Recent Playlist By Song

Random stuff, but here's some of the good songs I've discovered or (in most cases) re-discovered.

• "Mmm mmm mmm mmm," Crash Test Dummies. They performed it on an old SNL I watched. I forgot that it's really good.
• "Radar Love," Golden Earring. Just good for driving.
• "Wet Match," Etta James. Her funniest (and dirtiest) song.
• "Busting Up A Starbucks," Mike Doughty. Thanks, Joe.
• "Unbelievable," EMF. Your purple broach just gives you away.
• "Short Skirt/Long Jacket," Cake. Good lyrics.
• "I Can't Wait to Meetchu," Macy Gray. It took me like 10 times listening to this to realize she was talking about God.

Random, but good.

Apologies to the Southern Hemisphere

I've always thought that would be a good title for a book.

Anyway, apologies to my readers as I've been lagging on the blogging these last two days. I'm getting a mailing out at the Grand for the Board nominations and if there is anything not conducive to multi-tasking it's getting out a mailing.

Label the return envelopes, fold the return envelopes, stuff the return envelopes, collate the ballots, stuff the ballots, seal the envelopes, label the envelopes, count the envelopes by ZIP code, deliver the envelopes.

The only other thing you can do while getting out a mailing is listen to music.

Amazonia

So I got a $100 gift certificate to Amazon for Christmas and I've spent the last two months adding items to the shopping cart. The only greater pleasure is opening the box. So a big hurrah for Annie Proulx's Brokeback Mountain, which I am eager to read (all 30 pages of). Two other novels, a graphic novel (I'll be reading V for Vendetta now that I've seen it), 1776, the DVD of the English Patient, and--my most embarrassing piece: "Advantage Yahtzee" which is a strategy guide for Yahtzee written by a PhD mathematician who knows about probability and odds and stuff.

So I'm a huge dork. I admit it. And it's not like I'm playing Yahtzee for money. But I think being good at Yahtzee is a skill I'd like to have. And some day someone is going to say, "Hey, there goes Erik Hanberg, he's an Olympic curler, he's written a bestselling novel, rides a mean unicycle, and--if you're not careful--you'll lose your shirt to him at Yahtzee."

I'll be the first Post-Modern Renaissance Man.

Wow.

You must must must watch this. It's about the most feel-good video you'll see this year. I swear you'll tear up. It's about a minute or two long and worth every second.

Mighty Casey

Speaking of Frisbee Joe, I've joined his Yahoo Fantasy Baseball league. My team name is the only team name fitting for an English major: the Mudville 9.

Mighty Casey is going to kick some fantasy baseball booty!

Cap

Congrats to Frisbee Joe in Minneapolis, the new captain of his frisbee team. Today, Frisbee, tomorrow, something else that is round and wobbles on its axis.

You give me fever

If you want the most winsome romantic comedy of last year, I give very high props to Fever Pitch. We watched it tonight and I loved it just as much as when it came out last year. It is really funny, but it's also very real and very fun. A+ from the cinema guy.

Family Planning

Couldn't resist the title. :)

It's been a long time since Team Hanberg gathered. Krista had quite a Friday. After passing her real estate exam she backed into her friend's BMW. Win some, lose some, I guess.

Today the four of us talked about the lake over thai food, Krista and I eating on the floor of the living room, and all of us talking about what we wanted to see happen out there. It was a discussion like the one a number of years ago where my mom convinced my dad to get a hot tub. Except that our list of ideas was much simpler. A new step into the lake. A new place to hang the hammock. Painting the inside of the boat house white. All good stuff.

I got out to the lake maybe 6 times in 2004 and twice that last year. I really hope I can make it more of a habit again. It is still my happy place. :)

Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came

I've got one more book left in Stephen King's "The Dark Tower." Give him another hundred years and I still believe he'll be seen as an American Dickens. I just finished his "Song of Susannah" which was good, but not as good as #5, "Wolves of the Calla." There is something about King's books that makes me want to write more than almost all 'good literature' I read. "Dance Dance Dance" or "Carter Beats The Devil" just made me want to read more good literature. King makes me want to write and write and write some more.

I must quote Sidney:

Thus, great with child to speak, and helpless in my throes,

Biting my truant pen, beating myself for spite:

"Fool," said my Muse to me, "look in thy heart, and write."

More on 'V for Vendetta'

A lot of people who see the movie will link the High Chancellor and President Bush. I will simply say that if you want to read that into the movie, you can, but I don't believe it's there.

The film serves as a warning, just as '1984' was a warning. "Beware letting this happen." To equate a still very free America with the England in the movie is absurd.

I do want to point out one thing I find interesting, however.

"1984" was set 35 years in the future from the time it was published. "V for Vendetta" is set less than 15 years later. Does that mean the filmmakers believe we are much closer to the dystopian society of "Vendetta" than Orwell believed we were to the world of "1984"? Or do they want to point out how quickly things can change. Hitler became chancellor of the Nazi party in 1921 and it was only 12 years later that he was appointed Chancellor. Some things just don't take that long.

Imagine Me & You

I do. :)

We're opening a lesbian film at the Grand today called "Imagine Me & You." And we're still playing "Brokeback Mountain". And next week we'll likely open "Transamerica", the transgendered film with Felicity Huffman. I'd say it was a trend if Hollywood weren't so ill-equipped to get new ideas. The two volcano movies came out together, the two asteroid-hitting-earth movies came out together; there's a rash of low-budget spelling bee movies. We'll probably see a lot of penguin movies now (watch the preview for Happy Feet and you'll get an idea).

And now there are a lot of gay-themed movies. I don't know that it signals new tastes in the public; rather these movies are just clumping together like all Hollywood films seem to.

V For Vendetta

And I quote:

Remember, remember the fifth of November,

gunpowder, treason and plot,

I see no reason why gunpowder treason

should ever be forgot.

