Phancy a Phireplace??

okay, just kidding, but here's a fireplace anyway...





















But wait, there's more.

It's interesting, really... whenever there's lots going on that I think would make a good post, I tend to get overwhelmed and not post anything. So, I'm going to (metaphorically) scribble some randomness here, under all sorts of categories, and we'll just go from there.

First, whenever the Utah Legislature is in session, there are often things that come up that make me so incensed, so embarrassed to live here, so riled up that I can hardly find the words to express my thoughts coherently. Seriously. Our "star" Republican Moral Sheriff is at it again, working hard to legislate from a state level, laws for cities. If you're not from here, I imagine it's hard to understand how deeply the fear and loathing of those whose lifestyle is not in keeping with the LDS church's stance.

This past fall, Salt Lake City continued it's recent tradition of electing a democrat mayor in the most republican state in the nation. Within a few days of his swearing in, he organized and passed a bill (unanimously passed by the city council) that created a domestic partner registry, allowing people to register (whether gay or not) allowing people to officially declare a partner relationship for health benefits, hospital visitation rights, and health insurance benefits.

Now, just two months later, Sheriff (though not really) Buttars has proposed legislation that will effectively outlaw this registry, saying it "opens the door to the demise of the husband/wife nature of marriage..." Last year, the Leg passed (and the state voted to ratify via referendum) a constitutional amendment making marriage between and man and a woman only. Buttars was the major cheerleader for that as well.

Seriously, every time this hateful, bigoted and sad, sorry man opens his mouth, something painfully stupid and embarrassing falls out. I am ashamed for him. That our state tolerates his presence is stunning - he's been re-elected on more than one occasion. People of South Jordan, WHAT THE HELL IS IN YOUR WATER OVER THERE??? Seriously, people, it's absolutely disgusting, what you have perpetrated upon the people of this state.

Seriously, those are the most publishable words I have been able to find for about three days now. If you want a more level-headed look at this, you can check it out here and here.

Now on to happier random things. It's been so wonderfully warm and sunny here the last two days. I went up and skied a few runs before hitting the office this morning. Even though it was overcast and flat light, the sun was breaking through as I was about to leave. There is enough snow up there at this point that they have some areas directly under the chair lifts closed, because the snow is so close to the chairs. There is a danger of hitting your noggin on people's skis who are riding the lifts. Insane. I hope it comes out of there slowly, and not all at once.

I was delighted to note that Herbie Hancock won the grammy for Album Of The Year, beating out some more mainstream nominees. I noted in my "On My Hard Drive" post last week that I had not listened to the record yet. But I have now, and it's great. Unlike other tribute or duet albums, it is truly a jazz record first, set to Joni Mitchell's lyrics second. And I must sayt, tina Turner is in GREAT voice on it as well. For a woman in her 60's, having gone through the career she's had, she's lucky to be standing, and she does so much more than hold her own on this album. Lovely. Honestly, it's a good day when that ass-jack Kanye West is shut out of that award. I did see his speech for the last one he won though. "We run this.." WTF is that?? Dude, you run nothin but Ho's. You can't sing worth shit. And you proved it on Sunday night. Again.

Speaking of Sundays though, I did enjoy the Super Bowl. Oops, I mean "the Big Game".... Great game, great catch, great upset. I called that about a month out. It was sad to see, though (and I admit to feeling old as a result), Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers at half time. It was more like Tom Petty and the Pacemakers.... Pretty old. He needed his top hat too.

I think that will do it with the randomness at the moment. More to come though, I'm sure.

Here. Have a fireplace or three:

A little eye candy for you to think about as we wait for yet another snow storm this afternoon...

Random Snowiness

So, it's been snowing here every other day, for about three and a half years, give or take.

Or it seems so, anyway. I can't remember a winter in a very long time that we have had this much snow. Being a desert, the national weather service monitors snow pack, and all of Utah is above 100% of normal. It's actually more than 160% in some places. If the spring is late, and the weather warms up fast, it will all come rushing out of the mountains in a big hurry, and with the valleys already pretty wet, there will be no where for that water to go, and the few "rivers" here will overflow. I say rivers in quotes because what passes for a river here is really nothing more than a big stream and a few canals.

We took this picture over the weekend in Park City (those are the Park City Ski Area runs you can see carved into the mountain in the background...). We took it because it shows how much snow there is up there in the mountains. Even the deer have been forced out of the extreme high country.

Anyway, we took a drive into the back country over the weekend to be the surrogate checker-outers of a couple of snowmobiles that a remote friend is thinking about buying. We drove out to the Peoa/Oakley area, and I'm here to tell ya, if you think there's lots of snow here in the immediate Salt Lake area, take a drive up there. We saw one house where the entire covered front porch of a house was collapsed because of the snow - the entire thing was there, in a pile of broken wood and shingles, sitting on the front steps of the house. About 50 yards away, there were people up on the roof of another house, shoveling the snow off. They were standing in three to four feet of snow. On the roof.

YES. WE. CAN.

Yes We Can.





Feed our nation.
End the war.
Pay our teachers.
Be oil-independent.
Educate or children.
Balance a budget.
End high-income tax breaks.
Tell Special Interests to Go To Hell.

FUCKIN-AY, YES WE CAN.

Pass it on.

Something about me

When you first start blogging, like any new little hobby, you spend a lot of time looking at your site, looking at others, reading others, leaving comments, looking at your stats, wondering why you only have three hits a day, participating in and tagging others for participation in memes, etc.

And as a product of that time, I, like everyone else, have a "100 things about me" type of post.

Here are two things that are not on that list:

1. When I brush my teeth, I do in front of the sink, with the cold water running full blast. If I don't do this, I am wont to GAG. The sound of brushing teeth to me is disgusting and putrid, and I need the sound of the water to drown it out. (That picture over there even makes me wanna gorp.) When our kids were very young they would say things like, Dad, Barney says to turn off the water when you brush your teeth, because it wastes water to just let it run like that. My reply was always, It wastes less water to let it run now, than to clean up the puke all over the floor when I blap on the floor.

Similarly, when I see someone else who is brushing their teeth, NOT in the bathroom, I instinctively have the impulse to gag. People who walk around with a toothbrush hanging out of their mouths need their eyes poked out. I saw someone DRIVING while while brushing their teeth the other day, and I almost flurbed in my own lap.

2. I have roughly the same reaction to people who chew with their mouths open, and talk at the same time. Dude, I can wait to hear what you have to say til after you swallow, I promise. I'm not going anywhere. When I go out with people who do this, I seek (sometimes aggressively) to sit beside them, because I can't stomach the idea of sitting across from them in a dinner conversation. This leads them to believe I really want to sit beside them, but really I just want to hold my dinner down for the entire time, and I don't want to witness the gaping maw that is their eating habits.

