listmania! ho hum
ok, so decided to do the precursory check of the best of 2003 lists this morning… yikes! what a rotten year. for instance checked amazon and b&n to see what the top sellers were in the book world… holy crapolla. best to browse these lists on an empty stomach: amazon, b&n. the funny thing about these lists is how few parts of it intersect with the “best books of the year” lists from critics, like say, the new york times (fiction, non-fiction), or the voice. the same stands true for albums this year, but everyone over 16 knows that popular music is ear crushingly awful. problem is, check out this round up of industry lists for best of 2003: metacritic. man oh man. anyhow, all the big lists i came across stunk like a skunk in a barrel, so i went in search of some more… interesting ones, here’s what i found
in no particular order
1) top 10 astronomy images of 2003, i like the one of mercury as a little dot in front of the sun. cool.
2) gnn’s spin of the year award, and the winner is? a picture is worth a thousand words.
3) gamespot’s best & worst video games, didn’t play any of them, so can’t vouch, but vid games are purty.
4) discovery’s 100 biggest science stories, lot’s o stuff. alternate science round up from sci am here.
5) significant armed conflicts in 2003. did you know india has been fighting over kashmir since 1948? geeeez.
6) icomics best comics list. maybe maybe not, we better get tom’s input on this one to make sure.
7) top 10 images of the sun from 2003. mmmm, warm, sunny goodness. soho: best satellite ever.
8) forbes mag best cemeteries slideshow. don’t ask me.
9) the media research center’s most notable quotables list, including categories like political IQ award for celebrity vapidity, media suck-up ward, and politics of meaninglessness award. real video for many.
10) best science books of the year.
11) best web museums of the year. i like the yin yu tang which allows you to explore a qing dynasty era house in china.
12) the new york public library’s best refernce. a group of librarians got together to decide on the best reference materials of the year. exciting stuff folks!
13) the 2003 media follies brought to you by working for change. their annual survey of the year’s most overhyped and underreported news stories.
14) 2003 round up of important scientific discoveries.
15) and finally, the top 10 places in nyc to throw up.
well, there you are folks, the best of the worst, the cream of the crap. 2003 left alot to be desired, let’s hope we’re all awash in good books, sophisticated, complex music, and intelligent public discourse in the 04. whooo hoooo…. yeah.
Read Less...
for christ sake!
well, here we go again, more inroads to lunacy. now the national parks service is being harassed. evidently in keeping with the yet to be congressionally approved faith based initiative creationist books are being crammed into gift shops at places like the grand canyon. their “intelligent design” viewpoints can’t be “discriminated against”, so books explaining that the grand canyon is only a few thousand years old are being offered along side geological texts stating otherwise. the hilarity of applied nonism? or just more evidence that the very idea of truth is little more than a dinosaur (oops, can’t discriminate! i should say dragon, for the faithfully imbecilic among us) in this modern world, it’s brittle bones propped up with glue, it’s real shape only ever guessed at?
now you may think, big deal, it’s a gift shop, who gives a crap? do we have such little faith in the american intellect that we see a few creationist books in a gift shop as such a threat?. the answer, from my point of view at least, would have to be yes, we ought to have so little faith, yes it is a threat, and yes we should give a crap. first of all the national parks service is a federally funded agency! don’t forget. these gift shops are not privately run shacks along side highway attractions like the worlds largest ball of twine. second the scenario unfolding at the grand canyon holds more alarming facets than simply the contents of it’s gift shop. there is the “removing of historical information it found conservatively incorrect from historical documents and video presentations.” as well as the fight to re-erect plaques with biblical verses, and a giant cross to the grounds surrounding the canyon. seriously folks, WTF? this ought to be seen as a possible sign of things to come. why not books in hospitals, and videos in free clinics provided by the national institute of health, explaining that AIDS is in fact a plague brought down upon the heathen gay and drug addicted population, meant to cleanse the earth of their filth? why not environmental tracts, and public television specials, courtesy of a pressured u.s. environmental protection agency explaining that pollution, global warming, deforestation, are all simply a part of gods plan, and that in any case it is the world after this one we ought to be worried about? still you may think, well so what? opinions. that’s all, and everyone has a right to theirs. fine. true. but try not to forget the public school system is in the same boat, and the “opinions” put forth there are the opinions your filthy little spawn will accept to be truth.