This stanza opens V for Vendetta. The film opens March 17 in the US, but it was delayed because of the London Underground bombing last year. Which is a perfect example of the complexity of the film. Its hero is, without a doubt, a terrorist. Though when he blows up a building there's no one inside it. And the weapon of a terrorist--terror, to be specific--is not directed at the people. He is not looking to make people terrified. Very clearly 'V' is seeking to terrify the totalitarian government that took over England and not England itself.

Anyway, this film is one of the best big budget films I've seen in a good long time. Kudos to the Wachowski Brothers for their script and production. It is the rare blockbuster that can combine wire tapping, terrorism, secret military tribunals, torture, persecution of homosexuals, religious intolerance, media complicity, with lots of big explosions and action scenes.

There will be much about this movie in the coming weeks I predict. Many on the right are going to loath it, but the filmmakers will benefit from the source material, which dates back to the 80's. While anyone who wants to draw comparisons with modern-day governments is certainly invited to, 'V for Vendetta' is as archetypal as '1984' or Zamyatin's 'We.'

Big thumbs up all around. I'll be back when it opens in theaters.

Films from the last 3 years that back me up

So I can't really quote reliable academic scholarly sources to back me up on this. But this is not an essay, it's a blog. And it's a blog of a guy who really likes movies.

So.

I rather like Linklater's "Before Sunset." The Ethan Hawke character compares the history of humankind to his individual life. In adulthood the problems we face are harder, and more terrifying in some cases, but we are better equipped to deal with them than ever before. The same may be true of humankind in general. So I'm not discounting that a giant rock might at sometime threaten life on Earth. But I do believe that by the time it does, we will be better prepared to deal with it. (Note I'm not citing Armageddon or Deep Impact for this point.)

And second, I really just have to refer everyone to M. Night Shyamalan's "Signs." I will quote Mel Gibson (something I hope to never have to do again) telling his brother about people who believe luck is more than just luck:

Deep down, they feel that whatever's going to happen, there will be someone there to help them. And that fills them with hope. See what you have to ask yourself is what kind of person are you? Are you the kind that sees signs, sees miracles? Or do you believe that people just get lucky? Or, look at the question this way: Is it possible that there are no coincidences?

I really really like this movie. It's well worth seeing if you haven't seen it. Yeah for M. Night! (Although I thought "The Village" kind of sucked.)

But the truth is ...

I would have felt vindicated a couple weeks ago if I'd read that, but not today.

I wrote many times on this blog about all the fantastic ways the human species might perish, such as the insanely big asteroid that wipes everything out and--piff--we're all gone.

I don't feel that way anymore. Why? Honestly, I don't know what caused the change, but somewhere in Europe it dawned on me that I truly didn't believe humankind is going to be wiped out.

This has less to do with my faith in humankind than my faith in God. I have been struggling for a good long time and filled with doubt up to my ears about Christianity and God so that sentence would have been hard to write previously. But I realized that I just flat-out believe that humanity is not going to be obliterated by a rogue asteroid. And that it's not luck that it won't happen but rather Providence.

NASA vindicates Erik

If you have a chance find the recent Rolling Stone issue with Mariah Carey on the front. It shouldn't be hard to spot because she's falling out of her top (though this might limit the number of copies still on the stand).

Flip past her "After Midnight" interview, and you'll find an extended article called "Mars or Bust" which details NASA's current plans to get some folks to Mars and back.

In it, astronaut Ed Lu says, "The long-term survival of the human race will depend on our ability to master the art of spaceflight. It may be because of an asteroid's impact, or it may be becaue we deplete the resources on Earth. But human civilization is going to have to expand outward."

Firewall

Saw Harrison Ford in Firewall tonight. It was good up until about 9/10 of the way through and then the entire thing just fell apart in a whole mess of shambles. Disappointing.

Dance Dance Dance

Just finished Haruki Murakami's "Dance Dance Dance." The book was excellent, but not as good as his "A Wild Sheep Chase." Both are absolutely wonderful in their enthusiasm for the written word, the sly observations and social critiques, and the bizarre sense of humor. The first novel, "A Wild Sheep Chase" is exactly that, a search for a mutant sheep with a star on its back. The second is a search for a woman with the most perfect ears in the world. Both are so much more, of course, but if you're looking for a wonderful read you should pick up both ("Dance Dance Dance" is actually the sequel to "A Wild Sheep Chase" so I'd read them in order.)

Yahoo not cuckoo

Linda Callahan gets her name back for an internet address. Yahoo stopped screening against allah as a username. Good for them.

Yahoo goes cuckoo

Here's something interesting:

Yahoo will not allow one Linda Callahan to use her own name for an email address. Why? The name Callahan has the word "Allah" in it. Yahoo will apparently accept "god, messiah, jesus, jehova, buddah, satan and both priest and pedophile," but not 'allah,' 'osama' and 'binladen.'

Cuckoo.

Tourism in T-Town

Tourist spending in Pierce County and Tacoma keeps going up according to my old place of employ, the CVB. That's all good and well, but saying tourism created 10,880 jobs is a whole heck of a lot of jobs. I always distrust surveys like that.

Old Chicago Town

The City of Chicago is seeking bids on turning their entire city into a wireless hot spot. That's 228 square miles of wireless connection making them the biggest city to consider it to date. Crazy, man.

A Really Big Regret ...

... about this trip was, well ... it's not so much a regret as a confession.

Hi, my name's Erik. And I went to Italy and didn't have gelato. Those who would like to cast the first stone may schedule a time at their convenience.

Lazy Days of Summer

Recovering today with TV, a great book called "Dance Dance Dance," and window-watching (it's snowing a tiny bit here). Expecting a crash later tonight before returning to work and the world fully tomorrow.

Flying in an Advanced Capitalist Society

So yesterday I was flying Scandanavian Airlines. While over Greenland, I used a Boeing service to get on-line. I uploaded my photos from the trip to my Yahoo photos page and then sent them to Target, who developed them in time for my parents to pick them up before Phil and I landed at the airport.

This is one of those things that in 10 years I'll come to expect, of course, but the first time it happens it's rather exciting. It was kind of fun to have pictures ready to go through on arrival.

