Whenever the song Flight Test by the Flaming Lips comes on, I start singing Father and Son by Cat Stevens. I am not very musical by nature (for a long time music was mostly about lyrics for me), so the similarities must be really overt. I notice the round-style verse, some combinations of notes, the phrasing, even the subject matter.
Still, I was surprised to discover that the Flaming Lips were sued and now pay royalties to Yusuf Islam. I really like the song, so I’m happy it was made, but you’d think they’d take care of any rights issues up-front, before releasing the album.
Judge for yourself:
I’m just pleased that I recognized a pattern. It’s like hearing a commercial with a voice-over and recognizing the actor. It feels good!
October 24, 2008 at 9:17 am
· Filed under Food, thoughts
I’d never seen a hardy kiwifruit before. As you can see from the picture, they’re pretty tiny, like the size of a grape, and they don’t have brown furry skins like regular kiwis. They taste very similar to regular kiwis just a bit sweeter with a richer, more complex aftertaste (in a good way!). Maybe that’s the skin that I’m tasting? The texture is the same.
They’re fun and easy to pop in your mouth for a snack, but I can also imagine them in a tart or something else that highlights their smallness – like sliced on top of a cake as decoration.
The woman who rang me up said that they grow from a plant that handles cold weather well, so they’re easy to grow in New York. If only I had access to a backyard!
Sometimes I neglect the good because it’s not great. Like – I buy plain yogurt instead of fruit-flavored because the kind with fruit has a lot of sugar. But then I end up eating something else entirely, something even less healthy, because sometimes plain yogurt isn’t going to cut it. As I was eating Oatmeal Surprise yesterday, I felt bad about the jam – and then I thought – it’s oatmeal! For dinner! How much more healthy can you get? I suppose slightly – because you could leave out the jam. You see where this is going…
I had a nagging thought that someone said it better than me. Turns out it is Voltaire. The English translation is “the best is the enemy of the good” or less accurately, but as I remember it, “the perfect is the enemy of the good”.
October 20, 2008 at 9:21 am
· Filed under Personal
I rode up to Eleanor Roosevelt’s little house in Hyde Park last Saturday (which happened to be her birthday – October 11). The area is gorgeous this time of year, the leaves are changing and there are views of the Hudson river and the Catskills.
In a short video about her life Eleanor talks to some boys in front of a sign printed “Elinor Roosevelt’s School for Boys”. Then, on her desk in her office, there is a nameplate “Elanor Roosevelt”. The tour guide said someone asked Eleanor about it and she said that a little boy gave it to her and she wanted to display it prominently in case he ever came to visit. I wonder how many people assumed they had been misspelling her name after seeing that nameplate on her desk?
Also interesting is that the film referenced Franklin’s lifelong affairs. A friend worked at the Teddy Roosevelt House on Long Island about ten years ago. At that time the tour guides weren’t allowed to acknowledge the sordid (and therefore especially interesting) parts of history – the suicides and affairs.
My ride up was leisurely and uneventful. I took a winding local road to enjoy the scenery. I stayed too long, though, so my trip back was slightly harrowing. I rode for the first time on the highway in the dark. The highway had no shoulder and I spotted several deer grazing on the side. I ran out of gas and had to switch to the reserve tank and hope it lasted until I could make it back to a populated area. And I learned that the mountains are cold at night on a bike! Little adventures.
September 3, 2008 at 11:49 am
· Filed under thoughts
September is here and summer is coming to an end. I was just getting into it! For me, the key is to get out of the city. The trip to Minnesota and Fire Island weekends allowed me to barbecue, play with my nieces and nephews outside, pick wild strawberries, roast marshmallows, play in the waves, walk on the beach, and listen to live music on the dock at sunset. All good things.
Now we’re moving into fall and I need to get going on all the fun stuff before it gets cold. September is already mostly full with a short trip to the Bahamas (extending summer, I suppose) and a motorcycle weekend in the area where I went to college. I’d like to go on a few hikes and longer rides to enjoy the changing leaves and cooler weather.
Very Good Taste created a list of food that every omnivore should try at least once. In his words – “The list includes fine food, strange food, everyday food and even some pretty bad food – but a good omnivore should really try it all.”
Here’s what he wants us to do:
1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.
I have tried 57 so far. I would try any of these, even roadkill if I hit a deer or something (no, just a deer probably, can’t think of any other animal that it would apply to!).
There are a few that it’s really wrong that I have never tried – borscht, huevos rancheros, pho. It’s not that I haven’t had the chance, but that there are usually more appealing dishes on the menu. I’ll have to order them next time.
What’s your number? Is there anything you wouldn’t try?
I kind of feel sorry for the television shows that came and went before the internet. They are missing the documentation that later shows have in spades.
After a watching Californication with friends and then discussing television couples with great chemistry/tension, I started re-watching Moonlighting from the beginning.
There are several witty, fast-paced dialogue sequences that are not referenced anywhere on the web (fast-paced for the time, at least. The show is surprisingly slow by today’s standards.) Post-internet shows that have great dialogue (like Buffy and the Gilmore Girls) are quoted everywhere, but if you miss the mark by a couple years, you get nothing, not even a “Quotations” page for each episode on imdb.
Here’s my contribution to the transcription of the series. I wish there were a YouTube video to embed*.
Maddie: David, David, David. All this blood, and violence!
David: I know. I get giddy just thinking about it!
Guy: Tell me – how does the Blue Moon girl get involved in something as gruesome as this?
Maddie: Just lucky, I guess.
Guy: No, no. I want to know. who are you guys working for?
Maddie: Working for?
Guy: Working for.
Maddie: Working for. (to David) He wants to know who we’re working for.
David: What for?
Maddie: What for you want to know who we’re working for?
Guy: Why not?
Maddie (to David): Why not?
David: Why not what?
Maddie: Why not what for you want to know who we’re working for?
David: What?!?
Maddie: What?
* I wrote this and then I found it. My quote starts at 1.44. What was I thinking? Everything exists on the web!
Check out my sidebar to see a feed of my shared items from Google Reader. The full articles are compiled here. The list will change daily as I share additional items.
95% of my web reading is done through Google Reader. It saves having to click through all of one’s favorites every day to see who has updates. And it prevents the frustration of seeing the same un-updated page day after day. As Charlie Runkle in Californication said “The whole idea behind the blog is an ongoing narrative, you understand? A series of event that follows another series of events”. I’m guilty of long absences, I know. I am trying to do better. Give Google Reader a try if you don’t already have a feed aggregator.
