Holiday Break 2001

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Higlights from this vacation:
  • No egg nog or fruit cake. But Christmas Day turkey.
  • Lots of Krispy Kreme donuts.
  • Lots of eating in general. I got fat.
  • Lots of sleeping. Helped the fat to settle in.
  • I gave James the Zoolander screener for Xmas. We watched it too many times over break. I'm already guilty of constantly quoting movies (an easy fallback when I can't conjure up original material), but this holiday break was excessive, abusive. Zoolander, like Austin Powers, improves each time you watch it. Will Farrell, Ben Stiller, and Owen Wilson are just invite imitation.
  • Managed to avoid trite comedic clams "Don't go there" or "That's a little too much detail" or " Nazi" like "soup nazi." One New Year's resolution is to try and never resort to such trite comic sayings.
  • My stepbrother James is currently the funniest guy I know. Our family's favorite is his scream of delight. Example. After opening our presents, my dad suddenly announced, with some gravity, "Now it's time to eat jello." James raised his arms up high and screamed, "Whoooooooooooooooooooo! I didn't think it could get any better."
  • My little sister Karen has more guys chasing after her than any girl I know. Of course, my only evidence is the five million phone calls she receives everyday from random guys, since she won't tell me anything. Claims I'm overprotective. Hmm, I guess I am. She's so nonchalant about it all, too.
  • A healthy (unhealthy?) dose of Grand Theft Auto 3. "Mike, beat that guy up! Use the bat! Wait, beat up the pimp! Pick up that whore!"
  • Played drinking games with sisters. Karen was the King elephant. I was the fish. What's more disturbing? Knowing your sisters know drinking games like this, or knowing they can beat you at them?
  • Sisters tried Pepcid AC to prevent Asian alcohol blush. It failed.
  • Learned some of Karen's 2XS dance troop moves.
  • The ostrich appetizer at Cafe Absinthe is pure butter, i.e. melts in your mouth.
  • Listened to jazz at the Green Mill. I miss the Chicago jazz and blues scene.
  • Visited my cousins back out in Naperville. They're well. My aunt gave me a huge bottle of Neutrogena Norwegian Formula lotion, currently my favorite. The advantage of having a cousin who works for Johnson and Johnson. I get lots of free Neutrogena products. I still need a loofa, though. I always forget to pick one up when I'm out at the store. Yeah, I'm going to start using a loofa, you have a problem with that? It's a result of watching American Psycho with James and practicing my Patrick Bateman voice in the shower. "
  • "Do you like Phil Collins? I've been a big Genesis fan ever since the release of their 1980 album, Duke. Before that, I really didn't understand any of their work. Too artsy, too intellectual. It was on Duke where, uh, Phil Collins' presence became more apparent. I think Invisible Touch was the group's undisputed masterpiece. It's an epic meditation on intangibility. At the same time, it deepens and enriches the meaning of the preceding three albums. Christy, take off your robe. Listen to the brilliant ensemble playing of Banks, Collins and Rutherford. You can practically hear every nuance of every instrument. Sabrina, remove your dress. In terms of lyrical craftsmanship, the sheer songwriting, this album hits a new peak of professionalism. Sabrina, why don't you, uh, dance a little. Take the lyrics to Land of Confusion. In this song, Phil Collins addresses the problems of abusive political authority. In Too Deep is the most moving pop song of the 1980s, about monogamy and commitment. The song is extremely uplifting. Their lyrics are as positive and affirmative as, uh, anything I've heard in rock. Christy, get down on your knees so Sabrina can see your ass. Phil Collins' solo career seems to be more commercial and therefore more satisfying, in a narrower way. Especially songs like In the Air Tonight and, uh, Against All Odds. Sabrina, don't just stare at it, eat it. But I also think Phil Collins works best within the confines of the group, than as a solo artist, and I stress the word artist. This is Sussudio, a great, great song, a personal favorite."

Yes, this is all fluff. I don't get daily or even weekly phone updates from everyone in my family, so holiday breaks are for gathering as many data points as possible on just one point in time and trying hard to get a sense for whether the trendline are up, down, or flat. All things being equal, I think everyone's looking good. Nothing's guaranteed, but we've all got a fighting chance to have a great 2002.

Not the boss of them

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Not the boss of them


Gotta love it. Salon has been running pop-up ads for A Beautiful Mind for weeks for Universal, and then Charles Taylor undresses the film with his review. At least we know he isn't a lackey. The same thing happened in EW, which didn't exactly give Harry Potter a glowing review, despite being part of the AOL/Time Warner universe.
I saw A Beautiful Mind after having read the book. I think it is a decent movie in its own right, but I believe it capitalizes on the audience's ignorance to portray it as a realistic account of John Forbes Nash's life and genius, and that is just plain wrong. Sure, it doesn't say "based on the life of" at any point in time, and the commercials all noted that it was "inspired by the life of," but yet the character is named John Forbes Nash, and Ron Howard inserts dates and post-movie text post-scripts that are common devices of non-fiction films.
Among other things, John Forbes Nash had several homosexual relationships and fathered a child with a woman he refused to marry or support. Later, he did marry Alicia, but she later divorced him when his schizophrenic paranoia was too much to tolerate, though she remarried him last June. He was also a truly brilliant mathmetician. None of this comes across in the film. If the filmmakers didn't feel that the movie would be as moving if it wasn't based on a true story, they shouldn't have made it.