The Other Thing About The Olympics I Hear ...

... is that they are biased toward privileged Europe and North America. This is hard to argue. How many African countries are represented in the Winter Games? How many black athletes even?

Who but wealthy whites could afford to compete? How many people have regular access to a luge course, for example? All this is true.

When compared to somelike that 100 m dash in the summer, it seems clear that the ski jump has a higher monetary threshold for entry. The flaw in this argument is to somehow separate the summer games from the winter. The 100 m dash requires only an open road for practice, in theory. But if you want to be the best in the world, you're going to need a trainer, a real high quality track to run on, and you probably can't hold down a job while you're in training so you'll need money. Some of this is going to come from private wealth or patrons in a larger country, but in poorer countries, a lot comes from the government and that country's Olympic committee.

Therefore, I would argue, the cost of entry into the Olympics--any Olympics--is bound to be high for any sport, country, or individual athlete. You need money to be able to have the time to practice to be the best, whether your own, borrowed, or sponsored.

So the barrier to Kenya's entrance into the Winter Games is not necessarily a monetary barrier--if they really wanted to support a ski jumper they could--but a geographical one. The countries that compete in the winter games are countries with snow. Latvia is not the richest country in the world, but they have plenty of snow and ice and can in turn compete.

So I'm not sure I totally buy the argument that the Winter Olympics are filtered by wealth or race any more than the summer Olympics.

The Winter Olympics Nostalgia Thing

I've heard this kind of thing a lot from some folks, editorials, comments, mostly. 'The Winter Olympics used to be so great because it was 'regular joes' and people who went back to their jobs at shoe stores in Minneapolis.

I am skeptical of all nostalgia for the times and how great they used to be--most of all in myself--because I think there's a sense that as complexity comes with adulthood, we naturally yearn for what used to be simpler times.

So the Olympics plaster Coca Cola everywhere. And Apollo Ohno trains year round for his events. I'm not sure what all this changes.

I think what most people are really reacting to is NBC's coverage of the games rather than the games themselves. Commercials, hype, logos everywhere. It's just a little too overwhelming. 418 hours of Olympics programming on NBC and its cable affiliates. That's just crazy talk.

Blogging at 35,000 ft

I couldn't resist the opportunity. SAS is apparently well-connected on these long international flights. Or let's me be well connected, I suppose.

Last Night in Europe

I wish I had some momentous words about this 10 day trip--something witty like Twain or Wilde would come up with.

So what can I say? I haven't been abroad since 2003, and I hope that I will be able to go again before 2008 (another 2 1/2 years from now). I love Europe. I love the streets and the squares and the people. Perhaps I also just love travel and seeing new streets and squares and people.

Trips like this are exhausting and exhilerating. And the luggage is heavier on the way back. I'm coming back with about a hundred pounds of chocolate that will get sorted and distributed through the proper to channels to co-workers, friends, and family. But man is it good stuff.

I do also look forward to returning home. On the last day of a trip, I think about my place, I think about work, and I feel like the energy I spent to get away was well worth it. So I'm looking forward to Tacoma and to seeing lots of familiar faces again.

Until the morrow!

Last night ...

as I turned off the light I heard a bizarre tapping noise. I asked Phil what that was. Neither of us knew. We turned on the lights and the roof was leaking onto my laptop.

Apparently there are some good reasons the Hotel Krone is cheap: it can't survive a torrential downpour. :)

(laptop is A-OK, by the way)

Back to Zurich

We're back and I think I'm more than a little ready for some good Swiss culture. The Olympics haul their own culture around with them, which is really a wonderful one, don't get me wrong. I'm definitely going to do what I can to be in Whistler and Vancouver in 2010.

But I'm going to enjoy some old churches and the like. And swiss chocolate. This is, after all, the home of Hot Chocolate. Maybe. And not just the kind that starts with powder. Whatever it is, it's going to be good.

A few last pix online

The fans, the torch, and Nikolai: photos.yahoo.com/erikemery

The Torch

The match was right next to the Olympic stadium, and Phil and I each took pictures in front of the torch. It's a very attractive torch, both artistic and industrial. That, the fans at the hockey game, and the fact that we tied and everyone seemed happy about it made our last night in Torino a very very good one to end our Olympics trip.

Latvians are loud

I had joked before I left for Europe that Phil and I should find out what the Latvian colors are and wear them to the game to support the small country--small enough they wouldn't have many fans at the game.

I was way wrong. First, at least 1/3 of the stadium was filled with Latvians, and they were easily 2/3 louder than the rest of the US fans. Second, CoSport apparently felt that Phil and I should sit in the middle of them.

Our tickets were in the rowdiest section of the Latvians and Phil did his best to keep up. Nikolai--a Latvian military officer--befriended Phil, gave him vodka out of his binocular-shaped flask, and lectured both of us on the difference between a people and their government.

Everyone seemed very pleased with the 3-3- outcome of the game.

I have nothing against Latvia, per se ...

... but tonight I want us to crush them and their hockey team. USA! USA!

;)

Zurich tomorrow

By the time we get to Zurich tomorrow evening, I think we'll be ready for a little dose of European culture, because here it's been all Olympics culture. The feel of the city is very different than any other trip. It's not exactly European, it's not exactly international either. It's like a special Olympics feeling, as if we could come, go to no events, and still have the same sense of the place.

The Olympics are on TV everywhere, signs are up everywhere, athletes, team colors, flags, are everywhere. ... It's like watching NBC Olympics coverage straight. But without the dumb commentators. Or, at least, since we can't usually understand them, they may as well not be there.

Pretty Darn Tired

This whole Olympics thing is tough. All we want to do is be at events, but getting there, staying there, and getting back feels like an extraordinary undertaking. Phil and I have both traveled in Europe, but I think either one of us would tell you this is the most exhausting trip either of us have taken.

On the other hand, there's no doubt that either of us want to be at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver/Whistler either.

