Last night, for the first time since becoming a dad, I stayed out past midnight in Durham. I had a lot of fun, discussed my potential future band w/ my potential future bandmates, and had some great discussions at Drinking Liberally, saw some great music (Pistil @ the Broad Street Cafe), and even played a little shuffleboard with the band afterwords at the Green Room.

What: Drinking Liberally, a weekly gathering of like-minded youngish progressives to share a few pitchers and talk some politics.  When George Bush was president we mostly commiserated, now we get to celebrate a little too. When: This Thursday & Everythursday 8PM – 10PM [But especially this Thursday] Where: Bull McCabe’s, 427 Main Street Durham NC Why: Because it’s lots of fun, and because...

Washing & Ironing: How To Iron A Shirt This is a video I watched just recently, after a life time of bribing other people to iron my shirts for me.  It started in student Congress, circa age 15.  Before that I’d gotten my grandmother or mother to iron them, though the times I needed an ironed shirt were few & far between.  Since then I’ve bribed roomates, travelmates, and girlfriends...

Many years ago I made a list of the 200-odd largest metropolitan areas in the USA.  Why just in this country?  I don’t know, I guess that was the Wikipedia entry I started with.  I know the list was actually just the continental US, ’cause it didn’t include San Juan or Honolulu.  Then I cut the list down, city by city, using different criteria. Here’s how it worked I hate the cold,...

Onwards from AKQA on Vimeo.

In keeping with my recent movement towards Foreign Policy readings… I’m looking for a new book to read. Specifically, I’m looking for a book that is les than 600 pages, more than 100 pages, written from an angle that would not be described as neoconservative or right-wing, and in the category of non fiction covering one of these 5 topics: China:  Especially Mao through Now.  (Hey, that Rhymes!)...

For two main reasons, I’ve been doing a lot of foreign policy reading lately.   The first reason is that I realized I don’t actually have a super strong handle on foreign relations, at least not in comparison to my seemingly endless capacity to talk domestic policy and wonk out at will.  In an effort to better balance the two, I figured I should try to change my reading habits for a while.   The...

I just signed the petition at this website (via OrangePolitics) Durham-Orange Friends of Transit. If you live in the Triangle, this is really something you should be supporting.  Public Transit hits like 10 progressive issues all at the same time: Peace / Foreign Policy:  Ending our consumption of oil from autocratic regimes (saudi arabia anyone?), and ending the root cause of instability and wars across...

Tomorrow night Mariah & I have a sitter, and we’re both going to a benefit concert.  The people organizing it are friends of ours, and in one of the bands playing (the Pistils).  Moreover, it’s to raise money for some seriously cool women’s issues causes, including Planned Parenthood and a Rock n’ Roll camp for young girls. It’s called Pick n’ Bitch How cool is that?...

I first got into blogging in 2003, when a group I was a member of started a group blog…  and I took the leap from there to reading political blogs early on. The first blog I started reading on a daily basis, and even posting comments and diaries on, was called My Due Dillegence, and there were primarily three writers who I read:  Jerome Armstrong, Chris Bowers, and Matt Stoller — especially those last...