Miscellaneous

It would take some planning, but

Posted on December 02, 2010
It would take some planning, but I'm thinking that a rock'n'roll road trip to visit the scenes where this art form was invented would be a great thing to do.  I've been to Sun Studio in Memphis, and it was the most electrifying pilgrimage I've ever been on, but I missed American Sound Studio in Memphis-- Elvis cut "Suspicious Minds" there,and "Kentucky Rain"...

Very nice.  "It got me to

Posted on December 01, 2010
Very nice.  "It got me to thinking about how long distance isn't really long distance anymore. It seems like we're far apart, but we're living in a very different world these days, and we can feel close without having to be close every day. I wanted to show how we try to make the world a little smaller...

I was retained to petition our

Posted on November 30, 2010
I was retained to petition our local court for an order directing the issuance of a subpoena pursuant to an out-of-state commission, a light pleasant task that will be easier next year.  When I'd secured the order and the subpoena I called my local counterpart on the matter to tell him the papers were coming...

Slate had an election game called

Posted on November 29, 2010
Slate had an election game called Lean/Lock over the midterms campaign: you picked candidates, and the earlier you committed in a race, the more points you got for a correct choice.  I'm okay with my score: 37,775, putting me at 453 out of 9,494...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

I'm happy to report that Robert

Posted on November 28, 2010
I'm happy to report that Robert Christgau is writing Consumer Guides again. It's called Expert Witness this time, and he says he'll be updating on Tuesdays and Fridays.

CLA had gone out, so A, LCA and

Posted on November 27, 2010
CLA had gone out, so A, LCA and I were left to watch "Stranger Than Fiction" by ourselves. I'd forgotten I'd seen it, and A fell asleep, but LCA and I stayed with it, because it is a charming movie. When it was over, LCA said, "Man, I'm really jonesing for some cookies," cookies having been an important plot device in the movie...

EGA reports that there was green

Posted on November 26, 2010
EGA reports that there was green bean casserole with mushroom soup and those crispy fried onions, and  sweet potatoes with marshmallows, but no race.  Too bad.  CLA and I missed running with her.There are a lot of things to love about the Oldest Continuously Run Road Race in North America, but I think one of the chief things I like is that it is filled with people who have come home and are glad to be here...

Even though I don't need to go

Posted on November 22, 2010
Even though I don't need to go anywhere, I'm tempted to fly somewhere on Wednesday, just to participate in the body scan protest. Here's how it breaks down for me, I guess. There are things that the Obama Administration hasn't done that disappoint me...

I guess it doesn't take that much

Posted on November 21, 2010
I guess it doesn't take that much to make me happy because watching the Bills beat a Bengals team that has only been able to muster 2 wins worked just fine for me. Also, I see no reason to think Ryan Fitzpatrick is anything but a capable QB. Good arm, good head, what's not to like? Off the top of my head I can name ten quarterbacks who are starting elsewhere I wouldn't trade him for, and if I thought about it for five minutes I'll bet I could come up with a few more...

Good night for the lively arts.

Posted on November 20, 2010
Good night for the lively arts. We were at the City Honors Revue, choreographed by LCA (video link to follow). Meanwhile, in MA, CLA was at her first Dylan concert. She reports that "it was like seeing the real Santa Claus.". Setlist:1. Gonna Change My Way Of Thinking2...

On the one hand, Charlie Crist's

Posted on November 18, 2010
On the one hand, Charlie Crist's proposed pardon of Jim Morrison seems like a pointless exercise. On the other hand it may be, like Mike Huckabee's pardon of Keith Richards, arguably a good-faith effort by a conservative Republican to come to grips with the culture war that has been waging in America for the last 50 years or so...

The big Rolling Stones single of

Posted on November 17, 2010
The big Rolling Stones single of the summer was Mick singing over an old Keef riff. Decent enough riff, I suppose, but no "Brown Sugar". Dylan has just released a boxed set of demos from 1962-64. The Great Lost Bruce Springsteen Album just dropped. I'd have been glad to have any of these back when they were new, but now, 20 or 30 or 40 years on, I think I'd like some new music, please...

There are a lot of little markers

Posted on November 15, 2010
There are a lot of little markers of celebrity which I have fantasized about: back in the 80's I wanted to model for one of those black and white Gap tee shirt advertisements, for example. Being asked to guest edit the Best American Essays collection would be another...

If I read about a movie that piques

Posted on November 12, 2010
If I read about a movie that piques my interest, I add it to our Netflix queue. Sometime latter it arrives in the mail, and usually I have no idea why I thought the damn thing would be something I wanted to see. Sometimes it works out, but most of the time I'm just left puzzled...

