Brog: this would be better with a digital camera

End of the Brog

2006-08-08T18:28:00.000-07:00

So as my attention increasingly turns from keeping in touch with Columbia friends to saying goodbye to high school friends, I realized I had neither the time nor need for the Brog. So, this is my last post. You won't have me to kick around any more.

But before I go, a few thoughts on my time blogging:

1) Being a massive tool is a good thing. I got a fair number of facebook posts from friends concerned about my self-esteem. I should have made clearer that I don't consider the 'massive tool' label a negative. We all aspire to certain systems and images. that;s healthy: if you didn't you'd be pretty boring. but copying other people is only a problem when you deny that you are doing so. In that sense, being a tool is good: you are acknowledging that you imitate and copy.

2) personal blogs are (possibly) a positive force for society. Brog didn't, as I originally hoped it would, inspire me to do interesting things. most of my free time is spent cooking. But it did let me think about my week. Narcissism? yes, but in a very systematic way

3) why does everyone need to have three points? the first two were good enough

Please interrupt my German studying- send me emails and calls. Danke!

Defending Wikipedia

2006-08-01T11:36:00.000-07:00

I want to defend Wikipedia from the New Yorker, which had an article in last week's issue about the site. The article made the same basic criticism that everyone who does not use the site makes: that Wikipedia supports a dangerous and disconnected definition of truth.

Disconnected from whom? It can't be disconnected from the contributors, who submit themselves to infinite peer review. And it can't be disconnected from standard sources, because it requires that all facts be independently documented and verifiable. Wikipedia is only disconnected from pedigree: it doesn't matter who gets the facts, so long as they are right.

The Wikipedia model won't work for a lot of things: in most situations, power structures and reputations are entirely necessary. But a project that requires vast breadth and little depth, concentrating the power of knowledge into a few sources is inefficient. Old media needs to stop worrying: Wikipedia won't take over the world. But it would be cool if it did.

The Meta Joke Will Never Get Old

2006-07-25T19:23:00.000-07:00

It will only add new levels. Here's a picture from Shira Burton (used without her permission) of the first meta-dollhouse:

hey, is anybody reading the meta-wikipedia sites? it's almost as addictive as the rest of the site.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Community_Portal

Few Posts Today

2006-07-25T07:35:00.000-07:00

So my mom broke her foot on Sunday at the farm. She's going to be fine, but today Katherine Hannemann (nicest person in the world award) and I are driving down to pick her up.

I sort of picture this being like 'The Jungle'- My mom, the sole provider for the family suffers a tragic injury, and unable to work, poverty and despair rip our family apart as my siblings either go into prostitution or fall into vats of boiling lard. Fortunately, we're all saved in the last chapter by socialism and the pure food and drug act of 1906

What I’m Eating –

2006-07-17T21:03:00.000-07:00

The density of my food became unusually important this weekend, when I had all my wisdom teeth removed. It was a pretty painless affair, and the Codene kept me ache-free and drowsy. Rather than bore you with the facts of my weekend (…and then I took another nap!...) I’ll tell you the foods I have, and have not been eating:

What I have been eating:
Greek Food. I made Orzo-Gyro casserole and felt like a superhero. Sam Cohen has rightly pointed out that superheroes usually don’t cook, or at least do something in addition to cooking. I say, why clutter things with multiple skills? The lame thing about Superman is that he has way too many superpowers: not only does he have super strength, but he can fly and shoot lasers too. If I can just cook Greek casserole reliably, I’m happy (my one weakness: oregano. What does oregano do for food? I have never, ever tasted a difference. Maybe oregano should be my arch nemesis.)

Quiche. I made quiche with Andrew Knips on Saturday, who amazingly also got his wisdom teeth removed on Friday. It was funny to watch us eat, the way it’s funny to watch wheelchair basketball (not actually funny).
I made the quiche with half and half, not whole cream, so that it would be lighter and healthier. I also put in tomatoes, capers, and balsamic olives for Mediterranean flavor. The whole thing went well, though Andrew had a tough time with the crust.

Peanut butter and banana sandwiches. This is something I used to make for dessert, but now that I spit blood I feel I’m entitled to make this a meal. Elvis used to love these too, but he deep-fried them. I highly recommend them with milk, and if you’re feeling wild, use nutella.

Fruit Smoothies. I have an ongoing debate with my mom about how to make good smoothies. She’ll throw anything into her smoothies, all willy-nilly. I believe you can only have a couple of ingredients. Otherwise the various flavors cancel each other out. This weekend? Peach yogurt, bananas, and milk. The secret is the high ratio of yogurt to milk, so that it comes out as thick as a malt.

What I haven’t been eating:

Raisin Bran. I can’t believe that raisin bran is too brittle for me to eat. Even 80-year-olds love raisin bran. However, I was developing a real addiction, so maybe this is a chance to break clean, to get a new lease on life.

Who Controls the Internet?

2006-07-17T21:00:00.000-07:00

China. And France, and Australia, and the United State, etc… That’s the idea behind this book by Jack Goldstein and Columbia Law Prof. Tim Wu. I don’t normally make book pitches on this site (actually, I don’t ever make book pitches on this site), but I think this book will go a long way towards dispelling the myths of the internet spun by Tom Friedman and Nicholas Kristoff (don’t take that as an insult against Kristoff, he’s still amazing. Friedman? Eh.) Goldstein and Wu explain that the web is increasingly controlled by national governments, regulated by police forces, and censored by dictatorships and anti-defamation laws. But what’s so interesting is that all this is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, almost no one would want an internet with no government regulation.

