April 2003
Secretly
in Love with Hugh Grant
Seattle
Tuesday April 28, 2003
I have just figured this out and perhaps should feel shame
for admitting it, but it's true. I had the realization while reading a
Seattle
P-I review of his movie Two Weeks Notice, co-staring Ms. Sandra
Bullock. I had no idea this was a film--it's now out on DVD--and I can't
even say with confidence I'll ever watch it. Yet the review nailed my
secret affection for Hugh (only bolstered, by the way for his career maintenance
post public-deviant-sex-act-discovery:
"he again demonstrates himself to be the movies' unrivaled master
of sophisticated verbal comedy." That's it. The man has a way with
words and language and though he so typically plays a type--the rich but
emotionally challenged Brit--the way he twists and intonates words is
a source of intoxication. Both Dia and I loved About
a Boy (and certainly mega props go to Nick
Hornby), though the devastatingly wonderful final line was not delivered
by Mr. Grant but by his young co-star who--and I paraphase--noted correctly
that "I think couples are outdated, we need more people, we
need . . . backup."
Well,
Thank You
Seattle
Monday April 28, 2003
I have had the pleasure of being on the receiving end of a
couple of nice compliments in the last few days about this site and my
writing. Thank you kind people. I take this positive feedback as an affirmation
of both my approach to Joygantic and my decision not write on the Web
for about a year and half. For me it was about finding a reason to write
for myself, to get over a desire to be clever, to habituate a creative
process that would extend beyond the Web, and above all to do something
that would further help me connect with people. I value connections and
intimacy with people above just about everything else, though it's taken
a good thirty some odd years to figure that out. I suppose at root--and
this could sound so cliched--I want to ensure that this site is "authentic."
Not "seems authentic" or "creates the apperance of authenticity,"
but felt to me honest and open, knowing of course that there are
swaths of my world that I just won't write about. That's been a more difficult
recipe to conjur than I'd expected. After all, this is what attracts me
to my regular doses of Abada Abada
and Electrolicious.
Joygantic
Update #8
Seattle
Sunday April 27, 2003
Pictures and stories of the last few days coming
soon have been posted. No pix. I accidentally deleted a whole bunch
of photos from my camera phone including Bradshaw PhD moments, Elaine's
party, and some special pictures that would never have been publicly posted.
I am sad, but will see if some file recovery software can help my cause.
Labor
of Love
Seattle
Sunday April 27, 2003
My birthday gift to Elaine was to mostly handle the food for
her 30th birthday party/housewarming bash. I was up at 7am making pizza
dough, running to the Pike Place Market with Dia to buy last minute supplies
and house warming flowers, and worked non-stop until diving into the shower
at 6pm, hustling to Matt & Elaine's house at 6:30, and almost
completing the buffet setup before the first guest arrived (it was done
by the time the second guest arrived). The house was beautiful, the party
a success, and we headed home in a cab sometime after 2am. I find labors
of love--not metaphorical ones, but actual bouts of labor--to be
powerful and restorative acts. And I'll be even more specific: I find
that gifting labor/time to someone you care about is beautiful.
And when your labors get to produce something expressive and creative
like pizza (or I suppose music or art, but I'm a more accomplished cook
than musician/artist), well, that's positively joygantic in my book.
Queen
Anne: My Enemy
Seattle
Friday April 25, 2003
I really didn't mean to follow up the last post with any negativity
about Seattle, but I have determined, through repeated experience over
the last several weeks, that the Queen Anne neighborhood is the real world
equivalent of the Sunnydale
of Buffy fame, the Hellmouth.
Sure, it's got good schools and nice parks, but what other explanation
can account for the funhouse-like street, the dead ends, the one way avenues,
the general impossibility of finding your way that culminated tonight
in an hour futily spent looking for a house that must exist only in another
dimension, or maybe just in hell.
Diagnosing
Seattle
Seattle
Thursday April 24, 2003
Sitting at the bar, typing away at some work, and I find myself
pulled into a conversation with my seatmate who, uncharacteristically
for the establishment, is a 60+ year old Republican. And we have a great
conversation. We converge on a topic that we both seem to agree on: Seattle
is fucked up. Yes, it is a beautiful place, and I've enjoyed spending
the last ten years here, but my tenure here has also led me to discover
pathologies that get in the way of having a healthy relationship with
this place. Here's what I think the root of Seattle's problem is: community
politics seem to focus more on preserving a vision of what Seattle was
rather than developing a vision for what it can become while the 'what
it can become' business contingent seems focused on dealing with some
perverse form of penis envy as they strive to realize a dream of being
a "world class city."
