tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69103452024-03-07T13:15:27.841-08:00So you think you want to remodel your kitchen?I did, and I survived to tell the story. Now I'm trying to prove to myself that I deserved a better kitchen in the first place.Erin Vanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05479433612497580296noreply@blogger.comBlogger154125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6910345.post-79736118619569352922010-11-03T20:27:00.000-07:002010-11-03T20:29:27.010-07:00My blog has moved!<h1>I've finally moved my blog over to <a href=http://erinvang.com/?page_id=179>erinvang.com</a>. </h1><br /><br /><h2>Please update your bookmarks; nothing new will be happening here. </h2>Erin Vanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05479433612497580296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6910345.post-73614342638231833902010-10-31T14:20:00.000-07:002010-11-06T13:39:28.491-07:00Answer key for the Nov 2010 ballotHere, for the benefit of my fellow left-leaning progressive egalitarian voters in the Montclair District of Oakland, is the answer key for Tuesday's election. For the rest of y'all, this is an opportunity to learn why you should be glad you don't have to vote here, where democracy is not a sport for amateurs.<br /><br />If I've made any factual errors, please correct me in the comments. If you have any insights on the issues where I'm perplexed, please enlighten me. If you're a right-leaning regressive bigot, don't bother to comment, because we won't persuade each other. If you have a reasoned disagreement and are interested in respectful debate, then by all means, comment away!<br /><br /><h3>We have three freaking ballots!</h3>Holy crap! Between state offices, state measures, and local ranked-choice questions, we have not one, not two, but <i>three tests</i> to fill out!<br /><br /><h3>Ballot the first: from Jerry Brown to "Who the heck is Katy Foulkes?"</h3><h4>Governor: Jerry Brown.</h4>C'mon, folks, this one's easy.<br /><br />Governor Moonbeam did a great job thirty-some years ago when California was the land of opportunity that drew Meg Whitman to come earn her ill-gotten fortune here. And he dated Linda Ronstadt. Who can argue with his taste? Linda Ronstadt is not, by the way, Rosanne Cash.<br /><br />Mayor Moonbeam did wonders for Oakland, with most of the benefits of his sensible leadership only now becoming visible to people who didn't pay attention and thought he was an evil pro-business Republican in disguise. He's not; he's a sensible guy who understood that if you want scary areas to get scarier, you make them unattractive for business, and if you want scary areas to become nice, you attract businesses and make them places people would want to live.<br /><br />Attorney General Moonbeam had the dignity not to defend Prop H8. In fact, he saw to it that his office gave Prop H8 the discredit it deserved.<br /><br />We need Governor Moonbeam again.<br /><br />And he's my neighbor! No kidding—he lives about a mile from here, along my jogging route. Every so often, I run into him and his wife while I'm walking Kjersti the chocolate lab in Redwood Park. We exchange nods and smiles, I pretend he's just some ordinary guy, and he pretends I'm just some ordinary woman with a ridiculously cute dog.<br /><br />As for <b>Meg Whitman</b>, she's got hideous politics, she made a ton of money by doing a bad job as eBay's CEO, and she treats her domestic help as disposables, not as people. I don't even want to have a beer with her, and I love beer.<br /><br />As for the others, I imagine the Green candidate is fine, but we need Jerry to win. Don't waste your ballot; this one's too close for comfort. Anything but a 99-point margin over Meg is too close for comfort.<br /><h4>Lieutenant Governor: Gavin Newsom</h4>I wouldn't have voted for him for Mayor of San Francisco, either, but once he took office, he turned on his wealthy supporters and started doing the right thing all over the place. He legalized gay and lesbian marriage in San Francisco, and the pictures of crowds of happy people in love changed the conversation. For that alone, Gavin deserves some more time in politics.<br /><br />Yes, he appears to be a slime-ball, but he's our slime-ball.<br /><h4>Et cetera: vote for the Democrats</h4>Unless they have such a huge lead that you can safely vote for the Greens. I'm too lazy to figure out which ones those are.<br /><h4>Attorney General: Kamala Harris</h4>She's the real thing, and she prosecutes crimes that matter instead of BS that's good for headlines, and there are some cretins spending serious money to smear her. Don't be fooled.<br /><h4>United States Senator: Barbara Boxer. Repeat, Barbara Boxer. Repeat, Barbara Boxer.</h4>A lot of politicians who are on the right side nevertheless make a lot of weaselly votes, pander to idiots, and generally fall shockingly short of acting on even their own convictions. Not Babs. She's one of the few who actually speak the truth and bring up the issues that matter.<br /><br />Carly Fiorina has a lot in common with Meg Whitman: she was a lousy CEO, her politics are hideous, and she doesn't treat her inferiors with respect. About all I can say in her favor is that she's a lot better looking than Meg Whitman. I'm happy for her about the cancer thing. I wish her well, but she needs to pay a lot more taxes, and the idea of her replacing Barbara Boxer as my Senator scares the bejesus out of me.<br /><br />I once performed at a Barbara Boxer benefit event, and not only did she give a great talk, but when the event was over, she and the headliner, Hillary Rodham Clinton, came right over to thank us musicians and stand with us for several pictures. That's before either one of them shook a single wealthy hand, mind you. They said thank you. To the musicians. The hired help. The nobodies.<br /><br />Class act, Barbara Boxer.<br /><br />And she's WAY shorter than you can possibly imagine, even when she's standing in some high scary-ass heels, as she was. The mere fact that she can walk in those things should earn her your great respect.<br /><h4>US Representative: Barbara Lee. Barbara Lee speaks for me!</h4>Barbara Lee was the only dissenting vote in the appalling, embarrassing, unworthy, unamerican rush to blow Iraq to hell and gone because a terrorist organization in Afghanistan attacked the United States again. She was the <b>only</b> person in all of Washington to say no to Dubya and Cheney's blood lust. <b>One</b> person in Washington voted with integrity. It was Barbara Lee.<br /><h4>Member of the State Assembly: Sandré Swanson</h4>Even though he robo-called me more than once. Haven't we proven to ourselves enough times that not having a majority in the Assembly leads to absurd stalemates over basic things like passing budgets and writing reasonable laws?<br /><h4>Judicial Yes and No people: I have no clue</h4>I have absolutely no idea how to vote on these justices. Never have. There are no reliable resources that I know of that are of any help whatsoever on figuring out who, why, or why not. The only voter guides that we pay attention to that say anything say yes for all of them. Okay, I guess.<br /><br />Seriously, though, WTF? If intelligent people who are willing to put some work into this voting thing can't figure it out, then isn't something broken?<br /><br /><h5>Update! NO on Ming Chin! NO on Ming Chin!</h5> With a tip of the hat to Zoe for supplying this helpful link: <a href=http://www.calitics.com/diary/12705/november-2010-statewide-endorsements>http://www.calitics.com/diary/12705/november-2010-statewide-endorsements</a><br /><h4>Superior Court Judge, Office #9: Victoria S Kolakowski</h4>Most of the leftie voter guides are split on this one. John Creighton appears to be decent enough. Here I go with the advice of Alice B Toklas<br />organization and the local <a href="http://acgreens.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/gpac-vg-11-10-crrx.pdf">Green Party Voter Guide</a>, both of which prefer Victoria Kolakowski for a variety of reasons. She's progressive and transgendered, and I'm all for some diversity on the court. About darned time.<div><br /></div><div>Good thing she's not a write-in candidate.<br /><br />By the way, even if you're not a Green (I'm not, although I wish I could be), their voter guides are considerably more helpful than most. They actually explain their endorsements and supply facts that are helpful for weighing the fuzzier matters.<br /><h3>State Superintendent of Public Instruction: Yech</h3>Even the Greens can't figure this one out. They're both pretty lame. Torlakson seems slightly less awful; at least he doesn't harp on and on about test scores.<br /><h4>AC Transit District Director, At-Large: Joel Young</h4>Thanks, Greens.<br /><h4>EBMUD Director, Ward 3: Katy Foulkes</h4>Thanks, Greens. She's decent on ecology and lousy on labor. She's also unopposed. I guess we might as well vote for her.<br /><br /><h3>Ballot the second: from legalizing marijuana to funding for the Oakland Police Department</h3><br /><div>Fasten your seatbelts. The propositions are where democracy is at its most challenging in California. Holy crap, I hate our so-called voter initiative process. Let's face it, most of the propositions are so poorly worded that it's hard to figure out how to vote even after you've figured out how you feel about the issue. Most of them address things our Assembly is too wimpy to do, more badly than even the Assembly could manage to do them. Most of them are heavily funded by massive corporations who do not have the needs of California citizens in mind.<br /><br /><b>So, my first rule is always: when in doubt, not just no, but hell no.</b><br /><br />Now let's struggle through each one of them.<br /><h4>Proposition 19 Legalize marijuana: yes</h4>No, I've never smoked it myself, and the way the smell makes me want to hurl, that's unlikely to change any time soon. I know some people who've messed themselves up pretty badly with the stuff, too, and lots more who haven't, but here's why I'm voting yes: because it's time to stop wasting resources on treating its personal use, cultivation, and purchase as a crime.<br /><br />Prohibition was a lousy idea, and it didn't work either.<br /><h4>Proposition 20 Redistricting: No</h4>I know, it seems like a good idea when you read it, but look who's supporting it: big business. Who's opposed? Everyone from the ACLU on down. That's all I need to know.<br /><h4>Proposition 21 State park vehicle fees: Yes</h4>It's a flat tax, which is generally regressive, but the Greens make a good argument for why to vote yes, anyway. Short answer: the parks need money, and it ain't coming from the Assembly.<br /><h4>Proposition 22 Confusing jibber jabber about moving money around: No</h4>As <a href="http://theballot.org/2010/sf">theballot.org puts it</a>, "Complicated & suspicious way to prevent state borrowing from local agencies." The good guys all say no, the bad guys all say yes. This is a great example of "When in doubt, no." Lots of propositions are just plain bad ideas, written as badly as possible so as to confuse people into supporting something they'd never in their right minds agree with.<br /><h4>Proposition 23 Postponing planetary health: No</h4>Why on earth would anyone in their right minds postpone enforcing the environmental protection laws that aren't strong enough in the first place? Because big bidness told them it had something to do with why they don't have jobs, of course! Bullshit. Not just no, hell no.<br /><h4>Proposition 24 Repeal some tax loopholes: Yes</h4>This one is basically about getting big bidness to pay more taxes by ditching some ridiculous loopholes. A rare example of a proposition we need. Not just yes, hell yes.<br /><h4>Proposition 25 Drop the supermajority budget thing: Yes</h4>California can't pass anything to do with budgets without a two-thirds majority, which basically means it can't get anything done. When do the good guys ever have a 2/3 majority? That's right. It's a stupid, stupid, stupid law, and it's time for it to die. Not just yes, hell yes.<br /><br />Unfortunately, this isn't a great proposition, but it's a start.<br /><h4>Proposition 26 Create a new supermajority budget thing: No</h4>See above under Proposition 25. The supermajority budget thing we already have is a disaster. The last thing we need is yet another supermajority budget thing. Not just no, hell no.<br /><h4>Proposition 27 Undo bogus redistricting scheme: Yes</h4>This one goes with Proposition 20 but gets it right. It's not perfect, but the Governator's bogus system is a pile of crap. As <a href="http://theballot.org/2010/sf">theballot.org puts it</a>, "Eliminates that sketchy redistricting commission (see Prop 20)." Barbara Lee says yes, as do most but not all of the good guys.<br /><h4>Oh, boy! There's more! It's county, school, and city stuff!</h4><h4>Measure F Paying $10 more to improve Alameda transportation: Oh, OK, I guess so.</h4><h4>Measure L Paying $195 more to do something about the embarrassment that is the Oakland school system: Yes, unfortunately</h4><h4>Measure V Raising taxes on medical marijuana. Sure!</h4>Raise almost a million bucks? Yeah, sounds good to me.<br /><h4>Measure W Paying $15 more a month to keep Oakland from breaking off and sliding into the Pacific Ocean. Well, okay.</h4>This is another sucky flat tax that hurts poor people far more than wealthy people, but we do sort of need to keep the lights on somehow.<br /><h4>Measure X Paying $360 more to do something about crime or something. Uh-uh. No. Hell no.</h4>Uh-uh. This is another bogus "scare the people into passing yet another regressive tax measure that hurts poor people and lets rich people off easy by reminding them that their city is full of black people and implying that somehow this will do something to pay for more police somehow without actually doing so" measure. No. Hell no. And, no.<br /><br />Sandré Swanson says he's for this one. Seems like a good reason to look forward to Rebecca Kaplan filling his seat in a few years to me.<br /><h4>Measure BB Something about police something something. Yes.</h4>I can't for the life of me figure out what this one means. I can't even figure out what the Greens say it means. I'm tired after doing the first, third, and all but this question on the second test. I can't take it anymore. The Greens say yes and I'm leaving it at that.<br /><h3>Ballot the third: from Don Perata to "Who the heck is Gary Yee?"</h3><h4>Oakland Mayor: not Don Perata</h4>That's the most important thing. Yes, he's got lots of name recognition, because he's under investigation for corruption and he's been a famously lousy politician for freaking ever. Even by Chicago standards, he's too corrupt to elect to anything else.<br /><br />After that, this one's hard for me. Ranked-choice voting is a good thing here, because it means we actually get to vote the way we want, not the way we feel we have to. So for me it's the Green guy first, <b>Don Macleay</b>, because he's actually a smart guy with good ideas. What a concept!<br /><br />Second, I go with <b>Jean Quan</b>. She's earnest and basically on the right side of most things, but I also think she's prone to some wimpiness for the sake of gathering votes, and she does lots of smarmy crap that makes it embarrassing to support her. Still, she's decent, she's on the right side of most of the most important issues, she's kept her staffers busy doing good stuff for Oakland and its citizens, and she's a credible candidate. Second choice.<br /><br />My reluctant third is <b>Rebecca Kaplan</b>. I want to like her a lot more than I do. She's smart, Jewish, feminist, lesbian, left, progressive, and lots of other good stuff. But she's gotten a lot of criticism for temperamental behavior, which isn't generally a recipe for effective leadership, and she's got her sights on higher office; this run for mayor is widely seen as a grab for attention just to up her name recognition for the Assembly position when Sandré Swanson terms out. I think she'd probably push more issues that I care about than Jean Quan, but I think Jean Quan would get more stuff done. Let's go with Jean for the executive position that needs to get stuff done, and let's look forward to voting in a few years for a scrappy rabble-rouser to join the Assembly that desperately needs them. Yes, here it is, my 2013 endorsement of Rebecca Kaplan for State Assembly. She'll be awesome there. She'd probably be a pretty good mayor, too. I won't be upset if she wins.<br /><br />Either one of them would be fine and a heck of a lot better than Don Perata. Did I mention that he's under investigation for corruption?<br /><h5>Update: You know, let's switch 2 and 3. I like Kaplan better. I just do. And see the comments below.</h5><br /><h4>Member of City Council, District 4</h4>My wife did the work on this one, and here are the answers according to her survey of the endorsements.<br /><br /><b>First, Libby Schaaf,</b> because she worked for Jerry Brown, he supports her, and all the good guys endorse her. <b>Second, Jill Broadhurst,</b> because she's a mensch and has started lots of good stuff. <b>Third, Clinton Killian,</b> because he's the smart black dude who went to Stanford and UC-B Law School and he walked Montclair.<br /><br />Just writing down what she says here, folks. My wife's smart; you best listen.<br /><br /><h5>Uh-oh. We've got an update—she says maybe it should be Daniel Swafford instead of Clinton Killian. Swafford does look good.</h5><br /><h4>City Auditor: Courtney Ruby</h4>She's the incumbent and has been doing a great job. No second or third choice.<br /><h4>School Director, District 4: Benjamin Visnick</h4>Thanks, Greens. No second or third choice.