December 28, 2007
Jass to the World ...
Sara Schwabe and the Yankee Jass Band jam during the Christmas party. I took only a few photos. I put the camera down after this, got distracted and never got around to picking it up again. But this photo is proof that the elusive and frightening Phil Pollard was running amok in KnoxVegas, performing unnatural acts with flexitones and terrifying small children. A good time was had by all ...
I was worried about how the new house would work out. After 10 years in Hardin Valley, we had everything down to a science and knew exactly how to set up for the party. But the new digs were more than capable of handling the crowd. In fact, it had a cool way of dividing the party into three or four areas. Smokers were on the back porch. Band fans were in the great room. Rowdy types gathered downstairs at the Wet-Bar-turned-Tequila-Bar. And there as the inevitable bottleneck in the kitchen.
Posted by Bob Benz at 1:34 PM | Comments (1)
December 27, 2007
Journalism with a capital J
Lara and I work with Kelly Brewer in the newsroom of The Albuquerque Tribune. I'm thinking this was shot sometime in the early '90s. Those days were definitely the zenith of my journalism career. The capital J was like a living presence in the room, and when we weren't trying to maim each other in fits of misdirected creativity, we were doing some damned good journalism. Breaks my heart that The Trib's very existence is in danger right now.
Posted by Bob Benz at 10:42 AM | Comments (0)
Long ago and far away ...
As the new year approaches, I always take time to clean out my home office and files. This year, I stumbled across a few photos tucked away in remote places, including this shot of me, Lara and PigPen outside our house on Gold Avenue in Albuquerque. I'm guessing this was around '91 or '92. I, of course, am wearing the obligatory flannel shirt and Grateful Dead t-shirt. (This is also during my ponytail phase.) Lara's wearing her usual grin ... I think this was taken by an intern from Arizona who had the unlikely name of Gawain. I think his girlfriend was Sunshine. Damn, that was a long time ago ...
Posted by Bob Benz at 10:40 AM | Comments (2)
December 19, 2007
Taking the Kindle for a test drive
In the mid-'90s, I moved to Denver to work for the Rocky Mountain News. I loved the paper, but when I first moved to town I gravitated toward its competitor and mortal enemy, the Denver Post. And it was entirely because of format. I'd always read broadsheet papers like the Post. The Rocky's tab format just seemed odd and different.
But within weeks, my Denver Post was going unopened each morning as I went straight for the Rocky. I grew to love the tab format. I could put it on the breakfast table while I ate, and I didn't have to wrestle with it as I turned pages.
As I play with Amazon's new electronic reader, the Kindle, I wonder if the same type of thing is occurring. It arrived yesterday, and I plugged it in last night, expecting it to take an hour or two to configure. I'd already purchased a European e-reader called the Iliad that took almost an hour to get on my wireless network and generally left me underwhelmed.
But the Kindle was a breeze. I plugged it in, paged through a few screens of the manual and quickly downloaded the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, beginning free trial subscriptions to each. My home network was irrelevant. The Kindle connects directly with a cell network, and it did so flawlessly. After browsing through thousand of books on Amazon's store, I decided to wait a bit before making a purchase. I wanted to see if I liked the Kindle.
At first, it was sort of like the experience with the Rocky Mountain News. A bit foreign. But I got over that quickly. At breakfast this morning in the Cincinnati airport, I cruised through the Wall Street Journal while I shoveled my Southwestern Omelette into my mouth. This was much easier than juggling a paper, even a tabloid. I'd already started reading the paper on the plane on the way up. (I looked in my mailbox at 5 a.m. to see if the local paper and my print version of the Journal were there yet. No way. I'm lucky when they arrive by 7:30 ... but the Kindle version of the Journal had downloaded automatically overnight.)
I've seen a lot of the digital hipsters pan the Kindle over flaws ranging from the way it manages digital rights to the look and feel of the thing. There's merit to some of these complaints, but overall, I really like it and think it's a big step forward. Wireless and ease of use make it a device that has me geeked.
Here's a running list of what I like and don't like about it. I'll be updating it as I use it more ...
I like
-- The size of it. It's really no bigger than a folded up newspaper. After watching my boss stagger onto airplanes in an eruption of newsprint from the multiple papers he's juggling in his computer bag, I'm thinking this is a big upgrade.
-- The wireless functionality. I realize the Sprint network has gaps and that will pose problems for frequent travelers like me, but the wireless set up flawlessly and it was a breeze to download books and newspapers. I also like the way you navigate through newspapers with it.
-- Being able to store books and newspapers on a single device. For travelers, this has major appeal.
