Remains of the Day

Oscars, the day after

Halle Berry showed up to accept her Razzie for Catwoman (via Boing)

George Bush won a Razzie for his performance as president in Farenheit 9/11. The Razzie being the opposite of an Oscar. I want to see video of Berry's recreation of her sobbing Oscars acceptance speech.

"I want to thank Warner Brothers for casting me in this piece of shit," [Berry] said as she dragged her agent on stage and warned him "next time read the script first."

Many people involved in Motorcycle Diaries were unhappy that Antonio Banderas was selected to perform "Al Otro Lado del Rio" last night

Slate reads Jorge Drexler's singing of the song as his acceptance speech as a form of protest. This comes on top of the Minnie Driver/Beyonce controversy (Driver, looking to launch her music career, was crushed when replaced by Beyonce for the Oscar performance of "Learn to Be Lonely")

Backstage at her press interview, Cate Blanchett was asked whether the Oscar win would change her: "Absolutely, you asshole!"
See video of it at Oscars.com in the Video section, though it's all the way at the end of her Q&A section. Cate's great

Was Arnold at the Oscars last night? They kept playing the theme from Terminator. Was it an homage to the governor?

Jordan hits game-winning shot at the United Center
That would be the son, Jeff, for Loyola. Yes, this has nothing to do with the Oscars

77th Annual Academy Awards

I had some friends over to watch the Oscars tonight. My goal was to serve only Oscar-best-pic-nominee-themed food, but this year was tough. Sideways was easy: Sanford Pinot Noir, the one featured in the movie. I found a bottle at a wine store nearby. It was so-so, slightly on the bland side for a Pinot. Was that the one that was supposed to have just a soupcon of stinky cheese? I didn't taste it, but thankfully Hannah brought several excellent cheese from famed Murray's Cheese Shop in the West Village. Million Dollar Baby, also simple: lemon meringue pie. I also bought a key lime pie.

Ray was a bit tougher. I went with some fried chicken (soul). Fried it myself. Realized I need one of those splatter guards. By the time I'd finished frying 12 pieces of chicken, my face and hands resembled those of the Ralph Fiennes character from The English Patient.

The Aviator--blue peas or milk containers filled with my own urine. I copped out and went with nuts. And Finding Neverland? No idea. Pixie dust? Peter Pan peanut butter? Couldn't find that at any grocery store nearby. I asked my guests to imagine food in Neverland.

I spent much of the evening shuttling back and forth between the living room and the kitchen (in NYC, that means walking across the room) so I missed some chunks of the broadcast. But some memories stand out...

Chris Rock opening with a bang, dropping the hammer on Jude Law and Colin Farrell and, to some extent, Nicole Kidman. None of them were there, so we were deprived of the cutaway reaction shots. Rock gives major props to Russell Crowe, though, so if Law or Farrell come after him, Crowe may step in and defend him. To keep his insults equal opportunity, Rock stomps on Cuba Gooding Jr., who once was doing backflips on the Oscar stage. Hilary Swank was once the Next Karate Kid. Fortune is a fickle mistress indeed.

Rock also zaps the movie industry for making six Police Academy flicks but almost passing on Passion of the Christ and blasts George Bush. No worries about a diluted Chris Rock--this is his signature stand-up style, scorched earth in every direction.

Halle. Homina. Hot. Holla.

Morgan Freeman is the coolest cat in the house. He wins best supporting actor and gives a Morgan Freeman special of a speech: concise and classy. The man speaks the truth. Word.

Robin Williams schtick, completely expected, reminds me that Jack Nicholson isn't there. Where's Jack? After presenting the "Pixar Made a Movie This Past Year Award," Robin Williams stands in the background molesting one of the eight feet Amazonian escort models. Those women could guard Yao Ming in flats. What's their story? An eager global audience wants to know. In his blue tux, Prince looked like Mini-Me standing next to those giant women.

This was the shortest Oscar broadcast I've ever seen. One of the tactics? Send the presenter out to the audience where all the nominees are forced to sit together in a block of seats, or bring all nominees on stage before the award is announced so that the long walks back and forth to the stage are minimized. They also put a muzzle on Chris Rock after his opening monologue: segues from one award to the next are short and to the point. I miss the long, rambling Oscar broadcasts. These are beautiful people. I want to see more of them.

Scarlett Johansson drew the short straw and was this year's sacrifice for the technical awards, which are relegated to some other broadcast that we're shown highlights of. Where do they hold that, at the conference room of a Holiday Inn? I feel bad for those guys; sounds like they invented some really key filmmaking equipment. Well, at least they send a hottie every year. Ashley Judd and Jennifer Garner have been sent in the past. These award winners could've been visited by Paul Giamatti (who, I agree, was robbed of a nomination).

Scarlett Johansson has great skin.

In my Oscar Party Pool, I went conservative and chose almost all of the award category favorites. I'm ecstatic when Born Into Brothels wins, even though I've never seen it.

Ken asks what women see in Adam Duritz. The rest of us are silent. Duritz looks like the dude from Kid n Play crossed with Sideshow Bob. I should have been a rock star.

During the presentation of the nominees for one of the shorts categories, the camera catches one of the nominees snoozing. The women next to him shakes him awake. When he finds out he's lost, he goes back to sleep.

When Sidney Lumet is on stage accepting his lifetime achievement award, the broadcast keeps cutting to a shot of three women. Which one is his wife? Which one is not like the others? The one in the middle. Her dress deserves a best supporting award of some sort. During that montage of Lumet movie clips, I realize that he's directing some movie starring Vin Diesel as a lawyer. Definitely a good time to claim the lifetime award just in case the Diesel flick muddies the waters. I really enjoyed Lumet's book Making Movies.

Zhang Ziyi...oh wait, she's changed the ordering of her name to the American convention of first name-last name. Ziyi Zhang. She has great skin. Jake Gyllenhaal is bald.

Penelope Cruz and Salma Hayek appear on stage together as presenters. I've seen this before, in one of my dreams. I undo one more button on my shirt. Oh dear god I love high-def.

That's what Charlie Kaufman looks like! He exposes a dirty fact--all the nominees are given countdown timers on their teleprompters, and he's been allotted 30 seconds. Only if you win a lifetime achievement award are you immune from the baton of Sir Bill Conti.

Lots of empty seats tonight. I own a black silk tie and a tux, so perhaps I can land a gig as a seat filler.

Whenever The Incredibles is mentioned, the camera pans to Samuel Jackson. Not enough of the world knows who Craig T. Nelson is, I'm guessing.

I always feel bad for the dead people who don't receive as much applause during the dead person's montage.

Sean Penn is here! He takes the Chris Rock bait and defends Jude Law's honor. Not, however, that he doesn't rise to the aid of Colin Farrell or Cuba Gooding Jr. Even Penn has his limits.

Hilary Swank wins her second Best Actress Oscar and remembers to thank her husband Chad Lowe. However, Chad's not her best friend. That would be her publicist. She'll have to a win a third Oscar to make that up to Chad, but something tells me he isn't going anywhere. Swank got so buff for Million Dollar Baby that she split her dress down the back, all the way from the Bronx down to Brooklyn, stopping just short of Staten Island.

The little hand signal from Morgan Freeman to Hilary Swank during her acceptance speech? Merely confirms his status as the coolest man alive. If I ever get married, I'm booking Morgan Freeman to give my best man speech. He doesn't know me from Adam, but I don't think it would really matter.

