Archive for October, 2007

Sweet tooth

I hate Halloween. I hate having to come up with some stupid costume idea, worrying if it’s too silly or obvious or cryptic. Even when I was a kid, selecting a costume always seemed to me like an afterthought, an evil that was necessary to partake in the holiday ritual. My costumes were always easy, […]

An idle pixel is the devil’s playground

Ogged was complaining about the overabundance of “twee, oversaturated photoshopped” photos. Coincidentally, I had just installed the newest version of iPhoto and wanted to try out its enhanced tweeification techniques. I found this photo from one of this summer’s weddings: the groom making a toast to the bride on a dock in Lake Tahoe. You […]

The other Bryan Waterman

The other Bryan Waterman didn’t return the email I sent him over the summer. We were staying in Boston for several weeks, revisiting scenes from our seven-year stay there in the 1990s. And according to the website of Waterman Studios it’s also where this fellow who shares my name — even the “y” in Bryan […]

Overcooked

I think I have “Project Runway” to blame. After season three ended, I showed up at the same time to the same channel, like a lover that is not quite ready to say goodbye. And, like a lover that can always be counted on for a good time, Bravo was there for me. Bravo! They […]

Thursday playlist: My(space) friends

The Hair PUddle is a project based on questioning the culture industry’s domination over how we experience art and music. The idea is simple: anyone in the world can receive a free Hair PUddle CD wrapped in original artwork – all one has to do is ask and supply the project’s overseer, Mr. H. PUddle, […]

The garland briefer than a girl’s, part 1

Carlos Boozer. Quick, what comes to your mind when you read that name? Off the top of my head, I’d tell you that he’s a power forward for the Utah Jazz who averaged an incredible 24 points and 12 rebounds a game in the playoffs last year. That he’s an injury prone bum whose malingering […]

On Sickness and in Health

I’m writing this in a waiting room at Georgetown University hospital, where a friend is having an MRI. She’s been healthy her whole life, but in the past couple of months has endured a whole catalogue of physical and emotional ills — stomach pain, severe indigestion, back pain, anxiety, insomnia. This morning, she said to […]

Sweets and cheap eats on the Lower East Side

Earlier this fall I set out with a group of students to survey cheap eats and sweets on the Lower East Side. In spite of constant weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth over the gentrification of this neighborhood — which for hundreds of years has been the home of one immigrant group after another — […]

Four from 4 at 40

In 1967, BBC Radio ended the Home Service and the Light Programme to launch four radio stations to meet the needs of contemporary Britons. Radio 1 brought pop for the kids, Radio 2 easy listening for the parents, Radio 3 for the classical fans, and Radio 4 to be a British speech radio station that […]

Thursday playlist: Analogy edition

(For those of you embedded in academia and/or standardized test prep) 1. Cause and Effect The Chiffons, “He’s So Fine” is to George Harrison, “My Sweet Lord” as T-Rex “Metal Guru” is to Louis XIV, “Letter to Dominique.” 2. Part to Whole Vanilla Ice, “Ice Ice Baby” is to David Bowie and Queen, “Under Pressure” […]