Never Saw the Smiths

I never saw the Smiths, but earlier this year, I saw Morrissey. Tonight, I'm seeing Marr. Cool. Marr's with Modest Mouse now. The show's at Red Rocks. It is 7 days shy of 1 year since I was last at Red Rocks - one week shy of 1 year since I was last whole. I am looking forward to it. Looking forward to not leaving in an ambulance. The moon should be nearly full which should help make the always wonderful Red Rocks even more spectacular. I'm hoping to take a slight detour to return to the scene of my fall. I get butterflies in my stomach just thinking about lying at the base of that rock holding my leg. I'm not looking to make a big deal out of it or anything, but I do think that it might help with some sort of sense of closure or at least sense of ??????? -- I don't know, something. I am most interested in being able to tell exactly how far it was that I fell. It could have been anywhere from 6 feet to 16 feet, but I'm just not really sure. I've said all along it was 12, maybe 10 feet; I'll get a better look tonight and will let you know.

Jonathan 7/30/2007 10:01:00 PM

 
Knee

I had a dream about skiing on Tuesday night. It's been a long time since such thoughts have crossed my mind, awake or asleep. Yesterday, I noticed I can go up the stairs two at a time a bit better than I've been able to so far (and which I always used to do). Snowboarding is sounding like a pretty sensible path. I'm struggling over whether or not to get a pass. Until my dream, I wasn't even considering it.

Jonathan 7/27/2007 09:41:00 PM

 
Deathly Hallows

(no spoilers here)

I finished HP7 late Sunday night. I had neglected to stop my mail before going east, and I had feared that if my mail was stopped due to accumulation that the postman might not deliver my book from Amazon. I decided to buy the book at the Newark airport when I left on the day of release. My early arrival, the flight, the layover, and the next flight gave me a great opportunity to tear into the story. I read more during the day on Sunday, and then, after having an amazing rotisserie steak dinner accompanied by an '85 fifth-growth Bordeaux with my brother, returned home to finish the series. It didn't end how I had predicted to myself. I thought it was an excellent story and did a nice job of completing the tale. I have a minor nit-pick about the epilogue, but I otherwise enjoyed how it all came together.

I saw the HP5 movie last night. It was good, but you just can't capture 850+ pages in only 2+ hours. Likewise, the CGI and special effects were great, but they just can't come close to the scenes that she paints in your imagination. I think 5 was the best book, but I don't think it was the best movie.

Jonathan 7/27/2007 09:21:00 PM

 
Go See

This montage of construction workers on high buildings makes me nauseous or at least nervous.

This 1971 landscape of San Francisco is sure cool. I'm looking forward to getting out there to visit.

Islands in/and Lakes - including the biggest island in a lake on an island in a lake on an island. How many can there be?

Jonathan 7/27/2007 09:10:00 PM

 
NYC

NJ/NYC was great. A million thanks to Mr. & Mrs. G for their hospitality. We did a ton of stuff, spent a bunch of time catching up, and I came back feeling very much recharged and relaxed. A most excellent vacation.

We went to The Met, MoMA, and the Museum of Sex. The Met was amazing. I'm sure we say billions of dollars worth of art and history in our short time there. MoMA was very cool in the sections I liked, but there was plenty of stuff that you would be hard pressed to convince me belonged in a museum of any sort. The Museum of Sex was just kind of alright. I've seen way crazier stuff on the internet than anything I saw there. Some of the videos they showed were pretty hot, but everything was displayed as the history of porn in moving pictures and that evolution from the first silent pictures to the modern day HD-DVD female-directed erotica and instruction. I have a picture of myself from the hands-on section of the fetish gallery that will help to ensure that I never hold public office.

We went to the Jersey shore one day. It was surprisingly nice. The beach was huge and clean. The water was just barely warm enough for swimming. Well,at the least it was just warm enough for a handful of folks. It had been a long time since I had swum in the Atlantic -- not since sailing with my hosts in the BVI back in May of '03.

