I haven’t had much time to write. It’s OK. Actually doing stuff is a nice change from writing about wanting to do stuff, yes? Anyway, there’s been a fair amount of goodness going on and, being who I am, I am already worried about the withdrawal symptoms that will “rear their heads” (to quote from my new friend Pay-Pay, my affectionate-sounding nickname for Sarah Palin) once the fun is over. But that will have to wait. Here’s the coolness:

Earlier this month (October 2), saw Fleet Foxes in Philly (with my friends LJ and Sara). Their set was just lovely… lovely, lovely, lovely. Pardon the floweriness, but their voices and harmonies are just heavenly. The opening act, whom I shall call “Hipster with Banjo” - not so much. There are several videos from that show on YouTube - here’s one of their song “Mykonos”. You have to ignore some of the audience sing-along:

Yeah - so this was at the Starlight Ballroom. Beforehand, we got some tasty dinnerness at the Silk City Diner and some gelato at Capogiro. Mmmmm, tasty.

Later that weekend, there was some small-scale bar-hopping in Brooklyn. If hopping can be applied to going to one bar, walking a block away to another bar and then heading back to bar #1. The two bars - Union Pool and Fette Sau. Fette Sau is, strictly speaking, a barbecue joint. A barbecue joint with a smoker capable of “slow-cooking 700 pounds of meat at a time”. AT A TIME. We walked in and the smell of smokey mesquite and meat was just divine. Unfortunately, they were no longer serving food. Fortunately, they were still serving alcohol, so we had some rye (Michter’s?).

‘Twas my first experience with rye (and probably only my third or fourth encounter with the bourbon/whiskey family) and it was pleasant and without embarrassing after-effects. Honestly, those labels on meds that say you shouldn’t drink while taking them aren’t joking. While on my meds, I would have one glass of wine or one mixed drink and feel a bit rosy and sleepy already, even if I nursed that one drink forever. Sans medication, a vodka tonic here and a pour of rye there… and I was clear and good and not laughing inappropriately or anything.

Also that weekend, I saw Religulous. I’ve heard various criticisms - that said, I liked it. A lot. You sort of know what to expect from Bill Maher… he’s going to be asking questions, poking fun, potentially offending people… but all in all, he’s bringing forth some interesting truths, whether or not you enjoy the way they’re elicited. Here’s a clip from The Daily Show:

Finally, I also got to see Blindness. This got a bit of a negative response from film critics. One of those reviews was co-opted as my Facebook status message for a bit:

[Blindness is] supposed to work as an allegory for urban alienation, but soon begins to feel like an exploitation horror with pretensions of being more.

Let me first say that I read the book by Jose Saramago several years ago and re-read it a good 7 or 8 months ago when I heard the movie was in production. I really enjoy the book. I gave it to a work-friend as a Christmas gift and she liked it until a certain point where she couldn’t read it anymore, saying, “Eva, there’s just too much shit.” Meaning actual shit - fecal matter that the characters are forced to walk through/avoid. I advised her to view it as metaphorical shit, but I think people’s squeamishness and willingness to deal with quantities/levels of shit varies greatly.

That said, the movie was much cleaner than the book. I didn’t for a moment see it as an exploitation horror. It wasn’t “harrowing” or “difficult to watch”, which was other criticism leveled against it. I thought it was really well-shot (dare I say, beautifully?), with a good sense of the story; it did a fantastic job of heightening my awareness of my own sight while I was watching a bleak world of fumbling blind people. I thought it was quite good. Also, not one, but both of the friends with whom I saw it liked it. So there, critics. Moderately intelligent lay-people have spoken (and I even took a few film courses back in my NYU days, so I can throw that into the mix, if needed).

That’s some catch-up from a while ago. It’s been crazy lately. I’ve been feeling close to crazy lately. There’s much going on with work and home and friends and work (again). I’m traveling for work later next week and I need to borrow a laptop from one of my siblings (it’s something I need to buy for myself but cannot currently afford). I’ll be in Houston for work next Friday through Monday. Without a computer, I will be a bit of a wreck. For serious.

