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Read more about the article The Mind Reels

The Mind Reels

With only a few days remaining for last-minute surprises, 2008 has been one for the books on so many levels — personally, professionally, globally — the mind truly does reel.

And reels, and reels, and reels… perhaps somehow what I imagine bonefishing might be like?

(h/t to one of my newfound loves of the year, Garden & Gun.)

But I digress. Kind of.

On January 1st of this year, I posted a brief recap of 2007 and a to-do list for 2008, the latter of which I predictably missed the mark on by a mile. Perhaps because 2007 had been a year defined by so much transition, my focus was more internal, and nowhere on that list is there any hint of what 2008 actually had in store, from becoming a new (first-time) homeowner to taking two huge steps forward in my career.

In the midst of it all, this blog went from an intense flurry of passionate political punditry to a, once-again somewhat unfocused and occasional mix of publishing, poetry, politics and pop culture. Plus, I attempted to add a more personal, anonymous blog to the mix to talk about our life as new homeowners which I’ve discontinued and rolled into this site. (“Bloomfield” tag will get you all of them.) I’m okay with that, though, as my primary goal for this blog has always been more selfish than anything else, a place for me to keep the creative juices flowing in the most rudimentary of ways by offering an outlet, when necessary, for whatever’s running through my head, and my intent at the beginning of the year was to consolidate my “platform” anyway.

But I’m rambling again…

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Read more about the article Things to Do

Things to Do

Montclair Honeybee Fest
Originally uploaded by bloomfieldguy

Last night, we were suprised to hear the sound of jazz music coming through our front window, at first thinking our neighbor might be having a party, then realizing it was LIVE music from a concert going on in Watsessing Park. According to the Essex County website, it was the Carrie Jackson Quartet, performing as part of the 2008 Essex County Free SummerMusic Concert Series, which I only know because I Googled it this morning out of curiosity.

Last month’s Dionne Warwick concert in Brookdale Park, which I first heard about the night of while having dinner at Vinnie’s, was part of the same series and while I wouldn’t have attended that one, it was a little disappointing to find out about last night’s as it was happening because we would have probably shaken the Sandy Hook sand out of our Neat Sheet, grabbed a couple of chairs and walked over to check it out. I don’t recall seeing any promotion for the concert series in The Star-Ledger (which I pick up sporadically), or Bloomfield Life (which I pick up weekly), or Baristanet (which I check daily), or even a flyer stapled to a telephone pole somewhere between the Park and the train station, but maybe I just missed it?

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Read more about the article Cruising the Center

Cruising the Center

Sweet Rides, originally uploaded by bloomfieldguy.

The Bloomfield Center Alliance sponsors two events in the summer that nicely represent one of the more appealing differences between living in the sortaburbs and living in the City: Cruise Night and the Farmer’s Market. While a Farmer’s Market isn’t terribly unique — I haven’t visited yet, but after walking through Venner “Park” last night, I don’t imagine ours is terribly big — the central location of both events makes for a nice community-building opportunity in a relatively small town like Bloomfield.

If it were about 5 degrees cooler when we headed uptown for Cruise Night last night, we would have walked there, but instead we drove — those carbon offsets alleviating a bit of the guilt — parked on the south end of the Glenwood/Broad Street intersection, and walked the two block stretch of classic (and not-so-classic) cars on display. There were approx. 25 cars there and at least as many people milling around them, checking them out and talking to their owners.

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Read more about the article Monday Mash-Up, 3/17/08

Monday Mash-Up, 3/17/08

1) I am swamped. Between the start of the new job only one week away (which kicks off with a trip out to Cincinnati) and the [mostly good] stress of our impending house purchase (attorney review is winding down; inspection is on Saturday), I’m a week behind on Spindle‘s March update and am going to have to burn the midnight oil tonight, after attending a Little League Coaches meeting, to get it done for tomorrow.

