Ploafmaster General

...did you?

Shaving is without a doubt one of the more banal activities in a man's routine. That's why I recommend that every man experience the occasional shave at the hands of a genuine barber. It's truly one of life's great luxuries.

After finishing with my hair cut, the barber reclined my chair and inserted a head rest so I could lean back. He then wrapped my face for the first time in a hot, wet towel to raise the hair on my face. After some facial massage, the towel was removed and some warm shaving lather was applied. A second hot towel was used before another application of warm lather, and the shaving began with a straight razor.

The barber, demonstrating how much more of a craftsman he was than a mere cutter of hair, deftly shaved the fuzz from my face without a single cut, stretching out the skin where necessary and revisiting trouble spots until nearly everything was removed. Then he applied a tonic which smelled quite like Vick's Vapo-Rub or some strong eucalyptus scent before using a third hot towel. When he removed the cloth he checked for and cleaned up any small misses and used a final hot towel to clean up my face. He finished with some after-shave and I tipped him well as I left for the day's errands.

As I walked out into the cool Fall morning, my face felt fresh and comfortable, and is still smooth now. It's a bit too costly to justify more than once-in-a-while, but it's worth it every time.

Typically, I hate those tacky cards that play music our sounds. They just grate on my nerves. Except this one:
(I've added appropriately styled titles in case Val's writing isn't clear enough in the video)

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=372635&server=vimeo.com&fullscreen=1&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=01AAEA

Proof positive that my wife is cooler than I will every fully comprehend.

P.S. Yes, my middle name is Courtney. Yes, I'm okay with that.

Today is my 26th birthday, and Valerie gifted me a 7.25 quart Round French Oven from Le Creuset.

I christened it tonight by cooking some thin-cut eye round steaks and a nice pan sauce.

I have to say that this is one of the finest pieces of cookware I've ever used. I already own a fine cast-iron skillet, but this pot's heating was perfectly even. The enamel coating was a fantastic cooking surface as well allowing for just enough sticking while the meat seared along with easy release of the fond when I deglazed (using some sweet Marsala wine).

Looks like I'll be braising some beef short ribs again very soon.

Today I saw The Darjeeling Limited with my friend Dave, and I wasn't disappointed at all. Beyond the fact that the short, Hotel Chevalier, was actually included before the feature, the movie itself was outstanding on all fronts.

The acting was quite good with a great subtlety of expressions between the three lead roles. The direction, photography, and writing were what I expect from an Anderson film - far above the average auteur. I particularly resonated with the dysfunctionally fractured relationships between the brothers Whitman, and the touching moments accompanying their emotional healing.

Like most Wes Anderson works, I'd like to see this again that I might fully ingest the cinematic goodies contained therein, but it's safe for me to say this was 5 out of 5, and I'll surely purchase the film on DVD when it releases.

I just finished struggling through Paul Greengrass' United 93. This was Val's latest Netflix selection.

I give this film 3 out of 5, and not because it's horrible. The acting, in fact, is excellent, especially considering that the bulk of the actors were unknown. The film making was decent, reminding me instantly of Greengrass' more notable Bourne films (the last two). The problem was that I felt like a voyeur - spying on somebody else's tragedy. This movie exemplified the worst sort of dramatic irony; we know from the start that none of the real passengers survived, and the nearly two hours of build up to the inevitable tied my stomach in knots.

I'm not going to make any claims about the film appearing too soon after the September 11th attacks because I don't think it's possible to decide such a thing objectively. I think it was difficult for me on a personal level because of the connection to the memories of that day (seeing the footage of the second plane hitting the WTC in the context of the film was particularly hard). Perhaps, for that reason, it bothers me more than any other based-on-a-true-story narrative where people die. Whether this film was a pure tribute or a shameless act of profiteering matters little to me.

I just don't want to watch it again.

Even though I'm not impressed enough with Tumblr to make full use of it in place of my blog, that doesn't mean I'm not playing around with the app.

Today I noticed a really sweet detail, too. Check out this strip of icons below:



Now look really close at the top and bottom edges of each in the line. Do you notice how the top of the leftmost icon and the bottom of the rightmost icon aren't torn? Do you notice how every other torn edge of the seven icons match up with the adjacent icon's edges? The icons appear as if they started out as one thin strip of paper that's been torn into seven pieces.

Pretty clever, huh? I think the icons already look clear enough and nifty, but this extra touch shows me that they were designed with care.

Scoop08 is a political journalism site launching on Sunday, November 4th.

Sure, the political internet landscape is already littered with innumerable blogs and news organizations reporting on the goings-on in American halls of power, but this site purports to be something different. You see, Scoop08 is run by college students and recent graduates. While they have an impressive list of advisors, the entire journalistic team and editorial staff is comprised of young academics with widely varying backgrounds.

