It was of course great to see everyone at NAQT this weekend, I'm glad my efforts to inject the barbecue atmosphere into the event were appreciated. I'm not upset about the bump Matt mentions, but naturally I will milk the guilt as it suits me. This was the first time in several years since I had a. seen high-school players play and b. heard academic questions. As such I'm pretty sure I'd get "pwned," as the kids say, but at the same time I was shocked by the things they didn't know, such as the movie-credits bonus which was bageled in my room (best boy, grip, foley). Ah, the generation gap. Tune in next week as I complain about how back in my day we only had 3 networks, and cartoons were only on on Saturday, and we were THANKFUL...

I was particularly jazzed to meet one of the competitors, who was the big scenestealer in the swell documentary Spellbound. How big of a scenestealer, you ask? So big that when I was wondering to others if that was him, I was told that the girl who won the Bee that year was a frosh in Michigan's QB program. My response was something like, "oh yeah, her." He seems as well-adjusted as any other QBer. Take that as you will.

As a corollary, Spellbound has spawned the big trend in documentaries, which is capturing precocious kids doing things exceptionally well or at least seemingly out of their league. The two current ones are Mad Hot Ballroom, about NYC gradeschoolers learning competitive ballroom dance, and Rock School, about a Philly music instructor teaching rock to kids ages 9-17. I am unlikely to see the former, but Kirsti did see it Sunday and enjoyed it very much. I did see the latter last week, and thought it was great. It's especially recommended if you think kids should be cussed at more in education, and if you think "668! Neighbor of the Beast!" is a viable pre-gig rally cry.

Also viewed lately: the first two seasons of The Wire. While Sex & the City, Sopranos, and now Deadwood have been grabbing all the attention, this HBO series has quietly done its thing, and extremely well. I've long been a fan of NBC's Homicide, based on the book by David Simon. Simon created
The Wire, and he's injected a lot of what made his earlier work great, and without the questionable touch of Tom Fontana. The show demands to be watched on DVD, though. If I were watching an episode a week, I'd be completely lost without taking copious notes.