Thoughts on culture, politics, music and stuff by Eric Olsen, Marty Thau and Mike Crooker, who are among other things, producers.

 
How Did I Miss This??
J Shevrin spotted a few days ago this frabjous news:

Happy, happy, joy, joy! The Ren and Stimpy Show is coming back to TV!

TNN said Tuesday that it has tapped John Kricfalusi, creator of the early '90s animated cult classic, to produce all new adventures featuring the perpetually perturbed asthmatic Chihuahua Ren and his gullible feline friend Stimpy.

The deranged duo will star in six original episodes that will air in prime-time as part of TNN's adult animation block that will also include Stan Lee's new series, Striperella (featuring the, um, talents of Pamela Anderson), and Kelsey Grammer's Gary the Rat.

"Ren & Stimpy was a revelation. Along with The Simpsons, it was a major catalyst for the animation renaissance that happened during the 1990s. We are looking forward to seeing what mayhem John has in store for America's favorite Chihuahua and tubby tabby," says Albie Hecht, president of the Viacom-owned TNN. (Formerly the Nashville Network, the cable net has recast itself as the National Network, a general entertainment channel.)

Ren and Stimpy was the link between The Simpsons and South Park, and was at times, more entertaining than either. Kricfalusi had reputed drug issues and had big problems with deadlines but the show without him became a farce. Glad to see he's getting another chance. My son Chris will be ecstatic.
posted by Eric at 8:37 PM

 
Fiction?
A.C. Douglas has a very nice short story up on his site, "The Reunion":

He sat in his car across the street from the old clapboard house, the door, beckoning, seeming by turns within a hand's reach and a world away. He lighted another cigarette and drew down the smoke. It helped him to think. He again asked himself why he was there, but again reason refused him answer. Somewhere in the distance a hoot owl hooted into the moon-drenched night as if it knew but wouldn't tell, and he shrank at the sound. He thought perhaps it might be better to go, but, inert, continued to sit, cigarette in hand, the smoke curling lazily up toward the underside of the car roof where, motionless, it remained hanging in the still air just below.
* * *
Despite the sign on the highway off-ramp that assured him the small New England village was still there, Robert toyed with the thought that perhaps it wasn't. But it was there -- placid, welcoming, and seemingly untouched by the frenetic commercialism and compulsive electronic interconnectedness that everywhere infested third-millennium America.

Curious, aren't you?
posted by Eric at 8:16 PM

 
"Texas Me and You"
This Texas dude is getting married for the first time at 54 - we salute your brave and patient ass - and has a very visually-oriented new site which is cool. One caveat: post more often, you think this is for fun or something?
posted by Eric at 7:44 PM

 
Women Rule
For a while there I was of the opinion that there weren't very many good female bloggers. Two things have happened: more good females have started blogs - no wait, I didn't word that correctly, but you know what I mean; and far more importantly, I started looking around a little more closely and pulled my head out of my ass, a place it doesn't like but somehow finds its way back to with some regularity out of habit (like an ex-wife's bed).

I find myself linking to women as often as men these days, and that's not even considering Dawn, who I'm married to and all. Anyway, Anne Wilson has been great for some time and every single time I go to her site, I find something thoughtful, informative, and stimulating. She even likes Leonard Cohen, who I won't say is better, but who I would often rather listen to than Bob Dylan. Blasphemy, I know.

Anne is vigilant as to the conditions of women and Christians in Islamoland, including this post on Christians in Pakistan, our ostensible "allies":

Since the US commenced bombing Afghanistan in October 2001, persecution of Catholic and Protestant Christians in Pakistan has continued apace, including armed jihadi gunmen breaking into a Mass and murdering 15 worshippers back in October.

Christians are executed for "blasphemy" for stepping on a discarded newspaper. (You would think the one who threw the paper in the street would be equally indicted.) Then there are the daily indignities and discrimination of living under Islamic law.

Muslim hatred of Christians may be rooted in economic resentment as much as religious hatred...One point not often mentioned when the poor economic conditions of Islamic societies comes up is how economically counterproductive is their treatment of women.

Very important, as always.
posted by Eric at 7:31 PM

 
Don't Tread on Groupy: "To abolish the 800-year-old double jeopardy rule, merely in order to reopen a single murder inquiry, amounts to situation ethics of the worst kind."
Always nice to hear from Group Captain Lionel Mandrake VC, AFC, RAF (Retd.). I am still trying to come to terms with the cavalier attitude the English appear to have toward civil liberties, Lionel, who is on PART 7 of his series "Reduction in civil liberties in the UK," is too:

I am once again reminded that current government in the UK is concerned more with soundbites; political correctness; tabloid newspaper approval (the tabloids being the most widely read); and what I can only describe as a form of institutionalised liberalism in many departments, than it is with goodgovernment.

There is, from the very top, an attitude of "Auntie is in charge - she knows best." and a condescending air that rivals any government I remember in my lifetime. Sadly, I do not see any of the opposition parties as being in any shape to seriously challenge them in the next general election.

I was not amused to discover that the title of the White Paper produced by David Blunkett is Justice for All. Oh, the irony!

A little checking of the Telegraph's facts confirms that the criminal justice system in the UK was changed only once during the 1950s, when crime rates were very low. Crimes are much higher today, and we have seen five major changes in the last five years:
The Crime Sentences Act 1997
The Crime and Disorder Act 1998
The Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999
The Criminal Justice and Courts Service Act 2000
The Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001

Very interesting and informative, and don't forget the previous six parts.
posted by Eric at 6:45 PM

 
Banned of Gypsies
Thanks to Kevin also for pointing me in the direction of Barcelona bloggers John and Antonio. We went to the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona and loved the city and the people. The Spanish seemed to share the admirable twin traits of being industrious and hard working while also not seeming to give much of a damn about personal idiosyncrasies or habits: perhaps a blending of Catalan and Castillian cultures. Most cultures that don't give a damn about such things just don't give a damn in general, leading to indolence and shit not getting done. Hopped up cultures that get things done also seem intent on meddling in individual affairs, so the Spanish compromise was a breath of fresh air.

We also loved the whimsical and organic art indiginous to Barcelona, especially the architecture of Antoni Gaudi, and the painting of Joan Miro. It's also wild the way they don't eat dinner until, like midnight, and don't go to dance clubs until, like, 4am. Overall, Barcelona is still our favorite Olympic Games.

A couple more observations: outside the big cites, the Spanish seemed to have issues with toilets, blowing them up and leaving them in a state of disrepair, or not cleaning them very often or well. Perhaps this was leftover rebellion from the Franco era: "You oppress us and we will oppress the toilets, Ha Haaa!" I'd rather they kick their dogs or something, but I know I have an American obsession with hygiene and having a clean, pleasant, private place to take a dump. Sue me.

We have heard a lot about Euro anti-Semitism lately and I have no doubt that it is a problem and a concern, but the real whipping boys of Europe, or at least Spain, were the GYPSIES. My brother Arne and I went to a great dance club one night where we had a most festive time and met people from all over Europe and the Americas, and all was very friendly and accepting and gregarious: Italians were dancing and flirting with Spaniards who were dancing and flirting with Americans who were hitting on Argentinians, who were dropping hints for the British (tons of Brits in Spain, they like the sun - I did reports for a Brit-owned English-language radio station in southern Spain while we there). And of course the French were running around, smoking and pinching each other's butts and singing Edith Piaf songs and all.

It was like a big old U.N. party until the word "gypsy" susurrated throughout the crowd like a curse. The DJ actually stopped the music - there would have been a riot in the U.S. - while the management literally tossed out a few hapless souls onto the pavement outside for being gypsies. The crowd thought the action appropriate, justified, and stood in their tracks while the eviction was taking place. I asked one of the girls we were hanging out with what was up, and she virtually spat out the word "gypsies."

I never understood what the gypsies had done if anything, how people knew who the gypsies were in this human potpourri, nor did I hear even a hint of protest that the management was physically throwing people out the door. That's just what you do with gypsies: toss their despicable asses to the curb. I tried to ask more questions about it, but the music started up again, the crowd broke out of its suspended animation and all I heard about it from then on was that, "Gypsies steal and everyone hates them," and if a club becomes known for allowing them, that club is dead dead deadsky to all but the gypsies themselves who don't spend any money anyway.

Whoa. Imagine the same scene in the U.S. with blacks. Whoa. Of course this exact same scene could have, indeed, did happen with blacks in the U.S. until the last few decades. Even the "stealing" and "don't have any money" parts. That's why we still need civil rights laws.

I wonder if any of this has changed in the last 10 years. What say you John and Antonio?
posted by Eric at 3:08 PM

 
View From Protruding Phallus
Kevin over at Massive Meat gives some personal experience regarding the use of government credit cards, which some individuals have been using for questionable expenses including lap dances:

The gov't credit card program has been a cluster fuck from day one.

It's mandatory that we use it when on government travel, but only for "official" expenses. Fine, I can deal with that.

We're not allowed to carry a balance. I can also deal with that.

TOO BAD THE GODDAMN NAVY CAN'T GET IT'S HEAD OUT OF IT'S ASS AND PAY US ON TIME.

I spent 3 weeks in Thailand in April and I STILL haven't been paid for those 3 weeks, (I've been back 7 weeks now) nor have I had my expense report paid. We're talking close to $4K here.

No biggie. I can afford to pay it from my day job, but we are fucking enlisted people up the ass with this stupid program. We put them in a position where they have to charge up legitimate expenses, and have to pay it back before they've been reimbursed and when you're netting $1000/month that's not a good position to be in.

There used to be some time slop built into the system for these kids, but these a-holes charging for strippers have ruined it.

I hate it I hate it I hate it.

So the real problem with people ringing up illegitimate charges on their cards isn't the total figures (low six-figures, chicken feed), but the fact that a few bad apples have ruined it for everyone else by casting suspicion on all purchases.

I also admire Kevin's total disregard of PC - anything he thinks is stupid will henceforth be called "Gay and Retarded," lexicographically fixing upon the genetic misfiring going on in such a state of affairs, I presume. Of course, my concern lies with those who ARE gay and retarded, but I don't imagine they will be reading Kevin's blog anyway; besides, everyone knows all gay people are smart, and all retarded people rabidly hetero.

UPDATE
Severe cognitive dissonance between the URL "largeamericanpenis" and the site title "Links I Like": it's like the Merry Toddler Daycare Center having a phone number that spells out "little shit" (true story). Kevin comments further on the pink retardation of the Government Charge Card system, which, truth be told, he does not like.
posted by Eric at 2:10 PM

 
Thespian Sibling Conspiracy?
Dawn just called wondering what the hell I am doing still out, but I need to publish this peculiar convergence of time, space and stuff: precociously successful Indepundit Scott Koenig (congrats on the BOTW citation!) in a post on England playing fast and loose with what would be constitutional matters here in the U.S., notes the eldest of a certain famous American acting clan sniffing around over there:

In unrelated news, actor Alec Baldwin announced that he was in the market for a new flat in London, citing the "savage brutality" of life in America under the thumb of President Bush.

[okay he made it up but it doesn't matter, this is about convergence, you know like WorldCom was supposed to do] Meanwhile, 6,000 miles away, intrepid reporter Madison Slade sleuths out the existence of a fifth Baldwin brother:

After years of experiments based on a hunch, a scientist at the University of New York in Binghamton has discovered another Baldwin brother. President Bush applauded the breakthrough as "mindbending. A much needed advance in the scientific world." Initially after reports of the breakthrough were leaked Alec, Daniel, Stephen and Billy Baldwin vehemently denied the newest brother. It was revealed by a family friend that the others feared he would dilute the family image. Moxie reporter Madison Slade was on the scene, and tracked down two of the Baldwin brothers, Billy and the mute Ricky.

Alec househunting in London? The embarrassing appearance of a grinning mute fifth brother? Coincidence? I think not, my friends.
posted by Eric at 12:33 AM

 
The Blogger's New Groove
Shithowdy - it's taken almost a week (the L.A. blog party was one week ago tonight!), but I finally feel my groove returning. Alert the media.
posted by Eric at 12:12 AM

 
Echo Chamber
I would appreciate it if someone out there would tell me what Bush is accomplishing with all of this warning action:

In a reference to Iraq, Iran and North Korea, President Bush on Friday vowed to finish "what we have begun," telling Army troops who fought in Afghanistan his commitment to the anti-terror campaign was unwavering.

"We will use diplomacy when possible, and force when necessary," he said to thunderous shouts and applause from the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum in upstate New York.

"Our commitment should be clear to all, to friend and enemy alike, America will not leave the safety of people and the future of peace in the hands of a few evil and destructive men."

Okay, and the sky is blue and Dawn is sexy - we know all of that. He's becoming a variation on the little boy who cried wolf: "We're gonna getcha. We're gonna getcha. Better change your ways or we're gonna getcha." Surely he doesn't expect them to change at this point WITHOUT military intervention. So again, what is the point of all of this rabble rousing?

Wouldn't it be better to speak softly and carry the proverbial big stick? Wasn't one very public warning a few months back enough? Or the several dozen since? It is simple human nature that the more often you hear a warning - and nothing happens - the more you are likely to disregard it, and eventually ignore it. I thought this was the area where Bush was supposed to be different from - and presumably better than - Clinton, who made a lot of threats but didn't do much by way of expending force internationally.

I still cling to the hope that this is just a period of planning and preparation, that the speeches are made because speeches have to be made and that we are marking time, lulling the bad guys into a sense of false security before we eviscerate their skeevy asses. But then I think about the State Department and shudder.

Back to the speech:

Bush told them the war on terrorism would take time.

"We're in this for the long haul," he said. "The work has just begun, and what we have begun, we will finish."

