Under Harry's Robes

Daniel Radcliffe, AKA Harry Potter, will make his broadway debut in Equus. If you've ever read or seen Equus, you'll know the Danny Boy has chosen a helluva play to start his theater career. It's about a teenager who stabs out the eyes of six horses with a metal spike and the psychologist who tries to find out why. Interestingly, the actor who plays Harry's Uncle Vernon will play the psychologist.

Oh, and Daniel will be naked on stage for the part. Courageous kid.

The Boyd Man of St. Paul

Rev. Gregory Boyd of St. Paul, MN, has been featured in a NYT article that has been sitting at the top of their Most E-mailed List for the last day. We need more Christians like him. He is an evangelical Christian who founded a "megachurch" in 1992. Up until 2004, his church had roughly 5,000 members.

But then:

Before the last presidential election, he preached six sermons called “The Cross and the Sword” in which he said the church should steer clear of politics, give up moralizing on sexual issues, stop claiming the United States as a “Christian nation” and stop glorifying American military campaigns.

And later:

In his six sermons, Mr. Boyd laid out a broad argument that the role of Christians was not to seek “power over” others — by controlling governments, passing legislation or fighting wars. Christians should instead seek to have “power under” others — “winning people’s hearts” by sacrificing for those in need, as Jesus did, Mr. Boyd said.

“America wasn’t founded as a theocracy,” he said. “America was founded by people trying to escape theocracies. Never in history have we had a Christian theocracy where it wasn’t bloody and barbaric. That’s why our Constitution wisely put in a separation of church and state.

“I am sorry to tell you,” he continued, “that America is not the light of the world and the hope of the world. The light of the world and the hope of the world is Jesus Christ.”

I'm not saying that I agree with everything the man stands for. But at least his take on Christianity comes from, you know, the gospels. The political wing of Christianity right now is so far from my understanding of Christianity that I am speechless. Read the article. It's a good one.

(As an aside, I'd like to add that Rev. Boyd is also protecting his non-profit status from the IRS. Technically, a church cannot lobby for anything. It can denounce gay marriage but it cannot collect signatures for an initiative. And it certainly cannot hold a "Justice Sunday" to lobby Congress to stop the filabuster against Bush's judicial nominees.)

Callin' Out For The Good Stuff

If you are of a religious persuasion, this blogger could sure use any shout-outs to the Big Guy this week that you'd like to send. Translation: your prayers would be most appreciated.

If you are not of the religious mind, then consider that this world is a complex system of chemical and physical interactions, and that your thoughts are a part of that complex system, in that with each thought your brain is using strong bio-chemical reactions to create that thought. These reactions may have their effect on your person in the form of your heart rate, hormonal glands, as well as your general mood and health, and may make subtle changes to the complex system of this world in ways that we may not even yet begin to understand on a micro or possibly even quantum level. Those subtle changes may get to me through fresh breezes that would not otherwise be present or by some other chain reaction resulting from your good thoughts that will manifest itself in a totally surprising and meaningful way to me. Translation: good thoughts and vibes are also welcome.

French Draw

Finished a game of Internet Diplomacy today. I started it in May and it ended today. It's been a fun distraction every so often to get e-mails from Turkey telling me what he's going to do about Germany. Good fun.

If you look at the map, I was France, and we decided to end the game with a 4-way draw in 1909. I ended the game as the smallest power, but I was plucky throughout. The other game I was playing ended a few weeks ago when Austria finally kicked me out of Turkey. Stupid Hapsburgs.

Summer Releases

Pirates of the Caribbean gave up the title of "Number One Movie In America" this week to Miami Vice. Interestingly, Pirates stayed at the top for 3 Weeks. Interestingly, the last summer release to do that was American Pie 2, which goes to tell you how finicky our audience is, or at least, how movie marketing for summer blockbusters has trumped the actual content of a film.

Bite the Bullet

I've decided to sign up for home delivery of the New York Times. Why? I don't know, for sure.

One of the problems with on-line reading is that I pick and choose what I want to read. With a print edition, I'm much more likely to read other headlines and find out about things I may not have otherwise.

Not to mention I'm kind of interested in the crossword, which just goes to show how impressionable I am when I see a movie.

