Grabiquity

different dream features

I simply cannot stop thinking about this NYT article featuring Jan Chipchase. 

Instead of rambling about not blogging, or sharing another vitriolic 520-fueled haiku, instead here is neither.

the $5 phone

pesky monks & their bluetooth

different dream features

let's watch the hands while drinking the beer

Since today is an extra day, you should come to Neumo's tonight.  My nice neighbor's band, The Hands, is having CD release party at Neumo's tonight.  Here's a review, & you can listen to them on myspace.

"America's Favorite Stains"

Omfg.  So very many things wrong with this.  This graphic will definitely find its way into this week's ppt production.

Tide is partnering with Citysearch to reveal "America's Favorite Stains,” a nationwide poll where people across the country vote for the stains that result from enjoying the people, places and moments they love most.

sunday evening dread of monday morning drive

My insights pale in comparison to those of this gifted eastside journalist, but here they are anyway:

• My car got rear-ended on 520, & there wasn't much I could do about it... I was in far left lane, & traffic was stop & go, so was I supposed to put car in "park" & walk out into middle of 520 & confront the driver?  Anyway, if you happen to know this guy, tell him I think he's a dick.
• 520 is horrible, but I90 is just goddamned scary.  I don't want to get stabbed &/or carjacked, or involved in a high-speed chase, & I definitely don't want to fall over the side.
• JO&B is located there - in a shopping mall - & does not have a Seattle office or formally permit telecommuting.  The next generation of global telecommunications is best directed while tethered to a docking station, near the safety of a land line. 

blackberry haiku, composed during jury selection

King County Courthouse

Golden ring'd ceiling stains

Sea of North Face fleece

trying out showclix widget... + tourfilter badge

Find details on these shows & more at ShowClix

excuse me, i have to go iron my flag now

Wow... in the span of one week, I've been officially tallied by the U.S. census, cashed my tax refund, participated in my first-ever caucus, & will be reporting to jury duty. 

you're unique, just like everybody else.

I make a point of staying on top of events in Seattle.  I see lots of live shows, events at Town Hall, museum-y things, author appearances at Elliott Bay, whatever is playing at the Egyptian or NWFF etc.  I actively search & track shows/events via venue sites, SpaceBook, friends, yelp, the Stranger, show posters, newsletters, fansites, etc.  I give extra money to KEXP, NPR, SAM etc so I can get better invites & better tickets to better things.  I have predictable, easy-to-market-to tastes, & money to spend to indulge them in two hour increments.  Case in point: I even willingly subscribe to & read email promos from the evil usurious pricks at ticketmaster.  Anyway, this is all top of mind b/c of a conversation from earlier today, where I characterized myself as someone who is reasonably well dialed in to the local scene.

So how did I not hear that Clinton was speaking tonight & Obama is speaking tomorrow?  WTF?  Instead of seeing future president, I am spending this evening/tomorrow morning building a powerpoint deck that will take longer to create than it will even be relevant.  Am so very pissed.

The more I think about this the more it is bugging me.  The magic thing that would help me discover & manage events + my own life while it's at it would do some of these things:

Use a regionally-appropriate voice.  Or art.  Or both.  Or let me do it.  If a grocery store can employ full-time chalkboard artists, then why why why does a website like citysearch have the visual appeal of a default ppt template?

Many not-dead-yet business travelers share this quest... how to find "the stranger" & not "the weekly" nationwide; ie how to avoid the abject horror of hotel concierge recommendations.

Venue-specific feeds, including feeds for venues with lame websites of their own.  I'll go to anything at Neumos, & almost anything (unless it involves Garrisson Keillor) at Town Hall.  Often I go to NWFF without looking first.  But I guess that's how I wound up seeing all 174 minutes of "The Sound of Music."  Anyway.

An event-specific sidebar thing for my blog.  I hate manually entering all the live shows i go to, & google calendar doesn't deal with public/private event settings well enough.  I learned this when Rob sent me a "ha ha you have jury duty" email.  Rob, I hope you get jury duty.  And get stung by bees.

