Month: March 2008

My sister Mary sits in with The Loose Marbles, a New Orleans street band. That’s her on the accordion, on the right. Original location, if the embed causes any problems.

More about the Loose Marbles in The New Yorker from May 2007.

I found the final book of the His Dark Materials trilogy, The Amber Spyglass, a bit loose. No untidy loose ends, but Philip Pullman uses more words to describe less action as the climax approaches. I do appreciate the bittersweet ending, though. You don’t get to save the world and live happily ever after. Think of Frodo at the end of The Lord of the Rings. Even in victory, something may be lost.

I’m an optimist, generally, but a bit of pathos never hurts.

Book 2 of His Dark Materials passed in a flash last week. The Subtle Knife continues Philip Pullman’s trilogy, and introduces the not-so-subtly named Mary Malone, the former nun turned physicist. These tales twist, and are complete independently, but the sweep across all three books taken together is marvelous.

I was heading somewhere I knew I’d have to wait, so I grabbed John Steinbeck’s thin novella Of Mice and Men off the shelf. A few pages in, I realized I’d read it before, but didn’t remember details. Anyway, 118 pages later, I knew why Lennie had to die, just like their dreams. It’s not subtle, but the stark language feels like people.

I’m a sucker for a heist movie. The Bank Job isn’t brilliant, but fun all the same. Jason Statham, mildly known from the Transporter movies, and recognizable from The Italian Job (“Handsome Rob,” the driver), carries the movie through some rough spots, even without all the opportunities for action which mark his previous roles.

I saw the movie last week, but jumped on the opportunity to write it up after reading about the guy who makes Eliot Spitzer look pure. This movie turns on some blackmail pictures of various high-and-mighty personages enjoying themselves in ways which don’t benefit from sunshine and press. The Bank Job’s producers must wonder about life imitating art. Using the term “art” very loosely. (Read the link, even if you don’t see the movie.)

Metacritic verdict? 69 I’d bump it a few because I love the genre, even if the attempt at sexual tension between Terry (Statham) and Martine (Saffron Burrows) falls flat.

Best heist movie I’ve seen? Inside Man.

Via Slashdot, I learn that Neal Stephenson’s new novel is coming in September. Not pre-ordering right now, but on the list.

It’s Not You, It’s Your Books, a recent essay in the New York Times, includes this snippet.

Let’s face it — this may be a gender issue. Brainy women are probably more sensitive to literary deal breakers than are brainy men. (Rare is the guy who’d throw a pretty girl out of bed for revealing her imperfect taste in books.) After all, women read more, especially when it comes to fiction. “It’s really great if you find a guy that reads, period,” said Beverly West, an author of “Bibliotherapy: The Girl’s Guide to Books for Every Phase of Our Lives.” (emphasis added)

I suppose I’m glad to clear that particular bar, even if it’s set at ankle height. On behalf of all men, ouch. 😉

Thanks for the link, Pat.

Clock (this blog) is now 5, and I’m (cough) older than that. Still, I matched last year’s mile time of 5:23 (1:19/1:20/1:22/1:21 splits), which brightened the already-beautiful day a bit more. Only hiccup was Kezar was closed for pesticide application, which I found out after running over this morning. So I had to drive over to SF State’s Cox Stadium to find an open track. Cox is a pleasant facility sunk into a hollow, with a nice surface, and almost empty in the mid-morning. Kezar is home, but good to know about Cox.

In an effort to start the week with a clean(er) inbox…

• Nothing like bowling to bring a smile. Thanks for the pic, Cory.
• I’m reading this book right now, so I’ll review this podcast after I finish it.
• Wikis make a lot of sense to me, so I want to find time to listen to Jon Udell talk with Ward Cunningham, father of the wiki and now involved with AboutUs.org. Compare this to this. Hmmm.
• When were these words written? Answer at bottom.
  

  If our own computers give us information by the ton, the Internet can provide it in Krakatoan quantities. It is sometimes hard to find anything whatsoever of value on the Internet, with so many sites listing such things as the personal TV-show preferences of people you have never met or showing “live cam” shots of office workers in Germany. Finding the particular facts you are looking for can seem impossible. Yet in the long run the Internet, which links together many of the world’s data resources, should be the ideal research vehicle.

• I’m not a programmer, but I’m curious about the art all the same, so I save links like this one on hashing.
• Video interview about typography, from The Atlantic.
• The First, The Free, and the Good: “My current hypothesis is that there are at least three positions of prominence in each segment — three ways to be number one, if you will: The First One, The Free One, and The Good One.” My comment: a lot of fun to be all three.
• Absurd entries in the OED, via DF.
• Divinegreen.com is a former CNET colleague’s blog.
• Stripping design of its “administrative debris. Ummm, where’s the WordPress theme? 😉

The answer to when those words on information retrieval were written? 1996

Daylight Savings Time provided an excuse for the New York Times to run the Op-Ed column Time Out Of Mind a couple of weeks ago. The author, Stefan Klein, blends scientific studies and literary references to remind us that measuring time leads to changed perceptions of same. Stress and mistakes are also common for those who worry about “wasting” time.

Studies have shown the alarming extent of the problem: office workers are no longer able to stay focused on one specific task for more than about three minutes, which means a great loss of productivity. The misguided notion that time is money actually costs us money.

Hmmm. Klein is a science journalist, writing in German, but his book “The Secret Pulse of Time: Making Sense of Life’s Scarcest Commodity” has been translated into English. On my list now, even if Klein missed the chance to steal part of this blog’s title.