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August 28, 2006
Weekend Cat Roundup
Where's Mustapha?
We got a lot of nice wedding presents, but I think Latte was the best (aka Where's Latte?).
Parker isn't really that big, she's just photographed from too close and below. (Oh wait, word just in, she really is that big.)
Posted by Fuzzy at 6:14 PM | Comments (1)
Leg and Vader
Erica got me Banksy's book Wall and Piece and we read the whole thing together in one sitting. I was already kinda fascinated with stencil graffiti, but it's made me notice it even more.
Posted by Fuzzy at 6:05 PM | Comments (0)
Happy Quarter Century!
Happy quarter-life-crisis to the lovely and talented Kristen Studard. Her birthday party was the third of three parties we hit on Saturday night. That's right -- we're socializing again! Look out Chicago!
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:52 PM | Comments (0)
Make It Work
Shirt by Chris Glass, cuff by Super Culture.
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:33 PM | Comments (1)
Push Butt, Receive Bacon
Hmmm... bacon...
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:28 PM | Comments (0)
Motorcycle
My brother is selling his gorgeous motorcycle. Go snap it up.
Posted by Fuzzy at 11:04 AM | Comments (1)
August 25, 2006
I might have to start counting again
I mean, I can't let George Bush beat me in number of books read this year.
(via Bookslut)
Posted by Fuzzy at 11:38 AM | Comments (0)
August 24, 2006
TFDIET
There's a daily comic called They'll Do It Every Time that's been around since 1929 and features Alanis Morissette-level "ironies" of everyday life. Like, some people don't see a tip jar, but do see a spot on their car or people notice dust who are themselves messy.
One of the charms/annoyances of the strip is its stuck-in-the-forties use of "slang". Like, that tip jar is a "kitty can". And the narrator says, "oh, yeah" a lot. Barb at Crap Every Day (who reads TDIET every day, bless her heart) noted today:
This strip almost riled me up to the point that I didn't notice that it's another "Living on the edge" entry. Almost. Ditto the horrifying looking cabbage (is that neon green?) and the "yum...yeah...yum-m." It's like these people have Tourette syndrome, and their tic is to say that word "yeah" a lot.
And that made me wonder, what if the characters in TDIET really do have Tourette's, or just swear a lot, and Scaduto is just cleaning it up for the newspaper. So I made an example, and it really does make the strip seem more enthusiastic.
(I've posted my example after the jump, because it has some swears...)
Posted by Fuzzy at 12:06 PM | Comments (0)
August 21, 2006
A panograph from Sante Fe
I'm still learning about making panographs (hence the embarrassing little missed spot in the middle), but here's the view from our hotel room in Sante Fe. It's a 360° view -- the bit on the left and right (sorta) hook up.
Posted by Fuzzy at 6:43 PM | Comments (1)
Mark your calendars now
500 Clown's 500 Clown Macbeth and 500 Clown Frankenstein will be at Steppenwolf in the summer of 2007.
Posted by Fuzzy at 6:22 PM | Comments (0)
Several short plugs
By marriage, squared*, I am now related to a Apple Design Award winner. Neato, and congrats to Ben.
My friend and fellow Crazy Monkeys-alum Alex Aschinger has made it to the top 50 (out of thousands of entries) of the New York Television Festival Pitch Contest. Alex begs, "On Thursday the 24th go to http://tv.msn.com/nytvf/contest and vote for Scout's Honor by Alex and Chris. Voting goes from midnight to midnight and the top two from each day go to New York to pitch their show live for chance to make their pilot or talk to and meet TV peeps." Alex also has a short film in the Valley Film Fest in September.
Holy McBadNewsCity! Dan Izzo's rent got doubled by his insane landlord and so the Improv Inferno will be closing on the weekend of September 10. There will be special shows all that weekend. If you live anywhere close, please stop by and spend a few dollars while you still can -- Dan and Trish's tiny, hungry baby will thank you.
Barenaked Ladies (the Canadian band) are having an air guitar contest on YouTube, asking fans to make videos of themselves playing air guitar to their new song Wind It Up which features a guest guitar solo by Kim Mitchell. Noah made an all-puppet video, including a special Kim Mitchell-puppet doing the air guitar part to his own solo. Genius. If he doesn't win, there is no justice.
* Ben is Erica's brother's wife's brother.
Posted by Fuzzy at 3:49 PM | Comments (1)
August 11, 2006
Book #50: Sacred Clowns
While we were down in Santa Fe, it was a bit hard to avoid Tony Hillerman books. Even places that didn't sell books had racks of his Southwest-based mystery novels near the cash register. I waited until I got back to Chicago, but I picked up a copy of Sacred Clowns and plowed through it in a few days. It's another story of his two Navajo Tribal Policemen, Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee, investigating the murder of a koshare, the sacred clown of the title.
But hey, it was book 50! I did it, I met my self-imposed goal. So, yay. Of course, it was all a little tainted when I found out that Leo Allen was gunning for 100 this year. I had thoughts of upping my ante and changing my goal, but I'm trying really hard to quell that thought, stop comparing myself to others, and just get on with my life. I mean, I'm not going to stop reading books this year, but I think I'm going to stop counting.
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:49 PM | Comments (0)
David Update
In they're-now-legally-my-family news, Tricia has the skinny on David's latest CAT scan.
Posted by Fuzzy at 9:46 AM | Comments (0)
August 9, 2006
Project Catwalk
The only must-watch TV show in our house right now is Project Runway. (Well, and The Show and The Office Webisodes. Regularly-released-internet-video counts as TV, right?) In fact, while we were in Santa Fe, the only nod we made at all to the rest of the world's schedule was to hunt down a near-empty sports bar on Wednesday night at 8:00 MDT and convince them to change one of their big screen TVs to Bravo (stupid hotel limited-cable).
But even weekly episodes, Tim Gunn's blog, Tim Gunn's podcast, and Katy Gerdes' blog where she's still doing all of the challenges even though she was kicked off only satisfy the urge so much. So when I found Project Catwalk, the UK version of Project Runway, which has already done a full season, I figured that might be a nice time-filler between Wednesday night episodes.
And a time-filler is, I think, all it's going to be for us. One of the reasons I like Project Runway is that the designer/contestants have to be actually talented and actually able to make things. Project Catwalk spends an awful lot of time on personality issues. "Show us the dresses," I was shouting at the TV, which is not something I normally find myself saying. And Ben de Lisi is no Tim Gunn, that's for sure. "And I'm absolutely not here to do your work for you," he says to the whole group, and then next thing you know he's practically designing someone's dress for them.
There's also a significant difference in the presentation of the programs. Catwalk is narrated by the host, Elizabeth Hurley. Runway uses a lot more designer interviews to convey the same sort of information. The Runway technique is probably a lot more artificial (as the designers have to be pulled out of their working process in order to do those interviews, and are probably coached and prodded by the producers to get them to say what the producers need to shape the presentation of the show) but it feels more natural, to me anyway.
Posted by Fuzzy at 10:59 AM | Comments (2)
August 7, 2006
And... we're back
We're back in town, rested and refreshed from the honeymoon -- the first honest-to-goodness vacation I've taken in years. For the next few days, all the activity will be over on the wedding blog as we post pictures, wedding and honeymoon stories, pictures, and more. And pictures. Thanks to the digital age, we've got lots of pictures.
Posted by Fuzzy at 4:13 PM | Comments (0)