I’m going to my dad’s farm tomorrow. Yee haw.
For the less rurally inclined, scope the link below:
Month: September 2005
Costa Rica looking better by the day.
New Yorker does Intelligent Design
thanks to
when your roommate asks you in an urgent voice “hey man, can i borrow your plunger?!” there is really only one appropriate answer.
Met a new person this week from WV. Remembered some things about WV I had forgotten. Went to the museum of TV and Radio for a Muppet 50th Anniversary event. Realized that if I had seen that presentation when I was the age of 9/10ths of the participants, I would have totally tried to become a muppeteer. May still – apparently being tall and goofy helps. I made a brain-sucking evil puppet, which I gave to a kid who really wanted it. I probably should have scared him first, but I did not.
The Giants lost. The Yanks are in a dead heat with the RS, and for the first time since there was a wild card, neither of them have the safety. Ulcer city.
I finished the last book in the War of the Spider Queen sextet. I’ve been putting it off for a while. I was somewhat disappointed, somewhat glad that it is over. It led me to dealing with some major issues I have about fantasy writing and divinity, which I may tackle tin the future, if I remember to.I am also re-reading Harry Potter on lunch hours, as L. grinds through the backlog to get to the latest book. I need to write in a major way. I have to start bringing my laptop with me everywhere, or maybe get a Treo keypad.
The Dali Lama got a key to the city yesterday. He is 70! Crap, there is going to be some big problems when he dies =/
Big stuff to do this week coming – trying to gather all the data I need to get them done.
I hope the armed attack dolphins train dolphins in the wild, and stage a coup against humanity.
Go and download this rehash of “George Bush Doesn’t care about Black People”. Seriously, one of the best music videos I’ve seen in ages.
I had mentioned some purchases upcoming – should I go for one 21″ flat screen monitor, or two 19″? I miss having two monitors like a mofo, but refuse to dump a grand on two 21″!
Also – beds – as in buying one. Anyone have any pros/cons of getting a bed with a built in cabinet/side tables vs not? I need end tables for my bedroom, and wouldn’t mid having a shelf worked in to the headboard. I am definitely getting a platform bed – I was thinking something like this, this or maybe this. Thoughts, opinions, funny stories?
Goals before Christmas: driver’s license and passport renewal. Hopefully, I can knock out the DL by the end of the week! Wednesday I will be dealing with Time Warner, and, hopefully, watching the new Family Guy Presents Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story (DVD).
I was late this morning! For good reasons, worry not.
I have to update
i was seeking inspiration, and, in honor of the week in which “talk like a pirate day” falls in, i give you the nautical queez.
Some rivalries start young.
Best seats I ever had at Yankee stadium!
I flew out of work yesterday. I am too used to going to general admission shows. It never occurred to me that camping out would not get me a better seat.
It has been years since I was at Radio City for anything. To give a sense of time, the last thing I saw there was Disney’s worldwide premiere of The Black Cauldron.
After a few minutes of antsy waiting around,
The lobby had been filled with memorabilia stands, mini bars, and a live band (which turned out to be none other than Ray Lamontagne and Rebirth Brass Band)
We sat inside and waited for a bit. They were playing some great classic jazz while we waited. I forgot how plush Radio City was. Plus,
Humorously (or not) as the show was emceed by Hank Azaria. He had some weak jokes, and a pretty tenuous connection to Neo Orleans (he apaprently had a summer house out there). He did take some nice shots at the establishment though.
From there on in, there was pretty good music. The opening act was Ray Lamontagne and Rebirth Brass Band, who came in from where they were playing outside. There were some flapper-dressed eye candy dancers, as well as a bunch of contest winners that danced off on the side of the stage for their whole set. Hearing some good old fashioned NO style band music/funk was a great way to kick off.
This set was followed up by Galactic w/the Wild Magnolia Gras Indians. They played some phenoninal funk, and the Magnolias doused the crowds with beads, tambourines, and lots of hip gesticulation. Nobody was sitting still in their seats.