It is fine that Bush remind us from time to time that the war on terrorism will take time, but I am not sure that it is his job to ENSURE that the war takes a long time.
posted by Eric at 11:45 PM

 
Morocco Says It Won't Reoccupy Island
"We only wanted this rock because we thought you wanted this rock. We don't want this rock, and we especially don't want this rock if you don't want this rock. Would you like to buy some distance runners from us?"
posted by Eric at 11:30 PM

 
"Vicious, You Hit Me With a Flower.."
With these quixotic, solipsistic, retro-radical pubwhackers as his real enemies, no wonder Andrew doesn't take criticism very well. Camile Paglia explains.
posted by Eric at 11:16 PM

 
Su Justice
Good Lord, I have been remiss! I haven't checked in on our sweet Su since our return to civilization - must have been heat stroke or something. But anyway, I am willing to turn over the justice system to her in this particular case, although I would recommend a sentence of ALL these punishments:

I want to nail him to an Alabama roof on a hot August morning and leave him there all day. I want to remove all of his nasal hairs with hot tweezers, one at a time. My mother wants to slice his testicles into ribbons with a razor blade, oh, so, slowly. (Yes, she and I really do talk to each other this way.) I want to starve him to death tied up in front of a Papa Lovetti's all-you-can-eat buffet. I want to inject him with Drano. I want him circumsized every day for a month.

posted by Eric at 10:06 PM

 
Martin In the Lion's Den
Frank Martin of BlogGram, "Martin" to his friends, does a very nice job of assertng his pro-theist position:

Whether you accept that the universe was created in seven days, or you adhere to the "Big Bang" theory, God put it all in motion. Evolution? God designed it. Birds evolved from dinosaurs? God did it. Evidence? What more evidence do you need than to gaze into the night sky at the multitude of stars, some of which no longer exist but we still see the light generated thousands of light-years ago.

Now maybe I've missed it, but just what scientist has created life recently? What scientist has taken random molecules of anything, mixed them up, and created any kind of life?

So can I prove to you that God exists? No, I cannot. Can you prove to me that God does not exist? No you cannot. Do I believe that the evidence that there is a God exists and that it is there for you to see? Yes I do. I also believe that because God created you with free will, you have the power to choose to see the evidence or to ignore it. I simply think that anyone who denied the existence of God has just chosen not to view the evidence. And that in itself provides me with additional evidence that God does, indeed, exist because you have used your God given gift of free will to decide that God doesn't.

Andy - taking on all theistic comers in a thoughtful and respectful manner - counters:

And lastly, the argument that the universe doesn't exhibit evidence of god as a test of our faith (and to see if we'll behave) makes god out to be a cruel prankster. Apparently, if we agree with Frank, god set up a universe that looks as though it doesn't need a god - that it is billions of years old - that we've evolved from other animals over the millenia - that dinosaurs once roamed the earth. And then we're asked to believe that at least some of that isn't true - without evidence - solely on the words of oral traditions passed down from the generations and finally put to paper (while apparently overlooking that creation myths occur across cultures, and often vary greatly - and offer no proof for their claims as well).

Unfortunately, you'll have to do better than that before I will believe in god.

God knocked Saul to the ground with a thunderbolt and temporarily blinded his ass, perhaps that would be more convincing.

Tom, also at World Wide Rant, a veritable viper's nest of atheism, carries on as well, adding Pascal's Wager to the mix:

Blaise Pascal used the Wager to justify his belief in God. Essentially, it is this: "You lose nothing by believing in God, but you face the risk of losing everything by not believing in him." There are several serious flaws in the idea, but the most serious to me is that by choosing a belief in God for cynical, self-serving reasons, will God not know your true motivations, being omniscient? Rather than belabor the point, I'll simply provide a link, in true blogger fashion.

All of this is very logical, coherent and dandy, but as always the disconnect is that Andy and Tom are using "people" logic - expecting God to adhere to our feeble comprehension of what can and cannot be - and Frank Martin is speaking in meta-logic, or "God's" logic, which requires an act of faith.

As I said here, if we make demands upon God to "prove" Himself, He appears reluctant to comply (other than the occasional burning bush, blinding thunderbolt, messianic visitation, etc), but if we approach Him with an open and humble heart, he seems quite willing to provide each of us with the "proof" we individually need - alas for this literally eternal argument's sake - from within. So we are back where we began. I am afraid God requires apprehension rather than comprehension, but watch out on the road to Damascus.

UPDATE
Mike at Yet Another Damn Blog - no, that's the name - adds an interesting personal note to the conversation, which is perhaps the only note that is truly relevant to such a discussion:

when I am given more than one explanation that adequately explains the given circumstances, I choose the one which leads to the greatest personal happiness.

I have had certain experiences in my life which, to me, indicate the presence and/or influence of the supernatural, and I've heard from people I love and trust about other experiences. Now there is not a single one of those experiences that could not be explained in some other way. The Amazing Randi could probably reproduce anything I might describe. But I've tried believing in a strictly material universe, and I've tried believing in one in which multiple layers of reality interact with one another in ways that we cannot necessarily perceive, but may be able to glimpse. And the second set of beliefs leads to a fuller, richer, and happier life, so that's what I'm sticking with.

I have also had at least one vivid and extremely intense experience with the supernatural (and several others I am less sure about), and while that experience could doubtless be "explained" in terms of brain waves and chemicals and the like, I KNOW beyond anything else I know, beyond the knowledge that I possess a physical body, that my experience was with a supernatural entity I will choose to call God.

UPDATE
Kevin Holtsberry votes for God in a fascinating takedown of a grotesquely arrogant attack on religiosity:

The underlying meaning is: these people are not rationale. Religion is delusional - if theraputic - and grows out of a fear of technology. Let's foget for the moment that a great deal of recent research shows that family values - stable two-parent homes, etc. - are in fact healthier and better for society. What den Beste fails to even discuss is truth or meaning. Does he even have a place for truth or meaning? Does he consider that the search for meaning and truth may lead people to faith irregardless of the pace of technology or the complexity of the world? What if fundamentalists beleive that their faith contains universal moral truths and that these truths are to the benefit of all? What if they call for family values because they believe that they will result in a better society for eveyone?

Shouldn't someone who leans toward utilitarianism point out that the crucial difference between Christian fundamentalists and Islamic radicals is one's willingness to impose their will via violence and an autocratic sosciety - shouldn't the goals and the means be crucially important? Does he honestly beleive that most Christian fundamentalists, if given the chance, would impose a theocracy on America with violence? The fact is that the vast majority of fundamentalists believe in representative government they believe in working within the system and in using presuasion to change lives.

...The quest for meaning and moral truth will not go away because of some technological revolution. Will this quest be abused and perverted to warp people's minds and lives? Yes, it always has an always will in this fallen world. But the same can certainly be said about technology and science. We would do well to seek answers in an honest appraisal of people's goals and ideals - and critique them when their actions fail to meet those - rather than guessing at the dark psychological or sentimental root causes.

Check it out.

UPDATE
Jennie Taliafero has about had it with atheist bloggers in general:

As you know, it has pained me to see more than quite a few atheists on line, most of whom seem quite aggressive and defiant about their Godlessness and in America, one is perfectly free to hold those views, but we are free, too, to practice our Faith in the blogosphere and since I found Martin's site, I now know that there's an Army of Christians out in the "Blue Nowhere," too!

As a very firm believer in the separation of church and state, I do have to disagree with this portion of her missive:

We are one nation UNDER GOD whether the atheists want to claim it or not and as George Washington said and President Bush repeated at his Inauguration, we have no King but Jesus!

That may be personally true, but if we have learned anything from the last 9 months, we have learned that a civil government must remain scrupulously just that.
posted by Eric at 9:48 PM

 
Trafficant Update
Was it the conviction on nine felonies? The colorful clothing? The verbal eloquence?

When the Youngstown Democrat was mobbed by photographers at the start of his first Washington appearance since his conviction, he irritably bellowed: "If I had a gastric emission, it would destroy every camera in the joint."

"I want you to disregard all the opposing counsel has said. I think they're delusionary. I think they've had something funny for lunch in their meal, I think they should be handcuffed, chained to a fence and flogged, and all of their hearsay evidence should be thrown the hell out. And if they lie again, I'm going to go over there and kick them in the crotch. Thank you very much." _ Traficant's closing statement to the ethics panel.

"I'm prepared to go to jail, and the length of time I will spend in jail, Ms. Jones, I will die in jail. But you know what? I will die in jail before I will admit to doing something I did not do. I had no intent to break any laws. There's one big word in this legal dictionary and it's called 'intent.'" _ Traficant speaking to Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, D-Ohio, and the committee during his closing statement.

"I did not own that farm. I was involved in no fraudulent activities. I insured that farm. I know the government is trying to take it, and they can shove that deed up their subpoena." _Traficant, responding to questions from committee lawyer Paul Lewis about labor done at his family's horse farm.

"Are all those volumes your evidence? Well, you know what you can do with it, don't you?" _ Traficant to the committee lawyers Paul Lewis and Kenneth Kellner upon entering the hearing room and seeing large three-ring binders, boxes and charts leaning up against a table.

"I love America but I hate the government ... I know what you're going to do because I know this institution, but what you've done is allow the executive branch to become so powerful that people fear their government." _ Traficant, admitting that he expects to kicked out of Congress and thrown in prison.

"You're looking at the No. 1 target of the Department of Justice. And I hate those bastards," Traficant said

"You're looking at a man that may be re-elected from a prison cell," he said.

"When I go to the floor for my final execution, I'll dress in a denim suit," Traficant said. "It will be part Willie Nelson, John Wayne, Will Smith, 'Men in Black,' James Brown. Maybe I'll do a Michael Jackson moon walk."

"Probably with my two hands. I may throw some karate shots in there. Actually, my body is a lethal, lethal weapon." _ Traficant, on how he plans to defend himself before his colleagues.

"My following has basically been the small people. ... I have friends in low places, and the people of this institution have never supported me. I have never been supported by the major newspaper in my town, ever. I've never been supported, basically, by the Ohio Democratic Party, who didn't want me. The congressional delegation I was elected to actually said that they didn't want me. I don't think anybody wanted me." _ Traficant, on the House ethics committee decision finding him guilty of nine ethics violations.

"I have nothing against Congress, but Congress probably does what they think is the best for themselves. And I don't blame anybody for controlling me. After all, I'm the kind of candidate that looks to be controlled. I'm very dangerous. I open my mouth. I speak to what I think happens and it bothers people. And I won't stop doing that." _ Traficant, on his feelings about the House proceedings against him.

"My name will appear on the ballot. I want the people back home to know that they can vote for me. And it would be an unusual situation in American history, the first in American history I think, and I'm going to make this statement: I can run. I can operate and function as effectively as any member of Congress from behind bars." _ Traficant, on his plans to seek re-election in the fall.

His regard for his fellow congressmen?

The Justice Department has had a bull's-eye on my back for years," Traficant said earlier in the day. "I have friends in low places, and the people of this institution have never supported me."

He insisted he'll continue his independent bid for re-election, even if he's sent to prison.

"I can function as effectively as any member of Congress from behind bars," he said.

Were any of these the reason the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct last night unanimously recommended that Youngstown Rep. Jim Traficant be expelled from Congress for violating anti-corruption rules?

Clearly not, it was the possum on his head (via Ann Salisbury, hi Ann!)
posted by Eric at 8:58 PM

 
Alan Lomax Dies
This just in:
ALAN LOMAX 1915 - 2002
FOLK MUSIC'S FOREMOST PIONEER & ETHNOMUSICOLOGIST DIES
Alan Lomax passed away on the morning of July 19, 2002. Alan Lomax is survived by his loving daughter Anna Lomax Chairetakis of Holiday, FL; his devoted grandson Odysseus Desmond Chairetakis of Holiday, FL; his sister Bess Lomax Hawes of Northridge, CA; his step-daughter Shelley Roitman of Holiday, FL; his nephews; John Lomax III, Nicolas Hawes, John Bishop, Drew Mihalik, and his nieces; Ellen Harold, Patricia Gordon, Susan Mihalik, Naomi Bishop and Corey Dinos.
Funeral Services for Alan Lomax
Vinson Funeral Home
456 East Tarpon Avenue
Tarpon Springs, FL 34689
Services on Tuesday July 23, 2002
Viewing from 3-5PM, Funeral Service 5-6PM
In lieu of flowers the family has asked that donations be made to:
The Blues Music Foundation for the Willie Moore Fund
c/o Experience Music Project
2901 3rd Ave
Seattle, WA 98121

More information available on the Alan Lomax website including this bio:

Musicologist and writer Alan Lomax (b. Austin, Texas, 1915) spent more than six decades working to promote knowledge and appreciation of folk music all over the world. He began his career alongside his father, the pioneering folklorist John Avery Lomax, and by 1933, the father-son team had launched a major effort to develop the Archive of Folksong at the Library of Congress (established 1928). They produced thousands of field recordings of folk musicians throughout the American South, Southwest, Midwest, and Northeast, as well as in Haiti and the Bahamas. Inspired by such a wealth of traditional music, the Lomaxes published several popular and influential collections of American folk songs, beginning with American Ballads and Folk Songs (New York: Macmillan, 1934). They were also responsible for the first serious study of a folk musician in American literature--Negro Folk Songs as Sung by Leadbelly (New York: Macmillan, 1936)--which legendary African-American author/historian James Weldon Johnson called “one of the most amazing autobiographical accounts ever printed in America.”[1]

After completing a philosophy degree at the University of Texas in 1936, Alan and wife Elizabeth Lyttleton Harold spent several months in Haiti, conducting fieldwork and recording local musicians. The next year, Lomax was appointed Director of the Archive of American Folksong at the Library of Congress, and by 1939, in addition to graduate anthropology work at Columbia, he was producing the first in a series of national radio programs for CBS. American Folk Songs and Wellsprings of Music for the CBS School of the Air and the prime-time series Back Where I Come From introduced vast audiences to traditional music, giving exposure to such pivotal figures as Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly, Aunt Molly Jackson, Josh White, the Golden Gate Quartet, Burl Ives, and Pete Seeger. Lomax built on the interest created by his books, records, and broadcasts with numerous concert series, including The Midnight Special at Town Hall, which introduced 1940s New Yorkers to blues, flamenco, calypso, and ballad singing—all still relatively unknown styles. “The main point of my activity,” Lomax once remarked, “was...to put sound technology at the disposal of The Folk, to bring channels of communication to all sorts of artists and areas.”[2]

After his work with Leadbelly, Lomax hoped to further explore the genre of oral biography. His experiences and bawdy conversations with New Orleans jazz pioneer Jelly Roll Morton, which produced the 1938 Library of Congress recordings, also formed the basis for the book Mister Jelly Roll (New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1949). A remarkably picaresque document, it has inspired two Broadway musicals. Lomax’s oral historical portrait of “Nora” in The Rainbow Sign (New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1959) was drawn from 1945 fieldwork with Alabama folk singer Vera Hall. Blues in the Mississippi Night, Lomax’s 1946 recording of music and frank talk by Memphis Slim, Big Bill Broonzy, and Sonny Boy Williamson, remains a classic recorded document of African American musical history (it was reissued by Rykodisc in 1990). “Every time I took one of those big, black, glass-based platters out of its box,” Lomax wrote of the recording process, “I felt that a magical moment was opening up in time…For me the black discs spinning in the Mississippi night, spitting the chip centripetally toward the center of the table...heralded a new age of writing human history...”[3]

Several 1940s field trips (described in his 1993 tour de force The Land Where the Blues Began) took Lomax even deeper into the musical and cultural world of the African American South. In Mississippi, he became the first to document several extraordinary African-derived musical repertories, such as hill country fife-and-drum, and quills (panpipes) music. There, in 1942, Lomax interviewed and recorded a 29-year-old singer and guitarist named McKinley Morganfield, later known to the world as Muddy Waters. In 1947 Lomax returned to Mississippi with the first portable tape recorder to make even more extensive recordings.

