phancy

A couple pictures from the car show a few weeks back, and the nursery this weekend.

Best part of Yosemite last weekend was the little kid wandering around Yosemite Village playing "The Imperial March" on a kazoo.

Nothing has been happening here because all the pictures have been happening at Flickr. Here's a recap/travel guide that partially explains how I drove over 3,000 miles in March of 2008.cyber


March 7, 2008

Mission San Francisco Solano and Presidio Of Sonoma - Part of Sonoma State Historic Park. You can visit both of those for a measly two bucks total, or free if you're under 17. They asked me if I was and I laughed at them because I am twice 17. And then I gave them two dollars.

Sonoma Orchid Inn - My home away from home in Guerneville, CA. You cannot go wrong staying here.

Negri's - Non-ironic old-school Italian restaurant in Occidental. They will literally treat you like family; the waitress teased me like her own kid.


March 8, 2008

Petrified Forest - If you like walking, pleasant scenery and felled trees that have been transformed into rocks, you'll enjoy your visit. If you're looking for something a little more exciting, keep on driving.

Bale Grist Mill - Another two buck gem. Visit on the weekend when they're running the mill. Help adjust the gears and marvel at the power of water spinning a gigantic wheel. Afterwards you can buy the flour or polenta that was ground before your very eyes.

Charles Krug Winery - Currently being restored, so there isn't much to see other than a construction fence. Wine tasting is still going on, however, and they have a tasty port.

Beringer Brothers Winery - There are various tours that require you pony up a decent amount of time and money, but it's free to wander the grounds, and they're beautiful grounds. They also have wine tasting, of course.


March 9, 2008

Golden Gate National Recreational Area - Fantastic views of the Golden Gate Bridge, various old bunkers and the Point Bonita Lighthouse.

Pigeon Point Lighthouse - It's a lighthouse. It's pretty.


March 28, 2008

Branciforte Grammar School - Another landmark down!


March 29, 2008

Monterey Bay Aquarium - They had otters! Squee! I finally bought a membership so I could get in early and beat the crowds. It was so very worth it, and I got some excellent jellyfish pictures this time around.

Carmel Highlands - I'd been meaning to climb down a cliff beside a bridge to get to a secluded beach, so I finally did. It was a lot steeper than I thought it would be, and very tiring on the way back up, but completely worth it. I even found hidden graffiti.

Wm Hearst State Beach - The beached seal I thought was dead turned out to be alive, but stuck on the beach. He (she?) had a bad eye and probably got lost; there's a private seal beach further north. I took some pictures and the seal seemed to actually pose for me. Eventually the tide came in enough and the seal managed to turn around and swim off into the ocean.


March 30, 2008

Harmony, CA - Another place I'd been wanting to visit, but never did. People make fun of it, because the tiny "town" is really just two houses and a pottery shop, but if you like taking pictures, the place is quite lovely. It'd make a nice picnic spot.

Now that 2007 is over, I can present last year's exercise in obsessive vanity: One picture of myself a day for 365 days. If you look closely, I ended the year as I began it: Looking sleepy in an old, baggy sweatshirt.

I also made a video that shows the last 4 years of my "art project." Behold as my hair grows out, gets cut, grows out, gets cut. Watch my niece go from tiny baby to tiny 4-year-old. Mrs. Phancy pops in from time to time. Don't blink or you'll miss my parents, and some of my friends. My nephew makes his first appearance near the end.

Me: 2004-2007 (MP4, 8MB)

PS: It's mentioned at the end of the video, but here's a direct link to the soundtrack. I had no idea the mandolin was used in ragtime.

PPS: Ongoing pictures: phancy.com/me

Here are two Ruby videos for you. Ruby eating is funny. Ruby eating while walking on two legs is funnier.

Ruby eats chow mein (MOV, 2MB)
Ruby eats a french fry (MOV, 2MB)

During my travels to historic landmarks, I usually devise a master plan of plaques to hunt down, armed with a AAA map of California, printouts of landmarks by county and a far stack of Google Maps covered with pushpins. The goal is to make a loop from Fresno to points distant and back, minimizing driving time and maximizing plaque site visitation. In practice, this seldom happens.

