Tue, 10 October 2006 10:16 pm Comments (0)

Ninjitsu in the round, bard style

I’ve long been intrigued by adaptations of Shakespeare and other classics that take a non-traditional route to costume and design, from the minimalist, semifuturistic A&E production of Antigone we watched in high school to Luhrman’s Romeo + Juliet. (Part of me wants to cringe to admit the latter, but despite the disastrous possibilities of Claire Danes and Leonardo diCaprio circa 1996 it actually turns out to be a very clever, well-done production).

But this has got to top them all. Gapers Block says it best:

ThisBe Madness, Yet There is Method In’t
Dov Weinstein performs the Bard’s most famous play at breakneck speed with the help of a hundred plastic ninjas, a robot, and other assorted dime-store figurines. Weinstein’s ingenious staging is hilarious, if not exactly enlightening. Catch Tiny Ninja Hamlet through October 18th at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater.

C’mon. Hamlet. With tiny ninjas!  And a robot!   Okay, maybe it’s not Hamlet backwards in 60 seconds, but I still gotta see this troupe sometime.

(And maybe another Greek tragedy with sock puppets too.)

Categories: culture, humor, theater
Mon, 3 July 2006 11:45 am Comments (0)

The Unmentionables

Saturday we escaped the noise of the roofers for dinner at Vinci and The Unmentionables at the Steppenwolf. This show originally caught our eye as John Mahoney and Laurie Metcalf were supposed to be in the cast, but alas both had to drop out about a month ago. Still, it’s live theater and another Bruce Norris show, so out interest wasn’t purely cast-driven.

Like The Pain and the Itch, The Unmentionables is a squirm-in-your-seat examination of people’s views of themselves, and particularly their views of themselves, when faced with life in the real world. While the performances were again good–Amy Morton is memorable as the loquacious, well-meaning, but forever sidetracked Nancy, a part Liz pointed out must have been fun to play–this show was mildly disappointing as its narrative wasn’t particularly tight. Providing less of a plot and more of a situation certainly allowed the freedom to explore a fairly broad theme–do our motivations and principles really drive our actions, or are the former more often created to rationalize the latter?–but it also resulted in a bit more drift and opportuntity for events that seemed to me, if not non sequiturs, at least a bit gratuitous. ‘The Doctor’ is the perhaps the most intriguing character, for he seems to be the only one to accept, in a Zen/Taoist sort of way, that life is messy and the best one can do is help where possible but not fret when changing the world–especially by tomorrow–is beyond one’s capabilities.

Interestingly, our seeing of this show came a week after viewing The Constant Gardener and a day before watching Brokeback Mountain, so I think we’ve pretty much covered the themes of not only western attempts to Do Good in Africa but also wrestling with conflicts between one’s desires/conscience and the pragmatic realities of living in a society that may not value them. Maybe our next movie should be something lighter, more escapist…

Blogged with Flock

Categories: culture, theater
Fri, 16 June 2006 8:35 am Comments (0)

An American Engineer in London

As Vincent said to Jules, “It’s the little differences.” Notes from a yank’s first trip to England…

  • The UK is certainly trusting of their vistors: the immigration form requires only name, nationality, passport info, and local address–a far cry from the more paranoid forms presented by the US and Australia. And the ‘nothing to declare’ lane off the baggage claim area didn’t even have any personnel making cursory checks of arriving passengers!
  • I came all this way to see a billboard for the Dixie Chicks? At least the next one was of a stern-looking cricketer.
  • Yards and miles on the roadsigns, square feet on the ‘Office space for rent’ signs. I guess the U.S. isn’t quite so backward as I thought.
  • Even after midnight, with no traffic, the narrow and windy streets made it obvious why some measure was needed to reduce congestion. Good thing they don’t get Chicago-style winter snowstorms here, they’d never be able to get the snowplows through!
  • The similarities between the old parts of Sydney and central London are striking. If it were just the layout and street names it would be one thing, but even the road signage and transportation logos are nearly identical!
  • Streets that continually change direction slightly are one thing, and the lack of a standard numbering grid is another, but by far the most perplexing thing about navigating the City is that the name of a street seems to change every block or two. The Pulaski-Crawford discontintuities are trivial in comparison!
  • The Sun is noticeably lower in the sky at midday, but at least the Moon wasn’t upside down. Odd to be in bright twilight at 9:45pm.
  • In response to a track problem, a sign in Liverpool St. Station indicates that railroad engineers are said to be ‘in attendance’. Wouldn’t it be better if they were fixing it instead?
  • Certainly, city planning was a concept far in the future when most of the streets of central London attained their present configurations, but the seemingly haphazard arrangement of streets and architectural styles is truly jarring for a Chicago native.

