August 14, 2004
For more information on Grand Funk, consult your school library!
Technorati searches blogs (XML? RSS?) in something close to real time. That's how I found Travis' blog, and how I discovered another salim.
Aside: Was the Alan Parsons Project really "some sort of hovercraft"?
... from the palace of Sennacherib to the markets of San Francisco
An article on dates in Yemen and Coachella features a familiar local face.
August 13, 2004
August 12, 2004
August 11, 2004
You don't sound like much of a prince
Tracked down a library-bound copy of Jay Williams' Petronella, illustrated by Friso Henstra; although the book is still in print, the new illustrations can't possibly have the captivating curves of Henstra's buoyant princess and enchanter.
Now I have to find a copy of their other collaboration, "Forgetful Fred."
... this is the sound of settling
The high-definition beauty of last year's breath-taking Transatlanticism
forms the audio track for two television shows, Six Feet Under and The O.C.. Meanwhile, Death Cab for Cutie frontman Benjamin Gibbard hits the road to advocate a Vote for Change.
August 10, 2004
Compare and contrast
If I depart from the stoop at 09h50, I arrive in Mountain View:
at 11h17 by bicycle + train (immediate cost: $4.50 for the CalTrain ticket);
at 11h00 by bicycle + bus (no immediate cost);
at 10h30 by private car (immediate cost: $5.00, for two gallons of gas);
and, departing at 06h45 by bicycle, I arrive at 10h00 (but usu. need to shower).
August 09, 2004
Wanted: handbasket, sunroof, a/c
``I've done made a deal with the devil,'' Adair said. ``He said he's going to give me an air-conditioned place when I go down there, if I go there, so I won't put all the fires out.''
Lewis Carroll, blogger
The Library of Congress have posted Lewis Carroll's collection of clippings.
The historian Edward Wakeling contribues an essay on the significance of this scrapbook:
Scrapbooks were, without doubt, a source of anecdotes and ideas that Carroll could weave into his conversations and literary works. It is fortunate that this scrapbook has survived intact, and in the state that Lewis Carroll left it. It is incomplete as there still are loose items waiting to be pasted in. The scrapbook was put aside sometime in the 1870s ...
The clippings, pasted over 70-some leaves, include poetry, obituaries, notes on linguistics, and Victorian ephemera.
August 08, 2004
One man's junk
In the time-honoured San Francisco tradition, I had a garage sale today. Or, more accurately, I had a wish-I-had-a-garage sale in which I didn't really sell much. If other people could use the stuff that I found in the basement, it shall be theirs.
I did put a smile on someone's face by selling them a dual-deck cassette player (ooh!) and a box of cassettes ("Van Morrison? The Cure? You're selling this?" he exclaimed) for $1; a 5-disc CD changer went for $5; and then I got tired of thinking about money and put up a "you want, you take" sign. A heavily-tattooed man with a backpack started pawing through a box of old office toys, and stared at a Happy Meal three-dimensional Yoda thingy for a while. "Whoah." he said. "Maybe it's because I'm stoned, but this is waaaaay cool." When I told him he could have it, he lit up. "Oh, that's great. I'm a found-art collage artist, and I'm on kind of a bender today." He walked off with a box full of the geegaws and whatnots that were piled around my space at Topica.
Another fellow stopped by, his Pirates hat framing a sunbeaten face. "How much for the bike?" "Free. You'll need to give it a clean and put some air in the tyres." "Oh, this will be great for Burning Man!" and off it went to a happy home.
I gave the grandson of the guys across the street the old Maguro trainer I bought in Chicago (off a newsgroup -- what a concept!). Someone picked the skewer off it, but I think that a bike shop will sell them a replacement for a few dollars.