Archive for 'The Offical Record' Category
ICE-9.
17 August 2002Did you ever read Cat’s Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut? In the book there’s this stuff called Ice-9, which is water that is frozen at room temperature. And if it touches any other water, it turns it into Ice 9. It’s the ultimate doomsday weapon, since a tiny drop could turn all the oceans in the […]
MOVIE REVIEW: NOVOCAINE * 1/2 (1 and a half stars out of 4).
17 August 2002I’m never clear on whether this Steve Martin movie is a murder mystery or a black comedy, and in trying to be both, it winds up being neither one satisfactorily. As a murder mystery, the plot is too contrived to be believed, but as a black comedy, it’s to gritty and not that funny. Interestingly, […]
THESE ARE BAD HEADLINES.
16 August 2002I’m about two thirds through “Ogilvy on Advertising” by David Ogilvy. He gives two tips for headlines, to make them easy to read and effective. 1) Don’t put them in all capital letters; and 2) don’t put a period at the end. Ah, well.
I SHALL RETURN.
15 August 2002I just bought my return ticket to New York City. I’ll arrive Wednesday evening, August 21. It will be good to be back. Florida is depressingly dull. I’m not really into the beach or the club scene, and there isn’t much else to do. I should try to do a little shopping while I’m here. […]
BOOK REVIEW: FROM BAUHAUS TO OUR HOUSE BY TOM WOLFE * * 1/2 (2 and one half stars out of 4).
14 August 2002Tom Wolfe’s From Bauhaus to Our House delivers a scathing critique of American architecture in the 20th century. It is fascinating to observe the disconnect between architectural theory and aesthetics. And Wolfe is surely correct that this disconnect is a bad thing. Yet, I think, there are some beautiful buildings out there that were built […]
SAD CLOWN.
14 August 2002I drew this sketch, and I kind of liked it. I think it would make a good tattoo.
I SHAVED OFF MY GOATEE.
13 August 2002After about 8 years, or more than 1/4 of my life, I finally shaved off my goatee. This would be a very appropriate spot for a picture, but 1) I don’t know how to upload pictures to my blog; and 2) I don’t have a picture of my shaved face yet.
INSTITUTIONAL RACISM.
13 August 2002My brother’s girlfriend, Rachel C. has something to do with the Florida Department of Children and Families. She noticed the following language in one of their brochures which has the headline on its cover: “Having a family should be more than a child’s dream.” It says: Who are the children waiting for families? Children waiting […]
HAPPY ANNIVERSARIES.
12 August 2002Yesterday, August 11, was my parents’ wedding anniversary, and also my company, Charge.Com’s, anniversary. My parents were married 34 years ago, yesterday, and Network Solutions completed the registration of our domain “charge.com” 7 years ago yesterday. “7 years ago yesterday” sounds just right, because it was 7 years ago, but it feels like yesterday. How […]
PITHY PARTY.
11 August 2002My “insaaaane” friend Dav C. thinks that you don’t know what the word “pithy” means. Actually, I just wanted to give him a shout-out for being the first blogger to link to my blog that I know about.
TATTOO CONVENTION.
11 August 2002My friend David B. is a very famous tattoo artist, and he is in Florida for the weekend for a tattoo convention. So, I went with him yesterday and saw the convention, and watched it walk by his booth. I know that anything I say about it (other than that people into body art are […]
I’M LEAVING ON A JET PLANE.
9 August 2002I’m off to South Florida for a couple weeks, where I grew up. I’m leaving for the airport in half an hour.
RESTAURANT REVIEW: REPUBLIC * * * (3 stars out of 4).
9 August 2002Jessica D. just took me out to dinner at Republic, on Union Square West between 16th and 17th. They have good, fresh Thai food at reasonable prices, with lots of dinner entrees under $10. My two complaints are that 1) it is much too loud, and 2) there is communal seating, where you sit at […]
FRANK MILLER.
