Recently updated blogs

Quick PSA: someone on Facebook is apparently impersonating me using an account called “McMansion Hell 2.0” – If you see it, please report! Thanks!Howdy folks! I hope if you were born between 1995 and 2001 you’re ready for some indelible pre-recession vibes because I think this entire house, including the photos have not been touched since that time. This Wake County, NC house, built in 2007, currently boasts a price …

Hakobune‘s guitar is processed like one hundred Guthries, ringing with reverb abandon as chords stretch into warm, elongated vibrations. The 2019 album Rain Studies is a full-spectrum affair; it alternately plays and washes away intruding sounds. Its CTwins-spirit is best transmitted on “Tenkyuu,” which sounds like muting everything but a single guitar track on Victorialand‘s mixing desk. I suppose these comparisons are a little unfair. I feel I’m projecting my …

Hurrying through the National Gallery of Art five minutes before closing, I passed a Navajo weaving with a complex abstract pattern. Suddenly, I realized the pattern was strangely familiar, so I stopped and looked closely. The design turned out to be an image of Intel's Pentium chip, the start of the long-lived Pentium family.1 The weaver, Marilou Schultz, created the artwork in 1994 using traditional materials and techniques. The rug …

The Hebrew month of Elul אֱלוּל begins this week, so let's look at its etymology. As with the other names of the months in the current Hebrew calendar, it was adopted in Babylonia, and therefore has Akkadian origin. Klein writes that it derives from an Akkadian word reflecting its function as the beginning of the harvest period:Akka. ulūlu, elūlu (= harvest, harvest time; lit.: ‘the time when the produce of …

I was interested* to see Naz Hamid asking on Mastodon** about how folks keep diaries these days. *I was also thinking I should probably spin up Visual Studio Code for the first time in a few weeks to check that it all still works and that I still remember how to blog. **Can we talk about how infuriating it is trying to link to a specific post/thread in Mastodon, or …

Each month, the CMBA profiles a classic movie blog written by one of our members. This Month, we are featuring Stela Zoric, who writes at Those obscure objects of desire. 1. Why do you blog? We live in a world of abundant data, data that has never been easier to access. But real information? Something worthwhile? That has always been, and will always be, more difficult to obtain. Since I …

September bathes the garden in golden light. September sun is often the most benign of the year, the mornings and evenings chilly enough to need a jersey but the days bright and shirt-sleeve warm. Some of this is due to the changing climate but September has always been one of the best months and always with a marked seasonal shift, with a new term, new season, new feel in the …

Nate Piekos took the bull by the horns and wrote The Book on comic book lettering. He did not disappoint. The post The Ultimate Guide to Lettering Comics appeared first on PIPELINE COMICS.

“You see, it was the wedding of my grandparents. To the Shaws was born a boy, James, and to the Stephensons, a daughter, Esther. James and Esther were sweethearts from childhood and like their parents before them, they too were married on a beach at midnight amid blazing torches. Is it any wonder I should have become a torch singer?” –Wini Shaw Wini Shaw was born Winifred Lei Momi on …

When is the best time to land fish using the fly rod? August stands out as the least productive month, particularly for warm-water species. Bass and Bluegill tend to retreat to deeper waters during the hottest times of the year, typically July and August when surface temperatures can reach a scorching 87/88 degrees. However, as the water begins to cool in late September and October, the fish become more active, …

Lillian Gish is, unquestionably, one of the most significant stars of the silent film era. But one of her greatest performances from the era was in the last silent film she appeared in: The Wind, released in 1928. The Wind was an adaptation of Dorothy Scarborough’s novel by the same name, first published in 1925. This is very much a book that was meant to be turned into a silent …

I’m traveling for the long weekend. Either I’m having bad luck with the epic heat waves or there have been a lot of epic heat waves, because again the short road trip threatens to be tyrannized by the hot air. It did at least touch 100°F this time, so at least it is a proper respectable heat wave. We are in a place called Hocking Hills, whose AirBnB has these …

Hi, everyone. I alluded to this in my last Krondor post, but I thought I'd make it explicit: September is the busiest month of my year, so I need to concentrate on other things for a while. I'm in better shape this year than in previous years, however, so I expect you'll see my return around the middle of the month rather than after 4-5 weeks like last year.

I recently went on on a trip from Cape Town to Washington, D.C., Seattle, North Cascades National Park, Seattle again, Denver, D.C. again, and then back home to Cape Town, all in three weeks. It was wonderful, but it was too much: too many airports, too many suitcases, too many weird bathroom setups. (Well, two, but that was two too many.) I kept saying to myself, “I’ll be so happy …

After 18 months, I finally took the hint that my walking partner has moved on (I’m not bitter) and replaced him. With somebody reliable, who will walk with me whenever I want and enjoy it too. Demmy loves walking and is already in my house! She’s perfect. A visit from my Dad, who looks down on almost everything I enjoy doing except walking, seemed like a good time to resume …