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January 30, 2004
It's So...Pink.
Hope you like the redesign, just in time for everyone's favorite commercial holiday!
Posted in General Nonsense | 30 January 2004 at 11:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (3) | Link
January 29, 2004
A Budget Right Out of a Fairy Tale
So, for the first time in US history, our yearly deficit will exceed $500 billion. $500 B-I-L-L-I-O-N.
President Bush's new budget projects the Medicare overhaul he just signed will be one-third more costly than estimated and this year's federal deficit will surge past a half trillion dollars for the first time, administration and congressional officials said Thursday.
$500 FUCKING BILLION! And that's just this year. If Bush wins the election, we have four more years of skyrocketing budgets to look forward to!
And in the continuing saga of Ryan Adams versus the Universe, he is now claiming that he could have been paralyzed by the fall that broke his wrist.
I say that this is just further proof that the powers that be want him to give up the sham he calls a career and go crawling back to Whiskeytown, hoping against hope to get his talent back along the way.
Posted in Damn Nation! | 29 January 2004 at 07:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (65) | Link
January 28, 2004
Could You Shut Up Already?
For those of you who, like me, already have all the friends you need and really only use services like Friendster to post ridiculous and/or insulting things about those friends you already have, Introvertster might be for you!
Posted in General Nonsense | 28 January 2004 at 03:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (10) | Link
January 27, 2004
Throwing Away Your Civil Rights is the New Black (List)
I can't decide if the increasing "security" currently being used to hassle people at the airports is really supposed to help us or if it's just a really big, elaborate scheme to keep Americans so timid and frightened that we stay in our country and watch our news and buy things we see on our TVs rather than going out and realizing we didn't need most of this shit in the first place. Forgive my derisiveness if you must but most of the avenues being explored in the name of security generally seem to have many more far-reaching applications (and implications) than simply those we are supposed to believe they are for.
The Computer-Assisted Passenger Prescreening System, or CAPPS II, would screen all passengers by checking that information against commercial and government databases. Each passenger would be given one of three color-coded ratings.
Suspected terrorists or violent criminals would be designated "red" and forbidden to fly. Passengers who raised questions would be classified "yellow" and would receive extra security screening. Most would be "green" and simply go through routine screening.
Screening some foreigners after fingerprinting and photographing them already has resulted in 70 people being stopped from entering the country, although the foreigners-only program is only three weeks old, Hutchinson said.
Though none was a terrorist suspect, Hutchinson said the program, called US-VISIT, proved its ability to spot people trying to use fraudulent immigration documents to gain entry, he said.
And in general weirdness, I found an article that, had I not found it in the "real" press, I would have expected from the nimble minds over at The Onion. It seems that Al Franken, irritated over the behavior of some folks at a Dean rally, body slammed them in support of free speech and Greco-Roman wrestlers everywhere.
Posted in Damn Nation! | 27 January 2004 at 05:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (43) | Link
Ushering In Your Own Demise
The culture of fear and loathing that the RIAA has created is starting to put encryption on the must-have list of every Joe and Jane Internet user. The results will be wide-ranging and will pose a threat to the movie industry, the software industry, and just about any other industry involved with the creation and sale of intellectual property.
Not to sound as though I'm tooting my own horn, but my friends and I have been saying this since Napster.
Posted in Corporations and Creativity | 27 January 2004 at 02:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (38) | Link
January 26, 2004
Fuck You and the Cats You're Spending Your Life With
If you're reading this, you're probably one of my friends. And if you're one of my friends, you probably share my opinion on political pundits, particularly the conservative ones. Therefore, it would be no surprise that I despise Ann Coulter. Why am I making this point, you ask? Because I'm about to go into a rant about Ms. Coulter and her barely logical ideas!
I started reading an essay about married couples with opposing political views on salon.com and, much to the dismay of my good sense, I continued reading even after I saw her name come up in the article. What idiocy is she spewing now? Just this:
Coulter has an explanation for the supposed prevalence of lefty lasses and Republican lads: "Notwithstanding their progressive pretensions," she says, "all women want a man."
