Howdy
So, I've been sick for the last couple of days. I even took Thursday off. I think I have one of those colds that isn't going to be too severe, it's just going to hang around for about a week and cause me to lose sleep.
Yesterday I bought my plane ticket for my trip to Michigan. I am leaving on April 23rd and coming back May 4th. I haven't been up north for a sinfully long time and I am really looking forward to it. Not only do I get to see family in friends I haven't seen in forever I will also get to go to Pleva's Meats for some of their hotdogs. Best hotdogs in the world, believe me. I wonder if I can convince my family to have some already in the fridge when I arrive? I won't be getting in until late on the 23rd and the store will be closed when I arrive.
Two events will be taking place while I am up there, my grandfather will be turning 90 and my youngest sister will be graduating from college. Should be a fun time.
I also hope to utilize Autostitch with some pictures I take up there. I really want to take a good panorama of the 70 acres my Dad has up there. I hope I can upload my photos and burn some CD's up there because I am going to be a picture taking fool.
Turn Left
You know, I haven't been the least interested in NASCAR this season. I watched the Twin 125's and watched the end of Daytona and that's about it. I just don't give a darn. Is it the demise of older tracks? Is it the demise of Earnhardt, the semi-retirement of Mark Martin, the lack of rednecks or all that and more? I don't know. All I know is that I am finding it really dificult to give a shit about NASCAR right now. I still have a hankerin' to visit local dirt tracks so I still like racing. Can NASCAR win me back? Can I be won back? Probably not.
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Un Lun Dun
I think I may be on a young adult fantasy kick. Recently I read the first and, so far, only two books in Ursula Le Guin's new fantasy series and right now I am reading Un Lun Dun by China Mieville. I'm intrigued by Mieville's writing. He writes urban/modern fantasy. Generally that is fantasy outside of what you may consider traditional fantasy. I would group him in with Michael Swanwick, Sean Stewart and Kelly Link. I own his short story collection Looking for Jake. I have not finished the book but the stories I have read have really impressed me with the pure imagination that went into them.
Un Lun Dun is the story of two teenage girls who live in London and have adventures in a city that is a magical mirror of London called unLondon (hence the title). unLondon is not merely a reflection of London, it turns out the two cities exchange everything from clothing styles to garbage to enemies. The abcity (as it's called in the novel) is filled with as many variations of talking animals, bizarre humans or hybrids of the two that Mieville could dream up.
The city is being threatened by what is left of the Great London Smog of 1952. The girls appear in unLondon apparently to fill long kept prophecies. Instead of following what could easily be the usual journey of a hero in fantasy story Mieville starts throwing curveballs immediately. Nothing is as it's supposed to be and that's where the fun starts. Mieville directly attributes Lew Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland as an inspiration. Probably because the debt is so obvious that he wanted to be the first to make the comparison.
He obviously had a lot of fun writing this. Some of the citizens of unLondon are fantastic enough to almost be beyond words. He's not afraid to go on little rampages of description when going on about the many strange denizens of unLondon. He also has the ability to give a place the right amount of strangeness with just a few words like this scene witnessed by the two girls in an unLondon open market, "They ran...past what looked like an argument at a honey stall between a bear in a suit and a cloud of bees in the shape of a man." At this point in the book there are two drawings, one of the bear in a suit and the cloud of bees in the shape of man. Throughout the book there are many inspired drawings of characters we encounter and they are all drawn by Mieville. There's a particularly great illustration of a carnivorous giraffe that you really should see.
I hope to have this book finished by tomorrow night so I can move on to the new Anchee Min book called The Last Empress. It's a sequel to Empress Orchid, a book I loved when I read it a couple of years ago.
I think I may be on a young adult fantasy kick. Recently I read the first and, so far, only two books in Ursula Le Guin's new fantasy series and right now I am reading Un Lun Dun by China Mieville. I'm intrigued by Mieville's writing. He writes urban/modern fantasy. Generally that is fantasy outside of what you may consider traditional fantasy. I would group him in with Michael Swanwick, Sean Stewart and Kelly Link. I own his short story collection Looking for Jake. I have not finished the book but the stories I have read have really impressed me with the pure imagination that went into them.
