Showing posts with label Twitter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Twitter. Show all posts

Monday, November 10, 2008

Unadulterated Capitalistic Rant

What is an "Unadulterated Capitalistic Rant"?

Blogged by a house, no less?

"Buy me".

I don't ask for much, and my owner is lazier (or just not motivated, is that it?) than most. I don't have a nicely painted realtor's "for sale" sign out front, just one of those buy-it-at-Loew's sell-it-yourself for-sale-by-owner plastic placards.

I used to have a Craigslist post... but that expired and is no longer. He hasn't recreated it yet.

Now I have a homepage, blog, a podcast, a FaceBook page, even a blip.tv page which is hosting my podcast. But the blip.tv site doesn't have a "trailer" video. Blip is, after all, a video site... why no video, owner!? Show folks my rooms, my gardens, my bamboo groves, how easy it is to find me (although I'm on a "dead-end" street in little ol' Wilkins Township). Do I have to show them myself??


[URL: Google Maps aerial view]

Also, what do you want to sell me for? What price? You have that listed nowhere on this blog, but you want to sell me? As they say in the blog/twitter world, "WTF"?

Okay, since you won't set a price, I'll set an expectation for the reader. Here's a house which has inspired a weird blog, a slightly more weird podcast (with about four people in the audience, one of whom may be my owner) several videos on Google's video site (under the moderately unassuming and offbeat name "Silurian-Devonian Films"), and countless twitter posts. Well, alright, 84 updates as of this post is not "countless", but there is some energy there. In short, this is a house with global reach, a global audience, essentially a global character...and two mature phyllostachys bamboo groves. This house has an impressive Turtle Creek Valley view (looking up towards Monroeville, PA) from high on an Eastward facing hillside; lush foliage surrounds it; a bustling seasonal greenhouse is situated just down the hill, across the street, originally owned by John Ayers, for whom this plan of lots was named; and lies just 14 miles from downtown Pittsburgh (dahntahn for yinzers), a 20-minute drive down I-376 on the weekends.

Mostly Harmless may be the planet my foundation rests upon, but Mostly Harmless I am not!

What price should I fetch in this depressed, depressing market? I think a global price. What think you?

Had I feet, I'd get down off this soapbox. But a thick, rocky field-stone foundation is all I've got, so I'll just stop.

..HF.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

House Forlorn Reads 5

House Forlorn Reads 5

Yorkshire, Mexico and Ritual: James Herriot's self-named "James Herriot's Yorkshire, Ignacio Bernal's "The Mexican National Museum of Anthropology", and Elizabeth S. Helfman's "Celebrating Nature: Rites and Ceremonies Around the World".

House Forlorn Reads" is an episodic podcast brought to you by a house whose owners have moved out but haven't yet sold it to new owners. The house is sad and eager to have new humans living in it. This podcast, along with the House Forlorn blog and selected House Forlorn Chogger comics, can be found at HouseForlorn.com.
Date of Production: 20081028
post-production completed: 20081101
Length: 00:14:41





MP3 Version

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

House Forlorn Reads 5: Transcript

House Forlorn Reads 5

HFR Transcript

Yorkshire, Mexico and Ritual: James Herriot's self-named "James Herriot's Yorkshire, Ignacio Bernal's "The Mexican National Museum of Anthropology", and Elizabeth S. Helfman's "Celebrating Nature: Rites and Ceremonies Around the World".

House Forlorn Reads" is an episodic podcast brought to you by a house whose owners have moved out but haven't yet sold it to new owners. The house is sad and eager to have new humans living in it. This podcast, along with the House Forlorn blog and selected House Forlorn Chogger comics, can be found at HouseForlorn.com.
Date of Production: 20081028
post-production completed: 20081101
Length: 00:00:00

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House Forlorn Reads episode 5

You've stumbled upon House Forlorn Reads, Episode 5. If you intended on finding a podcast about constructing musical instruments out of natural materials, I'm afraid you'll have to go down to that large bamboo grove just down the hill, where you see those people working with freshly cut culms.

"House Forlorn Reads" is recorded for you by a house whose owners have moved out but haven't yet sold it to new owners. The house is sad and eager to have new humans living in it. This podcast, along with the House Forlorn blog and selected House Forlorn Chogger comics, can be found at HouseForlorn.com.

The music you hear is Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor BWV565, produced by James Clarke, of the UK. This and other podcast-friendly music can be found on the "podsafe music network" at music.podshow.com.

I have a thirst for books, which stems from a lack of human (or canine/feline) companionship -- nobody flicking on lights, stomping up and down my stairs, cooking bacon, showering for hours on end or barking/meowing at strange noises outside.

Where does your thirst for books come from? Send a message to Houseforlorn@gmail.com, and I'll convey your thirst to others via this podcast. Let me know if you're a human or a house, where you're from, and what kind of house, home, apartment or tiny little abode you inhabit or are. Also, tell me what books drive your thirst. I'll leave names out of it, unless your name happens to be something like "colonial", "saltbox", "felt tent", "geodesic dome" or "limestone cavern".

Do you have any stories about your books? For example, I like the things you can sometimes find in used books. In Betz's Basic Mathematics, published in 1942, I found several "Prevent TB" stickers, and a public transportation transfer slip, marked "N Wyoming" and "City of Detroit Dept of Street Railways". Who read this book prior to this sad house reading it?

In today's show, we'll read three cultural excerpts for you - touching on Yorkshire, Mexican Anthropology and Religious practices around the world.

James Herriot's self-named "James Herriot's Yorkshire", with photographs by Derry Brabbs, 1979, is "A guided tour with the beloved veterinarian through the land of "All Creatures Great and Small", gloriously photographed and memorably described". This is a delightful picture book depicting many of the towns, scenery and features that spring from the pages of Herrior's book "All Creatures Great and Small", as well as the television series of the same name.

Ignacio Bernal's "The Mexican National Museum of Anthropology", 1968 & 70, Thames and Hudson, London, translated from Spanish by Carolyn B. Czitrom, takes the reader through the anthropological past of Mexico as seen through the collections of the National Museum. Mexico has a rich history of civilization with evidence of that past stretching back to 1500 BCE to 1500 CE, for a 3000 year time-span.

Elizabeth S. Helfman's "Celebrating Nature: Rites and Ceremonies Around the World", 1969 by the Seabury Press, takes us on a very nice tour of the religious cultic practices of indigenous peoples around our globe. Although the early part of the book focuses on the cultures of the Americas, Europe and Western Asia, the latter part moves us toward African and Asian cultures.


First, from Herriot's "James Herriot's Yorkshire", The Snowbound Roads, pages 106 to 110:

Next, I read pages 28 and 29 from Bernals "The Mexican National Museum of Anthropology":

Finally, in Helfman's Celebrating Nature", I read the prelude to the second half of the book, on pages 78-79:

Thanks for listening to House Forlorn Reads. Check out the HF blog, photo-blog and comic-strip postings via www.houseforlorn.com. You can also follow houseforlorn on Twitter at twitter.com/houseforlorn.

Thanks for listening to House Forlorn Reads. Check out the HF blog, photo-blog and comic-strip postings via www.houseforlorn.com. You can also follow houseforlorn on Twitter at twitter.com/houseforlorn.

Fellow Twitterer Everywheretrip recently read "Ancient Angkor" by Freeman and Jacques -- what have you read?

My owner recently attended and present at Podcamp Pittsburgh 3 (PCPGH3). See what podcamps may be in your neighborhood at Podcamp.pbwiki.com; use keyword PCPGH3 in your google searches for related articles, blogs, videos and podcasts.

Have a Slushy Day!

..HF.