Finally…pictures are here.

Categories: international, observations, architecture
Tue, 13 June 2006 5:01 pm Comments (0)

Soccer squawks

Being in England during the FIFA World Cup, I could not avoid watching or discussing soccer. Actually, I’ve got nothing against the sport, I’ve just never been that interested. At least I finally got a decent answer for why so often it seems that any goal causes the scoring team to erupt in a frenzy usually reserved (in typical American sports, at least) for championship wins: more often than not, goals result not from designed plays but from right-place-right-time chances in busted plays–so the jolt of amazement is usually genuine.

Fair enough, but that still supports my gripe–and the view of many Americans probably–that the game as currently configured simply makes scoring a goal too hard…which is befuddling since there’s really no other objective measurement of the progress of the match! Some might argue that the true measure of the game is in watching the technique and struggle of the players, so a 0-0 match can be amazing. Okay, fine…but if the goals are merely side notes, what’s the point of keeping score? Why not just judge the World Cup finals on style points?

Oh, and I noted one more thing in watching bits and pieces of several matches. Anyone who claims that soccer is superior to other sports because of its neverending flow of play–as opposed to the frequent stoppages of, say, baseball or (American) football–is full of crap. Seeing nineteen players casually jog towards one end of the field while the twentieth saunters over to the sideline for a throw-in is hardly compelling action, and based on my limited sampling this seems to occur with about the same frequency as ’stoppages’ in other sports; that soccer doesn’t stop its game clock for these situations doesn’t change the fact that it’s still essentially a break in the game flow.

Categories: culture, international, sports
Thu, 4 May 2006 8:01 pm Comments (0)

Not necessarily new or notable, but so what?

It’s about time I came out of my moving-induced hiatus. My too-long list of starred items on Google Reader, along with more Delicious bookmarks, attest that I wasn’t offline but simply not struck by the muse. I’ll start with something easy, poring over those items to see which of the more eclectic ones still strike me as notable (a clip-show entry, if you will)…

Categories: Chicago, culture, technology, humor, society, observations
Sun, 26 March 2006 10:05 am Comments (0)

Urinetown, as Lakeview life winds down

Last night we took in the Mercury Theater production of Urinetown. I had heard good things about it but apparently wasn’t looking in the right places, as I was expecting a bit more social commentary and not the farcical sendup of Broadway, film noir, and pop culture that it actually turned out to be; Liz pointed out that I should have gotten a clue from the playbill, which clearly showed the first important song to be entitled “It’s a Privilege to Pee”. Okay, they got in a few barbs about corporate monopolies and conservation, but those were of course beside the point, merely cursory justifications for the real business of putting on a couple hours of quality entertainment. How can you not like a dystopic vision told in the spirit of Spamalot and “What’s Opera, Doc?” The performances were good, although given the material overacting would have been difficult to spot. Kudos to the costume and lighting designers for an impressive look to the show.

A few days ago we realized that, with the move now two weeks away and plans to be downstate next weekend, this was our final weekend to enjoy this part of Lakeview as residents rather than visitors. As such we tried to play it up. Friday night: cocktails, lazy decision-making for dinner, a leisurely stroll to Twist, detour to Redmond’s to await a table, paged back to Twist (mmm, sangria and bacon-wrapped dates!), another leisurely stroll to Julius Meinl for coffee and cake, topped off with a short, impromptou dance party in the living room. Saturday: aroused too early by weed-whackers, read the news over coffee, off for some errands, back home for some downtime, spruced up for dinner at Menagerie, then a stroll up Southport to the theater. We had hoped to finish it off with coffee and a tasty treat at Cafe Avanti, but it was inexplicably closed (at 11pm on a Saturday in a yuppie neighborhood??) All in all it was like probably a couple hundred Lakeview weekends we have enjoyed over the last several years.

