Live from Middlebury... Muggle Quidditch

Posting on more serious subjects will resume after T-giving break.  Til then, from io9:

The Intercollegiate Quidditch Association or (IQA) held the [Intercollegiate Quidditch World Cup] at Middlebury College (where Muggle Quidditch originated in 2005). Right now over 150 colleges have Quidditch teams including Boston University, Vassar, Bucknell University, Tulane, Oberlin and Emerson College.

The promotional video, with an explanation of the mechanics of the game, is below:

All Politics is Tragedy, but some of it's staged

Ever since the election, a lot of people have framed the McCain campaign as a classical tragedy. To achieve what he thought was his greatest desire, he gave up his soul and was left with nothing.

Playwright Wendy Weiner has decided to chronicle the struggles of a different plaything of the gods in her new play Hillary: A Modern Greek Tragedy With a (Somewhat) Happy Ending.

The concept, according the the NYT review is:

Hillary (Mia Barron), when she is still a girl dreaming of an adulthood in which a woman might pursue the presidency, pledges her devotion to Athena. Aphrodite, jealous, makes it her business to thwart Hillary, her principal weapon being the slick, charming Bill Clinton (Darren Pettie).

It's as good an explanation for the Clintons' marriage as any I've heard.

Thanksgiving Mental Health Break

The American Association for the Advancement of Science has just announced the winners of its annual "Dance Your PhD" contest. Applicants must convey the crux of their research in a 3-4 minute dance video posted to YouTube. Below is my favorite of the winners, "Resolving Pathways of Functional Coupling in Human Hemoglobin Using Quantitative Low Temperature Isoelectric Focusing of Asymmetric Mutant Hybrids" by Professor Vince LiCata of LSU.




(The rest of the winners are at http://gonzolabs.org/dance/contestants/)

Naked people sell tickets. Naked emotions sell shows

This was a pretty theatre-packed weekend for me. Happy Now? was closing at the Yale Rep, a friend of mine was playing the title role in a untranslated production of Racine's Britannicus, and all Yale was abuzz about the musical being staged by the Dramat, which featured naked boys singing (but not Naked Boys Singing!).

I'd already seen The Full Monty on Broadway, and my opinion of the show was pretty much unchanged by the Dramat's production. The songs are instantly forgettable, and the plot does not progress except by sudden starts and improbably out of character shifts. Certainly, on the basis of the written script, it was the least thought-provoking of the three shows I saw.

But the last time I saw The Full Monty, it wasn't during a recession.

The six leading men (and particularly Miles Jacoby as protagonist Jerry Lukowski and Matthew McCollum as his best friend) managed to bring real, wrenching emotional depth to the cardboard cutouts of characters they were handed by the script. Jacoby was most affecting before the stripping plot really gets moving, when he and his fellow laid-off steelworkers feel trapped by their sudden misfortune.

Jacoby and the other men don't just miss their paychecks after the layoffs. Losing their jobs means losing part of their identity and part of their purpose. Their despair and desperation are palpable. The show shifts tone when Jacoby's character decides that he and his friends can regain their dignity by becoming strippers, but by the time my eyes had recovered from the strategic backlighting in the final scene, I kept thinking about the downtrodden men from the first act.

Secluded at college, my experience with the economic meltdown has mostly been limited to following policy arguments among the blognoroti. I really hadn't thought about how the effects of these decisions were being felt across the country until I saw those brilliant boys playing men leading lives of quiet desperation. And after having watched Jacoby stand alone on the stage, pinned down by a spotlight and keening in shame and grief, I only wish that kitschy, underwritten songs could solve their problems.

After the honeymoon, the crazy in-laws

Following closely on the heels of yesterday's post on encouraging headlines in the wake of Obama's election comes, unsurprisingly, a jubilant message from Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State of Iraq, an organization which claims links to Al Qaeda. The message included the expected, gleeful pronouncements of Al Qaeda's power and condemnation of Bush's foreign policy decisions, but one part of the message was a little unexpected.

“On behalf of my brothers in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and Chechnya, I offer you what is better for you and us: you return to your previous era of neutrality, you withdraw your forces, and you return to your homes,” Mr. Baghdadi said. “You do not interfere in the affairs of our countries, directly or indirectly. We in turn will not prevent commerce with you, whether it is in oil or otherwise, but with fairness, not at a loss.”

Faris bin Hizam, an expert on Al Qaeda, said the offer of a trade relationship had struck a new note. “How can he call for establishing a relationship with the United States if it withdraws?” Mr. Bin Hizam said. “The main principle of Al Qaeda prohibits any relation with infidels.”

I'm sure Mr. Baghdadi will be in trouble when his apparent love of the infidel gets reported back to his superiors, but maybe they'll be merciful. It's obvious Obama Fever is more infectious and more powerful than anyone suspected.

(link from the NYT)

The honeymoon goes on

The sleep deprivation is just starting to win out over the Election Day high, but with headlines like this from Friday's New York Times, even late night election viewing/problem set doing/computer coding can't keep a spring out of my step.

Obama Victory Alters the Tenor of Iraqi Politics

Iraqi Shiite politicians are indicating that they will move faster toward a new security agreement about American troops, and a Bush administration official said he believed that Iraqis could ratify the agreement as early as the middle of this month.

“Before, the Iraqis were thinking that if they sign the pact, there will be no respect for the schedule of troop withdrawal by Dec. 31, 2011,” said Hadi al-Ameri, a powerful member of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, a major Shiite party. “If Republicans were still there, there would be no respect for this timetable. This is a positive step to have the same theory about the timetable as Mr. Obama.”

In Rare Turn, Iran’s Leader Sends Letter to Obama

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran sent an unusual letter congratulating President-elect Barack Obama on Thursday for his victory in the American presidential race, even though the two nations have had no diplomatic ties for nearly 30 years... this is the first time an Iranian leader has congratulated the winner of an American election, at least since the Iranian revolution.

None of these developments represent magical fixes, and it's important to remember that President-elect Obama will be coming into the White House facing an economic crisis and two wars. But it's just so heartening to see how this change is making it easier for other countries to engage with us, so that there exists at least a hope for progress.

The prodigal governor may yet return

No, not Mitt Romney. He's well and truly over. But we may be seeing more of Ms. Palin (if not Tina Fey's impression) soon.

The count goes on (and on and on) in Alaska and Ted Stevens still has a razor thin lead over his challenger. Despite his seven felony convictions, the Alaskan people seem determined to return him to the Senate. But even if he wins the race, it's unlikely he'll remain a senator. Both McCain and Palin have called for him to step down, and Republican as well as Democratic senators have threatened to expel him.

An open seat in Alaska cannot be filled by appointment, so Palin can't just pull a Cheney and take the position for herself. The seat would be filled by a special election, and Palin has the name recognition to pull it off.

The votes are still coming in, and Stevens may lose his lead when all the absentee ballots are counted, so it would behoove Ms. Palin to wait until the election is called before she places orders for "Senator Maverick in 2012" posters.

Barack Obama was your new jetpack

There's been a lot of talk about the repercussions of electing an black president (as it appears we are about to). Will it be an inspiration for black people, bad for black people, or even good for white supremacists?

Jonathan Messinger sees a stranger problem. Like hovercars and jetpacks, black presidents have been a common shorthand in science fiction.

As many have said before, the function of a black president in film and TV has largely been used to signify some sort of alternate reality. It often shows up in various forms of science-fiction or fantasy, whether we’re talking about The Fifth Element or O Presidente Negro. Now, if Obama wins, I’m guessing that we’ll have to see science fiction turn to gay presidents for their alt-universe qualities. I look forward to it.