Rebel Prince

TiVo occasionally downloads movie trailers and other ads into the main menu, which can be annoying, but the latest couple of trailers actually looked interesting. George Clooney and Catherine Zeta-Jones look fabulous in the preview for their new movie due October 10, but is it just me or is Intolerable Cruelty not a great name for a movie, at least not a comedy, which it seems to be? The second was for Love Actually, which features a great ensemble cast: Hugh Grant, Liam Neeson, Colin Firth, Laura Linney, Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Keira Knightley (of Bend It Like Beckham, now available on DVD), Rowan Atkinson, et al. It opens in November.

In DVD news, both The Lion King and Down with Love are due in stores October 7. Can’t wait.

Jason Kottke’s latest entry, on the “social force in elevators“–as the occupancy of an elevator fluctuates, people inside instinctively move so as to maximize each person’s surrounding space–reminds me of an computer-animated short I came across a while back, called Elevator World. I think it’s kind of amusing, with its mock-serious Mechanical Universe-like feel.

As a kid, I used to while away lazy hours watching PBS, including The Mechanical Universe, an educational series on physics. So I guess my brain was getting a workout, even if I was otherwise being a couch potato. Anyway, the animations were cool–for its time, of course.

Where was I? Oh yes, elevators. The one in my apartment building is getting kind of old and is losing its memory. For example, if two people want to go to different floors, the elevator will only stop at the floor whose button was pushed first. You have to wait until the previous person gets off before telling the elevator where to continue. It’s strange. I usually just take the stairs.

The elevators at work, however, are fully functioning and actually pretty snazzy. I’ve thought to myself, I’d love to redecorate my apartment in the style of these elevators. Wood panels, brushed metal, recessed lighting. What’s not to like? Hm, this reminds me I keep meaning to calculate how much time I spend on those unbelievably long Metro escalators. In a given year, it must add up to a couple of days at least.

Last week at work was kind of stressful–we had to finish editing the rest of the abstracts for this month’s issue before my boss left on vacation–so I’m spending the weekend recovering, which means sleep, basically. Lots of it. With Thom away for the weekend, I’ve just been puttering around my apartment: I tidied up a bit–now I can get to the front door without having to step over piles of newspapers and magazines (we’re not all the Fab Five, you know), but I still have to work on getting my clothes organized (and washed); October’s GQ has a short article on paring down and organizing one’s wardrobe, by the way–and now I’m back in bed, catching up with TiVo. Such is la vie de slacking.

I don’t know how many of my readers are current Stanford students–probably not many–but I thought I’d pass along an e-mail announcement from my old theater group, Ram’s Head:

DO YOU LIKE TO ACT?
DO YOU LIKE TO SING?
DO YOU LIKE TO DANCE?
WOULD YOU LIKE TO DO ALL THREE IN FRONT OF 1700 PEOPLE?
WOULD YOU DO IT IN THE NUDE? (ok, so you don’t have to be naked)

THEN AUDITION FOR
BIG GAME GAIETIES 2003!!!

It’s the most ridiculous, most over the top, most side-splitting comedic extravaganza known to man!!!
Auditions are 9/29/-10/1
Sign up for auditions in White Plaza 9/26, 9/29-10/1
Email Producer Justin Liszanckie at justliz@stanford.edu for more info

Ram’s Head Encourages People of All Backgrounds to Audition

Okay, so that was a little emphatic. But as a three-time veteran of Gaieties, I can tell you, it’s a lot of fun. (Have I mentioned that I became a lush thanks to Ram’s Head?) And rehearsals take over your life for about eight weeks until Big Game. You won’t have any time left to sleep or study, but hey, that’s not why you’re at Stanford, is it?

Other Ram’s Head opportunities this school year: original one-acts during winter quarter, and Ragtime this spring.

This morning I stopped at the Starbucks in our office building, and the woman working the coffee machines began to take orders from people in line so she could start making the drinks while we waited to get to the cashier. From behind the coffee machine she started to ask me if I wanted an espresso drink, but when she peeked her head around and recognized me, she said, “Oh, you’re having a caramel frappuccino, yeah?” Hm. I’ve always said I want to be a regular at some joint where they’d know me and my usual order, but who knew it would be Starbucks?

Update (14:05): Now I’m off to yet another retail food hegemon, McDonald’s. Yeah, yeah, I know. Starbucks I can deal with, but god willing, McDonald’s will never become my Cheers. Scary thought. Hm, wait, you know what? I changed my mind. I think I’ll go instead to Jean’s, the mom-and-pop deli down the street. They have a good soup-and-sandwich deal. There, I feel better already.

Mission accomplished! As I previously reported, early yesterday morning (too early, we now know), I went to Melody Records in search of a Rufus Wainwright poster, and unwittingly jumping the gun, I had to come back empty handed. Tonight I returned to the music store and eureka. It turns out the posters had arrived at the store not long after I left yesterday. It has Rufus in a patterned black-and-white suit, which we’ve seen him wear on tour–it looks like polka dots in photo, but at poster-size, you can see they’re more square, like a necktie pattern, say. I might’ve preferred they use the album-cover photo instead, but I suppose this simple, unadorned Rufus is more accessible. It’s all, “the man, the music.”

When I give the new album a proper listen and check out the enhanced CD features–so far I’ve listened to the songs just once through–I’ll definitely post a review.

Here’s a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke that I like to dust off this time of year:

Autumn Day

Lord, it is time. Let the great summer go,
Lay your long shadows on the sundials,
And over harvest piles let the winds blow.

Command the last fruits to be ripe;
Grant them some other southern hour,
Urge them to completion, and with power
Drive final sweetness to the heavy grape.

Who’s homeless now, will for long stay alone.
No home will build his weary hands,
He’ll wake, read, write letters long to friends
And will the alleys up and down
Walk restlessly, when falling leaves dance.

The English version above, by Guntram Deichsel, takes a lot of license with the translation (and I’ll admit some of the phrasing is awkward), but I like that it does so partly to approximate the rhyme scheme of the original German. Here is another translation, by Edward Snow:

Lord: it is time. The summer was immense.
Lay your long shadows on the sundials,
and on the meadows let the winds go free.

Command the last fruits to be full;
give them just two more southern days,
urge them on to completion and chase
the last sweetness into the heavy wine.

Who has no house now, will never build one.
Who is alone now, will long remain so,
will stay awake, read, write long letters
and will wander restlessly up and down
the tree-lined streets, when the leaves are drifting.

And finally, the original:

Herbsttag

Herr: es ist Zeit. Der Sommer war sehr groß.
Leg deinen Schatten auf die Sonnenuhren,
und auf den Fluren laß die Winde las.

Befiel den letzten Früchten voll zu sein;
gib ihnen noch zwei südlichere Tage,
dränge sie zur Vollendung hin und jage
die letzte Süße in den schweren Wein.

Wer jetzt kein Haus hat, baut sich keines mehr.
Wer jetzt allein ist, wird es lange bleiben,
wird wachen, lesen, lange Briefe schreiben
und wird in den Alleen hin und her
unruhig wandern, wenn die Blätter treiben.

Happy autumnal equinox, kids.

An audio report from the field, in which I attempt to find a previously mentioned Rufus poster, or yet another excuse to use my neglected Audblog subscription (transcript below):

Poster boy