As Far As You Know

My trip to the opera here in Copenhagen might have been a disaster had I not set out early from my hotel. I took a bus to the modern opera house and arrived to find the place absolutely deserted. Clearly this place was not hosting anything tonight. I was lucky that a water bus pulled up just then and was ferried back across the harbor to Nyhavn such that s short stroll took me to the old Royal Theatre--a beautiful old fashioned building ornately decorated within.

The opera tonight was The Magic Flute, sung in German with Danish titles projected above the stage (didn't look much different to me than what was being sung!). Because I had seen this work before, I could mostly follow what was going on.

I was struck that the opera seems to be a less formal affair than it does back home. And the crowd was, on average, much younger than what one would find in an American opera house. I guess opera here is more successfully woven into the national culture.

Near my hotel there are a couple of cinemas, playing mostly English language movies with Danish subtitles. So this was a perfect chance to see The Imaginarium Of Dr. Parnassus, which I missed when it was released stateside. As expected in a Terry Gilliam film, this work is long on visual imagination and pretty weird. An enjoyable diversion.

Made it to Copenhagen and everything has gone smoothly thus far. The airport experience was pleasant (the immigrations inspector hardly looked at my U.S. passport before waving me in). The train station just beneath the terminal has frequent trips to the heart of the city, just minutes away. As is the case in other Scandanavian countries, most people here speak flawless English. I have checked into my hotel, conveniently located near the Central Station and the Tivoli Gardens (closed until April, unfortunately) and am now fighting a bit of jet lag.

Enjoyed a pleasant flight over the Atlantic. When I checked in at JFK, I moved my seat so that the one next to me was unoccupied (one of the virtues of electronic check-in at the kiosk) and I could stretch out a bit and get some sleep. On Virgin's excellent in-seat on-demand movie player, I watched the first half of Julie And Julia, which was pretty good, though not quite engaging enough to keep me awake.

We landed in London a bit early, I didn't have to walk forever (which one usually does at Heathrow) and the lines at the U.K. Border and the "in transit" security checkpoint were virtually non-existent. Picked up today's copy of The Guardian and a couple of English magazines for the SAS flight to Copenhagen later this morning.

Back at Kennedy Airport once more. Had a flawless drive down and left the Explorer in Long-Term Parking and then took the AirTrain to arrive at Terminal 4 with plenty of time to spare (still reliving my nightmare at the end of summer school last year, when I missed my flight to London!). Next stop: Heathrow Airport.

I am spending the rest of this week in Denmark and England, and I have packed VERY light. Taking only a backpack with me, and that's far from fully stuffed. Just one pair of pants will do for the week, and one pair of sneakers as well. A total of three shirts. One book to read, and one to write in. My MacBook Air. An iPod. A comb, a razor, and a toothbrush. Some vitamins. That's pretty much it.

One of my students in my first year at Choate, Geoffrey Fletcher, just won an Academy Award for Adapted Screenplay. What a thrill. This was largely unexpected, as he was passed over in the other major awards shindigs this season. And judging from Geoff's reaction, he was pretty surprised too! Bravo, Geoff.

So I knocked off the Henry VI plays--the ones I thought would take me longest to cross off on my quest to complete the Shakespeare canon. I was in the theater from 10 this morning until about 5:30 this afternoon, and decided to pass on the last installment of the War-A-Thon, which was Richard III--I have already seen this play and likely will see it again soon, and I clearly needed a break. I am very glad I got to see this production and liked the Henry VI trilogy a lot more than I thought I would. I can see exactly what parts of these works I will want to excerpt for my spring term class on Shakespeare's history plays.

I am driving to New Jersey this morning to spend most of the day in the theater, seeing the "War-A-Thon," which is all three parts of Henry VI along with Richard III performed by the Collingswood Shakespeare Company.

While procrastinating the last batch of end-of-term reports for my students, I created some Twitter accounts and Facebook fan pages for the teams I coach. Amazing how productive one can be when there is something else pressing to finish! So you can become a Facebook fan of Choate Cross Country, Choate Squash, and Choate Tennis!

I saw a second production of Equivocation in New York tonight; I liked the play a great deal when I saw its premiere outing in Oregon last summer and wanted to see if this version was any better. It wasn't, I think, but this still was an enjoyable show. I know a bit more about the background--the Gunpowder Plot, the King's Men (Shakespeare's theatrical company), and the Catholic vs. Protestant angle in late 1500s and early 1600s England--now than I did the first time I saw this play, and so was more attuned to some of the details in the work. Pretty provocative stuff.

I caught a late afternoon showing of The Ghost Writer down here in the city. Pretty good political thriller, even if I saw the key plot twist coming a mile away. I like Ewen McGregor in just about anything he's in, and this movie made the best use of Pierce Brosnan since The Thomas Crown Affair remake.

I took a handful of the kids still on campus to the midnight premiere of Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland. Safe to say that they liked it more than I did. I thought it was visually stylish--to be expected in a Burton flick--but not very substantial beyond that.

. . . well, that may be exaggerating, but since exams at Choate ended today, the campus more or less cleared out as kids headed off onto their spring break (aside from a few teams still competing) and the place is awfully quiet for a change!

Choate hosted two ice hockey games today as part of the New England playoffs: the girls' varsity is the top seed in the Division I tournament and beat Pomfret 3-2, while the boys' squad--#2 in the large schools bracket--bested Andover, 4-0. Nice to be able to stay at home and see both teams compete. (I did miss the chance to see boys' hoops play in the Western New England Championships quarterfinal today, though; the Wild Boars lost that one to Suffield.)

I don't know how I never got sucked into Dexter on Showtime until now. I am working my way through Season 1, courtesy of the iTunes Store and it's a pretty addictive show. Very well done!

Today is a day for catching up after the vortex this past weekend's squash tournaments creates in my life for the week beforehand. In addition to transcribing results from the three sites for the New Englands, there's lots of correspondence and projects I am tackling today now that I have a large swath of uninterrupted time at my disposal.

This weekend brought the close of the squash New England tournaments (which cap what is always my most frenetic week of the year, I think), the end of squash season, and the last gasps of the winter term here at school. After a weekend with a lot of time behind the wheel and some intense matches to coach through, I am sure ready to crash right now!

Earlier today, I got to see a part of Connecticut I've never seen before: driving from Salisbury to Suffield through the northwestern part of the state, I left Route 44 (which I do know pretty well) for a pleasant drive through all sorts of towns I've never seen before: New Hartford, Barkhamstead, Salmon Brook, Hungary, and West Suffield. It sure is a nice part of the Nutmeg State.

I am traveling through much of New England through some dodgy weather today. I drove to Suffield, Connecticut, to drop off materials for the boys' "C" squash tourney there before trekking up to Exeter, New Hampshire, to get the "A" event underway. (I actually had to stop for about 20 minutes for a conference call related to my presentation at the TABS Risk Management Conference in Delaware this June.) Now that play is winding down here, I will head out with the Choate team for a late supper before driving to West Springfield, Massachusetts, for a night in a motel. First thing in the morning, I get back on the Mass Pike for the trip to Salisbury, CT--the boys' "B" venue--and then back to Suffield before finally joining the Choate girls in Deerfield just after lunchtime; I'll be there through the end of play Sunday afternoon. Whew!

Busy week here dealing with the media. Because three members of the U.S. Women's Ice Hockey Team are Choate graduates, the school has been getting a lot of coverage in the local papers on the airwaves. I've talked to a bunch of journalists and facilitated camera crews and reporters coming to campus to shoot some footage and interview Choate coaches and athletes. Tonight, I am hosting our girls' varsity ice hockey team for a pizza dinner while the gold medal game in women's hockey is contested between the U.S. and Canadian squads. We'll have visitors from the Hartford Courant, NBC Connecticut, and public radio on hand. After tonight, all of this attention should subside, no matter what happens in the game!

I am up to my eyeballs this week in getting draws up and running for this weekend's New England Squash Championships. The Tournament Committee had its seeding meeting last night, so the real work of getting everything set to go at three different venues is mostly on my plate at this point. Hard to believe this is the 24th time I'll be running this event!