The downside there is that we won't be eating so much good pizza and still be in good shape by the end of it.

A Few More Pics ...

here: photos.yahoo.com/erikemery

More on the Luge

We spent the better part of the afternoon, evening, and night with two doctors from Pittsburgh and their very cute and very polite 4-year old son. They had seated tickets at the finish line of the luge, which kind of defeated the point of the event. Phil and I had standing tickets at any point along the track, which gave us the opportunity to try and take photos of people passing us at 60 - 80 miles per hour. But by the time the skaters got to the finish line, they were already standing or sitting, so the thrill was gone.

Standing next to the 'compression' curve at the end of the track, we first heard a loud rumble as the ice and the track vibrated, and then with an impressive whoosh, the lugers were past us in seconds.

The event was one of the most exciting we've been to so far. And the speed was only part of it. A US woman nearly won, but she was beat out by 3 Germans, who took Gold, Silver, and Bronze. Very fun event, and not nearly as cold as the Ski Jump two nights before.

On meeting new people

Phil found a novel way to get to know fellow travelers. The Today show meant that we only had a couple short minutes to get train tickets, food, euros, and to find the right train. In order to help the process along, I went for the food and Phil went for the tickets.

In line he met a woman from Pittsburgh, who debated with him the merits of the calls during the Super Bowl while they waited in line. Since she was a few people in front of him, Phil asked her to purchase tickets on our behalf, as we were both going to the same event, the women's luge. Little did either of them know, but tickets for multiple people are issued on the same ticket. So Phil and I spent the entire day with Stacy, Brian, and their 4-year old son, Ben, who could bounce off about any surface. We ended up parting ways with them at about 11:00 at night. More on the luge later. Two pictures of the luge are up at photos.yahoo.com/erikemery. More later on the Fam we hung out with and the cool luge!

"Today", Yesterday

Phil and I were late getting started on our Olympic event yesterday. On our way from Fay's place we ended up in the mass of people waving their hands behind Katie Couric and Matt Lauer (he's so glib). The Today Show was shooting live from the Piazza San Carlo and Phil and I were there for a little while during the interviews with the snowboard winners. I have always laughed at the people standing behind the sets, but after being one of them, I kind of understand the appeal.

If you watched yesterday, you may have seen us on TV, but I doubt it.

Cowbell Attained

Like the classic SNL skit, I now have a cowbell. And I will ring it fiercely, Mr. Walken!

Robert Michael Shaw

We've confirmed that we were in the presence of a master.

Painter Robert Michael Shaw rode with us from Zurich to Milano and talked our ear off for four hours. He was a very funny guy and it was cool to meet an American ex-patriate. Especially one that had made his living for the last 30 years by painting.

We found his website shawintuscany.com and I guess he's pretty good and does pretty well for himself. Cool way to spend the trip.

Photos Now Available!

If you want to see pictures from our first few days, you can visit photos.yahoo.com/erikemery. It will give you a good sense of how we've been doing. I will spare you the close-up of Phil's stitches.

Women's Luge Later Today

We've got our only event at 4:00 this afternoon. It's our first day where we get to have a little bit of a morning. Tomorrow we'll get the whole day in Torino as our hockey event is at 9:00 at night.

One Finger, Two Finger, Red Finger, Blue Finger

Reading over my previous posts, I realize I forgot to mention one of our biggest problems with the language barrier: hand gestures.

After Alpine Skiing, Phil and I were faced with a monstrous walk back up to the top of Sestriere, where the bus would take us to the next event. The trek down was muddy and icy (Phil slipped and fell with very bad results, as you might recall) and the hill made my limp very pronounced.

So we opted for the ski lift instead. As did everyone else, it seemed. The lift lines were full of people from the event--so much in fact that they pulled the skiers out and put them on a different lift.

By the time Phil and I got near the front, people were pretty impatient. They were putting 3 to a chair, and when a couple in front of us got on, the lift operator looked to us and a few others for one more. Phil said, "We have two," and to make himself better understood, he held up two fingers.

The lift operator gave Phil the middle finger and said, "One!" Phil was very surprised, as was I. I turned and saw that Phil was using the baseball symbol for 2 outs, his index finger and pinky. This is very common for infielders to signal to the outfield how many outs there are. But, unfortunately, it means "Your wife sleeps with other men" in Italy (and likely elsewhere, but I won't be testing it).

Phil repeated the gesture toward the lift operator and said, "No, 2!" thinking there was a communication problem. Which there was, of course, because the lift operator gave him the finger again.

By this time, we'd missed the chair lift, and the couple in front of us went up alone, to the sound of booing from the line. Phil and I got on the lift, and the 3rd guy that was supposed to join us bailed out for some reason I don't understand, but Phil and I went up alone to the sound of even louder booing.

The Olympic spirit was in the air!

Curling

Watched the women play Norway today in curling. They lost, but it was a fun match. Phil and I might have been on NBC if it weren't for two guys who had a big sign that said "2 Johnson sisters, 2 of us, coincidence?" Phil and I met them later. But it's still worth looking for us on tv, as there were very few other people in the area.

We ended up missing our morning match of men's curling because we were so exhausted from the night before. 3 hours of curling was pretty good, though.

And the athletes were pretty down-to-earth. Their lounge was the same as the spectators so we saw the Swiss teams, etc, and Cassie Johnson was in the merchandise shop, which I thought was funny because you'd think she'd get Olympics souvenirs for free.

It needs more Cow Bell!

Phil and I, had we not been out and about today, probably could have met the cute snowboarder from the Visa Check Card commercials at America House (the place all the American athletes and ex-athletes hang out in Torino) after she won the Gold.

We might drop by and see how it is and see if we can schmooze our way in.

We could have gotten in with the invitation of a Norwegian Fay knows who makes the official Torino Cow Bells from Norway (who took the gold in the Ski Jump earlier today). Apparently Elizabeth makes fine hand-made Norwegian cowbells and this is a big deal and somehow this got her in to the America House.

