On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
I have a weird urge to buy one of those cardboard clocks that you see on retail desks when the clerk is at lunch. It will say ‘Gone Galt. Back in…’
In other news, a couple of photos from a walk around town yesterday.
Chat about whatever.
Keith G
The uban midwest. Ah…the memories.
Fencedude
I really should have linked to this XKCD comic during the OS flamewar thread a few days ago, but its worth pointing out, just in case some people really weren’t clear on how asinine Linux “support” is.
Captain Goto
I feel like I should recognize the neighborhood with the Pizza Hut. North Side? Mt. Washington?
MikeJ
For asiangrrlMN:
http://picasaweb.google.com/fluffy.j.bunny/Supper#
GeneW
Baum Blvd, right?
beltane
Just reminding people who feel inclined to donate to their local food pantry. Our public radio station said demand at area food shelves was up 120% over last year, and our state is holding up better than most through this recession.
General Winfield Stuck
That little camera sure takes some crisp images. The colors are just splendid.
Brian J
I don’t mean to sound too depressing, but does anyone ever get the urge to just pack a few things, get on a plane, and try to start a new life in some other state? By no means is my life bad, but I’ve been increasingly irritable lately with just about everyone and everything.
Allen
That first picture is awesome. Great use of the so-called rule of threes to make a visually interesting picture.
Captain Goto
Aw, crap. Can’t embed the map…
GeneW got it; it is Baum Blvd.
Jack
http://www.redstate.com/pilgrim/2009/10/16/baracks-america/
From RS, a “diary” entry.
The dissonance, it hurts.
*
Here’s my thought: it isn’t about fear (though these irrational fears probably do exist). It isn’t just about the threats to security that come from change, or cultural attitudes, or racism.
It’s about desire.
Petty, mean little people; or broken, wounded women and men; families reduced to penury by corporate overlords; you name it: desiring adventure, a dualistic enterprise of Good Versus Evil, ultimate meaning.
Perhaps the same leitmotif which informs conspiracism?
Think of successful “conspiracies.” Whatever GE is currently developing in its labs. Some out there DARPA projects. The Manhattan Project. Soviet maskirovka games.
Pretty much no one knew. Because a successful conspiracy is, well, successful. It works.
Which means, I think, that if anyone and everyone can yip about it on the intertubes, it’s not actually a conspiracy, in the traditional sense.
Sniffing the public domain for hints and allegations of Obama’s Kenyan birth, blue helmets, black helicopters, yellow fringed flags, secret camps (the Nazis didn’t really hide theirs, for what it’s worth; the Reichsvolk ignored them), Lizard bloodlines and Skousenist-Bircher fantastic subterranean jaunts – these impart meaning.
The possessor of a minted truth is not just some guy ground down by the quotidian wheels of bills and babies, is not just some harried housewife struggling to please her husband, her boss and the solipsistic poop producing monster that is her latest toddling child.
That’s a powerful drug – keeper of the secret key.
Maybe more difficult to kick than the merely chemical varieties.
madmommy
@Brian J:
Only once a week or so. I blame the economy. The bills. The job. The laundry. The kids. The husband. But then I think, life would be dead boring without all the stuff that is making me crazy.
Notorious P.A.T.
Nice pictures. Especially the second one.
What is the “rule of threes”?
Brian J
@madmommy:
I won’t go into the details of why I’m irritable and frustrated, but suffice it to say that I was this close to beating the shit out of one of my brothers this past Saturday. You could say he’s the straw that broke the camel’s back, but he’s pissed me off enough in his own right that he probably had it coming.
Whatever. I should just channel this frustration into something productive, like getting into the right school. For whatever reason, I’ve started to do better on my LSAT practice sections. I did poorly on one today, but did pretty well on the other two. I’m guessing the fact that I didn’t focus well on the third one was the reason I did poorly. Overall, I’m not sure what is starting to click in my head [knock on wood], but I’m glad to see it. I just hope it continues, even if it’s slow to appear.
mistersnrub
@Jack:
Yup.
