phydeaux

2004-10-14T09:27:00.000-07:00

Metropolitan lights during steep banked turn, raising from LaGuardia in a Canadair regional jet.

2004-10-11T20:05:00.000-07:00

"Light painting" by Sean McCormick, photographer in the last issue of online photo zine, 28MM. Edited by Rachel James, this was an online photography magazine that was published from June, 2002 until October, 2004. Some great photography all in one neat little site.

Update: after some exploration, I also came across this interesting resource.

[via Josh Rubin: Cool Hunting]

2004-10-09T16:57:00.000-07:00

Homage to Richard Avedon, born NYC, 1923 -2004. Photo: Ronald Fisher, Beekeeper.

2004-10-09T16:05:00.000-07:00

Painting by Jonathan's father, Richard Lethem. Creativity must run in the family.

[via Lethem In Landscape]

Motherless Brooklyn

2004-10-09T16:01:00.000-07:00

"Context is everything. Dress me up and see. I’m a carnival barker, an auctioneer, a downtown performance artist, a speaker in tongues, a senator drunk on filibuster. I’ve got Tourette’s. My mouth won’t quit, though mostly I whisper or subvocalize like I’m reading aloud, my Adam’s apple bobbing, jaw muscle beating like a miniature heart under my cheek, the noise suppressed, the words escaping silently, mere ghosts of themselves, husks empty of breath and tone."

Lionel Essrog is the narrator and protagonist of what is both a satisfying private eye novel, and a "serious" novel about betrayal, lost innocence and the struggle to make sense of an alien world. One of four orphans taken in by a Brooklyn Mob "wise guy", Lionel and his cohorts move stolen goods and provide other services to the Mob. When their boss is murdered, Lionel alone is compelled to find the truth.

Lethem has created a most unlikely hero for a hard-boiled crime novel, except in a post modern sense. You can't think about Motherless Brooklyn without thinking about Lionel's Tourette's Syndrome. Lionel's Tourette's has been used masterfully to create a frenetic gritty atmosphere, advance the pace of the novel, and to give Lionel a depth and reality that most contemporary characters lack.

Never one to plod along the ruts of conventional literary genre, Lethem has turned the detective story on its head in a way that should satisfy both noir private eye fans as well as fans of Lethem's other novels.

While not everyone liked it, many reviewers liked it a great deal.

You can buy it here.

If you like this one, be sure to check out Gun, With Occasional Music, another satisfying genre bending private eye/SF novel, Lethem's first.

2004-10-09T15:59:00.000-07:00

Motherless Brooklyn, new noir classic by Jonathan Lethem.

2004-10-09T15:06:00.000-07:00

Oscar Leker, gluebook from China.

Blow Your Mind, With Glue

2004-10-09T15:05:00.000-07:00

Oscar Leker is a twenty something guy who lives in Lyon, France and glues stuff he finds into books. He creates incredibly varied works with found pictures, paper, writing, trash and things he creates himself. He's traveled extensively, creating works that are deeply influenced by his locale.

While Oscar is an enigma, he is collaborating with two other artists, Feike Kloostra and Linda Zacks who are a bit more accessible. After looking at this troika's work, I'm reminded of FOUND Magazine.

Check out Oscar's site, Blow Your Mind. He's got links to some other very interesting art sites.

[via Neurastenia]

2004-10-09T15:04:00.000-07:00

Felke Kloostra, gluebook collaborator.

2004-10-09T15:02:00.000-07:00

Linda Zacks, gluebook collaborator.

2004-10-07T20:56:00.000-07:00

Jeff Roysdon is a comic artist with some way out art at reasonable prices. He's also got some cool Flash animations. (Since his site is all done in Flash, I can't provide a link -- you'll have to go to his site and find it yourself.)

[via Raymi]

2004-10-07T20:49:00.000-07:00

Yeah! Raymi is back, mostly. She's not quite so obsessed these days -- she's got a job, living large and doing "wedgaoke". Rock on!

2004-10-07T20:30:00.000-07:00

Almost 4 years ago a coworker showed me this. I was blown away by the flamboyance and style.

Coming across his site years later, I'm glad to see that he's still among us. He's won a Webby Award, raises donations for the recent hurricane victims.

Any cute girls who are looking for an imaginative free spirited guy should click here.

2004-10-03T20:20:00.000-07:00

Dog blog Friday seems to have petered out, but here's another one of the beast.

2004-10-02T16:20:00.000-07:00

Mingo dining room--note garage door, its wonderful in the summer.

2004-10-02T16:18:00.000-07:00

Mingo kitchen crew.

2004-10-02T16:17:00.000-07:00

Mingo bar.

2004-10-02T16:15:00.000-07:00

Amy, Mingo waitperson extraordinaire.
.

