Ultimately, we hope customers will feel an enhanced sense of community and a deeper connection to our coffee heritage

Oi. Starbucks. Thanks, jp. At the Consumerist, via huffpost.

iPoop?

Yes. OK? I play wordmole on the crapper.

something for everybuddy...

and then again,
maybe not...
esteemed amigo Esteban sent link our way yesterday, knowing yourstruly likes puddin' like a mofo alongside serious bent for pulchritudinous female form, and hey, isn't this why we have such great respect for our Nipponese brethren anyway?
here be the linky goodness.

(full disclosure- NOT the same linky bit that Esteban sent ju ju, mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa - BUT ya getz da idee, no?)

next up, whilst visiting some o' our bloggos favoritos & dropping in on Roo370 aka R. Dog the Phantasm, we came across this, ahhhhhhh...
well, better you see for yourowndarnedself...

OOOOH, late arriving linky bit, via the NYT,
on yummy stuff & one's relation to same...

Ya Ya Twist!

OK, I know I've left the C´est Noir video out there in the corner for too long, but I was waiting on getting it together to head down to the cellar and dig out the little lovely below - Johnny Hallyday singing Ya Ya Twist. Blow me away.
We have some old 45's as a sideline to our 78 collecting - and, my oh my, we have a lot more than I realized. Haven't looked at them in maybe 10 years. Of course, the Hallyday isn't my favorite old French 45 in our closet. That would have to be Jeanne Moreau chante "Le Tourbillon" du film Jules et Jim. No?

Oh, hell, while I'm digging around and have the scanner plugged in, not French, but WOW!.

I wish it was easier to download Nicholson Baker's article to my Kindle so I could read it on the subway

A new page. One of my favorite cranks. Coinkydink we broke one of our kindles this past weekend - something about unexpected thirds in our two-seater, seats rolling forward and backwards, and hard soled shoes. And, if the cost is high to replace the screen, will we do it?

TETSUO!!!!

Yow! via gmtPlus9.



"A young man (Tomorowo Taguchi) slowly transforms into a metallic monster after he comes into contact with a bizarre man with metal objects protruding from his body." @ Nippon Cinema.

Dan Hicks' Tangled Tales

That NPR story this morning made me run out and buy Dan Hicks' latest CD, Tangled Tales. Been a long time.

Go North, Object Image, fond good byes.

This summer two galleries we really liked visiting have said good bye. First, Object Image on 5th Ave in the Slope. Bob Weiss' place. (Hey, Bob, you stopped updating the site in 2007?) We bought a number of pieces there over the years, and became particularly fond of Thomas Hagen's work. And now, this is the last weekend for the Go North gallery in Beacon, NY. We drove up there yesterday to say bye. We chatted with Karlos Carcamo there, who said to keep checking the site for happenings. We will.

Thank you, all.

I wear my socks up to my knees...

Getting stoked about seeing Seasick Steve at Southpaw (bklyn) on Aug. 8. You? Wiki. Myspace. Youtube. Official.

Brokeneck airline

Macinwi, danka. this is why I travel with a uke & not a guitar.

Health care - I'm relaying a message from the Working Families Party

Hi -

Six Democratic Members of Congress from New York are putting the brakes on President Obama’s historic campaign to reform our broken healthcare system.

Healthcare legislation that would expand healthcare coverage for millions of Americans is gaining steam in Congress. But Reps. Michael Arcuri, Scott Murphy, Nita Lowey, Mike McMahon, Eric Massa, and Dan Maffei are stalling the bill because it pays for reform with a modest tax on the rich. Sign the petition here: http://action.workingfamiliesparty.org/t/3865/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=631

This is our best chance for healthcare reform in a generation, but now these five Democratic members of Congress are putting real reform on hold - even though less than 1% of all New Yorkers would be affected by the tax.

We can fight back – but we have to ask fast. I just signed the Working Families Party’s petition calling on the 6 Representatives to put healthcare reform above protecting the wealthy. Will you join me?

http://action.workingfamiliesparty.org/t/3865/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=631

Bill de Blasio for Public Advocate

Went to fund raiser for Bill de Blasio a couple of nights ago. Bill is our City Councilman (district 39) and now he's running for Public Advocate. Marty Markowitz gave a nice intro, and Bill gave a good talk about just what it is that the Public Advocate office is meant to be, and the particular importance of that role when there is a very strong mayor.

Bill also pointed out that most New Yorkers don't realize there is an election on September 15 - the NYC Democratic Primary - and that the Democratic nominee for P.A. will almost certainly be elected next November.

So, hey, the six of you New Yorkers who might see this, talk to me. Public Advocate is one of only three city-wide elected positions (Mayor, Comptroller, Public Advocate). It's important.

Eclipse

via /.
Oh, hey, same pics bigger & better @ Big Picture.

About my little jaunt to the Bronx today...

I had great fun with 40,000 of my closest friends, about 10 blocks from where I was a wee bairn. Before I went up, I thought I'd do some googling of the old block. I knew it might not be good - it went through some hard in-between times - but I didn't have a sense of what was going on there now.

