(no subject)

Just ordered my Platinum Pass for Cinequest. I've never gone for the platinum before, and it's kind of a weird year to do it--I'm not going to have that much time to spend at the festival, and the big events that you get to sit in the front rows for are mostly less appealing than usual.

But I was going to get a regular (I mean, Gold) pass anyway, and a neat coincidence happened. Long story short, I was looking to buy a Palm PDA with WiFi, and just as I was, well, waiting for the Sony TJ37 to come out, Cinequest announced a deal where every Platinum Pass comes with a free Tungsten C. Which is mostly better and, effectively, will cost me exactly what the Sony would have.

So, yay! Hospitality suite, front row seating, and a shiny new PDA!

primary

California's primary is tomorrow. I still haven't figured out who I'm going to vote for in the big race, but I'm leaning toward Kucinich. I think Kerry and Edwards would both make pretty good candidates. I'd rather see Edwards's personality than Kerry's in a fight against Bush, but on substance, both of them are far enough to my right that the differences between them pretty much vanish. Kucinich is crazily idealistic sometimes, but also thoughtful and positive, and he says things that I believe (e.g., that the death penalty is wrong) that the winning candidate will never mention.

And speaking of crazy people who won't be president, here's a piece from The New Republic about Ralph Nader through history:

Heroes of history do not normally reverse themselves out of the blue. George Washington did not end his days pining for a return of the British monarchy to U.S. shores. George Orwell did not suddenly warm to the virtues of totalitarianism. Nor, for that matter, did Ralph Nader go wrong after decades of doing good. The qualities that liberals have observed in him of late--the monomania, the vindictiveness, the rage against pragmatic liberalism--have been present all along.

Don't miss his sneering condemnation of Jimmy Carter.

(no subject)

The western sky on my way home was amazing--layer after layer of cloud, each reflecting the light differently, with little slivers of blue out past the Santa Cruz mountains.

(no subject)

I just updated the web site for the first time in months. It's nothing notable, which I guess begs the question: Why am I noting it? I'm just hoping it marks some kind of regained momentum. There are a bunch of things I want to do, like post new MP3s and finally sell the CD online and send mail to my mailing list about all the many things I've been doing since last time I updated. It's weird that when I took time off from software engineering to make music, I actually ended up dropping from sight as a musician in some ways.

Anyway, the update is: I finally posted about some upcoming shows, including two local coffeehouses and my L! A! debut! in the form of a half-hour set at a coffeehouse open mike. (Well, I've played there before, but this is the first time I've been scheduled.) Hooray!