Beaverton Fine Dining -- Mingo

2004-10-02T11:01:00.000-07:00

Yes, Beaverton and "fine dining" is an oxymoron, but Mingo certainly justifies the term. Opened a little more than a year ago, Mingo has become my favorite business dinner place. Mingo is a spin-off from Caffe Mingo located in the Pearl district of Portland. On several top-10 lists, the mother ship Caffe Mingo is sadly not perfect.

I've never had the pleasure of eating at Caffe Mingo, but I've found Mingo to be consistently good. Mingo is off of Hall Street north of the Beaverton/Hillsdale Hwy, in The Round. With a nice bar, interesting glass partitions, hand made paper lamps and one long wall made up of a few glass paned garage doors. My last visit a couple weeks ago, was Last Tuesday, and a beautiful Indian summer evening with the garage doors open to outdoor seating.

They have a great wine list with a number of smaller production wines. We had a very nice 1998 Barbaresco. My favorite appetizer is a great salad with thinly sliced cured beef and agrugula salad. There are lots of good main dishes, the halibut, and penne with a rich Chianti and espresso-braised beef sauce. My last meal was the lamb steak with roasted vegetables--not quite as tender as a chop, but much more flavorful. The daily special ravioli and risottos are good too. I've had the squash ravioli and it was great. The two best deserts (IMO) are the chocolate mouse and the panna cotta, especially the panna cotta . They also have good gelato.

While some have received less than perfect service, that's not been my experience. Amy was our waitperson on my last visit; she was knowledgeable, personable and efficient.

2004-10-01T20:25:00.000-07:00

Secured bike, Dublin.

2004-09-29T21:09:00.000-07:00

These Japanese girls stopped a couple white punk boys to take their picture (flirts) during a street fair on Sevent Ave, mid town. They didn't seem to mind me taking advantage of their photo op...

2004-09-29T20:57:00.000-07:00

LaGuardia tower

2004-09-29T20:21:00.000-07:00

I had to spend last weekend in NYC (east coast work last Friday and this Monday). I stopped by the Prada store in Soho that was designed by Rem Koolhaas. Way kool.

2004-09-19T17:40:00.000-07:00

A fine Pacific Northwest wine...

L'Ecole No. 41 Walla Walla Merlot 1998

2004-09-19T17:06:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday we had a special dinner, and cracked open a bottle of Northwest Merlot. A couple of years ago we took a second trip to the eastern Washington wine country and made it all the way to Walla Walla.

The L'Ecole No.41 winery is located in Lowden Washington (east of Walla Walla). Known for their merlot, L'Ecole No.41 is an established Pacific Northwest wine maker (since 1983). Many of the wineries we visited on this trip were, ahem, out of our price range. L'Ecole was no exception. However, the opportunity to grab one of the few remaining bottles in their library (some 1100 cases were made) of a reportedly outstanding year induced a momentary weakness and I bought a bottle.

The wine had an intense fruity nose with a hint of flint. Lots of ripe cherry and plum fruit on the palate with a bit of smoke and leather. There was good complexity and depth. Good structure--not too soft and not too chewy with tannins. The finish was a bit short, with lingering fruit and oak. All in all, a very good/excellent wine.

The bottle was also very drinkable the next day (today). The same nose and taste, with a bit of a herbaceous taste on the palate that was not there last night. The tannins were also a little more forward than yesterday. On balance, still a very delightful wine.

Maybe someone can tell me why some wines fall down completely shortly after the bottle is opened, while others hold up well. With only two wine drinkers in the house (not counting our son who gets his watered down) it is near impossible to finish a bottle at one sitting.

This wine went for $28 back in 2000, according to the Wine Guru; presently $60 at the Italian Village restaurants in Chicago; and between $30 and $40 at the winery in 2002.

This is a great site for planning a Washington winery tour--we've used it twice with great results.

If you're fortunate enough to be in or around Kirkland Washington, stop by The Grape Choice. The proprietor Larry Springer, gives great advice about wineries to visit in both Washington and Oregon.

2004-09-18T21:18:00.000-07:00

The perfect gift for someone you know, the Godfather Horsehead Pillow.

[Via we make money not art]

2004-09-16T20:10:00.000-07:00

Mr. Beefcake at the pool.

2004-09-05T22:03:00.000-07:00

Our hotel, the New Grange hotel in Navan.

2004-09-05T21:55:00.000-07:00

This is the Birmingham pub in Navan, more great Guinness. This was shot early, about 8:30pm before dinner. Guinness is known not to "travel well", and in fact the taste and mouth feel of this stout is but a shadow of its true self outside of the Emerald Isle. The texture was so creamy the flavor so rich, like a milkshake.

2004-09-05T20:40:00.000-07:00

Had many amazing pints of Guinness at pubs like this one. Twilight in Dublin.

