Using Bees To Effect Vengeance

I get to be as self-indulgent as I want without wasting anyone's time. Guilt-free solipsism -- excellent!

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Monday, May 30, 2005

Thursday, May 26, 2005
 
My Uncle Henry passed away this morning, in London. He was a minicab-driver -- when his eyesight got too bad to drive, he started working day shifts exclusively and then eventually stayed back at the office as a dispatcher. I didn't know what he did when I was a kid -- I just knew he was always genuinely happy to see us, that he played the long-suffering husband to perfection, and that he was about as nice a man as I had ever met.

We emigrated from England when I was 8, but when I spent my junior year of college in London, I got to know him a little better. What I found is that he was always genuinely happy to see me, he played the long-suffering husband to perfection, and that he was about as nice a man as I ever met. He was a product of the old Jewish East End, and while he ended up, like many other second- and third-generation London Jews, in Northwest London, he was very proud of his roots. He was also a history buff -- particularly interested in military history of WWII, if I recall correctly -- so when he and my Auntie Nita invited me over for dinner that year, we'd enjoy discussing whatever I was studying at the time.

I had decided before I arrived in London that I would be doing my senior History thesis on Jack the Ripper and late Victorian English society. While I knew that much, I didn't know much more -- so when it came time to start researching, I asked if he would take me around the East End, Jack the Ripper's old stomping grounds. He'd heard the stories as a kid and naturally could take me straight to every insalubrious back alley or long-demolished doss-house I could have hoped for. He also managed to weave into our tour a fascinating history of the Klots, the Gvertzes, and the Abrahams, along with a social history of the institutions of early 20th century Jewish life in London. It was an amazing and enriching afternoon, and I was grateful for his generosity, his obvious enthusiasm, and his terrific memory. He insisted that I send him a copy of whatever I ended up writing, and in turn I promised to do so.

14 months later, the thesis that began percolating that afternoon won an award for Best History Honors Thesis at UT. The dedication on the first page was to him, in thanks for getting me started. The next time I saw him, he told me how touched he had been by that gesture. I was just glad I'd had the opportunity to acknowledge him.

The last time I saw Uncle Henry was at my cousin's wedding last December...he was making fatalistic albeit good-humored comments indicating he knew his time was nearly up. My last memory of him is of the wedding night -- he was sitting on a bench outside a hotel ballroom, gaining some respite from the noisy reception. I'd ducked out for the same reason, and found him attempting to console his little grandson Jack. Jack was grief-stricken upon learning that someone had consumed a special dinner roll he had named and therefore had refused to eat, despite being very hungry himself.

Uncle Henry was clearly relishing every nanosecond of his time with his grandson, and eventually succeeded in shifting Jack's attention to happier matters. Watching that scene, the lump immediately formed in my throat and I could feel my eyes start to well up. I knew I would probably never see him again. I took a minute to fight it back and then walked up and began talking with him about the wedding, our family, and his grandchildren.

He was a nice man.

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Who is that nominated for Best Director, Drama for The Philomel Project by the Austin Critics' Table? Gosh, I'm proud. Congrats also to the cast, who were nominated for Best Ensemble Performance and to Catherine Berry, the star of the punkrockgirl-co-directed Spin, who was nominated for Best Actress, Musical for her performance in that piece.

New Yorkers: don't be jealous, The Philomel Project is coming to your town in late summer.

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Emmylou Harris on Elvis Costello:

"He presented me as a present a 40-gigabyte iPod that he had programmed with every kind of music available and a little pair of speakers. I call it the Elvis Shuffle. I just put it on shuffle and I never know what's going to happen. I put it on and I listen to it at night on low volume and I will wake up sometimes at like 4 in the morning to Desolation Row and I'll be brought up just enough, and then I'll wake up to some other wonderful old blues track. Or then there will be some jazz, or just beautiful piano sonatas. It was just the most extraordinary gift."

It's the 21st century rich man's version of the mix-tape-as-flirtation-device! Elvis and Emmylou sittin' in a tree....

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Wednesday, May 25, 2005
 
Get Rich Slowly!

A nice summary of all of those personal finance books you probably ought to read but can't be bothered to. Very sound advice all around -- simple, but somehow not that easy to follow all the time. Worth a bookmark.

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Saturday, May 21, 2005
 
Hmmm -- very tempting. Better than email, for sure. If it comes with marmite, I might have to switch over wholesale.

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Thursday, May 12, 2005
 
Is Woody Allen Back?

Woody's had more false dawns than West Ham United or My Bloody Valentine, but maybe, just maybe....

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Wednesday, May 11, 2005
 
Good ol' Tofu Hut does the Internet a mitzvah with his superb categorized list of good Mp3 blogs. Bookmark this one, kids, and enjoy day-in and day-out.

I've been contemplating doing a separate mp3 blog of obscure -- I mean really obscure -- Britpop. I have so many UK CD singles from the mid-90's that are rotting useless...no-one I know would want them, I sure-as-shinola couldn't sell them, and it might be kind of fun to post b-sides from Coast or Powder or Modesty Blaise for the 8 or 9 people in the world who would appreciate them. The problem is time...but if I took a Saturday afternoon, ripped a bunch at once, wrote posts up, and trickled them out slowly, it could at least go for a while. Hmmmm.....

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This one's for Chewy: Monkeywire: the #1 source for news about monkeys and apes

In other news, I have re-entered the world of RSS, thanks to Bloglines. There are a lot more sites with XML/RSS/syndication/whateveryouwannacallit feeds than there used to be, and I'm finding the web-based reader an improvement over the email or browser-based ones I tried before.

Now I don't have to go clicking on all my bookmarks to see who's updated their damn blog...the new posts just show up in Bloglines. It's also expanded my reading material -- I'm not going to clutter my Inbox by subscribing to The Economist newsletter, but I will skim their new story headlines in my RSS reader and click on the interesting ones. Ditto with BBC Sport headlines, Ask Metafilter threads, or new live shows posted to DimeADozen.

Unfortunately Monkeywire does not appear to have a feed yet.

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