i come to bury greek and to praise it

so yesterday was the series finale of greek, the best show on television that you weren't watching. after four years of living greek life at cyprus rhodes university, i can honestly say i will miss these characters a lot. the writers managed to create a realistic portrayal of college life with people that you cared about, even the secondary and tertiary characters (beaver, katherine, tegan), and did it while covering important topics and being hilarious at the same time.

the finale was definitely a bit rushed--ABC family couldn't give them a two-hour series finale?--but it tied up a lot of loose ends, and set casey and cappie out on their next adventure. i am also glad that we finally learned cappie's real name.

so, if you haven't ever watched the show--were put off, perhaps, by the fact that it was on ABC family or that it took place in college or was all about greek life--get thee to your netflix account and check it out. you won't be sorry.

is that baked into your covering off process?

here are some more phrases i've noticed being used around my office but which don't really mean anything.

cover off on v. cover. usage: "did we cover off on everything on our agenda? i don't want to skip anything." real words/phrases that could be used instead: "did we cover everything on our agenda? i don't want to skip anything."

buttoned up adj. calm under pressure. usage: "joe has so many projects going on but you'd never know because he is so buttoned up and everything gets done on time." real words/phrases that could be used instead: "joe has so many projects going on and never misses a beat; everything gets done on time."

baked in adj. included. usage: "don't worry about doing QA; that's baked into our processes here." real words/phrases that could be used instead: "don't worry about doing QA; that's included in our processes here."

weird children's song

this past fall, we started a music class with asher called music together. there were about 12 other kids in the class, ranging from a little younger than him to about 4 years old. the teacher played the guitar, sang songs, gave them instruments to play, and so on. he totally loved the class and we play the songs in the car and at home all the time.

however, some of the songs are much better than others. that is to say, some of them are very, very bad. this song is so weird that it actually reminds me of a monty python song. in particular, this one about sir robin.



three ravens :: music together

10 for 2010

so, if you asked me what i listened to most in 2010, it wasn't any of these songs. it was definitely bert and ernie sing-along, hands down. however, catchy as they may be, those songs were not my favorites of the year.

i can't remember the names of all my favorites, and i'm a little slow these days, so some of the songs i liked best this year are from last year. i'm also not including plundered my soul off the exile in main st. re-release, because technically it's not new. nor are the songs on bruce's latest album.

the mynabirds :: the numbers don't lie: this song is awesome. it has a '60s vibe to it, and i've heard it all year and like it more each time.

the new pornographers :: crash years

broken bells :: the high road: while i didn't love the whole album, this song is very good.

nada surf :: electrocution: i know it's a cover, but it is very good and catchy. try not to listen to it twice.

hockey :: song away: i know nothing about this band, but this song is great.

sweet disposition :: the temper trap: also didn't love the album, but really enjoy this song.

bodeans :: stay: the bodeans are a band i feel like i missed in the '90s, busy listening to toad the wet sprocket and catching up on classic rock. i really like this song.

cee lo green :: f*ck you: duh.

deer tick :: 20 miles: i keep hearing this song on the radio and every time, i'm like, what is this amazing song? here it is.

passion pit :: the reeling: they're from boston!

all zipped up

dancing in heaven

this was really fun! i have seen many of the movies here, including save the last dance, which i saw in the theatres and am not at all embarassed about. but not honey--i do have some standards. there are few things i love more in a film than a choreographed dance scene.

others that i thought of while watching this include:
* prom dance scene from she's all that
* hall and oates dance scene from 500 days of summer
* many of the dance scenes from teen witch--top that!
* ferris bueller singing on a float
* from beetlejuice, the "dancing" around the table to "day-o"
* girls just wanna have fun!

what others can you think of?

imperial bedrooms: a review

i was somewhat concerned when i read, a few months ago, that bret easton ellis would be publishing a sequel to his first novel, less than zero. less than zero is one of my favorite books. i read it for the first time many years ago, when i was way too young to be reading it, because i found it in my brother's room. the cover was a photo of the three principals from the horrific movie version and i no longer have the book because i read it so many times that it fell apart.

i didn't see myself in any of the characters but i loved the way it was written and it reminded me in some ways of the catcher in the rye. both are books about young men (clay is 18, holden is probably 16) who are obsessed with how people see them and who spend a short period of time wandering somewhat aimlessly around the cities where they grew up, which they no longer recognize. this is not to say that less than zero was my catcher in the rye; no, the original, which i read in seventh grade, was fine for that.