2) I am thrilled. This will be the oddest and coolest job transition I’ve ever made as it’s effectively a promotion but with a change of employer and scenery. The additional responsibility is a welcome challenge, even with the sharply raised stakes, as is the opportunity to put my stamp on two more magazines. Coupled with the success of Spindle, and my not-always-clearly-thought-out career goals are starting to come to fruition. Throw in the new house, our dream house by almost every realistic definition, and the fact that in general, things seem to really be falling into place all of a sudden — ie: as I’m typing this, our lender just called me to say rates dropped and we just locked in for 5.5%! — and I find myself looking both ways 5 times before I cross the street!

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Read more about the article The Ideal Woman

The Ideal Woman

Men’s Health reports on an “ideal woman” survey by some British dating website:

There’s no accounting for taste. Some guys go for Salma Hayek, others for Jessica Simpson.

A British dating website polled 66,000 men about their female ideal and came up with someone who sounds closer to Jessica than Salma: blue eyes, long blonde hair, 5-8, 130 pounds, extremely fit, etc.

(Yes, we know Jessica has brown eyes. We were speaking generally.)

The Brits also said they like her to wear glasses sometimes, have a wacky, optimistic personality, not smoke, drink occasionally, and make less money than him.

Never mind that anyone who thinks Jessica Simpson is more attractive than Salma Hayek is crazy in my book, and we’ll ignore the apparent libidinous librarian fetish (mainly because I kind of understand that one!), it sounds like British men are a bit insecure on the financial front, what with preferring their ideal woman make less money than they do. That makes no sense to me.

Interestingly, British women are apparently superficial golddiggers, so that might explain things a little bit:

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Read more about the article Spitzer steps on his own d…

Spitzer steps on his own d…

I liked Eliot Spitzer, in theory, when he came roaring into Albany, taking over as our Governor from the lame George Pataki and, determined to break the stalemate between state Democrats and Republicans, promised to steamroll anyone who got in his way as he drove the unethical from the temple in one glorious sweep of righteous fury! His crash-and-burn first year was arguably predictable, but his apparent resignation today over a prostitution scandal — you have to figure there’s more to it because politicians have simply apologized for less and moved on with their careers — definitely came out of left field.

Live by the sword, die by the sword, I guess.

Interestingly, Spitzer’s seemingly aborted political career should serve as an object lesson for those who cast themselves as “fighters” in the political arena in such bi-partisan times. If you step into the ring with your dukes up, you’re guaranteed to get a fight and not much more than that. Spitzer fought hard as Governor, losing more than he won, not the least of which was the immense political capital he came into office with, some of which might have saved him today.

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Read more about the article Monday Mash-up, 2/25/08

Monday Mash-up, 2/25/08

Stop. Drop. Roll.1) Virginia was simultaneously relaxing and a bit of a disappointment as the weather sucked the whole time we were there so we didn’t get any outside time.  I stayed home on Wednesday night intending to get to bed early but my empty-house-insomnia was in full effect and I ended up falling asleep around 2am. When I booked my 8am flight the week before, I hadn’t really thought about the travel time to JFK and ended up catching a cab at 5:45am to get there in time, passing out later that afternoon from exhaustion. The kids had a good time, though, as my mother pulled out all of the stops in the arts & crafts department, and my stepfather spent more time with them than he ever has, teaching Isaac how to play card games and hanging out with India watching TV. Also, Salomé cooked ox tails. Yum!

2) We caught Juno while we were there and absolutely loved it! I rank it up there with Say Anything and have tentatively penciled it in to my all-time Top 10 Favorites list. Ellen Page is adorable and sassy, reminding me a little bit of both Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz and Brooke Wacha, both in and out of character, and I totally related to Michael Cera’s understated Bleeker, who reminded me a lot of my not-cool, not-totally-uncool high school self. Interestingly, I picked up [Juno writer and Oscar winner!] Diablo Cody’s memoir Candy Girl : A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper in hardcover off of the bargain table at Barnes & Noble afterwards, and am looking forward to reading it. I suspect any additional copies have been taken to a back room and the paperback edition has been placed on a prominent display table in all of their stores as of this morning.

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