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martes, julio 31, 2001
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linkydink Once upon a time, in the not so distant past, music writers and cultural critics like Mark Dery, Greg Tate, Mark Sinker and Tricia Rose brought science fiction themes in the works of important and innovative cultural producers to our attention. They claimed that these works simultaneously referenced a past of abduction, displacement and alien-nation, and inspired technical and creative innovations in the work of such artists as Lee "Scratch" Perry, George Clinton and Sun Ra. Science fiction was a recurring motif in the music of these artists, they argued, because it was an apt metaphor for black life and history....AfroFuturism (via Ben Spatz)
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linkydink I've just finished reading Schismatrix by Bruce Sterling. It was really fucking good. I need some time to digest it, but wow. If you're looking for some genius mind-bending scifi, then... yeah.
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linkydink 1st place in this year's Greenwich Point sand castle building contest went to a miniature drive-in theater with a dinorsaur leaping out of the screen into the audience. The marquis for the theater read: It Came From Stamford!
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linkydink (via NoLogo): MONTREAL, July 28, 2001 (12:45am) -- At least 100 people still remain at a squat action at a three-story historic building in downtown Montreal. At the time of this writing, squat participants are continuing to clean and re-decorate the newly re-appropriated building, located just south of Rene-Levesque Boulevard, on Overdale Street, near an upscale shopping and hotel district. Other supporters are participating in a rave party -- with an outdoor sound system and portable generator -- or enjoying the shared food and drinks in the large lot just outside the building.
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linkydink "Why should someone come from the city of Rye and have exactly the same privileges I have??" At long last, an end to the private beaches of Greenwich, Connecticut. Pat Gasparino and friends make me a little less homesick. (this via Michael Moore)
lunes, julio 30, 2001
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linkydink "In an age where opinion polls and market research invade almost every aspect of our "democratic/consumer" society (with the notable exception of art), Komar and Melamid's project poses relevant questions that an art-interested public, and society in general often fail to ask: What would art look like if it were to please the greatest number of people? Or conversely: What kind of culture is produced by a society that lives and governs itself by opinion polls?"
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linkydink ooh, my second post in a day... but this news is just too exciting to keep to myself!  Yes, and to go along with it there's been a site re-design over at stereolab.co.uk (eek, flash!) -- and even a real audio stream of their new single Captain Easychord. I've never heard them use brass that way, and it's quite refreshing to say the least! Rejoice! September 3rd marks the release of Sound-Dust... ...and even an article in the Guardian... Stereolab's 10-year career has been one of independence: from the earliest singles to the upcoming album Sound Dust, they release their own records, arrange their own tours, and don't have to answer to anyone. "I've never had a job, I don't know anything else apart from music, and my level of interest in it is still at psychotic levels, so I'll continue," he says. "Other bands always say they wish they could have our level of independence. Well, why couldn't they? You don't have to worry about fitting into a record company's agenda - the only thing to worry about is whether or not you're any good." Amen!
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linkydink I'm making a zine called Squid Vicious, dedicated mostly to the art and music of the Lower East Side, and our premiere issue (in color!) is going to feature an interview with my favorite elf, Reverend Jen, Patron Saint of the Uncool, conducted in her home/ studio/ Troll Museum. You will surely be familiar with her work if you have seen her column in Shout magazine (available free on NYC streetcorners), her self-published book "Sex Symbol for the Insane" or Troma's latest flick "Terror Firmer." Pay a visit to Halitonia and rock out to her theme song. Keep an eye out for her upcoming autobiography, "People Who Don't Like My Work Are Bad People."
domingo, julio 29, 2001
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linkydink Going to Texas in 10 days, going to Connecticut in 17. I feel like a UPS package on hold.
viernes, julio 27, 2001
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linkydink Last night, cmoore, fuz and myself went to see Deb Talan at Club Passim. Do give her stuff a listen.
jueves, julio 26, 2001
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linkydink I am a little overwhelmed by the number of cool looking films playing in the next few weeks at the Melbourne International Film Festival! Definite picks include a hiphop docco called Scratch and my long-predestined viewing of DJ Q-Bert's formidable and incredible Wave Twisters. But if anybody sees anything listed on the webpage that I definitely need to see, I'll buy them a souvenir.
