I post at you quickly from Angela’s apartment, just because I can.
It is snowing and beautiful and festive outside.
And now I take off in a hurry because there is some amazing Apryl-food to partake in. And celebratory activities to commence.
Filed at 5:21 pm under Daily Goings-On
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I’ve been contemplating the past year, as I like to do in the week between Christmas and New Years’. And I’ve commented to a few people close to me that this year wore me out. The physical, mental, and emotional stress has been tough - all the graduating and moving and ending and beginning. The relationship issues and closures and openers. Starting a completely new life in a place where nobody knows me or my history. Dad being diagnosed with leukemia and me having to live through that while being far from home.
This song (click below) was significant to me when I was growing past some serious health issues when I was about 18, but it’s more significant now.
Filed at 4:51 pm under Life
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Background: I work in the AP Building in Rockefeller Plaza.
I headed for my building with my usual tunnel vision this morning, the first real morning back at work in almost a week (because of vacation days and holidays and MTA strikes). And what should I see parading past the front door?
A pair of camels.
I don’t know either.
Filed at 3:13 pm under New York City, Facepalm
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behold
the virgin shall conceive
and bear a Son,
and shall call His name Immanuel
(God-with-us)the people who walked
in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death,
upon them a light has shinedfor unto us a Child is born,
unto us a Son is given;
and the government will be
upon His shoulder.
and His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor,
Mighty God,
Everlasting Father,
Prince of Peace“comfort, yes, comfort My people!”
says your God.
“speak comfort to jerusalem,
and cry out to her,
that her warfare is ended,
that her iniquity is pardoned;
for she has received from the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins.”the voice of one
crying
in the wilderness:
“prepare ye the way of the Lord;
make straight in the desert
a highway for our God.
every valley shall be exalted
and every mountain and hill brought low;
the crooked places shall be made straight
and the rough places smooth;
the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all flesh shall see it together;
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
isaiah, 700 B.C.
Filed at 8:59 pm under Faith
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Douglas Wilson is dissecting Brian McLaren’s A Generous Orthodoxy on his website, Blog and Mablog. This bit made me laugh out loud. (I haven’t read McLaren’s book, so I don’t know how I feel about this, but take it as a bit of Wilson’s great wry humor.)
Here is why McLaren considers it appropriate to reject Calvinism, and still call himself a Calvinist. He does this because he thought up a new set of phrases to go with the TULIP acronym. His version is Triune Love, Unselfish Election, Limitless Reconciliation, Inspiring Grace, and Passionate Persistent Saints.
This is like me suddenly realizing that I (yes, even I) am also part of the emergent church, because I emerged from the shower this morning. I am a member of McLaren’s generous orthodoxy because I have been generous with gasoline for my chain saw. This is like saying that McLaren is a Cartesian foundationalist because even he would affirm that Jesus is in some sense a cornerstone. McLaren says that he respects the Reformed faith (p. 187), but his methods of argumentation drip with a coy contempt. And I myself am a Calvinist because I embrace the philosophy of Nietzsche: The western world is dying, Unmeasured violence is coming, Love is stupid, I am da man, and People annoy me. Nothing like a little tough-minded theological analysis to get the brain going in the morning.
Filed at 11:39 pm under Funnies, Theology
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Tom, to me:
“I don’t think you’re dyslexic. I think you’re incompetent.”
Filed at 11:36 pm under Facepalm
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I took the PATH to 30th Street this morning from Christopher Street. It was nice and empty because I left shortly after the morning rush (a little before 10am). I then walked the 20 blocks to the office (Rockefeller Center, 50th Street).
It’s cold out and I’m definitely not healthy - coughing a lot, losing my voice, head feels a bit woozy - and today’s my day off, technically, so I don’t think I’ll last long today.
Thankfully, I have tomorrow off, and the Times is reporting that the MTA workers may go back later tonight. It apparently will take about 8 hours to get everything functioning again.
Filed at 1:37 pm under New York City
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Getting published just in time for Christmas . . . here’s my latest article at Relevant.
Filed at 1:10 pm under Writing
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Took the PATH up to 33rd Street today and back down again.
Oh. My. Goodness.
Someone . . . please give us the trains back?
Filed at 9:00 pm under New York City
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For those of you wondering, I worked from home today - meaning I left my numbers and email addresses with the pertinent people at the office. It was slow and quiet.
