July 31, 2002
Entertainment news
Hard to believe the fall is just around the corner, with football and Fall TV. I arrived back to Seattle from France and it felt like summer was just beginning. Then the second day back it was about 55 degrees and rainy.
The season premiere of of the second season of 24 has been set on Oct. 29, a Tuesday, at 9pm. The entire first episode will be commercial free. Maybe we'll see Jack Bauer have to use the bathroom during that episode.
Sarah Michelle Gellar likely won't sign on for season eight of Buffy, so next season's it. Good long run for Joss Whedon.
Baz Luhrman has thrown his hat into the Alexander the Great ring. He's now competing with Oliver Stone, Martin Scorsese, and Mel Gibson to be first to market with a biopic on Big Al. Very strange how everyone in Hollywood is always converging on the same ideas. I can guarantee that if there are four movies on Alexander the Great, not all four will succeed.
Stupid Stupid Stupid Human!
Aaaaaaaaaaaa! So I lug my camera and my big 80-200mm lens over to France for the Tour. The last time I used my camera, I was at a wedding, and it was dark, so I decided to shoot my 400 speed black and white film at 800 and then push process it later. Well, being the idiot I am, I didn't bother checking the rating when I loaded new film in France during the Tour. I shot two rolls of Provia 100F at 800 speed and the slides all came out predictably underexposed. Noonan!I think it's partially Nikon's fault for not flashing an alert or resetting the speed when a new roll of film is loaded. Damn!
Fortunately, my one good shot of Lance was shot on 400 speed film. Everyone in the camp was so impressed watching me with my giant lens, lens hood, and monopod, running back and forth across the street to get angles on the incoming cyclists. They're going to have a good laugh at this one.
Best of the streaming music services
Listen.com's Rhapsody online music subscription service is supposedly the best out there. Their musical catalog is impressive, and you can play an unlimited number of tracks each month, but you're limited to burning ten tracks a month. That means most of your music listening still has to occur at your computer. Not my preferred mode of listening to music.Pressplay finally unveiled unlimited downloads and streams for $14.95 per month.
All these services are inching their way towards usefulness, which makes it somewhat more palatable that the file-sharing services online are crippled. Still, lots of problems remain. The quality of downloaded streams is not CD quality, only 128kbps for Pressplay, for example, and streams are just at 96kbps for customers with the fastest online connections. That's weak, and insufficient for music like classical or jazz which counts lots of audiophiles among its audience.
These services try as hard as possible to not tread on the turf of CD sales, and that's their downfall.
July 30, 2002
Three's the charm...or maybe not
Saw a screening of Signs, the new M. Night Shyamalan film. Didn't find it to be as good as his previous two movies, The Sixth Sense or Unbreakable. The trademark suspense and mystery is there, but it doesn't pay off.
There's a fine line between inspiring a sense of wonder and coming off as hokey. Signs was the latter for me. Also, he's got to stop casting himself in all his movies--he's not that great an actor, and he can afford to hire some real acting talent. Get over yourself, M. Night. You're a good director, so stay behind the camera.
Spirited Away on DVD
Hayao Miyazaki's latest is out on region 3 DVD and region 2 DVD now!
Lowe leaving The West Wing
Rob Lowe is leaving The West Wing over a salary dispute. It's so hard to tell what the details are in a case like this. It's certainly possible he didn't push for a raise but was characterized as doing so through an intentional media leak. All I care is that Lowe's Sam Seaborn will be no more early in 2003. That's a shame.
I'm as strong a proponent as there that the director and writer are the key determinants of the quality of TV shows and movies, but that's mostly because they have the ability to court first-rate acting talent. In television, where an actor will play the same character for hour after hour, year after year, it's harder to replace them and maintain the same feel. The X-Files wasn't the same when Duchovny and Anderson left, and much of the quality difference in the Bond films was due to Connery versus some of his weaker successors.
Having now seen the first season and bits of season two, I can notice a dropoff in quality this season. Not the actors fault. The writing is inconsistent. Sam doesn't play as large a role now, but while he wasn't an Emmy nominee like many of the other actors, his was the emotional everyman at the heart of the ensemble cast. It won't be easy maintaining the quality of that show through seven seasons, but it will pass the 80 episode mark (or whatever the number is which marks economic megasuccess for TV shows--I think it's eighty, the point at which you can capture massive syndication fees). Let's hope they can work something out.
July 28, 2002
Numero quatre Lance brings home
Lance brings home number four. Awesome. The man is like a machine, which is so impressive because he is so much a human in so many ways. Maybe the French will finally show him some respect.
Photo gear for the Tour
Famed cycling photographer Graham Watson posted photos of the equipment he uses to cover a typical race.
I brought along some camera equipment to the Tour as well. Not as much as Graham, but coincidentally, some of our gear overlapped. I used some similar film: Fuji Provia 100F and Fuji Velvia. I also carried the same flash as Graham (#3 in his photo: SB28) and two of the same lenses (#8: the 80-200mm f2.8 and #11: the 16mm fisheye f2.8). I wish I could afford some of those other lenses, but as an enthusiast it's hard to justify the expense. Someday.
Blech
CBS owns the rights to broadcast the last stage of the Tour. Well, they showed about a few minutes worth of actual riding from the last stage today. Basically, they showed Robbie Mcewen sprinting across the finish to win the stage and the green jersey. American cycling coverage is terrible.
What we went through every day
On the fifth day of my Tour de France camp with CTS, Sal Ruibal from USA Today rode with our group up the Col de Madeleine. He had a day like I had going up Mont Ventoux on Day Two.
July 19, 2002
Bon anniversaire Monsieur Bill
I'm going to win today's stage in honor of Sir William, a good man.
