cityblog

My boss just sent me a HUGE bouquet of orchids, roses, and other white flowers for an engagement congrats. Awww!

Filed at 10:51 am under Work, Engagement
5 Comments

I will be without internet at home until June 13. Kids, can she make it? (Of course she can. But still.) I don’t think I’ve been without internet for that long . . . like . . . ever!

Filed at 9:10 am under Geekitude
5 Comments

This is a great kick-in-the-pants article for writers. Also check out SlushPile.net.

And someone, please tell me this is a joke. Please.

Filed at 8:23 am under Links, Writing, Facepalm
2 Comments

My dress came yesterday. It is lubbly. I have never worn anything that beautiful!

I am traveling home tonight to see my dear friend Rachel get married. Rachel’s a missionary in Central Asia, and met her fiance, Chris, there (he is British). I grew up with their family, quite literally, and Rachel was by turns my piano teacher, choir leader, fellow choir director, fellow choir member, swim teacher, music teacher, fellow musician, and probably a half dozen other things.

My brother, Sean, is coming back down for the weekend to hang with us. He is far cooler than I, so we will probably hang out in Williamsburg, East Village, maybe go out to my new neighborhood in Park Slope, possibly Top of the Rock here at Rockefeller. I’ve been up the Empire State Building, but not Top of the Rock, and I walk by the entrance at least twice every weekday. And I get a discount.

Apparently today is a half-day for the business, so I’m going to duck out around 2pm, drop some things off uptown, and then try to find a dress at Forever 21 as fast as I can. I tried on dozens of dresses yesterday (well, ok, all the dresses in my wardrobe), and none of them are good for this weird weather we’ve got, or they’re very black, and I just can’t wear black to a wedding. Forever 21 had nice inexpensive adorable dresses, or at the very least I can get a white shrug to wear with a yellow dress I’ve got. Oy.

Filed at 9:59 am under Daily Goings-On
5 Comments

This is, hands-down, the most funny, snarky, amazing book/movie review I’ve ever read. And who woulda thunk it? It’s in the New Yorker.

(If you happen to adore Dan Brown, his book, or his film, then pardon me. But still read it. We all can afford to laugh occasionally.)

A snippet:

There is also Silas (Paul Bettany), a cowled albino monk whose hobbies include self-flagellation, multiple homicide, and irregular Latin verbs. He works for Opus Dei, the Catholic organization so intensely secretive that its American headquarters are tucked away in a seventeen-story building on Lexington Avenue.

And:

The film is directed by Ron Howard and written by Akiva Goldsman, the master wordsmith who brought us “Batman & Robin.” I assumed that such an achievement would result in Goldsman’s being legally banned from any of the verbal professions, but, no, here he is yet again.

Filed at 10:20 pm under Film, Books, Facepalm
4 Comments

Thank you for all the congratulations (actually if we were all in the same room, I expect you’d all be screaming and jumping up and down, from the looks of it)!

I will write the “story” up later, but here’s the important bits:
- Tom had a photographer friend of ours, Linda, sneaking around on that pier for an hour waiting for the perfect moment. And she got it.
- The ring is a solitaire in white gold, exactly what I wanted. It’s a stunning, perfectly cut diamond.
- Probably September. :)

Filed at 10:05 am under Engagement
8 Comments

Filed at 10:18 pm under Life
18 Comments

Ok, I admit, I am up this late because I made the horrid mistake of starting to watch Gilmore Girls Season 3, and I have a teensy little fake celebrity if-I-was-Rory-only crush on Jess (because he likes books and you should always prefer the literate men, they are better kissers, they are!). And I thought maybe, just maybe, they might get together soon. So I kept watching.

And they did! TOO CUTE!

</fangirl>

Filed at 1:23 am under Geekitude
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A year ago today, I graduated from college. It was a day just like this one: cool and sunny and breezy.

What a year it’s been.

Filed at 12:22 pm under Life
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The Da Vinci Code’s rottentomatoes.com score has gone down to 16% from 20% yesterday.

