Tuesday, December 30, 2003
from the you too might be a terrorist department: the fbi has issued an alert concerning the extreme dangers of people carrying almanacs! that's right, if the police pull you over & you happen to have an almanac with you, the gig will be up! the police will know you're a terrorist because why else would someone carry maps if they aren't going to bomb the shit out of some innocents?!?! the lesson is that you should be sure to hide all you almanacs before going out, preferably somewhere where it will never be found, like wherever saddam hid all his WMD...
there's so much spin going around about mad cow right now... the US insists that other countries shouldn't be boycotting US beef (even though we we stopped buying canadian beef the very second word got out about a canadian mad cow case back in may)... and the usda was quick to mention that it thinks the american mad cow was probably born in canada, as though that makes any difference.
the usda simultaneously (in the same article) says it "stands by" its mad cow procedures and that it will be "beefing up" its safety procedures.... but if you stand by them, why do they need to be improved?
pretty much every article mentions that because the infected cow's nervous system was separated from its muscle, nobody is at risk from eating the meat (muscle). now the evidence suggests that's true (assuming they did a good job separating the nervous system). & you're probably less at risk eating a big cut of meat like a steak than you are eating ground beef, sausage, or anything where you can't be totally sure there aren't ground up brains inside. but even as they talk about finding the feed that this cow was given, nobody dares to suggest the obvious conclusion that if one cow was infected, chances are pretty good that there are more infected cows out there who also ate the same feed... maybe just a handful, maybe thousands.
and right now the big mad cow angle is that the sick cow was born before the "feed ban" was implemented. this sounds good because it gives the impression that the feed ban (supposedly to stop animals from being forced to cannibalize) might actually be working. but not so many stories mention that the US feed ban is totally riddled with holes (for example, you can't just feed a steak to a cow, but calves are fed formula made of cattle blood & nerve cells... & while cattle feed can't contain beef, chicken feed can, & excess chicken feed can be sold as cattle feed.
ooh, and upi reports that they have been trying to get mad cow testing info from the usda for six months (according to federal FOI regulations they should've gotten the info within 30 days)... there are other goodies in the upi article, too, like the fact that we don't use the same tests europe does, as well as this juicy rumor:
He noted he had been informed that approximately six months ago a cow displaying symptoms suggestive of mad cow disease showed up at the X-cel slaughtering plant in Ft. Morgan.
Once cows are unloaded off the truck they are required to be inspected by USDA veterinarians. However, the cow was spotted by plant employees before USDA officials saw it and "it went back out on a special truck and they called the guys in the office and said don't say anything about this," Schwochert said.
there's so much spin going around about mad cow right now... the US insists that other countries shouldn't be boycotting US beef (even though we we stopped buying canadian beef the very second word got out about a canadian mad cow case back in may)... and the usda was quick to mention that it thinks the american mad cow was probably born in canada, as though that makes any difference.
the usda simultaneously (in the same article) says it "stands by" its mad cow procedures and that it will be "beefing up" its safety procedures.... but if you stand by them, why do they need to be improved?
pretty much every article mentions that because the infected cow's nervous system was separated from its muscle, nobody is at risk from eating the meat (muscle). now the evidence suggests that's true (assuming they did a good job separating the nervous system). & you're probably less at risk eating a big cut of meat like a steak than you are eating ground beef, sausage, or anything where you can't be totally sure there aren't ground up brains inside. but even as they talk about finding the feed that this cow was given, nobody dares to suggest the obvious conclusion that if one cow was infected, chances are pretty good that there are more infected cows out there who also ate the same feed... maybe just a handful, maybe thousands.
and right now the big mad cow angle is that the sick cow was born before the "feed ban" was implemented. this sounds good because it gives the impression that the feed ban (supposedly to stop animals from being forced to cannibalize) might actually be working. but not so many stories mention that the US feed ban is totally riddled with holes (for example, you can't just feed a steak to a cow, but calves are fed formula made of cattle blood & nerve cells... & while cattle feed can't contain beef, chicken feed can, & excess chicken feed can be sold as cattle feed.
ooh, and upi reports that they have been trying to get mad cow testing info from the usda for six months (according to federal FOI regulations they should've gotten the info within 30 days)... there are other goodies in the upi article, too, like the fact that we don't use the same tests europe does, as well as this juicy rumor:
He noted he had been informed that approximately six months ago a cow displaying symptoms suggestive of mad cow disease showed up at the X-cel slaughtering plant in Ft. Morgan.
Once cows are unloaded off the truck they are required to be inspected by USDA veterinarians. However, the cow was spotted by plant employees before USDA officials saw it and "it went back out on a special truck and they called the guys in the office and said don't say anything about this," Schwochert said.
Monday, December 29, 2003
so i acquired a copy of an old 60 minutes segment from october called pirates of the internet.
how does this kind of irresponsible garbage pass for journalism? this piece was nothing but a mouthpiece for the industry. it is totally one-sided: lesley stahl begins the segment by pounding home the point that piracy is stealing. she states it herself as an appetizer, then for extra effect we're treated to several courses of industry hacks who repeat the point over & over again. once lesley (& producer rome hartman) have properly framed the debate by stating the industry's view as fact, it's time to dig up scary (& questionable) details.
at one point stahl basically confesses that she is absolutely clueless about the subject (she says "sometimes i think i'm the only person in the world who's never downloaded anything." well congratulations on being a luddite, but what the fuck are you doing reporting on internet issues? they might as well have brought in jack valenti to do the segment). then right when you think they aren't even going to attempt to show an opposing view, former grokster prez wayne rosso is brought in only to be demonized, then cut off before he can make his argument. they are nice enough to let rosso give his opinions of spoofing attacks on p2p networks, but they clearly have no intention of letting him defend the legitimacy of his business, let alone make any statement on the overall piracy issue any deeper than "it's stealing". i mean, this is textbook work here: bring in someone from the other side, to give off the illusion of objectivity, just don't let them actually say anything of substance.
it should make for nice sampling material, though, since stahl does say "pirates of the internet"...
how does this kind of irresponsible garbage pass for journalism? this piece was nothing but a mouthpiece for the industry. it is totally one-sided: lesley stahl begins the segment by pounding home the point that piracy is stealing. she states it herself as an appetizer, then for extra effect we're treated to several courses of industry hacks who repeat the point over & over again. once lesley (& producer rome hartman) have properly framed the debate by stating the industry's view as fact, it's time to dig up scary (& questionable) details.
at one point stahl basically confesses that she is absolutely clueless about the subject (she says "sometimes i think i'm the only person in the world who's never downloaded anything." well congratulations on being a luddite, but what the fuck are you doing reporting on internet issues? they might as well have brought in jack valenti to do the segment). then right when you think they aren't even going to attempt to show an opposing view, former grokster prez wayne rosso is brought in only to be demonized, then cut off before he can make his argument. they are nice enough to let rosso give his opinions of spoofing attacks on p2p networks, but they clearly have no intention of letting him defend the legitimacy of his business, let alone make any statement on the overall piracy issue any deeper than "it's stealing". i mean, this is textbook work here: bring in someone from the other side, to give off the illusion of objectivity, just don't let them actually say anything of substance.
it should make for nice sampling material, though, since stahl does say "pirates of the internet"...
i realized that if you do a google search for snuggles, you don't get to the correct info page for the snuggles list until page 3! in contrast, old pages on srn & negativland.com turn up on page one of a snuggles search (but those pages won't get you to the correct snuggles page). this needs to be corrected. i'm a little hesitant to even call this a google bomb because it's not a prank; i just want people to get to the correct information...
Thursday, December 25, 2003
so it's xmas. i got lots of t-shirts. lots. & a couple other things, like a neat soviet "self-winding" watch....
at dinner we had a conversation about the discovery of mad cow in the united states. of course the people at pr watch have been predicting this for 6 years, since publishing their book mad cow usa (available as a free pdf on their site). they say our BSE testing isn't nearly strict enough & point out many disturbing facts about how livestock are forced to cannibalize by eating feed & formula containing animal protein.
at dinner we had a conversation about the discovery of mad cow in the united states. of course the people at pr watch have been predicting this for 6 years, since publishing their book mad cow usa (available as a free pdf on their site). they say our BSE testing isn't nearly strict enough & point out many disturbing facts about how livestock are forced to cannibalize by eating feed & formula containing animal protein.
Wednesday, December 24, 2003
so last night i decided i should start working on artwork for the true data 12" & i started tinkering with databent images (specifically editing photoshop files in sound forge). most of my experiments resulted in pure noise but i did discover one nice trick (you can see some results in the new animated gif on the right side of the screen).
by carefully editing the RGB information in the image you can create an odd vertical "skipping" effect. in order to do this, you must use the "open" function, not "open as" because that will reinterpret the data. the trick is to leave the header untouched, then when opening the program will prompt that there are errors in the file. this means the program is very picky that you don't corrupt the wrong data. pretty much you can only jumble/process the data within each individual RGB channel. the amount of data in each section must remain the same, & it generally didn't like me cutting/pasting blocks from one section to the other, either.
unfortunately the images seem to skip at specific points, & in a shorter image there are only 3-4 "rows" total. furthermore the program seems to be picky about what images it will even open after they've been run through soundforge. i had no trouble editing a 640x480 snapshot (in psd format of course), but when i tried to edit my wrist brace devil horns, i kept getting an "unexpected end-of-file" error... i had to make a new image, with two copies of the brace image next to each other (on separate layers) to get it to work.
i need to experiment with more different images, as well as other image types (tiff, etc), to see if i can learn more.
of course, this doesn't do me much good so far for designing my label (which will be one-color)
by carefully editing the RGB information in the image you can create an odd vertical "skipping" effect. in order to do this, you must use the "open" function, not "open as" because that will reinterpret the data. the trick is to leave the header untouched, then when opening the program will prompt that there are errors in the file. this means the program is very picky that you don't corrupt the wrong data. pretty much you can only jumble/process the data within each individual RGB channel. the amount of data in each section must remain the same, & it generally didn't like me cutting/pasting blocks from one section to the other, either.
unfortunately the images seem to skip at specific points, & in a shorter image there are only 3-4 "rows" total. furthermore the program seems to be picky about what images it will even open after they've been run through soundforge. i had no trouble editing a 640x480 snapshot (in psd format of course), but when i tried to edit my wrist brace devil horns, i kept getting an "unexpected end-of-file" error... i had to make a new image, with two copies of the brace image next to each other (on separate layers) to get it to work.
i need to experiment with more different images, as well as other image types (tiff, etc), to see if i can learn more.
of course, this doesn't do me much good so far for designing my label (which will be one-color)
Monday, December 22, 2003
ooh la la... who really caught saddam? what was he doing in a hole in the ground anyway?
the foreign press is reporting that the kurds really caught saddam, kept him prisoner, then negotiated a deal to turn him over to the us. and naturally the us media ignores the story. i was trying to search for news on my own, but this blogger has already done the research. lots of articles, so why aren't we hearing about it in the states?
the foreign press is reporting that the kurds really caught saddam, kept him prisoner, then negotiated a deal to turn him over to the us. and naturally the us media ignores the story. i was trying to search for news on my own, but this blogger has already done the research. lots of articles, so why aren't we hearing about it in the states?
