Believe the Hype?

I find it very odd that over the past year, my favorite NYT columnist has slowly become David Brooks (Sorry Paul, Thomas and Maureen).

The reason why Brooks has vaulted to the lead is because he consistent writes thoughtful and pragmatic columns which come from the central moderate point of view. Even though I post about a lot of liberal topics and care deeply about many liberal causes, at heart I am a moderate.

The most recent Brooks piece on Obama's Cabinet appointments is an especially good read because it shows how Obama can unite Red and Blue America together. After reviewing a number of Obama's specific appointments, he ends with:

"Believe me, I’m trying not to join in the vast, heaving O-phoria now sweeping the coastal haute bourgeoisie. But the personnel decisions have been superb. The events of the past two weeks should be reassuring to anybody who feared that Obama would veer to the left or would suffer self-inflicted wounds because of his inexperience. He’s off to a start that nearly justifies the hype."

'Nuff said.

"Telling Cute Animals What's What" since October, 2008

I checked out Fuck You, Penguin a blog where BZA "tells cute animals what's what" about 15 minutes ago and still am smiling. Any place where I can read a post titled "Panda accomplices fully liable" which contains the copy below is a place for me.

"Attention people who have access to Pandas. YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT KIND OF POWER YOU POSSESS. You are like a child that stumbles upon one of the rings from lord of the rings, only instead of a ring it is a FUCKING PANDA. Keep all pandas away from toys and other human objects like cars, hats, and exercise machines. If not, you will be held fully responsible for the damage they inflict.

Oh yeah, and fuck you, Panda."

Love it. Happy Friday.

Via Ben

Epic Fail

"Epic Fail" is a term which is being used more and more these days. It can mean a number of different things but they are all sort of the same. For instance, it can symbolize the highest form of fail known to man or it can be used when something can be seen to be a total failure, like this dance routine below:

The site Failblog charts all of the fails out there and some of them are truly epic in scale. If you have any sense of schadenfreude in you, you'll get a kick out of more than a few posts on this site.

For instance, you might get a kick out of the guy below who thought it would be a good idea to climb inside a balloon. Nothing says "Epic Fail!" more than that!

Via Chris and others

Prefab Cabin Loveliness

For the survivalist or minimalist in your family this holiday season, the MetroCabin a prefabricated livable 16 feet deep by 20 feet wide multi-use open plan space. It's a livable getaway cabin, a studio, an extra room, a cabana, or a mountain retreat and starts at $32,500.

As the site says, "The simple and sophisticated design allows it to exist easily in an urban setting, while the quiet strength and sturdy attitude are comfortable in a more rugged environment."

I haven't been in one of these cabins myself but I have been in plenty of small studio apartments. At first blush, I would say that its a pretty fair comparison. Once you have the cabin, all you need is a small croft of land to plunk it down on and some plumbing to hook it up to the local water supply and you are all set.

Here are some pics below of the MetroCabin in situ:

Suburban setting:

Rustic setting:

Inside the MetroCabin:

Via Brian

Ordering Pizza Via Your Remote

Yes, it has finally happened: you can order a pizza with your TV remote thanks to a partnership between TiVo and Domino's. 'Nuff said.

Election Hang Over Funny Business

Its been about a week and a half since Obama won his electoral landslide. Some of the counting isn't even done yet - Missouri is still outstanding. So many people, so many organizations, so many nations have commented on the election and said so many different things, it is at once expected and astounding and it has run the gamut from the serious to the silly.

I've been serious for so long, I'd like to focus on the silly. For instance, South Park provided a brilliant parody of the election twenty four hours after the event took place. It's episode "The Greatest Thief Club in the World" perfectly sends up both our country and Ocean's 11, 12, 13 and whatever else comes this way. Parker and Stone have reset the bar once again. A great con - a beautiful twist. Loved it.