The photo on the left - yeah, I know, snow, xmas lights, tugs at the heartstrings - was taken from one of the windows of our apartment. Gee! look at all the old cars!

Now, take a look at the current views. Go into street view. Swizzle around. The intervening decades have not been beautifying to Nelson Ave. between 168th and 169th.

I drink your milkshake!

hmmphf, indeed...
more like "i drink your cold, draft beer,
(or, better yet, tall & icy bloody mary)
and then the next one,
and then the next one and then..."
you get the idea?

then, this would certainly come in handy.

Baron Ambrosia

I've been invited to the Bronx for a little doo this afternoon - unfortunately not by Baron Ambrosia, who, coinkydinky, the NY Times has a nice article about this morning.

Big knife smackdown

For years I've looked in junk shops and antique shops and flea markets for old kitchen knives that struck my fancy, pretty much without finding anything I liked. But now in the last six months or so I've bought three knives, and I think I'm done. (Except maybe in the small knife, paring knife end of things.) Any way, this past weekend at the Brooklyn Flea I purchased big Bertha up above - 8 inches of very heavy blade. Note the flattened area above the eyelet - clearly had been hammer-whacked regularly. Bone bustin'. Can't quite make out the maker's name, but...

Space station toilet breaks down

Given that I've had to repair both toilets in our house in the last couple of weeks, I'm extra sensitive to news like this right now.

The main toilet has broken down on the International Space Station (ISS), currently home to a record 13 astronauts, Nasa said....

If repairs fail, Apollo-era urine collection bags are on hand, Nasa said.

Back on the bike

After some nice late spring riding there was that month of rain, and I just didn't get it back together again until this morning. Big snakes of bikes at every intersection. And, lookee, a sea of chairs and tables outside Boro Hall. Summah! Coffee and lemon iced scone. Just gonna eat half the scone and save the rest for later. Nah!

Sent via thingy.

Ice pops

Aloft on my ever towering spiral of self sophistication, I've decided to make ice pops. Bought some molds yesterday. I just now blended up a couple of peaches, some honey and a dash of milk, filled to molds, stuck the little stick-tops on, put it all into the freezer, and can hardly wait till this evening.

Oh, lookee here. And here. And here. And here. Oh, and definitely here.

ain't dat da trute, Rhute...

the rich get richer, and the poor...
well,
ye know as well as yourstruly does, eh?
courtesy the New Yorker online

that same topic on a more serious note, P. Krugman,
via the NYT, The Joy of Sachs

sorry, this is really just NOT funny...

Hambone Dante in the stars

The base image is from a box of J.P. Alley's Hambone sweets 5 cent cigars. I've had this kicking around a long time, and used it back in environy or cabinet. Not sure if it came from LOC or a Dover collection. The stars, they're from the UK working group on evolved stars. Thanks, jp, for the backchannel stars image that got me going. And the finished image, she is here.

Bad dream

It started with a lady doctor telling a teenage girl patient about a disease she, the patient, did not yet have but was about to have. It got weirder until it was involving dremmel cutting tools and the girl (and the dreamer) finally realize that the doctor is creating the disease in the patient. Wella, wella, wella, I woke up pretty darn quick. Dozed again and came face to face with a monstrous glob of humanity saying it had surgery for anything & everything! Love surgery! It grabbed an appendagy thing hanging from one of it's cheeks and pulled & twisted and - it blew up. Exploded. Smithereens of flesh. Alas, poor dreamer, no more sleep for the next two hours.

Lota also had trouble sleeping last night. Where I suspect my problem was a sharp psychological (or maybe pharmacological) vertigo, she thinks hers was because the room was too warm.

Well, you can bet I trudged right down to the cellar, pulled an AC unit out of mothballs, and installed it this morning. Tonight I'm gonna turn it down way chill, just in case I was only too warm last night, and not just crazy.

quickie post on a wednesday morning...

inspired by the vid o' the moment there alongside, recalling working in the NoNo HQ bookstore and listening to NPR's The World, story about the retirement of bigtime rockstar of the French persuasion, Johnny Hallyday. As our personal homage to the French Elvis, we want to point you to film where we became a little better acquainted with the legend that is J. Hallyday, Man on the Train, and, as an aside, really be happy to recommend anything you might pick up directed by Patrice Leconte. Thanks for the vid, Esteban!

in response to that very recent and timely like a...

mo-fo post from El Stupendo Stumperino, via the New Yorker online, Hendrik Hertzberg's The Glorious Third.

