"I Think Six Actually Kills A Cylon..."

I'm going to put aside writing "Holiday Wrap-Up Part 2: Washington D.C." until next post.

Instead, geek-out with me with a sci-fi/internet related post. Apple and the Sci-Fi channel got together and posted a-soon-to-be broadcast Battlestar Galactica teaser show (iTunes link to the show).



The 20 minute show is mainly a collection of old clips and musings by writers and actors. Very briefly, Tricia Helfer and Katie Sackhoff are seen together, not beating the hell out of each other. Althought that is good fun as well. There's nothing new or substantial about the new shows, but Trica does comment about her character snuffing out a cyclon. And it is fun to see Edward Jame Olmos smile when he talks.

I'm tempted to get some fellow Battlestar lovers together when the last half of the season starts up again. Because I love me the B.S.G. and I know some other local folks do as well.

Holiday Wrap-Up Part 1: Florida

Any spelling/grammer errors that were not corrected in this post were a byproduct of the double Southern Comfort Manhatten I had earlier.

I apologize for bad form but not for the good drink.

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Florida:

Quality time with the mom and the pop. I'm one of those lucky kids whose parents didn't screw me up. So now that I'm adult and past the parenting/child dynamic, I like spending time with the folks. And that's what we did.

Christmas Eve was spent attending a church service held in a side-room of a larger church. Large enough that it had one mall maps of the grounds with a "You Are Here' arrow. My parents church was destroyed in October of '05 when Hurricane Wilma hit their part of Florida. A neighboring church has been hosting theirs, free of charge while theirs works to rebuild.

The ceremony was a traditional reading of bible verse telling the story of Christ's birth. Modern twist... powerpoint presentation on a titaninum Apple laptop. The sermon was interspersed with the crinkle of cellophane, hard candies being urwrapped to bribe kids to stay still and quiet for the hour Highlight of our evening was the little girl in the row in front of us. A serious little girl who looked like a young Lucy Lui (freckles included) who wriggled around, made faces at her exasperated sister and tried to make my candle go out during the candle lit part of the service. Good Stuff!

Christmas was spent opening really cool gifts. I got...

1) "Shepp's World's fair photographed. Being a collection of original copyrighted photographs authorized and permitted by the management of the World's Columbian exposition"



It's old (1894) and I got me one now! It's a big heavy book, in need of repair. But I like it very much.

2) A bright orange Varsity shirt. The burgers aren't the best but the shirt is cool.

3) A big world map bought from Victory Vintage in Decatur. Our map came from the county's schools system. In addition to world and county maps, the store also has deliciously creepy anatomical "maps" that hang from the blackboard, like cross-sections of the eye and such.

4) A belt and socks. You're old when the stuff you hated getting as a kid is what excites you now.

Plus some other things that I can't recall right now.

And a bonus gift even before leaving for vacation, I saw the Brick Car with Christmas lights on it while driving home from Buckhead. I was on the phone with the wife at the time and I told her I didn't care how stupid the traffic on the 400 was (and it was stupid) that car made my night.

Bamboo Bicycles: Sit Your Ass on Grass

"My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought, cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives."

- Hedley Lamarr, "Blazing Saddles" - 1974

I love that quote. It seems often that I can't turn off my head, music, ideas, etc. Always thinking. That line comes to mind when I can't turn it off. It's that constant thinking which is why I find myself researching and writing about bizarre/eclectic things. This post was written before Christmas, which I will be posting about in the near future.

Until then...

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Bamboo is beautiful, a material relatively easy to grow and environmentally sound. So, as a carpenter I've been looking at it as something to build with. Specifically, a baby stroller.

This...



... is not what I'm thinking of. Something more in the style of this vintage rattan chair...




Ambitious, I know. While researching the stroller idea, I've found that I'm not the only one looking at bamboo to use in transportation.


The American Bamboo Society (ABS) - Bamboo Bicycle


Brano Meres - Bamboo Bicycle


Calfee Design - Bamboo Bicycle

The Calfee Design bikes are far too expensive to even think about, $2,695 and up. The Brano Meres page talks about construction methods which is useful. And lastly...


Bamboo Trailer

So, the dream of a bamboo baby mover lives on. Now about baby making, gotta get on that.

A Christmas Gift from Harlan T. Bobo.

Bizzarro Christmas tunes are a must for me, the only way I really get into the season. And Scenestars just gave me an early present in streaming Harlan T. Bobo's "Merry Christmas Spaceman".

