The Year in Pictures

I had a great time in Manhattan with Lux!


Ashley and I celebrated All Over Albany's Birthday!


Shauna had her 30th birthday!


HJ77 and I had a beer.


I climbed Mount Greylock with FAU.


TEA played Little League.


We had a great vacation in Maine.


TEA toured Fort Crailo with the wonderful Ms. Lee.


I hated that bag.


We had a hurricane.


I had a birthday. Yes, those are three neds.


Teacher Dave rocked the forklift.


TEA had the "best pizza ever".


I had Coffee Milk...in Rhode Island.


The father of the country, yo.


HJ77 and I after the Providence Turkey Trot.


With Andy Warhol's wallpaper at the RISD museum.

The Pop Culture Battle

#OccupyGreendale

And during the few moments that we have left, . . . We want to talk right down to earth in a language that everybody here can easily understand.

Cult of Personality

Yes, but is it art?

(Apologies to Paige, who has her "Is it art?" project, but I did love the title.)

Last weekend, HJ77 and I went to the RISD Museum of Art.

While there, we saw this:



The final resting place of a Roman slave named Delicatus Saturnina.



This upset me, much like mummies, sarcophagi, and other funerary artifacts bother me. Why?

Because they do not belong in museums. These are sacred objects and to put them on display as "works of art" or "works of note" is profane.

Some people, like HJ77, have told me that "at least these people are remembered".

No, they aren't Look at the exhibit description. You have to go looking for the name of the deceased. The name should be featured, not buried. The dead deserve better.

Ask yourself, does your museum have the relics of the dead on display? Do they belong there?

Book Recommendations

These are three of the books that I have read recently. I thoroughly recommend them all. (There have been others and it is best if I speak not of them, however, I will give a hint about a book I did not like. The book is about a guy with a name like Jteve Sobs.)

11/22/63 (NY Times Review)

The Year After the Flood (NY Times Review)

Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human (NY Times Review)

Books make a great gift and buy from a local independent book store.

Chicken Little and the Culture of Fear

Chunn's most recent painting series, Chicken Little and the Culture of Fear, on which she has worked since 2004, focuses on the terrorism crisis in America and the panic it perpetuates. This theme was similarly depicted in her 9/11 piece from 2002-2004.
From Wikipedia
RISD Exhibition Page

Bathroom:

This week in Foursquare Badges

Good week for new badges on Foursquare.
















These things make me happy: art and commerce, bread, wine, & books.

To the victor!

Isn't this beautiful?

Clash of the Titans

Yeah, I know...but I had to.

As God As My Witness

I thought turkeys could fly.



This is one of my favorite Thanksgiving television moments.

There is always one at every Thanksgiving

Much respect to ATHF!

It's Bizarro!

On Wednesday, eleven years ago, something great premiered on Adult Swim. That little piece of greatness was Sealab 2021.

Of all the weirdness this show provided, Bizarro was the most odd and the best.

Whenever someone tries to help, and does it poorly, I hear in the back of my head "I'm helping". Thank you, Sealab for this wonderful phrase!

The Mix I Am Listening To

1) Jumpers - Sleater Kinney

2) 10x10 - Yeah Yeah Yeah

3) Teen Age Riot - Sonic Youth

4) Never Said - Liz Phair

5) No. 13 Baby - The Pixies

6) Blacklisted - Neko Case

7) All My Friends - LCD Soundsystem

8) Los Angeles, I'm Yours - The Decemberists

9) Walking With A Ghost - Tegan and Sara

10) Painted By Numbers - The Sounds

11) Dirty Dream Number Two - Belle and Sebastian

12) The Well and The Lighthouse - Arcade Fire

13) Just Like Heaven - Dinosaur Jr

14) Tired of Sex - Weezer


Sometimes, iTunes Genius lives up to the name. This is a pretty cool mix.

This is a handful of...demented

Cast Iron Cooks with Elmo and that guy...you know the guy I am talking about...indie film guy who is a Coppola...what's his name?



