RandomCha

Michael Phelps. BIG DEAL. I say, hooray!

• It’s amazing, the comforting effect of Me-TV. The other night Andy was very agitated. We watched about 20 minutes of "The Jeffersons" and he calmed right down. Weezie does that, makes you feel alright again. It was an early episode: she was wearing her hair pulled up tightly into a bun, and there was no Florence.
• Completely by accident, we have plenty of Super Bowl food on hand for this evening: leftover pizza, tacos, even Bagel Dogs. And we have no plans to watch the game; in fact, we have plans to actively avoid watching the game. Yet when we eat tonight, we’ll be eating as if we were watching it. For a few years we had this tradition of eating at Ranalli’s on Clark and then shopping at Tower Records during the Super Bowl. Obviously, when Tower Records went out of business it ended the tradition. Tonight, maybe instead we’ll do something wacky like watching back-to-back episodes of Moonlighting and Berlin Alexanderplatz.

Butley [1974]

1. He is handed a dirty glass with a drink in it, which he looks at dubiously.
2. The unwashed teacup on the corner of his desk.
3. He lights a cigarette on the tube and begins to read a child’s book of fairy tales, coughing vigorously as he smokes.

This trip is showing me a taste of what it’s like to be a business traveler. Aside from the actual work (which is more or less interchangeable no matter what one’s business actually is), the important signposts seem to be where you eat and where you drink. The business traveler is forced to rely on the shallow crutches of surface comfort: a good hotel, a good bed, good furnishings, good food, good drink. And this is a world largely populated by service staff. Waiters, cabdrivers, attendants. The world of the business traveler has only a tangental relationship to the actual locale, wherever it may be; it exists inside it but is not necessarily a part of it. Thus, the Hyatt Regency, as nice as it is, as well-appointed and luxurious, could also just as easily exist in Houston or Atlanta or Philadelphia. And does. And should. Because other shallow crutches of comfort for the business traveler are predictability and homogeneity. The bubble-world of the business traveler must exist in a modern, technologically-saturated urban environment. If he’s forced to travel somewhere that isn’t, you’ll only hear complaints afterwards. Screw the local color, the lives of the native residents, the landscape. If he can’t get decent wi-fi and a good steak, what value is all that?

First day was easy. In a bit I’m meeting up with some folks from work for a bite to eat. They’re asking me for a recommendation.

Here I am in Denver. On my computer, in my hotel room. Very nice digs. This is the first time I’ve taken my laptop on a trip, and certainly the first time I’ve ever blogged from a hotel room. Today it is 73 degrees here in Denver. I’ll be here till next Tuesday for work. The a/c in my room is obnoxious. I’ve already adjusted the thermostat twice to no avail. I guess it probably takes awhile. I’m feeling better than yesterday, that’s for sure, but my cold is still with me. I’ll go get a bite to eat, maybe walk around a bit. Get some rest tonight. Just about the moment I start feeling back to normal it’ll be time to start working. Que sera sera.

Some of the sweetest words ever spoken: "Former President George W. Bush."

What. A. Day.

Che: Part Two, Guerrilla [2008] 

1. The volunteer tells him he’s only 16. Che smiles and says, "At 16, a man knows what he wants." In Part One, Che had nearly rejected a volunteer who was that age, telling him he was too young. So why the change? A hint of desperation on the part of the movement, or a realization that age is irrelevant?
2. Castro explains how to make a mojito. "You must not crush the leaves."
3. "I will write to Sartre and Bertrand Russell and have them set up a fund for the Bolivian revolutionary movement."

I’ll have a longer post on Che tomorrow.