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linkydink "Clearly, we are in desperate need of a calm, composed, decidedly un-60 Minutes-like examination of the world of the Internet protest. We need to see what's going down and just who is threatening whom."
miércoles, julio 25, 2001
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linkydink Damn, JR. You said that both better and meaner than I could or would. But I entirely agree. I think a more interesting question would perhaps be "Who do you trust, and why?". And since I would feel bad asking and not answering... I trust different people and things for different things, in different amounts. I trust conventional media sources to outright lie only when they can't be caught at it. I trust most of my friends to return things I loan to them, but not so much that I ever loan out things I can't afford to replace... When in a relationship, I strive to trust in my SO without reservation. This is not a measure of how trustworthy they are, but rather the result of my belief that a good, sustainable relationship requires total trust.
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linkydink C-Dog: Does your Terminator X tape have 'It All Comes Down To The Money' on it? Man, I loved that stupid track back in the day...
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linkydink "The severing of Vincent Van Gogh's left ear in an apparent fit of madness may not have been the act of self-mutilation it has always been presumed to be. Instead, Paul Gauguin may have done it."
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linkydink cmoore: The way you phrased it, one'd think I almost never trust! Thankfully, my brain/mind is more complex than a computer, so I cannot simply provide you a list of circumstances in which it is okay to trust or an algorithm to determine how much trust to extend, 'cause we don't really work that way. jason: Trust in The Media, I think, is only a "sticky wicket" (as you put it) because the majority of people trust the mainstream to be objective and the alternative to have an agenda, a minority trust the mainstream to have an agenda and the alternative to be objective, but only an even smaller minority trust the mainstream and alternative alike to have an agenda.
martes, julio 24, 2001
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linkydink The trust question has roped me in. It seems to me that the basis from which the answer must come is simple. You trust something essentially based on past performance. Particularly things that have no animus. I trust my computer not to crash most of the time, because it doesn't. I don't have the expectation of 100% functionality though, because I know that it does crash sometimes. Even things with minds and spirits come mostly under this scrutiny. Your best friend is your best friend because you can trust them, based on past performance. Your general trust may not necessarily mean that they are the most dependable people, but you know that they will fix what is broken and apologize if it's needed. Trusting media outlets is also similar; if you know that the reporting is screwed up or routinely fumbled in that outlet (US Today), then you don't trust it very much. You can assume that their basic facts are right because they have no desire to be seen as "The Enquirer," whom you can trust to be full of crap. Trust in situations like the below discussed is a pretty sticky wicket though. There is a certain amount of faith involved. Beyond performance and affection. You decide which narrative to follow and make it your personal narrative. Perhaps you've found that the NY Times has been missing somethings lately, so you abandon that narrative, and join the seemingly kindred spirits at Indymedia. Like any media outlet though, it is their job to create a credible narrative that reflects their version of truth. Personally, I tend to trust most dispassionate source. The one that seems the least dramatic and yet the saddest or truest. This usually comes from reading a few different viewpoints and figuring out what might have happened in the world that I inhabit everyday. Personally, Fuz's account rings truest for me. Take the Mumia case for example: I've never had a satisfying conversation with a Mumia advocate on this topic. Remember all the articles back in November? Despite his ridiculously weak case and the equally terrible case agianst him, Mumia advocates sing his praises and sufferings to the high heavens without question. They trust in this for whatever reason. It wouldn't seem to be based on his past (or present) performance. Me, I don't buy the hype. Political organizations of ANY stripe or sort have their own hype that they spread, in order to make the world over according to their narrative, so I tend to place my faith in individual law makers, human decency and the arts to make truth understood. Read the last couple of pages of Steve Martin's "Picasso at the Lapin Agile" for some assurance that that's the way history's tending. Um. Man, did I ramble. To paraphrase Rob Breszny, "Believe in everything about 80%."
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linkydink touche, JR. :) under what circumstances is it okay, in your opinion, to trust someone or something? or rather (since of course the answer to that is that everything should be taken with a grain of salt, no matter what the circumstances) how do you determine to what extent something should be trusted?
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linkydink cmoore: I was always kinda under the impression that we were free to post whatever we wanted here, regardless of interest. fuz: The longish post, like I said, was scrapped. Ping me in person about it and I'll ramble on for you. jimmy: Look forward to the LJ updates, but why not just post 'em here?
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linkydink wow, i've had surprisingly little to say here lately. perhaps because i haven't been browsing the web as extensively as i usually do; perhaps because the things i've been thinking about aren't really of interest to the general blog population. ah well. for the folk-music-inclined sector of the group: Falcon Ridge Folk Festival is this coming weekend. the lineup is amazing. i'm very tempted to go...
