Tag: friends

leaving on a jet plane, but no, not really

Tasha sums up my thoughts the recent JetBlue airfare deal perfectly:

So JetBlue has a slightly bizarro deal on right now: The “all-you-can-jet pass,” essentially a $600 pass to fly as often as you want on JetBlue, anywhere they go, for the month of Sept. 8 to October 8. This is a weird deal; it just isn’t how most people fly, with the possible exception of business travelers and salesmen, whom JetBlue would presumably much rather stick with the lucrative business-class bill.

But I’m weirdly tempted. I’m a sucker for the all-you-can-eat buffet, the season pass, the monthly CTA fee instead of the pay-by-the-trip card, the frequent buyer’s club, the all-day unlimited-trips deal, anything where you pay a flat fee and then it’s up to you to make it worth your while. And there’s something different and luxurious and lifestyles-of-the-rich-and-famous about the idea of just being able to hop on a plane whenever and go wherever, as often as I want. Never mind that my vacation time this year is pretty much spoken for, or that JetBlue mostly doesn’t go where I want to go, and the places I DO want to go, I could get to cheaper. I’m betting that with this pass, they’re selling more the idea of freedom, the sense that JetBlue is your private plane, just waiting to whisk you away, as though a trip from Portland, Maine to Portland, Oregon was a taxi ride between points downtown.

If I didn’t have a job, I think I’d be all over this in a pretty crazy way. Never mind the lack of logic in buying a service that will take me across the country to places I have no particular desire to be. I’d do it just for the travel. Who knows, maybe there’s something fascinating waiting in Newburgh, New York or Sarasota, Florida or Burlington, Vermont that I never would have known about otherwise, because I never would have thought to fly there. Or maybe it’d just be fun to treat an airline like one of those downtown hop-on, hop-off tour busses. I wonder how much more they’d charge for my own flight attendant to tell me about the splendors of Rutland or White Plains as I arrived.

as if I need an excuse to blog about these two

My dear, dear friend Myke,
artist of all trades, designer, comic author/illustrator, animator, sculptor, semi-retired DJ and promoter, and all around inspiration,
has just been featured on Dark Roasted Blend! Check it out: Airships and Tentacles.

Bonus: check out the intricate, ethereal art of his sassy girl Beth. (Also, they have an Etsy shop. And a really freaking cool website, the Miskatonic Archive.) (Did I also happen to mention they’re both obscenely good looking? Because they are. Yes. Go click on their sites.)

for a nice change of pace, my favourite place to read on-line fiction

From the perpetually inspiring Karen Meisner, continual keeper of all that is holy and powerfully good:

Hey everyone — Strange Horizons is having its annual fund drive right now!

Strange Horizons is an important market for speculative fiction, publishing work by exciting new writers as well as the names you’ve come to know and love, plus reviews and poetry and all kinds of stuff that lets readers across the planet discover great writing. Strange Horizons has given a wide variety of writers a place to shine, especially those whose voices aren’t always heard as loudly in this field: women, writers of color, and anyone else writing non-traditional sf, as well as fresh takes on classic forms of science fiction and fantasy. We pay professional rates, we offer our content 100% free, and we do it all as a nonprofit labor of love. (Which means donations are tax-deductable, in case your boss likes to fund arts organizations too!) For nine years and counting, the sf community has helped keep our little magazine going strong. If you’ve ever found something on our site that you were glad to find, I hope you’ll chip in whatever you can. Thank you!

…Look, I’m no good at hyping things I’m involved in. But if you know the magazine, you’re probably aware of how vital it’s been, and continues to be, in helping so many terrific writers break into the field and launch their careers. If you believe in the value of Strange Horizons, please do what you can to help out: donate whatever you’re willing to pay for these stories; spread the word far and wide about the fund drive; get your friends to spread the word too. Let’s make it happen.

Thanks again, guys. We are entirely a community-supported magazine, and also a community-supportive one. We love our readers and writers, and we love doing what we do.

Oh and PS — You can donate anytime, of course, but if you do it now during the fund drive, you’re eligible to receive prizes!

COILHOUSE 3 is on sale now!

COILHOUSE, the smoothly wicked paper-child of Nadya, Zoetica, and darling Mer, is now selling Issue 3!

