This was an amazing show.  Even better than the first time I saw them at Albright-Knox.  Sadly, I had forgetten my pen, but another concertgoer was good enough to jot down the setlist for the rest of us...

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First off, it is in fact rational to vote. My standard answer to people who ask me why they should vote when one vote is incredibly unlikely to make a difference is that higher turnout in one's locality (electoral precinct, Congressional district, city, county) or demographic (age, race/ethnicity, gender, income bracket) translates to increased political influence. If you don't vote, then you don't count, and if people like you don't vote, then people like you don't count when it comes to deciding who gets what in the political process.  That's why it was such a struggle to get the right to vote for nonwhite men, and then for women, and then nonwhite people again, but for real this time.  People with real power often don't like sharing it, and the resistance put up against sharing the vote indicates that voting means real power.  That's what I usually say when people wonder what's in it for them. 

However, while I wasn't looking, a few professors have come up with a more economist-friendly argument in favor of voting. In "Vote for Charity's Sake", Aaron Edlin, Andrew Gelman, and Noah Kaplan argue that voters who desire a social benefit for all citizens usually have good reason to take an hour out of their day to cast a ballot on Election Day. Basically, it's perfectly rational to get out there and vote if you care about your country. Rarely has rational-choice theory made me feel so warm and fuzzy inside.

Okay, so now that we know that every decent American should vote (our very future is at stake!), how are you supposed to do it? And where? And for whom? The League of Women Voters has a polling place finder, state-by-state information for new and returning voters, and more at Vote411.org. If you live in New York State, you can verify your registration with the Board of Elections, as well as your various electoral districts. If you live in Erie County, the Buffalo/Niagara LWV has a voting guide with an overview of candidates and ballot measures; if you don't, your local chapter of the LWV may have something similar for your locale. 

This film is 80-90% about the visuals, and it delivers.  There was never a point where I thought, "That robot looks fake."  We all have ILM to thank for that.  Another triumph! 

Megan Fox looks like a hottie, but couldn't act her way out of a paper bag.  Does this woman have no inner life at all? Granted, performing with imaginary robots against a greenscreen raises certain challenges, but nothing any actor with a little stage training hasn't dabbled in already.  The final make-out scenes between her and LeBeouf in the concluding montage wasn't doing it for me; I suspect it's because I just can't fantasize about a piece of wood, no matter how curvaceous it is. 

Shia LeBeouf was surprisingly great in this.  He is the leading man, comic relief, and he convincingly plays a sympathetic human being.  All with a straight face.  Looks like he'll be in the next Indiana Jones movie.  He's going places, and I say right on. 

Jon Voight and John Turturro totally ham it up.  Turturro, in particular, apparently just sat in his trailer, said, "Fuck it," and turned it up to 11.  Maybe that's because the plot holes and nonsequiturs are big enough to drive a tractor trailer/giant robot through?  At a certain point, you just have to say fuck it, turn it up to 11, and just have fun. 

In conclusion: giant fighting robots are awesome. 

 or, Name That Feist Tune:

1. ... my body is breaking..."
2. "I'm Sorry" "So Sorry"
3. "My Moon My Man"
4. ... isn't it made to love?...
5. ... I don't know what I knew then...
6. [flugelhorn? intro] ... I say my oh oh ah...
7. "Sealion"
8. ... for a minute I feel young...
9. "1 2 3 4"

E.C.'s set:

1. "Accidents Will Happen" → (a couple lines of) "Rain"
2. "(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes"
3. "Either Side of the Same Town"
4. "Tart"
5. ... love could be so strong... (ed.: "The Long Honeymoon")
6. "Girl Talk"
7. "Indoor Fireworks"
8. "Veronica"
9. ... Liverpool... journey to turning into Americans... (ed.: "Kid About It")
10. "Less Than Zero
11. "Green Shirt"
12. "Country Darkness"
13. "Man Out Of Time"
14. "Shipbuilding"
15. ... Andrew Lloyd Webber's Requiem... (ed.: "God's Comic")
16. ... I want you... you were fool enough to love it... (ed.: "I Want You" — simple enough)