To me the best examples of this is in the failure to craft a vision of downtown, which in terms of my experience with Seattle was really thrown into relief shortly after I moved here in the debate over the the Seattle Commons initiative. I was a proponent at the time of the grand idea to create a massive park and other public amenities south of Lake Union, ringed by high density housing and mixed use building. The proposal failed (twice), largely on concerns that it would drive out a bunch of local business like car dealerships (where else do you find a car dealership in a downtown city core?!) and there was a fear that sense Paul Allen was backing the land acquisition he'd somehow fins a way to make money on the deal, which I sure was true but not, to me, repugnant. But the whole thing collapsed and now years later Paul Allen is pursuing a vigorous vision of development, except that we don't have a park or civic vision that at it's center.
Dr. B
Seattle
Wednesday April 23, 2003
Bradshaw clarified that we hadn't seen each other since 1999,
which seemed impossible to me at first. Bradshaw is now properly referred
to as Dr. Bradshaw, having impressed all during the PhD oral exams
that brought him back to town. While I haven't read his tome on urban
planning in Portland (which I'm sure would clock in at about 700 pages
if he hadn't cheated on the spacing), I've had enough conversations with
him through the years and seen bits and pieces and felt his passion about
the project to know that he's done something special. Dia and I tracked
him down at the Big Time
where he was deep into beer drinking with Kathleen and Tom. More beer
was consumed, a retreat to Zig Zag
was engineered, and I hope I was not too obnoxious and bombastic in my
urgings to Dr. B that approach the job market with the biggest balls imaginable,
confident in the fact that not only is he a catch, but that he should
insist that rules be bent on his behalf. He'll be back in Seattle in June
to walk at the UW commencement--you just can't beat the doctoral
commencement costume.
STOMP
Seattle
Tuesday April 22, 2003
So many friends. This is a good thing. Late last week Dia asked
if I wanted to go see STOMP
with Carlos and Barbara who, truth be told, we hadn't seen in maybe .
. . two years? Not since his photoshoot
and a party, I forget which, maybe the book
warming? No expectations about anything, but it was wonderful to catch
up with this pair and, though it's over ten years old, the show was fresh,
surprising, and generally wonderful. Post-show, we caught up with Jen,
who is serving drinks and Argentinian beef with great aplomb for another
two weeks before she does . . . well, who know?
Joygantic
Update #7
Seattle
Monday April 21, 2003
Moveable Type was installed over the weekend thanks to a surplus
in my PayPal account (an artifact
of our failure to attend Burning Man 2001), and now I'm in the midst of
of learning CSS, understanding the whole MT
paradigm, and getting my head wrapped around why and how <div>
is better than tables. . . wish me luck. I'm angling for May
Day as the date when I make the transition to
joygantic/blog.
Eggs
Seattle
Sunday April 20, 2003
Case
hid eggs from us, we hid eggs from him, and Dia joined an intense crew
in the kitchen crafting Ukranian-style
eggs. It was an excellent, inpromptu Easter celebration, with massive
amounts of grilled meats and the Mexican leg of lamb, a bit of Bocce,
and the ever popular sword/hula hoop deathmatch.
Random
Bits
Seattle
Saturday April 19, 2003
Back from their euro excursion, Matt and Elaine report the
existence of an Otter
and Owl Sanctuary which leads me to wonder what other animal sanctuaries
might exist to save pairs of animals who's names start with the same letter.
In other news, Scott returned to Seattle from the premier
of his film at the Newport Beach Film Festival landing a nice writeup
in the LA Times to boot. We'll be seeing him and Angelica
and Case tomorrow.
Yay!
Seattle
Thursday April 17, 2003
Given my last post, the synchronicity of this is not lost on
me: Dia's coming back from LA on Saturday. Dia was planning on spending
Saturday with a friend falling into my arms Sunday night, but that's fallen
through, so we'll get a weekend together, join the demolition crew in
planning Burning Man activities, and share Easter dinner. I think I need
to ask my dad for our family's traditional Mexican leg of lamb recipe.
Dia reports that time with the little ones has not reversed her aversion
to fulltime childrearing, but has cemented her desire to be closer to
the kids. We're going to make this happen. The current scenario involves
her spending next winter in LA and as we continue to pull our financial
act together look to relocate to San Francisco some time later. I am still
not persuaded that LA or San Diego is where I can happily live, but I'm
open to arguments in favor and am committed to moving southward.
