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National Debt Clock

The Gross National Debt

Speechless

Providence’s Waterfire festival tonight offered some time to ponder the approach of autumn.

Marriott, Westin, and GTech form a ring around fire-lit Waterplace on the north side of downtown Providence.

Waterfire bonfires

One Citizens Plaza overlooks Waterfire on the east side of downtown Providence

Providence river water mirrors fires overhead

Tourists and volunteers become floating participants in Waterfire ceremonies

Waterfire, Aug. 30, 2008

Apologies to all for the quality of these iPhone snapshots — this weekend I will make a new attempt to shoot Waterfire with my Nikon.

Waterfire begins with a ceremonial procession of canoes and small boats at dusk

One by one, the boats light bonfires in the middle of the rivers that intersect in downtown Providence

Eventually, bonfires ring Waterplace

Looking eastward along the riverwalk toward Waterplace from Providence Place near my apartment

A smoky haze from the bonfires builds over downtown Providence as world music continues into the night

Moving In to Providence

Waterplace and Woonasquatucket River viewed from Providence Place, two blocks from my apartment

My loft apartment complex facing the Woonasquatucket River in downtown Providence, R.I.

Mike's brother sings "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" while unpacking

Heavy brother Mike and his cat Gremlin

Waterplace and riverwalk in downtown Providence, R.I.

View of a courtyard water fountain from Mike's apartment

Moving T-Minus 35 Days

Ten days ago, I walked an eight-mile loop around and through downtown Providence, Rhode Island, while looking for apartments within “walking distance” of the Amtrak/MBTA commuter-rail station.

Here’s a quick look at that loop:

Today I signed a one-year lease to live in a downtown loft — one year during which I will revert to living without a car, working out at home instead of a $40-per-month club, and walking or biking to get anywhere.

One year during which I will NOT buy any more Macs or iPhones, (I think I can, I think I can…)  and I will save additional cash for down-payment on a home, while real estate prices plummet.

Gotta love the GOP for wrecking the U.S. economy just when I stood to benefit the most…. Go George!!

But oh, I’m getting ahead of myself. First I must move — and then get my hands on some urban real estate.

All This Can Be Yours

For $400 per night, the Newport Harbor Hotel and Marina offers exclusive, uncongested waterfront access …

… and unequalled views of the sparkling sea at sunset…

If harbor fog and rush-hour yachting are not worth a premium price to you, then for $179 per night, the Hampton Inn in suburban South Kingstown will lure your sleepy body:

It offers a misty view of a newly built “lifestyle center” whose Main Street hosts developer-approved chain stores, developer-approved condos, a family cineplex — and prefab cafes and minimarts that stay open all night. All built atop bulldozed trees and arable land.

At least this place is honest: The streets of this little village are named in accordance with the lifestyle center’s marketing identity. So many developments use street names that conjure images of the evergreens, flora, and fauna that were razed. So street names like “South County Commons Way” and “South County Commons Avenue” represent progress… of a sort.

The developers could have restored a real urban center such as Hartford, Detroit, or for that matter several cities ringing nearby Providence, and put their brownfields to new use. But for some reason, it has become an American custom to kill some trees, pave some land, build a fake city, make people drive to it, drive up the price of food, waste gasoline, contribute to climate change, and call it a “Commons” — a name that evokes soothing nostalgia for a time when cities turned their communal spaces into parks, not shopping malls.

Don’t Drink the (Plastic) Water

My friend Peterson Toscano warns of the environmental and Christian moral hazards of purchasing and consuming bottled water.

I share his opposition to the practical and moral evils of plastic: vast quantities of frivolously consumed petroleum, threats to wildlife, and the leeching of toxins not only into the bottled product but also into landfill groundwater.

But I also work out 3 or 4 days per week. And it’s a helluva lot easier to keep a bottle of water by one’s side than to surrender one’s elliptical cycle and walk across a room every 5 minutes to rehydrate. Some environmentally concerned or cost-conscious people reuse the same plastic bottle every day, but the food industry warns that re-used water bottles tend to contain high volumes of bacteria and degrade (i.e. leech their toxins) faster than new bottles. So whether the choice is to go plastic-free or to re-use, I find it difficult to do the right thing.

