Blogarsay

New Blog

2009-07-28T07:17:00.000-07:00

I moved Blogarsay here.

Look At This...: Snail crossing the street (golden oldie)

2009-01-29T17:31:00.000-08:00

Look At This...: Snail crossing the street (golden oldie)

Winston finally had to concede he might � Lolcats ‘n’ Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger?

2009-01-29T17:14:00.000-08:00

Winston finally had to concede he might - Lolcats ‘n’ Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger?

Public Decency Fail

2009-01-29T11:13:00.001-08:00

Public Decency Fail - FAIL Blog: Pictures and Videos of Owned, Pwnd and Fail Moments

NetFlix: Netflix Testing Saturday Shipping

2009-01-29T11:13:00.000-08:00

NetFlix: Netflix Testing Saturday Shipping

The Buckleys

2008-12-01T16:54:00.000-08:00

Post: Mr. and Mrs. Right
Source: Vanity Fair
Excerpt:

Christopher’s teenage daughter, Caitlin, recalled her grandmother’s lessons in comportment, such as “Never ever butter your bread in midair—only people who are deeply common do that.” “When I was seven or eight,” Caitlin continued, “she taught me the art of air-kissing. She said this would be essential later in life when I moved to New York.”

Nice sweater

2008-12-01T16:47:00.000-08:00

Post: Fall Hike
Source: Living With Anteaters

It all seems rather obvious

2008-12-01T16:34:00.000-08:00

Post: New Banksy Drawings
Source: BuzzFeed

Nana?

2008-12-01T16:26:00.000-08:00

It's just a flesh wound innit?

Post: A Little Tumble
Source: Random Acts of Reality
Excerpt:

"You won't take me to hospital will you? It's just a little tumble", she asked looking up at me with pleading eyes.

"We'll see how you are after I've had a look at you", I told her in an effort to give me some time to work out how to break the news to her that she would be going to hospital.

A further examination and it was even more obvious that she had broken her hip. I looked around, we'd need to strap her to our scoop stretcher firmly as we'd need to carry her down the stairs and tip her nearly upright in order to get her out the front door.

I looked Edna in the eye, "I'm sorry luv, but it looks like you might have broken your hip, you'll need to go to hospital".

A tear formed in each eye, "Oh no. I suppose I don't have a choice do I?"

Kitties

2008-09-04T16:13:00.000-07:00

Cats on a bank-owned roof: Bobcats claim foreclosed house | L.A. Land | Los Angeles Times

Will someone please build me a writing house?

2008-09-04T16:09:00.000-07:00

You know who you are.

Link

Buildings

2008-09-04T16:07:00.000-07:00

I just like this.

eatsleepdraw- a place for drawings, illustrations, and doodles

There are a lot of Australians with my last name.

2008-09-04T15:24:00.000-07:00

World Names Profiler

Happy Mother's Day!

2008-05-08T11:20:00.000-07:00

Blogging and sharing

2008-05-07T08:52:00.000-07:00

I don't blog too much, but I do share lots of stuff on Google Reader. If you have any interest, you can add this link to your subs and see some interesting stuff that I find as I peruse teh Interwebs.

Is this what his Sunday school class is like?

2008-05-05T06:16:00.000-07:00

Not mandogpig?

2008-04-25T11:41:00.000-07:00

Jared Diamond on vengeance - Boing Boing:

"Surprisingly to outsiders, most Highland wars start ostensibly as a dispute over either pigs or women."

I dunno, that dog looks like a potential snack to me

2008-03-31T18:27:00.000-07:00

This guy's gonna win

2008-02-22T08:53:00.000-08:00

Link

YouTube - Weekend Plans

2008-01-30T06:31:00.000-08:00

made me laugh

2008-01-25T12:30:00.000-08:00

Reason Magazine - Hit & Run > For the Love of Allah:

"I'll see you and raise with the fact we have a 50-ish on-the-weekends tranny at work who, when dressed like a man, is the spitting image of John Denver."

Remember to wash your hands

2008-01-22T06:04:00.000-08:00

At last, the Smithsonian gets Colbert - Los Angeles Times:

"WASHINGTON -- The line outside the bathroom at the National Portrait Gallery has been out the door ever since museum officials decided to hang a portrait of late-night host Stephen Colbert between the men's and women's restrooms.