The fashionable accessory of choice made its debut today: Choate Squash knit hats, which the girls' and boys' teams ordered. They have arrived just in time for the last match of the season tomorrow against Deerfield.

(click to enlarge)

Someone posted this on my Facebook page today in the wake of last night's U.S. defeat of Canada in Olympic men's hockey. Pretty amusing.

A snippet from today's Paul Krugman column in The New York Times:

Republicans insist that the deficit must be eliminated, but they're not willing either to raise taxes or to support cuts in any major government programs. And they're not willing to participate in serious bipartisan discussions, either, because that might force them to explain their plan -- and there isn't any plan, except to regain power.

I didn't plan to start watching Caprica--the Battlestar Galactica prequel series that debuted just a few weeks back--but got sucked in by the first episode, which was a free download on iTunes, and now appear to be hooked.

I am trying to prepare some clips from some Region 2 DVDs for my Shakespeare class this spring. I've used Ripit with some success to create a "virtual" replica of a DVD on my hard drive, but it's not handy for excerpting clips. So I am now employing Handbrake to rip just the movie file from The Shakespeare Collection, the complete set of BBC-produced plays for television. Doing this creates files that I can open in iTunes--which means I can view the films on an iPod, iPhone, or my AppleTV.

Broadway's God Of Carnage is a fairly biting comedy of manners, a black comedy for sure. The four-person cast (Christine Lahti, Jimmy Smits, Annie Potts, and Ken Stott) was excellent in this witty send-up of modern bourgeois values.

Here is an update on my progress seeing all of Shakespeare's work staged. I am within a few months of completing my quest.

Thank God for the Internet; without the Web, I don't know how I would have tracked down some of the more obscure theatrical offerings I have arranged. For example, a little Shakespearean company in New Jersey is staging the Wars Of The Roses plays (all three parts of Henry VI along with Richard III) in the space of one day in early March, dubbing the experience the "War-A-Thon." Attending this enables me to knock off three hard-to-find Henry VI shows.

Here is what I have seen thus far (not counting anything I saw before the spring of 2008):

1. 4/24/08, Macbeth, Broadway
2. 6/20/08, Hamlet, Shakespeare In The Park, The Public Theater, New York City
3. 6/26/08, King Lear, American Shakespeare Center, Staunton, VA
4. 6/27/08, Twelfth Night, American Shakespeare Center, Staunton, VA
5. 6/28/08, Measure For Measure, American Shakespeare Center, Staunton, VA
6. 7/3/08, All's Well That Ends Well, Shakespeare & Co., Lenox, MA
7. 7/18/08, The Comedy Of Errors, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Ashland, OR
8. 7/19/08, Othello, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Ashland, OR
9. 7/22/08, Romeo And Juliet, Old Globe Theater, San Diego, CA
10. 8/8/08, The Merry Wives Of Windsor, Shakespeare's Globe, London
11. 8/9/08, The Taming Of The Shrew, Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford, U.K.
12. 8/13/08, Much Ado About Nothing, Oxford Castle, Oxford, U.K.
13. 9/9/08, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hartford Stage Company, Hartford, CT
14. 10/3/08, The Tempest, Classic Stage Company, New York City
15. 5/14/09, The Merchant Of Venice, Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York City
16. 6/13/09, Julius Caesar, Stratford Festival, Stratford, ON, Canada
17. 6/20/09, Henry V, Richmond Shakespeare Festival, Richmond, VA
18. 7/10/09, Pericles, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Garrison, NY
19. 7/19/09, Titus Andronicus, American Shakespeare Center, Staunton, VA
20. 7/26/09, Two Gentlemen Of Verona, Colonial Theater, Westerly, RI
21. 7/28/09, Antony And Cleopatra, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Center Valley, PA
22. 8/1/09, As You Like It, Shakespeare's Globe, London
23. 8/1/09, The Winter's Tale, The Old Vic, London
24. 8/16/09, Troilus And Cressida, Shakespeare's Globe, London
25. 8/22/09, Henry IV, Part 1, Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre, Philadelphia, PA
26. 8/26/09, Henry VIII, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Ashland, OR
27. 8/28/09, Coriolanus, Old Globe Theater, San Diego, CA
28. 9/27/09, Richard III, Chicago Shakespeare Festival, Chicago
29. 10/28/09, Love's Labour's Lost, Annenberg Center, Philadelphia, PA
30. 12/10/09, King John, Williams College, Williamstown, MA
31. 1/10/10, The Two Noble Kinsmen, Guerrilla Shakespeare Project, New York City
32. 2/13/10, Cymbeline, University of Delaware, Newark, DE

And here's what I have on tap in the next few months (I already have booked tickets for each of these shows):

33. 3/7/10, Henry VI, Part 1, Collingswood Shakespeare Company, Collingswood, NJ
34. 3/7/10, Henry VI, Part 2, Collingswood Shakespeare Company, Collingswood, NJ
35. 3/7/10, Henry VI, Part 3, Collingswood Shakespeare Company, Collingswood, NJ
36. 4/3/10, Richard II, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Washington, DC
37. 4/13/10, Edward III, Richmond Shakespeare Festival, Richmond, VA
38. 6/10/10, Timon Of Athens, Actors' Shakespeare Project, Boston, MA
39. 8/1/10, Henry IV, Part 2, Shakespeare's Globe, London
(Technically I saw Henry IV, Part 2 as part of a combined Henry IV production a Lincoln Center some years back, but I am not counting that as part of this series.)

Fitting, I think, to finish my quest in the recreated Globe Theatre in London!

Once every three years, Choate co-hosts (with Yale University) the Men's Intercollegiate National Squash Championships. We are lucky to be able to see a handful of the top-ranked college teams in action right here in the Johnson Athletic Center. I got to see #1 Trinity extend its domination of the CSA in a quarterfinal win over Western Ontario as well as an entertaining showdown between Ivy powers Princeton and Harvard.

It's especially gratifying to see so many Choate alums competing in this tournament. By my count there are 12 Wild Boars in the event (a few of whom never played on squash teams here at school!).

This is the new flip side of Mr. Lincoln's profile on the one-cent coin. Looks kind of retro to my eye.

We're nearly a week into the 2010 Winter Olympics and I haven't yet watched even a snippet of the television coverage from Vancover. I actually know a few of the competitors and haven't even tuned in to see them. Now that I am part of the HD world, I guess I'll try to see some of the action this weekend.

The Tempest is one of my favorite Shakespeare plays and I battled through the snowstorm in Connecticut to get down to Brooklyn to see it tonight (New York City has virtually no snow on the streets, while there is over a foot on the ground back home). I've now seen all four productions by The Bridge Project, an Anglo-American collaboration that stages two plays in repertory and takes them around the world for the better part of a year. Last year in the inaugural season for this company, The Cherry Orchard and The Winter's Tale were paired; I saw the former in New York in the winter and the latter in London in August. The cast of tonight's play was the same one I saw perform As You Like It a few weeks back.

I liked this version of The Tempest. British actor Stephen Dillane was a marvelous Prospero in particular. The sets and lighting were inventive, with the rear of the stage filled with a couple inches of water. The play was staged without intermission, running a bit more than two hours, but it was engaging throughout.

A high school teacher in California tracked various aspects of his life in the calendar year 2009 and came up with this engaging "annual report" in video form:

Dan Meyer's 2009 Annual Report from Dan Meyer on Vimeo.

You can follow him in the blogosphere.

Spent some time online tonight, surfing for deals on flights and hotels in Copenhagen, London, Ontario, Vancouver, Seattle, and Ashland, Oregon. The Expedia and Marriott websites have been the backbone of my searches, but I make a point to do some comparison shopping before booking anything. It looks like I've gotten some good deals by paying weeks or months in advance.

I left the Choate campus about 3:00 this afternoon to drive down to the University of Delaware campus for a performance of Cymbeline, one of the few remaining plays in the Shakespeare canon I had not yet seen. It was an easy--if lengthy--drive, but the play was worth it. This work is an under-appreciated gem, with an intricate plot that weaves together elements found in a handful of the Bard's other plays. This production was staged by the graduate students in the university's drama program and the acting and production values were quite good. The theater was a black box, with seating on all four sides and the show employed no scenery to speak of and very few props. This kept the focus squarely on the language and the action, and thus was a memorable evening's entertainment.

