the buck stops here

Top Twitter Tips

2010-03-26T16:20:00.011Z

1. Tweet useful content and links.

Always keep your audience in mind.
A tweet without a link is like a day without chocolate: edible but a little less tasty.

2. Engage your audience

Direct message people who retweet you, to say thanks
Respond to questions/comments directed @you
Participate in the Twitter community, for example: #FF, #charitytuesday, #musicmonday

3. Don't tweet too much. Or too little.

Tweet as often as is sufficient and necessary.
Naturally this will change depending on what is happening externally (eg, a Haiti earthquake; you’re in the G8 Bloggers Tent, etc).
Your twitter feed needs to be fed, but don't you don’t want to spam your audience. Overall, just be mindful of your audience.

4. Use #hash-tags.

Hash tags allow your content to get found, and to appear in searches. Use them!
Agree with your friends, colleagues, partners, allies to use the same hash tag.
If you get enough people using your tag, it can appear in the 'trending topics' on everyone's Twitter page. That’s cool.

5. Who you follow reflects who you are.

Some people like to follow lots of people.
Others find they want to follow key people in their field – as this tends to give you a better, more reliable source of good content to retweet (RT).
So it’s up to you, what your Twitter Strategy is. Either way, remember that all the updates from the Tweeters you follow will appear on your 'home' page.

6. Promote your twitter account.

Add it to your email signature. Easy.
Get others to promote it. Can take more effort :)

7. Track your links.

Link your account to a popular link-shortener (eg, http://bit.ly, http://ow.ly).

8. Use Tweetdeck (or similar software).

Helps you to keep an eye on the Twittersphere. HootSuite is another good one.

what people are saying about you
what the people you are following are saying (in case you want 2 RT 1 of their tweets)
who is retweeting your tweets.

9. Allow for retweets.
Keep enough characters free at the end so if someone RTs your tweet, they don't have to edit it.
For example:

Haiti: A Once in a Century Chance for Change. Beyond reconstruction: re-envisioning Haiti w/equity, oppty http://bit.ly/bSNVRe

when retweeted, becomes:

RT @Oxfam Haiti: A Once in a Century Chance for Change. Beyond reconstruction: re-envisioning Haiti w/equity, oppty http://bit.ly/bSNVRe

thereby using an additional 10 characters.

As with many things social media related, Mashable is a great Twitter resource.

If you're new to Twitter, a good place to start is here:

http://mashable.com/2009/05/31/twitter-tutorials-youtube/

More really useful Twitter tips here:

If you're an old hat at Twitter, dive deeper:

http://mashable.com/2010/01/12/zen-social-media/

And if you have the time for more analysis:

http://twitalyzer.com

What's your favorite Twitter tool?

dogs, cows...and men

2009-06-08T21:40:00.003+01:00

....sleeping everywhere along the streets.

the mind boggles.

what is luxury?

2009-06-07T19:07:00.004+01:00

all day long i edit and post stories, blogs, photos and videos of poverty around the world. but that doesn't really prepare one for the real thing.

it's my first time to india, and new delhi is steaming, dusty and dirty. and a jumble of people, and vehicles of all shapes and sizes. driving every which way. sort of how i like to drive. reminds me of boston really. the driving bit, at least.

i slept a couple hours in the afternoon, to try to combat jet lag. the rooms at the hotel caesar's palace are clean and perfectly fine for someone traveling with a charity (though i wouldn't quite go so far as some to say they are "elegantly appointed"). they do have key items though: working A/C and wireless internet.

i asked the receptionist where to get a decent meal, and she suggested mcdonald's. i think she just figgured that's what i would want. hmm. i tried to explain i wanted an indian meal. she sent me to the M Block market, where, after grabbing a bbq corn cob, and checking out the whole place, the only restaurant i could find beside McD's and Pizza Hut was "Yo! China". oh well.

with over 35,000 locations in over 100 countries, the big yellow M reigns supreme in the world of fast food. revenue was down in Q1'09 by 10% to $5B. yup, only $5B. for just the first quarter. but a growing global middle class, particularly in emerging markets like China, India and Latin America, is seen as a huge opportunity for Mickey D's.

and sure many businesses and organizations are looking to the new middle classes...

yet the reality of poverty still run deep and real... in india:

86% of the population lives under $2 per day; 44% lives under $1 per day
25% of the population does not have enough money to eat adequately

should be an interesting 2 weeks here...

the mom song

2008-12-17T01:39:00.003Z

allo, it's been a month. ok more than a month. been busy as a bee.

my mom just sent me this amazing video. what a great mom.

it's Northlands version of "The Mom Song". which is Everything a Mom says in a 24 hour period, set to the "William Tell Overture" ... with lyrics by Anita Renfroe.

here is the original posting of it

it's also on YouTube, w/+1.3M views

and on Vimeo

(no real reason to post all these version, other than to point out that YT has competition.)

while Anita's original version lacks the bombast (and stellar voice), and is sung to pre-recorded music, it has it's own very special charm. the standing ovation at the end nearly took my breath away (ok, so i am a touch over-tired).

love ya, mom!

hope

2008-11-05T13:03:00.004Z

ok, breathe.......!!!

i am quite tired today, having stayed up late to watch the US election returns.

well, it is over and i am unabashedly happy. no need for a long diatribe here, about my hopes that this will bring a new era of peace and prosperity, for the US, for the world...

instead, i post a happy picture which was the main graphic on today's nytimes.com...

Blog Action Day: AMPLIFICATION

2008-10-15T20:58:00.002+01:00

Since i signed up to participate in Blog Action Day 08, i have, in the back of my mind, been wondering what i'd say.

it finally struck me as i sped home on my bike this evening from work.

it's about Amplification.

because i work for Oxfam - i manage the www.oxfam.org website - i spend much of my day collecting, reading, writing, editing and posting stories about poverty. so in knew i wasn't going to write a story.

i thought 'why did i sign up to blog about poverty?' it was to add my voice to the more than 11,600 bloggers writing about this terrible global but very personal, individual scourge.

in the words of Ethan Zuckerman, one of the co-founders of very popular Global Voices, i am seeking to amplify the global conversation online.

read some of the mind-blowing facts about poverty at the life.boheme blog.

and there is something quite empowering in what Daniel Rothman says, about changing our thinking:

Conceptually, we must stop thinking of this as a fight against poverty, and start thinking of this as a crusade to promote wealth and abundance. The latter will
naturally lead to the eradication of the former.

because i don't think anyone ever reads my blog, please leave a comment if you can :)

tribute 9/11

2008-09-12T00:57:00.003+01:00

last weekend i played at a UK festival called Bestival (yes, original and clever) on the Isle of Wight, with my guitar-slinging friend Matt Sage. spending 3 days with someone you get to talking about many things.

unforgettable moments came up, and so naturally we recounted where we were when 9/11 hit... and the differences in our experiences, him being in England and mine being in Boston, one of the cities where one of the attacking planes had taken off.

7 years later it is so unbelievably vivid... that whole day from when my ex's mom called us during our morning commute, to learning that her brother-in-law had been in the Pentagon building, to sirens screaming, to cell phone networks unable to cope with the traffic, to when our friend Pam came over that afternoon and we watched all the tv coverage late into the evening -- not able to turn it off it was so incredibly unbelievable, that it could have happened, to watch the replays, to wait for stories of survival...

anyway, naturally the NY Times has great coverage today, so i simply post a link:

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/category/sept-11-and-ground-zero/

and will note that i can't figure out the fashion industry... why would they schedule something so shallow as Fashion Week to cooincide with 9/11?! someone wasn't thinking.

catching up...with george carlin

2008-08-11T23:31:00.006+01:00

i've just had had a 'wow' moment... a bit embarrasing to admit... but i didn't really clock til now that George Denis Patrick Carlin died on June 22, 2008 of heart failure. (read in post of a fellow oxford flickrite)

sometimes i'm waaaay too caught up in my own world.

i used to listen to george carlin as a kid, and think, holy shit, how can he get away with saying all that!?! (the same way i felt as a 12 year old listening to roger daltrey belt out "who the fuck are you" on Who Are You, the 1st album i purchased with my paper-route savings)

so while they operate within a certain ferocious but limited plane, i figure his words of wisdom bear repeating:

Shit, Piss, Fuck, Cunt, Cocksucker, Motherfucker, and Tits. Those are the heavy seven. Those are the ones that'll infect your soul, curve your spine and keep the country from winning the war.
– George Carlin, Class Clown, "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television"

otherwise on my mind:

twitter... is like blogging for cheaters, or really busy people.
you've got to use tinyurl to get any real links in.
and it's unforgiving if you mess up any html.
and it's funny how people will follow you for apparently no reason.
unlike everywhere else in the world where they expect something in return.

delicious is also sort of a blog, but without all the rambling blah blah blah text.
"just the links, ma'am."

abduction, mud and art

2008-06-11T11:12:00.005+01:00

argh.

the atrocities in darfur continue. it's now been horrific 5 years.

and nearly 5 million people need help. someone recently asked me if it was really genocide happening there. does it really matter? it's just a fuckload of human lives being destroyed.

and the international community (the UN really) still doesn't seem to get it. month's after the UN promised more help -- troops, resources -- the effort languishes. apparently military leaders have resorted to reading self-help books to keep morale!

