malvasia bianca

A few years ago, when I was starting to get seriously interested in comics, I read Dreamland Japan, by Frederick Schodt. One of its main points was that a huge advantage Japanese comics had over American comics was that Osamu Tezuka was Japanese. And I was willing to believe it – the guy had apparently […]

I bought a new watch earlier this year. I liked my old watch, but it had some scratches on the face and was getting kind of chipped around the edges, so since I’d had it for most of a decade and the battery had died, I figured I might as well buy a new one […]

My piano needs maintenance. It’s been a while since it’s gotten tuned, but it actually doesn’t sound too bad. But there’s one note that clicks when you play it, and sometimes the keys don’t always come all the way back up when you play them. That’s actually been happening for a while when the pedal […]

A recent post on the Samuel R. Delany mailing list mentioned that he has a piece in issue 11 of Chain, a magazine published out of Temple (judging from their address). The same issue also apparently has an article by a friend of mine from college, Stephen Burt, as well as one by Rachel Pollack, […]

Nintendo is introducing a new handheld in November, the Nintendo DS. It has two screens, the bottom one is touch-sensitive (a stylus is included, or you can use your finger), built-in wireless connectivity and a microphone, and probably other stuff that I’ve forgotten. I will, of course, buy one when it comes out. I really […]

I saw a bumper sticker the other day saying “Kerry/Edwards: A Stronger America.” Which would seem to be their slogan. And which makes me unhappy. Don’t get me wrong, there are lots of ways that one could mean that phrase that I would approve of. He could mean that we’re strong enough to share our […]

I was just reading Borgel, by Daniel Pinkwater, when I ran into the phrase “Hot cha”. Which is also the title of a song on They Might Be Giants’ album Flood. Is this a common phrase in some circles? Not that I would be shocked if They Might Be Giants were big Pinkwater fans, but […]

Here’s a question that’s come up at work over the last week or two. A couple of us are trying to rehabilitate some unmaintainable code that’s currently in our product: trying to bring it “From Mud to Structure”, as POSA1 puts it. The obvious pattern to start with is is Layers: we’d like to separate […]

Miranda’s taking dance lessons (tap and ballet for 5-6 year olds). The second one was today. At the first one, I got to see what a girl-dominated world might look like: all 10 kids were girls, 8 of the ten were wearing light pink, one was a mixture of pink and black, and one was […]

Jordan’s comment reminded me that I forgot about his other website. Which, at least currently, links to a page advertising his book, The Grasshopper King. Which I like a lot, so go buy it! I remember enjoying reading the manuscript when we were in grad school together, but in the mists of time I couldn’t […]

I was listening to the Gustav Leonhardt recording of The Art of the Fugue in the car for the last few days, and I kept on waiting for the unfinished fugue to show up. But it never did! Reading through the liner notes (what is the accepted term for CD booklets?), Leonhardt is of the […]

Welcome to my blog. It’s implemented using WordPress, which seems pleasantly nice to use. (And is GPL‘d.) Many thanks to the good folks at Red Bean for their assistance, especially Ayse Sercan and Karl Fogel. (While I’m mentioning people, I’ll say hi to Jordan Ellenberg, since he promised to read the thing.) Great things await. […]