1. Officially started my new job today.
2. My new camera is arriving. I’ve gotten the body and one lens. Two more lenses and various other toys/accessories are expected this week. Soon I will be playing.
3. Plans are progressing for my Alabama trip to the Magic City Art Connection. I have two more pices I want to finish, and the usual logistical concerns (mailings, display prep, etc), but all is more or less on schedule.
4. Picture.
1. Among my favorite (apparent) April Fool webjokes: cVillain being sold to the Cville Weekly.
2. From Daily Kos: Clinton campaign: popular vote doesn’t matter:
Clinton’s campaign has one premise — victory at all costs. If that requires sundering the Democratic Party, so be it. She doesn’t care. Therefore, there is no logic that applies… Clinton personifies the worst of the “with us, or against us”-type thinking that has gotten us in trouble with the rest of the world.
3. And from the Virginia Quarterly Review Online, Hillary Clinton Like Rocky?
Okay, laying aside the fact that this reference is thirty years outdated, it’s a very strange comparison to make. First, did Clinton see Rocky? Yes, Rocky fights bravely to the end—before he loses. I’m not sure how that’s supposed to rally the crowd… But, stranger still, Sylvester Stallone—you know, the star and writer of Rocky—has already endorsed McCain.
4. Tranquil:
1. How frickin cool is it that Ryan Zimmerman won the first game ever in the new Nationals Park with 2 out in the bottom of the 9th with a walk-off homer?
2. I’m getting a new camera - a Nikon D200. I’ve been lusting after it for a while now. The time is right.
3. Happy April Fools Day.
4. The Jesse Dog.
1. Props to my friend Foust for sending the awesome Mojo Nixon song “Don Henley Must Die” (plug-in required).
2. The Charlottesville Ten Miler was awesome. In my 21st straight year running the race, my time of 1:18:25 was 10 seconds slower than last year, but I felt great and had a lot of fun seeing friends. Thanks as always to the Charlottesville Track Club, Ragged Mountain Running Shop, and the race organizers for a well-organized event.
3. Photo from last week. Coats. As found.
In the news:
Progress = Better.
Eagles = Coming.
Beavers = Cool.
Shooter = Done.
—–
There’s a hole in the window.
1. Sad to hear that the Daily Progress is losing its best reporter (and one of the few writers there who could consistently put together a smart, tight paragraph), Bob Gibson, to the Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership. The move means an awesome new job for Gibson, but leaves the those of us interested in state and local politics in the hands of DP reporters who wouldn’t know the story if it came up and bit ‘em on the ass. Sadly, it’s yet another reason not to read the Progress.
Best of luck, and thanks for all your good work over the years, Bob.
2. And while I’m on Bobs. Umm, different Bobs. Yeah, I won’t argue the fact that the man has gone off the deep end in the last few years. Still, I’d argue that no one has changed things as much as Bob Dylan. This came on my iPod tonight while I was driving home. An alt version - not sure where I found it - it’s got some different verses than the “Blood on the Tracks” version. It’s all good.
Suddenly I turned around and she was standin’ there
With silver bracelets on her wrists and flowers in her hair.
She walked up to me so gracefully and took my crown of thorns.
“Come in,” she said, “I’ll give you shelter from the storm.”
-Bob Dylan, “Shelter From the Storm”
3. Not Bob:
Cheer up, honey I hope you can
There is something wrong with me
My mind is filled with radio cures
Electronic surgical words…
Oh, distance has no way of making love understandable
-Wilco, “Radio Cure”
Effective immediately, I am changing the spelling of my dog’s name. I’m not sure of where I heard this, or even if it’s true, but I have come to believe that the spelling “Jessie” is the feminine version of the name, while “Jesse” is the masculine. To insure my dog’s positive male self-image, I am henceforth spelling his name without an “I”. I thought you would want to know.