Saturday, December 20, 2003
just catching up on the news after my vacation. pr watch has lots of goodies, like more tasty morsels about bush's turkey dinner in iraq. how bad must things be when stars & stripes starts embarrassing a republican president?
ooh, and slate reveals even more about how big pharma is trying to buy out the entire medical industry...
and okay, so it's pretty much official that there are no WMD in iraq (in constrast to 20 years ago, when rumsfeld personally told the iraqi govt that we still wanted to work with them even though we knew they were using chemical weapons at the time). saddam used to be such a great friend to us, so why are we supposed to be so excited to have captured him now? sure, it's kind of a relief that they finally caught someone... i was going to say 1 out of 2 ain't bad, but then i remembered that 50% equates to an F.
ooh, and slate reveals even more about how big pharma is trying to buy out the entire medical industry...
and okay, so it's pretty much official that there are no WMD in iraq (in constrast to 20 years ago, when rumsfeld personally told the iraqi govt that we still wanted to work with them even though we knew they were using chemical weapons at the time). saddam used to be such a great friend to us, so why are we supposed to be so excited to have captured him now? sure, it's kind of a relief that they finally caught someone... i was going to say 1 out of 2 ain't bad, but then i remembered that 50% equates to an F.
Thursday, December 18, 2003
i was ego surfing just now & noticed that if you do a google search for "pirates of the internet", our pirates of the internet project is returned as the #7 result. and if you search for pirates of the internet without the quotes, we're the #5 result (a bit counterintuitive, but true). not too long ago you had to dig pages in to get to that link, so clearly the word is spreading...
this made me think of the miserable failure googlewash & other experiments in mass link manipulation. google tracks links along with the phrase used to link to them. so i figure the more times i mention pirates of the internet (being sure that there's a link pointing to http://www.animalswithinanimals.com/pirates each time), the higher up pirates of the internet will move in the google listing. if you have a blog or website, you can do it too! it would be nice to be the #1 search result. (then again, how many people are seriously going to do a search for "pirates of the internet"? maybe i should be linking to a phrase like pirate mp3s or internet pirates or just pirates or piracy)
this made me think of the miserable failure googlewash & other experiments in mass link manipulation. google tracks links along with the phrase used to link to them. so i figure the more times i mention pirates of the internet (being sure that there's a link pointing to http://www.animalswithinanimals.com/pirates each time), the higher up pirates of the internet will move in the google listing. if you have a blog or website, you can do it too! it would be nice to be the #1 search result. (then again, how many people are seriously going to do a search for "pirates of the internet"? maybe i should be linking to a phrase like pirate mp3s or internet pirates or just pirates or piracy)
so i'm back from san francisco. great town with a hell of a culture, but it's also a cesspool of allergens. after two full days there my nasal plumbing was totally clogged. i mentioned that to barry when he picked me up at the airport & he recounted how bad my sister's asthma had been when she lived there. on the flight back i was reading michael moore's new book & he has a theory that a lot of what gets diagnosed as allergies or asthma is really caused by pollution. whatever it was, something in the frisco air does not mix well with my genes. a shame, because i loved the city overall, & am definitely interested in going back sometime...
i set a new personal record for the amount i've spent on records/cds in a single vacation. but how could i not when connie dragged me to two different locations of a great record store like amoeba, after i'd already bought so much at aquarius? i really don't want to say how much i spent all together, but my suitcase was so heavy i almost had to pay an extra $25 surcharge. (okay, there were clothes, gifts, & other things weighing it down, but let's not kid ourselves...)
so on tuesday night i went on no other radio on KPFA. i had been in touch with das for awhile & sent him some cds weeks back, but due to scheduling weirdness das ended up swapping nights with his cohost russ kent (better known to cali radio fans as mr hate). russ had never heard any of my stuff & didn't even have time to pick up the stuff i'd sent to das, but he was a real trooper & had me on anyway. luckily i was able to bring enough material to fill up the show (1 1/2 hours). the interview segments went pretty well too, though i'm curious how awful i sounded with my dripping sinuses. if anyone happened to record it, i'd love to get my hands on a copy.
i could go on with other tales from my visit, but it's almost 2am. i took a few pictures (almost all show-type pics, most of the ones from the show at the rx gallery being awful), so maybe i'll post those soon & possibly write some more then.
it's nice to be back in my own room, especially knowing that my congestion will probably clear up soon, but i can't really say i'm happy to be back...
i set a new personal record for the amount i've spent on records/cds in a single vacation. but how could i not when connie dragged me to two different locations of a great record store like amoeba, after i'd already bought so much at aquarius? i really don't want to say how much i spent all together, but my suitcase was so heavy i almost had to pay an extra $25 surcharge. (okay, there were clothes, gifts, & other things weighing it down, but let's not kid ourselves...)
so on tuesday night i went on no other radio on KPFA. i had been in touch with das for awhile & sent him some cds weeks back, but due to scheduling weirdness das ended up swapping nights with his cohost russ kent (better known to cali radio fans as mr hate). russ had never heard any of my stuff & didn't even have time to pick up the stuff i'd sent to das, but he was a real trooper & had me on anyway. luckily i was able to bring enough material to fill up the show (1 1/2 hours). the interview segments went pretty well too, though i'm curious how awful i sounded with my dripping sinuses. if anyone happened to record it, i'd love to get my hands on a copy.
i could go on with other tales from my visit, but it's almost 2am. i took a few pictures (almost all show-type pics, most of the ones from the show at the rx gallery being awful), so maybe i'll post those soon & possibly write some more then.
it's nice to be back in my own room, especially knowing that my congestion will probably clear up soon, but i can't really say i'm happy to be back...
Tuesday, December 16, 2003
the moment you've probably not been waiting for:
bad taste artist and animals within animals founder stAllio! will be on
KPFA "no other radio" with host russ kent TONIGHT (aka wed morning) at
12am PST (3am EST)
kpfa.org
KPFA broadcasts on 94.1 FM and KPFB 89.3 FM, Berkeley, and KFCF 88.1
FM, Fresno, California.
bad taste artist and animals within animals founder stAllio! will be on
KPFA "no other radio" with host russ kent TONIGHT (aka wed morning) at
12am PST (3am EST)
kpfa.org
KPFA broadcasts on 94.1 FM and KPFB 89.3 FM, Berkeley, and KFCF 88.1
FM, Fresno, California.
Sunday, December 14, 2003
greetings from san francisco! the flight here was unexciting (the highlight was the in-flight movie, seabiscuit, which was watchable & well-done but rather slow-moving).
yesterday i blew $160 at aquarius records... the store itself is pretty small but proportionately speaking their selection is amazing. the good/bad ratio is far better than most record stores i've been to. lots of interesting experimental cds. we might go to another record store, amoeba, soon... connie says it's the biggest independent record store she's ever seen, so that might be pretty cool.
then last night we went to a show at the rx gallery, which is in a shady neighborhood called "the tenderloin", which just happens to be right next to a relatively affluent shopping district... you turn a couple corners & you can just feel the immense updraft caused by the plummeting property values. we even missed the gallery the first time we walked past it because the only distinguishing marker was literally an 8x10 sheet of paper with the "RX" prescription symbol on it, so i got a decent tour of the tenderloin at night. sweet.
anyway, the rx gallery is pretty new & the current exhibition has several pieces that involve sound & motion; basically electronic sculptures that move, freeform recontextualizing audio work, & stuff like that. this was their second night of audio performances, which i found out about on blevin blectum's site. i took a few pics, but i can't post them (or really even see how good they are; the preview on the camera LCD isn't very helpful) until i can get them onto my hard drive at home.
before anyone started playing, we talked to wobbly for awhile; we traded cds, talked about online plunderphonic discussion groups, & fun stuff like that.
first up was a performance by seth warren & dave dupuis. their instrument consisted of a water bottle with various tubes coming out the bottom. each tube had a valve at the end, which could be tweaked to drip water at varying intervals onto the pots, pans, cymbals, & other percussive items below. these pans were all mic'ed & one of the guys controlled the sound at a mixer while the other guy manipulated the water valves & occasionally played the pseudo-drums using drumsticks & brushes. the performance was fine, though i thought the instrument itself was by far the most interesting aspect (the audio itself was nothing spectacular).
next up was a set by joshua g churchill, who played using a guitar, laptop, various pedals, & probably some other things i couldn't see. he played some nice looping ambience & random noise; audio-wise i liked this set more than the previous (in fact, i think each set was probably progressively better than the one before).
after that was a set by sean rooney. sean apparently had a couple tracks on illegal art's commercial ad hoc compilation under the name peekaboo hudson (wobbly made a joke about how sean is a "serious composer" now, meaning he can only perform under his own name). anyway, this was some nice digital noise, often getting rather harsh. during the louder parts of this set (actually, starting with joshua churchill's set), connie would cover her ears... now i admit that we were really close to a speaker & things got pretty damn loud from time to time, but she would cover her ears long before things got uncomfortable to me. this made me wonder whether i'm simply more accustomed to high volume at shows (some of our bad taste shows... hell, even when we're just hanging out in someone's basement... have been extremely loud. anyone who was at the pleasurehorse show knows what i mean), or whether i've already started to develop minor hearing loss & i simply couldn't hear the frequencies that were bugging her. anyway...
last up was the performance i was waiting for: it was billed online (in the few places that promoted or even mentioned the show) as blevin vs lesser... but wobbly performed also, even commenting beforehand that he thought he was now a member of sagan... so i'm not totally clear on whether this was a sagan show, a blevin/lesser/wobbly show, or whether there is even any distinction between those... anyway, i thought it was a good set, much more rhythmic than any of the other performers (except possibly the first set), although afterward i heard that blevin was having trouble (she'd just installed OSX & it wasn't working for her), so i have no idea what it would have sounded like if not for technical problems.
afterward we hung out & briefly talked to lesser & wobbly (blevin had left to go get the car so i didn't get to talk to her). i gave lesser a cd, & it was established that all of us planned to go to the one-year anniversary party tonight (sunday) for the creative commons. so that might be cool. or it might be pretty boring. but i've heard good things about lawrence lessig's speeches, so that should be interesting at least, plus there might be free drinks, & at least a few interesting people (after all, lessig, lesser, & wobbly should be there, so one can only guess who else might stop in).
