December 2005 Archives

It's time for a bit of "The year in Review. This is some of the stuff I really enjoyed in 2005.

Music

This is the music from the soundtrack of my life last year.

• Bowling for Soup
• U2
• Thievery Corporation
• Death Cab for Cutie
• StoryHill
• Johnny Cash
• Halloween Alaska
• Coldfront-- OK, I didn't really listen to their music much but I saw them live three times, so I'll include them on the list.

Art

Seeing "The Gates" was an awesome experience. There is no art I've seen that measures up to the scale and power of this "exhibit".

Movies

These movies all hit home for one reason or another.

• Garden State
• Pieces of April
• Lost in Translation
• Riding Giants
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
• Hero

Books

Favorite books of last year.

• Because of Winn Dixie
• Fear and Lothing in Las Vegas
• The Shipping News
• Choke
• Fight Club
• The Things They Carried

Have a safe New Year celebration. See you next year!

Traveling Mercies : Some Thoughts on Faith

by Anne Lamott

I kept running into people had had read "Traveling Mercies" by Anne Lamont, so while making an Amazon Christmas order for others I snuck in the book for myself.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It's a loose collection of personal essays sprinkled with both humour and sadness, revolving around her personal faith. It's not what I would call a traditional approach to faith and it's not, how shall I say it, "the Fox News approach to faith^TM".

My favorite quote from the book is this one.

That quote sums up the last year very nicely.

I loved Lamott's complete unapologetic honesty and her way of describing herself.

It's time for the link round up.

The student who claimed that he was picked up the Dep't of Homeland cops for checking out Chairman's Mao's Little Red Book was a hoax. Yeah, that story smelled bad the first time I read it. It makes the newspapers assertion that the wikipedia can't be trusted a little more amusing. Sorry Big Media there are falsehoods everywhere, at least with wikipedia anyone can fix the problem, not just the folks writing for the paper.

I love this skull hoodie for sale on ebay. Same for this skull and scissors shirt courtesy of Amy.

Speaking of King Kong, Slate blathered recently about hollywood remaking movies". I wish they would take some chances on some original movies.

Check out the Reuters year in Pictures 2005. Here is to hoping (but probably not believing) that 2006 has a lot less death and destruction pictured.

I have no idea why underwater babies are a little hypnotic -- but they are.

Sarah pointed to a wonderful note from a Presbyterian pastor about the bit about whether churches should have service on Sunday when it falls on Christmas Day.

I keep checking this web page, showing "6000 intriguing people you want to meet online before you die" but I haven't shown up yet.

I've always wanted a simple tutorial on Elvish script -- now I've got it.

Some books have left an indelible mark on my life. The ones that come to mind are "The Chronicles of Narnia" by C.S. Lewis, "The Lord of the Rings" by J.R.R. Tolkien, "The Hitchhikers Guide" by Douglas Adams, "Lamb" by Christopher Moore, "City Boy" by Herman Wouk, "Little House on the Prairie" by Laura Ingalls Wilder & "A Prayer For Owen Meany" by John Irving.

I think I was in fourth grade (or was it fifth) when I was introduced to Narnia. My parents had stopped to visit family friends near Oshkosh, Wisconsin. We left their house to head home to Milwaukee but it was snowing too hard. We turned back and our friends let us stay the night. (These friends, though Christian, didn't believe in having Christmas symbols around their house. This didn't sit well with my parents who brought them a little live Norway pine complete with tiny ornaments. Seriously, why would my parents do that?) While sitting out the storm our friends introduced me to a slim book entitled, "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe." The magic and imagination of the story instantly got me -- I was at the perfect age to completely lose myself in this type of book. At the time I really wasn't thinking about books in terms of symbolism and allegory that would be drilled into my head much later by Mrs. Jones in High School. I knew the scene where Aslan dies and is resurrected was an awful lot like the crucifixion and resurrection story in the bible, but I didn't love the story because I knew it was a lot like "the story in the bible" but because it was a great story.