The web is really no different from earlier communication breakthroughs: the telgraph, the telephone, radio, and TV. All these international forms of communication respect national law, and continue to prosper in spite of, or more likely because of, these regulations. The internet 10 years from now will probably be very different from the internet of 10 years ago, but that’s progress. Read the book, and support a really cool professor.

Better! Faster! Stronger!

2006-07-14T10:02:00.000-07:00

Young People For's new political blog is up:

www.youngpeoplefor.org. click on the blog link.

YP4 is a fantastic organization and if you're at all politically active then you should apply to be fellow next year. The blog is just getting off the ground, but we've been pretty good about covering the net neutrality debate- something everyone should care about (also, while I'm randomly pitching tech blogs, go to larry lessig's site).

layers upon layers of reference

2006-07-11T17:53:00.000-07:00

The name Brog was a play on Bwog, which was a play on blog. I was really happy to see Patrick Landreman take it a step further with Pog. When most blogs just offer the mundane in people's lives, Pat actually takes the time to write something funny.

Now I want someone to create the Prague, which would be devoted to summarizing the Pog and Brog. That way people who don't have time to make it through the Brog and Pog can just read the Prague. And though Pog and Brog are weekly sites, Prague should be daily. I don't think Prague should have to re-summarize things daily, it should just summarize a small portion of the posts every day. In addition to being updated frequently, Prague could build suspense, like:

"I didn't have time to read all of this Pog post, but from the first paragraph, this is what I think will happen..."

and Prague could make suggestions to Pog and Brog, like "eat less raisin bran" or "stop helping terrorists".

I don't know what comes after Prague. Munich?

Why I am a Massive Tool (Part 10 in an ongoing series)

2006-07-11T17:52:00.000-07:00

Specialty Tool: I am a senior citizen

Facebook stalkers might remember that I briefly had a serious addiction to muffins. Every morning at 8:00 AM I went to Café 212 and bought a blueberry muffin with coffee. In that period before really waking up, there was nothing like 500 calories of steaming, gooey, fluffy muffin.

One morning, after I finished my muffin I stared for a long time at the empty wrapper, and I realized it would be a whole 24 hours before I could have another muffin, and I got really, really depressed. It was then I realized I had an addiction.

Well, I’ve kicked the blueberry habit, but I’ve developed a more pernicious addiction: raison bran. Literally it is my favorite thing to eat, and if I wasn’t afraid of eating 300% of my daily fiber, I would have it at every meal. Oh wait, I did: today.

The beauty of Raisin Bran is that it gets soggy quickly, turning your morning breakfast into, at best, a kind of paste. It tastes better that way, and it’s easier on your dentures.

Perhaps now I should develop the other eating habits of my fellow 80-year-olds: prunes, tomato soup, overly toasted bread, and lactose free milk. Hell, why don’t I finally put my tennis balls to good use and put them on the legs of my walker? From soggy Raisin Bran three times a day, it is only a short leap to telling long, rambling stories about muffins that have no point.

I wear Gap

2006-07-11T17:50:00.000-07:00

My mom bought me this nice linen suit (jacket and pants) with sort of seersucker blue stripes and a lot of wrinkles. It’s defintely a summer suit, but I want to wear it around campus. Is it innapropriate for me to wear this after labor day?

If it is, what will be the social repurcussions? And if it isn’t, can I wear this with just an undershirt, or do I have to wear a formal shirt or something? After Leora so viciously made fun of my brown hiking shorts (apparently shorts aren’t cool if they end above the knees and you where them with plaid button down shirts- hey, I thought I looked rugged), I feel like I have to more fashion conscious. Anybody’s advice would be most appreciated

Kant translated

2006-07-11T17:48:00.000-07:00

Tonight I’m posting a passage of Kant’s ‘What is Enlightenment’ that I translated for German class. As you can see, my translation is at best awkward and at worst nonsensical. But still, I’m really pleased that I was able to do this after four weeks of class.

Of course, Jacob Weaver, Kristen Schenk, and all other German speakers are invited to offer their own translations. Danke!

Beantwortung der Frage: Was ist Aufklärung?
Answer (to) the question: What is Enlightenment?

Aufklärung ist der Ausgang des Menschen aus seiner selbst verschuldeten Unmündigkeit .
Enlightenment is the escape (of) human beings from their own endebted immaturity

Unmündigkeit ist das Unvermögen , sich seines Verstandes ohne Leitung eines anderen zu bedienen .
Immaturity is the inability , its own intellect without direction to work towards different things.

Selbstverschuldet ist diese Unmündigkeit, wenn die Ursache derselben nicht am Mangel des Verstandes, sondern der Entschließung und des Mutes liegt, sich seiner ohne Leitung eines anderen zu bedienen.
This immaturity is self-inflicted, when the reason itself (is) not at a shortage of intellect, but the resolution and courages lay (unused), it (the immaturity) itself is without direction to work towards different things.

Sapere aude! Habe Mut dich deines eigenen Verstandes zu bedienen! ist also der Wahlspruch der Aufklärung.
Have courage to work to you your few intellects. The Enlightenment Is also the alternative.

Faulheit und Feigheit sind die Ursachen, warum ein so großer Teil der Menschen, nachdem sie die Natur längst von fremder Leitung frei gesprochen (naturaliter maiorennes), dennoch gerne zeitlebens unmündig bleiben;
Idleness and cowardice are the reason, why a so great portion (of) men, after they heard the nature long unknown direction free (naturally important), nevertheless gladly works all their lives under age.

und warum es Anderen so leicht wird, sich zu deren Vormündern aufzuwerfen.
And why it becomes so light (to) others, itself to guardian throw out.

