February 4th, 2010
Am reminded by a professional journal that, even as we’re facing the prospect of a humongous storm starting Friday morning, cherry blossom season is around the corner. A few fun facts about these crazy plants: They originate from a contribution from Tokyo in 1912 as a gesture of friendship and goodwill. 29 years later…heh…
The number of trees has expanded to about 3,750 of 16 varieties on National Park Service land. They are not fruit-bearing trees, just the blossoms. The peak bloom date is defined as the day in which 70 percent of the blossoms of the Yohino cherry trees are open. The date when the blossoms reach peak bloom varies from year to year due to weather conditions, but the mean date of blooming is April 4. The blooming period starts several days before the peak bloom date and can last as long as 14 days.
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February 3rd, 2010
There is an earth-shattering paragraph in today’s The Washington Post. And here it is:
Before the war, the equilibrium between Iraq and Iran was a principal geopolitical reality within the region. At that time, the government in Baghdad was a Sunni-run dictatorship. The Shiite-dominated, partly democratic structure that has emerged from the war has not yet found the appropriate balance among its Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish components. Nor is its long-term relationship to Iran settled. If radicals prevail in the Shiite part, and the Shiite part comes to dominate the Sunni and Kurdish regions, and if it then lines up with Tehran, we will witness — and will have partially contributed to — a fundamental shift in the balance of the region. <\blockquote>
This is the man one could call the Father of All Neocons admitting that one consequence, unintended or not, of the U.S. incursion into Iraq was the unsettling of a secular Sunni government in favor of a radical Muslim Shia one that has more in common with Iran than with us.
Yet, somehow, Henry Kissinger manages to lay that shit at President Obama’s feet.
Wow.
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February 1st, 2010
- “I’ve never regretted stopping when I did.” Bill Watterson talks about Calvin and Hobbes for the first time since 1989. As we all know, the only contemporary strip to come close to capturing a similar spirit of fun since the golden age of the one-two punch that was C&H and Bloom County is Pearls Before Swine.
- New Aggrolites album, available at a steal on eMusic. Anything these guys do is a no-questions-asked snap-up.
- In season one of True Blood, Coby and Lisa ask Bill to see his fangs. He sticks some fries or something into his upper lip and mugs for them. In season two, Coby and Lisa ask Eric to see his fangs. Eric shows the kids his fangs. What’s this tell you about these two vamps, I wonder?
- I personally think it’s funny to yell “speech! speech! just after someone has finished speaking.
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January 22nd, 2010
In a way, I wish the Caprica prequel didn’t exist. I also wish to hell they hadn’t made that god-awful BSG companion, The Plan. It SUCKED.
Caprica, which premieres on the TV machine tonight but has been out on DVD for months, is a passable television program. It is, certainly, better than most of the shit out there. I’m just not sure I want all of that explained to me.
What Battlestacked Galactica did best was to pull its punches. I argued for a month with folks who hated the finale because it didn’t tell them enough. I loved it. I loved it because in any kind of story-telling, I’d rather be shown than told.
The Plan is like pure exposition. It explains too much but doesn’t really tell you anything new. Let me sum it up for you: John Cavil was kind of a dick. Duh.
Caprica is interesting, certainly. I’m not sure how it would come across for you if you haven’t watched the BSG. It does begin to offer a surprisingly lucid explanation about how Cylons and their relevant technologies came to be.
I’m just not sure I need to know all that. I’m happier with BSG at its most ambiguous, happier when you kind of pity the Cylons, happier when they finally show you what’s the deal with Starbuck, but that they never ever tell you. BSG was at its worst when it tried really hard to tell a story. I think their one-offs often failed miserably. Tirol as a union boss? L. Adama fighting for the honor of a prostitute? The hostage situation in the pub? Ugh. Really awful eps.
But when BSG finally gets around to laying out the grand unified story, man, there is nothing better on the TV. Save maybe for Weeds.
Anyway. Watch Caprica. It is not bad. But it’s no Battlestacked Galactica. Not much is.
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January 4th, 2010
I always have to remind myself that winter in D.C. doesn’t actally begin until January. It’s cold out there.
So they fired Jim Zorn. Surprise!
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January 1st, 2010
The old Treo is finally unusable enough to warrant a new gizmo. It was dropping calls, the apps were sluggish, I think the Windows Mobile OS was finally just giving up the ghost.
I have been vacillating between a Droid and an iPhone for quite some time now. I have at last settled on the iPhone, mAainly due to the fact that in every Droid user review I have seen, the reviewer ultimately gets down to “well…it’s not an iPhone, but…” If you have to compare it to the iPhone to review it, why not just buy the friggin’ iPhone?
Besides. I know how it works since I own an iPod Touch. And I figure it’s at its third iteration at this point, so the bugs are out of it. And, it’s more accessorizable than the Droid, which has exactly one accessory you can buy. So, at last, we have joined the ranks.
Happy new year.
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December 29th, 2009
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December 29th, 2009
In June 1994, I was working as a newspaper reporter in my hometown in Northeast Ohio, having granulated from the college in said hometown in Northeast Ohio, in a relationship with a lovely, funny young woman I had met at said college and then at said job, a young woman who was fond of introducing me to new cultural phenomena, including Guns ‘n’ Roses, the Micheal Stanley Band, Honey Hut ice cream, and The Howard Stern Show.
I was watching ABC News with her the day O.J. Simpson led the LAPD on the slow-motion chase, when Maurie from Brooklyn punked the hell out of Peter Jennings. We knew immediately it was a Howard Stern call. How could you not. “Now, lookie heah.” Marie of course confirmed that it was a “totally farcical call” by shouting out “bababooey to ya’ll” as he hung up. We were on the floor. Good times.
But on June 10, 1994, Howard Stern came to Cleveland to bury the one-eyed cyclops. I had to work that day but made every excuse I could to be in my car. I heard it, I heard the moment when the wires were cut, heard the profanities spewed just before, heard Stern’s graceful recovery, broadcasting on the cell phone, his declaration of “Radio D-Day.” I was a regular listener at the time. Hell. I was an addict. But that’s the day my Stern fan-dom became branded into me. Sssssssssssssssssssssss.
Since Stern got the tapes in May 2006, I have been waiting for this day, and I have just gotten to experience it. As part of the ongoing “History of Howard Stern,” I have gotten to once again hear the goings-on of the day the Buzzard cut the wire.
That was fucking awesome.
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December 20th, 2009
I have just got in from session two today of moving snow. I did a fair bit yesterday while it was falling, so the porch was easy to clear, and the path to my car was easier to make. However, I’ve realized that I’ve planned this a bit incorrectly.
The path to work on first would have been to the sidewalk, not to the driveway. I will consider myself lucky if I get to drive by Wednesday, when I am scheduled to travel for Christmas (though I assume a plow might drive through here before then, certainly). But I will need to get to a bus stop tomorrow to get to the coal mines.
Actually, if I’d really been thinking, I would have stashed Esther the Car in a parking garage somewhere before it hit and bused back home. Then at least I’d have a car not buried under a tundra.
But, I have to admit. It was fun watching my Atlanta-native neighbor thinking he was going to get to drive today. That’s so cute!
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