2005-04-15 - 1:37 p.m. - Memories of East Texas <Comment>

Memories of East Texas: That’s all Merry Stephens will have of Bloomburg, Texas, now that she has been fired from her post as the coach of the East Texas town’s championship high school basketball team – allegedly because she is gay.

And I will always have Michelle Shocked's lovely lyrics in mind:

Memories of East Texas
And piney green rolling hills
Covered in the springtime
With golden daffodils
Rowing on Sandy Lake come April
Harvesting hay in June
Sitting by the road watching well-fires burn
By an old October moon

Chorus:
I learned to drive on those East Texas red clay backroads
And I mean to tell you my friend
They weren't no easy roads
You had to watch out for all the curves
Down by Kelsey Creek
And detour through the Lindsay's pasture
When the water ran too deep

Memories of East Texas
And Gilmer, county seat of Upshur
Looking back and asking myself
'What the hell'd you let them break your spirit for?'
You know, their lives ran in circles so small
Ah, they thought they'd seen it all
And they could not make a place for a girl who'd seen the ocean

Chorus

Ah, but those memories of East Texas
Those piney green rolling hills
Covered in the springtime
With those wild daffodils
Sitting in those Piney Woods
Playing my guitar
Thinking back on the roads I'd come
Thinking I had not come that far...

Chorus

(from Short Sharp Shocked -- emphasis mine)

2005-04-14 - 12:36 p.m. - Hyponatremia <Comment>

Too much of a good thing: it is possible to over-hydate when exercising, particularly in endurance events like marathons, and a study reported in today's New York Times suggests the problem is more prevalent than one might expect.

2005-04-12 - 11:08 a.m. - LA Museums; Lee Bontecou <Comment>

There appears to be a real glut of opportunities for museum directors in the Los Angeles area. Both the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, or LACMA, and the J. Paul Getty Museum are looking for new directors.

On a totally different note, I could not help but conclude that A.M. Homes (The Safety of Objects) made a not-so-coy reference (practically a shout out) to Lee Bontecou in writing the character Allyn Barnes for last Sunday's episode of The L Word (Ep. 2.08 - Loyal).

Barnes, the fictional character, is a reclusive artist, who has not publicly shown a significant work since 1971, but is nonetheless being solicited by "the Modern" to put up a retrospective show. Bontecou, the real life artist, was a critical darling in the 1960s (shown at Leo Castelli alongside far more recognizable names like Rauschenberg and Johns). Bontecou retreated to Pennsylvania, taught art at Brooklyn College, and more or less did not show her work publicly from the time of her last New York show in 1971 until her recently mounted career retrospective (at the UCLA Hammer Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, and finally MoMA Queens in the summer of 2004). (For more on Bontecou's retrospective, try this, this and, if you can get your hands on it, her profile in The New Yorker magazine from 2003. A companion volume ($99 and up from Amazon.com) titled, Lee Bontecou, is available.)

To paraphrase another blogger's reaction, great story, but how many people have actually seen Bontecou's work?

2005-04-05 - 5:27 p.m. - Google Maps <Comment>

What I see as a fun new toy -- searchable satellite maps covering about 50% of the United States available at Google Maps (the site defaults to a standard map, so users must first select "Satellite" in the upper right corner) -- others apparently regard as a troubling new invasion of privacy.

That or it is a slow news day.

2005-04-04 - 5:44 p.m. - Deena Kastor Breaks US Record for 8K <Comment>

I have running on the brain today.

Deena Kastor ran a 24:36 8K in Chicago yesterday, breaking the US record set by Lynn Jennings in 1991. Kastor reportedly joked with the race director after the race that if he had offered one of the two Mini Coopers that served as pace cars for the race as an additional prize she would have broken Morocco's Asmae Leghzaoui's world best. A woman after my own heart.

2005-04-04 - 2:50 p.m. - Ronni Gordon's Run for Her Life <Comment>

Homage to Ronni Gordon and her run for her life. Here's to many more races for her, and others like her!

2005-04-01 - 2:59 p.m. - Politics on Wheels <Comment>

I should have mentioned that cars might be an occasional fixation; they are, in Manhattan, the ultimate tchotchkes.