I picture Thomas Haden Church going out after the ceremony and getting completely bombed. That might be confusing him with his character from Sideways, or maybe not. He was great in Sideways, but this is likely his 15 minutes of Oscar fame, so I hope my mental image comes to pass.

P. Diddy is asked to present the song from Polar Express, and he calls the movie a profound and moving masterpiece of animation, or something like that. Do you believe that P. Diddy saw Polar Express? Yeah, me neither.

When Beyonce sings, her left arm floats up and down like seaweed in water, or like an arm stuck out of a moving vehicle, surfing the airflow.

Prince is so short that the award winner for Best Song has to give his speech with his neck craned sideways. From his knees.

Jamie Foxx's speech is a well-tuned machine by now, and those who've watched the other awards shows this season mouth it silently like fans during the National Anthem at a baseball game. Secretly, I was hoping that just once, when he got to the section about his grandmother whooping his ass, that Foxx would've shook his fist at the heavens and screamed, "Well who's whooping who now you abusive witch!!" No, just kidding, I don't wish that. I've heard Foxx's speech a few times now, and it still moves me. And really, whose party would you rather go to than a Jamie Foxx party? The man was nominated twice, has an Oscar, brought his little daughter to the ceremony, and is an eligible bachelor. Just hand him a puppy dog and he could quite possibly have his pick of any woman in the world right now.

Scorsese loses out on Best Director yet again. The Academy needs to just announce that yes, Marty will be receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award eventually. It's too painful to watch him passed over again and again.

The Oscar broadcast is highly race conscious. Foxx wins? The camera immediately cycles through Oprah, Halle, and every other black actor or personality of note in the crowd. Motorcycle Diaries wins best song? Quick pan through Salma, Antonio, Penelope.

Fairly predictable Oscars this year. Picking the favorites in each category would've netted you at least 18 or 19 out of 24 categories correct, by my count.

It's always better to have too much food than too little food, but I've seriously overestimated. How much fried chicken and lemon meringue pie can one man eat before he requires angioplasty? I will attempt to find out in my own courageous Bridget Jones binge-eating orgy.

blah blah blah

Yahoo buying Flickr?
I mentioned earlier this year that I'd be shocked if Flickr wasn't purchased before year's end, and that Yahoo seemed to be the most likely suitor

Danica McKellar, Winnie from The Wonder Years, offers a math tutoring column at her personal website. An undergrad math major while at UCLA, she co-wrote a paper on percolation and Ashkin-Teller models (PDF). Follow the thread and you'll discover that she has an Erdos-Bacon number of 6 and that Dolph Lundgren has a master's in chemical engineering from U. of Sydney, speaks five languages, has an IQ of 160, and won a Fulbright Scholarship to MIT. [via MeFi]

Hong Kong Int'l Airport won Skytrax Best Airport of 2004
I miss the old HK airport, though. Landing there at night was one of the coolest flying experiences. One felt as if you were going to just land right on some busy HK street, between skyscrapers. No American airport ranked in the top ten

Yankees fan's effort to name FleetCenter in Boston DerekJeterCenter on Mar. 1 vetoed

Exposing your babies to classical music doesn't enhance their intelligence

Oscar picks

My guesses as to who will win...

Best Picture: Million Dollar Baby
I thought Sideways was the least flawed of the five nominees, but not enough people think of Sideways as best-picture-worthy content. Million Dollar Baby and Aviator cover grander material, and Oscar voters gravitate towards that. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind deserves not just a nomination in this category but a win.

Best Director: Clint Eastwood
Scorsese should have several best directing Oscars already, and perhaps the Academy will choose this year to finally reward him. But I've read so many stories about Eastwood having directed, acted in, and even written the score for Million Dollar Baby. Eastwood won the DGA Award, and that's traditionally been a strong leading indicator. I'm rooting for Scorsese to pull off the minor upset.

Best Actor: Jamie Foxx
One of this year's shoo-ins.

Best Actress: Hilary Swank
I didn't see Being Julia or Vera Drake, but Kate Winslet and Catalina Sandino Moreno were both worthy of a win here also. Swank was amazing.

Best Supporting Actor: Morgan Freeman
Clive Owen was brilliant in Closer. Morgan Freeman seems like he should receive a lifetime Best Supporting Actor Award, he's been the quiet, commanding presence off to the side in so many movies, and this will represent exactly that type of recognition.

Best Supporting Actress: Natalie Portman
Often a category where a surprise young actress pulls the upset, and if so, only Natalie Portman fits the bill. Everyone loves Cate, and she played Hollywood royalty in The Aviator. But there's always an upset somewhere, so this is mine.

Adapted Screenplay: Sideways
Won't win best pic, but will be recognized here.

Original Screenplay: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
No movie got shafted more in this year's Oscar noms. Should have been a best pic nominee, but the movie will have to settle for this consolation prize. Charlie Kaufman is due.

Foreign Film: The Sea Inside
I didn't see a single one of these! So I'm just going to guess the one I heard the most about. Downfall only just started playing in NYC last week. Voters in this category are required to see all the nominees; I couldn't be less qualified.

Animated Feature: The Incredibles
The category otherwise known as the annual Pixar Coronation Award.

Documentary: Born Into Brothels
The only one I saw was Super Size Me, and neither that or Tupac: Resurrection would seem to have Academy-favored content. Born Into Brothels does (the title says all).

Art Direction: The Aviator
I only caught The Aviator and Finding Neverland in this category, and The Aviator wins that matchup.

Cinematography: The Aviator

House of Flying Daggers showcased the same saturated color palettes that Zhang Yimou used in Hero, but it's also show-offy. Who has so many outfits they can always match their environment?

Film Editing: Million Dollar Baby
I can't choose between The Aviator and Million Dollar Baby. Thelma Schoonmaker has worked with Scorsese forever and is filmmaking royalty, but I'm guessing she'll take the fall for some people's dislike of the last third of The Aviator, giving way for Joel Cox, Eastwood's longtime editor, to win this Oscar. It's not fair, but often the longer movie suffers in this category.

Costume Design: The Aviator
Brad Pitt was naked in most of Troy, and some women would argue that's the costume of the year. This seems like an easy win for The Aviator, especially since Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events received mediocre reviews. The halo effect exists, much as it does for the MVP award in sports. Being on a winning team matters.

Makeup: The Passion of the Christ
I sure hope that was makeup.

Original Score: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Fun, playful score by a rejuvenated John Williams.

Original Song: "Believe"
The only song I heard in this category was "Accidentally in Love" from Shrek 2, and I can't remember it at all. I listened to a few 30 second sound clips on iTunes Music Store, and based on that, Believe seems like the type of saccharine that often triumphs in this category. It sounds like the type of song I'll hear in a mall in about ten years, as I wait in line for my kid to get a photo with Santa.

Sound Editing: Spiderman 2
I have no idea.

Sound Mixing: Ray
I loved the plane crash in The Aviator, but hearing Ray Charles in surround sound at a great movie theater was the sound mixing treat of the movie year.

Visual Effects: Spiderman 2
I thought the effects in I, Robot were unconvincing, especially in the scene where Will Smith is walking amongst row after row of robots. Spiderman 2 improved upon the effects in the original, though I'm still not sold on the movements of Spiderman in action. Still too cartoony. But it's the flashiest of the movies here, especially with Spidey-level shots as he swings between traffic (between the cab and trailer of a semi, yes) and off of skyscrapers.