High Quality

Netflix delivered Shopgirl recently, and I thought it was an incredibly well-made movie. It makes me want to read Steve Martin's book because the movie is so well put together. Good stuff.

Wordplay

I watched the Grand's new movie this morning, "Wordplay," and I actually thought it was really good, considering it's about crossword puzzles. Really good--funny, suspensful, and endearing. Kinda makes me want to get the New York Times in the mail just to see if I can do their puzzles.

That's my story. It's really a lot of fun.

7 - 4

Forgot to mention that last night's victory over the Blue Jays was a bunch of fun and the night was perfect for baseball. Go, Mariners!

The Austrian Alchemist

A presentation was held yesterday in Fife where a company called Green Power promises it can turn garbage into diesel in 3 minutes.

I'm all for exciting and invigorating new processes that get us off our oil fix, but I'm wary. Especially since the CEO has been jailed for fraud. This just smells of 21st century alchemy. Lead to gold, garbage to diesel. The Trib writes:

The demonstration began with Green Power employees grinding up a mixture of paper, plastic and other household garbage. They then added a type of petroleum oil to the dried garbage and poured the black, gooey mixture into the mini fuel-to-waste plant. Minutes later, golden diesel poured out of the plant’s spout and into a bucket.

It sounds like a magic trick to me. Presto Chango!

Count me as a skeptic.

WA Court Upholds Ban

Quick piece of news for the day: The Washington State Supreme Court upheld the Gay Marriage Ban and said it did not violate our constitution. Here's the Tribune's coverage.

It's certainly disappointing, but it's not all bad. Maybe this will be the drive for the legislature to tackle the issue instead of waiting for the courts to come around. This is the reaction from one of the plantiffs:

"It's hard to understand why our 13-year togetherness is less important than Britney Spears' six-hour marriage."

That is, of course, the problem with citing "defense of marriage." If Britney Spears can flaunt it--legally--then it's hard to argue where exactly the sanctity of marriage is that we're defending. Angels and ministers of grace defend us from the threat of loving people who want to marry.

European Transit Games

Andrew Eppig, a friend from Carleton and the self-titled Math Avenger, has an interesting post on European commuting by bus. He writes:

My morning transit requires me to umstieg twice on the bus system of Geneva (TPG). Now any old schmuck can get off one line, wait at the stop for the next bus, and then transfer to another. It's standard fare. Blasé. Ho-hum.

Far more exciting is to see the bus you want ahead of you, not behind. As the bus lurches along in fits and gasps, you watch for the magic moment when your future bus disgorges some of its passengers, forcing it to stop. At this point, you jump off your bus, run forward, and leap onto the new one. The advanced umstieg.

If you haven't figured it out, umstieg means transfer. I have a good comprehension of his advanced-umsteig, but Andrew's description of the uber-umstieg alludes me. But then again, he's a quantum physicist smashing particles together and I watch movies. So I will take his word for it.

T Dome Design

A long long time ago, Andy Warhol offered to design the Tacoma Dome's roof. Here's what he proposed:



I had heard of this a long time ago, but I hadn't ever seen the floral design until I found it on the new TNT blog, GritCity. They also included an interesting picture of the dome under construction, below.



It's a pretty cool blog, actually. Check it out!

Dude.

It's a scorcher. I wish my place had air-conditioning. At least it's not 111, like in Phoenix. But still. Tacoma is roasting.

Speaking of Heroes

If you want a pretty funny comedy, check out My Super Ex-Girlfriend. Good laughs. It has some pretty fundamental problems, but it also plays with its premise well enough to be pretty fun throughout.

I need a hero.

I'm holding out for a hero til the end of the night.

Like Superman? Like Zorro? I saw Superman Returns today, and I generally liked the movie. But seeing it while I read Allende's Zorro is interesting, as both are mythic American heroes whose stories have been told over and over again in about every media available.

So which of our heroes is the best? Zorro? Superman? Spiderman? Batman? Robin Hood? We have a lot of heroes and they all have certain contexts and certain goals that distinguish them from each other (in addition to the costumes).

Zorro and Robin Hood are each resistance fighters, fighting for the underdog against corrupt systems. Batman and Spiderman are essentially urban vigilantes, who keep the streets safe and battle supervillains every so often. And then you have Superman, who does his fair share of everything, but is primarily around to save humanity from itself. Whether it's falling glass or real estate schemes or what have you, he's pretty much there to keep everything working. I kind of feel like he's a patch to the system.