<br /></div></div>Erin Vanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05479433612497580296noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6910345.post-39034863884760172332010-08-30T14:37:00.000-07:002010-08-30T14:39:24.782-07:00Tuna noodle hotdishMy <a title="North America from the outside in and the inside out" href="http://globalpragmatica.com/?p=689" target="_blank">recent </a><em><a title="North America from the outside in and the inside out" href="http://globalpragmatica.com/?p=689" target="_blank">Multilingual</a></em><a title="North America from the outside in and the inside out" href="http://globalpragmatica.com/?p=689" target="_blank"> column</a> mentioned tuna noodle hotdish. For those readers who aren't familiar with this snowbelt classic, here's a recipe.<br /><br />This is an old standard for Norwegian-Lutherans in the USA snowbelt—it's what we make when our neighbor's recovering from surgery, or when a friend has just had a death in the family, or when we need to bring something for the church potluck, or if it's a cold night and we're hungry.<br /><br />It's not a fancy recipe—and that's the whole point. It's cheap, easy comfort food.<br /><ul> <li>one can of tuna</li> <li>one 12 oz bag of egg noodles</li> <li>one can of cream of mushroom soup</li> <li>a few slices of Velveeta</li> <li>salt</li> <li>pepper</li> <li>oregano</li> <li>potato chips</li> </ul>Prepare one package of egg noodles in boiling, salted water according to directions on the bag. Drain. Add tuna, cream of mushroom soup concentrate, about half a soup can of water, Velveeta, salt and pepper, and oregano. Stir, return to heat, and heat through. Correct seasonings. Top with crumbled potato chips.<br /><br />Variation: instead of heating on stovetop, top with potato chips and heat in oven-proof casserole at 350˚F for about 30 minutes.Erin Vanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05479433612497580296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6910345.post-59683845698095555032010-07-02T15:16:00.000-07:002010-07-02T15:17:11.210-07:00Nano-opera: Evgeny Onegin<i>Pride and Prejudice</i>sky.Erin Vanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05479433612497580296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6910345.post-48451369275746970272010-07-02T13:19:00.000-07:002010-07-02T13:48:31.727-07:00Nano-opera: Gounod's FaustIn Act I, a geezer wants to off himself because he's a geezer. Handsome bass devil who sings better and is several feet taller talks him into sticking around, exchanging youth for some dubious duties later on. Spotting a beautiful, young woman who is actually just a soprano and neither of those things, he agrees, drinks a potion and becomes a handsome, young man who's actually just a tenor and neither of those things. The soprano's brother sings goodbye for a long time before marching off to war. A crowd has formed so that the devil has an excuse to sing some more, the crowds get revenge by bursting into singing of their own, and finally our unhandsome tenor fails to woo our unbeautiful soprano. <div><br /></div><div>Before Act II, the audience members adjourn to Pauline's for pizza and beer. </div>Erin Vanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05479433612497580296noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6910345.post-33932403122681283362010-07-01T12:47:00.001-07:002010-07-20T13:01:39.094-07:00Nano-opera: Die Walküre<div>(If I'm any good at this, it will be obvious that my nano-operas owe a great debt to Anna Russell. There's no point trying to outdo Dame Russell's great analysis of the Ring of the Nibelungen, which you must immediately view <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv7G92F2sqs&feature=related">here</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WduYrwAGews&feature=related">here</a>, and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypisVrbqDqE&feature=related">here</a> if you haven't already. My own humble effort here is just a summary of the recent San Francisco Opera production of the second episode of Wagner's famous soap opera about gang warfare and a dysfunctional family.)</div><div><br /></div><div>In Act I, twins separated at birth find each other in a forest, but the female twin's husband doesn't take kindly to sheltering the guy who'd done in a bunch of his gang before the opera and suggests they take it outside the next morning. Said guy is weaponless and figures he's a goner, but then he falls in love with his twin sister, they pull a magical sword out of a tree, and it's not looking good for hubby.</div><div><br /></div><div>Between acts, the twins do the nasty.</div><div><br /></div><div>In Act II, Al Gore is wearing a pirate-style eye patch and flirting with his daughter from Security in the penthouse boardroom while instructing her to help his son kills his twin sister's hubby so that junior can get busy saving Valhalla Inc. Daughter's all over it, until Tipper arrives and asks, "WTF, Al? Incest and infidelity between the kids? I don't think so. Junior's got to go." We can tell she's pissed, because she doesn't even bring up the thing about the masseuse. We can tell Al's worried about an expensive divorce, because he doesn't even bring up the thing about global warming. He makes nice with Tipper and calls off the hit-daughter, explaining he made a bad deal a couple operas ago and Valhalla might be going belly up—something about a ring, some giants he'd contracted to build a subdivision until one of them got killed and the other became a dragon, and a lot of nonsense about needing to hire a whiz kid he doesn't know to save Valhalla, without getting HR involved or anybody writing a job description. Daughter's not buying it, though, so she belays Al's belay. Al's stuck doing his own dirty work, so he whacks Junior's magical sword with a spear, then whacks the ungrateful hubby while Daughter makes off with other daughter.</div><div><br /></div><div>In Act III, still more of Al's daughters are staffing up Security for Valhalla Inc. Daughter stops by with other daughter, now preggers from that quickie between acts, hears Al's still pissed, and sends her preggo sister off to play with her broken sword in the dragon's 'hood. Al reads her the riot act, fires her, and gives her a heavy-duty date-rape drug. She whines about the unfairness of it all, so on his way out he staffs out setting a ring of fire around her to protect her until her nephew's old enough to leave dragonville and come rape her. </div>Erin Vanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05479433612497580296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6910345.post-44076975017094598722010-06-29T10:04:00.000-07:002010-07-15T10:32:34.865-07:00In praise of neti potsA few years ago, after seeing a character in <i>Six Feet Under </i>use a neti pot, I mumbled something to my wife about having always been curious to try a neti pot. A few days later, she brought one home from the store for me, and I've been a neti pot fanatic ever since. <div><br /></div><div>I've spent my entire life dealing with various hay fever-like symptoms, just like my mom, brother, grandfather, and numerous other relatives. Since it was normal in my family, I thought my way of life was universal, but it turns out that normal people do not, in fact, always have at least one Kleenex in their pockets at all times. I was in college before I realized that some families don't even buy Kleenexes unless someone has a cold. Everyone in my family keeps a box of Kleenex in nearly every room of the house! </div><div><br /></div><div>Apparently it's also not normal to wake up in the morning so congested that you can't wait to take a shower, because that's where you keep your neti pot, and after using your neti pot in the shower, your nose is cleared out enough that you can breathe through it again. </div><div><br /></div><div>I've never been sure why I'm so full of snot, exactly. I was treated for allergies during my teen years by several allergists whose methods are scoffed at now, and allergists I've seen since then have all told me I have no allergies. The last one I saw told me I have "non-allergic" or "mechanical rhinitis," which basically means that my body reacts to just about any foreign body as if allergic to it, indiscriminately. So, I'm not actually allergic to dust, molds, mites, tobacco, smoke, smog, pollen, dander, or any of the other hundred typical allergens that they tested me for, but my system freaks out and puts on an allergy party for all of them anyway. The basic hay-fever symptom is for your immune system to detect an allergen, trap it with mucus, and evacuate it. My system does that, and how exactly this is different from actually having allergies to all those things is beyond me. One difference seems to be that if these were actual allergies, then somebody would have a clue how to help me.</div><div><br /></div><div>It wouldn't be that big a deal if my system would evacuate mucus efficiently, like it's supposed to, but it doesn't. Apparently there are several reasons for this. <b>One</b>, rhinitis patients' snot is thicker than normal, so it gets stuck. <b>Two</b>, there's more of it, so the body gets behind in clearing. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Three</b>, until last week I had a deviated septum. The septum is the thin bone that divides right nostril from left. It's a tongue-and-groove kind of thing, and mine had gotten derailed from its groove so that the front tip was off the rails toward the left, and the back end was off the rails toward the right. It was basically diagonal, which is why my nose has always looked a little curved if you looked closely. My ENT knocked it back into the groove and then shaved it down on one side until it was even. This is bones we're talking about, people. Mine were seriously out of whack. They've been that way since 1994—therein lies a story.<br /><br />I was walking from the Dempster train station to my apartment by the lake in Evanston, IL. I was coming from a gig downtown and had my (heavy) horn backpack on, and I was hurrying home to eat and change for a gig I had to drive to, so I was pitched forward and walking fast. As I walked past a coffee shop (Café Express, which most of us nicknamed "Café Repressed"), I kept walking fast but turned to look in the window to see if anyone I knew was there. Another pedestrian, also moving fast but toward me, was doing the same thing. We slammed into each other, the right side of my nose striking her left cheekbone. We hit so hard we both fell backwards. We helped each other up, made sure we were both okay, exchanged apologies, felt stupid, and continued on our ways.<br /><br />My nose hurt like hell and soon I had a pounding headache. While eating my hurried dinner, I tried to remember what the checklist for concussion was and concluded that if I was coherent enough to be working on that problem, I was probably okay, although my head pounded, my vision was blurry for a while, and my cognitive functioning was off kilter. I drove to the gig, navigating Chicago and operating my vehicle successfully but was completely unable to comprehend "All Things Considered" no matter how hard I tried to focus on it.<br /><br />I got through the gig somehow, and by the time I drove home, I was better able to understand the radio.<br /><br />Remembering (I thought) something about not taking pain meds or sleeping when you have a concussion, I held off as long as I could on both but finally gave up and did both. I spent most of the weekend with a headache, and my nose was sore and creaky, but I seemed to be okay, so I made a non-urgent appointment to see my regular doctor that Thursday.<br /><br />By the time I got to my doctor on Thursday, something else had come up that took over the visit (boring story) and it was literally as an afterthought that I said, "Oh! The reason I came here in the first place was..." and then I told the tale of my nose injury. She checked it out, confirmed that my nose was creaky (gosh, thanks!), and said she just saw a little swelling but that it was nothing to worry about.<br /><br />And now I know--it was creaky because I'd banged it off the rails and made it diagonal! Sheesh! (In my 1994 internist's defense, my ENT didn't realize it was deviated until he saw a sinus CT, and I got the impression in talking with him about it after the surgery that he didn't even know the details of how it was deviated until he was performing the surgery, but I could be mistaken about that.)</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Four</b>, until last week, I had oversized turbinates.<span><span> Turbinates are bones on either side of the nose covered with fleshy material, and they function as humidifiers. Mine were too big, which meant they were narrowing the passages that are supposed to handle drainage. In March my ENT had done a less invasive procedure (zapping them with a small RF probe) to reduce them, which had helped but not enough. This time he used sharp tools to cut them down to size, and on the right side he actually had to shave down the bone, which apparently was way too large--just bad genetics there. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'Lucida Grande', serif;font-size:medium;"></span></div><div><br /></div><div>Once I've finished recovering from all that, my nose should work much better. I'm looking forward to it! </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Anyway, back to the neti pot…</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>A few tangents and years ago, my wife had bought me a neti pot. She'd gotten me one of these little guys at her favorite hippie-dippy pharmacy in Berkeley: <a href="http://www.himalayaninstitute.org/store/product/d0e29a4e-507c-417e-86d0-f5c05320fbbe.aspx">http://www.himalayaninstitute.org/store/product/d0e29a4e-507c-417e-86d0-f5c05320fbbe.aspx</a></div><div><br /></div><div>I procrastinated figuring out how to use it for several weeks. Like most people, I was afraid. I've had those awful swimming pool experiences that make you dread getting water up your nose. </div><div><br /></div><div>Then one morning, I heard <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7108546">a story on Morning Edition about neti pots</a> and decided to get over my bad self. I googled up some video demonstrations <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBch4X8x7dk">like this one</a> and then got to work. Five minutes later I was triumphant but unimpressed. It wasn't that bad, and I did get some crud out of my system, but it didn't feel revelatory. </div><div><br /></div><div>About an hour later, though, I could feel things unplugging, and gradually everything opened up like never before. My voice even sounded different. It was great. </div><div><br /></div><div>A few days later, I left on a business trip to Tokyo, and to save luggage space, I decided not to bring my new neti pot along. What a mistake! I'd forgotten that the Great Dust Cloud of China hasn't been very good about staying inside China's borders. I spent the entire week in China looking for neti pots or anything else that could possibly work as a temporary neti pot. Toward the end of our visit, my colleagues and friends Trish and Katja and I visited <a href="http://www.timeout.jp/en/tokyo/feature/146">Kappabashi Market</a>, a neighborhood famous for its restaurant supply stores. All three of us dropped far too many yen at a particularly nice ceramics store, and my browsing was considerably slowed down by my quest to find a small teapot or soy sauce pot or some other kind of pot whose spout would have the right fit for my nostrils—without actually testing the spouts on my nostrils, of course. I did not succeed. I also was unable to find a bottle of water with a sport top, something I'd seen pressed into emergency neti pot stand-in duty on somebody's blog. Nor did I successfully purchase plain old salt, mistakenly thinking it was called "aji no moto," which is actually MSG. Oops. (Fortunately I figured that out when I got back to my hotel room and tasted it before attempting to use it in my nose.) Nor, in short, did I figure out any other strategy during my visit. I made many puddles on my hotel bathroom's counter trying, though. </div><div><br /></div><div>When I got back home to Oakland, I had one whole day to unpack, do laundry, and repack for the next business trip—to China. My wife and mom were coming along on that trip, and Mom actually flew into SFO from Montana the same day I did from Tokyo. On our day-in-between, I told Mom all about my neti pot and how much I'd missed it. She was curious (you might recall from about a page ago that I inherited my useless nose from her), so I gave her a demo, and then she tried it herself. She was impressed right away, so later that day, she insisted we visit Victoria's hippie-dippy pharmacy. She bought several extras to give to other members of our phlegm-plagued family.</div><div><br /></div><div>I also told Mom about how the Great Dust Cloud of China and its awful pollution meant we'd definitely want our neti pots along. We did not regret allocating luggage space to them, and anyone who saw the heinous black crud that came out of my nose twice a day would need no further persuasion to buy themselves a neti pot before visiting China. We coudn't persuade Victoria to give it a try, though—early in our visit, she'd tripped on an unexpected curbstone and broken her shoulder while trying to stop her fall, and that pain had her full attention. </div><div><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin8FoTPvDM2TrAecwk7WDShRQuLylY9SN7u2u7i7Ax1NhRZkY6SNwSSar4F1ge1_p0E5BvLAOc6w-KUu9-2N7P6ympD7NcwrjVTtG0cADFvzGKhBLiY6x5qFj6B20Fp9vR2KUr/s1600/netipot.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 230px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin8FoTPvDM2TrAecwk7WDShRQuLylY9SN7u2u7i7Ax1NhRZkY6SNwSSar4F1ge1_p0E5BvLAOc6w-KUu9-2N7P6ympD7NcwrjVTtG0cADFvzGKhBLiY6x5qFj6B20Fp9vR2KUr/s320/netipot.