[LEMONS] 6.30.2002
Evan posted his thoughts on John Entwistle's death.
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Nuts
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According to Dave's report, you can add ditherati to the list of domains hijacked.
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Matier & Ross report more bridge tolls on the way. Good.
" A lot of people around here have have two views of people in cars -- either they should get out of them, or they should help pay for mass transit for everyone else."
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Camping without reservations
Every one of the 10,000 state park campsites linked to a reservation service is already booked on weekends. Eighty percent of them are reserved for weekdays, and the rest are going fast. Earlier this year, state parks had 7,000 calls in a single day for campsite reservations.California camping means planning ahead. It's nigh unto impossible to just throw your stuff in the car, head out, and find a spot (nevermind that Harp, Jeff and I did just that three weeks ago). This article is a great resource for finding some out of the way campsites. And, of course, if you're willing to camp somewhere that you have to pack in for two or more miles, those places never fill up.
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6.28.2002
Clown funeral. Really.
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Good.
Now if we can just raise the tax on gas to $5 a gallon (with an exemption for drivers with CDLs, natch), I'll be happy.
PS: be sure to read the BARTguement segment towars the end.
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"As you can see, we got fuckin' Internets all over the place. And this right here is one of our newest computers, and if you look inside, there's a fucking Internet in there."
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7 5ongs and a Confession #IX
Remember, not forever, just for now- Op Ivy: Bombshell
- Neutral Milk Hotel: Ghost
- Kevn Kinney: MacDougal Blues
- Seam: Stage 2000
- Belle & Sebastian: Freak Scene (D. Jr. cover)
- fIREHOSE: perfect pairs
- Bobbi Humphrey: Harlem River Drive
Special I Have A Cold Bonus Track!!! - Mudhoney: Touch Me I'm Sick
When I was a kid, I used to love to throw things at passing cars. I'd lay in wait with some of my other delinquent friends in the storm sewers (think large, open, concrete ditches) that criss-crossed Montgomery. From there, we'd lob hails of small rocks, sticks, water balloons, or whatever (nothing dangerous like a brick or large rock, and I don't recall ever doing any damage. The intent was to Freak Out, not harm), up over our heads and at the passing cars. If the drivers stopped, we'd scramble into the covered, underground portions of the storm sewers, where adults feared to tread. Sometimes, we'd hang out down there, where we'd smoke, drink, look at porno mags, and talk shit about the football players and the popular kids.
One day, after fleeing the scene, a few of us were hanging out in the sewer, laughing. We heard a voice "Is someone down there? Are you okay down there?" It was a woman, probably in her late 50s or early 60s. She had head our voices coming up from the opening in the street that drained down into the storm sewer. One of us (I swear I don't remember who), replied "No! Please help! We're lost and trapped down here!"
We toyed with her for a few minutes, and when she went off to call the fire department (this was in the days before cell phones), we ran like hell out of the sewers and over to a friend's house. I'm sure we scared the piss out of that poor woman. Lady--whoever you are and wherever you are--I'm sorry.
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Couric: "You call me the 'Eva Braun' of liberalism--"
"Affable," interjected Coulter.
"Thanks...that makes me feel soooo much better," replied Couric, her trademark grin giving way to a scowl. (via dave)
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Asshole
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6.27.2002
The Lost Coast
I've been talking to a couple of friends about organizing a backpacking trip here for a few days in August.- l i n k -
Brad Writes:
This sounds like a runner-up in a lead-writing contest where you have to incorporate five disparate random ideas pulled out of a bucket:This LONDON (Reuters) -The plight of an Alaskan chicken-hypnotist whose circus tour was cut short in Edinburgh when a charity shop sold her bicycle by mistake has tweaked heartstrings as far afield as Austin, Texas.
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Briefly
- OMG! Def Poetry Jam is in town? I had no idea. Namaste, Russel.
- Brilliant I've got to make the switch to MT
- Jeffy writes: So how many hours 'til Thailand? You should put a Thai countdown thermometer on your blog. Done.
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I accompanied a friend to SF criminal court today, where he was being arraigned on vandalism charges. I was just along for moral support, I didn't actually do anything other than sit in the back of the room and work on my laptop. Still. It was intersting. Some notes:
- Some old Chinese guy was just admonished to stay out of Macy's, following some sort of altercation with the manager, until his trial. I feel ya, G. I'm not allowed into K-Mart, myself.
- Lessons learned: listen to the judge and your lawyer. -- And shut the fuck up. Don't say a fucking word unless you're asked to.
- A self-described schizophrenic has 3 bench warrants. One of his arrests is for sitting in an unlocked car by himself. No violence.
Obviously homeless. He's been caught twice for rummaging through open cars. He's a drug addict. But this guy is definitely mentally fucked up. Belongs in a home, not jail. But there's no money for homes. He's just sad. Off to jail with him, then back on the streets. - Interpreters are us. So far they've needed interpreters for Mandarin,
Spanish, and Hindi. The same woman did Spanish and Hindi. Wow. - A mental case sites behind us. He keeps talking to himself. He's said several times "I can't stand them mountain bikes." Or "I'll be rich." Or "too many broken bones." He smells terrible. He won't quit muttering. Over and over again. Constantly. At one point, my companion and I start to chat. Crazy guy leans forward, shushes us, and says "no talking!"
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6.26.2002
Newsflash: Pledge of Allegiance Ruled Unconstitutional
Boy, this is gonna piss some people off. Brad asks a good question: I wonder what they're going to do with all our money... which says 'In God We Trust.' Or the Presidential Oath of Office, which ends with "So Help Me God."