Which is maybe what's frustrating about the portrayal of him as a savior, as Bryan Singer goes to great pains to tell us. Superman Returns could be called Christ In Blue Spandex. And instead of miracles, we're just calling them superpowers.

But Superman is not fighting for a new world vision like Jesus. Or Zorro even. He's fighting to keep things as they are. ie, The American Way. I think because of that Superman will always pale against Zorro or Robin Hood. Those are the heroes. Luke Skywalker against the Empire. Zorro against the Spanish. Robin Hood against Nottingham. Braveheart against the English. Fighting villains is great, but fighting to change the system is what heroes do. That's the kind of hero people need.

So Superman Returns was good. And I appreciate what he does. And sometimes I despair the world will never see another man like him. But he lacks the inspirational quality of Zorro or Robin Hood. 200 years from now, Zorro and Robin Hood will still be icons, but I don't know that you can say the same for Supe.

Kitler

If you're like me, you will be disappointed to learn that the web address www.catsthatlooklikehitler.com is already taken. I had hoped to put my blog under that address, but it turns out some guy is collecting pictures of cats that look like Hitler and posting them there.

Like that has anything to do with your web address, dude! I was going to post on politics and movies and books, but you had to go and spoil it with cats that look like Hitler. How prosaic.

Of course it's worth pointing out that some cats really do look like Hitler, so maybe it's good to have a website where they can congregrate.



What a bizarre collection.

Just kidding about moving my blog by the way. I like erikemery.com just fine.

Although, first ...

I need to finish Isabel Allende's "Zorro," a wallop of a read if there ever was one.

What is Allende, a "serious" writer doing with Zorro? Falling in love, I imagine. Diego de la Vega is quite the hero, even at 10. Allende clearly knows how to have fun with him and the legend.
but that's probably to be expected, since she knows how to have fun at home, too.

And if you doubt that, try reading her book "Aphrodite, a Memoir of the Senses," which is a book in two parts: the first, an elaborate history of the link between food and sex with its focus on aphrodisiacs and the second a cookbook of those aphrodisiacs. It's full of dirty talk. That's probably putting it best.

She is a wonderful writer and she's writing in the best mythic fashion. Yeah for Zorro!

Next on his list

"The Bookman's Promise"
"The Sign of the Book"
and this year's "The Bookwoman's Last Fling."

I'm there.

The Bookman's Wake

I read John Dunning's "Booked to Die" in May and found it to be quite good. I thought the sequel, "The Bookman's Wake" was far better, with a better mystery and drive. Big kudos to him. If you're interested, start at the beginning, but it looks like a serial that will pay big dividends if you're in to mysteries.

The Heat Wave Continues

Apparently it's been just as hot (or hotter) in Tacoma as it was in Pasadena. Ah well, that's what the "3" setting on the box fan is for.

The Critical Line art opening last night was quite good, with interesting photographs and hanging boxes for your head, which were designed by the St. Charles and Bellarmine alumnus Anna (Oxygen) Huff who was a year or two ahead of me.

Not much other news, other than it feels good to be back home, although it was a welcome vacation.

The true L.A. Day

Let's see ...

Golf until 1:30. An hour in the pool. A book. A long trip in gridlock on the freeway. Hollywood & Vine. Then dinner at the Arclight Theater. Then I finagled free tickets to a press screening of "Scoop" the new Woody Allen/Scarlett Johansson. And finally a star sighting of Gray's Anatomy's Katherine Heigl, who was eating at same restaurant we had been (although two hours later).

Seems like a solid way to wrap up the trip. Be back in T-town tomorrow night!

The First Golf Course of the Trip

At Golf 'N Stuff in Norwalk. Not a bad mini-golf course. But, man, the sun zonked me out.

Heat Wave

Early to rise this morning, but not early to bed last night. I've been in Pasadena and around LA since 11 am this morning, and I think that next time I visit I will try not to come during a heat wave and then play putt-putt, go-karts, and bumper boats out in the heat.

But it's pretty fun to be in Cali.

Tottenham Court Road

Joe, we never settled our question.

