The Far North End

Nature's Promise: Organic, Good Sense of Humor

2007-02-04T17:39:00.000-05:00

I have to give Giant (one of the Mid-Atlantic supermarket chains) a lot of credit for its organic line, Nature's Promise. For one thing, I like how their products are certified by an actual certifying organization. I've heard that some places claim organic based on their OWN standards. Also, I dig the packaging. On the bag of blue corn tortilla chips we just bought there's a little blurb on the front of the bag that says:

"Made with organic corn and natural, non-hydrogenated oils - our chips se hablan delicioso!"

Fun with Flickr

2006-10-25T11:47:00.000-05:00

Just found this site, which allows you to spell anything as if it were a ransom note, using images from Flickr.

Taco Bell's Marketing Department: Always thinking outside the bun.

2006-10-25T09:16:00.000-05:00

Another fine post over at Beat It, Nerd.

They were talking about this promotion during the game last night and Joe Buck claimed that if Taco Bell didn't have to make good on the offer -- meaning no one hit a home run during game three of the World Series -- then HE got to decide Taco Bell's next promotion! Don't know if he was telling the truth or if he was just giving Tim McCarver a hard time.

This commercial KILLS me.

2006-10-24T21:51:00.000-05:00

And if you're familiar with the baseball play-calling of FOX's Joe Buck it's that much funnier.

Thanks, Elijah.

2006-10-24T15:13:00.000-05:00

It's no wonder people don't ever bother to contact their Members of Congress. Every time I've written either a Senator or a Representative I've gotten what seems to be a pre-fab response in return. I know these guys have a lot to do, and I'm 75% certain that Rep. Elijah Cummings never even saw my letter, but come on, Hill Staffers, try to make it sound a little less canned.

But I guess what really bugs me about the following letter is that it doesn't even address what I wrote about. I contacted Rep. Cummings about my disappointment in his voting in favor of the Deleting Online Predators Act. I only mentioned the fact that I was glad he voted against H.R. 88 at the beginning of my letter as a way of buttering him up.

Dear Andy :

Thank you for contacting me regarding the federal marriage amendment bill, H.J.Res . 88. I appreciate hearing from my constituents on issues before Congress.

Currently, Massachusetts is the only state that permits gay or lesbian couples to marry. On the federal level, Congress enacted the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in 1996 to prohibit recognition of same-sex marriages for purposes of federal enactments. H.J.Res . 88, if enacted, would declare that marriage in the United States consists only of the union between a man and a woman. While uniformity may be achieved upon ratification of a constitutional amendment such as that which is proposed in H.J.Res . 88, states would then no longer have the flexibility of defining marriage within their borders. Moreover, states may be prohibited from recognizing a same-sex marriage performed and recognized outside of the United States . Currently 43 states have enacted statutes limiting marriage in some manner.

For these reasons, and because of my belief in the essential freedoms embedded within the Constitution, I do not support the Marriage Protection Amendment. The United States Constitution and its amendments were designed to protect and expand individual liberties and provide equal protection under the law. The Marriage Protection Amendment would be the first constitutional amendment that restricts the rights of a whole class of people. Once discrimination is enshrined into the Constitution, attempts will be made to justify further discrimination and exclusion of other groups or classes of people by relying on interpretations of the same principle.

It is my belief that we must temper the prevailing values in this country with a steadfast defense of individual rights. In light of this necessary balance, I voted against H.J.Res . 88 when it came to the floor of the House for a vote on July 18, 2006. As you may be aware, this bill garnered a 236-187 vote and thus failed to reach the two-thirds vote necessary to pass the House as a Constitutional amendment.

As Members of Congress, we are required to honor the spirit and the law of the Constitution and we have the responsibility to prevent discrimination - whether it is based on gender, race, sexual orientation, religion, or any other characteristic. Rest assured that as the 109 th Congress continues, I will continue to fight against any and all discrimination. If I can be of further assistance in the future, please do not hesitate to contact my office.

Sincerely,

Elijah E. Cummings
Member of Congress

Yet another Colbert video

2006-10-20T08:48:00.000-05:00

Watch him skewer Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum for comparing the war in Iraq to the Lord of the Rings (honest!).

Thank you, Examiner, for ruining my day

2006-10-18T09:05:00.000-05:00

Some depressing news from within and without U.S. borders today:

1) How awful is this? - I don't know what it is, but there's something so stomach-churning about killing creatures that are as big as whales.* And the process and spectacle of killing them, with the spears and the hooks and the splashing and the blood, just strikes me as so barbaric that I have trouble understanding how anyone can do it without wanting to commit suicide afterward.

2) This also kind of sucks. - Seems that Kenneth Lay can go to the grave an innocent man. He was convicted on fraud and conspiracy charges, but since he died while his case was on appeal, a federal judge ruled that the conviction had to be "vacated." On one hand, I understand the reasoning behind the ruling. The guy didn’t get a full shot at making his case. But really, is there anyone on Earth who thinks he isn't guilty?

* The exact opposite can be said about tiny living things like mosquitoes and bacteria, which I have no trouble killing. But that's a philosophical discussion for another time.

Colbert Strikes Again

2006-10-18T08:11:00.000-05:00

Hilarious!

I need some help

2006-10-17T08:25:00.000-05:00

The problem is this: the Rolling Stones have always been a sore spot for me. I've never understood how they are consistently put on the level of The Beatles, whose influence is far beyond any other band in the history of rock. Yes, they have some good stuff, but can they really be considered ON PAR with the Fab Four? I think not.

Like I said, they have some good stuff and there are quite a few songs I genuinely love: "Mother's Little Helper," "19th Nervous Breakdown," "I Am Waiting," and basically all of Her Satanic Majesty's Request. But a lot of the other stuff I've heard really grates the hell out of me.

