The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Here we see drivers in Portland who keep thinking they can drive on ice.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
The economic cost of the war
When I was a kid I would sometimes try to understand the cost of something by consdiering how many Mars Bars I could buy with the same amount of money. What could we do with the amount of money we are spending on the war?
Monday, January 15, 2007
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Running when injured
A few years ago I had a herniated disc in my back. I worked standing up and could only sleep face downwards with the assistance of narcotics. It is strange to attend meetings standing up. My recovery started when I began to run. Read the NYT article about how and when you should exercise when injured.
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Joanna Newsom @ Great American Music Hall 19 December 2006
The first thing is that the audience was excellent: they were very attentive, they listened quietly and they didn’t call out song titles. The place was packed as well with a youngish crowd. I see that Joanna Newsom is playing in London with a full orchestra but for San Francisco there was just a small band performing the Van Dyke Parks bits. The band was OK, except when they tried to play loud and the sound became a mush and tempted me to out my earplugs in. This was a great concert.
What does it mean to play a harp? Apart from Alice Coltrane (not exactly a household name), who plays the harp? Isn’t, say, the piano, a more flexible instrument?
Reasons the harp is not a rock instrument:
- Cannot pick it up and wave it around
- Hard to smash
- Fender do not make harps (yes, I checked)
- There is no Harp Hero videogame
- Teachers are not very rock (Joanna thanked her harp teacher who had driven a long way to see the concert).
Reasons Joanna Newsom is a rocker:
- Has Steve Albini as a
producerengineer - Has Van Dyke Parks do her arrangements
- Has a drummer (some of the time)
- Plays rock venues
Just like on the CD (Ys) the very long songs held my attention all the way through. Live there is the additional amazement at seeing the physical effort involved in singing and playing the harp. If you are hesitating about buying Ys you should go ahead and buy it.
A good place for a dungeon
One of my favourite buildings has been bought by an adult film company. Obviously San Francisco was the right place to build a 200,000 square foot reproduction Moorish Castle. When I moved to SF I asked everyone what it was but nobody knew. I'm glad to see someone has found a use for it.
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Monday, January 01, 2007
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