Languid guitars slur their notes together, cheesy organs riff on seasonal songs, and exotica, alt-country, lounge and surf all live happily on this strange album.

The album can be heard on Scenestars, just click on contributing writer Racheal's head for her radio station.

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Visit Harlan's Myspace Page

Buy Merry Christmas Spaceman at Goner Records. 18 songs for only $9.99.

Pre-Christmas Post: The End of Work, Indie Atlanta Movie & Kudzu Covered Houses

Wth Christmas coming, I find my internet activities disrupted. Favorite sites, like Pitchfork, are taking a break, but here I am still hitting the web looking for new stuff to read.

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Being an on-call worker means both making my own schedule and being at the whims of my employers. Christmas means the end of work until the new year.

But the last week has been crazy busy and the time off a welcome change. All of my waking time has been spent at the Ferst Center aiding in Tyler Perry's production of "Why Did I get Married?" In addition to 5 shows in 3 days, they were all taped to be eventually edited and released as a DVD.

For those who don't know Tyler Perry, he popped up on a lot of people's radar with the success of his movie, "Diary of a Mad Black Woman." It was an adaptation of his sucessful play, and one that helped him get on Details Magazine's list of most powerful men under 39. Details states that he's earned about 80 million off of his various productions, plays, CDs and DVDs. His core demographic, blacks looking for an alternative to bling-and-crime focused entertainment. The central topic of his plays, the strengths found in faith, family and fidelity. All the shows last week, sold out. There was a reason a Bentley was parked out back of the Ferst Center. He knows what his audience want.

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Why I love Shoplifting from Big Corporations A manifesto film about the evils of corporations and the joy of the 5-finger discount. Stars local girl Anessa Ramsey who was in Geek Love.

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Kudzu Covered Houses in North Georgia

Kudzu in Atlanta, Georgia and surrounding areas

By Jack Anthony

Pimp My Artic Explorer

This is all cool with it's huge tires and plane on the back, but where's the bling?



I would pimp this out with Chip Foose Rims, a Bang & Olufsen home stereo and a Bombardier Learjet 60XR on the back!

All of that will be after I get my Trilobis 65 Floating Home/aqua-crib!

I get like this every Christmas. Once I get socks and a magazine subscription for presents I settle down.

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I'm busting my butt at work, but the 14 hours days are going to be paying for Christmas gifts and the credit card bills. More on the job when I get some sleep in me.

Former Atl. Mayor on Richard Pryor and Random Links

"Scatological, but a comic genius."

Former Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson (1973-1981 and 1989-1993) after seeing Richard Pryor in concert.

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I've assigned myself a crash course in Atlanta history, using the kinda sweet/kinda annoying Atlanta-Fulton Public Library Online System's to get me my reading material.

The above quote comes from Frederick Allen's 1996 book, "Atlanta Rising.' It's a good read, and tackles the city's history by looking at the people that made up the power elite. I like my history books full of charactors to keep the events from getting too abstract. In that regard, it's much like "The Power and the Money, The Making of Las Vegas and Its Hold on America 1947-2000" by Sally Denton and Roger Morris.

Anyways, Allen's book is my first good primer on the city, the first bad book, Archival Atlanta. I was hoping for a collection of unique tales told well, but this just felt like I was listening to a rambling relative with questionable memory.

Now on to the random crap...

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I went to Hartwick College with this guy, The Lizardman. He didn't look like that back then.

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Baby Bush Toys | Simple Products for Simple Minds

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It's not just a crazy conspiracy, it's a fashion statement.



"Black Helicopters (BH) are not just helicopters with a black paint-job as you may have been told. They are, in fact, autonomous agents -- lifeforms -- created by New World Order (NWO) agencies via nanobiotechnology. Their primary purpose is to spy on the activities of average citizens in order to gather tactical information and discover "subversives" who are not bowing to the will of the Liberati's UN-backed Federal Government. Furthermore, when the NWO Invasion takes place in the not-too-distant future, they will round up citizens for internment in concentration camps or carry out the elimination of the more vocally anti-Liberati."

In Atlanta, a New Arts District Catches On - New York Times

The NYT is throwing some love our way with an article about the Castleberry Arts District.

