Veep pick

A two-year governor? Really?

DNC at Pacific Standard

There’s no better way to feel like you are part of a movement, and part of history, than to watch the acceptance speech of a man you admire while surrounded other supporters.

Alors, I attended a convention watch party last night at a pub with friends and a crowd of like-minded, mostly young, mostly nerdy-cool people.

And they were rapt!

It was interesting to note which applause lines this crowd went for: not so much for Michigan autoworkers or the military, but yes for equal pay for women and gay rights. This was definitely a particular segment of the Democratic Party at Pacific Standard last night.

Sam approves. (Note, blurriness is due to my not wanting to break the spell with my flash not due to my shoddy photography skills. Okay, it could be that, too.)


I am blurry, too! And happy to be participating in this moment. With my Obama ’08 baseball shirt on. Sweet.

P.S. If McCain picks Romney I am not going to be pleased.

Lingering distaste

I simply cannot bring myself to like Bill Clinton.

Boo on you, Santa Barbara Board of Supervisors

California County’s Resolve Against Drilling Fades

Santa Barbara Eyes Black Gold: Supes Ask Arnold to Lift Offshore Oil Ban

Have we forgotten the devastating 1969 oil spill that served as the launching pad for the modern environmental movement?

SB has always had a sharp divide between the North County conservatives and South Coast liberals, and it looks like one side is winning. Brooks Firestone (yes, the father of Andrew from "The Bachelor," and yes, related to the tire Firestones) is a sweet old guy who I've met several times, and I usually trust his judgment. But not on this. There must be another way.

This is me a couple years back on my beloved Ellwood Beach, which I could walk to from my apartment. Living in Santa Barbara you get used to the sight of the oil platforms, but you never like it.

Grab bag o' photographs

I see weird things in New York.

These are the three blimps I spotted from my office last week cruising up and down over the East River in the morning sunshine.

The new Ikea in Red Hook did such a lovely job of revamping the old, broken-down industrial waterfront that I almost don’t hate them for commercializing the view from my roof.

Coming out of a movie on 42nd Street last week there was a wonderful sunset glow—more brilliant than even the lights of Times Square.

That’s all. More photos and someone will complain about bloggers who post too many photos. I enjoy photography as a hobby, though, and I like that I have an outlet to inflict my works-in-progress on friends.

The Olympics of political self-adoration

I would be remiss if I didn’t comment on the Democratic National Convention last night. (It’s what bloggers do.) Some notes:

* Nancy Pelosi was a surprisingly bad speaker. Who keeps electing this woman? I’m looking at you, San Francisco.

* PBS rocks. Yes, my only choices are that or the networks but PBS was almost as good as CSPAN for just showing the speeches without a lot of blabbering. Although they did interview Jimmy Carter and he blabbered a bit. Is he losing it or is it just me?

* It was also weird to see Brian Williams talking to an extremely old-looking Tom Brokaw. Why is everyone suddenly ancient? The river of time flows on….or something.

* I’ve never been a Ted Kennedy fan, but even I was moved that he was able to speak at a time when he has terminal brain cancer and has been undergoing chemotherapy. It’s the end of an era we’re seeing here, which isn’t a bad thing, but it’s sad that it had to be this way.

* Michelle Obama blew me away. Dang, she’s eloquent! (More so than me, obviously.) Seeing her mom overcome with pride was almost too sweet.

* Kids are cute but they can throw a monkey wrench into your carefully choreographed satellite conversation.

* All those Clinton supporters better get onboard the Obama train, and pronto. Seriously.

Onwards and upwards with the most over-the-top, drawn-out, bright, shiny segment of a democratic political process ever.

College Un-Awards

Radar names the most debaucherous colleges and doesn't name UCSB. How far the mighty have fallen.

But both schools listed are in Cali. Woot!

Most Degenerate Student Body

Meanwile, USC takes "Most Superficial." I knew it.

Woody Allen is a dirty old man.

Yet he’s still funny, in his writing at least. In his screenwriting—eh. I saw “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” last night and it was not nearly as mediocre as his last two efforts, mostly thanks to the charisma of Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz (and no thanks to the too-blonde vamping of Scarlett Johansson). His plotting seems to be stuck at about a 19-year-old’s level and he certainly doesn’t offer the kind of searing social commentary that he did in the olden days. But in this downtime between summer blockbusters and Oscar-worthy fall films, you could do worse than to see this film.

