Rotorglow

Wrote a couple things about the overnight spike in gas prices over at the Blogger page. Note that I'm not complaining about the prices as such. I happen to think that gas should be $5+ per gallon, and we ought to sink money into alterntives.

What burns me up is the suspicion (unprovable) that the prices went up because the stations could raise them; not that they needed to. What would be more fair is to charge the average price for two (or however many) loads of gas that the truck brings and dumps into the tank. It's not like we're only pumping the new, more expensive gas that the station had to pay for when we pay the new prices.....

I guess it's possible that's how they do it, but I kind of doubt it.

...for now.

After b2evo was shutdown, and before I felt like MT was stable, I posted a couple things on my old standby Blogger page. I was gonna make individual pointer posts in here to link to them, but life is so short that I'm just going to point you to them:

The posts are here, here and here.

I've figured out how to get Blogger posts into MT, but....as the title says, I'm lazy.

I changed a bunch of stuff around here, and things are finally shaping up:

There's a new home page. (I'm still bummed out about Bob Moog, though.)

There's a new page of old pages. (At least, the ones worth keeping around.)

I'm going to disable the Blogger page, and redirect it to this blog. (Still need to keep some of the individual entries around over there, though.)

I'll be redesigning the sidebar here, to include blogrolls and such. But not yet.

You know when you finally figure out what you want, but it's 3 timezones away and you can't get to it?

Yeah, that.

Er, I mean like that.

Wouldn't know anything about 3 timezones. Nope.

The Herald Journal: Archives

Seems that FEMA is requiring "first responders" to drop the ten codes that are so handy and cool (like "ten-four" and "what's your [10-]twenty?") in favor of "OK" and "what's your location?"

Sigh.

I got a white nano, because just as sports cars are supposed to be red, I believe that iPods are supposed to be white. The color screen is slick, though I'm not sure I'll use the nano for pix very often (because there's no Firewire, you can't dump a camera or CF card to it directly, like with the color iPod (nee iPod Photo). The fact that it's based on flash memory means that the music quiz (for instance) doesn't kill the battery. Nor does flipping madly through songs.

I think it's really the perfect cross between the iPod and the shuffle. It's a little thinner than the shuffle, a little shorter, and shinier. It looks just like a 1:3 scale iPod.

Of course the packaging is perfection. Nice coated paperboard slipcase about the size of a 2xCD case. Whatever Apple's numerous flaws are, they've got the out-of-the-box experience nailed.

Instead of prattling on, I'll link to some pix and reviews (since I'll not be able to do better on my own). Gizmodo has a very nice round up, and Ars Technica has a typically informative and extensive (not to mention painful) review.

I will say this: In contrast to one reviewer, I'll say that the nano is not the coolest thing I own. That's either Veloce or my Cremaster Cycle catalog or my complete Alfred Stieglitz. Or Dodging Missiles.

But it's close.

So, I've been grooving on some mixes over the last couple days. Only a few of them are still online, so links might be at a premium, but I'll try to describe why the mixes are so awesome.

The most recent thing to kick my ass is an Ursula 1000 mix on Lime Sorbet. Two standouts here are a Red Astaire white label called Back to the Old School, and a remix of Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" by (I guess) someone/something called "Wonder Boots." If you're reading this before 22 Sep 05, check out the mix. It's stupendous.

Now, I've seen Ursula 1000 a couple times, including an earth-shaking set at the old Lava Lounge (Lava Bar?) atop the HoJo in Kenmore Square in 2001. Brother Cleve had a regular night there a few years ago, and the seque into Ursula 1000's set was amazing. Quite a night. Ursula 1000's records are stupendous too, though I'm not sure anything matches All Systems Are Go-Go. There's supposed to be a new studio record out soon.

Segundo: Tim pointed me to an incredible guest set by Stromba on Beats in Space. A ton of old funked up reggae and dub. Never heard of Stromba before, and since they didn't deign to run down the setlist, I have no sense of who did any of the tracks. One stood out, though: a live version of Gary Numan's "Cars" on steel drums. Not the best song in the set, but certainly the weirdest.

