Age is catching me up. I stepped on the basketball court today and after a shaky start with some shots rattling in and out, I was getting a good rhythm down. The shots were falling, I was anticipating, and I wasn't getting burnt on defense. Then it happened. I stepped out to defend and when I planted my foot a spasm went straight across my back just above my hips. I crumpled over and removed myself from the game. Unlike the ankles, where you just lace them tighter and get back in the game, the back can't be tricked. I spent the rest of the day, and will probably spend the next few days, half hunched over and shuffling around like a Watergate Safeway patron.
I am reaching the sad conclusion that I will now have to add to my stretching regimen before playing. Age has forced me to accept several changes: ankle braces, leg stretching, developing my opposite hand, and now back stretching. It's at these times, when activities that we've enjoyed or practiced much of our lives become denaturalized through infirmity, that we often reflect on our impending mortality. A few years more on the court if a) my ankles hold out, b) my knees hold out, and now c) my back holds out. After that I might have to become that old guy who sits on the perimeter and takes set shots when his teammates remember he's there.
The best part about hurting your back is that everything hurts. You can't bend or reach or walk or stand up without little waves of pain slashing across your back. And cruel co-workers laugh at you.
It might be time to switch sports. I understand you can play tennis until you're dead, but I think that's only if your back isn't already twisted like a slinky.
19 May 2005
17 May 2005
Captain Quaalude set all this off...
There is a market for just about anything. Libertarians have tried to naturalize this phenomenon, believing that the market actually does things. My own theory is that after disaffected college kids have graduated from Ayn Rand's quacky objectivism, they arrive at its more scholarly compadre, Libertarianism. Libertarians like to believe everything can be treated as a market, and that markets should be free, that is, unregulated.
The recent Supreme Court decision ruling that states could not restrict discriminatory interstate alcohol sales is hailed by libertarians as a victory over repressive regulatory government. If so, it's a measured victory, since few states actually have laws that pertain to the Supreme Court's ruling. States that prohibit all direct shipments to consumers aren't affected, and DC already allows consumers to buy one bottle per month via mail. While it's true that these pesky interstate commerce laws are targets of libertarians, their major targets are institutions erected for the common good, such as public schools, public transportation, and social security. Their ultimate objective is the destruction of the state.
Everything, they say, can be reduced to the logic of the market. Don't like the soap you're using? Switch to another brand. Don't like the TV programs you're watching? Watch something else. Or don't watch at all. Don't like the school your child's in? Transfer. Go to private school. And make sure you decry government funding of schools. It all sounds so simple, and really it is in computer mockups like the Sims. At least in the old school SimCity it was, where the city's health and success depended on a very limited number of variables. Unfortunately, the market doesn't work in computer game time when it works at all.
For many people who need good schools, it's not as simple as switching brands of soap. After all, I can get most brands of soap at Target, whereas my local school is called my local school because it's where I live and switching that involves the disruption and expense of relocation. Despite the libertarians love of the market, most people are, in the end, human beings with sentimental attachments, family ties, and competing desires. Which is not to say that economics doesn't in the end win out -- many people move out of bad situations or are forced to move out of good ones only when it's economically untenable to remain. It's terribly messy, yes, and counterproductive to the efficient working of the market, but there you are.
Wait, wait, wait, the libertarian laughs. I simply said the government should get out of the business of centrally managing education. Let there be vouchers, let there be charters. Just like the privatization of the prison system (which is such a great success -- after all, 19th century prisons were great places), vast savings and performance improvements will be made by essentially privatizing education. So sayeth Libertarianus.
That's all well and good, but it should be worrying to anyone who's interested in accountability. That's right, accountability. Because the market doesn't determine what works best; it only determines what's the most popular. Did the Apple Macintosh's GUI plow under the clunky DOS of Microsoft or the pale shadow of the Mac GUI, Windows 3.1? Do I even have to answer that question?