I chuckled reading the short Onion article Black Man Was Given the Nation's Worst Job. Here is half the article:

As part of his duties, the black man will have to spend four to eight years cleaning up the messes other people left behind. The job comes with such intense scrutiny and so certain a guarantee of failure that only one other person even bothered applying for it. Said scholar and activist Mark L. Denton, "It just goes to show you that, in this country, a black man still can't catch a break."

Another gem from the Onion comes from its video division. Its piece on how die hard Obama supporters are completely adrift was a little too close for comfort. I wonder how many of my posts over the past two years have mentioned Barack? Hmm. I almost don't want to count.

The Daily Show has a good piece on the search for the First Dog. Lucky for me, when it came time to get a dog I sort of didn't have a choice - a friend of the family had just had a Shih-Tzu litter and I was locked into a little Ewok.

Last but not least, here is the truth which just sounds like a joke: "A black man and a hard ass Jew walk into the Oval Office and..."

Not Famous? Be Happy.

After watching Posh Spice attempt to leave LAX I am deliriously happy I'm not famous. I mean, seriously. Is this the life you want to lead?

Yes, she could have traveled in a private jet at a smaller airport and avoided this LAX nonsense altogether but at some point, she has to enter the public space, like by going to a restaurant, and I'm sure the above would just happen then. I think the only way to avoid this type of craziness is by not being famous. Then again, being famous but ugly might work. So, I guess the question is then do you want to be beautiful and not famous or famous and ugly because beautiful and famous sucks donkey!

When Monks Attack

When I was in Israel about two years back, I was lucky enough to meet Wajeeh Nuseibeh, the Custodian and Door Keeper of the Church of Holy Sepulcher. He was standing outside of the Church, giving out his business card to a crowd of excited people and in typical follower fashion, without even knowing what it was I just went up and took one from him. As I was reading what it said, my guide asked, "Do you know who that is?" and when I replied that I did not, he proceeded to tell me the story behind how this Muslim man ended up with the keys to one of Christianity's holiest sites.

Basically, it was to prevent things like the recent Monk brawl next to the site of Jesus' tomb from happening. In case you ever wondered (start humming Prince), this is what it looks like, when Monks fight.

The church is jealously managed by six competing and often disputatious Christian denominations -- Roman Catholic (also called Latin here), Greek Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, Coptic, Syrian Orthodox (sometimes called Jacobite) and Ethiopian Orthodox. Sometimes the tensions over the right to clean or to pray in a particular area of the church spill over into violence - which is exactly what happened last Saturday.

The keys are held by the Nuseibeh family because all of the sects fear that if one sect in particular holds the keys, it will just lock themselves in and all of the others out. To assuage this fear, Nuseibeh's family has helped keep the peace since Caliph Omar Ibn Kattab first conquered Jerusalem for the Muslims in 638. The only gap was during 88 years of Crusader rule in the 12th century. According to family history, when Salah A-Din recaptured Jerusalem in 1191, he promised English King Richard the Lion Heart he would invite the Nuseibeh family to resume their role as custodians.

Out of all of my mementos from my Israel trip, I think I love Wajeeh's business card the most. It is the story of Israel: both ancient and modern all at the same time. When I show his card to people, I love providing my card along with it and asking the person to read the job titles and company names out loud. If you were to do that with me right now, one card would read "Sr. Producer, IconNicholson" while the other would read, "Custodian and Doorkeeper, Church of the Holy Sepulcher." I've been employed in my job for about a year and a half now. The Nuseibeh family's had their job for 1363 years and counting.

Video link via Chris

Yes. We. Did!

Let's start with the obvious: Barack Hussein Obama is now the President Elect of the United States and will become the 44th President when he is inaugurated on Jan 20, 2009. I have only two words: hot damn.

Last night, I started the evening in my apartment with a home cooked meal, a great bottle of wine and even better company before moving on to a bar in the UES. Before I left, there were many high fives and fist bumps traded as CNN reported state after state going to Obama. At the watering hole, I continued to watch CNN which was playing on a wall mounted TV and when I noticed a countdown clock for when the west coast polls would close up shop, I turned to a friend and said, "They are going to call it for Barack the second the polls close. You watch."

