Where C-SPAN is the local TV news
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| The Washington Canard Where C-SPAN is the local TV news |
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Sunday, October 30, 2005
THAT LONG-AWAITED UPDATE — WHICH IS TO SAY, IT WAS MUCH-PROMISED BY YOURS TRULY, THEN SEEMINGLY FORGOTTEN, THEN BELATEDLY PROMISED AGAIN, AND THEN AFTER I'D LOST ALL CREDIBILITY ON THE SUBJECT, FINALLY, FOR REAL — WE HAVE AN UPDATE A few weeks back, I promised an "update" to this site. What I had in mind was — believe it or not — a site update. But several things I was going to update about were then themselves updated, and so I put it off. Additionally, I realized that when I promised I probably stop posting on account of work, I would then follow with a flurry of new posts. And when I said I would have an update... then I would not post to the Canard again for a week at least. Or so. But, here we are. A real, actual, serious, I'm not kidding, site update: Adding:
UPDATE — I forgot that TNR shut down the Noam Scheiber-helmed &c. and opened up a group effort at The Plank. Changed. Saturday, October 29, 2005
GOING AND GOING... For the first time in several years, I just saw an Energizer Bunny commercial on TBS (the OSU that's not from the Pacific NW is half a game into an upset of #2 Texas). This (the commercial) raises a question that Douglas Hofstadter would love: Is the Energizer Bunny the Energizer Bunny of television advertising campaigns? Sunday, October 23, 2005
WALKING THE DOG I'm not familiar with the work, but the phrase above is apparently the name of one of George Gershwin's many notable pieces. I bring it up because, on Friday, my parents had my dog, Gershwin, put to sleep. Back in the day, a decade and a half ago, she was known as my brother's dog, but she really did belong to the whole family. She was a puppy well into her late ages, a Labrador-German Shepherd mix, and who never settled down until age eventually calmed her. She got her name because we got her not long after the movie "Beethoven" came out, and the idea of naming a dog after a well-known composer sounded like a pretty good idea. My parents have always been big fans of the Gershwin brothers, and so the name made sense. And this dog surely did them justice. Gershwin was a great dog. Long live Gershwin! This is going to be a rather morbid post — and confessional — which is certainly not typical of the Washington Canard, but bear with me. This may come across ase all the more morbid as Zuma has begun blogging, but so be it.  We first got Gershwin not long after my previous dog had to be put down, that being a Scottish terrier by the name of McNess, who was a constant of my childhood, before we left for Hong Kong, when we handed him over to my (now-divorced) grandparents, and then after. McNess was not the first pet of mine to die — that distinction belongs to Emily, a cat that I really didn't like, because she bit me on several occasions, but was still devastated when she died. And I was more devastated when McNess' time was up. It's been almost two decades since that unsavory moment, and although I've been lucky to have nobody very close to me die, I've since become a bit more familiar with death, or at least the end of natural life. There is my aunt Margot, my father's sister, who drowned in the Columbia River just a few years ago now. And of course there is my friend and former roommate Dave, known to his relatives as Joe, fully Joseph David Baufman, one of my best friends from college, who today is a shell of his former self, after crashing my ex-girlfriend's car into a tree on a December night nearly five years ago now. By contrast, Gershwin's end doesn't affect me so much now. When my younger brother sent me an e-mail earlier this week to alert myself and my sister that her health was failing, and would soon need to be taken in, it was a punch to the gut, all right. Because of my memories of Gershwin when I myself was young, at first. But also because of my younger sisters, Maggie and Ellie, who have only known life with Gershwin, and who are surely learning about the finality and unforgiveness of death this weekend. I do have more to say about this theme of death and the things I said and did that I was not so proud of in the aftermath of these circumstances, but I will close this out with the e-mail sent from Matt to myself and my eldest sister on Friday afternoon. It's an admirable telling of the unfortunate story: Well, I woke up today, Friday 10.21.05, to a phone call from mom. She had gotten up early to do some work before going into the office or something of that sort, and noticed that the dog was in such a state that she most likely could not wait another day. We had planned to take her into the vet tomorrow aftermoon, but we simply had to do it today for her own good.Or princess. Same difference. Give the man a hand for appropriating a memorable bit from an especially memorable film to service a sentiment that really only matters to a handful of us. In the midst of a message where I had been frowning, and might have been crying, instead I found myself laughing out loud. Death and loss, in its human and non-human forms, never seems to get any easier. But I'm still waiting for it to do so. I'll be waiting quite awhile; longer than my own life, to be sure. Thursday, October 20, 2005