san francisco is interesting. i don't have a total feel for the city yet but the neighborhood where connie lives is called the mission: a largely latin neighborhood with tons of beautiful murals, taquerias, panaderias, mexicatessens, & even a fortune-teller nearby. it's maybe a mile or less from the bart (bay area rapid transit [aka train]) station, & connie can't drive, so we've been doing lots of walking & riding public mass transit. that in itself is pretty different from indy, where you can't get anywhere worth going in less than an hour via bus.
still lots more to see & do before i come home on wednesday... i'm not sure if i'll be posting again before then (i certainly will, at least briefly, if that kpfa thing pans out) but i had some free time right now with nothing better to do... more to come before too long, i'm sure.
yesterday i blew $160 at aquarius records... the store itself is pretty small but proportionately speaking their selection is amazing. the good/bad ratio is far better than most record stores i've been to. lots of interesting experimental cds. we might go to another record store, amoeba, soon... connie says it's the biggest independent record store she's ever seen, so that might be pretty cool.
then last night we went to a show at the rx gallery, which is in a shady neighborhood called "the tenderloin", which just happens to be right next to a relatively affluent shopping district... you turn a couple corners & you can just feel the immense updraft caused by the plummeting property values. we even missed the gallery the first time we walked past it because the only distinguishing marker was literally an 8x10 sheet of paper with the "RX" prescription symbol on it, so i got a decent tour of the tenderloin at night. sweet.
anyway, the rx gallery is pretty new & the current exhibition has several pieces that involve sound & motion; basically electronic sculptures that move, freeform recontextualizing audio work, & stuff like that. this was their second night of audio performances, which i found out about on blevin blectum's site. i took a few pics, but i can't post them (or really even see how good they are; the preview on the camera LCD isn't very helpful) until i can get them onto my hard drive at home.
before anyone started playing, we talked to wobbly for awhile; we traded cds, talked about online plunderphonic discussion groups, & fun stuff like that.
first up was a performance by seth warren & dave dupuis. their instrument consisted of a water bottle with various tubes coming out the bottom. each tube had a valve at the end, which could be tweaked to drip water at varying intervals onto the pots, pans, cymbals, & other percussive items below. these pans were all mic'ed & one of the guys controlled the sound at a mixer while the other guy manipulated the water valves & occasionally played the pseudo-drums using drumsticks & brushes. the performance was fine, though i thought the instrument itself was by far the most interesting aspect (the audio itself was nothing spectacular).
next up was a set by joshua g churchill, who played using a guitar, laptop, various pedals, & probably some other things i couldn't see. he played some nice looping ambience & random noise; audio-wise i liked this set more than the previous (in fact, i think each set was probably progressively better than the one before).
after that was a set by sean rooney. sean apparently had a couple tracks on illegal art's commercial ad hoc compilation under the name peekaboo hudson (wobbly made a joke about how sean is a "serious composer" now, meaning he can only perform under his own name). anyway, this was some nice digital noise, often getting rather harsh. during the louder parts of this set (actually, starting with joshua churchill's set), connie would cover her ears... now i admit that we were really close to a speaker & things got pretty damn loud from time to time, but she would cover her ears long before things got uncomfortable to me. this made me wonder whether i'm simply more accustomed to high volume at shows (some of our bad taste shows... hell, even when we're just hanging out in someone's basement... have been extremely loud. anyone who was at the pleasurehorse show knows what i mean), or whether i've already started to develop minor hearing loss & i simply couldn't hear the frequencies that were bugging her. anyway...
last up was the performance i was waiting for: it was billed online (in the few places that promoted or even mentioned the show) as blevin vs lesser... but wobbly performed also, even commenting beforehand that he thought he was now a member of sagan... so i'm not totally clear on whether this was a sagan show, a blevin/lesser/wobbly show, or whether there is even any distinction between those... anyway, i thought it was a good set, much more rhythmic than any of the other performers (except possibly the first set), although afterward i heard that blevin was having trouble (she'd just installed OSX & it wasn't working for her), so i have no idea what it would have sounded like if not for technical problems.
afterward we hung out & briefly talked to lesser & wobbly (blevin had left to go get the car so i didn't get to talk to her). i gave lesser a cd, & it was established that all of us planned to go to the one-year anniversary party tonight (sunday) for the creative commons. so that might be cool. or it might be pretty boring. but i've heard good things about lawrence lessig's speeches, so that should be interesting at least, plus there might be free drinks, & at least a few interesting people (after all, lessig, lesser, & wobbly should be there, so one can only guess who else might stop in).
san francisco is interesting. i don't have a total feel for the city yet but the neighborhood where connie lives is called the mission: a largely latin neighborhood with tons of beautiful murals, taquerias, panaderias, mexicatessens, & even a fortune-teller nearby. it's maybe a mile or less from the bart (bay area rapid transit [aka train]) station, & connie can't drive, so we've been doing lots of walking & riding public mass transit. that in itself is pretty different from indy, where you can't get anywhere worth going in less than an hour via bus.
still lots more to see & do before i come home on wednesday... i'm not sure if i'll be posting again before then (i certainly will, at least briefly, if that kpfa thing pans out) but i had some free time right now with nothing better to do... more to come before too long, i'm sure.
Friday, December 12, 2003
there just isn't enough time to post every interesting story i come across... maybe i'll find some time later but i'm not sure when that will be.
i still have a little more packing before i'm off to san francisco tomorrow for a few days. there was talk of appearing on kpfa while i'm out there; if i hear more about that you can be sure i'll post it here. vacation time is nice.
i still have a little more packing before i'm off to san francisco tomorrow for a few days. there was talk of appearing on kpfa while i'm out there; if i hear more about that you can be sure i'll post it here. vacation time is nice.
Tuesday, December 09, 2003
here's a huge story that so far the US media is completely ignoring (i've only found two articles, on canada.com and in the uk's observer, though it should be front-page news throughout the west):
the word is starting to get out about just how much influence drug companies have over what gets printed in medical journals. since the journals have strict rules requiring that any links to drug companies in published studies should be stated explicitly, the drug companies now go out of their way to hide their presence even more. their latest trick is to ghostwrite drug studies, then bribe doctors and researchers into putting their names on the studies (as the sole author). here's a quote from the observer article that should pique your interest.
Estimates suggest that almost half of all articles published in journals are by ghostwriters. While doctors who have put their names to the papers can be paid handsomely for 'lending' their reputations, the ghostwriters remain hidden. They, and the involvement of the pharmaceutical firms, are rarely revealed.
the word is starting to get out about just how much influence drug companies have over what gets printed in medical journals. since the journals have strict rules requiring that any links to drug companies in published studies should be stated explicitly, the drug companies now go out of their way to hide their presence even more. their latest trick is to ghostwrite drug studies, then bribe doctors and researchers into putting their names on the studies (as the sole author). here's a quote from the observer article that should pique your interest.
Estimates suggest that almost half of all articles published in journals are by ghostwriters. While doctors who have put their names to the papers can be paid handsomely for 'lending' their reputations, the ghostwriters remain hidden. They, and the involvement of the pharmaceutical firms, are rarely revealed.
Monday, December 08, 2003
for awhile i had a screw loose. for how long, i don't know; maybe a few minutes, maybe many months. then finally i lost it. i started crawling around on the floor of my cublicle, mumbling to myself & squinting passionately like a pirate whose parrot had run off with his eyepatch.
at first i was going to wander around the building begging people to give me a ride. then in my best corey hart stylee, i put on my sunglasses. keep in mind this was at about 2:30pm, in the middle of an office building with "state of the art indirect lighting which is designed to reduce glare"... the lighting is still brighter than i'd like, but gazing at my monitor through shades is probably a challenge under any lighting conditions.
yes, these are the hazards of wearing wire-rimmed glasses (or at least the cheap-ass frames i end up getting). you can be simply sitting around innocuously, barely even moving, then pop, screws start flying everywhere, one of your lenses falls out, & suddenly you're screwed (or maybe i should say unscrewed). i was lucky to remember that i had my sunglasses with me or i would've been virtually helpless: unable to continue working, incapable of driving anywhere safely, & unable to rectify the situation without help. why had i never brought an eyeglass repair kit to the office? or as gordon gano put it, "why can't i get just one screw?"
so once i had my sunglasses on, & it was clear i could not locate the missing screw to replace myself, i had to find a glasses shop nearby. the closest one i could think of was at castleton, a high-traffic area 6-7 miles away. but on my way out, as i passed through what passes for a "smoking area" at the new office building, i saw a couple of my fellow four-eyed smokers & asked if they knew of anyplace. luckily, after a few minutes one of them gave me the name of lanter eyecare, a place at 106th & pennsylvania (about a mile from the office).
when i got to lanter i passed it by once & almost didn't stop in at all. the place is in the middle of a doctor park & it's full name is "lanter eyecare and laser surgery". so i assumed it was an opthamologist, not someplace to get glasses. but i stopped in anyway, & indeed they sell eyeglasses there (primarily to the aged, or so it looked from the people in the waiting room). i was out & on my way within 3 minutes. that was nice.
the down side, however, is that now i'm back in the office & expected to work. damn my eyes!
at first i was going to wander around the building begging people to give me a ride. then in my best corey hart stylee, i put on my sunglasses. keep in mind this was at about 2:30pm, in the middle of an office building with "state of the art indirect lighting which is designed to reduce glare"... the lighting is still brighter than i'd like, but gazing at my monitor through shades is probably a challenge under any lighting conditions.
yes, these are the hazards of wearing wire-rimmed glasses (or at least the cheap-ass frames i end up getting). you can be simply sitting around innocuously, barely even moving, then pop, screws start flying everywhere, one of your lenses falls out, & suddenly you're screwed (or maybe i should say unscrewed). i was lucky to remember that i had my sunglasses with me or i would've been virtually helpless: unable to continue working, incapable of driving anywhere safely, & unable to rectify the situation without help. why had i never brought an eyeglass repair kit to the office? or as gordon gano put it, "why can't i get just one screw?"
so once i had my sunglasses on, & it was clear i could not locate the missing screw to replace myself, i had to find a glasses shop nearby. the closest one i could think of was at castleton, a high-traffic area 6-7 miles away. but on my way out, as i passed through what passes for a "smoking area" at the new office building, i saw a couple of my fellow four-eyed smokers & asked if they knew of anyplace. luckily, after a few minutes one of them gave me the name of lanter eyecare, a place at 106th & pennsylvania (about a mile from the office).
when i got to lanter i passed it by once & almost didn't stop in at all. the place is in the middle of a doctor park & it's full name is "lanter eyecare and laser surgery". so i assumed it was an opthamologist, not someplace to get glasses. but i stopped in anyway, & indeed they sell eyeglasses there (primarily to the aged, or so it looked from the people in the waiting room). i was out & on my way within 3 minutes. that was nice.
the down side, however, is that now i'm back in the office & expected to work. damn my eyes!
