Using Bees To Effect Vengeance |
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I get to be as self-indulgent as I want without wasting anyone's time. Guilt-free solipsism -- excellent!
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Friday, September 28, 2001
A couple of hours ago, my building near Wall Street was evacuated -- someone had sent a package that didn't have a return address on it. Guess we better get used to this sort of thing. | Last Orders revives ailing British cinema Last Orders, based on Graham Swift's Booker Prize winning novel about a group of half-sozzled south London geezers who gather to scatter the ashes of an old mate off Margate pier, reduced critics to tears at its premiere yesterday. With a cast that reads like a who's who of British cinema from the 1960s onwards, Oscar nominations are already being suggested for Michael Caine, Bob Hoskins, Helen Mirren, Tom Courtenay and David Hemmings. I'm excited about this. Last Orders is one of the most beautiful books I've ever read. | Thursday, September 27, 2001
The New York Observer has an article about Debka.com, a Jerusalem-based news site that appears to have incredibly detailed intelligence on bin Laden, the anti-terrorism campaign being mounted by the US-led coalition, and Middle Eastern politics in general. I have no idea how reliable the information is -- neither does the NY Observer -- but it's all very intriguing, if frightening. | Wednesday, September 26, 2001
Photographica is back too! Apropos of the drinking thread blogged yesterday is this lovely shot of the ghost bartender. And apropos of nothing is this happy panda. | Well, The Onion is back, and I'm glad. There was some discussion as to whether their brand of humor even works in a post-WTC world, but I was exhilarated reading their headlines this week. To paraphrase Nelson Muntz, good satire is "funny 'cos it's true"; and the slightly uncomfortable truths of this week's issue help to put things into perspective. A sampling: Hugging Up 76,000% American Life Turns Into Bad Jerry Bruckheimer Movie Rest Of Country Temporarily Feels Deep Affection For New York Jerry Falwell: Is That Guy A Dick Or What? And the article God Angrily Clarifies "Don't Kill" Rule is almost moving! It's not for everyone, but it made me feel better. We have to recover our sense of humor, and this is a start. | Tuesday, September 25, 2001
The Big Lebowski drinking game -- who's up for it? Scroll up to the top for a pretty entertaining discussion of everyone's favorite drinks...lots of things I'm dying to try now. I've been so boring! Update: further down that thread, there's a link to iDrink, which lets you input the ingredients you have handy and then spits out all the drinks you can make.... Def! | My local fire station lost 12 of their 27 men on Sept 11, and now, over the protests of their remaining compatriots, the squad is being dissolved. Spending time at that fire station was one of the hardest and best things I've done in the last two weeks. The place is overrun with flowers and candles, there are journals in which locals can express their appreciation for the lost (they'll be given to the families), and when I made our donation to the Squad 1 families fund, there were quite a few people lining up behind me to give too. A fireman was out front, shaking hands with neighbors, remarkably gracious and stolid. Donations can be made out to the Squad 1 Benefit Fund and sent to : Squad 1 788 Union Street Brooklyn, NY 11215 | Monday, September 24, 2001
Friday, September 21, 2001
Subscribing as I do to all kinds of lefty publications (not to mention the Robyn Hitchcock mailing list -- oy!), I've read a lot of comments in the last week along the lines of the following: US foreign policy has been cruel and counterproductive over the last 40 years, and you can only bully people for so long before they hit back, in desperation, with whatever meager means are at their disposal, i.e terrorism. I don't buy this. I'm fully aware (and critical of) much of America's foreign policy misdeeds, but radical Islam's problem is fundamentally with Western secularism. There is no common ground to be forged with a viewpoint that uncompromising. I wrote a rambling disquisition on this very topic the other day which I never posted because it was too incoherent and I was trying to say too much. Those of you who've spoken to me personally in the past week have probably gotten an earful of it anyway. Christopher Hitchens -- always provocative (and coincidentally Martin Amis's best friend) -- has written his own piece for the Guardian entitled Let's not get too liberal, in which he makes the following point: "What [the terrorists] abominate about "the west", to put it in a phrase, is not what western liberals don't like and can't defend about their own system, but what they do like about it and must defend: its emancipated women, its scientific inquiry, its separation of religion from the state." This is a superb insight. The rest of the piece is almost as good. A little hyperbolic, as Hitchens tends to be, but well worth a looksee. | We're all trying to move on from last week in our own ways. I post this link as a public service -- I haven't laughed like this in ages. Catharsis. If I stop posting stupid random crap, then I'm letting the terrorists win. I'm only being a little bit facetious when I say that. | The Little Screensaver That Could "In the five months since its launch in April, the Intel-United Devices Cancer Research Project has identified 60,000 molecules that may inhibit cancer growth. The Intel-UD software, which is a screensaver like SETI@Home and Folding@Home, searches for molecules that bind with cancer cells to prevent them from replicating." I've had this screensaver running at work for about a year now, and