'The lines have been extraordinary,' museum director Marc Pachter said Monday as he prepared to end his 33-year tenure with the Smithsonian Institution. 'A friend e-mailed that it was good I was leaving with my dignity.'"

It's that time again...

2008-01-22T06:01:00.000-08:00

A Letter of Introduction from T. Herman Zweibel | The Onion - America's Finest News Source:

"I almost cannot believe it is time for the suet-brained populace of this flagging Republic to be once again herded into the voting-booths to allegedly choose precisely which bloody-handed butcher will crack their bones and suck the marrow over the next few years."

She's Tracy Flick

2008-01-21T08:34:00.000-08:00

The Political Scene: The Choice: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker:

"Obama spoke for only twenty-five minutes and took no questions; he had figured out how to leave an audience at the peak of its emotion, craving more. As he was ending, I walked outside and found five hundred people standing on the sidewalk and the front steps of the opera house, listening to his last words in silence, as if news of victory in the Pacific were coming over the loudspeakers. Within minutes, I couldn’t recall a single thing that he had said, and the speech dissolved into pure feeling, which stayed with me for days."

Numerosi palline colorati

2008-01-18T06:06:00.000-08:00

Apply directly to the forehead!

2008-01-18T05:58:00.000-08:00

Davenetics* : Five Reasons I Am Too Old to Blog:

"The commercials that air during the nightly news actually speak to me. I do have a restless leg. My wife and I often recline side by side in separate outdoor tubs, watch the sunset and wonder, “Are we ready?”. I eat Flomax like tic tacs. And I haven’t taken a shit without any outside help since the late nineties."

Too Much Nick has all the good posts

2008-01-14T07:11:00.000-08:00

Where you goin' Papa?

2008-01-13T07:58:00.000-08:00

It really is.

2008-01-08T12:03:00.000-08:00

YesButNoButYes: 3D Gaming environment prototype using Wii sensor:

"Oh - hell, just watch the video. It's cool :)"

Sexy Beijing

2008-01-07T06:46:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Too Much Nick for this link to Sexy Beijing, my new favorite TV show.

Ah, Sweden

2008-01-02T07:24:00.000-08:00

b3ta.com qotw: "Recently I've been cooped up with 'Vinterkr�kssjukan' Literally translated to 'winter vomit illness'. Yes, That's right: Besides having Saunas, Volvos and Suicide as national passtimes, Swedes also have a traditional winter illness that causes you to hoy your guts up. It's tradition: one must comply."

Dynamic interdependent unity

2008-01-02T07:20:00.000-08:00

THE WORLD QUESTION CENTER 2008 — Page 8: "The orthodox view of perfect physical laws is a thinly-veiled vestige of monothesim, the reigning world view that prevailed at the birth of modern science. If we want to explain the laws, however, we have to abandon the theological legacy that the laws are fixed and absolute, and replace them with the notion that the states of the world and the laws that link them form a dynamic interdependent unity."

Pretty much sums it all up

2008-01-01T08:17:00.000-08:00

FOUND Magazine | Diary, Page Three

A new joke for my repetoire

2007-12-31T11:49:00.000-08:00

Carson Kressley gets to the bare facts - Los Angeles Times: "It helps that 'Queer Eye' was Kressley's own personal makeover show. 'It was cheaper than therapy,' he said. 'I was not comfortable with myself for a long time -- and now I try to gay it forward.'"

Damn

2007-12-31T08:51:00.000-08:00

A Death in the Family: Politics and Power: vanityfair.com

And there was Mark's widow, an agonizingly beautiful girl named Snejana ("Janet") Hristova, the daughter of political refugees from Bulgaria. Her first name can mean "snowflake," and this was his name for her in the letters of fierce tenderness that he sent her from Iraq. These, with your permission, I will not share, except this:

One thing I have learned about myself since I've been out here is that everything I professed to you about what I want for the world and what I am willing to do to achieve it was true. …

My desire to "save the world" is really just an extension of trying to make a world fit for you.

If that is all she has left, I hope you will agree that it isn't nothing.

This is kind of cool

2007-12-27T08:48:00.000-08:00

Unclutterer � Archive � Organize ticket stubs in a dedicated diary

Sods

2007-12-27T08:11:00.000-08:00

Monkeys behaving badly - Telegraph: "When a scientific colony of macaques was established on Cayo Santiago, an island off Puerto Rico, the idea was that the 500 monkeys, from seven Indian provinces, would sort themselves out. 'Unfortunately, the monkeys had other plans, and these plans involved killing each other.'