I tore through the rest of the books in the series as fast as I could get my parents to buy them. They weren't some sort of movie tie-in and they weren't nearly as popular as they are today, so it took some doing to find some of the books at the end of the series. I feel lucky to have been introduced to the books at that lovely inflection point before I grew up and started thinking about money and politics and ideas -- when playing hide and seek was still a good use of an afternoon.

So fast forward to this year -- Disney is making a movie. I'm irked right away since everything Disney touches turns to pot. In addition it comes out the Disney hires the same firm who created the buzz among evangelical Christians for the movie "Passion of the Christ". This kind of stuff makes me want to vomit in two regards. First of all you can't make the Chronicles of Narnia not be a story of redemption with strong parallels to the Christian faith tradition. As such, when someone wants to make money off of that story I feel nauseated. (Yes, I'm aware that churches are a funny kind of big business that also makes money. That fact makes me a little queasy too.) Secondly, I didn't want to see a story I love bastardized. I didn't want the Mr. & Mrs. Beaver of my imagination to be replaced by something less than what I pictured all those years. I didn't want the story in my mid ruined by Disney. I don't want to go into the store and see mugs with Aslan's face looking at me. I hate movie tie-in merchandise and it makes me want to vomit all the more when it's got spiritual overtones.

There might be some spoilers, so be cautioned if you keep reading.

It appears that Kirsten Dunst is parking her prius in a handicapped spot. She may have to be removed from the top ten list for this offense.

Hooray, the shortest day (and longest night) of the year has arrived. It's the winter solstice. While winter isn't over yet, at least we're going to be getting more daylight hours soon.

The Cider House Rules

by John Irving

I finally finished Cider House Rules by John Irving.

It wasn’t "A Prayer for Owen Meany", which is one of my all time favorite books, but it was very good. John Irving is a fabulous story teller, although sometimes I wish he would release his books as trilogies, since they tend to become slow in the middle. He does have a gift for making the most improbable story line seem completely believable.

I liked the main character, an orphan named Homer, a lot. For me, Homer turns into an everyman character as he lives out the longings for connections and family. I ended up identifying with him much more than I would have ever expected to.

I had lots of favored passages but I think my favorite bit was the benediction given to the children to signify that an orphan had been adopted. "Let us be happy for Fuzzy Stone," Dr. Larch said… "Fuzzy Stone has found a family … Good night, Fuzzy."

King Kong (Collector's Edition)

by Turner Home Ent

Since I signed up for netflix, I don't go out to the movie theater as much. Given my love of the original King Kong and the fact that I've been bogged down in the Civil War in my netflix queue, I had to get out and see Peter Jackson's "King Kong". 

Do not drink a big gulp soda before you go to this movie. With a running time for just over three hours you'll never make it to the end. It's a really long movie.

The movie has a lot of action once you make it through the first hour. At times I thought it was too much action -- I got tired of one chase scene after another. The pre-historic creatures of Skull Island looked derivative of Jurassic Park. I suppose big dinosaurs just don't thrill me the way they would have ten years ago. Seen one dinosaur, you've seen them all, yawn. Speaking of derivative, the natives of Skull Island seemed a little too much like the orcs from "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy.

I'm normally predisposed to like any movie with a reference to the Joseph Conrad's book "Heart of Darkness" -- but in this case I thought the reference to the book was obtrusive and a little heavy handed. I don't like the narrator's voice to be quite so evident. At the same time, if Mr. Jackson filmed a version of Heart of Darkness, I would be thrilled.

What did I like? I liked the 1930's New York that was portrayed in the movie, complete with the gritty shanty town in Central Park. I liked the producer in the movie, played by Jack Black. He seemed a little like the Peter Jackson I've seen in interviews. I have to imagine that there were aspects to the movie that must have been a little autobiographical for Mr. Jackson.

