That's My Aunt!
Just a thought from 30 November 2004 about Powazek.

AZ Central: Girl's dream is reality: Doll House owners offer classic toys

SCOTTSDALE - As a young girl in the late 1950s, Sari Powazek fantasized about owning a store that carried all the toys her family couldn't afford to buy....

Today, Powazek's dream has morphed into a 3,600-square-foot store in the Promenade of Scottsdale shopping center, southeast of Scottsdale Road and Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard.

Hey Arizonans, support the family business! Spend your holiday bucks at the Doll House & Toy Store in Scottsdale. Tell 'em nephew Derek sentcha!

Ephemera 500
Just a thought from 29 November 2004 about Photography.

Ephemera hit 500 this weekend, and it hasn't even been a year yet. Rock!

Here We Go Again
Just a thought from 22 November 2004 about Technorati.

Three things I said I'd never do again:
     1. Work at a startup company.
     2. Have a dayjob.
     3. Tap dance.

One out of three ain't bad, I guess.

Today is my first day as Senior Designer of Technorati. Yes, it's a startup company. Yes, it's a dayjob. No, I'm not tap dancing for them. I haven't done that since grade school, and frankly, the less said about it the better.

Stamp-hop-step-salap-step.

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Boob Tubed
Just a thought from 18 November 2004 about TV.

Notes from an evening spent with Comedy Central:

» Jon Stewart and Woody Harrelson: High or just giddy? I'd put money on high.

» Shorties Wathcin' Shorties is just brilliant: Take the best bits of standup comedians and put it to flash-style animation. Funny. And you don't have to watch some guy pacing around a stage.

» Drawn Together, another animated show on Comedy Central, is a faux reality show with cartoon characters borrowed from many genres. Great in-jokes for cartoon geeks like me, and plenty of bawdy humor for everyone else.

Fray Day Rocked
Just a thought from 15 November 2004 about Fray.

Photo by Charlene Wright.

I could not be prouder of how well Fray Day 8 San Francisco went. The stories were fantastic, whether they were from a featured performer or open mic participant, the venue was beautiful, the sound was great (we may even be able to make a CD out of the recording this year), the music was incredible (Goh was perfect and Kid Beyond had everyone on their feet), and I got to tell a little two-part story of my own. We started at 8pm sharp and ended promptly at 11pm.

One of the problems anyone who runs an open mic has is getting people to stick to the time limits. In Fray, that means 10 minutes for the featured performers and 5 for the open mic. In past years, I wasn't always able to cut someone off when I should have. I mean, I got into this because I like hearing people's stories. So stopping them in the middle is hard.

But this year we introduced the Boa of Shame - a red boa that I threatened to put on the shoulders of anyone who went over their time limit. And I never got to use it! The mere threat of the Boa of Shame was enough to keep everyone in their time limit.

I especially wanna thank Dinah Sanders, who was really my rock this year. She did just as much to make Fray Day 8 SF a reality as I did. And I couldn't have done it without her. Thanks also to Jay Allen, Jish Mukerji, Min Jung Kim, and Shannon Hale, who all showed up early and helped get what needed to get done, done. Having a team of volunteers like this makes an event like this work, and work well.

See y'all next year ... or sooner.

Fray Day 8 SF is Saturday!
Just a thought from 9 November 2004 about Fray.

Fray Day 8 San Francisco is this Saturday night at the Swedish American Hall! There'll be music by Goh Nakamura and Kid Beyond, as well as stories from Jack Boulware, Kevin Smokler, Beth Lisick, Kirk Read, and of course the open mic! Don't miss it!

UPDATE: And it's all over! And it rocked! In fact, I'd call it the best Fray Day SF ever.

Lookee There
Just a thought from 5 November 2004 about Powazek.

I'm only posting because I can't stand to look at "Election Depression" on the homepage of Powazek.com anymore. So, hey, lookee there! All Powazek photo calendars on sale! Only $17.99 through November 15. Act now. Operators are standing by.

Election Depression
Just a thought from 3 November 2004 about Politics.

Selected post-election depression thoughts:

• Song of the day: God's Away On Business, Tom Waits. "There's a leak, there's a leak in the boiler room. The poor, the lame, the blind. Who are the ones that we kept in charge? Killers, thieves and lawyers."

• C-SPAN is trying to make me feel better. After the Kerry concession broadcast, they showed Bush Sr.'s concession speech from 1996, then Clinton's acceptance. Thanks, C-SPAN.

• The sky is all thunder and lightning here in San Francisco. The Gods are angry, too.

• Fuck the "don't mourn, organize" noise. Mourn AND organize. Be sad AND angry. Both are great creative fuel.

• Only 1,462 days until Election 2008.

Pretty Kitty
Just a thought from 3 November 2004 about Politics.

Here is a photo of a pretty kitty. This kitty has nothing to do with politics or how fucking idiotic half the people in my country are.

Pretty kitty. Pretty kitty. Pretty kitty.

Vote for John Kerry
Just a thought from 1 November 2004 about Politics.

I remember when I first became aware of John Kerry. It was during the Democratic primaries when the field was crowded with hopeful candidates. I was watching the debates on CNN and I pointed at him, tapping my finger on the hollow cathode ray tube of my television set as he was droning on in his eternal monotone, my finger touching his broadcasted wrinkles.

"Anyone," I said, "but that one."

The democrats were damaged by Clinton. He'd embarrassed us in the eyes of the world with a blue dress and a curvy intern. And Gore was just laughable, even before he lost the Electoral College in 2000. So I thought we needed someone to reinvigorate us. Someone young and energetic. Not this walking corpse, this reanimated High School Principal, this Frankenstein without the bolts.

What did I know.

Continue reading “Vote for John Kerry” »