Hillary - blah blah

My initial thought on WikiLeaks is that they are doing a public service. If you can get Hillary Clinton to say such obviously hypocritical statements then you must be doing something write. It's very frustrating that the mainstream press just takes her blather verbatim without any context or analysis.
I love America but I do not support most US foreign policy. This is the kind of crap that makes foreigners dislike us.

Rich Rodriguez

Writing about Rich Rodriguez doesn't justify much effort, so I will write in phrases and utterances:
15-21 overall record
lost last two games by a combined 50 points
not a "Michigan Man", which almost makes sense to me now
porous defense
Harbaugh is worth a look and would hire if available.

People are attached to the sports teams. I suppose it fulfills some primal need to identify with an army or whatever. Some consider being a fan a virtue, I liken it to a disease. Why? Because I become physically ill when Michigan loses certain games. One that stands out was the loss to Purdue in 2000, a game they would have won if Lloyd Carr had a killer instinct. I was inconsolable after that game. Of course there have been many highs over the years, but they have been in short supply lately. I see why some people get riled up over particular sports teams. They identify with it so deeply that they feel injured when things go badly, or that something precious has been taken away from them without their consent.

Back to Rich Rodriguez. I'll simply state that I won't be upset if he is fired. If he comes back for another year then I will expect more than seven victories and fewer blowout losses. Anything less will require therapy.

author notes/White Shadow project

The author has been spreading himself too thinly lately and hasn't been able to post anything lately. Travel season is over but now basketball season has started. In keeping with my interest in basketball I will soon be blogging about The White Shadow. I just ordered the 1st season on DVD and will do an episode by episode analysis of the show.
I won't share too much about it now as it will be an act of rediscovery for me.
Hopefully in the next week or so this project will begin in earnest. Just to give you a taste, here is the original intro.

Goodbye Ryno

I'm saddened to see that Ryne Sandberg will not be returning to the Cubs next season. Luckily for me I've never been a Cubs fan as this would really bother me if I were.
Growing up in Michigan I got more exposure to the Cubs than just about all the other teams combined. I used to watch the Cubs games with Harry Caray and Steve Stone announcing and Ryne Sandberg seemed to be the 2nd baseman forever.
What happened? Ryne retired and eventually was voted into the Hall of Fame. Four years ago he took a minor league managerial position and worked his way up to AAA. The Cubs recently used the recycled Dusty Baker and Lou Piniella as managers. Piniella abruptly retired this season. An interim manager was named, and after the season the interim tag was removed.
Needless to say Ryne was disappointed. These types of these happen all the time in corporate America when promotions are given out. One day you can be too young and the next too old. Or be in favor with a boss and then out of favor with a new one. The list goes on. Some seem to have a better go of it.
I guess I identify with this case from growing up with Ryne and then living and seeing these disappointments in Corporate America. I hope he finds a better opportunity, and another team takes him on. It will be strange to see him in another uniform.

Andres Carne de Res

Probably the highlight of my recent trip to Colombia was a visit to Andres Carne de Res. Let me preface that this was recommended to me by Colombians, not American tourists. And I went there with Colombians.
Once I got over my self-consciousness about sticking out so much, I started to enjoy myself, and even hit the dancefloor during MJ's Don't Stop ('til you get enough). More on that later.

The bar/restaurant/club had three floors and three themes: hell, purgatory, and heaven. Staff are dressed up in costumes and wait on you or just act weird. It had as much 'flair' as a American restaurant but it didn't seem so calibrated. Also, the patrons seemed to be genuinely enjoying themselves. Great food, too.

As far as the dancing, I explained to my two Colombian companeras that I've really only been comfortable dancing to disco music. I also think that disco was popular partly due to the fact that it is fairly free-flowing and free of rules. History has been kind to disco and will only get better. 15 years ago in college I have fond memories of going to Disco Night and getting dressed up as a disco dancer.

Colombians definitely have some of the same spirit that Americans did in the disco era.

Bogota, Colombia part one

I just completed what will hopefully just the first of many trips to Colombia.
First impressions: I arrived to Bogota at 6 am on a Wednesday morning and was shuttled from the airport to the Radisson Hotel. It was a cool cloudy morning in the city of 7.3 million people. It is temperate year round because it is 2640 meters above sea level.
The hotel is beautiful. After a nap I went to the office for a few hours and was immediately struck about by how kind everyone is. That was a recurring theme on the trip.
The rest will have to wait until tomorrow.

Pane e tulipani/Bread and Tulips

Bread and Tulips in an Italian movie from 2000. It's a slow, enjoyable movie about a lady that is left behind by her family on a vacation and then goes to Venice for a vacation of her own. My favorite character from the movie is Fernando, played by Bruno Ganz. Two adjectives used to describe him in online reviews are wistful and diffident. Fernando plays an Icelandic immigrant that is a waiter. He speaks in a roundabout way that seems from a time long since past.
I recommend it unless you're bored by slow, foreign films. Aren't almost all foreign films slow?