recently downloaded it for home as well. Not only does it use your computer to do cancer research work while you're not at your desk (I leave my work computer on all night), it can even run unobtrusively when you are working. I can confirm that, if you have a half-decent computer, it will not impair your ability to work in the slightest. At home, we have an old laptop with too many MP3s on it, so for that machine, we set it to run only when the screensaver's on. Anyway, download it! You can choose which projects you want your computer to work on! You can even watch it working on each molecule! My wife glanced at our computer screen the other day, and pointed out that, even in the midst of overwhelming sadness, "cancer research goes on." It feels good to be helping that to happen. | It's a given at this point that neither bombing Afghanistan nor assasinating bin Laden can end jihadi terrorism -- al Qaeda is a network operating in many countries with a significant degree of decentralization. Which is why this article discussing the principles of networking and their inplications for anti-terrorism is so damn interesting. More interesting than I just made it sound, anyway. | Back in the day, when I was a young whelp engaging in high-school debate, one of the topics we argued was "Is There Such Thing As A Just War?". For a few months, then, I carried around a book by Michael Walzer...and today we are reunited. Walzer has written an op-ed in today's NY Times about what would constitute the boundaries of a just response. "But military action is what everybody wants to talk about — not the metaphor of war, but the real thing. So what can we do? There are two conditions that must be met before we can fight justly. We have to find legitimate targets — people actually engaged in organizing, supporting or carrying out terrorist activities. And we must be able to hit those targets without killing large numbers of innocent people." | Wednesday, September 19, 2001
Now that I am at work and have my blogging apparatus to support me, updates should be more frequent. Kevin Kelly, former editor of Wired, has spent a lot of time in Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, and has an interesting take. For what it's worth, there is so much interesting and thought-provoking stuff out there that I feel like I'm doing a disservice by not blogging all of it. What does make it to the blogspot is the tip of the proverbial. | Tuesday, September 18, 2001
The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan is an amazing organization -- an anti-Taliban group whose members take covert photos and videos of Taliban cruelty and post them online. I can scarcely believe that this isn't a hoax, but apparently they've been covered by numerous news organizations and mentioned on Oprah. Be warned: there are some very disturbing images to be found on their site, but for the most part you'll only be confronted with them if you choose to be. RAWA's statement on the recent attacks is here. | I must say, one of the things that's made me feel better is walking around my Brooklyn neighborhood. I *love* this neighborhood. And New Yorkers have been fantastic -- I've been really proud to live here. From Casablanca: Major Strasser: Are you one of those people who cannot imagine the Germans in their beloved Paris? Rick Blaine: It's not particularly my beloved Paris. Heinz: Can you imagine us in London? Rick Blaine: When you get there, ask me. Captain Renault: Hmmh! Diplomatist! Major Strasser: How about New York? Rick Blaine: Well there are certain sections of New York, Major, that I wouldn't advise you to try to invade. | Check out the list of "unplayable" songs that radio conglomerate Clear Channel (owner of over 1000 US radio stations) sent to its affiliates. Lots of anti-war numbers on there. What could possibly be inappropriate about "Imagine"? I can definitely think of some they left out -- like Simon & Garfunkel's "The Only Living Boy in New York". Or The Ramones "Beat On The Brat". Then again, playing The Clash's "Rock The Casbah" would definitely be inflammatory at this point. "London Calling", on the other hand...or "Clampdown"...or "The Call Up".... | My favorite writer, Martin Amis, has written a wide-ranging piece for the Guardian about the events of the last week and where the world goes from here. His incredible gift for language, when brought to bear on what has happened to all of us, makes things hurt more. He also offers some gems of insight, producing the familiar brain jolt that takes place when one realizes that a few artfully chosen and arranged words have just enabled one to "get it". While the jolts make me feel better and more hopeful, in a reassuring pre-September 11th kind of way, my reaction is also more complicated now. Whereas before, a jolt cheered me by embodying the human ability to learn and communicate that learning, insights like Amis's now feel like a reminder of a time -- lo these seven days -- when it all seemed more academic than it does now. Guess I'm a little pessimistic at the moment. Right now, I'm hoping that the Afghan council of clerics proves me wrong. And if they fail to, I'm hoping President Bush does. Although neither of them is likely to help me keep my job. :-) :-( ;-) One comment of Amis's that particularly struck me: Weirdly, the world suddenly feels bipolar. All over again the west confronts an irrationalist, agonistic, theocratic/ ideocratic system which is essentially and unappeasably opposed to its existence. The old enemy was a superpower; the new enemy isn't even a state. In the end, the USSR was broken by its own contradictions and abnormalities, forced to realise, in Martin Malia's words, that "there is no such thing as socialism, and the Soviet Union built it". Then, too, socialism was a modernist, indeed a futurist, experiment, whereas militant fundamentalism is convulsed in a late-medieval phase of its evolution. We would have to sit through a renaissance and a reformation, and then await an enlightenment. And we're not going to do that. I'd like to apologize for how poorly written this entry has been, particularly the deeply unsatisfying trope of the "jolt". But I have the morning off, and I want to have breakfast with my wife before I head off to my "strongly-encouraged-group-counseling-session-with-coworkers". | Saturday, September 15, 2001
