Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

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Philly Link-o-Rama

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I continue to be both flattered and amused by the range of terrific Philly bloggers on PhillyFuture – the Phlogging collective. Flattered because my fine city makes a fair showing for itself, considering that it’s not generally considered to be at the forefront of such electronic things. Amused because, if you are a Philly blogger, I AM YOUR GRANDDADDY. Or, really, considering internet years, possibly even older.

In any event, we’re directly related enough that it’s probably illegal in Pennsylvania for my blog to sleep with any of their blogs. Although, that’s probably considered sodomy here anyway.

(Actually, PA’s Sodomy law was struck down in 1980, though puzzlingly not repealed by legislature until 1996. Also, let’s not forget that our very own Senator Santorum defended such sodomy laws, memorably quoting, “If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual [gay] sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything.” This was all partially in reference to Texas’s law coming under fire in 2003. The law (which was same-sex only) was eventually struck down in Lawrence v. Texas. (To see the Senator remarkably intelligently defend his comment from a legal standpoint (rather than a conservative one), watch this movie at the otherwise rather vulgar (but entirely warranted) Spreading Santorum.))

(Wow, look at me being all educational and stuff.)

Of the Philly blogs i perused the best layout was definitely Vintage – for a quick recap of their whole deal, check out their best of ’05 feature. (Similar happenings should be occurring here soon, but on a grander scale). 50 Bedroom combines political savvy with a humorous bent towards witty Onionisms. Also amongst the Brotherly lovin’ crowd, i was delighted to find a mom with solid opinions on (overhyped, hard to listen to) hip music. And, she used to live on Ross’s block.

In the “Um, don’t we live in America” category, Her Jazz blogs a story (with video) about cops breaking up a local DIY music show due to a misunderstanding, but subsequently FREAKING OUT and getting violent as they rough up the promoter and are captured doing so on dozens of camera phones. Notable quotable: “I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but we have the responsibility as citizens to record this.” Watch the video (beware, it’s loud).

Back to political news, Philly’s Committee of Seventy has always wanted you to vote, but their Director of Civic Education wants you to get voted for by running for office (via Young Philly Politics). My friend Josh did just that by writing himself in for Judge of Elections, which he now is – for the next four years! Josh is probably the only Judge of Elections i’ll ever play laser tag with.

So, yeah, stop writing in Mickey Mouse. Or else…

In other news, i’m usually not a fan of gimmick weddings, but can a Philadelphian really beat getting married in front of the Franklin Institute Heart? (oops, i punned). That item was logged by ColorWhirl, who also pointed me to the wonderful (though non-Philly) Vegan Lunch Box – a mom who packs very yummy vegan lunches for her little one every day. I had soy taco sloppy joes for lunch today, and they were incomparable!

Vegan Lunch Box is up for Best Food Blog at the 6th Annual Bloggies. Way back when i had a discussion about the nomination process of the 1st Annual Bloggies with founder Nikolai Nolan. In retrospect, i was mostly pissed off that Trio wasn’t (and was never) nominated for “best non-weblog feature” in the days when podcasting meant nothing, let alone had it’s own freaking award category. But, i digress. I stopped being upset when Rabi (another vegan!) won the “best kept secret” award.

Which all just goes to prove my thesis that i am now grizzled and ancienct in blog-years. The end.

Housekeeping

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Doing some bloggy housekeeping today, so if you should happen to visit and witness things blinking in and out of existence, that’s why.

The most visible change i’ve made so far is the much better implementation of the “hearing” section of the sidebar, which is powered by Brandon Fuller‘s fantastic Now Playing plug-in. The iTunes plug-in, which was a reasonable $10, FTPs your recent plays as a RSS to your website, where you can manipulate just about any information iTunes passes along (number of plays, album, stars, link to your Amazon referred ID, et cetera).

I had been meaning to get album covers up and running, and with only an hour or two of extra work i have it inserted tiny stars and more intelligent play counts. If you buy it and already use a little PHP on your site i’d be happy to help you get it to do what you want it to do.

For a while now i’ve been wanting to include a sidebar RSS feed from an integrated wishlisting website – i.e. one that you’d use for an online Baby Registry if you planned to draw from multiple different stores. Yesterday i found the best implementation of the idea i’ve ever seen, the very smart The Things I Want. After subscribing to the site you create a bookmark(let) in your browser, and whenever you view something you want you just load the bookmark – which guesses the item’s title, price, and image. You can add buy-priority, comments, and tags. So far the only downside is that any RSS feed is of your WHOLE LIST, which is a little cumbersome, but for a relatively new site it already gets a hardy recommendation from this blogger.

Also, some new incoming links! Heart be still. Age Old Songs is a very nifty blog that will find its way onto the sidebar later today. Also, perennial hot favorite from across the country Min Jung Kim apparently still knows i’m alive. Plus, the usual highly appreciated love from good friend Rabi @ Wockerjabby, and the continually nifty Philly-blog collective Philly Futures.

In a world of people reading me via RSS feeds in an integrated reader, or on a site like Livejournal, i often forget that some people (like me) still have good ol’fashioned domain blogs and give good ol’fashioned links to other people they read.

If you’re one of those ol’fashioned folks and i’ve recently missed you link, feel free to let me know, as i’m not the obsessive statistic whore that i was in olden days.

