Cozy weekend reading.
Seeking Alpha: Corporate Bond Market Grinding to a Halt
“The market in my opinion is on the verge of ceasing to function… it is nearing the time when my next post will be an obituary for the fixed income market.”
Don’t miss this trader’s comment: Read the rest of this entry »
Alan Jaras, Twisting Light #21
You need to see Alan Jaras’ breathtaking photographic work. No PhotoShop, no digital camera – not even any lens. [thanks, David!]
Check out these wallpaper sets – (and the earlier sets, linked within that article) .. thanks to Smashing for the usual great curating.
Some cool photos of snow under a microscope.
Today was one of those days that reminds me why I love living – and as a bonus, doing it here. The sun was shining and it was well above 80. The birds were singing away and frantically going about their springtime business. I have some (sparrows, I think) nesting on the north side of the house. I hear so many different birdsongs day and night that I’ve started checking eNature.com to try to identify them.
One of my favorite fashion models, Angela Lindvall, shot for Purple quite tastefully au naturale by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin. Over at Egotastic.
Great commercial from Sweden…
[h/t David]
Great piece by Anne Applebaum at Slate. One of my faves, Natalia Vodianova, scores a mention.
I thought this kicked some serious holiday ass. I had never heard of TSO until I caught this song on the radio today. This is TSO’s stirring Christmas re-interpretation of Pachelbel’s Canon in D major – with great electric guitar that somehow doesn’t “unwarm” the emotion of the song.
The angelic blondes with incredible voices wearing leather collars don’t hurt, either. [I believe the siren attempting to steal my heart from stage left* is Jennifer Cella.]
Merry Christmas.
*- for you non-theater types, that means the one on your right.
She took all those pictures, and we don’t even get to see her fight the cop? Awwww.
See, now this is why I’m against these “interview” things at pageants. Too much potential for shame and embarrassment for the contestant, and there’s the unfortunate side effect of making America look like a bunch of idiots – which we are – but let’s not advertise it any more than we have to. Read the rest of this entry »
I would like to have authored her re-education program.
The oft-requested and previously-promised celebrity sighting list follows:
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Love makes the world go ’round, it’s true, but lust stops the world in its tracks; love renders bearable the passage of time, lust causes time to stand still; lust kills time, which is not to say that it wastes it or whiles it aimlessly away but rather it annihilates it, cancels it, extirpates it from the continuum; preventing, while it lasts, any lapse into the tense and shabby woes of temporal society; lust is the thousand-pound odometer needle on the dashboard of the absolute.
- Tom Robbins
I recently had an idea for a line of women’s shoes. The concept is feminine elegance fused with hints of automotive design. I have a bunch of colors and variations, but the main image will give you the idea. I decided to try the “open source” path to setting them free. In a nutshell: John Fluevog might make them, if folks are interested enough. So – help them become a reality by voting (once.)
Well, thanks to a very slutty slot machine at the Sky City Casino in New Mexico, I’m a few grand heavier than I was a week ago. Lucky? Neh – hear what I did tonight: I oriented myself to the Cosmos, then sat at the edge of the Grand Canyon as the sun set .. the stage for the moon and a trillion stars to dance and sing above me. Now that’s lucky… beyond words.
[Edit: A few images are now up - a lot more when I have a better 'net connection.]
Hey folks – a quick dispatch from Tucson, AZ. My photos from the journey through West Texas are up. The road up from Terlingua (170 and 67) toward El Paso easily qualifies as the best driving ever packed into one day.
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Well, Donald Trump has decided that Miss USA Tara Conner deserves a second chance to change her partying ways. I hope The Donald was clear about what the problem is, though. It’s not that she’s out until 3AM doing coke and making out with Miss Teen USA – nono, that’s fine, darling. Great publicity. We love it, we do. Trump said, the issue is that “she’s not doing her job“. She’s been blowing off (sorry) photo shoots and fundraisers. This we can’t have. Trump again makes his business (and PR) acumen quite evident.
Long overdue is a Pop Skank review. I have resisted it for months – far more important things going on, new wanderings and ponderings, etc. – but I’ve given myself a brief window to plumb the depths of sex-talk and such, so I’d better get this done.
Those of you who know me well know that I have an irrational crush on Lindsay Lohan. I don’t really get it – overall I consider myself to have fairly refined, almost neurotic-fussy tastes. But something about Lindsay Lohan snaps a circuit breaker in my head. Luckily, it’s wearing off with her latest antics. She’s hanging out with Britney Spears, for Chrissakes… this is a problem.
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I stumbled across this little gem, entitled “Fifty Mistakes Men Make When Having Sex” in my wandering on Digg.
Now, I am pretty sure Rod Philips is just a fake guy trying to sell his product, but he clearly put a lot of effort into this, and I’d guess is earnest. Let’s review a couple, shall we?
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I’ve been debating – for well over a year – how much of this I should thrash out in public. But knowing that there are a great deal of young people in the world struggling with this, and wanting to tell them how wonderful their pain can be, I think I’ve finally figured out a way to put it out there without hurting anyone.
My father abandoned my mother, brother and me when I was very young. I know now that there were many reasons – the situation he was in personally at the time, his own psychoemotional capacity, his perception of what was best for my brother and me, and his relationship with my mother. I have seen him once (an awkward and near-wordless exchange in a courthouse in 1987) in the last 25 years.
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Alex Williams penned a salacious piece in today’s New York Times centered around the “weight anxiety” experienced by girls leading up to Spring Break. That we are, for “sufferers of eating disorders,” moving into “the most dangerous time of year.”
Self-denial and restraint in America? Now that’s dangerous – to our way of life.
Setting aside that the backdrop of alcohol abuse over Spring Break dwarfs any danger of starving oneself into a bikini, I should start by saying that I understand anorexia nervosa can be debilitating and dangerous for those affected by it. Just as I sympathize with people in plane crashes or victims of pit viper bites and lightning burns.
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The unspoken truth about the media buzz surrounding Jessica Simpson’s visit to Congress is something very primal that most people aren’t comfortable talking about in pleasant company. Ron Reagan said it quite brilliantly tonight on Chris Matthews’ show when he observed that “meeting Jessica Simpson is the closest most of these guys will ever come to an erotic experience.” Well put (not that she’s my type.) But why do so few dare say that out loud?
As with many things from food to drugs, Americans – most especially the so-called “intelligentsia” – have a rather schizophrenic attitude about beauty and sexual attraction. Most will uncomfortably admit, if hard pressed, that beauty really matters; but we seem to want to pretend it doesn’t, as if it’s somehow less worthy of our attention and admiration than intelligence or charisma.
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