Fabulous Vacation Photos

alcatraz

2011-01-30T19:41:00.000-11:00

this is a great article

2010-12-22T19:37:00.000-11:00

Tips on getting gifts for depressed people.

One Take

2010-12-08T21:37:00.001-11:00

This site, songkick, came up with a rating of the top cities for rock in the US: http://www.songkick.com/blog/2010/11/18/top-10-cities-for-live-rock-music/
Interesting, but I have issues with what data they chose to go on: rock shows per capita.
???
A lot of shows relative to the population means... sparsely populated shows. That's the only logical conclusion I can come to. And that equals a "top" city for live rock? And "top" = "best"? I disagree. Square footage per show does not equal quality.

On top of that, I just don't believe that Madison WI has "hundreds" of music venues. (I lived there for 5 years, though granted, that was ~10 years ago.) And a quick search for live music shows of any genre in the Madison weekly, the Isthmus, shows them to have 56 on a Friday night. So they probably have around that many venues. Not 4x that many.

Pretty charts, but some data-driven approaches just fail.

day 6 or 7 in the studio - Low's MySpace Blog |

2010-09-21T13:16:00.000-11:00

day 6 or 7 in the studio - Low's MySpace Blog |

vegan umami stock

2010-07-04T18:54:00.000-11:00

one of the sad things about becoming vegan is noticing a lack of depth and umami flavor to things you're used to. ex. my favorite dish growing up, aside from barbequed ribs, was the green beans my grandmother would make: southern-style, boiled for a couple of hours with bacon or just bacon grease (she'd freeze it every time she made bacon to use for the beans later).

i riffed on a recipe for green beans from the book cookin' southern vegetarian style to get this basic and wildly delicious vegan broth that's good for all legumes and vegetables, as far as i've been able to tell. of course i've never measured amounts (i tend to put tons of everything in), so add these to boiling water to taste:

miso paste (dark red preferably)
minced or smashed garlic
mustard (powder or seeds)
dark sesame oil
nutritional yeast

from that, you can add other herbs or spices if you want. today, i tried it minus the nutritional yeast and with cracked rosemary, tarragon, and onion. it was still delicious.

yay, cut copy new album is coming!

2010-06-22T21:48:00.003-11:00

first trip to the beach

2010-06-22T12:13:00.001-11:00

first trip to the beach, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

Gabriel García Márquez - Nobel Lecture - quotes

2010-06-22T10:29:00.000-11:00

"... we have had to ask but little of imagination, for our crucial problem has been a lack of conventional means to render our lives believable."

"Neither floods nor plagues, famines nor cataclysms, nor even the eternal wars of century upon century, have been able to subdue the persistent advantage of life over death."

great day musical

2010-06-02T07:19:00.000-11:00

Meaningless Work - Walter de Maria 1960

2010-05-10T18:56:00.000-11:00

"... For instance putting wooden blocks from one box to another, then putting them back to the original box, back and forth, back and forth etc., is a fine example of meaningless work. Or digging a hole, then covering it is another example. Filing letters in a filing cabinet could be considered meaningless work, only if one were not considered a secretary, and if one scattered the file on the floor periodically so that one didn't get any feeling of accomplishment. ..."

a short list of music i'm not picking for steph's wedding

2010-05-02T21:57:00.000-11:00

bang on a can
talking and drum solos
concert for detuned piano
bark psychosis
bastard noise
deconstructing michael gira
nick the stripper
laccifer lacca
bovine life vs komet
little ramona (gone hillbilly nuts)
drug money
music for airports
pissing
vengeance drools
dark day -- the exterminations 6
room tone
brainwave music
museum of fruit
breathing chaos

2010-03-03T19:28:00.001-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

neighborhood

2010-03-03T19:27:00.001-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

2010-03-03T19:25:00.003-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

2010-03-03T19:25:00.001-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

2010-03-03T19:23:00.001-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

if i made prints i'd probably sleep with my arms around this one

2010-03-03T19:22:00.003-11:00

if i made prints i'd probably sleep with my arms around this one, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

grandma would write us letters, her darling angles

2010-03-03T19:22:00.001-11:00

grandma would write us letters, her darling angles, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

rocks evoke antonioni

2010-03-03T19:21:00.001-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

spring break at the beach

2010-03-03T19:20:00.001-11:00

spring break at the beach, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

in uruguay

2010-03-03T19:19:00.003-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

2010-03-03T19:19:00.001-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

gretl

2010-01-26T18:38:00.000-11:00

i wanted one for over 2 years and here it is! glorious.

