Missy | October 31, 2003

Apparently, thanks to the sun’s recent tantrums, we’ve got some aurora borealising going on in the area. I was holed up in a studio last night and missed it. Please come back.

It’s Friday afternoon! Go check out Brooke and Amy, whydontcha.

And one last thing: I know this is totally lame, but I don’t do Halloween. Besides, my ideas regarding costumes are either totally dorky, if not esoteric (a New York Herald Tribune t-shirt), or would require weeks of preparation (exhibits A and B) such as sewing. On the other hand, I could slip into a little mod dress and carry around Satan’s baby. Except that I’m probably going to yoga this evening. So, you all have fun, whatever you choose to do.

UPDATE: I missed this earlier. WaPo’s tv critic, Tom Shales, blasted The O.C. when it premiered over the summer, so when the show returned this past week, guess who got written into the script? I watched Angel (”You pissed in the big man’s chair?!”) on Wednesday at 9; but I’ve got The O.C. waiting for me at home on tape!

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Missy | October 29, 2003

I can’t read this whole article because practically everything is blocked at work (including the gauntlet to get Salon’s day pass), but it posits a question I’ve been wondering about for a long time: since when did being a geek become cool, so cool that people strive toward geekdom? My theory is that calling oneself a “nerd”, “geek”, and even “dork” somewhere became synonymous with thinking oneself intelligent and/or clever. It’s like that quotation from Carrie Fisher’s character in When Harry Met Sally, “Everybody thinks they have good taste and a sense of humor but they couldn’t possibly all have good taste.”

UPDATE: More geek talk. (Thanks to Leah for emailing the link.)

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Missy | October 29, 2003

You may or may not know that David Foster Wallace has written a nonfiction tome on infinity….a math book. Here is an interview with him. (Thanks Catherine.) An aside: like with Gravity’s Rainbow, I’ve made several unsuccessful attempts at Infinite Jest. I blame my reading issues on a lack of a good reading chair.

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Missy | October 24, 2003

Note to self: there is a very strong positive correlation between Maker’s Mark and logorrhea. Throw a truckload of cigarettes into the mix and we’re talking one hell of a hangover. I also somehow managed to hemorrhage money.

Good morning!

Last night at the Blogorama, I finally got to hang with Lane, an apparent long-lost brother (and if I’d actually taken my camera out of my purse, you might be seeing why right now). I dunno; I remember some talk of us driving to Iowa this weekend at Will’s suggestion for steaks at Rubes. The three of us also mused of making a go of it in community theatre.

There’s probably more to tell, but I need to pull myself together and get some work done.

UPDATE: Julian put up pictures. In case you were wondering, it was so dark in there that the camera’s viewfinder was useless. Also, my new haircut is really short.

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Missy | October 23, 2003

The Bertolt Brecht-authored, David Hare-adapted play The Life of Galileo just opened at the Studio Theatre. Maybe I’ll see it this weekend!

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Missy | October 22, 2003

Thomas Pynchon will be appearing on The Simpsons. (Via Unfogged.) Here is where I admit that I have yet to be able to finish a Pynchon book.

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Missy | October 21, 2003

Last night I came home from ballet class expecting to hit the shower and then the sack, and instead watched two hours of VH1’s “I Love the 80’s Strikes Back”. We’re a terribly nostalgic country, aren’t we? And for what purpose? Anyway. I hated being reminded of the fact that I once wore white jelly shoes with hot pink socks. (I’ll bet someone somewhere in Williamsburg is right now wearing white jelly shoes with hot pink socks.) I watch the show mostly because Michael Ian Black and Hal Sparks and that guy from ESPN (?) make me laugh & laugh. I have also been tuning in to “Camp Jim” on MTV. Because I am nostalgic for my cheerleading camp days, apparently. I need to dig up some embarassing pictures from high school and scan them. (Or not.)

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Missy | October 19, 2003

You may have noticed that things look a little different around here. Less boring, perhaps. It all started when Mihow was over the other night and I was complaining that I should at least have some kind of banner at the top of the page. Next thing I knew, she’d taken over my laptop, scrapped together in Photoshop a few pictures you’ve seen before on this site, (along with a Built to Spill lyric that I decided on the spot was going to be my tagline), and here you go. I decided to change the layout as well, since my previous style sheet was getting old and I was having problems loading the image to it anyway. If there are any viewing problems, tough. (No seriously, let me know.)

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Missy | October 17, 2003

I decided to go to yoga after work tonight, and holy crap, guys! I executed flying crow. Of course, I blew my wad of strength on one side, so on side 2 I nearly pitched myself onto the floor chin-first.

