See you in 2006:

Suzan and I are going away for the weekend. Happy New Year and see you in 2006 everyboby!

No More Donuts:

Actor Michael Vale who turned the phrase, "Time to make the donuts" into part of our shared lexicon as the sheepish baker of many commercials, has died. He was 83.

Please tell me you're kidding...

Did the President call the Constitution "a godamn piece of paper?" (via Powazek)

Burning Joe:

Java Log may be the answer to my prayers. I've got this phat phireplace in my house but I stink at making fires. There's no easy source of wood and kindling nearby (unless you count fallen branches in Golden Gate Park, which I don't) and I, though I don't know for sure, I gotta believe that most artifical logs are about good for the environment as an open air torching of a sofa.

Java Log is a log make from spent coffee beans. Burns clean, smells like Sunday morning and moves waste (in this case residue from instant coffee companies) back into public use.

Winnings all around. I got one this afternoon.

The Jewcyiest Time of the Year:

Hannukah officially began at sun up yesterday with this article on Jewish hipsterism. It's never been kooler to be kosher (via my friend Leslie).

Link Wave:

Perhaps a slow trickle of links isn't enough for you. Perhaps you need a firehose in your right ear of URLy wet goodness. If so try Diggdot which combines Slashdot, Digg, and del.icio.us into one continuous stream of information. Then spend 9 days detoxing in a darkened meat locker (via Laughing Squid).

Magazine Days: Bono Knows All (Issue #1)

Magazine: New York Times Magazine

Issue Date: Unkown ( I threw it away before I could record it)

Cover Story: Long piece about Bono and his African relief work.

What I learned:

1) The difference between "bilateral debt" and "multilateral debt."

2) That Bono is still married to his high school sweetheart.

3) Dr. Abraham Verghese is still writing. His book My Own Country is one of my favorites.

Local. Where it's At:

The San Francisco Local Merchants Alliance, an organization I support and have done some work for, has a nice write up in SFGate.

Magazine Days:

Because I was gone so much of this summer book touring, there's a pile of unread magazines on my bedroom chair about 18 inches high. Some are from a Journalists Day Out I did with my friend Leslie last month but most are simply collecting dust from a few months ago. They arrived home. I wasn't here.

So now that I'm taking the month off, I'm going to dive into this pile of unready goodness. Since I've never accumulated like this before, I'm going to be blogging what I learn right here.

The Inventory: 48 Periodicals (40 magazines, 4 literary journals, 2 newsletters, 1 comic book and 1 xeroxed article).

Contents:

1 copied article from The Nation.

Nov. 21 issue of said magazine.

Issue #10 of Optic Nerve.

Issue #1 of the Nextbook newsletter.

Summer/Fall issue of the Folk Art Messenger.

Issue #3 of 3rd Floor.

2 Utne.

Issue #70 of Punk Planet.

3 Paste Magazine.

April 2005 issue of San Francisco Magazine.

2 Harper's.

2 Mother Jones.

1 GQ.

5 issues of American Craft magazine.

4 issues of Raw Vision.

3 New York Times Magazines.

1 Fortune.

1 issue of Bust.

5 issues of the New Yorker.

2 Columbia Journalism Reviews.

1 Fast Company.

1 issue of Heeb.

1 issue of Wired.

1 issue of Juxtapoz.

1 Esquire.

1 Forbes.

Issue #5 of Hobart: a literary journal.

3 issues of Topic.

Issues #19 and #24 of The Believer.

1 issue of Cineaste.

Here we go...

One Sentence Movie Reviews: "Brokeback Mountain"

Brokeback Mountain (2005): "If you can't fix it, you gotta stand it." --Heath Ledger