someone else's wrap-up

oscars courtesy Modern Fabulosity.

"Montages Are Like Heroin For Boring People".

Beautiful.

Oh, and I forgot to mention how much I loved Errol Morris's interview mini-doc that kicked off the broadcast. He's the best.

Oscars in a nutshell

Had fun at the party, my dips went over well. I'll be making the chipotle avocado one again, combining as it does the twin virtues of spectacular flavor & minimal preparation.

High points:

Alan Arkin.
Not only because the star of Freebie & The Bean deserves all the accolades that come his way, but because I was glad the unctuous Eddie Murphy was denied.

Jennifer Hudson
Not for winning an Oscar, but for blowing Beyonce off the stage during the Dreamgirls musical numbers. The sight of Beyonce's flapping, flailing 'big finish' was nearly as memorable as last year's It's Hard Out There For a Pimp number.

Marty
Glad he finally won, the guy has been overdue for going on two decades.
And I'm glad he won for a good movie, instead of those turds Aviator & Gangs.

Ennio Morricone
Clint's off the cuff translation of his speech from the Italian was special. The wife & bro-in-law affirm that he wasn't just pulling it out of his ass, either.

Low points:

Brutal cut-offs
This drove me f'ing crazy last year too. When an award has multiple recipients and the first person on the mic hogs ALL THE TIME while the co-winners fume and chafe in the background, then the music swells and they're all chased off the stage like wayward children.
Fuck that shit- either let them talk, or don't bother.

Jennifer Hudson's speech
I've had it with people who win Oscars and turn into hysterical children on the podium. You know you've been nominated, you know there is some chance you will win, you are an entertainment industry professional...PREPARE A GODDAMN SPEECH!
Hyperventilating and squealing OMG OMG OMG!! and then turning auctioneer to thank 500 people before they cut you off doesn't fly.
Do we have to go with a system where only Brits & old people are allowed to give speeches? Or some kind of 'surrogate speaker' program, where people like Hugh Grant, Helen Mirren, Judy Dench and Ian McKellan give acceptance speeches for everyone?

Peter O'Toole losing
Give the guy a fucking Oscar, he looked like he wouldn't last the night!
I can probably think of ten roles off the top of my head he should have gotten an Oscar for, and it is purely criminal he didn't win for Lawrence of Arabia, The Stunt Man or Becket.
When Forrest won, the wife stormed from the room and did puzzles with my niece for the rest of the broadcast.


Overall, a fun show. Not too many travesties of justice, Ellen was pretty funny & there were some good dresses.

Elementary

giant Sherlock Holmes resource.

It's easy to forget how good the original stories were with all the layers of movies & tv shows they have accumulated over the years.

Includes an impressive trove of Holmesian graphics.

book tip for the day

If your copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone has a little 'Year 1' graphic on the spine, it is not a first edition.

Please spread the word.

Academy Awards

The awards themselves are crap.
I still hold a grudge against the Academy for tipping ET over Bladerunner for 'best special effects'.

Your film created a detailed and immersive future reality, one that remains relevant & believable 25 years later?

Well, this other one has a puppet with an accordion neck, and a kid rides a bike across the moon!!1

Suck on that, Ridley Scott.

But I do like the pomp & circumstance, I enjoy it when someone deserving sneaks in a win and it's fun to rant and complain when the inevitable travesties of justice occur (Helen Hunt beating out Judy Dench? Where's my fainting couch!), and of course it's a great excuse for a party.

I should have some pics up tomorrow.
I made a couple of dips, a classic spinach and a "spicy smokey avocado" featuring chipotle & cilantro.

My pal Zim, a Seattle expatriate this past decade, took exception.

"Anything with an avocado has to have 'California' in the name."

I aver those of us living in the Golden State get an exemption, just as I imagine New Englanders can serve clam chowder without explicitly stating the regional identity.

I guess a Manhattan in Manhattan remains the same, unless the locals have some kind of tribal hand-signal for ordering without speaking.

Arcade Fire follow up

They KILLED on SNL last night.
Did two new ones, the one with the pipe organ previously mentioned in comments & a slightly pared down version of the early front runner for my favorite, Keep the Car Running.