For those of you who are not my friends, I am neither a lesbian nor a feminist. I am in a rather traditional relationship with a man three years my senior. He pays for me when we go out on dates, he opens the door for me, he thinks that (heterosexual) women and men cannot have truly platonic friendships. And I can say with great certainty that Ms. Coulter's above quote is the stupidest thing I have heard in a long, long time. So stupid, in fact, that I can't decide whether the best response would be to groan aloud or to beat my head into a wall in frustration.
This might be a lame semantic bone to pick, but all women do not want a man. I, in fact, do not want a man. I am with my boyfriend because I want a partner; someone who complements me and makes me try to be better. Someone I can lean on and who can lean on me. Hallmark sentiment to be sure, but the day that I want a man for any reason even resembling one ascribed as part of a gender role will be a very cold, very uncomfortable and very long day in Hell.
And while I'm on the topic, I think that comment is a deeply saddening one. Though I do not like Ann Coulter I would like to think that a woman who has amassed the amount of interest she has would think more of herself—and be more intelligent—than to say that she wants a man because of something as uninteresting and obviously programmed as femininity.
Yes, I am a woman and I am not ashamed that I like and want a man to hold my hand—but that hand is there for support, not to lead the way. I can make my own way. I just don't want to be alone when I do it.
Posted in Damn Nation! | 26 January 2004 at 06:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1) | Link
The Ribs Shall Inherit the Earth
There really are times when all you can do about the state of the world is grab a rib, sit back, and laugh.
Then again, there are times when all you really want to do is punch people in the face for having to haggle over what should be, at least in my little universe, very easy decisions.
And there are times when you get the feeling that things might be getting better, just a little. Cases in point: parts of the Patriot Act have been declared unconstitutional and musicians are finally rallying around personal control rather than being pimped by the record industry.
Posted in Damn Nation! | 26 January 2004 at 04:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (109) | Link
January 23, 2004
I'm Calling You Out, Hee Haw
See what happens when you offend the gods of rock? Piss on your legacy long enough and the universe will level the score.
I mean, really. It's like rock 'n' roll itself is crying out and saying "For the love of God: Ryan, STOP MAKING MUSIC!"
Posted in Another Bloody Fucking Wanker | 23 January 2004 at 02:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (4) | Link
Do Battle!
If you are reading this, you need to hear/see/find Battles. No, really. It'll change your life.
And for a good laugh, check out SubPop's take on Pitchfork.
Posted in A/V Dorkout | 23 January 2004 at 12:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (293) | Link
January 22, 2004
I Have Lost My Compass
Ben and J-Lo have broken up! Now what will I do? What will be on the news? How will I know what horrible movies I should see? Whose lives will I discuss at the office? What will I have to motivate me if I can't dissect the lives of the ultimate celebrity couple every single day? This is truly a sad day for me(dia), but there is one final question yet to be resolved: will she give back that enormous, gaudy hunk of mineral that is her engagement ring?
To cheer myself up, I've been staring at a computer screen. It might make you dizzy but it's just really fucking cool: Akiyoshi's Illusion Pages. Who thought peripheral vision could be so interesting?
Further, in real news, PM Ariel Sharon has been implicated in a bribery scandal and may be forced to step down from his position as Israel's premier. I'm not going to pretend this makes me sad; I only hope that if he is indicted for illegal acts that perhaps the new leader will be better able to put an end to the violence between Israel and Palestine.
Posted in General Nonsense | 22 January 2004 at 05:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (43) | Link
January 21, 2004
A Moment of Silence
I'd like to ask for a moment of silence, both for my bookmarks (which I had to trash in order to get my browser to work) and for an old, dear friend: the mix tape.
Posted in General Nonsense | 21 January 2004 at 11:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Link
La-di Da-di, We Likes to Party
In another brilliant move to counter piracy, the record industry has struck a deal with the FBI to include the FBI logo in the packaging of all new CDs, warning about the perils of piracy. These guys are way too clever; if only they'd thought of this years ago, they might never have had to worry about it!
I love when people are even stupider than I give them credit for being. It makes my day just that much brighter.
