Return of the Widelux.

Everyone's favorite Widelux was in the Haus this weekend! I'll be posting a few pictures from Steer Roast pit lighting soon. Another shot from this set appears (in color, even) at the bottom of page 9 of today's Tech, accompanied by an embarassingly bad caption.

Labs.

After my longtime E-6 lab, Boston Photo Imaging, shut down its film processing operations last summer, I switched over to the second best shop I knew of: Zona Photographic Labs in Somerville. And today, as I prepared to head over there to drop off some film, I discovered that they are going out of business.

I am sad about this. Where am I going to get my color film processed now?

Zona was also the last fine-art Ilfochrome printer in the Boston area.

Now with free nights and weekends!

It's gotta be the shoes.

I was sitting alone in a booth at Spike's today, scarfing down dinner and skimming the Phoenix when a hip-looking Asian man walked over to my table.

"Excuse me. I don't mean to bother you... but I really like your shoes!" he began.

"Oh. Um, thanks!" I replied, somewhat concerned about where this conversation could be leading.

"I think they're the best New Balance shoe ever made," he added.

"Well, I bought them at the factory outlet in Brighton, but this style has been discontinued, so you're out of luck. I should have bought two pairs, though, because they are very nice."

"Oh, I know. I have a pair myself. Actually, the reason I noticed is because I'm a shoe designer at New Balance. I think we should bring them back, so I'm glad to see you're wearing them. Keep wearing those shoes, and keep fighting the good fight!"

Swimming.

A nice Boston Globe article on college swim tests notes that MIT is one of only 9 or so universities left in the United States with the requirement, down from 42% of all colleges in 1977.

The reasons cited for eliminating it are pretty weak.

Not all memories befit a memorial.

It was announced today that the underground memorial for New York City's fallen World Trade Center could cost upwards of $1 billion. That cost is roughly comparable to the original construction price of the twin towers.

One of my favorite Ben Katchor cartoons, published in Metropolis a few years back, cleverly explored the uncomfortable possibility that Americans have gotten a little carried away with their memorials. In it, a man walks down a city street of the future. An elaborate plaque or marker lies at nearly every corner, denoting the passing of people or places that no longer bear any great significance.

I'm not suggesting that the terrorist attacks of September 2001 do not merit a memorial. But this project is plagued with a ridiculously overblown sense of scale. It clings to the misguided and macabre notion that a proper memorial must lie within the footprints of the original towers. Its design relies not on simplicity, but on tremendously complicated feats of engineering. Most disturbingly, it is a memorial meant not to remember the lives of those who died, but to venerate the lost buildings and encourage visitors to wallow forever in the memories of their destruction.

Drilling deep.

A recent Senate proposal to write every American a $100 check to offset high gasoline prices also includes another rider to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for drilling. A recent Reuters article quickly sheds some light on the thought process behind this legislation:

House Speaker Dennis Hastert told reporters after a meeting with ExxonMobil Chairman and CEO Rex Tillerson that any consumer rebates would have to be offset by drilling in Alaska.

It's nice to see that our lawmakers are seeking out such authoritative, unbiased sources of information to aid in their decision-making.