Thursday, December 04, 2003
word is out now that the turkey bush held in his latest photo op (aka "visit to badhdad") was not what you'd call an "eating turkey". it was basically a prop, a "looking turkey". bush is a failure who can't do anything right except pose for purty pictures... (in fact, if you do a google search for "miserable failure" you get a bunch of stuff about bush. by the power of blogging, i have the power!)
how to censor a news organization (iraq style)
1. get authority (it helps if a foreign invasion force crushes the old govt for you & props you up with power)
2. use your authority to censor the news organization (this is the easy part)
3. take advantage of your pull in the US to get an op ed in the washington post
4. say you aren't censoring but are actually "protecting the fledgling democracy". when challenged about this hypocrisy, say something like
We are not acting against legitimate and objective journalistic activities. We are taking steps to prevent psychological warfare and, more serious, incitement to murder. No country would do less.
or more succintly,
That is not journalism; that is aiding, abetting and encouraging criminal terrorist activity.
good stuff, yeah? ashcroft would be proud.
1. get authority (it helps if a foreign invasion force crushes the old govt for you & props you up with power)
2. use your authority to censor the news organization (this is the easy part)
3. take advantage of your pull in the US to get an op ed in the washington post
4. say you aren't censoring but are actually "protecting the fledgling democracy". when challenged about this hypocrisy, say something like
We are not acting against legitimate and objective journalistic activities. We are taking steps to prevent psychological warfare and, more serious, incitement to murder. No country would do less.
or more succintly,
That is not journalism; that is aiding, abetting and encouraging criminal terrorist activity.
good stuff, yeah? ashcroft would be proud.
Wednesday, December 03, 2003
wowza. i'm hardly a fan of marketing in general, but neuromarketing is one of the creepiest things i've ever heard of.
Monday, December 01, 2003
so after doing little more than watch tv & cruise the net during most of my weeklong vacation, eventually i started feeling guilty that i wasn't getting anything productive done (artistically, anyway). so on friday night i dusted off an old unfinished databending track & tried to figure out what to do with it next. i'd started it months ago, then gotten it stuck in a big mess that i couldn't maneuver out of. so friday night i finally came up with a few ideas how to get the track moving again in a new direction, & made a few additions. saturday i was able to get really moving & i had the bulk of the song's structure done. sunday afternoon i tweaked the ending, claimed that the track was "finished", & posted spamouflage to the site.
so i was feeling good that i'd finished a new track, especially this one, because i had a growing feeling that this was it; this was the track i'd been awaiting for months. finally, i thought, i might be able to finish up the true data 12", & maybe get the actual record out by spring 2004. wouldn't that be nifty? i chatted with connie & grey, got them to download it, & tweaked some more stuff on the site to announce its arrival into the world.
this morning i went back to work. nothing particularly exciting happened there, just catching up on email & author approval... but at the office i downloaded my new mp3. this was the first time i'd listened to it on headphones, & i was not pleased. the first minute or two were way right-heavy.
apparently the main sample in the beginning of the track has all its bass on the right channel. which meant that there was almost no bass in the first minute of the track. that's what i get for not monitoring in headphones before posting an mp3.
it's all a consequence of how the data gets interpreted into sound in the first place. most of the samples for this record are stereo. when i translate the raw data files on my hard drive into stereo samples, some information goes into the left channel but not the right, and vice versa. in this case, all the "oomph" in that particular sample ended up in the right. & i used that sample heavily, throwing the track off balance.
anyway, it was easy enough to fix. i just made a mirror version of the samples in question, then pasted it in where appropriate. now they alternate nicely. it took maybe 1/2 hour to do it all.
so if you downloaded spamouflage before about 5:30pm EST today (monday), you should download it again to get the fixed version.
so i was feeling good that i'd finished a new track, especially this one, because i had a growing feeling that this was it; this was the track i'd been awaiting for months. finally, i thought, i might be able to finish up the true data 12", & maybe get the actual record out by spring 2004. wouldn't that be nifty? i chatted with connie & grey, got them to download it, & tweaked some more stuff on the site to announce its arrival into the world.
this morning i went back to work. nothing particularly exciting happened there, just catching up on email & author approval... but at the office i downloaded my new mp3. this was the first time i'd listened to it on headphones, & i was not pleased. the first minute or two were way right-heavy.
apparently the main sample in the beginning of the track has all its bass on the right channel. which meant that there was almost no bass in the first minute of the track. that's what i get for not monitoring in headphones before posting an mp3.
it's all a consequence of how the data gets interpreted into sound in the first place. most of the samples for this record are stereo. when i translate the raw data files on my hard drive into stereo samples, some information goes into the left channel but not the right, and vice versa. in this case, all the "oomph" in that particular sample ended up in the right. & i used that sample heavily, throwing the track off balance.
anyway, it was easy enough to fix. i just made a mirror version of the samples in question, then pasted it in where appropriate. now they alternate nicely. it took maybe 1/2 hour to do it all.
so if you downloaded spamouflage before about 5:30pm EST today (monday), you should download it again to get the fixed version.
the radiohead prophecies?
reports are still spilling in about the grievous police brutality at miami's ftaa protests in november, including this quote which is eeily reminiscent of the lyrics to radiohead's hit song karma police:
Miles Swanson, 25, a legal observer for the lawyers guild, was punched numerous times while being taken in by officers for pointing out undercover police dressed up as protesters. Eight of 60 guild observers were arrested that day; they wore distinctive green hats and were apparently targeted. When Swanson was grabbed off the street by three Broward County sheriff's deputies - two of whom were in ski masks - he said they told him "this is what you get when you f-- with us."
all units, be on the lookout for suspects who buzz like refrigerators or detuned radios. if you encounter these suspects, beat the holy living fuck out of them.
reports are still spilling in about the grievous police brutality at miami's ftaa protests in november, including this quote which is eeily reminiscent of the lyrics to radiohead's hit song karma police:
Miles Swanson, 25, a legal observer for the lawyers guild, was punched numerous times while being taken in by officers for pointing out undercover police dressed up as protesters. Eight of 60 guild observers were arrested that day; they wore distinctive green hats and were apparently targeted. When Swanson was grabbed off the street by three Broward County sheriff's deputies - two of whom were in ski masks - he said they told him "this is what you get when you f-- with us."
all units, be on the lookout for suspects who buzz like refrigerators or detuned radios. if you encounter these suspects, beat the holy living fuck out of them.
Saturday, November 29, 2003
so after thanksgiving dinner we were talking about movies. i said there were currently no movies out that i was all that interested in seeing; maybe a couple i would be willing to watch, but nothing is out right now that i really cared about, so i said.
after a bit, mom remembered a movie she said i wanted to see: bad santa. at first i wondered if she could be serious, but then she explained why: "it's a coen brothers movie," she said.
i'm a big coen brothers fan, but that didn't sound right because the last coen brothers movie, intolerable cruelty, was just out a couple months ago (& i missed it, now i have to wait until it's out on dvd). but today i finally thought to check on that.
turns out that bad santa is not a "coen brothers movie" in the purest sense (in that it was not written & directed by joel & ethan coen)... but the coens do get the "story" credits for the film, as well as executive producer credits.
so i looked up terry zwigoff, the director (who also gets partial screenwriter credits). apparently he directed ghost world (a pretty decent movie) as well as crumb (which i should have seen 10 years ago, i know).
so maybe bad santa is actually worth seeing. i do have tons of free passes to AMC theatres, two of which expire at the end of december. or maybe i can use those when i'm in san francisco; looks like there are a couple amc theatres there...
if you'll excuse me, i need to work on music now, so i can feel like i actually got something accomplished during my weeklong vacation.
after a bit, mom remembered a movie she said i wanted to see: bad santa. at first i wondered if she could be serious, but then she explained why: "it's a coen brothers movie," she said.
i'm a big coen brothers fan, but that didn't sound right because the last coen brothers movie, intolerable cruelty, was just out a couple months ago (& i missed it, now i have to wait until it's out on dvd). but today i finally thought to check on that.
turns out that bad santa is not a "coen brothers movie" in the purest sense (in that it was not written & directed by joel & ethan coen)... but the coens do get the "story" credits for the film, as well as executive producer credits.
so i looked up terry zwigoff, the director (who also gets partial screenwriter credits). apparently he directed ghost world (a pretty decent movie) as well as crumb (which i should have seen 10 years ago, i know).
so maybe bad santa is actually worth seeing. i do have tons of free passes to AMC theatres, two of which expire at the end of december. or maybe i can use those when i'm in san francisco; looks like there are a couple amc theatres there...
if you'll excuse me, i need to work on music now, so i can feel like i actually got something accomplished during my weeklong vacation.
Thursday, November 27, 2003
neil bush describes every (straight) man's fantasy:
The women, he said, simply knocked on the door of his hotel room, entered and engaged in sex with him. He said he did not know if they were prostitutes because they never asked for money and he did not pay them.
"Mr. Bush, you have to admit it's a pretty remarkable thing for a man just to go to a hotel room door and open it and have a woman standing there and have sex with her," Brown said.
"It was very unusual," Bush said.
The women, he said, simply knocked on the door of his hotel room, entered and engaged in sex with him. He said he did not know if they were prostitutes because they never asked for money and he did not pay them.
"Mr. Bush, you have to admit it's a pretty remarkable thing for a man just to go to a hotel room door and open it and have a woman standing there and have sex with her," Brown said.
"It was very unusual," Bush said.
prwatch has several good links about the massive police brutality at the miami FTAA protests, & daryl westfall passed on a link to some audio (including journalists getting shot). reports are very bleak. i'll be searching for more audio & video footage; i'm sure indymedia & democracy now! will have some good stuff.
oh, & here's an unrelated bit about a bill passed by congress which gives the govt oversight over what universities teach, to the extent that "professors whose ideological principles may not support U.S. practices abroad can have their appointments terminated, any part of a course's curriculum containing criticisms of U.S. foreign policy can be censored, and any course deemed entirely anti-American can be barred from ever being taught."
oh, & here's an unrelated bit about a bill passed by congress which gives the govt oversight over what universities teach, to the extent that "professors whose ideological principles may not support U.S. practices abroad can have their appointments terminated, any part of a course's curriculum containing criticisms of U.S. foreign policy can be censored, and any course deemed entirely anti-American can be barred from ever being taught."
Friday, November 21, 2003
i'm on vacation until december 1! time to relax & finally get some sleep. okay i probably won't get a whole lot of sleep until after the bloomington show on saturday, but i still have a week off after that. then two weeks back at work, then another week off when i go to san francisco... tis the season to slack off from work. falalalalalalala
i finished both my big collage pieces in time for the show, but i'm clueless on what would be the best way to actually hang them. they're basically big pieces of cardboard. it would be nice to keep them protected somehow too. i looked at poster frames but they're too thin. maybe dirtgoddess or bobby vomit will know what to do.
i finished both my big collage pieces in time for the show, but i'm clueless on what would be the best way to actually hang them. they're basically big pieces of cardboard. it would be nice to keep them protected somehow too. i looked at poster frames but they're too thin. maybe dirtgoddess or bobby vomit will know what to do.
