Purple House Blog

MOVING OUT

2009-08-19T17:24:00.000-07:00

Hey Everybody
That's right. We're moving out and emptying the house COMPLETELY. The third lease is coming to an end and we are leaving the house to the landlady/lord. If you ever left anything at the purple house, its probably already been taken, broken, or thrown out. As for the rest of the things that have been left by the wayside, I am having a tag sale on Sunday August 23rd.
This will be the last chance to claim anything aside from mattresses. Tag sale starts at 9 and will end at 3. Come by to claim your old sweatshirt and assorted purple house memorabilia (like the can of stinky sweatsock casserole!). Come and help out sitting the tables or sortting out donation items.
*Disclaimer* current purple house residents are not responsible for lost, stolen, broken, already claimed or pawned off property... so if you left it here, that's your fault.

Thanks!
Peter

Summer Sublet at the Purple House

2009-04-17T17:20:00.000-07:00

One decent sized second-story bedroom is available for rent June 1st- August 31st at the purple house. It's going for $475 plus utilities and house supplies ($50-$100 per month). As far as the amenities go, there's oil heating, electric stove, no natural gas, high speed internet, ($8 per month) and one parking space.
This is a five-person house with one dog. This season will present bountiful opportunity for plenty of summertime lounging on two porches, a large backyard, a decently-sized kitchen, living room, and basement.
Although not required, we encourage applicants to present a letter of reference or contacts attesting to your excellent housing track record. An email or a phone contact with a past landlord or house mate would be perfect.

If interested, contact Peter Bonos at peterbonos at gmail dot com

1st quarter update

2009-03-24T20:33:00.000-07:00

So, for those of you who still may read this blog, I am giving a seasonal update on the house. On Valentine's Day, 2009 the house hosted Dubious Liftings IV, a multi-annual festival booked by Nick Williams of the Cave Bears. The lineup featured Open Star Clusters, Mudboy, Skinny Vinny, Ambergris, Crank Sturgeon, Dag Attack (Steve D'Agostino), Flaming Dragon of Middle Earth. Sunburned Hand of the Man was on the flyer for some reason, although they had never confirmed.
The concert was quite possibly the longest, craziest, most varied, reckless, crowded show to ever take place here. I will mention a few of most notable moments of the night. Flaming Dragon of Middle Earth began with the most concise rock sets I've ever heard them execute. Dag Attack suprised me with a contemplative, slow-building, and emotional elegy on lap steel guitar. A western theme was reinforced by a time-lapse video projection of monument valley at sunset. Ted Lee installed a projector in the cupola, providing a porthole into his twisted, obsessive, film-collector-collage/media monger (sub)consciousness. It was not seen by many at the show, but possibly viewed hundreds of times by drivers by in a fleeting, confused glance up up and away. Open Star Clusters kicked the show into high gear with a floor board shredding flurry of herky jerkiness. At 9:30pm the cops came by to let us know that our neighbors were not enjoying the show.
Skinny Vinny then gave us something more to feel than to think about. Their energy was propelled by a raucous audience, reminding us that yes, free-imrov can and will party.
Oh there's too much to recall from this point on. Mudboy turned out to be what we all had come out for. Evoking an alien swampscape and putting us all in our own places. Crank Sturgeon gave an hour-long technical difficulty laden presentation of fluid transfer while wearing nothing but a huge heart on his shoulders. I didn't see the Cave Bears, but I do know that they bursted open a pinata that Lisette had made in the shape of a heart. I do remember candy all over the floor, and Zach shouting "Its SO good!"
Well, then the moment of truth came. A couple of angry officers shouting at the door: "Enough of this B***S***! Will one of your A**holes Get someone who lives here!" So then I had the sad responsibility of giving them my ID and taking responsibility for everything that they wanted to dole out. It was too much. They spent a half hour at the door and told me the city of Northampton was pressing charges for keeping of a disorderly household. The show was already over. The party was over in more ways than one. This was the last purple house show.
Honestly, its a bit of a relief. It has been good. It has been messy. Now I only have to clean up normal daily use of the house. Sure it sucks the we can't do shows here any more, but I really think that the purple house as a phenomenon became too much for a house. Things were literally bursting at the seems and even in-between.
For the last month, things have been quiet. I'm broke and hungry for food and friends. I'm actually looking forward to work. I may have just been taking the news too seriously, reading Watchmen too closely, or getting sleepless from watching Children of Men and Lost, but it seems as though the world is on the brink of dystopia, and this is the quiet before the storm.

Winter is Hard

2009-02-04T20:25:00.001-08:00

The purple house has entered a new era. Gone are Ben, Jim, and Than. Gone are the days of dumpster diving and shrews drowned in honey buckets. The new year has ushered in the most hopeful united crew we have had for a long time. Lisette, Dan Cooper, Katharine Duckett, Jesslyn and me (Peter) are holding down the fort. Yes, it is cold. The purple house shudders under the weight of layers upon layers of ice. Yet, the purple spirit is not dormant.

Over the summer, I came to the realization that this house is akin to a puzzle. More like a puzzle with missing pieces and no photo showing the completed image. If it seems as though a piece is missing, it just takes a bit of pondering and searching to realize where things should go or remember where the missing pieces might lie. I did indeed find a puzzle in a bag in an ignored cabinet. Maybe someday I will attempt to put it together- but there are more pressing matters at hand.

Now that we are in the brunt of winter, I have come to another huge realization: the purple house is a force larger than any of us. Just when I think I got everything under control- WHAM!! I am at the whim of the big purple. My hands are covered in oil and I'm begging on my knees, praying for salvation.

NOT TO FEAR~! Just as everything seems as though its falling apart, there's an incredible show, house dinner, or late night powwow... and the spirit calls me back, wishing I never doubted it would.

THE PURPLE HOUSE LOVES YOU. HAPPY NEW ERA 2009

Puerto Rico: Biolumenescent Bay

2008-08-19T20:04:00.000-07:00

I came to Puerto Rico to visit my long lost family not having any idea what to expect. I don't visit family, and I sure as hell don't visit family overseas. As we talked on the phone about what I may like to do or see, I was my usual indescisive I'm-sure-that-whatever-you-want-will-be-fine self except I made one thing clear: under no circumstances do I wish to be a tourist.

As the sun sank behind the picturesque horizon, we paddled two by two into a single file line. I thought of baby ducks clad in yellow life vests advertising our tourism company. My uncle and I struggle for control of the boat. Our paddles clanked with the stubbornness of him refusing to take my lead, and me insisting on leading anyway.

As the entrance of the mangrove approached, the wind grew still and the water shallow. The ripe odor of stagnant water mingled with our repellent drenched bodies. As was swerved back and forth, zigzag with and against the channel, we did our best to avoid the roots that stretched out into the inlet. Did you know that Mangroves are the only trees that can stick their roots in salt water and thrive? I wonder they can ever feel it burning and still continue.

We could hear whistling and hooting, the hollowed sound of some special kind of frog. When we’d reach a particularly intergrown bunch of threes they’d form roofs over our heads that blocked out the light in a perfect display of blackness. We had been seeing little glitter like specs of the bioluminescent creatures we had come to admire through the clear bottom of our kyaks. In these enclosures where we couldn’t even see one another or the shore, we began to see our paddles like up as the swept through the water. We kept paddling.

After twenty minutes, we finally came to the opening in the tunnel. We could see the light of the full moon brilliant on the surface of the bay. And as we broke through that curtain of light, the creature greeted our paddles fervently. When we lifted them out of the water, a glistening streaks of light would flow down, leaving bright green drip marks all over the surface of the water. My hand felt the water warm and smooth like melting butter as I swooshed it around to reveal a trail of glow like fireflies and light sticks. We splashed the shimmering water at one another and I found a strand of vegetation from the bottom that when I ran it through the water appeared like a comet trailing my finger tips.

We paddled to the opposite side of the lake and turned around for the most picturesque moment imaginable. The moon peaked up gradually through the densely interwoven branches. It was so many layers of beautiful piled on ontop of the other. The moon, the silhouetted mangrove trees, the serenity of a secluded bay brought alive by the playful kyakers splashing around in amazement. So I guess I'm more of a tourist than I was willing to admit...

endings

2008-06-29T14:25:00.000-07:00

I'm exhausted. We're home. Our last show is tonight. Come see us at the Purple House. The following notes will be brief. Perhaps too brief.

Recap:
Louisville: Awesome bands, nobody showed up, Dizzy Whiz is my new favorite restaurant. We heard that Allister Crowley is George Bush's grandfather and seduced his grandmother with sex magic and mind magnetism. Caboladies and Pete Fosco rule.

DC: Perry Palace were fantastic hosts. Tons of kids came out, they were awesome. Also some unexpected Hampshire friends made it an especially nice evening. We stayed with Peter's sister Lisa in her house. She has a beautiful apartment in a very happening part of town. To get to her home, we drove for about 11 hours through the middle of the night to cross all of Kentucky and West Virginia and part of Maryland. We saw the sunrise through the Appalachian Mountains. We ate at the Flying J at 2 in the morning. Peter almost bought socks.

Philadelphia: Cheesesteaks, Hoagies, skillshares @ the white lodge. We are fond of this city and its inhabitants. Peter was told that he looks like Jimmy Kimmel. I was not compared to anyone. Neither was Jim.

Now we are back in western mass. Hi everyone. Come hang out.

-Ben

Boar Toggling

2008-06-26T15:42:00.000-07:00

More from tour:

We're in DC. House show tonight. Be there.

We had a kind of weird show in Cleveland. The band Zs ended up playing with us. That was cool. We had to do the show at a bar, which was less cool. We aren't much of a bar band. I think this is because we aren't a band.

Then was Chicago. Chicago ruled and I am pretty sure continues to rule in our absence. Maybe it won't rule quite a hard, but still. Dallas and Liz hosted us. A ton of old and new friends came. WJ had a large contingent. Jim and I ended up doing encore sets for latecomers. Chicago is full of the three B's- Barbecues, bookstores, boyfriends. Seriously, everyone there is in a couple I think.

Anyways, writing happy things is not that interesting.

*

Urbana is more interesting. The headlining band was supposed to be Plan B from Chicago. They were going to suck, but then they didn't even come. In fact , no one came. I think that the booker may have intentionally sabotaged the show, because he kept us far from the venue entrance during the time when people might have come and he let other people know that the main act had cancelled. He didn't even stick around to let us show him my book or Jim's demo, even though we were going to. He just left while Jim and Peter were in another room.

This left us all alone in the Urbana Independent Media Center. This place should have been very cool. It is in a former post office building. It's about 100 years old and has several floors, a radio station, a bike-workshop, a free-internet computer room, and a capacity of almost 1000 people. It was super creepy. We stayed in this weird room in the basement on pathetically small couches. They left the air on-- cooling the whole place to 65 degrees all night long. This is supposed to be a liberal organization. Think about the energy use for that. Anyways.

Then the stupidest hypocrisy of all- they block google. They have free-wifi, but you can't use google or any other websites owned by google. This is, apparently, activism. Note to IMC- Censorship is not a good way to create change. there is a difference between censorship and voluntary boycott. Blocking blogspot and gmail is not going to do anything good for the world. It just inconveniences people. Plus, why block google but not myspace or facebook or even walmart.com? Apparently it's more important to lodge a totally useless protest against a company that has been accused of bending to foreign censorship (irony again finds its way in) than to block companies that cause real harm on US soil. This is largely the same kind of jingoist and self-deluded thinking that leads to people driving 400 miles to DC or New York for Free Tibet protests.

The absurdity of the night kept it from being a total loss.

