recent tracks:

What an Autumn!

I have had a fantastic fall. Here's why:

1) The election. Not just the overall result, but also the simple act of civic participation is exhilarating.

2) I passed the Rhode Island and Massachusetts Bar Examinations.

3) In the last ten days, I have seen my two favorite bands of the moment in concert.

   (a) Of Montreal created an amazing visual and sonic experience at a fun but decrepit venue.

   (b) Man Man were their usual frenetic, circus-act selves.

4) My association with Philadelphia sports is actually making me happy.

   (a) I attended my first Eagles game at the Linc.

   (b) The Eagles appear to have recovered from the poor showing they put on at that (nevertheless extraordinarily fun) experience.

   (c) Although baseball is not my thing, riding the Phillies wave to the first major professional championship Philadelphia has seen since I was an infant was pretty great.

5) There have been lots of good times with friends new and old, and with family.

6) I very much enjoy my current employment.

7) Community supported agriculture has enriched our lives and our menu. The experience of turning a native and sustainable bounty into tasty and sustaining meals is pleasantly conducive to creativity.

So here's to the changing leaves, the bit of bite in the autumn breeze, and plentiful apple cider!

Sundry

FIRST, note the place links to the right. These are WPA-era travel guides to the named states, in Google book form. Some highlights:
MN p. 45 - picture of Skinner Chapel @ Carleton
MN p. 419 - a brief history of Northfield
RI p. 255 - a description of Providence

The appearance of the city today is that of a community which has undergone three successive stages of development. The agricultural character of the early settlement gave way in the eighteenth century to shipping enterprises which filled the waterways with tall-masted India-men. By the middle of the nineteenth century the eminent position of shipping was usurped by the industrialism characteristic of modern Providence. In like manner the simple homes of the first settlers were nearly all torn down to make room for the mansions of the shipping merchants. Many of the latter, in turn, were converted into offices for industrial enterprise or supplanted by modern buildings. Here and there, however, fascinating relics of the early settlement survive, especially along old Towne Street, now Main Street, which runs along the east bank of the river, from Rosemary Lane, now College Street, to the North Burial Ground. From the hill above, many stately Colonial dwellings look out over the rush and excitement of the modern city; and many of the downtown streets, following their ancient courses, express the leisure and intimacy of earlier centuries, when the curve was not an impediment to traffic and great spaces were not necessary. The present-day visitor to Providence cannot fail to notice the short streets that can be taken in at a glance, and whose ends frame a glimpse of another street, or of an obliquely places building on another lane.

[I recommend the entire history/description, pp. 253-260.]

RI pp. 261-62 - where I will work

The Courthouse is constructed of red brick with limestone trim, and is a modern adaptation of Early Republican architecture. In the late eighteenth century no building of such tremendous size as this would have been considered practical, nor could an eight-story building have been constructed in the days of wooden beams and framework. Designed by Jackson, Robertson and Adams of Providence, this towered and gabled structure covers an entire city block, and its plan is well adapted to a steep hillside plot. A secondary entrance, on Benefit St., is at the fifth floor level. Projecting wings at each end, connected by two arcaded entrances and a Corinthian colonnade, form a forecourt. Pediments on the wings, suggestive of gable ends, rise in three successive stages -- a motif that is repeated in the central section in front of the tower. The building not only rises with the hill, but its entire mass is given a sense of balance by the lofty tower which, rising in four square stages to a slender octagonal cupola, is the dominant feature of the exterior. The thid stage, surrounded by a balustrade, has a clock on each side. The formal arrangement of windows in the gable ends in monumental in effect. The large central windows, flanked by slender pilasters and crowned with a semicircular heading, are further emphasized by projecting balconies. The uppermost tier of windows in the facade, for the sake of lightness and balance, is doubled in height, the windows being arched at the top and divided in the middle by pediments set in panels. The fine central doorway, with its segmental pediment supported by engaged Roman Doric columns, is unfortunately obscured by the front colonnade. The interior is modern and furnished in tasteful simplicity.