Es ist so bequem, unmündig zu sein. Habe ich ein Buch, das für mich Verstand hat, einen Seelsorger , der für mich Gewissen hat, einen Arzt, der für mich die Diät beurteilt , u.s.w., so brauche ich mich ja nicht selbst zu bemühen .
It is so sensible, to be under age. I have a book, it has for my understanding, a pastor, he has for my conscience, a doctor, he is for judging my diet, etc, so I need help for myself not just from me.

Ich habe nicht nötig zu denken, wenn ich nur bezahlen kann; andere werden das verdrießliche Geschäft schon für mich übernehmen.
I do not have a need for thinking, when I can merely pay, others will soon overtake the sullen business for me.

-Immanuel Kant, 1784

Why I am a Massive Tool (Part eight in an ongoing series)

2006-07-07T19:09:00.001-07:00

I feel bad about not updating the brog much over the past week or two. So bad in fact, I offer two massive tool installments in one week.

A couple massive tool posts ago I admitted that I wanted everyone in my German class to know I went to Columbia. But now, on consideration I realize that however much I want people to know where I go to school, I dread and hate having to tell them. Why don’t we just go through the standard conversation:
Standard Adult: So, are you in school?
Me: uh hu
S.A.: where?
Me: uh, columbia…in New York
S.A.: (short pause) oh (much longer pause)
S.A.: so what are you studying?
Me: uh, philosophy?
(the longest silence in history)

I told Shira Burton that complaining about this problem is like griping about the mileage on my yacht, but be that as it may, that’s always a damned awkward conversation, and my yacht does get terrible mileage.

Why I am a Massive Tool (Part nine in an ongoing series)

2006-07-07T19:09:00.000-07:00

I caved to the temptation of the Da Vinci code, and I felt pretty bad about it. But at least The Code, as I call it, had car chases, murders, disfigured bodies, and math. A guy going to see The Code may be a massive tool, but he is still a man.

That is not the case with The Devil Wears Prada, which I saw this weekend. I was the only man in the theater without a date, unless you count my mother as a date. Worse still, I did not go unwillingly. I suggested to my mom that we go to the movie, and then, since we did not have a newspaper, I biked the 7 miles to the nearest town to find the show times, and then biked back. But the closest theater was an hour away, so we actually drove an hour to La Crosse and an hour back to see that movie.

And the movie was pretty good. Anne Hathaway was gorgeous and Meryl Streep was evil. Yes, I am a massive tool to yet again buy into media hype, but at least I have shown dedication in that pursuit.

Why I am a Massive Tool (part seven in an ongoing series)

2006-06-27T17:09:00.000-07:00

So I was at Big Brain Comics last week when I found this xeroxed sheet of paper:

ZINE FEST '06
july 14-16, 2006
Minneapolis

I went to their website and it's going to be this big fair of zinesters, all selling their wares. I really thought this was cool- I mean, whatever happened to zines? Weren't they replaced by blogs? Very September 10th. But zines are so cool. I imagine Ira Glass reads a lot of them. Now if only I had a zine ...

And so I'm going to make the Brog into a zine. I don't know what else I'm going to put in it, but I'm going to use my mom's copy machine during the time I should be working.

So I'm finally cashing in on a cult phenomenon that's been in decline since the rise of the internet. If it doesn't make me a massive tool, it at least makes me hopelessly out of date.

Post Script- German's pretty damn intense and we're in the middle of a trial at work, so that's going to be it for this week. I've got a lot to talk about however- I did a 10k (first in my age group! but there was only one other guy in my bracket, and he was 14) , made a chicken and vegetable pie, and went to the Soren Kierkegaard library at St. Olaf. And once I saw a blimp! So be patient gentle readers, if you want to know about this stuff immediately you can email me.

This is awesome

2006-06-21T13:53:00.000-07:00

I will probably make a more formal post soon. until then:

betterthanbrendan.blogspot.com

Patrick: you rock so hard

Why I am a Massive Tool (part six in an ongoing series)

2006-06-20T19:54:00.000-07:00

So I started taking German last week—and it’s really intense. Classes are three hours a day, four days a week, with an expectation of 16-20 hours of outside study a week. That would be entirely doable if I weren’t also working 20 hours a week, doing a political blog, starting Latin, and running. But I am just complaining, when I meant to explain why I’m a massive tool. So here goes:
The class is made up of 19 students: 3 adult learners, 1 Carleton kid in the cities for the summer, 14 U of M kids, and myself. Now, my female friends have told me that despite their best intentions, when they go to eat at the Barnard cafeteria they have to somehow make clear that they are Columbia kids. This German class is my Barnard cafeteria. I love the U of M and like most everyone there that I know (contrast to, say St. Thomas: the High School after High School [or alternatively, the Party that Started in Eden Prairie just Moved to St. Paul]), and I think that you can get an amazing education at the U. But I just want to come to class one day with Columbia sweatshirt. Or, if my classmates talk about the metro transit system, I just want to say:

“Oh yes. You know, we have a pretty good public transit system in New York- did I mention I go to school there? Yes. No, not NYU, Columbia.”

Does this desire really make me a massive tool?
Yes, yes it does.

