Tomorrow

I will beware of flying guitar parts.

Bill Gates is fabulous!

So, there's an AP article entitled "Microsoft Criticized for Gay Rights Stance." It reports that Microsoft has caved to pressure and stopped supporting gay rights legislation in its home state. And which photo of Bill Gates did they choose to accompany the article?



I love it.

Law and Order: Artistic Intent

Oh my lord.

Brandon Bird is awesome. Check out his website containing Law and Order themed art work. The last painting is currently my desktop background.

The first 10 phrases...

...to come into my head will be a poem. Entitled "20 Minutes Until I Leave Work, April 26th, 2005"

portals are opening one at a time
the light shines out and breathes in water
drowning is sometimes the right thing to do -
sometimes not, and when you say it I know
the small boat could have carried us all that way
but then I didn't trust it
lighthouses gleam in rhythm
the sea is dancing as the rain comes down
diving below and springing back to air
now I must go to State Street and buy crancheddar

Haha. 2 minutes, 12 seconds elapsed. Mmmmm, it's slightly alarming that something that would seem quasi-deep (in a shallow kind of way) to the unsuspecting reader can be spewed forth at such a rate. Well, except for that last line. I had to throw that in there because A) it's true, and B) that poem needed a bitch slap.

If there were a band called Brass Tacks

...then they could advertise their CD's and shows with the slogan, "Get down to Brass Tacks!"

I can't imagine that someone has not thought of this before, so I'm assuming I just haven't heard of them.

ThirdShiftIdolSlack

Last night on American Idol, the contestants apparently performed a song written just for them by John Farrar. For one brief, shining moment, I thought it had been written for them by Jay Farrar.

Wednesday, April 23 ... 1986

Hi! I'm back - I'm still 6 years old and I still go to kindergarten. Tonight I watched a show called "Alex: The Life of a Child." I've been playing with Sarah a lot lately. Sarah and me can work on the bars pretty well. The day before yesterday we caught a ladybug.

Sunday we went by Grandma's and had lunch. We had Greek soup. I played with Chelle at Grandma's. We swung on the swings and had a nature walk in the backyard. Before we went home Grandma said Chelle could come over on a Friday. I think she should come this Friday. When I got home Jeff was waiting for me. He's a new kid on our block. He's 3 years old and when he first came here me and Sarah used to bully him around a little. Now he's sort of our friend.

For Christmas I got a new pink training wheel bike and I can ride it pretty good. But I sometimes ride my big wheel - Jeff thinks it's cool. When I was done playing with Jeff I went in. The end.

-From my very first journal. And Big Wheels are cool.

Concerts. And more concerts.

In a few weeks, I'm going to have the opportunity to attend 5 shows (one really big) in 6 days. I say "opportunity" because it would be technically possible - of the five potential tickets I currently possess one. There would also be a hell of a lot of commuting involved. (Although based on earlier reports, it would have been 5 shows in 5 days. Yow.)

I'm not actually going to attend all five, but that means I have to pick and choose. I wish I had a crystal ball. A crystal ball ... and a private jet. And independent wealth. A crystal ball, a private jet, independent wealth, and maybe Michael Vartan:



Around the house, he'd only be allowed to speak French. It wouldn't really matter if I understood or not, because ... pretty.

Terry cloth pants

A couple of weeks ago, I bought a pair of terry cloth pants. Color "banana." Now, they are very comfortable and they have nice pockets. However, I'm at a loss trying to figure out where I would ever, ever wear them outside of my home. I mean, they're pants. Made of terry cloth. I've come to the conclusion that their only outside function would be beach- or pool-related. I guess that means I'll be forced to go swimming often this summer.

To sum up, holy shit, it's a kid in a lemur costume:

Sunday ramblings

It's time once again to wax rhapsodic about springtime. Today I noticed that the wild raspberry bushes behind our apartment are coming back to life. In the past week or so, all of the other bushes in the courtyard have become violently leafy - in that classic, slightly crazed neon green of early spring. The crabapple trees around my office are also showing promise of blooming, and most of the really big trees are at least at the tiny bud stage.


Swooon. Though it also means petals stuck to my windshield ... swoooon anyway.