Often historic sites aren't that interesting, or don't even have a site. I've visited several unremarkable parking lots where something remarkable happened 150 years ago. As a consequence of this, I wind up with extra time on my hands. Combine this with the obvious fact that there are plenty of far more interesting non-plaque-related places to visit and a road trip to visit six sites turns into a drive-by of two sites and the rest of the day spent in a museum or park.



Back in the summer I had planned on touring Tulare county, visiting sites in Ivanhoe, Lindsay, Porterville and Tulare before heading back home. I only made it to Ivanhoe, where I saw a tree and some cows. On the way to Lindsay I was distracted by charming Exeter, featuring a downtown full of murals. I still haven't toured the rest of Tulare county.

Last weekend the plan was to hit up Hornitos, Bear Valley and Coulterville. Actually, this was a plan several weeks before, but we never made it past Mariposa. The main street is a nice walk and the courthouse (built in 1854 and still in use) offers free tours and lets you sit in the judge's chair.



I had expected Hornitos to be a typical teeny-weeny town with nothing to see, but it turned out to be a teeny-weeny ghost town. Well, technically there are still people living there, but the population is only 75. It's more of a zombie town. Domenico Ghiradelli's (you know, the chocolate guy) first store is there (in ruins), and there are several old brick buildings and a couple abandoned houses to explore. Apparently in wild west times Hornitos was quite the happening place. Nowadays it's like visiting a big, outdoor library. There was plenty to see and learn, but it was so ridiculously quiet I was afraid to make any noise.



Ultimately we never made it to Coulterville. Technically we visited Bear Valley, but it's really an intersection so it wasn't a long visit. If it counts for anything, the dog peed on the side of the road.

Still alive, just not writing.

Taking pictures, though, and posting on Flickr.

Still taking a self-portrait every day: Watch my hair grow!

I love taking road trips, but I realized I'd been neglecting a proper exploration of Fresno. As a starting ground, I was inspired by Historic Fresno to visit all the National Historic Places & Buildings in town. I've been documenting them over here. All the pictures are hosted on Flickr for the purposes of commenting and mapping, but my site has addresses/maps, information and relevant links.

In a similar vein, I realized that, though I enjoy taking road trips, I had been visiting the same places over and over again. To that end I'm slowly, oh so slowly, visiting the 1000+ California National Landmarks and cataloging them over here. Like above, pictures are on Flickr, but I've tried to provide useful information on my site for anyone else who might want to visit these places.

It's been a while since I've had anything to say. I've been taking pictures, though, and I've been using Flickr instead of here. I like the tagging and mapping I can't do on my own. I've tweaked this page to show the last 5 pictures I've uploaded, plus 5 random pictures. I like using sets and collections, so have fun poking around. I admit I'm terrible at leacing comments, but I do like receiving them.

Pictures of note:

Mrs. Phancy is a robot.
I am a robot.
The geographical center of California.
Travelling PCH from San Francisco to Moss Landing.
This is a fake flower.

Unrelated, I recorded a fill-in podcast for my buddies. Their show is fun; I've already guested twice. (One and two.) They couldn't get together one week, so I thought it'd be fun to make a show for them. It's really directed at them, but I play some good stuff you might like, and you also get to hear what I sound like when I'm talking to myself. I praised EK's musical tastes quite a bit, so EK, if you're reading/listening, don't be too creeped out. Upside of the show: Nice eclectic mix. Downside: Poor recording (I'm really quiet).

20070402 Podcast (50MB, 70min)

Tracklist:

Gian Franco & Gian Piero Reverberi - "Nel Cimitero Di Tucson" (excerpt)
Nine Inch Nails - "Get Down Make Love"
Kahimi Karie - "Zoom Up!"
Tomahawk - "God Hates A Coward">
The Kleptones - "Break" & "Listen"
Dresden Dolls - "Modern Moonlight"
Probot - "Shake Your Blood"
Amadou & Mariam - "Je Pense A Toi"
Raputina - "You Don't Own Me"
Prototypes - "Danse Sur La Merde"
Elbow - "Fugitive Motel"
Grant-Lee Phillips - "See America"
The Sugarcubes - "Hit"
El Madmo - "Carlo"

Finally, unrelated to all that, I have a funny video for you. My friends and I were having a conversation about flailing your arms like Kermit the Frog, and I commented that I actually did that from time to time. Video proof was demanded of me, and I was forced to oblige.

