From outer space this all looks the same
Monday, February 13, 2006 12:31 AM
A couple weeks ago my friend George and I were driving along in Chicago navigating by the directions offered by the Hertz "NeverLost" GPS system. It couldn't make heads or tails of the highway soup we were making our way through. George turns to me and says, "Man, this all looks the same from outer space."

He meant it about the satellite's view of traffic quite literally, I think, but it seemed like the perfect capper to the week we'd just spent writing, researching and rewriting and re-researching. Anyway, I told him I'd write a song and so here it is. When I played him a rough version he gave me some advice to simplify the melody on the chorus, and I took it. Thanks, George. And hey, I know this is a "exciting" time for you, maybe this tune will help to frame it all.

The version I'm posting tonight is a scratch version...just getting the idea down, but I'm pretty happy with how it's coming along. I hear some horn parts, but that'll have to wait. Though I did meet some horn players the other night at a New School party. Oh, and today I took the plunge and ordered Cubase SX3 -- the next version of the software I use for music-making. Hopefully I can do another version of this song that's a little more polished...if my pal, Dan adds some ideas (though the song is feeling pretty done) perhaps we could do it with Indelible Beancurd.

There's no "I" in "nnovaton"
Tuesday, January 31, 2006 10:12 PM
Yeswell, good point. I really need to move this blog over to a new place where I can more easily update it. Rolling this joint by hand is old smoke indeed. Especially because I don't even smoke.

A quick update because, frankly, I'm beat.

The past week went by in a blur of innovation. Blar. If I type that word one more time I might hurl. But then again, we're doing pretty smart shit with it. I was working on IBM's annual report at an office in Chicago. I found myself complaining about it and feeling dog tired today. I had to kinda snap myself because it really is a privaledge to be on this project. It's hard and grueling and can even be a bit disheartening at times, but it's the company's biggest communications schtick and we do it in grand style. I am very proud of the 2004 and 2003 books I worked on - I was the lead on the online experience for those. The 2003 online book won best-in-show at the ARC awards (which is, granted, naval-gazing central...but still.)

So I'm not supposed to talk about it yet, but I have some new opportunities coming at me at work in a month or so. You'll have to just sit there in suspense like me. In the meantime, I'll be hard at work to crank out a great book on IBM's behalf.

Just started in to school again yesterday. I was surprised by how happy it made me to see the familiar faces of my classmates. There was a very cordial atmosphere and, despite having missed the 1st week of the semester, I was able to keep up. I'm only taking one class this semester because of the IBM workload. It's called "The Modernist Imagination." The first class was riveting. The teacher seems great and it's a nice small class size -- so it'll be heavy on discussion. That's the best way for me to learn.

The contrast I immediately noticed was just how deeply people think about things in academia -- it's just different than the industrial-strength-yet-shallow corporate world. People get so specific. Maybe it's just a function of the corporate discipline I'm a part of: communications. We're a bunch of generalists.

Today was supposed to be a big productive writing day, but I have to admit it was not. I really didn't touch my assignment. Instead I handled some of the low-burning fires in the back of my inbox -- the day-job tasks that I've had to put aside to devote my whole week to the task in Chicago. Also, I was just feeling so fatigued. Anyway, after work I headed to Keisy -- a Chinese massage therapy place a few blocks from my apartment. I need to kick my Chi's ass. These guys (and gals) at Keisy don't mess around when they work your muscles. The guy doing my back literally stood up on a stool so he could get more leverage as he dug his elbow into my vertebrae. At some level I wonder if these masseurs are just deeply angry people who take out their aggression on poor bastards like myself willing to pay them for the injury/therapy?

But then, they're so cheerful and nice about it. Hmmm. In any case, Keisy does a 1 hour massage for $45 in a clean, professional almost clinical atmosphere. It's on 9th street between 2nd and 3rd Aves. My buddy Scott Sykes turned me on to the place a year or so ago. I highly recommend them (though not if you're looking for one of those Swedish feel-good rubdowns..which are nice too, but not on offer at Keisy.)

So after the massage/torture session I went to the little Italian café on my corner for a hot tea and spent a few moments journaling. Since I'm only taking one class this semester I think I'm going to try to start practicing for some summertime gigs. Maybe just do an hour long acoustic set of originals. I got myself to write down 15 songs that I'd like to play. Now I just have to start rehearsing.

Oh and hey! Happy New Year! I guess this is my first entry in 2006. I have a load of pictures to upload at some point from the bizarre trip to California with the family. We'll see if I actually get around to it.

And now I'm going to read a little T.S. Elliot before I crash. Nighty night!

So it's that full-court-press/end-of-year madness. So mad, in fact, that I just used a sports analogy and I hardly even know what it means (basketball, right?) Anyway, I had the pleasure of going up to IBM's headquarters yesterday and today (and will likely do tomorrow as well) despite the NYC transportation strike. Luckily I awoke super early this morning (despite staying up waaaay late to finish the video...more on that later) and speed-dialed Hertz. I have to hand it to them their service is pretty great. They know I'm with IBM (which gets me a special deal on their Gold Club) and they treat us well. Sometimes it is truly nice working for a $96 billion company.

So getting the car was pretty easy and getting out of the city was a breeze. However I drove past miles and miles of cars backed up above 96th street southbound. They're not letting anyone drive into the city during morning rush hour unless they have four passengers. This is a real pain. I can't say I'm terribly sympathetic to the union's cause either. They want a guaranteed 6% raise/year for then next three years? Hell, me too! You know where that $1 billion surplus came from? Me! And about 7 million other riders. In my view, that's not necessarily fair game for the transit workers union to dip into -- especially when the subways could use so much improvement.

Doh! I didn't mean to rant. Actually, I just wanted to alert the world to my most recent publication: a music video! This is my final project for my "Utopia is Coming" class at the New School. I put rather a lot of work into it over the course of the past two weeks or so (a little longer, now that I think of it.)

