Geek of All Trades

Demographics, at your command

I just learned of an excellent website, Social Explorer, that generates zoomable demographic maps of many types based upon 2000 U.S. Census data as well as earlier data.  It's quite telling to look at the distribution of the black population throughout the United States, for example, or to zoom in and get a close look at how much segregation still exists in your favorite city. Or see where Swedish immigrants are concentrated.  Or which counties have the highest concentration of health care workers.  There are also a few slide shows available, like the black population of New York City from 1910 to 2000.  There is so much to explore that I could really lose a whole afternoon there if I'm not careful.

Below, the density of people holding PhD degrees in and around Boston.  The darkest color on this map represents 15-25% of the population.

Double feature

On Thursday, after a transformer fire the previous evening knocked out the power in my office building, my office was closed all day.  When I plan to work away from the office for a day, I can do just fine - I can prepare the files and documents I need and take them with me, or even take my work computer with me.  But that day I had no warning, and so I could complete no such preparations.  So, in the early afternoon, I ran out of work I could do without access to my office. 

I took the opportunity to see both of the Hindi films that were playing in Cambridge that day - I wandered over to the Fresh Pond cinema, and seven hours later I had seen both of this year's big Diwali releases, Don and Jaan-e-mann.  (Diwali is a joyous Hindu festival occurring at the end of October or early November; schools and offices are closed throughout India, and it is to Bollywood the equivalent of July 4th or Thanksgiving weekend to Hollywood: a time for the major studios to release their blockbusters.)  You can read my thoughts about these two films on my new Filmi Geek blog. 

New toy

I am writing this blog post using my new work Computer, a Toshiba tablet PC.  I am using the stylus to handwrite the post and the Computer is interpreting my handwriting as I write and converting it to the text you are reading. It is doing an impressive job.  I have had to make a few Corrections, but more because I am still learning how to use the system than because the system did not work well. 

My handwriting is not bad, but David's is quite bad and the handwriting recognition Software was even able to make sense out of that.  One funny problem I am noticing as I write is that the Software has trouble with initial letters like "S" and "C" - it cannot tell if they are capital or lowercase.  I have left these errors in the post, rather than correcting them, So that you may see where they have occurred.

I  am not sure if I will use the tablet for long, or if the novelty will wear off and I will just use it as a regular computer. We shall see.

ek aur patr

मैंने एक और पत्र हिंदी में लिखा है, जो इस बार अपनी पीछले साल-वाली हिंदी की शिक्षिका को है ।  यहाँ यह पत्र है:

नसीम जी,

आप कैसी हैं? मुझे आशा है कि आप बिल्कुल ठीक हैं | आज मैं आप और आपके क्लास के बारे में सोच रही हूँ | तो खायल मुझे आया है कि मैं आपको कोई e-mail भेजूँ | पीछले साल का क्लास बिल्कुल मज़ेदार था, और मैं ने इस में बहुत चीज़ें सिख ली | कुछ और है - आपके क्लास में मैं कुछ दोस्तों से मिली (या "मैं ने कुछ दोस्तों से मिला"? मैं ने भूल गया है ...) जिससे मैं अभी बात करती हूँ | तो उसके लिये भी, धन्यवाद.

मैं ने एक और फ़िल्मी पर्टी नहीं दी है, लेकिन जब एक और पर्टी दूँगी तब ज़रूर आपको बुला दूँगी | इस पत्र से आप देख सकती होंगी कि मैं हिंदी का अभ्यास करती रखती हूँ - लेकिन अभी तो मैं सारी एक subtitles के बिना वाली फ़िल्म नहीं समझ सकती | फिर भी आहिस्ते आहिस्ते मेरी हिंदी ज़्यादा अच्छी बन जा रही है |

एक बात और - शायद आपको मालूम है कि अगले महीने Andover में शबाना आज़्मी और जावेद अख़्तर का नाटक "कैफ़ी और मैं" दिखाई देगा (क्या यह वाक्य ठीक है?) | क्योंकी मुझे शबाना से इतना प्यार है, मैं जा रही हूँ - हलाँकी वह सारा नाटक उर्दू में है और मैं तो उसका छोटा छोटा हिस्सा समझूँगी. ऐसा मेरा प्यार शबाना से है!

