Saturday, May 05, 2001 :::
 
Squiggle-face sends me e-mail at midnight on a Friday and is miffed when I don't check until 14 hrs later. Sheez. Anyway, tonight the only Cinco de Mayo celebration I get is having the Col.Knowledge boys take me out for margaritas in exchange for filming their show tonight in Sanity Cruise. (click here for funny photo of a car that Elissa found the last time we were there, ages and ages ago) I think I shall wear my new "activity shirt," as Kristin calls them, that I found in the Marina yesterday...it's a tight little thang with newsprint all over it at odd angles -- read my tits, baby!

In other news, my car got broken into AGAIN last night, several weeks after the last one, which cost me the $500 deductible and a week and a half in the shop. This time they smashed my OTHER window before taking off with my new stereo, the faceplate of which was in my glove compartment, for crying out loud! Karma police, what the hell am I doing wrong?!

In yet more news, I am convinced that Elissa and Kristin and I need to go to Paris in September to perform one night only as can-can girls, since Kevin will be missing Griddle's final performance in order to cover a conference in Amsterdam, and the hordes of groupies at Chesterfield's will obviously need something to fill the hole left by his absence. (hey...we're cute...we all know some French...) I'm thinking Moulin Rouge all the way.

::: posted by Alura Allumeuse at 2:04 PM

 
I'm going to get a hair cut today.. Yippee.. I sent you email Alura, but you don't respond to me anymore.. I think I'm going to watch mexican wrestling at the Fillmore and punk bands for cinco de mayo... Anyway, I like this site. I spent too much time here. Fun with flash, not just animation...
http://www.vectorpark.com

::: posted by sly squiggle at 1:43 PM

 
http://www.e-sheep.com/apocamon/

Pokemon meets Revelations.. Need I say more...
Squiggle

::: posted by sly squiggle at 1:00 PM

 
Fancy dance moves? Sorry Elissa, I'm a dance channeler. I have very little control as I'm a medium for spirits that get restless and epileptic as they cross over bodies of water.

I'm flat out jealous that you made it out to City Island. Is it that easy for people who drive cars to get there? We tried to get there once in January of 2000. There were about 7 of us.

Here's how it went:

1.) We go to Barnes & Nobles at Union Square to pour over transit maps. We figure out that there IS NO easy way to get there via the MTA.
2.) I have the bright idea that we should rent one of those in-town U-haul vans for 29.99 that I'd seen around town.
3.) A woman named Lauren is appointed driver. She refuses to drive without her glasses, so she gets on the L train to Williamsburg, Brooklyn to pick them up. For some reason this seems to make more sense than appointing someone else to be driver.
4.) We go to a Mexican restaurant at 23rd and 7th.
5.) Using his cell phone, Dave finds the nearest U-haul depository and runs there on foot.
6.) I go to a hardware store and buy a metal punch. Years ago I'd seen an episode of the Bloodhound gang where the kids are stuck in the back of a van. In order to see where they're going they punch a small hole in the side of the van to create a pinhole camera type image on the opposite wall. I decide that I want to try this out. I figure the U-haul people will never notice the small hole.
7.) Lauren returns to the Mexican restaurant with her glasses and a small container of ibuprofen.
8.) Dave returns from the U-haul store with the terrible news that it's already five pm, and it's too late to get one of the vans.
9.) We finish our burritos and take a 4 train to East Harlem. We want to see the James De La Vega murals that are scattered between 103rd and 107th streets. This was my idea, but an idea that didn't really make anyone happy. Especially Amy, who hadn't bought into our collective City Island enthusiasm and was even less excited about the second plan. Amy's a bit of a pill.
10.) Later on that evening we drank on the roof of Dave's apartment building in Williamsburgh and enjoyed the skyline.

SO, after that entire giddy process, it blows my mind that one can simply get into a car and DRIVE straight to City Island. Having been a pedestrian for years now, I forget that life is like that for most people.

For you West Coasters: City Island is a small island in the corner of the Bronx that constitutes the remains of an ancient fishing village that was swallowed up by the city. It's known for it's atmosphere and for it's seafood. I still haven't been.

::: posted by the boot at 10:05 AM

Friday, May 04, 2001 :::
 
Awww, stop whining, laura-lu, the Gary Numan show isn't sold out. You can still come along! We're meeting at 8 outside the Feelmore.