2010-01-07T21:52:00.001-11:00

i wanted one for over 2 years and here it is! glorious., originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

i luff you vlada.

-

2009-10-28T20:10:00.001-11:00

-, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

-

2009-10-28T20:09:00.001-11:00

-, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

2009-10-28T20:08:00.005-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

2009-10-28T20:08:00.003-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

2009-10-28T20:08:00.001-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

2009-10-28T20:07:00.001-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

2009-10-28T20:06:00.003-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

2009-10-28T20:06:00.001-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

2009-10-28T20:05:00.003-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

2009-10-28T20:05:00.001-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

forest park il

2009-10-28T20:04:00.001-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

2009-10-28T20:03:00.001-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

2009-10-28T20:02:00.001-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

2009-10-28T20:01:00.001-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

2009-10-28T19:58:00.001-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

2009-10-28T19:56:00.003-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

2009-10-28T19:56:00.001-11:00

donkey, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

This is just a water cistern. That's how beautiful buenos aires is.

2009-10-28T19:55:00.004-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

porteño pigeon

2009-10-28T19:55:00.001-11:00

porteño pigeon, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

details

2009-10-28T19:54:00.001-11:00

details, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

lot

2009-10-28T19:53:00.003-11:00

lot, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

business

2009-10-28T19:53:00.001-11:00

business, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

2009-10-28T19:52:00.001-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

2009-10-28T19:51:00.001-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

scarface

2009-10-28T19:50:00.003-11:00

scarface, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

2009-10-28T19:50:00.001-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

2009-10-28T19:48:00.003-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

2009-10-28T19:48:00.001-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

2009-10-28T19:47:00.003-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

2009-10-28T19:47:00.001-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

2009-10-28T19:46:00.001-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

2009-10-28T19:45:00.001-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

2009-10-28T19:44:00.001-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

2009-10-28T19:43:00.001-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

buenos aires

2009-10-28T19:42:00.001-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

2009-10-28T19:38:00.001-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

porch

2009-10-28T19:34:00.001-11:00

porch, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

pool

2009-10-28T19:33:00.001-11:00

pool, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

lillies & valleys

2009-10-28T19:32:00.003-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

2009-10-28T19:32:00.001-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

2009-10-28T19:31:00.001-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

can't decide.

2009-10-28T19:30:00.001-11:00

can't decide., originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

groundcover

2009-10-28T19:27:00.001-11:00

groundcover, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

2009-10-28T19:26:00.001-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

baby garden snail

2009-10-10T14:41:00.001-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

bunnies have to have clean feet

2009-05-22T18:41:00.002-11:00

bunnies have to have clean feet
Originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions

2009-05-09T07:26:00.001-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

translucent creatures

2008-11-11T20:46:00.001-11:00

2008-11-11T20:28:00.001-11:00

congratulations to obama!!!

2008-11-04T20:13:00.000-11:00

for the first time in 8 years, i'm not ashamed of our country! way to go, obama! way to go, voters!!!

i am also excited that there will be two super adorable first children, and a new puppy, and... hell, leaders who are smart! smart and not evil! smart and educated! smart and critical thinkers!

now here's just hoping that prop 8 does not pass.

2008-11-04T13:11:00.000-11:00

as if there aren't enough nuts in america

2008-10-26T20:34:00.000-11:00

we're now importing anti-gay bigots from sweden (sweden!) to publically spittle forth about the extreme importance of banning gay marriage in california.

according to those quoted in the nytimes article, if california does not ban gay marriage:
-all marriage will be obliterated.
-people will not be free to choose and practice whatever religion they want.
-our nation will dissolve.
-the act of marriage will be a class of person.

hey, why not the sun blowing up too?

i would love to watch these folks draw some kind of cause-effect schemas showing exactly how this all would come to pass. we obviously need mandatory logic and critical-thinking classes in schools.

if you missed david foster wallace's memorial service

2008-10-25T05:13:00.000-11:00

check out this excellent synopsis from the blog Band of Thebes as you reach for your tissues.

