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October 14, 2004 /

Number of “canon” animated Disney movies: 44

Of those, movies where the protagonist’s mom is not dead:

  • The Lion King
  • 101 Dalmations
  • The Aristocats

  • …?

Update 10.15.2004 0823 hrs: Ben points out that Pinocchio should count too, since his mom (the Blue Fairy) isn’t exactly dead.

Update 10.15.2004 1402 hrs: And Maria makes the case for Fantasia, citing that “in the Greek Myth segment, the Mommy Pegasus is totally still alive.” Okay, guys, but you’re reaching here. Let’s just face up to the fact that Disney hates all moms, including yours, and definitely mine.

October 14, 2004 /

Maria and I went to San Francisco last weekend, and it was pretty great. We left very early Saturday morning and got back very late Monday night, and although we unfortunately missed hanging out with Kris, we did get to play games and bum around with Leonard and Sumana a lot.

It was like every few hours we gained a new and spectacular privilege: aside from Leonard’s food, to which I’ll get in a moment, we discovered the mafia geese of Fairyland; we gained admittance to the residence of Kevin (more on this soon too); we got a quick-but-personal tour of Berkeley; we spent big wads of money at Games of Berkeley; and we played arcade games both vintage and new. Hell, Maria attended the national American Academy of Pediatrics conference practically by accident, and I got to have one of the first looks at Leonard’s newest awesome secret project (so awesome, he got banned from the API of at least one site!). It was that kind of weekend.

Now, Leonard’s food. It should be sufficient to say that Leonard’s fondue made me–the guy who hates cheese–like fondue, but I’m going to say more. We also got to eat his first-ever attempt at home fries, which were unfairly perfect, and his first-ever attempt at pie ice cream, which was also pretty freaking great. Leonard’s food is world peace. Leonard’s food is the answer.

As for Kevin’s house: when Ian and I were younger, we had on our 386 Magnavox computer a program called Floorplan Plus. Because we were dorks–huge dorks, the budding dorks of legend–we spent hours on that thing, designing about a million floor plans so that both of us could completely fail to go into architecture.

My houses were silly, but I always tried to make them sensible. Ian, on the other hand, was constantly reinventing a place he called Jamhouse. You can pretty much imagine what it was like: the perfect residence, as envisioned by a ten-year-old boy. And Kevin’s house is that house, but with a better sound system and more art. It is my future house’s role model.

I need to say something about Sumana too, because she was a major part of the weekend and I’ve barely mentioned her. We stopped for lunch in Berkeley at De La Paz; it was warm and we’d already walked a lot, and Maria (who is hypoglycemic) was getting kind of dizzy. Sumana got up, ostensibly to go to the bathroom, but first snuck over to the bar to have the lone waiter express-deliver a Coke to replenish her blood sugar. That is the kind of friend Sumana is.

Before February of this year I’d never been west of Minnesota, and now I’ve been to California three times in eight months. Two-thirds of that is due entirely to Leonard and Sumana, whose hospitality and thoughtfulness are boundless and unfailing.

October 14, 2004 /

Is the US Constitution a game of Nomic?

Hint: How you answer should say a lot about your political leanings, but actually, anymore, doesn’t.

October 8, 2004 /

I wouldn’t mind seeing I Heart Huckabees, which people seem to like. I like Jason Schwarzman (everybody likes Jason Schwarzman), and I liked David O. Russell’s Three Kings, and I like high-concept movies. Usually.

What gets me, though, is that all the critics go “existential detectives! Quantum mechanics! It’s WACKY!” and nobody mentions Dirk Gently. I’m not going to get huffy about this, because art is theft, but hasn’t anybody read those books? They’re not as well known as the Hitchhiker’s Guide series, but they were still bestsellers. Apparently about six dorks on movie forums are the only ones who’ve picked up on it.

Yeah, that puts me in real good company. As I wrote to Leonard yesterday, I’m never certain that I have any taste.

October 7, 2004 /

I bet you were wondering whether, early this Saturday morning, Maria and I were going to fly out to San Francisco and visit Leonard and Sumana and Kris.

Well, GUESS WHAT!

Update 10.08.2004 0022 hrs: Possibly I am lying about Kris.

If intellectual property bores you, you should probably stop reading now

October 6, 2004 /

Impressively, Matt Stoller of IPac noticed my pet issues entry through somebody’s incoming referrer link or something, and wrote me personally about IPac’s goals and methods. Because I’m egotistical, it totally worked; because his email was a well-written statement, I’m reprinting it here:

Brendan,

Thanks for your comments on your blog about IPac. We love Downhill Battle and the EFF, and we are ideologically aligned with what they are doing. The reason we are designated as a political action committee is because that is the only legal designation that allows a group to give to political candidates. I suspect, though, your concerns run a bit deeper, hitting the general unseemly nature of the political, electoral, and lobbying process.

Part of IPac’s goal is to demystify the legislative process and get politicians to openly deliberate on the web about what they are doing so that we can reengage and get rid of this system of quasi-bribery. Right now, Congressmen put these bills through voice votes, so the public can’t even track who voted for what.

In the short-term, what IPac is doing is trying to get politicians to realize that there is a cost to cutting off innovation. I would hope that you consider joining our mailing list at www.ipaction.org, just for a few months, as I suspect there’s value in acquainting yourself a bit with the political world on the issues you care about.

Anyway, let me know if you have any questions, and once again, thanks for the feedback.

best,

Matt Stoller

IPac

Like I said, it worked. I’m not pulling out the credit card quite yet, but I’m watching with interest now, and I am on the list.

October 4, 2004 /

I quit my improv troupe the weekend before last. I was kind of wary about the whole thing when I joined, late last summer; it turned out that everyone in the group at the time was awesome and brilliant, and I’m glad I spent this something-over-a-year working with them. Unfortunately, almost all of the original seven have left–Greg got promoted to Project Improv, then Leesha quit, then Evan quit, then Rebecca moved to Chicago. Since then it’s really just been me, Nicole and the new kids. When I called Nicole–long the de facto troupe leader–to check on rehearsal status and she told me she’d quit, I knew it was over. As much as I enjoy our teacher Ken’s company, there was no longer any reason for me to stay.

I’ve been trying to get ahold of Ken and inform him of this, but Ken has a permanent residence the way some people have headaches. I never had any real desire to perform with the troupe, so the loss of those opportunities doesn’t impact me, but I did enjoy working with those guys; I’m more creative and funnier as a result of that work.

There’s always the tantalizing possibility of Waterfront Frisbee Wednesdays, too, if we ever get six people together for that again. That’s really the last point of contact I have with my Street Legal people, and I don’t want to lose it.

October 2, 2004 /

The comic story Stephen wrote and I drew for HONOR, the 2004 Fake Middle Names Collective comics anthology, is finally on the interweb! Please enjoy A Modest Proposal, and share it with your friends and legal acquaintances.