Entries from May 2005

(with apologies to e.e. cummings)

Off I go to Winnipeg for a visit, Prairie spring weather, clean air, and some perogi. Have fun while I’m away.

Holy crap. Four years of posting to and tending to and getting pissed off by this web site. Going from here to here to what you’re currently soaking in, and all the while musing and bitching and recording for some kind of virtual prosperity the various experiences of this particular carbon unit.

In that time, this site has introduced me to dozens of friends and acquaintances, followed me through two major relocations, listened patiently as I complained about my health and an endless parade of boring minutiae, helped me secure a multitude of consulting and design gigs, and made me feel guilty on numerous occasions when it languished unattended.

I originally started this site on a lark. I never expected it to last longer than a few months, or for anyone to care in the least about its contents. The fact that over a thousand of you come here daily and that you’re here reading this now is still incredibly surprising and inspiring.

Happy birthday, beatnikpad. Let’s go and get some tasty libations into you.

Normally anything that seems even vaguely “meme-like” or quizzy — such as the incredibly tired “what kind of fungus are you?”-esque questionnaires (holy crap, I’m a north-facing fuzzy purple lichen!) — earns a wide berth from this beatnik, but for music, I make an exception. Señor Hicks heaved the musical baton my way, and who am I to resist?

Total volume of music files on my computer (thus validating the title of this post in a big way):

51.67 gigabytes. 9305 individual tracks. 27.1 days of music. I have a serious problem.

The last CD I bought was:

Ryan Adams & the Cardinals’ Cold Roses. Not bad, but suffers from a bit of “let’s make a double album!” musical padding.

Song playing right now:

Jah Jah Bless the Dreadlocks by The Mighty Diamonds, off of the Trojan Roots Box Set, CD 1.

Five songs I listen to a lot, or that means a lot to me:

Following the former (songs I listen to a lot), this is the five that seem to be getting a lot of iTunes time:

1. Iron & Wine - Jezebel
2. Calexico - Not Even Stevie Nicks
3. Kathleen Edwards - Back to Me
4. Femi Kuti - 97
5. The Futureheads - Decent Days and Nights

Though I’ve been listening to Supergrass’ Supergrass is 10 quite a bit these days, too.

More statistical music nonsense is available on my Audioscrobbler page.

Five people to whom I’m passing the baton:

• Lana Stewart
• Adriaan Tijsseling
• Chris Pointon
• James McNally
• Rik Abel

Apologies for spreading the meme. I feel so venereal.

Something new - small movies of captured moments I’m dubbing lifecasts. No commentary and no egomaniacal video blogging: just quiet life scenes. As they say, “God is in the details.”

I am not a videographer, and I’m going to be fiddling with the encoding and compression formats a lot, so bear with me. If you have any tips or hints on getting the best quality vs. size ratio, and tips on compression formats, post them in the comments.

Renée and I are off this weekend to Ottawa for the Ottawa marathon. I’d love to say that I’m running the marathon this year (going to beat last year’s time by at least 45, yessir), but the sad fact is I’m merely a lazy ass spectator. I have started running, ‘tis true, but my report on the status of that endeavor will have to wait for another day when my self-esteem can handle the shame.

Renée has been training to run the half marathon for over eight months, and I’m going to cheer her on, run along side her trailing links of energy-providing bierwursts and kegs of Macedonian wheat grog, and generally make a complete idiot of myself screaming out the melody to Chariots of Fire until I’m hoarse. I would have made a killer cheerleader.

» Running, Playing, Working, Broken continues...