As usual, much better live. I actually didn't think much of their first album until I came across a live show recorded by a Minnesota public radio station.
The pipe organ tune I liked on disc, but it absolutely ripped on stage. Their music takes on another dimension live.

I'm looking forward to fans with dvr's releasing this into the wild, I'll post a torrent link when a good one takes root.

compelling argument

SF author Eric Flint makes the case that DRM causes piracy.

It's the kind of thing that is clear as day to most end-users of digital media, but not something you'd expect to get from a 'content creator'.

I haven't read any of his novels, but since he's released a couple of them for free online I'll check him out. And if he's good, I'll buy his next book...further validating his argument.

deal with the fiend

conversation tonight between the wife and the niece:

fiend: eenie, I'll make a deal with you.
wife(with trepidation): Uh, sure.
fiend: ok, if we go out, it's girls night out. But if Teeb* comes with us, it's girls & boys night out. Is it a deal?
wife: Yes!



* my name in fiend-speak

Sonic Awesomeness

Holy shite!

click to hear the aptly titled Devestation.

The Besnard Lakes deliver an awe inspiring audio carpet-bombing, but follow Julie Andrews's advice to the letter, providing a spoonful of sweet, sweet harmony to help the helpless listener digest this ever-expanding musical explosion.

For any of my tens of readers curious about what kind of song sets me back on my heels upon first listen, here you go.

/edit
I just listened to it three times in a row and it grows more awe-inspiring in the retelling, much like the girth of Bobo's ears, or the piercing quality of Ivan's steely glare.

/edit edit
oh ho!
"...while singer/guitarist Jace Lasek's Break Glass Studio produced Wolf Parade's Apologies to the Queen Mary and Sunset Rubdown's Shut Up I Am Dreaming."

Christ, is there any brilliant new rock that isn't somehow connected to the Canadian renaissance?

Arcade Fire on SNL this weekend

oh yes.

New album coming out too.

Banner days.

Worst cover blurb in a while

From the Seattle Times, referencing Sleeping at the Starlite Motel by Bailey White:

Bailey White's stories leave us soothed by the knowledge that life is odd but warm.

Which sounds more like an adult diaper testimonial than a book review.

Ivanus Triumphant

His Shark Boner post (mistakenly referenced as 'whale boner' by this reporter) has landed him at #6 on Google.

to which he responded

wow.

FAMOUS.

Potato Pron

Some oven fries I made the other night.

Music in Antarctica

interesting article via Pitchfork.

the wife's new boyfriend

I've found her staring transfixed at this picture on a book cover lately.

lucky for me he's dead.

equal time for sharks

Inspired by Ivan's post about the whale boner, I present this responsible opposing viewpoint, courtesy of our good friend The Internet.

the design disease

I don't have it. Only because I got into bookselling, which acts as safe, holistic outlet for the raging impulses to collect & organize.

Even so, at one point I did have several gigs of fonts on my computer.

Bourdain vs. The Food Channel

a thing of beauty.

peruse the comments too, some of them are nearly as good as the main course.

Anthony on Rachel Ray, who's show I have never seen, but who's cookbooks I despise:

She’s selling us satisfaction, the smug reassurance that mediocrity is quite enough. She’s a friendly, familiar face who appears regularly on our screens to tell us that “Even your dumb, lazy ass can cook this!” Wallowing in your own crapulence on your Cheeto-littered couch you watch her and think, “Hell…I could do that. I ain’t gonna…but I could--if I wanted! Now where’s my damn jug a Diet Pepsi?” Where the saintly Julia Child sought to raise expectations, to enlighten us, make us better--teach us--and in fact, did, Rachael uses her strange and terrible powers to narcotize her public with her hypnotic mantra of Yummo and Evoo and Sammys. “You’re doing just fine. You don’t even have to chop an onion--you can buy it already chopped. Aspire to nothing…Just sit there. Have another Triscuit…Sleep….sleep….”

Swoon....

