Odds And Ends

For Tacnukesoul, Because It Will Cheer You Up!

hkenyon@hotmail.com — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 21:56:12 GMT

Now that the holidays are over, there isn't much to look forward to until spring (unless you like winter sports). So I was thinking of tacnukesoul and how this season can get him blue and I realized what he needs to see is lots of guys in uniform doing crazy coordinated stuff. And nothing fits the bill better than a fun British military tradition known as the Royal Navy Field Gun Competition. Being an Anglophile, I'm sure you're familiar with it, but I thought I'd share one of the better competitions with you and the other folks in LJ land.

So, behold! For your entertainment, the 1997 Royal Navy Field Gun Competition.

Oh, and I threw in some Mounties for good measure! Happy New Year!

Restaurant Review

hkenyon@hotmail.com — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 21:34:39 GMT

I've been meaning to write this for over a month. In late November a bunch of us ate dinner at 1905.

It's located right off the U street corridor and serves what I'd call nuveau American cuisine (you can find a menu on the Web site. The food is good (the scallops are dreamy) and it's got great atmosphere. On Thursday nights, they bring in a jazz band at 10:00 p.m. They're good, but expect for a late evening.

However, I recommend the place mostly for its excellent bar and its absinthe menu. The service is good and there's enough variety in the bar (not to mention types of absinthe) for repeat visits. I went there with Christy, her brother Lee, a friend of Christy's and dhairya.

So yes, three pseudopods for the cuisine, four for the drinks and atmosphere.

Seasonal Catch Up, Oh, And Happy New Years!

hkenyon@hotmail.com — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 21:23:48 GMT

Firstly, Happy New Years to all of you out in LJ land. I'll be the first to admit, I'm a bad blogger. I love ghosting and adding the odd comment, but I'm lazy (perhaps something odd to say from someone who writes for a living).

So, holiday stuff first. Spent a week in Houston visiting old friends and family over Christmas. I have a cluster of family down in Texas and a cluster up here. Every other year, I try to rotate between the two for the holidays. It was fun. I come from a relatively drama free family (or rather, what drama there is doesn't apply to me), so I look forward to the visits. Also, not seeing people for six months to a year at a time helps with the warm fuzzies. You can escape before you actually start to get on each other's nerves.

So the visit was fun, reconnected with my old friend Mike, who does not live in LJ land. He's an artist and is currently doing special effects work for what appears to be the beginnings of a film industry in Houston. Mostly low-budget horror films at the moment, but that's how many film types break into the business.

I actually lost two days of my visit due to the after effects of the major snow the previous week. I was flying out on a Monday, but the people from the delayed flights over the weekend scrummed the airport. In the chaos (multiple line changes, personnel not knowing what to do next, etc), I missed my flight. I then spent Tuesday in standby hell as I bounced from one flight to another. The only upshot was that this was at National airport and I live 15 minutes away, which made coming home painless. I finally got out on the first flight out of National on Wednesday, and 5:45 am. Sigh. But I made it and the return flight was painless.

Bored yet? Yes, this family stuff can get dull, but hey it's my soapbox.

Spent a quiet New Year's eve with the girlfriend. There were no major party invites on the books and the big New Year's hoo-ha's tend to be rather overcrowded and unpleasant affairs. Actually did get an invite from tazira for a party (thanks for the invite, by the way), but as we'd already ordered a pizza for dinner, it made more sense to stay in. AH, but the long weekend awaits!

Anyway, that's the personal stuff. No drama (thank the gods!) and here's hoping for a good, productive and lucrative new year.

Larceny In Deep Space

hkenyon@hotmail.com — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 01:03:29 GMT

This is possibly the coolest thing I've seen for television in a while. This is actually a sizzle reel for a pilot that's going to be made next year. It's British con artists in space....it's got a bit of Firefly to it and a bit of Cowboy Beebop, and .... just see for yourself! I really hope this gets made because the possibilities look quite awesome. (more fanboy noises here)

Defeated By The Weather

hkenyon@hotmail.com — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 15:42:50 GMT

I had planned to go to Faire this weekend, but the abyssimal weather nixed that endeavor. But I did have a Plan B: doing nothing and liking it! This weekend has been spent shuffling around the place, eating and drinking--all out of the weather and with good company.

Perhaps next week. ...we'll it's going to have to be next week because that's it for Faire. Maybe you Faire regulars will all be in attendance next week? We'll have a closing party?