Animated Short: Gopher Broke
I missed the screening of shorts at MOMA last weekend and Salon's one-day online screening. Why aren't these shorts hosted online for a longer period of time? I'd think the creators would to broaden exposure for their work. I didn't see a single one of any of the shorts in any of the short categories.

Documentary Short: Sister Rose's Passion
No idea.

Live-Action Short Film: Little Terrorist
Threw a dart.

Clips from all most of the nominees at iFilm

Phenomenon of the plastic smile

Eric forwarded me this interesting article from the Seattle Times about the "phenomenon of the plastic smile," or the "Seattle Freeze." That is, Seattle-ites being extremely friendly in passing situations but stingy with genuine friendship and intimacy. After reading it, I scanned my seven years in Seattle to see if I agreed. My conclusion was that I experienced a very mild case of the Seattle Freeze. Relative to a place like New York City or Chicago, the two places I lived around my Seattle years, Seattle natives can seem reserved. But I've always done plenty of things on my own, also, so who knows where the blame lies. I was fortunate to work at a company with hundreds of out-of-town imports, all around the same age group, all new to the city. We made our own little social circles.

The idea that New Yorkers are unfriendly is a myth, though. In my half year here, I've found most New Yorkers to be really friendly, if not in passing situations, then in more intimate social settings. Sure, the person sitting across from you in the subway may be lost in his or her iPod and paperback, but that may just be claustrophobia. There are a lot of freakin' people crammed on this island, and you have to form a social bubble just to maintain some personal space for a few hours each day. But people are socially voracious here, especially relative to folks in the Pacific Northwest. Meet someone out and chances are you'll have traded cell phone #'s and e-mails by evenings end, and next weekend you'll have one more option for a weekend out. People are always looking for people to hang out with, perhaps because we all live in shoebox-sized apartments. The more the merrier is the general philosophy in NYC, and so Evites are passed around like so many phone numbers and photos out of Paris Hilton's Sidekick.

There's more open space in the Pacific Northwest, less intense pressure to be out and about in the scene. It's part of the laid-back feel out there. I enjoy both styles of living, but the ideal would be perhaps to have a house in Seattle and a penthouse in Manhattan. And a private jet to hop back and forth between the two cities.

The interview

I had my film school interview Thursday at Tisch. The interview lasted a half hour in a conference room with three of the faculty.

I spent the day prior thinking about film school as a form of preparation. The morning of, I got a haircut, drank some tea, and ironed a dress shirt. Smoothing out wrinkles in fabric has always calmed me down, especially in silence so I can hear the muted hiss when the iron exhales an occasional puff of steam. I jotted down some thoughts in my journal, then bundled up for the walk to Tisch.

Despite all that, I didn't feel sharp in my interview. My mind seemed to take longer than usual to spin up every time I fielded a question. I walked out of the interview feeling dejected and didn't really process much of what I saw on a guided tour of the facilities. Outside, the snow had begun to fall thick and heavy. Perhaps the cold air unclogged my synapses, because during my twenty minute walk home I thought of a better answer for every question they asked me. I hate that feeling.

Perhaps I loaded the interview with too much significance. After all the time spent on the application, after moving all the way across the country and putting all my eggs in one basket, I couldn't stop thinking about the fact that everything came down to just this half hour in a conference room. Maybe it didn't, but it felt that way. Like playing poker and thinking about how much money you'll have to throw in to call or raise instead of what the odds are.

Feeling like I'd just vomited, I crawled into bed and took a nap when I arrived home. The month or so wait until a final decision will feel like an eternity. I was ready to ask for a decision right there in the room. I'm sure in a few days the feeling will pass as I find ways to distract myself.

this and that

Photos of famous male movie stars crying
I don't think Kris Kristofferson is crying though, I think he may have died!

Limited edition CDs of the final Pixies concerts in 2004

Limited Edition CD: Bob Dylan's American Journey, 1956-1966

Whole lotta mash-ups from Party Ben
The one that brought me to the page was the "Boulevard of Broken Songs" or Green Day "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" vs. Oasis "Wonderwall" vs. Travis "Writing to Reach You" vs. Eminem "Sing (For the Moment)" which samples Aerosmith "Dream On"

How to stop receiving credit card offers

Google has begun to organize movie review data from around the web, a la Metacritic or Rotten Tomatoes

Fries

Fingertips posts a good list of free MP3s available on the web
More and more high quality (and legal) MP3s are being posted on the web by saavy musicians. Pointed out by any of numerous MP3 blogs, these free downloads have turned me on to many good bands I otherwise would never have heard of. It's a side story to the whole music piracy issue, but free MP3 downloads are a hugely effective marketing tool for many midlist bands who live towards the ends of the Long Tail, leading to revenue from CD sales, concert tickets, etc.

Tim Burton fonts

Study by economists Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner shows real estate agents sell their own homes for more profit than their clients' homes
One major problem is that the incentive system doesn't align with the seller and agent's interests; leaving your house on the market for longer in the hopes of snaring a higher bid isn't often worthwhile for an agent. Can't wait for Levitt and Dubner's new book Freakonomics

Human switcheroo (two 3MB Java Applets)
These videos from the University of Illinois Visual Cognition Lab depict a "human sleight of hand" that was detected by 50% or less of subjects

The largest purchaser of fresh apples of any restaurant or food service operation in the world is McDonalds
This doesn't include the lower grade apples used in their pies. They are the Wal-Mart of fast food in terms of purchasing power

Hunter Thompson commits suicide

Hunter Thompson shot himself Sunday night

The Seattlest, the latest in city blogs descended from The Gothamist
This link's for my old Seattle pals

The New Yorker on The Gates
"“The Gates” succeeds precisely by being, on the whole, a big nothing. Comprehended at a glance, it lets us get right down to being crazy about ourselves, in a bubble of participatory narcissism that it will be pitiable to have missed." (As an aside, my favorite critique of The Gates was Stephen Colbert's from The Daily Show (Quicktime))

More cool downloads from Salon's Audiofile: MP3s from Return to N.Y. by AK-Momo

RIP Axl

Scott's faithful companion Axl moved on to dog heaven yesterday evening. He was a good dog in a quiet, dignified way. He was also probably about 200 years old in dog years, so it was time. The last time I saw Axl was the evening of the Superbowl, when he came over with Scott to watch the game. The poor feller was barely able to stand anymore and had been on an expensive cocktail of steroids for some time. Scott found him by a road stop, and Axl had been with him for as long as I'd known Scott, so I can understand why Scott had a hard time putting Axl down. I have a hard time picturing Seattle, or even Scott, for that matter, without Axl.

A Scanner Darkly

The trailer for A Scanner Darkly
Don't read the synopsis on the page where the trailer is!! The trailer, thankfully, doesn't give it away. Why do so many sites insist on ruining major plot points to movies? It really bugs me. It's nearly impossible to go to a movie and be surprised anymore. Anyhow, I know many people I know aren't fans of rotoscoping, but I am. Love Richard Linklater's movies, loved Waking Life (another rotoscoped Linklater movie), and so A Scanner Darkly already earned my $10.

The compressed world of Manhattan

I was chatting with a guy in my cooking class, and he mentioned he was from Austin. I told him I wanted to visit Austin sometime to do the Ride for the Roses, and he said his brother was best friends with Lance Armstrong and helped to organize the ride.

