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Main page December 31, 2005Times Square live etc.; 'Blog trip around the world for New Year's Eve'It's snowing. New Year's Eve TV programming. WaPo. 10:58 p.m. Friday
To get you started here is a twenty two minute audio clip from WABC, it features Cousin Bruce Morrow (now at CBS FM in NYC), Guy Lombardo via remote and Charlie Greer (deceased) following on the overnight. Suddenly it's 1965....He also links a clip of NBC Radio's Ben Grauer's 1971 in Times Square, one of his last live reports. This is a group blog project by people who know their stuff. Here's how Lou's intro (Background) starts: Several years ago, Kim Elliott at the Voice of America spent his New Years Eve, listening to how the world celebrated using short-wave radio to hear international and domestic stations ring in the New Year.... This year, Kim's an editor of this group blog. More details, from two emails: I got a bunch of my friends to help out this year on the blog trip around the world for New Years Eve. Lou's got just the morning picks up so far, but he owns this story; he'll be updating frequently at Medianetwork. There's more at Lou's main blog site, but his host there has been down much of the day so he's posting to a backup server. Posted by Sheila Lennon December 29, 2005Suspense thriller; Wikipedia quickie; NYT: U.S. incomes outpace housing costs, but not here
The St. Petersburg Times finds the timeless tragedy in the hard news of a hit-and-run,. There is a roundness to the resolution of this tear in the way things should be, not unlike that of a play by the Greeks where Fate looms large. Fine reporting, writing and storytelling by Thomas French, Christopher Goffard and Jamie Thompson keep you on the edge of your seat. I took it in five chunks, the way it was published, and kept coming back for more after a few minutes elsewhere. Each of the parts includes photos that literally put faces on these names, but some of their captions are spoilers if you read them before the text on that page. Also a spoiler, the archive of daily headlines that inched the case along in time. Readers react in a Jennifer Porter blog on the news site. The story link comes from CJR Daily: Five Great Stories You Didn't Read in 2005
When will our incomes catch up to our expenses in Southern New England? Rate hikes, tax hikes, raise hikes? Posted by Sheila Lennon In this game, you're a psychiatrist treating abused stuffed animals
The Asylum: You are a substitute psychiatrist at the Psychiatric Clinic for Abused Cuddly Toys, and you have four seriously disturbed patients to cure. The doctor left notes, and it helps to consult them frequently as your patients' narratives unfold under your treatment.. This is a "game" like no other. It comes in three languages, German, English and Italian. Follow the Union Jack. Posted by Sheila Lennon December 28, 2005Indie music thrives; global tunes; musicians who died in '05; blogger explores N.Z.The Net is a Boon for Indie Labels. NYT: Even as the recording industry staggers through another year of declining sales over all, there are new signs that a democratization of music made possible by the Internet is shifting the industry's balance of power. (Suing their customers didn't help, either.) The surge by independents comes as the four dominant music conglomerates - Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and EMI Group - find themselves hamstrung in their traditional ways of doing business by an array of forces, including a crackdown on payola (undisclosed payments made to broadcasters in exchange for airplay). Coincidentally, yesterday I wanted to hear Completely Different music and spent some time poking around Calabash Music, where the site navigation is organized by continent; click on one and get a list of countries.