Posted in Corporations and Creativity | 21 January 2004 at 02:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (3) | Link
January 16, 2004
Antitrust Does Not Mean Anticorporation
Microsoft has, after being advised to do so by the Justice Department, agreed to offer alternative software choices to Windows XP users to avoid any further tangles with antitrust legislation.
The settlement requires Microsoft to allow computer users to choose which non-operating system programs they want to use for browsing the Internet, listening to music or viewing digital videos.
I would think that this is a good thing except that Microsoft is still going to offer IE for free, and you are still going to have all those wonderful Windows files embedded on your HD, and the internet is still going to be based around an IE standard. They already have a stranglehold on the market so this might just be too little, too late.
Posted in Corporations and Creativity | 16 January 2004 at 05:03 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (20) | Link
More Fun on the Home Court
"Ads which do not promote the selling of things basically are not welcome," says Eli Pariser, MoveOn's campaigns director. "The scary thing about it is that advertising at this point is one of the only ways you can even get access to the media. To have it restricted on the basis of viewpoints is dangerous."
For those of you who haven't heard about it yet, MoveOn.org sponsored the "Bush in 30 Seconds" ad campaign, where individuals sent in homemade commercials campaigning against Bush's reelection. Once they picked a winner, they raised $1.6 million to run the ad in the Super Bowl, only to be turned down by CBS' policy against running any ad with a relevant political or social message. Pretty sneaky, and yet totally unsurprising.
Posted in Damn Nation! | 16 January 2004 at 11:21 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (32) | Link
January 14, 2004
Make Friends and Turn a Profit!
Grand Royal Records up for auction!
And, made just for teenage boys with overbearing mothers: Minimal Porn, found courtesy of Fleshbot and BoingBoing!
Posted in General Nonsense | 14 January 2004 at 06:48 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (32) | Link
I'm Scotch and Segregation
In the ongoing battle of privacy versus the corporation (including, specifically, the government and the RIAA), the LA Weekly recently published a sensationalistic little piece about the piracy raids being carried out by the RIAA's private police force. Now, I'm going to step out on a limb here and say that the actions of the RIAA are both outrageous and barely legal (oh, and racist!*), and that someone at the LA Weekly needs to do a better job of verifying quotations, particularly when quoting someone who is working against the increasingly invasive tactics of the RIAA.
* "A large percentage [of the vendors] are of a Hispanic nature," Langley said. "Today he's Jose Rodriguez, tomorrow he's Raul something or other, and tomorrow after that he's something else. These people change their identity all the time. A pictures worth a thousand words."
Posted in Corporations and Creativity | 14 January 2004 at 04:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (45) | Link
Apple Goes Sneaky Like Microsoft
Now, I'm just guessing here because I don't own or plan to own an iPod, but if I shelled out $400 to buy a portable electronic device I would expect it to work. For a long time. But if, say, a year later, the battery died and I was informed that the only way to circumvent that dead battery was to cough up $400 more dollars for a new one because the battery is unreplaceable, I'd be really fucking pissed. Like these people, for instance.
ipodsdirtysecret.com
ipodbatteryfaq.com
Posted in Corporations and Creativity | 14 January 2004 at 11:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (30) | Link
January 13, 2004
Lazy Media Habits Die Hard
I feel that, as a citizen, I should make at least a slight effort to stay abreast of world events as well as domestic ones. I don't do the best job of it, but particularly in years when there is a presidential election underfoot, I try to follow people and issues. If you've read anything I've written it's probably clear that I am not a Republican but neither am I a Democrat. Political parties are, in my admittedly narrow view, a necessary evil that I can neither summon enough interest to beat the drum for nor ignore completely. In general I think the Big Two are the same parties with different coffers—the coffers being the bottom line on both sides.
Regardless of those leanings, if my only choices for President are a Republican and a Democrat (because, honestly, they really are my only choices), I have to go Democrat, else I could not face myself in the mirror every morning. That said, I have no real particular favorites—a politician is a politician is a politician, be you Stalin, Reagan or Mao—but my preferences lie in Dean or Clark. Chances are Dean will be the one to try and uproot Bush.
Hey, I'm honest. I can be idealistic but I don't have many illusions about politics. Dean is probably not going to be that much better even if he does win. Anything is better than Bush but there are some things that will never change and the political establishment is one of those things. Say one thing, mean another. Point with one hand to distract from what the other hand is doing. Blah, blah, blah.
