So, one of my favorite authors, Steven Johnson, has a new book coming out, the Ghost Map. It's about cholera in London during the Industrial Revolution. Here's the trailer. Cool, huh?

I am no fashion guru. I think everyone knows that. I like comfortable clothes, and I'm picky about my shirts because my skin on my chest is sensitive. Scratchy is bad.

That being said, I'm going to say something here that I think needs to be said, by someone. Might as well be me.

Dudes, berets SHOULD NOT BE WORN BY MEN. If you are a Green Beret, ignore the last statement, as your trial by fire and pain has given you the right to wear said beret. However, if you are just some hipster doofus that thinks berets make you look rakish, dapper or dare I say it, COOL, you are sadly mistaken. Wearing a beret just says to the rest of society 'hey! I'm an asshole! I think entirely too much of myself!'

Don't do it. Don't wear berets.

Berets look fine on women. Women can pull off hats. Most of the time. And I guess if you're actually French it's ok. You still look like a doofus though.

Rant mode off.

It's probably no surprise to those of you who know that I used to have a radio show on KXUA that focused on 'intelligent' drum n bass and atmospheric/ambient music (it was called Abstract Excursions) that I would be recommending what I'm about to recommend. For quite a few years I have been quite enamoured of the sound of the Good Looking (when I DJ'd my radio show, a lot of the stuff I played was from Good Looking) stable of intelligent drum n bass, especially Blu Mar Ten. If you go here, there is a post about and link to a download of Blu Mar Ten's Face of the Earth Mix. This is quite simply one of the most transcendent mixes I've heard in quite some time. Lots of good stuff. Omni Trio (with an Aquasky remix) starts it out, over Brian Eno talking about ambient music, Blu Mar Ten, of course, Future Sound of London, Fleetwood Mac, LTJ Bukem, Maya Angelou, Vangelis, Orbital, the Verve, Tangerine Dream, Photek, and lots of other stuff. This is very eclectic. It's almost scary how good it is.

Oh yeah, and Graham Hancock is going to be on Coast to Coast on Thursday night to talk about his latest book, Supernatural. If you're at all interested in entheogens, ethnopharmocology or shamanism, you might want to stay up late and listen. It might be kind of far out for some people, but I bet it won't be boring.

I am not a carpenter.

I am attempting to put together some baby furniture, and in doing so, my own limitations as a supposed tool-user are quickly becoming apparent.

At any rate, I am thoroughly in love with this weather we're having. I love sweater weather. In fact, I went in to work today (it was my day off) to give a friend a gift and to check my schedule for the week, and I got a very nice complement from my friend Virginia about said sweater.

I may not be a carpenter. But you know what I am good at? I made banana bread tonight. And it turned out perfect. Moist, a hint of sweetness, flavorful. No real recipe; I just winged that mother. And last night, we went over to Nick and Sarah's place, and made yummy yummy pizzas. Again, the pizza dough I brought had no real recipe. I was just winging it. It's nice to have such a close relationship to yeast (the trick to that pizza dough is I added a little olive oil and some egg, seems to have made it brown better).

Here's a boing boing story about a documentary on the Klingon Language Institute.

Listening to Limbik Frequencies. You should too.

With any luck, I'm going to be going to a few flea markets tomorrow. I'm looking for a Barbie Karaoke machine to circuit bend. Actually, I've got something a bit more ambitious in mind. I want to make it part of a homebrewed analog synth that I've been designing. The design will eventually incorporate two different oscillators from toy rayguns that I've acquired, the circuits from 'voice changers' that you can get around Halloween, simple ring modulators in effect, and a few other things. And the echo unit from the Barbie Karaoke, if I can find one. And the design aesthetic will hopefully be similar to something like you'd find on this page, or better yet, something like this.