Afghanistan's Kabul Workshop, the Warsaw Village Band, Lei Qiang on the erhu, an ancient two-stringed Chinese violin/fiddle. I also ran into Paul Pena, the blind American blueman who participated in the "throatsinging" contest of The Autonomous Republic of Tuva. These samples from Genghis Blues are the soundtrack of the Oscar-nominated documentary. There's Baba Maal of Senegal, Fuji Dub ( "Lagos Brooklyn Bixton"), Cuban young and old, playlists that sample a wide range of tunes, and a search that popped up every mention of the late great Nigerian musician Fela, and some tunes obviously inspired by his virtuoso energetic jazz. The title Remember Fela led me to Gangbe Brass Band -- "equally close to New Orleans and Lagos." Finally, from Steve Morse's last Christmas column for the Globe -- probably his last, since he's taking the buyout -- comes a list of musicians who died this year. Paul Pena is among them: R.I.P.: Luther Vandross, Shirley Horn, Chris Whitley, Paul Pena, R.L. Burnside, Clarence Gatemouth Brown, Link Wray, Richard Pryor, Hunter Thompson, Danny Sugerman (Doors biographer), Ray Peterson (''Tell Laura I Love Her"), Jim Capaldi (Traffic), Spencer Dryden (Jefferson Airplane), Henry Spencer, Merle Kilgore, Ras Junior, Keith Knudsen (Doobie Brothers), Jimmy Smith, Big Joe Burrell, Sandra Dee, John Raitt, Chris Ledoux, Bobby Short, Rod Price (of Foghat), Johnnie Johnson (Chuck Berry's pianist), Mindy Jostyn, Jimmy Martin, Scott Larned (of Dark Star Orchestra), Obie Benson (Four Tops), Big Al Downing, Long John Baldry, John Herald (of the Greenbriar Boys), Eugene Record (founder of the Chi-Lites), Little Milton, Detroit Junior, Vassar Clements, Bea Lilly, and Fritz Richmond. One more international note: Hanan Levin (Grow-A-Brain) has decided to relocate from Riverside, Calif., to New Zealand by the summer of 2008. In preparation, he's decided to visit the country for the first time. He's there now, on vacation, and blogging about it: Korukoru Already on my second day I've reached the conclusion that this is the place where I want to live the rest of my life. My main problem will be not to make the move before my target date. I still have some financial considerations that I need to complete before making the switch, and I hope that I will not ignore them, and try to hurry up the process instead. (2008 is mighty far away.)
His photos (thumbnail page) let us see what appeals to him. Posted by Sheila Lennon December 26, 2005Christmas brought a major upgrade and a little dudeMy wonderful family -- husband, brother and daughter -- pooled their pennies for my Christmas gift and smuggled my new PC into the house wrapped in a bedspread. Several times they discussed giving it to me earlier, they said, after watching me struggle first with a dying desktop, then with a laptop gone mad. And reading here about this stint in computer hell. This crew obviously had fun planning the surprise, and keeping it a secret. Even the guy who was allegedly fixing my desktop was in on it. ("He can't get to it till after Christmas" was the cover story. The old box was actually in pieces in my daughter's living room -- she copied its old drives to the new computer so I'd still have all my familiar files. I burned the Firefox and Thunderbird directories to a CD, and copied them to the new /windows/Application Data/ directories, so the settings, bookmarks and extensions are my old familiar ones, and the mail's all there.
Everybody got to be part of the obstacle course. "Don't step on the little guy" was the meme of the day all over the house. I'm blessed to belong to these people. I hope your holiday was as warm and fine, and that the feeling sticks around. I'm on vacation this week, time to read, think, clean house, dole out catnip, live the timeless life... Posted by Sheila Lennon December 24, 2005Shelley gets into the boys club; Merry Christmas everybody!Updated 10 a.m. Shelley Powers is now a Wikipedia entry. "The result of the debate was speedy keep due to clear and overwhelming consensus." -- Michael Snow 22:32, 22 December 2005 (UTC)" Too speedy for punctuation, but "keep" was the result of the debate in that sentence. Shelley writes passionately on behalf of women in technology, calling out gatherings, gigs and recognitions that don't include us. (The link above goes to the discussion of Shelley's worthiness to be included as a Wikipedia topic.) Sample from the discussion, which is a very good read: Keep. It's awfully late at this point to start complaining about short biographical articles on popular bloggers and technologists. If Marc Canter, Kevin Drum, and Kevin Marks all merit entries, then so does Shelley Powers. Radgeek 19:44, 20 December 2005 (UTC) Keep - Shelley is an influential writer and programmer and a very skilled photographer. Kevin Marks 20:27, 20 December 2005 (UTC) I digress (I do this frequently in today’s writings). I did enjoy the discussion about deleting the page. I have a lowering feeling that the page, itself, will not end up half so interesting as the discussion about deleting it was. As such, I must link to the AfD -- if only to add character to a page that sounds very factual, and, as a consequence, somewhat dull. 7:51 a.m. Christmas Eve morning, presents to wrap, cooking to come... Joy to the world would be quite a gift. I hope there's joy where you are. Here's to peace. Merry Christmas, everybody! "I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas" SANTALADY's Antique Santa Post Cards and Related Traditions BBC NEWS | Americas | Alistair Cooke's bones 'stolen' Tunatic: free music identification software "Ever thought ‘what is this song?’ Let Tunatic hear it and you will get the artist's name and the song's title within seconds. Tunatic is the very first song search engine based on sound for your computer. All you need is a microphone and Internet access." Pricelessware - Alphabetical Index Posted by Sheila Lennon December 22, 2005Dead Cat Gallery opening Friday night; small beautiful game; Colts' coach Dungy's son an apparent suicideAn opening Friday evening at Dead Cat Gallery at 669 Elmwood Ave., Providence, features the work of 14 artists and 4 bands. The artists include Otom Charters-Jaffe, Felicia Cinquegrana, Shawn Gilheeney, Krista Sulfara, Ryan T. Conaty, Nick Marcoux, Kate Bachner, Tyson Coburn, Robert Begin, Nadia Mafuz, Luke Hopf, Oemielo, Darcie, and Moj. The doors open at 6, with complimentary food and drinks till 9, when the music begins. Electric Goldfish, Van Bronson, Pocket Nova and Rt. 44 are to play. More info: 709-4668.