Lots going on in the Worthington Johnson Athletic Center today: Choate is hosting the Class "A" League Wrestling Championships as well as the Choate Junior Squash Championships. Looks like both tournaments are running smoothly. As busy as the facility is this weekend, these "event" days are always fun.

For my second trip to the cinema in six hours, I saw Percy Jackson And The Olympians: The Lightning Thief tonight and wanted to like this movie, but found it pretty middle-of-the-road. The premise--a boy discovers he is the son of the Greek god Poseidon--is promising but the execution was mixed. Lots of pretty special effects, but this story (at least on flim--I haven't read the series of books) didn't have as much heart as it could have.

Instead of practice today, our squash team went to the movies to see Valentine's Day, which I would describe as an American version of Love Actually (but nowhere near as good). This romantic comedy boasts a huge ensemble all-star cast. The girls generally liked the flick, and I thought it was inoffensive at best. Not a total drag to sit through, but nothing I'd have run out to see on my own.

I've signed on for teaching duties once again this summer, but have begged off taking the Kennedy Institute kids to D.C. for a week in July. I have taught most summers since I began my career and mostly enjoy the change of pace represented by the summer school, but I don't think I can schlep around muggy Washington again. This way, I'll be able to enroll in the course at Yale I am planning to take, too.

The forecast for a debilitating winter storm wiped out scheduled contests among New England prep schools today, but the fearsome blizzard never quite materialized. So we've lost a good day of competition. While it's a bit messy out there today, we probably could have salvaged some games.

I have just been cast as Officer Krupke in this spring's school production of West Side Story. It's sort of a glorified cameo, I guess, but it should be fun. Fortunately I won't have to spend much time rehearsing, which would be a problem during tennis season.

A former student of mine saw this T-shirt in a catalogue and thought "it had my name on it" and so he sent it to me with a nice note. Sweet!

I started reading Game Change, the "inside baseball" account of the 2008 presidential campaign, over the weekend and spent some time with the book on the plane up to Connecticut today. It's a great read, a pretty gripping narrative about the Obama, Clinton, and McCain organizations.

My time in the warmth has come to a close; I am about to jump on a plane to Hartford. The way back I am taking a direct flight. But I am not looking forward to the ice and snow.

Congrats to the city of New Orleans! In light of the Katrina disaster, it was hard not to root for this team.

The Johnson Athletic Center is hosting squash matches as part of the U.S. National High School Team Championships. Choate co-hosts this event every year with Yale University. In addition to running our own junior tournament in mid-February, the school will also host men's and women's intercollegiate national championships this month as well.

The unedited footage of Jon Stewart's appearance on The O'Reilly Factor is a must-see. Stewart brilliantly dissects Fox News as an organization and scores some good laughs along the way.

Ten days after the introduction of the iPad, I am even more convinced this device is positioned to emerge as a great success, carving out a new place in people's lives. As others have observed, the iPad is all about media consumption, not media creation--and so it really is different from a laptop or desktop computer. It certainly can't replace the computer, but it can extend the concept of the digital hub much more easily. Some things I've been mulling over:

• Living in an academic community, it's easy for me to imagine how an iPad might be successfully marketed to college and high school students: if Apple or a third-party developer could implement handwriting recognition (presumably using a suitable stylus on the multi-touch screen), a student could take class notes on the same slim device that contains all of her textbooks. She could also access her schedule, e-mail, and Internet sites of interest. No more bulging backpacks! This could easily become the must-have campus accessory before too long.


• Apple needs to get moving on the periodicals subscription front. I receive The International Herald Tribune daily on my Kindle; it was very simple to set up a subscription and takes no effort to download each new edition via Whispersync (at least in the States--doing so abroad means transferring a file from my laptop). The iPad has the potential to revolutionize the periodicals industry as I discussed a few days ago (and please do check out the tablet-optimized Sports Illustrated demo). If digital delivery to a tablet is the future of publishing, sign me up. (By the way, since Steve Jobs now is the largest single shareholder of Disney, he seems to be able to leverage this position into ABC providing content for iTunes; why can't he now do the same with recent Disney acquisition Marvel Comics? Seems the iPad platform is ideal for making digital comics work on a large scale.)


• Since I own about a dozen or more Kindle e-books that I can read on an iPhone app, I wonder if Amazon.com and Apple will allow me to read these on a Kindle app for the iPad? I hope so, but it would constitute an end-run around Apple's iBookstore and also encourage Amazon customers from purchasing the dedicated Kindle hardware. It will be interesting watching this unfold.


• Yes a camera--or even two, one facing each way--would be nice, but surely this will be a feature of iPad 2.0 once it can be implemented without making the device too expensive.


• Too bad the iPad won't be able to play Flash, but I predict the Adobe vs. Apple conflict will result in web developers moving away from Flash-based programming in favor of more open standards. I can't imagine them writing off iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad users by using Flash on any new web pages under development when there are alternatives available.

I just finished this week's installment of Fringe. Very good episode, with a fair dose of mythology included and a great cliffhanger at the end. Unfortunately, no new episodes until spring.

I managed to fly over the storm that is bringing the middle Atlantic states to a standstill today. The conditions are rainy and overcast here in Georgia, but nothing like the blizzard hitting D.C. As my plane was landing, we were flying through low cloud cover until the runway appeared just a couple hundred feet below. My flight was delayed leaving Hartford and my connection out of Atlanta is similarly behind schedule (I actually missed the plane to West Palm Beach I was supposed to be on, but Delta went ahead and booked me a seat on the next flight out, thankfully). But it looks like I will make it to Florida tonight. Good think I am not connecting in Charlotte!

I am posting this entry high above New Jersey, where I am connected to the Internet via the Gogo service on my Delta flight to Atlanta. First time for airborne Web access, which is pretty nifty!

This segment of my trip is delayed, so I am hoping the Atlanta-to-West Palm Beach flight I am connecting with will be behind schedule as well so I can get to Florida tonight. Otherwise I may well be spending the night in Georgia.

Late last year, the folks at Time Inc. assembled a demo of an interactive Sports Illustrated issue on a tablet that looks an awful lot like an iPad. If realized, this new form of media could become a "killer app" for the new device and also salvage the ailing periodicals business. Rumors are that Steve Jobs and company are huddling with newspaper and magazine publishers right now, trying to cut deals, presumably for subscriptions on the iPad. Will Cupertino be creating "iMags" before the tablet launches next month?

Scary stuff: this is data from a survey of self-identified Republicans, as cited in this article in The Economist.

Subscribers to U2.com will be getting Artificial Horizon, a collection of remixed songs by the band, sometime soon. Here is the list of tracks:

1. Elevation (Influx Mix)
2. Fast Cars (Jacknife Lee Mix)
3. Get On Your Boots (Fish Out Of Water Mix)
4. Vertigo (Trent Reznor Remix)
5. Magnificent (Falke Radio Mix)
6. I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight (Live U2360° Remix)
7. Beautiful Day (David Holmes Remix)
8. Staring At The Sun (Monster Truck Remix)
9. Happiness Is A Warm Gun (Danny Saber Mix)
10. Get On Your Boots (Justice Remix)
11. City Of Blinding Lights (Hot Chip 2006 Remix)
12. If God Will Send His Angels (Grand Jury Mix)
13. Staring At The Sun (Brothers in Rhythm Ambient Mix)

So the two-hour Lost premiere answered a couple of questions--we now have a better sense of the conflict at the heart of the saga (Jacob vs. his nemesis, who now looks a lot like John Locke when he is not a smoke monster)--and, as expected, raised a bunch more. The show appears to have branched into two storylines: one in which the nuclear explosion reset our characters onto a 2004 Oceanic 815 flight that does not crash (but still experiences some strange happenings and divergences from the established backstory, such as a "lucky" Hurley) and another in which the protagonists stuck in 1977 return to their "proper" time in 2007, wherein apparently the nuke did not explode. All sorts of intriguing possibilities could unfold in this final season. This was a compelling start to the final 16 installments of Lost.

No huge surprises among the Oscar nominations announced this morning. I thought that with ten Best Picture nods, Star Trek might have earned one, but I guess District 9 is the sci-fi sleeper instead (of course neither of these would have a chance in hell of winning the big prize). You have to think that the five Best Director nominations indicate the films most likely to earn Best Picture votes, no?