-- While it's not designed for web surfing, the "experimental" web browser isn't too bad overall. It's really no worse than surfing the web on my Blackberry.
What I don't like or want to see changed
-- I keep accidentally hitting the previous page/next page buttons when I don't intend to. There must be a way to stop that from happening or mitigate it somewhat.
-- The keyboard. It's OK, but I want it to adopt some of the features my Blackberry has (i.e. hold down a letter to capitalize it, etc.) It's not something I want to type on at length, but it's better than most of the keyboards I've seen on gadgets of this type. (The hunt-and-peck stylus approach totally sucks.)
-- I'd like to be able to e-mail articles to myself in addition to clipping them and saving them within the Kindle.
-- The cover it ships with completely, totally sucks. I've resorted to using it more as a case that I put on the Kindle when I tuck it back in my computer bag. Trying to use the Kindle with the cover on is pretty much a waste of time. I'm sure they'll come out with a better one ... for about a hundred bucks ...
-- The general look. Photos of it make it look much clunkier than it really is. It would be fun to turn Apple's design team loose here, but the functionality of the device belies its looks.
-- II'm wishing it had a quick, easy notebook you could call up to take notes in. It does allow you to annotate and make notes, but I was wantin something more akin to a file system that would let me collect notes in docs that I could later open in Word. This might even be in there, but I haven't found it yet ...
-- The price. It will need to come down before there's any chance of mass adoption. Free would be about the right price point (the way cell phones are "free" or low cost when you sign up for a plan; maybe it's free with $200 worth of purchases from the Amazon store or a two-year subscription to a newspaper.)
-- It's yet another gadget. But so far, I'm justifying that by the fact that I wouldn't have to carry books or newspapers around with me. Plus, reading is a substantially different experience from web surfing. I can surf and scan on web info on my Blackberry, but reading on it leaves a lot to be desired. The Kindle really is a much better experience for longer format reads, and I think I'll be willing to carry a Blackberry and a Kindle for that reason. If the Kindle gets better at web surfing and e-mail, I might even revert back to a more basic phone and let the Kindle pull double duty ...
Posted by Bob Benz at 8:05 AM | Comments (0)
December 14, 2007
Skeletons in the rafters
Wes picks a tune with the Dia de Los Muertos skeleton who sits in our rafters after we mixed moonshine and Christmas lights. The effect was pretty spectacular ... If you look closely, you can see LBJ up in the rafters, too (upper right).
Posted by Bob Benz at 8:19 PM | Comments (2)
Merry Moonshine
Wes, Lara and I pose amid the blitz of lights we strung through the house after quaffing a bit of Popcorn Sutton's moonshine. If you look closely in the lower left, you'll see a white blur that is Mully as he scurries through the photo.
Posted by Bob Benz at 8:16 PM | Comments (0)
December 2, 2007
New digs, same old desecration ...
After a considerable soul searching and tears, we have decided it's only right to hold our 18th annual Desecrate the Tree party this year despite Evel Knievel's recent demise.
Evel would have wanted it that way.
So while our tree won't jump the Snake River Canyon or the shark, we promise it will feature all the excitement and death-defying tinsel you've come to know and love. And as an added bonus this year, we'll be holding the party in our stately new digs.
Here's the official invite.
Who: The Benz and Edge's
What: Our 18th annual Christmas tree desecration party, in which assorted stooges put homemade, stupendously cool decorations on our unsuspecting evergreen. We have only one rule: You CAN'T buy the decoration. It's gotta be homemade. Also, remember that children and vegetarians are invited to the party. Ornaments should be rated "G" or "PG." Sara Schwabe's Yankee Jass Band will once again amaze and astound us with musical feats of derring-do.
Where: 2035 Hidden Cove Lane. Pellissippi to Northshore exit. West on Northshore. Left at first stop sign. Through flashing yellow light. Left at next stop sign onto Early Road. Hidden Cove is the third road on the right. There's a lighted Hidden Cove sign that you can't miss. We're on the left, at 2035.
Lost? Call 288-0496 or 604-7731.
Important: No valet parking this year, but we ask that you be respectful of our neighbors and don't block driveways, etc., on Hidden Cove Lane. Our driveway is steep and creepy. Don't drive down into it. If Evel couldn't handle the Snake River Canyon, you're not ready for our driveway. Park up on the street and walk down.
When: Saturday, Dec. 15 at 7 p.m. Children and vegetarians are welcome.
Why: Why not, wise guy?
How: Make your own decoration. We'll have beer, Spiney's infamous margaritas, non-alcoholic beverages and vats of steaming green chile. Extra beverages and/or food will be welcome but aren't required.
Posted by Bob Benz at 5:13 PM | Comments (5)