Dave Mancuso dot Com

If you didn’t know already, MS Word can track your changes as you revise documents. If you later post your document in a publicly accessible forum (like on a web site), be aware that people can dig into your document for the old words you’ve carefully deleted out when making your final copies. some of these rough draft sentences can be potentially embarrassing, as you can see here. It’s not exactly playing fair to dissect documents like this, but you yourself should know that your words may be resurrected against your wishes.

Again, not me, despite what similarities the guys at work might see….

From GrandSlam Magazine, an article about David Mancuso. Choice quotes include:

“Mancuso, a Sixties seeker, like many of his generation, had been profoundly affected by acid guru Timothy Leary”

and

“Mancuso, in accordance with Buddhist principles, relinquished his material belongings to, in effect, follow the way of the monk. Only problem being that there was no monastery for him to retreat to where likeminded people could have helped him on his journey within, so instead he found himself admitted to the psychiatric ward of New York’s Bellevue Hospital.”

and

“Having said this, it’s only now, thanks to “Love Saves The Day”, that the Leary / Mancuso connection becomes crucial to our understanding of the origins of dance culture.”

and

“…if there was anybody worthy of this title it would surely be David Mancuso, who is often described as a somewhat mystical figure…”

What can I say?

Um, except that this isn’t me. Although some have accused me of having dark ties with disco music, this guy is the real thing. A DJ that changed the scene in 1970 in New York City–David Mancuso.

From the Maestro website:
“MAESTRO takes you into the world of Larry Levan, Paradise Garage; David Mancuso, The Loft, as they formed the center piece within the underground culture as it evolved into dance music of today.”

Maestro is playing in only a few select theatres, but I want to catch it on DVD when it becomes available.

Just download it and enjoy as long as it’s there (6.8 megs but well worth it, especially if you’ve heard Hey Ya, this year’s Grammy winner for Best Urban/Alternative Performance). (Thanks to Lu’s Locker for the link)

It’s come a looong way, believe me. Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther) is rock solid and works great. It’s funny, I never hear the “Apple’s going out of business” stories anymore.

Really though, all operating systems have come a long way. XP was a nice facelift over Windows 2000, although 2000 was the real step forward. I’m looking forward to Longhorn in a few years, although I think Microsoft is bloating it up to provide features that they think will make us upgrade. That’s the problem with a marketing-driven company where the revenue is based on upgrades and new product sales. They have to think up “features” that we may never use or care about. In fact I just postulated a theory that Microsoft could market and sell a slim word processor with just the features you absolutely need and probably make it profitable. I’d buy it. Maybe.

Also, Linux is getting better. My last install of SUSE Linux went great–I put it on an old Acer but then repartitioned my PC laptop hard drive and put it alongside Windows XP in a dual boot scenario. the only problem is that anything I install has to be hand-built and compiled. Linux will never succeed in the consumer desktop market if it doesn’t have binary, self-building installer files. You shouldn’t have to hack into the command line to install a printer.

Thanks to Metafilter for the link, here’s an animated version of the Exorcist in 30 Seconds, performed by bunnies (pretty funny–try it!).

The diary of the 8 year old girl on the same site is cute, too–it’s an actual diary, resurrected by the owner years later and presented in varying voices.

Huh–the Vet is being imploded tomorrow.

(At least the Spectrum is still intact, the site of legendary rock concerts–you can see it behind the Vet in the pic above)

I’m in Philly tomorrow, so I could conceivably see this. Do I want to? I remember when it was built, so I’m mildly interested. I also feel a mild wave of apathy about it, though. It would be cool to see such a large structure imploded.

I predict that the charges will go off and nothing will happen. They’ll have to tear it apart with crow bars and pickaxes.

Tonight, March 18, 2004, snow moves toward this area to blanket us with a six inch covering.

Eleven years ago last weekend, snow moves to trap Denise and me at Kevin’s in Philly with several feet during the Flower Show. It takes us eight hours to get home to York a few days later; most major roads are closed and secondary roads are the only way to struggle home.

Sixteen years ago last night I’m meeting my wife Denise for the first time. Hours later in the middle of the night, I’m getting a telephone call from my mother that my grandmother has passed away, a strange twist of kismet.

Seven years ago last week I’m sitting at a bar with Dennis Humphries, an old friend and co-worker. I go home to hear that Denise and I will be welcoming Alyssa Noel Mancuso into the world sometime around Thanksgiving (several months later, we’re choosing the name “Alyssa Noel” after weeks of heavy discussion).

Twenty years ago last week I’m driving down to Texas with Kevin, Bliss, and Terry. A side trip to the Mardi Gras follows days later, where many necklace beads are thrown at us from the parade floats. Four years ago I wonder where the last saved necklace has disappeared to.

Twenty-eight years ago I’m walking with Kevin on top of two feet of snow; the top few inches have hardened into a covering that holds up our twelve year old frames. School is closed again; it’s been closed for most of the last few weeks.

Two days from now I’m driving down to visit Kevin; it’s twenty-eight years later. We’re both forty years old. We’re talking about how slices of time can be just as real years later as when they happen to us in the past.

Don’t ask me why–I restored my cascading stylesheets this afternoon in a free moment, but it didn’t seem to do anything. Maybe my browser just didn’t reflect the change.

Regarding the previous post, it just spilled out of my fingers into my keyboard. Not all the posts have to be funny, right? Some of them can be just out there a bit.

Hmmm. My psychic hotline tells me that Brad is having a hard time choosing from the myriad ways in which he wants to comment on the last paragraph…

Well, not that you’d notice. the Splitfocus website moved to a new web hosting server this afternoon and evening. The export, migration, and import to the new site went pretty smoothly, as far as I can see. Nice. Apparently I have an Atom feed with the new site–funny. If you’ve never heard of Atom, dont’ worry–no one with a real life has.

The web hosting provider? Modhost. They come highly recommended, and have worked like a dream so far. I got the Home plan–it fit my needs.