Preference Personnelle

2012-01-26T17:53:00.000-06:00

TCB and Cetma are two tiny American companies that make bicycle racks.

2012-01-21T11:06:00.000-06:00

There's another En album coming out in March. I thought their first one was pretty good, if that's your kind of thing.

2012-01-02T17:30:00.001-06:00

Reading this Forbes article about Best Buy led me to this Wikipedia list of defunct retailers.

2012-01-01T12:10:00.001-06:00

Glenn Greenwald on progressives and the Ron Paul fallacy.

2011-12-30T12:09:00.001-06:00

I haven't posted here in six months? Really? New year's resolution: try to post links here rather than to other places.

On that note: Voters Examining Candidates, Often To A Fault.

Collins Scrabble Words (AKA SOWPODS, OSW), updated for 2012.

Otogi Banashi's Soundcloud page.

2011-06-10T21:08:00.001-05:00

This Unibroue Sommelier Selection is pretty great. If you see one, maybe pick it up.

2011-05-31T20:50:00.002-05:00

"This guy is at ground zero of everything that's wrong with contemporary civilization. However, if he wants to make a lot of money with my art, and it's not going to be overtly negative, then what the hell."--Don Ed Hardy, on Christian Audigier

2011-05-28T14:57:00.000-05:00

Naomi Klein, on branding and politics.

2011-05-18T20:37:00.002-05:00

If I've already got two strikes, I should probably stop swinging at every pitch.

2011-04-04T21:48:00.002-05:00

If you like Crash Mode, from the old Burnout games, you might also like this.

2011-02-19T12:43:00.001-06:00

Cascade, Centennial, Chinook, Columbus, Crystal.

2011-01-30T14:21:00.001-06:00

One Drawing for Every Page of Moby Dick.

2011-01-20T19:19:00.000-06:00

Two bad decisions.

2011-01-06T21:49:00.000-06:00

Lullatone!

2010-12-24T09:40:00.000-06:00

Eleven albums from 2010 I enjoyed:

Miquel Atwood-Ferguson - Timeless: Suite for Ma Dukes
Peter Brotzmann Tentet Plus One - Three Nights in Oslo
Cut Chemist - Sound of the Police
Date Palms - Of Psalms
Ghostface Killah - Apollo Kids
LA Vampires & Zola Jesus
Lagos Disco Inferno
Brian McBride - The Effective Disconnect
William Parker Organ Quartet - Uncle Joe's Spirit House
Zeena Parkins - Between the Whiles
Charanjit Singh - Ten Ragas To A Disco Beat

2010-11-17T21:27:00.001-06:00

It's a little weird to post a link to a TOC, but there's a lot of good stuff in this month's New York magazine.

2010-11-15T08:01:00.002-06:00

Kitchen Ink: chefs talk about their tattoos. If you like this, you might also like Food & Ink.

2010-10-27T17:29:00.001-05:00

Also, Aqua Buddha.

2010-10-25T21:27:00.002-05:00

If this is the kind of thing you'd be excited about, you'll be excited about this thing. VLC for iPhone/iPod Touch.

2010-10-06T16:57:00.000-05:00

He made it a point of pride to listen to every record that anyone sent him. He would listen literally to dozens of records a day. He said something once that I thought was really profound: He said that no one would bother making a record and sending it to him if he thought it was shitty. Obviously, to the people making those records, they are important. If he doesn't get it as a listener, if he didn't like it in some way, that's his fault, not the fault of the people who did something important to them. That's a pretty amazing, humble insight for someone like him to have.--Steve Albini, on John Peel

2010-09-15T17:09:00.001-05:00

"Once, while shopping at Target, a man saw Palin and hollered, “Oh my God! It’s Tina Fey! I love Tina Fey!” When other shoppers started laughing, the governor parked her cart, walked out of the store, and drove away."

2010-08-25T09:43:00.001-05:00

'Pro-business' versus 'pro-labor' is approximately as Orwellian a construction as 'pro-life' versus 'pro-choice.'

2010-08-15T22:41:00.001-05:00

"She's kinda pretentious."

"I know."

2010-08-05T09:21:00.001-05:00

Have you been Googling my name and then going to my employer's website? Because it's kinda weirding some of my coworkers out.

2010-08-04T19:13:00.001-05:00

Solar tsunami !

2010-07-31T23:47:00.001-05:00

I just had a notion to watch Oliver Stone's The Doors. I've never been a big fan of the director or the group. Is it worth watching?

2010-07-22T18:39:00.000-05:00

Local beef, local cheese, local bun.

2010-06-15T12:45:00.001-05:00

Ranger cans!

