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| December 14, 2005 |
I spent a day in Wuppertal last October,
riding their Schwebebahn monorail. (Not
the first time; that was in 1984.) Took a
bunch of pictures and put 'em all on a
new
page of thumbnails, with annotations.
In
this
week's Cat and Girl they ponder the meaning of Christmas.
For something a little more colorful, peruse Shag's
LA
by Day and Night.
Hawai'i,
he sang of thee -- that ukulele version of "Over the
Rainbow" I thought was Richie Havens or maybe Hootie;
turns out it's a large, enigmatic musician named Israel.
Two months since the fracture, operating at about 92%...doing
half-miles on the treadmill; right shoulder still hurting,
these little arthritic stabbing-pains, but much reduced
now. on the verge of joining the happy throngs of holiday travelers!
|
| December 11, 2005 |
Had an email request, and figured, why not post its
result, since there's interest, so: from the 1979
"Religion" issue of WET magazine:
Nikola
Tesla, Science Outlaw.
Sixteen
Serious Questions raised By "Rudolph the Red-Nosed
Reindeer" -- not the song, but the stop-motion animation
(with its Island of Misfit Toys) -- a Holiday Special
beloved to many, but I've hardly seen it, find it
weird and off-putting. This site merely reenforces my
POV -- c'mon, put on the Charlie Brown video, instead. Or the
Mister
Magoo. (Check the
latter's
IMDb trivia! The very idea: Jim Backus warbling out
"People"?!)
More Narnia: Tricia Olszewski's Washington City
Paper review:
If
I'm Lion, I'm Dyin'.
And one more from
Slate, by Liesl Schillinger:
In
pursuit of Turkish Delight --
The
Lion, the Witch, and the Really Foul Candy.
|
| December 8, 2005 |
Jeremy Mercer's
top
10 bookshops. I've been to #7 (City Lights) and #2
(Shakespeare & Co.) and I'm guessing
Jeremy's never been to Portland.
An
Atheist Manifesto by Sam Harris. His
End of Faith is on
my list.
|
| December 6, 2005 |
IVR
Cheat Sheet is a chart of escape codes for
corporate menu hell -- seems all three of
those keys in the bottom row of your phone's touch
pad are useful when trying to reach a human. Worked
for me! The bank handling my Roth IRA is giving me
a bit of a runaround; tried to get a human by repeatedly
pressing the zero key, to no effect. After reviewing
that site and calling again, with a few taps of the #
key -- instant receptionist! (Unfortunately,
the person for whom I'm only getting voice-mail
couldn't be located.)
Scalzi's
reaction
to Richard Reeves' recent "Worst President Ever"
column -- conclusion: not the worst, but
only Buchanan was worse.
|
| December 4, 2005 |
King of the Road:
On
Loneliness and Solitude, by Chuan Zhi
Shakya. (A mondogreen of mine: although "Pool" is
obvious from the context, I've always heard Roger
Miller sing "No Phone, No Fool, No Pets.")
You've heard First Class postage is going up to
39¢ on January 8, right? So let's review
the
2006 stamps. The stand-out, worth watching for
(around Memorial Day) will be The Wonders of America:
Land
of Superlatives. Others I find interesting will be
Judy Garland and Hattie McDaniel, Quilts, Snowflakes, and --
DC Comics
Superheroes! Dude -- there'll be an Aquaman stamp. The
snoozer of next year's line-up has to be Distinguished American
Diplomats.
Molly Ivins:
Let
God Speak for Himself.
|
| December 1, 2005 |
Deb Davis -- modern-day Rosa Parks? Read
of her struggle at
papersplease.org.
Also, Miami police plan
surprise
ID sweeps.
The
Strange Case of Chaplain Yee is a review of his
new book, For God and Country: Faith and Patriotism
Under Fire. More Gitmo horrors revealed in
Inside
Guantanamo, a report by one of the lawyers
representing the imprisoned there.
Heard on the radio, but didn't catch the source's
details, someone who'd been out of the country for
eight years, on What's Different About the USA
Now -- his concluding observation was, filling
stations -- how they've become festooned
with American flags. Why is buying gas patriotic?
Probably because even though it's not officially
acknowledged, everybody knows that's what the
war's really about.
