Shabbir's Diary

Scenes from a wedding

After being up for twenty four hours (six of them playing blackjack and craps), I stumble into a Days Inn in St. Louis for the third of five weddings I'm supposed to attend this month, not counting the one in China. An hour from now I need to be downtown to attend yet another Catholic wedding of a dear friend.

I've spent long stretches of time underground in caves with the groom, sometimes with inadequate light, not enough food or water, and occasionally without a map and lost. I have no doubt today will be a walk in the park for him.

Graduation speech

I love graduation speeches. No, not to sit through them. Heaven's no. The graduation speeches I attend usually suck. However the graduation speech is one of the modern podiums that provides a required aura of thoughtfullness for both the speaker and audience. And, quite often, there is significant breakout potential for the good one, as we saw with the faux-Vonnegut. Or with this one that I've just discovered.

Being There

Television. Unbeknownst to me, that's the common theme of some of the best movies I've seen over the last few months. All of them explore the relationship, and in many cases, the dystopia that we have created in television. It didn't really hit me until last night, as I was in the middle of Peter Sellers' Being There, that it really struck me, but BOOM, there it is.

The Fall of the House of Saud

Last month's Atlantic Monthly has an excellent piece by Robert Baer on the state of the ruling family in Saudi Arabia, and their precarious position. Though the article isn't available online (it's being folded into an upcoming book by Baer), I found this interview with Baer that touches on the same themes. Check it out.