There is something profoundly disturbing about doing a search on iTunes for something (Harry Chapin if you must know) and tripping over a Weasel Walter album for sale there. And it all ties in with a conversation I had with the Furry One earlier this month. Weasel was a student of the late great Hal Russell (who has a few up on iTunes with the NRG Ensemble) at Columbia College (I believe). He was a regular Wicker Park denizen in the early 90’s, and frequent fixture at Myopic Books Sunday performance series and Improve Nights. And took his nickname seriously, much to everyone’s consternation.
Jeff Mickey recently located the stereo photography of Hal’s tribute in his archive. The archive includes loads of video of various Weasel Walter incarnations, as well as performances by Math, Jenny Magnus, Michael Zerang, The Swollen Spleens and other Wicker Park stalwarts from the Myopic Perforamnce Series. The problem is Jeff’s camcorder is fried and we’d like to salvage the footage before the tapes disintegrate.
If anyone has a working Hi-8 deck or camcorder please let me know.
(You can get Hal’s CDs The Finnish/Swiss Tour
, and The Hal Russell Story
and Weasel’s The Flying Luttenbachers : Destructo Noise Explosion!
here.)
A while back my brother was in town, and he was showing off his computer backpack. The pack was impressive in size and organization: not just the little slot pockets you usually find but really useful sized pockets well laid out, an integrated cd pouch and pockets for wall warts. And lots of space, they claim 3100 cubic inches, it looks more like an honest 2000. My brother said the dry mesh padding on the back made it feel like he wasn’t carrying his hude 15″ desktop replacement laptop. I’d never heard of the manufacturer, and I wrote the name down wrong down, so I wasn’t able to find it online.
Then last week Jenn had be along as an expert advisor on a backpack buying trip to REI. Despite my pushing from the onset for the Kelty Redwing which they had on sale, she tried on everything with an actual every day load. And settled on the Kelty Redwing. And then i found it. My brothers backpack.
It’s an Outdoor Products PowerPack. It’s the bomb. It was even more organization then I remember. The clamshell opening zipper on the main compartment is angled so you don’t don’t snag your laptop on the pack when you take it out. Twin drink holder mesh pockets, and another large mesh “wet clothes” style pocket on the pack body, two sub compartments full of the pockets I remember. There’s even a way to charge your laptop without removing it from the pack. And two compression straps I don’t remember for when you aren’t using the pack stuffed to the gills. We both tried it on loaded, and neither of us experienced the binding or neck pinching large people feel with small or cheap straps. And it’s one of the few backpacks whose sternum strap could actually be moved down to my sternum, so no choking. You can easily load it with all your computer needs, a camera pouch/pocket/padded carrier some books and a jacket or sweater. This is one comfortable backpack.
The cons for me are the blue and grey color scheme (I prefer black), the thinnish nylon (I prefer 500d to 1000d Cordura), an elastic sternum strap, and the lack of a frame sheet or hip belt for heavy loads. If it had a frame sheet and hip belt I’d get one, spray paint it black and add a solid sternum strap.
So it doesn’t go on my wishlist. But for the rest of you who aren’t hauling 45 pounds everyday, this is the pack to beat. $65 from REI or:
Nothing ruins the effect of a perfectly clothed perfectly toned body like wearing flip flops. Yes, they used to be called thongs, and now a different kind of thong is hip and sexy. But flip flops are the summer footwear of poverty. They make you walk funny.They’re bad for your feet and back And they sound terrible. Nothing sexy ever moved down the street going clop clop clop…
I stole this whole cloth from Daring Fireball. It’s a simple procedure to reload a Pilot G2 semi-disposable pen with a Mont Blanc refill (Disclosure FFEJWORLD heartily endorses Pilot pens (especially the G2 and the Pilot Precise), and has been using them since the 60s). Here’s the instructions. Look for the cost of Mont Blanc refills to go up as a result.
Oregon State University researchers have streamlined a technique to drug test whole cities:
Researchers have figured out how to give an entire community a drug test using just a teaspoon of wastewater from a city’s sewer plant.
The test wouldn’t be used to finger any single person as a drug user. But it would help federal law enforcement and other agencies track the spread of dangerous drugs, like methamphetamines, across the country.
This isn’t rocket science, and everyone from the EPA to the Italians have been doing this for a while. This artcile just indicates how simple it is and how little you need. And how fast the Feds will re allocating assets to bust your ass, not to mention future arguments to get a judge to give up a search warrant –your honor, it’s in the water, it’s got to be there somewhere! Yet another bit of your privacy down the toilet.
(FFEJWORLD is not a lawyer, nor does it play one in cafes-please consult an attorney before you begin using a compost pile or alley as a urinal. We will tell you that all that urine cleaning herbal shit is worthless and ddoesn nothing to breakdown the residue in your system , let alone in the sewer system)
There has been some more noise in the Amiga world of late (new hardware), but it’s still meaningless. Like Windows surpassing Mac OS in the 90s, almost everyone has caught up to the Amiga. But for many many years, there wasn’t anything short of a SGI workstation that came close (and only in certain ways). The Amiga gave you a color graphic user interface, video and stereo in 1985, and did it well (I’ll leave off the bus mastering custom chips and wacked out near real time AmigaDOS operating system). Ars Technica is doing a history of the little machine that almost did it all, the first three parts are up. It gives a good look at the old school start up culture, and the drive to make something insanely great, to quote Steve Jobs. Part One. Part Two. Part Three.
My mother is now missing her gallbladder. She’s tired but fine.
You were a very a good dog. I’m going to miss you.
LAMPREY HAS BEEN CANCELLED FOR THIS SUNDAY.
If you know people without regular net access, please tell them. Sorry for the short notice.
Next meeting in two weeks.
So I invited everyone in Chicago to the Nexus of All Evil for my birthday, and Zeus the Cat’s wake. Unfortunently, as reported in the Sun-Times
Bike messenger killed in S. Loop
August 14, 2007
FROM STNG WIRE REPORTS
A 27-year-old bike messenger was reportedly killed instantly when he was hit by a truck in the South Loop neighborhood on Monday afternoon.
The bike messenger, who was identified by the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office as Ryan Boudreau, of the 4000 block of North Oakley Avenue, was working when a truck struck him and killed him instantly, according to a Central District police captain. One of the bike’s wheels was badly bent in the collision, the captain said.
Boudreau was riding the bicycle west on 18th Street in the eastbound lanes and made a left turn to go south on Clark Street when he went into the northbound curb lane and collided with a northbound truck, according to Police News Affairs Officer David Banks. The truck had a green light, Banks said.
The accident occurred about 3:15 p.m. Monday at Clark and 18th streets, according to police News Affairs. Paramedics were called to the scene but the bicyclist was not taken to a hospital, according to Fire Media Affairs Cmdr. Will Knight.
No citations were issued, according to police News Affairs Sgt. Eugene Mullins.
Pronouncement information was not available early Tuesday.
So what does Ryan Boudreau’s death have to do with my birthday? The messengers decided to ride over to his deathsite for a memorial. And then they all rode over to the Skylark. Damn near every bike messenger in Chicago. Everyone of them feeling the lose deeply, and drinking heavily. Before 8pm, I was getting dirty looks every ten secondsand having to defend my table. I was one of the few civilians in the bar. By 8:30 beer was being thrown at people, and glass was breaking. The Lark added extra staff. By 9:05 I had been pushed out of the bar.
I apologize to anyone who actually showed up after I was forced out. Sorry. It was out of my hands.