The TCR Tube Stop is on both the Northern and the Central Line. So we were both right. Congratulations for both of us for remembering an arcane bit of knowledge from 6 years ago. (click on the image for more detail)

Another cell phone pic from my walk

It was supposed to be a quiet walk downtown ...

I started at my condo and lunched at TAM Untitled Cafe. Their "Essence of Line" and "Roy Lichtenstein" were both quite good exhibits.

And then I stumbled into two simultaneous events, the History Museum's Northwest Native Arts Market & Festival (bottom picture) and the Museum of Glass' collaboration with Barefoot Studios called Siteworks (top picture).

Turns out downtown is actually quite well populated on a Sunday when there are some scheduled events. Well done, Museum District!

The Prestige

It's been a little while since I've seen a trailer for a movie I can't wait to see. And here's the one! "The Prestige," directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Scarlett Johannson, and Michael Caine.

I'm there!

Condoland

Becoming "Condoland" is the biggest danger of the recent residential explosion in downtown Tacoma.

Exit133.com nails it when he links to the "Governing" article dealing with Vancouver BC's big question: will the condos and residential amenities squeeze out business and the other functions of a downtown core? One of the biggest benefits of living in a highly urbanized setting is not driving to work. But if the jobs aren't downtown, then we're not helping ourselves out at all. We're just switching which way the commute goes.

Could it happen here? Well, yes. But Derek's question and the article he links to leads to another important question: what is the point of a downtown? Does that sound like a dumb question? It is, kinda. But urban cores have developed for a very good reason: economy.

The historic benefit of locating a business in a downtown urban setting was cost savings, quick mass transportation, and ease of communication with other businesses, all designed to save the business money. So an industry would set up close to the urban rail terminus and its supporting businesses would build across the street for cheap communication and--voila--an urban core is born.

Without the urban industry, this model begins to fall apart. And with incredible communication between offices (see Apple's iChat or other video conferencing products, not to mention basic e-mail) the need to put a single business in a single space has dropped dramatically, let alone the need to clump multiple businesses together. Maybe it doesn't make economic sense to put a business downtown anymore.

And if it is not economically better for a business to be downtown, then why go there? Prestige or image may be a good answer; supporting the community; quality of life for the employees; environmental concerns ... These are all valid answers. But are these the best reasons we can come up with for convincing a company to put its headquarters in downtown Tacoma? Can anyone really stand up and say, "Move your business to downtown Tacoma because it will save you money?"

Tacoma seems to know that we can't make that pitch. Its downtown core has its biggest stake in three areas: higher education, tourism/arts, and housing. This is where it has made its biggest long term investments, not in business.

In many ways, then, Vancouver's problem will someday be the problem of every urban core, since every major city is trying to encourage urban dwellers. Commercial space is beginning to make less and less sense in downtown settings because of technology, the lack of industry, and the availability of cheap land elsewhere. But downtown space makes more and more sense for residents, who want to be able to stroll along a tree-lined street to their favorite bar, store, and restaurant and save energy and money by not driving so often, and by sharing walls and floors with neighbors.

It may not be ideal for the future of downtown Tacoma, but if we can't offer a reason for businesses to locate downtown that shows up on the bottom line than we're never going to win the battle to get corporate headquarters--and, thus, lots of jobs--in our downtown. (Seattle, to a certain extent, has already lost the battle: Microsoft, Starbucks, Tully's and Amazon--some of the Seattle area's biggest employers--all have their corporate headquarters outside its dense urban center.)

It will be interesting to see how this plays out in our fair city.

Blogger vs the Volcano

Online Editor at the Tribune Mark Briggs scaled Mount Saint Helens in an attempt to blog from the summit (er ... top of the crater). You can see him trying here. That man is dedicated to his craft!

Jesus Walked Among Us

Much has been made of Ken Lay's funeral. Andrew Sullivan, and now my friend Joe.

What was said at the funeral? Well, the reverend only compared Lay to Martin Luther King and Jesus Christ. How is Lay like Jesus?

According to the reverend, Lay "was crucified by a government that mistreated him" as was Jesus.

Of course, the similarities don't stop there. Like Lay, Jesus was leading a corrupt company (in Jesus' case, it was Stables 'N Things) which cheated its customers by transfering lumber out of Judea to Egypt to create a false lumber shortage and driving up local prices on stables.

