Cafe Helix
Thursday, November 30, 2000
You know it's the holiday season when the Chia Pet ads come on tv. Along with their traditional chia products, the company is now sporting Looney Tunes Chia Pets, including Chia Tweety. I emailed my friend Cristine about it and I'm sure she'll get a kick out of that. Joseph Enterprises, the makers of the Chia Pet, is also the maker of The Clapper (another holiday treat). I haven't seen the Andre Champagne ad, another sign of the commercial holiday season.
Back to chia, I used to work with someone named Chia, at Hear Music; she was a real sweetie. I bet she got teased a lot because of her name, though.
Wednesday, November 29, 2000
Tonight I will sadly miss Club Velvet's second "KING'S LUAU FEAST"... A special evening of tropical cocktails, jungle jazz and a fabulous polynesian-themed dinner created to please King Kini by Jitters' expert chef. Of course, Club Velvet is takes place in Minneapolis, a couple thousand miles away from me. If only transporters were a reality. Kini always puts on a fabulous evening of music, mood, and cocktails and I look forward to the next time I'm in Minneapolis for Club Velvet.
Need a facsimile quick? You might check here, at the Acadia Early Music Facsimile Archive to see if they have it. This site provides facsimiles of primary sources - excellent! I love playing from facsimiles even if I have to deal with baritone clef. Facsimiles are good for you - enjoy some every day.
According to this article, many people still flee to America to worship as they please. Religious persecution is on the rise in many parts of the world, especially for christians and buddhists. I am grateful that I have the opportunity to explore my faith as I would like, and find like minds.
Here is an amazingly beautiful picture of the earth. I've never really seen anything quite like it, but I'm quite charmed by it. The image is a composite of hundreds of pictures made by the orbiting DMSP satellites. [via a site for sore eyes]
The Chronicle had a good article on alternate transportation. It would be good to clean up our act around here regarding how we get from point a to point b. I like the idea of these little pod cars.
This is a very strange ad about something called a "Polytron," which can supposedly "reduce an entire mouse to a soup-like homogeneate in 30 seconds." Oddest thing I've come across all week.
A bit of levity with regard to the election, here.
. . . .
Two amusing quotes seen this week:
"You may be psychic, but you're not crazy" --seen outside the Berkeley Psychic Institute.
"The Louvre, American Style" --seen on the UC Theater marquis.
The Cabrio ad makes me cry - more specifically, the music by Nick Drake, "Pink Moon". I'm also enjoying the music on the ads for cotton and the Gap, if you can believe it.
Enough for today - it's been a long one.
Monday, November 27, 2000
The Minneapolis Sign Project gave me much joy when I saw it this morning! The Twin Cities, but moreso Minneapolis, are one of my favorite places in this country. I love the lakes, the neighborhoods, and I love my friends from there very much. If it wasn't for Bitstream, I wouldn't have a connection there. Really. [via kottke.org]
Well, I returned to work today after a lovely four days off. I wish it had been longer but this was great just the same. I had a peaceful, mellow weekend, spiked with a little bit of shopping (as you can see in earlier blogs this weekend), and a nice dinner party Saturday night. Turkey really does make me sleepy. Gotta love that tryptophan, baby.
Great links of the day:
Exorcisms. Still a pesky problem. The Vatican published new exorcism guidelines last year, fyi.
Man-animal hybrids. Crazy patents and stem cells and charges of mixing species. [via metafilter]
I love McSweeneys. They published a great article, "The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous and the Twelve Steps of Creating a Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Balloon (as listed on the macyparade.com web site), Head to Head."
Sunday, November 26, 2000
Mr. Rogers isn't going to be our neighbor anymore. Next month he tapes his last episode; fortunately, the show will live on in reruns. I grew up with Mr. Rogers - the Neighborhood arrived on the air in 1968, the year I was born, and I have very fond memories of Mr. Roger's Neighborhood. From the article:
Last month, in an interview with Newsweek.com, he acknowledged that Mister Rogers isn't a character, it's himself. "One of the greatest gifts you can give anybody is the gift of your honest self," Rogers said.
Amen.
I've been experimenting with changing the template of my blog, as you can see from the errant "test" post from yesterday. I thought I had deleted that post, but I guess I didn't succeed. And I can't find the text to delete it in my editing window. Oh well.
I found the website for J.Jill, a wonderful clothing company based in New Hampshire. I love these clothes! Lots of things in cotton and wools. Now if I only had several thousand dollars with which to overhaul my wardrobe....
Did you know there exists Spinal Tap dolls? According to the website:
The set includes lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel, lead singer David St. Hubbins, and bass guitarist Derek Smalls. Featuring over 20 points of articulation and costumes from the movie's music number "Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight," these dolls are a "must haves" for fans and collectors alike.
Each figure stands on a guitar pick base and comes with rockin' accessories such as Nigel's amp knob that goes up to 11, a sketch pad of David's girlfriend with Zodiac illustrations and Derek's famous cucumber that set off airport metal detectors on their national tour. Bonus accessories include a 1/6 scale album sleeve and cover plus more!
I rediscovered the Too Much Coffee Man website. It's based on this superhero-type character that is really kind of a lovable slacker. He has friends named Too Much Espresso Guy and Too Much German White Chocolate Woman With Almonds. I love it.
Mouchette. She's 13 years old and lives in Amsterdam, speaks french. The word "mouchette" is french for "fly." Her site is a trip. Via memepool
. . . .
The Homemade Cafe has incredible coffee cake and coffee. And eggs and potatoes. I've never been disappointed! I am very fortunate to live so close to them.
Saturday, November 25, 2000
What is it about cats knowing exactly when you want to get up out of bed? Twice this morning when I was about to get up, my cat Marina jumped on the bed and started making herself comfortable. It's hard to get out of bed with a warm purring cat at your side. This also happens when I want to read - Jon Carroll of the SF Chronicle wrote a great article about this phenomenon:
Cats are opposed to reading. That much is obvious. If a human sits or lies down to read, a cat will jump up and interpose itself between the human and the book. "Do not pollute your mind with that trash," the cat is saying, or perhaps, "Me me me, pay attention to me me me."
Well, another Thanksgiving day has come and gone - it was a lovely day and very mellow. I made dinner for me and a friend at my little apartment. I cooked cornish game hens and they turned out great! I stuffed them with lemon, garlic, and rosemary. I'd never cooked them before and was pleased with the outcome. There were potatoes, yams, salad, and pie for dessert (friend provided the ice cream). There is much I'm thankful for:
For my family.
To be living in Berkeley, and have an affordable apartment, good food, and a job.
To be a musician, and for my renewed focus on that part of my life.
For my friends, and those relationships on various mailing lists and BBSes.
My spiritual sense and faith.
. . . .
Today I ran into an old co-worker, Henri-Pierre; we used to sell records together at Hear Music. While there, I listened to I Am the True Vine, music by Arvo Part, performed by Theatre of Voices and The Pro Arte Singers. This is some of the most breathtakingly beautiful music I've heard in a while. I love his exquisite use of dissonance and was moved to tears by this music. I've heard Part's music before, and have always loved it. I was pleasantly surprised to see that my friend Corey Carleton sang on this record! Nice to see when friends are making great art.
And paid holidays rule.
Thursday, November 16, 2000
I love this humorous transcript of the first Presidential ballot counting session. Many thanks go to Joel Achenbach.
I've seen several people blog this, and there's a reason: it's really good. Here are 13 Myths About the Results of the 2000 Election. Certainly helps clear some things up from this crazy wacky election.
Monday, November 13, 2000