CAPITOLISM Right now, I am sitting in a room on the House side of the Capitol Building. Nationally-read political bloggers are covering it live. I'm saving my thoughts for the day job, but I just noticed that the United States government — that is, their ethernet network — is currently helping me illegally download a torrent file of last Sunday's "Curb." (I left it on last night... so there was no malicious intent, except for the whole theft thing. Memo to HBO: Put your programs on iTunes, now.) The Buzz, who is live-blogging the event, tells me it's the best of the season. We will see. Speaking of TV, this whole thing is basically one long photo op, and I may be on CNN later today. We will see. Also, big shout-out to Matt Margolis for letting me borrow his power cord for a few minutes... otherwise I wouldn't be typing this now. Okay, back to work. UPDATE THE FIRST — Turns out I was wrong. The file I was downloading was corrupt. So unless intent counts (I'm sure one of my law student readers will tell me it does) the U.S. government didn't help me do anything illegally. At least they (or as taxpayers, all of you, myself included) helped me do nothing, illegally. UPDATE THE SECOND — My report on the House Republican/conservative blogger conference is now up, at you know where. In the interests of nonpartisanship, I'll add that my report from the Atrios-centric EschaCon is also available in the archives. Tuesday, October 18, 2005
I DON'T THINK I'VE EVER POSTED A PICTURE WITHOUT SOME KIND OF COMMENTARY OR CAPTION, YOU KNOW, JUST BECAUSE OTHERWISE I FEEL LIKE I'M POSTING IT JUST FOR THE SAKE OF NEW CONTENT, EVEN WHEN IT'S KINDA HARD TO JUSTIFY A SINGLE PICTURE, SANS CONTEXT, AS "CONTENT"  And I guess that's still the case. The update's on the way, I promise. Monday, October 17, 2005
NANO NANO At last, it has arrived:  Here it is in the box:  And here it is on my desktop:  It's miniscule compared to the three-year-old 2nd Generation iPod that will now become an external hard drive, and far more attractive. But word on the street... um, web is that it scratches insanely easily, so I'm not letting it out of its plastic covering until I find a suitable skin for it. What do you think of this one? It sure beats a swastika! I'll have to put up with the stern warning: Ne volez pas la musique Bitte keine Musik stehlen ???????????? And I won't — as I said before, I get all my ?? from my ??. Well, back to work. I've been pretty busy these days, you may have heard. But I'll be back with some updates before the week is out. P.S. — Not sure whether the Nihongo is going to come through, or whether your computer sucks. Saturday, October 15, 2005
DEEP GAME DAY At last, the convergence of two subjects that have come up at this blog recently — college football and commercial music:  Alas, I am not in Arlington for the Ducks game currently in progress, which is available only on one of those huge satellite dishes, but it looks like we've got this one well in hand. Hucking the Fuskies isn't quite the accomplishment it once was, but it's still satisfying. Instead I'm watching USC at Notre Dame, which is much more competitive.  In any case, if self-described non-musician Brian Eno hasn't licensed "Deep Blue Day" to Notre Dame, then he should call his lawyers. For at least 20 seconds of the 30-second ad, the background music is missing the high notes, but is almost identical to Eno's presumably self-described non-music, or is at the very least easily identifiable by anyone who saw Ewan McGregor diving to retrieve his lost opium suppositories in "Trainspotting."P.S. — By sheer luck, I first saw that movie at an unadvertised advance preview at the now-closed KOIN Cinemas in downtown Portland, and it was that very toilet-diving scene that I first saw. Needless to say, I didn't get it. But by the end, I was positively evangelical about it. Still one of the best movies of the 1990s. P.P.S. — I know, the second picture doesn't quite fit. But once I found it, how could I not use it? Friday, October 14, 2005
SOLD! TO THE WEIRDEST BIDDER  So my office complex has been sold to C. Fredrick "Fred" Wehba, a man who... well, I'll let him explain why his company is named BentleyForbes:I tried to find a name that sounded prominent and blue-blooded. I had a "Rolls Royce" magazine that had a photograph of a Bentley on the front of it, and a "Forbes" magazine beside it. I was trying to come up with names, and I combined the two.Reminds me of "Cap'n Charlie" Croker, who named his bank "PlannersBanc," just because the French affectation indicated "how cosmopolitan, how international, how global, how slick" his (failing) business was supposed to be. Not that I know anything about BentleyForbes! Nor do I know which floor or office number the break-in occurred. Wasn't in my building, I know that. Anyway, C. "Fred" says he's got big plans to "spruce up" the complex, although he doesn't plan to change any of the actual structure. Maybe he'll rename it the AquaPortal. Monday, October 10, 2005
