Archive for February 2011
space-time continuum, the musical
Professor Genghis Whitehead and his colleague Ursula Crakunschtuff were close to perfecting their major opus — a formula that enabled the consumer to be a “fly on the wall” inside someone’s mind — reading their thoughts and controlling their actions. Finally, a tweak here and there, and it was done. Before thinking about it too…
Read Moresharing the pain
I’ve been reading excerpts from Joyce Carol Oates’s latest book, A Widow’s Story: A Memoir, in which she lays her soul bare in the aftermath of her husband’s unexpected death. Her writing is so good, sad and sweet. I look forward to reading the book in its entirety. If you’re confused by this, after all…
Read MoreWFMU gateway
pointing at my shirt, that is what i am doing. I have mentioned WFMU plenty in this here blog but have not really devoted a post to it, even though WFMU one of the reasons my world goes ’round in such a happy, twirly way. It’s one of the last independent free-form stations and has…
Read Morebittersweet fruit of the sea
It’s the Fourth Friday Challenge for February. My friend Paul and I, both posting daily in 2011, decided to challenge each other once a month to keep things spicy. In his words, “we want to push ourselves to do something more interesting than we might otherwise.” I will put his challenge to me at the…
Read Morewe need to talk about kevin
Another monthly challenge to myself: read a book, and report on it here (to keep me honest.) These will not be terribly in depth or insightful reviews. Here’s February’s. We Need to Talk About Kevin was rough to read on many levels. On the technical side, it was so damn long. For those of you…
Read Morefeed frenzy: binge/purge
This is a multi-parter post, as I am de-cluttering my Google Reader feeds. This is part two. Part one is here. I have culled my blogs down. I won’t lie: it hurt. But I went from a bloated 252 feeds down to a svelte 155. Hacking away the lifeless feeds was easy — there were…
Read Morebanned
Oh, boy, there’s a man from my past that I have been absolutely, strictly forbidden to have anything to do with, anything at all. The people that forbid me from Mr. X are my key girlfriends (especially Tamar, who knows exactly about whom I am writing) and I rely on them to keep the borders…
Read Morethings i fear
the rat with whom i share an office dentists making someone cry cult members being mocked by teenagers going down in flames razors blindness Nazis sporting goods stores/electronic stores (tie) raging toddlers inevitability of the fact of the death of my loved ones a bird attacking my eyes being pranked/punked poverty a debilitating injury that…
Read Moregreat beyond
A bizarre bunch of people have died recently. Not that they were bizarre themselves, just such a random grab bag of folks! Edna Babish, the butter-Brando lady, the chopped-off-ear guy!? Rest in peace, you guys. UNCLE LEO OF ‘SEINFELD’, LEN LESSER DIES AT 88 http://deathbeeper.com/7907461.html PEGGY REA, PLAYED BOSS HOGG’S WIFE http://deathbeeper.com/f/peggy+rea ‘THIN LIZZY’ GUITARIST…
Read Moretwo typos and one gaffe
TYPO Many years ago my roommate had a job doing paste-up (yes, that long ago) for Macy’s. One weekly ad she often handled was the huge one that was always across from Herb Caen’s column in the San Francisco Chronicle. It was a very popular page in a very popular newspaper, back when that stuff…
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