2004-09-05T19:47:00.000-07:00

The 400 foot tall Spire on O'Conner Street, Dublin. Completed July 7, 2003 and known locally as "the Spike" the Spire was designed by the limey firm, Ian Ritchie Architects. Critics referred to it as, " ...a brave and uncompromising beacon, re-affirming the status of O'Connell Street as Ireland's principal urban thoroughfare... It will in effect reinvent the cultural dimension of the urban space of O'Connell Street." Locals called it an eye sore and misspent public funds. The 400 foot Spire cost $4.5 million, twice the initial estimate.

The Spire is a modern replacement for Nelson's Pillar, a 134-ft.-high stone edifice erected in 1808 that, unfortunately, was blown up by the IRA around the time of the fiftieth anniversary of the Easter Rising in 1966.

2004-09-05T19:37:00.000-07:00

This guy was playing a fantastic slide guitar. Nice outfit, too.

2004-09-05T19:33:00.000-07:00

Went to Ireland last week for a sales meeting and got to spend half a day checking out Dublin. This is the bank holiday crowd.

2004-09-05T16:10:00.000-07:00

Tag in downtown Dublin

Back Again

2004-09-05T15:57:00.000-07:00

Well as you might guess, the past few weeks have been rather intense. I'm back, with more photos and stuff to follow...

2004-08-24T21:39:00.000-07:00

Mr. Six-pack-abs, my 7 year old.

2004-08-24T21:37:00.000-07:00

Just a few of a big gang of "rollers" waiting for a flight at O'Hare.

2004-08-24T21:36:00.000-07:00

Orange County airport redhead, from last week...

2004-08-24T21:30:00.000-07:00

Hmmm, this is probably way in style, but I can't help but want to call the fashion police!

2004-08-15T22:48:00.000-07:00

"I see you..." Girl and salaryman on Japanese subway. David Crawford's Stop Motion Study.

2004-08-15T22:46:00.000-07:00

Japanese Tommy Girl, one of David Crawford's Stop Motion Studies.

Stop Motion Studies

2004-08-15T19:45:00.000-07:00

Imagine sitting on a bus or train, entering a trance-like state. You slowly become aware of how the shadows cast by objects outside the vehicle move along the walls, how the people move in sympathetic motion with the train, and how everything moves through space. This is the feeling of watching Stop Motion Studies.

Now consider the people-watching possibilities of public places (or on public transport). Imagine taking slices of time, capturing peoples gestures, to be repeated so they can be studied and amplified, allowing the emotional content of those gestures to hit you repeatedly. There is one more facet to the work, the subjects can see you watching them, and you see their reactions.

David Crawford has distilled slightly disjointed slices of time, capturing people in moments from blissfully unselfconscious to moments full of discomfort, amusement, hostility or nothing. What he has distilled is compelling in its distillation, strangeness and voyeuristic view of other people.

The artist chose subways as the locale because many types of people converge there, resulting in interesting dynamics and interactions.

I won't bore you with a bunch of post modern babble about "probing socio-cultural boundaries within our emerging digital environment" or "the project...not [being] about the transparency of these actors, but about exploring them" or "a stage upon which social dynamics and individual behavior are increasingly mediated by digital technology" (whatever that means). Almost sounds like a grant application, doesn't it?

Let's just say this is all way cool and worth spending some time exploring. My only disappointment is that there's no sound to go with the images.

One of Crawford's studies is like the movie Koyaaniskatsi, presented as series of vignettes focused on micro and macro levels of human activity.

Here is a good one, another one here and here.

To view this project, you’ll need the following free software: Netscape or Explorer 5.0+ & Flash 6.0+

If anyone knows where I can buy a disc with some of these on them, let me know via the comments below.

[via Turbulence]

2004-08-15T19:40:00.000-07:00

David Crawford's Stop Motion Study of Japanese school girls on subway.

2004-08-14T19:38:00.001-07:00

Day 15, model with mannequin

2004-08-14T19:38:00.000-07:00

Day 15, castings of the model

How Are Mannequins Made?

2004-08-14T19:34:00.000-07:00

Here's a photo essay on the making of a mannequin, from start to finish.

[via Fleshbot]

2004-08-13T23:51:00.000-07:00

Francois Berthoud, man of fashion

Francois Berthoud

2004-08-13T23:30:00.000-07:00

Fashion illustrator Francois Berthoud has been a leader in the field since the mid-eighties when he gained recognition as a regular contributor to the now defunct Vanity magazine. Over the past twenty years, his career has developed to make him a mainstream artist – one that recently had a solo show at the Swiss Cultural Center in Milan.

You can find a video interview here.

Update: Welcome those of you searching the web for Francois Berthoud. There's been a lot of you. I had no idea Francois was so popular. Let me know your interest in this guy...

2004-08-13T23:21:00.000-07:00

Friday dogblog--Dakota

2004-08-12T22:38:00.000-07:00

Classic Raymi -- disrobing in the Ladies room for the camera.

2004-08-12T22:33:00.000-07:00

Nietzsche's Superman, Mark Leyner...
say, doesn't he sort of resemble Raymi?