"Every day there is a hijacking, an armed robbery or staff getting abducted. This time last year we'd talk about it – have you heard so-and-so's been hijacked?' – now it's quite mundane, it's just daily life." - Alun McDonald, Oxfam's Sudan Information Officer

last year i stewarded at Glastonbury, the UK's biggest (and wettest!) festival. i was privileged to drive a couple oxfam staff to the event, one of them being Lokuju, oxfam humanitarian officer. a thin, soft-spoken, kind-hearted man, with deep dark black skin, lokuju was coming along in order to describe to the 1,500 stewards how similar the situation at glasto -- that is, 150,000 people trying to survive in tents and mud -- was to the camps for internally displaced people in western sudan and the refugee camps in chad. i found it quite a powerful parallel to draw.

to leave you on a lighter note, if you're in NYC this month, i would definitely check out “Roy Lichtenstein: Girls” at the Gagosian Gallery. i find his work simple but very thought-provoking.

wherethehellisal.com

2007-10-23T23:17:00.000+01:00

this cool nytimes photo of al gore, which while quite good, put me off a little ...

mr (ok ok, Former Vice President) gore recently won the nobel peace prize (shared in equal measure with the UN's intergovernmental panel on climate change)... i think for good reason:

"for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change"

but now big al seems to be globetrotting all over the place... giving speeches and talking to everyone and their brother about climate change.

so i think someone should build one of those 'where's waldo' type (adobe) flash games, where you have to try to guess where big al is on the world map. every time you find him, you could get like 1,000,000 biofuels credits, or 1,000,000 carbon emissions credits, 1,000,000 organic, free range chickens, or maybe something actually really useful, like 1,000,000 credit cards. (tho i guess that'd be a lot of bad-for-the-environment plastic which you'd then have to recycle.)

so i thought i'd see if i could provide you with a sample flash games... after googling 'where's waldo', i quickly found, clicked on - and unfortunately fell for - the internet prank site http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/waldo. i soon realized that there's no real waldo in the pic (which is fairly sacrilege), but then got distracted by a text message on my phone. while reading the txt, the stupid exorcist face and accompanying scream suddenly appeared on my computer screen, and scared the holy bejesus outta me. god i hate that website. visit it if you want to be annoyed.

but i won't leave you on a down note: one of my all-time favorite sites is wherethehellismatt.com. i hadn't been there in a while, so i re-read most all of the terribly witty faq's. tomorrow night maybe i'll have time to watch the pissa funny videos!

the inevitability of dobie

2006-09-27T23:44:00.000+01:00

So my ex called me on Monday that she'd had to put my old cat, Dobie Gray, to sleep. Sad. I loved that cat.

I had named her Dobie, in honor of Dobie Gray, who sang that magnificent 70s hit "Drift Away." ("Gimme the beat boys and free my soul, I wanna get lost in your rock and roll, and drift away..."). GREAT freaking song. The kitty had short gray hair all over, and she used to sit on my trap case and watch me bang on the drums... so I thought, something musical and gray... voila.

It was one of those calls you know you are going to get one day, but don't quite know when it will arrive. It's a weird feeling; to know that an event is inevitable. Some of these inevitabilities you are comfortable with, cause you've sort of seen them on the horizon (e.g. getting fired from a job you don't like and that maybe you weren't giving your all), but others you don't really have control over and so one day they just pop up. and they plain suck (e.g. wife saying she wants a divorce -- though some would argue that you should see that one coming!).

After nearly 2 years of living as an "expat", far away from my family, and seeing my parents health slowly deteriorate - fortunately at a rather slow rate! - i begin to wonder when i will receive a call that i NEED to go home for. e.g. to help them, or to care for them after an accident, or god forbid to mourn them.

it's a horrible thought - i can barely imagine the/my world without Bonnie and Ed. but damn it, the day will come when i'll get that call. so i do what i can in the meantime, to enjoy them, to shower them with love, and to soak up as much of their joy and caring as an only son possibly can.

here is a nice photo of mom and dad, on our way out the door to rosh hashanah services, to usher in the year 5767, at temple beth shalom in framingham, ma, usa.

shareholder value

2006-06-07T00:37:00.000+01:00

so tonight my ceilidh* band played for an oxfam party. well, it was a party for a variety of corporate social responsibility types - fhosted by oxfam, at a nice pub in north oxford called the Plough.

i always love seeing the corporate sector mix with the charity sector folks.

in the end, we're all people, trying to have a good time, a couple beers, and maybe even get laid (or get home in time to tuck the kids in to bed).

what i realized, quite a few years ago now - because i read some article in the WSJ, and directly because i worked in the corporate sector for many years - is that:

Positive Change will come when stakeholder value is truly aligned with CSR.

*hm, funny how i;ve got to the point where the spelling of this word is easy. it took nearly a year i think.

everything

2006-05-27T03:41:00.000+01:00

i want to give you everything

that's all we want to hear, eh?

unbelievable --- apparently a man named jerry tang tried to buy something from Lord & Taylor this week, in downtown boston.

god, i hope it's jerry.

listening to underworld "everything".. not sure if that's even the name of the song. but it is OVER THE TOP.

going camping in Wales for the long bank holiday weekend.

not sure why they call it a BANK holiday,... like the bankers needed a holiday more than anyone else. COME the fuck ON!!!

excuse my french.

guess i can't send the link to my blog to my niece and nephew. well, he's gonna be 14 so he passes. hell, at 13 he's a man, according to the tribe. i reckon that's near enough. i remember swearing at 13 and starting to learn about sex, drugs and rock and roll. certainly then i'd been bitten hard by 1 and 3.

so it goes.

will post photos of wales soon enuf.

"everything. everything. everything.

why don't you call me.

any reason will do."

photo feature, from today's nytimes.com - this shot kicks ass. had to post it.
Senegalese migrants at a military camp in Mauritania. The migrants are leaving from various points along Senegal's coast for a perilous sea journey to the Canary Islands of Spain. nytimes.com, photo: Juan Medina/Reuters

inspiration

2005-12-11T23:59:00.000Z

for me, inspiration often comes from music and drumming.
or friends.
or something i read, or a joke i hear.

while inspiration is often closely linked with joy, it can also bring (or result from) saddness.

my friend Jerry Tang, now missing 13 days, is an inspiration. people from around the world are involved now, in ways big and small, in the search to find him.

here is an example.

now that the holidays are upon us, there are dinners and dances and parties, and celebrations galore. year-end recaps, best-of lists, and looking back with nostalgia on the year that we've all shared. though approaching that state, i'm not quite there. while i'll still partake of the holiday cheer around me, weighing on everything in my head right now is the search for Jerry.

crystal clear, however, is the fact that Jerry truly inspires the very best in us. he is a great man and a true friend.

Jerry: i am praying for your safe return to family and friends.

my friend Jerry Tang is missing in SF

2005-12-04T12:01:00.000Z

If you are in the SF bay area, please keep an eye out for my friend:

(click image to enlarge; right-click to download it)

links:
an english/spanish version of the flier

local SF tv news report from Sat night, Dec 3rd. good video coverage. (as Noni points out, they could have shown more pictures of Jerry.)

website organized by Jerry's friends, where you can read the latest updates, add comments of suggestions or moral support

jerry is listed on the national missing persons site

please pass this on to anyone you know in the San Francisco, CA area

thank you to everyone for your encouraging words, and your love and support

what you do

2005-12-04T04:46:00.000Z

what do you do when someone you love dearly has up and gone?

it seems that jerry is still kicking about san fran.

i can only hope. from what i hear from my friends in SF, it seems to be the case. several reported sightings of him today (sat, 2 dec). god that is heartening.

the worst case scenario seems to be if he had a seizure and keeled over, or something like that, without someone around to pick him up and get him to a hospital.

best case scenario is that he is found, and gets on with his life. he is sa uch a beautiful human, i can't think of this not being the case.

so what do i do, so far away from SF?

i email all the folks in my address book. i send on their regards to my friends in SF who are helping coordinate and conduct the search... and who are doing the candle light vigil... and who i miss terribly.

and i cry because i love them all so.

and listen to music that helps me get through it. just now that happens to be led zeppelin. and the tune "ten years gone" makes me cry.

a man cannot truly figure out good and evil. they happen, they are. they duke it out. we sit by and reap the benefits.... or we deal with the shit.

when you love someone, you inevitably ache for them. they are a part of you. nothing you can do about that.

so when they up and are missing, you try to figure out how to find them. when you think you know the general (or specific?!) area they may be in, you look around there. and/or try to get as many people as possible to look around there. you brainstorm how you could find them, how you can enlist others to help.

and, i think, you pray.

praying seems to imply that something is out of one's control. well surely in this case, jerry is out of my control.

which sucks. but i have to live with it.

so i get on with it. and i am amazed at the outpouring of support and goodwill.

i've been emailing all my friends and family and coworkers, and finally broke down and sent a post to a drumcircle facilitators email list i've been lurking on for a YEAR. you know, an "off topic" post which is essentially spam. and spam is like the devil - people HATE it. (personally i despise, loathe and abhor it) .. and the moderator agreed to post my plea for help to find jerry (with the understanding that i post to the list when jerry is found). that is pure, unadulterated heart.

JERRY TANG UPDATE: Fri, Dec 2, 2:20am Pacific time

2005-12-02T11:31:00.000Z

From my friend Steve in SF wrote this morning:

I wanted to get you an update, (apologies if you are
receiving multiple updates and don't wish to).

Sincere thanks to each of you for your support and efforts.

Here's the highlights.
The network of people who have been alerted and are focused
on helping has already increased greatly. Today we conducted
a vigorous search of Golden Gate Park and surrounding areas
and got our flyers out to more and more neighborhoods and
started to show up in the City's media.