Read this first, though, because it actually made me laugh out loud.

Do you pronounce "pin" and "pen" the same?

I’m a latecomer to this, but I had some time today to peruse the “Do You Speak American?” material on the PBS website, and it’s totally fascinating! As many of you know, I’ve been obsessed with the accents I’ve encountered on the East Coast, and spend much time trying to learn how to differentiate speakers from Maine, Boston, Brooklyn, Jersey, etc., which all sounded the same to me before I moved over here. I also monitor whatever weird thing is happening with my own accent, a development I can’t describe and cannot control. I just know that I sound very different from when I was straight from Santa Barbara. (Last week some folks I’d been speaking with asked if I was from the somewhere like Virginia.)

Some recommended links for y’all:

Start with this quiz

Californian speak and how it’s still establishing itself

Accent of the Pacific Northwest. (I like this one because it starts with how I feel—that I assumed growing up I spoke correct, regular American English. But of course we all have an accent.) And that “cot-caught” example is terrific. I always read that example in linguistics and I’m like, “But those words are pronounced the same!” At least, they are where I’m from.

The way New Yorkers talk is not all about the accent. It’s also about style, like complaining to strangers and asking staccato questions. Very interesting, and true!

Examples of regional dialects. You should listen to the woman from Brooklyn. She sounds exactly like people around me every day.

Anyway, poke around because there’s tons of good stuff. Even a bit about slang introduced by “Buffy”!

So close and yet so far

Governors Island lies just off the tip of Manhattan, closer even than Liberty or Ellis Island, and wedged up near Brooklyn. The American Indians called it Pagganck, “Nut Island,” for its plentiful nut-bearing trees, and sold it to a Dutchman in 1637 for two ax heads, a string of beads, and a handful of nails.

It has been used as a strategic military location for more than two hundred years, coming in especially handy in the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, serving as a Confederate prison during the Civil War, and housing air and army personnel and equipment until the 1960s when the Coast Guard took it over. After they left in 1996 it was sold to the people of New York and finally opened a couple of years ago as a National Monument available for visit on the weekends during the summer.

Last weekend Brian and I went there to get away from the city while still in the city. It’s remarkably close, just one quick subway ride and then a short ferry jaunt. And it is outrageously lovely. The top bit of the island that is open to the public centers around a fort built in 1794 and features quiet tree-lined avenues with colonial-style homes and lots and lots of lawn to sprawl on. Absolutely wonderful.

Pictures!

View from the ferry looking north up the East River at the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges. The sky was utterly amazing that day.

View from ferry east to Brooklyn. (Note one of the Olafur Eliasson waterfalls.)

We rented bicycles. This is Colonel’s Row.

From the west side of the island, you can look north at the lower end of Manhattan. Check out those clouds!




From there, you're also relatively close to El Statue.

Neat old fort in star-shaped pattern with crazy trenches.

Inside the most charming fort ever.

I really want to set up housekeeping in one of the peaceful, historic, empty homes on the island. Think anyone would notice? Sigh.

You there!

I have noticed lately that when stuck behind a slow-moving woman on the sidewalk, subway stairs, or escalator, ninety-nine percent of the time I will refer to her in my head as “chickypoo.” As in, “Okay, chickypoo, let’s move it,” or “Some of us have places to be, chickypoo.”

Perhaps I subconsciously feel better about my unnecessary pedestrian rage when I use a cute term instead of an obscene one. I don’t believe I have an equivalent passive-aggressive nickname for male strangers.Very strange.

I’d love to hear if any of you have names with which you habitually address strangers who annoy you. Let’s keep the profanity to a minimum, though.

Editing, editing, editing...

..but will have more time to post tomorrow!

Laundry day

I’ve had this song running through my head all day:

With my freeze ray I will
Stop, the world.
With my freeze ray I will
Find the time to find the words to
Tell you how you make me feel …

If you know what that’s from, you’re my friend. If not, go directly to Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog and watch the marvelously unholy pairing of Joss Whedon and Neil Patrick Harris.