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488439818620507138" /></a>It wasn't long before I decided to upgrade to <a href="http://www.healthandyoga.com/html/product/neti.html">a larger stainless steel neti pot</a>, which is what I strongly recommend. A number of my family and friends got these for Christmas last year. I like this kind better because: </div><div><ul><li>I'm a klutz. It was only a matter of time before I would drop and break the ceramic one.</li><li>I travel a lot, and fragile stuff in luggage breaks sooner or later.</li><li>It's a lot larger. I needed to measure and mix salt four times with the other kind to complete my routine, and I can get it all done with one batch in this one. </li><li>Its shape is convenient. With a little effort, you can find a nonbreakable container that will hold several weeks' worth of salt and fit inside the neti pot for compact packing. </li></ul><div>About a year ago, Victoria finally got on the neti pot bandwagon. She'd bought herself one but kept refusing to try it, but sooner or later she decided that if Mom could do it, so could she. Also, her internist recommended trying it, and later her internist recommended using it twice a day if once a day was helping but she was still having trouble. It's now a part of her morning shower routine. She says, "I like it! And I have to say, I like the big stainless steel pot that you got me much better than the little plastic jobber I started with. It fits well, and you can get a lot of salt water in it. It's a good tool!"</div><br /><b>So how do you get started? </b></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXuSPy6u-5vhq_wRYWVSFGYRiYtIKsc90_txw3SXDLDyJVaZgTg1kKQHzJG5QV8Qeiwtdx1hrmbWIHjJlWhjAUOff9VYG6v-1ea2VcsHjJYOHg7iwuBOg8YfrdmUZ4srSEw93p/s1600/IMG_6622+(Small).JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXuSPy6u-5vhq_wRYWVSFGYRiYtIKsc90_txw3SXDLDyJVaZgTg1kKQHzJG5QV8Qeiwtdx1hrmbWIHjJlWhjAUOff9VYG6v-1ea2VcsHjJYOHg7iwuBOg8YfrdmUZ4srSEw93p/s320/IMG_6622+(Small).JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488431495861235074" /></a><ol><li>If you're not convinced yet, read why this is such a good idea at <a href="http://www.webmd.com/allergies/sinus-pain-pressure-9/neti-pots">WebMD</a> or the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/03/fashion/03skin.html">New York Times</a>.</li><li>Buy, borrow, or steal <a href="http://www.healthandyoga.com/html/product/neti.html">a large stainless steel neti pot</a>.</li><li>Buy, borrow, or steal the biggest nonbreakable container you can that will fit inside it. I use the <a href="http://thedailykimchi.blogspot.com/2007/01/chocolate-in-korea-lottes-dream-cacao.html">container some chocolates I bought in Korea came in.</a> It's perfect! </li><li>Fill that container with kosher salt or uniodized sea salt. I use <a href="http://www.diamondcrystalsalt.com/Culinary/Products/Kosher-Salt.aspx">Diamond brand kosher salt</a> because that's what <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Tropp">Barbara Tropp</a> used, may she rest in peace. (<a href="http://erinvang.blogspot.com/search?q=kosher+salt">Other blog posts</a> will harangue you on why you should throw away your other salt and start using kosher salt in the kitchen.) </li><li>Optionally add some baking soda to your salt and shake it up. Supposedly baking soda gives your nasal passages a bacteria-hostile pH. Mom adds just a spoonful to her salt container, but a little googling reveals that other people believe in a one-to-one mixture of baking soda and salt. I've just begun trying Mom's method after years of using just kosher salt, and I haven't formed any opinions yet. </li><li>Find a cheap teaspoon or 5ml measuring spoon and <a href="http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/660/how-did-uri-geller-bend-spoons">do a Uri Geller number on it</a> so it'll fit inside your neti pot, too. I find that a heaping tablespoon per pot is about right for me, and too much salt is far better than too little, but decide for yourself.</li><li>Keep all this stuff in or near your shower. Shower-temperature water is perfect, and if you do your neti routine in the shower, you don't have to worry about dribbling on your clothes or needing to rinse yourself or the sink. </li><li><a href="http://www.howtodothings.com/health-and-fitness/a3532-how-to-use-a-neti-pot.html">Read and watch how to do it</a>. </li><li>Give it a try. You will not die. It's not even uncomfortable. </li><li>After you've been successful for a few days with the basic technique, learn how to do "<a href="http://www.yoga-age.com/asanas/neti.html">jala neti stage 2</a>" and give that a try. If you suffer from postnasal drip, this is awesome. I typically do a quarter pot stage 1 for each nostril then do a quarter pot stage 2 for each nostril. </li></ol></div><div><b>If it hurts, then you're doing it wrong</b></div><div><br /></div><div>If it's the least bit uncomfortable, you're doing something wrong: </div><div><ul><li>Stinging: the salt level isn't right. Either too much or too little is bad, but if you ask me too little is worse than too much. Get in a habit of tasting your water before you use it each time, and you'll quickly develop a sense of the optimal salt level for you. It should taste pretty salty—about like your tears. </li><li>Aching: the temperature isn't right. It's probably too cool. A lot of people recommend body temperature or room temperature, but I like it warmer than that. To me, my regular shower water temperature is perfect. </li><li>Burning: the temperature is too hot. </li></ul><b>Keep it simple</b></div><div><br /></div><div>You can buy special salts and pre-mixed packets of salt and all kinds of other crap, but don't bother. You're just making things fussier and more expensive for yourself. </div><div><br /></div><div>You can also buy various neti pot "solutions," where you're typically supposed to add an eyedropper full to your salt water. Don't bother. I tried one that was recommended for sinus infections—some kind of homeopathic or herbal junk, but I can't remember the details—and it actually made things worse for me. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Have you tried using a neti pot? </b></div><div><br /></div><div>I'd love to hear about your experiences. Leave me a comment! </div>Erin Vanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05479433612497580296noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6910345.post-51558126736440877692010-05-05T10:37:00.000-07:002010-05-05T11:19:31.718-07:00An original cocktail: Montmartre<blockquote>Montmartre is a hill (the butte Montmartre) which is 130 meters high, giving its name to the surrounding district, in the north of Paris in the 18th arrondissement, a part of the Right Bank. [Wikipedia]</blockquote>A few years ago I was staring at the lovely bottle creme de cassis in our liquor cabinet I'd hand-carried home from Paris and thinking what a shame it is that I don't like Kir Royales all that much.<br /><br />Kir Royales (Kirs Royale?) are fine. It's just that if the Champagne or sparkling wine is good enough, I don't want to ruin it with sweet black currant flavors, and if it isn't good enough, sweet black currant flavors aren't going to help much. Another worthy option is to use it in a Rouge Gorge--add a dollop of creme de cassis to a glass of red table wine that needs some help. But here again, same problem.<br /><br />I decided it was time to develop a new cocktail that would take the creme de cassis out of the back of the cabinet and put it on proud display. My starting point was a sweet Manhattan: bourbon, sweet red vermouth, Angostura bitters (or as our friend Jane calls them, "Agnostic bitters"), and a maraschino cherry. A lovely drink.<br /><br />My concept was to substitute creme de cassis for the sweet red vermouth, but the combination of sticky cassis and sweet bourbon is just too much--I knew that without needing to taste it. My solution: rye! An under-appreciated cousin of bourbon, rye is basically the same stuff, but it's made with a bigger proportion of rye than corn or other grains. If you don't like members of the brown liquor family, you'll think rye tastes the same as bourbon, but if you do like them and are paying attention, rye has a much brighter taste. The perfect foil for cloying cassis, I thought.<br /><br />I kept the dash of Agnostic bitters, and I added a dash of West Indian Orange Bitters, again for brightness in contrast to the cassis.<br /><br />But now the dilemma: what to do about the maraschino cherry? In early versions of the Montmartre, I attempted to keep them, but they're a hideous color, and they taste as artificial as they look. They were horribly outclassed by the cassis.<br /><br />I tried a few variations on the citrus theme, but they were all too bright, losing the specialness of the cassis and burying the subtle brightness of the rye.<br /><br />Eventually I hit upon the ideal garnish: sour cherries. Whole Foods sells a brand called Zergütt that are, despite the name, pretty good. However, their syrup is too sweet and thick. My solution? Pour off about half the syrup (save it for Old Fashioneds--trust me on this), replace it with rye, and stick it back in the fridge for at least a few days. Use a splash of this rye/juice in the cocktail, too.<br /><br />So here it is, the final draft. This has become a favorite at our house and also at our friend Jane's house. Jane's much better about writing things down, so every so often when I forget a detail on one of my cocktails, I call her to ask. With thanks to Jane for her service as cocktail archivist, here is:<br /><h3>Montmartre</h3><ol><li>Fill a cocktail shaker halfway with crushed ice. </li><li>Add an 8-to-1 ratio of rye whiskey and creme de cassis, i.e. 4 shots rye to 1/2 shot cassis. If you like your drinks sweeter, go 4-to-1. </li><li>Add a dash each of Angostura bitters and West Indian Orange Bitters. </li><li>Garnish martini glasses with three sour cherries soaked in half the syrup and half rye. </li><li>Splash a little of the rye/syrup from the cherries into the cocktail shaker. </li><li>Shake well and strain into the cocktail glasses. </li></ol><div><b>Notes: </b></div><div><br /></div>Blood Orange bitters or Regan's Orange Bitters are worthy substitutes for the West Indian Orange Bitters, but there is no substitute for the Angostura Bitters, which are essential.<br /><br />Many people would tell you cocktails should be mixed with large, hard, super-cold cubes of ice. They are right in many cases. Harder, larger, colder ice gives you a colder cocktail with less water diluting the spirits. However, some drinks benefit from some ice-melt, and in my opinion, the Manhattan family and the martini family are two such categories. Both gin and whisky can keep their flavors buttoned-up, and adding a small amount of water unbuttons their shirts and reveals glorious cleavage and alluring scents.<br /><br />"Bruising" is the term some people use, and although it sounds pejorative, bruising is in some cases exactly what the liquor needs. When you add a few drops of water to the room-temperature spirit and you see oily swirling reactions taking place, what's happening is that certain oils and esters are being disturbed, releasing their aromas (thus flavors) to your noise and tongue. Scotch whisky afficionados intentionally add a very few drops of "branch water" to their single malts for this very reason.<br /><br />For the Montmartre in particular, using crushed ice accomplishes several things: it increases the surface area of ice available to the liquid, thus cooling it faster or further; it increases the melting and dilution, thinning the potentially goopy texture of the creme de cassis; and it reveals the subtle flavor dimensions of the rye whiskey.<br /><div><br /></div><div>Santé! </div>Erin Vanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05479433612497580296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6910345.post-46376551199125773902010-05-03T13:38:00.001-07:002010-05-04T09:52:27.108-07:00A Bloody Mary recipe for people who think they don't like themHere, by popular demand, is my recipe for a Bloody Mary that even Bloody Mary-haters are likely to like. I should know, because I was one of them. I thought the Bloody Mary was a pretty disgusting drink, but I had friends and for a time a partner who liked them, so I tried to accommodate their requests but also create something I could enjoy with them. I succeeded a little too well--now I crave them myself from time to time, I'm disappointed when other people's still suck, and I end up having to recreate my recipe for a lot of people. Some people have described this is an alcoholic cold tomato soup or a pureed gazpacho with a kick, and those are pretty valid descriptions.<div><br /></div><div>My usual recipe caveat: I don't use or write recipes. I have a vague method that changes a bit each time, and I'm probably forgetting a few things. I'll try to post corrections if I figure out what, and please feel free to raise your concerns in this regard in the Comments section below! </div><div><br /></div><div>The most important thing is to recognize that a Bloody Mary is <i>not</i> V8 with vodka in it. It's also not Mr & Mrs T's with vodka in it. It's spicy tomato juice with a whole bunch of good stuff and <i>gin</i> in it. Trust me on this--if you do your research, you will learn that the traditional Bloody Mary is made with a London Dry-style gin, not vodka--that's a later variation, same as martinis. </div><div><br /></div><div>Now, I suppose you could start with V8 if you happen to like it, but I happen to hate it--the carrot flavor is way too dominant for me. Yuck. I start with a quart jar of spicy tomato juice, and a brand that I've found to be pretty good is Knudsen's. There are others, I'm sure, and Spicy V8 is a reasonable choice if you do actually like V8. Whatever you get, taste it before you start, so that you have a sense of how salty and spicy it is already and you can adjust the rest of the process according to your taste. </div><div><br /></div><div>Next, an essential, traditional ingredient is--believe it or not--beef stock. Yes, indeed. Sorry, but this is not a drink for vegetarians. You could experiment with vegetable stocks, or maybe a good dashi without the miso, though; the goal is an umami (savory, meaty) flavor, and for my money, beef stock is where it's at. I like Farmer Brothers "Special Soup Base Beef Flavor," which comes as a glossy brown goo in ginormous tubs and has a lot less MSG than most options. I take a heaping tablespoon of that goop and mix it in a 2Q mixing bowl with just enough almost-boiling water to dissolve it, no more--say, 3-4 tablespoons. </div><div><br /></div><div>(The plan here is to mix up a one quart batch of Bloody Mary base that you'll store in your refrigerator. To serve, you'll shake some of it with booze in a cocktail shaker.)</div><div><br /></div><div>To this I add several hefty squirts of every kind of Tabasco sauce and similar product that I can find in our refrigerator. Currently we have: </div><div><ul><li>red Tabasco</li><li>green Tabasco</li><li>chipotle Tabasco</li><li>Frontera Grill Red Pepper Hot Sauce</li><li>Cholula Hot Sauce</li></ul></div><div>I'd be happier with a few more. Now add: </div><div><ul><li>several cloves of garlic, crushed (and "several" could be a lot, really)</li><li>a hefty scoop of fresh grated horseradish, or a heftier scoop of the pregrated stuff that comes in a little jar</li><li>a dash of Liquid Smoke if you have it (or an extra squirt of chipotle Tabasco, if you don't)</li><li>a squirt of extra virgin olive oil (because most of the flavors are fat-soluble)</li><li>kosher salt (you get what you deserve if you substitute iodized table salt--feh!)</li><li>ground cumin (really can't overdo it here)</li><li>ground coriander</li><li>ground cayenne</li><li>ground Spanish smokey hot paprika</li><li>oregano</li><li>celery seed (not too much)</li><li>ancho chili powder, if you have it</li><li>any other chili-esque variations on the theme that you can think of</li><li>a dash of the brine in your jar of green olives (see below)</li><li>juice of half a lime </li><li>freshly ground black pepper (I like Telicherry)</li></ul></div><div>Mix all this up and then add it to your spicy tomato juice. Now taste, adjust, and add what you think is missing. If this is way too strong for you, then you've made enough base for two quarts of your favorite tomato juice. </div><div><br /></div><div>Fill a cocktail shaker halfway with crushed ice. Add a shot or two of a good London Dry gin (I like Beefeater for these, but there are many good choices. I think Tanqueray is too fruity for a BM). Add your tomato juice mix. You want approximately a 4:1 juice-to-booze proportion. Shake <i>well</i>, because these liquids have very different viscosities and they need to be persuaded to play nicely with each other. </div><div><br /></div><div>Strain into a highball or lowball glass half-filled with more crushed ice, several stuffed green olives, a hand-squeezed lime wedge, and an optional narrow, leafy stalk of celery. </div><div><br /></div><div>An excellent alternative to gin is a good akevit, preferably with strong caraway flavors, such as Ålborg's standard akevit in the green bottle. (The Jubilæum is good too, but I don't think it's as good a choice here.) When you make a Bloody Mary with akevit instead of gin, it becomes a Danish Mary. </div><div><br /></div><div>Another good alternative is Hangar One Chipotle Vodka. I know, I said vodka's all wrong, but that stuff if so good, it's the exception to prove the rule. I wouldn't bother with any old brand's pepper vodka, though--the Hangar One Chipotle stuff is a multidimensional, rich, savory, picquant, difficult vodka. </div><div><br /></div><div>Please note a few things that you do not want to add under any circumstances, at least not if you're planning to serve these to me: </div><div><strike></strike><ul><strike><li>Worcestershire sauce</li><li>celery salt</li><li>vodka</li></strike><li><strike>Clamato</strike> (Yech! That stuff is disgusting, and if you like it, the drink goes by a different name--for a reason! It's a different drink!)