Small Forest Story is a charming little interactive holiday game that serves as an introduction to the genre: Click around a bit and see what can be done, then do it in the appropriate order to make something happen.
James Dungy, the 18-year-old son of Colts coach Tony Dungy, was found dead today in his apartment near Tampa, Fla., and apparently took his own life, a local official said.This is so sad. After the Colts' charmed season, things fall apart. The photo is of James and his dad during a Colts game in October 2004.  Year in Pictures: Shelley Powers (Burningbird) republishes her photos, those that photo-sharing site Flickr "designated the most 'interesting' based on feedback and number of views." Stunning stuff. I'm a fan of Shelley's blog, and saw these appear one by one during the year. Seeing them all together is more than a treat. Posted by Sheila Lennon December 21, 2005Political humor, how Google ranks results, a snowflake tutorial, a holiday gameThe Funniest Pictures of 2005: Funny Pictures, Doctored Photos and Cartoons, at About.com. Bipartisan, but political humor generally targets those in power, not those on the outs.How does Google collect and rank results? A Google engineer answers for librarians.
Posted by Sheila Lennon Solstice at Stonehenge
AP: Winter Solstice at Stonehenge: Arch-Druid Arthur Pendragon watches the sun rise at the ancient stone monument of Stonehenge, Wiltshire, in southern England. Today is the longest night of the year. Winter begins at 1:35 p.m. (Solstice is Latin for "sun standing still" as the the sun reaches its southernmost position in the southern sky.)Posted by Sheila Lennon December 20, 2005Unplugged
AP
One of the characters very much likes Beethoven's "Archduke" Piano Trio, and I'm listening to it as I type, at garageband.com. I found that source through Classic Cat, "directory with links to over 2800 free to download classical performances on the internet, sorted by composer and work. " Here's the first chapter of Kafka on the Shore. And, yes, I liked it. I like magical realism -- such right-brain writing is an essential antidote to the engineering prose of so much of the Web.