As Mencken said, “The central belief of every moron is that he is the victim of a mysterious conspiracy against his common rights and true deserts. He ascribes all his failure to get on in the world, all of his congenital incapacity and damfoolishness, to the machinations of werewolves assembled in Wall Street, or some other such den of infamy.”
Faulkner pegged these teabaggers years ago with his Jason Compson character, a low-down dirtbag blaming the New York City Jews for scheming him out of his well-deserved cotton-speculatin’ money. Conspiracism is just a means of existential justification for powerless dimwits.
Ash Can
@Jack: Very, very nicely written, but that’s not dissonance, that’s just plain mental illness. I don’t know how else to characterize that thorough a break from reality.
Max
Catching up on my dvr shows.
I’m not sure how many of you watch Iron Chef or the Next Iron Chef, so, forgive me if this means nothing to you.
Jeffrey Steingarten is a pompus, misogynistic douchebag.
That made me feel better. Thank you.
Svensker
@Brian J:
You bet. Lately I’ve been feeling like heading out — scarily enough, the hub does, too. We’re talking about it seriously.
madmommy
@Brian J:
Funny how family can make you crazier than any stranger off the street. There’s so much history and baggage there, every situation comes pre-loaded with issues going back to childhood.
The hardest thing in the world is to walk away from these types of confrontations. Especially if you’ve got to deal with that same family member at the next holiday gathering. Better channeling the frustration into productive things than punching holes in the walls!
Jack
@Ash Can:
Thank you.
*
I’m still wary of the “mental illness” tag. I don’t think social reality is so objective that Consensus is a given. I have a very close friend who believes the dogma of a religion which is plainly hogwash to me. None of the tenets of this faith are verifiable. None can be confirmed the way a rock can be held, coffee tasted, or a flower scented.
But that she holds as true some pretty daffy beliefs doesn’t mean she denies the concretes of observable experience. Our realities have some overlap, some consensus. But the correlation is not complete.
Neither of us is mentally ill, just because we don’t define reality in the same terms.
So, too, I think with the conspiracists. The same people who can hold that the President of the United States is a Manchurian candidate, born in Kenya, raised in Indonesia, smuggled into Hawaii in advance of 40 years of groundwork and coverup, including false birth notices, and a rash of useful murders, indoctrinated both as a literalist Muslim and a socialist, using Americorps as a vanguard of fascist and communist overthrow of Wallbuilder America which has never actually existed, can also manage very ordinary, healthy and otherwise sane lives.
Just like my friend who believes that the God of the vasty vast Universe made a world which fell out of kilter with the divine plan because one of his own perfect creatures became imperfect, corrupted a complete innocent who had no metric by which to measure guilt or innocence, this sin condemning all of existence to eternal and fiery punishment, that this God of All then decided against his own judgment, took the maidenhead a thirteen year old girl, conceived another flawless creature in her womb, that he might live long enough to be offered up as human sacrifice so that anyone who believed this exact story might avoid the otherwise certain damnation of everlasting torment – can also live an otherwise sane and ordinary, healthy existence.
burnspbesq
@Brian J:
A trick that somebody taught me when i was studying for the bar, that really helped on the multistate, might also help on the LSAT.
There is only one right answer to a question, so it two of the possible answers are substantially identical, they are both wrong.
Now go forth, kick its ass, and get into your first choice school.
Tom
Fistfight at Balloonboy’s House!!
Fistfight at Balloonboy’s House!!
Thank God for video cameras and the internet, they give us the ability to share the weirdness of the world.
http://www.comcast.net/video/fistfight-at-balloon-family-s-house/1300210842/Comcast/1300005463/
jeffreyw
@MikeJ: Well done, sir!
Incertus
I should probably hold this in reserve until the next time there’s a music war, but it’s too good not to share. He’s German, and he raps Eminem songs. In Klingon.