"Wait, your brother is Bart Knaggs?" I asked, in some disbelief.

"Yeah!" he said.

I met Bart the first time I visited the Tour in 2002. On the last day of our trip, he joined us for dinner at our hotel. Good guy, and a bull of a rider.

Today I read that one of the finalists is New York Citi Habitats real estate broker Judd Harris. He was one of the brokers who showed me apartments when I first arrived in NYC. He was one of the more humane of an otherwise sleazy profession, though he didn't find me any sterling properties. I'll have to check in on American Idol from time to time this season to cheer him on. May he sell to Simon, Paula, and Randy better than he did to me.

Star Wars: Episode III ROTS to open Cannes Film Festival

No joke. If you're fairly clueless about the major plot twist of the movie (not that Anakin becomes Darth Vader, I doubt you're that naive), don't read the last paragraph. It's not a major plot twist if you're a big Star Wars fan, but still, there's no reason to know any more than you already know before going into the theater.

Yar's Revenge

Chappelle's Show Season 3 held up by writer's block?
$50 million in the stomach can drain the blood from one's brain, or so I've heard. I wonder if, when Comedy Central execs call Dave and ask him when the first episode will be ready, he just screams into the phone, "I'm Rick James, b****!"

Alien Loves Predator
Humorous online comic strip about NYC life. The fact that the characters are all Aliens or Predators is not essential to the storyline

Lots of music videos, but it's the New Order vids that interest me
When I was in high school, tracking down rare New Order videos was an obsession. Nowadays, with the Internet, such things are trivial. Jonathan Demme-directed video for The Perfect Kiss is one of my favorite music videos of all time, though unfortunately it's only available in abbreviated form here. This page has some videos I haven't seen before

The Toyota Prius: Joannie and Mike became the first members of our family to join the hybrid revolution
Just carry the key up close to the car and it unlocks, and the ignition is push button so you never actually take the key out of your pocket or purse. Cool. I have to go to Chicago so I can drive their new baby around

MobilePC's top 100 gadgets of all time
Mattell Football II, the football game with the little dashes. Aww, yeah

Order pizza directly from within Everquest by typing /pizza
I can't decide if that's really clever or a sign of extreme sloth

Salon's Audiofile offers an MP3 download of Keren Ann's "Seventeen" from Not Going Anywhere
I really dig this album

Torrent of the advance of Spoon's new album Gimme Fiction

Brian Berg is building a replica of NYC using playing cards but no glue or tape
His effort will raise money for victims of the tsunami, which is great, but I still think he should've been a surgeon. He admits as much

The world's largest cat is a liger (half lion, half tiger) and weighs about 1 ton
Here kitty kitty, here kitty kitty, here...HOLY CRAP! AAAHH! GET IT OFF ME!!!

The Gates

The sun and mid-50's weather made an unusual appearance in February in NYC yesterday afternoon (or maybe not so rare in this age of global warming), so after cooking class, I rushed up to Central Park on the subway to catch Christo and Jeanne-Claude's The Gates before sundown. I saw them for about an hour before the sun disappeared behind skyscrapers to the southwest.

I wasn't sold on The Gates prior to seeing them, perhaps because of the sheer volume of build-up, but they won me over as the afternoon passed. The more gates I walked under, the more at peace I felt. Is it the orange color? The feeling of returning to childhood evoked by walking under wind-swept swaths of fabric? The rustling of the breeze against the nylon reminded me of rolling in piles of leaves in the autumn, or of lying under bedsheets billowing in the wind sweeping in an open bedroom window. The effect of The Gates is not the visual punch in the face that results from sheer magnitude or scale but instead one of repetition and color (one can only imagine what the impact of the installation would have been if the artists had received permission to put up 15,000 gates, as they originally wanted, instead of the 7,500 they were ultimately granted). To my eye, they add something to Central Park (which I've never thought of as breathtakingly beautiful). Also, it's a treat to see one of Christo and Jeanne-Claude's installations in person in my lifetime. Since they're only temporary and since Christo and Jeanne-Claude funded them, I don't understand New Yorkers who grouse about them as if the city had been assaulted (one crazy woman on the subway yesterday asked me if I'd seen them, muttering to no one in particular that "they'd raped Central Park"). A more understandable objection, though the details are not clear to me, is the environmental one. Environmentalists worried about the work's effect on Central Park's birds.

A few pics here, with a couple more available on Flickr...

Afternoon delight

I'm in cooking class for five hours each day this week, and so far I've had a blast. We're learning basic techniques. The first day was all about sauteing (direct heat), the second day we roasted chicken and boiled rice for pilaf (indirect heat), and today we braised lamb shanks and steamed mussels (wet heat). We're on our feet cooking almost the entire time, but the hours fly by.

The only problem, if you can call it that, is that we have a full five or six course meal to eat at the end of class, around 2 to 3pm, every day, with wine with every course. I've been floating home from class with rich food in my stomach to weight me down countered by a half bottle of wine lifting me into the sky.

Working in a huge industrial kitchen with fresh ingredients and every type of bowl, pot, skillet, and utensil imaginable is spoiling me rotten. I come home to my apartment with a counter the size of postage stamp and just want to cry. The good thing is that we have leftovers each day so I haven't had to cook dinner once this week.

I've learned a lot: how to make compound butters, prepare one's own chicken or veal stock, saute different vegetables, whip up a sinful chocolate mousse, braise leeks, macerate fruit, and the zen of mise en place. In an ideal world, I would have taken this class years ago.

I love to eat, no question about that, but I've come to enjoy the craft of preparing food and the joy that arises from carrying a beautiful dish over to the dinner table. The ritual of preparing and sitting down to a good meal feels so decadent in this rushed day and age.

Lucky 7?

Lance Armstrong announced today that he will ride in the Tour de France this year and attempt to win an unprecedented 7th title. He's also riding the Tour de Georgia again April 19-24. Wow, he has a packed racing schedule this year.

I'm torn. Financially, I'm not sure I can swing another trip to the Tour this year, but it's become an annual voyage for me. In the heart of summer, it just wouldn't be the same if I wasn't gasping for air while climbing one of the Alps or the Pyrnees, melting pavement below, screaming French to either side, and nothing but blue skies above.

...

Fighting cancer with HIV

Best places for viewing The Gates in Central Park

Lance Armstrong to ride Paris-Nice this year
Awesome. He's also riding the Tour of Flanders, Amstel Gold, Fleche Wallonne, Liege-Bastogne-Liege as part of his renewed commitment to the one-day classics, i.e., he was bored of dominating the TDF

Interesting sports photo from the Paralympic Games
Lots of other great 2005 World Press Photos of the Year. Some others I like (here here here here here here here here here here)

Google Print
Google's answer to Amazon's Search Inside the Book

...

