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-- Jorge Luis Borges, "The Library of Babel" |
miércoles, enero 31, 2001
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linkydink Sopwith! O, the memories. I have yet to find a videogame of comparable quality. Of course, for me, "quality" is any game in which you can turn your plane upside down and drop a bomb on yourself. In other news, I have discovered via dilligent research that Melbourne is a Thugz Paradise, and that I should be making plans to kick it large. In other news, I think I have a strangely shaped dent in my righthand cheekbone. Hmmm.
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linkydink from the first chapter of Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser: "The McDonald’s Corporation is the largest owner of retail property in the world. Indeed, the company earns the majority of its profits not from selling food but from collecting rent. McDonald’s spends more money on advertising and marketing than any other brand. As a result it has replaced Coca-Cola as the world’s most famous brand. McDonald’s operates more playgrounds than any other private entity in the United States. It is one of the nation’s largest distributors of toys. A survey of American schoolchildren found that 96 percent could identify Ronald McDonald. The only fictional character with a higher degree of recognition was Santa Claus. The impact of McDonald’s on the way we live today is hard to overstate. The Golden Arches are now more widely recognized than the Christian cross." funny how these things have infiltrated our lives. i've read reviews by people saying this book convinced them never to eat fast food again, and others which compare it to Upton Sinclair's The Jungle. it reminds me of Neal Stephenson's description of the ubiquitous three-ring binder franchises in Snow Crash. scary stuff. it's definitely on my "to read" list.
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linkydink Okay, the only thing worth noting in the mystery post was sopwith which is better known to at least one poster here as The Red Baron In the new, fresher post, Segata Sanshiro, Japanese Sega Saturn mascot. Mentioned in a Sega Salute on ign's dreamcast site, passed on to me by Eric (tekken) Hunter, now brought to you by sega's madness. Watch all the commercials you can stand to watch, esp. this one.
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linkydink jrandom, don't be a dork. i always get a summer job. also, i have an extraordinarily long time off for the summer (about 4 months) and i'd like to do something interesting instead of/in addition to getting a job. i figure in another year i'll have no choice but to get a job, so i might as well do something more interesting while i still have the chance.
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linkydink VirtueTV.com has archived RealVideo of shows in Toronto last spring by Kid Koala and DJ Food. These are two incredible musicians; Kid Koala and another DJ accompany a live 4-piece jamband on turntables while Strictly Kev of DJ Food mixes music and poetry together live on 4 (!) turntables. These two come close to epitomizing what I'm reaching for musically right now, and the recordings are high-quality, so it's definitely worth checking out if you've got some free time and bandwidth.
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linkydink Ah, well, if you insist on independent stores, then your next-next-best-bet is wordsworth.com. "During the 20th century the strength of the labour movement at any given moment has depended largely upon general economic conditions; in times of full employment and rising wages unionism has tended to lose some of its appeal, particularly among younger workers, while in recessionary times it has tended to attract more members." As ridiculous as the legal defintion of "obscene" is, consider: it isn't being defined with you, it is being defined for you!
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linkydink in case you were wondering what, exactly, constitutes obscenity, i'll lay it right out for you: "According to the U.S. Supreme Court, and the Code of Alabama, the test for obscenity is whether material meets each of these tests: Depicts hard-core sexual activity in a manner that is patently offensive according to local community standards." Appeals to a prurient interest, that is, a shameful or morbid interest in sex." Lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value." (from here, whatever this is)
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linkydink my problem with B&N is that it's a Typical Big Corporation (scroll down). but it seems they're pretty inescapable these days.
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linkydink maybe Amazon's business model isn't as wonderful as everyone thought after all. can't someone please do this right?
martes, enero 30, 2001
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linkydink Off topic... but come on people, does it get any worse than this? Darryl Hannah I'm not surprised at... but Tim Curry? Look at all those voice-overs!! *sigh*
lunes, enero 29, 2001
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linkydink Obviously, if you know you can take SF next year but you don't know if you can take urban economics next year, you should take urban economics. At my old school, on December 14, 1992, Wayne Lo, 18, shot and killed a professor (Nacunan Saez, 37) and a student (Galen Gibson, 18), and injured four others (Theresa Beavers, 42; Joshua Faber, 15; Matthew David, 18; Thomas McElderry, 19).
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linkydink question: i'm trying to decide between two classes. i want to be an econ minor, which involves taking four econ classes in the next three semesters. i could take two this semester (i'm already signed up for one, and the second would be Urban Economics) and be well on my way. OR i could take Science Fiction? Speculative Fiction?, which i've wanted to take for three years and which would give me at least one humanities class (my other three are Networks, Linear Algebra, and Environmental Economics). both of the profs are amazing, both of the subjects are extraordinarily interesting. if i don't take SciFi this year, i'll take it next year. i'm not sure if Urban is offered next year. right now i'm leaning toward Urban Econ. any input?
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linkydink Latest reason why I'm psyched for Australia: U-Melbourne 103-005: Cybersociety Topics covered include cybernetics, cyberspace, cyborgs and other 'cybers', virtual lives and virtual communities, the information economy, privacy and surveillance, digital convergence, multimedia and hypermedia, techno-utopian and dystopian visions. Perscribed Texts:
domingo, enero 28, 2001
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linkydink  Queensland's loveable cane toad menace is old news. Now, fear Florida's utterly alien Asian Swamp Eel invasion
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linkydink Ivy-League Porn "The movie's producers are members of a (Yale) student group called Porn 'n Chicken, which gathers regularly to eat fried chicken and watch X- rated films."
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linkydink interesting fact o' the day: battered women's shelters receive more calls on Superbowl Sunday than any other day of the year. what does that tell us about football culture?
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linkydink i find it funny (in a bitter, i-want-to-kill-someone sort of way) that the Republicans want to drill for more oil, but only so long as it's not going to be their eyesore.
sábado, enero 27, 2001
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linkydink I got you all beat: dictator quiz says I'm Terrance from "Terrance and Phillip." jrandom: I think that the notion of choice is inherent in all of the text at my links. Yea, verily, the Breszny one especially offers you a choice to interact with what he and Jung choose to call the shadow. It seems to me that the implied message is that we have already chosen to repress much of ourselves in search of perfection, and that we must choose expression more often. None of these posts are declaring an all or nothing id riot, and of course to do so would be ludicrous. I think what I get from them is that perfection is balance, and for the majority of this country, the scales are tipped too far into the realm of repression. word.
