This Side of Lost

I have a lot of catching up to do. Here are the titles of my next few posts:

The Price of Doing What You Love
LA is Calling
I am a Master
Stephen Colbert - Patriot and Hero
In Other News
An Alphabet Meme
#84 - Fargo

I love to sing.

I've applied for six jobs now. Two have called me back, and for some reason, they are both in the Los Angeles area. I'm a little weirded out by this, because I really didn't see my life leading towards southern California. I mean, I won't complain, the second largest metro area in the country would certainly afford a lot of opportunities for Samantha and I. And the weather would be nice, and hey, it's California. But there's also the traffic, the high cost of living, the smog, the thousands of miles away from the Midwest...

Regardless, it's exciting. Wish me luck.

Of library science, that is.

I decided to wait until my grades came through. I appear to have avoided failing both of my classes this semester. So I guess that means I have my MLS now.

It feels kind of anticlimatic. This may be because I spent most of Saturday working on my presentation for my interview instead of standing around in a robe and mortarboard being part of a long and mostly meaningless ceremony. Honestly, having a room full of librarians congratulate me on it (which is what happened a couple of times during my interview) was the most exciting part so far.

The next exciting thing would be getting a job. Thankfully, I feel that I am quite qualified to be a librarian/information professional with one of a number of possible focuses (foci?):

1. general science librarianship
2. chemistry librarianship
3. chemical information retrieval/support
4. instruction/information literacy librarianship
5. general academic librarianship

Cool, huh? And the job thing may be moving right along. More news on this as events warrant.

For those readers interested in the process of achieving the degree, I now present a brief description of the last two academic years. If you don't care, you can stop here and offer your congratulations below. (What, fishing for compliments, me? Never...)

My life was made a little brighter last week when I witnessed a video capture of Stephen Colbert's speech at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner a couple weeks ago. For those of you who are unaware, he is the star of the Colbert Report, a Comedy Central program where he parodies the political pundits on cable. And apparently he was to be the entertainment this night.

I certainly thought he was entertaining. However, many people didn't quite think so, as he delivered a blistering ironic "tribute" to President Bush, lampooning his policy, his decisions, his persona and everything else, it seems -- when the man himself was sitting not twenty feet away. Understandably, he played to a shocked and somewhat quiet audience, apparently several Bush aides walked out before he finished, and Bush himself had no smiles for Colbert when he was done. But he has since become the next Internet phenomenon, complete with C-SPAN demanding the removal of the video from YouTube and iFilm and a thank you site with tens of thousands of posts.

If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. Although you may not

1. appreciate the style of his humor (it's pretty deadpan and very satirical),
2. share his political beliefs, or
3. believe that he said anything that everybody else hadn't already,

maybe you can just appreciate the guts the man had to lambast the president from twenty feet away.

So now that I have the important stuff out of the way (for now), I can bore you all with the unimportant stuff. So, without further ado, a large bullet list:

• Our party is coming up in less than a month. Woo-hoo! And there are people who are actually coming. We've finally sent invites, so the RSVPs are trickling in. We're meeting with our caterer this afternoon to get some details ironed out and get the pertinent info to our venue.
• My interview in LA went well. They asked for more references. And I've noticed quite a few hits to this site from surrounding areas (hi guys!). Not much more to say yet -- I'll keep you updated.
• Mari hosted an awesome Cinco de Mayo party. There are pictures for the non faint-of-heart. You may see people smooching. You have been warned.
• School is over, but I'm still on campus, working. Things are very quiet, which is always nice.
• The weather here as been ugly. Rainy and cold for about the past week. What happened to spring?
• I've started reading another webcomic called Wondermark. I recommend it. You don't need to read the archives to jump on board and immediately start enjoying it.
• Samantha and I saw Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit the other night. Also highly recommended.
• The Minnesota Twins are going to kill me yet. They featured timely hitting and decent pitching for the first two games of their series with the dreaded White Sox, and yesterday looked to be more of the same after the first inning yielded a score of 7-3. But then Carlos Silva gave up five more runs and I died a little inside. Argh. Inconsistent poor performance is worse than consistent poor performance.
• I'm toying around with the idea of making my Windows machine at home a dual-boot with Linux. A friend got me thinking about this when she handed me an Ubuntu CD. Any thoughts from the resident computer nerds on this?
• I'm halfway through Wheel of Time 11. Oh dear Lord, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. If I can do this, I think I can read just about anything. Because reading this series has honestly been like reading an 8,000 page book. Even 19th century Russian novelists will crumble beneath my might. So what am I going to read next? I'm open to suggestions.
• Oh, and I'm first in my fantasy baseball league. Woot!

