Let's Straighten It Out

2005-01-23T18:16:00.000-08:00

Good Times!!!

Yesterday I was walking out of my house with two of my most prized possesions, my thinkpad laptop and my old pentax SLR camera, in my backpack. Snow was starting to fall, and I misjudged how slippery the driveway was (it's rather steep). In a lightning flash, I was on my ass. I fell pretty hard, but got up easy enough. I thought for a second about my laptop, but the Thinkpads tend to be pretty tough. I laugh at how flimsy Dells are, with their plastic cases and crappy hinges. I tend to be a bit cavalier with my Thinkpad, because it's reputation for toughness almost encourages me to.

I got a burrito at Anna's Taqueria (my favorite place to eat, which is fortunate, because I eat there upwards of 5 times a week) and then got on the train at Porter to go see my friend. I pulled the laptop out of my bag. I was expecting that it would start slowly, that I might have to restart it once, because sometimes when it gets jostled, it seems to get forgetful.

I turned it on, but as I was waiting for it to start up, I noticed something unusual on the display. Radiating from a center spot in the upper left hand side was something that looked like a radial crack in a car windshield. And as the computer came on, it became clearer. Yes, I had totally fucked my monitor. I think what happened was that the prism part of the camera (the part you look through) hit the monitor when the camera hit the ground. The camera was a little dented there, but now is quite dented. Luckily, the camera seems to be working fine. But if one of them was to break, I would take the camera, which cost me $130 instead of the computer that cost me $1600.

It slowly became clear to me that I was screwed. Small parts of the screen still worked, but for the most part I couldn't see anything. I always believe that any electronic device can be improved by smacking it, hard, with the palm of your hand. Which I did, and which made those small, still visible areas go completely apeshit.

My screen now resembles some sort of technicolor nightmare. Only by the good graces of my friend, who gave me an old computer monitor that I was able to hook up to the serial cable on my laptop (thank god for serial cables), am I able to type this. I keep habitually looking at the monitor on my laptop, but everytime it makes me want to cry.

I called IBM customer service tonight. I was sort of expecting that the would do something to help me out. I bought the computer partly due to their great reputation for customer care and ruggedness. I got someone on the phone in Atlanta who was all business. I told him what was wrong and he told me that it would cost $895 to repair.

$895.

I shit you not. Just for the monitor.

This was something of a bad day. Not that it didn't have some good points, but I had the general feeling that I was totally and completely fucked. I thought maybe I would have a way out of this, but really, I can't see one. My incredibly generous father offered to give me $400 to help me out, which embaresses me, but which I will probably take. But still $495 is an amount of money that yesterday I didn't have to think about spending, which amounts to more than half of what I have in the bank. And what I have in the bank is exactly equal to my credit card bill.

And so thus is life. Lessons learned: I started a new job recently and was stressed out about staying. I didn't want the job but they basically begged me to stay. And so I did, but I didn't know why I was. Now I know, I need the money.

Other lesson learned: I spend too much time using my laptop. I think a little time off will do me good.

2004-11-07T07:02:00.000-08:00

Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA October 2004

2004-10-15T20:53:00.000-07:00

I downloaded a song from the late Elliot Smith's new album called Twilight and it's truly one of the most beautiful things I have ever heard. Of course it only magnifies the tragedy of his suicide, but regardless, it surely is up there (or eclipses) any of his other songs.

Haven't laughed this hard in a long time
I better stop now before I start crying
Go off to sleep in the sunshine
I don't want to see the day when it's dying

She's a sight to see, she's good to me
I'm already somebody's baby
She's a pretty thing and she knows everything
But I'm already somebody's baby

You don't deserve to be lonely
But those drugs you got won't make you feel better
Pretty soon you'll find it's the only
Little part of your life you're keeping together

I'm nice to you, I could make it through
That you're already somebody's baby
I could make you smile if you stayed a while
But how long will you stay with me baby

Because your candle burns too bright
Well, I almost forgot it was twilight
Even if I think that you are right
Well, I'm tired of being down, I got no fight

You're wonderful, when it's beautiful
But I'm already somebody's baby
And if I went with you I'd disappoint you too
Well, I'm already somebody's baby
Already somebody's baby

2004-10-15T13:45:00.000-07:00

Since it's been so long, all 1 of you out there reading this (mom), here are four pictures from my recent traipses through Maine.

