Latest Parries
April 2012
From Nokia N95 to iPhone 4S
Annoyances and upsets with the iPhone 4S have been more than offset by its screen, the silkiness of its surfaces, the camera, and the third-party market for both software and hardware.
February 2012
2001: A Space Odyssey: Dry, Juicy, Linear, Luminous
After they finished watching the Bond movies, I figured the next series John Gruber and Dan Benjamin would discuss on The Talk Show would be Stanley Kubrick’s oeuvre. But Gruber refused — too personal for podcasting, he said. Disappointed, I rewatched 2001.
January 2012
A Scheme of a Number of Friends
Instead of acknowledging the wisdom of leading from behind, the Right jumped on the Obama administration’s handling of Libya as yet another example of at best incompetence. They lost me there.
October 2011
The Mouse and the Cantilever
Steve Jobs we lost at the age of 56; when Frank Lloyd Wright reached that age it was still only 1923, the time of merely his second comeback with Tokyo’s Imperial Hotel.
March 2010
Friendship is for Weenies
It’s amazing, given the adulation he enjoyed elsewhere, that the Israeli public knew from the start not to trust this US President.
Before the Setup
Nobody from usesthis.com has asked me what my setup us, nor is likely to anytime soon. So I’m just going to mouth off here about it. But first, some background.
February 2010
Walter Russell Mead steps gingerly into the Wieseltier/Sullivan imbroglio
On the Leon Wieseltier/Andrew Sullivan spat, Walter Russell Mead seems to want to have his strudel and eat it too.
October 2009
My Hope: Obama’s Change
Defeat in the Olympics bid may focus the mind in the Oval Office where it should be: Afghanistan.
July 2009
At Modi’in Mall
There’s nothing else around here except empty desolate pretty hills. The Israel Trail passes by a bit to the west. It’s a hot July Wednesday morning. Things are reasonably busy. The shops are mostly franchises, almost all homegrown — Super-Pharm, Aroma, Tzomet Sfarim, Cup O’ Joe’s, LaMetayel, Mega, Fox, Castro, H&O.
Israel, the Bad So Far
I’m surprised at the general appearance of Tel Aviv folks. Yes, it’s hot, but people appear dressed as if they’re in, I don’t know, Be’er Sheva. And the people in Be’er Sheva, last time I was there, looked to me like they’re dressed for Gaza.
P eter O’ Toole is as charming offscreen as he is on, more so in fact. Sitting in front of Charlie Rose (Tue 20 Feb 2007) you feel that Charlie is just charmed and relaxed by O’ Toole’s diction, his pacing, his unaffected yet perfect English, his obvious delight in using the language with precision, music and beauty. They were able to hold silences together that were not awkward, such is the fabulous beauty of this Englishman, even in his eighties. Wow.
Actually, I just read he’s Irish, and 6“3. Pierce Brosnan reminds me a little of him. According to IMDB he was raised in Leeds, and indeed, you can hear just a bit of the northerner in him. Oh, I wanted more. Ah, and his mother was Scottish. So he’s very British (forgiveness, Irishfolk, I refer to the isles, not the polities).
Next up on Charlie Rose was the extremely sexy looking New York Times journalist Sabrina Tavernise (Wed 21 Feb 2007) , and what a sexy name as well. I found her a little boring though, but I love how she looked so bookish as she tried to describe things, focusing so inward that she looked practically blind. She looks a bit like Angelina Jolie, but is a bit dry and dull. She’s tells the story of the kidnapping of a 12-year-old but manages to make it not very compelling at all. But Charlie, good for him, he reads everything, he knew the story.
I notice he’s asking people all the time if they have regrets. A month or so ago he asked Clooney if he has no regrets he doesn’t have kids; sounds like Charlie wants a family. So do a Chaplin, Charles.
How delightful to see Michael Crichton (Mon 19 Feb 2007) for the hour. What a fabulous man, not just great in accomplishments but so personable and easygoing. Charlie Rose refers to quite a few people as his friends, but this is the first time I can remember that the show did look like two friends were talking. You can forget just how eminent an American Crichton is: novelist, amateur scientist, man of letters, movie blockbuster maker, tv blockbuster maker. And the man is 64 and he looks maybe 49. He seems so comfortable with the limelight. I felt with this interview that Charlie was a little out of his intellectual depth, that they were unable to address the epistemological issues that Crichton’s objections to the global warming movement bring up. Crichton is saying that the movement is not based on science but is essentially a fad. I think actually this idea is finally gaining some traction, but it’s clear Rose is on the side of the angels, that is to say, the newspapers, the consensus.
I agree wholeheartedly with Crichton here, but do have an issue with his position: does he expect us all to read the primary sources as he does? Probably not, especially as the sort of thing he himself writes is not primary source material but novels, and presumably he expects us to read him. And if we don’t, then what else have we got but the scientific consensus? And how else do we find out just what the scientific consensus is if not through the media? Charlie kept on bringing up the UN report, which Crichton clearly held in contempt as a bureaucratic rather than a scientific document.
Crichton reminded me of David Allen of Getting Things Done, though I think Crichton is more of English extraction, while Allen looks more German. Ah, these American WASPs. Not gone yet.
Previously
Rome, Open Shitty
Nextly
Fat and Foecal