In Which The Author Is Most Vexed

hkenyon@hotmail.com — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 15:38:18 GMT

In late August I attended a conference in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for work. It was a big defense show, mostly themed around the U.S. Army with lots of brass in attendance and tech on display. As a part of these events, there is the usual round of cocktail parties and other get-togethers in hotels. At one particular event, I ended up in a conversation with a young woman (going to sound geezerish here) who was probably in her mid-20s. She works for a big defense contractor based in Tysons Corners.

During the course of the conversation, it became apparent that she didn't have the foggiest grasp of the last 60 years or so of history. She had a vague notion of World War II because she knew about Nazis. But that whole other thing in the Pacific, with the Japanese, and the dropping of nukes on them? Nada. Now this happens to be a particular hot button hard wired into me (my mother, her kin and my step father all lived through Japanese military occupation in Shanghai during the war).

So, in a very polite and conversational tone, I ended up giving her a Cliff's Notes version of World War II. This naturally followed into a discussion of the Cold War and all that fear of NUCLEAR ARMAGEDDON that we all grew up with. She thanked me and told me that no one had ever put the history of these events into any context for her before. (Editorial note here: EEEEKKK!)

The next day, during the show, she bumped into me, thanked me again and noted that she actually understood a general's reference to the Berlin Wall in a speech that morning. (Again: EEEK!)

I could go on a rant about how little people bother to know/learn/do their own damn research [if they gave a damn] about history and all the stuff that's going on around them and touches their lives whether they want to or not. But I won't. The other issue was such ignorance at an event where any of these military guys would (albeit perhaps politely) take someone like her to the woodshed for not knowing the history that has directly affected their profession and national policy.

It makes me think that around the DC area, there are probably many, many such people who have similar levels of ignorance. Perhaps I could make money on the side by educating them. I'm no historian--just an educated layman. But I could give people a basic "this is what happened and why its important to you, and here is where you can go for more information." An I would charge money. Yes, sweet money for this service. ....perhaps I'm jumping to conclusions, but what's one to do? I fight the good fight, one cocktail party at a time....

Current Reading:

Fiction: Iron Council, by China Mieville

Non Fiction:

In A Sunburnt Country, by Bill Bryson

Shanghai, The Rise and Fall of a Decadent City, by Stella Dong

Assorted Postyness and Follow-Ups

hkenyon@hotmail.com — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 15:05:51 GMT

It's October, where has the time gone? A quick end of summer recap: did the annual lake get-together in August with grymnir and a batch of other miscreants who do not live in LJ land, but with whom we've had a very, very long association. As usual, there was the floating in the warm lake (but no boating this year, alas), beer drinking, trash talking and movie watching/gaming. There was also the added fun of running around the house with these neat laser tag guns, shooting each other and seeing how out of shape we were.

The end of August saw me go to Fort Lauderdale for a business trip. I'd never been to the Atlantic coast of Florida, just Orlando and Tampa on the Gulf Coast. On principle, I generally dislike Florida, it's low, hot, swampy, full of vermin and old people waiting to die. Having never been to Miami, I withhold judgment on that city and its supposedly vibrant night life. But Fort Lauderdale was quite nice and (those bits that I saw) somewhat swanky. It helped that I was in a very nice hotel for the conference.

However, at the conference I had a conversation with someone that both scared, annoyed and vexed me (it will be the subject of my next post).

September kinda blew by. Stuff and work happened, but nothing of real note. There were a few birthdays, and you know who you are, sweet, mysterious internets people. Oh, and a lovely dinner/birthday/excuse to eat good food and drink good booze with dhairya. There was a sweet party at thehefner's either in very late September or early October. Most capitol! tazira was there and much fun (and home made grog) was had by all.

It's already halfway through the month of October, and I can hear the wheels of the Great Holiday Machine begin to creak to life. There will be the Vast and Unregulated bash at grymnir's in a couple of weeks on Halloween, and then it's November folks.

Gothabilly Tonight!

hkenyon@hotmail.com — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 21:38:26 GMT

Tonight I'm going to see The Builders and the Butchers, a band who's sound can best be described as haunted hillbilly music (or gothabilly as I prefer to view it). They're playing down at DC9.

Here they are live.

And here's a snazzy video.

Mid-July Summary for June

hkenyon@hotmail.com — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 19:14:01 GMT

Ah, where did the time go? A quick rundown of last month. Stuff happened.

OK, perhaps a bit more. Early in the month, I flew back to Houston for a couple of days to visit with the relatives. I've got my mom, older brother and sister and many nieces, nephews and assorted other relatives in Houston. I was born up here (go Bowie Maryland!) but lived overseas and ended up going to grade school and high school in Houston. Now I try to visit when the weather is cool (more about that in a minute).