Actually, what I'll do is try not to pass out while climbing 10 percent grades for 20 miles straight in altitudes over 10,000 feet. All because it's Bill's birthday.
July 18, 2002
Gone fishing
Au revoir, mes amis.
Off to France, on the day that Lance pulled the yellow jersey back on. He's where I'm headed, and it looks damn hot in the Pyrenees. All the cyclists, Lance included, were suffering on the mountain. Great ride by Heras to shepherd Lance to the top.
Don't think I'll have Internet access in the Alps, so I'll see you all in a week or so.
July 17, 2002
Web services at Amazon!
We launched Amazon.com Web Services yesterday. Very cool stuff.
July 15, 2002
Article on Enron
New article by Malcolm Gladwell in this week's New Yorker.
Challenges ahead
One of the great things about Lance, and other greats I admire, is that they're both confident and brutally honest. After coming in 2nd in today's time trial (and moving up to 2nd place overall), Lance said:"I really wanted to win today; I can't say I'm not disappointed. I didn't have a super day today, but not a terrible day either - I was really suffering over the last 5 km, but Botero's no surprise. He beat me by more (time) in the Dauphiné time trial this year. We always counted (Botero) as a major threat.
The big surprise is that Gonzalez Galdeano had a great ride to defend the yellow jersey. I thought it would be close but he had an excellent ride. But I have to accept that when you go up against the time trial specialists like Botero and Gonzalez Galdeano, you don't always win.But there are still two weeks to go before Paris and we haven't even hit the mountains yet. ONCE still has the jersey and they still have weight of the race on them. We're behind and the only way to get ahead is to attack."
Thursday morning is the first mountain stage, where Lance has made his move in each of the last three Tours.
July 13, 2002
Sunday is HBO
Season premiere of Sex in the City Sunday, and a new season of The Sopranos Sept. 15. The former is a way to lure women to your place, and the latter is the perfect lead-in to guys Sunday Poker night, $5-$10 Texas Hold'em.
17 miles, 3000 feet to Paradise
"I become a happier man each time I suffer."Lance Armstrong said that when discussing why he cycles. Sounds like just another pithy sports quote, but anyone who cycles consistently for a few years knows exactly what he means. I would clarify Lance's quote by saying that a cyclist is only happy when he's worked hard enough that he can suffer even more than normal.
It's not just the early season, out-of-shape-after-a-winter-of-sitting-on-your-ass, suffering that cyclists enjoy. It's after you've trained a whole season and are in good enough shape so that you can increase your exertion and raise the ceiling on your suffering...that's joy.
Yesterday I drove out to Rainier with my bike stuffed in my back seat (it actually does fit, with tires removed, even with my top up). It's a fairly long drive, and I listened to grave, dramatic movie soundtracks the whole way to psyche myself up for the climb to Paradise, which sits at about 5,200 to 5,300 feet above sea level. Most of the way out there, the skies were gray, heavy with gloom, but somewhere on highway 7 I saw a solitary patch of blue sky. Soon, bright sun was shining down everywhere as if it had been awaiting me at the park.
Pulled into a campground just inside Nisqually, unloaded my bike, put the tires back on, pumped them up, and set off for Paradise. My altimeter read 2,310. I had no idea how long the climb was, and I didn't really care. I was excited at the prospect of a true, long, torturous climb after spending all season riding the tiny hills in Seattle. This was a Tour-worthy climb, noble suffering.
Also, the last time I rode to Paradise was in RAMROD last year, and that time I had ridden a flat tire in to the rest stop just above this campground and had suffered the whole way up to the top. It seemed like everyone passed me on that climb, and memories of that painful ascent had become a mental block. I had to conquer my demons, just as Lance had to overcome a mental hurdle on the Col de Joux Plane, where he bonked in 2000, in this year's Dauphine Libere.
No need to recount the whole ride. What is there to say about mountain climbs on a road bike? You strain in a low gear almost the whole way up, plodding along at around 9 to 10mph, dripping sweat, for about two hours, sliding around on your saddle all the time to try and work different leg muscles. Great fun, believe me, even though I know you don't. Beautiful views off the cliffs at the side of the road.
I didn't exactly fly up to Paradise, but man it's satisfying to reach the top. I sat on a picnic bench and stretched out. A young Muslim girl of about three or four years old stared at me in my strange biking outfit as if I was some alien. Looked at my bike computer and my watch. I'd climbed 3000 feet over 17 miles of paved road.
The drive home was great. Put the top down, cranked the heat up on high, cranked some less dramatic, happy pop music up even higher, and sang at the top of my lungs with the sun warming my neck and the wind mussing up my hair. Zipping in and out of traffic at 100mph, my bike in back, that's heaven. If I'd taken a random exit by mistake and headed off East into the open roads, I wouldn't have given a damn where I was going. Would have kept driving until I ran out of gas, then pulled my bike out and started riding.
VR Seattle
Sang and I hosted a going away BBQ for Jenny and Adam today. If the two of them should miss Seattle, they can always see some of it on the web at VR Seattle.Here's the tunnel I go through just about every time I go for a bike ride, the I-90 tunnel which opens up on Sam Smith park. I've gone through it countless times, so I know the slight downward slope and the cool breeze to expect when heading through the tunnel East, with fresh legs, clicking up to the big chainring, the sound of my chain jumping up and clicking into place reverberating through the tunnel with a satisfying mechanical echo.
Here's a view of the I-90 bridge which I cross once I'm through the tunnel. I hate the bridge. It's about a mile and a half of windy, noisy, dusty, bumpy pain. When riders pass you on the bridge you can't hear them approaching. I hate being passed on the bridge. Coming west on the bridge is more enjoyable. The first two thirds are downhill and you can easily hold speeds in the low twenties. Then it ends with a nice gradual ascent which gets your heart rate going. That's the spot to overtake other riders if you have any pop left in your legs.