According to BBC News and Scoop08's own "trailer" (really?!?!) there will be increased coverage of issues and candidates typically neglected by mainstream media. With two editors each for Republican and Democratic reportage and but one for the over-broad category of Independents, however, the concentration of truly balanced content remains to be seen.

I hope this works out if only to provide an alternative to the major existing news outlets which depend on the sale of entertainment to satisfy shareholder requirements. It'd be nice, for a change to see political news reported for its relevance rather than its effect on ratings.

Daniel Day-Lewis has a certain menacing quality about him in certain films, and I get that same vibe when I watch the trailer for his forthcoming film, There Will Be Blood, the latest from writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson who brought us the incredible Punch Drunk Love.

There Will Be Blood releases the day after Christmas this year.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ml2Ae2SIXac&rel=1&w=425&h=355]

I saw this clever bookshelf on Design Within Reach:



The Opus Shelving System is inspired by a variation on the ancient Roman building technique of Opus Caementicium. This shelf reflects Opus Incertum, particularly.

I was fascinated by the different styles of wall facing, and particularly that it seems the bricks and/or stones are pressed into cement as the wall is constructed. This answered an interesting quandary for the Romans:

...for all its advantages, concrete had one major defect: it was unsightly. Once the wooden formwork was removed, it showed an ugly surface. In the beginning, its use was mainly restricted to substructures where noone would see it. Practical-minded as the Romans were, they solved the aesthetic problem by covering, or surfacing, concrete by another material which they deemed visually more satisfactory.

-- Roman Concrete by Professor Fikret Yegul, Department of History of Art and Architecture, UCSB

I'd say my favorite of the variations is Opus Reticulatum (or net-like work) where pyramid-esque blocks are pressed point-side into the cement to form a diamond pattern. You can see a great example here from Flickr user Angela Loporchio:

There's another fine article at A Brief Message today, and the piece about "making stuff" as a component of the design process is accompanied by delightful cutouts (Fabric? Paper?) of stuff-making tools.

Alright, I'm about to sound like a crazy drooling fan here, but DANG, go listen via WNYC's streaming link of The BQE.(sorry, it's stinkin' RealPlayer).

I am SERIOUSLY hoping this turns into an Asthmatic Kitty release in the very near future.

I was looking forward to seeing what came with the new incarnation of Tumblr that launched today, and I have to say that I'm really no more interested than I was the first time.

I can see the value in Tumblr for many folks - quick, easy posting of different media types in a clean and (seemingly) customizable format. There are still no comments, and this is a sticking point for me (but certainly not everybody). Sure, I only get a few now and again, but I still love the ability for readers to post relevant links and anecdotes. Additionally, I'm fairly comfortable with WordPress right now. I like the ability to use drafts, recognize multiple authors, and of course my beloved list of categories (and really, if I could see a list - not just auto-completing as I type - of tags I've used before, this wouldn't matter).

I'll probably keep playing with Tumblr just to see how usable it is...but between Twitter and this blog, it's difficult to see a compelling reason for me (personally) to use a "blogging lite" web app.

P.S. If you have Tumblr pointing to a sub-domain, is it possible to slap the Mint JS call in the HTML so your visits are tracked?

I found another German animated short film in a very different style (yet still essentially stop-motion), and while it's certainly more light hearted than Balance, it's equally well done and enjoyable.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kj3rT_yYCw8&rel=1&w=425&h=355]

Well now I've finally watched every feature-length Pixar film to date, and I've not been disappointed by a single one.

Tonight I watched A Bug's Life and enjoyed it from start to finish. This movie was definitely farther towards the "kid movie" end of the spectrum, but the story was endearing, the voice acting excellent, the sound editing incredible, and the humor delightful.

Easy 4 stars out of 5, and I can't wait for Wall-E to release next year.

Chiggity-check check this out:



My wife carved this awesome pumpkin because she rocks. Here's hoping this thing causes some smiles from our front porch tonight while the kiddies trick-or-treat in my neighborhood. I find this even more appropriate with the impending VCU Men's Basketball season.

When I want a treat for Halloween, I need only look to my dear McSweeney's.

You'd be amazed at how cheap razorblades are these days.

Recently, my friend Dave has been spamming me with links to choice articles from The Onion, and today was one of the best yet.

Even though this glorious nugget is nearly 11 years old, you could essentially substitute the years and it would be just as relevant.

I wrote about Jessica Hagy's indexed back in February this year, and fortunately for her, so have many others more important than me.

I found out today that she's releasing a book through one of Joel Turnipseed's first posts to Kottke.org - an interview with Ms. Hagy, in fact.

The book is titled, appropriately, Indexed, and releases February 28th of 2008.

I'm pretty sure I've seen this animated short film before (and perhaps some of you have, as well), but I'm certain I've never posted about it.

