pleonasm:now
july 2002
No show
I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I didn't immediately buy a ticket to Morrissey's September San Diego show, and this is exactly why. The shows are not definitely cancelled; some have been rescheduled, and others are still uncertain. Whether all this reshuffling is Morrissey's fault or not is by the by - I know from experience that Morrissey or his promoters have a very nasty habit of cancelling shows. So if I go to his show here in San Diego, I'll be buying my ticket at the last minute, at the gate or from a scalper, so that I can be sure I won't be let down. So there.
Good stuff
On a more positive note, here is the B-52's setlist I promised you the other day. I'm still not sure what song Man is, but I'm sure I'll figure it out one of these days.
26 july 2002 
I've been accumulating links again, so here are a few for your delectation.
The American Institute of Graphic Arts has a free collection of symbol signs in GIF and EPS format for download. EPS files are wonderful, because you can open them in software such as Illustrator and edit them freely. What an amazing resource.
Here's a great CSS tutorial to get you up to speed. (I feel like I need a refresher course myself.) Lots of wonderful resources here. Particularly useful is the browsers page, where there is help aplenty for those frustrated by browsers' inability to handle CSS in a standard fashion.
On a related note, here's how to hide CSS from buggy browsers [via Zeldman]. I use the @import rule myself.
“MAP did not say how the donkey managed to bite off the boy's penis.” I'll leave you to make up your own joke using the word “ass.”
A fun Flash game, Pedestrian Killer, in the spirit of Death Race 2000.
Talking of which, here's the unfortunately-acronymed Associazione Regionale Scuole Edili della Regione Emilia-Romagna, in Italy.
One of my favourite blogs of yesteryear, Torrez, is back online. Well, it looks like he's been back for a while, but I've only just noticed. Hurrah!
25 july 2002
Tempus fugit
Whoa - where did that week go?! Here it is, Wednesday again already. Actually, part of it is that it's been hot in San Diego lately, and one doesn't have much energy to do anything. And when it's this nice, the last thing one wants to be doing is sitting in front of a computer typing. I should just get me a laptop and blog from the beach.
You only live twice
So anyway, I said I'd write about last week's concert at Humphrey's, a hotel and concert venue near downtown San Diego. It's a stunning outdoor setting, on Shelter Island next to a marina full of boats. First up was Nancy Sinatra. Weird is not the word. Well, actually, I guess it is. She must be at least 60, but (from a distance, at least) still looks about 30. Throughout her set she had the air of being sedated, as she shuffled in a trancelike fashion in a little circle in the centre of the stage. I didn't recognise most of the songs, except for the obligatory These Boots Are Made For Walkin' (she must get so tired of performing that one!) and the superior, nay classic, Bond movie theme You Only Live Twice. While she looked and acted a little strange, however, her voice was still excellent, and she seemed to be truly enjoying herself, as can also be gathered from her very own photos and commentary. I wish I'd known that that was her balcony!
Party out of bounds
This was a great place to see the B-52's. The two other times I've seen them play live, the venues have been much bigger, but at Humphrey's I easily got right to the front by simply walking round the not-too-bright security guard in front of me, who was looking straight ahead. I spent most of the concert just a few feet away from Fred, Kate, Cindy and Keith. They're all looking even chunkier these days, especially Cindy, but they're as great as ever. I do wonder if they get tired of playing the same songs over and over, but I imagine they feel fine about it when they get their huge cheques handed to them. They played all the classic tracks at this show, the highlight being, as usual, Love Shack, not because it's their best song, but because it gets the audience more excited than anything else, and the place always goes crazy. And yet - and this is hard to understand if you were there - there were actually people, even right at the front, sitting motionless in their seats, while everyone around them was freaking out. Amazing. Oh, I got a setlist from the stage after the band left, so I'll try to scan that soon and put a link to it here.
