Conan Magazine

Ahh . . . sweet romance.The flowers. The chocolate. The late night whispers of I love you.For most people in love, the culmination of months of togetherness and special friendship comes down to one single moment: The marriage proposal - - featuring a simple, but elegant, diamond engagement ring.Of course, if youre a celebrity, a simple ring may not have enough wattage to suit your tastes. Thus, we see many celebrities sporting five-carat to seven-carat diamond studded engagement and wedding rings.Well, if you can afford it, why not flaunt it, right?Take for instance the recent marriages of Britney Spears and Star Jones. When Britney Spears got engaged to her former back up dancer, Kevin Federline, she promptly bought herself an awesome-looking five-carat diamond engagement ring. (Does anyone really believe that Kevin bought this for her on his dancers salary?)Britney bought herself the ring she felt she deserved nothing wrong with that. Then, she and Kevin quickly made the leap to matrimony in a matter of months with a surprisingly nice (no lip kissing of Madonna) wedding ceremony.As for Star Jones, its not known whether her stunning seven-carat princess cut diamond ring was bought or donated, but she too happily skipped off to a wedding ceremony with all the trimmings.So, does all this extra diamond wattage mean that celebrities have a better wedding ceremony than everyone else?Absolutely, not.Theres absolutely no proof that their multi-carat diamond rings and fancy wedding accommodations gave them any more satisfaction at the alter than Joe and Jane Does down right sparse nuptials in a run-down back yard.Buying the biggest and fanciest diamond engagement ring on the planet doesnt guarantee anything but a nice piece of ice jewelry to show off to your family and friends. Other than that, celebrities have the same odds for a successful, happy union as the rest of us.And thats the way it should be.About The AuthorCopyright 2004Donna Monday
One special moment. One special ring.
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Arkansas Business.com has some early stats from the May book. Below are the highlights from the article:

> THV-TV, Channel 11, and KATV have been trading licks at 10 p.m., but the ABC affiliate has opened a slightly larger lead this quarter with a 12 rating and 27 share, compared with KTHV’s 10 rating and 21 share. KARK-TV, Channel 4, pulled a 5 rating and 11 share in the early Metro whole numbers. Another big story at 10 p.m. was KLRT-TV, Channel 16’s first crack into the top three with its hour-long 9 p.m. newscast surpassing KARK’s 10 p.m. ratings. Fox 16 picked up a 7 rating and 12 share, and also won in several demographic categories.
> KTHV did win in the mornings, but KATV closed the gap. The CBS affiliate scored a 4 rating and 36 share at 5 a.m. and an 8 rating and 31 share at 6 a.m. KATV picked up a 3 rating and 28 share at 5 a.m. and a 7 rating and 26 share at 6 a.m.> KATV also won at 5 and 6 p.m., with a 13 rating and 33 share and a 13 rating and 29 share, respectively. KARK and KTHV were neck and neck at both 5 and 6 p.m.
Though Fox 16’s 9 p.m. newscast broke new ground, its new 5 and 5:30 p.m. newscasts got off to a slow start, pulling in a 1 rating and 3 share at 5 p.m. and a 1 rating and 2 share at 5:30 p.m.

Session 03 of Tempo of the Down is now available. Head over to our Podcast page to download this latest edition of the VoyagerRadio podcast or, if you prefer, download it right here.

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Happy Hustle High by Takada Rie
Licensed by Viz
5 volumes

Topic: Shoujo, High School Romance

Warning: Non-explicit Sex, Mild Violence

Summary:
Oozora Hanabi is loud, brash, and friendly to everyone. Her classmates at all-girls’ Uchino high school look up to her and rely on her for help, happily repaying her with free food. When it’s announced that Uchino is being integrated with the all-boys Meibi High, most of the girls are so excited they can hardly function, but Hanabi just takes it in stride. On the first day of combined classes, Hanabi is late due to the bane of her existence - her pouffy hair, which she desperately wants to be smooth, flat, and sleek. Stopping to wet down her hair in the water fountain before going to the opening assembly, Hanabi meets a gorgeous but unfriendly guy, who turns out to be Yasuaki, the Vice-President of the Student Council.