In the 1950s, Lomax set his sights beyond North America and the Caribbean. Based in England, he conducted far-flung recorded folk surveys of European musicians, as well as exposing scores of listeners to folk music on a series of BBC radio programs. His collaborations with Diego Carpitella in Italy, Seamus Ennis in Ireland, Peter Kennedy in England, and Hamish Henderson in Scotland, helped spark major folk-song revivals in those countries. During this period, Lomax began a voluminous recorded overview of world folk song—the first of its kind—published in eighteen volumes by Columbia Records.

Returning to the United States in the late 1950s, Lomax set out on two more major field trips through the American South, resulting in 19 albums issued on the Atlantic and Prestige International labels in the early ’60s. He also published the groundbreaking collection Folk Songs of North America (New York: Doubleday, 1960), which revealed his theoretical interest in music and culture, eventually leading to a program of systematic research in human expressive behavior. Along with colleagues at Columbia in the 1960s, Lomax developed Cantometrics, Choreometrics, and Parlametrics, systems designed for a cross-cultural analysis of song, speech, dance and movement styles. Initial results of these projects were published in the 1968 collection Folk Song Style and Culture (Washington, DC: American Association for the Advancement of Science, Publication No. 88, 1968, reprinted by Transaction Books, New Brunswick, NJ).

Since that time, Lomax has published numerous books, journal articles, recordings, films, teaching materials, and television programs. Cantometrics: An Approach to the Anthropology of Music, first published in 1976, is widely used to help students understand and analyze world musical styles. Three teaching films, Dance and Human History, Step Style, and Palm Play, also published in the 1970s, introduced students to Choreometrics and the anthropological analysis of dance. As musical consultant for the 1977 Voyager space probe project directed by Carl Sagan, Lomax ordered the inclusion of the blues and jazz of Blind Willie Johnson and Louis Arrnstrong, Andean panpipes and Navajo chants, polyphonic vocal music from the Mbuti (Zairean pygmy tribe) and Caucasus Georgians, alongside the works of Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven. Due to his efforts, a truly worldwide chorus of human musical expression was carried to the stars on Voyager. Lomax’s 1986 film, The Longest Trail, combined historical data and choreometric analysis of movement and dance styles to vividly demonstrate cultural unities among the Amerindians of North and South America. American Patchwork, his prize-winning five-hour television series on American regional cultures, aired on PBS in 1990. The Land Where the Blues Began (New York: Pantheon, 1993), an account of Lomax’s encounters with African-African musicians, and his reflections on the Jim Crow South in the 1940s, won the National Book Critics Award for non-fiction. The four-CD box set, Sounds of the South, Lomax’s astounding 1959 stereo recordings of Southern musical traditions, was reissued by Atlantic Records in 1993.

After 1991, Lomax and team began compiling his most recent project, The Global Jukebox, a multimedia interactive database which surveys the relationship between dance, song, and social structure. Lomax intended the database as a medium for scientific research into human expressive behavior, and as a tool for social science, arts and humanities education. With The Jukebox, he also hoped to further “cultural equity”—a concept (coined by Lomax) by which worldwide local cultures are ensured a forum, within the print and electronic media, to display their arts and values:

All cultures need their fair share of the airtime. When country folk or tribal peoples hear or view their own traditions in the big media, projected with the authority generally reserved for the output of large urban centers, and when they hear their traditions taught to their own children, something magical occurs. They see that their expressive style is as good as that of others, and, if they have equal communicational facilities, they will continue it...

Practical men often regard these expressive systems as doomed and valueless. Yet, wherever the principle of cultural equity comes into play, these creative wellsprings begin to flow again…even in this industrial age, folk traditions can come vigorously back to life, can raise community morale, and give birth to new forms if they have time and room to grow in their own communities. The work in this field must be done with tender and loving concern for both the folk artists and their heritages. This concern must be knowledgeable, both about the fit of each genre to its local context and about its roots in one or more of the great stylistic traditions of humankind. — Alan Lomax[4]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] Charles Wolfe and Kip Lornell, The Life and Legend of Leadbelly (New York: Harper Collins, 1992), p. 196.
[2] Alan Lomax, “Saga of a Folksong Hunter,” HiFi/Stereo Review, Vol. 4, No. 5, May l960, p.38.
[3] Alan Lomax, The Land Where the Blues Began (New York: Pantheon, 1993), p. xi.
[4] Alan Lomax, “Appeal for Cultural Equity,” Journal of Communication, Spring 1977.

posted by Eric at 8:20 PM

 
The Airport Giveth...
Just got back from the radio show, now I have to go pick up my parents at the airport. You think we had a good trip? They've been gone for a month. You can do that when you're retired. I don't foresee myself ever being able to retire. It's a different world. Back later.
posted by Eric at 5:34 PM

 
Pomo From a Pro
Jeff Goldstein, who has an exceptionally keen mind for a smartass, explains why Postmoderism has taken some beatings it doesn't deserve far more specifically and compellingly than my attempt at it here. A snippet of Jeff:

Not being a postmodernist myself, I feel strange defending it, but here't goes. Fish's postmodernism is not about relativism. It's about materialism. All it says is that there are no metaphysical / universal standards by which to judge one certain narrative superior to another. This does not mean there aren't other (socio-linguistic) mechanisms available for doing just that -- e.g. consensus, social contracts, codification, power, rhetoric, etc. And in fact, it is these other mechanisms that lie at the heart of Richard Rorty's Contingency, Irony, Solidarity -- and is the basis for much of modern pragmatism (and realpolitik, to place this in the recent political sphere).

posted by Eric at 5:31 PM

 
Wedding Songs
Ross the Bloviator (actually, he's one of the less bloviating fellows around) has another excellent idea: What was your wedding song? Or what will it be when you have one? Or what song pops into your head when you think about having a wedding? Or what wedding pops into your head when you think about a song? (scratch that one)

Dawn provides the info on our hitching ditties here. Ivory Joe is THE MAN. Head on over the Ross's site and give him your answer. That's what a poll is.
posted by Eric at 5:13 PM

 
Flattery and Tigers
I will link every woman who says nice things about me. Now that I think of it, I will most likely every man who says nice things about me, but it's not the same thing, if you know what I mean. The cat, I mean the tiger, is out of the bag:

when my mom took over my old bedroom, she put up prints and calendars, and posters of tigers EVERYWHERE in my room. But not only that the shelves were entirely covered in stuffed tigers, big ones, small ones, white ones (all dad's booty).

When I moved back home I didn't think I would be staying as long as I have, so I didn't bother to redecorate. But one weekend I just couldn't stand it anymore, I took every last feline down, stuffed them under the bed, and covered all the prints with snowboard posters and tapestries. Replaced all stuff on the shelves with my snowglobe collection, floaty pen collection, and my marionettes, and my friend pointed out to my disgust, "Woah, Meesh, now I know where you get it from!" Doooah! Well, at least I can sleep nights without all those eyes looking at me.

Nothing worse than a roomful of someone else's tigers staring your ass down all night long. Just ask Lily about Deese's game! Way to take action, Meesh.
posted by Eric at 4:54 PM

 
Lap Dancing In the News
Army personnel and the disabled demand unrestricted lap dancing! AP reports that:

Some 200 Army personnel used government charge cards to get $38,000 in cash that they spent on "lap dancing and other forms of entertainment" at strip clubs near military bases, Sen. Charles Grassley said yesterday.

The New Army: room, board, education, a stripper in every lap.

In its Army investigation, the GAO also found that government cards had been used for personal purchases of more than $100,000 for computers and other electronic equipment, $45,000 for cruises, and $7,373 for closing costs on a home.

And of course, the lap dancing.

An internal e-mail said there was a need "to get enough goodies for everyone."

Grassley said the e-mail sends a message that "we can splurge at the taxpayers' expense and not worry about it. It's unfortunate that such an attitude is being nurtured in the purchase card 'czar's' front office."

"It sends the wrong message to the troops in the field," Grassley said. Investigators also questioned purchases on government cards of fine china, cigars, wine, a trip to Las Vegas, Internet and casino gambling, and two pictures of Elvis Presley purchased at his Graceland mansion in Memphis, Tenn.

Rep. Jan Schakowsky, an Illinois Democrat, said, "Financial management at the Department of Defense is as bad or worse as at Enron, WorldCom or any other corporation that has misled the public."

Well, I'm not sure I would go that far since we are talking expenditures in the low six-figures for the Army and we are talking TENS OF BILLIONS in the cases of Enron, WorldCom, etc. If the defenders of my freedom require a little extra R&R to keep up their morale, I say LET THE PROFESSIONAL CROTCH-SQUIRMING BEGIN!!

In a related matter, paraplegic Edward Law cries foul because the Wildside Adult Sports Cabaret (I would avoid any place on earth that has those four words crammed together into its moniker) hosts its PRIVATE (wink wink, nudge nudge) lap dancing up a FLIGHT OF STAIRS.

The suit contends that the club...discriminated against the plaintiff....based on the fact that he is a paraplegic. The suit, filed last month in federal court in West Palm Beach, also says the club violated the Americans With Disabilities Act because Mr. Law could not enjoy a good view of the stage where the strippers disrobe from his wheelchair.

I'm not sure the last is a great sentence because for a moment I thought the strippers were disrobing "from his wheeelchair," which would seem to me to afford a rather fine view, but a closer reading reveals this is not the case. I don't mean to be indelicate - well maybe I don't give shit about that - but has anyone bothered to ask if the guy has any feeling down there anyway?

The man just wants what is available to any Army man with a government charge card: a good private lap dance. The club is hurt and flummoxed:

[Club manager] Mr. Knight said the club was scrupulous in accommodating customers in wheelchairs, who he said were particularly good patrons. The club has parking, entrance ramps and restrooms suited to wheelchairs, he said. He added that the chairs in the cocktail lounge were lower than Mr. Law's wheelchair, meaning that his view of the stage was no worse than anyone else's.

Sounds to me like we need a strip club EXCLUSIVELY for the disabled - you could call it "Pimps for Gimps," or "Feelies and Wheelies." Of course if you had a club for paraplegics, then the quadriplegics would want their own place and you'd one hell of a mess. AND WHAT ABOUT THE PEOPLE WHO DON'T EVEN HAVE LAPS? Who says our society is overly litigious?

UPDATE
How foolish of me not to consult Ann Salisbury regarding the latter case - she's a lawyer who SPECIALIZES IN ADA CASES. I know a club in Florida that could use some help, Ann.
posted by Eric at 10:30 AM

 
Jerry Into the Fray
The NY Times published these three letters last weekend in response to the Mona Baker incident, the Egyptian academic in England who fired two professors simply for being Israeli:

To the Editor:

Re "Mideast Strife Loudly Echoed in Academia" (news article, July 11):

The actions of Mona Baker, the Egyptian academic in England who fired two professors simply for being Israeli, violate the most basic and fundamental principles of academic freedom. Her action takes place amid European petition drives to boycott Israeli scholars and academic institutions. Most outrageous of all was the suggestion by the provost of King's College, Cambridge, that collaborating with Israeli scholars would be akin to collaborating with Josef Mengele, the notorious Nazi doctor of Auschwitz.

Denigrating Jews and Israel through vile words and deeds does not further the Palestinian cause or get any closer to ending the conflict, which will require genuine compromise and recognition of both sides' legitimacy.
PIERRE M. ATLAS
Indianapolis, July 11, 2002
The writer is an assistant professor of political science, Marian College.

•

To the Editor:

"Mideast Strife Loudly Echoed in Academia" (news article, July 11) gives the impression that these "echoes" are unusual and somehow unprecedented. They are not, since Arabs have usually been the victims of such incidents, and those have rarely, if ever, been written about in the media. Pro-Israeli groups have regularly attempted to remove me from my professorship because of my pro-Palestinian political beliefs.

As for the boycott of Israeli institutions by European professors, one should remember the widely supported boycott of South African academic institutions during the apartheid period. Palestinian towns, villages and refugee camps are militarily occupied, in what is one of the longest military occupations in modern history, 35 years. That these crimes of collective punishment should merit a protest by academics, several of them Israeli, strikes me as self-evident.
EDWARD W. SAID
New York, July 11, 2002
The writer is a professor of English and comparative literature, Columbia University.