*

Next came St. Louis. Awesome show at Open Lot. The people there were super-enthusiastic, welcoming and warm. We had a really amazing time.

I should rewind a bit though. Before STL we had a lot of time to check out southern Illinois. We visited the history museum of Vandalia, IL and were shown around by a very lovely elderly woman. The building was in a beautiful former church and our guide even showed us the upstairs even though it was supposed to be closed. She also showed us a tool that Abraham Lincoln once owned and had carved his initials in, logs from the national road, and all kinds of exhibits like photos of Vandalia's first basketball team and the town's first switchboard... lots of odds and ends. It was a very charming little stop.

We then went to the Cahokia Mounds. Look these up. They are incredible. They're a UN world heritage site, home of the largest earthen structures in the Americas and the former home of the largest pre-colonial city in North America (10-20,000 people). The mounds were something like North American pyramids, serving largely as burial grounds for high-ranking members of the community. It's a pretty amazing place.

*

After the history museum, mounds, and St. Louis show, we continued on to Louisville, KY.

I am tiring of blogging. Louisville is a very big and weird city. We went to Dizzy Whiz. Soon I will add details. There will be a post to discuss the last leg of tour. Maybe two.

-Ben

Tour Pt. 2

2008-06-18T20:46:00.000-07:00

A brief summary of our stay in Pittsburgh will follow shortly, but first a bit of news.

My book, 78 Stories, is officially up for sale on the No Record Press website. It's at www.no-record.com. Buy it (please). Buy it right here http://store.no-record.com/78stories.html (please).

Shameless self-promotion temporarily aside, I will now recount our last few days. We've been staying with my relatives in Pittsburgh. They live in a great house right on the edge of Frick Park. We've basically spent the last several days being wined and dined and dined again by all of my various relatives. They've been really really generous and we've just been totally relaxing and being taken care of. So the short version is that Pittsburgh has been very awesome. Our show was quite small, but warmly received.

Pittsburgh, contrary to popular lore, is a quite beautiful city.

Tomorrow- Cleveland.

-Ben

PS: We are wondering what is happening on the homefront. Please report news of events in the the purple house. We also miss you.

we're so on tour right now (pt1)

2008-06-17T21:33:00.000-07:00

We have a lot to write about, so I'm going to try to stick to the highlights.

Jim, Peter, and I are officially on tour. We started off in New York. Jashin and Egan set up a show for us at Yoyo's amazing loft in Soho. It was also Jess's birthday party.

First: Egan and Yoyp set up a fantastic space and hung several of their photographs and paintings. It was a really beautiful setting. We performed. I think we all performed well. I forget details. There was a lot of wine etc.

Everyone we met was very supportive, even the people we didn't previously know. It is not rare to get to do shows for your college friends, but the mix was much more eclectic than I expected. Besides the usual suspects we had several Germans, a Marine, a professor, a renowned documentarian, and several others and everyone seemed to get along and be into our presentations. As sappy as it may seem, it's actually very touching and inspiring to share work with a large group of people and find that it's genuinely appreciated by such diverse crowd. And then there was the wine etc., which lasted practically until dawn.

The next morning, we cleaned the apartment. Mostly I cleaned the apartment because I woke up early and couldn't fall back to sleep. This led to an unfortunate sequence of events in which a fairly large rag was accidentally flushed down a toilet and amateur plumbing (with all of it's attendant anxiety and hilarity) was forced to ensue. The clog was fixed. The rag was not salvaged. We owe Yoyo a rag.

Our second minor hitch of tour: Getting out of the city. Day 2 was relaxed, but we were also pretty worn out. Peter was still working at the Vision Jazz festival, so Jim and I hung around the city and caught up more with friends.

I am trying to avoid listing names of friends because there are a lot of them and I've chosen to omit all rather than forgot any. Except for the people that actually helped organize the evening. And us. Our names stay in. Anyways...

We'd stashed the car at Russ's house on Long Island (I used another name, but that's really more of a location). Jim and I returned there in the evening and waited for Peter to finish. We made mistakes in planning. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay at Russ's, but we stayed too long and got started too late on our drive.

Also, we had to return Matt's guitar. This sucked. We got lost. We went out of our way. We did not find his house. The guitar is still with us. By the point of the failed guitar return, it was 2 am and we were in suburban New Jersey. We pressed on to Ocean City, where we had lodging at Jim's shore house. I took over driving and made good time for the first hour or so, and by 4, we seemed about to finally reach our destination. The fog materialized. Visibility rapidly approached zero, as did our speed. We crossed the bay in such a haze that we were unable to tell that we were even above water. We finally crawled into Jim's shore house around 430 and promptly passed out.

We woke up too soon the next morning because we needed to make Pittsburgh by 7. Jim's dad was at the house and we met him and spent a too-brief morning visiting, and then drove for 6 or 7 hours.

We are currently in Pittsburgh. This entry is getting too long. Pittsburgh will be described in the next few days, but for now I am going to sign off.

-Ben

PS: This tour is rad.

It's really hot

2008-06-08T12:39:00.000-07:00

Did you know that Hawaii has both the lowest all-time high temperature and the highest all-time low temperature of any US state?

Look it up. Hawaii's all-time high is 100 degrees and all-time low is 12.

To be fair, Alaska's all-time high is actually also only 100, so they are tied for lowest-high, but Hawaii's low is a full 14 degrees higher than second place Florida's -2, which makes Hawaii also the only state to have never been in negative degrees.

Let us contrast this with Northampton, MA which has a low of -30 and high of 100. Our swing is almost 50 degrees greater than the entire state of Hawaii. Honolulu only has a swing of about 40 degrees all-time (95-52)

On the other extreme, the state of Alaska has a 180 degree variation from -80 to 100. The city of Fairbanks alone has seen every temperature from -66 to 99.

World-wide, I cannot give a certain answer for the most impressive variance, but Yakutsk (Russia) might be a good guess. It's been as low as -85 and as high as 103.

-ben

Come to this

2008-06-07T15:37:00.000-07:00

This is going to rule. Go to http://stout.hampshire.edu/~pdb04/phtour/houseshows.html for more info

2008-06-07T15:32:00.000-07:00

The website I tried to post in the previous entry didn't work properly.

Here it is: http://stout.hampshire.edu/~pdb04/phtour/

we're back..

2008-06-07T15:20:00.000-07:00

It's been too long since this blog was posted in. Far too long.

We have way too many things to talk about that should have gotten blog coverage and now must not. Apologies slighted blog topics.

First and most importantly to the house, we got new people in the double and Kristin moved out. This is the kind of bittersweet news we often have here. Maggie and Lydia are very excellent newcomers however, so overall I'm excited about summer here.

Secondly, Jim and Peter and I are going on tour in a week. Peter made a website:

Go get details there then come see us.

Ok so those are the major house news items. We can begin once again blogging about trivial topics at frequent intervals.

For example, Obama Nation sounds like Abomination, Friendly's was giving away free cones today, and it is 90 something degrees out right now.

The heat has destroyed my will to carry on writing and my ability to craft a decent sentence.

- Ben

2008-05-06T22:43:00.000-07:00

div freedom

2008-05-06T09:29:00.000-07:00

So the last few weeks have gone by in a blur. The weather was cold for a while, but now its sunny and cloudless. We had a fantastic show on Sunday with Ladybird and Snaps and Claps. Ladybird warmed everyone's hearts with their french charm and endearing singalong melodies. It was a classic purple house moment, with the sunflower paintings bringing the cheer into the basement. Next, Snaps and Claps went all cute on us. The basement was packed! Maybe 30 people, all very politely sitting on the floor with beaming smiles and the occasional giggle brought on by a witty out-of-tune lyric.
The concert then took a turn for the weird. The crew basically jumped the bill in two waves. Rory and Matt (joined by James Pettingale on Drums) droned their way out of cute land with Rory on clarinet and vocals and matt on 12-string. Enveloped in darkness, James held down the skittering beats. Pretty transcendental, yet imperfect and not too serious. Next, a free jazz all-star debut with me, Gerald, Ben Daly, Zach Ianazzi and Devendra (from Boston). This was a spontaneous, no holds barred aggressive flow of loud piercing squeals and conversational lines held together with some drifting, complex drones. It got a bit more sensitive too, once I encouraged the band to play a quieter for the second song. That was my favorite.
With plenty of free time, for the last five days, I have been working the sound and video for some Div 3 screenings. There was some excellent work over the weekend by Brendan Toller, Bjorn, Emily-Rose, Skylar, Ben Balcom and more. I was completely blown away by the triple threat of three non-fiction films by Dean Colpack, Zach Ianazzi, and Danilo Coleman at a screening last night at film and photo. It has made me very proud of all my friends and peers to see the fruit of their labor get the attention it deserves. I really feel like the class of 2008 has made some great accomplishments this year.
Peter

i have 12 hours

2008-04-25T00:23:00.000-07:00

12 hours before i need to hand in my division three. not to be a debbie downer, but it's going to suck. the product, not the act of handing it in. i shouldn't be writing this right now but i'm sick of deciphering jargon at the moment.

i've seen the sun rise almost every day this week. hopefully this will be the last time, at least for a little while. i drank a cup of coffee 2 hours ago and fell asleep 10 minutes later. why does that always happen??

jesslyn is coming home early!

our back porch is perfect these days. it's screened in, the trees are budding, the farms are ripe with sweet smelling manure, even when it's hot out the area is shaded and kept cooler, it has electric plugs for laptops that only work with chargers, the coffee table is out there for the time being, and it's the perfect spot to watch peter and ben act out cheesy novels. also a good area for social smoking, drinking, laughing, schmoozing and taking naps.

Chad Gad Ya

2008-04-23T00:29:00.000-07:00

I'm too tired for a very well-written posting, but I thought I should make a quick update in light of the major last few days we've had here.

-Passover is in full swing. I went to a seder in CT at Aliza's house and it was awesome. Thank you so much. I am still thinking about the brisket.

- Peter's Div III was a resounding success. Almost like a Bar Mitzvah, Peter has passed another milestone on the road to manhood. Also lize a Bar Mitzvah, he did it along with family, friends and klezmer music. The Freylech Valley Orkestr is really really good. The whole show was fantastic. The after party was appropriately rambling and raucous. On a related note, we all met his sister, Lisa, and found her to be an excellent house guest. I love meeting people's family members and hearing about stories about my friends in their small-child incarnations.

- Pennsylvania primaries have come and gone, and it seems that Democrats in my home state want to drag this race out in the most annoying and self-damaging way possible. Way to go Pennsylvania! On the plus side, Obama won my home county, the county I went to high school in, Jim's home county, and the county he grew up in along with precisely 3 other counties state-wide. I think this proves that Jim and I leave a lasting positive legacy wherever we go.

- I finished my pint of ice cream.

san fran

2008-04-17T19:04:00.001-07:00

okay so now i'm in san fran and this is going to be real quick because one shouldn't blog when they're in san francisco. okay i'm at this really cool hostel in downtown san fran, it has a movie theatre on the fourth floor! cool! anyways i'm staying here tonight and then probably with my friend Lori tomorrow and then i'm not sure. My ranching experience was interesting. i had mixed feelings about it. I did fall in love with a terrier named Buddy, and it broke my heart to leave him but then i remembered that i have a Benny at home (who is having surgery on friday?!) My friends from Maine are also in san fran and hopefully we will meet up at some point. also i'm spending way too much money! i stole stale crackers from the ranch and that's all i'm going to eat until i come home. also i'm real excited for the Leaf music and arts festival that i'm volunteering at/going to in north carolina, just east of asheville. i think it's going to be a lot of fun. okay anyways this is kind of scattered but i'm alive and doing well and missing everyone! i hope you guys are well.