At home, I work long hours in my office and it’s a lot easier and more stimulating to keep a supply of bottled, flavored beverages on hand than to drink only tap water, cartoned milk, or glass-bottled OJ.

My friend Peterson seems to be calling me to a higher moral standard. Am I willing to follow — or is morality sometimes just too inconvenient in a society that has become addicted to throwing things away and poisoning itself in the process?

What Laptop Computer Do You Recommend in 2008?

My friend Walter wrote recently to me, in search of recommendations for a new Windows-compatible laptop computer.

A few years ago, I considered buying a new Dell or Toshiba widescreen; both brands offer high-quality components, reasonable costs, and good customer-service records. If I had had extra cash, I would have bought an IBM ThinkPad with its drop-proof, virtually indestructible hard-drive technology. But price and appearance mattered, so I bought an aluminum/chrome Dell laptop that looked like a MacBook but cost $1,000 less. With a wide screen and oversized, high-speed hard drive, the Dell served my combination of home and work needs well for a couple years — though I came to realize that large laptops are heavy to lug around and do not fit well on small tables at cybercafes.

But one year ago, after a few too many Windows Vista crashes and XP security bugs, I switched. Not just one, but both machines– my desktop and my laptop. Out with Windows. In with Macs. With no regrets.

I am not religious in my conversion to Apple; I do not bow before the Genius Bar or trust blindly that Great Leader of Cupertino will lead Apple and its devotees to an eternal promised land. In fact, I am already configuring myself for a hardware-neutral future. I am moving my mail, my documents, and my applications off the client machines and putting them online so that they are accessible anywhere.

But not everyone can do that. In particular, people and companies with heavy professional investments in Microsoft development tools and software can move to “cloud computing” only slightly faster than Microsoft’s tools and APIs permit them. And some people and companies simply need the privacy and security advantages that are offered by client hardware-based computing.

So, for my friends who aren’t as enthusiastic as I about losing their client hardware, I welcome suggestions:

What low-cost, high-quality laptop computer brands and models do you recommend for someone who rationally and reasonably lives and works in the Windows universe? Which mobile chips are fastest? How much RAM and hard drive space is sufficient? Do you find it difficult to downgrade new machines from Vista to XP? Speak now.

Gaeta’s Lament

Composer Bear McCreary has posted the lyrics and history behind “Gaeta’s Lament,” a song that was sung by a seriously injured character, Felix Gaeta, a few days ago on Battlestar Galactica in the episode titled, “Guess What’s Coming to Dinner.”

Here’s a montage of clips from the song, which was scattered across the episode.

McCreary recalls:

A solo bansuri states the Lament again as Gaeta goes under the bonesaw. The beauty of the melody plays in ironic contrast to the brutal severity of the scene.

However, the song truly takes form in Act 2. As Gaeta lays in his hospital bed, recovering from surgery and reeling in pain, he sings us the first Verse of his Lament:

• Alone she sleeps in the shirt of man
• With my three wishes clutched in her hand

When we return to him in the following act, he sings the next two Verses:

• The first that she be spared the pain
• That comes from a dark and laughing rain
• When she finds love may it always stay true
• This I beg for the second wish I made too

Later, after the scene where Natalie meets the quorum, Gaeta resumes at the Pre-Chorus…

• But wish no more
• My life you can take

…and finally sings the Chorus, with a stronger and more powerful performance:

• To have her please just one day wake

He winces in pain while repeating the line, and a solo bansuri picks up the melody, finishing the phrase for him. Then, Gaeta starts back at the beginning, suggesting that he’s been repeating this song endlessly.

The TV show’s fans have commented about the song’s role in plot development; but my reaction was more personal.

The song speaks to my own sense of loss over departed adult friends — and over a childhood spent in and out of hospitals, petrified with fear of the sick strangers, cold hands, and sharp needles that surrounded me.

The song also evokes memories of a song-filled religious community in my childhood that was gradually destroyed, from my perspective, by arrogance, vanity, and an increasingly mobile society.

I sometimes pray for the resurrection of that community, or one like it. It has yet to wake.