Here's an article from The New York Times today, Your Car: Politics on Wheels, about market research into the political affiliations of car owners. In short, "Democrats buy cars, Republicans buy trucks". That said, Porsche is apparently the most overwhelmingly "Republican" car, with Jaguar also registering as very "Republican". The research suggests that the formerly "Democratic" Volvo is becoming more "Republican", with Subaru taking over as the practical, economical and slightly ugly "Democratic" car of choice. The other formerly Swedish, now US-made car, Saab, apparently remains "Democratic".

Should I be worried then that Saab is occasionally rumored to be on its last legs as a car manufacturer?

2005-03-30 - 6:53 p.m. - MoMA; the Porter House Condos <Comment>

In a street-level critique of the recently expanded Museum of Modern Art in New York City, Witold Rybczynski takes Yoshio Taniguchi’s addition to task for the “brutal scalelessness” of its 54th Street façade. Rybczynski implies that the design fails to respond sensitively to its urban setting and ignores the pedestrians in its midst.

I wonder what Rybczynski thinks of the Porter House condos in the Meatpacking District of New York. SHoP Architects cantilevered a sleek, ten-story zinc and glass box, lit by vertical lights, above a six-story brick warehouse built in 1905. The design removes the monolithic, albeit striking, new addition away from the street, such that the average pedestrian might fail to notice what one critic has called "one of the most visually distinctive buildings in the city".

2005-03-30 - 10:59 a.m. - Use of BMI in Asian Populations <Comment>

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (or CDC) provides a calculator to determine one’s body mass index (or BMI). The CDC defines “normal” as a BMI between 18.5 and 24.9. According to the CDC, if your BMI is above that range, you are "overweight" and, if your BMI is above 30, you are "obese".

I find it intriguing that the CDC makes no mention of the ongoing debate relating to use of BMI in Asian populations. In contrast, the website for the state health services of Victoria, Australia, notes that:

Even MSNBC manages to allude to this possible exception for Asian populations in a recent article: "For non-Asians, BMI’s are informative when they’re below 25 or above 30, says Dr. Robert H. Eckel of the University of Colorado, president-elect of the American Heart Association".

2005-03-29 - 7:03 p.m. - The Anniversary Party <Comment>

I did not give Alan Cumming his due earlier. For those unsure who he is, or unsure of his talents after seeing him only in X-Men 2, consider his work on The Anniversary Party. Cumming co-wrote and co-directed the film with Jennifer Jason Leigh. I found the film to be an affecting ensemble piece (showcasing Gwyneth Paltrow, Kevin Kline, Phoebe Cates, Jennifer Beals, and others), although at times over-the-top and over-reliant on caricatures rather than characters. In the interest of full disclosure (and to plug a very good film), I should note that a colleague describes the film as a watered down, LA-based take on Peter's Friends.

(One other thing -- the film's website includes photos of the cast by Jennifer Beals. Sigh.)

2005-03-29 - 3:33 p.m. - Pam Reed <Comment>

Homage to Pam Reed, who has run 300 miles, non-stop, without sleep. Who is Dean Karnazes again?

2005-03-29 - 2:50 p.m. - Opening Salvo <Comment>

Dipping a toe into the weblogging world with this minimalist effort.

Topics I hope to address, eventually, include photography, architecture, careers other than law that I might pursue in a different life (which, not surprisingly, would involve art and architecture), New York City, London, Los Angeles, Berlin, The L Word, running and . . . well, whatever else strikes a chord in the world as I know it.

So, last night's GLAAD Media Awards in New York City. I wonder if the person operating the teleprompter had joined Jessica Lange in sampling the Absolut vodka range? Cynthia Nixon looked marvelous, but where was Christine? How does Alan Cumming manage to be so delightfully indignant and adorably angry -- was it his twee lispy, Scottish accent? Billy Crystal reminded me why the Oscars used to be more fun (certainly more funny); I might have to look into his one-man Broadway show, 700 Sundays. The Queer Eye guys were underwhelming (perhaps they, and their show, are due for a makeover). And, as much as the dinner was noticeably male dominated, the after-party was that much more so. It was easier to spot celebrities than lesbians at the party -- where are the lesbians!?

Saving the best for last: I hope Joan M. Garry receives an honor or award next year, if only so we can be assured of a good speech! Terrific speaker, amazing speechwriting. Hopefully, her talent and passion will rub off on her children (goodness me, how many do she and her partner have!?), and they will carry on the baton with as much energy, style and class as their mother does.

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