It's currently 20 degrees and there's a snowstorm heading our way. Is it any wonder that our thoughts turn to warmer climes? Grab a tiki mug and pour yourself a rum-laden beverage (paper parasol optional, but recommended) and surf over to the American Textile History Museum's latest exhibition, Let's Go Hawaiian!:
Hawaiian shirts (also known as Aloha shirts), have become the recognized symbol of this tropical paradise. The bold, colorful patterns illustrate the lifestyle, culture, flowers, foliage and heritage of the Hawaiian Islands. […]The exhibit tells the story of our enchantment with Waikiki through the exhibition of over 150 shirts from the 1930s through the 60s. The exhibit invites you to step off a cruise ship into a make-believe vacation in paradise. The illusion is supported by tourist memorabilia, maps, tropical scenery, and other artifacts representative of our notions of what Hawaii was and is. From early surfers, cruise ships and the burgeoning tourist trade to Elvis, the Beach Boys and Parrot Heads, the sounds, colors, styles and ethos of ‘Blue Hawaii’ will be resident at ATHM during the run of the special exhibition.
(If you're in the area, skip the rum and drive to Lowell to check out the museum. It's well worth the trip. Alas, Lowell is not home to any Tiki bars, but the Southeast Asian restaurant offers a great buffet lunch.)
Denis brings the Callgirl of Cthulhu to our attention. I think she should have more (or longer) tentacles, but maybe that's just me.
I am not making this up. Dave Barry isn't making it up. I'm just glad that he didn't try to join in with the break-dancing.
In spite of the fact that I've been enjoying my new Gamecube, sometimes I feel just like Cole.
One man's homage to car mods and the Rebel Alliance: the H-wing. (Source: little. yellow. different.)
(Note: no, I will not be doing this to my del Sol at any point in the forseeable future.)
Gung hei fat choi! At long last, the Year of the Monkey has arrived! Didn't do much to celebrate; just spent a quiet day at home. Chris got a haircut and went to the post office to get some of the new Monkey stamps. Had Chinese dessert in honor of the holiday: shared a dan tat, a coconut tart, and a jin dui. Folded about a gazillion origami cranes for our friends (252 down… only 747 to go!)
Since it will soon be the Year of the Monkey (woot!), check out this list of taboos and superstitions of Chinese New Year. We didn't get to do any cleaning this week, so I suppose it won't kill us to wait for one more day. You're not supposed to wash your hair on New Year's Day (lest you wash away your good luck). Chris is going for a haircut tomorrow; I wonder if that's also considered inauspicious.
We went to Chinatown today. Our friend J. is searching for a mah jongg set, preferably similar to the one her mom owned. We went into every gift shop we could find, searching for a mah jongg set. There were lots of places that had them, but almost every shop was selling the exact same set (usually green and white plastic, rather nondescript). J. asked one of the shopkeepers if there were any places that sold antiques, where she might be able to find an older set, and was told that "Asian people don't like old things." Curious.
I was reading diepunyhumans.com, and quite enjoyed (and personally related to!) Alan Taylor's musings on a life where TiVo has always existed…
[…] My daughter was only 3 months old when [the TiVo] arrived and we set it up. As far as my daughter knows, TiVo has always been around. Now that she (and our TiVo) are three years old, and there are some very interesting things I've been able to observe. […]
First - she doesn't watch much TV (an allotted hour per day), but when she does watch it, she gets a choice of a recent episode of any of her favorite pre-recorded shows (current favorites are Dora the Explorer and Caillou), and she can watch it at any time of day. We get to choose what shows we'd like to allow her to watch, set up a Season Pass, and we're done.Second - Commercials are an infrequent novelty to her. We always fast-forward through commercials, or watch non-commercial shows. When she does occasionally see a full commercial, she's fascinated, and will often ask us to stop so she can see what's going on. How can we demonstrate to her the evils of commercial interruption, when she has never had to experience it?