2008-10-19T18:27:00.003-11:00

2008-09-24T16:49:00.001-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

i <3 vote

2008-09-24T16:48:00.001-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

2008-09-24T16:47:00.001-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

2008-09-24T16:46:00.001-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

2008-09-24T16:44:00.001-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

2008-09-24T16:39:00.001-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

more on that

2008-09-14T08:30:00.004-11:00

because i cannot think of what else to do other than roam around my tiny apartment and drink tea and cry, thinking of what i can do, i suppose i will write.

normally, i'm not at all upset by suicides. especially if you have no family depending on you, it seems like a perfectly good idea, one which a person has a right to carry out. rights aside, i am sad at the thought that david foster wallace did this.

he's a great candidate for it, of course. practically too brilliant to live; in fact i can't imagine making it as long as he did with a mind like his, brimming over with words and connections and insights and parentheticals and footnotes to absolutely everything. the great noise. and, his writing showed he had perfect knowledge both of depression and of the mental health system and its ridiculously anodyne attempts at a solution.

on the other hand, he was so shockingly brilliant that i assumed all these years that he'd come to terms with all the noise and found some way of managing it: through pure intellectual firepower, maybe.

[this makes me nervous that the two other uber-brilliant people i've been lucky to know will off themselves at some point too.]

dfw, i always hoped he'd write another novel. i'd reconciled myself to his being a person though, and having needs or limitations and all that-- that IJ might be the last of his novels, and it's enough by far. still, i always looked forward to more essays or stories, and had a tiny fantasy that i'd go back to college just to study with him.

i started reading him when i was 18. i'd gotten mono at the end of summer and was supposed to rest and only rest for weeks at my parents' after i got out of the hospital. i was terribly bored, and hungering for new books, so i sneaked out of the house one day to go to the bookstore to look for this book my intellectual, arrogant jerk of a boyfriend had told me about.

it's unfortunate that scathingly arrogant intellectual guys seem to be dfw's main fanbase.

the bookstore had no IJ, but i came back with broom of the system, and read it and loved it and shortly thereafter went off to college with a new wittgenstein obsession and IJ (i'd found it).

after i dropped out of college, i carted IJ back to the midwest with me, eventually dumped the asshole boyfriend and kept IJ in bed next to me, along with a notebook and dictionary so i could learn and record the great torrent of words i didn't know. my dictionary didn't have all of them, so i made a list with which to check out potential new dictionaries. dfw's vocab as a standard. i fell asleep every night after reading some of IJ, and went to my office job in the morning with bloodshot eyes and a glowing feeling of being in love. coworkers would ask me if i was up late partying, and i'd say no, reading, and they'd give me a look like something was terribly wrong with me. "it's a really good book," i'd say. they probably were thinking of john grisham or something.

IJ took me two lovely months to get through, and i joined the dfw listserv -- how '90s -- and met friends and a boyfriend there with whom i was in love for a long time, he also was just crushingly brilliant and it's amazing to be around such a person, whose brain is always doing five times more what your own is.

i met dfw once, when he read in chicago, my friend and i driving down the couple hours from madison and playing hangman while waiting for the reading to start, me getting increasingly nervous and excited, hardly able to look at him while he read, for shyness and awe and love of a stranger. at the end, he sat at a table -- this was at borders, so everything was that oaky wood veneer-- and signed books while a bookstoreperson stood behind and to the left of him, making sure none of us tried to get a lock of his hair or whatever. my shyness compelled me to wait until i was the last person to go up, and i asked him a couple of really embarrassing questions (for both me and him -- jesus i was young) and shuffled off wishing i had not just made his day more painful.

and of course just overall, for years, i would read him and get both laughter and delight and solace; grateful that someone was so smart and so perceptive and amazed that he was also quite humble and human and charmingly self-deprecating. he had a winning personal voice that came across in all his essays, that made you feel like you knew him and lucky to know him. oh! yes, he made the world better. i am really sad that he, this one of my very favorite things about the world, decided to turn in his chips.

dfw rip

2008-09-14T07:25:00.002-11:00

i just heard that david foster wallace, my favorite writer, is dead; he hanged himself. i so much wish it were not true.

