Alan Dargin is dead

The wikipedia, along with other Australian news services, have the news. The famous Mills list broke the story for me.

This news had me feeling pretty low over the last two days and really quite sad right now. He was one of the first didj players whose name I knew, and his Bloodwood album was first didj CD I ever bought, back in the day of record stores, before the days of MP3.

The man was forty. I've never been to Australia, I never had the pleasure of hearing him in person.

I sat on the porch for a time tonight, cold and beset upon by strong winds- how very appropriate, I felt. I brought out my didjbox and played, in time with the wind, in time with my own heartbeat, playing a little for Cat to listen, more for nobody to hear.

YouTube provides:

A little slice of perfect

On the last Saturday of the month, the Arts Council of New Orleans holds their Arts Market four blocks from our home.

Cat usually works mornings on Saturdays and often wakes me up with a coffee and promises of the market. Some days we just go and look, taking cards and memories for future decor. If Cat's low on any of her varieties of handmade soap, we buy. I bought Cat an anniversary present there. We did all our holiday shopping there one year.

Bamboula 2000 were playing, a loud upbeat tune as familiar as walking, the rhythms second nature and the words unknown- but you bet we all sung along.

Walking hand in hand with the woman I love, happily squelching in the park avoiding wet patches from yesterday's rain because we both have shoes with holes, smelling the kettle corn and the press of the crowd with dogs and babies. Inevitably, we will run into people here: This week I saw an old work buddy, his wife, and their infant. We missed my good friend Carl and his wife Jackie by minutes (they walked down to say hi anyway), and we said hello to the regular vendors.

We make new friends, too. There's a new Italian deli place I've never heard of, Just Italy. We each got a quarter-muffuletta, garlicky, oily, and perfectly dressed with damn fine olive relish. We hunkered down on the sidewalk, happily eating and looking at the crowd and the band and the vendors. The weather was perfect- no clouds, a nice breeze, sunny enough but not too. After devouring the muffs, we pick up another two quarters for later, share a Katrina moment with the deli guy and get a free T-shirt. Right next to the deli, hot fresh made-to-order crepes. I got Black and Gold: Nutella and banana.

Call it two slices of perfect.

Dogs and cats, living together

First Castro steps down. Then they find an alleged Oswald-Ruby transcript. What will tomorrow bring?

Thrice again, I ROCK

Cat surprised me last night with a new PS2 And Guitar Hero 3! We spent a few hours last night a-rockin' and a-jammin' and just having a blast. I need to get my other guitar back so we can play some co-op.

For the record, I'm getting mostly 98-99-100% churning though Easy, notwithstanding the cat deciding he wants to knock things over and ruin my set. I'm out of practice, but the skills are still there. Rusty, but there.

Yes, I appreciate the irony of working for an arts conservatory and playing fake guitar.

Living in small spaces

YouTube linkery aplenty.

Here's an RV-classed house that's smaller than our current living space. It's 325 square feet.


(Direct video link)

Linked from that, a more movable house that folds up for easy transport.


(Direct video link)

I find it interesting that both appear to be of Canadian manufacture.

We're a long way from living in an ultimate engineered house, but I like the spartan/utilitarian approach to these designs.

Wear clothes with your videophone

I'm trying out Skype to chat with my brother in Austin, and I'm pretty pleased with the audio and video quality. You sure can't beat the price. A buddy of mine uses it to talk to his mom in England.

I've got a MacBook with built-in camera and mic, so I could walk around the house and yard while chatting, showing off the dog and construction and the like. I really should get a BlueTooth headset to keep this up.

We're seriously talking about playing a board game or two over this, which rules.

Anyone else out there using Skype?

Valentine's Day Dining

Figaro's reopened last week. They've been closed since the storm.

Cat and I knew that we had to go, and soon. We weren't regular regulars, but we ate there perhaps once every two months or so. It's nice to have a neighborhood Italian restaurant that lets you eat some slow food.