Recap

2008-04-08T18:13:00.000-07:00

The game yesterday was one of the best I've seen in a very long time. Kansas came back from down 9 with 2 minutes to play, hit a 3 with 2 seconds remaining, and won in overtime.

As I wrote about in my previous post, foul shooting and depth proved to be the difference. Kansas gave up a few too many turnovers, which allowed Memphis to built up a However, the Tigers' 1-5 shooting of free throws down the stretch killed them.

Rock Chalk Jayhawk

2008-04-07T15:39:00.000-07:00

Today is the NCAA Division 1 National Championship Game! The Memphis Tigers, led by former UMass coach John Calipari and freshman stand-out Derrick Rose are playing against the Kansas Jayhawks.

I'm rooting for Kansas, who I originally picked to win the tournament. I prefer the Jayhawks style of play and maturity. I also think the Memphis's team is not really made of student athletes. They have a dismal graduation rate and a lot of players have ahd run-ins with the law, including their top big-man, Joey Dorsey, who was seen this summer 'making it rain' at a strip club.

Anyways, moralizing aside, Memphis's free-throw issues will be a serious hindrance and the Jayhawk's incredible depth (they played 12 people in their semi-final victory over North Carolina) will allow them to use fouling as a defensive technique to disrupt Memphis's fast-paced offense.

I'll provide post-game analysis tomorrow or later tonight.

Tip off is at 9:20.

future grilling

2008-04-06T16:47:00.001-07:00

Searching for 'futuristic grilling' on google brings up this image:

House Update

2008-04-06T16:16:00.000-07:00

Today was an historic occasion for the Purple House. Jim and I cleaned up the back porch and yard. We moved truly epic amounts of garbage. Now we don't look like the town dump but instead like a lovely country estate that's slightly run down but still quite charming.

It's getting very very close to grilling season. We plan to be having fires within the week.

Also, there has been some very serious hanging out and several house dinners (including Peter's excellent pasta sauce and James's equally excellent garlic bread).

Speaking of James, we have new housemate. His name is James, not to be confused with Jim. He is our second tallest resident, a world traveler, and is finishing up his undergraduate work on wind-energy. I can state with confidence that he is a fine addition to the house and to the proud lineage of coupola residents.

Also, I've been watching a lot sitcoms via streaming video on the internet. I am very fond of sitcoms. I think I would like to write for one some day. I don't think my current fiction is likely to get me any offers of that sort, unfortunately.

I would like to close this entry with an apology for slacking on my blog responsibilities. I hereby renew my promise to blog at regular intervals.

Yours,
Ben

Meeting Allison Bechdel

2008-04-03T07:31:00.000-07:00

As she read from her memoir, publicly displaying the lascauxian creation myth of herself as a queer artist, she peered out at us from beneath her brow furrowed in uninhibited anxiety. It had made an irrevocable impression on me how she had defined her past into discrete panels of reflection. Her persona was more awkward than funny, her comic more tragic than funny. I could relate to the dry, absurdist tendencies of my own malformed humor.

There was a fastidious quality that permeated her voice as she recounted episodes of OCD that made up her artistic process. Apparently it involved posing and taking pictures of herself for every character she draws before embarking on creating the panel detailed in minutia. That’s thousands of pictures over the course of the entire graphic novel. Then there were a series of layers drawn by hand and on the computer, super imposed over one another and melded into a painstaking whole. It comes out to several hours per square inch. “There went a whole weekend” she would joke, flipping through sketches of the Victorian wallpaper endemic in her childhood home. I could so clearly imagine her silhouetted in a lonely house etching the images that her (justified) resentment had seared into her psyche. What is the difference between the compulsions that enhance our humanity and those that detract from it?

The familiarity of her fidgety and uneven breathing escalated during the q&a period when she as she squinched her face up into a lost expression as she told us she didn’t understand why she did what she did. She almost seemed to plead to the audience to validate her compulsion. Her openness was uneasy on both sides. She seemed pretty desperate about the manner.

How do the stories we tell shape who we are? How do they limit or expand the ways we can understand ourselves? The way we can relate and connect? How does making sense of the world and oneself in relation to it lend justification to our existence? Is there any such thing as credibly and authenticity when one tells one’s own story? How do we prove to ourselves that certain stories belong to us? Why do some people need to share?

--Chlirissa

2008-04-03T07:18:00.000-07:00

my adventures in Portland

2008-04-02T12:23:00.000-07:00

So i'm on day 2 now in Portland. I'm in love with Portland, everything is sooo green and beautful. Right now i'm at this really great library and they have tons of zines! Everything feels really good here and is working out really well. The hostel i'm staying in is really nice although i wish there were more people around. Last night i met up with a friend of a friend, Erin, and we went to this bar/restauranty place and we had beer and chocolate cake! Suprisingly they make a really nice combination. Erin works at a Cremation Center, she had lots of really great stories.
I'm not quite sure what my plans are for today, probably doing a lot of wandering and lots of picture taking. In the next couple of days i will be heading to Santa Rosa to work on a ranch. I'm really excited for that. whoa, gotta run! Miss you guys!

2008-03-11T14:40:00.000-07:00

I just thought the Purple House community would like this little text I found on the Mike Gravel website:

The Stalking Horse
February 20th, 2008 by georgann
Clinton Will Use Ron Paul Delegate Strategy To Clinch Nomination
Just as Ron Paul will harness confusion at the Republican National Convention to convert supposedly “pledged” delegates to his uplifting cause, Hillary Clinton will do the same on the Democratic side. A senior Clinton adviser told Politico’s Roger Simon, the guy who looks a bit like Henry Waxman except without the insane nose, that if forced the Clinton campaign would pursue the votes of pledged delegates—those assigned based on the results of primaries and caucuses.
“This time, one candidate may enter the convention leading by just a few pledged delegates, and those delegates may find themselves being promised the sun, moon and stars to switch sides,” Simon writes today.
The great unmentioned stalking horse in this whole debate is Mike Gravel, who will in the end persuade every delgate pledged to Clinton or Obama to come to his side, leading to an apocalyptic Gravel versus Paul ‘08 election throwdown in which no one wins … except America.

-Ben

pumping iron

2008-03-11T14:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we pumped iron. We were like a house of Arnold Schwartzeneggers (sp). It was very good exercise for our arms. We will have stronger arms now than we did before.

-Ben

write (for) me

2008-03-09T20:24:00.000-07:00

Dear friends,

I am helping to start an arts/culture magazine with Sean Higgins. We are in the process of looking for writers. Below is a preliminary list of topics/themes that we'd like to get writers for.

Reviews
-books
-music
-film
-art
-zines/websites
Interviews
Celebrity letters (we already have some)
Etymologies/Biographies of words
Histories of Names of (Athletic Team, Band, Art Movement etc.)
Community Spaces/House Venue Profiles
Label/Publisher Profiles/Histories
Debates between intellectuals on a topic chosen by the staff
human body/techno-science interfaces- programming the human
obscure musical instruments
novelty food

Also, today we had pizza. It was so good. Thank you Kristin for pizza. And for ice cream

Also also, it is warming up. I can see part of the ground in the back yard. Spring is amazing. Come hang out. I want to go on walks and roast marshmallows in the back yard. Well, walks far beyond the backyard.

-Ben

when all else fails, hit every red button you can find

2008-03-03T16:12:00.000-08:00

today i had a lesson in handy-work. so we bought a half tank of oil this morning and were relieved because we thought we beat the 'EMTY' ticker on the furnace. but when we all went to take showers, the water came out icy like the air in our house. i thought it maybe took a little while before the oil kicked in and earnestly went back to the shower every hour or so until ben got home to see if some of that heavenly warm water would trickle out. when he got home we put two and two together and decided we had to relight the furnace. shit. we make a few phone calls, rally up previous champion furnace starters, consult the internet gods and go downstairs like mario and luigi, minus the plumping. i want to be mario. anyway, we let oil leak all over our hands, find some red buttons to push on and around the box with warning signs printed very neatly with tiny letters in the shadows of the machine. turn on the furnace 20 times, unscrew and rescrew the 'bleeder', meet up with the landlady who calls her friend who confirms that what we've been doing for twenty minutes is the right thing to do....then after i washed the first layer of oil off my hands for the 4th time i figured diane needed to buy a new furnace because ours was broken. no ticker, splatter, fire, or boost of anything was coming from the stagnant pipelined machine. then ben calls the oil company and they tell us to turn on the emergency switch.

i'm sure you can guess that i'm writing this in a warm room. anyway, i learned something today about that old furnace and definitely confirmed the purple house network. nice to know that even after you leave, you're not totally gone. except for the summer people....fuck them. just joking. i need to get back to work. i hope i graduate. jesslyn, come home.

-kristin

brrrrrr

2008-02-29T05:40:00.000-08:00

It is morning and the house is very very cold. Westerm Mass. is very very cold. Frankly, I'm sick of it. I'm going to be using the sauna semi-regularly as a means of counter-acting this oppressive weather. Besides helping you sweat out toxins, the intense heat actually raises your heart-rate and so sauna-ing acts as a form of mild cardiovascular exercise.

Today is a sad day, because it is Than's last official day in our house. I will miss you a lot. I think everyone will. I can only speak for myself, but I can state for certain that I'll miss you enough for the house even if they didn't all miss you, which I'm sure they do. Plus also a loss of a Dubin in a household is a grave loss indeed.

On the bright side, everyone is supposed to be getting up and making breakfast today. I'm waiting on breakfast to go to sleep. I'm maybe going to open a bank account this morning too. We'll see if i can stand going outside. It can't be much worse than in here though. The tips of my fingers are freezing and I keep needing to warm my hands so they are limber enough for typing.

On another bright side, we're getting a new housemate. She is named Chlirissa. I may have spelled her name wrong. She will be given the password to this blog and can make corrections as necessary.

I hope everyone wakes up soon. I'm getting hungry and impatient. Also, I still have yet to figure out who it was that commented on my last post under the name 'foronandon' (something like that, maybe another-andon was at the end). Please reveal yourself.

Your cold but devoted blogger,
Ben

Vote Nader

2008-02-26T00:56:00.001-08:00

Via nader.org
By Ralph Nader

Here is a short list of what you won't hear much of from the front-runners in this presidential primary season. Call them the candidate taboos.

1) You won't hear a call for a national crackdown on the corporate crime, fraud, and abuse that have robbed trillions of dollars from workers, investors, pension holders, taxpayers and consumers. Among the reforms that won't be suggested are providing resources to prosecute executive crooks and laws to democratize corporate governance so shareholders have real power. Candidates will not shout for a payback of ill-gotten gains, to rein in executive pay, or to demand corporate sunshine laws.

2) You won’t hear a demand that workers receive a living wage instead of a minimum wage. There will be no backing for a repeal of the anti-union Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, which has blocked more than 40 million workers from forming or joining trade unions to improve wages and benefits above Wal-Mart or McDonald's levels.

3) You won’t hear for a call for a withdrawal from the WTO and NAFTA. Renegotiated trade agreements should stick to trade while labor, environmental, and consumer rights are advanced by separate treaties without being subordinated to the dictates of international commerce.

4) You won’t hear a call for our income tax system to be substantially revamped so that workers can keep more of their wages while we tax the things we like least, such as pollution, stock speculation, addictive industries, and energy guzzling technologies. Nor will you hear that corporations should be required to pay their fair share; corporate tax contributions as a percent of the overall federal revenue stream have been declining for 50 years.