What's up with you, people?

Accent: Not much, a little Minnesotan sometimes (especially on my O's).
Booze: I'm learning. Still not that interested in beer or wine, but I enjoy a Cap and coke, amaretto sours and the occasional shot of bourbon.
Chore I Hate: Washing dishes. Gag me.
Dog or Cat: Robert and Angus, the cutest monkeys ever!!!!1
Essential Electronics: My watch, the computer. My phone, to a lesser degree.
Favorite Cologne(s): No thanks.
Gold or Silver: Well, my cross necklace, my earring and my wedding band are all silver, so I guess that answers that.
Hagiography: (The meme was missing an H entry when I grabbed it, so I added this one. Feel free to change it to something more conventional, if you like.) All this Barry Bonds coverage by ESPN is getting pretty close to one, if you ask me.
Insomnia: No way. I get up too early to suffer from that.
Job Title: Autobot Commander.
Kids: None yet.
Living arrangements: A non-descript two bedroom apartment with my wife.
Most admirable trait: A sense of perspective.
Number of sexual partners: What is this, a physical?
Overnight hospital stays: None that I can recall.
Phobias: None, really. I don't like bugs that much, but I wouldn't call it a phobia.
Quote: I'll tell you my least favorite: "Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most." SERIOUSLY -- who still thinks that's funny?
Religion: The more liberal of the Lutherans.
Siblings: An older sister and a younger sister.
Time I wake up: Between 6-7 am.
Unusual talent or skill: I can juggle three balls pretty consistently.
Vegetable I refuse to eat: It takes a lot to get me to refuse food. But I'll usually pass on artichokes if offered.
Worst habit: Mouth breathing. I have a perfectly good nose, so why don't I use it?
X-rays: That's the lamest X word possible. Ben recently provided ten better ones, so let's try something different, eh? Xiphoid-shaped object: My letter opener.
Yummy foods I make: Oh, man, you name it -- excellent stir-frys out of the leftovers in the crisper, a broad repertoire of bean-and-grain dishes to satisfy the hungriest vegetarian (and provide leftovers for tomorrow), and I can follow most recipes with ruthless efficiency. Try my Beans w/Pesto Bulgur and Impromptu Peanut & Soy Sauce Stir-fry. I'm not as good as some people I know though (*cough cough* Mari).
Zodiac sign: Cancer, whatever that means, because zodiac signs are bogus.

1996 brought Joel and Ethan Coen's masterwork, a crime drama/dark comedy set in Minnesota. Frances MacDormand plays Marge Gunderson, a pregnant police chief from Brainerd, hot on the trail of a murder case that leads her to car salesman and Wayzata resident Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy) who has done some underhanded things in his attempts to make some quick money. Naturally things spiral out of control and naturally Marge hunts it all down in between trips to the buffet.

Now, being from Minnesota myself, first of all -- yes, some people do really talk like that. Not everyone, but some -- especially the farther north you go. The Coen brothers are Minnesota natives too and they're poking fun at their home state throughout the film. The same goes for the almost debilitating laid back attitude of many of the characters in the film. Yes, Minnesotans can be laid back, but I know just as many high strung ones too.

So although the accent and the personalities are exaggerated, there is a grain of truth in every exaggeration. I was of course grinning throughout the film. The wonderful "Oh yeah?" "Yeah..." "No kidding." "Yeah." "Oh yeah?" dialogue is just so priceless. But probably not to anyone who hasn't spent some time "up north." But don't worry, the rest of the script is really well written too.

The entire film is very well done. The bro's walk the fine line between getting too serious and trivializing the events occurring. They really seem to know how a bunch of Minnesotans would react to what's going on. MacDormand pulls off the character like she was born there. The supporting cast are all spot on -- either blending in or sticking out like sore thumbs, depending. The cinematography is very fitting for the bleak landscape and storyline. You will find yourself alternatively laughing and cringing at how the characters behave.

I think I agree that while it may not be the most entertaining Coen brothers film, it is the best. Strangely, I think it has the most heart of any of them. Like many of the films on this list, it was at times painful to watch. But unlike some of the films we've seen so far, it was completely worth it.

(See this post if you're confused why I'm reviewing movies.)

I have a job. But I'm not telling you what it is. :)

Okay, fine, I'll tell you. I'm an academic librarian in southern California. Does that help?