Entries from December 2004

Nightlife, Anchorage-Style

December 30th, 2004 · Comments Off on Nightlife, Anchorage-Style

We had an eventful day in Anchorage yesterday, as we experienced the broad range of cultural experiences and outdoor activities the city provides. We met Neil and Melanie at Snow City for lunch – mmm, salmon cake hero and reindeer sausage soup – and then went over to their new house to check out all […]

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Tags: Alaska

Free Spam with Any Dom Perignon Order

December 29th, 2004 · Comments Off on Free Spam with Any Dom Perignon Order

At some point after moving away from Anchorage, I had decided I’d like to go see a show at The Fly-by-Night Club. Deep in the heart of Spenard, the club is a local landmark, a bar and lounge that features year-round entertainment by the famed Mr. Whitekeys and his Spamtones in shows like “The Whale-Fat […]

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Tags: Alaska

Be Careful What You Wish For

December 28th, 2004 · Comments Off on Be Careful What You Wish For

I kept telling everyone I saw that everything would have been nicer with snow; I guess I should have qualified that statement and specified exactly when I’d like my snow to fall. Before, during, and after we were supposed to leave Boston for Anchorage would not have been my choices, but as it happened, our […]

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Tags: Alaska · Travel

The Day After

December 26th, 2004 · Comments Off on The Day After

The white Christmas I was hoping for yesterday seems to have come a day late; it’s currently flurrying in all directions outside the window. Aimee and I enjoyed our first Christmas Eve/Morning celebration together, with some new traditions that I hope will last – pad thai and a movie – and some that I hope […]

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Tags: Film · Miscellany · Travel

Best Live Shows of 2004

December 24th, 2004 · Comments Off on Best Live Shows of 2004

1. (Tie) The Pixies at Kaplakrika, Hafnarfjorþur, Iceland, May 25, and the Pixies at Avalon, December 9The Pixies’ reunion tour was the musical story of 2004; I was so desperate to see them that I engineered a mini-break to Iceland when the first leg of their tour was announced. Though the venue was a little […]

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Tags: Music

Snowfell

December 20th, 2004 · Comments Off on Snowfell

So I asked for snow yesterday, and now we’ve got it. Not very much, but enough to finally stay on the ground. My landlord is pretty enthusiastic about the holiday-themed decorations; we had a scarecrow on the front porch from Halloween through Thanksgiving, and now we’ve got a multi-level Christmas village in the entryway and […]

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Tags: Cambridge

Forever Twelve

December 19th, 2004 · Comments Off on Forever Twelve

I’m still waiting for some snow to make it all feel like December, but we got some help from a handful of holiday parties this weekend, from the “grab some food and go” variety all the way up to the “last ones to leave” kind. The department-we-used-to-be-a-part-of (but still got invited to) party at Dali […]

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Tags: Cambridge

Shopping’s New Theme

December 14th, 2004 · Comments Off on Shopping’s New Theme

There are things I don’t like about Whole Foods, like its prices (Dan’s mom calls it “Whole Paycheck”) and its oft-times wacky customer base who can’t steer their carts and are rude and demanding, but I’ll say one thing for the place: any store that plays the “Magnum, P.I.” theme song on the p.a. system […]

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Tags: Cambridge · Music

Let the Festivities Begin

December 13th, 2004 · Comments Off on Let the Festivities Begin

The holiday party season began in earnest this weekend, with a 30th birthday bash for Michael and a family get-together to show off Aimee’s home and cooking skills to the rest of the family. In between, we sought out and constructed a nice little gingerbread house, complete with non-pareil chimney, of which I am quite […]

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Tags: Cambridge

As the Globe Turns

December 12th, 2004 · Comments Off on As the Globe Turns

I’m glad Aimee still gets the Sunday Globe. The daily ones piled up, but the Sunday edition gets read all the way through,and usually has some good tidbits to offer – where else would you see the word “impactful” used in a sentence? OK, so that’s not a selling point. I was happy to see […]

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Tags: Film

Happy Holidays from the Hulk

December 11th, 2004 · Comments Off on Happy Holidays from the Hulk

He’s tough to make out, in his ripped purple shorts and Santa hat, but he’s there.

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Tags: Cambridge

Magic

December 10th, 2004 · Comments Off on Magic

The week before last, when I celebrated the Pixies’ appearance at UMass and thought about the future, little did I know it would include one final opportunity to see them, as their long-awaited Boston return was announced a few days later. I made a pledge to myself that I wouldn’t try too hard, spend too […]

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Tags: Music

Change is in the Air

December 9th, 2004 · Comments Off on Change is in the Air

There are undoubtedly some interesting corporate reasons for why this is being done in stages. I can’t remember all of the evolutions, but I did just find an old BayBank atm card in a box under my bed; it became BankBoston, right? Which then became Fleet, which has now been eaten by Bank of America. […]

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Tags: Noted

Alaskan Cameo

December 8th, 2004 · Comments Off on Alaskan Cameo

Through the use of the TiVo (as George Michael might say, though not this one or this one), I’ve been watching the six-part series Long Way Round on Bravo over the past few months, leading up to the final episode last night. After treacherous roads and impassable rivers across Europe and Asia for five episodes, […]

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Tags: Alaska · Film · Music

Beating a Dead Panther

December 7th, 2004 · Comments Off on Beating a Dead Panther

Fresh off a screening of Murder by Death as part of the Brattle’s Peter Sellers retrospective, I’m well aware of the duds in his career, in among the gems. But the Pink Panther series, for whatever reason, seems to have taken on an afterlife of its own, slowly deteriorating and becoming more absurd (in a […]

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Tags: Film · Nostalgia