It slowly has dawned on me that if I take the PATH to 34th & 6th (mercifully, the PATH is running) I can walk 16 blocks north, about a mile, and get to the office. So I will go tomorrow, after rush hour is over.
Filed at 11:24 pm under New York City, Daily Goings-On
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I write to you today from 50 Rockefeller Plaza, also known as the AP building (in which the Associated Press apparently does not reside anymore). ‘Tis the land of the free and the home of mobs of tourists.
But, the commute is shorter, and there are definite perqs. Plus I have a semi-cube that I share with a co-worker, with lots and lots of desk space and half-height cube walls. Woohooo.
I have a lot to do. Ciao for now.
Filed at 3:39 pm under Work
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I saw Liv Tyler on the way to church this morning. She was walking her dog.
Finally, a famous person sighting!
Filed at 2:37 am under New York City
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Because of the threatened MTA strike, I was up until 3am last night, when we finally decided to call it a night and hope for the strike. On top of it, the weather threatened to be icy and snowy and altogether nasty. Tom slept on our couch because should the MTA have striked (struck?), he would have had no way to get back into town for work tonight barring walking from Ridgewood, which would have been a lousy idea, but of course we didn’t realize this until about midnight when he got out of work.
So I woke up rather late and realized there was no strike, the sky was blue and it was lovely out. However, I didn’t feel lovely - sore throat, sinuses and ears. Yuck. So I stayed home anyhow. Ventured out mid-day for echinacea and various cold-curing sundries and am currently laying around doing very little trying to kick a cold.
I used to always get a cold this time of year, and always attributed it to stress from finals and then the wind-down afterwards. But perhaps not. I am the opposite of stressed out.
Intriguing things I have run across in the last 48 hours:
Google set to buy 5% of AOL from Time Warner. Wow. I wonder what exactly this means.
Best Web 2.0 Software of 2005. He includes Del.icio.us as his first, something that I have started to use but haven’t gotten very far yet. I see potential. The one I’m waiting for is a Google Calendar (hey, the URL is live, though nothing is there yet). Ken and I were discussing the possibilities a few days ago, and they are endless.
I picked up The Bohemian Manifesto: A Field Guide to Living on the Edge - I couldn’t resist - and I’m enjoying it greatly. I am apparently living, working, and worshipping among Bohemians of various varieties and flavors. It’s a tongue-in-cheek book, by the same author who wrote The Bombshell Manual of Style, but it’s good fun, ironic yet interesting. It’s weirdly giving me history of a lot of people who have lived in and shaped Greenwich Village.
Interestingly, by the way, I saw today a plaque on a house on Bedford Street, just around the corner (literally) from my house, that says that Edna St. Vincent Millay lived in a house there when she wrote her Pullitzer prize-winning Ballad of the Harp-Weaver. I need to read more poetry. I need to write lousy poetry so I can learn to write good poetry.
I love the village at Christmas. It is cheery and lovely and sweet and everything I hoped it would be when I came to see it back in May.
Filed at 12:56 am under New York City, Links, Daily Goings-On, Books
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I saw King Kong on Monday, and I wrote a review. I sent it to Relevant but figured they’d already assigned it - which they had. It was good practice, anyhow. Looking forward to taking the Film & Media Journalism class at NYU in the spring!
King Kong
By Alissa Clark
Hot on the heels of his wildly successful trilogy dealing in hobbits and rings, Peter Jackson directs a remake of King Kong. It’s a project that was near and dear to his heart, before The Lord of the Rings, but he was unable to make the movie until after the success of the Rings trilogy. And make it he did - for the highest salary ever paid to a film director in advance of a film production.There is much to like about this remake of King Kong. The sets are well-done, the story is properly creepy, and Jackson’s decision to set the film in its original 1933 timeframe lends a satisfyingly authentic feel to the film. New York appears as it was, with a vague resemblance to its current appearance.
The opening scenes of the movie seem at times overly dramatic. Dialogue is a bit stilted, and at times it’s hard to tell if the movie intends to mimic an old film, or if it just came out that way. Jack Black manages to be funny in an uncharacteristically dramatic role as Carl Denham, a scheming movie producer bent on making a film that his backers have pulled. And of course, there’s a map with an undiscovered island on it that he wants to follow.