2010-06-07T09:15:00.001-05:00

The New York Times has an article about freegan squatters in Buffalo.

2010-06-05T20:03:00.002-05:00

"They wanted to use one of my other songs in the movie. And I was like, 'I can write a song about gang membership.'"--Ice-T, on 'Colors'

2010-06-02T18:20:00.001-05:00

If you don't like books and you don't like helping people, why the hell would you work in a library?

2010-06-01T18:47:00.000-05:00

10 Hop Varieties That Make American Beer Stand Out.

2010-05-31T19:44:00.001-05:00

'Onions,' by Bryan Owen, as quoted in Sean Chercover's Trigger City

She said I'm like an onion -
I had so many hidden layers.
I told her that
if she stopped peeling
she wouldn't cry so much.

2010-05-30T11:21:00.001-05:00

Baked potato stuffed with sour cream and cheddar cheese and salsa and hot sauce, you are a party in my mouth.

2010-05-20T12:07:00.001-05:00

I would again commend empathy as a path to liberation.

2010-05-18T21:39:00.000-05:00

Honey Tree Evil Eye.

2010-05-13T10:58:00.002-05:00

Tea-Party Jacobins (via Metafilter)

2010-05-11T11:01:00.001-05:00

My library has a couple kids books illustrated by Marc Boutavant. I think his illustrations are pretty neat.

2010-05-09T22:39:00.000-05:00

Google returns some results for "'Breaking Bad' 'Shimmy Shimmy Ya'," but none of them seem to tell me who did this dancehall cover version.

2010-05-03T21:46:00.002-05:00

The Big Picture: Oil Spill Approaches Louisiana Coast.

2010-04-27T19:23:00.001-05:00

Ricky Williams' kids are named Marley, Prince and Blaze.

Also, this 30 for 30, Run Ricky Run, is pretty good.

2010-04-27T08:28:00.002-05:00

Three books I've enjoyed lately:

Red-Flannel Hash and Shoo-Fly Pie, Lila Perl
A 1960s cookbook about regional American foods is already right up my alley, but this one was also one of the very first books illustrated by Eric Carle. He uses woodcuts, rather than the tissue-paper collage style that he's best known for.

The Redbreast, Jo Nesbo
My love affair with Scandinavian crime fiction is ongoing. This one is a dark, occasionally funny noir with two intertwining stories, one a modern hardboiled procedural and the other historical fiction about the Norwegian fascists who cooperated with the occupying Nazis and fought on the Russian front in WWII.

Hot Stuff: Disco and the Remaking of American Culture, Alice Echols
Cultural-history kind of thing, focusing heavily on disco's larger social effects. If you like this, you might also like Peter Shapiro's Turn the Beat Around.

Four albums:

Amanaz - Africa
Reissue of a 70s album from Zambia's Zam-rock scene. If you like 70s African psych/rock groups like Blo or The Witch, you'll probably dig this. Bass and fuzz, English and Bemba.

Balun - Memoria Textil
Dreamy vocals and a mix of organic (including accordion and violin) and electronic (including chiptune-ish stuff)--they call it IDM folk-pop.

Getatchew Mekuria & The Ex - Moa Anbesa
Septuagenarian Ethiopian saxophone legend gets together with Dutch avant-punks (and horn players from everyone's favorite ICP, the Instant Composer's Pool Orchestra), and it winds up sounding a little like 70s Ethio-jazz and a little like No-Wave.

V/A - Lagos Disco Inferno
Released by the guy behind the Voodoo Funk blog, who spent three years crate-digging in Africa. Your reaction to the phrase '70s Nigerian disco' will probably determine whether you'd enjoy this album, but, just in case you're on the fence, here's a Youtube promo.

Three artists:

Rockwell Kent
He did illustrations for editions of Moby Dick, Leaves of Grass and Erewhon, among many others. If you see an interlibrary loan librarian, tell 'em I said thanks.

Charley Harper
I only just learned there's a line of Charley Harper skate shoes, from Alien Workshop. This same company commissioned Mr. Dibbs, one of my favorite turntablists, to do the soundtrack for a skate video.

Kenojuak Ashevak
Inuit printmaker/sculptor, and one of the pioneers of Inuit modern art.

2010-04-25T22:19:00.001-05:00

An AV Club commenter brought it up, and now I can't get it out of my head: did AMC buy the rights to a bunch of old music for Mad Men, and are they now using it for Breaking Bad?

2010-04-21T08:48:00.002-05:00

Between Fight the Big Bull, Onetribe and Lamplighter Coffee, I think I'd like to visit Richmond. They've got a bike co-op and some breweries and stuff, too.

