Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Pico's LiveJournal:

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Sunday, March 15th, 2009
2:22 pm	My grandfather passed away this weekend. He'd been diagnosed with leukemia back in November 2007, and his case was so bad - it'd gone undiagnosed for years because the doctors assumed it was a Katrina-related health problem - that the doc didn't expect him to live past Christmas of that year. But he made it another year and a half. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, July 12th, 2008
9:43 pm	Not sure what took me so long to get to William Gaddis, but J R's now one of my most favoritest books ever. Loved this exchange between drunk Jack Gibbs and an eager kid upstairs:      -Just got to get ice . . . he kicked, got into the hall, -can't get it down without ice . . . and he made the corner to the kitchen, banging the ice tray against the sink when the doorbell rang, -minute God damn it . . . He got there and pulled it open, looked down -what . . .      -Hi is Mrs Eigen here?      -All out of them.      -Oh, then would, would you like to buy some greeting cards then?      -Tom got a boy here selling greeting cards, what grade are you in.      -Six M, Mrs Manzinel      -Tom boy out here working his way through six N selling greeting cards. What's the greetings?      -Well see these are all occasion cards, like for all different occasions they're all . . .      -All occasion cards Tom, got them for all different occasions.      -Like birthday, anniversary, you know all these different occasions like . . .      -Got a friend jumped out a window, got a card for that?      -Well gee I, maybe get well . . .      -Can't get well, went home and hung himself got a card for that?      -Well gee I, I don't think so but maybe you could . . .      -Got a woman on alimony sleeping with a book salesman hell of an occasion, got a card for that?      -Well gee I, like here's sympathy maybe you could . .      -Jack God damn it what are you, hello Chris what is it.      -Oh hi Mister Eigen I, I was just selling these greeting cards . . .      -Says they're for all occassions Tom but every God damned occasion I can think of is . . .      -Jack shut up will you? Chris lives upstairs he's, how much Chris. Finished the book last night while waiting for a red eye back to Michigan, and I have to say that the title character's last scene in the flesh will stay with me for a long time. Powerful stuff. Current Mood: artistic (Comment on this)
Tuesday, December 4th, 2007
2:33 pm	Generally speaking, I'm not a fan of Christmas. But it does bring one thing I look forward to, which is the funniest column of the year, every single year I've read it. Four pages of the Onion's Cheap Toy Roundup, and my sides ache. This year's leans a little heavily on badly translated instructions from cheap Chinese products, but who am I to complain? Pirates Of The Caribbean Motorized Prison Escape Jack Sparrow In Escape Coffin With Leg Bone Paddle ($2.48, from $9.98) The title pretty much says it all, doesn't it? +++ In other news, I'm back in Michigan now. Helped the grandparents get settled in with hospice, but there's not much more I can do. He's feeling a little better, so we'll just cross our fingers and hope we get to spend more time with him. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, October 28th, 2007
1:22 pm	( Halloween Costume Photos! ) (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, October 25th, 2007
9:59 am	CNN endorses abstinence before marriage, through God. Lovely job, CNN. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 24th, 2007
4:24 am	A few things: - I hate applying for jobs in academia. Shitload of work for what are likely to be zero (or close to zero) replies this year. I'm ABD with no publications. I shouldn't bother, honestly. - The Michigan dangerous weather early warning system decided to run a test late tonight - which happily fell right near the climax of TBS' showing of The Fog. Awesomeness! - Surreal: the director of the 1958 film The Brain Eaters somehow thought it was appropriate to use Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet as background music, and not the dissonant stuff: we have sweeping romantic love music during exposition about killer parasites. I love it! - I saw the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen today, in Ann Arbor. Jaw-dropping. And I had no camera. Light patchwork clouds across the entire sky, glowing brightly against a purple background. I've never seen anything like it - although I just finished Delillo's White Noise, where a character points out that gorgeous sunsets coincide with increased air pollution. (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, October 12th, 2007
12:42 am	Also, I'm succumbing to the cult of R. Kelly. It's impossible not to: this is one of the most awesome things I've seen on YouTube: a bizarre incoherent introduction leading into a music video that doesn't so much ride the line between melodrama and camp as drive a mack truck over the border. (Comment on this)