Of course all three male student council members are so attractive that the girls are swooning with joy, but Hanabi is just jealous that the President has the kind of smooth, sleek hair she wants so badly, and pissed that the Vice-President was so rude and unfriendly! Hanabi soon becomes part of the Student Council, because she’s the only girl who doesn’t turn to mush when trying to deal with the male Student Council members. After successfully changing Meibi’s “no dating” rule (by bribingTokihisa, the third Student Council member, stalking Yasuaki, and amusing Yoshitomo, the President), Hanabi and Yasuaki become friends of a sort, and their relationship progresses through a variety of misadventures.

Commentary:
Yes, this is a silly, fluffy, shoujo. However, it is also sweet and full of comedy in unexpected places! Hanabi is the kind of character you can’t help but like: friendly and enthusiastic without being overly sweet; willing to fight when necessary but not constantly violent; not too concerned with school but not stupid either (at one point, when extremely motivated, she aces all her exams); and caring and helpful to her friends. She’s also willing to make a fool of herself if that’s what’s necessary, and able to laugh at and apologize for her mistakes. Yasuaki is also likable and good-hearted, even though since he falls into the “aloof bishounen who doesn’t like girls” category.

A lot of the comedy comes from Hanabi & Yasuaki’s interactions, misunderstandings, and differing expectations, but it’s never mean-spirited and always resolved fairly quickly. The story focuses on Hanabi and Yasuaki, with only a few supporting characters playing more than cursory roles. The recurring supporting characters do add a lot to the story, though, especially Yoshitomo, who can be highly and hilariously evil.

I thoroughly enjoyed Happy Hustle High (twice, in fact) but it’s not a manga I’ll keep on my shelves forever. The characters get bonus points for actually mentioning birth control at several points in the story, but lose a few for not mentioning it when they actually have sex. The art is pretty - lots of bishounen and cute girls - but the mangaka often draws Hanabi super-deformed while the rest of the scene is normal, which isn’t a style I particularly like. I did really enjoy the way the mangaka set the story up for several of the stereotypical shoujo manga cliches, and then neatly sidestepped them and turned the story in a different direction. This is a fun and clever manga in many ways although the very fluffyness that makes it such a fun quick read also makes it easy to set aside.

Rating: 7.5/10.0

Review Submitted by TofuQueen

A bit of a wash this morning, but I refuse to let it keep me down. I awoke late and lazed around in bed all morning, then drove straight to my parents’ house to go to lunch and traverse a nearby garden with them. Had a grand time.
Then, home for an hour so I could review my projects and generally clean up, after which I drove to Mandy for a game night with her and a few friends. Had a wonderful time there, as expected. Spent much of the night just chatting on her back porch, beneath the stars.
She lives a bit of a distance from the city lights, and I was delighted to look up and see the Milky Way. Just…right there.
And I remembered that the first line of Giant Armors (my young adult novel) begins with a reference to the Milky Way. Perhaps that’s a sign that I should work to get it published.
(Which, at this point, requires half an hour reviewing my cover letter, and emailing an agent. I just always manage to find other things to do.)

Kreimer v. Morristown (3d Cir. 1992)

This is a somewhat famous case involving homelessness and libraries largely because of the elitist, some would say “out of touch with reality” decision from the federal district judge who first ruled against the Morristown library’s code of conduct.

The circumstances that led to the conduct code in 1989 are ones that should not be a surprise to you if you live in any major metropolitan area and use a library. Morristown’s library had a number of homeless people using it as, effectively, a day shelter. One particular person, named Kreimer, sounds from the description like he was mentally disturbed. The code of conduct was created specifically to deal with him:
1. Patrons shall be engaged in normal activities associated with the use of a public library while in the building. Patrons not engaged in reading, studying, or using library materials may be asked to leave the building. Loitering will not be tolerated.

. . . .

5. Patrons shall respect the rights of other patrons and shall not annoy others through noisy or boisterous activities, by unnecessary staring, by following another person through the building, by playing walkmans or other audio equipment so that others can hear it, by singing or talking to oneself or any other behavior which may reasonably result in the disturbance of other persons.