I want a cow bell. I can't think of a more bizarre souvenir from the Winter Olympics than a cowbell stamped with the 2006 Torino logo.

And here's a weird thing ...

Last night, Phil and I had dinner with our host, Fay. She took us to a small pizzeria she knew where we went through lots of good food and wine in a beautiful brick-ceiling ristorante. Afterward, we descended from the upper floor and I was amazed to find a fellow Carl and SEA alum in the lower floor enjoying her pizza.

Suzanne, a friend from SEA and Carleton (I happened to be wearing my SEA sailing jacket for warmth), has been living in Florence studying jewelry design after she left working in the corporate headquarters of Best Buy in Minneapolis. We caught up very briefly, but Suzanne had to get back to Florence late tonight (we tried to meet up at the Ski Jump, but the crowds were too great and the weather too cold).

Last time I was in Italy I ran into a high school friend Lynn at the Parthenon in Rome (Pantheon? I always get them confused). And this time Suzanne. Small world.

Plus

We got our tickets early. And tomorrow we are supposed to see 6 hours of curling. This might be a lot for even me, so we're probably going to shave that down to 4 or 5. But we'll be indoors, we'll be in one place for the whole day. And we'll be resting peacefully throughout the day.

Much to look forward to!

My apologies for regular readers who are used to multiple posts throughout the day. Internet connection is limited to about once a day, but I'll try to keep it up.

On the positive side ...

The branch Phil got into a fight with missed his eye by about a half inch. He was extraordinarily lucky.

We had good food. The weather was incredibly beautiful. Our events were a whole heck of a lot of fun--both of them.

We stood at the base of the ski jump and have some incredible pictures looking up the hill at the skiers in flight.

And basically it was a whole lot of fun.

Just filled with lots of misadventures still.

Torino: First Day of Events

It would be hard to exactly categorize this day.

I'll list the bad stuff first, in reverse chronological order:

We had to jump on a train without paying for a ticket and got caught.
The Olympics shuttle bus driver got lost, causing us to miss our train.
We were very cold.
We couldn't make a phone work.
Phil fell into a tree and had to get 4 stitches on his eyebrow from an Italian doctor who didn't use any painkillers.
I was limping the whole day from a pulled groin.
And we spent a whole lot of time on trains and buses.

Torino Spirit

The streets are packed and we cannot escape the Olympics. I hear fireworks now, as I type, and banners and shirts and flags are everywhere.

As to the actual events, we're still looking to pick up our tickets and have a few misadventures trying to get them. With luck we'll have them before alpine skiing actually starts tomorrow morning.

Torino is very beautiful. We haven't been able to explore too much, but I've seen some unusual red-brick Roman ruins and some incredible architecture.

Tomorrow ... let the games begin!

Live from Zurich, it's Saturday night (eve)

Phil and I have made it safely to Zurich. I must saz their kezboards suck. The z and the y kezs are switched, and I am too tired and too layz to trz to correct the problem.

Haven't slept in 24 hours, but I suppose that's to be expected. I bought a latte in the Copenhagen airport and got back 1.75 Krone. Apparentlz Denmark has not gone to the Euro. And neither has Swityerland, which means I'm carrzing around Swiss Francs and Euros.

Leaving bright and earlz tomorrow morning for Torino. Will post more there, hopefullz, but until then, auf weidershen. Mz sincerest apologies for mz horrible German spelling.

Likely the last post ...

... before Europe.

Look for more in a day or so. Will even try to get pictures up, too. If people read this while I'm gone it's going to make the post-trip discussions very boring for people, because I'm going to come home and still want to talk about everything, and you will have already read it. But you'll just have to be polite.

Will write more, 9 hours ahead.

PS--Thanks, Joe, for your post about the Seahawks.

The Long Con

Sawyer's a bad dude. I will miss you, Lost!

Who He Said It To

Mariah Carey.

What Bono Said

"You sing like an angel."

Torino

If you want to read a cool review of Torino, here's the New York Times' travel guide.

Why not publish in America?

From Andrew Sullivan, who suggests that:

The real reason that many mainstream papers will not publish any of the Danish cartoons is that the owners and editors feel rightly responsible for the safety of their employees. A decision to publish puts a lot of people at risk for their lives. An individual blogger may feel free to put herself at risk, but an editor and publisher have broader responsibilities. I just wish the MSM [Main Stream Media] were honest about this and confessed that they are making a decision based on legitimate fear of violence against them. That would clarify things, at least. If the New York Times can publish "Piss-Christ" and the Virgin Mary made out of dung, then it cannot logically claim to be a paper dedicated to respecting religious sensitivity. It respects religious sensitivity when the religious threaten violence. And this stance therefore rewards the violence. Where am I wrong here?

Packing, Packing, Packing

Better get cracking.
Got to get a move on.
Rawhide!

Procrastination reigns supreme.

11 Elementary Schools

Actually, the Tacoma School District is likely going to close at least 4 elementary schools--and possibly up to 11--in Tacoma anyway. Why? Because there are less young people than before. Tacoma is facing a population decline in kids.

The 11 schools still up for closure are: Bryant, Downing, Lyon, McKinley, Wainwright, Washington-Hoyt, DeLong, Skyline, Roosevelt, Arlington, and Grant.

Levies

You know, I don't have to vote every year to keep Washington's sales tax in place. So why do I have to vote for school levies? Why can't schools just make money from taxes and have that be the end of it? So now the Tacoma school district didn't pass either levy, which I guess means they'll just close their doors and send everyone to Catholic schools.

Commonweal Review of Brokeback

Also worth a read.

Good quote:

This superb work of art is about the tragedy of emotional apartheid, and none of us, no matter our sexual orientation, is ever safe from the way life conspires to make us put our hearts on ice.

