It's a rare condition in this day and age to read any good news on the newspaper page

except today, of course. Buried in today's wonderful news is this nugget:

D.C. Council member and former Mayor Marion Barry is scheduled to appear this afternoon in federal court amid signs that he intends to plead guilty to charges stemming from his failure to file tax returns.
Barry has been under investigation for failing to file federal income tax returns and pay his taxes since 1998, according to two sources close to the probe. The Justice Department today filed two misdemeanor tax-related charges against Barry.

I love Marion Barry for making every day just a little merrier. Seriously, he hasn't paid taxes in seven years... I'm grinning so hard I have tears in my eyes.


I'm listening to:
Tori Amos- Y Kant Tori Read

Happy Friday

Robert Bork will be live at washingtonpost.com, almost surely discussing how difficult it will be to incorporate 'miered' into our vocabulary, even though its homonymic association with slime is enviable.

I'd be there, but I have to go over this neurosurgery thing.


I'm listening to:
Radiohead: I Might be Wrong: Live Recordings EP
and
I'm hoping that there will be lots of indictments this afternoon

Do I Need A Jacket?

I know everyone gets really stressed out before exams, so here's one less thing to worry about:

DoINeedAJacket.com

Just check it before heading out the door, that's one less decision to make.
(In case you're curious, the answer right now is an emphatic "Yes")


I'm listening to:
Gang of Four- Entertainment!

A return to normalcy

...albeit a brief one. Diabetic Ketoacidosis is both a mouthfull and a brainfull.

I read the shit out of E.M. Forster's Howard's End this weekend. It deals many of the same class issues as Passage to India, but ever so much better. Helen and Meg are lovely characters; I miss their presence already. I suspect I'll be renting the movie soon enough to relive the glory.

I get made fun of for referring to Pride and Prejudice as a page turner, but at the risk of sounding like the nerd I clearly am, I'd say Howard's End is too. I think what I enjoy about these manner novels (Forster, Austen, my beloved Edith Wharton, Henry James) is the deliberateness of each character. In a good society novel, everyone knows how to act in every situation, knows just how to shade every phrase with the nuance to get a point across. As a doofus lacking any subtlety, I just love being part of that world, however briefly.


I'm listening to:
Joy Division- Unknown Pleasures

Stop the Fucking Presses

Heavens to Murgatroyd!







Robert Pires is single!

Here's the proof from L'Equipe:

Fâché avec Raymond Domenech pour des propos tenus dans la presse en octobre 2004, il explique qu'il vivait à l'époque une période difficile et que la soupape «devait exploser. Mon début de saison n'avait pas été très performant. Je devais également régler mon divorce. J'ai certainement été maladroit dans mes propos. J'assume et ne me cherche pas d'excuses. Je n'étais pas bien. C'est tout», ajoute-t-il.

How could I not hear about this until now? I've only been in love with Pires since 1997. October 2004 would have been plenty early to drop out of school while only accruing a few dozen thousand dollars of debt. What am I going to do now?

I say it's a good thing I'm already going to London for spring break. Looks like the cards might just be aligned for me...



I'm listening to:
David Byrne- Grown Backwards

Half way through the first half of the second half of the first half. Whew.

The night is still young, but this may turn out to be the first medical school exam that hasn't made me cry. Further: at no point this weekend have I curled up in the fetal position to bemoan my fate as a future doctor not so sure about the doctor bit.

To what do I owe this new zen? I'm still trying to work that out. It's not because of preparedness; I would say I'm less prepared than normal (maybe I should quit while I'm ahead and not think too hard about this). I'm not more interested in this material than usual, though I do like the abstract manner in which we learn about all these heart defects. I said when I started I wanted to work on balance in my life. I'm pretty glad with how I've turned out thus far. Not only have I been keeping in touch, I have the remnants of several candy packages littering my living room as proof that I am appreciated. I studied in the park this afternoon, reading about Listeria monocytogenes and Legionella pneumophilia, both of which can live inside macrophages (that's just an aside. You'd want to treat them with erythromycin or another macrolide that can get inside there to kill them). But I was chilling in the park and it was beautiful outside; I felt at peace. Take it for what you want.

And soon, I'll put aside these last few EKG notes and watch what is sure to be an awesome Laguna Beach episode. So happy to see LC getting her just dues.


I'm listening to:
Manu Chao- Clandestino

Loser

I'm may be a loser, but I did make up the best mnemonic ever:

Luesar. Say it like you were in Clueless. And remember forever that lues, tertiary syphilis, causes aortic regurgitation.

You'll thank me later.


I'm listening to:
Prefuse 73- Surrounded by Silence

the end is near

I previously reported on the wretchedness of the Weezer video for Beverly Hills. My five minute channel surf break has revealed that it is, right now, as I write, the #1 video on VH1's Weekly Top whatever.

8th grade me takes back her fanclub membership. She sends back that photocopied handout of your lyrics she thought was so neat. 10th grade me no longer chooses 'Why Bother' as her anthem. Junior in college me forgets about cruising in her convertible to that catchy-but-not-really-memorable Hip Hip song. Also, she disowns America, or at the very least the voters on VH1.


I'm listening to:
Q and not U- No Kill No Beep Beep

On the Clap Your Hands Concert

I would love to hear the politics behind the bill switch at the Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah! concert. I bought tickets in the first week of August, when the bill was Ambulance LTD. (with opening act CYHSY.)

At what point were their reps like, "bitch, our album was exponentially better received by the style makers at pitchfork, give it up and switch the fucking bill." Were threats involved? Because either way, the concert was sold out, so it shouldn't much matter who opens for whom.

