From Patrick Smith’s latest “Ask the pilot” column in Salon:
To this day my favorite part of any airline timetable or in-flight magazine is the route map. Next time you fly, check out the back pages of the seat-pocket magazine. I could spend 90 minutes immersed in a kind of pilot porno, studying those three-panel foldouts and their exploding nests of arcs and lines.
So true.
Sometime last week:
Me: So, you know Technorati?
Thom: No…
Me: Really? You know, the site where you can see who’s linking to you?
Thom: Oh, Technorati! I thought you said something like “Techno Roddy.”
Ha, Techno Roddy. That’d be sort of a cool alter ego. He sounds cute and a little wild.
This year’s recipients of the MacArthur Foundation fellowships, popularly and unofficially known as “genius grants,” have been announced. Some of their stories are pretty interesting:
“When the [program director] called, I was thinking of hanging up on him,” said Rueben Martínez, a barber in Santa Ana, Calif., who in 1993 began a bookstore in his barbershop to promote reading among Hispanic people. “I didn’t say anything to anyone for hours because I didn’t believe it. I’m floating.”
How he will use the money, he said, is still a delicious fantasy.
Mr. Martínez, 64, grew up in Miami, Ariz. (80 miles east of Phoenix), where his mother and father were copper miners. “In our little town we never had a bookstore,” he said. “We never had a library.” But his teachers made him an avid reader who appreciated the beauty and power of books, he said.
“I always had good books in the barbershop–Hemingway, Carlos Fuentes–but people would borrow them and never return them,” Mr. Martínez said. “That’s where the bookstore idea came from.”
Librería Martínez Books and Arts Gallery eventually expanded into its own location, and in 2001 Mr. Martínez opened a second store dedicated to children’s literature. He is also a co-founder of the Latino Book Festival, which tours nationally.
Cool. I suppose I have to suppress small pangs of “gee, what am I doing with my life?”–I try not to dwell too much on that–but seriously, stories like this are inspiring. Good for them. As an aside, the Cardinal connection: two recipients are Stanford professors.
» “MacArthur Foundation Gives $500,000 ‘Genius Awards’ to 23,” New York Times, 28 Sept.
» Overview of this year’s fellows.
Current musical obsession: Pierre Lapointe, a twenty-something québécois whose sound makes me think cabaret, music hall, chanson, all that. Availability of his debut CD, which was released in May, seems rather limited here in the States; if I can’t find it in these parts, I’ll probably get it online from Amazon Canada. Check him out at his website (requires Flash; plays audio automatically, so adjust your speakers; and oh yeah, it’s en français). “Debout sur ma tête” is especially haunting. “Le columbarium” (the site includes a video and “le making of”) is lively, almost wickedly so–for a song about a columbarium.
And I like saying his name. La pwahnt. (Link via Surly Snobby.)
The Post today begins a four-part series on gay youth and will look at the lives of two gay teenagers from very different backgrounds. Today’s article introduces us to 17-year-old Michael Shackelford of Oklahoma (“In the Bible Belt, Acceptance Is Hard-Won“). Staff writer Anne Hull will host an online discussion about her series tomorrow morning at 11 a.m. ET. (Link via Gene.)
[Addendum: Part II (“A Slow Journey from Isolation“), 27 Sept. The final two parts of this series are scheduled to run Sun., Oct. 3, and Mon., Oct. 4.]
Some local movie notes:
The AFI Silver Theatre is currently holding a Latin American film festival, which runs Sept. 22-Oct. 3. Films will screen at the AFI Silver in Silver Spring and the AFI National Film Center at the Kennedy Center. (Thanks to Tina for the heads up.)
As a follow-up to the “Screen on Stead Park” showing of Sordid Lives a few months ago, The Center will present The Wizard of Oz, to be shown tomorrow night (Sat., Sept. 25), at 8:30 p.m. The entrance to Stead Park is on P Street NW, between 16th and 17th. [Update: We went and had a great time. Thom has the scoop.]
Reel Affirmations, the annual gay and lesbian film festival now in its 14th year, runs Oct. 14-23. Films will screen at the Lincoln Theatre, the Goldman Theater at the D.C. Jewish Community Center, and the Goethe-Institut.
And finally, in memoriam: Visions, the cozy, quirky bar-cum-theater on Florida Avenue NW, rolled its final reel last night and has closed. I had been there only twice since I moved to D.C. (the same year it opened), but both times were with Thom (to see Girls Will Be Girls and Más que amor, frenesí), so the place holds some good memories for me and I’m sad to see it go. A farewell party, free and open to the public, will be held this Sunday night (Sept. 26) starting at 6 p.m.
Salt Lake Metro opinion columnist Laurie Mecham provides a tongue-in-cheek guide to gay wedding etiquette. For example, on invitations:
For your guest’s convenience and the purpose of planning, include an RSVP card. Again, you can use the traditional format:
_____ will be pleased to attend the reception.Or you can modify the response card to fit your theme or circumstances, as a gay couple I know did:
(Check one):
- What a brilliant way to disrupt the patriarchal, heterosexist paradigm. We will be there in solidarity for the movement.
- If it will make you happy, we affirm your choice without judgment and will attend.
- We find this fad alarming. We must decline, and hope that you will reconsider your choice.
- We refuse to participate in the further destruction of America’s Christian values, including normal marriage. The next time we see you will be in hell.
Ha. On the reception: “Everyone loves a beautifully decorated venue with an eclectic, thoughtful selection of music and some lovely Spanish tapas. However, the key to a successful reception really lies in these two words: ‘open bar.'”
She ends with this nugget of wisdom on costs: “And remember, when in doubt, the father of the bottom pays.”
» “Wedding Belles,” Salt Lake Metro, 2-15 Sept. 2004 (via Nick).
Airline tickets, check. Finally. When planning a trip, it seems to take me forever to buy tickets; it’s partly procrastination and partly paralysis in the face of too many choices: flight times, alternate airports (though I’m loathe to stray from super-convenient National), constantly changing fares, etc. Anyway. Next month (in fact, exactly one month from today) Thom and I will travel to the Bay Area for my fifth-year college reunion. Granted, a fifth-year reunion isn’t such a big deal; for a circle of friends scattered so far and wide, my little group thankfully manages to keep in touch and visit each other periodically anyway. It will be nice to meet up with others I haven’t seen in a while and to stomp on old stomping grounds. Moreover, since my parents live about a half-hour drive from Stanford, it’s a good opportunity to visit with the folks (I haven’t been back home since April) and to have Thom meet them too. Really looking forward to the trip.
[Addendum (23 Sept.): Aaron Swartz blogs the play-by-play of starting undergrad at Stanford this week (via Jarrett House North). Ah, nostalgia. Running with the band: I remember it well. I got lost on the way back to my dorm. Good times.]
Tangentially related asides: the Amazing Race season finale is tonight! We’re having caviar and scrambled ostrich eggs to celebrate! (Kidding, so kidding.) Oh, and I just received an e-mail about this: be the first to find Seth in Rosslyn this Thursday (and loudly proclaim your love for US Airways) to win free airline tickets.