</li></ul></div><div>That's my method, best I can remember. Please enjoy it, let me know what you think, and by all means raise an alarm in the Comments if you think I might have missed something.</div><div><br /></div><div>Salut!</div><div><br /></div>Erin Vanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05479433612497580296noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6910345.post-6771733680469138552010-05-03T10:50:00.001-07:002010-05-03T10:54:25.991-07:00Nano-opera: Carmen<div>This nano-opera comes to us from my Twitter friend, SAS expert Michael Tuchman (<a href="http://bit.ly/cnY8m8">http://bit.ly/cnY8m8</a>): </div><div><br /></div><div><i>Carmen</i>: Soldier doesn't want to marry nice girl. He chases bad one. He gets cold feet. She dates hot celeb, so he kills her.</div>Erin Vanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05479433612497580296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6910345.post-2486644595258838922010-04-28T19:17:00.000-07:002010-07-04T13:43:45.423-07:00Opinionated computer purchasing advice<div>People ask me about which Mac to buy often enough that I thought I might as well post here a recent reply I wrote to a friend who is looking at a career change from corporate programming to consulting, possibly, or another corporate gig, or who knows what.</div><div><br /></div><div>Caveat emptor: I am a software professional. A way geek. My everyday work is computing intensive. I usually have at least six applications running at once, and not because I'm not paying attention but because my work requires it. Some of my applications require fast processors and huge amounts of RAM. I need a big-ass disk or several. My extracurricular activities as a professional musician who does some recording and composing are also computer-intensive at times, and I read the New York Times online daily with a Times Reader subscription--yet another computer-based activity. My work frequently requires travel, and even during leisure travel there is the possibility that I will need to work on some code or something else where my iPhone or a netbook wouldn't cut it.</div><div><br /></div><div>Normal people do not have such extreme needs! Normal people would get along just fine with the computer I was using five years ago.</div><div><br /></div><div><div>Oh--and I'm a Mac bigot. I truly believe that Macs work better and let you get more done with less hassle. If you need to some particular software that's only available on Windows or Linux or whatever, then buy Parallels or VMWare or try one of the open source virtualization programs to run those programs--and only those programs--in a window on your Mac. That's what I do, and many of my clients are Windows-only shops, so it's not like I can afford to be without access to Windows myself.</div><div><br /></div></div><div>Still, people ask me, because they know I care and have researched these things to death, so here goes.</div><div><br /></div><div>I love laptops, and I think that in consulting and/or uncertain job futures it's best to emphasize flexibility. You never know when you'll need to give a talk, or demo something at someone else's office, or fix something while you're on vacation, or work while you're on the road. You can't do much of that on an iPad or iPhone (except correspondence and basic iWork stuff). You can do it all on a laptop, and you also have a built-in uninterruptable power supply (battery!) in cases of lightning knocking out the power just as you accomplish something important that you haven't saved yet. You also have, in a laptop, a built-in free primary display, and when you connect a big-ass LCD as your external display, you have tons of real estate when you're at your desk.</div><div><br /></div><div>And anything the iPad can do, your laptop can do, except for being light, sexy, etc. But you'll have an iPhone for that. Get an iPad later when you can resist no longer. (I plan to usurp the one my wife bought this afternoon.)</div><div><br /></div><div>My friends with iMacs love them, and one friend in particular who lives in a one-bedroom apartment uses his as his computer, TV, DVD, DVR, stereo, virtual aquarium, and digital picture frame as well as computer. He uses his iPhone on the go. He's delighted with both. He does NOT make his living in software, though, and he doesn't travel for same. He's a musician who does Mac stuff at his day job, sometimes works from home, does a variety of things at home, and just needs basic iPhone apps when away from home. That said, I doubt he'd say no if somebody offered him their two-year-old MacBook--and I also doubt he'd get rid of the iMac.</div><div><br /></div><div>I like a big screen and as much power and as many kinds of ports as possible, especially when a fair amount of work-away-from-office is expected, but even just when reading <a href="http://timesreader.nytimes.com/">Times Reader</a>. So, for me the top of the line MacBook Pro 17" will always be the no-brainer choice. Next best for me is last year's version of same, from craigslist or a bargain Apple refurb unit. That said, 17" weighs a lot more than 15" weighs a lot more than 13", and unless you use a backpack, you want to avoid unnecessary weight. (And don't forget it's not just the laptop--it's the cables, the camera, the books, the banana, the carrying bag itself, and everything else you schlepp around in your purse^H^H^H^H^Hbriefcase or backpack.</div><div><br /></div><div>If you're bent on an iMac and an iPad, maybe a good compromise would be an iMac for your desk and a refurb Air for travel, and a Dropbox account to be sure that the most important things are always on both. See the Apple store, lower right corner for<a href="http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/">refurbs</a> etc.--or <a href="http://www.blogger.com/People%20ask%20me%20about%20which%20Mac%20to%20buy%20often%20enough%20that%20I%20thought%20I%20might%20as%20well%20post%20here%20a%20recent%20reply%20I%20wrote%20to%20a%20friend%20who%20is%20looking%20at%20a%20career%20change%20from%20corporate%20programming%20to%20consulting,%20possibly,%20or%20another%20corporate%20gig,%20or%20who%20knows%20what.%20%20%20Caveat%20emptor:%20I%20am%20a%20software%20professional.%20A%20way%20geek.%20My%20everyday%20work%20is%20computing%20intensive.%20I%20usually%20have%20at%20least%20six%20applications%20running%20at%20once,%20and%20not%20because%20I'm%20not%20paying%20attention%20but%20because%20my%20work%20requires%20it.%20Some%20of%20my%20applications%20require%20fast%20processors%20and%20huge%20amounts%20of%20RAM.%20I%20need%20a%20big-ass%20disk%20or%20several.%20My%20extracurricular%20activities%20as%20a%20professional%20musician%20who%20does%20some%20recording%20and%20composing%20are%20also%20computer-intensive%20at%20times,%20and%20I%20read%20the%20New%20York%20Times%20online%20daily%20with%20a%20Times%20Reader%20subscription--yet%20another%20computer-based%20activity.%20My%20work%20frequently%20requires%20travel,%20and%20even%20during%20leisure%20travel%20there%20is%20the%20possibility%20that%20I%20will%20need%20to%20work%20on%20some%20code%20or%20something%20else%20where%20my%20iPhone%20or%20a%20netbook%20wouldn't%20cut%20it.%20%20%20Normal%20people%20do%20not%20have%20such%20extreme%20needs!%20Normal%20people%20would%20get%20along%20just%20fine%20with%20the%20computer%20I%20was%20using%20five%20years%20ago.%20%20%20Oh--and%20I'm%20a%20Mac%20bigot.%20I%20truly%20believe%20that%20Macs%20work%20better%20and%20let%20you%20get%20more%20done%20with%20less%20hassle.%20If%20you%20need%20to%20some%20particular%20software%20that's%20only%20available%20on%20Windows%20or%20Linux%20or%20whatever,%20then%20buy%20Parallels%20or%20VMWare%20or%20try%20one%20of%20the%20open%20source%20virtualization%20programs%20to%20run%20those%20programs--and%20only%20those%20programs--in%20a%20window%20on%20your%20Mac.%20That's%20what%20I%20do,%20and%20many%20of%20my%20clients%20are%20Windows-only%20shops,%20so%20it's%20not%20like%20I%20can%20afford%20to%20be%20without%20access%20to%20Windows%20myself.%20%20%20Still,%20people%20ask%20me,%20because%20they%20know%20I%20care%20and%20have%20researched%20these%20things%20to%20death,%20so%20here%20goes.%20%20%20I%20love%20laptops%20myself,%20and%20I%20think%20that%20in%20consulting%20and/or%20uncertain%20job%20futures%20it's%20best%20to%20emphasize%20flexibility.%20You%20never%20know%20when%20you'll%20need%20to%20give%20a%20talk,%20or%20demo%20something%20at%20someone's%20office,%20or%20fix%20something%20while%20you're%20on%20vacation,%20or%20work%20while%20you're%20on%20the%20road.%20You%20can't%20do%20much%20of%20that%20on%20an%20iPad%20or%20iPhone%20(except%20correspondence%20and%20basic%20iWork%20stuff).%20You%20can%20do%20it%20all%20on%20a%20laptop,%20and%20you%20also%20have%20a%20built-in%20uninterruptable%20power%20supply%20(battery!)%20in%20cases%20of%20lightning%20knocking%20out%20NSP%20just%20as%20you%20accomplish%20something%20important%20but%20unsaved.%20You%20also%20have,%20in%20a%20laptop,%20a%20built-in%20free%20primary%20display,%20and%20when%20you%20connect%20a%20big-ass%20LCD%20as%20your%20external%20display,%20you%20have%20tons%20of%20real%20estate%20at%20home.%20%20%20And%20anything%20the%20iPad%20can%20do,%20your%20laptop%20can%20do,%20except%20for%20being%20light,%20sexy,%20etc.%20But%20you'll%20have%20an%20iPHone%20for%20that.%20Get%20an%20iPad%20later%20when%20you%20can%20resist%20no%20longer.%20(I%20plan%20to%20usurp%20the%20one%20my%20wife%20bought%20this%20afternoon.)%20%20%20My%20friends%20with%20iMacs%20love%20them,%20and%20one%20guy%20in%20particular%20who%20lives%20in%20a%20one-bedroom%20uses%20his%20as%20his%20computer,%20TV,%20TV%20service,%20stereo,%20virtual%20aquarium,%20and%20digital%20picture%20frame%20as%20well%20as%20computer,%20and%20he%20uses%20his%20iPhone%20on%20the%20go.%20He's%20delighted%20with%20both.%20He%20does%20NOT%20make%20his%20living%20in%20software,%20though,%20and%20he%20doesn't%20travel%20for%20same.%20He's%20a%20musician%20who%20just%20needs%20basic%20iPhone%20apps%20when%20away%20from%20home.%20%20%20I%20like%20a%20big%20screen%20and%20as%20much%20power%20and%20as%20many%20kinds%20of%20ports%20as%20possible,%20especially%20when%20a%20fair%20amount%20of%20work-away-from-office%20is%20expected,%20but%20even%20just%20when%20reading%20Times%20Reader.%20So,%20for%20me%20the%20top%20of%20the%20line%20MacBook%20Pro%2017%22%20will%20always%20be%20the%20no-brainer%20choice.%20Next%20best%20for%20me%20is%20last%20year's%20version%20of%20same,%20craigslist%20or%20Apple%20refurb.%20That%20said,%2017%22%20weighs%20a%20lot%20more%20than%2015%22%20weighs%20a%20lot%20more%20than%2013%22,%20and%20unless%20you%20use%20a%20backpack,%20your%20knees%20will%20not%20be%20happy%20with%20you%20carrying%20more%20weight%20than%20absolutely%20necessary.%20%20%20You%20know,%20if%20you're%20bent%20on%20an%20iMac%20and%20an%20iPad,%20maybe%20a%20good%20compromise%20would%20be%20an%20iMac%20and%20a%20refurb%20Air?%20See%20the%20Apple%20store%20lower%20right%20corner%20for%20refurbs%20etc.--or%20craigslist.%20%20%20Craigslist%20rocks.%20For%20retail,%20see%20if%20you%20have%20any%20friends/family%20with%20access%20to%20academic%20discounts,%20then%20check%20refurb,%20then%20check:%20%20%20http://www.appleinsider.com/mac_price_guide/%20http://craigslist.org">craigslist</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.blogger.com/People%20ask%20me%20about%20which%20Mac%20to%20buy%20often%20enough%20that%20I%20thought%20I%20might%20as%20well%20post%20here%20a%20recent%20reply%20I%20wrote%20to%20a%20friend%20who%20is%20looking%20at%20a%20career%20change%20from%20corporate%20programming%20to%20consulting,%20possibly,%20or%20another%20corporate%20gig,%20or%20who%20knows%20what.%20%20%20Caveat%20emptor:%20I%20am%20a%20software%20professional.%20A%20way%20geek.%20My%20everyday%20work%20is%20computing%20intensive.%20I%20usually%20have%20at%20least%20six%20applications%20running%20at%20once,%20and%20not%20because%20I'm%20not%20paying%20attention%20but%20because%20my%20work%20requires%20it.%20Some%20of%20my%20applications%20require%20fast%20processors%20and%20huge%20amounts%20of%20RAM.%20I%20need%20a%20big-ass%20disk%20or%20several.%20My%20extracurricular%20activities%20as%20a%20professional%20musician%20who%20does%20some%20recording%20and%20composing%20are%20also%20computer-intensive%20at%20times,%20and%20I%20read%20the%20New%20York%20Times%20online%20daily%20with%20a%20Times%20Reader%20subscription--yet%20another%20computer-based%20activity.%20My%20work%20frequently%20requires%20travel,%20and%20even%20during%20leisure%20travel%20there%20is%20the%20possibility%20that%20I%20will%20need%20to%20work%20on%20some%20code%20or%20something%20else%20where%20my%20iPhone%20or%20a%20netbook%20wouldn't%20cut%20it.%20%20%20Normal%20people%20do%20not%20have%20such%20extreme%20needs!%20Normal%20people%20would%20get%20along%20just%20fine%20with%20the%20computer%20I%20was%20using%20five%20years%20ago.%20%20%20Oh--and%20I'm%20a%20Mac%20bigot.%20I%20truly%20believe%20that%20Macs%20work%20better%20and%20let%20you%20get%20more%20done%20with%20less%20hassle.%20If%20you%20need%20to%20some%20particular%20software%20that's%20only%20available%20on%20Windows%20or%20Linux%20or%20whatever,%20then%20buy%20Parallels%20or%20VMWare%20or%20try%20one%20of%20the%20open%20source%20virtualization%20programs%20to%20run%20those%20programs--and%20only%20those%20programs--in%20a%20window%20on%20your%20Mac.%20That's%20what%20I%20do,%20and%20many%20of%20my%20clients%20are%20Windows-only%20shops,%20so%20it's%20not%20like%20I%20can%20afford%20to%20be%20without%20access%20to%20Windows%20myself.%20%20%20Still,%20people%20ask%20me,%20because%20they%20know%20I%20care%20and%20have%20researched%20these%20things%20to%20death,%20so%20here%20goes.%20%20%20I%20love%20laptops%20myself,%20and%20I%20think%20that%20in%20consulting%20and/or%20uncertain%20job%20futures%20it's%20best%20to%20emphasize%20flexibility.%20You%20never%20know%20when%20you'll%20need%20to%20give%20a%20talk,%20or%20demo%20something%20at%20someone's%20office,%20or%20fix%20something%20while%20you're%20on%20vacation,%20or%20work%20while%20you're%20on%20the%20road.%20You%20can't%20do%20much%20of%20that%20on%20an%20iPad%20or%20iPhone%20(except%20correspondence%20and%20basic%20iWork%20stuff).%20You%20can%20do%20it%20all%20on%20a%20laptop,%20and%20you%20also%20have%20a%20built-in%20uninterruptable%20power%20supply%20(battery!)%20in%20cases%20of%20lightning%20knocking%20out%20NSP%20just%20as%20you%20accomplish%20something%20important%20but%20unsaved.%20You%20also%20have,%20in%20a%20laptop,%20a%20built-in%20free%20primary%20display,%20and%20when%20you%20connect%20a%20big-ass%20LCD%20as%20your%20external%20display,%20you%20have%20tons%20of%20real%20estate%20at%20home.%20%20%20And%20anything%20the%20iPad%20can%20do,%20your%20laptop%20can%20do,%20except%20for%20being%20light,%20sexy,%20etc.%20But%20you'll%20have%20an%20iPHone%20for%20that.%20Get%20an%20iPad%20later%20when%20you%20can%20resist%20no%20longer.%20(I%20plan%20to%20usurp%20the%20one%20my%20wife%20bought%20this%20afternoon.)%20%20%20My%20friends%20with%20iMacs%20love%20them,%20and%20one%20guy%20in%20particular%20who%20lives%20in%20a%20one-bedroom%20uses%20his%20as%20his%20computer,%20TV,%20TV%20service,%20stereo,%20virtual%20aquarium,%20and%20digital%20picture%20frame%20as%20well%20as%20computer,%20and%20he%20uses%20his%20iPhone%20on%20the%20go.%20He's%20delighted%20with%20both.%20He%20does%20NOT%20make%20his%20living%20in%20software,%20though,%20and%20he%20doesn't%20travel%20for%20same.%20He's%20a%20musician%20who%20just%20needs%20basic%20iPhone%20apps%20when%20away%20from%20home.%20%20%20I%20like%20a%20big%20screen%20and%20as%20much%20power%20and%20as%20many%20kinds%20of%20ports%20as%20possible,%20especially%20when%20a%20fair%20amount%20of%20work-away-from-office%20is%20expected,%20but%20even%20just%20when%20reading%20Times%20Reader.%20So,%20for%20me%20the%20top%20of%20the%20line%20MacBook%20Pro%2017%22%20will%20always%20be%20the%20no-brainer%20choice.%20Next%20best%20for%20me%20is%20last%20year's%20version%20of%20same,%20craigslist%20or%20Apple%20refurb.%20That%20said,%2017%22%20weighs%20a%20lot%20more%20than%2015%22%20weighs%20a%20lot%20more%20than%2013%22,%20and%20unless%20you%20use%20a%20backpack,%20your%20knees%20will%20not%20be%20happy%20with%20you%20carrying%20more%20weight%20than%20absolutely%20necessary.%20%20%20You%20know,%20if%20you're%20bent%20on%20an%20iMac%20and%20an%20iPad,%20maybe%20a%20good%20compromise%20would%20be%20an%20iMac%20and%20a%20refurb%20Air?%20See%20the%20Apple%20store%20lower%20right%20corner%20for%20refurbs%20etc.--or%20craigslist.%20%20%20Craigslist%20rocks.%20For%20retail,%20see%20if%20you%20have%20any%20friends/family%20with%20access%20to%20academic%20discounts,%20then%20check%20refurb,%20then%20check:%20%20%20http://www.appleinsider.com/mac_price_guide/%20http://craigslist.org">Craigslist</a> rocks. For retail, see if you have any friends/family with access to academic discounts, then check refurb, then check:</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.appleinsider.com/mac_price_guide/">http://www.appleinsider.com/mac_price_guide/</a></div><div><a href="http://www.techound1.com/blog/">http://www.techound1.com/blog/</a></div><div><br /></div><div>Did I mention <a href="http://craigslist.org/">craigslist</a>?</div><div><br /></div><div>Nobody pays me anything for blogging about this stuff. Or rather, companies don't. My friends and family repay me amply in ways too numerous to count. Thank you, all of you--you probably don't realize who you are, but I do, and I'm grateful to be blessed with such an embarrassment of riches.