due torre
23 April 2004
BUTROS BUTROS DECLARED BARTENDER'S SECOND FAVORITE LOCAL BAND
compiled from wire services
Washington, DC, April 21 -- In a chance meeting at Rockland's BBQ on Wisconsin avenue,
Takoma Park resident Charles Rollins discovered that an anonymous bartender
from the Grog and Tankard (2408 Wisconsin Ave), listed Butros-Butros as his
second-favorite local act.
"Yeah," said Rollins, "I was just sitting there having a few beers and I
started talking to this guy... I was bored with all the women I was hanging
out with, so we started chatting. It turns out he was a bartender at the
Grog. I said, 'dude, who are your favorite bands that play there?' Without
hesitating he listed this one band first, who I don't remember, but then he
said, 'I'm definitely a fan of Butros Butros.' Dude, that makes Butros like
number two on his list!"
When pressed for more information about why this bartender liked Butros so
much, Rollins was shy on details, "I don't know, maybe he thinks alcohol
sales are good when they play, but I really doubt it's the music," said
Rollins. "Then I told him I knew Butros' drummer and the guy was totally
like, 'cool.'"
When asked for a reaction regarding the bartender's proclamation, Butros
drummer Jim Arkedis stated, "that's bunch of hooey, I paid that guy at least
$50 to say we were numero uno. I can't believed we'd get publicly stabbed
in the back like that! First he makes us pay for our own drinks, now this?"
Coincidentally, Butros-Butros is scheduled to play at the Grog and Tankard
this Saturday night (April 24), and aims to stake a claim to number one in
that bartender's heart. "I don't really care about awards," said Arkedis,
"it's just nice to be nominated." But then, with a slight change in tone,
Arkedis confided, "Oh, who am I kidding, my life's dream is to be number one
at the Grog! Please like us more than those other guys, unnamed bartender
man!"
Washington, DC, April 21 -- In a chance meeting at Rockland's BBQ on Wisconsin avenue,
Takoma Park resident Charles Rollins discovered that an anonymous bartender
from the Grog and Tankard (2408 Wisconsin Ave), listed Butros-Butros as his
second-favorite local act.
"Yeah," said Rollins, "I was just sitting there having a few beers and I
started talking to this guy... I was bored with all the women I was hanging
out with, so we started chatting. It turns out he was a bartender at the
Grog. I said, 'dude, who are your favorite bands that play there?' Without
hesitating he listed this one band first, who I don't remember, but then he
said, 'I'm definitely a fan of Butros Butros.' Dude, that makes Butros like
number two on his list!"
When pressed for more information about why this bartender liked Butros so
much, Rollins was shy on details, "I don't know, maybe he thinks alcohol
sales are good when they play, but I really doubt it's the music," said
Rollins. "Then I told him I knew Butros' drummer and the guy was totally
like, 'cool.'"
When asked for a reaction regarding the bartender's proclamation, Butros
drummer Jim Arkedis stated, "that's bunch of hooey, I paid that guy at least
$50 to say we were numero uno. I can't believed we'd get publicly stabbed
in the back like that! First he makes us pay for our own drinks, now this?"
Coincidentally, Butros-Butros is scheduled to play at the Grog and Tankard
this Saturday night (April 24), and aims to stake a claim to number one in
that bartender's heart. "I don't really care about awards," said Arkedis,
"it's just nice to be nominated." But then, with a slight change in tone,
Arkedis confided, "Oh, who am I kidding, my life's dream is to be number one
at the Grog! Please like us more than those other guys, unnamed bartender
man!"
22 April 2004
Scandinavian Synergy
Örn, I just noticed that this week's banner at Memefirst is taken from an old map of Iceland. thought you might find that interesting.
15 April 2004
The Minor Fall, The Major Lift
The Minor Fall, The Major Lift:
And right next to the car is a cord of new firewood: pine, elm, cherry.
--Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72
SEEING AS WE’RE NOT PROVIDING MUCH ORIGINAL CONTENT TODAY ANYWAY, WE MIGHT AS WELL JOIN IN THE LITBLOGGERS’ VERSION OF THE CHAIN LETTER
Pick up the nearest book.
Open it to page 23.
Find the fifth sentence.
Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
And right next to the car is a cord of new firewood: pine, elm, cherry.
--Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72
12 April 2004
It's a hell of a town
So I think I'm headed up to New York for three weeks.
If I was inspired, this'd become an older, flabbier, more self-medicated Gary Benchley. But then, I've already given up on being a rock star. I"m still down with sleeping on people's couches, though.
(Also, I just realized that, as Jim and Örn are proving, none of my friends blog. Is it because my friends are illiterate? No, cuz I can name-drop newspapers, magazines, and publishing houses -just dare me, I will- that prove otherwise. I think it's just that my friends are less self-absorbed. Poor them.)
If I was inspired, this'd become an older, flabbier, more self-medicated Gary Benchley. But then, I've already given up on being a rock star. I"m still down with sleeping on people's couches, though.
(Also, I just realized that, as Jim and Örn are proving, none of my friends blog. Is it because my friends are illiterate? No, cuz I can name-drop newspapers, magazines, and publishing houses -just dare me, I will- that prove otherwise. I think it's just that my friends are less self-absorbed. Poor them.)
06 April 2004
Is Google the next LTCM?
Kottke is one of several people to have followed up on this perceptive piece about Google.