As we strolled down Southport–bands playing in Cullen’s and Blue Bayou, partiers enjoying and wandering between various other nightspots, Liz pausing to browse a couple of shop windows–I mused that I if I will miss anything about leaving Lakeview it will be the situation more than the place. Sure, I could tick off a number of spots that we really enjoy, yet we’re moving on with no regrets in that regard since we’ve taken advantage of any place of significance within walking distance or a short El ride on multiple occasions. Besides, as much as traffic and zoning differences can make Norwood Park seem like a faraway place, it’s still the same city–and without a doubt we will come back here from time to time to take in shows and to dine at various restaurants. No, what I think I’ll miss most is simply the proximity: the ability to procrastinate dinner decisions until 7:30 and still have multiple realistic choices only minutes away, the ability to enjoy a nationally know theatric or sporting event yet be back enjoying a beer on my couch in minutes without ever stepping in a vehicle.

A friend once said that he felt the true entry to adulthood was the need to buy a lawnmower. We’ve reached that point now as new homeowners, but I think perhaps a different change we’re facing is more significant: the need to start planning out our entertainment activities a few hours or days in advance.

Categories: Chicago, theater, reviews
Sat, 18 February 2006 2:46 pm Comments (0)

Links aplenty

For the masses who probably don’t check my del.icio.us links with regularity…

  • Giant Telescope Will Peek at Past
    I happen to know from seeing things in grad school that DARPA and individual military branches fund research all the time with essentially no strings attached. I suppose some trepidation over the source of funding isn’t completely unjustified, but might it come from a more general public misunderstanding of the value of pure research–investigations that aren’t targeted at any particular goal other than knowledge? Yes, I firmly believe that even the DoD sometimes acts without ulterior motives.
  • How to fold a fitted sheet
    This has been an issue in Bartonia for years. And people say the Web is useless!
  • ‘Sleeping on it’ best for complex decisions
  • Little-known feline ailments
    Surprising that these are considered ‘little-known’, since any cat owner will have seen several of them after only a short while.
  • Chicago Restaurants, Chicago Menus, Ratings, Reviews, IL Restaurants Guide
  • Restaurant Place: The Restaurant Menu Directory (Chicago)
    Really, unless your restaurant (1) doesn’t a website (nowadays??) and/or (2) is always changing the menu, I think there’s no excuse for not having the menu available in a format like this. Ooh, how about RSS feeds for those spots with frequently changing menus? Knowing that restaurant X just got a fresh shipment of Y for tonight’s specials would help drive business from people like us who often find themselves indecisive on a Saturday night.
  • The BEAST 50 Most Loathsome People in America, 2005
  • Illinoize
    Especially being an election year, this site provides some interesting reading for Illinoisans who are either political junkies or who just want a view of what’s going on that’s less parochial than the local news outlets. Posts come from all corners of the political-cultural map, which can be a bit jarring or head-scratching but is probably a good thing overall.
Categories: Chicago, dining, Illinois, politics, science, humor, society, observations
Sun, 8 January 2006 12:24 pm Comments (0)

Apropos of little but themselves

The prospect of moving in the next few months has made apparent just how much five years’ worth of life in one apartment has led to overflows in our closets and storage spaces. My list of links has gotten the same way. In both cases, rather than categorizing and sorting into the major areas, the easiest place to start is to examine the little trinkets that have little connections other than my own sense of Hmm or Ooh or Heh…

Actually, I suppose those last few are related. What advocates of intelligent design, pseudosciences, and fundamentalist religious views seem to lack is the sense of wonder and excitement of ‘gaps’–it seems they are terrified by the prospect of not having a definite answer for everything right now. Real scientists and thinkers know better: the root of understanding is not knowledge but questions and analysis.

