multi.and.meta

Slumdog Millionaire award-winning actress Rubina Ali loses home in fire

2011-03-05T23:14:00.000-08:00

The young actress who played the girl child in Slumdog Millionaire has lost her home in a large fire that spread through the illegal shanty town in which she lives in north Mumbai. Though she was promised an apartment after the success of the film, I guess they never got it for her?.....which is horror #2 in this story.

Read the BBC article.

Rubina is about 12 now. She was even cast in a Bollywood film after Slumdog. Why isn't someone with power doing more about her life situation? The section on the trust fund is interesting...and possibly quintessentially Western sketchiness.

TV: Wolverines are more awesome than you think.

2011-02-25T12:41:00.000-08:00

"The wolverine is perhaps the least known mammal in North America and one of the least studied large carnivores in the world"
--Wolverine: Chasing the Phantom

Great episode of PBS's Nature.
Who knew actual wolverines were so interesting? They're like a dog plus a bear. They do not, however, have adamantium claws. What makes up for this reality is the fact that you will get to watch a full-grown man narrate the 1st-person experience of a wolverine :)

Watch it free at hulu or at PBS.com.

Exciting news in the world of Sci-fi television

2011-02-25T11:49:00.000-08:00

Warning: shameless geekery and fandom ahead.

1) Firefly:
As a result of the SyFy network deciding to re-air the original season of Firefly, new life juice has been injected into the Bring-Firefly-Back movement. Who knows where this particular tributary of the river will lead--the organizers seem to be quite realistic about the likelihood of new episodes of Firefly starting up. But, I will continue to hold strong hope that the Browncoats will succeed in the end, as they certainly should. I think we are in a completely different cultural place from where we were in 2002. We are in a place of accelerated intersectionality. We are beginning to almost fetishize the blatant mash-up of genres. Mmmmm...delicious.
The Facebook Group and
Help Nathan Buy Firefly

2) Star Trek:
Netflix made a deal with CBS to offer ALL GENERATIONS of Star Trek for instant streaming. THANK THE GODS.

A genuine first reaction:

why i write...TED: Sheena Iyengar on The Art of Choosing

2010-08-05T09:15:00.000-07:00

this video is not only excellent, entertaining, and addressing some of the most interesting conflicts in culture(s), it articulates a core reason why i write. i grew up in a house with parents that represented diametrically opposing cultural views on choice and the nature of the individual...so instead of choosing a camp, i became a poet and a buddhist sympathizer--always inhabiting the borerlands.

Analogy as the Core of Cognition

2010-03-11T07:41:00.000-08:00

here is Douglas Hofstadter on "Analogy as the Core of Cognition"
from the Stanford Presidential Lecture Series in the Humanities and Arts.

sit down with some fruit and coffee/pizza and beer, and settle in for the hour. it's worth it.

Human + iPhone = Cyborg

2010-02-10T07:01:00.000-08:00

Check out this Wired.com article about how an American filmmaker was crushed and stranded under Haitian earthquake rubble for nearly 3 days...and survived thanks to his iPhone.

Man Buried in Haiti Rubble Uses iPhone to Treat Wounds, Survive

TED Talks: Sendhil Mullainathan

2010-02-05T14:51:00.000-08:00

Your mind lies--or just gets confused--in the final mile of a long journey. This is an opportunity.

Dawn Dish Soap Commercial--a response

2009-09-01T16:17:00.000-07:00

I was work multi-tasking, with the tv on in the background, and this commercial came on:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUkOgE4K7j4

and it evoked in me some very strong feelings.

1. It's a smart use of fuzzy animals. Watching videos of cute and cuddly creatures is oh so popular. Many blogs prove.

2. Saving animals from oil spills is a very particular aleviation of human guilt--if anything is a sounding signal of our materialistic human greed, it's oil. Dawn helps you save animals and alliviate your guilt.

3. All this is somehow revolting.

I was initially revolted by the use of ducklings to sell dish soap...

but I have to respect the smart marketing. I'm going to check up on whatever marketing numbers I can find for that commercial.

