June 2007 Archives

I'm going to adopt the internet meme of "Caturday" and take the lazy route to posts once a week (if not quite a bit more frequently, if the posts from earlier this week are any indication!)

Django (one of our former Seattle Animal Shelter foster cats) lounging on the loft ladder - May 3, 2007 (click image to enlarge)

Here's what I hope will be the first in a series of "What are you doing to reduce your ecological footprint?" posts. I originally intended the "waste" category to center more around wasteful practices in packaging and consumerism, but waste takes many forms and there are many ways to both eliminate and mitigate it.

I certainly don't think what I'm doing is anything special, and there is plenty more that can and should be done to improve on this. I'll probably take some time and go into more detail on these items in future posts, but for now here's a tally to start. I'm also sure I've missed a few things, but this isn't meant to brag - it's meant to act as a reminder to myself.

• Switched to a fuel-efficient (30 mpg city, 45 mpg highway) biodiesel car
• Bus to work (and walk to bus)
• Obtain much of our produce from a local organic CSA
• Compost fruit and vegetable scraps in a worm bin
• Grow our own tomatoes, peppers, and herbs (and maybe cucumbers and zucchini this year!)
• Buy organic when reasonable and logical
• Support local businesses, especially restaurants and specialty shops
• Switched some lights to compact fluorescents (unfortunately much of our current house uses dimmer-controlled ceiling lights, and CFLs don't work in those)
• Line-dry most of our clothing when relative humidity is reasonable

Continue reading for thoughts on future "good intentions" that remain unfulfilled at this point...

(Beep Repaired, 2007)

You Who Pretend To Sleep is the first full-length album from Seattle-based five-piece Joy Wants Eternity, who also have one EP under their belts. The work is entirely instrumental, with numerous guitar effects replacing the traditional vocals. The various instruments subtly weave in and out of the sonic tapestry, each picking up from the previous while carrying the tracks to new places.

The album's sound reminds me of a mix of the best parts of Explosions In The Sky, Sigur Ros, Godspeed You Black Emperor, and Dirty Three, with hints of Youth's experimental orchestrations of classic rock albums. It feels full and lush - something suitable for majestic open spaces and vast wild lands. The album is brief, with only eight tracks, but in this the band avoids an issue that plagues many progressive "post-rock" bands - repetition. Songs are given room to explore their sonic landscapes without wandering too far off, with short reinforcing riffs reminding you how you got to where you are. The band also does a good job of mixing up the style and sounds between tracks while keeping the entire album linked.

All-in-all I think this is an excellent debut album and one that many people would enjoy on different levels - it works as non-distracting background music, but has subtle nuances that require full attention to appreciate. As with most instrumental albums of this nature, I suspect it will not get much airplay, and limited distribution (Amazon doesn't even carry it as of now) will keep them from reaching a larger audience with this effort.

(Available online from Seattle retailer Sonic Boom Records at this link.)

Statbox -

Artist: Joy Wants Eternity
Album: You Who Pretend To Sleep
Genre: Instrumental Psych Rock (I guess? This one's going to be tough for a lot of albums I buy, I fear...)
Rating: 8 out of 10
Purchase Again?: Yes
PWKPW?*: Yes (first album from them I've purchased)

Jasper roughing it on the living room chair - June 15, 2007 (click image to enlarge)

KIRO-TV tower, Queen Anne Ave N, Queen Anne, Seattle, WA - June 12, 2007 (click image to enlarge)

Hallowig Kitty, from the MAKE Blog - a fine example of hacking things, voiding warranties, and generally taking back what's rightfully yours after purchase.

Er, that's not to say the cat was a purchase... the yarn was. And the bandages and neosporin for the photographer will be shortly.

I'm still not entirely sure what I want to do with this site. I have a nagging urge to do something, but what specifically it should be remains somewhat of an enigma. There are some ideas and plans (the category list in the sidebar bears testament to that...) but at this moment the site remains somewhat of a blank slate, and something might come out of the blue and take over the main impetus.

That said, since twiddling my thumbs and waiting for inspiration to strike has thus far left nothing here (and this has been in the planning stages since last August!) I've decided to shift gears, stop using so many awful cliches in this broad declaration, and just start putting stuff up. I'm aiming to do at least one entry per day, starting immediately, and we'll see where things end up come autumn. I suspect I'll be just as surprised as anyone else by the end.

Oh, and before anyone asks, the site layout is likely to change as well. I spent a long time pontificating on that, as if well-formatted tables and style sheets make up for a lack of content.

Yes, that's a giant chicken hand-in-hand (wing-in-hand?) with the Virgin Mary.

I think that just about sums up any "justification for this website" questions until further notice.

(Ballard Fred Meyer, Ballard, Seattle, WA - early spring 2007)