Kermit Injury (1.7MB)

Things to watch for:

1. I have a squatted run because if I stand up all the way, my head hits the pull cord on the fan.
2. Ruby leaps off Mrs. Phancy's lap and does a faceplant on the couch.
3. That clanking sound is me slipping on the kitchen tile and falling on both my knees, my left shin and left foot all at the same time. I bonk the recycle bin while doing that. Yes, it was really painful.
4. After the clank, Ruby jumps again and faceplants into the crack between the couch cushions.
5. If you look closely in the fireplace, you can see a reflection of my sock as my foot flips up into the air.

For Christmas, I bought myself a new camera: A Canon SD800 IS. It came highly recommended from my camera geek friend, and I have nothing but praise for this new electronic device. One its virtues is a gigantic LCD screen on the back, and I obviously don't want to scratch it. On the other hand, I still want to fit the camera in my pocket, so a clunky camera case is't going to cut it. I've seen various wraps for handheld devices, but they're still pretty bulky. Really, I just needea thin sleeve to cover the camera. My solution: I bought a pair of cute kid's socks, tossed out one of them, chopped the bottom off the other and stitched up the hole. (In actuality, my mom stitched it up for me - but she volunteered without me asking!) The end result is a snug fabric camera bag with an elastic top to keep it from falling it. As an added bonus, it has a monkey on it!

Check out this picture: Xmas Present To Myself (83KB)

I watched a Belgian horror movie titled Calvaire. It wasn't very good, though I'd be interested in what the director does next.

It receives points for trying to make the bad guys sympathetic, nice cinematography and... Hm... That's about it, actually. There's one other thing, but I'll get to that. The movie loses points for having a "hero" that's too neutral to care too much about. He's a martyr for his executioners, but there's not enough depth to create any emotional resonance. While the village people (heh heh) are creepy (in a cliched Deliverance way), there's no explanation for their behavior other than cheap scare tactics, so I spent more time trying to figure out if they were all inbred and crazy, or just plain crazy, and as a consequence didn't think of them as being very scary. All the pieces were there for a nice, disturbing story, but nothing came together in any meaningful way. But! One thing was nifty: The dance sequence!

Existing for seemingly no reason (the director tossed in as an homage to another Belgian movie) the villagers play creepy piano music and perform an awkward, shuffling dance with each other. I'd share the video with you, but I didn't feel like spending the time learning how to get it off the DVD and converted to something more easily shareable. I did, however, rip the music off for you, because it's keen. It ends abruptly, because the scene in the movie ends abruptly.

Calvaire - Creepy Piano Music (1.38MB)

I bought a Wii this morning. It was a remarkably painless procedure, especially after seeing crazy riots for PS3. Originally my plan was to wake up early and walk over to Target when they opened at 8AM. Except I slept in until 8AM, so I wound up leaving my house at 9AM. I sauntered over to Target only to find out they had sold the last Wii 5 minutes before my arrival. Best Buy is only two stores down the stripmall, so I continued my walk. There was a short line out front, so I thought "Why not?" and hopped in back of it. Apparently the line had been quite long earlier in the morning as the sidewalk was littered with empty Starbucks cups and McDonalds bags all the way to the next store. After a short wait I was given a ticket and ventured into the store. I picked up an extra controller and a copy of the new Zelda game, received and paid for the Wii. Best Buy, normally Hell On Earth, was amazingly quiet and organized. Elapsed time from getting in line to exiting the store was less than 20 minutes. Take THAT, people who lined up at some ungodly hour of the morning! Even including the walk to and from the store, I was only out of my house less 40 minutes.

Pictures from Florida:

Nov 4 - The Driftwood Inn

This was our home for the week. The first few days very windy, uncharacteristically so, but the temperature was still 80F and the skies were blue, which was a welcome change from our current cold, gray skies in Fresno. Also, that's my niece in there.

