# (1) 05 Apr 2013, 02:05PM: Feed:
Last night I informed Leonard that there exists a TV show called "Say Yes To The Dress." He conceived of a reality/game show where mothers from various stereotypically-moms-overfeed-guests-and-children cultures make food and try to feed each other's children, and whoever gets the kids to eat the most wins. So, an Indian mom feeds Jewish kids, the Jewish mom feeds Italian kids, etc., etc. "Say Yes To The Food" was his original title but I reminded him that reality shows these days need "Wars" in the title (e.g., "Storage Wars"). This to him explained the success of The History Channel and its hit show "War Wars."
Infomania told me about "The Deadliest Warrior" -- surely "Deadliest War" could get greenlit? The research would be reasonably easy.
# 06 Apr 2013, 11:19AM: Griping:
I get sick more often than I'd like. Part of this is because of travel, no doubt -- the stress of travel and my inevitable sleep deprivation lower my immune system's defenses, and new exciting people pass me germs, thus achieving their marketing departments' dreams of virality. But I think some of it is stress and lack of exercise. I feel overwhelmed a lot, and the defensive reaction is to huddle on my couch with my laptop and dither. This is not helpful. Also, I live where I have to do a bunch of planning to get anywhere really nature-y, which makes it harder. And I travel often enough that I don't want to sign up for a regular group activity and then miss it a lot and burden my groupmates.
I want to come to solutions eventually but right now I just want to sulk a bit.
# 16 Apr 2013, 10:51PM: Speak 'n' Spell:
A sign that my brother-in-law is truly part of the family: he can easily spell "Harihareswara" on the phone to customer service representatives.
Aparna Nancherla (@aparnapkin): "Success is people saying your name right".
My last name isn't the easiest handle for others to grasp (as discussed previously on Cogito, Ergo Sumana). But my sister Nandini is very much on her way towards getting movers, shakers, and journalists to learn how to say our name. She recently co-presented "the implications of survey results from 11 African nations that shed light on payment and money transfer behavior in African households" (video).
She's turned her MBA and international affairs expertise towards solving the new last mile problem. I am a sucker for tales of local expertise and whiz-bang technology joining forces, especially in reducing the costs of information transfer or easing financial transactions (Indian example, Russian example). And she's become one of those experts and innovators! Both of us are into pretty rockin', worldchanging fields, and we've actually made it to the points in our careers where we have interesting conversations about work (in between sharing travel plans, going over our mom's health, and complaining about Aaron Sorkin's sudden inability to write interesting women).
(Side note: I am not on Facebook, but every two years or so I check on a few of my high school acquaintances -- specifically on what they've accomplished in their careers. We've gotten to the point where some of them are high school principals, or HIV policy experts, or sociology researchers. Always a bit of a brainbend. Of course, then there are the ones for whom the most recent mention Bing can find is an arrest record.)
Anyway. They got over Deukmejian, they'll deal with Harihareswara.
# 17 Apr 2013, 07:32AM: Early Morning Soundscape:
Rain on the air conditioning unit.
The susurration of pills inside vials -- the few slow clicks of big gel capsules versus the quiet tumble of small solid tabs.
Birdsong, far away.
The laptop fan, and the rhythms of my fingers tapping at the keyboard.
My joints cracking as I roll my neck in a tight circle.
Inhaling, exhaling, then yawning as I turn to work.
# 20 Apr 2013, 08:16AM: The General:
Oh my goodness, Buster Keaton's The General is AMAZING. Aside from being a little pro-Confederacy. Seriously, there is no reason this movie has to be about someone fighting for the racist traitors -- you could just switch sides and it would make just as much sense. Anyway, it has mindblowing stunts, jokes that stand up, and a protagonist who (unlike Chaplin's Tramp) is a hard-working competent guy. It makes me so happy to remember the look on his face the moment after something wacky happens -- sort of a scientist's resignation. Recommended.
# (2) 22 Apr 2013, 08:39PM: Naming Opportunities:
"Additional naming opportunities within the Museum are also available."
Things to name include:
- An individual flavor of cupcake in the museum café (would you like chocolate, vanilla, or Leonard Richardson Memorial Strawberry?)
- A stair step
- The donation box
- A security camera
- The ceiling (the plaque would have to be huge!)
- A coathanger in the coatroom
- A paper-towel dispenser in the restroom
- A mannequin in the costume exhibit
- One of the stanchions in the ticket line
- The Asteroids machine
- An exit sign
# 24 Apr 2013, 12:24PM: The Perilous Life of Jade Yeo:
"I had tea with the intolerable aunt today," begins Zen Cho's short and fast-moving The Perilous Life of Jade Yeo. (Guardian review.) It is so great. You can read it for free online, and then - even if you don't much like speculative fiction - you will understand why scifi/fantasy fans have been burbling about Zen Cho for the last few years. After you read it, check out the afterword and comments.
# (1) 26 Apr 2013, 08:37AM: Breakfast Conversation:
"You can look up [shop name] to get the address. They have a map and everything."
"Oh I already did it."
"I did it thirty-five minutes ago."
"Well, I did it about five minutes ago."
"Shorter Watchmen."
And:
"Man, Mountain Goats would be just the worst songs to put into commercials. But in your arms, in your arms / I buy vegan shoes..... Like, remember when Devo did those ads where they turned 'Whip It' into 'Swiff It'"?
"Yeah, but that's not surprising, because Mark Mothersbaugh has written a lot of music for commercials."
"Yeah, but imagine some Devo fan who doesn't know that, but to whom Devo is really important, and they see that, and are like 'Aaargh!' And, like, there were probably fans to whom They Might Be Giants is, like, an anti-selling-out-machine, and then they did the Dunkin' Donuts ads."
I am listening to The Sunset Tree over and over because I just listened to a great interview with John Darnielle, Mountain Goats frontman.
# 26 Apr 2013, 06:06PM: "Thoughtcrime Experiments", Four Years On:
Four years ago today, Leonard and I released Thoughtcrime Experiments, an anthology of original speculative fiction and art. It's still an enjoyable collection to read, so check it out. The authors and artists continue to publish and thrive, and I get to call them mine, but not in a creepy way! With Ken Liu especially it's thrilling that I got to play a part in the restarting of a career that's so spectacularly taken off. And how it delights me that Mary Anne Mohanraj has written a collection in the world of "Jump Space"!
I still stand by my conclusion from a few months after the initial release: to me, turning nonreaders into occasional sci-fi readers, and occasional readers into rabid readers, is a more interesting unsolved problem than curating and editing unpublished art and turning it into published art. I applaud K. Tempest Bradford's regular short fiction recommendations, for instance. But I'm superglad for the editors who love editing! Yay for writers, readers, editors, and marketers! And I understand making stuff better because I did it. You can do it too.
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