The End of the 5th Sun Circle Is Approaching!

The Sears Tower Has Been Renamed

to the Willis Tower, and I’ve been teaching myself to edit photos.

Until Tomorrow

Let this be your blog of the day: http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/09/portrait-of-shakespeare-unveiled-399-years-late/?hp

Once you read up on the momentous find, we can talk about Shakespeare some more.

Maybe even a little Marlowe.

Regrets

Okay, okay, sure, I didn’t update things when I said I would. But today is the day. Even as you read you will find some new things to the right. And more to come. Always more coming.

In other news, I was able to catch a bit of James Lipton’s Inside the Actor’s Studio with Conan O’Brien today. He must have been interviewed fairly recently because the breadth of questions spanned his upcoming takeover of the Tonight Show and things like his love of the Rockabilly genre, his interview with Barack Obama, his physical abuse issues with his writers and interns, and finally his never ending need for large amounts of water.

Find that program online or in reruns if possible. I truly believe that Conan is a well-educated man who takes what he does seriously. Not too seriously, of course, but he has studied his predecessors and he knows his place. He knows what he is good at and he knows how to use it.

Growing up and growing smaller

These days everyone’s all “stock market this” and “sub-prime mortgages that.” Admittedly, I am not yet seriously affected by the downturn of the US economy, but the future is nearing. Either with the purchase of a car or with an apartment and a new job I will plunge into this mess. A mess that I did not help to create.

To get a better handle on the state of things, and how they might best be understood and approached, I was referred to some “beginner” level youtube videos.

Part 1

Part 2

Of course, my research and exploration are ongoing, but these helped me begin to get it all. Hopefully the same is true for you. Still, I’m left with questions. When a problem like this could even begin in the first place, the world is a place with priorities so foreign to my own that I often have trouble finding hope in any of it. Hope is there, but once our world is financially stable again, we may live a life a bit more like this:

which is completely fine by me.

In the coming days, look for some additions to the right margin of this site. Some things are already new, and more will follow. Enjoy.

Last Minute Heroics

Thanks for the birthday wishes. This was my present:

Cooooooooraline!

Awhile back, a good friend mailed me a copy of the book Coraline, by Neil Gaiman. His work is interesting, with a residual creepiness that I always wished I could pull off. The book is short and potent, for kids, but not expressly so. Read it if you belong to a library. Buy it if you are rich. But, if nothing else, check out the trailer:

A Plea

It is no secret that I advocate the city of Pittsburgh at almost every chance I get.  That said, if you are in search of a good place to ride out the current economy, or if you are in search of an easy to navigate urban center, or if you are in search of a cheap place to live with friends nearby, make it Pittsburgh. 

The New York Times agrees, Pittsburgh Thrives. 

In many ways, this entire website could be read as an homage to the city.   The things I care most about–the things detailed in all previous entries–are almost entirely steeped in this place.  The few things set in other places have grown sweeter, remembered in this place. 

You would love it here.  I cannot doubt it.

Sister Winter

Where my mind spills its secrets

A glimpse into the notebook of our friend, Dave Eggers: