Struggling to determine if I still like Tom Brady after he announces an endorsement deal with Uggs women’s boots…
Earlier this year GQ magazine ran a great oral history of the making of GoodFellas. Lots of fun tidbits therein. I find these oral histories to almost always be total winners. E.g., previously GQ had an oral history of the making of Dazed and Confused (my Googling is coming up empty on that, sorry).
Fluxblog, a great music blog, has its year-end “survey mix” of material from 2010. Eight discs worth of MP3s to download and check out.
Very fun new tower defense game for iPhone/iPad (universal app): iBomber Defense. I’ve been enjoying it over the last couple days. Here’s the Touch Arcade review.
Earlier this year, I shifted my daily links to the sidebar (Links of Interest?). The downside of the move is that I can’t add any commentary–or rather, it doesn’t show up in the sidebar. I’m going to reverse that move starting today and add some additional thoughts.
James Fallows summarizes the state of security thinking in the US, in light of the recent TSA kerfluffle. As I was telling Vanessa last night, my big issue with the “nude” x-ray machine, enhanced patdowns, etc., is that they don’t make me any safer than under prior security measures, but instead are part of security theater. Fallows touches on this in his post. If I felt that these measures represented a change in thinking in the TSA, a move away from responding to the last near-miss (in this case, the Christmas 2009 underwear bomber), I would be willing to give up some convenience and some dignity. Until then, the TSA is just another source of frustration in my life.
Loving Coffee Without Being a Drip: amusing story from NY Times food critic Frank Bruni on his search for a better coffee experience than Mr. Coffee and the French press. He mentions the Japanese V60 system, which Ritual in SF switched to from French presses earlier this year. I’ve been using the Bialetti stovetop espresso maker lately, as the chalkiness of French press coffee is getting tiresome, and may give the V60 system a try.
Here’s my current reading list, with links to Amazon:
Racing in the Rain by John Horsman. This is a beautiful (and expensive) book by the head of the Gulf-Wyer racing team that had its heyday in sports car racing in Europe in the ’60s and ’70s. Heavy paper stock, great layout and some evocative photos round out this account of running a racing team.
Overhaul by Steven Rattner. Rattner is an investment banker that led the forced-bankruptcy process for GM and Chrysler. So far, an entertaining and fast read.
System of the World by Neal Stephenson. This is volume 3 in sci-fi author Stephenson’s “Baroque Cycle”, a trilogy of really long historical fictions set in 17th and 18th century Europe and New England. The first two volumes have been good, but really long and almost too complex in the web of characters–Stephenson is reaching for epic territory here, in scope and length. I prefer “Snow Crash” and “Cryptonomicon,” two earlier novels from Stephenson that are set in the 20th century and focus on science fiction more than historical fiction.
Blake and I traveled from our respective coasts to Denver for this past weekend’s Great American Beer Festival and some good times with Chris and Kristi. Denver has a far better restaurant scene than I expected, and I’ve had some tasty meals in my visits to the Mile High City since the Waltons moved there. Especially well represented are good breakfast/brunch joints, something that San Francisco does only passably well (jury is still out on NYC–too little information so far).
Brunch at Root Down
Highlights from this most recent trip include French toast biscuits at the Atomic Cowboy (a bar serving breakfast biscuits until 2pm, with a pizza joint also located inside) on Friday morning; an SF-caliber meal at Colt & Gray on Saturday night–shame it was so cramped inside, though; and breakfast at Root Down on Sunday morning. Mmm…
That’s from this awesome video rant about why pennies and nickels are epic failures, and it sums up my view of them. I’d rather just throw them away than waste time dealing with the worthless coins. Hat tip to Marginal Revolution for the link.
