Hey, you know what was cute? When James Earl Jones sung the National Anthem at Baltimore and had a WTF moment because apparently no one had told him the whole crowd chants “OH!” really loudly at the part of the anthem.

Somehow I doubt your article, “Fans who yell ‘Oh!’ during national anthem are tainting a moment meant to unite Americans” (The Washington Post, 5/19/12) is really about “the class and dignity of people who appreciate the national anthem as the last bastion of Americana we can all stand behind” and more about you being upset the O’s won the series. (Shock).

Go O’s!

After collecting my laundry from downstairs, I saw my older cat eying me from the ledge of my window. Not the kitchen window, the main window. I’d call it the living room window, but this is a studio. Actually, “living room” takes on a lot more literal sense in a studio. So I said, “Alright, cat, let’s get you some breakfast.” And I looked about for the younger cat, but she wasn’t sleeping on the bed, so I figured she’d come out when she heard the opening of the can.

Guy was, of course, right at my feet as I opened the can, but it wasn’t his voice I heard cry. I looked around at my feet for Tippy, but she was nowhere to be seen. Which is weird because it isn’t like my kitchen is particularly large. It’s actually impossible for the cats to hide anywhere in here. There’s nowhere they can hide. I figured Tippy was ducking out of sight into the foyer.

And then I saw her. She was on top of the fridge. I have no idea how she got there. Sure, she could get up on the microwave table and make the jump, but how could she land? Atop my fridge is, among other things, a radio, a case of bottled water, a collection of bottle caps. The fridge is basically surplus kitchen storage.

One of the great things about my apartment is that because of its shape (an L) and the position of the building, it’s flooded with natural light in the morning. This can actually be a bad thing in the summer because it can get really really really warm in here. In any case, Tippy’s fur was warm and I knew she was just toasting herself. I’ve never seen her up there before, so I don’t know if that’s her regular hideout, or just some place she decided to investigate.

Anyway, I helped her down, and then she had to fight for access to the food bowl.

In early March I was asked to come in for an in-office interview with the organization I’ve been in the process with for the last several months. While I’m not going to identify the organization, I’ll say it’s a large private employer in DC, and neither the Federal or local government. The interview was on a Friday, I was informed the reference check was beginning the following Monday, and after a long week of looking at my phone wondering why it wasn’t ringing, it finally rang Friday afternoon after I’d left work.

They offered me the job, and I very happily accepted.

I spent that night at the Cinecave mopping up water after two of the men’s room urinals broke, but that was fine. I was on Cloud Nine. Still am. I gave my notice to the Cinecave that night, and on Monday, I gave my notice at my day job. (This was six weeks ago).

The day I gave notice was a Monday. The following Saturday was my four year anniversary at the job. Market Research. Up in Bethesda. For four years my commute had been a walk to the Metro, a train ride up to Grosvenor, and a bus ride to the office. The department’s been in turmoil: our director left in December, a new VP is starting later in April, and our interim head is a Croatian national who was once possibly a mercenary, and who in any cases enjoys plotting takeovers of small island nations and discussing the merits of an AK-47 over any other firearm available.

I stopped into his office mid-afternoon and told him I was leaving.

He went through the four stages of grief:

1. He thought I was joking.
2. He said a very many nice things about me and asked what the fuck he was supposed to do with me gone?
3. He insulted my work.
4. He asked about what I’d be going and gave me some general advice.

Oh, and ballsy? My job offer was conditional pending a background check. Fortunately, it all came out ay-oh-kay, but I didn’t actually find that out for a few days.

Tomorrow is the start of my fifth week. The new office is walking distance to my apartment, and I’ve been walking: a lot. I’ve taken the Metro a handful of times, but if I’m not going to walk (foot hurts, rainy, whatever), I actually prefer to catch the bus. I’m in a much smaller group and I’m slowly getting to know everyone there. My second week, I was involved in interviews for our potential new boss (which was kinda weird, since I was new to the organization, the group, and the job as a whole).

I’ve been out of DC once since I started (this is NOT a complaint) — that was last weekend, to go to a “Happy Spring!” cookout.

It’s a little strange. I’ve kept up until recently a 7am-3pm work schedule. Now I’m on an 8:30-5pm work schedule. The afternoons feel so much shorter. And at the same time, I’m now sleeping in far later than I had been. I’m waking up at 7:30. Which might seem early but, really, isn’t at all. I have business cards — hundreds, maybe thousands of them, I dunno, they came in a big long box. I’m off to the midwest for a conference this summer … I’m looking forward to the conference, but not necessarily the flight (…anyway).

Okay. So I just wanted to get this post out there. I’ve been enjoying my free time, although I haven’t been using it quite as productively as I’d like. That’ll come in time.

There are lots of reasons I like this commercial. For one thing, most (if not all) of these stores are located in D.C. Idle Time Books is a fifteen minute walk from my apartment, and one of my favorite bookstores. I was wondering if Amex had made different commercials for different markets, but since this is the video on their “Small Business Saturday” page, I assume not.

Which is awesome.

Oh – and – who am I kidding? All bookstores are “one of my favorites.”

I’m going to the roof with a beer. Anybody whose job title is “Network Administrator”? I don’t know how you guys do what you do but you’re way underpaid and undervalued, in my own personal humble opinion. And if you’re in the DC area and open to a house call, please, let me know.

This time watching it, though, something about it really, really, really bothered me. I’m not quite certain why I never quite noticed it before.

The movie hit theaters in 1991. I remember seeing it three times on the silver screen. I bought the VHS when it came out, and I owned the laser disc, and I’ve owned the special edition DVD for several years. I’ve probably seen it at least two dozen times – possibly more. While I think Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is a great film, Star Trek VI has always been my favorite of the Trek films.

