What I’m reading: The Iliad
What I’m listening to: Sir Lucious Left Foot
What I’m watching: Local Hero, the last hour of Spike Lee’s new New Orleans documentary, the debut of Boardwalk Empire, and the finale of The Rachel Zoe Project.
What I’m drinking: Dry Fly gin and & Q-Tonic
What Rufus & Otis are up to: Going on a LONG-ass hike (5+ miles) at Wawayanda on Sunday. Here’s the Google map & specs and here are some pix.
Where I’m going: Nowhere! Deal with it!
What I’m happy about: Our Contracting & Outsourcing conference & exhibition was a big success. This year’s edition was less stressful than last year’s, mainly because I wasn’t worried about speakers failing to show up. Last year, one of the FDA’s speakers told me he’d be “honored” to speak at the event in a March e-mail, and failed to return a single call or e-mail from me until 24 hours before his speech. This time, everyone was on board, and both panels I set up — panels are a much dicier proposition than single-speaker presentations — went off well. Between the attendees and the exhibitors, we had somewhere between 700 and 800 people at the hotel; at least half of them stopped me to compliment us for the event while I was trying to get back to my room to rest at the end of the first day. But that’s a lot better than everyone wanting to kill me, so hey. I mean, beyond all my self-deprecating behavior, the reality is that all those people spent money and/or time to come out to our show because they trusted us to deliver a good conference and great opportunities to do business, and I’m proud of what we’ve been able to build over the course of 9 years. (“Us” is my way of saying, “Don’t think this is just me; we have a great team that puts this event together.”)
What I’m sad about:? The minute-to-minute stresses of the event (we’re a pretty small staff) keep me from enjoying much of it. I rarely got to spend more than a few minutes in any of the conference sessions, and I never did get to meet the FDA speaker.
What I’m worried about: Getting the October issue of my magazine together and out the door in the next 5 days. And how I’m going to top this year’s slate of speakers at the 10th anniversary gig next September.
What I’m pondering: Something the rabbi said before Yizkor the previous weekend, about how the fast of Yom Kippur (and the wearing of kittels) is meant to make us like angels. His homily was a little more . . . trite than in previous years, but I was intrigued by the concept of afflicting ourselves to reflect a higher, not-humand state. Also, an old friend who converted to Judaism said her son wants to know why he has to learn Hebrew, and asked me to write her some sorta answer. I wrote an off-the-cuff one, but I’m still thinking of a fuller answer.
, the 
, a comic written by Daren White and drawn by Eddie Campbell. I enjoyed The Playwright a lot more than I enjoyed Campbell’s last big comic that he wrote himself, 
, and it was a much more satisfying book than the ill-conceived adaptation of 
. I need to go back and re-read 
to see if I was judging that one too harshly. Anyway, I also re-read 
, which I enjoyed just as much as I did when I read it in May, and went back to Matt LaBash’s essay collection, 
, but that’s partly in the interest of clearing off 
and 
, Steve Earle’s 
, ABC’s 
, and Madonna’s 
.