Bora Bora
Cycling on OLN
One of the great side effects of Lance Armstrong's domination of the Tour de France has been the surge in television coverage of cycling in the U.S. Almost all of that has been on the Outdoor Life Network (OLN).
This year has been the best yet. In addition to covering all three major tours (Giro, TDF, and Vuelta), OLN is broadcasting highlights of nearly all the spring classics. I love the Classics! OLN also offers The Lance Chronicles (a behind-the-scenes look at Lance's prep for #6) and The Road to the Tour (a weekly update on Lance and his main rivals).
He also tested a new UCI-complaint helmet from Giro (rules this year require even time trial helmets to be safety aids rather than just the aerodynamic shells they were in years past) and new Swift Skin time trial suits from Nike. Last but not least, in search of every little edge, Lance is having his number painted or sewn directly into his time trial suit instead of pinned on his back where it can flutter and catch the wind. Every little aerodynamic impediment counts!
Next episode: introducing Sheryl Crow, Lance's new chamois expert.
I hope that after Lance retires, OLN doesn't cut back its race coverage.
This year has been the best yet. In addition to covering all three major tours (Giro, TDF, and Vuelta), OLN is broadcasting highlights of nearly all the spring classics. I love the Classics! OLN also offers The Lance Chronicles (a behind-the-scenes look at Lance's prep for #6) and The Road to the Tour (a weekly update on Lance and his main rivals).
He also tested a new UCI-complaint helmet from Giro (rules this year require even time trial helmets to be safety aids rather than just the aerodynamic shells they were in years past) and new Swift Skin time trial suits from Nike. Last but not least, in search of every little edge, Lance is having his number painted or sewn directly into his time trial suit instead of pinned on his back where it can flutter and catch the wind. Every little aerodynamic impediment counts!
Next episode: introducing Sheryl Crow, Lance's new chamois expert.
I hope that after Lance retires, OLN doesn't cut back its race coverage.
Danger prone digits
I've been meaning to write more, but through a odd string of mishaps caused mostly by carelessness, the fingers on my right hand have been in dire straits.
First was the torn tendon from basketball, caused by bitter-balding-old-guy. Then my car phone charger disintegrated, and when I reached into the cigarette lighter, a loose spring completed a circuit and gave me a painful electric burn on my index finger. The skin from that accident is still falling away.
Yesterday, closing the garage, my index-middle-ring finger trio got crushed between two panels as the door closed, and now they're swollen, bruised, and throbbing.
So typing is slow, painful, and inaccurate. If this were a Monty Python movie, my lone unharmed digit, the precious opposable thumb, would now be hacked off by a stray gunshot or frisbeeing saw blade.
First was the torn tendon from basketball, caused by bitter-balding-old-guy. Then my car phone charger disintegrated, and when I reached into the cigarette lighter, a loose spring completed a circuit and gave me a painful electric burn on my index finger. The skin from that accident is still falling away.
Yesterday, closing the garage, my index-middle-ring finger trio got crushed between two panels as the door closed, and now they're swollen, bruised, and throbbing.
So typing is slow, painful, and inaccurate. If this were a Monty Python movie, my lone unharmed digit, the precious opposable thumb, would now be hacked off by a stray gunshot or frisbeeing saw blade.
On iTunes Music Store's birthday, AllofMP3.com is the true belle
iTunes version 4.5 released as Apple celebrated the anniversary of its iTunes Music Store. As part of the anniversary festivities, Apple is releasing a free song every day for a week.
Good idea, if it actually worked. I've tried to download two of the three free songs and have encountered nothing but error messages. I return later to find the free songs are $0.99 each just a day later. Good one, Apple.
iTunes is a slick application, no doubt the best of the software music jukeboxes. But is the iTunes Music Store all that revolutionary? No, it isn't. Like the iPod, it took an idea that had been done many times by others and simply executed it better. Nothing wrong with that, there are plenty of successful businesses built on that mantra. Just don't call it a revolution.
The songs are still locked up by DRM, the songs aren't all that cheap at $0.99 each (given that most used CDs can be purchased off of Amazon for a few bucks, you pay a steep premium for immediacy), the library is still missing a ton of titles, and the encoding is still low fidelity. I play iTunes Music Store downloads over regular-sized speakers and they sound like crap. Good luck if somehow you lose the song off of your hard drive: you'll have to pay $0.99 for another copy.
In contrast, AllofMP3.com is a true step function forward, if it works. I paid for a GB or two of downloads but the site is going through technical difficulties right now, probably scaling problems considering what a sweet value proposition the site launched with. The option to encode in all sorts of formats, DRM-free, is awesome. With disk space so cheap and broadband so prevalent among the technorati, why not offer to let customers download songs at true CD-quality? Once you've purchased a song, you're allowed to download it at anytime from their servers. Since you're paying for bandwidth, AllofMP3.com doesn't care if you download a song once or a hundred times.