. . . .

9. Patron dress and personal hygiene shall conform to the standard of community public places. This shall include the repair or cleanliness of garments.

Any patron not abiding by these or other rules and regulations of the Library, may be asked to leave the Library premises. Library employees shall contact the Morristown Police if deemed advisable.

Any patron who violates the Library rules and regulations may be denied the privilege of access to the Library by the Library Board of Trustees, on recommendation of the Library Director.I get the impression that Kreimer’s problem was not that he wasn’t fashionably attired, or chuckling too loudly to himself. Rule #5 above suggests someone who was causing considerable fear by staring at people, following them around, and talking loudly to himself. As is not surprising for homeless people, he wasn’t bathing, and probably smelled very bad indeed.

The ACLU, of course, filed suit against these rules. At trial, the federal district judge, named Sarokin, ruled against Morristown Public Library, claiming that they were violating his right of free speech:
Moreover, apart from their governmental designation as a public forum, public libraries have traditionally functioned as a public forum for the communication of written ideas. Thus, a public library is not only a designated public forum, but also a “quintessential,”6 “traditional” public forum whose accessibility affects the bedrock of our democratic system. A place where ideas are communicated freely through the written word is as integral to a democracy and to First Amendment rights as an available public space where citizens can communicate their ideas through the spoken word.

When considered as either as a designated or a traditional public forum, the same standard of review applies. Government restrictions on access to a designated or traditional public forum must reasonably serve a significant state interest, the restrictions must be narrowly tailored to serve that interest, and the government must leave open alternative channels of communication. Perry, 460 U.S. at 46, 103 S.Ct. at 955. Defendants argument that the court should afford the policy a presumption of reasonableness and thus defer to the library Board (Def. Brief at 19-26) is entirely inconsistent with the applicable law.Oddly enough, it wasn’t Kreimer’s talking that was the violation of the right of free speech (imagine “Shhhh!” as a violation of the First Amendment), but not being able to go to the library to read what others were saying.

Not surprisingly, Sarokin also found that the rules were a violation of equal protection and due process. I won’t dignify the “equal protection” idiocy with an extended examination; these rules applied equally to everyone that behaved badly and smelled offensively at the library. You don’t have to be homeless or mentally ill to fail these tests, as anyone who has been in big city public library the last few years can attest. Maybe I am just very aware of it because my mother and three of my sisters worked in public libraries, but it is astonishing how loud both kids and some adults are in public libraries today; it wasn’t like this when I was a kid, or a young adult.

Sarokin’s decision contains a rather memorable statement that is, in one sense, correct: the public library was trying to deal with horrifying social problems in a less than wonderful way. But in another sense, it was precisely attitudes like Sarokin’s, and the ACLU’s rather bizarre notion of constitutional rights, that created the need for rules like this:
The greatness of our country lies in tolerating speech with which we do not agree; that same toleration must extend to people, particularly where the cause of revulsion may be of our own making. If we wish to shield our eyes and noses from the homeless, we should revoke their condition, not their library cards.Yes, Judge Sarokin, you are exactly right. But it is liberals like you that created this mess where large numbers of mentally ill people were dumped on the streets, unable to care for themselves, to decline into a state of ripeness and often, death.

Anyway, the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Sarokin’s decision in 1992. However: according to this source, in the meantime, Morristown had settled with Kreimer for $230,000 for violating his constitutional right to stare at people, follow them around the library, and smell bad.

I suspect that this settlement is why libraries adopted a kid glove approach to dealing with misbehaving people in the library–because what city can afford to pay settlements like this? A friend who worked at Santa Rosa Public Library told me of the horrifying problems that they had because their policy was to tolerate all sorts of behavior rather than ask someone to leave. She described one guy who she noticed was sitting at one of the tables–with his pants down around his knees. She brought this to the attention of her boss, who rather than call the police to report an exhibitionist, walked over to the table instead and asked, “Sir, are you properly attired for the library?”

