Author: paul@digitaldendrite.com

For those who have never been to the Louvre, let me summarize:

1, the Mona Lisa. Very nice. Looks good in person, albiet about 20 feet away from you.
2, Michaelangelo’s “slaves” (one of which is pictured). Brilliant and powerful and shows why he’s the master.
3, a few nice Caravaggios, especially that one (The Fortune Teller).
4, some lovely Rembrandts, including that wonderful self portrait.
5, about 3 million gigantic, incredibly dull French paintings showing either dead soldiers or things with clouds. Skip all of these.

All told, we managed to wend our way through in about 90 minutes. Considering the place is about as big as the Pentagon (they used to fill some halls with dirt and ride horses through it to go fox hunting INDOORS), that’s no small feat.

Oh, and we went to the Rodin Museum, which, all in all, has much more interesting stuff than the Louvre. Sorry, King Louis.

After a long day with a stomach bug, both kim and I were feeling much better by evening, so we decided on an american cafe for Cheeseburgers and then to see Spiderman 3. Oddly, it came out in France 3 days before it does in the US. That seems very strange to me, as I remember hearing that Europe always gets the big blockbusters well after we do in the states, but we certainly did see it. It was in English, with French subtitles, and the audience was very odd. There are a couple of scenes when poor Peter Parker is unhappy and Toby Maguire gets all blubbery–a bit melodramatic, perhaps, but they’re serious parts of the movie. However, the audience was uniformly laughing at these parts. Either A, the subtitles were really bad, or B, they thought his acting was really bad. I don’t know about A, but as far as B is concerned he might have been a bit hammy, but nothing too bad. It was a strange group to watch with. There was a funny scene with the wonderfully odd Bruce Campbell as an annoyingly French Maitre d’ which was FAR funnier considering that he was putting on this silly French accent and the entire audience was French. They were all laughing, which I guess is a good thing.

Overall, the movie was good, not great. Not as good as Spiderman 2, which I thought might have been the best of all of the recent Marvel-type movies (Batman Begins being a close second), but it was fun and had some serious moments and great effects. I’d like to see it again, I think. Maybe with an English speaking audience that laughs in the right parts…

This is the kind of thing my scary mind wanders to sometimes, late at night. Below we have the Teletubbies, courtesy of Photoshop…

Tinky Winky. Dipsy. Laa laa. And Poe.

Say Hello!

As I pen this blog entry (well, not pen, of course, but you know what I mean), sitting in a big, beautiful apartment overlooking the 7th arrondesment in Paris, France, it occurs to me that the most important thing about our spaceous, clean, hundreds-of-year-old apartment is that it has WiFi. Although people say “get away, go on vacation, disconnect from the world”, I can’t imagine doing so. Too dull. My world is connected, many of my friends are tied to me this way, and there are too many useful things available online to pull the plug. Paris is lovely, but don’t make me give up my laptop. Pathetic, but true.

As for our trip, so far it flops along nicely. A minor, confusing starts involving passports left sitting at home, but leaving for the airport early enough meant never having to say “we’re sorry–you can’t board because you forgot your passports.” Air India, our inexpensive carrier-of-choice was actually very comfortable (if you count sitting upright while trying to sleep comfortable) and right on time. Amazing that Air India to Paris, France was on time and American Airlines to Chicago, Illinois, never seems to be.

Anyway, we spent yesterday wandering everywhere trying, mostly, to eat and stay awake. The former was not a problem–we found a lovely little bistro and kept them there much later in the afternoon than they wanted to be open as we worked on grilled lamb, some sort of tripe-y thing, and frites. The latter, however, was managed with difficulty, although I think I did make it until about 10 before I passed out. Alain, our host, has an extremely comfortable bed, which I have now risen from some 12 hours later as Kim heads off to forage for pastries.

The weather was perfect yesterday, but rumor has it that it will turn rainy for the next few days and cooler. This may not be too much of a problem as apparently everything is also going to be closed for the next few days. Good thing we don’t actually care what we do, as this would be somewhat of a dampener for us if we did. Who knew that everything in Paris is closed on May 1st for May Day. Solidarity, brothers! I won’t work that day either.

