Semper Gumby: always flexible

I am so freaking late to the game on this one, but it has to be said: Generation Kill is AMAZING. The miniseries, I mean... I haven't read the book it's based on, but after watching only two episodes of the show I know it's next on my reading list (after I finish a truly depressing non-fiction account of the building of the Oklahoma City bombing memorial... you can probably guess why it's taking me a while.)

But honestly, I can't get over how phenomenal Generation Kill is. I've been nursing a cold (four months of winter the likes of which is usually only seen in Siberia, and the moment the sun comes out I get sick) so I've been staying in a lot, which has given me TONS of time with which to watch tv on my crappy little laptop screen. Its just like the summer after freshman year of college when I sprained my ankle and spent two months catching up on Veronica Mars, Alias and Sports Night, only this won't last as long.

The show is so well-paced, so well-edited, and the writing is tight, terse and clever all at once. I don't know why I'm surprised, given that David Simon (he of the Wire and Treme) is so centrally involved, but I am just floored by what I've been watching. And I say this as someone who really doesn't like war movies. I mean, don't get me wrong: watching shit blow up on screen is one of my favorite past-times, but I'm well aware that I prefer my violence fantastical and escapist rather than realistic and depressing. In Generation Kill, though, they neither glorify the violence or try to make it a tragic epic about the moral costs of war - instead, it just really feels like we're following these men through an actual invasion, with all the violence and humor and bureaucratic screw-ups that comes with it.

Anyway, I'm only two episodes in so I'm sure my appreciation for the miniseries will become more complex and reflective as I make my way through, but I just thought it had to be said now: Generation Kill is FANTASTIC, and anyone who isn't watching it needs to start right now.



*Oh, and one more thing: this is Ray, my favorite character so far. He got burned by an illegal camp stove that one of the other Marines was using to make espresso! He was on the debate team in high school, but all his fellow teammates thought he was high on uppers all the time! He wears pimp sunglasses and knows all the words to Avril Lavigne songs! He also has some of the most epic speeches on American society, the war, and the ridiculous recruitment commercials the Marines made with that stupid dragon, but they aren't very family friendly. If I removed all the swear words from my favorite monologue so far there would be, like, five other words, and most of them would be definite articles. In short: I LOVE YOU RAY.

Occupation: Gentleman

So occasionally I think of something I want to write a blog entry about, but because I'm not at a point in my day where I can actually write it, I send myself an email or write myself a note about it. Ideally, I then remember to take care of it later. Usually, though, I forget to follow up on the notes and the idea gets lost for all eternity.

In this case, this is all half-true: I wrote the email and even remembered to check it, but it's been so long that I can barely remember what this cryptic note meant: "canfield, who said his occupation was gentleman, and who went to jail and called it his harvard. Whistler painted his portrait and called him his reverence."

Ignoring the horrible grammar for right now (I was on my cell phone, do you know how hard capitalization is on those things?), I think what this email is telling me to do is to research and write about Richard Albert Canfield, a contemporary of the American painter James McNeill Whistler and an honest-to-goodness eccentric. Apparently he listed his occupation as gentleman and was arrested for running a number of illegal casinos and gambling rings. And, as you can see above, he also called jail his "Harvard." He was a colorful and creative man who collected art by the droves and was eventually felled in a fatal fall in a New York City subway.

I'm not sure where I was when I learned this or why I thought it was important that you know it as well, but clearly I did. So there you go: a short and vague history lesson from Shoshi-of-the-past. I hope you enjoyed it.

out and about

So, things have been crazy-awesome lately, and while I don't have time to go into details right now (I'm supposed to be on the train to work at this moment), I will say this: Hawaii is so freaking beautiful and the week my roommates and I spent there at the end of February probably saved me from committing ritual suicide over Chicago's winter.


More to come, eventually.

"Unprintable acts."

Why I love my job, reason #5,021:
I'm researching a man named Oscar W. Brecher, whose wedding suit is in our collection. A quick google search brings up this article in the New York Times archives: "To Take Boy from Sun-Worshippers." In 1910, our friend Oscar was part of an attempt to rescue the boy-heir to a Philadelphia fortune from a cult of sun-worshippers who were planning to do something (probably nefarious, knowing those sun-worshipping types) with the boy and his money. Oscar was appointed his temporary guardian while the courts tried to figure out what to do with him and his mother, who had been implicated in the kidnapping plot.

Ten years later the leader of the cult, Zar Adusht-Hanish, was arrested on charges of "unprintable" acts against five children in Los Angeles, so unfortunately the story becomes much more serious. But still... SUN-WORSHIPPERS.

Sun-worshippers! Cults! Young boys with excessive amounts of money! Wedding suits! It reads like a late 19th century pulp novel, only it's my morning.

To another two centuries just like the last!

Happy 251st wedding anniversary, George and Martha!

Those crazy kids, so in love.


So what is 251 years? Silver? Gold? Adamantium?

Tweet the past

So I just joined Twitter, right? I figured, why not... all the cool kids are doing it, and I'm nothing if not a follower. But probably the best part of it? The National Museum of American History (Smithsonian represent!) has a twitter account that they use to disseminate fun facts about history. Just this morning I learned that today is Utah's birthday and that it is called "The Beehive State."

Oh, and today in 1847 Samuel Colt sold his first revolver to the U.S. government.

Oh, Twitter. Nerding it up, left and right.

P.S. Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport... I still sort of hate you, but I hate you much less now that you're providing me (accidentally) with free internet. Keep up the good work.

There's two things in the world you never want to let people see how you make 'em: laws and sausages.

Have I talked about The West Wing? I know I'm late to the party - like, ten years late, but I believe in making a fashionably tardy entrance. I've been watching the first season (in between writing up a storm of personal statements for grad school and battling the actual snow storm outside my house) and holy crap, that was an amazing show.

Aaron Sorkin is sort of a sore spot for a lot of TV enthusiasts. It seems like either you love him and think he's God's gift to television or you hate him and wish he would die in a fire. And preferably take his too-witty fast-walking characters with him. But I've always sort of viewed myself as a swing-vote when it comes to Sorkin: I hated Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip but I thought Sports Night was probably the most underappreciated tv show of the last 15 years (and given that that year-span includes Veronica Mars, that's saying something) Clearly, I have unresolved issues. But people, West Wing... it's a revelation.

I suppose I shouldn't be so surprised. I mean, this is a tv show about the United States! And government! And smart people! Those are three things I adore! And the writing itself is so unapologetically in love with the idea of America, so optimistic about what American government could do, the positive agent of change it could be... I'm getting all verklempt just thinking about it. It's sort of strange to watch it now with 8 years of the Bush administration under my belt, but I'm also noticing a lot of overlaps between the Obama administration and the rocky start of the fictional Bartlet government.

Mostly I think I love The West Wing because it's just so ridiculously nerdy, and completely willing to revel in that fact. To wit, I leave you with the Antiquities Act (my fave!), a banking bill, and a fictional American president waxing rhapsodic over the great insitution of America's national parks*:





*I love the national parks too! Come hang out with me, President Bartlet... we can drink tea and I'll tell you all about Grey Towers! It'll be awesome.