In any case, first I wrote a song about Utopias in which I explore the concept of a private versus a public wish and the tension those two kinds of wishes have with one another. This concept was introduced to me through the discussion of Bloch and Adorno on utopian literature. I suppose the song is about failed utopias -- or the inability to sensibly manifest private wishes in the public domain. Listen to the lyrics; you'll see what I mean.

To start, I did a trial run of recording the song -- I just did kind of an acoustic version so that I could work out the harmonies and the bass part along with the guitar rhythm and vocal melody I'd put together. Then I did a test run of putting some the pictures I took (I had gone to the United Nation a couple weeks ago in order to take some original photography for the video) to the music. I also went out to buy an inexpensive webcam (I spent about $50 on mine) to capture some footage of myself singing the song since I don't have a video camera. To edit it all together I used Adobe Premiere Elements -- which is a totally cool program, but I had to teach it to myself as I went along.

Now that I had a little "proof-of-concept" I committed to creating a better version of the song. I worked the lyrics a little more (it's amazing how awkward I found it to write about a particular concept that isn't my own little life -- it was an interesting endeavor to say the least.) I also wanted to get a kind of "innocent" sound, so I went to the music store and bought a toy glockenspiel to play upon which to play the intro and accompaniment. I also bought a toy tambourine.

The audio production took about ten hours all said and done -- there are something like seven guitar tracks and seven vocal parts in the song as well as bass, glockenspiel and percussion. Oh, for the "snare" sound I mic'ed up the tambourine on a pillow with a Sure SM57 and for the "kick drum" sound I actually mic'ed up a guitar case a hit it with a wooden spoon! Let's here it for the wonders of digital multitracking! It took another couple hours to arrive at a final mix that satisfied me (though I always feel like I could keep mixing and mixing until it's perfecter and perfecter.)

Once I had the audio portion done, I needed to film the video portion. I had previously spent some time shooting still images at the UN and elsewhere as well as collecting imagery from around the Web, but I wanted this to be more than a slideshow, so I'd need live video. In order to do that, I actually had to film myself lip-synching my own song and then import that video into the editing software and manually synch it up with the audio. Let me tell you, this was no mean feat. First of all, I'm neither an actor nor a camera man, so filming myself was a bit awkward to say the least. And then getting the video to synch with the song? Well, that was a whole different story. I shot two versions -- one with me sitting about 2ft back from the camera and another at about one foot. I wanted to be able to switch back and forth between angles. The overlay of the two versions I ended up using was kind of a happy accident.

Having figured out the basics of the video program, I started stitching my video footage and the still images together using some of the effects like dissolve fades, overlays, pans and zooms. Each effect had its own little learning curve. The actual editing of the version posted here took about ten hours (plus two for the filming.) But it was completely gratifying to burn my first DVD video late last night! Tonight I spent a bit of time learning how to make a low-resolution of it to post here -- it look like crap compared to the DVD version, but you'll at least get the point.

The file is about 9.5MB -- so best thing to do is right click this link to the file and select "save target as" and download the whole thing (to your desktop, for example). Once the file download is complete, you can double click it on your desktop and it should automatically launch Windows Media Player , which comes pre-loaded on all Windows-based machines these days.

Let me know what you think :-)

So I've been writing up a storm. Just not so much on this blog! It's the end of the financial year at IBM - so plenty of work there - and the end of the semester at the New School so I've had a bundle of papers and projects to finish. I think I'm going to do ok, but it's definitely a bit of a sprint to the finish.

Not that you're going to read them, but I'll link up a couple papers here just to show ya.

The first one, "The Cyborgs We Are, the Borg We Shall Become" is an article about cyborgs I wrote for my "Utopia is Coming" class taught by Lenore Malen. The class is ostensibly about utopian projects, past and present - though we've gone to explore a wider range of topics. Most interestingly, we've taken a look at how various artistic disciplines have rendered utopias through the ages - for example, in architecture, painting, photography and film. I've been really interested in this both personally and professionally for some time. As you may know, I work as a writer, editor and technologist for IBM -part of my job is articulating visions of the future. Typically it's not so much a science-fiction conversation, more of a business-meets-technology statement. All the same, my class would probably consider some of the writing my strategic communications department does as utopian simply because we articulate a future state for a society improved. Personally, I'm quite interested in the evolution of humanity as technology and biology increasingly intersect. And that's the topic of "The Cyborgs We Are…" Incidentally, it will be published in Canon, which is the New School for Social Research's student-run literary magazine.

I really had only begun to think about the above topic while reading selections from Darwin's "Descent of Man" and so I chose to write another riff on a similar theme for my presentation for my "Modernity and Its Discontents" class, taught by Jim Miller. Without going into it too much, this class is a survey of some of the great modernist thinkers - Rousseau, Marx, Hegel, Nietzsche, Goethe - with a bunch of historical texts thrown in for context (some slave literature which I found fascinating and some accounts of the Holocaust which were absolutely mind-expanding - I recommend Jean Amery to just about anyone with an interest in the subject.) Anyway, this paper one is a little more lighthearted in tone - I introduce my class to Lamarckism, Flying Spaghetti Monsterism as well as my thoughts on humanity's evolution into silicon. Ok, so thee last one isn't so funny. But it's interesting enough to me that I think I may have a thesis idea around it…maybe even a book.

I'll save the detail for the book, but in a nutshell: I'm fascinated by what makes for a meaningful life when you consider that all of our actions may be laying the groundwork for the robots that will one day replace us.

That and two bucks will get you on the bus.

In other news, I'm starting to experiment with video - I'm writing a song about utopias-gone-wrong for my final project and I'm trying to figure out how to do a short video to accompany it. Fun stuff, which I'll post here when I complete it.

