV news reporter that inspired Gilda Radner's "Roseanne Roseannadanna" character.I leave you with cartoons...
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Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Stronger Every Day?
Like the calvary charging over the hill to rescue the beseiged outpost, two Augmentin tablets per day are hard at work fighting the unrelenting ear & throat bug that's been with me for 11 days. This morning I feel cautious optimism - could the cloud finally be lifting?I'm enthralled by Carnivale, HBO's edgy, riveting series about carnival folk traveling the Dust Bowl during the depression, a simmering epic about good and evil. Imagine the quirks and storytelling structure of Twin Peaks, minus the humor, the cast of Freaks, the setting of Grapes of Wrath, and perhaps the epic struggle and central conflict of Lord Of The Rings... You'll hear more from me on this topic, as I devour Season 1 on DVD.
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Monday, March 21, 2005
Selamat Pagi
That's good morning in Indonesian, though I'm not feeling terribly perky. I'm still sick, glands a-swollen, ears a-plugged, and throat a-scratchy.. I've 'paid my dues' with 10 hours sleep a night for the past week, Tylenol cold, indolence, and menthol candies. To no avail. This thing will end when it feels like it.. How's that for perky? : - )
This is Indonesia's first family. Even I'm a giant in Indonesia, where the average male height seems to be 5'0"... Swarms of people, mostly men, mostly smoking kreteks - clove cigarettes...
My first Indonesian trip was to visit Sampoerna, which makes "Dji Sam Soe", the Chivas Regal of clove cigarettes, out near Surabaya in eastern Java, to a hangar where thousands of uniformed women hand-rolled the crackling little sticks...
Indonesians buy their ciagrettes one stick at a time, so every man (mostly men smoke) can buy one luxury cigarette per day... Anyway, Sampoerna was just bought up by Altria, aka Philip Morris... And here's a pack of Dji Sam Soe (left)..
Cartoon:
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Sunday, March 20, 2005
Saturday, March 19, 2005
Grunk
ah, sweet white port wine. inebriation. five hours of love. poured into my spring mix cds. i did hit some galleries. 11 hours sleep. I slowly recover.
"ooga ooga ooga chucka" - Blue Swede, 1974
At left, my role model and his wife. Not!
check out Thomas' final Buenos Aires photos. he's in Sao Paolo now, and I may just see him sooner than I expected....
I have a date tomorrow afternoon, to which I am most looking forward
here's a Cartoon:
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Friday, March 18, 2005
Question The FDA is currently deciding whether to restrict the use of COX-2 inhibitors, the widely used class of pain drugs which includes Vioxx. What do you think?”
Answer 1: "Jesus, a couple people's hearts explode, and everyone goes nuts." 
Answer 2 "I hope the invisible hand of capitalism is trained in CPR." 
Answer 3: "I wondered why that Celebrex TV ad showed an old guy in the middle of a sun-drenched wheat field having a heart attack." 
Answer 4: "I'm confused. How did they separate the effects of Vioxx from the other 1,372 things that give Americans heart attacks?" 
Answer 5: "Hey, what about all the horrible side effects these drugs don't cause?" 
Answer 6: "They're gonna ban COX-2 inhibitors? But that's my third-favorite class of painkillers." this entry's permalink
Thursday, March 17, 2005
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Joy to the (green) world!
Slowly recovering here...
12 hours of sleep helped...
Aaron go bragh...
Cartoon:
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Wednesday, March 16, 2005
My Next Stop...
Still sick, with voice mostly gone. Must work anyway, but I did see the doctor yesterday. My doctor, Laura Fisher, is a real gem and a lovely person. Thomas arrives in Sao Paulo this morning, after a 32-hour bus ride from Buenos Aires. Note also that my friend Peter is now regularly posting to his interesting blog. Finally, Garth is buried in New Mexican snow, just 48 hours after short-sleeve weather.So I crawled into bed last night at 8pm and watched some DVD, including two very good Twilight Zone episodes. I still love these. Beautifully acted, directed, and scripted, capturing the early 60s (my earliest memories) in stark black-and-white images. Also, haunting orchestral background music, predating the synthesizer age.
Last night's episodes were "The Four Of Us Are Dying," about a man who can change his face at will, and "Two," about an American man and a Russian woman who are the sole survivors of a nuclear war, meeting years afterward. A then-unknown Elizabeth Montgomery played the Russian woman.