Un Lun Dun is the story of two teenage girls who live in London and have adventures in a city that is a magical mirror of London called unLondon (hence the title). unLondon is not merely a reflection of London, it turns out the two cities exchange everything from clothing styles to garbage to enemies. The abcity (as it's called in the novel) is filled with as many variations of talking animals, bizarre humans or hybrids of the two that Mieville could dream up.
The city is being threatened by what is left of the Great London Smog of 1952. The girls appear in unLondon apparently to fill long kept prophecies. Instead of following what could easily be the usual journey of a hero in fantasy story Mieville starts throwing curveballs immediately. Nothing is as it's supposed to be and that's where the fun starts. Mieville directly attributes Lew Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland as an inspiration. Probably because the debt is so obvious that he wanted to be the first to make the comparison.
He obviously had a lot of fun writing this. Some of the citizens of unLondon are fantastic enough to almost be beyond words. He's not afraid to go on little rampages of description when going on about the many strange denizens of unLondon. He also has the ability to give a place the right amount of strangeness with just a few words like this scene witnessed by the two girls in an unLondon open market, "They ran...past what looked like an argument at a honey stall between a bear in a suit and a cloud of bees in the shape of a man." At this point in the book there are two drawings, one of the bear in a suit and the cloud of bees in the shape of man. Throughout the book there are many inspired drawings of characters we encounter and they are all drawn by Mieville. There's a particularly great illustration of a carnivorous giraffe that you really should see.
I hope to have this book finished by tomorrow night so I can move on to the new Anchee Min book called The Last Empress. It's a sequel to Empress Orchid, a book I loved when I read it a couple of years ago.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Impeach the Texas Yoda
Stephen Colbert calls congress a bunch of pussies. I think he may be right. Is there a ball snipper at the entrance of congress?
Stephen Colbert calls congress a bunch of pussies. I think he may be right. Is there a ball snipper at the entrance of congress?
Monday, March 26, 2007
C'mon chemicals!
I saw the best band on Friday night. We travelled down to Columbia to see Of Montreal. I don't know how to describe the band's sound. Obviously the leader of the band, Kevin Barnes, has listened to oodles and oodles of David Bowie during his life. So have I so that's cool. They seem to be able to waver back and forth between synthy pop and straight ahead rock and roll. Just know that their new album Hiss Fauna, Are You the Destroyer is one of catchiest albums this side of the Shins and Decemberists that I've heard in the last year.
Barnes may also be the most flamboyant straight person alive. When he came out onstage in panties with a pearl necklace hanging between his legs and a face full of makeup I assumed he didn't like girls. Maybe I'm just prejudiced but I was a little surprised when I was told by Beth Y. that he's a straight guy.
The venue we saw the band at is called Headliners. For those of you that have never been there before, the club is inside an arcade on the 700 block of Gervais St. in downtown Columbia. I knew it was next to a dance club but I was unaware that Headliners is inside an arcade without any sign indicating that the club is inside this arcade. I don't know if we ever would have found the place if it hadn't been for these two stoners we asked directions of. They were going there and invited us to follow them. Is calling then stoners rude? Would it have been better if I had said they reeked of marijuana?
I liked how Headliners was set up. The interior is rectangular in shape with the narrow portion taking up the space between the back of the club and the stage. It's two stories high with nice views of the show available from a balcony. It would be nice if more clubs gave short people places to see the show. It reminded of me of the Visulite in Charlotte. Since the Visulite is an old theater it has a sloping floor and strategically placed tables that allow short people and those that prefer to sit good views of a show.
Headliners even had air conditioning. Sometimes air conditioning is considered unnecessary in a rock club (hey there, Ziggy's and Cat's Cradle). Headliners doesn't consider A/C unnecessary although they do seem to view it as a luxury. It only came on right when I started to think it was getting uncomfortably warm. I guess they know the fat old guy threshold and were able to balance the clubs temperature right around that point all night.