5) You won’t hear a call for a single payer health system. Almost sixty years after President Truman first proposed it, we still need health insurance for everyone, a program with quality and cost controls and an emphasis on prevention. Full Medicare for everyone will save thousands of lives a year while maintaining patient choice of doctors and hospitals within a competitive private health care delivery system.

6) There is no reason to believe that the candidates will stand up to the commercial interests profiting from our current energy situation. We need a major environmental health agenda that challenges these entrenched interests with major new initiatives in solar energy, doubling motor vehicle fuel efficiency, and other quantified sustainable and clean energy technologies. Nor will there be adequate recognition that current fossil fuels are producing not just global warming, but also cancer, respiratory diseases, and geopolitical entanglements. Finally, there will be no calls for ending environmental racism that leads to more contaminated water, air, and toxic dumps in poorer neighborhoods.

7) The candidates will not demand a reduction in the military budget that devours half the federal government's operating expenditures at a time when there is no Soviet Union or other major state enemy in the world. Studies by the General Accounting Office and internal Pentagon assessments support the judgment of many retired admirals and generals that a wasteful defense weakens our country and distorts priorities at home.

8) You won't hear a consistent clarion call for electoral reform. Both parties have shamelessly engaged in gerrymandering, a process that guarantees reelection of their candidates at the expense of frustrated voters. Nor will there be serious proposals that millions of law-abiding ex-felons be allowed to vote.

Other electoral reforms should include reducing barriers to candidates, same day registration, a voter verified paper record for electronic voting, run-off voting to insure winners receive a majority vote, binding none-of-the-above choices and most important, full public financing to guarantee clean elections.

9) You won’t hear much about a failed war on drugs that costs nearly $50 billion annually. And the major candidates will not argue that addicts should be treated rather than imprisoned. Nor should observers hope for any call to repeal the "three strikes and you're out" laws that have needlessly filled our jails or to end mandatory sentencing that hamstrings our judges.

10) The candidates will ignore the diverse Israeli peace movement whose members have developed accords for a two state solution with their Palestinian and American counterparts. It is time to replace the Washington puppet show with a real Washington peace show for the security of the American, Palestinian, and Israeli people.

11) You won’t hear the candidates stand up to business interests that have backed changes to our civil justice system that restrict or close the courtroom to wrongfully injured and cheated individuals, but not to corporations. Where is the vocal campaign against fraud and injury upon innocent patients, consumers, and workers? We should make it easier for consumers to band together and defend themselves against harmful practices in the marketplace.

Voters should visit the webpages of the major party candidates. See what they say, and see what they do not say. Then email or send a letter to any or all the candidates and ask them why they are avoiding these issues. Breaking the taboos won’t start with the candidates. Maybe it can start with the voters.

Than

2008-02-24T20:58:00.000-08:00

Scott and Lauren are here. We found an old copy of the Climax in the sofa. It had an article about doing drugs on halloween. A bunch of kids wrote about doing different drugs, and it seemed like they all had a really good time, except for the one who ate pot brownies. Apparently, pot is the only drug that is actually bad for you. Weird.

PS: Who is foronandonandon? You commented on this blog on the last post but left no name. Please reveal yourself.

-Ben

sports, etymology, etc.

2008-02-23T02:31:00.000-08:00

Hello.

It's 530 am, which is, I guess a little before bed-time for me these days. I need to get onto a more human schedule, Perhaps.

I was hoping to post with grand news about the new housemate, but such news is not yet available, although I'm certain it will be grand.

I've been a little down of late. Nothing too bad, just feeling the season wearing on me more than usual.

On the plus side, there is always sports. I would like to point out that NCAA basketball is reaching the most important part of the season. Memphis remains undefeated. The rest of Conference USA is quite weak however. I'm actively keeping tabs on those teams that are hovering on the bubble, and I am sad to say that the extremely high level of play across the board in the Atlantic 10 is actually going to hurt the conference come selection time. This is a real shame, but to be expected when reputation is worth as much as skill. I guarantee that if you replaced the 'Atlantic' with 'Big' you'd get 5-6 of those teams in no sweat, maybe even 7, but they're going to have a hard time getting 4. This isn't an idle comparison either. The Big 10 only really has 3-4 deserving teams, and yet will likely get 5, possibly even 6 if Minnesota makes a strong run in the conference tournament. The A10 has at least 7 strong teams, including our 5-college's own UMASS Minutemen, who'll be happy to get an NIT bid because of the relatively weak reputation of their conference.

Speaking of the NCAA tournament, does anyone know the etymology of the term 'on the bubble'?

No longer sports from this point. It's safe to begin reading again here:

A few things we discovered at the house; humans are the tuna of the land, manta rays are the birds of the sea, airplanes are the submarines of the air, frogs are the toads of the water and toads are the frogs of the land. Feel free to add any I missed. Peter thinks Benny is some kind of donkey?

Fish and Chips was today. Too many people came. I felt like very uncomfortable in the little fish market with about 2/3 of the hampshire student body. Speaking of student bodies, bodies politic, etc. I think it's very interesting that the term body, which refers generally to our most personal possession, also doubles for any group of bodies. I'm reminded of the cover to Hobbes's Leviathan in which the body of the sovereign is composed of hundreds of little bodies of the people. On a scholarly note, I'm referring to the illustration of a recent cover which was taken from the plate for the cover of the original edition.

etymological oddity: testimony originates from roman legal practice of swearing on the testes. something here should be written about origination/insemination/testes/the law/the law as father inseminating his own practice. I'm losing my train of thought.

Also, I learned today that in Iranian angelology, one's guardian angel starts off as a positive, beautiful thing, but the moral choices a person makes in life change the character of the guardian angel. Upon death, you get to see your angel and if you were a good person, the angel will be unbelievably beautiful and if you were a bad person the angel will be like a hideous demon. The angel will tell you that they were made that way from the choices of your life, and then you will expire.

I will try to sleep now. Don't wake me before 2.
-Ben

alive in hell

2008-02-21T16:38:00.000-08:00

No, not really hell. But hellish. That's my experience with Div. III so far. This week has been particularly hellish though I'm making some headway (slowly) with writing. I've been in my room most of the time, often listening to different pandora stations to keep the spirits up. I can smell dinner downstairs but I don't want to leave my seat because it's too tempting not to come back.

I definitely appreciate the invites out of the house and don't get me wrong, when I say no I really mean yes and when I say 'I'm going to work' I really mean, 'I'm going to sit and read a lot and try to figure out how to put this into my own words while checking the blog every 15 minutes or so'. I have been kind of out of the scene with this house lately, especially in trying to figure out who we want to live with when Than ditches us. (just kidding than). Sorry for being uncommunicative and absent and not very helpful with the process.

I'm really not absent though. My ears are with you. I listen to Peter airing out his trumpet oh so melodically at night and I can hear Jim's voice whenever he talks, it has an authoritative tone (in the friendliest way) and seeps through the ceiling. I usually hear Jesslyn come in at night and I know it's her when she walks past my door because Benny is usually drooling with excite behind her, then he runs into my door. Sometimes he successfully opens the door and rummages through my trash, rubs his ears on my bed and runs away. Little shit! I know Than's around when I can hear his door squeak open and when he walks up the stairs it sounds like he's knocking on my wall. (Don't worry, it's not a disturbing sound). I don't usually hear Ben at all but I do go downstairs and see him sitting on the couch in the living room reading or doing some sort of intellectual self-learning (it seems...who knows he could be looking at animal porn for all I know, he's very discreet though). It's nice to at least hear you guys, even if I don't interact much. Anyway, I know this post may seem like I'm the creepy one...in fact I hope it does. I like you guys in the creepiest way possible and I miss you all. Maybe I'll hang out in April?

Anyway, gotta go 'do work'. No really though, I will. I am. I will, therefore I am.

Western Massachussetttttts

2008-02-10T21:11:00.000-08:00

Before I leave the area, I wanted to review a few of my favorite places in the area.

The Invisible Fountains- Eastworks, Easthampton.

Here you will see a thousand paintings for free! And maybe buy one for 11.11 22.22 or 33.33.... and the artist prints my favorite valley publication (even more so than the Hampshire Gazette!) the Yankee Winebib. Wow, I think we all should have warehouse space to completely pursue wine and painting and movies and whatever your OCD has been hinting at your whole life. Maybe that is the key to happieness? Obsession and PMA??

North Shore Seafood Company- King St. Northampton

Last time I had fish and chips was at a Canadian National Park called.. humm.. Bay of Fundy. Largest tidal changes in the world. The sea goes out and out until rock and rollers from Montreal on road trips ask me, and American, where the ocean is. Thats cool- and I ate lots of fried fish and chips there. It was not a friday. Boats get stuck in the mud during the low tied and my father assumed it was a tourist trap. Anyways, North Shore has an amazing fish fry until 7pm on friday, and it is delicate and delicious. Only fridays cause of some Catholic thing (lent?), and chips are served wit fried fish to cool down the hot grease...

Heavy Metal Warehouse- Easthampton

There is a world of warehouses you never think of, and people running them. Bagel Cutter warehouses, and semi-pornographic fantasy/scifi comic book warehouses.

Trader Joes Dumpster- Hadley.

See Below.

More to come.

Dumpster Divas

2008-02-10T21:01:00.000-08:00

We went diving for booty.

2008-02-09T13:19:00.000-08:00

Dearest Readers (by which I mean mostly housemates and our significant others, but all other dear readers as well)

News:

We had a tremendous show featuring several of my very favorite people. Peter, Daniel, Andrea&Erin, and the entirety of the American Hornets were all fantastic. I'm sorry I was somewhat absent and less helpful than I probably should have been. A better effort will be made in the future. Still, it was a very good night.

Next Saturday we are having another event. Please be excited for it. Cursillistas, Tre Colori, Sal Feathers and 1 more TBA will be our guests.

Finally, we are still looking for a resident in the house. The coupola is going to be taken by Jesslyn, so her (beautiful) room is very much open, very affordable, and in need of an occupant.

Mitt Romney has dropped out of the presidential race, prompting the exclamation: Call Mom-- No Dom for Rom; Rom Bombs. Our house remains firm in its endorsement of Mike Gravel.

Reviews:

Hud- Hud, played by Paul Newman, has a barbed wire soul. It's in the tagline. He's a bad seed, a womanizer, a drunk, and he's gotten by on charm and good looks for too long. He's not evil, just so deeply selfish and emotionally scarred that he pretty much acts that way. Newman is fantastic, as always. This film is highly recommended for anyone who wants a strong drama and a different kind of western. One final note: The scenes with the cattle are really amazing and horrifying.

Actually, that's the only review I feel like writing at the moment.

-Ben

Two Pieces of News

2008-02-04T22:56:00.000-08:00

First, the bad news. This may turn out to be ok news, but we need your help for that:

Than is moving out, so we need a new boarder. The room is in the coupola. It is charming (if on the small side) and the rent is quite reasonable at only 300/month. The room is available starting March 1.

Utilities should be fairly inexpensive, because the majority of our bills go for oil, and you'll have missed the brunt of winter.

Please let us know if you're interested. We can give you an official tour, go over the details of the situation, etc.

Also, please tell any friends you think might be interested.

Second the very excellent news:

17-14, 18-1, if I need to explain further, you wouldn't care anyways.

2008-02-02T08:54:00.000-08:00

thank you

Weekly Tea Review

2008-01-30T15:28:00.000-08:00

This week's test subject - Pu Erh from "Cooks Shop Here" in Northampton. I think Ben put it best - this tea tastes like expensive top soil smells. It was pretty good.

