mid-week babble
1. Accidental holiday travel! Well, the travel wasn't accidental, but we didn't PLAN for it to be on a holiday. A & I went to NYC last weekend. Originally we planned on going to see some shows and some museums and hang out with J, who also planned on catching the last American Idiot. We are irreligious at best, so we didn't realize it was Easter weekend. Whoops? Still, good times. Mostly it was nice that we signed those days off on our work calendars, and there was no way that A's employer could *oops* accidentally schedule a meeting for him to attend when he was physically not in the state of TX.
Book of Mormon. HILARIOUS. Similar to the South Park episode in theme and overall message (organized religion can be ridiculous, but if it makes you help people, it can't be that bad). Absolutely loved the opening number. The backdrop of SLC elicited both amusement and longing for the mountains. For all of my issues with churches of any type and Utah's conservatism, SLC was a fabulous place to live. I thought that the casting for Elders Price and Cunningham was very well done. The repetition and adaptation of the story of Joseph Smith and the Book = A+.
Avenue Q. We're all a little bit racist. It sucks to be you (or me). And the internet is for porn. (The most horrifying and amusing thing: watching the couple in front of us, who ignored the warnings that it was explicit and brought their young child to see the puppet show.)
The Importance of Being Earnest. Seen this play done a bajillion times (OK, that's an exaggeration, maybe a half-dozen, not counting film adaptations), but it's A's favorite Wilde play, so. Waaaay older crowd than any of the other shows we saw. Brian Bedford as Lady Bracknell = interesting, since she's of an age where a sagging jowl and not-particularly-feminine voice work.
American Idiot. I know, it's been all over tumblr and such. It was amazing. I actually like Van Hughes' Johnny a bit more than JGJr's, tbh. I thought Larsen's voice blended well with Guarini's. His ink was a bit different than the ink SSands sported as Tunny. No "Gemma", obvsly, but the Black Flag was on the opposite arm, I think, and his shoulder had a big piece that I don't remember seeing before. I found it curious that Green Day performed three songs from the musical in their encore. But yes to Burnout and Welcome To Paradise.
- Did the Met and MoMA deliberately time their guitar hero/Picasso's guitar exhibits to complement each other?
- I could go to the Met every time I came to NYC and still never get tired of the Egyptian wing.
2. Work. It still sorta sucks. We got reviews back on the manuscript, and after discussion with the editor it wasn't technically rejected, but the amount of work it will take to get it accepted will take longer than the grace period allowed. Which is the equivalent of rejected. So we're cutting the first two figures and expanding the last one with more experiments, and we'll rewrite that and submit it as an entirely different paper. These experiments aren't the priority right now, though: I've got a page-long list of experiments to do for the grant renewal & a new grant submission. And then when those are done and the ones for my paper are done, there are some for Student's project. And once all of those are done, I can get back to the project I established... two years ago.
Speaking of Student. Yeah. IDK. His re-examination is next week. He has not generated new data since before his month-long break. There are a variety of excuses, but seriously. He's essentially produced ZERO new data in four months. Some days he comes to lab and some days he doesn't. He's missed lab meeting multiple times. Even if he passes the re-examination, I really don't see how he can possibly expect that that sort of behavior will make his continued presence welcome.
3. Lollapalooza's full lineup has been announced! In addition to Muse & Foo Fighters being headliners, PStump, Gold Motel, Smith Westerns, Ellie Goulding, Fitz & the Tantrums, Best Coast, Explosions in the Sky, and and and.... :) <- me
4. Petraeus to CIA? Uh. Really? I mean, I get the other shifts: Panetta to DoD to ease them into budget cuts that Gates alluded to. Allen to ISAF makes sense. Ditto Crocker to Afghanistan. But seriously, what's the payout of bringing Petraeus to the CIA, other than, you know, getting him out of Afghanistan? He's not political. He's never been political, at least in terms of electoral politics. I don't think he'd voice any complaints or make any endorsements in the upcoming re-election campaign, so why the shift?