(Thanks to Boing Boing.)

I just ordered a ticket to a Timon Of Athens performance on June 10 in Boston, which will be the last of the 39 plays in the Shakespeare canon I'll have seen staged. I plowed through this list in a little over two years (and I even included Edward III and The Two Noble Kinsmen--which some scholars don't consider part of the "official" canon--in my quest).

This summer's season at Shakespeare's Globe in London is "Kings And Rogues," and I have booked tickets for three of the history plays--Henry VIII, Henry IV Part One, and Henry IV Part Two--around the beginning of August. Shakespeare's Globe is a recreation of the original outdoor space used by The King's Men in the early 1600s and it's a fantastic place to see productions of The Bard's plays in period costume.

Super-heroes say the darnedest things (and so do their pets). [Click to enlarge.]

Just finished the last of the backlog of rented movies from the iTunes Store: Food, Inc. This was another exploration of the American food industry, though one with a broader focus than King Corn. This film certainly gives me plenty to think about next time I go to the supermarket.

Spent some time today planning my summer schedule, the centerpiece of which will be a trip across Canada bookended by two major North American Shakespeare festivals: one in Stratford, Ontario, and the other in Ashland, Oregon. I am taking a four-night train trip from Toronto to Vancouver, and this journey is supposed to be filled with gorgeous scenery. I'll spend a couple of nights in Toronto (the men's ATP event will be up and running while I'm there) and in Vancouver as well.

I set the DVR to record the men's final in Melbourne and caught the tail end of the Federer victory when I woke up. Hard to imagine a year ago it looked like the era of Roger as the man to beat had ended; here he is today with three of the Slam titles under his belt (and he probably should have won the fourth) and none of his rivals looks up to the challenge right now.

Spotted at the Georgetown/Duke game in D.C.:

For the fourth time in five years, the Bryan brothers won the men's doubles title in the Australian Open. While American players have not been in the winner's circle in Grand Slam singles events since the 2003 U.S. Open (Andy Roddick), the Bryans have assembled a very strong record in the majors over the past decade.

No classes today. My team has the day off. The athletic office is covered by one of my colleagues. No big plans at all. This meant I got to stay in bed until after noon today. I was awake most of the last few hours, but very much enjoying the chance to veg out a bit for a change!

Now off to the Hart Pool, the Johnson Athletic Center, and the Remsen Arena to see our teams in action this afternoon.

I woke up to find out that Serena Williams prevailed in a three-set final over Justine Henin to cement her position as the WTA's top player. If she can dial in her game consistently this year, there is no reason to think Serena can't be a dominant force. The landscape of the women's game is certainly more attractive now that the two Belgians, Clijsters and Henin, are back in the picture.

Barack Obama was awfully impressive in facing down House Republicans at their retreat in Baltimore today. He is so quick on his feet, so even tempered, and has such command of details that he really took over the occasion. It was a coup for the White House to have this exchange of ideas played out in front of reporters and television cameras.

The official team photo for this year's varsity and JV girls' squash team:

I've been pretty faithful in putting in 45 minutes a day around the indoor track in the Johnson Athletic Center this past month and have gotten into the habit of playing either some music or lectures from The Teaching Company while racking up the laps. Doing the latter makes me feel especially productive: I am immersed in classical mythology this week while getting my workout done.

Got caught up on the State of the Union address I missed while in the city last night. I was impressed by President Obama's tone: not exactly defiant, but firm enough. I liked the way he called out the Supreme Court majority on its disastrous campaign finance decision. Looks like there's still plenty of fire in the belly.

I was summoned to report to Superior Court in New Haven at 8 a.m. this morning for jury duty. I was in the first batch of potential jurors brought into a courtroom to begin the voir dire process. The dates of the case next week conflict with my scheduled flight to Florida on Friday, however, and this resulted in my being excused from service. thus I got to head home--through a light snowstorm--at 11 a.m., a far cry from the last time I got as far as the voir dire, when I was at the courthouse past 5 p.m. before being excused.

I am conflicted about the prospect of jury duty. Philosophically, I believe strongly in the principle and I would be curious to take part in the process, but logistically it would pose huge complications to my life, especially in getting my teaching and coaching duties covered. So I was relieved to have been excused this time around.

Mr. Trudeau's take on the Jobs announcement yesterday [click to enlarge]:

Seven of my colleagues and I were invited down to the Metropolitan Opera House tonight to see the Carmen production that opened to rave reviews a few weeks back. We were driven into Manhattan and had drinks and a light dinner in the penthouse apartment of a couple of Choate parents--with spectacular views of the city and artistic antiquities on display. Then we were treated to a center box on the parterre level at The Met--courtesy of another CRH family--which was a wonderful vantage point from which to take in the performance.

The opera itself was a satisfying production, in which the setting was updated by about a century, to Seville of the 1930s during the Spanish Civil War. (This is the first opera I have seen more than one production of, so I could make some meaningful comparisons.) We saw an understudy in the title role, and while her acting was terrific, she was a bit shaky vocally, particularly in the early going. But no quibbles: this was a great night out.

So the Apple Tablet is real and about to hit the market: the iPad didn't have all the bells and whistles some were hoping for (built-in videoconferencing capability, for instance) but neither did the iPhone when it was first released. I believe the over the next eighteen months we'll see the emergence of apps--both from Apple and from third-party developers--that will indeed make the iPad a huge hit as well as a game changer.

Late last night and early this morning, I watched another iTunes movie rental that is about to expire: King Corn, a documentary by two recent college graduates who spend a year in Iowa growing an acre of corn and attempt to follow it through the food supply chain. As in Super Size Me, the focal point of the film is as political as it is about nutrition: how American agricultural policy since the 1970s has influenced the prominence of high fructose corn syrup and other corn by-products in the American diet.

The President is delivering the annual State of the Union address tomorrow, but most folks I know are far more tuned into the scuttlebutt regarding Apple's scheduled announcements tomorrow, which most assume will be centered around the unveiling of a new tablet device. Though the Internet has been abuzz with leaks and speculation, we know very little for sure. I am eagerly anticipating the goodies Steve Jobs will be showcasing tomorrow.

Defending champion Rafael Nadal retired with a knee injury in the third set of his Australian Open quarterfinal against Andy Murray. In fairness to the Scot, Nadal was being consistently outplayed in this match before he called it quits. Andy Roddick also went down in five sets to Martin Cilic, who is clearly one of the hottest players on tour in recent weeks.

It's the national holiday for the land Down Under. Sort of like Fourth of July for the Aussies. Good on ya!

Since I arrived at Choate, there has been a winter term tradition called "President's Day" in which the head of school makes a surprise announcement in the evening canceling the following day's classes. Word just came via e-mail that tomorrow is the day, so spirits are running pretty high around here right now.

Before my trip to Portugal at the end of last month, I downloaded a handful of movie rentals from the iTunes Store so I'd have some entertainment readily available while abroad. I watched a couple of them, but still have three on the laptop whose thirty-day rental period is about to expire. So I watched The Devil Wears Prada tonight. It's very light fare, I suppose, but reasonably entertaining. Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep are mostly convincing, but I though the real stars of the flick were New York City and Paris.

Entertainment Weekly published a list of "must-see" movies to be viewed before the Oscar nominations are announced, and today I saw a matinee of A Single Man. I could see why Colin Firth's performance has been so widely praised. He's far better than the overall film, which fashion czar Tom Ford directed as if it were some sort of fashion spread: in general it was pretty to look at, but the story slowed to a glacial pace in places. I liked Julianne Moore in this movie, too.

Long day for the girls' varsity squash team today. After SAT testing finished (some twenty minutes late, unfortunately) we made the three-hour trek to Concord, NH, for a showdown with our St. Paul's School counterparts. We had some good competition, particularly at the top of the ladder, and prevailed 5-2 (and got matches for the five extra competitors who made the trip, all of whom won). The down side of the excursion was getting home just before 10:00 at night. Unlike our trip to Andover two weeks before, which was in a comfortable double-decker motor coach, i was behind the wheel of a mid-bus for all of the driving. So I am ready to crash now!

