take a look at me now

Spotted near 11th Ave and Pine St, Seattle, WA. Thursday, December 30, 2004. 7:42 pm.

mlb in wdc

Gotta say I'm a bit disappointed that the Washington D.C. City Council voted to bring Major League Baseball to the city. Having lived in other towns that have been hoodwinked by pro sports teams (how many are left that haven't been bilked for a pile of cash by MLB/NFL/etc.?), I was heartened that the Council stood up and demanded private financing for the project.

However, they reversed course today and voted 7-6 to move the Montreal Expos into RFK Stadium and begin developing a new facility on the Anacostia waterfront. The lynchpin of the deal was Councilwoman Linda Cropp, who changed her vote after Mayor Anthony Williams "pledge(d) that he would pursue private financing even if it was not required" - I'm not holding my breath on this one. I admit it's cool to see the national pasttime return to the nation's capital, but the half-a-billion price tag is ridiculous considering the problems facing the city.

Despite all if the city funding that will be diverted from ailing public schools and towards a playground for millionaires, the *real* travesty here is the teams new logo. It's just ... yawn ... boring. It looks like they were going for a clean, classic look - but got something that seems tossed together. Hell, I liked the Expos logo more than the frumpy "NATIONALS" that D.C. now has - does a team name in ALL CAPS even qualify as a logo?

shaking the sheets and covers

I am consistently amazed at the ability of certain musicians to wring beauty and meaning out of certain songs by simply covering them. You know the songs - ones you ordinarily thought were kind of ridiculous, but when presented in a new arrangement or a different voice these songs transcended any prior opinions.

Witness Ted Leo's cover of Rush's "Spirit of Radio" on Air America's Morning Sedition last week. When I found out that he'd covered this song, I chuckled and thought "oh man this is gonna be good - Ted Leo - songwriter extraordinaire - covering this silly radio/stadium anthem - HAW HAW."

Well, my apologies for any time I may have giggled at Messrs. Peart, Lee and Lifeson. Ted Leo gave a straightforward performance, but it was excellent. Hearing the original on stations owned by mega-corporations the protest value is somewhat lost. But when an artist of Leo's sincerity appears on Air America and sings ...

All this machinery
Making modern music
Can still be open-hearted
Not so coldly charted
It’s really just a question
Of your honesty

... well, it means a ton and brings even more meaning to a meaningful song.

Air America has the whole show archived at their site - Leo also did an interview and two more songs. Or you can go visit The Big Ticket and scroll down to the 12/11 entry where you can grab the broadcast in mp3 format.

And if you just want to hear the cover of "Spirit of Radio" - click here.

via Bradley's Almanac > The Big Ticket

there's a robot in the bathroom

Spotted on the back of the door in the 4th floor men's room, Masonic Temple Building, Seattle Central Community College, Seattle, WA. Wednesday, December 8, 2004. 4:41pm.

adventures in microdesign

So I spent way too much time last night designing, creating, and installing a favicon. For those of you with capable browsers (here's a compatibility chart - sorry, WebTV losers) you'll now see a teeny-tiny icon next to the site location up there in the browser's address bar. Also, if you bookmark the page the icon should show up next to the site name.

I'm posting the original file (right) because the mini-version is so damn small that there's no hope of seeing the details. I was going for something fun - something that would cram the idea of "not touching the art" into a 16 pixel square. The results were cool, but it's back to the drawing board to create an icon that you might actually be able to see.

For you adventurous types who want to make your own, check out this excellent tutorial via Photo Matt.

the places we have called home

wdc/nyc/phi/sea © 2004 Luke Strosnider
These are the places that we have called home.

the last word on cold k?

After quite a few gallons of spilled ink and paint, someone has created an excellent response to the hype that was Cold K:


Spotted at the corner of 11th Ave and E. Union St., Seattle, WA.