We were both disappointed in the quality of the sound at the club. There wasn't much low end (couldn't really hear the bass guitar at all) and the sound was not loud enough for the room. As energetic as the band was I really thought the lack of response from those of us not at the front was due to the inferior sound. I hope to see them one day at a club with a sound system of higher quality. I don't think I will bother to go see a band at Headliners again. If I am going to drive that far for a band I don't want to have to hear that band over a subpar sound system. I was confused by that. The club nailed it on other factors: three bars, big bathrooms and affordable drinks but they didn't have enough speakers to fill the room with sound. Weird.
The show itself was stellar. The setlist was heavy on the new album and that worked for me because the only Of Montreal music I have heard is the new album. They pulled off every song well and I liked how the drummer payed keyboards and drums when necessary and the other keyboardist played guitar on a couple of songs. One time the drummer was playing guitar and stopped for a moment, moseyed over to his drum kit and knocked out a beat for about two seconds and then went back to playing guitar. He also spent a lot time flirting with the keyboardist, which was cute.
They ended the evening with a three song encore. Those three songs were Bowie's Starman, Hang onto Yourself and Suffragette City. Every rock concert should end with Suffragette City. I always feel bad when I can say that three cover songs were the highlight of a concert but I've never seen another singer live that can pull of David Bowie songs like Kevin Barnes. Hearing him sing Bowie is like hearing Antiseen play a Ramones song. As Beth said, "He can go ahead and sing Bowie songs all night." If he had extended that Bowie encore for two more hours we would have stayed for it.
I am impressed with any band that can be interesting when they sound like they are playing on a stereo in the next room. I really hope they come to Charlotte next time because I would love to see them and not have to drive a couple of hours in order to do so. I did find some real nice pictures of a show that took place about two weeks before the show I saw. You can view them here
I saw the best band on Friday night. We travelled down to Columbia to see Of Montreal. I don't know how to describe the band's sound. Obviously the leader of the band, Kevin Barnes, has listened to oodles and oodles of David Bowie during his life. So have I so that's cool. They seem to be able to waver back and forth between synthy pop and straight ahead rock and roll. Just know that their new album Hiss Fauna, Are You the Destroyer is one of catchiest albums this side of the Shins and Decemberists that I've heard in the last year.
Barnes may also be the most flamboyant straight person alive. When he came out onstage in panties with a pearl necklace hanging between his legs and a face full of makeup I assumed he didn't like girls. Maybe I'm just prejudiced but I was a little surprised when I was told by Beth Y. that he's a straight guy.
The venue we saw the band at is called Headliners. For those of you that have never been there before, the club is inside an arcade on the 700 block of Gervais St. in downtown Columbia. I knew it was next to a dance club but I was unaware that Headliners is inside an arcade without any sign indicating that the club is inside this arcade. I don't know if we ever would have found the place if it hadn't been for these two stoners we asked directions of. They were going there and invited us to follow them. Is calling then stoners rude? Would it have been better if I had said they reeked of marijuana?
I liked how Headliners was set up. The interior is rectangular in shape with the narrow portion taking up the space between the back of the club and the stage. It's two stories high with nice views of the show available from a balcony. It would be nice if more clubs gave short people places to see the show. It reminded of me of the Visulite in Charlotte. Since the Visulite is an old theater it has a sloping floor and strategically placed tables that allow short people and those that prefer to sit good views of a show.
Headliners even had air conditioning. Sometimes air conditioning is considered unnecessary in a rock club (hey there, Ziggy's and Cat's Cradle). Headliners doesn't consider A/C unnecessary although they do seem to view it as a luxury. It only came on right when I started to think it was getting uncomfortably warm. I guess they know the fat old guy threshold and were able to balance the clubs temperature right around that point all night.
We were both disappointed in the quality of the sound at the club. There wasn't much low end (couldn't really hear the bass guitar at all) and the sound was not loud enough for the room. As energetic as the band was I really thought the lack of response from those of us not at the front was due to the inferior sound. I hope to see them one day at a club with a sound system of higher quality. I don't think I will bother to go see a band at Headliners again. If I am going to drive that far for a band I don't want to have to hear that band over a subpar sound system. I was confused by that. The club nailed it on other factors: three bars, big bathrooms and affordable drinks but they didn't have enough speakers to fill the room with sound. Weird.