For the cross country team's end-of-season gathering tonight, I am using iPhoto to show 300 slides set to music. iPhoto makes it tremendously easy to set this up without a lot of effort (other than sifting through several thousand shots from the fall season to select the best pictures and ensure each of some 70 team members is represented in the show). But since I did the work on my MacBook Air, I had to make an emergency run to the Apple Store in the Westfarms Mall in Farmington this afternoon to get a Mini DisplayPort-to-VGA connector so that my laptop could drive the projector. I am constantly amazed how efficiently the Apple Store works. Once I found the accessory in question, an employee scanned its barcode on his specially decked-out iPhone (or maybe it was an iPod Touch), ran my credit card through, thanked me by name, and asked if I wanted the receipt e-mailed to my account--clearly the system recognized my credit card details as associated with my Apple account. The speed of this transaction enabled me to make this trip a surgical strike!

The U.S. Supreme Court decision announced today, Citizens United v. FEC, probably represents a greater shift in our nation's political life than the Massachusetts special election earlier this week. In a 5-4 vote, the Court's conservative block threw precedent out the window by invalidating a 63-year-old congressional ban on virtually all corporate (and union) spending in support of, or opposition to, candidates in federal elections. Such an outcome suggests the majority on the bench has, in fact, embraced a philosophy of judicial activism--ironically just the the label American conservatives incessantly have used to blast supposedly liberal judges in recent decades. Basically, this approach entails judges stretching Constitutional interpretation in order to impose their personal policy preferences on the citizenry, in a manner that contradicts established legislation fashioned by the people's elected representatives.

Though the George W. Bush appointees, Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito, posed as judicial moderates during their confirmation hearings, it turns out they are intent on shifting American jurisprudence sharply to the ideological right.

The particular ruling in this case, while wrapped in the language of the First Amendment, was properly lambasted by the most senior justice, John Paul Stevens in a withering dissent read from the bench. Basically, the majority opinion held that the campaign finance laws in question violated the free-speech rights of "citizens." The central flaw in this analysis is treating corporations as citizens, of course.

This is scary!

Last night's big news was the Massachusetts election of Republican Scott Brown to the U.S. Senate seat long held by Ted Kennedy. Seems to me the right-wing crowing and media hype are all misplaced. 41% hardly constitutes a majority in the Senate, after all. Yes, the White House and Congressional Democrats need to do a better job conveying their message. But let's remember the GOP in Washington is embracing a fairly nihilistic approach to governance right now: opposing nearly every Administration initiative (at least in domestic policy) and offering scant little in the way of alternatives (other than the usual tax-slashing mantra). This could be just the wake-up call the President needs to kick in those political instincts and oratory skills that were deployed so effectively throughout the 2008 campaign.

The Bridge Project mounted a terrific As You Like It, which I caught at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Harvey Theater tonight. The play depends heavily on strong acting in two particular roles, I think: Rosalind and Jaques. Juliet Rylance and Stephen Dillane were wonderfully up to the task. Production values were outstanding, as well: sets and lighting created a bleak, snow-covered Arden Forest in winter, as well as a lush version in full bloom for the later acts. And a small band of musicians added to the atmosphere effectively.

Following this afternoon's squash practice, I drove down to Brooklyn via the Triborough Bridge and the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and caught spectacular views of Manhattan along the elevated sections of the highway. I am here to catch a Shakespeare production, which is just about to start.

Yesterday, invitations to Apple's January 27 scheduled press event were distributed. Expectations are that Steve Jobs will unveil the much-anticipated tablet device at this gathering. It's been leaked that the next generation of iPhone software, OS 4.0, will be announced and that iLife will be refreshed in a 2010 version. I'll be paying attention.

An article in this morning's New York Times addresses the perception that those of us working in academia skew toward a liberal political orientation. The current thinking:

Now new research suggests that critics may have been asking the wrong question. Instead of looking at why most professors are liberal, they should ask why so many liberals -- and so few conservatives -- want to be professors.

[snip]

Nearly half of the political lopsidedness in academia can be traced to four characteristics that liberals in general, and professors in particular, share: advanced degrees; a nonconservative religious theology (which includes liberal Protestants and Jews, and the nonreligious); an expressed tolerance for controversial ideas; and a disparity between education and income.

[snip]

The tendency of people in any institution or organization to try to fit in also reinforces the political one-sidedness . . . when it comes to hiring, "the majority will tend to support candidates like them in the matter of fundamental beliefs, values and commitments."

Provocative analysis, and one that seems to make sense to me.

Now appearing on the Google home page:

Watched the pilot of Showtime's Dexter series last night and the next episode of Season One this afternoon. The show is sort of grisly but pretty engaging, too. I think I'll enjoy getting caught up on this series in the weeks ahead.

Went down to Yale this morning to see some Choate alums competing in squash matches in the Payne Whitney Gym. Upon returning to campus this afternoon, I met with a couple of guys from the tennis team for a hit on the indoor courts--my first tennis in a few months. It still feels pretty nice to connect in the racquet's sweet spot!

Interesting piece in today's New York Times on people like me trying to complete the Shakespeare canon by seeing each of The Bard's plays in performance. (Though I'm not sure about the reference to "trainspotters"!) The English couple described in the article took twenty years to complete the quest. Looks like I am going to finish the cycle in about 25 months!

It's the height of the Australian summer right now and the world's best tennis players are converging on Melbourne for the first Grand Slam tournament of 2010, the Australian Open, which gets underway Monday (Sunday night in Eastern Standard Time). Looking forward to see what unfolds in this event!

The chair arrived today. When one is awarded a named faculty chair at Choate, the school gives you a very nice actual chair. It has the school seal engraved on the front and my name on the back. Pretty classy, I think.

The heart-wrenching news and images from earthquake-ravaged Haiti offer some pretty brutal perspective for those of us whose lives are quite comfortable. Hard to get to exorcised over NBC's handling of its late night talent, for example, in light of the devastation in the Caribbean. The Internet makes it easy to make a contribution. I just made a modest donation to the Red Cross, for instance--which I report not to score any points with those few souls who might come across this blog, but to encourage as many people as something to make some sort of effort to help those in dire need.

Just over a week after being awarded the faculty chair, I am still receiving some wonderfully thoughtful sentiments from colleagues, students, parents, and alumni. Folks have been just so nice about this honor. I am humbled and grateful for all the good wishes.

I have started using the Ripit application to make my DVDs even more portable by ripping the content to my hard drive. Ripit creates a file that opens up DVD Player just like loading a disc would, and I can access the DVD menus, special features, and anything else on the disc as if it were in the drive. Ripping the DVDs this way has three advantages: (1) When traveling, I won't have to carry the physical media to access on my laptop the movies that I already own; (2) watching a "virtual" DVD drains a laptop battery far less than accessing the DVD drive (and in any case my primary travel computer, the MacBook Air, doesn't even have a drive!); and (3) I can rip non-Region 1 discs just as easily, so the region coding on the DVD drive firmware will pose no obstacle to my watching, say, British DVDs.

This morning, the Choate faculty had a three-hour professional development session. (No classes were scheduled for the day, as this week has an academic Saturday.) This may be a nice break in routine for my colleague, but it totally throws off my morning. That's because I never teach on Wednesday morning. I am scheduled to teach--one or two classes per term--in rotating blocks that do not meet on Wednesdays or Saturdays so I can be available in the Department of Athletics office on game days. So a three-hour block like this on a Wednesday cuts into my productivity in a big way.

The school hosted Dr. Robert Ballard, the world's best-known oceanographer (and a Choate parent), to deliver a slide presentation to the entire community tonight in the Arts Center auditorium and it was a fascinating overview of the scientific exploration of our planet's oceans. This is the sort of science I find riveting. And having grown up by the water, I am always interested in seafaring adventures!

Today I was invited to present at a conference in Wilmington, Delaware this June: "Managing Institutional Risk at Boarding Schools Leadership Summit." Sounds fancy, so I better think of something to say!

I downloaded Google Chrome this morning for a tryout. Supposedly it loads pages pretty fast. I already like how easily it imported all my Safari bookmarks and settings.