No way I’m spending money to go see this movie.

Filed at 3:48 pm under Film, Facepalm
3 Comments

This is late, but if you find yourself in New York City out of plans tonight (or with very late plans), you should show up to Arlene’s Grocery on the Lower East Side at 8pm to hear Tara Leigh Cobble play. $10 cover, but free CD included.

Filed at 3:36 pm under Daily Goings-On, Music
1 Comment

Happiness abounds:

Homestar Runner has a video podcast of Strong Bad emails and more..

Filed at 8:26 am under Geekitude
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Have you seen Google Notebook?

Pretty nifty.

Filed at 3:43 pm under Geekitude
1 Comment

I’m just not so much with the words lately. Sorry about that! Nothing too interesting to say.

Certain peeps in the blogosphere have decided that I look like this girl from the Cingular commercials:

I see it a teeny bit, but I really think she looks like a more heavily-made-up Michelle Trachtenberg.

Sounds like the Da Vinci Code movie bombed at Cannes. I was going to go see it if it was a good movie (and I had high hopes, with Ron Howard and Tom Hanks), but if the critics don’t like it, I’m not spending my $11 on it. Then again, I didn’t read the book either.

I finished reading V for Vendetta last weekend. It’s good, but reading graphic novels is really hard work. I need to see the movie now, even though I heard it wasn’t that good - the author of the book asked to have his name taken out of the credits - just for comparison’s sake.

Because I’m moving, but I haven’t actually moved yet, I have a lot of random things piling up in my teensy little bedroom (8′x10′). On Monday I picked up a microwave from Catherine, who is going home to Austin for the summer, and now that’s in my room along with a toaster oven and a bunch of other random things. I really just need to move.

Filed at 8:45 am under Daily Goings-On, Film, Books
1 Comment

Flickr’s got a new look in the last two hours or so, because it looks different than it did when I checked it earlier today.

Pretty cool.

Filed at 3:28 pm under Geekitude
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We watched Run Lola Run last night. And it was good. But halfway through, I realized that it was Blind Chance remixed over a dance beat.

Oh well, still good.

Filed at 8:40 am under Film
1 Comment

I’m in Chicago, and have been since yesterday. And it’s a nice city. The people are nice. When they bump into you on the street, they turn and apologize. The baristas in Starbucks are eerily peppy. And everyone wears jeans on Fridays in these offices.

But truly, there’s no place like home. (I miss New York. And I miss Tom.)

Filed at 1:23 pm under New York City, Travel, Work
5 Comments

Saw Chris Thile at the Living Room last night.� He was awesome.� How many guys can totally rock out a Radiohead song one minute, and play a Bach partita the next minute, all on solo mandolin?

I am exhausted.

Tomorrow morning I have to get up arond 4:00 am and get myself to La Guardia (thank God for expense accounts) and fly off to Chicago for two days of meetings.� Then I’ll fly from there to my parents’ house near Albany (ironically, cheaper than flying back to New York) and spend the weekend there.� My brother is turning 17 on Sunday, and there’s Mother’s Day.� I feel old.

Filed at 8:32 am under New York City, Music, Travel, Work
3 Comments

My parents’ house sold yesterday, and they’re moving. Which also means that my grandparents are moving (can you say “musical houses”?).

I too am moving in June, which means I have to think of all the bits-and-pieces I need to acquire: toilet paper, a broom, a TV, etc.

We had lunch with Josh and Catherine yesterday after church - Catherine’s going home to Austin for the summer, and Josh is leaving altogether for Connecticut (closer than Austin, but still).

Everything in life is kicking into uberdrive.

On Saturday, Tom and I (kinda randomly) ended up on the Staten Island Ferry and subsequently in Staten Island. There’s a lovely park there. We walked past two weddings. One of them was particularly amusing; there were about eight groomsmen, all wearing white suits with white bowler hats and teal ties to match the bridesmaids’ dresses. Ew. Teal. No.

