My trip to the Opera

Thursday I wrote about Economics books, Friday about football, so it only makes sense that today I should write about the opera.

Yesterday I went to a local movie theater at 10:30 in the morning to watch the HD broadcast (is it really a "broadcast" when it is received in so few places?) of the live matinee performance of "Carmen" from the NY Met opera (not to be confused with the NY Mets......otherwise the actors would have made errors all day and one of them would have torn an acl!). Needless to say, attending this was not my idea. And I will admit that I was not at all sure I would enjoy an almost 4 hour performance in a language I do not speak. So, I will say that I am pleasantly surprised to tell you that I enjoyed this performance a great deal.

If there is opera music you are familiar with at all it is probably the music from Carmen. Hell, the castaways on Gillgan's Island even sang "Neither a Lender nor a borrower be" to the music from Carmen. I am sure that familiarity helped me enjoy the production. However, it was an impressive show in many ways. The music and vocal performances were outstanding, and the whole production quite mesmerizing. In addition, the HD cameras give you a view of the action that you would never get if you were at the Met watching (If you were a member of the Mets watching, you likely would have stumbled over the person next to you getting to your seat and torn your ACL). Kip had seen 4 operas this way in the past few months, and says this was her favorite.

Now, you are probably thinking, I bet you were the only ones at the theater. Not true. In fact, these programs sell out quickly in this area, and you have to get there about an hour before it starts so you don't have to sit in the front row.

You may have noticed a variety of strange listings in recent months if you have checked movie times on line. A company called Fathom Events is responsible for bringing a variety of one-time events to your local theater. In December, I went to see "Riff Trax Live" in this format, and along with the opera you can also watch things as diverse as a upcoming performance of "Prairie Home Companion" and some kind of babbling non-sense from Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck. I'm guessing the same folks aren't buying tickets to both those shows.

What does a well rounded guy like me do after attending the opera? Of course, I headed to the brew pub next to the theater to enjoy a beer and watch the end of the hockey game. And I'll still take hockey over opera, but man can not live on ice alone!

Non-stop NFL action? Hardly

The Wall Street Journal has a story today about what actually takes place during an average NFL telecast. According to their research, and the research of others who have looked into this and were consulted by the WSJ, the average game contains, get this, 10 MINUTES AND 43 SECONDS OF ACTUAL GAME TIME! That's right, and NFL game is 11 minutes of action (or 13, if you like the other experts WSJ consulted) crammed into only 3 hours of your life. About an hour of that time is taken up by TV commercials.

People find out I am a soccer and hockey fan, and they declare those sport boring, because they often have low scores. But when I watch a hockey or soccer game, I know I will actually see 60 minutes of action, when the ball is in play. When I watch a football game, I am always sure to have something to read and the remote handy. And this is one reason I have always disliked attending NFL games: there is just too much time in the stadium when nothing is happening. And, at the game, I have no remote.

The chart above shows the breakdown of game time that WSJ discovered. You can read the whole story (if you are a WSJ subscriber) HERE
Or, if you prefer, you can watch the video below



Maybe this is why everyone watches the Super Bowl to see the ads!

Superfreakonomics and other Eco books

If you read "Freakonomics" a few years ago, then you definitely want to read "SuperFreakonomics" now. And if you didn't, you want to read them both.

Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner will not tell you how to fix our economy or what caused the financial system to collapse (for the second issue, I recommend "Bailout Nation" by Barry Ritholtz). Instead, they take a look at real data that reveals interesting and important things about individual decisions and very "micro" issues.

If you've heard anything about the book, it may be that their chapter regarding climate change pissed off a lot of people. They take an extremely unconventional look at what is causing it and how to fix it. They talk, in fact, a lot about cheap and simple fixes to problems, starting with doctors' discovery that they spread less disease if they wash their hands.

There is also some very interesting info about prostitution. Did you know that 100 years ago prostitutes charged more for oral sex than the standard kind, but today they charge less? If you did know that, I don't want to know how you knew. But you will for sure be amused by the last chapter about monkeys and money. Oh, and don't forget to check out the Freakonomics blog, which usually has some interesting stuff, and can be reached from the link on the right.

