Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
I get with the times
In honor of our "local" evening news, which has started unning with whatever worldwide disasters ante up the most compelling footage, I offer up this disintegrating Dutch wind turbine.
If I do this often enough maybe Clear Channel will offer to buy me out!
If I do this often enough maybe Clear Channel will offer to buy me out!
i think
we just had a tiny earthquake.
I'm hypersensitive to these things since the building almost fell on me a few years back.
I'm hypersensitive to these things since the building almost fell on me a few years back.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Armond White, Defender of the Silver Screen
An entertaining screed on contemporary film criticsm
Armond was my favorite member of the Film Comment's Critic's Roundup section.
He would reliably one-star mainstream garbage & was entirely true to his own standards regardless of what anyone else thought.
I rarely agree with him about movies, but he was good curmudgeonly fun and it was a dark day when they kicked him to the curb for a younger, less truculent model.
The new inclination is to write esoteric criticism. Post-Tarantino cinema has wrung the pop aesthetic dry, so the new gods of criticism have made totems of movies so unwatchable and so unappealing that they prohibit the basic pleasure and amazement of moviegoing.
Armond was my favorite member of the Film Comment's Critic's Roundup section.
He would reliably one-star mainstream garbage & was entirely true to his own standards regardless of what anyone else thought.
I rarely agree with him about movies, but he was good curmudgeonly fun and it was a dark day when they kicked him to the curb for a younger, less truculent model.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
80's Week: Big Audio Dynamite
another kickass LP for the uninitiated.
I never copped that this song was about Nick Roeg's films until I checked out this video.
Crazy.
The Man who Fell To Earth was one of many age inappropriate films my mom dragged me to in my childhood. I probably owe it another chance.
mating call of the nerd girl
(holds aloft a copy of The Intellectual Lover)
"Hey Joe, we should steal this graphic for our nuptial announcement!"
It's also kinda creepy- every time she speaks to him she says his name.
Every time.
I've heard "Joe" 25 times in the last five minutes.
"Hey Joe, we should steal this graphic for our nuptial announcement!"
It's also kinda creepy- every time she speaks to him she says his name.
Every time.
I've heard "Joe" 25 times in the last five minutes.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
oh I know you.
I was just like you once, a jaded internaught who thought they'd seen it all.
A blase sophisticate for whom 2girls1cup was just a funny punchline to amuse your equally jaded friends.
But pride goeth before the fall, my friends.
When you think you've reached the end of the internet.......the internet is JUST BEGINNING. When you arrive, spent, at what you think is the finish line he internet is just finishing its warm-up jog and is ready to start the race.
How else do you explain THIS.
A blase sophisticate for whom 2girls1cup was just a funny punchline to amuse your equally jaded friends.
But pride goeth before the fall, my friends.
When you think you've reached the end of the internet.......the internet is JUST BEGINNING. When you arrive, spent, at what you think is the finish line he internet is just finishing its warm-up jog and is ready to start the race.
How else do you explain THIS.
EIGHTIES WEEK
kicking it off a bit early with TOM TOM CLUB.
Genius of Love was their "hit" (using the term advisedly) but this was always my fave track from the 'club.
Actually the whole album kicks ass, give it a listen if it's something new on your street.
Genius of Love was their "hit" (using the term advisedly) but this was always my fave track from the 'club.
Actually the whole album kicks ass, give it a listen if it's something new on your street.
Friday, April 25, 2008
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
twain's book meme
Grab the closest book and open to page 123, find the fifth sentence and write the next three sentences, and thentag five of your lj friends.
This is more a random event than insight into my psyche, as being a book person my desk is always buried in potential stock. But here we go.
From Origin and History of all the Pharmacopeial Vegetable Drugs with Bibliography by John Uri Lloyd.
Cubebs occur in the German lists of medicines of Frankfort and Nordlingen, about 1450 and 1480; they are also mentioned in the in the Fonfectbuch of Hans Folcz of Nuremberg, dating about 1480.
"It cannot, however, be said that cubebs were a common spice, at all comparable with pepper or ginger, or even in such frequent use as grains of paradise of galangal. Garcia de Orta (1563), speaks of them as but seldom used in Europe; yet they are named by Saladinus as necessary to be kept in every apotheca.
Hmm, a bit on the dry side.
