Michael Poe, of Exploitation Now fame, has started a new webcomic called Errant Story. It seems to be about elves and half-elves, so far. Cool.

Genghis Khan had a son, Juchi Khan. Juchi had a son called Batu. Batu had a son called Tutukan. Tutukan had a son called Monke. Monke had a son called Tochtu. Tochtu married Maria Palaiologos, and they had a son called Basarab I of Wallachia. Basarab had a son, Nicholas II. Nicholas had a son called Radu I. Radu had a son called Mircea I. And Mircea had a son called Vlad III Dracul.

Dracula was a direct descendant of Genghis Khan. I find this incredibly interesting. The powerful are attracted to the powerful, or at least will seek out the daughters of conquered nations to solidify their hold on power, and thus, they are assimilated into the conquered.

Well, Mike , as well as Clint and Jason, neither of whom seem to have a website, have made it to Tijuana. Mike's next destination is Mexico City. I can't emphasize how cool this is that one of my best friends is doing something so profoundly neat.

So, via Metafilter, I found this site about a husband and wife doing something like what Mike is doing. They are walking from South Africa to the tip of Argentina, crossing the Bering Strait. Who knows, maybe Mike will meet them somewhere in Central Asia or the Middle East? That would be mega cool.

This is a very interesting online speculative Etymological Glossary comparing Uralic-Altaic languages with Sumerian and Dravidian languages. I don't quite follow all of it, but it's interesting nonetheless. When you go back 10 or 15 thousand years or more, the possible connections between languages become very tenuous, I guess. But it's neat to think about how far a language could spread. Especially when people like Mike are showing just how small the world is, even when you're only on foot.

I love vinyl.

I love to go searching in thrift stores and flea markets. I love finding the most obscure stuff that I've never heard of. It's partly a function of the fact that I love music. And it's also partly that I love to sample obscure things for my compositions. But I also just love the feel and smell of an old record.

So the other day I was in this thrift store, and I found this record by Jean Pierre Mas and Cesarius Alvim called Rue de Lourmel. It's the most beautiful jazz piano and bass improvisations, but especially if you pitch it down about -10 and play it through some delay. It's quite eloquent in its melodic phrasing. It was recorded in Paris in 1976.

In relation to my last post about "lost tribes" is this post over at Metafilter.