Ride the Wave to 2030

Sound Transit has a big funding package it's proposing. Actually, it's putting together three packages and will select one of them for the 2007 November ballot.

I say "yahoo!" that we're thinking ahead to what we'll need in 2030. Because if we don't this region will be nearly untenable as a place to live or drive.

What worries me is that the only way they have to finance any of the three deals is with sales tax. Really? 3, 4, or 5 tenths of cent would be added to our sales tax, which in Tacoma is already 8.8%. We have got to--GOT TO--go to an income tax. I would much prefer an income tax system for the state and then projects like Sound Transit, etc, wouldn't feel like such a hit on our sales tax. Because even the 3/10 of a cent increase on sales tax is going to feel big since it puts us over 9 %. That's a bad reason to tank a great set of proposals.

Getting rid of the sales tax and replacing it with the income tax should make sense both Democrats and Republicans. First, we lower the cost of goods, especially major items, thus stimulating business. And we lift some of the tax burden off of the poorest citizens who pay disproprotionately higher with a sales tax than they would with an income tax. Everybody wins!

So embarrassing

I swear I looked under those seat cushions. I swear. Welcome back, Mr. Phone!

Help!

So my cell phone has disappeared.

Which is odd since I made a call last night and didn't leave my place after that. So it's somewhere in here, but I can't find it. If you happen to have my cell phone number, please give me a call so maybe I can find my phone.

This. Is. Big.

Starting in September 2007, Sound Transit will add the first "reverse commute" train from Seattle to Tacoma. Here's their press release, which was posted yesterday. Says John Ladenburg:

“This is an important step in the evolution of our regional transit system,” said Sound Transit Board Chair and Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg. “Not only are we adding a fifth round-trip train to our popular Tacoma-Seattle commute; for the first time, people – especially those in South King County – who work or go to school in Tacoma will have the option of riding a Sounder train instead of sitting in traffic.”

Why is this big? Because it recognizes that Tacoma has jobs, primarily. We are not a bedroom community to the neighbor up north, we have jobs that people are willing to commute for, and that's a pretty big deal in my book.

I actually know a few people who like the "big city Seattle" feel but still commute to Tacoma for work. Why not make it easier? I am really impressed Sound Transit made this decision. Now if they would only add a noon train back and forth, so people could cut their day in half if they chose, then we'd really be going strong.

Resourceful Blogger

A quick news item from the Trib today. Actually, it's in papers around the world, I noticed, but I'll still with my local link.

A Montreal Blogger has bartered his way from a red paper clip to a house in one year. He started with the red paper clip and traded better and better until eventually he got a house. I think the guy should be hired as salesman of the year. Here's how it started:

The saga began when MacDonald, an aspiring writer and doer of odd jobs advertised in the barter section of Craigslist Web site that he wanted something bigger or better for one red paper clip. He traded it for a fish-shaped pen, then posted on Craigslist again and again.

Roaming Canada and the United States, he exchanged the pen for a ceramic knob, and in turn: a camping stove, a generator, a beer keg and Budweiser sign, a snowmobile, a trip to the Canadian Rockies, a supply truck and a recording contract. In April, he got really close, obtaining a yearÂ?s rent in Phoenix.

You can read the article to see how it all turned out. But that seems to be a pretty good way to get your dream home. I got a bunch of paperclips here ... I could be a millionaire!

Hairy Baby

Tacoma Actors Guild has worked up a very nice program where they put on a staged reading of a play not-yet-produced. The program is in partnership with the Northwest Playwrights Alliance and this is the first time NPA's done this in Tacoma.

The audience filled up the rehearsal hall at the Broadway Center for Ki Gottberg’s play “Hairy Baby." Next month it'll be the 14th, 7:30 pm.

The re-birth of TAG begins? And I was there!

More on the college experience

I've posted regularly on the series the NYT is doing about the changing face of college. Here's a great article about how girls are beating the hell out of boys at school. Interesting quote:

Department of Education statistics show that men, whatever their race or socioeconomic group, are less likely than women to get bachelor's degrees — and among those who do, fewer complete their degrees in four or five years. Men also get worse grades than women.

Interesting stuff. Long article, but good if you're up for it.