2010-04-17T14:38:00.001-05:00

I'm a little consumed with Rockwell Kent.

2010-04-13T20:03:00.001-05:00

Here's that Outside article, 'Surfer Girls of Maui,' that became the source material for that Blue Crush movie.

2010-04-05T17:35:00.000-05:00

He's got a sales pitch that is especially effective on women with low self-esteem.

2010-04-03T13:05:00.002-05:00

Some photo-of-the-day sites:
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Earth Science Picture of the Day
Boston Globe The Big Picture
Guardian 24 Hours in Pictures
Powerhouse Museum Photo of the Day
National Geographic Photo of the Day
Photo District News Photo of the Day
Cat of the Day
Dog of the Day
New England Journal of Medicine Photo of the Week

Also, Kitsune Noir desktop wallpapers.

2010-04-01T14:20:00.001-05:00

Taqueria Samantha is much better than the taco truck at the liquor store.

2010-03-30T10:59:00.001-05:00

Here's a TPM article about [Arkansas senator] Blanche Lincoln.

2010-03-27T11:52:00.002-05:00

God Hates Protesters
Fuck Yeah, Protest
Look at this Fucking Teabagger

2010-03-26T09:34:00.001-05:00

SXSW WHY?

2010-03-24T08:42:00.003-05:00

"Despite the relatively apolitical nature of their work, groups like The Roots and A Tribe Called Quest are hastily branded 'conscious' or 'political' because of their avant-garde music and aesthetics. On the contrary, the political critiques and philanthropy of 'mainstream' artists like Jay-Z or Ice Cube are often overlooked or dismissed. Within this superficial framework, hip-hop political consciousness is reduced to a thin politics of fashion and speech that privileges bourgeois bohemianism over engaged social critique and concrete action."--Marc Lamont Hill, in Born to Use Mics: Reading Nas's Illmatic.

2010-03-19T07:30:00.001-05:00

"Build it strong. Keep it simple. Make it work."

Rest in peace, Phil Wood.

2010-03-16T08:23:00.000-05:00

Pacman yeast + air compressor aeration = airlock going nuts.

2010-03-15T14:03:00.000-05:00

I can't imagine I have a lot of Google juice, but, just in case: Facebook Facebook Facebook Facebook Facebook.

2010-03-15T10:40:00.002-05:00

"You must return the book. That 25-cent charge is not a rental fee but a goad to return it promptly. As you note, other people are waiting for the book, hence the library’s decision not to let you renew it. That the fee is inadequate to provide a proper incentive, that the library does not instead charge $25 a day or $250 a day or impose a vigorous flogging (as described in the no-doubt-renewable “Mutiny on the Bounty”), bespeaks ineffectual enforcement tactics, not the freedom to keep a popular book past its due date."--Randy Cohen, the New York Times' Ethicist

2010-03-12T12:09:00.001-06:00

"Hardly anyone (except for the very stupid and very lazy) has ever accepted the ideals of beauty and/or desirability as set forth by their respective cultures' Fashionable Intelligence."--Rusty McMann

2010-03-09T17:06:00.002-06:00

Here are two good articles about Farmville (and game theory and psychology and stuff).

2010-03-03T19:21:00.001-06:00

Chris: Hey. What's my last name?
Walker: What's my first name?

2010-03-03T18:51:00.000-06:00

This is one of the most thoughtful articles about street lit that I have read.

2010-03-03T17:25:00.000-06:00

Somebody sent me a shopping list, probably by accident. Here it is:

Garlic
Orange
Miso
Peanut better
Brocolli
Edemame
Tofu
Eggs
Milk
Cereal
Cucumber
OJ

2010-03-01T09:46:00.000-06:00

Glass Jaw Sonnet,
by Gabrielle Calvocoressi, from Apocalyptic Swing

Glass jaw, chicken neck, bag of bones, heart sick.
Knuckle head, bug eyes, lily-livered chump.
Sweet feet. Heavy handed, gutless, headstrong,
Weak-kneed, barrel-chested, hairless, loose-lipped,
Lion hearted redneck. Hair of the dog.
Brainiac, bow-legged, slack-jawed punk. Head
Strong. Sweet spot. Gut Shot. Back away. Meat hooks.
Lazy eye, on the chin, stink eye, reed thin.
Face only a mother could love. Back down.
Nerves of steel, limp wrist, square jaw. Thin skinned, Soft-
Skull, small of the back, heart strings, limp wrist, green
Eyed monster, cauliflower ear. Knock-kneed,
Slim-waisted, eye of the tiger. In God's
Arms. Thick neck. Ass backward. Harden my heart.