Weekend News Update

2008-01-26T21:38:00.001-08:00

There are many things to post. I've been remiss of late in regards to this blog, but I promise to be more vigilant about posting. Here are some things. I've divided them between house news and national news for your reading convenience. More to come soon:

House News:

- We had a very successful show a few days ago. First congratulations must go to Peter for a very excellent dinner. Second congratulations to the bands. Steve D'Agostino played a very fun set in the living room and Gerald et al were great, but I think special mention must go to our out-of-town guests, the Easy Tease, who I thoroughly enjoyed.

- We've got a house-only ice cream and pizza and rent-gathering social tomorrow evening

- Upcoming on the 7th and 16th are a pair of shows I'm very excited about. I'll post details soon. I'll keep you in suspense though, just know you should be excited.

- Jim and Kristin and Maeve (sp? somebody tell me if i'm butcheriing her name) and I pretended we were a rock band and 'played music' in the basement.

- Price and Tara visited. It was just like old times.

National News:

-obama destroys south carolina, performing decent to outstanding in every demographic except old white people. Old white people aren't really on board.

-economic stimulus package? what about health care, a sustained critique of consumerism, and a promotion of local and sustainable products? Oh wait, structural changes aren't really the sorts of things we go for. According to Nietzsche, in America, "actors become the real masters" and as this happens the "great architect" type becomes impossible. In summary the argument is that we can't plan for the future because our leaders are all only acting (self-consciously so) in roles of leadership that are necessarily short term and limited to the tenure of the role, thus our society lacks the foresight to build the kind of projects that will outlast us. (quote and summary taken from Avital Ronell's discussion of N's 'Gay Science' in her book the 'Test Drive')

- if you take chocolate, toffee, and a dead celebrity and you roll them all together, what do you get?

from the comfortable brown chair, goodnight and goodluck.
-ben

undisclosed P.H. concert

2008-01-26T21:27:00.000-08:00

My new room is freeeexing

2008-01-21T08:20:00.000-08:00

It still feels a little weird to have four walls. And to wake up, not to the sound of Price's early morning banter.

Yesterday we made a family breakfast: french toast with freshly grated cinnamon and nutmeg then used the left over egg batter for scrambled dessert eggs which weren't a hit. And bacon was on the menu too. I'm going to make a bean salad of sorts, or maybe a bean soup!
Also, I'm devoting most of my life now to the Div. III that hasn't progressed much over these past few months. It's too early to start a count down to graduation.
Procrastinating with this. I think we should send out a missing person's report if Than doesn't come back soon.
-K

2008-01-15T22:20:00.000-08:00

House News: Kristin is coming home very soon. Than hopefully also.

We have a show on the 24th.

Scrabble. I played the word purple in scrabble today.

And also, I would like to share that Sean Higgins has a new blog: www.luckycloud.wordpress.com -- I think it's neat.

From Wikipedia: Excerpted Facts about the Color Purple

The word purple comes from the Middle English word purple which originates from the Latin purpura. This in turn is derived from the Koine Greek πορφύρα (porphura), name of the dye manufactured in Classical antiquity from the mucus-secretion of the hypobranchial gland of a marine snail known as the Murex brandaris or the spiny dye-murex.
The first recorded use of the word purple in English was in the year AD 975.[4]
The color regarded as the standard for purple has changed over the years, from Tyrian Purple in ancient times to Electric Purple today.

-- As a result of its association with royalty and luxury, the term purple is often used to describe pretentious or overly embellished literature. For example, a paragraph containing an excessive number of long and unusual words is called a purple passage (see Purple prose).

--People with purple auras are said to have a love of ritual and ceremony

--In politics in the Netherlands, purple (Paars in Dutch) means a government coalition of right-liberals and socialists (symbolized by blue and red, respectively), as opposed to the more common coalitions of the Christian center-party with one of the other two. From 1994 to 2002 there have been two purple cabinets.
In United States politics, a purple state is a state equally balanced between Republicans (normally symbolized by red) and Democrats (normally symbolized as blue)(See red states and blue states).
In British politics, purple is used to represent the United Kingdom Independence Party, a eurosceptic party wanting to pull Britain out of the European Union

--Robert Burns rhymes purple with "curple" in his Epistle to Mrs. Scott. Burns is, as far as we can tell, the only writer to have used the word. A curple refers to 1) the small of the waist before the flare of the hips or 2) a derriere, rump or behind.

--In the Star Trek universe, Klingons have purple blood.

(this is from ben)

History

2008-01-12T01:00:00.001-08:00

So, I am not at all familiar with the history of the purple house. I heard it has been the home of hampshire kids for like 3 years! Who were the first residents? What is the legacy?
PEter

Peter moves in!

2008-01-12T00:44:00.000-08:00

Hey Folks,
I'm now officially moved in to the front room downstairs. I'm proud to be part of the purple house legacy. This will be a new chapter in kingdom of purple. I'm excited to do all sorts of fun communal and musical things here. How bout a concert? I wanna book one.
Ben gave me the password to the blog, however it was without ceremony. I'm disappointed. I look forward to seeing all of my new roomies that are out of the house for the time being. Ben is right, it is a bit cold in here. But that's okay, cause I'm getting a space heater. Space Peter. If you are a friend of mine reading this and you don't live in the purple house, come and visit me. My gimp foot has drastically reduced my mobility, so I can't really leave unless I'm going to the hampshire library or someone is driving me somewhere. But not to worry, I am getting my sweet ford taurus station wagon shipped out from california in a couple weeks. Then I will go anywhere I please.
Thats all for now.
Peter

ice ice ice

2008-01-05T20:25:00.000-08:00

The weather of late has been absolutely terrible. Really really cold. in fact -8. If you're wondering why the number of posts has been down of late, it's because we've all frozen stiff. Our fingers are little icicles and the heat of the computer might melt them and cause water-damage and short-circuiting.

instead of typing, we've been sealing off windows and random holes in the basement wall (seriously). Also huddling for warmth and closing all the doors in the middle of the house. my room is so cold you need 7 layers of blankets before it's comfortable in there. ask aliza, she knows. the sleeping arrangement is called the 7-layer burrito in honor of the taco bell meal.

Apparently the arctic got upset about global warming and decided to move to the purple house. thanks to the magic of jim's fancy insulation, things are improving a bit.

also, i want to pre-welcome peter to the family. it's good to have you. When you move in you will be ceremonially given the blog password.

for now,
ben

picante butt

2008-01-03T13:24:00.000-08:00

Dear friends,

Since I have access to a computer for a short time I figured a bulk email wasn't enough. Here's how it's going:
Christmas was spent over the border in Punta Banda with the McAuliffe's and my family. We didn't have any trouble passing through at all (came in through san diego) and there weren't scary men pointing guns at people trying to get in. IN fact, we didn't even need to show someone a passport, which I'm sure will change when we start to head north again. From Punta Banda, Liam and I met up with two of his friends who traveled from san francisco on a sailboat. The swell was too big so they decided to leave their boat in PUnta Banda for a couple of guys to watch (who apparently are always drunk) and we loaded liam's car up nice and good and four of us continued south to chase the sun.
One night coyotes came upon our tent and surrounded us, howling like crazy and laughing at our fear. A few claps and howls back made them run away.
In todos santos now.....want to write more but have to go.
I'd like to think that I miss the east coast but really all I miss there is you guys and the dogs. West is the best. Eatings lots of tacos pescados y tacos con carne asada and haven't pooped in 4 days now....:/

-kristin

2008-01-02T13:52:00.000-08:00

Hey guys,

I'm home. Where are you?

-Ben

bloggity blog blog

2008-01-01T16:45:00.000-08:00

the house has been empty the whole week except for me. tonight I shot 10 for 25 free throws(i need to practice), and baked delicious shugga cookies. when is everyone coming back?
i just heard a door shut! is someone home?
hmm...
nope.
i've been wearing a tie all day but haven't left the house.
i've learned a lot the past couple of days, some of which include, it's not fun to misplace your rent money, new years in northampton is very strange, and you shouldn't climb trees on new years(the cops don't approve), sex offenders are NOT cool, and lastly i really like my housemates and miss them a lot.

New Year in KY

2008-01-01T15:30:00.000-08:00

I had forgotten how people have accents in Kentucky. I was at the mall today, listening to the various people from "the boonies", "the sticks", "Hollers" and other rural areas. Refreshing, I dare say. Like Faust among the villagers during the Easter festival.

Speaking of which, I just read "Faust" by Goethe. Not in German, though that would be fun. After studying medicine, philosophy, theology, he still was not fulfilled. The devil promised him fulfillment if he sold his soul to him. Faust agreed, and in the end was saved from damnation only because he was still striving for a greater completion. Everything else had failed him. Interesting, eh?

Probably not.

Til next time!

the perineum of the year

2007-12-28T12:17:00.000-08:00

It's the week between christmas and new years, and west grove is cool and damp.

A few points:

+Marvel Zombies comes out today!

+Apparently Al Qaeda plans on attacking the U.S. through Mexico.

+I MISS ALL YOU GUYS!! Is our house empty at the moment??

-J Hunter

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-26T07:42:00.000-08:00

I'm in sunny Kentucky right now, getting ready to bike around and get a gift for my brother who wasn't here yesterday. That's right, biking!

Kudos to Ben for getting his book published! So far, I have had nothing published, unless you consider the posts I've made at this website. Though I wouldn't consider these meandering musings to be "published."

I am reading "Silent Spring" right now, the book about the use of DDT and other pesticides and the way we were poisoning our environment. I can't even fathom it, but in the 1950s they used to use airplanes to douse millions of acres with insecticides. In order to kill the bull weevel they would just kill everything! Absurd!

I wonder how much DDT and other chlorinated hydrocarbons I have in my fat cells. That shit stays in you for a very long time, and I know that it hasn't been used in years, but how long does it take to break down? Styrofoam will last practically forever!

I embark on my cross-country trip in a week and a half, and so am just reading and rhyming and stealing.

By the way, if anyone offers to show you a video called "Two girls, one cup" absolutely do not watch it. I was duped into it by a friend one night, and regret it. It's like in the aristocrats, "The Joke", the terrible joke, the joke that everyone hates and is wretched. Well this is the incarnation of the joke in movie form.

And so with that holiday warning, I wish you all a Merry Christmas! Ho ho ho!

books and crooks

2007-12-25T02:20:00.000-08:00

Dear House and Assorted Friends of the House,

I have noticed a lack of posting. This is partly my own fault, but I think we need to begin a vigorous increase in posting.

So, some topics recently on my mind:

1) Ron Paul hits double digits in Iowa. The Revolution?? Or something... Why can't the left have any momentum?

2) Philip Seymour Hoffman. I saw 'Charlie Wilson's War' and 'The Savages' and enjoyed both and was totally floored by PSH's performance. Laura Linney held her own in the Savages, which was just a very well made movie throughout (except a few I thought tacky visuals early, but there's no need to be petty). However, our man completely dominated (in a good way) CWW, even though the movie featured a supposedly all-star cast. I think this review from the Charlotte Observer pretty well sums things up:

"Hanks... and Roberts seem "actorish," putting on accents and mannerisms, but they're entertaining. Hoffman is something more, a scenery-devouring force of nature irresistible as a cyclone and irreverent as a stand-up comedian at a midnight show."

Yeah, he's that good.

3) The Bengals beat the Browns on Sunday, so the Steelers are now officially the AFC North Division Champions. However, league-leading rb Willy Parker was injured and is out for the season, so I have serious doubts about our potential to advance very far in the playoffs. Oh well, at least Hines Ward has now set every major Steelers receiving record.