So here's what I need from all you Stones lovers out there: based on what I like as listed above, what other Stones songs/albums do you think might be worth a shot? And God help you if you mention Goat's Head Soup or Some Girls.

What's opera, Doc?

2006-10-16T08:26:00.000-05:00

I just heard about something that might be really cool. It's called Opera Vivente, a small opera company located here in Baltimore. Their venue is a church of only 200 seats, which could be neat, and they perform in English, which may upset purists, but if you've ever been to an opera in another language (especially Russian; I'm looking at you, Mussorgsky) you know how distracting surtitles can be from the music.

Anyway, Opera Vivente is performing Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte this month and I think I might have to drag the wife to it.

It also reminds me of the Baltimore Opera's Extreme Opera program, which allows students (and those who haven't yet thrown out their college IDs, heh) to see performances for $20 each! I took advantage of this a few years ago but had totally forgotten about it until now. I really need to get me back into the opera scene.

Oh, for heaven's sake

2006-10-13T08:37:00.000-05:00

If this isn't the G.D. saddest thing ever I don't know what is.

Beard: The Return; or Son of Beard

2006-10-10T13:00:00.000-05:00

I made a big decision this weekend: the beard is coming back. The days of me being known as Babyface B in the beatbox circles down at Club Choices are over! My membership in Beard Team USA will have to be renewed and I'll have to dust off the trimmers.

(And in case you were wondering that's former Governor of Maryland Thomas Swann sitting there, looking very dashing with his wavy beard.)

"The Queen is in the barn!"

2006-10-06T08:19:00.000-05:00

So read a sign posted near my mother's house in rural, Chesapeake Bay-country, Maryland. "The Queen" of course refers to Delmarva's own Silver Queen corn. It's something of a delicacy around here, the stuff of Mid-Atlantic agrarian legend, renowned for its oh-so-sweet flavor and calming effects on the nervous system.

As I rode past the sign every day of my high school life, it always struck me as tragically stupid, an easy target for my teenage ridicule. But until I read this article about recent developments in corn country I really had no good reason to hate that sign. Now I know why I trust my instincts: those farmers were lying! Silver Queen corn doesn't even exist anymore and hasn't for years! My derision was right to target those smarmy sodbusters!

As the author of the story -- R.W. Apple, who actually died recently -- describes, most of the corn grown nowadays has names "like Ardent and Silver King, or else mundane, forgettable numbers like 81W." Here's the most interesting bit from the piece:

Like all old-fashioned varieties, with what plant geneticists call the 'su' gene, [Silver Queen] loses its sweetness and freshness quickly; at 86 degrees Fahrenheit, half its sugar turns into starch in 24 hours, once it's picked, according to a handbook.

So scientists developed sugar-enhanced, or 'se,' hybrids, with high sugar content and creamy texture, which is what the Redmans and other local farmers grow, and supersweets, or 'sh2' hybrids, with even more sugar and rather crisp kernels. They are grown in Florida for shipping north.

''The new hybrids have a longer life in the field, a longer life after they're picked -- two weeks instead of two days -- and they're less fragile,'' Mr. Redman said. ''Some are more disease-resistant, others are more vigorous in cool spring soils.''

Anyway, it's a neat article. Especially if you're into articles about corn. And even more so if you're into articles about Maryland corn. Say, who the heck was R.W. Apple writing this story for anyway? 10 people?

Modern technology

2006-10-05T12:36:00.000-05:00

Those brainiacs at MIT have done it again. Check this out!

Top Five Best Breakfasts

2006-10-04T09:08:00.000-05:00

Here at The Far North End, I am very fond of breakfast. It is one of the highpoints of my day! So, it's perfectly understandable that I have strong opinions about the myriad breakfast options available in the world today. But rather than give a review of each and every one, in the interest of brevity, I have decided to share only my top five personal favorites:

5) Cinnamon Life cereal - On a morning before I leave for work, a bowl of this delicious, crunchy, oh-so-sweet cereal is the perfect way to start the day. Best if eaten out of a bowl with steep sides.

4) Egg and cheese sandwich, side of grits - And I'm not talking about one of those McDonald's jobs either. I'm talking Pete's Grille. Some may scoff at the idea of grits as an enjoyable food, but trust me, when swimming in butter grits are a wonderful thing.

3) Oatmeal with brown sugar and raisins - Generally at the bottom of both a diner's menu and the shelves at a grocery store, this one is probably the most frequently overlooked of the foods on my list. Yet it could very well be one of the most overall satisfying meals in history. The eating experience is thoroughly enjoyable and the resulting full tummy is enough to carry you through to lunch with no problem. WORD TO THE WISE: Always make your own; instant oatmeal is repellant.

2) Blueberry pancakes - Pancakes are already pretty good by themselves, but when you toss in a hearty helping of blueberries it takes the whole experience to another level. The pop of blueberry juice while you're chewing on a soft and delicious flapjack is one of the greatest breakfast experiences known to man.

1) Eggs over easy, link sausage, home fries w/onions, white toast - This combination of breakfast foods is so delicious it should be illegal. Mopping up egg yolk with buttered white toast used to be my favorite thing to do on Earth, and it was only last year demoted to number two. This one's especially gratifying at the end of a late night.

Daft Punk über alles

2006-10-02T12:12:00.000-05:00

Good news! I finally found a live recording of Daft Punk's live performance at Coachella this summer.

If I've never before mentioned my love for this French duo, let me lay it down here and now. They are, quite simply, my favorite musicians on Earth. I love the music and I love the way they present it. But really, articles and blog pieces about their awesomeness are a dime a dozen. What I'm here to talk about is their all-around presence.

