late night with guy mondo

My current favorite subject lately has been 19th-century crime as I had recently acquired four volumes of  Rick Geary 's "Victorian Murder" series and finished  The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America  awhile back.  Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter  fit in well with my obsession. I recall seeing the trailer for the movie adaptation and it looked like some ridiculous fun to have Honest Abe portrayed as a kung-fu version of van Helsing. Alas, the movie came and went before I got a chance to see it but I found the book at Goodwill for a buck and figured what the heck. The writing moves along at a good pace, combining historical fact with the fiction, quoting from Lincoln's actual writings as well as fictionalized "secret" diary entries. It does rely a little too much on the new-Hollywood idea of the vampire hunter in a long, black coat filled with gadgets but that's just part of the fun. There are actual...

Pictured above is a piece of art I've had for almost 10 years that I, finally, got around to framing. It's a, possibly, 18th Century erotic painting in the Mogul style. I don't remember where or how I got it. One possibility is that I found it in the trash room in the apartment building I used to live in near Washington Cathedral. I used to find a lot of cool stuff  there. The neighborhood was full of students from Georgetown, George Washington and American Universities and lots of foreign service workers from the various embassies, all fairly transient people. They move in to neighboring apartments and start acquiring stuff then they move on leaving behind the things they have no room for in the moving van, the trunk of the rental car, the suitcases, their new lives. Well, as has been said many times, one man's trash is another man's treasure. I had this framed at Artful Framing in Takoma Park because they are one of the best, locally, at what they do. This w...

The Kitty checks out the new chair, prefers the box it came in. So, I decided that, since I've been in this apartment for 16 years, I should stop buying cheap dorm room furniture of fleeting quality and get something a little more substantial. Having the day off I ventured out to IKEA in College Par k to have a look around. I like IKEA because, unlike my other fave store, Target, they have cheap dorm room stuff and some pretty good mid-price, home goods. I also like the fact that they don't seem to discontinue merchandise as quickly as other retailers so, if I decide to buy another chair, say next year, they'll still carry it.  I bought the POÄNG chair because I wanted a comfy chair, with a high back and arms, that wouldn't overwhelm what's left of the floorspace in my living room. I had this thing unpacked and put together in about 20 minutes (probably would've taken less time without Kitty's "assistance"). The cushion cover is washab...

The interior of the Bradbury Building in Los Angeles, CA taken with a Canon TX in 1988. This is the real-life building used in the movie Blade Runner as well as some other, mostly forgotten, movies and television shows. I found the building totally by accident. There was a mural across the street that I wanted to get a better shot of so I wandered into this unassuming looking building and was stunned by the beautiful, bright interior with a glass roof. It took me a few minutes of wandering around before it dawned on me that I'd seen this place before. It wasn't until months later, as I was looking thruogh my photos that I made the connection to the movie. I also realized that it was the same building used for one of my favorite episodes of The Outer Limits (original series) titled " Demon With a Glass Hand ".

Well, it looks like the cyber-criminals had a busy holiday weekend as I, along with who knows how many others, contracted a new rogue program termed " ransomware ". Disguised as a warning page from the US Dept. of Justice it states that the computer user has been effectively locked out of their computer by the DOJ for violating the laws of the United States and carries a list of possible infractions (like copyright infringement, promoting terrorism, and possessing child pornography, to name a few) but does not specify what the victim is allegedly guilty of. It does, however, offer you the opportunity to get your computer back if you will simply send $300 via something called MoneyPak . The catch is that this must be done within 48 hours or your PC will be permanently locked and you will be subject to Federal prosecution. Fortunately, I was smart enough to see through this attempt at separating me from my booze and sushi funds. As relentless as the media copyright holding...

So, my single cup coffee maker that I got in for free in 1995 finally stopped working this week. It was a promo for video stores as an incentive to buy lots of copies of   " How to Make an American Quilt "  when it was released on video. I have used it almost daily since I rescued it from the junk-no-employees-wanted pile. Today, since I had a day off from El Templo Maldito, I decided to go to Target  to see if I could find a replacement. I've discovered that, if you check out the ends of the aisles at the back walls, you find some interesting clearance stuff. Knowing this I always walk the back aisles first. Today I struck gold! Not only did I find a coffee maker but there were other matching appliances as well (in four colors): a toaster (got 11, don't need another one), a 1.5 quart crock pot, and a double Belgian waffle maker! The deal? Each one was priced at $5.60 ! I couldn't pass up a deal like that and, so I got the crock pot, too. If the coffee maker...