Bodenner DOT.BLOG

New blog

2005-04-13T04:08:00.000-04:00

Mercy killing

2005-03-11T19:56:00.000-05:00

Putting my blog out of its misery, at least for now.

(For my throng of devoted fans: recently grabbed up the chrisbodenner.com domain, so I'll be developing some sort of personal website in the next month or so.)

Northwest sabbatical

2005-02-17T00:33:00.000-05:00

Flying out to Seattle (again) tomorrow morning at seven.
Skiing at Whistler with brother and a half dozen of his college buddies.
Working in Seattle, working and visiting with my mom in Portland.
Back on March 1.

Very excited

2005-02-11T19:08:00.000-05:00

For tomorrow.

Superbowl ads

2005-02-11T00:38:00.001-05:00

In case you missed them: IFILM

A disappointing lot overall, but Ameriquest's "Taser" and "Cat Killer" made me proud to be an American consumer.*

*not really

Anticipating

2005-02-11T00:37:00.000-05:00

Interpol and Blonde Redhead

Plug Awards

2005-02-10T23:44:00.000-05:00

Went to a fantastic concert event last night at Webster Hall--the first annual Plug Awards--which awarded the best of the best in indie rock. Zach and I got there just in time to catch Saul Williams (who he was particularly impressed with). RJD2 followed with a solid and cinematic set, and fed into the next performance of the Brooklyn rapper Aesop Rock, who was kinda hit-and-miss. Sufjan Stevens played a pair of stirring acoustic ballads, but was dissipated by a rowdy venue of beer bottles and crowd chatter. Ted Leo and the Pharmacists definitely stole the show for me. They blew away their studio recordings of "Me and Mia" and "Little Dawn" with intense onstage energy, so now their album pales in comparison.

Flickr'd some photos here.

As far as awards, click here.

"New Artist of the Year" honors went to the Montreal sextet Arcade Fire, who I saw last Wednesday at Irving Plaza with friends Brian and Mike. By far one of the best live shows I've seen, and it solidified them as my favorite group of 2004. One of the highlights was David Byrne, lead singer of Talking Heads, joining Arcade for the second encore. Plus, to round out the 80s indie rock idols, David Bowie was in the audience! (Sadly, however, like Zach, I forgot my camera, but Brian sent me this link of another blogger who snapped some photos.)

The Bodenners

2005-02-08T23:22:00.000-05:00

My cousin, Matt, compiled this neato little site of all the virtual Bodenners out there, including my brother, my uncle, my aunt, and myself.
(I actually found it by surprise, when I got a "bodenner" Google Alert last week.)

The photo below was taken in 1900. My great-grandfather is in the upper right. It's eerie to see a resemblance.

bloggers. old skool.

Traveling thespian

2005-01-29T22:28:00.000-05:00

My HS and NYC friend Clint just started a 6-month tour with the theatre company TheatreworksUSA playing Templeton the Rat in "Charlotte's Web." It's his first professional acting job, so I'm pretty proud of him (he was waiting tables for about a year after graduating from the prestigious Tisch School). He'll be traveling all around the country--including his hometown of Augusta, GA--but I'll probably get to see his performance in the city within the next month.

Stranger cover

2005-01-23T17:48:00.000-05:00

so perfect

Morning of Mourning

2005-01-20T11:28:00.000-05:00

Machuca

2005-01-20T01:58:00.000-05:00

Saw a fantastic Chilean film at Film Forum with Zach tonight.
By far one of the best I've seen here in NYC.

Machuca is the story of two Chilean boys--one privileged and one impoverished--who become close friends during the brutal transition from the socialist Allende to the authoritarian Pinochet in 1973 (for those of you rusty on your modern Chilean history, click here).

Bizarre anecdote: The class bully who ruled the school in the film had an UNCANNY resemblence to Nick. Zach and I couldn't believe our eyes.
(I'm ceaselessly searching for a photo of the kid online.)

Babcock 3A

2005-01-20T01:39:00.000-05:00

The lovely, soon-to-be-Dr. Katie finally sent me the photos of when she and Nate were here in New York for New Year's.

Here's my favorite:

2005

2002

Zach in New Yorker!

2005-01-17T02:34:00.000-05:00

Funny Boys: Success in the City

New form of photoblogging?