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linkydink this post all in lowercase due to crappy keyboard. i was supposed to dj at trinity college tonight but didnt because it sucked. future; tue 1/30, buttonwood tree in middletown, ct wed 1/31, 'the tap room' above risd mailroom in proidence, ri (tentative) sleep stops pain. sleep now.
viernes, enero 26, 2001
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linkydink Perhaps you're having a hard time understanding Gay Republicans because, in fact, it is impossible to understand how any minority could agree with the tenets of Republicanism. State's Rights says it all: if you are not in the voting majority for your state, you can practically guarentee discrimination. 'nuff said.
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linkydink i have a hard time understanding gay republicans. "I get all kinds of e-mails telling me I'm working with the Nazis," said Kevin Ivers, a member of another gay group, Log Cabin Republicans, who attended the inauguration breakfast. "But we're optimistic that President Bush will keep a dialogue going with the community." i understand how a gay person could agree with the tenets of republicanism, but how can someone support a group of people who, as a general political mass, are constantly trying to take away your rights? isn't that like being in an abusive relationship? "i know he hits me, but usually he's so nice... i'm sure someday he'll change his ways." maybe that's a little harsh, but as a woman and a fairly vocal queer rights supporter i can't imagine supporting the Republican party. while i may occasionally agree with their principles and i see the merit in working with them for political compromise, i could never wholeheartedly support them because they are about limiting my freedoms.
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linkydink Perfection, like Love, is one of those words that is nine times out of ten impossible to statically define for one's self, much less to statically define for anyone else. That said, Jason, your links seem to be saying that the way to perfection isn't repression but expression. What any of them fail to mention (or even hint at!) is the importance of choice in what the individual or group represses and expresses, because all or nothing is a sure recipe for disaster.
jueves, enero 25, 2001
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linkydink I don't know if it was RAW or Jeff Noon who introduced me to the concept... maybe neither. Somewhere along the line I picked up the notion that maybe perfection is a function of time. Wasn't it Denis Leary that said happiness comes in small doses? A twinkie or a five-second orgasm?
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linkydink Perfection is an interesting thing. What is it, how do we define it etc.? This was my horoscope from the delightful Rob Breszny for the week. This little tidbit appeared in "Ain't It Cool News" today. My friend Joanna posted this little thing on her website today. All of these things point to me really pondering this idea. Any notions or responses to the articles?
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linkydink using the "guess-a-dictator" game as a personal questionnaire, i discovered that i am ellie mae clampet from beverly hillbillies! can't say i didn't learn something today.
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linkydink The most disturbing thing to me in the whole energy mess of California is that those inefficiencies are being duplicated all over the globe, from the first world on down, because of the nasty America-driven global capitalism. For instance, in Zimbabwe all soda bottles were glass and reused until just recently when RCA Cola introduced a plastic bottle. Of course, those plastic bottles could technically also be recycled if the facillities for doing so existed in Zimbabwe, but they don't. Furthermore, the only reason why bottles did get reused is because people were charged a $3 bottle deposit on an $8 Coke, and so, the way most Zimbabweans look at it, that bottle, which they bring to the store when they want to buy another Coke and give to the merchant for that $3 credit, is worth $3 that they wouldn't otherwise have. Street kids would go around collecting those bottles that were discarded and sell them or give them back to the merchants for cash. To put this in perspective a little bit, $2 buys a good-sized banana in Zimbabwe. The RCA Cola plastic bottles, however, are bigger than the glass Coke bottles, and they do not include a bottle deposit. The roads in Zimbabwe are consequently becoming increasingly littered with squished RCA Cola bottles. It's awful.
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linkydink That Guess-the-Evil-Dictator/Sit-Com-Character game is pretty interesting if you answer it as a personal questionaire. Myself, I bear a striking resemblance to Dr. Smith from Lost In Space. I'll try to not let this keep me up at night.
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linkydink pick a dictator (or sitcom character. but dictators are more fun). answer the questions. see if you can fool the computer.
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linkydink "going on a hot date tonight? is it going to be hot loin action all the way, or will your lucky pants let you down?"
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linkydink interesting: there is a Sustainability Institute in Vermont. this is something i'd like to do. "The transition to a sustainable world is above all a transition in world view and paradigm. The focus of the Institute's education and communication efforts is to provide information and experiences to help shift mindsets. The content of our educational programs unites the studies of science and systems with the experience of intuition and connection." very hippie, very interesting.
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linkydink California's power situation is pretty f*cked up. why? um... "n the old electric system, it cost utilities less to subsidize our more efficient bulbs than to build another dinosaur power plant. In the deregulated system, they have only one incentive: to sell us as much power as possible at the lowest apparent price. So much for efficiency."
miércoles, enero 24, 2001
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linkydink Education is an extremely tough nut to crack, and I don't feel I can elucidate my opinion on this blog alone when most people devote entire books to it, and deservedly so. I will say this, though: that if The System (and I'm really not being sarcastic) were interested in equal education for all, instead of excellent education for some and poor education for most, then that is the way it would be. This is also assuming that The System is, in fact, interested in education and not just programming. Myself, were I ever to have a child, I would insist on home-schooling.
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linkydink salon has an article about a controversial magnet high school in Illinois. the question is, is it right to hand-pick the top students and lavish the most money and attention and the best teachers on them at the expense of the less-gifted kids? while the gifted may be our nation's hope for keeping up in this global technological age (to paraphrase the article), the remaining masses can't be ignored. to me, the real question isn't "can the gifted excel if showered with resources?", since obviously they can. the real question is, as the article puts it, "Is it only our "gifted" children who deserve an IMSA-quality education? If tomorrow's nuclear physicists are worth $20,000 a year to us, how much should we spend on tomorrow's dancers, or teachers, or bus drivers?" of course, in many ways IMSA reminds me of smith: a bunch of smart kids in a "tight-knit" community, many of whom are put on meds for depression; "an educational Oz of abundant resources, high-performing students and top-notch teachers and administrators"; a place where "absent, too, is the threat of theft or violence on campus." perhaps i'm more comfortable with smith having those qualities because it's a private institution; i can feel all right about my education because i'm not depriving some "less gifted" student of school funds. in response to my previous post, here's a quote: "All handwringing and campaign speeches notwithstanding, IMSA proves that we know how to educate our children, and educate them well. We know how much it costs, and when we decide it's worth paying for, we know how to find the money."
