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Paraskavedekatriaphobia
Friday the 13th was fun, even if it didn't work out quite the way I'd hoped. That is, another stereo snafu, so the music wasn't loud ever enough to get the dancing going, but it was a fun party, nonetheless. The usual mix of magyars, bloggers, gen expats, film makers, etc. And just as the Gregarious Vixen and E. stole half the party around 1am for the weekly Bulgar Dizsi ritual, reenforcements arrived and the party raged on for another few hours of polite conversation and drinking. And how often can you honestly say you spent half an hour chatting about TV and politics with Michael Jordan and Frankenstien in your own basement apartment in Harlem? (Actually, I have no recollection at all what we were talking about, other than Juila Childs.) Best part: lots of shrimp, booze and umbrellas left over.
Big huge apologies to one lovely blogger so recently transplated to NYC that I...what can I say, forgot. Really wish I'd read email yesterday afternoon, but you're always welcome.
- 12/14/2002
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I Like Mike
 I have to say, I'm a Bloomberg fan, even if I didn't vote for him. (And just to be a self-indulgent stickler, I was right about the inevitable bike photo opp. I'm still looking forward to Monday's shot, actually on the bike in traffic in winter rain, flanked by bike cops.)
Beyond the bike stunt, though, I was really impressed with his recently released plan for rebuilding lower Manhattan, which is better than virtually anything else I've heard on the subject to date.
- 12/13/2002
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Budapest Week Reunion
 My lip goes soft and trembly at not being able to attend this (from Chris Condon):
I hereby announce the First Budapest Week Reunion and Christmas Drink-up
Where: Picasso Point (yes, it's still there)
When: Friday, Dec 20, 9 pm
There will be a special drawing. Prizes will include pens once dropped by
Rick Bruner (we have several), the Fred Flintstone computer, a lifetime
subscriptions to Budapest Week, a date with Peter Hall, a free consultation
on management techniques with Tim Randall, a bag of Bob Weed, a vile of Ken
Kasriel's saliva and, the Grand Prize.......
........A signed promise by Peter Fried to resolve your back-pay.
This email is going only to those on my address list, which obviously
doesn't include everyone who should know about this event. Please pass the
word to anyone and everyone you know who ever had anything to do with
Budapest Week and might actually show up (excluding scoundrels).
See you there.
- 12/13/2002
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I'd Rather Eat Pants
Hmmm. I just heard a plug on NPR's Morning Edition for a new five-part radio "farce" they're running all next week titled I'd Rather Eat Pants. As regular readers know, I'm an NPR junkie. I also have always enjoyed radio plays, as much as I've known them having been born in the mid-'60s, most notably stuff on Priarie Home Companion and the slightly more obscure absurdists Fire Sign Theatre. I've often wished some smart young group would go retro and revive the art of radio drama, NRP being the obvious vehicle for it.
Gotta say, however, having heard the plug for next week's show, I don't think this is exactly going to spark the revival. It's billed as an "all-star" cast, which is pretty generous: Edward Asner, character acter Anne Meara, Derek Cecil ("star" of the ABC atrocity "Push, Nevada") and Dan Castellaneta (voice of Homer Simpson). Granted, it's billed as a "farce," in which case I'll cut it a bit more slack, as you probably have to get really caught up in it for the humor to work, but the clips they played on NPR (almost in the guise of a news story, which I thought was pretty tacky) all sounded really flat. From what I heard, the acting really sounded like line reading, and the script didn't really seem promising (the plot sketch I got was so silly I'll spare you; click above if you're curious), which is perhaps not surprising, considering the writer Peter Ackerman's only writing credit was the recent animated film Ice Age.
Besides, why part of Morning Edition? Who wants radio farce for breakfast? Just seems like an afternoon/evening kind of thing.
- 12/13/2002
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Whither South America?
My father calls my attention this morning this depressing Op-Ed piece in today's times: "The Next Africa" whose lead begins, "While we're all focused on distant Iraq, our neighbor South America is quietly falling apart."
- 12/10/2002
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The Gong Show Assassin
 Remember the Gong Show? If you watched American TV in the '70s, you do. I just heard that George Clooney has his made his directing debut with a movie titled "Confesions of a Dangerous Mind" (IMDB | MRQE | Rotten Tomatoes) about the Gong Show's host, Chuck Barris, who apparently claims (still living) to have been a CIA assassin, responsible for more than 30 hits, including during his TV career. What a perfect Julia Roberts vehicle.
- 12/10/2002
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Homeland Security Threat Level: Indeterminate
How stupid is this?
I happened to want to check out the Department of Homeland Security for a client. Found it on a subdirectory of White House's web domain. I thought they'd made it a full on federal department, i.e., on a cabinet level along with the Department of State, the Department of Education, etc. So they don't even get their own domain?