I, for one, hope they succeed.
Good idea, if it actually worked. I've tried to download two of the three free songs and have encountered nothing but error messages. I return later to find the free songs are $0.99 each just a day later. Good one, Apple.
iTunes is a slick application, no doubt the best of the software music jukeboxes. But is the iTunes Music Store all that revolutionary? No, it isn't. Like the iPod, it took an idea that had been done many times by others and simply executed it better. Nothing wrong with that, there are plenty of successful businesses built on that mantra. Just don't call it a revolution.
The songs are still locked up by DRM, the songs aren't all that cheap at $0.99 each (given that most used CDs can be purchased off of Amazon for a few bucks, you pay a steep premium for immediacy), the library is still missing a ton of titles, and the encoding is still low fidelity. I play iTunes Music Store downloads over regular-sized speakers and they sound like crap. Good luck if somehow you lose the song off of your hard drive: you'll have to pay $0.99 for another copy.
In contrast, AllofMP3.com is a true step function forward, if it works. I paid for a GB or two of downloads but the site is going through technical difficulties right now, probably scaling problems considering what a sweet value proposition the site launched with. The option to encode in all sorts of formats, DRM-free, is awesome. With disk space so cheap and broadband so prevalent among the technorati, why not offer to let customers download songs at true CD-quality? Once you've purchased a song, you're allowed to download it at anytime from their servers. Since you're paying for bandwidth, AllofMP3.com doesn't care if you download a song once or a hundred times.
I, for one, hope they succeed.
A new home for my weblog
I'm moving over to Movable Type, so my weblog is in transition. This will be the new address for my weblog. Most of my entries survived the import though some of the older entries will have odd-looking titles. Perhaps someday, if I'm ambitious and/or bored, I'll go back and fix them.
The surroundings are a bit drab for now (this is the Plain Jane default MT template), but I'll hang some artwork, buy some furniture, and have this place looking like home in the next week or two (i.e., I need to roll up my sleeves and tinker with the stylesheets and templates).
The surroundings are a bit drab for now (this is the Plain Jane default MT template), but I'll hang some artwork, buy some furniture, and have this place looking like home in the next week or two (i.e., I need to roll up my sleeves and tinker with the stylesheets and templates).
Review: Stuck On You
Everyone praised the Farrelly brothers for toning down their gross-out humor in this movie, but it tastes like fat-free ice cream to me. Please unleash the Brothers Grimm, er, Gross.
Wally Zoolander
Sitting out Tuesday night's game after breaking three of his vertebrae in the previous game, Wally Szczerbiak looked like Derek Zoolander, wearing designer shades indoors.Charles Barkley the broadcaster is a hoot. After the game ended, he fired some of his usual priceless commentary.
After the Nuggets failed to tie the game, Latrell Sprewell turned and started shouting at the Nuggets' bench, causing Jon Barry to go face to face with him to drop a dozen or so f-bombs. Charles: "Aww, why he got to go shoutin' at the bench. And who's that jackass with him [talking about some guy walking with Sprewell]?"
Some fans threw cups and drinks at Sprewell as he walked off the court. Charles: "See, that's my pet peeve. You should be able to go after one fan in the stands each game and beat the crap out of him."
Jayson Williams was quite the comedian as well, but his current situation is no laughing matter. That leaves Charles as the clown prince of the NBA.
Someone actually saw Casshern
Someone actually saw Casshern, and they cried three times while viewing it (in a good way).
The first time I saw the trailer, I thought the movie, "What a weird ass movie." Now I've heard the plot explained, and I still think the same.
The first time I saw the trailer, I thought the movie, "What a weird ass movie." Now I've heard the plot explained, and I still think the same.
HS students' ignorance of American history a myth
According to professor Sam Wineburg. Or perhaps the larger point is that multiple choice tests that rely purely on one's memory of facts is more a gauge of how well-read someone is than how intelligent they are.
Jason turns something north of 19
Young and Kathy gave Jason a quesadilla maker, which is like handing a pack of Marlboro's to a chain smoker. Well, it's too late to rescue him from his culinary straitjacket, but there's still hope for Sadie.
Lang Lang, RiverRun, Petrouchka
Friday night, Lang Lang performed with the Seattle Symphony. He played Chopin's 1st Piano Concerto (really Chopin's second, as his first was named his second, but who's counting?).Lang Lang is technically virtuostic, and he comes straight from the Yo Yo Ma school of demonstrative physical expressionism. My first encounter with him left me thinking that he plays the crowd better than he plays the piano. Some of his phrasings frustrated me, though there's no doubt he makes the extremely difficult look effortless.