SECOND, I loved Wall-E and I haven't been able to clearly express why yet. I think one reason might be that "[i]f Wendell Berry made a sci-fi movie for kids, it would be 'Wall-E.'" The movie acknowledges the incredible destructive power of a society in which so many costs are externalized merely because we fail to properly set economic boundaries with a rational long-term view. It acknowledges the potential harm of consumer choice--the fact that each of us daily engages in myriad incorrect analyses of market choices, being unable to identify correctly all relevant variables, and to predict accurately the long-term consequences of our choices. It acknowledges the pervasive force of advertising. It acknowledges that while consumer culture itself might be empty, people are nevertheless capable of creating great beauty, even in the overlooked detritus of everyday life. Most of these ideas are of a kind that does not get much air-time in popular media, since they are critical of the economic foundation on which the popular media themselves rest. But Wall-E is not afraid to be self-critical. A. O. Scott of the New York Times recognized that the movie implicitly criticizes cinemagoers:

Mr. Stanton shows his awareness of the contradictions inherent in using the medium of popular cinema to advance a critique of corporate consumer culture. The residents of the space station, accustomed to being tended by industrious robots, have grown to resemble giant babies, with soft faces, rounded torsos and stubby, weak limbs. Consumer capitalism, anticipating every possible need and swaddling its subjects in convenience, is an infantilizing force. But as they cruise around on reclining chairs, eyes fixed on video screens, taking in calories from straws sticking out of giant cups, these overgrown space babies also look like moviegoers at a multiplex.

They’re us, in other words.

But at some level that makes Pixar into the movie's ubiquitous corporate quasi-antagonist, Buy-N-Large, feeding us our sugar-coated petroleum. Perhaps because it is capable of this self-criticism, however, Wall-E ends with a message of some hope--a way out of our current muck. Andy writes, "Odd that the film both lampoons the weak laziness of humankind and at the same time assumes a limitless reserve of pluck and perseverance." But I think that this observation is not so odd: we as a culture are guilty of laziness, but we as individuals do harbor a reserve of pluck and perseverance. So what I take away as the film's message is this: don't let the group think for you. Take things into your own hands.

The other reason I loved Wall-E is more straightforward and I think the part that has truly defied description for me: artistry. I'll again let A. O. Scott do some of the work for me, because he likely says it better than I can:

The first 40 minutes or so of “Wall-E” — in which barely any dialogue is spoken, and almost no human figures appear on screen — is a cinematic poem of such wit and beauty that its darker implications may take a while to sink in. The scene is an intricately rendered city, bristling with skyscrapers but bereft of any inhabitants apart from a battered, industrious robot and his loyal cockroach sidekick. Hazy, dust-filtered sunlight illuminates a landscape of eerie, post-apocalyptic silence. This is a world without people, you might say without animation, though it teems with evidence of past life.

And I'll leave it at that.

THIRD, the Eagles have begun training camp, and one development depresses me somewhat. Coach Reid has instituted a "30-plus club" whereby team members over the age of thirty get to sit out certain practices in order to reduce wear on their bodies. Or so the team says. I suspect, however, that the true motive for this move is to allow the younger members of the team to cohere as a unit, in preparation for the days when Donovan McNabb, William (nee Tra) Thomas, Jon Runyan, and Brian Dawkins spend each autumn at home realizing the long-term physical toll of their football careers. While this is likely a prudent move from a rational perspective, the idea of the team without Dawkins in particular is one that entirely bypasses my rational circuitry, sparking more of a reaction in my gut than my head. Sad.

FOURTH I take the Rhode Island state portion of the Bar Exam tomorrow, the multiple choice Multistate Bar Exam on Wednesday, and the Massachusetts state portion on Thursday. Wish me luck.

The Story of Yesterday

The morning of Thursday, June 19th, 2008 sprang into being full of energy. The sun was straining to cast its beams beyond the restrictive clouds, so each ray of sunlight that escaped and struck Angell Street was particularly bright. This was the morning that face value Eagles tickets were to go on sale, a fact of which the universe was surely aware.

