(dc) brushing greatness

today i marvelled at being in a town where you can spend two hours meeting with someone who, earlier in the day, met with the president of the united states, and, earlier in the decade, spent 194 days in space. and then go home and meet a friend who just cooked dinner for kraftwerk.

i had already been sitting with mike for an hour talking about analogs before we joined some others and he told them about the encounter at the white house. apparently his family and the families of the expedition 7, 8, 9, and 10 crews met with president bush and his family from 9:00 to 9:20 and got the reportedly canned but nevertheless charming tour through pictures of texas (and history of the white house). i called karen (my good friend and friendswood neighbor, and leroy's wife), who said they flew in just for the occasion last night and left immediately afterwards.

as for kraftwerk, my friend and fellow musician/engineer, duncan, manages health bar and found out that the food he was delivering to the 9:30 club was dinner for them before their second night's show.

in other news, spoon is playing here this weekend to a sold out 9:30 club audience. i think this speaks well both for spoon and for washington dc.

(dc) how indie are you?

just take this simple test and find out.

(dc) just dump 'em in tokyo bay

i've been in the market (where by "in the market" i mean serious covetous lust) for a fender rhodes for quite some time now. someone is offering a mark II on craigslist today. but this one sounds more exciting:

"The EK-10 did not sell well in the US, but CBS saw a potentially bigger market in Japan. When the first shipment of pianos arrived there, a demonstration of the new Rhodes was broadcast on national television. What the American Rhodes engineers did not realize was that the output of the EK-10's electronics interfered with PAL video transmissions, causing some viewers' TV sets to explode. Consequently, the EK-10 was not very popular in Japan: all of the imported pianos were quickly dumped in the Tokyo Bay, forming a sort of artificial reef. But Jon Furulund assures us that playing an EK-10 in your home is safe: "We have PAL systems over here in Norway and I've set my Mark III EK-10 next to my TV and played and I'm still here :-)"...."

(dc) chaos

i'm sorry everyone. i haven't been in the mood to post anything for so long. the good news is that i've been in dc since my last post, and i've been able to make some progress on the angry taints record. we're trying to get all of dan's vocal's recorded before he goes off to paraguay to start his 2 year peace corps adventure.

i am making a lamp out of an old rusty stand on chrome (mostly rust) wheels, and i have been looking for a good shade for it. last night in adam's morgan, i think i found what i've been looking for in a store window on 18th st:



things at nasa are chaotic. major life decisions are on hold until further notice. in the meantime, i'm working on building websites for it's not rocket science studios and tiny planet, as well as getting the solar system sonification project seriously off the ground before the digizine article about my studio is published.

that's mostly what's up.

(*houston -> dc) are we there yet?

despite the fact that i have 17 pairs of continental headsets in a bag somewhere, i didn't have one with me on the plane today, so i watched "are we there yet" with ice cube without any sound. i don't think it affected my experience of the movie. i had planned on sleeping, but i guess i wasn't tired enough (!).

(montreal -> chicago -> houston) art + cars

This is why i flew to houston from montreal at 6am saturday morning through chicago. it was worth it. if you have never been to the orange show or to the art car parade, plan to go next year.

(montreal) i'm not driving

in a question and answer session today, a canadian scientist asked me whether it was really american industry driving NASA's exploration program. i answered that i didn't know who was really driving because it wasn't me. i think that was a stupid answer, which is why i think everyone lauged. at least i was entertaining.

(montreal) exploration

5th annual canadian space exploration workshop. today i delivered the nasa overview talk on behalf of jim garvin, who was having oral surgery. i'll add links tomorrow.

check out griffin's testimony to the senate appropriations committee todoay. also, this update on nasa watch gives you an idea of what's to come in the near future at nasa hq. my boss is a deputy AA, so it's hard to imagine that i'll be staying put through all this. some kind of change seems inevitable. what that will look like, no one knows.


solid waste -> fan.

(dc -> cincinnati -> montreal) misdirected

who knew that montagne and mortagne could be so different? kilometers different. and who knew when you order a pizza from a quebec pizza hut, you automatically (?) get pepperoni in addition to your topping of choice? maybe it's not automatic and i just got unlucky.

(dc) mother's day for the wretched

all the women in my family are mothers except for me, unless you count my oldest neice, who is 12. or almost 12. i guess technically, she could be a mother, but i'm glad she's not.

i'm not sure i will ever be a mother. i'm not sure if i want to be. i am sure that i want to feel like i have the choice to be, but i'm working hard to detach myself even from the desire for choice in the matter. unfulfilled necessary prerequisites (a husband, primarily) preclude choice.

tomorrow will be a day when i honor my mother, my grandmother, and my two sisters, and their roles as mothers. they all have taught me what it means to be a great mother, through their sacrifices, their choices, and their love.

mother's day, like valentine's day, though, can be tough.

this isn't meant to be woe-is-me whining. but i guess it is. sorry about that.

(dc) overwhelm

i'm in that place where finding two matching socks in the morning brings a triumphant little smile to my lips.

(dc) sigh

hi.