Things That Matter To People Who Matter

FDR Skate Park | The Draughtsman's Contract | From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank | Star Wars Holiday Special

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Published: Oct 16, 2007

FDR Skate Park

: bryan karl lathrop

Nestled underneath a freeway in the southern part of this fair city of shadows, iron girders and exposed brick lies the FDR Skate Park. I was lured to this charmed land by FDR's siren song too strong to resist — a hymn built from metal trucks barking on concrete, renegade murals being thrown up, iron horse locomotives bumping in the yard and airplanes constantly screaming overhead. Most stand in awe of the masonry-constructed skateboard bowl with pool coping. This is one of the last wild frontiers, located in one of America's oldest cities — a dance of physical manipulation, renegade art and native ingenuity that speaks volumes for this metropolis.

The Draughtsman's Contract

The Draughtsman's Contract is a truly educational film. Written and directed by the arch formalist Peter Greenaway and released in 1982, it immerses us in the candle-lit milieu of a smutty and conspiratorial English gentry circa 1694, a periwigged class well-practiced in acid drollery. Two bodies lie in a moat and credits roll before we realize the Molière-esque satire we've been watching was actually a murder mystery. The feints and gambits of language are rarely so well rendered. But it is not dramaturgy at the expense of the cinema: Greenaway frames his tableaux vivants with a precision Wes Anderson would be right to envy, and Michael Nyman's soundtrack is exquisitely woven in to this cunning tapestry.

From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank

I'm a musician who lives to tour. Recently, I've begun routing a trip to Alaska, despite the increasingly prohibitive cost of gas, by planning to retrofit a diesel bus to burn waste vegetable oil (WVO) from restaurants instead of fossil fuels. Admittedly, I have zero auto-mechanical experience, but I picked up a book called From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank: The Complete Guide to Using Vegetable Oil as an Alternative Fuel by Joshua Tickell, which serves as part history lesson, part instruction manual on the details of diesel-to-WVO conversion and homemade bio-diesel manufacturing. Tickell's explanation gave me the confidence to make the switch.

Star Wars Holiday Special

Imagine a magical disc capable of combining your fondest childhood memories into a single experience. If Star Wars and Christmas are among them, there is such a disc (albeit bootlegged). Unfortunately, the fat cats at CBS and 20th Century Fox decided that this blissful marriage should be attended by Bea Arthur, Harvey Korman, Art Carney, Diahann Carroll and a Grace Slick-less Jefferson Starship. Throw in a Wookies cub named Lumpy, a holographic tabletop circus and a strung-out Carrie Fisher singing over John Williams' score, and you have the disaster that is the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special. Find a copy (try eBay), whip up some eggnog and invite all of your thirtysomething friends over to revel in Lucas' lowlight. Just don't try fast-forwarding to the "good parts."

 

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