We made a date for Valentine's.

To start, we had the famous Figaro's Terrine, a layered pine nuts/cheese/sun-dried tomatoes/magic/some other cheese/pesto/goat cheese/love/sun-dried tomatoes with crostini bread.

Then, salads: a mixed greens with almonds and vinaigrette for me; a most excellent spicy garlicky real Caesar for Cat. The only better Caesar I've had that comes to mind was made tableside for me.

Entrees: Portobello stuffed ravioli in a light alfredo sauce for her; a sherried chicken in penne for me. Naturally, we shared. All was delicious.

We had a lovely slow dinner on the patio. It took us maybe two hours to eat; the server warned us that they were slow, operating with a limited menu and reduced help in the kitchen. I know that I saw the owner hustling back there, and I don't think they had more than two servers for fifteen-twenty tables.

Step by step and bite by bite we come back from the land of LAMRON.

...and speaking of comedy

My brother's improv troupe, Murphy Improv, has their debut performance tonight in Austin.

Steve Martin is a very funny fellow

Steve Martin has a piece in the Smithsonian mag about his comedy. I can't quite call it a funny article, but I know that at least two of you (Josh and Marc) will appreciate it.

If you don't feel like reading a bio piece interspersed comedy insight, I'll just quote one of his bits for you.

I had the plumber joke, which was impossible to understand even for plumbers: "OK, I don't like to gear my material to the audience, but I'd like to make an exception, because I was told that there is a convention of plumbers in town this week—I understand about 30 of them came down to the show tonight—so before I came out, I worked up a joke especially for the plumbers. Those of you who aren't plumbers probably won't get this and won't think it's funny, but I think those of you who are plumbers will really enjoy this. This lawn supervisor was out on a sprinkler maintenance job, and he started working on a Findlay sprinkler head with a Langstrom seven-inch gangly wrench. Just then this little apprentice leaned over and said, 'You can't work on a Findlay sprinkler head with a Langstrom seven-inch wrench.' Well, this infuriated the supervisor, so he went and got Volume 14 of the Kinsley manual, and he reads to him and says, 'The Langstrom seven-inch wrench can be used with the Findlay sprocket.' Just then the little apprentice leaned over and says, 'It says sprocket, not socket!' [Worried pause.] "Were these plumbers supposed to be here this show?"

What a difference a day makes

Yesterday seemed to prove the old adage about bad things coming in threes. Today, on the other hand...

Today, my man Simon lent me his old Sony Ericsson T68i with plenty of gizmos: a camera attachment, an analog converter, even a German power adapter in case I happen to travel in the next little while. Luckily, T-Mobile had already unlocked his phone, so it was a simple matter to slap my SIM card and bam, phone service. A few minutes of convincing my laptop and my phone to play nicely, and through the miracle of Bluetooth, I had all my contacts.

Today, we also hit up the Saturday farmer's market in the Warehouse District; I had plans for exactly two things: red lentil balls and whole milk from Smith creamery. I made out with no lentil balls, some fresh tamales (cheese/jalepeno and veggie), my coveted whole milk straight from cows, a slice of Cajun bread pudding, a taste of mango popsicle, four bucks worth of incredibly delicious and fresh spinach, a free Lexmark all-in-one, and an almond praline variation called "Nipples of Venus."

Today, I hacked at a borrowed AP. Finally I have a working (and legitimate) wireless bridge on a nice, strong signal. Hooray, tubes.

Today, we arranged a fivesome for Fury of Dracula (BGG, BUY ME!). Bennett arranged to be Drac, and Margaret, myself, Leslie, and Daniel teamed up to stomp his fanged self. The game dragged a bit in the middle, but we seriously weakened him with our use of allies that hurt him while at sea and when he used some of his powers in combat. Margaret came down and killed him with a stake very close to Leipzig. Go, Team Hunter!

Today: we once again have water. Hot water, cold water, running water. The sink is refreshing. The toilet is a relief. A shower is glory.