I come from a time and place, although I don't know how I got this way, but I know how to signal the waiter, with where I place my fork and knife, that I am finished with my plate. I tend to tip really well (20%) for those who know this and respond quickly to the signal. We went out for dinner with the kids a couple of weeks ago, and I only tipped 5%, but it wasn't because they didn't clear my plate promptly. It was more about not getting my entire meal at the same time, not getting it while it was hot (one of my MAJOR meal pet peeves, whether at home or out to eat), and not getting all the meals for the table at the same time, and having to ask for more to drink. I'm also not above writing on the back of the credit card ticket either. I've actually had a waitress follow me out to the parking lot to ask why I hadn't tipped her well. So I told her. Just trying to help.

I have hair envy

People who know me, know that I have had very short hair for a very long time. When I first moved to the US (on January 26th, 1991) I had long hair. It was down onto my shoulders in what could best be called a Modified Mullet, where the sides were not cut short. It was more of a long all over kind of thing. I also wore an earring.

People I've met since that time are always surprised to learn these two facts. In fact, some people see the little hole mark in my left ear, and ask me, incredulously, if I did in fact wear an earring, or is that some sort of genetic freak of nature, that HOLE right there....

Since that time, the crop of hair has grown thinner, and I keep it pretty neat. I was mentioning the other day to ThatOneWife, that you know your hair is short when you can forget to brush it when you get out of the shower, and it DOESN'T MATTER. Most of my hair now resides on my back.

The available styles for people with very short hair are few, and so we must live our hair fantasies vicariously through others. The obvious objects of this hair envy are media types who we see often on the idiot boxes in our homes. Here is a list of those whose hair I would cut off and make my own, if that thought weren't icky:

In no particular order:

John Travolta





Brad Pitt





Alec Baldwin




Pierce Brosnan





JDepp

Sometimes comments make me think.

A recent comment got me to thinking about the difference between perfect pitch and relative pitch.

I've had a conception of perfect pitch for a very long time. I know two people who have it. One of them is a former relative, and for this reason, and a continually mounting list of anecdotal evidence, I believe that one of my kids either has perfect pitch or a very highly developed sense of relative pitch. And I know a multitude of people who have relative pitch. I even had very accurate relative pitch for about 6 years.

Let's look at the difference real quick. Many say (and studies attempt to prove, as early as 1916), that perfect pitch is a genetic trait. It involves some or all of the following abilities:
* Identify and name individual pitches (e.g. A, B, C#) played on various instruments
* Name the key of a given piece of tonal music
* Identify and name all the tones of a given chord or other tonal mass
* Sing a given pitch without an external reference
* Name the pitches of common everyday occurrences such as car horns

Generally, it's the ability to identify, play, or sing a named pitch without the benefit of a reference tone or pitch.

Relative pitch is more common among musicians, and, by contrast, connotes the ability to identify:
* the distance of a musical note from a set point of reference, e.g. "a perfect fifth above middle C"
* the intervals between given tones, regardless of their relation to concert pitch (A = 440 Hz)

It is the skill used by singers to correctly sing a melody, following musical notation, by pitching each note in the melody according to its distance from the previous note. Alternatively, it is the same skill which allows someone to hear a melody for the first time and name the notes relative to some known starting pitch.

Using these differentiators then, we infer that perfect pitch is an already-residing internal ability, or at least that there is an already-residing reference pitch, readily accessible by the brain, and relative pitch is a learned and trained trait or talent.

It is said that perfect pitch is not a learned trait, and that relative pitch is in fact a learned trait. I believe there is some sort of ego in play there, in that those who have perfect pitch say that if you learn perfect pitch (to which one can indeed come very close), you have effectively learned relative pitch to a near perfected level. Those with perfect pitch like to think of themselves as some sort of lucky (or unlucky, as the case may be - more on that in a minute) genetic specimen. And I tend to agree to some degree. I once payed a game of trivial pursuit with a person who has perfect pitch, and who ALSO has a very very highly tuned sense of relative pitch (the two aren't mutually exclusive). One of the questions that came up in the game was something to the effect of, "What musical key does a 1970's model Cadillac horn honk in?" She thought (silently) for about 3 seconds, and said, "F Major 7". And she was right. She didn't need to have a reference tone, other than that one which she had constantly available for her immediate use.

Some owners of perfect pitch report that they have different tones in their heads - perfect pitch doesn't mean that you have a constant A440 ringing in your head. It can be any pitch, but it is consistently the same pitch for each individual.

So that's my reference point and exposure to perfect pitch. Here's my experience with relative pitch. During the years of junior high, high school, and a couple of years beyond that, I was literally immersed in music. Besides the casual listening, which I still do heavily to this day, I was almost always in two or three different school bands and two or three school vocal ensembles. I was also taking private lessons for both instrumental and voice, along with performing in an all-city choir, learning the guitar, singing in the city opera chorus, was the conductor at least one other chorus, recording music as an engineer/producer, and I was constantly auditioning for a litany of musical theater stuff, going to concerts, doing sound reinforcement for other productions and concerts, and supporting friends who were doing the same as me. At one point, I was able to sing, with very close proximity, about any pitch one would name. Later, when I was in college, part of the program I was in was an ear training class, where the teacher subscribed to the theory that tones, or pitches, each had their own color, and if you listened to them enough in controlled environments, you could identify the pitch by its color. I still do that to some extent today, although the skill has greatly diminished in me now, but I did do very well in that class.

So those are my personal relationships with both Perfect and Relative pitch. It was with this experience that I looked up both items on Wikipedia today, and learned a few other things. It seems that there is some evidence through studies in the 1990's and early in this decade that call into question the idea that perfect pitch is strictly a genetic, or inherited, trait. There is a study referenced there that shows a more-than-regular occurrence of perfect pitch in countries where the language is based on a tonal pattern as well as a series of simple vowel sounds interrupted by glottal stops, as most western languages are. Those languages are found in the eastern Asia area, as well as some parts of Africa. With more "official" perfect pitch instances in those areas, we can draw the inference that perfect pitch may be influenced by Nurture, rather than strictly Nature, as has been asserted. There is also a study that shows a window of time in very early development where the brain is susceptible to learning perfect pitch, but also shows that window as very definitely closed by age five. This shows why the Suzuki Method is so successful and produces some amazing string players.

If you're interested, you should check out the two Wiki pages for perfect pitch and relative pitch.

Post 542: What COULD have been an awesome post,

is simply going to be an average one. Why, you ask?













You see that picture up there? Yes, that one. It's a ferret, but more importantly, it's a STOCK photo of a ferret, not a photo of the one who pressed his little pink nose up against our patio doors the other cold, snowy night.

Yes, we had a little visitor.

Here's the story: After I got home from work, I was unwinding a bit playing with the Wii (no, not MY Wii, THE Wii), and I'm literally in mid-swing, and our Big Black Dog, Cinder, goes absolutely BONKERS in the kitchen. And by bonkers I mean totally bananas. Barking that guttural, "there's something going on here to which I most strenuously object" bark that demands that someone pay attention. So we check it out, and she's standing at the glass doors, looking outside at full pointed attention, hair standing on end. That posture is usually reserved for when she objects to the presence of a bird in the yard. So she's pressing her nose up against the glass, ready to bound through the doorway. We let her out, and took a quick look around, knowing that there had to be SOMETHING bothering her. Upon a cursory examination of the area we saw little footie-prints in the fresh snow. It looked like a cat had made the mistake of wandering through the yard.