Dancing up the mountains
I think the reason I continue to bike, even though it's often long, dull, and a pain in the ass, is that I want to be able to dance up the mountains. Riders who spin their pedals lightly and just float up the mountains, overcoming gravity and their own body weight, ride through adversity in such a pure and simple way. It's a grace I seek in my own life, to be challenged, to put down the hammer, and dispel all obstacles with exertion and joy. Everything feels like a burden now, and only energy, positive thinking, and discipline can carry me through it all.The Ring
AICN linked to the first trailer for the American remake of the Japanese film, The Ring. Wouldn't you know it? The trailer is Japanese.A really, really fun horror flick, but the trailer seems to confirm that it won't seek to be original in any way. Just borrow everything possible from the Japanese film, including the video footage, the sound effects in the trailer, and insert Naomi Watts. Vanilla Sky, La Femme Nikita, when was the last time an American remake bettered the foreign source material?
34 seconds back
Lance lost more time to Galdeano today and is now 8th, 34 seconds back. Lance's wheel got tangled with a teammates' tire in a crash near the finish line.Nothing he can't make up later, but it adds some drama to this year's Tour.
July 11, 2002
Life in the minors
Jason Giambi won the home run derby in the MLB All-Star game. I'm not sure what the prize was, but the trophy looked pretty nice, and some couple won $250,000 from Century 21 towards the purchase of a new house.
Brandon Larson won the Triple A home run derby over Joe Crede. For his victory, Larson won $1000 and a $500 Old Navy gift certificate.
Random fears
Does anyone else find Lyme's disease to be incredibly frightening? I don't even think my chances of getting it are that great, but the idea that you could die from a tick bite is scary. Perhaps it explains my fear of hiking through grassy areas.The word fetus scares me.
July 10, 2002
Vin Diesel as Hannibal?
Stumbled on this article. Even if you don't read French, you can probably interpret that Revolution Studios has acquired the rights to adapt Ross Leckie's novel about Hannibal into a film, and they want Vin Diesel to play Hannibal (not Lecter, but the one who rode the elephants over the Alps to attack Rome). What a strange casting choice. For some reason I always pictured Hannibal as more cerebral. Vin Diesel, with his gravelly voice, shaved head, and stocky frame just strikes me as a stylized meathead.
Cycling, soccer
As to whether soccer and cycling will gain in popularity in America? Doubtful. Not when football, baseball, and basketball are on TV year round, their athletes competing on the field and acting in commercials and movies, splashed on magazine covers. Cycling is expensive and painful. Soccer isn't expensive, but it just doesn't mesmerize America's attention except when it takes the world stage. Same with cycling. Can the average American name an MLS soccer team? Can any of them name a bike race other than the Tour de France?Flick
Flick is the term for knocking a cyclist off his bike at high speeds. I got that from an article on Lance Armstrong in the latest New Yorker. Good profile of Lance and intro to the sport, so if you've never read anything about him or cycling, I recommend it while it's posted for free this next week. The New Yorker tends to post a few articles from each issue for about a week.This morning I got up later than usual for my daily cruise around Mercer. Was supposed to call Jesse at 6am, but talk radio on the alarm didn't penetrate my sleepy head until 6:30. In this last crunch to train before I head off to France, my mileage is up, and when that happens, I need more sleep. I haven't been getting it, and getting up in the mornings is excruciating.
Usually I ride counter-clockwise around the outside of the island. It's a few miles longer as a ride, the fun windy portion doesn't come until the end of the ride, and most importantly, it's easier to spot cars pulling out of driveways because the driveways on the right slope up to the street and are not as enshrouded in trees and shrubs. Running behind, as soon as I made it across I-90 I decided to go clockwise instead.
Most of the early ride I was trying to wake myself up and get a rhythm on the bike. In the morning it takes me longer to get loose, so it's hard to feel fast and fluid on the bike. About two-thirds of the way through the ride, on the West side of the island, I accelerated down a short hill and was coasting at about 25 mph when a dark green (was it blue, black?) SUV pulled out of a driveway on the right. I had just glanced down at my bike computer for a second and when I looked up the car was about ten yards in front of me.
When I was in grade school, living in Palatine, I used to ride my 10 speed around the block over and over. One day I was looking down at my tires and not at the road ahead and ran into the back of a neighbor's car parked out on the street, in front of that neighbor's house. That neighbor happened to be sitting on his porch. A middle-aged guy, he was none too happy. He called for his wife and came over and barked at me ("Why don't you watch where you're going?! I just bought that car!" and so on and so forth). Later they visited my parents to ask for payment for a broken taillight.
Maybe I was thinking about that traumatic event from my childhood this morning because I nailed my brakes and swerved hard to the right. Of course, I don't have anti-lock brakes on my bike and at 25mph my tires locked up and skidded. The front of my bike dropped into a ditch by the side of the road and stopped, while my body continued on and over the top. My left foot popped out of my pedals, my right foot still locked in. I stepped down on my left leg to try and avoid falling on my bike and hyperextended it as it landed in a muddy hole. I continued to rotate forward and put my right hand down to brace my fall and bent my wrist back hard on the driveway.
Everything was two points of sharp pain: left knee, right wrist. Then relief when I noticed my bike looked unharmed. Then a burst of joy at being alive. Then momentary panic: what if I had broken my wrist or reinjured my left knee? One week from my trip to France, that would be unacceptable. With adrenaline pumping hard through me, I couldn't gauge the seriousness of my injuries. Everything felt okay, but I wasn't sure.
