But the show must go on!

And "Dancing with the Stars" totally made up for Deef Lepers with their house band's cover of Burt Bacharach. DwtS is now officially my friend again :)

Girl you know it's true: Deaf Leppard sucks

I'm hoping they're deaf, so as to help explain the embarrassing lip-synch the band formerly known as Def Leppard just turned in on "Dancing with the Stars."

I think I still have the 45 of Pour Some Sugar on Me that is the same one they just played over their stupefyingly awful fake attempt to fake their way through.

I've always been a big believer in the idea that you could overwrite a shitty memory with a good one if you could do something fun during a song, for example, that you associated with an ugly time. I hope the reverse doesn't work: I have a totally awesome previous memory of that song.

Anyway, if I'd been in the audience, I would have booed and thrown a tomato, the universal sign of not enjoying a show.

Another cover

A funky version of "Zombie" - mother-freakin' Ukrainians rock:

Network failure leads to screwing off

A drawback - maybe the only drawback - to today's news-gathering operations is the utter reliance on computers and networks to get the job done, and that's only really a drawback when the network conks out.

Anyway, guess what is happening right now? So, while we wait for help to arrive, here I am, wishing I had photos to upload of all the great stuff I've been weaving, or video from the balloon ride, or...

So much for that. How about a cool cover of a Warren Zevon song?

Poppycock from Big Media

So, there are about 101 stylish stories to write, and of course there being way more than 101 writers, they all get written a lot. One of my personal favorites is a riff on the False Piety Piece, which can be laid down anytime there's a new bishop in the archdiocese (The new guy is unimpeachable, but he represents the old hierarchy, which endorses frying and eating small children); a good-hearted sports star signs a fat contract (Joe Blow's only done good things for our city, but Frank Jones turned into a psychotic ax-killer when he got that five-year deal in 1931); etc.

Today's contestant is a USA Today spiel on how "Eco-friendly events can leave large, unfriendly footprints"

I'm sure it is true, of course, but, um: No shit, Sherlock. Have you ever been to a rock show? A balloon festival? A hunters' blind at the end of the season? My front yard? Yours?

Merely the existence of a major crowd-drawer necessarily means waste, harm and general badness. But maybe the eco-friendly events spur people to make wiser choices down the road, ultimately paying for the one-time cost, and maybe paying it many times over.

Would you say no to a washing machine that would pay for itself in two years via energy and water efficiency just because you had to drive to a nearby city to buy it for $200 more than a cheap, inefficient alternative?

I suspect not, but I'm sorry to see my colleagues in print are disinclined to go the extra mile in their own work.

Play it, Jamie

I know you've all heard this before... This is one of those songs I am never not in the mood to listen to.

Photo page from the balloon flight

Here are a few of the better shots I got during my ride in a balloon earlier this month. Mine is a pretty tough job sometimes.And here's an online slideshow (edited by my friend and colleague, Carlos Virgen, who makes me sound smarter than I thought I would :)

Yeah, yeah, I know

A sure sign of me being busy (or, I suppose, lazy) is posting music from U-Toob. Nevertheless, here's something I like a lot.

This guy is good...

and his lady friend's pretty damn good, too. Maybe they put something in the water at Elon University?



His channel is well worth checking.

What I listen to when I'm weaving

Besides the probably expected Joe Purdy, Tori Amos and other mellow(ish) tunes:


Also, a great use for an anthropology degree:

Which is here, in translation:

And a bit of this, too:

What did you do today?

I was up to a few things...

These kind gentlemen were part of a crew assembling the craft I got to ride in this morning (my first balloon ride).How about this view?
I can see why a balloon ride is on the do-before-you-die list - it was an unparalleled experience, hard to describe. The sensation was like the moment after you do a flip turn in the pool and are coasting/surging out for the next length, only the view is much, much better.

Quasi-evidence it was me up there:
If you're a reader of the Union-Bulletin, you can look for a column about the ride in the Balloon Stampede tabloid, and also a photo feature (with not these shots) in an upcoming Panorama.

Also, what I've been up to on the loom lately.
I got the gold silk I used in the weft of this scarf as a throw-in with my new-to-me loom. It is a Wow! yarn for sure.

Seen on the road to adventure

A lot of the concrete pourers left their shingles on their handiwork back in the day. R.E. Mills is the only one I can recall finding in the city who left his phone number, too.

Every day's a good day for Queen

An obituary well worth reading

Whatever you might think of Charlton Heston, you should read Mike Clark's obituary for him at USA Today. Would that we could all write such pieces!

A great quote

One of the many cool things about my job at the newspaper is getting to read zillions of stories I wouldn't necessarily otherwise come across. I think this is a really moving quote, from a story about war photographers gathering at the Newseum:

“When you lose somebody close to you, it doesn’t scab over and heal. A zipper is installed. And anytime you come across the memory, it opens up and all of your sadness falls out.”

- Sherry Potter Walker, whose brother was killed in Laos during the Vietnam War.