Thursday, November 20, 2003
this is just a bad month for cbs. they bent over & spread 'em for the conservatives by cancelling the reagans, a decision that is still getting them in trouble. so in order to fill in some of the cavernous gaps this left in their schedule, they signed up to air a special about michael jackson. by now you probably see where this is going, since michael is once again accused of child molestation...
some shows get cancelled; some get uncancelled. now rumors are circulating about bringing back the family guy. this was a brilliant animated series that once aired on fox, but fox treated the show like an abused spouse, fucking it over every chance they could get & eventually leaving the show bruised, bleeding, & canceled in the middle of the floor. cartoon network picked up the show in syndication, & did something fox had never done: promoted the show! now fox is so astonished that the show is successful (extremely successful) that they're allegedly talking about bringing it back... now of course new episodes of family guy would be a dream come true, but i can't help but think that it's fox's own fault that the show didn't do well the first time it was on....
some shows get cancelled; some get uncancelled. now rumors are circulating about bringing back the family guy. this was a brilliant animated series that once aired on fox, but fox treated the show like an abused spouse, fucking it over every chance they could get & eventually leaving the show bruised, bleeding, & canceled in the middle of the floor. cartoon network picked up the show in syndication, & did something fox had never done: promoted the show! now fox is so astonished that the show is successful (extremely successful) that they're allegedly talking about bringing it back... now of course new episodes of family guy would be a dream come true, but i can't help but think that it's fox's own fault that the show didn't do well the first time it was on....
Wednesday, November 19, 2003
let's all take a moment to applaud CBS for refusing to bow to pressure, & sticking to their principles by standing up for quality programming like the victoria's secret fashion show. the lesson is that nearly-nude supermodels are good; political discourse is bad. how dare they try to air something about politics on my tv! i just want to see tyra banks in a thong! (hmmm... already i'm envisioning a political drama with lots of cameos by victoria's secret models... ron & nancy having a threesome with elizabeth hurley... ronnie saying "illicit sex may be a sin, but god damn i want a piece of that ass!")
but anyway, if you want to see some censored tv, the good news is that showtime has moved up its premiere to november 30. of course, the version on showtime will probably be expurgated of anything truly controversial, but remember that rule about sex vs politics.... this is showtime after all, & the only movies i ever watched on that channel star people like shannon tweed & have titles like the bare wench project or lord of the g-strings (& how could i forget veronica 2030?)
okay, i haven't seen lord of the g-strings... yet.
but anyway, if you want to see some censored tv, the good news is that showtime has moved up its premiere to november 30. of course, the version on showtime will probably be expurgated of anything truly controversial, but remember that rule about sex vs politics.... this is showtime after all, & the only movies i ever watched on that channel star people like shannon tweed & have titles like the bare wench project or lord of the g-strings (& how could i forget veronica 2030?)
okay, i haven't seen lord of the g-strings... yet.
Tuesday, November 18, 2003
holy shit!!! bush has asked the UK govt for permission to shoot protesters!!! i swear i am not making this up; bush is going to london with a massive security team & he seriously had the balls to ask for "shoot-to-kill" clearance, which would have meant that if any of his security people just happened to shoot a protester (or two, or three, or all of them) then they would not have been held responsible. mercifully the UK refused; that kind of security clearance would've been really bad for these guys, who hope to use cell phones & other modern tech to circumvent the ginormous cloud of censorship that will follow bush wherever he goes during his visit, so that they can "disrupt the PR" & get in the way of all his meticulously choreographed photo ops.
& to think just last week bush said he welcomed the protests, saying "I value going to a country where people are free to say anything they want to say."... i guess what he meant was that he welcomed the protesters because they would let him get in some target practice.
& to think just last week bush said he welcomed the protests, saying "I value going to a country where people are free to say anything they want to say."... i guess what he meant was that he welcomed the protesters because they would let him get in some target practice.
Monday, November 17, 2003
hmmm... i was image-searching on google for cereal images & i stumbled across this page (actually you might be better off just going straight to the directory). i'm not sure what it is, but it appears to be a large gallery of collages by young latin students.
Sunday, November 16, 2003
just got back from fliering. at luna they had the neptunes present: clones on vinyl, so i was finally able to pick that up. & i scored a pink flamingos poster at vibes; that will go up in my stairwell right next to a great poster of scooby doo in an orange 80s jumpsuit spinning records... it didn't look like missing link was open (at least, their neon "open" sign wasn't lit up) so i didn't stop there but i hit the other 3 i'd mentioned. considering i went to 3 record stores & only bought 2 items total, i think i did a pretty good job resisting my consumeristic urges.
the other day i got a piece of spam with the best subject line ever. the message body was unmemorable, but check out this subject line:
Take care of those erection problems.antisemite
so not only does it accuse me of having erection problems (which is news to me), but it calls me a fucking antisemite! where do those spammers get off? i have plenty of love for my jewish brethren.
the funny part is that i'm 92% certain that the antisemistism bit was a total coincidence; from its placement & formatting it looks like those nonsense strings that often appear in spam subjects (presumably for tracking purposes). those are always the most obvious spam messages: stalliongsta, grow your penis. stjudxjkerh or Hi remember me?? dfshjkjierw. if i'm right, & it is a tracking code gone horribly wrong, a random selection of characters that just happened to turn into an accusation of race hatred, then that is one hell of a coincidence. if not, then it was truly terrible word choice (but probably still randomly pulled, like out of a dictionary file). either way, it was a strange way to advertise info about viagra & its newer competitor, le tigre (oops, i mean levitra).
the other day i got a piece of spam with the best subject line ever. the message body was unmemorable, but check out this subject line:
Take care of those erection problems.antisemite
so not only does it accuse me of having erection problems (which is news to me), but it calls me a fucking antisemite! where do those spammers get off? i have plenty of love for my jewish brethren.
the funny part is that i'm 92% certain that the antisemistism bit was a total coincidence; from its placement & formatting it looks like those nonsense strings that often appear in spam subjects (presumably for tracking purposes). those are always the most obvious spam messages: stalliongsta, grow your penis. stjudxjkerh or Hi remember me?? dfshjkjierw. if i'm right, & it is a tracking code gone horribly wrong, a random selection of characters that just happened to turn into an accusation of race hatred, then that is one hell of a coincidence. if not, then it was truly terrible word choice (but probably still randomly pulled, like out of a dictionary file). either way, it was a strange way to advertise info about viagra & its newer competitor, le tigre (oops, i mean levitra).
Saturday, November 15, 2003
went to see matrix revolutions today... it was better than reloaded, which tended to be a bit slow at times. reloaded was mostly exposition; revolutions is mainly fight scenes. again, lots of eye candy, with big armored shrikes like on blue gender or any anime with killer robot suits. i would almost go so far as to call revolutions a mindless action movie, except it required two full movies' worth of exposition to build up to that point, so it's not all that mindless. the original is still the best though.
a few days ago kelly sent out an email looking for decoration ideas for the nov 22 show; i suggested i could do a couple poster-sized collage pieces, since i'd been saving a few big pieces of cardboard i received on the back of posters i'd bought. (i have a big vacant area on the wall above my bed that i've been saving for something special, anyway.) the first collage is almost finished; there are a few more spots where i could put something else, but no more spots where i'd feel bad if i don't fill them in. it'll probably be done tonight (or, at least, i'll set it aside as "done" & if i find anything that's just perfect for it i'll add it later). then i get to start on the next one; i feel like i need to finish two at least (there just isn't time to make three before the show).
tomorrow i get to go out fliering. i can't really tell if fliering actually helps for our shows; after all we still don't really explain on the flier what kind of show it is. but i think i should at least drop some at the "big" indie record stores (namely the ones i go to): indy cd, missing link, luna... maybe vibes.
a few days ago kelly sent out an email looking for decoration ideas for the nov 22 show; i suggested i could do a couple poster-sized collage pieces, since i'd been saving a few big pieces of cardboard i received on the back of posters i'd bought. (i have a big vacant area on the wall above my bed that i've been saving for something special, anyway.) the first collage is almost finished; there are a few more spots where i could put something else, but no more spots where i'd feel bad if i don't fill them in. it'll probably be done tonight (or, at least, i'll set it aside as "done" & if i find anything that's just perfect for it i'll add it later). then i get to start on the next one; i feel like i need to finish two at least (there just isn't time to make three before the show).
tomorrow i get to go out fliering. i can't really tell if fliering actually helps for our shows; after all we still don't really explain on the flier what kind of show it is. but i think i should at least drop some at the "big" indie record stores (namely the ones i go to): indy cd, missing link, luna... maybe vibes.
Thursday, November 13, 2003
rudy roy "jesus freak" moore has lost his job. the ten commandments judge will be removed from the bench for refusing to follow a federal court order. but the ny times points out that he could still come back next election: "The last Alabama judge was ousted in 1999 after he was found guilty of financial fraud. The next year, he was re-elected to the same seat."
rudy & his followers are still somehow unable to understand that you can't serve two masters without coming into a conflict of interest. especially if one of your masters never really communicates with you in an objective sense. so when the court told him to remove his graven image of god's top ten list, he chose the idol over his job, even while he told himself that by breaking the law, he was upholding the law. it reminds me of when bush told us we were starting a war in iraq to protect peace, saying "war is peace! freedom is slavery! ignorance is strength! a triumphant victory over the orgasm!" (wait, was that bush or orwell?)
of course, with someone like ashcroft still in office as us attorney general, it's not surprising rudy doesn't realize his inherent conflict...
rudy & his followers are still somehow unable to understand that you can't serve two masters without coming into a conflict of interest. especially if one of your masters never really communicates with you in an objective sense. so when the court told him to remove his graven image of god's top ten list, he chose the idol over his job, even while he told himself that by breaking the law, he was upholding the law. it reminds me of when bush told us we were starting a war in iraq to protect peace, saying "war is peace! freedom is slavery! ignorance is strength! a triumphant victory over the orgasm!" (wait, was that bush or orwell?)
of course, with someone like ashcroft still in office as us attorney general, it's not surprising rudy doesn't realize his inherent conflict...
freedom fries forever! the us media, & even many in washington, are finally admitting that france was right. only a few months ago, the mainstream media was so eager to mock france that it doing everything but burning french flags & putting out the fire by urinating on it. how quickly the tides change. i repeat:
france was right
jeez, even ad buyers are criticizing CBS for cowardly cancelling the reagans. "If the networks become even more skittish about exploring American society, politics and culture, it's ultimately the viewers that lose," said one.