The movie was pretty good entertainment, and cheap by the minute. It didn't displace the 1933 Fay Wray version, but it's better than the 1970's version. It's a fine action flick, but just don't expect too much.

I haven't posted much lately. I think it has something to do with the days which have become far too short. Today sunset was at 4:32 P.M. -- way too early if you ask me. I might just start celebrating the Winter Solstice since I'm looking forward to longer days more than I am looking forward to presents under the tree.

I've been drinking way too much coffee lately, I'm quite sure that can't be improving my mood. If I start seeing anything like this latte art staring at me from my coffee cup I'm certain I'll immediately spill all over myself.

... and another thing, if I have to listen to any more debate about "Happy Holidays" versus "Merry Christmas", I'm going to tell them exactly where they can put their festivus pole.

I've got the bug to cook up holiday treats this year. I started by pestering some of my favorite cooks -- begging them for their favorite holiday cookie recipes.

Last night I made "booze balls." This is not a malady; they are a variation of rum balls made with bourbon. I have to say they were pretty good.  

On Sunday I made ginger cookies which also turned out pretty good. There was some discussion of whether they should have been softer or crisper but somehow they all vanished from the coffee nook at work.

I rarely use the shuffle feature of my iPod.

I hit the shuffle recently out of curiousity since I kept noticing people posting these little top five lists on their blog. Here is what I got.

• Steady As She Goes - Li'l Cap'n Travis
• Cibavit Eos Ex Adipe Furmenti - Benedictine Monks
• No Time This Time - The Police
• Speaking of Fueled - Michelle Malone
• One Week - Barenaked Ladies

It wasn't unlistenable, I guess ...

... but it wasn't nearly as good as my favorite playlist, "Not Recent, but Good". That playlist gives me  songs rated as 4 or 5 which haven't been played in the last 30 days. That playlist rocks everytime. 

Predictably, people are talking the "keep the Christ in Christmas talk" which is followed by Young Joel's annual "keep the Saturn in Saturnalia talk."

Ironically enough, some churches are cancelling their Sunday morning service because Sunday happens to inconveniently fall on Christmas Day. You can read an article on it in the NYTimes. (Sorry you'll have to register or something and this link will prolly only work for a week or so --talk to the NY Times about it.)

When Christmas Falls on Sunday, Megachurches Take the Day Off

You can add my church to the list. Good thing people are used to Easter falling on a Sunday.

Reminds me I haven't posted the link to the "Keep the Chan in Chanuka" t-shirt.

[Link Courtesy of The Revealer] 

Matthew's godmother, Colleen, invited us to brunch on the 4th followed by a play. The play was "A Winnie-the-Pooh Christmas Tail" staged at the Stages Theater in Hopkins. The kids loved the performance and sat completely still during the play. Brunch was of course amazing. Colleen put on a brunch that could have served as an audition for having her own show on HGTV while simultaneously helping the kids with a craft project.

Here are some random bits for your web surfing pleasure. 

Aras wrote up a nice bit on his recent jury experience.

Here are some instructions on "How To Make A Hip End of the Year 'Best Albums' List". Whenever I make up a list like that I worry, will my friends think I'm cool after they read this list? Did I have at least on obscure hipster title in the list? Then I remember, they already know the truth -- the indie movie or unknown cd in my list can't possibly begin to fix my image.

This guy, Harry Eng, put a lot of impossibly sized, weird stuff into bottles. 

Microsoft Research has been putting out some interesting software lately. Groupbar is pretty cool. It allows you to create these application groups you can save and then restore later. In the end I don't need yet another task bar. Snarf worked fine, but didn't answer all the questions I have about my email corpus. The thread view is pretty cool. I don't know why Outlook isn't as slick in that regard. I really want to try the virtual wi-fi software. I'll let you know how it goes.

Why do we rename really shabby streets after Martin Luther King? Here is a flickr pool of photos of different streets named after Dr. King. Here is a little more info about this project.