The audience, as expected, ate him up and showered him with raucous applause, whistles, and shouts of "bravo!"
The opening piece was the opening movement of Stephen Albert's Symphony RiverRun, titled Rain Music. An older couple sitting behind me whispered during the performance, "That doesn't sound like rain to me." Do we lose our sense of metaphor as we age?
Albert won the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for Symphony RiverRun. Albert found inspiration for the symphony in James Joyce's Finnegan's Wake. I loved Rain Music and will have to find a copy of the full symphony to listen to.
The closing piece was Stravinsky's Petrouchka, a piece I played when I was in junior high or high school and have loved ever since. It's a piece that ends quietly, and when it concluded half the audience sat there quietly, not sure if the piece was over. The SSOs audience doesn't seem to enjoy modern music. They love their classics, the old favorites, and they love their virtuostic soloists. It's unfortunate they won't let their symphony grow up, but I suppose someday I'll actively wrap myself in the comforts of nostalgia as well.
Homework
With my newfound free time, I finally finished reading a Sunday NYTimes. It took me three weeks, but I finally made it through every section.
It's a full-time job just keeping up with magazines and newspapers. I have this strange compulsion to peruse every article of a magazine before throwing it out. A warped echo of my mother's admonition to finish every item on my dinner plate, perhaps. Do they sell patches for this condition? Just stick one under your ear and it feeds random news articles into your brain.
It's a full-time job just keeping up with magazines and newspapers. I have this strange compulsion to peruse every article of a magazine before throwing it out. A warped echo of my mother's admonition to finish every item on my dinner plate, perhaps. Do they sell patches for this condition? Just stick one under your ear and it feeds random news articles into your brain.
Testing the notion that "I don't care if I ever get back..."
Losing a massive post like this to a browser crash is brutal. Just brutal. Here goes again, with condensed text and more photos, since the picture to word information ratio is said to be 1000:1.
Monday night, Eric and Christina took me to the Mariners game. They scored Eric's manager's sweet seats, just a few rows behind the visiting A's dugout.
For example, the concessions stand now offers low-carb pizza. What is that? Do they just hand you an empty cardboard box with a few dabs of spaghetti sauce and cheese in it?
Lo and behold, Christina finally received one from an A's coach, the ball the A's infielders had used to take grounders after taking the field in the bottom of an inning. Christina, usually underwhelmed and collected, jumped up and down screaming for a good two minutes. Compare her reaction to that of the young boy with a glove sitting in the front row. He received some seven or eight baseball purely by the virtue of his youth, yet he regarded each with the same jaded, gluttonous gleam in his eye. Not endearing in a nine year old, and I contemplated assaulting him outside the stadium and robbing him of his collection just to teach him to appreciate his bounty, but the game went on so long I forgot my plans.
Finally, mercifully, pitcher Justin Duchscherer of the A's balked in the winning run in the bottom of the 14th inning. Some 4 hours, 47 minutes after the first pitch, perhaps Duchscherer simply needed to get some sleep. Maybe that Mexican lunch he had was knock knock knockin' on heaven's door.
The remaining fans, all seventeen of us, staggered out into the cold Seattle night.
Monday night, Eric and Christina took me to the Mariners game. They scored Eric's manager's sweet seats, just a few rows behind the visiting A's dugout.
For example, the concessions stand now offers low-carb pizza. What is that? Do they just hand you an empty cardboard box with a few dabs of spaghetti sauce and cheese in it?
Lo and behold, Christina finally received one from an A's coach, the ball the A's infielders had used to take grounders after taking the field in the bottom of an inning. Christina, usually underwhelmed and collected, jumped up and down screaming for a good two minutes. Compare her reaction to that of the young boy with a glove sitting in the front row. He received some seven or eight baseball purely by the virtue of his youth, yet he regarded each with the same jaded, gluttonous gleam in his eye. Not endearing in a nine year old, and I contemplated assaulting him outside the stadium and robbing him of his collection just to teach him to appreciate his bounty, but the game went on so long I forgot my plans.
Finally, mercifully, pitcher Justin Duchscherer of the A's balked in the winning run in the bottom of the 14th inning. Some 4 hours, 47 minutes after the first pitch, perhaps Duchscherer simply needed to get some sleep. Maybe that Mexican lunch he had was knock knock knockin' on heaven's door.
The remaining fans, all seventeen of us, staggered out into the cold Seattle night.
Cool house, err, Koolhaas
An e-mail from Ken reminded me of the new Seattle Public Library downtown. As he notes, Chicago gets the new Trump Tower monstrosity while Seattle receives the latest Koolhaas...
I must go visit after it opens in late May, if nothing but to visit the reading room at the top floor, with views of Puget Sound.