2005-01-17T01:51:00.001-05:00

PillCam

DODGEBALL!!

2005-01-16T21:26:00.000-05:00

My favorite childhood passion was rekindled today, when I played about an hour-and-a-half of dodgeball in the basement of MLK High (conveniently about 10 blocks from my place). I responded to a craigslist ad yesterday for a dodgeball league sponsored through Zogsports, and took Zach along for the ride.

My DB skillz were pretty rusty (partly due to my hangover from Ukrainian potato vodka), but it felt great to get back in the game. We all went out for beers afterward, and I'm looking forward to getting to know the teammates more (the captain is a photo editor at the NYT--#8 on my list of dream jobs). Next game is next Thursday, when we play "Balls to the Wall" and "Feun Schnickens."

Game #1 highlight:
Zach "Headhunter" Klein nearly decapitated a poor girl with a 70 mph fastball (she apparently didn't get the "dodge" part of "dodgeball").

Here's the best pic I could muster with my modest Elph:

Blog Business Summit

2005-01-15T18:35:00.000-05:00

I'm trying to get my new employer, GlutenFree Passport, to send me to the Blog Business Summit in Seattle next week. (It's absolutely perfect for what we are doing right now with the website, and it couldn't have been a better coincidence.) I think they'll bite.

1/19 update: Woohoo! I'm goin to Seattle.

Pop's Blog

2005-01-15T01:37:00.000-05:00

My lovable curmudgeon of a grandfather (we call him 'Pop') is a frequent follower of my blog, and just recently voiced his interest in starting a blog of his own!

Needless to say, I was quite excited to hear this. He's by far the best story and joker teller I know, not to mention rabidly and vocally anti-Bush (and as a veteran of both Korea and Vietnam, I think he has a little more credibility than most).

So between Pop's jokes and anti-Bush rants (which are often one and the same), I think his blog would be really entertaining.

But I sense that he's dragging his heels on this one, so I need the single-digit number of people who read this blog to VOICE YOUR SUPPORT!

c'mon, you totally wanna see this guy go off on bush

Balltop

2005-01-13T18:02:00.000-05:00

Attention fellow male bloggers:
Laptops heat the testicles and may cause infertility

Opening paragraph:
Are you sitting with your computer on your lap? A small research project from Yefim Sheynkin at the State University of New York has found that the heat from your laptop can elevate the temperature of your scrotum by up to 2.8 degrees. That may be nice but the problem is that there is a well demonstrated link between high testicular temperature and infertility.
[italics mine: i love that line]

More friends in foreign lands

2005-01-13T03:12:00.000-05:00

My college buddy Nick is currently in Mumbai, India, exploring the world while developing his nifty software venture, BuddyGopher.

Recently, he's been taking paragliding lessons!!
Check out his page.

(nick's the albino indian)

Annoying Liberal Cartoonist

2005-01-12T20:42:00.000-05:00

over at the Village Voice.

(I love the irony of Sutton mocking the cliched humor of his characters.)

Marg in London

2005-01-12T18:11:00.000-05:00

My dear friend Margaret arrived in London on Saturday to begin a semester-long sabbatical at Wake's Worrell House. (In fact, she's in the same room that Zach stayed in 3 years ago.)

Other than playing in London for four months, I'm jealous she's also taking a class with Angus Lockyer, one of my favorite professors from Wake (he now teaches at the SOAS of the University of London).

Apparently Lockyer is making everyone in his class ("History of London") maintain a blog of their happenings in the city, which makes him that much cooler. Here's hers.

A few camera-phone pics from her new digs:

Scenic Marg

Scenic London

Zach in Time Out!

2005-01-11T19:39:00.000-05:00

the good kind.

2005-01-11T17:38:00.000-05:00

I never get tired of these photos.

(the full-size version, naturally)

Audioscrobbler

2005-01-11T17:12:00.000-05:00

Another rad site passed along by ZAK.

Simply by downloading an iTunes plug-in, Audioscrobbler updates and sorts all the music you listen to into various categories--current tracks, top artists, top tracks--and shares the information with a community of other Audioscrobblers. For me, it's a good way to see what my music-lover friends are listening to, and find out what other bands are associated with the bands I like. The options are limitless.

(My online id is steadily spreading throughout cyberspace, as I willingly submit to the inevitable. )