Rhesus macaques, in short, are sods."

Dammit, now I'm going to have to stop eating fish too.

2007-12-26T17:40:00.000-08:00

Integral Options Cafe: PBS Nature: Animal Minds

I love a good literary savaging

2007-12-24T07:17:00.000-08:00

globeandmail.com: Pamuk: prophet or poseur?: "Young women from this social class dye their hair purple and weep a lot. The older women complain of migraines. The young men are sent by their parents to psychiatrists who trained in the United States; they wear black trench coats, rarely shave and tell everyone who will listen that no one in Turkey understands them.

'Time passes,' Pamuk scribbles in his notebook. 'There's nothing. It's already nighttime. Doom and defeat. ... I am hopelessly miserable. ... I could find nothing in these books that remotely resembled my mounting misery.' I suppose sentiments like these are not uniquely Turkish; teenagers around the world fill their diaries with this kind of drivel. But usually they read those diaries when they grow up, cringe, then throw them out along with their old Morrissey albums."

Awesome

2007-12-23T07:13:00.000-08:00

DOYLE BRUNSON (above, left) is a poker legend. Twice winner of the game's most prestigious annual tournament, the World Series of Poker (WSOP), held in Las Vegas, the cowboy-hat-clad southerner affectionately known as Texas Dolly also wrote what many consider to be the bible of poker theory, “Super System: A Course in Power Poker”. His reputation among card-shufflers borders on the superhuman. Indeed, after fighting off supposedly terminal cancer in the 1960s, he celebrated his return to the cardrooms with 53 straight wins. Adding to the mystique, both of his World Series titles were won with exactly the same cards: a full house of tens over twos.

Now in his mid-70s, Mr Brunson is still going strong. But not strong enough for Annette Obrestad (above, right), who beat the old master and 361 other entrants in September to win the first ever WSOP event held outside America. Miss Obrestad's victory, which netted her £1m ($2m), shows how much poker has changed since the days when Texas Dolly, Amarillo Slim Preston and Jack “Treetops” Straus held sway. She is only 19 (making her the youngest ever winner of a World Series bracelet) and she is, of course, a woman. She hails from Norway, not Nevada. And though she had previously won over $800,000 in internet tournaments, the event at London's Empire Casino was the first time she had encountered serious opposition in the flesh.

Get your time waste on

2007-12-22T16:45:00.000-08:00

Jackson Pollock by Miltos Manetas

Good kitty

2007-12-22T12:05:00.000-08:00

To Dismay of Inspectors, Prowling Cats Keep Rodents on the Run at City Delis - New York Times

My new hobby

2007-12-22T08:07:00.000-08:00

England Made Them: Entertainment & Culture: vanityfair.com: "I am thinking of the Earl of Mar, who was found dead underneath his London balcony one morning in 1975. It didn’t seem likely that he had been pushed or probable that he had jumped. Investigators were at a loss. And then an enterprising reporter looked up the entry for the noble lord (Scotland’s senior earl) in Who’s Who. It disclosed a life of blameless nothingness and obscurity. Yet, under the entry for “hobbies,” there was a telling detail. In the space for favored occupations, the departed duke had inscribed the words “Kicking Pigeons.” Could this be the clue?"

My new rule

2007-12-22T08:03:00.000-08:00

England Made Them: Entertainment & Culture: vanityfair.com: "“I must ask anyone entering the house never to contradict me or differ from me in any way, as it interferes with the functioning of the gastric juices and prevents my sleeping at night.”"

Merry Christmas

2007-12-22T07:44:00.000-08:00

The Golden Suicides: Entertainment & Culture: vanityfair.comFranz Kafka: "When you stand in front of me and look at me, what do you know of the griefs that are in me and what do I know of yours?"

Oh Yes

2007-12-18T10:12:00.001-08:00

The Hobbit is coming.

Am I the only one who's never seen this?

2007-12-08T08:13:00.000-08:00

Word.

2007-12-08T08:09:00.000-08:00

Celebrity gossip juicy celebrity rumors Hollywood gossip blog from Perez Hilton � Blog Archive � Quote Of The Day: "“While the music industry is doing everything they possibly can to go out of business, can we all make sure to rid ourselves of the Grammys, too? Out of touch old men jacking each other off. ENOUGH!” - Trent Reznor, on the Nine Inch Nails official blog"

Trent Lott Resigns

2007-11-28T07:12:00.000-08:00

The Onion - America's Finest News Source: "Trent Lott, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate, announced that he would be leaving office at the end of the year. What do you think?