They followed up this act with a solo three piece set by Trey Anastasio. His whiny “I Wish So Bad I was Bob Dylan” stylings were mostly lost to me by the development in the seats in front of me. Now, one thing I love about concerts is the mini-anthropological communal phenomena one can witness as crowds gather in front of good music in the dark. The two girls in front of us had an in with a bar back downstairs. He plied them with several bottles of champagne, a case of beer, a bottle of vodka and tequila, and later, a bottle of wine.
We could not have been more wrong. Booze flowed freely from this comped couple, and people lit up all around us (both cigs and “special smoke”) It was so much, in fact, that it became painfully clear that the ventilation system was not going to be able to hold up under the onslaught. This will become important later on.
Following the real downer act was The Meters, who hadn’t been back in NYC for many years. They played a fantastic set, and really picked the groove back up. Again, there was much dancing inthe aisles. The girls finished off their fourth bottle of champagne, and started in on the beers to be passed around. Amstel light, by the way, tastes like bubbly pee.
Unfortunately, this royal act was followed by the John Mayer Trio. I tried. I really did. I made it through half a song, then went to buy a drink. Fortunately, I missed their whole set. Unfortunately, that means I also missed Joss Stone’s solo appearance, where she did a duet with Mayer. Perhaps it is for the best.
There was a surprise guest. Bubba Clinton showed up. He was in so much spotlight though, he was tough to photograph.
Then? The intermission from hell. A half hour of dead time. Not cool. The ventilation system was dying. It was, actually, the antithesis of cool – moist and warm. Radio City smelled like a bayou. I began to notice the pileup of glass bottles and whatnot all over the place. Though Radio City did an admirable job throwing this benefit together on short notice, they clearly didn’t think things through particularly carefully.
After what seemed like a looong time, Azaria came back out, and started gabbing again.
When he finally started to shut up is when the magic happened.
Waits.
Holy shit, this man live was everything I expected.
He played a strong set, and was on for about 45 minutes. Unfortunately, whoever was running the soundboard was a total fuckchop. Tom almost walked offstage at one point, when he sat down to play a song, and the feedback nearly dropped him on his ass.
He didn’t. He rocked the house. His voice was an electric shard of glass, and I was slowly impaled for 40-odd minutes through the gut – into the spine.
They played:
- Down in the Hole
- Jesus Gonna Be Here
- Get Behind the Mule
- Murder in the Red Barn
- Take Care of My Children
- I Wish I was in New Orleans
- House Where Nobody Lives
He encored with
- Make it Rain
Now, the only hedge on my extacy was the two girls who had previously been a very positive thing. Now, rebelliously drunk, they revealed their true colors. One of them was a Tom Waits fangirl.
A loud, drunken Tom Waits Fangirl.
She was wildly gesticulating for msot of his set, with a bottle of champange in hand. She screamed, often, at the top of her lungs, for extended periods. I was whooping too – I don’t mind screaming. She was screaming “Take off your Clothes!”
She had several loud drunken conversations with her friends around her, over her disappointment that Waits would not take off his clothes.
She persisted, hoping that somehow, volume would make it happen.
Happily, she broke off to pee for the encore. That, which was probably one of his best performed pieces of the evening, was happily without interruption.
Even with drunken fangirl interaction, Waits’ performance was spellbinding.
We exited the building after a short bathroom break, ignoring Dave Matthews altogether. There was an underage kid who had puked in the bathroom lounge, who was in the process of getting arrested. I didn’t want to get in the middle of the tangle, honestly, since he could have left the scene, as there were no cops involved. I was too much on a Waits high.
There, I literally ran into Stewart D’Arrietta, whose show, Belly of a Drunken Piano L. had bought tickets to a few weeks ago. I did the gawker fan thing, and introduced myself. Ironically, I had been explaining how much I enjoyed his show to
To people who have known me a long time, you understand what that night meant to me. To people who don’t, this sits on the level of a lifetime achievement. It was the closest thing to a true religious experience I have ever had.
