electric relaxation

Maybe this is obvious, but if you can’t find your phone, and you don’t have another one handy to call it with, you can use a free SMS gateway like this one to send yourself an SMS text message and (assuming of course that your phone makes a loud enough noise to be heard when it receives a text message).

I finished Portnoy’s Complaint (by Philip Roth) on the plane ride home from Philadelphia last night. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, but after finishing it I discovered a disturbing trend in the review comments on the back (emphasis mine):

absurd and exuberant
- The New York Times

as marvelous a mimic and fantasist as has been produced
- The New York Review of Books

Here’s the thing: I didn’t find it to be that fantastical at all. In fact, I thought it pretty much just hit close to home (here’s hoping my parents never read it).

Simply one of the two or three funniest works in American fiction.
- Chicago Sun-Times

Ok, it is funny, but I’m not sure about the tone of this review comment - it’s funny because (to me anyway) it’s sad and largely believable. Indeed, this was the passage that brought it home for me (from one of the last episodes of the book, in which Portnoy’s latest attempted conquest berates him):

“The way you disapprove of your life! Why do you do that? It is of no value for a man to disapprove of his lie the way that you do. You seem to take some special pleasure, some pride, in making yourself the butt of your own peculiar sense of humor. I don’t believe you actually want to improve your life. Everything you say is somehow always twisted, some way or another, to come out ‘funny’. All day long the same thing. In some little way or other, everything is ironical, or self-deprecating. Self-deprecating?”

“Self-deprecating, self-mocking.”

“Exactly! And you are a highly intelligent man - that is what makes it even more disagreeable. The contribution you could make! Such stupid self-deprecation! How disagreeable!”
…
When she had finished, I said, “Wonderful. Now let’s fuck.”

Well anyway, this is the quote on the front cover:

Roth is the bravest writer in the United States. He’s morally brave, he’s politically brave. And Portnoy is part of that bravery.
- Newsweek

I think I can live with this last one, so long as the reason that the reviewer thinks he’s brave is because the story is at least partly autobiographical (rather than the less interesting bravery required merely to publish something this lewd in 1967).

I just finished this excellent book recommended to me by my friend/co-worker/officemate, Matt. It’s a thoroughly researched chronicle of the history of the DJ throughout the 20th century. I thought there wasn’t much more that I could learn about the history of hip-hop, and that there wasn’t much I would care to learn about the history of disco and house music; the book thoroughly debunked both of these misconceptions.

My reading experience was significantly enhanced by means of a browser with tabs opened to YouTube and Wikipedia. Aside: if the sound quality on YouTube were better and they had queueing/playlists and the ability to populate an iPod, I’d never have to run iTunes - the selection is amazingly vast.

… but I fucking hate Metallica.

I’m hanging out at my sister’s apartment in Philadelphia and somebody a couple floors down is blasting their self-titled album (a.k.a. The Black Album, according to Wikipedia). I never realized how many annoying cock rock anthems are on this one album, and how much I really and truly hate all of them.

UPDATE: Now he’s blasting R.E.M.’s Monster. What a douchebag.

I rearranged the layout in my bedroom so I can watch TV on the iMac from my bed, using Front Row and the Apple remote control. It’s pretty sweet. I also finally got around to framing and hanging the nice print I brought back from my trip to Puerto Rico back in May. The new layout looks better and feels more spacious too (although that’s mostly because I ditched the papasan chair).

Albums/Artists that I slept on for too long. And I mean literally slept on - some of this is crap that I had in my iTunes folder and/or on my hard drive but just didn’t get around to listening to until recently.