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linkydink jrandom - I'd be very interested in seeing that longish post. "Trust no one" is all well and good, but I'd like to read more of your thoughts on the matter; This sort of issue is near and dear to my heart. In an entirely unrelated note, nobody wrote a haiku to commemorate the fact that we just passed haiku number 1000. I could not be happier about that, or about the fact that there's an active discussion of what I would term the secular equivalent of a soul. All are invited. In another entirely unrelated note, my father has for many years now gone to a weekly philosophy discussion group for the philosophy faculty of Ithaca College (of which he used to be a member). They read papers line-by-line, and drink a lot. For some reason, they call themselves Lowbrow... I think there's an acronym involved. I'm working pair programming with another programmer in the office... Just started an hour ago, the only reason I can write this is that he had to do an interview. Could be fun, could be awful. I guess I'll see.
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linkydink I'm not sure how this happened, but I think I may start ocassionally updating my LiveJournal... maybe I just like to see myself write.
lunes, julio 23, 2001
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linkydink Fuz: Keep on "just sayin"- them there is good words. cmoore- The - ahem - puppetry is everywhere here! Billboards, books, etc. I even know the slogan by heart ("the ancient australian art of genital origami") because I see it at least once a day walking around the city. The shows have gotten a bit exclusive and expensive though, so I recon I might just pass on this one...
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linkydink jimmy & fuz: I had written a longish post on the grey areas surrounding the death in particular and conflict in general when I decided to scrap it and just put it thusly: trust no one. That said, xenodice and I saw The Score last night. Unfortunately, I was rather let down, expecting something a little more complicated, but it was all rather predictable. Even if you're not looking for a better burglary film though, go see The Princess And The Warrior instead, Tom Tykwer's most recent film since Run Lola Run. It was beautiful.
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linkydink It might be fiction, or it might not... But the story (in four parts) that starts here on Kuro5hin is good readin', if you've ever bought a lotto ticket. On a side note, it greatly amuses me that Kuro5hin is not slashdot.
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linkydink According to reports, there actually is some doubt over whether the police were entirely unjustified. Apparently Mr. Guiliani was charging at them, holding a fire extinguisher. And as opposed to being riot cops in a large group being representatives of the man, the cops were in a small car, being assaulted by a huge group of protestors. And running him over was a mistake, done while trying desperately to get away. None of which is to say that they did the right thing, but there's a little more doubt about it than implied. And a note on indymedia: I'm fairly good friends with two of the people who helped write the code that run the servers, and who continue to be heavily involved. Indymedia is a really cool idea, and a really good thing to have in the world, but I wouldn't call it the most reliable source of news in the world, and neither would they. It is intended to be an alternative to corporate media, and for that it serves amazingly well, but what I would call the truth is somewhere between the story as reported by CNN, and the story as reported by Indymedia. I'm just sayin'.
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linkydink I just bought a tape of Public Enemy's Terminator X. Yeahhhh boyyyyeyy! Emily-I finally met that chick Olivia who's sister you're friends with. She says hi.
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linkydink There's been a veritable bonanza of police violence in Genoa, Italy at the 100,000-person G-8 protests. On Friday, the police killed a protestor named Carlo Guiliani by shooting him in the head and running him over with a van. The courts have been called upon to "examine whether it was a legitimate act of self-defence." Excited into an irresistible frenzy of ultra-violence by the smell of pacifist-blood, law-enforcement officials spent the weekend manically raiding and beating everything in sight. Protestors are attempting to compensate by burning cars and breaking windows. Updates and details at Indymedia.org. Is anything changing, or has this been happening forever?
jueves, julio 19, 2001
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linkydink About a year and a half ago, Squarepusher became one of the few musicians to have made music so powerful that I cried from the sentiment. Last night, Squarepusher became the only musician to have made a show so powerful that I cried from the pain. The human body is simply not meant to handle that much input. Anybody in need of masochistic aural catharsis is encouraged to see his show in August. (listings)
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linkydink irg.... blogger had to delete the post i made now that i’m actually paying for internet time. i’m in noho finishing a photo assignment, i had a little spare time and found the nearest scorce of internet access, a coffe shop called javanet. i’m doing well, but i’m completely exausted all the time. we get up at 7 and then have studios untill 10:30 at night with breaks for meals. so i9 have little time to read, or write of think. the classes have been good so far, and i hope to soon explore a few other mediums during open studio time. i know there was more i wanted to write, but it all escapes me now that i’m actually sitting at a computer. i’ve only been gone a week, but it feels lots longer; each day here fells like three. i miss you guys, and if you write me (the address is onthe webpage) while i’m up here, i promise you will get something groovy in return.
