As you can see in my enthusiastic grin and hearty "OK" hand signal, ROFLCon was alright with me. Thanks to Jay "Tron Guy" Maynard for posing for the photo, and for being just a dang pleasure to listen to and chat with. ...
A lot of stuff happened while I was busy moving the blog, and here are my top picks in chronological order:. April 25th to 26th ROFLCon happened in Cambridge, MA. Of course I couldn’t make it there and it’sa real shame. ...
Our publications guy, Dan DeSloover, has made a single-sided black and white letter-sized PDF of a flyer. It is now available from the "Promo Materials" page of Penguicon.info. (You'll see "Promo Materials" in the left-hand navigation.)
Your printers are all sitting at the starting line, and Marcon and Wiscon are one week down the racetrack. The number of flyers currently printed is zero. We will track the race in the comments of this post. Annnnnnnnd... GO!
I thought all the problems I was having the last couple of days were just anomalies, just bumps in the road, and I'd feel better and start to really have fun when I got to Columbus today. But now I realize: this is the Trip From Hell.
For starters, the CD player in my car is not just dumb or whatever. It's not simply a matter of being able to play some discs and not others. The damn thing is broken, it's worn out, it's malfunctioning. Some CDs I've put in it, it starts to play them, and maybe it plays one or two tracks all the way through. Then, halfway through another track, it starts glitching and spitting out tiny snatches of sound, as if the disc were very badly scratched. (It's not. All my CDs are in very good condition.) It was so nerve-wracking I had to stop trying to play CDs at all. Which meant I had to drive all the way to Columbus without music. And no, I didn't listen to the radio. I HATE radio these days. The music's not worth listening to and the commercials are annoying and repetitive. So I drove to Columbus in silence. When I turn the car in on Tuesday, I am going to complain very strongly about the CD player.
Oh, and halfway to Columbus, as I was approaching Indianapolis on I-65 south, I ran into a horrible traffic jam. We spent miles just creeping along. Finally I decided to take a detour, so I got off at the next exit, which was Route 32 in Lebanon, IN, and drove east on it to US-421 south to I-465 east and rejoined my planned route.
Finally I reached Columbus, and the Holiday Inn in Worthington that used to be a Radisson but still hosts Morphicon. I checked in, and Babs called, and we went out to dinner. Oh, but it started raining.
Oh, and when we got back to the hotel, I seemed to be getting a sore throat.
If I believed in God I would kick him in the nuts because he is clearly trying to ruin my entire trip. Or maybe it's Simon Krandis again, I dunno.
Many times, Many men Took our homes, Took our lives, Kings they were, Gone they are-- We're still here. --Sheldon Harnick, "When Messiah Comes" (a song that didn't make it into Fiddler on the Roof)
I couldn't resist running out at dusk to see if I could get any nice photos. It was gloomy earlier but started to clear up just before sunset. Here's the best one I got, I think. Looking west over the vegetable garden, about 8:20 pm on 15 May 2008. This one was tilted up to maximize the sky, and therefore received a shorter exposure that reduced the vegetation to silhouette. I played with the gamma a bit to reduce the sky's glare, which also emphasizes the colors. With a little help, even a cheap camera makes a nice photo.
The word "gasolene" was coined in 1865 from the word gas and the chemical suffix -ine/-ene. The modern spelling was first used in 1871. The shortened form "gas" was first recorded in American English in 1905.[2] Gasoline originally referred to any liquid used as the fuel for a gasoline-powered engine, other than diesel fuel or liquefied gas; methanol racing fuel would have been classed as a type of gasoline.[3]
The word "petrol" was first used in reference to the refined substance as early as 1892 (it was previously used to refer to unrefined petroleum), and was registered as a trade name by British wholesaler Carless, Capel & Leonard at the suggestion of Frederick Richard Simms.[4] Although it was never officially registered as a trademark, Carless's competitors used the term "Motor Spirit" until the 1930s.[2][5] It has also been suggested that the word was coined by Edward Butler in 1887.[6]
In Germany and some other European countries, gasoline is called Benzin (German), Bensin (Swedish), Benzyna (Polish), Бензин (Russian), and other variants of this word. The usage does not derive from Bertha Benz, who used chemist shops to purchase the gasoline for her famous drive from Mannheim to Pforzheim in 1888, but from the chemical benzene.
1931 - OK, I'm way behind, but I do get there eventually...
...because I've now bought a copy of the most recent Album of the Year, and it is extremely good.
More years back now than I care to think, Joni Mitchell followed her muse and, instead of doing Court and Spark II, looked elsewhere, into jazz and, way before it was cool, into world music (remember the Burundi drummer track that backed "The Jungle Line"?). The move towards jazz culminated in the daring Mingus, which was not at all well received at first.