Michael Sokolove laments the state of the NBA and suggests two ways to improve its play: ban the dunk and get rid of the 3-pointer

Tom Yum Goong, the latest Tony Jaa martial arts flick
That trailer looks like vomit, but here's the executive summary: Jaa beats the snot out of people with his knees and elbows. That title is unfortunate, but Jaa is worth the price of admission. Those who live in a decent-sized city in the U.S. might be able to see the Jaa's breakthrough flick Ong Bak in theaters now (click through the menu to see RZA's endorsement)

The Global Consciousness Project
Can this random number generator somehow predict the future? If nothing else, interesting fodder for a movie

Thundercats: The Movie
I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry. I never really watched the cartoon growing up, so without a prompt, I would've identified this as the work of Andrew Lloyd Weber on a bad acid trip

VOIP

Last week I switched from using Verizon for local phone service to using VOIP through Vonage. My primary motivation was value, as Vonage offers more for less. I used to pay some $21 a month for local phone service. Through Vonage, for $14.99 a month, I receive 500 Anytime Minutes for calls in the U.S. and Canada, and additional minutes are 3.9 cents per. In addition, I get Voicemail, Call Waiting, 3-Way Calling, Caller ID, Call Forwarding, Repeat Dialing (useful in NYC when battling millions to try and secure a dinner reservation, or tickets to a concert), Call Transfer, and *69, among others. I can also technically bring my landline with me when I travel. Heavy users can pay $24.99 a month for unlimited calls in the U.S. and Canada.

Setup was fairly painless. Vonage sent me a router which I hooked up to my cable modem, and then I plugged my phone directly into the router. I still need to muck around with the router they sent me to configure it to solve the occasional conflict on certain ports, but otherwise it was plug and play. Call quality is fine.

VOIP makes sense; data is data, regardless of whether it's voice or HTML or video. I'm glad to see heightened competition for telecom companies in the voice market. Vonage offers service in most states in the U.S., with the exception of a few states like Idaho and Montana, Alaska and Hawaii.

Fruits of my Pseudo A.D.D.

One of the most useful Firefox Extensions is SessionSaver
In the event of a crash, it restores your browser as it was

You really can die from heartbreak
Which is why it's unbelievable when you see octogenarian Cubs fans

Sofiane Sylve, considered the world's foremost Balanchine dancer
One of the NYC bright talents I need to see sometime

Linky is a Mozilla plug-in that allows you to open multiple links at once
Saw this in Boing Boing. It's a godsend for pages with lots of photo thumbnails

Video for "An Honest Mistake" by The Bravery
Touted as one of the hot bands to watch for 2005. Reminds me of alternative music I listened to in the late 80's (in a good way), back when alternative was more, well, alternative

The Penny Black Project from Microsoft Research
This particular anti-spam approach attacks spammers by consuming CPU cycles for each message sent. I've read many variants on this approach, including charging a tiny amount per message, and it always sounds reasonable and feasible. My spam filters keep my inbox manageable, but I'm all for new approaches

Graphic, brutal, pro-vegetarian video from PETA titled "Meet Your Meat," narrated by Alec Baldwin
I turned vegetarian for a half year once before, and this video has me feeling it again. If anything, it's at least a powerful argument against factory farms and for purchasing organic meat from more humane farms, if at all possible

Ever since installing Mac OS X Update 10.3.8, my PowerPC G5 fans have been turning on and off constantly
If they ran all the time, I'd probably forget about the noise, but the constant on and off is really distracting

A primer on how to cut various fruits and vegetables
Excellent--lots of wisdom I learned in my knife skills class is available here for free!

The Nike Dunk Pidgeon sneaker
When I saw this, I thought it was perhaps the most beautiful sneaker I had ever seen. No idea why.

Pseudo A.D.D., brought on by the Internet
I am almost certain I suffer from this

IKEA is freaking dangerous
Just a half year ago, at least 3 people were crushed to death at an IKEA store opening in Saudi Arabia. Competitors might also take this as a sign that the world really, really needs cheap furniture

I wanted to laugh at this guy, but he's having a lot of fun, and I do the same thing myself from time to time

I agree, this change to the NYTimes e-mail an article functionality stinks
You can no longer e-mail the body of an article. I used to e-mail bodies of NYTimes articles to my GMail acct for future reading, my GMail acct being like a meat locker for mobsters to stash bodies

The year of poultry

Happy Chinese New Years to all. We now enter the year of the rooster ("year of the cock" jokes seem like they might be funny, but in actuality aren't), though the previous two lunar new years (nos 4700 and 4701) were very kind to poultry also. I was suffering from a head cold today, but not so badly that I wanted to risk the bad luck that might come from not having some Chinese noodles and fish in Chinatown.

What a madhouse. I wasn't even there for the parades and fireworks show, but I nearly lost my eye several times as young kids everywhere tossed those noisemaking poppers in all directions and drunken revelers pulled strings that launched confetti and streamers out of plastic containers. The streets of Chinatown were blanketed in confetti. Poor street cleaners.

I've always wondered why it is that anyone would believe that everyone born in a certain year or particular month (astrology) have the same personality. But if you do and are giving birth to a child this year, expect him or her to be aggressive, adventurous, and industrious. Famous roosters include Confucius and Britney Spears. Plus, everything will taste like your kid.

According to Chinese tradition, roosters are worst suited to rabbit year people. Famous rooster: Jennifer Aniston. Famous rabbit: Angelina Jolie. Wow, this stuff really works!

Knife Skills 1

I cashed in one of my Christmas presents yesterday, taking the one day Knife Skills 1 class at NYC's Institute of Culinary Education. The class was three hours long and taught by Norman Weinstein, a colorful character. I'm no dynamo in the kitchen, but I considered myself competent, though self-taught, with a knife. What I aspired to was the speed and accuracy of the chefs I'd seen on television. Like Daniel LaRusso, I walked in expecting to break boards, and instead was handed sponges and paintbrushes and told to wash cars and paint fences.

This was a good thing. We started with basics, the knives themselves. Weinstein was a huge advocate of Wusthof knives, and those were the type provided for the class. They're the same knives provided to the professional students at the school (we were the recreational track). I was glad to hear it as the 8" cook's knife and 3.5" paring knife I have at home are both Wusthof. Something about the way they feel in the hands just feels right versus knives like Henckels, and they have a nice heft to them. Some people prefer lighter blades, but the techniques we learned in the class rely on the heft of the knife to do a lot of the work, so wielding lighter knives (e.g. Global knives) would require more effort and strain from the arm.

Along those lines, Weinstein sold me on the idea that size matters, and by the end of the class I'd come around to his line of thinking (I could hear Paul Hogan's voice in my mind's ear: "8" cook's knife? That's not a knife. [Pulling out 10" cook's knife.] This is a knife"). I spent most of the class wielding the 10" cook's knife, and at the end, I took advantage of the one-time 10% discount they offer to students of that class to purchase a Wusthof Classic 10" Cook's Knife from the school store. That special discount brings prices for Wusthofs down below those you can find on the internet and was an unexpected benefit of taking the class.

The most important thing I learned in the class was not to ever chop down with a knife. Let the blade do the work, and the blade works best when it's moving more horizontally than vertically. Most of our cuts were made pushing the knife away from us, angled slightly down. With the proper technique, cutting vegetables became effortless, almost zenlike, the bolster of the knife tracing a tilted ellipse in the air.

We learned how to grip various knives, which knives to use for which tasks, what the best cutting board material and brand was, how many knives we needed to own, how to hone and sharpen knives, and, of course, how to cut a variety of vegetables. Of course, some of it was Weinstein's opinion, and different teachers at the school have their own preferences. Another student who was preparing to work in a restaurant soon mentioned that another teacher she'd had at ICE used nothing but the Wusthof Santoku Knife. Most all the experienced chefs and cooks there use the same basic techniques, though, and now, hopefully, so will I.

Fun class, and recommended for all who have a few hours to spare to learn basic kitchen knife skills. Everone in the class was older than I was and had spent a lifetime in the kitchen, and even they had much to unlearn and learn. I may have to pony up for Knife Skills 2 and 3.

