Tuesday, November 25, 2003

 
LAST WEEKEND.
External link: http://www.ucbtheater.com/

Friday, I went out with Jessica D. and Christopher B. for a drink and some Mexican food on the Lower East Side. It was fun until somebody drank too much.

Saturday, I had Sushi with Debbie W. We walked around the city and looked at some holiday decorations. Then we watched some TV. I made her watch last week's South Park, where they made fun of the Mormon religion. It was so offensively funny.

Sunday, I had brunch with Lauren P. and saw ASSSSCAT at the UCB Theater with Manny F. and Mai.

This is The Official Record. 12:20 AM
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2003/11/last-weekend.html


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Monday, November 17, 2003

 
LAST WEEKEND.
External link:

Thursday, I saw Automatic Vaudeville at the Ars Nova Theater with Joclyn G.

Friday, I had dinner at Supper and saw Martin and Orloff with Manny F. and May (sp?).

Saturday, I had brunch in Brooklyn with Joclyn G. and went to the New York Transit Museum. Then we came back to Manhattan and had dinner and an Indian restaurant, and watched ER on Tivo.

Sunday, I had brunch at Copeland's in Harlem with Steve K. Then, we walked around and had coffee at Cafe Mozart. Then I went to bed early for Jury duty on Monday.

This is The Official Record. 9:18 PM
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2003/11/last-weekend_17.html


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Friday, November 14, 2003

 
THIS ROCKS.
External link: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000C9ZEY/ref=pm_dp_ln_m_2/002-1199562-4145621?v=glance&s=music&vi=samples

Like many of you, I heard the hit song "So Damn Lucky" by the Dave Matthews Band for the first time on last weekend's Saturday Night Live. It's the first song I've really liked in at least six months, and it completely blew me away. The melody is haunting and sweet, but the lyrics are incredibly vicious and dark, all taking place in the split second after the singer has lost control of his car, and is about to be in a horrible, horrible car accident. Take a look at the lyrics here, but it's just not the same without the music. In over a year of existence, The Official Record has never recommended a single piece of music. I very strongly recommend this one. Here's a link to a too-brief sample from Amazon.com.

This is The Official Record. 2:48 AM
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2003/11/this-rocks.html


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Wednesday, November 12, 2003

 
TWO OF A KIND.
External link: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/11/international/asia/11VIET.html

I read this article in the New York times yesterday, which stated that Defense Secretary Rumsfeld met with "his Vietnamese counterpart, Pham Van Tra."

And my first thought was, Do I have a Vietnamese counterpart?

This is The Official Record. 7:23 PM
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2003/11/two-of-kind.html


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Tuesday, November 11, 2003

 
BUILD A BETTER BLOG.
External link: http://www.enetation.co.uk/

I use Blogger and I use enetation.co.uk for my commenting. When I get my email notification of a comment, it tells me the item number for the article that the comment is for, but that was not very helpful in finding the article, especially if it was very old. But I've started including the full link to each article after that article in my blog. See down below after this one (and every one) where it says "External link:". Now, when I get a comment notification, I put the item number (e.g., 106856521028138808 for this article) and "official record" in a google search, and google brings up the page where the article appears. I go to that page and do a control-F search for the number, and I'm there. I don't know how I would deal with this otherwise.

Another nice thing about this is that you and others can copy the link to the item without having to click on it.

Here's the code to add to Blogger to add this feature. Make sure it appears between the tags:

<b>External link:</b> <BlogItemURL><a href="<$BlogItemURL$>"><$BlogItemURL$></a></BlogItemURL>

This is The Official Record. 10:40 AM
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2003/11/build-better-blog.html


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Saturday, November 08, 2003

 
THE TWO MILLION DOLLAR MEN.
External link: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/08/business/08ECON.html

Everybody is making such a fuss over the new report of 126,000 new jobs created in the last quarter. They should, but not for the reason they have been.

When Bush proposed his 250 billion dollar tax cut for the wealthy, he promised it would create one million jobs. In fact, even with these new jobs, the total number of jobs has fallen substantially since those tax cuts were enacted. But let's even put that aside, for the moment, and (ridiculously) give the tax cuts full credit for all 126,000 jobs, without charging it for the net loss in jobs, nor the fact that even this growth is less than it was when Bush took office.

So, even if Bush's tax cut got 126,000 NET new jobs (which it didn't), that still would be almost two million dollars per new job. Is that a good deal? Just putting two million dollars in the bank at 5% interest gets you a hundred thousand dollars a year, even after you retire, and even after you die. Instead, these people are working for a year, and only getting, say, twenty, thirty, forty thousand dollars. Maybe a few of those new jobs will get up to over a hundred thousand dollars eventually, but I think it's safe to say that most of them will stay at $50,000 or below.

And I know, I know, we didn't just throw the 250 billion dollars away. The rich people have that money, and these people have these jobs, too. But the rich have gotten this gift from the Bush administration at your expense. That's money that you now owe some big corporation or foreign government, because the treasury borrowed it in your name, instead of collecting it in taxes. The average family's share of the Federal debt is now over seventy thousand dollars, and it's getting worse. And for what? A net loss of jobs, that includes one quarter of anemic growth.