ju ju and asst'd amigo/amigas spent some time in movie theatres this weekend, catching up with some recent releases. Saw Moon, liked it, sort of low key sci-fi non-actioner; Girl from Monaco, which puzzled us to some degree, as there was often some humourous stuff going on, leading us to think "oh, wee lightweight French comedy, and oh-so-very-French" but then events at end of film having us re-evaluate and go "Hmmmm, now what was THAT really about?". Best of three viewed was Kathryn Bigelow's new film, The Hurt Locker, of which we cannot say enough good things about. Meant a trip to the city where we caught early matinee at the Embarcadero theatre which was nearly a full house, as it is the only game in town as far as this release goes presently, and yourstruly not patient enough to wait until the 27th when it opens in the local Berkeley environs. We will try to shake that lazy sluggard Juicy Pernil out of his self-imposed slothfulness so he can tell ya more about what's been happening here in this wee tiny part of the leftest coast. OH!
almos forgot, some trailers that caught ju ju's eyes and have us looking forward to release of these films: In the Loop, and for electric guitar fans especially, It Might Get Loud (and we'll wager it does, too)...

oh, and 'fore we forget-
!!!iroL ot yad-B yppaH

My fellow Alaskamericans

Hoggworks Studios. Via Fake Steve.

Great Family Wine & Bottling Company

I've had the image on the left for quite a while - picked it up one day while browsing at Library of Congress, thinking I might use it on a wine label. This morning I was looking through files, saw it again, and focused for the first time on the address. Well, there must be a Union Street in every town. Or anyway, every town in the old industrial North. Still, I wondered: could it be Union Street in Brooklyn? My Union street?

Wella, wella, wella, plugged in '"Great Family Wine" & Bottling' to the goog, and where did it take me to but the fine library at Duke, where they have both the front and back of the card. Brought a tear to my eye. Been to the spot many a time. Happens, too, to be only a few doors from the childhood home of the mighty mighty Jimmy G., who cooks the world's best puttanesca for our yearly new-wine party (and where Jimmy G's own dad made his own home made wine.)

Push

I have a small push reel mower that I picked up a number of years back at Leopoldi's. I've stored out back in a shed of sorts that I cobbled together from fence sections - not water-tight, the door only sort-of closes, and it's a dirt floor. Not surprising, the mower's in poor shape, most especially the rollers, which have completely seized up so that any attempt to roll the mower backwards cause it to skid and buck up, and forward motion is balky at best. Bad, bad, bad.

So, yesterday I took it apart. With effort, vice grips, and judicious banging, I was able to remove the rollers and spacers (they're plastic). I filed all the rust and hard cake from the metal rod they mount on (there was plenty of it), cleaned everything, greased all the parts, and re-assembled. Woo-ey! That mower zips around like a demon now. Also cleaned up the reel and filed goo way from all the blades and the cutter bar. Can't wait for the grass to grow some more so I can give it a whirl. Even thinking of trying to adjust the cutter bar. Life is good here in the heart of the heart of the country.

Pussy cat, pussy cat, what did you play on your ukulele?

Well, I wanted to spend some time learning some new songs on the uke, but there was too much other stuff a'doing to do much playing. But the sheets I brought with me were: Always on My Mind, My Little Grass Shack in Kealakekua, Hawaii, Groovin', Yes Sir, That's My Baby, Sunny Side of the Street (2nd half), Bye Bye Blackbird, I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Will You Love Me Tomorrow (bet you can't watch the whole thing - Ritchie Blackmoor was a god), Two of Us. There were a couple of others. It all seemed so much less random at the time.

Pussy cat, pussy cat, what did you read

Danny Kapilian (yes, Danny really looks like that, and there is always a swirling field of colored light surrounding him) and Judy Lieff (watch the trailer) gave us two books last month, Rick Perlstein's Nixonland and Joseph O'Neill's Netherland.

I started with Nixonland, which made me constantly angry, and was maybe 150 pages into it when S. Palin announced her resignation. Being immersed in what I was, I couldn't think of that move as anything other than the kick-off of her presidential campaign. Later that morning I tried reading more of Nixonland, flopped on the sand and mud by one of the Orient backwaters, and I just couldn't do it: just too much nastiness for too beautiful a place. More later.

And so I picked up Netherland, which I'll finish later this morning. Not funny. Fits on the same bookshelf as DeLillo's Falling Man. I'm at a point in the book where Hans has returned to London and is speaking about the differences in the London / English and the New York / American perception of September, 2001 and, more generally, life. Maybe those differences are mirrored by the NYT review of Netherland, above, and this Guardian review. Or maybe O'Neill's opinions are what the Guardian bloke all snarky.

Pussy cat, pussy cat, where have you been

Well, thank goodness Juicy Pernil has been on the table while I've been doddering elsewhere away, or there'd have been nothing to eat at all!

Been back in the big city since Tuesday evening but haven't been able to muster the concentration to say a thing about our little time away. Stayed mostly at, and can't say enough nice things about, the North Fork Table and Inn, in Southold. The people and the place, both, fabu. We chatted each morning with Claudia Fleming and gorged ourselves on her scones. We poked around Southold, Greenport and Orient, and our last full day mostly lazing and swimming at Crescent Beach on Shelter Island. Most amazing were the backroad ponds and marshes out at Orient. I'm ready to sell the house, buy a shack, and suck on clams and oysters, watch ospreys fish and out-still the herons. Aldo's was open (hallelujah) and we drank his espresso every time we passed through downtown Greenport. On the trip home we visited our friends at Channing Daughters, and in the few days before then we also stopped in at Old Field, Shinn, Wollfer, and the Tasting Room - we dwank widdle bit, and bought more. We saw the fireworks over the fireman's carnival, and listened to Big Suga playing on the waterfront to the local crowd. We ate the tasting menu at NoFoTI, and three dinners at Frisky Oyster's two places. (It's true: God Bless the Frisky Oyster.) Ate 'em raw, and ate 'em friskafella'd. Begorrah!