Most importantly, it’s the most topical of the films. Star Trek’s best episodes were a reflection of the times in which they were produced. So it’s fitting that Star Trek VI used the Federation and the Klingons as a mirror for the United States and the Soviet Union as the Berlin Wall came down and the Cold War thawed. From references to Adlai Stevenson’s “Don’t wait for the translation, answer me now!” from his appearance at the United Nations during the Cuban Missile Crisis, to Chekov’s “Guess who’s coming to dinner?” after Kirk invites Gorkon’s delegation aboard the Enterprise for dinner, to a speech made by Brock Peters (To Kill a Mockinbird‘s Tom Robinson) as xenophobic Admiral Cartwright that was so painful the actor required multiple takes to choke it out.

As the climax of the film approaches, Kirk & McCoy have been rescued from a Klingon prison planet, and the Enterprise is presumably being hunted by Starfleet as the ship has refused orders to put back to space dock. The character of Vulcan Lieutenant Valeris, introduced for the film and portrayed by Kim Cattrall, has been exposed as a member of the conspiracy to disrupt the peace talks. Under interrogation she refuses to answer questions pertaining to who is part of the conspiracy and what their next steps are.

Spock refuses to accept her refusal to speak. He forcibly applies a mind-meld. Vulcans are telepaths (primarily contact, i.e., they have to be touching you) and the mind-meld is a technique to read someone else’s mind. There are two occasions that I can recall of a non concentual mind meld in Star Trek. In the episode Mirror Mirror, “evil” Spock mind melds with Dr. McCoy to determine the intentions of “our universe” Kirk, Scotty, and Uhura who are trying to return to the correct universe.

This scene in Star Trek VI is the second instance.

It’s always been disturbing. This time more than I remember it in the past. Valeris tries to resist Spock’s mind-meld, but she breaks. She reveals the names of the conspirators: Admiral Cartwright … General Chang … the Romulan ambassador …

Here’s the scene:

In the audio commentary with Director Nicholas Meyer (who also helmed Wrath of Khan) and writer Denny Martin Flynn, one of the two — I think Meyer — remarks that the scene was supposed to be “erotic.” Um. Or just excruciatingly painful. Also bizarre that a scene of, basically, invasion of privacy and torture would be considered “erotic.”

Spock is Valeris’ mentor. Earlier in the film he tells her that he plans on leaving Starfleet, and he intends for her to succeed him as the Enterprise’s science officer. She tells him she’s scared of an unknown future, but he does not listen to what she’s really saying: she’s afraid of a Federation without the Klingons as an adversary. So here he is – betrayed by someone who didn’t listen to him when she should have, and now the two powers are on the verge of war, his friends Kirk & McCoy have just barely not been killed, and he’s probably up for charges of desertion if Starfleet ever gets their hands on him.

So he … what? Rapes her? I mean, not sexually. But if Star Trek is an allegory for the modern world, what is the mind meld an allegory for? And isn’t rape about power, not sex?

Does Spock violate Valeris? Yes. Does it project his power and cause her pain? Yes.

Maybe Star Trek VI took literary cues not only from Shakespeare but also from the work of John le Carre. Neither sides are innocent, and even a moral man will stoop the lowest of the low to achieve his goal. Hey – but Chang dies and the Federation and the Klingons become fast friends. All’s well that end’s well, right?

Roughly two years ago, I began using this avatar:

This was taken at work, by one of the guys on my team. Those are his aviators I’m wearing. In fact, you might see him in the reflection of the glasses.

Last summer, I asked my friend Baker (who used to write Fanfare from the Common Wombat, which is still a great read — all about art & poop) to illustrate a new banner for me as part of a site redesign. That redesign is still on hold, and I really need to get talking to him about the banner again. In any case, I’ve been using the next image as my Twitter and Facebook avatar for over half a year now:

Many, many months ago, a guy on Twitter said he would sketch the avatars of people who follow him. His name is Greg Burney. This was, as I said, many many many months ago, and I’d completely forgotten that I’d followed him until this afternoon, waiting on the edge of a table in my doctor’s office with my left sock and shoe off (the diagnosis is plantar fasciitis, if you’re curious), checking my iPhone (the doctor wasn’t in, yet) and saw Burney’s tweet:

So here’s Burney’s sketch. And it’s my current Twitter avatar:

I was very sad to learn that Ralph McQuarrie passed away Saturday. If you don’t know who he is, George Lucas commissioned him to create concept art of the Star Wars characters.

A gallery of his collected work can be found here.

But … over the course of the month …

Never Let Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
The Descendants by Kaui Hart Hemmings
The Comedians by Graham Greene
Dog Day Afternoon by Patrick Mann
What Was She Thinking? [Notes on a Scandal] by Zoë Heller

The last three I picked up last week during a twenty minute wait for the L2 after jumping off the D6. I knew it was going to be trouble stopping in to Second Story Books but I did it anyway, so I only have myself to blame. The first two I bought because the trailers for both of the films based on the books made me curious about, interestingly enough, not the films, but their source material. The remaining book I bought because I still don’t believe that the screenplay adapted from it deserved to win Best Adapted Screenplay.

Excuses, right? Excuses.

As for reading.

I reread Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (second time), and am only about fifty pages from completing the book’s sequel, The Honourable Schoolboy. I also read three of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher novels – #8 Persuader (the weakest entry to date), #9 The Enemy (a prequel set when Reacher was still in the Army), and #10 One Shot (which is being adapted by Paramount with short Tom Cruise playing tall Jack Reacher).

March, ‘ho! Upcoming: Smiley’s People, third of the Karla Trilogy by John le Carré.

Meanwhile, come April 1st, I’ll be back into the Fire & Ice sequence with Clash of Kings by George RR Martin.