Normally, I try to time these visits for a window sometime between Christmas and March, when the weather in Houston is tolerable. Anyone who's spent any time on the Gulf Coast in the summer will know of what I speak. Also, the bugs are smaller and less aggressive up here.

So, for a number of reasons, most of them financial, I postponed my visit until early June. The first part of the trip was fun. I was met at the airport by an old friend of mine, someone whom I've known since the seventh grade. He now lives in Utah, but was down for his oldest son's high school graduation. That made me feel like a complete geezer. My friend and I then met up with some people from our high school class, some of whom I haven't seen in 20 years or so, and went out to a bar for conversation and drinks. All this was pleasant, although it is interesting noting how some people change completely over time and how some really do not change at all. My friend and I also noted that there is something in the water in Houston that turns some folks into angry, bigoted stereotypes who go off on Asian convenience store clerks in order to make themselves feel better. Hmmmm.

For the duration of my visit I stayed at my older brother's house. I get on well with him, but he's just a tad conservative and watches way too much Fox television. I was in Houston mainly to visit my mother, who is in her 80s and doesn't get around much these days. But I made one crucial mistake during my visit, which was not renting a car. Normally i rent a vehicle when I'm visiting. Houston has a huge city limit (about 50 miles or so) and little or no mass transit outside of the immediate city center. My brother lives on the periphery of the city, up north by the airport.

The lack of transportation led to several difficulties. The first of which was yard work. Let me explain. My brother's house sits on two acres of land that is slightly swampy. Actually all of Houston is slightly swampy--mostly pine forest and marshy land of some sort. During the summer months this yard turns into a jungle. I lived here during my high school years and had to mow that lawn for most of my youth. Even with a riding mower, it was a rather unpleasant experience. In fact, this is the yard that has permanently turned me away from yard work.

So, what do I do with my Saturday in Houston....yard work. The only reasons that I even got involved in the yard work were because my older brother (he's 18 years older than me) has some health issues preventing him from really exerting himself. And the fact that I had to rely on other people for rides (no easy means of escape). The work in itself wasn't that bad and the weather was surprisingly cool and nice for Houston at that time of year. But it was still working out in the yard of doom and watching where I put my feet for fear of fire ants.

But I did these things and survived and saw my mom the next day. The following day, my friend came down on his dad's motorcycle. This leads to the other lesson here. It was a monday, but because everyone was at work...I had no wheels. Not having a vehicle to get around in makes me feel like I'm 15 again, and not in a good way. I ended up going around the neighborhood on the back of my friend's bike. I've never ridden on the back of a bike before, so I found the whole situation somewhat precarious.

So my trip to visit the relatives was mostly good. I saw my mom, which was good and hung out with some old friends. The bad, no yard work, and must have wheels while I'm there. Next time, I stay at my niece's place, which is rather nice and doesn't require toiling under the hot sun.

As for the rest of the month, it went well. Stuff was done....and then it was July. How did that happen.

One last note. While I was in Houston, my girlfriend Christy was at a conference in Portland, Oregon. While she was there she got to see a reading by China Mieville at Powell's Books. She also had breakfast with my friends leemoyer and shuttergal. So that wraps it up for June!

Your Daily Dose of Trippyness

hkenyon@hotmail.com — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 20:14:16 GMT

I found this short animated video interesting because it reminded me of the Heavy Metal animated film. That's the first one, and not the cheesecake version that came out a couple of years ago. OK, so there was both cheesecake and cheese in the first HM film, but it was also one of those important media experiences for be because it demonstrated what you could do with animation (specifically that it wasn't just kid stuff--this was the early 80's after all).

Watch and enjoy the colors!

What the 1980s Should Have Been Like

hkenyon@hotmail.com — Fri, 22 May 2009 21:13:18 GMT

The 80s would have been a groovier decade if we'd actually been fighting off aliens. And had a moon base with cool silver catsuit uniforms. And those wigs! Ah, the pleasures of UFO.

Bored Barbarians and Cute Zombies

hkenyon@hotmail.com — Fri, 22 May 2009 21:02:34 GMT

It's May! Spring is surging into summer and it makes me think of barbarians! Movie barbarians (circa 1980s Conan) and zombies! What's not to like?

This amusing animation mashes both themes together mercilessly. Hilarity ensues. Believe me.

A Song About Sax Rohmer

hkenyon@hotmail.com — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 17:40:23 GMT

Well, not really about Sax Rohmer, except perhaps in the most tangential sense. But this is a great song by the Mountain Goats and a really, really cool video (at least in my humble [yet exalted!] opinion).