अच्छा, अब तो मैं खत्म करूँगी | शयाद हम जलदी बात करेंगे |

आपकी,
कार्ला

I have written another letter in Hindi, which this time is to my Hindi teacher from last year.  Here is the letter:

Dear Naseem,

How are you?  I hope you are thoroughly well.  Today I am thinking about you and your class.  So it occurred to me that I should send you some email.  Last year's class was tremendously enjoyable, and I learned a lot of things in it.  Also, I met some friends in your class, with whom I still speak.  So for that as well, thank you.

I have not given another filmi party, but when I give another party I will certainly invite you.  From this letter you can see that I keep practicing my Hindi, but still I can't understand an entire film without subtitles.  Nevertheless, slowly and surely my Hindi is improving. 

One more thing - you may know that next month, in Andover, Shabana Azmi and Javed Akhtar's play "Kaifi aur mein" will be shown (did that sentence make sense?).    Because I love Shabana so much, I am going - although the entire play is in Urdu and I will understand only the smallest part of it.  Such is my love for Shabana!

Okay, I'll finish now.  Perhaps we will speak soon.

Yours, carla.

Friday catblogging

Here are some cell phone pictures of Demetrius, in fine typically grumpy form.  First, sitting resignedly in my lap:

And next, hanging out in the arms of my friend C.  He doesn't look terribly dignified, but I am confident that he is adequately supported, because C. is a veterinarian and, as she put it, "I hold a lot of cats."

Also, while I know this is cheating a bit - since it isn't my cat - I'd like to call out the amazing Flickr collection of airborne cats, taken by a man named Junku who has posted hundreds of beautiful cat photographs.  I can't show you his pictures here, so you'll just have to click on the link.

An unusual view

The fantastic website Astronomy Picture of the Day features a new astronomy-related picture every single day of the year, with short, informative descriptions written by astronomers. 

I love these pictures.  From the awe-inspiring galaxy-scapes of the Hubble Deep Field camera to remarkable images taken much closer to home like this picture of Saturn, every day APOD highlights something wondrous and beautiful in the universe.  The pictures often make me feel very small, and raise in my mind profound questions that have no answer.  And on top of that, they are just very pretty to look at. 

This picture is a view of the dark side of Saturn (the sun is eclipsed) taken by the Cassini solar system probe.  Saturn's breathtaking rings are thrown into sharp relief.  If you click on the image you can visit the APOD site and read the description there; you will also see a larger version of the picture in which our own planet is visible as a tiny dot of light in the background.

Kinky Boots

Last weekend I saw this delightful English film about a depressed Midlands factory and the peculiar scheme implemented to save it.  Cast somewhat in the mold of The Full Monty, Kinky Boots is stuffed to the gills with gruff-but-charming factory folk who learn to embrace the slightly risque in exchange for a chance to keep their jobs. 

Charlie Price (Joel Edgerton) has plans to get out of the depressed, stifling factory town of his youth, getting ready to move to London and begin work in the advertising field.  But when his father's unexpected death lands him in the driver's seat of Price Shoes, a shoemaking business that has been in his family for five generations, he feels a weighty filial obligation to take over the business.  The trouble is that in the modern age there is little market for handcrafted men's dress shoes that will last a lifetime.  Charlie is at a loss to balance the books, and he reluctantly begins laying off workers.   Then he happens to meet Lola, a transvestite cabaret singer, and is inspired with a vision of Price Shoes' new niche market:  Boots for women who are men. 

The film is notable for understated but very convincing performances; Edgerton, as Charlie Price, seems always to be hunched into his collar, looking out at the world beneath a melancholy basset-hound, wrinkly brow, and the effect is sweet and sad.   Chiwetel Ejiofor as Lola also turns in a subtle performance; he displays masterful control of his body language, standing tall and confident as Lola in full regalia, but nervous and unsteady on his feet when dressed in male street clothes. 