2004-10-14T10:12:00.000-07:00

The Funniest thing ever.

god, the british. geez.

2004-10-02T06:46:00.000-07:00

I know, it's been a long, lonely time. I'm back in Maine, I've escaped the horror that is my hometown and I'm sitting quietly getting my emails organized. Not that exciting, but it's the truth.

Tomorow I'm off to the Madellin Islands off the coast of Prince Edward Island. Maybe I'll get a chance to hit Cape Breton too, if I'm lucky.

And now, a picture of a rabbit with a pancake on its head.

2004-09-27T08:50:00.000-07:00

Haven't posted in a while. At the moment I'm sitting in my car with my laptop laying against the stearing wheel, working off some wifi signal from I-don't-know-where. I'm working on an article and need to start selling it quick before it gets old. I'm in my hometown and generally I'm remembering the reasons that I don't live here anymore. Bad music, big cars, mean people. It's good to remind me once in a while though.

2004-09-24T18:43:00.000-07:00

The infamous The Week In Craig

2004-09-22T14:57:00.000-07:00

I'll blog the cool live steam sites I find as I'm researching the story I'm doing on the Long Island Live Steamers:

A live steam builder in India

Livesteaming.com seems to be the largest site on the internet.

The Ladies of Live Steam I bet you are!

Train Mountain These people are pretty serious.

2004-09-22T13:05:00.000-07:00

Holy Crap!!

I got boingboing'd again. I'm on a roll here.

I also have a new web page. It's still in development, but most of my writing and a few good photographs are up at the moment. Everyone seems to like "F is For Fling" I gues it's a good place to start.

I'm back in Boston for a few days, working on doing some interviews for some radio projects, finishing the web page and seeing friends. On Friday I'm in NY interviewing some of the guys mentioned above who build big model steam engines and then ride around on them. After that? Who knows? The moon?

2004-09-19T09:43:00.000-07:00

Short post today as I need to get the hell out of the house. I've indeed been to hell and back again with lonliness up here in Maine, but I've come out the other side and I feel like I could stay here indefinitely if I needed to. I'm having a nice time again. It's getting cold though and I'm going down to Boston on Tuesday I think and on to Long Island on Friday.

I got my scanner working finally and scanned in some pictures from Mike Nebbia's collection, the man who owned my parent's house in the 80's. Here's one of a boat launching in the "center" of Pembroke.

2004-09-17T16:06:00.000-07:00

Breakthrough

As in, I think I had one today. I got up this morning relatively early and sat in bed streaming This American Life episodes (over dial up no less!) while working on my web page. The amazing thing is that I actually got the web page somewhat operational today. It's pretty rough and there are a couple of things that I don't know how to fix that make it look pretty amateur, but it's there and I even got my writing up there. Thank frigin god.

And I think I went through my total cycle of loneliness. There was the exhiliration of being here by myself when my folks left and then the coming to terms with how quiet it was and then the "holy crap I can't believe how lonely it is here and how little I am getting done and what the fuck am I doing with my life" part. And then today there was the "hey, I just made a web page, that is somewhat functional, I've always wanted to do that" part. And I took a ride to get some groceries, shot up some film and felt pretty happy.

Today is the one week mark for me being here alone, and I'm quite please with myself that I have survived on my own for a week without going totally bonkers. I've kept myself fed, I've learned a few things and I've overcome a few challenges. I have specifically not gotten everything I wanted done, but I have done some things, and that is a lot better than doing no things. I also learned things that I didn't anticipate learning, like why I want to learn how to use slower film, how screwed up DreamWeaver (trademark, trademark) is and how I kind of suck at photoshop.

It was a good day and I don't have to fool myself into thinking it. I can also say that the more public radio I listen to, the happier I am.

Peace out.

