Entries from June 2008 ↓

Do you know this F? I’m curious. Another pic and explanation of context, after the cut. Continue reading →

Sometimes one’s cat accidentally advertises one’s wife’s upcoming play.

First off, Alex loves muppets, as can be seen from this pic:

Secondly: Okay okay okay okay okay I totally want to make one of these! But, unlike the guy in the video, I will not be doing any experiments at borders near where I live. I can only imagine the body-cavity searches I’d have to endure before finally convincing them that this is not, in fact, any kind of weapon.

In other news, I am (as usual) extremely disapppointed in the willingness of the American public (including myself) to be  manipulated by our leaders. Here are some highlights:

• Obama capitulated on the FISA bill — which he previously promised to fight tooth and nail –  and thereby actively participated in solidifying and legalizing the expansion of presidential powers, reduction of domestic freedoms, and criminal activities of this administration. I know I already blogged this, but I only have 3 readers anyway, and I hope they’ll forgive me for continuing to be pissed about this. I’m wondering if Obama-as-president would be an executive version of the disapointment that is Nancy Pelosi. You know, failing to do much of anything he said he’d do.
• Not to be out-caputulated, the Supreme Court refused to hear environmental lawsuits against the Department of Homeland Security about their little multi-billion-dollar border project down there. But there is still hope: Homeland Security isn’t just giving itself unconstitutional authority to ignore environmental law; it’s insisting it gets to ignore all the laws, precedents and human rights it feels are standing in the way of its effort to get the Border Fence constructed before someone figures out what a bad idea this is.
• Despite Certoff’s claims (don’t get me started on that guy…) to the contrary, global terrorism is much, much worse since we began our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

aaaaaand back to work.

There is another bike in our already-somewhat-small apartment. It’s a free bike that a lady nearby was giving away. It’s a 12-speed Velo Sport average-joe-grade road bike. The size is very nice for me and/or Brad, and everything works. I’m glad I didn’t take Brad’s bet last night, because I pumped up the tires and they’ve held 80 or so psi for several hours, now (I thought they would be punctured, but no). The frame has small bits of rust on it, not visible on casual inspection. There are nice little details, too, like Shimano quick releases on both wheels, lots of aluminum parts, those brake-release-thingies on the brakes, the gum hoods on the levers still intact. More details after the cut: Continue reading →

Sigh. And sigh again. I have been moderately excited about Barack Obama as a presidential candidate, especially in contrast to the nominees that the GOP produced. And I probably would have voted for Asmodeus if he was Hillary Clinton’s opponent. I don’t think I’ve blinded myself to the planks of Obama’s platform that are in some conflict with  my morals and ideals, but I considered (and still do, I guess) his potential positive effects to be more than sufficient to outweigh them, when compared to the other presidential alternatives.

Sadly, the other shoe has begun to drop. Perhaps, now that he’s no longer campaigning against a fellow Democrat for Democratic Party votes, he’s shifting strategies, being “pragmatic,” or something. This means, apparently, campaigning like a true politician. The most recent annoyances:

1. HE SIGNED THE FRICKIN’ FISA BILL! To be fair, he expressed deep regrets and a promise to keep fighting, but he still signed it. He signed it despite a promise last Fall to filibuster any bill with retroactive telecom immunity in it. So, the value of Obama’s promises is now lower. Not as low as McCain’s (not for a long while, yet), but still, lower. His high ground is getting muddy.

2. Obama now has one foot on the “Bomb Iran” bandwagon. He is following McCain’s and Bush’s footsteps in exaggerating Iran’s known military nuclear capabilities. This is very disturbing to me. Not good. One hint about why he might be doing this comes from his attempts to beat McCain to the pro-Israel votes. In an AIPAC speech recently, he threw them some bones, such as classifying Iran as “always” having been a greater threat to Israel than Iraq. Of course, he’s nowhere near the bellicosity of McCain’s AIPAC speeches, but we already knew that McCain is both ideologically hawkish, and also probably pretty confused about the Middle East in general.

3.  Obama used that fake presidential seal for a few minutes. Okay, that’s not such a terrible sin, especially since it was clearly fake (and also perhaps a bit tongue-in-cheek, a fact completely lost on Obama-haters). The problem, for me, is that’s the kind of thing Republicans usually do. I guess he’s decided he should emulate their tactics… or something…?

I guess the honeymoon has to end sometime. Obama’s has ended here, for me. He’s still — so far — the candidate I find least distasteful, by a long shot, but he’s a politician. He has demonstrated that, for the votes, he will use at least some of the same stupid tricks the other politicians use.

I was in Gore Park last night, taking this picture. I shot nearly 30 individual frames, and used 2 of them, with tone-mapping, to create this shot. I’m fairly pleased with it. It was intended as a background for a shot I took of the Constant k cast on the set. Sadly, the latter pic didn’t turn out (curses!). But I’m working on alternatives.

Anyway, I think I’m becoming paranoid. A guy came and chatted a little with me about my camera, and I chatted back. Then, as abruptly as he had shown up, he said his brief goodbye and left. This rattled me. I finished up, packed up, and walked back to the car, looking over my shoulder, so to speak (and sometimes literally) every 30 seconds or so. I passed the guy on the other side of the fountain, talking on a payphone. I passed other guys. Some of them were on payphones. I guess I wouldn’t have been so weirded out, except that the car was parked, all by its lonesome, down 3 nearly deserted, dark streets. Great place to get mugged.

Nothing happened, of course. I blame my paranoia on my poor sleeping yesterday.

Billy of Dark Mean Lays down a groove

 Last night was a lot of fun. Constant K went well, and beforehand I realized that — now that I am no longer an actohr, I can hang out and watch the musicians play their sets before the shows. Dark Mean was completely great. I like their sound. It reminds me of The Ocean Blue, Radiohead, etc. Then, we wandered to the Spotted Pig pub in Hamilton, and hung out while a really excellent man named Ted regaled us with his tunes. Then he let us Play and sing, and then there was dancing and general good times… very  nice.

My cat rocks. His little brother rocks too (but in a much more… blond… way). But Dexter is just awesome. This is one of his favorite things: snuggling under the blankets to cuddle with his humans. What kind of cat does that? :D This kind of affection almost negates his insane, neverending, house-destroying quest for food.

Pic of the day: Three people and a muppet. for some reason.

I’m supposed to be working. Right this minute. But I’ve just spent an hour reading through the (for me) interesting back columns on Measure for Measure, the NYT’s (thankfully non-subscription) blog about songwriting, by songwriters. Okay, so i went there just for Suzanne Vega’s recent piece, but I ended up reading a whole bunch of stuff. Yay! Songwriting! I should do some more of that, someday… my songs are getting stale, like cookies left in the cupboard too long. And I should write about something other than the ups and downs of dating, since I no longer have any dating ups or downs. I do have a song about a dead possum. And some snarky songs about politics. I could become this generation’s roadkill/protest singer. I shall get right to work on that.

Anyway, as I was saying, I have lots of work to do. None of it (sadly; so sadly) has anything at all to do with writing, singing, or even listening to songs.

Sigh. I think I need some Suzanne Vega, now. Yay, MP3s!

Totally unrelated to the photo: I was searching for wedding photos today, and I found one of the alternate texts for the wedding announcement Alex and I eventually sent out. Background: I was not very motivated to do any of the planning for the wedding, so my ever-ingenious wife did almost everything (not to slander Amanda, who also did almost everything). I am still not sure why we didn’t use this text for the official announcements. It’s pretty awesome, yo: