I’m gong to go way out on a limb here, but I say if McCain wins New York, it’s all over.
Also, I can’t wait for tonight, but more than that, I can’t wait for tomorrow. And next week. And any time where I can read the ol’ internet and not read exclusively about the election.
I got my ticket to the Democratic Party tonight. Hahaha. I also got invited to a Republican Party at a bar the other day. Funny.
Anyhow, the real thing I wanted to post was some pictures of population cartograms. They’re probably pretty easy to understand, but the idea is that the areas of states or transformed to reflect their population.
That was is pretty simple, created by the Census (pdf). The Center for the Study of Complex Systems not only has a sweet name, but also has a handful of really awesome maps, also. This one might be my favorite:
Really mandatory checking out. It’s awesome. A Google Image search also has a handful of good results. Man. Doing stuff with data is sweet.
Last night, I went to see Magnolia Electric Co. at the Abbey Pub.
Holy canoli, do I love Magnolia Electric Co.
I’ve seen them about a half a dozen times, and last weekI was listening to them a whole lot. Yesterday, I went to see if they would be touring any time soon, only to find out that their tour was ending yesterday in Chicago. Brilliant luck. So I cruised over to the Abbey to check it out, and I was pleased as I ever were. The first six or so songs were all new, and they were pretty mellow, especially the first two which were only keyboard and guitar. They were great, and I hope that there’s a new album coming out soon so I can hear them all again. They only played three or four old songs in the second half of the set, one from Fading Trails and a handful from their first album, including a really, really awesome “John Henry Split My Heart.”
That, unfortunately, is not a live version, but it’s still great. I think there is a live version on the album Trials and Errors, but I only have it on vinyl, so I can’t link to it. The band was great as always, the lead guitar dude had some rad solos too, which I’m usually ambivalent about. That dude’s birthday is tomorrow, and he encouraged everyone to vote for Obama. I seriously bet there wasn’t a single person in that room who wouldn’t be. The singer was a lot more animated than I’d seen him in the past- he was doing all these signs with his hands, like playing charades or something. It was awesome. I’ve been to so many metal/punk shows recently, it’s cool to go hear something so.. well, just rocking.
Despite how great the show was, I suppose it will never live up to the first time I saw them, which was one of the best concert experiences of my life. But that was long ago, I’ll not get into it.
Polls, bahblahblah, polls.
One thing I’ve been curious about is what states will have the widest margins of victory for either candidate. I kept going back and forth between New York and Illinois, which had been going back and forth for biggest Obama margin. What I never checked, however, was Hawaii. While Illinois and New York have been hovering around 60% for Obama, Hawaii has had numbers close to 70%. I guess it makes sense, Obama having faked his birth in Hawaii, however I expected a larger margin in a state like Vermont, which elected not just a socialist Representative/Senator, but an admitted socialist.
McCain breaks 60% in Idaho and Oklahoma pretty comfortably, but nowhere does he have numbers like Obama in Hawaii. The funny thing being, ofr course, that it doesn’t matter at all how much either of them win any state by.
Man. I don’t know how I’m going to last until tomorrow.
Via Drudge, the NY Post publishes a guide for watching tomorrow’s events here.
So whenever I read something, when I get to the final fifth or so, I think something along the lines of “Man, this has been a positive experience. I should jot down some notes about this book.” And then I finish the book and that’s that. Books that have fallen victim to this curse recently include Infinite Jest, Memoirs from Hecate County, and A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again (which I finished the day David Foster Wallace died. That was sad). In fact, the last book I did mention anything about was Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates, and then I ony wrote to complain about how little I liked it, proving, perhaps, that bad experiences lead to a lot more word of mouth than positive experiences.
The point of this being that I just finished reading Madame Bovary, and I don’t want to mess up again. Not that I have much to say about it, but nonetheless. Reading a book like that, and by “book like that” I mean a classic originally written in a different language, presents some problems. With my illustrious education in Spanish Literature, one thing that was always emphasized was how understanding the climate in which the book was written is important to understanding it. I suppose you can disagree with that from a critical point of view, but it still presents some problems. I know almost nothing about France and French history, so a lot of the cultural signals in the book meant very little to me. Nonetheless, it was a pretty enjoyable book, especially when you realize how out-there it was at the time of publication.
So it was a good story, and if not an intense page-turner, it was definitely an enjoyable read. What stood out for me, and again this is a result of my undergrad years, is what Madame Bovary shares with Don Quixote. The event that shapes both of these stories is an infatuation on behalf of the reader in popular literature of the time and how each of them went a little crazy after becoming too immersed in them. Don Quixote, who was an upper-middle class sort of nobleman, reads so many “libros de caballerias” that he loses touch with reality and becomes the star in his own fantasy story. Madame Bovary, who is in a similar social position as DQ, reads romance novels and, though doesn’t go as explicitly crazy as he does, still gets confused about how closely real life should conform to the ideas she’s read about. I liked that aspect of both of those books- the irony in writing a book about, to some extent, the dangers of reading books.
In DQ, there are about a thousand ways to interpret it, as is fitting for such a long, important novel, and, though I’m less familiar, I’m sure it’s true for MB as well. I have read, however, that Flaubert wrote MB as a reacion against romantic writing of the day and is seen as a classic example of realist writing. I’m tempted to reread Madame Bovary again soon, although not until I read some criticism. The thing I miss most about reading outside of college is that there’s no wise old man to guide you through the book. Were I a smarter dude, I wouldn’t miss that, but since I’m not, I think I might have to seek out some guidance for a re-reading.