Nietzschean Power Fantasy; Leyner and Raymi

2004-08-12T22:00:00.000-07:00

Well, this started out as an entry on Raymi the Minx, but its morphed into one mostly about Mark Leyner. Raymi's writing reminds me of Leyner, so I started to reread a couple of his books, My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist and Et Tu, Babe.

Leyner's writing is pretty deconstructed postmodern stuff. Imagine a de Kooning rendered in words, or a less coherent (but no less entertaining) Hunter S. Thompson. His writing only verges on a narrative or plot. His work is "a very hyperactive mix of a biology thesis, a pop culture dictionary, and a homicidal terrorist weaving through rush hour traffic in an ambulance with an AK-47." When he's good, he's white-hot; when he's less inspired--well skip it, its not like there's a plot anyway.

Raymi is a female web-based analog to Leyner, an intersection of ego, stream of concousness writing, photography, some original artwork, and the public interaction between Raymi and her readers (currently referred to as douchebags), friends, acquaintances and family from Toronto. Here's one of her recent entries I especially liked.

Her writing demonstrates the same quest for emotion, juxtaposition, and fun as Leyner. Raymi is more mysterious to me than Leyner, perhaps because she is presented as a person herself, whereas Leyner's writing is just that--writing. I don't know whether Raymi would be as mysterious if I actually knew her. I am sure though, that Raymi is even thinner in real life than she is in her photographs.

Leyner tries to "give people a very unique form of pleasure. So I think they have a very kind of erotic appeal. But it's a kind of cerebral erotics. I'm talking about the feeling of pleasure that every person gets from reading. I want to make people laugh."

With the vocabulary of Nabokov, Leyner writes word after word, creating a prose poetry that strives for poetry-like intensity, line after line. His third book, Et Tu, Babe, is a shocking, tell-all, celebrity-studded chronicle that blends media, culture and trends with the same description-defying style as the rest of his work.

This is from My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist:

I was an infinitely hot and dense dot. So begins the autobiography of a feral child who was raised by huge and lurid puppets. An autobiography written wearing wrist weights. It ends with these words: A car drives through a puddle of sperm, sweat, and contraceptive jelly, splattering the great chopsocky vigilante from Hong Kong. Inside, two acephalic sardines in mustard sauce are asleep in the rank darkness of their tin container. Suddenly, the swinging doors burst open and a mesomorphic cyborg walks in and whips out a 35-lb. phallus made of corrosion-resistant nickel-base alloy and he begins to stroke it sullenly, his eyes half shut. It’s got a metal-oxide membrane for absolute submicron filtration of petrochemical fluids. It can ejaculate herbicides, sulfuric acid, tar glue, you name it. At the end of the bar, a woman whose album-length poem about temporomandibular joint dysfunction (TMJ) had won a Grammy for best spoken word recording is gently slowly ritually rubbing copper hexafluoracetylacetone into her clitoris as she watches the hunk with the non-Euclidian features shoot a glob of dehydrogenated ethylbenzene 3,900 miles towards the Arctic archipelago, eventually raining down upon a fiord on Baffin Bay. Outside, a basketball plunges from the sky, killing a dog. At a county fair, a huge and hair man in mud-caked blue overalls, surrounded by a crowd of retarded teenagers, swings a sledgehammer above his head with brawny keloidal arms and then brings it down with all his brute force on a tofu-burger on a flower paper plate. A lizard licks the dew from the stamen of a stunted crocus. Rivets and girders foat above the telekinetic construction workers. The testicular voice of Barry White emanates form some occult source within the laundry room. As I chugalug a glass of tap water milky with contaminants, I realize that my mind is being drained of its contents and refilled with the beliefs of the most mission-oriented, can-do feral child ever raised by huge and lurid puppets. I am the voice…the voice from beyond and the voice from within—can you hear me? Yes. I speak to you and you only—is that clear? Yes, master. To whom do I speak? To me and me only. Is “happy” the appropriate epithet for someone who experiences each moment as if he were being alternately flayed alive and tickled to death? No, master.

Regarding his writing style and choice of subjects, Leyner says:

"A lot of these things are funny because they're true and disturbing. We're often given horrible news in very cheerfully cold pronouncements, from doctors or nurses. You know -- you go into the doctor, then you're suddenly diagnosed, and the next thing you know, you've been handed this brochure about how to deal with your pathetic, remaining five years with some horrible illness. And of course the Q&A brochure has to be upbeat. It's probably been written and printed by a drug company whose drug you will be taking for the next few years.

"I used to write those Q&A brochures when I wrote advertising copy for medical advertising agencies. I was intrigued by the form because it's ostensibly a dialogue between two people. That's why one of my favorite parts of that Q&A brochure in the book is where one of the questions says, "This is a change of subject," and asks a question about baseball, and the brochure has this long tangent in it, making fun of the premise that this is a real dialogue.

