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Yes, I’m turning into one of those people. Jessica can be a crazy cat lady if she likes, I’m turing into a “bike guy”. There is now more bike than hallway in my hallway.

I’ve never been big on naming my possessions. I’m not sure why, but even cars I’ve owned over the years have never had a name. Bikes on the other hand seem to demand names. They aren’t just something you sit on and pedal– different frames, tires, gearings, and other characteristics all seem to come together to form a sort of personality. The reasoning is less clear for two other personal truths about bike names I’ve discovered. First, bikes are female. I don’t know why (and maybe it’s because I’m a straight guy), but this is defiantly the case– I’m sure Freud would have a field day with that one. Second, and even more inexplicable, bike names always begin with the letter S. I really have no clue on this one.

So without further adieu I give you the newest member of the family, a single speed with sass, Sabrina:

Of course, a few of you have already met Sally but in case you missed it here she is again:

Man I am such a dork.

Oh and in case anyone is a bike dork too Sabrina is a 54cm Concord racing frame (made by Kuwahara in the 80s) with it’s original fork, headset and BB. Spinning on the back is an Araya 700c double wall rim and Deore LX hub built up with spacers. The front is some generic wheel and tire that may get replaced soon (the tire in particular is a little aged) being stopped by a set of good old fashioned caliper breaks and a BMX brake handle. It may be getting some Nitto or el-cheapo Nahsbar TT bars soon as well, although I have to admit I didn’t hate the straight bars it came with anywhere near as much as I thought I would.

Edit: I’ve given it a bit more thought and I’ve decided that only road bikes need to begin with an S. Mountain bikes need to begin with a B… or maybe a J…

I noticed a few days ago that good old Google will show you the local show times and locations of any given movie title (assuming you have saved your zip code with google local otherwise you will be prompted for a zip code). What I didn’t realize is they have a pretty full featured movie portal for current movies, and even more impressive is the search function for things within movies (I.E. try ‘movie:Arctic Explorers Vikings‘ to get one of my favorite 70s adventure movies).

Their database of movies both new and old seems pretty extensive and it’s already helped me track down a few movies where I could remember basic plot points but not the title or any of the actors.  The only thing stopping Google from being the one-stop-shop for movie stuff would be links to Netflix and Fandango (or movietickets.com) for each title.
Way to go Google!

(I suppose I should point out that according to the Googleblog this feature has been around since February, I just never noticed it before.)

Oh… By the way, does anyone want to see any of these soon?

• The War Tapes
• A Scanner Darkly
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
• Clerks II

Popcorn’s on me!

Purchased on a whim Saturday (July 1st)
Miles ridden so far: about 50

A few things that have surprised me

1. I haven’t been on a bike since I was about 15– Remarkably the saying is true and I didn’t forget how.
2. I am faster than the bus (usually).
3. My neighborhood seems bigger.
4. This is a lot more fun than I remember it being.

I’m seeing some long bike rides in my future.

Two words: Woo Hoo.

Tantalus has another show running that I somehow neglected to list here. I’m not involved in this one but please come out and support the arts, eat some food, and hear som great stories!

Here’s the press release.

The Strange Dreams of Nobody in Particular is a timeless pageant celebrating the power of stories. Tantalus Theatre Group presents a three-night mosaic of storytelling, song, spectacle, and food. Come hear the story of the child emperor, the tragic fall of his magical kingdom, and the hope that made his people whole again. Join us around the campfire and celebrate with us the simple magic of a story well told.

Matthew Rossi proposed this mosaic of storytelling and song to the Tantalus Theatre Group last year. His idea was to tell a story by telling the stories surrounding it. It would be like learning the story of Hamlet through the stories of Fortinbras, Polonius , Rosencrantz, and a guard in the castle Elsinore. The project began to take shape this winter with the help of Apollo M Weaver who joined the writing team and was signed up to direct the production. By the spring they had created a complete three-night epic that told the stories surrounding the Child Emperor and his palace made of paper. After a period of work shopping, the production got underway with the help of the talented cast of Mikayla Brown, Tina Carney, Jordan Keller, Joanna P. Lind, and Parrish Morgan. Each night’s performance is a celebration so come join us for stories, songs and food around the campfire.

Schedule:
The Storied Sun: Fridays June 16 - July 21
The Fall of the Tower: Saturdays June 17- July 22
The Rising Moon: Sundays June 18 - July 23*

All shows are at 7:30. In heavy rain, the show will be cancelled.

*On Sundays July 2 and 23 we will present all three stories:
3:30: The Storied Sun 5:30: The Fall of the Tower 7:30: The Rising Moon

Location:
Waters School Community Garden (Sunnyside and Campbell - 1 block West and 2 blocks South of Western Brown Line.)
Map

Cost: $10 suggested donation

Concessions will be available at all shows.

Yep it’s time for yet another Tanta-production! I’m AD on this one so you won’t see me on stage, but come on out and support the arts (and for that matter the artists). I really think it’s going to be a fun show to see– heck 12 foot tall puppets in a 11 foot tall space is reason enough to come see it.

