Dean Christakos« September 2006 | Main | July 2010 »
October 31, 2006
Apples in Stereo Plays at The Black Cat
Last night I got a chance to see Apples in Stereo play at The Black Cat here in Washington, DC. The Black Cat is a nice venue. Very funky, though not quite as gritty as the H Street-area venues in Northeast DC. I'm still acclimating myself to the local scene...
This is a rather vapid observation of mine, but Apples in Stereo is quite a bit louder in concert than they are on their albums, which have a more psychedelic/indie-pop sound to them. Still, they were great to see, but I was surprised that the turnout was so low. Not only are they fairly well-known, but their show was mentioned by Wonkette.
UPDATE: DCist reviews the show and uses one of my pics in their entry. Also, one reason that the show seemed to have a small crowd: More-indie-than-thou band The Decemberists were playing in DC on that same evening at The 9:30 Club.
Pictures after the jump...
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October 29, 2006
What It Is That I Do, Exactly
People sometimes ask what I do for a living, and this can be difficult to explain. However, I think I should give it a try, if only as an exercise in trying to sound coherent to the technological layperson.
This is where I work:
So, many of you might be familiar with "802.11" networks... it's what's listed as what your laptop is capable of when it comes to wireless networks. 802.11 is a standard that describes wireless local area networks whose range is about 100 meters and which operate in the 2.4 and 5.8 GHz radio frequency spectrum. In short, it's what allows you to open up your laptop and get access to the internet without having to think too hard about the issue.
I work on two different wireless networking standards-- 802.16 and 802.21. Both of these are "frameworks" that describe how certain technologies should work, rather than describing which specific technologies are used to implement them. 802.16 is more commonly known as WiMAX, which is a framework that describes technologies whose purpose is to deliver broadband internet into the home wirelessly (as opposed to over cable TV or phone lines, as is more commonly the case). Part of my work involves dealing with handoffs between 802.16 networks-- this technology should allow someone to walk between two separate 802.16 networks (e.g., from your house to your next-door neighbor's house) and be able to maintain your network connection uninterrupted. Because this standard is still in flux, the work I am doing involves trying to show how we can maintain quality-of-service guarantees under different conditions while doing these handoffs.
That relates to my other work, which is the evolving 802.21 standard which is all about handoffs. As I pointed out above, 802.16 is a "framework," so there could be many different types of 802.16 networks in place. Or someone might be communicating on a standard 802.11 network or some other short-range wireless networking technology. 802.21 is a framework for allowing one to seamlessly pass from one network to another and still maintain one's network connection.
Much of my background is in network simulation, and my current work focuses on implementing these network standards within a network simulation system and evaluating the performance of the networks under different scenarios. Since these standards are still in flux, we can make changes to the implementation of 802.21, evaluate how performance is affected, and present these results to IEEE and IETF and make a case for why certain aspects of the standard should be adopted or discarded.
On a related topic, I first started this weblog back in the summer of 2004 while I was a disaffected graduate student just for the purpose of having a place to post things I came across that I thought were interesting. I'm wondering about whether I should start making more posts about research and technology issues I'm involved in. We'll see. I might try to post more about articles I come across that are closely related to what I'm working on and talk about what I think of them.
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October 26, 2006
Why I Don't Drive to Work
I could drive to work. It's only 18 miles. As far as locations in Washington, DC go, my apartment is relatively close to the highway. Instead I take the metro out to Shady Grove and catch a shuttle bus to NIST. Why do I avoid driving to work? This is why.
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October 24, 2006
I Watch the High Heel Race
Every Tuesday before Halloween, the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, DC hosts the High Heel Race, in which men dressed in drag race down 17th Street in high heels. As far as masquerade events go, this one was certainly a unique experience to watch.
Even celebrities like Condoleeza Rice and Princess Diana were in attendance:
Full archive of pictures from the event here.
More featured pictures after the jump...
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October 19, 2006
Beatallica!
Wednesday night, I went to a live show for the first time since moving to DC. I am worth 3 hipster bingo points.
<I first became aware of a band called Beatallica when I saw a link to their site on metafilter back in 2002. Actually, I didn't know they were even a band. I figured they were just a couple of guys in a garage who recording a bunch of amusing mp3s for entertainment purposes.
While flipping through the ads in the Washington City Paper, I realized that Beatallica was, in fact, an actual band, they go on tour, and they were coming to DC to play a show at the Rock and Roll Hotel. Apparently they are quite a popular musical act in Europe (then again, so is David Hasselhoff).