in 2002 an atlanta school board voted to allow “alternate views on the origins of life” to be taught in their classrooms. just on example, but wildly disheartening. the battle between the conservative christian right and the rest of the population has touched every imaginable part of school life, from curriculum, to the reading lists, to prayers in school, to the pledge of allegiance. most scary though is what has been going on in texas (of course) concerning text books. what started with evolution has spread to all manner of historical information. for example, to quote the story “last year the board changed a sixth-grade social studies book that read: “Glaciers formed the Great Lakes millions of years ago.” Religious conservatives objected because it didn’t fit their timeline of creation. The book was changed to read: “Glaciers formed the Great Lakes in the distant past. Many other changes have been made to adapt what children are taught to the political agenda of religious conservatives. A photograph of a woman carrying a briefcase was omitted from a textbook because the board of education decided the photo undermined family values.” again, WTF!?
the thing about these issues, and most which come under the umbrella of the faith based initiative, that is so fucking maddening is the fact that the faith which seems to be making the biggest stink, and thus reaping the most benefits, is christianity! what a joke! if the faith based initiative is supposed to insure no faith is discriminated against why don’t we have satanist tracts explaining that the grand canyon in actually a rift created when satan’s minions broke from hell to run rampant over the land? why aren’t their giant stars of david being erected in courtrooms only to be pulled down by supreme court decree? why aren’t text books being changed to take into account the fact that aliens in fact jump started humanities meteoric rise with their advanced knowledge, and that without them we would still be living in caves? why? because only one religion in this country is rich enough and has enough overwhelming influence to lobby and harass on this level. only one religion can convert the presidency into a fucking bizzaro-world american pope-ship, only one religion has eight hundred evangelist tv shows on a day converting us poor, ignorant, damned-to-eternal-hellfire slobs and raking in millions in the process. christianity the most brutish, parasitic arm of catholicism. christianity needs no protection from discrimination, we non-christians need protection from it.
as their Intelligent design espousers explain that in fact their is no real evidence of evolution and no evidence that the earth is millions of years old, no evidence that dna is naturally forming, as the whole lot of them explain which moral values are correct and which are evil, as they write off two thirds of the earths population as degenerate, idol worshiping, heathens, they offer their own, unshakeable, rock solid evidence. a story book. it is easy to be christian, all you need is faith and a massive self righteousness larger than ten grand canyons. truth is not to be discovered or searched for, truth is to be dictated by a story book. and no matter how counter intuitive, no matter how self aggrandizing, no matter how wrong minded, unenlightened, ridiculous, hateful, no matter how hypocritical, you must simply believe! and if you don’t? if society has sectors with philosophies and beliefs which differ? well, then society will just have to be forcibly changed to better fit the beliefs, through lobbying, legislation, evangelism, and abortion clinic bombings… fucking assholes.
in any case, i am obviously letting my annoyance get the better of me and straying off topic, so let’s just end it here. comments are welcomed.
Read Less...
tumbleweeds and poinsettias
holidays aren’t quite over yet. still things that must be done, people to be seen, appeased, soothed, loved. sitting now with the newcastle nut brown ale, alone, imagining my belly growing. smoking my ten trillion cigarettes imagining the spread of black sludge to places unseen and the hungry hungry hospital beds beckoning sweetly. thinking about this damned web site, all the promise, how hard it is to grab people and hold them, get them involved. makes me fucking crazy.
it’s fun, no question. ramble on, gather, gleen, post. yes, yes, i do enjoy it. but the tumbleweeds! oh those damned tumbleweeds, blowing through the comments section. depressing. i hear the words of the sympathetic “only been 5 months, very hard to start a community, thus and thine, row row row your boat, goodly lad or no!” but small consolation. words on top of my own pile. enough to choke a show pony.
today something happened which annoys the hell out of me, twice as much because i have no explanation. as of this morning, each and every time i type the word the it appears like this: th e. enter that into a sentance and you get something like this: th eartist and th efool are so close often times as to be indistinguishable. see th eproblem? i don’t know why this has happened. can’t begin to imagine. freudians might well tell me it’s because i want desperately to murder my second cousin and marry his pet rattlesnake hilda, but i don’t buy it. noam chomsky would likely say he could not offer any answer. our fine president, bless his saintly soul, would likely tell me it was simply jesus’s will, he president and me unable to type the word the ever after. but i don’t buy that either.
were i to do that thing that doctors do, (what’s the fucking word?!) make a (blank)... diagnosis! were i to diagnose myself i would place this unfortunate condition as a side effect of jaimita agita, a rare masculine version of 17th century “hysteria” commonly attributed to crazed lasses, caused by drained bank accounts, hooting and howling holiday animosity run amok, shifting familial proximities, cat dander, and self hating webmaster dimensia. either that or it has something to do with the 14 oz steak i ate last night, topped off with a godiva “chocolate death rattle” cake.
