March 2011
1 post
4 tags
Today is unbearably hot. I wrote something.
consumed with guilt / i write this poem / i watched a worm / die all alone / he jumped and jumped / on the hot sidewalk / in front of a guy / sitting and eating his lunch
context: i decided to write something as i thought of it and i didn’t look it over after i’d finished. if i ever went back to it, i’d find a word for sidewalk that rhymed with poem and alone. also, i...
December 2009
1 post
4 tags
Two Nights Ago I Had a Dream in Which I Was...
Plays Written in One Day by Elizabeth Czyzewski
Play One:
#1: It looks like you’ve done some redecorating here.
#2: I didn’t, but thanks. I’ll take that as a compliment.
#1: I’d rather you didn’t.
Play Two:
#1: I’m a big fan of 36 Chambers, though I skip over the songs preceded by skits sometimes.
#2: Skittles?
#1: No, skits.
Play Three:
#1: I’ll be honest…you really put on some weight.
#2:...
June 2009
2 posts
4 tags
The love of my life turns 1 today. Dan blogged...
1 tag
No, no, Peter Gabriel - it’s Joe, Peter...
May 2009
2 posts
4 tags
Powel Crosley
The last thing I posted had to do with records - remember? I was saying that I understood record shopping now and was becoming a collector? What the heck is this thing popping up on the right side of the tumblr interface every time I type a question mark? Let people answer this?!? That’s weird. Who likes cats as much as I do? Who’s in the mood for food but are not sure what kind?...
In honor of the one year anniversary of my blog, I posted on someone else’s blog.
February 2009
2 posts
The Ronettes “Be My Baby”
Little Symphonies for the Kids
I’ve always had friends who were really into records. Sometimes they suggested we go record shopping. I always went along with it but in my head, thought, “RECORD SHOPPING?!?!?! I HATE RECORD SHOPPING.” I thought record shopping was the most boring thing on the face of the planet, save watching my friends play Super Smash Brothers, the official most boring thing I could bear...
January 2009
2 posts
2 tags
A Sign of The (New York) Times
2 tags
thisismyfavoriteblog.tumblr.com
I wrote this in commemoration of Dan’s 100th blog post. It’s a transcript of a conversation had by 2 friends exactly 100 days ago.
#1: Hey.
#2: Oh, hey. I didn’t see you standing there.
#1: I’ve been here for a little bit.
beat
#2: What? I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you.
#1: I said that I’ve been standing here for a little while now.
#2: Oh.
beat
...
December 2008
6 posts
4 tags
Of Human Mail
While on the topic of stowaways, let’s delve a little further into the little explored, oft ignored topic of human mail. I always took the idea for granted - people sending themselves off in the guise of a package - but it’s as real as the the hair on your head or the cat in my house.
Henry “Box” Brown, pictured above, was a slave who mailed himself in a dry goods...
2 tags
Untitled Post #8
As I write this, I’m enviously watching the lady sitting in front of me eat her delicious McDonald’s fries while I’m stuck with a lame tomato and mozzarella sandwich on bread that may well be the worst bread I’ve ever had in my life. I hate ciabatta, focaccia, artisan bread - all of that stuff. This bread fits into one or more of those categories. The lady eating fries just looked back at me....
2 tags
Teamsters in Hollywood
I’ll say it, though I know it’s not true across the board: teamsters in Hollywood give teamsters a bad name. In my past experiences, they’ve been rude and made me feel like I was doing something wrong even if it was my golf cart they were sitting on or even if I had just as much a right to be eating lunch as they did. I’ll spare you the stories, as they’re not that...
2 tags
Facts About Amish People
My family vacationed near Lancaster, PA one year. I bought a postcard on which was a photograph of an Amish boy rollerblading. I couldn’t believe it - rollerblading! Wasn’t that too modern or technologically advanced for an Amish boy to be doing? Those were my thoughts at the time.
Founded in Switzerland by Jakob Ammenn in the late 17th century, the Amish lifestyle is based in the...
2 tags
Q: "Let’s talk about 'Star Trek.'" Nimoy: "Why? Is...
After reading the Trader Joe’s Holiday Brochure, I still had a full cup of coffee and some vitamins to take. Seeing as how the living room was cold and Jones was nowhere to be found, there was no reason for me to be there. I decided to go to my room to post something new and wouldn’t you know - no sooner did I sit down then Jones jumped on my chair, tried to go behind my computer,...
