I've owned an iPod for like a year and a half, I won it in a software testing competition. Since I didn't pay for it, it only bothered me a little bit that I didn't use it almost at all for the first year I had it. It took me that long to figure out that I could use my cassette to cd converter in the car to hook into it and actually play music in my car! See my old technology helps me stay hip and cool - who'd have thought?

I still have very little music because I'm pretty sure my computer would die if I tried to load all of my cds on it in order to transfer to my little gadget. Next purchase...the harddrive with a terabyte of space... :) excessive?? NAH.

Anyway - that's not what this post is about.

So lately I walk more than I used to to get to work, and I bring my iPod along with me.

I used to say that it would be cool to go through life having back up singers (a la Little Shop of Horrors or some such musical). Admit it - you think that's cool too.

Well now I've got the next best thing...I go through the world with my own SOUNDTRACK! Okay - yeah so this isn't news...

But more than that, everyone else does too. On my walk to work I easily see three times as many people with headphones than not. We're all walking through the world behind this safety blanket of music....it's like wearing sunglasses...you're safe...people can't fully get in.

I live in a small city outside a big small city. The people aren't necessarily unpleasant - but it's not like people go out of their way to make contact - we all live crowded together trying to avoid touching people in any way.

But - the iPod makes you safe - I find I'm more inclined to make eye contact and to smile at people when walking along in my music world. It's like we're more detatched...but maybe nicer too?

I often find myself wondering what other people are listening to and how that informs their attitude. In fact if I were creating a film - I would include shots of following several different people to thier music and as they pass each other highlight the contrast between what they are listening to.

Anyway - just ramblings here.

I think I like life with the iPod - though I admit - I have mixed feelings about technology in general - life seems so damned complicated.

Since it's spring - and I think the last time I posted was spring I thought I'd make posting in my journal a spring time tradition! Who knows - maybe more frequent than that someday...if I remember. :)

I always like DC in spring - in fact I think I only live here to enjoy spring and live in anticipation of it. So many flowering trees everywhere...though I managed to miss the cherry blossom festival this year. Bummer. Can't say as the Tidal Basin is really on my way to anything. ;)

But spring is a good time, a time for new things. It's been a wild several weeks lately. Lots of change at work - the company that I've been working for has just been "acquired" by another local company. It's a positive move - just takes some getting used to - I still work with many of the same people, in the same place, doing the same thing...so I guess in some ways it isn't all that drastic of a shift.

Looking for a new place to live....tired of this stupid apartment.

Change. Nothing like a little change to pull you out of your comfort zone and make sure you're still paying attention.

In honor of spring (and that I figured out how to do it) I have changed my journal's background!

Somehow my brother got me hooked on Sudoku. I had seen it in the newspaper and managed to stay away from it (it seemed like something addicting) but Dave sent me an online Sudoku:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/10/04/opinion/main908623.shtml

and now...I can't get enough of my daily Sudoku. I have found other sites with puzzles, but this one is my favorite. And really...I don't want to find any more, lest all I do is sit around solving puzzles. It's bad enough that I have work to do for the office that I can't seem to get started doing.

Hey guys...so I was recently introduced to a kick ass website that if you haven't found...check it out:

http://www.pandora.com

What it does is create music stations for you based on songs or artists you like. They don't just play what you requested (though it comes up eventually). From the selections you can tell them if you like or don't like a song and it narrows the field even more. It's some damn cool stuff. And they have all kinds of "unknown" artists...I totally dig it. Check it out you don't have to download anything and its free! (though they do have a paid version)

I've put in Thunder Road and King's Highway and have been very pleased with my mixes.

There's my commercial for pandora!

So I was just searching around through live journal, doing a couple of interest searches to see what I could find. It's crazy...you know...we just put our thoughts and lives out here for people to read. I read (well skimmed more like) all kinds of personal things about complete strangers. I suppose your average user just logs on, posts, checks what their friends have written and then calls it a day...but you really can find some interesting folks...some crazies too.