Thoughts? Feelings? Responses?

Why Social Media Matters--a video for your viewing pleasure

2009-08-27T16:28:00.000-07:00

My friend and colleague, the social media maven Kerianne Mellott posted this video on her blog today. Because of my job (and general marriage to the internet), I end up spending a lot of time explaining why social media matters.

Here are the numbers. Watch it. love it.

Poetry in the Morning--Session 1

2009-07-31T21:57:00.000-07:00

Here is the first session of my Youtube project Poetry in the Morning where I read work that inspires me, straight out of bed, with maybe a little coffee in my system.

Poetry in the Morning--Session 1: "Switching" from Juliana Spahr's Fuck You--Aloha--I Love You

Harry Potter v. Star Trek--the epic battle begins

2009-06-21T18:28:00.000-07:00

one of the things i can’t get over, after a lifetime of star trek…why are their photos normal? normal frames. normal static 2-d images.

in Harry Potter v. Star Trek:

HP -1
ST-0

...and the battle begins.

Hire Me Now

2009-06-21T18:20:00.000-07:00

Someone offer me an awesome writing/researching/house sitting/social media'ing/landscape designing/meditation instructing/organization coaching/editing/curriculum building/kid or dog training/house staging/marketing job. in the San Francisco area, or telecommute.

I'm awesome, and I have solid evidence.

kcerda@gmail.com

Getchyo New Media Art On--M.A.T. show at UC-Santa Barbara

2009-06-09T12:01:00.000-07:00

I left work early yesterday to drive up to Santa Barbara and see the end of year show for the Media Art & Technology program at UCSB. It was awesomely held at the Calfornia Nanosystems Institute. I went to support my partner in crime's boyfriend and his work...but I also wanted to check out the work coming out of the program since I recently finished my time at the Center for Integrated Media at CalArts...competing programs and all.

What I saw was a lot of concern with the z-axis. Every program has its trends. At CIM this year it was about looking at the differences between metaphor and metonymy, and the issues surrounding highly participatory (often Relational) art. The MAT boys (and like 3 girls) were all really interested in negotiating virtual space. Some of the work was interesting--Andres Burbano's new take on the camera obscura for example--but largely it fell flat for me. A lot of the pieces would have been better had the tracking been tighter, the sensor delays shorter, etc...but I was a bit bored.

Karl Yerke's hard disk reclamation work was strong. He takes objects whose carbon footprints have already been spent, re-works them, and turns them into tools for music. Interesting outcomes, and satisfying interface.

I got to check out the Allosphere, and talked with JoAnn Kuchera-Morin who recently spoke at TED, which is a life goal for me (TED, not talking to her). It was a nice merging of my current world (art, new media) and my hopefully world-to-be, NeuroPsych.

Soon I'm going to have to post on the far more interesting part of this trip--the sociological craziness. The smell of douche/tool was thick in the air, but more on that later.

Football(soccer) + poetry = the Brits are rockin' it

2009-06-05T11:27:00.000-07:00

The place of poetry in Western culture is a tricky thing. Here in the States we are probably more hostile towards the genre(s) than anywhere else. Poetry is for sissies (or at least girls), poetry is boring or too hard to understand--these are so often the assumptions i come across when i mention poetry to non-writers (ok let's face it, also when talking with some strictly-prose writers too).

i think this is a bunch of regurgitated bullshit. Most people who say these sorts of things haven't read more than a few Shakespeare sonnets and some Robert*vomit*Frost...i'm sorry to all the Frost fans, it's not that he was without skill and importance, i just can't get on board...

i found this video on sexartandpolitics' tumblr.
football + poetry video

The moral of the story: real men read poetry. What dude isn't going to score by busting out with some Rilke or Rumi? C'mon...

And for your reading pleasure i offer you this small list of links to poems i dig.

The Ballad of the Lonely Masturbator--Anne Sexton

Letter To the Woman Who Stopped Writing Me Back--Jeffrey McDaniel

The Quiet World--Jeffrey McDaniel

Book of the Things I Put Down My Bra--Elena Georgiou

After Rothko--Michelle Naka Pierce

A motley band of poetry missionaries...that's my next plan.

(I Love You M.I.T. Press...)

2009-06-03T08:29:00.001-07:00

university presses....when they're endangered, we're all fucked.

here's an article from Inside Higher Ed

The Changing World of Slam Poetry

2009-06-02T17:25:00.001-07:00

The New York Times:
Is Slam in Danger of Going Soft?

Establishing boundaries in the development of the information society.

2009-02-01T12:53:00.000-08:00

Robert Darnton on Google & the Future of Books
from the New York Review of Books.

The beginning meanders through the Enlightenment way too long, but it eventually picks up speed.

My uncle baffles me sometimes…

2009-02-01T12:36:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer: though this will sound like criticism, I actually mean this to be more of a neutral set of observations. Like watching beetles in the wild.

My uncle has lived in West L.A. for 30 years; he’s a liberal Hollywood type, well educated, well traveled. But, at the end of the day he is a baby-boomer man from the South, raised by a father who was kind of a selfish dick.

I am often surprised by things he says… for example, that feminists are anti-sex. His wife and daughters are obviously feminists, and none of them seem to have any sort of hang-ups about sex. Or his continued hope-in-vain that the internet’s affect on all media will just be a passing phase—slash—the internet is destroying the economy. Or, “My friend ___ is coming over to watch some football on the HD. So, don’t get scared if you hear us shouting.” As if I would assume there were gang fights breaking out on the mean streets of Westwood.

My uncle often takes whatever he wants with this sense of entitlement that I can really only characterize as old(ish) rich white male. (This isn’t white man hate. I love many rich white men. Many of them do amazing things on this planet.) He doesn’t do it out of malice, or any kind of special selfishness. It just doesn’t even occur to him to do otherwise (I should pause at this point to say that he is, by no means, a master of the nuances of emotion, though he is a really gifted big picture guy). If I didn’t know him, I think I would often be offended by these sorts of behaviors, but I do know him to be an upstanding and well-meaning guy, so I’m mostly just fascinated and want to do anthropological studies on him.

I started thinking about writing about all this because I was doing laundry. The basket I always use is a little bigger than the others because I only get the time to do laundry every couple of weeks (i have a lot of clothes…) I had pulled his laundry out of the dryer so I could insert mine. I left the larger basket sitting on top of the washer. His clothes were piled into the little basket. It all stayed in a pile, but it was more than should be in that little basket. I came back 30 min. later and his clothes were now in the big basket, space left over, and he had left me the small one.

I know that this wasn’t a “fuck you”…he just wanted the bigger basket, “a basket fit for a man,” I’m sure he’d say. And then I think about how it would never even occur to me to seize the basket someone else is obviously using. Who does that kind of thing?! The answer: a space cadet rich white baby-boomer man from the South.

Aliens in their habitats--nothing more fascinating.

You can dress your kid like a fundamentalist Mormon

2008-07-01T19:42:00.000-07:00

The pictures of prairie children...the "teen" dresses...there is just no end to my fascination with the FLDS.

fldsDress.com

Dolphin mass suicide

2008-06-13T09:24:00.001-07:00

26 dolphins were found beached on the Cornwall coast. Because their lungs and stomachs were filled with mud and debris, some scientists are thinking it may have been a mass suicide. This Guardian article, despite its headline, leaves the issue pretty open-ended.

Dolphins are one of the animals believed to be most similar to humans emotionally. They exhibit complex communication strategies with each other and with humans, and are able to negotiate situations that require a good deal of higher order thinking.

I'm not quite sure what to make of this idea of dolphins committing suicide en masse, especially in such a brutal way.

Apparently it's popular in Texas...

2008-06-13T08:15:00.000-07:00

Drank is the new "anti-energy drink" designed specifically for the hip hop community. It's grape flavored, it's spiked with a bunch of herbs and compounds to mellow you out...it's actually called Drank! On the can (see here in this Village Voice article...thanks Syd!) is something that looks like a cough syrup bottle...or as we here on the 3rd coast like to call it, a sizzurp bottle. There is no attempt to obfuscate what's going on with this product;
and that makes me appreciate it even more.

Charles Babbage's 8,000 parts

2008-05-21T08:27:00.000-07:00

Charles Babbage's Difference Engine #2 has been built (see: 1849 calculating machine; it's like a 19th century hand-cranked computer...très sexi....)

Wired offers us a little video about it here.

It's on display until May 2009 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, about 45 minutes from San Francisco proper.

Libraries are sexi...

2008-05-08T23:27:00.000-07:00

Recently, a friend was telling me that if she does ever decide to get married, she wants to get married in a big library because libraries are her equivalent of a cathedral. Now, this friend often says brilliant things, but this tidbit on wedding locations seemed particularly delicious. People get married in all kinds of lame places (beaches, prisons, bars), why not a gorgeous library surrounded by the great texts of our species? Libraries are locations of a particular kind of atemporality which seems particularly appropriate for a ceremony that is suppose to bind you to another for the rest of time.

And then I happened upon this post from The Nonist.
Libraries are hot. Prepare yourself for some hot hot smut...

Modern Love

2008-05-04T00:41:00.000-07:00

this is really excellent.

Medical Marijuana may finally get the feds off its ass.

2008-04-23T08:33:00.000-07:00

It's refreshing to hear your presidential candidate...any candidate, really....say that going after medical marijuana is not a priority because there are REAL problems on which to spend our resources. Though the Bush administration seems to think that busting growers supplying the granny glaucoma market is just as important as stamping out violent crime and terrorism, you can tell from Barack's and the H-bomb's tones that they find it all pretty ridiculous.

It's this kind of rationalism that brings me small sprigs of hope. Now, the fact that the simple use of logic has become noteworthy...well that's a different issue.

(Warning: this post occurred before coffee) The Brits are bringing sexy back...

2008-04-19T09:27:00.001-07:00

I know it seems a confusing statement, perhaps; they are, after all, British. This is not to say that Brits can't be sexy, it's just that I don't normally think of them as a bunch who "bring the sexy," so to speak. That is a job I normally leave to the French, their better dressed and better fed neighbors. The design for the new UK coins is out and here's what they look like.

I'm pleased with the choice. The designer of these new coins is Matthew Dent, a 26 year old Welsh man, proving once again that it's the young who seem best equipped to bring the sexy, especially to the Royal Mint, of all unsexy places. (There is, of course, a cut-off for this age statement. Below 20 or 21 one starts to encounter frighteningly unsexy things in the land of adolescent tastes.)

Hooray for the UK and its hot new coinage. Now, the issue of these coins still being in Pounds and not Euros is a whole other issue...

Upside: no lions

2008-04-14T21:26:00.000-07:00

Maasai warrior's diary documenting his experiences of being in London for the first time for the London Marathon

"Everyone took photos of us, not the soldiers and horses. We are looking at one culture, and everyone is looking at us."

In looking for the whites of their eyes...

2008-04-11T21:28:00.000-07:00

What exists in the intimate mingling of art and science is truly amazing.
At M.I.T. they're visualizing viruses. It's interesting to consider the question "What does the trojan fucking up my computer actually look like?" The fact that this work is being commissioned by internet security professionals as a way of showing the customer what they're up against also speaks to the ever-increasing visual nature of our culture.

Icons are what we know best.

And more strange things occur thanks to our gluttony

2008-04-11T09:56:00.000-07:00

Chile's magical disappearing lakes; river tsunamis.

TextMap

2008-04-05T23:07:00.000-07:00

I sort of tripped on this TextMap weblocation while in the process of more nefarious internet activities. I love the concept of this (perhaps it is a widespread approach I've simply missed...) This would be a great way to build a tightly controlled search engine for children (dibs on this idea).

Arbeit macht frei...

2008-04-05T08:51:00.000-07:00

The modern running of the Olympic torch from Greece to the hosting country began with the 1936 Berlin Olympics; yes, this act of transcultural peace & pride came to us compliments of the Third Reich. Sometimes the sheer literary quality of this life is so filling you just can't help but chuckle at it.

I am generally rather suspicious of French President, Nicolas Sarkozy. To me he is a slippery character with a little too much hunger for status and wealth. Not to mention that he's pissing off his own people by messing with their laissez-faire pleasure-is-a-humanRight culture. BUT this being said, I think he's making an interesting move on the China v. Tibet front (the French do love their Buddhists.)

BBC reports that France's human rights minister, Rama Yade said:

"'Three conditions are indispensable for him to go,' she said.

'An end to violence against the population and the release of political prisoners, investigation of the events in Tibet and the opening of dialogue with the Dalai Lama.

'These discussions should be about the recognition of Tibetan autonomy and the spiritual, religious and cultural identity of Tibetans.'"

Bold; I like it. I wonder if they'll really follow through. Personally, I hope a full boycott happens. It's economically terrifying, but the fact that we're nearing the end of the first decade of the 21st century and situations like what is currently happening in Tibet are happening all the time as the world sits by and stares at their feet...it's atrocious.

They're targeting monks for heaven's sake. These are people who have dedicated their lives to the practice of nonviolence and loving compassion. They have taken a vow to return to this hamster wheel of existence until all living beings are liberated from the toils of reincarnation and can reach Nirvana. I'm almost embarassed for the Chinese government.

Google puts an end to late college papers

2008-03-31T22:39:00.000-07:00

April First is a truly underrated holiday.

Gmail Custom Time

Metacommentary: revisting the I

2008-03-27T23:07:00.001-07:00

After further consideration I've certainly decided that a strict journalistic I is incredibly boring; there is nothing truly interesting to do with that body of language, and it's a flat and ineffectual voice in which to discuss events. It was an interesting thought process, but no. It borders on an affront to my aesthetics, so i'm over it.

in computer time

2008-03-27T23:01:00.000-07:00

(I love a good Woot-Off; it makes the hours so much more exciting.)

Sidenote: Whitney Biennial

2008-03-21T17:39:00.000-07:00

Right now @ the Whitney Biennial 18 out of 81 artists are associated with CalArts.

Fantastic!

metacommentary: the I

2008-03-21T16:47:00.000-07:00

With this particular blog I'm interested in exploring the typical norms of blogging, or the act when it isn't largely for personal consumption. What I keep encountering in my posting, or pondering of posting, is this line that seems to exist between the public and private spheres. The role of the author in a typical current events/culture blog can range from simply regurgitating straight facts and articles, to an ongoing opinions column with little reference to the outside media. Somewhere on the more conservative side of that continuum is what is interesting to me at the moment.

But, where does the border region exist? I come from a writing tradition that engages heavily with the author's subjectivity, both through playing with personal languages and through utter negation of an author's presence. The I is comfortably present within many blogs, but it's a very formal and detached journalistic I.

I have to admit that there is also, for me, the presence of a subtle self-consciousness that arises from the fact that I am a woman. Self-reflection & non-linear insertion as opposed to a more distant self-reflexivity occurring in the serving of facts, are elements often associated with "feminine writing." And historically this is a way of engaging with language that is less valued in male-dominated circles.

Point:
It's interesting to navigate these terrains. Fresh topographies can bring out the most generative (internal)discourses.

Everything's better in French

2008-03-19T15:09:00.000-07:00

Perhaps one of the biggest ways overlapping cultures influence each other over time is through the assimilation of each other's words. About 40% of English is derived from French. (This along with the Norman conquest in 1066 are my favorite things to think about when confronted with Francophobia.)

The French government is working hard to single out English words that have seeped into French culture (le mail, le spam, le cowboy) and then replace them with truly French words. The post linked below offers a nice little discussion of this initiative, the French language, and the realities intersecting it past and present. Personally, I got a nice little chuckle at the part describing how tact is originally from French.

It's a long post, but really worth the investment:
Charles Bremner on the eve of International Day of the French-speaking World.

Spring comes early

2008-03-19T14:07:00.000-07:00

Good news: better tasting wines
Bad news: mass species starvation

Things are about to get really really bad in Tibet

2008-03-17T15:14:00.000-07:00

Beijing seals off Tibet as deadline for protesters passes

And this is how China Daily sees it

The total blunder that is our presence in Iraq

2008-03-17T12:01:00.000-07:00

From the NYT, yet another example of the Bush administration's complete inability to think things through (poor Colin Powell...):

Fateful choice on Iraq Army Bypassed Debate

Dubai's "The World"

2008-03-17T10:26:00.000-07:00

This is an interesting time of transition for us as we move towards greater and greater acceptance of the fact that the planet is no longer so pleased with us, and the inevitable global spanking we're going to receive has already begun. I truly believe (and I think there are many with me on this) that a complete restructuring of the ways in which we interact with our environment is absolutely necessary right now.

"The World" off the coast of Dubai is a real estate development of an amazing magnitude; it's made up of 300 artificial islands that together form the shape of the world map. The developers have taken open water, piled a bunch of rock and sand on top of each other until land stands above the water, and then they reinforce the perimeters. The rhetorical games Nakheel, the project's developer, is playing on the topic of environmental impact are almost funny, claiming that they are in fact helping the marine life of the area. More space for coral reefs to develop? What is going to happen to all these new reefs when the islands and all their waterfront propery are populated by the world's richest people? An article in The Economist poses a great questions:

And focusing on what goes on under the water risks ignor[ing] a bigger question:
where is all the fresh water for this paradise coming from? Dubai is famous for a number of things; not among them is a plentiful supply of water. So where do they get water for the swimming pools, spas, gardens, dishwashers and hotel laundries? Most of it comes from desalination plants, which expend a lot of energy and release plenty of carbon dioxide.

Brilliant. It's wonderful that there are now more people choosing the bike over the car, and buying their food more consciously. But, severe ecological negligence like The World project must stop. Nakheel (and those who benefit from them) is like an ostrich with its head in the sand. With government/scientific reports popping up everyday warning of impending global water shortages, building another island oasis off the coast of the Arabian Desert is the last thing we need to be doing.

Feminism in the North

2008-03-15T17:27:00.000-07:00

Swedish Prostitutes

Re: the red pill

2008-03-15T15:50:00.000-07:00

unclicked links = blue
clicked links = red

Quick! Prepare the hemlock...

2008-03-15T13:42:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Ron Silliman's blog I've happened upon two interesting tidbits from The Toronto Star.

First, the director of the Leo Baeck Jewish Day school in Toronto was found to have graphic poems on his personal website (oh no!), and the parents of these k-8 students want him sacked. The more enlightened of the bunch say it's not about the existence of the pieces, it's that he chose to put them out into the public sphere.

Second, the naughty poems article built on the precedent of drama going down at Ryerson University where a freshman moderated (but did not originally start) a Facebook study group for his chemistry class. Specific homework tips passed about the group by its various members, according to the university, counts as cheating so they want to expel the group's moderator. The focus on the group, in practice, was not giving others final solutions to problems, but to brainstorm approaches to the problems. Which brings me to today's analogy du jour...

social networking sites : my generation(and on) : :
rock 'n roll : the BabyBoomers

Their rules are shifty, they challenge many social norms...and they lead to sex&drugs? They're an opportunity for dark characters to get their hands on our virginal youth. They're obviously the devil's playground.