Jacob Weaver, This is for You (even though the Chinese censors probably won’t let you see it)

2006-06-20T19:53:00.000-07:00

Liebe Brieffreunde,

Ich heiβe Brendan. Ich komme in St. Paul, aber wohne in New York, Lernerstrasse tausanddreihundertseibenzig, Postleitzahl einz null null drei seiben. Am New York Ich studiere Philosophie weil die Texten sind viele schön. Ich auch genieβe Englisch, aber fühlen Englischklassen viele leicht und nicht nützlich. Ich garn haben studiere und wolle bin ein Akedemiemitglied. Wie auch immer Ich bin Junge, so benötigen schon entschieden.
Am meine Freizeit jogge, Farrhad fahren, und lese Büken. Meine FreundInnen auch joggen und lesen. Weil ein Freunde können viele Sprachen, Ich wolle lernen Deutsch. Ich hoffe Sie helfen studiere, weile Ich nicht viele gut!
Abend meine Familie (meine Mütter und Ich) ansehen „Täglich Shau mit Jon Stewart“ Oh, viele spät! Ich muss gehe!

Alles gute

Deine, Brendan

I get Hardcore

2006-06-20T19:51:00.000-07:00

This week’s posts have been almost entirely devoted to my own vanity (but isn’t that the nature of a blog?), so why stop now?

I’m really pleased with my recent running. On Sunday I biked out to Fort Snelling State Park (about 40 minutes), then ran for 6.5 miles (50 minutes) and then biked back (another 40 minutes). Basically I want to be one of those people whose sense of fun is what other people find tedious and difficult. And I’m well on my way. This weekend I’m running a 10k (rest assured, I will tell you the results), and I am bumping up my daily run from 3.5 to 5 miles. I am thinking about investing in new socks.

[Mr. Ramsay woke up to feel the empty space beside him…

2006-06-20T19:48:00.000-07:00

Watching the Ice Storm, a movie by Ang Lee, based on a novel by Rick Moody, I realized this movie is Virginia Woolf.

The movie is all about isolation, sexuality, and stunted emotional connections in 1970’s Connecticut. Kevin Kline is a successful businessman and father who’s having an affair with his neighbor’s wife. His 16-year-old son (Tobey MacGuire) is awkwardly trying to woo sexual partners, but Kline’s 14-year-old daughter (Christina Ricci) is doing a much better job. Meanwhile, Kline’s wife is starting to figure things out and the whole marriage is about to explode at a key party (did those ever actually happen?).

Thematically, the movie was so Woolf: sexual isolation, masculine dominance, the way in which people orbit around each other without ever coming in contact, etc… But in style too the movie felt like To the Lighthouse. The perspective of the movie changed constantly between the characters, often jumping back or pausing time in order to fit everyone in. Watching the movie brought me right back to Lit Hum.

But here’s the smoking gun: look at your copy of To the Lighthouse. There, giving his endorsement- Rick Moody! Apparently he’s a huge fan, so no wonder the movie based on his novel sounds like her.

So: if you want to get that warm Lit Hum feeling, rent The Ice Storm. But if you want to see a Peter Seller’s movie that looks and feels like it was directed by Wes Anderson, rent Being There. Sellers plays a mentally handicapped Washington D.C. shut-in, who forced out of his home, accidentally becomes the counselor of presidents and billionaires. The beauty of the movie is in the secondary characters, who are all pent-up in their lifestyles and ambition, and project their own desires and hopes onto Seller’s blank, placid face. Please, for the love of god, rent this movie, if for no other reason than the last 1 minute, which I kept thinking about for days. I can’t possibly tell you more (oh wait I can- the soundtrack is awesome)—just see it.

Why I am a Massive Tool (part five in an ongoing series)

2006-06-13T21:05:00.000-07:00

Special Edition: I am so white

I've gotten really into Annie Lennox's album Medusa. Really into it. Now, I am usually against covers of songs. And I am almost by principle against songs with acoustic guitars playing over synthesizers. But this album (which is entirely synth-rock covers of famous 60's folk/rock/reggae songs) is so awesome, I actually hum the synthesizer part while I'm riding on my mo-ped. A Whiter Shade of Pale, indeed.

(Lennox's cover of Bob Marley's 'Waiting in Vain' is terrific- the song and its lyrics are perfect for her assured-but-vulnerable voice. download it from iTunes.)

(since I seem use the massive tool post to make general announcements, here's a general announcement: I started German Monday! No I'm not going to show off some German phrase I learned- that's just what my enemies want me to do [what?])

Brog does an interview

2006-06-13T21:04:00.000-07:00

I dunno who's seen Benoit's name scribbled around campus, but he's probably the best known Columbia tunneler around (though I don't think he's the most hard core- google Steve Duncan). Nine months ago I emailed Benoit for a Blue & White article that eventually became about another tunneler, Ken Hechtman. I never got a reply from Benoit- until this week. He apologized for getting back so late, and was gracious enough to answer the questions I sent him. Here's the interview (and by the way, if you can think of anyone I should legitimately interview this summer, please tell me. I really want to talk to Christopher Walken):

Brendan: You are on Wikipedia.

Benoit: I know, I check from time to time what comes up when
you search for "undercolumbia". I don't know who put
my e-mail address there, but it wasn't me. It has
resulted in the address getting spam, which kind of
sucks.

Br: Do you and Mr. Hechtman know each other?

Be: Not a chance. I'm SEAS '01, Hechtman was at the
College in 1986. The guy is around 40 years old now.
I've never met nor corresponded with him in any way.

Br: How did you become the explorer of the tunnels?