Despite that, however, I found this little tidbit from salon.com entertaining:
New York Times columnist David Brooks recently ridiculed Dean for beginning "a sentence with, 'Us rural people ...' Dean grew up on Park Avenue and in East Hampton. If he's a rural person, I'm the Queen of Sheba." Somebody might want to tell Brooks (or his editor) that Dean has spent half his life living in Vermont, and his wife still practices family medicine in the tiny town of Shelburne (pop: 6,618). Meanwhile, of course, the Andover, Yale and Harvard-educated Bush's claim to a pure Texas pedigree is rarely questioned.
Dean's real media sin, aside from some clumsy misstatements, seems to be that he's running as an outsider, which always breeds contempt among the Washington press corps. As governor of Texas, Bush pretended to run as an outsider in 2000, but nobody in the news business took the claim seriously. Dean, though, seems bent on it, including taking aim at the Beltway press. When he officially announced his candidacy with a June 23 speech, he asked rhetorically, "Is the media reporting the truth?" And instead of schmoozing reporters on the campaign trail and handing out playground-type nicknames the way Bush did in 2000, Dean treats them professionally, but pushes back when he thinks they're wrong.
Perhaps not surprisingly, it's the Washington Post — particularly its editorial and Op-Ed pages, which double as the house organ of the D.C. establishment — that has taken the lead role in deriding the surging outsider. But the rest of the press also seems eager to play along with the established, critical Dean narratives.
This should be an interesting race, as I predict two all-or-nothing candidates. As for me, I'm all-or-nothing against Bush (with the possible exception of an anarchist coup that leads to the installation of a fascist dictatorship). So if Dean it must be, so (hopefully), Dean it will be.
———
P.S.: For those of you who are unaware, the Bushes are actually from Connecticut, not Texas—which explains Bush, Sr.'s curious lack of that charming Texas drawl.
Posted in Damn Nation! | 13 January 2004 at 03:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (6) | Link
January 08, 2004
Bust Some Cool Linkage
Not much to be annoyed about today, so here are some links I've been amusing myself with lately:
King Mini Publishing
Bulfinch's Mythology
The Perseus Project
The Alphabet Synthesis Machine
Why I Live Microsoft Free (For my fellow Mac lovers, but not a bad idea for PC users, either!)
Posted in General Nonsense | 8 January 2004 at 05:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (27) | Link
January 07, 2004
Weasels...or Lemmings?
Hooray for David Hinckley and good sense!
Well, Nielsen Soundscan figures for the year are out, and they show CD sales in 2003 were 687 million, compared to 693 million in 2002.
The 2003 total was boosted by a strong fourth quarter, but still, that's an overall drop of less than 1%, which is hardly apocalyptic in a rough year when purchases of everything from cars to movie tickets were also down.
One reason many folks feel no guilt about downloading is that they think record companies behave like weasels.
The business isn't offering much of a rebuttal.
Amen to that!
Posted in Corporations and Creativity | 7 January 2004 at 03:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (20) | Link
Taking A(nother) Bite Out of the Youth Market
In current LA news, Clear Channel recently forged a deal with California media firm Entravision Communications, owner of what you locals will remember as Super Estrella, 103.1. Somewhere along the line in the murky depths of this deal, Clear Channel decided that 103.1 would be the perfect battleground for a war on LA's reigning alternative rock heavyweight, KROQ. Hence the birth of CC's own Indie 103. Here's an excerpt from the radio-info.com message boards explaining the changeover (accomplished in the fashion we have all come to expect from huge media conglomerates like CC):
Suddenly, right after Thanksgiving, they fired the entire airstaff and ran the format jockless for a couple of weeks. This came right after Entravision announced a JSA with Clear Channel for the 103.1 stations. Then they went to an all alternative/punk rock Christmas format for five days before going to an Alternative format...
KDLD is licensed to Santa Monica and KDLE is licensed to Newport Beach. They simulcast 24 hours a day on the same frequency.