•

To the Editor:

As the organization in the United States that represents and supports Israel's leading scientific research center, we are appalled by Mona Baker's firing of two Israeli language scholars because they are Israeli (news article, July 11).

In response to the petition you mention, which calls on the European Union to deny grants to Israeli universities and scientific institutions, we distributed a statement of solidarity with Israeli scientists and researchers signed by more than 600 leading scientists from around the world.

Israeli science has given the world major discoveries that have saved lives and enhanced the quality of life for millions, particularly through advances in medicine and health. It is intellectually dishonest and a destructive error to permit politics to interfere with academic freedom in science or any other discipline.
MARTIN KRAAR
New York, July 11, 2002
The writer is executive vice president, American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science.

Our friend Jerry is rightly concerned and finds Said's logic, in particular, to be specious at best:

To the Editor:
For a professor of English, Edward Said can be remarkably difficult to follow. Consider his thoughts on Mona Baker's dismissal of two professors for the sin of being Israeli (letter, July 13).

At first, his argument appears to be: Academic freedom should trump politics, and thus efforts to dismiss me are wrong. But he also sends a contrary message: Politics should trump academic freedom, and thus there is nothing worthy of criticism in Baker's action. Perhaps his real position is this: Academic freedom should trump politics, unless the victims of a purge belong to a group of which I disapprove.

Very truly yours,
Jerome M Balsam

posted by Eric at 9:50 AM

 
Matchmaker Maddie
The blonde and beatific Maddie checks in on the tall but constipated Craig Kilborn, who is flabbergasted by her familiarity with famous bloggers. She agrees to hook him up, but only if he'll:

come over and clean the litter box and take out my garbage for me every week. And that I'd most likely talk to these famous bloggers about it if he'd uncover another digit of Pi and get rid of the white flies that are nesting in my building's trees.

He said he'll get his assistant on it pronto.

She rocks.
posted by Eric at 11:30 PM

 
Triumphant Return
Jeff Jarvis is back as well, I hope and assume he is well. Jeff is displeased with AOL. I sense the blogworld recoiling for another strike in the near future, rested and renewed.
posted by Eric at 11:18 PM

 
Smell the Sea Air
The body of excellent blogs is surely finite, it just seems infinite. Here's another great one, "Somewhere on A1A," by Jim B. I love the salivating passion with which he attacks the subject of BBQ:

And speaking of local tastes, Eric [Raymond] drools over something he calls barbeque that he eats in Texas. The beef that's slow cooked and sliced is certainly worth the trouble and is something to crave, but the Barbeque I know is slow cooked pork, basted in a hot pepper, vinegar sauce, pulled, chopped and served with a helping of Brunswick Stew and Corn Sticks. That is real BBQ, as anyone with roots in Eastern North Carolina will attest too.

I hope there is never a Parker's outside of NC and never a Rudy's outside of Texas.... What a great thing BBQ is, no matter where they create it!

He's all over the Middle East and policy matters as well. Check him out.
posted by Eric at 11:04 PM

 
HELP!!
Two things: I've seen it mentioned a few places that there is a method for making the MF permanent links work, but I can't remember where I have seen it and this problem is getting me very, very down. Would someone please explain what we need to do to make the permalinks work once again. Then we need to publicize this to the universe so that everyone's links will work and we can all be happy and dance with fucking puppies once again.

Second, I know it's summer and I know we were gone for two weeks and I know traffic is down as a result, but please feel free to leave comments as I greatly appreciate and enjoy the feedback, even when you think I am full of shit. Thank you.
posted by Eric at 10:25 PM

 
Belief and Thought
I don't have the energy tonight for deep theology, but I feel the need to step in on Dawn's behalf regarding her post on atheism. The essence of Dawn's argument is that atheists display a certain arrogance by assuming that because they don't see the existence of God as necessary and sufficient to explain the existence of reality, and because there is not tangible evidence for His existence, there is no reason to believe in God, and it is in fact illogical to do so.

Dawn somewhat clouds the waters by bringing logic into the matter, but esentially hers is an argument of faith. Andy at World Wide Rant replies very commendably for the atheist position by way of reason (the link is not working - I seek supernatural intervention against Blogger, a full week of solid fuck up strays far beyond understandable technical problems and into the territory of arrogant asshole-atry).

Creationism cannot be defended scientifically, and no one should try to do so, but the Creation of the Bible isn't logically incompatible with evolution if you view the Bible as metaphorical, at least in places, which most Christians do. Most Christians also have little problem reconciling Darwin and Creation, and don't want Creationism taught as scientific fact because it clearly isn't.

I agree with Andy that there is no compelling logical reason to believe in God, but there isn't any compelling logical reason not to believe either. It comes down to faith and Dawn feels more Right with belief. I do too. While most atheism is like Matt's: a simple lack of faith and not an active antagonism against faith, there are those who ridicule faith of any kind not supported by evidence, and people with this kind of thinking are arrogant indeed to presume that their little brains can encompass all that there is to encompass and that there cannot be anything beyond their comprehension, which a sense of certainty regarding the nonexistence of God would necessarily entail.

I can understand the "show me" attitude of agnosticism - and I think most atheism is in fact agnostic uncertainty - but I also know that expecting God to come to you and show himself by way of proving His existence demonstrates both intellectual and spiritual arrogance, as well as being a self-fulfilling prophesy. God doesn't seem to take kindly to demands to prove Himself - He seems to respond much better to those who approach Him with open hearts and intellectual/spiritual humility, which of course to the atheist is a self-fulfilling prophesy of another kind.

In essence, to the believer, it isn't our place to demand of God that He prove His existence to us, but our role to prove our existence (worthiness, really) to Him. Atheism vs. theism doesn't necessarily have anything to do with morality or a lack thereof: there are plenty of moral and immoral people in both camps, and the hypocrisy of organized religion has rightly been fodder for those who would cast doubt upon religiosity in general for millennia. The final question comes down to what each person sees as his/her role in reality, and that is a personal decision which must be made by each individual in his/her heart of hearts.
posted by Eric at 9:54 PM

 
AND He Has Bad Hair
The sordid saga of Jim Traficant moved another step closer to completion today:

A defiant Representative James A. Traficant Jr. was found guilty by a House panel today of ethics violations arising from his recent conviction on bribery, fraud and tax-evasion charges.

The decision by the eight-member subcommittee of the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct sent the matter to the entire committee. The committee began deliberations on whether to recommend to the House of Representatives that the legislator from Youngstown, Ohio, be expelled or subjected to a lesser punishment.

This ugly tale proves that a "populist" is just as likely to practice demagoguery, cling to exceptionalism, and see himself as beyond the grasp of the law as anyone else - maybe more so.
posted by Eric at 4:57 PM

 
They Went Thataway
North Koreans are desperate to get to China. Chinese are desperate to get to America. Americans don't want to go anywhere other than to visit. What does this tell you? If people were truly free throughout the world to vote with their feet, the sardine would replace the eagle as the U.S. symbol and most of the world would be populated with nothing but dust.
posted by Eric at 4:47 PM

 
Steal 'Em and Reveal 'Em
My smooth-as-corn silk buddy David Hogberg has a nice analysis of GWB's ability to steal issues away from opponents:

Bush has previously shown his skills as an issue thief on prescription drugs and education. But with the corporate corruption issue, he may have taken it to a new level. Not only did he neutralize the Democrats’ advantage, he may have turned it to his own. Consider a CBS poll that was hyped as showing that the American people thought big business had too much influence on the Bush Administration. It also showed that 59% trusted Bush "to do the right thing" to prevent further corporate abuses. Internal White House polls likely had a similar finding. Bush and his advisors probably realized that Bush could get the advantage if he actually did something about corporate abuse. So he gives a speech on July 9 outlining numerous reform proposals, most of which are already in legislation that Congress is considering.

I care less about his motivation than the fact that he appears to be doing the right thing re corporate reform - it remains to be seen if the public in general will cut him slack on the matter (this NY Times/CBS poll says, "The poll found that 58 percent of all respondents — and 38 percent of the Republicans — said that business has too much influence on Mr. Bush himself. Two-thirds of all those surveyed, and slightly more than half the Republicans, said business has too much influence on the administration generally").

Meanwhile, from a guy who can barely shuffle a deck of cards, heartiest congrats to Dave for finishing fifth in the "San Francisco Open, No Limit Hold'em" poker tournament a few weeks ago. The winner, a fellow named Lam Ha Hoang, must be one poker-playing MoFo - the Inscrutable East and all of that.
posted by Eric at 4:37 PM

 
Does Fish Swim With Stalin?
Like Armed Liberal, I ran across the Fish article in Harper's (I think professional literati Jeff Goldstein - love the new tux look - pointed me in that direction, which he discusses well and at length here) and didn't know exactly what to say about it: pomo has been beaten with regularity and I am ambivalent about it anyway.

I love pomo as a art form, or more accurately, as a way of doing art: I make music by slamming together disparate bits and pieces of audio material, I make sculptures (need to get some pics up) by doing the same in 3-D, and I appreciate a vast number of audio and visual artists who do likewise. I love the freedom of mixing and matching dissimilar material, and I love the ontological democracy of it as well. It also seems obvious to me that there is truth to be gained from pomo as an evaluative technique, especially for texts: the context in which a work was written can be relevant for understanding it, nothing is created in a vacuum (much more on pomo here and here - please note comments also).

But I loathe and fear pomo as a worldview, as a value system. Values aren't objects, they are moral constructs and as such CAN have a firmer foundation than so-called physical reality, which has been found to be frought with uncertainty. Again with the ambiguity: I applaud the level of uncertainty introduced by science and pomo to the extent that the most dangerous ideologies created thus far (communism, fascism, totalitarianism, theocracy) have been based upon claims to absolute truth, but I decry chasing that uncertainty all the way down the slippery slope to the view that ALL perspectives are equally valid, that there can be NO truth because there can be no absolute certainty. This is a quandary because I personally have no doubt that there are better and worse ways of living, of viewing the world, of assigning value to people and things. I have no doubt that the individual must be the foundation of society and government and that systems that value the collective over the individual are dead fucking wrong.

But how to prove this? In terms of a coherent logical syllogism, I can't, but I still "know" it to be true, hence my philosphical dilemma. Perhaps the answer is for us to behave as though we know these things to be true, to be self-evident, and proceed from there, but with the recognition that we must leave enough room for doubt to grant other points of view the respect of at least "possibly" being true, even though we believe with all of our hearts that Islamofascism is full of the most vile and steaming shit. Otherwise, wouldn't we too fall into the trap of of insisting that all accept our version of "truth," the very thing we hold against our absolutist enemies?

But back to Armed Liberal - whom we were very sorry couldn't attend the L.A. party (and while I am expressing regret, I am deeply saddened and embarrassed that we didn't realize Howard Owens is in L.A., and as a result, didn't invite him - this is sucking at its most egregious) - he takes on Fish by quoting Orwell here:

I am willing to believe that history is for the most part inaccurate and biased, but what is particular to our own age is the abandonment of the idea that history could be truthfully written. In the past, people deliberately lied, or they unconsciously coloured what they wrote, or they struggled after the truth, well knowing that they must make many mistakes; but in each case, they believed that “the facts” existed and were more or less discoverable. And in practice there was always a substantial body of fact which would have been agreed to by almost everyone. If you look up the history of the last war in, for instance, the Encyclopaedia Brittanica, you will find that a respectable amount of material is drawn from German sources. A British and a German historian would disagree deeply on many things, even on fundamentals, but there would always be that body of, as it were, neutral fact on which neither would seriously challenge the other. It is just this common basis of agreement, with its implication that human beings are all one species of animal, that totalitarianism destroys.

and here:

Nourished for hundreds of years on a literature in which the Right invariably triumphs in the last chapter, we believe half-instinctively that evil always defeats itself in the long run. Pacifism, for instance, is is founded largely on this belief. Don’t resist evil, and it will somehow destroy itself. But why should it? What evidence is there that it does? And what instance is there of a modern industrialised state collapsing unless conquered from the outside by military force?

Or in the case of the Soviet Union, collapsing due to its monomaniacal perceived need to preclude being conquered, thereby forsaking its entire civil and economic infrastructure.

An interesting side note on the latter Orwell quote, is its similarity between his decription of Pacifism and the Taoist concept of wu-wei:

Wu-wei also implies action that is spontaneous, natural, and effortless. As with the Tao, this behavior simply flows through us because it is the right action, appropriate to its time and place, and serving the purpose of greater harmony and balance. Chuang Tzu refers to this type of being in the world as flowing, or more poetically (and provocatively), as "purposeless wandering!" How opposite this concept is to some of our most cherished cultural values. To have no purpose is unthinkable and even frightening, certainly anti-social and perhaps pathological in the context of modern day living. And yet it would be difficult to maintain that our current values have promoted harmony and balance, either environmentally or on an individual level.

To allow oneself to "wander without purpose" can be frightening because it challenges some of our most basic assumptions about life, about who we are as humans, and about our role in the world. From a Taoist point of view it is our cherished beliefs - that we exist as separate beings, that we can exercise willful control over all situations, and that our role is to conquer our environment - that lead to a state of disharmony and imbalance. Yet, "the Tao nourishes everything," Lao Tzu writes. If we can learn to follow the Tao, practicing non-action," then nothing remains undone. This means trusting our own bodies, our thoughts and emotions, and also believing that the environment will provide support and guidance. Thus the need to develop watchfulness and quietness of mind.

We accomplish our goals by NOT pursuing them - we defeat aggression by, in effect, absorbing it. This perspective would seem to underlie the counsel of the "root cause" believers who say that aggressive action against terrorists only breeds more terrorism, which the reality of the last nine months would seem to refute rather completely.

