Anodyne
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
 
Reading: Kelly Link, "Two Houses."

"'Two Houses' may be set on an interstellar flight, but it plays with the traditional campfire ghost story. It centres on an ingenious experiment, worthy of MR James or Ramsey Campbell: an avant-garde artist ships an entire cabin from America to England, rebuilds it, then builds an exact copy next to it. There are bloodstains in both cabins. Will the perfect recreation create its own ghost? How this is folded back into the sci-fi setting is both precise and understated."
- posted by cjb @ 9:57 PM
Monday, February 23, 2015
 
How your pretentious local record store asshole got that way

"A man buys Yusef Lateef’s Eastern Sounds CD. The next day he brings it back complaining: 'There’s too many eastern sounds on it.'

Customer: 'Do you just buy the vinyl or the music?'

Clerk: 'No I’m sorry I can’t buy any of these (caked in mildew and ratshit) records.'
Customer: 'Well, how about you just give me $20 and throw them all away?'

(phone call)
Customer: 'Are you the manager?'
Clerk: 'Yes.'
Customer: 'OK. There’s a Beatles album… it’s really rare… it’s worth a whole lot of money…Do you know which one it is?'
Clerk: 'No.'
Customer: 'OK. How much would it be worth?'"

( via L., who understands)
- posted by cjb @ 6:22 PM
Sunday, February 22, 2015
 

- posted by cjb @ 2:50 PM
Friday, February 20, 2015
 

Happy birthday Walter Carl Becker, sharp-eyed perfectionist, laconic raconteur.

"When you start to work with someone, there's a negotiation that takes place involving what's going to happen when you have a difference of opinion. Most attempts at collaboration never survive the negotiation. Merely being agreeable is not enough. You don't know why one part is better than another necessarily, but you know which one appeals to you, and if you are forced to sacrifice those intuitive insights to the politics of the collaboration, you lose."
- posted by cjb @ 8:44 AM
Thursday, February 19, 2015
 
"I didn’t like the way they sized me up, so I sized them up."  (Larry David)
- posted by cjb @ 8:50 AM
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
 
Discharged the last of the PFB startup debt 9am Pacific time 2/18/15, after fourteen and three-quarter years. Thanks to those who walked alongside me for some or all of the way.
- posted by cjb @ 9:14 AM
Monday, February 16, 2015
 

- posted by cjb @ 10:18 PM
Sunday, February 15, 2015
 

Reconstructed Birthplace of Lyndon Johnson, Lyndon B Johnson National Historic Park, Johnson City, Texas.

"President Johnson was born in a small white farmhouse on August 27, 1908. The original home was eventually torn down and President Johnson reconstructed it in 1964, the only birthplace ever to be rebuilt by a president in office."

Relevant to my interests.
- posted by cjb @ 11:37 PM
Saturday, February 14, 2015
 
I'm just gonna do my best to hold on to that slinky thing.

Happy Valentine's, Valentine.
- posted by cjb @ 6:12 PM
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
 
Relevant to my interests.

"Ankrom wanted his sign to be built to Caltrans’ exact specifications, which included designs able to be read by motorists traveling at high speeds. He copied the height and thickness of existing interstate shields, copied their exact typeface, and even sprayed his sign with a thin glaze overspray of gray house paint so that it wouldn’t look too new.

If he was successful, no one would know that the signs weren’t put up by Caltrans.

As a finishing touch, Ankrom signed his name on the back with a black marker, like a painter signing a canvas.

Then came the next phase of the project: the installation. Ankrom planned it with the precision of a bank heist. He cut his hair, bought some work clothes, a hard hat, and an orange vest. He even made a Caltrans contractor-esque decal for his truck."

- posted by cjb @ 11:04 AM
 
$19,500 USD!!!

"1958 Fender P Bass - Anodized Pick Guard Fender Precision Bass Purchased in 1973 by Walter Becker of the Legendary Group Steely Dan and Used on Such Songs as 'Ricki Don't Lose That Number.' Comes with Documentation Detailing the Sale of the Bass to Walter Becker and Original Receipt From when Walter Becker Traded the Bass in 1991 to Maui Recorders for Studio Equipment. An Incredible Early Fender Bass and A Rare Piece of Rock n Roll History!"
- posted by cjb @ 9:05 AM
Saturday, February 07, 2015
 

Then we come to the farmlands, and the undeveloped areas
And I have learned how these things work together.
- posted by cjb @ 10:34 AM
Wednesday, February 04, 2015
 

One big squid. John Totleben, 1985
- posted by cjb @ 6:54 PM
Tuesday, February 03, 2015
 
Me Talk Pretty One Day

Anyone under 80 using the circumlocution "my library" in place of "some books I own." #ohbrother
- posted by cjb @ 10:23 AM
Monday, February 02, 2015
 

Paul Metrinko, again. PS 19, 2014. Can't get enough of this guy.
- posted by cjb @ 9:27 PM
 

The bourgeois' children, descending on my neighborhood like plague, want to imperiously tell me what to read.  I should read Stephen R. Donaldson, and The Girl on the Train, and that #girlboss book, and Mindset.  I should read about pick-up artistry and rekindling one's marriage and using key social media influencers to expand my brand.

The bourgeois' children and their briefcases and ostentatious bangle-watches can go get fucked.  I'm reading Nevil Shute and Clayton Christensen's great history of disruptive innovation in my ongoing "book club of one."
- posted by cjb @ 5:55 PM
 
Solo afternoon: Laura Nyro's The Morning News, slow in light grey February rain, lifts & sustains me.
- posted by cjb @ 3:09 PM
 
Today's first transaction: pale tattooed guy badly coming down off substances attempts to sell me "collector's edition" of Thomas Harris' Hannibal while explosively shitting his track pants and attempting to clean himself with a towel.
- posted by cjb @ 2:18 PM
 

ACT (Aesthetically Claimed Thing): Paul Metrinko, Rockaway handball court, 2014
- posted by cjb @ 1:05 PM

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