in any case it has proved an annoyance.
as i mentioned the dread holidays are not quite over yet. there are still thoughtful gifts to be purchased and train trips to be taken. i can only hope that when i am eighty my hospital bed will be ground zero for the xmass celebrations and i’ll finally be able to stay “home” and relax. i can see it now, cheap tinsel clinging to the i.v. stand. a poinsettia bright red against the clinically plain walls. on the six inch hospital television fevered cnn reports on the state of retail sales for holiday season 2054. oh the joy!
in the meantime i open my pathetic wallet, i stand in lines, i sit beside strangers, i stake my claim, raising the wind whipped flag of son and brother and nephew and cousin, proclaiming “merry christmas! merry christmas and a happy new year!” i click the silky webmasterly buttons, creating paragraphs and links and megabytes galore! the three rotating soon to four i stand, flanked on one side by red poinsettias on the other by brittle tumbleweeds. ah th epoetry. aint life grand?
Read Less...
the year, the nonist, the future
the year draws to an end and what happens to our experiment in blogging? do we get bored and leave you to error: page not found messages? do we fill the window with ads? do we start selling coffee mugs and beer cozies? no we don’t. we continue on, forge ahead. we mutate as we mutate. so with a new year can you expect a better site? well, we hope so, but really how can we know?
with 5 months or so of blogging under our belt we can whole heartedly say it is great fun. the joy of doing it, however, is tempered with some amount of frustration, maybe even a little disappointment. the intended community has yet to sufficiently materialize, though there are many silent lurking readers, our traffic statistics assure us of this fact. you are out there readers. yet you have not introduced yourselves. the content has thus remained the product of a small gene pool, the mutations miniscule. what we never intended on creating was the non(community)ist, the non(interaction)ist, the non(discussion)ist. it is enjoyable still to be sure. interesting and entertaining to blog, to speak, to write, to read, but in the end what we most fondly desire for the nonist is community.
with that in mind let us first clue you in to some possible additions to the site. we are milling over an additional blog, a photoblog, intended as both a place for showing ourselves, and a copywrite free image pool, for members to view and use as needed. we are looking at slightly more fringe technologies to add experimental pages to the site, generative art, abstract group page building, a-life, mind mapping site wide, etc. all these are possibilities. we will most likely add a forum, though as it stands there seems little impetus. build it and they will come? perhaps. new art projects are in the works, and we are always looking for more. lastly we are milling over a numismatics section, offering for sale, if not coffee mugs, some of the art, design, and music our members have produced.
we will continue to satisfy our own curiosities, of course, but what we want now is your suggestions for the nonist. what would you like to see? how can we make it easier for you to get involved? what functionality do you miss? what can be improved? what do you despise? what do you already enjoy? contact us with your suggestions, insightful, interesting, hateful, encouraging, or otherwise.
so in closing, 2003 was fun, it saw our birth, 2004 will hopefully see us grow, and we hope you join in, and add your two cents… if you don’t we’ll plod on anyhow without you. happy new year.
Read Less...
the dark poet speaks
from beyond the grave comes more bill hicks! the the bill hicks bootleg archives collects full bootleg recordings of 14 performances. perfect for those of you who have already completely overplayed the commercial releases. all free to download. enjoy.
public domain video
came across this wonderfully rich source of poublic domain video footage. many health class type films, much propaganda, public service, animation, etc. lots to see. they can be streamed in browser or downloaded, best of all for you dv heads they can be freely used and edited in any video editor. so watch and edit. enjoy
the semantics of ignorance
well, after posting the nonist faq last month, dealing with the idea of “embodying an objective world view” we sat, and stewed, and thought. we suspected the use of the word ignorance might be problematic, that is, might not convey the meaning intended because of the semantic weight of the word. to test the idea further we sent out a question to as many interesting folks as we could find. though we were often ignored, we did received quite a few replies, some more thoughtful than others. the question was this, “what is the value of ignorance, or if you prefer, does ignorance have any value?” some of the answers are as follows in no particular order
1 -Drew Curtis, creator of fark
Yes it does. My wife’s in psychology and she runs into it all the time. Although the particular kind I’m thinking of they term as denial. Denial is extremely helpful in some cases because it blocks pain off completely. Being ignorant of pain is a good thing in my opinion.
2 -Cory Doctorow, contributor to boing boing and author
Hrm. I don’t believe it does.
