The Kudzu Files

Friday Stuff

An interesting site, a new science fiction short story (actually they call it speculative fiction, which I like better) each day: 365 Tomorrows

The Top 50 Movie Endings Of All Time, by filmcritic.com. (Slow-loading site, so be patient)

Got people free-loading on your wireless network? Here's a non-violent way to fight back.

Got more electronic gadgets than will fit on your coffeetable? Here's a solution.

Sometimes A Great Notion

Maybe there was a competition sparked by this picture:

Or maybe it was just that inbred ingenuity that has led to so many "Hey y'all, watch this!" moments. Or maybe it was something else entirely that caused this person to look at their Ford Escort (it looks like an Escort, anyway) and think "Hmmm, heavy hauler":

I can't imagine the stark terror that must have grown in the mind of whatever poor fool found himself or herself behind this idiot in traffic.

But hey, if Escort Hauler guy had just met this fellow, they could have maybe balanced the refrigerator in the canoe and save gas!:

But maybe the entire affair happened only because his van was having problems:

I'm sure his cousin would have helped move the 'frig, but it seems he was busy:

Likewise, his brother-in-law was also on a moving mission:

And his sister was also tied up, or maybe taped up:

And where was his son? Getting ready to mow the yard, that's where!

At least when they all got their stuff moved, they were able to get together and team up on one last job:

There's no cure for stupidity!

Desperate Times For President Bush

President Bush, stung by yet another defection from his ever-shrinking pool puddle of support, is finally discovering that there are black people in his America and is appearing before the NAACP convention. The defection? A major one, and one made publicly. Jim, who has been a staunch Republican even though he's never realized how starkly different his views are from the majority of Republican positions, has officially joined the non-aligned. I'm forseeing a link to moveon.org on Bigjim any day now.

But back to the NAACP thing - why is Bush going to speak at their convention now? I've heard a variety of potential reasons - reaching out to mend fences, helping Lynn Swann in his run for the Pennsylvania governorship, looking for support anywhere he can get it. But I think for Bush it's a no-brainer. For Bush, it's a win-win situation. If he goes, makes a good speech, maybe ties in the Voting Rights Act renewal, it will play well in the big media, divert attention from his potty-mouth and playing handsy with Angela Merkel at the G8 summit. But if he encounters a hostile reception from the audience, the image of all those "liberals" booing and jeering him will undoubtedly play well before what was his base before he began chipping away at his constituency by being a big-spending, international interventionist, pathologically secretive, stubborn autocrat. The only way he can lose is if he's caught trying to give Bruce Gordon a backrub.

New York City Redux

For those of you who came here to read about my New York vacation, this will make it a bit easier to navigate the various posts:

Part I is here. Part II is here. Part III is here. Part IV is here. Part IV-a is here. Part V is here.

New York City, Part V

Our last day in the Big Apple. Wife wanted to go see what the Good Morning America Friday concert series in Bryant Park was like, so we hiked over there, about a dozen blocks, in time to catch a bit of the concert:

The group performing that day was the Pussycat Dolls. Count me underwhelmed - they reminded me of a bad middle school dance team, with apparently one girl who could sing. But I won't leave you without a picture.

Somehow I doubt my Sandisk Sansa will be seeing any of their songs. From there, we walked south towards our final Citypass objective, the Empire State Building. On the way, we passed this building, which sadly I didn't have time to enter:

Then we arrived at the Empire State Building:

Since it was still early morning, the line was short, and once again Citypass let us skip the ticket lines. So we were up at the 86th floor observation deck pretty quickly - the evening before when we stopped by, the wait was over an hour. First picture is looking down over the side:

Then, in order, south, southwest, west, north, northeast, and east:

After the Empire State Building, we went to the Museum Of Modern Art. More Jackson Pollock, more of me not getting Jackson Pollock. I talked to an artist friend about this, she told me about layers and perspectives and breaking the mold. I still don't get Jackson Pollock. But I'm not hopeless. I liked Robert Rauschenberg. I liked Giorgio de Chirico. Carlo Carra's Funeral Of The Anarchist Galli appealed to me - the bold colors and chaotic strokes. But the painting that struck me most was Alberto Giacometti's The Artists Mother. The harsh, straight edges of everything in the room contrasted so severely with the image of the woman seated in the chair, and the colors, almost bleak, reds and black. Other than the Van Goghs, my favorite painting of either museum.

And that's how my New York trip ended. Back on the train to New Jersey, back to our car, then driving to DC for a short visit with our older daughter. 12 days, 3,000 miles, a great road trip. What did I learn? New York is a pretty cool place. The people there were friendly, helpful (for the most part), meals could be had for less than I expected. You can walk yourself to death in Manhattan. But I can't imagine a better place to walk.

New York City, Part IV-a

After visiting the Ground Zero site, we walked east and north a bit to the Brooklyn Bridge. We didn't walk all the way across, only as far as the first tower. At that point, it began to rain briefly, although the sun was shining and the sky overhead was blue (The first picture was taken during our Monday evening harbor cruise, not the day of our visit to the bridge). Strange. The geometry of the cables fascinated me:

Do you see the bicyclist in the picture below? She yelled at me for being in her lane on the bridge. Only time I got yelled at in New York. Granted, I was on that side, but just barely, and I was moving to the other side already. I thought it was a bit snippy.

