blogodar - The Greatest Blog About Darius Razgaitis

GO BU!

2009-03-29T23:53:00.003-04:00

BU is on the road to a national championship and in the Frozen Four for the first time since 1997.

Woo hoo!

Click here for more: http://www.hockeyeastonline.com/men/recaps09.php?mbu_unh1.m29

-dr-

Who is Michael Bloomberg?

2009-03-11T08:49:00.000-04:00

Hilarious ending to this story:
http://gothamist.com/2009/03/10/nyc_economic_forecast_goes_from_dis.php

Do you think the lessons in Atlas Shrugged are applicable to today's economic situation? I've heard a couple people say (before last fall) "Those were different times, when Ayn Rand was writing." Are they so different any more?

Who is John Galt?

Great bad review

2009-03-08T20:26:00.001-04:00

Because sometimes it's extremely gratifying to read a merciless takedown:
New Yorker Movie Review: The Watchmen

“Watchmen,” like “V for Vendetta,” harbors ambitions of political satire, and, to be fair, it should meet the needs of any leering nineteen-year-old who believes that America is ruled by the military-industrial complex, and whose deepest fear—deeper even than that of meeting a woman who requests intelligent conversation—is that the Warren Commission may have been right all along.

-dr-

Ayn Rand as an Internet sensation

2009-03-02T15:01:00.000-05:00

This blog posting on BNET has already generated 168 comments, many of them very lengthy:

Why Do CEOs (Still) Love Ayn Rand? | BNET

Looks like Ayn Rand fans have a lot of time on their hands.

-dr-

Friday Music 2/27

2009-02-27T10:42:00.002-05:00

This week's mix is based on a selection of a bunch of favorites and new favorites discovered in the process:

Station based on:
- Wolf Parade
- Jimi Hendrix
- Vampire Weekend
- M.I.A.
- Ra Ra Riot

New finds I like:
- Death from Above 1979
- !!!
- Big Brother and the Holding Company (Janis Joplin)

Enjoy:

Slacker Radio Station: http://www.slacker.com/?sid=stations/12159596/1235683053

-dr-

The “Atlas Shrugged” index | Atlas felt a sense of d�j�vu | The Economist

2009-02-26T15:33:00.000-05:00

My thoughts exactly!

The “Atlas Shrugged” index | Atlas felt a sense of d�j�vu | The Economist

-dr-

Covert?

2009-02-21T10:54:00.002-05:00

The lead story on the NYTimes homepage right now is:
Obama Widens Missile Strikes Inside Pakistan

And here's the first paragraph:

WASHINGTON — With two missile strikes over the past week, the Obama administration has expanded the covert war run by the Central Intelligence Agency inside Pakistan, attacking a militant network seeking to topple the Pakistani government.

Not very covert now, is it? What does covert mean? Well, the NYT's annoying question-mark pop-up came in handy here. According to them, it's:
"Not openly practiced, avowed, engaged in, accumulated, or shown"

So something on the cover of the NYT is not openly practiced, avowed, engaged in, accumulated, or shown?

-dr-

Friday Music - Animals

2009-02-20T09:31:00.002-05:00

Been trying out new music services. Seeqpod has been great for creating playlists when I know exactly which songs I want to put on, but
I'm always on the lookout for new music. And Pandora is great for that. But, I've been trying out Slacker Radio, which has performed splendidly. So, this week's animal centric playlist brings you "the best music from Deerhoof and music from related artists like Grizzly Bear, Ponytail, and others including: Andrew Bird, Japanther, Wolf Parade, Animal Collective, Sparklehorse, Be Your Own Pet, Bearsuit, Caribou, The Dodos, Persephone's Bees and many more.

Here's the station:
http://www.slacker.com/?sid=stations/12159596/1235051446

An additional thing I like about Slacker Radio is that it seems I'll be able to continually update/tweak this station and the above link will still work. Anyway, enjoy the animals.

-dr-

Come to think of it...

2009-02-19T21:20:00.001-05:00

That quote in full is almost worse:
"The earth is littered with mangled cripples, who don't know what has hit them or why, who crawl as best they can on their crushed limbs through their lightless days, with no answer save that pain is the core of existence -- and the traffic cops of morality chortle and tell them that man, by his nature, is unable to walk."
-ayn rand, atlas shrugged

Not worse from the perspective of what she's saying, but how she's saying it. Mind you, this passage is told from the perspective of someone good trying to understand the perspective of someone evil in the world, but the analogy is weird. It's too indirect for Ayn Rand.

Ayn Rand nuts?

2009-02-19T21:11:00.001-05:00

Guys -- I think Ayn Rand is great, but taken out of context her stuff can be ka-razy sounding:
"The traffic cops of morality chortle and tell them that man, by his nature, is unable to walk."
- atlas shrugged

Traffic cops of morality?

Powering on.....

Bacon Explosion

2009-02-09T22:22:00.003-05:00

The Superbowl is quite the challenge. Particularly for people who are about a month into resolutions to take better care of their bodies. And it's made all that much worse when the New York Times features a recipe for something called Bacon Explosion on the front page a couple days beforehand.