So Cinder pads around for a few minutes without incident, and we let her back in - she doesn't stay outside much during the dinner hour, because there are little hands all over the place who don't mind dropping a crumb her way. Or broccoli.

So we're in the kitchen and we look up and there's a little pink nose pressed up against the window, and the little dog, Charlie, the more vicious of the two, is pressed right up there on the other side of the glass, thinking, "geez, if there wasn't glass here, I wouldn't have to beg for broccoli, I could have some of my very own fresh ferret meat."

After restraining the animals, the kids opened the door, picked the rodent up, and let the dogs do the introductory sniffing of the arse. Once everybody was acquainted it was time to find the ferret's home. There was no collar, or any other identifying tags or what have you.

So we loaded it up in the car and went driving around to the neighbors' houses. Is this your ferret? Nope. Next. We found the right home on the fifth try, and it turns out the critter belongs to the neighbors we affectionately call "the trailer trash people." At least that's what we call them when we're in a good mood, and they aren't yelling at their kids at the top of their lungs.

They really are pretty trashy though - they have 3 Boxers who do nothing all summer but bark their nads off, and the parents are no different. Then there's the Christina Aguilera with which we are assaulted on a regular basis.

Just sayin.

On My Hard Drive: Herbie Hancock, Naturally 7

First things first: My brother sent me a youtube link the other day, you should watch it:



The group is Naturally 7, and when I first watched the video, I was Tres Impressed. They are a group of 7 guys doing a cappella covers of mostly 80's pop songs. Then I did some other looking around and found out that they do lots of concerts and have a few albums out, etc. Frankly, they are very talented, but if you're going to amount to more than a novelty, you're going to need to have some original material, and a recording/distrubution deal. Just my $0.02. But they ARE very talented, and if you LOVE that Phil Collins tune like i do, it's a fun watch.

Okay, on to the next item. Herbie Hancock has been on my hard drive for a very long time. He's had a career spanning five decades, and has done just about everything. He first got attention by winning a local competition at 11 years old and performed in front of (I believe it was) the Philadelphia Symphony, but I could be mistaken about the specific Symphony - and I just don't have the time or energy to look it all up, because it really doesn't matter to this whole thing.

From there, he continued to pursue music but was convinced that he needed to have a "real" career to pay the bills, and let music be the hobby. He went to school in Engineering, and from what I remember, gained an engineering degree. he said recently in an interview with Studio 360, that music really just chased him down, and made him do it. All of a sudden he was a musician. This gave me pause to think for a bit - I think many of the most successful musicians of our time have found themselves bound, compelled to make music, like a Holy Calling, rather than practicing with an eye toward that career path. At least that's what I think - those who have that special something inside them, that can't be contained, which simply MUST be let out, find themselves drawn toward performing. They are so prodigious, because their talent runs so deep, so natural, that they somehow just become the vessel of their own music. Like I said, that's what I think, and perhaps I cast this sort of prodigious talent in a spiritual or soulful light because that's what it takes to make it really come out - a connection with an inner gyroscope that simply must spin its circle, with or without your permission. In a nutshell, it chooses you, compels you, you don't choose it. If you would like to question that philosophy, you should spend about 4.5 seconds watching American Idol, and then you'll believe me.

In the late 50's and early 60's Hancock was a late-coming member of the famed Miles Davis Quintet, along with Ron Carter, Wayne Shorter, and Tenor Saxophonist George Carter. This incarnation of the Quintet tackled the repertoire of the earlier Miles Davis Quintet, but with a more highly developed sense of rhythm and harmony. Many of the songs from this prolific recording era are now standards played by almost every single jazz combo today who is even a little bit serious.

From there, Hancock composed a slew of other now-standards that are also as oft-played as those Davis tunes. After redefining the way a jazz rhythm section interacts with each other, with the music itself, and with the soloists, he was one of the first jazz pianists to adopt technology, and synthesizers was a natural flow from that, with his engineering degree. he says most musicians were scared of that stuff - too many buttons, not enough vacuum tubes, he said. But this was indeed a world with which he was very familiar. At the same time, he developed a love for funk. Unlike many of his contemporaries, his melodies are accessible and easy to recognize. You certainly know a few of them, even if you don't know they're written by him.

And to that note (if you'll pardon the pun) - he introduced a generation of young kids, like me, to funk, while he was writing music for the Saturday morning cartoon, Fat Albert, starring Bill Cosby. Much of that original music is captured on an album named Fat Albert Rotunda, and it's a fun ride in the way-back machine. Many of us know his music, even if we don't realize it.

Like many musicians who have had a 45 year career, he's done just about everything, including now the seemingly mandatory album of duets with other musicians from other genres - that album is Possibilities, and it's better than you will expect. It has duets with such artists as Annie Lennox, Christina Aguilera, John Mayer, Sting, Paul Simon and Santana. It's a pretty good listen.

More recently he did an album of songs by Joni Mitchell, called River. In interesting side note: Hancock reports that when he first played with Mitchell, several years ago, he was surprised by how easily the jazz genre came to her. She told him that she originally wanted to be a jazz musician, but decided to pursue the folkish route we are familiar with today. She said she felt like it would be a better outlet for her lyrical writing. Seems like a pretty good choice. Although I have not listened to the album, critics like it.

I wanted to highlight a specific album though: Head Hunters. It was released in 1973, and was labeled as "fusion" by the critics and reviewers, at term hated by die-hard jazz musicians, even today. One critic was particularly harsh, and wrote a bad review of the album shortly after it was released. 25 years later Hancock ran into that critic backstage at another event, and the critic apologized, saying, "I was wrong about that album." Hancock's response was simply, "I know."

One track I wanted to draw some attention to is Watermelon Man. This tune, in its original form was first released on Maiden Voyage, in 1965. It became a classic for its simplicity and memorable melody (something for which Hancock has become famous over the years). It's a standard learned by all young jazz players who begin to learn about latin rhythms. I've played it myself many times. One of the four tracks on Head Hunters is a new version of Watermelon Man. It's rhythms are bent and twisted into a new form, and the song still retains its original integrity as a standalone song. it is said that if a song can be interpreted in many different styles, it is a fundamentally good bit of writing. (This is something for which Sting has also become known for.) Anyway, that song is worth the price of the album and is a fun listen, even if you aren't familiar with its original incarnation.

Books that make you dumb

Have you ever read a book, and thought to yourself, "geez, why did I do that, now I'm even DUMBER!"

Yeah, thought so.

A dude named Virgil, because he can't get dates with that name, has now compiled a quantified list of books that officially make you dumb, and conversely, those that make you smart.

Read how he did it here:

A quick thought...

I know I've promised a new "On My Hard Drive", and it's almost done, but I just wanted to throw in a quick thought here.

Over the weekend, Caroline Kennedy endorsed Obama for president, along with Uncle Ted yesterday.

This isn't the first time Obama's name has come up in the same sentence with the Kennedy name. It's been a subtext comparison for a while now, and I have to say - one can only hope that an Obama presidency will be as able as the Kennedy one to motivate and inspire, and if Obama's way with the press, and with public speaking is any indication, that hope might be well founded. Every time I hear him speak, I am moved, deep down. Hopefully it's more than just talk.