Yesterday, dashing across el Camino, I realized -- I'm
running! For the first time in two months! Only a very
short dash, to be sure -- at normal walking speed,
can't quite keep up, and I'm still limping.
|
| November 27, 2005 |
Suburban California neighborhoods occasionally develop
the festive, tented structure, a short-term situation of
only a day or two, for termite extermination. Sometimes
big buildings, in this case, a church -- the biggest I've
seen is a whole hotel.
|
| November 25, 2005 |
Been hearing the stories for years -- gullable workers
at a rural fast-food franchise obey a voice on the
telephone, claiming to be the police, ordering
strip-searches.
A
Hoax Most Cruel in the Louisville
Courier-Journal is a long article detailing
many such incidents; says there's been up to sixty,
and a perpetrator was finally apprehended last year.
An urban legend?
Snopes
says no, under a false variant featuring a door-to-door
pollster.
Zippy
the Pinhead points to
Fruit
Bus Stops in Japan, a site whose navigation I
find completely inscrutable.
(Thanks, Judy!)
New Prisoner series will take
liberties
with the original. (The Dim View taken around here
when they start taking liberties is easy to imagine.)
Kos presents
the
new map -- approval ratings by state. And this
one's probably too late, but for planning next year. maybe:
Peak
Foliage Map.
|
| November 22, 2005 |
Two songs emblematic of The Depression are "Brother, Can
You Spare A Dime" (Bing's rendition, the only one I know);
and "We're in the Money". This past weekend I saw a pair of
great films, the first being the latter's movie,
Gold
Diggers of 1933 - an amazing Warner Brothers picture I've
known of for years, due to the Busby Berkeley number where
the showgirls play violins outlined in neon. Among other great
aspects (including Ginger Rogers singing a refrain of that theme
number, in pig Latin!) was the sudden, unexpected appearance of
Sterling Hollaway at Joan Blondell's door, as a delivery man.
Although she was a big glamour girl in the 1930s, I first
encountered Ms. Blondell in the Twilight Zone -- she's in one of
my
favorite episodes, which I think of fondly as "Uncle
Charlie Wigs Out". In both shows, during the scene with Sterling
Hollaway (most well-known now as Disney's Voice of Pooh) Joan Blondell
is elsewhere in the apartment, off-screen. At the end of the film
she belts out this incredible song, "Remember My Forgotten Man",
which is similar in message to (and as bitter as) "Brother Can You
Spare A Dime."
The other movie was Chinese,
Balzac
and the Little Seamstress, most of whose story was set
in the Cultural Revolution, kind of like a Fahrenheit 451
where the forbidden literature includes a translation of the
French author. I've never read him, perhaps it's time; my only
knowledge comes from three cinematic references. The first,
almost pre-history, is of course "The Music Man." My parents
have the Broadway cast album on a series of 45s, which they
played a lot when I was very young -- if you've seen the show
you'll recall River City elders' irritation with Marion the
Librarian reading Balzac. The second came in the 1970s when
I first saw "The 400 Blows" -- the youthful Antoine Doinel is
so taken with this author that he makes a little shrine in a
shoe box: a portrait with a candle, which he lit and then
covered with a bit of curtain, when called to dinner. The
subsequent fire angers his father. And now, the Little
Seamstress, the third.
More movie: Roger Ebert's
review of
"The Wizard of Oz", found on Studio 360's
page
of their program from Sunday night dedicated to that story.
Wicked was
mentioned, but Geoff Ryman's Was was not. The
former is about the Witch's back-story; the latter, a
possible Dorothy's.
|
| November 18, 2005 |
Are
You a Metrospiritual? I tried to take the quiz, but could
only answer four of the twelve multiple-choice questions, as
they all lacked "None of the above" -- but I'm guessing my
combination of "consumption habits with a hip spiritual lifestyle"
doesn't equal Metrospiritual. And yet, amidst the yoga and organic
food, knitting seems to be a strong attribute of the
new trend, bringing us to today's photo -- my first hat, finished
this week. (It's also a first attempt at multi-colored 'Fair
Isle' knitting.)
Whenever I encounter poetry, I skip right over it. Even
if it's embedded in a story and supposedly relevant; just
can't stand the form. But this recent bit by Jorn caught
my eye:
The President's Concubines. Related -- in
McSweeney's,
Hiding
the Ball in Presidential Interviews: How the Liberal Media
Can Finally Ask the Questions They're Dying to Ask,
by Jason Kellett.
History
of the @ symbol -- the history's just a few paragraphs; the
bulk of this page is a comprehensive, alphabetical language
listing (including FORTH!), each with some verbiage about what
they call the @ char. Animal imagery is commonplace, and the
Teutonic languages characterize the symbol as a monkey's tale (Affenschwanz) or hanging monkey (Klammeraffe).
