I feel really excited for the renewal of a semi-regular event from last year: movie Thursdays. The theater on the Common has student discounts on Thursdays, which we sometimes discount further by sneaking into another movie (which partly explains how I saw Step Up 2 three times in the theater). It's the perfect break from the week and beginning to the weekend.
This week we're going to see High School Musical 3 (there's sound at that link). There's sort of not a lot to say beyond how totally ridiculous it is that we're going to see it. I saw HSM2 shortly after getting back from Malawi last summer, which was a hilarious re-entry to American hype and pop culture; I later saw HSM at a party of a cohort-mate from my masters. Somehow I extend that a step further (too far?) to think that my school experiences are really closely linked to the HSM series.
Or maybe I'm just dying for a thoughtless movie. What could be better than a movie musical about squeeky clean high school seniors for that?
The musical part of the movie is fundamental to the whole movie (it's called a "musical" afterall), but here seems so outlandish in the spontaneity and topic of their songs. There's always one required sports-related song, preferably mid-game/practice. It's musicals at their best and worst--trying too hard or maybe just that wholesome? The New Yorker puts it best, saying HSM3 is, "launching into song the way that normal folk go to the bathroom—regularly, politely, and because, if they didn’t, well, darn it, they might just burst."
Count me in.
This week we're going to see High School Musical 3 (there's sound at that link). There's sort of not a lot to say beyond how totally ridiculous it is that we're going to see it. I saw HSM2 shortly after getting back from Malawi last summer, which was a hilarious re-entry to American hype and pop culture; I later saw HSM at a party of a cohort-mate from my masters. Somehow I extend that a step further (too far?) to think that my school experiences are really closely linked to the HSM series.
Or maybe I'm just dying for a thoughtless movie. What could be better than a movie musical about squeeky clean high school seniors for that?
The musical part of the movie is fundamental to the whole movie (it's called a "musical" afterall), but here seems so outlandish in the spontaneity and topic of their songs. There's always one required sports-related song, preferably mid-game/practice. It's musicals at their best and worst--trying too hard or maybe just that wholesome? The New Yorker puts it best, saying HSM3 is, "launching into song the way that normal folk go to the bathroom—regularly, politely, and because, if they didn’t, well, darn it, they might just burst."
Count me in.
It goes without saying I'm posting again. The site was down for a while, and long before that I became negligent about posting. A few things worth mentioning:
First, I won't bother with another self-reflective "what-is-this-blog" discussion. Instead, this is to say that I'm hoping to post more frequently. The reasons for starting this blog in the first place--to keep in touch with people--never went away. The posts may be even more random in topic (everything from what I'm doing this weekend to what I'm thinking about professionally), but hopefully no longer in frequency.
Second, a few "housekeeping" issues:
I'm back on Blogger. I really didn't need my own domain name and hosting service. Maybe it'll come back at some point, but probably not in the near future. So check this site and not the previous url.
On that front, don't check my site at all--read it elsewhere. I fixed the feed function (see on the sidebar below) for anyone who likes reading things in an RSS reader. As a Google Reader user (more appropriately, enthusiast; most appropriately, junkie), I can't recommend feeds enough.
I'm also on twitter. A lot, it seems. It's an easy way to throw out a quick update, so it's likely that I'll be there even more frequently than here. I added a sidebar to the right that updates with my tweets for one stop shopping of those coming here directly.
First, I won't bother with another self-reflective "what-is-this-blog" discussion. Instead, this is to say that I'm hoping to post more frequently. The reasons for starting this blog in the first place--to keep in touch with people--never went away. The posts may be even more random in topic (everything from what I'm doing this weekend to what I'm thinking about professionally), but hopefully no longer in frequency.
Second, a few "housekeeping" issues:
I'm back on Blogger. I really didn't need my own domain name and hosting service. Maybe it'll come back at some point, but probably not in the near future. So check this site and not the previous url.
On that front, don't check my site at all--read it elsewhere. I fixed the feed function (see on the sidebar below) for anyone who likes reading things in an RSS reader. As a Google Reader user (more appropriately, enthusiast; most appropriately, junkie), I can't recommend feeds enough.
I'm also on twitter. A lot, it seems. It's an easy way to throw out a quick update, so it's likely that I'll be there even more frequently than here. I added a sidebar to the right that updates with my tweets for one stop shopping of those coming here directly.
Labels: blog
I'm really interested in how income affects health, which usually manifests itself in my bleeding-heart sort of way as trying to look at how reductions in poverty improve health. I can't help but wonder how this financial crisis mess (which, for the record, I barely understand) will impact health, for better or worse.
As my advisor might interject at this point, it's important to think about the mechanisms. Here's one: Mess --> stress from not dating (mediated by "coping mechanisms" like drinking and smoking). In other words, like this story.
Okay, so the theoretical model isn't actually that simple; I just wanted to link to that story. Also, I can't believe I just tried to draw a DAG on my blog. Any shred of coolness might be permanently lost. I really been thinking a lot lately about how to measure the effect of this whole mess with decent quantitative data, and I can't seem to think of much beyond these sort of anecdotes. Something else to think about in all that spare time.
As my advisor might interject at this point, it's important to think about the mechanisms. Here's one: Mess --> stress from not dating (mediated by "coping mechanisms" like drinking and smoking). In other words, like this story.
Okay, so the theoretical model isn't actually that simple; I just wanted to link to that story. Also, I can't believe I just tried to draw a DAG on my blog. Any shred of coolness might be permanently lost. I really been thinking a lot lately about how to measure the effect of this whole mess with decent quantitative data, and I can't seem to think of much beyond these sort of anecdotes. Something else to think about in all that spare time.