For one thing, Daft Punk -- composed of Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo -- have to be two of the weirdest dudes on the planet. After their first album became a pretty big international hit they decided that much of today's music had become a cult of personality. For that reason, they no longer appear in public or have their photographs taken without wearing the helmets you see in the photo at right, and as a result no one really knows what they look like (though Wikipedia has links to a few sketchy pics).

They're also trying to create a kind of story with their music. The live set at Coachella is a good example:

Their whole thing is that they're robots... no, humans... no, robots, and the music is intended to reflect that internal struggle. Or something like that. (Hey, I said they were weird.) So, the live set kicks off with those few notes from Close Encounters of the Third Kind when they're trying to communicate with the spaceship. After that, you start to hear these weird computer voices just going back and forth saying, "Human... Robot... Human... Robot..." and closer together and faster and faster and then it kicks into "Robot Rock" and the crowd goes nuts. But the whole story comes back around again, via hit after hit after hit, and they finish off the set with "Human After All."

O! if only I had been there. Unfortunately, they don't perform live very often. This was their first live show in the U.S. since 1998! And they're only doing like six live shows this year TOTAL, all of which are at crazy expensive festival type events, nowhere near My Beloved Charm City.

Anyway, as of today I have two Daft Punk-related goals:

1) See Electroma (a movie they made) when it comes out.

2) Find one of those crazy helmets and where it year-round.

EDIT: I forgot to mention this, but those interested should visit Daft Musique. It's a promotional site for their greatest hits album, which came out earlier this year. The site is totally off the wall and well worth the time spent. Be sure to chekc out the "Private" area, where you can view an interview they gave while in Japan. Hilarious!

Vegas Neon

2006-09-29T09:36:00.000-05:00

I don't know what it is about decaying relics of Americana, but I love 'em. Can't get enough of 'em.

In college, some friends and I hopped a spikey fence in order to get a closer look at a 1950s-era nursery rhyme-themed amusement park that had been closed for over 15 years. It was creepy and awesome.

Anyway, I just read this morning in the most recent issue of RollingStone that there's an outdoor museum in Las Vegas called The Boneyard, which showcases classic neon signs from the city's past. If only I had known about this place when I was there last year, I totally would've assembled a posse and made an appointment (they only do tours for groups of 10 or more).

Hitler: The Artiste

2006-09-27T08:20:00.000-05:00

While this story made the rounds on the news wires, it didn’t seem to pick up much steam in the mainstream media or even the blogosphere, which normally latches onto weird bits of news like this with a quickness.

Seems Der Fuhrer's watercolors brought in some nice coin at an auction in England. But that's only part of the story. The auction was interrupted by a couple of "comedy terrorists," one of whom apparently made a mock bid and then yelled "Third Reich!"

I have to say that cracks me up. What might have turned out to be a very serious and controversial event was high jacked by a couple of jokesters! Nice one!

iBusted my iPod

2006-09-26T13:06:00.000-05:00

I'm in the market for a new music player, iPod in style but not necessarily in name. I've been hearing a lot about the Zune recently, but I honestly don't know if it would be worth my trouble, since all my music is already in iTunes, and I don't think the Microsoft-made Zune will jibe with the Apple-made iTunes.

Quick back story: I've had a 20-GB iPod for the last two years*, but a few months ago it started showing signs of breakdown -- weird little delays, unusual noises -- and then it finally just stopped working last month. How did I know? Why a little frown face on the screen of course. So, now that mine is old and busted I'm in the market for some of that new hotness.

I had always intended to upgrade to the Nano, but now I'm a little concerned given what's happened to my iPod. On the other hand, though, Nanos utilize a flash drive with virtually no moving parts, unlike the traditional iPods. Much less likely to break in my opinion. But is this breakage thing a theme with Apple? I've heard similar horror stories from other iPod users. I DON'T KNOW! I'M ALL VERKLEMPT!

Ah, the perils of modern technology.

Anyway, whatever feedback you have out there in net land is welcome.

* One of my favorite things over this two-year stint was referring to it as "The Pod" or "Big Pod," much to my wife's annoyance.

David Bowie, Ricky Gervais: What more do you need?

2006-09-25T13:13:00.000-05:00

Here's a short, hilarious clip from what I presume is a future episode of Extras*, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's follow-up to The Office. Keep an eye out for Gervais' arch-nemesis in the show, one of my favorite characters in ANY show.

* I say future because David Bowie wasn't in any of the episodes that aired in the U.S.

Uncovering the Internets (Part 2)

2006-09-25T08:42:00.000-05:00

Concluding my two-part investigation into the magic of the new interweb – or, as tech-types slightly annoyingly call it, Web 2.0 - I add here the remainder of my most recent findings:

Dandelife: This is a really cool site. It's another member in the new school of social networking, allowing users to share yet another facet of their lives with millions of others who will surely make sympathetic comments like, "this is a great post," or, "thanks for writing that." [/cynicism] Anyway, it allows you to post significant events from your life and displays them in timeline fashion. Pretty neat.

Customization: I wanted to give the concept of customization its own heading, simply because it seems to be at the core of what's driving the Internet today. For example, where Netvibes (showcased in the first post) allows you to collect all of your favorite sites onto one page, "Netvibes Customize" allows you to totally dictate how that page displays. Or, as another example, there's mentalaxis, which offers Flickr account holders a list of tools for different fun things they can do with their picture displays.

I suppose one could say that customization has been around since a person was first able to make his own webpage, but this new trend is different in that it allows a user to take the resources of a major site or sites and use them as he sees fit.

There also seems to be a much higher level of interaction between users than ever before. Used to be only chatrooms and email were where you could find people with similar interests or whatever. Now there are so many ways to share your life with people around the world that it's becoming impossible to keep up with them all! (Which begs the question, why are we so desparate to share our lives with people we don't even know?)