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linkydink anyone who hasn't read (or better yet seen performed) the Vagina Monologues should do so. it's performed here at smith every year on valentine's day. you're all invited.
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linkydink Yes, cmoore, I think you have earned the Captain Blog pirate hat. Although we must forgive jimmytones for his weak performance of late as he has gone atravelin' without his wireless internet hook up (perhaps he is hooking up to other things instead). As for me I have gotten trapped in radio land. Today I reported on a presentation by four mayors and a first selctman of an analysis of state funding programs. Did you know that there is a $600 milllion surplus in the state of Connecticut right now while many local municipalities in the state are struggling to fund their education and maintenance programs? So much for the wonders of income tax reductions. Oh, did Dubyah mention something about wanting to cut taxes? Did he pull back recent moves to build more low-income housing, safegaurd the environment against the WTO, support for certain pro-choice organizations? From this angle Clinton's looking pretty good.
martes, enero 23, 2001
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linkydink "Why should one physical parameter be a mathematical function of some others? This is the philosophical problem that Nobel physicist Eugene Wigner called 'the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in the natural science' in his 1960 paper of that name in Communications of Pure and Applied Mathematics. Albert Einstein put the problem this way in his Sidelights on Relativity, 'How is it possible that mathematics, a product of human thought that is independent of experience, fits so excellently the objects of physical reality?'"
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linkydink Apparently you're not the only one with ill-will towards Dubya, cmoore. If your admin has blocked napster.com, just use another server. Or, try Gnutella, a distributed system. I'm not about to say with any authority that there isn't a gender-based salary gap, but I'm highly suspect of techies.com's methodology. Namely, I wouldn't trust humans to accurately report on their own job. In stead of what they are being paid, they might report what they think they should be paid (either higher or lower), and instead of their actual position, they might report what position they think they should have (again, either higher or lower). Hell, what's to stop them from lying about their sex! The question, I guess, is whether it was prevalent enough to effect the conclusions. Tactile interfaces are so passe! Does Blogger have statistics functions such that it could tell us who the most frequent poster in any given time range is? That'd be keen.
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linkydink how come there's a gender/salary gap in the IT workforce? "Overall, female techies earn an average 92 cents for every dollar their male counterparts earn, averaging $5,071 less in yearly pay than men. For full-time professionals in all U.S. industries, women earn less than 75 percent of what men earn, according to the U.S. Census Bureau"
lunes, enero 22, 2001
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linkydink smith has blocked our access to napster and scour is no more, but at last angelie has found a viable alternative!
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linkydink in case anyone was wondering, here are the last meals of everyone executed in texas since 1982.
domingo, enero 21, 2001
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linkydink Does anybody know why all the PNG-format graphics I try to use come out unusably dark when I save them? It's like they're overdeveloped or something. Witness: GIF vs. PNG. This is all with Adobe Photoshop. Unfortunately, the PNG website seems to be down. Any ideas?
sábado, enero 20, 2001
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linkydink My thoughts on Clinton: I think Clinton is certainly the best president we've had in my (our?) lifetime, maybe even the best since Kennedy. I mean, aside from destroying a few Iraqi pharmaceutical companies here and there, he seems like as decent and progressive a guy as you're likely to find in mainstream politics. Not that that's saying much. Now that he's gone, thank god our nightmare is over.
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linkydink Wether you like Babe 2 or not, I think that you gotta give props to JHaas for a really smoothly-written review of it. (Except for that last part, of course.) I guess 2(?) years of writing movie reviews for the Wesleyan Argus pays off. Apparently, Don Hertzfeldt agrees. (Scroll down, or search for "Haas"...) What else can we blame Jason Haas '00 for? (Ditto...)
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linkydink now that he's officially out of office, what did y'all think of Clinton's presidency? was he a fair leader who instituted beneficial programs, or is he only human? (and if you know something about Clinton's mutant superpowers, please, please blog now.)
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linkydink I'm psyched to see the Brooklyn Babylon that JHaas mentioned, though certainly not just because of The Roots. Good hip-hop musicians do not necessarily make a good movie, though at least The Roots play a band of musicians instead of a band of mutants or something. Instead, I'm excited because Brooklyn Babylon is the first collaboration between activist Bonz Malone and director Marc Levin (a Wes-alum!) since the incredible SLAM. SLAM is even better than Babe 2.
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linkydink while i can appreciate the things you pointed out about Babe 2 (the stylized universe, etc), those still don't make me like the movie. it's like, say, ballet: i can appreciate the thought and the work that went into it, but i still don't enjoy watching it. i think we're gonna have to agree to disagree on this one.
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linkydink You're totally right. That last part was a mistake, and I knew it even as I wrote it. Such is the way with rants, I guess. Anyway, check out Babe 2 and be astounded and touched.
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linkydink I dunno about Babe, but George Miller certainly gets mad props for Mad Max. That said, and giving Babe the benefit of the doubt, I doubt it's any more fair to say that it is better than Lord of the Flies than it is to say Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 is better than James Brown's Papa's Got A Brand New Bag. Yeah, they're both in the same medium, but the similarities don't go much further than that. Or do they? I'm not a cranky film major, but I'm willing to learn.
viernes, enero 19, 2001
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linkydink I hate to play the cranky film major on this one, kids... Babe 2 is super-genius. George Miller, of "Mad Max" fame, is a deft craftsman who plies his trade with aplomb. This movie does several things well that few films get right. It creates its own stylized universe that is different from our own in a way that services the story perfectly. It is directed at a children's audience with out being condescending or sappy. Instead there are real human issues about, and the animal actors get the pathos right more often than your average Hollywood hacks. Please go rent it again and dig on the brilliance. Way better than "Lord of the Flies." Yeah. Rant over.
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linkydink jimmy, i think Babe: Pig in the City is one of the most terrible movies ever! my family watched it together (for my little sister's benefit) and agreed that while the original Babe was good (as was the book, which i read when i was little), the sequel sucked ass.