how pathetic is that, when even your advertisers are worried that you're too eager to cave in to pressure?
how pathetic is that, when even your advertisers are worried that you're too eager to cave in to pressure?
last night i went to the key cinemas on the south side to see the animation show. i give it my highest recommendation. a bunch of different styles of animated shorts, all consistently excellent.
in particular, i am now a total don hertzfeldt fan. shame on adult swim for not airing rejected when they had the chance! i love adult swim, but rejected is as good as or better than just about anything adult swim has shown (& they've shown some really great stuff). it sure as hell is 20x better than that baby blues cartoon... *yawn*
in particular, i am now a total don hertzfeldt fan. shame on adult swim for not airing rejected when they had the chance! i love adult swim, but rejected is as good as or better than just about anything adult swim has shown (& they've shown some really great stuff). it sure as hell is 20x better than that baby blues cartoon... *yawn*
Wednesday, November 12, 2003
few could deny that being a sheriff or sheriff's deputy is a stressful job. i guess a great way to relieve job stress is gettin' it on with a prostitute. especially if it's one woman in particular, so it seems.
a marion county sheriff's deputy was fired yesterday for protecting & serving up a heapin' helpin' of hotel sex with a hooker. this is the second sheriff's deputy to get nabbed for hiring the same whore!
it makes me wonder just what kind of magical charms this modern-day mata hari might possess. is she just a woman who shakes her moneymaker at local truck stops & sleeps with cops? or is she a mover & shaker of a more subversive political bent? maybe she's trying to solve the problems of our shoddy legal system, one blowjob at a time. stop police brutality by getting the cops laid! hey, maybe that's not such a bad idea...
or maybe she's just really hot, so desirable that even the purest man of virtue would succumb to her advances. the photo of her run by the indy star isn't particularly flattering, but then it's probably a mug shot. i can see how she might be pretty cute in person. or then again, maybe cops just love to blow off a little "steam" by picking up some of the prostitutes they've met along their beat. after all, who would have a better idea of where to find a prostitute than a cop? check out this quote from the woman herself: "There are other prostitutes out there, and there are other deputies having sex with them."
actually, the most scandalous aspect of this story is that it's rather tame compared to the other big police scandal in central indiana right now. i don't really care how many prostitutes the cops hire... hell, the cops could all be issued their own prostitute to go on patrol with them, just like they're issued guns & cruisers... as long as they don't go around shooting & killing unarmed college students.
muncie/ball state police are saying that the murdered kid had "growled and charged at the officer" like some kind of rabid bull... it must've all happened in what matrix fans call "bullet time" because the kid was apparently only "2 feet away", & the cop still had time to pull off four shots, including one to the head. i don't know about these people, but my right arm alone is about 2 feet; unless the cop is a midget, at that range he could've just as easily bitch-slapped the kid. using actual bullets at that range is impractical.
or maybe the cops are just lying; even the kid's police dispatcher friend doesn't believe the police's version of events...
a marion county sheriff's deputy was fired yesterday for protecting & serving up a heapin' helpin' of hotel sex with a hooker. this is the second sheriff's deputy to get nabbed for hiring the same whore!
it makes me wonder just what kind of magical charms this modern-day mata hari might possess. is she just a woman who shakes her moneymaker at local truck stops & sleeps with cops? or is she a mover & shaker of a more subversive political bent? maybe she's trying to solve the problems of our shoddy legal system, one blowjob at a time. stop police brutality by getting the cops laid! hey, maybe that's not such a bad idea...
or maybe she's just really hot, so desirable that even the purest man of virtue would succumb to her advances. the photo of her run by the indy star isn't particularly flattering, but then it's probably a mug shot. i can see how she might be pretty cute in person. or then again, maybe cops just love to blow off a little "steam" by picking up some of the prostitutes they've met along their beat. after all, who would have a better idea of where to find a prostitute than a cop? check out this quote from the woman herself: "There are other prostitutes out there, and there are other deputies having sex with them."
actually, the most scandalous aspect of this story is that it's rather tame compared to the other big police scandal in central indiana right now. i don't really care how many prostitutes the cops hire... hell, the cops could all be issued their own prostitute to go on patrol with them, just like they're issued guns & cruisers... as long as they don't go around shooting & killing unarmed college students.
muncie/ball state police are saying that the murdered kid had "growled and charged at the officer" like some kind of rabid bull... it must've all happened in what matrix fans call "bullet time" because the kid was apparently only "2 feet away", & the cop still had time to pull off four shots, including one to the head. i don't know about these people, but my right arm alone is about 2 feet; unless the cop is a midget, at that range he could've just as easily bitch-slapped the kid. using actual bullets at that range is impractical.
or maybe the cops are just lying; even the kid's police dispatcher friend doesn't believe the police's version of events...
Tuesday, November 11, 2003
hot damn: cnn is now planting questions in presidential debates! way to go cnn! you're doing a better job of blurring the line between fact & fiction than k street (which is interesting enough for me to watch but has gotten a little too bogged down in its fictional "government probe" storyline)
les moonves tells "an absolute lie" about the reagans miniseries, by insisting that the reason he cancelled it has nothing to do with political pressure (how could anyone who turned on a tv in the last few weeks could believe that?). instead he claims it was "a moral decision", as though suddenly fictionalized biopics are suddenly supposed to be "accurate". (never mind that the movie was probably more accurate than anyone would admit; for example, while it's true that the gipper never said the much-cooed-about line in the script about AIDS patients ["they who live in sin die in sin"], as eric alterman and others point out, 'what Reagan really said was "maybe the Lord brought down this plague" because "illicit sex is against the Ten Commandments."' yeah, that's not homophobic or unsympathetic to AIDS patients at all.)
of course, when you're right you're not always right... alterman still has some irrational seething grudge against ralph nader for allegedly ruining the 2000 election. as nader points out himself himself, the republicans were the ones who stole the election & the democrats made plenty mistakes there themselves; they didn't need nader's help to lose. sure, nader has his share of flaws but the facts remain that his crusade against corporate power was dead-on. i think michael moore said it best on the ill-fated donahue show, when donahue mentioned the allegation that nader ruined everything. to paraphrase: "everyone i talk to says 'man, you guys were right!'" (this was at the height of the enron story; nowadays the media has mostly forgotten about corporate scandals except for small stories in the business section about mutual funds.) gore would've been a better president than bush, sure, but "better" does not equal "good".
in other news (to follow up on another of my earlier rants), as usual pr watch has all the latest dirt on the jessica lynch story. just go to the spin of the day for november (specifically nov 10, 8, & 7) for a much better collection of lynch links than i could ever muster. god damn pr watch is a good site; i still need to finish their latest book, Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq...
one last political bit, since it's veterans day. if you pause for a moment to think about our war veterans, don't forget that nobody else in recent memory more to fuck over our veterans than our current president, who sends our troops to be maimed & killed, while simultaneously slashing & mutilating military benefits.
anyway, that's enough political ranting for now... it's always possible i'll have more to rant about this afternoon. i do have a personal update in mind but this entry is so long i think i should just post it & maybe come back later. is this a political blog or a personal "boring minutia from my life" blog? i guess it's a bit of both, which means it won't be very good at either.
of course, when you're right you're not always right... alterman still has some irrational seething grudge against ralph nader for allegedly ruining the 2000 election. as nader points out himself himself, the republicans were the ones who stole the election & the democrats made plenty mistakes there themselves; they didn't need nader's help to lose. sure, nader has his share of flaws but the facts remain that his crusade against corporate power was dead-on. i think michael moore said it best on the ill-fated donahue show, when donahue mentioned the allegation that nader ruined everything. to paraphrase: "everyone i talk to says 'man, you guys were right!'" (this was at the height of the enron story; nowadays the media has mostly forgotten about corporate scandals except for small stories in the business section about mutual funds.) gore would've been a better president than bush, sure, but "better" does not equal "good".
in other news (to follow up on another of my earlier rants), as usual pr watch has all the latest dirt on the jessica lynch story. just go to the spin of the day for november (specifically nov 10, 8, & 7) for a much better collection of lynch links than i could ever muster. god damn pr watch is a good site; i still need to finish their latest book, Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq...
one last political bit, since it's veterans day. if you pause for a moment to think about our war veterans, don't forget that nobody else in recent memory more to fuck over our veterans than our current president, who sends our troops to be maimed & killed, while simultaneously slashing & mutilating military benefits.
anyway, that's enough political ranting for now... it's always possible i'll have more to rant about this afternoon. i do have a personal update in mind but this entry is so long i think i should just post it & maybe come back later. is this a political blog or a personal "boring minutia from my life" blog? i guess it's a bit of both, which means it won't be very good at either.
Sunday, November 09, 2003
there was a lunar eclipse last night. turns out i had a great view from the attic so i set up the time lapse camera to film it. due to the earth's rotation the moon would creep up & to the right until it left the frame every 5-10 minutes; sometimes the camera would compensate by automatically zooming out. other times i would check on the shot & it would be solid black. i also got some interesting auto-focus effects from the camera trying to focus on a single, distant light source in the middle of a dark sky. with 1/4sec footage taken every minute i got at most a couple minutes footage overall, but it was a worthwhile experiment, an opportunity that doesn't come all that often.
i also watched both harry potter movies yesterday. i turned on the tv around 11 in the morning; it just happened to be tuned to HBOW & the first movie was coincidentally starting... so i watched for a few minutes & pretty soon i was drawn in. after the 1st movie ended i realized why they were showing it: because the 2nd movie was scheduled for its pay-cable premiere later in the evening. i went ahead & watched that too, though it was on during the eclipse, so i missed a few scenes while adjusting the camera. but the movies were pretty good, at least as far as "family" movies go. i wouldn't go out of my way to see them, but the stories were decent, the fx were great, and so on. hardly compares to the lord of the rings trilogy, but then again what does?
i also watched both harry potter movies yesterday. i turned on the tv around 11 in the morning; it just happened to be tuned to HBOW & the first movie was coincidentally starting... so i watched for a few minutes & pretty soon i was drawn in. after the 1st movie ended i realized why they were showing it: because the 2nd movie was scheduled for its pay-cable premiere later in the evening. i went ahead & watched that too, though it was on during the eclipse, so i missed a few scenes while adjusting the camera. but the movies were pretty good, at least as far as "family" movies go. i wouldn't go out of my way to see them, but the stories were decent, the fx were great, and so on. hardly compares to the lord of the rings trilogy, but then again what does?
