Sally Grossman and Bob Dylan as featured on the cover of the 1965 Dylan album Bringing It All Back Home

Over the past couple of years my undying need to share with you, dear reader, has increasingly been occurring elsewhere. Facebook friends get updates targeted to a small audience. Google Reader users get shared articles and comment threads (links available on the front sidebar of this blog).

Both of these are indispensable in their own very specific ways, but the tool I turn to most often for sharing ideas and creative outbursts is Twitter. Easy mobile use and mandatory brevity have proven to be a powerful combination. As I near my 1,000th Tweet (née update) I’m realizing that a scary amount of my travel documentation, creative output, political commentary, and electronic shout-outs over the past three years have been taking place over there. Yes, most of these are nanostories of marginal interest given a few days’ (hours?) hindsight. Of the rest, I’m hoping a lightly-edited weekly Twitter digest will spark an occasional item of longer than 140 characters. If not, at least I’m archiving these ideas far from the reach of the hated fail whale.

Note: Many thanks to Alex King and his excellent Twitter Tools plugin for WordPress.

Fire tears through long-neglected building at 4th and Rhode Island NE. Photo via Eckington listserve.

• "In the Loop" = highly recommended. Thx to @youngamerican for excellent TSOYA with director. #
• Preparing to dominate at Commonwealth pub quiz #
• Porch status: gimpy chocolate lab #
• Porch status: torrential downpour http://twitpic.com/bvfuh #
• Veggie bibimbap from cart at 14 & L = recommended http://twitpic.com/bxlnv #
• Porch status: muggy with vines starting to poke through the floorboards. #
• I shot a man in Reno http://digg.com/d1ysK0 #
• NextBus gave me just enough time to visit the new Chinatown Coffee Co. Intelligentsia beans! http://twitpic.com/c2o60 #
• DDOT is now twitpic-ing accidents so you don't have to http://ow.ly/iBu3 (and yikes!) #
• Pinkomag gets quite a tip, re: Obama's (alleged) birth: http://ow.ly/iC1Z #
• @emilysaysso lots of variables. My commute is 20 blocks and = 15 mins. in reply to emilysaysso #
• Long-neglected building on fire in Eckington, 4th & Rhode Island NE http://twitpic.com/c7dlm #
• …fire is under control. Oddly, the Eckington listserve just had a thread about this building's tax debt. #
• OBSERVED: Protagonist in Truffaut's "The Soft Skin" looks very much like @hodgman – This makes the film much zanier than it used to be. #
• Wishing Sen. Dodd a speedy recovery http://ow.ly/iHXz #
• Quality preventive care led to diagnosis. Expect Dodd to redouble his commitment to quality HC for everyone via @mbrownerhamlin @Taylor_West #
• Orlando Cabrera to Twins? Interesting. Wasn't expecting any deadline deals. #
• @Dave_WISC_olson Let's hope that's the difference between second and first! in reply to Dave_WISC_olson #
• Lovely evening with Indian food and old friends on Baltimore rooftop. Waiting for the train back in to DC. #
• Porch status: total silence alternates with extreme bass at intervals equal to those of left turn arrow at rhode island avenue #
• @bigbearcafe Exciting! But I wonder how well those mixing boards will hold up to all those spilled cups of coffee. #
• Mid-city cafe now open above Miss Pixies on 14th/R! Getting dizzy from all the new coffee options DC suddenly has. (h/t @bigbearcafe) #

Powered by Twitter Tools.

Questionable approach to marketing. Found at Connecticut Ave. and Dupont Circle

• Nice. Bike lanes now painted on Eckington pl. #
• http://twitpic.com/b2kif – Awkward. Really hope this ad campaign for Phillips exhibit "Paint Made Flesh" comes in shades other than pink … #
• I know I've been busy folks, so maybe you should try this guy: http://twitpic.com/b4pjf #
• Did Michelle Bachmann's son voluntarily sign up for an Americorps "re-education camp?" http://bit.ly/10vuHK (via @BlueMojoWireMN ) #
• Apparently chose rainiest 12 minutes of the morning to bike from coffeeshop to work. Should have had one more cup of coffee. #
• Not perfect: http://twurl.nl/alf885 #
• Samuel Alito famously ate pizza here http://twitpic.com/beela #
• "We completely understand the public’s concern about futuristic robots feeding on the human population" http://twurl.nl/fp6rsj #
• You know a website's been around awhile when one of the navigation items is ASCII art http://twurl.nl/44cbro #
• …link to said art: http://twurl.nl/judula #
• Kennedy the dog knows the difference between bike maintenance and bike use. She hates bike maintenance. #
• Porch status: tall glass of water #
• Nice (probably fictional) follow-up to last week's visit. Coney Island and Freud: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/26/arts/design/26strau.html #