A friend of mine was hired to make a documentary about a well-to-do entrepreneur by a business partner as a birthday present.  My buddy is a filmmaker, and has had a lot of experience with documentaries, so he set out getting stories from family and friends, capturing emotional moments and providing insight into the documentary's subject.
He ( Read more... )

A couple days ago I put out a call for Guest Fixes, to cover me during my upcoming holiday.  I've gotten a couple of responses so far, but the turnout has been considerably less than I'd have hoped.  I'd love to get some additional pieces for the 7 day stretch while I'll be away from the my computer (and therefore the Daily Music Fix).  Just ( Read more... )

I've always had something of a knack for geography.  I enjoy looking at maps and have spent long hours pouring over my family Britannica Atlas which includes maps of the whole world in vast open pages.  I enjoyed looking at the various networks of roads and the landscape which surrounded them.  As a child I'd often imagine what it looked like ( Read more... )

Amy Winehouse died yesterday at the age of only 27.  In so doing, she joins the famed 27 Club, a group of musicians who all died in their 27th year including such notables as Robert Johnson, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, and Jim Morrison.  I am not sure that Winehouse deserves a place next to these legendary musicians, particularly ( Read more... )

Many years ago, I lived in an apartment in NW Portland, across the hall from a friendly group of techies.

One of those techies, Nick Farina, is getting married today.

In the early years of our friendship, I happily watched Nick's TIVO and pilfered internet from him, in exchange for occasional food, a touch of software testing, and a sampler of ( Read more... )

You can tell that a bachelor party has been successful when the groom has participated in the following activities:  eating a tasty meal, drinking himself into a stupor, sitting politely for a lap dance from a stripper, urinating into a bottle on a moving bus, successfully picking a lock, vomiting into a trashcan, and eventually passed out on ( Read more... )

Have you guys heard of Reggie Watts?  If not, you really should.  He's great.
He used to front a fantastic soul outfit based out of Seattle called Maktub.  They had a great groove and I recall being impressed when I caught them years ago at the Musicfest NW.  Watts' hair was pretty extreme back then but it was nothing compared to the coiffure he's ( Read more... )

It's funny watching a table of drunk people struggle to get the blocks from a Jenga set back into their original container.

"They won't fit."
"Are you sure all of them are supposed to actually go in there?"
"Try shaking it a little more."

Finally I come over and say, "The best way to put those away is actually to just stack the blocks into a tower ( Read more... )

It's that time of year again.
The time when I ask you guys to write the Fix for me.

Today,  The Daily Music Fix is 1471 days old.  Subtracting the 7 days I took off for April Fools, and the one day I missed when I had an unexpectedly needed appendectomy, and that's still a daunting 1463 days of writing, but I've got a secret weapon --- you ( Read more... )

I'm not the sort of person who looks back at their lives with regrets.  I like my life.

That said, I kinda wish I'd discovered geology as a child.  I never really understood the study of rocks, preferring the variety of the animal kingdom.  Rocks were often pretty, and curious, but I never gravitated to the study of them --- not like I did to ( Read more... )