Cratered
Seattle
Thursday April 17, 2003
No
updates so far this week because I have been in a bad mood. Blue,
overwhelmed, exhuasted, unfocused, and generally burnt out, with a capital
B. I've become fairly proficient in metering my energy and I think that
what's happening is that I budgeted my energy for a manic first 100 days
of the year to be promptly followed by a three week vacation to Brazil.
Well, for non-work reasons that vacation has been pushed back, but I only
had enough gas in the tank to get me to this week. I am not sensing an
existential crisis, just a need to shut down and recharge, which is what
I'm doing. I began last night by not turning on my laptop, renting four
DVDs, watching one and then falling asleep on the couch. Today I've been
working lightly from home, petting our cats, making a few phone calls,
and am planning a nap. Tomorrow I'm staying home, pushing off a deadline,
and maybe completing my annual performance review, the timing of which
seems comical. I'll be back at it next week with a renewed respect for
my capacity to do amazing things--and what happens when I exceed that
capacity.
The Elements
Seattle
Sunday April 13, 2003
I stumble across so much stuff on this little thing they call
the Internet. I was doing something completely unrelated--I think
reading Moveable Type documentation--and found a link, which led to a
link, which led to this
link, which immediately made me think of my dad, who is a scientist
with a sense of humor.
Solo
Seattle
Sunday April 13, 2003
Dia is off to southern California to babysit the twins for
the week. I am resolved to make good use of my bachelor time and catchup
on all those chores that have been piling up. Wish me luck.
I'm Thinking
Again
Seattle
Friday April 11, 2003
Or at least starting to. In the first 100 days of this year
I worked five tradeshows, handed out 300 business cards, received about
8,000 emails, had two business trips to Europe and helped organize and
present at a worldwide sales meeting. I've logged something close to 30,000
air miles. It's been non-stop, go go go. While the general pace won't
abate anytime soon, I'm eager to switch modes and move out of spinning/handshaking/storytelling
mode. My title has both "strategy" and "marketing"
in it and I'm looking forward to spending some quality time on the former
in the next several months.
All About
Dia
Seattle
Friday April 11, 2003
Last night was very cool. Dia planned, staged, and hosted her
first PPL business briefing.
She's been attending and speaking at them for three years or so, but she's
taken her business to that proverbial "next level" and will
be running her own, with her colleague Jessica, every week. That's great
news on the business front, but what really made my night was watching
my dear partner in action. She's a great speaker, exuded the calm confidence
I look for in a presenter, and was generally lit up by the experience.
I don't know is anything is better than seeing someone you love doing
what they love, radiating positive energy. That's what last night was
about for me.
Soundtrack
at 30,000'
Flying over California
Thursday April 10, 2003
I've been typing away on my laptop in seat 26C, listening to
the White Stripes'
new album Elephant. I haven't listened to much lowfi/garage for a while--downtempo
trance has been more my taste for the last year--but this album is exceptional
and the the brother/sister/girlfriend(?) call and response of "It's
True That We Love" is just a plain adorable. The album finished as
I typed this and now I'm on to something at the other end of the spectrum,
Royksopp's hypnotic "Eple."
Two hour flights like this one from Las Vegas to Seattle are a dream as
there is no need to preserve laptop battery life and thus I can immerse
myself in my own soundtrack. I lust for an iPod
and some upcoming international flights may be the thing that helps me
rationalize iPod ownership . . . the calming bliss of music is something
I don't want to be without.
IN OUT
OFF
Las Vegas
Thursday April 10, 2003
Is what the signs read at MacCarran
Airport's security check point: Put keys and phones in your
carry-on, take your laptop out of your carry-on, take off
shoes, belts, and metal objects. Makes perfect sense for our Security
State, but I can't help feel that the slogan seems vaguely pornographic
. . .
Defining
Things
Las Vegas
Wednesday April 9, 2003
A friend writes:
"I have heard about burning man but I can't remember
what it is. Love to hear more."
I respond:
"Be careful what you ask for . . . I might just have to say that
Burning Man is my most favorite thing. Nearly impossible to explain. One
way to describe it would be this:
Burning Man is festival with no spectators, only participants. It is impossible for me to separate 'The Burning Man Festival" from the city in which it takes place. Black Rock City is created by its citizens (29,000 in 2003) and is rooted in the principles of self-reliance and radical self-expression. It is an art filled city like no other and is arranged on grid that archs in an uncompleted circle. BRC is located on a dry lake bed in the middle of the flattest, most barren environment you can imagine. No buying and selling is allowed. The economy is based on gift-giving and, to a much lesser extent, barter. The city is built for six days. On the seventh it reaches a psychic peak and its apex is marked by the immolation of a giant wooden man which is its center point and chief landmark. Or at least that's what I think it is. What it means to me is an entirely different conversation."