Something that acknowledges the past.  I want to remember what I did, maybe blob together a calendar event with the list of people I went to it with plus the correct time/datestamps on the pictures I took with my phone.

Can't it all be web two do oh'd all together into a dashboard?  I want del.icio.us + something similar- to-but-vastly-better-than-citysearch/yelp + google + flickr + MyFace + iLike + iGoogle +ShoZu + wetpaint + The Stranger + evite + socializr + google calendar + ability to email/text to self/others + save to google calendar sometimes & Outlook some other times + be web-based with a mobile extension (sans shitty UI) & really, basically, just something useful & helpful that also helps me not have to write things in Sharpie on my own hand.

caucus on saturday

Figure out where to go & what to do.  Snip from easy/useful seattlest post:

Democratic candidates in the State of Washington win delegates based on caucus votes, not primary votes. That Voters' Guide you got in the mail the other day? The one with Joe Biden on page 2? Ignore it. Yes, it's true, there will be a primary vote on February 19th, but if you're rooting for a Democratic candidate, it means nothing.

playdate on pike street

Weird: I have never ever seen so many little kids walking along Pike Street.  In fact, I think there's only one human child who actually lives in my neighborhood; I see her waiting (alone) for her schoolbus most mornings.

At first I thought it was the divorced dad phenomenon that used to sweep Belltown every other weekend.    But my neighborhood isn't as much of a mecca for newly-single males.*  Could it be Super Bowl-related?  Do Capitol Hill hipsters/gays/other serve as some kind of babysitting National Guard, only called up when childcare resources are dangerously low?

* Believe me.  I've conducted a thorough 3-year investigation.

nada surf acoustic set at triple door = ahhhh

The new Nada Surf album is quite cool - I think they still have live streams on their myspace page, plus they'll be back in Seattle at Showbox on 3/28.

Great show at great venue... and some great pictures courtesy of Drew Klonsky & Piper Carr. 

what i'm listening to: josh ritter live @ real

Link: josh ritter rhapsody session.

1. Right Moves (Rhapsody Session Version) - Josh Ritter 2. Open Doors (Rhapsody Session Version) - Josh Ritter 3. Chrystal Chandeliers (Rhapsody Session Version) - Josh Ritter 4. Empty Hearts (Rhapsody Session Version) - Josh Ritter 5. Walls (Rhapsody Session Version) - Josh Ritter

so very glad ryan adams is still alive

Saw Ryan Adams at the Paramount last night.  Live performance absolutely killed.  Blend of dark/deep talent in a sweetly dorky package.  Authentically sober, swigging Alka Selzer & Squirt, rocking an Iron Maiden tshirt & faux leopard fur platform boots, on stage about 3 hours, he shot a YouTube video from stage... maybe there's a pixel or two of me in there somewhere (2nd row!).  Here are some shitty cameraphone pictures + the abovementioned YouTube video.  I can't stop thinking about this show.  He's really good.  And I truly dig live shows that feel like they were written & performed just for me.

...which leads me to add I'm acutely aware of how mainstream my tastes have become.  I like TV.  I own a beige couch.  I've just learned my credit score, tax return, & charitible giving receipts align with the national average.  I design average products for average people.  Am about to lose the right to select that wonderful "18-34" range when filling out forms.  The "NPR top albums of 2007" closely matched my own list.  I now embody ADULT ALTERNATIVE.  Gah.

This only partially explains why Radiohead is on permaloop at Barnes & Noble though... please find someone else to blame for that.

track 8

Recommended: hauling ass on that awesome twisty tree-ful non-Bellevue part of I-90, on a crisp clear day with Rainier & the Cascades in full glory, listening to track 8 of Neon Bible.  Try eastbound hung over, & westbound after a nice filet.  Ignore all the powerpoint in between.  Mmm.

bizarre celeb death pool trifecta

A coworker & I were just wondering if there's anyone out there that had money on Sir Edmund Hillary, Heath Ledger, & Bobby Fischer down for a 2008 expiration date.  What would that pay out?