Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Objects Restored

I made a website with pictures and descriptions of all the objects I worked on during school. It is here.

Monday, June 28, 2010

World Cup

The World Cup is more than halfway done now, but it's still a big deal. Of course, the big disappointment here was Italy going out in the first round, after tying "lowly" Paraguay and New Zealand and then losing to Slovakia. People were certainly not expecting a repeat performance of 2006, and were heaping criticism on the coach even before the tournament started for picking the wrong players, but the final game was nevertheless a blow (although they had to admit that the Italian team really only started playing 15 minutes before the end). Since then, the number of Italian flags hanging on balconies has decreased somewhat, but the interest in the tournament has remained, at least from what I can tell at work.
Italy being Italy, it's of course more difficult to watch the games here than it should be. Since the state-funded RAI networks only bought the rights to some of the games (about one a day), the others being shown on subscription-only Sky, most games during the day are also not available for online streaming. So for some weekend games, we've gone to an Irish pub downtown (where we saw the glorious German victory over England this past weekend), otherwise we're reliant on some poor quality pirated streams of ESPN, BBC, or Chinese TV.

Some Pictures

These are some pictures I've taken with my phone over the past few months.


This diagonal pole device is attached to a truck. It's used for moving things from upper-floor windows to the street or vice versa.


Tee hee.


I always see people taking pictures of produce at the market, so maybe people want to see market pictures. Here is part of the pecorino selection at one of the stands.


This seems to be the standard way people prune trees here. It seems excessive and looks stupid.


Virtual chips.

Monday, June 21, 2010

New Music Recommendations, part 6

  • The New Pornographers: "Crash Years"
    These guys have been one of my favorites ever since "The Bleeding Heart Show" was on heavy rotation on my playlists for something like 8 months. "Crash Years" is my favorite song from a good album which is great music for a fun summer.
  • L'Arpeggiata: "Via Crucis"
    The newest album from this improvising early-music group manages to make dour religious music sound cool.
  • Joanna Newsom: "Good Intentions Paving Co."
    About as foot-tapping, head-bopping as you can expect to get from Joanna Newsom, from probably the best album of the year so far.
  • Sleigh Bells: "A/B Machines"
    A much-hyped band, you either love them or hate them. I'm waiting for a party to really rock out to their songs.
  • Elvis Perkins in Dearland: "Chains, Chains, Chains"
    I haven't quite decided what genre to categorize this band in (Elvis Perkins is the son of Andrew Perkins). Folk? Singer/songwriter? Rock? New Orleans? Probably a bit of everything. Their self-titled debut, and especially this song, is of my favorites from late last year.