I would love to get an authoritative indicator that Morristown settled out of court–and why they did so before the 3rd Circuit had overturned Sarokin’s ruling.

UPDATE: That was quick! Ted Frank of Overlawyered.com gave me this link to a list of newspaper articles that mention the settlement–and that by the time that Morristown had finished winning this absurd lawsuit that the ACLU filed, Morristown had paid more than a million dollars in legal representation and the settlement with Kreimer.

It turns out that Mr. Kreimer has a new occupation: suing government agencies for hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars for discrimination against the homeless. It makes you wonder: why is he still homeless? Or is he only homeless so that he has a basis to file suits?

In the interest of full disclosure, I should probably say that Deep Focus Film Fest founder, programmer, director, promoter and flier-passer-outter Melissa Starker, currently the assistant editor of local weekly Alive!, is a friend and former co-worker of mine. So there’s a chance I might be biased in her favor when reporting on endeavors of hers, like this year’s Deep Focus, which kicks off in a matter of hours.

But the festival is sponsored by The Dispatch Printing Company and Alive!, which fired me from their employ for yet-to-be-revealed reasons about a year and half ago. So there’s a chance I might be biased against any endeavors they sponsor.

So I imagine those two things cancel each other out, and you can all assume I’m being totally objective here, right?

Okay, cool.

So The Deep Focus Film Fest is in its third year now, which is still relatively young. In the past two years, it brought some of your favorite movies to Columbus before they managed to snag regular theater engagements, like Brick, District B13, The Aristocrats, Murder Ball and My Summer of Love. Looking back, Deep Focus sure managed to anticipate what would be indie hits and bring them to the city’s attention months before they’d otherwise have arrived.
I haven’t seen any of this year’s entries yet, so I can’t say for sure if there’s a Brickor Murderball in the bunch, but there are certainly a few that look promising.

The fest kicks off tonight at 7 p.m. with the late actress-turned-director Adrienne Shelly’s Waitress, in which unhappily married and knocked-up southern waitress Keri Russell (TV’s Felicity), who finds herself in an unlikely relationship with gynecologist Nathan Fillion. Co-stars include Larry David’s fake TV wife Cheryl Hines, Shelly herself and Andy freaking Griffith. It will be preceded by a screening of the short The Happiest Day of His Life by Ursula Burton, and followed by an after-party.

Friday’s films include a trio of documenataries.

There’s Air Guitar Nation, the debut film of a Project Runway producer that “follows the first Americans to compete in the World Air Guitar Championship in Finland.” If it’s half as funny as the synopsis, then it should be a blast.

There’s also Dare Not Walk Alone, which covers the Civil Rights movement in one of the its many little-discussed fronts, St. Augustine, Florida, where things got bizarrely savage. You’ve seen footage of German shepherds and hoses being turned on black folks, but how about acid? The film promises never before seen archival footage.

And finally, festival circuit favorite Maxed Out, whose subtitle “Hard Times, Easy Credit and the Era of Predatory Lenders,” pretty much says it all. Focusing on the dire financial straits of modern Americans and the woes of credit addiction, it looks like one of those filmic equivalent to vegetables (That is, watching it is, like eating them, good for you).

Saturday brings the fest’s sole screening After the Wedding, a Danish film by the writer/director team responsible for 2004 heartbreaker (and 2005 Deep Focus selection) Brothers. It stars Mads Mikkelsen (Casino Roayle’s blood-weeping Le Chiffre ) as a Danish activist in India whose sworn never to return to Copenhagen…at least until a wealthy businessman offers to make a multi-million donation to Indian orphans to lure him back and discover a secret connection.

That’s followed Broken English, which has two names attached that are regular fixtures at film festivals, Parker Posey and Cassavetes (as in Zoe, daughter of John). Posey stars as a New Yorker at the age where she’s about ready to give up on happiness, the perfect time to meet someone new. Cassavetes writes and directs.

Director Daineil Burman is apparently referred to as “the Argentine Woody Allen,” which makes his dramedy Family Law sound worth a look (provided they mean he’s like the early Woody, not the current one). Star Daneil Burman plays a teacher and family man who suddenly finds himself not having to go to work for a couple weeks, and he uses the time to bond with his father and his son.