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linkydink Blog-fav Luke Vibert has been a busy busy man of late: Tours taking him everywhere from Melbourne to NYC, an album on Ninja Tune, an upcoming single ("Ataride") on the same, and my most recent purchase, Nuggets: A collection of his favorite rare funky absurd music from the obscure French "library music" scene. True to JR's last post, it defies description. Very worth checking out. This is one of those recordings like Raymond Scott's Manhattan Research that makes one think: What the hell am I listening to!?!??? and: I can't believe this was made in the 60s... or: Damn I wish I had found this on my own so I could legitimately sample it.
miércoles, julio 18, 2001
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linkydink "You may wonder what it is like to have killed an abortionist and his escort. The faint of heart and those not firmly grounded in the truth could stumble under such a load. It was unpleasant for me to have to kill two human beings - even though one was a murderer and the other his accomplice. But the privilege of being used to save innocent children continues to change this unpleasantness into joy."
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linkydink "We are growing further and further away from a society in which making art is a common practice, and this seems to deepen the hold of cliches on our thinking. Proper ladies don't necessarily have to know how to play the harpsichord; gentlemen don't toss off sonnets to seal the romantic deal. As we become a society of art consumers, with little real experience with the technical issues of making art, we have less and less of substance to say about it. And our cliches both reflect and deny that truth."
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linkydink Back in Melbourne. Uluru was large. My van broke down in the pop:20 "town" of Daly Waters, which consists of a pub. It rained and rained and rained and was very very cold. I just had my first shower in 2 weeks. I'm cheered. :)
martes, julio 17, 2001
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linkydink Okay, here's my update from the frontline... I'm back from Las Vegas. Thank gawd I'll probably only have to go there once a year. Sure, reading The Money and The Power probably did a great job of souring me on the city before I even got there, but no words can describe the sheer Bad Taste that defines The Strip and the casino hotels along it. As xenodice pointed out, one can either embrace it or be embittered by it, but it was all too much for me. The conferences, however (Black Hat and DEF CON, respectively), were quite a treat. The speakers were actually second stage to all the really cool people I met inbetween talks, and as they say, a hour's worth of face-to-face communcation is worth more than a month's worth of it online. Even still, there were two notable papers, one by Jose Nazario and the other by Simple Nomad. By next year, I should have a paper of my own to present. Muahahaha! ... and now, some reactions... jason: The only other lab I can recall off the top of my head (and I wouldn't have recalled ACTlab if you hadn't mentioned it) is the MIT Media Lab. As a matter of fact, my sister was considering the Media Lab (so I'll try to put her in touch with you), but my second-hand impression is that all those places are really too academic for revolutionaries. fuz: As a newly-tethered cell phone user, I try to make a point to tell people that it is only for emergencies (either for me to reach someone else if I'm having one, or for someone else to reach me if they're having one), but I certainly understand the appeal of never missing out. Kudos, by the way, for the letter about Greta. cmoore: Regarding liberal arts in retreat, there's not much more to be said than that college is a business, after all. jimmy: What's up with Strange Bird? Most of the links don't go anywhere.
sábado, julio 14, 2001
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linkydink Whoah! 5 days on the road and the Blog has generated far more than I could digest in one sitting... Some brief reactions: dkp: Hahahahahahaa! The KPs at Burning Man. That thought will put a smile on my face for some time. dkp & chris: I didn't like The Diamond Age so much, though it did give me bonus points in 'Performance And Cyberculture' class (in a surprisingly decent lecture on 'Neo-Victorianism in Cyberculture') when I was the only person in the room who had read it besides the professor (who confused it with 'Snow Crash'). (Also, I was the only person in 'Commodity Culture' who knew who Negativland was. Taking more 'Cultural Studies' classes primarily has confirmed my suspicion that I know more about this shit than I thought I did, and more than most people about the things I'm interested in...) But, yeah, nanotechnology is weird, yo. cmoore: The Dailyjolt thing about retreating 'liberal arts' is interesting from the perspective of one in Australia (or Europe, I assume.) People here think I'm joking when I tell them I've been studying computer science, theater, and cultural studies in the same semester. Endangered or not, the Liberal Arts Education seems to be a uniquely American entity... all: This roadtrip is a real mixed bag for me. I've seen some beautiful and absurd places, had a lot of time to myself, had a chance to thoroughly reread the last half of 'The Fellowship Of The Ring' in preparation for the upcoming film, and done some really good thinking about Music, My Future, and Everything. On the other hand, I'm sunburned, ridden with bugbites, I havent showered in a week, all my clothes are dirty, I'm getting sick of my travelling-companions, my legs are cramped and my fingers are jittery from long car rides, my glasses have broken, and I'm really ready to go the fuck back to Melbourne. ugh... best post this before my terminaltime runs out. miss you all! expect postcards, some of you...