3 -Jeff Vandermeer, author, blogger, and, uh, doctor
Ignorance has value as a shield against soul-corrupting dis-information, such as that which we receive daily from the current US government. I prefer to be ignorant of world events and our administration’s response to them during some weeks because it would be difficult not to literally fall into clinical depression otherwise. Ignorance in this context allows people to at least function in their daily lives. It is only a temporary shield, however. If you allow yourself to function in that mode for too long you no longer become a valuable or functioning member of society. Temporary, situational ignorance can be a blessing. But when I want to get any fiction done, I have to shut out this part of the world, or I simply will be unable to do anything except snarl and think homicidal thoughts. In all other contexts I can think of, ignorance is soul-rot.
4 -Bruce Sterling, author, and blogger, among other things
*It’s great to be born young
5 -Alex Burns, editor of disinfo.com and blogger”
‘Cultivated’ ignorance may help you look at a person, circumstance
or situation in a new light, akin to Buddhism’s ‘beginner’s mind’.
Real ignorance, on the other hand, may mean you perceive the surface
issues but miss the deeper meaning, or don’t see the multiple impacts
of something (‘second-order effects’ in systems theory). What we don’t
know we don’t know may have a hazard/wild-card effect.
6 -Noam Chomsky, linguist, and purveyor of cultural criticism
I receive 100s of letters a day, try to respond, but only when I think there is something I can say about the question. Not in this case.
7 -Alex Boese, curator of the museum of hoaxes
I would say that the acknowledgment of ignorance is the first step on the path to enlightenment. That’s when ignorance acquires a value. Ignorance unacknowledged is simply arrogance, which has no value.
8 -Dave Barry, humor columnist and blogger
It’s VERY valuable, if you’re producing reality TV.
9 -Andrew Barthelmes, artist
Ignorance- Most people associate ignorance with stupidity. Though one can be ignorant and stupid one can also be ignorant and intelligent. Is there a benefit to not knowing the rules, the past, the context, the timeline, the politics, I think so. To create from such a place one can make something that is new, if only to ones self. You can’t imitate without knowing what’s been done before. So what an accomplishment in a world so filled with information to know so little. Can an artist create without influence, probably not, we are influenced by walking down the street, but can we create when our mind is an overfilled junk yard? When the mind cant freely move without wondering, is this relevant? Its irrelevant whether its relevant, just make it, no apologies like an unexplained explosion, an act of nature, for the first time ever.
so as you can see, the response pretty much ranged the spectrum, from doctorow’s simple and straight forward, burns’ more spiritual, sterling and chomsky’s condescension, barry’s sarcastic, drew and jeff’s practicality, boese’s philosophical, to andy’s artistic… obviously many different ways to approach the idea of ignorance.
initially, the idea behind our particular tongue in cheek usage of the word nonist sprung out of an artistic context, closest in logic to andrew barthelmes’ answer. the idea that in order to create in a free manner, true to yourself, you must in some sense cast off the burden of art history. so many people shape their work in a rigidly historical context, not attempting certain expressions because of a perceived obsolescence or a similarity to works already done. this type of constant course correction would certainly be beneficial for clearly plotting a career path, but is it beneficial to the artist as creator? we don’t know, but the idea of claiming affiliation to no ism, of willfully ignoring all we were taught, of simply doing what we like, artworld and art history be damned, seemed very inviting, and in a world which seems to value concept above craft, a reliance on nothing but instinct seemed almost vital. thus, nonist, and the word ignorance used as a partial descriptor. that this same idea could apply to other creative endeavors logically followed. that it could apply in a philosophical sense to all intellectual pursuits is simply a fond notion. the idea of a nonist, in general terms, could be seen as the opposite of exactly that which often comes across as so repugnant or comical in the battle between proclaimed truths, namely the astonishing lack of flexibility and/or humility there in. as stated in the faq, to remain open and curious in order to substitute those truths which are merely taught, with those which are learned by experience might be an explanation. or some such sentence. perhaps we ought to add a posthumous addition to our little Q&A…
10 -Thomas Jefferson of presidential fame.
Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
in any case we had planned on taking the answers to our little question and writing a serious piece exploring the results and the semantics involved. truth be told, however, we got bored with the whole notion. after all it is furthest from our intention to write anything remotely resembling a manifesto, so clearly too many rambling words have been put down already. also in that using nonist as a monicker is so obviously an oxymoron, let’s not strip the minute amount of levity left in it with more blathering. our own curiosity with the usage of the word ignorance and it’s baggage has long since faded, so this recounting of the answers is all there will be, and the last we will likely say on the subject. which i’m sure is thrilling to each and every one of you. xo
Read Less...
back to life
welcome back everyone. hope it was fun, but the holidays are over. ok? done. the antagonisms of the winter family feuds are finished, all possible warm fuzzies as well. back to reality. came across a few interesting articles recently about the state of things and the possible states of things to come. 1) noam chomsky interview from the guerilla news network dealing with “americas quest for global dominance.” 2) article titled scientific ignorance dooms democracy via betterhumans.com 3) blog entry from the ever enjoyable whiskey bar titled patriot games dealing with the results of recent gallup polls and what the results might mean. enjoy.
finally! a beautiful photoblog
found what must be the best photoblog going. rion. really well designed site and beautiful pictures to boot. check out central park snowmen, and graffiti by the east river just as example. many really nice new york photos. enjoy.
bubble chamber
java applet of colliding particles, the bubble chamber. about as beautiful a generative software “art” could hope to be. anyone with something more beautiful generated with algorithms is invited to share.
applied humbuggery
ah yes. the holidays, the smell of pine needles in crisp chilly air, the proliferation of poinsettias outside every deli, the twelve dollar rolls of wrapping paper, the exasperated sales people sweating with the heat of their own hatred, the grizzled elbows of old women jabbing into your kidneys in the endless jostle for optimal shopping position. such a beautiful time of year.
lest you think me an average every day humbug let me just say, i enjoy the holidays in my way. there are pleasant sensory associations, conversations with rarely seen relatives, and the fun of watching people open gifts, all of which can be very gratifying. i actually stress out about my purchases, wanting to offer only the most thoughtful, most enjoyable gifts to my loved ones. aside from that minor agita certain aspects of the proceedings always stick in my craw. not just the ferocity of shoppers, the crowds, the lines, the awful music in every enclosed space. those are well known and widely despised qualities of the season. feeling your pleasure ebb at these hardly qualifies you for true humbuggery anymore. they are just unfortunate facts of life. what really gets to me are the little things. the things that, were i filled with the holiday spirit, as i’m told i ought to be, i’d most likely be able to overlook.
case in point. carolers. now, first off understand one thing. i am in new york city. i am not in a cutesey cottage house in a grassy suburb. i do not drink eggnog with my neighbors and exchange cookies with them. i do not cover my home with mechanical santas and eight million mega watts of christmas lights, then take the neighborhood tour to compare my accomplishments to those of my community. new york city is not the place for these things. there are pockets to be sure, little microcosms of traditional christmas kept alive through great effort. but by and large the city remains during the holidays what it is during the rest of the year. a vast unpinpointable space. a place for anonymity, for individuality on a scale which dilutes any cultural norm to near unrecognizability. i like this about the city. i like being left to my own devices. i am happy to not have to smile at my neighbors, happy to not need to know their names and feign interest in their lives at the mailbox. so this brings me to carolers.
carolers are a christmas staple. a tradition seen as warm and quaint. people being drawn out onto their porch by the angelic song coming unexpectedly from their front yard. fine. in the suburbs you live in an area of cultural equality of some sort, meaning your culture is roughly equivalent to that of your neighbors, otherwise you would not have chosen the area to live in. the song starts up in catholic neighborhoods, “come all ye faithful” and catholics come out of their homes to see neighbors they know and recognize, they are being serenaded and all is warm and fuzzy. that’s very nice. now imagine carolers here in new york where people rent apartments wherever they can manage to find one, where tax bracket and proximity to subway stations are the cultural glue that decide a neighborhoods composition, and where 99% of the people passing by your apartment are strangers, and that by design. this is a place where simple eye contact isn’t misconstrued as a challenge, but rather is assumed to be. this is a place where people want to be left alone to do their thing and not be hassled by people and their annoying opinions. thus, in this city the sound of carolers seems somehow aggressive, almost like an attack. people out there singing do so almost defiantly. there is a sense of self consciousness about them because they must suspect what they are doing is, neither entirely natural for their surroundings, nor perhaps completely appreciated either. they sing too loudly, overcompensating.
this year a crowd of perhaps 80 people gathered on my street. directly in front of my ground level apartment actually. each and every one of them either in their 40’s or in single digits. parents defying what they know to be the order of things here in the city to foist an old tradition on their bewildered spawn, and their anonymous neighbors. they looked as if they were protesting something rather than celebrating. the children shivered and fidgeted, most likely wanted to return to their video games and tinsel. and here in this predominantly jewish neighborhood they struck up the band so to speak and let forth with “come all ye faithful”.