I’m struck with a sudden desire to watch the old Adam West/Burt Ward “Batman.” The TV episodes haven’t made it onto DVD (legal fun - Wikipedia has a nice summary) but the MOVIE sure did! And I’ve got it right here - shark repellant batspray, (Lee Meriwether (not Julie Newmar or Eartha Kitt) and all. So I think I’ll watch that tonight.

To counter last night’s sad sack of a post, allow me to share some entertaining things. Rightfully, and to match the taxonomy and structure I’ve set forth thus far, this post should be called, “Easily Entertained, volume #” - but nah. I like the Riddler reference a bit better. So, here’s some random stuff:

• One of my favorite enjoyable fun reads (that is to day, not horribly mentally taxing, but definitely not a waste of your time) from Mr. Neil Gaiman is up on the internets for free for one month. THIRTY DAYS. You can download the PDF and read it. He and his publisher (HarperCollins) did this a few months back with another one of his books and saw a bit of a jump in sales, esp. in independent bookstores, if I recall correctly. This time, it’s his book Neverwhere. So… check it out if you’d like to read a bit of non-dragon fantasy fiction about London and people and relationships and puns. It’s one of those books I could read over and over again. Just fun.

• If you’re in the northern New Jersey area and have access to a car and are craving some delicious diner food, by all means get yourself over to Tops Diner in East Newark, NJ. I went after work tonight with a friend from work and we stuffed ourselves silly… after spending about 15 minutes just staring at the menu. I must reiterate that my heart belongs to the Tick-Tock diner. They’ve got the sweet potato fries, the strangely surly service and shiny chrome that gives it authentic Jersey diner flair… but Tops Diner is surprisingly upscale (I use the term in the diner sense), offering things like eggs Benedict with crab cakes instead of Canadian bacon. The decor is more modern and sleeker, and the menu is twice as expansive. So, yeah. Consider it for your next northern NJ diner run.
• The Shape of Song. This is just geeky fun. The structure of songs is such that elements repeat - choruses, motifs, etc. This site provides a visual representation of various songs submitted - check out the simplicity of the well-known X-Files theme song by Mark Snow, the minimal roadbumps of Nine Inch Nails’ Closer, anything from Radiohead and Pachelbel’s canon. Pretty.
  

  The diagrams in The Shape of Song display musical form as a sequence of translucent arches. Each arch connects two repeated, identical passages of a composition. By using repeated passages as signposts, the diagram illustrates the deep structure of the composition.

• My Moo stickerbook arrived yesterday (@ right). Moo is a UK-based company who’s partnered with Flickr to create these cute little sticker books from your Flickr photostream. You select a bunch of photos and they print them up in a cute match-book style sticker book. I was like a little kid when I got the envelope. I’m all excited about where to put my new stickers.
• Quick Sarah Palin round-up. I’m not watching the speech tonight (no cable) and I don’t want to listen, so I’ll hear all about it tomorrow morning on NPR. In the meantime, here are some posts I’ve found interesting (and/or entertaining): (1) What a librarian has to say about Mrs. Palin, (2) a post from This Recording which I should not even try to describe, (3) a piece from an Alaska native in The New Republic called, “Palin? Really?” (4) a little piece about Palin’s kids’ names (5) and something a bit less tabloid-ey from the NYT. There’s tons more, but that would just feel wrong.
• It’s going to be almost 90 degrees in NJ tomorrow and Friday - and raining on Friday and Saturday. I want fall to get here already. I want more than just the falling leaves with their colors changing (which is sort of happening already) but also the cool weather. That’s what I want. I also wanted to find and post a clip from the Family Guy episode with the leafers descending upon Rhode Island, but I couldn’t find it on YouTube or Hulu. Oh well.