There've been a variety of amazing Tiefschwarz mixes knocking around, and as I type this I'm listening to the new Tiefschwarz studio album Eat Books. I tried to wait for it to be released domestically, but all I could find was imports for US$25. I'm sure I'll buy it on CD too at some point, but for now I'm stuck with 128kbps.

Seems like there was more, especially given the foundation-rocking appearance of the nano on the scene, but I guess this is going to have to do for now.

I'll stop here, lest I have to change categories.

EDIT: durrr....left out a bunch of quotes in those links, which munged the whole post. I'm often more coherent than that. All fixed now.

I'm in the process of moving a bunch of pix up onto Flickr from the viewer page because it doesn't make any sense to have 3 pages of photos all over the place. The first mass attempt at this is some shots I did a couple of years ago in Ireland. It was the first I'd left the country and shot 100% digital. No film. Worked ok (I guess), thanks for asking, though I was glad there was a laptop I could dump the cards onto.

Daring Fireball: The iTunes 5 Announcement From the Perspective of an Anthropomorphized Brushed Metal User Interface Theme

This is really quite brilliant, as usual. More so if you're a Mac Nerd.

It seems the house directly across the street from my 2-room apartment is for sale. Asking price is a whisker under $2 million.

(NB: the house is actually at 7 Concord, but Google Maps is one door off...)

The MacArthur Fellows Program

Yeesh. (Yet) another friend-of-a-friend/family has been named a MacArthur fellow. I think that makes a total of 4, though I only know 3 personally.

I guess my nomination got lost in the mail.

Congrats.

Wow.

Tonight, Albert, Anastasia, Tim and I went to see DJ Nickodemus and Nappy G (who together comprise most of Turntables on the Hudson) at Middlesex.

(Why do I get a special thrill from typing that?)

And it was. So. Fucking. Amazing.

At first I only thought it was going to be Nickodemus, but as Nappy G setup his stuff, it was clearly going to be a Turntables on the Hudson show. I've seen them a few times--on the Hudson, even. And each time has been amazing for one reason or another. This was no exception. **

I guess this time it was because of the close quarters (instead of a pier on the river), the good sound, the fact that I could see what Nappy G was drumming on from 8 feet away, the cast of characters, and a bunch of intangibles. (Strange, unplacable* euphoria?) Every time Nickodemus spins, I'm just floored. And for a change, it was all about the music this time.

Bhangra, Egyptian, salsa, you name it....it was quite an experience.

I don't typically smile for 2 hours straight. But I did tonight.

Thanks, y'all. I needed that.

EDITS (because it's my blog, and I can do that):
*Seems this isn't the word I mean. So let's just go with "je ne sais quoi."
**I rewrote this paragraph because....well, because at 0200 this morning I wasn't making any sense. But now I am.

Hoopty Rides: All Hail the Ragged Edge

More brilliance from Mr. Jalopy. He weaves the New Yorker, history of technology, great pix and an innate sense of what it means to be a "car person" into a wonderful description of why hot rods, going fast (or just "going"), dusty old parts and squinty old guys behind the counter add up to (and in fact give value to) "enjoying the ride."

Potatoes Au Gratin

Originally uploaded by merlinmann at 28 Sep '05, 12.53pm PST.

Tim pointed me to a great screenshot posted on Flickr this morning.

California seems like a very strange place.

EDIT, 1044: Fixed the links.

I've been doing some thinking lately (="off and on for a number of years") about what is necessary (vs. "sufficient", which is a different concept altogether) to be happy. What i really want to be doing, where, and with whom. Job, housing, friends, music, food (shoot, I sound like Mark Renton)...sure, these are important. And I got 'em. But are they the right kinds to really sink my teeth into and enjoy?

More after the jump, if you dare.