I've long had a fantasy of relocating the school somewhere warm just for the winter term. This notion kicks in pretty hard on a day like today, when the high temperature is supposed to hit 33°F. It was bitterly cold walking to breakfast this morning!

It's no accident that the two times I've taken a sabbatical, I took them in the winter term and went to Australia and other antipodal destinations. When I was there in 1998, the temperature in Melbourne climbed to 108°F at one point; you could almost fry an egg on the sidewalk!

Just saw a production of The Two Noble Kinsmen, which scholarly consensus now attributes to William Shakespeare and John Fletcher--both resident playwrights for The King's Men acting company. The show featured nine actors from the Guerrilla Shakespeare Company [I am not sure why "guerrilla" is spelled with two r's.] This play was likely first staged at the Blackfriars indoor theater. Clearly this is not among the best of The Bard's works, of course, but it moves me just a bit closer to my quest to complete the canon, which it looks like I will be able to do before the end of this school year.

I am taking the train into New York City and for a change I am down at the New Haven train station in plenty of time, without the rush to park, scramble for tickets, and run to the platform. Arriving early results in a much better pace on a Sunday morning!

Started watching In Bruges on the bus ride home from Andover on the MacBook Air and finished it at home on the big screen. It's sort of comedic, but pretty black in its sensibility. Strong performances from Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, and Ralph Fiennes. And lots of pretty Belgian scenery. Worth watching.

Good day for Choate Squash up at Andover: the girls' varsity and JV and the boys' JV lost just one match total in their three contests. If the boys' varsity squad wins as expected, it will constitute a nice sweep for the program. This day is always one of the best of the athletic year, when most Choate teams face off against their Phillips Academy counterparts. It's dependably good competition and in even years, I get to visit my old stomping grounds for a little while.

I've figured out the best way to schedule my weekend duty nights in the dorm: I do as many of them early in the term as possible so that as the inevitable cabin fever/fatigue of the term sets in, I can look forward to having free nights on the weekend.

This means these first couple of weekends in January I am doing a lot of duty, but the payoff will come in February!

Today I went downtown to the barber shop. Since our on-campus barber retired a few years back, I seem to get a haircut about twice a year now. My hair goes from being a bit too long to being way too short. But I guess I am getting my money's worth this way!

In a wonderful surprise, the school awarded yours truly a faculty chair at this morning's school meeting. It's a very nice honor, if a bit embarrassing to be in the spotlight in front of the entire community for ten minutes. I now hold the Hubert S. Packard Chair, named after the longtime French teacher and wrestling coach at Choate, who was (fittingly) also a Williams College alumnus. I am told I will actually be getting an actual physical chair to commemorate this award. I also will get a nice little bump in pay for the ten-year term of the chair.

Word on the street tonight is that Connecticut's senior U.S. Senator, Christopher Dodd, will announce he will not run for re-election this year. The senator has hit a rocky patch in his political career, starting with an unsuccessful presidential campaign in 2007 and 2008, followed by revelations of a sweetheart deal on a mortgage. His approval ratings have plummeted as a result. Facing this political math, Dodd has apparently decided not to fight his way to re-election (though I believe he could have turned this around). Stepping down now probably means the Democrats will be able to hold this seat comfortably; with Dodd still in the race, it was a very vulnerable seat.

Having seen Senator Dodd at close range numerous times with student groups in Washington, I will miss him. He is clearly smart, hard-working, and articulate with a wonderful way with people and a firm command of the issues.

I am back in the daily exercise routine: 45 minutes a day, every day. Not that hard to do, and I feel a lot better getting this done regularly. I don't coach any on-court coaching time against this total, either.

Continental Airlines happens to have a pretty good in-flight entertainment system at each seat. I watched the second half of The Informant (which I had started on the trip over to Portugal). This is a pretty witty movie--not laugh out loud funny, but wryly clever. Matt Damon is perfect as an eager beaver informant working for ADM and Scott Bakula is great as a straight man in his role as an FBI agent. Steven Soderbergh directed, and I like most of his work.

I also saw the remake of Fame, which was pretty pointless (and nowhere close to an improvement on the original). Not only was the story pretty flimsy, but the music wasn't all that good. The best song was only one swiped from the 1980s version.

And finally I saw an episode of The Big Bang Theory, a CBS comedy that I have never seen before. It's a mildly amusing show, but I found the canned laughter annoying--especially while listening to the program over headphones. I've taken it for granted, I guess, that most comedies I watch (The Office, 30 Rock, Curb Your Enthusiasm) never use a laugh track.

Fascinating piece on Obama's real base posted on The Daily Beast website. Worth a read!

Okay, so it may not be a major title--heck, it's actually only an exhibition!--but it has to warm the hearts of Rafael Nadal fans to see him win the Abu Dhabi event this weekend, especially by beating nemesis Robin Soderling 7-6 (3), 7-5 in today's final. It was Soderling who ended Nadal's perfect streak at Roland Garros in May, which really changed the storyline in men's tennis for 2009. To add insult to injury, Soderling spanked Rafa again in the ATP Finals in London in November. (And allegedly there is no love lost between these two players.) The Swede beat Roger Federer to advance to the Abu Dhabi final but Rafa seems to be in the sort of health and playing form that saw him take three of the four major crowns plus Olympic gold in 2008 and early 2009. I'll be interested to see how his bid to defend his Australian Open crown goes later this month.

From security analyst Bruce Schneier:

Despite fearful rhetoric to the contrary, terrorism is not a transcendent threat. A terrorist attack cannot possibly destroy a country's way of life; it's only our reaction to that attack that can do that kind of damage. The more we undermine our own laws, the more we convert our buildings into fortresses, the more we reduce the freedoms and liberties at the foundation of our societies, the more we're doing the terrorists' job for them.

Of course!

(Read the whole piece on CNN's site.)

When I first started this blog in April 2004, I posted this map indicating the countries I had visited up until then:

Here is my updated map of countries I have been to as of the start of 2010:

Lots of speculation about Apple's reserving January 26th for a "special presentation." Most observers believe the company will unveil its tablet plans with a trademark Steve Jobs rollout. It might well look something like the rendering above--an oversized iPod Touch crossed with a Mac OS X dock--but who outside Cupertino really knows at this point? There is some good analysis on the topic here.

Spent time today reading David Mazzucchelli's Asterios Polyp, a graphic novel released in 2009 that was lauded by the critics. I can see why: this work is brilliant. It "combines a modernist style, a formalist structure, and a story about a bristly academic" as one observer described it. Highly recommended.

The resort had its own pretty elaborate fireworks display at the stroke of midnight to mark the arrival of 2010. Happy New Year, everyone!

I drove through the northeast and across the center of Spain on my last trip here. I am pleased to discover here in the southwest of the country the same phenomenon of the roadside black bull silhouettes popping up along the way.

After driving through Andalucia through the early part of the day, I arrived at the Mediterranean coast just after noon and was struck by the massive presence of the Rock of Gibraltar ahead of me. As I approached the sea, I noticed a few signs in Spanish and Arabic indicating ferries to Tangiers. I made my way to La Línea, the town next to Gibraltar, where I parked my car and walked across the frontier. (I didn't want the hassle of taking my rental car through immigration and customs checkpoints.) Once I cleared the actual border, the first thing I saw was a red British phone booth and a sign indicating I was on Winston Churchill Avenue. I then had to walk across an airplane runway (after being held a few minutes as a newly-arrived EasyJet plane taxied to the terminal). No joke: the only way into Gibraltar via land involves driving or walking across a working airfield! Though signs are in English and the local currency is pounds sterling, this place hardly feels British. The climate is too balmy, the local voices are mostly Spanish, and the layout of the streets has more of a Continental feel to it. Still, this is a fascinating hybrid sort of place.

I stumbled across a Carrefour on the way into Seville, Spain this morning and was lucky enough to find an assortment of adaptor plugs within. I bought one of those that had plugs to flip out for Europe, the U.K., and the U.S., and it also has a USB port for easy iPod or iPhone charging. So I am back in business on the digital front!

I am digesting the Season 3 DVDs of Friday Night Lights while on holiday here in Portugal and had forgotten just how excellent this show is. I had sort of lost touch with the series midway through the second season, but am enjoying every minute of each episode in this collection.

