Category: Odds & Endz

Litquake powers on! Big events coming up this week.

According to President Jimmy Carter, Florida doesn’t meet even the most basic requirements necessary to hold a proper election (via Siva).

An interview with Alexander McCall Smith, a Scottish author who has written an absurdly popular series of books about a (get this) all-female detective agency in Botswana.

The Bookshelf Project: Flickr’s really neat collection on photos of users bookshelves.

Krager and Robertson Architects of Austin, Texas are looking to build affordable housing with an eye towards snazzy midcentury design.

My fried Lucia is blogging.

More authors are keeping online journals (via Bookslut).

The “sated” edition…

NPR Ombudsman declares that “Blogs Have Arrived.” He’s only about three years too late (via Romanesko).

Molly Ivins reports from tiny Mason, Texas on how the real sufferer in this presidential election is healthy disagreement. On both sides.

2005 Nominees to the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame include U2 (duh), Lynyrd Skynyrd (they’re not there already?), Patti Smith (about time), Iggy Pop and the Stooges (overdue), The Sex Pistols (hmmm), and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five (well now!).

A fantastic interview with Chris Jackson, senior editor at Crown Books, one of the youngest and highest ranking editors of color in New York. Part of the brilliant new black literary arts site The BackList (via CantStopWontStop).

Get a t-shirt with your favorite spam message printed on it (via DanSays).

Drinking Liberally is a weekly conversation salon for left-minded individuals. Swigging nationwide at a watering hole near you (via my buddy Nina).

Forbes’s 400 richest Americans. Bill Gates is still top banana. Google’s founders appear for the first time. I wonder if this is why they went public (via Davenetics).

A new biopic on the last days of Hitler, as Berlin is falling to the allies. Even the Jerusalem Post said this, in their review “It is a human Hitler, yes, but still not a likable one. And that was the intent of the filmmakers”

60 things you might not have known about Leonard Cohen. What an interesting guy.

Why the 20-year-old Boston Film Festival is a podunk wannabe compared to others like it (via ArtsJournal).

I still understand what wiki’s are.

Del.icio.us is a bookmark system by which you can bookmark sites/articles/web floatsam you’re interested in viewing later. Thing is, it’s social software so others may view your list of bookmarks as well. You can also get rss feeds of other people’s bookmark logs or of the most popular bookmarks in a given day. It’s like Friendster for bookmarks. The possibilities are endless.

My current list of bookmarks, much of which will be used for creating Saturday Morning Shards (discovered thanks to Jeff Veen).

After watching The Mayor of Sunset Strip earlier this week, I was reminded of Dramarama’s early 90s modern rock hit “Anything, Anything” which coincidentally, I feel in love with the summer I worked in L.A. not to far from the Sunset Strip. Have a listen. It’s great.

Pat Holt, a smart cookie who used to edit the San Francisco Chronicle’s Book Review page, discusses the 10 Most Common Writers Mistakes. I’ve committed at least seven of these since Tuesday.

Who would be president if the whole world got to vote (via Eastern Villager)?

The trailer for Paper Clips, a new documentary coming out in December, had me sobbing. I’ve watched it five times and can’t wait for this movie to come out. I’ll be first in line.

I’ve been hearing the phrase “Web 2.0” and have no ideas what it means. Further searching unearthed a baffingly expensive Web 2.0 Conference right here in San Francisco in a couple of weeks. Web 2.0 evidently refers to the idea of the “web as platform”, a space for business to develop ancillary services to their existing products and the entry point for users and customers to interface with those services.

It would appear that there is absolutely no place at the conference for the average interested party. Perhaps I can conn my way into a press pass.

Blinkx is some software application that has leased an expensive billboard overlooking the 101 freeway here in San Franciso. I’d love to tell you more about it but Blinkx is currently not available for Macintosh. Which is just stupid.

Jersey Girl is probably the sweetest and most autobiographical movie Kevin Smith will ever make. It’s also the first movie I’ve seen in years that argues that being a parent is a success all its own. It reminded me a lot of Tim Burton’s Big Fish another movie about men realizing their age and maturity, another movie a filmmaker could only have made after reaching a certain life plataeu.

The “Broken Tube” Edition

Fooled by April is an insanely catchy Boston-based pop band. The drummer is my friend Emily’s brother. Download “Come in Chicago” and “Nice to See You” immediately.

