The first time I noticed her she was strutting through the gym carrying her basketball under an arm and swaggering toward the court, the one that is predominantly populated by some pretty big and aggressive-playing dudes. Her hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail, which is the way it’s been every time I’ve seen […]
Archive for June, 2009
Asia, 1989. Part VIII: Urumqi
May 3-: The journey from Xi’an to Urumqi is said to be a beautiful trip. The topographical diversity in just one day of train travel is astonishing. The once ubiquitous rice paddies become fewer and fewer as the land becomes less arable. Green mountains turn to brown rolling hills, then stretches of desert with sparse […]
Stormy weather
Spring has been strange and unpredictable in the nation’s capital, providing a sympathetic backdrop to the turmoil of the economy and the political world. Weeks of rain are followed by a few scorching days, the occasional perfect spring weekend, and then days, or rather nights and early mornings, of near hurricanes with bolts of lightning, […]
Three from genuine physical transfer media
I joined eMusic, the subscription downloading service, a couple of months ago. It’s cheap and has lots of obscure stuff I read about on Dusted. Between that and playlists that people have posted here and on Unfogged, I feel like I’ve been descending deeper into a purely digital music world, with no packaging or physical […]
Son of and it’s only a dollar
I like records. You knew this already, many of you. Records are making a big comeback, too. In my house, they never went out of style, but now many brand-new releases on vinyl also come with a free digital download of all the songs. You can have the large-format artwork, the analog warmth, *and* the […]
Asia, 1989. Part VII: The Terracotta Warriors
April 30: Sunday. Day of rest. Day of malaria pill-taking. Our efforts to sleep in are hindered by a key-jangling floor lady who pokes her head in the door at 15-minute intervals starting at 9 a.m. to glance around the room and sigh with annoyance. We eat breakfast for the second morning in a row […]