Opening for them was a local band / "shock-rock skit group" known as Dingleberry Dynasty. Irealize now that the opening band realizes that they're a novelty act, but at the time I was unsure how seriously they took themselves. As I was standing towards the front of the crowd, I was an easy target while the lead singer took out a toothbrush to brush my teeth, jumped off the stage and grabbed onto my leg while he writhed on the floor, and because my mom reads this weblog, I'm not even going to discuss what the guy dressed in the dog costume did. However, since I was a good sport, lead singer Chris Kamsch bought me a beer after the show.
Beatallica themselves were a lot of fun. They're everything you could want in a band that plays reworked Beatles songs like "And Justice for All My Lovin'." In all seriousness, they put on a good show, don't take themselves too seriously, and showed the audience a good time.... and the audience loved them.
Pictures after the jump...
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October 17, 2006
Bishop Kallistos Ware speaks in Washington, DC
Bishop Kallistos (Timothy) Ware came to speak at St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathdral Tuesday evening. One of his claims to fame is that he was the first non-Greek bishop consecrated in the Greek Orthodox Church in modern times. Others may be familiar with him from his books The Orthodox Church and The Orthodox Way. His talk was two-pronged, focusing on how we integrate Orthodoxy into our lives completely (not, I admit, an unheard-of topic) and also on how concerns about the earth's environment fit into Orthodoxy. The lecture ended up becoming heavily focused on the Jesus Prayer. Also, during the Q&A period, people actually asked questions rather than ranted! It seems that when a lecture is in a church rather than the local bookstore, members of the audience are more thoughtful.
His most insightful theological observation: that in the world, "We are not to destroy, but to transfigure."
Afterwards, there was a reception in which he signed books:
I didn't end up getting an autograph, this time, unlike some previous events I've attended, though I did finally get around to buying The Orthodox Way, which I've been intending to read for years. It dawned on me that the problem with reading a lot is that I get easily distracted by new books that I come across, and the books I keep intending to read I don't get around to because I have so many other books that I feel I need to finish.
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October 14, 2006
I'm a Fanboy for Political Cartoonists
This Saturday I hopped on the metro and headed out to North Bethesda, Maryland to go to the Small Press Expo, which is just another word for "Comic Book Convention" -- but they were independent comics and authors.
While there, I got a chance to meet political cartoonist, columnist, and writer Ted Rall, whom I've been reading for years and years.
I tried not to get too overexcited while talking to him. There's nothing as sad at a comic book convention as a fawning fanboy. Deep inside, though, I was that fawning fanboy.
I picked up a copy of his book To Afghanistan and Back. Next on my reading list is his book Silk Road to Ruin. Rall spent much time travelling in Central Asia back before September 11th and the fall of the Taliban, and he had to conspicuously avoid Afghanistan and didn't go there until late 2001. I've wanted to read about his experiences in Central Asia for a while (which he also covered a bit in his columns), and these books seemed like a good place to start.
He signed my book(!):
Other interesting finds:
- The work of Mikaela Reid, the "Angry Cartoonist" (that's what it says on her business card!)
- Jonathan Rivera and Nick DeStefano of Heartbreak Comics
- The t-shirts available from Questionable Content
- Paintings from Cheap Paper Art
- Dignifying Science: Stories About Women Scientists (it's for you, mom!) from GT Labs, along with most of the rest of their catalog.
UPDATE: Mikaela describes Ted Rall, given his indefatiguable professional pace:
In addition to producing three biting and brilliant cartoons a week, he manages to write a column, draw graphic novels, blog, travel around Central Asia, and promote and edit the work of obscure cartoonists like yours truly. My current theory is that he is some kinda weird sleepless android man cobbled together by benevolent aliens with good taste in music.
UPDATE #2: Tom Spurgeon scours the internet to find blog entries and photos of the Small Press Expo from various attendees.
Posted by Dean at 6:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
It's Indietastic!
Somewhat reminscent of the Saturday I spent checking out DC's local record stores.... Indie Clerk Assholes:
Worth watching just to hear someone say the word "indietastic."
(via: A Clockwork Lemon)
Also, mocking the consumer end of this whole thing: Tourist Experiences City By Buying Used CDs
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October 13, 2006
Demetri Martin Performs in DC
I saw Demetri Martin perform Thursday night at the Lisner Auditorium at George Washington University. Some of you may recognize him from his Trendspotting segment on The Daily Show. He's actually a long-time standup comic in New York City (originally from New Jersey) who has finally managed to make a living out of it.
A sample:
"Sort of" is such a safe saying, its a filler, you can say it after anything and it fits most of the time. But sometimes its just not the right choice of words like when you say things like...I love you (sort of), or...You are going to live (sort of).