Naomi Watts is doe-eyed and beautiful as the sad Ann Darrow. She plays the hungry out-of-work actress transformed into starlet well, and her screams are convincing. Adrien Brody is a solid Jack Driscoll, a brooding writer forced into an action-hero role. These two, along with Black, make the most of a wobbly script with chuckle-inducing moments that seem lifted from slapstick film of the era.
The movie picks up when the action starts, as the boat carrying the film crew is marooned on an oddly prehistoric island. This is not a movie for small children or people with phobias of creepy-crawlies and things that go bump in the night. Jackson is first and foremost a horror film director – his early work includes slash puppet movies (Meet the Feebles) and stories of girls plotting murders (Heavenly Creatures) – and it is fully evident in the island scenes, which seem to drag onwards. Jackson let his imagination run wild, producing larger-than-life creatures in fantastically good CGI, but he has been a bit too enthusiastic and there is scene after scene of frightening bugs, reptiles, and other animals – not to mention the island natives.
Andy Serkis, as usual, takes the cake as Kong himself. Serkis is best-known for his work as Gollum in the Rings trilogy, and again, he is the star whose face we never see. Kong is wonderfully and believably animated, with a properly terrifying roar and soft, endearing eyes. Scenes between him and Watts are tender, while a fantastic fight scene left the audience cheering and applauding.
Jackson unfortunately seems to run out of steam about halfway through, and the story meanders through jungles and in the final scene on top of the Empire State Building (which is good and dizzying on the big screen). The already long movie (over three hours) tries too hard to be dramatic, touching, action-packed, horrific, and romantic, all at once. And the story is inherently a little disturbing, leaving one a little shell-shocked at a near-romance between a giant ape and a beautiful girl. However, it’s a fun movie with great opportunities hoot and holler at the screen, and interesting to watch as a glimpse at Jackson’s directorial leanings.
Ahhh, commuting.
The threatened MTA transit strike is looking more and more likely, which basically means there will be no subway service. If they strike, they’ll stop working at midnight tonight. (Note to self: make sure to be home by midnight.)
The Bank has put together a contingency shuttle plan, which is great, but I can only imagine how mobbed it will be with all the investment bankers who simply MUST be here, plus support personnel, plus techies . . . it picks up relatively far from my apartment (5th and 14th) and drops off at Rockefeller Center, which is all well and good but is about eight blocks from work. Whatever.
On top of it, tomorrow is supposed to be our last day at the 9 West 57th Street offices, but we have to pack our stuff up tonight just in case. (We move to 50 Rockefeller Plaza next week.)
AND - they are forecasting ice and snow for tonight. Which is going to make the above-ground commuting of millions of extra people just that much more fun! </sarcasm>
Filed at 12:07 pm under New York City, Work, Facepalm
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World Magazine’s Daniel of the Year, Makoto Fujimara, artist and member of my church.
Filed at 10:42 pm under New York City, Links, Church, Faith
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It is very, very cold in my office. I have a sweater and a button-down shirt on and I’m still shivering uncontrollably.
Great article on great Firefox plugins, extensions, and hacks, from Wired.
I saw King Kong last night with Catherine. It will be released on Friday. I feel like I should write a review since I saw it in pre-release but I am too cold right now. Haha! Maybe tonight.
I need to get mittens and warm clothes for winter. I’m traipsing around in the frigidity in a pea coat and a scarf, and that is all (and often with damp hair). This cannot be good for my health. I’m kind of holding out for Christmas, though, because I: a) suspect I may get something of that sort for Christmas from one of my ever-thoughtful relatives and b) if not, know that I can get it cheaper after Christmas.
I’m rather fixated on the cold today. Sorry about that.
Filed at 12:35 pm under New York City, Daily Goings-On, Film
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More Piper:
Now we can give a definition of love that takes God into account and also includes the feelings that should accompany the outward acts of love. Love is the overflow of joy in God which gladly meets the needs of others.
Paul did not set the Macedonians up as a model of love just because they sacrificed in order to meet the needs of others. What he stresses is how they loved doing this . . . It was the overflow of JOY! They “begged earnestly” to give. They found their pleasure in channeling the grace of God through their poverty to the poverty in Jerusalem. It is simply astonishing!
