The sound of wingnuts' heads popping

While I can't say I completely agree with the Nobel Prize committee's selection (it takes more than saying it's a good idea to have a limited number of nuclear weapons, in my book, to demonstrate a commitment to arms control), I'll enjoy this for the grief it will cause amongst the VRWCoD (that's "Vast Right Wing Confederacy of Dunces"). It also made me check multiple news sources. But it is, apparently, true.

Now I can say I went to college with both a President and a Nobel Laureate.

KCRW

A long time ago, in a decade in the last century, I read a bunch of newspapers and magazines every week. The Times (LA, NY, and Financial), the Guardian, the Independent, the Village Voice, LA Weekly, the Reader, Rolling Stone, Stereo Review -- you've got the picture. Like many young people, I was acutely aware of what was musically cool and uncool. I have the LPs to prove it (I didn't own a CD player until the next decade). And while I attended college in Los Angeles, I listed to KCRW, a radio station broadcasting from Santa Monica Community College. (I listened to KROQ and the Long Beach Community College station, too). KCRW featured two shows that were incredibly influential to my music listening -- "Morning Becomes Eclectic" and "Saturday Night Avant Pop".

So I was so glad when KCRW was one of the first radio to broadcast on the Web. I've remained a fan, and have enjoyed how they've expanded both the role of the DJ and the station as a way to learn more about popular music. As technology has advanced, the role of technology in helping to choose and predict content -- think Amazon's "You might like .... " or iTunes "Genius" selection algorithms -- can be useful tools. But I prefer the editorial role, and the DJs at KCRW do just that, sifting through the torrent of new music and pulling together the best of it.

Now, KCRW is about to debut a new service: Eclectic 24, which sounds like a mash-up of all the content and talent they've developed over the years. I'll be fascinated to see how it works -- if the media is dying, public radio appears to be one place where both innovation is occurring, and people are turning to for news and information. (There's the foreign press, both print and broadcast, but I'll save that for later). I'll tell you more after I listen on Monday, September 7th.

Please, please make it stop

She may be the daughter of Blythe Danner and Bruce Paltrow. If genetics alone had anything to do with it, she'd be both beautiful and a lovely, sensitive actress.

Something went horribly wrong. Please Gweneth, step away from the keyboard, the microphone and the camera. Your ego is really, really toxic, and we don't need it right now.

Practice

Some people hate doing chores on weekends. Au contraire, mon frere: there's nothing more relaxing that doing exactly what you need to do. The practice of the routine -- strip the bed, pull down the bath linens, wash the clothes, mow the lawn -- is exactly what I want after a week at work in which evil flying monkeys seem to escape from every possible orifice of every possible creature and bring the most unexpected, unwanted, and unplanned things to my desk.

Besides, I have no one to account to but myself. If something goes wrong, it starts and stops with me.

Reunion

As in 30th high school reunion. I'm excited to see people I haven't seen in - well, 30 years. But not before I get a haircut and shave. The 15 extra pounds its too late to do much about.

And sometimes we bake

Peach Blueberry rustic tart, recipe adapted from "Cooking with Julia Child and Jacques Pepin." The pastry is a standard pate brise, which means a suspension of butter in flour. The peaches and blueberries are coated in lemon zest, some sugar, and tapioca flour. There's a simple jam glaze.

Think of it as summer on a platter.

OK people --

Reaganomics failed. Get over it.

Greed is not good.

One doesn't get a "do-over" if one looses an election, Norm Coleman.

Loosing an hour of sleep sucks.

Hangovers are not my friend.

That's all.