Our last meal out there was a breakfast at Pat & Steve's on SI. I had the omelet special: shrimp. It was late for breakfast at P&S (though probably before anyone had breakfast yet at Sunset Beach). Cook came out, apologized for interrupting us, and asked how the omelet was. Great, I said. She told me I was the only person to order it, that her Dad mad it up that day - he likes to make things up - and she'd let him know. I told her it's become my policy to never pass up a shrimp omelet. Complements to Dad.

Oh, it was a lovely, lovely time away. (!05 denrut iroL, hhhss, dnA)

this be good advice for Ju Ju...

Dieting Monkeys Offer Hope for Living Longer.

but me gets SO hungry...

yea, verily...

ju ju has oftentimes found hissowndamnedself wonderin'
why the imp in his brain (or what's left of it) gets out...

God bless the frisky oyster

Greenport, LI, NY. Amen.
Sent via thingy.

And, hey, Aldo had his place open. Someone's done a cartoon drawing of him and it's in the shop window. The caption is, Closed is the new open.

happi holidaze!

some of us still be working on this Friday before the 4th, no biggie as ju ju works with great crew of people doing good work in this world, but he be looking forward to weekend with pals of many years duration as on Saddidey he heading up to D & M's aerie in the Berkeley hills to dine and watch fireworks (if our summertime fog doesn't materialize) and then come Sunnyday he planning get-together with Janey & Phil with plans to grill up some meaty goodness, play guitar and make a joyful noise (more like caterwauling) all afternoon.

Wishing alla ye an enjoyable weekend whatever it is you be up to, and here's a lovely little linky thing sent my way from Bruddah K,
R. McGuinn solo, Turn, Turn, Turn

Just doodling...

Uh, that would be down, Bob

Wow. Great, frightening chart. Percentage job losses in post WWII recessions. We have 1948 firmly in our sites. From the June economic forecast at Calculated Risk. Via Daily Dish. Long & deep.

Bike lane projector

@ H2Ovissions, via /.

Jen Bervin - Nets. Ugly Duckling Presse

Love the book. (Picked up a copy this weekend at the doo in the Can Factory.) Love the presse. Jen Bervin and her poetry art artists' books. Ugly Duckling Presse.

Statistics show how NYers cope with the recession

Crain's article, Statistics show how NYers cope with the recession, which includes factoidal background such as:

• New York workers are the most productive in the nation by a wide margin: 37% more productive than the average American worker, as measured by dollars produced in 2007...
  
  
• New Yorkers are judged to be the third most neurotic people in the nation...

...go together like horse and carriage. Who's ahead of us? I'll moidelize them!

performing one's civic duty...

jonny pea's pal Lee S. writes 'bout his jury duty adventures
in Superior Court, Oak-town, Ca.

good on ye, Lee, better thee than we...

I Saw Her Standing There - Natasha Romanova

Yowza. Just keeping Roger & Dave top of mind. I Saw Her Standing There. You know what I mean.

Is everybody happy?

Pew Research Center, Growing Old in America: Expectations vs. Reality. Lot's of good stuff.

Here is Where

Here is Where, Andrew Carroll, and today's NYT article about the same.

HERE IS WHERE is an all-volunteer initiative created by the Legacy Project to find and spotlight little known and unmarked historic sites throughout the United States.

I'd really love a personal Here is Where, but there's no one who can create it except me, and that's not happening, apparently. Most recently I've been wondering exactly where the Here is Where was that I stood with my Mom on the Grand Concourse while J.F. Kennedy's motorcade rolled by. My Mom has always said he waved to her personally.

goshdarnitall, who'd a'thunk it?

the staying power of Don't Stop Believing,
courtesy L.A. Times online.

btw, s'too late for ju ju,
he stopped believing on December 8, 1980...

we don' need no steenkin' kindle...
thanks to wily ol' fox Gordon C.

BBC: Giving up my iPod for a Walkman

Via almost everywhere. Article.

H Roselli Littlecook, pure love

Big ups to the good folks at einmaleins in Oly, WA, for carrying H Roselli knives on consignment I've seen the Littlecook the last couple of trips out west and kept wanting to wait to see if the got the bigboy in the shop, but on our trip out last week I just couldn't wait any longer and pulled the trigger. I love it. My bestest most favorite current knife in the kitchen. Yesterday it did a lovely job on the roast veg in Lota's pasta salad for the block party pot luck, and today it cut those shark fillets from Blue Moon like butta.