75 Google tips: Frame your query. I use this one to find older Journal stories. See how it works: site:projo.com "Ebenezer Scrooge" will show you stories that have slipped off this site. People Who Died in 2005: Not all of them, of course, just the "well-known." Posted by Sheila Lennon December 18, 2005Belichick's tortoise gains on Peyton's hare
AP: Santas root for the Patriots against the Buccaneers yesterday in Foxboro. Hey, Colts, watch out for the Patriots now FOXBORO, Mass. - This was the horse's head for Tony Dungy and the Indianapolis Colts. NEW ENGLAND 28, TAMPA BAY 0 Getting conference and Super Bowl championship shirts seems possible after New England dominated one of its toughest opponents of the season, beating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 28-0, Saturday. Lead story: By ROY CUMMINGS rcummings@tampatrib.com FOXBOROUGH, MASS. - Maybe the Bucs will meet the Patriots again this season. It would have to be in the Super Bowl, of course, but Saturday's result notwithstanding, there is still a possibility that could happen. That would be after the Patriots have knocked out Peyton Manning's undefeated Colts in the second round, That would be so much fun. Posted by Sheila Lennon December 16, 2005Best of 2005: Photos from Time, wildlife photos, indie bands, e-commerce sites, hardware, Web 2.0 softwareThe winners of National Wildlife magazine's 35th annual photography competition. Top prize:
Time magazine's Photos of the Year 2005 brilliantly captures mostly disasters. katrina leads. Flash slideshow. OtherMusic.com Year End Recap: favorite new albums and reissues released in 2005. The 100 Best Products of 2005: At PC World, so lots of hardware. The Firefox browser takes the top slot. Top 10 Innovative Web 2.0 Applications of 2005 This search of public bookmarking site del.icio.us for pages tagged "cookies" tells it all -- lots of people are publicly bookmarking cookie recipes and more with the same keyword, and you can find them. If you were simply to search the word cookies, rather than pages about coolies, you'd see more links about browser tracking cookies. And, unlike Google, which displays results of uncertain freshness based on page rank, del.icio.us shows "newest on top." There's even a third-party site that does advanced searches with muliple terms. You can use these links as a launchpad to explore some of the newer sites that aggregate everyone choice of a keeper. Posted by Sheila Lennon December 14, 2005Southern New England weather blogs; free National Geographic posters; Toronto Star drops registrationNew England Weather (link fixed. ouch. sorry) is a blog by Joel McDermott of Warwick, who writes, "I have been a weather enthusiast for years and have learned through personal studying. Ever since my first snowstorm I have been interested in weather, and after researching it further I came to love it!" Lots of good info and Joel's own forecasts here. He's looking for other weather links for his sidebar, so I thought I'd mention one of my favorites -- the forecast discussion out of the National Weather Service in Taunton, Mass. Abbreviations are rampant, but you either get used to them or read through them. I'm adding this to the Greater R.I. Blogs list, and I'll be checking in with Joel again Friday to see what that storm will bring. Related: Carolyn Egan of Bristol (WeatherSage) does long-range weather forecasting, roughly the way the Farmer's Almanac traditionally has. She writes, The method of forecasting the weather found in this report is called Astrometeorology. Using the old ways of analyzing natural cycles of the Moon, Sun and planets continues to provide excellent information about weather. You are encouraged to track the forecasts and note the rate of accuracy (80-90%) for the described weather events. Here's what she foresees for Christmas (If the anchor link doesn't work for you, scroll down past the national highlights to "WEEKLY SUMMARIES for New England and the Northeast") : Friday, December 23-29, 2005 The Farmer's Almanac agrees: "A big snowstorm will hamper Christmas travel, with other major snowstorms in mid-December and the first half of March."
The site suggests assembling a 25-inch by 33-inch poster from nine printouts. Another gift idea for those with full ink cartridges and no money. Toronto Star drops registration:
Posted by Sheila Lennon Bob Dylan Signs With XM Satellite Radio to Host a Weekly Show...Dylan will select the music, offer commentary, interview guests and answer e-mail from listeners during the one-hour program, which will start in March, XM said yesterday.... Dylan could have had all that plus a worldwide audience of potentially unlimited size had he started podcasting on the Web, of course. But Dylan's never much been one to give it away, and there'll be more exposure if XM gives him the sort of rollout in TV ads that Siriues is giving Howard Stern. It does sort of follow the thread of his Victoria's Secret ads. I don't do pay radio. No matter who's picking the music, it's still somebody else's playlist. You'll like one song, but not the next two. Like most of us, as a kid Dylan used to listen to out-of-town stations late at night on a transistor radio. Kids won't be able to listen to him that way, though. I expect the Dylan shows will show up on the torrents anyway, a day later. The Times frames it as Star Wars on Satellite Radio. Posted by Sheila Lennon December 13, 2005Readables: New Yorker puts Annie Proulx's 1997 'Brokeback Mountain' story online; chapter from Vonnegut's latest is upRead the movie: Director Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain, the story of cowboys in love, is is topping the Golden Globes buzz with seven nominations, and The New Yorker's Web site is republishing from its archives the original short story by E. Annie Proulx: Collectible: A chapter from Kurt Vonnegut's next book, A Man Without a Country, Your Guess Is as Good as Mine, is up at In These Times, where Vonnegut is on the masthead as senior editor. Posted by Sheila Lennon December 12, 2005Bad Santas are nothing new; Black Ink Monday; How gaming the search engines pollutes the stream; 'How do we blog?'
