I don’t know how many of the books in my house got there; I can usually only assume that, if there’s a pile of new literature sitting around someplace, my dad probably just got back from a shopping spree at Borders or some similar chain bookstore. He does this on a whim, and often. Our house is peppered with books I know nobody in our family has ever read and probably never will. I don’t think I could even count the number of Bob Dylan biographies laying around- I think my dad is hoping to find some new, secret information in each one. Regardless, there are some treasures hidden among the 50% off bargain books my dad brings home, and one day in high school I picked up Tuva or Bust because, well, it had a funny title.
I was confused when I first started reading it; a memoir, the book reads more like a diary, and I felt like I was intruding into the lives of people I was supposed to know already, but didn’t. Who was Richard Feynman, who was Ralph Leighton, why should I care? It turns out, Richard Feynman was a well-known physicist and Tuva was the memoir written by his good friend, Leighton. The book is about their journey to find the mysterious land called Tuva.
Tuva
Feynman first discovered Tuva when he stumbled across a strange word: Kyzyl. After some research, Feynman found out Kyzyl was the capitol of a land called Tuva, but he didn’t know where it was or how to get there. Tuva or Bust is the story of Feynman and Leighton’s decade-long struggle to find and travel to the country they became so fascinated with; in many ways the book is an allegory for Feynman’s personal journey as he battled cancer and succumbed to it shortly before the pair’s visas arrived.
A 1927 stamp from Tuva.
The book was poignant and a strong revelation of the power of friendship and curiosity; however, I felt that the legacy of the book was not Feynman’s memory (which was already cemented in public consciousness as he was an established physicist before this book came out), but rather the recognition that Tuva gained after this book came out. When Feynman and Leighton wanted to go to the place they considered magical, they met with such resistance that it took years for them to get approved, by which time Feynman wasn’t even alive anymore. Now, Tuva has become fairly well-known as a quirky, almost novelty-like place to visit, as much of the republic has yet to conform to Western standards of civilazation; for example, most Tuvans reside in yurts, small thatched dwellings almost like teepees. They are also notoriously nomadic people, with smatterings of Tuvans around outlying countries.
A Tuvan family with their yurt.
So why talk about Tuva, a place most people have never heard of? Because tomorrow is Tuva day! In the 1980s, while working with Feynman on their Tuva exploration, Leighton came up with the Friends of Tuva organization, with Tuva day celebrating Tuva’s existence, and I believe this year marks the 60th or so anniversary of Tuva being recognized as a country. I already planned on celebrating Tuva day in my own way (maybe by posting about Feynman or something along those lines), but, in an amazing coincidence, Tuva day is officially being hosted by UConn (for anyone who doesn’t know, I go here)!
Tuva is world-famous for its throat singers, and tomorrow the internationally renowned group the Alash Ensemble will be performing at UConn’s Von der Mehden Hall for free. There will also be a free screening of Genghis Blues, a movie chronicling a blind musician’s journey to Tuva. I’m blown away by the fact that Tuva day is going to be held at UConn, and secretly hoping Leighton will be at the Alash Ensemble performance. It’s such a small pleasure for me to learn more about Tuva, either through articles or recordings of their music, and at least to me, it remains the magical place Feynman and Leighton dreamed of.
So, if anyone is around the Storrs area tomorrow and wants to come celebrate this little-known country and its charms, visit the Tuva day website and plan on hearing and seeing some amazing things!
Robin
This week I joined Twitter. I have to be honest, I didn’t know what to expect. Twitter, for anyone who doesn’t know, is a social networking site where users post updates about their curren statuses in 140 characters or less. This makes it useful to keep up with the funny little things friends are doing, but also to keep in the know with celebrities, politicians, news organizations, and others who post bulletins on their Twitter accounts.
My Twitter page!
Before I signed up, I was skeptical. I thought to myself, “why would anyone care what I’m doing at random times throughout the day? Do I even know anyone on Twitter?” Turns out, the site automatically scanned through my gmail and imported the Twitter names of anyone who I was connected to through email. Without even realizing, I knew about 5 people using Twitter alread- including my sister and some close friends from home. Twitter asked me if I wanted to “follow” them; unlike Facebook or Myspace, you don’t add “friends.” By following someone, their status updates show up on your homepage; they don’t have to follow you back, and you can hand-pick who you want to show up on the homepage. When someone follows you, your status updates show up on their homepage.