It's interesting how all these comments talk about how Google is going to be a centerpiece of a web-based OS, and how it'll revolutionize the computer software market. I'm not qualified to say whether that's going to happen or not, and whether it'll be a good idea or not; but I think it will and I think it will.
But that line above got me thinking: if we're all basing our computing on a great system that can't fail, what happens when it does? 'Cause we know it will.
My thought in response to the line about was Keyne's old chestnut: "Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent." LTCM "couldn't fail", and did. And there was a way to bail it out that let civilization continue to function.
Google "can't fail". Let's assume it can. What is the web-ap equivalent of William McDonough getting all of Wall Street around his ocnference table, and getting them to take a haircut?
(it's a badly-phrased question, and I might have some answers, at least to such a situation that would cause Google to fail. I'll try to re-think it further* and then maybe post it to Memefirst, to egg people on...)
*the DST time change as really messed with my sleeping habits. my brain is fried...
[Google has] one of the world's largest computers that's all but incapable of crashing
Kottke is one of several people to have followed up on this perceptive piece about Google.
It's interesting how all these comments talk about how Google is going to be a centerpiece of a web-based OS, and how it'll revolutionize the computer software market. I'm not qualified to say whether that's going to happen or not, and whether it'll be a good idea or not; but I think it will and I think it will.
But that line above got me thinking: if we're all basing our computing on a great system that can't fail, what happens when it does? 'Cause we know it will.
My thought in response to the line about was Keyne's old chestnut: "Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent." LTCM "couldn't fail", and did. And there was a way to bail it out that let civilization continue to function.
Google "can't fail". Let's assume it can. What is the web-ap equivalent of William McDonough getting all of Wall Street around his ocnference table, and getting them to take a haircut?
(it's a badly-phrased question, and I might have some answers, at least to such a situation that would cause Google to fail. I'll try to re-think it further* and then maybe post it to Memefirst, to egg people on...)
*the DST time change as really messed with my sleeping habits. my brain is fried...
Stupid
I guess thank goodness my office doesn't have a window...
A Boeing 737 and a Gulfstream jet flew down the Potomac River landing path (into National Airport), without landing. Just before noon, they flew in at 500ft. ("Washingotn Monument Height"), with two F-16s in pursuit.
It turns out this was a photo shoot the Air National Guard arranged- supposedly for an ad.
Never mind that there was no mention of this this morning in either local paper, nor did either the Air National Guard or the FAA put out a press release preparing people for what looked exactly like the kind of terrorist attack we've been dreading for three years.
At best this is tasteless. At worst, it's sheer stupidity.
Amazing.
Idiots.
I guess thank goodness my office doesn't have a window...
A Boeing 737 and a Gulfstream jet flew down the Potomac River landing path (into National Airport), without landing. Just before noon, they flew in at 500ft. ("Washingotn Monument Height"), with two F-16s in pursuit.
It turns out this was a photo shoot the Air National Guard arranged- supposedly for an ad.
Never mind that there was no mention of this this morning in either local paper, nor did either the Air National Guard or the FAA put out a press release preparing people for what looked exactly like the kind of terrorist attack we've been dreading for three years.
At best this is tasteless. At worst, it's sheer stupidity.
Amazing.
Idiots.
05 April 2004
O's on top
I am absolutely useless today- I'm waiting to hear back on a possible contract position, which they'd want me to start in a week. I figure if they really wanted me, they'd have contacted me by now to let me know. It's driving me nuts.
My only consolation is that the Orioles, who hold my fitful allegiance (despite being owned by a man who actively hates "half [his] fan base"), are ahead of the Yankees, thanks to their decent showing against a Bosox team that hasn't brought it all together yet. I can enjoy it today:
My only consolation is that the Orioles, who hold my fitful allegiance (despite being owned by a man who actively hates "half [his] fan base"), are ahead of the Yankees, thanks to their decent showing against a Bosox team that hasn't brought it all together yet. I can enjoy it today:
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| y = clinched division title x = clinched playoff berth | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
01 April 2004
Kinja do it?
I'm blogviating again...
So the latest rage in blogging is the RSS reader. Briefly put, this is a program that takes RSS feeds (like the one to the right, there) from several different sites, and collates them into one window- like a My Yahoo for opinion writers.
It's a great idea, and a lot of people have gotten worked up about it. I have shied away from them up until this point, because I didn't want to run another program (on my already-stretch-to-it's-RAM-limits computer), but would rather have run it in my web browser.
Well, Nick Denton, blogmedia god, has answered my prayers with a new site: Kinja. It's very easy to use, and allows you to quickly glance over what's developing in News & Commentary through the day.
The nice thing about it is that if you're interested in what other people are reading, you can look at their lists at http://kinja.com/user/username. My username is my last name.
I only wish they'd let us play around with the layout more...
So the latest rage in blogging is the RSS reader. Briefly put, this is a program that takes RSS feeds (like the one to the right, there) from several different sites, and collates them into one window- like a My Yahoo for opinion writers.
It's a great idea, and a lot of people have gotten worked up about it. I have shied away from them up until this point, because I didn't want to run another program (on my already-stretch-to-it's-RAM-limits computer), but would rather have run it in my web browser.
Well, Nick Denton, blogmedia god, has answered my prayers with a new site: Kinja. It's very easy to use, and allows you to quickly glance over what's developing in News & Commentary through the day.
The nice thing about it is that if you're interested in what other people are reading, you can look at their lists at http://kinja.com/user/username. My username is my last name.
I only wish they'd let us play around with the layout more...
