repose

a lame and happenstance convergence...

from "Shorpy" the hundred-year-old photography blog

from the magnum photographers blog.

The man in the straw hat and the child with her eyes open.

Salvage Operation

So we remain on vacation, now in North Carolina enjoying the sand and surf. We intended to spend our evenings watching a gaggle of Gordon Ramsay from BBC 4 (which means it's not bleeped - raving Ramsay in all his glory). We had to use my iBook - hooked up to the television here - to make this happen. This plan worked well for a couple of nights until Tuesday, when my computer screen turned black and began flashing a file folder with a question mark. AV couldn't get it to boot, even using commands and other things I have no idea about. Bad news.

My iBook is (was?) the repository of all my work for the last eight years. I've had a couple of computers in that space of time, but the latest one had the giant haul of stuff - all my preparation for the Seminary's comprehensive examinations, all the drafts of my book chapter, the paper I've been slowly preparing for conference presentations ... you get the drift. I didn't have a backup system because there seems to be a conceptual problem for me with a laptop and external hard drives - I work around the house a good deal, and really only "plug in" at night to recharge the battery. So the flashing file folder was an indicator that the bulk of my academic life was presently absent.

More immediately troubling was the present absence of all my (completed) syllabi and - in one case - a completed set of assignments and readings prepared and ready to go for the classes starting in a week and a half.

I know, don't cry for the girl who unwisely doesn't back up her stuff. The story

Anyway, I had a fitful sleep and woke up Wednesday morning to AV in problem-solving mode. He had a few options, he said. One was to call Apple and see what they could do (which we did). The voice on the other end of the phone confirmed that the flashing file folder was in fact an indication of a fried hard drive. There wasn't anything he could do immediately, the voice said, but you could try putting it in the freezer and see it if will boot long enough to get the stuff off the hard drive. No euphemisms or geek-speak here - put the computer in the freezer. Get the hard drive ultra-cold, and then see if it'll give up the goods.

Two hours later, a very cold iBook emerges from the freezer and AV tries to boot. Nothing happens. He turned it on its side, tries to boot, and a screen came up that hadn't come up before. He turned the iBook upside-down so that the screen and keyboard were perpendicular to the floor, and slowly but surely, the screens proceeded to flip as normal. Never mind that AV's brother had to hold the computer for 45 minutes while AV logged in and drag-dropped the files to the jump drive and iPod.

Turns out I had 1.7 GB of documents - all the things I really cared about getting off of my computer - and it took about 2 hours to get all the documents into safe places. Thank goodness for ingenuity and the freezer. The iBook is warrantied, so now we're waiting to send it off and see what happens.

I've backed everything up in three places.

Now Hear "This American Life"

Riffing on the photo to the right, a recent episode of tAL "24 Hours at the Golden Apple" one of Chicago's finest diners. Listen. Preview. Both free on the internets. The exit song is from the classic and inestimable Tom Waits.

Inching. Towards. Break.

Spring break is next week. I'm looking forward to having some time to collect errant thoughts (of which there are many). A few pop-culture related comments:

Last week's LOST was exceptional. It is really at its best when Damon Lindelof and Carleton Cuse are writing it -- they were responsible for the Desmond ep a couple of weeks ago that nearly made me weep with nerd joy. Drew Moser has some good thoughts on Sayid and forgiveness. I swear, as long as Jack stays over with the Others (and we don't see hide nor hair of him, Juliet, or Ben, or Kate, for that matter) the show is really, really good.

Reports from the Paley fest indicate that some major plot developments in coming episodes of Heroes look suspiciously like plot lines from The Watchmen series. We all knew that Heroes was stealing lifting familiar notions from other comics, and those of us who have read some comic books (me) and many comic books (Patric(k), AV) were getting to be okay with it. Is it "creative liberty" or plagiarism? Another reason -- besides that psuedo-philosophical narration that I've rejected before and Jughead Petrelli-- for me to watch with eyebrow lifted. Now we have to wait until late April for comic book forgery.

Seen anything good lately? We went and saw David Fincher's Zodiac on Friday night. It was looooong (2h 40m!), but good. It's great that there are some significant, interesting films in the mainstream (I'm thinking of Zodiac, Children of Men). Manolha Dargis really loved Zodiac -- read her review here. Last week we saw The Lives of Others, which won the Academy Award for best foreign film, and it was outstanding -- a perfect example of Bernard Williams' "moral squeamishness" critique of Utilitarianism, and perhaps the topic of my in-the-hopper master's thesis. I think we're also planning to see Bong Joon-ho's The Host, for fun and for looks.