The Puritans get shut out

I was glad to see this piece of news yesterday. Companies that "sanitize" films have been ruled to be in violation of the rights of the artist and copyright law. This was a disturbing trend, where a company could take a DVD of a movie, say Braveheart, and re-edit it as they see fit for sanitized distribution.

I don't have a problem with sanitized versions of films necessarily, as airline and television cuts of films have been around for some time. The difference, though, is that those re-edits were made with the collaboration of the director, who got to do his or her best to preserve their vision of the film. So on an artistic level, I appreciate the ruling.

And on a social level, I am glad that "Pulp Fiction Lite" is now unavailable. If you want to watch Pulp Fiction, then watch Pulp Fiction. If you don't want to watch blood and hear bad language, then don't watch Pulp Fiction. That seems pretty simple. And if your kids want to see Pulp Fiction, either let them or don't let them. But giving them a "sanitized" version of the movie makes no sense. Even if you take out the blood and the language, you still end up with two hitmen who kill people. I'm not sure it's that important whether they do it on or off camera.

In case you weren't watching

Here's the footage of the big headbutt, courtesy YouTube.com. It's pretty crazy to thing that this guy would risk the game with something this stupid. If I read French I'd be reading the French papers tomorrow just to see what they say about this guy.

Italia

I think I was rooting for France, but it was still pretty cool to watch Italy win. Especially after watching the head-butting replay. That was fugly.

Avast!

Pirates is back!

I got to see it with Joe before he left. I actually think it was a pretty fun movie, though far too confusing and lacking some of the punch of the first. But it was good enough to make me want to see the third film. And it was good enough to make me want to see it again with my dad. I thought the action was fun and thought it was just a really good summer blockbuster. That it didn't live up to the original is probably to be expected, but that doesn't make it a bad film. Depp was still good and the effects were wonderful.

I especially liked The Kraken. There's something entirely mythic and cinematic about a sea monster attacking a big ship.

Notes on the State of the World

I haven't really dealt with some of the big things going on in the world recently, so let me throw out some quick thoughts on recent news items:

• Ken Lay's death. I have a prediction to make. Some tabloid will find some relative, doctor, or someone to go on record and say that he committed suicide rather than face prison. It may not be true, but it will get reported and every other news agency will pick it up and lead each story saying, "The Enquirer is reporting that Ken Lay committed suicide. For thoughts, we have our Suicide Before Prison Expert ...". I'm not saying he did, and I'm not saying he didn't. But every investigative reporter in the world is trying to find out if he did, I can guarantee that. It'll be big news by the end of next week.
• One Pill to rule them all, one pill to bind them. Major news in that drug companies have worked together to create a pill for AIDS that is one pill, once a day. This is huge for combating AIDS in poor countries. The FDA may rule on the pill as early as next week. I say kudos to the big drug companies. A lot of people don't like them, but I approve.
• Back to space. The shuttle is back to the space station and seems to be flying high. I wish they'd take me.
• Bad news for Democrats. The deficit might actually get reduced this year because of stronger than expected tax revenues (the same was true in Olympia this year). That will take away a stump speech for Dems because saying, "We could have reduced it by a lot less" doesn't have the ring they are probably looking for. My prediction: a strong economy will significantly help House and Senate Republicans in November.
• France versus Italy. I'm for France, chiefly because I am playing France in a Diplomacy game and Italy is upsetting me. So go France! On an interesting note, the Times reports:

The son of Algerian émigrés, Zidane was even accused of mumbling "La Marseillaise," France's national anthem, by the far-right politician, Jean-Marie Le Pen, head of the anti-immigration National Front, who has complained that there are too many members of minority groups on the World Cup team.

***

I think a politician would lose favor in this country if they complained about the number of minority groups in baseball (Ichiro and A Rod) or Basketball (Jordan, Shaq, Yao) or Golf (Tiger and VJ). Perhaps we are a bit more of a meritocracy than we sometimes think.

The Bi-Lingual Country

Here's an interesting archive of the 1960 Presidential election. Jackie addresses Hispanic voters in Spanish.



My Spanish is good enough that I can follow pretty much what she's saying. But it's interesting to see an outreach to non-English speakers 46 years ago.

