July 10, 2003 - permalink

NetNewsWire

I downloaded the demo version of NetNewsWire. I was playing with it yesterday and this morning and I like it. It's a great way to skim multiple web logs and news sites without having to navigate from site to site. Unfortunately, I can't use it at work. Otherwise, I'd be much more “productive” during my lunch hour. My best find so far? Daypop's top news story.

Pudding Shop

During the initial boom in Shockoe Bottom, my friends and I had several beer-induced business ideas about how we could cash in on Richmond's nightlife. One of our more interesting notions was to open a “Pudding Shop” - a warmer, creamier alternative to an Ice Cream Parlor. Like many ideas, someone else has made it happen – in New York. Rice to Riches is a “rice pudding parlor”, with a wide range of flavors from the traditional cinnamon and raisin to mango/lime.

Fight 4-H Club

If it was a movie, you wouldn't believe it. However, camp counselors at a 4-H club in Virginia arranged fights between students. Parents became suspicious when one student came back from camp with a broken hand.

Dear Abby

Dear Abby says you should be careful of what you write in your blog. Once again, Dear Abby provides America with a clue.

July 7, 2003 - permalink

Perhaps the strangest thing about returning back to work after a vacation is how unremarkable it is. You still know where everything is. You still remember how to do your job. The same people are still there. You feel a little less urgent, a little less tired – that's about it.

Milk + Beer = Mummies

For some reason, I was typing in “Richmond Milk Beer” into Google and came up with this as the leading link. It's a page with the hieroglyphics on the Sarcophagus of Ti Ameny Net. Apparently, the gods of Ancient Egypt liked wine...alot.

July 6, 2003 - permalink

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

A decade of essays on how one passed one's bourgeois holidays imbues people with the expectation that one has to go somewhere other than home on vacation. I spent each of the last eight nights of vacataion in my own bed. My main accomplishments have been

• Removing two pags of trash from my office at home.
• Kicking my caffeine habit.
• Seeing Sonic Youth and Wilco in DC.

The caffeine habit took a good amount of time. I spent Wednesday (my first caffeine-free day) in a semi-stupor. I went shopping for groceries as Joe's Market and several times the helpful staff asked me if I was looking for anything. I didn't have problems finding things; I would forget what was on my shopping list twenty seconds after reading the list. After the grocery store, I managed to sustain enough clarity to rent a few videos. I passed the rest of the later afternoon and evening lying on the sofa watching movies. After ten hours of sleep Wednesday night, I felt much better by Thursday. By Friday (and after another ten hours of sleep), I felt normal. Actually, since kicking, I've slept very soundly and have more mental and physical energy during the day. As I am still drinking de-caf coffee, the economic impact on South and Central America should be minimal.

Sonic Youth and Wilco at Constitution Hall, June 30 - permalink

Like last year's Sleater Kinney and Belle & Sebastian show, this appeared to be an odd pairing of great bands. Sonic Youth has been creating experimental guitar rock since the early eighties; Wilco performs crafted pop songs with dabblings in sonic experimentation. For me, it was two bands that I wanted to see in one venue the same night. I was prepared and anticipated the contrast with relish.

Opening at Constitution Hall nearly always means playing to a half-full house. Sonic Youth was no exception; most of the sold-out crowd must have been trapped on the beltway or was grabbing a bite to eat as Sonic Youth started – their loss. Thurston Moore started off the set with Peace Attack – an unreleased song. They played most of the tracks off of Murray Street along with songs from a smattering of other albums – including Drunken Butterfly from Dirty and Catholic Block from Sister.

I was initially apprehensive about going to see Sonic Youth. The last time that I saw them live was in 1989 on their tour for Daydream Nation. Not only had I not seem them live in a while, the last Sonic Youth CD I bought, other than Murray Street, was Dirty. I wanted to see them again, but I also didn't want to be disappointed; I had a hard time imagining any band being stronger than Sonic Youth was 14 years ago. However, SY are as good if not better than ever. The previous two times I had seen them, they were always a little unfinished, a little rough. At the DAR, they were just as loud and just as raw, only tighter. Jim O'Rourke's presence on stage filled out the sound nicely. During the instrumental at the end of Karen, they plunged into a guitar-born storm of growls and wails. As the audience filed in during the set, Sonic Youth won them over, song by song. The band left the stage to a standing ovation. As their last night on tour with Wilco, Sonic Youth came out and played Brother James for the encore. Brother James was originally released on an EP in 1983 – twenty years later, it's still one of their heaviest and most intense songs live. I was floored by it.

Wilco started out with some of the strongest ballads off of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot – Poor Places, Reservations and I Am Trying to Break Your Heart. The band was Tweedy on guitars with bass, drums and two keyboards. A large screen behind the band played pink, gray and tan video loops of undulating bars of color, black and white photographs and unidentifiable portions of motion pictures. For the YHF songs, they managed to pull of the density of the original production while leaving a slight difference for the live performance. Wilco then worked their way somewhat back through their catalog (though not in strict chronological order), playing more up-tempo songs. They ended their regular set with Casino Queen as Jeff Tweedy played a Gibson Flying-V. Progressing through the set list, the songs from Yankee Hotel Foxtrot blended nicely with earlier Wilco tunes; I had a hard time distinguishing some of the songs from YHF with early songs from Summerteeth and Being There. Tweedy and Co. did a good job of capturing the more thoughtful songs as well as rocking out when required. For the encore, Wilco played Heavy Metal Drummer, inviting the audience to sing the back-up vocals (Ooooh Heeeeyah). During the first encore, Jim O'Rourke played a couple of more numbers with the band. They came back for one last song in the second encore – Misunderstood.

Link-o-rama - permalink

Voting Dry

Do you think it's time again for a old, bad idea? If so, there is a third party for you – the Prohibition Party. And they have a presidential candidate.

Brewmaster General

Of course, some presidents not only drank alcohol, they brewed their own as well. According to this article in the TD, Martha Jefferson brewed small beer for her husband. Later, after his wife died, Thomas Jefferson had an English sea captain teach one of this slaves how to brew ale. I wonder if any of the current crop of Democrats is a home brewer.

Canada – Music, Too!

Canada has more than just its indie rockers from British Columbia and Toronto. Our northern neighbor has a great variety of bluegrass, country and celtic music as well. Enjoy, eh?

Isn't It Ironic?

If you're not sure, the Guardian had this article a while back. Of course, I've read it.

Disturbing Images

The Smoking Gun has its scariest mugshot ever. He's even scarier than this guy, although he doesn't sing.