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linkydink A quickie: The ladies at Violivia don't fool around. They're smart, capable, feminine and evil ("Cecily" and "Leslie" are friends of mine). Potshots at cartoons, X-Men, romance novels, pro-life politics, and seventies dating manuals are all written out in fun, and generally elegant prose. Enjoy!
viernes, julio 13, 2001
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linkydink "There is no federal law barring discrimination against gays and lesbians, and there are provisions in federal law that exempt religious groups from civil rights requirements that violate their creeds. But 12 states and more than 100 cities and counties have laws to protect gays. At issue is whether religious groups administering social programs with public money in those places should be — or are — bound by those laws."
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linkydink i also agree with the letter... in theory. but in practice, i wonder if anti-schooling your children is a feasible plan. will they pick up enough societal conditioning to become functioning members of society? i'd love to save my children the torture i went through before i learned the trick of gaining social acceptance, and the trouble of being brainwashed before learning to reject the stuff they don't agree with. but i don't want to throw them to the proverbial wolves by not adequately preparing them for the reality of the world. how to achieve a happy medium?
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linkydink Although I do not believe in or agree with the author's addition of God to the equation, most of my issues with the american educational system are communicated quite eloquently in an article a friend IMed me the URL of. This seems particularly apropos given cmoore's previous post...
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linkydink since this blog is split between math/sci majors and lib arts majors, what do y'all think of this? "At many small colleges across the country, the liberal arts are in retreat. Today's students want job-oriented majors, and colleges are rushing to accommodate them. Many are shifting limited resources to programs that focus on careers. As a result, the traditional liberal arts make do with fewer dollars and staff."
jueves, julio 12, 2001
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linkydink hello, I am leaving in a few seconds after a long and incredibly hectic day. I am going with my family to Ellicottville, NY for my Grandparents 50th wedding anniversary celebration, and then they're driving straight over to Snow Farm and dropping me off. I have a little sliver of blogging time becasue I got all my stuff packed and my family's still getting ready to go, but I must go soon. I shall return in three weeks!
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linkydink I was thinking today how much I love my cell phone. I mean, all the people I talk to who don't have cell phones say that they'd rather not be reachable anywhere... But I don't get that. I mean, first of all, I always feel entirely able to turn it off, and in fact occasionally do so. Second, I hardly ever want to be unreachable. I'm planning on going and doing my laundry tonight, but if someone were to call me and ask if I wanted to do something fun, I'd just hate it if I had to wait to get back from laundry to find out, because I'd probably miss them by 15 minutes, and spend the rest of the evening in regret. No, I'd much rather be reachable, thanks all the same. And that's not even to DISCUSS how I can check my email on it, or call towing companies if I have a problem, or be reachable to my friends when I'm out of town, or find another friend with a cell phone when we're meeting somewhere... Like I said, I love my phone. Now, I don't feel at all the same about telemarketers... But I often hang up on them. In an unrelated note, a bright shiny dime to the first person (who didn't know it already), who figures out how this works.
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linkydink If you ever wondered what it would be like to have ass surgery, you need wonder no longer!. An interesting article, by a man who's been there and done that. Not something I personally would ever care to have to go through, but good to know about it, should the necessity ever arise.
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linkydink JRandom: You've heard of the ACTLab? Neat! I'm doing research on multimedia/convergent media/new media/dinosaur poop media programs, and I can't find many resources comparing programs or even listing good ones. You're all compu-sophistos, so if you guys no of any good programs or resources I can look into, please drop me a line. In other news, Boompah's World (be gentle here, kids). Interesting factoid...Boompah's daddy, Simon, is the archenemy of our own Jimmy Tones...
martes, julio 10, 2001
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linkydink HATED is the highest-grossing film ever to be produced within the undergraduate film program at New York University... and yet, the school would rather forget it existed at all. Small wonder, seeing as its subject is feces-throwing punk-rocker G.G. Allin. Allin gave director Todd Phillips a lot to work with by getting banned from NYU premises for life (the only person on record to achieve this) and dying of a heroin overdose during production, giving way to what is surely the most bizarre funeral ever recorded.