We hope. From a design perspective, his campaign seems very aware of the young vote, called the Post-Selma Generation by the press these days. You can see some of the design here.

While good design and speaking well don't make a president (I mean seriously, look at the illiterate fool we "elected", TWICE), it's nice to see some awareness of the younger, more hip voters.

Check out some of his posters.

We (I) certainly hope we end up with someone who can truly motivate a country with self-confidence, and the ability to string some words together coherently.

In which I compare things

Now that we have eaten at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, Fleming's Steakhouse, and Spencer's Steak and Chops, I have come to a conclusion.

One of my BIGGEST peeves - of which I have a couple - is that I hate restaurants where you have to yell to be heard. One of the others happens when slobs wearing jeans, T-shirts, and old muddy boots walk into a nice restaurant to be seated. These are also the noisy ones. Derelict classless trailer-park escapees, and construction workers out for the evening to spend their week's pay. If I ran a restaurant, especially one into which I had poured a lot of money to manage a reputation and image, I would have a dress code. But that's just me, maybe.

Anyway, the Doffing of my Chapeau goes to Spencer's. I don't know if it's a chain thing or what (both RC's and Fleming's are chains)(and granted, Spencer's is kind of a chain too, but really, it's owned by the hotel chain in which it's located), but the service, atmosphere, and food doesn't match up to the price at the other two restaurants. When we ate at Spencer's for our anniversary, we had a nice corner booth, and as we ordered wine 'n' spirits, the SOMMELIER came over to make sure we had no questions about the (monstrous) wine list, etc. We were served by several people, hand and foot, and it was a great evening. The food was also superior, by a country mile. It was just that good.

And one more comparison: As you may remember, I bought myself some skis for Christmas. It had been several years since I had skied, and I wanted to make sure that when I did finally bite that expensive bullet, that I was going to be able to afford to actually GO skiing once in a while, and that it wouldn't break the bank when I did. So research ensued. The idea of being able to buy individual rides on a lift, as opposed to buying a day pass, was very appealing to me, because there are lots of times when I would be able to run up and ski two or three runs before hitting the office. The times that I would spend an entire day are much fewer. Solitude has such a program, where you can buy a pass that allows you to ride either 10 or 20 times, spread across the entire season if you wish. When you use the last one, you can just buy another pass. That's what I did, and I'm loving the idea of a couple of runs before work, or earlier in the day on a weekend and be free to do other things as well during the rest of the day, without having spent $60 on a day pass.

Way to go, Solitude!!

Sorry, no pictures this time... too busy!!!

A Random Offender

Ever have this happen to you???

Every once in a while, I get a nose hair, way up there, that seems to turn sideways, and poke, itch, bug, bother, and generally annoy me for an entire day, until I can get home and get the 2.5 HP gas-powered weedwacker out to put the little bugger out of my misery. My nose hairs are of the coarse variety, like brambles on a thorny bush.

No matter how many knuckles I jam up there, no matter how impolite I am about it, it just doesn't help. Perhaps I am going through my "Second Puberty". I chuckle at that site every time I think about it.

I guess only MOST of the hairs I own are coarse. Some are soft and fuzzy, like little frail old men, holding on in the twilight of their years. Remember my Ear Hair story?? I still get comments from that post. Crack me up.

Which reminds me (oddly), I have been reminded of a writing thing once asked of Hemmingway: what's the best six-word story you can come up with? His was "For Sale: baby shoes. Never used."

That's pretty damn impressive, actually. So here's one for you - what's YOUR best six-word story - in three minutes or less?

One or two off the total top of my (thinning) head:

Do over - I'd be an architect.

Another:

Found: what I was looking for.

Some Housekeeping items:

Okay, so it's been a few days since I wrote here...

The markets have been a bloodbath lately, and while it's not something that effects me directly and immediately, it's not nice to see. The FED this morning took an emergency .75% rate cut to their benchmark interest rates - this will probably spur a refinance boom for a while, as people try to get out of bad loans. One problem though, is that their houses MAY not appraise for what they need to in order for that to be successful. And another thing, loans are pretty hard to come by, no matter the rate, unless you exhibit pretty bullet-proof credit. Which isn't everybody, by any means. So there are other remedies that need to take shape here, if a true crisis is to be averted. And that's all the doom and gloom I'm going to foment here.

On another note, I get many comments to my posts sent to me by the commenter right through email, as opposed to posted as actual comments to posts.

One of those commenters, named Brian (premission granted), noted my post about lunching with our illustrious Senator Bob Bennett. That post is here.

He comments: I saw your blog and noticed you had lunch with Bob Bennett. I am curious how much you know about him and what he is up to politically. Have you heard of the Merkel Initiative, the Streit Council, the Transatlantic Common Market, or the Transatlantic Policy network?

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=59713

Anyway, I have been aware of some of the shenanigans of Brother Bob, and I wrote the following back to Brian The Commenter:

Merkel Initiative: - Essentially, the drive toward one worldwide
financial currency?

Streit Council: The alignment of european and US economies?

Transatlantic Common Market: The movement of those two economies into one market by 2015.

While I am not a "tin-foil hat" wearing kind of individual, my general impression of Bennett is that I wouldn't trust him with a dollar bill of mine. He's part of a national establishment of do-what-you-want republican politics, and locally, one of those who find no fault in
the mingling of outside interests into the political landscape for his own benefit, and to further the causes of those who have poured vast amounts of money into his pockets. One world economy/currency/market is a bad deal for the US. No matter HOW it's sliced. Or who thinks it's great. When has government economic direction (meddling) ever worked out to benefit a truly free market society?

"Harmonizing agency rules and regulations" Gimme a break, dude.

So there's that. On another post (found here), I talked about the movie Fracture, and in particular, the architectural design of the house around which the movie takes place. I noted that there isn;t much information available on this lovely home, but I did find out a couple fo small tidbits of information. You'll have to look back at that post to see what that was...

Then I got an email recently from a person who shed a little more light on the situation.

He gave the address of the place - apparently in Encino, CA... which was pretty much where it was determined to be. However, after putting 2 and 2 together, you can see it on Google Earth.

If you don't have Google Earth, you should - it's a bunch of fun to explore places you've heard about, read about, but have never seen. Wanna see the Taj Mahal? Yeah, I thought so. And if you want to see that house from the movie Fracture, put these coordinates in: 34° 9'2.78"N, 118°29'18.89"W. And have fun. I'd still like to know who the architect was though.

And one other thing. I wise person sonce said to me, in the beginning of my blogging life, that I should throw in a picture with every post, just to make it fun and entertaining, from a visual perspective. So here's one for you - you deserve it, if you've read this far today:
















I usually stop the TIVO to watch the Apple vs. Mac ads on tv (produced by Apple). They usually make me laugh. This one is probably one of the most clever examples of online advertising I've seen in a long time. This is a headline bar-style ad, in concert with a "skyscraper" ad on the side. It's making fun of Vista - the guys lights aren't all working.... anyway, the best part: the ad appeared on C|Net, on a page for Windows Vista.

