Vote-For links

I haven’t gone to our polling place yet—Lisa and I are going to do that at lunchtime—but I’m going to do some voting right now using Vote Links: I’m voting today for John Kerry and against George W. Bush. View source to see how this works, then check out the tracking page at Technorati to see how it’s going.

By the way, this is the initiative that Dave Sifry talked about on my blog over a year ago; the spec is jointly written by Kevin Marks and Tantek Çelik. I wanted to see something like this implemented several years ago—but alas, I can’t find the reference (so much for my backup brain).

Thanks

With everything over but the voting (one hopes), I’d like to put a personal thanks out to a lot of people on the Internet for making this, the most important election ever (with the possible exception of the election of 1860), also the most discussed, most debated, most opinionated, and maybe most informed election ever. Special thanks to the Electoral Vote Predictor site and its Votemaster, newly revealed to be Andrew Tanenbaum; Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo and Oliver Willis; the Instapundit, anchoring the right hand side; Salon’s coverage; Eric Olsen and Blogcritics (especially this post); Tony Pierce for uncommon sense; Dave for focusing attention early on the role of blogs and the Internet in politics; Greg for being the deep-thinking gadfly he’s always been; Fury for coming in late but strong; Wonkette for keeping it funny; and a host of other folks I’ve forgotten but linked to before.

In case anyone has missed it, I endorse John Kerry for President, because he lives in the reality-based world:

Because he doesn’t have people on his side who so dramatically misunderstand the history of America that they try to claim the country was founded on principles that those who would seek to keep church out of state and vice versa are anti-American and anti-Christian. (Thanks to Christian Ethics Today for debunking this point of view, which has claimed several people I know);

Because he will admit it when he screws up;

Because he won’t need rigged voting machines built by a committed campaign contributor to get into office;

Because he will get elected in spite of help from the liberal media, who were going to run a slanted 45-minute attack against him for free but refused to run the ad of a bunch of Iraq veterans who are calling BS on the administration;

Because he will get elected in spite of attempts from the GOP to interfere with voters in Ohio, and Ohio, and Wisconsin, and Florida, and elsewhere;

Because his campaign cares about people who don’t have cars (see page 2);

Because his campaign wants people who think, not people who take loyalty oaths;

Because his campaign hasn’t promised not to use the greatest tragedy that has ever hit our country for political purposes, and then turned around and done it.

First real Halloween

I carved a pumpkin yesterday afternoon and lit the candles at 5:30. Then Lisa and I ordered pizza, sat back, and waited for the trick or treaters. We didn’t have to wait long. Over the next two and a half hours, we had about 45 trick or treaters—by far more than we’ve ever seen in the seven years we’ve been married. Lisa’s instincts were right; this definitely is a good family neighborhood.

This morning my neighbor told me last night was actually a slow Halloween—typically our block sees about 60 to 70 kids.

With George in Boston

wiring up the sound stands

Last catch-up post: On Thursday I had lunch with George Chang. He and Becky are in town while she attends a conference, and he and I decided it would be a good day to walk about the city, have some lunch, and take some pictures. As it turns out, it may have been a perfect day for photographs in downtown Boston. We ate lunch near Copley Square and then wandered around in the square, inspecting and photographing the preparations for the parade today (which I did not attend, thank you very much, preferring to stay warm and dry inside). After a bit we caught up with fellow Sloanie Rick MacDonald and walked up the Harvard Bridge to Central Square for some Tosci’s.

I got what I think are some pretty good photos, particularly the one of newly restored Old South Church and the abstract series off the Harvard Bridge.

Last night we had dinner with George, Becky, and some of Becky’s friends from her residency at Taranta, which appears to have shifted focus somewhat from purely southern Italian to some inventive cross-breeding with Peruvian cuisine. We slipped in our party of eight on the promise that we would eat and be out in an hour, so that they could re-set the table to help accommodate the party of 30 that would be arriving at 8:30. It was needless to say fabulous, particularly the yucca gnocchi with lamb and spicy cilantro pesto ragu. Afterwards George, Lisa and I retired to the wine bar at Via Valverde for a cheese plate and two outstanding half-bottles, a delectable Dolcetto and a stunning Chianti. The review in USA Today does not appear to have gone to their head.

House. Work.

i don't want to hear anyone singing 'Autumn Leaves' for a long time, thank you very much.

Yesterday was Leaf Hog Day. As I believe I’ve mentioned, our leaves are the last to fall on our street, and I’m learning that what I thought was a lot of leaves was just the by-product of our neighbors’ trees. (Here are the trees in question.) Yesterday I experienced the main event: yellow leaves blanketing our parking spaces to a depth of six inches, covering the new grass that Lisa is trying to establish on a ten by ten foot patch along the back fence, totally covering everything that I had cleared just a week previously. So, it being a dry day, I got the Leaf Hog out and got to work. Several hours and aching back and forearms later, I was done. I was spitting black (and we won’t even mention my nostrils) from all the dust that came up from the driveway and the grass along with the leaves, but I was done. Of course, this morning the modest rain we’ve had has completely covered the driveway again.

And today? I finally hung the structured media enclosure I bought back in August, which was in itself a bit of a project. I only have bare concrete block walls in the basement, so I inaugurated a masonry bit: drilled quarter-inch holes with a standard drill bit through a 1/2″ thick piece of plywood, then held the board against the wall, switched to the masonry bit, and drilled through the holes into the concrete. A set of hammer-in concrete anchors finished the mounting job for the plywood. Then the box. First taking a flat-bladed screwdriver and popping out the knock-outs to bring the wires in, I then screwed the box into the plywood, using a thick brass spacing washer to ensure the wood screws wouldn’t punch through the back of the plywood and push the panel away from the wall.