Review: Aliens of the Deep (IMAX)

I'm a fan of IMAX movies, and the geek in me hopes that 3-D tech will continue to improve so that movies can become even more immersive in the future, even if it's restricted to certain genres. This week I trekked out to Lincoln Square in NYC to catch the latest 3-D IMAX pic, James Cameron's Aliens of the Deep.

I haven't seen a 3-D IMAX pic in years. I can't remember what I had to wear at the last one I attended, but for this one I donned massive clown-sized glasses. The 3-D effect is inconsistent. At times, everything was sharp and the picture did seem to jump out at me, as in the case of an elephant reaching out with its trunk. At other times, objects in the foreground were blurry, and the depth imperceptible. The technology needs work.

As for the picture, it's a mixed bag. The movie is only about 45 minutes long, and in that time, less is devoted to fascinating sea creatures than to the young marine biologists and NASA scientists sent down in the submersible vehicles. A few creatures are quite magical, including a gorgeous ring-like jellyfish and a deformed-looking fish with feet. You can't argue with the young marine biologists and geologists (this could be the appealing cast of Real World: 3 Miles Under Deep in the Ocean) who gush over how lucky they are, but then they're seeing the deep sea krill live, while we get the blurry view through a robotic camera. Also, presumably they know the names of these creatures, but for the most part the audience is fed information like Cameron's: "This is off the hook!"

Cameron goes on to theorize that if creatures can survive the ridiculously harsh conditions deep in Earth's oceans (and I was curious how the shrimp and soft-skinned creatures like squid and octopus at these depths survived the lack of light, crushing pressures of the miles of water above them, and the scorching superheated air from within the earth, spewing out of mineral chimneys), why couldn't they survive similar conditions on Europa, one of Jupiter's moons? The movie concludes with a hypothetical meeting with such aliens on Europa, but at that point I was wondering if there was a director's cut with more underwater footage.

And, of course, I was disappointed that no giant squid were spotted. The closest I've come to seeing one alive recently was a New Yorker cartoon captioning contest ("Elusive? He's here every night.").

Eleven Madison Park

Last week was Restaurant Week in NYC. I sampled several participating restaurants, but the one providing the best experience was Eleven Madison Park. From my point of view, a restaurant that participates in Restaurant Week should do so to attract new customers who might otherwise be intimidated by the normally steep prices or just by the unknown. Therefore, you should put your best foot forward for customers stopping in that week.

Eleven Madison Park was the only restaurant I visited that seemed to subscribe to that theory. After my friend and I had finished our lunch ($20.12 prix fixe lunch in honor of NYC's bid for the 2012 Olympics), chef Kerry Heffernan stopped by our table to ask how our meal was. Then they gave each of us a $20.05 gift certificate for our next meal there and a large chunk of chocolate shaped like a leaf. Exceeding expectations? Check. Return customer? Check.

The staff and service were impeccable, a common denominator of all the Danny Meyer restaurants I've been to. No need to flag down a waiter; simple eye contact sufficed for any request since the waiters were always looking out for such cues. I'm anxious to try The Modern, Meyer's newest restaurant (just opened this Monday) at the MOMA, and Blue Smoke, his BBQ joint.

Another Google beta

Google Maps is sweet
Nice, clean interface, especially relative to Mapquest, and a sweet DHTML implementation. I like the 3-D pushpin results for businesses; try "pizza near [your zip code]" for example. What's needed now, for us Manhattanites, is a merger with HopStop functionality

Region 3 DVD of Kung Fu Hustle available for pre-order, ships Feb. 25
Aww yeah

Don't call it a comeback (but it kind of is)

With a high-capacity PVR, I can afford to gamble on shows that I normally wouldn't stay home to watch. My PVR had been dutifully logging the seasons-to-date of The West Wing and 24, two shows that lost me about mid way through last season. The former had lost its edge, and the latter had grown stale.

Both shows shook things up this season, and now they're back to high priority season pass status in my PVR. Former fans who fell off the bandwagon, like yours truly, might want to consider revisiting old friends. The Bartlett administration is in its last year, and its refreshing to see some of the old crew back on the campaign trail. New roles for old faces have given all the actors freedom to stretch their legs again, and stretching is important on a walk-and-talk show. And for goodness sake, just let Josh and Donna get together. After five seasons and change, they've earned it. The West Wing isn't at the level it set its first two seasons, and its dead spots remind fans of that in a painful way, but it also shows the occasional spark and crackle that brings back nostalgia for a time when, well, our president wasn't George Bush.

Meanwhile, Jack Bauer's having another one of those days. With his track record, he should probably be the president himself, but instead he's running around chasing down terrorists. 24 is fairly preposterous--there's no way all that can happen in 24 hours, and no one would really care if they called it 48 or even 72. The show also features an unusually high concentration of ambitious and insecure women, many of whom turn out to be conniving traitors to their own country, especially African-American women. In condensing all this action and confrontation and conflict in 24 episodes, though, it may be the perfect kinetic entertainment drug for our attention-deficit age.

Is that...no, it couldn't be, could it?

I was much more disturbed by the Degree Deodorant for Men ad last night (clip linked off of this iFilm page) than by the great escape of Janet Jackson's nipple last year. What was going on in that shopping cart?! Even in high definition, too much was left to the imagination.

miscellany

A company employs Third World laborers to play MMORPG 24/7 to create digital weaponry and later sues the game's creator for trying to crack down on the practice
And other humorous tales of lawsuits brought on by virtual events. I have this new image of my childhood, me taking a bath while someone I'd hired sits there rocking a joystick back and forth, helping my character run the 1600m run in the Decathlon for Atari 2600

Smoking ban in NYC hasn't hurt business
Though the analysis cited is far from scientific. Still, it's a blessing that coming home smelling of smoke and having to dry clean your outfit the next day is a distant memory. Let's hope public bathrooms without automatic flushing sensors will also go the way of the pterodactyl in the near future

Vietnamese man survives bird flu. Doctors puzzle over two mysteries: how did he contract the disease, and how did he survive?
Frightening possibility is that the disease has recombined with human flu and evolved the ability to pass from person to person, not just from bird to person. That could lead to a global pandemic. Docs believe one reason this man survived was his fitness; he runs 14 miles a day. If that's the level of fitness required to survive bird flu, I'm in trouble

Humorous ACLU ad about the implications of some type of national identity data warehouse
Of course, the private sector (e.g. Wal-Mart, your local pizza joint, Citicorp) sees this as a holy grail and has already made numerous efforts to build such global views of their customers

Implicit Association Tests
I stumbled home from drinks with a friend slightly buzzed tonight and took every one of these tests. It's embarrassing to have one's biases revealed so easily

Bode Miller wins first in the men's downhill at the world Alpine ski championships
Daron Rahlves finished second, making it the first 1-2 finish for U.S. skiers at a world championship. Said Miller afterards: "I don't have any weaknesses really. I'm decent on the flats, but not the best, I'm good on turns, good in the air, off jumps I don't really make mistakes. There's no hole in my skiing."

Police use Photoshopped photos to ID the location of a child pornography site
The police used the invisibles technique employed primarily for puzzles up until now. By erasing people from photos, they made it easier for the public to identify the location

A new movie by Shunji Iwai titled Hana & Alice
Umm, shoot, I can't read Japanese. I'm a huge fan of Swallowtail Butterfly and All About Lily Chou Chou (out on DVD Feb. 15, 2005!) though, so I hope this makes it to NYC. All About Lily Chou-Chou felt to me like a Japanese New Wave movie

Ourmedia.org will offer a place to host audio and video content for free, with unlimited bandwidth
Wow, how are they going to afford that?!