July 6, 2006

After lunch, we took the subway down to the World Trade Center site. From a bricks-and-mortar standpoint, there's nothing there, just an enormous hole in the ground. But to say there's nothing there is so incorrect. The thing that first struck me was the hushed stillness all around. You're walking down a street, among people engaged in the normal hustle and bustle of New York, the ever-present background rumble, then you turn a corner and the people are still walking, but the sound has fallen away. All around the site, it was that way. Voices are low. There are spirits there. Across the street is St. Paul's Chapel, which is surrounded by the wall where so many pictures and notes were posted immediately following 9/11. St. Paul's was where the relief workers came for meals, sleep, comfort, in the months following that horrible day. There is a memorial all inside the church. Behind the church is a bell presented to St. Paul's by the mayor of London on September 11, 2002. It was cast by the same foundry that case the Liberty Bell. You stand at that bell, and you look just a few yards across the street to where the towers collapsed, and you wonder how this little church could have weathered that without even a single broken pane of glass. It's hard for me to not see the hand of God in that, as if he knew that chapel would be needed immediately afterwards, and for years to come. But being inside St. Paul's Chapel was difficult - more than difficult. It sucks your soul out. It's hard to explain - it's at once a place of comfort, that you can feel, and at the same time a place of such crushing pain. I had to get back outside after a few minutes. I went back to the bell, and stared across the street to the vast emptiness that was once the Twin Towers. And I felt anger rising in me, at those who perpetrated that abomination. I thought about all the motives and emotions exhibited by those who were memorialized by the chapel - love, sacrifice, compassion, sympathy, empathy, humanity. And I thought about what the hijackers were driven by - hate, just hate, nothing else. Anybody can hate, it's the easiest emotion to feel. It requires nothing more than the lowest of human responses. Anyway, I didn't intend to get preachy. But that's what I felt right then, right there.

New York City, Part III

Day 4 - Wednesday. J&K wanted to go see Live With Regis And Kelly. I had no interest in immersing myself in more estrogen-burdened air, but I did agree to get up early and go stand with them until they found out whether they'd gotten in. My plan was to then wander around Central Park for a couple of hours and meet them at the Guggenheim Museum. As it turned out, they didn't make the cut, so we all wandered through the park to the Guggenheim.

Now, the Guggenheim Museum is all about modern art. I'm no student of art, I freely admit. The main exhibit was a series of architectural paintings by Zaha Hadid. As you can see here and here, they're not the typical architectural diagrams. But after a while, after you see enough of these, they begin to make a certain sense. They are, I believe, intended to be more useful to Hadid than to anyone else, but as art they range from confusing to fascinating. There was also a large exhibit of Jackson Pollock works. And here's where I admit that I don't "get" Jackson Pollock at all. Try as hard as I may, the paintings just look like paint dribbled on canvas. I enjoyed the Vasily Kandinsky exhibit much more.

	After the Guggenheim Museum, we wandered back across Central Park towards the American Museum Of Natural History. I knew Central Park was big, but until you walk through it, you don't grasp the true size of the place. Or places, I should say, because as the pictures below show, it's several different parks in one.
We left the park at West 85th, I think. As I said, we were headed towards the Museum of Natural History, but we wanted to wander a bit through the neighborhood, so we continued west towards Columbus Avenue. As I walked along, I thought about how Jackson is trying to attract people back to living downtown, and I wondered why they don't build neighborhoods like these.

After a quick lunch, we went to the American Museum Of Natural History. 4 hours later, we had seen maybe 2/3 of what was there, and of the 2/3 we saw, we saw maybe 2/3 of the exhibits, if that makes sense. The place is enormous. I could have spent days there; maybe on a return trip I'll get my chance. I even left off some of the dinosaurs - by 5:00 my knees were shot. And we were going to our first Broadway show that night. We went to see Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. I'm not much on theatre, but this show was hysterical, really excellent. If you get the chance to see it in New York, go. And if you check, there's a chance you can get half-price tickets at the TKTS booth in Times Square. Did I mention this show was great? After the show, J, K, and I walked up Broadway to Maxie's Deli for cheesecake. It just seemed like a great way to top off the evening.

New York City, Part II

Day 3 - Tuesday. We got up early again so we could be at the Good Morning America studio by 6AM. I wouldm have preferred sleeping a little later, but this was another big thing on wife and daughter's list of things to do. And in truth, it didn't bother me too much to be doing it, I never sleep well in hotels so I was awake early enough anyway. So, at 6AM there we were...