You can read
Best 50$ I ever spent.
holy fuck, tom waits live was everything i wanted it to be.
Decent seats!
a thoughtful meme, imagine that.
LJ Interests meme results
- barrett’s privateers:
A great old seadog ditty about privateering. Written by Stan Rogers in the 70’s. I first became aware of this song through my Uncle, who is a large repository of limmericks, poems, and songs. It makes a good drinking song, if other people can learn the words.See http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~jacktar/barretts.html for more.
- demons:
SAM: The Captain is not as gentle and easygoing as I am. He is a raging tornado, posessed of inner demons the likes of which mere mortals cannot fathom.GONZO: He has demons? Cool!
(from Muppet Treasure Isle)My interest in demons and demonology comes from a deep-rooted fascination with religions and the traditions they spawn. The concepts of demons has existed (via visual evidence) before the written word, and has become almost commonplace in modern literature, media, and cultural understanding.
- etymology:
I am obsessed with the variety and power of words. As a medium, words have always fascinated me with the ability to infuse thought, image and experience in a very contextual or contextless manner. The history of the tools of my preferred medium is significant to the appropriate use of them, in my opinion.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymology for more info. - kundalini awakening:
My initial contact with yoga, specifically Kundalini, came at a fairly early age, via Roald Dahl. It remains a central part of my beliefs that humans can naturally alter states of consciousness and mental perception with meditation and a regimen of mental exercises.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kundalini for more info. - mythology:
I am fascinated with the process of myth and legend, as well as the roots of past cultures that exist today in modern context as a result of the myths that have managed to germinate across time and cultures. Though i love all myth equally, i am slightly better versed in Western myth than Eastern myth, largely due to fewer linguistic constraints.See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mythology for more.
- poetry:
Much the way my interest in etymology is based on the history and qualities of words, my love of poetry is based on what you can do with those words. To me, poetry is the purest form of verbal linguistics, despite the fact that prose has much stronger ability to allow for clarity of thoughts in words.See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poetry for more.
- Santeria:
In modern western culture, many of the beliefs systems still prevalent have removed everyday spiritualism from existence. In a culture that has very distant spiritual interaction, it is refreshing to see a tradition still practicing a pidgin of old faith and new, using an age-old pattern for establishing spiritual communication, influence, and channeling. Santeria is amazing in depth.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santeria for more. - star wars:
Star Wars is the collective myth of several generations. An amalgam of many mythological traditions, it highlights most of the things that are good about fantasy, science fiction, and an epic. While I find many of the later works in the series distasteful in their direct merchandising pandering, they do add some interesting flavor to the overall series. I love the original movies, and much of the fiction spawned as a result of them.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=star+wars for more. - truth:
In everyday life, people distinguish between truth and falsehood as a matter of survival. People who are unable to recognize lies, mistakes or inaccuracies, at least most of the time, suffer greatly. But what is basis of the distinction between truth and falsehood? The philosophical problem of truth has been described as the search for the nature of truth. In the 20th century it became more common to describe the problem as the search for the meaning of the predicate ‘true’ when it is applied to a statement or belief.See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth for more.
- zombies:
Zombies in sword & sorcery, pulp, and film have been a major influence in my understanding of the horror genre. I will always love zombies. I’ve written some fiction about them myself, and have had many conversations about the animation of the dead from a fictional standpoint. I am completely fascinated with the traditions that come out of Hati that relate to the true roots of zombieism.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombies for more.
Enter your LJ user name, and 10 interests will be selected from your interest list.
happy birthday
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb 18) – You have an inventive mind and are inclined to be progressive. You lie a great deal. You make the same mistakes repeatedly because you are stupid. Everyone thinks you are a jerk.
PISCES (Feb 19-Mar 20) – You have a vivid imagination and often think you are being followed by the FBI or CIA. You have a minor influence on your friends and people resent you for flaunting your power. You lack confidence and are a general loser.
ARIES (Mar21-Apr 20) – You are the pioneer type and think most people are quick-tempered, impatient, and scornful of advice. You are a prick.
