January 2012
1 post
Cut the Rope →
October 2011
1 post
7 tags
Roses are red, the Tacoma Dome is (still) blue...
I won’t belabor you with the pros of having Andy Warhol’s “Flower” (that’s a title, not a euphemism) rightfully bestowed on the cap of Tacoma’s famous landmark. Nor will I bore you with yet another historical recap of the previously mentioned submission. You can read about it here and here and here and here and here. I won’t even argue those who say that...
December 2010
1 post
November 2010
1 post
Rethinking the business card
The business card. A chance to leave an impression, to distinguish yourself from the pack, give someone your phone number without having to carry around a pen. As my job doesn’t really require meeting anyone or glad-handing, I’ve been relegated to carrying around social business cards (there HAS to be a better name for these things, but “social cards” just sound like...
August 2010
3 posts
I want to confess my immortal and unconditional...
If you follow me on Facebook, twitter, last.fm, or just about any other social network web 2.0 microblog, then you will already know that I am a fan of John Campbell’s webcomic, Pictures for Sad Children. I’ve been following his weekly strip since Paul (who is a ghost) tried to get his apartment back. The humor is incessantly bleak and misanthropic, like if Steven Wright only told dead...
“He thought the world’s heart beat at some terrible cost and that the...”
– Cormac McCarthy’s masterpiece, All the Pretty Horses
Meet @daveshumka
meet @daveshumka, your new favorite twooter. (previously)
July 2010
1 post
the art of Chad Hagen
I don’t normally post items of art and design. I digest quite a bit on the subject so I know that the internet has enough voices on the subject, but I found about a certain visual artist through the aggregator blog NOTCOT that I felt warranted another word.
Chad Hagen’s infographics are what got him a plug on the site, but I found his Historical Fragments to be the most intriguing. He...
June 2010
1 post
4 tags
Jack Was a Jolly Bear
The Tacoma Hotel was a famous destination for those traveling West at the turn of the century. It was the city’s crown jewel; a point of pride to the citizenry and something to write home about (see Kipling, Twain, and Muir).
One of the most famous residents of the hotel was a 700-lb grizzly bear named Jack. Jack’s story is the stuff of legend in Tacoma. Jack was a drinker, and a...
August 2009
2 posts
Kind of Bloop: An 8-Bit Tribute to Miles Davis'... →
This sounds exactly how you would expect it to sound. But I’m torn.
Kind of Blue has my second favorite jazz album (I’m more of a Coltrane guy myself, so Blue Train comes in 1st) but I like my 8-bit music only in certain forms: specifically, Mega Man themes.
4 tags
halfway to what?
It’s 10 a.m. and I’ve just reached a milestone on my journey through Infinite Jest. I’ve just passed page 500, which is halfway through the book. (Technically, if you don’t count the endnotes halfway was around 10 pages back. Although the book is actually 1079 pgs. so—counting the endnotes—I still have almost 40 pages to go.)
Pg. 500 doesn’t really have...
July 2009
1 post
4 tags
notes from Out There: an infinite list of poor...
I’ve taken a blind plunge into dark waters, my friends. This infinite summer is kicking my ass. I’m not talking about the heat (although the sun seems to be squeezing every last drop of moisture out of my body as I write this). I’m talking about the literary challenge that is part mind-altering torture, and part social suicide. Infinite Summer is a book club of sorts, where the...
June 2009
3 posts
from what I can tell: Firefox3.5 RC2 edition
Just a few days ago, Mozilla released the second release candidate for their new Firefox browser. This is probably the last version they will release until the final unveil of the anticipated Firefox 3.5, and it’s about as stable a release we’re gonna get, so I’ve finally decided to give it a go. There are no bench tests or strenuous script tests I’ve put it through, just...
Bitte Orca
Yep, so I guess it’s unanimous. Dirty Projector’s new album, Bitte Orca, is the best album of 2009.
What’s that? You say there are still six months left in the year? And you follow by saying that that is six months of possible greater LPs. Well, I saw “puh-shawwww!” Have you even listened to Bitte Orca yet? Stereogum has already weighed in. And the downright...
May 2009
15 posts
How to use Google to stay organized, back up your...
There is a debate raging all over the internet about the omnipresence of Google. Some argue that we are giving too much of our information over to the insatable hunger of the cloud, for diminishing returns. Soon, privacy will simply be an atiquated concept, held only in the quickly fading memory of our senior citizens. Full disclosure: I am one of the harbingers of the information apocalypse; an...
DestroyTwitter: why tweet with anything else?
I’ve mucked about with numerous Twitter clients, including the famous TweetDeck, but for my money (ed. the writer would not spend any money for a Twitter client. sorry @lonelysandwich) this is the best client for something small and unobtrusive. The interface is skinnable and has slick animated tab transitions. There are tons of preferences to tweak the program to your liking and it even...
doesn't the legislature have steroid allegations...
So it looks like our government ran out of fancy acronyms to deal out and instead focused their attention on laws that may actually help John Q Littleguy. But keep it down. If they discover that you are in support of this they’ll shoot it down just to spite you.