I can’t believe there’s not a sequel!

(Warning: spoilers in the comments section.)

The suspense

As the world waits with bated breath to see who Obama will select as his vice-presidential candidate (it could be today! or tomorrow! or right now!), the splash page of his campaign website blares "WHO WILL BE BARACK'S VP? Be the first to know." You can sign up and "he" will text message or e-mail you when it's announced. What are the odds that supporters will get the message before the choice is leaked to or discovered by the press?

I think slim, very slim. But I'm going to sign up and we'll see who wins this race.

So...tired...

Cannot...possibly...stay up again to watch the end of an Olympic event for which I already know the outcome.

Okay, yes I can.

Now, once again feeling the repercussions of a too-late night of cheering against the Chinese.

Oh well, gymnastics is over and I'm not as compelled to watch folks run around in circles, so maybe I'll start getting some sleep.

Like maybe by crawling under my desk...right...now...zzzzz

I am still busy doing actual work

Meanwhile, check out this story about how cheerleading is just as dangerous as I always said it was.

I knew there was a reason I was always freaked out doing stunts. Good thing I'm such a wuss!

No time to post blog pieces right now.

I'm writing accounting articles, god help me.

Note to self:

Do not take a new job in the end of June because it means you won’t be allowed any vacation days until October at the very earliest. Which means while everyone else is taking days off, traveling to exotic places, going home, relaxing, and gallivanting, you are sitting in an office feeling your life force seep out.

Too much? What, it’s Monday.

Lots of time on his hands

Someone made a miniature model of Midtown out of balsa wood. You can see my building two blocks east of the Empire State Building and set distinctively cock-eyed to the grid!

Way cool.

And now for something lighter. It is Friday, after all.

I was a fan of LOLcats for three seconds. I may have even sent around an e-mail to coworkers at one (two) point(s) with funny photos from I Can Has Cheezburger.

But now it’s gone too far. People are translating the Bible into LOLcatspeak, for God’s sake!

Interestingly, the creator of LOLcats has postulated that the 1970s poster of a kitten captioned “Hang in there!” might be the precursor of the trend that really exploded after the I Can Haz Cheesburger website appeared in January 2007.

Laughing Squid has gathered the mind-boggling variety of LOL takeoffs out there. And really, now I’m just getting annoyed.

But okay, here’s just one:

Aww...

I saw this story on the local news last night...

...and it made me very, very sad.

Pregnant Traffic Agent Is Hit and Killed

Be careful out there, folks.

Here we go again...

FLOOD WATCH—NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE
NY 12:05 PM EDT FRI AUG 15
2008...Flash flooding is possible through this evening…strong thunderstorms over the region this afternoon will produce torrential rainfall that may lead to flash flooding. The evening rush hour could be significantly impacted.

Yesterday upon leaving my building I was nearly drowned during my one-block scamper to the train. Later, I almost electocuted myself by adjusting my TV antenna while one of many scary lightning bolts struck way close to our building. I love thunderstorms as much as the next gal but I'd like for once to be able to be able to go outside between the hours of 5 and 10 p.m. without fearing for my life.

Full flood watch

Super-awesome photo by Rick Elkins on Flickr.

Lunch hour

1 p.m., Thursday, August 14, 2008.
Walking 34th Street between Fifth Avenue and Broadway.

A skinny white homeless guy pushes a shopping cart with a boombox playing “Different strokes for different folks, and so on and so on and scooby-dooby-doo-bee…”

A portly man in a checkered shirt walks in front of a delivery truck blocking the intersection and the driver leans out to yell, “Fatty, get out my way! Eat my s***, b***!”

City Sights NY ticket agents in yellow vests accost families of tourists to show them their menus of inflated prices for bus loops and attractions. Gray Line ticket agents in red vests do the same. They all speak in thick Caribbean accents. I am ignored because I’m a solitary young woman in heels.

European teenagers block the sidewalk.

Ticket sellers for the Empire State Building shout, “There’s a two-hour wait! Get your fast-track here!”

A young white bearded guy sits on the sidewalk with the cardboard sign: “Iraqi War Veteran and Homeless. Please Help.”

The Empire State Building doorman with the gold tooth and the burgundy uniform tells someone for the umpteenth time that day that the visitor entrance is around the corner.