China Daily uses the caption that came with its Reuters photo: Hundreds of Santas leave the South Street Seaport after their first drink of the day in New York December 10, 2005. They were participating in the annual New York SantaCon, which involves hundreds of people in cheap Santa suits walking around the city, singing naughty carols, drinking, and generally spreading holiday cheer and mayhem.(More photos) [link fixed] Well-informed books editor and blogger Teresa Nielsen Hayden is ready to fight for their historical place in the culture:
Black Ink Monday: "...a non-violent protest by the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC), is a response to the Tribune Company's recent elimination of editorial cartooning positions at several of its newspapers, as well as a commentary on newspapers everywhere who have lost sight of the value of having a staff editorial cartoonist." 102 political cartoons participate in the slideshow at the top of that page.
This does to search engines what spam does to email -- pollutes the stream. (How many spam emails have you seen that promise to put your site at the top of the search engine results -- all of you.)
This year he's back with, "How do you blog?" Here's the intro, and the first installment. Today's responders are all women -- Shelley Powers, Jeneane Sessum, Rebecca Blood and Ronni Bennett. All good reads and, as Frank notes, authentic. The posts are simulblogged at Sandhill Trek and at Doc Searls IT Garage. Comments and responses from those not originally invited are more than welcome. We were just to prime the pump. The question came to me at the beginning of a period of "hardware hell" at home -- the desktop dead and the laptop possessed. (Not repossessed, just acting independently.) I let 'er rip. In the midst of thoughtful and technical responses, I'll be the one ranting about the guy inside my laptop. (I think he steals single socks from the dryer, too.) But as I write this at work, he's followed me here. Links I click are timing out. I may have to go home to finish this, because there the links work even if the keyboard doesn't. Years ago, I showed the Web to a painter friend who'd never seen it. After a tour, she slowly said, "It's a... prosthesis... for telepathy." The prosthesis is pretty clumsy; let's get the telepathy honed. Posted by Sheila Lennon December 11, 2005What Viveca Novak Told Fitzgerald (about Rove), by NovakThe Time reporter whose friendship with Karl Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, made her part of the story tells that story. (She is unrelated to columnist Robert Novak.) Back to the Patriots game... Posted by Sheila Lennon Almost cut my hair: Eugene McCarthy is dead
Bloggers on his passing: Gene McCarthy's death Eugene McCarthy Dead"There is only one thing to do - take it to the country!" an angry Senator McCarthy declared in a Capitol corridor 15 months before the 1968 election, after hearing the Johnson administration bullishly defend its right to reinterpret the Constitutional war-making powers of Congress.
We could use more guys like them nowadays, couldn’t we?
He was brilliantly funny, honest, edgy and real. Here's his obit at the L.A. Times. Peace at last for both of them, I hope. For us, not yet. Posted by Sheila Lennon December 10, 2005Make yourself a merry little CD, or buy a bummed oneBorn of necessity, a musical counterculture: Podsafe Musicians Join Together To Record Christmas Anthem: ...The 2005 Christmas season includes one of the more interesting new musical efforts in recent years, an original Christmas tune recorded "We Are The World" style by 32 independent musicians from nine countries.... The Christmas season is a tough period for musical podcasters (they make indy radio shows and spread the mp3s via RSS feeds), since they are prevented from legally playing any of the traditional holiday favorites. You don't need an iPod to listen to podcasts: A free program such ss Juice -- for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux -- will snag them to your computer. Maybe you're broke, and your only hope for gifts is to burn a personal holiday CD for your friends.
 Posted by Sheila Lennon December 8, 2005The holiday traditions of Buttnmandl, Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet, and Burn the GoatReaffirming once again that it's your party, you can do what you want to...