Yesterday I went to the Sanrio store at Gurnee Mills and bought kleenex and band-aids. (What, you don't go to Sanrio when you need kleenex and band-aids?) I also visited a used CD store, where I picked up REM's "Great Beyond" single for 99 cents. I illegally enjoyed the song back when the Andy Kauffman movie first came out (moment of silence for the old Napster) so it was a fun find. The b-side is a live version of "Man on the Moon," which sealed the deal. Because for 99 cents, you have to be choosy. I also scored a Baby-Sitters Club 'super edition' of books 1-3 of the series for $2.30 at the Borders closeout store. I can't wait to read "Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls" again!

Finally, I found an abandonded little Playmobil guy on Friday. I have no idea what the holy hell he's supposed to be; he looks like a combination pilgrim/martial artist/pirate. He appears to be missing a hat and perhaps a sword of some kind - although one of his hands is a hook, so I'm thinking he can probably defend himself with that.

More Wisconsin photos

Though first I'd like to point out that I'm clearly a musical genius, because I made the best mix ever on Break in the Road last night. It made me want to go out with my (nonexistent) microphone and ditigal recorder and collect sounds.

And now, pictures!


The state capitol. It was September, so I think the flowers were on their last legs.


Sign outside a convenience store in Kenosha. I'm constantly in search of a place where I can both use an ATM and process my deer, so you can imagine my excitement. (Alternate interpretation: the ATM itself processes deer. Regardless, I'm covered.)


Small boy playing in the water, Tenney Park beach, Madison.

Move over, On Fillmore

Now you, too, can mix together found sounds (well, online approximations of found sounds) to create a bold avant-garde musical statement in the coolest internet game I've played in awhile: Break in the Road.

Board game memory nook

Ting-A-Ling Bingo. So simple, yet so fun. It's amazing how much more entertaining the tinkly chiming noise of the spinner made a generic bingo game. Speaking of the spinner, I'm not sure if it was just our game or all of them (and something tells me it was just ours) but many of those pictures came up much more frequently than chance would dictate. It was rare that we caught a glimpse of the Easter Bunny or sailboat (not pictured) ... but I think that damned snowman was stalking me. And maybe the green car, too.

Hmmm...

Okay, who's trying to lure me to BC? Today a lovely flyer arrived in the mail enticing me to "plan a British Columbia escape that's right for you." A fine idea, but I certainly didn't send for it. I have wily friends.

Party in the Park

Unfortunately I'll be out of town, but here's this year's Party in the Park lineup ... Saturday April 23rd at James Madison Park:

WEST STAGE 11:00-11:40 Blake Thomas & The Downtown Brown 12:00-12:40 The Profit$ 1:00-1:35 Awesome Car Funmaker 1:50-2:40 Que Flavor 3:00-3:40 Deal's Gone Bad 4:00-4:30 Appleseed Cast 4:50-5:30 Dumate 5:50-6:15 Ang 13 6:45-8:00 …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead

EAST STAGE 11:20-12:00 Red Chemist 12:20-1:00 Something to Do 1:20-2:00 Czarbles 2:20-3:00 The M's 3:20-3:50 Ova! 4:10-4:50 Groovie Ghoulies 5:15-6:50 The Northern Pines Band

DJ STAGE 11:00 Mike Carlson 12:00 Wyatt Agard 1:00 DJ Harsh 2:00 Tyler C 3:00 DJ David Muhammad 4:00 Mr. S 4:30 Rock Dee 5:30 Paul Johnson 7:00 Nick Nice 8:00 XsentrX 9:00 Danny the Wildchild

Not a bad lineup for a day hanging out on Lake Mendota for free.

The Refugee

"I'm Ronnie Devoe, and I'd like to welcome you to Brianne's new blog. Awwwyeah. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some houses to sell."

Wow, how nice of Ronnie to come by and welcome everyone ... so yes, I'm now trying out blogger. Still playing with settings and templates and the will to do this at all, but we'll see how that goes.

And now I'm going to listen to "The Refugee," because typing those words made me want to hear the song again. Back in high school, my friend Lindsey's stuffed cheetah (Chi Chi) used to play a mean drum solo in the middle of that song. He is extremely talented.