Anyway, someone recently said to me, "if you're not scared by technology, you're not paying close enough attention." And I think that's pretty true. Because knowing how little I know is scaring the bejeezus out of me.

Courtesy Digg.com

2006-09-22T10:15:00.000-05:00

(one of my new favorite websites)

This is amazing!

Uncovering the Internets (Part 1)

2006-09-20T09:59:00.000-05:00

I just realized today how unversed I am in the world of the Internet. I thought I had a good handle on things, but after a morning of intensive research I have come to the conclusion that I hadn't even scratched the surface.

Here's a list of my findings:

Net Vibes -- This site is awesome, but for those of you already familiar with My Yahoo it won't be anything new. Basically, Net Vibes allows you to plug in any site you like -- generally the ones you check on a regular basis -- and it combines them all on the same screen in a nice, easy-to-read fashion (see picture). Perfect for blogs and email, so you don't have to bounce back and forth between 15 different sites.

Del.icio.us -- First of all, love the name. I'm actually still trying to get a handle on this site's capabilities, but if I'm reading correctly it allows you to store your favorite links on a server and share them with other people, thereby allowing you to check them from anywhere OR visit other people's favorite sites. From my point of view, it seems like the bookmark version of MySpace. Like, get to know me based on what links I have listed here. Or something like that.

Digg – Kind of like del.icio.us, except that Digg allows people to look at links people have sent in and RANK them. The most popular ones find their way to the top of the pops and you can get a good sense on what the cool stories of the day are. I love this site.

Furl – This one's kind of interesting. It's another web page-sharing site, except that it allows you to store a favorite web page on their server. That way, if you store a page, forget about it, then come back to it, it'll still be there for you to access. Kind of neat.

More to come... (hopefully)

Ernest Hemingway: The Other Big Papi

2006-09-19T07:41:00.000-05:00

I wouldn't consider myself much of a literary critic, but I do have opinions and I like what I like. Generally, all it takes for me to at least like a book is for it to have a good story. For me to love a book it has to have a great story and excellent structuring of word usements. I mean, um, good writing.

Which brings me to the subject of today's post: Ernest Hemingway. I've only read three of Papa's books -- The Old Man and the Sea, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and Islands in the Stream -- but I've gotten basically the same impression from all of them: fine writing, short on story. Fans of Hemingway will surely protest that assessment, but, honestly, I just wasn't that into any of the three titles. Islands in the Stream in particular was horribly boring.

What I've noticed about Hemingway's books (the ones I've read) is that, even though I didn’t like them overall, they each seem to have at least one incredible sequence, a section somewhere in the middle of the book that is almost enough to carry the rest of it. In For Whom the Bell Tolls there is a part where the old woman is describing the execution of the town fascists. It is both brutal and utterly compelling. In Islands in the Stream the main character's son battles a swordfish for nearly a quarter of the book and it makes for wonderful reading.

But, the rest of those books just fall short for me. Blah, blah, blah someone's tired. Blah, blah, blah the sea is life. GOD! SHUT UP!

Like I said, though, a bad review from me isn't exactly much in the grand scheme of things. After all, I have been known to read comic books.

---

Current favorites:

A Confederacy of Dunces
Moby Dick
Invisible Man
Catch 22
From Hell
The Island of Dr. Moreau

John Lautner

2006-09-14T09:53:00.000-05:00

I read an article today about a documentary called The Spirit of Architecture: John Lautner, which will be screening this Saturday at Washington, DC's National Building Museum.

What was surprising to me was the fact that I'd never even HEARD of John Lautner. Especially considering he created buildings like the one pictured at right, known as the "Chemosphere," and these. Incredible!

¡Hasta la vista, pelota!

2006-09-07T08:14:00.000-05:00

A few months ago, The Seattle Times ran a list of some of the famous calls used by announcers throughout Major League Baseball. Some are surely familiar to you -- "You can put it on the board ... YES!" -- but many catchphrases are just as surely NOT so familiar:

Arizona Diamondbacks -- Gary Schulte -- "Warning track, wall, you can touch 'em all," on home runs.

This one's not bad. It's not great, but it's not bad. I like the rhythm and rhyme of it. Unfortunately, this guy Schulte is calling games for what has to be the lamest franchise in Major League Baseball.

Pittsburgh Pirates -- Lanny Frattare -- "Nooooooo doubt about it," after Pirates wins.

Top marks all around. This one has the one true earmark of a great catchphrase: memorable but not annoying. However, considering the team, I doubt Mr. Frattare has much opportunity to use it. (Whammy.)

Washington Nationals -- Charlie Slowes -- "And that's a curly W!" after Nationals wins (signifying both the win and the team's curly W logo).

This one is just OK. It's kind of annoying, but the thing is I love the Nationals' curly W logo so much that it almost makes up for this guy's annoying catchphrase.

And here's what is possibly the most amusing (from the subject line):

Baltimore Orioles -- Joe Angel -- "¡Hasta la vista, pelota!" on home runs.

As a Baltimore native, I've enjoyed Angel's radio play-calling for many years, and this particular phrase has long been one of my favorites. Angel actually hails from Bogota, Colombia, so he can definitely get a way with it, too. If Jim Palmer tried some lame stunt like this? It wouldn't fly. But with the South American street cred of Joe Angel, it works perfectly. And it's downright hilarious to boot.

Crouchy, Brady: Keys to Far Northender Fantasy Success

2006-09-05T09:22:00.000-05:00

I never thought I'd be saying this, but I am officially addicted to fantasy sports. Currently, I am knee-deep in not one but two different contests in two different sports (and on two different continents!):

1) Fantasy English Premier League Football -- Since this is my first year on the EPL tip, I would only ask that you knowledgeable footballers out there not mock my team too fiercely. We're doing OK, but in light of some poor managerial decisions last week and one possibly ill-advised transfer, we're not doing as well as we could be doing. Rest assured, though, the Baltimore Grinders WILL find a way to win. Especially with my main man Peter Crouch at the helm.