Soon the clock struck 0:10 and I, along with a roomful of others, proceeded to audibly count down to zero like it was New Years Eve. When the clock hit 0:00 sure enough "Barack Obama Wiins Presidency" flashed up on the screen and everyone went wild. There were toasts, cheers, hoots, claps and hugs exchanged by all. Quickly, my small group finished our drinks and moved to another establishment a few blocks away, one with better TVs and a much better sound system to listen to the speeches.

The whole bar quieted down when both of the candidates spoke. McCain's speech was the best I've ever heard him give. That being said, it cemented in my thoughts the idea that he'll always be a soldier - ready to dutifully follow his leader - and not the general he hoped to be. I think he secretly knows he isn't General or Admiral material and I think we are better off with him in the Senate.

Then came Barack. If you missed Obama's acceptance speech I would highly recommend that you listen to it. The words powerful, moving, emotional and inspiring all come to mind. To see him walk out on stage with his wife and children, to see the multi-hued crowd explode, to hear the multi-hued bar I was in explode, man oh man, it was flat out cathartic. I believe I was shouting "yes yes yes" over and over again.

One thing is for certain: Brand America just got a serious dose of anabolic steroids. One part of the awesome power of Brand America is its "Shining City on a Hill" ideal and the fact that we have a Statue of Liberty crying out in New York Harbor, "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." Obama said in a 2007 speech that "I still believe that America is the last, best hope on earth. We just have to show the world why this is so." I truly believe simply electing him as our President is a huge step in that direction.

Take for instance what prominent Saudi columnist Dawood al-Shirian had to say:

"Today, reality in America has superseded fantasy. ... Americans have struck a deadly blow to racism all over the world. Americans have regained themselves and have regained the American dream. The picture of the U.S. that was disfigured by the Republicans in the past eight years fell from the wall today. The picture of the America we had in our minds has taken its place."

The Kenyan government declared a national holiday (Barack's dad is from there) and people are partying all over the world. To steal Reagan's line, its morning in America and the future, while daunting, looks brighter than it has in a long, long time.

I care so deeply about America's image abroad because if it wasn't for it's "Last, best hope" reputation I might not even be alive. My ancestors all left the Pale of Settlement (basically Poland / Russia) around 1910 and came to America because it represented their "last, best hope." They faced vicious pogroms and ever increasing intolerance in their native land while America offered the possibility of a better life - for them and their descendants.

Their decision to head West across the Atlantic was monumental because everyone in my family who stayed in Europe was killed in the Holocaust. Its not hyperbole to say that if my ancestors had decided to stay put and not uproot their entire lives to head to the Lower East Side, if they did not tie their future to the promise of America, I probably would not be around.

I've been deeply affectedly by my family's immigrant experience and recognize how lucky I am to be a 3rd generation American citizen even though I was disappointed when Bush won in 2000 and crushed when he defeated Kerry in 2004. I have never been able to fathom how the country I love and believe in so much has been heading straight to hell in a hand basket (I will not rehash 8 years worth of problems in this post). I've prayed for things to turn around before I get so dispirited that, like my ancestors, I begin to entertain the idea of "Where would be better?" While that still is a far way off, we've been heading down a dark path. A McCain victory would have only validated the past 8 years worth of nonsense and it truly would have made me question the motivations of my fellow citizens. It also would have made me incredibly fearful about what the next 4 years would bring.

Thankfully, Obama's victory has pulled America back from the brink of insanity though this is just the end of the beginning. The 4th generation Americans in my family (namely my daughter and my niece) need their future's promise restored. There are many challenges both foreign and domestic ahead and we all should be prepared to make sacrifices, whether they be time, money, resources or some combination of all three. That being said, the day is full of promise. As our President Elect said, "Let's get to work."

Vote!