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linkydink in case any of you missed it on kangarooblue's blog, there's a list of the 10 most disgusting films. i'm not such a fan of horror movies (they give me nightmares, and i am precious fond of what little sleep i actually do get), but the list is funny and interesting to read anyway. (thanks Uncle Gabby. keep them movie suggestions comin'.)
lunes, julio 09, 2001
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linkydink 'Cause Christopher and I are re-reading Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age and are considering the possiblities of nanotechnology, it is with mixed emotions that I read we're getting closer all the time.
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linkydink "Hacktivismo and the CULT OF THE DEAD COW are issuing the HACKTIVISMO DECLARATION as a declaration of outrage and a statement of intent. It is our Magna Carta for information rights. People have a right to reasonable access of otherwise lawfully published information. If our leaders aren't prepared to defend the Internet, we are."
domingo, julio 08, 2001
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linkydink I'll probably be spending some time in the Adirondacks later this summer as well. My Grandparents spend much of their time in Old Forge which is (I think) about an hour west of Saranac. They've got a few friends who live on the lake. The folks on my blog have been discussing AI for quite some time now... and the discussion has quickly mutated into an arguement about the overall merits of film as an art form. on second thought, do not bother visiting my blog.... things are getting ugly.
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linkydink Hey hey hey, folks. xenodice and I jut got back from Saranac Lake in The Adirondacks. Lots and lots of green and blue and no Internet connection by design ;) I leave for Las Vegas on Tuesday and have become point man for planning a family trip to Burning Man, of all places. I may be late to the game, but setting aside my penchant for pedantry, I'd have to say that "sex" is whatever you and your partner(s) can agree it is. 'nuff said? cmoore: Nice journal Lucan's got there. jimmy: Nice photo :) jhass: Too bad about film school, but I've heard lots of cool things about the ACTLab. I have to disagree with you about AI, though. I saw it last weekend and not only had my opinion of Steven Spielberg reaffirmed, but downgraded! I'm going to have to buy the Stanley Kubrick Collection now to cleanse myself.
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linkydink i wasn't actually posing that question; it was just a segue into the article. i don't think cyber-libel is any worse than the bathroom-wall kind (or whatever cheesy analogy you care to make) - just repeating the question posed by the writer.
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linkydink "For the past fifteen years, the Theban Mapping Project (the TMP, now based at the American University in Cairo), has been preparing a comprehensive archaeological database of Thebes. With its thousands of tombs and temples, Thebes is one of the world’s most important archaeological zones. Sadly, however, it has not fared well over the years. Treasure-hunters and curio-seekers plundered it in the past; pollution, rising ground water, and mass-tourism threaten it in the present. Even early archaeologists destroyed valuable information in their search for museum-quality pieces."
sábado, julio 07, 2001
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linkydink Posting from a $2=15min internet terminal in an Aboriginal-art-gallery in Katherine, Northern Territories. It is the last bastion of civilization north of the 1500-someodd-km of some of the most uninhabitable terrain on the planet. It is coated in spinifex grass, which is prickly and apparently almost always causes infection in its prickle-wounds, the temperatures get up to 100 degrees in the day, and below freezing at night, and there is no water anywhere. I'm travelling in a brightly-colored VW Van with a dutch guy and a german chick i met in Darwin... Hahahaha- Cmoore, too, has the being-away-from-home-makes-me-blog-more-often bug. Glad I'm not the only one. :)
viernes, julio 06, 2001
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linkydink oh, damn... I just threw away all my law in America packets. I believe that slander is spoken and libel is printed. but I'm not completely sure, shows how well my information retention systems are working. that same question was on my final exam just three weeks ago.
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linkydink Why would the addition of a computer make any kind of slander worse? Although in all honesty, I kind of think the bathroom wall is a poor analogy to the internet, I don't think I want to make generalizations about the morality of libel. (What's the difference between slander and libel? Anyone?) It's a very interesting article though. My favorite part was the little bit near the end about how many people actually defended Lauren Newby. Maybe she posted the nasty things herself, to get sympathy... But probably not.