Twitter even showed me “recommended users”- people they thought I would like to follow. And they were right! For some reason, I’m drawn to follow comedians… I’m following people like Michael Ian Black, Michael Showalter, Rainn Wilson (aka Dwight from The Office), Jimmy Fallon, and a whole bunch of other funny people. So now I get little comedy bursts throughout my day by reading their ever-changing statuses.
I think people are apprehensive about using Twitter because they don’t understand it. It’s not a scary new tool, it’s not going to publicize everything you do- it’s completely up to the user how much of their day they share with people. By choosing who you’re following, you get to control who you see, and you can block people so only the ones you want to follow you can see what you’re doing through your updates.
So, if you’d like to see my random updates and follow me on Twitter, I’m at: http://twitter.com/robinmbrowne
Enjoy!
Robin
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the insurance company AIG (American International Group), let me give you a rundown: AIG was a huge corporation, which, according to Wikipedia,
“suffered from a liquidity crisis after its credit ratings were downgraded below “AA” levels, and the Federal Reserve Bank on September 16, 2008, created an $85 billion credit facility to enable the company to meet collateral and other cash obligations, at the cost to AIG of the issuance of a stock warrant to the Federal Reserve Bank for 79.9% of the equity of AIG. In November 2008 the U.S. government revised its loan package to the company, increasing the total amount to $152 billion. AIG is attempting to sell assets to repay the loans. So far the U.S. government has given the company over $170 billion.”
The big deal with AIG isn’t that it was bailed out like so many other companies- it was the self-indulgent spending that occurred after the bailout. Last Fall AIG awarded its higher-level employees with a $400,000 vacation, was given an extra loan of $37.8 billion, and only one week after the $400,000 vacation spent $86,000 on a hunting trip. And to top it all off, in the past few weeks it’s come to light that AIG spent about $165 million in executive bonuses. Keep in mind that they still need to be bailed out, and that the company lost about $40 billion last year.
AIG headquarters in Wilton, Connecticut
This is something to be enraged about, surely; I know that my family and the families of my friends have been affected deeply by the economic crisis and for taxpayers to be funding lavish bonuses is just insane. I’ve been keeping up with what’s going on with AIG, but I learned something today that somehow had evaded me until now: AIG has a headquarters in my home town of Wilton, Connecticut.
Reuters reported that today, in Wilton, there was a tour bus offering a glimpse of what they called “The Rich and the Infamous,” by driving through several nearby towns and ending up in my town. The protestors wanted to drive up to the executives’ homes and put letters in their mailboxes/hands demanding justice for the excessive spending.
I’m not against protesting, I did it many times during the Bush Administration; I just thought this protest seemed silly. It was organized in the sense that they had a bus and a map, but further than that I didn’t see the point. In pictures and videos you see some protestors holding letters they planned to read aloud to AIG employees (had they ever actually gotten to see one face-to-face), but what did they expect? Anything they had to say, you know the employees under fire have heard it from a thousand people already. Plus, the employees already gave back their bonuses. I’m not arguing for their side, I just feel this protest was a misguided attempt at justice.
Protestors outside of AIG in Wilton
When you’re protesting, you should have a plan so the protest is more effective. Whether it be a silent protest, a sit-in, a riot, whatever- know what your goal is. If you’re planning on overthrowing the government, make sure you have enough people on your side to overthrow the government. If you’re doing a hunger strike, make sure you’re not going to cave after 3 hours and eat a snack. This protest was kind of a bad protest, at least from what I’ve seen and read in the news. Those who participated “chanted,” if you can even call their halfhearted yells that, they had signs, but they were ineffective. They protested at an empty office building and went home with nothing gained except a two-minute bit on the news.
Protestors outside of AIG in Wilton
I don’t think I’m in much of a position to be giving protest advice, but I have protested several times before and I wouldn’t count this weekend’s protest as a success. If you’re protesting to satisfy yourself, that’s one thing; but if you really want to enact change, you have to give it all or nothing, and these protestors simply did not do that. It’s time to make real change happen, but it’s not going to occur overnight. Protests are certainly a way to raise awareness about injustices; I just feel that this issue already has so much of a spotlight pointed at it that this protest wasn’t terribly effective.