I like smart Catholics

This is cool. Commonweal is a Catholic journal out of New York. Here's they're take on the gay-marriage debate:

It is true, however, that like many Catholics, Commonweal is engaged in the difficult task of discerning whether new understandings of homosexuality are compatible with the gospel and the church’s moral tradition. We look first to the church for guidance and instruction. But since God’s presence in the world is not confined to the church, we also look to the lives and testimony of our friends and neighbors. No one should pretend that reconciling homosexual love with the church’s teaching is easy or perhaps even likely; and no one should assume it is impossible. God, we are convinced, is both faithful and known to confound expectations. Neuhaus, on the other hand, argues that the church’s teaching about homosexuality is not open to debate or evidently to any further development. The debate, however, is taking place, and Catholics betray no disloyalty or impiety by participating in it.

Again, I like smart Catholics.

Jean Luc Picard is Bambi?

Who talked Patrick Stewart into being the voice for The Great Stag of the Forest for Bambi II?

I can picture him now, "Make it so, Number One Son."

More guts than me

The staff of the New York Press walked off the job when their publisher decided not to publish the Danish cartoons. Their resignation letter is here. Best quote:

We have no desire to be free speech martyrs, but it would have been nakedly hypocritical to avoid the same cartoons we'd criticized others for not running, cartoons that however absurdly have inspired arson, kidnapping and murder and forced cartoonists in at least two continents to go into hiding. Editors have already been forced to leave papers in Jordan and France for having run these cartoons. We have no illusions about the power of the Press (NY Press, we mean), but even on the far margins of the world-historical stage, we are not willing to side with the enemies of the values we hold dear, a free press not least among them.

That's some committment to free speech. I hope free coffee comes with that, too, cause they're going to need it.

Sunny day, keeping the clouds away

It feels a bit like March 21 here. You can have the car window rolled down, it's comfortable to be outside in the sun. Yeah, we're getting back to the good stuff.

I'm also riding a righteous high after voting and am making everyone feel guilty by wearing my "I Voted" sticker. :)

What do Oprah and Howard Stern have in common?

They both really liked "Brokeback Mountain." The quality of the film might actually split open the red-state/blue-state divide about whether people will go see the movie or not.

Apparently it's doing really well in Montana, even. And considering it's the #4 movie in America, there's some real potential here.

For a friend ...

The Best Pancake Recipe Ever

1 cup flour
1 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda

Stir

Then make pancakes on a griddle set to high.

Add maple syrup.

Voila!

Tone

I'd also like to add that I've been a little too flippant perhaps. Or maybe it was ok to be flippant before but not anymore.

We now have a major problem on our hands. The newspaper that originally published the papers has apologized. The Prime Minister of Denmark personally apologized.

So ... when are the protests going to stop? Are we really waiting for the cartoonists to get their hands cut off? I am more than a little worried.

On self-censorship

A lot of people are saying that the press should not re-publish the cartoons because they should self-censor and know better than to show cartoons that will continue to cause offense.

I'm fine with that as long as no one forces them not to show them.

Self-censorship can be a very responsible part of journalism. There's a reason, for example, that few news stations will play footage of the World Trade Center collapse: there's too much emotion tied to it, and the US press has been remarkably self-censoring not to continue showing that horrific images.

I think about the images I saw that morning: people jumping out of the towers before they collapsed and I realize no one has ever replayed it. Which is a good thing.

So who keeps showing the cartoons? How are all the protesters getting to see them? Have they seen them? Is there a media outlet showing them like Aljazeera?

I am quite curious about this.

Seahawks second to M*A*S*H

There were almost 46 million homes tuned to the Seahawks game Sunday. That's a TV record second only to the finale of M*A*S*H in 1983 when 50 million people tuned their sets to Hawkeye Pierce and company.

I believe that this is something to do with hawks. Seahawks and Hawkeye (aka Alan Alda).

Anyway, it's nice to think that our loss was exceedingly well-viewed. I am reminded of Will Strunk who said, (and I am paraphrasing as best as I can here) "If you don't know how to say a word, say it loudly. There is no reason to combine ignorance with unintelligibility."

Likewise, if you're going to lose, lose grandly. There's no reason to combine ineptitude with anonymity.

It's better to be lucky than good ...

According to "Match Point." It really an excellent piece of filmmaking with a hell of an ending.

Two thumbs up, left and right.

If you're like me ...

... and I think you are, then you should check out a couple trailers on the Apple Trailers website:

If you want to know what I'll be watching this summer, check out: The World's Fastest Indian, Friends With Money, Thank You For Smoking, and Idlewild. For more obvious picks, I will also be seeing The Inside Man, X3, V for Vendetta (remember, remember the 5th of November), and Pirates of the Caribbean 2; Dead Man's Chest.

It's going to be a good year.

Gonzales is like that Iraqi guy ...

... the one who kept saying how Saddam was beating the pants off everyone during the invasion in 2003.

His testimony about the wiretapping was soooooooooooo bad and so far from the truth it was almost funny.

G'day, mates!

All dressed up in french cuffs and a bright yellow tie for a meeting with the head of Economic Development for Tacoma. It just felt like a good day for a g'day.

The Problem with no name

Betty Friedan died today at 85. I actually read "The Feminine Mystique" cover to cover a few years ago and was impressed with her work as a sociologist and as a writer. It was actually a pretty darn good book.

If you'd like to honor her memory this week I suggest renting Tootsie, with Dustin Hoffman and Jessica Lange. Friedan say this movie as a watershed for feminist politics because it's central theme is about a man who finds he is a better man by being a woman.

And it's very very funny. Any movie that has Bill Murray saying, "That is one nutty hospital" has to be good.

That Film Place

Turns out Torino has the only National Cinema Museum in Italy. Who's going? I'm going.

Oh yeah.

A Loss

We lost. But we got to the Super Bowl. And that's good.

Next year.

It's the SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUPER BOOOOOOOWL!

Bullwinkle Remembered

The Puget Sound was hit with a huge windstorm this weekend. It turned out to be fatal. Winds knocked down a tree onto the bull moose at Northwest Trek, which Mary, my dad, and I saw on our trip there in September.

You can see the bull moose in this picture I took when we were there. The Tribune article is here.