2010-02-22T13:29:00.003-06:00

In the 2/15-22/10 issue of the New Yorker, there's a pretty good Malcolm Gladwell article about the anthropology of drinking. No link, because it's not online anywhere, but worth looking for, if you're into that kind of thing.

Vaguely relatedly, I drank my first bottle of my first batch of homebrew on Saturday. Didn't go blind. Even less relatedly, I recently learned that Midwest Supplies, a big winemaking/homebrewing store in Minneapolis, also sells hydroponic equipment. There may be a fascinating overlap here.

2010-02-20T14:17:00.001-06:00

Try to imagine Pegasus mating with a unicorn, and the creature that they birth. I somehow tame it and ride it into the sky in the clouds and sunshine and rainbows. That's what it feels like."
--snowboarder Graham Watanabe, describing what it's like to be in the Olympics

2010-02-19T07:42:00.001-06:00

Inspired by a conversation w/Jud:

Remember The Goats? What the hell happened to those dudes? Representative couplet from their first album: "Columbus killed more Indians than Hitler killed Jews/ but on his birthday you get sales on shoes." From their second: "The Northern Lights gets me high as kites/ got a stupid-phat collection of bongs, bowls and pipes."

2010-02-16T08:56:00.001-06:00

And speaking of Ghostface:

Caetano Veloso - Alfomega
Ghostface - Charlie Brown

2010-02-15T11:00:00.003-06:00

I've been listening to Ghostface's Fishscale a lot lately, so much that I've got these imagined videos for many of the songs in my head--e.g., 'Shakey Dog' looks like a blaxploitation Point Blank; 'Kilo' (bonus sample link here) looks like Sesame Street from the '70s. 'The Champ,' though, pretty much looks like this.

2010-02-08T20:21:00.000-06:00

Why Taylor Swift Offends Little Monsters, Feminists and Weirdos

2010-02-07T13:59:00.000-06:00

Go fuck a rainbow. Go hug a river.

2010-01-27T09:21:00.001-06:00

Neat public art in Cleveland: a 25-foot flower made partially of bicycle wheels, to mark a multi-use trailhead.

2010-01-22T21:44:00.002-06:00

Beer review: Red Fox Russian Imperial Stout

From the Joseph James Brewing Company, out of Nevada. Not quite black, not too thick, and heavily carbonated, especially for its style. It's okay. Not as complex a set of flavors as Old Rasputin or Storm King, and not as heady an aroma. The label looks like a kid drew it, which isn't necessarily an insult. Pretty drinkable for a Russian imperial stout, which isn't necessarily a compliment. Might be named after the late comedian, which would be awesome if it were true.

(Side note--Red Fox is $8/6-pack at Colonial Wine and Spirits (this is probably a limited-time offer). That's on the cheap end for craft beers, and it's in the Russian imperial stout bargain basement. If you like the style, the price might make this beer worth a try.)

2010-01-15T12:49:00.000-06:00

Two books I read in the last couple days: Got and Cake, by D. Hardboiled street-lit stuff. Here's a brief excerpt:

This shit is like a bad dream if you've ever had one, one of those really mindfuckin' ones you get on the nights you don't go to sleep high. That's actually why you always try to go to sleep high--cuz then it's nothing but black space and the sound of your own snoring.

If you like crime fiction or hip-hop music, or authors like Kenji Jasper, Donald Goines or Jim Thompson, you might give dude's books a try.

Another quick read: Michael Pollan's Food Rules. Less a book and more a set of epigrams, this thin tome lays out most of the gist of In Defense Of Food in easy snacking format (I think of 'Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much' as more of an amuse-bouche). It's kind of an antithesis to the Eat This Not That books, which operate from the first premise that you're going to eat a lot of prepackaged convenience foods and stuff from national restaurant franchises. You can read it in half an hour. You can read it again.

2010-01-13T18:23:00.001-06:00

Unexpected good thing about the Friday Night Lights movie: several Public Enemy songs.

2010-01-13T12:23:00.002-06:00

Song, by W. D. Snodgrass

Observe the cautious toadstools
still on the lawn today
though they grow over-evening;
sun shrinks them away.
Pale and proper and rootless,
they righteously extort
their living from the living.
I have been their sort.

See by our blocked foundation
the cold, archaic clay,
stiff and clinging and sterile
as children mold at play
or as the Lord God fashioned
before He breathed it breath.
The earth we dig and carry
for flowers, is strong in death.

Woman, we are the rich
soil, friable and humble,
where all our murders rot,
where our old deaths crumble
and fortify my reach
far from you, wide and free,
though I have set my root
in you and am your tree.