TAURUS (Apr 21-May 20) – You are practical and persistent. You have a dogged determination and work like hell. Most people think you are stubborn and bullheaded. You are nothing but a communist.
GEMINI (May 21-Jun 20) – You are a quick and intelligent thinker. People like you because you are bisexual. You are inclined to expect too much for too little. This means you are a cheap bastard. Geminis are notorious for thriving on incest.
CANCER (Jun 21-Jul 22) – You are sympathetic and understanding to other peoples problems, which makes you a sucker. You are always putting things off. That is why you will always be on welfare and won’t be worth a penny. Everybody in prison is a Cancer.
LEO (Jul 23-Aug 22) – You consider yourself a born leader. Others think you’re an idiot. Most Leos are bullies. You are vain and cannot tolerate honest criticism. Your arrogance is disgusting. Leo people are thieving sods and spend most of their lives kissing mirrors.
VIRGO (Aug 23-Sep 22) – You are the logical type and hate disorder. This nitpicking is sickening to your friends. You are cold and unemotional and often fall asleep while having sex. Virgos make good bus drivers and pimps.
LIBRA (Sep 23-Oct 22) – You are the artistic type and have a difficult time with reality. If you are male, you are probably queer. Chances for employment and monetary gain are nil. Most Libra women are whores. All Libras die of venereal disease.
SCORPIO (Oct 23-Nov 21) – The worst of the lot. You are shrewd in business and cannot be trusted. You shall achieve the pinnacle of success because of your total lack of ethics. You are a perfect S.O.B. Most Scorpios are murdered.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov 22-Dec 21) – You are optimistic and enthusiastic. You have a reckless tendency to rely on luck since you have no talent. The majority of Sagittarius’ are drunks. You are not worth the time of day.
CAPRICORN (Dec22-Jan 19) – You are conservative and are afraid of taking risks. You are basically spineless. There has never been a Capricorn of any importance. Become a monk.
do stereotypes exist because they are reinforced, or because we create an image we anticipate will be proved through experience? before you answer this question, think about how you would apply your line of thinking to the label “racist”. i’ve hit a loop that can’t be solved.
The sun has gone down and the moon has come up…
happy birthday
Now longer for her pleasure, and your sense of self-doubt…
I will post the answers, par usual. Hope this helps everyone through the last hour of the work day!
happy birthday
first off,
i need to buy a flask before the show.
unfortunately, due to a meeting i was at, i was unable to secure any tickets of my own. as a result L. will not be coming along, which is kinda a bummer. still, i am uber-psyched about seeing the show.
this meeting i got stuck in really got me thinking about technology. how people are afraid of it. how some people use it effectively, and others use it so ineffectively, it ends up causing more work for people then if they didn’t use it at all. how some age-old axioms for living life apply to tech, and others do not.
mostly, i get to wondering about ROI when i look at big technical problems. is the money spent managing legacy systems spent effectively? is money spent on new toys and gadgets better than a few extra staff who can support an existing system? where do you draw the line between old and obsolete. my line between those two has always been interoperability. however, supporting diverse systems creates a challenge. at the same time, running a unified system makes it very vulnerable to single lines of attack. is that a viable solution not to move forward? if not, how long can you justify “we can’t do this because we are going with a unifies system, and only third party vendors can do that”? at the same time, what do you do when you have a business need handled by a third party that suddenly evaporates?
i miss the pioneer days. i feel like all the risks in tech have been shuffled off to the reservations. the fat buffalo herds of technology profits have been dwindled down to a few roaming clusters here and there. wild bill’s ipod rodeo has turned technology into an apparel item. people are more concerned with brand and appearance than how their gadgets work. the little railroad towns have all moved to india.
geeks have street cred now, if only in their ability to make magic happen.
there are no answers to any of this. i don’t know if tech makes things better or worse. it certainly opens many doors that would otherwise remain closed. at the same time, it creates problems that never existed before.
