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Laziness Toppled Sense

It's stupid because I stood there looking at the subwoofer, thinking to myself, "Now, how should I get this thing out of the box?"

I knew what needed to be done, but, in the end, laziness toppled sense and I proceeded to (very carefully) disregard everything I know about lifting things: Bend your knees, keep your back straight, etc.

I didn't feel a thing when it happened. In fact, I thought to myself, "Hey, this is easier than I imagined."

It wasn't until I had the PSB SubSeries 5i out of its box and on the floor in front of me that, with an "Aw crap" and an "Oh that…

How Bees Sees

Flowers, it seems, have secrets that the honeybee's ultraviolet vision reveals.

Incredible Story

On the advice of Gavin J. Grant, who is guest-blogging Blog of a Bookslut, I read Margo Lanahan's "Singing My Sister Down" this morning. Now I can't stop thinking about it.

Far Too Good For Ladies

Sam Leith gets the spa treatment.

Mass Transit

This might be the hottest day of the year. It feels like a hundred degrees out there. It's really hot. On what might be the hottest day of the year, all of our bus and subway systems — connecting Manhattan to Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and, of course, New Jersey — were absolutely crippled.

Just like me. But not by a subwoofer.

The heaviest, most explosive thunder I've ever heard, accompanied by the brightest, most shocking lightning I've ever seen, erupted through the early morning, setting off car alarms and waking entire neighborhoods. I got up and pee'd. Not on…

"Man!"

It was no surprise that Charlie Haden and Kenny Barron struck such rich chords Tuesday night at the Blue Note, the first in a series of duet concerts that Haden, one of the great bass players in jazz, is headlining—six nights, four different pianists—at the club in Greenwich Village. Haden is best known as the bassist in Ornette Coleman’s original quartet, but it’s a mistake to tag him as a “free jazz” musician, in the usual sense. Above all, Haden is a romantic—he loves ballads and waltzes, he plucks a thick, juicy tone—and Barron is a lush balladeer. A few moments in the opening set didn’t…

Rerunning Film Noir

Richard Schickel ruminates on an American art form.

Don't Believe Everything You Read

Mitch Albom's essay on Barry Bonds is so sharply written I can almost forgive him for the two hours I spent reading The Five People You Meet In Heaven that I will never get back.

Hits and Misses

I'm a total Neil Gaiman fanboy, so I'm giddy with anticipation of the theatrical release of Stardust tomorrow. I just re-read the book and was delighted to find it as charming as when I first devoured it in 1999.

The film will obviously be a very different experience, but I have high hopes that it's going to be a corker. Is there any chance it will be a hit? John Scalzi parses that question and concludes that it might pleasantly surprise its studio, which is close enough.

Manwhile, over at The Huffington Post, Robert J. Elsiberg points out that a lot of "flops" really aren't.

Deep Linkage

Cafe Aman posts an Antonio Machado poem, thanking Osvaldo Golijov for introducing him to it. I wish I could name drop OG—I think that he and Jennifer Higdon are the most consistently satisfying composers writing today.

It is a nice poem, though.