Song, by W. D. Snodgrass

Sweet beast, I have gone prowling,
a proud rejected man
who lived along the edges
catch as catch can;
in darkness and in hedges
I sang my sour tone
and all my love was howling
conspicuously alone.

I curled and slept all day
or nursed my bloodless wounds
until the squares were silent
where I could make my tunes
singular and violent.
Then, sure as hearers came
I crept and flinched away.
And, girl, you've done the same.

A stray from my own type,
led along by blindness,
my love was near to spoiled
and curdled all my kindness.
I find no kin, no child;
only the weasel's ilk.
Sweet beast, cat of my own stripe,
come and take my milk.

(Both from Heart's Needle)

2010-01-12T10:47:00.003-06:00

Somebody sent me a gumbo recipe. I'm pretty sure he meant to send it to somebody else with a similar email address, but, hey, gumbo recipe. Here it is:

1 ts salt
2 tb oil
2 tb flour
2 qt water
1 bay leaf
2 onions, chopped
2 lb shrimp
1 pt oysters
1/2 lb crabmeat, fresh or frozen
1/8 ts red pepper (optional)
3 c okra, or 1 t gumbo file'
1 cn tomatoes, 16 oz.
3 garlic pods (optional)

Peel shrimp before cooking & devein. Make a roux... use oil and flour in a heavy iron skillet. Over medium-low heat, place flour in the oil and let cook , slow , until the flour starts to brown. Adjust heat so that the flour does not burn. You want the flour to turn dark brown, stir as needed but, keep dat flour from burning. When you are satisfied that the roux is as dark as possible without burning, add the cleaned shrimp to it for a few minutes, stiring constantly. Set the shrimproux mixture aside. Smother okra in another 2 T of oil, along with the chopped onions. Add can of tomatoes when the okra is nearly cooked. Then add water, bay leaf, garlic, salt and pepper. Add shrimp and roux to this mixture and let cook slowly for 20-30 minutes. Add oysters and crabmeat, cook for another 10-15 minutes. NOTE If ya don't use okra, you can use gumbo file', which is crushed sassafras leaves, available in the spices rack of the grocery store. When using file' instead of okra, add it only after the heat is off... don't simmer or boil file'... it gets stringy. Let gumbo stand a few minutes after adding file' before serving. Serve over cooked rice.

2010-01-11T17:18:00.001-06:00

"If you love someone you should say it often/
You never know when they'll be layin' in a coffin."

2010-01-08T12:46:00.000-06:00

First Snow, by Mary Oliver, from American Primitive

The snow
began here
this morning and all day
continued, its white
rhetoric everywhere
calling us back to why, how,
whence such beauty and what
the meaning; such
an oracular fever! flowing
past windows, an energy it seemed
would never ebb, never settle
less than lovely! and only now,
deep into night,
it has finally ended.
The silence
is immense,
and the heavens still hold
a million candles; nowhere
the familiar things:
stars, the moon,
the darkness we expect
and nightly turn from. Trees
glitter like castles
of ribbons, the broad fields
smolder with light, a passing
creekbed lies
heaped with shining hills;
and though the questions
that have assailed us all day
remain--not a single
answer has been found--
walking out now
into the silence and the light
under the trees,
and through the fields,
feels like one.

2010-01-03T11:49:00.001-06:00

I like the sound of 'twenty-ten,' myself.

2009-12-30T20:56:00.002-06:00

"I get those honeys. I get that money. If I was Elmer Fudd, yo, I'd get that bunny."

2009-12-30T14:31:00.000-06:00

lemur is derived from the Latin word meaning 'spirits of the night'
lemurs are nocturnal with large reflective eyes & wailing cries
all lemurs (pygmy slow loris, crowned lemur, fat-tailed dwarf lemur, black
& white ruffled lemur, gray gentle lemur, ring-tailed lemur, aye-aye, slender
loris, slow loris, blue-eyed lemur, lesser bushbaby, collared lemur,
golden-crowned sifaka) have a 'tapetum,' a reflective layer over the retina
that causes their eyes to shine back light
lemurs evolved before anthropoids living during the Eocene epoch
55 million years ago
(the first monkey dates to 45 million years ago, the ape 35)
Madagascar broke from Africa 160 million years ago
did lemurs travel to Madagascar on clumps of vegetation?
lemurs are the closest living analogs to man's ancient primate ancestors
lemurs differ cognitively in the development of the associative areas of the brain
lemurs have scent glands on their feet that leave odors on the surfaces
they cross
lemurs have a heightened sense of smell
lemurs are arboreal, spending much of their time in trees & bushes
lemurs have large bushy tails that wave in the air to communicate
their tails help them balance when they leap from tree to tree
lemurs have a good grip for hanging onto trees & branches
lemurs are well-groomed & use their teeth as a comb
some lemurs are hermetic, live alone, awake & active at night
others live in large stable groups & in fluid associations
lemurs show female dominance
lemur babies are carried in their mothers' mouths
lemurs are usually vegetarian, primarily eating leaves & fruit
as they move from flower to flower lemurs transfer pollen on their foreheads
all lemurs are found in Madagascar & the neighboring Comoros Islands
the forests of Madagascar are being destroyed at an alarming rate
50 different species of lemur are critically endangered
80% of their habitat has been destroyed
lemurs are hurt by new weapons & deforestation
lemurs are the most gravely endangered group of primates in the world