Elie
The leaves are sublime….
Airy, light, aspiring and core, deep and grounded into what matters
Thank you
General Winfield Stuck
@Tom:
Dear gawd. The inmates have taken over the asylum and today we are all Balloon Boy.
@MikeJ:
Fine looking dinner sir. I am eating my specialty tonight. Stuck Gumbo. Black eyed peas, Lentils and anything leftover in the fridge that hasn’t turned moldy. In a big slow cooker. No roadkill meat though.
asiangrrlMN
@MikeJ: Oh my god oh my god oh my god! I WANT! jeffreyw, looks like you got a little competition! Hey, what kind of pie is that in your gallery? It looks yummy.
Man, do I love people who cook. Furthermore, I love people who share pictures of the luscious food they cook. Yum.
@Brian J: Yes. I am considering NYC because it’s my favorite American city. Unfortunately, it’s also the second-most expensive one. Sorry about your bro. Family members really know how to get under your skin, don’t they?
@jeffreyw: And where are your food pr0n pics for the night?
jeffreyw
@asiangrrlMN:
Just had some leftovers today, what with the missus goin into work the 2d shift.
How about a nice breakfast?
MikeJ
For those who missed the description of what that food is:
https://balloon-juice.com/?p=28443#comment-1407787
jeffreyw
I’m planning to cook some fish tomorrow, so there will be something for you to look at then.
asiangrrlMN
@MikeJ: Looks so sinful. You may not have seen my edit. What kind of pie in your gallery?
@jeffreyw: Love it. It reminds me of the brekkies I had when I visited England.
asiangrrlMN
Ok, late-night music peeps. I need a song that is about being broken. Not breaking up with someone. Not having money. But having your soul broken. Thank you in advance.
MikeJ
@asiangrrlMN: That was a pear tarte tatin. Pear season is damn near reason enough to live in the pacific NW.
jeffreyw
Dunno, either peach or apple.
Fulcanelli
@Brian J: There’s no revenge like success, bro.
Work hard, get into the school you really want to, graduate, save enough money and then buy three of the cars HE always wanted. In different colors.
If that doesn’t put ‘prickly burrs up his tailpipe’ (as Yosemite Sam would say), then I can’t help you. The well trained eye will notice I left hawt females out of my revenge formula… Now why did he do that?
Family: Irrefutable proof God has a cruel sense of humor.
Steeplejack
@Tim F.
Dude, not cool having a post with the exact same title as one only a few hours before. Especially the generic “Open Thread.”
I kept seeing comments being posted to “Open Thread” but wasn’t finding them. Then I realized I was on the old, crappy, “happy news” open thread. Ex-cuse me. Now I know where all the cool people are.
Jack
@asiangrrlMN:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scFykNMqaws
Elizabelle
Did anyone else catch the PBS Newshour segment tonight on the White House taking on Fox News?
Josh Marshall (TPM) asks some good questions.
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/10/news_at_fox_news.php?ref=fpblg
The Newshour segment was very odd, for them, mainly because of guest Tom Rosentiel, who seemed to be tripping over false equivalencies — maybe in hope of being “objective.” The second guest, an American U media professor who appeared frequently on Fox, was far more forthright and believable. She at least addressed the difference between Fox’s evening pundits, chat show hosts and their hard news operation (such as it is). She called Glenn Beck out, something Rosentiel never touched.
Fox News and its reach/impact in the cable era is quite unlike anything we’ve seen before.
Here’s a NYTimes Opinionator blog roundup on the topic.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/19/fox-hunting/
I just don’t see how ignoring Fox’s influence and outright propagandizing is “unpresidential,” as some media critics (and Helen Thomas!) would have you believe. The manipulation and misinformation and all opinion 24/7 is changing the environment in which President Obama can operate in. In very perilous times.
Sorry for the long post. I was very surprised and disturbed, though, at the Newshour’s dodgy coverage. Unusual for them.
asiangrrlMN
@jeffreyw: Yours was apple. You label your pics.
