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I'll cover the VPOTUS debate in a bit (hopefully Meat posts first) but for now, just three minor code notes.
There is now a music reviews section to the website. If anyone has any other sectional requests, just e-mail me and I'll add them. (Dwight, I moved your article into the proper section, fyi.)
Also, evidently there was a problem for IE users who wished to add articles. Normally, I'd say I don't care, but I want everyone to be able to post, so I fixed it. However, it's several days late...so next time, if you try to add an article and cannot, you should tell me. I'm happy to help.
Finally, when you make links to places on the website, you now need to include the full path. In the past, you could use a root symbol "/" to indicate a path relative to the root. Unfortunately, because of the way the RDF feed works, you need to have full paths specified in the link. Yes, this conflicts slightly with the archive system. (In the past, using an archive page would keep you at that time period as long as all the links were relative.) But the archive page is rarely used, so I'm not concerned. Besides, you can still go back in time...you just can't move between certain pages the way you used to without using the back button. Which I assume most people can use.
So I’m late posting this, but the Track You Should Be Listening To Right Now (actually, August’s TYSBLTRN) is White Mud Free Way’s “Mercury,” from their album Last Year’s Junk. The female-fronted White Mud Free Way is everything great about Luscious Jackson without the noted downside of being…well, Luscious Jackson. “Mercury” opens with the plaintive line “I don’t think about cowboys anymore,” and an image of long, lonely desert stretches. It then quickly manages to morph into a meditation on space, distance, and the perils of asteroids colliding with Earth. Meanwhile, the hurried bass rhythms combine with laidback vocals for a unique combination of urgency and resignation. Most songs couldn’t successfully conjure up images of dusty, worn cowgirls and sterile, lab-coated astronomers in the same breath, but “Mercury” does it, both in music and in imagery. The linking factor is the invocation of the Western sky—a star-studded expanse that can’t help but be massive, fraught, empty, exhausting…and worth dancing under. (Listen to "Mercury" here or request it here.)
Okay, I've finally added an RSS feed to the website. Just click on the little "RDF" icon at the bottom of the page to pull up the feed.
Rather than get into the holy wars surrounding RSS and RDF (and the unholy Atom!), I'll just say that I'm using RSS 1.0, which is to say, RDF. I contains full posts, so any good RSS newsreader should be able to visit the site completely without, actually.
And that's why, really, I've resisted implementing RSS. Because I'd rather people come to the site, instead of reading it in a newsreader. Because the next round of changes will require people to visit the site to get the full effect. However, in the interim, I figured throwing up an RSS feed was good form, so I did. The code was annoying but it's now up and I now know more about RDF than I ever planned to.
My coding procrastination now has to end, as the next three projects (staff, charts and foreigners) are major and I have nothing left until them.
I've uploaded the sailing pictures here. Unfortunately, I need to get a new camera phone with a better resolution, but Nokia keeps delaying the 7610. Annoying.
The mainpage image currently is of a helicopter (one of several that morning) that buzzed Kevin and Carrie and myself while sailing. It felt as if it were right on top of us, although the image doesn't do it justice.
Okay, back to work. Things here are extremely busy...
Go check it out...who says the French are best at montage?
Here we go again...
Friday evening I hit First Friday with a smaller (but still fun!) crew than usual. Nicely, almost every gallery was open, which was a pleasant surprise after the last two months when almost everything was closed. Later, I traveled up north to hit some sushi followed by "Motorcycle Diaries" with Fincher. Altogether, a great time except for the late bus misadventure.
Saturday I enjoyed the cloudy weather by taking care of some house stuff, followed by some law review. I'm starting to get better at the hypos, but still not 100% behind the hearsay arguments. The day was interrupted by a sudden thunderstorm in which I got soaked. Saturday evening, Fincher and a friend came over to watch City of God. I learned an important lesson: don't attempt to watch a movie in Portugese while eating chinese food if said movie is so fast-paced that every other second someone is getting their face blown in. Once I finished my meal, it was easier to keep track of the psychopath, main character, and various hoods throughout. Saturday night we went out and discovered that U street was a complete madhouse. After losing some of our crew, we retreated back to our original target, Utopia. We had meant to go there in the first place, but the high drink/food minimum price scared us off. (I'm more of a blues person than a jazz person, but it was enjoyable>) Upon our return, we discovered the minimum was a fiction, and enjoyed chilling out there.
Sunday I went sailing with Kevin and a friend. I'll try to upload the pix later. It was an amazing day, with perfectly blue skies and plenty of sun. Post sail, I did some yardwork, then grilled some meat in the evening, followed by a little fire-pit love. Altogether, a great way to end a great weekend.
Now, if only it weren't Monday...
