some tasks and comments

[calimac]

1. One more visit to downtown San Jose this morning to check out a few remaining intractable problems, and to maybe find out from the convention bureau the opening dates of a couple restaurants with "opening soon" signs in front (some others I was able to stick my head in the open door and ask the guys sitting around inside when they'd be open for business), and the Potlatch restaurant and local guide will finally be done. Then back to all the other overdue work.

2. Oh yeah, that reminds me. The guy at the convention bureau I was told to call about arranging restaurant discounts for Potlatch never called me back. After leaving him a message I put it out of my mind. Apologizing for neglecting to follow up in a similar situation is how I once got the blame for a mix-up in Hugo administration when it was really the fault of the guy who didn't do what he swore up and down he'd do, so I'm not doing that again.

3. Philip Seymour Hoffman was an actor better than most of his movies.

4. Got through a concert last night with minimal mention of the Super Bowl. (I don't mind that other people are interested in sports; it's when they assume that everybody's interested that it irritates me.) Review half-written; that's the second task for this morning.

5. Monthly bills are enough of a burden; more so when they're someone else's bills. Third task; that's for the afternoon.

Comments

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Yes and amen re Super Bowl.

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

At the game I ran yesterday (swashbuckling adventure in an alternate history with a failing Chinese world empire), one of the players mentioned that we were playing opposite the Superbowl; I might conceivably not have known it was that day otherwise. I think that was the only mention of it I heard.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Failing to resist the temptation to suggest that we already live in a failing Chinese world empire.

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

When I say "empire," I have in mind armed forces occupying widely dispersed territories. You know, like the Romans, the Mongols, or the British. I'm not thinking of "economic imperialism." And it strikes me that American military forces are in a lot more countries than Chinese, and in larger numbers.

Besides, present-day China is precious short on swashbuckling.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

I knew you did. But it would be a sad day when we could no longer play around with the meaning of a word like "empire".

[ken-3k.livejournal.com]

In the early-mid 1990s, William Bolcom hosted an annual Super Bowl Alternative Concert at the University of Michigan School of Music. (The one reference I found online is the 1997 program for the Fourth Annual, when the program consisted of 4 Bolcom sonatas for violin and piano. But other years, other composers were included on the program.) The concert featured a variety of faculty members. After each piece, a student dressed in a football jersey came out and held up a cardboard sign with the current game score.

The tradition came to an end when Bolcom had to race back from New York, at some effort and expense, to make the concert in Ann Arbor -- maybe there had been a winter storm messing with airplane schedules, I don't really remember the details. Bolcom is retired from U-M now; I'd love it if someone else would pick up the idea and go with it.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

That's delightful. It would be even more delightful if they didn't tell you the game score.

I was also tickled to hear of Animal Planet's "Puppy Bowl".

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

That idea has spread a bit -- Hallmark had a "Kitten Bowl" and National Geographic Wild has a "Fish Bowl".

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

'I don't mind that other people are interested in sports; it's when they assume that everybody's interested that it irritates me'

This, absolutely!

Hereabouts, the Rugby Union Six nations Championship started at the weekend. A certain person of the male persuasion was glued. I, on the other hand......wasn't.

Perhaps someone can explain to me the pleasure of a load of men playing with their odd shaped balls? :o)

[wild-irises.livejournal.com]

I find someone else's anything (dishes, bills, problems) less of a burden than my own.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

I find the burden increases because I need to gain familiarity with both the habits and the protocols of the other person. When I get a bill, I know what it is, and I know what it's usually like, without having to ask or looking anything up. For others, I don't have that luxury.