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March 16, 2007
March 8, 2007
Taking a Break
I’m taking a short hiatus to do some retooling around here. Movable Type and/or my server is running real slow and it’s driving me crazy. If you’ve attempted to leave a comment and it results in a slow load, I’m sorry. I will try and get this fixed.
February 11, 2007
Still No Comments
Still in the midst of trying to get to the bottom of why scrubbles.net suddenly is not accepting comments, so this space is gonna be quiet for the next few days. In the meantime, take a gander at the banner I designed for a new weblog called Circa 45. Circa 45 is the brainchild of Kevin Murphy, one of my old Arizona Republic colleagues. He’ll be using it to post various mp3s culled from his father’s jukebox of old 45s along with other neat stuff. It’ll be great, I’m sure. Kevin’s other weblog, So Much Silence, will periodically be publishing some of my music reviews in the near future. Feel free to non-comment on those, too.
February 9, 2007
No Comments
Right now we’re going through a problem on this weblog where attempting to comment results in the dreaded “500 Internal Server Error” page. Sit tight; I’m working on it. I know everybody is just dying to leave comments (sarcasm). Sorry if you attempted a comment and it got lost!
It might be a problem with my web host, or it might be a Movable Type problem that can be fixed with a simple upgrade. The last time I upgraded MT, the process wiped out my entire system. So you can understand that I’m a little apprehensive on that.
February 7, 2007
Roses and Roses and Roses
Time for another goofball meme, the kind where you put your iTunes playlist on “shuffle” and list whatever song corresponds with each item. This one I found at Quiddity.
- What does next year have in store for me? Somehow I Feel I Must Be Dreaming — Jumping Jacques
- What does my love life look like? My Town, My Guy and Me — Lesley Gore
- What do I say when life get hard? Treat Me Nice, John Henry — Diana Ross & The Supremes
- What do I think of when I get up in the morning? Midnight at the Oasis — Maria Muldaur
- What song will I dance to at my wedding? Right Start — Talking Heads
- What do I want for my career? Turkey Lurkey Time — Promises, Promises OCR
- Favorite saying? Mesmerized (Freemasons Mix) — Faith Evans
- Favorite place? How About Me — Davy Jones
- What do I think of my parents? Blackbird — Ramsey Lewis
- Where would I go on a first date? Don't Let The Teardrops Rust Your Shining Heart — Everything But The Girl
- Drug of Choice? Half Breed — Cher
- How do I describe myself? Nothing Can Be Very Wrong — Tony Visconti
- What is the thing I like doing the most? At Last — Laura Lee
- What is my state of mind like at the moment? Medley: Malinconia Serenita — Ennio Morricone
- How will I die? Words Of Love — The Beatles
- Song they'll play at my funeral? A Million Miles Away — The McKinleys
- What song will I put as the subject? Roses and Roses and Roses — Dorival Caymmi and The Girls from Bahia
January 4, 2007
Out Sick
I came down with the flu last night. I feel terrible (although vomiting for the first time in years is an interesting experience). Therefore I’m giving scrubbles.net a rest until next week.
January 1, 2007
Another Year of Couch Sitting
Last night we closed out the year with the 1964 Vincent Price thriller The Last Man on Earth. The movie had an interesting concept, but the pacing was so tedious that it made me sleepy-eyed long before midnight (inevitably, the traditional New Years neighborhood gunfire woke me back up). That brings an end to my annual catalog of films watched for 2006. These lists seem to get longer with every passing year — should you think I spent the entire year plopped on the couch watching obscure pre-Code movies, you wouldn’t be too far from the truth. They also go all the way back to the year 2000, by the way (just change the web address to view the corresponding year’s list).
Actually, watching a boring movie plopped on the couch pretty much encapsulates my entire year from a personal standpoint. Whether it was eBay selling or attempting to gain more freelance design clients, I feel like the previous year was overwhelmingly marked by putting a lot of effort into things which ultimately didn’t pay off. Effective time management has always been a problem with me; I lack the motivation and discipline to get projects going to a satisfying conclusion. So maybe I should help the problem one small step at a time. I’ll start with a tiny resolution — whenever I have the urge to watch TV, I’ll pull out a sketchbook instead.