2) Fantasy National Football League (American) Football -- I've been following football as a mere fan for too long. It's high time I stepped onto the fantasy gridiron (along with approximately 100 billion other participants). And, even with the handicap of having the very last draft pick in the league, my team is still not too shabby. Especially with my main man Tom Brady at the helm.

From the Earth to the Moon

2006-09-01T10:45:00.000-05:00

A couple things caught my attention in this article, which reports on NASA awarding Lockheed Martin with the contract to build a manned lunar spaceship, which is actually pretty exciting stuff when you think about it.

The last time NASA awarded a manned spaceship contract to Lockheed Martin of Bethesda, Md., was in 1996 for a spaceplane that was supposed to replace the space shuttle. NASA spent $912 million and the ship, called X-33, never got built because of technical problems.

So Lockheed Martin frittered away $912 million and NASA execs thought, "Well, maybe they'll get it right this time"? I understand that there are only so many companies capable of taking on this kind of project, but really, 912 MILLION DOLLARS!

"If all goes well, the first test flight of Orion will be September 2014 and astronauts could return to the moon by late 2019 or 2020, NASA estimates."

Damn if that's not forever away! I'll be middle aged by then!

Montana's finest

2006-09-01T08:25:00.000-05:00

Senator Conrad Burns (R-MT) achieved George Allen-like levels of ignorance and racism with his recent comment about taxi drivers. While many of you are probably thinking this is standard issue for the Republican party (and you might be right), a certain Democrat, Burns' opponent in the upcoming election John Tester, recently remarked that he doesn't think his staff is trying to "tomahawk" him. Excellent choice of words there, Tester!

I'm not saying I'm completely without sin here. I'm sure I've used similar expressions in my life at some point or another... when I'm ALONE IN THE HOUSE, as opposed to ON NATIONAL TELEVISION.

Politicians are morons.

What we're all about

2006-08-30T08:22:00.000-05:00

In case I've never explained it, and I don't believe I have, the title of this blog comes from a term used at train stations across the country, but known to me from my daily commute to Washington, DC's own Union Station.

You see, big train stations have multiple sets of tracks (Union Station has something like 27, no kidding), and when two trains are on the same track the term "Far North End" is used to identify the train that is farthest from the station. No one EVER likes to look up at the big board and see that their train is at the Far North End, because it means you’re in for a walk of at least a train's length, and often more, depending on where you like to sit on your own train (if you like to sit in the front car, for example, then it means you should stretch beforehand because you'll be walking two full train lengths). Also, walking to the Far North End means you have to inhale at least 5-7 minutes' worth of carbon monoxide from the trains on either side of you AND you get the pleasure of working up a sweat in the heat of the engines while you're at it. Trust me: the Far North End is just not somewhere you want to go.

And that, dear friends, is exactly where this blog sits: on the Far North End of the tracks at the train station of life! We are always a long walk from the center and by the time you get here you're generally pissed off about it. So with that I say WELCOME. Stick around a while, enjoy the view. Because you know it's going to be hell if you've read the sign incorrectly and have to walk back.

Reports on and from New Orleans

2006-08-29T08:57:00.000-05:00

I normally don't like it when the media "esses" its own "dee," as they say, but I actually thought Brian Williams' report on his own reporting about Hurricane Katrina, which aired last night, was quite good. He was definitely down there in the mix when all hell was breaking loose and his camera crew caught some of the most haunting images of the storm; the dead people on the sidewalk, the children literally dying of thirst and starvation, and the general states of chaos and filth at the New Orleans Convention Center and the Superdome.

Having just visited New Orleans two months ago, I can say that, while a lot has changed for the better, there seems to be just as much that hasn't changed at all. There are entire neighborhoods – entire districts – that have yet to be touched. They're completely abandoned; windows broken, cars sitting out front with doors open, weeds growing taller and taller, and not a soul around. And all the houses had markings on them from search teams, indicating whether or not they had found any bodies inside. I was also surprised at the stacks of cars that seem to be under all the highway overpasses, 26,000 of them according to a news report I heard while I was there.

While the French Quarter appeared relatively unharmed, a cab driver I talked to said that it was being harmed in other ways. Since a large percentage of the workforce has left the city there aren't enough people to keep many of the restaurants open full time. Because of that, there's just not as much money rolling in. Luckily, there's one place that seems to have survived unharmed. Exactly what that city needs.

So, while I don't approve of touching "retrospectives" and self-pats on the back, I do think the country needs to keep being reminded of how terrible things still are in the Big Easy. A YEAR after the hurricane came through.

God only knows what I'd be without reissued albums

2006-08-29T07:53:00.000-05:00

Probably rich.

Honestly, I'm not a big of fan of re-releases when it comes to classic albums, because it usually means that I'll have to shell out at least 20 more bucks to get an album I already own. THAT SAID, I will probably be getting this limited edition, ultra cool, deluxe, and even fuzzy Pet Sounds – 40th Anniversary release, which contains so many extras I can barely contain myself.

The deluxe, limited-edition suede-feel CD/DVD digipak features the classic album in Mono, Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and Hi-Res 96kHz/24-bit PCM Stereo mixes, rare and previously unreleased promotional and documentary film footage, and a photo gallery of classic band images from the era. A deluxe, double colored vinyl package, limited to 10,000 numbered copies worldwide, presents Mono and Stereo mixes of Pet Sounds in a gatefold sleeve.