Oh, and in the right column? A few photos from a little party at my friend, Garett Neudek's workshop. Yes, we're shooting a nail gun at styrofoam cups and throwing circular-saw blades into the wall. Being an adult is fun!

Oh, one last thing...check out the new IBM Press Room.

And with that, I must go! (PS Thanks for haranguing me into updating this thing, Chris.)

Me = bad boy
Wednesday November 2, 2005 10:16 PM
I know, I know, I have been slacking on keeping this thingaling up to date. But I promise I have good reason. Somewhere between work and school I'm trying to fit in a little bit of a social life.

For what it's worth, I feel like I'm succeeding.

Tonight after class I went out with my fellow students for a discussion group/happy hour. It's a way to kind of combine the schoolwork with social life. I know, it could also be called pathetic and sad…but hey, it's social! And really, it's neither pathetic nor sad. The peeps in my class are pretty damn great. They're a diverse, smart lot of people who are really engaging the material and thinking deeply about it.

This week we tackled an essay by Nietzsche and a handful of essays by Emerson. I remember reading Ecce Homo when I was teenager. I liked the aphoristic style (I could eat it up in small chunks) but I think I actually liked the idea of someone seeing me reading Nietzsche more than the material itself. Note to teenaged boys the word 'round: this will not get you the chicks! Needless to say, this time around was a bit different (in terms of comprehension, not attracting ladies.) I can't say I understood it all, but it does make more sense as an adult. One thing that didn't really computer for me is that, if we're all lazy (except for the artists and philosophers) and we're all constrained to fulfill our "nature," then why bother entreating us to rise up and be ourselves? Why not just let nature take its course? When I asked that question we were almost out of time in class…so I guess I'll just have to read more of his stuff.

Speaking of reading stuff, I pulled my last presentation into a kind of essay. It's an application of Kant's Fourth Thesis to the slave narrative of Equiano. It's brief and kind of fun. Read it here if you like.

Hmm, what else? My old roomie, Teresa was in town last week. We went to a little Halloween party on Saturday night with Eli and Jen. They were dressed as Pimp Jedi and Ho-Leia. Too funny.

Last week Dan and I hooked up a little website for my friend Kevin Jenkins, who played bass on sour last studio project. What an incredible talent. If you know anyone in need of a professional studio or touring bassist, check out KvinJenkinsBass.com.

This weekend my dad is coming in town and I'm really getting psyched. I just love autumn, and spending it with my dad will surely bring back a flood of memories. Some of my favorite childhood memories are of him taking me to the Cleveland Metroparks to go hiking in the fall leaves. That memory actually made it into a song I wrote for his 60th birthday called Thanks Dad. On Friday night I'm going to take him to dinner and then to hear the debut of Fake Brain's long awaited rock opera, "Doctor Wei Wei and the Fake Brain." Needless to say, I can't wait! These guys don't mess around, so check it out if you can. Get your tickets now...they're going to sell out.

On Sunday I went with two of my fell New Schoolers to Brighton Beach. One of the guys, Eugene, is from Russia and invited Aslak (from Norway) and I out there with him. What a trip! It is truly like a "little Odessa" in Brooklyn. Everything is in Russian everywhere you look. We went into a media store where Aslak bought a DVD that he hadn't been able to find elsewhere and I bought a couple of Russian CDs. George, if you're reading this, you're in luck. I'm gonna hook you up! I like listening to pop in other languages because I can kind of surrender to the music more than with lyric-driven music in my native tongue or in French (where I'm always trying like hell to keep up and figure it out.) Plus, I can write while I'm listening to music in a foreign language, but get distracted if the lyrics are in English. This is probably why I usually listen to John Coltrane while studying or working.

Ok, well, I have to get up in time for an 8a.m. meeting with an exec, so I better hit the hay now. Cheers.

Sunday, October 16, 2005 9:13 PM
A weird dinner, fighting crime in a garbage can and the complexity of NYC dating

I just ate a strange dinner - an effect, perhaps, of bachelor life. Let's see, I started off with two cashew-butter and honey sandwiches on white Wonder bread. Then I dipped into a jar of cold radishes I cut up the other day (I ate two or three of them with a little salt) and then I polished off the remaining hunk of kosher salami. My dessert? A chocolate covered cherry.

So this was a good weekend - on Friday night I went out to Eli's place in Brooklyn. We met up for a couple of pints at some random Irish joint in his neighborhood of Carroll Gardens and then ate humungous servings of TexMex. After that we went to some semi-lame bar, but ended the evening with a few more beers at Boat, which is apparently the sister bar to Lakeside in Park Slope where he and I used to hang. Boat was definitely my kinda joint - beat up leather furniture, unassuming hipster-types (but a little older and less trendy) and a good jukebox. Oh wait, we went to one other place that was pretty cool - I can't remember the name of it, but they had $2 Miller Highlife beers (in a bottle!) Eli brought up a good point: is the plural of Miller Highlife, Miller Highlives? We drank a few Highlives. Sure.

Last night I went to hear the symphony with Ivy at Avery Fischer Hall. I always thought that sounded a bit like the name of a 80s brat-pack actor. Like Anthony Michael Hall… Avery Fischer Hall. Anyway, the program started with "The Confession of Isobel Gowdie" by James MacMillan followed by Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Major, Op. 19 and concluded with Brahms' first symphony in C minor. Ivy and I both agreed that the first selection was the best of the three (not that the Prokofiev or the Brahms were shabby.) I usually like more melodic stuff (like the Brahms) and typically find modern classical a bit annoying. But the MacMillan piece was incredible - there was this one part where the cellists play this riff over and over which reminded me of music for a Terminator movie or something. Very cool. Also, the conductor gave a little spiel before the piece began so we could recognize different parts. In all, it was terrific. Every time I go to the symphony I think: I should do that more often.

