Saturday, July 31, 2004


Time for Branding?
Dear Vanessa -- Shopping in a big-box store today, I nearly fell over when I approached the toothpaste counter. The... posted by Michael at July 31, 2004 | perma-link | (33) comments

Film Noir 101, Plus Many Self-Indulgent Musings
Dear Vanessa -- How easy do you find it as an adult to sustain your culture interests? What with life,... posted by Michael at July 31, 2004 | perma-link | (26) comments

Friday, July 30, 2004


Slow, Cont.
Dear Vanessa -- I had a very good time reading Carl Honore's In Praise of Slowness: How A Worldwide Movement... posted by Michael at July 30, 2004 | perma-link | (9) comments

Evolution and Architecture
Dear Vanessa -- David Sucher (here) reprints a terrific Philip Langdon piece (here) about all the lousy new architecture that... posted by Michael at July 30, 2004 | perma-link | (3) comments

A Curse on Our Political Class
Dear Vanessa -- Could our political class have come up with a less appetizing set of Presidential candidates than GWBush... posted by Michael at July 30, 2004 | perma-link | (22) comments

Thursday, July 29, 2004


John Massengale
Dear Vanessa -- I had a delightful New Urbanist lunch with the architect, author, and blogger John Massengale today. (John's... posted by Michael at July 29, 2004 | perma-link | (3) comments

Wednesday, July 28, 2004


Movie Update
Dear Vanessa -- * Many thanks to Lynn Sislo, who passed along a link to this interesting blog devoted to... posted by Michael at July 28, 2004 | perma-link | (9) comments

Saturday, July 24, 2004


Guest Posting -- Tatyana on the Russian-Bard Scene
Dear Vanessa -- Honest now: did you have any idea that there's a substantial Russian-bard scene in America? What's a... posted by Michael at July 24, 2004 | perma-link | (6) comments

Magazine Titles
Dear Vanessa -- Until today, I'd thought that the most vulgar/outrageous/naughty (depends on the mood, doesn't it?) nonporn magazine titles... posted by Michael at July 24, 2004 | perma-link | (0) comments

Teens Revisited
Dear Vanessa -- Once again, I've missed my chance. Putting together my posting (here) about how bizarre it is that... posted by Michael at July 24, 2004 | perma-link | (14) comments

Thursday, July 22, 2004


This Summer's Fashions
Dear Vanessa -- The weather in NYC was hot and humid the day after the Wife and I returned from... posted by Michael at July 22, 2004 | perma-link | (26) comments

More Cell Phone Annoyances
Dear Vanessa -- Those people who continue talking on the cellphone even while paying the cashier? How can anyone be... posted by Michael at July 22, 2004 | perma-link | (14) comments

Bloghelp
Many thanks to everyone who offered tips and coaching about controlling commentspam. Being the weeniest of technoweenies, I'm dependent on... posted by Michael at July 22, 2004 | perma-link | (0) comments

Wednesday, July 21, 2004


Theme Song for the New Urbanism
Dear Vanessa -- I've been enjoying the heck out of James McMurtry's tasty and rockin' alt-country CD Too Long in... posted by Michael at July 21, 2004 | perma-link | (9) comments

Evil
Dear Vanessa -- I woke up this morning to find hundreds and hundreds of new spam-comments deposited on this blog.... posted by Michael at July 21, 2004 | perma-link | (12) comments

Monday, July 19, 2004


More Politics
Dear Vanessa -- * The other day, The Wife -- who's usually even more uninterested in politics than I am... posted by Michael at July 19, 2004 | perma-link | (42) comments

Friday, July 16, 2004


Adolescent Nation
Dear Vanessa -- A few of the big, general arts-life truths I've stumbled across over the years have been real... posted by Michael at July 16, 2004 | perma-link | (42) comments

Denmark and Porn
Dear Vanessa -- Here's a short video documentary about the history of porn in Denmark. I was fascinated to learn... posted by Michael at July 16, 2004 | perma-link | (2) comments

Thursday, July 15, 2004


"Unguarded Gates"
Dear Vanessa -- A widely remarked-upon mystery of recent-ish politics: when did lefties stop being champions of race-blindness and take... posted by Michael at July 15, 2004 | perma-link | (62) comments

Alice on "Kill Bill"
I'm a great fan of The British Blogger Formerly Known as Alice Bachini -- the gal who recently relocated to... posted by Michael at July 15, 2004 | perma-link | (13) comments

Wednesday, July 14, 2004


Elsewhere
Dear Vanessa -- * In ongoing Latin-America-merges-with-the-U.S. news, John Kerry has now said that if elected he'll put in place... posted by Michael at July 14, 2004 | perma-link | (9) comments

Writer's Block
Dear Vanessa -- Some of the reasons this blog enjoys throwing rotten tomatoes at Modernism: Modernism claims to be radical... posted by Michael at July 14, 2004 | perma-link | (26) comments

Tuesday, July 13, 2004


Lunch Emails
Dear Vanessa -- Friedrich and I chose the "Dear Michael"/"Dear Friedrich," epistolary form we use on this blog for a... posted by Michael at July 13, 2004 | perma-link | (11) comments

Monday, July 12, 2004


The Human-Computer Interface, sort of
Dear Vanessa -- Cyber-age bliss: surfing the web and listening to Itunes while the Wife gives me a combo backrub/headscratch.... posted by Michael at July 12, 2004 | perma-link | (3) comments

Friday, July 9, 2004


Sex Differences
Dear Vanessa -- I'm having a good time flipping around inside Steven Rhoads' evo-bio-influenced new book, Taking Sex Differences Seriously.... posted by Michael at July 9, 2004 | perma-link | (14) comments

Not-Boomer Boomers
Dear Vanessa -- Greg Ransom (here) points out a good WSJ story by Jeff Zaslow here. It's about how little... posted by Michael at July 9, 2004 | perma-link | (6) comments

Goodies
Dear Vanessa -- * Heartworn Highways (buyable here and rentable here) is a terrific, lowkey documentary about the alt-country scene.... posted by Michael at July 9, 2004 | perma-link | (4) comments

Gimme Stills, and Gimme Video
Dear Vanessa -- I have no idea whether this new Sanyo device here works well or not, but it represents... posted by Michael at July 9, 2004 | perma-link | (1) comments

Thursday, July 8, 2004


Who Designs? Our Tools or Us?
Dear Vanessa -- How much impact do the tools we use have on the products we make? I tend to... posted by Michael at July 8, 2004 | perma-link | (29) comments

The New Young Gals
Dear Vanessa -- One of the neat things about leaving the country for a stretch is the experience of re-entry,... posted by Michael at July 8, 2004 | perma-link | (9) comments

Wednesday, July 7, 2004


My Politics
Dear Vanessa -- I sometimes think that my politics, such as they are, boil down to this: politics are best... posted by Michael at July 7, 2004 | perma-link | (18) comments

Back to Rewrite
Dear Vanessa -- You know how there ought to be Oscar categories for all kinds of things? Worst Phone-Answering-Machine Message.... posted by Michael at July 7, 2004 | perma-link | (8) comments

Yogurt
Dear Vanessa -- I'm fresh back from a luscious nine days in St. Barthelemy, a beautiful and exclusive French Caribbean... posted by Michael at July 7, 2004 | perma-link | (10) comments