Dee do
do do, dee do do do, dee do do do dee
Las Vegas
Wednesday April 9, 2003
It's 12:25 AM and CNN is on in the background with the latest war news,
in this case a French press conference reacting to the Bush/Blair meeting.
I pause when the press conference is momentarily interrupted by a mobile
phone blaring the Nokia Tune. This strikes me as hilarious. The Nokia
Tune is infectious
(and I don't mean that in a good way) also known in some quarters as the
"Executive Ringtone" . . . it ships on phones as the default
and the gag is that executives can't figure out how to change the ringtone.
I find this alternately funny and not funny.
"On
the left side fo the plane. . ."
Flying over Nevada
Tuesday April 7, 2003
". . . is the Black Rock Desert where landspeed records are set"
which immediately provoked (a) marvel that there are people that care
about landspeed
records, (b) a smirk that Burning Man
is still not on the general mental map of the population, (c) dissonance
over whether or not
it should be, and (d) the sense that I was flying over something deep
on my way to someplace shallow.
Rock
Chalk Jayhalk
Seattle
Monday April 7, 2003
Brian and Natalie's
deep KU basketball fanaticism has had it's effect and tonight I watched
the Jayhalks almost become national champions . . . almost.
Division
of Labor
Seattle
Sunday April 6, 2003
By design, this weekend has consisted of hanging out with friends in the
evening and napping the rest of the time. (Meanwhile, Dia has cleaned
up and replanted our herb/flower beds. Thankfully I married someone more
motivated than I am.)
Geek'ORama
Dallas
Friday April 4, 2003
I love my friends, even when they are complete, irredeemable geeks. I
forwarded these
instructions to Mark and Phil earlier today only to be greeted with
the following pictures in my inbox when I rolled into my hotel.
Taking it one step further, Mark noted that "With some slight modifications,
you can also make a romulan warbird."
Don't
Mess With . . . whatever
Dallas
Friday April 4, 2003
I've steadfastly avoided the Lone Star state my entire life. Call it a
snooty west coast prejudice. I've known lots of great folk from Texas
and even had memorable college flings with two very different Texas women.
They convinced me that Austin
was, as they say, the shit. I've even entertained the thought of
going to SXSW. I've been in Dallas
for about 80 minutes and my impressions thus far are: (a) excellent warm
evening breeze, (b) incredibly poor highway singage, and (c) I really
didn't need to see the sign for "President George Bush Parkway"
(or maybe it was "Expressway"). What's the deal? I mean they
had to rub my nose in it that it was President George Bush? Who
could/can forget?
Vista
Seattle
Thursday April 3, 2003
I've been thinking about the place
I grew up.
Linkage
Seattle
Wednesday April 2, 2003
Jeremy writes:
"Love your comment on segway's chances for success. I made similar
comment on my (new) blog"
Apart from being a brilliant, visionary technologist, a brewer, a cook,
a dad, and one of the nicest people you could ever meet, Jeremy also holds
the distinction of being the first person to link to Joygantic. If I were
I small business I would frame this link proudly as if it were my first
dollar bill. I'm not (yet) a link whore, but links to my favorite blogs
is part of the post-Moveable Type master plan. Jer made the mistake of
actually implementing MT, so he's
now become first line technical support for yours truly, a service I believe
I can pay for with free beer (as long as it's good
beer).
Converse
Dreams
Seattle
Wednesday April 2, 2003
This morning in a dream I received a package in the mail which contained
two boxes. The first box had a pair of black leather Chuck
Taylor All Star Hi-Tops. The Converse
logo patch was blood red, but the sole seemed oddly flismsy given the
weight of the shiny leather. The second box contained Converse trainers
of a type I could not identify, styled in orange and blue. I thought to
myself: "Perhaps these are a prototype."
Segway
Seattle
Tuesday April 1, 2003
Just rode one. Induces complete giddiness.
Loved it. Will likely go down as commerical failure.
April
Fools
Seattle
Tuesday April 1, 2003
There are multiple biting comments I'm tempted to make about our political
leaders that seem apropos given the date. But I must refrain as
I'm concerned it might cascade into an avalanche of disgust.
PLANS
[as of 4.30.03]
Mark
Europe 5.5-5.15??
Mark & Dia
Mexico 6.12-6.19
Salt Lake City 7.3-7.6
Las Vegas 7.31-8.3
Mary & Kerry Visit 8.11-8.13
Black Rock City 8.22-9.5
Brazil 11.03
CA 12.22-12.31
