Category Archives: Uncategorized

We’ve started rehearsals for The Little Death, my erotic Christian pop musical.
Here we are at the Icehaus:

That’s Melly there playing piano and singing, and Pete in the back playing some floor glock.

Heavens! How did Obama let this one slip?

Ok, seriously? They’re riding him over use of the word ‘bitter‘?? The level of debate is so shockingly juvenile. Hillary Clinton has shown herself to be a person I simply do not respect, that is unworthy to lead. She knows how Obama used the word, she knows she is full of shit, but she continues to freak on it. This is either an impressive display of cognitive dissonance, a facility in lying, or she’s as dumb as the people she thinks will buy this crap, and I don’t believe she’s dumb.

Now, I don’t think Obama will change politics as we know it. I know his hope stuff is pretty much a load of crap. I disagree with a good amount of his policies. But the fact that he is even attempting to raise the level of discourse in this country is enough for me.

Wow, really terrible news:

Gretchen M. Snedeker packed a lot into her short life.

At 24, she was already the principal French horn player in two orchestras, had earned her master’s degree from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, was an adjunct music professor at Colgate University and was being groomed to take over as principal horn player at Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown.

Thursday, the Baldwinsville woman’s life was cut short when she died from injuries suffered in an accident earlier that day in Oneida.

I always dug Gretchen. Really talented at the horn and a genuinely sunny person. I used to love saying her name in a funny old man voice (“Gretchen! Snedeker!“) and she would grin and bear it, even though I’m sure it was annoying after like 800 times; great name though, like from a Mark Twain novel. I hear that Gretchen took over the new music horn geekdom after I finished at Eastman, becoming the go-to-gal for Ossia and Musica Nova; I always dug that she challenged herself and went gung-ho into the scary world of new music for horn.
I hadn’t spoken to her in a while, but it seems that she had been doing really well musically upstate. She was also engaged which is nice to hear, but of course makes it all the more tragic. My thoughts are with her friends and family.

Oh sweet lord, I just had a coffeegasm.

From Why I let my 9-year-old ride the subway alone:

“How would you have felt if he didn’t come home?” a New Jersey mom of four, Vicki Garfinkle, asked.

Guess what, Ms. Garfinkle: I’d have been devastated. But would that just prove that no mom should ever let her child ride the subway alone?

No. It would just be one more awful but extremely rare example of random violence, the kind that hyper parents cite as proof that every day in every way our children are more and more vulnerable.

…

The problem with this everything-is-dangerous outlook is that over-protectiveness is a danger in and of itself. A child who thinks he can’t do anything on his own eventually can’t.

UPDATE: Lenore Skenazy has a blog, check it out: Free Range Kids

Downey in the house:

Chi Mak, a 65-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen living in Downey, California, was found guilty of having orchestrated the conspiracy to obtain naval technology and to illegally export the material to China, the Department of Justice said in a news release. Mak worked for defense contractor Power Paragon.

D-O-W! (clap! clap! clap!) N-E-Y! (clap! clap! clap!)

That’s a quote by Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, speaking of his company’s new ‘everyday’ brew.

Chairman and Chief Executive Howard Schultz said the new blend will have a bold, robust flavor profile that customers have come to expect of Starbucks coffee, but with a smoother, buttery finish.

“smoother, buttery finish” = weaker

Starbucks is competing with Dunkin Donuts and McDonalds who have both significantly upgraded their coffee. I think it’s a good thing that these fast food places have better coffee, even if it is still kinda crappy (actually I have a soft spot for Dunkin’s coffee for some reason). But if Starbucks reacts by lowering the “boldness” of their coffee, then I think they are heading in the wrong direction. Like many idealists, I believe that one day in the not-too-distant future we too, like the Euros, will have dark, rich coffee at our disposal, wherever we are. But maybe that’s no different than wishing for a socialist/laissez-faire/christian utopia.

Speaking of laissez-faire and Starbucks, Starbucks recently banned the phrase “laissez-faire” from their customized cards. What do you think, accidental or intentional? Irony or hypocrisy?
(via The Agitator)

Whoa. Don’t miss this. This Friday at 7 at Fontana’s.