stevengharms

I had been hard at work on building a new server and porting a bunch of legacy Perl code over so yesterday I was due for a reward. I came home, ate a Sloppy Joe, and then headed to the Shoreline with Elle.

I’m not saying anything new by saying that I thought this movie was hilarious, but it was. It was a (surprisingly) grown-up look at relationships, dating, forging one’s sexual identity, and kooky co-workers.

It’s definitely R-rated, but it’s part of the resurgent adult sex-comedy that so blessed us during the early 80s heyday of Private Benjamin, Stripes, Porky’s, and Bachelor Party.

Further, the movie was directed by Judd Apatow who is a master of skewering the embarrassment knife. After hurting me in commiseration with all those episodes of “Freaks and Geeks” (see previous blog post here), seeing him attack the most socially akward phase of one’s life (after Junior High) was a real joy. Apatow knows when to say nothing but to let the lingering camera act as your unflinching camera into humiliation. It hurts so much.

Obviously Rated R, for shameless horndoggin’, topless antics, and a hilarious tirade from a Pakistani sales clerk in which so many deviant behaviors are mentioned I had to run for my hep-cat lingo lookup site.

my best friend’s a butcher, he has sixteen knives
he carries them all over the town at least he tries
oh look it stopped snowing
my best friend’s from Poland and um, he has a beard
but they caught him with his case in that public place
that is what we had feared…

Citing from their amazing record “Turn on the Bright Lights”, I am so very much impressed with Interpol (and their sophomore effort “Antics”).

I’m totally stoked. It’s not until the 15th of next month though. Until that time..

he severed segments secretly, you like that
he always had the time to speak with me I liked him for that
he severed segments so secretly, you like that
he always took the time
he always took the time

“Turn On the Bright Lights” (Interpol)

…the string bit in the background to the chorus of “Sad Song” on Lou Reed’s opus, Berlin.

I borrowed this CD from a CD rental place in Holland shortly before I headed to Berlin in the Christmastime of 1997. I remember the hostel being up a dark, gray interior stairway. I remember the warm wooden floors creaking as we padded in, tired, with mulled wine stirring in our gullets. I remember putting on my headphones in my bunk and hearing the beautiful, minimalist, sad songs on Berlin.

I can feel the sparse Teutonic nothingness of heroin-addled West Germany in this album. It is truly an artistic achievement.

And when I say it’s got some sad songs I mean sad songs. I’m talking about screaming children being pulled away from their (allegedly) unfit mother. I’m talking about a burlesque girl’s unrequited love. It’s rough, but thoroughly unique.

Wikipedia says of Berlin:

tells something like a love story of two junkies in the city of the same name. This, one of the more depressing albums ever made, includes “Caroline Says II” (violence), “The Kids” (prostitution and drug addiction), “The Bed” (suicide) and, unsurprisingly, “Sad Song.”

This album isn’t trendy, angsty, mid-suburban-pop-angst-goes-slumming-with-the-junkies, no, this is something much, much, more real.

Would this face utter: Is Padmé all right?

A speech from the president that doesn’t appeal to “freedom” or “resolve” when some straight talk is sought and warranted or creativity in the video game industry.

Diogenes.

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p>Also known widely as the Fire Bird, the phoenix is a profound symbol of life and rebirth. It has a life cycle of 500 to 600 years and after that amount of time, it sets itself on fire and dies in the flames. Then, after three days, it rises again from the ashes. It is a completely benign creature who lives in dew. It is said that the phoenix has a beautiful melodious song which grows ever more mournful as its life comes to an end. It is also a symbol of the sun and immortality.
What mythical beast best represents you?Take the quiz!

For all of you thinking about taking a loot at Lisp, tthe guys over at Gigamonkeys have build a pretty handy tool for getting started with at quickness. Download and check it out (OS X and Linux. Windows, as ever, lags).

This is my first test of the ecto local blogging software. I tried using it a while back and things went, how shall I put it, poorly.

Let’s see if this latest version makes things a bit better for me.

KANSAS CITY, KS?As the debate over the teaching of evolution in public schools continues, a new controversy over the science curriculum arose Monday in this embattled Midwestern state. Scientists from the Evangelical Center For Faith-Based Reasoning are now asserting that the long-held “theory of gravity” is flawed, and they have responded to it with a new theory of Intelligent Falling.

http://www.theonion.com/news/index.php?issue=4133&n=2&ref=myy

Intelligent design is the dumbest thing in the world. You want to know about natural selection - look at the poodle, or the pug. People selected a property of a dog that they wanted more of, and they bred those that possessed the property. Years later, pugs stay small, greyhounds can run like the wind.

I encourage people to not live up to their potential.

Check this out:

Tommy Lee Jones: Harvard, English James Woods: MIT, Political Science Ken Keeler (staff writer on Futurama): Harvard, Applied Mathematics

Many, many smart people in this world go to very prestigious institutions of higher learning that gear them to do a certain task. Rarely do some of them say, this isn’t all that great, take off, and go do something artistic and / or completely different.

Bless them.