I had been preparing for this day since the ticket sale had been announced. The tickets normally sold out in minutes, and quick-fingered fans (as well as folks looking to make a quick buck, with tickets likely to go for well over a hundred percent markup on resale) often managed to secure holds on every ticket within seconds of the release. In order to secure my place among these quick-fingered fans, therefore, I had trained well, reading strategy and flexing my typing fingers. At nine o'clock ante meridian, an hour before the tickets were due for release, I updated my Ticketmaster account to reflect my current vital statistics. Shortly thereafter, I opened six tabs in two browsers: my first choice, the Ticketmaster page for the Eagles-Redskins game, open as tab number one in both Firefox and Internet Explorer, my second choice (the Falcons) open as tab number two both browsers, and the Thanksgiving game as my third-string option. Then came the hard part--waiting.

I closed out the bandwidth-snacking Gmail (for fear of an ill-timed auto-reload) and opened the U.S. Naval Observatory Master Clock Time. I reloaded each of my tabs periodically to ensure that I would not be somehow "timed out" before the appointed hour. I read snippets of bar study material, but was too jazzed to pay sufficient attention. Soon it was 9:52:05. Then it was 9:56:55. At 9:59:05 I closed out the Master Clock and began cyclically reloading my Ticketmaster pages. About a minute later I had reached the gateway to the promised land--both Mozilla and Internet Explorer pages showed tickets available for the Redskins game. Internet Explorer had proven slightly faster on my earlier reload experiments, so I input my request for two tickets, then advanced through the next screen by entering two random, skewed and distorted words in order to prove that I was not a machine. My training had prepared me for this moment so well that I am now certain that I was practically a machine--my fingers worked without the aid of my brain, which was busy chewing on the time limit printed at the top of each page and panicking. What if I could not discern and enter the random words within two minutes and fifteen seconds? I could not let this effort fizzle into failure.

The Internet Explorer tab provided that I would have a one minute wait while Ticketmaster searched for the best available tickets. I hoped only for available--best was of no concern to me. While Ticketmaster sifted through its records, I scooted over to Firefox to go through the same stages, just in case something went wrong in Internet Explorer. Here I wound up with a two minute wait, which led me to believe that my progress in Internet Explorer, which worry had distorted as an ordeal, had taken mere seconds. After all, certainly an early October game against a division rival, when the weather would likely be ideal both for football and for spectating, would be a popular ticket!

Less than a minute had passed when I clicked back over to Internet Explorer. There they were. I raised my glasses and rubbed my eyes. Squinted to make sure. There were tickets reserved just for me! I now had to muzzle my excitement in order to ensure that the shipping and payment methods were correct. I checked the numbers formed from colored LCD pixels against those embossed in my plastic card. They matched. I might have yelped. I clicked SUBMIT. I checked my email. The confirmation was there. I might have yelped again. At 10:03:54 I sent Summer an email which contained thirty-six exclamation points. I got up and paced and sat back down.

I breathed again. The sun shone brightly through the windows into the study. My efforts and training had paid off. I had tickets, and I was finally going to see my beloved Eagles on their home turf.

Because I am feeling useless right now

there is little I can coerce myself to do other than provide an update for whomever still checks in on me here.

First, I changed the sidebar to more accurately reflect my regular reading.

Second, I am working on three papers right now:

• Religious and Moral Reasoning in Judicial Decisions (due Dec. 3)
• Toward a Robust Application of the Convention Against Torture to U.S. Removal Cases (due Dec. 5)
• Implementing the International Right to Food Via Localization (due Dec. 14)

(All titles rough.) The latter duo I'm hoping will be of sufficient quality that I might seek their publication.

Third, I am editing a couple of interesting articles for Law Review.

Fourth, S made delicious pumpkin ice cream with the KitchenAid ice cream maker attachment I got her for her birthday. We took the ice cream to an enjoyable, homemade dessert-themed party we attended on Saturday night @ Bethany, Ceci, and Nellwyn's.