If you didn’t have the money and/or patience for last weekend’s Sci-Fi mara and missed zombie comedy Fido, relax; it’s on Saturday night’s schedule. In a fresh riff on the zombipocalypse set-up, it’s kind of a boy-and-his-dog flick, except that instead of a dog, the boy in this movie has a semi-domesticated zombie by the name of Fido, played by…Billy Connolly? Sweet!

Finally, there’s anime feature Paprika. Directed by Satoshi Kon, who was responsible for the beautiful but shallow and somewhat tedious Perfect Blue and Millennium Actress. In synopsis, this one doesn’t sound so hot either–dealing as it does with psychologists and a dream machine–but the trailers and previews are packed with wonderful imagery, and buzz in the nerdiverse has thus far been pretty positive.

The fest wraps up on Sunday withHip Hop Project a documentary following a New York City-based outreach program for teens that uses hip hop to as a vehicle for personal growth. “World’s Best Commercials,” a program of award-winners from the Cannes International Ad Festival, is also on Sunday’s schedule, as are encores of Air Guitar Nation,Broken English, Dare Not Walk Alone and Maxed Out.

Playing before many of the films will be locallycreated shorts by local filmmakers John Whitney, LeftChannel and CCAD students.

Additionally if none of that sounds like your personal cup of tea (and if it doesn’t, chances are you just don’t like movies…I mean, everything from documentaries to zombie family drama?), Deep Focus is counter-programming against itself with more mainstream “Modern Classics,” most of which are experiencing an anniversary of some sort.

These include Steven Spielberg’s scay-ass suspense classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Wow, have I really had that alien communication song stuck in my head for 30 years now?), Cher vehicle Moonstruck(Wow, has she really not aged for 20 years no?), David Mamet-written movie about why being a salesman totally sucks Glengarry Glen Ross (which turns 15 years old this year) and 1997 attempt to see if a Friend could still be funny if not actually on Friends film Romy & Michele’s High School Reunion (Wow, Lisa Kudrow and Mira Sorvino would be going to their 20th reunion this year).

Finally, there’s programmed-by-Internet poll “sports film spotlight.” ColumbusAlive.com and 1460theFan.com visitors voted for 2000 Denzel Washington vehicle Remember the Titans, which I’ve already forgotten.

In a comment to the last post, “Korax” mentions a paper published online in Current Biology this week on chimpanzee tool use. The tool use described in this paper is, as far as I can tell, as or more complex than any previously witnessed in chimps. Here’s the abstract:

Although tool use is known to occur in species ranging from naked mole rats [1] to owls [2], chimpanzees are the most accomplished tool users. The modification and use of tools during hunting, however, is still considered to be a uniquely human trait among primates. Here, we report the first account of habitual tool use during vertebrate hunting by nonhumans. At the Fongoli site in Senegal, we observed ten different chimpanzees use tools to hunt prosimian prey in 22 bouts. This includes immature chimpanzees and females, members of age-sex classes not normally characterized by extensive hunting behavior. Chimpanzees made 26 different tools, and we were able to recover and analyze 12 of these. Tool construction entailed up to five steps, including trimming the tool tip to a point. Tools were used in the manner of a spear, rather than a probe or rousing tool. This new information on chimpanzee tool use has important implications for the evolution of tool use and construction for hunting in the earliest hominids, especially given our observations that females and immature chimpanzees exhibited this behavior more frequently than adult males.

The “prosimian prey” the chimps were hunting were lesser bushbabies like the one in the picture. Here’s a more detailed description of the behavior from the paper. Keep that cute little animal in the picture in mind when you read this. Poor little things.