Anyway, what's stupid is the color scheme. Not the concept of the thing necessarily (tho that seems pretty stupid to me, too), but the actual execution of the design. First off, why are the color dots so small? They're barely bigger than pin pricks. They couldn't have doubled the size of those dots? But look at Yellow and Orange. Dont' they look almost the same? They do to me, and I'm not colorblind.
Most importantly, however, look at the "Current Threat Level" box. That color doesn't look at all like the Yellow in the color key above. It looks more like a pukey greenish-gold. Is that just me? Maybe it's an optical illusion. It certainly isn't a color that makes me feel any safer.
- 12/9/2002
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Union Square Subway Baby!
Everyone's favorite sitcom/police-drama plot just happened today: a baby was born at NYC's Union Square subway station with the help of beat cops. (Just heard it on WNYC radio, tho I don't see it reported online yet, but I'll link soon.) (As of this posting, 6:13pm EST, Bruner Blog has scooped Google News, NYTimes.com and Reuters.com on this story.)
:-)
Here now is the story on NY1.
Back in 1989 or so, I interned for a summer at WOR-TV's news department (Channel 9 in NY's market). A generally miserable experience, tho I did get to go out and cover a few stories (tho nothing of my contribution appeared on camera aside from my hand holding the mike). One story I covered was the same thing: healthy baby born on subway. Positively life affirming.
- 12/9/2002
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Bloomberg on Wheels
Very cool. NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg says he'll ride a bike to work if the transit workers go on strike. Personally, I work in my apartment, so I'm kind of immune to this pending strike, but I do love to bike in NYC and give the mayor his props for his attitude. I also love that he commutes to work on the subway normally.
Newsday reports:
“This time I will probably take a bicycle to work,” the mayor said, noting that he used car-pools during the 11-day 1980 transit strike. “I think that’s a practical way for me to get downtown early.”
The mayor’s disclosure led to a follow-up question. “Are you serious about riding a bike,” one reporter asked.
“Sure,” the mayor said. “I never say anything I don’t do. You should know that by now.”
However, before he dons biking tights, Bloomberg admitted that his current bike is “in pretty rotten shape.” He said he plans to buy a new one.
The reporter followed up again: “So you’d actually ride down with a police escort?”
With Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly nodding in the background, Bloomberg replied, “Oh I don’t know. I’m a little faster than most of those guys – I don’t know if they can keep up.”
That's going to be such a great photo if it comes to it (most likely next Monday): the mayor geared up on a bike (bearing in mind, Weather.com predicts that tomorrow morning around commute time it's going to be 27 F-degrees ("feels like 22")) surrounded by an escort of cops on bikes, all freezing their balls off for an obligatory photo opp. Priceless! "Practical" indeed. You go, boy!
For the rest of you, WNYC.org has a page with an overview and links to the city's Transit Strike Contingency Plan
- 12/9/2002
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Daypop Is Back, and Popdex Appears
Ugh. I need to figure out who else is chronicling this, but just when I thought Daypop was dead, it appears they're alive again (as of this posting, anyway).
And now, checking Blogdex, I noticed what appears to be a hybrid of Blogdex and Daypop (in branding at least): Popdex, yet another meme index based on blog links. I don't know that "the market" needs quite so many of these, all the more so given Daypop's dubious viability of late. Even labors of love require bandwidth and hosting fees, all the more so as they gain popularity.
- 12/9/2002
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Blogger Photos
A new trend would seem to be afoot. In the last week or so, three bloggers I often read -- Nick Denton, Elizabeth Spiers and Jeff Jarvis -- have all put new photos of themselves up on their blogs. What is most striking is how utterly unironic all the photos are. Sure, I have a couple of pictures of myself on this blog, but not ones you'd be likely to recognize me from. Nick says that readers want that connection, muttering something about it being the same thing as when newspapers run photos of their columnists. I dunno. Somehow seems to take the fun out of it. I mean, it's different with Raymi or Moxie, as the former's often naked and the latter at least occasionally in a bathing suit (note correction below).
(Note to Jeff and Nick: don't get any bright ideas.)
Is there no mystery left in the blogosphere? I'll really know it's more than just a passing fad if the ever-reclusive Peter Maass joins suit.
UPDATE:
Oops, apologies to Moxie for erroneously suggesting she posed in her underwear. As she pointed out in an email, it was naught but an innocent (if "expensive") bathing suit. Wishful thinking on my part. Peace.
- 12/9/2002
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Dying to Get on TV
Meant to mention this earlier, but forgot. Heard yet about the latest abomination of reality TV?
The executive producer and creator of the real-life dating drama The Bachelor has hatched a new reality series called The Will for ABC.