I arrived at my local polling place at 6:00 AM and found there was already a line down the block. My wife, my daughter and I all went together - it was a family affair - and it was pretty emotional. It was an incredible feeling to have my daughter in my arms while I was behind the curtain pulling the lever.

If you couldn't tell by now based on my past posts, here is what I hope will be served tonight for dessert:

Pic via Andrew Sullivan

Republicans Best Pray for Bad Weather

If you are in a battleground state today, you might see someone in an elephant mask doing a rain dance. In 2007 study titled "Republicans Should Pray for Rain: Weather, Turnout and Voting in U.S. Presidential Elections,” Brad T. Gomez, Thomas Hanford and George A. Krause concluded that every inch of rain above average on Election Day, gives Republicans an additional 2.5 percent of the vote, and every inch of snow above average increases the Republican vote share by 0.6 percent.

So what is the forecast for Tuesday in the main battleground states? Weatherbill, a private online weather risk management service based in San Francisco, has crunched the numbers for seven such states, looking at historical data in each state’s capital city, and has arrived at much the same conclusions as the National Weather Service: fair skies and little chance of rain in most, but not all, of the places that are still up for grabs.

Via The Caucus

Yes. We. Can.

"We've been warned against offering people of this nation false hope but in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope."

Via Andrew Sullivan

One Day More...

No, this is not a Les Mis themed post though if Barack does not win tomorrow, I would not be surprised if there were some barricades erected. Then again, the same could be said regarding McCain as our country is pretty polarized right now - it will be very interesting to see what transpires the next year post-election.

Here are two election related things that I thought might get you fired up to vote tomorrow.

First, if you haven't listened to the tape of Sarah Palin getting pranked by a Canadian radio station you don't know what you are missing. It is unbelievable - she actually thinks she is talking to French PM Nicholas Sarkozy.

Second, I found a site I love called This. Fucking. Election. The site's sole feature is a vertical column of words (where some are bigger than others tag cloud style) that mattered during the past two years of primary and general election campaigning. Its a great refresher on all that has transpired and it really makes me realize what a long strange trip its been.

Too Many Winter Movies 2008

Coming five months after my "Too Many Summer Movies 2008" post, I am providing a list of the 12 movies that are being released in theatres before the end of the year that I hope to see. For the summer, I originally wanted to see 20 and thus far I've seen six (seeing a movie when you have a kid under one is t-o-u-g-h) but a few of the 20 are no longer on my list - for instance, Speed Racer and The Love Guru will only be watched if I'm on a plane and without a book or if I'm in some other pseudo-desperate state - so I'm hitting a respectable .333. If I was playing in MLB, that would earn me a few million dollars.

I've enjoyed my summer post as it has helped keep me focused regarding the movies I eventually watch. It also has helped me keep my Netflix queue up-to-date. So, why not start a trend and post quarterly the movies that I want to see. It doesn't hurt that the NYT produces a special quarterly "This is what is coming to a theatre near you" section which means I basically circle what I want to see and then post it here.

So, without further ado, here are the 12 flicks I hope to view: The Changling, Rocknrolla, Zack and Mimi Make a Porno, Role Models, Quantum of Solace, Austrailia, Che, The Day The Earth Stood Still, What Doesn't Kill You, The Wrestler, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Spirit. If there are more, I'll post them and once I see what I see, I'll post an update with a mini-review as well.

Boo!

Happy Halloween - try not to O.D. on sugar. Below is Google's logo today:

Who is Ana?

I have been staring out my office window at a billboard that says "See the World Through Ana's Eyes" for the past few weeks and had no clue who Ana was, what world she was looking at and what the billboard was advertising. A search on the Net only brought up Flickr albums of people either named Ana or people who know an Ana who thought the billboards were cool. I spammed my company asking "Does anyone know the meaning / purpose behind these billboards?" and got a lot of inspired but in the end incorrect responses.