Happy Valentines Day

I fear I may be dragged off to a Hugh Grant chick flick. Her enthusiasm for his boyish charm and dry David Niven-esque wit is hearty enough to have survived his transvestite prostitute phase undaunted.

what are y'all doing tonight?

Taco Update

I linked this one in the dim mists of prehistory, but the intrepid author has greatly increased the depth and breadth of his ratings since the caveman days.

Bobo stuck the knife of jealousy deep into my side by mentioning he drives by this mobile Taco palace every day.`

It is the shame of my city that I have to drive 45 minutes for an edible taco, or else make it myself.

why the internet is scary

because an old pal you haven't seen in ten years will post worrisome, slightly grotesque photos from your disconnected youth, and they will find their way to your in-box via subterranian channels.

They scared Devra, and I think I know why- I've got shark eyes. Those were taken when all I did was ride my bike all day and play 3-4 hours of basketball every night.

A canny observer might ask "yes, but what was he running from?"

The wife often laments that we didn't meet earlier in our lives. Judging by the photographic record, that may not have been such a great idea...

Hooray for Germany

The nationality most often lauded on this site are the robo-centric, pop culture obsessed Japanese, the world's best hope for producing an army of cybernetic supermen.

But occasionally some other nation reaches deep into their collective subconscious and registers a blip on the Baxblog radar.

GRATZ to Germany!

Boston non-bomb non-scare story keeps a-rolling!

Cartoon Network head resigns in the wake of Boston's ludicrous overreaction to a comical non-threat.

Odd.

I'd have thought the literally mind boggling amount of free publicity generated by this "scare" would have netted said executive some sort of corporate version of the Medal of Honor, not necessitated a hasty plunge onto their own sword.

what they say/what they mean

what they say
"I found it on line, but I don't want all that hassle."


what they mean
"I found it on line but I don't want to pay what the book is worth. I was hoping the buyers here are lax enough to underprice an obvious net book and put it in general stock".

wily hippy tricks that work

As most of you know the wife spent a portion of last year attending massage school (when the caftan-clad teacher asked why in a pre-class orientation meeting her response, "because I want to make money", was a refreshingly sharp tonic to the amorphous cloud of mellow feelings rising off the other applicants).

Mixed in with anatomy lessons and all the thumb-springing, gnawing and pokking were a few sessions spent learning the basics of acupressure, the safe and sane version of accupuncture, the very name of which generates global unease.

The theory is the same, pressure on certain key points of the body has therapeutic & restorative effects, and acupuncture grew out of the older practice of acupressure.

Which brings us to my testimonial.

I picked up a cold sometime last week, which idled in my head for a bit before erupting in a multicolored welter of chunky fluids. I stoically withstood Zulu-esque waves of mucus for several days, but my stockade was finally overrun and I retired, whimpering, to bed.

A childhood under the thumb of a maniacal hypochondriac father left the Wife with an admirable lack of tolerance for grown men who snivel & whine. It took her barely a chapter of The Hunchback of Notre Dame to lose patience and lay siege to the various enemy redoubts on my face with thumb and forefinger.

Fifteen or so minutes of sustained assault on my grotesquely swollen Palace of Heaven and Welcome Perfume points yielded frankly amazing results.

I went from feeling like Rob Bottin was putting me through a Howling-style werewolf transformation to a state of relative normalcy. The mucus vanished, the pressure ceased, and the wife reports I was asleep almost instantly.

So, take it from a hippy-hating sceptic- that acupressure shit really works!

Customers of Distinction

I sold a small stack of very interesting books to magician, actor & comedian Ricky Jay yesterday.

Being halfway between SF and LA sightings of famous folk around town are not uncommon, but this was odd because he's been coming here for years and I just spotted him.

I mistook him for a book dealer, which is understandable given his eclectic taste in reading material.

99.9% of the books I sell are, to me, totally generic and forgettable.
Not judging them by literary merit- as a work of art you can't fault something like The Sound and the Fury. But it's a book I see a million times year...which is the case for nearly all of the titles I buy and stock.

I notice people who buy books that spark my jaded palate, but anyong buying several books of that sort get cataloged by my subconscious as book dealers.