A Pakistani family poses for a picture with the foam Statue of Liberty in front of The City That Never Sleeps Souvenirs Shop. Two doors down, a rotund American woman in pink rubber flip-flops poses with the foam Statue of Liberty in front of the 34th St. Souvenirs Shop.

A woman in a short dress bums a smoke from a stylish girl outside Strawberry.

A motley line of tourists waits for the double-decker buses for which they’ve each paid upwards of $40 to the vested ticket agents down the street.

A twenty-something woman tells her out-of-town lesbian friend, “You can usually tell where south is by looking to see where the Empire State Building is. I don’t know why you can’t see it right now. …Hey, I got a movie callback—that never happens!”

I continue on to Kmart.

You can't help but watch

No. 1: Damn you, Olympics for keeping me us so late to watch the most interesting events. I can’t stay up till midnight for the next two weeks—I need my beauty sleep!

No. 2: I’m kind of annoyed by all the world-record breaking going on. Sure, it’s thrilling, but after a while it loses its luster. I feel bad for all the previous Olympic athletes who worked very hard to make new records, only to have them shattered by technological advances and the march of time. That doesn’t seem quite fair.

So I’ve been wondering: why is this happening so often? And in swimming at least, the answer seems to be a combination of athletes being well-paid enough to train full time, a deeper swimming pool, and those crazy NASA-designed suits.

I still don’t like it.

I mean, go U.S.A.!

How are swimmers smashing so many Olympic records?

6 Reasons Today’s Olympic Swimmers are Breaking so many World Records

No. 3: I'm pretty sure the Chinese men's synchronized divers are robots.

Yes, this was on Gothamist but it's cool so I'm stealing it

The sudden afternoon rainstorms we've been having aren't all bad. Yesterday evening's deluge (which of course I got caught in without an umbrella; mad dash down 35th under awnings!) resulted in this rainbow that was widely spotted around town. I’ve noticed we don’t really get a lot of rainbows in New York, so this was pretty neat. A bunch of us saw it, or at least a part of it not obscured by buildings, from a rooftop bar.

Then it rained some more.

Photo from Flickr by B.I.L. NYC.

Serious control freaks

Fake fireworks, replacing a not-quite-adorable-enough girl with a cuter one, gymnasts the government swears are 16 even though they look about 9…China is creeping me out more and more every day.

Part of Olympic display altered in broadcast

In Grand Olympic Show, Some Sleight of Voice

Athletes Only as Old as China Says They Are

Unfortunate sign of the day

Writ large in fancy script across the awning of a dry cleaners on 33rd:

"For those who are discriminant."

Would you like some algebra with your pressed slacks?

Why don't boys wear ties anymore?

Check out these neat photos I was just sent by a distant relative. This is my grandfather and his older brother in New York in the 1920s. Dapper Dans!

I love you, Christian!

Okay. I used to love him. Such that I can't help but be intrigued by anything he does. Preteen crushes die hard.



Also, some of my friends have mentioned a Christian Slater movie marathon, and I think we need to make this happen. You know you want to see "Pump up the Volume" followed by "Heathers" followed by "True Romance." "Kuffs," I can take or leave.

I was kind of obsessed with this movie when I was a kid.

Pump Up The Volume (Theatrical Trailer)
by NakedBrotha2007

NBC is mean

Look, NBC, I know you paid like a billion dollars to get the exclusive rights to coverage of the Olympic Games. And I know I haven’t even been paying much attention to the Beijing Olympics because any story so ubiquitous in the media turns me off. But I was busy on Friday night and couldn’t watch the opening ceremony. And you keep saying how you have boatloads of video available online. But when I tried to see some neato footage, you told me I wasn’t allowed because I’m not a cable subscriber.

Well I just don’t think that’s very nice. You allow us poor people to see your coverage on broadcast TV using rabbit-ear antennas, but I can’t log onto the Internet using my neighbor’s wireless signal to see this same coverage if I missed it? I think you’re biased against the 13 million households that don’t pay for cable. And I also am alarmed that you can figure out I’m not a cable subscriber just by me putting in my zipcode and a local cable provider. How do you know who I am? Get out of my computer and let me see some freaking synchronized swimming!