Perhaps this time I will.

So I have been listening to some new music and really digging:

• Dungen: a Swedish psychedelic rock band. The music transcends the fact that I have no clue what the hell they're singing (in Swedish) about.
• Broken Social Scene: what can I say? The new one's pretty good.
• Grandaddy: the latest EP is just ok
• The Helio Sequence: yay! Thanks for turning me on to this one, Megan. Good poppy pop rocks.

Today I went to brunch with my friend and colleague, Philippe Borremans, who is in town for the week from Belgium, where he works for IBM as a PR manager. He's helping to drive the IBM blogging initiative in Europe. He and I met a couple years ago when I was starting to work on redesigning IBM's press room (more on that in a few weeks!) Anyway, we had brunch at Orlin (one of my fave places in the city) and then went for a bit of a walk. While we were walking and talking he asked me about dating in NYC.

Imagine, if you will, an economy that suddenly has unlimited currency and you'll have an idea of what it's like to date in NYC. Suddenly, all the value is gone and the currency is cheapened and buying anything is out of whack. Look at me: great career, going to school for an interesting degree, musically inclined, I have hair and teeth, not a sociopath yadda yadda. But right next to me is a guy with all that and 10% more. And next to him is another guy likewise endowed, but he's taller, or more handsome, or funnier or whatever. And the same goes for the ladies. What's more, everyone who has come to NYC has come here to pursue a dream - or most of the people anyway. And in all likelihood, that dream is not "get married and have kids before I'm 30."

But at the same time, we're all on the same mortal timeline as the rest of the world. Our hair and teeth and ovaries are failing at the same rate. So at some point we have to give in to that pressure (desire?) to have children - and have them somewhere clean and nice. And so, Philippe, it's complex. Dating in New York has given rise to all kinds of new definitions and substrata of relationships. Are we friends? Are we lovers? Are we friends with benefits? Are we fuck buddies? Are we a one night stand? And it's all terra infirma until there's a ring or a lease or a marriage certificate involved. But I hear even then it's not so unambiguous!

In other news…

Last week I went to my friend, Megan's birthday party. I had recommended that she have it at the Tile bar (where I had my birthday not long ago) because it's cozy, the drinks are cheap and the jukebox rocks. She invited a boatload of friends and they turned out in force - it was great. The drinks were flowing, I met a bunch of new people, the tunes were blasting and we were all getting on high on the good vibes. And then at about 1 a.m. Megan realized her purse had gone missing. Shit! It was like a record scratching to a halt. Her friends and I were all standing around her as she pretty much flipped out. She just kept saying "I want my bag back!" It sucked.

A couple of us tried calling her cell phone - which was in the bag, but only I got through. I calmly asked the guy for the bag back and offered a cash reward for its return (her keys, glasses, drivers license etc were all in it.) He screamed something about a blowjob and hung up. Real nice.

So we started to collect ourselves and prepare to call credit cards etc when, on a lark, I tried calling her phone again. This time I managed to say "The girl whose bag you stole is having a pretty bad birthday now - any chance you'd tell me where the bag is?" And to my surprise, he did. He told me to look in a garbage can in the bathroom of a bakery around the corner. I said thanks and hung up and then grabbed the two most sober looking guys in the crowd to go with me (Megan's friends, Mike and Bryan) in case the thief was planning to jump me or something. But lo and behold, there was her bag in the trash with almost all of its contents intact. Most importantly her keys, glasses and driver's license.

Naturally, we repaired to my place to cancel the cards and make a police report etc. The funny bit is that the guy only really made one purchase with the credit cards: a bunch of cigarettes at CVS. So we have him on tape (I went with Megan and the police to investigate the following day.) It's grand larceny when you steal a credit card, so if they catch him (and I was surprised and impressed by how seriously the police were taking this case) he's probably going to do a little time. Ouch, Dumbass.

Hmm, so in the past weeks I did a bit of the Jewish thing. I went to services at the world's largest Gay Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender friendly congregation. Congregation Beth Simcha Torah is so large, in fact, that they had to rent out the Manhattan Center for the services. I attended Rosh Hashanna, Kol Nidre and Yom Kippur services and have to say that I was genuinely moved. CBST puts on a class act - and I really should admit that I was completely ignorant of the plight of gay Jews prior to this year's services. It's incredible to me that the right wing Jews really have more in common with the right wing Christians than they do with me. But from what I gather, that's the case. It's a shame. I vow to always stand up for and with GLBT folks. To do otherwise would just be completely shameful.

Phew.

Ok, so also at the Manhattan Center (er, well, the Hammerstein Ballroom, anyway) - I saw beck on October 6th. What a showman! At one point he was playing his acoustic alone and had his band sitting at a dinner table behind him eating dinner. As his acoustic set progress they started gently playing rhythm on their plates, cups and food. It was incredible: before long he was fully accompanied by a table-service rhythm section!

So that's the story for now. At the moment I have to get back to studying (reading the inimitable Hegel).

Keep those cards and letters coming.

Sunday, September 25, 2005 12:40 PM
The Joys of Young Ethan
It's kind of incredible to me that we still don't have a very good universal address book to use with all of our devices. I mean I have a couple of computers running different personal information management software (Lotus Notes for work MS Office at home) as well as an email-cell phone and I also use a couple webmail programs (Yahoo Mail and Google's Gmail.) With the exception of being able to pretty easily synchronize my Blackberry cell phone with my Lotus Notes, I'm obliged to manually update all those other address books every time a friend or family member moves or switches emails or whatever. Annoying! Can somebody recommend a solution? Or how about someone invent an open standard that all these companies could operate on? I'd like to have a single, web-based address book that can automatically update all the other spots where I use addresses - work, home, webmail and cell phone. A single password could protect the lot.

