Sunday, December 2, 2007
We saw August: Osage County this afternoon. Excellent play — the best acting on a Broadway stage this year. Numerous Tony nominations are assured.
During the first intermission (there are two), I wandered downstairs from the balcony, and I saw one of my heartthrobs: Zachary Quinto of “Heroes.” He was standing behind the last row of the orchestra, talking with a companion. I nonchalantly sauntered past them and then walked back to make sure it was him. It was. He was wearing a black-and-red striped sweater, a pair of jeans, and chunky black-framed glasses.
I can’t tell you how much my heart pitter-pattered.
During the second intermission I went back downstairs and I saw him again.
I am soooooo in love with him. I have been ever since he played Tori Spelling’s gay Iranian best friend on “So NoTORIous.”
*collapses into puddle*
9:39 PM | 1 drop of oil Monday, December 3, 2007
Next year, for the first time, I’ll be voting in a presidential primary. In 2000 and 2004, I was a New Jersey resident, and the state’s primary wasn’t until June, so there was no point. But the 2008 New York primary is going to be on Super-Duper Tuesday, so my vote will finally matter.
Knowing that I’d finally have a chance to vote in a primary that mattered, I finally registered as a Democrat over the summer. In the past, I was reluctant to do so because I prided myself on my independence. But I realized that I’ve never voted for a single Republican in my life (except for Mike Bloomberg in 2005, which barely counts, and he’s not even a Republican anymore), so I figured it was time to finally declare — especially if I could vote in an election that mattered.
Therefore, for the first time, my decision on whom to support for the Democratic nomination will not be merely theoretical.
I’ve taken several online quizzes that purport to match you to the candidate who holds positions closest to your own (this is one of the slickest; here are two others), and my closest match keeps coming up as Dennis Kucinich. But there are other factors to consider, such as a president’s political savvy and his ability to get legislation passed. If I thought Kucinich had either of those, or if I thought he had even a wisp of a chance in a general election, I might vote for him. But he doesn’t and I won’t.
The choice really comes down to Clinton vs. Obama vs. Edwards.
Clinton is the best prepared candidate in the race. My concerns are that (1) she represents business as usual, and (2) there’s a whole Republican attack machine ready for her candidacy.
The Republicans seem to relish the thought of running against Hillary. On the other hand, paradoxically, her campaign seems like the one most ready to fight back against the Republicans. So it really comes down to this question: when you pit the Republicans’ powerful anti-Hillary fervor against Team Hillary’s powerful campaign skills, which wins? I’m not sure.
The main alternative to her is Obama, for whom Andrew Sullivan and Frank Rich both make convincing arguments. He could possibly transcend the culture-war arguments, and the Republicans might have a tough time in a campaign against him. On the other hand, does he have the political savvy necessary to get an agenda through Congress and to handle foreign policy? Maybe.
What makes me most skeptical about Obama is that he seems clueless about something like Social Security. Paul Krugman, whose opinion I respect, says that Obama has been played for a sucker on that issue. If that’s true, it lowers my confidence in him.
Still, I’ve been leaning more toward him lately instead of Clinton. We’ll see.
As for Edwards, he’s in the mix for me only because I’m not totally satisfied with either Clinton or Obama. I liked Edwards a lot back in 2004, and I like him a lot now. He seems like a true economic liberal. I’m just not sure he’s the right man for the times.
Whoever I pick, it’ll be nice to know that my primary vote next year will finally count for something.
12:08 AM | 2 drops of oil Tuesday, December 4, 2007
We watched part of Part One of “Tin Man” last night. It’s a very silly attempt to be a darker version of “The Wizard of Oz.”
Instead of “Oz,” the magical land is called the Outer Zone, or “the O.Z.”
Characters keep talking about “The O.Z.” I keep expecting Adam Brody to show up, to the strains of angsty pop songs.
It’s very silly.
