Infinite Monkeys
"...a sparkly blog..." - James Lileks"Read them only with extreme caution."- Hugh Hewitt
Infinite MonkeysIt's probably worth noting at the outset that the Mai Tai you may have enjoyed at Trader Vic's is not the same cocktail Victor Bergeron mixed up at his Oakland restaurant 60 years ago. Okay? Okay. But I greet the news of the demise of Trader Vic's in Los Angeles with great sadness. I last had a drink there five years ago. It was a fine place. There are still several of the restaurants left, but Trader Vic's at Los Angeles was an institution.
The Los Angeles Times is an institution, too. But I'll miss Trader Vic's more.
A Bay Area freeway interchange melted? Yep. Astonishing to behold. What's really amazing, though, is nobody died.
Jack Valenti's dead.
Can't say I'll miss him.
That probably sounds mean. It's really just indifferent. Kind of like hearing the head of the BATF died. Or Larry Flynt. You know, I don't really know anything about their personal lives or families, but I have no respect for what any of them do professionally.
The most un-work safe PSA I've ever seen...
They look like Arthur Batchelor, one of the British sailors who fell into the hands of Iran last month and allowed Ahmadinejad's cronies to make him a propaganda tool. Typical of a sailor on leave, Batchelor enjoys a pint or three. Atypical of a former prisoner, Batchelor seems to think the entire "ordeal" was rather funny.
I can think of another descriptive word for Batchelor that starts with "C," but Monkey Robb wouldn't like it.
My iTunes library just passed the 40,000 song mark. The "lucky" song? A live performance of "Bittersweet" by Victor Krummenacher, downloaded from his website.
It's the typeface (not font, you Philistine!) of the 20th century, don't you know!
(Hat tip: Arts & Letters Daily)
"In the wake of Monday’s massacre at Virginia Tech in which a student killed 32 people, (Yale) Dean of Student Affairs Betty Trachtenberg has limited the use of stage weapons in theatrical productions."
Yes. Not unlike the Solons on the Denver school board who, in the wake of the Columbine massacre eight years ago, decided to ban trenchcoats. Do something! Anything!
(Update: I corrected the reference to Columbine, which occured eight years ago today. Good God! Where did the time go?)
Something about Deb Saunders' column today resonates. "In this short attention-span nation, people know how to opine, speculate and second-guess. We take other people's agony and irreparable loss, and turn their pain into a soap opera." So it seems.
I've consciously avoided much of the coverage of the Virginia Tech mass-murder, although it's impossible to avoid it all. The network news' exploitation of the killer's psychotic rantings is, of course, perverse and obscene. Cho sought notoriety and fame in his actions and, in its wisdom, NBC gave it to him. In an older, less enlightened era, we might have desecrated Cho's corpse and scattered his limbs to the four corners of the realm. Let this be a lesson to the copy-cats, to the "generations of the weak and the defenseless people" he wished to inspire. Why not? We're sinking rapidly into barbarism anyway.
I operate in a realm in which everything is grounded in "solutions." Every day the question I'm asked to answer is: Who do we want to see do what? But there is no solution to the problem of evil.
Update: In addition to amending two short sentences above, I commend readers to Peggy Noonan's rambling but occasionally illuminating ruminations today. A sample: "With all the therapy in our great therapized nation, with all our devotion to emotions and feelings, one senses we are becoming a colder culture, and a colder country. We purport to be compassionate -- we must respect Mr. Cho's privacy rights and personal autonomy -- but of course it is cold not to have protected others from him. It is cold not to have protected him from himself."
Lileks quits. I fear the reverberations of his decision will somehow take bread -- or chicken nuggets -- from the mouth of my son. Oh, there will be terrible, terrible consequences.
One thing the has puzzled me since college is why, given that onset of mental illness is so common in 18 - 24 year olds, universities don't do a better job of informing students, faculty, staff and resident advisers what to look for. Everyone who has attended college and lived in a dorm could tell a story of someone they knew who was clearly drifting away from reality (obviously, and hopefully, far less so than the Virginia Tech killer). Are universities too wrapped up in politically correct sensitivities to properly address the problems of mentally ill students?
Update: ABCNews has more information suggesting that there's plenty of blame to go around. It doesn't excuse the university, but I agree with Monkey Brad that we have much bigger problems as a nation with mental healthcare. Just spend some time talking to some homeless people...
"I gradually recover the ability to sleep and poo, so crucial to the enjoyment of life, and generally adjust to the Edwardian life." After reading Giles Coren's "appetite for excess," it's no wonder Edward VII died of a double heart attack and that British cuisine is a contradiction in terms.
Fabrizio Quattrocchi took one for Western Civilization three years ago today. Raise a glass to his memory tonight and pray that the living do not one day envy Quattrocchi's sacrifice.
(Hat tip: Derb.)
Kurt Vonnegut is dead. Ah, well. Lileks eulogizes the novelist -- buries him, really -- here. I always thought "Slaughterhouse Five" was overrated.
UPDATE: Stefan Beck at the New Criterion's fine Armavirumque blog offers some reflections on Vonnegut here: "I owe a lot to [Vonnegut's] books, for one thing the ability to see their influence on some of today’s worst writing." Over at the Corner, John Miller and Mike Potemra are far more charitable. And, of course, Derb is Derb.
A mind is a terrible thing to waste.