So let's see, I studied quite a bit yesterday and did some IBM stuff in the morning. But also made time to see my friend Geri for lunch at the Shake Shack. She's leaving IBM to move to Singapore and work for Lenovo. Sounded like a pretty cool move for her, but still I'll miss her. She has a kind of infectious delight with the world that is quite charming. Oh and last night I went to see the Lord of War, starring Nicolas Cage. Pretty damn good flick.

Friday night was a party at Alex McCown's place in the West Village. He's also a New School graduate student in the Liberal Studies department. I almost bailed out on the way there. You know, it's just sometimes hard to muster up the will to go to a party on your own. But it was great - really nice people, really nice conversation. And I left with a sense that the other students in the program are equally keen to get a bit of a community going amongst us.

And that's a relief. I mean, as much as I love IBM, there is a certain homogeneity of worldview there that long ago began to color my vision. My dad has a great metaphor he uses to describe young teachers entering the educational system. He says that everyone starts out a cucumber when they enter the pickle barrel. And that every fresh, young cuke thinks he's going to enter the brine and change all those pickles! But what so often happens is that the brine has its effect on that young idealistic cucumber and --- before you know it - there's another pickle in our midst.

But!

It's not a self-fulfilling prophecy. It's possible to stay fresh if you take action to do so. And so that's one of the outcomes that I'm seeking at the New School and, in particular, amongst this incredibly diverse crowd of thinkers from around the world who are a part of my program. I wish I had brought my camera to the party - it was a lot of fun and we're a cool-looking, multi-culti global crowd.

So I think we're all going to try to get together for drinks or coffee or something after our Wednesday class (which we're all in together.) It should be a nice opportunity to make some connections and let some other points of view make their way through the brine.
Ok, well, this has been my little study break. Now back to the Sorrows of Young Werther.

Thursday, September 15, 2005 9:23 PM
Happy birthday to me.

Why do birthdays bum me out? I guess they just do. I'm not a big birthday guy. I mean, I feel like I'd like to celebrate and everything - I like the attention and the validation as much as the next guy. But then the day rolls around and I get all maudlin. I prefer to celebrate the day after or before or something. It kinda helps deflect it all a bit. Anyway, I'm looking forward to hanging with friends this weekend and I sure do appreciate all the calls and emails from friends and family today.

So I have been hankering to write for a while, but have been just too swamped. Turns out working full time and taking a fairly heavy course load means that I will actually have to work and read and study 24/7. As hard as it is, though, it feels totally right. I just have to get into the swing of things, improve my reading skills (it's one thing to read a couple thousand pages in a week in novels, articles and webpages. It's another thing to read all that plus Rousseau and Kant) and, frankly, turn down some stuff at IBM. This past summer my manager cautioned me that I need to learn to say no. It's true, but saying 'yes' to every project that comes my way and trying to do a killer job on it has been my philosophy for building my career.

Well, last weekend was a mish mosh of good stuff. On Friday night I went to Shabbat services - something I haven't done in ages. I just went on my own to the Village Temple, which is a nice little congregation a few blocks from my apartment. I don't know why it suddenly occurs to me to go to temple now, but I did it. And I have to say it was quite moving. During Shalom Alenu I nearly cried. And then midway thru the services - just following the Rabbi's sermon, which encouraged the congregation to take action about inequality and the terrible genocide being perpetrated in Darfur - the cantor picked up an acoustic guitar and led the congregation in singing "We Shall Overcome." I know it sounds hokey, but it was beautiful. I plan to go back for services at least somewhat regularly - I feel like I could contribute to that community as well as walk away with a meaningful feeling of spiritual connectedness.

So I spent most of Saturday reading Rousseau's Discourse on the Inequality of Man. Heady stuff indeed. I'm not sure if this blog is the spot where I want to ruminate on it either. Nah. Maybe I'll post my papers here as I crank 'em out.

Saturday night I managed to sneak away from my studies to see the Constant Gardner - Ralph Fiennes' new flick with Rachel Weisz. Damn, she's hot. Anyway, the film gets a strong A-. It was moving and well put together. The acting is top rate too.

Sunday was September 11th - hard for any New Yorkers to overlook. I spent most of the day reading Utopia, but took a break to hang out with my friend Megan Henretta. We sat and chatted for a while and she caught me up on her latest exploits in the music world (which I am missing due to my stupidly demanding work/study life…sorry, Megan!) But we also went across the street to the Mosque on my block. They were having an open house and I wanted to take the opportunity to meet some of the guys with the beards and the robes I see coming in and out of there all the time. Honestly, I know I am prejudiced. I definitely have issues with Arabs and Muslims. I mean, as a Jew, it's hard not to. And since I feel like my prejudice is based as much on my ignorance as anything else, I thought I'd try to learn a bit about that which I fear and secretly despise.

I have to say I wasn't that impressed with the first speaker. They had a panel of black Muslims - I think they were all American by birth judging by their accents and what they said during their speeches. When I walked in, the speaker was sermonizing rather than explaining his religion - I mean it was a pretty classic fire and brimstone schtick. "You will all burn eternally in hell ye who does not accept Allah as the one true God." And then he started waving a book around claiming that the World Trade Center was not brought down by the planes that struck it, but rather by explosives planted inside. It just didn't make that much sense. I mean, here was an audience of neighborhood people who had come to have their minds opened to Islam and this guy was preaching damnation and conspiracy theories?

Well, at least the question and answer session went a little better. One woman stood up and asked: "I am Pagan and therefore by your rules damned to eternal hellfire. And yet I would die to protect your right to be here and practice you religion unfettered. Even though I am damned, can you accept my support?" Thankfully one of the elders of the Mosque fielded her question and quite eloquently reassured her that they could indeed accept her support and that each individual had to face judgment on their own and accept their fate on their own. It was still a bit of damnation, but at least it was damnation with an open mind.