Sorry about that.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
customers
i love it when people argue with me about where they're going to find a book.
imaginary reply:
"Sure, look in travel if you want....but it's a fucking NOVEL so it's going to be in FICTION."
imaginary reply:
"Sure, look in travel if you want....but it's a fucking NOVEL so it's going to be in FICTION."
more book stuff
Went through the second library buy.
Paid fifty five bucks for six boxes of books.
Listed roughly one box for $250, brought the rest to the store for trade.
So the two buys cost $130 and have so far generated 12 sales for $270 on listings of $950.
This is a microcosm of the used book business, illustrating the saying "you make your money when you buy the book, not when you sell it".
This is also the reason so many used book stores are closing up shop.
The internet gives everyone an equal selling platform. If you know how to buy books (or have a mobile ISBN scanner and a lot of patience) there are many opportunities to scoop up good cheap stock & sell it online without the expense and headaches of running an open shop.
I sell books out of my living room. I know a guy who works out of his garage, and another one who works out of a storage unit.
There are still some advantages to running a store, chief among them the fact that a lot of books fall in your lap without having to go out looking for them.
But the advantages have been shrinking the past few years, and the forward looking types have already mostly folded up their tents and left behind the shrinking retail oasis.
Paid fifty five bucks for six boxes of books.
Listed roughly one box for $250, brought the rest to the store for trade.
So the two buys cost $130 and have so far generated 12 sales for $270 on listings of $950.
This is a microcosm of the used book business, illustrating the saying "you make your money when you buy the book, not when you sell it".
This is also the reason so many used book stores are closing up shop.
The internet gives everyone an equal selling platform. If you know how to buy books (or have a mobile ISBN scanner and a lot of patience) there are many opportunities to scoop up good cheap stock & sell it online without the expense and headaches of running an open shop.
I sell books out of my living room. I know a guy who works out of his garage, and another one who works out of a storage unit.
There are still some advantages to running a store, chief among them the fact that a lot of books fall in your lap without having to go out looking for them.
But the advantages have been shrinking the past few years, and the forward looking types have already mostly folded up their tents and left behind the shrinking retail oasis.
Monday, April 21, 2008
blurb of the week
From Computer Eye, a book by A.E. Van Vogt I've never seen before:
*Formerly titled "COMPUTERWORLD"
The cover illustration features a nebulous vehicle of some sort shooting a laser at a fellow's chest, releasing a cloud of golden bubbles along with a naked dude sporting a mod hair-do.
I must admit the whole package is rather tempting.
*cracks the cover*
The first paragraph has effectively blunted my interest.
I think there's a reason this is the first copy I've ever run across.
ULTRA-MODERN SCIENCE FICTION FOR THE POST-1984 ERA.
*Formerly titled "COMPUTERWORLD"
The cover illustration features a nebulous vehicle of some sort shooting a laser at a fellow's chest, releasing a cloud of golden bubbles along with a naked dude sporting a mod hair-do.
I must admit the whole package is rather tempting.
*cracks the cover*
The first paragraph has effectively blunted my interest.
I think there's a reason this is the first copy I've ever run across.
The Video Nasty Project
An intrepid Brit's quest to view all 74 horror films banned in the mid-80s by hysterical politicians, terrified by the threat to public morality posed by video cassete recorders.
Good stuff!
I sat through a double handful of them in my misspent youth, and frankly Britain wasn't missing much.
Well, except for the demented schlock brilliance of Abel Ferrara's Driller Killer. This was well before he achieved art house fame by coaxing Harvey Keitel out of his uniform in Bad Lieutenant.
Oh, and Evil Dead.
And Shogun Assassin.
Hmm, I may have to re-think this.
Good stuff!
I sat through a double handful of them in my misspent youth, and frankly Britain wasn't missing much.
Well, except for the demented schlock brilliance of Abel Ferrara's Driller Killer. This was well before he achieved art house fame by coaxing Harvey Keitel out of his uniform in Bad Lieutenant.
Oh, and Evil Dead.
And Shogun Assassin.
Hmm, I may have to re-think this.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Boxing Postmortem
Fight went like I thought it would.
It was ugly but surprisingly entertaining. A lot of people apparently thought it was close- I was on board with judge Chuck Giampa who scored it 116-111 for Calzaghe. Hopkins won early rounds by confusing Calzaghe and slowing the pace down, but as the fight progressed he slowed down and Calzaghe started feeling comfortable and throwing the volume of punches I expected him to. That forced Hopkins to be more active than he wanted, which paid big dividends in the championship rounds.