Great. So the panel is mounted. Now how do I get the phone board mounted? Wait a minute, there’s nothing on the inside of the enclosure that’s even remotely like the spacing for the screws on the panel. How do I make this fit?

Ah. Enlightenment strikes. The Leviton blocks are designed to snap into plastic mounting brackets that then screw into the back of the enclosure. So I guess I have to make a Home Despot trip today. Oh well. It’ll give me an excuse to pick up some more shelves for the garage so I can finally move enough things around to get a car inside.

Catching up: on freezing one’s butt off for an eclipse

eclipse

Things have been a little euphoric here in the great Northeast for the last few days, to the point that my blogging has fallen off precipitously. Here’s a quick catch-up, starting with Wednesday night.

I walked outside and saw the edge of the moon darkening. I decided it was time to try my luck with a camera. I grabbed it and a small tripod and walked down the hill to the park, a large unlit area where I figured I’d have the best chance of getting a decent sky picture.

There are four large rocks on the hilltop in Robbins Farm Park, which seemed tailor made to try to position the little tripod to catch the sky. Unfortunately, though, the telescoping legs don’t hold intermediate positions, which was necessary to get the view of the sky. After a lot of give and take (and a few minutes to snap some other pictures, including this sardonic and almost unreadable LensDay entry), I eventually got the camera in position and stayed out, freezing, taking a photo every few minutes.

The result? Well, the image to the right is the only one that actually came out well. But the rest make a nice QuickTime movie. The only problem was that toward the end my hands were so cold that I couldn’t snap the shutter without knocking the camera out of position—hence the swerve in position toward the end.

Spotlight on Carl Perkins

Carl Perkins’ claim to fame among most music buffs is his brilliant “Blue Suede Shoes,” which his fellow Sun Records artist Elvis Presley made his own a year after Perkins had already taken the song up the charts. But in the heady brew of Sun Records’ brief run of brilliance, Perkins remains a distant memory for many behind Elvis, Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis. A new collection of his songs from the Sun years, Orby Records Spotlights Carl Perkins, should help remedy that.

Unlike Presley, Perkins’ background was tenant farming and Nashville, and this shows in his originals, which comprise eleven of the fourteen tracks on this anthology. The originals veer from blistering rockabilly to broad country, and showcase Perkins’ yelping vocals, bar room lyrics, and fiery lead guitar. The tunes also show off the capabilities of Perkins’ band; his brothers Clayton and Jay on bass and rhythm guitar and W. S. Holland on drums lay down a solid foundation on which Perkins builds what the liner notes refer to as “country guitar laced with blues and whiskey-fueled aggression” (check out the solos on “Honey Don’t” (the b-side to “Blue Suede Shoes” and “Boppin’ the Blues” for outstanding examples).

The set is short—35 minutes—but manages to cover the breadth of Perkins’ work from 1954 to 1957 at Sun, including songs from six of his seven Sun singles, two tracks from a 1957 “dance” album, and one track (“Put Your Cat Clothes On”) that was unissued during his years at Sun and has only appeared on compilations. Unfortunately the liner notes, while providing an excellent biographical sketch, leave it to the reader to figure this out; I used the excellent Perkins discography at Terry Gordon’s Rockin’ Country Style for information on the sessions and releases.

One wonders how the course of rock history would be different if Carl hadn’t gotten into a car crash on his way to appear on the Ed Sullivan and Perry Como shows behind “Blue Suede Shoes,” sending his career into a slow slide into alcoholism and obscurity (Perkins would eventually escape both in the 1980s). Perkins once described his frustrated career: “I was bucking a good-looking cat called Elvis who had beautiful hair, wasn’t married, and had all kinds of great moves.” Fortunately for us all, history has been kinder to Perkins than the market was, and he’s now recognized as one of rock’s founding fathers. This set, while brief, does an admirable job of showing why.

Note: This compilation is one of a series of Sun years reissues from Roy Orbison’s label, Orby Records, which together with Orbison’s own recordings are being newly distributed by Eagle Rock Entertainment.

Review originally posted at BlogCritics.

3-0 and a red moon

As someone wrote on a mailing list today, “I’m going to go out in the morning and shake my trees, because there will be pork in them.” The Sox just got the last out. Game 4. 3–0. I hear fireworks and horns in the streets. I’m going to bed.

But I can’t resist asking: if things come in threes, and we are having two signs of Apocalypse tonight (one atmospheric, one Bostonian), what’s the third?

When the kids learn the truth about freedom of speech

Daily Kos: Free speech, Bush style. At Richland Center High School in Richland County, Wisconsin, students were told in preparation for a visit from the President that they could not wear pro-Kerry clothing or buttons or protest in any manner at risk of expulsion.

Expulsion. Getting thrown out of school for the rest of the year. Because one chooses to wear an item that supports the Democratic candidate for president.

It’s never too early to learn that free speech isn’t for everyone, but only for those that can afford it. That schools restrict political activity during presidential campaigns instead of creating teachable moments is one of the greatest failures of our educational system to date. That the campaign would make this request in the first place is the final proof (as if we needed it) that they care neither for our rights nor our children’s education.

Suggested action? Patrick Nielsen Hayden links to the story and provides contact information for the school and its administrative personnel.