@MikeJ: So yummy looking.
@Fulcanelli: I always thought that about god. So did Depeche Mode. Then, I decided God didn’t exist, and I was much happier.
Fulcanelli
@asiangrrlMN: Johnny Cash: Hurt
This should do nicely Grrl…
asiangrrlMN
FYWP and fuck the moderation.
@jeffreyw: Yours was apple. You label your pics.
@MikeJ: So yummy looking.
@Jack: Wow, I really like that. It’s not quite right, though. I’m looking more for a song that talks about someone who’s damaged by early life.
jl
@Elizabelle: Being considered ‘presidential’ by the Village is very important. Look at Theodore Roosevelt, FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, and LBJ. They were very unpresidential, each in their own way, and look what failures their admininstrations were.
Jack
@Elizabelle:
I think Digby offers a useful perspective:
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/knowing-thyself-by-digby-everybodys.html
Elizabelle
Phillies just topped the Dodgers in a 9th inning home run. 5-4 final. Take a 3-1 series lead.
At least the Angels had a good afternoon. Dang.
Jack
block quote fail
whole thing is Digby’s…
MikeJ
Big Star’s Holocaust from Sister Lovers.
asiangrrlMN
@Fulcanelli: I used to believe that about god.
So does Depeche Mode. Then I decided that God with a capital G didn’t exist, and I was much happier.
P.S. I love that version of Hurt, but I just used it recently.
asiangrrlMN
@Elizabelle: Yay, Phillies! Yay, Halos!
asiangrrlMN
@MikeJ: Really good song. I am looking for something from the first person perspective, though.
Brian J
@Svensker:
I’d say my situation is a little different, only because it seems like I’m trying to get away from everyone I now see. You at least have someone to escape with.
It’s weird, because deep down, when I think about it, I don’t really hate anyone. Take work, for instance. I think of how I really don’t associate with people I work with outside of work primarily because I’m sick of seeing them so much, and I wonder if I hate them, but then I think of various individuals who I really like.
@madmommy:
There’s really only two people in my family I find myself continually frustrated by: one brother and my mother. This brother and I have had a terrible relationship for years, and much of the blame certainly lies with me, but most of the recent trouble lies with him. With my mom, it’s different, because the problems are so stupid, but they are usually what causes trouble between us.
But yes, with family it’s definitely different.
@burnspbesq:
That’s something to consider, as I’m trying to focus more on strategy now.
At this point, I feel like a lot of the problems I am facing go back to confidence and not panicking during the test and also focusing. It’s not an easy test, but it’s also not neurosurgery. The answer is there in one of the five questions, and I keep telling myself that if I can narrow down the possibilities just a little, I’ve got a good shot at getting it right even if I forget a particular technique. I’m not kidding when I say that I’ve either fallen asleep for 30 seconds when doing a practice section or come close to it, which is among the many reasons I may miss more questions than I normally would.
All of this is important because I’m thinking my target range involves me missing about 15 to 20 questions. I’m not sure yet, but I might skip one logic game out of the four entirely. If I do, that’s five or six, but if I spend more time on the other games, I think I’m a lot more likely to get 18 right. If I can nail the reading comprehension, that’s at least 24 or 25 right out of perhaps 26 to 28 questions. That leaves me a lot more room to mess up a few in the logical reasoning section, so I can also slow down a bit and focus on getting more right. I’m trying to naturally limit myself to 33 minutes instead of 35 and going through some questions at a slower pace even if it involves not getting to a few, which seems to be working. I’m also spending a lot of time trying to figure out why I got some questions wrong.
I’ll see what happens, but I keep trying to tell myself that, as I said before, the answer is there and I just need to find it. Slow but steady improvements are what I need to keep me going and I might, might, just be seeing that.
That, and the fact that for some reason, I can bring it home on standardized tests, like getting a higher score on my final ACT than I ever got during a practice test, gives me hope.