I stupidly failed to pack any of my adapter plugs for the various devices (MacBook Air, iPhone, two iPods, Kindle, digital camera, a portable DVD player, and portable speakers for the iPod) I brought with me. (Okay, okay, I admit I have a hard time cutting the technological cord when I travel!) I have a couple of cheap European adapter plugs as well as the Apple World Travel Adapter kit back home, but that does me little good now! So I am rationing the use of each electronic gadget for the time being, as there apparently is not an appropriate adapter for U.S. plugs to be found in the south of Portugal--and I have looked in the resort newsagent, two local supermarkets, an electronics store, and a Staples office supply store. I did find an adapter for U.K. plugs in one store, which didn't surprise me as the majority of guests in this resort seem to be Brits (apparently this is a favorite holiday and retirement destination for the English).

I did, however, discover online an entertaining article on why plugs and voltage are different around the globe. It's an educational and witty read.

I am settled in at the Vale Do Lobo resort, and was upgraded to a higher level of accommodation, which was nice. So I have a two-bedroom apartment with a private pool at my disposal for the next few days. The weather is warm but rainy and this is clearly the off-season for this place, as there don't seem to be many people in my immediate neighborhood in spite of the holidays.

Had an easy drive on the motorway down to the Algarve region, but was struck by the toll charged for the trip from Lisbon: €18.60, which equates to nearly $27!

I had a smooth flight over, with an open seat next to me giving me plenty of room to spread out. I slept a lot of the way, though I watched the first half of The Informer before I got too drowsy (I'll have to catch the rest on the way home). No problem clearing immigration, but now I have been waiting for over 30 minutes for my checked bag to appear. Seems like some of the luggage on our flight is stuck somewhere between the plane and the carousel. But I just connected with a Choate alum from about fifteen years ago who was on the same flight.

Once I pick up my rented car, I will drive a few hours south to the Algarve region.

I left for Newark Airport plenty early, remembering my missed flight to London at the end of July. Moreover, there were supposed to be much longer lines through security due to the recent terrorism scare on a flight from Amsterdam on Christmas Day. Well I arrived in Newark early and had no delays getting checked in and through the security screening.

Off to Lisbon on an 8:15 flight!

Just firmed up plans for a five-day jaunt to Rio de Janiero in June. I have a ten-year visa for Brazil from my New Years trip to Buenos Aires and Rio a few years back, but will have to have it transferred to my new passport.

Got some goodies from adidas in the mail today, a couple of new pairs of kicks and two T-shirts with interesting adidas/Star Wars mash-up designs, including the above graphic.

Spent most of today with my extended family: a couple dozen of my cousins from both sides of the family, as well as other relatives and family friends. The occasion was a milestone birthday for my dad, a surprise brunch event that carried over to an "after party" of sorts at my parents' house through the afternoon. A good chance to catch up with folks whom I rarely see nowadays.

Watched a documentary from the iTunes Store, Welcome To Macintosh--a look at the cult following of Apple's computers. Decent overview, but not really anything new here.

Over in England, today is celebrated as Boxing Day and the BBC is airing a filmed version of the RSC's 2008 Hamlet production featuring David Tennant as the title character and Patrick Stewart as Polonius. It's being released on DVD the first week of next month and I pre-ordered a copy on the U.K. Amazon.com site. (Nice to have a region-free DVD player handy to fire up this Region 2 disc.)

Saw the Guy Ritchie-directed Sherlock Holmes tonight. This film repurposes the famous detective as a brawling action hero (though one whose powers of observation and deduction are clearly on display as well). Good chemistry between Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law as the Holmes/Watson team. Not a memorable film, but worth seeing.

Interesting online ad for Google here.

You have to figure Santa's Workshop can't be all that far from the Fortress of Solitude, which makes these two gents neighbors!

Here's my annually-reposted snippet of holiday wisdom from everyone's favorite survivor of Krypton:

The family tradition of a Christmas Day movie was moved up twenty-four hours this year. Our entire routine was different, in fact: we went out for Chinese food for the very first time in my whole life! Then we watched Brothers, which was a pretty intense and extremely well acted film. Loved the new U2 song, "Winter," over the closing credits, too.

In the last 24 hours, the Internet has been abuzz with speculation that Apple may be close to announcing the release of a much-anticipated tablet device late next month. The Cupertino company has apparently scheduled a media event for January 26 and word has leaked out that leader Steve Jobs is "happy" with the new product. Industry watchers are expecting an announcement/demonstration of a device that is akin to a large iPod Touch. Some app developers reportedly have been asked to prepare full-screen demos of their software. The Apple tablet would be available by the spring. An exciting prospect!

In what should be seen as the ultimate tribute to the late Ted Kennedy, the U.S. Senate passed the health care reform bill this morning after months of deliberation and political wrangling. While there is the tricky business ahead of reconciling this version with the House bill, it looks like America will get at least a first wave of legislation addressing the health care needs of the nation. Hopefully there will be substantive reforms to follow on this front, as well. Though the process was controversial and messy, this legislation has to be considered a triumph for President Obama, Congressional leaders Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, and the Democrats.

I am so glad I invested in new pillows and new flannel sheets a couple of weeks ago. My bed always feels warm when I get in it and I've been experiencing great nights of sleep.

I didn't watch any of The Clone Wars--the CGI-animated Star Wars series set between Episodes II and III--when they aired on Cartoon Network, but I am slowly making my way through the first season on Blu-ray discs. This is a pretty well-crafted show: a mix of familiar and new characters in visually striking settings. Each episode is about 22 minutes long, so it's a quick hit to watch one when time allows.

I stopped for a routine oil change--I was a bit overdue, and had the time to knock off this errand this afternoon--and ended up spending just over $400 on the Explorer. There were some "essential" services that needed to be performed, of course. Funny how this always happens. Ugh!

Caught an early matinee today and I liked Up In The Air a LOT. I approached this movie as a pretty experienced traveler--I average at least one round-trip flight a month--and I thought the film captured both the romance and the alienation of travel in the jet age. The film is timely, too: firmly grounded (sorry for the pun!) in the harsh economic realities currently facing the country. George Clooney led a terrific cast. This flick ought to be Oscar bait, for sure.

Time Machine finally finished backing up my primary desktop computer. In retrospect, I should have done the first backup with a wired connection directly to the Time Capsule. And because I set up the home network in a screwy way, it took a lot longer to complete the backup process than it should have. But I can sleep a little better now that I have a master archive in place.

Continuing my immersion in disposable entertainment while on holiday, I rented The Hangover on AppleTV tonight. Well made and well cast, with a few good laughs, this is just the sort of movie I am glad I saw but equally glad I didn't drop $10 to watch it in the cinema. Also, I am glad to know Mike Tyson's delight at the drum intro during "In The Air Tonight" equals my own.

Watched Eddie Izzard's Live From Wembley stand-up gig today, and it was okay, but nothing anyone should rush to see.

A couple months back, the iTunes Store introduced a couple of new formats: iTunes LP for music embedded with extra content (ostensibly to promote buying albums rather than singles) and iTunes Extra for movies embedded with extra features (presumably to woo folks who would otherwise buy DVDs for the special features). I missed Inglourious Basterds when it was out in the theaters this fall, so I bought the iTunes Extra version to see how it works on my computer screens and my AppleTV.

I loved Blue Harvest, the Family Guy take on the original Star Wars movie (which today's youth call Episode IV: A New Hope). So I was pretty pleased to get today's shipment from Amazon.com with the Something, Something, Something, Dark Side DVD: a similar send up of The Empire Strikes Back. Unfortunately, this one does not come with a digital copy included, as the last one did.

adidas is losing Novak Djokovic to Sergio Tacchini and the Bryan Brothers and Sam Querry to K-Swiss, but is pinning its sponsorship hopes on the British hope Andy Murray, who will be decked out in three stripes from head to toe starting in January.

A curious intersection of sneakers and space opera!

AppleTV brought Adventureland as the movie du jour tonight. The central character is a recent college graduate in 1987--pretty close to where I was at that time. The setting is an amusement park in Pittsburgh--pretty far from where I was at that time. Anyway, this is basically a love story with a good 1980s soundtrack and reasonably entertaining.