11:25 AM | 2 drops of oil “Kansas O’Flaherty… Secret Agent,” the new weekly comic strip on Salon.com, is so entertaining to read because it’s such a horrible trainwreck. The comments by readers are so wonderfully vicious. Either (1) the writer and illustrator of the comic have no clue how to write a comic strip, (2) they think they’re being pretentiously cool with their anti-art but are failing miserably, or (3) it’s all an experiment and they’re trying to pull a fast one on the audience.
I can’t decide which.
Judge for yourself:
12:28 PM | 2 drops of oil It’s a cliché that the holiday season seems to start earlier and earlier every year. I don’t mind it, though. I get into the Christmas season — probably because I’m Jewish.
In the mid-80s, I used to watch “Days of our Lives” religiously (pardon the pun.) One year, on the Christmas episode, the Brady and Horton clans gathered around and sang cloyingly religious songs like “Silent Night.” My dad remarked that the writers were probably Jews who were trying to imagine what Christmas must be like for the Christians.
Anyway, one reason the holiday season is so long this year is because Thanksgiving was the earliest it could possibly be. Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday in November, so it ranges from November 22 to November 28. This year it was on November 22. That’s 33 days before Christmas.
The earliness was brought home this past Saturday night, December 1. We went to the Big Apple Corps’s holiday concert. It was great, but they played lots of holiday music, and at the end there was a big holiday singalong.
On December 1.
Even worse, in early November, Matt and I went to Macy’s to buy a couch, and the furniture department was fully decked out for the holidays. Trees covered with lights, golden angels, stuffed animals, depictions of Santa, holiday music blasting from the speakers. I joked to a saleswoman that she must be sick of it already and she said yeah, especially because the holiday display had been up since September.
Soon enough, New Year’s Eve will come, and we’ll all go to bed, and we’ll wake up the next morning, and just like that, the holiday season will be over and we’ll have a long, dark winter ahead. That always makes me sad.
So enjoy it while you can.
As a reminder, my chorus, the Empire City Men’s Chorus, is having its holiday concert this Friday night, December 7, at 8:00 pm, on West End Ave. and 86th Street. If you’re around, I hope you can make it.
3:18 PM | oil me Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Isn’t that redundant?
10:40 AM | oil me Thursday, December 6, 2007
Japan’s Bloggers: Humble Giants of the Web.
Although English speakers outnumber Japanese speakers by more than 5-1, slightly more blog postings are written in Japanese than in English.
12:04 PM | oil me Bill Clinton’s latest whining about press coverage of his wife, Mitt Romney’s latest broadside on immigration, the various spins of the Iran intelligence volte-face, and the sterile who’s-got-more-God competition between candidates, look like the machinations of a disoriented power.
The United States needs a new beginning. It cannot lie in the Tudor-Stuart-like alternation of the Bush-Clinton dynasties, nor in the macho militarism of Republicans who see war without end. It has to involve a fresh face that will reconcile the country with itself and the world, get over divisions — internal and external — and speak with honesty about American glory and shame.
New York Times columnists aren’t allowed to endorse particular presidential candidates, but this looks like an implicit endorsement of Obama. And it’s the best reason to support Obama that I can think of.
I still haven’t made up my mind, but it’s ideas like this one that make me want to vote for him.
12:46 PM | 8 drops of oil Friday, December 7, 2007
Just a reminder, if you’re interested, that my chorus, the Empire City Men’s Chorus, has its annual holiday concert tonight. Lots of cute gay guys onstage and probably in the audience.
It will also feature a really hot cimbasso player.
And we’ll also have Barbara Walsh, who recently sang this:
in the Company revival on Broadway. She’s singing two numbers with us and three numbers on her own, one of which is pretty hilarious.
It’s at the Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew, at West 86th Street and West End Avenue, at 8:00 p.m. Tickets are $25 in advance (call 212-362-3179) or $30 at the door.
11:14 AM | 2 drops of oil These fake filibusters have to stop. The Democrats aren’t even making the Republicans go through with actual filibusters. A true filibuster requires endless speechifying. But the Dems are making it too easy because the Republicans don’t even have to go through with it, apparently.