For four dollars and thirty two cents I can flush again

As I said to someone years ago when it was installed, I hate the low-flow in our downstairs WC off the kitchen: that you so often have to double-pump in order to get clear defeats the whole low-flow theory. Still, this is my private meditation chamber and I depend on it to clear my head and orient myself every morning while Lota is still in dreamland upstairs.

So when the tank started to empty all by itself shortly after each flush - leaving the system no-go unless you popped the top, jiggled float to refill the tank, and flushed quickly after it filled - I say, when this happened, I knew I needed to act quickly. In an exploratory operation on the mechanism (pop-topping, flushing, dipping, wiggling, etc.,) I decided that the flap was no longer sealing, even though I couldn't feel any rough edges or breaks. So this afternoon at Leopoldi's, for $4.32 (including tax) I bought a new one. It was red (sassy) rather than the black of the one I was replacing, and it was way supple, whereas the one I was replacing had become pretty stiff (and I imagine that's why it wasn't sealing reliably).

Voila. For $4.32, a couple of wet forearms, and a few minutes work, meditative equilibrium is returned to my life.

I know, that's sort of a big "So what?", except that I've been thinking a lot lately about money, about having it and not having it and about how you get it and how you spend it, about wasting it or using it, and the worth of things you spend it on. I've even (very, very unlike me) started a little black book tracking every penny I spend. I spend bazillions of them.

And, I can say very confidently, in this context, that today's $4.32 is the best spend I'm likely to see this month. (Current #2 was the $5 pulled pory from Lucky BBQ at the Smith Street street fair - with the Carolina style vinegar based sauce.)

waiting for the dust to settle somewhat...

before considering putting some words down regarding passing of cultural icons...

and hey, ya know what,
"hiking the Appalachian Trail" is going to mean something very different from here on out, no?

as the weekend approacheth, here's something from clusterflock (yea, again...) that might set ye thinking.

Upside: Chez Stumpy dead center. Downside: Brooklyn BIG

View Stumpy's Pizza Lust in a larger map... but if Juju makes the scene in his sister city, we'll make the tour. Zoom way out.

best pizza in NYC seems to be in Brooklyn...

and we has to ask Esteban, jess how far away from chez stumpy are dese joints...

via Village Voice online, Ten Best Pizzas.

9200 uncatalogued pathogens found at US lab

You really have to love Ewan Callaway's lead-in:

Who hasn't found a long-lost roller skate or tennis racquet after reorganising a closet or garage?

Of course, these roller skates are filled with ebola and plague. New Scientist via Homeland Security News Wire. Because it's so much fun to be scared.

hiya hiya...

summer is fully afoot now.
lovely 'round these parts presently, hope it be nice wherever ye be.

couple of things to share from the online greylady, altho' first we toot el chango tonto's horn (during a non-permalinking period) when he mentioned a bit about his dislike of a particular person by the name of rumsfeld (hie thyselves to the dm page of May '06 and seek out the 5.5 post, and now bring ye up to the present and review of recently published book on D. Rumsfeld. Oh, and don't we wish there was some authority that would bring miscreants like Rumsfeld and Cheney to task for...
nevermind, don't get ju ju started on this.
okay, now this one for those of us given to indulging our various appetites (in this case speaking of those food related lesser impulses)via The Well @NYTimes.com, How the Food Makers Captured our Brains.

ok, almos forgot, back here to pass along film recommendation from the esteemed G. Coale. the embedded vid included below discovered and supplied by Dante O. hisowndarnedself...

Uh, Clem

Juju back-channeled this link. Lots of dizzying number counters, but to my eye the graphic is what's really enlightening. Yelp! And, Why shouldn't prices keep falling toward the historic norm? Historical Home Prices at US Debt Clock.

Zeigler's Welding & Hitch Shop, Oly WA

Really, it's a reason to have your own business and building. So you can have a really fun sign out front.

Delta flight 735, 2 hours still at the gate, because...

... of a broken bathroom door. I kid you not. Really.
Sent via thingy.

It was a swell party, and thank you all

It's been just about a week since our annual new wine / puttanesca bash. By finger count maestro Guido fed 90 adults (and a gaggle of children) the world's best puttanesca, and we went through about 10 gallons of our 2006 Zin and our 2007 Sangiovese (bottled the morning of the party) and a smidgen of 2007 Barbera, older bottles from B's stash, a semi-smidge of the 2008 Cab S., and some store-bought white, all before Juju Pongo's Love Balm (lemon and sage) made the scene with another concoction or two. We had a nice tent on the grass, but the patio was exposed and when the rains came for real P saved the day with some tarps snagged from Bar Toto and rigged by guests on the roof, hanging from windows, and monkeying off the arbor (like McGyver, niece T said).

Dave R brought a piano. He kept saying, "I brought a piano," and I, being me, really assumed he had brought either a little kiddie wooden tinkly piano or maybe something to put on his lap, but, No, he schlepped a big honkin keyboard with him that came out with some guitars after the rain and into the dark.