Dressed in bizarre straw outfits with strapped-on cowbells and furs, their faces covered with devilish masks, traditional "Buttnmandl" runners shout and make noise to frighten people in the village of Bischofswiesen, in southern Bavaria. The pre-Christmas custom aims to protect against evil spirits in the darkest time of the year. (AP Photo/Diether Endlicher)
Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet, right, arrive on Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, Sunday, Dec. 4, 2005. Sinterklaas is a Dutch tradition celebrated on December 5 each year, and he is accompanied by his helper Zwarte Piet who puts naughty children in his large bag to teach them a lesson. (AP Photo/Rob Griffith)
Firefighters clear the smoking remains of the giant straw goat in the town of Gavle, Sweden. Vandals set fire to the goat Saturday night, police said, an event that has happened so frequently it has almost become a Christmas tradition. It was the 22nd time that the goat had gone up in smoke since merchants began erecting it to mark the holiday season. (AP Photo/Jimmy Wixtrom ) Posted by Sheila Lennon Sony-BMG lists its CDs that infect PCs with spyware; free music list springs up as alternativeFrom gHacks, a Free Music List December 2005 is in part a response to Sony-BMG's debacle of encoding certain CDs with Digital Rights Management code that gives Sony control over the customer's machine in the name of copyright protection. Here's the Electronic Freedom Foundation's coverage of all this, and Sony's list of infected CDs. They have been recalled and Sony will replace them with uninfected CDs. The musicians affected -- 27 U.S. CDs -- range from Alicia Keys to the YoungBloodZ, with Britney Spears, Santana and Leo Kottke/Mike Gordon discs in there, too. Wikipedia is also tracking it all. Related: From Said the Gramophone, My 22 Favourite Songs of 2005. The (annotated) links are fleeting, so listen quick. Posted by Sheila Lennon December 7, 2005Christmas links 2: Webcams, 51 questions for Santa, deals and 'buy nothing'
The Christmas Cams: A similar list, links only. Live from Rockefeller Center in NYC. Another, larger view from WNBC. Computer Christmas is a links list that tracks some light displays on the Web, light-control software and more. Buy Nothing Christmas '05: And its page of "alternatives."
An Advent calendar and digital postcards by Finnish artist Päivi Mansikka-aho give the site a unified look. Writer Leslie Harpold has a new Advent Calendar online. List: 2005, the annuals from Fimoculous. If you are buying, you might find a suggestion here. DealNews: If you are buying, you might as well know about the coupon codes and special deals online. Cheap gift: JavaLog: A fireplace log made from coffee grounds, available at Shaw's and Whole Foods, and other convenient stores, and there's a downloadable $1 coupon here. The 2005 Good Gift Games at The Morning News.
The Flying Bird Ornaments instructions for the bird at right include a printable template. You supply the fabric. It doesn't have to be white. Perhaps Cheeky Christmas turkey with braised leeks and the best wine gravy? Posted by Sheila Lennon December 6, 2005More holiday rock, streams, mash-ups, mixes, radio, other and reviewsFeel free to add your own recommendations in the comments at the end of this item. 5:57 p.m. Tuesday 3:59 p.m. The range is wide and wildly inclusive. (Laura Powers' Code of the Goddess -- "Inspired by the story of The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown" -- leads the Celtic section.) Mistletunes is similar, but with fewer links, shorter reviews, and a whole section on reggae Christmas albums (lots of other genres and vintages are profiled here). Enjoy Caribbean Christmas Music is a festive page of reggae Christmas CD covers, linked to Amazon, if you want links and listens. Christmas Music Radio Stations on the Web: Some are online only, others are over-the-air, too. These are .asf files that should stream in Windows Media Player. Vintage Christmas Recordings at The Antique Christmas Lights Site. Strictly for novelty value: 12:22 a.m. The list keeps growing. The 2005 Jefitoblog Holiday Mix Santastic: Holiday Boots 4 Your Stockings (try this mirror site if that server is slow) continues the slightly bent holiday vein with 18 Christmas mash-ups and remixes from Boston's dj BC. All Songs Considered: Holiday Music 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000 Updated 8 p.m.: I've reenabled comments, after a pause to think about how to tweak the comments config. You won't be able to use html in comments, though, nor will URLs be links. We'll see how it goes. 4:36 p.m.
Thank you, Bill, and thanks for these fine tunes (and Brooks's comedy). And here are two more (well, perhaps not quite so fine). The first is via BoingBoing:
Posted by Sheila Lennon December 4, 2005Excellent E-card/art fun; holiday books; weekend game, Christmas mp3s, new garden blog(I've had to turn off comments after getting about 30 autogenerated comment spams today. They begin with compliments, then degenerate into nonsense, all with the apparent attempt to insert links on a blog that will make them appear popular to search engines. When you get spam promising to put your site at the top of the search results, this is how they do it: A computer posts phony comments on blogs with your link in them. The current spate comes from someone buying a new list of blogs. I'll turn them back on once this wave passes. For now, click on the envelope icon at the end of the post to email your comment.) Links for a lighter-hearted weekend.... Sunday Here's my attempt. The 10 Best Books of 2005 (NYT), usually with first chapters. Other newly published theme choices include Exploration Books, Photography and Cookbooks.
...You are a snail in this story of saving your species, and you must make your way from entrance to exit in each of the 5 cave levels of the game. At the start of each level you drop into the cave from a hole, and you must find your way to the other hole that looks just like it. Problem is, it is initially closed, so you must first find the little switch that opens the exit hatch. Still with me? New garden blog: Nelumbo in Piedmont, S.C., writes The Garden Blog, and I really like the attitude here: If you are the type of gardener who takes yourself seriously, go compost yourself. Human flesh is a great source of Nitrogen. Your prize peonies will bloom eternally. Go sacrifice yourself! Now!This blog is for the rest of us. The Garden Blog has been added to the ever-growing Garden Blogs list. 2005 Adventures in Carols: Falalalala.com ("Preserving memories of Christmas Vinyl Past") posts a different carol every day in December. Today: Christmas Is A-Comin' by Pete Fountain. Carols of the Chins: Er... unique. Enter the name of a carol and a pair of wintry kids will sing a few bars of it, with gusto if not in tune. (They do not know "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.")
SantaCon is next weekend. Pix to come. Posted by Sheila Lennon December 1, 2005Hear Kipling,Tennyson, Robert Browning read their poems; rock-writer buyouts
I have just listened to William Butler Yeats reading, in 1932, The Lake Isle of Innisfree, to Alfred Tennyson reading The Charge of the Light Brigade (in 1890) and to the voice of Robert Browning in 1889 and Rudyard Kipling in 1921. Not all is old. In 2002, Anne Stevenson reads her wonderful Poem for a Daughter, Adrienne Rich reads several works, as does Elizabeth Bartlett. In addition, there are CDs, biographies and even a Children's Poetry Archive: A tour de force. The blog blah blah blah reports on the launch at The British Library last night. Its author was part of the tech crew, and points to the BBC coverage. It is the work of British Poet Laureate Andrew Motion, who plans to continue doing for (largely) British poets what music anthropologist Alan Lomax did for regional American musicians: Record them while they're alive. Old rock critics don't sell out, they get bought out: Kevin Roderick (L.A. Observed) notes that another rock giant turns down the volume (Hilburn to hang up his earplugs): Longtime L.A. Times Pop Music Editor/Critic Robert Hilburn is taking a buyout: Hilburn's first Times review ran Oct. 26, 1966, about a Hank Williams Jr. performance at the Long Beach Municipal Auditorium. He mostly wrote about country while a freelancer, then became the paper's first full-time staff pop critic in 1970. He has interviewed pretty much every rock legend since and had good access to Yoko Ono after John Lennon's murder. Fans and detractors will probably argue over Hilburn's legacy (and Bruce Springsteen fixation) at length as he slips toward his Jan. 16 changeover date. I've nothing smart to add, but here's an American Journalism Review piece from 2000 on older rock critics and Hilburn's praised interview last year with Bob Dylan on the art of songwriting.... He'll get a year's salary. Knight in the city? Wouldn't it be strange if a Providence firm ends up an owner of Knight Ridder while The Providence Journal is owned by a Dallas firm? Meanwhile, on this coast, Steve Morse of the Globe has also opted out, according to the Phoenix. Garish ghetto: Some pages' ads are so hard on the eyes, you can't see what else they might offer. I wonder if they could all be convinced to migrate to this page? Posted by Sheila Lennon |
Best find (for the mood I was in): 
Last night I fell asleep on the couch reading a novel, 
Richard Pryor came up when a comic had just stopped meaning Milton Berle and started meaning the "buttoned-down" Bob Newhart or the hot JFK impersonator Vaughn Meader.
my passport photo blogging since 2002 garden blogs archived headlines  Sheila Lennon is features & interactive producer of projo.com, the Web site of The Providence (R.I.) Journal Rhode Island |
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