In a nod to my good friend Cliff over at spiralbound.net, I here share a story picked up via the Associated Press entitled Washington Official Held in Coffee Mug Attack.

Fire commissioners Allen Yanity and Jim Bosch – both of Lakebay, Washington and aged 71 and 64, respectively – are in the midst of a year-long feud wherein Yanity has accused Bosch of extortion and attempting to force him off the commission, while Bosch has accused Yanity of harassment and intimidation.

Standing with their wives during a break at a local meeting, threats and insults were exchanged and, fearing physical violence upon his wife from an arm-raising Bosch, Yanity stepped in and cracked him on the head with a coffee mug.

Bosch was brought to a local hospital, where staples were used to close the wound on his head.

Cryonics – the act of cryopreserving human remains for possible future resuscitation – is the subject of a new …wait for it… children’s book.

Though the practice of cryonics has been going strong for forty years now and has seen treatment – however scientifically unsound those treatments have been – in several Hollywood movies and many books, never has it been featured as a central part of a children’s storybook with an eye towards being both engaging from a story-standpoint as well as accurate scientifically.

Nonetheless, this is precisely what author Shannon Vyff attempts with her new children’s book 21st Century Kids. As a cryonicist and Alcor member herself, Ms. Vyff may be uniquely positioned to write an accurate portrayal of the scientific basis of cryonic suspension for an audience of young readers, but one question remains – should she?

Regular readers will know that I make my living as a performing artist, swallowing swords and reading minds all across the country.

As advertised on this blog just last week, I recently appeared on a number of radio programs to promote a show that was sponsored by Clear Channel Communications and Immix Wireless. We managed to record one of those interviews, which happens to contain a short performance of a piece that I created, present regularly and which has been causing waves amongst certain performing circles.

I’m pleased to be able to share that performance with you here – which also happens to be the first radio recording of the piece to-date. A few words of explanation before you listen, however.

Wandering through a small bookstore in Burlington, Massachusetts when I was a mere fifteen years old, I stumbled by sheer happenstance across an intriguing book that prove to be the most influential text of my formative teenage years, and which would lead me to untold intellectual treasures in the years to come.

Little did I know that I had picked up a Pulitzer Prize-winning text, nor did I anticipate that this bit of writing would continue to influence me so profoundly over the years that it would make itself known everywhere from my many college papers (and arguably my entire college education) to my music and, well over a decade later, my stage and theater work.

The title of this text? Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid (Basic Books, 1979) by Douglas Hofstadter.

Just a reminder that I will be appearing at the Pickelner Arena in Williamsport, PA this Sunday, April 22nd for two free shows courtesy of our sponsors Clear Channel Communications and Immix Wireless.

Tune into KISS 102.7FM, BILL (95.5 and 95.3 FM) or VARIETY 97.7FM for the details. You can also hear me on the morning radio shows found on those stations this Friday, April 20th.

Of all the bizarre things that I do, places I go and pictures I take, I found it surprising that one of my most popular pictures and the subject of the most frequent comments has been the photo in which I appear with Ron Jeremy. Seems that whether folks admit it or not, there is a severe preoccupation with this “celebrity”.

Love him or hate him, you can’t help but admire his sense of humor and industriousness in spinning off side projects that capitalize on his unlikely fame. The most visible project was perhaps his participation in season 2 of The Surreal Life, where he appeared alongside Traci Bingham, Trishelle Cannatella, Erik Estrada, Tammy Faye Messner and Vanilla Ice. This show helped to catapult him to the forefront of mainstream pop culture and his image is now more visible than ever (or at least people can now legitimately say that they know who he is, without risking embarrassment).

Regular readers will know that I make my living as a professional sword swallower on theater stages across the country. As I have only around fifty active, living colleagues in my esoteric profession, general press mentions of my art are small in comparison to, well, just about every other form of performance art.

Though I tend to get a lot of press myself (for example), any mention of sword swallowing in the news is exciting to me, so when one of my favorite NPR shows made mention of sword swallowers I felt a surge of adrenaline rush to my fingertips.

Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me! Is the weekly comic news quiz hosted by Peter Sagal, judged by that ever-present NPR voice Carl Kasell and paneled by a somewhat-rotating group of writers, authors, humorists and assorted media personalities. Each show features a segment entitled Not My Job wherein a celebrity guest – this week, former SNL cast member Julia Sweeney – is invited on to answer a series of three questions designed to be as unrelated to their actual job as is possible.