Back to the Liberal, he has just published the fascinating discussion that has been winding around these posts, the gist of which is this: does the fact that pomo says all "facts" are open to interpretation, and the fact that totalitarian systems require the ability to control dissemination of "facts" in order to thrive, mean there is a logical link between the two? A.L. says yes.

I see the real danger in trying to transpose art to real life: theories and techniques which work very nicely in the art world do not necessarily apply to the real world, and in many cases are just plain dangerous. The art world is by definition a place created and governed from the top down, a place where the products of a million mini-gods pose and strut. But the real world cannot, must not, be governed from the top down, as we have very painfully learned. If the art world operated on the same principles as the real world, then the art objects themselves would have the ontological status of their creators, and few would argue that the art object has the same status and rights as the artist - other than perhaps totalitarians and hardcore postmodernists.
posted by Eric at 12:41 PM

 
Surprise, You're on Candid Camera
See, I told you videotaping is good:

A white police officer caught on videotape pummeling a handcuffed black teenager has been indicted on assault charges, less than two weeks after a beating that has drawn comparisons to the Rodney King case.

Inglewood Officer Jeremy Morse, 24, was expected to surrender on Thursday, said his attorney, John D. Barnett. Morse will plead innocent, he said.

"My client believes that an impartial jury will find that the use of force was necessary and he will be acquitted," Barnett said.

A grand jury also returned an indictment Wednesday afternoon against Morse's partner, Officer Bijan Darvish. He will face a charge of filing a false police report, Barnett said, and was also expected to surrender Thursday.

A bystander taped Morse on July 6 slamming 16-year-old Donovan Jackson onto the trunk of a squad car and then punching him in the face.

Videotape has a way of sharpening memories and poking holes in the wall of silence.
posted by Eric at 11:42 AM

 
The Blog of the Baby-Speak of the Century of the Week, and Other Lexicographical Oddities
Marvelous Matty Moore, returned from laconic limbo and desultory daydreams, or vacation as the case may be, slips into a comfortable family reverie (where I found myself more than once today) with a charming story of his (clearly beloved) sister's eccentric early way with words:

When my sister was a toddler, she didn't quite speak English. It's not that she made up a full twin-speak language, but she did have a few special words. Her favorite sweater was named farful. Any snack, from a cracker all the way to an eclair, was a whoa-whoa. One grandmother was the perfectly typical Granma, the other was DumDum. And her bellybutton (only hers, not yours or mine) was inexplicably named Lena-lena-lena-lade.

Well, the Eskimos have 32 words for snow and all of that, so surely Matt's sister was allowed 8 syllables for her bellybutton. Lily made a lively loydy-loydy-loydy-loydy sound after our trip to Australia when she was 10 months. We could only concur it derived from her exposure to the didgeridoo, or maybe it was the brain fever. Who's to say?

Anyway, it's great to have Matt back. My sister is also "Karen," although her name is pronounced "Kah-ren" in the traditional Norwegian manner. Her children called my parents "Makoo" and "Kakoo" when they were little, which apparently derived originally from the macaroni my mother made for them. She's real big on macaroni. My sweet lovely niece, and serious handsome nephew are 11 and 9 now so such childish indulgences are embarrassing, but on the Hawaii trip they both slipped up more than once, proving that old linguistic habits die hard. Makoo, in particular, loved it. You can imagine how she feels about Lily, who is 2, when her other grandchildren are 18, 15, 11, and 9.

Matt is right: something is lost when early verbal idiosyncrasies give way to the speech of the masses but we can hold those cherished memories for as long as we care to.
posted by Eric at 1:12 AM

 
Fish, Spam, and Trolls
Bigwig and the Bear discuss the ethics of emailing bloggers about posts, brought about by the affair discussed here. I would disagree with Bigwig only to he extent that I don't think many people object to being informed via PERSONAL EMAIL of a post that can be reasonably assumed to be of interest to them. I get them everyday and don't mind a bit, and I often send them out without any compunction. Obviously, use good judgment and don't overdo it.

I am even more interested in Bigwig's exposition on "Blogger Fishing," which I now realize I have practiced in a rather clumsy manner since we added Extreme Tracker to our site. That's how I found his story in fact, although since I don't find myself mentioned anywhere, the link to me must have come from his Blogrolodex on the left over there, which is hunky dory as well. Dawn and I are still fighting our way back from vacation traffic oblivion, so every little bit helps and is appreciated.

The bottom line is that the very best way to get linked by someone (who can track their referrals that is) is to link to them. I wouldn't want my writing to be defined this way, however, as the scope of my site, and by extention, other sites were they to adhere to this practice, would diminish into a downward spiral of self-referential gibberish. Better to write on what interests you and spice it up with a little referrer fishing from time to time.
posted by Eric at 10:34 PM

 
Fathers and Grandfathers
Doc is so great - he just made me shed a tear without even trying. It's his father's birthday today:

He died in 1979 at 70, and would be 94 if he were alive today.

A couple weeks ago we had something of a family reunion at his sister's house on the occasion of her 90th birthday. She's in amazing shape.

Their mother, a teriffic grandma to all the cousins of my generation, lived to 107, and was in terrific shape well past 100.

The difference in mileage is simple. Pop was a smoker. Standard as smoking was among parents when I was a kid in the Fifties, it was also clear to me that it was a killer addiction, which is why I never started.

....He was a great guy and a first-rate father. And even though he's been gone for more than 23 years, I still miss him every day.

Made me think of my grandfather, my mother's dad, who died at 68 from lung cancer when I was 11. He was like a storybook grandpa. Even though he hadn't smoked in years, everyone knew why this tremendous athlete - near-professional level bowler, former professional baseball player (struck out Babe Ruth) - and one of the most beloved men in the history of San Pedro CA, wasted down to 120 lbs. before fading away - far far too soon - from all of our lives. It's been 32 years and I still miss him every day.

God, I am afraid of smoking. Bill - 40 lbs. regardless - you made the right decision, be proud of yourself. I'm not fanatical about smoking, I understand habits and addictions better than most, but I surely fear it.
posted by Eric at 9:17 PM

 
Winer Wisdom
Speaking of making sense, Dave Winer makes a ton or two of it today. First, Dave knows a lot more about the stock market than I do, so I am cautiously optimistic about his optimism:

Last November I had all my liquid assets in stocks, and I sold them, turning them into cash, in US dollars, locking in some substantial losses. At first, it was not a good decision, but in the last few weeks I've come to appreciate it. I saved a lot of money. Today I had a flash that the market is at or near its bottom now. I don't think it's going to go up very quickly, but I think the precipitous fall is over. We've factored in the lack of trust of management of companies....From this point we'll get much better information about how the companies are doing. Stock options are over. Salaries and benefits matter.

Dave ties the woebegone technology industry into this:

Somehow the information technology industry, which is still riding Moore's curve, should be able to make some lemonade out of this. We're learning about the pitiful information technology at the SEC and the FBI. They desperately need the combo of weblogs and search engines. Their legacy systems are horribly out of date. Off to the glue factory. Meanwhile the general stagnation in the software industry, which is the core the western economy now, is a huge problem, and people aren't even talking about it. We're stuck behind a horribly inefficient system for trying out new ideas. A Hollywood movie gets much more funding than a breakthrough software idea....OK, the VCs don't want to make that kind of investment. Who does?? [calling Mickey's friend Danielle]

Lastly, Dave is back and well and really appreciates the kind words he has received, but...

I'm still getting the nicest emails. It's so weird, I did get really sick, but I survived. But for all the people who just know me through the Web, it was as if, in every sense, I died. Now it's cool for me (and I guess you too) that I didn't, but what's really strange is that I got to find out, in some sense, what people will say about me when I really die. ;-> Don't get me wrong, I'm not in any hurry, but I hope the good vibe lasts. It reminds me of a lesson I learned a couple of years ago when my teacher died, something he taught, and something I inferred from his teachings. Don't waste energy mourning the dead, if you can help it. They're gone. It's better to honor people while they're alive.

Excellent point Dave, and I'm very glad you are, alive that is.
posted by Eric at 8:46 PM

 
Bill Be Nimble
Bill Quick doing what he does over and over, everyday: cutting through the cant to the heart of the matter:

You'd think they'd eventually figure it out, wouldn't you? Bush says, "I won't negotiate as long as Arafat's there." Then the mediacrats and Eurowieners go to work on it, and decide that what he really meant was, "Well, maybe I would work with him if he had a different title...or office...or power level...or something..."

And then Bush says, "No, I won't negotiate as long as Arafat's there."

It must be driving them crazy. And you know, it's really not fair. Bush is causing a terrible amount of confusion by saying what he means, and then saying it again and again. How in the heck are they supposed to figure out what he's trying to say?

Sometimes having a leader who doesn't read between the lines is a good thing because he doesn't write between them either. See Bill for more. Everyday.
posted by Eric at 8:31 PM

 
"We Eat You With Your Own Mouth"
My relentless pal Mike over at Cursor has spotted a disturbing story in the Guardian relating to how al Qaeda is using the Web to maintain its organization:

For a secret organisation hunted by the intelligence services of the most powerful nations on earth, al-Qaida has a remarkably public face. It is a website run by the Centre for Islamic Studies and Research. Since the start of the war on terrorism, the site has been producing hundreds of pages of material to rally support among radical Muslims, scare the west and enable al-Qaida cells to operate independently of Osama bin Laden and other leaders now in hiding.

The site is entirely in Arabic, which means that tens of millions of people who hate American policies on the Middle East can read it, but almost nobody in either the governments or the media of the west can understand a word.

and another on a similar theme from Salon by friend-o-blogs writer Farhad Manjoo:

If you were a terrorist schooled in fundamentalist Islam, mass violence, digital cryptography and, not least, the pack-rat ethos peculiar to eBay, in which corner of that vast auction site might you hide your plans for America's end?

Would you favor the popular items, stuffing nuclear secrets into one of the nearly 4,000 Pez-related listings? Or would you go for something more obscure -- the date and time of al-Qaida's next operation concealed in a $3 glossy press photo from the old television sitcom "My Two Dads"? Or, displaying your flair for irony, would you conduct your terrorist business right under the kitsch-loving noses of the Americans who hate you most, those who would buy a "Boy Peeing on Osama" pickup-truck decal?

Silly as they seem, U.S. intelligence agents consider these questions key to their victory in the war on terrorism, according to unnamed sources who have been quoted in media reports over the past year. Since before Sept. 11, a series of articles have quoted experts suggesting that al-Qaida may be especially Internet-savvy and could be mounting a full-scale "cyberwar" against the United States.

The technique of digitally hiding messages in media files is called "steganography."
posted by Eric at 8:11 PM

 
This Man IS a Small Penis
Dawn says this is me, other than the penis part. I say, what part is me, other than an occasional difficulty with coordinating Lily's ensemble?

I say Michael Lewis is a hapless schmo who is so uncool that not only is his 3 YEAR-OLD aware of it, but she feels compelled to exercise social Darwinism against HER OWN FATHER, at the age of 3. This man is an embarrassment to fathers everywhere. If you don't have enough force of personality to be beyond the ridicule of your own 3 year-old, have the vasectomy TODAY.

Your kids shouldn't think you are hopelessly uncool until they are pre-teens, and even then it should be primarily a social pretense. Damn, I would cross a busy street to avoid this sucker. The first sentence tells you all you need to know:

The second rule of fatherhood is that if everyone in the room is laughing, and you don't know what they're laughing about, they are laughing about you.

The REAL second rule of fatherhood is NEVER assume they are laughing at you, because if you do, everyone will know you limp behind the herd and deserve to be picked off by hyenas. I don't assume people are laughing at me even if they ARE laughing at me. Good God, this man is in for a rough time. Dawn has some 'splaining to do. And I don't dress Lily that badly anyway.
posted by Eric at 6:38 PM

 
CIA: Ball-Suckers
James Taranto notes that the CIA, when accused of sucking balls by "the Terrorism and Homeland Security Subcommittee of the House Intelligence Committee in the executive summary of its report on pre-Sept. 11 intelligence failures," has resolved to suck them all the harder:

CNN quotes Rep. Jane Harman of California, the subcommittee's ranking Democrat, as saying that the report contains "two dozen classified suggestions." Harman also "said the CIA has largely ignored a post-September 11 law that requires the agency to end its policy of not recruiting a known lawbreaker or civil rights violator. 'We have to change the guidelines that we use to recruit those spies,' Harman said. 'In fact the CIA is required by law to change those guidelines and hasn't.' "

posted by Eric at 5:33 PM

 
Systemic Betrayal
The introduction of DNA and other scientific evidence has shown that our system of justice is dismayingly prone to error - the best argument of all against the death penalty, by the way - but in the new Atlantic, Margaret Talbot relates two techniques that experts have found to reduce false confessions and false identifications - the two primary culprits in wrongful convictions - by as much as 50%:

One is to improve the standard police lineup by letting witnesses see only one purported suspect at a time, so that they can make an absolute judgment about each one. When witnesses see six people at once, they make relative judgments, comparing the six and picking whoever looks most like the person they remember from the crime scene, rather than evaluating each individually. Conducting lineups sequentially seems like a minor change, but research by Wells and others has shown that it reduces the number of mistaken identifications—by as much as one half—without significantly reducing the number of correct ones. Ensuring that the detective running the lineup does not know who the real suspect is, and so does not make leading comments (Don't you want to look at number three again?), helps too, for the same reason that good clinical research is double-blind: otherwise it's easy to contaminate the results with intentional or unintentional bias.

The second proposal is to videotape all police interrogations, so that a reliable record exists of the questioning that produced a confession—how leading, how coercive, how open-ended—and of the suspect's comportment during it. Many police departments around the country, including those of San Diego and Kansas City, Missouri, already do this voluntarily, and police departments in Minnesota and Alaska are required by law to do it. Videotaping makes some police officers who haven't used it a little nervous. They worry that it will cost too much, that curbside or squad-car confessions will be inadmissible because taping hasn't started yet, or that officers will feel constrained from using aggressive but legitimate interrogation techniques—for example, telling a suspect they have evidence that they don't, a method the Supreme Court has upheld and Andy Sipowicz uses all the time on NYPD Blue.