More from the city of light as it becomes available. And relevant. And interesting.

OK, I’m not going to break out and sing, but for anyone paying attention to the Yankees, or indeed, baseball at the moment, cannot help but being stunned and amazed by the show Alex Rodriguez is putting on for the major leagues. Hitting a home run is supposed to be hard (unless you’re on steroids like a certain San Francisco Giant), but ARod is making it look like you should hit at least a homer every game. At this point, after having his his second of the night against the Red Sox, he’s up to 12 homers and 30 RBIs after a total of 15 games. Now, no one has ever hit 10 homers in the first 14 games–this is the stat they showed at the beginning of tonight’s game. My guess is–and this is only a guess–that it’s a good deal less likely that anyone’s ever hit 12 homers in 1 more game than that. Every swing, every at bat, this guy is making the rest of the league look silly.

The only question is will he cool off, or will other teams just start walking him every at-bat.

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted about my teams, as the Giants were awful and the baseball season just started. However, as I watch the Rangers go up 5-0 on a power play goal, I have to say how much fun it is to watch them play the Thrashers in the playoffs. It’s been TEN years since the Rangers won a single playoff game, and a win tonight will put them up 3-0 in their first round series. They’re young, fast, and their goalie, Henrik Lundqvist, has been absolutely amazing. This game in particular is one of the most dominant performances in a playoff game I’ve ever seen.

LET’S GO RANGERS!

Ellen, Katie and I were walking to the car after I picked them up from school, and a discussion about school lunches led to this observation:

Ellen: Daddy, your tater tots are better than the ones at school. You make them from scratch, right?
Me: No, you’ve seen me open the bag, El.
Ellen: Oh, right. You should make them from scratch.
Me: I think you know why I don’t.
Ellen: Probably not enough time. Ah, the life of a computer consultant.

Indeed.

Ellen has started using email with MS Entourage, a “real” email client. Her first email to her parents? Her plans for the online game she is playing, Runescape:

—————-
Dear mom and dad
I have a picture to show you. It is from the heros quest. As you probably
know, it is from RS. I really want to do it, because if I do, I think I get
an amulet of glory. Also ,if you do heros quest you get accses to the heros
guild. By the way, the person in the picture has full splitbark (which is a
kind of magicians robe) an elemental shield (which is a magic shield that
has elemental ore in it.) and a lava staff (which is a staff that has
combinations of earth and fire in it giving you an infinet amount of those
runes. I also think he has a ledgends cape on. His armour siginalises
that he is a mage.
love
Ellen

———————

This siginalises that she’s a bit obsessed.

Two days ago, our dinner conversation turned to what Easter was about. When Kim and I explained the myth of Christ raising from the dead, a puzzled look appeared on Katie’s face:

Katie: I didn’t know Easter was about all THAT.
Me: what did you think it was about?
Katie (exasperated, as usual): Eggs!

Those of the non-gentile persuasion should not snicker too quickly…both kids think Passover is about Matzoh.

Well…isn’t it?

Congratulations are in order for my eldest daughter tonight as she was nominated by her teacher for something called The National Young Scholors Program Apparently, it’s a nationwide program where the brightest 3rd, 4th and 5th graders in the nation go to a week-long camp during which they do fun, brainy things. That Ellen was nominated for something like this doesn’t in the least surprise me. Quite honestly, nothing that Ellen does academically surprises me at this point. She’s as bright a child as I’ve ever met, and everyone knows it, including, clearly, her teachers.

However, as Kim and I have discussed, if it’s a program for someone with a disability or learning or even behavioral problem, the goverment falls over itself to pay for it. If, however, you have a talented and gifted child and the program is to enhance what they do in school because what is available to them in school bores them to tears, it’s time for the parents to fork up the dough. How many parents of bright children can afford to send them to this National program? Well, at $1900 for a week, I’m guessing not that many. The priorities of this country are seriously askew.