moo zeekJust a couple links for you today: <a href="http://www.scissorkick.com/"><img src="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2004/06/scissor.gif" /> scissorkick.com</a>, a beautifully-designed music blog with very nice taste in the mp3 sharing department indeed. <a href="http://spreadin.blogspot.com/">new(ish)</a>, another discerning music blog. look for the Clinic tracks (June 28) from a record not due out until the fall. both of these have something to do with <a href="http://www.bastardjazz.com/">bastardjazz.com</a>. while i'm scoring you the music love, also check out <a href="http://www.betterpropaganda.com/">betterpropaganda.com</a>, <a href="http://www.lastlifemedia.com/">lastlifemedia.com</a>, and <a href="http://33.verbosecoma.com/">33 revolutions per minute</a>. this rabbit hole via <a href="http://tofuhut.blogspot.com/">tofuhut</a>. this post via <a href="http://www.livejournal.com/users/emotionalfish/">matt bubar</a> and <a href="http://www.ournationofthoughtlessness.com/">our nation of thoughtlessness</a>.* * you too can receive the love, admiration and linkage of danielsjourney.com by dropping sums in the tip jar currently located on the right.30162701ElsewhereDaniel2004-06-30T04:08:49stageThe Stories We Leave Behind 2 ii<a href="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/index.php?file=2004_06.xml&id=26213913">...continued from</a> <a href="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2004/06/DSCN2720.JPG"><img src="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2004/06/DSCN2720_thm.jpg" /></a> Those who have known me a bit longer will remember my facination with abandoned places, particularly those with much of the abandoners' personality left behind. The Stories We Leave Behind is a series I shot many years ago (soon to be back online), and while I've found that my taste for such subject matter is <a href="http://abandoned-places.com/">shared</a> <a href="http://striped.online.fr/friched/index.html">by</a> <a href="http://www.designshed.com/lostframe.html">many</a> (<a href="http://www.shedworks.de/home.html">much</a> <a href="http://www.islandia.is/%7Enokkvi/page3.htm">to</a> <a href="http://www.ne.jp/asahi/saiga/yuji/gallary/gunsu/g-text-e.html">my</a> <a href="http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~dmcmill/Index.html">delight</a> <a href="http://www.dsankt.com/">indeed</a>), I haven't the time to scout good locations and therefore had yet to find another opportunity... <a href="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2004/06/DSCN2725.JPG"><img src="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2004/06/DSCN2725_thm.jpg" /></a> I only had my digital camera on me, and I would prefer to shoot this type of subject with black and white film. However, this house was boarded up, leaving very little light, and to get the type of shots I would like would require an extensive flash or lighting setup (not to mention time and intentionality unavailable to me)... <a href="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2004/06/DSCN2727.JPG"><img src="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2004/06/DSCN2727_thm.jpg" /></a> However in the end I was pleased with the humble productions of my cheap digital, with its horrible flash. The way the flash throws in such a short, narrow pattern accentuates the spooky, documentary effect. I could not even see what I was about to shoot, it was so dark. I was literally pointing and shooting and then adjusting the next shot based on what I had just randomly captured... <a href="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2004/06/DSCN2728.JPG"><img src="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2004/06/DSCN2728_thm.jpg" /></a> When I got home and looked at the images, I was often surprised to see things I could not while I was actually there in person, namely the <a href="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2004/06/DSCN2713.JPG">inside</a> of <a href="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2004/06/DSCN2707.JPG">rooms</a> that were completely pitch black to my naked eye. Another surprise upon viewing the images afterward was the number of spider nests hanging from the roof beams, which were almost completely exposed by the lack of ceiling. <a href="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2004/06/DSCN2729.JPG"><img src="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2004/06/DSCN2729_thm.jpg" /></a> I also experimented with the rudimentary light settings on the camera, which explains why some of these shots have a blue tinge to them. I normally adjust most of my digital photography in Photoshop, but all the images I'm presenting here are unaltered, straight off the camera as they were