Be: I heard about the tunnels just like nearly every
incoming student. I didn't start exploring until
junior year. I came up with the whole e-mail gimmick;
I figured it'd be a nice way to meet fellow tunnelers.
And it was. This account was started in September
2000, and maintained until July 2005, throughout which
about 150 people wrote in, from students to a few
Facilities workers. Like I said, I went dormant in
July 2005, but I'm back for the time being. I used to
run regular tours, but I don't anymore -- honestly, I
just don't have the time. I have a regular career and
"full-time life", believe it or not ;-)

In the intervening 11 months since July 2005, another
60 or so people have written in. There are a *lot* of
fellow tunnelers at Columbia.

did you find what you wanted in your explorations?
are you satisfied?

Yes, and yes. I consider myself Egotist #1 when it
comes to the Columbia Tunnels, and I like to think
that I'll be the biggest name in tunneling at CU for a
long time to come ;-)

I tried to see as much as I could see. Sadly, a lot of
things underground have changed since I graduated.
Pupin's 1st floor, which used to be littered with
papers and gadgets dating back to the 1940s, was
emptied over Summer 2003, for example.

- Benoit (SEAS '01)

Another Cool Dead Guy

2006-06-13T21:03:00.000-07:00

You can't get the full obit off the Time's website anymore, so here's the full text from Lexis Nexis (thank you to the Columbia Library website)

Charles F. Brush, Archaeologist Who Piled Adventure Upon Adventure, Dies at 83

Charles F. Brush III, an archaeologist who as president of the Explorers Club persuaded his brethren to take on a singular adventure -- admitting women to their den of stuffed polar bears, tarantula appetizers and overstuffed armchairs -- died on June 1 in Manhattan. He was 83.

The cause was congestive heart failure, his son, Charles IV, said.

Dr. Brush, who lived in Shelter Island, N.Y., took up mountain climbing at 49, ran his first marathon at 54, and climbed the sheer Devil's Tower in Wyoming at 70, two days after taking up rock climbing. One of the legendary parties he had at his Park Avenue penthouse had Allen Ginsberg sitting in the nude chanting in front of a Buddha sculpture in the living room, The New York Times reported in 1993.

Dr. Brush was an eccentric, even in the eccentric Explorers Club -- and he could afford to be. His grandfather, Charles Francis Brush, perfected the arc light and was making money from illuminating city streets while Thomas Edison was still working on his first bulb. Dr. Brush's father, with some help from his own father, started what is now Brush Engineered Materials, a leading producer of beryllium metal.

Dr. Brush, who was never bothered by a 9-to-5 job, was a director of this family company, now publicly traded, for 45 years until 2003. He explained to The Plain Dealer of Cleveland that he served because as an anthropologist, he was fascinated with boardroom dynamics.

He earned his doctorate in anthropology from Columbia in 1969 with a dissertation about his discovery of some of Mexico's most ancient pottery. He described this work in Science magazine in 1965. Working with the American Museum of Natural History, he unearthed evidence of very early alloying of bronze in Mexico.

Charles IV said his father may have become bored with archaeology, so he turned to challenges like mountain climbing and scuba diving. In 1983, Dr. Brush combined these passions by ascending a 19,455-foot volcano on the border of Chile and Bolivia, then diving into a lake in its crater.

The quarry was Incan artifacts at the bottom, but he and his colleagues could find only tiny crustaceans, which they took back to Yale. The specimens turned out to be a new species. A friend nonetheless wrote him that the whole expedition was ''some kind of Evel Knievel stunt.''

Dr. George Van Brunt Cochran, Dr. Brush's successor as Explorers Club president, was only slightly more diplomatic. Calling Dr. Brush ''a controversial figure here at the club,'' Dr. Cochran said in an interview with Newsday at the time that some members doubted the expedition's significance, believing Dr. Brush just wanted to set a high-altitude diving record. It was pointed out that one of his colleagues on the expedition had dived in the lake on an earlier climb, though without scuba equipment.

Dr. Brush responded, ''Typical back-biting sour grapes.''

His daughter Karen Alexandra Brush, an archaeologist who joined the Explorers Club after her father gained admission rights for women, explained the use of such language within the august Tudor-style club in an interview last week.

''Everybody's an alpha male, and they're all used to being the most interesting person you've ever met,'' she said.

Charles Francis Brush III was born in Cleveland on April 3, 1923, and in later years collected wines from that year, though hardly exclusively. His father died when he was 3. Then his only sibling, a sister, died, and he and his mother moved to Riverdale in the Bronx. The two traveled around the world when he was 17.

He graduated from the Fountain Valley School of Colorado and from Yale. His college education was interrupted by service in the Army Signal Corps during World War II. After living on a plantation in Jamaica, where he owned a restaurant, he began doctoral studies at Columbia.

He met another graduate student, Ellen K. Sperry, in the anthropology department's ''bone room.'' She became his third wife in 1958.

She survives him, along with his son, Charles IV, of Manhattan; his daughters Karen, of Manhattan, Barbara Brush Wright of Shelter Island, and Danielle Brush Schmid of Huntington Beach, Calif.; seven grandchildren; and a great-granddaughter.

After climbing three Mexican volcanoes at 49, his first year of climbing, he soon made up for lost time by scaling the highest summits in North America, South America, Europe and Africa. He switched to running marathons at 54 because he was disenchanted with the downscale crowd of climbers who greeted him at the top of Mount McKinley in Alaska on July 6, 1976; he was two days late for a Bicentennial celebration because of the death of a fellow climber.

At the Explorers Club, of which Dr. Brush was president from 1978 to 1981, he did little to belie his swashbuckling reputation. His dinner jacket was lined with fabric showing the club's flag, which has accompanied polar pioneers and astronauts. Members long remarked on the mountain climbers he sent rappelling from a balcony at a banquet at the Waldorf.