Book arts (and Booklab) master Craig Jensen was our super duper surprise guest - coincidentally at the Brooklyn Museum that afternoon (links when I get off the plane and to a computer), direct from I'll 'old Texas. (Juju, if we didn't have your love balm, we would have missed you more than we could bear.)

We've gotten some nice notes from folks who were there. My favorite was from a musician who's work I've loved for years. He wrote Lori to say thanks, and Lori showed me the note, and all I could say was, M was at our party? Really? No one introduced me to him!

Thanks, all. Let's do it again!
Sent via thingy.

Bob Bogle has departed this vale of tears...

and yah, we know many of ye youngsters will be saying "Huh? Who be Bob Bogle when he at home, eh?". Mineowndamnedself has many fond memories of the Ventures (Mosrite guitars!), and surf music in general, and when yourstruly was a young lad, one of the first things he learned to play on his electric guitar was Walk, Don't Run.
(oh! and Miserlou by Dick Dale was another...)

big sigh.
all things must pass...

late update: one of ju ju's fave guitar ensembles,
the California Guitar Trio, performing Walk, Don't Run, & btw,
we sure JP gonna make mention of this at el chango tonto later...

recommendation for ukulele fans...

via the local fishwrap's web presence, we present Tippy Canoe,
her facebook page linked via that page as well, but jessferdahalibut, ye can find it here, too...

The Master of Low Expectations: 666 Reasons...

Sentient Citizens are Still Celebrating the Long Overdue Departure of George W. Bush, courtesy Kotori Magazine...

viva la ukulele !

FLASH: "ukulele might not make things better forever..."

Bull. They will too!

From Lota, at NPR: Even in bleak times, the ukulele thrives.
Doh, the Uke abides.

he say he makin' no promises...

and that is likely a good thing, as he ain't very good at keepin' 'em...
Mine doppelganger jehosaphat prayer appears to be resurrecting that odiferous, dust laden and cobwebbed old corpus of el chango tonto out here on the left coast, will wonders never cease. He make mention there of the work of a certain Clayton Call, Famous Rock and Roll Photographer (that few people have ever heard of...) and ju ju got to agree, katz und kitteez, check that site out...

Goran Bregovic, he make me smile, no?

Site. Myspace. Youtube. Tonight!

Word Mole, I am your baitch

OK. I admit it. I am totally addicted to playing Word Mole on my Blackberry.

And here's what happened over the last week.

One of the guys gave be a hard, rubberized plastic shield to put my BB in, the better to protect it from the fairly frequent drops I give it. So, I put that sucker on, but the cross-bar of the shield on the front of the BB, just above the track ball and below the screen, limits sharp upward full-thumb rolls of the ball. And suddenly, my Word Mole scores were dropping. Never saw the winter season. Hardly saw a tomato. Total, season, and points per minute scores all plummeted.

So, today, I popped the shield. Free wheeling, again. Word Mole, all my base are yours.
Sent via thingy.

What wordnik says about farrago

Mr TheUncle, looks like the farrago heydays were all in the 19th century, except for a big bump in the late 1940's early 1950's. Now I know. Wordnik. Do it.

What would you ask the candidates (for mayor of NYC)

Working Families wants to know - and will carry the water.

A giant awakes in Nantes / and that other puppet, P

A big yo yo yo to any Jules Vernes fans out there. (I am not one, myself, but...) Great pics at Socyberty, via almost everywhere. Check out the various Royale De Luxe vidi at youtube. Wiki.

And, speaking of wooden heads, yesterday I started reading Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio, in a new translation by Geoffrey Brock. Totally whacked. That is one unruly kid, and the relationship to Disney is razor thin. ADD /ADHD for sure. Older translations online here. I'm hoping someone I know reads it real soon, so I have someone to talk to about this.

Dante and Jane visit Bridlington

Dante and his old friend, Jane Thane of Ohio, visit Bridlington , in East Riding of Yorkshire, in this version of the MNIDOAILY banner. Source image from a Dover PD collection.

Safety in numbers

TransAlt

Talkin' bout home made mayo

A friend I haven't seen in a bunch of years is in NY today from the Twin Cities, interviewing for a job that will move him back here. We got together for lunch at Mary's Fish Camp in the village, and who did we see there but Laura Comerford, Urban Home Free Range doyenne, who I hadn't seen in two or three years. Laura and her UHFR partner are working on a book. And here's one of her videos - chosen mos' specially because of the ukulele outro (and it's the first one on the site).

Does anyone have a better name than Eugenia Bone?

Thinking about dinner & browsing Bitten, clicked through Q&A on Pickling and Preserving.

Composition of (2) Political Parties by Racial, Ethnic, and Ideological Groups

But you knew that. Via Daily Dish.

Sharecropper

Sharecropper. Via Brooklyn Based. Plant something.

Yet her article is a farrago

I have loved the word farrago since 1976 or so. Can't get enough of it. You just don't see or hear it around all that often.

