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.

Wow. Thanks, Jorn!

It was a real homesteading kind of day here at the country home. After getting laundry out of the way, I weeded the garden and mixed some unplanted beds. I’d wanted to plant several root vegetables (radishes, beets, carrots, turnips, parsnips), but the beds were still too wet from yesterday’s storms. I baked two loaves of sourdough bread. I started a small wheel of gouda cheese (ob cheese making link) and made several pounds of cottage cheese. I roasted a chicken and potatoes (lunches for the week!) using a new recipe that involved butterflying the whole chicken and roasting at 500 degrees. I collected a bunch of pecans from the front yard and made two loaves of sourdough banana nut bread. Finally, I read in the new book I have, The Encyclopedia of Country Living (as recommended by Mike Gunderloy of LarkFarm), on growing and processing grains. Several of my friends have a running joke inspired by my homemade pizzas – I make the mozzarella, grow the basil & tomatoes, make the crust from scratch (using whey from the cheese). “What, " they say “you didn’t grind the wheat into flour yourself, too? " It’s coming, though this year it’ll be amaranth, quinoa, and corn.

Charles Gray, the narrator of The Rocky Horror Picture Show (and known for many, many other roles), has passed on.

Nick Park and Steven Spielberg have officially announced the release of a full-length Wallace & Gromit movie. In 2004.

Following a link from Zannah, I gave myself an on-line palm reading. Those of you who know me may be interested in the results.

I love it when things just work out. Yesterday morning I was wishing that I didn’t have rehearsal so I could go to the public library and watch a screening of North by Northwest. By late afternoon, one of my two cast members let me know he couldn’t be at rehearsal (he’s a trial lawyer, and a trial was going late into the evening) – but in the meantime I decided that it would e better to get home and do gardening work before todays thunderstorms hit. I dug a new flowerbed (1 ft by 150 ft of hummingbird and butterfly flowers along a white wooden fence), weeded, mixed compost into a few more vegetable beds, and other odds and ends. After dark, I went inside, started some rice cooking and flicked through the channels. On TCM the funny “host” was just saying “and now, North by Northwest.” Ahh… I really enjoy that movie. As the IMDB entry points out, I particularly enjoy the dialogue that is banal today but shocking for the day.

Eve Kendall: It’s going to be a long night.
Roger Thornhill: True.
Eve: And I don’t particularly like the book I’ve started.
Roger: Ah.
Eve: You know what I mean?
Roger: Ah, let me think. Yes, I know exactly what you mean.

Unfortunately for me, I’m much more like Ruben Bolling’s Louis than Roger Thornhill in conversations like that.

If for whatever reason you need to get a hold of Satan, here’s a list of ways to do so.

I got an email from a James Berry claiming that he created the parody song Bimbo #5 that I linked to back in December. He would like me to either remove the link or add him as a link with credit. I won’t remove the link, so here he is -- though I wouldn’t go there unless you want background music, a gazillion animated gifs, comet cursors, etc.