2 tags
Watch
November 2008
3 posts
4 tags
Henry Andrews Cotton, 1876-1933
Thanks to Cathleen, my blog is once again worth reading.
Cotton believed that mental illnesses were the result of chronic infections in areas such as teeth and tonsils (this was based on the observation that mentally ill patients would offer have a high fever and hallucinate).
So how do you cure infections like that pre-antibiotics? As the medical director of the New Jersey State Hospital at...
1 tag
Kombucha
I drink Kombucha once a week. It’s a new thing. Today I drank it after eating 2 hashbrowns. It’s a cure-all (or so I hear). A panacea, if you will. There was only one setback in my newfound routine - not being able to place what, exactly, Kombucha tasted like and then upon hearing that someone thought it tasted like vinegar (and realizing it does), getting over that so I could continue...
2 tags
I Forget the Question, but the Answer is "James...
Briefly:
First name: Chester.
Born in Georgia, now resides in New Orleans.
Son of a school teacher/ door-to-door encyclopedia salesman and a postmaster/ general store owner.
Irish-Cajun.
Law student, litigator, Marine, high school teacher.
Political consultant, pundit, sports enthusiast, producer, author.
Flawless.
Married to Republican pundit, Mary Matalin.
Led Bill Clinton to victory...
4 tags
2 Years Ago Today, I Finally Removed a Lock That...
Jones was a feral kitten and she has the smallest voice I’ve ever heard.
20 weeks ago, Jones was born, a tiny tortoiseshell kitten with an orange and white striped arm.
12 weeks ago, Morgan brought her home and named her after the cat from Alien.
10 weeks ago, Jones stopped hiding under Morgan’s bed and started being more social.
9 weeks ago, the little magenta sock...
October 2008
5 posts
4 tags
After Killing My Plant, Jones Discovered Toilet...
18 days - has it really been that long? Forget it, let’s talk about the Blue People of Kentucky. There was a show on Discovery Health about people whose skin is a bluish/ silver color, but that was due to a medicine containing some sort of silver that those people had taken. This is entirely different.
Methemoglobinemia is a disorder in which one has an abnormally high level of...
3 tags
The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off
I don’t know if you’re at all familiar with the Discovery Health channel, but a lot of their shows have really literal names: ”The Man Whose Arms Exploded” or “The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off” or “The Girl with No Face.” Things like that. Senior year of college, that’s all we watched. We learned about harlequin fetuses, skin turning silver,...
2 tags
Jethro Tull vs. the Segway PT
I was driving to work today, listening to Jethro Tull, when I saw a guy in a white lab coat ”zooming” down the street (sidewalk) on a Segway. Funny thing is, I’ve seen this guy before - we have similar morning schedules, it seems. I thought to myself, “People think Jethro Tull is lame, but in reality, Segways are lame.” I thought about Will Ferrell’s mockery of...
1 tag
In Which the Day Has Finally Arrived Where I've...
What I wouldn’t give to spend a day with Jimmy Carter. In addition to being the only President since Washington to have a full set of wooden teeth, he ghostwrote the majority of Martin Luther King’s speeches. What else? Click here to find out. My latest post, thanks to Molly, appears on This Recording. Only as I was writing the post did I notice that 2 of my favorite men share the same...
September 2008
9 posts
WatchThis cat fights fires.
1 tag
Henry Jamison Handy (b. 1886, d. 1983)
This post will be most appreciated by Craig, I think, so I will dedicate it to him. The video above accompanies it.
Olympic breaststroke swimmer (bronze medal winner), inventor of new swimming strokes, water polo player, maker of scores of training/ informational films. All these and more make up the man called Jam Handy.
During and after college, Handy worked for the Chicago Tribune in...
2 tags
First Post of Its Kind (on Joe Blog)!
Here are some of my favorite stills I pulled from the documentary I’m cutting.
Believe it or not, neither of these things (Henry Groppe or windmills) play a major role in the film, they’re just my favorite things.