12:13 A.M. UPDATE — Brandon was right, no cable technician was outside unplugging accounts at midnight on a Sunday, and in fact the panic that begat the following post was based on a temporary outage. When I woke up this morning, everything was back to normal. Phew. I've removed the name of my cable provider, even though it would be fairly easy for them to find out, and though I doubt they're running the company name through Technorati, but what the hell, let's stay on the safe side. I need a weekly dose of Larry David and Ricky Gervais.  It finally happened. After ten months of free basic and premium cable, [cable provider] unceremoniously withdrew my connection just a few minutes ago. To quote Robert Redford's famous last line in "The Candidate," what do we do now? I haven't made up my mind yet. First, a bit of history: At the beginning of the year, I decided I had better knuckle down and focus on blogging, freelancing, and developing the project that eventually became The Hotline's Blogometer. The biggest distraction was, of course, television. If I simply cut it off, I could eliminate the distracting audio-visual wallpaper of cable news, and maybe actually get some work done. But this wasn't the only consideration:  At the time I had been watching the same 14" TV/VCR combo that I'd purchased en route to college in mid-1997. That television set was perfect for the concrete shoeboxes of UO Housing (among the worst in the nation) but its time had gone long before I finally replaced it. I held on to it for far too long: Living in Crystal City lat year, my constant dragging of it back and forth between my room and the apartment's balcony had jostled loose the coaxial connection in the back, to the point where it finally just fell out. In response, I snipped off one end of the coax cable, stripped back the plastic to reveal the wire, and jammed that into the opening in the back. Positioned just right, most of the channels came through just fine. Most of them. Because the connection was iffy, I had to set up Rube Goldberg-esque contraptions to keep the wire touching precisely the right part of the TV's innards — this often included a coffee mug or tape dispenser to hold the cable in place, sometimes buttressed by the wall or reinforced by a strip of Scotch tape. I grew to know that TV's "sweet spots" intimately. For the last ten months of that TV's life, this is how I watched television. But it was a major pain, and neither ESPN nor Fox News came in very well, and finally this hassle — plus my interest in saving money, plus the aforementioned concern for my productivity &mdash led to my decision to cut it off the umbilical cord of mindless entertainment that has played in the background of my entire life. So upon return from Christmas break this January, I called Comcast to disconnect my cable service. But after they promised me the job had been done, and before I completely disconnected the disfunctional contraption, it turned out that my cable was still coming through. And not only that, but it seemed that I was now getting both HBO and Showtime.  So... I reconsidered. And of course, I didn't feel a bit bad about watching this "stolen" cable. I hadn't asked for it, I hadn't gone out of my way to acquire it, and I wasn't going to care if it was suddenly disconnected — I'd then go back to Plan A. Unfortunately, sort of, I soon became a fan of "Penn & Teller: Bullshit!" and "Family Busines" on Showtime, and I could now watch some HBO programs that I already liked, such as "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and "The Sopranos." And then I decided to do something that would have been unthinkable a few months prior: I bought a massive, 100+ lbs, 37" Sharp TV set from Best Buy. It was also better for viewing Netflix rentals than this already-outdated Apple iBook upon which I am composing this very post. So here we are, ten months later.  What do I do? Well, I can afford cable again, and could even swing HBO if I deemed it necessary. But now there is yet another consideration: BitTorrent. Nowadays, I can look up virtually any popular broadcast or cable series and find the latest issue, and download it in a matter of hours. (Of course, I can also get movies and music this way, too.) Do I feel bad about this? Definitely not. I am an avowed fan of capitalism, but the companies that put out television programs have as yet failed to make downloads available. They will eventually, just as iTunes has proved that people will buy music online. (Do I patronize iTunes? Occasionally. I get most of my music via IM transfers from friends, not from the still-ubiquitous P2P networks.) But there's a catch: I cannot watch breaking news, and I cannot watch the TV shows I enjoy on the evening of their first airing. I also don't have the tempting, even comforting background of MSNBC, CNN and Fox News. And that televisual behemoth I put good money down for is a huge cost, albeit a sunk one (as economists would put it).So... I may make the call tomorrow. I need some time to think about it. Questions, comments, reservations? Saturday, October 08, 2005
