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Live Music: Circus Contraption
This is the band I dreamed of creating in my musical years. They’re odd, irreverent, and fearless of parodying anything taboo from sex to satanism. On top of that they’re great musicians with a solid foundation of klezmer and polka, and anything they can dream up on top of that. I discovered that they were…
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Out with a roar
Ann and I begin what we imagine will probably be our last day at Vedauwoo for the season in lower Blair, where Ann leads “Awakening to Fat Mosquitoes 5.7”, a short, stout-looking offwidth flake to double-hand crack. Ann plugs in all our biggest gear, belaying me at the top with our lone big bro. This…
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Movie: Wordplay (2006)
A gloriously nerdy collection of oddballs, eccentrics, and a former US president pay tribute to Will Shortz’ puzzles and annual crossword puzzle tournament. I found myself itching to do some crosswords afterward, and when I finally got around to it I felt like I was better at it! Not good enough to inspire thoughts of…
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Movie: The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)
It was interesting to discover after watching this that it’s a remake of a 1968 film – just when the James Bond phenomenon was getting imitated. Having a Bond-like super-playboy face off against a female super-sleuth that is (almost) his match was probably very provocative. The modern version does a little satirizing of these stereotypes…
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Surprise, a sport crag
We head to Beehive Buttress, near Brown’s Landing, looking for an obscure bolted multipitch route and maybe some nice cracks. Once again there are too many trees to get the camper to the end of the road, but the hike is still nice, and mushrooms are popping up everywhere in the moist pine needle duff.…
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Book: I am a Strange Loop / Douglas Hofstadter
My dad, without knowing I had this book on my wish list, gave it to me as a birthday present this year. During the past year and a half I’ve undergone a mental revolution reading about the foundations of mathematics and how they relate to my own consciousness. Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem has been a recurring…