shinterview
Posted on January 30, 2007 - Filed Under Music | Leave a Comment
“I think indie bands like us and Modest Mouse are becoming popular for the same reason I bought my 1904 house, and for the same reason that downtown neighborhoods are gentrifying,” says Mercer. “Growing up in the age of Wal-Mart and 7-Eleven — which was the landscape of my youth — I’m craving authenticity. I [...]
Read More..>>Burn ‘em (or don’t become famous)
Posted on January 25, 2007 - Filed Under Death, Writers | Leave a Comment
A large collection of Willa Cather’s letters have been donated to the University of Nebraska (despite her instructions for them to never be reprinted – which I guess is slightly different). This article gives a few revelations here and there including that “She had written the epilogue of “Sapphira and the Slave Girl” five years [...]
Read More..>>Blogo Ergo YouTube
Posted on January 25, 2007 - Filed Under Politics | Leave a Comment
link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqE_baKKkRI
(From Mr. Leo)
Code Immortal
Posted on January 24, 2007 - Filed Under Robot Brains, Time Travel and The Intergalactic | Leave a Comment
Use this software rant from Steve Yegge and metaphorize it as you see fit. Yeah, I said it – Metaphorize.
I think the second most important design principle, really a corollary to the first, is that systems must be able to grow without rebooting. A system that can’t grow over time is static, so it really [...]
USA, Baby.
Posted on January 24, 2007 - Filed Under Music, Turf Wars | Leave a Comment
Tim McMahan chronicles a night about town in Omaha with Lightspeed Champion, headed by Devonte Hynes – formerly of Test Icicles.
“They want to go to Target,” Ian said. “I’m sorry about all this.” There’s nothing like Target in London — at least not in the part of London where Dev and Tom are from — [...]
Hype: Under the Boards
Posted on January 24, 2007 - Filed Under Race, Sports | Leave a Comment
So a friend is about to go to press (U of Nebraska to be precise) with his racial analysis of the NBA. Here’s an excerpt:
Regardless of one’s familiarity with hip-hop, the 2Pac-Biggie saga made it unequivocally clear that hip-hop existed on two planes: on the one hand, it was a cultural and commercial powerhouse that [...]
Lost & Found
Posted on January 23, 2007 - Filed Under Art, Crime, Writers | Leave a Comment
The Gaurdian reports “The novellist Ian McEwan has discovered that a bricklayer is the older brother he never knew he had, following the man’s quest to uncover his roots.”, but the real juicy part is in the correction: “The novelist Ian McEwan was educated in a state school, not a private one”.
I give it [...]
Read More..>>New and improved
Posted on January 22, 2007 - Filed Under Music | 2 Comments
So for the third and final time, my 2004 40B ipod died, this time with no semblance of a warranty or care plan. But they’ve got me where they need me, what else can I do with an entire collection on itunes proprietary, encypted software, but go blow some more money that way. So off [...]
Read More..>>Executive Summary
Posted on January 12, 2007 - Filed Under Death, Politics, Robot Brains, Turf Wars | 1 Comment
Aside from warm woolen mittens, two of my favorite things: (1) Brevity (2) Robot Brains. Happily these two passions of mine collide in Microsoft Word’s “Auto-Summarize” feature, as brought to my attention by Maud Newton.
To make a long story short: here’s the “executive summary” of our state’s executive’s summary: “Our troops in Iraq have fought [...]
Believe That
Posted on January 10, 2007 - Filed Under Liberal Media Conspiracies, Words (In Print) I Hate | Leave a Comment
It isn’t as if “reporters” haven’t long be regurgitating press releases in tech publications, but Ryan Faas earns his distinction as Today’s* BMK Jackass©:
There truly is no better word than revolutionary to describe the device [iPhone], which is slated to ship in June pending Federal Communications Commission approval.
- taken from his article at Computerworld, purportedly:
the [...]
video ketchup
Posted on January 9, 2007 - Filed Under Music | Leave a Comment
From 2005 here’s Stephen Malkmus performing some accousitc jams on Morning Becomes Eclectic, where he thoughfully tells Nic Harcourt he can go to the bathroom during the first song. As if.
Silver Jews performing Smith and Jones on youtube.
bring back dick lit?
Posted on January 9, 2007 - Filed Under Kids These Days, Writers | Leave a Comment
The Rake, in excellent form, on “confessional fatherhood”:
Take, for example, Pollack*. His shtick has been consistently clownish, but you have to remember that he’s the very special scold who came out a few years ago against writerly post-9/11 pontification on the War on Terror. To be specific, he told everyone to shut the [...]
Oceanographer’s Choice
Posted on January 8, 2007 - Filed Under Music, Robot Brains | Leave a Comment
Rhymin’ & Stealin’ memes. This time from Rarely Likeable.
1. Put your music player on shuffle.
2. Press forward for each question.
3. Use the song title as the answer to the question.
What does next year have in store for me?
De La Soul – Plug Tunin’ “a return to the classics?”
What does your love life look like?
Joan Jett [...]
summer babe, why not?
Posted on January 4, 2007 - Filed Under Music | Leave a Comment
my own little pre-party
Read More..>>They must be smoking that pipe, right?
Posted on January 4, 2007 - Filed Under Personal Victories | Leave a Comment
If I had to pick one sentence (excluding all bumper sticker “wisdom”) to pass along, I’d probably go with “Don’t believe the hype” as a credo1. For practical advice, I’d say “wear comfortable shoes”. If I were to stick with physics/science, which is apparently the original intent of the ‘challenge’, I’ll go with “There are [...]
Read More..>>How To Get Eaten By Fried Worms
Posted on January 4, 2007 - Filed Under Books, Time Travel and The Intergalactic | Leave a Comment
The work-a-day week has me tied up. But in the meantime, here are some instructions on how to build your own time warp (or wormhole, if you prefer):
First, collect a whole bunch of super-dense matter, such as matter from a neutron star. How much?- well enough to construct a ring the size of the Earth’s [...]
‘Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over’
Posted on January 3, 2007 - Filed Under The Man Stickin It To Us | Leave a Comment
Wow. Sadly, this really was written in 2001.
During the 40-minute speech, Bush also promised to bring an end to the severe war drought that plagued the nation under Clinton, assuring citizens that the U.S. will engage in at least one Gulf War-level armed conflict in the next four years.
“We as a people must stand united, [...]
Devil Town Coverama
Posted on January 2, 2007 - Filed Under Money, Music, Television | Leave a Comment
The Houston Chronicle reports that Friday Night Lights producers wanted to use Bright Eyes’ cover of Daniel Johnston’s Devil Town for an upcoming episode. Since Conor Oberst apparently doesn’t license his performances for television shows or advertisements, they hired another guy to cover Bright Eyes’ cover. While you wait for the inevitable conclusion1 to these [...]
Read More..>>Happy New Year
Posted on January 1, 2007 - Filed Under Drinking, Photographs | Leave a Comment
Post-Nog posting to resume later.
Read More..>>