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I've had my head so far into this trip I'm taking tomorrow that I almost forgot to mention -- it's our 14th anniversary today. :)
Bonnie and I mainly celebrated with a night out at a fabulous restaurant last Friday, when we sent the kids over to grandma's so we could sleep in on saturday morning. But tonight we had a casual night out, going out for Thai food (again, leaving the kids with Grandma) and doing a bit of self-indulgent shopping too.
When you've seen the news footage of thousands of young people converging on Kenmore Square and Fenway Park/Yawkey Way, screaming like banshees and acting like feral chimps in celebration of the Sox's World Series victory, please understand that this is not representative of Boston as a whole.
No. These are, for the most part, B.U. students. And as we say around these parts, they're a bunch o' friggin' retahds.
According to one local thermostat, it was a bone-chilling 30 degrees F when i woke up this morning. We all certainly felt cold in the house when we woke up -- I had to nudge up the thermostat a couple of degrees to get comfortable.
With the unseasonably warm weather we've had for the past few weeks, it's hard to believe that it's almost November already. It'll still be a few more weeks before we have to worry about snow falling and accumulating, but it's clear that the warm days are quickly receding.
Upgraded my laptop (my main work machine) to Leopard this afternoon. So far so good.
James: "Daddy, did we win again last night?"
Me: "Yes."
James: "Did anyone steal a base?"
Me: "Yes, Jacoby Ellsbury of the Red Sox."
James: [grinning devilishly] "Does that mean we get a free taco?"
Taco Bell has the BEST. PROMOTION. EVER, apparently.
Joy Division was one of those generational touchstones for me -- after the first time I heard "Closer" I was hooked and threw myself whole-hog into the post punk/gothic music scene.
Although I ended up buying almost all their recordings, I never liked New Order (the band that rose from Joy Division's ashes) nearly as much, and always have considered Joy Division one of my all-time favorite rock bands, along with Bauhaus and a few select others.
So when I saw the trailer for Control, a new film directed by Anton Corbijn, I got really excited. I biopic of Ian Curtis, the doomed lead singer of Joy Division who went on to kill himself in 1980 following the disintegration of his marriage and his own ill health (Curtis was an epileptic and prone to seizures).
In retrospect, Joy Division's impact on the post punk music scene is remarkable when you consider that they only produced two studio albums -- Closer and Unknown Pleasures (other stuff has mainly been compilations, demo reels and so on). But Curtis' suicide just as the band began an upward climb to popularity seemed to cement Joy Division's enduring mythic legacy to generations of goth and emo music fans.
It helps that Corbijn directed it -- he's the Dutch photographer and music video director who's arguably most connected to England's post-punk scene -- a regular with the magazine NME, photographer for Joy Division itself, director of music videos for Depeche Mode, David Sylvian (another favorite of mine), Echo & The Bunnymen and countless others.
On the red-eye I caught back from Los Angeles on Sunday night, I had a clear view of the wildfires we've been reading about and seeing on television. Malibu was on fire, and you could clearly see the fire lines in San Diego County as we banked around the Pacific, gained altitude and headed east.
It's absolutely horrible-looking from the air, at night -- the fire lines light up the landscape like rivers of molten lava. And anyone who's spent any time in Southern California this time of years can attest to the strength and severity of the Santa Ana winds, which are particularly ferocious this year.
All told, a devastating natural disaster that's having an awful effect on one of the most beautiful spots in the U.S. My heart goes out to anyone who's affected.
"LifeSize Disrupts Video Communications Industry With Introduction of New Affordable High Definition Products"
Oh, shut the fuck up. "Disrupts."
Please, please, please make the "Viva Viagra" ads go away. Srsly.
Group shot
Originally uploaded by flargh.
And three of these guys I have to work with on a daily basis. Especially that demonic-looking one licking my head.
As I was boarding the plane yesterday, I eavesdropped on the conversation of the couple behind me -- a young man and woman, who like me, had "Group 6" tickets -- aisle seats, which meant that we were the last to load on to the plane. As a result, we were stuck in the jetway for what seemed like an eternity before we could actually get on the plane, as we waited for everyone else on the plane to stow their luggage and take their seats.
About halfway through the process, the young woman remarked, "You know, I can really understand air rage. There has to be a better way to do this."
Coincidentally, the B section of today's USA Today has an article entitled "Airlines may never fly right on customer service, experts warn."