Twas four nights before... They

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Twas four nights before...

They say that you can overtrain for endurance events very easily, and it's a particularly tricky problem because you start to detect a dropoff in your performance, so you start training harder to compensate, and it's a vicious circle down from there.
I think it's the same thing with work. I didn't realize how mentally spent I was from this last stretch of two to three months until my last meeting ended today. I sat in my office for about five minutes looking at my monitor and I don't think I had a single coherent thought. I don't even think I had any incoherent thoughts. I need sleep. I need to stroll through a store by myself, and do some Christmas shopping. And for at least three consecutive days, I need to think about something other than difficult business problems. Every day I've had to stay a little bit later at work, because I think my brain has overheated.
For all its finer qualities, and Seattle has its share, one it lacks is a Christmas feel. I just can't imagine staying here in Seattle for the holidays. I always leave. Maybe it's a sign.
One thing I don't have as I leave this year is emotional baggage. In even-numbered years, I always leave this town with an unsettled mind, a restless heart. In odd numbered years, I'm just plain tuckered out.

Sigh I wish I were

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Sigh


I wish I were at the midnight showing of Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Rings right now. Instead of working on a Powerpoint presentation for work. I missed a Royal Tennenbaums screening tonight, too. There is a world between unemployment or relative work unimportance and being a bigwig, and in that world, you can't go to see the midnight showing of Lord of the Rings on a work night. I am in that world. It's called middle managers with big presentations coming up very soon.
The Cubs signed Moises Alou, which is not as great a thing as it sounds, but definitely still a net positive. What's really great is that since the Astros didn't offer Alou arbitration, the Cubs don't have to surrender any draft picks. Baseball rules are complex and sometimes silly, but arbitration is very easy to understand, and in most cases teams are too conservative about offering arbitration to their players. Usually, it's because teams are scared of being stuck with that player for one year. But the Cubs made out well this year. They offered arbitration to Todd Van Poppel, David Weathers and Rondell White, all of whom signed elsewhere. That means the Cubs will receive seven draft picks in the first two rounds of the 2002 amateur draft for 3 essentially
mediocre to slightly above average old players. That's a good good move.
I can't wait for Christmas break. You know how sometimes you just really, really....of course you do. I need it.

The year in movies

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It's movie awards nomination season, as different pools of movie critics across the country select their best films and actors of the year. The AFI has gotten into the act, announcing their first ever nominations for movie awards, and they will be accompanied by an awards show January 5, preceding the Golden Globes and the Oscars.
The nominating committee seems solid. According to Roger Ebert, it included "director Mimi Leder; writer-director Steven Zaillian; actress Marsha Mason; producers Michael Nesmith and Tom Pollock; academics Jeanine Basinger, Todd Boyd, Edward Branigan and Vivian Sobchack, and critics Molly Haskell, Andrew Sarris, Richard Schickel and [Ebert]."
Nominations included:

Best Picture



  • A Beautiful Mind

  • Black Hawk Down

  • In the Bedroom

  • The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Rings

  • The Man Who Wasn't There

  • Memento

  • Monster's Ball

  • Moulin Rouge

  • Mulholland Drive

  • Shrek


Best actor (female)



  • Halle Berry, Monster's Ball

  • Stockard Channing, The Business of Strangers

  • Sissy Spacek, In the Bedroom

  • Naomi Watts, Mulholland Drive


Best actor (male)



  • Russell Crowe, A Beautiful Mind

  • Billy Bob Thornton, The Man Who Wasn't There

  • Tom Wilkinson, In the Bedroom

  • Denzel Washington, Training Day


Director of the Year



  • Robert Altman, Gosford Park

  • Todd Field, In the Bedroom

  • David Lynch, Mulholland Drive

  • Ridley Scott, Black Hawk Down


Looking at the list, what strikes me is that I've only seen five of the best picture nominees. The glass half empty: it was a long, bad year for movies. The glass half full: the home stretch will be a lot better.
I think what's most disappointing about the year is that we got films from some great directors, but none of them, at least from what I've seen, hit a home run.

The Panic Room

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An early cut of a trailer for David Fincher's next project, The Panic Room. Give it a bit--the MPEG file loads slowly.
I can't count the number of people who've scolded me for praising his film Seven. How could I condone the abhorrent things depicted in that movie? The difference between that film and The Silence of the Lambs, which so many people praise, is a matter of how thick one's stomach lining is. Seven is a better film, the cinematography and music and atmosphere as lush as that of any movie I can recall seeing in the 90's. Put Fincher in that category of directors whose work I'd always see, regardless of what the reviews say, because even his missteps are fascinating.
Also, The Panic Room marks the return of Jodie Foster.

