Category: <span>Art • Design • Culture</span>

Published March 30, 2005 by

John Cipollina: Electric Guitarslinger

I’ve been getting a whole slew of very thoughtful gifts over the past two weeks. The biggest surprise was the video, John Cipollina: Electric Guitarslinger. Brian, Kathy and boys (last name withheld for privacy) sent it to me for my birthday and I was just floored. It was totally unexpected. Words can’t express… Anyway…

John Cipollina was my first guitar hero. A friend’s older brother let us listen, through headphones, to Who Do You Love on Quicksilver Messenger Service’s Happy Trails album. I was captivated by his stinging tone and use of a Bigsby “whammy bar.” That’s all it took.… Read the rest

Music Uncategorized

Published March 24, 2005 by

Fatigue Spawns Links

I’m tired… and, when I’m worn out, I can’t stand the thought of losing productive time. If I’m in pain, I will rent a film or do something creative like work in Photoshop or fine tune some HTML or CSS. I’ve found these to be the most effective pain management techniques. But, when I’m just plain tired, I’ll do busy work, like add links to the left column of the blog. I hope you like some of the new ones.

Oh, and even though it says to “Read more” down here, don’t believe it… there’s no more to read.… Read the rest

Blogging Uncategorized Web Design

Published March 20, 2005 by

It Was A Peaceful Protest

Denise and I had lunch at Fred’s in Nevada City on Saturday, ignorant of the fact that it was March 19 and there were rallies planned all over the country, marching for peace and protesting the war in Iraq. Now, I know I’ll be taken to task for this piece of satire, but I can’t help it. Funny stuff just happens to me all the time…

The demonstration in Nevada City was quiet and orderly… In fact, when I returned with my camera to document the event on the Broad St. overpass ten minutes later, it was over. The only evidence that an anti-Bush crowd had been engaged in a struggle against war, corporate greed, and poverty, were the three late-model Volvos left at the scene by lunching activists.     … Read the rest

Humor Politics

Published March 16, 2005 by

Speaking of the Eames Era

eames8The Work of Charles & Ray Eames: A Legacy of Invention
The Library of Congress has organized an exhibition, along with the Vitra Design Museum, celebrating the genius of Ray and Charles Eames. This amazing couple are probably best known for their contibutions to furniture and architectural design, but the fact is… they could do just about anything! Check out the site and marvel at the profound influence these two people have had upon the world you see around you each day.… Read the rest

Art • Design • Culture

Published March 16, 2005 by

Have We Gone Too Far?

Well, our chaise lounge arrived and it’s beautiful!chaise
I think we have arrived at the look we’ve been trying to achieve with the living room. Note the end table with toothpick legs and Formica top next to the sofa. It is one of three stacking end tables… colors are green, gold and red.

We found this Eames era Danish coffee table a few weeks ago, but coffee will never touch it.
Instead, we placed it near the front door and have our guest book out to welcome visitors. All in all, I think the new editions compliment the sectional and other items.… Read the rest

Art • Design • Culture Vintage • Retro • Kitsch

Published March 13, 2005 by

I Tried This Blogger Hack

Expandable Post Summaries
I had a few minutes to work on some formatting for the blog and found this neat trick…You see, with this little hack on the Blogger template, I can create the illusion that I am becoming a better writer — saying more with less. The truth is, it entices the reader with a line or two and then lures them into another massive tome, sucking away more of their valuable time.

But, it does have an advantage… the reader can scan the main page to see if there’s anything remotely interesting and decide if they want to find amusement here or go do something valuable with their time, like save the world from catastrophic climate change.… Read the rest

Blogging Uncategorized

Published March 9, 2005 by

Dedication to the Game

kabulteeTeeing Off at the Kabul Golf Course

Regardless of your opinion of Bush’s War on Terror, I think everyone can agree that these freedom fighters have earned the respect of the world. Many groups suffered under the tyranny of the Taliban, but at least two members of the Kabul Gulf (Golf) Club have paid dearly for love of the game, going all the way back to the Soviet occupation in the 80’s.

“During the war against the Russians we were forced to close down,” said Mohammad Afzal Abdul, the 46-year-old club professional, who was a young boy when the course was built.
… Read the rest

Humor Just Plain Fun Music Wacky • Weird

Published March 6, 2005 by

Choral Music

Don’t you just love choral music? What’s that? You could care less about it? Oh, well. I’m gonna sing its praises anyway.

Today I’ve been very tired and just moping around. I wanted to blog a bit, but nothing heavy. I took a nap with KXPR on the radio and woke an hour later to the most beautiful music being performed by the Sacramento Choral Society. Good, modern choral music is the closest thing to “angelic” as I can imagine. Of course, you can’t beat John Rutter’s sacred works.

That doesn’t mean I still don’t love other simpler, more common or vulgar (said with a condescending, blue blooded tone) forms of music, just as much as I always have.… Read the rest

Art • Design • Culture Music

Published February 14, 2005 by

Navigation Survey

Okay, so I’ve worked on the template and I’m liking the formatting… I added an up-to-date photo for my profile and a “cast of characters” over there in the left column, so I don’t have to explain who each member of the family is every time I mention them. I also added my favorite blogs.

Here’s the burning question: When you click on a link, do you prefer the page to open in a new window or do you like to use your “back” button/command?

With tabbed browsing here in modern browsers and Explorer soon to play catch-up, this may all be academic.… Read the rest

Art • Design • Culture Blogging

Published February 12, 2005 by

As Long As I Am Unloading

couchSpeaking of a load off… It has long been a dream of mine to redecorate our home in a modern theme, but it looks like that will have to wait for another 5-10 years. In the interim, we have decided upon a retro look and have been scouring thrift stores, garage sales and eBay for furniture and accessories from the same era as the ribbon-cutting on our home, i.e. 1961.
Today my wife, Denise, and I were leaving a disappointing garage sale, when we happened upon a young gentleman (who happpened to be from New Zealand), standing in the driveway of his new home, next to this sectional.… Read the rest

Art • Design • Culture Vintage • Retro • Kitsch

Published February 12, 2005 by

I Feel Much Better Now

It looks like I’m ready to roll. I’ve finished my first post, created my profile, set up some files on my domain to link to and I even tweeked the template just a bit.

This is a real load off of my shoulders… now I can relax a little, redesign my old sites, perhaps come up with a few other designs and settle down to learn PHP and MySQL. PHP looks like it should be pretty straightforward, but I ran into a roadblock with MySQL. I think that’s because (I hate to admit it), I am still ignorant when it comes to the inner workings of Macintosh OS X.… Read the rest

Art • Design • Culture Blogging Technology Web Design

Published February 12, 2005 by

Pragmatism Wins Out

Pronunciation: 'prag-m&-"ti-z&m
Function: noun
1 : a practical approach to problems and affairs

Many years ago as a young man, I read very little, wrote even less and never dreamed I would write a journal of any sort, let alone a personal log on a space-age device like the computer I am tapping away on. That has all changed.

Now, I read a lot and I write even more!

So, I conceived a plan — a very pragmatic plan, really. Since I would never be published, I decided I would create a website and share my thoughts with anyone who may find them entertaining, enlightening, encouraging or exasperating (strange, but some people do find a certain level of satisfaction in exasperation).… Read the rest

Blogging Technology Web Design