Repeat, A Bit
Randomly snapped as I was walking to the backyard. My apologies.
Unbelievably cute kittens - The photography is pretty good, too—nice narrow depth of field, well lit with a flash.
A etymological analysis of why you can say “hots” in lieu of “heats” - Beginning with the omission of a letter from a headline to say “hots up,” this article goes on into some intriguing territory:
Rarely do we come across a word that can be applied, with lust aforethought, to either sex. A physically attractive male can be called a stud, and if cuddly to boot, a stud muffin. I can retrieve, from the far reaches of my brain’s hippocampus, a memory of once being called a dreamboat. An especially masculine type is called a Barney, and if tall, “a long drink of water.”
Female endearments range from baby doll to arm candy, peach to fox, quail to chick - I could go on but don’t need more infuriated e-mail from people who consider any lip-smacking characterization to be an insult to the intellect.
Few terms, however, are applicable to a sexually attractive person of either sex. Hottie is not spelled with a y because -ie, the lexicographer Grant Barrett informs me, “is a classic diminutive or hypocoristic ending used for terms of endearment.”
(via tmn)
Fantastic off camera lighting kit - Some time ago, Mykala linked me to an article at Strobist about building your own softbox for $10. Since then, I have regularly dropped in to read the website responsible for that tutorial. It’s all about how to get your light off of your camera and into the space around you, and creating extremely interesting effects, etc. Turns out that if I actually had a camera with a PC sync terminal (just about any camera except my own, ha), the least expensive lighting kit would be perfect. You get a great manual flash, off-camera connecting cords, a tripod, a diffusing umbrella (like the kind from your school portraits), and other extraordinarily useful accessories. Plus, for a bit more money, you can connect cameras like my own. Just takes a bit more fiddling.
As we were driving home from the Twins game, John switched the radio to The Current last night (thanks for the free ticket, guys!). Anyhow, the radio played a song from the Scottish band Travis. These guys have another album out, called “The Boy With No Name.” The song I heard, and the entire album, are really surprisingly good. You guys may remember a song from three albums ago (about 7 years back) called “Why Does it Always Rain On Me.” Remember? Anyhow, Wikipedia talks about the rollercoaster of the album that song was on in 1999:
However, when the album slipped as far as No. 19, it stopped. Word of mouth and increasing radio play of the single “Why Does It Always Rain on Me?” increased awareness of the band and the album began to rise back up the charts. Then, when Travis took the stage to perform this song at the 1999 Glastonbury Festival, after being dry for several hours, it began to rain as soon as the first line was sung. The following day the story was all over the papers and television, the song became an anthem (it is consistently rated as one of the decade’s best songs, as is the album itself), and with word of mouth and increased radio play of this and the album’s other singles, The Man Who rose to No. 1 on the British Charts.
So, I realized I already knew the band—but the song I heard was so good, I decided to grab their newest album.
Turns out, “The Boy With No Name” is a pretty darn solid musical compilation. It’s a well paced, melodically interesting album that oscillates between lush anthems and intimate acoustic pieces. The song I heard was “My Eyes” (iTunes), but I really like “Under the Moonlight” (iTunes).
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