The SUV had long since disappeared. Some harried worker rushing of to work, no doubt oblivious to my plight. I waited by the roadside for a bit and a few cars drove by, but I didn't flag any of them down. I wasn't sure what I'd say to them if I did. On my own. So I climbed back on my bike, wiped the gravel and mud and blood off my wrist and legs, and set off for home. No doubt watching the Tour helped inspire me. Every year some Tour rider goes down in a crash and gets up covered in blood, bike partially mangled, collarbone or wrist broken, and a huge bloody abrasion on the outside of his thigh from skin dragged across pavement at 30mph. And somehow he staggers in on his bike. Sometimes they recover to go on and finish the Tour. Most times they drop out the next day or fail to finish in a fast enough time to make the cut. Cyclists, with body fat in the low single digits, are much more susceptible to sickness than the average person.
In stage two of this year's Tour, Thor Hushovd of Credite Agricole joined two other cyclists in a long breakaway attempt. In the middle of the stage he had to stop with severe leg cramps. They continued to plague him throughout the stage. Long after everyone else had finished, he was out on the road, a mechanic massaging his cramping leg while he fought back tears. Somehow he made it home, cheered on all the way by a sympathetic crowd.
Compared to those guys, my plight was nowhere near as dire. But I did have a problem in that I'm not as strong as those guys, either. With one leg and one arm, I was dangerously off balance on my bike and could barely hold a straight line. On the uphills, I couldn't get out of the saddle so I had to muscle up in a low gear, gently resting my right hand on the top of my handlebars.
Typing is somewhat painful, so to sum up: X-rays negative, wrist ain't broken, leg is hyperextended but still functional, and I hope to regain enough strength in both to be able to climb at full strength up the Pyrenees and Alps in a week. There will be plenty of fans at the side of the road, waiting to cheer on the pros, and they'll likely spare some for me, too.
Every cyclist who logs enough miles will have a near-miss to report, and almost all will have one bike accident to recount over beers. Now I have mine.
July 9, 2002
Frivolous this All-Star game was
This All-Star game was jinxed from the start. Anastacia screwed up the words to the national anthem (rockets gave glare? gave truth through the night...?). Then the game ended in a tie. I agree with Jim Caple and all the other writers who wished the game still counted for something. No one really tries that hard to win, from the managers to the players, so it's hard for the fans to care.
Back in an age long ago, Pete Rose ran over Ray Fosse to score the winning run in the All-Star game, effectively ending Fosse's career. Ted Williams named his game-winning home run in the 1946 All-Star game after playing the entire game because he was the best player at his position, and you play your best players if you're trying to win. Back then the players and managers played the All-Star game to win.
Who really cares if everyone gets to play or not? This isn't some charity game. Sosa hit a 524 foot homer in the home run contest. Barry Bonds has an on base percentage of .562. Let them play the whole game.
Silly
The MLB rule that the All-Star team include a player from every team is ridiculous.Not the newest VW...
I was driving behind a Passat station wagon today, and another Passat passed in the right lane. Except someone had removed some of the letters from the name of the car in back, so all that remained was ASS.The latest BMW...
A preview shot of the upcoming BMW Z4 Roadster:
With their latest 7 series and this latest Z4, BMW has modified the styling of its cars fairly radically. A little too old school and frumpy for my taste, though the Z4 is an improvement over the Z3 which looks like a toy.
Spirited Away on DVD!
Spirited Away (by Hayao Miyazaki of Princess Mononoke and My Neighbor Totoro fame) will be out on DVD in late July or early August, even before it's out in theaters in the U.S. Yeeee-haa!I'm hoping it will include the original Japanese soundtrack in addition to the English dub. Voices for the English dub:
Chihiro: Daveigh Chase (A.I, Lilo & Stitch)
Haku: Jason Marsden (How to Make a Monster, Baldur's Gate)
Boiler Room Man: David Ogden
Twin Witches: Suzanne Pleshette (Lion King 2, Along Came a Spider)
Chihiro's mother, Yugo: Lauren Holly (Don't Cry For Me, Any Given Sunday)
Chihiro's father, Akio: Michael Chiklis (Heavy Gear: The Animated Series, The Commish)
Lin: Susan Egab
Bathhouse Manager: John Ratzenberger (Monsters Inc, Cheers)
July 7, 2002
A new kind of hero
The Bourne Identity wasn't a great film, but one of its appeals is the pragmatic, serious nature of Jason Bourne. He's a suitable new hero for the post Sept. 11 America, which is ironic considering he's based on a character from a novel published in 1980. Bourne's character in the film can be read as a metaphor for our nation under attack. He awakens near death, with little or no memory, as many of us did after Sept. 11. Who is Al Qaeda? Why do they want us dead? Slowly, the clues come back, and in both cases a ruthless CIA plagued by internal machinations and bickering is at the heart of things.
Bourne is the America we want to believe we are. He's not an obnoxious American stirring up trouble abroad. No, the international world is out to get him despite the fact that he just wants to get the girl and retire peacefully. Agents of all nationalities come after him in all parts of the world, including Clive Owen as The Professor, just as terrorists seem to be attacking us from cells distributed throughout the world. Wherever Bourne goes, he brings trouble to those he comes in contact with, just as many nations have mixed feelings about accepting American military, economic, and political assistance for fear of retribution from neighboring states. Bourne doesn't deserve this--his whole loss of memory came when he couldn't bring himself to complete an assassination orchestrated by the CIA. Perhaps that is where his story diverges from the truth, as the U.S. government has rarely hesitated to intervene overtly or covertly with force to achieve its ends. But that's not the hero we wish to embrace.