Surely these techniques are worth whatever minor expense and/or inconvenience they may incur toward the goal of fewer lives betrayed by the system ostensibly in place to protect them.
posted by Eric at 5:05 PM

 
Left Out
Gary Farber is in fine fettle, noting that even those among us who would like to look leftward for at least SOME bits of wisdom, find the terrain out beyond Armed Liberal (and there is a lot of terrain out there since I would call A.L. left-center) to be a minefield of treachery, and morbid irresponsibility.

Eric Raymond plays nonspecified gadfly, casting opprobrium on both houses by calling conservatives "villains" and liberals "fools." Gary Farber just wants a non-idiot he can trust - so do I - and wishes it could be Bill Clinton again, hated equally by the right and the left (a very good sign), but undone by his own demons. There are many smart people out there who would like to see Clinton put out the effort to rehabilitate himself - Mickey Kaus among them - but so far Bill can't be bothered.
posted by Eric at 4:33 PM

 
"You May Be Wrong But You May Be Right"
A Beam, though in spotty summer mode, directs his keen eye at Tony's 2002 Fashion Special, which needless to say, debuted in our absence.

It took me close to a half hour to figure out that "HOW ABOUT A PAIR OF PINK SIDEWINDERS/AND A BRIGHT ORANGE PAIR OF PANTS?" was from a Billy Joel song - I thought I was going to have to crush something - and truth be told, it was Dawn who finally came up with it anyway. Sometimes I think my brain is full of Pink Panther insulation. Some "music expert" - my only excuse is that the last time Billy Joel didn't suck, he was thin and had a rock in his hand.
posted by Eric at 3:46 PM

 
Return to Layne Lane!
Praise be! I can only conclude that Ken's absence from the L.A. party hastened his return to blogging since he doubtless spent those hours fine-tuning the site in the squinty light of a flickering candle. He's back and we are most pleased.

Also, in my and Dawn's defense, I must note that Ken's retirement coincided with our jaunt across the briny deep and that is the only reason we didn't note his absence on our blogs. We would have failed to note the absence of North America itself if it had chosen to take a powder during our journey.

Back in bloggy action, Ken salutes the air conditioner, which has not only provided him with climatological comfort over the years (but not at the moment, alas) but also was his parent's business, and he himself has installed many a frosty unit, putting food on the table and ribbon in the typewriter.

I love air conditioning. I love to roll around on the floor and revel in its chilly decadence, but air conditioning can be dangerous as well: kicking up nasty allergies, breeding Legionnaire's Disease, or, worse yet, falling on people's heads. Never bathe in paint thinner or spend time under an air conditioner. You're welcome.
posted by Eric at 3:26 PM

 
Meet, Meat, Mate
Close to home, Dawn thinks meeting people online is no worse, and probably better, than getting drunk at a bar and humping the contents of the stool next to yours under a car in the parking lot. She notes my contention that online life isn't "real," but then, she and I met via my radio show and what's so "real" about that? See the comments section for some real-life online experiences - or is that an oxymoron?

One of the reasons Dawn and I are so compatible is that we share a similar sense of "ick." We both think a service that matches "free" women with male prison inmates (and vice versa) has a particularly high "ick" factor: surely ANY woman can do better than trawling the prisons of the nation for a mate. If you're looking for a "bad boy," you can stalk corporate board rooms; if you're looking for a rebel, find a straight priest; if you're looking for excitement, date a carny. Surely this is an expression of abject self-destructive tendencies in these misguided women - see Dawn's post for a more graphic depiction of our prison buddies.

While we both think hooking up civilians and prisoners is a really bad idea (how about a service for Islamofascists and Orthodox Jews?), we think a service linking male and female prisoners might make sense: they wouldn't see each other very often, but at least they would have something in common.
posted by Eric at 2:01 PM

 
No News?
Vodka Steve mentioned that not much is going on due to general summer indolence, vacationing bloggers and the like, but it seems to me like all of the world has gone into a paroxysm of activity - a veritable St. Vitus dance of newsworthy action - but I'm sure it only seems that way because I missed it, and that which you miss looms in importance like a monster behind the door. Since I am so aswim and don't much trust myself to deal directly with the news, I think I shall obliquely tackle the world via the fabulous array of lenses collectively known as the blogosphere. This will also be an attempt to prove to myself that I can be succinct.
posted by Eric at 1:25 PM

 
Brave New Something
As I have now closed the big old BITTERSWEET DOOR to the whole vacation thing with a rather maudlin but heartfelt instant nostalgia look at the party, it is time to turn my attention back to "normal" things. We are still having one heck of a time with the clock - all three of us are still going strong at 1am and hugging the pillow until the last possible moment in the morning.

Poor little Lily just couldn't get up until 10:30 this morning, and Dawn was long gone for work, so I had to get her dressed and take her to school, which about kills me because she hugs my leg and says "I want my Daddy" when I am trying to escape. She loves her school but will never pass up an opportunity to lay on the guilt for future harvesting.

Don't ever let anyone hand you the line about the "innocence" of youth: the connivance begins with the very first breath, but I have never minded much being manipulated by my children because I know that they know that I know, and as long as the game stays within the hash marks - or at least in inbounds - then it's all manageable. Sheesh, that little one is good at it though. Such emotional sophistication in a 2 year-old is frightening.
posted by Eric at 1:03 PM

 
Hollywood, Very Early Saturday
Notice the narrative thus far has been detailed and coherent. This will no longer be the case as after a couple of beers on an empty stomach - and the fact that I am a pitiful lightweight these days - the evening began to blur together into a very pleasant Cubist collage.

In no particular order, here are some snapshots: Tony Pierce is every bit as cool - were I Buddhist or Hindu I would call him an "old soul" - in person as he is on his utterly unique blog. He and Dawn and I chatted and giggled conspiratorially on and off all night long and it was like talking to your cousin for the first time in a few years, not like meeting someone for the first time.

I am always flattered when T. speaks admiringly of my experiences and "accomplishments," but he and I are frighteningly alike: emotional - wanting to be friendly to one and all but explosive when crossed (not that I saw any of that explosive stuff, just guessing); fundamentally confident but with dangerous shoals of insecurity upon which more than one ship has been cast asunder; team players with lots of friends but ultimately loners who want it our own way; social animals who love to entertain but with shy spots to protect; we are both respectful of, and trustworthy with women (whether that respect and trustworthiness is ultimately a ploy is another matter - "100 blogs in 100 days," as it were); we both love, hate, and are ultimately slaves to popular culture, our common currency; we have similar hair issues.

You have to check out Tony's account of his drive home with Maddie, post party:

one of the nice parts of not having a car is being able to ask for a ride home from a girl who looks even better in person than on her blog. driving down hollywood blvd looking for a gas station, the quick witted capricorn cruised past two CHP motorcycle cops who were putting on their helmets to bust a different hottie in a volvo. just our luck they pulled her over in the same gas station that we pulled in to. and as i was trying to be a gentleman by holding the gas pump into the sweet targa, cop #2 circled madison and her car as cop #1 "investigated" the miniskirted twentysomething in the four-door.

cop #2 made madison follow his finger and asked her how much she drank that night. she told him two glasses of wine, which is the wrong answer, apparently, and when he got distracted, moxie said, "fuck this, im getting some smokes" and strutted over to the cashier leaving me at the pump with the cop.

i told my man that she really only had two little glasses and i only had one and she was taking me home. he gave me the follow the finger test which i failed at first because those things always crack me up but then i got it together and passed and he said, "if you drive out of here i wont give her the breathalizer, which she would fail."

i said, two glasses of wine will make you fail?

One requisite of life in any big city, especially L.A., is to be able to smooth talk your way out of low-conflict jams with the cops. Tony passes admirably and saves the damsel from the dragons, recreating the Age of Chivalry.

Doc Searls was an absolute delight to meet in person: funny, charming, humble, passionate, intelligent. The reason he is read by so many non-tech bloggers is that he is at core a journalist with an equally keen eye on the tech world and its ramifications for the rest of us. Though he is a Linux guru, he can speak equally well with those who think Linux is the kid with the blanket in Peanuts.

We talked radio, the winding paths of our careers, and about family. At 43 I have a 2 year-old. At post-50, he has a 5 year-old: we're both old but loving fathers. Doc is every bit as cool as his blog. He also came up with the lexicographical gem of the evening: "irritable blog syndrome," which Patiodude Martin Devon later defined as "It's when your blog has a problem with you." I have been known to suffer from this, though with my perspective restored, I hope to remain on better terms with my blog for the foreseeable future.

Doc also made a long drive - down from his home in Santa Barbara (ancestral meeting place of the Pierce/Welch/Os clan) - and had to return to same that very evening so his stalwart fiber can be questioned not, ever. Check out this account of his drive home:

When I left, sometime after 2, the party was still going strong. So was I, for about fifty miles. Then the sleepies hit me, and even rubbing ice on my face didn't do the job. Two or three times I pulled off the road to rest, but each time I stayed awake thinking about Michael Jordan's dad.

After singing loudly with oldies induced halucinations, I drove the rest of the way screaming at the top of my lungs and pounding my head against the backrest like an autistic psychotic. Guess it worked.

I've never felt more relieved to pull in a driveway.

Sure glad you made it Doc, and thanks for coming down. You're the best.

It is difficult to be suave and earthy at the same time, but Matt Welch somehow manages this with aplomb. A very charismatic figure and a clear rallying point for a number of circles both social and professional, Matt was warm and engaging, while clearly thinking deep thoughts about his future. I was greatly relieved to hear that his blog break is temporary, but of utmost seriousness to him with major projects in progress and pending. He sees this as a turning point in his professional life, and I can only wish him the very best of luck and decision-making.

Matt also assured us that Ken Layne's ("Is Ken here yet?" "Is Ken here yet?" "Is Ken here yet?") break is also temporary (he is not moving to Belize), but also serious. I sense a financial reckoning coming very shortly for a number of bloggers, including myself.

I also had no difficulty is seeing how SoCal Matt attracted the lovely, charming, brilliant, and svelte Emmanuelle while both were in Europe. Having now met her, I would devour Emmanuelle's blog daily if it weren't written primarily in her native French, which is a rather dramatic impediment for we non-Francophones. In addition to admiring her from various angles throughout the party, I had the extreme pleasure of speaking with her at some length toward the end of the party: she writes for the French daily Liberacion and is doing a story on the reissue of Bowie's classic Ziggy Stardust, and in particular producer Ken Scott's role in its creation. I am profoundly flattered that she has sought my input in this matter.

We also met Tony's super cool friend, artist, musician, and father-to-be Greg McIlvaine, who has a spanking new blog, interestingly enough called Greg's Blog. It's frightening how many fascinating people there are out there in the world. Great to meet you Greg and nothing but the best for the new family.

Another great couple is John Stamos-lookalike Os Honeycutt (really Os looks better, but I DJ'd a party once for Stamos so I thought of him), impresario of Nothing Special, the company that reliably and reasonably hosts the sites of Pierce/Welch/Layne and dozens of happy others, and his lovely distaff half Ali. I chatted with Os at some length about such disparate topics as new music ("Eric, pick two CD's for me to go buy right now!!" Not as easy as it sounds. We ended up with the new Chuck Prophet and Steve Earle, as I was in a twisted-Americana mood at the time), school changes (pro and con: he was happy to get to Cali from Kentucky, I was happy to get to Ohio from Cali, we decided my son would probably prefer to finish out his last three years of high school where he is), being a computer maven, life in the shadow of John Stamos (kidding). When Blogger has frayed our final nerve, we know where to go.

I mentioned Patiopundit Martin Devon, denizen of swanky Marina del Rey, a while back. Though we didn't get to speak as much as would have been appropriate, he is a very engaging and sharp fellow and I will visit his patio on a regular basis henceforth. At our next meeting - THERE MUST BE A NEXT MEETING SOONER RATHER THAN LATER - we shall speak in earnest and I will be educated as to the makings of a good cigar, et al. While you're visiting his site, check out his thoughts on Post Party Syndrome (kicking my ass until today), an outstanding dissertation on how good people get lost bad, and of course, his pictures of the party.

Were there others, you ask? There were, I apologize for not spending enough time with:
The cheerful Scott Rubush, who came late and re-energized the party.
The most-read blogger of them all, Mickey Kaus, who cheerfully but enigmatically said, "Ahhh, you're Eric Olsen. Hmmm."
Brian Doherty from Reason: I salute thee, as I do your cohort Sara Rimensnyder.
Ben Sullivan was most charming and Dawn spoke with him at pleasant length.
Legendary rocker Warren Zevon and equally legendary video producer Nigel Dick were there as well, dislocating my brain to other times and other parties and the dissonance was too much for me to handle. After I mumbled something about "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead" being my theme song and modus operandi for about 15 years, I wandered off to resume my bloggy socializing. Warren was like a ghost from a scary past of tinselly debauchery, a past of style before substance, of coolness over sincerity, surface over depth. I am a huge fan of Warren's but the records mean much more to me now than the person behind them: it's the records I have the personal relationship with, not the person who happened to have recorded them.

Brian is sure well-connected, though. Speaking of whom, one more time, Brian is the consummate host, a brilliant conversationalist, a smoking hot film-maker, a superior blogger, and a great friend.

Which - freaking finally - brings me to my final point. How many times have you gone to a party where you have never met ANYONE in person before, and left with a roomful of new friends? I mean real friends, not acquaintances, not colleagues. That's the kind of party it was, those are the kind of people bloggers are.
posted by Eric at 5:38 PM

 
Hollywood, Friday Night, Continued
Here is how removed I am from LA: I forgot that street addresses are marked on the curb. Here we were shining our brights on every adddress we could find on Brian's street, annoying the populace, blocking traffic, being dopey Midwesterners, when all we would have had to do is look at the curb.