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linkydink question: is cyber-slander worse than the regular bathroom-wall kind? should the punishment for it be worse?
jueves, julio 05, 2001
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linkydink more on germany (see, instead of being a nonexistant blogster whilst abroad, i'm posting more than usual): it is endlessly amusing to me to look at all the little cars people drive here. of course, volkswagons are ubiquitous, including several models i've never seen before. mercedes and BMWs are also fairly common, which i think is both because they're cheaper here, not having to be shipped overseas, and because i'm living in a ritzy part of town and haven't strayed that far from it. another cool phenomenon is the Smart cars. they're short two-seater cars made to be able to park the wrong way in a parking space. i.e., you never have to parallel park. you only have to pay half as much at parking meters since you can fit two of them in each space. they're really cute, too; evidently they're the product of a cooperative effort between Mercedes (engineering) and Swatch (design). they're also pretty cheap. and they're everywhere in Hamburg. they'd be the perfect city car. i hope they catch on in the US... in other news, i visited the schauspielhaus where toby works (which is huge, amazing, and cool - they've got an enormous budget which allows them to do cool artsy shows, not just money-makers. they've got one that's performed in a bus, and one that takes place in a car driving around the city.), successfully rode the S-Bahn by myself, and managed to get locked out of the apartment (and was saved by a kind woman delivering the mail). it's been an eventful day. now i must take a nap, before i collapse of exhaustion...
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linkydink by the way: i'm not sure why the poll was being funky (500% of respondents have had sex with >15 partners? um...). i've scrapped it and created a new one with the same question, so if you had voted, you'll need to vote again. and, of course, the definition of "sex" for the poll is whatever YOU consider sex.
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linkydink hey! how could i let my own blog die? (and how could i live for a week without an internet connection?) i'm currently in Hamburg, where i've been (unbelievably, still) for 24 and a half hours now. the trip was pretty uneventful; i'd never flown Air France before but have decided that it is, in fact, hot shit makin' ya bounce. the food was decent (by which i mean "excellent for airplane food"), they fed me dinner, breakfast, AND breakfast again on my connecting flight, the flight attendants were really nice (which i appreciate greatly since the evil flight attendants on my 14-hour Lan Chile flight a couple years ago... pray to whatever your deity is that you're never stuck on a plane with crabby flight attendants who don't want to give you beverages for fourteen hours. especially if all hundred-odd other passengers on the plane are American boy scouts. shudder.)... anyway, i approved. AND you can get wine free with your meal, even in economy class. observation: the Paris airport is a hellishly confusing place. i had less than an hour between flights, and i spent most of that time running around trying to figure out which gate i was supposed to be at and where that might be. good thing all the airline people speak english, 'cos i definitely don't speak french. hamburg is beautiful; of course, i'm staying in one of the nicest parts of it. it's strange to be in a place where i don't speak the language at all. usually i go places where i can at least get along (ie spanish-speaking countries), but here people speak to me and i just look bewildered and shake my head. i'm trying to break my habit of saying "thank you" in english, and get into the habit of saying "danke" in german. but i'm here, with toby, and it's all surreal and wonderful. and once i'm over my jetlag exhaustion, i'm sure i'll enjoy it even more.
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linkydink Never fear, kids. I'll keep the Blog warm for you. A recent visitation on the ol' Livejournal from cmoore made me aware of how much I've neglected y'all. So here's what I've been interested in lately:
'k. That's enough.
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linkydink So CMoore's in Germany, JRandom's in Las Vegas, and I'm about to sally forth into the vast desert between Darwin and Alice Springs. This Blog could get real dead real fast...
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linkydink Here is a great photo of fans listening to Aphex Twin (speaking of gender-benders...) at the Sonar Music Festival last week in Barcelona. Looks like my kind of concert!
miércoles, julio 04, 2001
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linkydink Since I was in on said discussion, I guess all I have to say is...sex is whatever you want it to be. I mean for all my cocky banter on the matter, I really don't share that much about what I do behind closed doors with people. So if you aren't really talking much about what you are doing in private, why do you need to define it for the rest of the world? Sex is like god(s) (or maybe just divine-interventions) ;-), everyone has their own definitions, interpertations and dogmas regarding it. So, maybe sex is really like religion, there are some atheists (virgins) and some Popes (whores, sluts, etc...). Sex is all about interpertation. Look at the Clinton administration if you doubt my words....