The long and short of it is that while airlines seem to be going through the motions to improve customer service, industry experts aren't expecting it to make much of a difference. Factors at issue include the obvious "vagaries of weather" that effect on time travel, that cost of fuel and labor are more important factors on profitability than customer service, that continued cuts have taken such a toll on customer service that they're unlikely ever to full recover, and that people are so used to being abused by airlines, they're unlikely to ever look at them positively.
Now, on that last part, I think there are important exceptions, though many of us have had those experiences: stuck in a strange city overnight, on the floor of a terminal, or had our luggage lost, or faced with a particularly surly gate attendant or flight attendant. But most of the people I know, for example, who fly JetBlue love it. And I wouldn't hesitate to use it more, if JetBlue and my company's booking process only worked together. But they don't -- JetBlue requires a separate credit card for our standard travel account, so I'm stuck using AA, United, or one of the other half-dozen or so carriers that fly regularly from Boston to the west coast that actually do work with our system, unless I want to pay for it out of pocket and get reimbursed.
Still, there's no question that travel in the U.S. has just gotten abysmal over the past few years. It's bad enough being in a strange city, sleeping in a hotel and eating food you're not accustomed to. That getting from here to there and back again has gotten intolerable is just icing on the cake.
It doesn't help that the air traffic control system is decades out of date and that the volume of passengers and airplanes has increased disproportionately to the amount of traffic that the airports can physically accommodate. It makes me wish someone would hurry up and invent Star Trek's transporter beam already.
One of the banes of my existence when I travel is the coffee that they provide to you in the room. Even though it's a nice luxury to be able to brew yourself a cup or two before you have to leave in the morning, the result inevitably tastes like dishwater, thanks in part to the vile powdered creamer you have to use to lighten it.
Well, this is the first Westin I've stayed in in a while -- probably since the *last* time I stayed at this Westin, which I think was two years ago -- and they've figured out a way around that. First of all they've replaced the coffee makers with one of those one-cup brewers. Second, they use Starbucks' coffee (hey, I'd rather have Dunkins', but beggars can't be choosers). Third, they actually include shelf-safe liquid half-and-half to lighten the brew.
I know it's silly, but it's the difference between having to bite back something awful-tasting to help wake up, and having a better than half-decent cup of coffee.
Apparently the Mexican national soccer team is staying in the hotel, so the lobby is totally overrun with fans trying to get pictures of their favorite players. The concierge tells me that the festivities end tomorrow, so hopefully there will be peace and quiet after that. Getting up to the room through the crowds was quite an effort this evening.
Anyone know why Last.fm only shows the music I've played on my Mac, instead of showing the music I've played on my iPod, too? It's weird.
I traveled out the west coast today in preparation for E For All, the consumer-oriented gaming show that's being put on by IDG World Expo.
Getting out of Boston didn't quite go as I anticipated -- I ended up getting snowed under with a ton of last-minute things I needed to do right before I left, and as I result I got a late start. Fortunately I got to the bus in time.
The bus, however, was another story. Snarled in Boston rush-hour traffic, we were almost a half an hour late getting to the airport, so I didn't end up checking in and getting my boarding pass until the last minute. I made it to the gate just as they were beginning to board passengers, so it all worked out in the end.
Of course, I lost most of the day with transportation -- getting to the airport, flying to the other side of the country, and getting to the hotel, then getting settled in and caught up on what's happening in the world. But now that I'm here I can decompress a little bit and get my head straight about what's going to be happening for the rest of the week. I've set up a few last-minute appointments, and already have some stuff on the calendar, so I'm sure I'll stay busy.
I'm hoping to get some time between now and the end of the week to go out with my camera and take some photos with my Canon. Downtown LA is really striking with its monolithic skyscrapers -- especially when the sun starts to set.
I'll be blogging for Macworld throughout the week about what's going on here, so I'll keep you apprised there. And as always, check Twitter too if you're really interested in what's happening with me right at that moment.
BBC America has been showing the Doctor Who spinoff Torchwood for the last several weeks. After seeing early reviews that panned the show, I really didn't expect much, but I've been pleasantly surprised.
I've watched Doctor Who for decades, and let's face it -- it's never been high drama. It's always been melodramatic sci-fi at its silliest, sometimes by design, with cheesy special effects. Though the current series with David Tennant as the Doctor is pleasant enough, Russell T. Davies and company haven't moved the needle too much from what made Doctor Who so recognizable in the first place.