For instance, it seems in Kansas, the market seems to be calling for a redefinition of science to include superstitious bullshit. In nearby Montgomery County, Maryland, the so-called progressive county has had to deal with a backlash from homophobes (admittedly, the curriculum was riddled with far too honest and too far reaching assesments of some religions). The market may not adhere to a code of values, but the people caught up in it sure do.
DCPS needs to get its act together, because the big libertarian cartels like Cato and Heritage love to treat the District as their personal playgrounds -- foisting their "free market mentality" on the district with little care to what the District itself (i.e. the so-called market they're trying to infiltrate) wants.
Libertarians are basically b-school anarchists. Unlike their crunchy counterparts, libertarians believe that the basic functions of capitalist society will somehow survive the destruction of the state.
The recent Supreme Court decision ruling that states could not restrict discriminatory interstate alcohol sales is hailed by libertarians as a victory over repressive regulatory government. If so, it's a measured victory, since few states actually have laws that pertain to the Supreme Court's ruling. States that prohibit all direct shipments to consumers aren't affected, and DC already allows consumers to buy one bottle per month via mail. While it's true that these pesky interstate commerce laws are targets of libertarians, their major targets are institutions erected for the common good, such as public schools, public transportation, and social security. Their ultimate objective is the destruction of the state.
Everything, they say, can be reduced to the logic of the market. Don't like the soap you're using? Switch to another brand. Don't like the TV programs you're watching? Watch something else. Or don't watch at all. Don't like the school your child's in? Transfer. Go to private school. And make sure you decry government funding of schools. It all sounds so simple, and really it is in computer mockups like the Sims. At least in the old school SimCity it was, where the city's health and success depended on a very limited number of variables. Unfortunately, the market doesn't work in computer game time when it works at all.
For many people who need good schools, it's not as simple as switching brands of soap. After all, I can get most brands of soap at Target, whereas my local school is called my local school because it's where I live and switching that involves the disruption and expense of relocation. Despite the libertarians love of the market, most people are, in the end, human beings with sentimental attachments, family ties, and competing desires. Which is not to say that economics doesn't in the end win out -- many people move out of bad situations or are forced to move out of good ones only when it's economically untenable to remain. It's terribly messy, yes, and counterproductive to the efficient working of the market, but there you are.
Wait, wait, wait, the libertarian laughs. I simply said the government should get out of the business of centrally managing education. Let there be vouchers, let there be charters. Just like the privatization of the prison system (which is such a great success -- after all, 19th century prisons were great places), vast savings and performance improvements will be made by essentially privatizing education. So sayeth Libertarianus.
That's all well and good, but it should be worrying to anyone who's interested in accountability. That's right, accountability. Because the market doesn't determine what works best; it only determines what's the most popular. Did the Apple Macintosh's GUI plow under the clunky DOS of Microsoft or the pale shadow of the Mac GUI, Windows 3.1? Do I even have to answer that question?
For instance, it seems in Kansas, the market seems to be calling for a redefinition of science to include superstitious bullshit. In nearby Montgomery County, Maryland, the so-called progressive county has had to deal with a backlash from homophobes (admittedly, the curriculum was riddled with far too honest and too far reaching assesments of some religions). The market may not adhere to a code of values, but the people caught up in it sure do.
DCPS needs to get its act together, because the big libertarian cartels like Cato and Heritage love to treat the District as their personal playgrounds -- foisting their "free market mentality" on the district with little care to what the District itself (i.e. the so-called market they're trying to infiltrate) wants.
Libertarians are basically b-school anarchists. Unlike their crunchy counterparts, libertarians believe that the basic functions of capitalist society will somehow survive the destruction of the state.