Hilarious.

And coming later this week: On My Hard Drive-Herbie Hancock, with a sidebar for Naturally 7, and a comparison between Ruth's Chris, Flemings, and Spencer's here in Salt Lake, along with a rave about Solitude Ski area.

The quick way to ruin a building

10 easy ways to ruin a building:

From this morning's local newspaper -












Dear Architect,

You probably listened to the building owner, but you should have told him to sit down, be quiet and LEARN something.

Sincerely,
Me.


What WAS a lovely bit of Prairie Style Architecture is easily ruined by placing 10 Greco-Roman Columns in the front. Wow.

I'm in awe. Shock and Awe.

In its unruined state, it is reminiscent of Wrights' Darwin Martin house, finished in 1905, with the brick being replaced with plate glass, something Wright helped pioneer way back when, with the Larkin Administration Building, in 1904, among others.

A great democratic campaign poster:

click it to big it, as they say...

And speaking of photos

An update over at UtahModernHomes.com now shows a cache of photos used as inspiration for the project. They are separated into exterior and interior shots.

Also, later this week there will be a new article from the NY Times on the appeal of modern architecture and it's value in reference to actual home value (appraised value) in the marketplace. It reinforces the idea that value is gained and maintained in more appreciable ways than simply the presence of square footage. If that square footage isn't useful, then it's ... well... not useful, and therefore, what use is it??

Just sayin.

Afraid this couch would leave me

with a case of claustrophobia.

Jingle Mail

Apparently, this is the new catch phrase among mortgage lenders. It refers to what is starting to happen with home-owners who are now simply mailing the keys to the house to the mortgage company along with a note, saying, essentially,

"Hey, remember that note you sent asking me about my last payment? Well, you actually DID receive my LAST payment, 2 months ago. And here's the keys, too. Bye."

Funny, but not really.

New Item at UtahModernHomes.com

I've posted a new article and a new page over at the UtahModernHomes.com site

Go take a look, we're starting to get some traction with this project, and are starting to get pretty excited about getting it up off the ground.

Thanks for listening to the cross-promotion.

Go Huckleberry!!

As much as I would NEVER vote for The Liar Romney, a Huckabee as president REALLY is scary. Not so much the man, but how he has galvanized the neo-con uber-evangelists in his behalf. A few days ago, the Salt Lake Tribune reported some of the content of Huckabee bloggers' posts. And it's friggin scary. These religious zealots are no better than the religious extremists we seem destined to combat on other continents. They're no different, these dominionists.

I can only hope that even if he DOES somehow magically win the party nomination, the rest of the country, when it comes down to it, won't vote for him. Which is why a huckabee nomination is good for democrats - I HOPE.

Which is why I would be inclined to say, in a very measured tone, Go Huckleberry!

Jeez, that gives me the willies just thinking about it.

And another thing: would somebody PLEASE explain to me why a certain state, like New Hampshire, or Iowa this year, should be allowed to suppose to think and act for the rest of hte country in shaping the nominations for the rest of us??? I just don't get that - the folks in New Hampshire have been very proud, even tying their identity to the fact that have been the first to choose the nomimee each time, essentially speaking for the rest of the nation in choosing who that nominee should be. I can't think of another state that is LESS representative of the nation as a whole.

Why not a national primary day? Lord knows the candidates have the money to spend. Holey shirt.

Just sayin.

Did you know:

Did you know that at one time, in the late 1940's and 1950's, brown dress shoes were the mark of a jazz lover, and viewed by the rest of society as belonging to a subversive movement? The wearer of these shoes was to be carefully scrutinized and held at arm's length.

Your trivia for the day.

See: Ski Day, end of.

Taken at the end of the day yesterday, on our way down the mountain. Crappy phone camera didn't do much of a job capturing the low angle sun colors, etc.

I guess you had to be there. But it was a nice day, and everybody had fun - generally speaking.

One or two were wondering about the randomly meandering brain wave that led me to post about the Hinano incident. And here it is:

I wrote in a post a week or so ago about taking kids up to go boarding in the evening. I noted that my skis were not yet ready for me, so I was relegated to being the chauffeur. To cut the boredom at one point, I decided to go down to the little store and buy a drink to kill the time.

On the way, you pass by one of the swimming areas. These areas - I believe there are 2 outdoors at Snowbird - are ringed in glass all around them, to allow only guests to access the area. Note that I said it was glass. As I walked by, I couldn't help but notice, among the swimmers there - keeping in mind that the thermostat thingie in my car said it was 11 degrees outside, where the pool area is - about four young lasses clad in about 9 square inches of swimming suit between them. And before you call me some perverted dirty old man, THEY WERE PARADING AROUND just asking for people to look at them. So I did a little bit. It was kind of surreal, actually, all foggy from the cold air meeting the warm water, etc. It's not like I had pressed my face up to the glass, wiping the fog away with my nose or anything. Seriously, I didn't.

Which brought my mind to warmer climbs, and visions of closer encounters with surgically-enhanced females. Otherwise known as The Hinano Incident.

This particular pool at Snowbird, ironically, is where a particular pair of 15 month old twins learned to do somersaults into the water on a warm summer evening about 16 years ago.

Okay, that's kind of eery. What a freakin' long time ago. I was chauffeuring one of those twins, now 17, that evening last week.

The Hinano Incident

A couple of posts ago, I mentioned that our 6th anniversary had arrived. Our honeymoon was celebrated in Tahiti. We were married right in the middle of the Christmas rush, and we decided to wait just a little bit for the honeymoon. We left on our honeymoon just as the Opening Ceremonies for the 2002 Winter Olympics were getting started. We came home as the Closing Ceremonies were under way. Actually, we were in Los Angeles as the last flight was getting ready to go, and we watched some of the Gold Medal Hockey game in a crappy airport restaurant there. We were concerned because they were restricting airspace in Salt Lake because it had only been a few months since the attacks of 9|11. We were lucky to get back here that day at all. But that's another story for another day.

We're gathered here today to reminisce about The Hinano Incident.

We stayed at one of those places where they have the "over-water" thatched roof cabins. They are tres spendy and we didn't stay in one of them, but we did get a beach-front thatched roof cabin, and it was awesome. Every morning we made coffee on our porch and watched the ferry come from Papeete over to Moorea. The part of the island we stayed on was where you could see the morning sun come up over the other island. We spent some lovely mornings doing that.

On the map/picture above, our place was where the red dot is, the white line is where the ferry went every morning. The yellow dot is the industrial dock, and the populated area of the island. The two green dots are where the reef breaks (as you can see) and the massive cruise ships come into the island every few days. One thing about Moorea is that the sea current comes from the left of this picture, and splits in two and runs around the island, then joins up again on the other end. This will be significant to the story in a few moments. When you're laughing at me and secretly calling me "Gringo-honkey"...

So anyway, on the flight down we noticed they were selling the local beer - Hinano. We tried some and asked some questions about it. It's the country's contribution to the mass market beers, produced with way too little Hops, just like every other mass-produced beer. So now we were familiar with the name.