Update: hear the audio of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, on the 700 Club, blaming gays, lesbians, feminists, atheists, ACLU, People For the American Way etc. for the recent terrorism. | It has been pointed out that "Turn And Run", from Neil Finn's most recent album One Nil, is eerily apposite at the moment. It's a beautiful song, and you can download an MP3 of it here. That's Sheryl Crow on harmony vocals. Neil Finn: TURN AND RUN (Neil Finn, 2000) There's a light overhead, overhead In the sky overhead, overhead and i'm with you now, in body and music and mind and we're silent and still everything's so out of control tonight in a plane that's flying fast at a speed that makes me cry have you left me now to trouble that won't let me lie i'm awake all the time you know where i stand holding my plastic gun so turn and run you cold killers of innocence against us there's no defense your flash and your wickedness you can't break our love tie my hands behind my back put a gag on top of my mouth but i won't give you up till silverware's covered in dust and my shoes fall apart and the tumbleweed runs over my desert heart so turn and run you cold killers of innocence against us there's no defense your flash and your wickedness will surely bring you down again somehow we must stay afloat won't give into the undertow some things you will never know but you can't break our love (you can pull us down) but you can't break our love.... | Friday, September 14, 2001
My Internet service is back. I've missed having the Internet, because I was counting on a number of online communities and news outlets to help me begin absorbing all that has happened. Sometime soon I plan on posting my little story, one of hundreds of thousands whose starting point is 9am Tuesday. I want to do so as much for myself as for anyone else, to have a permanent record of what happened to me, what I did, what I felt, during that morning, hopefully unembroidered and undramatized. In the meantime, there is so much to talk about. First things first: at this point, everyone I'm close to in New York is OK. I'm enormously thankful for that. I'm adding a Red Cross button to my site...please donate. There are so many dimensions to this, so much to be angry about, so much to be fearful about, and so much to be proud of. I was not a huge fan of Rudy Giuliani, but he has done an incredible job holding the city together, being reassuring, informative and appropriately steely throughout everything. He also got his hands dirty, and I'm actually very proud that he has been representing us New Yorkers throughout this dreadful time. (As someone pointed out, he also did so without recourse to religious rhetoric, and frankly I was glad that he did so much good without having to enlist God on our side. Given the motives of the perpetrators, I'm loath to counter-invoke any higher forces at this point, thanks.) In marked contrast to the rest of the country, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson are sowing divisiveness and evil by choosing to blame gays, liberals, atheists, and the usual bloody suspects for the fact that terrorists hijacked four planes and crashed three of them into huge buildings in Northeastern US cities, killing thousands of people. If there was any doubt whatsoever that these people are disgusting and singularly small-minded, unspiritual people, these abhorrent comments [listen] should remove it. I hope that this deeply unChristian reaction to the enormous suffering of hundreds of thousands of people effectively ends their careers -- and if their comments get lost in the general commotion, I for one can be counted on to remind people later on of exactly what they said. One of my immediate concerns is that civil liberties may be fucked for the time being. It's been encouraging to see some officials reminding us that if we curtail civil liberties in the name of security, then the terrorists have won. I of course support more stringent security standards, and am fully prepared to be inconvenienced by them, but I am not prepared to sign over my civil rights. I do not see the point in destroying freedom in order to save it. I'm not being flippant when I say that the country needs the new Bob Dylan album. Listening to it for the first time last night was a profoundly healing experience (and I'm not given to throwing around phrases like "healing experience" either, so take my word for it.) I think W should spend some of that $40 billion on buying everyone a copy of it, so we could all bathe in its humor, strength, warmth and quintessential Americanness. If you're even a casual fan, you must get it. Plus, the band is phenomenal and he sings like a rejuvenated bastard as well. Run out and pick it up. More later. Time to spend time with my wife. | Tuesday, September 11, 2001
For those who have not heard: I am OK. My office building just off of Wall Street was evacuated at about 10 this morning, after some of the pitch-black soot and debris had lifted, and I subsequently found my way to Brooklyn Bridge and walked home. Needless to say I saw some surreal things this morning, but the everpresent feeling was a sickness in the pit of my stomach. I hope you and your loved ones are all right. | Monday, September 10, 2001
