Comments

I know I have a small readership, and I probably know most of you personally, but I have a request to make. I want to know what you all think of what I've been writing. This is what my comment sections are for. Any thoughts on the topics I've posted on, or on what I said specifically are more than welcome. In fact, they'd be appreciated. I really want to know if anybody is enjoying this blog. That's among the reasons I write it, to entertain you and to make you think, as well as to give me a forum for my thoughts/feelings/wild speculations. So if you have any thoughts on bathroom etiquette or Beatles songs or goodbyes, please comment. It makes it fun for you too.

Debriefing

As I wear boxers, this post sadly has nothing to do with the removal of my underwear. Instead it has to do with goodbyes. I don't like them very much, but I recently had to say a few. Tonight I noticed a few things about them. First of all, I find (and this is a general observation which goes beyond this particular experience) that you often say the least to the person you have the most to say to. It's just easier to let all the sleeping dogs lie than to kick them awake during a final meeting, particularly if it is public. Second, sometimes it doesn't matter how you say good-bye, or even if you awknowledge it. In fact, sometimes it's better if you don't. Just parting as if you plan on seeing each other the next day can sometimes be best. And finally, if you can slip out of town without seeing anybody, do it. I have a friend who did that yesterday; at the time I was angry at her, but right now her route seems very appealing.

Mudwrestling celebrity twins

Oxblog's David Adesnik suggests that President Bush "could break all existing records for political fundraising if the Bush twins took on the Olsen twins in a mud-wrestling match broadcast live on the web." I'm going to have to respectfully disagree. If the Olsen's were to dye their hair neon and spike it up they'd look a whole lot like those plastic troll toys. As for the Bush twins, well, judge for yourselves. I guess that they're kind of cute.

Yesterday....

I've decided to do a series on my favorite Beatles songs. We'll see how many I do.

I suppose there is nothing novel in praising "Yesterday." It's the most widely covered song in pop history. I heard somewhere (and this may be an urban legend)that it is always playing on the radio somewhere in the world. But I'm listening to it now, and I have to say that Paul nails it. It's such a simple song but somehow it captures perfectly a sense of longing, of nostalgia and of loss. The strings in the backround, particularly the cello, are an excellent complement to the vocal. A bit about the little hum at the end. It is, I think, what makes me relate so completely to the song. It's not a whiny sad bastard song, though it could easily be. He walks away humming the song, signaling a movement away from yesterday into today/ He isn't depressed, though he is sad. He's living. It's that sense, which pervades the song, that makes it work so well. If you disagree, feel free to comment.

Out of commission

Due to the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, I won't be blogging for the next few days. Chag Sameach.

Shaigetzim and Shaitlach

The Shaigetz has an interesting post on the Shaitel controversy. For those of you who know what it is, this might be interesting. For those of you who don't, he also has a very interesting introduction here.

DVD cover choices

I was at a friend's place yesterday, and I happpened to see the case for the Casablanca DVD. Perhaps it's a little trite, but Casablanca is one of my favorite movies. So you can imagine my disappointment when I saw how poorly designed the case is. I approve of the front cover, it is one of the original promotion posters:

But the stills selected as well as the blurb on the back leave alot to be desired. The case that a movie comes in should give some sense of what it is about, without giving anything away. This case gives everything away, without giving any sense of what the movie is about. Casablanca is so good because it involves the audience in a completely self-contained world. The love story really isn't all that interesting. Its almost a cliche. The creation of the city of Casablanca with all its inhabitants is what makes it so successful. The real accomplishment of the movie is the same as that of The Lord of the Rings, you get a sense that there are things going on outside of the main action. The fictional universe of the story takes on a certain reality because of that. So, which stills are chosen to represent this word? On the back this one. And on the inside flap this one. The focus is completely on the love story, entirely missing the actual point of the movie. What would I have chosen? Easy. Unfortunately, I can't find them online. For the back I would pick the final shot, of Bogie and Claude Raines walking off into the night. The reason is simple. It captures the sense of mystery in the movie. Where are they going? Who are they? All you can see is their backs as they walk off into limbo. Which, of course, is what the city of Casablanca is, limbo, a way station, a sort of purgatory where one stays until he finds a way out. This shot gets a person wondering, which is exactly what the DVD case should do. For the inside flap I would choose an interior shot of Rick's indoors after closing. Doesn't matter which one, so long as it shows most of the bar, and doesn't have Ingrid Bergman in it. Rick's is where most of the action in the movie takes place, and it embodies the rootlessness of Casablanca. I don't want Bergman in it for the simple reason that she is beautiful and hogs every shot she's in. For this purpose, the barroom needs to dominate, so that a person who picks up the case casually will connect to it, and not to Bergman's star power. I have more to say about Casablanca, alot more, but I'm done for now.

Looking for direction....

I'm trying to figure out the proper format for this. As I've mentioned before, I read a lot of blogs. All of them are different. They run the gamut from Madpony's posts about "The Newlyweds" to Jacob Levy on Rawls and the roots of modern liberalism. What all of these people have in common is that they have intelligent things to say, and they say them articulately. So when I say I'm trying to figure out the format, I mean I'm trying to see what I can add to the conversation. I still don't quite have it down yet. So I'll just keep on posting what interests me, and hopefully it will work itself out.

Waltham, Tourist Magnet?

""Our goal is to make Waltham the premier visitor destination in the state," Dan Yaeger, marketing consultant to the Waltham Tourism Council, said in an interview at the Waltham Chamber of Commerce earlier this year. "That's what we're aiming for.""