Well, it's been more than a week since the Superbowl, and I now feel that enough time has passed to confront what was a woven blanket of bacon smothered in barbecue rub and sauce, covered in a layer of sausage and sprinkled with fried bacon rolled up into a loaf slathered with more rub and sauce and served in pinwheel slices.

Here's a video of my sister making one "from weaving to eating":

I hardly had it in me to eat my slice after all the snacking that took place beforehand: a vegetable board (rectangle pizza), guacamole, chicken fingers, wait, was that it? how is that possible?

anyway, the bacon explosion was not nearly as crispy as i had imagined it -- something i imagine would be at least somewhat remedied by sticking it on a grill instead of an oven. also, it took for-e-ver. something like 3 hours. hmmm.

in the video, i think you can hear my mom suggesting the addition of something healthy like spinach to the middle next time...

that might make it better, but certainly not baconier. fail.

now my goal is to transform this post into something i can stick on my work blog on digital business trends...hmmm...

-dr-

Bloomberg campaign staff life

2009-02-06T07:45:00.003-05:00

Here's an interesting look at the life of Bloomberg's top campaign staff. The volunteers had their inaugural meeting the other night, and boy am I glad this article didn't come out before that:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/06/nyregion/06perks.html

Well, while the volunteers don't get private jets and caviar, in 2005, we did get a couple open bars and at least one chance to shake hizzonner's hand.

-dr-

Blago vs Paxas

2009-01-30T15:17:00.002-05:00

Two disgraced politicians -- both impeached, both maintained innocence, both sellouts, both barred from taking oaths of office, both incredibly irritating, both with odd hair:

More on Paksas, the impeached Lithuanian president and Europe's first leader to be removed from office by the impeachment process: http://snipr.com/b0qvc
More on Blagojevich the impeached Illinois governor: http://snipr.com/b0r0i

Also, what's with our most disgraced politicians plotting comebacks?
Paksas: http://snipr.com/b0qya
Blago: http://snipr.com/b0qws

-dr-

The Bacon Explosion - Take Bacon. Add Sausage. Blog. - NYTimes.com

2009-01-28T07:52:00.003-05:00

Holy holy shamoley! This one of the most amazing things to cross the Internets in a long time:

The Bacon Explosion - Take Bacon. Add Sausage. Blog. - NYTimes.com

Readers, I challenge you to find a way to make this recipe into FOUR pounds of bacon! You can do it.

Also, is this the NY Times' sense of humor?

-dr-

In praise of Defiance

2009-01-16T10:00:00.001-05:00

I had the fortune of seeing current James Bond actor Daniel Craig's latest movie, Defiance, on New Year's eve during its early release. My run in with Tony Bennett later that night almost managed to push the movie from memory, but its excellence (and incessant advertising) has kept it top of mind.

The story of Byelorussian Jewish freedom fighters in WW2 was filmed entirely in Lithuania, with Reuters even dubbed Lithuania's role the "starring role." And my mom even got a line in the credits (at the very very end).

It's a gripping, interesting story that closely resembles the story of Lithuanian partisans who took to the forests to fight Nazis and then Commies. This has always been a topic of great interest to me, as I studied it in depth in college, and a paper I wrote on Lithuanian partisan warfare is even cited in the Wikipedia entry for Forest Brothers.

Both efforts involved hardscrabble men (and women) who
fought their enemies fiercely from their forest bunkers, tapping surrounding farms (friendlies and not so much) for food and drink, and stockpiling weapons from killed enemies.

The movie does a good job, I think, of displaying the wide array of types of people involved in the resistance: intellectuals, religious, old, young, families, moral and sadistic men.

It also continually asks: What use is morality when your enemies have none? Is freedom worth it when you have to fight and endure deadly conditions to have it? Is it reconcileable? Is it worth it?

The movie does a decent job of mitigating its portrayal of typical heroes. Craig's character vascillates throughout the movie between being a bloodthirsty vengeance-machine, and an inspiring and upstanding underground leader. The portrayal adds to the rawness of the partisan experience, and I do think Craig's performance greatly exceeds his Bond character (although his Scottish brogue peeks out and has no place in this movie).

That being said, there is one particular Liev Schreiber scene towards the end that was gag-inducing (the end of the tank scene).

However, Schreiber's character was very badass throughout the movie otherwise (New York Magazine called him a "surprisingly awesome Rambo stand-in.") One of his scenes did a particularly good job of displaying the choices between maintaining a semblance of normal life while fighting a brutal war (the snowy wedding sequence).

Since the movie was shot in Lithuania, it wasn't hard for me to imagine that this was actually a multi-million dollar Hollywood movie about Lithuanian partisans and not Byelorussian Jewish partisans..

Ed Zwick (Last Samurai, Blood Diamond) does a terrific job of delivering a realistic and moving experience, particularly right after the movie ends but before the credits begin to roll, when he shows actual images of the Bielski fighters. He had an interesting byline in the New York Times on filming the movie and the paradox of aggressive Jews in WW2 ("My grandfather Itchky was a tough Jew.")