3 tags
Veisalgia
My mom came to visit in February. The plan was that she was going to make my friends and I vegetarian chili one night. That day, she and I bought ingredients and all of that. When we returned to my house, all my friends were “sick.” At first, we didn’t understand what that meant or why they were all sick, but we finally realized that they were actually just hung over from the...
2 tags
Toyger
I can’t tell you how much I hate the name “Toyger.” It looks like Toyota and sounds like the name of a small dog. Also, I’d like to make it clear that I’m not for the genetic manipulation of animals (breeding, if you will). It’s strange and kind of cruel. That being said, I would give my right arm for a Toyger, or maybe I’d trade in my right arm for a...
5 tags
Synæsthesia
“T’s are generally crabbed, ungenerous creatures. U is a soulless sort of thing. 4 is honest, but… 3 I cannot trust… 9 is dark, a gentleman, tall and graceful, but politic under his suavity.”
– Synesthetic subject report
From the Greek σύν (syn), “with,” and αἴσθησις (aisthēsis), “sensation.”
Synesthesia is when a sensation experienced by means of one...
3 tags
This post is fated, and by that, I mean this: I was going to post about Masons yesterday but decided it was too complex a subject to tackle and it would have to wait for another day. Last night I went over to 985 only to walk in on a conversation about Masons.
The Freemasons are the oldest fraternity in the world and, though no one is entirely sure, probably dates back to the stonemasons of...
5 tags
Mental Health. A Breather, If You Will.
I finally caught up on my sister’s new blog and what a good thing to have done, as it inspired the post I’m about to write. As you may or may not know, I was in a music video once for a Boston-area band, September Twilight. We had to wear masks to filter out all the asbestos and lead paint that was floating around the condemned building, but I ended up not wearing the mask most of the...
4 tags
German Expressionism
Sike. Oil.
The US produces 5,064,000 barrels/ day.
The US exports 1,433,000 barrels/ day.
The US imports 12,036,000 barrels/ day.
The US consumes 20,680,000 barrels/ day.
The world consumes 83,607,000 barrels/ day.
The world produces 82,532,000 barrels/ day.
Canada is the #1 oil importer to the United States.
Saudi Arabia takes the cake for most oil produced and exported worldwide.
The...
August 2008
11 posts
2 tags
The picture that is below this sentence is a sad picture.
The facts that are below this sentence aren’t really that great, but I wrote them already, so…here they are:
Benjamin Harrison was the last president to wear a full beard.
No president since Taft has had facial hair. Don’t let it get you down, though, because Obama’s all about change and I have a hunch that...
Lighter Fare Than Hitler's Mustache
This post is about Fluxus and an artist named Daniel Spoerri.
Briefly, Fluxus was a group of artists from around the world who blended “artistic media and disciplines in the 1960s.”
Such media included not only art and literature, but also architecture, music, urban planning, and design.
Fluxus was influenced by Dadaism and espoused the concepts of anti-art, anti-modernism,...
Not Approved for Moms and Dan
Because I spelled his name right on the first try, I’m going to post about Tsutomu Miyazaki.
Tsutomu Miyazaki, Japanese, was born prematurely in 1962. His incomplete fetal development left him with the hands of a deformed person: “gnarled” and “fused directly to the wrist.”
“Mild-mannered” photo-technician by day and necrophiliac vampire by night,...
I suspected that Palermo was in Italy. I was right. I had the most delicious dinner tonight, and I can’t stop thinking about it.
Oratorio de San Lorenzo is a small Baroque church near Palermo.
The monastic order that founded the church “looks after the unwanted dead.”
What does this mean, looking after the unwanted dead?
Simply put, it means that the church is filled with...
I’ve got so many posts lined up, but work keeps me busy these days. Speaking of work – so I’m sitting here, working, and all of a sudden I smell one of the worst smells I’ve ever encountered. It smelled like the most intense burning you can imagine. Burning mixed with dirt. It gave me an intense headache, which, I’m sorry to report (sorry to myself, mostly), is probably...
Elephants! by Cathleen Keyser
Just a moment ago, as I started to think about what I was going to write, I thought I heard a gunshot, so know that as I write this brief introduction paragraph, I’m filled with fear.
Remember when I was changing the color of my blog and wrote that I was looking for guest bloggers? If you don’t, you can click on that link and revisit history. Anyway, this post is something written by...
