It's News to YOU

From: Keeferman
Sent: Tuesday, June 12, 2007 3:42 PM
To: Spencer
Subject: RE: "Before" Party

Of course I didn’t see this announcement ‘til I came in to work on Sunday (having started my weekend on Wednesday).

I talked with my wife to see if I could go and she said “Yes. Whatever." ("Whatever"? That's alittle passive-aggressive, isn't it?) Whatever.

Anyway, last night after work I stopped by the storage place where I keep my time machine. My keycode didn’t work and the guy at the front desk said that I was two months behind on rent. I was, like, “DUDE! It’s on automatic withdrawal!”, but he said he couldn’t call around to verify it. I had to pay him $130 right then and there or I had to come back during regular business hours to speak to the manager. I don’t normally carry $130 in cash and they don’t take Amex.

So… I’m sorry I missed your “before” party.
I hope to be invited to the “after”.

Thank you,

-Keeferman

P.S. As you've probably seen though, original-timeline-me was already obliged to be at the Symphony, so I prob'ly wouldn't've been able to come even if I'd seen your message in time.

Posted by Keeferman at 08:56 PM | Permalink

News story to pass around to your coworkers. –In the interest of news. Only because it’s newsworthy.

[From the New York Times http://www.nytimes.com]

“The breast-feeding fatwa came in mid-May. A religious scholar, who headed a department that studies the Prophet Muhammad’s teachings at the Foundation of Religion College of Al Azhar University, wrote that there had been instances in the time of the prophet when adult women breast-fed adult men in order to avoid the need for women to wear a veil in front of them.

“Breast-feeding an adult puts an end to the problem of the private meeting, and does not ban marriage,” wrote the scholar, Izat Atiyah. “A woman at work can take off the veil or reveal her hair in front of someone whom she breast-fed.””

Now THAT is some extremism.
You have to seriously stretch yourself to make thAt point.

BTW... i will pulverize the first one of those wise-guy Europeans at my wife's office who proposes this concept to her.

Posted by Intern 55 at 12:36 PM | Permalink

"Perhaps it was an appearance in the stands by reknowned superhero Keeferman (with three associates identified only by their nicknames "Boo", "Griff", and "Josh") that inspired the Braves' turn-around. Alfonso Soriano and the Cubs crushed them Friday and jumped to a 4-0 lead in the first inning Saturday. Then the Braves did something they haven't done much at home lately.

They fought back.

[As originally reported by David O'Brien of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in his marvelous piece SCORING OUTBURST ENDS BRAVES SKID]

They battered Jason Marquis for six runs in the first two innings and rolled to a wild and much-needed 9-5 win against Chicago Saturday night before a sellout crowd at Turner Field, where sparks flew from the opening pitch.

Edgar Renteria went 3-for-4 with a home run and four RBIs and Andruw Jones homered as the Braves snapped a season-high four-game losing streak and won for only the second time in their past 10 games at Turner Field.

"Very good win for us; we really needed a win like that," said Tim Hudson, who hit Soriano with the first pitch of the game and left after getting struck by a line drive on his left shin in the third inning.

The Braves fought back before 51,816 (including the aforementioned Keeferman & sidekicks), the fourth-largest regular-season crowd in 11 years at Turner Field. Reliever Peter Moylan (2-1) pitched three scoreless innings, and Bob Wickman worked a scoreless ninth in his 800th career appearance.

The Braves scored more runs in the second inning (four) than they had in three consecutive losses against the Cubs, including last Sunday's series finale at Wrigley Field and the first two games of this four-game series.

Hudson had a lump and a bruise on his left shin, but X-rays were negative and he said he expects to make his next scheduled start Thursday at Minnesota.

It was an eventful night for the right-hander, who hit Soriano with his first pitch, after Soriano hit three homers off Lance Cormier in his first three at-bats in Friday night's 9-1 Cubs rout.

"Obviously I wasn't trying to hit the guy," Hudson said. "Was I trying to throw a pitch in off the plate? Sure. He's been hot, and he's killed us.

"He's pretty close to the plate. A guy who hits home runs and crowds the plate, they're going to get hit now and then."

Soriano hit .389 with 14 homers and 30 RBIs in his past 29 games against the Braves before Saturday, including a two-homer game against Hudson in 2005 at Texas when Soriano played for the Rangers.

Soriano was 11-for-18 with two triples and five homers in the past four games against the Braves, and started the first two games of the series with a triple Thursday and a first-pitch homer Friday.

"He was not trying to hit Soriano," Braves manager Bobby Cox said. "He tried to go in on him and get him off the plate some."

Hudson walked the next batter and Derrek Lee hit a run-scoring single before the first out of the game. After an intentional walk to Jacque Jones, RBI singles by Mark DeRosa and Mike Fontenot gave the Cubs a 4-0 lead.

But considering their history against former Atlanta right-hander Marquis, the Braves had to know they weren't out of it.

Marquis was 0-2 with a 14.40 ERA in three career starts against the Braves before Saturday, when he lasted 1 2/3 innings and was charged with six runs (two earned), four hits, three walks and a costly throwing error.