Anyway, I’ve rambled on enough, and I completely missed my target of getting into bed at 11:00, so good night, and thanks for the good wishes.
asiangrrlMN
@Brian J: Elaborating on my point on #27. I have difficulty with multiple choice tests because I much prefer explaining myself. I get tripped up in, “In this situation, A is the answer. In this one, B is.” I think if you can avoid that, it’ll help.
I don’t have any significant other or children and my life is in great flux right now, so I am more amenable to leaving MN than I otherwise would be. I love the weather, my friends, and my family, but I yearn for NYC.
Good night.
Comrade Mary
Oh, those are gorgeous, Tim! You definitely have an eye for composition. What camera is that again? And did you tweak them at all in Photoshop? The saturation is incredible.
bago
Linux is a perfectly reasonable research OS. You want to do something weird and experimental, go for it, you can rewrite whatever you want to kludge together a solution.
Just that’s not always what people want.
Fulcanelli
@asiangrrlMN: Hey MEH, your use of the word ‘used’ has me a little concerned. Don’t be doing anything that would deny the world the gift of your spark and humor, even if it is only over the ‘tubez’… Promise?
Talk to us, were here.
Elizabelle
Jack: interesting piece by Digby.
Although I don’t hear Fox being “honest” about their “biases.” I hear them saying, well, maybe our stars are opinionated, but it’s not like that’s filtered into our “hard news” gathering. Right.
PBS guests did think cable owners realize there’s $$$ in opinion-heavy programming; less (apparently) in presenting facts.
asiangrrlMN
@Fulcanelli: Oh, sorry. I am blogging about issues from my past, and I want videos to match the experiences. I used Elvis Costello’s I Want to Vanish yesterday. It’s nothing more than that. Sorry for the confusion.
IndyLib
Well, my boys won a Monday night game in San Diego. I’m thrilled, but still surprised. I thought the offense was going to suck this year. I can’t decide if I love Eddie Royal or Elvis Dumervil more tonight.
asiangrrlMN – Hard to believe both of our teams are undefeated, it’s surreal.
Jack
@asiangrrlMN:
Humbly apologizes.
Consolation prizes? (not quite on topic, but Nick’s music conveys that feeling, if not the lyrics themselves…)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9HRo-9mqrQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEX8OeFo9bE
(ugh on the silly video – it’s the song that matters)
asiangrrlMN
@IndyLib: No kidding. Although, I feel bad about the win yesterday. It sucks to win on a missed chippy by the other team.
Brick Oven Bill
The first photo indicates clay soil, and settlement. The catch basin to the upside of the puddle, most surely was designed at a lower elevation than the puddle. Is that an empty case of Coors in the puddle?
Should have specified more aggregate base.
One more reason why Pittsburg sucks.
ericvsthem
Holy fucking shit that Phillies game was awesome!
asiangrrlMN
@Jack: Hey, don’t apologize. The BJ late shift will tell you that I am notoriously picky when it comes to music. I like the River Man very much, and I am keeping it on the short list.
Brick Oven Bill
Curbs should have expansion joints every 4 or 6 feet. This Pittsburg curb was poured straight. Thus the uncontrolled crack at the lower right. This is a compression crack, indicating a lowereing. See the puddle.
Steeplejack
@asiangrrlMN:
Janis Ian, “At Seventeen.”
Bubblegum Tate
@asiangrrlMN:
Not sure if this is the particular flavor you’re looking for, but Ras Kass’ “The Evil That Men Do” is kinda in that vein.
Ash Can
@Jack: Fair enough, but I would argue that there’s a lot more evidence to disprove what conspiracists believe than to disprove what your friend believes. In your friend’s case, her belief is based on faith, which exists despite a lack of supporting evidence. In fact, I would guess, based on my own experience, that her belief exists independently of the “observable experience” you describe, and is neither contradicted by it or contradicts it, or at at the very least not in any appreciable way. In a conspiracist’s case, however, the belief exists despite evidence to the contrary; i.e., despite this “observable experience.” The two belief systems may seem equally wacko to you, but there are different dynamics involved.
asiangrrlMN
@Steeplejack: Love this song. Not quite right.
