Hell's Half Acre

a message to geo. bush from Edith Cavell

Edith Cavell website

google-y takes it on the chin

YAHOO REJECTS GOOGLE REQUEST IN BOOK SEARCH CASE
Yahoo has rebuffed Google's attempt to learn more about its efforts to create digital copies of books, dealing the Internet search leader another setback as it prepares to fight against a copyright infringement suit. In rejecting Google's request, Yahoo adopted the same stance taken last month by Internet retailer Amazon.com.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2006-11-30-yahoo-google-copyright_x.htm

my favorite surf team

the best surfers in the world are having an exhibition this weekend. I knew eventually all this blogging would amount to something good.

ghosties

Egypt ghosts

Drawing ghosts

Night ghosts

Rain ghosts

Sometimes being the outside observer can make you feel like a ghost

carson K maude

Look what Quark sent! Why is he disguising himself as Carson K Maude? Silly Quark. And what exactly is rear-end local time? Is it half past bleep bloop bloop o'clock?

high art. low art

pix -- round one

I imagined London to be colorless and drab. What I encountered proved otherwise.

 

dead guy doppelganger

I met a fellow beiger who was a ringer for my dearly departed friend JB.

Here are JB and I the last time I saw him.

Here is the brit boy doppelganger.

correo electronico

excerpts from an email I am sending:

DUDE!

Things are good. Just got back from Thanksgiving in London. Oh yeah, I was walking along the south bank of the Thames and there was this weird skateboard park with all these dissaffected british teens skating like little Tony Hawk wannabes. Then I heard some 13 year old boy say "Hu-What!! Yeayah" like the Chappelle version of Lil' Jon. I completely lost it and thought about the time we saw "Rick James, itch" spelled out in kelp on the dunes in Sand City.

Had to throw that down on the blogster before I forgot. There are a lot of weird moments that are only captured in fragments. How can a place be so familiar and so alienating at the same time. Familiarity in topography and weather. . .I saw moss covered pavement and was immediately reminded of Seattle and the familial home. The reflections of things in the water on the sidewalks. The low lights of northern climates. The damp chill and the smell of growing rotting leaves. These are things that are so deeply and completely internalized. I didn't even know that they weren't around until they were in front of me again. I felt like I was home.

As for the alienating part, well, yeah, I had weird moments of panic, similar to Mexico. I love to travel but I hate being disoriented. Maybe I have been in one place too long. My usual stint in a city is ~2 years. I've been in NYC for 5.5.  Anyway, I was walking around quite a bit of the city and it was slightly overwhelming. I was lost 97.3%  of the time I was there.  Only once was I a little bit (okay a lot) nervous and that was when I ended up in an area with no people at night with no idea of how to get back to people. 

You know, when you live in the suburbs, a random person seems threatening or suspicious and can arouse fear. When you live in the city, the lack of people triggers the same danger response. When there is no one around, anything can happen. You could disappear and no one would know.

I managed to get back to the throngs and the heaving masses that crowd London's theater district, a place which made Times Square seem roomy and sane.

Still working on posting the pics. More impressions to come.

London on my mind

I wish that I had seen this before I left. http://www.cityofsound.com/blog/2006/11/alan_fletcher_e.html I would definitely have checked the exhibit. Did I talk abou the Tate Modern yet. I had high expectations. Perhaps they were too high. Perhaps I should never visit a museum in a densely populated city on a Saturday. I'm sure that's where it all went bad.

I admired all of the elements in the museum that were designed for children, however. Some of the larger museums in New York leave themselves inaccessible to kids, making it hard to raise their interest levels. I remember hearing a young girl at the Tate telling her Mum with quite a bit of urgency "We've got to locate the Surrealists!"

BTW, The City of Sound blog is a good read. Found it after looking at another good read, Bryan Boyer's blog.

Oh yeah, and thanks to GG for these two too.

http://pinchy.org/
http://betheboy.blogspot.com/