Like our government, Bourne is not afraid to react with deadly force when attacked, and he does so efficiently. We hope our military and intelligence agencies are equally competent.
Most of all, Bourne represents an America which just wishes to be left alone. Contrast him with our popular heroes from the 70's, 80's and 90's, like James Bond, the suave and sophisticated incarnation of the ugly American. Brash, arrogant, always dispatching his various foreign foes with a cruel, almost disdainful sense of humor. Or John Wayne, the rugged, macho American. We sense in these earlier heroes strains of the haughty, presumptious America which is what terrorists claim to be reacting to in launching its attacks.
Bourne is none of these things. He is confused--why are we under attack? He just wishes he could have a little peace and quiet. So do we all. But it's unlikely, considering a sequel is in the works. Sadly, the same fate likely awaits the rest of us.
Macintosh pop-up killer
Has anyone found a free, effective Macintosh-compatible pop-up window killer? I am so damn sick of Orbitz ads popping up everywhere I go.Conventional wisdom
My mind gravitates towards ideas that revoke conventional wisdom. I enjoy articles like the one about the health of low-carb vs. low-fat diets which I cite below, ideas like the ones Stephen Wolfram postulates in A New Kind of Science, and some of the recent (last two years) writing by Voros McCracken on pitching and defense resonate with me.Okay, I've already discussed the first two ideas before. What about Voros McCracken's ideas on pitching and defense? Voros' analysis showed that pitchers have little control over the rate of hits on balls put in play. Instead, that statistic of hits on balls put in play is much more strongly correlated with a team's defense as Rob Neyer notes when examining some of the recent research by Dick Cramer.
Voros' work does explain why so many of history's greatest pitchers have high strikeout rates. That's the best way for a pitcher to prevent a ball from being put in play and earning an out. Once a ball is hit and put in play, the chances that it falls for a hit are likely the same for Pedro Martinez as they are for Jose Lima, the team defenses behind them being equal. It gives you a greater appreciation for pitchers who have low strikeout rates who still manage to maintain low ERAs over long periods of time. There aren't many, and the ones who do almost always have to have pinpoint control.
Atkins Diet--what if it's right?
Fascinating article in the NYTimes Sunday Magazine about the Atkins diet, obesity in America, and the frightening thought that perhaps fat isn't all that bad for you but carbs are. One of the more enlightening discussions of the topic that I've read. Worth reading for folks who have been wondering how to eat healthy and lose weight, which is about 90% of people I know.Of all I've read on the topic, this article was the most convincing in presenting evidence that casts doubt on the healthiness of a high carb, low-fat diet, commonly represented by the food pyramid taught in schools all over the country, with 6-11 servings of grains at the base and minimal fat at the apex.
The joy of the prime of cycling season is that none of this matters. I can pretty much eat whatever I want to because I'm burning off so many calories. But for the other month's out of the year, it's appealing to imagine that simple adjustments to one's diet might lead to noticeable changes in weight and long-term life expectancy.
I can't move my arms
Yesterday I went out on Lake Washington on Eric's speedboat with Todd, Juli, Aaron, and a whole crew of others. I learned some new things. First, riding in the front of a speedboat being driven at high speeds is a lot of fun. The boat angles up, and you see only the sky as you bounce around like so much loose cargo. Second, wakeboarding is exhausting on the arms (when you don't know what you're doing). After watching Travis and Jared skimming around the water with seemingly little effort, I thought "I have to have a go at that." About 15 fruitless attempts later my arms were lead and I'd imbibed a good pint of Lake Washington. Splendid good fun because everytime Eric slowly cranked up the speed on the boat, and I felt the tension of water below my board, I thought to myself, "I'm going to get it this time."
Also, it's a new challenge to look forward to this summer. A summer without a new hobby or something to learn is death. My mind is still trapped in the past, in school, at the beginning of the quarter, perusing the coursebook, looking for new classes in random subjects.
Last night I barely had the strength to shift gears in my car or turn a doorknob. This morning I couldn't push myself up out of bed. I awoke at 6:30 in the morning to try and watch Stage 2 of the Tour. For the 15 minutes before 6:30, my alarm clock was on, and some lady was chatting about some farmers who raised their chickens and cows using a particular diet that produced better tasting cheese, and I was so tired that her words actually permeated my thoughts. I dreamed I was wandering in this dark, dingy, abandoned prison, and this farmer was leading me from cell to cell, where he kept his animals. Peacocks, chickens, and goats wandered around while the farmer sprinkled feed on the ground. Felt like Hannibal Lecter's asylum, but all the time I was supremely excited to rush to the supermarket to purchase a brick of this special brand of cheese. I woke up, and for about 3 minutes I remembered the name of this brand of cheese. Meant to write it down, too. Now I've forgotten it, and frankly I can't tell what part of the dream was imagined, and what was real. Don't even know if this brand of cheese even exists.
Le Tour
The Tour de France started yesterday. The Prologue was exciting, a short 4 mile time trial. Laurent Jalabert came out with a miraculous effort to complete it in 9' 10", then Lance maxed out with an even more incredible effort to win the Prologue by two seconds in 9' 8".People think soccer is ignored. So is cycling. With Lance in his prime and Ullrich out of this year's Tour, attacks will come from all sides. Anyone with OLNtv who isn't watching is missing out on two hours of high drama every day. What these 190 or so cyclists will do over the next three weeks is to complete the most incredible endurance event in the world. 2100 miles of cycling, sometimes up mountain grades rated at about 20%, with only two rest days.