If you don't have a copy of Pet Sounds handy, wander on over to AOL, which is streaming the entire album.

Stamps and Super-Heroes

2006-08-28T09:12:00.000-05:00

A recent post over at the most excellent Blog of Record Beat It, Nerd detailed the US Postal Service's plans to release a series of stamps featuring super-heroes from the pages of Marvel Comics. The list includes:

• Spider-Man
• The Incredible Hulk
• Sub-Mariner
• The Thing
• Captain America
• Silver Surfer
• Spider-Woman
• Iron Man
• Elektra
• Wolverine

What you probably noticed, astute reader, is that nowhere on the list are Daredevil and Punisher. Sure, they're happy to include third tier "heroes" like Spider-Woman and The Thing, but to not include the two most popular Marvel Knights? Ridiculous. Outrageous.

Well moving on, one thing that always made me laugh at my old workplace was that on the wall of the lunch room there was a series of framed motivational prints that featured Marvel super-heroes.

Hulk

Daredevil

And the like.

But the one that took the cake was the Punisher:

Are you kidding me? Commitment?? To what?? Killing everyone on Earth??

Thankfully, according to Heidi over at The Beat, the House of Ideas has discontinued that one. How's THAT for commitment.

Writers write; but soon everyone else will, too

2006-08-25T08:07:00.000-05:00

I was thinking this morning that it would be so great to be able to write without typing, to somehow make my thoughts appear on the page without having to physically do anything. I could write book after book, each one longer than the one before!

You see, I have ideas all day long, and it's sheer laziness that keeps me from actually doing anything with them. O, the things I could write, though, if I didn't have to take pen to paper or fingers to keyboard!

And the best part is, this could very well happen in the near future, considering recent advances in brain/computer science.

The only downside, once this becomes realized, will be that every Tom, Dick, and John will start writing books. While the most difficult part of writing is surely coming up with something worthwhile to say (though that hasn't stopped a lot of writers, including this one), a big hurdle is the part where you actually put your thoughts out on paper. It's time-consuming and even physically draining.

However, if my vision of writing without having to write comes to fruition that hurdle will suddenly appear much smaller.

Come to think of it, though, scholars might not even consider it writing, since it will require no reflection on one's words. It would just be... think-typing.

I don't know. I could really expand on this, but you know, I'm lazy.

Panic! on the commute to DC

2006-08-24T13:04:00.000-05:00

I take a train from Baltimore, MD, to Washington, DC, every day of the week. While I always have thoughts to share about the commute itself (and which you will surely read soon enough), today I'd like to discuss something that, while it doesn't really affect the commute, it does affect aspects of it (philosophers, feel free to argue the difference).

What I'm talking about, friends, is the Terror Alert. You know what I mean: the graded scale of how alert (see: afraid) we should be on any given day, as handed down by the Department of Homeland Security. Today, according to the Maryland Transit Administration's home page, the Terror Alert is "Elevated;" meaning there are "Significant Risks of Terrorists Attacks." (sic)

So what does that translate to for John Q. Train-Commuter? It means seeing militiamen outside the BWI rail station wielding M-16s and looking bored (not a good combination). It means rounding the corner at Washington Union Station and nearly running into a tight group of bomb-sniffing German Shepherds. And it means seeing policemen pretty much everywhere along the way.

Honestly, though, it doesn't affect me too much. I still pop in my headphones, drink my coffee and do the crossword all the same. But it does add something to the experience, something I'm not able to put my finger on. An air of tension? Concern? Intelligent reflection? (Not on my watch!) Or maybe it even adds a feeling of comfort for some people. I don't know. What I do know, however, is that other people also always seem to take note of their presence.

The numbers? They don't mean anything.

2006-08-23T13:52:00.000-05:00

A tip o' the cap to Whitney over at USA Today for pointing the way to ComingSoon.net, which posted the promo poster for Lost Season 3, set to start on October 4.

I swore at the end of last season that I'd never watch that show again unless it was in DVD format, but really who am I kidding?

Do YOU know Squarepusher?

2006-08-23T09:40:00.000-05:00

Warp Records has been pushing the new Squarepusher record like nobody's business. But who can blame them? Squarepusher is awesome.

From their recent email blast:

Squarepusher :: Digital single series

The new album from Squarepusher Hello Everything is out on 16th October. Leading up to this date a series of 3 tracks will be released as digital singles through Bleep and other major download stores. Only one of these tracks will appear on the album.

The series begins with the album pre-release track ‘Welcome To Europe’ on 4th September. Stunningly direct, melodic and uplifting, every time we hear it we can’t stop grinning from ear to ear! Track two will follow two weeks later (18th Sep) with the final track a further fortnight on (2nd Oct).

More exciting news about Hello Everything will follow in next month’s newsletter.

Only two more years, only two more years, only two...

2006-08-23T08:02:00.000-05:00

Jesus Harold, does the President ever do ANYTHING that's not directly related to a) hastening the demise of the environment, or b) lining the pockets of large business interests?! Answer: No. And in fact sometimes he does both.

Judge blocks logging in sequoia monument

It won't be televised, but it might be blogged

2006-08-22T08:03:00.000-05:00

A few years ago, I was lucky enough to catch a movie called The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, which was playing a very limited engagement at my local theater and documented the attempted overthrow of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. As I've said before, this movie ranks in my top two documentaries of all-time and I've never EVER come out of a theater feeling as exhilarated as I did then.

Ever since, I've had a certain interest for Venezuelan politics and so this morning's article in the Washington Post about a comedian named Benjamin Rausseo who's running for President in Venezuela piqued my interest. While the article says everything you might expect – Is he serious? Is this just a publicity stunt? What's he up to? – what I liked about it was the bit about how some people think he's getting money to siphon votes, possibly from the United States, rumors denied by pretty much everybody involved including his competition:

"If the United States is financing me, it should go ahead and make the deposit, man!" Rausseo said recently. "I haven't seen a single cent!"