:: Posted by KMRichards ::
Now, those of you who know me know that I hate listening to radio (because, let's face it, formatted radio blows really hard and college radio just doesn't have the punch of a professional DJ), and that I hate KROQ particuarly. They started out in the '80s with a solid idea—let's play the music that people want to hear but no one else is playing! They were successful and rolled on through the '90s slowly and steadily pulling an MTV-like shift from playing music of quality and interest to playing major-label sponsored pap that is only on air because someone paid a lot to have it there. There is nothing I would like quite so much as to see KROQ rearrange their format into something I would like to listen to (or at least like it more than I do now) but I have to say that I am firmly against Clear Channel being the one to force them to do it.
I dislike CC on principle and I don't like the notion that they are using the music I like in a bid to gain a foothold in the attractive and easy-to-sell-stuff-to youth market of Los Angeles. I think it's great that there are bands—good independent bands—that will be getting more exposure on radio and therefore, selling more independent records. The problem here, as I see it, is that if it's big corporate money that is doing the pressuring, luring the advertisers and paying for the signal, then it is also, vicariously, big money which is providing more money to those indies. I'm not generally an "ends justify the means" sort of person and in this case I think that the means (CC sponsorship) could do a lot to undermine the independence that all things indie are based on—and that is a very big, bad end indeed.
Posted in Corporations and Creativity | 7 January 2004 at 03:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (4) | Link
January 05, 2004
Twinkies
I know you've heard the word before, but in case you ever wondered where it came from, now you know: the official appearance of the metrosexual phenomenon was in salon.com:
Well, perhaps it takes one to know one, but to determine a metrosexual, all you have to do is look at them. In fact, if you're looking at them, they're almost certainly metrosexual. The typical metrosexual is a young man with money to spend, living in or within easy reach of a metropolis — because that's where all the best shops, clubs, gyms and hairdressers are. He might be officially gay, straight or bisexual, but this is utterly immaterial because he has clearly taken himself as his own love object and pleasure as his sexual preference. Particular professions, such as modeling, waiting tables, media, pop music and, nowadays, sport, seem to attract them but, truth be told, like male vanity products and herpes, they're pretty much everywhere.
For some time now, old-fashioned (re)productive, repressed, unmoisturized heterosexuality has been given the pink slip by consumer capitalism. The stoic, self-denying, modest straight male didn't shop enough (his role was to earn money for his wife to spend), and so he had to be replaced by a new kind of man, one less certain of his identity and much more interested in his image — that's to say, one who was much more interested in being looked at (because that's the only way you can be certain you actually exist). A man, in other words, who is an advertiser's walking wet dream.
And further, why metrosexuality is a bad, bad thing:
Two decades on, and the hairless — perpetually adolescent and available — dazzlingly toothy, muscular, masculine template is still with us, simultaneously a cliché and de rigueur in an Abercrombie & Fitch world. A&F may be looked down upon as middlebrow and middle American by the most refined metrosexuals, but its alarming popularity with straight, beer-drinking frat boys is proof of how metrosexuality has gone mainstream — while its lusciously produced, semi pornographic quarterly catalogues deliver conclusive proof that male narcissism (in photograpic shorthand: Weber-ism), is only ever a post-workout shower away from homoeroticism.
Perhaps this is because nowadays straight men are also emasculated. Female "Sex and the City" metrosexuality has seen to that. Female metrosexuality is the complement of male metrosexuality, except that it's active where male metrosexuality is passive. No longer is a straight man's sense of self and manhood delivered by his relationship to women; instead it's challenged by it. Women are still monarchs of the private world, but increasingly assertive in the public world too. Series like "Oz," set in a male prison and featuring story lines that revolve around violent buggery, probably look like a kind of sanctuary for some men from the female voraciousness of "Sex and the City."
And, as the pages of the celeb mags reveal, the more independent, wealthy, self-centered and powerful women become, the more they are likely to want attractive, well-groomed, well-dressed men around them. Though not for very long. By the same token, the less men can rely on women, the more likely they are to take care of themselves. Narcissism becomes a survival strategy; apparently, some men actually buy their own underwear and deodorant these days.
Posted in Damn Nation! | 5 January 2004 at 02:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (454) | Link