Due to our ineptitude, we overshot Brian's, had to turn around in a postage stamp driveway in a rented SUV, and slink back to Brian's. As Dawn mentions in her inimitably energetic account of the evening, we rolled up uncomfortably close behind a petite blond in a vintage Porsche and loomed on the steep decline behind her like a mammoth over a mink. I remembered to yank the emergency brake, but not to turn the wheel all the way to the right.

She got out of her car, noted the proximity of our vehicles and the precipitous nature of the hill we shared, and suggested I turn the wheel, which I did all the way to the left. She suggested that turning to the right might be more efficacious, and was, in fact, the law. She very politely refrained from adding "duh," and only mouthed "dumbass" rather than saying it out loud (kidding).

The lovely and lithe young woman then asked if we were attending Brian's party, seemed relieved that she wouldn't have to enter alone, introduced herself as (insert real name here), aka Madison Slade (check out her hilarious but thought-provoking photo-essay on men - the scum - from the 14th, which I don't seem to be able to link directly; she must be a freaking programmer or something), and the three of us skipped arm-in-arm off to meet the Wizard.

Brian greeted us at the door clad in a huge smile and an equally huge, stylish black coat. He yanked us all inside with bear hugs and WE KNEW ALL WOULD BE WELL. Tone is everything and both Dawn and I were very excited, even a bit nervous, about this party. Those of you who have attended blogger parties already know the feeling, but imagine you are about to meet a whole bunch of your bloggy friends and heroes for the first time. Will the relationships differ without the portal of the pixels? Will people stick their hands out and start air-typing in front of your face? Will they all possess superhuman abilites that you alone lack? I scanned Dawn and Maddie for previously unrevealed powers just before Brian opened the door. They seemed normal, but YOU NEVER KNOW. I have DJ'd a few thousand parties and I am very comfortable in that setting, but I felt a butterfly flutter or two after ringing the doorbell. Brian's effusive greeting made all of the difference and set the tone for the rest of the night. The host isn't just the guy who provides the space for a party: he (or she, naturally) sets the social mood and the parameters of interaction. He owns the highway and puts up the traffic signs, in his case creating a setting both as warm and as cool as possible. We couldn't have had a better host.

Once upstairs in party central of Brian's elegant but inviting Canyon retreat, we met the already-assembled Charles Johnson, Bill Quick, and Ann Salisbury: more greatness to begin the party. Charles and Bill are two of my best bloggy buddies, and I probably impose the profiler's identification upon them having done Tour O the Blogs on them both, but meeting them in person was as natural as you could ask for and they are both tremendous guys.

While Charles is focused on Middle Eastern perfidy on his classic site, and his writing often bears the admirably pithy pregnancy of a a Zen koan, in person he is a big, friendly bear. He reminds me of some of my best musician friends: unpretentious, gregarious, with an easy intelligence. We discussed everything from his computer background, to travel, to his blog philosophy, to Hawaii, to Elvis Costello - a pure pleasure. Apparently the same elephant found us both the next day.

Bill was a bit more introspective at first, but much of this was no doubt due to his 400-MILE DRIVE FROM SF, which would have left me exhausted and looking for raw meat to chew. Technically, we came from the farthest away (Ohio), but we were coming through L.A. anyway, which was the original impetus for the party. Bill put out by far the greatest effort and will be forever appreciated for same. Later, we had a fascinating conversation about how he approaches both his successful novel writing and his great blog, alternating between creative and critical thinking, reading with the speed and comprehension of Evelyn Wood's teacher, making unerring snap judgments and cogent analysis, then conjuring whole world's from his imagination. I am in awe. Glad you had fun, too!

Besides meeting friends in person for the first time, another treat of the party was meeting people with whom I was less familiar, such as Ann, whose site I have now had the pleasure of reading. She is a sharp, funny lawyer, whose occupation I never would have guessed based upon her breezy, cheery demeanor. I'm glad she's willing to give Tres Producers another shot as well: I will strive to be bright, funny and laid back in writing as well as in person.

Damn, it's lunch time. More later. I am slow and plodding, that's for sure, and living in the past. Deep down, I think I realize that when I am finished writing about it, the party will truly be over and I will be sad, sad, sad.
posted by Eric at 12:18 PM

 
Friday Night, Hollywood
We arrived at Ontario (CA) airport late Thursday night and headed down to my brother Arne's house in Lake Elsinore. It was 85 degrees at 1:30am - summer in the desert. We recouped and hung out at his place Friday, then headed across a multiplicity of freeways to arrive at Torrance, where we deposited the two daughters at a motel and quickly prepared for the L.A. Blogathering of the Century at Brian Linse's house in the Hollywood Hills.

The party was scheduled for 8pm, and we left the motel right on time - at 8. Even though I have lived in L.A. for a total of 22 years, I haven't lived there since 1990 and I did not pick the most direct route to the Hills. We ended up going through downtown on the 110, switching to the 101 and then exiting at Hollywood Blvd, which necessitated a vicious westward cross-town slog on Hollywood on a Friday night with a traffic light on virtually every block. But Dawn got to see Hollywood in action for the first time and I pretended I did it on purpose.

Our light-to-light jaunt across Hollywood brought back a flood of memories. We passed Hollywood and Vine and I looked up the hill to the iconic Capitol Records building, a building I first visited nearly twenty years ago as pop music critic for the South Bay's Easy Reader, and headed out the door with a proud armful of promo records thinking life was pretty damned great.

As I strode out the door, momentarily blinded by the Hollywood afternoon sun, I plowed directly into the Talk Talk entourage about to enter the building, ping-ponged off of various band members and flunkies then slammed into a human abutment of a security dude and went sprawling, limbs akimbo, onto the unforgiving pavement, my recorded booty flying hither and yon in the stiff breeze, several of which pinwheeled into the street and were run over by passing cars. Some were undamaged, but I heard one give out a mortally wounded "crunch," and it was - you guessed it - the brand new Talk Talk album, It's My Life, containing the hit of the same name. Singer Mark Hollis autographed the damaged disc and I still have it - I'm looking at it right now.

I have been in the Capitol building many times since, including once for a job interview with their fledgling video department, but that first visit really stands out, I must say.

Back in the present, it was great to see the Grauman's Chinese Theater returned to its rightful name after a disgraceful period as "Mann's," which was a name that rang nary a tinkle. We could see some of the stars on the sidewalk - The Hollywood Walk of Fame - as we inched along as well.

Soon we passed the nameless building where I DJ'd a Halloween party in the later-'80s for a "Big Time Promoter" who took out print and radio ads, had a small army of peds pass out flyers, and still drew a grand total of TWENTY-SIX customers for the entire evening. "There's a lot of competition in Hollywood on Halloween," he kept saying as he rattled the cash drawer nervously. Oh well, those 26 people had a hell of a time, and at least I got paid.

Next, on our right, I thought I recognized the building that used to be a Russian restaurant where I DJ'd the wrap party for the '89 film version of Whitley Strieber's Communion. Christopher Walken was at the party and it was cool to briefly meet him, but what I remember most is the abundance of drunken little people - who played aliens in the film - dancing around like deranged munchkins, standing on each other's shoulders to make song requests, doing acrobatics on the dancefloor, and in general just going apeshit nuts in their own festive way.

Finally as it approached 9pm, we turned up onto Laurel Canyon and I knew we would arrive soon.

Holy Frijoles, it's 11pm and I still have to go through a boatload of mail - will finish the story tomorrow, where we actually arrive at the party and meet cool bloggers and drink and talk and stuff. Boo yah!
posted by Eric at 10:39 PM

 
Cool Tunes Playlists

All three of these shows were recorded before we went on vacation thanks to the magic of digital recording. Join us some Saturday night if you get a chance, won't you?

Cool Tunes is a radio show in a magazine format Saturday nights at 10pm (eastern) on WAPS, "The Summit," in Akron, Ohio. Join us live via the Web from anywhere in the world. I play new music, reissues, and preview shows coming to town each week. Musically it is among the widest-ranging 2 hours in the country: modern rock, punk, electronica, jazz, reggae and ska, roots rock, Americana, blues, world, funk, hip hop, avant garde, etc. - if it's cool I play it. Cool Tunes has been proudly serving humanity since 1990.

Artist "Song" Album, Label;

Cool Tunes 6/29/02
The B-52's "52 Girls" Time Capsule, Reprise;
INXS "Beautiful Girl" Welcome to Wherever You Are, Atlantic;
The Fixx "Secret Separation" One Thing Leads to Another, MCA;
The Who "Join Together" The Ultimate Collection, UTV/MCA;
;Jon Dee Graham "Way Down In the Hole" Hooray For the Moon, New West;
Marah "Soul" Float Away With the Friday Night Gods, E2-Artemis;
Luce "Good Day" single, Nettwerk;
Elf Power "The Creature" Creatures, SpinArt;
The Mendoza Line "What Ever Happened to You?" Lost In Revelry, Misra;
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy "I Wanna Be Like You" This Beautiful Life, Interscope;
Us3 "Cantaloop" Hip Hop 'n Jazz, CEMA;
Scapegoat Wax "Watching the Rain" Swax, Hollywood;
Custom "Beat Me" Fast, Artist Direct;
Jay Farrar "Damn Shame" (Memphis) single, Artemis;
John Vanderslice "Underneath the Leaves" Life and Death Of an American Fourtracker, Barsuk;
Allman Brothers Band "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" A Decade of Hits, Polydor;
O.A.R. "Conquering Fools" Any Time Now, Everfine;
Moe. "Timmy Tucker" Warts and All, Fatboy;
Primus "The Toys Go Winding Down" Frizzle Fry, Prawn Song;
Haven "Beautiful Thing" Between the Senses, Virgin;
Jenna Mammina "Lotus Blossom" Meant to Be, Mamma Grace;
Leni Stern "By the Stars Above" Finally the Rain has Come, LSR;
Oakenfold "Hypnotised" Bunkka, Maverick;
Morcheeba "Otherwise" Sampler, Reprise;
Jackie Ryan "Now or Never" Passion Flower, OpenArt;
Cinematic Orchestra "Burn Out" Every Day, Ninja Tune;
Medeski Martin and Wood "Pappy Check" Uninvisible, Blue Note;
DJ Spooky "Ibid" Optometry, Thirsty Ear;
Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey "Thelonious Monk Is My.." All Is One, Knitting Factory;
E.S.T. "The Message" Strange Place For Snow, Columbia;
Chet Baker "Summer Sketch" Deep in a Dream, Pacific Jazz;

Cool Tunes 7/6/02
Romeo Void "A Girl In Trouble" Warm In Your Coat, Legacy/Columbia;
Bratmobile "Pagan Baby" Girls Get Busy, Lookout;
Ozma "Korobeiniki" The Doubble Donkey Disc, Kung Fu;
Green Day "Suffocate" Shenanigans, Reprise;
Ramones "Do You Wanna Dance?" All the Stuff and More Vol. 2, Sire/WB;
Fidel "Talkin'" single, Fidel;
Podstar "Why I Said Goodbye" Lovely32, Noisome;
Sunday's Best "The Try" The Californian, Polyvinyl;
Brian Wilson "Wouldn't It Be Nice" Pet Sounds Live, Sanctuary;
Phil Keaggy "Good Vibrations" Making God Smile, Silent Planet;
The Flaming Lips "Fight Test" Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots,Warner Brothers;
Puffy Ami Yumi "Love So Pure" An Illustrated History, Bar/None;
Tender Trap "Fin" Film Molecules, K;
Superdrag "Remain Yer Strange" single, Arena Rock;
Voodoo Glow Skulls "Nada En la Cabeza" Steady As She Goes, Victory;
Hepcat "Tek Dat" Push 'n Shove, Hellcat;
Brave Combo "Down At the Friendly Tavern" Extreme Polka, Shot Glass;
Los Lobos "Good Morning Aztlan" Good Morning Aztlan, Mammoth;
Lucinda Williams "Get Right With God" Essence, Lost Highway;
Rosie Thomas "2 Dollar Shoes" When We Were Small, Sub Pop;
Emmylou Harris "Sweet Old World" Wrecking Ball, Elektra;
Emmylou Harris "To Know Him Is to Love Him" Anthology, Rhino/Warner;
Dolly Parton "Sugar Hill" Halos and Thorns, Sugar Hill;
Ralph Stanley "Lift Him Up, That's All" Ralph Stanley, DMZ/Columbia;
Norman Blake "Spanish Fandango" Old Ties, Rounder;
Tim Krekel "Who Do You Think You Are?" Happy Town, Freefalls;
The Tragically Hip "Use it Up" In Violet Light, Zoe;
New Order "Round and Round '94" The Best of New Order, Qwest/WB;
Neon Heights "16 Again" Explorations In Chill, Paras;
Riri Shimada "Gymnopedie No. 1" Music For You, Legacy;

Cool Tunes 7/13/02
Sonic Youth "The Empty Page" Murray Street, DGC;
Enon "Window Display" High Society, Touch and Go;
The Makers "Laughter Then Violence" Strangest Paradise, Sub Pop;
MC5 "Skunk" Human Being Lawnmower, Total Energy;
Rollins Band "Your Number is One" The Only Way to Know For Sure,Sanctuary;
StepKings "California" 3 the Hard Way, We Put Out;
Spindle "Window" Spindle EP, Spindle;
Breaking Benjamin "Polyamorous" single, Hollywood;
Yesterday's Kids "Eighteen" Can't Hear Nothin', Panic Button;
Tsunami Bomb "Roundabout" Punk Rock is Your Friend, Kung Fu;
The Syrups "Stupid" Stupid/The Answers, Beck;
Primal Scream "Come Together" Screamadelica, Sire/WB;
Doves "Words" The Last Broadcast, Capitol;
Weezer "Keep Fishin'" single, Geffen;
Arlo "Little American" Stab the Unstoppable Hero, Sub Pop;
Rancid "Vanilla Sex" Sample This, Too, BYO;
Capitol K "Pillow" Island Row , XL/Beggars;
Mellow "Seek You" CQ soundtrack, Emperor Norton;
King of Woolworths "Bakerloo" Ming Star, Mantra/Beggars;
David Bowie "5:15 The Angels have Gone" Heathen, ISO/Columbia;
Danny Elfman "Titles" Men In Black 2 soundtrack, Columbia;
Danny Elfman "Main Title" Spider-Man soundtrack, Columbia;
Pere Ubu "Slow Walking Daddy" St Arkansas, Cooking Vinyl/SpinArt;
X-Press 2 "Lazy" Muzikizum , Skint/Columbia;
St Germain "Soul Salsa Soul" Boulevard (New Version), Pias;
Jenna Mammina "The More I See You" Meant to Be, Mamma Grace;
Sal Nistico "Mamblue" Heavyweights, Milestone;
Frank Strozier "Long Night" Quartets and Sextet, Milestone;
Dr. Michael White "Martinique" Jazz From the Soul of NO, Basin Street
posted by Eric at 9:18 PM

 
You Can't Live Without a Liver
SoCal's greatest host Brian Linse again belies his slogan of "I just don't like nobody" with a deeply empathetic plea for the plight of Tower of Power bassist Rocco Prestia, who is suffering from Hepatitis C and is in need of a liver transplant. Take a moment and seriously consider his case - you need a liver to live.
posted by Eric at 3:54 PM

 
Hazy With Dense Fog
My brain is still occluded by a hazy fog of indolence, but I am soldiering through clerical duties and trying to catch up. For the second night in a row, I slept as though dead for an extended period - I just don't recover from ANYTHING as quickly as I used to. I have to go to the post office to resume service and pick up two-week's worth of goodies: will probably have to rent a trailer to haul the booty back home. With so much to do and so many options, the hardest part is prioritizing, but that's what adults do and as the great Moe Berg once said, "I'm an adult now."