Number of new U.S. soldiers the Army would need in 2006 to replenish ranks abroad : 80,000[U.S. Army Recruiting Command (Fort Knox, Ky.)] Percentage of this goal it expects to meet : 9.9[U.S. Army Recruiting Command (Fort Knox, Ky.)] Percentage change since 1996 in the average recruitment cost per new U.S. soldier : +84[U.S. Army Recruiting Command (Fort Knox, Ky.)] Number of killed or captured suspects reported so far by U.S. media to be Al Qaeda’s “number 3” man : 4[Harper’s research] Minimum number of people convicted on “terrorism-related charges” since 2001, according to Alberto Gonzales in April : 200[U.S. Department of Justice] Actual number convicted on charges related to terrorism or national security : 39 (see page 48)[Dan Eggen, Washington Post] Number of Iraqi troops that have been “trained and equipped,” according to President Bush in April : 150,000[White House (Washington)] Number that the U.S. military considers ready to deploy independently : 1,500[U.S. Military Combined Press Information Center (Baghdad)] Number of members of the Iraqi parliament who worship not only Muhammad but a fallen angel named Lucifer : 3[Verlag Denge Ezidiyan (Oldenburg, Germany)] Acres in Israel to which a born-again Christian from Texas bought oil-exploration rights in 2000 : 96,000[Zion Oil & Gas, Inc. (Dallas)] Chapter and verse of Deuteronomy that he says predicts his success, because of the phrase, “let him dip his foot in oil” : 33:24[Zion Oil & Gas, Inc. (Dallas)] Number of Palestinian communities that will be surrounded by the new Israel security fence on at least three sides : 53[B’Tselem (Jerusalem)] Chance that a German says Israel’s treatment of Palestinians is the same “in principle” as how Nazis treated Jews : 1 in 2[Wilhelm Heitmeyer, Institut für interdisziplinäre Konflikt und Gewaltforschung (Bielefeld, Germany)] Factor by which the unemployment rate among Jewish immigrants to Germany exceeds the national average : 3.5[Moses Mendelssohn Zentrum (Potsdam, Germany)] Percentage of Germans who say, about the Nazi era, that “one should not always poke around in old wounds” : 60[TNS Emnid (Bielefeld, Germany)] Selling price in June for a bar of soap allegedly made from the liposuctioned fat of Silvio Berlusconi : $18,000[Galerie Nicola von Senger (Zurich)] Number of Pepsi products plainly visible in a May TV ad for Arnold Schwarzenegger : 5[Harper’s research] Ratio of the projected U.S. ad revenue of Google and Yahoo! this year to that of NBC, CBS, and ABC in primetime : 1:1[eMarketer (N.Y.C.)/”Jack Myers Report”(N.Y.C.)] Amount that the Catholic Church spent in Britain this summer advertising for new priests on bar coasters : $1,100[National Office for Vocation (London)] Number of New Orleans bars visited this spring by an undercover team investigating racial discrimination : 40[Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center (New Orleans)] Percentage of the bars that charged black customers more than white customers : 40[Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center (New Orleans)] Amount recouped by the U.S. government in institutional fraud cases since 1986 : $8,000,000,000[U.S. Department of Justice] Amount that whistleblowers received as a cut of this : $1,300,000,000[U.S. Department of Justice] Chance that a U.S. company monitors the emails of at least some employees : 1 in 3[Proofpoint, Inc. (Cupertino, Calif.)] Chance that it has fired an employee for violation of email policies : 1 in 4[Proofpoint, Inc. (Cupertino, Calif.)] Factor by which the expulsion rate in U.S. preschools last year exceeded the rate in grades K‒12 : 3[Walter Gilliam, Yale Child Study Center (New Haven, Conn.)] Average amount of sugar consumed each year by a U.S. preschooler, expressed as a percentage of body weight : 149[Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Atlanta)/U.S. Department of Agriculture] Estimated total number of tons by which American adults are overweight : 1,180,000[Harper’s research] Total weight, in tons, of the population of the Los Angeles metropolitan area : 883,000[Harper’s research] Number of U.S. cities that have agreed to meet the Kyoto Protocols on global warming : 166[Office of the Mayor (Seattle)] Average number of times each day that aircrafts intrude into D.C.