@Bubblegum Tate: Excellent. On my short list.
Brick Oven Bill
I can almost guarantee you that this particular curb was designed by somebody back a hundred years or so, and was recently redesigned by some person at the Public Works Department.
The people at the Public Works Department are more accountable than those at the federal level.
You do not want these people having control over your life. See the puddle.
Betsy
@asiangrrlMN:
Tori Amos, Silent All These Years?
Betsy
@asiangrrlMN:
Or Aimee Mann, “Ghost World”
Warren Terra
Matt Taibbi’s big new piece on Wall Street is worth a read.
Bubblegum Tate
@asiangrrlMN:
I went for more obscure hip-hop while overlooking a more well-known option: Naughty by Nature’s “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright (Ghetto Bastard)”, which is a great song that got overlooked because of the pop success of “O.P.P.”
Warren Terra
And I’d say something about food, but let’s face it: for vivid mental imagery, nothing I’ve got to say is going to top MikeJ rubbing chili powder, cumin, and some garlic on his loins.
Andy K
@asiangrrlMN:
Jesus, aren’t you in the Twin Cities? Thye Replacements’ Here Comes a Regular fits the bill…For me, anyway.
burnspbesq
@asiangrrlMN:
How about this? Joy Division, “Love Will Tear Us Apart.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yTIpcwBTTs
Betsy
@asiangrrlMN:
Also, Antje Duvecot’s song “South,” for which I can find neither lyrics nor video, frustratingly enough.
Rough approximation of lyrics:
Mother, mother take good care
‘Cause there are jagged shards of glass out there
And the ones who wear the shoes don’t seem to give a damn
It’s hard to find a place to stand.
Mother, mother take good care
I’m sure you know by now how many things get broken out there
When you’re sending out your barefoot little girl
Won’t you say a prayer for her
You can hold onto your cross, get down on your knees
Pray to your Jesus
He packed his suitcase long ago
Threw up his hands, and thus he spoke:
It’s just no use, all of my love can’t cure these blues
I’m going South
Sunshine south
Mother, mother take good care
‘Cause all they’re handing out are tickets to nowhere
So teach your daughter how to be all she can be
And how to cry when it don’t come easy
You can hold onto your cross, get down on your knees
Pray to your Jesus
He packed his suitcase long ago
Threw up his hands, and thus he spoke:
It’s just no use, all of my love can’t cure these blues
I’m going South
Sunshine south
Who’ll carry the blame?
Who’s gonna take up the campaign?
The politicians in command are washing their hands
They’ve gotta tend the marching band.
You can hold onto your cross, get down on your knees
Pray to your Jesus
He packed his suitcase long ago
Threw up his hands, and thus he spoke:
It’s just no use, all of my love can’t cure these blues
I’m going South
Mother, mother take good care
Cause there are jagged shards of glass out there
The ones who wear the shoes don’t seem to give a damn
It’s hard to find a place to stand
It’s hard to find a place to stand
It’s hard to find a place to stand
It’s hard to find a place to stand
freelancer (itouch)
@asiangrrlMN:
For you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEUpKzoEW-E
Brachiator
@asiangrrlMN:
2 by Peter Gabriel
Best Song ever about a damaged soul, Mercy Street (Anne Sexton’s reading of her poem “All my Pretty Ones” mixed with Peter Gabriel’s “Mercy Street),
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Y5KELHc0Hw
First Person, broken and hope offered, Don’t Give Up, Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiCRZLr9oRw
Joni Mitchell – The Magdalene Laundries (w The Chieftains)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JORv2ocjQ5c&feature=fvw
Joni Mitchell-Lession In Survival
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CFksy54n1w&feature=related
asiangrrlMN
@burnspbesq: That’s a really cool song, but it doesn’t fit for my topic.
