Huge congratulations to one of my firm’s partners, Harry Korrell, who today prevailed in one of the two Supreme Court segregation cases. And though the Seattle’s “integration” plan was held to be unconstitutional by the Court, Justice Kennedy’s unprincipled “middle-of-the-road” concurrence looks like it’ll pollute the law for lower courts to apply. As Slate nicely put it,

Justice Kennedy still wants Americans to be able to address racial imbalances; he just doesn’t want them to do so using systems that expressly account for race.

I hope I can post more about these cases this weekend, but for now, I’ll note how PICS goes down as another data point for doctrinal indeterminacy: 9 (presumably brilliant) justices can read Brown v. Board and believe that their starkly opposite opinions today are “faithful to [it's] heritage.” I’m sorry to beat a dead horse here, but there’s no “law” governing goverment race preferences– just social and political value judgments disguised in the language of law.

Life hacker has a post with cool news: Now, when you are usingGoogle Maps for driving directions, you can drag and drop your route if you want to modify it. This is a great feature I’ve wished for ever since I first used mapquest.

Anyone want to join me for some good music at Red Rocks?

Monolith Festival
September 14th-15th
Friday/Saturday

The Flaming Lips
Cake
The Decemberists
Spoon
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!
Cloud Cult
Art Brut
and 60 other bands

42.50 (one day), 80 (two day)

Two days later at Redrocks:

The Arcade Fire (with LCD Soundsystem) for $45

I just called to cancel my T-Mobile service and got suckered into waiting until next week to decide when their new service comes out. It’s the T-Mobile HotSpot phone. Other than the funny name, I think it’s basically a wi-fi phone that uses VoIP technology and a proprietary wireless router in your home. I’m not sure if it’s really a good deal for me since I get perfect service in my home with AT&Tingular, but the idea is a good one.

To spare you the pitch on the website, you get unlimited calling while using a T-Mobile HotSpot, be it in your home or in an airport, Starbuck’s (although I think they might have switched to ATT), etc. And it’s a regular plan with regular minutes when you’re not near a HotSpot.

As for the second part of the title, I’ve been following a design blog for about a year now that focuses on small dwellings and apartment living. It’s called apartment therapy. You have to sift through things sometimes, but since we’re all probably living in smallish spaces and/or apartments, it might be of interest. It has expanded to regional sites (originally NYC only) and spin-offs focusing specifically on the kitchen and home gadgetry. Particularly, I like the Good Questions and the Small/Cool contests. They’ve jumped on the Green bandwagon lately.

Another interesting (to me) site is ikea hacker. As the name implies, one dude really loves Ikea and tries to customize products to un-Ikea them or re-purpose them.

General question: Am I the only one of us who is way too deep into furniture and design generally?

When I chose my JttM password years ago, I didn’t want Joel and BWB knowing the password I usually use (my gmail account has lots of incriminting evidence), so I randomly made something up. Then I forgot the password, killed my computer, bought a new one, and then needed Joel to save me. I have been saved.

Rather than waiting until the end of 2007 to discuss this year’s music, let’s start now. Then I might actually research some of your recommendations instead of moving on to 2008’s offerings.

If you haven’t already, download XTorrent. It’s by far the best downloading service I’ve ever used. It finds reliable torrents online quickly. Often you can download every album by an artist with one click. (It should be noted that I do not download music nor recommend doing so).

I Highly Recommend:
Blonde Redhead - 23
Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha
Patty Griffin - Children Running Through
Cloud Cult - The Meaning of 8
The Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
The Shins - Wincing the Night Away
Peter Bjorn and John - Writer’s Block

I Recommend:
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Baby 81
Explosions in the Sky - All of the Sudden I Miss Everyone
The National - Boxer
Bright Eyes - Cassadaga
Menomena - Friend and Foe
Sage Francis - Human the Death Dance
The Cinematic Orchestra - Ma Fleur
Patrick Wolf - The Magic Position
Paul McCartney - Memory Almost Full
Elliott Smith - New Moon
Vitamin String Quartet - Tribute to The Arcade Fire’s Funeral
Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank
Joseph Arthur - Let’s Just Be

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I figured it’s time for an update of a personal nature, especially if you received the cryptic text message from me. If not, then I probably don’t have your number, in which case, we need to remedy that.

Along with the new phone number comes a move, a new job and a change of plans, in reverse order. After working for the telecom firm in DC last summer, I reevaluated what I wanted to do with my career and how I wanted to get there. In the end, I decided that I really loved being in a courtroom and litigation was what I wanted to do. The most fulfilling work experience I had was working for the US Attorney in Muskogee, OK. So, with that in mind, I called my supervisor there, and she told me that there would be two people retiring in about 3 years. She also suggested that I go to a DA’s office to get lots of trial experience. That’s why I’m now in Tulsa. It’s ironic because this was the one job I told myself that I would NEVER take or even seek to do. But in the end, I think I made the right decision. The pay isn’t even close to what private firms offer, but the work is more interesting than what I was doing at my firm. The trial-by-fire experience is invaluable, and since I’m single, I can afford to live meagerly for a while.

Speaking of the work, for now I’m handling misdemeanors and studying for the bar. I work for 4 hours and take a bar class f/m 6-9 at night. That leaves most afternoons for study. Once I do pass the bar, I think I want to push for a spot in the juvenile division. At Michigan, I was a student attorney in the child advocacy clinic, and I really enjoyed the work and the area of law. Interestingly, children have been largely forgotten in the American legal system. Child law has only been around for about 40 years.

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So I was traveling down some seriously tangential path on Rhapsody tonight and stumbled upon the “laptronica” genre of music. Intrigued, I checked out the number #1 band for this particular subset of electronic music and was pleased to disccover a Swedish band called “The Knife”. It’s a brother/sister duo known to be really, really reclusive. Like THEY-ARE-NEVER-PHOTOGRAPHED-WITHOUT-MASKS-ON reclusive. And these aren’t your everyday run-of-the-mill masks either. They’re like that freaky shit seen on “Eyes Wild Shut” — peacocks and ermines and stuff. I love this stuff. I love the fact that people can be this ridiculously quirky and get away with it. It probably adds to their appeal (this entry would be case in point). It helps that they’re from frozen, weird Scandinavia. A couple of guys from Mississippi or east Texas who decided to perform only with masks on would probably get their mailboxes bashed in and goldfish abducted.

They’re not too bad, though. I recommend “Heartbeats” to brave ears.

Look at these people –

What do you think they say to each other when the photo shoot is over and they go back to their apartment in Helsinki? Here’s my take:

Dude on left: Well, Olga, we got them again. They really think we’re the weirdo creme de le creme. (soft chuckling while flipping through the phone book) Hey, do you feel like pepperoni or sausage tonight?

Chick on right: Pepperoni, Leif. (checking voice mail on cell phone) Hey, did mom call you too? Evidentally, the cat got out again and we wants us to come over AGAIN….

Dude, evidentally named Leif, on left: (long exhale) Yeah, whatev.