Ping-pong at Anodyne!

I discovered today that Anodyne Cafe in Bay View has set up the option to play ping-pong in its side room on its boardroom table!

I cannot restrain the childlike joy within.

Finally, a place to play--and an improvised and intentional place no less.

I anticipate I will be at Anodyne much more frequently as a result.

This, the same day I read in the FT about the opening of Singularity University in California.

Quite the day.

Spain...On the Road Again

A public television program I recently discovered, which I've found excellently wholesome and entertaining on multiple levels.

It's about good food, travel, etc., and the episodes of this show I've seen have all involved these things in delightful proportion.

Spain...On the Road Again is a PBS show that I've seen aired on Create TV, which locally is 36.4, if you have your digital converter box (or equivalent) hooked up.

The show is a healthy mix of travel, food, banter, celebrity, and Willie Nelson.

Basically, the recipe is this:

2 beautiful women (Gweneth Paltrow, Claudia Bassols)
1 expert chef (Mario Batali)
1 NYT food writer (Mark Bittman)
Mix in healthy dose of convertibles, crisp camera angles, unscripted conversation, and spread over the entire beautifully scenic country of Spain as the four adventurers road-trip on a mission to eat all kinds of fancy and interesting food all over the place, interacting with the people who make wine, grow mussels, prepare seafood, divvy out tapas, make cheese, raise pigs, etc.

Strangely, highly compelling television.

Gibson at work on new book

William Gibson apparently is working on a new book and recently posted a few grafs on his blog.

In Honor of Majel Barrett Roddenberry

Learned the sad news of Majel Barrett's death when reading an obituary of Forrest J. Ackerman in the FT. I didn't know or know of Ackerman until I read the obit (although it sounds like his likeness got worked into not a few Ray Bradbury stories). But I did have the chance/honor to get Barrett's autograph when she was in Milwaukee for Gen Con in the early or mid-1990s.

Years later, I read a biography of Gene Roddenberry, and while I can't now recall the specifics, it was clear that Barrett was a key and crucial element to Star Trek and to Roddenberry grappling with his vision and getting it expressed. She was an unsung hero and a stalwart companion to the Great Bird of the Galaxy, perhaps the wind beneath his wings.

At the time I encountered her across a table briefly in the autograph line, her autograph seemed not that important; I didn't know anything about her except that she played Luxuana Troi and Nurse Chapel. But now, I appreciate that autograph much more because it represents more than just one actor's contribution to the mythos of Star Trek; it is a piece of the soul, the core that has been appreciated by so many all over the planet.

She died Dec. 18, 2008 at age 76.

Here is a link to her son's bio of her.

Issue 3: What is Love?

Milwaukee Anthropologist Issue 3 is now online.

Essays by Tina Kemp, Mary Vuk Sussman, and yours truly.

http://mkeanthro.blogspot.com/2008/12/intro-to-issue-3.html

Spoiler info?

And some possible spoiler info.

Even better...or worse?

This fan spoof on YouTube.