We Saw a Chicken …

Author: scruss

  • “I Voted”, or something

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  • Winsome Newsom

    On several people’s recommendation, I bought Joanna Newsom’s The Milk-Eyed Mender CD. It is quite remarkable. Her lyrics remind me of Mervyn Peake‘s nonsense poems (… Even mollusks have weddings, / though solemn and leaden / but you dirge for the dead, / take no jam on your bread …). She sings of catenaries and dirigibles, rephrasing words into unfamiliar shapes. It’s not the most common act, a harpist with a fey wee voice who can also raise up a real backwoods caterwaul, but it works for me.

    Here’s a video of one of her songs: Sprout and the Bean.

    (Norvin, you’d hate it. In fact, you’d hate it so much that I’d advise you listen to it, just so folks around you can experience the ‘neitzen’ effect.)

  • Well, you know what you need to do today …

    … so do it.

  • torrent: Mayor McCA, Lee’s Palace, 18 June 2004

    http://www.easytree.org/torrents-details.php?id=12213

    Mayor McCa
    Lee’s Palace, Toronto
    18th June 02004

    172MB, FLAC format

    Set List
    ========

    I’m So Poor. Buy My CD : 4’13”
    That’s A Wrap : 3’14”
    Hey Man, You Gotta Nice Job : 4’58”
    I Got A Haircut : 3’11”
    Funky Fresh Beets : 7’45”
    I Can’t Pay The Rent : 3’13”
    You Better Watch Out : 4’34”

    Recording Details
    =================

    Audience recorded by Stewart C. Russell
    Sony ECM-909A microphone -> iRiver H120 digital WAV recorder
    (Direct digital file transfer to host Linux box)
    Tracks split using Audacity
    Levels normalized using the ‘normalize’ command-line tool.

    This recording was made with CA Smith’s permission.

    About the Artist
    ================

    CA “Mayor McCa” Smith — One-man Band Singing Sensation, Cartoonist,
    Tapdancer, almost-Mayor of Hamilton, ON — is probably best explained by
    visiting his website: < http://mayormcca.com/>.

    MP3s live here.

  • Happy Samhain!

    Hallowe'en 2004
    Not bad for my first attempt at pumpkin carving. It smells pretty bad when it’s got the full complement of candles charring the inside.

    Update, 9:30pm: Phew — it’s over. We handed out something like $60-worth of candy tonight. I had to make two emergency runs to the shops to get more. I have to say, this “Trick or Treat” thing is getting off lightly. When I was a kid in Glasgow, we’d go guising, all costumed up, and we each did a little party piece (song, poem, joke) to earn our loot. We had a retired teacher as a neighbour, and she was a difficult audience. You’d spend about five minutes inside each house, not just a few seconds at the door. Kids today, eh?

  • Dough D’oh!

    The Rise of the Yeast Beast
    Whenever you have to defrost live bread dough, make sure you don’t do it in a sealed polyethylene bag. It looks like a squid has been at it …

    (the resulting bagels were great, though.)

  • torrent: Circulatory System – Lee’s Palace, Toronto – 13 April 2003

    http://www.easytree.org/torrents-details.php?id=12198

    Circulatory System
    Lee’s Palace, Toronto
    13 April 2003

    Audience recording by Stewart C. Russell
    Sony ECM-909A microphone
    -> Sharp MD-SR60 minidisc
    -> analogue PC soundcard.

    Tracks split with Audacity, normalized with ‘normalize’.
    Compressed with ‘flac –best’
    288 megabytes.

    Track List:

    1 Yesterday’s World
    2 Should a Cloud Replace a Compass?
    3 [door/days]
    4 Joy
    5 Round
    6 The Lovely Universe
    7 Diary of Wood
    8 Outside Blasts
    9 [now]

    — Pause to repair Will’s guitar —

    10 Lately/Realize
    11 Days To Come (In Photographs)
    12 Waves of Bark & Light
    13 Away

    Track names in [square brackets] are unclear from the recording, and are from the (still) upcoming album

  • They’ll turn white soon enough

    So everyone’s getting these red-centred quarters in their change from Tim Hortons:

    Canadian Poppy Quarter 2004

    They’re apparently the world’s first bicolour coin. The red in the middle has already started to look very distressed , ‘cos everyone’s scratching them to see if the colour comes off. And it does.

    If Canada were really serious about peace, they’d have made the coin like this:

    Improved Canadian Poppy Quarter 2004

    … like the white remembrance poppies I used to get from the Peace Pledge Union in the UK.