Julian Sanchez uses it in an article, Perils of pop philosophy, the first section of which I understand almost none of. He even explains why I don't understand it:

Someone reading about an important finding in biology or physics understands full well that what they’re getting is the upshot of a complicated process of math-laden theorizing and experiment someone else has done. Summarizing a philosophical argument, by contrast, basically looks like doing philosophy.

Right on. And the rest of the article is a pretty good description of the cloud I live under that keeps me from posting anything that makes believe it's factual, other than what I had for dinner, where, and what I drank that made me pooku-pooki.

via /.

Random catch-up

Our lovely house-guests have headed back to Atlanta, and it's time to hit the groove again. Many wonderful things that won't be posted. But, randomly: a neighbor's construction project - Silverback Perch (Juju is not the only senior gorilla in the crowd); a new cousin's legal project - peer to patent; local photographer we met in a bar - Alex Bershaw.

(The Bike Thang at JJ Byrne was fun, and there was an orange and green fixie that Lori and I both ogled. Coinky dink, walking in lower Manhattan later that afternoon, I saw what had to be the same bike. I stopped the rider & asked. Yup, and a really big grin on his face.)

(Photo by Alex Bershaw)

Spider John Koerner

Noo, he really is from Wisconsin. Out late with house-guests on Friday night to see Spider John Koerner at Jalopy. Great fun. Great guitar playing on his self-modded (with a floating bridge) early 70's (late 60's?) 12 string Epi. Go north! Official or Myspace or Dirty Linen article by Tom Nelligan (which is where the photo here came from).

Brooklyn Machine Works

Hey, Tchochkie, the latest installment of Made In N.Y.C. at the Times is about Brooklyn Machine Works. Seriously, drill down on the bike index page until you get to the choco-brown and gold trimmed gangsta. Does your heart skip a beat? Juju, are you looking at this down in EPT? Doesn't make you want to get yourself up here?

Brooklyn Bike Jumble

"On May 31st, JJ Byrne Park and the Old Stone House will host the 1st Brooklyn Bicycle Jumble, New York's only outdoor bicycle flea market and celebration of New York City bike culture."

Yes, I ate the marshmellow, but I lived to tell the tale

I had heard about these studies, but to hear and see this video presentation by Joachim de Posada is a joy.

And, I have a story of my own to tell, which I remember whenever these kinds of issues come up (see video). I was spending a summer on campus, and it was hot. A philosophy nerd who was also there had a cantaloupe. I offered to trade an LP I had for the cantaloupe, which he though was absurd and kind of primitive and (immediate gratification and all that). We made the trade, and I was very happy. And the the philosophy guy never really took it in that I didn't like the LP.

Cocaine test prompts Red Bull removal in Germany

Yow. AP blurb, and Slashdot thread. (The targeted ad that popped for me when I went to the /. thread was Lance Armstrong advertising FRS. Giggles.)

Memorial day in the land of wild pansies

Happy Memorial Day, folks.
Here in the land where the weak are eaten, Fleet Week in full force (daily emergency emails alerting us to flyovers and warships in the harbor and just chill out and DO NOT EVACUATE), I'm photographing the pansies that wildly seeded themselves in the cracks of our patio and various pots and garden nooks. And I'm defrosting the last of the berries and peaches we put up last summer so we can have them after the BBQ burgers. Gonna grill those burgers over crab apple branches that died off over the last year or two.

By the by, I ran a few errands this morning and when I emptied my pockets just now a 1944 penny turned up. 1944. On Memorial Day. Kind of spooky, no?

ju ju's heading to the desert southwest...

& before departing, he wants to share some interesting linky bits:
the esteemed columnist for the local fishwrap, Jon Carroll, on the Golden Hour;
via the online NYRB, The Crisis and How to Deal With It;
two chunky, chewy bits of linky goodness courtesy that Kottke guy, Infinite Summer & RunPee.com;
leave you with a really good question posited by the wizard behind the scenes at Ethel the Blog, S. Baum...

senor pongo intends to try to keep his hand in here on occasion whilst sunning himself poolside, imbibing his favorite chilled cocktails and noshing on many south of the border style comestibles...

8th Annual NYC Commuter Race

The money quote from the Gothamist: "And every year the cyclist wins. When will the gaming commission investigate T.A.?". Also at TransAlt.

(OK, really, how many librarians have spoke cards? What? They all do now! Begorrah!)

Foreedge painting

Foreedge painting, at Boston Public Library, via Internet Scout. Called a hidden art. Imagine how much more hidden if one replaced edge with skin.

Which reminds me of a joke I loved as a teenager. You know this one? The punch line is, The old man says, "Wait", and starts clapping his hands, "Bump di-di-bump-bump, Bump di-di-bump..."

Bridge of Sighs

Hey, we only knew Douglas Gillespie as a sassy guy, and our connection was all about food and drink. (Hell, until last night we didn't even know he had a last name.) Turns out he's a pretty stunning dancer, with the Kate Weare Company. Yowza.

