Effluvia

"Vhy, Mrs. Von Hoogenfeltder! Your close are all ovair zee flaar! If you do not get dressed I shall haff to faaaaaack you!"

Journals

• Bad Hair Days
• Plaintive Wail
• Humidity and Hebephrenia
• Randomly Ever After
• U9
• Fukushu
• Nature of life...
• DNA Sequencing

Siobhanorama!

Siobhan has left town. I'm leaving town. Coincidence? I think not!

Two Years Ago
An intercepted love letter.

May I recommend the new Placebo album, Black Market Music? I was driving down Veterans today with Slave to the Wage blasting and I felt like a teenager with a purpose. I've found as I get older it's harder to get excited about music. This album, though, has me all worked up.

Some reviews for Bjork's new movie, Dancer in the Dark:

Empire: "...amazingly powerful."

Entertainment Weekly: "...graced with a particular genius for absorbing the past to suggest an exciting cinematic future..."

Evening Standard: "A disaster in every department..."

Film Journal International: "...likely to alienate purists but may charm a younger audience..."

This is known as mixed reviews. I'll still go see, no matter what the Evening Standard says. Bjork's usually a better actor in her videos than most stars are in full length feature films.

(You know what the Evening Standard's motto is? "Read me on the tube, leave me on the tube." I swear, in London you have to shuffle through drifts of these papers at night after the ruch hour crowd has gone home.)

Looking at the news today...a British court has ruled that a set of Siamese twin girls can be separated, even though it will mean the death of one of the twins. If stay together, though, both will likely die.

To me it seems like an easy decision, but the parents were determined to not separate the girls, instead relying on "God's will." That's when the courts got involved.

I understand that it must be wrenching to have to choose to let one of your children die so that another can live. I also understand that religious beliefs can be very important to people.

But come on. The choice, while stark, is not complicated: do you want one child to survive, or none? And, if you leave things to God's will, both children will die. But couldn't it be part of God's will to give the doctor's involved the skill and intelligence to allow them to separate the children, saving one of them?

I think it's a little creepy when religious beliefs override the near-instinctual desire to protect children from harm. I mean, if one of these kids had a tumor and not removing it would be deadly would the parents have such a problem?

If so, then there's just no talking to them. The parents have promised to appeal this decision.

So what are you doing this weekend? I'm going to Memphis!

Yup, the Wife and Roxy and I are making our first homecoming since moving away some two months ago. I dread the drive (I made it far too many times in July), but I look forward to seeing the friends and family. We got to get on the road - I'll talk to you next week.