Using Bees To Effect Vengeance

Using Bees To Effect Vengeance
I get to be as self-indulgent as I want without wasting anyone's time. Guilt-free solipsism -- excellent! Looking for that particular entry? Search Using Bees.... Join the Blue Ribbon Online Free Speech Campaign! Archives: Email the Proprietor		Wednesday, November 30, 2005 Some things I've been digging on lately: Taylor Branch -- Parting The Waters. Martin Luther King was a pretty admirable individual. Who knew? My Squeezebox, of course. The Mighty Boosh -- a deeply silly British sitcom. It's on BBC America occasionally. The Squid and The Whale. Watching West Ham battle their way to a Top 10 place in the Premiership, against all odds and with absolutely no right to do so. Satsumas (thanks, Mum!) Stephen Colbert. Beethoven (woke up to one of his bagatelles on the radio early yesterday morning...its beauty left me immobilized. And prostrate. And snoring. For about 15 minutes. ) My wife. Adam's hijinks. Jenny Lewis's solo album. Unexpected bursts of productivity at work that ameliorate that horrible sense of perma-anguish over all the undone tasks (still working on being a better GTD acolyte). What's floating your respective boats at the moment? \| posted by Alex at 10:38 PM Tuesday, November 15, 2005 A great piece on Slate about the comedy of my girlfriend Sarah Silverman [via Tim O]. This is the best summation of her approach I've heard yet: she's not just a critic of PC culture: She's a connoisseur. She handles the complex algorithms of taboo—who's allowed to joke about what, to whom, using what terminology—with instant precision: "Everybody blames the Jews for killing Christ, and then the Jews try to pass it off on the Romans. I'm one of the few people that believe it was the blacks." (The joke exposes not the ancient perfidy of any particular race but the absurdity of blaming entire races for anything.) Her best jokes are thought experiments in the internal logic of political correctness: "I want to get an abortion, but my boyfriend and I are having trouble conceiving." It also uses the term "meta-bigot", which is uncomfortably close to my own coinage (ahem) "meta-racist." The author lumps South Park, Ali G, and Chappelle in with Silverman as meta-bigots, which seems fair. In some ways, meta-racism is strong evidence that the culture has substantially internalized a belief in racial equality. Can we meta- ourselves all the way back to plain old racism? \| posted by Alex at 5:06 PM The Non-Definitive Guide to the B-side More great stuff from Stylus Magazine -- if only they'd publish an RSS feed so I could make them a daily pitstop. Probably the best review site on the web, and their features are always terrific as well. A rousing Using Bees endorsement. Something else that gets a rousing Using Bees endorsement is this little honey: It's a Squeezebox from Slim Devices, it plays all my MP3s through my stereo speakers via my wireless network, and it's my birthday present. It also plays online radio stations through my stereo even when my computer's off, automatically imports iTunes playlists, streams my music collection across the web to other computers, scrolls RSS headlines through the display while on screensaver mode, and has all kinds of user-created plugins for additional homebrew coolness. Yes, the day of "play my entire music collection on shuffle" approacheth. Kneel before my music geekitude, bitches. Tremble, ye digital music early adopters -- AW just leapfrogged your ass. And I'm out. (Oh and honey, I'm really sorry I totally ignored you last night while I explored every nook and cranny of the Squeezebox. I'll make it up to you. It's cute, right? You will grow to love it. It won't come between us. I won't let it.) OK I'm out for reals now. \| posted by Alex at 11:14 AM Saturday, November 12, 2005 The Decembrist: Twilight for Bush and Blair: Some mind-expanding analysis of the struggles of Bush and Blair, pivoting on the insight that Bush has moved American government towards the parliamentarian, while Blair has been moving British government towards the presidential. Leaving the conclusion aside, it is a brilliant observation. \| posted by Alex at 10:44 AM Friday, November 11, 2005 .:: beedogs ::.: "Beedogs.com is the premier online repository for pictures of dogs in bee costumes." Wow, I guess they can smell fear particularly well then.... \| posted by Alex at 8:10 AM HOME