I spent four years going to high school in Waltham, and another 14 living just south of it. Its a nice enough place, but its main tourist attraction is the now defunct Waltham Watch Co. factory. They want to divide the city into four historic districts. I can't even begin to imagine exactly how they plan to break it down. The website has a schedule of events, but none of the links in the header lead anywhere. Far be it for me to criticize experts, but maybe hiring the guy who ran the Marlborough tourist bureau into the ground was not the best idea.

Springtime in Montreal

I'm sitting outside at Second Cup, enjoying a cup of coffee. A couple of minutes ago a sparrow landed on my table and stared at me for nearly thirty seconds before flying away. Its a gorgeous day.

I Don't Think I Smell That Bad

Just as I'm getting started, Steve Den Beste declares that blogging is passe. ::Sigh::

British Wartime Innovations

Suicide Pidgeons. Need I say more?

(hat tip to Andrew Sullivan)


UPDATE: And who but the British could come up with this one?

(hat tip to Pejman Yousefzadeh)

Audience participation

This blog needs a new name. Abelblog really does not cut it. I wanted Mental Flatulence, but it was already taken. The annoying thing is that guy hasn't posted since December, and what he did post was boring, whiny crap about girls. In anycase, I need a better name. If you have any ideas, post to the comment section or E-mail me with "blog name" in the subject line. I know I haven't posted much so you (my so far non-existant audience)don't really know what kind of site this is going to be. Urinal Etiquette and A Little Surprised are good examples of what I'll be writing about. By the way, if you like what you see, tell your friends. I don't want this blog to be mental masturbation. Please, post comments.

A little surprised

As I was glancing through The Globe online today, I came across a little article that surprised me. Before I get into it, I have to make a confession. I get most of my news through blogs, many of which are right leaning. That may explain my surprise when I read the header to this article. It describes President Bush as "in reelection trouble." I had no idea that this was the case, and my gut reaction was to ascribe the line to liberal media bias and move on. But for some reason, I couldn't let this one go. So I checked out Zogby's most recent poll and sure enough, he has Bush down by 5 points among registered voters, 47% to 42%, in a poll taken from May 10th-13th. Usure exactly how to take this, I looked up a few other polls. As of May 7th-9th, USA today has the two candidates in pretty much a dead heat among likely voters, but has Kerry leading by 5% among registered voters. Fox News also has them tied as of May 18th-19th. What is interesting is that according to the same Fox News article this is an improvement for Bush, who was trailin at the beginning of the month.

What does this have to do with the fact that I get most of my news from blogs? If you had asked me yesterday to guess where Bush is polling right now, I would have put him about 5% ahead of Kerry. I would have been dead wrong, of course, but why? I read several blogs every day, most of which deal with politics, but most of them spend their time defending the president. I think that this may have skewed my view of the race. It is, of course, mostly my fault. I should look at blogs which are left leaning as well. But the fact remains that blogs are not really news outlets. Each blogger writes about what interests him, and almost never gets the comprehensive coverage of a traditional news service. What this all comes down to is that I have made a resolution to make sure to spend more time looking at traditional media, despite its many faults.


UPDATE: Glenn Reynolds links to the same Fox News poll I did. Granted, his insight into it is a little deeper than mine. But I did get there first.


UPDATE II: Josh Chaftez also has an interesting take on some of the polling date from Fox News. Maybe next time I'll take a closer look.....

Urinal Etiquette

The way men handle themselves while standing at public urinals has facinated me for a while, and its always surprised me that I have never seen it discussed anywhere in print. The only treatment of it I've seen is in Dave Barry's Complete Guide to Guys, and he treats it more as a funny curiousity than as a topic of real interest. A quick summery for those of you who may be unfamiliar with the phenomenon: When approaching a set of public urinals a man will always choose one of the two end toilets. If they are both occupied, and there are five or more urinals, he will select the center one. The general rule is that a man always chooses a urinal as far from one in use as possible. If he must be next to another man, he will avoid having a man on both sides of him at any cost short of waiting. Men always stare straight ahead or down while pissing at a urinal. Advertisers have picked up on this, and now put ads at eye level above urinals. The reasons for our behavior are pretty obvious, I think. We don't want people to think that we are watching them do their business or to have them watch us, which is why we stare straight ahead and avoid being next to people. On the other hand, we don't want them to think that we are accusing them of being perverts, so we won't wait if we can't avoid the double team. What amazes me is how this is completely uncalculated. We never think about it at all. Whenever I bring it up to my friends, they have to think about it for a second but then they know exactly what I'm talking about. Women tend to be flabbergasted by the whole thing. They just don't understand it at all. And nobody ever talks about it. Its mystifying. Somebody ought to write a book.

Blogroll

I started a blogroll. These are the blogs/sites I read everyday, at least the few I had time to put up once I'd figured blogrolling out. I'm impressed with it, it's a remarkably user friendly service. I'm completely technically inept, and it didn't take me long to figure out. I'll be adding to it regularly.

A clean break with the past

Inspired by David Mader (a casual aquaintence and one of the proprieters of the damn fine warblog, Maderblog)I decided to retool this site. Cleared out the crap that was on it, gave it a new name, a face lift. I opted not to blog anonymously this time around. Maybe I'll even come up with a way to publicize this thing, assuming I end up posting on it this time around. Summer's coming up, and I've found myself suddenly unemployed, so hopefully I'll have time to think and write.