Natala la la la ... ... ...

Sunday, June 27, 2004

lions and tigers = ligers, oh my!  

Last night we saw Napolean Dynamite. This film is hillarious and I highly recommend it. One of my favorite moments is when Deb comes over to Napolean as he is drawing his favorite animal - a "liger". What's a liger she asks.... Napolean answers, "It's pretty much my favorite animal. It's like a lion and a tiger mixed, but for its skills and magic."

Well, I liked the idea of a liger too -- as a conceptual animal. It turns out, however, that they are REAL. Crazy people are doing crazy cross-breeding, and we now have living Ligers (or Tigons as they are alternatively called), but without skills and magic. I don't know how I feel about this, it seems sort of like playing with the hand of God...

Visit this site to see a list (and pictures) of all the hybrid animals known to exist.

smart or beautiful 

Last weekend I saw a cute, funny, frolic-filled opera by Czech composer Leoš Janácek. The music was cheerful, the costumes delightful and overall it was a nice little escape. However, one section in the opera got me thinking about the constant challenge women have to be smart AND beautiful. The Vixen is portrayed as this beautiful, foxy, crafty woman. When she meets her love, she questions, "am i beautiful enough?" This bothers me. She's smart, she's cunning -- why aren't these factors presented in her monologue? Instead she worries about cuteness. In the opera she's portrayed as a feminist (certainly for the times this was true) as she tries to convince the chickens to revolt from their life of servitude under the Cock. The doublentendreses are all over the place, but at the end of the day...what matters is beauty. Ugh. When will we realize that pretty isn't enough? Or even what's most valuable? I agree, attraction is fundamentally important, but if you are cute and lack intelligence...this missing element always seems to outweigh the attraction. The Barenaked Ladies have a song (What a Good Boy) that i've always liked because it speaks to this idea of beauty as a fundamentally important attribute for determining a woman's worth. The song itself is more about the "chains" we're all born with -- men need to be smart (and strong) whereas women need to be smart and pretty:

When I was born, they looked at me and said
what a good boy, what a smart boy, what a strong boy.
And when you were born, they looked at you and said,
what a good girl, what a what a smart girl, what a pretty girl.

at some time we've got to come to a point where pretty is relevant, but you can achieve success without it. Seems to me like we are still far away from that.

Saturday, June 26, 2004

re-cap: fahrenheit 9/11  

On Friday night I saw fahrenheit 9/11...the highlight: excellent soundtrack and typically-mooresque drama. Moore has certainly established himself as the "rush limbaugh" of the left. The movie was persuasive. It definitely supported my belief that we desperately need a new president. But will it accomplish anything? No. The movie preaches to the converted. I don't think there was anyone in the sold-out audience who wasn't already of the "dump bush" camp. I do wish that Moore had kept his focus on the one key point of the movie (that got lost in all the rabble-rousing): there was no link between 9/11 and Iraq.

On the other side, Bush has developed a new web-only commercial to reposition the discussion around his actions in the war as inappropriate given this that this is war time and he's a war president. He positions the left as "wild-eyed" with video frames of Dean, Gore, Gephardt and Kerry, juxtaposed with images of Hitler (similar to the MoveOn.org video)...and then he fades to black with the statement: "This is not a time for pessimism and rage...its a time for optimism, steady leadership and progress." What? Steady leadership? Isn't now exactly when we need to question our leaders? and push them to make the best and morally right decisions -- even if it means changing direction? I agree with Nelson: "Frankly, this is the time for pessimism and rage."

Watch the Bush propaganda here.

And what is Bush doing now? "President Bush shrugged off criticism in Europe over the Iraq war, saying Saturday he was more concerned about his standing among the American electorate." [1]
Dammit, this man is going to make it impossible for me to travel the world as an American.

Thursday, June 24, 2004

99th post 

bloglines rocks. This product (for FREE) allows one to subscribe to blogs that have an RSS/Atom feed. most excellent. Now i no longer have to stalk my friend's webpages wondering if they've actually made a new witty comment on their blog....

of course, there is a caveat: For some bloody reason the Atom feed i had set up for my blog appears to be broken...this will be fixed!

Tuesday, June 22, 2004

good guru quote 

"It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society."
-krishnamurti

Thursday, June 17, 2004

fuzzy math 

benfrank.net has some hilarious tunes. In particular, this poetic piece by George W. Bush: Fuzzy Math. (note: clicking link should launch an mp3 music file)

Wednesday, June 16, 2004

i do my little turn on the catwalk 

my sister is a professional photographer. as a result, sometimes i have to (get to) model for her. let there be no mistakes: modeling is hard work. You have to constantly contort your body, smooch, be expressive and not get annoyed when the lights are too bright or you have to stand still for absurdly long periods of time. my sister is funny, and she's really good at making you feel comfortable, but at the end of the day -- having your picture taken isn't easy. below are a few of her recent snaps.




of course, a photo shoot wouldn't be complete without a picture of me and my doggie:

Tuesday, June 15, 2004

creeping desertification 

UPDATE: so this post was actually eaten by blogger. what remained was an unsatisfying mish-mash of content that somehow collided with another person's post. Let me tell you, the original post was *brilliant*. Award-winning copy. truly. However, that content is gone and i'm not going to repeat it. Here, however is the highlight:

The chronicle today got me thinking that maybe attending burning man isn't just going to be a fun, chaotic experience --- but actual preparation for life in a deserted world. Due to global warming and our general missuse of land and water it looks like the world is becoming a desert. According to the United Nations:

* From the mid-1990s to 2000, 1,374 square miles have turned into deserts each year -- an area about the size of Rhode Island. That's up from 840 square miles in the 1980s, and 624 square miles during the 1970s.