Somebody cue
Dieter!
On Craigslist,
Cute
Guy Looking for Cheap Room (with photos).
Update:
this post has been removed.
|
| November 16, 2005 |
Fred Kaplan provides further evidence of the criminally
inept management of the shrub's imperial adventure in
Iraq, in
What's
everybody been doing for three years? Also in
Slate, but wholly unrelated --
The
Secret Language of Jeans -- it's about the
ludicrously expensive kind, which go for $hundreds
a pair. That can't be how much the 'distressed' stye
I
inquired about in AxMe cost (example
at the right, in today's thumbnail), can it?
Linkage concerning WWI Dazzle Ships appeared in
so-called 'first-tier blogs' over the last month or so.
I first encountered the expression in 1983, the title of
the
fourth Orchestral Maneuvres record, but it wasn't until
now that I understood its cover. A good summary is at
Razzle
Dazzle Camouflage. Also, a
Dazzle
Car.
Beavis,
Butthead, and the End of the Modern Age -- transcript
of a (long) 1993 lecture by Daniel P. Murphy.
|
| November 13, 2005 |
Haven't finished wading through the backlog of
Stupid
Comics, but there's lots of great stuff, usually
just excerpts punctuated with snarky commentary. In contrast,
a pair of complete stories, from comic books now and then:
goth
Betty and Veronica, and the
first
appearance of Supergirl. (The latter, from 1959, is
considered pre-Crisis
in the convoluted mythology of DC Comics, but don't ask me what
that's all about -- after my time, as it were.)
German
version of Where Did I Come From? -- good
for a few laughs. (I could relate to the scene of the
birth, a Klinik, since that's where I wound up
getting my cast, even though we're always taught the
word for hospital ist Krankenhaus.)
With the recent restrictions the NY Times
has placed on access to their online material, Paul Krugman
linkage has all but dryed up, but sometimes his columns
appear elsewhere, like
Defending
Imperial Nudity.
|
| November 12, 2005 |
Instead of delayed-reaction Euro-trip pictures, today's
photo was actually snapped a few hours ago. It's for
the benefit of Back East friends and family who don't
believe we have 'real' seasons here in California -- the
maple trees in Los Altos are dazzling, but it's their
last hurrah, the leaves are all falling, and if the wind
picks up these branches will probably all be bare in
a few days.
More walking improvement -- in fact, it's turning out
to be a fairly normal weekend, no longer restricted in
my activites. For the first time in a month, wore
matching shoes (although putting on the left was a
delicate operation). Then went on a short bike ride
(first time in the saddle in two months!) with
no trouble whatsoever -- so succesful, in fact, I
didn't put the awkward, black Velcro mukluk back
on -- long as I don't twist me ankle and take it
easy, I'm doing fine.
Sigh... also today, heard my first Christmas carol
("Joy to the World") in an ad on the radio. 'Tis the
Season!
|
| November 10, 2005 |
Today is the one-month anniversary of my
accident. To celebrate the occasion, I
declared my independence from the detested
crutches, leaving them at home. Slows me way
down, walking, since the Velcro boot still
immobilizes the injured ankle; but now I can
carry things again, and the load's off my hands,
shoulders and forearms, so they can start
healing, too -- 'specially my right shoulder.
A photo gallery from the Library of Congress:
Bound
for Glory, America in Color, 1939-1943. A great
window into the past -- some of the pictures
are familiar, like "At the Vermont State
Fair"... sure'd like to see that Pabst sign at
night, with the '43 Chicago skyline in the
background.
|
| November 9, 2005 |
Refreshing headline, this morning:
"Democrats Sweep Virginia, New Jersey Races."
Willie Horton's Swift Boat Crashes
In Virginia concerns the negative Republican
campaign there, for governor, managed by Scott
Howell.
Catching up with Doug Thompson -- now he's an
Enemy of the State. (All his recent columns are worthwhile
reading.) More about
National
Security Letters. One more link to the Huffington
Post, on
the
narrative of comeback.
In The Independent:
Who
Killed Brian Jones? Another ancient rocker
surfaces: Axl Rose voted
Second
Coolest Old Person by readers of the
teen rag Ellegirl.