Coincidentally, I do medical marketing.

Here's a review of his latest book, The Tetherballs of Bougainville.

2004-08-11T20:07:00.000-07:00

Kate Winslet and Jim Cary in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Eraserhead, the Love Story

2004-08-11T18:17:00.000-07:00

How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd;

Alexander Pope, Eloisa to Abelard

If you could selectively remove memories, would you do it? Past embarrassments, loves lost, life’s failures or disappointments could be excised with scalpel-like precision. And if you had the technology to selectively remove someone else’s memories, would you do it? For money?

Selectively removing memories would change who one is in more than obvious ways. I would lose part of my humanity, part of my potential as a person, the part of my life that ripples out from that which they erased. My reaction to everything that has come before, as much the bad as the good, is who I am today. To erase that would be like receiving a noninvasive frontal lobotomy.

To provide such a service for money is immoral.

This is the premise of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Love is cast as the experience that resonates in the character’s lives in spite of what’s cut out and cauterized from their memories.

This psychological premise provides the backdrop to a fragmented non-linier plot about love and destiny. A major portion of the movie occurs in the imagination of Jim Cary’s character, Joel. There are numerous flashbacks reinforcing the emotional storyline. The origami plot can only be put all together once the movie is over--very nicely done.

Kate Winslet plays Jim Cary’s love interest. She's a insecure girl who admits, “I’m not a concept, I’m just a freaked out girl who’s looking for her own peace of mind.” (Okay, since I saw this on a plane, she probably doesn't say "freaked" in the movie.) Jim Cary does well in this dramatic role—a more “pure” dramatic role than he played in “Truman.” In one of the beginning scenes on a train, Cary does a great a great Jack Nicholson impression, so subtle that I missed it the first time around. The rest of the cast is great as well.

I loved the movie, and the critics agreed. Okay, the movie is sort of a downer, but it has a happy ending. And the character’s reactions to their plights is noble and compelling.

(Apologies to David Lynch.)

2004-08-09T22:22:00.000-07:00

Christina Ricci at Bald Stars, whoa!

2004-08-09T21:52:00.000-07:00

Oni -- Japanese demon who steals the souls of evil people before they die. From Encyclopedia Mythica

Really Old Stuff That's Fun

2004-08-09T21:14:00.000-07:00

There is a great resource on the Classics, called Encyclopedia Mythica. Lots of great info on ancient societies--from Mesopotamian mythology to Japanese kami.

[via neurastenia]

2004-08-07T23:14:00.000-07:00

Xocolatl, the Aztec name for chocolate.

You Can Deprive The Body,

2004-08-07T15:50:00.000-07:00

...but the soul needs chocolate.

A few years ago I spent the weekend in Paris. As I roamed the city, every time I passed one of those little chocolate shops, I'd stop and buy a bar of 70% chocolate. At the end of the weekend, I must have had a dozen bars.

I've always loved chocolate. Before this trip, Dove dark chocolate was my fav. It took me a few months to consume the bars from Paris, and then I was ruined for any chocolate I could find here in the states.

Finally, I found Scharffen Berger chocolate - I don't remember where exactly, but it was probably at the world's best grocery store, Larry's Market. Founded by a former physician (who went to Paris to learn chocolate) and an ex-wine maker (champagne actually), Scharffen Berger's bars are every bit a match for boutique chocolate from Paris.

When they started their company they went to Europe and bought old fashioned chocolate making equipment, brought it back to South San Francisco, reconditioned it and started making chocolate the old world way. They've since moved to Berkeley and now offer factory tours and even have a cafe. The secret to their unique flavor is their blend of beans. They travel the world buying beans for their hand crafted blend.

In addition to their bars and cocoa powder, they sell cocoa nibs. Nibs are roasted cocoa beans separated from their husks and broken into small bits. They're ideal for baking into biscotti or cookies, and great on ice cream or even cereal (yes, I'm a real chocoholic). For the ladies, they have cocoa perfume.

Buy Scharffen Berger here.

Today I found a worthy competitor to Scharffen Berger for "best chocolate" in the U.S., Dagoba Organic Chocolate. At the Portland Farmers Market, there was a booth selling bars of Dagoba.

Founded on Yoda's home world, er, by a chocolate obsessed musician in Boulder, Dagoba has grown and moved to Central Point, Oregon. They had two stand-out bars, both dark of course. The first is a 59% lavender and blueberry infused bar, the other a 74% bar called New Moon. I've made lavender shortbread before, and this lavender chocolate is great - floral and earthy with a hint of blueberry flavor and occasional bits of blueberry.

Dagoba's claim to fame, is the "alchemy of flavor infusion, an art they explor with "mystery and integrity." Their lavender bar lives up to that billing. Dagoba also has their own unique blend of cocoa beans - also top quality.

Like many highly sought after things from Latin America, Dagoba comes in 2 pound bricks. No nibs though. You can buy Dagoba organic chocolates here.