The last few years Hopkins has made a habit of fighting just enough in the first half of the fight to keep it close, then using all the energy he saved to close strong.
This time he had to burn his reserves early to avoid getting run out of the ring and had nothing left at the end.
I'm interested in what Joe does next.
Hopefully he ignores the drumbeat to fight the the zombie that is Roy Jones Jr and makes a meaningful fight with someone relevant.
It was ugly but surprisingly entertaining. A lot of people apparently thought it was close- I was on board with judge Chuck Giampa who scored it 116-111 for Calzaghe. Hopkins won early rounds by confusing Calzaghe and slowing the pace down, but as the fight progressed he slowed down and Calzaghe started feeling comfortable and throwing the volume of punches I expected him to. That forced Hopkins to be more active than he wanted, which paid big dividends in the championship rounds.
The last few years Hopkins has made a habit of fighting just enough in the first half of the fight to keep it close, then using all the energy he saved to close strong.
This time he had to burn his reserves early to avoid getting run out of the ring and had nothing left at the end.
I'm interested in what Joe does next.
Hopefully he ignores the drumbeat to fight the the zombie that is Roy Jones Jr and makes a meaningful fight with someone relevant.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Lame Blurb of the Week
As one of the nations top sleep therapists, Sophie knows how dreams can kill.
and later
But if Sophie makes the wrong move, she won't wake up screaming. She won't wake up. Ever.
For which readers would presumably be grateful.
and later
But if Sophie makes the wrong move, she won't wake up screaming. She won't wake up. Ever.
For which readers would presumably be grateful.
boxing: Hopkins vs Calzaghe
Pelf is in town for tonight's battle between former middleweight and current lightheavyweight and Winkyweight(tm) champion Bernard THE EXECUTIONER Hopkins & long reigning supermiddleweight champion THE PRIDE OF WALES Joe Calzaghe.
Hopkins is an almost supernatural specimen, fighting and beating elite fighters into his mid-40's. Calzaghe was long regarded as a protected joke, camping out in Wales & defeating an uninspiring roster of has-beens and never weres before stepping it up in the past few years to dismantle several high profile opponents with his odd combination of volume punching and power.
I'm not sure why I'm excited, because it has all the earmarks of being an eyesore of a bout. Hopkins is too old to fight for 3 minutes a round, so he'll try to buy time by feinting, moving and clinching. Calzaghe meanwhile hasn't faced anyone with the ring savvy and willful visciousness of Hopkins.
I expect a close, ugly fight, but I think it's Calzaghe's to lose.
Hopkins has been slowing down for years and these days he doesn't respond to openings & counter as well as in the past. Combine that with his need to conserve energy contributing to a low punch output that tends to give away rounds and I think the younger, livlier Calzaghe will take it.
We'll see.
The only certain thing is that I'll be drinking beer and eating the Rolls Royce of pizza with the Pelf while the battle plays out.
Hopkins is an almost supernatural specimen, fighting and beating elite fighters into his mid-40's. Calzaghe was long regarded as a protected joke, camping out in Wales & defeating an uninspiring roster of has-beens and never weres before stepping it up in the past few years to dismantle several high profile opponents with his odd combination of volume punching and power.
I'm not sure why I'm excited, because it has all the earmarks of being an eyesore of a bout. Hopkins is too old to fight for 3 minutes a round, so he'll try to buy time by feinting, moving and clinching. Calzaghe meanwhile hasn't faced anyone with the ring savvy and willful visciousness of Hopkins.
I expect a close, ugly fight, but I think it's Calzaghe's to lose.
Hopkins has been slowing down for years and these days he doesn't respond to openings & counter as well as in the past. Combine that with his need to conserve energy contributing to a low punch output that tends to give away rounds and I think the younger, livlier Calzaghe will take it.
We'll see.
The only certain thing is that I'll be drinking beer and eating the Rolls Royce of pizza with the Pelf while the battle plays out.
headline of the week
Mole Man to pay £300,000 for burrowing under home
A retired engineer nicknamed “Mole Man”, because of his fondness for burrowing tunnels under his home, has been ordered to pay almost £300,000 to the local
council after his hobby nearly caused his house to collapse.