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linkydink John Gilmore asks, in What's Wrong With Content Protection: "If by 2030 we have invented a matter duplicator that's as cheap as copying a CD today, will we outlaw it and drive it underground? So that farmers can make a living keeping food expensive, so that furniture makers can make a living preventing people from having beds and chairs that would cost a dollar to duplicate, so that builders won't be reduced to poverty because a comfortable house can be duplicated for a few hundred dollars? Yes, such developments would cause economic dislocations for sure. But should we drive them underground and keep the world impoverished to save these peoples' jobs? And would they really stay underground, or would the natural advantages of the technology cause the "underground" to rapidly overtake the rest of society?"
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linkydink "I know I'm a charming and personable person, but that means shit in TV. Having a freak up there is in their own self-interest. I understand what the game is: for me to be a freak. And I didn't mind, because there was enough money involved to make it worthwhile."
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linkydink From the slamdance January e-mailer: Los Angeles - Representatives from the Slamdance Film Festival and the 6th Element announced plans to join forces for the production of the fest¹s Opening Night Party. The event is scheduled for Saturday, January 20, 2001, at the Silvermine in Park City, Utah, starting at 9pm. The Opening Night Party will follow the first of Slamdance¹s Special Screenings: the world premiere of BROOKLYN BABYLON, Marc Levin¹s music-driven love story. Star of the film, Tariq Trotter, will perform at the Opening Night Party, joined by Scratch,?uestlove, Hub and Kamal of the Grammy Award winning band The Roots. Following the band, 6th Element will bring on DJ talent for the night, including Lady Kier, formerly of Deee-lite. Why am I not headed to Park City? Same answer as "why hip hop sucks in '96." At least South by Southwest is going to pay me for my pre-screening toil.
jueves, enero 18, 2001
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linkydink John West endure the worst to bring you the best. "JAZZY B" writes: "THIS BEAR IS BIG,HE WOULD BE GREAT IN BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER."
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linkydink  I just watched Babe: Pig In The City. Seriously: it was really really good! On so many levels, in so many ways. See it if you have the chance.
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linkydink i ran into brer brian on the shuttle train tuesday morning... recognized him from his mugshot @ mp3.com. we got to talking and he told me about his new musical "the wrong fag to fuck with", which is apparently about how dysfunctional a fictional relationship between eminem and courtney love would be, not to mention damaging to our society..... anyway, the musical is @ surf reality (172 allen st, nyc) this friday night at midnight. i'll be there, will you? meanwhile... i can smell your brains
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linkydink Tom Alciere Resigns. :-( Remember this guy? Sad, but probably inevitable. Oh, well; at least it gave me an excuse to make my first post on MetaFilter.
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linkydink if i was a timmy, i'd visit my friend cmoore and her friendly singing rat. (okay, i lied about the singing part.) if it was me with 23 days, i'd probably read a lot, visit some people, maybe go somewhere fun (like toronto), although that's usually better if you have someone to go with. i know, i'm boring. but i did just drive cross-country... that was fun. i'd like to do it again under different circumstances: warmer weather and more time to spend seeing things. [Ed. note: cmoore, the link you originally provided assumes one is logging in to a wish list, where as I assume you merely wanted us to see your wish list, and so I "fixed" the link for you. If this was in error, my apologies.]
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linkydink If I had 23 days to kill, I'd probably go on a road trip to the National Cryptologic Museum. And look at all you can learn in 21 days, Jimmy! If you're alone with your drumbreak, perhaps it's because it's not in the format of choice. Chris uses a keen layout and color scheme for his pet projects site, clockworkdreams.
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linkydink Argh! Jimmytones.com is down again!! Of course we locked the server in a friends room at Wes who's now in Boston for the next week or so, so there's no way to check on it. Sigh...
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linkydink I am in awe of myself. Listen (in a convenient 22k realaudio file!) to the amazing drumbreak I found in Boston's Garment District. Just listen to that. Move over, Cut Chemist. Does anyone else think this is cool, or am I alone here?
miércoles, enero 17, 2001
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linkydink A poll: What should I do to occupy the 24 days between today and my departure for Australia. I really have NOTHING to do, and unless I change that, I think I may go completely insane... Either post it or email me.
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linkydink Short term, sophia needs to have telnetd disabled and wu-ftpd upgraded. Long term, it needs to have SunOS retired and Windows 2000 Server installed, 'cause lets face it: Smith obviously isn't interested in proper Unix system administration.
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linkydink unix-using blogsters: is there any relatively easy way to set up sophia (our server) to automatically kill hung blogger telnet sessions (and/or kill any off-campus ftp from pyra after a day)? i'm not sure of the system's specifics, just that it's running SunOS UNIX. i've emailed Ben Marsden, so hopefully the problem will be fixed shortly.
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linkydink "There was a time when it seemed as if the unintended consequence of the women's movement was the feminized New Age Man. But the newest hybrid of the gender wars is an even more unusual creature: the Female Chauvinist Pig." (via Robot Wisdom)
martes, enero 16, 2001
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linkydink Fairfield County's #1 polluter, the Bridgeport Harbor Station, must be that massive ugly conglomeration of smokestacks that we pass on I-95 in Bridgeport! It figures; That thing is nasty. David Foster Wallace wasn't kidding when he called Bridgeport New England's lower intestine.
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linkydink eep! that chat log is frightening! in better news, L.A. is finally winning their war against smog. if, y'know, you think "On more and more days each year, blue hues are returning to skies across the region, pushing aside the big brown cloud as well as the smog stigma that has been a staple of the Southland since the boom years of World War II" means they're "winning". and yep, case logic is a good bet. that's what i use, anyway, and i've never had any problems.
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linkydink Anybody got an idea of where I could get ahold of a reasonably priced CD carrying case? The ones at Tower are all $60+!!
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linkydink Ok, I think I get it. I assumed it was some sort of bizzare PR stunt, but it wasn't immediately obvious to me how it worked. I tend to think of Saddam as such a dictator that he doesn't particularly care wether the Iraqi people like him or not, but I guess I'm (unsurprisingly) off-base.
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linkydink Do hide all sharp objects before reading this AOL chat log on Britney Spears & George W. Bush (via MetaFilter).
