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Monthly Archives: January 2005

McDowell Sonoran Preserve

Pictures from a hike in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve in Scottsdale, Arizona.

  • Cactus, at the McDowell Sonoran Preserve

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New and Improved?

It wasn’t worth the wait, but the new fortes.com has finally arrived. Please, make yourself at home.

I’m trying to kick my perfectionist’s paralyzation, so not everything here is complete … more with time.

My Ten Albums of 2004

In no particular order:

  • Kanye West: The College Dropout
  • The Streets: A Grand Don’t Come for Free
  • Madvillian: Madvillainy
  • Franz Ferdinand: Franz Ferdinand
  • Arcade Fire: Funeral
  • Dizzee Rascal: Showtime
  • Air: Talkie Walkie
  • Interpol: Antics
  • Danger Mouse: The Grey Album
  • M.I.A. vs. Diplo: Piracy Funds Terrorism

Unfortunately, there are many highly recommended albums from this year that I have yet to hear:

  • MF Doom: Mm.. Food?
  • The Roots: The Tipping Point
  • The Foreign Exchange: Connected
  • Comets on Fire: Blue Cathedral
  • DFA 1979: You’re a woman, I’m a machine
  • Ted Leo & The Pharmacists: Shake the sheets
  • J-Zone: A Job Ain’t Nuthin’ But Work

Best Shows of 2004

I went to over 40 shows last year, here were my favorites:

  1. Quannum World Tour: DJ Shadow, Blackalicious, Lifesavas, Lyrics Born at the Showbox in early April.
  2. Tamango’s Urban Tap: Part of Bumbershoot
  3. Ozomatli: February 2004 at the Showbox
  4. Bumbershoot After-party: Part of Bumbershoot
  5. Stuck Under the Needle Xmas Party: Massive Monkeys vs. Circle of Fire B-Boy battle at the Showbox in January 2004
  6. DJ Krush: At Neumo’s.
  7. Franz Ferdinand: At the Crocodile in March.
  8. Ozomatli: November 2004
  9. Broken Social Scene: At Neumo’s in March.
  10. ZENtertainment: Amon Tobin, Kid Koala, Blockhead, Bonobo, Diplo, Sixtoo DJ sets at the Showbox in late March

Introducing the Post Levels plugin

Post Levels is a Wordpress plugin which allows you to restrict access to posts based upon the user level. Wordpress 1.3/1.5 or greater required.

Version 0.1 is available for download: Post Levels Plugin v0.1

Install

  1. Save the post-levels.php.txt as post-levels.php file to your wp-content/plugins/ directory
  2. Activate the plugin within Wordpress in the Plugins section

Use

  1. Set the Post Status to Private: This ensures your post will not be shown if the plugin is accidentally disabled
  2. Add a Custom Field named post_level
  3. Set the value of post_level to a number between 1 and 10: Only registered users with a level greater than or equal to the post_level will be able to see your post.

Known Issues

  • Archive and Category Post listings do not include private posts

Three Liters of Wine

Trader Joe’s sells a three (3)-liter bottle of wine. It’s an Italian Red, Nerello del Bastardo. It is an intense, spicy wine with sweet fruit flavors, a combination of a vintage Barolo blended with Sangiovese grapes of Tuscany. It’s the best over-sized bottle of wine I’ve ever had.

Here are a couple of pictures from a tasting last weekend:

  • Jonah Burke, drinking wine
  • Martha Rotter, drinking wine

At $30, it’s more than twice the price of an equivalent volume of Charles Shaw, but you get a substantially sweet wooden box as a keepsake.