I arrived safely in Tel Aviv on the Fourth of July, and after an annoying delay, made my way into the city to stay at the Ophir Hotel for the night. The hotel was fairly decent, and was a good introduction to how certain things tend to work in Israel. The most important of these things, for me, is that, despite the number of coffee shops here, no one drinks decent coffee. Generally a “coffee maker” tends to refer to an electric jug and a packet of instant coffee, which isn’t quite what I have in mind when I say those same words. So far this has been the usual experience, though, and unfortunately I am quite bad at making instant coffee, which I didn’t even know was possible.

Anyway, on July 5th I made my way down to the Kibbutz Revadim to meet up with the rest of the dig team. The taxi driver had no idea where it was, and after calling someone finally decided to actually break out his GPS and figure it out. When we got to the kibbutz he told me he had quoted me a price that was far too cheap, given the distance, but that he’d let me have it anyway. This was sort of suspicious, since he charged me just about what everyone else was charged for the same trip, but he didn’t charge me any more, so no harm done.

The dig has been going quite well, and I think it’s definitely a good introduction to the months ahead. I’ll probably be some kind of archaeologist by the end of this.

Over the weekend we headed to Jerusalem and stayed in the lovely Petra Hostel, by the Jaffa Gate in the Old City. It’s not much, but for the price it’s a decent place to stay, once you get over the hole in the bathroom ceiling. We ended up seeing a lot of stuff, although since most of the time we had was on Saturday, some of the things we wanted to see, like Hezekiah’s Tunnel, were closed. It’s a very cool place, though, especially once you get over the narrowness of most of the streets. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, so I have no pictures of this trip. Hopefully I’ll be able to get some of the pictures someone else took.

More to come.

From this AP story:

McCain left few openings untouched, even bashing Obama for airing a 30-minute commercial Wednesday night that will delay the opening of a World Series baseball game if the series goes to six games.

“No one will delay a World Series game with an infomercial when I’m president,” said McCain.

If you were able to read that without rolling your eyes or laughing out loud, I either admire you or know that we can’t be friends. I couldn’t care less about the Phillies or the Rays, so maybe that’s part of why I see this as a ridiculous statement, but come on. I mean, really, is he going to try to get a law passed against it? Or he’ll just be such a great president that no one would even think of doing something so profane as to delay a baseball game?

I hate to get too political here, but this Palin quote also made me laugh:

Joe the Plumber said it sounded to him like socialism.

I understand that he’s become a sort of sensation, but really, should we be basing our economic arguments on the speculations of a man who does not appear to have even a basic understanding of how tax brackets work? I mean, I don’t doubt that Mr. the Plumber is a smart guy, but this does not seem to be his area of expertise.

I’m willing to admit that I’m a bit out of the loop when it comes to music.  I still listen to a lot of music, but I don’t really have the time or energy to keep up with it as much as I’d like to.  On a related note, I recently finally visited this Rhapsody site that the television has told me so much about.  Readers might note that I never even visited this site when I had free access to it, so this is really something new for me.  I can’t see myself actually subscribing to Rhapsody, but for some people I could see it working.  This is all unrelated to the point I’m trying to make, though.

The point is, I tend to be that annoying guy when it comes to statements like, “Whatever you’re looking for, chances are you’ll find it on Rhapsody.”  So, I search for artists that I’m almost positive they won’t have.  Moss Icon?  Nope.  Sleepytime Trio?  Nope.  Drop Nineteens?  No, again.  The Lookouts?  . . . Yes?

Now, you have to understand, dear reader, how much this surprised me.  At the time, I was under the impression that Moss Icon, Sleepytime Trio and Drop Nineteens at least had records in print (it turns out that Moss Icon and Drop Nineteens no longer do, but that’s beside the point).  Lookout!’s page for the Lookouts says the only records left in print for them are two old comps.  So, I decided to check it out.

First, a bit of background.  For those of you too lazy to read the Wikipedia page, the Lookouts were a band featuring Lookout! Records founder Larry Livermore and soon-to-be Green Day drummer Tre Cool.  Their big claim to fame — you know, besides being Tre Cool’s old band — is that they played Operation Ivy’s last show (as you might have noticed if you read the Lookout! page on them), which is pretty cool.

Anyway, my first assumption was that the record Rhapsody had must be IV, since there were only four available songs and that EP was still in print a few years back (it’s also on YouTube if you’d like to hear it).  But no, it’s Mendocino Homeland (the same user has also put that up on YouTube, if you want to search for it), a record that was long out of print by the time I was old enough to care.  This really surprised me, since I had e-mailed Lookout! about that back when I was in high school, and their answer was something like, “I doubt we’ll be putting that one back into print, since I think you’re the first person who’s ever asked.”  Of course, that was something like eight years ago, and somewhere in the course of those years I’d acquired a copy of it, but it’s still exciting to see it available.

I was curious, though, why Lookout!’s site didn’t list it as being in print.  The answer is that it appears on a compilation of old records called The Lookout! Records Vinyl Vault Vol. 1 – East Bay and U.K., that is only available from online music stores.  The other bands featured are the Skinflutes, Fun Bug, and Wat Tyler Wat Tyler.  Being a fan of old Lookout! bands, I was a bit skeptical about the “Vol. 1″ designation.  The Punk Rock 7″s Volume 1 (featuring the “late, great Isocracy,” as Jesse Michaels once said) was never followed up with a Volume 2, so I thought this might have suffered the same fate.  In this case, though, there actually is a Volume 2, Olympia Hardcore vs. East Bay Sadcore, featuring Pot Valiant, Monsula, Worst Case Scenario, and, most excitingly for me, the Vagrants.  In all fairness, I’m pretty sure that Pot Valiant and the Vagrants are actually the same band, but the Pot Valiant record included here is still in print.