- The National Parks Dept. has been notified.
- The GG park staff have been notified, and notified...
- Jerry should now be listed with shelters city-wide.
- He is now listed with the state as a missing person.
- The Examiner should be running an article tomorrow.
- More media information is in Joyce's mail and others have
said they are considering stories. (It appears that
continued rallying of each the news outlets is beneficial.)
- Supervisor Bevan Dufty requested Mission and Park Stations
to be on additional alert.

I've attached the newest PDF with more complete information
for posting and forwarding.

thanks,
~Steve

415-793-6251

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Dear all: I could not figure out how to link to a darn PDF file, so have posted it on the jerry tang seedwiki site. See the link in the left hand navigation there called "page files" (I've also posted some recent photos of Jerry there).

STILL LOOKING for Jerry Tang

2005-12-02T08:27:00.000Z

UPDATE from Joyce (Jerry's wife), Thursday, Dec 1, 11:15pm Pacific time

We would like to update you regarding the search for Jerry. We have not yet found him, but remain very hopeful.

There were several more sightings of Jerry in Golden Gate Park on Wednesday – giving credibility to the groundkeeper’s story of having seen Jerry on a park bench.

Friday morning we will organize to conduct a police-led citizen search. We do not know at this point what form that search will take. It is being coordinated by the Inspector assigned to Jerry’s case and search experts are being consulted.

Please begin to arrive at 828 Ashbury Street around 10:00 a.m. Joyce and Jerry’s neighbor across the street has kindly offered her garage for us to gather. The house has scaffolding around the outside.

Please forward this email to anyone you forwarded Joyce’s email to last night. Also forward it to anyone else you think may be willing to help us tomorrow.

We appreciate all you are doing to find Jerry and bring him home safely!

Here is the first news article we’ve seen about Jerry:

http://www.cbs5.com/localwire/localfsnews/bcn/2005/12/01/n/HeadlineNews/MISSING-PERSON/resources_bcn_html

Also on Thursday night, there were stories on the Chinese news station at 10pm and on NBC11 at 11pm.

Here is a website being organized Jerry's friends.
http://www.seedwiki.com/wiki/jerry_tang/jerry_tang.cfm

Also the national site is:
http://www.theyaremissed.org/ncma/gallery/ncmaprofile_all.php?A200503708S

Peace and love,
Joyce

Again, THANK YOU to all of you who have written, forwarded my emails to others, and offered to help in the search or put up flyers!!

Here are some recent photos of Jerry, from Oct 2005 (you can click to enlarge):

HELP - Jerry Tang is missing!!

2005-12-01T20:31:00.000Z

Hello everyone,

My dear friend Jerry Tang has been unidentifiably missing since Tuesday morning, Nov 29. The text below is mostly from an email that my friend David (in Boston) sent out to friends and family. I will post updates here as often as I get them (and have access to a computer and am awake). PLEASE PASS THIS INFORMATION ON.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Regardless of what happened or what could have happened to Jerry, we know one thing without doubt - he is missing.

Therefore, there is clearly only one thing to do for us. We must find him.

Jerry lives at 799 Ashbury Street, San Francisco, CA, USA.

Here is the flyer that friends have put up around San Francisco. (PDF, 525kb)

Here is what we know:
9:00am, his wife Joyce left the house with kids, said goodbye to Jerry
9:40am, Jerry sent email from home computer to boss at work stating that he would not come in today because he wasn't feeling well.
10:00am, verified last phone call either in or out of 799 Ashbury Street (most likely the phone call to his sister Audrey). Joyce spoke to him on the phone last at 10am that morning.

-He left without medication (Jerry has a seizure disorder and needs his medication. He does not have any medication with him.)
-He had his wallet
-He may or may not have his cell phone on him (at any rate, it is not at his house and he doesn't answer)
-Credit card transactions came up negative (that is, none made since his disappearance)

Here is what has been done:
-Registered with Nat'l adult missing persons list
-Police report with case #051347730, inspector assigned to his case Angela Martin
-Contacted the Golden Gate Bridge Authority
-Covered all hospitals, called e-rooms, clinics, shelters...
-Contacted the city medical examiner
-Hung missing person flyers in Haight-Ashbury, Golden Gate park near Stanyon, Cole Valley, Ocean Beach, along the N-Judah line, as well as many other places that have been thought of as possible places that Jerry may have, does frequent or would have any reason to go to.
-Email notification of people in his address book
-Friends emailing their friends

It can't be assumed that the police will do as much as is needed to locate him. In fact, according to Ingrid, she and Steve and Eric and the immediate community of San Francisco is way ahead of the investigator, Angela Martin. The fact is, Angela doesn't love Jerry like we do, and therefore, she can not be relied on to put her heart into this search.

I want to say that essential to finding Jerry is pulling together as a community and combining our resources and brains and energy and love and thoughts for him. No matter what level of work you are doing to help him, and we know that some of us are farther away physically than perhaps we'd like to be, we can all still do something. At the very least, holding Jerry in our thoughts while putting out the energy to having him be well and located is one of the best and most important things that we can do.

It is certainly important to support the local team of folks in San Francisco that are doing a lot of the ground work. They have been doing as much as they can, given their energies and supporting Joyce...etc...send some love their way, too!

What else can be done:
Share some of your knowledge. We got talented and creative people in the community who might have creative ways of getting the word out...Let's start a brainstorm session here.....

-How about flyers hung in local Post Offices, libraries, restaurants around where he works
-How about getting his photo on the city and state Missing Persons Notice boards (internet)

I am willing and able to be the conduit for communication with those in SF so that they are not flooded with calls. That way they can concentrate their energy.

Feel free to call me at 617-431-5091 (home).

Hopefully,

David

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

If you are on the West Coast, you can also call these people if you have any ideas or leads:

Steve and Ingrid = 415-793-6251 (cell)

Joyce Tang = 415-596-5659 (cell)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

UPDATE I received from David, around 9am West Coast time on Thursday, Dec 1:

On the massive search that is taking place today by our dear friends in CA, a grounds keeper in the Golden Gate Park said he definitely saw Jerry.

It seems that one of the search party members had shown the grounds keeper a picture of Jerry and he immediately had recognized him, saying something to the effect of "I've seen him. He was crying and very sad."

20 folks are in the park now looking for him.

We await more news...

Stay tuned.

David

I called David, who further explained that the grounds keeper apparently gave Jerry a blue umbrella.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

As mentioned, I will post updates here, instead of emailing all of my friends and family.

Jah,

Joel

thanksgiving

2005-11-25T01:23:00.000Z

well, somehow it's slipped already into friday here in england, and so i missed posting on thanksgiving day. but i've clearly got loads to be thankful for, so had to post anyway.

all week the french and spanish editors of my site (ok, so i don't OWN it, but when you manage a website, you naturally end up feeling like a loving parent... i just wish it would pick up after itself) have been in town, helping manually migrate the content that wasn't auto-migrated into the new content management system. and a small army of my office mates and even the tech team from our vendor (who happens to be oxfam great britain!) has been helping QA, and stitch together all the pieces of our baby.

we're planning sort of a soft launch tomorrow (um, today, friday), but it's not going to be any one particular flip of the switch. we finally got, as of a few days ago, the ability to publish content on the 'live' server, and so have begun pushing articles over to it. so that's what we'll be doing over the next few days. then hopefully on wednesday: flip the switch. that is, repoint the domain DNS to that server with all the content on it. and let it propagate.

it's funny how exact and specific computers and the web (ie, all the code behind the web) must be in order to run properly (properly = do what we want them to do)... but at the same time, it's like freaking magic. who can predict who will click on what and read which page and download which thingamabobby?!?! i love it!

it so happened that several weeks ago i saw an ad for this band called Ska Cubano, playing at the Zodiac, where they get a good mix of local, regional, and national acts. (at capacity 400 or so, it's a bit too small to host international acts.) their description sounded right on, plus i figured might as well, as i knew i'd not be home to celebrate Tgiving with family. also i knew i wanted to ask this friend who is in the final death throes of finishing her doctorate, and i knew she could use a night out. so at 13 quid, it was a little pricey but well worth the steamy sweaty dancing.

in fact it was literally so steamy, it took like 20 minutes for the steam to dissipate from my camera lens! and not being patient enough for that to happen, while bodies be knocking about all around me, i used my t-shirt to WIPE THE STEAM OFF THE LENS!!! far as i can tell, that's like the #1 Cardinal Sin for Camera Lens: DON'T WIPE THEM WITH ANYTHING BUT A PROPER LENS CLEANING CLOTH!! ah but i could not wait. like the Heinz ketchup commercial.

so here are a couple piccies! enjoy! (i uploaded 4 photos but do not seem them here in preview mode... will have to check once this entry is published).

i hope you didn't over do it on the pumpkin pie tonight!!!!

out on a limb

2005-11-19T01:31:00.000Z

biking home last night through the trees and the magical cold air now blowing in, i knew i had to address the season.....

out on a limb

it's nice sitting up here
no one bothers us
we get to sing, dance
have a nice chat
no one nagging
no one begging
no one bitching

and such a view!
we can snuggle
stay warm and cozy
make love
rub elbows
flap our arms
wag our tails
toss our cookies
tip our hats
none of the tit for tat
that flogs the minds of most
no one minds if we get on with our neighbors
most mortals simply gaze
some even take pictures
and share 'em with their friends
in books neatly squared
orderly labeled under sheets of plastic

and the breeze!
it clears the fog like nothing else
no need for caffeine in these limbs
the clouds wave Hi on their way by
the wind in our sails
perks us up
so reassuring to stand so tall
on top of the world...

but then...

off goes that prissy bitch, so full of her bright shiny self
usually so warm and charming
decides she wants more time to herself
calls it beauty rest
works shorter days
says she's thinking things through
needs to spend time with relatives down south

and before you know it
things get quite chilly round here

we unpack our scarves
and big old worn mittens
huddle together to keep warm
but still we yellow with the chill
which rattles our bones

we stuff that old towel under the window
the blood boils red for a while
we twist to and fro angrily
struggle to hang on
and finally mellow
into a drab color
of brown, beige and rusty acceptance

and then...

oh shit!
the inevitable
cold, damp wind
finally comes
and takes us...

some defy for a while
but then falling
spinning
we drift down
unraveled
no more encumbered
by the desire
to hang on

they still take pictures of us
though not as many
we still crouch together
but it's not the same
soft and airy
carefree, wondrous feeling

now we're wary of getting stepped on
or picked up, brought home,
and pressed under a thin
sheet of damn plastic

mind-boggling, ain't it?

