Snippets:
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DVD: Message to Love: The Isle of Wight Festival (1997). 127 min. Documentary of the 1970 music festival held on an island in the south of England. Shows some of the music (e.g., The Doors, Bob Dylan, ELP, Jimi Hendrix, Jethro Tull, Joni Mitchel, Ten Years After, The Who) but also 'life' of the fans during the concert, and the crisis that led to allowing free entrance for many thousands. Great music! Some touching moments. Describes well the clash of the Hippie generation with the music business. Overall rating: 8 out of 10.
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DVD: Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989). 100 min. Directed by Steven Soderbergh (Oceans' Eleven, Solaris, Erin Brockovich). w/ James Spader (Graham Dalton; Stargate), Andie MacDowell (Ann Bishop Mullany; Green Card, Hudson Hawk), Peter Gallagher (John Mullany), Laura San Giacomo (Cynthia Patrice Bishop). Guy who films video tapes of women talking about their sex life visits former best friend who has an affair with the sister of his wife. Unusual idea for a movie. Sometimes appears too static. Plot rather confined. Acting alright. Memorable quote: "I remember reading somewhere that men learn to love the person they're attracted to and women become more and more attracted to the person they love." Overall rating 7 out of 10.
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Art: Thomas Rowlandson (1756–1827). English caricaturist. Pictures at Artcylopedia. Large collection at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
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Art: Rodney Graham. Canadian artist. Tree pictures mounted upside down. Looped videos. Whitney Biennial 2006: Torqued Chandelier Release, 2005.
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DVD: Code 46 (2003). Directed by Michael Winterbottom (The Road to Guantanamo). w/ Tim Robbins (William Geld), Samantha Morton (Maria Gonzales). In a future world where an insurance policy is the basis of normal life, a detective who can read the mind of others through a placed virus falls in love with a woman who sells insurance cards on the black market. The couple ignores Code 46, a law prohibiting physical relations between gentically similar human beings, that has become necessary after human cloning and IVF is common practice. Dystopic love story set somewhere in the near future. Some unrealistic parts, but not entirely improbable. Some stunning city scenes. Robbins' acting is good, but Morton rather disappointing in her role. Overall rating: 7 out of 10.
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Technology: Silent Aircraft Initiative (SAI). Researchers from Cambridge University (UK) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) unveiled their revolutionary concept for a silent aircraft.

