Apples in Stereo, Velocity of Sound
What a wonderful CD from a great psychedelic pop band. Always cheers me up when I need it, so I use it only sparingly. We can't have too much happiness in our lives.
Bettie Serveert, Attagirl
Lately I've been think of Bettie Serveert as my favorite band. It changes from day-to-day of course, but they're up there more times than most bands. This CD is not as cool as the last one, but it's really warm and inviting.
The Libertines, Up the Bracket
This CD was all the rage two(?) years ago. The band's combustible personalities fueled by excessive intakes of all sorts of chemicals made them kind of fun to watch from the sidelines. One of the band members was in jail for a short time for burglarizing one of his other bandmate's place! Sadly, they broke apart in spectacular fashion. Oh, and the music was good too.
Lightning Bolt, Wonderful Rainbow
I don't know much about Lightning Bolt. Their liner notes don't reveal much and I don't have any of their other CDs. But this band seems to be a force of nature. You can just feel the talent and genius bleeding out of the speakers. Real loud. Real fast. No vocals.
Shipping News, Very Soon, and In Pleasant Company
I couldn't remember why I bought this CD in the first place so I took it with me to work yesterday to find out. I still don't know why I bought it. Eh.
Saturday, September 24, 2005
Monday, September 19, 2005
Teenage squirrel punks
My frail next-door neighbor has a black walnut tree that the neighborhood squirrels have always loved. Each year the squirrels drag these green nuts into our yard and store them away in preparation of winter. We find them in windowsills, in baskets and boxes in the garage, and of course, buried in the lawn.
Personally, I love the squirrels. I like to see them gorge themselves at the bird feeders and jump from tree branches to roofs and then scale the side of our stucco house. We even rigged up corncobs on bungee cords just to watch them swinging around.
This year’s squirrels seem to be particularly bold and reckless. They’ve become like a pack of bored teenage boys. In the elderly neighbor’s yard they have taken to consistently tipping over her potted plants and tossing all of the pots contents onto her patio. I know it’s not that funny to her—but I laugh a little bit each time I see her patio ravaged by these fuzzy-tailed hooligans.
And did I mention how loud they are this year? Constantly yelling to one another from rooftop to rooftop. Something big is happening here. I’m just not smart enough to figure it out.
Personally, I love the squirrels. I like to see them gorge themselves at the bird feeders and jump from tree branches to roofs and then scale the side of our stucco house. We even rigged up corncobs on bungee cords just to watch them swinging around.
This year’s squirrels seem to be particularly bold and reckless. They’ve become like a pack of bored teenage boys. In the elderly neighbor’s yard they have taken to consistently tipping over her potted plants and tossing all of the pots contents onto her patio. I know it’s not that funny to her—but I laugh a little bit each time I see her patio ravaged by these fuzzy-tailed hooligans.
And did I mention how loud they are this year? Constantly yelling to one another from rooftop to rooftop. Something big is happening here. I’m just not smart enough to figure it out.
Friday, September 09, 2005
When I'm a Free Man...
I just spent most of this Friday night reading all about economics for my hated masters program. It's amazing how an economics book can make even the most basic theory of supply and demand seem confusing and complex. Fortunately my professor seems like a good egg (despite his stated affinity for the Bare Naked Ladies! Egad.) and I find his lectures to much more easily digestible than this dry text book.
With one year left in the program (god willing) I'm already fantasizing about what I'm going to do with all of my free time. This summer was kind of hard as I was taking two classes and was dumb enough to agree to install an exhibition at work. I feel like I don't ever have free time (on the positive side it's been months since I wasted a night in front of the television). I should think about changing jobs when I graduate, but all I can think about is not what the degree will get me, but how I can't wait to stop working for the damn degree and enjoy my life (my old life, I guess). It seems pretty perverse at times.
Anyway, I intended to blog about what I want to do in my future free time, not question why the hell I'm in the program when I feel like I don't want to be in the field any longer. Soooo... What I miss most is messing around in the kitchen. I did get to make a chocolate ganache cake last week, but for the most part I haven't gotten to try anything new lately. I can't wait to get back at that.
I also look forward to reading for pleasure again. I'm not a real bookworm, I've got a bad habit of buying books that intend to read, but never do. But they sure do look good on the shelves and piled up around the house.