Nov 5 - McKee Botanical Garden

Lovely gardens stuck in the middle of condos and golf courses. It features the world's largest mahogany table; 35' long and made from a single piece of wood.

Nov 6 - The beach at the Driftwood Inn

Featuring my dad and brother, with a cameo by the niece.

Nov 7 - Smithsonian Marine Station Ecosystems Exhibit

A small, but nicely appointed aquarium down in Fort Pierce, FL. Normally $2, but free on Tuesday! We also visiting a nuclear power plant that day, but it wasn't very picturesque. Here's a cooling tower.

Nov 8 - Brevard Zoo

The zoo in Melbourne was small, but excellent. If you're ever in the area, this is a must see. You can feed a giraffe and pet a lorikeet. I'm very pleased with how the flamingo shot came out.

Nov 9 - Environmental Learning Center

Free because it's small and educational. We saw no other tourists, only two school classes. My calves were also eaten alive by mosquitos.

Pictures from last weekend:

The Charles M. Schulz Museum
What is there to say? Do you like "Peanuts?" You'll like the museum.

Goat Beach & Point Reyes Lighthouse
The stairs down to the lighthouse are the equivalent of climbing up a 30-story building. That last picture was taken only halfway up the stairs. Mrs. Phancy is taking a break.

I should have a lot more pictures to show off next week, as we're going to be in Vero Beach, FL for a family vacation. I am very much looking forward to having a week off from work.

We now have an art collection. Friday night, while visiting friends in Guerneville, we stopped at an art show for our friends' neighbor and, long story short, bought a painting. It would be perfect over our couch, we thought, assuming our couch were bright red. So, on the way home Sunday, we bought a new slipcover. Prest-o change-o! New living room!

Behold the art. (218KB)

Pimping myself out again! Pimp!

I guested on my buddies' podcast, "Three Guys, Twelve Songs", again. It turned out to be the longest show yet, and through some trickey actually includes 15 songs instead of 12. It's also one of the most eclectic shows yet. It's all over the map. Check out this list of artists:

Sparks (2 songs), Beastie Boys, Van Morrison, Stellastarr*, Skinny Puppy, Toots & The Maytals, Rilo Kiley, Tool (3 songs combined), Nellie McKay, Mr. Bungle, MC Chris, Joanna Newsom.

Their website: Three Guys, Twelve Songs
The RSS feed: Drag this into iTunes
The individual show: 3G12S-2006-1 0-24-small.mp3 (78.4MB)

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

For my birthday (it was the 7th; don't worry if you missed it) Mrs. Phancy bought me The Complete Peanuts 1957-1958 and The Complete Peanuts 1959-1960. I've been enjoying this collection since it began, and immediately devoured 1957-1958. In the beginning of March 1958, Schulz has a short story arc about "kids these days..." The jokes are a bit obvious, mostly because people are still saying the same thing almost 50 years later.

Kids don't have any imagination anymore... Kids watch too much TV... Nobody makes anything by hand anymore... Kids in the past never got into such mischief... Blah blah blah...

I don't think kids change as much as adults who grow up and forget what it was like. I've just turned 32, and I haven't understood teenagers since... well, I didn't understand teenagers much when I was a teenager, but if you're currently under 25 years of age, you're under my cultural radar. I understand younger kids even less. We're simply looking at the world through different glasses. I really hope I don't turn into a cranky adult, unless I get to be cranky and mean like the professor in Futurama.

Good news! It's a suppository!

Click here for the Peanuts strips mentioned: Kids These Days (108KB)

I totally forgot to pimp myself out! Pimp!

Three of my buddies do a weekly podcast titled, appropriately, Three Guys, Twelve Songs. Some times it's a themed show, most of the time it's not, but it boils down to three guys picking four songs each, playing them and discussing them. Back on September 28th, Mr. Jordy couldn't make it, so I filled in. I played some Emiliana Torrini, Ensiferum, MC Paul Barman and Peeping Tom. Listen in!

Highlight of the show: Owen creating a German word after I ask for one that describes the simultaneous feeling of disgust and delight.

