For Yankees Fans:

According to The New York Times, which is clearly the ultimate authority on Life, The Universe, and Everything, the Yankees suck.

“The Yankees have kind of sold themselves to Satan and brought in bad-feeling people like Randy Johnson and Giambi,” Mr. Mayer said, referring to the surly 6-foot-10 pitcher and the first baseman Jason Giambi, who was implicated in a steroids scandal. “The Mets have now become a more feel-good team.”

I rest my case.

23 Minutes After the Church Bells

I had planned on assiduously avoiding any September 11 commentary, but I really liked The Daily News' cover today.

Random Blog of the Week

Process Recess is the blog of James Jean, an SVA grad who lives in Los Angeles and has had illustrations published in the NYTimes, the LA Times, WIRED magazine, and The Rolling Stone. His work is a mesh of Photoshop effects and hand-drawn art, often with a political twist. Very interesting, definitely worth some browsing time. His website provides an archive of illustrations, paintings, and comic book covers, and his blog shows a little more behind-the-scenes work.

Lesson #524 in Internet Etiquette

Sending naked photos of yourself to strangers, however, is an even worse idea.

Note to Self:

Plucking eyebrows while feeling vindictive & irritated is a bad and painful idea.

And That's The Way It Shouldn't Be

How about, "My journalism is fake and so is my hair"? No?

The Decemberists - The Crane Wife

Thanks to Jon, I've managed to secure a copy of The Decemberists' newest album (not scheduled for release until October 3, actually), The Crane Wife. The album's title (and a quarter of the music) is derived from a Japanese fable, quoth Wikipedia:

The Crane Wife is an old Japanese folk tale. While there are many variations of the tale, a common version is that a poor man finds an injured crane on his doorstep (or outside with an arrow in it), takes it in and nurses it back to health. After releasing it, a woman appears at his doorstep who he falls in love with and marries. Because they are in need of money, his wife offers to weave great silk cloths that they could sell at the market, but only if he agrees never to watch her when she is making it. They begin to sell them and live a comfortable life, but he began to make her weave more and more. Not noticing his wife's diminishing health, his greed increases and he eventually peeks in to see what she is doing that makes the silk she weaves so desirable. He is shocked to discover that at the loom is a crane plucking feathers from her body and weaving them into the loom. The crane, seeing him, flies away and never returns.

The music is a far cry from some of their earlier, cheerily-upbeat-yet-slightly-snarky songs, but certainly enjoyable. Have a listen:

The Decemberists - The Crane Wife 1 and 2
The Decemberists - Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then)
The Decemberists - Sons and Daughters

A Visit to Central Park

Spitzer for Governor

The New York Times endorses Eliot Spitzer for NY Governor.

(Who wouldn't?)

Eliot Spitzer stands so tall this election season that some New Yorkers might be excused for thinking he is governor already ... The attorney general is running for governor with a national prestige and statewide popularity that could give him extraordinary power to impose change on the backward and recalcitrant State Legislature. Mario Cuomo and George Pataki both came into office with the intention of being a reformer in some important way, but neither man arrived with the independent political strength that Mr. Spitzer could bring to the job.

It's a thoughtful side-by-side, and it's refreshing to hear that -- for once -- voters are choosing between two good candidates and not trying to figure out which is the least noxious.

Site Update

I'm in the middle of completely redesigning my photo website, so take a look and let me know what you think of the layout. The old one was horribly confusing and convoluted; I'm trying to make this one cleaner. Some of the pages haven't been uploaded yet, but the general idea is there.