It's spring and this is a good song for hopeful yearning.

Wolf Vs Pig

hkenyon@hotmail.com — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 19:36:37 GMT

And now an amusing Japanese exercise in stop motion.

Because It's So Wrong

hkenyon@hotmail.com — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 15:22:01 GMT

This is a Burger King ad. About Spongebob Squarepants. With rapping and that scary new Burger King mascot. And lots of women with square buts.

Did I mention it's intrinsic wrongness?

Swedish Weekend

hkenyon@hotmail.com — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 22:16:17 GMT

This video answers that burning question: what if the tale of Little Red Riding Hood was told by engineers and Ikea catalog designers?

Enjoy!

Post Hasty Post

hkenyon@hotmail.com — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 18:45:12 GMT

AYIII!!! Flying Monkeys!!!!

Compare and contrast.

Advice From Doctors We Trust

hkenyon@hotmail.com — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 13:43:19 GMT

This link leads to an amusing (and informative!) video about a common problem that we often overlook: flying polyps. If that name rings a Lovecraftian bell, then click on the shiny, shiny URL.

http://www.yog-sothoth.com/docs2/av-elder-sign-advert.mp4

Being Nice to the Natives

hkenyon@hotmail.com — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 18:53:58 GMT

It's Friday and I'm feeling a bit Colonial. So in the spirit of meeting less technologically advanced civilizations and showing them the wonders of firewater and repeating rifles, I present this link to a fun cartoon by Wondermark.

Behold the excitement!

http://wondermark.com/486

CAFE! CAFE! CAFE!

hkenyon@hotmail.com — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 23:56:24 GMT

Too much coffee in the morning? Toooo much caffeine in your system? No problems. This charming French video demonstrates that caffeine-induced psychosis is a good thing. Really. Trust me. The voices say so.

The Wrath of Khan: The OPERA!!

hkenyon@hotmail.com — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 20:34:49 GMT

The lunatics at Robot Chicken have outdone themselves. They've taken bits from The Wrath of Khan and made them into an opera.

I for one, would pay good money to see a full length opera of Wrath. But enough of my blather, go and enjoy some high geek culture!

The Builders and the Butchers

hkenyon@hotmail.com — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 23:31:48 GMT

One of the other surprises from the Amanda Palmer concert (see last post) was the opening band. There were two, the Vermillion Liars (perhaps another post about them later) and the Builders and the Butchers (BATB). BATB are a Portland-based band with ties to the Decembrists. They specialize in a kind of haunted hillbilly gothic blood and thunder music. It's at once familiar and different.

I was quite impressed and eagerly await their return to the area. Here are a couple of samples of their stuff:

A Long Overdue Post

hkenyon@hotmail.com — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 22:58:24 GMT

It's late January already! How did that happen. I'll focus on musical stuff here. Back in November I saw Amanda Palmer in D.C. This was her solo tour for her "Who Killed Amanda Palmer" CD. It was a fantastic show. I've always liked her stuff with the Dresden Dolls, but this moves in new directions. Sure there's some cabaret in there and she toured with a crackerjack group of performance artists, which gave the show an added kick. But it was mostly her.

Here's a video from the album.

At the end of the show she also did a touching duet with her dad, who lives in the DC area. They sang a Leonard Cohen song (the name of which escapes me) together. Very touching.

Now go rock out!

"And he shall wear the semblance of men..."

hkenyon@hotmail.com — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 19:36:54 GMT

Time for an overdue post, and a Halloween one at that. Here's a nice clip for an upcoming film called "The Whisperer in the Dark" based on a story by that crazy H.P. Lovecraft guy. It's made by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, a group of enthusiasts who already have a film version of "Call of Cthulhu" under their belts. "Call" in my opinion, is perhaps the best and most accurate rendition of a Lovecraft story put to film.

But here's the clip for their upcoming film:

Heck, while I'm at it, here's the clip for Call of Cthulhu as well. Cthulhu ftagn!, er, Happy Halloween!

Photos from the Subcontinent

hkenyon@hotmail.com — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 23:47:14 GMT

You might remember that last November I travelled to India to speak at a conference. The photos I took have been languishing in a file on my desktop for months. But have no fear! Now they are arranged in a sexy new format for all to see.

The shots are of the day trip I took from New Delhi to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. If you want a Cliff Notes version of India, spend a day or two on the roads. But have someone else drive you because local driving conditions would either see you dead or on the verge of a nervous breakdown within minutes. I rented a car and driver to take me there. It was an experience.

Go see for yourselves.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28469984@N04/sets/