On one of the mornings we noticed a somewhat large yacht parked in the lagoon of our resort area. It had a great big Hinano logo on it and we were told that it belonged to the CEO of the company, and he comes over from the other island a couple of times a month for a long weekend. I also noticed a couple of young females aboard.

The island is ringed all the way around by a reef. Inside the reef, the water is relatively shallow - about 25 feet at the most. Outside the reef, the water drops off and is true ocean water. Inside the reef, water life abounds and there are colorful fish galore, reef formations, etc. We had planned to do a little snorkeling to see the sights, and on this morning we walked over to the little rental stand and rented the necessary masks and snorkels, along with the little tube-raft-motorized thing that would take us out to the spot we wanted to be. When we rented the masks, the guy asked us if we would like the flippers along with the masks. Being the macho type, I of course said hell no, we'll be just fine with our own two feet.

Now, before I continue to emasculate myself publicly, I'll say here that ThatOneWife is a great swimmer, was a lifeguard, swim team type person. Whereas me, not so much. I don't spend much time in the water, as I tend to crispifry quite quickly. I don't like to fish, don't like to waterski, had never owned a boat, etc. SHE, on the other hand is all of those things, except for the fishing part.

Anyway, we took our masks, and my white ass, and off we went out to tie up the little raft, and have a look-see at all the little fishies. All was great. We strapped on the masks and went over side for a lovely look. I really enjoyed myself after adjusting to breathing through a tube. I spent about 15- 20 minutes with my head down looking at a new and wonderful world. Then I looked up and realized I was about 100 yards away from the post and the dinghy thing. No problem, I'll just swim my butt back to the boat. So I started swimming, BUT I WASN'T MOVING. Like, not at all. The current was moving me parallel to the shore, away from our resort area and away from the boat. But not further away from shore. I was about 50-60 yards off shore. I was swimming my ass off, but not moving, and getting tired, fast. So I started yelling my head off, totally panicked. The folks on the Hinano yacht heard me, looked, and wondered if I was serious. I tried to assure them I was DEAD SERIOUS.

Now, just a side note here. As we drove the little dinghy thing out to the post, we came close enough to the Hinano Yacht that I was able to observe that at least ONE of the little females onboard was totally topless. This is not uncommon in the islands, but this one was, shall we say, enhanced. I made a comment about what a great life THAT must be. Anyway, back to the story, and my yelling like a fool. A drowning fool. ThatOneWife was about 100 yards further downstream from me, and I felt like it was two miles. She heard me yelling, the Hinano folks heard me yelling, and the dude on shore at the mask rental shop heard me yelling. And everyone hopped to it at about the same time. The folks on the boat jumped on a sea-doo thing, as did the dude on shore, and ThatOneWife started swimming like a freakin champ. Unlike me, she was able to make good time even though she was swimming straight up-current. The folks on the sea-doo from the yacht reached me first, and though I had cramped up, was dying, had been bitten by a man-eating shark, etc. They piled me onto the sea-doo, gathered up the Mrs. and took us over to their yacht. I had totally freaked out and panicked. Had I been even "sorta thinking" I would have realized that I could have made a turn to my left, kept swimming sideways in the current and easily reached the shore, about 30 feet from our front door. But no, I had to try to get back to the little boat, about 100 yards directly into the current.

Incidentally, once on board the yacht it WAS just gorgeous, and the girl WAS enhanced. They gave us some water, and let us rest up on the deck for a few minutes before I was just so ashamed I had to leave, right now. Once we got there, the female did cover up, sensing that we were not islanders (duh), and I might be more interested in ogling her boobs than, say, breathing, at that moment.

So we got back onto our little dinghy thing, and drove it back to the beach, where we handed in our stuff. The guy looked at me like I was an idiot, which of course I was.

This is the same beach where I got my tattoo.

So now whenever we go swimming at the local pool with the kids, or do something involving water - even if it's a hot tub, I say something like, "don't swim in the current." Or ThatOneWife says, "be careful of the water..." or "do you need some flippers, dear?" Funny. Freakin HILARIOUS.

Which is all rather humorous. Or not really.

But whether it is or not, it is the Hinano Incident. Soon it will be legend. And it gets recounted a little more often than I enjoy.

Whew!! THAT was fun...

Wow... the Christmas holiday was a good one for us, nicer than other recent times. I always like giving presents more than getting them, and it was a good year for that. It was nice to actually surprise kids for a change. The Wii was a hit, and a total surprise. It was a surprise because all the kids, and ThatOneWife as well, know how I generally LOATHE the gaming consoles and the gaming industry in general. If you have been a reader for a while, you'll remember how genuinely Piss-ed off I was when Mrs. ThatOneGuy brought it home this summer. And how I was pissed off at my brother for having talked her into it while I wasn't there. The Big Wanker.

I was side-swiped by my absence. Oh well. Frankly we could package up all the other consoles (of which we have a few) and send them to Outer Mongolia for the poor kids, and just stay with the Wii. I don't think that's going to happen any time soon. You have to pick your battles.

Anyway, it was a good surprise. We'll see if it was at my expense, and the expense of my sanity. But if it's at the expense of school grades or normal social interaction, that's not going to stand. So my view is that it is there to lose.

Anyway, I was also able to generally surprise the Mrs. too. Although one gift was spoiled by an overly verbal and informative youngster who lives at our house.

But all in all, there were some surprises for everyone.

And in a fit of succumbing to the thought that my credit cards hadn't yet had their complete workout, I went and bought myself some skis on Christmas eve. This is something I had talked about for the last few years, and had never done anything about. I skied on the ski team when I was in high school, and I kept skiing for some years afterward, but being a somewhat expensive sport, kids and other career pressures always came first and it had been several years since I had skied. The last skis I bought were 210 centimeters long and were not the newer "shaped" skis - so that should tell you something about how long ago that was.

With one daughter into snowboarding, begging me to take her over the last three years or so, I finally decided to get going with it again. She has had some trouble with her mom this year, and was reaching out for some acceptance and somebody to give a damn about her for a change. Which is hard because she tends to bring some things upon herself in that regard. But it's hard to sit by and watch it happen without making a concerted effort to at least do something to let her know she is cool and swell, and has value in our family.

Then there are two others who have been wanting to give it a try, and it was a good opportunity to let That One Daughter be the cool older sister and do some teaching and mentoring, etc.

So we piled in the car last night and headed up the hill to Snowbird. My skis weren't mounted and ready for me, but the other kids weren't going to wait, so we all went up and had a good time. She was the consummate older sister and was a total trooper with the younger ones just learning. When you learn to snowboard, you spend a fair amount of time on your arse in the snow - it's pretty easy to get disheartened with the whole thing. But she was right there with a hand up, and the right encouragement when it counted and made the younger ones feel like they did a great job. Which they did.

My skis will be done today, and I look forward to getting up there with them all again soon so I can show them that people who ski rather than snowboard are cool folks too, and not a bunch of old fuddy-duddies. I guess that impression remains to be earned.

On another note, I had several people who read here send me an email wishing us all a good holiday, and a few others did so through direct comments to posts as well. I thank each of you, and send back the same wishes to you all.