My main bloggy pursuit today is to talk about the trip some more, especially the tremendous party Friday night, but I also have to get my playlists out for the last three weeks of the radio show (all recorded in advance before we left) and take care of, you know, life-type stuff.

A few quick thoughts:

I always encourage readers to utilize the comments section. I love to hear from you - especially after such an extended absence - and the interaction with such intelligent people stimulates my still-mushy brain.

Dawn and I are astounded so many people checked in while we were gone, but out of sight out of mind also applies and we would love to get our traffic back to normal as quickly as possible - obviously. I am fascinated by the subject of blogger absence and traffic patterns: at the party Bill Quick said that when he went to NY and took four days off from blogging a little while back, it took two full weeks to get his traffic back to normal. I imagine it will take us at least that long, but any help in that regard from our bloggy friends would be mega-appreciated nonetheless.

My guess is that reading blogs is still a relatively new habit for most readers - as opposed to, say, brushing your teeth or smoking - and with all of the amazing blogs out there, people very quickly adapt to someone's absence and less quickly adapt to their return. With the blog world evolving so quickly, we were gone the equivalent of half a generation. We are Rip Van Winkles returned blinking and staring in awe at the wonders time hath wrought, or some such shit. But I also have no doubt that traffic will return to normal and beyond, and that is a very good feeling.

With my email returning to life yesterday - AGAIN, IF YOU SENT ME ANYTHING YOU STILL THINK I SHOULD SEE OVER THE LAST TWO WEEKS PLEASE RESEND AS I LOST VIRTUALLY ALL OF IT WHEN MY INBOX FLOODED AROUND JULY 1 - there were already some choice items swimming around in there. I see the subject of bloggers emailing each other about items they have posted has not abated. Without naming names or going into gory detail, some people get very offended by bulk email alerts and some don't. I can relate to both points of view - being addressed impersonally is, if not offensive, then at least off-putting and probably counter to the aims of the sender.

What is the currency of the blogosphere ? It isn't money since virtually no one makes any directly from blogging, it's TIME. Time is required to write, and time is required to read. What traffic figures really represent is time spent with you, and that time spent is deeply flattering and gratifying. Someone taking the time to write me an email about a post of theirs they think I - personally - will be interested in will always be welcomed. A bulk email to me simply because I have a blog will be less so.

I get so much email relating to work and other aspects of my life that blog-related emails are still not the majority of what I receive, and I get so much REAL spam that I don't regard bulk blog email alerts as spam, as many other bloggers do, but I am as likely as not to delete bulk email of any sort. If you are going to bother to alert bloggers to a post of yours, take the TIME and effort to make it personal, or at least give the illusion of such by addressing them directly by name and making reference to their blog.

The other current blog controversy to catch my eye is the post by Brendan O'Neill criticizing the general writing level of blogs. No shit, dude: the writing level of ANY genre mostly sucks, and I would just as soon claw my way through the raw but lively, personal, and passionate writing of blogs than snooze through the dull, dry, and formulaic writing of most "professional" writing in papers, mags, etc. Obviously, some bloggers are more "writerly" than others - and I personally tend to favor those who write AND think well - but other than obvious spelling and punctuation errors which speak to me of carelessness (again the currency of TIME) - I'll take a ripsnorting, ragged blog over an edited-to-death typical professional piece any day of the week.

The variety of approaches that writers take to blogs is an ASSET not a detraction, and other than VERY general rules like take the time to spell-check and take the time to get a general grip on the rules of punctuation, I would no more seek to standardize blog writing than I would seek to standardize any art form. Blogging is in part a REACTION against the strictures of writing for professional publication, and historically, reactions often hold up better than that which they were a reaction against. Do we remember the Academy/Salon or the Impressionist reaction against it? Of course there is more dross than gold, but that is what skimming is for. Seeking to inhibit the free blooming of the blogs is exactly the kind of top-down thinking that is the primary POLITICAL curse of this planet from communism to Islamofascism. Leave them alone and they will bear unimaginable fruit - fetter them and the yield will be niggardly.
posted by Eric at 3:38 PM

 

Waimea Valley/Canyon View


Waimea Canyon/Ocean View side
posted by Eric at 11:55 PM

 

"Matt, I am not sure Dot.con is the literary equivalent of Rabbit, Run, but it's good."
posted by Eric at 11:51 PM

 
Play the Tape Backwards
As I mentioned before, we're back (Dawn, Lily and I are back - Kristen and Christopher have another week in SoCal hanging with the western branch of the family). I am saying it again mostly to convince myself: the reality is having a hard time sinking in. I'm trying to come to grips with the trip, and I think the best way to mentally handle it is to run the tape backwards and see what jumps up.

After we got back to the motel from the amazing party Friday night at about 3:30am, we had to drag our groggy dead asses out of bed by 8:30am to catch the 11am flight back to Cleveland (by way of Cincinnati, of freaking course). We didn't get to LAX until 10am and were convinced we weren't going to make the flight, but we did with time to spare.

We seemed to move through the system (THIS time) as if it were set up for us alone. Kind of eerie, actually. I dropped Dawn and Lily and the shitload-o-luggage off in front of the Skycap, who seemed to be waiting for our personal arrival, returned the rental car with the ease and speed of flushing a toilet, and returned to find ourselves already ticketed, checked, and ready to head for the gate. We breezed through security as if we had Matrix-power and strolled to the gate just as boarding was beginning. Magical.

I believe the most tangible difference in life post-9/11 is felt by travelers every single day at airports, who now must really, truly, no shit be at the airport a full hour early or risk missing the flight, no kidding. When you are tired and stressed and irritable, it takes a full concentration of effort to not get bugged by the checking and rechecking of tickets, ID's, and carry-ons every time you turn around, but the CAUSE IS WORTHY and I found that as the trip went on my general stress level dropped, my inner mellow nudged aside my harsher tendencies and I came to take it all in stride. In fact, Dawn and I both noticed the fact that we were LESS STRESSED about air travel on this trip than we had been on the Cancun trip in May of last year, pre-9/11, or on the Australia trip in the fall of 2000.

We both think that all of the security, the attention to detail, the fact that everyone is aware of the dangers (we were at LAX nine days after the El Al shootings and everyone was hyper-efficient and especially courteous) has had the unintended effect - for us at least - of actually easing the internal stress of flying, which for Dawn in particular is not a minor anxiety, and one that had been increasing within me over the last several years as well. You get the sense that the aviation infrastructure is REALLY PAYING ATTENTION to their jobs, and all that mental energy and alertness to detail is the greatest guarantor of safety one could hope for.

My big personal realization of the trip is that, for better or for worse, I am finally ready to admit that I have an at least partially obsessive/addictive personality. The signs were there: I drank my way through the '80s, tried to moderate throughout, and finally had to just quit entirely for seven or eight years to snap out of it. I VERY gingerly started having the occasional sip in the late-'90s, I think because I felt safe with Dawn around: she didn't judge me for my past, but she would kick my ass if I got out of hand as well.

Reintroducing drinking has gone pretty well, so I'm not a hard core addictive personality. My excessive drinking in the '80s would appear to have been more of a habit than as a result of alcoholism, but my tendency to excess has expressed itself in other ways, the real danger of which is that there are at least surface benefits to some of this behavior. My two most recent excesses: blogging and recording.

I mention all of this because the break from blogging on the trip granted me the gift of perspective on my behavior and attitudes over the last year or so - since our last vacation in fact. I have a real problem with balance and tend to throw myself into things to the exclusion of other things. If the project is "productive" like recording music, or blogging, or writing a book, then I can ignore the obsessive aspects for the most part because I am "getting things done."

"Leave me alone, I'm accomplishing things," I say to my wife, children, friends, parents, etc. as I squeeze out a few more blog entries, or re-edit a song one more time and all of a sudden it's three hours later and I have missed showing up for dinner, or it's too late to play ball, or someone else already took out the trash, or whatever.

I am reminded of a line from the, um, classic film some of the kids were watching on the trip, Dunston Checks In, where Faye Dunaway (looking oddly like she had new teeth that didn't quite fit her mouth) said something to the effect of, "I love obsessive people because they get so much done." Well, yeah, but if they are only able to focus on one thing at a time - and that is basically my problem - then they neglect all of the other aspects of their lives and those they care about and those who care about them.

That's why I couldn't really blog on the trip: I had to concentrate on "vacationing" and throw myself into that mindset or miss out on the benefits a break has to offer, and blogging was something I just couldn't do on a partial basis. Even though I only wrote once a day for the first few days of the trip, I was spending a lot of time THINKING about what I was going to write and even found myself looking for something to jot ideas upon while I was wandering around in paradise:

"Hey, I'll be that I could use that sandlewood twig to etch out some notes on that coconut," or, "I could use those orchids for ink and write with a sea anemone quill on that bamboo, but even though bamboo is light, this one is 20' tall and that would require some serious logistical maneuvering." My thoughts of how little I was blogging while I was still ostensibly blogging were dragging me down and eating up brain-space and preventing full relaxation mode, so I said screw it.

Once I stopped trying to blog, I realized how much I enjoy blogging, but that I have let it come to dominate my thinking and especially my TIME over the last few months, and that it is now time to reintroduce some balance to my life and to return to other activities that I both want and need to do in order for my life to move forward and not suck.

Several people have asked me recently something along the lines of, "How do you write so much and so well on your site?" The embarrassing answer is by blogging 8-12 hours a day. I am very flattered by the "so well" part, and that is what I am going to concentrate upon, but there is no particular glory in writing vast amounts of blather when you don't accomplish anything else in the course of a day.

My excuse for spending so much time on the blog is that much of the material is applicable to the America.com book we have been working on for some time, but I need to directly return my attention to that project and several others I have neglected over the last few months. The vacations and hiatuses of many of my fellow bloggers further encourages me to realize I can blog less and enjoy it more. I am also convinced I can do a better job if I concentrate on a few main items a day rather than extrude an endless succession of words that contributes little and proves nothing other than that I am a logorrheic sesquipedalian.

In an effort to keep to my new resolve, I will hold off talking about the L.A. blogger party until tomorrow, but suffice it to say that Warren Zevon was the least interesting person there and I am a huge fan of his. Bloggers - or at least this batch - are exceptionally cool, interesting, intelligent, fun, social people; and having met them, I will deeply regret not being able to spend time with them in the near future. I miss you guys already.
posted by Eric at 6:52 PM

 
"It's So Good to Be Back at the Dexter Lake Club..."
Where to begin? We are back from Hawaii, SoCal and airports along the way - an amazing trip that ended with the best party I have attended since Paula Abdul was dancing naked (well, almost) on top of the bar at Billy Idol's house ('89, I think) - or maybe it was Billy Idol dancing on the bar at Paula Abdul's house. I drank a lot back then. You get the idea.

But the L.A. Blogbash/Alooza 2 at uberhost Brian Linse's (check out the pics!!) outrageously cool party pad in Laurel Canyon was great on about 17 different levels, the most gratifying of which was the realization of what tremendous company bloggers are (hadn't met any before other than Dawn), AND the realization that we ALL have so much more in common than whatever our political, stylistic, categorical, or existential differences may be. Much more later, of course.

Programming Note: I had every intention of blogging once or twice a day as evidenced by the posts from the beginning of the trip, but each post became more and more like pulling teeth and I realized that a vacation is a vacation and I wasn't doing justice to the blog or the trip by putting up nonsense just to put up nonsense. Hence my absence. I will certainly give a digested version of the trip soon, which is probably more interesting anyway.

IF YOU SENT ME AN EMAIL IN THE LAST TWO WEEKS, I DIDN'T GET IT. I didn't have access to it on the trip (probably for the best), and when I got back into it today, the volume of unread mail apparently BLEW UP MY ANTIQUATED SYSTEM. IF THERE IS ANYTHING YOU WOULD STILL LIKE ME TO SEE, PLEASE RESEND AND I WILL GET TO IT ASAP. Thanks for your patience!!

Back to unpacking and acclimating and squeezing out of my vacation haze, accentuated by 12 hours of sleep in response to the rigors of flight, time change and a variety of beers at Brian's house Friday night.
posted by Eric at 3:56 PM