It should NOT take 60 votes to pass legislation in the Senate.
12:04 PM | 2 drops of oil Sunday, December 9, 2007
Here’s a little thing I’ve discovered:
When you’re making dinner for yourself — or on any occasion where you’re going to be taking some food from a pot or serving dish and putting it onto your own personal plate — and you’re planning on having seconds, it helps to take a smaller-than-average amount of food for your first serving. That way, when you go back for seconds, you get the psychological satisfaction of having seconds, but you’re actually eating less food.
I think it has something to do with the fact that the first few bites of a tasty meal are more satisfying than the later bites.
8:34 PM | 5 drops of oil Monday, December 10, 2007
According to a new poll, only 36 percent of New Yorkers view Governor Spitzer favorably.
I guess I must be part of the minority that still likes him.
The most important thing in New York state government right now is to break up the antidemocratic power structure, where Joseph Bruno and Sheldon Silver control and conceal the entire agenda and ordinary senators and assembly members are not allowed to deviate. The system is rotten, and, unlike the somnolent and complacent Pataki, Spitzer is making a good-faith attempt to shake things up and fix them. No, it’s not going to pretty, but it needs to be done.
Has Spitzer made missteps? Yes. But he can learn from them. I still think his overriding goal is a noble one.
If you have time, read this lengthy but informative profile of Spitzer from last week’s New Yorker.
12:17 PM | 1 drop of oil Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Neurobiologists have discovered that sexual orientation can be manipulated back and forth in fruit flies.
People sometimes discuss the implications of a “cure” for homosexuality.
I wonder if someday, 20 or 30 years from now, parents will be able to eradicate potential homosexuality in their fetuses.
I picture a homosexual Children of Men. “The youngest homosexual on earth died today at age 18…”
Then there’ll be nobody left in the gay bars but us bitter old queens.
And then we’ll die, and there’ll be nothing on Broadway but Stomp, and eventually the whole country will look like Kansas.
3:26 PM | 6 drops of oil Apparent this post got forwarded to the entire gay band, the gay band’s board, and my chorus’s board.
Excuse me while I discreetly implode into nonexistence.
10:38 PM | 5 drops of oil Wednesday, December 12, 2007
As a “Heroes” fan, I’m enthralled by all the photos on director/producer Greg Beeman’s blog of cast members goofing around.
Question: how much of a crush do I have on Nicholas D’Agosto, Milo Ventimiglia, and Zachary Quinto?
Answer: much.
And this photo of Zachary Quinto and Kristen Bell might actually become the first fanboy wallpaper I’ve ever put on a computer screen.
10:54 AM | 2 drops of oil When I sang with the Virginia Glee Club at UVa, the Annual Christmas Concerts were the highlight of our season. Each Christmas Concert spanned the gamut from wackiness to sublimity.
The highlight of the concert was always “The 12 Days of Christmas,” which included audience participation. The conductor would divide the audience into 10 sections. The entire audience would sing the words for “a partridge in a pear tree,” and as the days went on, a different section would take the words for each of the days, with “five golden rings” reserved for the Glee Club. As the song went on, it would get stranger and stranger, with veteran audience members coaching their sections to sing something different from the traditional words.
But the highlight of the song was always the Glee Club’s version of “five golden rings” on the twelfth day.
I just found a video of this year’s version, from the 67th Annual Christmas Concerts, and I see that little has changed. I’m feeling waves of nostalgia right now.
(The back wall of the stage contains a replica of The School of Athens.)
1:33 PM | 1 drop of oil Here are the opening credits to Sweeney Todd.
I can’t wait I can’t wait I can’t wait I can’t wait I can’t wait I can’t wait.
But god it looks like it’ll be bloody.
4:05 PM | 3 drops of oil Friday, December 14, 2007
Eight years of aging on video. A picture every day for eight years. And he’s hot. I could stare at him for, oh… eight years.
