Outlet for a sudden cash windfall #672: Clearwater Hats. Hats from the 1700’s through today.

The Mission to Mars movie is providing Richard Hoagland with all sorts of ego boosting.

I saw Paris, Texas on the big screen last night. What can I say but “wow”. Wim Wenders uses his usual brilliance to deliver a film about communication while hardly using traditional face-to-face dialogue. My dreams all night had a running bottleneck guitar soundtrack, which was more than a little creepy. This page is a tribute to the film, though it seems several links took me to a French 404.

A word of caution: sourdough starters like fresh whey a little too much. Mine erupted last night and my kitchen table is covered with drying starter. Enough stayed in the crock to keep me going, but it sure made a mess.

A Time Machine That Also Cuts Grass -- a fun article from The Christain Science Monitor about the joys of mowing with a reel mower. No… I’m not obsessed.

The lease for my country home states that I have to mow my lawn. I prefer to have a shaggy lawn with lots of wild flowers, but with the recent warm weather, it’s getting to be too shaggy for the owner’s taste. So… I need to get a lawnmower. I’m almost embarrassed to admit it (hi mom!), but I’ve decided that I’d really prefer a reel manual mower to a motorized one. The Reel Lawn Mower History & Preservation Project has a listing of current manufacturers, and CleanAirGardening.com is currently having a sale that includes free shipping on a tried-and-true model with sharpener and clipping catcher. I’ll see if I can’t find one used somewhere, but if not, maybe CleanAirGardening is the place for me. Actually, it looks like I can save at least $10 shopping elsewhere.

I’ve seen this on a few other weblogs this past week, and it’s worth repeating here. The Nation has a very readable article damning General Motors, Du Pont and Standard Oil for adding lead to gasoline for profit alone and using dirty tactics to hide the effects and smother any alternatives.

Middlefinger MP3s and Free Radicals MP3s. Good stuff! I know you could have easily found them on your own from the previous links, but hey – I’m excited about these.

Speaking of Sprawl, back in the day I really enjoyed a “ska-klezmer-whatever” band from Houston named Sprawl (no, I can’t explain that link to you. sorry.). Marjorie and I were in Albuquerque looking for something to do one night and we noticed posters for “Punk-Funk-Reggae from Houston” at an all-ages place. Had a great time, bought recordings, saw them again when they came through over the years. After one crazy show, lead singer Matt Kelly came down and shared a loaf of banana bread from his grandma with us. I’ve wondered what happened to them since then. It seems after the band split up, the members grouped together in two other bands, The Free Radicals and Middlefinger. Matt, now with Middlefinger, has had three surgeries to repair injuries sustained during shows, including the near-fatal accidental slashing of an artery with a broken beer bottle.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted any anti-sprawl links, so here’s three I’ve run across recently. First, an article from Feed magazine is a nice overview of the problem, with several illustrative examples. Second, The Congress for the New Urbanism is dedicated to fighting sprawl where ever and how ever it can. Third, Scientific American currently has a homey article about Andres Duany, the father of New Urbanism.