The show will revolve around a wealthy benefactor who will bequeath his family fortune to the winner of a game-show style, real-life contest between his relatives.
Meanwhile, Adi's new obsession is Allat Világ ("Animal World"), a new reality show in Hungary featuring nightly broadcasts from inside the home of a group of animal friends: a rabbit, a guinne pig, a chicken and a few others. Although they have names and professions, the joke seems to be that they're just cute animals in a room sitting around in an animally way. I say "seems," as it's broadcast in Hungary and we live in NY and they don't have it yet online, so we've only heard about it. Nothing cool like that ever comes to American TV....
- 12/9/2002
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Croggling
New word on me. Just read it on bOing bOing. Upon further examination, I see it has something of a history. Me likey.
- 12/8/2002
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You Want Fries With That Coke?
So very silly:
At one Illinois Burger King, authorities say, you could order a Whopper, fries and some coke. Not a soft drink but cocaine. Four people have been jailed on charges they sold cocaine from the drive-thru window at a Burger King in Mundelein.
Through the drive-thru window, no less. That's almost as good as the guys who deliver in NY.
- 12/8/2002
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Gawker.com
I see the cat is out of the bag. New Yorkers, stay tuned for
- 12/8/2002
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DriveMeInsane.com
God bless the Internet. Here's a guy who set up a site back in 1997 to let people turn the lights on and off in his house -- 9 webcams' worth -- and he's still at it. Just a geek who did it because he could. Says the lights going on and off really doesn't bother him. More power to him. I wonder what the chicks think.
- 12/8/2002
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15th Century UFOs
Fark is like the Internet's perfect storm. Get lots of traffic from people with a twisted sense of humor and too much time on their hands and give them an assignment, like screwing around with Photoshop on the theme of 15th Century UFOs, and you get results like this.
- 12/8/2002
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I Don't Brake for Deer
I was just listening to the Sunday afternoon rebroadcast of Prairie Home Companion, and in Garrison Keeler's Lake Woebegone monologue, he tells a hilarious tale (what else?) of a busload of 40 NY analysts back in the '60s getting stranded in Lake Woebegone during a winter blizzard. So the friendly Lake Woebegoneans take the analysts into their homes and, in an effort to fight the cabin-fever blues, the mayor's wife takes a carload of them out for a drive at night, and being a local, she's doing 65 mph on the snow-covered roads. The analysts are already terrified, when suddenly a deer jumps out in front of them. Without flinching, she drives straight through the deer, killing it, its body flying over the windshield and roof. The analysts are shocked. One shouts, "You killed it!" to which she replies (more or less):
"Yes, well better him than us. You never brake for deer. Don't swerve, maybe slow down a bit, but never brake. And better that he's dead than off in the woods with a broken leg waiting for the coyotes. It's just God's way of improving the species, thinning out the ones with poor judgement."
That's the kind of good country wisdom you just don't get from most pop culture or the NYC lifestyle. That vignette may save my life some snowy day, PETA hatemail notwithstanding.
Prairie Home is broadcasting for the last couple and next three (?) weeks from NYC's Town Hall, hence the NY theme. And I was supposed to attend, but I got screwed by the system! I've learned from previous experience that Garrison Keeler sells out venues faster than Madonna. This time I put it in my calendar ahead of time and went online to buy my tickets within hours of their having gone on sale, only to get a call from Prairie Home's Minnesota headquarter office weeks later saying that regrettably demand far surpassed their expectations (despite five shows here!) and they vastly oversold tickets and unfortunately, I was one of the losers. Grrrr.
I did see the show live once in San Francisco, after I bought tickets at the show from a woman whose husband was a no-show, in the furtherest back corner in the theater. But it was great. Every time he's come back to NY since I've been living here, I've tried again but to no avail. If anyone out there pulls strings at NPR and can get me a ticket...
Why am I such a Garrison Keeler groupie? (Better that than a Christopher Hitchens groupie, if you ask me.) Both of my parents immigrated to NJ from Minnesota. It's in the blood. If I can't be Jewish, it's the next-best thing I've got.
- 12/8/2002
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The President Wouldn't Lie
Edinburgh News reports:
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said: "The President of the United States and the Secretary of Defence would not assert as plainly and bluntly as they have that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction if it was not true, and if they did not have a solid basis for saying it."
Remember when your mom used to explain, "Because I said so, that's why"?
- 12/8/2002
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Miss World, A Belly Dancing Muslim?
The final irony of the whole Miss World fiasco? They award the title to a Muslim. Get it? Muhammad might really have chosen this one for a bride. That is, Miss Turkey won the competition: I'm simply assuming that therefore she is at least nominally Muslim (as well as a model and belly dancer), but I notice that the question of her religion conspiculously didn't come up in any of the press coverage I read on it, so I might be wrong.
- 12/8/2002
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