Today's got two pictures, one of best friend C taken the last time I saw him-possibly making an obcene jesture:

and a guy from "the islands" fitting himself in a small plastic box on the streets of Boulder:

2004-09-16T16:05:00.000-07:00

Well I feel like I'm coming up against myself up here and I don't know what to make of it. I came up here to figure out who I am and where I'm at, and maybe I am. I can romanticize having a hard time, a kind of quest, when everything is milk and honey, but actually being in that situation is hard, hard, hard and I never remember it. It's lonely up here and there is no way around that and there isn't the kind of stimulation that I'm used to in the city. So what am I doing here? I'm really not sure. But I keep picking away at things, that's what I do and maybe when this period is done and I'm doing something else I will find that I've accomplished things, even when I didn't notice myself accomplishing them.

If anything it will mean that whenever I get back to Somerville I will really want to be there. It's nice to know that I have a place that I love, where I want to live.

I got no Somerville Pics, but here's one from the 2nd greatest place on the planet

2004-09-15T13:48:00.000-07:00

I'm in a bit of a slump. Well, up and down. It's not that I don't want to say that I'm having a bad time, it's that I don't know if I am. I can't say that I'm getting tons done, but I am getting things done little by little and it's certainly more than I would get done if I were working. I left Boston in such a frenzy, I was doing so many things at once and now I don't have a whole lot to do and it's weird.

Today I went to Eastport and photographed some old buildings that always catch my eye. I still haven't bought development stuff yet, but I want to, so I can process my own negatives and scan them in with my scanner. I would love to see what's on these rolls though.

So again, I'm not sure how I'm doing. I'm certainly a bit lonely, which would make sense because there isn't anyone around. And yet things are ok, I'm ok and I'm learning things, little by little, just not as fast I would like.

Todays picture, the great Ritizio, flamenco master!

2004-09-14T19:20:00.000-07:00

Today was a slow day, and the second one where I was sort of bumming. I'm still trying to figure out what I am doing up here and today was mostly spent reading articles on how to write and bumming about not writing than doing anything constructive. Well, that isn't really true. I did my yoga routine for the 2nd time since I've been here, which is sort of a big deal, because I've had a hard time doing it here, and I walked to "town" which took a couple of hours.

But I'm definitely feeling the lonely thing kick in more than I would like and today I entertained thoughts, briefly, of bugging out of here. But the bad thing, and the good thing, is that at the moment I don't have anywhere to go, or any reason to go there. I mean, I could travel anywhere right now and I have the money to do it, which is nice, but really this is still a good opportunity for me, there are so many things that I can do here and have the free time to do them finally and I can learn a lot about things that I want to do and myself. It's a matter of staying focused and organized and not kicking myself.

And I'm dealing with the lonliness thing better than I imagined. It's pretty amazing that I was able to go 4 days with almost no human contact without getting lonely and I guess it's only natural that I would get lonely at some point. But it still sucks and I still wonder how I'll manage it.

So that's where I'm at. I've had some amazing days up here. Like Monday. I drove all the way to Blue Hill and spent a couple hours photographing the sunset, which was pretty lovely. The ride back was rough, I was falling asleep and it felt dangerous, but still, with the top of the car down, sometimes it's so nice I have to let out a yell and look at the blue sky. So why am I bumming? I'm not sure. Maybe I'll stop. I feel better for writing.

2004-09-14T19:17:00.000-07:00

Today's picture, a typical Maine scene, the old, fucked up fishing vesself. This one must take the tide every day, I'm not sure if it floats though. There were some pretty big gaps in it in the back. I saw it at low tide in Machiasport on Monday.

2004-09-10T10:16:00.000-07:00

sometimes things get strange around here.

2004-09-10T09:07:00.000-07:00

Today's Picture: The big lawn at the Breadloaf Writer's Conference, near Middlebury, VT.

Rainy Morning

2004-09-09T11:43:00.000-07:00

It's 11 AM and a wet morning in Pembroke Maine. It's supposed to be this way for the next couple of days. Right now it is a light, steady rain. It seems like this area's natural state in the fall is light, steady rain. When I was across the border in St George, New Brunswick for September in 1999 it seemed like the whole month it was the same kind of rain. It feels like what I imagine the Pacific Northwest must feel like, though I have never been there. Continually damp.