12:26 am	Great night last night. Russ' belated anniversary gift was tickets to see Regina Spektor at the Fillmore. Awesome show - her performance of "Come into My World", not my favorite song, was fantastic: she had the opening performer beat-box the drum part while she sang over it. Especially good performance of "Après Moi", not unlike this one: In the meantime I'm listening to Radiohead's new album on almost constant repeat. I've found with their last few albums that it takes a dozen listens or so before the songs start making sense to me. So far, the only track I really love is "Reckoner", which is f'ing awesome. Anyone else heard it yet? Thoughts? (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 2nd, 2007
1:43 am	This made me smile: The Onion AV Club has a feature on its front page, counting down 15 films that are "great, but too painful to watch a second time." I question whether some of them are "great", but happily one of my favorites, Grave of the Fireflies, made the list. Here's what one commenter had to say: what should be mentioned about that was [Fireflies] ran as a double bill with miyazaki's my neighbor totoro. that would be like a schindler's list/finding nemo double feature. For the record, watching the trailer to Fireflies is enough to make me start bawling again. I own the DVD, and pull it out once every year or so when I really need to cry like a baby. In completely unrelated news, the every-Monday bar trivia that I've been going to since 2002 or so had a special drawing tonight for the BBC's complete Planet Earth series. And holy shit, I won it. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, April 16th, 2007
3:50 am	I took the weekend off to catch up on my movie-watching, which is a terrible habit, I know. Anyway, pretty much everything fell in B+ range: - Quinceanera: cute indie film that swept Sundance last year. pretty clichéd and variable acting, but cute and fuzzy in a good way. - Idiocracy: live-action Futurama episode with stunning visual gags, but doesn't make nearly as much of its premise as it could. - Disturbia: much better than expected. teen sex comedy + Rear Window that was doing pretty damned well until the stupid last half hour. - Grindhouse: absolutely virtuosic filmmaking, and I loved every minute. by an hour later, it had left no impression whatsoever. Solid B+ weekend. (Comment on this)
Thursday, April 12th, 2007
1:13 am	Ah, well. Another ally gone. And a brief, not-very-interesting tribute I wrote: Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt. (Comment on this)
Friday, April 6th, 2007
4:21 pm	The state of Florida may not have gay marriage, but Disney does. Because marrying someone of the same sex isn't gay enough: you have to get your picture taken in front of a giant pink castle. Sarcasm aside, kudos to Disney. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, March 5th, 2007
7:30 pm	Well, this semester just keeps getting better. I showed up to the course I grade for - late 19th century Russian literature, a large lecture where I sit in the back and work on other stuff, since I'm really only there to grade papers - and the professor informed me that she has to have emergency eye surgery tomorrow. So she can't teach for a while. Which leaves me to do most of the twice-weekly 1.5 hour lectures, a situation I wouldn't mind (I love being in front of a classroom) if I had more than, say, a day to prepare. So given that I have a dissertation chapter due at the end of the week, a chapter that will help the professors determine whether or not they'll give me a vote of confidence to stay in the department through the fall, and a chapter I'm only a third of the way into (ha!) it's not likely that I will be preparing anything for Wednesday. One stroke of luck: Wednesday's lecture covers book 2 of The Brothers Karamazov, which I practically have memorized. I'm on it, baby. lol, it's going to be a long week. +++ In other news, our Chicago trip was brief but painless. I managed to hit up the long-lost Kosta for lunch and a bit of strolling around Evanston, followed by a few other Michigan friends. Russ got sick off something he ate and hustled thrice in a two-day period, we went to an "art gallery" opening filled with "trendy" people who think nothing's trendier than slamming trendy people (which they're "not"), and I finally finished Kavalier and Clay, which was wonderful for the first 2/3 but stumbles pretty badly by the end. How are y'all doing? (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, February 5th, 2007
3:05 am	The sooner I get out of this place... ... the better. Apologies for the LJ hiatus, but I promise I'll be posting more later this week. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, December 9th, 2006
