Month: September 2003

i’m back to blogging

“This was a man who is incapable of telling the truth, who attempted at every opportunity to seduce Western women correspondents. He was screwing people in his office. He had photographs of himself and Saddam Hussein and a box of Viagra. This was a loathsome character altogether.” A great oral history by the NYT’s John Burns on what it was like reporting from Baghdad in the the opening days of the war.
Yeah, I’m still alive. Apologies for the yawning gap between entries. Things are good here in D.C. A few very random thoughts:
– Washington’s a nice city. I don’t need the constant stimulation of a New York to be happy; D.C.’s got a nice scale and just enough activity to keep me happy. And my admiration for the Post grows every day — what a terrific paper.
– If you’ve sent me an email in the last two weeks, chances are excellent I haven’t answered it. Soon, soon, I promise.
– Music update: Since getting here, I’ve picked up new CDs by Sloan, Guided by Voices, Beulah, the Decemberists, Consonant, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, and Enon (plus an old Fugazi disc, just to reprazent D.C.). Enon, BRMC, Consonant, and Sloan all get a solid B. The Beulah and GBV discs are both very strong A-minus caliber.
But the winner is no doubt the Decemberists, whose album has been in constant rotation of late. Highly recommended, particularly if you’ve ever found yourself thinking, “Wow, if only Belle & Sebastian had a nautical/Dickensian thing going on and had Eef Barzelay singing lead!”
– I somehow spent almost three hours dancing in a D.C. gay bar Saturday night — and not one guy hit on me. I’m not sure if my heterosexuality was just so intense that I was clearly off limits or if I just wasn’t viewed as much of a catch.
– After a triumphant victory in Fantasy Football week one, I’m locked in a tight one this week. I’m up by 2 points going into the Monday night game. So everyone has to root for Tiki Barber (from my team) to score nine touchdowns and for Amani Toomer (from my opponent’s) to be scratched with a horrible toenail injury before gametime.
– Any readers with tickets to the Nov. 30 Saints-Redskins game at FedEx Field are asked to please contact me.
– I had a story on Saturday’s front page back in Dallas. I actually wrote the damned thing almost four weeks ago, but events conspired to hold it back until today. (And if I may brag, this would be the Houston Chronicle eating my dust.)
– Saw Pirates of the Caribbean last night — great fun. It wasn’t until I read a few reviews afterward that I realized Johnny Depp was doing a spot-on Keith Richards imitation throughout the movie. And oh my, Keira Knightley.

arrival in dc, final d-plan

Well, I’m in Washington Dee Cee. Since last posting, I rocked the Frog Festival, chilled in Rayne for a while, then flew to Our Nation’s Capital Monday morning. Since then, it’s been Pew Fellowship mania. I learned quickly that one of my fellow Fellows is a crabwalk reader (hello, Noy) — I suppose my work life and my online life will inevitably merge. Things have been good so far; I’m just settling into the new pace of things. More details later.
One highlight: seeing the final Dismemberment Plan show Monday night at the 9:30. They were in fine form and played a few oldies. For the record, the final song of the final show was “Memory Machine.”
In other news, I’ve had two stories run in the paper since last posting. First, this front pager Thursday was about how Chattanooga has moved its best teachers to the toughest urban schools, all in an attempt to reverse the sort of teacher imbalance I wrote about a couple weeks ago. And my Monday column was all about how utterly bogus the state’s official dropout statistics are, particularly in urban districts like Dallas.
I promise, more interesting things to come eventually.