Via Vulture

Rachel and Hodgman on Occupy Wall Street

This deserves a squee.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Really, it does.

Lamb...it's what's for dinner.

I love lamb.



When preparing it, I always think of this scene as well as the scene where a lamb asks Lisa, "Lisa, what did I ever do to you?"


Oven roasted rack of lamb (medium) with a red wine reduction

Seriously, I love lamb, and look at that above. It is cooked with my minimal skill, and a minimum of seasoning (salt, garlic, pepper) and a little bit of olive oil. As Vincent Anotelli said, "sometimes, I impress myself."

Off-topic:

Oh, what do you think is in a hot dog?

(Only included because I found it while searching for one of the above clips.)

Occupy Occupy Wall Street

I think I love the guys at Occupy Occupy Wall Street.

Rachel did a segment on them last night.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

It made me chuckle. I love the reveal at the end as well.

Don't Ruin Our Beer

Ommegang: Fracking may force us to leave » Local News » The Daily Star, Oneonta, NY:

"Brewery Ommegang is warning that it would have to consider relocating if the town of Middlefield's ban on gas drilling is struck down and horizontal gas drilling begins.

The ominous warning is contained in a new legal brief filed in support of Middlefield's recent zoning law.

"If its water were to be contaminated, the Brewery could be forced to move its business elsewhere," the court papers state. "Its Master Brewer and Quality Control chemist agree that even if Brewery Ommegang wished to do so, it could not remove many of the toxic chemicals commonly used in hydrofracking, should they be released into the Brewery's water supply."
"


Now, I have a strong opinion about fracking. Right, Dave?

Via All Over Albany

Once More, With Feeling

Once More, With Feeling, for those who were not fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, was the musical episode of BtVS. It aired a little more than ten years ago. It was, and continues to remain, awesome.

A list of the Top Ten Things from Once More With Feeling.









I hope that you enjoyed the clips, and I know what I am going to be listening to today.

Young Adult Dystopias

I am sure that you have already viewed the trailer for The Hunger Games (sorry, FAU, it is only going to get more publicity before it gets less) but I am including it anyway.



Now, I blogged about reading the books (Start here if you care) and I will not return to that method, but I want to talk about another YA trilogy that is also being turned into a movie:

The Forest of Hands and Teeth.

(See the article about the film, the business of making this into a film, and the star.) (Now, if you will notice, Carrie Ryan, author of TFoHaT, has written a critical essay about Suzanne Collins and the Hunger Games Trilogy. The irony is not lost upon me.)

Without going into either a review, or a ploy synopsis, TFoHaT is an interesting (and readable) series of books that is an answer to both the Twilight books as well as The Hunger Games trilogy but they are based in a world after the zombie apocalypse, called The Return in this mythology, and lends them a lot more "street cred".

Anyway, keep these books, and the films that may be staring "Bella", in your periphery, and what do you think of the trailer for The Hunger Games? (Read Vulture's Opinion)

(For the Record: I know a lot of people who have read these books. I am fascinated by the diverse people who have read them. Have you read them?)

Cool things on the Tubes

ExtendNY is a very cool site that puts you in Manhattan's.

I live at the intersection of 2684th St and 336th Ave. What about you?

What is your address?

Via All Over Albany

Covering Radiohead

Deadmau5 covering Radiohead

Enjoy!

Yet another chuckle

Stolen from Facebook.

Pictures from Union College

HJ77, TEA and I were on campus on Saturday.

The good news is that TEA loved it. The bad news is that the 'Skellar was closed.

TEA wants to go there. Now, that is scary on a number of levels.

Pictures from the Boston MFA

Some images from a recent visit to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

I just need a couple of weeks more

While walking to get something for lunch, I heard something horrible.

Holiday Music.

More specifically...Christmas music.

It was 64 and raining at the time.

Too soon. Too f***ing soon.

The saccharine nature of this holiday sets me on edge and I would prefer that the bulk of us were allowed to get through Thanksgiving (which is a much better holiday) without the minority trying to steal our holiday thunder.