---

Encore
17. "Radio Sweetheart"
18. "Alison" → "Suspicious Minds"
19. "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love & Understanding"
20. ... we will rise above this scarlet tide... a trickle flowing down the mountain... it separates the widow from the bride... (ed.: "The Scarlet Tide")

Oh, sweet jebus. [WARNING: painful public incoherence]

Little-known fact: admission to the Albright-Knox is free after 15:00 on Sunday.  I learned this only after getting there at about 16:00 today to see some Francis Bacon.  Despite the fact that I was psyched enough about seeing these paintings that I actually got myself out of the house to see them, I was not disappointed.  In fact, I was pretty happy to see some works that were new to me, and to suss out some developments in Bacon's themes and techniques.  There were a couple of works from the 70s, and one from 1984, but most of what was on display dated from the 1950s and 60s, the darkest period of Bacon's oeuvre.  And yes, they had some screaming popes.  I was very happy.

Other paintings that I especially liked, in no particular order:

• Figure with Monkey, 1951
• Study of the Sphinx, 1953*
• Two Figures, 1975
• Two Figures in a Room, 1959
• Three Studies for Portrait of John Edwards, 1984
• Screaming Man, 1952
• Head III, 1949*
  

This list of recently published books whose full texts are available online has been among my open tabs for so long that I no longer remember exactly how I found it, but it's a pretty cool resource nonetheless.  Only about 350 or so of the 1,400 works in this collection are available to the general public (a small number compared to, say, the 20,000 hosted by the Gutenberg Project), but it's still nice to see some books online that don't predate the Second World War. 

Shamelessly lifted from stoplabelingme .

Saturday was a nice long day of moving two couples into two different apartments (friends both; I got a free lunch and dinner out of it), and the stars were out last night, as much as they can be in this city.  I sat out on the front steps and started matching actual stars and planets to the star maps in Stellarium — I think I might start doing it on a more regular basis, maybe even get out from under the  light pollution, if I can rope someone into giving me and my laptop a ride to the country some clear, quiet Saturday night. 

Thao Nguyen is my new girlfriend. [via, via]

Today has been the The Day here at Chez Skoosh.  All the albums, just received yesterday from Amazon and its third-party retailing minions, all day long.  Some of it is merely great, some wonderful, some immediately awe-inspiring.  The rawest, most cuttingly passionate songs I've heard in a while. 

Today has also been catch-up day as far as donating to non-profits.  I've really let that slide over the last couple of years, but now that I can afford it, I finally got around to giving back a little again.  Maybe someday soon I'll get around to actually writing a letter to an elected official.  Heaven knows they could use a good talking-to. 

So strange that I haven't said anything about this before, given that it was the talk of the office (or at least, my end of it) for two straight days.  Ah, well.  I've just found the first article I've seen about it that actually puts an appropriate spin on the whole fiasco, while also pointing out that one of the arrestees (arraignees?), Peter Berdovsky, is a Belarusian citizen applying for asylum in the United States, and could therefore face deportation back to a country where he is not safe.  That'd be a pretty high price to pay so that the public officials of the city of Boston don't have to admit that they fucked up.

or, If it's good for the goose and the goose, it's good for the goose and the gander. 

The press release.  The only article about it that comes up so far in Google News. 

This makes me smile.  ( Explanation inside...  ) [via MeFi] 

I can't believe Jackie's kicked my ass in Fantasy Hockey and this online Bible quiz!  Is there no justice in the world, O mighty Wotan? 

This post-Election Day is the first one in a while that actually feels good.  A little ray of hope to pierce the darkness of our long national nightmare.  Going to the polls was a little anti-climactic yesterday morning -- no weird questions, and I didn't even realize my congresscritter was running against an actual opponent until I looked at the NYT election maps last night.  But I'm just happy for my country, and maybe even slightly less pessimistic about the fate of the world. 