--from Anne Waldman's Manatee/Humanity

2009-12-30T11:26:00.001-06:00

A Sad Harp, by Katy Lederer

My little instrument, my denouement,
Pass me through to this fine place of whimsy.
I am dreaming in my head of heart, my heart then of my head.
I am dreaming in my head of books,
Of books now bent, their words destroyed.
Are we thinking of this form as harm, we derelict, we deadly?
In the basement the doctor is just getting in.
I am going downstairs to receive my first treatment.
Replacement of the brain by heart, the heart, then, by the brain.
What medical audacity.
This doctor man, this doctor man.
His hands are now playing this sad little harp.
His hands are now playing this harp.

--
Lederer, who also operates Spectacular Books, uses my favorite spelling of 'Katy.' A girl I know named Katy, same spelling, just had a baby. They named him 'Ivan.' I had a great-uncle named Ivan, but he went by 'John' for most of his life. Red scare, I guess.

2009-12-26T09:41:00.001-06:00

Some info about old glass: Pyrex patterns, Viking, Ozark.

Also, a couple etsy sellers: The Studio Julen, The Bottle Diggers, YAVAglass.

2009-12-18T07:48:00.002-06:00

The rhyming on the Blakroc album is better than the rhyming on the Whitefield Brothers one, but I like the music better on the latter--sounds like they've been listening to Malcouns and Nomo.

2009-12-16T21:14:00.001-06:00

Rap Exegesis is another one of 'em.

2009-12-12T09:48:00.001-06:00

(Written a while ago, never posted for reasons forgotten.)

You know, I was way into GI Joe as a kid, but I have no desire to see the movie now.

The show was a program-length commercial produced by a toy company, designed to circumvent then-current bans on the amount of advertising in children's television. In an early effort at cross-marketing, the show fed the toys fed the comics fed the (first, animated) movie. And don't even get me started on the politics.

I mean, don't get me wrong--I had the bridge-laying tank and the hovercraft and alternate-colorway versions of people and all kinds of stuff. I'm pretty sure I sent away for William 'Refrigerator' Perry. I didn't know any better, because I was a kid. I loved it at the time, but any nostalgia I feel nowadays is for my childhood, not a bunch of plastic crap.

2009-12-11T09:18:00.001-06:00

Sugar, the operating system on the OLPC? There's a flash-drive version now.

2009-11-29T13:43:00.000-06:00

Resignation,
by J.D. McClatchy

I like trees because they seem more resigned to the way they have to live than other things do.--Willa Cather

Here the oak and silver-breasted birches
Stand in their sweet familiarity
While underground, as in a black mirror,
They have concealed their tangled greivances,
Identical to the branching calm above
But there ensnared, each with the others' hold
On what gives life to which is brutal enough.
Still, in the air, none tries to keep company
Or change its fortune. They seem to lean
On the light, unconcerned with what the world
Makes of their decencies, and will not show
A jealous purchase on their length of days.
To never having been loved as they wanted
Or deserved, to anyone's sudden infatuation
Gouged into their sides, to all they are forced
To shelter and to hide, they have resigned themselves.

2009-11-27T17:22:00.003-06:00

I like metal with holes in it, and so I really like old high-flange hubs. Or new ones.

2009-11-23T09:30:00.001-06:00

Under Mangini, Browns are a team in turmoil.

2009-11-19T16:47:00.000-06:00

Here's a neat discussion about lock-groove records.

2009-11-19T10:08:00.002-06:00

If you're like me, you eagerly read Slate's unauthorized index of Sarah Palin's Going Rogue. And, if you're like me, one of the items you're most curious about is the reference to "an old LL Cool J remix" on page 114.