2005-11-10T01:06:00.000Z

i logged on just to write a quick email to my friend ted, who lives in princeton, to ask him about the best method for transfering money back home (from UK to US). a couple years ago he was just launching a company to help folks repatriate dough back to their families, their homeland. i haven't spoken with ted in a long time, so don't actually know how he got on with his business venture. i was a little skeptical, as he was talking about going up against western union... but i'll tell you: that man teddy rock is truly amazing, so ya never know.....

but i got sucked into the news, as my home page is nytimes.com.

tonight's news is typically grim: bombings in the middle east. picture of a (presumably) dead man, lying bloody on the front page.

judith miller, a times reporter for 28 years, leaves the paper after a row with her editors, publishers, congress, and seemingly everyone else.

and a headline that really got my goat:

Oil Executives Defend Profits Before a Critical Congress (link will probably be good for a week, then the Times will likely archive it and charge you to read it.)

here is a picture of some of the chief execs testifying before congress:

what REALLY astounded me was that exxon's profits alone were nearly $10 BILLION!! that's almost as big as the entire music industry...! and this at a time when the nation has been reeling and recovering from the hurricane. as the times says: exxon's chief, lee raymond (looking just a shade too smug), noted that their "industry's profits measured as a percent of revenue were no greater than other industries." (shouldn't it be "...were no greater than other industry's"?)

"We are in line with the average of all U.S. industry," he said. "Our numbers are huge because the scale of our industry is huge. How are these earnings used? We invest to run our global operations, to develop future supply, to advance energy-producing and saving technologies, and to meet our obligations to millions of our shareholders."

admittedly, i am woefully out of touch with figures for the profits of US companies as measured as a percent of revenue. but i find raymond's assertion as hard to swallow as one of those evil 63 white sausages that poor Catalina Sandino Moreno had to stomach in "maria full of grace" (a rather disturbing but very moving film).

the times article also states that "There has not been a new refinery built in the United States since 1976." holy crap. add to this the fact that gas (um, petrol) was over $3/gallon, and it's not hard to see why profits were so mind-bogglingly high.

makes it really hard not to invest in mutual funds that don't invest in oil co's.

at least some of the senators are doing their bit to question these corporate dudes (who between their salaries, bonuses and stock awards are raking in millions), and making some recommendations as to how the system could create a measure of fairness for consumers.

the hard cold facts

2005-11-08T01:33:00.000Z

last week was a milestone in the bassuk household back in boston. despite the natural and inevitable slow-down in uptake of broadband in the US, my parents just joined the more than 121 million Americans who now have broadband access. after some 6 years of dealing with narrowband dial-up, i can practically hear the cries of "hallelujah amen" arising from their little study, as the persistent stream of 1-meg photos that i send home now appear on screen with glorious alacrity. (maybe next year mom will overcome her fear of actually downloading them onto her 40-gig drive!)

so already i see the wave of stories and links coming from her increasing. naturally, as have i the most caring jewish mother on the planet, many are for recipes or other health related recommendations (like go to bed earlier). for instance, november has barely come in and sat down for tea and mom sends me this article by one Judy Forman, from today's Boston Globe 'Health Answers' column:

How long are you contagious when you have a cold?

It depends on which virus is causing the cold, and there are lots -- including rhinoviruses, adenoviruses, and coronaviruses, to name a few, said Dr. Lindsey Baden, an infectious disease specialist at Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Typically, you are most likely to spread the virus to other people from just before symptoms appear and through the first few days of an illness, when symptoms such as coughing and sneezing, and nasal mucus production, are highest.

Dr. Jack Gwaltney, professor emeritus of internal medicine at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, has done research that shows the virus starts reproducing within half an hour of entering the nose; it takes only 8 to 12 hours for new virus to appear in nasal mucus.

This rapid production of virus lasts about three days -- the days when you are most contagious -- and then falls off as the immune system gears up and finally begins to kill the virus. One study showed that when one spouse is experimentally infected with a virus, the other spouse typically gets infected within the first three days.

Since it's mucus from the nose that is the main carrier of viruses, you should dispose of tissues yourself. It also pays to wash your hands, whether you're the one who's sick or the one trying not to become the next victim.

Once you start feeling better, the virus may still be present in your nose for as long as two weeks. But you are much less contagious.

As for antibiotics, they don't do anything for viruses. But if your ''cold" is actually a bacterial infection, antibiotics will help with that and will make you less contagious while you are taking them.

of course this is much of what you always hear: wash your hands a lot, etc. really, do you usually give your snot-ridden kleenex to the woman in the business suit and matching pumps sitting next to you on the train to have her toss it in the trash? "I'm terribly sorry to interrupt your breakfast ma'am, but could you..."

or maybe at lunch, or even on break with the smokers outside, do you have a "farmer's blow" contest with your colleagues? "Betcha i can nail that tree." "G-head, just don't get any up into my nose. I don'wanna catch what you got!" makes me think Judy wrote that article just so she could say "rhinoviruses"....... (make me think also perhaps really I'm reprinting the article just so i can say "snot-ridden")

[note to self: finally this blog has *really* devolved into its strapline. life fulfills art.]

i think what would be most helpful is if someone told us what to do in those first 8-12 hours upon getting infected. that along with: how does one know if one's nasal mucus is infected within such a short time frame with that dastardly adenovirus?

ok, enuf buckshot.

i just received a link to the poem mentioned first off in my last post. it's by radical supergirly (aka claire fauset) from her Oct 27th post:

let the poem do the talking

be good kiddies, and be sure to bring an umbrella.

have it

2005-11-04T01:05:00.000Z

i heard a poem last night that was inspirational. it cut to the bone, hit to the heart, not quite stung but made you feel and think. good qualities for a poem.

plus it's always great to hear a poem recited by its author. in but rare occasions, that gives it much more punch than otherwise.

in life, you gather things. you also disperse things too. and hopefully there's sort of an equal balance. (not like me: i'm weighted to be more of a gatherer.) so, i've picked up a phrase from one of my mates and band members, simon: "have it." it seems to be sort of a british-ism. i say that cause he's british, and i've not heard it elsewhere. (pls correct me if i am wrong and you've heard it....)

in life, also, there are various sources of inspiration; simon is a wicked fiddle player and a solid source thereof. great fun to play in a band with. he's only one of the many sources of inspiration for this poem which i wrote when i burst in home from the pub tonight (b'day celebration for a friend at the Angel & Greyhound)... another source is the percussion playing poet, Claire, whose poem i heard last night, which had the lot of us enraptured by her words and passionate delivery.

in any case, here's tonight's offering, direct from my semi-addled brain :) ......

Have it

be it
do it
have it
say it

eat it
feel it
suck it
come on, don"t be offended by it

laugh it
live it
like it
laud it

see it
hear it
touch it
taste it

no, really... put it in your mouth and taste it

fry it
burn it
squeeze it
flog it

flip it
dip it
doggone nip it
tuck and turn and churn and rip it

sing and ping and wing and fling it
hog and dog and really flog it

climb it
rhyme it
just don't time it

wing it
ping it
please be sure to bring it

despite it, right it;
might it be something you decide to fight it?

will it
swill it
totally fill it

man it
pan it
just don't ban it

ham it
spam it
dammit, janet

ram it
flam it
closely examine it

clearly i could go and go
but surely now
you ought to know

the point
all else above it
is truly deeply
just to love it

massive attack

2005-10-29T03:22:00.000+01:00

"though you may not drive a great big cadillac
with white walls
tv antenna in the back
(but) just remember
brothers, sisters,
you can still stand tall..."

i only learned of and heard 'massive attack' this year. and i love them.

back in february, on a rainy st. valentines monday afternoon, when i was in nyc acquiring my work visa from the oh-so-efficacious british consulate (which 2 days later had a bomb explode in a trash can out in front of it), my mate alan k was kind enough to spend the afternoon with me tooling about the east village, doing an impromptu mini irish pub crawl. as we navigated the downpour and puddle-ridden sidewalks, looking for that oh-so authentic bangers and mash experience, we were simultaneously sucked into a (dry!) hole-in-the-wall cd shop. indeed, we're both suckers for a bargain, a slim disc to fill that wee gap in the musical collection. nothing like a good used cd shop. so i asked the clerk for some sort of mellowish hip-hoppy dance or electronica... you know, something i could put on at a dinner party that wouldn't be too much (of course ella and loius being my favorite dinner music), or that i could spin late night when i need something a bit hipper and deeper....

well, the dude was a dude and turned me on to massive attack. he suggested 'protection' - their signature opus apparently - but informed me, rather apologetically, that he didn't actually have a copy in stock, but that the one disc he did have of theirs, 'blue lines,' was still pretty good. i checked out just a few bars of it on his little listening station (w/kick ass headphones) and bought it.