-area restricted flight zones : 2[Federal Aviation Administration (Washington)] Days it took a Nepali Sherpa in May to crawl the length of Manhattan : 6[L. G. Khambache Sherpa (Brooklyn)] Fine levied last year on a restaurant in southwest China for serving sushi atop naked women : $242[Kunming Xishan District Bureau of Health] Percentage of the world’s cell phone users who say they have interrupted sex to answer a call : 14[BBDO Worldwide (N.Y.C.)] Percentage of newlywed couples who report having had a physically violent fight in the year before marriage : 37[Kenneth Leonard and Julie Schumacher, Research Institute on Addictions (Buffalo)] Number of Viagra users who have reported becoming blind from the drug : 38[U.S. Food and Drug Administration (Rockville, Md.)] Number of corpses shipped on Delta Air Lines last year : 42,175[Delta Air Lines (Atlanta)] Amount that Northwest Airlines expects to save each year by eliminating free magazines on flights : $565,000[Northwest Airlines (Minneapolis)]
From http://harpers.org/HarpersIndex2005-08.html
anyone want some famous mothers? (celeb jeopardy clip archive)
tom waits just got added to the lineup for fromthebigappletothebigeasy!!!
EDIT: i am going. i may actually get to see this guy live before he croaks! and for a great cause. of course, i just bought tix to the msg show, which are available now, as opposed to the show at radio city, which becomes available on thursday. now i get to untangle my finances =P
there is a new gywo out!
read it. love it.
try not to die of plague.
did anyone else out there notice that there are a huge number of sick people in the ny-metro area, all with either light flu like symptoms, or symptoms which mimic extreme allergy? anyone else notice that many of the people in this state are people either not usually prone to illness, or allergy? what gives?
i’m at work today, but fuck if i don’t want to be dead.
BQE a la art show.
looks like Michael Brown is out of a job.
I am sick as a dog. I’ve been fighting it all week, but I definitely lost last night. In addition to the symptoms that have been bugging me all week, I have lost my voice.
Hooray.
In deference to my current state of affairs, today’s queez will be in honor of the plague.
happy birthday
happy birthday
i just updated
i gotta get back to writing regularly. i feel like a part of my brain is starting to atrophy.
happy birthday
I had a fun and interesting weekend overall.
In addition, Saturday I managed to sell my old dishwasher through Craigslist. , it seems I have managed to rent out my old apartment! The new tenants have passed two checks that haven’t bounced, and have keys – hopefully everything will work out O.K. for the next six months.
That is a real load off my mind.
Friday, got off work early, and hung out with
After a semi-lazy Saturday morning, we got up and got out. We went to the CP Conservatory Garden. Then we went to Spanish Harlem so I could do some last minute cleaning, and get rid of the dishwasher
Saturday night, went to dinner with L. to The Sultan. Had some phenomenal stuffed grape leaves and feta/dill rolls. We both got lamb for a main dish, but I have to admit I was a bit disappointed by mine. Not because it was poorly prepared, it just turned out not being precisely what I wanted. L.’s lamb was way better. We did split a lovely bottle of Turkish wine though, which was very yum.
Got up early the next day, did a little work, and then went to brunch at Life Cafe, then went bowling. There is a bowling alley in Port Authority. They have a deal where for 29$ you get two hours of bowling, shoe rental, and brunch. Am hoping to drag more people in the future. Also, killed some virtual zombies, and lost at air hockey (but beat Soulcaliber2 with a broken low attack button in 2:43). After that we went back to the UWS and I made some chicken pot pie, while the rest of the crew plotted the purchase of a Vermonster. Stayed out kinda late. Watched some of the Yankees game, some Adult Swim, and the Butthole Surfers DVD where they did an extended interview, mostly naked, all in the same bed, totally high on acid.