Tomorrow night we'll be heading to Dazzle for live music -- Ralph Alessi is in town with Ravi Coltrane. On Wednesday night (as long as all is well) I'll be running the boards for the Jazz Odyssey at KUVO. I might not talk, but I'll be pushing the buttons that will bring you Matt or Teke's fine musical choices. Tune in from 10p-12a if you're up. According to my pal at KUVO, next Wednesday (3/21/07) will guarantee not only my presence, but my voice over the airwaves as well.

"The Universe Course-Corrects"

Did you see it?!?! Did you see it?!?!

So sayeth Desmond David Hume in last night's STELLAR ep of LOST. While Desmond finds himself at the mercy of efficient causation (oh, the philosophical irony!), we learn that next week we'll find out what Jack's tatoos mean! Oh, hurrah! The greatest question of LOST to be ever answered! From the universe unfolding in an incontrovertible way to that whiny, screechy, doofus of a spinal surgeon. Real even story-telling there.

Actually, they would have to go a long way to top last night's show. Desmond is one of my favorite characters, but I can't help but be gleeful at the prospect of the universe sticking it to David Hume.

Bourdain as Blogger

He's been guest-blogging (and is rumored to soon have his own forum) on Michael Ruhlman's blog. First it was about Top Chef, and now Anthony Bourdain has unleashed his furious commentary on the Food Network. I'm especially amenable to his suggested Iron Chef America matches, in particular Marco Pierre White vs. Gordon Ramsay as well as his unabashed admiration for Mario Batali. (Sensitive readers are warned herewith about language that appears in the pig-sanctioned link above.)

I've read Bourdain's Kichen Confidential and A Cook's Tour easily 20 times each and count them among my favorite. books. ever (and encouraging my difficulty in reading non-chefs writing about food). Although nowadays he's doing silly things like getting tazed by a SWAT division of the LAPD, I still think he is one of the most fun writers on food -- and on anything, as his recent acerbic commentaries on television can attest -- working currently. Anyway, this is hilarious reading.

You mean to tell me...

...that Peter Petrelli is supposed to be both Rogue and Counselor Troi? Good night, people. Pick a paradigm and stick to it.

Last night's episode of Heroes is precisely what I was talking about in my latest conversation with the television. Rule 17, Tim Kring! Rule 17! Also, Nathan Petrelli -- although he appears to have a haircut -- still looks like jughead. If Claire Bennett is his daughter, then I will call her "indestructible daughter of jughead."

To Thales!

Dear Television:

Since you and I spend time together willingly -- and not mindlessly (except for that thing with the Real World, which I know you won't tell anyone about) -- can we come to an agreement about some things? Please?

Can you please tell the writers of Heroes to start applying Strunk and White's principle #17 of ommitting needless words to the storylines and subplots? Tell them to x-out some of that ridiculous dialogue and sappy plot development and just get to the cool comic book stuff. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the Hiro-Ando business (because it's somehow the best written stuff on the show...except for the incessant mentions of the "Nissan Versa, it's right outside!"), and I have high hopes for the new Christopher Eccleston character. Nathan Petrelli, on the other hand, needs a hair cut. He looks like Jughead. And Mohinder Suresh's psuedo-philosophical narrating is tiresome and puts me to sleep. More powers and using them, less finding out about the dynamics between the people with the powers. Oh, and tell them that HRG really shouldn't have a gun. It's not convincing.

Also, send a memo to those folks at LOST about Jack and Kate. WE DON'T CARE ANY MORE. And by "We," I mean me.

I will reserve my usual ire about the Food Network programming you've somehow let continue. I've let the thumbs-down button on the TiVO remote do the talking for me (and you're "on notice" as it were, Sandra Lee, Cans McMange, and Rachael Ray). By the way, thanks for cooperating with the TiVO. Your work together has given me much less to complain about.

Finally, can you please do something about that Alex Trebek? He is weird, and the only reason we know this is because Jeopardy! is on twice a day. If, somehow, I make it past the contestant's pool into the random contestant search and then onto the show I might recant, but in the mean time just have him read questions and cut the ancillary comments. You might consider sending him a copy of Strunk and White as well.

PS: How is it that Explanator remains the highest-rated show on Monday nights? Honestly. For a show that relies on David Caruso explaining something and then a cg zoom to that thing which he just finished explaining, it sure is catering to the least attentive denominator out there. You, my dear friend, can do better.