i basically took his word that is was a good album -- even though he was a total stranger. there is something about certain people that you just trust them. combine that with your gut instinct, and 4 out of 5 times you'll win. i won that time, as i love that album 'blue lines.' and sure enough, just a few weeks later, when i was wandering the streets of brussels on yet another rainy monday afternoon at the end of march, i came upon a cd shop and found 'protection' and bought it immediately.... and i love it.

so intriguing where inspiration in life comes from! where your gut leads you.......

i find as i get older, my mind focuses more and more on asking the question...

who/what do you love?

which naturally leads to: what do you love to do?

daily i am reminded of how lucky i am....
to live under my own roof...
to have my own means of transportation (even tho my bike has a flat right now)...
to live in a magical garden (click photo to enlarge)....

and it seems i meet someone new EVERY GODDAMN DAY!

imagine!

tis better than any epidsode of melrose place, where a new character had to appear every episode, to make it interesting.

so my question for you......

what do you love/to do?

do tell me.........................

i just got back from a halloween party. wore a hot, smelly, rubber mask of a ghastly ugly ghoul. made it hard to drink my vodka & lemon soda. and hard to put on any sort of suave airs.

lastly, a shout out and congrats to the 'other' Sox, and their first World Series since 1917 -- sweet!

freefall

2005-10-22T01:00:00.000+01:00

freefall was my worst fear for many years.

i finally overcame it at 6 flags, a mammoth fun park in the middle of new jersey, on their freefall ride. i think it was in '93. we called in sick to work, convinced some friends to come along - yes people: that's a shout out to Jenny Klopp (yep, still in hoboken!) and Will McKenna (now playing acoustic bass in LA: who'da thunk it!). and we had a stellar day of playing hooky. a much needed 'mental health day' on a wednesday!

well, as we wandered about with our hot dogs and ice cream, we found ourselves in line for the FREEFALL ride!! gulp. center. focus. "you can do it!" i sucked it up, and did it. 3 times. fuck yeah.

conquered that one.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

so now it's everybody's favorite time of the show... The Damn Wicked Pissa Link of the Day....

www.yeeguy.com/freefall
(goes well with Protection, by Massive Attack)

and today's photo of the day. me. on top of Ben Nevis, the tallest peak in the United Kingdom. set near the sea, in the highlands of Scotland, she is often shrouded in rain or fog. at only 4,406 feet, i was quite confident she wouldn't be terribly difficult. after all, i'd done 18 4k-footers in New Hampshire, where the all rocks have been carefully placed by god with their sharp pointy ends facing up. however, several people separately warned me not to underestimate ben nevis. well, she did not disappoint! fog, a bit of rain, snow at the summit...i saw the snow near the ledge - the pamphlet had warned against the ledge there. i got close enough just to get a shot of the snow (last thing i would need is freefall off a cliff in a foreign country).

i got onto the trailhead at 5:20 PM and was up and down and back at the hostel/pub at 10:40 PM.... on july 9 in the north of scotland it only just starts to get dark at 10:15pmish! unbelieveable. there were plenty of other hikers on the trail, all very friendly. and i made it back to the pub just in time to get 'last orders.' i love hiking!! (some of you have seen the summit pic before, but it's worth posting. plus here are a couple of my favorites.)

bull at trossach's woollen mill, outside rob roy, scotland

a beautiful loch on he way to ben nevis, july 2005

triumphant. on the summit of ben nevis. july 9, 2005

a love letter

2005-10-20T00:55:00.000+01:00

i had rehearsals tonight, with 2 different bands - first a bit playing the "tam" (a sort of a mini-tamborine but without the jingly bits all around it) with sol samba; then on to playing bongos with my nu-ceilidh/folk band, Diddley Dee. so, by the time i cycled home, my head was swirling with rhythms and transitions and endings and syncopations and a bountiful feeling of joy took over, and i needed to write it down. so here is what came out... rough and ready and straight from the hip. hope you like it!

dear rhythms

my blood
you fill my veins
my heart
you beat constantly

my nourishment
you fill me
empty me
and fill me again

the thread of my life
you tear me, shred me
and bind me back together

i sit in the music
and you consume me
i lay in the grass
and you bathe me in beauty

you writhe inside
pulsing hard and loud
yet you wrap me, cuddle me
so softly, sweetly

how deep will you take me?
you tap me and i shudder
slap me and i wonder
how deep can i go

you are all around me
yet i weave in and through you
and you me
a warm wet tapestry
tickling and
tapping along

my attraction is uncontrollable
i hear you and i follow
i feel you and i weep
for joy

your ecstasy swallows me
consumes me alive
then spits me out

and with a burning love
exploding my heart
my body, my soul

i am utterly whole

it's been a circus

2005-10-16T13:50:00.000+01:00

what a week.

hurricanes, earthquakes, landslides, oh my.

it's recently been full on mobilization across the oxfam organization, to respond to the variety of humanitarian crises around the world. in the gulf coast, in central america, in pakistan-india. continuing food crises in southern africa, and the sahel region of west africa. all while still maintaining ongoing development project work with 3,250 partner organizations in over 100 countries around the world. it's very inspiring to work for an organization that does so much.

what this all means for me is a lot of content to put up on the website. but at the same time our project to move the site into CMS is ramping up. for instance, last week we finished the "migration matrix" - a spreadsheet of EVERY page, link, and image file on the site where we track which pages we'll keep and migrate over into the new system, and which pages we'll chuck.

this spreadsheet will also be used to help us sort out which pages or assets can be auto-migrated. the more things we can get into the new system automatically, the less we need to do by hand - cutting & pasting text from 900 pages of stories, press releases, policy papers, etc is nobody's idea of a fun time.

i don't mean to bore you with the gory details. suffice it to say that work has been sort of like a 3-ring circus.

and so has oxford become, now that the students are back in full session. (for some reason, the term doesn't start until quite late in the season - oct 9! oxford university faq here) i didn't realize how relatively sleepy oxford had become over the summer, apart of course, from the constant stream of tourists... no giant queues at the grocery store or the pub. no hordes of drunken young'uns bumbling out of the pub without looking such that you nearly bowl 3 of them over with your bike while trying to avoid the other 17 crossing the road. they're sort of like pack animals when it comes to the pub scene. in any case, they're back in their full studying and partying glory. if you count all the students, professors, and support staff, it's nearly 30,000 additional bodies on top of oxford's +140,000. but the truth is, overall i enjoy the infusion of energy and i suppose even tradition that they bring to this hallowed and hoary bastion of higher education. for instance, i noticed that the longtime ritual of stealing street signs - of which i managed to gain fair skill and reknown for in my day - was in full swing last friday night!

speaking of circuses, the fabulous st. giles fair was held at the beginning of september in the center of town. it's been an annual event for a few hundred years now, where "showmen and hucksters have gathered" and for which there were several proposals by the end of the 18th century to close it down "as it had become too rowdy and licentious." my office is just up the road from st. giles street, so i saw them setting up on my way to work, and then met some friends there on both evenings of the fair. i mustered up the courage to go on the "free fall" ride but circumspectly avoided the "waltzer" and the other whip-yourself-around-at-ungodly-speeds-so-your-hair-stands-out-straight rides. i also dropped about 12 quid ($20) trying to win a giant 4-foot stuffed Tigger doll for Ardon (my 2 1/2 yr old nephew). in the end, i walked away with a Snoopy doll that was just under a foot long, and an unnamed palm-sized tiger of no cultural significance, for my 9-month old niece Shayna.

here are some pics of the 2005 st. giles fair (click on a photo to enlarge it):

giant toys at the 2005 st. giles fair, oxford

funny juxtaposition

i had to try a hot dog from this booth. big mistake :(

the "meteorite" ride. i just took the pictures!

hope you're enjoying the fall. i miss the furious colors of new england foliage! xoxo

the movies

2005-10-09T23:58:00.000+01:00

i love the damn movies. they make me laugh, they make me cry. they make me think, about life, what i am doing, what i'm not doing, and on and on.

still feeling a bit jetlagged from my trip back to the states last week, and given that fact that it was raining too hard to do much outside, i decided that i'd go town on the movies this weekend.

i don't have a dvd player (come on, i live in a frickin stone cottage, for crying out loud!), so that means my selection is limited. plus i like to patronize the smaller, independent video shops (NO blockbuster for me!), which limits my selection further. so i pretty much always go to the videosyncratic store on cowley road in east oxford. i like the clerks there - they're all about mid-twenties, into wearing black t-shirts with unintelligble sayings or logos from punk-looking bands, and every one of them has the driest sense of humor on earth. must be part of the interview process: if you crack a smile while viewing a monty python flick, you're out.

it costs 3 quid for a single film, whether dvd or vhs. and if you rent 2, you get one free. that's the only deal they offer. i've asked about a frequent rental thing, like a rewards program, you know, to develop customer loyalty... but they just sort of shake their heads at the thick american (me). oh, and you get ONE day for new releases and TWO days for everything else. that's it. man, even blockbuster allowed 5 days for older flicks. and every day you're late is another 3 pounds per film (even blockbuster claimed to have got rid of late fees earlier this year). so i usually just get one film; i mean, 3 films in 48 hours is a serious commitment!

however, given the rain, and my needing to just rest my bones, i opted for the trio: saturday night i watched women on the verge of a nervous breakdown and frida, and this afternoon was the marathon long cinema paradiso.