16 May 2005
Theatre Roundup: The Piano Lesson
Caught closing night of August Wilson's The Piano Lesson down at Arena Stage Sunday night. I hadn't seen any of his other plays staged and was wondering what to expect. It was in the Fichlander, which always has interesting staging, and I wasn't disappointed. Theatre in the Round can accomodate both elaborate staging with lots of movement and changes, or focused, intense single-location dramas. I don't care what some critics say, the theatre-in-the-round may be one of the best ways to see these taut drawing room settings. The Piano Lesson is such a play, with all action taking place within the living room/kitchen of one house in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Watching a play with such a unified setting allows you to understand how intense the process of creating a compelling drama can be. All the action takes place in one setting, but the characters have to rotate smoothly in and out of the stage in ways that seem natural. Eugene O'Neill was a master of this form, with both The Iceman Cometh and Long Day's Journey into Night using these close confines to build tension until an explosion levelled the characters' relationships. Wilson also commands the form, as the spare setup featuring the ornately carved piano allows the actors to dominate the stage, while keeping the symbolic piano always prominent.
Thematically, Wilson conjures up the same ghosts of memory that haunt Toni Morrison's work and also William Faulkner. Often when talking about the legacy of slavery in this country, we are left to deal with ghosts as memory becomes almost tangible and the past, as Faulkner said, "is never dead. It's not even past." The dialogue is simply amazing, and the cast of this production all provide great performances, although Harriett Foy's Berniece seemed forced in the early going. Or maybe it was just me. I was immensely impressed both by Arena's staging and Wilson's play itself. With the death of Arthur Miller, Wilson may be the greatest living American playwright (no offense to Edward Albee).
I'll be back down at Arena on Thursday to see O'Neill's Anna Christie. I've been lucky enough to see O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night and Mourning Becomes Electra staged in this town, and it's always a treat to see O'Neill staged.
Watching a play with such a unified setting allows you to understand how intense the process of creating a compelling drama can be. All the action takes place in one setting, but the characters have to rotate smoothly in and out of the stage in ways that seem natural. Eugene O'Neill was a master of this form, with both The Iceman Cometh and Long Day's Journey into Night using these close confines to build tension until an explosion levelled the characters' relationships. Wilson also commands the form, as the spare setup featuring the ornately carved piano allows the actors to dominate the stage, while keeping the symbolic piano always prominent.
Thematically, Wilson conjures up the same ghosts of memory that haunt Toni Morrison's work and also William Faulkner. Often when talking about the legacy of slavery in this country, we are left to deal with ghosts as memory becomes almost tangible and the past, as Faulkner said, "is never dead. It's not even past." The dialogue is simply amazing, and the cast of this production all provide great performances, although Harriett Foy's Berniece seemed forced in the early going. Or maybe it was just me. I was immensely impressed both by Arena's staging and Wilson's play itself. With the death of Arthur Miller, Wilson may be the greatest living American playwright (no offense to Edward Albee).
I'll be back down at Arena on Thursday to see O'Neill's Anna Christie. I've been lucky enough to see O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night and Mourning Becomes Electra staged in this town, and it's always a treat to see O'Neill staged.
11 May 2005
What the F*ck is up with Basil this year?
I bought all these herbs a few weeks ago. The Fennel is unstoppable. The Dill grows like, well, like a weed. The sage is looking tidy, and the Rosemary is finally perking up. Even some parsley I picked up on waivers from Home Depot is doing fine. But my favorite, the golden child of the herb patch, the basil is turning goddamn yellow. I had three basil pots. One of them is nearly dead, and every day it gets worse. The other two seem to be in suspended animation, except for the healthy green giving way to the yellowish crayola pea green. I had counted on these plants to supply pesto to the kitchen because damnit there's only so much red sauce you can eat, cream sauces are way too fattening to eat on a regular basis, and butter and parmesan only go so far.
I gotta get some fucking basil.
A few years back I planted the entire back flower bed with basil and it was great, as long as you remembered only to take the upper leaves because of all the rats running around the lower regions. This year I opted for planters so I could keep the basil high and rat free. I've grown basil in pots before, so I'm really curious and not overly happy right now. Christ even my broccoli is growing, so what is going on with that sweet smelling basil?
IN OTHER NEWS:
I microwaved my pizza too long today and burnt the roof of my mouth.