We spent ridiculous amounts of money on food and drink. That cost me well more than my airfare, and I was treated to many meals including our outing to Danube which was one of the highlights of the trip - our now ritual outing to a ridiculously expensive and fancy and fine restaurant wherever and whenever we get together. We had lamb, steak, and veal, but that does not even begin to describe the dining experience. Mrs. G's lamb came out overcooked the first time after she had accepted the waiter's recommendation to have it cooked medium-rare per the chef's preference. The middle was medium-well, at best, and most of the piece looked well, and when I say it looked well, I mean it looked bad (Not really "bad" but way off temperature). But, they got another one out as quick as reasonably possible; nailed the temperature and served a magnificent entree on the second try; apologized repeatedly and profusely; offered to strike the food-runner; brought us an extra desert after we all-three ordered our own sweets; brought out perhaps the most fabulous desert - a peach melba - that I have ever experienced as that free desert; bought us a free round of a fabulous Tokaji desert wine after we had finished our first round of (different) desert wines; and gave us a delicious lemon pound cake to take home when we left in an appreciated effort to make up for the first lamb. The veal and the steak were great on the first try. I think I forgot to mention my foie gras app which leaves my knees shaky just thinking about it. Anyway, my point is that is was both awesome and expensive. Oh yeah, we drank an Austrian cab-merlot blend from '99 with dinner. It was really good. Less woody than most Californians. Impressively well-aged given the ???? (heck, I know nothing about Austrian reds). Best now, good for another 3-6 years. The name? Couldn't tell ya. Sorry.

Spent time catching up with both the Mr. and the Mrs. Mrs. G and I had a fascinating and scarily-detailed discussion on the baby-making process. I never knew there were so many needles involved -- I think I've been doing it wrong. Mr. G tolerated my rude arguments concerning the nature of his chosen profession and then humiliated me in darts. He made sure the exploding steam pipe didn't land on my head while I was chowing Scottish eggs in a bar nearby. Hard-boiled eggs dipped in a sausage batter and fried, you say? Delish! He schooled me on some of the league-level ins-and-outs of European soccer, but couldn't explain why anyone would want to watch a bunch of guys in the middle of a giant field play to a 1-1 tie after two hours of coverage.

Great vacation.

Jonathan 7/27/2007 07:47:00 PM

 
Manhattan

Fuck.

I love this town.

Jonathan 7/15/2007 09:27:00 PM

 
Vacation

Worked late tonight trying to make sure I didn't have anything that was going to bite me in the ass while I am away. Headed to New York for the week. Then I'll come home to read Harry Potter. I'll be attempting to impose an internet and media blackout upon myself until the book is done lest someone spoil the ending for me. But, yeah, I bet he dies. Probably him and Ron. That'd leave open the great opportunity to write Hermione's tales which I'm sure could be very commercially successful. I'll have to read fast: I love me the internets. But everything's all taken care of, so now I just have to do laundry and pack, and I'm off in the morning. Seems that everyone I know has been going to Europe, and I'm mighty jealous of 'em all. New York's as cosmopolitan as anywhere, and I'm looking forward to trying to blend a touch of culture in with my debauchery. Back soon with pics.

Jonathan 7/13/2007 09:15:00 PM

 
Kingmaker

While we're on the topic of Constitutional politics, this article covers the possibility of coalition styled government in the US prefaced on a sufficient electoral win by a third party candidate. This is most likely doable by billionaire Bloomberg. Imagine a Gore/Bloomberg third party ticket where Gore is the preacher, and Bloomberg is the money man and strategist, and it starts to sound real plausible. The idea of contractually obligating certain cabinet positions is fascinating. Imagine Secretary of Defense Colin Powell not having to back down from his criticisms of the President because he wasn't serving strictly at the will of the President but rather as a contractually guaranteed appointment. How much stronger could his opposition have been? How much more discourse might have occured before the invasion? It's an interesting conjecture. What if the cabinet didn't have to kowtow to the President and could instead fight for whatthey thought was best for the country? I don't think that the expanse of executive power has been a good thing. It'd sure be interesting to see it play out this way. Better yet, imagine two weak mainline candidates and two strong third party candidates and an electoral college split 35/35/10/5. Then it'd get real interesting.

Jonathan 7/11/2007 08:45:00 AM

 
13th Amendment

Do they teach this stuff at law school? Fascinating. I had never heard this story of the first 13th amendment.

Sir Giulliani should drop out of the race now. I don't think he's got a chance any way. He might make a good third party candidate, but he's too liberal for the right and too gung ho on the war for the left and too big brother for the libertarians.

Jonathan 7/11/2007 08:29:00 AM