2008-09-06T18:07:00.003-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

2008-09-06T18:05:00.001-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

state fair

2008-09-06T18:03:00.001-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

fog, water

2008-09-06T17:57:00.003-11:00

fog, water, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

point reyes

2008-09-06T17:57:00.001-11:00

Originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions

sacramento

2008-09-06T17:54:00.001-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

breath

2008-09-06T17:51:00.001-11:00

breath
Originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions

2008-09-02T17:36:00.004-11:00

tonight, my favorite homeless guy in the neighborhood told me he's a yogi and offered me some papers explaining the meaning of life. "oh, really? i don't believe in a meaning to life," i told him sweetly, stubborn about its irrelevance to my schema-- "relevance" of course being primary among my values since it is primary to my company-- like i couldn't talk down to and pander to this poor guy's needs, like i had to be absolutely honest. then i was sure the most he usually hears is a "no thanks" or the like, & curious about how he would deal with the statement. counter-argument?

no: "well these are dollar papers, and i'm trying to get this published so i'm asking for a dollar to get these published," which was clever and basic and honest: you don't need to believe what i do, just in helping me.

this particular guy is tall and ghostly, he bunches a large patterned blanket around his shoulders at all times like an exoskeletal growth, his hair is a spring of feral mid-length dreads that arch up and over the right side of his head, and he never smells like urine like some do, but rather has the other organic homeless smell (non-alcoholic), that smell of dessicated dirt: deep, parched, distant, low. he's been my favorite for his blanket, his gaunt face, clear uncluttered eyes, gait between an amble and a shuffle, and lack of perceptible madness. i had smiled at him, because i have this habit of smiling at people who are familiar to me, whether i know them or not, like them or not, whether it's wise or not. i would love to get rid of that habit.

the papers were hand written, neatly, in widely-spaced rows, and i was super curious to read them, but i didn't have a dollar on me. "maybe i'll see you again," i said, "and then i might have a dollar," but it didn't look much like something he would have more than one copy of, so i might be out of luck there, but on the other hand i can't really imagine too many other people wanting the same item, so if i find both him and a dollar in the next week perhaps i will still get lucky.

as a side note, a sub-note, it is pretty awesome to find someone who has something hand-written that they would like to publish. between the era of paper zines and the internet blogophilia, i am not sure this has ever happened to me before.

2008-08-29T04:20:00.003-11:00

when i moved to san francisco, the number of homeless people was shocking. i read somewhere -- because i had to research it -- that there are 4x the amount of homeless people here per capita than in manhattan. i would ask locals what they thought of there being so many homeless folks, and get all kinds of bizarre explanations. most people seem to have an underlying belief that "we" and "them" are two different species, and this is the natural order. i tend to believe, though, that "we" have created the way our human world functions, and our society should be able to account for taking care of the people in it, and have a place for them. & today i found this great photo series by nienki klunder. it's pretty obvious why it's a novelty; the us-them dichotomy. i suppose since i fantasized about running away every night during a few years of my childhood, that's why i see myself as easily being one of "them." i never did because i couldn't figure out a way to get all my stuffed animals to safety (uh, well, "safety") with me, and i didn't want to abandon any of them. an imaginative extension of anthropomorphism?

2008-08-28T21:40:00.001-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

2008-08-28T21:39:00.001-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

fetching

2008-08-28T21:38:00.001-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

rocks at china beach

2008-08-28T21:37:00.001-11:00

, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.

footprints, feather, beak

2008-08-28T21:35:00.001-11:00

footprints, feather, beak, originally uploaded by the hesitations and digressions.