2:30 PM | 6 drops of oil I was thinking about an electoral dilemma last night.
This is the most open presidential election in years. How does a primary voter decide whom to vote for when he doesn’t even know who’s going to be the other party’s nominee?
Suppose the Democrats have two candidates, A and B, and the Republicans also have two candidates, 1 and 2.
Suppose you’ve evaluated the various candidates on factors such as experience, likeability, skill, policy positions, and so forth, and your calculations have led you to conclude the following about the American people:
In a general election contest between A and 1, A would beat 1.
In a contest between A and 2, 2 would beat A.
In a contest between B and 1, 1 would beat B.
In a contest between B and 2, B would beat 2.
So, A > 1 > B > 2 > A. If I could type a circle, that would be a circle.
Again, A and B are the Democrats.
Whom do you vote for if you don’t know whether the Republicans will nominate 1 or 2?
I don’t know.
3:59 PM | 6 drops of oil Sunday, December 16, 2007
I’m sick with laryngitis. I started to develop a sore throat on Thursday night, and I had to deal with it all day Friday. Yesterday morning I woke up and I couldn’t speak. Really — I’d open my mouth and practically nothing would come out.
This came at a bad time, because we had a concert last night up at Vassar in Poughkeepsie. I went anyway — there was no way I could sing, but I wanted to be a part of things and at least watch from the audience.
Luke was there — he just got home to New York yesterday from the end of his first semester as a grad student at Duke, and he took the train up for the concert. He had a double incentive, because he used to sing in the chorus and he graduated from Vassar. It was so great to see him — he and I wound up sitting together during the concert.
It was a different experience hearing the music from the outside. I heard things I hadn’t heard before, because usually I’m so focused on singing my own part correctly. When I’m singing my own part, it feels like the most important thing in the world, but yesterday, when listening to the entire chorus, my ear naturally went to the melody of any particular piece. Sometimes the music you work so hard to sing turns out to play just a supporting role.
We carpooled back with Luke to the city afterwards (the chorus guy Matt and I rode up with had room in his car), and he wound up being the first visitor to our apartment. He’s staying not too far away from here while he’s in town.
Anyway, I still can’t talk and it sucks. Having a sore throat sucks even more. It hurts! I hope it goes away soon.
6:55 PM | oil me Monday, December 17, 2007
As of today, there are 400 days left in the Bush presidency.
Makin’ progress…
11:10 AM | oil me I can’t get enough of this.
Stop-motion Justin Long is so cute.
8:13 PM | oil me Tuesday, December 18, 2007
As a modest start for my own edification, I set aside every copy of the New York Times from September 12 through September 25, 2001, fourteen days in which every edition featured a banner headline across page 1, not a record for the newspaper in wartime, I later learned from the newspaper’s archivist - that would be a seemingly unsurpassable 141 consecutive issues, from December 21, 1944, through May 10, 1945, during World War II - but an extraordinary passage in recent American history nevertheless. The record for consecutive banner headlines in peactime, I also learned from that telephone call - and I have saved all of them as well - is November 8 through November 27, 2000, twenty issues altogether, which followed the surreal process of deciding who would be the forty-third president of the United States.
- Among the Gently Mad: Strategies and Perspectives for the Book-Hunter in the 21st Century, by Nicholas A. Basbanes
12:44 AM | 2 drops of oil 5:02 PM | oil me Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Now that there’s definitely going to be a Hobbit movie as well as a sequel bridging the gap between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, the question is: what’s going to be in the sequel?
11:26 AM | 4 drops of oil Thursday, December 20, 2007
According to a joint statement:
“We would like to return to work with our writers. If we cannot, we would like to express our ambivalence, but without our writers we are unable to express something as nuanced as ambivalence.”
How I’ve missed them — although their absence has allowed me to go to bed earlier.
8:14 PM | oil me Friday, December 21, 2007
Someone Has to Win the GOP Nomination.