PS

If you've wondered why this is such a big brewhaha now, it's because three additional, more controversial cartoons, have been circulated that weren't included in the original bunch. It's possible they are fakes. Watch for more about this.

If this were orchestrated, there really are some bigger shoes to drop.

Andrew Sullivan's on the ball

I'm talking myself to death on the cartoons, but I think it's incredibly important. Kanye West is on the cover of my Rolling Stones magazine right now.

He's wearing a crown of thorns with the headline "The Passion of Kanye West." This could be offensive to some Christians, but, as Andrew Sullivan points out, they can complain to the magazine, they can boycott, they can write letters, but the editors of the magazine don't go into hiding because of it.

Anyway, andrewsullivan.com is posting on this. He's on the ball. I have a feeling some very big things are coming.

Big Clunky Boots

I'm breaking in my new boots for Torino. I'm expecting to have aching feet for a couple more days. Plus, since they're insulated, I'll have very sweaty feet, too.

It's worth pointing out ...

... that if I lived in Denmark I might be breaking section 140 of the Criminal Code for making jokes about Moses selling car insurance. It's 2:19 am on a Friday night and I'm making bad jokes about Moses and the Aflac duck.

I appreciate that I'm not going to get investigated for it.

The Threat from the Right

In case I haven't made it clear, free speech is in danger from the Right, too.

The natural conservative tendency is to stick with the status quo. It may not be perfect, but it's better than most of the other options. The response by the fundamentalist Islamic and Islamist groups is the radicalization of that conservative strain. ie, The status quo is imperfect, but 700 years ago it was a golden age, so we're going to get ourselves back to that point in history.

Of course, the threat does not come from just the radical right. Any politician that targets blasphemy and blasphemers is a perfect example of the fundamentalist threat to free speech. I read an on-line petition recently against AOL because they're new slogal for Instant Messenger was I AM, which some considered to be blasphemous. (If you don't know I Am is an English translation of Yahweh).

Now, I don't like AOL at all. But if you dislike them for sending you CDs and being way behind the times, then that's one thing. But disliking them for claiming to be the Almighty in their marketing is another.

I suggest this add at the Super Bowl Sunday: Budweiser, Untap the Holy Spirit.

Or maybe the Aflac duck could start asking people to workship him and then Moses could come down from the mountain and say, "I just got some great news!" And someone asks him about his ten tablets, and Moses says, "No, I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance by switching to Geico. You on the other hand are worshipping the false idol of a rival insurance company, and the Big Guy says that's bad news."

Nothing says buy insurance like Moses.

Carter the Great

You really should read this most excellent book. "Carter Beats the Devil" by Glen David Gold is like a magic trick. Good fun from start to finish. I won't give away the third act. :)

Still on the Box

I guess what I'm getting at right now is that I think a lot of people are shocked that 12 cartoons are sparking so much.

After September 11, I heard a lot of very smart people say that the US could have done things differently and we might not have provoked the attack. US Foreign Policy, our oil need, our support of Israel, etc, have all been listed as reasons Al Qaeda was after us. But I think that the idea that cartoonists or a single newspaper could cause so much uproar is unsettling. Because if this is a problem, then what isn't? Especially when the newspaper is in sleepy little Denmark and not the world's only superpower.

This is not at all trying to say that Bush was right, when he kept repeating that the terrorists were attacking our way of life, because that wasn't right either.

Thomas Friedman, I think, hit the nail on the head when he said that what they were really going after were multiple ideas. I can be a Christian, a libertarian democrat, a capitalist, an environmentalist, and a manager of a non-profit arts organization simultaneously. Each requires different frameworks and points of reference. What is good for me, or my faith or my business, is not necessarily what is good for the country or the world or my neighbor.

Friedman argues that fundamentalists have reacted to this multiplicity of ideas by clinging so very strongly to just one idea. Which is why we see fundamentalist Christians, Hindus, and Muslims emerging as a political force around the world.

Publication Date

Amazingly, these cartoons were first published at the end of September in Denmark. I had no idea they'd been out that long. If you are interested, check out the Wikipedia summary. It has a history of the cartoons, how they came to be published, and the reasons behind it (a story ran in September about a man who couldn't find illustrators for a book about Muhammad because no one wanted to take the risk, sparking a debate in Denmark about self-censorship in the press and media).

With the English translations, and the background, many of the cartoons become clearer. 12 cartoonists' representations of Muhammad were chosed out of 40 submissions. Some depict him as a peaceful wanderer in a desert. Another as a blend on the star and cresent. Another is a cartoonist drawing Muhammad but being scared to do so. And then there is the one with a turban for a bomb.

The summary also points to something I mentioned before. The paper who originally published the cartoons was investigated in Denmark for violating Section 140 of the Criminal Code, which makes it a crime "to publicly ridicule or insult the dogmas of worship of any lawfully existing religious community in Denmark."

That the investigation was dropped was very good. But this is the kind of law I fear from liberals.

The 12 Cartoons

If you actually want to see them, they are online here. I can't understand them all. But you should check them out.

There is actually one where suicide bombers show up to heaven and a guy at the gate tells them, "Stop! Stop! We've run out out virgins." ... I thought it was kind of funny. The rest are pretty darn offensive.

The New York Times wrote this earlier today:

While a huge rally in the Gaza Strip was peaceful — and many leaders warned against violence — some of the oratory was not.

"We will not accept less than severing the heads of those responsible," one preacher at Al Omari mosque in Gaza told worshipers during Friday Prayer, according to Reuters. Other demonstrators called for amputating the hands of the cartoonists who drew the pictures.

There's some crazy stuff going on in this here world. Man, the creator of "The Boondocks" used to think he was getting a big response from his cartoons.

Le Monde ??

A reader asks why I say "even Le Monde" condemned the response to the cartoons, as Le Monde is a liberal-leaning newspaper and would therefore support free speech. Which is, of course, true. They should support free speech and I am glad they are.

But liberals are just as likely to attack free speech as conservatives, but for different reasons.