originally captured. <a href="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2004/06/DSCN2749.JPG"><img src="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2004/06/DSCN2749_thm.jpg" /></a> Most of the things that must have filled the house had been removed for the sale. The mind races with questions while exploring such a space: Who lived here? Why their facination with collecting certain objects, seemingly to obsession, and how did they obtain such large collections? <a href="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2004/06/DSCN2764.JPG"><img src="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2004/06/DSCN2764_thm.jpg" /></a> When was the last time someone lived there? Why did they abandon it, and all their amassed stuff? How is it they had such good taste in wall colorings? <a href="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2004/06/DSCN2767.JPG"><img src="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2004/06/DSCN2767_thm.jpg" /></a> The deep shag carpeting was the only real indicator of when the house might have been last occupied. How the ceiling became so incredibly damaged is a mystery. <a href="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2004/06/DSCN2772.JPG"><img src="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2004/06/DSCN2772_thm.jpg" /></a> I expected to find some evidence that some homeless might have recently taken residence, but I suspect even if they had found entry, the until-recent density of stuff prevented much movement, yet alone living space, within the house. <a href="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2004/06/DSCN2773.JPG"><img src="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2004/06/DSCN2773_thm.jpg" /></a> In the end, we were very pleased by our find, and I was stoked that I found the initiative to go, find the hidden sale, and then explore the house. No tresspassing indeed. <a href="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2004/06/DSCN2776.JPG"><img src="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2004/06/DSCN2776_thm.jpg" /></a>27023902ImaginingDaniel2004-06-27T02:38:39stageThe Stories We Leave Behind 2 i<a href="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2004/06/DSCN2704.JPG"><img src="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2004/06/DSCN2704_thm.jpg" /></a> Thursday <a href="http://theyblinked.com">Dan</a> told me that <a href="http://withadot.blogspot.com">Kausar</a> had called him earlier to tell him of an interesting garage sale near <a href="http://www.utsouthwestern.edu/">Southwestern</a>. <a href="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2004/06/DSCN2707.JPG"><img src="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2004/06/DSCN2707_thm.jpg" /></a> "Big propellers and stuff from early-to-mid last century." So yesterday afternoon I called Kausar and got directions. He said it was next to an old blue house under a big tent. <a href="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2004/06/DSCN2713.JPG"><img src="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2004/06/DSCN2713_thm.jpg" /></a> Well we found an old blue house but no tent. Almost just left it at that, but I saw a person in a warehouse behind the house, and decided while we were there we might as well ask if there was a sale going on. <a href="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2004/06/DSCN2715.JPG"><img src="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2004/06/DSCN2715_thm.jpg" /></a> Sure enough, they had just moved everything inside on account of the rain. We looked around, and there were many interesting things. Lots of very old wood propellers and rowing sculls. Basket of old ping pong balls. Copies of the <a href="http://www.dallasnews.com/">Dallas Morning News</a> from the 60's. Many old tools. Boxes of mini-chandelier parts. Instruments from some very devious medical trade the specifics of which I do not want to speculate upon. Handcarved crown molding circa 1900. Old scales, boxes, suitcases, theatre seats, books about airplanes... <a href="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2004/06/DSCN2716.JPG"><img src="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2004/06/DSCN2716_thm.jpg" /></a> The door to the house was open, and I debated just taking a look sans permission, but ended up asked the guy there if we could look at the house. He said no problem; it was set to be torn down after the estate-sale-of-the-bizzare was over on the weekend. <a href="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2004/06/DSCN2717.JPG"><img src="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2004/06/DSCN2717_thm.jpg" /></a> These shots are all from inside the house. Click on these for the full