Friday, September 07, 2001
Anyone else watch the MTV Video Music Awards? 3 precious hours of my life sucked into a furiously whirling vortex of crap -- and what's worse, not even entertaining crap. It'll be months before I can watch mindless entertainment drivel again. Put me off my food, it did. Anyway, I was overwhelmed even more than I usually am by the degree of product placement, cross-promotion, SIN-ER-GEE on display. Viacom (MTV, CBS) have always been egregious about this, but the new champion is AOL Time Warner. Proof: the usually reprehensible Matt Drudge has done society a favor by uncovering the fact that the AOL startup page features AOL Time Warner stars 78% of the time. It's all about synergy, folks. You will consume the content that they own. You will consume the content they own. If you choose not to, all that corporate consolidation, all those oligopolies so patiently and stealthily assembled, all those focus groups, payoffs to radio programmers...all will be for naught. They're investing more money on fewer "properties", leveraged across more media outlets. Madonna's CD on Warner Brothers, reviewed in Entertainment Weekly and Time, her personal life front page of People magazine, her concert simulcast on HBO with a pre-show chat session on AOL, starring in films released by Warner Brothers, which you find out about via Netscape Mail or a piece on CNN, and you can buy your tickets from AOL Moviefone. And believe me, I left some out that I guarantee you have already ocurred to AOLTW brass. Their investment in the Madonna property can be amortized and exploited across multiple business units. So much more efficient for AOL. But our artistic and cultural diets suffer enormously. Rich Media, Poor Democracy: Communication Politics in Dubious Times | Pupils' Poverty Drives Achievement Gap The data indicated that the performance of individual students differed dramatically depending upon the overall level of poverty in the school they attend. Lower-income students performed their worst at schools where the student population was overwhelmingly poor. But when lower-income students attended schools where most of the students were more affluent, they achieved higher scores -- matching or exceeding the county average. Very interesting piece. I've become quite interested in education policy recently -- not exactly sure why -- which led me to pick up the most recent edition of Harpers. I'm very glad I did, because their roundtable on the "design and redesign of American education" was one of the most fascinating things I've read in a while. It's not online (yet) but it's worth plucking down your $5 for. | Thursday, September 06, 2001
A fan site for the Canadian band Sheriff -- you remember their freak late '80s hit "When I'm With You", don't you? The song that went to #1 in the U.S six years after the band had broken up? This site is essential viewing for those who have yet to appreciate the depth of their contribution to modern music. After all, as it points out, "the vocals were in the same league with Boston and Styx" -- an appraisal I can heartily endorse. There are also some dashing hairdos and headbands to appreciate. I thoroughly recommend taking time out of your busy schedule. | Wednesday, September 05, 2001
This is completely brilliant --a BMW Series 7 has been parked at Bergstrom Airport in Austin for over a year, and the denizens of a frequent flyer message board have taken it upon themselves to investigate.... [via Boing Boing] | Tuesday, September 04, 2001
The ChildCare Action Project have posted their fundie analysis of Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back, complete with scriptural rejoinders to its egregious blasphemies. Not as funny as their take on Rushmore, which gave this weblog its name, but worth checking out. | Coming to Your Bookstore: The Sponsored Novel. Over the next few years, each of us will have to develop the capacity to distinguish advertising from entertainment/art/whatever-you-want-to-call-it. There's no doubt in my mind that the current/forthcoming recession will accelerate the blurring of lines, as content providers fall all over themselves to offer media buyers even more for their money. The ascent of AOL -- who, unlike Time Warner, have no culture of editorial integrity to defend -- will speed things along as well. By bombarding us with advertising, marketers have engendered a mutant strain of ad-resistant consumers. As a result, they're having to become either subtler, more entertaining, or more tightly entwined with the actual content in order to get people to pay attention. Seems to me that this is akin to an arms race that cannot be won -- at what point do marketers pull back from the brink? Each "innovation" in advertising has worked for a while, until consumers become immune and marketers have to find some new part of the culture to colonize. At some point, they'll run out of culture. One last thought: Computer industry: Internet, personal computing, networks, individual autonomy = Force For Good Media/entertainment industry: one-size-fits-all, lowest common denominator, advertising dependent, create and control cultural bottlenecks, a cartel of 5 companies with identical interests = Force For Evil. What the Entertainment industry hath taken away, the Computer industry hath restored, and then some. The merging of the two is bad news. The good news is that self-publishing is a counterweight -- it's vital, written in a recognizably human voice, and does not even pretend to be objective. More than ever, it will be up to the individual to seek out information and perspectives beyond those beamed into their living rooms. Thanks for visiting my site. | |
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