Torchwood (an anagram of Doctor Who) uses the character of Captain Jack Harkness, a sort of swashbuckling, oversexed time traveler that made some guest appearances in Doctor Who, Davies has built a new show around the premise that the British Government has a clandestine special operations team that researches extraterrestrial and supernatural happenings near Cardiff in Wales. So it's an ensemble cast, though the stories unfold through the POV of Gwen Cooper (the very easy-on-the-eyes Welsh actress Eve Myles), a Cardiff cop who's been recruited into the Torchwood team by Captain Jack.
The show is darker, grittier and sexier than Doctor Who. Apparently, the seeds that germinated the show's concept in Davies' mind were Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, Joss Whedon's awesome sci fi action shows. There's no question there's some influence, though I don't put Torchwood in that league, at least not yet.
I was saying to some of my colleagues yesterday that as an ardent fan of eMusic, I feel a bit like a Linux user in a room full of Mac and Windows users. I know that my preference isn't as mainstream as what others are using, but I get so much out of it that I can't *not* be a huge fan.
eMusic is where I've been buying basically all of my new music for months now. It's a subscription-based service -- they charge me $20 a month, and for that I can download 75 songs a month. But unlike Napster and other subscription-based music services, the songs aren't restricted with DRM. Instead, they're encoded in MP3 at a reasonable bit-rate. So that $20 a month nets me music I can listen to from now until the end of days. There hasn't been a single month where I haven't absolutely gotten my money's worth and then some.
Don't look for Britney or Xtina's latest releases -- they don't cater to kids, by design -- the focus is on independent music and the adults who listen to it. They have a very diverse catalog -- everything from punk rock to classical to jazz. I've grabbed everything from Taiwanese death metal to classic bebop to world music, and I've grabbed favorites like Frank Black, Gary Numan, Underworld and They Might Be Giants, too. And really, the strength of eMusic is in discovering music you haven't heard before. I've been turned on to more great music through eMusic than I can count.
The way I explain it, eMusic is basically the cool neighborhood indie record store to the big box store that is iTunes.
I've been thinking lately about the first amendment and the paparazzi. Why? Because of the constant tabloid media fixation on Britney Spears, a celebrity who, by any measure, has had a pretty lousy year.
Now, I'm not a big fan of Britney either personally or professionally, for whatever it's worth. Don't own any of her albums (though I'll cop to downloading the single "Toxic" from iTunes). And for the most part, the public obsession over celebrities is something that eludes me. I've got enough drama in my own life without needing to compensate by living vicariously through someone else more glamourous than me.
But the video footage I see of Britney on shows like Inside Edition or Web sites like Perezhilton.com (I know, what am I doing watching that crap) tell me that things for celebrities at the top tier of visibility are just horribly out of control. Do we really need to see her and an associate parking her car at 2:30 AM in the morning? Wearing sunglasses, because the flashes from the paparazzi cameras are so bright, and a squinty-eyed look is bound to be followed with a headline "Is Britney on drugs?"
This associate of her gets out of her car and you see the cameras rushing toward the open door for a clearer shot of the celeb, shouting questions and comments.
I imagine what that must be like, and think that no amount of money can be worth that sort of emotional terrorism.
Of course, the first amendment protects paparazzi, as long as they're shooting in public. I'm not arguing that at all. But there's a more fundamental human right to be treated decently that just gets trampled on a daily basis by the celebrity media. It's wrong and it should stop. But it shouldn't stop because a new law gets passed. It should stop because it's just the right thing to do.
OK, not the best show ever, but I am enjoying the shit out of Reaper on The CW.
A day of absolutely glorious, dreary fall New England weather. It's been misting and raining throughout the day, never enough to run for cover -- just enough to get you wet if you stay out in it long enough. And it's chilly too -- just in the upper 50s. Really, I love this time of year, even though it's a harbinger of the bone-chilling cold of winter. Makes me feel a lot more alive and vital than the brow-sopping days of summer do. I'm sure it's a genetic thing that harkens back to my ancestor's days in the British Isles.
Anyway, I went out for a walk this morning with our neighbor Lori, as I try to almost every day, and we went for a brisk circuit around the neighborhood, down to the pond, then out to the adjoining cranberry bog. I was overwhelmed by just how pretty the scenery is. The leaves here haven't turned, except for some trees that turn early, but there's still a lot of beauty -- on the shores of the pond, on the bog, and around. Very picturesque Cape Coddy type stuff. I'm hoping to get out there with a camera in the next few days and shoot some exposures to see if I can capture it at all.
Bonnie had to work today, so she took the van. In other words, the boys and I are housebound. Emmeline was whisked off to her after school program by a new transportation company (that showed up almost half an hour late). Let's hope they do a better job of getting her home.