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linkydink When I said smoke and mirrors, Jimmy, I meant he's only saying they're going to donate the money. What Saddam is looking for is more ammunition to go back to his people with to convince them that he isn't the bad guy. The fact of the matter is, though Iraq is technically a republic, it has never been run by anyone except military strongmen.
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linkydink A more useful definition of folk music can be found at britannica.com, and for interested parties, here's their interesting definition of electronic music. Jimmy, y'know Hussein's donation is just smoke and mirrors, right? From the UNDP Poverty Strategies Initiative: "As in other regions, improving data on poverty has been one of the main priorities in the Arab region. Due to the lack of accurate data, many countries concentrated on poverty definitions and mapping with the goal of providing policy-makers with accurate information upon which to base anti-poverty policies." Of course O Brother is a crime film: they're escaped convicts, on the run from the law! That said, keep in mind that the IMDB is, for the most part, user-contributed and thus subject to all the failings of users.
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linkydink cmoore: Looks like the imdb got it wrongish. Before Robert, there was a Tommy Johnson (apparently no relation to Robert) that apparently also sold his soul to the devil to play the guitar. Guess the Dark Master was getting a lot of patronage in those days.
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linkydink here's what i'm talking about! from the imdb's 'O Brother' trivia page: The character of Tommy Johnson is based on famed blues guitarist Robert Johnson who, according to folk legend, sold his soul to the Devil at the crossroads for his legendary talent.
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linkydink but o jimmy, digging too deep is half the fun of seeing a good movie. anyway, i thought it was excellent. (side note: the imdb lists it as a crime movie? whaaat?) re blogs enfranchising the stupid: i've noticed that most one-poster blogs tend to degenerate pretty quickly into inanity. many multi-poster blogs do the same, but it seems that multi-poster blogs have better luck at being interesting - maybe it's the give and take, maybe it's the range of views represented, maybe it's just that being multi-poster sometimes keeps people from blogging things like "tonight i watched Roswell and then brushed my teeth." (why do people bother to post that stuff? whatever floats your boat, i guess.)
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linkydink On O Brother Where Art Thou and parallels to The Odyssey, from an interview with the Coens: Interviewer: If you have sirens involved, the Odyssey parallels must hold pretty close. JC & EC: (chortling) Yeah, well... EC: We avail ourselves of it very selectively. There's the sirens; and the cyclops, John Goodman, a one-eyed Bible salesman.... JC: Whenever it's convenient we trot out the Odyssey. EC: But I don't want any of those Odyssey fans to go to the movie expecting, y'know... JC: "Where's Laertes?" (laughter) EC: "Where's his dog?" (more laughter) Looks like we may have been looking a little too deep... :)
lunes, enero 15, 2001
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linkydink In the music-in-commercials vein: Rumor has it that DJ Shadow is remixing the William Tell Overture for Reebok's new Spike Jonze-directed ad campaign. Again: Huh?
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linkydink Ugh. These genre-semantics are giving me a headache. The best example of awesome music in TV commercials, as far as I'm concerned, is the awesome wave of Sprite hiphop jingles in the mid-90s. Sprite solicited freestyle rhymes about Sprite from The Roots, Brand Nubian, A Tribe Called Quest, Pete Rock & CL Smooth, KRS-ONE and MC Shan, and really generally almost everyone good in hip-hop at the time. It was just incredible, suddenly being dumped into this manic rugged freestyle rhyme session in the middle of TV commercials. I think commercials use better music because they want to get your attention and make you remember them, whereas pop radio wants you to sink into a kind of pleasant Pavlovian tupor and not change the dial. Commercials are willing to be somewhat risky, but commercial radio wants to play it safe. That, and what Amy said.
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linkydink The reason why the better music is found on commercials rather than radio is because the people who put the sound behind commercials are Sound Designers, a.k.a. Music Nerds like us, while the people who put music on the (commercial) radio are DJs who want to fill the heads of the masses with little other than their own over-sized egos. Ok, maybe that's a little harsh, but it's my best explanation. I think Timmy may also have stumbled upon the difficulty of defining folk, or any other genre, in his response to my listing of dictionary definitions for folk and music. Folk music is, supposedly, the music which defines a community. That's why we have things like Irish Folk Dancing, and Klezmer, and, oh yes, good ole American Square Dancing - yes, that wacko country jam they play in High School gymnasiums across America while some old dude calls out dance moves is a type of folk music. Mayhaps we could even be so bold as to call hip-hop a form of African American folk music. Alright, this week's music nerd challenge, what is electronic music? On second thought, you may choose to ignore that challenge, I'm not sure that I care anymore. Just play me some good tunes!
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linkydink Blogger doesn't always empower mindless nits; sometimes it screws them up, like just now when it ate the long thing I wrote. Here is a scathing review of Kid A.
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linkydink Those of us who had the unfortunate experience of attending Greenwich High School may vaguely recall Dean Kamen's greater contribution: FIRST, with a fascinating article on him and his organization in Wired. For all the other Radiohead fans in the haus, here's a keen review of Kid A (via Robot Wisdom archives). I think perhaps Louis Armstrong put it better: "Talking about jazz is like dancing about architecture." The cookbook recipie given by Tristan Tzara is quite similar to William S. Burroughs' process, if I'm not mistaken. On the subject of interesting billboards, witness on I-95 North (somewhere in the proximity to New Haven) in huge black-on-white: "VAGINA Monologues" with the subtitle "Spread the word". Oh yeah, and what's playing on my abstract "turntable" is Cinematic Orchestra and DJ Food. Along that line, I see that Amon Tobin is getting major play in Coca-Cola commercials. Anyone want to explain why these days, the "better" music isn't to be found on the radio, but in commercials?
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linkydink ah, i love the radiohead website. haven't been there in a long time, but i did stumble across the dadaist poem thing a while back. those men are very cool. i'm currently reading Caesar's Women by Colleen McCullough (author of the Thorn Birds, which i wasn't particularly thrilled with). surprisingly enough, it has little to do with women but a lot to do with political maneuvering in ancient rome. it's not bad, but it does get a bit tiring trying to keep track of everyone and who they've aided or hindered in their past political moves, who they're related to, etc. musically i've been listening to a vast range of things from Fatboy Slim to Phish to Melissa Ferrick to Michael Jackson. the road trip dragged out all sorts of interesting music that's been hiding in my cd collection - we spent six whole days in a car and didn't repeat a single cd.