Categories: astronomy, Chicago, physics, politics, science, technology, web, wine, humor, society
Wed, 28 December 2005 5:18 pm Comments (1)

Eyebrow-raising, head-shaking stuff

  • Holiday-week vacation, I Love the 80s: 3D on VH1…can’t…stop…watching…ahh! It’s like frickin’ crack for the Gen-X set!! Whoever came up with the I Love… series is a genius. Quoth Liz at 1:11am: “Finally, a commercial! Quick, get the remote so we can finally turn it off!”
  • Oh, no! First Field’s, now the Berghoff is closing. I thought Chicago was rising, what’s with the long-time institutions going by the wayside? Where shall we go now for schnitzel and haughty service??
  • Figuring that a pre-qualification letter would be a good thing to have at this point in the house-hunting process, I filled out the forms at LendingTree this morning. Wowzers, within 30 minutes I had eight emails and a phone call! I suppose it’s better than trudging around from bank to bank, awaiting to see what rates they deign to give out, but the response it a bit overwhelming. Didn’t they see where I marked that we don’t have an actual property under consideration yet?
  • Can’t there be some better standards for writing up descriptions of houses on the market? Hitting place after place only to find that the meaning of ‘yard’, ‘3 bedrooms’, or ‘needs some TLC’ can vary by orders of magnitude is making the process a bit more like a chore than it needs to be. We’ll have enough of that once we have to maintain a place, thank you very much.
  • I figured the Prior-for-Tejada rumors that surfaced last week were just so much hot-stove-league rumor mongering to spice up the holiday lull, yet they’re still showing up on the Trib and ESPN. Seriously, I hope there’s nothing to them; the trade simply doesn’t make sense, and not just because he’s a popular Cub–or even the starting-pitching-wins-championships mantra. It’s simply that a 25-year-old pitcher has his best years ahead of him, while a 30-year-old hitter is either at or past his peak. Maybe Prior is injury-prone or exhibits flaws in his mechanics, but there’s plenty of time to mold that; Tejada’s bat (or glove) isn’t the difference between last year and the World Series, and both skills will almost certainly start declining soon.
Categories: Chicago, Cubs, culture, commentary
Sun, 4 December 2005 11:12 am Comments (0)

Green Zebra and The Santaland Diaries

A visit from Liz’s brother Chris provided a good excuse to finally get reservations for Green Zebra, which we’d talked about since it opened a few months back. It’s connection (via ownership) to Spring was immediate, from the design of the menus–both in terms of graphic design and food content–to the diagonal layout of most tables to the recessed wall illumination. The selections certainly spanned a broad range of cuisine styles, and having to hunt for the few non-vegetarian dishes on the menu was a bit novel. In place of Spring’s signature sushi starter, GZ brought out a tasty dollop of bean soup in a two-ounce shotglass. The portions were adequate but didn’t exactly provide a hearty meal; no matter, it’s a destination for snazzy presentations and unusual (exotic?) flavor combinations…all topped off with yummy desserts (mmm, persimmon cake!) and a full French-press pot of coffee. It’s location–amid some run-down storefronts–makes it a cab-in, cab-out spot for its intended yuppie clientele, so I’m not sure why it’s still so hard to get a reservation.

As the taxi glided down Ashland on a snowy evening, it occurred to me that Chicagoans owe the late Michael Bliandic a great favor. His ignonimous mishandling of the 1979 snowstorm that cost him the primary to Jane Byrne is now the stuff of political legend, yet the repurcussions have essentially guaranteed ever after that only the most massive blizzard will stymie the Streets & San fleet (and even that only for a day or two–ask Bobby Rush). Swirling flakes might temporarily blind pedestrians, but the main roads are completely passable. One wonders if that would be so had one ill-timed storm not brought down the protege of the Machine.