</div>Erin Vanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05479433612497580296noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6910345.post-6198538361910485652010-04-20T14:48:00.001-07:002010-04-20T15:07:12.484-07:00Expiration Date SoupMany of my family and friends have gifts for foraging--recognizing all the funky greens, vegetables, mushrooms, and so forth in their habitats, and knowing when and how to harvest. I don't have the gift--or rather, my repertoire is rather limited. I know cress, dandelions, and other basics, and most of the Rocky Mountain region edible berries, but that's about it. I think I recognize some mushrooms, but then I remember the great care with which my biologist mother examines mushrooms (spore patterns and all), the most recent headlines about mushroom poisonings flood in, and I let braver souls have the harvest. <div><br /></div><div>I do, however, have a gift for pantry and refrigerator scrounging. I remember with pride an ex remarking, "Wow. You're really good at making whole meals out of nothing." Where she saw an empty refrigerator, I saw enough odds and ends for a soup, a funky salad, a crossover stir-fry, or whatever. </div><div><br /></div><div>Today's lunch is a good example. I'm calling it "Expiration date soup." I just threw together several quarts of a hearty, yummy miso soup using almost nothing but food that was supposedly due for the dump: </div><div><ul><li>several quarts of water (nearly the only ingredient that was not expired)</li><li>two packets of bonito stock powder dating back to the Clinton administration (I also have ancient konbu and hana katsuo and I am not afraid to use them, but starting my dashi from scratch adds twenty minutes and some risk, which is not ideal for a quick lunch break from work)</li><li>the bottom of an ancient bag of wakame</li><li>the bottom of an ancient bag of black fungus</li><li>a tub of tofu that expired three months ago (but was unopened and fine), diced</li><li>a few sad cloves of garlic, peeled and thinly sliced</li><li>the dried-out sludge at the bottom of an ancient tub of red miso (I had to mince it and whisk it inside a strainer to get it to dissolve into my broth)</li><li>a slug of semi-ancient sesame oil</li><li>three eggs from an urban farmer friend of who knows what age, lightly mixed and stirred into the soup, off the flame (egg-drop soup style)</li><li>several shakes of sesame seed/bonito flakes/mystery ingredients "rice topping" stuff that I think I bought when I lived in Chicago, which is to say before 1994</li></ul></div><div>I prepared the soup by dumping these things into a pot over a medium-high flame roughly in the order listed above, as I found them, and by the time I had everything in the pot, it was ready to eat. </div><div><br /></div><div>Yummy. Probably not something any self-respecting Japanese chef would acknowledge as food, but I liked it, and I'm going to enjoy it for several more lunches. </div>Erin Vanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05479433612497580296noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6910345.post-55409537645966072492010-03-11T18:18:00.000-08:002010-03-11T18:25:15.919-08:00Weather announcements and youthful indiscretions<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 9px;">S</span></span>omething I've found wonderfully amusing is that ever since Dad got on the email bandwagon in the mid 1990s, we Vangs (and in-laws) have received email nearly every weekday and often on the weekends that opens, invariably, with a weather report. Dad's a farmer's son, which probably has something to do with the obsession, and if not, then living in Grafton, ND for a few years and hearing all the farmers complain about the weather no matter what it was probably would have done the job. </div><div><br />
</div><div>I find the Butte, MT weather reports particularly amusing since they often serve as a reminder to me that I'm probably experiencing some kind of weather, too. Left to my own devices, I could probably go weeks without noticing it. Other than deciding whether to grab a rain coat or a fleece vest before heading outside with the dogs, I'm clueless on the subject. It's sunny and warm today, but I can't for the life of me remember what yesterday was like. Did it hail? Or was that Tuesday? I have no idea. </div><div><br />
</div><div>In my defense, SF Bay Area weather is considerably more boring than most places. I cracked up the day I was listening to KQED, the NPR affiliate station, and one of my favorite announcers said, "Weather today--mid 60s by the bay, warmer inland, with light breezes; warming to 70s midday, warmer inland, with cooler temperatures expected in the evening and lows in the 50s overnight. [Beat. Beat.] Gee, that's a surprise. [Beat. Beat.] Traffic this morning is..."</div><div><br />
</div><div>It reminded me of something from my salad days...</div><div><br />
</div><div>One of the stranger-looking lines on my resume notes that I was an announcer at KFJM-FM, the University of North Dakota's NPR affiliate station, the summer after college. </div><div><br />
</div><div>We were required by law or by farm country morality or something to announce the weather several times an hour no matter what. You'd stop by the wire service machine and tear off a four-inch strip from the never-ending trivia printout spilling out of that thing, park it on your rack in the booth, and read off the usual bits at the prescribed times. Although it was only occasionally an interesting topic (I have an amusing story about the tornado warning emergency that I had to deal with the day I was also simultaneously running AM and FM, whose stations were on opposite ends of the building), it was a BIG DEAL and could not be skipped, ever. Unfortunately, I often forgot to grab the latest weather wire before heading back into the booth, since they were so damned boring, so on more than a few occasions, I actually just dug the hour-old strip out from under my pile of album covers and CD hoojies (technical term) and invented slight changes from whatever the weather used to be. I was shameless. As far as I know, my invented barometric pressures and wind speeds never hurt anybody, and my temperature guesses were probably within the margin of error of the actual readings and forecasts anyway. But my dad is probably still deeply disappointed by my ethical lapses in this area--if he even knew about them until now, that is.</div><div><br />
</div><div>He knows now. I hope he can cope. </div><div><br />
</div><div>Perhaps I'm being cocky, but I don't think the FCC is going to read this and revoke my license for it.</div><div><br />
</div><div>I was grateful for the weather wire a few times, though. Several times a month, you're required by the FCC to do a test of the Emergency Broadcast System (that awful beeping thing with the stupid "this is a test, this is only a test" patter). Because KFJM operated both FM and AM stations, but only one of those stations had EBS hardware, you needed to take control of both stations to do the tests or actual EBS events. So that it's somewhat graceful, you'd do these at very specific times with an agreed cue ("Time now, 2:14") so that the AM station could plan its programming and announcements just so, so that your taking control from the FM booth could sound seamless. Meanwhile, on the FM side, I'd have to play my program down to the minute, also. </div><div><br />
</div><div>Unfortunately, it turns out that the printed band-timings on LPs are frequently incorrect, and not by just a little bit. More than once I'd have a piece bottom out on me quite a bit ahead of schedule, and I'd have to vamp to fill the extra minute or three until the EBS break-in, or the satellite feed at the top of the hour, or whatever. There's only so much detail you can read off about the piece we've just heard and the upcoming programming, and throwing in promo carts (those brief pre-recorded spots where Noah Adams invites you to listen to All Things Considered, blah blah blah) is surprisingly tricky and not something you generally want to have to do on the fly, and especially not when you've patched your board over to the EBS, and that channel just happens to be the channel that normally is used for the weird 8-track-tape-style thingy that plays the promo carts and would have to be repatched on the fly, too. </div><div><br />
</div><div>So, when you suddenly find yourself with an entire minute to kill, nothing left to say about the music past or future, and way too many knobs and switches to deal with to play a cart while also trying to say something reasonable into the microphone, you do the only thing you can do: you read off the current and predicted temperatures, wind speeds, directions, barometric pressures and whether they're rising or falling for every damned town in the entire upper Red River Valley, and you try not to slash your wrists. </div><div><br />
</div><div>And you wonder how many farmers' days you've just made. </div><div><br />
</div><div>Is there anybody out there reading this now who would actually have cared? Anybody? Please use that Comment button! </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6910345.post-23930954269404349452010-01-13T18:41:00.000-08:002010-01-13T18:45:52.698-08:00Putting disasters in perspective, or Our crappy economy isn't so bad[Note: I originally wrote this for my consultancy's blog, where references to localization make more sense. You can read it here if you prefer: <a href="http://blog.globalpragmatica.com/?p=62">http://blog.globalpragmatica.com/?p=62</a>] <br />
<br />
Many people are depressed these days, for many valid reasons. The economy is still a disaster. The localization industry is a mess in more ways than I can count. (I don't think I'll get much argument about that, but if anybody questions that, please leave a comment, and I'll elucidate in a future blog post.) Many of us are out of work and have been for a frighteningly long time. Many of us are clinging to scaled-back jobs. Many of us are worried about how long the work we're grateful to have will last.<br />
<br />
When even the blue chip companies are slashing workforces and budgets and the banks themselves are declaring bankruptcy, we know our economy is a disaster.<br />
<br />
Looking outside the devastated economy of the developed world, let's consider the vastly greater struggles in the two-thirds world.<br />
<br />
Terminology break! (T9Y break!) When people say "third world," they mean "undeveloped or developing nations," and these represent over two-thirds of the world's population, so let's stop saying that and say what we really mean: "<b>two-thirds world</b>."<br />
<br />
In the news today, hundreds of thousands of Haitians are believed dead after a major 7.0 earthquake hit, its epicenter right in the most populous part of an already fragile island. Most Haitians are black and live on less than US$1 a day. Putting this in perspective, fewer than 3000 people will killed in the horrifying 9/11 attacks. However, I fear that history will show the great failure of our humanity when the global public response to the crisis gets those metrics backwards.<br />
<br />
Because I have spent several decades working in statistical software in various roles, I can't help wanting to look at the desperation quantitatively. Here are some graphs that will probably startle most people---and I hope horrify many of you into taking some kind of action, <i>today</i>. Mind you, I'm expecting to startle and horrify even the well-educated, privileged, mostly white people in the developed world who have the means to read my blog.<br />
<br />
First, let's compare the death tolls from a handful of disasters that have filled our headlines in recent years. Before you look at the graph, which do you think was worse?<br />
<ul><li>9/11 terrorist attacks</li>
<li>Hurricane Katrina</li>
<li>Indian Ocean tsunami</li>
<li>Haiti earthquake</li>
<li>2008 Earthquakes in the People's Republic of China</li>
</ul>And how do you think the economies of these places compare?<br />
<br />
First, the scale of the disasters. For my North American readers: remember how devastated you felt watching the TV coverage of 9/11 and of Hurricane Katrina, please.<br />
<img alt="deathToll" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-67" height="232" src="http://blog.globalpragmatica.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/deathToll1-300x232.jpg" title="deathToll" width="300" /><br />
<br />
That's right. The devastation of 9/11 and Katrina <i>combined</i> are trivial compared to any of the others.<br />
<br />
Now let's consider the economies of these places. Most of us know that USA's wealth dwarfs that of most countries by most measures. A relevant measure for this situation would be the gross domestic product per capita--that is, the total economic output of each state or nation, divided by its number of people.<br />
<br />
<img alt="GDPs" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-64" height="182" src="http://blog.globalpragmatica.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/GDPs-300x182.jpg" title="GDPs" width="300" /><br />
<br />
We all know that New York is wealthier than Louisiana, but did you realize that the New York-Louisiana comparison is almost meaningless in the big picture? Even the <i>difference</i> between those two tall bars dwarfs the size of the bars in the two-thirds world nations!<br />
<br />
So now let's put those two ideas together: let's look at the wealth in each place lined up with the scale of the disaster in each place, as measured by GDP per capita<br />
<br />
<img alt="abilityRecover" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-63" height="239" src="http://blog.globalpragmatica.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/abilityRecover-300x239.jpg" title="abilityRecover" width="300" />This composition of the most massive bloodbaths in big red bars lining up directly with the meager economic means of each place in tiny green bars is the most devastating graph of all. The biggest disasters have taken place where people are least prepared to cope with them.<br />
<br />
There are many ways to help, and of course there are many craven imbeciles who take this opportunity to scam the people of goodwill with fraudulent donation methods. Here are some ways that have been vetted and determined to be reliable: <a href="http://www.google.com/relief/haitiearthquake" target="_blank" title="http://www.google.com/relief/haitiearthquake">http://www.google.com/relief/haitiearthquake</a><br />
<br />
Here are some flaws in my analysis that could distract nitpickers from the clarion call to our humanity:<br />
<ul><li>My national and state GDP data are from different years and sources, and they're probably inflation-adjusted differently.</li>
<li>I'm considering these events to have taken place in New York, Louisiana, Indonesia, China, and Haiti, where the most deaths occurred, although other states and nations were affected.</li>
<li>The costs of 9/11 and Katrina were borne nationally, but the victims were (mostly) local, so I considered the state economies instead of the national economy.</li>
<li>Estimates of the death tolls in the two-thirds world are always much fuzzier, because the poorer you are, the less likely you are to be accurately counted.</li>
<li>Estimates of the death toll in Haiti are wildly premature. Some sources say "hundreds of thousands," and while they might mean "100,000 give or take a few 10,000," a careful speaker would mean the far more frightening "100,000 or 200,000 or 300,000" by that description.</li>
<li>It's a little weird to measure ability to recover by comparing the GDP per person to the number of persons dead. The dead people are dead, and no amount of money will help them. But the people left behind are living in economies that are more or less capable of recovering.</li>
<li>These data are confounded, if you consider that poorer nations have a lesser ability to build safety into their communities. Wealthier nations have higher survival rates in times of disaster because their buildings are sturdier, more of their citizens live in buildings in the first place, their bridges and roads and so on are more prevalent and higher quality, their emergency responders are more numerous and better-equipped and -funded, and on and on and on. The ways in which wealth mitigates disaster and the lack of wealth compounds disaster are numerous and heartbreaking.</li>
</ul>My data sources:<br />
<ul><li><a href="http://www.emdat.be/" target="_blank" title="http://www.emdat.be">http://www.emdat.be</a></li>
<li><a href="http://data.un.org/CountryProfile.aspx" target="_blank" title="http://data.un.org/CountryProfile.aspx">http://data.un.org/CountryProfile.aspx</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.weather.com/newscenter/topstories/060829katrinastats.html" target="_blank" title="http://www.weather.com/newscenter/topstories/060829katrinastats.html">http://www.weather.com/newscenter/topstories/060829katrinastats.html</a></li>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_GDP_per_capita_%28nominal%29" target="_blank" title="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_GDP_per_capita_(nominal)">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_GDP_per_capita_(nominal)</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.statemaster.com/" target="_blank" title="http://www.statemaster.com/">http://www.statemaster.com/</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2010/haiti.quake/" target="_blank" title="http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2010/haiti.quake/">http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2010/haiti.quake/</a></li>
