New-minted Siffblogger E. Steven Fried shines a light into the dark recesses of Kaspar’s Kouch Film Festival. Now that is my kinda festival, lemme tell you.
Kona
After tearassing around North Seattle before confirming that house #4 is one we want to bid on, Viv and I, starving, skidded to a stop in front of the oft-passed, always curiously eyed Kona Kitchen at 85th. I’d read good things about the place, and as we walked in, I was a bit surprised to hear the somewhat loud, live slack-key music played by a motley assortment and fronted by a striking, fiftyish soprano. The place was filled with obvious family groups, and a clear majority of the men were, in fact, wearing Hawaiian shirts.
Viv and I were a bit overwhelmed by the volume at first (which really wasn’t that loud, we were just tired and hungry) but I ordered fish and chips and a Kalua pig and cabbage. Watching the musicians, it was clear that we’d walked into a gathering of people who all seemed to know one another and the songs being performed. We had a beer and settled in to watch and listen.
As it happened, the night’s performance was led by one Stephen Inglis, and he was assisted by a semi-rotating cast of musicians, three of whom appeared to be guesting. One of these folks wandered over to our table and asked Viv if she was from Hawaii, and we chatted with him for a bit. He, the woman who had been singing when we walked in, and a bassist all appeared to have played together for many years, and although I enjoyed Inglis’ performance, I was intrigued by the relaxed interplay of the older players. Unfortunately, I did not catch the name of the guy who wandered over to chat with us before working his way around the room – he clearly knew the majority of people there.
At any rate, the food was delicious, the music was relaxing, and watching the room was a hoot. I had the presence of mind to record five of the performances on the phone – theoretically in stereo – so bend an ear. I haven’t proofed or remastered these tracks, so expect warts.
Alarmist
Treonauts: Alarming your Treo points to a couple alarm apps for the Treo.
I got here by beginning a hunt for a timer-based audio on/off program for the phone. I keep forgetting to turn the phone ringer off when I get into the car and then forgetting to turn it on when I get out of the car.
A few more links:
KeyGuardTime+ and ClockPop 5 each drop a clock in that appears when you press a button on the phone to wake the screen up (if I understand correctly).
RingerSwitch Basic 1.2 and RingerSwitch Pro 1.2 appear to be designed to help remind you that you’ve turned the ringer off manually, not quite what I am after.
UPDATE: A poster at TreoCentral suggests ScheduleCare or ProfileCare.
Utterly off topic, but HOLY COW! Google Maps for the Treo: Kmaps. Requires a Java engine on the handset, which must be installed by the user, so I haven’t yet done this (my twiddling and dinking time is even more limited than my blogging time).
Bubbles
Paul Frankenstein, with whom I’ve had an ongoing discussion concerning the real estate bubble, passes on this thoughtful link. Looks like San Diego might be cooling off, although the specific pricing described in the story is not, to my eyes, a bubble popping so much as slower growth replacing inflationary growth, the most desirable outcome (unless you are a speculator, I mean).
Let’s hope we just that here, and sooner rather than later. I’m not buying with the expectation of making money; I’m buying a place to live.
Act Now!
BoingBoing passes along a link to what will undoubtedly be a short-lived instance of a publicly-posted copy of the legendary Disney remix comic Air Pirates, which spawned all sorts of legal shenanigans back in the heyday of underground comix. I’ve never read this rare beast, and you bet I’m going to.
Idle
Idle Words’ overly-idle-of-late Maciej takes on NASA (with amusing pictures!) in A Rocket To Nowhere.
Pile it!
Courtesy faithful correspondent Alice Dee. Thanks hon!
Wear a Helmet
Seriously, wear a helmet.
The Hat of Change
languagehat drops a few lines on the subject of ethnogenesis which I found worthwhile. Take it one more extrapolative point further, and ask yourself, what is it to be a citizen of the New World? Our word for shark is said to be from the Nahuatl “xoc,” after all.
hot
So, I hear tell it’s hot.
How hot is it?
Here, they’re doing a land office biz in frozen salmon on a stick.
Okay, that is just a lie. Make up a lie for me about how hot it is where you are, and please include one semi-plausible link.