Anyway, the taxi was necessary to get over to the Theatre Building for a performance of The Santaland Diaries. For the most part the actor did a wonderful job with the material and the audience; however, I did feel that he spent a little too much of the show intoning as if he were reading for the radio, which is unnecessary when there are costumes, props, and gestures that can be used (and perhaps to better effect). The show itself is classic David Sedaris wit, and this commentary on being a Macy’s elf resonates with two special groups of Americans: those who have worked in a department store at Christmastime and those who may have been in a department store at Christmastime. Too bad they didn’t find a way to work a Marshall Field’s-Macy’s swipe into it, but perhaps that’s just a bit of (bitter) local chauvinism on my part.

Categories: Chicago, dining, theater, reviews
Thu, 17 November 2005 11:41 pm Comments (0)

Glass musings, realistic visions

Ah, today’s the day for Beaujolais Nouveau…grape jelly in a glass, with a kick! The smooth ease of Boone’s Farm–or Kool-Aid–but with the pedigree of actual wine.
  • Last weekend’s Trib had a good article about the need for the city to work with architects and developers to ensure a proper sense of aesthetics is maintained, and I saw a good example of its lack today. On a stroll to the bank, I noticed that the stretch of Wacker across from the Merc is now dominated by four consecutive glass-and-metal towers. (Um, yeah, I’ve worked in one of them for several years and the remainder have been up for at least several months now. It’s not really news. Just you nevermind that.) Individually, each one is fine: all but 111 S Wacker have setbacks and/or curvilinear profiles, and they all have decent landscaping and atria at ground level. Yet it struck me today how overwhelming it is to have a two-block wall of polished metal and glass, it’s a bit much. Okay, so I’m biased in that I strongly prefer masonry, matte metal, and window divisions to the glass-box look, I’m sure there are those who really like the shiny-streetwall effect. But it’s hard to argue that variety is good, and it just seems a shame that the builders plunge forth with their vision without really considering how it will connect with it surroundings. Ever notice that the renderings for the next great skyscraper, office tower, or condo block always show the structure with little else but a few trees and cars about? Maybe that’s plausible downstate or in the sprawling west, but urban developers should be a bit more honest.
  • Found some impressive imagery over at Antonia Cidadao’s Lunar and Planetary Time-lapse Animations page. Definitely check out the one entitled Lunation–definitely gives the sense that the Moon is an entity, a place, not just a light in the sky.
  • More economists like this, please:
    the link between cause and effect is often not easy or obvious. Economies are constantly being affected by a myriad of economic forces, both external and domestic. As such, it is dangerous to casually say that any one particular economic force must be causing any one particular economic outcome. The world is extremely complicated, and there’s no reason to think that economic relationships are anything but extremely complicated as well.
    Is it foolish to hope we’ll every get to the point when people will stop believing the pol who claims that propserity was caused–or will be restored–by the amazing grace of policy X?
  • Seven Warning Signs of Bogus Science
Categories: astronomy, Chicago, science, wine, commentary, quotes, observations, architecture, economics
Fri, 11 November 2005 5:41 pm Comments (1)

Ramblings from a mental-health day

Official records will indicate that I took a ‘vacation day’ today, but the term seems inappropriate. Unless I actually go somewhere, it seems I spend most of these doing chores, running errands, and working on little projects that simply reduce the number of things I’ll need to do over the weekend. Overall that’s fine–having an extra day to sleep late and tackle the same number of tasks does help with mental decompression–but one of these days I think I need to really strive to do more nothing.