I remember how I was amazed at how everything grows in New Brunswick. It's the same thing here. Leave a piece of farm machinery in a field long enough and the weight of it will sink it down into the ground over the years. And the ground will rise to meet it. The soil isn't particularly good for farming, but the grass grows thick and it will swallow anything that's left in it.

Me and Dad took a walk around "the loop" as he calls it, through a circle of road that goes down to the water and back. We stopped by to talk to the next door neighbor, who I guess to be in his early 60's. He was out riding his lawnmower around his front yard, smoking a cigarette. He's an affable guy, gentle and kind with a dry wit. He and Dad started telling Vietnam stories while I walked around taking pictures of them talking.

Anyway, that's all for now. Just getting back into the ol' blogging thing. There is some hot chipmunk action going on outside my window here. I don't know what's up. Maybe they are getting ready for winter or something? I have no idea. They are running all over the place.

2004-09-08T20:06:00.000-07:00

First post in a long long time, but I'm meaning to make it a habit. I'm up in Maine for a while, hoping to relax, decompress and do some writing. The transition from city life has been kinda rough, I guess and I'm still feeling a little on edge. It's real quiet here and I'm not use to being on my own. But my parents have been cool and it's a big ol' transition for me.

Not the greatest post, but I'm going to put up my current favorite picture that I took and will write more tomorow.

2004-08-04T12:00:00.000-07:00

SAUGUS PHOTO ONLINE TIPS

2004-08-02T12:20:00.000-07:00

vintage camera stuff

2004-08-01T10:27:00.000-07:00

paul mcevoy online opus 1
graphic novel article

first there is a mountain

Mary Lou Lord

Black and Blues

2004-07-26T17:52:00.000-07:00

the davistown museum

2004-07-11T06:26:00.000-07:00

rock climbing and photography

here's the home page

and a good photography website

and digital photography review, another photography website

2004-07-08T10:41:00.000-07:00

a cool gif.

http://bigtuna.smugmug.com/photos/5632719-M.gif

2004-07-07T12:45:00.000-07:00

A place I should go climbing in CA

2004-07-05T13:41:00.000-07:00

The US Drascombe association, organized around the famous Drascombe lugger sailboats.

2004-07-02T10:19:00.000-07:00

stickies program for windows.

2004-07-01T17:38:00.000-07:00

good climbing wall plans

and another one

2004-06-27T04:55:00.000-07:00

climbing videos

2004-06-23T06:45:00.000-07:00

The cool tools newsletter

2004-06-22T07:34:00.000-07:00

awesome awesome public radio how to website.

2004-06-17T07:16:00.000-07:00

a photo essay of a climbing weekend in Donegal.

2004-06-15T08:50:00.000-07:00

Famous climber John Gill's website.

2004-06-15T08:40:00.000-07:00

And here's another cool one about making a pirate radio station with an ipod.

2004-06-10T11:41:00.000-07:00

It's been pretty slow going on Let's Straighten it Out for a while. I just got out of prison and, man, getting streamlined into society is tough. These mandatory minimum sentences are bizarre. 5 years, maximum security because I stole a rubber chicken? How was I supposed to know that there was a spate of rubber chicken robberies going on? I'm a frigin victim here.

Anyway, instead of something new, I dug back into the LSIO archives. I think you all know what I'm talking about.

That's right.

It's time for the

INTERNET DATING HAIKUS OF DEATH

2004-06-09T12:50:00.000-07:00

I found a really funny disclaimer for some home made topographical information and it made me laugh my ass off. Total genius.

2004-06-09T11:09:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the lack of posts the last couple of days. I've been, like, working. Sort of.

Todays deep thought for the day: When gun laws are liberalized, only liberals will have guns.