Slow
If you enter this site via the splash page, you'll have seen that my photography project Signs is “coming soon.” Well, it is, but I'm not sure how soon “soon” is. (That sounds like the title of a Smiths song ...) I'm still wrestling with how to put this mini-site together; I definitely want it to be database-driven, and I can do that with Perl quite easily, but I would really like to use it as an opportunity to expand my skills by learning and implementing XML and/or MySQL. The only problem is that that might take a really long time. What to do? I'll try to make a decision soon, and come up with a more specific timeframe. <sarcasm>In the meantime, you'll just have to wait, if you possibly can.</sarcasm>
24 july 2002
All music, all the time
A review of Tuesday night's B-52's/Nancy Sinatra concert is forthcoming - all I can tell you now is that it was great, and that I stood right at the front, mere feet from Fred and the (other) girls.
In the meantime, here's a new rotation. Please enjoying.
18 july 2002
Clean lines
This has been blogged everywhere over the last week or so, but I just want to mention it because I've been added to this list of minimalist websites. Hmmm, minimalism. I like to tell myself that my “design aesthetic” is informed by some innate passion for minimalism, but when I really think about it I am forced to admit I may be that way simply because I have no artistic talent or design skills whatsoever. I can't draw to save my life, my sense of colour is horrible (as you may have noticed from the last few incarnations of this site), and I even find it difficult to translate mental images to the screen using illustration software. It's just not in me, in the same way that I can't sing or sculpt, and no amount of wanting or trying makes any difference.
There. Glad I got that out of my system.
Honestly, though, this site would be more visually complex if I could bring it off, but I know deep down that I shouldn't embarrass myself by attempting such a feat. So this is what you get. Of course, I can always say I'm a minimalist, because it sounds cool, and those who haven't read this particular rant will be none the wiser.
So transparent
Still on the subject of web design, I've recently noticed an increasing number of sites taking advantage of transparency/opaqueness in CSS. Take Dutch Bint, for example. Actually, it doesn't seem to work in the browser I'm using right now (IE5.1Mac), but you should see the background logo filtered through an opaque rectangle. Nice. I imagine this must be a feature of CSS2, so it looks like it's time for me to crack open the stylesheet books again. And just when I thought I knew everything! (Not.)
By the way, did you know that the rather derogatory word bint is the Arabic word for girl? You do now.
15 july 2002
Morrissey, live, really nearby
Long-term readers and those who know me know that I have been a major Morrissey fan for, ooh, seventeen years now. It may therefore seem odd that I still haven't decided whether or not to attend his forthcoming live appearance in San Diego. On September 15th he will be performing yards (literally) from the building in which I work. Unfortunately, however, he will not be headlining; rather, he will be supporting a band from Mexico called Jaguares. There's the rub. Furthermore, decent seats (i.e. not behind a pillar two miles from the stage) are $53. I'm not sure I want to fork out that much for a set that will probably last about twenty minutes, surrounded by people who are not there to see him. The whole darn point of a Morrissey show is the frenzied atmosphere. I don't know; maybe I'll change my mind closer to the time, but I don't think so. How about a real show in San Diego, Moz?
Talented, again
Following the other day's discussion of the film of The Talented Mr. Ripley, it has been brought to my attention that there was in fact an earlier film version of this novel, entitled Plein Soleil (Purple Noon in English). Who knew? It looks like the story was changed quite a bit, as in the American version, and from the pictures I have seen it looks cinematographically astounding. I'll have to hunt this one down on VHS (I somehow doubt I'll find the German DVD release on this side of the pond). Interestingly (or perhaps not), the main star of this version is Alain Delon, a still of whom in the film L'Insoumis graces the cover of the classic Smiths album The Queen Is Dead. The singer of the Smiths was, of course, Morrissey. Spooky!
Frank's Vinyl Museum features classics such as the Ethel Merman Disco Album, Organ Freakout, Tuff Guitar English Style, and lots more. Many of the albums on display have tracks you can listen to, for hours of grimace-inducing agony.
OK, I'm off to listen to Mel Torme. TTFN!