This summer my friend Drew, a young fellow Banjo Billy employee with a keen interest in learning, asked me to recommend some books to give him a general understanding of The Dismal Science. If you are looking for this type of knowledge, then pick up Todd Bucholz "New Ideas from Dead Economists". It was written several years ago, and won't tell you what we should do now, but it is an excellent explanation of the history of Economic study and the various schools of thought involved.

So, there you have it. Some good books to curl up by the fire with for the winter.

Dave Barry's Year in Review

In case you don't regularly read the Miami Herald, you may have missed Dave Barry's Year in Review. New stuff from Dave is pretty rare, so be sure and read it HERE.

Ignorance is Profitable!

As a teacher, I consider ignorance to be my enemy. That is why I teach. The damage that ignorant people cause to the world is enormous, and the examples are many: religious fundamentalists blowing themselves and others up, "birthers" and "tea baggers", gay bashers, racists, Creationists....I could go on and on. And it's profitable. TV shows about celebrities, daytime talk shows, and the entire Fox News network depend upon ignorance for their profits.

Well, I finally found a small way to profit from it myself. My friend Mark runs a bowl game pool every year where you pick the winner of each of 25 bowl games, then rank them 1-25. If the team you put 25 next to wins, you get 25 points. Not being much of a college football fan (it is a sport I consider a complete fraud) I have always done horribly in this pool, usually being eliminated from any chance of winning before New Years Day.

This year, I took a different approach. Rather than using my little bit of knowledge, which we know is a dangerous thing, I went with 0 knowledge. I had my girlfriend Kip, who knows nothing about football, pick the winners, in the hope that no knowledge would be a good thing. And I just kind of sprung it on her one day so she wouldn't try to learn anything (she loves to learn stuff). Then, I did the numbering, based on the Vegas odds.

The result? Well, it looked a bit shaky there in the second half, but we watched the game last night knowing that if Alabama won, so did we. I can't wait to tell everyone in the pool how I won (they see my name on the sheet with picks), and how I was explaining to Kip during the game things like a "fair catch" and the refs penalty signals. Many of these guys are college football junkies. A few even played at CU, and I'm one of the few in the pool without CU season tickets. On second thought, maybe I should keep my mouth shut so I don't get beat up.

A few years ago, I tried this with Fiona on the NCAA basketball pool. But she actually went out and did research (she is a librarian after all) and ruined the process. So, last night as the game finished I told Kip to please avoid watching any college hoop for the next 2 months.

"Avatar" in IMAX 3D

Before I went to see it yesterday, I didn't understand why anyone who had the choice would see "Avatar" in any format other than IMAX 3D. Here is a film that has been talked about in terms of groundbreaking visual brilliance, with the story and characters barely mentioned.

So, having seen it in that format yesterday, I even more strongly believe I was correct. Visually, the movie is breathtaking, and I can't imagine I would have been able to sit through the 2 hours and 40 minutes of a story that was, well, plucked pretty much from any of a million films previously made, without the magical beauty of the 3D and IMAX enhancement. Several times I reached out to swish away a floating seed that seemed to be over the head of the person in front of me. It was the most amazing visual experience I have ever had in a theater, at least since I saw my first porn movie when I was in high school ("The Sinful Dwarf"...really!).

I can't imagine anyone will buy this on DVD. The story is sophomoric, the acting lame, the script written by hacks. Do not see "Avatar" if you can't see it in 3D!!! But pony up the extra couple bucks and see it the way it was meant to be viewed.

In case you didn't get what you want for xmas....

Did you get socks and underwear for xmas, but not the really interesting books you wanted to cuddle up with during the cold months? Hoping to read about British Beheadings, manly ways to use feminine hygiene products, or why you vomit? Wishing that could learn more about The Beverly Hillbilies relationship to the bible, natural breast enhancement with mind power, and how to fart proudly? Well then, you need to check out the WEIRD BOOK ROOM. Books on those topics and more. Check it out!