Though the new Nine Inch Nails album Year Zero does not officially drop (in the U.S.) until April 17th, the extremely punk-style* marketing has been in full swing since at least February – and it’s turning out to be an incredibly clever, engaging and effective marketing scheme at that!

Reznor himself reacts strongly against the claim that the Alternate Reality Game surrounding the album – created by 42 Entertainment (Jordan Weisman of Battletech and Shadowrun fame) – is anything but the art itself, the actual album being merely an element therein. Reznor is quoted on the official fan club website The Spiral as saying:

The term ‘marketing’ sure is a frustrating one for me at the moment. What you are now starting to experience IS ‘year zero’. It’s not some kind of gimmick to get you to buy a record - it IS the art form… and we’re just getting started. Hope you enjoy the ride.

Back in January, classical violinist and Avery Fisher Prize recipient Joshua Bell did something decidedly uncharacteristic of a Grammy Award winning musician – he donned jeans, a t-shirt and a baseball cap and took to the streets to play for tip money.

With over a dozen recordings under his belt, countless appearances with the most prestigious orchestras and more awards and accolades than you can shake a stick at, Mr. Bell certainly didn’t have to work the streets busker-style with his 300-year-old Stradivarius (Gibson ex Huberman) violin to earn some extra cash – and a good thing too, for he only managed to pull in $32.17! Instead, he was collaborating with the Washington Post on a brilliant public experiment (the resulting article published this week) to gauge the public response to fine art and beauty outside of its typical context. That is, would the average American (or in this case, Washington professionals – perhaps a little different) know beauty if they weren’t told it was beautiful?

Back in late January when I ported my blog over to WordPress and began using my friend Casey’s bsuite plug-in, I ran into an issue involving excerpted entries on the index page and the inability to display tags as a result. I needed a solution, couldn’t find one, so I wrote one. Below you’ll find the original email that I sent to Casey detailing the issue as well as the solution. I post it here in the event that others are interested in a solution as well.

Casey,

I’ve just ported over to WordPress and after getting all else up and running, installed your bsuite plug-in. I’m enjoying it very much, especially the new tag features.

Kurt Vonnegut, whose dark comic talent and urgent moral vision in novels like “Slaughterhouse-Five,” “Cat’s Cradle” and “God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater” caught the temper of his times and the imagination of a generation, died last night in Manhattan. He was 84 and had homes in Manhattan and in Sagaponack on Long Island.

Mr. Vonnegut suffered irreversible brain injuries as a result of a fall several weeks ago, according to his wife, Jill Krementz.

FULL NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE HERE

UPDATE: April 12th, 12:34 pm - Posts about Vonnegut’s death started appearing this morning over on BoingBoing. The original announcement is here, while readers have been sending in more information, updates and tributes that can be viewed here.

While the Technorati profile for this blog is tagged with the term cryonics, I have written precious little on the subject herein. Therefore, in an effort to stay true to my tags, I give you a bit of history.

Over a decade ago I granted an interview to the French ‘zine La Spirale, at the time a print ‘zine based in Paris dedicated to all things underground, cyberpunk and fringe. I was interviewed along with the then membership administrator of the Alcor Life Extension Foundation Brian Shock and Anatole Dolinoff, then president of the Cryonics Society of France. The issue contained a general article about cryonics as well as three separate and distinct interviews with the three of us.

Holiday activities this past weekend left me with an abundance of brightly colored hard-boiled eggs and not a clue as to what to do with them all. So in the grand tradition of Woody Allen, I set out on a search for the world’s perfect egg salad recipe.

My palate being the decidedly adventurous that it is, combined with the fact that these eggs are more than the mere boring white variety, not just any recipe would do. Instead of your run-of-the-mill American egg salad, I discovered this little gem via the Rachel’s Bite blog, courtesy of Marcus Samuelsson’s The Soul of a New Cuisine: A Discovery of the Foods and Flavors of Africa.

Spiced Egg Salad (4 servings) 1/4 cup olive oil, divided 1/4 cup unsalted blanched dry-roasted peanuts 1 bird’s eye chili, seeds and ribs removed, finely chopped 2 small red onions, finely chopped 3 garlic cloves, minced 1 tablespoon paprika 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger 1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder 5 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and chopped 2 tomatoes, chopped 2 teaspoons chopped cilantro 1 tablespoon soy sauce Juice of 1 lime 1/2 teaspoon salt