One oddity of global warming is that Seattle is behaving the opposite of the rest of the world. Summers are becoming less and less present. My favourite season is autumn. It always makes me feel like “let’s go!” When I was a kid, in addition to school, that meant, getting the cottage ready for the winter and helping my uncle change out the boat for the winter season.

But these days, my ambitions seem to be limited mainly to praying to the great god Windex for a streak free shine. Clean windows are important—especially as the days shorten. My grandmother felt that maximising available light was more important than insulation and the older I get the more I see her point.

I need all the light I can get. I’m missing so many things. For example, it’s crept up on me: I’M ALMOST OUTTA RECORDS! There’s about 1,000 left.

But in the immortal words of Hedley Lamarr, “why am I telling you?” The people who read this already have the entire catalog.

The last […]

OK, it’s no secret, I’m no fan of Ayn Rand, but that’s not the point. This image is the first rank on Google; perhaps because it is the lead photo for their bio on pbs.org. But click here to see what I see when I look at it.

I kill me. The point is that the copy is actually pretty bland. I’m sure her fans will find it vastly over-simplified, but it’s about as non-controversial as is possible with someone who lived to change the world.

But that photo? Oy. They could’ve chosen any number of more flattering pictures. And I think that was intentional. As Jung might say, I think you have to assume that their are no coincidences and that everything is, at some level, intentional. The editor of that article is saying something.

Now it’s true that some people just don’t photograph well. Hitler being one. But on the other hand, I’ve never seen a […]

Just a quick reminder: What with all the emphasis on Positive, you may not have noticed it but Nice Cuts is now back in stock for holiday ordering. 🙂

I’m wondering today when the Latin/Greek apologia

As I survey the rack and ruin of yesterday’s election, I am struck by many speeches trying to toe the line between both forms of ‘apology’. How to say ‘I accept responsibility’ while at the same time defending the path one has chosen.

Today’s ‘apology’, in the classic sense, has to do with the running order of Positive 2010. It differs from the original. Which is a sell-out; a total artistic cave, and here’s why I done it, Ma. It was for the good of the country. Or rather for the good of my particular piece of the country.

Been doing a lot of dance gigs recently—building the ol’ chops to play live again. And I’ve been wondering about why people dance to some songs and not others. There are lots of songs that we’ll play that are just slammin’ but the dancers? Ho humsville. Then other songs, that everyone in the band feels totally ambivalent about? The dancers lose their minds. There is a middle-aged stampede to hump the stuffed tiger. (Don’t ask.)

Now you could say that the above situation is because ‘the band’ likes songs that are more musically interesting than the dancers, but this is only partly true. Though I would agree that there sure is some perverse (and inverse) correlation between musical quality and general dance-ability, this is not always for certain; not by a country mile. In fact, I can’t figure it out. All I can say about it is this metaphor:

I’ve railed against Lady Gaga’s lack of musicality before. But since then I’ve learned something else: people think she’s seriously hot. […]