b.rox

Greenwood, circa 1983: After I moved downstairs into what was previously my father’s study, I set up this bulletin board over my bed.

A content analysis will reveal something of my interests as a high school student: Tolkien, D&D, science, religion, theater.
And here’s the same bulletin board with another couple years’ accretions. Increased emphasis on music [...]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stars6/ / CC BY-SA 2.0
I’ve made a few changes to radio.rox. It’s no longer 24/7 as a rule. Too much hassle to program overnight when no one’s listening anyway. Instead the broadcast schedule will more closely reflect the rhythm of our lives. The typical weekday schedule looks like this for now:

Broadcast day begins 5:45 AM [...]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gc_photography/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
I recently got our energy bill for the period covering the recent cold snap: $500! Granted that was some record-setting weather but still… $500! Ouch. I’m still in shock. Or perhaps I should say I’m floored.
Some of my friends assumed this high bill was indicative of high energy costs here in [...]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ravages/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Yesterday everyone on campus was wearing black and gold — except for our administrative assistant. A Colts fan from way back, she was defiant in a blue and white dress which she’d been saving for the occasion. She’ll be rooting for the Colts in the Superbowl. But even she was happy [...]

Just when I thought the whole sequence of events couldn’t get any stranger, in the midst of unpacking I was summoned via text message to Ashley’s grave where I partook in a bizarre quasi-religious sports ritual.

It was funny but also deadly serious. And it struck me:
It’s not just a game.
Meanwhile, up north, Aunt Karen [...]

The fumigation we’d originally planned for early December has finally been accomplished, and I must say despite the hassle that it’s better to complete than to abort.
All living things have to be removed from the house prior to fumigation, and relocated elsewhere for approximately 48 hours. (Actually that’s not true; indeed, the whole point of [...]

Yesterday afternoon I stopped by the playground on the Jeff Davis neutral ground with my daughter. We approached Serpent Mound at the same time as a trio of kids in elementary school uniforms.
I noticed the youngest child, a girl with a withered arm, was crying. I asked if she was OK. One of the other [...]

Dear Persephone,
You are twenty-three months old today.
Recently your have begun formulating simple sentences, and in the last month I’ve noticed you have begun to issue commands. When you’re seated at the breakfast table, waiting for me to join you, you’ll point to my seat and say “Sit, Dada!” You’ll hand me a book and say [...]

It’s shaping up as something of a tradition in its own right. My birthday has an overt tendency to suck. A quick recap may be in order.

42: “Guess who forgot? That’s right. Xy.”
41: “I’ve got no festivity in my life whatsoever. Xy didn’t even say ‘Happy Birthday’ this morning, and she has report card conferences [...]

If I haven’t written here as much lately, perhaps it’s because I feel constrained from public discussion of many of the topics which are currently preoccupying me.

There’s an election coming up, and I’ve got opinions, but I’m afraid to express them. Whoever wins, FOLC will have to work with them. It won’t help FOLC’s cause [...]

There was a little frost outside this morning, but our cold snap seems to be coming to an end. The morning bike ride was chilly but not bone-chilling. It looks as though we won’t see freezing temperatures for the rest of the week. Hopefully the rest of the season! Personally I’d be happy if I [...]

WWOZ will be airing a “Street Talk” segment on the Lafitte Corridor greenway project today (Tues 1/12/10) at 2pm sharp. Listen on 90.7 FM in New Orleans or on the web at wwoz.org or just use the handy player on the FOLC website.

Thanks to my old school chum Aaron V. for sending me this scan. He retrieved this flyer near Ballantine Hall on Sept. 28, 1989.

Keep Our Campus Beautiful — Keep Bart Clothed
I don’t actually recall ever seeing this flyer before. It’s hilarious.
PS: If you wanna understand the context for this flyer, please read the full story.

By strange coincidence, I found myself watching The Big Chill Friday night. It’s one of those super-famous movies that I’ve just somehow never seen.
Alas, when the flick was over and I turned in for the evening, I neglected to leave a trickle of water running, as I’d done Thursday night. This, despite the fact I [...]

We are experiencing the coldest damn weather since we moved here to New Orleans ten years ago. In fact it may break records going back much further than that.
Our new house is raised and has no subfloor. I’d been told a cold wind can whip under the floor something fierce, and sure enough over [...]

Here are my favorite albums released from 2000 to 2009. I tried to narrow this down to a top ten, but I just couldn’t make the final cuts, so it’s a baker’s dozen.
Who Needs Electricity? by Operation: Cliff Clavin [2000] — Acoustic anarcho-primitivist folkpunk from Bloomington, Indiana. O:CC was one of my favorite punk bands [...]

I’m still trying to catch up to the present.
We celebrated Xy’s birthday last Tuesday. Since she was feeling sick and I was run ragged it was a pretty lame birthday, but of course she’s used to such disappointments, as are all children of late December. I tried to recontextualize the Escape as Xy’s birthday present, [...]

When we were out in Oregon there was a story on the news that caught my interest, out of the corner of my eye, about Jeff “Free” Luers being released from prison.
Luers was arrested and convicted for setting fire to three vehicles back in 2000. The guy was trying to make a protest statement about [...]

I recently got word that Helen Hill’s film Scratch and Crow has been named to the National Film Registry.

Each year the Librarian of Congress names 25 films to the registry that are “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant to be preserved for all time. These films are selected as works of enduring importance to American culture.

We [...]

I spent the last week recovering from my family reunion. We have one every five years, and this was the tenth such event. The family is spread around the country pretty well (except for the northeast) so we have been rotating the location ever since my grandmother sold the farm. This time we were in [...]