 Blog PostsFriends         | BlogBarry & PhilA series of nine shots of poker players Barry Greenstein and Phil Ivy. This is meaningless to anyone but Karma and me.         A Letter To WireClubOn Saturday, 21 March, I drove into Berkeley, met with friends for dinner (Chinese) and a great concert. The concert was by incredible musicians that only a very few WireClubers will be familiar with: Chick Corea, John McLaughlin and the Five Peace Band (with Christian McBride, Vinnie Colaiuta and Kenny Garrett). A fantastic show! These guys are all supremely virtuosic musicians.Here's a link: http://www.chickcorea.com/cart/index.php?p=product&id=61&parent=4 It's on Chick's webpage, and it's there for purchasing the live album by this group, but if you go to the link (it's not clickable here), the page will play a number of short excerpts from various tracks on the album. On Monday, 23 March, I went with another friend to a show here in Napa, at the very tiny and intimate Napa Valley Opera House. This was with my favorite currently living musician, banjo player extraordinaire Bela Fleck, paired with Toumani Diabate, a guy from Mali who plays some sort of harp-like instrument (21 strings) called a "kora." Another really great show (I'm sure these guys are as little known in WireClub as the others), but frankly, I'd rather see Bela in a different context. The fairly primitive nature of the kora required that Bela play music of a much simpler order than he normally would. Here's a couple of links, first, a YouTube look at Toumani Diabate: And next, a YouTube look at Bela: Sorry that the sound level on the Bela clip is so low. You'll need to crank up the volume. So why, you may ask, did I write this blog as a letter? Take a look at the two photos below. The first is just my two ticket stubs. *yawn* But also shown is the message that came in my fortune cookie with the dinner I had in Berkeley.   Photo Essay: Buds, Blossoms & FlowersSpring growth. Pretty colors. Interesting structures. The best of many, many photos that I took over the last week or so.Isn't nature cool? (Each photo has a caption which can be seen when you hover the cursor over the pic or expand the picture by clicking on it.) (An aside: The far-left pic in row 2 (Apple blossoms just starting out) was a BASTARD to shoot! I probably took 50 or sixty shots over three days trying to get the right combination of lighting, exposure, background, angle, etc. to show how cool that little cluster of blossoms is. I was obsessed with getting that shot! The one you see is still not completely satisfactory, but it'll have to do, I suppose.)                         (NOT!) Leaving WC Forever ... Maybe.Sunday, 22 March, 20094:14 PM I've decided that I just can't stand it anymore, and I'm going to leave WireClub. I will probably not return for a long, long time, if ever. 7:22 PM Jeez! I was just screwin' around! Look at the other blog! It's titled "I'm Returning To WC" and was posted literally SECONDS after this one! PokeReally stupid, but here it is: .................... .................... .................... . ..................... ..................... ..................... ..................... ..................... ..................... ..................... ...................... ............. .......... ...... ... ... ...... ......... .............. Emot Art: Frank ZappaEmot ArtFrank Zappa     SITS It looks a little better tightened up in this reduction, but not much.  Bite Me ... A Silly Tribute To BarnsieIt looks silly enough in a still picture, but to really experience the full, idiotic splendor of this stupid thing, you must actually go to the forum and look at it with the emots in motion. It looks like a neon sign in Vegas!!!!!http://www.wireclub.com/Forums/ViewTopic.aspx?ForumId=1&ParentId=353191&Page=10  Cleaning HouseIt is 10:44 PM in Napa, California, on Friday, 13 March, 2009. Somehow, Friday The Thirteenth seemed like a good time to do this. I am going to "clean house" and remove a number of "friends" from my list. These are basically people who have essentially disappeared from WireClub, or I just never cross paths with them anymore ... whatever. They just clutter up my Friends Gallery, making it harder to get to someone when I have the need to contact them, etc.Note that as of this moment, my WireClub "reputation" is a level 9. I expect that I will be "demoted" as a consequence of this tidying up of my Friends Gallery. (You'll still be able to see the level 9 ranking in a pic included in this blog.) OK...let's get to work. I'll come back and edit this blog when I'm finished. See you then! It is now 11:11 PM, and I have removed thirty-five from what was a list of one-hundred-thirty-two (leaving ninety-eight). As of this moment, I still am ranked at level nine. Hmm...I'm almost disappointed. Why? (shrugs) No matter.  What Does Your Name Mean? (with apologies to Lulu)A: You’re a big wwx$@B: Everyone hates you C: You’re ugly as f@#y D: Your breath stinks E: Your feet stink F: You stink, period G: Don’t bother getting drunk … you’ll remain miserable H: You’re one in a million … the worst one I: You have the intelligence of a cumquat J: Your very presence causes people to leave immediately K: People would rather have szw with a rabid aardvark than you L: Even if a miracle occurred, and someone consented to have sy~ with you, you’d set a new definition for terrible in bed M: You’re repulsive N: You’re vile O: If God had mercy, he’d put you out of your misery P: You are carrying a brand new form of venereal disease Q: You’re a very nice person with many nice qualities R: You should be shot S: You are devoid of a single good quality T: You are crawling with vermin U: Death is too good for you … you should be tortured first V: Die, a#x%@#%! W: You’re totally clueless X: You have the personality of a maggot Y: You should cease to exist Z: All of the above Photo Essay: Spring BlossomsThis is a series of photos I've made with my cheezy little pocket-size digital camera. Note: if you hover your cursor over each pic, the caption will appear, and if you click on the pic, it will enlarge. (I got a few of them out of the order that I wanted, but I'm too lazy to rip this blog apart and reconstuct it.)                      Ten Questions For YouQuestionnaires are currently in vogue here in WireClub. Here's my contribution to this trend:1. Which number do you like more, 11 or 12? 2. If you could be any item commonly found in a hardware store, what would you be? 3. How many toilets are in your bathroom? 4. Look directly at your computer monitor. What do you see? 5. Would you rather have a dead gopher, or a dead mole? 6. Do you sleep with your eyes closed? 7. Dirt: Dirty enough, or not dirty enough? 8. What is the best musical group that you have never even heard of? 9. Which is more offensive to your sensibilities, a door hinge, or a tube sock? 10. Do you wish you could get back the time you spent on this stupid questionnaire? Photo Essay: Mt. GeorgeSince I purchased this cheezy little camera that I use to take the pics you see in my profile, one of the things I've found myself shooting all the time is Mt. George, a landmark that's a mile or two away from where I live. I decided to take a bunch of shots of it from different vantage points. I wonder how many pics WireClub allows in a blog? Note: If you click on the photo, it will expand in size.          
                 |
