Year: 2005

Here’s the last batch of searches that ended up at my website, quite the motley group.

14.29% cheap stingy bastard.com
2 9.52% why the demand curve slope downwards
2 9.52% photography is not art
2 9.52% concepts of rational choice
2 9.52% david melito
1 4.76% isaac crawford mac
1 4.76% isaac crawford ithaca
1 4.76% chrysotype photo process steps
1 4.76% rodinal fp4
1 4.76% albienz
1 4.76% darkroom toning primer
1 4.76% silkscreening advances
1 4.76% flashlight band ithaca -a flashight
1 4.76% ipod stuff
1 4.76% guitar playing prosthetic fingertips

I particularly like the last one…

Isaac

For those of you that read my “Frank Black and The Pixies” piece on my website, you might remember about my “obsession” with female bass players. I listed a few on there and one of them wrote to me tonight! No, not Kim Gordon, Kim Deal, or Tina, but Dayrlynn did. She was the bass player for flashlight, a band in Ithaca. It was a little weird, I mean, I said that I was obsessed with specific women, and I called one of them petite, adorable and (cranking) out the nastiest bass grooves, and she wrote to me! Granted, she was correcting my butchering of her name, but it was a lot of fun to hear from her:-) My most vivid memory involving her was on a holloween night. There was another band that the drummer and guitar player from flashlight were in (4 souls down?) and they had a gig in collegetown if I remember correctly. Anyway, Brett, her boyfriend at the time (and now her husband) was dressed as Prince and was invited to sing with the band. He sang “If I was your Girlfriend” to her and I thought that they were going to have sex right then and there. There was an obvious connection between the two of them, only a fool would dare get in the middle of that…

I updated the Frank Black piece with her correct name and a link to the band’s page. I have also updated my demand curves page. I’ve been getting a decent number of hits on this, interestingly all from outside the US. England, Canada, Ireland, and India have all visited the page. What is it about the Commonwealth that wonders about downwards sloping demand curves? Anyway, I’ve put a little more meat on the page. Let me know what you think.

Isaac

OK, I’m intrigued… The post had a review of last night’s Sinead O’Conner’s concert. She didn’t do any of her hits, but instead concentrated on her new musical love, Reggae. Hmmm, I’ve always been a fan of hers and I’m intrigued. Yes, she’s a nut, but what a powerful voice. And no matter what has gotten into her head, there’s no doubt that she believes in what she’s singing. Come to think of it, remember her Pope picture tearing incident on SNL? Does anyone remember what she sang before that? It was “War” as popularized by Bob Marley (From a speech by Hali Sallisai). It was a capella if I remember correctly, and she was ON! That was an intense rendition and it was one of the reasons that the picture tearing had such an impact.
The post reviewer was very complimentary, she has hired some real reggae heavyweights for her band. I’m the typical white guy that loves Marley, I own the best of Jimmy Cliff, and I have a few King Tubby albums (is that more Dub than Reggae?), but I really don’t know any reggae band members unless their names are Peter or Bunny… I think I’ll pick up the newest Sinead CD one of these days. I have her two big albums and an album of standards (which she does very well) so it’ll be interesting to hear how she tackles this.

Isaac

You knew it was just a matter of time before I started to think about camera equipment again… I really love large format, and I would love to take pictures using a large format camera when I go to Egypt, but they’re too big. They’re too heavy, too bulky and completely impractical. Umm, except this one. It would be like using a Leica, except with massive negs. I could also use film backs like a 6×12 cm back with roll film. The only thing that I can see that I don’t like is the price. Yikes! Still, the cheapest one would be less than half of what my photo gear sold for. Oh yeah, that’s still a lot of money. Still, I cringe at the thought of capturing images on the biggest adventure of my life (so far thank you very much) on a dinky little 35mm piece of film. Don’t talk to me about digital cameras, even if there was a reasonably priced camera that I like the image quality of, I can’t imagine using those ergonomic disasters with the squinty, tiny, dark viewfinders. Yes, the Leica has spoiled me…
I think that I will set up my teaching savings account to save up for a camera for the trip. I have almost hit my goal of savings for the trip already, and I don’t leave until the end of August so I shouldn’t have any trouble saving up for it. We’ll see, I’m bound to change my mind again by that point…

Isaac

Don Boudreux has another great post over at Cafe Hayek. He points out that markets set value while people set price. Economists almost universally agree that things work best when the two are the same monetary value. I’m going to have to think about this, it really is a simple statement that has many ramifications…

Isaac

I’m really digging this mix CD. How’s this for a lineup…

I’m experiencing a gradual weight loss and it has to be because of how
I’m eating since I haven’t done a damn bit of exercising in recent
memory. It’s a pretty good feeling to have control for at least a
little while. Had a setback or two this weekend, but I think that in
general I’m paying attention and doing the right thing. I threw out my
cheese and crackers and refused to get anything bad at the store. Lack
of temptation is half the battle…:-)

Isaac

Put together a new mix for the car.. I have got to get myself an ipod, this 1 cd at a time thing sucks… There is the usual mishmash of stuff. I did put “Beverly Hills” on there, hope there’s no more speeding tickets in my future:-) There’s also New Model Army’s song “Spirit of the Falklands” on there as well. If you haven’t heard this yet, you must.

Got my very first speeding ticket tonight. I was truly enjoying “Beverly Hills” by Wheezer on the radio when I noticed the flashing lights. Here’s how the conversation went:

“Do you know how fast you were going?”
“Umm, no”
“72 in a 55 zone, didn’t you see me?”
“No I guess I didn’t”
“Yeah, you pulled up behind me, went into the next lane and blew past me.”
“Wow, that wasn’t very smart, was it? Guess I was in my own little world.”
“I think you were… ”

He was pretty cool about it, I think that if I hadn’t been such a dumbass he probably would have let me off, but I agree that he couldn’t really let that slide, stupidity is always a good justification for a ticket. Luckily it was only a $30 fine instead of the stiffer one he could have doled out. The trouble is that the administrative court fee is almost twice the fine itself! The court fee is $57! This will put a bit of a crimp in my gift buying plans, guess I’ll have to be a little more creative in what I get for people. Oh, and I gotta stop listening to Wheezer:-)

Isaac

… what the third leading cause of death of black men is, behind pork
chops and FEMA? Watch Boondocks and you’ll find out. I don’t know the
last time I laughed so hard…

Isaac