English Words with Gender

I just came across a discussion of the use of "blonde" (fem.) and "blond" (masc.) in English.
"...it is one of the few adjectives in English with separate masculine and feminine forms." -from wikipedia

Which led me to seek other English words with gender. There aren't too many. Here's what I've found:

adding -ess
waiter/waitress
actor/actress
host/hostess
duke/duchess
lion/lioness
tiger/tigress
steward/stewardess
prince/princess
god/godess
heir/heiress
other ending changes
bachelor/bachelorette
alumnus/alumna
blond/blonde
fiancé/fiancée
doyen/doyenne
executor/executrix
masseur/masseuse
comedian/comedienne
hero/heroine

Then, of course, there are the words than end with "man" or "woman" like
congressman/congresswoman
businessman/businesswoman
postman/postwoman, etc, etc

All of those are differentiated by word endings. There are also instances of completely different words for different genders, like:

monk/nun
bachelor/spinster
landlord/landlady
sir/madam
father/mother
husband/wife
son/daughter
brother/sister
boy/girl
bull/cow
goose/gander
drake/duck
king/queen
gentleman/lady
nephew/niece
uncle/aunt
wizard/witch

These are the only two in which the masculine is formed from the feminine:
widow/widower
bridegroom/bride

Okay, my curiosity is sated. I can go back to bed now!

Maybe Cara will find this useful for French class.

movie notes: Downfall

I have to write a few words before my St. Louis trip about a movie I watched last night. Downfall is a German film about the final days of the Third Reich. In 2002 there was a documentary that was basically an interview with Hitler's stenographer, Traudl Junge. This movie takes the content of her revelations about Hitler's final days and dramatizes them. The result is riveting and revealing. The final days in Hitler's bunker are full of desperation, absurdity and insanity...and, of course, suicide. The actor that portrays Hitler (Bruno Ganz) is incredible; along with Hitler's cruelty and insanity, he also manages to portray his humanity...but that is not enough to evoke any sympathy. It is a complex role to say the least. That Hitler's stenographer was there to witness it all and survived to tell her story is amazing. Check it out. It is in German with English subtitles.

Baseball, the way it was meant to be

I went to a Fort Worth Cats game last night at LaGrave Field with Robert & Sam (it was Sam's first baseball game). It was a baseball game stripped of the annoyances of a major league game: traffic-parking-crowds, high ticket prices, and nose-bleed seats that make the players look like specks on the postage stamp field. It was great baseball. We sat in the first row behind the home team dugout for $5 a seat (normally $10), there were 4,000 fans in attendance and the Cats beat the San Angelo Colts 12-2. Most of these Central League players may not be going to the majors, but they're still pretty damn good. We got to see it all; homers, stolen bases, double plays. And the Cats have their own stars, too, like Terrence Green, known to the fans as T-Dog, who gets cheered at the plate with 'T-Dog' chants and dog barks. There's a pretty amazing history to the team, too. After WWII and until they moved to LA, the Brooklyn Dodgers' farm team was the Fort Worth Cats. Some historic players have swung a bat at LaGrave field, including Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Jackie Robinson, Ted Williams and Stan Musial. Overall it was a blast & I'll be going back for more Cats baseball. [photos]

Robert Bechtle

There's a Robert Bechtle retrospective at the The Modern that really took me by surprise. You know, I certainly knew it had to be better than that Dan Flavin crap, but I didn't expect to get really sucked in. The exhibit is comprehensive and organized quite well. It was organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and its only other stop is here in Fort Worth. Bechtle is a Photorealist painter. His paintings are recreations of photographs that he takes. I really like them. And as stunning and cool as his paintings are, I think I might like his charcoals best. More on Bechtle @ Artnet, TFAO, and ArtScene.

Remembering independence

Whoa, I've been neglectful of my blog! And it won't be the last time. So, catching up...I had a blast over the Independence Day weekend and took some pics, too:

• 4th party at the Plumbs (July 2)
• 4th party at the McCurdys (July 3)

And here's some pics from the other day with Robert, Sam & Derian at the Japanese Garden.

Mineral Wells bike trail

I finally rode the bike trail between Mineral Wells & Weatherford. It's called the Lake Mineral Wells State Trailway; there's a good profile of the trail at TrailLink.com. I started in Weatherford and rode to downtown Mineral Wells and back; about 40 miles. A quick review of a topographical map would have told me that I started at the high end so my trip back was mostly uphill. I think I might start at Mineral Wells next time! About 10 miles from the Weatherford trailhead is the small town of Garner which has a Cafe/C-store and was a perfect place to stop and buy a Vitamin Water. Here's my photos from the ride, and here's a .pdf map of the trail.

Trips and pics

Recent adventures that I've captured digitally include Derian's first trip to the zoo (with Robert & Sam) and a trip to Mineral Wells with Jodi. And both of these photo collections are my first albums on Flickr (the links above will take you to the albums). The zoo was fun (if a little hot) as always. Derian was more interested in flirting with strangers than looking at animals. In Mineral Wells, Jodi and I went to a great (relatively new) botanic garden called Clark Gardens. We also 'explored' the historic, vacant Baker Hotel and tasted the Crazy Water at Famous Water.

