Adventures with Dr. Lady Cutie Troublemaker

I have learned the most delightful and helpful thing. I was tired of being sent invitations for apps I knew I’d never add, so I sent Facebook support a message about it.

Here’s what you do. Instead of just clicking Ignore, click over to the main page of the application to which you’ve been invited. It should be hyperlinked. Once you’re on the main page for the app, look over on the right side of the page. There’s a “Block This Application” link. Since learning this last week, my Facebook life has gotten much more manageable, much more peaceful.

So to review: Block the application AND click Ignore, and you will never get another invitation for that application ever again.

The Krispy Kreme Challenge is tomorrow. I’m not thinking I’ll go this year. I don’t think that I need to see a bunch of people vomiting every year. Maybe every other year is enough. If you don’t know, runners start at the bell tower at NC State, run to the Krispy Kreme, eat a dozen donuts (each!) then run back to the bell tower. I took video last year and edited this piece together. It’s one of the most viewed of my self-created YouTube videos (outside, of course, a few of my best karaoke videos!).

Click the pic to watch

Wayne Sutton is someone I’ve known online for a long time, but I finally met him in person last Thursday at The Borough. He was there with a group of bloggers from NBC-17, and I was there with a group of Flickr friends. He asked if I would mind doing an interview with him about blogging and social media. But of course! We met up on Monday night at Helios Coffee (Oh, I mean Cafe Helios!). It was packed, so we did this interview in a spot right by the register. It was a bit cramped, but I’m pretty happy with how the interview turned out. I’ll make you click over to his page to watch. Blogging is now part of his job, so I want to give him some link love!

BTW, the title of the story about me cracks me up! I’m soooo mysterious! Oh, and at the very tail-end, you see me do a little head bob. it’s because he said “a little more conversation”, and my mind went straight to Elvis! I know it’s not quite right, but you get the idea.

Chan Marshall of Cat Power two nights ago at the Bataclan in Paris
Creative Commons image by DJ Arbobo

Pay money for this one. I keep thinking of more and more people who will love Cat Power’s Jukebox (just released yesterday). This album is somehow both intimate and spacious. Intimate like the show I saw a few months ago, in that you sometimes feel like she’s singing right to you and revealing herself, making herself vulnerable. But it also has moments where it’s sounds like it’s being recorded in a big abandoned echoey church. Like you are a voyeur who came across something big, and you’re not sure you want to share. There is an importance in these songs… as if you’ve heard them for years. I think it’s going to be in medium-heavy rotation in my life for a long, long time. Very accessible AND very brilliant, a rare co-occurrence. Chan Marshall may be a bit nutty, but man, this woman can interpret the shit out of a song and make it utterly, totally her own.

Download the MP3 album from Amazon (free of all DRM bullshit!)

Here’s a sample. It’s a redo of a song she has recorded previously: Metal Heart. I loved the original version, but this take is equally satisfying and brilliant in its own right:

(Crap. Wanted to stream and not share. Need to do some research on that!)

Speaking of intolerance, when is the last time you listened to Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech? I’ll help. Press play.

Now is the time. It is still the time.