smokerblog

Clearing Out Riff-Raff

Every day an invasion occurs at the Medley Center.¹ A gang of (mostly) middle-aged to elderly men descend upon the Food Court armed for battle. They take their positions opposite one another and from tattered backpacks and briefcases reveal their implements of war. Some of the combatants draw small crowds of spectators, fellow mercenaries gathered together to witness a particularly skillful duel.

They sit at the small tables that hold the unrolled rubber chessboard and timer between them with barely enough room for elbows on which to perch their heads, brows furrowed and nearly touching, as they manipulate chess pieces, slapping the timer after each decisive move.

They drink coffee, sometimes eating greasy Food Court food, and don't bother anyone. And now, mall owner Adam Bersin wants them to pack up their little rooks and bishops and beat it.

Apparently, after kicking out the puppies and waging aural warfare on the hip-hop kids, it's now time to turn on the old men in the loafers and fishing hats.

Now, I'm all for revitalizing this stagnant retail space and I can't fault Mr. Bersin for sticking to a business plan designed to build a more upscale (or at the very least, free-spending) clientele, but this seems like a step too far.

Look out, mall walkers! You could be next!

[Update: There's a D&C article now. Apparently the mall walkers are safe. For now.]

[Update to the update: The D&C story is getting picked up elsewhere. At least one other blog has taken note as well.]

Devil's Advocate

Okay, so there's this guy who has provided legal counsel and advice to Slobodan Milosevic, Radovan Karadzic, Charles Taylor, a leader of the Rwandan genocide, and David Koresh.

When you've represented such an illustrious group, to whom else would you turn? Whose cause is most redeeming, most worthy of your brilliant legal mind? Why, Sadaam Hussein, of course.

Better yet, this champion of the oppressed was once the top law enforcement officer in the United States. Obviously, something, somewhere along the way, went very wrong.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present Ramsey Clark.

Many former friends, more in sorrow than in anger, trace his present positions to the company he keeps: the International Action Center, which proclaims him its founder but seems entirely in the thrall of an obscure Trotskyist sect, the Workers World Party. Whoever writes his scripts, there is little doubt what Ramsey Clark is against now -- any manifestation of the power of the state he once served at the height of the Vietnam War.

See what you can learn from watching the Daily Show?

Thanksgiving 2006

The stats:

• attendance: 32
• turkey poundage: 32 + a turkey breast of unknown weight
• types of stuffing: 3
• pies: 7
  (2 apple, 1 raspberry, 1 blackberry, 1 cherry, 1 mince, 1 apricot)
• Turkey Bowl '06 final score: N/A^*
• broken flourescent light bulbs: 1

* - We did not quite hit the critical mass of eager young guys plus foolhardy older guys to make a game out of it this year. There was a modified version played in the upstairs rec room, but that was halted when excess rowdiness caused a light bulb to pop out of its fixture.

Jazz Tribute

On Friday night we got a phone call from our friend John, jazz trumpet player and music composer extraordinaire, who was in town this weekend to play at a tribute concert. I did make it out to catch a couple of sets at the Strathalllan where John, his brother Bob Sneider, and Eastman professor Bill Dobbins played to a small, but appreciative audience in the newly remodeled Strathallan Bar & Grill. I was glad to catch up a bit with John between sets and looked forward to seeing him again on Saturday.

Unfortunately, bad timing with Kari's out-of-town trip made it impossible to see the concert, a tribute to local jazz legend Bob Stata, who passed away earlier this year. Anyone who had ever heard Bob play would have recognized his great musical talent, but those who knew him personally would testify to his greater influence as a mentor and friend. To my detriment, I never knew him that well and have only seen glimpses of the generosity of his spirit that could be heard in his music and in the stories told by those lucky enough to know him as a friend.

Those who wish to honor Bob Stata's legacy can make donations to Allendale Columbia School which will fund an annual music award in his honor.

Travel Meeting

We just got back from a meeting at the adoption agency where they try to prepare us for our upcoming trip to go pick up Ben.