4) As some of you know, I recently completed a writing project which I've been calling my crossword-book-thing. I need to think of a better name because it just got picked up for publication by little publisher called No Record Press. Anyways, I'm not sure the details of the release yet, but it's kind of a big deal for me.

Also, is anyone at our house right now? Actually, don't answer that. A lot of burglars read this and I don't want to tip them off.

See you all soon??

-Ben

2007-12-21T23:35:00.000-08:00

Hello,

It's been a while since I've posted. I think this distance thing is difficult.

I think our house should make some new years resolutions. I for one am going to try to be a little more active in making the house a community-center and organizing movie nights and the like.

I am also in Arizona right now, so perhaps the heat is getting to me.

how are you guys?? i'm missing the valley.

-ben

A blog to check out!

2007-12-18T06:23:00.000-08:00

I have my own blog, so if anyone is interested in my political rants and historical tedium, then check out frothingdingodog.blogspot.com, or google search "politically angry" and i'm like the third one down.

also, the house feels much more livable these days. thank god for fossil fuels!

Price

One More

2007-12-17T16:19:00.000-08:00

American Graphitti: George Lucas

I was going along with this movie the whole time, looking at how amazing the era of crusing the strip was. So ideal and fun. Then I find out one character gets killed by a drunk driver, and another in Vietnam. Man. This was a good movie though, I never thought much of George Lucas as an actual director before this. Its cool that I an only two people removed from Ron Howard.

Movies and Temperature

2007-12-17T10:25:00.000-08:00

It is cold in the Purple House. Our hearts are cold because we are missing two of our own. One is in Sunny California, under the redwoods (!), or is it Mexico by the Sea of Cortez?
The other is in Connecticut.

The other reasason it is cold is that we ran out of oil, once again. It is the coldest weekend of the year. Two Noreasters. Over a foot of icey snow, and we have to heat with our stove. This is OK I guess, but it sucks living in a drafty house built for when petrol was cheaper than water. 600-800 bucks a month for oil this year.

Water froze in the cupola last night! That is a first.

Movies I Have Watched:

Five Easy Pieces: Directed by Bob Rafelson
This movie made me realize that I take way too much shit from society. Really good, I like the west coast and Washington Island Scenery. This movie is good with Ben Segal and Andrea Love watching with you.

Cool Hand Luke: Stuart Rosenberg.
Are all Good movies about beautiful Men who will not conform? This one was. I like the sexy car wash scene. I miss Luke now.

One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest:Milos Forman
Yes, they are. The system will beat on all the Lukes and Mcmurphys in the world under the guise of good intentions. We should all be more Brash.
"Ah, Juicy Fruit"

Thats all for now.

Purple House 06 reunion in the works. Shhhh.

Than

Like Fargo but with more scrabble and less woodchippers

2007-12-15T10:36:00.001-08:00

So last night we had a little gathering of friends here at the purple house, and Peter (a purple-house-prospie) and I were the last ones up and playing scrabble at 2 am. Someone knocked on the door and I answered - and theres this funny lookin guy who says he just flipped his car through the snow bank, across the sidewalk and into the bushes and he needs to make a phonecall. I lend him my cell and eventually this really pregnant police officer comes by and says "So how fast where you going there?" and the funny lookin guy says "like 35-40" and she says "oh well now this is a 25 zone here!"

IT WAS AWESOME.

And then we finished scrabble. Peter won 228 to 215.

An update on our friend, the mouse

2007-12-14T07:53:00.001-08:00

I caught the mouse this morning at 6:45, pinning it between the Hungry Jack instant mashed potatoes and the box of Quinoa (whatever that is) on the top shelf in the pantry. He was very frightened, but I released him down the street back into the wild. Hopefully, he will burrow his way into happiness and out of our lives forever, though I don't know if he's going to try to return to any family he has still in the Purple House.

On another note, Tara and I have definitely found a place for next semester, so I suppose this will be one of my last blogs. It's been fun living in the Purple House, and I intend on visiting often, especially in light of the fact that I'm going to be living just up the street, near the Forbes Library.

Rockin' into the New Year on a Merry Christmas sleigh, have a Chappy Channukah (which, I suppose, is over now) and bountiful Kwanzaa and a repentful Ramadan.

Price

oh the weather outside is frightful...

2007-12-13T23:23:00.000-08:00

... But we aren't allowed to use our fireplace

Today was a snow day!!!

I'm sitting on the couch with aliza eating tart and drinking delicious tea and being warm.

A few notes: The senate passed a very lousy version of the energy bill, Aliza finished her finals, and I want to wat a movie called 'My Science Project'. It involves time travel, highschool, and Denis Hopper and was made in 1985. Seems sweet.

And finally, the baseball world was schocked my the revelations of the Mitchell Report. Among the dozens of players cited in the report was one Roger Clemens. That's right, the Rocket used steroids. Which means that the most dominant pitcher and the most dominant hitter of our era were cheaters.

From the Sports and Leisure desk, this is Ben Segal saying Goodnight and Goodluck. We're all going to need it because the artic will be completely iceless during the summer of 2013 if we even make it past 12/21/2012.

sir i wanna buy these shoes

2007-12-12T21:45:00.000-08:00

So, I have been gone a lot and will continue to be gone for another while. It's weird to be spending so much time traveling, but it's also refreshing.

I would like to point out an omission to the recently watched movies list: Cool Hand Luke

Also, did anyone return 1984 and ATPM? If not, I guess I owe late fees.

I am in a slow state of mind. Few words are emerging that are of any use. I ate a mushroom pizza and thought about John Cage because he loved mushrooms more than just about anything, probably including music.

Also, and finally, I heard a song called 'christmas shoes' or something like that on the radio. i am nominating it for worst song ever, bar none. It's the story of a dirty little poor boy who goes to the store on christmas eve to buy his mom a pair of shoes. And then we find out the the mom is dying and might even die that very night. Instead of being with her, the boy is buying her shoes. She's on her deathbed, never to rise again, and he's buying shoes that he can't even afford. At one point has to ask the man behind him in line for money so he can get his mom shoes so that she can "look beautiful if [she] meets Jesus tonight". Also it is horribly sung and poorly orchestrated. I highly encourage searching for it.

Best wishes and happy holidays,
Ben

Reviews

2007-12-12T06:54:00.000-08:00

In honor of my favorite valley publication, I plan to review all movies and wines i experience.

1) HEAD- The monkees film. Amazing, though i would have liked more inter-personal characterization. I guess that is what the tv show is good for. Michael Nezmith has fallen from grace, but boy was he good in that movie. Frank Zappa!

2) Harvey Krumpet- Oh boy. Made me miss my family.

3) 1984- Pan. PASS. Made in 1984, kind of a gag. I am sure that it could have been made into a better movie, such an amazing book. The future is a boot stomping on a human face over and over forever.

4) All the Presidents Men- We need more Muckrakers. We need more Dustin Hoffmen. This movie made me HUNGRY FOR THE TRUTH.

5) American Gangster- This movie did not live up to itself. Good acting, great even, but not very memorable. Also, a quick look at the true story on Wikipedia was a let down. No one is that charming.

6) The Graduate- Yup. I would watch this again. How timely. Plastics, good call.

7) Monty Python and the Holy Grail- Jeesus. How did I ever like this?

Than.

The house is so quiet

2007-12-09T06:58:00.000-08:00

Jim and I have a "tie" system, where if there is a tie on the doorknob, then that means one of us is entertaining a lady guest. Last night, Than was returning Jim's tie and just left it on the doorknob, thus inadvertently sexiling Jim.

If the house had been like Arrested Development, then the narrator would have said something like this: "What Jim didn't know was that Tara and Price were awake and fully clothed, thinking themselves also sexiled." Cue theme music.

But alas the house is so quiet. Than and Ben are on vacation, Kristin has left for a month or two, and Jim is asleep and Jesslyn may or may not be here.

Dubin is hanging out, though, in his usual dude-like attitude.

I think Mike Huckabee is going to sweep the Republican primaries, securing for himself the nomination. The reason? Chuck Norris. He has managed to garner the votes of elderly, rednecks who love guns, single issue evangelicals, and most importantly, cynical gen-Xers. How? Chuck Norris. That's right.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=MDUQW8LUMs8

Tara said it's simultaneously brilliant and horrifying. I agree.

let's play some Harmonukkah!

2007-12-07T04:54:00.000-08:00

And come celebrate Channukah! Friday 6 till we die from Mannischewitz poisoning. We're making:

Latkes
Matzo Ball Soup
and other Jewish dishes as well!*

So schlepp on down, or would it kill you to come and visit every once in a while? If you're not going to visit, you could at least call. I know, I know, with long-distance rates what they are these days, oy! ...And other Jewish cliches as well!

*There are no other Jewish dishes.

C.I.A. Destroyed tapes of torture

2007-12-06T15:02:00.000-08:00

From here

"The Central Intelligence Agency in 2005 destroyed at least two videotapes documenting the interrogation of two Al Qaeda operatives in the agency’s custody...They were destroyed in part because officers were concerned that tapes documenting controversial interrogation methods could expose agency officials to greater risk of legal jeopardy, several officials said."

This is just like "All The President's Men"! Anyone want to see if our neighbors know anything about this??

bread

2007-12-06T12:49:00.000-08:00

Anybody want a loaf of bread?

We have a lot.

2007-12-05T22:40:00.000-08:00

Not Even Stories:

1) Melissa and Gohst were friends with benefits. This means that in exchange for sex, they received health and dental insurance. So they kept having sex, because they did not live in country with universal healthcare.

2) Burns are generally worse than aches, but heart-ache is worse than heart-burn. Except if you have really bad acid-reflux syndrome.

3) The cat was out of the bag. Unfortunately, the bag was where the cat belonged. This was unfortunate for the cat. That he had escaped the bag was unfortunate for his owner. There was misfortune all around.

Three Things

2007-12-04T18:55:00.000-08:00

I have three ideas in my head.

1) The afterlife in comic books. Wikipedia has extensive entries on almost every aspect of comic book universes, especially DC and Marvel comics. Wikipedia does not mention the format of the afterlife in comic books, despite the fact that heaven, hell, the devil, gods, God, angels, demons and ressurections are quite common. I believe the Justice League of America once went to Heaven to stop a war, and an actual Angel joined their ranks for some time. The Fantastic Four had to save their son Franklin from Hell, and traveled to heaven to get the soul of The Thing back from God. Now, I have noticed one thing in all these afterlife stories, and it is that Heaven and Hell are populated almost solely by superheroes and super villians. Rarely are normal humans seen.

I was thinking about this- the set up of these universes renders normal humans irrelevant, and the world and afterlife exist for characters which wear funny costumes and posses attributes that normal humans supposedly do not. I think this is how most people I associate with at Hampshire College and in Providence, view themselves, part of an elite pantheon with deep and meaningful characterization. Everyone is human though. A mere mortal.

2) A mouse evidently got into my beans. We have a problem. What can we do that is not too cruel? Any ideas? Both sticky traps and spring loaded traps are not certain to kill mice. What is a "have a heart" trap?

3) The cupola is not heated, so although I am warm with my electric blanket, my head is cold. So I think my sleep is not as deep as it normally would be. Because of this, NPR (which I leave on overnight) has been slinking into my dreams. This morning there was a story about a man in Iceland whom flies a plane to a Glacier to measure it every year. In my dream he asked me to accompany him, and I had to leave my DIV III show in order to do it. I was excited, but scared because we were flying in a dinky little one rotator plane. The Icelandic man flying the plane was my favorite Swedish actor Max von Sydow (The Knight in the Seventh Seal by Igmar Birgman). He was quite a guy, kind of a male Amelia Mary Earhart.

