Happy Halloween every bloody!
Issue 57: here's an equivocator that could swear in both the scales against either scale
Monday, October 30, 2006
Fortune
Is that really a fortune? Come on, fortunes are supposed to tell you something about the future, right, not some inane statement about personality traits.
Wow, I guess I just proved that fortune wrong.
Friday, October 27, 2006
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Overrated/Underrated
Pinot noir/Cabernet sauvignon
19th Century British Novelists
George Elliott/Anthony Trollope
20th Century British Novelists
D.H. Lawrence/Iris Murdoch
20th Century Poets
T.S. Elliot/Theodore Roethke
Philosophy
Post-structuralism/Existentialism
Cocktails
Mojito/Standard Martini
Distillations of philosophies
"Be all you can be"/"Know thyself"
Alcoholic authors
F. Scott Fitzgerald/Dorothy Parker
70's Album Rockers
Pink Floyd/Yes
Politics
Ronald Reagan/Jimmy Carter
Farming
Round-Up[TM]/Manure
Pets
Dogs/Fish
Stravinsky Musical Compositions
Rite of Spring /L'Histoire du Soldat
20th Century Minimalist Composers
Phillip Glass/Steve Reich
Opera
Nixon in China/Girl from the Golden West
Cars
Saab/Ford
Renaissance Despots
Henry VIII/Cosimo D'Medici
Fraternal Organizations
Lions/Elks
Jazz Basketball
Andrei Kirilinko/Devon Williams
Basketball Coaches
Phil Jackson/Don Nelson
SLC Intersections
9th & 9th/21st 11th
Walkable Communities
The Avenues/Sugarhouse
Infections
Sinusitis/Tonsillitis
SLC Coffee Houses
Roasting Company/That one in the Avenues
Emotions
Love/Calm
Sins
Greed/Sloth
Shopping bags
Paper/Plastic
Bindings
Paperbound/hardback
States
Florida/Idaho
Film media
Digital/Super 8
Breakfast foods
Granola/flapjacks
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Thursday, October 19, 2006
In case of Emergency, Malibu!
Boy this rental car really does make me feel like I'm cruising down the Coastal Highway. Ah the plush plastic interior.
Why do you think GM put the emergency flasher button so close to the name plate? Note how the 80s-computerific lettering leans into the wind.
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
My mountain home
It is twenty-seven-freaking-degrees outside my people. Twenty-seven-freaking-degrees.
Man it is great.
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
See what happens when you don't teach literature in school?
A bearded and hollow-cheeked Agasi Vartanyan finished what he said was his 50th day without food, climbing out of plastic cube on the banks of the Neva River outside of St Petersburg - and promptly berating reporters.Soon they will find his cage seemingly empty, and bury him straw and all. Everyone has forgotten the hunger artist. They will replace him with a leopard which "furnished almost to the bursting point with all that it needed, seemed to carry freedom around with it too; somewhere in his jaws it seemed to lurk; and the joy of life streamed with such ardent passion from his throat that for the onlookers it was not easy to stand the shock of it" (Kafka, "A Hunger Artist"). They will stand it and never want to move away.
"I feel offended because my efforts did not attract much attention,' the 46-year-old said. 'Only local media wrote about it." (IOL: Skinny man claims new world record)
(Spotted on BoingBoing.)
Saturday, October 14, 2006
Outcasts
This shit is all gone.
How the fuck did I end up with "My Lady's House Plants" anyway? I remember the 70s crap and Return of the Native is a spare copy (sadly that paper back was a remnant of high school) and 2001 is another double copy. There are some religious texts that I have no idea why I have hung on to and some pretty stupid yard sale grabs being thrown out. My sadest desertion, however, has to be the operation manual for Stephen Wolfram's Mathematica. It was given to me by some very good friends back in the day and I recall have quite a time actually enjoying mathematics for once in my life playing with the program. (It is at the very bottom of the stack on the right.)
Sundee morning update: Just about done with the whole library. The outcast pile has grown considerably.
Amusing things you find while organizing your library or your host at 19
So am I intellectually skeptical of the rather awkwardly seated discussion, or just pining for the cute blonde girl I had a crush on who has the book we were discussing so elaborately displayed on her desk? (Note: I was not in the second class, but you Utah alumni will recognize OSH in all its 80's glory!)
I think I still have that shirt, by the way. My hair was 20 years before its time too.
Schoedinger and Sartre sittin' on shelf, K.I.S.S.I.N.G.....
I've also diligently been entering the books into the librarything goobersmack.
Sunday, October 08, 2006
"Dance my moneky! Dance!"
I doubt that Snowbird was intending for people to think the organ grinder had hired a little person to do the dancing.
Friday, October 06, 2006
The Transaction(s)
New The Decemberists (The Crane Wife): 5 listens so far (And a rather status quo website and album design, save the cool stickers I picked up at Orion's 4 weeks ago, and man what a life it must be in The Decemberists Inc. right now).
Is a review in order?
Three observations:
- Are they antiwar?
- What is the influence of Yes on The Decemberists? Why does Beck eschew album rock influences?