Ultimately, the film's message about adaptability and tolerance is nothing new, but the packaging is charming and fun.  It is punctuated by a handful of very fun musical numbers featuring Lola and the members of Lola's revue.  A fun and highly recommended DVD rental.   

Tragedy, and more rivalry ugliness

It's all over the news and the blogosphere, the dramatic way in which Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle died yesterday.  I read with sympathy about the shock and sadness to his family and teammates, and also about the jitters that the incident caused in New Yorkers until its true nature was sorted out.  I was in New York, living in Soho, the last time an airplane crashed into a building there, and I can readily imagine the stress and anxiety and flashbacks that those in my home city must have experienced on fearing that it was happening again.

But this one is really from the "you can't make this stuff up" files - just a couple of days after the Yankees' deflating, listless exit from the first round of the playoffs, just a day after Lidle was roundly criticized in the media for suggesting that the Yankees were not adequately prepared for the series, Lidle's aircraft explodes in flames over a nervous city. 

And, although I would never expected to have seen this at such a time, I had further proof that the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry truly brings out the worst in both cities.  As the news of Lidle's demise spread among the docket and filing clerks who work in my office, I heard one of them shriek (in jest, but still) that it's fitting, that it only proves that "all Yankees are terrorists and they should all be killed and destroyed." 

It's one thing to root for your team.  It's even one thing to hate the enemy team.  But I was quite surprised to hear such a tasteless response to a genuine tragedy.  Perhaps I am naive.  But I am not naive enough to attribute the vicious tackiness of the remark to a rancor that exists in Boston alone.  I am sure that somewhere out there there were Yankees fans who responded to last month's news of Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester's cancer diagnosis by wishing it were contagious. 

It's not necessary to shed tears when a celebrity dies.  People die, and the death of a baseball player is no more or less tragic than the death of anyone else.  But there's nothing good that can be said of a rivalry that arouses in people the desire for still more tragedy.  Baseball fans losing perspective in the blinding glare of hometown fervor - that's the real tragedy. 

Announcing Filmi Geek!

After mentioning that I was thinking of reorganzing the Geek Indian film list, I have decided what to do with them - I have created a new blog, Filmi Geek, which from now on will be the home for all my comments and reviews on Indian movies.  I'm hoping it will be an interesting and fun resource for folks interested in Hindi films, seasoned fans and neophytes alike.

I have only begun migrating all of the existing reviews and comments to the new blog, (thus far contained in the Geek Indian film lists parts I, II, III, and IV) so expect the Filmi Geek archives to grow quickly over the next month or two.  After that, I'll add a new movie every week or two, as fast as I can watch them.  Oh, and there are already a couple of new entries there for films that were slated for part V of the Geek list. 

So please check it out and let me know what you think.  There's an alphabetical index and also categories from which you can select types of films you might be interested in, get a quick look at my favorites, or browse the films I recommend to folks who are looking for a good introduction to the diverse and colorful offerings of Hindi cinema. 

I'm spinning Filmi Geek off of Geek of All Trades in order to preserve the eclectic balance of GOAT and avoid giving too much attention to any one area, and also to provide a focused space for Hindi film fans who might be less interested in all my other blather.  But I won't stop talking about Hindi films here at GOAT - I just won't do it as much.  And I hope you'll all stop in to both sites from time to time.  I'm always interested in your comments on my comments, and your suggestions for more and more useful categories.

फ़िल्मी गीक - Filmi Geek - www.filmigeek.net

The weirdest thing I have ever seen in Cambridge

A few minutes ago a lawyer here at my firm sent an email to all personnel.  It read simply:

Elephants walking down Mem Drive -- no kidding

He wasn't kidding.  By the time I got to the other side of the floor (sadly, my office does not face the river) the elephants were almost past - I still saw about eight of them, followed by some horses and then some ponies. 

I wish I had been able to get a picture, but there were too many people crammed into the window in the partner's office we were watching from - I wasn't able to get a shot with my little cell phone.

It really was the weirdest thing I have ever seen in Cambridge - and that's saying something.

UPDATE: The partner whose office I watched from did get some pictures.  Here is one (click it for a slightly lareger version):