Posted on by mwhybark

Up-and-coming

Yahoo Acquires Upcoming.org (MetaFilter), Andy Baio’s announcement.

Hm, despite Andy’s involvement in Upcoming, I never really even bothered to look into it. Looks like I should. I do know that I really want a private, distributed calendaring solution that accepts input from my family, not my “team,” and which publishes in multiple formats. Something like iCal if it weren’t feature-dead, with event-level and groups-based privacy settings. I want my mom and my wife to know what my chores are and I want to know what city my dad will be in on a given day. I also want to see my mom’s upcoming friends-and-relations birthdays. I would even appreciate knowing my parents’ evening engagement schedule, for that matter.

Posted on by mwhybark

A lovely anniversary gift

Speaking as a man who once gave his wife a Roomba for her birthday, something I doubt she will ever foorget, Litter-Robot, the automatic self-cleaning cat litter box that really works, looks worth investimagatin’ if pricey. (Via, um, Tom? I fergit)

(The Roomba has a bum leg at the moment; I was able to diagnose it easily enough but so far the veterinary care instructions, largely involving the use of compressed air, have failed.)

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Eat the Document preview at Siffblog

Over on Siffblog, E. Steven Fried notes that the EMP will be showing D. A. Pennebaker’s Eat the Document shortly.

I saw the post title and subject and mistakenly took it for a review of No Direction Home; I had been mulling a review of the film myself but think I said I what I had to say, more about the subject than the film, last week as the film aired. Any film by Scorsese is going to offer some critical fodder that relates specifically to Scorsese’s themes and work; in this case, I think the theme is Scorsese’s greatest theme, that of self-invention. I recall realizing with disappointment that the director was not going to tie Dylan’s youthful interest in Civel War-era New York City to his own.

(God! I must be asleep at the wheel! In my correction I misidentified the venue for the film as the NWFF!)

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What We Did Is Public

Incredibly, word has belatedly reached me of the wrap on a Darby Crash biopic, which will apparently lead to a Germs reunion tour. Don Bolles, later of Nirvana and in between his Germs time and that with Kurt, was the original drummer for 45 Grave, who also recently were slated for a revenant tour, but have apparently dropped out.

Bolles stayed with me for several days in my freshman dorm room circa 1984 when he was separated from his 45 Grave bandmates. He was reunited with his cadaverous colleagues shortly before my floor’s residential advisor approached me about the discarded needles that had unexpectedly begun to appear in the men’s restroom facilities. Despite this, I recall my week with Don fondly, as he slept a great deal and embellished my copy of “GI” in black marker before autographing it in behalf of the long-departed Darby.

Posted on by mwhybark

Wilson

August Wilson died today, say the wires. Wilson lived in my neighborhood for most of the time that I have, I think. He was a familiar face in the local coffeeshops, most recently Victrola. My recollection is that he wrote much of his work while sitting in these cafes. He always had a yellow legal pad with him, at any rate.

It’s interesting that in the Boston.com link above, Mr. Wilson refers to the death of one Gunars Berzins:

He looks around, as if expecting someone to arrive. “Man, where is Gunars?” he asks rhetorically. His friend Gunars Berzins, a self-described “crazy Latvian,” died a few days ago at age 74, and Wilson will be attending his memorial service in the afternoon. “He was nutty as a fruitcake, and he was the first person to say he was crazy,” Wilson recalls. “He might come down the street singing an aria. `My cat is God! Hitler! Goering! You Bush-whacker!” The arms flail. The eyes twinkle. “`And you! You are the best playwright in the neighborhood!'” Wilson laughs. “Man, I really miss him.”

That has got to be the local character I only ever knew as General Scheisskopf, an older man who often wore absurd neo-military getups and constantly ranted and raved about anything and everything. I hadn’t really realized that he was gone, but I haven’t seen him lately, and now Wilson’s gone too.