women was the second pedro almodovar film i'd watched in a month, having seen all about my mother recently. i really like almodovar's eye, his camera angles, the shots he chooses. and his sense of humor; he embeds humor even in the deepest tragedy. on the other hand, i never feel like i really know the characters, who tend to be either flippant, potted, or, um, on the verge of a nervous breakdown. but overall, the plot twists are clever, and he provides a multitudinous array of characters desperately seeking some solace somewhere, and so you are sucked in, rooting for this character and now that one. grade: B+

set in spain and spoken in spanish, almodovar's films are subtitled. it was therefore an interesting juxatoposition to then watch frida, a high-budget hollywood (miramax) film, set in mexico, but spoken in english. indeed, some of the songs were sung in spanish - deepening their emotional effect - but somehow i kept thinking the characters should have been speaking in the native language also. there were some GREAT songs in this film, and some excellent dancing. selma hayek kicks absolute ass in the role of frida; great acting - such attitude! - plus she's gorgeous: a winning combination. it's basically a biography; i find it is hard to cover someone's entire life in a measley 2 hours and do it any justice, but the writing here is solid, with a good support cast (geoffrey rush does a good trotsky). the accident scene where frida gets her spine crushed on the bus was rather tim burton-esque, but it worked. in all, a deeply moving film. it is mind-boggling how some people can overcome such pain and tragedy, or rather how they can work THROUGH the pain, transcend it and use it as a source of passion. while i am not such a huge fan of her art style (i like the bold colors but care not for the graphic anatomical elements), frida's is truly an inspirational story. grade: A

side note 1: antonio banderas plays secondary roles in both of the above films. in neither is he given a decent haircut or wardrobe. (better looks for him are here.)

side note 2: here is a pic of an artist whose style i do like. his work was all over this mexican restaurant christy & i ate at and where they served killer margeritas, which was across the narrow cobblestone street from the szabo marzipan museum, in Szentendre, Hungary (about 40 min north of budapest). i didn't write down the artist's name, sorry!

painting of two fish kissing, 13aug2005

in my efforts to catch up films from the 80s, next up was the italian cinema paradiso, an emotionally lush film about films... and love/unrequited love... and about moving away from one's home town and coming back to find... that everything/nothing has changed. very soon into this film the sun had come out, and so i began itching to go for a bike ride. only then it dawned on me that this film was 3 HOURS LONG! there is some setting on the remote for my little 13" Sony combo tv-vcr that for the life of me i cannot figure out how to fix: i pressed something one night and now whenever i watch a video, in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen it displays how much time has elapsed and also a bright little yellow bar indicates how much of the video is left to play. i've hit every button in every combination on that remote, but cannot get that elapsed time and indicator bar to diappear. (no, i don't have the manual either.) anyway, i loved paradiso, despite its length, though did feel it could have been shorter or chugged along a bit faster at times. nevertheless, it was very moving, with some great dialogue. the cute, curious, impish young Salvatore/Toto is irresistable, and his mentor Alfredo equally charming. a touching scene with the older salvatore and his mom; family can be great for their thoughtfulness and unconditional love. i laughed, i cried. grade: A-

before this last film ended, as i was mentally preparing for a late afternoon cycle down the two path along the Thames, a friend called and invited me, sure enough... to the movies! oliver twist. well, just to keep up with some new releases, i went along. surely i read the book as a kid, but this rendition is fresh enough, nailing with precision the feel that Dickens portrays of the streets of london and their swirling tug of war between good and evil. with some fabulous acting by (and makeup on) ben kingsley... i didn't even recognize him until his second or third scene! i didn't remember a dog having a central role in the original story, but there is in the movie, and that scores instant points in my book. and sure enough, it's the dog that saves the day! i looked through all the breeds on the akc site, but can't quite figure out what breed that dog is. he looks most like a bull terrier, but that site says they're between 28-38 lbs, while the pooch in the movie is more like 58-68 lbs. anyone know what breed it is?? (i think it is also the same breed of the dog in Bombon el Perro, an Argentinian film out earlier this year, which is unfortunately not listed in the IMDB site! now what's up with that?!)

note about the movie houses in england: they serve 2 kinds of popcorn: salted and sugared. i tried the sugared once. yuck. it's like bob dylan's voice, you'd need to acquire a taste for it. (which oddly enough i have.)

speaking of animals, here's a majestic kitty spotted on my way to the cinema...

majestic kitty, 9 oct 2005 (click to enlarge)

the season stops here

2005-10-08T00:54:00.000+01:00

i had to watch.

i couldn't help myself.

even from 3,267 miles away (which is, as i just found out, using this handy distance converter, 5,258 kilometers)... i tuned in on my laptop to the "Gameday" feature on the redsox site and watched, slowly, pitch by painful pitch, the eternal-underdog-even-though-they're-the-defending-world-champion boston red sox go down in the last game of their season, losing 3 straight games to the chicago white sox.

well, i am a little numb, but tonight we put the 2005 season to bed.

162 games. that's a lot of games.

just 2 in the post-season. that's boondoggle.

or maybe it's just crap.

or maybe i am just BITTER!!!!

or maybe i've gotten a little used to boston area teams winning these last couple years, and i need to take a chill.

ok. since we're onto numbers tonight, let's look at it another way.

the red sox had the best average in all major league baseball (that's funny: the "best average"), hitting .281 for the season.

they had the best on base percentage, at .357 (whatever that means).

they had the most walks, at 653, and the most RBIs (863), the most runs (910), the most hits (1579), and the most double-baggers (339).

in fact, if you add ALL their stats TOGETHER, they had like 20,886.419 of EVERYTHING COMBINED..... pitching included (though to be brutally honest, i sorta wish we could have excluded their pitching from their season this year). yeah, in fact, in retrospect, they kicked some serious butt!!

those Soxies are still winners in my book.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

.....ok, now it's that time of the show where we unveil the...

CRAZY SITE OF THE DAY

!!Advance warning: this site is not for children!!

Big Carp pictures from around the world

i think my favorite is Marco from Croatia, and i quote: "Catch and release,it's a great feeling for you and for the fish too"

i am not sure how it is that so many of the photos seem to be nowhere near a body of water.

in fact, looking all those men standing in the backwaters of the world holding all those big fish makes me a bit queasy.

oh well, happy fishing. (my dinner was grilled chicken tonight, w/mac & cheese & broccoli. yum.)

bosom

2005-10-07T00:44:00.000+01:00

ok, now that i have your attention...

i am NOT drunk. in fact, i've had but 1 drink in the last 4 days: a delicious, cold, fizzy Sam Adams (a "pint of lager") at the airport bar at Logan, while watching the Sox get their asses whooped by the 'other' Sox.

i would probably have watched more but i had to catch my flight back to heathrow, which was just as well, as the score then was 9-2... not in favor of the RED Sox. just before take off they announced the score for all to hear the embarrassing results: 14-2. argh.

today is their off day, travel day; the Soxes will play at fabled fenway tomorrow eve. in that oxford is 5 hours ahead of boston, it'll be tough for me to find someone that has cable AND that is willing for me to jump around their living room screaming at the poor Red Sox pitching, and possibly spilling beer inadvertently on their couch at the same time.

pic from my last bday. do i look like i would spill beer on someone's couch?

when i was loading my 86 bags onto the bus from the airport back to oxford, some young dude, a nice college kid, innocently asked me who won the game. still stinging from the defeat, i replied, "the sox lost," adding in the terrible score for emphasis. he said, "which sox?" i hardly understood the question -- there is only ONE SOX TEAM, dude.

so now, like all members of Red Sox Nation, i am saying to myself: hell, they've dug themselves out of holes in the past!

i was home for 6 days last week, and in typical fashion, crammed the time full of seeing friends and family. not hours off the plane when my friend Ted called with a ticket to the game at fenway. surely one of the high points of the week was my best mate Dave getting hitched to the lovely Shira, with all the obligatory pre- and post-get-togethers, mostly at friends' houses, where we played music for hours, digging on songs we used to jam many years ago... such JOY!! Jerry, Julie, Steve, and Eric wacking out some sweet 'bone solos! at Mike Getman's we jammed acoustically, and his 8 year old son brought out own his guitar and strummed along. kid was great: very relaxed and good rhythm.

in all, i was blown away by how amazing it was to spend time just chatting with my folks, and hanging out with my old friends. (thanks, Pam, for driving out to Waltham to hang out in the lobby of the Westin Hotel!)

the old gang, singing a slightly bumpy rendition of our elementary school song "Juniper Hill We Love You"

and i got to have rosh hashanah dinner with my family. what a treat, to have mom's soft and tasty matzo balls (i like 'em hard, everyone else likes 'em soft -- what can i do?), sumptuous chopped liver, perfectly roasted cornish hens, and yummy brisket... and did i say, mom's matzo balls!!! yes, truly a treat! manna from heaven!

nothing like a home cooked meal, especially for the holidays

while the new england fall colors were not quite out in full force, they were starting to turn. and with the weather warm and dry, feeling like indian summer, driving through the lush countryside was nirvana.

typical new england farmhouse

so basically i spent a glorious week in the heart of red sox nation, in the kind embrace of mother nature, and deeply ensconced in the warm, wonderful bosom of family and friends.

happy new year!

dear mom

2005-09-25T12:33:00.000+01:00

an email i wrote this morning to a couple friends of my mom's, who travel quite extensively around the world, and who i know are keen to hear about my wee adventures here in europe...

dear shelley and marion,

not sure if mom has shared my blog with you.

in my mind, i was starting it as a way to keep in touch with family and friends, since i was writing to so many people all the time, it was starting to not be manageable.

so i thought, oh right, a blog. that way i can write to many people, still make it at least sort of personal, and cut down on the time i spend on email.

well, last week, after reading the first few posts, mom mentioned that she doesn't really understand some (much?) of what i am writing.

