lacpunker

email me at lacallahan[at]gmail[dot]com
Nov 30
Permalink
The Salvation Army
The Salvation Army has a bellringer app for ipods and iphones.  The SA bellringers are one of my favorite things about the Christmas season.  They seem so classic, but apparently they can be modern too.

The Salvation Army

The Salvation Army has a bellringer app for ipods and iphones.  The SA bellringers are one of my favorite things about the Christmas season.  They seem so classic, but apparently they can be modern too.

Nov 25
Permalink
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

All the kids sing swan songs, All the kids sing along with meeeee

The Paris Soundtrack:

  • Crocodiles - I Wanna Kill (*click above to play)
  • Atlas Sound (w/ Noah Lennox) - Walkabout
  • Wang Chung - Dance Hall Days
  • Julian Casablancas - 11th Dimension
  • Animal Collective - My Girls
  • Lykke Li - Possibility
  • Passion Pit - The Reeling
  • The Temper Trap - Love Lost (and, always, Sweet Disposition)
Nov 21
Permalink
Opening night of The Tsarina’s Slippers at the Royal Opera House

Opening night of The Tsarina’s Slippers at the Royal Opera House

Permalink
Tower Bridge

Tower Bridge

Nov 18
Permalink
Now that I think about it, it was just about this time last year that this photo was taken.
I miss the acacia trees.  And I miss my tire tread sandals.

Now that I think about it, it was just about this time last year that this photo was taken.

I miss the acacia trees.  And I miss my tire tread sandals.

Permalink
The Hadza — National Geographic Magazine
National Geographic’s feature article this month is on the Hadza, a people of Northern Tanzania.  I had the good fortune to be able to spend a day with a group of Hadza in the bush and go hunting with them.  One of the most amazing experiences I’ll have in my life.  The blood-stained bow and arrows sit in a corner in my apartment and collect dust and remind me.  The Hadza are the real thing.

The Hadza — National Geographic Magazine

National Geographic’s feature article this month is on the Hadza, a people of Northern Tanzania.  I had the good fortune to be able to spend a day with a group of Hadza in the bush and go hunting with them.  One of the most amazing experiences I’ll have in my life.  The blood-stained bow and arrows sit in a corner in my apartment and collect dust and remind me.  The Hadza are the real thing.

Nov 17
Permalink
• sonic fabric •
A textile woven from recycled audio cassette tape.

• sonic fabric •

A textile woven from recycled audio cassette tape.

Nov 16
Permalink
In the [Choose Your Own Adventure book], your concord flight is interrupted when you are beamed aboard a nearby spacecraft trolling the universe for intelligent life. Once aboard you discover your new captors, the U-TY, are interested in keeping you around only to the extent that you can help them find Ultima, the ‘planet of paradise’. The planet’s location is cloaked in mystery and you are only told that it’s a place that cannot be reached ‘by making a choice or following directions’. However this is all foreshadowing for when the reader finally becomes frustrated in the apparently impossible quest and begins flipping through the book hunting for that ending. In fact not choosing is the only way to reach Ultima…. You have found the planet, not by following the constraints of the system, but by going outside of them – a fitting moral to the story and an encouraging reminder that any game should be a starting point for the imagination, not the end.

http://samizdat.cc/cyoa/

The ultimate choose your own adventure.

(If you’re feeling nostalgic, you can play: “Zork: The Cavern of Doom”.  Not to worry; it’s not the book referenced above.)

Nov 15
Permalink

My Big List of Things I'm Going to Eat When I'm Back in the U.S.

  • ants on a log (celery + peanut butter + raisins)
  • whole wheat bread
  • cinnamon raisin swirl bread
  • hummous
  • brown sugar cookies (from Ms. Bright’s recipe)
  • soy yogurt
  • butternut squash soup
  • hot apple cider

Thinking about these foods right now makes me very happy.

Nov 11
Permalink
Armistice Day: Remembering the Lafayette Escadrille
Today is Armistice Day in France.  It commemorates the signing of the armistice between the Allied Powers and Germany, ending the war on the Western Front during World War I.
Every Armistice Day, there’s a Franco-American ceremony held at the Memorial for the Lafayette Escadrille.  The Lafayette Escadrille was the storied squadron of American fighter pilots who voluntarily joined the French Air Service prior to the US’s entry into the war.  They were depicted in film most recently, in 2006, in the movie “Flyboys”, and prior to that in 1958, in “Lafayette Escadrille” starring a young Clint Eastwood.
I went to the ceremony this morning.  During the speeches, old French men took off their caps and wiped tears from their eyes, and then there was a procession into the crypt, where French and American children placed roses on the tomb of each soldier buried beneath the memorial.  I felt honored to be there.
Also, the stained glass windows that dot the crypt are amazing.  I took a photo of each one.  (Click on the photo above for more photos.)

Armistice Day: Remembering the Lafayette Escadrille

Today is Armistice Day in France.  It commemorates the signing of the armistice between the Allied Powers and Germany, ending the war on the Western Front during World War I.

Every Armistice Day, there’s a Franco-American ceremony held at the Memorial for the Lafayette Escadrille.  The Lafayette Escadrille was the storied squadron of American fighter pilots who voluntarily joined the French Air Service prior to the US’s entry into the war.  They were depicted in film most recently, in 2006, in the movie “Flyboys”, and prior to that in 1958, in “Lafayette Escadrille” starring a young Clint Eastwood.

I went to the ceremony this morning.  During the speeches, old French men took off their caps and wiped tears from their eyes, and then there was a procession into the crypt, where French and American children placed roses on the tomb of each soldier buried beneath the memorial.  I felt honored to be there.

Also, the stained glass windows that dot the crypt are amazing.  I took a photo of each one.  (Click on the photo above for more photos.)