8:39 pm	So I'm now officially a PhD candidate, and only a year or so behind schedule. My defense was pretty tame, because I'd already met ad nauseum with my committee, so they'd mostly told me what they wanted to say. We had a good, hour-long conversation, and I have some solid direction for the next year or so. Target date: Summer 08. Their negative comments: I have no discipline. And they're right - if I'm going to finish this study, I'm going to need to rethink my work habits. Their positive comments: if I pull this off, it'll be a groundbreaking work in the field. Granted, it's not going to save any lives, but it'll help me out considerably when job hunting. So there. On a completely unrelated note, the one thing I look forward to every holiday season is here: the Onion's Cheap Toy Roundup. Lovely Baby ($1.99, from $2.99) Okay, seriously, what's creepier, the Lovely Baby's swollen ankles and clearly deformed, twisted legs, or the "TRY ME" label positioned above its crotch? :D (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, December 4th, 2006
2:24 am	So here's the deal: I defend my prospectus (the plan + case study of my dissertation) on Friday. Wish me luck in this last week, while I'm hiding in the library desperately trying to clean up my sourcing. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, November 23rd, 2006
6:20 pm	Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. I'm stuffing myself to catatonia. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, November 20th, 2006
4:47 am	Horrifying story posted on dailykos today, taken from a first-person account of post-war Germany. This is rough reading, but worth it: You should beware of your neighbors. Yes. They are more dangerous than all the terrorists in the world. ++++ I'm on my way back to New Orleans tomorrow for Thanksgiving. Best T-day wishes to you all if I don't see you before then. And if you're looking for dishes to bring to your own dinner, here's what we usually make: ( Mirliton Dressing ) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, November 12th, 2006
3:11 am	Ack... I got an email from the departmental secretary basically threatening me to get my prospectus passed in the next two and half weeks. I didn't realize that the department has a Dec 1 deadline for this sort of thing, although I'd possibly have been better about it had 1) my advisor ever mentioned this to me, or 2) any of the people I've sent my work to ever responded without my forcing them into the corner. As it is, I sent out a draft of my prospectus and gotten exactly zero responses. Again. Blah. On Monday I'll have to do some ass-hauling around the department to get things done. My stress level is going through the roof, hoorah. Here's a video of one of the pieces I'll be covering in my dissertation. Generally good performance of Scriabin's 5th piano sonata, which is a lot more accessible than his later works, but still wacky enough to be interesting. It's also devilishly difficult to play - allegedly Svatoslav Richter said it's the most difficult piece in the piano repertoire, but whoever wrote that in the wiki article (before I rewrote most of it) didn't cite the reference. +++++ In other news, I went to see Saw III last night (don't ask), and the only thing running through my mind for most of the movie was "Why is it considered perfectly unobjectionable to show people's bones snapping and ripping through the skin as their limbs are torn apart, but the nudity and sex are off-limits?" 'Cause Shortbus totally rocked my world, but it won't get 1/100th of the audience that this piece of shit is getting. By the way, if you're interested, the totally-not-safe-for-work trailer to Shortbus is here. Go see the movie if you can! (Comment on this)
Friday, November 10th, 2006
6:07 pm	Shortbus - About time someone made a porn film you can take your mother to. Er, sort of. I'm not sure my mother would make it past the opening sequence, which has a guy sucking himself off to orgasm, and it's all shown. But if you can get past that, it's actually a really bittersweet movie, and though I've forgotten most of the witty dialogue that I laughed pretty hard at, I still have this lingering, warm, sad feeling that's hovered over me all day. John Cameron Mitchell (the Hedwig guy) ties sexual anxieties to 9/11, love to forgiveness, orgasms to... eh, you name it. And it ends with an orgy/singalong about redemption. The direction is subtle, but very very good. There were a few moments in the film where he cuts quickly after punchlines in order to dull the effect and make the dialogue seem spontaneous, and that helps establish the relaxed rapport between the actors. Speaking of which, excellent acting all around, and I don't understand why some critics have called it "flat." Sook-Yin Lee is incredible considering the range (both emotionally and physically) she has to pull off, but my top props go to PJ DeBoy's slightly batty but fragile Jaimie. Not all the storylines come together well (the dominatrix is pretty much left in the cold), but it's a mild criticism of an otherwise enjoyable movie. Best, most quotable movie line: when the heroine sees an orgy for the first time (and is rendered helplessly nervous), the queer ringmaster walks up behind her and says, "Isn't it beautiful? It's like the 60s, only with less hope." (Comment on this)