she said it sounded like i was drunk.

well, what about that?!

what do i do now?

i find i can really only write one way.

i write how i write.

and now the blog has taken over: when i sit down to spit it out, sometimes it does flow smoothly right out, but sometimes it just sputters.... so takes me a LONG time to write the measlely 250-300 words (and upload the photos).

well, i guess i've answered my own question: i write how i write. so i'll blog how i blog, and i'll have to keep writing email to mom.

love ya, mom.

when the levee breaks

2005-09-25T02:32:00.000+01:00

so lest i be completely engulfed in my own little world, i read the news today. and like every fricking day: oh boy.

katrina
rita
george
dick

it's like the worst double blind date you could imagine.

it's like going to a birthday party at Molotov's, and having to drink rounds of his incendiary cocktails.

death, flooding.
anti-war protests around the white house
of course bush was away.
and dickie's in the hospital getting his arteries fixed up again. that man will soon be the first human to have a completely artificial vascular system!

people ask me: as an american, what do i make of the situation in new orleans. and now, have i heard the latest on rita. what about all the deaths, coffins floating in streets. (i surely cried when i saw the pictures of the animals needing to be rescued.) or Bush's absence; aren't americans upset (YES) and what do they make of the unbelievable delay in the federal government responding to the biggest humanitarian crisis to hit america in years.

it almost seems like they expect me to have the answer to why the US federal government couldn't get its act together sooner.

people also ask me "is oxfam doing anything about the crisis?" and usually, "are they delivering food?" Oxfam is well known here (uk) for delivering food and water sanitation in response to natural disasters (tsunami) or to persistent food crises (ethiopia, sudan).

usually oxfam responds to such situations in countries that don't have the resources, infrastructure, money, etc that the US has. all well and good. but the communication breakdown that seems to have happened at various levels of the US government response, on top of a variety of other things, surely did not show the US in a positive light.

as far as oxfam goes, within just a couple days after katrina, oxfam america had staff on the ground, meeting with partner organizations there, and as of the end of last week had made cash grants of some $300,000 to local organizations. (at least i remember reading that somewhere, maybe in a press release, but i am not official spokesperson; the point is they responded quickly).

then, related to this, of course i get questions about the terrible way minorities are treated in america. and specifically in new orleans, and how they got shafted the hardest during these storms.

i was searching for this photo on Google Images...

...when i came across an article by Vijay Prashad (who teaches at Trinity College in Hartford, CT, USA) that really tied many of all these strands together in a very articulate and no-bones-about-it sort of way. apparently the city of new orleans sees $5B/year in tourist revenue, with 98 per cent of that coming from its world famous French Quarter. yet as Mr. Prashad notes, "the city has spent a generation to move the mainly black poor away from the tourist hub."

The esteemed Professor Cornel West of Princeton University (who i almost had as a thesis advisor) wrote in London Observer (Sept 11):

"New Orleans was Third World long before the hurricane... . People were quick to call them refugees because they looked as if they were from another country. They are. Exiles in America. Their humanity had been rendered invisible so they were never given high priority when the well-to-do got out and the helicopters came for the few. Almost everyone stuck on the rooftops, in the shelters, and dying by the side of the road was poor black. From slave ships to the Superdome was not that big a journey."

in any case, in amongst the flood of bad, i did manage to find some good news from this weekend: the International Monetary Fund agreed to wipe out debts it is owed by 18 of the world's poorest nations (with the World Bank expected to follow suit). apparently $52B of debt to these institutions will be written off. that is a boat load of cash. which should help those countries... hopefully they'll spend it on education, health care, etc.

basically a lot has happened from the time i went to see Sol Samba play last night (a 30-piece mad drumming, percussioning, dancing troupe):

sol samba at the zodiac, 24 sept 2005

...to the Iffley Village Harvest Festival Dinner and Barn Dance tonight.

Cryin' won't help you, prayin' won't do you no good,
Now, cryin' won't help you, prayin' won't do you no good,
When the levee breaks, mama, you got to move.

It's a crazy world out, there. Be safe, kiddies.

go sox, go cms

2005-09-21T01:45:00.000+01:00

i learned last night that my colleague, the editor of the french version of our site, has been imprisoned.

he's not still there, thankfully. (otherwise, how would he be able to update the site!)

i'm too tired to tell the story of how it happened.... another night. i promise.

we're preparing both our public and intranet sites for migration into CMS, so the french and spanish editors of our site are in town... and so the days have been filled to the brim with meetings: migration matrix planning, content strategies, stakeholder evaluations, and today basically an 8-hr demo of the new system (open source, an enterprise version of zope/plone). and of course we have to host our colleagues from brussels and barcelona properly, so evenings this week consist of dinner and drinks:

i enojyed a way hearty steak & ale pie last night at head of the river pub, oxford

tonight my boss had us all over for a relaxing meal at home....

julia's yummy carrot & coriander soup. served w/fresh breads, soft & hard cheeses, marinated artichokes and peppers, vine tomatos, and crisp bib "salad" (how my belgian co-worker refers to lettuce).

it's SO great to have colleagues that you can be friends with. i feel very lucky about that.

instead of the usual fare, tonight i'd like to serve up some content from other websites....

in fact, since i've got CMS on the brain tonight, and because the pennant race is heating up between the Red Sox and the Yankees, i shall simply highlight Seth Gottlieb's blogs. i've lost track of how i first found them/him but i discovered one of them in my list of "Favorites / Blog links". i don't know seth, but i am drawn to both his adoration of the Red Sox (and his comcomitant repudiation of all things Yankees), and his robust interest in CMS. he's in deep.

without further ado:

Enter Content Here

Seth Gottlieb's Web Log

is this post too esoteric? please let me know ("comments" link below!)

day trip

2005-09-20T02:17:00.000+01:00

[ed. note: you can click on photo to launch new window with full size image.]

last saturday i took the bus into london and met up with my long-time friend steve ginsberg and his wife ingrid. it was very interesting since they sort of left it to me to determine how, when, where we would meet up. so, where should you meet
someone in a foreign city which neither party knows that well? in the easiest to find, most popular, and most centrally located spot: in london, i figured that'd be trafalgar square. (yes, there are still pigeons there). i knew they could look on any map and find it, or worst case, ask most anyone and get decent directions. and i knew they could find St Martin in the Fields church from there, so i directed them to meet me on that church's steps.

well, sure enough, i was totally on time, and they were late. yes! fine by me, as it was a stunning late summer afternoon; so i snapped away at the scene and passersby while i waited...

god speaking to trafalgar square

st martin in the fields church, london

i took them to the only pub i've been to in that area - which fortunately i really like - the sherlock holmes pub, a classic english pub, with all sorts of s.holmes related memorabilia affixed to the dark-paneled walls. it has that feeling, as steve joked, where you could probably walk into the back room and find sir arthur conan doyle smoking opium. i made the mistake of not checking the map (though i'd brought 2!) when we set off to find the pub, so what should have been a 6 minute jaunt around the corner became a 40 minute circle through the theater district, squeezing through the primped and powdered crowds at charing cross. (london's weird: it seems to have like 4 theater districts.)

fortunately steve and ingrid were very easy going about it. having just spent a week in antwerp and amsterdam, they were just glad to be able to read the street signs! (i could relate: during my 2 days in amsterdam last easter, i must have gotten lost at least a dozen times.) they live in san francisco, and i've seen them approximately once in the last 10 years. but i grew up with steve, so it was really great to catch up, break bread, share laughs, and swap stories.

for example, he told how he'd recently started surfing on a trip to san diego, and had been bitten by a stingray just a few weeks before their vacation... and how 3 shots of morphine had hardly dulled his pain at all! both he and ingrid described how the blood was spurting out of his ankle just like in a monty python movie. apparently, when you're getting out to where you're going to hop on your board, you're supposed to shuffle your feet along the bottom through the sand, which scatters all the sting rays. steve didn't shuffle.

after a couple warm, flat pints of bitter (ingrid opted for guinness), we headed to dinner. it being london, we had agreed to go for indian. i had duly checked my guide books (Lonely Planet/London, and Zagats/London 2005) on the bus ride into town, and both had sung the praises of Cafe Spice Namaste, located in a big, old, converted library, just a couple blocks west of the Tower of London (Tower Hill tube stop). though a little pricey ($20-28 entrees), the food was delicious and smartly presented, the service attentive and professional, and the atmosphere clean and upscale without being stilted -- walls painted in rich, cheerful tones, white tablecloths, the waiter gliding by after each course to sweep the crumbs away. indeed, there was an overall sense of meticulousness about the place. (yes: clean loo too.)

it is one of those restaurants where if i am in the neighborhood again i would certainly revisit, but given that there are SO many restaurants in london to try, i'll probably not be back soon.

nicely, steve and ingrid treated!

it was nearly 11 by the time we walked out of there, so too late to try to make it to a pub for a nightcap. it was such a clear and beautiful evening, we strolled over the impressive Tower Bridge and then east along the south bank, where we had spectacular views of the Bridge and of the Tower of London itself (which for the life of me i cannot figure out why they call it a tower, since it is the shortest building around for miles. i guess it was considered tall when it was build some 1000 years ago!).

tower bridge

homage

2005-09-17T01:29:00.000+01:00

tonight i pay homage.

to two people really.

it seems like a bit convoluted, plus i have been at the pub, so please bear with me.

it can be amazing when your worlds collide: like when your work friends meet your band friends, or just two different sets of friends meet... and then they frickin hit it off like you'd never have imagined! (maybe even get married.... um, and then of course split several years later. oh well.) it can expand your world view; shatter preconceived notions; help you to grow. it can leave you wanting more.