And finally, I mentioned last week that I was preparing an update for the UtahModernHomes.com site. Obviously, if you're a susbscriber there, you know that hasn't wuite happened yet. However, it is coming, in the form of a short piece called "Edifice Complex", which will look at our obsession with oversized homes, as if that's the only factor used to provide the impression of value. Bigger is better. Except not really.

And even more:

How does one wake up from having slept the entire night (presumably with one's eyes SHUT) with something very scratchy in one's eye!!??

Ouch - it's buggin the CRAP outta me right now. It's like a rock in my shoe, that I can't get out.


Here's a note for you: Just because you have a bluetooth set on your cell phone, and just because you use that as your main business phone line, it doesn't mean you should WANDER AROUND THE OFFICE TALKING LOUDLY IN FRONT OF EVERYBODY ELSE'S DESK. Then there's the guy who is apparently somewhat hard of hearing who insists on listening to neo-con right-wing conservative talk radio so we all can hear it.

Also buggin the crap outta me right now. Go back to your hole, man.

I'm about done for the day, and it isn't even noon yet.

I had the lovely occasion to begin wrapping presents the other day. I hate wrapping presents, badly. I mean I hate wrapping them, and I hate wrapping them badly.

It seems that no matter how big or small, I use about 3 square yards of paper. It sucks.

This morning in my email I had a note from a friend who sent along some tips for wrapping, by Dave Barry:

This is the time of year when we think back to the very first Christmas, when the Three Wise Men; Gaspar, Balthazar and Herb, went to see the BabyJesus and, according to the Book of Matthew, "presented unto Him gifts;gold, frankincense, and myrrh."

These are simple words, but if we analyze them carefully, we discover an important, yet often overlooked, theological fact: There is no mention of wrapping paper.

If there had been wrapping paper, Matthew would have said so: "And lo, the gifts were inside 600 square cubits of paper. And the paper was festooned with pictures of Frosty the Snowman. And Joseph was going to throweth it away, but Mary saideth unto him, she saideth, 'Holdeth it!

That is nice paper! Saveth it for next year!' And Joseph did rolleth his eyeballs. And the baby Jesus was more interested in the paper than the Frankincense."

But these words do not appear in the Bible, which means that the very First Christmas gifts were NOT wrapped. This is because the people giving those gifts had two important characteristics:



1. They were wise.

2. They were men.

Pretty much says it all.

Several of the blogs I subscribe to take this time of year to post some sort of sappy Christmas wish or prayer or whatever, wishing everyone a Happy Holiday season. I've thought about this, but I don't really want to post something like that... although I try to be a good person, and I try to do kind things for people all the time, not just at this time of year, so a post like that right now seems disingenuous. However, I've had a quote stuck on the wall beside my desk for some time now, and I really like it. Here it is:

"To know that one life has breathed easier because I have lived, this is to have succeeded."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Pretty much sums up how we should be treating each other at all times of the year.

There's more to post here, but I have to go dig my brains out of my head with a spoon. And take care of that thing in my eye.

Back soon.

Timely Randomness

Just in time for some days off:

One of the reasons I tend to dislike this time of year, besides the over commercialized part, I mean, is that my time seems to be thinned to the point of not being much use to anyone including myself. There are the concerts, the going to this event or that, because it's what I should do. Couple that with the fact that that's what EVERYBODY else is doing as well, and it seems that not much useful stuff goes on for several days. Nay, weeks, even.

Anyway, we were at a concert over at the Junior High the other night... and the difference ensembles played quite well, actually. That's not my beef. My problem is this: between each ensemble (concert choir, jazz band, orchestra, etc) there is a lag time between tear-down and set-up. Somewhere along the way, the tradition was established that students who wish to, may perform some sort of musical solo to pass the time. Sometimes, there are two or three of these little ditties that happen before the next big group is ready to start.

Most of the time the little ditty consists of a piano solo, as was the case last night. And my complaint is that a massive barrage of notes with no discernible tempo or pulse does not a musical number make. Honestly people, don't hit me over the head with how many notes you can play in 2.5 minutes. You're not John Coltrane, you're not paid by the note. I'd rather hear a piece that is well within your ability to play, and if so inspired, I'd love to tap my toe along with your music. Please give me that chance. To like you.

And to you little singers. Don't get up there with three friends and attempt a song for which you only know the first two lines. You make me uncomfortable and embarrassed for you. Not all Christmassy. A little bit pukey, actually.

Just sayin. You can do better, I know you can. That said, we were treated to some nice music, and even a couple of good solos, in particular one from a tenor sax player who has actually figured out how to growl, and a little trumpet player who displayed a lovely round and focused tone. It wasn't complicated, but it was impressive. See how that works? You didn't bludgeon me, you entertained me.

On that note, it appears I can take on 20 5-year-olds in a fight. I just thought you'd like to know that.

20

In other news, I have a large update ready to go onto the Utah Modern Homes.com website tomorrow. If you are a subscriber there, you'll see that. Interestingly, I soft-pedaled that here several days ago, right after the domain went live, and I got about 40 hits directed there from this blog. But since then there has been a large amount of search engine traffic going there every day as well. Which is nice - it appears that people in Salt Lake have an appetite for modern architecture priced for mass consumption. Well, not quite mass consumption, but for less than $750,000. You see, if you like that sort of thing, you are relegated to looking at it in magazines, and believing that informed architectural taste, green building concepts, etc, are the domain of the monied. Not so, says I. More on this later.

Until tomorrow, then.

It appears I've won "Blog Of The Day"

yay me!!!

More in a bit = preparing a lovely random new post at this very moment.

In Retrospect

Last Saturday we awoke to a fresh layer of snow. As in, a full 8 inches of wet, heavy snow.

Six years ago tomorrow, we awoke to the same thing, but it was more like about 13 or 14 inches, as I remember. Why do I remember that? Because that was the day we were married, and we had family and friends coming from different places and we were a tad worried about everyone traveling. Not to mention the pain in the butt it was to simply get out of our driveway and on our way, with kids in tow, trying to remain at least somewhat cleaned and coiffed.

So, tomorrow is an anniversary, and I thought I'd post some thoughts here about that. Because on that day, there were many things swirling about in my head, schedules, photographers, food, kids, ceremony, remember the ring, etc. Silly things that often take up my head space. And as a result I did a crappy job of executing verbally the things I really wanted to say that day to my new wife, in front of friends and family.

You see, we took great pains to go through each element of our entire ceremony, making sure to write it exactly the way we wanted it to be. Our rings are made from surgical-grade stainless steel, and each has a diamond held in place via a tension setting. We got those rings because they have special representation for us, in many ways. Stainless steel is an alloy, composed of a chromium-manganese part and a nickel part, and we liked this because it signifies the joining to two parts to form a stronger union than each offers on its own. The tension-set diamond is held in place without tongs or tines, but simply by the pinching pressure the ring being split apart, diamond inserted, and then allowing the two sides of the ring to hold it in place. It represents opposing pressures, the resistance to those pressures, and the refining qualities of those pressures as well.

