Too Sick To Blog

Home sick today. This must be what the DTs are like.
But I will point out that Bill Clinton was in Eureka on Wednesday.

I'd say 2000 people showed to fit in a 400-seat room. There was a lot of disappointment outside. Desperation is never pretty, especially when local A-listers are trying to cut in front of people who've been shivering for hours. I saw at least five movers/shakers acting like 3rd graders. That's just fucked up.

Inside, though, it was nuts. People ate it up. Glad I brought a camera.

Lessons learned:
1. Press Access rules
2. It takes a long fuckin' time sweep/secure a room
3. Bill can bring it. 60 mins and no notes, no "ums"
4. Secret Service have "awesome" locked in

Copenhagen In Miniature.

Yes, I'm 31 and I'm just now trying Photoshop. Please, stop laughing. Just because half of our friends are artists doesn't mean you just automatically learn it.

Doesn't one have to go through a period of overdoing everything in sight until the mysteries of Photoshop reveal themselves? Well, that's where I'm at. Binge-filtering like a sailor on shore leave. And I don't even care!

And what better excuse than to try Fake Tilt-Shift photography. I saw some cool examples in the New York Times "Year In Ideas" issue, and then Flickr has a whole group of FTS'ers.

The basic idea is that you take a photo, blur it, color, and do some other stuff to make it look like a tiny model. Who would make a model of Copenhagen? Nobody. Which is why it's extra fun to try and fake it. I took this photo last summer from a steeple in above Copenhagen. Also, check out the mini-airlift.

Rainy Day Crafts

http://rainydaycraftsbysara.blogspot.com/

Check out my craft blog!
-Sara

New Year, New Look

Presenting this year's winner of the NYE Mustache Contest.

Behold Eric Oldford's luxurious Chevron: timeless lines, with a touch of southwestern flavor-saving.

Merry Christmas

Christmas ruled. Sara's mom and Sasha have a good bond. Almost as good as Deirdre's face in that picture.

Closing In

Gimme Shelter

The dudes have abided. Abode. Whatever.


Shelter Cove 2007 was even better than 2006. Sweeter house, Wii, White Russians, the whole bit.

The surf wasn't great for Shelter Cove. Even so, it was still good to be in an uncrowded lineup catching short, fun, slow waves. The Wii was a hit, Eric brought Ted Papenhagen and Coz Worthington, and the Big Lebowski just gets better with age. Thanks to Zeke and Andy for the video.

Youth Rules

Biology mandates a sort of cuteness-bond from parent to kid. Every parent thinks their kid is cute, if not the absolutely mostest-cutest baby on Earth, in the history of babies. Right?

Keeping that feeling at bay gets tiring, and once in a while, you let your guard down.

Shh...Don't tell Sasha

First post from Sara!

I knitted this up for Sasha's 1st birthday, coming up on December 10. Made of organic cotton, it reminds me of a ballerina wrap sweater. Now to finish the baby pants I started 2 years ago for her Christmas prezzie...by then they're likely be too small!

Holla

Sara's 30th kicked ass. If you give out free banjo lessons, you know where to find her.

Waving

Sasha likes waving. At people, at shadows, at her reflection, at the empty middle-distance in a room (which doesn't mean she sees ghosts, right?). But she'll wave and wave and wave until she gets a wave back.

Walking back to the car in the CostCo parking lot, Sara (on the last day of her 20's) reiterated the point. "She'll wave at anyone. She waves at people who don't usually get waves, people who usually get ignored on the street. Super-old people, bums, whoever. And it makes their day."

___________

Speaking of waves, it was 10 ft. @ 13 sec. this morning at the jetty.

I brought my board, mainly just to humor myself, but didn't go in.

Get your tickets out, we're going to the gun show.

Tender Waveforms.

There's this show "Radiolab" out of a NY public radio station that is fucking brilliant. If you've not heard it, it's an hourlong documentary show, sort of like This American Life's smarter cousin.

It could be pinnacle of modern storytelling. It's edited is unlike any other show, and if you're not used to it, you have to meet it on it's own terms. The sound is stretched and bent, brushed and scrubbed, hammered and sequined. The sound just sparkles.

So, this week's episode. It's too soon to say "Best Radio Show Of All Time Ever", but it's on my personal list. It's about how they paint with sound. It's like they climbed up my brain and explained stuff back to me that I always almost knew.

This weeks' episode is about the nitty-gritty of editing Radiolab. About how to, say, gut a soundbite for all it's interesting sonic bits. Then how to take those bits, invert them against themselves, and rearrange them to restate the point of the soundbite itself.

Like an audio MC Escher. It's achingly good.

Why?

I am suddenly obsessed with the Writer's Strike.

Can't quite put it together. We love TV, almost evangelically.
("What, you don't have a TV? Wait, what? You killed it??" Ungh. You don't go slashing canvases just because Thomas Kincade walks the earth. You go to better museums. But whatever.)

Does it make sense? No. But writers do the heavy lifting in entertainment, and get zero credit. So, if you walk by a striking writer, which is very unlikely, give them a tongue-kiss.

Unrelated: Humboldt County is a difficult place for escalator enthusiasts.

And Sasha's fine and about to be a year old.