2007-08-16 - 1:36 p.m. Max Roach, R.I.P. I have done a couple of meditation retreats and weekly sessions at the I D Project, and have always liked the teacher, Ethan--I'm impressed that such a relatively young guy could be so grounded and knowledgeable about the practice. He is a good teacher, and I trust that his new book will be as funny and down-to-earth as he is. Wikipedia weirdness: "...Kat is said to have a 5 octave vocal range, comparable to Mariah Carey, Minnie Riperton and Captain Beefheart..." So Jonathan Franzen's memoir turned out to be great reading. The book is not organized around any theme, and it's not a strict chronology or autobiography, but I don't care, it's very humane and self-searching and funny. In one brilliant essay about the importance of the Peanuts comic strip (previously published in the New Yorker), he refers to Snoopy as a "sunny egoist," and that just cracked me up. The new Liars album is fun. Sunny egoists, they simply don't sound like anyone else, and all you can do is listen and enjoy their comically gothic (er, in the non-musical sense, not like they have Vendemmian hoodies) punk stylings. Netflix keeps lowering their membership price! I appreciate that as a completely unnecessary act of marketing generosity. Most companies only pull stuff like that when they're afraid of losing you. Netflix trusts that you are happy, and rewards your loyalty. Someone needs to start a magazine for bisexual folks and call it Bi Monthly. I'm not even gonna google that because I will be heartbroken if someone's already made that joke. thoughts? (15 comments so far) previous - next blog archive contact