For some reason in the last year I've been really interested in gadgets and making stuff in the basement. Enter Make magazine and Ready Made magazine. I've been buying and reading them over the last year and I can't get enough of them. I have yet to try even one of the projects they write about, even one of the simple ones. But I tell you, when I get the free time I can't wait to make a cat feeder out of an old VCR (yes, I'm serious), or experiment with aerial kite photography. And all of this from a man who has never even held a soldering gun in his hand.
With one year left in the program (god willing) I'm already fantasizing about what I'm going to do with all of my free time. This summer was kind of hard as I was taking two classes and was dumb enough to agree to install an exhibition at work. I feel like I don't ever have free time (on the positive side it's been months since I wasted a night in front of the television). I should think about changing jobs when I graduate, but all I can think about is not what the degree will get me, but how I can't wait to stop working for the damn degree and enjoy my life (my old life, I guess). It seems pretty perverse at times.
Anyway, I intended to blog about what I want to do in my future free time, not question why the hell I'm in the program when I feel like I don't want to be in the field any longer. Soooo... What I miss most is messing around in the kitchen. I did get to make a chocolate ganache cake last week, but for the most part I haven't gotten to try anything new lately. I can't wait to get back at that.
I also look forward to reading for pleasure again. I'm not a real bookworm, I've got a bad habit of buying books that intend to read, but never do. But they sure do look good on the shelves and piled up around the house.
For some reason in the last year I've been really interested in gadgets and making stuff in the basement. Enter Make magazine and Ready Made magazine. I've been buying and reading them over the last year and I can't get enough of them. I have yet to try even one of the projects they write about, even one of the simple ones. But I tell you, when I get the free time I can't wait to make a cat feeder out of an old VCR (yes, I'm serious), or experiment with aerial kite photography. And all of this from a man who has never even held a soldering gun in his hand.
Monday, September 05, 2005
Museums and Hurricane Katrina
Throw this entry on the blog pile of Hurricane Katrina entries. I can't say that I'm close to anyone that was in Katrina's path. The closest I have is a friend who's parents live in Mobile and they made it through with little more than a lawn full of garbage.
Most of the attention is being paid to the human toll but a fair amount is also directed to the cultural loss. All the discussion of cultural loss that I've heard relates to New Orleans and its incredibly rich music community (Alex Chilton has been found!). But I haven't heard a lot on the loss of museum's and historic sites.
The American Association of Museums has a good page that has periodic updates on museums and historic sites in the Gulf region. Probably the most notable damage is the major damage to Beauvoir, the house of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy. But lots of other museums are hurting too and they play a large part in the tourist economy of the South. Reading through the updates I see that some places, such as the New Orleans Museum of Art, have staff that has stayed behind, despite the danger, to protect these cultural and artistic treasures. My gut reaction is that they are doing something heroic, but my training in disaster planning and management for museums says that their staying serves little purpose. Their lives are worth more than Da Da sculpture or a Confederate cannon.
Ms. stu and I intend to give money to an agency that will go to alleviate the human tragedy, but were also going to direct money to National Trust for Historic Preservation's 2005 Hurricane Relief Fund. To the handful of people that trip over this blog on their way somewhere else: please consider this worthy choice as you decide how you can help in the recovery efforts for this disaster.
Most of the attention is being paid to the human toll but a fair amount is also directed to the cultural loss. All the discussion of cultural loss that I've heard relates to New Orleans and its incredibly rich music community (Alex Chilton has been found!). But I haven't heard a lot on the loss of museum's and historic sites.
The American Association of Museums has a good page that has periodic updates on museums and historic sites in the Gulf region. Probably the most notable damage is the major damage to Beauvoir, the house of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy. But lots of other museums are hurting too and they play a large part in the tourist economy of the South. Reading through the updates I see that some places, such as the New Orleans Museum of Art, have staff that has stayed behind, despite the danger, to protect these cultural and artistic treasures. My gut reaction is that they are doing something heroic, but my training in disaster planning and management for museums says that their staying serves little purpose. Their lives are worth more than Da Da sculpture or a Confederate cannon.
Ms. stu and I intend to give money to an agency that will go to alleviate the human tragedy, but were also going to direct money to National Trust for Historic Preservation's 2005 Hurricane Relief Fund. To the handful of people that trip over this blog on their way somewhere else: please consider this worthy choice as you decide how you can help in the recovery efforts for this disaster.
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