The view from my roof tonight
mike sold out at - 22:03
Cool!
My photo of the April 10th immigration rally downtown is front-paged on WNYC today!
mike sold out at - 12:59
6.26.2006
Back Dat Drive Up
I am backing my computer up now, which is a tedious, but highly necessary task, as Pixel and Dr. P can attest. Luckily, I got a new external hard drive to make it easier, but I'm also making CDs for storage offsite of my photos and documents. This is not overly-paranoid. If you lost all your digital work, you would be very sad.
In lieu of a recent story or pictures from the weekend, I give you two excerpts from the unpublished A Short Autobiography By Anecdote
When I was young I thought any man wearing jeans was my father. One time in a video store I went up to a man wearing jeans who was eating popcorn. I asked him for some, realized he wasn't my father and ran away crying.
Driving to school one day we saw a talking house. A sign told us that it talked. We had to turn the radio on to hear it. It turns out that the house just wanted to talk to us about buying it. I guess it was lonely. We couldn't talk back to it, so we just drove on.
mike sold out at - 23:03
6.23.2006
Kool & The Gang
I'd like a (mostly) irony-free moment to mourn the passing of a musical genius, Charles Smith, a founding member of and guitar player for Kool & The Gang.
While Kool & The Gang are mostly remembered for cheesy 80s R&B songs like Joanna or Cherish. Which is a shame. Their 1970s and early 1980s stuff is some of the most-sampled music because of the stone cold grooves. Of course, people know them either for Celebration or Jungle Boogie
But their most underrated songs have been sampled by many, many hip-hop artists:
Check them out, my friends.
mike sold out at - 10:55
6.21.2006
My Hometown
I come from Reston, Virginia, which is a suburb about 30-40 minutes outside of D.C.
I recently was going through some old files and came across some pictures I took for an urban planning class in High School that assessed the sustainability of Reston. Here are some of the choice ones:
This is the courtyard of my first elementary school:
Built in the late 1970s, it was a model school (Arrested Development fans, make a joke in the comments) for energy conservation during the second energy crisis. How? Mostly, it was built "underground."
This is the roof of the school, all grassy and nice:
We had gym class sometimes on the roof. Some sides of the school are grassy hillsides, so you could run up the side to get to the roof. Pretty cool.
Funded in part with a grant from the Saudi Royal Family, the school was built with solar panels over the courtyard. To make a long story short, the solar panels didn't live up to expectations and were taken down. When I went there, the frame for the panels was still up, but the panels had been taken down a few years earlier. Now the frame is gone too. The good aspect of the school's design is that having a lawn for a roof substantially saves heating and cooling costs.
Photo source: FCPS
mike sold out at - 22:38
6.18.2006
Hilarious dog
Yes, this is an actual, living, walking dog I saw on 60th and Lex the other day. At first I thought it was a Russian fur hat on a leash. Apologies for the crappy cameraphone picture, but I had to be sly.
mike sold out at - 22:36
Fickle Signs
As noted in Seattle, signage related to preventing illegal dumping can be kind of flaky. However, this one I saw in Chinatown/Little Italy was much more subtle. I imagine that the last line in english is supposed to be said like a sullen child who realizes that she can't get her playmate to stop dumping.
But then, again, why would the sign change its mind mid-message?
mike sold out at - 01:49
6.15.2006
I've told many of you guys about my theory about a hipster locked in the basement of the MTA who does the layout and copyediting for their public advisory signs. Here is further proof: MTA Podcasts.
So far, these look incredibly pointless, by the way. I eagerly await the MTA establishing its own del.icio.us and flickr accounts.
mike sold out at - 08:06
6.14.2006
A Round of Superstars and Bonds
Item 1: One for me, for appearing on the Discovery Channel "game show" Cash Cab with fellow ex-deaniac Elana. We thought we were going to be on a travel show about NYC, but they tricked us! Oh, the deviousness. Of course, neither of us has never heard of, let alone seen this show, so we were a little all hipstered-out-too-cool for the show when we were on it, so hopefully they will not air it.
Sorry if I broke the illusion that people in that show are actually hailing a cab, only to find themselves in a game show.
But on to more significant superstars...
Item 2: Guy wearing a "retro" t-shirt that says something to the effect of "Junk bonds make America strong." It's probably from Urban Outfitters, right?
Item 3: Sixth grade girl at a Flag Day celebration outside City Hall wearing a t-shirt that said something like "Eagle Bail Bonds"- seriously now, who would ever dress their child in such a t-shirt?
mike sold out at - 21:30
6.10.2006
LARP?
So apparently what I saw in the park last week was live action role playing, according to someone on williamsboard.
I'm gonna admit, that doesn't make that much more sense. Is it like Dungeons and Dragons, but with people hitting each other?
mike sold out at - 10:21
6.09.2006
Colorful Containers
I saw these walking over the Pulaski Bridge on Monday
mike sold out at - 15:44
6.06.2006
National Day of Slayer
My cousin Leah has thankfully pointed out that today is the National Day of Slayer.
mike sold out at - 22:49
Three Gorges Dam
This is totally amazing: video of blowing up a temporary dam inside the Three Gorges Dam project.
update: link corrected, click on "watch the explosion" under the picture.
mike sold out at - 11:11
6.04.2006
Historical Article Find!
Hardcore dems and DC-area residents that we are, my family went to the second Clinton Inaugural in 1997 and were interviewed by a NYT reporter.
For Some, It Was a Business Day
...A History Lesson
In the 1960s, Francine Fre edm@n and Robert Sc hn@pp marched on Washington with thousands of other young people, fists shaking, voices rising as they chanted their call for an end to the war in Vietnam.
Thirty years later the couple celebrated their patriotism as they sat perched on lawn chairs along the inaugural parade route with a thermos of hot chocolate and paper bags stuffed with turkey sandwiches, chocolate-chip cookies and carrot sticks.
"In the '60s people thought we weren't patriotic, because we were protesting," said Sc hn@p, 46, who analyzes the energy industries for the Department of Energy. "But we were. We always were. That's why we were marching, to make America better."
They never stopped marching, he said; they only slowed their pace. In the 1980s the couple brought their two children in strollers to pro-choice rallies in Washington. And on Sunday the whole family was back, sitting on Pennsylvania Avenue.
Sc hn@p carried a portable Sony Watchman television set so the family could watch Clinton give his inaugural address. His 13-year-old daughter, Rob n, counted the black limousines that cruised by. His 16-year-old son, Mi ch@el, snapped pictures for his photography class.
"It's important for our kids," said Ms. Fre edm@n, a 46-year-old teacher, who lives in Reston, Va. with her family. "This is history. They'll look back on this."
mike sold out at - 22:02
Sword Fighting?
This blurry cellphone picture does not do it justice, but there were people doing a full-on wooden sword fight with full metal armor and shields in Mccarren Park the other evening.
mike sold out at - 21:51
What Happens When There Is No Plan B?
What Happens When There Is No Plan B?
The conservative politics of the Bush administration forced me to have an abortion I didn't want. Well, not literally, but let me explain...
mike sold out at - 11:17
6.03.2006
Waterfront Tour
I got to go on a tour of the harbor last week for work and was able to take a lot of pictures. The coolest part was getting to see the Queen Mary docked from the waterside.