now, i, a young man who came to new york to leave behind the trappings of small town america had 80 defiant crooners outside my window belting some awful off-pitch jesus tale directly into my livingroom. it was like some catholic exhibitionist circle jerk. my girlfriend attempted to raise the volume of the movie we were watching above the din, but to no avail. we sat and waited for the invasion of our livingroom to subside. in the windows across the street blinds shut and curtains drew closed. all ye faithful were not coming i guess. in new york, looking out your window to see a huge crowd of strangers is never a welcome thing, no matter how benign their intent. in this case, intent benign or not, the caroling struck me as supremely invasive and overwhelmingly annoying. it was a long hard week at work, made harder by the attempts to buy gifts dispersed throughout. i was in my robe, slumped, trying to decompress, my girlfriend was lying down trying to do the same. i imagined all the manuara flames in this neighborhood flickering, agitated. after about 6 minutes the song finally came to an end and we sighed our relief, i think i muttered something with the word ‘fucking’ as it’s centerpiece. annoying as it was, we were tolerant and let them have their defiant, forced, christmas moment. that is until the second song started up.
“from god our heavenly father… blah blah… an angel… something something” and that was it. my place as anonymous, jostled, stressed out new yorker allowed me then to do something which went against all the greeting card slogans i’ve ever read, which flew in the face of every christmas special i’ve ever seen. i fought back.
first i went to my apartment front door intercom and began playing accompaniment on the buzzer. bZZZZZ bZZZZZZZ bZZZZZZZZ bZZZZZZ. you know that awful, loud, jarring noise every new york apartment intercom makes as welcome when unlocking the door. bZZZZZZ bZZZZZZZZZZ bZZZZZ bZZZZZZZ. some of the children looked around perhaps sensing danger. bZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ bZZZZZ bZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. the parents straightened up bracing themselves against the onslaught, but ultimately the tactic did not prove effective because they just sang louder, more defiantly.
next i went to the computer and called up the most obnoxious, aggressively bass-heavy hip-hop song i could find, i opened my windows, angled my speakers outward, turned up the levels on the subwoofer, and joyfully clicked the ubiquitous right pointing triangle- PLAY. “break the barricade head straight for the sound man, bring the beat down if the shit aint poundin” at first they were brave, trying to seem unfazed… “ohhh tiding of comfort and joy….” but my counterattack was relentless and window shaking, “nine niggas come up in the club, looking for a woman to rub…” i threw in some more buzzer buzzings for good measure, and with that the singing subsided and in mere moments the crown moved on.
i imagined all the neighbors applauding in their separate anonymous apartments. my girlfriend laughed so hard that i started laughing too. i imagined all the kwanzaa kinaras, and chanukah menorahs smoking ever so slightly, all the beautifully quiet, dignified christmas trees smelling of of pine and sap. it was the smell of victory! i imagined all the prized new york quiet returned to the neighboring homes, the annoyance melting away. i turned off the music and sat down, still laughing, thinking “ah, the fabled joy of christmas finally realized.” applied humbuggery at it’s best.
Read Less...
treat yourself
this holiday season, when other lonely people are suffering more acutely than ever, poised over window ledges and sighing at the ease with which their oven knobs turn, don’t despair! try something new. you’ve tried to meet people, you really have, we know. you’ve gone to singles bars, taken tango lessons at the community center, taken part in every flash mob for a ten mile radius, dressed in your best duds. you’ve tried friendster, lovester, slavester, probester… you’ve gone on blind dates and dates with the blind but nothing seemed to click. well you’ve tried the rest, now try the best. meet real live ladies of the pen. these ladies are behind bars and waiting for you’re love. their release dates are listed clearly and most are willing to relocate. a simple inquiry with the dept of corrections can reveal their offense. so drop that noose, pick up a pen, write a letter, shower her with her favorite cigarettes, and let the lovin’ begin.
the wild bunch
in these days of holiday warmth and time spent in the soft and cushy bosom of family let us take a moment to think of those less fortunate than ourselves. in doing so let’s bypass the more fortunate of the less fortunate and move right to the least fortunate. imagine if you will a child not being able to tickle his elmo doll on christmas morning because he’s too busy ripping out a muskrats entrails with his bare hands. imagine a child cheated of his eggnog birthright, instead left to suckling milk from a raw and dangly monkey teat. no good nonists i am not talking about the children of some heathen foreigners but rather the lowest of the low, i can hear you asking does it get lower than heathen spawn?! indeed good readers it does, i am talking of course about feral children.
small stories
ok, a salve, something positive. ohm, ohm. enjoy some nice online comics. subtitled “stories to make love to” by a fella named derek kirk kim. nicely done. enjoy.