Cartoon:
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Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Elephant In The Room
I'm a tad ill today, but working nonetheless. Last night, Thomas left Buenos Aires for a 32-hour bus ride to Sao Paulo. That's one long-ass bus ride : - ) Check out Peter's great photos of the Ashes and Snow Exhibit we saw Saturday and the temporary Nomad Museum that houses it.Want to strike back at minor annoyances? Great ideas in a NYT article today.
I saw Gus Van Sant's "Elephant" over the weekend, and thought it was just OK. This 80-minute film is an artsy, non-commital take on the Columbine High School shootings, and it follows several students in their daily roamings through and around the school. The film's second half shows two unassuming kids, influenced by nazi icons and imagery, preparing for and carrying out a mass slaughter, picking off fellow students one by one with assault weapons ordered on the internet. "Elephant" is short on dialogue, exposition, and insight, three important elements in any movie. It's for a good cause, but probably not worthy of the "Palme d'Or" it received at Cannes. On the other hand, it's a huge improvement over the director's "Good Will Hunting," one of my least favorite 90s movies, particularly for its flawed and misleading depiction of therapy. The title "Elephant", incidentally, refers to the 'elephant inside the room that nobody wants to see...'
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Monday, March 14, 2005
Vive Le Mess
I love foreign film because it's life-sized and observant rather than being a well-constructed fantasty escape a la Hollywood. Characters are allowed to looky messy and stupid, not just in the beginning before a happy ending redeems them, but overall. Just like life. But life-sized doesn't at all mean boring or ordinary. Case in point: Confusion of Genders, a French film about a confused, forty-ish bisexual man with no fewer than four love interests: his ex-wife's younger brother, who adores him, his female lawyer boss, a life-imprisoned male convict they defended, and the convict's hairdresser girlfriend (the confused lead, convict, and hairdresser are picture below in a hilarious prison visit). Quite a romp, in 90 minutes, and you need to pay attention or risk missing a nuance. Also, the ex-wife's kid brother (on the poster) is hot!
Cartoons:
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Sunday, March 13, 2005
Samarkand, My Love...
Snapshots from the Jewel of Central Asia, in deepest Uzbekistan, courtesy of Great Mirror, a wonderful photograhpic armchair tourist site...
Gur Emir - The King's Tomb
Shah E-Zende, Uzbekistan's holiest monument, also a King's Tomb
Uzbekh convenience store - what's your pleasure?
Blackberry juice, anyone? From Samarkand's main market. Reportedly thicker than prune juice, and more effective...
Cartoons:
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Saturday, March 12, 2005
Ex-Sepia-tional Exhibit
Go take an art walk off a short (covered) pier! 
Gregory Colbert's stunning "Ashes and Snow," consists of mostly Himalayan humans sharing space with exotic fauna, especially elephants. These beautiful large sepia-toned photographs on parchment-like material are finished in bee's wax. They're on display in a hangar-like temporary "nomadic" museum on Pier 54th at 13th St & Hudson River, quite a sight in itself, built partly from the shipping containers in which the other materials are moved between exhibits. This wonderful exhibit is haunting, touching, and lovely - worth the $12 admission Make sure to bundle up when you go, since it's colder inside this museum than it is outdoors. My friend Peter suggested this visit, and also informed me that Pier 54 is where the Titanic was scheduled to arrive on the voyage in which it sunk. We also stopped by the nearby Riverside Hotel, a transient affair where many Titanic survivors were quartered while they recovered.
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Happy Birthday, Will !
A birthday salute to Will, one of the sweeter and more interesting people of my acquaintance, pictured here with his boyfriend Patrick at a dinner party last year. 
Cartoon:
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Friday, March 11, 2005
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Thursday, March 10, 2005
Translating It Was Somewhat Misplaced
Still in Argentina, Thomas is having fun and posting great pictures. He also called my attention to these Dancing Empanadas.
I'm always fascinated by how American movie titles get translated in foreign markets. Latin America is famous for altering the title to tell you more about the movie. "Rebecca - An Unforgettable Woman," "Shark" instead of "Jaws", and best of all, "The Powerful Head Of The Mafia," just to make sure Brazilians understood the Godfather wasn't about a baptism. : - )
More Recent Examples:
"Closer" became "Closer: Taken By Passion" and "Closer: Too Close"
"The Fockers" became "The Fockers: My Husband's Family" and "The Fockers: In Even Worse Trouble."
"Sideways" became "In Between Drinks" and "Sideways: Between Some And Others"
(that director's previous movie became "Confessions of Mr Schmidt" )
"Vera Drake" became "The Secret Of Vera Drake"
"Ocean's Twelve" became "The New Great Swindle"
Three glasses of plum wine, straight up, animated my Peking Duck dinner with old pal Patricia Stumpp, celebrating her new job at Citigroup.