The Departed

The Infernal Affairs trilogy is one of Hong Kong's great movie trilogies, a labyrinthine cops-and-gangsters epic that jumps back and forth in time. Brad Grey and Brad Pitt bought the rights to the English remake, and Martin Scorsese is set to direct. I'm not generally a fan of American remakes of foreign properties that are fine as is, but Scorsese receives the benefit of the doubt, always.

His remake is currently titled The Departed (IMDb currently uses the Infernal Affairs poster as a placeholder) and will star Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio in the roles of the undercover cop and gangster, roles originally played by Tony Leung and Andy Lau. Instead of being set in Hong Kong, the remake will locate the story in Boston, where the Boston police force and an Irish-American gang do battle. I read somewhere that Scorsese was condensing all three episodes of the trilogy into one movie, though to do so he'll have to lop off a lot. Jack Nicholson will play the Irish-American mob boss, taking the role of Sam (played by Eric Tsang) in the original. The cast will also include Mark Wahlberg.

"I played it because I have a pair"

This Volkswagen ad remix of Singing in the Rain is incredible

Hypnotic black and white short: Muppets Overtime

Bode Miller loses one ski 15 seconds into downhill run, nearly finishes the entire run on one ski at speeds of 70 to 75mph
He might have lost one of his two skis, but he didn't lose the pair that counts. That is freaking crazy

Jeff Bagwell's ex-wife is auctioning off 30 days of ad space on her cleavage
The current bid is $10,700. The T&, err, Q&A, is worth reading. Baseball wives, and now ex-wives, are all the rage this offseason. We need to get Shaune and Anna Benson to do a charity mud wrestling event or something

Malcolm Gladwell on the Superbowl

Always a strange convergence of my personal interests when Malcolm Gladwell pops up on ESPN.com
And he even mentions The Sports Guy in the interview. Universes are colliding! Gladwell applies some the wisdom he gleaned while writing Blink to the Superbowl and advises the Eagles to run more no-huddle against the Pats. Makes sense to me. It always seems like offenses go no huddle just before the half or at the end of games when trying to catch up and suddenly march up the field. On the other hand, I feel like defenses should disguise coverages and switch formations more often before the snap. Why line up and give someone like Peyton Manning time to read you over and audible?

New version of The Apprentice, starring Martha Stewart

Open casting calls are this Friday for the next version of The Apprentice in which she takes the part of Donald

It's not illegal to publish current photographs of the Eiffel Tower at night without permission
Umm, oops

Life lessons from Warren Buffett
I enjoyed these

Yahoo's Y!Q Search Beta

Y!Q is Yahoo's latest search tool, serving up search results related to whatever context you're in. For Mac users, Y!Q can be added to your Firefox browser. You can also embed Y!Q tags into web pages so users can view related results overlaid on top of your webpages, without leaving. I'm too tired to play with it much tonight, but I can certainly understand the motivation for inline search tools. I'll have to try it out

Now that Microsoft, Amazon, and Yahoo are chasing madly after Google, search innovation seems to have accelerated. That's a great thing for users.

Blink, Saturday, and other books for 2005

The first notable book I've finished in 2005 is Blink by Malcolm Gladwell (excerpt). Fans of Gladwell will recognize some of the ideas in the book. He covered some of this ground in an article from 2002, "The Naked Face." Blink focuses on rapid cognition, the immediate and almost unconscious reaction you have when you first encounter a person or object. Gladwell is careful to distinguish this type of rapid cognition from intuition because he believes that the judgments we make in these few seconds can often be more worthwhile than those arising from deliberate analysis.

The ideas in the book are not as revolutionary as those in The Tipping Point, and those looking for a prescriptive text will be disappointed, but the book is still engrossing, a quick read. Gladwell's appea is that he combines fascinating ideas from the non-fiction world with a fiction writer's flair for storytelling. A typical Gladwell article or chapter opens with a seemingly straightforward anecdote that eventually unfurls to reveal a surprising, often non-intuitive idea. He never rushes the story or hammers his points home with heavy rhetoric; like a seasoned card player, Gladwell slow plays his most powerful ideas.

Among the fascinating topics covered in Blink:

• Implicit Association Test - click on the demonstration link and take some of the sample tests. The results might surprise you by revealing unconscious biases, whether they be age or race
• How psychologist John Gottman can predict with 95% accuracy whether a couple will be married fifteen years later simply by watching an hour of videotape of the couple conversing. Simply watching fifteen minutes, he only drops to 90% accuracy. He's been so successful that he's founded The Gottman Institute, a couples training and counseling center, in Seattle. Curious newlyweds might wish to take the online relationship quiz or purchase his book The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work.
• The risk of being sued for malpractice has very little to do with how many mistakes a doctor makes. What does it correlate to?
• What simple test did doctors put into place at Cook County Hospital to become one of the leading hospitals for recognizing patients who weren't really having a heart attack? Why did that test improve their accuracy by 70% over the previous method?

One of those times I wish I was in London instead of here in the states: Ian McEwan's new novel Saturday has released in the UK, but not yet in the States. I suppose I could order a copy from the UK, but the dollar is too weak to justify spending that much. An excerpt appeared in a recent issue of The New Yorker.

Other books I'm looking forward to this year:

• Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven Levitt - one of the most interesting economists and thinkers out there.
• Everything Bad Is Good For You by Steven Berlin Johnson - Johnson previewed his book on his website, and the thesis is that "popular entertainment is making us smarter and more engaged, not catering to our base instincts." Does that mean I don't have to feel guilty about watching The O.C. anymore?
• Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story by Chuck Klosterman - Chuck is one guy who'd agree with Steven Berlin Johnson on the value of pop culture. I have no idea what this new Klosterman book is about, but I'm a fan of Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto
• Super System II by Doyle Brunson (update to the original classic shipped this week) - mostly for the chapter on No Limit Omaha.
• The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology by Ray Kurzweil - it's quite possible Kurzweil is crazy (the man downs about 250 pills a day with the belief that he may live long enough to become immortal), but he might also be a visionary. He's like Grandpa Simpson.
• Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami (already released); I really loved Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

Jared Diamond's latest was the early buzz leader in 2005, though I'm not ready to take on a 592 page tome about why civilizations collapse. Jonathan Safran Foer follows up his much-acclaimed Everything is Illuminated with a novel releasing in April titled Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Foer's latest deals with 9/11, and McEwan's novel is set on Feb. 15, 2003, the day the British marched against the Iraq War. It will be interesting to see how fiction deals with 9/11 now that more time has passed and more facts have come to light.

Nick Hornby's fourth novel, A Long Way Down, arrives in June. I've waited for years for a Hornby novel to grab me the way High Fidelity did, and though the topic of this one concerns depression, therapy, and suicidal tendencies, the plot sounds calculated to pique one's curiosity. Four people meet atop a tower in north London on New Year's Eve, all intending to jump, but instead they become fast friends. Supposedly the book features an appearance by an angel who looks like Matt Damon.

Of course, the mainstream will snap up the latest Harry Potter (July) and Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code sequel (release date unknown), supposedly set in Washington D.C., and even the latest John Irving, Until I Find You. David McCullough's latest historical tome 1776 will undoubtedly dominate the non-fiction charts. It's not a stretch to imagine every one of these being turned into movies.

