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my list | helenacutting and pasting for idiots... | deborah
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Nothing starts your day worse off than slamming your fingers in a door.
Especially if your job involves lots of typing.
Ouch.
Though I’m a week late in reporting it, the Crooked Fingers/Delgados show (Sunday, 11/14) was indeed wonderful on several levels. (Had I known I was going to buy a T-shirt from CF front-man Eric Bachmann, I would have brought a Sharpie® along for him to scribble on it with…because yes, I am a shameless fanboy.)
That same weekend, ran into a geographer and fellow DJ friend of mine at his 30th birthday party. “Have you seen the new Hummer ad?” I asked. “Jack Drag!” he exclaimed, before my sentence was even completed. Now if only Forrest had been there… Clearly, one of our college radio contemporaries must have gone on to an ad career, which would explain why the 1998 track “Debutante” now backs up kaleidoscopic SUV imagery. I highly recommend digging up Jack Drag’s Dope Box. My endorsement does not extend to the purchase of a H2, however.
For readers not in DC, the past week has been a gorgeous Indian summer. For pathetically personal reasons—but also for the fraught, tenuous nature of the season itself—two songs stand out for me as the soundtrack for an unseasonably warm autumn day, both from the crop of 2001: Stars’ “Krush,” from The Comeback EP (“You lean in / And I get nervous / Think of leaving / To know the ending / There you are / There’s my doubt / You’re electric / I’m a power out”) and the box set reissue of Beat Happening’s “Indian Summer” (“We’ll come back for Indian summer / And go our separate ways / Cover me with rain”). Fitting songs for a fleeting faux-season.
And the Track You Should Be Listening To Right Now? I’ve been tossing a bunch of synthpop your way, so it’s about time I recommend something that rocks, or even rawks, as is the case with “Decent Days and Nights” by The Futureheads, off their self-titled record. I can’t say much about the lyrics (sung with a Scottish burr straight out of The Proclaimers’ “500 Miles”), but the guitar riffs are incredible: alternating 5- and 3-patterns set against the beat. Amazing stuff. (As usual, you can get clips of all of the above on Amazon, or request them—except "Krush" and “Debutante,” which contain swears—here.)
So Vilsack is out.
This means it's probably going to be Dean vs. someone...in my mind, most likely Alexis Harman or Simon Rosenberg. Rosenberg vs. Dean would be ideal, because some actual issues would be discussed.
My head and heart thing Dean would be the best, but Rosenberg would be the second best. So I'm happy either way.
Okay, so the name of the team is the awful Nationals..
The new logo sounds atrocious too.
There is one bright spot: whenever the team gets sold they can change the name and the logo...and best of all, it turns out the mayor was in the Grays corner all along:
Another choice -- the Grays, in reference to the old Negro League team -- lost out as well as baseball and team officials performed marketing studies and held focus groups to determine what the public might like best.
"The mayor was on Grays," Tavares said. "Bud was on Senators. I think you see a compromise candidate. But I don't want to sell it as that. I think it's a great name. I really do."
Despite the celebration surrounding the announcement, the name could well be temporary. The franchise is owned by the other 29 major league teams, and is currently up for sale. Baseball officials have said that a new ownership group would have the right to petition for a name change once it takes control of the club.
The team's red, white and blue color scheme is reflected in both the logo and the hats. Final decisions on uniforms are still being made, though the team will wear white at home and have an alternate red "Saturday" jersey, giving it more marketing options.
So ideally, someone new would snap up the team, produce cool black, white and gray unis, with the standard blue G, and we'd be back in business. Go Grays!
So, word on the street is the guys who designed T9 predictive text have now added support for Urdu to the upcoming 7.2 version.
No more having to type "HBP" anymore...you can just type "laugh out loud" in a few keystrokes on your phone!
Yes, they also added Bengali and Tamil support. These guys really rock.
So I guess the cross of gold man was a little too good at uniting the masses. Not behind labor rights, of course, but behind his side of the Scopes Monkey Trial. How else to explain this unbelievable poll?. How sad to see Bryan's twisted legacy in this.
From the site:
Only about a third of Americans believe that Charles Darwin's theory of evolution is a scientific theory that has been well supported by the evidence, while just as many say that it is just one of many theories and has not been supported by the evidence. The rest say they don't know enough to say. Forty-five percent of Americans also believe that God created human beings pretty much in their present form about 10,000 years ago. A third of Americans are biblical literalists who believe that the Bible is the actual word of God and is to be taken literally, word for word.
If anyone has a subscription to the gallup site, please let me see the rest of the text. I'd be interested to see their internals. Perhaps the large oversampling of Republicans influenced this poll as well?
I'm sure many of us received that email from Terry McAuliffe, just days after the election, asking us "so, how was it for you?" My response remained unsent..."Yeah, Terry, not so great. Not. So. Great." Terry sent a follow-up a day or so ago.
Now Michael at EchoDitto has written the definitive takedown of the DNC's halfhearted attempt at constructive dialogue...
