WeirdCurves
Blog Ennui
I think it's time to take a little break from blogging. I haven't been getting a lot out of it lately and don't have much time to spend on it. I need to rethink how I want to use this forum. It has gotten away from what I originally wanted it to be.
Tip of the Day
You know that funky smell that inevitably permeates the interior of a cooler? That stale, dank smell that reveals past bologna sandwiches that inhabited the space? I never knew how to get rid of that smell. According to Coleman, you can get rid of the offensive odor by wiping the interior of the cooler with a rag soaked in vanilla extract. If the smell is really bad, leave the rag in the cooler for 24 hours. Who knew that vanilla extract could neutralize a bad smell? Not me.
Hmmm?
Do we like the "Ebay Item of the Day" feature? ------>
I've had it up there since last week and have not gotten a response from anyone. Too silly? Too trite? Let me know your feelings.
Movies
I saw
Underworld a couple of nights ago and enjoyed it. Not spectacular, but a fun vampire versus werewolves movie with a little bit of depth. The
Salon review is fair (beware of spoilers).
Party Monster was boring. The sight of Macaulay Culkin in pseudo-drag creeped me out.
Good Teachers Rock
I am totally digging my travel writing class. Class met last night. I volunteered to have my story idea ripped apart by the class and the instructor (mainly the instructor). I ended up with helpful direction as to what I need to do next to make the article saleable. I'm really glad that the instructor isn't afraid to tell students that their ideas suck. I'm even more glad that she gives valuable advice to help students get their ideas from trite to interesting.
Art
The
press release for Census 03 led me to believe that this is a show that would appeal to my interests in new media. I thought that I would see dramatic installations showing the latest in artisitic technology. That wasn’t the case. I stopped by the
Corcoran last night after work to have a look at the exhibit. I was surprised to see how traditional it looked. I wanted to see something very new, but it looked to me like any modern art exhibit. There was nothing that defined it as being a D.C. art project as it was billed. But none of the pieces were terribly offensive. I even liked a couple. Tim Doud’s
Dirty Martini was interesting. As was Graham Caldwell’s
Seedling—a wall full of dripping hooks made from blown glass. The
U.S. Department of Art and Technology display was entertaining, but I’m not sure that I would define it as art. I definitely could have lived without it and am glad that I went when the Corcoran doesn’t charge an admission fee (Thursdays 5pm-9pm).
The real stinker of the evening was
Beyond the Frame: Impressionism Revisited. This is the creepiest art exhibit that I have ever seen. The sculptures creeped me out the same way that the Hall of Presidents at Disney World creeped me out when I was a kid. Really fake looking reproductions of people should not be made. As I walked around the exhibit I couldn’t stop asking myself, “What’s the point of this?” Why on earth would someone want to spend this much time making sculptures of paintings? Much less Impressionist paintings?? I could go on and on about how stupid this exhibit is, but
Blake Gopnik does such a better job. The only piece that I found kind of cool was van Gogh’s
The Bedroom—no creepy people there. I guess the exhibit is kind of worth seeing just so you can say that you’ve seen the world’s worst art exhibit, but make sure you go when it’s free.
Understatement of the Year
It is "
unfortunate" that Satan is our Defense Secretary.
Kill Me Now
We all knew that it had happen eventually. A game of
Russian Roulette will be shown live on British television.
In even more
bizarre news, some lame band plans to broadcast a suicide over the Internet this weekend.
FYI
Here is the transcript of Gorbachev's speech at AU.
Mikhail Gorbachev addressed the
American University community last night with a speech criticizing the U.S. invasion of Iraq. He began his speech with a reference to the
commencement speech delivered at the university by John F. Kennedy in 1963. In this speech Kennedy outlines his argument for avoiding any war—especially a nuclear war—and seeking peace between all people. He specifically addresses the relationship between the U.S. and the Soviet Union and a strategy for how the two nations can avoid a nuclear war. Gorbachev stated last night that he “can still sign on to all of the principles” that were addressed by Kennedy.
Gorbachev went on to remark about the importance of being a leader and realizing the ramifications of your actions on the people you lead. He recalled the negotiations that he was a part of with Regan and George I and noted that the world leaders of that time were well aware of the importance of their relationships with one another. Gorbachev criticized George II for neglecting these relationships now and expressed his fear of what will become of all that was achieved by the major world powers at the end of the cold war.
He emphasized several times that war is not the answer to the problems the U.S. faces. As he spoke about some of Dubya’s decisions in the recent months, he stated that, “violence reflects a simplistic perspective of the complicated situation” in the Middle East at this time.
The packed arena seemed mesmerized by Gorbachev’s words and appeared to hear his call to them to question our leader and demand that a peaceful resolution be sought immediately.
I bet Kennedy never imagined that the former leader of the U.S.S.R. would ask us to seek a strategy for peace a mere 30 years after he delivered his speech. I hesitate to imagine what the political landscape will look like in another 30 years.
From Kennedy’s speech:
I speak of peace because of the new face of war. Total war makes no sense in an age when great powers can maintain large and relatively invulnerable nuclear forces and refuse to surrender without resort to those forces. It makes no sense in an age when a single nuclear weapon contains almost ten times the explosive force delivered by all the allied air forces in the Second World War. It makes no sense in an age when the deadly poisons produced by a nuclear exchange would be carried by wind and water and soil and seed to the far corners of the globe and to generations yet unborn.
. . .
The United States, as the world knows, will never start a war. We do not want a war. We do not now expect a war. This generation of Americans has already had enough--more than enough--of war and hate and oppression. We shall be prepared if others wish it. We shall be alert to try to stop it. But we shall also do our part to build a world of peace where the weak are safe and the strong are just. We are not helpless before that task or hopeless of its success. Confident and unafraid, we labor on--not toward a strategy of annihilation but toward a strategy of peace.