Senate just passed a bill that would put restrictions on how hard the credit card companies can screw you. Here are the talking...
The Soft Bulletin turned 10 yesterday
As usual I forgot to send a card.
It may have been the faux-70’s design of the cover, or the fact that the album repeats two songs (Race for the Prize, Waitin’ for a Superman) that endeared me to the LP initially. But it was TFL’s (you seriously want me to spell it out?) mixtures of hazy soundscapes and haunting, loney lyrics that made this album what it was. The music deals...
minor adjustments are being made
new url for the blog: litnon.tumblr.com
EMI's dark soul stands in the way Danger Mouse's...
So, producer extrodinaire Danger Mouse, noisy rock band Sparklehorse, and avantgarde director and all around crazyman David Lynch walk into a bar… stop me if you’ve heard this one. EMI has already has, and they are threatening to sue the punchline.
My guess is EMI still has their panties in a bunch over that Grey Album hub-bub. Which is why they are threatening to sue DM if he...
A Dad Ranks His Son's 7 Most Embarrassing Athletic...
This article is both hilarious and stingy. A few highlights:
“Honestly, I don’t remember your team getting the ball past half-court. I think I only stuck around until the end because you needed a ride home.”
“That Gary Carter game was giving you the advice we were all giving you … I suppose it probably stung a bit more coming from an arcade gimmick.”
I was...
The Road. The film. The fail.
(Before I rant, I think that I should disclose that the only things I know about this movie were gleaned from this trailer and the handfull of stills released a couple of months back. I reserve the right to become even more enraged.)
To highlight a few points raised by Videogum about The Road trailer (thanks Tony):
“One could easily wonder whether they should have ever made a movie in...
Cocaine and LSD found in air of Spanish cities →
huh? seriously?
youlooknicetoday:
Your Porn Name, YLNT-Style
...
Respectful Yo Mama Jokes
“Yo mama is so healthy her BMI is probably exactly within the ideal range for a woman her age.”
- - - -
“Yo mama is so well respected within her profession that I bet she’ll get another raise and promotion this year despite the downward trajectory of the economy.”
by Lucas Klauss via McSweeney’s Internet Tendency: Respectful Yo Mama Jokes.
albums you may have missed: Tallahassee
each month (or whenever I feel like it), I dig up a classic LP that I like and write about how you shoud like it too. I call this column, “albums you may have missed.” Which is slightly less catchy than my first pick, “regurgivomit”
I wish I could remember when I began to love The Mountain Goats. It seems like they’ve been with me forever. Fronted by an unusually...
“Ask a deeply religious Christian if he’d rather live next to a bearded Muslim...”
– Scott Adams
April 2009
15 posts
if I could have your attention for just a...
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good things: Gmail Compactor Shrinks Left-Hand...
I’ve got too many wigets, so things that help free up some space gets a “check+” on their report card (make sure to get your parents signature on that).
Lifehacker - Gmail Compactor Shrinks Left-Hand Links into Icons - Gmail
prime numbers + typography
= porn for nerds.
The H&FJ Institute for Unapplied Mathematics
“So for the record, 243112609-1, set in 12pt Courier, runs to 20 miles, 2,569 feet, and 1-3/4 inches (32.96 km).”
…good to know.
loyalty beyond reason
My friend CMPN started a new blog. He’s the same guy that ran Fangbear before it went all baseball-y.
Checkitout: Loyalty Beyond Reason
hip-hop albums I can actually stand to listen to:...
I’m not really a fan of rap. Most of the hits on the radio sound like garbage to me. But every once and a while, there is an album that floats my way that grabs my attention. This month, its Masta Ace’s masta-piece (sorry.): Disposable Arts
At first glance, this album doesn’t have a lot going for it: almost every track has a “feat. [someone]” tacked on the end of it,...
word of the day: "crepuscular"
definition: pertaining to twilight
I was WAY off on that one. Unless the definition referrs to the movie Twilight. Then, I agree. That movie was extremely crepuscular.
Modernist Album Covers
Album covers used to be a true art form, back when music came on giant grooved plastic plates.
But there are still some iconic covers, and some people at Illumination Ink have chosen to take that idea one step further and create actual icons.
I could only guess about half of them.
See the rest at The Modernist Editions » Sleevage
Taking Another Look at Strunk and White →
Despite the criticisms, The Elements of Style has been incredibly useful to me. The blogosphere would be a less irritating place if more people owned it.
song of the day from Swan Lake’s 2009 LP,...
signs of spring
these weren’t here yesterday.
the clarity in rereads
I’m going over and picking apart a pair of short stories from Jo Ann Beard.
The first is Werner, which is an account of a man’s brush with death in a bruning building and his metaphorical and literal leap into a new life. It’s supposedly a non-fiction piece told in third-person, past tense. But Beard manages to put the reader in the center of Werner’s head from the point...
after 6 months, I have finally finished watching all 5 seasons of The Wire. It is one of the best dramas ever committed to film. *chills*
I'm still deciding what to do with this
commence holding pattern.