Michel Gondry

I've been watching a great DVD tonight. Its a compilation of the work of director Michel Gondry. He directed Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but before that he directed some incredible videos for the Rolling Stones, Bjork, Daft Punk, Chemical Brothers, and Foo Fighters. The DVD has about 20 of his music videos, some of his short films, and a couple ads he directed (including a great Levi's ad that won an award at Cannes!). The videos can be accessed individually or from the documentary that includes interviews with Gondry and people/bands he's worked with. Its a double sided disc with over 400 minutes of content. The DVD is part of the Director's Series that also has one on the work of Spike Jonze that I'm looking forward to getting, too.

Trailer Park Boys

Hilarious!! I'm a little late finding out about it (its in it's 5th season), but Trailer Park Boys is the best television show out of Canada since Kid's in the Hall! I can't stop watching it. It just doesn't get any better than Ricky, Julian and Bubbles!

There's so much great Canadian television available on DVD now (at Amazon): Trailer Park Boys, Kids in the Hall, and of course, the Red Green Show.

Crash

I went to see the movie Crash tonight. It developed slowly and 15 minutes in I was bracing myself for real disappointment, but then it started to pick up. The character development during the first act takes awhile and does drag a little, but its necessary given the number of integral characters. Once it does start moving it is a really emotional movie...I heard several gasps and quite a few sniffles in the theater.

By the way, the movie does start and end with the same car crash, but it is not about car crashes. That was Cronenberg's 1996 movie of the same name.

The easiest way to describe Crash is to say that it is about race, but that's too simple. It is a Los Angeles movie that combines the racial issues of a movie like Grand Canyon with the interconnectedness of Magnolia, two other LA movies. Much like I said in my Bobby Long entry about New Orleans, Los Angeles is a character in this film. It also shares with Magnolia, a dark and brooding sense of despair. It is ultimately about redemption; especially if you believe its never too late to be redeemed.

Crash is a good movie, but not a great movie. It will make you think and it will put you on the edge of your seat at times in the process. My rating: 7 of 10.

Online hunting

Seriously! Hunting over the Internet from your computer! Firing a gun with the click of your mouse! When I read about it I thought, 'only a couple guys from Texas could come up with something like Live-Shot.' I was right, "the shooting range is an outdoor facility located on a secluded ranch in the Texas hill country." Actually the ability to hunt a variety of animals won't be available until they finish building the blind, but for now, from your computer, you can "control a pan/tilt/zoom camera...to fire 10 (ten) .22 caliber rounds at paper and silhouette targets. You may also have a DVD recording and/or the paper target from the session shipped as an option."

Equally bizarre, though, is the fact that California is already preparing an emergency regulation to ban on-line hunting in response to the web site.

Enron documentary

I went to see the new documentary on Enron tonight. It's called Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room [imdb]. Its an entertaining 110 minute documentary produced by Mark Cuban's HDnet Films. I didn't find myself getting bored and the attempts at political potshots were kept fairly brief. The film kept good focus on the main players, the facts and the fallout of the Enron debacle. The coverage of Enron's role in California's energy crisis was the most interesting; I hadn't realized just how directly Enron's actions resulted in the famous rolling blackouts in Cali. I don't know if its worth a trip to the theater, but I'd definitely recommend it as a rental.

The film is based on the book of the same name. It's showing at "Magnolia at the The Modern" this weekend and next.

Kincaid's Hamburgers now in Southlake!

The most famous hamburgers in Fort Worth (and arguably all of Texas) are now being served in Southlake, too! Frankly it just doesn't seem right to me to try and duplicate Kincaid's but what's done is done. I've checked it out and the burgers taste the same. The decor is an excellent reproduction of the original (including the inflatables hanging from the ceiling), but it just looks too new. And there's not enough of the stand-up counters. It's located at the intersection of Kimball & Southlake (just off 114). I'll continue to eat at the original.

A New Orleans movie

A Love Song for Bobby Long [imdb] is a New Orleans movie... the city should be listed as a member of the cast. I don't know what it is about New Orleans in movies, but there's no mistaking it when you see it (eg. Down by Law). The other cast members do a fine job, too, namely Scarlett Johansson (Lost in Translation) and John Travolta. The alcoholic adventures of John Travolta's character and his roommate Lawson are on the order of Leaving Las Vegas! I enjoyed it and, of course, it made me crave a Nawlins weekend. Nice soundtrack, too. My rating: 7 of 10

Reviewing my iPod gadgets

Got a few things for the pod recently:

These are the JBL Creature II Speakers. They're small and inexpensive, and they sound pretty darn good! They are not built specifically for the iPod (ie. no pod dock). They plug into the pod's headphone jack. It takes some tweaking of the bass and treble adjustment knobs to get the right sound for wherever you put them (on bookshelves in my case). Hey, ya gotta have iPod speakers in every room right? Now I do and I'm happy with these.


This is the best way to carry ear buds I've found... the EarPod. It's better than the white Sucrets box I was using! There's not a lot of extra room inside, though, so anything bigger than the earbuds that come with the iPod might not fit.


And last but not least, I had to see how the pod would look as a cow! The cow print iPod skin actually doesn't look too bad... just the thing for walking around The Stockyards or WRMC! It is, of course, removable and multi-use.