Justin waxes eloquent about Kohler's sexy, outre and somewhat impractical new line of plumbing fixtures:

I think of a sink and I see an indent, a depression, some concave pocket in a surface that is designed to receive water and hold it for a time. Kohler has removed the bowl from the sink - there's nowhere to catch the flow. Water simply passes out from the wall, falls against a flat surface and trickles into a surrounding moat.

The sink was round and they've proven it flat. They removed soaking from the function of this sink, but when's the last time I soaked something in a sink? Actually, they do have some facility for soaking with the Purist™ Wet Surface Lavatory (K-2313) - they sell an optional Purist Hand Basin for $160.

**These sinks are in Portland restaurant/lounge Aura.

I was so surprised that Berger dumped Carrie on last week's episode of Sex and the City. But it looks like an international artist played by Mikhail Baryshnikov, is going to be her love interest for the last eight episodes. No more Big?

I and a group of friends saw the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players on Friday night. Portland was the last stop on their tour, so maybe that explains why the show lacked energy.

The opening act was a guy from a band called Bicycle. He was charismatic and funny and performed mostly original songs. He did parodies of songs where he had rewritten the lyrics. When he was finished, we were all excited and anticipating a good show from the Slideshow Players. Unfortunately, they started late because dad Jason couldn't find his pants. And once they started, I just couldn't wait for them to finish. Jason kept dragging the intros out and repeating himself over and over again. He said some funny things, but it wasn't enough to make me like the show. I was really disappointed because the concept sounded so great.

A local sports columnist raised the issue of whether Lance Armstrong should be considered one of the world's greatest athletes in this article. He said Lance was an amazing, intelligent athlete, but not the greatest because he rides a bicycle. Cyclists provided an overwhelming response to that piece and the columnist wrote another article in response.

Queer Eye for the Straight Guy is the most fabulous new program on television. Five gay men help a straight guy in the areas of grooming, fashion, interior design, food and wine, and culture. The Fab 5 offer great tips throughout the show and make hilarious comments. Although the show is on Bravo, it will be airing on NBC soon too.

I got me two tickets for the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players on Friday. I've wanted to see them since I read about them performing at the Gel Conference this year. I didn't realize they were from Seattle and had moved to New York. This show follows in the same vein as the Found Magazine show I saw a little while ago. Taking things people discard and making it into art. The players take vintage slides they've bought at yard and estate sales and create pop rock exposes. Dad Jason plays guitar and sings, mom Tina runs the projector, and nine-year-old daughter Rachel plays drums. I can't wait!

Armstrong Picks Himself Up and Widens his Lead in Tour The more I watch of the Tour, the more convinced I am that Lance is one of the best athletes of my lifetime. The man is simply amazing.

The Cremaster series of movies by artist Matthew Barney is finally hitting Portland at Cinema 21. The films will play from July 18-24. I've been wanting to see these since I read about Barney in the NYTimes several years ago. Should be excellent. I hope I can get some of it.

Here's what was on our menu last night:

Arugula with house cured spicy coppa, and olive oil braised red peppers
Carolina white shrimp with chili and garlic over oven dried tomatoes
First of the season local white corn with basil butter
New potatoes with fresh herbs and sea salt
Apricot ginger créme brulee

Aside from me accidently tipping a bit too much, the evening was fantastic, the space was great, and the company was enjoyable. We'd do it again in a second.

Here's my TypePad site:
http://actionhero.typepad.com/xfiles/

Tonight B and I are going to a Ripe family supper. Ripe is a catering firm and started these family suppers in their home, but have since moved into the spectacular Gotham Building space on N. Interstate. The only way to get reservations to these dinners is to come with or be referred to by someone who has already attended. However, they have these special events throughout the summer that are open to the general public, which is what we are going to tonight. A former chef from Stars in San Francisco shall be cooking supper. It should be fabulous!

How to Manage Large Image Libraries with iPhoto 2 [via evhead]

Go, Lance, go! Plus, check out this Tour blog.

Speaking of clever, just ran across this interesting idea. The description from the blog is: "The last word from the latest post is up for grabs. It's the acronym for the next." It took me a little while to figure out what that meant, but check it out. [evhead]

True to his word, Dan Gillmor has started posting travel tips for tech-centric people on the road, submitted by his readers and filtered by him. Fascinating stuff.

Many American hotel clocks are wrong, and I still get tripped up from time to time even though I have found this to be true. In contrast, I can trust those combination TV-alarm clocks that I'm had in many overseas hotels.

Printing boarding passes at home is easy, and there are now starting to be reasons to do so: I'm seeing occasionally big lines at the airport kiosks (and the stations themselves don't appear to be overly reliable - during periods of heavy use several always seem to be down).

Priceline has improved over the past year, which was the last time I tried it. Gone is the ~20 minute wait for a confirming e-mail. Instead, I knew within 60-90 seconds that my bid was refused or accepted, in this case for a $95/per night rate at a 4-star hotel in Chicago's loop.

NAG is a new interactive program retrieves internet song files, slices off audio snippets and blends them into sonic collages. I just checked it out and it's pretty cool. Though I don't think I could listen to it for hours at work in my cubicle. [New York Times: Technology]

A Lifestyle Phenomenon Interesting article with TiVo chariman Michael Ramsay. He discusses free celebrity promotion, viewing habits, and competition. [via metafilter]

I finally started The Count of Monte Cristo last week on one of my outings to the outdoor pool. It's a surprisingly easy read with quite short chapters, which makes it all the easier to read the eight point font size. I loved the movie, but am loving the book more.

The beginning is completely different, but I thought how it was adapted for the screen worked out well. Fernand's much more evil in the book too. At least the descriptions of him make him seem more so. It's never ceases to amaze me how a writer can transport you so completely into another life full of different characters and places.