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linkydink Re. folk: I think perhaps Louis Armstrong put it best: "ALL music is folk music. I ain't never heard no horse sing a song." In a way, though, it seems to me that those first two definitions of "folk" don't have a whole lot more to do with what we consider "folk music" than tropical forests with "jungle music" or spinning sediment with "rock and roll".
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linkydink In light of the recently rerejuvinated conversation concerning what's spinning on our turntables I was reminded of a chat I had with Timmy about the definiton of folk music, my primary musical foundation and spring board. I thought the following might shed some light: Main Entry: 1folk Pronunciation: 'fOk Function: noun Inflected Form(s): plural folk or folks Etymology: Middle English, from Old English folc; akin to Old High German folc people Date: before 12th century 1 archaic : a group of kindred tribes forming a nation : PEOPLE 2 : the great proportion of the members of a people that determines the group character and that tends to preserve its characteristic form of civilization and its customs, arts and crafts, legends, traditions, and superstitions from generation to generation Main Entry: 2folk Function: adjective Date: before 12th century 1 : originating or traditional with the common people of a country or region and typically reflecting their lifestyle 2 : of or relating to the common people or to the study of the common people Main Entry: mu·sic Pronunciation: 'myü-zik Function: noun Usage: often attributive Etymology: Middle English musik, from Old French musique, from Latin musica, from Greek mousikE any art presided over by the Muses, especially music, from feminine of mousikos of the Muses, from Mousa Muse Date: 13th century 1 a : the science or art of ordering tones or sounds in succession, in combination, and in temporal relationships to produce a composition having unity and continuity b : vocal, instrumental, or mechanical sounds having rhythm, melody, or harmony 2 a : an agreeable sound : EUPHONY 3 : a musical accompaniment 4 : the score of a musical composition set down on paper 5 : a distinctive type or category of music I find the quote in the 5th meaning of music to be particularly enlightening. All of the above definitons were found at Webster's Dictionary On-line go there and improve your Scrabble skills. "This is an American folk song. Did you recognize it as such?... You don't hear 'em much anymore...Folk singers hardly ever sing em'. That's cuz they're boring... But I am a folk singer, this is a folk music organization, you are ostensibly the folk, nespa? That means we own this song together... We're gonna sing this damn song together, boring or not." - Utah Phillips What is currently spinning on My Turntable: Radiohead, Kid A.
domingo, enero 14, 2001
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linkydink so Greenwich is the "gateway to New England", huh? and i didn't know we had a basketball league for midgets. fancy that.
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linkydink ok, kiddies, i am back at last from my cross-country voyage. driving up 95 to exit 4 was pretty surreal - after six days of driving on unfamiliar highways, seeing such sights as Cracker Barrels at every exit and crazy southern billboards (example: "Who's the Father? 1-800-DNA TEST". or: "Looking for Thrills? Abstinence!"). saw the movie Traffic on friday night. it was... interesting. that is, the idea behind it was interesting: the many faces of the drug trade and the drug war, the different ways it affects different people's lives. however, it isn't a very exciting movie. it has a few gripping moments, but at other (longer) parts it is boring and unengaging. of course, i did see it when i was pretty tired. (getting up early and driving all day will do that to a person.) i wouldn't tell you not to see it, but don't go in expecting the action movie shown in the previews. that's pretty much all the action there is. one interesting thing about the film is the different styles Soderbergh shot the different storylines in. there's the gritty yellow mexican story, the crisp blue washington dc/ohio story, the california story is done in browns. if anyone else watches it, we should discuss the racial issues. they sort of nagged me throughout the movie. i know the archives have gone missing and no one can publish. i'll try to get those fixed when i get back up to school...
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linkydink I've been watching the Ken Burns Jazz documentary on PBS. It's totally fascinating; I highly recommend it! What struck me as funny about it was not only how innappropriately dry and formal it is, but the very strange quality of the voice-overs. They all have a specific deep authoratative resonance to them; they seem sculpted, as if the words being quoted are meant to be appreciated like a painting or a wine. They manage to make phrases like "My legs got to such a jiving and shaking that I thought my head would explode right there on the dancefloor" sound calm and precise. I think Ken Burns' ideal voiceover man would be James Earl Jones on, like, valium or something.
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linkydink Amy: I appreciate the thought, but please do not actually refer to me as "Captain Blog".
sábado, enero 13, 2001
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linkydink Currently writing from a cozy internet terminal in the local library of Brattleboro, VT. I have just been to a fantastic record store and bought Cinematic Orchestra (w/ a Henfer remix), DJ Food (early stuff), Ganga Krew, Grover Washington Jr., and an LP from The Heath Brothers that I've been looking for forever. Don't I feel special! I've found other gems in the past few days during my sojourns throughout southern New England, but I won't list them all here. Jimmytones.com is up and running again! Keep yer eyes open for updates. Now I return to Greenwich...
viernes, enero 12, 2001
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linkydink It looks to me like the archive has gone on vacation, too, but I can still see that Jimmy asked about jumping-off points web-wise. Excluding Google (which is my default page), in my non-professional capacity, I start with: memepool, MetaFilter, Obscure Store and Robot Wisdom. In my professional capacity, however, I start with Hacker News Network and SecurityFocus.
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linkydink w0rd up, y'4ll. Just got back from Houston last night, where I spent a few days learning in greater detail how the software we sell actually works. Houston itself, though, was weird: freakishly clean, like it was a mall that had yet to see customers, and alarmingly flat such that it appears they've created artificial hills by raising the highway in parts for local traffic to pass under. I was also told that Houston is the breast augmentation capitol of the world, but there was no field research done to verify the claim. For interested parties, I began reading Infinite Jest this past Monday. I haven't found anyting in it for myself yet, but it has come highly reccomended, so I plough on. What are you all reading for pleasure these days?
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linkydink I hereby declare that Jimmy Tones shall henceforth be called by the name of Captain Blog until such time as another Team Member Blogs more frequently than he does. This shall be a challenge to all of you.
