March 31, 2005
josiah and the mayor (maybe)
if you've been reading josiah's blog lately then you know that he's quite a fan of chattanooga mayoral candidate ann coulter. so much so that he managed to convince her to give him a bear hug in exchange for walking the streets of st.elmo to sing her praises. from the picture at right (thanks alice) you can see that she kept up her end of the deal. and yesterday josiah kept up his. ann coulter and entourage came by coptix mid-afternoon yesterday, introduced herself to all of us, toured the office (declared it decidedly "male"), and finally went door-to-door campaigning with josiah. wow... the surrealism just won't quit - but with any luck we'll have an in with the new mayor.
March 30, 2005
mac stories
as many of you know, i'm a big apple fan and become moreso every day. iTunes, iPod, iBook - they make it, i love it. recently i was digging through the archives of this american life, an NPR talk show about the idiosyncrasies of american life, when i stumbled on this piece. it's about an apple developer who loses his job because his contract ends when the graphing calculator application he's working on is shut down. but he's so in love with the project he keeps sneaking into the building and working on the project for free, eventually getting the application shipped with the first batch of power PCs off the assembly line...
- ron avitzur's website
- the audio from TAL
... and, paul graham has a new essay up about the return of the mac.
March 29, 2005
kirby film update
my old roommate cannon kirby has been working on a new film. they've just released the trailer for "rowboat" and he'd love to get some feed back on the trailer (windows media player format). please do, check it out. the local newspaper also did a story on them recently:
[Producer Joel] Batts, 30, describes "Rowboat" as "an existential 10-minute trip" reflecting the admiration of cowriters Kring and Dustin Kirby for David Lynch, the auteur behind "Blue Velvet" and "Mulholland Drive."
picaresque
let the non-photo-blogging begin... at least it began with a good poem.
alright - i'm amazed at how good this new decemberists album really is. i mean, i knew that it would be. the decemberists aren't like U2 or coldplay or even the flaming lips, who are destined to have incredible albums, or an incredible album, followed by weaker albums always living in the shadow of that one great moment. (i'm gonna catch hell for that, aren't i?) they're just solid and consistent, and consistently better. colin meloy is only reaching greater heights of metaphoric precision in his songs and the stories keep getting better and better. one of the high points of picaresque is an 8+ minute ballad about a mariner's son who tracks down his deadbeat dad to revenge the death of his mother. i mean, who does that? who writes ballads and gets away with calling it pop music? only the greats. only nick cave. only colin meloy.
totten has a review of it over on his blog too...
March 25, 2005
Good Friday
EAST COKER
(No. 2 of 'Four Quartets')
T.S. Eliot
IV
The wounded surgeon plies the steel
That questions the distempered part;
Beneath the bleeding hands we feel
The sharp compassion of the healer's art
Resolving the enigma of the fever chart.
Our only health is the disease
If we obey the dying nurse
Whose constant care is not to please
But to remind of our, and Adam's curse,
And that, to be restored, our sickness must grow worse.
The whole earth is our hospital
Endowed by the ruined millionaire,
Wherein, if we do well, we shall
Die of the absolute paternal care
That will not leave us, but prevents us everywhere.
The chill ascends from feet to knees,
The fever sings in mental wires.
If to be warmed, then I must freeze
And quake in frigid purgatorial fires
Of which the flame is roses, and the smoke is briars.
The dripping blood our only drink,
The bloody flesh our only food:
In spite of which we like to think
That we are sound, substantial flesh and blood—
Again, in spite of that, we call this Friday good.
March 23, 2005
more climbing
for a number of reasons, i haven't been posting lately, as you've probably noticed. some of those reasons are technical and have to do with my blog and the server that its on and some of them have to do with the fact that i'm buying a house and haven't had much spare time. i'm sure there are other reasons too, such as i haven't been taking pictures much lately, and i've been communicating with my family more which makes for less time to blog. i'm not sure what the future holds for this external monologue (and yes, i've been saying that for months) but for now here's a picture and possibly more soon. i'd like to put some of the house up when and if the deal goes through.
as for this picture, it's from climbing a couple weeks ago. simpson in the foreground, the younger montys on the wall.
in other news... haven't been listening to much new music lately, but the new decemberists album came out yesterday and it's good. worth buying in my opinion. i've been reading the divine conspiracy and sex, drugs and cocoa puffs (odd combo, eh?). and by the way, i'm getting old - my 10 yearh high school reunion is just around the bend.
oh, and google will let you search inside books now. tres cool...
more later...
March 09, 2005
ari on the wall
i took a bunch of photos this past weekend when i went climbing with simpson and my brother and sister-in-law. they'll be popping up here over the next few days hopefully. this is ari on the wall, at a particularly frustrating point of the climb. we started out the day on a 5-9, probably not the best idea for a bunch of people who haven't climbed for a year, and we were all pretty sore by the end of the day.
we did however go out for a nice dinner at the pastaria on signal mountain afterwards, which was really nice. i haven't been able to sit down and catch up with tim and ari for quite some time and it's good to hear what they've been up to.
...
saw ocean's 12 last night, and found it pretty mediocre. one of those movies where there are so many plot twists and tricks that eventually you tire of trying to figure it out and just wait for the reveal at the end. still, a good cast, and a few very comical moments.
March 04, 2005
mokko in the kitchen
it was morris' week for kitchen which always means an incredible japanese feast when house dinner rolls around. last night was no exception - the kid can cook.
...
another busy week at coptix drawing to a close. it's good to be back, but boy is it hectic. hopefully tomorrow i'll be doing some climbing at sunset rock with simpson and my brother and sister-in-law. get outside, get on the rock, take the edge off.
March 02, 2005
self portrait
first of the month yesterday and it's self-portrait time again. and once again, not technically a self-portrait seeing as brian took the photo. monday morning, nursing the first cup of coffee of the day, and trying to get my bearings. the beard is still less than full, but it's filling out a bit. i'll give it a few more weeks and then try again next winter.
...