Archive for March, 2008
This entry was posted March 28th, 2008 and has 1 comment.
As is now tradition here on chriswalbert.com, I would like to give a congratulations and shout out to my friends Ben and Nikki Hughes who just had their second daughter. Lyla Faith Hughes was born on March 26th, 2008 at 11:50 am. She weighed 8 lbs, 14 ounces and was 20.5 inches long. According to Ben’s email mom, baby, and big sister Keira are all doing well.
Ben and I have been good friends since middle school and it’s pretty awesome to see him as a proud father now. It looks like he is continuing the Hughes tradition and building his own big family.
I’m not sure exactly what Ben looked like when his new daughter was born, but I imagine since he was both proud and excited he looked something like this (click the link to see).
Continue reading Congratulations Ben and Nikki
Posted in Chris Walbert, life
This entry was posted March 20th, 2008 and has 1 comment.
Last week a headline came across my CNN RSS feed talking about the identity of the woman at the center of the Eliot Spitzer controversy. “Interesting,” I thought to myself. “Maybe I’ll take a minute to read what CNN has discovered.”
To my surprise, the CNN article had no first-hand quotes from the woman, Ms. Dupre, or even any actual news. The article begins by pulling one quote from a recent New York Times interview. The writer then did some amazing, high-level journalistic research and found Ms. Dupre’s MySpace page.
The writer did more than just mention the page however. Instead of interviewing Ms. Dupre or anyone who knew her to get some background, this writer spent all of 10 minutes browsing her MySpace page, copied and pasted it into an article, and called it a day.
Here are some of my favorite lines from this article:
Continue reading CNN News Story Could Have Been Written by a Fourteen-Year-Old
Posted in life
This entry was posted March 12th, 2008 and has 1 comment.
The Wire has come to an end. After 5 seasons, the show has aired it’s final episode and is now a piece of our history. I’ve read numerous articles, blogs and message board posts of people arguing their disappointment or satisfaction with the finale. I don’t want to look at or discuss The Wire in the small scope of one episode or even one season. And I’m not left with either of those feelings. When that familiar song played at the end of episode 60, I was left with a mixture of sadness that the show was over and thankfulness that it existed in the first place.
After a lot of thought, I’ve arrived at a few reasons why I think The Wire has captivated the loyal audience it has and why people have reacted so emotionally to the show.
First, The Wire does not allow you to be merely a casual observer. You cannot sit down for an hour, watch an episode, and then just move on with your life. You have to form an opinion. You have to feel something about the characters, the situations, or the circumstances.
There is no way you can watch an episode where the police major legalizes drugs in restricted areas and not feel something or want to discuss the implications of such a policy. To me, this was one of the critical plotlines in the entire series. It showed not only the futility of drug enforcement policies, but also how devastating drugs are; not just to the users, but to the community at large. To watch the citizens of those neighborhoods try to live their normal lives in the hell of Hamsterdam was heartbreaking.
Continue reading In Memoriam - The Wire
Posted in Baltimore, television
This entry was posted March 7th, 2008 and has no nomments.
Anyone who visited YouTube today may have been a bit confused and asked themselves who or what is Sigur Ros? Today, Heima, the 97-minute documentary from the brilliant Icelandic band Sigur Ros, became the first feature-length music DVD to be available on YouTube. Sigur Ros also took over all of the Featured Videos space on the homepage as seen in the screen shot below.
My first reaction to this news is to be a bit shocked. Sigur Ros, while a beautiful band and one of my favorites, does not seem like the logical choice for something like this. That’s why this is so awesome. All Sigur Ros songs are sung in Icelandic and their music is a bit more ethereal than most popular bands. I guess I would expect a huge company like YouTube/Google to choose a more well-known or accessible band like Radiohead or Coldplay. Or, maybe I was expecting something lame like Fall Out Boy or Good Charlotte.
Continue reading Sigur Ros Takes Over YouTube
Posted in music, technology
This entry was posted March 7th, 2008 and has no nomments.
There is nothing worse than driving home from work in the dark. Nothing.
It’s finally started to stay light out a little later the past week or so. To make things even better, Spring Forward is happening early this year. Don’t forget to set those clocks ahead at 2:00 am this Sunday, March 9.
As much as I enjoy the cold weather if it means I can go snowboarding, I cannot wait for the 65-70 degree days that are quickly approaching. St. Patrick’s Day, the unofficial beginning of spring, is in only 10 days and that means spring weather is right around the corner.
I’m going to check out the Body Worlds exhibit at the Maryland Science Center tomorrow, so hopefully I’ll have some cool pictures to post from that next week.
Continue reading Spring Forward Weekend
Posted in Chris Walbert
This entry was posted March 3rd, 2008 and has 1 comment.
Sunday, March 9, 2008 will be a bitter sweet day for all Wire fans. This marks the final episode of one of the greatest shows ever to hit the small screen. I want to save a proper eulogy of the show for after the last episode runs, but to hold us all over is this preview of episode 60.
Continue reading The Wire’s Grand Finale
Posted in Baltimore, television
