Boston people: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is in town at the Wang Center this weekend. They're easily one of the best and most famous modern dance companies. You'll like them.
I've updated my Privoxy actions file. Currently approx. 8000 rules.
I shot the March 20th Iraq War peace vigil on the Longfellow Bridge (between Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts), and just remembered that I don't have a photo editor.
Culling and picking images is as hard as taking them, and not as good of exercise. Here's an example of why. I have a few candid shots of one vigil participant, Caitlin Connolly of Boston. I shot her initially because -- amidst the snow and freezing wind, on the bridge's dark, crowded sidewalk -- she was a relative glowing bubble of tranquility.
If I could use only one image, should it be the solitary, contemplative one? Or do I pick the slightly later shot, which conveys more of the urban context but not the oasis quality that originally captured my attention?
Questions like these are why I have to go to bed before picking another two or five shots to post.
I was out in the icy wind on the bridge for two hours, wandering, shooting, and talking with people, occasionally perching precariously on a slippery curb or venturing into the street to frame a shot, and arrived home on foot after three hours, with my camera covered in snow-- yet the photo editor's job is still harder.
Perhaps, had I a better photo... For example, the image I posted in September from the Boston Blues Festival was one of my favorite shots from the event, even among the closeups of blues vocalists with character-lined faces performing, and an easy call to include.
One of [the law school graduates of the over 150 Regent University alumni hired to federal government positions under the Bush administration] is Monica Goodling , the former top aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales who is at the center of the storm over the firing of US attorneys. Goodling, who resigned on Friday, has become the face of Regent overnight -- and drawn a harsh spotlight to the administration's hiring of officials educated at smaller, conservative schools with sometimes marginal academic reputations.
—Charlie Savage, "Scandal puts spotlight on Christian law school," Boston Globe, 2007-04-08
I spoke with a representative from Regent a few years back, at the end of working the Boston Law School Forum. I had a genuine interest, due to a personal connection to Virginia Beach, and I don't think I'd heard of the school before. The rep was gracious, but the impression I got from our brief discussion is that a non-Christian wouldn't be very welcome there.
Like dozens of other schools, they mailed me recruiting form letters afterwards. I was struck enough by some of the language in Regent's letters that I went to the trouble of scanning them for posterity: regent-law-1.jpg, regent-law-2.jpg, regent-law-3.jpg, and regent-law-4.jpg. My favorite quote, closing a discussion of financial aid:
We firmly believe that if God has called you, He will provide a way for you to complete your legal studies.
Is that a nudge-nudge-wink-wink way of saying, "We'll take care of youse"? Or does it mean that, should you fail to make a tuition payment, you're ejected with all the righteous force of one executing The Will of God?
Salman Rushdie has another author event in Harvard Square. He's a very funny and clever speaker. Tickets are still available as I write this.
If you care, you've probably already heard that Best Buy has bought Speakeasy.
I will want to dump this once-beloved ISP once it's been soiled by Best Buy. But if Comcast and Verizon are the only alternatives, I might just be scrod.
Coincidentally, a crucial email through my domain-hoster got lost this weekend, so I think it's time to get a colo server. Then I can rig up a router to flit among WiFi access points near my home if necessary, so it won't as much matter who my home connectivity ISP is.
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