Seat Guru is a fantastic resource where you can find the seat on any airline flight that has the best legroom, the optimal recline angle, power ports. Never be surprised when you travel coach class again! P.S. This beats my solution: Cash penalties to airlines who sell you a seat that doesn’t recline, can’t see the video monitor etc (via Engadget).

Shrook is a really solid RSS reader for Mac that handles both RSS and Atom feeds, lets you store items for later viewing and downloads feeds to your ipod.

A great article on Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almadovar (reg. required. via ArtsJournal)

The San Francisco Fringer Festival has pulled into town. The hilarious commedy troupe OPM is back with their new show “Asian for Dummies.”

Merlin Mann’s new blog called 43 folders where he leaves Mac shortcuts and productivity tricks. I don’t know Merlin well enough to know how productive he is but everytime we hang out, I learn 50 new things about this here computing environment. It a very short time, it’s been invaluable.

The “Homecoming” Edition

Sore Winners by John Powers is a look at the Bush presidency through the lens of American popular. Unabashedly left wing, it’s also smart, funny and disarmingly unpretentious. Powers is the sometime film critic on NPR’s Fresh Air.

I think Zell Miller resembles a troll. And it’s not just his personality.

I an an unqualified Literature Abuser (via Jessa)

Political chat shows usually bore me stiff but watching The Daily Show coverage of the RNC was a riot. And Chris Matthews? I like the guy and I don’t even know his politics.

I missed Dave Chappelle on Fresh Air which made me mad. I think his show is comic genius.

I never in my wildest dreams thought out of myself as “indie rock” or anything like it. I’m just too happy a person. But on a recent trip to Amoeba, I left with albums by Death Cab for Cutie, New Pornographers. Next stop: A morose, ironic haircut.

Sick of politics alltogether? My man Baratunde breaks it down for you

The “Better Late Than Never” edition:

The soundtrack to Amandla is simply beautiful, like cry-in-your-car-on-the-way-home-from-the-movies beautiful.

Geoff Nunbe, who does the commentaries about language on Fresh Air has compiled these mini-essays into a book called Going Nucular which makes an excellent subway book.

I went to high school with this women. What a list of accomplishments!

A really interesting roundtable discussion on MP3 blogs.

Art Papers may be the art magazine I’m looking for. It’s seems national and not just New York in focus, clear-eyed and not needlessly theoretical and run as a nonprofit.

I’m trying to figure out how Barter Bee works. It sure seems like an interesting concept.

I’m nearing the homestretch on my book and feeling great about it.

What Kind of Elitist Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla (via Bookslut)

Pretty accurate actually.

What’s been on my mind this week

Margaret Cho has been uninvited from performing at the Democratic National Convention. Here’s her take on it (via Min Jung).

In response to me asking my friend Wendy to “Name some lesbian comics!” she said “Dykes to Watch out For”.

I really like bands with lots of people in them.

The Democratic National Convention is coming up.

Reader’s Circle.org is a nationwide directory of book clubs and reader’s circles.

The world needs a better documentary film blog.

Because I really really had to find out first thing this morning when Tic Tac Dough went off the air, I stumbled across, this site, which contains the rules to every game show you can possibly imagine and Wink Martindale’s Official Site.

I’m going back to bed.

The Portland edition. Sunday morning actually. I was too pooped to post yesterday.

WebVisions2004. Where I was and had a fabulous time. See ya in ’05.

Nick Finck at Digital Web magazine who invited me.

The fine folks at Hot Pepper Studios who took care of me while I was in town.

When in Portland, the staff of Smokler Enterprises recommends staying at the Hotel Lucia, a restored Art Deco treasure downtown walking distance from…

Powells Books, the largest indepedent bookstore in the world and a Portland landmark.

Reading Frenzy, around the corner from Powells, is a locker-sized zine shop dedicated to independent publishing, graphic novels and comix. Just celebrated its 10th anniversary, which in this business makes it a legend.

Le Happy, a spectacular crepe shack where I had dinner in the fine company of Michael Buffington

Spectacular graphic design by Matt Owens at Volume One and DL Byron at Textura Design.

The influence Portland has had on The Simpsons, hometown of the show’s creator Matt Groening.