Angel McCaskey, Book Seller
'See, you don't have to wait for a public disgrace before quitting. You can do it two, or even three weeks before.'"

Hee

2007-11-26T15:05:00.000-08:00

Read, Weep, and Vote

2007-11-26T12:40:00.000-08:00

Read, Weep, and Vote: "Like Castro, like Ceausescu, like many other politicians, Mrs. Clinton prefers to be photographed surrounded by schoolchildren, an image that suggests either a kid's birthday party or a hostage situation, depending on your point of view. "

Poor Debra

2007-11-25T07:06:00.000-08:00

The Elephant — Poet Seers

2007-11-19T20:58:00.000-08:00

The Elephant

Silently shall I endure abuse as the elephant in battle endures the arrow sent from the bow: for the world is ill-natured.

They lead a tamed elephant to battle, the king mounts a tamed elephant; the tamed is the best among men, he who silently endures abuse.

Mules are good, if tamed, and noble Sindhu horses, and elephants with large tusks; but he who tames himself is better still.

For with these animals does no man reach the untrodden country (Nirvana), where a tamed man goes on a tamed animal, viz. on his own well-tamed self.

The elephant called Dhanapalaka, his temples running with sap, and difficult to hold, does not eat a morsel when bound; the elephant longs for the elephant grove.

If a man becomes fat and a great eater, if he is sleepy and rolls himself about, that fool, like a hog fed on wash, is born again and again.

This mind of mine went formerly wandering about as it liked, as it listed, as it pleased; but I shall now hold it in thoroughly, as the rider who holds the hook holds in the furious elephant.

Be not thoughtless, watch your thoughts! Draw yourself out of the evil way, like an elephant sunk in mud.

If a man find a prudent companion who walks with him, is wise, and lives soberly, he may walk with him, overcoming all dangers, happy, but considerate.

If a man find no prudent companion who walks with him, is wise, and lives soberly, let him walk alone, like a king who has left his conquered country behind,--like an elephant in the forest.

It is better to live alone, there is no companionship with a fool; let a man walk alone, let him commit no sin, with few wishes, like an elephant in the forest.

If an occasion arises, friends are pleasant; enjoyment is pleasant, whatever be the cause; a good work is pleasant in the hour of death; the giving up of all grief is pleasant.

Pleasant in the world is the state of a mother, pleasant the state of a father, pleasant the state of a Samana, pleasant the state of a Brahmana.

Pleasant is virtue lasting to old age, pleasant is a faith firmly rooted; pleasant is attainment of intelligence, pleasant is avoiding of sins.

Bang!

2007-11-19T18:29:00.000-08:00

YouTube - Nine Inch Nails - Right Where It Belongs (Stage Visuals)

2007-11-07T07:03:00.000-08:00

Dan Agin: Goodbye Selfish-Gene: A New Upheaval in the Science of Human Behavior - Living Now on The Huffington Post

2007-11-06T09:51:00.000-08:00

Dan Agin: Goodbye Selfish-Gene: A New Upheaval in the Science of Human Behavior - Living Now on The Huffington Post: "Well, it seems that the father of sociobiology, E.O. Wilson has changed his mind: in the current issue of New Scientist (November 3, 2007), evolutionary biologists David Sloan Wilson and Edward O. Wilson effectively end the hegemony of the selfish gene idea: they review the field and declare in a voice loud and clear that group selection was mistakenly cast aside during previous decades, that the evidence for group selection is too strong to be ignored, and that the current ideas about how evolution works need to be revised."

Who's Hungry?

2007-11-02T16:12:00.000-07:00

Sickness and Health, on Scales Large and Small - New York Times

2007-10-30T12:16:00.000-07:00

Sickness and Health, on Scales Large and Small - New York Times: "Whoever designed the cover of Devra Davis’s critique of the “war” on cancer should have looked around for a picture of the Kent cigarette she describes hitting the market in 1952, the one whose unusually effective filter was made from pure asbestos."

I, Mummenschanz - by Michelangelo Antonioni

2007-10-27T10:27:00.000-07:00

Daft Punk's Electroma

I think he's for real.