Cartoon:
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Wednesday, March 09, 2005
Question: “The FCC is currently reviewing its ban on the use of cell phones during flights, but many passengers say they like the restriction. What do you think?”
Answer 1: "If they lift the ban on cell-phone use, they better lift the ban on passengers beating the shit out of each other, too." Answer 2: "I don't know. Last year, the airlines lifted the ban on seat-kicking and look what happened." Answer 3: "What an ideal marriage of the Wright Brothers and Alexander Graham Bell. And Kafka. And Pavlov. And Mengele." Answer 4: "But...but...what about the disastrous effect cell phones could have on aircraft navigational systems?! Nooo!" Answer 5: "Awesome! Now I can call my girlfriend and join the Mile High Solo club." Answer 6: "Now the only thing left is to fill the cabin with ankle-deep brackish ice water, and air travel will be about perfect."this entry's permalink
Tuesday, March 08, 2005
Falls Well That Ends Well : - )
Ah, puns... Shakespearean wit or a form of aggression? The debate continues. I recently saw "Niagara," a 1952 Hitchcockean thriller nominally starring Marilyn Monroe, whose performance here is unusually vixenish and skimpy on screen time. Monroe got star billing, but she is neither the film's center (the falls themselves, presented in vivid toursitic splendor) or its heroine (that honor went to Jean Peters as the good-girl honeymooner staying at the same lodge). Joseph Cotton is quite gripping as Monroe's emotionally unstable husband, who she pushes over the edge (of insanity, not of the falls). You may remember Cotton's chilling work in Hitchcock's "Shadow Of A Doubt," the 1949 film of menace in Hometown, USA. I do recommend "Niagara, which delivers thrills, an unusual plot, vicarious über-scenery in Technicolor, and clocks in at an economic 89 minutes. Jean Peters, btw, was secretly married to Howard Hughes, one more reason that I still want to see "The Aviator."
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Monday, March 07, 2005
Happy Birthday, Nikki !!!!
Happy 12th, Nikki! - You're almost a teenager! Have a great birthday!
Cartoon:
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Sunday, March 06, 2005
Happy Birthday, Kevin !!!!
Here's the birthday boy himself, in his Astoria office! All the best!
Cartoon!
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Saturday, March 05, 2005
Friday, March 04, 2005
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Thursday, March 03, 2005
Aja...
.. when all my dime-dancing is through... I run to you... That's a Steely Dan lyric from my college years, that is synonymous for many with marijuana clouds wafting from a bong. Before I heard the song, I thought 'Aja' was pronounced 'A-ha' rather than 'Asia' - thinking in Spanish, I guess. At left, the Indonesian gamelan, an unwieldly percussive instrument (think xylophone blended with drum) whose other-worldly tones I found discordant but compelling during my trips there in 1996 and 1997. That's what comes to mind later in Steely Dan's 'Aja' when I hear the line 'Chinese music under banyon tree / angular banjos.. .speak to me.'
Cartoon:
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Wednesday, March 02, 2005
Make A Difference! How Much Easier Could It Get?
Need a reason to get up in the morning? Here's one: With six clicks of your computer, free of charge, once a day you can channel corporate money to fighting world hunger, breast cancer, infant mortality, illiteracy, deforestation, and abandoned pets. I'm serious. No tricks, no catches, no bullshit. To make this even easier, henceforth you can find this site's main link on the in my favorites list on the left side of this page.
Cartoon:
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Tuesday, March 01, 2005
Windows of Opportunity...
Seven-second delays couldn't tame Groucho Marx if he were alive today, a party guest pointed out Sunday. Half a minute would pass before the censors figured out the joke! Case in point, on "You Bet Your Life," Groucho interviewed a woman who'd had eight children in ten years. "I like my cigar, too...," he quipped, "but occasionally I take it out of my mouth... : - )
Wild snowstorms couldn't hold back Thomas' departure. As I write this he's half-way to Bogotá and a lovely eight-hour layover waiting for his flight to Buenos Aires (pictured left, Thomas' photo of the painted tenements in that city's La Boca neighborhood). Now you know how Thomas can afford to take two years off and see the world. : - ) He'll brave 18-hour bus rides, epic-length layovers, and fourth-class accomodations... It's called 'roughing it'....
Yesterday's day off seems to have set me back a week.... My throat is slightly sore, and my head poundeth. But I still want to make a date with Hitler...
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