* By 2025, two-thirds of arable land in Africa will disappear, along with one-third of Asia's and one-fifth of South America's.

* Some 135 million people -- equivalent to the populations of France and Germany combined -- are at risk of being displaced.
[1]

Burning man, essentially a proposed utopia in the middle of the desert, has found that you need some structure in order to survive. Things like roads, car permits and general city infrastructures are necessary to keep the masses safe. [2] Previously, I had merely thought that attending would provide me with exposure to pagan expressions of love and harmony, but now i see that the task at hand is much more vital to my futuristic ideals -- as it may provide useful practice for life in an arid land.

Sunday, June 13, 2004

project cobra 

Note (6/15/04): I have removed the picture of Rumsfeld (that was here previously) from my blog because it bothered me to see him. He's spooky.

on another note, my friend Mikel Jollet has been getting some airtime on NPR. The good thing is that he hasn't completely converted (yet) to having one of those annoying NPR voices...

american heroes 

last night we went to Cobb's Comedy Club to see Patton Oswalt. He was hillarious, even with sacca's overhyping i was still delightfully surprised at just how funny the evening was. A particular highlight was the opening performance by Chris Hardwick and Mike Phirman . They performed a tribute to american heroes -- namely dinosaurs. It was a remake of the current country hit "american soldier" by Toby Keith...with a delightful political twist that places the american Pterodactyl as the hero that brings us light...and oil. They are planning to release the song on their album, Minihana. I can't wait.

Update: Chester wrote a great review of our night out. Check it out here. Valco in the hooouuse baby.

c2 - you get what you need... 

hahahaha. i love marketing! ... "C2 gives you something special -- the freedom to drink what you want." damn, freedom from a can (or a bottle).

UPDATE (yes, just moments later): elise just made me taste it. Damn. i actually like it. Definitely watch the commercials, totally worth it.

close encounters 

Fly-by ... images of Saturn's moon, Phoebe, taken from Cassini. Photo: AP/NASA

NASA's Cassini spacecraft passed Saturn's main outer moon. Traffic controllers from Mars are being deployed to manage the situation... Read the article here or get the bigger picture here.

Saturday, June 12, 2004

lately i feel like... 

East Timor: Independence has brought mixed fortunes to this recovering war zone, and it remains a country in transition.



Chris and I are talking about taking a vacation in early August / end of July. Just a nice little roadtrip. I think Nick will come with us too...and maybe will? i'm not sure who will is...but i feel that a road trip is just what i need. A little bit of time with the Boys and the open road. My vote is to head out to jackson.

Friday, June 11, 2004

kauai notes 

I spent four short, bittersweet days in kauai on a work-related trip. kauai is a beautiful, romantic, adventurous and multi-terrained island. the trip was at times wonderful, at times draining...overall i came back more relaxed then i left...perhaps with a bit more perspective and insight into myself and my relationships than i had wanted...below are my trip notes:

I stayed at the Kauai Hyatt Regency . This place was wonderful. The service was top notch, the rooms comfortable and the location on the southern part of the island exquisite.

Highlights:
- Tunnels (a near death experience) snorkeling.
- Finding a dead shark and eel on the lava rock beach
- Na Pali Coast hike -- thank god we didn't hike in the night! Marc tells me that he and his wife "accidentally" did this and that he literally fell off a cliff at one point and thought he was going to *die*.
- Helicopter tour - truly a wonderful way to see the entire island
- My luau dress (thus the customized yahoo avatar above)
- MCB's justin timberlake impression
- lots of mai tai's and one macallan 18

Lowlights:
The radio sucks in Kauai. It's really horrible. At one point MCB actually selected a shania twain song as the "good" song! I heard Five For Fighting's "100 years" so many times it actually became the kauai song (as well as the hula version of somewhere over the rainbow). Not exactly a cheery island song.

Monday, June 07, 2004

i've been on vacation... 

I spent the last four days in Kauai, Hawai'i. It is a beautiful island, and a wonderful place to take a short break. The picture above is the view of the napali coast (the jewel of kauai) from a helicopter ride. The scenery is lovely.

Wednesday, June 02, 2004

fahrenheit 9/11 

Looks like Miramax will be able to distribute the film! Take a peak at the trailer. Opens June 25th.