Over the weekend, I attended a student production of The Full Monty at MIT. This alone is weird enough. MIT students not only doing musical theater, but actually removing all of their clothes in front of a live audience. I would have needed some time to digest this by itself.
But as we were walking through the MIT campus toward the theater, it became immediately clear that MIT kids are way weirder that.
Why did a man build a robot body (with functional claw hand) for himself? I don't know. Why did he decide to model it around the MIT campus? I don't know. Why did he decide to assume the character of a robot creature from another planet? I don't know. But could I have passed by this without getting a picture with him? Absolutely not.
Today, I had my final classroom session as a student...well, ever. And it ended with these words from my Legal Profession professor, David Wilkins, who was dressed in a goofy tie with hearts and peace signs on it.
"Every year, for the last class, I wear this tie. Because this is what I wish for you, this is the best I can wish for you: peace, love, and because I believe in identity, [raising his fist] soul."
...it seems that Trevor and I have a future penning poker-themed political satire animated via Second Life. Thanks, Charles Nesson.
I have personally heard an audio recording of Salvatore DiMasi watching this video and loving it. I also need to take credit for Trevor and me, as writers, for all the musical and editing cues, because they are a point of pride. The Stephen Colbert and presidential candidates thing...well, that's all Nesson.
Episode 2 is fully written and currently in production. With an Episode 3 to follow...
Yesterday proved to be an amazing experience, as Tina and I went down to the College, on a beautifully sunny day, to meet Günther, a.k.a. the Pleasureman, and the Sunshine Girls. Tragically, his agent cut off the flow of autographs and photographs before I could get him to pose with me and sign my empty Ding Dong box. And he didn't actually perform. And he arrived 20 minutes late. And he left 20 minutes early. And mostly repeated the same 3 sentences over and over again. Okay, so it wasn't that amazing of an experience.
But it was worth my while, because of one gem of Güntherian wisdom. Asked by his host to offer some words of advice for a crowd of "undoubtedly sexually frustrated Harvard students," he looked out over the assembled mass from his Evita-like balcony, smirked, and intoned in an allegedly Swedish accent (I'm not convinced it's real): "Champagne. Sex. Love. Respect." Having obviously conveyed all the knowledge we'd ever need, he handed back the microphone, and didn't actually say another word for the rest of his appearance.
In honor of his appearance, I give you the legendary "Ding Dong Song."
I've already lamented in this space the failure of the average American to read a bloody book. But apparently, I overlooked to the extent to which the average American can't write a bloody word either.
To all friends and readers who are or plan to become teachers. If one of your students ever includes a smiley or an LOL in one of their assignments, please introduce me to them as one of your "graders" and let me burn their work before their eyes and you stand by and do nothing. Seriously, folks. If this is true, drastic measures must be taken.
Yeah, funny that. It'll be in fits and starts for now. I realized that, because I had been so completely neglecting all the things I had to write, I wasn't allowing myself to write anything I wanted to write. No long emails, no letters, and no blog posts. But I've made a dent in the intimidating stack 'o work in front of me at last, and I felt it was time to reward myself. And all of you.
If the guy from XKCD can do it, so can I. I'm going to wait until I buy my condo late this year, to avoid having to move the set-up from one house to another. But I really think this is going to happen.
Helpfully, I've discovered that one of the leading manufacturers of crush-proof ball pit balls is actually located in Orange County, so I'd even be able to avoid the often exorbitant shipping costs. I take this as a sign that this is fated to happen for me.
Update: A brilliant add-on idea from Jesse: a slide that leads into the ball pit. Fantastic. Our will be done.
Name: Ken Basin Location: Los Angeles, CA About Me: Ken is a freshly-minted lawyer who is still in the glorious honeymoon phase of law firm associatehood. He has returned to his long-ignored blog to prove to himself that he is still capable of writing something, anything, other than a legal brief, memo, or contract.
