In a
Salon article with Pixies front man Charles Thompson (aka: Black
Francis/Frank Black), Black, er Frank, er whatever he wants to be called
had this to say about their current tour:
"This is all just about, "You guys broke up too soon and I was in high
school. So please tour again."
Well, yeah kinda (I just graduated high school). Though I did buy your solo stuff too. It's very odd, because I've got tickets for the Pixies' November
somethingth show at the Aragon, that I bought in like March. I know eventually I'll be seeing the concert, but it feels like getting tickets for the Bozo show 10 years in advance... I have to make sure that my
Decade at a Glance is up to date.
Wired News: An Artist's Junkyard of Dreams
Everyone should see the Forevertron at least once. Frankly, this is the best time of the year for a nice weekend drive up to the middle of Wisconsin; there's nothing better.
Last year
Brandy,
Jim and I took a drive up yonder and saw the Forevertron, among other fantastical magical Wisconsin and Minnesota things. Here's the
photo gallery of some of the hillarity courtesy Loosetooth.com.
Sunday stream of conciousness
- Dimension:: Time and Relative Dimension in Space
- Roger:: Dodger
- CSI:: I'm waiting for the spin-off CSI: Rapids City
- Passenger:: Pigeon
- Thankful:: Humility
- Has-been:: Never-was
- Bambino:: Married To the Mob (no real reason)
- Wrinkles:: Pearl Cream
- Cable TV:: Pearl Cream infomercials
- Voicemail:: eeh. administrivia.
Isn't it great when people do their jobs?
So this one has been simmering for a while. Anyone who rides the CTA, has probably seen this series of ads where we see a happy employee of a major utility here in Chicago telling us that,
they will in fact do their job to ensure that we can get the utility that we pay for.
What a concept!
Needless to say, everytime I saw these ads, I bristled. I'm not sure who came up with the ad campaign, but everytime I saw the ad, I just wanted to take a permanent marker and right "Because that's why you have a monopoly" or "That's mighty
white of you," but then I realized that throughout the campaign, it's mostly people of color and women being portrayed in the ads; which is an interesting tactic.
It immediately made me want to see an ad like this:
Just in light of what happened with Enron, and with rising natural gas prices, the secret meetings with Dick Cheney, and all that's going on in the Energy sector, is that too much to ask for?
Existential Elevators
Douglas Adams had a nice bit in the
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series about
existential elevators. Initially given precience to know when a person would push the button to call the elevator, and arrive before they need it, the elevators grew bored with simply going up and down. They tried sideways as sort of a protest.
This afternoon the elevators at
311 South Wacker Drive held their own existential protest. They poured like the Amazon Rain Forest. There's a surreal quality of walking past the elevator bay in the lobby seeing doors of the elevators open, and buckets of water gushing down. Initially I thought one of the offices with traders just got a little wild with a slip and slide, but after taking the freight elevator up to my company's floor, it was as though someone unleashed a hurricane in our elevators; and on the windows of the office.
It turns out that there was a water main break on one of the levels about 10 flights up. There wasn't a ton of serious damage to our space, mostly carpeting and ceiling tiles, but there will probably be a stank to contend with tomorrow. I feel real bad for those offices right under the flooding. It probably wasn't as silly and quirky for their people, to evacuate and make sure their systems wouldn't go kablouie.
In other news, I'm settling into the new place... I haven't been writing much of anything lately... I think i've just been a bit distracted - so as things settled down, hopefully i'll get my groove back here.
Meme of the week
- Spacious:: My new apartment
- Crash:: James Spader
- Autobiography:: Lemony Snicket's Unauthorized Autobiography
- Sparkly:: Onomatopoeia
- Wild Thing:: Wretched "party" song
- Haagen-Das:: Not really imported; just a marketing gimmick
- Sci-fi:: Doctor Who
- Voice:: (Little Voice) Jane Horrocks
- Boy Scouts:: Brown Shirts
- Grief:: (Good Grief) Charlie Brown
Unpacking mental baggage
More excitement from the moving zone - This week's Unconcious Mutterings - probably make no sense - but my brain is swiss cheese this morning. For the time being, i'm not bothering without my extra links... I'm too disheveled.
- Courage:: A Word bandied about a little too freely these days.
- Stamina:: 3 weeks of packing, moving and unpacking
- Leader:: Childhood game: Follow the leader
- Idea:: the wrong idea
- Rockstar:: Parking
- Dew:: Glistening morning dew.
- Guards:: Imperial Guards from Return of the Jedi
- Lenny:: and Squiggy, Lenny & Karl: Hetero-life partners
- Alliance:: The Triple Entente - Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy
- Cigarettes:: Candy Cigarettes - puff-a-licious
Moving trials and tribulations - Chapter 1: Phone service
Definition of Irony: While sitting on hold for the umbillionth time regarding my Local telephone/DSL service with AT&T, hearing the song Ricky Don't Lose That Number from Steely Dan.
To date, I've made at least 30 calls, been placed on hold at least once on each call, pinponged between the Local and DSL divisions, been hung up upon, spoken to supervisors, and maintained my cool (yet being firm) throughout.
I've got 8 different 800 numbers for these two divisions. I'm not gonnna lose any of those numbers. However, if AT&T, can't do something as simple as transferring my phone service, they're gonna lose mine.