I watched glass melt tonight.
Everything seemed solid until one particular moment, no different than any other, when enough energy had passed through it...suddenly it was like plastic.
Phase shifting is curious because people think that you can warm ice up, or cool water down to freezing. Instead, you may already be at that point, merely adding joule to joule, until the tipping point occurs. Or it may already be passed, and the substance you thought was solid merely appears so, when the lightest touch will reveal it is liquid.
It's tough to gauge that exact moment when something passes over. Much like trying to hold onto the final moment before sleep.
I won't think about it soon.
werkz advice: go rent it today.
Fernando Meirelles' epic tale of the slums of Rio, "City of God" is a great film that never slows down for you to catch your breath. A vivid description of a hellish life, random killings, beatings and falls from grace, the movie is so fast-paced you can't look away for a second or a pivotal character may be either introduced or shot. By the time the film is over, the last shot fired, you'll be grateful for the soft cushy life you lead. No one deserves to live this story...
after central station, director walter salles brings us the luscious, the real, and the not too over-the-top motorcycle diaries. gael garcia bernal (oh my!) plays ernesto guevara de la serna, a young argentinian medical student who later goes on to become the revolutionary guerrilla leader "che" guevara, in a story about a formative journey taken around south america with his friend alberto granado, played by rodrigo de la serna (who, incidentally, happens to be a second cousin of che). the movie begins in argentina and continues through chile, peru, colombia, and venezuela, treating us to beautiful scenes and stories about real people encountered along the way. we meet enchanting women, persecuted communists, displaced indigenous farmers, and the residents of a leper colony on the amazon. the film is truly made for the big screen and is pleasurable because the politics and turmoil to come in che's life are merely hinted at, and the movie is quite simply a story about a human being to which all of us can relate.
dear dredwerkz, is it an insurmountable dating obstacle that someone voted for mitt romney in the last massachusetts gubernatorial election?
yours truly, diehard democrat
helena says:
Flirting with conservatives can be mildly entertaining, so if your dating is still in the realm of nonexclusive grabbing drinks when you're up for a debate, I think that this person would be fine to keep around. But to me, that's a friend, not a boy/girl-friend.
Getting serious with someone whose fundamental beliefs are evil is a bad idea. Politics aren't like preferring chocolate or vanilla. I see it as an irreconcilable difference. Heath is slightly less left than I and even that sometimes makes me want to strangle him.
- Conversion is a waste of time, unless this person is exaggerating his/her conservatism in order to get a rise out of you. If that's the case, I find it obnoxious, but you might find it fun.
- Always date within your own league or one higher. You're a Democrat; this person is a Republican. You are too good for him/her.
edward says: I've always believed that you can convert anyone from the dark-side. Of course, this approach takes for granted that you have the time and energy to engage in what could prove to be a fruitless quest. (Be sure to score plenty of free dinner/jewelry/gifts in the process, though, so that you at least come out ahead!) Just remember two points if you want to do it:
If you don't convert him/her, leave him/her wanting more. Better to have them think "Wow, that really hot Democrat got away...I wish I hadn't been such an idiot" than "Whew, I'm sure glad I didn't end up with that annoying liberal."
They have to convert. If they don't, you don't go out with them anymore.
brad says: I wonder when someone brings this up - is this a first date sort of thing? You know, 'this t-bone kicks ass, but not as much as lyndon larouche'...? And though I don't know who diehard democrat is offhand, I'm willing to guess that it's a 'she' because I can't think of a single woman who would openly mention mitt romney while on a date. But you want advice, so here are my two points:
Republicans from 'the other commonwealth' are pretty rare, so they're likely to have a chip on their shoulder about politics. Conversation will be frigging irritating...
Time spent converting space monkeys sends the wrong message to the other gender...it basically says that you don't care enough about politics to reward those who use their brains when voting. enough said.
I finally made it back home...depending upon the link to get me from Woodley Park to the 'werkz at one in the morning was a mistake. The bus took 45 minutes to arrive, and when it did, I realized the problem: Adams Morgan had been shut down by the police.
I suppose I could've walked home in half the time, but for some reason I am very tired right now.
A bad end to an otherwise enjoyable evening, filled with art, friends and film. Hopefully those less tired than myself will throw up a post or two covering the festivities.
A picture says a thousand words...
The next president, looking presidential, versus the frowner-in-chief.
Shales weighs in. And he says Kerry won. Yay!
These stories are going to dominate the weekend.
Kerry was upbeat and effective. Bush lost his temper. It's a simple meme that the media can run with. Hell, even Karen Hughes said Bush was making facial expressions.
They beat us last time with earth tones and love canal. How sweet would it be to beat them with smirking and anger?