- Will there be a remix?
For some reason I'm listening to Wilco Summerteeth at the moment. Perhaps it is a pallet cleanser.
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Instructions for voters
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
As leaves to trees
But even the leaves
Have time to grow
Flush against hot
Summer wind
And then yellow
And then die
Crinkled on hard
Concrete
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Taxicab love
You said our love was like a bus on route
But the bus driver suffered a heart attack
And now we're careening out of control
About to slam into a Geo Metro
Driven by Death himself--black clad,
Chalky white grin from ear to ear
(If he had ears beneath that itchy
Cool cowl) but death has no ears to hear
The screams of helpless passengers
Or eyes to see that he is driving
Straight into the out-of-control city
Bus of our love
Your analogy made me sad
Because I'd paid full fare
But you got on with your
Student pass
I brace myself for impact
But you’ve already popped
The emergency escape hatch
And bailed, shoulder rolling
To safety
I knew we should
Have just taken a cab.
Monday, October 02, 2006
Best chorus of the past summer
over and over and over and over and over
like a monkey with a miniature cymbal
the joy of repetition really is in you
under and under and under and under and under
the smell of repetition really is on you
and when i feel this way i really am with you
(Hotchip, "Over and Over")
Super cool. You should hear the song.
Lager Lager Lager Shouting Mega White Thing Mega Mega White Thing
Sunday, October 01, 2006
On King Darius and the Art of the Boast
This indeed my capability: that my body is strong. As a fighter of battles I am a good fighter of battles. When ever with my judgment in a place I determine whether I behold or do not behold an enemy, both with understanding and with judgment, then I think prior to panic, when I see an enemy as when I do not see one.And such boasts have a long history in human (particularly male) behavior in which one attempts to intimidate through words either one's friends or one's enemies. I am thinking, in particular, of the great boast that Twain recorded in Life on the Mississippi where the braggart goes on and on about how good he is and, particularly, what a good boaster he is. This brag, of course, is highly relevant to modern-day rap in that many times the rapper goes on and on about what skills he or she has at rapping.
I am skilled both in hands and in feet. As a horseman, I am a good horseman. As a bowman, I am a good bowman, both on foot and on horseback. As a spearman, I am a good spearman, both on foot and on horseback.
These skills that Ahuramazda set down upon me, and which I am strong enough to bear, by the will of Ahuramazda, what was done by me, with these skills I did, which Ahuramazda set down upon me.
O man, vigorously make you known of what sort I am, and of what sort my skillfulnesses, and of what sort my superiority. Let not that seem false to you, which has been heard by your ears. Listen to what is said to you.
O man, let that not be made to seem false to you, which has been done by me. That do you behold, which has been inscribed. Let not the laws be disobeyed by you. Let not anyone be untrained in obedience. [The last line is unintelligible]" (Achaemenid Royal Inscriptions: DNb)
Now aside from the rhetorical aspects of the brag(boast) to indimidate others, I am also interested in when such bragging is condoned and not condoned. Ultimately everyone expects a basketball or football player to boast about his skills both on the court or field as a sort of rhetorical intimidation or distraction tactic. If that player, however, boasts out of the playing context they are considered "big headed" or so completely self-centered that they become the brunt of jokes (witness Karl Malone in parody on Comedy Central for example.) Out of their playing context, athletes are expected to be humble and self-effacing and great champions of team effort. (Now ultimately this can be a racial issue in that often times white players are seen as humble, but athletes of color are seen as self-centered and uppity. I will not, however, be engaging in a discussion of the racist aspects of humility today. I think, nevertheless it is important to considered social values and how they play out between the races.) Larry Bird and Michael Jordan are good examples of this pairing: both were stars on the court and didn't seem to lack attitude about their work while on the court. Nevertheless, when they came off the court they adopted the humble hero motif and declaimed team effort and rarely boasted about their copious skills on the court.
Similarly, one is expected to brag(boast) on a vitae but at the same time showing a sure amount of defference in a job interview. These indicate, of course, an amount of social control on individuals to keep them from breaking out a socially prescribed role. Not all people, in other words, get to be king, and only the king can brag with impunity.
Ultimately this does seem to be the case today, but leaders are expected to be humble (to an extent.) I think, however, that not much really has changed. Darius, for example, is being humble in that he indicates that all of this is thanks to Ahuramazda, much like a modern-day political leader ascribes things to God and asks for God's blessings (acting like some sort of Pontifex Maximus of official republican pan-theism.) Nevertheless, Darius makes sure that you know it is his skill that has made him great (thanks to Ahuramazda). Skill proves Darius. In other words he can kick your ass from here to next week (if he has to). Why can he do this? He has the skills, man. Thanks Ahuramazda! (Praise Jesus! for our modern context.) Darius, like the Jesus-prasing athlete, singer, film-maker, actor, artists, politician whatever is favored by a god and has a right to brag about it. See it is a weird sort of humility that is being displayed in this bragging.
So bragging is really about being humble when you pair it up with a feint at a deity? Hmm. Humility is about social conformity? Hmm.