Sucker (OALD-P)

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I had assumed that the squealing coming from outside of my window was one car hopelessly mired in a snowy parking spot, which seemed a little incongruous, as it’s not really snowing hard enough to create mrie. After over an hour of the squealing i decided that i would go and push the car out of the damn spot if that’s what it took, but a look out the window revealed that it was no one car but actually any car that was conscientious enough to stop at the stop sign at the top of the hill of my street. Because, apparently, stopping there in this light dusting enters your vehicle into some sort of anti-gravity zone where traction means nothing and you have to spin your tires for five minutes to get into the intersection.

After ascertaining that it definitely wasn’t the same car squealing (via watching three different cars experience the problem), i decided that the squealing didn’t bother me nearly enough to stand outside for an hour giving the reticent vehicles a push like a short-legged child on a high swing.

Speaking of children (man, can i fucking nail a segueway), i am a sucker for baby blogs. I love’em. Love reading about the too-cute exploits of children who i will never have to interact with (thus making them infinitely cuter). I think it’s PRECIOUS.

(wow, that car sounded really angry. jeeze, even i know gunning it to 60mph isn’t gonna help you in the anti-gravity zone)

Anyhow, child-blogs: hoochie-coochie coo. Yes. Aside from the obvious choice of Melly, who i consider to be queen of the acerbic baby-baring wits, Dooce also has a good bit of baby material (her’s is too young for much mischief, though). If you require some mayhem with your cooing, trying Bairn-Raising, written by longtime member of my extended blog-family/mafia, Funky Helix. And, um… i can’t think of any more, but boy do i read those three a lot.

Also, tiny sorta-ugly dogs are sortof like babies, only i COVET tiny sorta-ugly dogs (only when i see them in pictures, though, as then they are silent).

Damn hill.

The Bitch is Back

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Jett Superior, one of my all-time favorite peddlers of snark, is back online with an astounding new layout. While she was on her extended hiatus, she asked her readers to put an old set of her lyrics to music, promising to post them upon her return. She hasn’t yet, but here’s my version.

Here at CK we don’t go on hiatus, we graduate, take long naps, try to buy cell phones that take pretty little pictures that we can display while not on an aforementioned non-existent hiatus, and play City of Heroes until 4am (thus necessitating longer naps). We pretty much being me, along with my omnipresent sidekick slash new roommate slash built-in fanclub Elise.

She finally met my dad the other week, he who owns a gun shop and a flock of plastic lawn flamingos, and makes “boop boop” noises when he pulls a U-ee in the middle of Market street. She has not met my cousin Cary, age seven, but the lass is nonetheless intrigued by the concept that my partner/roomie/stalker has “Chinese Eyes.” My aunt claims that this, though perhaps verging on offensive, is a reflection of unspeakable jealous curiosity, as said eyes are a particularly fashionable favorite of my cousin’s. In the car on the way back from the el Cary politely enquired if “Have you kissssssed her?,” to which i responded “Oh, a few times.”

Otherwise, life is similar to how life was last time i mentioned life, except for the piece of parchment with the shiny Magna Cum Laude sticker sitting on my mantel and what seems like eleventy-thousand people trying to make me feel anxious about whether or not i really have a job (don’t worry, it’s not working). I think Elise is appalled at how much time i spend a) listening to music, b) doing nothing but looking productive, & c) being so frighteningly productive that i cannot stop talking or moving, sometimes all at once. Still, things are fine, especially now that i unpacked my Ani DiFranco mugs.

Transmissions from the planet Peter.

Jennifuh! (and other pre-dinner fun)

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No time to unload the lengthy post i’ve been jotting down between hours of research — i’m heading to dinner at my favorite restaurant with Elise, who got us onto the guest-list for a show tonight. While you await my return, here’s some quick hits that i might develop further when i return.

This week’s American Idol bootee Jennifer Hudson has a new fan site. It’s quite frightening. I was always on the fence about Jennifer, but after watching her duet with Barry Manilow currently linked from the main page i have changed my mind. That performance easily trumps anything i’ve seen on idol so far this year.

Is Google the beginning of Skynet? Excellent daily read TDavid urges Terminator fans everywhere to imagine the possibility.

I make it a point not to follow celebrity court cases, but VH1 (of all place) offers a very human peek at how Michael Jackson’s current controversy got started. The facts seem to check out, which only makes this latest saga even sadder.

Denmark vs Canada: A Bitter Cold Grudge Match! In a peek at the intellectual humor that marks his concerts, my folk hero weighs in on this conflict over a “small, frozen rock.”

I love reading SugarMama. Apparently, so does Jett. I love how Jett continues to make appearances in comments all over the web while she procrastinates in getting her kick ass blog back on schedule. Meanwhile, Look for sugarmama to appear on the sidebar any minute now.

I’ve stopped being able to tell the fact from the fiction over at Acerbia, but i’m hoping this recent post is the latter. A great example of how you can use blogs for nefarious unbloglike purposes.

Will i shave? I don’t want to meet the band looking all scruffy, but this is my last chance to endure the scraggly stages of my virtually non-existant facial hair to see if it can turn into something more dignified before i head out into the work world. Can you imagine me with a moustache? Would i just look like a bad porn star? What about a goatee? Discuss.