Chimpanzees forcibly ”jabbed” (sensu Marlowe [16]) tools into hollow trunks or branches multiple times and smelled and/or licked them upon extraction. In only two of 22 cases was tool use playful (in the case of the infant male) or exploratory in nature (”investigatory probe” [3]). In all other cases, chimpanzees were judged to use such force in inserting the tool that prey within the cavity could have been injured. In all observed cases,chimpanzees used one hand in a ”power grip” [17] to jab the tool downward multiple times into the cavity. In the single instance in which a chimpanzee was observed to extract a bushbaby, it was unknown whether the prey was alive or dead after the use of the tool, but it made no attempts to escape, nor did it utter any vocalization. In that case, the chimpanzee ultimately broke off the terminal end of the hollow branch by moving several meters up the large (>10 cm diameter) branch and jumping on the branch until it broke off. She then climbed down, reached into the cavity, and pulled out the bushbaby. (p. 2)

I don’t know what sorts of implications this has for theories of chimp culture. It’s not clear how this behavior developed and whether it has changed over time. It is interesting that most of the instances of spear use were by adult females and young chimps, since other aspects of chimp culture seem to be passed on mostly through females, with males only showing them while young and still under their mother’s care. Read the entire post | Read the comments on this post

Hi all! I am Stratos Bacalis, from Greece, and thanks to Holly Becker
at Decor8 and all the people of 2Modern,  I will be blogging every
Thursday on International Modern Architecture.  I am a designer,
currently working in an architectural firm. You can see my work and
other interesting design stuff at my own blog The Sandman Chronicles.

Recently
I was in Oslo for a few days. This was my second visit to the beautiful Scandinavian capital. Therefore I had the time to see more than simply visiting landmarks and
museums - i.e. noticing modern architecture! Norway is quickly becoming
a force to be reckoned with in design, and of course that is reflected
in their architecture too.
The most talked about and highly anticipated building in the city is, of course, the new Oslo Opera. Designed by the very talented people of Snøhetta,
it is situated in the very heart of  the city - in the harbor no less.
They had to remodell a lot of the surrounding area and even changed a
whole highway so that the building has an optimal placing in its
surroundings. Here is a photo:

The white building at the center is the new Opera. The area is called Bjørvika, and the exact place where the Opera is, used to be a dock. The building will be 36000 sq. meters and will cost 2,5 Billion NKR. It is scheduled to open in April 2008. At the Snøhetta website you can see renderings of the finished building, which looks like a sailboat emerging from the sea. I am anxious to visit again in 2008 and see it finished!
Another interesting building is the following, right in the city center. It houses the amazing design shopping mall called the House Of Oslo, which has many shops that sell furniture, accessories and everything that has to do with modern design and living. many of the most prominent Scandinavian and International design retailers and firms have or are going to open a shop here. I could live inside this mall for the rest of  my life! The building itself looks a lot like a big twin ship bridge moored on earth.

Of course as Oslo is a city intrinsically connected to the sea, it is only natural that many buildings will be inspired by it. Here is a lovely residential building in Aker Brygge, one of the most popular areas of the city, right where old harbor buildings used to be:

This whole area is renovated an has some intriguing buildings, more of which we will be seeing in my next week’s post. On to a curious edifice in the center of the city, or  I should better say two: twin buildings are not uncommon in Oslo (I saw at least two more instances), and this one looked very interesting - notice the yellow stripe effect:

And this is a bizzare choice of color for a modern building - deep dark purple/burgundy. It is near the House Of Oslo.

One of the modern buildings in the city center is the Oslo Konserthus. It opened in 1977 and  has established itself as one of the most
important institutions i

n Norwegian musical and cultural life. It is situated in Vika. The history of this building is very interesting: the architectural competition was initiated in 1955! Final drafts were presented ten years later, in 1965, based on Gösta Åbergh’s winning proposition. After 12 more years, the Concert Hall was finally opened:

In the lower area on the left, the building houses the Stenersen Museum. It houses three private art collections, all of which were donated to the city at one time or another: Rolf E. Stenersen’s Collection, Amaldus Nielsen’s Collection and Ludvig O. Ravensberg’s Collection. Exhibition space in the Museum totals about 1800m2, spread over three floors. The Museum also organises exhibitions of Norwegian and international art, mainly of a contemporary nature. On the terrace there is a modern statue:

More about modern Oslo next Thursday!