Perhaps the best reviewed movie of the year, David Cronenberg’s A History of Violence, pissed the living hell out of me. It has been proclaimed “Epic”, “Incredible”, blah and blah. I had been looking forward to this for a while. I thought – here is a good director, an interesting script and a lot of [...]
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Saw Arcade Fire at the Riviera last night with sven and rajeev. What an amazing show – def. one for my best of list. They play like maniacs and behave like ones too – rocking out in their band gear. So darn cute. I must admit that after keeping them in heavy rotation for most [...]
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In your 9/28 column, The Endgame in Iraq [access for the academic audience, thanks to moacir], you conclude: Maybe the cynical Europeans were right. Maybe this neighborhood is just beyond transformation. That will become clear in the next few months as we see just what kind of minority the Sunnis in Iraq intend to be. [...]
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I grouch constantly that my peers don’t take technology seriously – whether in their pedogogy, in their research or in their scholarly applications. I think that instead of grouching, I will take on an initiative. Maybe this will pan out, maybe I will just do enough for my own personal site. Let’s begin, at the [...]
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Had a kababfest last night. Good times. Even fired up the ole’ shisha. I really want to get a proper hookah from home. Anyone coming? Speaking of home…anyone read from Aberdeen? CM brother #2 just moved there and should have a friendly chat with you. It is getting cold and rainy already. Continuing with the [...]
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Here, to hoping that this one is less exciting than the one last year [hung our with The Decembrists, got my first speeding ticket in 10 years, someone broke into my car and stole my iPod and digicam and I grew one year older]. Ok, that last bit cannot be avoided this year, either.
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Recently, WaPo and NYT did pieces on the growing dominance of Christian prayer in baseball. Jesus is my designated hitter, indeed. I chuckled at the conflation of sports and religion in present day USA. Why can’t the Americans keep their religion off the pitch? The overt religiosity has always grated me in, what I perceive [...]
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Not that I have anything to add to The General’s newest controversy but I’d like to point out that, today, CM brother became a Canadian citizen. What he did to get the citizenship, I dare not ask :)
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Nothing like rains in September to make me nostalgic and homesick and cranky and all that. Back in Lahore, this time of the year was usually the best time of year. Canal Road looked magnificent and the trees outside Physics Hall [my spot was on the yellow bench] dropped leaves in giant clusters that sat [...]
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Timothy Garton Ash, in the Guardian, says that there are “six different views often heard in the west, but also, it’s important to add, in Muslim countries such as Iran” about the Troubles in Islam. These views, according to Ash, say much about those of us who hold them [whether they say anything about Islam [...]
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Bloody good show, eh? England win back the Ashes from the Ozzies who have been hoarding them since 1987. The Ashes, lore has it, symbolized the cremation of the English cricket after their first defeat by Australia on home ground in 1882 [at the Oval]. The urn doesn’t really exchange hands – it just sits [...]
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A lot of people come to Hyde Park, after having read Devil in the City, looking for monuments of the World Fair of 1893. I didn’t know this but then today we went to hang out with The Lady, or The Republic as it was called, and met people walking around with the book in [...]
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Threadless will donate all of the money from the Regrowth shirt to Red Cross.
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I am tired of Movable Type 3.2 already. “Out of memory during large requests” errors galore [I want to choke the sbrk() out of sixapart]. Insane “context missing” messages from various Spamlookup rebuilds. What is up with this piece of software? The only reason I didn’t ditch MT way back at 2.x was WP’s insane [...]
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If you study South Asia and want to enjoy Chicago in late February…you should come to our conference. One word…Empire.
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Grover Cleveland thought he’d appease the public pissed off by his bungling of the Pullman Strike by declaring the first monday in September as Labor Day. He lost the election. Maybe The Chosen One needs to declare another federal holiday in September. Call it Homeland Day. I mean, its already started… we just need to [...]
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A rumor killed almost a 1000 Iraqis in one panicked moment in Baghdad. A rumor about a suicide bomber in a religious mass of thousands on their way to a shrine. Rumors of riots and killings, of molestors and rapes are circulating in New Orleans – adding to the panic, the destruction. Baton Rouge is [...]
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