With that out of the way, let’s try and shift focus to the good things about 2006: I started working out again a year ago, and now I feel fitter and look better than ever before. Christopher continues to be a wonderful teacher and inspiration for me. We mourned the departure of our wise old cat Eames, and welcomed the arrival of frisky Eero to the homestead. Just last weekend we got a spiffy new car (a 2007 Chevy Aveo with a sporty shade of yellow). Although I didn’t acquire any new regular clients over the last year, I’ve strengthened relations with the ones I have. And I posted a lot of fascinating old crap on Flickr. So it wasn’t a total loss. Here’s a thanks to you, scrubbles readers, and best wishes for a productive and peaceful 2007.
December 4, 2006
I Love the Smell of Tooth Powder in the Morning
Had another extensive dentist session this morning. It used to be they needed to plug up cavities and crown my teeth, now they need to fix up the fillings/crowns already there. I don’t understand it: I brush and floss three times a day, but it never ends! Things I know:
- My dentist does not have Highlights for Children in the waiting room. Instead, they have a small cache of cooking magazines. Huh?
- Some time in the past decade, the dental care industry stopped using the mini toilet bowls that you could spit in. I miss mini toilet bowl spitting.
- Unfortunately they still haven’t changed the disgusting taste and texture of tooth polishing grit. Mmm, fake cherry grit!
- My dentist’s chairs used to have lights with a tiny distorted mirror on them, so you could stare at a weird reflection of your own mouth while they worked on you. Now they have a logo where the mirror used to be, so now I definitely know that the lights were made by a company called Belmont in all caps. BELMONT. Beats staring at a poster of a unicorn on the ceiling, which is what my childhood dental office had.
- I only choked once this morning; although the multitudes of instruments/waterers/suckers/fingers simultaneously in my mouth gave me a few claustrophobic moments.
November 27, 2006
Getting Reacquainted
Another interesting development: one of my ex-coworkers contacted me to do CD reviews for a local upscale lifestyle magazine. I accepted. It’s a sweet little gig — three mini-reviews a month, no restrictions but for a vague instruction to cover a wide variety of genres (and presumably stuff that would appeal to free-spending North Scottsdaleite families). It’s neat, but also scary. I haven’t done any professional music writing since 2000, but in the past week the old thrills/frustrations of music criticism have flooded back. Mainly that the major labels can be a pain in the butt to deal with, and that the indies are much more accessible (and now, six years on, doesn’t it seem so quaintly “20th century” to ask for a physical copy of the music you want to cover?). Just this morning, I dealt with a music conglomerate switchboard operator who acted as if reciting the name of his employers was the most arduous task ever known to mankind.
Anyways, I’d like to fish for some suggestions here. For this first one, I have new releases locked in from The Pernice Brothers, Nanci Griffith, and an undetermined third artist. But I only have a few things in mind for the next go-round (which is due a week later), compounded by the problem that December/January is traditionally the slowest period of the year for new releases. Anybody got ideas?
November 22, 2006
Dept. of How Funny
In five plus years of doing this weblog, I’ve never gotten an email from somebody I wrote about — until now. A few days ago, former Entertainment Tonight correspondent Dixie Whately sent me a response to this. She wasn’t pissed off; on the contrary she was funny and sweet! These days Ms. Whatley is doing some film reviewing and a lot of stone sculpting and photograpy. Her lovely work can be seen here.
By the way, Christopher and I met exactly twelve years ago on this date. Happy anniversary to us!
Hello Kitty
Old Drawing: The Price Is Right
It’s My Birthday
September 11th
Welcome F.O.S. Babies
My Big Fat Link Log
Now We Are Six
Holy Flashback!
A-Hiking We Will Go
Dozens of Balls of Paper
Housecleaning 2
Postscript
Kitty Eames c.1991-2006
Casa Cucaracha
Housecleaning
Remembrance of Things Pastel
Technical Difficulties, Please Stand By
In the Bedroom
Horizontal Hold
What the Heck Does ‘Aud Lang Syne’ Mean, Anyhow?
Four or Five Days Ago
Merry and Bright
Nepotism Alert
Notes and Comments
Sketches: Tourists at Disneyland
The Great Depression
Back from the Dead
100 Things About Me
