aaand....we're back

So after a hiatus, I return to the world of the blog. PT has moved to Minnesota, and lives fairly happily on it's new website.


I've started a new job, writing for the soon to be Cookthink.com. So far the blog and email newsletter are up and running, and in the next few months, a cooking website with real functioning recipes and awesome how-to's will enter the scene. Stay tuned for more on that.


sadly, I have no profound statements to make here right now, musical or otherwise. My brain is still on defragment mode (as is my computer, in fact) as I reset from the stress and flurry of activity that has been my life over the last few months. When it finishes, and all the pretty blue and red bars are in order, hopefully real thoughts will start to resurface.

Synchronicity

A strange thing:

Cell phones on public transit can be a touchy subject. On one hand, it totally makes sense for people to use them, as that's kind of what they're for - to keep in touch while in transit. However, since no one can escape you if they DON'T want to hear your call, it's a little strange too...second-hand conversation.

Today in riding the bus, I was flanked by two men on cell phones. One was speaking in English, the other in a language I couldn't identify. For almost the entirety of my 15 minute ride, they spoke in almost complete synchronicity - every pause, every "uh-huh" and "OK"....long waits for responses on the other end, then off to the races again with a long stream of jabbering. They could have been speaking to the same person, in translation...it was like some kind of bizarre stereo. And it was so skillfully done, that I'm still not entirely sure which was the straight man in the gag.

By the end, almost every rider was looking at them in consternation, with the rest of us trying desperately not to laugh.

Chance, candid camera, or social commentary? It's hard to know for sure.

Finnish

The cool thing about DC is that there are so many people here to help with the most random of questions. For example, how would one pronounce the word Töölö? My instinct would be to start Internet combing in vain. The DC solution? Call the embassy.

In talking to a very nice secretary from the ambassador's office, I discovered that the word is pronounced, as best I can translate , with a very quiet emphasis on the "u"s...so more like TR-lu. Hmm. Cool.

Some fun Finnish facts - the first syllable gets most of the emphasis, and many of the doubled consonants imply accent, rather than reiteration.

Listen for our best efforts on tomorrow's Performance Today.

365 days

While browsing some really interesting sequential photographs at the National Portrait Gallery last night, a friend of mine turned me on to this : The 365 day project on Flikr . A self portrait a day, every day. Kind of like visual blogging, I guess, or a diary of sorts. Fascinating, both in watching the way that the subjects who are already posting change over time, and also for the possibilities of changing how I look at myself. I'm contemplating participation, but I don't want it to be a snap decision. I feel like it could be really enlightening, but I would want to really commit...

Flipping through all of these photographs, I'm reminded of another conversation I had with him - that photography was a kind of artistic democratization...a technology allowing visual expression without significant barriers on technical facility. Used to be to create a realistic image, one needed training and artistic skill to create an oil painting, or drawing, or whatever - but photography changed that. We are more capable of documenting a beautiful moment, capturing that image, and making a piece of art.

I dunno if that changes anything, or even if it's true, but it was a thought....