Another attendee asked if the members of the mosque would turn in to the police someone who was plotting to harm others in the community, for example, through a terrorist action. The response came from the young guy who was all conspiracy theory earlier - I was relieved that he said: "The Koran teaches us that we must hate violence and stop it if we can with our hands. If we cannot prevent it with our hands, we must prevent it with our mouths by speaking out. And if we cannot prevent it at all we must hate it with our hearts." Phew!

So yeah, that was a pretty heavy afternoon (followed, of course, by more studying - pardon the pun, I was reading More.) And then I did a bit of IBM work to top off the weekend.

Oh one last thing before I go - my friend Zarya hooked me up with a ticket to the sneak preview of Everything is Illuminated on Monday night. She and two of her medschool friends came to the show - it's pretty damn good. If you're Jewish, or interested at all in the diaspora of the Jews following the Second World War, you'd get a lot out of this film. Not to mention that the lead singer from Gogol Bordello has a lead role and is fantastic in it.

Tuesday, September 6, 2005 11:21 PM
Nugget Form with Dippin' Sauce
I'm sitting here at the Lower East Side's "88 Orchard" cafe where the proprietor has wisely chosen to serve up some live Pixies recordings along with the excellent prosciutto sandwich and coffee. I'm cranking out this blog entry on my ThinkPad, which is totally smokin'.

So over the Labor Day weekend my buddy Eli Neugeboren and I went down to DC to visit our old roomie, Dan Walsh. The Amtrak ride down there was downright pleasant -- it's really too bad rail travel isn't a bit more prevalent in the US. I guess our cities are just too far apart...well, not the East Coast. But still. And then again, rail service doesn't quite rack up the dollar signs for Bush and his cronies either so it's wprobably not going to get much more prevalent.

Anyway, Eli and Dan are the kind of friends who I can just pick up with as if we'd never been apart. Eli and I hang out pretty frequently in NYC, but it's not quite the same as living with him as I did for several years. In fact, when I first moved to NYC it was into Eli's apartment on 14th street in Park Slope. I gotta give Eli a shoutout here for proposing to his girlfriend (now finacee) Jen (who is an absolute catch). He proposed in grand style and with the panache and class I'd expect from a mensch such as he is. So to continue, a year or so after I moved to NYC he and I moved into a new pad with Dan on 10th street (also in Park Slope.) Dan's working in DC as a graphic designer at an architectural firm after having spent a couple years in Italy getting a master's degree in industrial design. He's just oozing with talent (as you can see from his website linked above) and fresh ideas.

One of those ideas -- and out of fairness, he may have been quoting a friend -- is that one of these days all foods will be served in nugget form with dippin' sauce. I have to say that I'm pretty much an adherent to this burgeoning theory. The more I look around and read the menus of new restaurant, the more I notice how well this theory holds up. For example, the three of us had our first meal this weekend at a Georgetown bar called, the Old Glory (aka the Glory Hole...but you didn't hear that from me.) They had no fewer than a dozen sauces for their food. Just about everything on the menu came accompanied by some mustard/mayonnaise/aioli/Tabasco/horseradish/balsamic-vinager/butter/bacon-extraction/chutney-infused dish of goo. I believe it was Eli who pointed out that "sauces" originally served solely to preserve food and that their additional flavor was an unexpected benefit that has since eclipsed the original purpose. Now the food itself comes in a kind of pathetic second place behind its featured sauce. Just take a look at any menu with this in mind next time you're chowing down and you'll see what I mean -- especially in so far as American cuisine or fast food is concerned.

So we didn't spend the whole time philosophizing about the sauces of the world. We also managed to squeeze in an absolutely over-the-top-successful tubing trip in Virginia's Shenandoah River. Just imagine yourself immersed in a bath-water-warm river on a sunny, humidity-free day gently making your way down several miles of unadultured, beautiful countryside. On one side of the river were the occasional cow pastures with black cows staring placidly at the passing tubers, on the other side were cliff faces and forests. Ideal. Totally superb. But it gets better -- we had an extra tube with a cooler filled with snacks and beers. If you get a chance, check out Shenandoah Outfitters -- it'll be the best $15 you ever spent (that's right, fifteen bucks.) And it's a couple hours outside of DC (Chris, if you're reading this, take note -- it is the perfect way to spend a sunny day.)

I wish I had pictures of us on the river but I didn't want to bring the digital camera onto the water. Oh well, you'll just have to imagine our slightly drunk, waterlogged selves trying to balance on top of the tubes without spilling beer and chips into the mighty Shendandoah.

So the fun didn't end at the bottom of the river because on the way home we chose to cut through Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah National Park. It's a ride I've taken before -- once with my dad when I was a wee lad (in fact, on that trip we did the same tubing trip!) and then again with my buddy Tom Williams in 1995 or so. But I don't think I ever saw those mountains at sunset before. Talk a bout blue ridges. I'm putting some of the high-resolution shots up here in case you want to make a desktop image out of them -- just click the thumbnails at right. Dan and Eli and I had a great time just soaking in God's glory on that ride. Made me feel real happy to be alive. The three of us just couldn't stop ourselves from remarking again and again what a perfect day it was and how great it felt to be in the company of our friends.

At the end of Skyline Drive we stopped in a little tiny town (Front Royal, VA) for burgers at the Village Idiot Restaurant -- their logo is "Studpid (sic) Name Incredible Food! Come join us for lunch or dinner!" At the Village Idiot I had perhaps one of the top burgers ever served to me. Huge, cooked to perfection and served with a lot of joke-making and friendly banter with the wait staff and kitchen crew. I am pretty sure the place is run by lesbians (judging form the "Kelly loves Katie" graffiti on the ceiling and the appearance of some of the staff) which made it all the more fun and surreal. I mean, we just didn't expect to come into such good vibes and great food in that little podunk town. If you happen to be in Front Royal, VA, stop by 510 S. Royal Avenue and get one of those burgers served rare with a side of baked mac and cheese. You won't be disappointed.