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Music: Guano Apes. German band with a fusion of metal, pop and rap beat.
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Music: Two bands that somewhat remind of Evanescence: Fireflight and Nightwish.
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Art: Dahesh Museum of Art, NYC: Napoleon on the Nile: Soldiers, Artists, and the Rediscovery of Egypt, June 8 - December 31, 2006. Focusses on the 'Description de l’Egypte', the seminal multi-volume work that remains the single most important European scholarly study of ancient and modern Egypt. It was initiated under the patronage of the young General Napoleon Bonaparte as he invaded Egypt in 1798, and completed in 1829 during the reign of King Charles X. The 'Description' was written by Napoleon’s savants, i.e. 167 physicians, engineers, economists, mathematicians, zoologists, botanists, archeologists, translators, journalists, and artists who accompanied the army. The exhibition tells the story of Napoleon’s ill-fated bid to add Egypt to the growing French empire, and how the British, who had their own colonial interests in the region to protect, ultimately thwarted this plan. Informative exhibiton.
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Food: Stash Teas. Founded in 1972. Includes Peppermint herbal tea from Oregon. Also has loose herbal teas. Mail order.
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Health: Confabulation: memory disorder; the confusion of imagination with memory, and/or the confusion of true memories with false ones. Spontaneous production of false memories: either memories for events which never occurred, or memories of actual events which are displaced in space or time.
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Biology: Gribble (e.g., Limnoria Iignprum). Sea mite. Mostly pale white and small (1-4 mm long) crustaceans. Bore into wood and plant material for ingestion as food. Ecologically important role, by helping to degrade and recycle driftwood, but also cause damage in costal areas, such as piers.
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Food: German products at German Deli, located in Southlake, TX. Russian products at Russian Foods.
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Shopping: The Find. Search meta engine for online stores. Useful!
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Literature: Klaus Mann. German writer. Son of Thomas Mann. Opposed the Nazi regime. Comitted suicide in 1949. Re-discovered in Germany in the mid-1950s. Important works: Mephisto (1936), Der Vulkan (1939), The Turning Point/Der Wendepunkt (1942).
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Video: The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945). w/ Hurd Hatfield (Dorian Gray), Donna Reed (Gladys Hallward), Angela Lansbury (Sibyl Vane; Murder She Wrote). Directed by Albert Lewin. After the novel by Oscar Wilde. After being painted by his friend, Dorian Gray gives his soul to evil in order to retain his youth and let the painting age instead. Great moral story, typical Hollywood presentation. Overall rating: 6 out of 10. The original picture of the aged Dorian Gray was painted in 1943-44 for the film by Ivan Albright (1897-1983) and is now on display at the Art Institute of Chicago.
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Poetry: 'The Light of Asia', an epic poem written by Sir Edwin Arnold (1832-1904). First published in 1879. Arnold also wrote The Light of the World (1891) about the life of Jesus.
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Tea and Coffee: Simpson & Vail in Brookfield, CT. Many lose-leaf teas.
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DVD: Unforgiven (1992). 131 min. w/ Clint Eastwood (William 'Bill' Munny), Gene Hackman (Little Bill Daggett), Morgan Freeman (Ned Logan). Directed by Clint Eastwood. Retired assassin leaves his farm one last time to kill two men that mutilated a prostitute in a small Western town. Won 4 Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Gene Hackman). One of the themes is the difficulty of cold-blooded killing without good reasons. Different from the average Western movie. Film has some funny, self-ironic moments, but becomes boring quickly. Unrealistic. Overall rating 4 out of 10.
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DVD: Th Rolling Stones Rock And Roll Circus (1996). Originally filmed in December 1968. w/ The Rolling Stones, Jethro Tull, The Who, Marianne Faithful, Taj Mahal, John Lennon, Yoko Ono. Ties together musical acts in a circus theme. Some great spontaneous moments. Last big project of Brian Jones. Overall rating: 5 out of 10.
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Music: Michelle Walker. Jazz vocalist. Played at 55 Bar, NYC, on November 25, 2006. Good voice, but little change between songs.
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Physics: Tachyon: Hypothetical particle that is predicted to move faster than the speed of light. When a tachyon loses energy its momentum increases. Existence has been neither proven nor disproven.
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Literature: Medea. Play written by Euripides (c. 480–406 BC) around 431 BC. Based on the myth of Jason and Medea. After Jason leaves Medea for another woman, Medea is devastated at first, but than gathers new strength and kills the new bride with a poisoned robe, as well as the two children she has with Jason in order to cause him further pain. Medea is also the third part of Franz Grillparzer's trilogy 'Das Goldene Vlies' (The Golden Fleece; 1821). More works by Euripides and Grillparzer.
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DVD: History of the World Part 1 (1981). w/ Mel Brooks. Directed by Mel Brooks. Comical retelling of important periods in world history. Typical Mel Brooks comedy. Funny moments. Overall rating 6 out of 10.
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Health: The Glycemic Index (GI) is a ranking system for carbohydrates based on their immediate effect on blood glucose levels. Defined by the area under the 2 hour blood glucose response curve (AUC) following the ingestion of a fixed portion of carbohydrate (usually 50 g). Glucose is used as the reference food (GI = 100). Low-to-moderate GI: pasta, vegetables. High GI: potatos, white rice. A database of GIs can be found here. The Glycemic Load (GL) takes the amount of consumed carbohydrates into account: For a single serving of a food the GL can be calculated as the quantity (in grams) of its carbohydrate content, multiplied by its GI.
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Recreation: Allamuchy Mountain State Park, NJ. Includes Waterloo Village with several historic buildings located on the banks of the Morris Canal.

Morris Canal at Waterloo Village

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Food: Cambiotti's Cafe Tomato Pie Cafe in Landing, NJ (Northwestern part of the state, near Lake Hopatcong). Neighborhood restaurant stablished in 2000, known for its unique thin crust pizza and home cooked Italian food.
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