Dr. Brush's success in bringing in women began with persuading the conservative board of directors to vote on allowing members to decide. The vote was a tie, so Dr. Brush cast the deciding vote. Members then voted, 753 to 613, in favor.

''It was highly bizarre to call ourselves an explorers' club and exclude half the world,'' Dr. Brush said.

Why I am a Massive Tool (Part four in an ongoing series):

2006-06-06T20:33:00.000-07:00

I ran my first competitive race this weekend. Wait, did I say I was a massive tool?- I meant I'm so f'ing awesome. I placed 23rd out of 515 runners. Granted, a good hundred of the runners were 10 or 12 year olds- but I totally kicked their asses. Besides the winner was some 15 year old, so I consider those third graders completely legitimate competition.

At the half way point there were those people holding water, and I took a glass and downed it- just like a real runner! And after the race I kept my bib on for as long as I tastefully could, thinking maybe I would see someone I knew:

"hey Brendan, what's that piece of paper pinned to your t-shirt?"
"Oh this? it's my runner's bib. Did I mention I just ran a race? Oh yeah, I did pretty well. Thanks, I think I look really cool too."

Unfortunately, that conversation never took place. So instead I put it on my blog. That makes me a pretty massive tool.

(PS- for whatever reason I'm having trouble uploading my diagrams. too bad too, because I had an great diagram of me beating all those little kids)

Hey everybody! I've got an idea!

2006-06-06T20:32:00.000-07:00

You know how facebook walls put the most recent post at the top of the page? Well, I think we should exploit that fact to make a collective facebook story. The first author would post the last page of the story, then the next author would read that page and write the second-to-last page and post it. this would continue until the last author wrote the first page of the story.

Is this like Memento? No, it's a hell of a lot cooler. Besides, I think it could be really funny, especially if the last page (the first page posted) ended with something like "Who knew a simple facebook message could cause so much destruction?" I'd really like to see what people come with.

Anyways, if you want to do this with me, or if I've explained this too poorly, please message me somehow (blog, facebook, email, phone, carrier pigeon, smoke signal, etc.). This could be amazingly funny.

A New Bike, and With It, a New Life

2006-06-06T20:26:00.000-07:00

So I got a new bike! and it was four dollars! and it works!

One very quick story. I was biking through South Minneapolis when I noticed my tire was going flat. I thought, 'God, I hope there's a bike shop nearby (because all the gas stations cost money)." and within one block I found a bike shop. South Minneapolis: you are so cool.

Maus is not the only comic book in existence

2006-06-06T20:14:00.000-07:00

Most reviews of comic books fall under two categories:
1) synopses of comics' recent rise
or
2) justifications for comics' recent rise

John Hodgman's recent article in the New York Times Sunday Book Review is a good example of the latter, and it inspired me to pick up two older graphic novels from the library: Chester Brown's I Never Liked You and Joe Sacco's The Fixer.

Now, 1) a brief synopsis of comics' recent rise: most indie comic books have the same basic plot: skinny, aloof, and nerdy guys can't get girlfriends. In that respect I Never Liked You is just like Scott Thompson's Blankets, Seth's It's a Good Life if You Don't Weaken, and Jeffrey Brown's AEIOU (Any Easy Intimacy). But I Never Liked You is not nearly as personal as Blankets, as secretive as It's a Good Life, or as funny as AEIOU.

But still, Chester Brown has a good sense of quiet (most of the pages are mostly blank), and he shows how childhood relationships are fragile- like trying to hold on to favorite toys. In this great sledding scene, the girl who has a crush on Chester tells him, "You can't ride with anyone else, okay?" There's an honesty to Brown's book, about how self-obsession and fear can destroy relationships, that I haven't ever seen in a novel or movie.

But now I'm trying to justify comics' recent rise. Like I just did above, a lot of people justify comics by saying that by the nature of the medium, comics tell stories that novels or movies cannot. At least that's what The Boston Glove said about Joe Sacco's The Fixer:

"Sacco demonstrates that the narrative arts, including comics, can gather up complicated social truths with a gradual patience that often eludes the camera."

I really doubt this is the case. A good book could capture Sacco's story about veterans of the Bosnian war becoming tourist guides for journalists, and I think it would have made an even better movie. But I doubt his story would have ever been a book (too predictable), and almost certainly never will be a movie (too obscure). Only as a comic book, whose readers are comfortable with both the predictable and obscure, was The Fixer possible.

Anyways, I think I did a poor job justifying comics. If you don't already read graphic novels, just buy Blankets. Or I'll loan you my copy.

Why I am a massive tool (part three in an ongoing series)

2006-06-01T18:41:00.000-07:00

I work at my mom's office right now, and so I follow a business casual dress code: khakis + dress shirt + boating shoes (tool enough). But when I come home from work, park the green volkswagon beetle in the driveway and lock the car with my remote, the car goes 'beepbeep!'. Man, that makes me a pretty massive tool.

(Why I am not a massive tool [probably not a series]: I didn't post on the brog because I decided to go have a life during the week. My apologies, won't happen again.)