I'm looking forward to reading

Posted on November 08, 2010
I'm looking forward to reading Keith Richards' autobiography, but in a way I feel as though it has been so thoroughly rebutted by this piece, in which a guy named Bill Wyman ((who is not that Bill Wyman)) channels Mick Jagger's thoughts on Keef's memoir that no more needs to be said...

To Las Vegas for AHIA last week,

Posted on November 07, 2010
To Las Vegas for AHIA last week, on which more anon. (AHIA is always a good program; this one was exceptionally so.) I was in the air as A and LCA were at the Hot Club of Detroit show-- only the second of Bruce Eaton's Art of Jazz shows that I've missed...

I'm not any kind of hoops fan at

Posted on November 03, 2010
I'm not any kind of hoops fan at all really, but I am a huge fan of David Halberstam's The Breaks Of The Game-- maybe best sports book ever written.  Part of what makes it great is that Halberstam understood the characters so well, and conveyed that understanding so deftly...

The Anti-Prohibition party only

Posted on November 03, 2010
The Anti-Prohibition party only managed 22,775 votes, and didn't make the cut, but Jimmy McMillan of the Rent Is Too Damn High Party got about 57,000 votes (compared with 13,355 four years ago). Lucky us-- Jimmy is going to be a perennial. What's really interesting is that Carl managed a higher percentage than recent candidates who challenged incumbents: Andrew O?Rourke (32 percent), who was running against Gov...

I was 64 at my polling place at

Posted on November 02, 2010
I was 64 at my polling place at 8:03 AM. Looks like there's going to be quite a turnout. I was pleased that the clerk pointed out that the ballot had two sides: that's likely to mean that the Prop for reduction of the County Legislature will do well.

Everybody I know votes whenever

Posted on November 01, 2010
Everybody I know votes whenever they have a chance, so maybe nobody who reads Outside Counsel needs this, but if you aren't sure where your polling place is, now you have no excuse.

I sure didn't see San Fran in 5,

Posted on November 01, 2010
I sure didn't see San Fran in 5, but they played a hell of a Series. It was a pleasure to watch.

Alan Bedeko, a fellow Spree writer

Posted on October 29, 2010
Alan Bedeko, a fellow Spree writer and an entertaining fellow generally, gets his props from the New York Observer here. It is impossible to know if Carl Paladino might have been able to channel the current dissatisfaction with Albany and the national disenchantment with whatever it is that people are so pissed off about into a surprise win over Andrew Cuomo; but there is no question that the story Alan broke effectively dashed whatever chance Paladino might have had...

Good article on the current state

Posted on October 28, 2010
Good article on the current state of National Public Radio. I'm put out with my local outlet: I was on the Advisory Board of WBFO for a few years, and I believed that they were doing good work back then. Lately however there has been a trend towards repetitious and unimaginative programing-- Car Talk and Wait, Wait three times a week? On Point and Fresh Air twice a day? C'mon! As McKibben notes: "There are public radio stations so hidebound that they run the not-that-hilarious Car Talk twice each week...

More for the Perils of an Elected

Posted on October 27, 2010
More for the Perils of an Elected Judiciary file. Outside Counsel friend Dan Kohane wrote this about the politicalization of the judicial races in the Eighth Judicial District. Briefly, it had been the custom in recent years for the local Democratic and Republican committees to cross-endorse sitting judges, but this practice was abandoned this year...

My recent automotive misadventure

Posted on October 26, 2010
My recent automotive misadventure has left us with a newer, fancier car and a bit of a dilemma.  The old Volvo was far from having acquired the broken-in look of an old tweed jacket, but it was on its way. It was in good shape overall, but it was clearly an older model, and its rear window testified to the higher educational aspirations of EGA and CLA...

I'm sorry to learn that The Honorable

Posted on October 25, 2010
I'm sorry to learn that The Honorable Burton Roberts has died. He was a larger than life character, and he knew it.  My best Burt Roberts story is here, but I know there are loads more that are better-- I was about to leave the Bronx for Buffalo's palmy shores when he took over as Chief Administrative Judge, and of course I never did any criminal work when I was practicing full time in the City...

Via Lawyers, Guns & Money,

Posted on October 20, 2010
Via Lawyers, Guns & Money, this is indeed awesome.

Some of the food writing that I've

Posted on October 19, 2010
Some of the food writing that I've been doing lately is here, and here.

I finally got around to Ashley

Posted on October 17, 2010
I finally got around to Ashley Kahn's "The House That Trane Built: The Story of Impulse Records".  It's not quite the history-of -jazz-as-told-through-the-labels that I've always wanted to read, but it's an engaging look at an interesting time and an interesting label...

"I have a friend who says that

Posted on October 16, 2010
"I have a friend who says that the most valuable thing you can do as an adult is read a good history or biography about the years just preceding and including your birth. That?s the blind spot in most people?s consciousness, and that?s the span that should be spotlighted...

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.