5. The third round of Rolling Stone's cover contest is underway. Empires made it through! So did Fictionist, who I didn't know before the contest, but am now quite enjoying. Go vote!
Book of Mormon. HILARIOUS. Similar to the South Park episode in theme and overall message (organized religion can be ridiculous, but if it makes you help people, it can't be that bad). Absolutely loved the opening number. The backdrop of SLC elicited both amusement and longing for the mountains. For all of my issues with churches of any type and Utah's conservatism, SLC was a fabulous place to live. I thought that the casting for Elders Price and Cunningham was very well done. The repetition and adaptation of the story of Joseph Smith and the Book = A+.
Avenue Q. We're all a little bit racist. It sucks to be you (or me). And the internet is for porn. (The most horrifying and amusing thing: watching the couple in front of us, who ignored the warnings that it was explicit and brought their young child to see the puppet show.)
The Importance of Being Earnest. Seen this play done a bajillion times (OK, that's an exaggeration, maybe a half-dozen, not counting film adaptations), but it's A's favorite Wilde play, so. Waaaay older crowd than any of the other shows we saw. Brian Bedford as Lady Bracknell = interesting, since she's of an age where a sagging jowl and not-particularly-feminine voice work.
American Idiot. I know, it's been all over tumblr and such. It was amazing. I actually like Van Hughes' Johnny a bit more than JGJr's, tbh. I thought Larsen's voice blended well with Guarini's. His ink was a bit different than the ink SSands sported as Tunny. No "Gemma", obvsly, but the Black Flag was on the opposite arm, I think, and his shoulder had a big piece that I don't remember seeing before. I found it curious that Green Day performed three songs from the musical in their encore. But yes to Burnout and Welcome To Paradise.
- Did the Met and MoMA deliberately time their guitar hero/Picasso's guitar exhibits to complement each other?
- I could go to the Met every time I came to NYC and still never get tired of the Egyptian wing.
2. Work. It still sorta sucks. We got reviews back on the manuscript, and after discussion with the editor it wasn't technically rejected, but the amount of work it will take to get it accepted will take longer than the grace period allowed. Which is the equivalent of rejected. So we're cutting the first two figures and expanding the last one with more experiments, and we'll rewrite that and submit it as an entirely different paper. These experiments aren't the priority right now, though: I've got a page-long list of experiments to do for the grant renewal & a new grant submission. And then when those are done and the ones for my paper are done, there are some for Student's project. And once all of those are done, I can get back to the project I established... two years ago.
Speaking of Student. Yeah. IDK. His re-examination is next week. He has not generated new data since before his month-long break. There are a variety of excuses, but seriously. He's essentially produced ZERO new data in four months. Some days he comes to lab and some days he doesn't. He's missed lab meeting multiple times. Even if he passes the re-examination, I really don't see how he can possibly expect that that sort of behavior will make his continued presence welcome.
3. Lollapalooza's full lineup has been announced! In addition to Muse & Foo Fighters being headliners, PStump, Gold Motel, Smith Westerns, Ellie Goulding, Fitz & the Tantrums, Best Coast, Explosions in the Sky, and and and.... :) <- me
4. Petraeus to CIA? Uh. Really? I mean, I get the other shifts: Panetta to DoD to ease them into budget cuts that Gates alluded to. Allen to ISAF makes sense. Ditto Crocker to Afghanistan. But seriously, what's the payout of bringing Petraeus to the CIA, other than, you know, getting him out of Afghanistan? He's not political. He's never been political, at least in terms of electoral politics. I don't think he'd voice any complaints or make any endorsements in the upcoming re-election campaign, so why the shift?
5. The third round of Rolling Stone's cover contest is underway. Empires made it through! So did Fictionist, who I didn't know before the contest, but am now quite enjoying. Go vote!