For my med-school friends, especially Alan and Sharon, A Change of Heart: How the People of Framingham, Massachusetts, Helped Unravel the Mysteries of Cardiovascular Disease seems appropriate. After all, it's only through talking to Alan that I even knew of the Framingham Heart Study. And our current unofficial family book club selection seems to be East of Eden. It's always more fun to read a book when you know you'll have people to discuss it with afterwards. Lastly, while at Sundance, Joannie, Mike, and I had an opportunity to chat with Roger Ebert while waiting in the lobby for the screening of The Ballad of Jack and Rose. Ebert called A Fine Balance the finest novel he'd read in the past decade. Used copies sell for $1.50 on Amazon, and hopefully one is on its way to me in the mail.

My main goal for the year, though, is to focus on finishing one book at a time rather than starting a dozen books and making it halfway through each. I'm not certain that focusing on one book at a time is necessarily a smarter strategy, but it will mean fewer books piled up around my bed. Several times in recent nights I've rolled over and had a hardcover drop on my head or on the ground with a loud thud. So it's for health reasons that I'm focusing my pre-bedtime story-reading.

One other book I just finished was Goodnight Moon. I babysat my nephew Ryan tonight (still the cutest baby ever), and that's the last book he always reads before he goes to sleep at night. At first, I couldn't find it, and Ryan, who just turned two, held off on telling me where it was until after I'd read him several other books. Then, finally, with a sheepish smile, he pointed it out, nestled in the pocket of the rocking chair in which we sat. The book works exactly as advertised. When I finished, I put Ryan in his crib where he sprawled out on his belly, sucking his thumb, as I turned out the lights and left the room.

FOOTNOTE: As always, if you find any reading material of interest listed above and click through on one of my links to purchase the book(s) on Amazon, I receive a modest commission. That is always appreciated, though more so now that I'm living in NYC as a starving artist. Thanks!

Hollywood Poker

Even the movie stars have caught Texas Hold'em fever
The five most avid poker players in Hollywood are cited as Ben Affleck, Tobey Maguire, Mimi Rogers, James Woods and "Welcome Back, Kotter" star Gabe Kaplan

Amazon.com introduces Amazon Prime: for $79 a year, receive unlimited free two day shipping on 1 million in-stock items (presumably those shipping from Amazon's warehouses as opposed to its partners') and $3.99 overnight shipping

The perfect Valentine's Day gift: Pornogami
I'm inclined to think Blade Runner might have even more art cred today if the Edward James Olmos character had left 3-D paper penis's strewn about instead of paper cranes

New version of Skype for Mac OS X

SearchEngineWatch's list of the best online reference sites of 2004

An old link, but I'm always running behind: results of BBC news Sound of 2005 poll
Apparently, the band to watch in 2005 is The Bravery, followed by Bloc Party (sample MP3s here)

Keanu Reeves gets a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame

Didn't take long for Rudy T to tire of Kobe
Okay, that hasn't been confirmed, but I'd like to think that's the case. Grant me my schadenfreude

Wow, I don't remember seeing this painting in Super Size Me (it's titled "McNipple," so you've been warned)

Scientists measure how closely two words relate by counting hits when Googling the two of them together
This may be a stepping stone towards creating artificial intelligence since computers have a hard time gleaning the meaning of words

Fat Pig

James and I went to see Fat Pig on Jan. 19. Neil Labute's newest play had premiered in NYC on Nov. 17, 2004, and as In the Company of Men is one of my favorite movies (to admit to liking it is repugnant to some people, especially those who consider the movie and Labute to be misogynist, but I enjoy professing my love for that movie the way I imagine certain Americans enjoy telling others that they like to take their coffee black, and strong; and I don't consider Labute misogynist, though I'm not sure I'd want him dating one of my sisters), I couldn't resist grabbing tickets to a premiere of his latest work. James is a huge Jeremy Piven fan, so I was hoping we'd catch him in the lead role as Tom, but Piven departed in early January to complete work on season two of Entourage.

Jo Bonney directed this production, and it showed at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in the Village. The premise of the play is simple: Tom falls for an extremely overweight woman named Helen. Does he have the courage to not just admit his new relationship but continue it in the face of the merciless scrutiny of his shallow coworkers Carter and Jeannie (also his ex-girlfriend)?

Fat Pig is more watchable than most Labute work (its run has been extended through Feb. 26). The dialogue is straightforward, and despite one's best intentions, it's difficult not to laugh at some of Carter and Jeannie's crass pronouncements about Tom and Helen. In doing so, you understand Tom's struggle. We all have prejudices we wish we wish we could shed, and our slavish devotion to conventional ideals of beauty is one of the strongest. Most of us can't summon the courage to oppose this socially accepted norm, but we pull for Tom to find it in himself to stand up for not only Helen but himself.

Steven Pasquale (currently starring on FX's series "Rescue Me") replaces Jeremy Piven as Tom and manages to evoke the requisite sympathy for a man who is perhaps too weak to be a protagonist. Andrew McCarthy plays Carter with a mannered sliminess; Labute's villainous men are not just chauvinists and misogynists but brazenly so. When McCarthy came on stage to take a bow after the play was over, he still wore an expression on his face as if to say, "My god I was fantastic out there tonight." I couldn't help wonder what Aaron Eckhart would have done with the part. Ashlie Atkinson, also from "Rescue Me," offers a brave and honest Helen who deserves the courage that Tom tries to summon. Jessica Capshaw, of "The Practice," plays Jeannie. Keri Russell played the part of Jeannie up until recently, and I would have enjoyed seeing her in that role if only because it goes so much against type for the former "Felicity" star.

I struggled with the idea that Tom would be friends with Carter and Jeannie given how purely repulsive both of them are, and what are the roots of their shallow attitudes? Is it a product of a Darwinian workplace or just so common a human trait as to be an archetype? The play doesn't reveal much. Still, if that aspect of the play feels sparse, it also contributes to the fable-like quality of Labute's work.

By play's end, the title takes on new meaning. The "fat" refers to Helen, and the "pig" to Carter, but both of them have the courage of their own convictions in a way that Tom may never have.

The introduction to the opening scene of Fat Pig:

A woman in a crowded restaurant, standing at one of those tall tables. A bunch of food in front of her, and she is quietly eating it. By the way, she's a plus size. Very.

Joint possessive with a personal pronoun

Karen asked me over chat how to phrase an invitation to her and her roommate Julie's apartment: "Come to [Julie and Karen's] apartment." After pondering for a few moments, I realized that it's a tricky question. If the person being addressed knew that Julie and Karen both shared ownership of the apartment and Julie had already been referenced, then "Come to our apartment" is an easy choice. If that's not the case, I believe the correct grammatical phrasing is "Come to Julie and my apartment." That sounds awkward. Referring to yourself in the third person ("Come to Julie and Karen's apartment") only works if you are Charles Barkley or just plain crazy.

I turned to Garner's Dictionary of Modern American Usage but didn't find this issue addressed under the heading Possessive(s) (perhaps it's covered in the newer edition). Apparently this is one of those blemishes of English that many usage guys brush under the rug, as I found an article on just this case on the web.

No easy answers. Faced with this linguistic tongue twister, no one will blame you for flipping the order of the possessors and writing, "Come to me and Julie's apartment."