Third - Ignorance of Schedules/Programming - she has no idea when her favorite shows are on, never has. She gets quite confused when we are watching a non-TiVo TV, and she asks to watch ''a kids show'', and we have to explain that this TV won't do what ours at home does. We've sometimes shortened this explanation to ''This TV is broken'', which she seems to accept, and will wait until we get home to watch our ''fixed'' TV. […]
(Read the full entry at kokogiak.com.) I love that the best explanation that they could come up with was that the other TV is "broken". I can relate to the 3-year-old in question-- when we visit my parents' TiVo-less house, I constantly find myself wanting to pause a program (while someone's talking), rewind (to catch something that I missed), skip through commercials, etc. It's really strange to find that there isn't anything on that you want to watch.
Maybe the lawn gnomes can audition for a part…
[…] Then, last spring, Meyer read an article in the Globe about Jill Hunter, a woman in a pricey Newton neighborhood who adorned her yard with plastic pink flamingos. A low-budget, "quasi-fictional reenacted documentary" called "Plastic Migration" was born.To the surprise of even Meyer, the film -- an homage to lawn ornaments -- has piqued the interest of hundreds of actors, businesses, and others in the Newton community, who for one reason or another are drawn to this story about a quirky suburban rebel and have volunteered their services to help Meyer get his film made.
More than 200 actors from New England and New York have contacted Meyer, offering to act for free. The West Newton Cinema agreed to screen it, sight unseen. At least four businesses, including Whole Foods Market and Dunkin' Donuts, are donating meals and coffee to the actors and crew, who wrap up filming this week in Newton. Services have been donated by, among others, a piano mover, a dog trainer, a police officer who owns a snow-making machine, and a tree pruner who is lending his cherry picker to Meyer's (unpaid) cinematographer, also from NYU.
"The 'special thanks' will be longer than the film," said Meyer. "Every crazy idea I've come up with, everyone is going for it, mostly." […]
Via Neil Gaiman, two fantastic new (to me) words: zeugma and syllepsis. Jed Hartman offers some fun examples:
Readers of his column also contributed some zeugmata of their own:
It's really cold tonight. It's 0 degrees right now, and it's supposed to go down to -8. I know exactly how cold it is because we went out to see School of Rock at the Strand in Clinton, and the car has an in-dash digital thermometer. Brrr. The movie was good, silly fun, worth the $4.50 that we paid.
January 22, 2004 will be the first day of the Year of the Monkey! (The year is 4701 in the Chinese calendar.) Chris and I are both monkeys, so this is auspicious. I am apparently an Earth Monkey, while Chris is a Fire Monkey.
To ring in the new, we'll be going to the Japan Society of Boston's Oshogatsu celebration. japan-guide.com has more info about Japanese new year traditions.
We'll also be hosting a Chinese New Year shindig of our own, probably a little late. This isn't because we're going to be celebrating for 15 days or anything like that, but just because of conflicting schedules.
While many pranks were perpetrated on various fraternity brothers at Alpha Chi Rho (well, actually, one specific brother), I don't think that any of them hold a candle to this.
I loved reading about Ernie's Christmas in a nutshell dumpling wrapper. It's wonderfully funny, in a sort of wince-inducing, David Sedaris way.
While I am sorry that I never learned to speak Cantonese, I am relieved that we don't have to go through this sort of embarrassment in my family. While Ernie seems bummed that the Christmas turkey has been supplanted by hot pot (da bin lo in my family), I can't really sympathize with that part of his lament. We used to have hot pot, but it's a lot of work cutting up and preparing all the different ingredients (beef, chicken, scallops, squid, na choy (sp?), Chinese meatballs, etc.). Especially if you're making hot pot for 20+ people. And then you have to clean up afterward. And my grandparents don't have a dishwasher.
So now we go out to a Chinese restaurant for Christmas Eve, then go home and open presents. The food at Jade Palace is terrific, but sometimes I miss the chaos of da bin lo.