Robin
Filed under: Bizarre, Celebrities, News, People | Tags: accident, death, liam neeson, natasha richardson, sad, skiing
I’m still very shocked by the news that Natasha Richardson has died. Her death is newsworthy for a number of reasons, the obvious being that she’s a celebrity. but I think it’s more notable because of the events that lead up to her death.
According to all reports, Richardson “suffered a head injury and fell on a beginner’s trail during a private ski lesson at the luxury Mont Tremblant ski resort in Quebec. Seemingly fine after the fall, about an hour later she complained that she didn’t feel well” (AP). She was not wearing a helmet at the time, and her ski instructor claims that she didn’t hit anyone or anything, and fell on the ground in what would appear to have been a normal fall for a fledgling skier.
It’s been widely reported that Richardson signed a waiver to refuse medical help right after the spill, laughing off what happened to her and going back to her room. However, something must have happened during the fall that rattled her fairly violently as she soon started getting headaches and lost consciousness. Irish Central, which broke the story, quoted a spokeswoman for the actress as saying the following:
Ms. Richardson fell during a ski lesson but she didn’t show any signs of injury. The ski patrol looked at her and reported that she was laughing and joking. They told her to see someone but she insisted that she was fine and just wanted to go back to her room. The instructor and two members of the patrol accompanied her to her hotel room. She refused to see anyone and signed a paper saying she didn’t want to see a doctor. After an hour or so she said she had a headache, then they called 911. She was not wearing a helmet. The law in Quebec does not require it but we always suggest it but cannot impose it.
Richardson with husband Liam Neeson
After several hours in a Quebec hospital, she was transferred to Lenox Hill Hospital in New York. Reporter Liz Smith quoted a source close to Richardson as saying, “Nobody goes to Lenox Hill who is really sick; if she’ d had a chance to live, they’d have found another great brain hospital!” Richardson had severe brain swelling and was on life support yesterday, when her husband, actor Liam Neeson, their two sons, Richardson’s mother Vanessa Redgrave and several other “acting royalty” family members came to Lenox Hill to say their last goodbyes. Today, Richardson was taken off life support. She died at age 45.
Richardson with mother Vanessa Redgrave and sister Joely Richardson
What troubles me so much about the actress’s death, besides the fact that she was a young, talented and vibrant human being, is that she was seemingly perfectly healthy. If all it takes is one fall on the wrong spot, not even on concrete but on snow, to make your brain hemorrhage, how is anyone expected to leave their bed? It scares me half to death that things like this happen, and they go unreported when they don’t involve celebrities. Freak accidents like this aren’t as freak as they might seem.
It frightens me so much because I, and most of the people I know and love, aren’t as careful as it appears we should be. I watch the people I love drive without their seatbelts and I’ve sat back and not said a word; friends of mine weld and work in labs and I’ve never once asked about the precautions they take. Hearing about something like this makes me feel irresponsible for not being as hypersensitive as I could be.
Knowing that people I love put themselves in danger, real or imagined, when I have the chance to say something, makes me feel incredibly guilty- even if nothing bad happens to them. Almost as worse, though, is the danger I allow myself to get into without thinking I can get hurt. Last December I got a concussion and didn’t go to the hospital. I didn’t realize it had happened at the time; it was late at night, I was out and I hit my head very, very hard, and about an hour later, I drove home. I got in bed but was shaking, and shrugged it off as nerves. I woke up in the middle of the night, sick, and couldn’t really fall back asleep; when I touched the back of my head the next day the pain was so great that I actually yelled out loud and had to take a vicodin.
That day I went into New York with some friends, and over the course of a few hours puzzled together why I felt so out of sorts. I was walking around Manhattan dizzy and tired, falling asleep in the restaurant where my friends and I ate lunch, staring at walls without realizing it. I took the train home early and called a friend to pick me up. Her mother’s a nurse, and I sat down and explained to her what happened, and she gave me a quick once-over. After checking my pupils, and I guess my basic vitals, she told me, “last night I would have taken you to get a CATscan, or just called an ambulance. You could have had some minor bleeding, but if it’s been 24 hours, you’re okay.”
And after the pain in the back of my head went away, I forgot about it. But it scares me beyond belief to hear that something like that could have been fatal; I laughed off the incident and went back to my room, just as Richardson did. In 2003, following a motorcycle accident in which Neeson was badly injured, she told the Daily Telegraph, “I wake up every morning feeling lucky — which is driven by fear, no doubt, since I know it could all go away.” I suppose I should start doing the same.
