xtop life of the mind sesQuipedalian the ancient order whirr--click bookfeed musicfeed archival

September 29, 2004

   


September 24, 2004

   


 

i'm going to hit you if you mess this up, okay?

When I flawlessly perform a piece from my book, Adult Adventures in Piano (Adventures!), I get a star on the page. Once I get got a star on my chest for being so good. Sadly, I live for these moments, these quaint little validations that I am not, in fact, a total clod. In the vein of getting stickers as a reward, piano lessons are a lot like grade school, where your...
Posted by xtop at 12:43 AM | Comments (2)
 


September 23, 2004

 

notes on music: 9.23.04

Tom Waits - Real Gone When I bought my first Tom Waits album, Bone Machine, as a freshman in college, I felt so goddamn adult. I remember playing it for my friend Tom in his dorm room, the same year everybody was moving to Seattle and would be mourning Kurt Cobain. I also remember the shrugged reception it got, while I stumbled to explain just why this was so great. Not since...
Posted by xtop at 12:18 AM | Comments (2)
 


September 22, 2004

 

bugfuck trumps crazy

"Some people like to sing in the shower and I like to give presidential speeches." "Jesus" "And I kid you not." • • • "Did you hear what he just said?" "No." "He was telling me he's in school, has one semester left, and he paints. So I asked him what he paints and he says 'Oh, I doubt I'll ever sell one of these.' I ask him again and he says...
Posted by xtop at 02:03 AM | Comments (3)
 


 

biological ball

Fire ants have developed a unique method to keep from drowning. At first hint of rising water, worker ants gather the entire colony into a ball - sometimes as big as a basketball. As the water overtakes the mound, the ball rides the flood like a living raft, rolling in the water so all the members can take turns breathing. When they strike a solid object, be it a swimming dog...
Posted by xtop at 01:36 AM | Comments (0)
 


September 21, 2004

 

feeding geese (and a duck or two)

launch 'geese (and a duck or two)'...
Posted by xtop at 09:14 PM | Comments (0)
 


September 18, 2004

 

the black keys // lawrence, ks // 9.17.04

black keys picture show...
Posted by xtop at 03:40 AM | Comments (1)
 


September 16, 2004

 

the greatest blog post ever told

So anyway, I get through my day of work, walking like Robocop and talking to people like a retarded beast and head home. I'm about three feet outside my office when a woman points at me and yells "OH MY GOD, LOOK AT ALL THOSE BEES!"...
Posted by xtop at 02:08 AM | Comments (0)
 


 

talking about talking about things is like talking about things

So, to my devoted fanbase, a part 2 of the vacation story/pictures should be coming by this weekend, and I have stories about piano lessons (I'm learning to read sheet music, which really hurts my brain like I was 14 and got dropped in algebra class all over again) and fishing (on a boat!) and some more ever-ponderous thoughts on music I'm listening to (Peter Haskett and Raymond Huffman of Shut Up...
Posted by xtop at 02:04 AM | Comments (0)
 


September 15, 2004

 

brain changing

Hypnosis is more than just a party trick, it measurably changes how the brain works, says a UK researcher. Hypnosis significantly affects the activity in a part of the brain responsible for detecting and responding to errors, says John Gruzelier, a psychologist at Imperial College in London. Using functional brain imaging, he also found that hypnosis affects an area that controls higher level executive functions. “This explains why, under hypnosis, people can...
Posted by xtop at 11:50 PM | Comments (0)
 


September 11, 2004

   


September 08, 2004

 

the kc serial killer

A single person is believed to have killed six persons whose bodies have been recovered in the central city since July, Kansas City police said Monday. Police Capt. Rich Lockhart made the announcement at a briefing in which he also described a dramatic increase in the number of officers working on the cases and identified the fourth of six bodies recovered since July 14. [...] “We have reason to believe that one...
Posted by xtop at 01:49 AM | Comments (0)
 


September 05, 2004

 

lookit that bum over there, man, he's down on his knees

So, one guy's opinion here, but LA's awful. It's not so much that it's a nightmare city jam-packed with strip malls disguised as 'promenades', or that relaxation seems anathema, or that it is, in fact, hot and sunny all the time or that traffic there is so predictable and yet so out of the blue, one time being due to a cop just swerving across all 4 lanes for his own ostensible...
Posted by xtop at 04:41 AM | Comments (10)
 


September 04, 2004

 

i only get the best assignments

forwarded from my editor: "Our fourth comedian is from Portland, OR and suffers from cerebral palsy. His handicap gives him permission to go over the edge about handicap people and he does. There is a much broader story to this show so I'll only go into detail if you're interested."...
Posted by xtop at 02:26 PM | Comments (0)
 


September 02, 2004

 

furnace

Matt Glasson, good friend, rock star, tv host, co-conspirator and jack of all trades gets a blog and goes a-marching "I was considering heading up to central park for the potential rally/chaos on the great lawn, but I was tired and was out of memory on my camera. There was one group nice enough to offer free food at the end of the journey in Union Square, but after looking in their...
Posted by xtop at 11:48 PM | Comments (0)
 


   


 

here is a picture of san francisco

tired, beat. hoo-lord, I'm bushed. tomorrow stuff goes back to normal(ish) and then the story can be told. until then, bliss out on this shot from tire beach, where half-naked hobos can peacefully co-exist with trespassing photographers...
Posted by xtop at 01:53 AM | Comments (1)
 


an empty telephone Products


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