Also, everyone seems excited that the U.S. may become competitive in international soccer. Well, the U.S. is further ahead in cycling. Many teams' have American race leaders. Of course there's Lance, but some of his former teammates have moved on to other teams to be the boss. Tyler Hamilton (2nd in the Giro D'Italia this year), Levi Leipheimer (who placed in last year's Vuelta) to name the two most well-known. Floyd Landis, one of Lance's domestiques, finished second to him in the Dauphine Libere and showed himself to be a promising climber and possible future GC contender.
July 5, 2002
All-American
Watched Rob Lowe host the Macy's fireworks show from the Big Apple last night. Lowe was a good choice to represent America. Here's a guy who videotaped himself having a threesome (pardon moi, a menage a trois) with two minors, and now he's come back to be one of my favorite characters on The West Wing. We're a nation that forgives.
Lowe was a good sport in his first several West Wing episodes, poking fun of his past when he finds out he's had a fling with a high-priced call girl.
Ray Charles singing America the Beautiful, that's an American tradition, like Charlie Brown TV specials during Halloween and Thanksgiving. Britney Spears dressed in skimpy outfits doing hip pumps with a cadre of multi-ethnic dancers while singing "Boys"? That's a new one. Couldn't she have sung Yankee Doodle Dandy or something? Draped in an American flag?
July 4, 2002
Rick vs. Sammy
Everyone's probably heard about Rick Reilly asking Sammy Sosa to take a steroid test during a post-game interview. Reilly even went so far as to get the address of a local clinic. Well, Sammy went off on Reilly, so Reilly wrote a column in SI raising doubts about whether Sammy was clean. Reilly concludes the article: "True, it would take some large cojones [to get tested right away, without waiting for mandatory testing]. Of course, if these players are on steroids, they lost those a long time ago."
Rick Reilly is an a$$ for confronting Sammy like that, and a bigger one for then trying to come off as if he was the one wronged. Innocent until proven guilty, Rick. You should've learned that in grade school. That was a cheap publicity stunt which you're milking for all it's worth. Want to prove your cojones? Go ask the same question of Barry Bonds, or Mark McGwire if he were still playing. Then we'll see if you and your cojones fit in a locker room urinal.
Asian Invasion
First you have Japanese players like Ichiro coming over and leading all All-Star voting, then Yao Ming from China is the first overall NBA draft pick this year, and now 113 pound Takeru Kobayashi has won Nathan's Famous Annual hot dog eating contest for the second year straight. And not just by a little. He ate 50.5 hot dogs AND buns in 12 minutesm while second place contestant Eric Booker (400 pounds) only managed 26. There was controvery, though, as apparently Kobayashi heaved and coughed some of the hot dog back up (one of those acts that induces in observers the same reaction) into his mouth. Judges let him keep the title, though, and, amusingly, his margin of victory covered the spread of 20 hot dogs established by Internet gamblers.Read the article--it's hilarious. Reads like an Onion article, except it's real. Among the more humorous excerpts:
- Booker, spouting Zen-like strategy, reminding me of contestants in the annual Hands on a Hard Body contest: "I didn't want to suffer the mistakes I had last year, where I was looking around to see what everyone was doing. It was just me and the dogs."
- Contestants are disqualified only if food is actually visibly regurgitated. "Footage captured by ESPN confirms that some hot dog slush did spill through Kobayashi's fingers and pieces of liquid bun spouted out of his nose, but footage shows time had already expired."
- Now he knows how Lance and Sammy feel: "These (American) guys last year were yelling and screaming drugs, drugs, drugs," said Rich Shea, who noted that contestants accused Kobayashi of using muscle relaxers. "I was with him all morning, and I've seen no evidence of it. As the international federation, it would be our duty to bring drug testing into this sport, but there's just no evidence."
Free smoothies for a year
Joannie ran the Chicago Jamba Juice All-American 8K today (she's training for the Chicago Marathon), and at the end of the race she won the grand prize in the raffle. Free Jamba Juice smoothies for a year. The mental picture that persists is Joannie posing for pictures with two people dressed as strawberries.July 3, 2002
T3: Rise of the Machines
Teaser trailer for Terminator 3, Rise of the Machines. When you hear the words teaser trailer, it means that someone takes music from the previous films, whips up something in a digital animation program (usually its a bunch of moving logos or patterns that end up forming the title font for the next film), and releases it to great hype. It is a fancy way of telling people the date when your film will release. In fact, this trailer is almost exactly the same as the X-Men 2 teaser trailer floating around the web.
T3 comes out July 2, 2003, if you really want to know.
July 2, 2002
The Hustler
One of my favorite movies. The new DVD has a beautiful anamorphic widescreen transfer of the 2.35 to 1 black and white picture. THX certified. I was reminded of the film as Ebert just named it the latest in his great films series. It reminds me of another of my favorite films starring Paul Newman, Cool Hand Luke.
"Fat Man, you shoot a great game of pool."
"So do you, Fast Eddie."
The Two Towers Quicktime Trailer
I hope I don't have much in common with the rabid fanboys who post at Ain't It Cool News, but one thing I must agree with them on. Quicktime is gorgeous and the best online streaming format. The Two Towers trailer, in full screen Quicktime, is very impressive.Marilyn sings Dido
Researchers at MIT have developed a way to use artificial intelligence and videography to create video of a person speaking words they didn't necessarily utter. Their first demo clip is one of Marilyn Monroe singing Dido's Hunter. Interesting stuff, though I wish they had a stream of the clip itself. Digital revivals of dead people, or completely digitally created characters (including voices), are around the corner. Maybe not on this block or the next, but a few streets away.Who Wants to be a Millionaire
Saw this in Slashdot.Solve any of the following seven math problems and you win a million bucks from the Clay Mathematics Institute. Take your time--these were deemed problems for the third millenium.