2007-10-27T07:44:00.000-07:00

Too Much Nick

Fair and Balanced

2007-10-27T07:34:00.000-07:00

YesButNoButYes: This is fun...

Why remake The Thing? It's perfect as it is.

2007-10-26T07:14:00.000-07:00

Los Angeles Times : Show Tracker : What you're watching: "Moore is also juggling writing duties for the upcoming feature films 'The Thing' and the sequel to 'I, Robot.'"

Sad but true

2007-10-24T12:12:00.000-07:00

The 3 Rules of Self-Marketing - Web Worker Daily: "“Knowing how to market yourself will do more for your earnings and reputation than becoming better at what to do.” "

Thank God

2007-10-24T12:01:00.000-07:00

A Woman's World: "According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, crying—once taboo on the job—is becoming acceptable in the workplace, as a way to express emotion and promote 'healthy debate.'"

House!

2007-10-24T07:01:00.000-07:00

House is getting even dumber, but strangely more amusing.

Internet Evolution - David Weinberger - Even With Web 2.0, Businesses Are Stuck at Enterprise 1.5

2007-10-24T06:45:00.000-07:00

Internet Evolution - David Weinberger - Even With Web 2.0, Businesses Are Stuck at Enterprise 1.5: "If you wanted to build an environment in which blogging would be tempted to betray its values, you’d build a modern corporation. Marketing has trained companies to speak in safe platitudes. Legal has warned companies not to let anyone speak without permission. Executives have let themselves believe that they got where they are because they’re oh so fascinating. It’s a miracle there are any good corporate blogs at all."

Making friends with paper (again) | 43 Folders

2007-10-23T13:00:00.000-07:00

This makes me vow to finally read that copy of Everything is Miscellaneous I have in my reading stack. Most people would find it completely alien, don't you think?

Should we give these out for Halloween?

2007-10-23T12:52:00.000-07:00

Who Will Be Eaten First?

bright future in sales

2007-10-23T12:49:00.000-07:00

I had an applicant like this once. She was indignant that we wouldn't interview her and sent us nasty emails. Just what you want in a development officer.

Everyone's gotta have a hobby

2007-10-23T12:44:00.000-07:00

Too Much Nick

YesButNoButYes: Ten Moments of New Romance

2007-10-23T12:42:00.000-07:00

Sweet, sweet New Romance. David Sylvian was so pretty...

YesButNoButYes: Ten Moments of New Romance

Thank you, Roger Ebert

2007-10-20T07:28:00.001-07:00

Story of my life

2007-10-13T16:30:00.001-07:00

Watch this every day.

2007-09-27T09:48:00.001-07:00

John Kerry is a disgusting coward

2007-09-18T07:51:00.000-07:00

He should be ashamed of himself.

Just testing out my new

2007-09-16T15:46:00.001-07:00

Just testing out my new Blackberry and setting it up to post on Blogger. We went to the Wired Magazine NextFest yesterday and saw robots.

Tay Zonday better watch out

2007-09-15T07:00:00.001-07:00

Chrissy might just take his place as my new Internet boyfriend!

Poor Meg

2007-09-11T19:31:00.000-07:00

Just got this message from the White Stripes newsletter:

The White Stripes announced today that they are canceling their forthcoming tour due to health issues. Meg White is suffering from acute anxiety and is unable to travel at this time.

The White Stripes sincerely apologize to their fans.
"We hate to let people down and are very sorry."

Fans can obtain refunds for their tickets at point of purchase.

Meg, hope you get better soon! We'll catch you next time.

I can't stop watching this....

2007-09-01T08:34:00.001-07:00

http://www.aglassandahalffullproductions.com/

Starving

2007-08-23T16:25:00.000-07:00

One of the benefits of starving yourself on the Jenny Craig plan is that food tastes so good because you're so damn hungry. One of my colleagues brought me a cup of microwave kettle corn and by god it was like some sort of mysterious ambrosia. The Jenny Craig meals are generally pretty good, but after a few weeks of 100-calorie "Anytime Bars" and canned "Florentine Tortellini," you're pretty grateful for something different.

I went crawling back to Jenny at the beginning of this month after realizing that I'd gained 20 pounds in a year and my doctor actually suggested I might want to rein it in a bit. That, my friends, is a humbling experience.