That headline makes me laugh for some reason.
2:15 PM | 2 drops of oil Sunday, December 23, 2007
The first show I ever did in college was Sweeney Todd. After perfoming in conventional musicals in high school — Annie Get Your Gun, Anything Goes, and The Music Man, this was quite a shock. How am I supposed to sing this crap? I thought. Are all college musicals like this?
The show was put on by a group called First Year Players, which does shows in which the entire cast consists of first-year students. (UVa calls its students first-years through fourth-years.) I was in the chorus. At the first rehearsal, the director decreed that none of the males could cut their hair or shave for the duration of the show — two months. I refused, because I was feeling like enough of an outsider at UVa and I didn’t want to make it worse by appearing to be a crazy mountain man. Finally the director relented and let me be clean-shaven.
Our production was what the director called “Brechtian.” I didn’t know anything about Brecht at the time. All I knew was that we framed our production as a show within a show. We were all homeless people putting on a production of Sweeney Todd. Instead of one stage, we had three mini-stages placed among the audience. When the audience came into the theater,
we were already wandering around the stages and the audience members, pretending to be homeless people.
It was strange. And it was the most difficult theater music I ever had to learn. But it was lots of fun and it’s the most prominent memory of my first semester of college.
So I’ve always felt a special connection to Sweeney Todd.
Matt and I saw the movie today. I felt that I was well-versed beforehand in the idiom of Tim Burton’s production, having watched a couple of “making of” specials and seen several clips online. I already knew that Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter (particularly the latter) were doing very different interpretations of their roles, that all iterations of “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd” were cut.
So what did I think of the movie? Well, on the one hand, I’m just thrilled that they made a movie of Sweeney and that millions of people will be exposed to Sondheim’s wonderful score and lyrics. And the movie has great production values — it deserves Oscar nominations for art direction, cinematography, costumes, and maybe makeup and directing. And it was nice to see an actual kid playing Toby. And Alan Rickman was absolutely fantastic as Judge Turpin.
And the movie was so bloody it was wonderfully comical — it made me think of “The Lieutenant of Inishmore,” Martin McDonagh’s blood-soaked Broadway play of last year.
And I enjoyed the cameo appearance by Anthony Stewart Head.
On the other hand, I thought Johnny Depp was rather one-dimensional as Sweeney. I actually liked Helena Bonham Carter’s nontraditional interpretation of Mrs. Lovett more than I liked Depp’s Sweeney. I didn’t hate Depp in the part — I actually liked him quite a bit, and it’s hard for me to hate him in anything — but I would have preferred someone more dynamic in the role.
I missed the choruses of “more hot pies” and “god that’s good” in the song “God That’s Good.” I know Burton cut all the chorus parts for timing reasons, but the movie included all the orchestrations for that song, with nothing sung over it, so given that no time was saved there, he might as well have included the chorus for at least that one song.
And the movie ended way too abruptly. No patty-cake, no policemen, no nothing.
Still, despite the flaws, it’s a top-notch movie, and probably the best film interpretation one could expect. And it will introduce millions of people to the show — for that, I’m thankful.
P.S. My favorite line from a “Sweeney” movie review so far: “Depp’s Sweeney comes across as one more mournful Burton wacko… and his ivory-pale face is crowned by a stiff black mane with a white blaze in it. If you had sat Susan Sontag down and broken the news that not everyone in New York reads Hegel, you would have got the same effect.”
10:33 PM | 1 drop of oil Not to be a snob, but it’s funny to read anecdotes about people who went to see “Sweeney Todd” this weekend and walked out after figuring out that it was a musical.
…about 15 people walked out of the theater during the film. When it started one of the three *loud* women behind me said “Sh!t, this ain’t a Goddamned MUSICAL is it?” then they proceeded to giggle and moan for the next 20 minutes until they finally left. (Thank GOD!)
11:22 PM | 2 drops of oil Monday, December 24, 2007
Merry Christmas.