Anyway... a jazz great, Herbie Hancock, returned the favor with River: the Joni Letters.
I need to give the instrumentals some time to soak in, but the tracks with vocals are gems, even Leonard Cohen's recital of "The Jungle Line." If you'd asked me which Joni Mitchell song I'd want Tina Turner to do, I'd have told you "Raised on Robbery," but her performance of "Edith and the Kingpin" is alone worth the price of the disc.
OK, you all knew all that already, but I had to say, or rather, type it. Thanks.
current mood: enthralled current music: "Edith and the Kingpin," Turner, Hancock, et al.
irpooh works each year at the Iowa State Fair. She's done various jobs, and sometimes I go along (depending in part on my employment status, so I don't expect to get out much this year).
In particular, it has often had to do with support for the performers who appear at the Fun Forest Stage. There have been some amazing acts there, most memorably for me the Wild Zappers deaf dance troupe and a fellow who's the subject of this post, Jim Cosgrove, aka "Mr. Stinky Feet."
He does amazingly good albums of children's music. Wait, wait... there is excellent children's music to be had, and Mr. Stinky Feet's is definitely among it. The lyrics are clever and the musicianship is great, not to mention their skill at the varied styles and genres. In addition, he is, as a local radio host would say, "a heck of a guy."
Anyway... he has a new album coming out on May 20th, and he's doing something like what a group one would never think one would mention in a post about children's music, namely Radiohead, did recently: you name the price.
If you have children of the appropriate age, or if you just like fun music, check out his web site, mrstinkyfeet.com.
current mood: happy current music: "Pick Me! Pick Me!", Jim Cosgrove
“Ok. I know I start every voice post off with ok don't I? I really do. Oh I gotta get out of that habit. Anyway a little background information. Some of you know, some of you don't. My parents on and off of Auto good facility up in in Hall. Hudspear(?) Auto Services and my dad prides(?) prides(?) himself on being honest receiving the customer money by doing the work and doing it right. I have just found Spirit Auto for big trucks. American Diesel over in Romulus Michigan right next to the airport. Right next were I park the truck close to home. We're gonna be meeting down at the place. Freak accident but he's honest. I expected repairs but I was gonna have to have done with this truck to cost a bloody fortune over 3 grand and I know I've posted about all the those repairs. This guy bend over backwards to save me money when I looked at the receipts and saw what he had down with the truck and how he's done it. I found a new place to get the truck fixed. Engine work, I'm still bringing it to Cato Park. That's not, you know not even a question but if there's something else I need done. It's going your American Diesel. Very very very happy. He went on he he went above and beyond like overboard on it and fixed it and it's it's just it's a beautiful thing. I just have to shield that because it's so rare that I find a place that not only would I get a good impression at first but they follow through with my impression of them and move up to it. It's a beautiful thing.”
When I worked on NUMB3RS, I met the guys in charge of Super-Con in
San Jose. In fact, they were a big part of making Alt Con 9 (the fake
con in the show) look and feel as real as it did. I haven't been to San
Jose for a convention since the only way to get there was via mule
train, so I'm looking forward to traveling up the coast in more modren
style, perhaps by zeppelin or auto-gyro.
I don't have a lot of details for this one, and I don't even know if I'll get a chance to perform from my books, make balloon animals or just stand around making lists of things.
However, I'll have a booth of awesome, where I'll be hanging out on Saturday and Sunday, trading books and pictures for shiny gold rocks. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to visit with some cool people while and angry guy complains about it. That's always pretty fun.
I'm hoping the copies of Just A Geek and Dancing Barefoot that I ordered at great expense to myself arrive today, because if they don't, I won't have any of them for this show, which would be sad. [see Update at bottom]However, I should have shiny new copies of the second printing of Happiest Days, and 2008's chapbook-o-rama, Sunken Treasure.
Uh, this is also pretty goddamn cool: The original cast of MST3K will be getting together -- reuniting, if you will -- for the first time since the exciting rock climbing portion of the film began. I'm kind of excited to listen to whatever they have to say, and hope I can trade them shiny gold rocks for their automagraphs on my copy of Manos: the Hands of Fate.
UPDATE: FedEx and UPS came through for me. I have the second printing of Happiest Days, as well as copies of Just A Geek and Dancing Barefoot. This means that, if you like, you can trade me shiny gold rocks (or Kongbucks) for The Complete Works of Me, Wil Wheaton.
Of course, now I have so much stuff to take and no time to ship it, so it looks like me and the 101 are going to spend about 5 hours of quality time together tomorrow. And again on Sunday. Good thing I have Dimension X on my iPod.
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aggravated![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/moonsis/happy.gif){kind=small}
impressed
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chipper![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/classic/smile.gif){kind=small}
amazed
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bored