Yesterday we saw Mission:Impossible III. No, I haven’t seen any of the other M:Is. But Philip Seymour Hoffman! And Keri Russell! And Jonathan Rhys Meyers! And lots of explosions! We loved it, oh yes.

Filed at 8:35 am under Friends, Daily Goings-On, Film
3 Comments

Been wanting to get an ESV (English Standard Version) Bible for a while - mostly because I literally wore out my old RSV from Urbana ‘03 - it’s split right in the middle of the Psalms, so I’ve got “two”. I need something that will hold up and be small & light enough to fit into my messenger bag (New Yorkers always have a bag on their person - it comes of not having a car).

Anyhow, hurrah for the new ESV journaling Bible, arriving in the fall, which looks a lot like the trendy little moleskine notebooks that I’ve got in my bag already.

(Via Ken)

Filed at 10:56 am under Links, Books, Faith
2 Comments

Yay!� Someone made a subway map overlay that actually appears to work!

Filed at 3:17 pm under New York City, Links
2 Comments

I was sitting on the subway this morning listening to Joaquin Phoenix sing “I Walk the Line” and wondering what everyone around me was listening to.� And then I wondered what you all are listening to as well.

Music (as opposed to podcasts) on repeat in my iPod, as of this morning:
The Weepies - Gotta Have You
1 Giant Leap - Braided Hair
Joaquin Phoenix & Reese Witherspoon - Jackson
Rosie Thomas - Pretty Dress
KT Tunstall - Black Horse and the Cherry Tree
The Black Crowes - She Talks to Angels
Over the Rhine - Jack’s Valentine
U2 - Mysterious Ways
Beth Orton - Conceived
Dave Matthews Band - Dreamgirl
Coldplay - Speed of Sound

Filed at 10:05 am under Music
7 Comments

And the country reaches a new low.
Click below for the text if you don’t want a (free) login to the NYTimes.
(more…)

Filed at 8:17 am under Facepalm
3 Comments

Wired News: Soderbergh: Burn, Hollywood, burn

This whole discussion sounds suspiciously like the debates we had in college over the “broken” music industry paradigm - how CD sales were dropping drastically, and how the industry needs to re-invent itself in order to stay alive. And in a lot of ways, it has (thanks to outfits like iTunes and eMusic). The whole topic was a bit of a hot button, as two RPI students were among the four college students that the RIAA sued for creating a search engine that could find MP3s (the case didn’t have a leg to stand on, but the RIAA has more money than random college kids, so they settled out of court). Don’t even get me started on that.

I haven’t looked at the statistics since I wrote a paper my sophomore year rebutting the idea that downloading music was killing the industry. My argument was that music executives were lazy and wanted to be able to make money the same way they always have. But the point of a free market society is that if something new comes along, you adapt, you change, you go with the flow. If people don’t like your product or the way you sell it, you figure out a better way. Because whining and lobbying Congress is not how an agile structure works. And as we learned in college, industries hit an inflection point where they can either adjust and re-invent and mature, or they can drop and fall apart.

So now Hollywood is catching on - not because of illegal downloading, but because Netflix and Blockbuster may be taking over the world and ruining cinema ticket sales. Personally, I think it’s because most of last year’s movies were lousy, but that’s another discussion for another time.

The point is, Hollywood needs to be as agile as the rest of them and re-invent their way of doing business, and I’m glad guys like Steven Soderbergh, at the Tribeca Film Festival, are catching on - whether or not their solutions always work. (Soderbergh’s solution this year was to release Bubble simultaneously on DVD, in theaters, and on cable TV - see the New Yorker’s take on it.)

Anyhow, there’s nothing new under the sun, but I’m glad the entertainment industry is waking up. The dot-coms had to reinvent themselves to stay afloat (enter web 2.0), the music industry is working on it, and thankfully, Hollywood is starting to get the picture.

Filed at 9:45 am under Links, Music, Film, Art
3 Comments

You can get to this here:

And that, in a nutshell, is the western world.

Filed at 8:59 am under Facepalm, Art
2 Comments