The show itself was stellar. The setlist was heavy on the new album and that worked for me because the only Of Montreal music I have heard is the new album. They pulled off every song well and I liked how the drummer payed keyboards and drums when necessary and the other keyboardist played guitar on a couple of songs. One time the drummer was playing guitar and stopped for a moment, moseyed over to his drum kit and knocked out a beat for about two seconds and then went back to playing guitar. He also spent a lot time flirting with the keyboardist, which was cute.
They ended the evening with a three song encore. Those three songs were Bowie's Starman, Hang onto Yourself and Suffragette City. Every rock concert should end with Suffragette City. I always feel bad when I can say that three cover songs were the highlight of a concert but I've never seen another singer live that can pull of David Bowie songs like Kevin Barnes. Hearing him sing Bowie is like hearing Antiseen play a Ramones song. As Beth said, "He can go ahead and sing Bowie songs all night." If he had extended that Bowie encore for two more hours we would have stayed for it.
I am impressed with any band that can be interesting when they sound like they are playing on a stereo in the next room. I really hope they come to Charlotte next time because I would love to see them and not have to drive a couple of hours in order to do so. I did find some real nice pictures of a show that took place about two weeks before the show I saw. You can view them here
Friday, March 23, 2007
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Auden on poetry
OK, this made me laugh: "The ideal audience the poet imagines consists of the beautiful who go to bed with him, the powerful who invite him to dinner and tell him secrets of state, and his fellow-poets. The actual audience he gets consists of myopic schoolteachers, pimply young men who eat in cafeterias, and his fellow-poets. This means that, in fact, he writes for his fellow-poets."
Stolen from this article. I don't feel so bad since the newspaper stole the quotes from a book.
My years in telephone reference allow me to attest to the truth of this next quote: " It is a sobering experience for any poet to read the last page of the Books section of the Sunday Times where correspondents seek to identify poems which have meant much to them. He is forced to realise that it is not his work, not even the work of Dante or Shake-speare, that most people treasure as magic talismans in time of trouble, but grotesquely bad verses written by maiden ladies in local newspapers; that millions in their bereavements, heartbreaks, agonies, depressions, have been comforted and perhaps saved from despair by appalling trash while poetry stood helplessly and incompetently by."
I can't tell you how many times someone called telephone reference asking who wrote the worst piece of Hallmark type poetry. Half the times these poems were so generic that I couldn't find an author and just completed the quote as posted on someone's personal Yahoo page. Usually these pages were replete with moving gifs and custom mouse icons that left trails of hearts.
OK, this made me laugh: "The ideal audience the poet imagines consists of the beautiful who go to bed with him, the powerful who invite him to dinner and tell him secrets of state, and his fellow-poets. The actual audience he gets consists of myopic schoolteachers, pimply young men who eat in cafeterias, and his fellow-poets. This means that, in fact, he writes for his fellow-poets."
Stolen from this article. I don't feel so bad since the newspaper stole the quotes from a book.
My years in telephone reference allow me to attest to the truth of this next quote: " It is a sobering experience for any poet to read the last page of the Books section of the Sunday Times where correspondents seek to identify poems which have meant much to them. He is forced to realise that it is not his work, not even the work of Dante or Shake-speare, that most people treasure as magic talismans in time of trouble, but grotesquely bad verses written by maiden ladies in local newspapers; that millions in their bereavements, heartbreaks, agonies, depressions, have been comforted and perhaps saved from despair by appalling trash while poetry stood helplessly and incompetently by."
I can't tell you how many times someone called telephone reference asking who wrote the worst piece of Hallmark type poetry. Half the times these poems were so generic that I couldn't find an author and just completed the quote as posted on someone's personal Yahoo page. Usually these pages were replete with moving gifs and custom mouse icons that left trails of hearts.
Mel Brooks on the American Dream
This is nice. I didn't realize that Mel was one of only seven artists to win all four of the major entertainment awards. Here he tells Forbes his opinion on the American dream.
This is nice. I didn't realize that Mel was one of only seven artists to win all four of the major entertainment awards. Here he tells Forbes his opinion on the American dream.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Enemies
Yesterday I heard an interview with Tom Delay on Morning Edition. At one point in the interview he refers to his political opponents as 'enemies.' I think that displays quite nicely the reason these far right people are dangerous. Hey douche, your political opponents are not your enemies.