2004-06-07T07:55:00.000-07:00

Teh Paul McEvoy Index 5/7/04:
Amount of food P.M. ate last night at tapas restaurant: Too disgusting to tell
Belches in the morning tasted like: Rabbit
Time PM mistakenly set his alarm clock for: 4:00
Time he meant to set it for: 5:00
# of incredibly tall dudes with Darth Vader Breath who piss PM off in yoga class: 1
ratio of very attractive women to tall dudes with Darth Vader breath in yoga class: 8/1
amount that tall dude still pisses off PM: a frigin lot
especially when: his long frigin arms come by and hit me in the frigin face. just sayin.
number of moments he got stuck looking at the buttox of incredibly hot woman in front of him: 34
number of times he got lost in internal dialogue about hot woman in front of him looks like Jennifer Lopez but hotter: 7
number of times PM had to remind himself to stop staring at hot woman's butt after getting transfixed for >30 seconds: 1
number of pieces of fruit consumed today: 1 orange, 1 banana, 1 apple
number of pieces of fruit projected for the afternoon: 1 orange, 2 bananas, 1 apple
# of carrot cake power bars anticipated eating: 1
# of free Luna bar samples consumed this morning: 1
Cute girl sighting: yes
wearing: red coat. can't remember the rest
action: she postponed date due to dinner with mother. PM aquiesed.

2004-06-05T05:10:00.000-07:00

Some beautiful hand made journals.

2004-06-04T11:05:00.000-07:00

Just another reason that cats are a pain in the ass.

2004-06-03T11:14:00.000-07:00

Not much to say about this one, other than I know Norah and like her a lot. This probably wasn't the greatest idea, but she is in general a super nice person. Who blows off steam a lot.

2004-06-02T09:50:00.000-07:00

and yet even more climbing videos.

2004-06-02T08:57:00.000-07:00

More climbing videos in this thread from rockclimbing.com

2004-06-01T08:36:00.000-07:00

Some cool climbing videos

2004-05-31T18:36:00.000-07:00

I made a new Blog called "Like a Sketchbook" so that I could post writing snippets as they come up and not clog the blog (a cloblog). I moved the last writing snippet, currently titled "Let Me Tell You a Story" for the want of anything relevant over there.

2004-05-27T13:58:00.000-07:00

It's true, whenever I see a sentence like this "Radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza is facing 11 terrorist-related charges, the US government announces. " I immediately think cleric means the same thing as clerk. And I'm like DAMN! these Islamic Administrative Proffesionals are fucking shit up, you dig?? No happy Administrative Assistants day for you!

2004-05-27T13:00:00.000-07:00

In case you thought the Boston Herald was capable of covering a news event without making a total ass of itself, well, you were wrong.

2004-05-27T06:37:00.000-07:00

The morning stats

Weight: 166.2
Height: holding steady 5'9"
Hair color: still blond

Total amount of money spent yesterday: $18.18
$4.99 Salad
$.50 roll
$3.00 Foccacia Bread
$8.00 (4) Cannolis

Cute girl sightings: not today
Read this morning: Road Fever, Tim Cahill. One section of local sports newspaper, discussing the ethics of being hot for young women.
Boredom level: 3.5
Temperature: cool
noises in office: air conditioning. Doors opening down the hall. My typing
weather: pretty crappy. But to piss people off I say "I kinda like it".

2004-05-26T19:39:00.000-07:00

Things I ate tonight, most of which I am regretting:

One small piece, one medium sized piece chocolate cake
1/8 bag baked vegetable chips
1/4 container Guacamole (with chips)
1 small slice pecan pie (delicious)
3 glasses unidentified fruit drink
1 glass guava/orange/pineapple drink
2 pieces tomato foccacio
3/4 cannoli
4 cherries
3 scoops unidentified fruit flavored gourmet ice cream
1 scoop unidentified sherbert

2004-05-26T12:16:00.000-07:00

Are you THAT Paul McEvoy

Paul McEvoy the Butcher?

Paul McEvoy the Spirit Food Pub Retail Manager?

Paul McEvoy the late priest?

Paul McEvoy the golf club manager?

Paul McEvoy the owner of the highly succesful Cinema Store Chain of shops?

Nope. I'm Paul McEvoy. Admin assistant. Ready to do your task. At some point.

2004-05-26T07:43:00.000-07:00

This is a nice shout out to MP3 bloggers along with a long list of said blogs. I shall be downloading when I get home.

2004-05-26T07:09:00.001-07:00

Wednesday 5/26

The Stats:
# of free samples of Chocolate peppermint stick luna bars consumed this AM: 3
Weight at 8:37: 165.3
Boredom level: 4
Religous moments: Deep breathing during finishing poses, finally breaking out disk one of my Smokey Robinson compilation and getting blown away by some early doo-wop.
Humerous moments: The girl next to me started snoring during Sivasana.
cute girl sightings: None since Monday. Late to work yesterday. Plan of action: No plan of action.