Update: Since writing this, I have tried again and realized if you scroll ALL the way down, there is in fact a checkbox for "broadcast customer." A reminder to myself not to get prematurely irate. (This still doesn't explain how Big Brother could tell I wasn't a cable subscriber.) We'll see if it works when I get home. Unlimited hours of platform diving, here I come!

Neat!

Summers on the East Coast are so exciting. We once again are under a severe thunderstorm warning and "urban flood" advisory, with heavy rain, lightning, thunder, and hail going on all morning. I watched it move in from the southwest, looking like Murky Dismal himself coming to put an end to our rainbows.

Special Weather Statement

Watch out for underpasses and taxi splash, and cross your fingers the stupid subways don't flood again. I can't believe I used to live in a place (S.B.) where there was not one drop of rain from March to December. Does this summer seem awfully thunderstormy to anyone else, though?

The world has gone mad

Bernie Mac died, former Soviet states are warring with each other, an American is killed at the Olympic Games, another politician got caught with his pants down ...


I'm going shopping.

Eek.

In preparation for an informal lit gathering this weekend, I’ve been looking over some pieces of creative writing I did way back in aught-one. And I’ve discovered the following:

* I was outrageously melodramatic when I was 23. My lord.

* The grandiosity of a recently graduated English major knows no bounds.

* I should never be allowed to write poetry. Particularly any kind that includes an homage to Wordsworth.

* Sitting on sandstone rocks watching the sunset leads an unimaginative person to write about sitting on sandstone rocks watching the sunset.

* There’s a reason I’m in journalism.

So if I see you this weekend and read from a published author I adore instead of my own poem, “Candy Wrapper,” know that I’m doing you a favor.

You can't do that!

WNBC Channel 4 preempted the season finale of “Last Comic Standing” last night for an exhibition game between the New York Giants and Detroit.

Football in August?

I am not amused.

Books behind bars

I just discovered a wondrous place. It’s called the Mid-Manhattan Public Library. Perhaps you’ve heard of it? Now that I’m out of book publishing and therefore also out of the loop of free and cheap books, I find myself railing against the idea of purchasing anything at bookstore prices. Where’s a girl to turn?

Oh, right, that most basic building block of any democracy: a library open to all. Of course, this particular library, the biggest one in the NYPL system and located in a prominent Midtown location, is free and open as long as you pass airline-like security. Do you really need to peek into my little purse twice? Must I check out and then have my books and receipts inspected again at the door? My god, it’s as bad as Costco. Worse, even! What am I, smuggling state secrets here? I just want to check out some James Fenimore Cooper! Is that so wrong?!

Okay, I’m over it. Free books, woot! (Sure, I had $18 in late charges I had to pay in cash before I could check out anything. But I mean, now it’s free.) Yay democracy.

There are grosser things on Earth than you knew

This "Planet Earth" segment on insects being infected with a fungus that makes them crazy and then sprouts from their corpse will haunt me for a long time to come.



Now it can also haunt you!

Wednesday notes

1. Never let friends have parties on Tuesday nights.

2. Why is it that in a city with 1,000 bars I always end up at the same one? (The Emerald Pub, 308 Spring Street. Check it out.)

3. Is that my friends and coworkers are unadventurous? Or is it just that we know what we like?


4. One good thing about leaving a workplace is that when you return to go out with coworkers, you are a rock star.

5. Rock-star status escalates the longer you’ve been gone from a job. Five weeks puts you at about the Rick Astley level.

6. Bo and Hope have been a couple on “Days of our Lives” for a really long time!

7. It’s really annoying to have an invisible mosquito in your house.

8. Why are cabbies such jerks about going to Brooklyn?

9. I forgot to mention that I drove for the first time in eight months on our trip to the Catskills. I remember how! And as soon as you get behind the wheel of a car in Midtown Manhattan, you lose all empathy and respect for pedestrians. I’m drivin’ here!


10. Is it really August already? I’m getting that whiff of back-to-school on the air. I wish it included me--I’d love to pick out a new Trapper Keeper.

11. Thanks to my dad for getting me “Planet Earth” on DVD. Now I can stop watching reality talent/dance/comedy/cooking competitions on network TV!

12. Wednesday. Blech.