Time to clear out some links I thought might be worthy of commentary…

  • Blue Ball Machine Stupid and pointless, but oddly mesmerizing. Just like much of the world wide web.
  • Tinfoil hats attract mind-control signals, boffins learn Uh…the title is quite enough.
  • Screwcap Savvy. On one level I’m perfectly aware that good screwcaps are no longer an indicator of cheap wine, but I do remember being momentarily suprised during our Sydney vacation when waiters in a couple of restaurants opened our bottles with a twist of the wrist rather than a corkscrew. However, the reason I posted this link was that it’s the first time I’ve seen wine and light sabers discussed in the same story.
  • History’s Worst Software Bugs; Some Technologies Will Annoy. Evidence against the movement towards all-wired, all-in-one, always-connected technology. As if incessant cellphones and inexplicable ‘check engine’ lihts weren’t enough of a reminder.
  • Gravity-Powered Asteroid Tractor Proposed to Thwart Impact. The realities of astronautical physics and technology aren’t nearly as slick as the movies, but it’s still impressive that we’ve got a plausible method for redirecting an asteroid. Too bad that promising glitz and glam, rather than the slower plod of reality, is the better way to get decent science funding.
  • NASA Axes Space Station Research. Yep, to be effective ISS needs to be safe. (And, well, completing the damn thing wouldn’t hurt either.) Yet it seemed obvious to me back in the late ’80s that, despite the promises, ISS would be so expensive to build and maintain that it wouldn’t be cost-effective as a platform for cutting-edge science and technology. And now here we are.
  • Repairing Journalism. Sydney H. Schanberg suggests that journalists should consider promises of anonymity null and void upon discovery that the source was disingenous. Good idea. We need to go further into a wider examination–for journalism, law, and politics–regarding the proper conditions for putting names and statements out of public view.
  • Pump Some Seriousness Into Energy Policy Wow, I never thought I’d read such a staunch conservative advocating higher taxes on anything, let alone the gasoline. His arguments for ANWR drilling don’t persuade me, but some of the others aren’t half bad.
Categories: science, technology, wine, humor, society, commentary
Thu, 6 October 2005 9:37 pm Comments (0)

Sydney, $2 rides, wine driving, Field’s, Hyperion

My gripes and swipes return after a long Oz-induced absence! Reports of my trip Down Under start here, or if those are too much reading you can just go look at the pictures.
  • The rumblings began again today about the CTA’s desire to raise the standard fare to $2. Anyone surprised? Anyone not see this coming last May, or January, or last fall? Just raise the damn fare like should have been done last year and be done with it so we can at least have a couple years of peace before the CTA faces its next budget catastrophe! At least that way there may be some time to actually put some clueful management (and government officials) in place.
  • A Wine of Character, but How Many Miles to a Gallon?
    This wouldn’t be much of a story except for the mental picture of the French getting all tied in a knot over sandbagging some wine (and of course blaming it, at least in part, on those damn Americans). How is it that a bottle of cote-du-rhone goes for $1.40 there and $9 here? Anyway, I also found it amusing–althought slightly exasperating–to read descriptions of putting chardonnay, champagne, and pinot noir into the fuel tank, nevermind that all the good tasty bits that make any of them wine are completely removed by the time the ethanol comes out.
  • A Time For McCain?
    So the small-government right and the big-government left are equally exhausted. The only appealing political platform is good government.
    A great idea to rally behind. Unfortunately, between the legions of what’s-in-it-for-me voters and those who aren’t savvy enough to differentiate good public officials from bad (whether by analysis of rhetoric or performance), I fear that there won’t be enough collective gumption to vote proper people into office and accept the necessary sacrifices to move us from current state to ‘good government’.
  • ArchitectureChicago Plus Blog Overrun - The Death of Marshall Field’s and the Dissolution of the Sense of Place
    What saddened and irritated me about the Field’s decision was the absolute triumph of cold corporate mentality over any sense of cultural goodwill. The management decided that the intangible specialness felt by generations of Chicagoans simply couldn’t compete with the possiblity of the masses of non-Chicago management and shareholders could save a fraction of a penny per share in advertising costs. Instead, they absolutely know that I would rather save $1 per year with a much more nationally homogenized set of offerings. Wow, in the face of such amazing consideration of the wants and desires of the Chicago consumer…why would I want to give these people my business again?
  • An idea doesn’t have to be right to be important, so long as it gets people thinking in a new way.
    – Michael S. Turner on Alan Guth’s original inflation theory, S&T, November 2005
  • Cassini-Huygens flyby of Tethys and Hyperion
    Once again, Cassini provides us fantastic imagery!
Categories: astronomy, Chicago, politics, wine, rants, transit, quotes, imagery, business
Sun, 31 July 2005 10:57 pm Comments (0)