Hudson got no decision and was charged with five runs and five hits in two-plus innings, leaving him with one win and a 7.86 ERA in his past five starts. He was 5-1 with a 1.77 ERA in his first nine.

Willie Harris singled in the Braves' first inning and Jones hit a two-run, two-out homer, his fifth in his 11th career at-bat against Marquis.

"It's tough when they jump right on you in the first inning," Jones said, "but we told [Hudson], just hold it right there and we're going to get back in the game."

Jones also had an RBI single in the four-run second inning and a spectacular dive-and-roll catch in center field in the seventh. He's 9-for-12 with 14 RBIs in his career against Marquis.

Scott Thorman started the Braves' second inning by reaching on Marquis' error, and rookie Yunel Escobar drew a walk. After a sacrifice, Kelly Johnson drove in a run with a groundout.

Harris walked before Renteria and Jones hit back-to-back singles to give the Braves a 5-4 lead and sent Marquis to the showers.

Brian McCann greeted reliever Sean Gallagher with another RBI single.

Sidenote: At the conclusion of the game a young fan, noticing Griff's cheering for the visiting team throughout the evening, quipped: "A Cubs fan, huh? I bet he's got a lot of great memories. -TONIGHT ISN'T ONE OF THEM." "

Posted by Intern 55 at 08:40 PM | Permalink

"The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s season comes to a close this weekend, and to mark the occasion they offered up three of the greatest pleasures of live concerts. For the listener, these are hearing a superlative performance of a familiar work, discovering an unknown treasure, and getting the opportunity to rub elbows with local celebrities. They scored big on all fronts."

[As originally reported by Pierre Ruhe of The Atlanta Journal Constitution]

"Polish composer Karol Szymanowski died young, age 55, in 1937, and left a small catalogue of minor masterpieces. His “Mythes” for violin and piano are out-of-this-world gorgeous; his piano miniatures and songs radiate shimmering color and a modest yet fully formed personality.

Friday in Symphony Hall, Robert Spano conducted the ASO’s first performance of Szymanowski’s Symphony No. 3. Subtitled “Song of the Night,” its texts are drawn from the 13th century Sufi mystic Rumi, whose sensual, enveloping poetry might be likened to a warm bath lit by scented candles — you have to be in the mood for it, but if you are the experience can shut out the rest of the world, blissfully.

The music of Szymanowski — pronounced something like “schuman-off-ski” — fits the description as well. He completed his 25-minute Third Symphony in 1916. You can listen for the composer’s pan-European influences, from his debt to Scriabin’s Russian orientalism to Strauss’ Zarathrustrian voluptuousness to Debussy’s sea imagery. But Szymanowski’s own voice in this music is too potent, too pleasurable, too ecstatic to bother with comparisons.

In Spano’s vital reading, the Third Symphony was heady and irresistible, with solo violin commentary from Cecylia Arzewski, who found its slavic flavor, and with tenor John Tessier’s bright voice and alert diction (even though it’s sung in Polish).

The ASO Chorus is often at its best when presented a challenge and here they seemed to have mastered yet another language. It’s a wonder this exotic symphony isn’t yet in the repertoire; the audience gave it only polite applause.

Spano paired fragile, delicate Szymanowski with the biggest rabble-rouser of them all, Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana,” a 1936 oratorio setting crude, 13th century German poems on drinking, love and living the good/bad life. (Was Spano making a political point about 13th century culture, of the wicked sin of the medieval West compared with the refined sophistication of Rumi’s ancient Persia? The world spins in global cycles, his pairing seemed to suggest.)

Musically, the conductor reveled in the extremes. Compared with other Atlanta performances I’ve heard in recent years, Spano’s interpretation was maximally savage and sweet, vulgar and visceral, campy and, at the end, heart-breakingly earnest.

The three solo singers were of high quality, led by baritone Stephen Powell, whose lyrical, chestnut-timbre voice and comic acting earned him the most attention. Tenor Tessier impersonated a roasted swan with a tone that was properly buttery and tortured. In the charming “Stetit puella” — “There stood a girl” — soprano Cyndia Sieden sang with warmth and immediacy.

But a great performance of “Carmina Burana” always belongs to the choir. Everyone in Atlanta should hear Norman Mackenzie’s ASO Chorus, a primal force of nature, sing this over-the-top classic at least once, as one of the city’s greatest cultural attractions."

One of the city's other attractions, Atlanta resident superhero Keeferman, was also in attendance. With him were his wife, her parents, her sister, and a close friend identified only as "Ayla". "Oh, yes, it was great", Keeferman said. "Carmina Burana is one of my favorite pieces and I've got three or four different recordings of it back at home. They did a great job -especially that baritone. Oh, one thing though... if any of you kids out there are thinking about being symphony conductors when you grow up... i prefer gongs to cymbals in "O Fortuna". "

Posted by Intern 55 at 08:51 PM | Permalink

Happy Birthday, Kristin.

Posted by Keeferman at 03:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This is a test of the Emergency Broadcast System. The bloggers of your area in voluntary cooperation with the FCC and other authorities have developed this system to keep you informed in the event of an emergency. If this had been an actual emergency, you would have been instructed to tune to one of the broadcast stations in your area.

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