i didn't like the violence in less than zero but i took it in stride. i felt like there was more to clay, which we get a bit of in the flashbacks and in how he talks about his grandmother. he seems shocked by some of what his friends are up to in LA after having been gone for only a few months. there's a little paranoia--what is up with the "disappear here" signs?--but it's not overwhelming. not, say, like the paranoia in glamorama, a book so ahead of its time that it probably wouldn't be published now. i should read it again. not like the paranoia in lunar park, my least favorite BEE novel.

so, on to imperial bedrooms. we are back with clay, 20-odd years later. the book opens with him talking about how someone wrote a book about him and his friends and then the book was made into a movie--how meta! clay is a screenwriter (of course) back in LA for an indefinite period of time after living in NYC. the idea of clay in NYC brings to mind alvy singer in los angeles with more perversion and less laughs.

clay ends up at a party at blair's house where he meets an aspiring actress named rain who wants a part in a movie he's written and which he's producing. he falls for her and she becomes his downfall. in ways that are not entirely clear even after reading the book, clay gets entrapped into a complex scheme involving rain, julian (who was running some kind of prostitution ring that rain was a part of), rip, rain's roommate, and another actor named kelly who was murdered (perhaps by mexican drug dealers). toward the end of the book, there is the typical BEE sexual violence but it feels--even more than in other books--wholly unnecessary and since i don't remember clay this way from less than zero, it even feels out of character.

and that's my biggest problem with the book. we know clay. we have known him for a long time, even if we've been out of touch, so to speak. he does things in this book that don't make sense and since we have been out of touch so long, BEE doesn't let us know what happened to clay in the interim that would make him into this type of person that he supposedly hated and do the kinds of things that he tells us--even at the beginning of imperial bedrooms--that he found appalling.

in a ranking of BEE's books, i would put this toward the bottom. it's not as bad as lunar park but i think the rules of attraction might be better, and that's saying a lot.

our trip to japan

alex and i went to japan for ten days in the middle of april. he was invited to give a talk at the annual meeting of the japanese pediatric society. this year, the conference was in morioka, in iwate prefecture. morioka is known for its rock-splitting cherry tree.

the people organizing the conference hosted a welcome dinner that friday evening at a restaurant on the sixth floor of a building (a common thing in japan). initially, alex was a bit reluctant to go but was very happy that we did. we sat near a very nice resident from the local medical school and a stanford university professor and his daughter. there were around 15 courses to this meal, including half a broiled lobster tail, sushi, blowfish (both cooked and raw), and cherry blossom ice cream. half the time, though, i didn't know what i was eating. it was all pretty tasty. i would say that dinner was one of the highlights of the trip and definitely one of the highlights of our time in morioka. did i mention there were some games and also singing?

we started out the trip in kyoto, where we stayed at a hotel right in the train station--very convenient! we went to a number of shrines in kyoto and to a bamboo forest on the outskirts of town. we stayed one night at a ryokan, a traditional kyoto inn--kind of like a bed and breakfast, but also with dinner. that dinner was kaisekai, also with many courses.

in tokyo, we wandered around many different neighborhoods. our hotel was in an area called shiodome, which didn't have much to recommend it, but was also located at a subway stop. we went to the canals in the western part of the city, which had many hipster-y shops. we walked around ginza, which had many fancy shops. we ate yakitori, sushi, and eels. we went to a bar called bar minimal that definitely lived up to its name--there were ten seats and only two other patrons there.

japanese fashion perplexed me the whole time we were there. women wore high-heeled shoes all the time and, probably because everyone takes their shoes off in the home, very fancy peds. like, with lace and straps and in many different colors.


also, nearly three-fourths of the women seemed to be pigeon-toed. perhaps i noticed this because i, too, am slightly pigeon-toed, but it was kind of extreme.

everyone had either a designer handbag or a le sportsac. the trend was towards a cowboy laura ashley--lots of florals (including some kind of heinous floral jumpsuit--the jumpsuit was quite popular) mixed with cowboy boots, denim, white eyelet skirts, etc. also: formal shorts with tights, which i haven't worn since 1995. i hope that this is not the future.