I think Amelia Earhart is amazing. I am sad she disappeared, I would have liked to see her speak, and maybe to have asked her on a date. Many things would have to be changed in reality for that to happen. I hope it does in my dreams tonight. I would take her out to get Pizza and play arcade games.

-Than

lessons

2007-12-04T16:00:00.000-08:00

last night we learned a few important lessons:
1) Trader Joes throws away a lot of perfectly good bananas and key limes, and orzo stuffed pepper is probably gross no matter when you eat it.
2) Dunkin Donuts switches out its batch of donuts in the afternoon. I think this is because only 1 person works in the store over the night shift, so if they tried to throw away the old donuts then, the store would be unmanned and very easy to rob.
3) We need a membership to pleasant street video or we need to start taking advantage of hampshire media services for rentals.

also, i am tired today for no reason i can quite understand. i am just a very tired person. weird.

yours etc,
ben

ps: than, can you please lend me dubin's electric shaver? my chin has been too covered for too long.

patriots v ravens

2007-12-03T20:15:00.000-08:00

listening to the game in the 4th quarter. both teams seem like they're trying to lose.

it's now 3rd and 14 at the baltimore 41. INCOMPLETE!!! the ravens, who i hate to root for, have held them.

this is huge. i'm rooting for the ravens (which is a first) but someone has to beat these NE jerks.

about 5 minutes to go, baltimore has the ball 1st and 10 on their own 28.

baltimore is 3rd and 2 now on the 36...shit they miss the marker. They'll have to punt with with about 3 and half minutes to go.

ravens at least have a staunch defense. as long as they can keep them out of the endzone.

patriots take over at their own 27. they've got 2 timeouts left, so there is plenty of time. Baltimore really needed one more first down.

here's the home stretch. first pass is incomplete- so far so good. patriots get a 1st down.

question: why isn't baltimore applying more pressure? Brady is much much worse under pressure. Prevent defense is not going to work with so much time left I don't think.

anyways, it's 2nd at 10 at the 50. and they just hit a 9 yd pass, so 3rd and 1, and brady sneaks to the 40 for a first.

incomplete on 1st down and it's now the 2 minute warning. patriots have very stupid radio commercials.

we're back. incomplete. 3rd and 10. They hit brady after giving some pressure. like i said. pass goes to faulk around the 30 near the first down, but shy by about a yard. STOPPED on 4th and 1, but baltimore had called a time out...so the patriots get to retry 4th and 1 on the 40. flag down, it's a false start on the pats, bringing it to 4th and 6. shit shit shit, brady runs for a 1st. 1:38 to go, 18 yards. this looks bleak for the home team. Faulk runs, gets to the 13. Incomplete pass, 3rd and 5, one minute remaining. Incomplete pass. 4th and 5. the patriot-loving announcers are criticizing Brady, which i think you can get excommunicated for in this part of the country. We're just under a minute to go, so if they only get a first, time becomes a factor.

INCOMPLETE...but a flag for Defensiveholding. BULLSHIT. 1st and goal at the 8, less than a minute. TD, but there are several flags. The announcer mis-called the play, couldn't see it and called it wrong. The flags are on the ravens and are assessed on the kickoff.

the announcers, refs, and ravens are all awful. what nonsense, getting 2 extra tries on 4th down.

44 seconds remaining. Baltimore is going to have terrible field position because of so many flags (3 now) for penalties to be assessed on the kickoff (35 yards). 27-24 now. the patriots are evil and i hate them.

They're going to get the ball on the 20, so they have 44 seconds to go and 1 time out. They need to get to at least the 40 for a field goal. 1st down to the 33. time is ticking, pass is complete to the 42. 14 seconds left only and they call their last time out. This is dismal clock management for only 2 plays. incomplete pass. 8 seconds to go.

they make a pass to the 2 yardline and the clock expires. terrible clock management. terrible coaching allowing the patriots to take too much time on their scoring drive and then operating with no sense of urgency on the ensuing drive. Baltimore is a bad team because they have decent players but a very very overrated coach in Brian Billick.

anyways, i'm disgustedly signing off.

Dear Reader

2007-12-02T23:54:00.000-08:00

Dear Reader,

We in the Purple House would like to discuss the topics that are burning holes in your mind and/or pocket. If do not live in this house and make a suggestion, we will discuss it. We will probably research it and debate it and the results of our investigations into the topics will be posted here. Leave suggestions for topics as comments on this post. We'd be much obliged.

Also, Dubin rolled in poop.

Debate, etc.

2007-12-02T16:43:00.000-08:00

Liveblog:

Currently talking to Price about a secret!

Yesterday we had a very nice little show. Thank you Brian and Peter. Brian was great as expected. I didn't know what to expect from Peter but I thought he was pretty fantastic. I thoroughly enjoyed both sets.

Today is slow and lazy. We watched the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. it was good, except the ugly wasn't really that ugly, which is too bad.

It's cold out.

***

I would like to add a thought about the gun control debate: If we think about soveriegnty, in a democracy, the sovereign power is supposed to rest in the people through their elected representatives. Unfortunately, the truth is that soveriegnty actually rests in the hands of the police, who (in how they choose to enforce or not enforce certain laws) actually are the sovereign force in our society. In any given situation, the non-elected and essentially autonomous organization of the police creates and enforces the law. So, in theory, the reason to allow citizens to have guns is in order to create a genuinely democratic form of sovereignty. As a counterbalance to the force of the police, one could argue, we would be better served if we had an armed population.

However, in terms of the argument earlier advanced on these pages, Price is absolutely correct. The 2nd amendment is absurd as a protection against any kind of army and the last thing this country needs is an uptick in militias. The right to bear arms is one of the remaining relics of a liberalism (in the technical sense) doubting itself. In so far as this doubt is all the more important in the age of late capitalism, it's sad to see that the internalized self-doubt guaranteed by the amendment might be lost.

And yet, even as a safeguard against liberalism, the 2nd amendment is outdated. Guns are defended not out of a distrust of the goverment but out of a distrust of the poor-- (self-defense against thieves and like). Right now we must advance a serious structural critique of the system that produces radical inequality rather than hold onto antiquated and defensive measures.

***

Also, in the world of sports, Hawaii is the only team in major college football that is undefeated and yet they are not going to have an opportunity to play for the national championship. Instead, a 2-loss team (probably LSU) is going to play a thoroughly mediocre Ohio State team. Talk about injustice.

-ben

absinthe hangover

2007-12-02T09:40:00.000-08:00

Life is difficult, especially when you're hung over from absinthe.

Russ hasn't vomited bile in a long time, apparently. Huzzah!

Tuna/salmon casserole in the oven is taking far too long, in my opinion. Potatoes are difficult to cook through in a huge dish.

Brian's show was a success, a nice small group came and enjoyed. So kudos all around.

McCain got a major NH endorsement by a newspaper, which apparently is influential. Maybe he'll get the nomination, which I think would be better than Huckabee.

Brian is leaving now, hugs and promises all around. Have a good drive!

A belated response to Jim

2007-12-01T11:26:00.000-08:00

I would like to point out that we are the only western nation, and indeed one of the few nations in the world, with such lax gun restrictions. Why is this? The government at the time of the founding of our country was afraid of a tyrannical central government infringing on people's individual rights, like England did to the American colonies. The founding fathers, and Jefferson in particular, did not have faith in the ability of a government to remain uncorrupted. Thus, a way to keep the federal government in check was to guarantee that if it were to ever stamp on a state or states' rights, they would have a well-armed militia with which to revolt. This would more or less frighten the federal government into respecting the rights of smaller political entities, right down to the individual.

An argument could perhaps be made that what would be good for this country is indeed a well-armed state militia that would lead an armed revolt in response to the Patriot Act or wire-tapping or the needless military interventions, in both Iraq and past countries such as Vietnam. But the reality is that state militias are a thing of the past, and have been since the Civil War. At this point, the second ammendment is interpreted to protect and INDIVIDUAL'S right to bear arms, but one which is, I believe, inaccurate to the original intent of the framers'.

What Jim says about individuals owning arms as a line of defense against some sort of hypothetical invading army is, too, inaccurate. If an army was organized and armed enough to overcome our bloated military and national guard, then I highly doubt that scattered households would actually pose much difficulty.

In the end, loose gun laws mean there are more guns on the streets and easily accessible by criminals and children. The fact that America steadfastly hangs onto this antiquated "inalienable right" is stupid, and we should overturn the second ammendment immediately. The statistics support my position, since America's gun death totals far exceed other industrialized nations', even per capita. Get them off the streets and out of the lawbooks.

2007-11-30T09:19:00.000-08:00

I just woke up and have decided to liveblog a bit. The sun is shining through the trees right outside my window and it creates a really nice shadow play on the glass. There are children from the school across the street playing and I can hear that. My toes are a little cold.

In international news, large crowds of people are rallying in the street because a teacher was jailed for allowing her students to name a teddy bear 'muhammed'. The reason they are demonstrating is not in protest against the strict religious laws of their government, but because they don't think the sentence (15 days in jail) was harsh enough. Many of them were calling for her to be shot.

In positive news, if you would like to buy into the Purple House Investment Syndicate, please contact Ben or Jim. The syndicate will be pooling money to invest socially responsible specialty and index funds. We are initially hoping to buy into a Calvert Alternative Energy Fund.

2007-11-30T00:28:00.000-08:00

Cool Hand Luke is a really great movie. I always forget things about it and then I watch it again and it's just really amazing and sad and kind of perfect. It's also really weird. Like the part with 'Lucille' is so strange but it ends up being perfect.

Weird. Anyways, it's in my room if you want to watch it. Than and I just did. We ate popcorn and watched it and now it is very very late.

Also, in a bit of my-own-horn-tooting news, i have a short story up at monkeybicycle.net. As of this posting, it is on the main page, but it might have moved to the archive by the time anyone reads this post. I think it's a pretty ok story.

Also Also, we showed the house today. I think it went well. I felt kind of weird being a tour guide to the place. I do like us though, so that part(talking about living here) was nice. Plus I got to talk about how sweet the cows are in the backyard.

What else? In sports the Steelers and the Dolphins set the mark for the longest time without scoring in an NFL game since there was a 0-0 tie in overtime in 1944. Steelers' Kicker Jeff Reed hit the winning field goal with 17 seconds left, securing a 3-0 victory. The Dolphins have now lost 6 of their 11 games this season by 3 points each. Given that they are the only team left in the leauge without a win, this is fairly shocking. I mean, they are 18 points total away from being 6-5 and in the middle of the wildcard race.

I think it is time for me to get some sleep.

Goodnight.

Supreme Court - Second Amendment Debate

2007-11-29T20:35:00.001-08:00

From here

"The Supreme Court announced Tuesday that it would decide whether the Constitution grants individuals the right to keep guns in their homes for private use, plunging the justices headlong into a divisive and long-running debate over how to interpret the Second Amendment’s guarantee of the 'right of the people to keep and bear arms.'"

Price and I were talking about this, and he stated his support for the Supreme Court deciding for tougher gun laws. I don't consider myself particularly educated on the topic, but I found myself defending gun rights from a sort of civil liberties standpoint. I agree with Price that the original intent of the law has little relevance to today, and that original intent factors into a court decision, but I believe that through a history of court decisions the second amendment has retained relevance and value. There is essentially no threat to us now that would require response from a state militia, but I don't know that this is criteria for the repeal of an amendment.

Crap!

2007-11-29T16:38:00.000-08:00

Pleasant Street Theater is closing forever!

That really really sucks. I feel like our rent should go down. Honest to G-O-D I do.