- The Riemann hypothesis: prove (or disprove!) that all the non-trivial zeroes of the Riemann zeta function lie on the critical axis (real part of s = one half).
- The conjecture of Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer: prove (or disprove!) that the algebraic rank of an elliptic curve over Q (the rank of the group of its rational points) equals its analytic rank (the order of cancellation at 1 of its L function).
- Is P=NP? In other words, is it possible for a deterministic Turing machine to solve in polynomial time problems which are solved by a nondeterministic Turing machine in polynomial time, or, on the contrary, is the traveling salesman problem truly "hard" in the sense that no polynomial-time algorithm exists to solve it?
- The Poincaré Conjecture: prove (or disprove!) that any simply connected topological manifold of dimension 3 is homeomorphic to the three-sphere.
- The Hodge Conjecture: prove (or disprove!) that on projective algebraic varieties, all Hodge cycles are rational combinations of algebraic cycles.
- Yang-Mills theory: develop a mathematical foundation for the quantum theory of Yang-Mills fields; specifically, account for the "mass gap" hypothesis.
- Navier-Stokes equations: prove (or disprove!) that the Navier-Stokes equations have smooth solutions for all positive times, given reasonable initial conditions.
In 1900, David Hilbert, one of the most famous mathematicians of all time, delivered a famous speech in Paris to the International Congress of Mathematicians. In it, he posed 23 problems for the 20th century. Some have been solved, some may never be solved, but what I enjoy about mathematicians is that they constantly challenge themselves with insanely difficult problems, recognizing that the existence of such puzzles gives their entire field life. I'm not smart enough to solve any of the problems above, but I'm inspired by mathematicians to tackle extremely difficult problems in other spheres of human achievement.
When all the challenges seep out of one's life, life itself slips away. The key is to select the challenges which we wish to spend our lives solving.
I saw "we" and "one" and "us," but of course I mean "I" and "me".
More competitive balance!
Only seven countries have ever won the World Cup. Break up the Yankees, er, Brazil!
July 1, 2002
Follow the director
Men in Black II looks to be a dud. The director is the surest tipoff. Barry Sonnenfeld ain't my cup of tea. David Denby of The New Yorker agrees. Of course, an even earlier tipoff was that the agents in the film wear Rockport shoes this time around.
Copying Content
From a list called "Titling Movies," over at McSweeney's:Eradicating Auntie (1909)
Persuading Papa (1910)
Freezing Auntie (1911)
Suing Susan (1912)
Marrying Sue (1913)
Outwitting Dad (1913)
Peeping Pete (1913)
Saving Mabel's Dad (1913)
Killing Horace (1914)
Guarding Old Glory (1915)
Lifting the Ban of Coventry (1915)
Pleasing Uncle (1915)
Elevating Father (1916)
Fighting Joe (1916)
Fooling Uncle (1916)
Humanizing Mr. Winsby (1916)
Knocking Out Knockout Kelly (1916)
Bucking Broadway (1917)
Saving Raffles (1917)
Shadowing Henry (1917)
Branding Broadway (1918)
Helping McAdoo (1918)
Matching Billy (1918)
Meeting Theda Bara (1918)
Winning Grandma (1918)
Training Eve (1919)
Seeing Greenwich Village (1921)
Climbing Mount Everest (1922)
Kidding Captain Kidd (1923)
Kidding Katie (1923)
Compromising Daphne (1931)
Helping Grandma (1931)
Crashing Hollywood (1932)
Racing Strain (1932)
Running Hollywood (1932)
Crashing Broadway (1933)
Going Hollywood (1933)
Meeting Mazie (1933)
Pleasing Grandpa (1934)
Concerning Mr. Martin (1937)
Crashing Hollywood (1938)
Calling Dr. Porky (1940)
Calling Philo Vance (1940)
Calling Dr. Gillespie (1942)
Framing Father (1942)
Calling Dr. Death (1943)
Calling Wild Bill Elliott (1943)
Presenting Lily Mars (1943)
Hunting the Devil Cat (1944)
Striking Champagne (1944)
Visiting St. Louis (1944)
Calling Paul Temple (1948)
Calling Bulldog Drummond (1951)
Visiting Italy (1951)
Shaving Muggs (1953)
Calling Dr. Magoo (1956)
Crashing Las Vegas (1956)
Introducing Canada (1956)
Taming Sutton's Gal (1957)
Calling Dr. Woodpecker (1962)
Leaving Lily (1975)
Filming 'Othello' (1978)
Eating Raoul (1982)
Educating Rita (1983)
Taking Tiger Mountain (1983)
Educating Julie (1984)
Imagining October (1984)
Playing Beatie Bow (1986)
Saving Grace (1986)
Fucking Fernand (1987)
Making Mr. Right (1987)
Raising Arizona (1987)
Remembering Marilyn (1987)
Crossing Delancey (1988)
Driving Miss Daisy (1989)
Killing Dad (1989)
Finding Christina (1991)
Meeting Venus (1991)
Regarding Henry (1991)
Educating Peter (1992)
Knowing Lisa (1992)
Leaving Normal (1992)
Raising Cain (1992)
Shooting Elizabeth (1992)
Boxing Helena (1993)
Loving Lulu (1993)
Wrestling Ernest Hemingway (1993)
Guarding Tess (1994)
Killing Zoe (1994)
Conducting Mahler (1995)
Discovering Russia (1995)
Leaving Las Vegas (1995)
Losing Isaiah (1995)
Romancing Sara (1995)
Feeling Minnesota (1996)
Killing Heinz (1996)
Losing Chase (1996)
Remembering Mario (1996)
Shooting Lily (1996)
Surviving Picasso (1996)
Advising Michael (1997)
Arresting Gena (1997)
Burying Yetta (1997)
Chasing Amy (1997)