The price of love

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A popular link among weblogs now. Call it matchmaking in the 21st century.
For $78,000, get set up with intel and a series of coincidental meetings with your dream date. I have no idea if this is for real, but I do know that there are cheaper ways to do this. Whatever happened to asking her friends, or your friends, to help you out. Are we so lazy in the modern world that we need to outsource our own stalking?
I doubt this is serious, but even if it is, it's humorous, especially the FAQ. It includes such standard business cliches as the first mover advantage:
"As industry initiators, we are in a strong position to capitalize on our domination of this market -- a robustly growing market, if our experience is anything to go by."
Or this question and answer, which seems quite sensible:
Q. Even if the subject and I do fall in love, won't it be a hollow love, having been artificially engineered?
A. No, no, no. We do not provide the love that arises between the two of you. We merely help you overcome the various societal obstacles that make the coming together of two human beings in modern society so difficult.
Getting to know someone and falling in love with someone thanks to an engineered coincidence is, if anything, more laudable than meeting someone via an authentic coincidence, as you had to work hard to make it happen. And there is no reason why some people should be the luck-prone beneficiaries of coincidences and others not.
A natural evolution of Serendipity, in which a hack screenwriter designs the coincidences which bring attractive actors John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale together.
Come to think of it, somewhere in this there's a movie waiting to be made. A more ruthless version of J. Lo's The Wedding Planner.

Spanking hanky panky

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Every year, Britain holds a unique literary event, the Bad Sex Awards, designed to honor the novel containing the worst description of the forbidden act. The goal of the prize is to "draw attention to the crude, tasteless, often perfunctory use of redundant passages of sexual description in the modern novel, and to discourage it." This according to a short column in this Sunday's NY Times.
This year's nominees included Jonathan Franzen, whose otherwise well-written The Corrections includes the unfortunate scene in which Chip engages in "sexual congress with his red chaise-longue." Personally, I think any writer would do well to avoid the use of the phrase "sexual congress," except when attempting satire, or in legal proceedings.
The winning passage this year came from Christopher Hart's Rescue Me:
"Her hand is moving away from my knee and heading north. Heading unnervingly and with a steely will towards the pole. And, like Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Pamela will not easily be discouraged....Ever northward moves her hand, while she smiles languorously at my right ear. And when she reaches the north pole, I think in wonder and terror...she will surely want to pitch her tent."
Writing sex scenes is never easy, and in fiction writing classes in college, professors always warned students about the common pitfall of writing such scenes: don't be too clinical, but also don't engage in hyperbolic metaphor in an attempt to capture the raptures of lust. Any attempt inevitably toes the line of between eros and camp.
But, maybe because we were college students and our teachers did not wish to engage in sexually frank discussions, we were never given hard and fast rules, or examples of well-written sex scenes. In general, I think were discouraged from writing them, and the embarrassment of having to share such scenes with our peers was enough of a deterrent to prevent the situation from arising.

Luck of the Irish

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Is there anything better than seeing Notre Dame's football program take one in the arse? This coach, this man of integrity, brought with him a 33% graduation rate from Georgia Tech and and the dark cloud of having allowed (ordered?) one of his players to be physically assaulted by at least two other players after he missed some blocks in practice. Why would a football coach want to lie about having a master's degree anyway?
Notre Dame is in the Midwest, but its football practices are a few miles South of shady, leaning more towards those of the Florida programs in the Southeast than those of its more solid academic reputation. I love it when Stanford beats up on Notre Dame in football every year.

Skillz

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I just got my copy of the 2002 Jack Welch Management Game for the Playstation 2 and I noticed that I had crappy ratings for finance and marketing skills. That really irked me. It's like only the famous business people like Bill Gates and Michael Dell get great ratings across the board. But at least I'm in the game, and it's cool when my relatives get to play the game and be me as a middle manager. I had to wear this body suit with little lights on it, and they followed me around for a day in the office with a camera, so they've got a really realistic depiction of my arm gestures in meetings, so if you have the game, try to play me in a meeting and press the A-button a few times. It's really great.

My next cellphone

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More good reviews for the Treo 180. I have held off on upgrading my cellphone for a year and a half now, and my Nokia 8260 is starting to show signs of wear. The sound is starting to go. I haven't had any significant reason to upgrade my phone during that time as the primary advances in cell phone tech have been in form factor, primarily, and it's painful to pay $100 just so your phone is small, looks good, is made of chrome, etc. Functional advances have been absent.
Once AT&T flips to GSM, or even if they don't, I may have to get a Treo 180. Syncing my Outlook address book to my cellphone easily is key, and I prefer the keyboard approach to the graffiti approach (the 180g offers graffiti for those who are of the opposite opinion). The ability to rattle off a quick e-mail from my phone is not a huge need, but I could see occasional uses for it. And for remote web browsing, I have to have at least a minimal screen. I refuse to browse the web using a four line black and white text interface.