Goddamnit, what is next to go? Backyard Birds? Mimo's pizza??? Bueno y Sano?!?!

purple house animal friends

2007-11-29T09:41:00.000-08:00

We Have:
-mice
-shrews
-red squirrels
-blue jays
-a big dog
-a little dog
-goats
-sheep
-horses
-llamas
-cute lil piggy

i cant think of any others, but this house is like a congress of mammals.

oh, and the compost is full of wriggly red worms and maggots!

anyone want ten bucks?

2007-11-27T15:21:00.001-08:00

if so, you should email tara to be in an erp study this saturday. it only takes about an hour, and you get ten bucks, which you can then spend on booze for the show saturday night. or on black beans. whatever. tdf04@hamp

Wow

2007-11-27T14:05:00.001-08:00

If you were following the pop-able food debate that went wild on this site over the past 24 hours, you have heard the rumors of a pop-able black bean.

It does indeed exist. It is a subspecies of the common bean called the nuña. It pops and tastes like Peanuts- it was domesticated in the Andes a couple thousand years ago.

Interestingly, it has been "patented" by a large corporation. Natives are upset about this. We all should be. Patenting an organism. I bet Marguerrite is all for that..

Anyways, I most likely will never be able to try nuña.

This weekend I am going to try Amaranth though.

End. live. Blog.

?!

2007-11-26T17:34:00.000-08:00

An interesting question about Pakistan came up in the Purple House the other day...

What is the difference if Musharraf steps down as the head of the army? Is he not still the head of the army?

Blank Stares all around...

Well, the man will "Take off the uniform" in a couple days, I have read... but...

Asked if President Musharraf was severing all his professional links with the military, Gen Qureshi pointed out that he would remain supreme commander of the armed forces, as was the case with heads of state in other countries.

bbc.co.uk

We live in a strange stagnant world where things don't really ever change. The human concept of time has to expand or I will die a depressed man.
Now that oldest living animal they found and killed... if it had had a human mind and was not killed for science, it would have had a chance to see actual change.

http://www.physorg.com/news112870855.html

God, i need to stop blogging like I own the place. Back to work.

More Pop

2007-11-26T16:31:00.001-08:00

Popcorn pops because the shell is so hard, that it makes an explosive amount of pressure for moisture to be released. Other corn does not have hard enough outer shells on its kernels to explode. Thats pretty cool I guess... and you can pop certain types of rice- they become rice-crispyish more or less.

Popping rice does not sound exciting, but being more like an Aztec does. So I have decided to seek out the grain "Amaranth" which can be popped and is a miracle food. AKA PIGWEED!

Anyone I know have any idea where I could get this stuff? I don't think the pigweed that grows in our region (siberian east) can be popped.

It is the only other pop-able food worth-a-shit.

Deciphering "Porn"

2007-11-26T09:26:00.000-08:00

I showed that Wikipedia segment on Popcorn to some of the physicists here at the lab. We fed it through an enigma machine and poured some liquid nitrogen on it, and apparently this is what it actually meant to say:

Air-popped popcorn is naturally high in fiber, low in calories and fat, contains no sodium, and is sugar free, which makes it an attractive snack unless one is limiting carbohydrates. The actual fat, sugar, and sodium content depends on how the popcorn is prepared though and a naturally healthy snack can quickly become unhealthy.

Popcorn is included on the list of foods that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends not serving to children under four, because of the risk of choking. It is one of the top causes for children choking to death (along with hotdogs and balloons). [15] Special "hulless" popcorn has been developed that offers an alternative for small children and for people with braces or other dental problems who may otherwise need to avoid popcorn.

We all agree that a way should be found to re-cipher text, but we have to finish working on that blasted flux-capacitor.

popporn

2007-11-25T21:56:00.000-08:00

I was just poppping corn straight off the cob, from our last week of a farm share. Very good, it popped within seconds! And it is delicious! Truly a versitile and healthy snack (popcorn is a whole grain and is high in fiber!). A while back, a good friend of mine told me that pop corn is just one of several pop-able snacks, so I went online to find out the truth of this...
My search took me to wikipedia, and I think the entry on the nutritional value of popcorn has shaken my faith in the open-source enclyclopedia we all love. From wikipedia:

Air-pod porn is nally high in fiber, low in calories and fat, contains no sodium, and is see, which mack can quickly become unhealthy.

Porn is included on the lit of foods that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends not serving to children under four, base of the risk of ching. It is one of the top cases for chin chng to death (along with hogs and boons). [15] Special "huss" porn has boped that offers an alternative for small chin and for pole with braces or other deal proms who may otherwise need to avoid porn.

Wow.... what the hell does that mean?

Emerson

2007-11-25T14:51:00.000-08:00

You have just dined, and however scrupulously the slaughterhouse is
concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Kentucky is cold

2007-11-23T17:12:00.000-08:00

my thoughts are with you, jesslyn. the purple house is big. cold. the todrins could be lurking.

I visited the old kentucky capitol with tara. it was awesome. the woman started talking about "free colored" who did the plaster molding. but she continued to refer to the freed slaves as "colored". it was quaint.

boiled custard makes me happy, though it doesn't exist in the north. imagine eggnog, but thicker, richer, sweeter, and better. kentucky in the holidays. and it snowed!

tara is drinking tea. n*sync christmas album playing. good cheer all around.

Yin and Yang

2007-11-22T19:57:00.000-08:00

Samuel is dead. The cause: a sweet sweet drowning in my honey. I am finally over my grief and guilt on this, but only because another rodent has stolen my heart.

J.F is a new friend I saw on the couch we have on the porch yesterday. At first I though he was a chipmunk, but he was too big and had no stripe. I then assumed he was a normal ol' grey squirrel. But, it turns out he is a Tamiasciurus hudsonicus. An American RED squirrel.

J.F is stealing the couch stuffing to make a nest somewhere. And I could not be happier! An excellent example of how animals adapt to human presence, a topic I study here in Academia. Right on our porch! J.F is adorable. The first red squirrel I have ever seen! Here is a picture of a red squirrel(it is not as adorable as the real thing!):

2007-11-21T22:25:00.000-08:00

The house is very quiet. i remember when a friend told me they very creeped out by this house and thought it was haunted, but i'm trying not to think about it. kristin said she was going to be home tonight but never came. Where ever she may be i hope she is having a nice Thanksgiving and i hope everyone else is having a nice thanksgiving too.Tonight my activities included beer drinking, eps watching and the creation of a huge (overflowing) pot of squash/potato/carrot/onion/cabbage stewish thing. It's delicious.
I threw a touchdown pass today. True story.
Well Benny is munching, my eyes are getting heavy, it's time to retire.
Miss you shorties.

oh snow you di'int!

2007-11-20T07:10:00.000-08:00

Lots of us are driving today and there's at least an inch on the ground plus clumpy snow flakes falling fast. Be careful!!! I'll miss you guys, I hope everyone has a good break. Post so we can all get a glimpse of what home is like! Also, last night TMNT didn't go down...but a couple episodes of arrested development did. Jesslyn and I had hot laundry for blankets and Than made a comida rico y Emily...came over. venir...vino? Shit my spanish sucks.

gotta go before the ahhhh nooooooo not again!

Thxgivin week starts

2007-11-19T20:40:00.000-08:00

Price Kristin and Jim are leaving tomorrow. Jesslyn has to work on thanksgiving day. That sucks. Don't know what Ben and Than are doing.

I think Jesslyn is watching TMNT with Kristin. I'm listening to Marcy Playground.

Mornings are awesome!

2007-11-17T07:59:00.000-08:00

I can't believe how many people are still asleep at 11 AM. It's going to get dark in five hours!

This morning I found a cabbage in the compost at Hampshire, a fully good, purple cabbage. So I saved it, though am not quite sure what to do with it. I already have so much sauerkraut fermenting at the moment, I suppose it will be cabbage soup or something. Maybe a stir fry. Or I'll just force-feed it to Than.

House is looking approximately as clean as it always has, but today I plan on putting up some drapes and perhaps cleaning up a bit.

Answer to a question a while back:

Than has one older brother, Dick (Dick Wood), and at holidays, his father, grandfather, brother and he sit at a table together and talk and they're referred to as the table of Dicks, even though Than is certainly not a Dick.

Decaf coffee makes my spirit animal crest.

See Price!

2007-11-16T09:10:00.000-08:00

" WASHINGTON - The Senate on Friday blocked a Democratic proposal that would have paid for the Iraq war but required that troops start coming home.
ADVERTISEMENT

The 53-45 vote was seven votes short of the 60 needed to advance. It came minutes after the Senate rejected a Republican proposal to pay for the Iraq war with no strings attached."

I took a basic civics class, and I recall that a bill needs 50 votes to pass. This is mysterious and bizarre to me. If anyone can explain why these anti-war bills work on some different formula I would be obliged. War is always.

Wow.

2007-11-15T22:28:00.001-08:00

In a horrible and ironic twist of fate- Samuel the kitchen Shrew was found drowned to death in a container of my honey this evening.

That is all.

Road Trip

2007-11-15T08:38:00.000-08:00

When I am done with school, Ben and I are going on a road trip. No sweat.

We need funding though, and I want to go West (YES!) and Ben wants to go South. I told him we would meet our ends like the guys in Easy Rider down there. Far better to get stuck in the Rocky Mountains, and visit my friend in Idaho who Skis and light dynamite (really!) for ski patrol. His name is Matt Ryan, and his JOB is to set off avalanches. Sheesh, I go to school for the wrong things.

End future blog.

Purple house loves eggs

2007-11-15T05:24:00.000-08:00

it's almost 8:30 AM and i'm sitting in the quiet house like i do every morning, with one big difference. I just read that the democratic house passed a war funding bill with a timetable for a pullout, and substantially less funding than Bush had wanted. Maybe things are changing?

Hoping everyone's here for the meeting tonight, haven't seen the whole house together in such a long time. soup and whiskey for everyone involved, i say. it's a thursday night, but who keeps track? Thursday is the new Friday.

I think pornographic comic books are hidden in the walls. But that's just my guess. Completely unfounded in any sort of reality. I swear.

Amazingly, I bought 18 eggs on Monday and by Wednesday they were all gone. all. I would be frustrated, except I'm so astounded at the incredible rate that this house consumes eggs that I can't be. We should totally get a chicken. or four.

EPA

2007-11-14T12:55:00.000-08:00

live blog:

i am being wholly unproductive. my feet are cold. the house is quiet.

dear than: you should just have your reception here. we'll all clean everything and set it up nice. fuck sodexho. also, i volunteer jim to personally chauffeur (sp?) your committee to and from the house. sorry jim, but it's for the best that I volunteer you.

trivia: what's buried in the walls of the house?

cars are going by outside, i can hear that. my feet are still cold. maybe it's time for socks.

-bs

soup's on!

2007-11-14T11:42:00.001-08:00

Come eat some potato leak stew! it needs salt, but otherwise is awesome.

more sauerkraut on the way.

and that tower of books? oh yeah, you know you want them...

Poorly Run Institutions

2007-11-14T11:26:00.000-08:00

So, I just found out that at my DIV III show I cannot have alcohol, must pay a student 17$ an hour to monitor it, and can not serve me own food, but must pay sodexho. Also they cannot guarantee that I actually can have the show.

MOTHER FUCKING CUNT ASSHOLE SHIT HEAD I HATE THIS FUCKING SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!!!

Fuck them fuck them fuck them assholes.

Time for a class where we dont actually learn anything. Wow, Hampshire is great. Maybe afterwards my committee can ignore me and I can spend my time alone not enjoying life.

Fuck.