Tonight is the longest night of the year, with the arrival of the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. The good news is that tomorrow the days start getting longer!

Looks like the Democrats in the Senate will have a filibuster-free bill on health care reform after all. Like Obama's Copenhagen agreement on addressing climate change this past weekend, the Senate bill is the product of compromise and is surely disappointing in many respects. But I support the passage of this legislation--flawed as it may be--because it expands insurance coverage dramatically to 30 million more Americans, ensures insurance companies can't deny coverage for pre-existing conditions, and offers some deficit belief on top of that. Yes, there's lots more work ahead on this front in the future, but this is a creditable start.

. . . I want to travel to Europe the old-fashioned way: by boat. The notion of a leisurely five days at sea with time to unwind and read is probably romantic and nostalgic. But there would be no jet lag!

I finally configured the 1TB Time Capsule I bought back in the summer (!) to enable the Time Machine software to automatically back up the hard drive (and two connected portable drives) associated with my primary iMac desktop computer. This will ensure I hang on to key documents, photos, videos, and music files in the event of a catastrophic drive failure. The initial backup is being processed while I sleep tonight.

I fired up the Blu-ray edition of this year's Star Trek reboot to listen to the audio commentary by director J.J. Abrams and the writers and producers. Pretty cool to hear the behind-the-scenes analysis from the filmmakers. I usually don't take advantage of these special audio tracks on my DVDs very often, but with a bit of time on my hands, this was an interesting diversion.

Not to be outdone by their female counterparts, the boys' varsity hockey players also won their holiday tournament down in New Jersey at The Lawrenceville School this afternoon. Bravo!

Unlike the cutting edge motion capture and CGI employed in Avatar, The Fantastic Mr. Fox is old-style stop-motion animation produced painstakingly. It works well in this Wes Anderson-helmed flick, featuring a great vocal cast, led by George Clooney, Meryl Streep, and Bill Murray. As one might expect from Anderson, there is a wonderfully subversive feel to the storyline, which is based on a Roald Dahl book.

As the roads were relatively clear after last night's storm--southern Connecticut didn't get dumped on as much as points south and east, apparently--I trekked down to New Haven to catch up on a couple of theatrical releases before things get busy with family time later in the week. First up was Me And Orson Welles, an account of a late 1930s Broadway production of Julius Caesar staged by Welles, told from the point of view of a high school senior (Zac Efron) who stumbles into the director's orbit. Lots of nice touches in this film, and the actor who played Welles was pretty convincing capturing the man physically and vocally.

Continuing my immersion in movies these first few days of break, I watched The Proposal on AppleTV this morning. This was a big box office hit in 2009 and I can see why: the chemistry between Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds clicked nicely. Pretty disposable entertainment I suppose, but just the thing for a leisurely Sunday morning at the start of a vacation.

Watched Spread on AppleTV this evening: a pretty forgettable L.A. story about good-looking but shallow people who feed off each other fairly brazenly. Nothing inspirational in this tale. Skip it.

Saw Invictus at the Wallingford movie palace, expecting there to be a blizzard well underway by the time I got out. Turned out the snow was delayed, but the film was very entertaining: a mix of politics and sport that was right up my alley. I found myself getting choked up a bit in some key places. The film is about inspiration, when you cut to the heart of it. I enjoyed seeing the sights of Cape Town, Pretoria, and Jo'burg I came to know a bit during my time there in 2006.

At the urging of a couple of girls on my team, I watched Love Actually on my AppleTV tonight. This was a pretty enjoyable movie, though perhaps a bit overloaded with too many couples in the mix. I loved the London setting, as well as the fact that not every pairing was wrapped up tidily as the final reel unspooled. And the acting is absolutely blue chip all the way: truly an all-star cast.

Congrats to the varsity girls' hockey team for winning all four games to take the title at the Taft School holiday tournament!

Took in a little of the Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skulls DVD--well, the first hour of it anyway. Reviewers were pretty harsh about this flick, and there's a lot to object to toward the end of the story (which felt like it was lifted from Close Encounters) but the warehouse scene and the stuff at Indy's college hold up pretty well.

Just got in from the midnight opening of Avatar in 3D. While it won't go down as one of the finest films ever made, this is a hugely engaging spectacle (which you MUST see in 3D) that is a testament to imagination and technical wizardry. The movie is quite an accomplishment and a very entertaining ride that is well over two-and-a-half hours long. Thumbs up.

The Memorial House common room is festively decorated with a fire roaring in the fireplace and plenty of treats for the boys coming back from their final school commitment before break: a concert presentation in the Arts Center. So spirits are high and we had an enjoyable evening. Most of the older kids are accompanying me to the midnight premiere of Avatar 3D later on at the local cineplex, once the third formers are in bed for the night. First thing in the morning, the campus empties out. Many of the kids are taking off before dawn to catch international flights.

I just gave a test to my U.S. In Vietnam class and am now celebrating being on holiday break (more or less). In spite of how much I love my job, even after all these years there is still a thrill to the sensation of finishing up before the start of a vacation!

While traveling to Greenwich and back this afternoon, the girls insisted on an audio diet of Christmas music for the ride, so I had a couple of iPod playlists prepared for the occasion, which they supplemented with a few tunes of their own choosing. On the heels of that experience, I have finally succumbed and purchased my very own copy of Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You," a song I have resisted for years but I now bow before its schmaltzy charms.

By the way, the two Christmas albums from the a cappella group Straight No Chaser have been in heavy rotation on my iTunes. Definitely recommended.

I am up in South Windsor, where we just finished a celebratory dinner for my mom's birthday at Sakura Garden, a Japanese hibachi restaurant. Love this stuff!

I recently updated my travel map page with projected destinations for 2010. Some of these trips I am not sure about yet, and I probably will be adding at least a brief U.K. jaunt in August at some point as well as additional travel during the last few months of the year.

Since my MacBook Air doesn't have a DVD drive, I tend to rent movies from the iTunes Store while traveling. I watched a pair of mostly forgettable but reasonably entertaining movies featuring the teenage demographic: Assassination Of A High School President and Camp. The former I watched during some down time between convention sessions in my hotel room yesterday and I watched Camp this morning on the flight up from Dallas. Hard to beat the convenience of downloading a flick for a few bucks and watching it whenever I want.

No great surprise that Connecticut's junior senator is causing more trouble on health care reform, yesterday abandoning the Democratic Party's compromise agreement on the public option/Medicare angle.

This afternoon I am missing the Festival Of Lessons And Carols back home at Choate in the Seymour St. John Chapel. This nativity program of readings and sacred music--an academic tradition that started at King's College, Cambridge--always puts me into the spirit of the season.

The sports-themed restaurant here in the hotel complex has about 30 big flat screen monitors spread all over and a 52-foot-wide megascreen on which you can watch nine broadcasts at once. A football lover's paradise on a Sunday afternoon!

This image showed up while surfing the Web about a week ago: Ryan Reynolds suited up as Green Lantern. I suppose the makers of this flick are hoping to capture a little of the mojo that propelled Iron Man to impressive heights, both critically and commercially.

The Amazon.com home page is supposed to be dynamic, since it's based on authentication. If the cookie reveals that it's me who has logged in, I should see different stuff than you do, based on my unique purchasing history. This is how the shopping site makes recommendations customized for each of us. So why am I bombarded with a big ad for the Kindle whenever I browse my way there? Shouldn't Amazon.com know I already own the device?

I would not have expected this: only 60% of the visitors to this blog are from the United States. 4% are from Canada and another 4% are from the U.K., and the rest are from around the globe.

Made it into Dallas last night and took a shuttle to the Gaylord Texan Hotel and Convention Center, a mammoth complex right near the airport. I am attending my fourth National Athletic Directors Conference in the past four years (the others were in Anaheim and Nashville). Since I'm only here until first thing Monday morning, and I'll be engaged in a trio of four-hour mini-courses as well as other sessions in that time, plus I don't have a car, it's unlikely I will get out of this place to see anything else in Dallas. So I could well be anywhere in the country right now; the city itself doesn't register in my plans. Of course, there is a slew of restaurants and other diversions here in the convention/hotel complex, so I'll be living in the convention bubble this weekend, I guess.