Abandoned Hospital and Religious Symbols

2006-06-01T18:29:00.000-07:00

Max Hauglund (writing children's books), James Shaff, and myself explored this abandoned hospital last weekend. I shouldn't go over the whole story, but here are some cool things we found:

1. Some rooms had become permanently occupied by homeless couples. No one was home when we stopped by, but one family had put up a sign asking us to please keep things orderly
2. The second floor had a pile of shell casings on the ground, and some bullet holes in wall. Max's theory is that the hospital is used for SWAT training (he said he's heard dogs here).
3. I found an introduction to literary theory, and a book on Wittgenstein. MCAD kids think they're so cool
4. The basement floor is entirely sand. There's no sign of rats, and the sand is very fine. I think we should have a beach party in the hospital. That would be amazing

As strange as the hospital was the Grotto I visited with my mom and Katherine Hannemann in Dickeyville Iowa. It's a 70-year-old shrine to, among other things, Christ, Christopher Columbus, Mary, and unborn children:

Sometimes it's fun to be a Catholic: Protestants have no sense of idolatry

Reading Rob Trump in St. Paul

2006-06-01T18:25:00.000-07:00

Rob Trump rocks so hard. Why? Because his interview of Jon Voight was not only one of the funniest I've ever read, but one of the best researched and structured, too. Most of the interview was serious, Terry Gross-level of depth, but here are some great out of context quotes:

Rob: On the subject of confusing you and Christopher Walken, could you just give us a few helpful hints to keep you straight? Some easy identifiers, maybe?

Jon Voight: Well, Chris is usually…Chris is always him. Chris stays very close to himself in his work, and that’s an admirable thing. Usually if you can’t recognize the character that’s being played, it’s me. If you can’t recognize me, it’s me. If you can recognize me, it’s Chris. [laughs]

R: One last question, on the subject of things that you’re in that are coming up. Transformers: the Movie. Everyone I know who knows about this is so excited about it. How sweet is it going to be?

JV: Well, that’s interesting…that you, at your young age, you’re into Transformers?

R: Transformers? My generation, through the cartoon and the physical toys…a lot of people in college right now were really into Transformers.
 JV: Well, I think…this is my opinion. I remember when they asked about Mission: Impossible, I said, “Whatever you think, it’s going to be better.” Something like that. “It’s gonna deliver.” So I’ll say that about this, too.

R: Wow.

Everyone should read the full interview (http://www.columbia.edu/cu/thefed/v3/volume21/8/jonvoightinterview.shtml). I am completely honest in saying that we should rethink how we do interviews for the Blue & White. Let's interview Christopher Walken.

Music I've heard and liked

2006-06-01T18:22:00.000-07:00

If you've hung out with me in the last three weeks, you've probably heard me rave about Jens Lekman's Oh You're so Silent.

Sure, some of his lyrics are painfully corny, and he almost ruins perfectly good songs with lines like:

flock of birds in the sky
flying south
they know this place will die

but then he totally saves the song by adding:

and I wish they could take me with them
but I would be accepted
because I can't dance the funky chicken
because I can't dance the funky chick-e-en

Most of Oh You're so Silent is about misunderstanding. Take for example, 'Maple Leaves', which bookmarks the album with two takes. After I got over the awesome string - drum machine combo (it kind of sounds like The Avalanches), I started listening to the fantastic lyrics about the trouble of communicating in a relationship:

she said that we were just make believe
but I thought she said maple leaves.

and later:

And when she talked about the Fall
I thought she said Mark E. Smith
I never understood at all

In the same vein, 'Rocky Dennis' Farewell Song' is about being in love with a blind woman. Over Mark Mothersbaugh-esque bells and flutes, Lekman sings corny lyrics so earnestly that they feel totally genuine:

can't you remember
how we rode shiny horses
and we set courses
for the sky-y
and the ocean
and I tried to explain it to you
but it was too huge

Anyways, I wish I could explain more articulately why Lekman is so great. But it probably doesn't matter: if you see me in the next month or so, I'll almost certainly try to burn you a copy of this awesome album

Why I am a Massive Tool (part two in an ongoing series):

2006-05-23T18:16:00.000-07:00

I saw the Da Vinci Code. On opening day. With tickets purchased a day in advance. I have not read the Da Vinci Code.

In short, I completely bought into manufactured hype around a movie that was objectively slightly below average. But whatever, there's so much undeserved hatred around this book/movie/international conspiracy. Just because the Code (which I will now say instead of the whole title, because I am too busy to write the extra three syllables) has been so successful that it appeals even to those people who rarely or can barely read does not make it horrible literature. In fact, many of the world's greatest writers were hugely popular in their own times: Balzac, Tolstoy, Shakespeare, Twain.
"Wait, Brendan, are you really comparing the Code to Lost Illusions, Anna Karenina, Macbeth, and Roughing it?"
I have no idea, I only saw the movie. That makes me a massive tool.

(Special extra edition of "Why I am a Massive Tool":

I reference books I have never read. Anna Karenina? I've didn't finish the back cover. Roughing It? I heard half of the book on tape. Lost Illusions? Who the hell is Balzac? [Priya Murthy, expert on Flaubert etc, I'm hoping you will explain]. That makes me a massive tool.)

But do you know what was awesome about the Code? The evil guy spoke Latin!

I've been doing some Latin this summer, but with little success. Take, for example, this beautiful translation of Catullus I:

To whom am I to present my pretty new book,
freshly smoothed off with dry pumice stone?
To you, Cornelius: for you used to think
that my trifles were worth something,
long ago, when you took courage, you alone of the Italians,
to set forth the whole history of the world in three volumes,
learned volumed, by Jupiter, and laboriously wrought.
So take and keep for your own this little book, such as it is,
and whatever it is worth and may it, O Virgin my patroness,
live and last for more than one century.

