Category Archive: Writings

Seven Reasons Why I remain all in for Mayor McGinn

Posted on | May 17, 2013 | No Comments

Big news. Tim Burgess has dropped out of the Seattle Mayor’s race. That leaves three front-running candidates: Mayor Mike McGinn; former Seattle City Council President Peter Steinbrueck; and current Washington State Senator (and sort of Majority Leader) Ed Murray. I’ve voted for all of these guys at one time or another. Murray and Steinbrueck are [...]

Doing the Things that Other People Won’t

Posted on | May 14, 2013 | No Comments

In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell examines “success” and the societal factors that go into determining it. He deconstructs concepts like innate intelligence and natural ability. He examines how the year of your birth affects your life prospects, whether math skills are teachable, and how people born in certain months typically end up doing better [...]

The Internet Can Be Strange and Sad: Happy Birthday Yancy Noll (RIP)

Posted on | April 10, 2013 | No Comments

The Internet can be very strange. It can also be very sad. Yesterday, I received a calendar alert in my e-mail inbox informing me that today is the birthday of Yancy Noll. In and of itself that wasn’t strange. Windows calendar sends those alerts out all the time for various friends of mine. The thing [...]

Generation Basement: The Flop Reunion

Posted on | August 22, 2012 | 1 Comment

(Poster above by Ed Fotheringham. Printing by the Vera Project. There are still a limited number of posters for sale. Proceeds go to Music for Marriage Equality. Starting on August 27, 2012, you should be able to buy one at www.music4marriage.org. Nice, professional, B&W photos below by Niffer Calderwood. Video by Chris Swenson. Blurry color [...]

Vandalism vs. Violence: A Few More Thoughts

Posted on | May 3, 2012 | No Comments

In response to the Pulitzer Prize winning Eli Sanders and some other folks, Brendan Kiley posted Two Additional Notes on Violence vs. Vandalism on the Stranger’s Slog this morning. Once again, his post engendered a bunch of comments. At #84 in the comment thread, Brendan posted the following: Again: I *do not advocate* any of [...]

Vandalism vs. Violence

Posted on | May 2, 2012 | 1 Comment

In today’s Stranger, Brendan Kiley has a thought piece about yesterday’s May Day activities in downtown Seattle entitled Why All the Smashy-Smashy? A Beginner’s Guide to Targeted Property Destruction. In that piece, Brendan draws a distinction between “violence” and “vandalism,” suggesting that the news media too often lumps these two things together under the singular [...]

The K-Mart Radio: An Xmas Tale

Posted on | December 25, 2011 | No Comments

I’ve had a K-Mart radio for over 30 years now. It receives AM, FM, and shortwave frequencies. It was made in Japan before that was a compliment. Nevertheless, it aspires to be hi-fidelity, with knobs and switches for bass, treble, volume, and loudness, plus a separate woofer and tweeter. It even has inputs on its [...]

RIP Steve Jobs: This One Feels Personal

Posted on | October 6, 2011 | No Comments

I’m not sure I’ve ever mourned the passing of a big corporate CEO before. I don’t expect I’ll mourn the passing of another one anytime soon either. But I am mourning the passing of Steve Jobs today. Apple Computers has always had a different sort of relationship with its customer base than most other large [...]

Seth Godin on the perils of the Magic Lottery Ticket

Posted on | June 13, 2010 | 1 Comment

Over on his blog, Seth Godin just made this post about the perils of spending all your time looking for a magic lottery ticket. More than most people, Seth has the ability to really distill things down to the essence. He had a post a while back called Barry Bonds. It’s a favorite of mine, [...]

John de Roo’s “Holy Cow”

Posted on | May 28, 2010 | No Comments

[Another piece from the archives--written in 2008. You can purchase Holy Cow at CDBaby.] Back in the mid-1980s, folks didn’t know everything about everywhere. There were no online virtual communities. Home computers weren’t multi-track recorders in waiting. DIY home recordings weren’t ubiquitous. We flew a lot more blind, because it wasn’t all a keystroke away. [...]

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