Hello World

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more kindstrangers server migration

something longer than our lives

I'm changing hosts for the kindstrangers dot net domain, which although pretty much just a maildrop these days, is a site I'm sentimental about, and would develop if web publishing ever got really easy, drag and drop-ish. It probably does seem really easy to a lot of people already, but I mean to me.  If anyone uses a kindstrangers address and has a problem in the next few days, try firstlast at gmail.  I liked the Soundtrack of Our Lives quote in the sidebar today - its a lot of what's nice about the web too, I think.

dude looks like a lady

I hadn't really paid that much attention to the novelist JT Leroy, I think partly because I've shifted without noticing it too much from reading several books at a time to reading more and more web voices instead.  Yesterday's NYTimes article about the mysterious young man and literary talent rescued, by a couple, from an extremely difficult youth, suggested that his public role has been being played by a woman, and a "mounting circumstantial case" that the writing was actually done by the female member of the rescuing couple. I read a little of the travel article he, or maybe "he", wrote for the NYTimes and found it very good - about the same quality of writing as many of the blogs I read. I think for a while now it has seemed to me that the ability to write well, the ability to communicate and connect through words, is not that unusual.  What was always so unusual was the ability to get through the narrow gates of traditional publishing.

make a feeling

I walked out yesterday morning  to a nearby shop that has a little bit of everything, to see if I could find a few things for a recipe - being deep into Christmas baking right now.  Everyone in the store seemed pretty much like me - out and about on a Sunday morning to get coffee or a paper or some breakfast, and not quite ready yet to start the day.  I asked a girl who yawned and smiled and shook her head no all at once - a tough combination - if she was in line, and then stood at the counter paying a little more attention to the familiar music playing in the background.  It was Elliott Smith, but not a song I knew, maybe from the posthumous From a  Basement On a Hill, an album I haven't heard.  I liked the little jolt of recognition of hearing a voice I like, but, looking around and not seeing any obvious possibilities, and not wanting to be annoying, missed being able to start up one of those conversations about it with a stranger you're temporarily sharing an experience with - like hearing the same thing while waiting in line. I thought about putting on Elliott Smith when I got home, but while I like encountering him at any time, I still can't seem, for sadness, to put him on myself. I think I could listen more easily to a tribute album, though, and made a mental note to check one out.

i knew this girl when i was young

My grandmother sent me this cookie recipe some years ago.  I used to make them often for holiday cookie exchanges because they were so easy, and was surprised how often I got a request for the recipe.  They're a lot like any nut cookie, but the hazelnuts give them a distinct (and delicious) flavor.  I often think of people who lived before the internet but would have loved it.  I think my grandmother would have been one of these people, so I wanted to post this recipe in her honor.
n.p. Low - nice music to bake by

Lydia's Hazelnut Cookies

1 stick butter (1/2 c) - softened
1/2 c sugar
1 scant cup flour
1/4 lb hazelnuts (or filberts) - these should be ground quite fine.

Mix butter and sugar, then add flour and then ground nuts.
Form into balls about 1" (or a little larger) in diameter
Bake at a temperature between 325 and 350 degrees
Bake for 15-20 minutes

 

snow day

I went out today in what was supposed to be a blizzard but was only as yet a heavy wet snow - and was buying a Christmas gift in a store that is a half flight of stairs down from the street, so that while waiting to check out, I could see, through the wall of windows opposite, the people in the street from the level of their feet.  Everyone was crossing the street, and there must have been a large puddle just as they finished, because each of them, tall, short, graceful and portly, executed a little jump to get to the sidewalk - kind of like watching a winter ballet

cast some light

I love listening to Jose Gonzalez.  What is he playing that gives him such a distinct sound?  Or maybe it's just his voice. It's been nicer lately, easier to just keep going along, nicer to not have everything always be uphill anymore.  I'm grateful for the music I love. It always feels like the bargain in the pretty song Crosses - we'll cast some light and you'll be alright.

dream verbs

I started paying attention to Ryan Adams some time ago because E and G like him so much, so I was listening over the Thanksgiving weekend to his new album 29,  streaming on Scenestars for the last several days. There is something quite haunting about "Strawberry Wine", a beautiful melody in a sort of singsong style, a long and unusually visual song, full of images of jumping and falling, the verbs of dreams. It gives me a feeling I remember distantly from childhood - hearing voices telling stories, feeling safe in the dark.

kind software

I had a similar experience with my iPod to one that Dave Winer had - losing almost everything, no dialog asking are you sure you want to do this? kind of thing.  Made me feel much better.  I usually figure when things like that happen that it's something I should have just known or figured out, or should have dug out of the manual. It's nice to have someone criticise the software, not the user. 

the light of nowhere else

Seattle was pretty wonderful as usual.  It's a beautiful city, the sense of water everywhere - more to do than there's ever time to do.  And I like the neon makeup it puts on when it gets dark.