Saturday, November 08, 2003
i got my first dadaistic "noise" voicemail on my cellphone today. the call apparently came from the 861 area code & i didn't recognize the number. when i tried to call that number, i got an error. plus i've had no luck finding where area code 861 is. so the main theory is that it was a calling card. so while i have some pretty good ideas about who left the message, i won't really know until i ask around...
i went through all my cables & stuff looking for my micromini adapter so i could record the message to my hard drive. (i bought an adapter awhile ago for use with my family radios, & i suspect it would fit the cellphone as well.) no dice. so now i need to get to radio shack to get another one. i have terrible luck with cables & adapters. somehow i lose at least 1-2 cables every show i play. or so it seems.
i went through all my cables & stuff looking for my micromini adapter so i could record the message to my hard drive. (i bought an adapter awhile ago for use with my family radios, & i suspect it would fit the cellphone as well.) no dice. so now i need to get to radio shack to get another one. i have terrible luck with cables & adapters. somehow i lose at least 1-2 cables every show i play. or so it seems.
Friday, November 07, 2003
well even jessica lynch herself has come out to lambast the military for the way it misreported her story in the media, turning her from a normal captured soldier into some combo of she-ra, xena, & the dirty dozen. she's no rambo, she says, & it's honorable of her to come forward & say so (even if it's way way too late).
but at the same time, her story is about to get a lot cloudier. in coming weeks she has a tv movie, a bunch of big interviews, & an authorized biography coming out... & the biography asserts that she was raped while in captivity. of course, she has no memory of any rape; the implication is that this happened during the "three hours" when she was blacked out, with no memory. the book apparently cites some medical records as evidence that it happened.
now of course i don't know whether it really happened (neither does lynch, which means probably nobody knows for sure), & it's possible, since that & worse can happen on the battlefield. but it all seems suspicious to me, because that is the kind of detail that the military would've loved to publicize a long time ago. considering all the lies & disinformation that circulated about pvt lynch, if there were real evidence of rape, bushco would've publicized it long ago to demonize the iraqi army. it would've made the fable that much more sensational: "lady rambo" lynch is ambushed, empties her clip at the forces of evil assaulting her, is eventually overtaken, is brtually sodomized by those vicious baathist misogynists, & is slapped around in the hospital, before her saviors rescue her in a blaze of glory. the sodomy bit adds so much more emotional tension that if this kind of info were out there, they probably would've made saddam himself into the rapist. saddam forcing himself on jessica would've made one hell of a t-shirt. it's exactly the kind of emotional propaganda that the govt loves to foist on us anytime we have a new enemy (& if you don't think so, you must've forgotten the tale of nayirah & the kuwaiti babies being thrown out of incubators... a story that was completely fabricated to drum up support for gulf war I). of course now we know all the other parts of the lynch fable are pretty much false, so why should we believe this new detail?
in other military news, the sergeant who was accused of cowardice has had the charges against him bumped down to dereliction of duty (ny times article; registration required). this means that he can no longer be given the death penalty simply because he freaked out after seeing a highly mutilated corpse. of course, he already has the stigma of "coward" attached to him so his military career is as good as over, but it's a start. i guess the military realized that with so much bad press out there already, they shouldn't exacerbate the problem by openly turning on their own people.
but at the same time, her story is about to get a lot cloudier. in coming weeks she has a tv movie, a bunch of big interviews, & an authorized biography coming out... & the biography asserts that she was raped while in captivity. of course, she has no memory of any rape; the implication is that this happened during the "three hours" when she was blacked out, with no memory. the book apparently cites some medical records as evidence that it happened.
now of course i don't know whether it really happened (neither does lynch, which means probably nobody knows for sure), & it's possible, since that & worse can happen on the battlefield. but it all seems suspicious to me, because that is the kind of detail that the military would've loved to publicize a long time ago. considering all the lies & disinformation that circulated about pvt lynch, if there were real evidence of rape, bushco would've publicized it long ago to demonize the iraqi army. it would've made the fable that much more sensational: "lady rambo" lynch is ambushed, empties her clip at the forces of evil assaulting her, is eventually overtaken, is brtually sodomized by those vicious baathist misogynists, & is slapped around in the hospital, before her saviors rescue her in a blaze of glory. the sodomy bit adds so much more emotional tension that if this kind of info were out there, they probably would've made saddam himself into the rapist. saddam forcing himself on jessica would've made one hell of a t-shirt. it's exactly the kind of emotional propaganda that the govt loves to foist on us anytime we have a new enemy (& if you don't think so, you must've forgotten the tale of nayirah & the kuwaiti babies being thrown out of incubators... a story that was completely fabricated to drum up support for gulf war I). of course now we know all the other parts of the lynch fable are pretty much false, so why should we believe this new detail?
in other military news, the sergeant who was accused of cowardice has had the charges against him bumped down to dereliction of duty (ny times article; registration required). this means that he can no longer be given the death penalty simply because he freaked out after seeing a highly mutilated corpse. of course, he already has the stigma of "coward" attached to him so his military career is as good as over, but it's a start. i guess the military realized that with so much bad press out there already, they shouldn't exacerbate the problem by openly turning on their own people.
Thursday, November 06, 2003
did you know that members of the US military can be sentenced to death if they're convicted of being a coward?
i'm shocked, but i guess i'm not really surprised. executing traumatized soldiers is probably cheaper than paying their health costs...
i'm shocked, but i guess i'm not really surprised. executing traumatized soldiers is probably cheaper than paying their health costs...
Wednesday, November 05, 2003
in kinda-sorta-election-related news:
unfortunately porn star mary carey did not win the california governorship last year, losing the recall election to a lesser-skilled actor. but her career is definitely not over, what with two stories about her circulating the newsfeeds.
so yeah, carey didn't win the election but she will most likely have the best movie inspired by the election... i don't have much hope for a&e's upcoming arnold biopic. but carey will star in an uncoming porn film based on her campaign. it will star porn legend ron jeremy as one of carey's opponents, "spooge cruztamante", with some guy i've never heard of as another opponent, "ernie gropenegger". according to the afp story, 'the movie will show real footage taken from the 23-year-old Carey's campaign to become California's governor, interspersed with saucy new "behind-the-scenes footage."' if the movie is half as good as its character names, it will win a lot of awards (& carey will win a lot of erections) (sorry about that one).
on top of that, carey will also be one of the hosts for an upcoming reality tv show called can you be a porn star? the series will apparently be on pay-per-view & claims to feature "uninhibited nudity and sizzling sexuality".
seems like a pretty logical step. the obvious draw for shows like temptation island or big brother is a voyeurstic desire for sexual content, so just cut out all the other bullshit & make the show about the sex. an american idol who people can really get into. reality tv was always a lot like amateur porn anyway...
unfortunately porn star mary carey did not win the california governorship last year, losing the recall election to a lesser-skilled actor. but her career is definitely not over, what with two stories about her circulating the newsfeeds.
so yeah, carey didn't win the election but she will most likely have the best movie inspired by the election... i don't have much hope for a&e's upcoming arnold biopic. but carey will star in an uncoming porn film based on her campaign. it will star porn legend ron jeremy as one of carey's opponents, "spooge cruztamante", with some guy i've never heard of as another opponent, "ernie gropenegger". according to the afp story, 'the movie will show real footage taken from the 23-year-old Carey's campaign to become California's governor, interspersed with saucy new "behind-the-scenes footage."' if the movie is half as good as its character names, it will win a lot of awards (& carey will win a lot of erections) (sorry about that one).
on top of that, carey will also be one of the hosts for an upcoming reality tv show called can you be a porn star? the series will apparently be on pay-per-view & claims to feature "uninhibited nudity and sizzling sexuality".
seems like a pretty logical step. the obvious draw for shows like temptation island or big brother is a voyeurstic desire for sexual content, so just cut out all the other bullshit & make the show about the sex. an american idol who people can really get into. reality tv was always a lot like amateur porn anyway...
Tuesday, November 04, 2003
so bart peterson won, but that's not why i feel so disgusted.
fox 59 advertised that they were doing a "special report" on the 10o'clock news about the private investigator who's been casing local record stores on the behalf of the RIAA. some of you might already know that the RIAA (with IPD) has been raiding local record stores & confiscating all their mix tapes, despite the fact that the industry tacitly endorses mix tapes. so needless to say i wanted to see the report, as well as tape it for possible sampling.
naturally, since they'd been advertising this report, they waited until the end to show it. it was filmed at luna records (86 & ditch location), & included an interview with luna's todd robinson as well as the music spy, don finch.
the issue was framed as being about piracy: the real kind of piracy, not online downloading but bulk illicit duplication of cds that look & sound pretty much like the "real thing." they showed an example of a pirate beyonce cd that admittedly looked much like the original (at least over the tv), although they did not explicitly say where the cd actually came from (it is implied that the spy found it on luna's shelves; in one scene robinson is seen opening a cd & saying "i'm not surprised").
finally they got around to the mix cd issue: "finch says so-called dj mixes have become one of the most popular counterfeit products on the black market. the mixes include hit songs by popular artists, including some, like rapper 50 cent, who endorse them." then they immediately change the subject back to piracy in general.
so that's it. dj mixes are just another counterfeit product. never mind the hard work & skill that the dj has to put into making the mixes. & let's just ignore the fact that the labels happily give music to the djs specifically so it will be included in these mixes. the people who put out dj mixes are just pirates, & you know what kinds of people get into cd piracy: organized crime. hey, they must be evil! so sayeth fox 59. hang the dj.
fox 59 advertised that they were doing a "special report" on the 10o'clock news about the private investigator who's been casing local record stores on the behalf of the RIAA. some of you might already know that the RIAA (with IPD) has been raiding local record stores & confiscating all their mix tapes, despite the fact that the industry tacitly endorses mix tapes. so needless to say i wanted to see the report, as well as tape it for possible sampling.
naturally, since they'd been advertising this report, they waited until the end to show it. it was filmed at luna records (86 & ditch location), & included an interview with luna's todd robinson as well as the music spy, don finch.
the issue was framed as being about piracy: the real kind of piracy, not online downloading but bulk illicit duplication of cds that look & sound pretty much like the "real thing." they showed an example of a pirate beyonce cd that admittedly looked much like the original (at least over the tv), although they did not explicitly say where the cd actually came from (it is implied that the spy found it on luna's shelves; in one scene robinson is seen opening a cd & saying "i'm not surprised").
finally they got around to the mix cd issue: "finch says so-called dj mixes have become one of the most popular counterfeit products on the black market. the mixes include hit songs by popular artists, including some, like rapper 50 cent, who endorse them." then they immediately change the subject back to piracy in general.
so that's it. dj mixes are just another counterfeit product. never mind the hard work & skill that the dj has to put into making the mixes. & let's just ignore the fact that the labels happily give music to the djs specifically so it will be included in these mixes. the people who put out dj mixes are just pirates, & you know what kinds of people get into cd piracy: organized crime. hey, they must be evil! so sayeth fox 59. hang the dj.
well the gop did it again... they successfully got cbs to pull its upcoming reagan miniseries before it ever aired. apparently now the miniseries will be on showtime (also owned by viacom).