I would find myself walking to work holding down my top because I hadn't realized how much-too-small it was. As I walked it would ride up over my expanding midriff, exposing far more than a 38-year-old professional should display to her colleagues and impressionable freshman college students. Other times I'd rush home to change into sweatpants because my undies were cutting off circulation to my legs.

Good times.

It's been three weeks and I'm down eight pounds. I'm now entertaining fantasies of beginning 2008 at my 2003 historic low.

Sparkle and Shine

2007-08-22T19:24:00.000-07:00

Howard Stern played this little gem by the Hoff today, and I felt that I had to share. I think CharleyBrand's commentary really helps.

Poor kitties

2007-08-22T14:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Buckethead and Bootyquake went to the vet for their first teeth cleaning, since their breath generally smells like decaying flesh. They had their "comprehensive senior blood panel" done on Saturday and everything came out normal, so they got the blue light to go ahead and get sedated for booster shots, a little feline oral hygiene, and an x-ray for Booty, who's be limping lately.

We first noticed Booty favoring her front left paw about a month ago, and it still doesn't seem to be improving, even though she's been taking a course of steroids. The first trip to the vet was quite unsatisfying, since our doctor couldn't see anything wrong, even though we see a clear shriveling of her paw pads on that foot and a stiffness in her toes. She was declawed before we got her, so we thought it might have something to do with that. Since the vet's technicians are afraid of her wrath, we took the opportunity to get her an x-ray while she was sedated, and of course it showed nothing. Both vets that have examined her wanted nothing to do with our annoying-hypochondriac-pet-owner concerns.

They did find two teeth on Booty around which the gums had receded so much that the doctor could insert a probe directly into the root, so I gave them the go ahead to extract them. Fortunately for our credit card, Buckethead is the picture of health, down to the dental work.

When they returned home the girls were a little wobby at first, staggering around the living room. Booty's eyes were very dilated and I kept thinking of Towlie from South Park. She looked like she had the bed spins. But after a special treat of soft cat food and a nice rest, they were back to normal.

Cave Dweller

2007-07-05T14:05:00.000-07:00

According to family lore, my great grandfather used to live in one of these caves.

Link

Happy Independence Day!

2007-07-04T06:29:00.001-07:00

Quality's not so great, and it's not X, but it's the best I could do.

Resistance

2007-07-03T12:58:00.000-07:00

On Sunday we went to the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades. Since it was past lunchtime, we started our visit with a trip to the cafe. As I was sitting there among the German tourists and local sophisticates, enjoying the ocean view and sampling our artisanal cheese plate, I felt a familiar sense of longing. I feel it when I go to the Philharmonic, or a museum, or when we visit Italy. It's the sense that there is a world of beauty and culture out there that I don't make enough use of. Instead of immersing myself in the finer things, I read Perez Hilton, or fall asleep on the couch while paying partial attention to "Forensic Files." While I clearly have no objection to lowbrow culture (see the rest of this blog), I do feel that I'm wasting my time on earth by not enjoying places and offerings that might require a bit of effort.

This new concern arises in part from reading The War of Art, by Steven Pressfield. Though the book veers too far into religion for me toward the end, the first section was like reading the story of my life. It describes the very human struggle against what he terms "Resistance," which encompasses the forces of fear, laziness, and simple confusion that prevent us from doing the things we want to do. The book plunged me into an even-deeper-than-usual self loathing, enough that I might even write something once and a while. Read it if you're looking for a kick in the ass.

Little dude can put on a show!

2007-07-02T11:02:00.001-07:00

On Friday 6/29 we went to see Prince at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood.

They started the show at 12:30 am, and ended at about 2:30 am. Afterwards, from about 3 am to 4 am, there was a jam session in the lobby. Prince played guitar with his horn section, keyboardist and drummer. The horn section was made up of amazing jazz musicians.

The night of the show was run expertly by the Roosevelt staff, but the ticket sales were a mess. It took me days and many emails to figure out whether I actually had tickets, and there are rumors of credit cards being wrongly charged.

There were probably about 200 people in the audience. It was an older, more white crowd than I expected -- mostly hipster doofi. I wasn't under-dressed in jeans. About three quarters of the room had booths for the landed gentry, and the peons stood in the back. The view was still fantastic from the rear of the room.