2004-05-25T12:36:00.000-07:00

Here's a pretty frigin amazing quicktime movie showing some bmx bike guys doing ridiculous stunts. It's mesmerizing. Particularly if you have a boring job.

2004-05-25T10:31:00.000-07:00

The Afternoon Stats

Pounds of Salad Eaten: 1.2
# of very good rolls eaten with salad: 1
Squares of butter consumed with roll: 1.65
Containers of yogurt eaten: 1
Flavor: blueberry
Taste: Esquisite

Weight today: 165.3
Clothing: Black Sketchers, funky knit socks, kacki slacks, blue button down shirt, dark blue tie, glasses.
Underwear status: Commando

High point of the morning: Neil Young and Crazy Horse singing "Come On Baby Let's Go Downtown"

Cute girl sightings: None this AM. Plan of action: Lay low
Boredom level: 6

2004-05-24T11:48:00.000-07:00

My friend J. Edward just tipped me to this column by Amy Fisher, the famous Long Island Lolita who shot her older lover in the face. It's quite touching, although I have to admit her statement "I'm the first to admit it: I screwed up! I was a misguided, reckless 16-year-old who committed felony assault and landed in jail by age 17." seems like the understatement of the year.

2004-05-24T08:12:00.000-07:00

Coffee and Cigarettes

Wonderful. In the most strangely touching moment, Taylor Mead and Bill Rice discuss the virtues of drinking coffee as coffee or pretending it's champagne. Then they hear the echos of Mahler's song "I've Lost Track of The World".

2004-05-24T07:44:00.000-07:00

10:45 AM Monday May 24th
Weight: 168.2
Temperature: Freezing my ass off
Boredom Level (1-10): 7
Wishing I was: Seeing Coffee and Cigarettes again
Sounds: People talking in the other room, air conditioning
Highlights of the AM: Sleeping in on a newly made bed for the first time in a long time (scary that sleeping in means getting up at 6:30). A nice cup of chai, yogurt with granola, checking out hot girl with big eyes on train (inconveniently with boyfriend). Saying hello to wicked cute girl I pass every morning.
Crappy parts of the AM: Office, still boring. Asking wicked cute girl I pass every morning if she wants to hang out this week, finding she is busy the whole week.
Plan for the day: do some work, keep working on story. Try not to get past boredom level 8.

2004-05-22T15:53:00.000-07:00

Website with good plenty of raggae downloads and history.

2004-05-22T15:30:00.000-07:00

A great article by Elizabeth Kadetsky about whether yoga has ancient roots and if it matters to modern practice.

2004-05-22T15:23:00.000-07:00

The New CD MIX is out.

Bob Wills Boogie Bob Wills
I Don't Blame You Cat Power
The Make Up Cody ChesnuTT
The Hon. Lady Fraser Of Lovat Dave MacIsaac
Blame it on the sun Stevie Wonder
Minor Swing Django Reinhardt
No Name #3 Elliott Smith
Encore Jay-Z + DJ Danger Mouse
I Like Fucking Bikini Kill
Oh! Sleater-Kinney
Mannish Boy Muddy Waters
Come On Baby Let´s Go Downtown Neil Young & Crazy Horse
Good Fortune P J Harvey
The Rubbers Song The Pharcyde
Concerto Of The Desperado The Roots
Millbrook Rufus Wainwright
Brothers Vaughan Brothers
Into Mystic Van Morrison
We're Going to be Friends The White Stripes
Under Control The Strokes

I was thinking what makes a good mix to me. Which is ironic and hypocritical because usually when other people have the same discussion I want to shut it off. But since I've been making a lot of them lately, I think it has a lot to do with songs that have big hooks right in the begining. Since the CD is going to be filled with songs that I love, I'm very inclined to skip one to get to another one. A song that has a huge hook right in the beginging will usually grab me quick and hold me in.