Well, here's the relevant sentence. She's talking about some people she met while campaigning for governor. "They treated us to slices of homemade rhubarb pie, then gave us a whole blueberry pie that we shared with friends after our 800-mile, 40-hour round-trip, driven to the sound of the Black Eyed Peas and an old LL Cool J remix we found in the glove box." (More interesting claim on that same page--she hints that Obama bit her 'change' theme.)

I'm underwhelmed. Incidentally, though, Uncle L doesn't have any remix albums (well, there's a 12" compilation from '93, but it was vinyl-only), so either it was a cassingle, or she's playing fast and loose with the facts. As fun as it is to imagine the candidate listening to a remix of 'To Da Break of Dawn' or 'Pink Cookies in a Plastic Bag' for forty hours, I think the latter is more likely.

2009-11-18T12:56:00.001-06:00

Vintage Technics is what it sounds like.

2009-11-17T13:36:00.000-06:00

A Nexus of Phantoms,
by Will Alexander, from The Sri Lankan Loxodrome

In a lorikeet cave
motions exist of disintegrated swans
in a translocated lake
brimming with harvested poisons
sealed by corruptive post-mortems

such swans
staggered by microbial reasoning
their aggressive nests
anatomical with anomaly
with drifts of strenuous incarnadine leanings
with a thirst which hurtles conspirational invasives
alive
with coronal oceanics
open
like a clouded trail of rendings

analogous
with the "Auks" the pelicans the mergansers
perhaps
with "the petrols & the gannets"
under the power of darted mocking orations

the swans
looking back on solemn blood perusal
like a form of death breaking roses on a shore

it is the example of phonograms
of lost & compacted lenses
turning
within a charismatic "Fall Line"
or an "isoneph"
or what an avian would announce in Greenland
as a "Katabatic Wind"^*

the swans
like a haze of magnetism
or implied gondola locations
where the scent of each lorikeet is consumed
& brought to dazzling eclipse refulgence

in another foci
in another depth
their form self-challenged
in a cloak of suns
their power de-revealed
with 7 moons burning
reduced to 2 intense incendiary magnets

& those incendiary magnets
like a nexus of phantoms
scattered across a geometric optometry

* Rapid downward motion of air.

2009-11-16T11:03:00.002-06:00

Two poems by James Galvin:

When I Rest

When I rest my head over her heart,
I can hear the rowing,
Paddle-splash and oarlock-knock;
I can feel the pull
Into the swiftest run.
I can hear the current's pleas for silence,
This is important,
The better to hear her heart.
I feel like a blue feather in her skiff.
The river loves the sea, which absently
brushes its hair, waiting.
Unconcerned by the separation of lovers
It causes.
The sea has tides.
The tides have swells.
The swells have waves
From so much brushing.
When we glide asea, it's sunset so
We get to watch the river become the rose.

A Cast of Thousands

Want some violence? I thought so.
A young buck jumped the barded-wire fence
But misstepped an dcaught a hind leg
In the twist of top wire and next-
To-top wire. He hung head down and fought.
You can imagine the rest. Just try.
The slow death, the opacity of eyes.
How long do you think it took? Guess.
Terror that flailed the grass down to dirt,
That scraped the dirt down to rock and kept scraping
Before the sacred shock set in,
Hypothermia, the last heart-thud.
That spring I found the emptied carcass
Hanging. I was fixing fence.
By then the violence was gone.
It was just a skeleton with ribbons
Of hide lifting in the breeze.
On the ground a mount of fur where
Red ants were busy living.

2009-11-14T09:10:00.001-06:00

Computer Lab
by Miriam Goodman, from Signal:Noise

How do the programmers look when they work?
Some sit for hours and the room is full of noise.
Keyboards clack. Behind concentric grillwork--
whirring fans. Hammers knock the print heads
on the teletypes. And under the assault, the programmers
slide down in their chairs like paper in the platen.
Chins on chests. A desultory finger lifts and strikes
a key. The image on the cathode-ray-tube changes.
Bluish light. The disconnected dots construct a message.
Dry and steady, thought pays out like rope.
They breathe, they shift their weight, they tilt
their heads, they flex their feet. So silent
are the programmers, sitting under fountains
of white noise.

2009-11-13T12:52:00.002-06:00

Some mf'er asked, kinda, so: The History of Hip-Hop, 1985-2008. Twenty-four songs for twenty-four years. This is, intentionally, a very mainstream list, aiming for songs-of-the-year and legendary figures and broad trends and whatnot. Sorry I missed your favorite (I missed my favorite, too), but please feel free to argue with me.