More boast, Ab Ob, Ron English, Cuz Kev (Chapados)

Nice interview of Ron English on the FlavorWire.

as timely a list as you will ever see...

by way of the estimable m. woods & his wood s lot, courtesy of Salon
(once you get past that ad blip thingie),
The 13 people who made torture possible

Lock me, Dr. Memory

Hal critiques your lock-up.
In a nice piece of theater, we saw Hal steal David Byrne's bike, last year? Year before? While David Byrne watched.

Me, these days, I use an OK Kryptonite U lock for the back wheel and frame, and I have anti-theft spindles and bolts on the front wheel and seat post. I used to carry a cable, too, for the front wheel. Maybe I'll start again - doesn't add much weight. And lock down my Brookes saddle. Sigh. When I ride itty ikey I wear a motorcycle style cable lock and thread it through all the nooks and crannies.

The Antiques

The old guy likes The Antiques.

The Antiques

methinks we all have wondered why it seems so...

obvious, the incredible amount of idiocy and non-critical thought that permeates our culture of late. By way of Phayrngula (via Akkam's Razor) an introduction to Charles Pierce's Idiot America.

an Immediate Moment Edit:
link to original essay here

mebbe mo' later...

Yea, Verily! as threatened (!) earlier,
this next via the wily codger behind the curtain
at G. Coale's weblog thingie,
Joe Bageant's Escape from the Zombie Food Court

Hee hee, ha ha, ho ho - Funy Business, tonight at the Morgan Library

Hey, kids, we're going to see Lyda Ely's film, Funny Business, tonight, at the Morgan Library, where one of the current shows is On the Money: Cartoons for The New Yorker. There's a cocktail doo before the film, and I'm hoping to meet Roz Chast (images), though I can't imagine what I'll say except hummana hummana hummana.

Abraham Obama, tonight, 8 PM 92nd St. Y Tribeca

Oy, yo yo yo, doing anything tonight? Cuz Kev (Kevin Chapados) directed Ron English's Abraham Obama, screening tonight at the Tribeca Branch of the 92nd Street Y.

some miscellaneous linkage from ju ju's desktop...

long been a fan of Chronicle columnist J. Carroll who delivered this to us yesterday and revisits the topic today;
then, there's an interesting story on the topic of self control provided us via the New Yorker's Jonah Lehrer entitled Don't!;
then, ya already know we pointed ye in the direction of the Morning News in yesterday's post, and that's where we found this piece on our (well, most of us in this category these days) penchant for collecting one thing or another;
and wrapping this up, something interesting and, mmmmmmmmm, well, hard to describe going on at Clusterflock today...
tiny wee bit of clarification necessary here:
today refers to the clusterflock posts of the 14th of May

p.s. ju ju's alter id jaypea be seriously considering resurrecting l'marquis d'monquis effort, currently in hiatus. Dis be sorta inspired by dinner conversation with friend last night 'bout all the hot air currently being expended on the topic of bush cadministration's torture policies,etc. without nary a word of the School of the Americas, and no, we not gonna get started on it here, but consider yerselves forewarned...

Homeland Security officials attacked and held hostage

A group of Mexican youths attacked a busload of DHS employees and middle level officials, and are holding 17 hostage. They've sealed the bus and flooded it with dope smoke and won't let anyone out to go to the bathroom. Or maybe not. The NY Times says the image is Boy Scouts training to protect their country from terrorists. Who you gonna believe? Actually, I haven't read the article, I just like the photo (Todd Krainin for The New York Times).

Yo Stumpy! Yo Dante! Yo Esteban!

lookee here!

con muchos besos y abrazos a todos ustedes,
Ju Ju

and then,
later that same day:
ju ju sharing The Morning News with ye...

Oh NO!
another website to add to all the others I'm trying to keep up with!"

be sure to check out this edition's gallery, White Space.

Hecho en Nueva York

Some things still are.
(Me loves Tom Cat. The bread and their trucks.)

algo para la cocina de Ju Ju...

courtesy the NYT online,
something yummy (and so economical too!)

later that same morning:
why Ju Ju loves Clusterflock reason #131,
Leave me the F__k alone
me luvin dat conversation takin' place in de comments...

where ju ju spent his saddidey...

amongst good friends and many fellow guitarists,
an afternoon of music, the pause that refresheth, yummy munchies,
lots of beer and wine, and more music, music, music...

be forewarned, there will be video w/Audio;
let the caterwauling ensue!

May is back to bike commute month!

We flew home last night. Today's forecast called for sunny 60's, so after I put on the suit I thought, what the heck, and got on the bike. Nice chat at Smith and Atlantic with a bearded dude in long shorts and arm warmers all about the perfect weather and sweat and keeping clean clothes at the office. Got to Boro Hall and was happy to see they'd tripled the number of bike racks (thanks, Marty), happy to see the same coffee vendor in the shack, and bummed (but not surprised) to be having a little asthmatic gaspola. Maybe will squirt before the ride home.

Anyway, heaven.
Sent via thingy.

donde esta el 'amburguesa mas sabroso en Nueva York?

pos, quien sabe?
hmmmmmmm?

stumpy?
MellieMel?
anybody?