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linkydink If you're looking for something heartfelt and trippy, check out Captain Redbeard's Gronican Press; home to the fantastical, the banal, and this cool play I was in.
martes, enero 09, 2001
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linkydink I noticed that posts tend to get scrolled off of this page very quickly, so, as an experiment, I've changed the settings so that the most recent 15 posts are shown, instead of the most recent 2 days. What do you think? I like it.
lunes, enero 08, 2001
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linkydink It will be interesting to see if the TWA student packs Caroline mentioned will stick around for long now that TWA has been acquired by American Airlines. Lots of capitalist drama in the airline world lately. Weren't there all kinds of pilots and flight-attendents protests and union rumblings a few months back?
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linkydink Thanks for the tip about priceline. However, I'm still a little uneasy with that whole take what we give you method of getting cheap plane tickets. I'm willing to spend an extra $50 to buy from Lowest Fare or something like that for peace of mind. Traveling hell is, well, hell afterall. I think I had too much coffee...
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linkydink Timmy, how the hell did you get that picture up there so quickly? Huh, I must say I did a pretty decent shaving job. Anyone else want me to give a go at their head?
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linkydink I considered transferring to Smith when I decided that I had to leave Trinity College . One of my best friends from Trinity had gone there a semester before I transferred abway from Trinity as an exchange student and then decided to stay. Because she was such a close friend and because I was using my life as a folk radio dj extroadinare as an excuse to leave Hartford and go to Northampton I spent a lot of time there. At one point I was sleeping there 3 or 4 nights a week, and once my friend and her roomate both left for the weekend and left me their room and my friends from home came to visit me at Smith! But I found the all female environment to be too intense for me, partially because I am attracted to women, and partially just because of the way women tend to bond and interact. I also was not of the opinion that the all female environment is particularly empowering because it's not realistic and that empowerment does not necessarily carry over into the inherently co-ed real world. We can't all go live in lesbian communes, and personally I wouldn't want to. However, I still find Smith a wonderful place to visit (though I wouldn't want to live there) and I do so often, in fact I'm planning on heading up there to see my friend as soon as the semester begins because she was in Montana last semester and I have been missing her since she left in September.
domingo, enero 07, 2001
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linkydink amy: when are you planning to travel? priceline might be helpful. also, if you think you'll make another trip sometime in the next year or so, TWA sells "student packs" of four one-way tickets for $600. all my friends swear by them.
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linkydink A post at Metafilter about the Internet Ray-Tracing Competition got me interested in Gilles Tran. I discovered the incredible Book of Beginnings. Yet another fascinating place to waste time.
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linkydink here's a question i get asked a lot. i'd like to think people are smart enough to figure out the answer for themselves, but i guess not. here's one answer i liked. and here's another. and here's one from a friend of mine.
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linkydink to anyone who hasn't seen Finding Forrester, i highly recommend that you do. i'm not a film critic, so i won't attempt to be, but i will say that i thoroughly enjoyed it. Rob Brown, though a newbie, is amazing.
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linkydink Just saw Rahzel at Arch Street in Greenwich. To start things off, I was completely surprised and delighted by the opening act: The rhythmless overcomplex scatological hip-hop stylings of MC Paul Barman! ("I like to suck toes! / Yours secrete fructose!" Listen for yourself.) I think I was the only one there that liked or had ever heard of him, but white jews with 'fros have never been popular with the hip-hop crowd. After that, the show was hype. Rahzel wrecked it. It was, as they say, off the hook. It boggled my mind: The Godfather of Noyze, beatboxing hiphop classics and getting a sold-out house to shout "There ain't nuthin like hip-hop music!!" over and over and over again on the same stage I performed Shakespeare on four years in a row. Hip-hop has finally come to Greenwich, three years after I left the damn place. Guess I'm just ahead of my time.
sábado, enero 06, 2001
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linkydink I used the internet to win a bet with my sister that not only did she not know anything about the Brat pack.... The conversation started because we were discussing renting movies in Mystic, CT (of wannabe Brat Pack movie, Mystic Pizza, fame - by the way, my sister says that the pizza at the real Mystic Pizza isn't very good) and that the rental place organizes the movies, by actress, director, or Brat Pack association. This system of organization reminded me very much of the manner in which John Cusak's character organized his records in the movie Hi Fidelity, although, the fact that he organized his records based on the chronology of the events in his life with which they were related was probably the only unique and total-music-nerdy thing in the whole movie - too bad, I was hoping there really would be a movie about my life some day (Haas, help help, you were a film major right?).... Ahem, so my sister claimed that due to her age and status in life she must know everything about the Brat Pack and so I asked her who was in the Brat Pack and she didn't even know suggesting that Andrew McCarthy, who was in both 16 Candles and Pretty in Pink, was not among them. However, she was wrong, and I won the bet. Who's connected now? www.bratpack.net
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linkydink companies to stay away from: vote with you dollars, chellovecks. MoJo's Ten Worst Corporations of 2000 and their Top 100 Corporate Criminals of the 1990s. read 'em and weep.
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linkydink bienvenidos, amy j. i would say welcome to my blog, but then, i just host it. thanks for the cold advice. if you give me your address, i'll send you your cookies. :) (yes, you too, dave.) as for being less or more connected than us geeks, well, being connected offline is arguably "better", but one of the reasons i started the blog was because we're all scattered, and what better way to stay connected than online? quick, cheap, and efficient. woo hoo! my jumping-off points (other than the ones you mentioned) are svn and nytimes. and, of course, the blog. what better way to find out about interesting/random/obscure stuff than to pick my friends' brains? i think it's pretty exciting that blogger raised the money for a new server solely through donations. think there are too many frivolous blogs out there? re mumia: that is certainly not the perspective of most people at smith, where more people voted for nader than for bush. i think the author of the article stated it best when he said "Reasonable people can disagree about various aspects of Abu-Jamal's case, including ballistics reports that were or were not done, evidence and testimony that was or was not admitted, and whether, even conceding his guilt, Abu-Jamal should be put to death. But Joseph McGill, who has prosecuted roughly 125 homicide cases, calls it "the strongest I ever had." And no one can dispute this crowning absurdity: the only two people who know exactly what happened on Dec. 9, 1981, have refused to utter a single word of explanation. One is Abu-Jamal. The other is his brother Billy Cook, whose only known comment on the subject in nearly 19 years was made at the scene of the murder: 'I ain't got nothing to do with this.'" good causes, bad poster boy? i don't know the truth, obviously, but it irks me greatly when people don't do a lick of research before jumping on a bandwagon. (and yes, sometimes i do it to. and then it irks me doubly much.)