So speaking of the credits, if you see it, which I think you should, stay till the end and keep your eye out for some Razgaitis love!

13 January, Lithuania

2009-01-13T12:00:00.000-05:00

On January 13, 1991, Soviet troops killed 14 Lithuanian civilians and injured hundreds in an attempt to reestablish control following Lithuania's declaration of independence the previous year.

It is a day of national mourning in Lithuania every year. Here's the Wikipedia entry on it:

January Events - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

-dr-

Google translate

2009-01-08T00:18:00.002-05:00

I don't know how long it's been in play, but Google Translate now includes Lithuanian. My first test was to translate "blog":
http://translate.google.com/translate_t?hl=en#en|lt|blog

It came out as "internetinis dienoraštis," which is sort of like saying "web log" or "internet diary."

My second search was for "wicked":
http://translate.google.com/translate_t?hl=en#en|lt|wicked

Which funnily enough comes out (correctly) as "blogis."

Wicked has been on my mind because Ellen and I went to see the Broadway Wicked tonight. I'm not a huge fan of musicals, but I will admit that this one was pretty damn good. It's the back story of the Wizard of Oz, focusing on how the "bad" witch and "good" witch ultimately transform to assume those roles.

As with the Wizard of Oz, there are anti-totalitarian overtones, pro-revolutionary messages, and some interesting explorations of manipulation, insecurity, and power. Hmmm...sounds like the birthday gift Aras got me:
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

Looking forward to reading Wicked, the book too.

-dr-

One Day in Africa

2009-01-06T14:46:00.000-05:00

My friend Jill's boyfriend is putting out a movie he filmed in Africa following several peoples' lives:
One Day in Africa

Part of the film takes place in Malawi, where another good friend was working at the time at a midwifery clinic. Click on profiles and Bridgete for the Malawi trailer. Looks like an awesome film!

-dr-

Spielberg vs. Warhol

2009-01-05T10:13:00.001-05:00

In case you hadn't seen this yet, a perfect internet sensation taking off right now:

"I Had Radio in My Teeth!": When Spielberg Met Warhol

Andy Warhol "interviews" Andy Warhol as Bianca Jagger looks on. Very weird.

Friday Music - Early and late

2008-12-31T09:46:00.001-05:00

Just a great music recommendation: Forro in the Dark. They opened for Gogol Bordello last night at Webster Hall and were amazing. Check them out: http://forrointhedark.com/

-dr-

Friday music - The Go! Team

2008-12-12T09:38:00.001-05:00

This week's list features a great band I discovered via NYC TV's New York Noise: The Go! Team.

Dance-y rock with harmonicas and clapping thrown in. What's not to like? Great for a depressing / frustrating Friday.

Enjoy:
http://www.seeqpod.com/search/?plid=93445a212a

Birth / pregnancy articles

2008-12-10T10:32:00.002-05:00

A slew of pregnancy articles I've noticed lately:

NYT Magazine: Her Body, My Baby
WSJ op-ed reponse: Rent-a-Womb Is Where Market Logic Leads
NYT Motherlode blog: 70-Year-Old Woman Gives Birth

Also, not quite sure how this happened, but eclampsia beat out blahojevich on Google trends yesterday. And then parthenogenesis and virgin birth came in at #3 and #5....what's going on?

Google Hot Trends Dec 9:

1. eclampsia
2. blagojevich
3. parthenogenesis
4. rod blagojevich
5. virgin birth

**UPDATE 1**
From the Business of Being Born website:

Ricki Lake and producer Abby Epstein visited Anna May Gaskin on "The Farm":
http://www.thebusinessofbeingborn.com/blog/2008/12/09/down-on-the-farm/

Friday music 12/5

2008-12-05T18:24:00.001-05:00

Getting in the Christmas mood. Have my yule log screensaver going, lights are up, listening to a Pandora jazzy xmas station (sponsored by HP and Intel, awww yeah).

http://www.pandora.com/?sc=sh46856701647164846

Green birth

2008-12-03T12:18:00.001-05:00

Here's a link to ecomii's section on green delivery:
Weighing the Options of How to Deliver

See towards the bottom of this page for info on choosing a midwife. They say:

Many women find that they can fulfill their desire to have a green birth more easily with the help of a midwife rather than with a physician, simply because the midwife often has more control over the environment in “her” birthing room. Unlike a busy physician, who usually is attending to other patients while a woman is in labor and under the care of hospital staff (and then pops in to deliver the baby), a midwife may stay with the expectant mom throughout the entire process and therefore be able to advocate with the staff and supervise the implementation of her green labor and delivery.

Do people really think of their environmental responsibility when considering birth options?

Friday music 11/28 - halfhearted thanksgiving mix

2008-12-01T13:48:00.001-05:00

Thanks, enjoy:

http://www.seeqpod.com/search/?plid=a58b6b15be