Fifth, S and I have watched Boston-themed movies, namely Mystic River and Gone Baby Gone. Both were excellent. I particularly recommend the second as an interesting moral musing touching on the work I did the last two summers. Both featured excellent acting and directing, in my opinion, which will not be rendered humbler by my claiming it is so.

Sixth, I finished Demian by Hermann Hesse, which felt like a first novel to me, though it actually falls midway through Hesse's catalog. Perhaps that new writer smell may be attributed to Hesse's life of self-questioning and -reinvention. Anyway, I would describe the work as uneven but decidedly worth reading--the dialogue, on which Hesse focuses, is unconvincing but thought-provoking. I am now reading The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie, and early returns are extremely favorable. I will also likely purchase Diet for a Dead Planet by Christopher Cook sometime in the near future.

Seventh, the weekend of November 9th to 11th, S and I hosted an array of interesting persons, namely Andy, Anna, Cristina, and Neal. We enjoyed Brown's campus, Myopic Books, Prospect Park, and undoubtedly most of all our apartment, which is shockingly well-suited for such high-volume visits these days! Most importantly, though, the visit was of the eminently enjoyable sort.

Eighth, Alex will be here tomorrow, and we will depart for Delaware on Wednesday. Good times will undoubtedly be had by all.

Apology

retracted, at least in part. Perplexing.

Apologies

to Mr. McNabb.

3-5

Just what you all want, I'm sure. A bit of Eagles commentary.

Donovan, whom I have always supported, is not getting the job done. If it's just post-surgery unreadiness, then I'm willing to wait it out and see him light up the league next year. If it's something else, then it's time to start giving the rook some snaps. Actually, either way it's time to start giving the rook some snaps. The game started fairly balanced in terms of running and passing, Westbrook was getting the job done, and the receivers were getting open. Donovan had ages to throw on most downs, and despite all these items working in his favor, still had a number of "worm burners," as some folks call them. He's just off.

While 38 points are squarely the fault of the defense, blame is more difficult to apportion there. Jim Johnson, the coordinator, is the only clear choice. The gap in coverage on TO's touchdown was a huge lapse. The run defense was actually not bad, a pleasant change from recent years. The pass defense, however, was generally awful. Much of that had to do, in my estimation, with yards after the catch and poor tackling. Poor tackling actually goes to Andy Reid, who should implement some form of quality control. Anwyay, when Mike Patterson, a defensive tackle, is your leading tackler, AND when some of those tackles were downfield against receivers, something is broken.

That said, perhaps the issue was one of momentum. When the defense has to defend a short field (35 yards or so) on the opposing team's first possession, they're bound to get somewhat deflated. The defense has generally been pretty good this year.

Overall, I'd say it's time to start shifting attention from game to game analysis and start reading 2008 draft literature.

50 Days Later

Give or take. I am sitting in Computer Lab II with too much to do but figuring I oughtn't deprive you forever.

Last night Summer, Ceci, and I traveled to Boston to hear a talk by Darius Rajali regarding his forthcoming opus magnum, Torture and Democracy. The Reed College alumni office put together a nice event.

Sunday the Eagles beat the lowly Jets in less than impressive fashion.

Saturday Summer and I attended the Red Bull Soapbox Race.

Friday Summer, Jen, and I took a Providence Ghost Tour.

In the past 50 days, Summer and I have watched a few movies, namely Eastern Promises (quite good), Horrors of Spider Island (the $0.33 we spent on this was too much), and Nightmare Castle (which outperformed its $0.33 pricetag).

Also I have been reading, from time to time, Omeros by Derek Walcott, since I didn't give it enough attention on my first semi-go-round. For slightly more information on books I've been reading, see this. Also I am still enjoying my Harper's subscription, and read Dahlia Lithwick's pieces in Slate, among other things.

Other than those, I am pretty much at school, at court, and/or working. I am a bit tired. Back to work.