CHERRY RED PRODUCTIONS
"Cherry Red is always on the most vulgar of cutting edges!" -Wash. Post
****


The New York critics are raving about...
TRAPPED BY THE MORMONS


"For sheer novelty value, it's hard to top this C-grade remake of a Z-grade twenties exploitation flick that warns of the evil, mysterious wiles of Mormonism... It's often amateurish, which of course just enhances its pomo sleaziness!" -New York Magazine


"Starring drag king Johnny Kat in a hilarious gender bending performance as the crazed missionary, Trapped by the Mormons skewers intolerance against the Latter-Day Saints with heaping portions of campy shenanigans. A very, very funny film!" -Film Threat


"Trapped by the Mormons plays for high artistic stakes -- for who has not at some time been possessed by love, religion, or some other passionate delusion? Allen and his D.C.-based theatre company, Cherry Red, prove that the silent cinema derives its deepest inspiration from dance; the startling gesture repertoire with which Allen invests his performers makes even a faked resurrection seem true to life." -The New Yorker


"By the film's end, you'll know every sordid detail of the Mormon conspiracy to besmirch innocent American womanhood!" -Time Out New York


"While positioned firmly as camp, this new Trapped by the Mormons is a surprisingly faithful rendering -- at least until the flesh-eating zombies show up. ... This must be the first movie in which an LDS pamphlet is used as a masturbation aid." -Village Voice


And we're still waitin' on the daily papers!





TRAPPED BY THE MORMONS
One week only!
December 15-21
Nightly at 9:00 pm
Two Boots Pioneer Theater
155 East 3rd Street
Between Aves A and B
(212) 591-0434


Watch a preview, buy tickets, get info at:
http://www.trappedbythemormons.com

As the top recruiter in all of Mormondom, Isoldi uses his mesmeric powers to ensnare the young, delightful Nora Prescott into his evil web of passion, polygamy, and pamphlets. Will Isoldi marry Nora and take her to where the Great Salt Lake meets the Crystal Temple? Š Or, is there something darker lurking in her future? ... Slavery! ... Polygamist sex! ... Death!! ... Don't miss a single silly second of this hauntingly hip remake of the silent 1922 exploitation classic, Trapped by the Mormons.


Admission is $9 ($6.50 for students). Tickets may be purchased at the door or in advance at www.trappedbythemormons.com


+++++++++++++++++++


Buy a Trapped by the Mormons shirt!
Just $15 (S&H incl)
Go to http://www.trappedbythemormons.com


****
www.cherryredproductions.com

this is the greatest news article ever!

Deer Wanders Into Baggage Claim at O'Hare
AP 11-17-04

CHICAGO - A deer, its judgment possibly clouded by
sexual desire due to rutting season, wandered into the
lower level of a passenger terminal at O'Hare
International Airport before it was captured.

The incident happened Tuesday morning. The young buck
might have entered the airport grounds by following
Interstate 190, according to officials. The animal
then entered Terminal 2 through an a freight door that
opens automatically and approached a baggage claim
area, airport officials said. There were no passengers
in the area.

Deer are routinely struck by cars in urban areas
during the height of mating season, and officials said
this one appeared to have been struck by a vehicle
before it went to O'Hare.

"It was confused and bewildered and tried to find
shelter," said Annette Martinez, a Chicago Department
of Aviation spokeswoman who explained that animal care
experts theorized the animal had been pushed out of
its herd by other males.

In the terminal, airport workers used plastic
construction fencing to contain the deer until animal
control officers arrived. The officers used a
tranquilizer gun to subdue the deer so that they could
assess the animal's injuries.

After the buck was examined, it was euthanized,
Martinez said.

Martinez said the deer did not pose any security
problems or disrupt services. She also said that
nobody at the airport had heard of another deer
getting into a terminal before.