Once again, there's a lot of hype about the "talking" CCTV cameras in Britain. There's legitimate big brother concerns of a bunch of bureaucrats yelling at you for littering (to some extent, it replaces societal pressures that have faded in a more anonymous society, but that's another discussion). But the bigger concern is this: given that not every camera will be monitored every moment, if you're about to mug someone, shouldn't you just litter first to see if you're being watched? If no one yells at you, well then, Robert's your father's brother, as they say on that strange little island...
Update: Good news and bad: "EMI Group PLC on Monday announced a deal that will allow computer company Apple Inc. to sell the record company's songs online without copy protection software... EMI said almost all of its catalog, excluding music by The Beatles, is included in the deal."
Don't know why I never got around to it, but I still have a few noteworthy holes in the Beatles section of my music collection. It appears that may soon change.
Assuming the price is right. Apple is letting users complete their albums -- i.e., offering the rest of an album from which a customer has bought a song or two. I buy a lot of albums -- probably more than most ITMS users -- but I've bought a fair number of singles, too. I checked out some of the albums I could "complete," and damned if it doesn't look like Apple has hiked its prices. I may be wrong. Maybe somebody else can confirm my hunch. Steve Jobs has done commendable work holding the line on download prices. But maybe, by offering this "deal" to customers, Apple has acquiesced at last.
Remember how I lost my keys? Well, I found them. They were in my desk at work this whole time, stuck behind some old receipts and even older packets of ketchup. Now I can finally get my mail and start locking my front door again! Anyway, I blew through my eMusic and iTunes quotas in about 30 minutes this month, so, here's the list...
Top 10 most recently purchased albums from the iTunes Music Store
1) "Greatest Misses," Devo
2) "Taking A Chance On Love," Jane Monheit
3) "Get Your Stereo Deluxed," Various Artists
4) "Dickie Goodman's All-Time Novelty Hits," Dickie Goodman
5) "About Face," David Gilmour
6) "Soundtracks," Can
7) "Back to Black," Amy Winehouse
8) "Excitable Boy," Warren Zevon
9) "Yours Truly, Angry Mob," Kaiser Chiefs
10) "Stanton Moore III," Stanton Moore
Top 10 most recently purchased songs/albums from eMusic
1) "100 Greatest Dance Hits," Aaron Jay Kernis
2) "Strummin' With the Devil (Van Halen Tribute)," Various Artists
3) "Raised By Wolves," Fitzgerald
4) "Selected Shorts," Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks
5) "Recyclone," Dash Rip Rock
6) "Derek Trucks Band," Derek Trucks Band
7) "The Blackbyrds," The Blackbyrds
8) "Abattoir Blues and The Lyre of Orpheus," Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
9) "Up Tight (Soundtrack)," Booker T & The M.G.s
10) "Funky Broadway: Stax Revue Live at the 5/4 Ballroon," Various Artists
Top 10 most recently played songs on iTunes
1) "Twilight," Squirrel Nut Zippers
2) "It's You or No One," Max Roach
3) "Panic (From 'The Day the Earth Stood Still')," Bernard Herrmann
4) "Blue Gardenia," Nat King Cole
5) "Carrion," British Sea Power
6) "Some of These Days," James Mathus & His Knockdown Society
7) "Children of the Grave (Live)," Black Sabbath
8) "Be True To Your School," Beach Boys
9) "Is There Anybody Out There" Luther Wright & The Wrongs
10) "Just You and Me, Darling," The Who
These days I'm always a few days behind. My job responsibilities have increased exponentially, and my cycling training has increased marginally. As this has dramatically cut into my radio listening time, I have made the leap to podcast junkie on a broadcast fast. I listen to Hewitt, Prager, Jillette, and The Fredcast regularly, usually two or three days behind. (Occasionally, a weekend with lots of riding will allow me to finish a week's episodes of the more news-based programs.) But, as I'm frequently in pain or oxygen-debt, I sometimes miss a point or nuance here or there.
This happened yesterday during a set of form sprints. And it caused me to rethink my life. Would I restructure the next year of my life to rise to what I took as a challenge? Hugh was reporting that the Fraters' "Elder" was going to reach for the status of Ironman triathlete. Peeps? An Ironman? Perhaps, but I just couldn't see letting that go unanswered.
I began thinking, "I could beat him. I can do it in less time. I'll go wherever he enters the race, and finish in less time. Must. Beat. The Peeps." Forget his noble effort of fundraising with his efforts and achievements. I must crush him. Okay, maybe I'll try some fundraising, but it will be for my school. It may not have the national appeal, but that's where I'd ask people I know to donate first. I'd never raise as much money. BUT I MUST CRUSH HIM ON TIME! F A S T E R ! (Ah, the nobility of testosterone and ego...)
This morning I was still thinking about it. Could I cut the cycling back to three or four days a week and get back in the pool? Could I really begin running? How little running could I do and still be ready to complete a marathon? Should I do a full standalone marathon before the Ironman? I've already done the 2.4 mile swim on an official Ironman course. I've completed a 112 mile bike race. I just haven't done them back to back and then go do a marathon. I know I could put the swim and the bike together. But the run... Could I? Given that Peeps is going to try, could I not?
This morning I went to check his post and see if there was a stated timeline for Peeps' metamorphosis. My realization was a pleasant mixture of feelings: relief meets Emily Litella. I wish Bill Rollins and his work for Fisher House all the best.
I always knew there was something funny -- and I don't mean "ha-ha" funny -- about that Mandel character.
The monach of the Land of Make Believe has died. Apparently, there is some controversy about the line of succession. Check out America's other newspaper of record for more.