Posted on by mwhybark

Ink

While Excavating Past, John Irving Finds His Family [NYT blogerated link].

I am a profoundly reluctant admirer of Irving’s work – I still find it gratingly self-absorbed – but this article unlocks some persistent themes in the man’s work, and I cannot help but be transfixed by the tragic narrative associated with his absent father and the conflict stemming from loyalty and love to his adoptive parent. I’m grateful that my own questions about who I am and where I come from are not subject to the complications of knowing one biological parent and not another.

Posted on by mwhybark

Flashbangback

Someone down near the Broadway Playfield, near what has previously been the staging area for participants in the annual Gay Pride Parade, has been setting off m-80s or cherry bombs or something. That, in conjunction with the flock of chittering helicopters plaguing the neighborhood this morning, have created a mild flashback to November 1999’s WTO experience. For us that week included about five days of twenty-four hour helicopter noise punctuated by explosions in the distance as various police units used flash-bang grenades and pepperball grenades to, among other things, harass me with their incessant noise.

Each time one of today’s bangs echoes down the street, Viv and I tense in anticipation of a change in the tone of the crowd noise or – worst thought of all – a great but brief silence broken only by car alarms and shattering window glass tinkling onto the pavement. In 1990, the FBI arrested a group of folks who had driven a van loaded with explosives into the neighborhood with the intent of bombing a popular gay nightclub.

The person lighting m-80s has no idea what an ass they are. I hope they continue in blissful ignorance.

Posted on by mwhybark

Breakin'

Media Activists Who Smile and Throw Cheese [NYT blogerated link]

… Since Jan. 6, when the five-member Rochester-based group executed its first bust, as it calls them, of a live remote in their hometown, viewers in Boston; New York City; Manchester, N.H.; Columbus, Ohio; and several other cities have seen their local news briefly hijacked by elaborately planned vignettes that are more likely to baffle or alarm reporters than make them curse on the air.

The Newsbreakers’ repertory of characters includes Cheese Ninja, who cavorts in the background of live news broadcasts, derisively tossing slices of processed cheese, and Jiminy Diz, a supposed newspaper reporter, wearing a loud jacket and a hat with a “Press” card in the band, who is angry with local television news for lifting reports from the morning paper.

These humorless aesthetes are clearly a front intended to increase overall viewer numbers for local news!

Grimfaced, I await their eruption hereabouts.

Posted on by mwhybark

Madness and Crowds

Spence and I headed to the waterfront last evening with the theoretical purpose of eating vast quantities of marine life while sunning ourselves on the deck of the pier which hosts The Fisherman’s restaurant. Our plans were thwarted by the unwelcome appearance of a very loud band playing very undistinguished top 40 covers on the stage of the public facility just on the other side of the outdoor dining area.

Undaunted, we surveyed the possibility of fish at one of the other waterfront eateries, only to be daunted by hourlong waits for walk-ins at each. In the end we settled for pasta at the Trattoria Mitchelli in Pioneer Square.

On our way back up the waterfront we ducked into the Owl and Thistle to find the alter-ego of local roots-rockers The Dusty 45s playing, The Vinyl Avengers. These guys do stripped down, cheesed-up covers of 50s and 60s top 40. They opened with “Taste of Honey” and worked through a range of material that included “Ring of Fire,” “Girl from Ipanema,” and an abbreviated “St. James Infirmary.” Billy, the lead singer, guitarist, and trumpeter, was his usual enthusiastic self.

I was able to get audio of the whole thing on the Treo, but haven’t listened to it or evaluated it yet.

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Doxen

It’s unclear how this came across the linktroll, but: Hot Dog Blog, “the community site for dachshunds and dachshund lovers!” Proceed to the multimedia downloads for sheer minutes of dachshund-wriggling hilarity.

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Rent

…And so I think we’re bowing out of the rent race. I can’t visualize moving twice in a year. Viv may differ as she is concerned about having to move in a rush and having to find a place to rent in a hurry. I think we’ll probably have more discussions about this in the future.