SINCE I'VE BEEN GONE A lot has changed. A lot of completely mundane things, that is. I mean, nothing new is really happening, but I needed some kind of opening paragraph to frame the minor events of this past week, and now that I've got it, let's just forget this run-on sentence ever happened and why don't we move along to the "substance" of this weekend update:  It's raining! All yesterday, all today, and probably all through the three-day weekend. (Thanks, Columbus! You too, un-PC employer!) If it wasn't so characteristically humid, I'd have to say this was Pacific Northwest-type weather. In fact this isn't the normal onset of fall weather at all, but the remnants of Tropical Storm Tammy. I guess that makes the dull gray drizzle outside the trailer trash of inclement weather.  I bought more peanuts. After becoming a fan of the goobers-and-burgers joint Five Guys, and munching on the nutty legumes at my last Nats game this season, it occurred to me that peanuts would make a great snack to keep around the apartment. So for the past couple weeks, I've had at least a couple handfuls per day, and sometimes more. (Are peanuts less healthy than I think? Consider your opinion solicited.) You know what peanuts go great with? Rib-eye steak. (I've been eating a lot of steak recently, too.) Five Guys, which is sort of like the District's answer to In-N-Out, was really onto something with that beef and peanuts concept. It's nice to finally have a real supermarket nearby, even if it means I end up sweeping shells up off the floor. Or more accurately, neglecting to do so and then having to sweep up even more.  Last Sunday the Non-Fat Latte Liberal and I hit the Decemberists show at the 9:30 club. (DCist has a full review better than I can offer here.) Like Modest Mouse or Rilo Kiley, this is a band I got into before they made waves beyond the staff of Pitchfork but didn't actually see in concert until the second or third opportunity. You will not be surprised when I say the show was terrific. They opened without a single spoken word, performing the entire length of their EP "The Tain," but after that leader Colin Meloy and recent addition Petra Hayden were friendlier/chattier than most indie rock outfits I've seen. They played a few songs off "Castaways and Cutouts," just one track from "Her Majesty," and most everything from their latest, "Picaresque," plus one cover — "Mr. Blue Sky" — during the encore. (Has any mostly-forgotten song owed its resurgence so much to one song? Consider your opinion solicited once more.) The picture you see (which, because I forgot to bring my digi, has been cribbed from another recent concert attendee's Flickr site) is the whale prop from their set-closing, Stevensoinian-Mellevillian, audience-participating, rip-roaring stomp through "The Mariner's Revenge Song."  I've started working on another website/blog project. Yes, another. About sports again, this time. This time I'm not the only one involved, and in fact it wasn't even my idea. Both of which augur well for its future success. I'll elaborate on our plans at the appropriate time, but for now it's on the QT, and strictly hush-hush. (I don't have a suitable picture that wouldn't give the whole thing away, so here's another picture of the Oregon-esque (Oregonian?) weather.)  Last night at midnight, Comcast reshuffled the lineup, and now I don't know where any of the channels are. This is the only reason why I'm watching "Dick Tracy" right now (except for the movie channels, which are right where I left them). I thought "The Kid" looked awful familiar, so I looked him up — turns out he's Charlie Korsmo, the son from "What About Bob?" And "whatever happened to" him? Er, apparently he's now Charles, an MIT physics grad and a Republican policy analyst, formerly of Chris Cox's office, where he organized their congressional softball team. I wonder what Warren Beatty would have to say about this. I'm sure more important things have been going on — criminal indictments of congressional leaders, controversial nominations to the highest court in the land, the bottom falling out of the president's approval ratings — but if so, I'm not aware of it. UPDATE — Wait a minute, something did happen: This! Which is pretty awesome, but not that surprising. Even so, he'll never top this. Saturday, October 01, 2005
SPORTS FLASH Now that's more like it. Congrats, Mike. Not just for the 50th win, but also for moving on with your life. Oh, Nationals. From first to worst. Can't even play a decent spoiler to the Phaillies. But we love you anyway. UPDATE — And the last time the Redskins started 3-0, they won the Super Bowl. |
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