Check out The Revolution Will Not Be Televised here.

Read the Post article here.

The Far North End: Always One Step Ahead

2006-08-21T08:56:00.000-05:00

I noticed this weekend that MySpace now has a lot of old people on it; parents who want to keep track of their kids, teachers interested in seeing what their students are writing about them, Baby Boomers who want to stay hip, etc. This leads to the obvious conclusion that kids are going to move on to a new website VERY SOON. What kid wants to be in the same social environment as his/her parents? And, since Xanga and Facebook have been getting almost an equal amount of publicity recently with the passage of the Deleting Online Predators Act, The Far North End is proud to make a prediction on what the new Hip Website du Jour will be: Cyworld.

Based in Korea, Cyworld is immensely popular there, where nine in 10 people aged 24-29 has an account. But what makes it different from any other social networking site? The difference, it seems to me, is versatility. Where MySpace only allows for the creation of a personalized page and the ability to get in touch with friends and family, CyWorld does all that and then combines it with an element of simulated reality, whereby users can create not just their own pages but also their own alter-egos in the form of what are called "acorns." These avatars can be customized in almost any way and users can even take part in online games like SimCity. It's a whole new level of online and I think American kids, who always want more, could very well respond enthusiastically.

But remember, you heard it here first. Unless of course you happened to already read just about any of today's newspapers. Then you heard it here second or third.

To meat, or not to meat

2006-08-19T10:53:00.000-05:00

For most of my adult life there has been on average about 25% of me that wants to be a vegetarian. I say on average because the percentage goes down whenever I am eating hot crab dip and think to myself, "There is now way on Earth I am EVER becoming a vegetarian," and goes back up whenever I hear or read about how horrible the meat industry is*.

Unfortunately, having grown up with steak, fried chicken, pork chops, bacon, crab cakes, and McDonald’s Fish Filets, breaking the habit of eating meat on a daily basis is proving to be a difficult task. In fact, I don’t think I’ve been able to go more than a half-day in recent years without eating at least a small portion of meat. It’s like, I just don’t feel full unless some part of either lunch or dinner came from an animal.

HOWEVER, with this post I vow to rein in my meat-eating habits to the point where eventually I will be 100% vegetarian. (I say this having just this morning purchased lunch meat for the week. Oops.)

I’m sure people will ask me why I decided to go this route and really it has nothing to do with the food chain. I firmly believe that humans have their spot on the food chain just like every other animal; it’s just bad luck for the animals that happen to be below us. But, I can’t abide by today’s meat industry, which, because of the size and appetite of the meat-eating population, must go to great and awful lengths to keep production levels high: crowding, deprivation, and inhumane slaughtering methods.

Further, there’s something that rubs me the wrong way about restaurants whose names seem to celebrate how much we eat meat; Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Chick-Fil-A, Whataburger, and so on. I realize that this stuff is their specialty, but even still it just doesn’t sit right with me, and my tendency I’ve noticed is to shy away from places with meat in their names.

I guess that’s all I have to say about that, really. But I WILL do my best to wean myself off of meat. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but Monday. Or maybe Tuesday, because I’ll still have lunch meat on Monday.

* Yes, I know the source is most likely biased, but still.

It sure as sh*t sounds racist to me, too

2006-08-18T13:04:00.000-05:00

A couple nights ago on the Daily Show, John Stewart and Rob Corddry had a pretty funny conversation about Virginia Senator George Allen's unusual blurting out of a racial slur toward one of his opponent's campaign aids. Allen referred to the fellow, who I believe is of Indian descent, as "macaca." Twice.

Rob Corddry: Between you and me, I'm don't know what "macaca" means, but it sure as sh*t sounds racist. And, John, in Virginia... still not sure if that helps or hurts a guy.

Ouch.

Crooks and Liars has it here.

Listen up, Angelos

2006-08-17T15:30:00.000-05:00

One of the a.m. sports talk radio stations in Baltimore, WNST, has organized a "Take back the Birds" rally in protest of the "ineptitude" of the Baltimore Orioles ownership.

Buy tickets (the cheapest seats possible!), wear black, join us downtown and support those OUTSIDE local bars/restaurants/businesses that are suffering because of the franchise's current ineptitude. We will buy NOTHING inside the stadium and we will have an "appointed" time to walk out in unison for the parade around the Warehouse!

What a great idea. As a lifelong, fervent fan of the Orioles I am all for this. The franchise has done nothing but piss away one opportunity after another and I (and apparently a lot of other people, too) am sick of it.

TAKE IT TO THE STREETS!

Why the DC United are awesome

2006-08-16T11:04:00.000-05:00

1) No Washington, DC-based sports franchise has been CLOSE to being as successful as the United have in the past 10 years, with 9 domestic and international championships.

2) The club offers numerous ways to get into games for a bargain, including promotional group deals and (my new favorite thing) United Drives, a program that makes the following offer:

Each month during the 2006 Major League Soccer season, D.C. United will collect items at every United home match to benefit D.C. area non-profit organizations. D.C. United will collect items outside of Gate A, and fans who donate an item will receive a "Buy One, Get One Free" ticket voucher, good for any 2006 D.C. United regular season home game.

What's cool about this is, you can use the voucher THAT DAY.

3) Freddy Adu.

4) Bad ass logo.

5) On August 26, they will be hosting the first-ever Latin American Festival, featuring some of El Salvador's soccer legends, including Jorge "Magico" Gonzalez. My Boog Powell-signed, old school Orioles hat might have to give way on my Sports Shelf of Fame.