the insatiable need for explanation
so many artists, so many explanations. there is the artist statement, sigh. there is the gallery press, yawn. there is the army of magazine critics blathering on and on and on, zzzzzzzzz. after all the conceptual paragraphs what is left to say? well, the scientists get their say of course, unravelling the “mystery” of an artworks true context.
read this little diatribe which made me laugh. the author takes issue with the “findings” concerning munch’s the scream, the diagnosis of turner as vision impaired, and the recent explanation of the starry night in astronomical terms. i liked the article. i’m not sure if i totally agree with the author though. yes the scientific eye applied to these artworks is beside the point, but then, and this is the point she misses, most of the words surrounding an artwork are. at least the scientific view offers a few compelling things to ponder, in a historical sense, more than can be said for most that’s written about artworks and their oh so complex profundities. in reality she seems mostly interested in defending her type of investigations into art, she is an art columnist after all. for her to think that these scientific viewpoints somehow diminish the artworks shows a pretty hilarious self importance, as well as a very condescending opinion of viewers. what she implies is, in effect, people do need art explained to them, just not in this cold, empirical, way. i contend that the viewers of art no more need the scientific viewpoint than they need the critics two cents to enjoy art. really, nothing needs to be said. art speaks for itself. weather viewers take anything away, think it’s good, bad, ugly, important, meaningful, or pointless should have very little to do with the mountains of words seeking to frame and explain. so really what the scientists or the critics have to say about it, is utterly superfluous.
Read Less...
we’ve captured saddam… and?
ok, so we’ve got him. we’ve swabbed the inside of his mouth and shaved him. the news outlets are in an uproar. “hooray! something to report. we were so tired of talking about snow.” what has been said so far? “he looks like a homeless man! haha! he was living in a hole! what a pathetic end for the dictator! how ironic! didn’t even put up a fight. what a loser! ho ho ho.” yes, indeed it is scrumptious, you glorified newsies, but how exactly are you approaching the issue in a deeper sense? “why focusing on it’s political ramifications of course. after all, what other ramifications are there really?”
“what does it mean for the democrats who have opposed the war, namely howard dean? are they sucking wind now? are they dead in the water? are they crying like little girls? bet their biting their tongues, pretty much nils their complaints huh? and what does it mean for the bush administration? this has really bolstered his reelection campaign has it not? he’s really riding high now folks! can’t wait for the press conference. this ought to really give him leverage on the international scene. diplomatic opportunities galore! those foreigners will have to lick some serious ass now won’t they? we showed them huh? and the intelligence community? well, this gives them a clean slate. they are really champs! how did we ever doubt their effectiveness? imagine? they found him. ra ra ra sisk boom ba…. etc” o.k. yes, yippee hurray, we’ve got him. we have captured the flag, slain the dragon, we have lobbed an energy pulse directly into the heart of the death star.
it’s all well and good. at least we were able to find somebody over there. most assuredly a major symbolic victory. that’s really the thing that wows me about the whole proceedings thus far. symbolism seems to be king. i guess it always is, perception of the populous. only in this case the symbols are very clear, writ large, easy to see. granted this only just happened, info will stream 24 hours a day from this point on, but who knows what will happen from here? i assume we are still neck deep in what amounts to an extremely hostile place. that guys are still fighting, getting killed, that we are still seen as a occupying force. symbolically this is big, but in the end what does it really mean? it seems like the hope is that he will have information that will make the whole endeavor more understandable, that he will admit to wmd programs, lead us to hiding places, etc, and finally settle the grumbling about our reasons for preemptive strike. that he will nod and sheepishly admit he and bin laden were in cahoots somehow, bridge partners, or whatever the connection might be, solidifying history even more, sweeping away more doubts and grumbles. i can already see bush’s face on mount rushmore if that is how it plays out. and who knows, maybe it will. would it really be so bad to find out our president is not the lying, cheating, nincompoop so many people think he is? even so, i will never be convinced that in the end, somehow, money is not the only truth, but then as i’ve said before, i’m probably cynical.
with all the unknown ahead i want to be the first to forecast the conspiracy theories which are sure to come. i can not know there exact details of course but can imagine the flint and sparks setting them off. imagine, if you will, hussein being killed before he reaches trial by some sunni, a la jack ruby. ohhh ho ho, i can imagine the theories! he was a plant intended to silence saddam before he could blow the lid on his puppet dictatorship and it’s ties to the us government! or if he gets shanked in custody by some pissed off soldier, same thing. what if the airport he’s being held at gets suicide bombed before he ever makes it out of iraq? hmmm? how could the insurgents manage such a thing? was the mouth swabbing done just to cover up the fact that the man was actually a body double? yikes. what if he testifies and spouts all kinds of crazy talk and his testimony is released eventually with 90% of it’s content blacked out for security reasons? only he’s been executed already and can never explain it all. uh oh! anyhow, it could go in any direction, on and on, and truth be told this is one of those huge historical moments in time that for better or worse will most likely always remain ambiguous and debated. the reasons, the outcomes the portents. it will prove to be yet another reminder that truth is not absolute, never has been. that truth is perhaps nonexistent, and that the symbolism, perception, and rhetoric is all. that, the bill and the body count.