This week is just going to be crazy because in addition to starting classes, I am also speaking on IBM's behalf about podcasting at Revolution in PR Technology: How Blogs, RSS, Wikis and Podcasting Are Transforming Corporate Communications, which is a one day conference here in NYC. I'm listed as one of their experts on this page, which is kind of fun and flattering. Please, if you bump into these guys (or my management and colleagues at IBM, for that matter) don't let 'em know that I've been wingin' it for years ;-) But seriously, I was on the phone with an IBM colleague today from Austin who had called me up to ask about certain Web 2.0 technologies (such as thought to myself: "Holy crap, you sound like you know what you're talking about." I couldn't resist asking her if what I was saying was helpful and she replied enthusiastically in the affirmative and asked me if I wouldn't mind meeting up with her periodically to review her plans and consult. It was validating and helped build the confidence I'll need in order to make a worthwhile appearance at the conference on Friday.

All that webstuff makes me think of my buddy Dan, who has just launched a new Website, BigDoucheBag.com. I'm not sure if I should be honored (or contacting my attorney) that I have my photo on the front page. AT any rate, please visit it and submit photos of your friends, relatives and enemies. Oh and make sure ot click on his Google ads a lot so he can rake in that $.0000005 or whatever incremental payment he gets for all those douche links. Good luck, Dan! Time to quite that day job!

So finally, I just thought I'd provide a link here ot the classes I'm going to be taking. The first is Society and its Discontents and the other is Utopia is Coming. The first will be taught by my department's chair, Jim Miller and the second is taught by a Parsons instructor, Lenore Malen. I can't wait. Really -- I'm just so stoked to go in there and get started tomorrow.

Ok, well, it's time for me to hit the hay. Leave a comment. I miss you. (Probably.)

Wednesday, August 31, 2005 12:26 PM
Give a little
My friend Chris makes a very reasonable suggestion that we all dip in to our pockets and give a little to the Red Cross or similar organization today in the wake of hurrican Katrina. All morning the Red Cross website was down, but it's back up. So take aminute and cough up a few bucks. This is the least we can do.

Sunday, August 21, 2005 9:44 PM
What I Did on Summer Vacation, By Ethan M.
When you step away for a while it's always tempting (upon returning) to recount the tale in detail -- but that makes for bad story telling. When revising a paper I wrote, my friend Klayton once told me, "I'm never much impressed by chronology."

But by way of explanation I'll put down a little background just so those of you sitting on the edge of your seats wondering about my little life can get your fill. Or, more honestly, because there's some kind of unignorable impetus I feel driving me to do it. Like seeing a gap in a sequence that needs to be filled. Like hearing "da da dA DA DA" and feeling compelled to scream at the top of my lungs: "two bits!"

Two weeks ago I left for Colorado -- Vail in particular -- for a little vacation. I spent the week with Brian Newman and Beth Kades (soon to be Beth Newman.) We hiked, biked, jammed on guitars and had an all around good time at the grill, the pool and the trails. What can I say but Brian and Beth are a very special couple -- dedicated to each other without being cloying, creative without being pompous, clever with no hint of snooty and just plain adoring of each other (which is refreshing and inspiring to see.) Next year they'll be married, and I'm honored to say that Brian asked me to be one of his groomsmen.

What do I know about being a groomsman? Nothing really. But I'll do what's called for.

So in Colorado I was blessed by a visit from two other couples: Klayton and Patricia and Max and Claire. Klay and Patricia came up on Friday and Max and Claire came in on Saturday. We did more jamming, beer-ing and barbecuing (including some excellent shrimp marinated more than 24hrs in Italian dressing -- try it, it's awesome.)

Last week I went down to South Carolina, where my parents have built a home in Georgetown (a stone's throw from Myrtle Beach.) Funny thing, flying down there I was completely surrounded by screaming kids and sweating parents. I had never seen so many children on a flight. But then again, I usually travel to business places like Chicago or whatever....not family vacation places. Myrtle Beach leaves a lot to be desired -- we all but avoided it completely during my stay except for one strange attempt to get sushi in what seemed like an amusement park for the consummate materialist. I think it was called "Boardwalk Beach" or something (though from what I understand both the boardwalk and beach are fabricated facsimiles of the real McCoy. Whatever.)

Anyway, my mom and stepdad have built (or have had built, but that's a kind of awkward construction, pardon the pun) a beautiful home in a golfing community called Wedgefield. Never mind that they don't golf (they assure me they plan to learn) -- the place is stunning. I mean, really really nice. The golf course has all kinds of trails (upon which I went jogging) and it is right behind their home, so it's like have a 100 acre backyard. The sky is pitch black at night and there's nothing but crickets and stars. It's super nice and I feel a lot better about them living there than in their place in South Florida, which was nice, but never really seemed to suite them.

The new house sits just a few miles from an incredible sculpture garden called Brookgreen Garden, which is in a 9000 acre endowment from Archer and Anna Hyatt Huntington, who are two rich, dead white people. The place is really breathtaking -- worth visiting for a few days (I spent a paltry 2 hours there with my mom.)

So that was the catch-up. Now I'm back in NYC trying to pull together my life after the two-week break. It's crazy how much email and chores have piled up. But I guess it's to be expected since I have school starting soon and the pace at IBM never really slows down.

New toy alert #1: I finally buckled and bought a Blackberry 7100G so I can do email and instant messaging on the go. So far it's pretty fun. I just hope it simplifies rather than complicates things for me.