Today, to celebrate, they’ve posted a tour of the magazine, which includes such treats as Xeni Jardin riding a unicorn, a searing collection of photographs from the Kowloon Walled City, and a Brief Tour of Pre-War Russian Pulp by author Jess Nevins.

CLICK HERE TO BUY

I can’t even pretend I’ve the extra money, but I’ve already bought my copy. It’s the only magazine I buy. I love COILHOUSE like I loved Mondo 2000, not only as a beautiful magazine stuffed with the sort of fascinating ideas that help shape our culture into more what I want it to be, but also as a lovingly crafted, stylish, sleek, and super sexy art object d’fetish. They’re so pretty I leave them conspicuously out when I am done reading them, solid space advertising, so guests to my home will see them and take note.

Also, for the hardcore fan, which I can not afford to be, they also have t-shirts and stickers.

dressing red as candy blood

Tonight at the Anza Club! Springtime Lullabye!
Jess Hill’s costume party music video debut!

“It’s true! As of yet there has been but a whisper in the wind of the coming of wonderful things. The magic people are busying themselves excitedly with the creation of an evening of dream and inspiration, song, poetry, burlesque, and decor. Minds, bodies, and spirits will then make a dream come true as we raise funds for the production of Jess Hill’s upcoming album: Orchard.”

doors at 8, show at 9. tickets $10 at the door.
Lullabye’s start at 9pm sharp. So don’t be late.

The night will feature la musique of Jess Hill, Tarran the Tailor, Maria in the Shower, CJ Leon, Chelsea Johnson, and Sneetch, burlesque performances by the fine feathered ladies in Booty Burlesque and the one and only Rad Juli, and mad poetics by The Svelte Ms. Spelte and RC Weslowski.

The theme is dreamland so do please let your imagination dress you. After all anything goes, it’s your dream.

PERFORMERS:

Jess Hill: Hauntingly beautiful, the shadow singing with her crows, the blond-haired, blue-eyed, guitar-riffing sweetheart of East Van, Jess Hill will be playing with her band The Dreams of All and Sundry featuring arrangements for strings by Aaron Joyce and electro-acoustic foley artist Lee Hutzulak.

Tarran the Tailor: An enchanter of hearts, eyes, hips, and toes Tarran combines boombox and banjo to cast Cajun-style charms on his enraptured audiences. His organic beats seem a perfect fusion of musical technologies from the past, the future, and the land of East Van.

Maria in the Shower: A fascinating troupe of soul-singing mimes! Their engaging performances mix theatre and cabaret, horn and voice, musicianship and character into an unforgettably ecstatic happening.

CJ Leon: Clever as a crow with cadaver in his throat, CJ is bleaker and funnier than Hell with classical guitar accompaniment.

Chelsea Johnson: Soulful and true, when she rocks the mic, the world rocks too.

There will also be performances by the folk = fun act Sneetch, the hot and fiery Booty Burlesque, the naturally Rad Juli, the scarecrow prophet of East Van The Svelte Ms. Spelte, and surrealist poet and the current Vancouver Poetry Slam Champion RC Weslowski.

where to be on Sunday

WAYFARERS OF THE GYPSY MANSION
a musical bazaar of sorts with
HUMANWINE, THE BLACKBIRD ORCHESTRA, NATHANIEL JOHNSTONE, TOY BOX TRIO, MEISCE, FINN VON CLARET, and DJ Q.

“These are the times, my friends. And these are the days. Where the world becomes malleable, palpable. When novelty and genius are within our reach. We are cautioned against being passionate about these things by tales of progress turned to greed and of technology turning on us. And yet, the golden light is just right, the clocks are synchronizing, the stars are in alignment.

This is what we celebrate tonight. We celebrate these transient times, with these transient artists.” – c. lantz

Sunday, May 10, 2009 3 pm to 10 pm
The Little Red Studio
750 Harrison Street, Seattle, WA
ALL-AGES, $15 donation

Wearables, craftables, and edibles provided by a plethora of local and regional artisans. (ex. Sock Dreams will be arriving from Portland to vend excellent foot/legwear.) We will take a dinner break (with DJ) at 6:30 pm – please bring your own sack meal, a picnic to share, or food can be acquired from two of our vendors. Vegan options available. Adult beverages can be purchased by 21+ individuals.