[Hat tip: Beast Blog]

2004-08-06T22:39:00.000-07:00

Alien space dog, Cocoa in Mason's tent.

2004-08-06T22:32:00.000-07:00

Dog blog Friday - Dakota after a bath, nice and shiney.

She's No "Pretty Woman"

2004-08-06T21:15:00.000-07:00

She's smart, articulate, and urbane. Her blog is titled Postmodern Courtesan, and in it she describes her observations on life from the perspective of a high class prostitute - to hear her describe it, it's not that unusual a life.

Her blog is erotic with a paradoxical blend of intimacy and anonymity. Her writing is straightforward and matter of fact; she sounds self confident and authentic, comfortable with her life and herself (no inferiority complex here). She describes what its like, how she provides "cover" for her professional life, her personal life -- from the folks, to past lovers. If you have questions, she will answer.

Her blog handle is Olympia, and she provides a fascinating glimpse into her life. I don’t feel voyeuristic reading her – she comes across more like a platonic friend telling you about her semi-secret life. I just wish I had an image (a hand, knee or shoulder) to go with this post.

Dear Diary

2004-08-06T21:00:00.000-07:00

In what was a watershed event for me, this blog was bestowed some serious cred in The Bronxxx Diaries. I am now officially a "mothafucka", a considerable step up from my most recent designation, "asshole".

NAM:LIVE and Scream and Scream Again are two great and very worthy examples of "non-commercial" creativity to be found on the web -- if you know where to look. I was lucky to stumble across them both.

Sharing things I stumble across is why I do this -- and I'd love to hear from any visitors who have suggestions for music, literature, art and other pop culture.

Thanks to both Merlin and Chloe.

Spam Poetry

2004-08-04T15:25:00.000-07:00

manuscript
fruitless bait
very
nor spared

[what is Spam Poetry?]

2004-08-01T21:08:00.000-07:00

My Playstation buddy, Jessica Alba. She's pretty good, but I beat her

2004-07-31T22:58:00.000-07:00

Incredible fractal graphic wallpaper.

[via Pontus]

2004-07-31T22:45:00.000-07:00

The next Lara Croft? Jade from Beyond Good and Evil -- how I spend my evening...

[via GamersMark]

Beyond a Waste of Time

2004-07-31T22:24:00.000-07:00

Well I've wasted the entire evening playing a new game, Beyond Good and Evil. A great third person adventure game, BG&E is a "sleeper" -- a top notch game that for some reason has not gotten the cred it deserves. Super graphics, a hot protagonist, good plot, puzzles, action -- its got everything but gore.

Will post some stuff tomorrow...

2004-07-30T22:33:00.000-07:00

Typo Generator -- a site that converts text into an artsy-fartsy art poster. Pretty cool, just type in some text and the site creates a graphic design based on the text.

[via Neurastenia]

2004-07-30T21:41:00.000-07:00

Two for one dog blog Friday. Dakota and Cocoa gettin jiggy with it.

Spam Poetry

2004-07-27T21:33:00.000-07:00

industriously intelligible
esteem elderly
evidently ablest

[what is Spam Poetry?]

2004-07-26T21:41:00.000-07:00

Nectar of the gods, Desert Juniper Gin.

Desert Juniper Gin

2004-07-26T20:49:00.000-07:00

I developed a taste for gin and tonics in college. They were great for those hot and humid Texas summers. When the heat hit Oregon this summer we broke out the gin and tonics once again. It was over 100 degrees last weekend.

In a gin inspired stupor I was compelled to dedicate an entry to my favorite gin, Desert Juniper Gin. Still buzzed after dinner (mesquite smoked pork loin roast, arugula salad with shaved parmigiano reggiano, french bread) I got on the web and started my research. I had no idea booze reviews could be so pissy.

After learning the obligatory stuff like, "gin was invented in Holland in [either] the 1500's or the 1600's. I quickly became a scourge of... oops, "IT" quickly became the scourge of the working classes and was called "gin madness" by the nascent nanny state of the time. Anyway...

This stuff is really good. It is micro distilled in small batches (I think that was redundant). During distillation, they throw out the beginning of the batch and the end of the batch, keeping the smooth middle part. The high desert in Oregon, where the distillery is located, has lots of naturally growing juniper. The result is a richly aromatic juniper aroma combined with a surprisingly smooth taste -- perfect for really strong gin based drinks. And you can buy it online!

Juniper berrys also make a great ingredient in poultry marinades.

2004-07-26T19:37:00.000-07:00

Picking juniper berries -- is he having too much fun, or what?
[via Las Vegas Review Journal]

2004-07-25T15:02:00.000-07:00

Lead singer, songwriter Chloe Matheou.
[via Riddick White records]

2004-07-25T15:00:00.000-07:00

Cinematic "Psycho" allusion -- Chloe, lead singer of Scream and Scream Again victim of her own Stalker.

