bradm

Happy Day, meggo! Aloha, Brad

Aloha, Brad

Thanks for the link; it's an interesting article. I saw a piece on CBS Sunday Morning this past weekend about urban agriculture: taking over un- or dis-used spaces in cities and turning them into small-scale farms, and it occurred to me that that kind of thing would be a great type of "infrastructure" project. Unlike, say, bridge-building (or building-building), it can be done by low-skilled or un-trained labour (even recovering addicts and homeless people); can provide products to the low end (food banks), middle end (farmers' markets), and high end (gourmet restaurants); can help improve the quality of urban spaces; can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions (as the food isn't trucked into the city); and can foster community involvement. (I wonder if some kind of credit system for donated compostible materials could be worked out: for every, say, 10 lbs of compostible material you bring in, you get 1 lb of produce free. A special tax credit for businesses who purchase products from urban gardens would also help, I think.) It can also promote biodiversity (especially if gourmet restaurants become customers). I remember hearing how Cuba faced a problem after the collapse of the Soviet Union, as their mass agriculture system relied heavily on imports of Soviet fertilizer. Their solution was to switch to a large number of community gardens, and I think they're reasonably self-sufficient now. Aloha, Brad

Bump. The webcast itself can be accessed at http://webcasts.myrosetheatre.ca/ Aloha, Brad

Hopelessness, thy online moniker is 'bouche.' Aloha, Brad

Not really, but thanks; I'm saving my energy for Friday and Saturday next weekend. Aloha, Brad

Go with these guys Jay! Do they have a myspace? I found http://www.myspace.com/thepurplehill Aloha, Brad

Babylon has an interesting thing going on tonight: You might also consider The Kingmakers at Irene's Pub: Aloha, Brad

The Arkells (plus Bombs and Sin Kickers) are at Zaphod Beeblebrox tonight. (At least, I think they are; Zaphod lists them, but the band lists a gig today in Hamilton. You might want to call ZB to make sure. (And note that because it's a Zaphod show, it'll be early: doors at 8:00pm, with the bands over by 11:00pm or 11:30pm.) Aloha, Brad

I read an article last week (linked to from fark.com, which seems to be my source for a lot of economic info these days, which may be indicative of just how bad things are...) which asked a question: If a company (GM, say, or AIG) is thought to be "too big to fail", why were they allowed to be that big in the first place, and why aren't we rethinking that policy? The article's author suggested that if a company like Saturn was on its own it would be much more likely (or able) to introduce some new car technology (hybrids, electric vehicles, etc.) than it would as a division of a huge company like GM. It occurs to me that with something like vehicles (arguably the most capital-intensive consumer product market), for a new technology to become commonplace, it has to be introduced by a company with a certain minimum size. (Consider that electric vehicles have been produced and available for decades now, but there hasn't been a big enough manufacturer of them to make them commonly available.) On the other hand, if a manufacturer is too big, corproate inertia and conservatism will prevent it from taking chances. I wonder if the solution for General Motors is to split it up into several distinct specific Motors. Among other things, this would greatly increase the chance that one of the new independent Motors could be CEOd by a visionary innovative leader similar to Steve Jobs. (Yes, I realize that splitting GM would take years, a lot of money, and might not be possible at all. But I still think it's a neat idea.) Aloha, Brad

::adds coffee to shopping list:: Aloha, Brad

How Detroit Drove Into A Ditch Aloha, Brad

Acres (live recordings of which can be found here) is doing two shows in Southern Ontario today and tomorrow. Tonight (Thursday, Nov. 20), they're in Toronto at The Boat (158 Augusta Ave.), door time 9pm, cover $5. Also on the bill is Old Folks Home and Jon Epworth. Tomorrow (Friday, Nov. 21), they're in Hamilton at Casbah Lounge (306 King St.), door time 9:30pm, cover $5. Also on the bill is Akroid. Aloha, Brad

There's supposed to be a guide on how to do this linked from here, but the website that's linked to seems to be down. Have you considered using WinAmp instead of Windows Media Player? Even the free basic version will play FLAC files without needing anything extra. Aloha, Brad

Was it with Willie Nelson and moe.? If so, it was June 29, 2003, at Vernon Downs in Vernon, NY. Aloha, Brad

I've heard the same thing. My grandmother on my Mom's side had a stroke, and was stricken with "aphasia", which is the inability to process language; you could ask her what day it was, and she knew it was Wednesday, it's just that the part of her brain that knew it was Wednesday and the part of her brain that controlled her vocal chords to speak the word "Wednesday" didn't work and play with each other. But she could sing: start in on, say, "Row Row Row Your Boat" and she'd chime in, with the sung words perfectly understandable. It was as if there was a part of her brain the controlled her vocal chords to speak words (which was affected by her stroke), and a different part of her brain that controlled her vocal chords to sing words (which wasn't affected by her stroke). Aloha, Brad

There are MP3s of it available at http://holdsteady.blogspot.com/2006/10/zaphod-beeblebrox-october-29-2006.html (I don't know who recorded it or how, though.) Aloha, Brad

Schworrier Aloha, Brad

Card's got a new Ender novel out, set in the period between the events of Ender's Game and Speaker For The Dead: Ender In Exile. Aloha, Brad

He's on the Live Music Archive: http://www.archive.org/details/TonyFurtadoBand Aloha, Brad

Aloha, Brad

The one of me is staying in tonight. Note that Avant-Garde Bar is more of a sit-down kind of bar; it doesn't have a PA or a dance floor. (Check out this picture; the stage is that area under the windows where the stools are.) If you're looking for a typical music club kind of show, it may not be to your taste. Aloha, Brad

The Adam Duncan Project is at Avant-Garde Bar. Maximum R&R is putting on a show tonight at Irene's Pub in the Glebe with Garaga and Crack Kills. It's $8 at the door. Aloha, Brad

On Tuesday night at 8pm (in both Toronto and Ottawa, I think), the PBS science program Nova is running an episode titled The Bible's Buried Secrets, which claims to be "An archeological detective story" which "traces the origins of the Hebrew Bible." (Does anyone else remember the series Testament by John Romer? It was a really good history of the bible [mostly the New Testament].) Aloha, Brad

That's a shrewd promotion. Aloha, Brad