Here is a very serious question: who has experience with acupuncture therapy, particularly for chronic effects of muscle-related injuries? Alternatively, I’ll take the name & number of a good sports medicine doc in the DC area. (Sports medicine doctors, I’m sure, are just like regular doctors except they weren’t born yesterday; they know you’re going to keep doing what you’re doing, although it probably means cortisone injections. I’m fairly certain a trip to my regular doctor would go something like this: take a break from the activity for a month, ice every night, take prescription stength anti-inflammatories, which really amount to taking two Aleve instead of one.) In either case, I suspect it involves some kind of needle somewhere in my ass region. See, I pulled/tore/did something to my hamstring/sitzbone attachment a year ago and it’s been giving me mild grief of the tendonitis variety on & off ever since. Apparently, it’s fairly common injury, but still an annoying one.

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Missy | October 15, 2003

I’m feeling a bit better now. But I think I need a vacation.

How much am I loving baseball right now? I admit I’m one of those people who comes out of the woodwork in post-season, but it’s been incredibly exciting. (Go BoSox.) I wish my dad were still alive to see it. The man loved his baseball. He spent years in the little league circuit as an umpire, even when my brother long stopped showing interest in the game as a player, even when parents and coaches drove him crazy, even when his knees and back were giving out.

And since I’m in a sentimental mood, it’s time for my very public, perhaps obnoxiously sappy pronouncement that I love my boyfriend. We’ve even shared a sudden fondness for baseball. (Here’s where I anecdotally reveal that he never hooks up his television for viewing beyond movie-watching, yet the sport has caught his fancy. Today he exclaimed, “I have to watch this game!” Sorry bud, but who’d have thought the Yankees would have to fight it out into game 7? That’s too bad, etc.) You’re my dude, Josh.

I did not watch K Street this week.

UPDATE: Heartbroken Tony Pierce has these (among other touching) words to offer today:

tonight the boston red sox play their arch rivals the new york yankees in the seventh and deciding game of the american league playoffs.

pedro vs the rocket in the house that ruth built.

classic east coast bench clearing brawling and beanball baseball in rocktober.

the red sox havent won a world series since 1918 and the yankees bitchslap the integrity of the game with how they assemble their team each year while giving the middle finger to sportsmanship.

if pedro hits every yankee in the head and punches zim in the gut he wont really be doing the Lords work, but he will be doing mine.

lets go sox.

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Missy | October 14, 2003

Hey guys, I’m exhausted. Posting should resume later this week….

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Missy | October 10, 2003

I’ve been preoccupied. But I did want to mention that I happened to sort of catch K Street this week, and it took a second sort of watching (I was busy both times) to figure out that it was a backstory episode. Because I was really confused. Am I alone in thinking that was completely unnecessary? (Also, if I want soap, I’ll watch E.R. I prefer to avoid soapy dramas unless they are titled The O.C.) The highlight of the episode was my exclamation to no one in particular, “Hey, Elliot Gould is watching Mildred Pierce!”

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Missy | October 8, 2003

Time series econometricians won the Nobel Prize in Economics. In fact, Prof. Granger was an advisor to my own advisor. I know you’re not impressed, but time series is one thing I actually excelled at (and I therefore pursued) in school. Time series data has interesting properties that make traditional statistical tools used for analyzing cross-section data, say, demographic data (like racial, gender, and education level effects on salary levels, for example) effectively useless.

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Missy | October 7, 2003

Woohoo! We’re back in business. (Thanks Michal!!)

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Missy | October 4, 2003

Coupla things:

School of Rock pretty much rocks. I spent the first 20 or so minutes getting over my agitation w/r/t Jack Black, but to Linklater’s credit, he found a way to channel Black’s antics in a way that felt both spontaneous and sincere. Also, didn’t you just love the bass player’s flippy hair? Those kids were lovably great.

Built to Spill last night reached into the vaults for their setlist. They spanned the earlier works, and played nothing from Ancient Melodies. I could hear them play strictly from Perfect From Now On (I think “Kicked It in the Sun” was the only selection that one) and leave a happy girl, but I was still pleased; every time I see them it’s a different show and a different feel. Only two covers this time around: “Cortez the Killer” (naturally) and an encore of The Clash’s “White Man In Hammersmith Palais”. I very nearly told the cab driver who picked me up tonight at the Kennedy Center to drop me by the 9:30 for the second gig tonight on the off chance I could score a ticktet…but decided against it.

Washington Ballet: the evening was an exercise in choreographic challenges, all leading up to William Forsythe’s “In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated” . (I don’t know what the title means, but it sounds cool.) Interestingly, the piece felt very Balachine, had Balanchine lived long enough and had the desire to choreograph to industrial music. ‘Twas angular and musical in a percussive way, with exaggerated extensions and balances and second positions and whatnot. The dancers seemed in their element, as if to say, “We like this kind of dancing. More please.” And the audience responded with, “Yes, we really like this. More please.” (Complete aside: my luck with ballet audiences, namely the people sitting around me, tends to be poor. Once I sat next to a woman who spastically fidgeted the entire time. Tonight, I sat in front of a woman with a bad cold who sounded like she was horking up her lungs most of the time…and when she chose to partake in the free Halls lozenges that the K Center lobby provides, she smacked her tongue & lips together over & over & over. I wanted to do some mouth smacking of my own.)

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