The show was hilarious. I even got a chance to say hi to his mom, afterwards, who's a family friend (the whole Greek connection comes into play, here). So, if you live in a city that he's coming to during his tour, I highly recommend getting tickets. Boston readers, take note-- he'll be performing at Berklee School of Music on October 28th.
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October 10, 2006
Another Movie About My Ancestors!
... and maybe it will be good, this time. I'm referring to the upcoming movie The 300, a reference to the 300 Spartan soldiers who held off the invading Persian troops at the Battle of Thermopylae. I have to say that I'm pretty impressed with the teaser trailer. Now, the past few years have seen a couple of attempts at making epics out of my Greek peeps, like Troy and Alexander, and both ended up completely blowing it. I have higher hopes for The 300 because Frank Miller, who wrote the comic on which the film was based, is actually a pretty good writer.
Plus, next time I'm visiting my family in their village outside of Sparta, I can say stuff like "Madness? This is Spahtah!" (if I were feeling particularly ambitious, I would teach myself to say that in Tsakonian).
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October 9, 2006
Turkish Festival in Downtown DC
Within a week of moving to DC, I made the rather snarky observation that, culturally, "Washington, DC as a city is 'international' in the same way that EPCOT Center is 'international.'" Really, there aren't that many ethnic enclaves, the city itself isn't a place where many immigrant communities have come to settle, or at least not one where many communities decided to remain in (an exception being the Ethiopian community which has a presence here). That said, the "EPCOT Center" aspect of the city can still be enjoyed. This weekend, for example, was the Turkish Festival downtown.
Having had a great time in Turkey when I traveled there this past spring (which you can read about in my weblog's April archives -- start from the bottom), I decided to go and relive some of my time in Turkey.
There was plenty of traditional dancing and music:
People dressed in pseudo-traditional outfits:
This guy admitted to me that the outfit itself wasn't representative of a specific region but rather was an amalgam of different Turkish styles that "looked" convincingly traditional.
The ever-present "evil eyes" were on sale in the crafts bazaar area:
Plus, there werea few grocers in attendance, so I wouldn't have to drive out to the Maryland suburbs to stock up on dolmades.
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October 7, 2006
I've Found My New Favorite Bookstore
Ok, since the Harvard Book Store is a bit too far away, I think I've found a choice replacement-- the Politics and Prose bookstore and coffeehouse. They seem to be lacking the basement of used books that the Harvard Book Store has, but other than that, it's great, and it's within walking distance of my apartment. Tonight, I saw former Clinton advisor Sidney Blumenthal talking about his new book How Bush Rules: Chronicles of a Radical Regime and listened to him go over each of the top Bush administration officials one by one, explaining their roles and background in creating the current predicament in which we find ourselves (in general, not just this week's mess). I left during the question-and-answer period after the third "questioner" in a row simply stood up and ranted about what was on his mind and got angry about the "cabal" that's controlling both parties. (Though, for entertainment value, the first of these ranters complained about how the Council on Foreign Relations is calling the shots in the USA, to which Blumenthal pointed out that he, in fact, is a member of the Council himself. I wonder if this just reinforced that guy's conspiracy theory.) I should note that the appearance of the crazies at readings like this is not unique. They were out in force at Ana Marie Cox's reading at Brookline Booksmith back in January, and there always seems to be one at any reading dealing with history or politics.
Maybe someone needs to make a version of hipster bingo for book readings: e.g., entries for "tweed jacket" and "bearded intellectual" and "question that isn't actually a question." "Blogger with digital camera" would, of course, remain in this new version, as well.
Upcoming event: Terry Pratchett is appearing at Wesley United Methodist Church at 5312 Connecticut Ave NW in DC on October 17th at 7:30pm. If you haven't read Good Omens yet, you really should. On the other hand, that conflicts with The Red Elvises who are appearing at The Iota Club in Arlington, VA that same night at 8:30. Decisions, decisions. (Aside-- for my Boston-area readers, go see The Red Elvises at Harper's Ferry on Sunday, Oct. 15th at 9:30pm)
A couple of pictures after the jump...
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October 3, 2006
I Am Not in Charge of This
As many of you know, I have recently started work at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Basically, everything that needs to be measured, NIST deals with... from meter sticks to kilograms to bits per second to calories. As you can see from above, NIST also maintains Standard Reference Peanut Butter. Yes, if you want to know what all peanut butter manufactures calibrate their instruments to when measuring the nutritional contents of their own peanut butters, this is it.
UPDATE: Here's a link where you can order the peanut butter as well as other Standard Reference Materials from NIST.
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