9 August 2002I just met Frank Miller, the famous comic book writer and artist, at a book signing at Midtown Comics. It was from 5 to 7. I got there before 5, and only got to get my book signed because he stayed at least a half-hour late. That line just didn’t move. How long does it […]
I HATE SPAM.
8 August 2002I am so sick of spam. I get about three or four hundred spams a day to my various e-mail addresses, and it costs me hours every week. Just now, I got a spam advertising child pornography. I’ve gotten a lot of such spams before, and they, of course, are particularly upsetting, as far as […]
MOVIE REVIEW: DOLORES CLAIBORNE * 1/2 (1 and a half stars out of 4).
8 August 2002I recently rented this (See my July 31, 2002 blog entry on my Blockbuster experience), and I was disappointed. I’d heard good things about it, but I found the movie not very believable, even though I also found it very predictable. Also, it suffers from the all-too common fault of having the bad guy go […]
BOOK REVIEW: RICH DAD, POOR DAD * * (2 stars out of 4).
8 August 2002“Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money–That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!” by Robert T. Kiyosaki makes some interesting points about how our attitudes about money are shaped by our parents, and how this is part of the reason why rich parents have rich children and poor parents […]
GOT ‘EM ALL CUT.
8 August 2002Sid, the guy who cuts my hair at the downtown Vidal Sassoon on 5th Avenue at 14th is a genius. I mean, you know, about cutting hair. Not that he’s dumb about other stuff. Just, you know, so, anyway, having curly hair, as I do, it is very hard to get a good haircut. Most […]
A CRAZY MCDONALD’S COMMERCIAL.
7 August 2002On my TV screen appears a picture of a Big Mac followed by a cartoon smile. Then, a picture of a super-sized order of french fries, followed by a cartoon smile. Next, a picture of a large regular Coke followed by the smile. A cheerful announcer asks, “What could make you happier than a Big […]
BOOK REVIEW: THE TEMPTING OF AMERICA, BY ROBERT BORK * * * (3 stars out of 4).
5 August 2002The book, by defeated US Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork, is very smart and well-written, but plagued with logical inconsistencies. The “tempting” that he condemns is the temptation to use result-driven pseudo-legal reasoning to interpret the Constitution to say what liberal judges want it to say. To the extent that Bork’s claim is that sometimes […]
THEATER REVIEW: A.S.S.S.S.C.A.T. * * * * (4 stars out of 4).
5 August 2002The best show in New York City, for as long as I’ve lived here, is A.S.S.S.S.C.A.T. on Sundays at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater. I just saw it Sunday night with Debbie W. It is totally improvised; that is, the performers make up their lines as they go along. Most weeks, at least two or […]
FOREIGN LANGUAGES.
4 August 2002Language is effortless to learn before you’re 6, not that hard to learn before you’re 13, and extremely difficult to learn after you’re 13. I think that’s a really big, important idea, and one of the half dozen or so major, big, important ideas that I personally don’t think society pays near enough attention to. […]
“THAT’S TERESTING!”
4 August 2002I was talking to a friend the other day, and she said that an executive where she works was very ill-mannered. So I asked, “Would you say, then, that his manners are ‘peccable’?” “Oh, as opposed to ‘impeccable’?” she laughed, getting the joke. So, I made the same joke the next day to Andy M., […]
BOOK REVIEW: THE NEXT FIFTY YEARS: SCIENCE IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY * * (2 stars, out of 4).
4 August 2002It’s hard to judge a book of essays as a whole. There are some four star essays and some no star essays in this book. But taken as a whole, there is very little flow to the book. Rather, it is both extremely repetitive and contradictory. Practically every writer has to mention Moore’s Law, and […]
MOVIE REVIEW: AUSTIN POWERS 3 * * 1/2 (2 and a half stars, out of 4).
4 August 2002I just saw Austin Powers 3: Goldmember, with Jin K. She liked it a lot, but I was disappointed. Perhaps it’s not fair to judge it against the other Austin Powers movies, which I thought were really great. But by that high standard, this one comes up short. It’s really striking how much money they […]