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linkydink  One of my earliest memories is of my Dad watching a video of a James Brown concert. My brother and I came downstairs and JB was doing a call-and-response that went, appropriately enough, like this:James Brown: "James Brown!" Everyone else: "JAMES BROWN!" James Brown: "James Brown!" Everyone else: "JAMES BROWN!" James Brown: "James Brown!" Everyone else: "JAMES BROWN!" etc. We thought he was a big dork. It always stuck with me.
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linkydink Yes, Amy, you've stumbled onto a 'Blog where the three biggest posters are compsci majors, and consequently spend most of the day staring at a screen. (I say this even though CMoore is currently exploring the great outdoors of southern California... but in theory, it's true.) I definitely experience too-much-computer burnout, though. I've got a bit of it now- if you had phoned me about coffee instead of posting it, we'd probably be enjoying that now. My mom gave me almond biscotti for my birthday and I'm durious to try 'em out. Timmy's helpful links for improving your web-browsing experience: Memepool, Metafilter, Salon.com, Mother Jones, and of course Jimmytones.com (when it starts working again). I think of those as kind of standard. What are all of y'all favorite jumping-off-points for web-browsing?
viernes, enero 05, 2001
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linkydink Why am I getting the impression that the rest of you (ok, maybe it's just Haas and Jones) spend much more time surfing the net than I do? You guys find all those fancy articles online about the common cold and mumia and stuff. Does this make me disconnected or more connected? It's so strange, my dad's family didn't own their first television set until he was a junior in high school and now he obsesses about the latest in DVD technology (though I think he determines what the "latest in technology" is by reading the Wiz insert in the Sunday paper). I can't even remember when my family did not own a computer, though I can remember playing Hopper on a green and black screen at the age of 5 or 6. Meanwhile, I can't sit in front of one of these damned machines for more than 2 hours without my insides screaming for authentic human contact. Sooo, does anyone wanna go out for coffee later? Hmmm yet another mainstay of the modern age....
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linkydink re. JHaas, Mumia, and myself: Don't believe the hype, of course, but w/r/t Mumia Abu-Jamal, I find myself unsure of which hype not to believe: The manipulative-fascist-government-hype or the manipulated-fanatic-protestor-hype? Eh? Anyway, the article JHaas found provides a perspective you don't see very often (ok, ever) on the campus of someplace like Smith or Wesleyan. Guess he's been spending too much time in Maryland and Texas. The fascist.
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linkydink Timmy and I were chatting about Mumia, and I mentioned this article. I don't know how to frame it, other than to say that hype is a dangerous thing.
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linkydink My new fav rap song, just on general principle, is probably Super Brooklyn by Cocoa Brovaz (formerly Smif'N'Wessun). Please give it a listen. (MP3) (Realaudio via Sandbox Automatic) Ok, so it's actually kind of stupid. In fact, it's an almost classic case of really good musicians falling off and being forced to rely on stupid hooks. But still...
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linkydink Virgin Blog Posting in 3 Parts 1.My solution to colds: echinechea tea, cuz if nothing else, holding your face over the steam feels real good! 2.Who's the idiot who let a 98-year-old onto the Senate floor in the first place? 3.Roadtrips rule, however, I am considering an airtrip myself to Vancouver via Seattle, so if anyone has any ideas on how to get a super cheap flight just let me know. I am going out there to meet my one and only cyber-friend who I have been sharing my life with for 3 years now, which is longer than I've known most of the people I now call my friends. It's kindof scary, I've been talking about doing this for about 2 years but I've gotten more adventuresome in the last year, so here we go!
jueves, enero 04, 2001
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linkydink From New York Times: "A Day of Firsts as Mrs. Clinton Takes the Oath": It was Senator Strom Thurmond, at 98 the oldest member of Congress and a Republican, who suddenly rose from his chair to ask the first lady, "Can I hug you?" before going on to do just that, right on the Senate floor. Now that's what I call a compassionate conservative.
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linkydink does anyone know any good cold remedies? whoever can tell me one that actually works gets a cookie. pleeeeease?
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linkydink whoo, this alciere character sounds like a typical live-free-or-die New Hampster. which, of course, doesn't make him any less scary or any less worthy of Erisian Sainthood. today i flew to Catalina Island in a tiny airplane (a Cherokee, i believe). wowzers. and in approximately four days i embark upon my road trip.
miércoles, enero 03, 2001
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linkydink From Mother Jones' Interview with Matt Groening via SvN: "Then a guy named John Dimaggio is the voice of Bender the Robot. Bender is Fry's sidekick and is probably the most corrupt robot in contemporary science- fiction. He drinks, smokes, gambles, shoplifts. He's our bad example. And what's great about it is parents can't say, 'This robot is a bad role-model.' Cause he's a robot! [Laughs.]"
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linkydink US Representative Tom Alciere (R-NH): Visionary. Martyr. Subversive. Saddly "too chicken" to kill cops himself. I hereby certify him as a second class Erisian Saint.
martes, enero 02, 2001
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linkydink As soon as I can find a copy, I plan to enthusiastically purchase Raymond Scott's Manhattan Research Boxset. Scott is best known for creating the zany jazz music in the 1930s that Carl Stalling eventually assimilated into the soundtrack for early Bugs-and-Daffy cartoons. I originally discovered him when a cover-band opened for They Might Be Giants, and was thrilled to have found, after literally years of (admittedly not-particularly-painstaking) searching, the author of 'Powerhouse'. As if that wasn't cool enough: When jazz orchestras went out of style, Scott turned his attention to electronic synthesizers. He worked closely with awesome folks like Robert Moog and Jean-Jacques Perry, and pioneered some of the first electric noise generators, including (of particular interest to me) early implementations of algorithmic music composition. Eventually, he formed Manhattan Research Incorporated, which used synthesizers to create bizzare 1950s commercial jingles. The fruits of MRI-- comercials, demos, and other weird errata-- were released this year on a two-CD set, and they are astounding. Did he anticipate contemporary ambient downtempo electronic music by half a century? Yes he did. Did he attempt to acoustically map the inside of Jim Henson's head? Yes he did. Was he completely off his fucking rocker? Yes he was. I'm just blown away.
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I am bald again.
