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

posted by jmorrison on 12/31 | lost & found | | permalink
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?

posted by jmorrison on 12/30 | lost & found - belief | | permalink
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.

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?

posted by jmorrison on 12/28 | announcements | | permalink
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.

posted by jmorrison on 12/27 | sights & sounds | | permalink
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

posted by jmorrison on 12/27 | sights & sounds | | permalink
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

posted by jmorrison on 12/26 | announcements | | permalink
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.

posted by jmorrison on 12/26 | news & views | | permalink
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.

posted by jmorrison on 12/22 | sights & sounds | | permalink
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.

posted by jmorrison on 12/22 | sights & sounds | | permalink
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.

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.

posted by jmorrison on 12/21 | lost & found - wtf | | permalink
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.

posted by jmorrison on 12/21 | lost & found - wtf | | permalink
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.

posted by jmorrison on 12/17 | sights & sounds | | permalink
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.

posted by jmorrison on 12/17 | sights & sounds - art | | permalink
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?”

posted by jmorrison on 12/14 | news & views - op ed | | permalink
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.

posted by jmorrison on 12/13 | news & views - op ed | | permalink
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