New toy alert #2: I am writing this from new T43 IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad. It is so totally tricked out with a Pentium M 2GHz processor, 80GB harddrive, DVD Burner, 64MB video card, wifi, bluetooth and fingerprint security. Whee! The nerds rejoice.

Right now I'm listening to: the Brazilian Girls.

This morning I went for a long rollerblade from my pad in the East Village up to West 42nd street. It was humid and hot out, but that just made it feel like a better workout. I have been taking Advair and Claritin every day and feel like a million bucks. I went running yesterday and earlier in the week at my mom's place. It's nice to get back into the healthy swing of things.

Tonight I went up to my condo and played landlord. The girls saw a mouse and a couple roaches and the people below my condo are complaining of a leak in the ceiling so I went up to see what I could do.. It's all pretty frustrating, but I'll get it worked out. I really need that place to run smoothly.

I thought that on my vacation I would have spent a little more time working on those songs that Dan and I got started or would have maybe spent a bit more time reading (I did make my way through all of Christopher Hitchins'Love, Poverty and War but that was about it.) Ah well, an object at rest tends to stay at rest, and certainly got a lot of relaxing and downtime in as well as lots of exercise, good meals and quality time with friends and family.

And that's what I did on my summer vacation.

Monday, August 1, 2005
Tagged with tunes
Ok, my buddy Chronic Curmudgeon has tagged me with a blog meme to list what I'm listening to these days. So I offer you, in no particular order, 10 tunes I'm digging right now. Let's call 'em recent discoveries and rediscoveries:

• Into the Void, Black Sabbath: these guys get a hard time because of Ozzie's antics, but they should get props for inventing the genre of hard rock. Seriously great tunes for working out -- catchy riffs galore. Into the Void is six minutes of driving music that'll have your speedometer maxxed out in no time.
• Carry Me Ohio, Sun Kil Moon: this ode to the Ohioan's lament will move even those who don't hail from the Midwest. It is simple beauty manifested in song form. Sun Kil Moon is a somewhat recent side project from native Ohioan and Red House Painters lead man, Mark Kozelek.
• Crazy On You, Heart: In short, Heart did for women and Rock and Roll what Susan B. Anthony did for ladies and the vote. When is the US Mint going to get around to making the Heart commemorative $100 bill? It'd be worth every cent.
• The One You Love, Rufus Wainwright: Native Motrealer and songwriter extraordinaire, Rufus Wainwright will break your heart in two with The One You Love from his album, Want Two. The whole album is great, but this is the one song that made pick up my guitar and start writing. Yes, this single ditty inspired me to write. It's beautiful in lyrics, melody and meter. Somehow upbeat and melancholy all at once.
• Two Way Monologue, Sondre Lerche: So what if I have no idea how to pronounce his name? I have to thank my friend Matt Anchin for recommending this Norwegian singer-songwriter to me. This title track from his debut US album tells a great story (and has a catchy hook to boot.) I love the clean production reminiscent of the sound Cake had on Fashion Nugget.
• Anecdote, Ambulance Ltd.: If you're bummed that the Beatles broke up, check out Ambulance Lt. they have that uncanny ability to do novel things with familiar progressions like John and Paul did back in the day. Beautiful harmonies and terrific instrumentation. Understated and elegant.
• Bit-Rate Variations in B-Flat (Girl), Beck: Beck did us all a favor by prereleasing some tunes from Guero; this is one of them. It's a remix of the song, Girl reworked as though all the instruments are running through a Nintendo before they hit your speakers. That breathtaking, ascendant chorus is still there though. (You can get this remix on iTunes, but I don't know if you can buy it in a store.)
• The Legionnaire's Lament, the Decemberists: I'm not really sure how to characterize the Decemberists -- they're kind of sonic storytellers. This song is literally about a legionnaire who misses his misses. It's just full of great instrumentation (like the accordion/squeezebox solo) and clever twists of phrase.
• Lonely Girls, Lucinda Williams: I think this is one of the most tender songs recorded. Ever. The name says it all, but I'll add one observation: the bass and drums are reminiscent of the Lou Reed classic, Take a Walk on the Wild Side.
• Holiday/Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Greenday: Just because they put out an album called Dookie doesn't mean these guys stink. In fact, I think this song's the shit. It's eight minutes long. Let me say that again for emphasis: it's eight minutes long. Punk bands typically wrap it up in less than two minutes or so. Well, Greenday's not exactly a punk band and they have found a way to pull off an eight minute anthem in grand style. It's political, it's intelligent, it's catchy, it has several different movements and characters and it sports some of the best audio production I've heard.

Let me just say that this list above is just what's in my iPod frequent playlist right now. Apologies to my faves -- all of whom were contenders for the list. I tried to narrow it down to what I'm listening to these days since I think that's what Chris -- er, Curmudgeon -- wanted. Suffice to say, I have some pretty elaborate lists of music I'm into depending on the mood.

Just in case you wanted to know what else I have at the top of my personal pops: Jane's Addiction, Smashing Pumpkins, Led Zeppelin, Nick Drake, the Shins, Air, badly Drawn Boy, Elliot Smith, the Beasties, Ben Kweller, Bongwater, BV3000, Broken Social Scene, Built to Spill (how'd I miss you guys?...guess I'm just in a phase), the Cardigans, Chet Baker, ColdPlay, Dandy Warhols, Flaming Lips, Flunk, Four Tet, Grandaddy, John Coltrane, John Mayer, Magnetic Fields, Marcy Playground, Massive Attack, MC Solaar, Neutral Milk Hotel, Nirvana (I have been spinning Nevermind a lot lately), Brazillian Girls, Pink Floyd, Pixies (Trompe le Monde has been in frequent rotation too), Radiohead, the Sea and Cake, Secret Machines, Sheryl Crow, Snow Patrol, Sparklehorse, the Stills, Superdrag, UDS, Velvet Underground, Wilco, and Yo La Tengo.