Conceiving Ada (1997)
Courting Courtney (1997)
Deconstructing Harry (1997)
Eating Las Vegas (1997)
Feeding Billy (1997)
Inventing the Abbotts (1997)
Conjuring Aurora (1998)
Divorcing Jack (1998)
Eating L.A. (1998)
Exhuming Mr. Rice (1998)
Finding Graceland (1998)
Leaving Grey (1998)
Loving Evangeline (1998)
Meeting Daddy (1998)
Mixing Nia (1998)
Paging Emma (1998)
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Understanding Jane (1998)
Being John Malkovich (1999)
Calling Anne (1999)
Crashing Eden (1999)
Dating Rosie (1999)
Finding Kelly (1999)
Imaging Nathan (1999)
Imagining Emily (1999)
Imagining Hamlet (1999)
Killing Mrs. Tingle (1999)
Kissing Jake (1999)
Loving Jezebel (1999)
Reaching Normal (1999)
Remembering Mario (1999)
Seducing Maarya (1999)
Seeking Philip (1999)
Bleeding June (2000)
Calling Bobcat (2000)
Conjugating Niki (2000)
Delivering Milo (2000)
Dressing the Nelsons (2000)
Drowning Mona (2000)
Finding Forrester (2000)
Killing Cinderella (2000)
Orbiting Venus (2000)
Playing Mona Lisa (2000)
Saving Grace (2000)
Being Frank (2001)
Chasing Chekhov (2001)
Chasing Holden (2001)
Choosing Matthias (2001)
Conning Renee (2001)
Cutting Tom Finn (2001)
Directing Eddie (2001)
Dumping Elaine (2001)
Escaping Jersey (2001)
Exploding Oedipus (2001)
Finding Mr. Perfect (2001)
Fixing Frank (2001)
Getting Hal (2001)
Killing Castro (2001)
Killing Mrs. Duke (2001)
Kissing Jessica Stein (2001)
Kissing Paul Newman (2001)
Knowing Richard Black (2001)
Losing Grace (2001)
Losing Hope (2001)
Losing Juggles (2001)
Losing Layla (2001)
Making Metamorphosis (2001)
Returning Mickey Stern (2001)
Saving Silverman (2001)
Saving Sister Aimee (2001)
Seeking Winonas (2001)
Shooting LA (2001)
Tempting David (2001)
Blackmailing Santa (2002)
Burning Annie (2002)
Defining Maggie (2002)
Finding Joy (2002)
Killing Pablo (2002)
Making David (2002)
Missing Brendan (2002)
Nailing Vienna (2002)
Owning Mahowny (2002)
Researching Raymond Burke (2002)
Robbing 'Hef (2002)
Serving Sara (2002)
Snuffing Cinderella (2002)
Stealing Harvard (2002)
Stealing Sinatra (2002)
Understanding Virginia (2002)
Finding Nemo (2003)
Imagining Argentina (2003)
Surviving Christmas (2003)
46.8
Did a century ride (100 miles) with Tim and Jesse on Saturday. Brought a lot of gear with me in my Camelbak, two full waterbottles, toolbag, pump--I was loaded down. That meant I was heavy. Not so good on the uphills, but on the downhills heavier cyclists move faster. On one hill on the way into Enumclaw, I ripped down the hill and hit 46.8 miles per hour, my all-time top speed.
When I'm flying down hills, I think two things. One: if I should get the wobbles, or my front tire catches on something and falls off, I will likely die. Two: this is living!
Three weeks until I have to climb the Alps in France, and I'm just not in the shape I'd like to be. Frustrating. Coulda, shoulda, woulda ridden more miles. Too much work. Blah blah blah. No excuses. Salads for the next three weeks.
During a bike ride of that distance, one encounters many things. A couple hundred manhole covers and sewer grates. About several dozen instances of roadkill. And a few obnoxious hillbillies in their pickup trucks, unwilling to share a few feet of shoulder with fellow human beings on two wheels. To those $#@!%@'s who blast their horns or shout profanities or drive really close or swerve to knock us cyclists off the road, I wish a flat tire in the middle of the desert.
Hello, I'm not home
With the rise of voicemail, I imagine answering machine sales have flattened out. It means that one of the favorite scenes of filmmakers may become an anachromism. That's the scene where one character tries to reach another on the phone to apologize, or to warn them about something, and the person on the other end either refuses to answer the phone, can't get to the phone because they're in mortal danger, or misses the call because they're out. The phone clicks on and you here the voice while the filmmaker displays a closeup of the answering machine."Hey, it's me. Pick up if you're there. Please. I have something I have to tell you, so if you're there, it would be great if you'd pick up. [Pause] Okay, I guess you're not there. I just wanted to say that, well, I was wrong yesterday. What I said. I was, I don't know, scared. Listen, I love you. I'm crazy about you. This is killing me..."
"Fred, get out of there now! It was Johnson all along, he erased the tape. Look, I can't explain, just get out now."
[Fred is down on the floor, gagged and bound, lifting his head to stare longingly at the answering machine. All you see is the answering machine tapes spinning lazily.]
en fuego
In creative writing 101, you're taught to avoid metaphors of fire or heat because they're so cliched. "Burning passion." "Fires of inspiration." Stuff like that. One which still seems to slip through the cracks is "eyes like burning coals." I read that twice this weekend. I don't even get that one. Do eyes really look like burning coals? What do burning coals look like? I think of grilling when I think of burning coals, and no one I know has eyes that look like that.En fuego is okay, though, but only when Dan Patrick uses it.