B&W Photo Gallery:
Big
Donuts in LA. More sweets:
God
and Chocolate (discovered on Hanan Levin's
grow-a-brain -- his
link to that page is labeled with the provocative,
"Does Saying No to Chocolate Glorify God?")
Why
women don't laugh at the Three Stooges -- the
conclusion (of a very short article) seems to be,
"men" aren't as bright. But this one doesn't care for
those Stooges, either -- if we're doing slapstick,
I'll have a generous portion of the Marx Brothers
instead, please.
|
| November 6, 2005 |
Love the trolley-cars! Those in western Europe have more
modern rolling stock, but in Poland the old classics are
still in use. These are all in the smaller city of
Wrocław, which I thought was pronounced Rok-la but
in fact is actually Vrot-swav (easier when it was part
of Germany, their name for it: Breslau). One more
thumbnail-photo from there, before we move on -- a
line of rock spheres used to delineate the street, in
what's now the central pedestrian-only zone -- the last
one featured this little gnome-sculpture. (As you can
see, it was rainy-overcast, but only during the Polish
segment of my trip.)
Anniversaries:
Recollections
of November 6, 1975: the Sex Pistols first gig, and the
birth of Punk Rock. (Settle down, Ramones fan -- I realize
your band's debut was a little earlier, but to me,
they're merely a hinky pop act whose only appeal is to
teenyboppers -- like Kiss). Also, fifteen years ago
(but not to the day -- last month, actually)
the
IMDb was born. Not sure when I began utilizing this
vital internet resource, probably around '95 -- my only
contribution to the database, accepted before registration
became mandatory, is the first 'bullet' in this
soundtrack
listing.
Also, when I was in Poland I was reading the
then-current New Yorker in the cozy little
Massolit
English-language new & used
book-store/café, and I found the "Talk
of the Town"
Insurrection
column by Nicholas Lemann enlightening -- it details
the reasons for the delayed federal reaction to the
Katrina disaster, harkening back to Reconstruction.
|
| November 4, 2005 |
Readers of these pages have previously encountered my
appreciations of Muji. It's a Japanese chain with
branches in France and the UK, but none stateside,
yet (although they've a tentative presence in the
MoMA
design store, which I failed to notice when I
stopped in there briefly last December).
Your
life in their hands is a long, British update, with
info about their latest endeavor: Camp Muji.
Is there a design lover alive who hasn't found room
in their home for something from Muji?
My somethings include a short, vertical CD rack, and
a perforated, open-topped metal box hanging inside
the refrigerator door.
|
| November 3, 2005 |
More leg improvement -- I've begun walking extremely
short distances, expanding the envelope after a few very
tentative steps yesterday, without the crutches. At
the doctor's today, I learned mine are generically
termed 'Canadian' (even though these were Made in
Germany) as opposed to the traditional 'armpit' style.
Also driving my own car again (I had a rental, since
pushin' in that clutch had been out of the question).
In Slate,
Adventures
with a Tesla Coil -- use of a "lightning-throwing
death machine" in a theatrical performance, maybe.
A bunch of
MP3s
of video arcades circa 1982, recorded in Ocean City,
MD and Ithaca & Albany, NY.
Brilliant! The
Hippo
Water Roller -- these should be distributed to the
world's poor, courtesy the US Government. The gesture
would be an effective way of winning hearts and minds,
unlike other recent stunts such as
sending
Karen Hughes abroad on a 'listening tour'.
|
| November 2, 2005 |
Nora Ephron wonders,
What's
eating the shrub? Some pretty bleak hypotheses in
the follow-up commentary. Although it happened last
month, I just heard of the
hammer
incident, which prompted Letterman to call him
a sissy. More at Kos, in a post about how the president
denies
staging relief-effort photo-ops. And how about
that VP, getting his own vulgar phrase
hurled
back at him by
Ben
Marble?
Today, I learned that you can dial 3-1-1 to reach
non-emergency police and fire services. (Not everywhere
though, and I haven't tested it yet.)
Wiki
page on the n-1-1 numbers. Also, some
detailed instructions for
doing
your own telephone wiring -- did you know the
standard red-green-yellow-black wire colors have been
changed? Finally,
sunset
for AT&T and its 'Death Star' logo.
|
| October 31, 2005 |
Today, some more photos, all of Berlin storefronts. (Thumbnails,
of course -- click 'em for the big picture). I really like the
fat-tubed neon common in old German signage -- compared to
the usual, their craftsmanship seems more sophisticated, at
the points where the letters end and the electrodes begin
(but I doubt that what I'm getting at is discernible in these
examples).