versions, in case you hadn't figured that out yet. More to come tomorrow. <a href="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2004/06/DSCN2719.JPG"><img src="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2004/06/DSCN2719_thm.jpg" /></a>26213913ImaginingAdmin2004-06-26T09:33:51stagethe man (not The Man, just the man)The man wondered the streets aimlessly, unaware of where he went or if it would get him in any trouble. He hadn't been drunk for months, and it was a bad thing. He was too happy, too content, and everyone knew it. He was becoming a failure. Another block passed under his hurriedly-shod feet, and he remembered back to a few months ago, back to when he had hit bottom. Things were better then. More simple. The drunken conversations spoken into pools of vomit dutifully deposited in the parking lots of steaming pubs, they brought a dry, sickening consistency to the hot, much too bright mornings when he drug himself into the chaotic, unsympathetic fluorescents of his workplace. Yet another block, yellow streetlights burning acid holes in the pitiful streets of his adopted new hometown. Another cigarette burning acid holes in the pitiful alveoli in his chest, raising bumps on his gums and removing all ability for taste from his tongue. He found himself under the bridge where the homeless set up camp. He stared over at the small communities huddled around trash fires, wondering what conversation might ensue if he was human enough to go initiate them, what wise stories would appear out of the retreating eyes of a stranger. A drink was required, and yet none was to be found, and so yet another cigarette passed his lips, the sound of the Zippo in his hands a small comfort. He felt himself getting older as the concrete squares drew underneath, slowly at first, then faster and faster until they swept behind like children running into their bedrooms, frightened by imaginary ghosts in dark hallway corners. The lines on his face deepened with each step, his skin dried and scaled with each drag from the cigarette. Finally he walked by the glass fa�ade of some unidentified structure and dared to turn his head. Surprise, shock-horror, should have been returned for the reflection's aged stare, but instead there was only a dim, bored recognition of what was known all along. A drink was in order. Yet no order was to be placed. No solace in the dirty, dark, smoky corners where ex-pat Englishmen yell obscenities to no one in particular. No familiar conversations with the barkeep who has your drink poured before you reach the rail. Just a street and a smoke and the cracks that disappear underfoot and reappear strewn across the gills, staring blindly past the next broken light, shining its darkness down for no one to see, not lighting a street to anywhere, anywhere but here.24170948FictionDaniel2004-06-24T05:09:02stagedanielsjourney.com's monthly stabs at improvement tries a different fork altogetherAs in "in the road" not "on the plate." 01. The Aesthetic. Stolen from everywhere and then stolen itself before I even launched it. (To whom the latter refers: You know who you are, but I love you anyway.) <a href="http://www.squidfingers.com/patterns/">Background image from squidfingers</a>. There blockquote image and font ideas from <a href="http://www.designbyfire.com/000094.html">designbyfire</a>. <a href="http://www.simplebits.com/">Drop shadow technique and lots of CSS from simplebits</a>. I've done away with the style picker. Sometimes choice isn't a good thing. Consider this the commie danielsjourney.com (it's even in grey!). The CSS involves zero hacks and as always looks as intended in <a href="http://mozilla.org/">Firefox</a> and its ilk and not perfect in IE. Oh well. I learned a lot more CSS getting this one right, and it is even knowledge I'm able to immediately apply to another project. 02. The Design. The right hand collumn is now 100 percent pimpin'. Expect a lot of pimping from danielsjourney.com. Yeah. I was unsatisfied with the location of the content navigation pieces, and unwilling to go to a three collumn layout, so I've tried something new. Nav'ing the blog is now accomplished through the "callout" below the first post on every page. I'm always interested in the science of information presentation, and I like this layout, but it is just another experiment. I think it is a good compro, and easier to get to via mouse or keyboard. 