Posts (page 2)
What was the highlight of your summer?
Submitted by ladym.vox.com.
No question, it was the simple fact that we could spend time outside doing stuff, without incinerating in the Texas heat. I might miss Austin in February, when it's 70 and sunny there, and probably 40 and damp here in Seattle, but I haven't had a summer in ten years (except summer of 2002 in Berlin) that was so physically enjoyable.
This suggestion really goes out to fellow Neder-phile Thomas Vander Wal, but I'll suggest it to anyone with an interest in Dutch culture, design, or architecture. Dan wrote about "Brilliant Orange" in passing a while ago, and I finally got it from the library. I'm pretty ignorant of the subtlties of soccer, but the book manages to convey the joy of collaboration, improvisation, and emergent play. On every page, I'm finding wonderful little bits that seem to be about soccer, but then seem to be about the Netherlands, but then seem to be about space or design or work or play.
The first episode of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip last night was great. Afterwards, I think I realized that, anymore, I'd rather watch TV than a movie. The opening moments of Studio 60 contained a blistering and already-famous indictment of contemporary TV, delivered by Judd Hirsch's Lorne Michaels character:
"We're all being lobotomized by the country's most influential industry which has thrown in the towel on any endeavor that does not include the courting of 12-year-old boys. And not event the smart 12-year-olds, the stupid ones, the idiots, of which there are plenty thanks in no small part to this network. So change the channel, turn off the TV. Do it right now."
But that for all the American Idols, Fear Factors, and Kings of Queens, that statement just doesn't feel true to me. Steven Johnson wrote a book about it, but off the top of my head I can think of a number of shows that are enormously smart and complex: Lost, of course, the excellent Weeds, the cancelled Arrested Development, Scrubs, The Office, (which last season stepped fully out of the shadow of the original BBC version.) And I'm looking forward to our *very first* Netflix delivery (tonight?): season 1 disc 1 of The Wire. In other words, so many that we can't possibly watch them all (a TiVo would help, but I don't necessarily want to enable things).
30 Rock also looks good, too. I think a cool idea would be to have "30 Rock" and "Studio 60" overlap: both programs would be about making *the same* (fictional) TV show. Minor characters on "Studio 60", for example, would be major characters on "30 Rock", but both shows' narratives would be concurrent. Like Laverne & Shirley showing up on Happy Days, but with all kinds of complex subplots.
I think in the future we will all eat nothing but shaped fondant and edible printed sheets of food It will be delicious.
So getting on the bus the other day, I dropped my iPod on the sidewalk. It was in its rubber case, and it continued to work fine for about fifteen minutes...but then it stopped. The handy diagnostic mode suggested that it no longer recognized its hard drive. Prying it open with a screwdriver was sort of satisfying, but there wasn't anything obvious like a dangling connector cable in there.
I get a new battery, yay! Just as mine was finally on its last legs!
Just overheard in the hall: "I'm wuhfuhuh [WUH-fe-huh] tomorrow, so email if you need something." What does that mean? Can you guess?
It means "WOrking FrOm HOme". I think I'm boutabesick.
Ever since reading "The Man Who Ate Everything", I've wanted to try horse-fat french fries. Actually, there are probably fifty things I want to try since reading this book and its sequel.
The greatness of YouTube never seems to end. I'm loving these hilarious deadpan fake educational science programs. Via Momus, like so many things.
What's your morning beverage of choice? Coffee, tea, juice? Homemade or store-bought?
Oh my, it's coffee. Coff-coff-coffee. I love coffee. Milk and sugar. Actually Americanos are my favorite right now.