</ul>The analysis was my own, and I prepared all the graphs using JMP's Graph Builder.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6910345.post-22776331685602223302009-10-29T16:47:00.000-07:002009-10-29T16:47:48.875-07:00Wagnertuben available for rentals, with or without players<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 9px;">Fellow San Francisco Bay Area freelance hornist Alicia Telford and I own a matched set of four historic Wagnertuben that are available for rental, with or without players. </span></span><div><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 9px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 9px;">Our tuben are a matched set of Alexanders picked out by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1952, during the Fritz Reiner era. We have a pair of single B-flat tuben and a pair of single F tuben. They were the CSO's main set of tuben for several decades. In 1988, the CSO sold the set to the Dallas Symphony, who used them through 1999. That's when we bought them. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 9px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 9px;">Since then, our tuben have appeared with the Marin Symphony, Santa Rosa Symphony, San Jose Symphony, Berkeley Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Pacific Symphony, Symphony Silicon Valley, Santa Cruz Symphony, and many others. Renter either arranges local pickup or pays two-way shipping costs; we provide shipping boxes and include tube stands, valve oil, pencil clips, and so on. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 9px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 9px;">Wagnertuben are traditionally played by horn players, but even horn players need to spend some time with them to master the instruments and be able to play them at the same high professional level they expect of themselves on horn. Therefore, when we rent out our Wagnertuben, we try to arrange a monthlong rental, so that your players have time to work with them, practice Kopprasch etudes, get used to the transpositions, and otherwise master them. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 9px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 9px;">We can also supply experienced professional players along with the tube rental as needed. For local rentals with your own players, we offer coaching sessions with your hornists. For a moderate hourly rate, we will introduce the fundamentals, field questions, help players get comfortable holding and tuning the instruments, and generally get your players up to speed fast. There are many tricky aspects to playing Wagnertube well, and having played just about all the Wagnertube repertoire ourselves, we know what you're up against and can get you going fast. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 9px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 9px;">We recommend using one of your usual horn mouthpieces, but be sure to try all of your favorite mouthpieces; you might find that your second-favorite mouthpiece for horn is actually the better one for Wagnertube. What I like best is a Lawson F680 with a B23G-730 rim, but that's an unusually large mouthpiece. Many players might prefer a Lawson F660 or F670 with a 695-sized or 705-sized rim in the contour of their choice. </span></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6910345.post-49960961088961395122009-10-29T15:59:00.000-07:002010-07-02T15:15:22.544-07:00Just switch to Mac, already<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">We all have computer problems, and that doesn't stop with Mac, but it sure gets easier. I find myself telling one friend after another to switch to Mac. Sometimes the objection is, "but I absolutely have to have Windows for my job" because of some Windows-only application or another.<br />
<br />
If that's the case, then you especially should get a Mac. Because face it, sometimes Windows goes south, and when it does, would you rather revert to the Windows machine you had yesterday that was running fine, or would you rather troubleshoot Windows for a week and still not know what's wrong? Would you rather spend two minutes restoring yesterday's virtual machine or two hours driving to a geek squad?<br />
<br />
If you don't need Windows apps, then you'll be much happier on a Mac. If you do need Windows apps, you'll still be much happier on a Mac, with Windows running as a virtual machine.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, just because you have one or two essential applications that are Windows only, that doesn't mean you should have to put up with Windows software for everything else you do, like email, web, calendar, address book, photos, music, documents and spreadsheets, etc. Use your Mac for everything you can, and use Windows only as much as you absolutely have to.<br />
<br />
You have at least two good choices: Parallels Desktop or VMWare Fusion. Both work pretty well and have roughly the same features. For me VMWare has worked a little better and the little problems I've had to figure out haven't been as confusing on VMWare as they used to be on Parallels, but I've heard other people say the opposite.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://widgets.tellapal.com/click.action?id=BB9B53F6-DCAC-897D-011A-A8DEE3C474DB" target="_blank">If you want to try VMWare, I think this link will get you a discount. </a> I'm not being paid for this blog post, but if enough people buy VMWare through this link, I get a $10 gift certificate to Amazon or something like that. But that's not why I'm posting it--I'm posting this because I think people with Macs get more done.<br />
<br />
My tech support policy for family and friends? Mac: free, unlimited. Windows: you're on your own; next time get a Mac. So far my family and friends who have listened to me have sooner or later been glad they switched. <br />
</span><br />
<em></em>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6910345.post-90686160002805251472009-02-23T19:25:00.000-08:002009-02-23T20:03:57.504-08:00Smørgåsbord Step 14: Make meatballsTwo years ago, we started blogging about how to throw a smørgåsbord in several thousand easy lessons, and recently a loyal smørgåsbord attendee, our good friend Katja, asked me where to find the meatball recipe on the blog.<br /><br />Well, the sad truth is that we never quite got that far in our smørgåsbord blog. Meatballs are always something we make either that day or the day before, when we're just too swamped to do any journalism. But it's a great recipe, so herewith, Norwegian meatballs!<br /><br />"Not Swedish meatballs?" I hear you gasp.<br /><br />Nope, Norwegian meatballs. These are the meatballs that came down to me from <i>my</i> grandparents and great-grandparents, and they're Norwegian, not Swedish. They're probably not too different, though--it's not like the border between the two countries kept food traditions on each side. If they're different than your Swedish meatball recipe, it's probably because they're also different from other Norwegian meatball recipes, and you'll probably find a Norwegian version of your Swedish meatball recipe, too, if you look hard enough.<br /><br />That said, we did have a Norwegian vs. Swedish meatballs contest one year, because V is Swedish, and her recipe is different from mine. Still, it probably would have been more accurate to call it Vang's vs. Williams's. If you're curious, the big differences are that mine use a mixer and heavier spicing, and hers use cream.<div><br /></div><div>This is an amalgam of Beatrice Ojakaangas' recipe and what I remember from my gramma's recipe. It's a pretty forgiving recipe, so certainly you should free to mess around with it, resting assured that nothing will go too terribly wrong. The recipe is for a massive party-sized batch, and since my measurements are vague anyway, you shouldn't have any trouble scaling it down. It's more of an approach than a recipe, really. </div><div><br /><br /><b>Norwegian Meatballs, jultide smørgåsbord edition</b><br /><br />Start with a <i>very</i> large mixing bowl. This batch feeds several dozen people at a smørgåsbord, or probably a large family as the main attraction of a normal meal. I usually double or triple it, depending on how many people we're expecting. When in doubt, go larger; we have rarely had leftovers.<div><br /></div><div>Preheat oven to 400˚F. <br /><div><ul><li>2 c breadcrumbs (I use matzoh meal, or I buzz actual matzohs up in my Cuisinart; a gluten-free alternative is to buzz up dried shiitakes and then rehydrate them in hot water)</li><li>2 c milk<br /></li></ul>Let stand. Add:</div><div><ul><li>2 large onions, minced (coarsely chop, then use the Cuisinart)</li><li>3 eggs</li><li>2-1/2 t salt</li><li>3/4 t nutmeg</li><li>3/4 t allspice</li><li>1/3 t cloves</li><li>1/2 c flour</li><li>2 lbs ground beef</li><li>1 lb ground pork</li></ul>Using an electric hand-held mixer (or a gigantic stand mixer), beat at high speed until light and fluffy. The idea is that you're stretching the fats around everything else, and the result is cohesive, tender meatballs instead of tough meatballs that fall apart. </div><div><br /></div><div>You could melt butter in a hot skillet and fry the meatballs, but when you're making this big a batch, it's much easier to oven-fry them. When you pan-fry them, it's boring to wait for one pan at a time, but it's hard to keep up with more than one pan at a time. If you get the slightest behind, the result is a tremendous amount of smoke, and even an 1800 cfm vent won't be able to keep up with it. This means that your smoke alarm is going to start blaring and keep blaring, your security service is going to phone you, you're going to have to open every window, and still you're going to be dealing with a smoke alarm for quite some time. You'll have to explain to the security people that your house really isn't on fire, even though the alarm won't stop, and they'll only dimly understand why meatballs are a perfectly sensible explanation for the problem. Meanwhile, dealing with windows and alarms and phones will cause you to burn at least half a pan's worth. Ask me how I know this. </div><div><br /></div><div>To oven fry them, lightly oil (or spray Pam-like substances on) 3-4 large jelly roll pans or similar. You definitely need a pan with a lip, because these puppies express. Using a small ice cream scoop, several spoons, your hands, or whatever, make small meatballs, say 1" diameter. Squish them into tight rolls on the pans. Roast 10-15 minutes until nicely browned and firm. Use a large, stiff spatula to lift them from pans into a crockpot (or large stockpot). Scrape and drain any drippings into a large saucepan that you have standing by. Repeat until done. Once done, use a scant amount of beef stock (see below) to deglaze the pans into that saucepan of drippings. </div><div><br /></div><div>Next, make gravy: </div><div><ol><li>Have healthy pinches of all the meatball spices (see above) mixed and standing by. </li><li>Heat about 3-4 c beef broth to a boil and then hold at a gentle simmer. (I use a high-quality beef stock base, but bouillion would probably do the job)<br /></li><li>Bring drippings and 2 sticks butter in the large saucepan almost to a sizzle, over high heat. </li><li>Slowly stir in 1-1/2 c (or more) of flour and your spice mixture. Ideally you will have made lefse earlier and saved all the browned flour that you brushed off the lefse griddles and lefse. If not, you might consider browning the flour in a separate pan in advance of this step. My grandmother swore that browning the flour is crucial, but I'm not sure I agree. My aunt learned that the answer to the question, "How long do you brown the flour?" is "Until the smoke alarm goes off."</li><li>You're making a roux. Cook and stir continuously with a large, long-handled whisk, until what you're seeing is a dark, shiny, smooth glop. You might need to add more butter or more flour to reach the perfect balance. Making roux is a bit of an art; you might want to learn more about it before attempting this recipe. Be careful, because making roux is also a self-burning hazard. </li><li>Once your roux is beautiful and perfect, slowly start dribbling the hot beef stock into the roux, whisking furiously. The goal is to end up with gravy, not roux-lumps in broth, and this requires slow, steady addition of nearly-boiling liquid to the roux. When you've gotten at least a third of the broth into the roux, you can switch directions and dribble the roux-mixture into the rest of the stock, continuing to whisk furiously—again, this is because you want to make gravy instead of roux-lumps in broth. </li><li>Once all the roux and broth are combined, continue to cook while stirring until the gravy is clear and smooth. The goal is to cook out any starches, and the way to tell is you're done yet is by tasting it. If you taste flour or feel flouriness, keep going. When it's smooth, rich, beefy, and yummy, you're done. </li></ol>Pour the gravy over the meatballs in the crockpot or large stockpot. If serving immediately, heat through and call people to the table. If serving the next day, cover, refrigerate, and turn the stockpot on high about two hours before serving time. <br /></div><div><br /></div><div>If you try this recipe, be sure to leave a comment here about how it works out for you. I hope you enjoy it! </div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6910345.post-32531413729091994152008-12-28T12:39:00.001-08:002008-12-28T12:44:21.532-08:00I need help<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/moving.png"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 285px; height: 432px;" src="http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/moving.png" border="0" alt="" /></a>It was starting to feel this way around here yesterday.<br /><br />I'd finally had it with my AppleTV STILL trying to finish syncing less than 20gb from the night several months ago that my friend Noel helped me mess with channels, realized that 2 of my 3 Expresses were not 802.11n (or whatever that number is) capable, and reconfigured it as a WDS with two remotes and told me to put my oldest Express in my briefcase to use in hotels. It was better but obviously my AppleTV's inability to sync a lousy two seasons of "Mad Men" in two months demonstrated that it still had serious problems.<br /><br />So finally I did two days of seriously geeking out on wifi networking, even downgrading two base stations' firmware to 7.3.1 and playing with KisMac for several hours to determine exactly what all my neighbors have going on with their wifi networks. (Most are running Cisco routers on the default channel 6 with WPA encryption, and only half have bothered to hide their easily-guessed ssid names. One has something like a dozen devices attached to his network, so despite inferences clearly available from this email, I am not the neighborhood's worst geek. And FWIW, KisMac is one scary-ass powerful piece of open source software. With a few more days of KisMac monitoring I could be the evil neighbor who announces "all your base stations are belong to us" and then reconfigures everybody's networks to be more secure and to use different channels for less interference with each other. Really, it would be a public service! And it would be more convenient for me when I need to Google something from my iPhone while walking the dog! Please explain these things to the public defender assigned to my case.)<br /><br />When none of this improves anything, I finally break down and RTFM.<br /><br />Apple's "Designing AirPort networks" reveals that WDS was a bad idea, because it pretty much forces everything to use the slow 802.11b/g protocol. For 802.11n you're supposed to use Airport Utility's much-simpler checkboxes to configure your boxes to extend and join networks.<br /><br />The doc explains dual radio mode on p48, which was 47 pages further into the details of how wifi works than I've ever wanted to get before, and that idea was the ticket. So the new plan is this: run my main base station (the Time Capsule in my office), the music room's Airport Express station, our laptops, and the AppleTV on a primary network that is 5Ghz only. Run Ethernet from the Time Capsule to another Airport Express in the office, and use that as a bridge to broadcast a second, differently-named 2.4Ghz network with another Airport Express remote upstairs on the channel KisMac revealed to be least busy for benefit of my iPhone and guests with older laptops! Ten minutes and very few mistakes later, I'm done. Problems solved! AppleTV finished syncing!<br /><br />Only took me two and a half months! Let's hear it for RTFM being within the first ten things you try to troubleshoot computer problems instead of being what you do when ten weeks of Googling and futzing doesn't produce results!<br /><br />So I see this comic this morning while lying in bed and playing with my iPhone, because several friends have posted this web comic's link to FaceBook. That's when I realize that if I explain all these things to my friends, they will help me get help. They will know that it's time to send me away for a while...<br /><br />But make sure I figure out why Victoria's laptop isn't joining the new network before you do... I probably need to delete her Airport preferences, then repair permissions, restart, empty caches, zap her PRAM, upgrade to Leopard, and upgrade my base stations back to 7.3.2... <br /><br />Hmmm, time to wrap this up--I have to get out of bed and get to work now...