spacemonk

i'm moving, web wise....

my new home page is http://io.hmdnsgroup.com/~mzellers/
my new blog is http://io.hmdnsgroup.com/~mzellers/blog/

eventually, they will be named: http://www.mikezellers.com/ and http://www.mikezellers.com/blog/

excuse my dust for a bit...

i attended an art show at the nimbis gallery yesterday. the show featured my friend dan and the 409 collective to which he belongs. a friend from yoga class works as an intern at the gallery and sent me an email a while ago about this. in scanning the email, lo and behold, i saw dna's work was going to be there, so i really was excited to go, as i hadn't seen dan in a while.

there was a lot of great stuff there, photos, paintings, mixed media. there were some reall cool/creepy marionettes. much of it, unfortunately was out of my price range, but i did buy a photo from this fellow.

i really, really, had a great time. it was a wonderful, different kind of experience, which unfortunately, i don't seem to have many opportunities for these days. it was great chatting with my yoga friend and her parents - her dad especially was a lot of fun to talk to - he knew my father-in-law. it was good catching up with dan, who is heading to china on monday, and meeting his fiance. i also ran into two former students who were really cool.

i have to find opportunities to do more things like this. perhaps after prolonged exposure to such high-level coolness and a bit will rub off on me.

later on, i swung by to meet my wife at the bowling alley. i have to think i'm one of the few people to do an art show/bowling alley back to back on one night. i'm unique that way...

was listening to miles - live at the filmore east - wow!!! just when i thought i knew everything about him, i found this gem of a band which was not recorded officially prior to the release of this. as one person said in an amazon review, it was made about 30 or so years ago, but sounds like it could have been made yesterday. they don't make them like this anyomre. in fact, even back then, they didn't make them like this...

f5

1. Are you superstitious?
no

2. What extremes have you heard of someone going to in the name of superstition?
i seem to recall a US first lady consulting an astrologer...

3. Believer or not, what's your favorite superstition?
stevie wonder's superstition

4. Do you believe in luck? If yes, do you have a lucky number/article of clothing/ritual?
no

5. Do you believe in astrology? Why or why not?
no. because i have adequate cognitive abilities.

bill murray's version of "more than this" from lost in translation and napster premium has caused me to revisit the music of an old favorite roxy music. i kinda missed their first set of glory years - manifesto was the first record of their's i got. unlike many records i liked back then it still holds up. after i got that record, sometime in the late 70's or early 80's, i listened to a lot of their earlier stuff... a few records after manifesto, their avalon was released and is a classic. anyhow, it's great re-discovering these and the rest of their catalog.

is lost in translation racist?
here is an article that feels so: Guardian Unlimited | Guardian daily comment | Totally lost in translation

it did not enter my mind that this film could be described as racist when i first saw it. (this, probably, is precisely the author's point - such stereotypes are so pervasive that they are accepted without question). after i read this article, without agreeing completely, i do respect the author's opinion - and have to admit, in retrospect, the film went for some cheap laughs here and there. perhaps it is easy for me to say, but, despite this, i didn't find the film mean-spirited at all. the japanese people needed to be portayed in some manner as being "different" to emphasize the main characters' alienation and sense of being out of touch - perhaps this could have been done in another way, which did not give the appearance of belittling the japanese.

i still feel this is an exceptional film.

discuss?

Yahoo! News - Greenspan Warns of Soaring Budget Deficit

well, what do you expect under democratic leadership...
hey, wait a minute....

The Onion Infographic - Under FCC Investigation

for my money, no one makes better use of Edward Tufte's creation, the infographic better than The Onion, albeit for satirical purposes. i appreciate the bill frisell joke that they must have put in just for me and the other 5 or 6 people world-wide that would find this funny.

what can anyone tell me about NELLIE MCKAY?

i read about her letterman appearance on The Luxury of Conceit and have been listening to samples since, etc...and frankly, i'm blown away...she sounds like a rare talent, very young, yet, fully-realized...wow...

in my post about lost in translation , Kathryn Lively: Author, Webgal, Etc., commented:

Great movie. We're still trying to figure out what Bill whispered in Scarlet's ear in the last scene.

to which i responded:

hehe - i CRANKED UP the voulme and put my ear to the speaker and i couldn't tell...- i had closed caption on - cause i was having problems hearing some of the movie - the caption said something like "mumbles in audibly"

i think we're allowed, no, required, to make up our own answer to this...

sooo. what do you think he said?

we went to the cleveland home and garden show. it was a lot of fun and worth the $11.50 to see actual plants and greenery that aren't frozen. in the past i'd have been bored to tears with this, but i've changed - darn you, paige davis.

the highlight though was finally purchasing the Miracle Blade 3 - long our families' favorite infomercial, they had a booth there although regrettably chef tony was not in attendance.


we cut tomatoes and fresh bread paper thin. we sliced thru sheets of paper. i am going to get some sheet rock to try that out. also got some mango pepper sauce - (forget the url). i am a happy boy.