This is why a person can give his body to be burned and not have love. Love is the overflow of joy in God! It is not duty for duty’s sake, or right for right’s sake. It is not a resolute abandoning of one’s own good with a view solely to the good of the other person. It is first a deeply satisfying experience of the fullness of God’s grace, and then a doubly satisfying experience of sharing that grace with another person.
Filed at 7:00 pm under Theology
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So Saturday . . . I don’t really know what I did on Saturday. I played guitar and read some books and that sort of thing. In the evening, Tom and I had dinner with Angela and Steve and two of Angela’s friends from Italy and three of their friends, who happened to randomly be living in Albany for training at GE. Albany being my hometown, we had a little to talk about. We had Korean food for dinner - a new experience from me - and hilarity ensued when we unwittingly ordered raw beef. Whoops. The longsuffering waiter actually cooked it for us, and it was quite good.
Angela, Steve, Tom, and I went to see the 10:40 showing of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. My take on it: it could have been better, but it wasn’t bad. I was prepared to be disappointed, as Narnia meant to me as a child what The Lord of the Rings meant to many others. The children were good, particularly Lucy, who I was relieved to see was the proper age for Lucy and very adorable. Tumnus was fantastic. The White Witch was great, androgynous and wicked without being too bizarre at first. I agreed with many others’ assessment that Aslan should have been bigger. The beginning bit with the war was good. I loved the lamppost, for no apparent reason other than it seemed really cool to me. And the wardrobe itself was well-done.
The soundtrack, on the other hand, I found horrid, and I felt like the story was rushed through without really getting the point. However, I get the distinct impression that they are prepared to make the rest of the movies, which should remedy that. As story and not allegory, I think they’re best when taken seven at a time, instead of one. I’m relieved that they did not start with The Magician’s Nephew, as some abominable publishing executive has. The books are all written out of order . . . deal with it! I refuse to buy my own copy of the series until I can find a properly numbered one.
Yesterday I woke up at 9:30 am, which incidentally was when I was supposed to be at church. I had also inadvertantly set my clock an hour ahead, so I thought it was 10:30, and I lept out of bed, showered in a hurry, and ran out the door (noticing in the meantime that I’d only be half an hour late, instead of just miss it altogether). I was in too much of a rush to realize until I sat down in choir practice that I had an amazing, whopping, massive migraine headache. By the time we had gotten to lunch (which was quite late), the headache had left me dizzy and nauseous, so I went home and slept, and later Tom brought me my salad, which had been “wrapped” (another story for another time). After some Midol and another hour of dozing on the couch, I felt well enough to eat and read some of the New Yorker and spend the evening quietly.
And because I don’t feel 100% well today, and Christmas is coming and I want to be healthy, here I am at home, taking a sick day to recuperate.
I really hope the MTA employees don’t strike. The headache of getting to work with no subways is not a pleasant thought, though the idea of being stranded in the village is lovely. I have thought lately that if it weren’t for the office being in midtown, I could quite happily pass all my time between 8th Ave and Union Square and between Houston and 14th Street. A small existence, to be sure, but there’s more in that small area than there is for miles in Albany! (I have no intention of that, but it’s an amusing thought.)
I think I’m going to see a preview of King Kong tonight. Oooooh. :)
Filed at 11:02 am under New York City, Friends, Daily Goings-On, Film, Church
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Reading Piper tonight:
Truth without emotion produces dead orthodoxy and a church full (or half-full) of artificial admirers (like people who write generic anniversary cards for a living). On the other hand, emotion without truth produces empty frenzy and cultivates shallow people who refuse the discipline of rigorous thought. But true worship comes from people who are deeply emotional and who love deep and sound doctrine. Strong affections for God rooted in truth are the bone and marrow of biblical worship.
And he quotes C.S. Lewis:
If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.
Filed at 9:18 pm under Books, Church, Theology
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It is snowing feathers in New York. I think I’ve found the one hitch in my “YAY I LIVE IN NEW YORK I NEVER HAVE TO DRIVE ANYWHERE” plan: I can’t call in to work and take the day off because of weather. Boo!
Filed at 8:47 am under New York City
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Here’s a roundup of the best new things I’ve discovered or been more thoroughly introduced to in the last two months or so:
Music
Authors & Books
Websites
Geek Thing of the Month
Filed at 8:44 pm under Links, Geekitude, Music, Books
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