This is The Official Record. 11:26 AM
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2003/11/two-million-dollar-men.html


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MOVIE REVIEW: THE MATRIX: REVOLUTIONS (2003) * * * (3 stars out of 4).
External link: http://whatisthematrix.warnerbros.com/

The third Matrix movie is better than the second one. Of course, like almost every movie ever made, it's not as good as the original Matrix movie. As action movies go, it's better than most. It did feel a little long, especially at the beginning. I find that almost every movie, except the truly great ones (e.g., Star Wars, the Godfather, The Matrix), could be improved if they were 20 minutes shorter.

This is The Official Record. 10:52 AM
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2003/11/movie-review-matrix-revolutions-2003-3.html


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THEATER REVIEW: THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE (2001) * * 1/2 (2 and a half stars out of 4).
External link: http://www.modernmillie.com/home.htm

I enjoyed this show and it really reminded me of the Broadway shows I saw as a kid, before the dark, haunting tragedy of Les Miserables transformed everybody's expectations about what a musical was supposed to be, more than fifteen years ago, in 1987. Thoroughly Modern Millie was both refreshingly and disappointingly straightforward, lacking any of the clever, dark twists that dominate so many new musicals. It's definitely "big budget," but they don't just throw mindless amounts of money at the sets like so many new shows do. It's cute, but not often laugh-out-loud funny. And do people still like to watch tap dancing? That's surely a dying art form, you may want to catch here while you can if it's up your alley.

It was enjoyable, but I expected more from a Tony award winner for Best Musical-- a category that has brought to our collective attention, such plays as Les Miserables, The Phantom of the Opera, Rent, The Lion King, The Producers, and Hairspray. It was a really nice fun time at the theater, but there was nothing very new or breakthrough or very original or very memorable about it. I don't get how it beat Urinetown for the Tony.

This is The Official Record. 10:40 AM
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2003/11/theater-review-thoroughly-modern.html


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Wednesday, November 05, 2003

 
BAD COMMERCIALISM.
External link:

There is this new Sony Handycam that records directly onto DVD's, and on the commercial, they show a little girl and her family watching an embarrassing video she shot of her brother telling his girlfriend how much she means to him. And I'm sure we've all seen those commercials for those camera phones, where someone transmits an embarrassing picture of the recipient's boyfriend making a mess of himself at a diner. And you've probably seen the one showing the recipient's toothbrush being used for something disgusting before the recipient brushed his teeth with it.

So, what's going on? Are there so few practical things that you can do with these devices, that all they can think of as a demonstration is to show people humiliating each other? And the truth is, I really can't think of too many situations where I would need a camera on my phone, unless I was a spy. What do people do with these things?

This is The Official Record. 11:20 AM
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2003/11/bad-commercialism.html


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Tuesday, November 04, 2003

 
LAST WEEKEND.
External link: http://www.ingnycmarathon.org/

On Thursday, David D. came up from D.C. for the weekend to stay with me and run the NYC marathon. He got in late, so we just split a couple beers at my place.

Friday was Halloween. I dressed as an hasidic Jew. This outfit consisted of a white, button-down shirt, black slacks, black shoes, a black overcoat, a flat-brimmed black hat, and some long black curls attached to the hat. I watched the Village Halloween parade. Manny F. and his new girlfriend marched in the parade, and when they got up to where I was, I snuck under the barricade and marched with them to the end. Then we had dinner, and then hooked up with David D. and his girlfriend Stephanie T. and some friends of Stephanie's for drinks.

Saturday, I met David D.'s family. He went to U. Michigan, and so did my brother, so we had brunch at a place where we could watch the Michigan vs. Michigan State game. Then we saw the El Greco exhibit at the Met, and called it an early night, since the marathon was the next day.

Sunday, I walked the last twelve miles of the New York City marathon, from where it enters Manhattan until the end. This was the fourth time I've done that in five years (I was out of the country last year). It was much easier than it had been in the past. It's the first time I've done it while I've been exercising regularly.

This is The Official Record. 5:33 PM
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2003/11/last-weekend_04.html


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BOOK REVIEW: BUSHWHACKED (2003) * * (2 stars out of 4).
External link: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index=books&field-titleid=1478056&ve-field=none/qid=/002-1199562-4145621

Look, I don't like George Bush any better than you do, but this book is too one-sided to really inform anyone or change anybody's mind. I don't disagree with her, but even I have to admit that there's another side of the story that she's leaving out. And I think the case against Bush is strong enough that you don't need to distort it like this in order to make that case.

This is The Official Record. 5:13 PM
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2003/11/book-review-bushwhacked-2003-2-stars.html


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MOVIE REVIEW: MYSTIC RIVER (2003) * * 1/2 (2 and a half stars out of 4).
External link: http://mysticrivermovie.warnerbros.com/index.php

I saw Mystic River at my brother's birthday party in Florida. It was okay, but really dragged in the middle, and it was way too long.

This is The Official Record. 5:04 PM
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2003/11/movie-review-mystic-river-2003-12-2.html


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FUN IN THE SUN.
External link:

I had a good time in Florida last week visiting my family. It was my brother's birthday, and his fiance made him a great party at a private room at the movie theater. It was great seeing my family and my Florida friends. I also had some great Cuban food while I was down there, and I went to a fun art fair.

This is The Official Record. 5:02 PM
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2003/11/fun-in-sun.html


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