Yes, Kerry won substantively.
Unfortunately, that's not the issue. Much like in 2000, it only took a few minutes for the anchors at CNN et al. to start focusing on style rather than substance, detracting points for facial expressions and mannerisms.
Except this time, it wasn't the Democrat. It was Bush.
When Helena spoke to me during the debate, she mentioned Kerry wasn't looking at the camera. That got no play in the press this morning. Instead, every single anchor noticed Bush "making faces" as Kerry spoke. By contrast, when Bush spoke, Kerry just lit up a soon-to-be-trademarked smile, nodding occasionally.
The technique was effective. Instead of looking angry or dismissive, Kerry looked like he was agreeing with Bush. Then he'd open his mouth, and as one would chastise a petulant child, would tell Bush that sadly, thing were wrong.
I don't know what the intentions were from the Kerry camp, but the effect was striking: Bush was coming unhinged. He oscillated between confusion and anger, often returning to his stump points even when they made little sense. He botched North Korea. He said "nukular". He just fell apart.
The spin today, is of course, important. But far more important was the moment minutes after the debate when the CNN anchors said, "Frankly, John Kerry did better than we thought....Bush kept smirking." The media collective has agreed: Bush got Gored.
And that's good news for us.
I know what you're thinking - why is Brad not only not out at this time of night on a Thursday, but he's actually typing on a computer? The rain perhaps? The overpriced drinks at Redline?
Nah, it's the debate. And though the whirling dervishes haven't yet settled down, I think the verdict is clear. Kerry blasted this one out of the park.
Sure some might have been nervous, but not after the incredibly brilliant lowering of expectations done by the Kerryites. The media expected a long-winded self-contradicting bore and a charming, plain-spoken president, and instead they got a forceful, incisive leader and an annoyed, confused uncle. Even Bush's jokes seemed to fall flat, as the inability of an audience to respond seemed to deflate those lines that he seemed to think were winners.
In the end, though there were several great lines, the best wasn't a sound bite at all. It was Kerry's ability to describe his position on Iraq succinctly and in a way that every American could understand. Kerry knew Hussein was a threat, but there was a right way and a wrong way to disarm him. Bush did it the wrong way. Simple, eh?
I should know better than to be happy right now, as I thought Gore won his debates pretty handily, but in this case even the go-bots at Fox admitted the obvious - Bush lost. Big-time.
Sure it's unscientific, but that doesn't mean it couldn't be influential.
go to this poll and click on 'grays', and let's see if we can't get us into first place. The poll must be new because there aren't more than a couple hundred votes...time to push the system!
So I began to design a logo for the Senators, based on the fonts/styles used in the various department press rooms around the district. The trouble is, that damn blue background goes so poorly with the red district star that every effort ended up looking cheesy.
So I finally switched the background to gray, then minutes later read Brad's post. It hit me:
Good colors. Good logo possibilities, and a great color scheme. Plus, it still has the White House font, so it looks far classier than these crappy ideas.
I'm now officially down with the Grays.
Wilbon weighs in and I'm beginning to come around to his point of view.
Sure, 'Senators' has a nice ring to it, and already has good name recognition, but let's face it, they sucked. Badly. And even if the Expos manage to pull out a halfway good season, the first time they lose a couple of games, the sportswriters will be all over the cliches.
You know, like 'Washington is first in war, first in peace, and last in the american league...'
The Grays, on the other hand, only managed to blast away the competition in an unparalleled streak of excellence. It would almost be insulting not to choose the name, especially considering that the district is essentially the last colony. Though 'Senators' might highlight our lack of voting representation, 'Grays' would highlight the racism that prevents us from ever getting that representation.
And on a lighter note, let's face the uniform facts. Anyone ready for a red, white and blue monstrosity? I'm already cringing...but the Grays not only kicked ass, they looked awesome too. Do the research, check out the unis, and you'll be sold too. If baseball is all about merchandising, then Grays will win every time.
So I'm coding a new site for work and it's now to the point where I'd like to get feedback on it.
The temporary site is right here and the only two pages you should look at are the main page and the news page. (I'm still working on few lines of css code in the "services" page.)
If you're using Firefox, be sure to click in the lower right-hand corner where the stylesheet switcher lives to see the other two style sheets in action. I particularly like the third one.
Oh, and if anyone tells me I should use Flash, I'll rip their head off. So don't try.
We got baseball. Yay! Let the naming wars commence...
I, for one, think "The Washington Senators" is the best name, followed possibly by "The Washington Greys", the name of the old Negro League team that kicked ass while the Senators were dragging it.
The reason I prefer the Senators is that I think the name, naysayers to the contrary, would highlight our ridiculous lack of representation in the Senate.