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Books this week:
"Dreaming in Code" -- some Salon© guy -- it shore ain't no "The Soul of a New Machine"
"The Year of Magical Thinking" -Joan Didion -- reflections on a sudden death.
"The Great Derangement: A Terrifying True Story of War, Politics, & religion at the Twilight of the American Empire" - Matt Taibbi. Anything with a subtitle that long should be suspect, and in addition, all serious works should have a goddamn index, especially when mentioning hundreds of individual politicians. |
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What the heck? The people who want my eBay offerings are all in Turkey, France, and most of all, from Australia.
P.I.T.A. |
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Just read a really outstanding biography by Julie Phillips of "James Tiptree Jr", AKA Alice Sheldon. I remember when Tiptree burst onto the SF world, although I think I may have bought "10,000 Light Years From Home" on the basis of the cover, which she hated.
Sheldon was a fascinating personality, but for me she DID come under that category of "Very Smart People Who Seem To Make Their Own Problems". She was a very DIFFICULT person, and for all her sophistication and worldliness didn't seem to see how great her life was. And I gotta admit I do have a problem with suicides, especially when they are murder/suicides, and the other person wasn't consulted. A lighter hand on the prescription bottle would have helped her, no doubt.
Still, an amazing life. Ursula K. Leguin comes off as wonderful as I ever felt about her, and Joanna Russ as the stark raving bitch she always seems to be. Harlan Ellison and R. Silverberg make good impressions.
Stunning, decade long work of biography. Recommended.
"James Tiptree Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon"
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"The same genes build a caterpillar and a butterfly, the difference is in the hormonal environment that selects which genes will be active."
from Pharyngula
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Well, I enjoyed this quite a bit, although it was more like "Celtic Sight-Reading Practice" than a "jam" literally: still, good practice and nice people. Oh, and free soup! Huzzah!
At the very least, another list of favorites to practice.
Played fiddle, and a little harp. OKAY, claves too.
(The guy w/the mandolin was hacking me off, it was so out of tune. He actually said "It's the right note: it's just out of tune." Grrrrrrr. Dude, that makes it the wrong note!) |
| » Seven Days Without Coffee |
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It's DAY 7 of the coffee avoidance regimen, and although the very second I started typing this my shoulder (the proximate reason for avoiding the bean) started twinging, I think I'll keep "on the wagon"-- my suspicion is that coffee, at least too much of it, hinders the body's repair mechanisms.
So, sadly, it will have to go on the list of "occasional treats" instead of "that which makes day-to-day life bearable, nay, POSSIBLE!".
::sigh::
Jan. 15th, 2009 @ 02:42 pm
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| » Quote of the Day: |
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"If you understand why you reject all the other religions, you'll understand why I reject yours."
Jan. 12th, 2009 @ 12:31 pm
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| » Yet another dance canceled due to weather /Jam instead. |
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Just RETURNED from the Bambino Jamboreeno, hosted by Todd & Paisley, which was a more than adequate replacement for the Dance. Thanks P&T, Frank,Wendy, & James!
Songs: "Rasheen"?? "Peanut Butter & Jelly"- cute! "Smash the windows". I myself played "The Banshee", which was the only one I could think of, dammit. Got good leads on jam sessions around the North End. Faked my way through several songs, drank wine and Jack Daniels. No wonder musicians abuse substances!
Dec. 26th, 2008 @ 09:24 pm
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| » Playing Music: reality check |
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So, I went to the open band dance tonight, mostly as a reality check on my speed. BOY did I get a check, a big one, lotsa zeros. Some of the tunes I could keep up with, but "Flying Home To Shelley" sounded COMPLETELY different from the way I do it. Almost like an entirely different song.
"Spootiskerry" I could do at group speed for 5 or six times, but after that it became a bit of a train wreck, and "Julia Delaney" went a thousand miles an hour. Dang. Well, got some new tunes to practice I guess: "Monster Cheesecake" (or something like that), "St. Pete's March", a couple others. I better mark 'em down before I forget.
Waltz-wise we played "Inisfere", very pretty, and "Josefin Dopvals" in F. Not G. That confused a lot of people.
Oh yeah: "Red Haired Boy/Little Beggerman", "St. Anne's Reel", "Smash the Windows".
Dec. 7th, 2008 @ 10:19 pm
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| » Ouch! My neurons! |
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Whoa! Not sure what just happened, but I was trying to play "Julia Delaney" from memory, and I wound up playing "Abruxa" in B-flat.
duuuuuuuude!
So, not only did I get the tune wrong, but I also got the key and the time signature wrong. Strike Three! 
Dec. 2nd, 2008 @ 09:34 am
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| » Star Trek GEEKFEST! link |
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http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/video_break_star_trek_prequel_trailer/
Fun free-for-all about the new ST movie, with significant Babylon 5 and Farscape input also.
Enjoy, my nerdly friends!
Nov. 19th, 2008 @ 08:57 am
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| » Laser Fiddle |
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Well, I'm sorry to say the Laser Fiddle Evening wasn't great, although the laser imagery was pretty cool and all. But the piano player really didn't make room for me in his music (I mean, heavy classical and complex Ellington stuff), so musically it was a bit of a bust.
Did get one thing going with the harp, but when the key is F# minor, it's a bit of a quandry which harp you should even be using, and do you have it, and does the damn song not modulate constantly? I went loaded for bear, with fiddle, mandolin, harps, and random hand percussion.
Meh. Oh, and I broke a fancy insulated coffee tumbler my cousine gave me on the very first time I used it, so 1) broken gift and 2) no coffee. No wonder I'm cranky.
Nov. 16th, 2008 @ 11:33 pm
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| » Omigod, what a RELIEF! |
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I don't know what the emotion is in the KERRRAZY parts of the nation (although I'm sure they'll let us know any second), but within my own skull, and I fancy MUCH of the deep deep blue Seattle hive-mind, the major emotion I'm experiencing is RELIEF!!! Thank the FSM for sending us Barack Obama: may all his endeavors prosper.
I'd take a bullet for President Obama. That's how much I want him to help the nation.
Nov. 4th, 2008 @ 09:45 pm
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| » Off to vote.. |
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... in the fucking PISSING down hail/rain. Thanks, God. Bite me.
Go Obama!
Nov. 4th, 2008 @ 05:34 pm
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| » Total blub: VOTE! |
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Tears of hope.
Nov. 4th, 2008 @ 07:33 am
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| » Gerrymandering |
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Gerrymandering:
OK, lookin' ahead: Registration reform is good and all, when it's not just a rovian tool of oppression, but what about gerrymandering?
Math nerds, help me out: is there some formula, maybe 'fractal dimensions' or something, that would allow people to judge the craziness of congressional districts borders and outlaw ones that are too 'pathological', in the mathematical sense? Because there are some LUDICROUSLY distorted congressional districts in our land, and the worst are often engineered to be Republican.
Nov. 3rd, 2008 @ 07:16 am
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| » Palin smackdown |
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"Palin is indisputably the single worst major party candidate for high office in living memory, a proudly ignorant political automaton whose only notable qualities are a pretty face, a sufficient lack of awareness to blind her to her own incompetencies and a quality of ambition that can only be described as voracious." --John Scalzi
My friends, that's some nice wordsmithing. Read it all.
Nov. 2nd, 2008 @ 10:22 pm
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| » GO Television! |
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I can't help it: everytime I see the acronym for "Get Out The Vote", GOTV, all I can feel is happiness that people are enthusiastic about television.
Nov. 2nd, 2008 @ 06:46 pm
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