5:50 PM | 2 drops of oil Tuesday, December 25, 2007
I always get all agitated about going to the movies on Christmas Day.
One of my favorite activities during the week of Christmas and New Year’s is going to see lots of Oscar-worthy movies. So far I’ve seen “Michael Clayton” (Friday), “Atonement” (Saturday), and “Sweeney Todd” (Sunday), and yesterday we watched “Ratatouille” on DVD.
The traditional Christmas Day activity for Jews is to go to the movies. Not “traditional” in the sense of “you MUST go see a movie,” but “traditional” in the sense that it just seems like the most enjoyable thing to do today.
The only problem is that Matt and I have very different taste in movies. He doesn’t like seeing serious, award-worthy movies, but I do. He doesn’t feel a need to go to the movies at all, really.
Ordinarily I wouldn’t mind seeing a movie by myself. I saw “Atonement” by myself. But for some reason, seeing a movie on Christmas by myself makes me feel lonely — sitting in a packed theater surrounded by couples or small groups.
I was about to head out to see “Charlie Wilson’s War,” but I’ve decided that I may as well take advantage of the daylight. So I think I’m going to go for a walk in Central Park instead.
Christmastime for the Jews indeed.
1:21 PM | 2 drops of oil Wednesday, December 26, 2007
I wound up going to the movies yesterday after all - and not by myself. I went for a walk through Central Park, meandering all the way down the western half of it from north to south. I started at the northwest corner on 110th Street, ambled up the Great Hill, then past the Sheep Meadow, halfway around the Reservoir, past the Great Lawn and the Delacorte Theater, around the west side of the Lake, and over to Bethesda Fountain (which always makes me think of the end of “Angels in America”); then Luke called and we made plans to see “No Country for Old Men.” I walked down the Mall, past the Dairy and the Wollman Rink, then finally exited at Columbus Circle.
Eventually I met Luke for the movie; there were only two seats left when we got there, which were in the front row. So I slumped down into my chair (which fortunately reclined a bit) and stared up at the enormous screen.
Great movie, dark and gruesome at times, and done really really well.
I’ve crossed four movies off my list so far this week — just a handful to go!
11:21 AM | oil me Thursday, December 27, 2007
Today’s my 34th birthday. Ack! I’m 34! How did this happen??? And is there a cure?
12:08 PM | 18 drops of oil Friday, December 28, 2007
Blech. Neocon Bill Kristol is going to become a New York Times columnist? The guy who wrote this piece of crap?
I’m all for equal representation. But if you’re going to give a conservative a voice, at least don’t give it to a wackjob.
9:32 PM | 1 drop of oil Sunday, December 30, 2007
Yesterday I watched what has instantly become one of my favorite films of the year: “Zodiac,” about the search for the Zodiac killer in 1970s San Francisco.
I’d heard a little bit about the movie when it came out early in the spring, and it seemed like something I’d want to see, and then I promptly forgot about it. But in the past few days it’s appeared on several critics’ end-of-year best movies lists, so I decided to rent it from Netflix. I popped it into the DVD player and got sucked right in.
I can’t explain exactly why I enjoyed it so much. It just had this haunting effect on me. It’s too long (2 hours 38 minutes), and yet the length is just right for the story David Fincher is trying to tell. I haven’t read much background about the film, but Fincher (who also directed “Se7en,” “The Game,” “Panic Room,” and “Fight Club”) seems as obsessed with the story as Jake Gyllenhaal’s character, Robert Graysmith, is with solving the murders.
The movie has a great cast. Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey, Jr. (who deserves an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor, in my opinion), Anthony Edwards, Dermot Mulroney, Philip Baker Hall, Brian Cox, Chloe Sevigny, even Clea Duvall in a very small role. Familiar faces keep popping up all over the place.
Best of all is the eerie score by David Shire, which I’ve downloaded and am listening to as I write this. I think it’s the music that really makes the movie for me.