Robin
Filed under: Bizarre, Design, Technology | Tags: battle, comfy, slanket, snuggie
About a year ago, my friend Jess showed me a commercial produced by her company that I thought was a joke. It had all the signs of a spoof: cheesy voice-over, exaggerated problem that doesn’t really exist except to see the product, terrible acting, purposeless rhyming ad copy, and of course, a ridiculous product.
That commercial was one I’d start seeing all the time on television in a few months’ time, and it was the fabled Snuggie. I may have mentioned the Snuggie before, and that’s because I am desperate to own one. Just think about it- “a blanket with sleeves”- and tell me you don’t want one. And if you don’t, well, I can’t blame you. The Snuggie doesn’t really make any sense. Blankets don’t “trap” you, as the commercial suggests, they work just as well as they always have. Not to mention the fact that the Snuggie is really just a bathrobe on backwards. To be honest, I don’t even know if it closes in the back, which would make it even less comfortable than a robe. But still, I can’t get rid of this overwhelming desire to own one.
This could be me RIGHT NOW!
At $20/Snuggie they’re certainly not a bargain; even though the commercial shows families wearing them outside, you wouldn’t catch me dead outside of my room in one of them. Why, then, do I want/potentially need one? To be honest, I prize being comfortable and warm almost above everything else in the world. Sure, I like being creative and having fun, but sleep and relaxing are some of my favorite things to do, and I’d take them over nearly anything (excluding the obvious like going to work or class). There’s something about the Snuggie that does set it apart from a blanket, and it’s not just the sleeves. It’s the same feeling you get as a child when you play in a big cardboard box; it can be anything you want it to be. The Snuggie, like a fort made out of pillows and blankets, is sort of a never-ending hug. Or snuggle. Or snuggie. AHA!
But wait! There’s a competitor out there? There are actually two companies that competitively only sell blankets with sleeves?!
The arch enemy.
That’s right, before there was Snuggie, there was Slanket. Don’t worry, they’re the same exact thing. So you probably won’t get in a fight with anyone wearing a Slanket when you’re a die-hard Snuggie fan. The “about us” on the Slanket website, though, elicits far more empathy from me than the flashy Snuggie commercial. Quoth the Slanket creator, known only as “Gary,”:
One subzero night in 1998 during my first semester of college I could not escape Maine’s winter bite. While watching Late Night with Conan O’Brien I decided I needed to tear a hole in my sleeping bag so I could keep my upper body warm as I channel surfed during the commercial breaks. During Christmas vacation I commissioned the first Slanket to be made by my mother…and it was born.
Wait… I go to college. I love Conan O’Brien! Gary’s just like me! Except, hold on. The Slanket is $40? I guess the Snuggie is really a deal. In the end, Slanket seems like the real deal. I can relate to the story, I like Gary’s style, and it comes in way more colors. The trouble is, I’d never spend $40 on fleece. If I was going to do that, I’d just buy a jacket, or a space heater. Sorry, Slanket owners, I’m going to have to side with Snuggie on this one.
Ok, Gary does seem like a nice guy, and it’s pretty obvious that Snuggie just completely ripped him off. His product also seems like it has a lot more material and is warmer, and is really just made for sitting around. I don’t know why the Snuggie people keep insisting you can wear your Snuggie in public. It’s just insulting to the consumers’ intelligence.
My verdict: Slanket is worth the $40, if you can afford it. But I can’t, so hopefully next time you hear from me, I’ll be writing from inside my Snuggie.
Robin
One thing most of my good friends and, actually, a lot of my acquaintances, know that i like cake. I think it runs in my family (hand-in-hand with my family history of diabetes… no coincidence, I’m sure) because my mom is obsessed with cupcakes, my dad loves ice cream, and my older sister is a complete vegan “except for cakes,” she claims.
Most people like cake, but it’s different with my family. We legitimately love cake. I mean, whenever we separately grocery shop, several of us will come home with Entenmann‘s. I constantly find myself feeling like Elaine in the episode of Seinfeld where she eats the cake her boss has hidden in his refrigerator, only to discover it’s a historical artifact from the 1930’s.