I thought I was getting over the election results, until I received today's [yesterday's] email from the DNC. The subject line reads, "We heard you, and we're committed to fight."
Oh, really? What great news! Were you previously considering laying on the train tracks as a serious option until you heard from us? Glad that we cleared that up now instead of in '06.
This is the equivalent of asking everyone aboard a train wreck to fill out a customer satisfaction survey. Results? Great news! Everyone still wants to get to their final destination, so we're not going to cancel service and leave you face down in the mud.
I certainly appreciate the fact that someone inside DNHQ is thinking, "oh, i bet the internet would be a great medium through which Democrats everywhere could begin taking ownership for the future of the Party in their area so we don't get spanked again," but the effort came across as simply disingenuous, if not trite and insulting.
For your Monday morning reading pleasure...
this weekend, I learned that chivalry is not dead.
Hmm. Ever wonder what you should do with your life? Well, wonder no more....just head over here and start up a list. Use other people's suggestions if you like...like these:
spend more time underwater
learn tagalog
building basecamp into CivicSpace
figure out why the fuck we are trying to relive the dot-bomb days
Hear someone say "Oh, yeah! Him!"
And of course, my all time favorite:
as much damage as possible
Want to see my list?
An excellent way to waste time, to be sure.
In an effort to win new readers, Downie said Post reporters will be required to write shorter stories. The paper's design and copy editors will be given more authority to make room for more photographs and graphics.
The paper will undergo a redesign to make it easier for readers to find stories. It is considering filling the left-hand column of the front page with keys to stories elsewhere in the paper and other information readers say they want from the paper, which they often consider "too often too dull," Downie said.
"Newspapers should be fun and it should be fun to work at one," Bennett said.
Um, no. No. No. No!
Newspapers should not be fun, they should be informative. The WaPo has some of the best reporters out there with hard hitting stories below their bylines. Instead of making the front page a photo shoot, or putting a damn map to where important articles are, why not put the important articles on the front page where they belong. Hell, just have either of the two Danas, Walter Pincus, or David Broder write stories for above the fold, with Jonathan Weisman, T.R. Reid, Helen Dewar and Charles Babington sharing below the fold duties.
Yeah, I don't know any foreign reporters...but having at least two world stories on the front page would also be a good idea.Getting rid of the "Sunday Source" would be fine.
In the end, the WaPo is at its best when it covers politics with the gloves off. I think my changes would do a much better job than the proposed ones at highlighting what the Post does best. I'd buy a daily subscription to the Post if they did that...would you?
Head here to see the breakdown of who voted for the DeLay Rule.
Who'd of thought? Frank Wolf and Tom Davis...one a man of principle, the other a man of politics. Both realized that the DeLay Rule was bad for the GOP.
Yes, I changed the RDF feed for the site.
No, you didn't notice.
Oh, man, the AFI just came out with a much better idea: have a contest for the top 100 movie quotes of all time.
Of course, they package them all as a stupid pdf file but I decided to forego that and just repackage them as html here.
Some of my favorites:
47 CLYDE BARROW - We rob banks.
54 MAJ. CLIPTON - Madness. Madness.
59 BUTCH CASSIDY - Kid, the next time I say, “Let's go someplace like Bolivia,” let's go someplace like Bolivia.
112 JOHN MERRICK - I am not an animal! I am a human being. I am a man.
And, of course, the obligatory quote:
121 TYLER DURDEN - First rule of Fight Club is -- you do not talk about Fight Club.
Okay, I only made it through the first 130...and I ignored the choice Airplane/Marx Brother quotes...what do you guys think? Any other gems in the later ones?
In bygone days, Brad, Helena and I used to get holiday cards. It was always an unwieldy process, and one that I am glad I don't have to do. (The sheer number of cards and addresses was staggering...not to mention the photos!)
With that said, I am always fond of looking at cool new cards, especially the ones that we could never get because of their sheer price. The ones that were designed well, or sold by MoMA at a huge markup, etc. I think today I've found some that would've worked perfectly.
Maybe next year.
After being incredibly proud of myself for including block quotes in the last post, I managed to post it twice. The only option was to edit, not delete, so I am now posting for no other reason than to make it appear like I'm less of an idiot than I am. Enjoy.
I would be willing to put a fair bit of cash on the taz being the farthest-left newspaper in Germany, but even so, I was surprised to find the following reaction to the Bundeswehr's decision to provide air support to the African Union in Sudan:
German non-govermental organizations were horrified by the announcement. A deployment of white Christian soldiers in the war zones of the Sudan, it was said, would be understood by the ruling regime as a declaration of war. The re-election of US President George W. Bush with the help of the fundamentalist Christian right on November 2nd has already led to fears in the Sudan of an active Western interventionist policy.
Isn't stopping genocide supposed to be good? I thought USAID was the one respectable government agency we had left...
This is the first time I've seen art go "viral"--especially installation art.
Title: There Is Nothing Wrong In This Whole Wide World Author: Chris Cobb Photos: Pushby.com/tomas Interview: McSweeney's
This brings up the question different sorts of viral. We generally think of it as an email phenomenon, like Jesusland or even NoIraqDraft. But this demonstrates what I think of as "blog viral," something that gets posted again and again on personal and community blogs. It's really the perfect post, because at the same time it says "check out this cool thing I found" and "I am not merely a slave to technology! I too appreciate Art and Books and Other Such Refined Tastes." I suppose it's the blog equivalent of a coffee-table book.
I hope Chris Cobb does something with this success--data-captures, or even simply puts up a link to more of his work. Opportunities like this are an open door. Thousands of people are suddenly excited about art. Sure, a lot of them will click away and forget about it. But if you can grab a few and start to take them deeper and get them involved in a meaningful way--that's how it should be.
Without further explanation, a partial list of things I found in my attic:
- One pair of red lips that make a noise when you put them in your mouth.
- A set of mustaches, one for each day of the week, with names ranging from "the grandpa" to "the weasel".
- A Japanese postcard from 1950.
- A receipt from a service station during 1955. Total cost for new tires: $4.50.
- A diary I wrote in Arizona in 2000 during Winter Study.
- A notebook I wrote during my senior seminar class consisting of short satirical sketches of the other students.
- A piece of the floor that was, in fact, a door. It had a keyhole.
More stuff later...
On other restaurant related news, ABP has finally broken down and entered the 20th century by deciding to accept credit cards at all their locations in DC. In honor of this occasion, I went there today and enjoyed an incredibly tasty sandwich. Why, I wonder, did they take so long? Now I'll be a regular customer...
The VP just e-mailed me to say the new Clydes at Gallery Place/Chinatown won't be open until June of 2005. Drat. I was really looking forward to getting some of their delicious chili there this winter.
The cab assassins are on strike.
Starting right this minute!
For the record, I love the zone system. My house and work are both in one zone. So I say we keep it. Just make the cabbies take credit cards...that would be nice.
after a year of surprisingly good sequels like innocence and the bourne supremacy i'm pretty used to entering with low expectations and coming out in a good mood. but sometimes you just want to be entranced from the beginning - and it's been a long time for that. so with apologies to you spiderman 2 fans, there's simply not a better movie this year than the incredibles.
whether it's the shamelessly lifted bond music or the homages to action movies and cartoons of lore, every second is fun. i'm not prone to hyperbole, but when you find out that one of the bad 'bots is patterned after maximillian well, enough said, right? go see the film, trust me...
Warning: geeky rant ahead. Yesterday I discovered that our mailserver, which allows users to check their mail through the web, didn't allow them to send messages to distribution lists stored on the server.
Idiotic.
I continually am amazed that software products are made that arbitrarily limit useful information. Microsoft's big directory system, "Active Directory" is actually a cool product that enables sysadmins to pull up information about everyone and everything. Within limits, of course. And that's where the problem starts: MS's big mail software, Exchange, integrates into AD to allow users to enumerate information from the directory. So far, so good. But as soon as you start adding contacts and distribution lists, even to the server itself, Exchange begins to store that data in another place, a place where AD is not to be found.
Consequently, when a user outside the network wishes to send an e-mail to a contact stored in Exchange's inappropriately named "public folders" you get a big fat error. Why? Simple. Microsoft decided not to let ordinary users enter information into the directory, at the risk of contaminating it with useless information. This sounds fine until you realize that even administrators are unable to create useful information in AD. I can, for instance, create an external contact in AD, with a name and an e-mail address. But should I try to tie that information to Exchange, nothing happens. There's no way to create a user for e-mail purposes without creating a full blown user account on the server.
This is a problem with directories: the need to only identify objects within the scope of an organization. Novell seems ahead of Microsoft on the directory side of things, but still seems targeted to huge organizations that can afford a hefty price.
Where are the open-source people in this? Where's the open source answer to exchange? Or really, to any group-management solution? What I want is an open source database that I can use to send e-mails, set up appointments, track projects, etc. Of course, this means it needs to be tied into an extensible directory. One directory with all the information. Something that can be spanned across multiple servers so that if any one node fails, the whole system keeps running. Right now, my directory goes down completely if one box goes down. That's unacceptable. The same issue exists for e-mail: if my e-mail server goes down, we have no more mail.
I want something I can throw onto two boxes I network together which will handle anything I throw at it. Full redundancy. Full failover. No single point of failure. It needs to be running a directory service that lets me drill down to every machine in the network and pull up hardware information, software configurations, etc. It needs to be able to restrict access to certain features so that I can give standard users a complete barebones setup. And it needs to be free.
It doesn't exist yet. But who will build it?
Okay, my current RSS feed tool, feedreader is perfect except for one flaw: a huge memory leak. It ends up sucking up around 140 megabytes of memory....just for some stupid text feeds. So I tried to ditch it yesterday and get Tristana which again, would be perfect, except for it doesn't allow you to quickly "mark all as read" for any particular rss feed. So I'm not happy with it.
My question to you guys: do you have any favorite RSS readers? That are free?