The Vagrants record, on the other hand . . . well, I’ve never even seen a copy for sale, and it wasn’t because I wasn’t trying.  (I actually went on eBay to look just now, and wouldn’t you know it, somebody has a copy for sale!  I may have to get it.  This really is the first time I’ve ever seen one.)  So it’s exciting that I can finally hear the two other songs on the Gone EP (Lookout! used to have an MP3 of “Gone” up, back in the day).

This, to me, is one of the most exciting things about digital music.  It doesn’t take as much effort to “reissue” things that very few people really want to hear in digital form, at least compared to repressing it on vinyl.  Pretty awesome, if you ask me.

Saw this on BBC News just now. That’s a pretty good eBay score, I’d say. There seems to be no shortage of amber on eBay (most of it made into jewelry, apparently), but I’d imagine that it very rarely contains a previously unknown species. Not too bad for about $40. I’m a bit disappointed about the name, though:

“I had thought it would be rather nice to call it Mindarus ebayi,” said Dr Harrington.

“Unfortunately using flippant names to describe new species is rather frowned upon these days.”

Call me old-fashioned, but I think more new species should have flippant names.

I was looking through the July issue of PLoS Biology today (I was originally looking for this article about birds, which I couldn’t find at the time), and I came across this article, “Across the Curious Parallel of Language and Species Evolution” by John Whitfield. I’ve been curious about the similarities between biological and linguistic evolution since I read Bully for Brontosaurus, and this article talks about some interesting linguistics research at the intersection between the two. Here’s a pretty good quote:

Simon Kirby, also at the University of Edinburgh, thinks that the key biological attribute that allows humans to learn language might not be genetically encoded grammar but vocal learning—the ability to remember and reproduce sequences of sound, which is also seen in songbirds and bats. “We could just be a chimp that can sing,” he says.

Most of us aren’t as hairy, either, but you get the idea.

Saw this on CNN today. Apparently the “Bigfoot” that was found recently in Georgia is a hoax. The research team (note that Richard Klein was not a member) found that it was, uh, made of rubber. Please, try to contain your surprise. I know. We were all pretty sure this one was for real.

This whole thing really makes me wonder. No, I’m not wondering why it is that people are still willing to believe that the proof will actually materialize, long after the eighth time. What I’m wondering is whether it’s really as easy as it sounds. Do you really just have to buy a gorilla suit, steal grandpa’s dentures and gut a possum to get your name all over CNN for a few days? This wasn’t a sophisticated hoax or anything. They really did just stick a Bigfoot costume in the chill chest. Oh well.

In related news, Archaeology Magazine has found their own Bigfoot, and they’re putting him up against Indiana Jones in what I assume is a fight to the death (via). Bigfoot definitely seems to have the advantage, but Indy is really kicking some ass in the polls. Really, though, it isn’t that surprising. Bigfoot isn’t as popular among archaeologists since the controversy surrounding him last year.

I was on the Red Line today, and for the second time in as many weeks, I noticed that one of the maps above the doors was slightly out of date. I really wish that I’d thought to take a picture one of those times, because it’s pretty cool. Perhaps I’ll get lucky and see it a third time.

It’s at least as old as 1980, judging from the fact that the Braintree branch doesn’t actually stop at Braintree. This also means that the northern branch only goes as far as Harvard, and Downtown Crossing is still listed as Washington.

I wonder, though, if this has ever caused anyone to panic for a moment or two? All of the other maps are correct, but couldn’t you see it happening? You know, just for a second.

As promised, I have fixed the links and categories in all of the entries imported from LiveJournal. All of the entries that link to other entries now link here (let me know if you happen to spot any that I’ve missed), and “Uncategorized” is no longer my most used category. So, if you, for some reason, are interested in reading all of my entries about TV or movies, that is now possible.

I’ve also started using tags in addition to categories. As recently as last week, I questioned the value of using both tags and categories, but I have accepted that using both is actually useful. For example, some people might want to look at the entries in which I’ve written about Hostess cakes. You can now do that, and I don’t have to create a new category for all two of those entries. All of the tags are now listed on the right side of the page, in a convenient “cloud,” with the font size of the word corresponding to how many things are tagged with it. Thanks for reading. I promise I’ll write some real entries soon.

I recently had the idea to update my iPod with several songs from quite a lot of artists, rather than whole albums from relatively few artists (these are really the only options you have when your iPod is a beefy 2ish GB). I find that this keeps me more entertained on the way to work, and it also allows me to include artists who otherwise might not have made the cut. Not that those are bad bands, but one has to make some tough choices.

The point of all of this, though, is that this also allowed for the inclusion of some early Nine Inch Nails. You see, when listening to Nine Inch Nails on the Green Line, the loud screeches from the wheels of the remarkable Breda Type 8s actually sound like parts of the song! It’s beautiful. Of course, this calls for further research.

Dan Neil’s review of the Ford Flex in the L.A. Times is a thing of beauty. It was published on July 2nd, but I just read it today, so it’s new to me. The Ford Flex, like most crossovers, is something I have basically no interest in. If I’m going to spend $45,000 (the “as tested” price in that review) to get 24 MPG on the highway, I’m going to at least do it in style. Of course, I’ve never claimed to have very practical taste. The point is, this isn’t a review I enjoyed because I think the car is cool.

So why did I enjoy it? Because it contains what I have to believe is the most circumlocutious description of a car’s styling ever written:

A vivid bit of hyper-design, with postmodern insouciance combined with a kind of raw primitivism — the squared-off profile is what you’d expect a 4-year-old to draw with a fat crayon — the Flex brought the station wagon into the sardonic age.

Translation: It looks like it was designed by a mental patient, or a hillbilly, or a chimpanzee, but in a good way!