And I guess I'm a hook whore, because I tend to go for music that has a big hook in the beginging anyway. Long introductions usually get skipped. The longest introduction here is probably on Mannish Boy, and that stays because, well, it's frigin awesome, and worth the 2 seconds for me to wait to hear the band kick in.

2004-05-21T12:29:00.000-07:00

No way around it, Robert Rubin has some big-ass glasses.

2004-05-21T10:10:00.000-07:00

My favorite online artists, Kozy N Dan. I have one of their bunny headphones t shirts.

2004-05-19T11:12:00.000-07:00

Elizabeth Kadetsky's bibliography for First There is a Mountain, so that I don't forget it.

2004-05-17T12:13:00.000-07:00

Dennis Lehane's new story "Until Gwen" in The Atlantic is very good. I haven't read Mystic River yet, but maybe I will now. There are a lot of free short stories just for the printing on the Atlantic website.

2004-05-17T07:59:00.000-07:00

Worst.movie.ever.com

Don't go see The Saddest Music in The World. I must say, it was terrible. Even though the guy got interviewed on Fresh Air and even though it features both Flamenco and Bagpipes, it truly was abomidably boring. I did my best to sleep through it, but there is a reoccuring buzzer noise throughout the movie that was annoying the crap out of me.

It's no Old School, I'll tell you that.

2004-05-16T08:09:00.000-07:00

A recipe for home made sports drinks and the ashtanga ezboard post where it comes from.

2004-05-14T07:42:00.000-07:00

the worst crying baby picture ever.

2004-05-13T13:09:00.000-07:00

Here's an illuminating video of Shrub wiping his glasses on David Letterman's producer's shirt. Not only can he not be trusted to run the country, you wouldn't let him come over for dinner.

2004-05-13T07:39:00.000-07:00

Today's cool thing of the day is this photo essay from tonypierce.com , author of the busblog. It's one of the few things that makes me forget that I'm looking at the internet. It seems like he does these photo essays as whims, but to me they are high art.

2004-05-12T06:23:00.000-07:00

I know basically nothing about Morrissey, but these gifs are among the funniest things I have ever seen on the ol' innanet. Apologies in advance, a few of these are innapropriately homophobic. The rest of them are just plain ridiculous.

2004-05-11T19:22:00.000-07:00

New Subterra Article

Yay!! My new article for subterraboston.com is up. It's an interview with Melyssa Byrd, one of the owners of Black and Blues, my favorite place to buy clothes. Or maybe I should put it this way-the only place I can go to buy clothes that doesn't feel like a trip to the dentist. Melyssa was a great sport and was a great first interview for me.

2004-05-11T07:55:00.000-07:00

Ana Forrest has a new asana gallery on her website. It's a great opportunity to see one of the great american yogis in a variety of advanced postures. Check out the arm balances.

Here's "Turn Signal".

I love the look of Ana's trademark "Active Feet". I'm still not sure I understand the philosophy behind it, but it does keep you from crunching into your toes. In these poses you can see how she is almost always fanning her toes.

2004-05-11T07:05:00.000-07:00

I oddly enough got accepted to the Breadloaf Writer's Conference, for...ack...fiction. Which I decided I suck at writing and don't like doing that much in the meantime. Not sure what to do, as I a) can't afford it and b) don't want to write fiction, but c) feel like I would be stupid not to go. Can anyone spot me a cool $2000?

Oh and yesterday I got squeezed into Marichasana D by my new teacher and on one side (my less-painfully-tight side) I was able to almost hold it without freaking out.

2004-05-07T12:38:00.000-07:00

Sarah Susanka is an architect who writes books about nice houses that are not so big, but attractive and liveable. It's the kind of thing that the ol' idealistic Paul would have gotten really worked up about.

2004-05-07T06:51:00.000-07:00

My best high school friend, J. Edward Keyes (we called him Joe) is apparently the first living person other than myself to actually read this thing, and massaged my eentsy, teensy ego quite a bit this AM. He's a righteous dude and helped me survive the high school years. You can bust on friendster all you want, but after being out of touch for most of a decade, I found him on that. It's nice to be in touch again.

Joe is a music journalist (I am in awe that he gets paid to write about music) and moving from Philly to NYC to make his mark. I wish him the best, and I'm psyched that I have one more couch to crash on.

