My good buddy and esteemed Ron “24” Fro will be joining me now and again as a guest blahgger on seeznet. So there. Welcome aboard Ron.

Pablo Picasso was the shizznit. Born on this day long time back, he pretty much did for modern art what Miles Davis did for Jazz. I would like to do a little tribute, but I don’t have time for that. Instead, {{popup shutthefckup.jpg shutthefckup 473×584}}here is a sketch meant for one of those in-flight magazine articles. They didn’t buy it.

I have the theory that the distortions of the face in his cubist work probably stems from the fact that he was–I heard–a ladies’ man. Because when you are very close to an object, like five inches from your face, you stop focusing you eyes on a single point and let them look independently. Thus you have two overlapping images.
Cubism is after all a very logical progression from the blurry, hazy images of impressionism. I totally dig both schools. I’ve been trying very hard to get more cubism into my Flash stuff. One project on the back burner (I must have like fifty back there) is a cubist Eval Kneival film. I need to check that spelling.

With a birthday party yesterday and today, and a shortage of scratch to boot, I killed two boids with one boulder and baked a dozen bagels. People are always asking me, “Mr. Seezen, how do you do it?” Well, little buddies, this here is the best recipe that I could find. But the website’s layout is ugly as a monkey’s butt and not printer friendly in the least. I do a few things differently:

–I add two eggs. Just because I like cracking eggs. So you’ll need a bit more flour.

–I double the salt. Baker’s dirty little secret: always double the salt. Of course this will slow down the rising a bit. Just make sure to keep the gneaded dough real cozy. I set the bowl on a wet towel on my Dauerbrenner and keep an eye on it. The towel is wet so I will hear it sizzling if it gets too hot.

–I shape the bagels (I subscribe to Tak’s “hula hoop thing” methodology) first then let them sit 20 minutes. This gives the little bastards time to ease into their new shape and smooth out. As you can see {{popup bagel.jpg bagel 300×317}}here, my bagels are a lot better looking than hers for that very reason. I don’t know if she knows it but you know her mother-in-law noticed it and casually mentioned it four of five times to the son/husband, right after taking one look at their house on that last visit and declaring it “could use a woman’s touch”.

–I brush on eggwhite to make the toppings stick. Duh.

–Use bread (550) flour, not flour (405) flour. It makes all the difference in the world, yo. Remember, it’s 550 or fight (that’s why we almost went to war with Canada).

–Let em boil longer if you want. I listen to Mp3s on the computer in the next room and go by verses, not seconds.

Remember, If it ain’t boiled, it’s just a roll with a frickin’ hole.

Online Tour for the VW Glass Factory. I went on the guided tour just last Saturday with the English Club. ‘Tis a silly place.

Yet another person being sued by a business for simply posting her grievances on a website.

Whodathunkit?

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the romantic poet who wrote {{popup mariner_ancient.jpg mariner_ancient 121×107}}Rime of the Ancient Mariner and inspiration for Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, along with Alfred Nobel, father of both mass destruction and the modern Peace movement, along with Dizzy Gillespie, father of bebop, all share the same birthday. I defy any horoscopist to find a thread there.

And I defy myself to lay off the almanac Schtick for a while. The semester has begun, and these entries should be once again a little less sporadic and a tad more pertinent.

Summer’s over, fritters.

Until further notice, we will continue to hold class in D?R 247 and not meet in BZW every other week.

Why did I even bother upgrading Netscape this time. It drives me crazy. It takes forever to load on my ol’ computer and has a penchant for flipping out over meaningless discrepancies in html tags by making everything look misaligned and goofy.
So why did I do it? Because I realized it was one of the privilleges of living in the free world. Here is the very first disclaimer on the download page:

Netscape Browser software contains encryption technology that is subject to the U.S. Export Administration Regulations and other U.S. law, and may not be exported or re-exported to certain countries (currently Afghanistan (Taliban-controlled areas), Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria) or to persons or entities prohibited from receiving U.S. exports (including Denied Parties, entities on the Bureau of Export Administration Entity List, and Specially Designated Nationals).

I was listening to All things considered today and learned–as always–something very interesting. This week Satchmo’s house has been opened as a museum. And –I did not know this– he pretty much recorded everything that went on in that house. The house was hardwired with mics and tape recorders. There are literally thousands of reels of Louis Armstrong at home, jamming, at the dinner table, having spats with the missus. This precludes Nixon’s ill-advised move to tap the whitehouse, and more significantly on the cultural scale, makes him the original Big Brother.
Unfortunately at this time the article is not yet available on the internet, so enjoy this link
About Yogi Bear.

English Club Music Nite Party!

Showing up to class is all well and good, but perhaps the most rewarding part of foreign language fluency is the abilty to not make an ass of yourself in social situations, like going out and tying one on. That’s where the English Club comes in. Click on the contact button to enquire, or come to our next party.
Read the rest of this entry »