Dean Christakos: January 2007 Archives

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January 29, 2007

Learning more about DC

In an effort to familiarize myself a bit more with native DC culture, I recently read D.C. Noir, an anthology of crime stories set in different parts of Washington, DC. This is genre fiction, and the crime stories themselves might be of dubious plausibility, but that's not really the point for me. What I wanted was a good description of various parts of DC culture. Most of my friends here are, like me, recent transplants who came here for professional reasons after finishing school. What I really wanted was an introduction to what the native culture of DC is like. The book had vignettes of:

The cook at a bar/restaurant in rapidly-gentrifying Columbia Heights
The police informant trying to figure out a crime on his own to cash in on reward money
A cop illegally moonlighting in a strip club-cum-brothel
A recently divorced wife in Chevy Chase trying to figure out how to keep her house with only $4000/month in child support payments
A confrontation between a family-owned motown record label in DC and the mob in New York.

Sure, maybe the stories stretch the imagination a bit (the family who owns the motown record label gets help from a Nation-of-Islam-like temple organization to kidnap the daughter of a mob boss in order to gain some bargaining leverage), but I think I have a better feel for the DC neighborhoods. I think I'm going to read some more books by the editor of the anthology, George Pelecanos.

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January 24, 2007

"Klingons in the White House"

Many of you might now be familiar with Rep. David Wu's (D-WA) speech denouncing the "Klingons in the White House." If you missed it, you can watch it here:

This is a reference to the group in White House that called themselves the Vulcans. My British friend laughed at the absurdity of this speech, and I said that there must have been something at least as ridiculous said on the floor of the House of Commons. Her reply? "I don't ever recall somebody telling the PM to try using his TARDIS..." Yes, she can be very funny.

But can the "Vulcans" in the White House really be compared to Klingons? I'm not so sure. The Klingons were disciplined and rational warriors. No, actually, I think that Rep. Wu would have been better served by complaining that the White House had been taken over by evil Mirror Universe politicians. Many of you might remember the original Star Trek episode "Mirror, Mirror" featuring a scarred Sulu and goateed Spock, or the Mirror Universe two-part episode of Enterprise which I referenced back in 2005. So, Rep. Wu-- it seems you need to get up to speed on your Star Trek knowledge if you want to make better speeches!

Posted by Dean at 10:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Bush Gave the State of the Union Address

I suppose you were expecting me to have some witty comments about Bush's State of the Union address. Actually, I spent the evening at The 9:30 Club watching Blue October play a show. Sorry, no pictures. But listen to Blue October. They're pretty good, and they played to a sold-out crowd tonight.

I haven't watched the address online, but there was apparently no "I'm Keith Hernandez" moment in the SoTU of which I have become so fond:

Cribbing a bit from Bill Simmon’s Sports Guy column, “I’m Keith Hernandez” Status is the point that someone reaches when their confidence gets ridiculously out of control and the actions they take throw common sense out the window.

I mean, usually, there's that point at the end where the president think, "Screw it, I can say whatever I want!" One year, it was "Axis of Evil." Other years, it was "Mission to Mars" followed by "steroids in sports." This really reached its apex at "human animal hybrids." Sadly, there seems to have been none of that this year. Perhaps the energy of the whole event is sort of taken out of it because, as Ezra Klein put it: "The Democratic Majority robbed the threat of action from Bush's rhetoric." In a sense, the State of the Union address is no fun anymore because we know there's no risk that it will be taken seriously.

Posted by Dean at 1:23 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 17, 2007

On Living a Balanced Life

Gawker read "New York" magazine's feature on how New Yorkers relax and discovered that many of the respondents were actually "New York" Magazine staffers. My personal favorite:

Running 5 miles, lifting weights, then taking a short break and drinking 2 martinis and smoking 2 cigars. -Vanessa Grigoriadis

That settles it-- Vanessa Grigoriadis is my hero.

Posted by Dean at 6:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 13, 2007

Teenagers, creepy over-30 hipsters attend Harry and the Potters Show

Life imitates The Onion, once again.

The novelty rock band Harry and the Potters had an all-ages show this afternoon at The Iota Club.

I had, previous to today, only heard of this band's existence. Never one to pass up an opportunity to check out entertaining novelty bands, I hopped on the metro and headed down to Arlington to check them out.

You know what? They were pretty darn fun. A friend of mine and I have frequently debated what qualifies as "Twinkie [see also] Prog Rock," ultimately settling on the definition of "bands in which some musicians play instruments they first learned in high school band." Bands which play songs about elves also qualify. I think Harry and the Potters, whose song titles include "I am a Wizard" and "My Teacher is a Werewolf" definitely qualifies. Rock music, in essence, is about "sticking it to The Man." Harry and the Potters is best described by the band itself-- for them, "The Man" is someone who does stuff like kill your parents and leave you with a lightning-bolt-shaped scar on your forehead.

Don't let me give you the impression that this is a bad thing. They were great. The only creepy thing, though, was the fact that the bulk of the fanbase seems to be made up of girls between the ages of 12 and 17. Then, of course, there were the creepy hipsters taking pictures for their weblogs (the band was allegedly also having a show this evening at American University, so it is conceivable that they also have adult-aged fans).

More pictures after the jump...

Continue reading "Teenagers, creepy over-30 hipsters attend Harry and the Potters Show"

Posted by Dean at 9:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 11, 2007

The Democratic Response to Bush's Address On Iraq

This would have been much briefer than Dick Durbin's:

"You know, in certain older civilized cultures, when men failed as entirely as you have, they would throw themselves on their swords." [ref]

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January 10, 2007

Now I Know Why My Mom Didn't Want Me Reading Comics

Oh... man...

(via)

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January 1, 2007

New Year's Eve: Amateur Hour for Drunk Drivers

Every year I go to a New Year's party in Cambridge where we gather together, catch up with old friends, have a good time and, of course, engage in some casual idiocy, as befits such a celebratory evening when nothing seems like quite such a bad idea, anymore:

This year I attended a couple of different parties (one of which was James Bond themed because, after all, this year we were celebrating the beginning of the year '007 -- I wish I had thought of that, myself). I missed the fire-breathing back at at the previous party, and on my way back to the first party, I came across police cars and fire trucks blocking the street:

All I could think as I walked up the street was, "Oh, no, my friends have really screwed up this time and actually started a fire."

As it turned out, the emergency vehicles were required due to stupidity of a different sort-- namely a guy who had flipped his car while driving up Brookline Street: