...more recent posts
a west wing creators problems mushroom.
chinoiseries, chinoiseries, chinoiseries, chinoiseries, chinoiseries
In following Bill's billiken link I was not entirely suprised to find that one of my favorite childhood places, Seattle's Ye Olde Cruiosity Shop had a role in clarifying the origin of the good luck charm.
The site is a bit goofy on my browser because of all the Java but some may find it worth the poke around.
Especially you James Ensor fans, this is the sort of souvenir shop he lived and worked in.
favorite charity at this moment
i should be happy i get to go to French Guiana for two weeks but i cant help but think of how in some whys it will be a sad trip--taking a river (tourist) cruise to visit some indian tribes (they dont let you all the way into the deep interior), seeing first hand thier lost of ancient ways--maybe its because i finished "Tales of the Shaman's Apprentice" or that i spent much time in the early 80's partying in Venezuala just a few 100 miles away instead of seeing first hand one of the last holdout's of ???? (the first McDonald's arrived this year) well there is a Creole/Amerindian etc food fest in one town while i am there:>)
Seems to me like the posting frequency is going up a little bit around here. Remember, if you are signed in, and the new post tracking system is driving you nuts because you can't or don't want to keep up - you can turn it off for certain pages in your preferences (link on the left of the home page - and I'll add my standard disclaimer about the interface being horrible and also how much better it will be very soon.) Also, if you like the tracking, but just want to get caught up in a single swoop, just go to clear.php3 and it will zero all the counters for you.
I Live In Weird New Jersey.
The Origin of the Billiken
Zig-Zag Man
wow. how bout matt haughey on the cover of brills content. heres the blurb.
From today's New York Times:
"Richard Evans Schultes, a swashbuckling scientist and influential Harvard University educator who was widely considered the preeminent authority on hallucinogenic and medicinal plants, died on Tuesday in Boston. He was 86 and lived in Waltham, a Boston suburb.
WFMU's most self satisfied
Douglas Wolk
I was watching ccn last night as the plane taxied acoross the tarmac and took off live from china (7:30 pm edst). The tv crew had a hand held dig video camera with a (cell?) telephone connection. Then the cops came and made 'em stop. "W" listened in on a cnn audio feed and the Generals at the pentagon watched on cable.
Any links available for info on that broadband two-way satelite company ?
Tomorrow's Thursday gathering serves as Bill's birthday party! (It's actually on Good Friday the 13th, so if we stay up till midnight you can ask him if he knows how old he is.) I don't think any firm plans have been hatched, so input is welcome. This could be an opportunity for early-comers to check out the Paul Laffoley show at Kent (Prince & Crosby), which should definitely been seen. It's only up till the 21st, and till 6:00 PM.
You just gotta love a rat eating Hawk
Wheel: I met the Butthole Surfers on the Lollapalooza Tour and we stays friendly until they stopped touring.
Paul Leary: Lollapalooza was the first tour where we didn't have to drive our own vehicle, set up our own equipment, tune our own guitars, and collect our own money at the end. That set us free so, we could get a
little bit fucked up.
Jim Berry: We all enjoyed it because we played the second slot in the afternoon. I'd be rolling the last case in by 4:30. They always took care of us, gave us plenty of beer and liquor. Our bus was a good escape for Perry Farrell and everybody else who'd want to hang out and not be bothered. No one would think, to look on the Butthole Surfers' bus.
Hale Milgrim: They totally were into improvisation. I'm a Deadhead, and I like the Butthole Surfers for some of the same reasons. This group kept on changing their sets, kept on growing and improvising. I knew that we would have some problems with key accounts that unfortunately are into censorship. I talked to the Capitol promotion department. I said, "Look, whatever you can get the group to go along with, the 'B-Hole' Surfers, would be appreciated [by the sales and marketing staff]." But I knew what I was signing. The A&R people didn't come to me and say, "Hey Hale, we want you to sign the 'B-Hole' Surfers."
Wheel: It was after the band signed to Capitol that the started playing the same show every night, I remember one day after 4 shows that were almost the same I said "You cant do this the same people come to each show" They played some different songs that night.
Yes, we experienced a fairly severe problem this morning. The server our site is hosted on went down. I'm still unclear as to the exact time (any help?) as I didn't check in as early as I usually do. From examining the logs, I believe the server was up as late as 8:18 eastern time this morning. Sometime after that it went down, and then it was back up again 12:52 pm. Not terrible, but I was a little paniced because I could tell that it was not an intermediate router that had failed (which is what usually happens when the site is slow or unreachable) but acutally our host server. Luckily everything seems to be O.K. Knock on wood, and maybe say a little prayer (or whatever you do) to the magic elves at hurricane electric for basically keeping everything working pretty well.
Yes, we experienced a fairly severe problem this morning. The server our site is hosted on went down. I'm still unclear as to the exact time (any help?) as I didn't check in as early as I usually do. From examining the logs, I believe the server was up as late as 8:18 eastern time this morning. Sometime after that it went down, and then it was back up again 12:52 pm. Not terrible, but I was a little paniced because I could tell that it was not an intermediate router that had failed (which is what usually happens when the site is slow or unreachable) but acutally our host server. Luckily everything seems to be O.K. Knock on wood, and maybe say a little prayer (or whatever you do) to the magic elves at hurricane electric for basically keeping everything working pretty well.
the prisoner appreciation society
official sister site
(From the very nice blog Dave linked to: Wood S Lot)
"NASA's main goal [in the Mars program]
is looking for life. And so life means looking
for water," said Arizona State University geologist
Phil Christensen. --AP Story
Every popular press article on Mars has a similar
quote, or line of argument. Mars-Water-Life.
Mars-Water-Life. (Christensen reversed the usual
order, but whatever.) Journalists fear that if they
don't raise hopes of finding ET in the first
paragraph, the public won't read the rest of the
story ("It's just about boring rocks and stuff"),
and scientists are afraid of losing their funding.
We're desperate, as a species, for an
extraterrestrial Daddy figure who's going to explain
it all to us: God's been something of a
disappointment the past few thousand years, so now
we're pinning our hopes on gnarly little beings with
big eyes and chicken hands. I keep hoping some
scientist will tell the Times, "Look, stop putting
words in my mouth about water and life
and all that crap. Chances are excellent
that Mars and Europa and every place else in the
solar system we're looking at are dead,
dead, dead as fucking doorknobs. Please tell your
readers that what this is really about is
astrophysics, geology, chemistry, and other
subjects they slept through in school."
It'll never happen, but I can dream.
wkcr (89.9)is playing non-stop billie holiday today, tonight and into the wee hours of the morning, so if you are home, tune in. she would have been 86 today.