But this time was different. I thought "oh, it's the dealer who asks if his dog can come in", but then I did a double take. And the credit card confirmed my suspicions.

It's like watching a movie you haven't seen in a long time and spotting a familiar face you don't remember being there.

Last night Devra was over and we screened Bullets Over Broadway and spotted Edie Falco (she has a small bit as a maid in the theater). Suddenly you notice something.

So Mr. Jay joins the short list of luminaries I've sold books to, along with Michael Stipe, Diane Lane, Bill Frisell, David Linley, Peter Case, the lead singer for Men at Work & the sax player for the Charles Mingus Big Band (either musicians buy a lot of used books, or I'm just better equipped to recognize them...).

And he vaults to the head of the line as having by far the most interesting taste in reading.

I've previously linked his excellent New Yorker profile, but here it is again. Deal!

/edit
oh, I forgot TC Boyle..but he's more of a family friend than a famous person.
Included for the sake of completeness.

Aqua Terrorist Hunger Force update

Two million dollar settlement reached.

Dirt cheap, given the promotional triumph of their LED screens getting them round-the-clock coverage on every news outlet in the country for most of the week.

official Baxblog condolances to our resident Bears fans

I transferred my allegiance to Da Bears after Mary Shittenheimer coached my Chargers out of the playoffs, and I stoically endured Rex Grossman's Kafka-esque impersonation of an NFL quarterback along with my spiritual brethren in the Windy City.

The silver lining for Prince fans was the diminutive lunatic delivering the greatest halftime show in the history of the event.

Cold comfort, I know.

Perhaps the knowledge that my Chargers still suffer the Curse of Shittenheimer will improve your disposition.

We will doubtless march through the regular season like Sherman through Georgia, then vanish into the countryside like Saddam's Republican Guard once the playoffs begin.


-------
note to DT:
I wrote Winky City in the first draft. =(

Clockwork Orange locations

clicky clicky

link provided by DT's Brother's Brother, who mislabled it "moderately cool".

nephew talk

Quoth my 6 year old nephew Alec during our babysit-a-thon the other evening:
(best if imagined in his voice which is high & sweet, like a small bird)

I feel better now, but I was I was I was very sick. The other the other morning I drank a sippy cup of water, and I felt like I was going to going to going to throw up. So I got up and went to the toilet, and then I threw up this nauseating green fluid. It was quite disgusting!

he also had a fine time showing me all of the "scary things" in his room, including a ghost hanging from a hook, a drawer full of skulls & skull-related items (pens, rings, etc), some ghoul masks and a remote controlled brain "with a monsterous mouth, and fangs".

Good stuff.

reading list

While babysitting for Erin's cousin last night I idly filipped through a copy of Odysseus in America by Johnathan Shay. By the time the wife and kids finished watching Toy Story I was 100 pages in and obvlivious to the world around me.

It's about dealing with PTSD in the context of the Vietnam veterans the author works with through the VA and how it complicates the lives of returning combat troops. But the topic is timeless and he ties the difficult homecoming of combat troops from various eras of conflict to the long delayed homecoming of Odysseus in The Odyssey.

The guy knows his topic inside out, he knows the Odyssey inside out, and he writes like a dream.

Recommended to all, and I'll be picking up a copy of his previous book (Achilles in Vietnam) ASAP.

more customer chatter

coming in fast and thick this morning.

An older woman on the phone, when asked if her requested title is a biography:

"well, it's an autobiography...an autobiography, but he didn't write it himself."

customer chatter

alterni-gal in a faux-cheetah lined hoodie to her tattooed beaux:

"oooooooo, it's cold in here and it smells like old people!"

lookout! a terrorist!

this is teh funniest bomb scare of all time...well, unless you live in Boston and your commute got jacked up because the geniuses in charge of public safety can't tell a cartoon character from a jihadist.

Made even funnier by the same ad campaign having been run in other cities including NYC with no mass public panic. The stiff-necked refusal of the people in charge of overreacting to admit they screwed up is impressive in its own right.

And I love the press conference with the nerds responsible. The only cats in the whole process who treat the situation with all the gravity and seriousness it deserves.