We get compliments on our rings all the time, for me, as recently as two days ago. We like them a lot - they aren't overly expensive or garish, but they are unique and suit us, and they represent a great deal to us.

The ceremony we wrote revolved around these rings, and those symbolic meanings to us. But then it came time for me to do my thing, and my mind went stupid, and I rambled on about who knows what.

So, my dear, I just wanted to say that I am more in love with you every single day. I always say that you put up with more crap from me in a day than I ever put up with from you in a whole month, and I really mean that. We have a great life, one that has been troubled at times, and triumphant at others. through it all, we have grown closer together.

Being self-employed is a chore, and it requires a lot of time on my part, some of that time infringes upon our personal time, and I'm sorry for that. Not to mention the time I spend worrying and stressing over every little thing. You do more to make sure our family runs the way it should than I could ever do - I don't know how you successfully hold down a job where you are a superstar, and at the same time make sure there is food to eat and clean clothes to wear. I stand in awe of you all the time.

I can't imagine ever living my life without you, and I just wanted to tell you how much I truly love you on this day, and every other day of the year.

Happy Anniversary. I love you.

On My Hard Drive: Sara Tavares

Sara Tavares

People who know me know that I am a sucker for the well-played acoustic guitar. Especially the nylon stringed classical guitar. There is something so utterly sexy about a well-executed acoustic solo. Especially, it seems, when said solo seems out of place, as if it should have been an electric guitar or something. There are one or two Rolling Stones tunes that have that exact setup. Along with MANY others as well.

But anyway, I heard about Sara Tavares on the radio a week or two ago. She was doing a live interview in support of her new album, her third, called Balancé. She is from the Cape Verde region, and the album mixes african and brazilian rhythms in a way that makes everything seem just fine in the world.

Then she played her guitar. And I pulled into a parking lot and wrote her name down. She is a very talented player, and has both song-writing chops as well as a mastery of the acoustic guitar.

She talked about how the title track came to be. In Brazilian culture, the concept of "balancé" means that there is some sort of soothing rhythm to a life well-lived. Many of the songs on the album prove this to be true. Besides Balancé, the other striking song for me is "One Love".

The album is full of complex yet simple textures, and Tavares shows herself to be a master of these rhythms, her guitar, and a certain amount of her own brand of "balancé".

You should check her out for sure. I know you'll agree.

The nail on the head:

'The main concern today is fiduciary adequacy and not liquidity. We have already borrowed so much (total debt is near 350% of GDP) that our ability to service existing debt is more relevant than access to additional debt. The importance of the Fed to the economy is thus limited, and our fixation with what it does, or does not do, is a distraction from dealing with the real issues."

Something I've said on this site more than once in the recent months.... The fed using monetary solutions for a fiduciary problem.


link

Busy Times

So, I've been letting this place slide a little in an effort to concentrate on some work things getting done on time. One of the issues I have with this time of year is that everything gets more difficult, with people wanting their stuff done before the end of the year, there is also more time pressure on my personal life, with concerts, gift-buying, getting other gifts into the mail, planning a little fete between Christmas and New Years, etc. And then there's the inevitable head cold that shows up. Great.

All this does nothing very good to my general grinchiness for this time of year, either.

In general, it gets to the point where it paralyzes me for a while, and it's hard to care about many of those things...

But that's okay, I'm coming out of it now, and things are looking up. I have more energy, physically and emotionally. Which is why I am back here now.

So, on to some other things then. The Lehi/Frank Gehry project got a big spread in the weekend paper here again this week. Which brings me around to this. It's a little announcement for our own modern home project in the Salt Lake Valley. It's a soft launch right now, but as I get a couple of other things done shortly, I'll make it a much bigger deal. For now, it's a web site - and from there it will spring-board to a bigger presence in this town.

There are more things going on, and I'll post more design-related stuff tomorrow, along with a very good "On My Hard Drive" thing as well...

Until then, then.

sleepy conversations:

6AM, alarm goes off.

Her: (yawn/stretch) you wanna shower first or should I?

Me: (stretch/scratch) you go ahead, that way when you come back I can sneak a peek at your butt through my half-closed eyes before I get up

Her: (fully awake now) you don't seriously do that, do you?

Me: You have no idea, apparently.

She goes to the shower. Everything works according to plan.

Of 2 Tempests and 2 Teapots

Teapot #1:

It seems that what this city really needs is a Blue Boutique on every block. Let me explain. For you lucky out-of-staters, there is a local neighborhood that carries a certain amount of architectural and societal history, called Sugarhouse, located about midvalley. At the heart of the community is a small shopping district that has managed to resist the "gentrification" efforts of developers over the years. This area boasts older buildings with some very local-first type shops there. Over the last year or two, the area has been slated for re-development by its majority owner, and many of the local shops have been forced to relocate due to the need to totally tear down the decrepit buildings, and start over. (I fear that we will be looking at a set of strip-mall-architected garbage in the near future, but that will MOST CERTAINLY be a post for another day.)

Anyway, one of those unique and interesting shops forced to relocate is The Blue Boutique. It's a lingerie shop that also sells the typical adult novelties, etc. They were the largest tenant on the block, and were, I believe, about the last to leave. They really want to remain in the area, and chose to locate themselves temporarily three blocks to the East. Which is also three blocks closer to Highland High School. Which has a large group of concerned local citizens' panties in a major twist. They are creating major stink about how much MORE polluted the precious children will become, having the store now three blocks closer to the school. Apparently, they will be much more inclined to GO DIRECTLY TO HELL IN A HANDBASKET.

I believe these parents are living in the utopic landscape of their own narrow minds. Anyone who has walked down the hallways of today's high school at lunch time would realize that there are MUCH LARGER PROBLEMS to be spending time on.

The parents group is thinking about surveilling the shop, and taking pictures of the patrons as they leave the store with their purchases in tow, and posting them on a web site for all to see. If they do, I'll sidestep the group, and simply send them my picture via email. At one of the meetings, a domain name was suggested. However, very quickly, some level headed individual went home and registered the domain for his own use instead. Check out that link. From there you can read more about this silly story if you choose.

Honestly, some people just need to get laid.

Teapot #2:
The recent release of the movie The Golden Compass has brightened the day for those who are inclined to make sure you know that if you do something, God will not like you anymore.

There was a local school district administrator who used the district email systems to send a note home to parents warning them to not let their kids see this movie, that it would be a moral mistake. The email is also making its way through the highly refined church systems of communications as well. This is a bad movie. However, there's a good story here, that puts a few things in better perspective, which, apparently, some people around here could use.

Money quote from the article:

Sister Rose Paccate, director of the Pauline Center of Media Studies in Culver City, Calif., said the books portray benevolence toward children and a God figure — just one that’s much different than the one Christians know.

She sees irony in calls to shun the film, considering that one of Pullman’s central themes is that people should not follow orders and forfeit critical thought.

“If you just say ‘no’ to your kids without engaging in a conversation, they’re going to see the movie anyway and all you’re teaching them is power, not really teaching your values,” Paccate said. “If we have faith, what are we afraid of?”

Indeed, what are we afraid of?