14 july 2002
Party out of bounds
I am so totally stoked about seeing the B-52's next week here in San Diego! I bought the tickets months ago, and it always seemed ages until they would be here, but now it's less than a week. OMG! I've seen them twice before, as it happens. The first time was in Atlanta in 1999 (I think), where I and a friend bought cheap tickets and then sprinted past security in the opening moments to spend the rest of the concert ten yards from the stage, cutting rugs like mofos. The support band was the Pretenders, one of my favourite bands from Ohio ever. Seriously, though, they were incredible, and Chrissie Hynde remains an idol. The second time was here in San Diego, on some naval pier downtown, where the support bands were the Go-Gos and the Psychedelic Furs, always sorta b-list bands in my book, but what do I know? Honestly!
Anyway, this time the B-52's will be supported by none other than the legendary Nancy Sinatra. She's one of those people who is so amazingly famous for not having really ever done that much that the prospect of actually seeing her in person is a total mind trip. I mean, I can name a grand total of two of her songs: These Boots Are Made For Walking, and You Only Live Twice. That's it. But she is a legend, a true classic. Oddly enough, a week or so before I even knew she would be performing here, I was wondering if she was even still alive ... yes, thankfully. I really can't wait! Of course you will be filled in to your complete satisfaction afterwards.
10 july 2002
Talent
Last week I read The Talented Mr. Ripley, the original novel that was later adapted into the 1999 film (not, as some people think, a novelization of the film). The film is surprisingly well done, capturing Ripley's naïvety and mental confusion perhaps even better than the novel does, and is certainly less plot-fixated and more character-driven than the novel. This is its strength; the book often becomes bogged down in plot minutiae, while the film casts many of these aside (and in fact deviates from the book's story quite significantly), instead using composition, light, and haunting music to build tension and reveal more about the characters than mere words ever could. Matt Damon, playing the part of Ripley, is an actor I had never taken seriously, but he is excellent here, as are Jude Law (who was also great in Wilde) and Gwyneth Paltrow. I wonder if they will make films of the novel's sequels, of which there are four? (I have just finished the second, Ripley Under Ground, which suffered from the same over-plotting as Talented, but was still a rollocking page-turner.) I hope so.
Not so soft
Don't want to pay for Microsoft Office? Try OpenOffice, which is intended to become “the leading international office suite that will run on all major platforms and provide access to all functionality and data through open-component based APIs and an XML-based file format.” In other words, it's free, and it works. It's already available to download for many popular platforms. Beats handing your cash over to The Man any day.
A beautiful photography site.
Retentive
Wow. This person has catalogued and photographed practically every object in his house, and put it all on the web. How much free time can one person have? Actually, though, this could be a pretty good source of photographic clip art, if you ever need, say, a photo of a cafetière, or a roll of toilet paper, or a pair of boots. As one often does. Well, I do!
8 july 2002
Back again, naturally
OK, so it's not much of a redesign, but I couldn't wait any longer. A total redesign would have taken forever, and after six weeks or so without blogging, I am so ready to restart. Things will gradually get shaken up around here; a lot of pages haven't been changed since this site's inception 15 months ago, and they're due for a dust-off.
The promised new content, on the other hand, is still a couple of weeks away. Here's a hint: it will be a photography project, it will be database-driven (which is why it's taking so long to put together - I'm hand-coding it with Perl), and it will eventually be the primary focus of pleonasm.com. This blog has been fun and all, but I've always been a little uncomfortable with it being the main thrust of the site, and I've been itching to externalize my private artistic yearnings for a long time now. I can't wait until I am like totally self-actualized and stuff, can you?!
Oddly enough, during my absence I've had quite a few emails from people who have stumbled across this site and have been kind enough to drop me a few words. Messages are always appreciated. Look in the right-hand menu for my contact information. If you wish to send cash or racy photos, email me for my mailing address, or you can find it on page 37 of this month's Naughty Contacts magazine, under the heading “Humiliating Discipline in San Diego.”
I'm off. You 'uns be comin' back now.
5 july 2002