03. The Technology. A lot of new code runs this site. I am creating entries using my own <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=define%3A+CMS" title="Content Management System. This is a funny link, seeing all the different things CMS stands for.">CMS</a>, SWIM. Categories are browsed not by month (as they were before), or in total (as they are in <a href="http://moveabletype.org/" title="MoveableType">MT</a>) (this would mean extremely large files for a category such as <a href="index.php?cat=Minutia">Minutia</a>), but by ~three month sections. The category list is not yet dependent on if they exist within the requested dataset, however, so some of the newer categories are nonexistent in past months, and most of the 2003-and-older entries have no category information at all. 04. The Content. I am recommitting to quality over quantity, moreso now because I am increasingly unhappy with the blog method of information management. I have been for years, and for years have been architecting SWIM to solve these problems. It's just now they are even more pressing and SWIM is very close to getting into a version 1.0. There's still some to do, good bet some bugs yet, visual tweaks, etc., etc., blah, blah...I'm disappearing again for a while...I'm busy like Rabbit...someday I'll get to lounge around with my honey like Pooh Bear...until then...20012603AnnouncementsDaniel2004-06-20T01:20:36publish Starting youngLast night at the <a href="http://www.landmarktheatres.com/market/Dallas/TheMagnolia.htm">Magnolia</a> for the ~monthly art show and reception organized by <a href="http://sarahjanesemrad.com">Sarah</a>. If you are a Dallas person do check them out (info will be <a href="http://sarahjanesemrad.com/blog/">here</a>). <img src="files/2004/06/judah_drinks.jpg" /> <a href="http://www.rearviewwindow.com/blog/2004/06/000665.html">Related</a>. Joke. Please. Do have a sense of humor. I am so a Judah fan club member.20030501ImaginingDaniel2004-06-19T03:03:43publish blogroll<a href="http://selfdeconstructingtext.blogspot.com/"> self deconstructing text</a> <a href="http://shannononoccassion.blogspot.com/"> shannononoccassion</a> <a href="http://sarahjanesemrad.com/blog/"> sarahjanesemrad</a> <a href="http://johnnysapplecart.blogspot.com/"> johnnysapplecart</a> <a href="http://www.johnheronproject.com/"> johnheronproject</a> <a href="http://soft_anonymous.blogspot.com/"> soft_anonymous</a> <a href="http://summerblanket.com"> summerblanket</a> <a href="http://rearviewwindow.com"> rearviewwindow</a> <a href="http://goforthethroat.blogspot.com/"> goforthethroat</a> <a href="http://brilliantcorners.org/"> brilliantcorners</a> <a href="http://thefreakinhott.blogspot.com/"> thefreakinhott</a> <a href="http://www.livejournal.com/users/_iamjackslj/"> stephenjones</a> <a href="http://www.livejournal.com/users/dealingwith/"> omgomgomg</a> <a href="http://www.ellensjourney.org/stranger/"> ellensjourney</a> <a href="http://antiherocomics.com/"> davidhopkins</a> <a href="http://carissabyers.blogspot.com/"> carissabyers</a> <a href="http://www.livejournal.com/users/xgizzardx/"> brentindeed</a> <a href="http://www.theyblinked.com/blog"> theyblinked</a> <a href="http://www.jasonbrome.com/blog/"> jasonbrome</a> <a href="http://www.halsamples.com/blog"> halsamples</a> <a href="http://jonnybaker.blogs.com/jonnybaker"> jonnybaker</a> <a href="http://www.livejournal.com/users/_no_good_news/"> mattbubar</a> <a href="http://smallritual.blogs.com/small_ritual/"> smallritual</a> <a href="http://www.boboroshi.com/"> boboroshi</a> <a href="http://gatheringmyway.blogspot.com/"> johnwallis</a> <a href="http://benbubar.blogspot.com/"> benbubar</a> <a href="http://withadot.blogspot.com/"> withadot</a> <a href="http://tjsoutlet.blogspot.com/"> tjsoutlet</a> <a href="http://www.integrationresearch.org/gravatt"> gravatt</a> <a href="http://www.mel-x.blogspot.com/"> mel-x</a>570LocalDaniel2004-06-19T01:41:33publishstandby for outageI hate making announcements like this, but I do it primarily for RSS readers: if you are actually reading this through RSS, there may be a bit of a gap before I get the feed working again. There's going to be a pause anyway while I move my publishing system over. But the RSS-building piece may take a couple more days to produce. Also images will all break soon. I'll then be slowly fixing everything as time allows. Blogging on my other four blogs will likely pick up the slack. One of those is public: <a href="http://integrationresearch.org/blog/1">the one</a> mentioned in the sidebar. Ciao!569MinutiaDaniel2004-06-05T04:59:57-05:00publishsylvia<blockquote>Dying Is an art, like everything else. I do it exceptionally well.</blockquote>Watched <a href="http://www.sylviamovie.com">Sylvia</a> last week.<blockquote>What do you do when your life gets as bad as it can and it just keeps getting worse?</blockquote><blockquote>If you fear something enough, you can make it happen. That woman--I conjured her, I invented her.