A friend of mine tried to make a cake in the shape of a guitar for her boyfriend, and ordered fondant online. Wikipedia describes fondant as “a cream confection used as a filling or coating for cakes, pastries, and candies or sweets.” My friend gave me the leftover fondant to eat/use for my own cakes, but I actually found it to be not terribly enjoyable on its own.
I’ve only gotten to eat wedding cake a few times, and all of those times I’d already enjoyed the open bar and so don’t really remember exactly how the cake was. I’m sure it was delicious, though. And recently I’ve gotten kind of obsessed with fondant cakes, as showcased on the Food Network show Ace of Cakes.
You can't even pretend this isn't amazing.
The example above should show the unbelievable shapes and ideas the cake chefs come up with. It can take days to make a cake like this, especially when using so much fondant; it’s sort of like clay. You have to roll it out, cut it, shape it, and not leave any fingerprints behind. In essence, this kind of cake-making is an art. The freedom this kind of baking gives the people who do the work can, however, cross over the line and into the unbelievably creepy. Take, for example, this horrifying cake of a baby:
Don't look directly at it!
OH MY GOD. I just passed out from looking at that because it’s so awful. A lot of people might find it cute, but at least someone out there agrees with me- the author of Cake Wrecks, a hilarious site dedicated to cakes gone wrong.
If you’re not that into cakes, I guess you could always dabble in cupcakes, another true love of mine. The amazing Australian ladies of Just Cupcakes! have their own Flickr page to display their treats. I promise it will keep you amused, if not just for the mouth-watering food but also for the sheer artistry of their creations.
lovely
So, if you’re a cake fan like me, or if you’re just having a sugar craving right now, you can always go to Australia and find my favorite cupcake artists or you could buy some Betty Crocker mix and just go wild in the kitchen.
Robin
Many people are already familiar with the show Flight of the Conchords, an HBO program set around two musicians, Bret and Jemaine, who moved from New Zealand to New York to make it big. The half-hour long shows have a subtle brand of humor mixed with really funny but actually well-written songs- normally two or three per episode. Bret and Jemaine are the central characters, played by themselves (although the show is in no way a reality series) and inviting us along while they experience life in New York.
Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie
The show started out with a bit of a cult following; I first heard of it a few summers ago when a few friends were watching and, having joined in during the middle of an episode, I was very confused. I didn’t know going into it that the show was a comedy and I took their dry humor seriously- needless to say, once I watched a full episode I had caught on. And then I kept catching on, and then I became addicted. Bret and Jemaine balance each other out perfectly, and the addition of their manager/New Zealand tourism worker Murray, only adds to the culture-shock they seem to experience at least once an episode.
Bret and Jemaine are funny guys to begin with, but they’re so popular because of their songs. Before I’d even seen the show I heard their song “business time,” which is one of their better known numbers. Even without the backing of the show, their songs are funny without being campy and have actual good melodies.
The best part of the show may be how innocent Bret and Jemaine seem. I’m sure in real life they’re not too much like their characters, but in the show they are generally just best friends, one of whom wears shirts with animals on them every day, the other who can’t seem to get a girlfriend (unless it happens to be an enemy Australian), trying to function in a city that may be too hip for them.
While Bret and Jemaine profess their hatred for Australia (they claim Australians “subtly mock” New Zealanders), they have some new competition from their neighbor country. Summer Heights High is written by and stars Chris Lilley, and takes place in his native Australia. Lilley plays three different characters in the show, including new girl Ja’mie, teacher Mr. G, and bully Jonah. Unline FOTC, Summer Heights High is filmed as a mockumentary and is meant to seem like a reality show, not unlike The Office.
Not surprisingly, there seems to be a lot of rivalry among fans of the two kiwi shows. There are several Facebook groups dedicated to “Flight of the Conchords vs. Summer Heights High,” although I know plenty of people, myself included, who like both. High debuted while Flight of the Conchords was between seasons, so there’s no direct competition over who’s watching either show at the same time. The shows have certainly been compared plenty of times, being two of the funniest shows to come out of that area of the world. Perhaps FOCT fans are just declaring their loyalty to New Zealand in a show of solidarity and love for Bret and Jemaine; I’ve never heard of a NZ-Australia rivalry before their anti-Aussie episode. I think the two shows can coexist peacefully, much like their home countries. Except much funnier.
There can only be one winner.
Robin
internet interest 