We aren't officially any closer to actually leaving, but we are officially (albeit tentatively) scheduled as part of the next group to leave. We got a chance to meet some of the other couples we will likely be traveling with. Everyone was very nice, if a little nervous. The room was filled with a hopefulness and restless anticipation that you could cut with a knife (much of which emanated from our general direction).

So, no new news. We still don't know when we'll be leaving. The agency couldn't guarantee that we'll be leaving before Christmas, but if all goes well, we'll be on the next plane. We haven't actually crossed any new hurdles, but we feel like we can at least see the last few hurdles in the distance.

Bands : Authors

Speaking of the Rochester Jazz fest, one of 2005's performers, The Bad Plus, has a blog. It must be a feature of life on tour that the band members have plenty of time to sit around composing lists such as this excellent compilation comparing bands to novelists.

Some of these are stretches, but most are right on the money, e.g.:

Björk--Italo Calvino
Hall and Oates--Nick Hornby (ouch!)
Radiohead--Franz Kafka
Tom Waits--Charles Bukowski
U2--C.S.Lewis (?)

The Bad Plus ranks high on my list of favorite bands and I've just gained some new-found respect for them. Turns out that they are recommending that you NOT purchase their most recent cd release until they post a protocol for disabling the copy protection software embedded by their recording label, Sony.

Getcher Jazz On!

Oh yeah, that's right. I got my 2006 Rochester Jazz Festival club pass. June 9-17, I'm there, just like last year.

Thanks to Seth for the heads-up.

Pat Robertson to Dover: Watch Out!

So the good people of Dover decided that they don't want to live in Kansas anymore.

And Pat Robertson has (once again¹) assumed the role of Prophet of Doom:

I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover. If there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God, you just rejected Him from your city. And don't wonder why He hasn't helped you when problems begin, if they begin. I'm not saying they will, but if they do, just remember, you just voted God out of your city. And if that's the case, don't ask for His help because he might not be there.

That's right. I'm not saying it's the case, but maybe God was hiding in those intelligent design books. If he was, well, now that you've thrown those out, you're out of luck.

Caught Up in the Heat of the Moment

If we haven't yet built a reputation with our neighbors as eccentrics through, say, our extended conversations with our dogs, well then, maybe my performance today will do the trick.

Listening to my iPod while raking the leaves this afternoon, I was just about halfway through Asia's debut album when I caught myself singing the lyrics out loud. I mean, I was this close to playing air guitar with the lawn rake.

(brrrawm, brrawm, brrawm, brum, bum-bum)
I never meant to be so bad to you...

Haikus Are Back

First haiku entry in four months and it's about a hockey game. It was going to be a blog entry, but it made for a better haiku.

No Candy for You

Every Halloween, we take part in the supply end of the ritual mass distribution of tooth-rotting confections, dropping a single nugget of some Nestle or Hershey product into each plastic bag or pillowcase held open before us by the various and sundry princesses, ballerinas, witches, mummies, ladybugs, Frankensteins, Incredible Hulkses, Harry Potterses, and other less identifiable creatures that tromp through our flower garden to get to our front door.

There is no ringing of doorbells, though. Oh no, one of us is stationed on the front porch for as long as the candy lasts. Beginning at around 6PM, there is a more or less constant stream of candy-seeking trolls and goblins moving from house to house.

We live just across the highway from one of the poorer sections of the city so the vast majority of our trick-or-treaters are bussed in via vans and pick-ups, deposited on one end of our street, and picked up again at the other end. One year, I lost count at 275 by 7:30. This year, probably owing to the balmy weather, the approximately 300 pieces of candy we had purchased ran out after only an hour. Luckily, we were able to escape into the house and shut the lights off during a gap in the flow; otherwise, the "tricks" part of the bargain may have been implemented against us.

So yeah, we were lame--derelict in our Halloween duties. Even worse, we have no leftover candy! Luckily, there are others in the Rochester area who know how to have a proper Halloween.