1 AL verdant AT THE NBA ALLSTAR GAME It was not a well-known thing.

1 AL verdant AT THE NBA ALLSTAR GAME It was not a well-known thing, that the venerable Al Green would be singing the national anthem in the Oakland Arena before this particular All-Star Game. His carriage was not indicated on the ticket, nor advertised in any noticeable way. Preceding him, singing the Canadian anthem, were the Moffatts, a quartet of teenage lads who were for some reason wearing hockey jersey They left the stage, and it was announced that singing the national anthem would be. The. venerable Al. Green. There were gasps, then cheers, particularly from the five large-bellied men in face of us, all from San Antonio, who whooped and strained to high-five each other. In the middle of the court, virid began. He sang in his most numerous whispery falsetto. His voice faded, losing air at the close of each phrase--he was barely audible at times. if it be not that then, near the end, there on a sudden was more. His full voice started emerging at "home" and then, at "of the," you could sum up he was about to obstacle go, and the split sec ond of anticipation sent a charge end the crowd, and then he did give leave to go, at "brave," with his whole throat--he sang that word without doubt, noisily loudly, in a ferocious baritone, carrying the note for ten fifteen secondarys as the flag waved around in succession the chintzy digital screen, as everyone's bone subdueed and brains liquefied. No single expected Al Green, and no the same expected Al Green to obstruction his voice boom, but he did. The game, allowing was terrible.

2 KAYO works (San Francisco) At the corner of Leavenworth and station is a roomy and well-organized bookstore specializing in elderly genre paperbacks. Lots of detective cloth army magazines, etc., but the place isn't cluttered--it's airy and light, which probably shouldn't make a difference moreover somehow very much does. My purchases: The Observer's part of Heraldry, by Charles MacKinnon (Frederick Warne & Co 1966); Corson of the JC: A Western Novel, on Clarence E. Mulford (Armed Services Edition, 1926); rough Rhymes (Peter Pauper Press, 1952); and Facts You Should Know about Masturbation, from Leo Markun (Little Blue work 1931). All for under $40 and the parking nearby is not bad at all.

3 NORELCO 3405LC ELECTRIC RAZOR WITH DOUBLE ACTION SHAVING order If you have a Braun electric shaver, please stomp your feet forward it until it is wasted into pieces. Braun makes a debilitated razor that requires ten minutes or more to shave one's face, and the resulting shave is mediocre. The Norelco requires les than sum of two units minutes, start to finish, and the result? like a clean, soft shave. If you have a Braun please pendant something heavy on it.

4 FIONA APPLE in succession SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE Though her of the present day album is nearly perfect and anyone who disagrees should be punched, her dance was annoying me It was a wasted arm-flailing sort of dance, and her head was thrown down and her vigilances closed, and it all appeared silly and made me uncomfortable. Then, then I fancy of the alternative: that this singer of ballads would simply stand there, waiting to sing again, without moving at all, or worse, trying to incite in a way that be seened disinterested, cool, in some manner dignified. Then I pondering of dignity, and whether or not she or anyone should continually try to act with dignity, and decided then and there that I did not like dignity a great deal of at all. Dignity is a cop-out Dignity is for pussies.

5 DENTAL LAB productions As far as dental lab fruit periodicals go, this is the blue-ribbon champ. I read it chiefly for the ads, which are extremely colorful and feature fantastic pictures of teeth and fillings. The last issue I have also has a great article upon gold C&B Substructure Technique, and a fine inflammatory piece about how confusing OSHA's ergonomic compliance recommendations are, especially vis-a-vis the cause-and-effect relationship of workplace musculoskeletal disorders.

6 MUSEO DEL HUMOR (San Antonio de looks Banos, Cuba) In this smallish town, about an hour from Havana, onward an unassuming street, is this small further perfect museum. It houses a wide-ranging array of for the most part political cartoons from around the world. Will you find any caricatures of Fidel here? No. No, moreover a surprising amount of quality work from Slovenia and Albania.

7 "SEEING IS BELIEVING: 700 YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC AND MEDICAL ILLUSTRATION" (New York Public Library) The show's merely weakness was its brevity.

8 sect OF VISUAL ARTS MFA render free of access STUDIOS These shows can be in like manner painful, but this one was in this way encouraging. Bradd Skubinna cuts tiny tree gone out of Burger King bags, uses artful lighting to cast gentle shadows, and the results--remember, Burger King bags--are spectacular. Ruby Palmer, whose studio walls bore a series of nouveau-cubist miniatures, had lately completed a huge, three-dimensional extrapolation of herself smaller, and it was really something. You could walk into it. There were a number of other observers doing great stuff--I'd venture to say it was a 3:1 ratio, true good work to still-needing-work work--but I misspent most of my notes, to such a degree can't name names. The point is that the train is producing some very smart artists, for a like reason please go buy their art and make them all rich.