martes, julio 03, 2001
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linkydink hmmmm...the sex question is one i have been pondering from that fine moment in physics class senior year of high school when ellika bartlett asked me (the resident expert, although still a virgin in any sense of the word that involves another person at all - we're talking never kissed) how lesbians have sex. i responded that straight people and gay people have the same set of legos, but that straight people build the picture on the box, and queers build whatever the heck they want. not exactly what i believe nowadays, but still a good defensive answer. and then, this past year, when i was writing the constitution for the Smith Association of Celibate Kids (yes, i was the president...don't ask. or do, but i will answer with more info than you wanted), we attempted to define sex so that we could define not have sex. we defined sex as either a non self-induced orgasm, or any contact that involved touching someone else's "naughty bits." since we never described naughty bits, this led to a pretty loose version of celibacy. nowadays, sex for me is like gender, or sexual orientation, or vegetarianism, for that matter. self defined. if you wanna call it sex, go ahead. if you don't, that's fine. sex to me should always be three things: safe, sane, and consentual. from there, anything goes. have fun! oh, and by the way, genitals are all fine and good, but don't neglect the other happy parts of the body. believe me, any kind of physical contact can have the same sort of happy "building to a climax feel" or traditional genital stimulation...ears, anyone? but, as lavar burton would say, you don't have to take my word for it.
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linkydink "The synchronizer brutalizes the universe, ripping thunderstorms from their paths to send a message to a single seeker, falsifying rainbows for a single pair of lovers. The concinnator is the subtle artist, not influencing events, but influencing need, bringing fifty trembling hands out of fifty disparate windows, all finding solace in the same storm."
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linkydink hehe. agreed - to define such things is fairly irrelevant, except that society often tries to force us to. but since society does, in fact, force us to, most people have some sort of working definition. i, for one, haven't settled on one - for a while it was what i considered to have been sex, but that's pretty arbitrary. i like the safer-sex definition quite a lot, actually, although it assumes that people are well-informed about when they should be using latex or some similar protective device. in a perfect world, people would be well-informed and no one would need to define sex. anyone else want to hop into this discussion?
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linkydink In any kind of deep discussion of definitions of sex, I am always left feeling as though I am discussing only irrelevancy. What does it matter whether I touched her where with my what? More important is how it felt, and how intimate it was, and what it did to our friendship, and whether I'm still talking to her.
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linkydink thinking about Technical Virgin, among other things, i was wondering: what is your working definition of sex? how inclusive is it? do you have different definitions of "het" and "gay" sex? last night i had dinner with oceanreader, raggz, and fuz, and we came up with a couple of definitions: 1. engaging in genital/anal contact with a partner (our actual definition was "below the belt/above the thighs", but that's a bit silly.) 2. any activity in which both partners orgasm. i don't know that i'm happy with either definition, but at least they're fairly inclusive. what do you guys think? any creative suggestions?
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linkydink today i finally broke down and bought a t-shirt from Bear. hopefully it'll be waiting for me when i get back...
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linkydink jt, i'll be your travelling companion anytime. i feel the same way about travelling alone: in theory it's great, but in practice i get lonely and can't find enough things to do that're fun by myself. of course, everything's more fun with a friend to amuse and entertain you. speaking of travelling, tonight at 8:10pm i'll be on my way to Hamburg. if you want a postcard, send me your address. (even if you think i've already got it.)
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linkydink my sister took Capoeira for a little while, but was dissapointed with the quality of classes in Greenwich, what she did learn looked really interesting though...
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linkydink I'm in Darwin right now; the strip-mall-and-vacant-lot capital of Australia's ludicrously hot and arid Northern Territory. I've got 2 weeks until my flight back to Melbourne, and am at a bit of a loss for what to do until then. Travel, of course! There is no shortage of apparently beautiful geological coolnesses near here- Ayers Rock, Kakadu Park, the Kimberly Mountains.... but it somehow feels kind of empty without a good friend along. Perhaps I shouldn't knock it until I try it. I think what I've learned from this trip is that I'm not a traveller. I like find one place and build. If I'm travelling on my own, I just get lonely! Evidence: Why the hell am I 'blogging in Darwin, NT??!?? Hmm.
lunes, julio 02, 2001
domingo, julio 01, 2001
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linkydink nevermind.. I got the blog to publish! all I had to do was take out the "&" characters from the Dungeons and Dragons posts a while ago. apparently special characters have been causing problems on a lot of blogs lately...
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