If only I had done it--I will spare you my attempt. But kudos to the Code for keeping this dead language alive. And shame on the Catholic church for Vatican II: removing Latin from the liturgy ruined mass forever

Music I have heard and liked

2006-05-23T18:11:00.000-07:00

Chris Knapp has made a convincing argument for country music, and not just the hipster Lead Belly, Flatts & Scruggs variety. I mean the K102, red-white-and-blue pop country variety: Garth Brooks, Tim McGraw, Toby Keith, etc.
Here's the pitch: the basic stories in pop country are no different than the stories in pop alt rock: love lost, angry ex's, betrayed love, ex's reunited, renewed love, etc. The inspiration for the Postal Service's 'The District Sleeps Alone Tonight' is really no different than for Tim McGraw's 'You Get Used to Somebody', nor are the lyrics in the former any more meaningful or eloquent than in the latter.

That said, McGraw was a disappointment. His 2001 album, Set This Circus Down was a pretty predictable mix of power ballads and slow serenades, and felt calculated for success. I didn't feel like McGraw believed most of the songs he sang. Did he really need anybody to:

Give me hopes and dreams to fill my head
Push my heart so I can fly again

or did ever actually want to:

Find a quiet spot, turn on my parking lights
I'm gonna drink some beers, try to catch a buzz
Turn my radio up and forget about us

Of course not. When music is written, scored, and produced by entirely different people the final performer has little connection to the music he sings. Through most of Set this Circus Down, McGraw sounded like he was singing someone else's album.
But McGraw really pulls it together in the second to last track, 'Grown Men Don't Cry'. When he sings the refrain:

But I don't know why they say grown men don't cry
I don't know why they say grown men don't cry

his voice jumps up a few notes on the 'don't' that makes him sound weak and real. And when he sings about his dad,

Keep having this dream about my old man
I'm 10 years old, and he's holding my hand
We're talkin' on the front porch watchin' the sun go down
But it was just a dream he was a slave to his job and he couldn't be around

his cadence speeds up on the last line like he's hurt and angry. The song got to #25 on the Billboard pop charts, and #1 on the country chart, and deservedly so. 'Grown Men Don't Cry' was both earnest and believable.

Another album released in 2001 that I just discovered was Garth Brook's Scarecrow (Incidentally, his last. Wikipedia's entry on Brooks has a good history of Brook's sudden rise in the country scene and his equally sudden disappearance). Like most country illiterates, my only experience with Brooks was his amazing 'Friends in Low Places'. After finally listening to a whole album, I can see why he dominated an entire decade of country music. He mixes in rock elements like McGraw and all the other pop country singers today, but his music still feels like country. His sound is spontaneous, and unlike McGraw, Brooks has fun singing. In 'Beer Run', Brooks sounds like he's just about to jump in his car and speed over to the bar as soon as the song is done. In 'Rodeo or Mexico' he tells a genuinely clever story:

As I woke up to the Sharp end of a knife He was screaming at The woman hanging on me Does anybody know the Spanish word for wife? 
I could never imagine Death Cab for Cutie, however enjoyable, letting their guard down enough to sing a song that funny.

Peter Viereck 1916-2006: Historian, Conservative Thinker, and Poet

2006-05-23T18:02:00.000-07:00

Read his obituary

Aside from an above-average interest in (not to be confused as agreement with) conservative writers, Viereck amazed me because of this paragraph in a New Yorker profile of him:

"I first met Viereck in the fall of 2002. His house, a rambling Victorian, overlooks the playing fields of Mount Holyoke College, where he taught history for nearly fifty years, until 1997. I found him sitting in semi-darkness at an enormous wooden dining table that he used as a desk, a gaunt figure in a silk robe and two matching blue silk scarves, one of which he wore as an ascot, the other as a turban"

That is so cool!

Why I am a Massive Tool (part one in an ongoing series)

2006-05-16T18:32:00.000-07:00

When Ben Thomas and I were hanging out in his attic Sunday night, he asked me, "What exactly is a tool?"

Well, I think being a tool is different from just being a conformist. A conformist may go with what's popular, but deep down the conformist years for something more. Implied in the definition of a conformist is the idea of coercion, that the action is taken against the will. A tool is like a conformist in that he goes with what's popular, but moreover he does so willingly. The tool not only accepts the norm, he embraces it.

So, with this definition in mind, here is my first proof of toolishness:

Every morning in college, I get up at 8:00 AM and go jogging (not running) down Riverside park. Then I shower, get dressed, head over to Cafe 212 and have oatmeal and a fair trade coffee. That makes me a massive tool.

Children's literature

2006-05-16T18:05:00.000-07:00

Ok, I've got the best idea- I want to write children's literature for adults. You could write about adult issues (divorce, relationships, jealousy, fear of death, etc) from a child's perspective in children's language. It would force you to talk about these things in the most basic, honest way, and it could be really sweet and unnerving.

I brought this up with Max Haugland, and he said he would illustrate one of these books. So we spent Sunday afternoon in the Children's Lit section of the Highland Park Barnes & Noble (Minnesota's book source for Princess Di retrospectives and the secrets of the free masons). It was awesome, reading Curious George and I'll Love You Forever again, but we almost certainly creeped out the old grandmother reading next to us.

I'm reluctant to post drafts of my children's lit stories- from there it's one short step to angsty poety.

Also, if you have any good story ideas, or you want to get in on this lucrative enterprise, email me or post

Introductions

2006-05-16T17:59:00.000-07:00

I used to think people who made blogs about themselves were tools. Who wants to know what I'm doing so badly that they'll regularly check a website to know? if you really wanted to know what I was doing, couldn't we just hang out? or if there's a large distance between us, couldn't you just call me? I didn't get it.

But now I think a blog could be cool. If I have to advertise what I do, maybe it'll inspire me to do really interesting things. Or maybe it won't. Whatever, I just have too much free time.