Their website: Three Guys, Twelve Songs
The RSS feed: Drag this into iTunes
The individual show: 3G12S-2006-09-28-small.mp3 (64.6MB)

PS: The Rev, who used to post music here, has a Vox blog with a feed that is easily ingested into iTunes, or your podcast player of choice.

Link: Der Mp3en Housen Auf Pankaken

Oct 3, 06

I watched The Woods, hoping that it wouldn't be as bad it seemed it would be.

It was.

Previous efforts by Lucky McKee, the director, were enjoyable. May featured an excellent Angela Bettis as an emotionally-stunted modern-day female Dr. Frankenstein. She also appeared in McKee's addition to the Masters Of Horror series, "Sick Girl," which played out as a nice, B-movie guilty pleasure. I had hopes for The Woods, but it turned out to be a bit of a mess. Individual pieces stood out, but did not add up to a cohesive whole.

On the upside: Good performances from the cast. Interesting use of camera angles. A bleak, desaturated look with the hue cranked up on certain elements as a contrast. The subtle way the woods crept into the background of the school as the film progressed. Pretty Patricia Clarkson. Bruce Campbell in an unfortunately unnecessary role.

On the downside: Shifting tones mixed with confusing editing. Disjointed scenes with nothing to tie them together. A specific character's demeanor and motivation does a 180 degree change with nothing to set it up. Back story not fully explained, and revealed in awkward places throughout. A rushed ending that completely changes the pace and tone of the movie. Bruce Campbell in an unfortunately necessary role.

Somewhere in this mess hid a decent film. Maybe some different editing, tightening up the script would've helped, but maybe not. I would've left out a large portion of the final act, but that's just me. It was the kind of movie that I didn't want to turn off, and wasn't so bad I could make fun of. I just wanted to help fix it.

On final, definite highlight: A Leslie Gore-heavy soundtrack. Apart from a generic horror score, key scenes featured several of her songs. A montage of two of the girls becoming friends (one of the better parts of the film) started with the girls sharing an earbud to listen to "You Don't Own Me" on a portable transistor radio. Portions of the montage that followed showed one of the girls practicing a lyricless song. Whatever a solo choral piece is called. Her voice was laid over "You Don't Own Me" to great effect. As a bonus, it was repeated over the credits, almost in full. Before sending the DVD back, I ripped the music off of it.

Click to download: Leslie Gore - "You Don't Own Me (The Woods Version)" (3.72MB)

The beginning and ending are a bit abrupt, as the film's score faded into and out of this song.

09/22/2006

I stood upright for three hours, just to get Bruce Campbell to sign his latest book for me. The actual encounter only lasted about a minute. Bad signal to noise ratio? Nay! It was totally worth it!

We arrived at the Borders near our house around 6PM, where the cafe inside was already packed with fans. Mrs. Phancy went off and browsed while I stood in the back, thanking my genetics for making me tall enough to see over everyone else. Bruce Campbell came out and, instead of reading passages from the book, took questions from the audience. He was funny and very personable. He'd obviously been asked several of the questions many, many, many times and had quick answers in a casual, but well-rehearsed tone. After about 30 minutes, he sat down and everyone formed a line to get their books signed.

We got a spot slightly closer than half way, and still had to wait 2.5 hours to get inside. At first the line progressed very slowly. Bruce would chat a bit with each person, sign their book and pose for a photo. As the hours went by, the chat became a greeting and the experience devolved into a book signing production line. I don't blame Bruce at all; it must be an arduous task to sit and sign book after book, and meet person after person for what probably turned out to be five hours. Seriously, I'd hate to do that.

When we got up to the table, Mrs. Phancy ditched the "purse" Ruby was hiding in and tucked her up near her shoulder. The people around the table muttered "What IS that?" Bruce's eyes widened and he playfully scratched Ruby's chin. Ruby's very selective about who gets to reach towards her head, and even more selective about who gets to touch it, but she didn't mind Bruce at all. Bruce Campbell is friend to dogs. He quickly signed our book, posed for a picture, and whoosh, it was over. Would I do it again? Totally.

Click here for annotated pictures: Bruce Campbell (422KB)