2004-05-04T10:05:00.000-07:00

My current mix CD and the foods it sounds like:

Rufus Wainright: A Foolish Love
Strawberry shortcake, eaten ironically

Richard Buckner: Blue and Wonder
Dry white toast. Butter.

DJ Danger Mouse + Jay Z: Dirt Off Your Shoulder
A large block of dark chocolate, dropped on your head

Lucinda Williams: The Fruits of My Labor
honeydew melon

Bob Marley: Dem Belly Full (from a live tape)
porridge

Lucinda Williams: American Dream
T.V. Dinner

The Band: Memphis (from a live tape-Chuck Berry cover)
Mashed potatoes eaten in a Buddhist temple

P.J. Harvey: Dry
cranberry juice

Memo From Turner: The Rolling Stones
Fried egg sandwich. Sausage. On a dirty plate

Neko Case: Set Out Running
Pancakes. Real maple syrup

O.V. Wright: Let's Straighten It Out
Red wine. No fruity bouquet.

Wilco: At Least That's What You Said
Biting into aluminum foil

The White Stripes: The Hardest Button To Button
Baked potato. Sour cream. Chives

Cody Chestnutt: No One Will
Linguine with mussels with Mrs. Right Now

Erika Badu: Tyrone
being slapped with a flounder fillet

Jackson Brown: Late For the Sky
a shot of Oban Whiskey after everyone has left

Lauryn Hill: When It Hurts So Bad
binge eating a whole container of double super fudge chunk

2004-05-04T06:49:00.000-07:00

It was in November of last year that I met my editor Beth Martin at a party of our mutual friend Raymond Morin. She was (among other projects) writing for an online magazine called Subterraboston.com. I sheepishly mentioned that I was interested in doing some writing and Beth encouraged me to get in touch with her.

Several months later, I did get in touch with her. In the meantime she had taken over music and arts editorial duties at Subterra. I had just seen American Splendor and was really jazzed about graphic novels (a term I'm uncomfortable with, as many of them are not novels, but 'comic books' sounds terrible to me and actually the whole discussion makes me feel terribly self concious for some reason). I pitched Beth the idea of me comparing and contrasting three different books, The American Splendor Anthology by Harvey Pekar, The Fixer by Joe Sacco and Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid On Earth by Chris Ware.

This is what I ended up with. 4 months later, all I can say is, WOW! that is long. And ambitious. But not terribly readable. Plus I know nothing whatsoever about comic books. But it was the first thing that I have had in print since my fun but very strange college poetry class, and one weird op-ed I did when I was living in Long Island.

You may or may not know that I am a somewhat addictive yogi, and as soon as I heard about Elizabeth Kadetsky's First There Is A Mountain: A Yoga Romance, I had to read it. I bought it in *gasp* HARDCOVER at *double gasp* FULL PRICE. My next article was areview of the book.

My opinion: pretty good, in retrospect. I do remember my mom saying that the first paragraph should have been way deeper in. Which I agree with. But now my mom says she said no such thing. The perils of having your mother be an english teacher.

More about that review later.

I've been semi-obsessed with Mary Lou Lord for some time and my third article for Subterra was my pean to Mary Lou. My current thoughts about this one? A little over the top emotionally. Sloppy too. But well intentioned. The heart was there. If not the ol' brain. People seem to like it.

The best part of the whole subterra deal came last weekend. Beth Martin got an email saying that Elizabeth Kadetsky was giving a reading at Mystic River Yoga in Medford. I wasn't sure how Beth got the email as I had never sent my review to Elizabeth or her publisher. I emailed a bunch of yoga peeps and went to the reading. I had the pleasure of sitting behind my sometime Iyengar yoga teacher Annie Hoffman, who is one cool lady.

Anyway, after the reading, I went up to Elizabeth with my heavily underlined copy of her book for her to sign. "What's your name?" says she. "Paul. Actually I wrote a review of your book". "Oh, you're Paul. I loved your review. You really understood the book." My day was made. Nice to have someone who is not a family member or friend read something you wrote and like it.

Life can be sweet sometimes, even in small ways.

Paul