Several interesting side stories and firsts -- first female Speaker of the House, first Muslim elected to federal office, first black member of Congress from Minnesota (the same guy, by the way), first socialist elected to the Senate ever.  I regret only that Pelosi has said this term will be indictment-free.  I hope the new House majority changes its mind. 

 Just in time for Halloween, it's the League of Women Voters of New York State 2006 Voters' Guide (Erie/Niagara Edition).  I can't believe it took me over a week to find this thing; you'd think there'd be a link on the LWV of Buffalo/Niagara site, but no such luck. 

Gorgeous day today.  I'm off to buy cat food and cat litter, and hopefully, no one in Buffalo will be eaten by crocodiles. 

Yes, I am a sucker for absurd Star Wars-inspired fan-films.  For your consideration: Chad Vader, Day Shift Manager, Episodes 1 and 2.  Plus, according to that really cute grocery girl's MySpace page, the footage for Episode 3 was shot on 11 August. So any minute now, these guys are going to be releasing the further adventures of Lord Chad to the world. I can hardly wait.

Oh yeah, and there was that little war between Israel and Hezbollah too.  You might've heard of it.

A series of progressively higher-pitched tones, in the twilight regions where young 'uns can hear, but most adults cannot.  An artifact of the arms race between grown-ups and those darn teenagers nowadays. [via MeFi, where there is also more detailed discussion of the mechanics of sounds than I would feel comfortable shaking a stick at.]

Me?  29, and 15,000 Hz is my limit.  How high can you go?

As I lie here on my side with an earful of baby oil, atop a mattress stripped of all its covers so as to allow the enzymatic cleaner to dry away the last remnants of my cat's urine, systematically examining every one of this guy's home-made postcards and listening to three dozen covers of "Love Will Tear Us Apart", I realize that all the events of my life, nay, the sum total of human history up to this point, has led up to this moment. The future stretches far, far ahead, anchored to this moment as well.  Here we are, at the fulcrum of history. 

Good night.

It wasn't until after seeing V For Vendetta that I read rfmcdpei 's review.  I found myself reading about Voltaire's wolves before I knew it. His RSS feed can be very distracting, in a good way.  I haven't read the book (though I have read Valerie's letter online), so I can't really compare, but I can offer a few comments on the film itself. 

V For Vendetta is a film that isn't without flaws (in this case, meaning choices I would have made differently), but it is fairly effective and, at moments, incredibly affecting.  Valerie's letter unexpectedly made me weep.  There are a couple of shots that I felt unnecessary — the knife-throwing special effects, for one, but also <rot13 - only you can prevent movie spoilers>gur pybfrhc bs Qrne Yrnqre'f qrnq, oybbqvrq urnq arne gur raq </rot13>, but there are edits - one- or two-frame flashbacks and flashforwards — that generally work well.  I especially like how certain people who are in the background in early shots later become incredibly important; as we learn their stories, McTeigue goes back and shows us those same shots, but now we see much more in the frame, much more in those faces. 

As to its apologia for political violence from below, it certainly forces us to consider whether there is a time or place for such things.  Do we respect the Maquis?  The Warsaw uprising?  Hamas?  By what criteria do we judge?  In which kinds of societies do bombings and assassinations of government officials become legitimate, ethical choices? Was Afghanistan under the Taliban such a society?  Afghanistan now?  Saudi Arabia?  Iran?  The United States? 

But also, the use of terrorism in V For Vendetta is itself a metaphor for the vast existential space of human possibilities, in a world that can so often choke off even the sense that there's any possible alternative. Like its triumph-of-the-human-spirit predecessor, The Shawshank Redemption, V For Vendetta references The Count of Monte Cristo (the film this time, not the book). But Vendetta also underlines in red ink what I think is the basic appeal of this recurring story, which is that that potential for such single-minded dedication and integrity, in the face not just of overwhelming odds, but fear and self-doubt, resides in all of us, and when unleashed, can turn the tide. It doesn't have to be with guns or bombs; it only requires courage, conscience, and imagination.  Otro mundo es posible. It's good to be reminded of that, at least.

ps. Definitely feeling a need to get a copy of Blood Sacrifice and the Nation now.