Welcome to Earth

2006-08-16T07:35:00.000-05:00

Bush Sees No End to War on Terrorism

Oh yeah? Well neither do the rest of us, jerk-off.

Paul Rudd cracks me up

2006-08-15T12:42:00.000-05:00

From an article on Stereogum:

As for Rudd, he recently told The AV Club just how hip his music taste is. The actor put his iPod on shuffle (no cheating!) and revealed the contents. "These are all so hip that it sounds like I am skipping some, but I'm really not," says Rudd. "I promise you."

So much cooler than paddle boats

2006-08-15T07:55:00.000-05:00

One nice thing about commuting via mass transit in the DC area is that each day I get to read Express -- the free, tabloid edition of the Washington Post. The news is all very good and of the same quality as the Post, and the back section, which is devoted to pop culture, is very smart and written in a funny way.

Anyway, one of the items from yesterday's edition was about a new fad somewhere in Asia (China, I think) by which tourists can float around in one of the city harbors inside a giant, plastic, oxygenated ball! Sounds awesome if you ask me.

(The picture at right isn't from that story, but it’s the only one I could find, after a lengthy search, that came close to what I'd read about.)

Poor editing

2006-08-14T07:51:00.000-05:00

I don't know if this holds for all publishers, or just the ones I read (cheapies like Dover and Signet), but it seems to me that there are a lot of errors in today's paperbacks. In the past few months I have noticed numerous typos in the books I've read and, in some cases, complete misspellings.

The most egregious of these has to be from the Dover Thrift Edition of the afore-quoted The First Men in the Moon by H.G. Wells. The book tells the story of a Mr. Bedford and a Mr. Cavor in their adventures from the Earth to the Moon. I take the following quote from the BACK COVER.

[Wells's] "first men in the moon" prove to be the eccentric Mr. Cavor and his traveling companion, Mr. Benson, who navigate a gravity-defying sphere through space before executing a rough landing on the moon.

Benson is a pretty big difference from Bedford. And to make that mistake on the back cover of all places?! That's Bush League.

Another recent example that comes to mind was in yet another book by Mr. Wells, The Island of Dr. Moreau, though this was from Penguin Books' Signet Classics imprint. Referring to the strange inhabitants of the island, the book described them as unusual "breast men," instead of beast men. Kind of changes the meaning a bit, doesn't it? But I have to say it actually made me laugh out loud at the thought of an island full of breast men.

One of my professors in college told me, when I showed him some errors in one of our textbooks, that I should send a letter to the publisher detailing a few of these errors and let them know that for $3.00 a page I will locate every error in the book. I think I might give that a shot.

A trip down Quarantine Road

2006-08-13T07:55:00.000-05:00

Yesterday morning, I took a trip to one of the most startling places I’ve ever been: the Baltimore City Landfill.

Normally, my trips to "the dump" only require a drive to the local drop-off station, which is right in the middle of the city and five minutes from my house. But, as the employee at the drop-off informed me, what I was carrying needed to be taken to the landfill proper (we’re renovating our bathroom right now and I had about a half-ton of concrete in the bed of my truck. I guess it was the weight that made the landfill trip necessary? I don’t know; dude didn’t say and I didn’t ask.). So, I had to drive about 30 minutes from the house to the far southern edge of the city limits, out Efficiency Way to Quarantine Road (not kidding).

Upon arrival, I was instructed to drive up onto a scale and produce my driver’s license, as proof that I was in fact a city resident. A few seconds later, I was told to "follow the road around for a bit" until I came to "a partition." I was then to "drive to the right of the partition and go up the hill until I see the attendant." Fine, no problem. Turns out "a bit" was like four minutes of driving; the landfill is enormous! I hit the "partition" and started to drive up "the hill," and that’s when I realized just how big the Baltimore City Landfill truly is.

"The hill" marked the beginning of a long ascent up what can only be described as the biggest mountain of garbage I have ever seen. (Although I should say mountain range because what I was driving up was only one of dozens of mountains spread over many square miles.) There was a narrow and extremely bumpy dirt road that had been made to mark the way to the dumping place, and let me tell you, when you have a half-ton of concrete in the bed of your tiny little pick-up, any bump makes for a nerve-wracking experience; this was ALL bumps and ALL uphill. Seriously, I was driving uphill for five full minutes. You know those bumper stickers that say "This car climbed Mt. Washington"? I felt like I should have something similar by the end of the ascent.

All the while, trucks are coming the opposite way. And not trucks like mine either; MEN’s trucks. F-150s. Rams. Silverados. And they were FLYING down the hill! It was seriously right out of a truck commercial; the terrain and the way the trucks were flying over it. I couldn’t help but see it all in slow motion and I couldn’t get that song "Like a Rock..." out of my head.

Once I finally got to the top the adventure was mostly over. I was told where to dump my stuff and that was that. The only things that struck me were: 1) the number of squawking seagulls that were perched on the various peaks (hundreds); 2) the size of the bulldozers that were pushing things around about 50 yards away (at least twice the size of normal bulldozers); and 3) the amount of dust in the air. All of these trucks and bulldozers were kicking up enough dust to make you think you were in the middle of a twister.

Upon exiting I had to get back on the scale and I was given a receipt, which detailed my tare weight, gross weight, and net amount of trash I had left behind. On the way home, I realized that I never EVER have a camera when I want one.

A Far North First Post

2006-08-12T16:43:00.000-05:00

"Over me, about me, closing in on me, embracing me ever nearer, was the Eternal, that which was before the beginning and that which triumphs over the end; that enormous void in which all light and life and being is but the thin and vanishing splendour of a falling star, the cold, the stillness, the silence - the infinite and and final Night of space."

- The First Men in the Moon, Dover Thrift Edition, page 111