In Atlanta, a New Arts District Catches On - New York Times

Did I Make Duane Forget His Keys?: Last Night's Party

"... hanging in the door, were my keys. Yup. Not only did I leave the keys to my semi-new car outside merely steps from the actual vehicle, but I left the token of entry to our home in a place where it would have required no effort to break in and kill us, rob us, etc."

Last night, Chez Kimberly (a.k.a. our apartment) was host to a small party. Included on the guest were online local folk Duane, Amber and her GDBF. The above quote about misplaced car-keys got me wondering if the night's event was to blame for him leaving his keys out in the cold. If so, sorry.

It was interesting to tell my wife's co-workers that I had never met two of the people invited. While not said aloud, sometimes I can hear the question, "Why would you want to meet someone you only know by reading about?" My thinking is that they wouldn't pass up the opportunity to meet John Keats (dead) or Oscar Wilde (ditto) solely based on their writings. So, Duane and Amber were asked because I liked what they thought and how they said it. Plus they brought good stuff to the party, just like I thought they might.

It was nice finally meeting the people behind the blogs, seeing how they matched up with their words. I didn't talk to them as much as I wanted, but I was trying to appear smart in front of Caroline's G-Tech colleagues so as not to embarass her. I think I held my own.

The food went over well, the people seemed to enjoy the party, and it was 2:20 am when the last ones made it out the door. All-in-all, a great night.

Parental Fun and Jon Stewart

Tonight ends a 3-day visit with the folks.

Tuesday night: Chinese food at Golden Buddha, yum.
Wednesday: the aquarium = excellent!
Thursday: their visit to the High Museum, they loved it. And our dinner at Dante's, Dante (the owner) stopped by our table and is even more chatty then my dad.

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And now for something completely different...

"...I will not rest until every year families gather to spend December 25 together at Osama's home-abortion commie/pot jizzporium."

- Dec 7th, 2005. Jon Stewart responding to Bill O"Reilly's featuring of a 2004 Daily Show clip as proof of the show's anti-Christmas crusade. Jon returned the favor by offering up himself to Bill as his personal enemy, starting with the Osama quote.

Happy Holidays.

More B-Day Fun: Korla Pandit

Another gift on my list from Mom and Dad...


The Korla Pandit DVD

Korla Pandit played the piano and organ on a nationally-syndicated show in early 1950's, always gazing into the camera. Now he plays in our living room. So dreamy...

Work, Weather, Weekend: A Rainy Celebration of Age

Work:

Friday night, got to work the Big Bad Voodoo Daddy Christmas show at the Ferst Center as a spotlight operator. Which meant a great view of the show. While I love me my vintage clothes, I wasn't huge into the swing thing when it had a revival in the 90's and I didn't know how much the band would be coasting on costumes and schtick. But the show was a great one with just the right amount of showmanship from the lead singer/guitar and stellar playing from the band.

Being the Christmas show, they did some seasonal tunes like "Mr Heat Miser" from The Year Without a Santa Claus. The best of the five Christmas songs was also the most interesting. It was a mambo version of Elvis's "Blue Christmas," with a Perez Prado tempo and horn treatment. Brought the house down.

Weather & Weekend:

Sunday was my birthday and the rain prevented my wife's plans from working out. We were going to roadtrip to Chattanooga to see Rock City's Garden of Lights. Years ago, Caroline and I went to Rock City and loved the retro-tacky/natural-beauty wonder of the it all. Don't know much about the place?... here's a good primer on one of my favorite places.

While I loved the idea of going for my birthday, I vetoed going in the rain. After an afternoon of watching the Atlanta Radar Map I'm glad we skipped it, nonstop rain from here to Chattanooga all day. Instead we went to the Antique Factory in Chamble, went to Atlantic Station just in time for all the stores to close and ran around Ikea for a little while. All in all a nice night.

And this morning I woke up early and got to open a package from FedEx. Thanks, Mom and Dad, it now lives on top of my iMac...



Click the picture to see the sign in its blinky, light-up glory.

I Know it's 1:30 in the Morning, and No, You Can't See the Fish!

I've been home from work for a couple of hours, and I'm hoping to hit the Georgia Aquarium next week. But this is what I get when I try to buy tickets online...

"We are currently experiencing a high volume of traffic.
We are unable to process your request at this time, please try again later.
If you're are interested in purchasing tickets, please call us at 404-581-4444.
Thank you for your patience."

It really is 1:30 in the morning. So, seriously?...

Should I call them now?

*tired*