• Yak Ballz - My Claim
  Dude. His name is “Yak Ballz”. Come on. Who even cares if he’s any good?
• The Odd Couple - Alchohol Ism
  Louis Logic and Jay Love. I been heard about Logic and I vaguely recall hearing about this album, but I finally started listening to it and it’s extremely entertaining.
• Time Machine - Slow Your Roll
  Brian gave me this album at least a year ago, may more. I think I had it tagged wrong so it didn’t even show up as Hip-Hop, and I was missing all the track names. I figured it was some Jungle/DnB shit that I would never end up listening to… Turns out these guys are the modern day sequel to Funkdoobiest.
• Diamond D - Stunts, Blunts and Hip-Hop
  I almost bought this at a record store in Oregon like five years ago, and I passed on it like a jack ass. Finally bought it on the Amazon music store after reading Noahadabomb’s Most Overrated Hip-Hop Albums list.
• Madlib
  Yeah, despite the fact that my favorite T-Shirt is green and says Quasimoto on the front, I must sheepishly admit to sleeping on most of the catalogue. Fortunately this situation has been rectified.
• Amerikkka’s Most Wanted
  At this point, it’s so dated that it’s more of a historical curiosity than something that I would actually listen to, but it was worth buying just for the one pass.
• Kool Keith - Dr. Dooom
  I actually bought this at a used record store while I was in school, because I heard Keith was the shit and everybody was hyping Dr. Octagon. Since I only paid four bucks for it, I wasn’t surprised to find that it was wack - or so I thought at the time, because I was an idiot. Went through and rediscovered it after catching a ride on the Octagon hype train about four years too late.
• Dutchmassive - Junk Planet
  Don’t have much to say about this record yet, since I just started listening to it. But I like what I hear so far.

Warren Tang and Joe Crampton, two old and close friends of mine from high school, came to visit this past weekend. They were on their way home from a business trip in Vancouver. Despite only having around 36 hours to work with, we managed to complete a whirlwind tour that included:

• A midnight ride in the Z over to the San Francisco VMware office (to pick up my new iMac)
• Breakfast at Universal Cafe
• A drive through Bernal Heights, the Castro, and Golden Gate Park
• A trip across the Golden Gate Bridge and through Marin and San Rafael
• A guided tour of Pixar headquarters (with Fareed graciously playing the role of docent)
• Lunch at Jamaican Soul in Berkeley
• Bowling at Strike in Cupertino (Nolan’s birthday party)
• Dinner at Pakwan
• Drinks at Velvet Cantina with Eric Tang and Joanna Lai
• Drunken Frisbee in the rain at 2:00 AM in Dolores Park!
• A screening of Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle (since neither Joe nor Warren had seen it)

Frisbee stood out as the highlight of the adventures. I was pretty proud of how much we managed to accomplish, and it goes to show that I’m a better tour guide (and a better friend) when I’m under the gun as far as time pressure. We weren’t so lucky with the weather; it had been sunny and gorgeous all week, but Saturday started out grey and by noon the entire Bay Area was getting drenched. And of course today was beautiful again.

I originally downloaded this movie a couple of months ago. It’s how I found out about Girl Talk. Anyway, I only watched like the first twenty minutes and I kept meaning to go back and watch it, which I finally managed to do on Saturday. I forced Lisa to sit through it with me, and I think she was pleasantly surprised by it. I think it drags on a bit towards the end, with more reiteration of the same concepts a la Guns, Germs and Steel.

Nonetheless, I really liked it - in particular I thought it was very balanced; unlike, say, This Film Is Not Yet Rated, or any of Michael Moore’s stuff, it doesn’t try to be black and white about the situation nor does it attempt to caricature or ridicule the corporate concerns represented in the film.

I watched parts one and two of Karate Kid with Lisa the other night. I was surprised by how well they seem to have aged - though since it was my first time seeing either one, I’m not really qualified to make a comprehensive judgment in that regard.

One thing that struck me in particular as amusingly anachronistic was the Guido archetype of the main character. I can’t remember the last movie I saw with a tough-talking teenager from Queens. I guess Shia LaBeouf is a somewhat close modern equivalent, but clearly the form has been merely watered down rather than distilled.