Light blogging this week, I’ll be in Cali premiering a new John Adams piece with Alarm Will Sound at Stanford.
Monthly Archives: November 2007
Digital Global Trans-Analog Connectivity 2
As a follow-up to my recent post on DJ Spooky, which that Subliminal Kid didn’t like none too much (though props to him for steppin’ up!), I came across this article on a major AIDS charity called African Aid Action (supported by the Archbishop Desmond Tutu), that has sharp words for celebrity activists such as Bono and others.
Head of African Aid Action, Jobs Selasie states:
“Aid has failed because campaigners, charities and governments do not have the right plan and excluded African entrepreneurs and grassroots organisations from being part of the solution,” said Selasie.
“You can’t impose change from without,” he continued. “It has to come from within and we won’t end poverty with handouts. Africans need to fight corruption and work hard.”
Africa will succeed only if international investors will take the risk of supporting African businesses. Handouts from the wealthier countries will always be a temporary fix. I will give money to homeless person on the street, but I never think that the dollar I gave him will pull him out of his situation. It will buy him a sandwich. Too often I hear of peoples’ fear of globalization, specifically in that continent. Our capitalist liberal democracy may not be perfect, but anything would be better than prolonging the continued tragic situation much of Africa is in, most familiarly in the Darfur region of Sudan, and even more so in the DRC.
Filed under jobs selasie
How to blog?
I’ve read many articles and blogs on the best way to maintain a readable blog. The most common recommendations are:
Write about what you are passionate about.
Write about what you know.
Keep the blog focused on a certain topic or subject.
This last one is extremely common, highly recommended for bloggers wanting to hit a niche market. For some reason I just can’t seem to muster any interest into focusing my blog into one area of interest/expertise. I am the type of person who would announce that I am running the world’s first blog devoted entirely to sexual undertones in Christian children’s songs, then grow tired of it in about a month. Or I’d start a contemporary music blog and post sporadically, whenever the stress of being a contemporary musician didn’t get in the way.
The thing is, I am passionate about a whole bunch of things. I can speak on at least above-laman’s terms about many different topics and with expertise on a few. The most focus I can offer you is a concentrated exuberance about several topics.
Here are the subjects you will read about the most on this blog:
1. Politics and social issues – If you are a reader of this blog you are familiar with my high degree of cynicism toward those on the right and left end of the political spectrum. I live in New York City, so railing against the right, although it is an easy and worthy target, can often feel like you are preaching to the choir, shouting into an echo-chamber. Thus, often you might often find me valuing the criticism of the left over the right, because it isn’t often offered by people who also think the right is equally full of shit.
2. Movies – I am definitely an armchair film buff, specifically extreme cinema. I am not specifically interested in art house or foreign cinema – as in I won’t just go to the local indy theater and say, “lay one on me”. I love certain art house and foreign films, specifically Japanese, but I’ll usually seek it out because of the director. In the last few years I’ve began seeking out movies by director and it has changed how I view, and mentally catalog, films. Here are the most common directors you will find me writing about: Kubrick, Kurosawa, Miike, Tarantino, Cronenberg, Solondz, Scorcese, Lumet, Lynch, Miyazaki, Scott, Korine.
3. The Family Guy – It’s no secret I think FG is currently the best comedy on TV. I know there are plenty who disagree with me on this one, but I hold to it! It’s humor is a new type of intense irony and sarcasm that is only really understandable by members of my generation, we who were raised by our TVs, who learned to voice our praise and scorn using elaborate folds of sarcastic metaisms. Each episode of FG reaches new realms of absurdity, employing new methods of tedium, shock, and the macabre to achieve this. There are always jokes that fail in every episode, but that doesn’t make the successful jokes any less so. Btw, here is a description on Wikipedia of the plot of an upcoming episode:
Peter believes he’s a pirate; this episode will include a five-minute scene involving Peter trying to pick something up.
Hell yes.
4. TV – I am a fan of good TV in general. I do not think it necessarily rots your brain. It can, if you choose to watch mind-numbingly bad shows, pure and simple. There are shows that are smart and beautiful expressions of art. You just have to find them. My favorite shows, currently on, are Lost, The Family Guy, Battlestar Galactica, South Park, The Office, 30 Rock, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and The Wire.
5. Music – Yeah, under a very broad umbrella. I am a professional musician, so often this is my escape and you won’t find me writing too much about music. Of course, many things are too tempting to tell, so you’ll sometimes find me posting about: contemporary classical music; electronic music and technology; bands and acts I dig; shows I’ve played, seen, heard about, and/or want to attend.
6. Random Crap – Sometimes the stories I find on my Misc Blogs will prove too irresistible to repeat. That is why you will often find stories about musical roads, videos about wacky children’s shows, and gross food I secretly want to try.
Filed under Uncategorized
Worst. Dirty Talk. Ever.
I’m not really following the story of the murdered British girl, but the hearsay in this article is really quite amazing.