The liberal threat to free speech might be called being "intolerant to intolerance." You could also call them the "nanny left." Jonathan Rauch calls them Kindly Inquisitors.

Hate Speech and Hate crime laws, for example, are the worst examples of this. One's expressions about hating homosexuals, for example, should not make murdering a homosexual *more* of a crime. It's bad for free speech, first of all, and there is a subtle logic to it that puts the attention on the murderer and not the victim. The victim is dehumanized by the hatred of the murderer. All bad.

Same goes for the most flagrant of lies. They need to be protected, and many on the left would like to see them unprotected. Lies such as Holocaust denial are frequently targeted, especially in Europe. In Germany, and possible France too, it is actually *illegal* to deny the Holocaust happened.

From what I've read, there is a slightly greater tendency to limit speech in Europe than in the US, usually from the left. The reaction on the left to the murder of filmmaker Theo Van Gogh by Islamist extremists is a good example where the European left didn't really condemn the murder without watering it down. Same goes for reactions to Rushdie's "Satanic Verses" and the fatwa against him, etc, etc.

For some excellent reading, check out Rauch's "Kindly Inquisitors."

I've been on my soapbox a lot recently but there's a lot going on.

Stepping down for the weekend ...

On flags

By the way, the flag of Denmark is a white cross over a red background. The flag of England (before she became Great Britain) is a red cross over a white background.

The Danish flag represents the purity of Christ healing a bloody land. And the English flag represents the blood of Christ purifying the land.

Fun fact for the day.

In Pakistan

They're burning Danish flags.

If they're not careful, they're going to run out. I mean, really, how many Danish flags can there be in Pakistan. After you swipe two from the Danish embassy ... then what?

The real question is ...

What will Pat Robertson say? Pat Robertson, or any other Christian who believes the US government should look like a church. Because if papers have the right to blaspheme, then where does that leave us?

There was a story (nonfiction, I just can't remember who the guy was) about a senator who was asked by a reverend how many constituents he had. The senator told him how many people lived in his district. And the reverend looked up to the heavens, and asked him if he really just only had One Constituent. This floored the senator.

This is really really bad. First, God doesn't need a senator. He's pretty powerful already. And he's got 1 Billion-plus Christians who believe in him, so I fail to see the need of legislating more of God's Laws into US law. Anyone who says that homosexuality is a sin *and therefore it should be against the law* needs to be asked the question of whether Adultery should be against the law, too. Get someone who publicly support that, and I would respect them just for having a non-hypocritical argument.

"Calvin & Hobbes" strip starts World War III

Or something like that.

So 12 Danish cartoons upset a lot of Muslims in Europe and the Middle East. They were offensive; everyone seems to agree with that, though many have pointed out they are about on the same level as our political cartooms.

The interesting question is what to do about it. Muslims in Gaza and the Middle East are threatening to kidnap citizens of European Countries. The Egyptian ambassador to Denmark said, "The government of Denmark has to do something to appease the Muslim world." Because the Danish government couldn't interfere with the press.

Every paper I've read in the US is backing the newspapers. See The News Tribune's op-ed if you want the local Tacoma take on it. Even Le Monde in France apparently supported the paper's right to publish. But a French newspaper that re-published the cartoons in a defense of free speech was fired for it. And the French government said that while they supported free speech, they condemned "all that hurts individuals in their beliefs or their religious convictions."

Caleb, 8 time zones closer to the action than I am, calls it history in the making. 12 cartoons started it all.

Wonder

I'm only 300 pages into "Carter Beats the Devil," one of the most enjoyable books I've read in awhile. It's about "Carter the Great," a magician in the time of vaudeville. By his thirties he has lost his belief in magic. But at one point he finds it again, and writes, "Faith is a choice. So, it followed, was wonder."

I rather liked that.

Daniel Resurrected ... like Jesus, but online

And it took longer than three days.

The last four episodes of the Book of Daniel will be put on-line at nbc.com. There were unaired espisodes, so in a sense the show has moved rather than been cancelled. This is yet another development in the life of TV shows. DVD sales revived The Family Guy; I've talked to a couple people who have downloaded the Lost shows because they wanted to catch up with ABC (I'm one of them). So perhaps TV shows are getting farther and farther removed from TV.

Condolences to Joe and Minnesota

My good friend Joe from Minnesota bought broomball shoes when I was in Minnesota over New Years'. One month later, he's complaining about the weather, and--I'm guessing, though he doesn't say for sure--the lack of ice to use his shoes.

Warmest winter in Minnesota since 1846? But it would probably be the coldest winter in Washington since 1846 if we had the same kind of weather Joe's having. I might take his weather over the deluge. It's like Genesis here, man!

King and King Remembered

Coretta Scott King, in 1999:

"I still hear people say that I should not be talking about the rights of lesbian and gay people, and I should stick to the issue of racial justice. But I hasten to remind them that Martin Luther King Jr. said 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.' I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream to make room at the table of brother- and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people.

Homophobia is like racism and anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry in that it seeks to dehumanize a large group of people, to deny their humanity, their dignity and personhood. This sets the stage for further repression and violence, that spreads all too easily to victimize the next minority group.

Gays and lesbians stood up for civil rights in Montgomery, Selma, in Albany, Georgia, and St. Augustine, Florida, and many other campaigns of the civil rights movement. Many of these courageous men and women were fighting for my freedom at a time when they could find few voices for their own, and I salute their contributions."

I didn't know much about her until she died, but I think I like her.

Not technically a lie ...

The Washington Post has the real information on the Fiscal Responsibility Part of the SOTU speech:

The president said he has reduced "the growth" of non-security discretionary spending. This only means it did not increase as much from year to year. Moreover, overall discretionary spending has exploded during his tenure, especially when military spending is included. White House budget documents show that overall discretionary spending has climbed from $644 billion in 2001 to $840 billion this year, an increase of more than 30 percent.Looked at another way, discretionary spending as a share of the overall economy is at its highest level in 13 years, according to the CBO.

As NBC says, "The More You Know ... "