I gotta get some fucking basil.
A few years back I planted the entire back flower bed with basil and it was great, as long as you remembered only to take the upper leaves because of all the rats running around the lower regions. This year I opted for planters so I could keep the basil high and rat free. I've grown basil in pots before, so I'm really curious and not overly happy right now. Christ even my broccoli is growing, so what is going on with that sweet smelling basil?
IN OTHER NEWS:
I microwaved my pizza too long today and burnt the roof of my mouth.
06 May 2005
How to get from Dupont to Georgetown.
Let me sum up the cinco de mayo festivities in my neck of the woods:
1. met my wife and kids at Bistrot du Coin for some dinner.
2. went home with same and watched The Secret of Roan Inish.
3. went to bed.
I hadn't been to Bistrot du Coin before and was interested in trying the place, if only because of the amazingly varied reactions people have of the place. We went there after we decided it was too much of a pain dragging a stroller with a month old down the steps into City Lights. Let me tell you at 5:30 p.m. (yes, five-thirty), BdC was not crowded.
They have paper "tablecloths" so the kids can doodle all they want, and the service was fast -- probably because the waitstaff outnumbered the customers at that point. I had the mussels, and they were tremendous. In fact, I'd go back again today to get them if I didn't have family obligations. Our son was intrigued by the unreachable mezzanine in the front of the restaurant that had two tables with chairs set up. He wanted to sit up there next time. I thought it might be a rather dangerous place to sit after a few bottles of wine.
I also had the poulet roti and that was pretty good -- perfectly done with a nice side of fries. I've never had fries before that tasted so good but looked like they were soggy. It was a good plate, but for $12.95 they should throw in a few haricots vert.
We didn't order in French. The only foreign language I even partially know is German, and I didn't want to scare them. I'd heard people complain that you get treated rudely if you don't order in French, but that didn't happen to us.
A good bit of the time my wife and I spent reminiscing about the place when it was Food For Thought. I remember visiting DC and eating there with a friend who was going to American. They had Stroh's on tap. Stroh's. It was so dark in there that we couldn't read the bill properly and ended up giving the waitress a 1 dollar tip. We only knew that because she chased us down the street and told us all about it.
Food for Thought was one of those holdouts of the old Dupont Circle, but you know it couldn't sustain itself after the big gentrification push -- the space was too big and the crowds were too small. It's unfortunate, because it was a great place for a small group to meet for book discussions or activism. You could drink a beer, eat some dinner, and talk about Lukacs all night.
Damn and here we go: knowing how way leads on to way... speaking of the old dupont, how many people remember the old Georgetown of the mid-1980s. Probably not too many of you little blogkiddies, unless your parents dragged your snot-dripping noses through there on a tour of DC. Georgetown used to have three independent film houses: the Key, the Biograph, and the Cerberus. None exist now. The Biograph (died 1996) is now a CVS. Key (died 1997) is Restoration Hardware. Cerberus (died 1993) is the Barnes and Noble. Ditto on the independent record stores that disappeared with skyrocketing rents and killer competition from giants like Borders, Barnes and Noble, and Tower (of course, even without big rents and competition from big boxes, independent music stores are in trouble with the double whammy of amazon.com and itunes). Even local chain Olsson's was driven from Georgetown -- and let me tell you that Olsson's branch was the only one with any soul at all.
Georgetown these days is a hell of chainstores and pretension to be avoided at all costs.
1. met my wife and kids at Bistrot du Coin for some dinner.
2. went home with same and watched The Secret of Roan Inish.
3. went to bed.
I hadn't been to Bistrot du Coin before and was interested in trying the place, if only because of the amazingly varied reactions people have of the place. We went there after we decided it was too much of a pain dragging a stroller with a month old down the steps into City Lights. Let me tell you at 5:30 p.m. (yes, five-thirty), BdC was not crowded.