It was 80 degrees and sunny yesterday, weather that's more akin to mid July than early October in this part of New England. Today, however, is overcast and cold, weather in the low 60s. Not only is it more seasonable, but I like it better. It's a bit gloomy. I like gloomy weather, for some reason.
In case you're interested, my new blog just went online yesterday.
One of the glories of living on Cape Cod is an almost total lack of municipal sewerage systems. Most all of us use septic systems, which is completely backwards, if you think about it, for a region that prides itself on such environmental beauty. But the infrastructure just isn't here to support running such a complex and expensive system, so we settle for flushing our toilets into tanks in our backyards, and nitrogen-loading the hell out of the local aquifers as a result. Of course, all the fertilizers we're feeding the Cape's ubiquitous golf course greens don't help.
We have to get those tanks pumped out periodically to make sure there isn't an excessive buildup of "sludge" -- without getting too graphic, the solid waste material that settles to the bottom of the tank from the outflow of water from the toilets, sinks, and laundry equipment in the house. Today was that day -- we had it done about two years ago, and it was due.
A large tanker truck pulls into the driveway, and the driver pulls out a huge vacuum hose and a pair of shovels. He digs a hole in the back yard to find the cover of the septic tank, and sticks the hose in to suck up all that stuff.
It's a smelly, noisy affair that raised a chorus of complaints from the children.
"That's stinky," said James.
"It is," I told him. "But you know what that smells like to the guy doing it?"
"What?"
"Money."
James didn't understand. In his simplistic seven-year-old view of the world, people vacuumed poop out of each others' back yards just for fun.
The kids get a four-day weekend this weekend. They had today off, a "professional development" day for all the teachers in town (a good thing, I wish they had more of them, really, even if it meant stretching out the school year a couple of days). And Monday is Columbus Day, which merits a day off from school. Why, I'm not quite sure.
So far, it's been pretty quiet. James went to a friend's birthday party early in the afternoon and he's back now -- he's actually dozing in the easy chair; I guess he was tired. Emmeline is home and despondent that she doesn't have anything to do. Robert had his normal weekly afterschool program today -- they picked him up several hours ago.
The kids couldn't have picked a nicer day to be home -- it was sunny and in the low 80s today -- July weather, certainly not October. But I'll take it while I can get it, even if it's one last gasp of Indian Summer before the cold weather sets in.
Almost six years ago we moved from our old neighborhood to a new one on the other side of town. It was a great move. I like our new house and our new neighborhood much better, not because they're intrinsically better but simply because they're better suited for the family.
Anyway, we tried to stay in touch with our old neighbors, because we had developed friendships with them and they meant something to us. One family, in particular, were very good friends to us, and we, I thought, to them, even though superficially we were opposites in certain respects -- Bonnie and I on the liberal/libertarian end of the spectrum, they on the conservative Republican end. But we both had kids, common interests and a real focus on what was important: Family and quality of life.
The husband worked for a large company in a rather transient engineering position that kept him from home for months at a stretch, which caused his wife a lot of stress when raising their two children. What's more, the wife was saddled with the occasional responsibility of caring for a seriously disabled sibling. When the family had an opportunity to settle more permanently, they jumped at the chance, and I certainly don't blame them.
It required the family to relocate half way across the United States, however. Shortly after they moved, they fell out of touch, more or less after they settled in their new digs and started to acclimate to their new surroundings. Outside of a perfunctory e-mail to let us know they were safe, they've been out of touch completely. And have stopped responding to e-mail or other communication entirely.
Their house has been sold and (thankfully) repainted, and all the traces of their lives here have vanished. What's more, I recently learned that they've given a business associate who still works with them in this area strict orders not to provide anyone who comes looking with any forwarding information about them -- no address, phone number or e-mail address. And I can't help but wonder why.
I'm certain it has nothing to do with us, personally -- we were on good terms with them. And I know they'd had some antagonistic relationships with others in the old neighborhood, but nothing that might merit such a complete divorce from this area.
Theories have circulated, of course. One theory posits that they've left a debt or some other serious commitment behind, and don't want to be troubled by it. I don't really know what to think.
I'm just a little sad to know that in retrospect, our relationship with them meant more to us than their relationship with us. I wish they'd been honest and said, "You know what? When we move, we're going to fall out of touch. We want to start a new life in our new home and don't want any strings attaching us to our old life."
Even at the risk of hurting our feelings and others', that at least would have been honest. I really detest dishonesty, and if I'd realized that was their character to begin with, I doubt I would have had much to do with them in the first place.
