Blog by Sumana Harihareswara, Changeset founder
The Found Weekend
Hi, reader. I wrote this in 2003 and it's now more than five years old. So it may be very out of date; the world, and I, have changed a lot since I wrote it! I'm keeping this up for historical archive purposes, but the me of today may 100% disagree with what I said then. I rarely edit posts after publishing them, but if I do, I usually leave a note in italics to mark the edit and the reason. If this post is particularly offensive or breaches someone's privacy, please contact me.
A very full weekend. Steve Schultz and I had food and watched the X-Men sequel (enjoyable, but I preferred the multiple allegories of the first film) and generally conversed for about five hours. I got to introduce him to Mondo Gelato at Shattuck and Center, where he found happiness in pistachio ice cream, and Cafe Colucci, a.k.a. "that great Ethiopian place at Alcatraz and Telegraph." Maybe we could call it "Alcatel Ethiopian."
Did you know that the lobby of the United Artists cinema at Shattuck and Kittredge holds a Dance Dance Revolution machine? I attracted a small crowd, perhaps because the theatergoers had never seen someone use one before.
Then I brought aid and comfort to Leonard and Kevin, who spent much of the weekend shut up in Kevin's house fixing problems for work. Man, they were frazzled. I hope they don't have to go through that too often.
Sunday afternoon I did laundry and rewarded myself with a visit to La Val's Pizzeria at Telegraph and Durant. No, I don't like La Val's pizza, but I couldn't resist the DDR machine. Great fun, and a dollar for four songs, which I find eminently reasonable. Michael is so extremely better than me, which makes sense, since the machine is labeled "DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION EXTREME." Also since he's disgustingly good at everything he tries.
I wonder why it's called La Val's. What is a Val? Furthermore, why doesn't DDR bring out the competitive nihilism I experience in so many other skill-based games? Scrabble, for example, I dislike playing against someone much better than me. Possible answers: I don't feel I'm playing against, but with other DDR players. I learned DDR later in life. The physical, right-or-wrong nature of DDR appeals to me.
I got home and showered in time to welcome Adam, who asked me to give his thesis a look-see. Looks solid. Today Adam turns in his senior thesis in linguistics and takes his last final (French). I look forward to reading the finished paper, and hope to whoop it up with him to celebrate his graduation!
And today begins my last full week of work at Cody's. Premature nostalgia, here I come!