</blockquote><img src="images/2004_06/100i.jpg" /> I recommend watching this movie, when you are ready. I can't really comment more. I've been trying to for a week. Those who know my story will understand if they see the film. I wish Sylvia Plath had blessed the Earth with her presence longer. But her short stay here was an amazing blessing as it was. 554MinutiaDaniel2004-06-05T03:40:28-05:00publishElsewhereThis is a repeat of the sidebar content for RSS readers: I am <a href="http://integrationresearch.org/blog/1">blogging elsewhere</a> (arts and some tech related stuff) (<a href="http://integrationresearch.org/blog/feed">RSS</a>). This is a repeat from that blog: I wrote an article for <a href="http://www.the-next-wave.org">next-wave.org</a> entitled "<a href="http://www.the-next-wave.org/stories/storyReader$328">Social Technologies and the Church</a>."<blockquote>...Measured by the amount of money and media thrown at Friendster, Orkut, and their ilk, there must be something to this next generation of social software tools. The curious thing about these products is their ruggedly individualistic approach to community building. The initiators in this space have made a mistake common among technologists--that of seeing the software as a panacea instead of as a tool that empowers and enables what is already taking place<a href="http://www.the-next-wave.org/stories/storyReader$328">...</a></blockquote>567AnnouncementsDaniel2004-06-04T18:13:22-05:00publishI wonder if we still know where we want to be<a title="Real Live Preacher" href="http://blogs.salon.com/0001772/2004/06/04.html#a339">Real Live Preacher</a> <blockquote>The saddest things are the ones that can be forever lost but never forgotten, like precious rings and love and faith and innocence and play. You are where I want to be. Am I where you want to be?</blockquote><blockquote>I am waiting and wanting. I do not want to sink down to the place where the roots are. I do not want to be somewhere where I can never be found.</blockquote> ...too late for some of us. 566ElsewhereDaniel2004-06-04T12:06:27-05:00publishmore from the showImage via afraidofwaking. Click for fullsize/June calendar. <a href="images/2004_06/june.jpg"><img src="images/2004_06/gary_jules06.jpg" border="0" /></a>565ImaginingDaniel2004-06-04T06:25:54-05:00publishGary Jules<img src="images/2004_06/gary_jules01.jpg" /><blockquote>I hear you got a pocket full of words that you keep in the garage together with the feathers and the fireworks.</blockquote><img src="images/2004_06/gary_jules02.jpg" /><blockquote>You keep the faith and I will be keeping my distance. You won't find me starving in the shadow of no sacred cow. Be howling my name in the halls of least resistance.</blockquote><img src="images/2004_06/gary_jules04.jpg" /><blockquote>Got heaven to hope for, nothing to say.</blockquote><img src="images/2004_06/gary_jules05.jpg" /> <a href="http://www.danielsjourney.com/media/Gary%20Jules%20-%20Umbilical%20Town.mp3">Gary Jules - Umbilical Town</a> I recommend you purchase this record and catch this cat next chance you get. He's touring with Bob Dylan in Ireland next. <a href="http://kcrw.com/cgi-bin/db/kcrw.pl?show_code=mb&air_date=4/27/04&tmplt_type=show">Gary Jules on KCRW</a>563MinutiaDaniel2004-06-03T04:25:34-05:00publishArtsJournal<a title="ArtsJournal: Blog Central" href="http://www.artsjournal.com/about/xml.shtml">ArtsJournal: XML Central</a> Lots of good arts news feeds and blogs.562ElsewhereDaniel2004-06-02T11:26:39-05:00publishNortheast Corridor (Ftrain.com)<a title="Northeast Corridor (Ftrain.com)" href="http://www.ftrain.com/NortheastCorridor.html">Northeast Corridor (Ftrain.com)</a> <blockquote>Admonitions to live in the moment, to carpe diem, make me suspicious. Each moment is full of fractures and strains, confused intentions, desires and uncertainties. Time is moving water; it is unseizable.</blockquote> <blockquote>In that first room, to fill the absence left by the stroke, she made new, tenuous connections between light and language, between people and words. But now, presented with a new set of white hospital walls, all of these connections were thrown askew, and she was forced to start again. It pained her, and it pained us to see her so lost, immune to explanations.</blockquote>561QuotableDaniel2004-06-02T11:14:25-05:00publishNew Kings of Convenience<a title="Amazon.com: Music: Riot on an Empty Street [IMPORT]" href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00026W82U/qid=1086151276/sr=2-3/ref=sr_2_3/103-4001206-5984634">Amazon.com: Music: Riot on an Empty Street [IMPORT]</a>560ElsewhereDaniel2004-06-02T00:42:21-05:00publishRadiohead medley in bluegrass style<a href="http://www.hardnphirm.com/music/Rodeohead.mp3">Hard n Phirm - Rodeohead</a> Remember you heard it here first. Darn if I can't remember from where I stumbled upon it, though.559MusicDaniel2004-06-01T04:17:41-05:00publish