RDK

Ah hell....

I do hope a snake wasn't involved...

I'd stay in the city, within walking distance to the Capitol and museums. You might pay a bit more, but you'd save a lot of time.

It could have been worse. He could have been charged with playing with his snake while operating a motor vehicle.

That's a relief! I thought this was gonna be another thread about somebody being raped or murdered...

Congrats guys!

I once ran into Nolan Ryan in Paris, at the base of the Eifel Tower.

Brandon, what's the purpose for the soundproofing? Is this a listening room and you just want to keep the sound from the rest of the house? Sorry to say, but unless you can seal the thing completely foam probably won't do much good - except perhaps on the walls that the foam's actually covering. My wife's been having an ongoing problem with the psychologist in the office next to hers. Despite extensive (and presumably professional) soundproofing, she can hear just about everything that takes place in the doctor's office. And since the patients are often under hypnosis or undergoing some sort of past-life regression therapy, my wife gets an earful of a lot of juicy (and often disturbing) stuff.

I hear that they have "limited formal jazz skills" too.

I don't mean to sound like some Don Heckman apologist - though being local i do read his reviews/stories all the time - and as i said i did miss the performance in question, but i still can't help being a bit confused. Am i right to assume that it's okay to consider any critic we disagree with an "idiot" or a "hack, but if we do happen to agree with a review then he's open-minded, insightful, and inarguably corect?

You mean Arrested Development practically invented TV???? Wow. What's really a shame was that its fourth season was going to cure cancer...

Guys. It's not torture. It's "medical interogation." (My new favorite euphamism.)

Yeah, I know you didn't mention the actual show (which I'm still sorry to have missed). I was hoping you'd bite, though, and tell me what about the review made you think Heckman (accurately or not) is clueless in regards the euro improv thing. 'Cause I'm relatively clueless about such things myself - my reviews are pretty much "liked it" or "didn't get it." To me, Heckmen seems open-minded to such music as ICP (unlike some critics), but just didn't think it worked that night.

"Clueless?" How so? Heckman's been around for ages and is usually fairly rational and open-minded, though not solidly versed in the more improvisational euro thing. (Neither am I.) So the fact that you disagree with a review of a concert you didn't see/hear makes him clueless?

Sorry I missed it last night. I was running late and knew i wouldn't have made it across town in time. So we went to see Jon Brion instead at Largo. Not quite as special, but still a fine time was had by all.

I've read that ICP review a couple of times now and i still can't figure out if he liked the show or not. Regardless, I may see you there tonight, Adam.

I really like the live album he did; the others i've heard are only okay.

"wind" with a short "i" (like what you do to a watch) or with a long"i" (like moving air)? I think you've got those backwards...

In for a penny, in for a pound. The CDU link is a great idea!

Well, "greatness" in art, of course, is subjective and in the eye of the beholder, but i would suggest that an Oscar is still a fair indicator that a film has both some artistic merit and achieved some degree of popularity and appeal, at least with a mainstream audience. By no means does it signify "best" except by a common poll, but I think it's a safe bet to assume that an Oscar nominated film is unlikely to be terrible and is likely to be better-than-average (individual biases aside of course). I put about as much stock in the merits of a film/book/music award as i dismiss the opinions of those who find no value in them at all...

And here I'd argue that "errors of character and perceptions of race" is the very point of the film.

Why the hell would you assume the movie "sucks?" It just won an Academy Award for best picture, was on the top of many critics' "best of year" lists, and is interesting enough to spur debate on its themes. Yeah, some people hated it, but I and others liked it quite a bit. I can only assume that your assumption is based on some preconceived notion and/or personal biases???

It wasn't random - she chose the blanks. (But is a bit ambiguous, which led to a spirited debate here in the office.) The way I remember it (which may be wrong) was that she says something like "just grab any old box of bullets off the shelf. How about those over there." The owner, with whom she was arguing with, asks "do you know what type of bullets these are?" She says yes, but I got the impression that she really didn't, that she just wanted to get out of there. I'd have to see the movie again to see if she's really looking at the box that she picks. Well, her "yes" makes it ambiguous. Does she realize that they're blanks, thus suggesting that she's purposely giving blanks to her trigger-happy father, hoping that this will prevent him from actually shooting and killing someone (which it does). Or is she unaware of what they are, making it mere chance that her father doesn't kill anyone? (If i recall, the woman herself works in the coroner's office, so i'd think she knows a bit about bullets and the harm they caqn do.) Either way, i think it leads to an incredibly moving scene in the film and a provocative discourse afterward.

Sal, you're not alone. Though i thought Crash the best (or at least my favorite) film of the year, I know many people who disliked it. That it is so polarizing is, to me, one of the things that makes it so interesting and compelling. I disagree with much of what the critic you quoted said about it, just as I disagreed with a local critic who disliked it because she felt the story very contrived because everyone kept "running into each other" over the course of the film - an idiotic criticism, imo, on par with not liking Star Wars because it's set in outer space.