The first time I encountered the Bricklayer’s Lament was in the 400 Bar in Minneapolis. Todd Menton had just played a set with a backing band consisting of a digeridoo and two tubas<ComicBrogue>”Two tubas. Two tubas are magic.”</ComicBrogue>. At some point after the set–possibly as part of the encore, although the years and the Guinness that night have conspired to… Read more →
Month: September 2008
Aside
I am still desperately miserable about the upcoming (Canadian) election. Every time I check out Elect-o-pinion.ca I want to pound nails into my eyes, even if it sometimes does bring me lovely things like 100+ Reasons Not to Vote for Harper.
Diverse practyk in many sundry werkes
My goal is to redefine the whole history of rhyme ‘Cause the only way to free the soul is to free the mind And no wisdom as old as this should be confined To total mystery, so we’ll just read the signs And DaVinci codes, and try to see the science In this linguistically-composed pristine design –extracted from Rhyme Renaissance… Read more →
Lazy Omnivore Post
Yes, that’s right, I’m going to the meme well again. This time for Andrew Wheeler’s Omnivore’s Hundred (which I’ve seen a lot of places, but first saw at the other Andrew Wheeler’s blog.). I think the “expected” result, in so far as there is one, is that people would find there are lots and lots things that they haven’t tried,… Read more →
The Harlequin Is Out
Today, as my grandfather would say, the sadness is upon me. Let’s just say that my growing fear that McCain’s Big Lie tactics will work, combined with my stark and utter terror at the nearly inescapable certainty of a Harper majority, have made me miserable today. I’ve lost faith in my fellow man. Maybe I’ll be chipper tomorrow. Read more →
Just because I love the answer
Following on from The Colonel (I guess that should be Sir The Colonel, considering his result): Your result for The Who Would You Be in 1400 AD Test… The Harlequin You scored 32% Cardinal, 46% Monk, 38% Lady, and 43% Knight! You are a mystery, a jack-of-all-trades. You have the king’s ear, but also listen to murmurings of the common… Read more →
I can not afford some Art.
I have survived the day of endless meetings. As soon as the last evening meeting ended, I hauled ass down the road to the bookstore to unwind with some browsing before it closed. I made some weird purchases that I suspect I might not have made if I weren’t dazed and confused from the meeting marathon. Case in point: I’m… Read more →
Casa El Profundo
It’s been a while since I did a “this recent discovery suggests Lovecraftian spookiness” post, so let’s do one of those. According to National Geographic, a series of partially underwater temples—”A labyrinth filled with stone temples and pyramids in 14 caves”— have been found off the Yucatan. The article talks about how these temples map onto legends of the Mayan… Read more →
The research mindset
I am so jealous of all the people working at the LHC this week. However, the best thing I’ve seen that’s LHC related this week was Hawking talking about his $100 bet against the project finding the Higgs boson. Why do I think it’s the best thing? Well, look at this part of his comments: I think it will be… Read more →
Two Americas
David Simon, the man behind The Wire, had an interesting piece in the Guardian earlier this week, where he helps the British look at the way the idea of “the American experience” is essentially a non-sensical term, as there are now (at least) two distinct Americas. As usual, Baltimore is his lens, and he has the ability to sharpen the… Read more →
Aside
Aside
Man, there’s some stuff in the Bible that’s really not for kids. I’m not even talking about the rules in Leviticus, or the LSD trip in Revelations. Do the fundamentalists know about this?
Post-Storm Scenery
For no special reason, here’s a photo of my second favourite vista on the “backwoods Maine” segment of my drive to Boston: Check out that sky. Oh, and the favourite vista on Route 9? There’s not really a safe place to stop and take a picture. Besides, I kind of like it being this ephemeral thing I have to grab… Read more →
Aside
I thought the whole Bing thing was a joke, until I saw the announcement of McCain’s plan to invade Canada.
Aside
As a general rule I am entirely in favour of freedom of speech and thought, and I look askance at any government attempts to curtail them. I can go on for quite a while about how hate speech legislation is probably a mistake, especially in a country where the current government wouldn’t think twice about blasting down that slippery slope, but… well, there’s one particular group that I don’t mind at all being on the shitty end of that stick. I’m a complicated man–I can live with some shades of grey.