Worst analogies ever. 

Matthew read a book to me for the first time. He's read words here and there for some time, but this was the first book he's ever read cover to cover. I'm so proud I could burst my buttons.

Someone posted excerpts from a CIA Sabotage Manual on flickr -- "designed to destabilise the nicaraguan government and economic system."

tax, originally uploaded by Mickie Flick.

I was really fascinated & amused by this until I slowly realized that my kids actually have a play book for their household destructiveness. Until today I had always chalked the destruction at home to lack of impulse control and youthful exuberance.  Now I realize they are a tiny but determined insurgency bent on my eventual overthrow.

I recently ran into the lovely term, "Architecture Astronauts." Joel Spolsky recently mentioned this lovely  term recently in reference to the hype surroundin Web 2.0 and the long ago hype surrounding P2P . I've had similar feelings although I never had such a neat term for it. I first had this sensation when I ran into material where people think we should re-organize the web into neat little ontologically correct collections where you can reliably search for synonyms and always get the one you meant and not the other one.

I'm always relieved when I realize that working code always wins out over complex but architecturally correct diagrams.

I installed a new firewall at home this weekend.

I had been using Smoothwall. I liked it when I first installed it, since it was flexible, linux based, easy to administer and had regular updates. Lately, though it seemed a bit like abandon-ware with very few updates. I decided to switch to the forked version of the smoothwall project, ipcop, mainly since the security updates seem to be more frequent.

I like ipcop much better. The interface is much easier to navigate and it seems better maintained. If you have a always on internet connection and an old PC you aren't using you should try it.

You've seen me post about the freedom to travel before. Here is another case that deserves scrutiny, checkout Deborah Davis,  Want to Ride, Papers Please. I'm shocked that anyone in the situation described would ever challenge the official asking for ID since most people are obedient to authority figures.

There is another hearing in the Gilmore case coming up you might want to check out. In the notice for the court date is says, "Friends and supporters of John are welcome to attend this historic hearing, but are asked to please dress appropriately for court." I need to have more friends who would need this sort of advice. I hope this case goes all the way to the Supreme Court. I hate secret regulations.

[Link Courtesy of Dave's Picks] 

Stan Berenstain, co-author of the Bearenstain Bears died at age 82.

So long Papa Bear, may you find your rest & peace in the great tree house in the sky.

On my last trip to Wisconsin I spent some time listening to country music since the other radio stations weren't coming in as clearly. I don't listen to a lot of country music so I was surprised at how much fun it was to listen to. Consider the following example from the song "Honky Tonk Badkadonk" by Adkins Trace.

... Band shuts down at two
But we're hangin' out till three
We hate to see her go
But love to watch her leave ...

That is a fabulous piece of poetry. I can't say I understand the entire song properly, for instance the donkey kong reference flumoxes me, but that couplet I quote above is a work of art.

Even the song titles are priceless. I had never before heard the song, "Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off", by Nichol Joe. How can a song with that title not be great? I tell you these cowboy hat wearing poets are geniuses. Poetry is alive and well in America.

The Vatican is taking up the issue of limbo -- the place not the dance. I wonder what it's like to sit in on a meeting where you decide on a position that potentially affects the belief system of millions of people and will likely be in force for hundreds of years. Is it like everything else in life, where one person drones on and on until the rest throw in the towel? Is there a guy who wisecracks during the meeting?

If you aren't familiar with limbo, check out the limbo article in the Catholic Encyclopedia. Personally it seems like a made up concept, but most religious constructs appear that way to some degree.

Evidently there is some concern that the Bush administration is going to take on the entire galaxy. Seriously, I am not making this up -- I read it on the internet. For more background check out the following links.

• peaceinspace.net
• Yahoo: Former Canadian Minister Of Defence Asks Canadian Parliament Asked To Hold Hearings On Relations With Alien "Et" Civilizations

This is the kind of stuff that makes me thankful to be alive during the internet age.