Scream and Scream Again

2004-07-25T12:47:00.000-07:00

I was cruising the NAM:LIVE blog last night. The latest post by Bronxxx is a Drive-By of a girl named Chloe Simone Matheou. She’s the lead singer and guitarist for the band Scream and Scream Again. (And married to Carl Porcaro, lead guitar of the band.)

The band has a post-punk style reminiscent of the Lunachicks that really rocks. They don’t have any CDs burned, but there are some good mp3 tunes worthy of download and enjoyment. Their rock/punk sound is matched by lyrics that are funny, ironic and snarky.

"Money, Movie, Me" features a trance-like guitar intro and then moves into vocals reminiscent of Patty Smith and a rollicking nihilistic anthem on desire, privilege and the eternal dream of something for nothing. Listen here. There's another version here.

"Someone should put me in a movie
Someone should give me some money
Someone should do all things for me
Just for being me

Everyone wants to be famous
I would rather just take the cash"

Keep Your Mouth Shut (xerox girls version) reminds me of Suicidal Tendencies with a female Mike Muir. Chloe sings about her "best friend" who she threatens with revelation of a litany of sins from poor fashion sense to genital warts. Given the this casual hatred, one can only imagine what the best friend's supposed to keep her mouth shut about. Chloe's British accent sounds great in this cut. Listen here.

Finally, we have a lo-fi home recording, "Stalker". This one's a more traditional hard rocker about a woman stalker who's obsessed about a man with "blue eyes, black hair". Listen here.

How knows, they could be the next X?

UPDATE: Welcome visitors from the Scream and Scream Again web site.

Spam Poetry

2004-07-25T12:21:00.000-07:00

elixir morning child
gloried
detailed

[what is Spam Poetry?]

2004-07-25T12:01:00.000-07:00

Flower girl from the downtown Portland farmers market.

Spam Poetry

2004-07-23T21:28:00.000-07:00

Ever since someone slipped my email address to a spammer, I've been getting multiple porn spams daily. Some of them contain subject lines with strange combinations of words – apparently computer generated to fool spam filters.

Some of these subject lines are strangely poetic…

darkness intolerable
cure
bless
repayment complete

2004-07-23T21:22:00.000-07:00

Cocoa on the deck

2004-07-23T21:18:00.000-07:00

Dog blogging Friday -- Dakota

2004-07-22T22:09:00.000-07:00

Bouffe Chinoise -- an incredible collection of freaky photos, Flash and video clips. NSFW [via #!/usr/bin/girl

2004-07-22T21:20:00.000-07:00

Went to San Mateo this week. Flew into SFO.

2004-07-22T21:17:00.000-07:00

SFO hotel shuttle pickup zone.

NAM:LIVE! -- Critic's Darling, Media Whore (NSFW)

2004-07-21T22:37:00.000-07:00

NAM:LIVE! is not just an album, its part of a multi faceted creative effort known as the Church of Nam that spans images, the printed word, music and performance art. With a goal of world (media) domination, the creator of NAM:LIVE!, Bronxx and his crew, have chosen a provocative metaphor for their art – religion.

According to Bronxxx, the man behind NAM:LIVE!, "Once upon a time, an artist's work was commissioned directly by the fans, known then as patrons. Since those glory days, corporations have positioned themselves as the middle person between the artist and the audience, creating a monopoly that serves to homogenize artistic output and limit what the audience is allowed to see and here."

Homogenized artistic output is what I think about when I hear a group like Train; euphonic, vaguely familiar and about as memorable as Wonder Bread. NAM:LIVE's sound, style and method can't be pigeon holed. Its a rich gumbo of rock, rap, R&B, soul and funk - and very tasty indeed.

Take a listen, here and here.

One of my favorites songs, Born to Rock, is an autobiographical song about Bronxxx experiences with a record label. He describes the absurd crazyness of the commercial music business; the fact that they don't really know what they're doing (as far as picking great talent) and their reliance on copying styles and genres in a misguided effort to make "safe" picks - which just results in bland boring heard-something-just-like-it crap. Its no wonder music sales are down.

Production values on the album are good. This is an electronic album, there is little air or soundstage in the recording. Dynamic range, frequency range and EQ sound great.

Buy NAM:LIVE! here.

[via: Fleshbot]

UPDATE: Welcome NAM:LIVE Blog visitors.

If My Life Were A Movie

2004-07-21T14:45:00.000-07:00

My life is rated NC-17.
What is your life rated?