Friday, April 18, 2008
more book math
4 boxes of books from a library sale: $75
2 boxes listed online: $700
The rest go to the store for trade.
2 boxes listed online: $700
The rest go to the store for trade.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
debits & credits
The nice thing about the competition folding their tent is that we'll make more money. Current conditions aren't really sympathetic toward two used book stores in one small-ish town. Used books have always been a marginal business and the impact of the internet on retail operations has pushed many a small shop over the edge.
The down side is all the bottom-feeders & thieves I've chased off over the years are starting to drift back, because we're the only game in town.
No drunk homeless guy, I'm not going to buy that box of garbage you scavenged from the dumpster behind the library. Sorry tatooed urban camper, I'll pass on that stack of pristine, unread graphic novels fresh from the shelves at Barnes & Noble.
And I'm also having to wade through a lot of tremendously mediocre buys from displaced sellers. We've always had a vastly different buying culture than the competition- the owner made his bones at Moe's in the bay area, and I breathed in that eclectic philosophy like secondhand smoke from Moe's ever present cigar.
The kind of stuff our competition lived for is the kind of stuff we don't want.
And looking at boxes and boxes of boring books drains your life force. Every book you see, however nondescript, takes a tiny piece of your attention with it. If you look at enough mediocre books, you start feeling like Bilbo Baggins just before his birthday party- sort of thin and stretched.
The down side is all the bottom-feeders & thieves I've chased off over the years are starting to drift back, because we're the only game in town.
No drunk homeless guy, I'm not going to buy that box of garbage you scavenged from the dumpster behind the library. Sorry tatooed urban camper, I'll pass on that stack of pristine, unread graphic novels fresh from the shelves at Barnes & Noble.
And I'm also having to wade through a lot of tremendously mediocre buys from displaced sellers. We've always had a vastly different buying culture than the competition- the owner made his bones at Moe's in the bay area, and I breathed in that eclectic philosophy like secondhand smoke from Moe's ever present cigar.
The kind of stuff our competition lived for is the kind of stuff we don't want.
And looking at boxes and boxes of boring books drains your life force. Every book you see, however nondescript, takes a tiny piece of your attention with it. If you look at enough mediocre books, you start feeling like Bilbo Baggins just before his birthday party- sort of thin and stretched.
Monday, April 14, 2008
folk I'd like to slap
borderline ana co-ed at the coffee shop with daddy:
I'll have a 16 ounce nonfat sugar free vanilla latte?
Just eat some newspaper and shut the hell up, mmmk?
I'll have a 16 ounce nonfat sugar free vanilla latte?
Just eat some newspaper and shut the hell up, mmmk?
cover blurb of the week
from the lugubriously titled They Called Me the Catch Me Killer:
Golden gloves, black belt, green beret, silver badge. Supercop bob Erler had earned the colors of manhood. Now can he survive prison life?
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Saturday, April 12, 2008
attn ANNER
it is a lovely summery day, the patios are calling to me and I brought my camera to work.
No guarantees, but the evening may bring with it a flickr update!
No guarantees, but the evening may bring with it a flickr update!
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Monday, April 7, 2008
Saturday, April 5, 2008
in this episode
My insatiable thirst for biodiesel causes world hunger!
I'm just going to give up arguing with DT about anything except fight scores.
I'm just going to give up arguing with DT about anything except fight scores.
KUNG FU BEAR
Let those other blogs have their motorcycle riding monkeys and painting elephants.
Only the BAXBLOG delivers a kung fu bear!
Only the BAXBLOG delivers a kung fu bear!
Hat
Most of ballcaps I see are for sports teams or are advertising something.
This fella had an embroidered cornucopia spilling its largess over the bill and bore the legend Eat Fruits and Vegetables and Stay Active!
It tickled me.
This fella had an embroidered cornucopia spilling its largess over the bill and bore the legend Eat Fruits and Vegetables and Stay Active!
It tickled me.
True Customer Tales
gal
How do I get to the mission from here?
me
out the door, take a right, two blocks down.
gal, sceptically
aaaaaaaaaaand that's the CALIFORNIA MISSION right?
me
Yep, it's the only one we've got.
How do I get to the mission from here?
me
out the door, take a right, two blocks down.
gal, sceptically
aaaaaaaaaaand that's the CALIFORNIA MISSION right?
me
Yep, it's the only one we've got.
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