The issue of the educator and his poems is a tricky one. I understand it could be disturbing to be the parent of a 6 year old and then see poems about sex and murder written by the person in charge of your kid's education, but it's completely unreasonable to expect someone to censor their creative work because they also work at a school. The argument that he should have known better than to put them out in public raises issues of ownership of private spaces. Do these parents own who this Prashker guy is outside of school? Do they own the personas he portrays in the metaverse? Why does visceral expression mean you're automatically unfit to deal with kids? All of these things also seem to be dependent on the assumption that a human being is a stable and coherent self. It's hard to accept that maybe the really nice and genuine guy who waves at you when you come to pick up your progeny is also the guy who wrote misogynistic murder scenes, and that those two elements really can live together in a single person in a totally healthy and organic way.

These are questions that often pass through my mind as someone who wants to teach and as someone who also writes "challenging" work. It's actions like those of these parents that keeps a lot of artists relegated to some kind of fringe status in the "productive world." If you engage with certain ideas/discourses on a regular basis and dare to not shamefully hide it away, you pose a threat to the very stability of society(?) You're unsuitable to be around the young? For some, simply unsuitable.

Trapped in the ring.

2008-03-15T12:43:00.000-07:00

I was in a workshop a few days ago, and the drone of pointless comments being bounced around the table pushed me out of my seat and floating off into space. After visiting several possible scenarios of the small events of the next few months, making a mental list of items to Ebay, and a few not-so-deep thoughts on the history of pen construction, my awareness phased back in to the conversation right as someone said, "...one ring..." I had zero idea what the topic was, I can't even say that I was certain we were still talking about the same person's work, but being still half off somewhere in the ether, i jumped in without missing a beat and said aloud, "to rule them all, one ring to find them..."

Everyone froze in silence; I didn't finish the line. (really the messed up part of this story is that there were only two people in a room of 15 who vaguely got the reference. The Rings are straight up canonical; what kind of writers are these people?)

The point?
The point is that the infiltration of media into the meta regions of my un/conscious mind is something that never ceases to amaze me. That my brain will trigger mouth muscles and chest muscles, will pair symbols with semantic content to expel a series of sounds that somehow compliment another set of sounds...all done absent of conscious will, it's a little disconcerting.

Our interactions with the world (whatever that is) are increasingly mediated by devices. But, direct interfacing seems less culturally dangerous than all the things announcing little soundbytes into the air, flashing messages at us as we pass by. It is the repeated passive consumption of letting Fellowship of the Ring play in the background while working/cleaning/sewing that allowed my brain to spit out the corresponding part simply at the mention of "one ring," with essentially no conscious thought or choice around it. We are biological creatures (mostly), and it's amazing just how mutable that makes us.

The ultimate male...

2008-01-20T13:19:00.000-08:00

picture it:

Captain Picard + President Bartlet = Picartlet

Getting your download on: more questions than answers

2008-01-14T22:44:00.000-08:00

I live in Los Angeles, I’m a writing student, and my uncle is a screenwriter; the topic of the WGA strike is a pretty ubiquitous one in my day-to-day life. One of the big issues the Writers Guild is wrestling with is compensation for digital downloads.

Every few weeks the Uncle and I start talking about the strike and it inevitably leads to a throw down on whether illegal downloading will eventually be wiped out forever. He says surely it will, I say ehhh not so much. He is one of these people (and I love many of them) who thinks that Free Market Capitalism will always eventually correct itself and remain the best economic option we have. (this statement is pretty loaded, but i'm leaving it there for now all on its own.)

Should the experience of art be limited by your financial resources? As the supposed land of milk and honey, is it right for us to say you can only be enriched by certain arts if you have the disposable income for it? Is this the best way to cultivate art and ideas within our culture? Does this simply contain certain discourses within particular groups/realms of power?

I personally feel one should not have to choose between good music and going to the doctor. But, I also think artists should be compensated for their work. It seems to me that a big part of the problem is the structure of the system that exists between me and that artist.

In an imperfect world, what is the best balance between these factors?

A Beginning Point

2008-01-13T16:36:00.000-08:00

FasterNewerShinierSmootherSmaller.PrettierPackaging.

No need to leave your car. No need to speak to the neighbors.

Multiple things, all at once, always.