Hat tip: Nightwalker

Music Reviews That Don't Suck

2004-07-19T21:49:00.000-07:00

If the best source for good music is word of mouth, then why is it that most published music reviews suck? Many reviews are masturbatory exercises where critics expound on how this reminds them of that, or pontificate on imagined influences and precedents of the music at hand. Nothing is provided about whether the music is actually any good or not, nor why – besides maybe some stars or other rating scheme. I blame this all on postmodern art theory; an insiders dialog in a language that only other insiders understand. For example:

“This, the sophomore effort for Steaming Manhole Covers, has a dark backbeat rhythm reminiscent of Death Cab for Cutie. Smith’s vocal stylings, obviously derived from Blue Airline Blanket’s feverish Todd Merryweather, perfectly captures the angst and passion of this album.” What? Death Cab for Cutie has a dark backbeat? Only one? And who the hell are Blue Airline Blanket? Feverish? This stuff gets boring real quick.

Of course, music is a very personal thing. What people like varies widely. It’s a rare thing when I can find a reviewer whose taste I share. And when that match reveals itself, I latch on. Even when it comes to sharing music recommendations with friends, occasions where tastes converge rather than collide is rare.

Its fun too, to figure out the meaning behind any kind of creative effort (it’s not always just about sex and drugs). Not necessarily the most insightful, your humble blogger checks out other reviews for perspective more monumental than my own.

But the most important part of a review is whether the album in question is any good or not. Unambiguous opinions (with explanations) are essential. Even if you hate the stuff I like, at least you’ll know what not to buy.

How a recording actually sounds is also very important to me, so I include an assessment of the sonic qualities of a recording. For reference, at home music is reviewed on a Naim CD2 CD player and Naim amp and pre amp. Speakers are Celestion. Naim interconnect and speaker cables are used throughout. On the road I use a Sony portable CD player and an iRiver IFP-390P mp3 player with Sennheiser M500 earbuds and Etymotic ER6 earphones. The Etymotic earphones are a must for air travel. This inside the ear canal earphone provides the best isolation from loud ambient noises.

2004-07-16T14:26:00.000-07:00

Dakota, house guest

2004-07-15T22:16:00.000-07:00

Dog blog (almost) Friday -- Cocoa, our family Pit Bull

2004-07-14T19:33:00.000-07:00

Raymi, cult figure. Hat tip: lobeline.net

2004-07-14T19:17:00.000-07:00

A classic Raymi self portrait

2004-07-13T22:39:00.000-07:00

The Minx herself

Raymi the Minx -- Web Goddess

2004-07-12T22:23:00.001-07:00

The self professed blogfather (of soul?), Raymi the Minx is a conundrum. She’s wicked funny when she’s not pissed off or seriously depressed. Her writing can be an exercise in abstract expressionism or achingly beautiful.

Raymi, whose real name is Lauren, is an “old soul” – her blog does not seem written by a 21 year old woman, except when she comes across as a twelve year old. I did say conundrum, right? She’s authentic and yet you’re always guessing if everything is for real. She assures her readers it is very real.

She’s been blogging since 1999 and is a highly valued blog. I've been hitting her blog since about 2000. She’s quite a writer and a regular contributor to Rocketpack. My favorite story is Raymi-Hump Monster a delightful story of young innocence, passion and dolls. There is a great story here about how to lose weight. (She had me change out a photo of her because she didn't think she looked skinny enough.)

It won’t take too much exploring of Raymi’s world to discover two things; she’s a beautiful young woman and she likes to take pictures in various stages of undress.

Go visit Raymi’s world.

2004-07-10T23:35:00.000-07:00

the emo life -- Hat tip: www.fourfa.com

emo

2004-07-10T22:57:00.000-07:00

Are you emo? Do you know someone who is? Can you recognize the emo around you?

Learn everything you need to know to be today's kind of cool right here.

UPDATE: It seems that the last link above has exceeded their bandwidth. The link goes to a great low budget movie about emo that's a real hoot. Be sure to check back later after their bandwidth meter gets reset.

Porn, Bad Taste and Pop Subculture (NSFW)

2004-07-10T22:02:00.000-07:00

These are words to live by. Created by a Mexico City graphic artist in Flash, Pornocha is an homage to women: sweet, sexy and tawdry.

Made up of photos, illustrations (digital and analog), and Flash animations, Pornocha explores themes of carnal lust, S&M, and violence. This is a hobby project site for the artist(s?) who appear to have day jobs as graphic artists.

Very creative stuff (if a bit sexually obsessed).

(NSFW)

2004-07-10T15:43:00.000-07:00

Prince's latest...

Hips and Lips, Chips and Whips

2004-07-10T15:40:00.000-07:00

Prince's latest offering, Musicology seems to be an album that people either love or hate. Older Prince fans looking for more of the 80's stuff they loved(Little Red Corvette, 1999, Purple Rain) might be disappointed. Time has not stood still for Prince, and nor have his musical sensibilities.

Musicology is a nice mix of soul, funk and unique amalgams of musical styles. The album is varied with each song standing on its own, yet seemingly belonging to the whole. Entertaining lyrics, good orchestration and high production values create a work that is both fun and a pleasurable listen.

2004-07-10T15:38:00.000-07:00

Gretchen Wilson