{"id":3893,"date":"2009-05-04T08:40:03","date_gmt":"2009-05-04T12:40:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=3893"},"modified":"2009-05-04T08:40:03","modified_gmt":"2009-05-04T12:40:03","slug":"what-it-is-5409","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/what-it-is-5409","title":{"rendered":"What It Is: 5\/4\/09"},"content":{"rendered":"

What I’m reading:<\/em> I didn’t read much this week, but I did manage to read Plutarch’s lives of Themistocles<\/a> and Camillus<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What I’m listening to:<\/em> The Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack<\/a>\"\". Anyone know if M.I.A. is any good?<\/p>\n

What I’m watching:<\/em> The Bulls-Celtics series. Game 7 didn’t live up to the previous 6 (well, 5, if you discount that blowout in game 3), but it was some entertaining basketball. I think this is more of a function of the dumbness of the coaches and some of the players than of the high level of play. The most rewarding part for me was the discovery that Stephon Marbury is now afraid to play basketball.<\/p>\n

What I’m drinking:<\/em> Not much.<\/p>\n

What Rufus is up to:<\/em> Getting affection from everyone he meets, including the local policeman who stopped us on our walk one morning to ask me about a neighborhood dog’s aggression. Oh, and taking another Sunday hike in Wawayanda<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Where I’m going:<\/em> Toronto for a long weekend with friends, family, and cartoonists<\/a>!<\/p>\n

What I’m happy about:<\/em> Getting away for the aforementioned long weekend.<\/p>\n

What I’m sad about:<\/em> Having to leave Rufus with people who haven’t taken care of him previously. Because I’m a neurotic mess.<\/p>\n

What I’m worried about:<\/em> The short timeframe for my June ish, which I’ll somehow need to finish while I’m in Atlanta in 2 weeks. Also, I’m worried that I’ll never get around to writing up the rest of my Las Vegas trip notes. Grr.<\/p>\n

What I’m pondering:<\/em> How I managed to amass an iTunes library of more than 43,000 tracks but not manage to have any songs by Barry Manilow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What I’m reading: I didn’t read much this week, but I did manage to read Plutarch’s lives of Themistocles and Camillus. What I’m listening to: The Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack. Anyone know if M.I.A. is any good? What I’m watching: The Bulls-Celtics series. Game 7 didn’t live up to the previous 6 (well, 5, if you … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “What It Is: 5\/4\/09”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,57,32,30,5],"tags":[678,312],"class_list":["post-3893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-basketball","category-las-vegas","category-sports","category-toronto","category-travel","tag-barry-manilow","tag-stephon-marbury"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-10N","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":684,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-week","url_meta":{"origin":3893,"position":0},"title":"NBA Week","author":"Gil","date":"October 23, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Hey, dear VM readers! The NBA season kicks off next week, so it's time for the annual VM NBA preview! Official VM buddy Tom Spurgeon & I are spending this week profiling all 30 teams. (We might also get some guest-commentary from readers about their home-town teams.)Let's kick it off\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "basketball"","block_context":{"text":"basketball","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/sports\/basketball"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":333,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/swoopin-and-hoopin","url_meta":{"origin":3893,"position":1},"title":"Swoopin’ and Hoopin’","author":"Gil","date":"August 4, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"The U.S. Olympic basketball team got drilled by Italy in a tune-up game yesterday. The Italians managed to drop 15 3-pointers on a team composed of NBA stars. A lot of big names dropped out of the Olympic squad (or turned down invites) because of security concerns, exhaustion, injury, and\/or\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "basketball"","block_context":{"text":"basketball","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/sports\/basketball"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":762,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/cant-jump-etc","url_meta":{"origin":3893,"position":2},"title":"Can’t jump, etc.","author":"Gil","date":"December 13, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Nice article on Slate about the idiocy in comparing every white basketball player to Larry Bird. Here's a taste: Want proof that getting compared to Bird is a one-way ticket to the Caucasian basketball graveyard? A list of players who've been identified as Bird-like reads like the roster of a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "basketball"","block_context":{"text":"basketball","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/sports\/basketball"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1408,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/college-whoops","url_meta":{"origin":3893,"position":3},"title":"College whoops","author":"Gil","date":"March 25, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I've learned a ton from reading Charley Rosen's basketball columns, particularly his single-game analyses. He's got a mailbag up this week, and it includes a vituperative response to the \"NCAA or NBA\" question: Although I do not always agree with your opinions, I respect them because you seem to know\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "basketball"","block_context":{"text":"basketball","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/sports\/basketball"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5745,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/on-the-mark","url_meta":{"origin":3893,"position":4},"title":"On the Mark","author":"Gil","date":"November 17, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"While I was busy having a fantastic dinner at August last night, my pal Sam bumped into Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, in town to watch his team take on the Hornets tonight. Sam \u00c2\u00a0& I will be at the game tonight, and I'm hoping his new pal\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "basketball"","block_context":{"text":"basketball","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/sports\/basketball"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sammark-440x330.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":683,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/2005-nba-preview-western-conference-teams","url_meta":{"origin":3893,"position":5},"title":"2005 NBA Preview: Western Conference Teams","author":"Gil","date":"October 24, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"by Tom SpurgeonAlthough none of its teams are likely to lose a game to an Israeli club squad anytime soon, the Western Conference of the NBA remains the junior circuit of the two because of history and mythology. A team in Sacramento not only sounds less interesting than one in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "basketball"","block_context":{"text":"basketball","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/sports\/basketball"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3893"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3894,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3893\/revisions\/3894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}