conservative critics, who had been screaming at the top of their lungs about issue for weeks now, dusted off this trusty old complaint about the miniseries: "i haven't seen it yet so i really have no clue what i'm talking about, but whatever it is, i'm offended by it." pre-emptive war, pre-emptive censorship (also called prior restraint): it's all good with these guys.
never mind that it would be exceedingly obvious that this miniseries is fictionalized (i'd like to think the average person can tell the difference between documentary & biopic)... since it's not the kind of glowing, reacharound whitewash that bush got in the recent 9/11 biopic (also aired on showtime, oddly enough), it's now been shouted off of network tv. god forbid anyone should say anything critical of ron reagan on network television! they say the miniseries will be inaccurate (even though they haven't seen it), & that's why they're censoring it, but i don't see them trying to get that jessica lynch biopic cancelled; i think we all know their big concern is that the thing will be too accurate, & people will realize what a heartless, inept jackass reagan was.
now i haven't seen the movie so i have no clue what i'm talking about, but i bet it's not vicious enough in its criticisms of reagan & his administration. yeah, i want to see him turn up his nose at the suffering of aids patients, like in one alleged scene the censors harp on so much; hell, i want to see reagan spitting on aids babies & throwing bibles at hiv+ patients. but i want to see more than that; i want to see his involvement with iran/contra: i want to see reagan snorting rails of uncut coke with the contras & personally selling them autographed guns from his personal stash. i want to see him & nancy in a 4-way with rumsfeld & saddam hussein, cracking jokes about how fun it would be to gas american minorities the way saddam was bombing his own people. i want to see reagan giving osama a one-on-one lesson on how to implement terrorist/guerilla tactics against the soviets. i want to see all that stuff & more, & i want to see it on cbs (i don't even get showtime). because you know, if people see it on a cbs biopic, they'll accept it as fact no matter how outlandish it is.
conservative critics, who had been screaming at the top of their lungs about issue for weeks now, dusted off this trusty old complaint about the miniseries: "i haven't seen it yet so i really have no clue what i'm talking about, but whatever it is, i'm offended by it." pre-emptive war, pre-emptive censorship (also called prior restraint): it's all good with these guys.
never mind that it would be exceedingly obvious that this miniseries is fictionalized (i'd like to think the average person can tell the difference between documentary & biopic)... since it's not the kind of glowing, reacharound whitewash that bush got in the recent 9/11 biopic (also aired on showtime, oddly enough), it's now been shouted off of network tv. god forbid anyone should say anything critical of ron reagan on network television! they say the miniseries will be inaccurate (even though they haven't seen it), & that's why they're censoring it, but i don't see them trying to get that jessica lynch biopic cancelled; i think we all know their big concern is that the thing will be too accurate, & people will realize what a heartless, inept jackass reagan was.
now i haven't seen the movie so i have no clue what i'm talking about, but i bet it's not vicious enough in its criticisms of reagan & his administration. yeah, i want to see him turn up his nose at the suffering of aids patients, like in one alleged scene the censors harp on so much; hell, i want to see reagan spitting on aids babies & throwing bibles at hiv+ patients. but i want to see more than that; i want to see his involvement with iran/contra: i want to see reagan snorting rails of uncut coke with the contras & personally selling them autographed guns from his personal stash. i want to see him & nancy in a 4-way with rumsfeld & saddam hussein, cracking jokes about how fun it would be to gas american minorities the way saddam was bombing his own people. i want to see reagan giving osama a one-on-one lesson on how to implement terrorist/guerilla tactics against the soviets. i want to see all that stuff & more, & i want to see it on cbs (i don't even get showtime). because you know, if people see it on a cbs biopic, they'll accept it as fact no matter how outlandish it is.
Monday, November 03, 2003
apparently i don't get to vote this year. even though we only moved a few blocks, we're in a new precinct now & i forgot to file the new address paperwork to get registered here. this is the problem you get into when your family knows all the people who work in your voting precinct; they already know we moved so if we showed up they'd know we were cheating.
it's a shame because i got all fired up by the thread on imn about how mayor bart peterson's "war on raves" & other anti-art police state tactics fly in the face of his claims about "supporting the arts". i don't really think the republican would be much better, so i likely would've voted libertarian, but it would have felt good to vote against bart regardless. at least i have plenty of time to make sure i'm registered to vote bush out in 2k4.
it's a shame because i got all fired up by the thread on imn about how mayor bart peterson's "war on raves" & other anti-art police state tactics fly in the face of his claims about "supporting the arts". i don't really think the republican would be much better, so i likely would've voted libertarian, but it would have felt good to vote against bart regardless. at least i have plenty of time to make sure i'm registered to vote bush out in 2k4.
i'm growing really sick of all my work assignments having to be done immediately... i was just brought at least 1/2 hour's worth of work & was told it must be turned over today... never mind that i'm getting hassled about a different project with similarly unreasonable dates (dates which would be nearly impossible to hit even without other things constantly coming in that have to be done now now now)
everyone in front of me can have all the time in the world to twiddle their asses before doing their work, but naturally i don't have that kind of leeway. once it comes to me, i must do it right away to make up for all that time everyone else wasted.
sure, i spend time goofing off (like writing this blog entry), but jesus... we're talking about stuff that should've been done weeks ago, but instead it's only showing up today, which means now i need to do it all today. that only means i won't get to do the other pressing work, which only means i'm going to get nagged more, all because other people have let these files sit around on their desktops collecting e-dust.
oh yeah, & now i have to rush to get the crap done on time, which means the quality is going to suffer that much more...
everyone in front of me can have all the time in the world to twiddle their asses before doing their work, but naturally i don't have that kind of leeway. once it comes to me, i must do it right away to make up for all that time everyone else wasted.
sure, i spend time goofing off (like writing this blog entry), but jesus... we're talking about stuff that should've been done weeks ago, but instead it's only showing up today, which means now i need to do it all today. that only means i won't get to do the other pressing work, which only means i'm going to get nagged more, all because other people have let these files sit around on their desktops collecting e-dust.
oh yeah, & now i have to rush to get the crap done on time, which means the quality is going to suffer that much more...
Sunday, November 02, 2003
damn, i'm listening to the new afx smojphace ep & tracks 2-3 are harsh noise! chaotic digital screeches, buzzing, & scraping. very unusual for an ep that starts with what's basically a dsp dancehall/jungle remix (afx mix of the bug/daddy freddy's "run the place red"). pretty much the last thing i expected from afx at this point. not necessarily innovative, but refreshing nonetheless.
on first listen the speedranch/jansky noise mi^grate & the donna summer/ove-naxx split are the standouts from this buying session, but then again it is first listen & i haven't even played everything i bought yet. i picked up the solo record by scratch, the embodiment of instrumentation & so far it seems like just a hip-hop record with beatboxing instead of drum machines. that's fine, but for a "solo" release by a "human turntablist", i was hoping for more focus on scratch himself, multitracked beatboxing & mouth noise, stuff like that. maybe i'm biased because i've done stuff like that myself, but i didn't think it necessary to bring in a bunch of MCs to legitimize this kind of record. there are plenty of "scratch" records by turntablists, so why not a pure "human turntablist" record by a man called scratch? (ps. if you haven't seen the movie scratch, watch it)
okay, i have more records to listen to before sunday night tv time, & apparently don't have anything else to say...
on first listen the speedranch/jansky noise mi^grate & the donna summer/ove-naxx split are the standouts from this buying session, but then again it is first listen & i haven't even played everything i bought yet. i picked up the solo record by scratch, the embodiment of instrumentation & so far it seems like just a hip-hop record with beatboxing instead of drum machines. that's fine, but for a "solo" release by a "human turntablist", i was hoping for more focus on scratch himself, multitracked beatboxing & mouth noise, stuff like that. maybe i'm biased because i've done stuff like that myself, but i didn't think it necessary to bring in a bunch of MCs to legitimize this kind of record. there are plenty of "scratch" records by turntablists, so why not a pure "human turntablist" record by a man called scratch? (ps. if you haven't seen the movie scratch, watch it)
okay, i have more records to listen to before sunday night tv time, & apparently don't have anything else to say...
Saturday, November 01, 2003
to those who still wonder about those missing 10 sermons from the olden days of stAllio!'s way... sometimes, when heading a religion, it's important to inspire your flock to believe in something, truly believe in some future event that most likely will never happen. whether that event ever happens is for the most part irrelevant (in fact, it's better if it doesn't); all that matters is that they patiently wait for it. for the christians, it's the second coming. for the jews, it's the first coming. for the muslims, it's... i guess mohammed's second coming? for the subgenii, it's july 5th 1998.
so yes, something like 4 years have passed & i never wrote those last 10 sermons. i don't intend to write them anytime soon, either. but that doesn't mean i never will. someday i could insert a wild hair into my ass & just write up those bad boys.
for now, i have introduced this "personal" blog so i can bring you banal observations from my life on a much more fluid schedule than the sermons would've allowed (to paraphrase the cell phone commercial, "i call it my 'whenever the hell i feel like it, so i'll do it when i'm damned good & ready plan'"). how often i will post here remains to be seen. but now that i've actually started the new blog, i'll most likely guilt myself into dropping by periodically.
so yes, something like 4 years have passed & i never wrote those last 10 sermons. i don't intend to write them anytime soon, either. but that doesn't mean i never will. someday i could insert a wild hair into my ass & just write up those bad boys.
for now, i have introduced this "personal" blog so i can bring you banal observations from my life on a much more fluid schedule than the sermons would've allowed (to paraphrase the cell phone commercial, "i call it my 'whenever the hell i feel like it, so i'll do it when i'm damned good & ready plan'"). how often i will post here remains to be seen. but now that i've actually started the new blog, i'll most likely guilt myself into dropping by periodically.
got a big haul at indy cd today; picked up the new vsnares, new kid606, donna summer/ove-naxx split, & various other assorted goods. seems like every time i go there the selection is better. they have a doormouse divider now. & an ove-naxx divider! the guy at the counter said he'd been waiting for the summer/naxx split & was also waiting for ds's "this needs to be your style". it's still a bit weird & go into a local record shop & buy cds from artists i know or have in my buddy list. it also makes me wonder how easily i could get better distribution if i only got off my ass & sent demos out to labels...
this blog is brand new & is giving me grief setting up a template i like, so this entry is mostly written to take up space for layout purposes. it's better than "this is dummy text. this is dummy text. this is dummy text. this is dummy text. this is dummy text. this is dummy text. this is dummy text."
this blog is brand new & is giving me grief setting up a template i like, so this entry is mostly written to take up space for layout purposes. it's better than "this is dummy text. this is dummy text. this is dummy text. this is dummy text. this is dummy text. this is dummy text. this is dummy text."