  • LinuxCaffe

    Looks like David J. Patrick’s LinuxCaffe is actually going to happen in Toronto.

  • orkut has difficulties

    orkut's error message
    At least they have a sense of humour about it.

  • big win for Ontario Renewables

    From the resolutions from the upcoming Ontario Liberal Party Conference:

    Be it resolved that the Government of Ontario encourage the use of renewable energy by implementing Advanced Renewable Tariffs that will allow distributed solar, small hydro, or wind energy to be established by farmers, co-ops, and locally owned enterprises and to be able to market this energy on the provincial grid.

    Be it further resolved that the Government of Ontario make a subsidy available for the purchase and installation of all major Green” technologies which can be utilized to provide energy for residential dwellings, offices businesses and industry (products such as geothermal heat systems, solar-assisted hot water heaters, heat pumps, small-scale wind generators, net metering equipment, etc.).

    I think we have Paul Gipe to thank for that.

  • The return of Mr Nae Friends

    Okay, so now I have an Orkut account, it appears no-one I know is on it. Is this exclusivity, or something else?

  • Hey Kids, It’s The Coalition of Negligence!

    I misread this CBC headline “Allawi accuses U.S.-led coalition of negligence in ambush of Iraqi recruits“, and I thought, wow, that’s a whole new coalition, and a whole new ballgame!

  • my digicam’s better than your digicam

    There’s a minor Canon vs Nikon thing going on at Toronto Photobloggers right now … as a D70 owner, I just know I’m right 😉

  • Some edition required

    Wikipedia’s article on the Nuclear thermal rocket currently contains:

    This problem was largely solved by the end of the program, and related work at Argonne National Laboratory looked like it could produce a lot of poo.

    Can’t argue with that …

  • Peely’s dead

    Legenadary BBC Radio DJ John Peel has passed away. Where will we get the weirdness now?

  • Scooby-Doo breaks cartoon record

    Scooby-Doo breaks cartoon record — but the BBC article is worth reading purely for the anti-Scrappy Doo feedback items alone.

    I have to say, Scrappy Doo was perhaps the most annoying cartoon character ever.

  • Stewart’s Quest for the Sensible Bicycle

    A trip to the Toronto Islands yesterday got me thinking about the perfect bicycle for me — and why nobody makes it.

    In Scotland I had nearly the perfect bike. It was a ridiculously solid Pashley delivery bike. It had huge heavy steel wheels, full-length mudguards, hub brakes, hub gears, and a dynamo (generator) lighting set. It took minimal maintenance, and didn’t require special clothes to ride it.

    The mountain bike, though promising so much to utility cycling at its birth 20 years ago, is failing to deliver. Complex suspension systems and derailleur gears make maintenance difficult, and so users seldom do. The complete lack of chainguards and mudguards mean that riders have to wear different clothes just to be on the bike. Can you image a car trying to sell itself by requiring special clothes just to travel in it?

    So this is what I want from a bike:

    • Fully enclosed chain — I don’t want my drivetrain anywhere near road grit. Neither do I want my trousers to meet chain grease.
    • Full mudguards — I don’t get mucky, riders behind me don’t get mucky. We all win.
    • Hub gears — once you’ve used them, you’ll never consider anything else for utility cycling.
    • Dynamo lights — with a standlight, for preference. I don’t like getting stranded without lights.
    • Proper carriers — riding wearing a rucksack is bad and wrong.
    • Anything but rim brakes — why do we still use these relics? Hub brakes work in all weathers, and seldom, if ever, need maintenance.

    You’ll notice the conspicuous absence of suspension. Good tyres, at the right pressure, are great suspension. They are also light and very puncture proof, if you know how and where to ride.

    We’re not all athletes. Some of us would just like to incorporate exercise and sustainable local transit in our daily routine, with the minimum of hassle.

    So who comes close to making these bikes? Pashley still do, but they’re murderously expensive in Canada. Workbike manufacturers Worksman and Mohawk almost do, but they’re short on mudguards and chainguards. Kronan is nearly there, but why they only have one brake (a rear coaster, which is terribly inefficient) is beyond me. Maybe I’ll find an importer of Dutch bikes. My search continues …

  • Big Pink Car

    Big Pink Car
    A Big Pink Car. It’s a Checker Marathon.

  • Eyetap wins Coram Design Award

    Steve Mann, et al have just won the 2004 Coram Design Award for sustainable design. Yay!