GMA actually has a couple of indoor studios, one at street level and one "downstairs", wherever that is. Through the window we could see this band preparing to perform. We discovered it was Julie Roberts, who sings the GMA theme song, and is also apparently a country star of some magnitude, I gathered. (Country isn't my genre of choice).
	Shortly before 7, a crew came outside and began setting up for the GMA weatherman, Bob Barz. We were instructed to be very enthusiastic, like we actually knew who the weather guy was.
Shortly after the weathercast, which followed the opening news segment, they began letting some of us inside the street-level studio. I was the last person let in - a GMA production assistant drew this little heart on my hand to signify the end of the line.
	The studio isn't all that large, so even if you're at the back of the crowd, you see things up close. To my left, just out of sight, was the stage where Julie Roberts would perform. To my right was a small area where they set up for special segments - today's was about getting stains out of clothes. Pretty exciting stuff! But, as I said, you're close to the action if you get inside. Julie Roberts was maybe 20 feet away. Diane Sawyer, Charlie Gibson, and Robin Roberts came up about halfway through the show and did the rest from this studio. During commercial breaks, they do lots of mingling with the crowd. All three are very loose and informal during these breaks, Charlie especially so. Below, clockwise from upper left: Julie Roberts, Diane Sawyer, Charlie Gibson, Robin Roberts.
From there, it was down to Soho and Chinatown for some shopping. Soho seems to be changing from the boutiques that I understand were once the mainstay to big-name stores. Kris saw some things she liked, but not enough to buy. I amused myself taking a picture from an intersection - north, east, south, west clockwise from top.
After Soho it was time for Chinatown. "You want purse? You want Gucci?" Something fishy this way comes.

New York City, Part I

We drove from Philly to Highland Park, New Jersey, where a friend had offered to let us leave the car. From there, we hopped on New Jersey Transit and took the train to New York Penn Station, then a taxi to the Hotel Belvedere. I'll stop right here and put in a plus for the Belvedere. We had, for New York, a great rate - about $180 a night. Location was great, 319 West 48th, about 2 blocks from Broadway, within 5-6 blocks of just about every theatre. The staff were all great, helpful, responsive - like when Janet and Kristen blew out the power in the room getting ready for the theatre Tuesday night by running two hairdryers and various other hair thingies. Maintenance had it back on within 5 minutes, and when they blew it out again 5 minutes later, they were back up just as fast. Plenty of places to eat nearby, several little markets (the Amish Market was my favorite), room included a refrigerator and microwave.

So, the first day (Sunday), we spent mainly getting to the hotel and settling in. We walked down Broadway later, and ate a late lunch at John's Pizzeria on West 44th. It's not the original John's, but it's still very good, and it's located in an old church, so you can eat pizza and look at old stained glass and painted ceilings.

Anyway, on the morning of Day 2 we began our Week In New York by getting up early (5:30 AM) and going to...

	This was what Janet and Kristen wanted to do. Being the good husband and father that I am, I agreed to go. We decided to walk - mistake! - and it took longer than I expected, plus we got rained on along the way. When we got there, the line waiting for stand-by tickets was long. Afetr waiting for an hour, we found out we weren't getting in. But they told us that Friday's show would be taped at 11, and we could get guaranteed tickets for that. J&K jumped on those, so we showed back up at 11. Had we made the live Monday show, we would have seen Lance Armstrong. The guests for the taped Friday show were Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, and Stan Tucci. Not a bad trade.
The crowd, needless to say, was estrogen-heavy. We waited in this line for about 30 minutes after getting inside the building and getting through the metal detectors.
	Once we got in, there was this guy whose job was to warm up the crowd. He began picking out people and asking them where they were from - Michigan, Texas, California, Rhode Island, Georgia. Everybody got big rounds of applause. Then he noticed the guys in the crowd - by which I mean me and about 4 other men scattered through the crowd. He came up to me and asked my name and where I was from. When I said "Mississippi" the response from the crowd was - let's say unenthusiastic. A small smattering of applause, nothing more. I really thought we were past that.
So, here's the obligatory shots of the hosts and guests

No, I didn't bother taking a picture of Stan Tucci.

After getting lunch and returning to our room, we got ready for our New York Harbor cruise. A note here - we got a CityPass, which was well worth the money. 6 attractions - Empire State Building, Natural History Museum, Museum Of Modern Art, Guggenheim Museum, Harbor Cruise, and the Intrepid Air-Sea-Space Museum - for $63. That works out to about half price, if you go to 3 of them you've basically paid for the ticket. Plus you get to avoid the lines for buying tickets at each location. More on the museums later, for now I'll just say the harbor cruise is worth the time and money.

So, I Took This Trip...

	Twelve days ago, my wife, youngest daughter, and I headed out on this summer's vacation. Day 1, we drove from Mississippi to Greensboro, North Carolina, to see my sister. About twelve hours' driving time, so I expected to get there around 8PM, but due to road construction delays, and Atlanta traffic (we hit Atlanta about 4PM), we didn't get to my sister's house until midnight. A long day driving. We stayed in Greensboro the next day, and left Friday morning for Philadelphia. I'd never been to Philly, and we wanted to see the historic old downtown. It was interesting to see where the American Revolution began...
And of course, the Liberty Bell, which I discovered wasn't actually called the Liberty Bell until at least the 1830s, and then only by a few. The term apparently came into general use in the late 1800s when it was taken around the country for display.
	On Sunday, it was time to get back in the car and head for the Main Event. More to come...