I’m staying at a Hampton Inn in Colorado Springs. Hanging above my bed is a signed original print from one of my favorite artists, Socorro resident Doug West. You couldn’t have suprised me more with a da Vinci. Here’s many more on-line West prints. They are silk-screening at its best. His gallery and studio is on the plaza in Socorro, and is open to the public. There are usually several pieces in various stages of completion lying about.

Apathy has a wonderful ASCII art weblog portal at the bottom of each page. January 17th’s the Cheshire cat, topping off more links on Lewis Carroll than you could ever use.

Kestrel’s Nest is now Bobby Approved for accessibility for peole with disabilities. Thanks to Brig at Eatonweb for pointing to wetlog who pointed this out.

I’m leaving tomorrow for a week-long work-related trip to southern Colorado. Colorado Srings and Pueblo, to be exact. I’ll have access while I’m gone, but my posts probably won’t be as verbose and certainly won’t be as frequent this week. Thanks for reading!

Today’s installment of “Movies Worth Watching” takes us to Go!, a new video release directed by Doug Liman (Swingers). Go begins like a hip teen comedy, so much so that I almost gave up on it after a few minutes. After a quick dive into some fairly dark territory, though, I kept up with it. The movie tells a series of overlapping stories told from three different points of view. The stories are presented sequentially, so we see some of the same scenes more than once as the characters converge here and there. The first story ended on a similar note to the first story in Run Lola Run (my favorite film of last year), and when the events began right back at the beginning, I wondered if I was watching an American knock-off. When the cameras focused on a new main character, though, I finally figured out how this movie was structured. I didn’t realize this while I was watching, but the lead actress in Go! also played a main character in Exotica , which I talked about a few days ago.

Two cooking adventures last night. First, I made some sourdough pitas. They looked just right up through baking, puffing up in the oven and the whole bit. But when they were done, they were very, very crispy. I thought they’d soften up by letting them cool wrapped in a warm damp towel, but they stayed very, very crispy. They’ve got a nice taste to them, but they’re more fragile than a taco shell. The second adventure was much more successful. I made some spinach & chicken stuffed manicotti, but instead of chicken I used eggplant. I had no idea at all if this would work (I made up the recipe as I went), but I knew for it to work at all, I’d need thin firm strips of eggplant. I did this by peeling one and slicing it 1/3 inch think. I salted the slices and stacked them in a colander, alternating layers of slices with paper towels. I placed a weight on top (my ceramic crockof sourdough starter) and pressed them for about 6 hours. I took these slices, brushed them with olive oil, and roasted them under the broiler for about 5 minutes to a side, until they were just starting to brown. I then julienned the slices, using a non-serrated knife. The result was a supremely tasteful dish. I used mozzarella and ricotta that I made myself as well. I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to lunch! If you want the recipe, send me an email.

I guess they didn’t like what they saw. Earlier today, webloggers were pointing to stories on David Letterman’s suprise announcement that he was to have a angiogram, an announcement he made while interviewing Regis for a show to be aired tonight. Now, he’s recovering from an emergency quintuple bypass. Get well soon, David Letterman! Back in the day (1992 or so), I was an active participant in the usenet group alt.shenanigans. Back then it was an outlet for culture jammers and the like, and one thing we did was mail many coconuts to Letterman. It turns out than you can afix stamps to the outside of a coconut, write an address on it, and just drop it in a mailbox. I have no idea how many were sent that week (I sent three), but Letterman inserted into one of his top ten lists that next week “What’s with all the coconuts?” Perhaps now would be a good time to send him a get well coconut or two. On a complete side note, while reading the alt.shenanigans FAQ, circa 1996, I see that Jorn Barger of Robot Wisdom is listed in the credits. Any other shenanigan folks in the weblog community?

Tommasi Pinot Grigio Le Rosse: I don’t yet know a whole lot about wines, but I like Pinot Grigio, and this in particular was very good. And only $10 a bottle!

CNN also has posted the video of a story on two art galleries in New York displaying artistic nude photos of women over 90. While it seems many attendees have been repelled by the photos, I found them to be well worth seeing. The story compares the wrinkled skin to wrinkles in the earth’s crust and other forms from nature. The video is presented in Quicktime, RealVideo, and Windows Media formats.

CNN has posted a full story on the fatal crash of Charlotte Hornets player Bobby Phills. It seems he and fellow player David Wesley were out racing their Porsches on a public road in traffic when the accident occured. They were travelling at least 30 miles per hour over the posted speed limit. Phills sent passengers in two other vehicles to the hospital. The article quotes team officials as saying "[Bobby was a] role model that everyone respected and admired. He was someone that you would want your children to be like." and “He had extreme high character. A family man. If there’s a person you would want to your children to be, a role model, it’s Bobby Phills.” I’m sorry, but I don’t want my children to risk the lives of strangers in the pursuit of some selfish thrill. And a family man wouldn’t thoughtlessly make his children grow up without a father. Cars are not toys, not even shiny new Porsches. They can hurt and kill.