They have paper "tablecloths" so the kids can doodle all they want, and the service was fast -- probably because the waitstaff outnumbered the customers at that point. I had the mussels, and they were tremendous. In fact, I'd go back again today to get them if I didn't have family obligations. Our son was intrigued by the unreachable mezzanine in the front of the restaurant that had two tables with chairs set up. He wanted to sit up there next time. I thought it might be a rather dangerous place to sit after a few bottles of wine.
I also had the poulet roti and that was pretty good -- perfectly done with a nice side of fries. I've never had fries before that tasted so good but looked like they were soggy. It was a good plate, but for $12.95 they should throw in a few haricots vert.
We didn't order in French. The only foreign language I even partially know is German, and I didn't want to scare them. I'd heard people complain that you get treated rudely if you don't order in French, but that didn't happen to us.
A good bit of the time my wife and I spent reminiscing about the place when it was Food For Thought. I remember visiting DC and eating there with a friend who was going to American. They had Stroh's on tap. Stroh's. It was so dark in there that we couldn't read the bill properly and ended up giving the waitress a 1 dollar tip. We only knew that because she chased us down the street and told us all about it.
Food for Thought was one of those holdouts of the old Dupont Circle, but you know it couldn't sustain itself after the big gentrification push -- the space was too big and the crowds were too small. It's unfortunate, because it was a great place for a small group to meet for book discussions or activism. You could drink a beer, eat some dinner, and talk about Lukacs all night.
Damn and here we go: knowing how way leads on to way... speaking of the old dupont, how many people remember the old Georgetown of the mid-1980s. Probably not too many of you little blogkiddies, unless your parents dragged your snot-dripping noses through there on a tour of DC. Georgetown used to have three independent film houses: the Key, the Biograph, and the Cerberus. None exist now. The Biograph (died 1996) is now a CVS. Key (died 1997) is Restoration Hardware. Cerberus (died 1993) is the Barnes and Noble. Ditto on the independent record stores that disappeared with skyrocketing rents and killer competition from giants like Borders, Barnes and Noble, and Tower (of course, even without big rents and competition from big boxes, independent music stores are in trouble with the double whammy of amazon.com and itunes). Even local chain Olsson's was driven from Georgetown -- and let me tell you that Olsson's branch was the only one with any soul at all.
Georgetown these days is a hell of chainstores and pretension to be avoided at all costs.
04 May 2005
Unrelated dispatches
We're a few days into May and I'm still wearing a jacket around. I'm used to late April and May being the best months of the year in DC, with warm days, mild evenings, and low bugs. In fact, it'd be great if weather in DC between May and September was 75 to 80 degrees with low humidity all the time. Of course, then it would be southern California.
Tomorrow's Cinco de Mayo, the day when Americans everywhere stop to reflect on the amazing victory of an outnumbered and under-equipped Mexican militia over the French. Yes, the Battle of Puebla is a story that will be retold up and down 18th Street tomorrow.
I have been reading recent novels lately. Mired in my dissertation, it's been a long time since I've been able to read anything of my own choosing. It's refreshing and it reminds me of why I began studying literature in the first place. Unfortunately, it's back to the dissertation next week. Still, in many ways this glimpse of freedom has inspired me to complete this hulking albatross and get my life back. Onward then once more unto the breach.
For the last few years they were building a condo complex behind our house. They sold these unfinished concrete boxes for somewhere around $550K for a 2 bedroom. Sounds like there's great housing demand, right? Well, yes, but a lot of that demand is from investors who are just looking to buy the place and turn it immediately for a nifty profit. Nothing wrong with that, except it gets dangerous when too many sales are investor sales, because it artificially drives up prices and can create a bubble. Keep in mind this building is almost brand new -- from my backyard I can see five realtor lockboxes dangling off the garage driveway fence, and I know in the front of the building a few more are hanging. I may have to do some more research into this issue.
Tomorrow's Cinco de Mayo, the day when Americans everywhere stop to reflect on the amazing victory of an outnumbered and under-equipped Mexican militia over the French. Yes, the Battle of Puebla is a story that will be retold up and down 18th Street tomorrow.