I wonder if the pool's cold

(photo from the Trib)

I thought this was a pretty cool thing. SiteWorks is bringing dancers to the Museum of Glass for outdoor dance and "physical theater," the definition of which I am unsure of since most theater is physical.

Anyway, Barefoot Studios has done some pretty awesome things recently in Tacoma. I am quite impressed. I tip my hat.

Speaking of Shutouts

The Emmy nominations were announced today. Lost was shut out without a single Emmy nomination. You people should be ashamed of yourselves.

Although nominating Gregory Itzin for Best Supporting Actor in 24 (he played President Logan) was inspired.

Local touring

Mr. Joe Kreuser has been in town since Monday afternoon, so we've been catching the sights and sounds of the area. Fireworks on the 3rd, as viewed from the boat on Mason Lake, a day of games and swimming on the 4th, Seattle and a quick Mariners game (2:04 was all it took for Colon to shut out the Mariners) and Seattle again today.

Will be back in full form tomorrow.

You're Fat! (courtesy YouTube)

Browsing YouTube is quite enjoyable. And frequent readers will know that I have sent you to YouTube pages many times for funny or significant clips.

But!

It turns out I can also embed YouTube videos on my blog. So here you go. A man spends one minute calling his cat fat. On erikemery.com.

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

I finished Murakami's "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" this evening. It's quite the book; sprawling, bizarre, whimsical, and disturbing. As compared to the other books I've read by him, "A Wild Sheep Chase," and "Dance, Dance, Dance," this one is better, although it lacks the fun and flair of "Sheep Chase."

Oddly, the book makes me want to travel to Central Asia, where a lot of major action takes place, far more than it makes me want to visit Japan.

I'd try to describe the story, but it has a lot to do with sitting at the bottom of the well, Soviets battling Japan, a missing cat, an alley with no exits, alluring teenager wig makers, and psychic prostitutes. And it's all woven together into a great novel.

Very good stuff.

Emerging near me

Downtown (?) Rumblings
Earlier this week I met the former owner of Katie Downs and Steamers in Tacoma. He's opening a restaurant across the street from Cafe by the Bay and next door to Doyle Public House (although it will be accessible from Tacoma Ave, rather than St. Helens). The restaurant will be casual and in the style of his previous restaurants (where you order at the counter and take your number back to your seat). He's expecting to be opening by the end of September

He was also telling me about the restaurant that will be below him (and next to Doyle's) which will be a ritzy restaurant--servers in tuxedos and the works. I'm guessing that should be open by the end of the year. I don't know that the St. Helens district is the right market for a restaurant like that, but I'm interested to see what it does to the neighborhood.

I include these in my regular Rumblings only because downtown really has stretched as far as Stadium at this point. The completion of the condos in the area will unify Stadium with downtown, until you have one long downtown starting at 25th and expanding up the slope until the Harvester on 1st.

BVDs: Redefined

Wow. That was surprising.

I watched the film "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" tonight. And it was odd. Very odd.

Rated X (though I'm not sure it would qualify today) the film was directed by skin flick director Russ Meyer and written by ... wait for it ... Roger Ebert. My man Roger took a 6 week leave to write "the first rock camp horror exploitation musical" to quote from Ebert's 2003 article.

You can also read his 10-Year Anniversary commentary here.

In my opinion, the movie has a certain flair, and a certain cinematic quality that would be hard to find in current film. I'm not saying that it's super good or anything. Although maybe it is? I guess. It's funny, way too violent in a couple places, kinda sexy a few other times, and with some good musical interludes (guest starring Strawberry Alarm Clock). It's very 1970. But still very very odd.

E.H. Phone Home

Verizon replaced my phone today. Apparently the problems I was having with it were irreperable. Ah well.

There was one particular weird thing I noticed last weekend. A weird black shadow appeared on the exterior screen of the phone, but seemed to disappear and reappear at will. I reported the problem to the folks at Verizon (as well as a few others).

So imagine my disappointment as I drove home and looked at my new phone and saw the same weird black shadow. What gives? A product flaw? A result of the heat?

Naw.

Turns out that it was just a result of me wearing polarized sunglasses and looking at the screen. When I wore them, it created a funny light effect. Good thing that wasn't the only thing that was wrong with it or else I might have felt I was cheating Verizon. And that would have been awful.