this is the awesome chris ware animation for TAL:
I have two tickets for nine inch nails in Auburn Hills.
Glenn’s coming with me! They’re very good (and overpriced) seats.
Rock on.
as a thank you to our fans for your continued support, we are giving away the new nine inch nails album one hundred percent free, exclusively via nin.com.
i left this weekend feel em-ot-ion-ally drained
it got worse saturday night
but i’m home now and i feel a little bit better
just a little bit.
THIS AMERICAN LIFE LIVE!
Originally uploaded by Paul Pellerito.
So how awesome was tonight?
Some of you probably don’t know about it so…
Stealing an idea from the Metropolitan Opera, who does live shows in movie theatres across the company, The folks at This American Life (which is indubitably the best radio show in the entire universe) did a live event, on the big screen in movie theatres across the country.
The concept was sort of a bridge between the radio show and the television show on Showtime, Ira Glass sat at a mixing board and introduced the show, then they did two hours of segments: some were radio stories, some were TV stories, a lot of it was material that was cut from either format because it didn’t work for that particular show. David Rakhoff showed us his social grace, but other than that there were a lot of TAL regulars missing (no Sara Vowell or David Sedaris), but it was great nonetheless.
For this event, however, everyone at TAL did such a great job at producing a funny and memorable night. The parts I liked best where the Chris Ware animation of a Jackie-O story from the radio show, and a piece Jonathan Goldstein did about being funny, with middle school kids at a sort of stand-up summer camp for middle school kids.
Great great great great stuff. I hope it ends up on DVD or iTunes or something. It was the best $20 I’ve spent yet this year!
This American Life Live! is tomorrow. The best radio show in the world comes to the silver screen. I’m excited! Ira’s giant nerd glasses will never look bigger!
ps- life is such a fucking rollercoaster sometimes
Seemed appropriate.
(click play)
Neo: What are you trying to tell me? That I can dodge bullets?
Morpheus: No, Neo. I’m trying to tell you that when you’re ready, you won’t have to.
I took me three years to finish this sentence, but here it is. The rest of it only a few people’ve read.
We both nod silently and the three of us have this somber moment and this time I really want some substance to take me away from here but there’s no helping it and Bev looks at us both and I look at Ben and all I can see is how scared he is.
Once upon a time I wrote a ten page paper on a four page essay! I wish I could find it.
I used to be smart! Then they made me work amongst the pills.
Maybe the word of the day should be exegesis.
ex•e•ge•sis |ˌeksiˈjēsis|
noun ( pl. -ses |-sēz|)
critical explanation or interpretation of a text, esp. of scripture : the task of biblical exegesis | an exegesis of Marx.
DERIVATIVES
exegetic |-ˈjetik| |ˈˈɛksəˈˈdʒɛdɪk| |-ˈdʒɛtɪk| adjective
exegetical |-ˈjetikəl| |ˈˈɛksəˈˈdʒɛdəkəl| |-ˈdʒɛtɪk(ə)l| adjective
ORIGIN early 17th cent.: from Greek exēgēsis, from exēgeisthai ‘interpret,’ from ex- ‘out of’ + hēgeisthai ‘to guide, lead.’
the word of the day is interstice.
in•ter•stice |inˈtərstis|
noun (usu. interstices)
an intervening space, esp. a very small one : sunshine filtered through the interstices of the arching trees.
ORIGIN late Middle English : from Latin interstitium, from intersistere ‘stand between,’ from inter- ‘between’ + sistere ‘to stand.’
“What matters is how well you walk through the fire.”
A bit of optimism, for when life seems unfair.
There’s fairness in small things. You’ve got to find it. You’ve got to go and look for it, in your own way. But it is there, in the tiniest things at the shortest of times, and if you look hard enough you can find the most wonderful, fairest things happening all around you every day, when the world is good to you and you’re good back. But even then it’s still unfair—unfair for you to have such luck in such a small thing when there’s larger catastrophes elsewhere. But it does exist, in the smallness.