Celebrity sightings: Jessica Biel with a bunch of girlfriends. Marisa Tomei with a couple of guys. Chris Rock. Tommy Lee (was that why Prince played "Dr. Feelgood" later in the lobby?) Eve. Peter Gallagher. Niki Hilton.

The show was sponsored by Verizon and there were screens showing Prince's new video and commercials for V-cast. Entering the show there was a purple carpet and photographers looking for celebrities. The Eyewitness News truck was parked outside. There was a woman with a microphone who looked like a reporter. Mostly she and her camera man looked bored.

The show was very slick and well-rehearsed. There were two keyboardists, a bassist, a drummer, a sax, a trombone, a trumpet, a backup singer, and identical twin dancers/singers. Prince played guitar. One of the (male) keyboardists wore a gauzy white church lady hat. The dancers weren't that great, but they were gorgeous and fun to watch.

The horn section began the show with a Dixieland version of "When the Saints Go Marching In", with the musicians (not Prince) walking through the audience. During the show Prince was super cheerful and walked through the audience several times (followed by a bodyguard of course). He played guitar out among the booths and visited the SRO crowd in the back. There was also a guy in a suit and fedora who was going through the audience and picking out people to dance on stage. (Fortunately he only picked people who could dance. That is, not me.)

Among other songs, they played "Cream," "Kiss," "Lolita," "Black Sweat," "3121," "Take Me With You," and Janet Jackson's "What Have You Done For Me Lately?" He played my favorite Prince song, "If I Was Your Girlfriend," and ended with "Purple Rain." Together we all sang the "woo-ooh woo-ooh woo-ooh-ooh" part.

Prince smelled good at the concert in the lobby afterwards. (He walked past us a couple of times and came within a few feet.) He wore an orange silk suit with a sequined collar. He had a little smile on his face and did the doe-eye thing. He kept going to the back of the room to fiddle with the soundboard. On stage he wore a white satin suit. During intermission he took the jacket off and wore a green blousy shirt with a couple of big gold necklaces. He's as tiny as you thought.

One question to my fellow concertgoers: Who are you text messaging at three in the morning?

No iPhones sighted.

It was all well worth $300 a person.

Life is good

2007-06-23T17:33:00.000-07:00

A new job, a new White Stripes album, and now, tickets to see Prince at the Roosevelt (general admission, of course).

Top it off with two weeks of vacation, and you've got yourself a bitchen summer of Jennifer.

I'm going to spend the whole time watching this:

This made my morning

2007-06-12T06:47:00.002-07:00

And now, from Africa, an amazing battle

2007-06-04T18:30:00.000-07:00

Da Shatner Funk

2007-06-03T09:13:00.000-07:00

Still reliving the 80s

2007-05-27T18:51:00.001-07:00

Damn, You Tube Has Everything

2007-05-27T13:44:00.001-07:00

I'm having a flashback. I remember going to an in-store signing at Tower Records to get these guys to sign my copy of Sixteen Tambourines, and seeing them in the gym at UCI when they opened for The Alarm. And of course MV3 was a staple of my afterschool TV watching. God I'm old.

Chills

2007-05-27T13:21:00.000-07:00

I've spent my afternoon searching for various favorite things on You Tube. Here's one.

Here's another:

And here's the polar opposite, which is absolutely not safe for work:

Me gusta! Viva los pantalones rojos!

2007-05-24T08:57:00.000-07:00

Listen to the new White Stripes song

2007-04-30T07:04:00.001-07:00

Tumblr

2007-04-27T10:29:00.000-07:00

You really should check out my Tumblr blog. There's actually new content there.

Finally, a political candidate I can get behind

2007-04-18T09:37:00.000-07:00

Link

When he is not absorbed in his path to overthrow and destroy the nation of Japan, he works as a musician playing songs for tips on the side of the street.

Icky Thump Cover

2007-04-10T12:04:00.000-07:00

I just love them.

New Atul Gawande book

2007-04-05T10:18:00.000-07:00

Yay! One of my favorite writers has a new book out. Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance comes out this week and is now on its way to me from Amazon. He's also the subject of a NYT article today.

Gawande's first book, Complications, is one of my favorites of all time. Everyone I've recommended it to has loved it. He's a brilliant surgeon and a beautiful writer. Can't wait to read the new one.

Must have been the angel!

2007-04-03T13:36:00.001-07:00

Is this a bad omen?
Originally uploaded by claspingwalnut.

Check this out. It seems I was being visited by a heavenly messenger!