We got there an hour after doors opened; I had to figure out that Ambulance was on first, as they didn't actually introduce themselves. By far the best part of their show was trying to decide what drug the second guitarist was on. At first we went with blow, since has all grinding his mouth, but that didn't fit with his catatonic expression. I voted for ketamine, but his fingers were moving too fast. I think we finally settled on mushrooms, but none of us left too satisfied with that explanation.

The frenetic gangly boy in CYHSY's parents were directly in front of us. Huge fucking grins through the whole concert as he goofily bounced around. It was adorable. We always used to see Tori's parents at her concerts; they glowed with the same sheepish, beaming pride.

For me, the concert peaked too early, as the 3rd and 5th songs they played (I think) were The Skin of my Yellow Country Teeth and Is This Love? Most of the new stuff they played was less bouncy, which was both good and bad. Bad because I don't like it as much, but good because, what with my bum knee and all, the bouncing thing is both dangerous and painful. But my, I do love to bounce.


p.s. I stole the picture from underafter
p.p.s. I'm listening to:
Pulp- We Love Life

Easy ticket out of my test

I could have Infective Endocarditis. This is exactly what my right middle finger looked like last week, and here's what the Utah Pathology website has to say about it:

Seen here in the finger at the right are small splinter hemorrhages in a patient with infective endocarditis. These hemorrhages are subungual, linear, dark red streaks. Similar hemorrhages can also appear with trauma.

That last sentence there probably saved me from having a heart attack on the spot.


I'm listening to:
Serenea-Maneesh-s/t

Jump over to stereogum and download the new Cardigans song. It rocks; Nina Persson sounds just fierce.

A Pinteresque Nobel

I like Harold Pinter. So this is good news. I read The Birthday Party and The Room a few years ago when I was going through my obnoxious playwrights phase. See also Ionesco, Garcia Lorca, and Beckett.

There was a New Yorker article maybe 6 years ago, maybe longer, about the politics behind the announcement of the prize. Salman Rushdie won't get his until some member of the committee dies, and that fellow won't die until Rushdie does. Or something.


I'm listening to:
PJ Harvey- 4-Track Demos

On a gagne
On a gagne
On a gagne

at least for today :)


I'm listening to:
Bjork- Debut
Un nouveau debut pour les bleus, peut-etre?

Allez les bleus!

Not to turn this in to a soccer blog (what do you mean I have nine hours of testing under a week from now, half of it on the scary, scary heart?), but here's a shout out to my boys in blue, the FFF. To quote the front page of L'Equipe on the eve of our elimination from Euro 2004, Suivez le Guide:

We qualify as long as:
1. we win tomorrow
2. we tie and also Ireland and Switzerland don't tie

(calculate it yourself on this nifty program)

Pragmatically, it's probably better for me if we don't qualify as I'll be studying for the boards. June 9 - July 9 2006 are going to be mostly very unhappy days for me. But good grief, I dealt with that shit in 1990 and again in 1994 (if Isreal eliminates us from the World Cup again, I will scream).

Remember fellows, La victoire est toujours en nous.


I'm listening to:
Max Richter- The Blue Notebooks

Put On Your Red Shoes

Liberia holds their first democratic election today, and our man Georges Weah of AC Milan and PSG is in a dead-heat to win. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is imminently qualified as well; it looks like either way the election will be a wonderful success.

The best excuse ever to break out my ridiculous red Gola boxing shoes.


I'm listening to:
The Pixies- Trompe le Monde

I love E.J. Dionne today more than I ever have before. This sentence on William F. Buckley is amazing:

Buckley was determined to rid the right of the wing nuts.

I'm listening to:
Sleater-Kinney- The Woods

Some of the bands I'm excited to start:

(once this med school business quiets down...)

my jazz quartet: The Basal Ganglia Five
my heavy metal band: Alpha Bungarotoxin
my goth group: Haemophilus


I'm listening to:
Blur-13

My new harddrive has arrived, finally. My computer has been too full to add much new music for months now, a truly debilitating condition. After all, the best way for me to manage my lack of interest in microbiology is to be listening to fun new music.

I am not, however, quite certain I like this new configuration that much, either. My iTunes is all kinds of fucked up: when the harddrive isn't plugged in I get annoying error symbols next to songs and I lost my playcounts and favorite and playlists and I have no idea how I'll ever be able to update my pode.

Here's to the next 40 gigs.


I'm listening to:
Cocteau Twins- Milk & Kisses

Better Version of Me (?)

I'm not quite certain how, but Mike Elizondo managed to produce an Extraordinary Machine that sounds more like When the Pawn than did Jon Brion.

My opinion's not quite set yet; I suspect I'll end up liking tracks from both and compiling them together myself.


I'm listening to:
duh. Fiona Apple- Extraordinary Machine

Best Gawker quote ever:

On Katie Moss:

Frankly, her sacrifice to the modeling industry makes Judy Miller’s martyrdom seem like little more than JV bench-riding.

I'm listening to:
RJD2- Deadringer

I just spellchecked my last post and 'blog' is not in blogger's dictionary. Fascinating.

Runny nose?

Add this to the list of hypochondriases:

The clear fluid that sometimes runs out of my nose when I stand up? Could be harmless snot, could be a CSF leak warning of a bacterial meningitis.


I'm listening to:
Portishead- Roseland NYC

It came as no surprise to me to learn this week that I had, indeed, failed my doctoring exam. I had complete deer-in-headlights syndrome as I began, which only got worse as the exam continued. Competely unable to regroup and regain any composure, I performed the entire cardiac exam with my patient sitting up, rather than lying down.

Let's hope for the safety of patients everywhere, I don't go in to Cardiology.


I'm listening to:
Daft Punk- Discovery
hoping to be harder, better, faster, stronger at this school business