::: posted by Zarbet Rabbit at 3:44 PM

 
i admit it; i'm a blog voyeur. laura's been bugging me to post, but it's so fun to watch. like when people go to SM parties just to stare and don’t participate. but work in the art department has been slow, and i don’t want to get a rep as a gawker…

today the temperature here hit 88 degrees, a record of some sort. i spent my lunch hour lounging on the front lawn of the humongous CMP headquarters building. i took my shoes and socks off, displaying turquoise glitter toenails, napped and wrote a bit while listening to LIE traffic. delightful friday lunch on long island. any chance of productivity is shot till monday.

tonight we're off to city island in the bronx for cheap seafood and an urban sunset. i hear the seagulls there put on quite a show, endlessly nose-diving into nets hung above diners on the patios. whatever it takes to keep them out of my chowder.

i’ve finally connected with my new york neighbor alex galt. i invited him clubbing last weekend but he said he prefers dancing on the staten island ferry. i think the ferry is free now- so alex, i'm taking you up on that, and I expect some fancy dance moves, ok?

::: posted by elissarita at 12:53 PM

 
30 genetically engineered babies have been born. I always wondered what a germline procedure was. Speaking of X-Files and paranoia, who's looking for a person with my name?

Tonight, the Spike & Mike fest. Damn you all, I am prepared to just take myself out on a date. (speaking of ifilm, if you haven't seen "Grill," the dead-on parody of the SF rave movie "Groove," go watch it.)

::: posted by Alura Allumeuse at 11:29 AM

Thursday, May 03, 2001 :::
 
Yeah, take the good lady's advice and go enrich your day by poring over disappearing treasures of the world. Ah, the pecuniary gods are starting to triumph over the pagan cult of History... sad, ain't it? Me, I'm abandoning my hideout in the foothills to head on down the street to the DoubleTake Documentary Film Festial. I like my history with sync sound and popcorn.

::: posted by N T at 1:23 PM

 
What the &$^% is this?!? Who ratted me out?

::: posted by kevin seal at 1:08 PM

 
Go to a museum on your lunch break! The Museum of E-Failure and the joke Museum of Depressionist Art.

::: posted by Alura Allumeuse at 12:01 PM

 
Alex et al, you should listen to the 1981 radio doc that Noah Adams and Deborah Amos produced about Jim Jones, called Father Cares: The Last of Jonestown. We listened to it in Bill Drummond's morning class, and I was so shaken up by it that I had to go home immediately following the discussion group.

Oh, and for the prurient, voyeuristic interest angle: Rumor has it that our beloved Noah Adams was going through a -really- rough period in his life 'round about '81, and he was on so many anti-depressives that it was affecting his voiceover delivery. You can hear it in his voice on that doc -- he sounds completely sullen and tired, and he's nearly slurring. It fits the mood of the Jonestown story perfectly, and makes it all the more chilling.

::: posted by kevin seal at 10:28 AM

 
I've found a symbol for a flag for my house! But if my freak flag scares the men away, they can always meet women here.

My happy and bleeding self is disgusted with the Mighty Midols cartoon characters. "Monsteruation"? Way to encourage positive body image, guys.

::: posted by Alura Allumeuse at 10:05 AM

Wednesday, May 02, 2001 :::
 
ha ha ha, "apparently" involved?
They're goin at it so much they don't even show up at sex parties any more. Now THAT's involved :)

You may think she's a bad writer, but my opinion's been swayed entirely by the transistor tattooed on her arm, which of course makes her somewhat sexy to me.

Then again, as much as I like Julia, I suppose her being into him (Julia) makes her less sexy to me.


::: posted by Zarbet Rabbit at 8:12 PM

 
Like freelancers working out of their apartments across the country, I am the 'public' in public radio. I've actually met up with fellow Brooklyn freelancers in chic little Brooklyn bars and had conversations that follow the day's public radio call-in harvest topic by topic. I want to direct your attention to something that I've just heard broadcast but still exists in your PST future: audio tapes of executions in Georgia dug up by radio producer, David Isay. It's worth an hour of your time and it's chilling in its banality.

David Isay needs to clone himself.

::: posted by the boot at 3:09 PM

 
While we're on the topic of the SF Bay Guardian, I'd like to draw attention to the fact that everyone's favorite Griddle Guitarist, the politically-incorrect Jolson apologist Xifer, is an occasional character in Dan Leone's column, under the name of C. "Rogue" Fortier. Dan and Rogue play a card game together in the Eat This, San Francisco anthology.

