After the flood
Pictures of the yard taken today, and a month ago.

  posted by John : 1:37 PM

 
Listening
Welcome Arnie, to the listening room. Arnie has a helluva iTunes collection - and has been through Listening Room boot camp and so he's ready to roll.

Interested to know if anyone has an idea for the next playlist theme-wise? We're going away for the holidays... but I can start a new playlist next year. If the damn thing breaks while we're gone - sorry - I'll fix it when we get back.

Take a turn, add a tune, enjoy.

  posted by John : 8:53 AM

 
Frostweed

photo gallery

When the overnight temperature gets well below freezing here, these amazing ice sculptures burst from the base of the well-named frostweed plants. It'll happen the first few times we get a frost.

Also in the photo gallery are more deer-shots. Its hunting season in the area, so I think they're taking refuge here - at least until Victor chases them away.

  posted by John : 8:19 AM

 
Playing the shuffle game
As seen on the Glob and Wail... My 10 tracks aren't as embarrassing as I feared...okay, as for how that Connie Francis song got onto my hard drive I plead ignorant. Two Bob Marley tracks coming up is interesting, as I think I only have a couple of his albums. I'll take it as a good sign that these showed up.

And as Sharon pointed out, I AM 38 years old!

Name	Artist
Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You	Bob Dylan
My Happiness	Connie Francis
38 Years Old	The Tragically Hip
Halfway down	Dave Edmunds
All Night Cafe Blues	Stompin' Tom Connors
Drown In My Own Tears	Ray Charles
Willin' (live 11-11-93)	Uncle Tupelo
One Love/People get ready	Bob Marley & the Wailers
The Glory Of Love	Lyle Lovett
Messed Around	Squeeze
Natural Mystic	Bob Marley & the Wailers

  posted by John : 2:36 PM

 

photo

Lately there's been alot of deer hopping around in our yard in the early morning.

  posted by John : 1:12 PM

 
Yuschenko v Yanukovich
I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that it is only now with this wider acknoledgement of Yuschenko being poisoned that I have really sorted out in my mind which Viktor is which. Since I get most news from NPR (radio), I never had a visual reference to help me. Hearing their names left me thinking of the confusion I've experienced in the first few chapters of a Dostoyevsky novel, with all the exceedingly long and similar names. No doubt their names are like night and day to a Ukranian. But seeing Yushenko's horrible facial scarring gave me a much greater sympathy for his situation and his name and image are branded in my mind.
  posted by John : 11:37 AM

 
Sitting here watching a BBC Kids TV show called Fightbox. Features people playing a kind of video game with 3d creatures battling in a ring. There's a commentator and an actual live audience cheering around them. Of course it has an elimination element where the losing contestant is banished in shame from the arena to taunts of "Loser! Loser!".

Ever get the feeling that you ARE living in the future?

  posted by John : 2:47 AM

 
Can't sleep tonight. Could it be the mixture of caffeine and Cambodian curry for dinner? At least the late night web surfing turned up something to look forward to.

I just connected the fact that I can't sleep with the fact that tonight at the Alamo drafthouse theater in Austin is Harry Knowles' acclaimed Butt-Numb-athon, a 24 hr movie festival. And I see from a tip on aintitcool.com that Crispin Glover will likely be doing his thing there. Last year Harry scooped premiers of both the Passion of the Christ and LOTR: Return of the King, with the directors of both there for discussion. So getting a ticket is virtually impossible.

  posted by John : 2:29 AM

 
Listening Room player had an html bug. Eets feexed.
  posted by John : 7:30 AM

 
As part of the Austin-music-appreciation-retraining our friend Arnie has been conducting for us, we went out to see Bill Kirchen last night at Jovita's. Its a mexican food restaurant with several murals of Mexican revolutionary scenes, and a music room in the back with dancefloor between the band and the tables. They feature a variety of bands there, but mostly danceable, authentic country-type bands (not the fake stuff). I first saw Bill Kirchen when he was on tour as Nick Lowe's guitarist. I uploaded a Nick Lowe tune covered by Bill to the Covers playlist.
  posted by John : 7:24 AM