blueoregon's Diaries
Print Story 2008.01.31: Goodbye Cool World
Diary
By BlueOregon (Thu Jan 31, 2008 at 07:58:16 PM EST) (all tags)

This Day in German Culture: Born January 31, 1797, Franz Schubert.

There are other Schubert pieces I like, but these are, perhaps, my favorites. Also born on this day: the author Marie Luise Kaschnitz (1901–1974) and Theodor Heuss (1884–1963), who was the first person elected to a regular term as president of the BRD after WWII.

Inside: Life sucks, the most irrational number, the day in review, and life rocks.


(4 comments, 2800 words in story) Full Story

Print Story 2008.01.30: Yerba Buena no more (1847)
Diary
By BlueOregon (Wed Jan 30, 2008 at 07:44:44 PM EST) (all tags)

Chicken pot pie are cubed.
Pit Bull (E. Kusturica and t.N.S.O.) ]

Inside: Reading and not reading, watching and listening, that sort of thing.


(6 comments, 1436 words in story) Full Story

Print Story 2008.01.29: I am not an atomic playboy
Diary
By BlueOregon (Tue Jan 29, 2008 at 07:00:37 PM EST) (all tags)

Yesterday it was 40ish; tonight it's windy and about 4F. For now. Oh, wait, now it's 1.
[ Second Reality: original (PC); c64 adaptation—I loved this all those years ago ]

Inside: Read, watched, whatever.


(3 comments, 1352 words in story) Full Story

Print Story 2008.01.28: There's no need to lie.
Diary
By BlueOregon (Mon Jan 28, 2008 at 05:30:51 PM EST) (all tags)

It's like poker. The truth is best. The others still think you're bluffing, so you win.

PF: What is your greatest ambition in life?
Pa: To become immortal... and then die.

Inside: reading, watching, and listening.


(3 comments, 1451 words in story) Full Story

Print Story 2008.01.27: "Er war so exaltiert / Because er hatte Flair"
Diary
By BlueOregon (Sun Jan 27, 2008 at 05:18:49 PM EST) (all tags)

Thank you, Falco:

Er war ein Punker
Und er lebte in der großen Stadt
Es war Wien, war Vienna
Wo er alles tat

Inside: Keeping it brief; just me, this day in "German" culture, and whatever ... your favorite Mozart piece?


(6 comments, 730 words in story) Full Story

Print Story 2008.01.26: "Money doesn't buy happiness. But happiness isn't everything."
Diary
By BlueOregon (Sat Jan 26, 2008 at 05:53:50 PM EST) (all tags)

So said Jean Seberg.

Poll: What do you do with your coffee grounds?

Inside: Links, comics, the daily update, on this day in German literature, and the spam of the day.


(8 comments, 1151 words in story) Full Story

Print Story 2008.01.25: "interpretation is the revenge of the intellect upon art." (Sontag)
Diary
By BlueOregon (Fri Jan 25, 2008 at 05:13:16 PM EST) (all tags)

City Battles Giant Blob. Both the N.Y. Times (Manohla Dargis) and the Onion A.V. Club like 4 Months, 3 Weeks And 2 Days: "You may already have heard something about '4 Months,' which was awarded the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival last year, only to be shut out from Academy Award consideration a few weeks ago by the philistines who select the foreign-language nominees." (Dargis). The A.V. Club was not so kind in reviewing Meet the Spartans (Grade: a rare F—"At the beginning of the year [...] Friedberg and Seltzer release another half-assed, quickie spoof flick [...] and the strategy so far has led to big opening weekends followed by precipitous drop-offs once word gets around that, shockingly, their movies are fucking terrible.")

Inside: A day of things not going quite as planned.


(1 comment, 1195 words in story) Full Story

Print Story 2008.01.24: It's alpha and omega's kingdom come
Diary
By BlueOregon (Thu Jan 24, 2008 at 06:07:19 PM EST) (all tags)

Beer leads to more beer.

Math rocks. Always: The 85 Ways to Tie a Tie (courtesy of ni). Prolific author Edward D. Hoch is dead; I'd never heard of him, either.

And the whirlwind is in the thorn trees
The virgins are all trimming their wicks
The whirlwind is in the thorn trees
It's hard for thee to kick against the pricks
Till Armageddon no shalam no shalom

Inside: The day in review (movies, work, etc.), briefly.


(9 comments, 2393 words in story) Full Story

Print Story 2008.01.23: fack this -- "Alone, in a hotel room, in Redmond"
Diary
By BlueOregon (Wed Jan 23, 2008 at 07:07:55 PM EST) (all tags)

At least I'm not stuck in Redmond. Instead you get an update from the cold upper Midwest.

Inside: You know what to expect. Poll: coffee preparation preference.


(13 comments, 1399 words in story) Full Story

Print Story 2008.01.22: It's not Neuschwanzstein
Diary
By BlueOregon (Tue Jan 22, 2008 at 06:57:24 PM EST) (all tags)

I'm sorry, but this isn't nearly as good as verbal tea.

Nathan Rabin's Commentary Tracks of the Damned "finished" today with entry #104, Tom Tykwer's Perfume, reevaluated (after Rabin's initial dislike) as a "Secret Success," and I agree to a great extent, for it's a flawed film but one that strives and is interesting. I watched it last fall with my roommate; this, I believe, I related here already (and if not, just imagine that I did). I seem to have both a German and English version of the novel on my shelves. Both unread.

Curiouser and curiouser. And I have some Ransmeyr on a shelf. That sounds dirty.

Inside: A Tuesday in review.


(6 comments, 2573 words in story) Full Story

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