Great James Kunstler today, about the War to Save Suburbia:
They
Lied to Us! And concerning the lies,
Tom
Tomorrow's latest is also excellent:
And this is just how life works: you look at what people
have said in the past, and try to suss out their motives,
and judge from there whether or not you believe them when
they hold up a vial of talcum powder and tell you that the
fate of life on planet Earth is hanging in the balance.
Digression: I'm really sick of hearing the
liberal-hawks-turned-peaceniks claim that they supported
the war only because of Colin Powell's breathtaking
performance before the UN, and are shocked and saddened to
learn they were lied to. Bullshit. You supported the war
because you didn't have the courage to buck what you
perceived as mainstream opinion, didn't want to align
yourselves with all those dirty hippies marching in the
streets. As it turns out, of course, the dirty hippies,
i.e. citizens from all walks of life, turned out to be
a lot more on the mark than you were.
(Note that Kunstler was among the pro-war faction.)
|
| October 30, 2005 |
|
Disregarding the 18-minute film I saw at Auschwitz
(compiled from Soviet footage shot the day after they
liberated the camp) my lengthy six-week absence from
the cinema finally ended this weekend, with screenings
of both "The Squid and the Whale" and "Good Night, and
Good Luck." The latter was pretty good but I found most
of the former's characters unpleasant, and its hand-held
camera work incredibly annoying -- at times, I had to
look away, this gimmick which allegedly simulates
verisimilitude has become quite stale (and makes me a
little sea-sick). But the picture's demonstrations of
disagreeable intellectual snobbery were useful (the
'fillet' of Fitzgerald? Good grief) and Laura Linney's
always great. Of note in the previews was "Jarhead" -- the
beginning of the Iraqi conflict, from a gyrene's POV.
Like Vietnam, I resist calling it a war, since Congress
didn't declare it; and I imagine future historians won't
distinguish much between Desert Storm and the current
occupation, since hostilities didn't really cease in the
interval -- in addition to the sanctions-blockade, sporadic
aerial bombardment continued throughout the Clinton era,
our team enforcing the "no-fly zone" from on high.
|
| October 28, 2005 |
|
A good day, not only due to the long-overdue justice
rendered unto another treasonous Republican criminal,
but because my left foot was liberated from its white
plaster boot! Finally saw an orthopädist this afternoon,
and was fixed up with a black Velcro-intensive "cam"
boot (so named because of its thick, curved sole) which
I can remove. Blissful, complete bathing, once
again! (Not since Budapest...) I actually moved up next
week's appointment due to some alarming swelling, coupled
with internet research indicating many victims of broken
fibula require surgery, with metal plates being bolted to
the bone. Fortunately, my fracture's down at the end, so
I won't be enduring that -- the doc even
suggested I begin putting some weight on the injured
appendage, but said I probably wouldn't be running again
until after Christmas, although I'll be riding my bicycle
by then. Awright! And in a curious coincidence with the
news, the indicted "Scooter" is always pictured makin' with
the crutches, just like me -- but he has the old-fashioned
armpit kind, which I tried, and rejected -- they hurt even
more'n the new-fangled shorter type I was issued in the
Fatherland. The doctor said the shoulder-pain they induce
is torn rotator cuffs, which Ibuprofen is making manageable,
so far.
|
| October 26, 2005 |
And what happened in Europe? It was great, so much
fun, everything accomplished; but spirits remain
dampened 'cause next-to-last day, I tripped off a
curb, twisting my ankle so badly it's still in a
cast (due to a fractured fibula). More pictures
later -- for now, some links.
Artists' Plea:
Don't
Send in the Clowns!
The
Real Harvey -- "American Splendor" update, in
Playboy.
Arianna's Honor Roll of
Journalists
Who Got It Right.
Accidental
Invention May Replace Light Bulbs -- Michael Bowers'
quantum dots (crystalline semiconductors with a biological
protein coating) fluoresced by a blue LED generate really
white light (but with no IR).
(more)
Index
of Artists in the New Wave Sleeve Gallery
(early 80s memory-triggers).
Concerning
Brian Eno's recent sonic installation, in a park
in China. Also, Chinese
space posters.
|
| October 23, 2005 |
This building, originally an insurance
company's, was near my room in Budapest. Called
the Anker, I assumed as in
Wat.
The main entrance, around to the side. There's
space
available on the fourth floor.
|
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