Wolfgang and Christoph Lauenstein's 1989 (and Oscar-winning) Balance paints a pretty bleak picture for those who's desires overcome the ability to work for the greater good.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJWT3p7uM6Y&rel=1&w=425&h=355]

Last night the Boston Red Sox swept the Colorado Rockies in the World Series. The only reason I knew it was game four was because I saw it in the Comcast program guide on my TV when I was checking why there might be no 8:15 NFL game.

I've never really been in to the Major League Baseball or the sport in general. As a child, I'd not played so much as t-ball, and though my Dad taught my brothers and I to throw, catch, and bat (he loved the sport, and initially went to college for it, I believe), it never stuck with me. I never owned a glove (that I can remember), never traded baseball cards, and didn't even see The Sandlot until I was in college.

Sure, I've been to a Mets game, I've rooted for the Yankees during World Series gone by. I've been to a few Richmond Braves games as well. But I've never been able to get into the game itself because of the tedium.

OH THE TEDIUM, particularly of the professional level. I don't care what psychological games are played between the pitcher and the batter or what-not - it's boring to watch the cold-molasses pace of a game with the batters forever stepping in and out of the box, practice swinging, spitting, chewing, scratching themselves. And the pitchers, too! Looking over their shoulders every now and again to try their hand at sending a potential base stealer back to the dugout. A baseball game can easily last three hours! And this isn't because it needs to. Baseball doesn't really have a clock like American Football, Soccer, Basketball or Hockey, so there's no pressure to do much in a timely fashion. And it shows. And all this for 162 games a year? No thanks.

I understand a televised NFL game runs for around 3 hours as well because of TV time outs, but at least the televised portion of the game primarily shows playing time instead of diddling around with your cleats or taking a fifth practice swing. Soccer is even better, I think, with near non-stop game play and minimal commercial breaks (usually during the half).

I titled this post because I feel that baseball's time has come and gone, and I don't feel bad about it for a second. The chart below shows the results of Gallup polls over the past 14 years:



Gallup has another poll about general sports popularity in the United States which seems to indicate that baseball is at best holding steady behind basketball as America's favorite sport to follow (11%) with football soundly in the lead at 43% as of December last year. Don't get me wrong - I'm not trying to suggest that the quality of the sport is in anyway correlated with its popularity, but it sure does support my feeling that baseball is on its way out.

And as far as I'm concerned, it can go.

I think I've finally hit the point where I'll just update WordPress manually from now on. This means no upgrading at the office, but I suppose I could be doing some WORK instead...

I just updated to 2.3.1, and as I suspected, it replaced the Themes folder and I had to add the JS line for Mint back into the header.php file. It'll be a much smoother transition if I just download the latest version and add in all the sub-folders one by one. At least I hope so :-)

If you're willing to wait for the long load time, you can check out Da Vinci's The Last Supper in 16 BILLION pixels of glory.

The navigation is straight forward enough, and though you can't see a large blown-up image of the complete work, you can zoom in to any section with great detail. The whole thing just became available today, so give it some patience and hopefully the web hosting will be adjusted soon.

Well what a fine cap to the end of a long but not-so-bad day! Val and I recently returned from the annual Maize Maze at the Belvedere Plantation. We hung out with our dear friends the Mansfields and wandered in the dark through...well...a giant maze cut out of a huge corn field, essentially.

The weather was perfect, and it was actually relaxing and entertaining to wander about through the narrow lanes, leaves brushing past our faces. Afterwards, we checked out some of the peripheral farm-like attractions and the little shop, and headed back to the casa.

I'm pretty sure tonight will be one of the finest nights of sleep I've had in ages.

P.S. As an epilogue on my Saturday of work, here's my verdict: Not so bad - at least this time. I didn't really have any daytime plans this weekend, so I don't as if I'd missed out on anything, particularly when the Mrs. would have put me to work in other ways about the house :-) I wouldn't look for this on a regular basis by any stretch of the imagination, but at least this first time was pretty easy on me.

Here's a brief movie review, both because I'm tired, and I have to pee quite badly :-)

4 stars out of 5 - The acting and story were both compelling, and David Fincher's capacity for keeping me on the edge of my seat for most of the 2.5 hours is brilliant. However, it WAS 2.5 hours, which I normally don't mind. Here, though, the length felt a bit excessively plodding at times. Still I was interested to see two very different men's lives descending deeper into their obsessive search for answers (one more so than the other...), and I'd recommend this film.

There were some fantastic shots as well, and I expect nothing less from the man who directed Fight Club and Seven. The long slow tracking shot from inside a car was a great early choice, with the Fourth of July Fireworks exploding in the background.

So tomorrow I'll drop the Netflix envelope in the mail slot when I work my Saturday away, and look forward to the arrival of a dramatically different film...