Speaking of slime bag conservatives...
I have really enjoyed the recent attempts by Drudge to discredit Al Gore and his crusade to bring awareness of global warming to the world. You have to wonder about a political movement that is more concerned about bringing down one man than the planet they occupy and their descendants will occupy. Turns out scientists that have a problem with Al Gore disagree with how he presents his argument, not the overall science. But I'm sure you can see where it's more important to discredit Al Gore than it is to ensure our planet remains inhabitable.
Fox "News" still blows ass
I can't watch Fox News for more than five minutes before I start considering driving to Wal Mart, buying a shotgun and using it to blow my brains out but I do force my self to watch utter crap like this now and then. It's necessary to know what those jokers are up to. Notice how the talking head from Morning Star attempts to talk about a real issue and just gets blown off.
Yesterday I heard an interview with Tom Delay on Morning Edition. At one point in the interview he refers to his political opponents as 'enemies.' I think that displays quite nicely the reason these far right people are dangerous. Hey douche, your political opponents are not your enemies.
Speaking of slime bag conservatives...
I have really enjoyed the recent attempts by Drudge to discredit Al Gore and his crusade to bring awareness of global warming to the world. You have to wonder about a political movement that is more concerned about bringing down one man than the planet they occupy and their descendants will occupy. Turns out scientists that have a problem with Al Gore disagree with how he presents his argument, not the overall science. But I'm sure you can see where it's more important to discredit Al Gore than it is to ensure our planet remains inhabitable.
Fox "News" still blows ass
I can't watch Fox News for more than five minutes before I start considering driving to Wal Mart, buying a shotgun and using it to blow my brains out but I do force my self to watch utter crap like this now and then. It's necessary to know what those jokers are up to. Notice how the talking head from Morning Star attempts to talk about a real issue and just gets blown off.
Monday, March 19, 2007
Noir
I think I read my first noir fiction over the weekend. I read "Driver" by James Sallis. I had never heard of Sallis until I read the comic by the Unshelved guys. I had been thinking about reading a piece of noir fiction for a while ever since Pollack mentioned the genre in his blog back when he was reading and editing noir fiction.
Not only was the novel noir it was Hollywood noir. Have I written the word 'noir' enough yet? The scene you seen in the Unshelved comic strip is the opening scene of the book. From there you follow the fascinating life story of the character just known as Driver from teenage runaway to respected stunt driver and getaway driver. Three story lines are weaved together in this clever novel. The story of his early life as a child and runaway, his day to day life as a stunt driver and L.A. resident and the story of the robbery gone wrong that we are in the middle of when the book opens.
This jumping around in time and place can be a little confusing at times but it really all ties together nicely because Driver is on just about every page. Only near the end when the main plot is tying up do we lose his viewpoint for a few pages here and there. By that time Driver is stuck so firmly in your head that he's there with you as your are reading.
The best book are the ones you wish hadn't ended so soon.
I think I read my first noir fiction over the weekend. I read "Driver" by James Sallis. I had never heard of Sallis until I read the comic by the Unshelved guys. I had been thinking about reading a piece of noir fiction for a while ever since Pollack mentioned the genre in his blog back when he was reading and editing noir fiction.
Not only was the novel noir it was Hollywood noir. Have I written the word 'noir' enough yet? The scene you seen in the Unshelved comic strip is the opening scene of the book. From there you follow the fascinating life story of the character just known as Driver from teenage runaway to respected stunt driver and getaway driver. Three story lines are weaved together in this clever novel. The story of his early life as a child and runaway, his day to day life as a stunt driver and L.A. resident and the story of the robbery gone wrong that we are in the middle of when the book opens.
This jumping around in time and place can be a little confusing at times but it really all ties together nicely because Driver is on just about every page. Only near the end when the main plot is tying up do we lose his viewpoint for a few pages here and there. By that time Driver is stuck so firmly in your head that he's there with you as your are reading.
The best book are the ones you wish hadn't ended so soon.
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