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6910345.post-27584150885889582782008-12-05T23:27:00.000-08:002008-12-06T00:31:50.133-08:00Leadpipes and statues and boats, oh my!Dag to i Oslo began with the promised better strategy at breakfast. I started on the hot side but unfortunately found that the pølser weren't as good as the day before and the weird thick pancake things were definitely some kind of fiskekake--not bad, though. The potatoes were hot and yummy, but the egg-sausage scramble was awful. Mom came up with smørbrod combo she likes quite well, putting both Jarlsberg and gjetost together on a sandwich with a slice of ham or whatever. Seems weird to me, since Jarlsberg is tangy and savory and gjetost is sweet and gooey, but it works for her. (Today she finally tried a piece of bread with gjetost on one half and just butter on the other, with two kinds of jam going in halves the other direction, for a cunning sampler mosaic. She says the orange marmalade on gjetost quarter was best.) Once again we each assembled an extra smørbrod to smuggle out in Mom's spare ziploc bag for a free lunch on the go. (Today we spotted a sign in the breakfast buffet saying we'd be welcome to make a lunch packet for 85kr/person, about $12. We smuggled once more instead. We have a perfect record going, after all!) <br /><br />After breakfast, I called Dan the horn maker and made an appointment to go out to his shop in Stabekk. I was on a mission to pick up a new leadpipe for my friend Alicia. He kindly met us at the train stop and walked us to the shop on a tricky walking path through the houses, which saved us a ton of time. I tried both leadpipe options and quickly decided with Mom's agreement that the one Alicia was leaning toward was indeed the better choice. Dan advised us on how to get to our next destination, walked us to the bus top, and promised to meet us at our last destination for the day with a finished leadpipe. (Leadpipes start life as straight chunks of tapered brass tubing, and after you choose one, it has to be filled with pitch, bent into shape, cut to the right final length for your horn, and have a ferrule added to reinforce the first six inches or so against bending, banging, and other calamities. It's an hour or two of work, and we didn't feel like sitting around wasting our limited Oslo time any more than he probably felt like having a bunch of old women watching over his shoulders. Plus I've been there and done that--I spent a whole weekend at Kendall Bett's Lawson Horns shop last winter, and although it was fascinating, I didn't think the rerun would be.) <br /><br />We took the #38 bus to Olav Kyrres plasse, changed to the #20 bus (or maybe those numbers are the other way around), and accidentally rode it past our intended Vigelandparken stop to Frognerstadium or something like that one stop further. Fortunately the stops aren't that far apart so it wasn't any big deal to walk back to where we meant to get off. We arrived at the park gate a few minutes later needing a restroom stop but were confounded by a 5kr coinbox to get in (about 75 cents). Fortunately there was a cafe next door where we could get change. I feel rude going into businesses just to ask for change, so I decided to buy a something for 15kr with my 20kr coin so I'd get 5kr change instead. Unfortunately, either the price was marked wrong or the clerk made a mistake, because he charged me 20kr for the ice cream bar I'd chosen, so then I had to ask him to give me two coins for my 10kr coin. He gave me a knowing grin along with the coins. Oh, well--I tried. <br /><br />Here's a weird tangent: I couldn't think of the name "ice cream bar" so I asked Mom, who said when she first got to college in Minnesota she was confused by her classmates' excitement about having Cheerios at a welcome picnic. She coudln't figure out why the oaty breakfast cereal would be such a big deal at a picnic for college students, but when she got there she found a pile of ice cream bars branded "Cheerios." Seems like a trademark-protection problem to me! <br /><br />Our business done, we strolled into the park. It was quite cold out, so we were wearing out ski caps and gloves and still shivering a bit, and we were eating an ice cream bar. Are we snow-belt natives or what? I was a tiny bit proud of us for that. <br /><br />Vigelandparken is an incredible and overwhelming thing. It's a huge park with sidewalks spoking out from a central "monolith" sculpture zone and a whole mess more sculpture along the main axis from 6 o'clock to 12 o'clock, and another piece out at 3 o'clock. In the outer zone it's mostly bronze figures, and the inner zone is all granite figures. Wrought iron gates along the way also feature silhouettes of figures. All the figures are nude, male and female, every age from infant to geezer, always touching each other or interacting with each other somehow, many tangled together as if in ballet poses or love making or cuddling or comforting, occasionally in an unrealistic way, like the man with babies all around him, in his arms, flying out from him at various directions, one hovering in air above a foot that appears to be lifting it up from the ground the way a talented hackysack player might lift a grounded sack with his foot. There are some animals--dogs, wolves, bears I remember--and a few puzzlng ones with skeletons. The central "monolith" features a huge granite obelisk carved with a ginormous stack of entangled nude people. What these sculptures all have in common is that the figures are real-people looking, usually both muscular and hefty (no scrawny ones or fashion model or body builder magazine lean ones, even though most are clearly muscular and strong), and they're all nude. No matter what combination of ages and genders appear together and in what apparent situation or relationship, there is a joyful, connected, sexual energy in their interactions. It's not smutty or perverse, though--it's human and joyful and real. There are penises and breasts all over the place, and there is no way these would appear in a public park in the US, but it all comes across somehow as very wholesome and affirming. Somehow in making every set of figures overtly sexual he has deemphasized sexuality from the charged, controversial thing that it is (at least in contemporary American society) back to the natural, everyday, lifelong thing that we know it really is. It's fascinating, liberating, and comforting all at once. <br /><br />I promise to add some photos to illustrate these points when we get back home and I have a little more time. <br /><br />We then walked over to the Vigelandmuseum, which is a massive building the city of Oslo <i>gave him</i> to live and work in for the rest of his career, in exchange for his current and all future work belonging to the city, most in the massive sculpture park. Stroke of civic genius! The building is now a museum displaying more sculpture, clay models, sketches, tools, displays explaining how he worked and how models were converted to granite sculptures by teams of stone carvers, and so on. Even the smaller-scale models are mammoth and imposing. Even knowing he had an at times huge crew, it boggles the mind to imagine how one man created so much, let alone such creative, beautiful, thought-provoking, and technically impressive stuff. <br /><br />From there we caught the #30 bus back down to Olav Kyrres plasse, changed to the #20, and rode down to the Norge folkmuseum in Bygdøy. We arrived at 2:45 and were informed the indoor attractions all closed at 3, but we were welcome to walk around outside until 6pm. We hurried, therefore, to the main attractions--a stave kirke from the 1200s and a farm village from following centuries called Setesdahl. We arrived at the stavekirke in time to hear a lengthy description and explanation along with a group on a guided tour. Stavekirker are built on huge posts (staves) at four corners and more huge posts at corners of an exterior wall. The weight of the elaborate roof of many slopes is carried on the interior staves and also transferred diagonally down to the exterior staves much like flying buttresses, except that the exterior staves are also surrounded by walls, creating a covered pathway all around the church that is in between outside and inside. I found a book in the gift shop that had many explanations for this, including: it made a place for people to wait for services to begin, for the unbaptized to be near but not in the church, for the observant to "walk circles" around the church, which apparently was an early ages ritual to mark importance and ownership, and so on. Interestingly, many of the farm houses also had this same basic architecture (though much simpler, of course) including the exterior surrounding compartment. I'm assuming this was used for many of the same purposes and perhaps also for livestock, but I'll need to research that. <br /><br />Finally we walked a few blocks to the Vikingskipsmuseum, which houses four big Viking ships and numerous smaller boats and artifacts. They were huge. One thing that impressed both of us is how much extra effort they put into carving elaborate, beautiful decorations on their boats, their furniture, even their barns. Is this the product of a long winter? A society so prosperous that it has excess time on its hands? A slave economy? Superstitions? Praise? Probably a bunch of all of the above. <br /><br />Meanwhile, we'd texted Dan to let him know we'd arrived there, and he texted back that he'd be there in half an hour. We'd arrived 15 minutes before closing, so we had close to 15 minutes standing in the parking lot freezing to death, but we were rewarded with a ride back to our hotel in a nice warm car instead of numerous changes of bus and subway. We got to experience a little slice of normal life in Oslo sitting in mild rush-hour traffic, too. It wasn't too bad, but you could definitely see how it could get bad and be frustrating without too much more traffic. <br /><br />After dropping our stuff and the new leadpipe in the hotel and having a glass (okay, plastic cup) of wine, we set off on foot for dinner. We looked for an Italian restaurant we'd found on Google maps (neither of us were in the mood for julebord menyen) but couldn't find it. After a long circular route we ended up back at an Ethiopian place near the hotel. We had a delicious but shockingly expensive meal of kitfo lebleb and doro tibs. I also had a beer, and I think our tab was around $75. Prices like these are pretty much how it goes, though--we have yet to find a cheap meal in Norway. <br /><br />Back at the hotel, we both fell asleep within half an hour. This time Mom slept soundly most of the night, but I woke up around 2 and stayed awake until about 6, then finally fell asleep in time to be groggy for breakfast. I spent most of the time tapping away at the computer, chatting about the home fires with Victoria, chatting about art criticism with Meg in Massachusetts, reading lots of newspapers, answering a bunch of email, and so on. <br /><br />Our adventure continues in the next installment, which shall discuss "Norway in a Nutshell," our scenic trip by train, train, boat, bus, and train to Bergen by way of Flåm, Gudvangen, and Voss.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6910345.post-1922381237608769152008-12-02T23:26:00.000-08:002010-07-02T15:14:07.844-07:00Oslo and the collective unconsciousIt's Wednesday morning here. <br /><br />Mom and I both slept abysmally Monday night, though Mom better than I did. I think I got maybe 5 hours total. We both gave up around 1:30am and had a wine break, and then Mom got back to sleep by 2:30ish and slept most of the rest of the night. I slept maybe an hour, then woke up again and read news on my iPhone most of the rest of the night. I finally fell back asleep around 6am and was extremely groggy when Mom got me up at 9am. <br /><br />We had a pretty good breakfast in the hotel (Hotel Anker, a short walk north of Oslo Sentralstasjon on Storgata). I needed a better strategy, though. I started at one end of the buffet and took small amounts of everything that looked good, and when my plate was full, I discovered stuff that looked even better. Net result was a huge breakfast. Lousy coffee, as you might expect, but a wonderful selection of sliced meats and cheeses, whole grain breads, knikkebrøder, gjetost, syltetøy (the latter I feel obligated to eat in honor of our Siamese kitties of the same names), soft- and hard-boiled eggs, herring (nei, takk!), and so on. Mediocre machine jus (eple, lemon, orange--anyone need translation?). Lots of milk and that yogurty-liquid stuff that I haven't yet worked up the courage to try. Decent tea bag selection. <br /><br />And then I discovered the hot food! They had roasted potatoes (not hot, unfortunately), several kinds of pølse (little hot-doggy-looking sausages conveniently chopped into beanie-weanie-sized bites), and a very funky looking thing that I have yet to figure out. It looked like a small, fat pancake, but the texture was chewy and the flavor was decidedly savory. If I were in Japan, I'd have decided it was a fish cake, but it didn't taste fishy. I wonder if it's some kind of potato sausage? It was good, whatever it was. Today I'll start in this part of the line. <br /><br />Since I clearly had too much food, I decided to do a frugal traveler move and assemble a little smørbrod (literally means "buttered bread" but practically speaking it's the national lunsj, an open-faced sandwich of whatever you like on buttered bread) for lunsj on the go. Mom decided that was a good idea and followed suit. <br /><br />(If anyone's curious about my horrible spelling, I'm taking up Nikki's challenge to keep mixing up my languages and throwing in lots of Norwegian words as I go.)<br /><br />We finally set off on foot for Sentralstasjon to pick up our "Norway in a Nutshell" tickets for later in the week, and then to the tourist information desk to pick up our Oslokorter (Oslo cards), which get us transportation and admission to just about everything for two days at a reasonable price. It was probably 11:30 by the time we had all that sorted, and then we continued on foot down Karl Johann's Gate for a walking tour of the central Oslo shopping district. We passed by the cathedral dome, enshrouded in plastic (or fish skin? see below) and closed for extensive renovations, alas, but Mom spotted a fun photo op: a neon sign in the building next door reading, "Cathedral restaurant bar" and proving for any who still doubted that lutefisk Lutheranism is a much happier version of Christianity than some. <br /><br />After taking a few pictures of the royal palace, we turned north and walked to the Cultural History Museum. We decided only to look at the Norway-specific exhibits, one on early to Viking times, and another on polar life. Both were fascinating. Lots of the usual archaeological treasures, of course, but with some fun discoveries. I particularly enjoyed seeing the little metal critter in the shape of a moose and pointed out to Mom, "Look, they even had a travel mus!" in reference to a quip of Jane's years back about a tiny stuffed moose we saw in a gift shop being a convenient travel-sized moose. We had a good chuckle about that and then read the description--this was a weight! Commerce was so important to them that not only did they have all kinds of balance scales and weights and measures, they even took the time to make their weights into fun moose shapes! Gotta love those Vikings. <br /><br />A little further on we saw displays of Viking-era jewelry (that would be "jewellery" på norsk), and although they were clearly early, primitive pieces (we're talking bronze and iron ages, after all), we both thought some of the items were surprisingly attractive. Mom and I talked about how maybe Carl Jung was onto something with his idea of the collective unconscious, because we both found these works to be viscerally appealing. (We're Norwegian-German, in case you're confused.) You wouldn't think much of that, necessarily, except that we've recently seen much fancier stuff from earlier periods in China, Korea, Japan, and Afghanistan--on Saturday we went to the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco--and although lots of it was undeniably pretty and much fancier, more elaborate, and technically advanced than the Viking stuff, we both liked the Viking stuff a lot better. Go figure. <br /><br />In the Arctic/Antarctic exhibition, we saw still more cool stuff including an early raincoat stitched together from a bazillion panels of what we later learned was fish skin--translucent and strangely modern-looking--and we both particularly liked the Sami clothing and preprosterously fancy hats. We wondered what purpose such elaborate hats served, and I suggested that perhaps they were inspired by their reindeer-friends' antlers. A taxidermified reindeer in the exhibit was indeed quite cute, and shorter than we expected--kind of large dog-sized--but pictures showed larger ones, too. <br /><br />I admired the early kayaks, very little changed from the one I use today except for the materials and colors. <br /><br />We then walked around the block to the Nasjionalgalleriet (sp?), another free museum with some really nice paintings. Gee, there's an impressive bit of art criticism for you! Once again I pondered my "collective unconscious" notion, because numerous painters of similar era and technique to more famous ones captured my fancy more--e.g. the JMWHMSPinafore Turner guy whose gloomy landscapes fill the Tate Britain in London leave me completely cold, but a Norwegian dude who was clearly his contemporary did technically similar paintings that I just liked a whole lot more. Mom agrees. <br /><br />Of course, Munch's paintings are the main reason to visit the Nasjionalgalleriet, and they didn't disappoint me even on second viewing (I saw them when I was here in 1998). There's something about his stuff that just speaks to me, I guess. Mom liked them, too, but commented that she couldn't see hanging them on her walls where she had to look at them every day--she's not into people paintings as much as scenery. Her remark made me realize that a huge share of the paintings we were seeing in the gallery (not just the Munch room) had people in them--even the landscapes. Mom says those are appealing, though, because they're not about the people so much as the situation. I kind of agree with her when it comes to portraits--unless there's something about portraits that give me a glimpse of daily life ("oh, so that's what it looked like inside their houses!" and so on), I move quickly. <br /><br />From there we walked toward Akerbrygge while eating our purloined smørbroder, stopping along the way to check out Heimen Husflid in the Hotel Bondeheimen on a tip from Ruth. Good tip! Lots of gorgeous sweaters and all kinds of other stuff. I drooled over some thick felt slippers and some elk-hide-and-mystery-fur slippers, but they started around $100/pair, so I decided I could survive without them. We found quite a few gorgeous sweaters, but none in the needed sizes. A few blocks further on, though, we popped into UniQue, another sweater-heavy joint, and parted with a bunch of our money. By this time it was getting darned cold out, so we both got hats to match our sweaters, and within half an hour, we were both wearing our new hats. I think today I'll probably be wearing my new sweater, too, because although it's only 32ish out, it's COLD and snowing, and I've gotten wimpy after 14 years in California. <br /><br />We tried to check out the Norge Hjemmefrontmuseum (Norwegian resistance museum), but it had closed at 4 and it was now almost 5, so we strolled around a bit of the Akerhus Festning (fortress), but it was quite dark by now (only 4:30pm) and the wet and sometimes icy cobbles seemed a bit treacherous, so we cut that short and proceeded on our way toward Akerbrygge. There was a big village of tents selling Christmas stuff, so we walked through and poked into a few tents. <br /><br />Then we continued to Akerbrygge and decided fairly quickly that it was time for warm indoors and dinner. We settled on Albertine Cafe, where we shared half a liter of Barbera, Mom got a red wine-braised lammeskank with potato puree and lemon-thyme saus, and I had a venison stew (hjortegryte! what a great name!) also red-wined braised on potato puree with loganberries. Yum! A basket of yummy ciabatta-like olive bread further tempted us from our supposedly gluten-free diets. Yeah, right--not here!