Finally, bored and starting at the billboard last Friday I tried one more web search and found a link to a tweet (that is a Twitter message for those not in the know - if you don't know what Twitter is, well, then you are even less in the know) that informed me it was an ad for Ana Tzarev who is opening a gallery of her work in November. I contacted the PR firm Fitz & Co. who is representing Ana and spoke to Bethanie Brady who confirmed that yes, the Ana in the ad is Ana Tzarev. She said,

the text-only black and white campaign will give way to a city wide public art exhibition of colorful large-scale (some 4-stories tall) reproductions of the artist, Ana Tzarev¹s work. In anticipation of their November opening, Ana Tzarev Gallery has worked with New York based cultural marketing firm LaPlaca Cohen to create this campaign to share Ana Tzarev¹s work with all of New York.

The billboard across the way has already changed over and I'll try to update this post with before and after pics soon. In the meantime, kudos go to all who worked on the campaign as they were able to keep it's message under wraps for quite some time. My co-workers are all very Net savvy and no one could figure out what the billboard meant. Sure, that pissed some people off but in the end, if you are advertising something, you want people to be talking about that something.

Now, where Ana gets the money to open a gallery and purchase all of these billboard ads is another question altogether...

"And The Endorsement Goes To..."

Newspaper editorial boards across the land are endorsing candidates left and right as Election Day is right around the corner. Regarding the Presidential race, a number of endorsement have been made for both Obama and McCain but all of the noteworthy ones have all gone to Obama. These news making endorsements are interesting for a few reasons, like history, personality and geography, and I'll illustrate three that have gone Obama's way.

First there is the history department. How does the fact that the Chicago Tribune has endorsed a Democrat for the first time in its paper's history sound? In doing so, the paper said Obama is the "strongest candidate to address the nation's economic woes and lead us through a perilous time and restore in us a common sense of national purpose." The fact that this paper endorsed Obama is huge. The paper's founder in fact helped found the GOP. The paper ha been around for 161 years and you would have thought they would have endorsed at least one Dem in that time but the answer is no - Barack is the first and their endorsement is a powerful one.

Next there is the personality department. If a major Democrat endorsed McCain, it would be news and vice versa. So, if you didn't know by now Colin Powell said he was voting for Obama last week on "Meet the Press." His reasons were sound, incredibly detailed, well thought out and very tough with which to argue. I just sat back and marveled at how damning this must have been to McCain. Not what you want people talking about, that's for sure.

Last, regarding geography, people all over the nation are paying attention to the endorsements that come from different regions of the land. One such regional endorsement especially caught my eye tonight: the Anchorage Daily News, Alaska's largest and most read newspaper, has endorsed Barack Obama for President. Among the reasons, it stated in its editorial:

Gov. Palin's nomination clearly alters the landscape for Alaskans as we survey this race for the presidency -- but it does not overwhelm all other judgment. The election, after all is said and done, is not about Sarah Palin, and our sober view is that her running mate, Sen. John McCain, is the wrong choice for president at this critical time for our nation.

Election day is only 9 days away and so far, to quote the Dead, "What a long strange trip its been." I cannot wait to see how it all shakes out. I'm hopefully for a true change and for my daughter's future. I'm still nervous, polls and all, and will be until the morning of November 5th when I truly know how this whole thing has turned out.

The Knux

I read an article titled The Mining of Hip-Hop’s Golden Age a few weeks back which gave me a good list of meta-rap groups like the Cool Kids, Pacific Division, the Knux, Kidz in the Hall and Plastic Little to discover. For the past month, I've been checking them all out and in the process I've once again been amazed at how easy it is to use the Net to hear (maybe not "own" but hear) new music.

If you've never heard the term meta-rap, these types of groups "make music that is a commentary on what came before it. In hip-hop, which can be ruthlessly forward-looking, this is a novel development, and it has made for compelling and diverse music."

One song that has been stuck in my head for the last month is Cappuccino by "The Knux." I dig it and I hope you do too. Happy Friday - enjoy!