Spread the word. All are welcome.

[Another fine event brought to you by the incomparable Libby Bulloff and Willow Brugh.]

Yes, as a matter of fact, if the situation presented itself, I would do it.

Staring into the sky, wondering at the blue, mesmerized, I caught the corner of my bag on the edge of a newspaper box and immediately turned to apologize. The world is turning, bringing my patch of Earth into sight of the sun, yanking flowers out of their buds, insisting we all move forward, drag ourselves out of wool coats towards the light. I am meeting Michael for lunch again, as I have every day since we met on the bus two weeks ago. We sit in the park when the weather is like this and eat our sandwiches lying on a blanket made of our overlapping jackets. Soon it will be summer and we will no longer need our coats. What then? Perhaps I will keep a cloth folded in my desk for our noon hour picnics. Perhaps by then we’ll be dead. Why think about it now, when the sun is out and company waits?

what really happened at columbine

Laid out on the bed like a window display, later, Michael and Emily, Randa and her kitten, Nicole and Ray, hiding from hockey, from being outside. Someone laughs, percussive, a wildfire spreading. I smile as I stand in the doorway, warmed, another full pot of tea in hand, (the mellow red packet marked JOY in black letters), feeling welcome in my social space for the first time in a very long time, following the breadcrumb sound like a trail in a forest. It has been too long since I’ve had friends over, since I’ve done anything but hide out of town, too busy dismantling the quicksand feeling of holding onto a stalled relationship to have people over during the week or really go out. Already it’s gotten dark, but we don’t care if it’s getting late. We’re sitting in the comfortable jewel-tone pillow heart of our own entertaining light.

my tv-b-gone needs a new battery

Wired did a nice write-up of hackerspaces, featuring Mitch and Jake‘s NoiseBridge, where Lung and Natasha and I slept over our second night in San Francisco:

DIY Freaks Flock to ‘Hacker Spaces’ Worldwide


Noisebridge’s members have filled this small space with an enviable collection of shared tools, parts and works in progress.

"Since it was formed last November, Noisebridge has attracted 56 members, who each pay $80 per month (or $40 per month on the "starving hacker rate") to cover the space’s rent and insurance. In return, they have a place to work on whatever they’re interested in, from vests with embedded sonar proximity sensors to web-optimized database software. (…)

Noisebridge is located behind a nondescript black door on a filthy alley in San Francisco’s Mission District. It is a small space, only about 1,000 square feet, consisting primarily of one big room and a loft. But members have crammed it with an impressive variety of tools, furniture and sub-spaces, including kitchen, darkroom, bike rack, bathroom (with shower), circuit-building and testing area, a small "chill space" with couches and whiteboard, and machine shop. (…)

The drawers of a parts cabinet carry labels reflecting the eclecticism of the space: Altoids Tins, Crapulence, Actuators, DVDs, Straps/Buckles, Anchors/Hoisting, and Fasteners.

Almost everything in the room has been donated or built by members — including a drill press, oscilloscopes, logic testers and a sack of stick-on googly eyes. (…)

In Noisebridge’s case, the community had a boost thanks to Altman’s geek cred (he’s the inventor of the TV-B-Gone) and his connections to existing geek societies, such as Dorkbot, a monthly gathering of San Francisco techies. Other cooperative arts-and-technology spaces in the San Francisco area — such as NIMBY, The Crucible and CELLspace — also helped prepare the ground. And of course it helps that San Francisco is already receptive to geeks, anarchists and other square pegs.

The recent crop of hacker spaces has followed a rough blueprint prepared by Jens Ohlig called "Building a Hacker Space" (.pdf). Ohlig’s presentation is a collection of design patterns, or solutions to common problems, and outlines some of the best practices used by German and Austrian hacker spaces.

Many are governed by consensus. Noisebridge and Vienna’s Metalab have boards, but they are structured to keep board members accountable to the desires of the members. NYC Resistor is similarly democratic. Most of the space — and the tools — are shared by all members, with small spaces set aside for each member to store items and projects for their own use."