Part of the Maggid, from the Haggadah, for Pesach
Published by April 19th, 2008 in mystery and worthy of a semicolon. 0 CommentsWe were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and the L-rd, our G-d, took us out from there with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm. If the Holy One, blessed be He, had not taken our fathers out of Egypt, then we, our children and our children’s children would have remained enslaved to Pharaoh in Egypt. Even if all of us were wise, all of us understanding, all of us knowing the Torah, we would still be obligated to discuss the exodus from Egypt; and everyone who discusses the exodus from Egypt at length is praiseworthy.
From the NIV:
5. Then you shall declare before the L-rd your G-d: “My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down into Egypt with a few people and lived there and became a great nation, powerful and numerous. 6. But the Egyptians mistreated us and made us suffer, putting us to hard labor. 7. Then we cried out to the L-rd, the G-d of our fathers, and the L-rd heard our voice and saw our misery, toil and oppression. 8. So the L-rd brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror and with miraculous signs and wonders.
Here’s a sad, sad story. Today I had a patient come in with a prescription for cancer, an anti-tumor medication that costs $510 a pill. She’s supposed to have Michigan Medicaid, and has gone through the trouble of getting it authorized for coverage, etc. So I bill the prescription through and Medicaid tells me she’s ineligible. I call the MIaccess line to find out she had a deductible that hasn’t been met for the month.
The next thing I have to do is figure out how much her deductible is, if she’s spent that much already, and get her to submit the records for those expenses to her caseworker. I call and leave a message, and a little while later she calls me back, crying. She explains to me that Michigan Medicaid has determined her deductible to be $700 a month. (That means she has to spend $700 on health care - doctor visits, prescriptions, etc - before her Medicaid coverage kicks in.) The problem is that her only income is from disability (since she has CANCER) and that’s just $1,100 a month. So she’s explaining this to me how there’s no way she can afford that $700. And she’s bawling, which is terrible. And she needs her medicine, because SHE HAS FUCKING CANCER.
At least I was able to find out that the drug company has an assistance program for people without insurance. Especially considering their medicine is $510 per pill. Hopefully she gets on it and gets better.
Oh, on a lighter note, someone brought in a head louse in a plastic bag, wanting to know if it was lice or not. I took one look at it and said “Yup.” Of all the crazy and stupid things people have done I’ve never had anyone bring in an actual living head louse not knowing for sure what it is. For your reference, they look like this. Only smaller. And don’t bring me them, for fuck sake.
“I don’t understand why I’m not dead. When your heart breaks, you should die.”
-Harper Pitt, Angels in America (Tony Kushner)
<ungratefulyouth> whats up with you paul
<edge79> nothing
<edge79> watching patrick’s dvr fuck up
<ungratefulyouth> you’re at patrick’s??
<edge79> oui
<drgnswrd> I don’t know what the problem is. it’s pissing me off, though.
<ungratefulyouth> its gay-proof.
<ungratefulyouth> sorry.
<edge79> patrick’s only 1/2 gay
<DJsnooch69> Just from the waist down?
<drgnswrd> what’s the mater, eric? can’t believe people come to my house some times?
<ungratefulyouth> wasn’t aware you had much more than the cage, patrick
<ungratefulyouth> you beast you
he will not be playing anything in D minor
Published by April 13th, 2008 in announcements, culture and music. 0 CommentsCome see Glenn next Sunday! He will be playing with his favorite organ!
cast me gently into morning for the night has been unkind
Published by April 13th, 2008 in my own words. 0 CommentsWoke up from a bad dream about half an hour ago… it’s strange to have disturbing dreams at this age, I used to think they were something one outgrows, but I still have them.
I remember when was a kid I always had almost exactly the same fever dream every time I was sick. It used to scare the shit out of me. Part of it that I remember was being in something that was moving and seeing a pattern tracing against the wall. A few years ago when I rode the PATH train from Newark to NYC I saw that same pattern out a window—traced on the wall, where the rock had been cut.
Strange, but true.
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