Toulouse-Lautrec, abandoning leap seconds, tow trucks

  • Today we culturized ourselves with a trip down to the Art Institute for the Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre exhibition…an afternoon well-spent. I’m generally fond of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism to begin with, and T-L’s works in particular are fun as they add some whimsy, caricature, and a less-serious air. Yet beyond the obvious I liked what they did with this exhibition: rather than simply assemble a collection of works, the curators strived to show them as a reflection of, and influence on, a certain cultural point, especially with the inclusion of works by contemporaries such as Degas and Picasso. In contrast with the Ansel Adams exhibit a couple years back, which merely allowed a chance to view wonderful works, this latest exhibition seemed to provide not only pretty pictures (and a heightened appreciation for the effort and skills required to make high-quality lithographs) but also a sense of insight into a particular place and era; isn’t that the ultimate point of art anyway?
  • Why the US wants to end link between time and sun
    So, according to some federal agencies and business types, when we find that nature doesn’t want to fit with our views of how it ’should’ work to be convenient, the answer is not to adjust our views but instead to ignore actual reality. Lovely. UC’s Steve Allen (who has put together some nice, if technical, summaries of leap-second issues) puts things in nice perspective:
    If your navigation system causes two planes to crash because of a one-second error, you have worse problems than leap seconds.
  • Tow Trucks Prowl, and Authorities Crack Down
    Perhaps I’m being too provincial, but how can a story about overzealous tow trucks not even briefly allude to Steve Goodman? Kinda scary to read how little oversight there is over these practices.
Categories: Chicago, culture, science, society, rants, quotes, reviews
Wed, 27 July 2005 9:42 pm Comments (1)

Drill candle spire, skepticism, science ed, draft

  • The announcement of the proposed Downtown Drill Bit…wait, Lake Point Birthday Candle…sorry, Fordham Spire has produced a fair amount of buzz, much of it unfortunately unrelated to architecture. Certainly, practical realities like safety and financing are valid issues for a project of this magnitude. Yet from my first look I’ve wanted to know: Why do they propose that it be frickin’ white? Seriously, it’s gonna be 2000 feet tall, plopped in the middle of Streeterville right along the lakefront and Lake Shore Drive, and possess that most unusual twisty-terraced look (whose daring not-just-another-steel-box styling I admire even while reserving judgement on its aesthetic merits)…aren’t those already enough “look at me” items, doesn’t the addition of a white facade take the structure from audacious right on past to obnoxious? Make it gunmetal gray or black, then we’re moving in the right direction.
  • The Skeptic’s Dictionary
    For those of us who take cynical pleasure in debunking the stupid and inane.
  • USA to Pass Science Crown to China
    Sadly, we can’t seem to convince enough people of the value of science and engineering on their merits alone, so maybe an appeal to patriotism (jingoism?) will do the trick…it seemed mildly successful back in the 1950s.
  • The Best Army We Can Buy
    With the military stretched thin yet missing its recruiting targets badly, rumblings of a draft persist. For a long time I hung my (intellectual) opposition to the draft on the 13th Amendment, although I’ve since come to realize that no U.S. court will carry that argument, ruling instead that application to the military wasn’t the authors’ intent and further that citizens of any country have an implicit duty to come to its aid. However, that still leaves room for a legalistic attack on the current Selective Service approach: if everyone has a duty to be called into service, then shouldn’t that obligation really apply to everyone and not allocated by lot? (Hmm, perhaps the obligations to pay taxes and obey laws could instead be subject to lottery?)
    Yet, perhaps making some period of service a universal obligation could actually be a good thing, provided it allows exemption for cause, alternatives for conscientious objectors, etc. If everyone did a stint in the service (say 15 months), the U.S. would probably never be short of fresh manpower, and the quality of the military ranks might even improve as those truly qualified to be important officers and noncoms would almost certainly be identified while the dregs could easily be discharged–even during a major war–without serious threat of troop shortages. Moreover, with every citizen having had first-hand experience of service–and also essentially guaranteed to know friends or family in current service–there would likely be much more pressure on Washington to avoid use of the military option unless it’s really necessary and has the required levels of public support. This isn’t an idea that I actually advocate, but I think it would be better and more equitable than a return to the draft.
Categories: Chicago, culture, politics, science, USA, society, commentary, law