Slide show here.
I must go visit after it opens in late May, if nothing but to visit the reading room at the top floor, with views of Puget Sound.
Slide show here.
Love at first sight
I lost my compact digital camera, a Minolta, while down in Miami for James's bachelor party. I've begun searching for a replacement because a compact digital camera that fits in your pocket is just too precious to live without in this day and age.
My main pet peeve with digital cameras is lag time. Digital cameras can be slow to turn on, slow to focus, slow to snap. Not endearing when what you're seeking to capture is often a fleeting moment in time.
Then came the Casio Exilim Pro P600...
My main pet peeve with digital cameras is lag time. Digital cameras can be slow to turn on, slow to focus, slow to snap. Not endearing when what you're seeking to capture is often a fleeting moment in time.
Then came the Casio Exilim Pro P600...
Review: The Return
After over eleven years, a father returns to his wife and two sons, Andrey and Vanya. He immediately takes his boys on a fishing trip, giving the boys the opportunity to meet the father figure they never had. The journey they take across the sparse Russian landscape is symbolic, of course, and the entire movie has a mythic feel, yet the performances by each actor create characters that feel specific and real. The long continuous shots and iconic framing of images such as the son's first view of their father asleep in bed bestows upon the movie the elusive and haunting quality of a Biblical fable rendered in human terms. The Russians have always found in their daily lives a spiritual significance foreign to those like myself who have grown up with a more secular worldview.
The movie is layered with mystery. On one level, his sons wonder why their father is taking them on this long fishing trip, and the intentions of his quest are hidden from the audience as well. At another level, Andrey and Vanya wonder why he left in the first place, why he returned, and whether he truly loves them. This is not a Hollywood movie, so the answers to each are not clear cut, though the ending is stunning.
I missed The Return at Sundance and was glad to catch it in its penultimate day on screen in Seattle. Recommended if it is available on a screen near you.
Footnote: Tragically, a few weeks after the movie wrapped filming, 15 year old actor Vladimir Garin, who plays Andrey, drowned while swimming across the lake where much of the movie was shot.
Invincible Pole Fighter
After hosting a Kill Bill movie fest this weekend, I had to go back and revisit the Shaw Brothers' Invincible Pole Fighter, starring Gordon Liu (who plays Johnny Mo in Kill Bill, Vol. 1 and Pai Mei in Vol. 2). The movie is dated, without a doubt, but the fight choreography, especially in the last two fight scenes, is remarkably exciting. Gordon Liu was the man.
I had forgotten about the attack technique in which the Shaolin monks in the movie use their poles to forcibly remove the teeth of their opponents. Very strange and amusing.
I had forgotten about the attack technique in which the Shaolin monks in the movie use their poles to forcibly remove the teeth of their opponents. Very strange and amusing.
Do I look fat in this?
Cycling is one of the best sports for equipment geeks, any when the NYTimes publishes an article titled "Overhauling Armstrong", cycling geeks get geeked up. Unfortunately, the article is fluffy and doesn't mention anything new at all.
So much ado about Nike's Swift Spin suits, but how do us mere mortals get our hands on one (answer: we can't, unless we conduct a panty raid of the USPS team hotel rooms)? And more importantly, do the suits make our butts look smaller?
So much ado about Nike's Swift Spin suits, but how do us mere mortals get our hands on one (answer: we can't, unless we conduct a panty raid of the USPS team hotel rooms)? And more importantly, do the suits make our butts look smaller?
What exactly is a Boardroom experience?
Sounds kinda kinky. Can Melania come? She has such Boardroom eyes.
Meanwhile, can we have a reality TV show in which Donald Trump and Mark Cuban compete to see who makes the bigger fool of themselves?
Cuban in his post to Trump (I'm sure Trump has Cuban's blog bookmarked): "After leaving your office, I promised myself that if I ever got liquid and had an obscene amount of money in the bank, I would make a point not to remind myself and everyone else around me of it every minute of every day
Kill Bill, Vol. 2 flotsam
- The book that Esteban Vihaio (Michael Parks) is reading in the whorehouse is titled The Carrucan's [some word I can't remember] by Jasmine Yuen. I assume it's a reference to second assistant camera operator Jasmine Yuen Carrucan and not an actual book.
- I did a Google search for "black mamba gargantuan" to see if Elle (Daryl Hannah) really did find out about the black mamba from the Internet. Apparently she did, if slightly paraphrased. "Black mamba neurotoxic venom is one of nature's most efficient poisons, acting on the nervous system...the amounts delivered in a bite can be gargantuan: 100 to 400 milligrams, when 10 to 15 milligrams are fatal for a human being."
- Loved Daryl Hannah's pantsuit.
- Tarantino's voice dub for Pai Mei is his best acting job ever.