@freelancer (itouch): I love orchestras. I like this version better than the original, but not quite right.
BethanyAnne
@Max: I want to see him offer his opinion first one damn time. Talk about your basic idiotic contrarianism. I think he just disagrees with whatever the other 2 judges say on principle.
asiangrrlMN
@Betsy: I had forgotten how much I love this Tori Amos song. It’s on the short list.
@Andy K: I am properly chastened. I had another Westerberg song on the list, but this one is better.
@Bubblegum Tate: This Naughty By Nature Song totally fucking rocks.
asiangrrlMN
Ok, peeps. You get to be the judges tonight, though I am the final judge. I have four songs in contention for tonight’s blog entry. The topic is being broken. Not by love or not out of money, but by events in your life. The choices (in two posts since only two links can be in each post):
Tori Amos, Silent All These Years
Korn, Alone I Break
asiangrrlMN
Naughty By Nature, Everything’s Gonna Be Alright
Paul Westerberg/The Replacements, Here Comes A Regular
Each person can only vote once, and you have roughly half an hour to vote. Thank you.
Betsy
@asiangrrlMN,
Also, I doubt this fits for what you want to do, but Emmylou Harris’s Red Dirt Girl is very much about being broken.
Betsy
@Betsy:
God, that song makes me sad.
asiangrrlMN
@Betsy: Oh my god, that’s a sad, but beautiful song. No,it’s not quite what I wanted, but thank you for sharing it, anyway. I really…resonate with it.
Except for the whole Southern, red dirt, married with five kids, whiskey, pills part, of course.
freelancer (itouch)
Where’s JK?
Betsy
@asiangrrlMN:
I actually can’t listen to it very often, because it is just so achingly sad and real. But I love it. I would say it’s a work of genius, except that sounds too sterile.
asiangrrlMN
@Betsy: I really really really like it. I may have to use it, even though it’s not exactly right. The sentiment is perfect.
@freelancer (itouch): He’s taking a hiatus–dealing with the real world for a bit.
Betsy
@asiangrrlMN:
I’m really glad you like it. One of the many things I love about folks here is how wide-ranging people’s musical taste is. No one thinks it’s odd to love Emmylou Harris equally as much as Public Enemy or The Magnetic Fields (or whatever).
Anyway, I’m for bed, but good luck with your project. I’m enjoying these musical assignments. :) Although I’m sad that you needed tonight’s theme.
asiangrrlMN
@Betsy: Thanks. I decided to go with the Tori Amos song. It really fits, and I like it a great deal. I hope you sleep well.
RedKitten
Definitely one of Tori’s best, IMHO. I played the living crap out of “Little Earthquakes” during my last year at university — so many great songs on there.
Gravenstone
@asiangrrlMN:
I can’t access youTube from work, but I suggest you give Damaged by Queensryche a listen. It may (or may not) fit your bill of particulars. Plus, I rarely miss a chance to plug them where applicable.
Tim F.
@Comrade Mary: Thanks, Mary. The camera is an Olympus E-P1 with the kit zoom lens attached. In fact photos like this are a great example of why I chose this camera. It was a nice day (for photos – clear, cold and partly overcast) so I threw the camera in a jacket pocket for the walk to work. Despite the small form factor many people say that the E-P1 has the best image quality of any Oly DSLR.
I always shoot in RAW mode. RAW doesn’t provide the auto image improvements that JPEG mode does, so I generally fix sharpness, contrast, saturation and the tone curve (slight ‘s’ to enhance contrast or, in the case of the top image, reduce it) myself for each pic. It takes a while but I’m picky. The leaf pic, for example, needed pretty strong contrast enhancement, which is why it came out relatively grainy.
asiangrrlMN
@Gravenstone: Love. It. I will be keeping that on file for future blog entries. Ta.
keestadoll
Loved the leaf one!