Here’s the official press release:

02/11/06

– For Immediate Release –

The Tantalus Theatre Group Presents: The Serpent Woman

By combining elements of commedia, fairy tales, a classic love story, and giant puppets the Tantalus Theatre Group has created a new and exciting production of a classic Italian commedia script.

The original production of the Serpent Woman by Carlo Gozzi was popular in its time but the years, and subsequent translations, had not been kind to its audience appeal. Devin Brain (director and Tantalus Theatre Group company member) adapted the script to both simplify the overly complex plot lines, and to further explore the darker, more frightening side of the fairy tale archetypes.

The project really got off the ground when Brain teamed up with veteran puppet maker Marc Chevalier. Marc wasn’t daunted by Devin’s artistic concept; take a very small theatre (the Side Studio with a capacity of about thirty people) and place the largest, most technologically advanced puppets he could into it. Marc has created larger than life, fully articulated puppets of mythical creatures that take up to four actors to control.

The combat sequence between the main character Farruscad (played by Andy Kirtland) and the 12 foot tall skeletal giant posed a particular challenge to Lindsey Noel Whiting whose influence can also be seen in the hypnotic fire dance inspired by traditional Indian candle dancing.

Plot Abstract:

Farrascad is a mortal man trapped in a fairy kingdom who must overcome his own nightmares to be reunited with his true love, despite the efforts of the mischievous fairies Farzana and Zemina who long to keep her for themselves.

The show opens February 24 and runs every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 8 pm through April 1.

The Side Studio 1520 West Jarvis Street (map)
Tickets $10.00

Phone for reservations: 773-960-2066

P.S. I know I owe the world an U/RTA update but that post takes more time and energy than I have right now– Expect it once SW opens!

Hear that?

That’s the sound of my head imploding. I’m not going to have much time to update this between now and the middle of February. Grad school preperation, The Serpent Woman, and work stress have my plate about as full as it can be.

Now, if I keep focused I think I can make sure it doesn’t stop spinning…

Over the MLK weekend I had a friend in town. Most of my friends seem to be allergic to visiting *cough Donnie * *cough Madelynne* so I took this rare occasion to really paint the town. We ate out every meal, we went shopping, we saw a show, we did it all… but the highlight of the weekend (other than the good company of course) was dinner at Heat.

The first three courses were unimaginably delicious sushi (two courses Nigiri and one hand-rolled Maki). I’m serious, you can’t imagine how good it was so don’t bother trying– you might strain something. Course four was the traditional miso soup followed by a melon and ginger salad with truffle oil infused raspberries as course five. Course six was a pan seared salmon steak with a mango and miso sauce topped with a super-fine shredded basil. and a delectable gelato for dessert. Of course everything goes better with booze so we split a bottle of Hoyo Kura No Hana Junmai Daiginyo (translated) Sake which was excellent. The waiters were all wearing black suits with white shirts and black ties (not bow-ties) and they gave us the lowdown on each item as it was served.

It was altogether a really excellent dining experience. Heat is able to maintain an extremely high level of food quality without making the gourmet sushi novice (like me) feel like a schmuck. Kudos to them.

Of course all good things must come to and end. Now there’s nothing left of the meal, or the weekend, but a fond memory and a dent in the checkbook. It’s the nature of such things– They’re always fun while they last.

In the mad dash to get everything in order for Grad schools I realized I have no head shots that look anything like me, so I bought a 20 dollar tripod and walked over to the lake to take some pictures.

This was the result:

It’s not professional or anything but I like it quite a bit. I’m now off to the photo lab to see how well it prints.
(If you’re curious you can click on the one above and download the whopping 2mb version I’m going to try to get printed.)

Update: I just go back from CVS and I have to say I’m really impressed. The prints turned out simply fantastic. The only way you can tell the picture was digital is a little spot where I cut the mask wrong to fake the depth of field right around my ear. Anyone who says 1.2 Megapixels isn’t enough for an 8×10 is a dirty liar!

Thanks to pOps for the hints on how to set things up in photoshop.

Things only my geeky friends will care about:

1. I’ve updated this blog to WordPress 2.0. I’ve always been a HUGE fan of tiny MCE and the good folks at WP have now built it into the latest version. I’ve been meaning to do it myself for a while but I never got around to it. Yeah for them for having more time and initiative than I do.

2. Unfortunately there were two causalities of the upgrade. Live+Press, which synced my blog to Livejournal and Kitten’s Spaminator, which kept me free of comment spam. These have been replaced by Livejournal Cross poster and Akismet respectively. My impressions are good, although Livejournal Cross poster is clearly pretty beta at this point, but it gets the job done.

3. BSG (Battlestar Galactica for those not in-the-know) season 2 resumes tonight! Woooohoooo!

4. I had to do a complete format and re-install on my work machine. I didn’t heed my own advice and turn it off over X-mas break. A domain administrator’s password was compromised (not mine I might add) and when I got back to the office on Jan 3rd my machine was happily serving up warez and midget porn to the l33t community at large.

The silver lining is I’ve really gone to town with the latest and greatest release candidates of all of my favorite software. It took some fudging about to find the proper plugins and extensions that would work with Firefox 1.5 but now that it’s all happy I’m quite pleased.

Long live the free software movement and to hell with Microsoft (they don’t even get a link)!