Two Elizabeths, Written By A Third Elizabeth
First things first, I need to get a few things off my chest:
Elizabeth Taylor has violet eyes.
Elizabeth Taylor has two sets of eyelashes.
Elizabeth Taylor has never impressed me with her “great beauty.”
She’s fine looking, but I don’t understand all the fuss. Moving on to another Elizabeth: Lee Miller (1907-1977). Despite her being from the 1920s/30s, she has a...
2 tags
Jesse Camp
Josiah A. Camp, III was born in 1979 and grew up in Connecticut.
His mother, Henrietta Camp, was the principal of Frank M. Kearns school in Granby, CT.
JC, a vegan, failed English Literature his senior year of high school and never graduated.
Who cares about that, though, because he walked around campus carrying a large silver rectangular boombox and made funny announcements at school...
Indian Reservations
I’m on vacation in Arizona and New Mexico for the week. The picture above? I took it at a pow wow I went to a couple of years ago. I don’t want to go into the history of reservations and why Native Americans were forced onto these plots of land. Instead, I will focus on reservations today: August 7, 2008.
310 Native American reservations exist in the United States.
550+ Native...
Blackouts, or, Highlighting in Pink
An alcohol-induced blackout is a period of amnesia in which the intoxicated brain cannot form memories. It’s as if the brain’s ability to transfer memories from short to long term storage is blocked.
The sort of amnesia blacking out causes is anterograde amnesia, in which events occurring after the amnesia are forgotten, as opposed to retrograde amnesia, in which events prior to...
Four Guys
I’ve decided to try something old today. I’m calling it “Four Guys.”
Erte
Romain de Tirtoff - Russian-born French artist and designer.
Art Deco.
Aubrey Beardsley
Oscar Wilde claimed the British Beardsley to be his invention.
Aestheticism, Art Nouveau.
Alfons Mucha
Czech painter.
Art Nouveau.
Edward Gorey
American writer and artist.
Cats, cats, cats, cats, cats, cats,...
July 2008
34 posts
Four Guys
I’ve decided to try something new today. I’m calling it “Four Guys.”
Marcel Dzama
Born in 1975.
Canadian born, living in NYC.
Small-scale ink and watercolor drawings.
David Shrigley
Born in 1968.
English born, living in Glasglow.
“Outsider Art” aka Art Brut, Rough Art, Raw Art.
Nicholas Gurewitch (Perry Bible Fellowship)
Born in 1982.
Born and...
For a while, I’ve been grappling with the question of whether to post about Charles Manson in general or Sharon Tate’s death specifically. Today I’ve made my decision: Sharon Tate. Why, you ask? Why, because her last meal was at El Coyote!
The night was that of August 8, 1969.
The house was rented: 10050 Cielo Drive.
Sharon Tate, as I’m sure you know, was married to...
This Post Is For You. This Post Is For Everyone.
Yesterday’s post marked my friend Andrew’s 100th post. Congratulations to him, as I know I’d be proud of myself if it were me. As a country, China is very aware of the world (in contrast with our stark oblivion). So, naturally, they were thrilled (and aware of the fact) that the 100th post was going to happen (they were the ones who brought it to Andew’s attention – did...
As you know, the serial killer thing didn’t work out too well. You live, you learn. Moving on…to cults! When I think of Heaven’s Gate, the first thing that comes to mind is the failed attempt by Michael Cimino at creating a cinematic masterpiece. The second thing that comes to mind is the cult and their mass suicide. (Note: I chose not to post a picture of the suicide because...
Why So Sad, Dear Albert?
I’ve decided I’m going to do a series of posts on serial killers. Serial posts, if you will. Does that work? First: Albert Fish!
Hamilton “Hamy” Fish was born in 1870 to a family with a long history of mental illness and religious fanaticism.
After his father’s death, Fish’s mother put him into an orphanage.
Taunted by the fellow orphans who called him...
This Picture Came Up When I Searched "Chewing Gum"
I used to chew a pack of gum a day. My favorite brand and flavor is Dentyne Ice, Artic Chill. I used to like Extra, Polar Ice a whole lot, but I stopped liking that sort of gum (sticks of gum, Orbit included) and began instead liking the smaller, rectangular pieces of gum. I used to think one of those was insufficient and so I chewed two pieces at a time, but now I’m okay with one. I...