The article is titled (of course):
Couple Suspected of Murder Planned ‘Wild Sex’ Romp Day After Roommate Was Found Dead
And here are some choice moments from the couple’s sexy talk, while shopping for lingerie, as overheard by the Italian shopkeep:
“Afterwards I’m going to take you home so we can have wild sex together”
“You can put these on at home and we’ll have wild sex”
I gotta remember those lines! Smooth as butter!
Filed under meredith kercher
Buy nothing/everything day
I bought two bottles of Fergon iron. Am I going to indy-hell now?
Filed under Uncategorized
Digital Global Trans-Analog Connectivity
“Brian Eno once famously remarked that the problem with computers is that there isn’t enough Africa in them. I kind of think that its the opposite: they’re bringing the ideals of Africa: after all, computers are about connectivity, shareware, a sense of global discussion about topics and issues, the relentless density of info overload, and above all the willingness to engage and discuss it all – that’s something you could find on any street corner in Africa.
I just wanted to highlight the point: Digital Africa is here, and has been here for a while. This isn’t “retro” – it’s about the future. “
Shut up DJ Spooky. Dropping an Eno reference and speaking with glitter-eyed optimism about the similarities between a continent and a tool, which computers still essentially are, don’t make you hip. That’s like saying ice cream and the Spanish language are similar. Let’s see if I can do this. Um, they both involve interesting usage of the tongue. They can both make you smile on a rainy day. Yeah, you get the idea. Go back to being adored by the ignorant experimental music elite for having a shred of insight into an area of music they know nothing about.
PS Shareware means you pay, btw, ie. try before you buy…
Filed under Uncategorized
Conservapedia in the closet
If you needed any more proof that the farther to the Christian Right you are, the more gay-obsessed you are, Andrew Sullivan found this on Conservapedia (the ridiculously biased Right-Wing version of Wikipedia):
Most viewed pages
- Main Page [1,906,753]
- Homosexuality [1,572,873]
- Homosexuality and Hepatitis [517,087]
- Homosexuality and Promiscuity [420,690]
- Gay Bowel Syndrome [389,278]
- Homosexuality and Parasites [388,124]
- Homosexuality and Domestic Violence [365,972]
- Homosexuality and Gonorrhea [331,553]
- Homosexuality and Mental Health [291,235]
- Homosexuality and Syphilis [265,322]
-via The Daily Dish
Filed under Uncategorized
Study find no link between video games and violence
Well, duh. Still, front-running Hillary has always been a major foe of video games.
Clinton said she would soon author a bill to create a federal law that would “put some teeth into video game ratings.” Reminiscent of a California bill introduced by Assemblyman Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) and similar measures in several other states, the legislation will “prohibit the sale of violent and sexually explicit video games to minors” and make such action a federal offense. Clinton said the penalty for violating the law would be a mandatory $5,000 fine.
Jesus, lady. Take it easy. Of course that was in 2005, in response to Grand Theft Auto San Andreas (one of the best games ever, seriously, a work of art). Unsurprisingly I don’t believe anything really came of that bill. She was just caught up in the controversy, playing to peoples’ impulses. But I’m sure she would never, ever do such a thing as president, right?
Filed under video game violence
Tasered for arguing over a speeding ticket
Disgusting. The most telling part is near the end when the cop explains to his fellow officer why he tasered the man, blatantly lying. He says the man was “jumping around” and that he informed the man he would tase him, neither of which actually happened as you can see from the video. Couple this type of gratuitous use of the taser with the increasing amounts of deaths by taser.
-via The Agitator
Filed under speeding ticket, taser, tazer
The death of The Sexiest Man Alive
I was just walking out of Starbucks, the Barnes and Noble one in Park Slope, when I saw a magazine (People?) with the Sexiest Man Alive on it. It was Matt Damon.
Ok, I was wondering. The last Sexiest Man Alive I remember there being was Matthew McConaughey, who knows what year that was. The thing is, he’s still alive. I mean, I think he is. He died a hilarious Stewie-related death on Family Guy, but I’m pretty sure that was just fictional (Chris! Help me get rid of this thing!).
Are they saying that the former Matthew is now past his prime? He was fated to be replaced by a sexier, more youthful Matt? I noticed that the Sexiest Men Alive also tend to be in their forties. Does that mean when I’m a creaky, viagra-huffing, metimucil-spooner I’ll be seen as Sexier? Perhaps the next variation on the reign of Matthews is the sleeker, redesigned Mafoo, due out in 2026!
PS sharing the Sexy magazine cover is the enigmatically-proclaimed “hottie”, Patrick Dempsey (who may have also been a SMA). I’ve heard accolades to his Sexiness from countless women (including my own girlfriend!). Sorry ladies, that dude straight looks like a weasel. I don’t care how alluring he might appear backed by warm lighting and a James Blunt soundtrack on Grey’s-fucking-Anatomy, he’s still that geeky guy from Can’t Buy Me Love, no matter how much hair-product he currently employs.
Filed under matt damon, matthew mcconaughy, patrick dempsey, sexiest man alive
Matt Marks Music 