well, my worlds smashed hard tonight and i am loving it. i'll try to explain...

the first person i pay homage to tonight is my sister, shari. she felt that my reference to "freaks and hairies, dykes and fairies" (12 sept) could too easily be taken negatively, for instance a put down of homosexual men and/or women as 'odd,' and that moreover some of our gay friends and family might be offended. as they say in this country, fair dues. (i think in the US they'd say 'fair enough.')

anyone who knows me knows that obviously that was not the intended meaning. (maddening the frustration one can feel with the ease with which words can be discontextualized). those words are lyrics from a classic rock song. but, try as i might, wracking my brain, i could not for the damn life kicking around in me REMEMBER WHO WROTE THOSE LYRICS!?!?!

as soon as i got shari's email i knew i had to respond. she prevailed on me to remove the potentially offending words.

i knew i couldn't. they were a record. you don't make a record, press it, sell it, and then go into everyone's home and erase the drum track. (well, of course, except for those instructional tapes with the one instrument removed) i mean, could dan rather fly like superman and visit every single home and pull out his fuzzily authored/sourced story from every American's ears? nope. they're out there. i wrote 'em. done deal.

but i also knew i had to do something. it plagued me... WHO WROTE THOSE LYRICS?? i could hear, feel them... they would roll smoothly through my head as i biked to work.... but the lyrics that followed them, those precious gems that would reveal to my memory the remainder of the song, though right there, at the tip of my tongue, they would simply not come. then it occurred to me: i needed help.

so, i delegated.

i wrote to the Living God of All Things Music, the second person i bow to tonight: Alan Kennedy. i met him the first week "at uni" (college), watching the band set up in the dorm's courtyard, and we were fast friends from then.

hi alan,

my sister suggested i might offend people by saying, in my blog, "dykes
and fairies" ... in the phrase "freaks and hairies, dykes and fairies".

but i assume you know, that was not meant to be slanderous in any way, but
was in fact a reference to a song that uses those words as lyrics.

i have searched for a bit some of the song lyric websites, but none seem
to have a good search functionality... so i am at a loss.

do you know what song that lyric is from?
or do you know a good song lyric database?

i thought it was either CSN or maybe jimi hendrix??

many thanks!

- joel

Totally.
That's the psychedelic classic "I'd Love to Change the World" by Ten Years After (1971), a British
blues-rock band led by guitar virtuoso Alvin Lee.

Lyrics are here:

http://ten-years-after-lyrics.wonderlyrics.com/I'D-LOVE-TO-CHANGE-THE-WORLD.html

in the back of my mind all day today was that sort of feeling like you get before chanukah or xmas, when you know deep down that you might be about to get a gorgeous gift. as i rode home tonight, i knew i wanted to write, and i knew i had to address shari's concerns in some way. but i knew i couldn't remove the post. then it hit me: write about it directly. once i saw alan's reply, i knew that would be possible.

i went to the URL to confirm Alan's lead, and voila! there they were, in the first line. as i read the words, i began to weep. my worlds were colliding hard...

i work for an organization dedicated to fighting poverty. and injustice. that's what i do for a living. it's amazing. but it's hard. it's big. it's long-term. it's complicated. it's, as you may say, fairly ambitious. but i am passionate about it. and i am passionate about music. and i am dedicated to tolerance, and to loving everyone. and i am glad for the diversity of sexual preferences in this world. helps keep life spicy, no?

shari, thanks for giving me something solid to write about tonight, and for caring enough to say something, and for standing up for your beliefs. speaking out is hard, and i applaud you. and alan, thanks for being such a friend, and fount of musical knowledge and joy. you both are inspirational.

last night i played bongos at an open mike night at the Flowing Well, a pub in a nearby village. favorite jam of the night was 'babylon' by david gray - a fabulous groove for bongos. no time for sit-down dinner: PB&J, glass of milk, 2 pints of guinness (at pub). dinner tonight was out with friends/colleagues, at a thai/chinese place called of all things "Red Star" (there is a dive bar in my hometown, Framingham, called the Red Star... which proves wherever you go there you are). one of our party was a young woman from Northampton (GB), who was getting ready to graduate with a combo degree in youth social work and applied theology. i'd never heard of 'applied' theology, though thought wasn't that what you sort of strived for in life anyway, to be a bodhisattva, share the love. how very interesting to get a degree in it.

music: food of the gods

2005-09-15T01:01:00.000+01:00

it has been a mad week, following all the events in NYC and covering the UN World Summit on the web. been working wacked hours. boss is not happy about that. but when it comes down to it, i'd do it whether i got paid or not. i probably won't (get paid, that is), as there are various hoops to go through to make that happen, which i just don't have time jump through. bottom line is i love what i do, so that's why i do it.

i left the office around 10:45pm tonight (i think just a tad earlier than last). i used to work in a music store where the whole last shift would always leave together -- you'd never leave just 1 or 2 guys to close. there were stories about people jumping the last man out, and ripping off the shop big time. well, i locked up the Oxfam Int'l office without incident, and cycled homeward, going my usual route through Oxford city center....

...when i heard the drumming...

not having eaten dinner, i was famished. of course my mind started roiling: to eat, to drum, to eat, to...

i stopped. there were 4 of them, 3 on various sized djembes, and one hippish-looking dude carrying one of those biggish, metalish-looking bass drum type jobs slung around his shoulder, like in a samba band or something. perhaps what sealed the deal for me, and made me stop, was the decent sized crowd. i am a sucker for an audience. plus i knew i looked like a foppish (foolish?) Oxford professor, with my dress pants tucked into my socks (hey, small price to pay to keep the nice trousers from the bike chain -- at least it saves on dry cleaning, which is usuriously expensive here in the UK).

of the 4, the youngest, Ryan, was the best: a decent leader, he tried somewhat successfully to call out tempo changes and stops; plus he had chops. he had a very sweet sounding high pitched djembe, its plastic head giving it a nice crisp high end. we traded licks and fills, pleasing the crowd. i was playing a smallish metal drum also with tight plastic heads, but using sticks, so i could easily ride on top, cut through the other drums, and make the enclosed building space snap, crackle and pop.

the crowd grew. and cheered. then the one female drummer got up and started dancing. and soon some passersby followed on. by this time the pubs had let out, so several folks were clearly quite buzzed.

in all, a short, delicious evening out.

got home, made grilled cod (little oil, lemon, green onion) with yellow and red peppers and quartered zucchini (italian olive oil, fresh from Frascati); plus, in keeping with the wacked nature of this week: a top-of-the-head, spur-of-the-moment, clean-out-the-frig pasta dish: shells with broccoli, cherry tomatos, crumbled Danish blue and a healthy dusting of hungarian paprika. yum.

the kebab kid

2005-09-13T00:51:00.000+01:00

monday, sept 12 - day after the 4 yr anniversary of 9-11.

yesterday's anniversary seemed to go by mostly unnoticed here. nevertheless, it is a day that i'll never forget as long as i live.

i have to decide soon whether to stay on another year here in lovely Oxford, England or not. seeing as i love my job, as well as living in a foreign land, and don't really feel like looking for another job right now - well, it seems to me i should stay! (should = want)

on my cycle ride home from work tonight, i left my bike just outside the arabic fast food joint, The Kebab Kid, in East Oxford, and went in -- for like the 10th time -- to try to buy one of their t-shirts. they've got this great logo, of sort of an Elvis character silohuette. i have been wanting to get my brother-in-law, Scott - the biggest Elvis fan i know - this t-shirt since january, when i first saw that kebab restaurant. well, tonight, as long last, i scored!

as i stood there calmly waiting for some time while the clerk fetched my great new giftie t-shirt, i was of course approached by this very drunk and very smelly street-seeming man. he was slightly bigger than me, and not necessarily clean. i had just seen him out on the sidewalk verbally acosting this non-descript middle-age woman out on the side walk just a minute before.

the drunk man sort of ambled over to the kebab shop and slunk in behind me in line at the counter. as i patiently waited for my prized 'T', drunkman launched into a slightly convoluted story about how he had to go confront someone in the morning. his ex-girlfriend? his ex-girlfriend's lover? i only half-paid him attention, as i was kinda watching my bike out in front of the entrance, and looking for the counter guy to return with my shirt. but he clearly conveyed there was a distinct element of danger to his task. then, looking right at me with fully blood-shot eyes and stanky breath, drunkman asked earnestly if i would back him up. would i support him, stand for him, or against him, in his anticipated morning adventure to avenge his manhood. returning his gaze directly, without a moment's pause, i said bluntly, how could i answer that without knowing any of the details.

he was completely defused. he smiled, becoming sort of happy, and blurted that that was the most clever thing he'd ever heard. he acknowledged, repeating several times, 'how could i choose either way without knowing any of the details' and 'respect, man, you have my respect.' i returned his wide-eyed gaze and tapped my fist firmly to my chest then raised it in solidarity to him, 'right on.' he wandered off toward what seemed to be some other rather potted lads milling about in front of the oxfam shop, looking rather in search of someone else to harangue.

for some inexplicable reason, i seem to attract the oddest people wherever i go. freaks and hairies (or is it 'hairys'?), dykes and fairies. must be the look in my eye. makes me think sometimes i think i am just a mirror, and people want to talk into me, through me, to find out what they want to hear/see. or more likely they think they can take advantage of my ingenuous nature.

i rode on, secured my greasy friied cod from my local fish & chips guy, got home, made a huge salad, and enjoyed a delicious dinner, listening to a slamming mix tape that my friend Ted Driscoll made for 1 Jan '03.

peace.