Mar

30

Treasure

Filed Under photos, tout le fromage | 3 Comments

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These little porcelain boxing frogs once belonged to my Dad.
They may be tacky and kitsch, but I love them to pieces.

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Mar

27

Paradoxical Undressing

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The first time I remember ever being told I was a pretty good singer was by my best girlfriend sometime in the late 1990s. We were in the front seat of a car, her car I think, and we were singing along to a few songs from the Throwing Muses cd University. We sounded great. At the end of a track, probably “Hazing”, she complimented my voice, and me — in my then horribly inappropriate way of accepting a compliment — carelessly bypassed the delay that keeps the stupid thoughts from spilling off of my tongue and I cheerfully blurted “thank-you-I’ve-never-even-had-vocal-lessons”. She had. I still feel like an ass for that moment.

Since then, and likely unrelated to the lack of tact I possessed that afternoon (or evening, whenever it was has faded in importance), my friend and I grew apart. To this day I still think of her when I listen to Throwing Muses. Last night I saw Kristin Hersh live at the Southbank Centre in London. She was reading stories from her upcoming book Paradoxical Undressing, a memoir inspired by her teenage diaries, recently lost in a flood. Kristin, alone on an intimate stage, would noodle automatic and often mournful cords and anti-cords on her guitar while reading from a notebook of very personal experiences. The noodling would lead into a song inspired by the passage read. The lights would go down for the songs and up again for the reading. Behind her, the giant video screen slowly panned enlargements of the paintings of Molly Cliff Hilts. The performance was personal, and insightful. If this was a glimpse of the content of the memoirs, then it is a must have. Kristin’s writing style has captivated me for years and I often wondered where the imagery in her songs stemmed from. Now I know more. I am both honoured and thankful.

It’s a shame the tour is so very limited — two dates in the UK, also the first performances of the tour — but even so, the rareness of what I’ve seen feels like a little gift. See Paradoxical Undressing if you can, and watch for the upcoming book. This is powerful stuff and not to be missed.

I need to thank Barry for getting fantastic seats to this, and for allowing me to be his date even though he should’ve been sitting with someone else. If it weren’t for his broken heart, I would make a joke here.

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Above: Photos I took from the evening. The first, shows how close we were to the stage. Third row, off to the right. AWESOME. The second shows a blurry zoom (purposely without flash) between the heads of the row in front of us. Kristin is in dressed in casual white with her hair pinned up. My mind doesn’t work right when it comes to remembering things. These photos will help keep it all real for me a little bit longer.

UPDATE: Here’s some pictures from someone who had the right gear for the job.

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Mar

26

Money for nothing?

Filed Under irregular, tout le fromage | 4 Comments

Dude— erm, you smell, common.

Now you can smell just like that person you try not to stand or sit next to on the train.
Behold! Fragrances that tap into the scent of bubblegum and cigarettes, blood and sperm, and liqueur brandy.

Yes, seriously.

What happened to fragrances to elevate the spirit and/or status of the person wearing them? What happened to just wanting to smell nice?
Clearly that isn’t edgy enough these days. Why smell of citrus notes or floral breezes when you can mist yourself with cold tobacco and hints of Britney Spears underpants.

Get your essence of last night’s party exclusively at Harvey Nichols (UK).

[Original lead for this story came from a StumbleUpon link.]

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Mar

25

Ever get the feeling Osen is following you?

Filed Under me so g33ky, tout le fromage | Leave a Comment

In all likelihood, Osen Komura is following you. In fact, Osen Komura is following upwards of 37,000 profiles on Twitter and rising. So who is this guy? The IP address in his Location box resolves to Twitter’s own URL. Although little is known about Komura, a little digging today on Google cleared up some of the mystery.

Normally, I won’t follow a person on Twitter based on whether that person follows me. I’m not following Osen Komura either, but I do tend to have a look at the Twitter page of every new follower I get. An email notification pops into my inbox; I check them out. I block some of them; I ignore most of them. I keep my numbers of follow:follower fairly low. I spend too much of my time on internet noise as it is, I don’t need to add more to the mix.

But here’s where Osen Komura comes in— Osen is purposely making noise for himself as an experiment in Twitter/web behaviour. It’s simple, and possibly pointless, but here’s the gist of it:
Osen follows you, but will you then follow Osen? Apparently, Komura is trying to find a magic formula with that ratio. Call it an experiment in human behaviour relating to the “friend” culture of the web.

His Bio blurb on Twitter:
“Questions about my experiment? Just read my timeline. All of it. It’s all there.”

There are only 24 updates (as I write this) and no real revelations. In fact, there hasn’t been an update for 11 days. I guess following upwards of 37,000 Twitter users leaves little time for yourself. ;)

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Mar

24

Gasp

Filed Under photos, tout le fromage | 10 Comments

UPDATED: See new photo mosaic below.

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There’s a set of six photos on flickr from tonight’s bubble bath. A couple of them are creepy.
Click the above picture to go to them. Single word names are below each photo.

Oh, and there’s no nudie bits, so don’t ask.
Well, there was one, but I ain’t posting it. ;)
UPDATE: I had a play with constructing the images into a story mosaic. Click it to go to flickr.
drowning set mosaic

1. Alone, 2. Gasp, 3. No, 4. Baptism, 5. Afraid, 6. Peace

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.

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Mar

22

Not quite out of the wintery woods

Filed Under regular, tout le fromage | 9 Comments

We had a thundering sleet storm yesterday. The clouds came on fast and dumped loads of the stuff over Maidenhead. It wasn’t but an hour earlier that we enjoyed blue skies and watched the red kites circling the gardens.

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I know I shouldn’t complain as I have family and friends dealing with more than 100 inches of seasonal snow accumulation, but damn, thought we were in the clear…
And today? Dismal rain, cold, and snow flurries.
C’mon Spring— spring already!

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Mar

21

As seen on Twitter

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Tweeted by Merlin Mann of 43Folders:

Accepting a social network’s “friend” request should cost a dime. Even that tiny amount could radically realign the fake web friend economy.

So true. I think it should also cost a dime to follow someone on Twitter just to stop the collectors who ‘follow’ thousands of users. I do not wish to be followed to build someone’s stats. Internet rock stars like Merlin get loads of followers (he has over 10,000!) and it’s expected. But the number he follows? Under 150. A collector’s stats will often be the reverse of that.

Payment plans aside, there should be a rule on following and friending:
Keep it real, relevant, and manageable.

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Mar

17

photos, paints, pencils, words, and my Indiana

Filed Under expat, regular, tout le fromage | 2 Comments

Holiday planning is in full effect this morning, but not in a traditional sense. No, I’ve already snapped up bargain flights, planned out car rental packages, found accommodations. That typical sort of holiday arranging has been done and dusted for a month. Today?
I’m planning via flickr.

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I’m finding flickr groups, pools, sets, and tags that relate to where I’m from in Indiana — and also where I lived in Wisconsin — to give me ideas on things to visit. Flickr is a fantastic visual tour guide, provided people geo-tag or label their photos accurately. Though I spent the first eighteen years of my life in Wayne County Indiana (and spent the last half of that time waiting to leave it) it is thanks to people on flickr that I am reminiscing and looking forward to what I’ll see (and document) when I get there. I also have a fiction project that taps into certain places I used to know. The opportunity for research will be so valuable.

It’s an interesting feeling knowing that I’m going back to the places I once knew so well, this time, as a tourist— this time, armed with cameras, art stuff, and Moleskine notebooks.

I think I may finally be ready to appreciate the place where I grew up. I can’t wait to share it with Neil.

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