1985: LL Cool J - Rock the Bells
1986: Run DMC - My Adidas
1987: Eric B & Rakim - I Know You Got Soul
1988: Marley Marl f. Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap and Big Daddy Kane - The Symphony
1989: Public Enemy - Fight the Power
1990: A Tribe Called Quest - Can I Kick It?
1991: Geto Boys - Mind Playing Tricks On Me
1992: Dr. Dre f. Snoop Doggy Dogg - Deep Cover
1993: Notorious BIG - Party and Bullshit
1994: Nas - It Ain't Hard to Tell
1995: Method Man f. Mary J Blige - I'll Be There For You/You're All I Need To Get By
1996: De La Soul - Stakes is High
1997: Company Flow - Fire in Which You Burn
1998: Big L - Ebonics
1999: dead prez - Hip-Hop
2000: Eminem - Stan
2001: Talib Kweli & DJ Hi-Tek - Expansion Outro/For Women
2002: Scarface - My Block
2003: Jay-Z - 99 Problems
2004: MF DOOM - Hoe Cakes
2005: Cassidy - I'm a Hustla
2006: Clipse - Mr. Me Too
2007: UGK - International Players Anthem
2008: Lil Wayne - A Milli

2009-11-11T15:51:00.000-06:00

War Is Kind,
by Stephen Crane (tip of the hat to Hugh)

Do not weep, maiden, for war is kind,
Because your lover threw wild hands toward the sky
And the affrighted steed ran on alone,
Do not weep.
War is kind.

Hoarse, booming drums of the regiment,
Little souls who thirst for fight,
These men were born to drill and die.
The unexplained glory flies above them.
Great is the battle-god, great, and his kingdom--
A field where a thousand corpses lie.

Do not weep, babe, for war is kind.
Because your father tumbled in the yellow trenches,
Raged at his breast, gulped and died,
Do not weep.
War is kind.

Swift blazing flag of the regiment,
Eagle with crest of red and gold,
These men were born to drill and die.
Point for them the virtue of slaughter,
Make plain to them the excellence of killing
And a field where a thousand corpses lie.

Mother whose heart hung humble as a button
On the bright splendid shroud of your son,
Do not weep.
War is kind!

2009-11-10T18:49:00.000-06:00

Terabyte.

2009-11-09T10:47:00.000-06:00

Two poems from Angie Estes' Tryst:

Take Cover

and couvre feu, cover the fire
because when the bell sounds, it means
curfew, it is mellow-drama, facsimile
of a tryst, trusted
meeting place, waiting
like a shelter or decoy, duck blind
with the perfect vision
of the Venetian blind; a number of thin
horizontal slats that may be raised
or lowered with one cord, all set
at a desired angle. Love too we're told
is blind, but desire,
as Aristotle knew, is all
angle, and so he gave us the math
to keep track of our loves: Number,
he said, has two senses: what is counted
or countable, and that by which
we count. Remember
to cover the rosemary in winter, uncover
the basil before the sun
comes up, and when you take
cover, cover your head with your hands
and forearms, as we learned in school, once
you have crouched under
your desk. In January, beneath the roof
of the house, a sparrow curves
in the scroll of a corbel, and soon
at Carnevale a mask will be held
at half-mast like the lid
of a casket before it lies under
the grass. How much ground
have you covered
today? You always take
all the covers, it's true. But do not
take cover under a tree
during a storm--your body will lift
its wick to light, and you will gleam
like Venus just before dawn: a satellite
in the atelier where true
and tree are related, unable to choose
between heaven and earth, to make seems
come true.

Gloss

My mother said that Uncle Fred had a purple
heart, the right side of his body
blown off in Italy in World War II,
and I saw reddish blue figs
dropping from the hole
in his chest, the violet litter
of the jacaranda, heard the sentence
buckle, unbuckle like a belt
before opening the way
a feed sack opens all
at once when the string is pulled
in just the right place:
the water in the corn pot
boils, someone is slapped, and summer
rain splatters as you go out
to slop the hogs. We drove home
over the Potomac while the lights spread
their tails across the water, comets
leaving comments on a blackboard
sky like the powdered sugar
medieval physicians blew
into patients' eyes to cure
their blindness. At dusk,
fish rise, their new moons
etching the water like Venn diagrams
for Robert's Rules of Order
surfaced at last, and I would like to
make a motion, move
to amend: point of information, point
of order. I move to amend
the amendment and want
to call the question, table
the discussion, bed
some roses, and roof the exclamation
of the Great Blue heron sliding
overhead, its feet following flight
the way a period haunts
a sentence: she said that
on the mountain where they grew
up, there were two kinds
of cherries--red heart
and black heart--both of them
sweet.