It turns out that a two-disc edition, including a director’s cut, comes out in just over a week. I’ll definitely be buying or renting it.
2:50 PM | 1 drop of oil The 50 Most Loathsome People in America, 2007.
3:50 PM | 1 drop of oil Monday, December 31, 2007
Here’s a list of the books I read in 2007, in chronological order. Thinking about the circumstances around the reading of a particular book can help you relive that point in time. It’s one of several different ways to reconstruct the past year of my life.
Disneywar, James B. Stewart - I started the year off with this, shortly after finishing a new bio of Walt Disney at the end of 2006 and the end of my long period of unemployment. I didn’t want to leave Disneydom behind, so I picked up the story 18 years after Walt’s death, when Michael Eisner took over. I’m not usually a fan of behind-the-scenes business books, but I really got into all the intrigue here between Eisner, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and others.
Personal Finance for Dummies, Eric Tyson - a free financial session at my new job led me to this book. Really helpful in getting your finances in order.
The Children of Men, P.D. James - I read this shortly after seeing the devastating movie. Many differences from the movie, but still a haunting read.
Snow, Orhan Pamuk - I stopped after 100 pages. I couldn’t get into it. Too slow for me.
The Coming of the Third Reich, Richard Evans - I’m intrigued by the story of how Hitler came to power. Scary. I was reading this while on a business trip to D.C. in March.
Then in the spring I got on a little Nixon kick:
Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power, Robert Dallek
The Wars of Watergate: The Last Crisis of Richard Nixon, Stanley Kutler - I’d always wanted to read the whole story of how Watergate unfolded.
Then as spring turned to summer I got on a big Colonial American History kick. I couldn’t get enough:
Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War, Nathaniel Philbrick - I started reading this, oddly enough, on the airplane on the way to London, crossing the Atlantic in the opposite direction from the Mayflower.
American Colonies: The Settling of North America, Alan Taylor
The War That Made America: A Short History of the French and Indian War, Fred Anderson
The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789, Robert Middlekauff - Only read about 100 pages. It was going a bit too slowly for me.
The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin, Gordon Wood - I read this during a business trip to Vancouver, accompanied by several delicious solitary meals.
The American Revolution: A History, Gordon Wood - Much swifter than the Middlekauff book.
The Forging of the Union: 1781-1789, Richard B. Morris - Picked this up at the Strand. I wanted to read about the Articles of Confederation period, before the Constitution was ratified. I read most of it (I keep meaning to finish the last two chapters at some point). Toward the end of it I decided I needed to get away from American history for a bit.
Consider the Lobster, David Foster Wallace - A book of essays. Anything by David Foster Wallace is a treat.
The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq, George Packer - With the approach of Labor Day I returned to serious fare.
The Big Con: The True Story of How Washington Got Hoodwinked and Hijacked by Crackpot Economics, Jonathan Chait - A great read about the stupidity of infinite tax cuts and how a feckless media enabled the modern Republican party to screw us over.
The Conscience of a Liberal, Paul Krugman - I read about half of this; it’s a good book, but at a certain point I decided, okay, I get it, what’s next?
The Cold War: A New History, John Lewis Gaddis
Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy,
Charlie Savage - I recently finished this, probably the most depressing and angering book I’ve read this year. It’s about Dick Cheney’s very conscious decision to advance executive power, and how he did so with the help of people like David Addington and the delusional John Yoo. Charlie Savage, who won a Pulitzer this year for his newspaper reporting, is young and cute in a geeky way.
The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court, Jeffrey Toobin - Just started this recently, an inside look at the past 15 years of the Supreme Court. These kinds of books are always fun.
So there it is, my year in books. Here’s to more good reading.
1:30 PM | 1 drop of oil 
George W. Bush is gone in
days hr min sec
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search for love
table spins
til the cows come home
trabaca
traveling spotlight
trial and error
tuna girl
uffish thoughts
ultrasparky
useless! worthless! insipid!
zionide