<br /><br />After nearly falling asleep in our plates, we decided to hike back to the hotel, taking a slightly different route through the town center, and by 8:30 we were both falling asleep over our books. I slept solidly until about 3, when I gave up and poured some juleøl and resumed my book. Mom had been mostly awake since about 1, so she also gave up, got up, poured some wine and resumed her reading. We were up for an or so and then both went back to sleep. I slept pretty well until the phone vibrated around 5, and then I was up for good. Mom says she slept fitfully, but I know she got a lot more sleep than I did after our reading break. <br /><br />It's 9:15 now, and we're both showered and dressed, so we're going to head down to frøkost and try to improve our strategy from yesterday.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6910345.post-87570556632407726802008-12-01T10:53:00.000-08:002008-12-01T11:33:40.926-08:00Breakfast in SFO, dinner and breakfast on LH, lunch in FRA, dinner in OSLMom and I flew to Oslo yesterday and today, hence the complicated meal plan. Our flight took off early Sunday afternoon from SFO, where we killed time with brunch at Andale--Mom had yummy chili verde and I had a pretty good burrito carne asada. <br /><br />We flew Lufthansa to Frankfurt, and I am trying to figure out how it is that American airlines are all going bankrupt and can't afford to give us meals or drinks, but Lufthansa can provide two decent hot meals and lots of wine and booze on basically the same ticket pricing structure. Dinner was pretty decent--I had pasta with mushrooms and marinara, and Mom had some kind of chicken rice dish. We both got edible rolls, okay salad with good dressing, and a tiny triangle of chocolate cake with whipped cream and a strawberry. There were good Ritter chocolates available in the galley overnight when I went up to get us drinks. For breakfast we had another good roll, an omelet that wasn't great (when are eggs ever good in an airplane?) but was at least a lot better than some of the eggs I've had in United Business lately, and fruit salad just like every other airplane fruit salad: red grapes and pieces of underripe melon; oh, well. But still--two hot meals and plenty of free alcohol, on a route that United would have given us one hot meal, one disgusting breakfast snack, and drinks for $5. <br /><br />We had lunch in the Senator Lounge at Frankfurt airport, which has a pretty nice buffet, including Frankfurters, chicken meatballs and Shanghai noodles, a funky tuna salad, some beautiful Christmas breads that I didn't try, some serviceable minestrone (perfectly good but not a knockout like some German airport lounge soups I've had), olives, After lunch I enjoyed a campari-gin-bitter lemon and some Jelly Bellies. I wish we could buy bitter lemon in the States. Maybe I can figure out how to make it, now that I've got a CO2 tank and am not afraid to use it. <br /><br />The unhappy part of our stay in Frankfurt was that my new AT&T mobile account didn't seem to include international roaming after all--the guy I talked to when I switched said I was all set, but that turned out not to be the case. This wouldn't be that big a deal, except that I needed to check my email and voicemail right away to find out whether I had an appointment with a natural horn or not. It turns out I didn't. But what I had to go through to get AT&T to fix things is absurd. Since my phone didn't work, I couldn't use it to call them. I can't remember the last time I saw a pay phone anywhere, so that meant I had to buy an hour of wifi and $10 of Skype credit so that I could use Skype and wifi to phone home, whereupon I reached an agent who said I'd have to call back after 7am Eastern when a certain department opened up--which was when we were boarding our flight to Oslo. In the end I couldn't get it all straightened out until we got to the hotel, where I connected on the free wifi and again used Skype to call AT&T. Naturally just as we were getting things working, the call dropped and I had to call in AGAIN and finally got things working--and got the news that it's $1.29 a minute for anything, including receiving but not answering calls, receiving voicemails, or actually receiving or placing calls. It's highway robbery. Of course, when getting or missing a call means getting or missing a gig that pays $100ish or more, it's worth it, and calculations like that are why wireless companies get away with charging so darned much. Argh!<br /><br />Back to food, it was a good thing we ate in the airport, because SAS charged for <i>everything</i> on the connection to Oslo, with prices starting around three euros for coffee or soda. We were happy to pass. <br /><br />We landed in Oslo at 3:45, collected our bags, got cash and airport express tickets, and were in downtown Oslo by 4:30. Our first order of business was to pick up our train tickets, which was only partially successful. Now that I've got email access again, though, I've got the various confirmation numbers I'll need to get the rest of them. After that we searched out a vinmonopolet (literally "wine monopoly"--other than weak beer, all alcohol in Norway is sold by the state) and picked up some provisions for our hotel room so that we'll be equipped to cope with any jet lag, and as I type this Mom and I are enjoying a lovely, fruity juleakevitt by Linie. Since we were tired and only vaguely hungry, we ate supper in "Erwin's spiseri" right in the same food court.<br /><br />So for our first Norwegian meal, Mom had "husets kremefisksuppe" or the house special cream fish soup, which we both thought was quite yummy. I had the "julelunsj tallerken" or "Christmas lunch plate" (I think) of gravet laks and sweet mustard sauce (yum), pickled herring (ick), a slice of ham, a slice of brie, a pile of the most iodine-y bay shrimp I've had in a long time, bread and butter, and a mound of--of all things--Waldorf salad. The Waldorf salad was good but I think it's the first time I've had Waldorf salad since I was in the hospital with pneumonia during second grade. Somehow I remember eating a lot of Waldorf salad in that hospital, and for me it's a dish lost to time. It's kind of a perfect Norwegian salad, though--white, bland, sweet, and everything from a can. "Except the apples," Mom pointed out, but I can't say that I found any apples in there. I washed it all down with a pretty good juleøl (dark Christmas ale) by Ringnes. <br /><br />After dinner, we walked the rest of the way to our hotel, which isn't fancy but seems decent enough and has free wifi. <br /><br />In electronics sadness, somehow I managed to erase everything from my iPod before we left, so I couldn't do language immersion learning by zoning out to Norwegian podcasts during the long flights as I'd hoped. Not exactly tragic, but how on earth did I do that, and how will I make sure I never do that again? Fortunately we had decent movies on the long flight: "Happy Go Lucky," a diverting but pointless Mike Leigh film (someone please enlighten me if there was a plot) and "Nanny Diaries," which wasn't as good as the book but was entertaining enough. <br /><br />I'm still a little stuck on the Sunday NYT crossword but I'm not ready to give up and seek help from Rex Parker's blog yet.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6910345.post-41828866712340130612008-11-13T15:21:00.000-08:002008-11-13T15:37:27.526-08:00Nano-opera: Boris Godunov16th century Tsar Boris proves he is Russian by wallowing in guilt for three hours until finally dying of guilt. Librettist proves he is Russian by giving long list of characters long names but very little to do. Composer proves he is Russian by giving long list of instruments very little to do but sound colorful.<br /><br />But who cares about any of this when Samuel Ramey is singing?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6910345.post-10853751657390084572008-09-18T18:41:00.001-07:002008-09-18T18:43:25.334-07:00A military perspective on Obama vs. McCain - the MAJORITY perspectiveHere's an email I got from a friend of mine, whose husband is in the Air Force. I think it's worth reading.<br /><br />Dear family and friends,<br /><blockquote>TO ME THIS ELECTION IS A LIFE OR DEATH ISSUE (no exaggeration).<br /><br />Most of the public is completely disconnected from the wars on a personal level (which was my life before) so I want to try to personalize it for you:<br />My husband is in the Air Force and I have had the humble (& challenging) privilege of learning about the military world for almost 10 years now. I have seen first hand, the toll that this war has taken on countless families. When our daughter was a baby I took her to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in DC for checkups, where I saw soldiers with limbs and/or parts of their head missing from combat. When our close friends are in war zones, I pray for their safe return. My heart hurts when I see children suffering due to an absent parent (for 15 months!!) and spouses struggling to keep their families together. Due to frequent moves, we typically do not have the luxury of living near family and close friends, so we often bear the burdens on our own. Military members and spouses are some of the STRONGEST, most HONORABLE and IMPRESSIVE people I have ever met.<br /><br />Regardless of your position on the war(s), if you appreciate the sacrifices that our MILITARY (over 4,000 dead, many with serious lifelong physical and mental issues, increased numbers of suicide) and their families are making to serve our country, I BEG you to THINK about THIS COMPELLING FACT (from the NON-partisan Center for Responsive Politics), and PLEASE pass the info along to as many people as possible:<br /><br />DEPLOYED TROOPS ARE CONTRIBUTING TO OBAMA 6:1 OVER MCCAIN.<br /><br />To me, this says everything. If so many of the troops don't want McCain as their Commander in Chief (and Veterans groups support OBAMA far more than McCain), THE PUBLIC REALLY NEEDS TO TAKE NOTICE (particularly because this is supposed to be McCain's strength).<br /><br />I have joined a group called Blue Star Families for Obama (www.bsf4o.com). We are military families who are PRO-MILITARY and PRO OBAMA, and we are working hard to get the word out that many military families want Barack Obama to be our next President.<br /><br />The deadline to register to vote is rapidly coming up (especially for people serving overseas) - please see voter registration info below. PLEASE participate in this historic election.<br /><br />With love, ACTION and FAITH in our goodness,<br />Kimberley Taylor-Beer<br /></blockquote><blockquote>-----<br /><br />Kimberley -<br /><br />Registration deadlines are coming up soon. Tell your friends, family, and neighbors to check out our new one-stop voter registration website.<br /><br />Just forward this message.<br /><br />VoteforChange.com makes it easier than ever to register. Instead of tracking down the right forms, all you need to do is answer a few basic questions and you'll be ready to vote. You can also:<br /><br />Confirm your existing registration<br />Apply to vote absentee<br />Find your polling place<br />If you don't know your own registration status or you'd like to learn more, take a minute to visit the site right now.<br /><br />This race is too close and too important to stay home on Election Day.<br /><br />It's people just like you who will transform this nation.<br /><br />Thanks,<br /><br />Barack<br /><br /></blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6910345.post-90273864495977069672008-09-10T11:15:00.000-07:002008-09-10T11:19:17.329-07:00On Sarah PalinAll this excitement about Sarah Palin is bizarre. Sure, she's funny and pretty, but her opinions about and track record on governance are scary! How is a funny, pretty scary politician any better than an ugly, boring scary politician?<div><br /></div><div>My friend Alicia has taken to calling her "Caribou Barbie."</div><div><br /></div><div>I think Hillary Clinton got it right: </div><div><blockquote>I don't think [Palin is] what this election is about. Anybody who believes that the Republicans, whoever they are, can fix the mess they created probably believes that the iceberg could have saved the Titanic.</blockquote><blockquote><br /></blockquote></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6910345.post-48933164155552607802008-02-20T16:39:00.000-08:002008-02-20T16:59:48.303-08:00Nano-balletRecently we attended the San Francisco Ballet's Program 2, which opened with Mozart's "Divertimento 15" and choreography by Balanchine, continued with Mark Morris' "Drink to me only with thine eyes" on piano etudes by Virgil Thomson, and closed with Stravinsky's "Firebird" and the original Diaghilev choreography by Possokhov.<br /><br />I'm not a dancer, I'm a musician, and my reaction to the program can be summed up as briefly as: "I'm a hopeless modernist."<br /><br />The Mozart was performed well and the dancing was lovely, but all I got out of it was, "Oh, look at the pretty dancers. Oh, hear the pretty music. They make it look and sound so pretty and easy. Ho-hum. Zzzzzz." Honestly, I think I would have gotten more out of the music if the dancers hadn't been there doing their repetitive arm-y fluff-y things every beat. They made pretty shapes, sure, they looked graceful, and for the first movement, it was all very pretty. After that I was bored silly. My dancer mate Victoria loved it. (I've lived with ballet dancers. I've roomed with them at summer camps. I've learned all about toe-tape and how broken dancers are from all the crazy stuff that they have to make look easy and natural. I have tremendous respect for the accomplishment of it all, and then I'm bored.)<br /><br />I loved the Morris/Thomson. The visuals perfectly matched the music and added to it. The dancers embodied what I hear in the music, carving melodies with arms, tracing harmony in the space. Not only did it all match what I as a musician-geek hear in the music, it also created a complementary new, spatial dimension that was <i>right</i> and appealing, making the music fresh. This is pretty much always my response to Mark Morris's work, and it's a sharp contrast to the Balanchine, where I think I'm probably seeing ballet the way amateurs hear music: the way I used to hear music before I had all this music education: "oh, look at/listen to the pretty dancing/music!"<br /><br />And then came the Stravinsky/Possokhov! It suddenly hit me what the problem is--I'm a modernist!<br />The classical Balanchine stuff bored me silly, the newest stuff was fascinating, and the big shocker from about a hundred years ago seemed perfectly natural to me. Instead of being tempted to riot, as Stravinsky's first audiences apparently did, I felt at ease watching the narrative play out. I got it in both large and tiny strokes, from the blocking to the fingers fluttering and the flirty eyelashes. I still saw plenty of tutu-arm-fluffy stuff, but with a backdrop of evocative music that keeps spinning out at least an abstraction of a story. And for this musician, finally seeing the ballet was a revelation. I noticed lots of music that didn't make it into the Firebird Suites we always play in orchestral concert presentations, and I've decided that's just as well, but I also noticed many passages where familiar music made sense for the first time, seen in its narrative context.<br /><br />I was puzzled by some details. I'm not sure where the schoolgirl picnic fits into the story. I'm not sure why the one character had a train of chiffon coming out her ass; it reminded me of when our black lab eats too much grass and then has the so-called "Klingon effect" when she poops.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2