Thursday, October 16, 2003 at 16:41:20 (EDT)
Leader of the plaque I think I finally figured out that no matter how much I actually floss, my dentist will still accuse me of not flossing enough. So from now on, even if I floss regularly, I'm just gonna act sheepish and mutter, "Aw, I just keep forgetting. I'll try harder." I think it'll make 'em feel better. So thanks to that unknown person in the HR department who halted the entire company's shift to a new healthcare provider just for me, I didn't have to pay for my dentist appointment today. But one of my wisdom teeth has started to erupt, so I gotta get 'em yanked. I don't know if my insurance will pay for the whole procedure (I think it specifies this stuff in the dossier they sent me, but that's too much trouble). At least I'll get some Percocet or morphine or something out of the deal. Posted By Jimmy Legs
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	Thursday, October 16, 2003 at 08:59:21 (EDT)
Captain is (not) Dead Holy shit, so the pilot of the ferry really did shoot himself with a pellet gun. From the Times: ... law enforcement officials said the ferry's pilot fled the scene to his home in the Westerleigh neighborhood of Staten Island, barricaded himself in a bathroom, slit his wrists and shot himself twice in the chest with a powerful pellet gun. However, this means Bloomberg was lying when he said the pilot was fine and that he was talking to the authorities. I guess that's something I'm already used to. Posted By Jimmy Legs
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	Wednesday, October 15, 2003 at 17:46:21 (EDT)
Read about it Ugh. What the hell is going on with the Staten Island ferry? I read about it online and turned on the local news. Local news broadcasters will spew any sensationalistic garbage they can think of, regardless of the facts of the situation. They're claiming all these casualties, even tho no one could possibly have any idea at this point how many people were hurt or killed (tho the fire dept confirms 5 dead so far, not quite the 15+ dead they are claiming on TV). Idiots. Somebody also said the captain of the ferry committed suicide after the crash. I just wanna get that up here so if it turns out to be bullshit I'll have a nice little illustration of how the local news operates. On an ironic note, Aaron over at 601am started his "Media Crash Diet" today, in which he will take in no news other than what he can read in amNewYork. Sounds more like a media fast to me. I hope somebody tells him about this. UPDATE: More confirmed dead, up to 10 now. And I heard another mention of the pilot's apparent suicide after the crash, from another network. But NY1 claims the pilot guy shot himself with a BB gun and is not in fact dead but is in surgery. I don't know whether to believe any of this. Any way you slice it, it's a dark day for the maritime industry. UPDATE II: Bloomberg says the captain is fine. I wanna know the number I can call to add my own erroneous details to breaking news. Posted By Jimmy Legs
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	Tuesday, October 14, 2003 at 10:32:58 (EDT)
This is a different neighborhood Hey I just noticed this article in the Voice about our neighborhood. I've always considered Classon Ave the eastern dividing line between Clinton Hill and Bed-Stuy, but according to this article, it goes all the way to Franklin Ave now. This is pretty suspect to me. I don't mind that Clinton Hill's borders may be artificially expanding, I'm all for more people knowing about this hood. But this sort of thing smacks of Realtor influence. If you check the "Clinton Hill Historic Area" signs around the neighborhood, the 'landmark' part of the neighborhood runs out one block before mine. So even if I don't live in Bed-Stuy proper, I'm on the border. To suddenly have the neighborhood extended another block strikes me as false. Sounds like real estate eels trying to downplay the neighborhood with the stigma in favor of the neighborhood nobody's heard of, but sounds vaguely like the non-neighborhood of "Clinton" which Realtors have been trying to force onto Hell's Kitchen for years. Posted By Jimmy Legs
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	Tuesday, October 14, 2003 at 10:16:06 (EDT)
I'm a Nazi schatze, I harass for the fatherland Did any body hear about this? Priest arrested on harassment, gun charges He must live in the neighborhood cuz they took him to the 88th Precinct, which is a couple blocks from my house. So he's a Roman Catholic priest who was picked up for making harassing phone calls to a Bishop at Loughlin High School. When they came after him they found a bunch of weird stuff at his house, like guns, a wad of cash, porn and nazi paraphernalia. They don't specify what any of the nazi stuff is, but I'd like to know. I mean, was it like a dish or something spooky, like a wax dummy wearing an SS uniform? And why does any of what they found at the guy's house have to do with his harassing phone calls? Hey, he's a Catholic priest, of course he's gonna have a stash of porn! I'm not sure what gives them the right to rummage through his stuff when the alleged victim even said the calls were merely "offensive but not threatening." Shouldn't the cops just tell the guy to cut it out and be done with it? Posted By Jimmy Legs
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	Sunday, October 12, 2003 at 16:07:21 (EDT)
Here's your accordion, welcome to Hell! Stupid rocked the house as usual, although they gotta find a way to get the accordion louder. It's gotta be tough, I've tried miking accordions before and it's no picnic. It's either too quiet or it feeds back something fierce. I wonder if they could make the pickups more similar to a bass guitar so it could be run through a direct box. Anyhow I know very little about the actual workings of such things, so I'll shut up. Another thing I know only a little about is the Cordovox Accordion/Organ system. Somebody gave Dana one the other day, much to my envy. I've read about them and seen them on eBay for big bucks, but I've never gotten my hands on one. I'm still fuzzy about exactly how it works but the main thing is its voices. It can be played like a normal accordion, but if you run it through one of the suitcase-looking tube amps, it can produce a much wider variety of tones, akin to an organ. It's sort of a prototypical MIDI concept. I've even heard of people converting their Cordovoxes into MIDI controllers (although that seems somehow a shame to me). I thought at one point that the Cordovox could be set up to be played without working the bellows, but I'm not so sure about that anymore. They haven't been made in decades so there's not a lot of info out there. I hope it works out and I get to see it in action at a Stupid gig in the near future (hint, hint). Since we were in the neighborhood, we stopped off at the Red Chef's Pushcart for bugogi, that Korean BBQ stuff I'm always rambling about. That stuff is so good, I keep contemplating going out and buying the ingredients to make it myself. But then apathy washes over me in a comforting wave. Seriously though, if you're near Ludlow & Stanton streets on the weekend, you gotta get some of this stuff. Next time I go I'm getting the kim chee hot dogs, another idea whose time has come. Also I have it on good authority that the grilled chicken wings are fabulous as well. Hmm. I think I need to go eat something. This cart may be the start of a whole movement in Korean Soul Food. On to new challenges: I'm going out to buy some new bedsheets and maybe a bedspread. My thinking is, if I start buying accouterments for the bed, I will one day have the energy to actually purchase the real thing. In the meantime I'm gonna dress up this broke-ass futon some more and continue to convince myself it's somehow orthopedically helpful. Posted By Jimmy Legs
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