::: posted by kevin seal at 1:00 PM

 
No, they're enunciating clearly, at least in Olympia. *sigh* But anyway, Tad and I know fig-creator Charles (aka Miss Julia) through SFSI. (apparently our Cocteau-Twinkie and SFSIoid aquaintance Amy helped pdf his tracts, too!) Judging from her frequent mentions of him in her column, fig-boy is apparently involved with everyone's favorite local "look at me, I'm a geek who discusses open source while having kinky sex at parties!" bad writer.

Anyway, while I'm dicussing people who write for the Bay Guardian, here, catch up on your Norm Solomon media crit. Have your cake and eat it too.

::: posted by Alura Allumeuse at 12:24 PM

 
In case you had written off the Christian right as homophobic, be sure that you understood what they were chanting. Apparently fundamentalists don't enunciate very clearly.

Also, for the two or three of you out there who *haven't* heard me blabbing about my new favorite book, please allow me the indulgence of doing so: No Logo by Naomi Klein. The quite attractive Ms. Naomi, only 31 years old, also has a badass website. (No Logo was recommended by Jason from Podgehodge, who kindly invited McGrew and me to crash at his London flat back in February.)

::: posted by kevin seal at 11:18 AM

Monday, April 30, 2001 :::
 
Alex: thanks for the scoop (in advance)! We're taking three weeks, with about 3 or 4 days in Paris, a week in Italy (Rome, Florence, Napes, Brindisi) and a week in Greece (Athens, Islands?) Our interests...humm, it covers art, quirk (in all its various forms), food, sun, museums, hiking, boats, etc, etc...what we're *not* interested in is probably a shorter list - tourists (as much as is possible), American-style anything, luxury hotels. So, what'cha got for me?

I'm all packed and everything I'm going to be living with for the next three weeks is in one bag at my feet. 3 t-shirts, one pair of pants, one pair of shorts, lots of socks and underwear, pajamas, a coloring book, colored pencils, origami, toothpaste, toothbrush, passport, cash, maps and phrase book, camera, journal, chapstick, vitamins. I've crossed off everything on my list, so I guess that means I'm ready. Hair turned a fabulous blue...my friend says I'm going to get searched for drugs at every border. That's okay, I'm just high on life : ) heh heh heh.

::: posted by Patricia Rini at 5:22 PM

 
Despite my unabiding hatred for pets, maybe this one would be acceptable... :p

::: posted by Alura Allumeuse at 11:35 AM

 
So there was this mysterious copy of Vanity Fair in the break room so I was flipping through it when I found a photo of Kevin, avec his ever-present cigarette and Euro trench coat! Er, wait, maybe that was his boy Christopher Hitchens, ranting about anti-smoking nazis.

Your thought for the day: Just in case anyone had any doubts that the Unborn Victims of Violence Act is purely a way to start criminalizing abortion, and NOT, as the right-wingers say, "to protect the mother" when her abusive partner attacks her, please take note that these same a-holes are currently trying to gut funding for the Violence Against Women Act, and domestic violence groups oppose the UVVA. You think this ain't a vast right-wing conspiracy?

::: posted by Alura Allumeuse at 9:02 AM

Sunday, April 29, 2001 :::
 
Last night I had a small fit of impatience with the world, and got an idea rattling around in my head to go around shutting off all the lights and all the other electric devices in the house. Refrigerator. Alarm clocks. Throw the switch on the water heater. Just a way to silence the 60 hertz hum from entering my brain. I grabbed a folding camping chair and propped it open out on the back porch. The same back porch that faces a small forest of pine trees. Big, old pine trees, the kind that have those funny pinkie-finger shaped bits that open wide in early April for a few weeks to release a payload of yellow grainy pollen. Man, this pollen, it gets everywhere. Worse than cockroaches or undergrads on Kirkwood or water. Everywhere. Nothing is safe. And I stepped in a small pile of the stuff still sitting on the concrete apron of what passes for my back porch, right up next to the cluster of pines. Ugh.

::: posted by N T at 1:26 PM

 
Brilliant Sunday. The laundry's done and I've been through the relevant sections of the new york times. Later on gonna eat some Cambodian food over at a friend's place. I'm actually tanner than I was on Friday. Everyone should live in Brooklyn. This blog is for Trish: Trish I took a look at the map that was posted, I have covered it extensively between Marseilles and Brindisi (I assume you're boarding a boat for Greece in Brindisi). Let me know how much time you intend to take, what interests you, etc. and I can turn you on to things. I've spent approx. three months on the road in Italy and I have secrets I can share.

::: posted by the boot at 1:15 PM