in any case congratulations to the folks over there, this must make you feel fantastic, a real accomplishment that can’t be debated too much. hopefully this will get you home that much sooner.
Read Less...
say hello to the good ol’ days
ah the internet. so large, varied, wily, untamable. is it possible that in the next ten years all this wonderful free exchange of information and pseudo-information will be clotted to a close by corporate and government interests? why of course it’s possible you sweet naive soul, actually as things stand now, it seems probable.
read this article on the msnbc web site this morning (yes, i know it seems somewhat ironic, especially the ms part) called a net of control. it’s not a particularly deep article truth be told. the paper the digital imprimatur, by john walker, which they refer to in the article is more compelling.
the idea that the freedoms of the internet, the anonymity, will be greatly reduced, more strictly regulated, and recast as something entirely different than what we now enjoy seems almost obvious in todays climate. under the auspices of fighting spam, improving security, reducing copywrite infringement and piracy, the mechanisms can be put in place to shape the internet’s future, mutating it from a tool of the masses toward being a tool to track the masses. it can become a perfect demographic analyzer, a more efficient source of court evidence, a better tuned movement tracker, and of course, above all, a better money maker. all the while making it easier to keep dissenting views and information in check. i know it sounds like conspiracy theory to some people, because really so long as they can get their entertainment, they don’t care. an interactive television and arm chair shopping mall is all they see anyway. obviously the concerns about spam, security, and piracy are warranted, but the parallels to the world outside of cyberspace is obvious, and we need to be careful. don’t we? with the digital millennium copywrite act, and the powers granted the government by the patriot act how long i wonder before a department of on-line security is created, with a color coded alert system to warn of threats? how long before the books i read have my machine targeted for pharmaceutical ads? how long before the things i say have my machine targeted with denial of service attacks? how long before we’re all on some fucking list somewhere? aaargggh! orwellian world here we come.
an interesting side of this issue is the fact that the government has long said that the internet “poses an insurmountable threat to authoritarian regimes”, and has said that its proliferation in places like china would “bring freedom”. (this paper analyzes the issue using china and cuba as case studies and comes to an interesting conclusion) but if this is so, if they are so enthralled with the internet’s democratizing effects, why did the us (represented by a decidedly second string delegation) poo poo the idea put forward at the recent world summit of information society of a u.n. backed fund to help develop tech in the poorest countries? money of course, and control (the “democratizing effects” be damned). the same reasons they balk at the idea of a u.n. based regulatory commission for the internet. we pretty much own the internet as it stands now in the form of icann which is the defacto body of internet governance. while largely ignoring the concerns of poorer countries at the conference it was put forth again and again that keeping governance in the private sector (the western private sector) is the way to maintain freedom of expression on the internet. but it does not take a great leap of imagination to see that if mainly american companies govern the internet the freedom of expression is thus itself governed by the u.s. government. there were concerns that “nations like China, Egypt, Pakistan, Tunisia and Vietnam were hoping to use the summit to gain power to censure the dissemination of information” (from this article), which may be legitimate, but as everyone ought to know by now the only government with a right to censure the dissemination of information is the u.s. we’re a democracy and thus the jewel of the world. we value freedom of expression over all else! right? anyhow, don’t get me wrong, i’m all for us keeping our money, for us continuing to be powerful. i’m not retarded after all. i live here. but through what methods and to whose benefit? all the rhetoric about freedom seems a bit disgusting when those freedoms are constantly being chipped away at and re-molded here at home to be freedoms of corporations and agencies rather than freedoms of individuals. it’s the same rhetoric used to get us frothing to war isn’t it? maybe i’m just cynical, maybe it’s just a quality of youth? fine. hot air? i’m a moron? fine fine fine. nothing would make me happier.
if you’d like to read up on any of this or keep track of the trends here are some links:
digital right management and the breakdown of social norms
lawrence lessig articles
center for digital democracy
electronic frontier foundation
slashdot, your rights online
creative commons
center for democracy and technology
Read Less...