I have been reading recent novels lately. Mired in my dissertation, it's been a long time since I've been able to read anything of my own choosing. It's refreshing and it reminds me of why I began studying literature in the first place. Unfortunately, it's back to the dissertation next week. Still, in many ways this glimpse of freedom has inspired me to complete this hulking albatross and get my life back. Onward then once more unto the breach.
For the last few years they were building a condo complex behind our house. They sold these unfinished concrete boxes for somewhere around $550K for a 2 bedroom. Sounds like there's great housing demand, right? Well, yes, but a lot of that demand is from investors who are just looking to buy the place and turn it immediately for a nifty profit. Nothing wrong with that, except it gets dangerous when too many sales are investor sales, because it artificially drives up prices and can create a bubble. Keep in mind this building is almost brand new -- from my backyard I can see five realtor lockboxes dangling off the garage driveway fence, and I know in the front of the building a few more are hanging. I may have to do some more research into this issue.
02 May 2005
No, it isn't Vietnam but...
So we're moving into year three of Gulf War II, the one that all armchair generals and cheerleaders said would last a few weeks and end with the delighted Iraqis strewing flowers at our feet. I remember one of the many justifications BushCo gave for the invasion was Saddam's possession of chemical weapons etc, none of which have been found.
This fact of course is very interesting because we know where Saddam got the backing for his chemical weapons program originally: the U.S.A., which isn't a very happy fact for those of us who like to believe that the U.S. is a beacon of democracy and stands on higher ground than those we label "rogue nations." Well, as Hemingway said, "Isn't it pretty to think so." However, our history with chemical and biological weapons hasn't been so stellar. To go way back in time, you've got lovely Jeffrey Amherst (OK so technically we were still a British colony at the time...) giving away smallpox blankets to the Native Americans -- quite an inventive guy for his time. But in recent history, we need look no further back than our last major conflict, the Vietnam War, to understand that chemical and biological weapons don't always behave as we would like and that our government deployed these weapons indiscriminately across ten percent of Vietnam. That's a lot of country to render more or less useless and dangerous for decades to come.
And the damage isn't confined to the then-enemy, the civilians, and all their descendants in Vietnam -- our own veterans (yes, our own veterans) and their children continue to suffer from the U.S. government's decision to use chemical agents in Vietnam. Not that the U.S. government has been overly anxious to acknowledge this. The past weekend, incidentally, marked the fall of Saigon in 1975.
I'm in the unfortunate position that I do believe the United States should be an example of fair play and honesty -- a city on the hill etc. -- and therefore get overly pissed off when these obvious contradictions between theory and practice occur.
This fact of course is very interesting because we know where Saddam got the backing for his chemical weapons program originally: the U.S.A., which isn't a very happy fact for those of us who like to believe that the U.S. is a beacon of democracy and stands on higher ground than those we label "rogue nations." Well, as Hemingway said, "Isn't it pretty to think so." However, our history with chemical and biological weapons hasn't been so stellar. To go way back in time, you've got lovely Jeffrey Amherst (OK so technically we were still a British colony at the time...) giving away smallpox blankets to the Native Americans -- quite an inventive guy for his time. But in recent history, we need look no further back than our last major conflict, the Vietnam War, to understand that chemical and biological weapons don't always behave as we would like and that our government deployed these weapons indiscriminately across ten percent of Vietnam. That's a lot of country to render more or less useless and dangerous for decades to come.
And the damage isn't confined to the then-enemy, the civilians, and all their descendants in Vietnam -- our own veterans (yes, our own veterans) and their children continue to suffer from the U.S. government's decision to use chemical agents in Vietnam. Not that the U.S. government has been overly anxious to acknowledge this. The past weekend, incidentally, marked the fall of Saigon in 1975.
I'm in the unfortunate position that I do believe the United States should be an example of fair play and honesty -- a city on the hill etc. -- and therefore get overly pissed off when these obvious contradictions between theory and practice occur.
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