A big Stanley Kubrick exhibition opened in Frankfurt today, including
primary material from the Stanley Kubrick Estate: iconographic items from all of his films, costumes, special effects documentation, camera equipment and extensive working and research documents.Kubrick's films (in some cases restored prints, or uncut versions) will be playing at theaters in the area in April. The exhibition will then travel to various other cities, including somewhere in the USA (although they don't say which US city or when). I'm impatient, I wanna go see it in Frankfurt now.
Tuesday 03.30.04
I've been HIV+ for 17 years and haven't taken any antiviral drugs. I still have a reasonably strong immune system, but I've been experiencing more fatigue with each year. Supplemental testosterone has helped, but lately I just haven't been feeling good. I had a bunch of blood tests done this month, but they didn't show anything out of the ordinary.
My doctor says the next option is antiviral drugs. Normally these drugs are recommended to people with more compromised immune systems, but they are also known to help people in situations like mine. I have a stable count of T4 cells in my blood, but only because my body generates them like crazy to replace those that HIV destroys. My doc says that fatigued patients often feel better if drugs are keeping HIV at bay; that eases the load on their bodies. I'd have to take the plunge to find out whether the drugs would be worthwhile for me.
It was nice to just not take the drugs: no side effects, no need for periodic liver function tests, no expense, no remembering to take pills. For many years, the choice was easy: just say no. Now, I have an interesting decision to make.
Sunday 03.28.04
I apologize for how much I've written about politics lately (and I apologize for continuing the trend today). I would rather write something original than just react to current events. My excuses are: (1) I haven't felt that great over the past few weeks and haven't been inspired to write, and (2) there's just too much wild stuff going on in the world.
A few weeks ago (03-03-04, below), I mentioned an article in the New Yorker about Pakistan, arms proliferation, and shady deals. President Musharraf of Pakistan has since commented on these matters, and made this statement about a Pakistani engineer's sales of nuclear arms technology:
"People are, I think, over-assessing the physical damage of the proliferation that he has done," he said. "If I hand over a missile or a bomb to any extremist, believe me, he can do nothing about it," he said. "He cannot explode it" without knowledge of a sophisticated triggering mechanism.Isn't that reassuring.
Saturday 03.27.04
UNITED NATIONS, March 25 -- The United States vetoed a Security Council resolution Thursday night condemning Israel for killing the Hamas leader, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, because it did not denounce killings of Israelis by Hamas.So began a recent article in the NY Times. It was buried at the bottom of the "International" section the day it appeared (it didn't rate a link on the main NYT web page). I checked a few other US-based news sources on the web, and the US veto generally wasn't prominently reported. Foreign media paid more attention; it was one of the lead stories on the BBC World Service and was prominently placed in foreign newspapers.
In case you missed this story: the vote in the Security Council was 11 yea, 3 not-gonna-say, and 1 nay.
Friday 03.26.04
Spring cleaning: various blogs that were listed to the right (under "others") are gone, either because they're inactive or because I just don't wanna recommend them any more.
Thursday 03.25.04
People look at me funny when I say that numbers have character or personality.
We all have sensitivity to the character of numbers, but we don't always recognize it as such. Musical harmony is a mathematical phenomenon; there's a night and day difference between the sound of an octave (1:2) and a tritone (1:√2), even if most listeners don't think of sound in mathematical terms.
Today is Béla Bartók's birthday.
Monday 03.22.04
I had some blood drawn at a doctor's office last Friday. Unlike every other time I've had blood drawn, this time the nurse accidentally jabbed herself with the needle. I'm glad it was a clean needle. Even so, this added a bit of drama to a usually routine procedure.
She didn't freak out. She said it hurt; she'd jabbed the tip of her thumb, right through the glove. She took a break and called another nurse over to pinch-phlebotomize.
One friend I told this story to said
The station that takes my blood at my primary care / medical office uses thick, prick-proof, blue rubber gloves.But... that must ruin the sensation.
Come to think of it, a doctor of mine some 12+ years ago eschewed gloves altogether when he drew my blood.
Friday 03.19.04
In an op-ed piece in today's NY Times, Donald Rumsfeld writes about Saddam Hussein:
The world knew his record: he used chemical weapons against Iran and his own citizens; he invaded Iran and Kuwait; ...
Rumsfeld fails to mention that while Iraq was at war with Iran,
the USA supported Hussein with intelligence, aid, and arms. The USA
provided
anthrax to Iraq at the time.
Arab people are aware of our record in the Middle East; small wonder that so many are skeptical of our motives there today. |
Tuesday 03.16.04
Sergei Prokofiev's grandson Gabriel has written a string quartet; it'll be played tomorrow night in London by the Elysian Quartet (which had commissioned the work).
Unlike his grandfather, Gabriel made a name for himself in electronic dance music. I mean that literally; he's used pseudonyms since he was in a pop band at age 13. He wanted his music to be judged on its own, he wanted to avoid preconceptions that his famous last name might have engendered.
Gabriel is however not using a pseudonym for his string quartet, which is in a more classical style.
The quartet will be available on CD. And...! You don't just get a recording of the Elysian Quartet, you also get a set of dance remixes. I wonder what ol' Sergei would've thought of that.
P.S. More info, and a review of the CD on my July 2004 journal page.
N.B.: all this has nothing to do with the riff notated in Monday's entry below (which is from a song that came out 5 years before Gabriel Prokofiev was born).
Monday 03.15.04
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Wednesday 03.03.04
Last month, Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, the architect of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program, apologized for selling nuclear technology to Iran, Libya, and North Korea. Pakistan's President Musharraf claimed to be shocked by Khan's acts, but pardoned him right away; did that seem fishy to you?
Did you notice that the USA is gearing up to hunt down Osama Bin Laden, and needs approval from Pakistan to comb through their territory, approval which Musharraf had denied in the past?
Something strange (and unsavory) is going on. For details, read Seymour Hersh's article The Deal: Why is Washington going easy on Pakistan's nuclear black marketers? in the New Yorker.
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