Yesterday, woke up early, but still had a pretty chill day. Went to a BBQ in the UES (after hearing plans with
Today has been a slow burn. It is my roommate’s 30th b-day, and with my other roommate in CA for the next 3 weeks, there are birthday plans in the make for the evening. Hopefully, after the next two weeks of brokenness, I can go back to semi-normal finances once again.
On the downside, I think I am getting sick. I have a sore throat, and my eyes will not stop watering.
I have surpassed my saturation point on New Orleans. I had a similar experience post September 11th. There is so much atrocity out there, and the more I read about it, the more it seems to be able to engulf me. Between my reaction to what has happened, and the reactions of the people in power, how are now trying to politick and spin doctor everything away, I can’t spend more than 10 minutes a day on it, without wanting to tear my eyes out. Rehnquist dying over the weekend really didn’t help much either.
Last night, on the way back from brunch, I was le tired, so we took a cab. The cabbie was a very animated and interesting fellow. From first look and accent, I assumed him to be a Russian Jew. However, this changed dramatically when I noticed the frying pan sized silver crucifix he was sporting. The guy was nearly stone deaf, and spent the whole time from the UES to my neck of the woods talking. Not just chattering, he was preaching, and reaching out. He had been born Jewish, but reached out to the Orthodox faith several years prior. He was very devoted to his icons, and knew a story about the Virgin Portaitissa and the Monestary of Iviron that I had never heard before. He was very verbose about his morality, his finite sense of faith and his god’s plan for him in the world – indeed, the world in general.
I found his quasi-biography/quasi-preaching rather amusing. He told us his night was over after he dropped us off – that god decided when he went home based on when a fare close to where he lived came into his cab. He espoused some of the fundamentalist views concerning Katrina I had previously bashed rather heavily. When asked about the churches/good people who died in New Orleans, he simply replied with an analogy about cutting down an entire field of trees to keep down blight.
He was very devoted to Saint Peter. He missed his brother who was stabbed to death by a co-worker a few years ago. He loved his priest, who he feels saved him. He had a rather large collection of icons which he had pictures of in the sun visor. He wore black leather gloves, which he only took off when he turned on the light, so he could read my lips in the rear view window. He kept his huge silver crucifix in-hand for much of the ride, and would occasionally flash it out the window as drivers rode dangerously nearby (as all drivers tend to in NYC). He was very sure of himself and his faith. Later, I was splitting verbal hairs with L. over whether he was self-righteous or just righteous. I saw his humility in his faith as righteousness. The self-righteous think that the qualities they exude makes them superior to everyone else – this man was wholly inclusive – so long as you followed the way. His views, though ignorant intellectually, were truly an embodiment of the Christian ideal – something I have a very hard time arguing against in practice. However, I am lucky, in that it is not very often that I have to argue with a practitioner.
I guess that was the hardest part – not arguing with an old Jewish gone Russian Orthodox over the inconsistencies of biblical accounts, the traditions, rites, and writings of the apostles, and how many of the “governing laws” concerning divine faith (which transgressed the line of “canon” for this man) were really built on the backs of tradition, rather than accurate history (which is what he, himself, claimed drew him to the Russian Orthodox to begin with). My words would have done no good – and if they had, they might only have marred a delusion that is allowing him to live in a lonely but good life. My words and observations – not his. Maybe he would trade in all his icons and paraphernalia and faith for a wife. I don’t know, but somehow I doubt it. I got the sense that he was married, and lost his way after his wife died – then he stumbled into the Russian Orthodox church.
For all his complexity, and inaccuracy, I bet that cabbie slept well. In addition, L. was there to witness one of my endless crazy cabbie stories. I really don’t make these people up folks!
Props to anyone not using google who knows who spoke the title of this post, what it related to, and why it was amusing.
http://media.putfile.com/Kanye79
That takes balls. Probably the wrong palce and time to do it, but damn if it won’t wake people the fuck up a little.
Also – A good rant.
so many years of gaming goodness. if i got some solid backing, i might be convinced to dust off the old dice.
yeah, i am a gamer geek. was for years. i never said i quit, just on hiatus.