My thoughts: I'm a Christian. And I'm quite religious. My faith means a lot to me. But. On the other hand. Government should be secular. I have my own ideas. Don't impose yours on me. I'm willing to listen, but not to be forced. The Pledge may be in line with my viewpoints. But what if it were not? What if it said "Under no God," which is itself a religious belief?
However. The whole issue is silly to me. Not worth worrying about. And while we're at it, let's look at the history of the Pledge of Allegiance. But if you do feel incredibly strongly about it; as one poster said on MeFi: Citizens of San Francisco: Send all your "tainted" money to me. Word.
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And Now, I Shall Hate on Bush
I haven't been overly critical of Bush these last few months. And for that, I apologize. I do have my reasons, mainly I have been avoiding the news as it makes me shudder. That, combined with my feelings of political disenfranchisement following the stolen election of 2000 (first from McCain, cleary the candidate of the people, via dirty tricks, and then from Gore, via his father's appointees), have led me to back away, somewhat, from the political realm.But today, I have returned. So let's review Dubya's performance, to date, shall we?
- The economy has plunged into a tailspin. This predates 09/11, although that certainly exacerbated it. We have a massive trade deficit, laregely due to
Bush's croniesour dependance on foreign oil. Accounting scandals continue to pile up, decimating invetor confidence, and Bush in turn does nothing to ensure the scandals won't repeat themselves.
The Bush administration seems utterly clueless as to how to fix things. Worse, they do not even appear to be trying. Could it be due to the fact that many of those involved with the scandals are the same individuals who put Bush into power? Could it be that he's in way over his head? I don't know.
- The War on Terrorism has become a disaster. Aside from smashing up the Taliban in Afghanistan (which was child's play for our military. The problem with Afghanistan was always holding it, never conquering it.), the administration has accomplished exactly nothing. New alerts and warnings terrify the populace on a regular basis. Advisors inspire no confidence. Our civil liberties are being trampled, and to what end? For we already had the information that could have prevented the attacks. Why, then, must we renounce our rights?
And despite the months of military action. Somewhere. Out there. Osama squats in the desert. Pissed off and planning.
- Speaking of Osama, the Middle East has never been so volatile. This is largely due to the Bush doctrine, which hold that you can go in and fuck with another counry's shit if you can point to terrorists operating within its borders. Israel and Palestine threaten to throw the entire region into war. India and Pakistan, meanwhile, threaten to destroy all of South Asia.
- Global warming, and its effects are destroying the planet. Still, Nero fiddles.
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Ezra Fowler Day is Monday, June 24, 2002
Yeah, I guess it must have been. 20 + posts? Dizam.
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Crazy Tammy's tale is... Well... Worth reading.
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6.25.2002
Everyone's favorite stepson (from a former marriage), the deputy has penned what I believe to be the definitive Eminem review.
You'll have to scroll down a bit, as he doesn't have anchors that allow you to link to each item (hint, diddly, hint meester deputy). Look for the entry from 06/19 that begins "~ I'm Concerned. "
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Arrrrrrrgh! When Budweiser Attacks!
No, it's not news, the story has been around for some time. But still. Laurel Wellman's column on the demise of The Mission's 17 Reasons sign deserves an "Arrrrrrrgh!" all the same. Or. The removal of the sign does, rather.- l i n k -
Bombshell by Op Ivy is the best song ever written in the history of the world.
Yeah. Take that Mozart, you freaking poseur.
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Yay!
Kool Bobby's back, evrybody!- l i n k -
StartUp.com
Have you seen Startup.com? Probably so, I think I'm late to this dance. But I wanted to see this, having worked for two different dotcoms that bit the dust. The first, at least, was epic. I got to work with old heroes and met new ones. But the second. The second...The second was a miserable shithole of a company. And it too was engaged in bringing the public to the governement. We were going to make it easy for citizens to send and sign petitions, and in turn, for advocacy groups to find people interested in particular issues. In grand terms--as with those expressed at the beginning of startup.com--it sounds great. But when we got down to it, things spun out of control. the April market correction didn't help us either. But the real problem was that my company, just like the one profiled in Startup.com, by a bunch of salesmen and hucksters who didn't know anything about the Internet.
Startup.com is a movie about business, not the Internet. The Internet is just the setting. And so it was with the dotconomy itself. It had less to do with the Internet than business.
One of the two founders of the company profiled in Startup.com, Tom, still maintains the Govworks.com URL. He was the geek, and was the one eventually forced out of the company. His partner Kaleil was the money guy. The guy who made things happen. Like millions of dollars in investors money go magically down the drain.
They're together again. And for some reason, which I can't fathom, they're trying to advise startups in a new business scheme designed to squeeze a few more drops of blood out of the Dot-Com corpse.
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It's Pride Week. There's a lot going on.
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6.24.2002
Fun with Referrals
- Finally, a little validation for all of my hard work
- I get a lot of requests for people looking for these. They always make me kinda chuckle.
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UC Berkeley team creating 'microfly' to infiltrate enemies
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Yosemite is.
Last week I went to Yosemite for the first time. When I was there, I tried to think of how to best describe it. And I knew that I could not. You can't describe Yosemite. Yosemite just is. The architecture of God.
Similarly, these photos in no way capture Yosemite. However, I still find them striking. You can see descriptions listed in the alt tags (let your mouse hover over the image).
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Sweet Homes in Alabama
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Ouch!
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Good God. The world has just become entirely too freaky.
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6.23.2002
Found on FilePile
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John Densmore takes a stand against the (literal) commercialization of music in this week's Nation. Great read.
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Have You Seen The Bridge?
(where's that confounded bridge?)
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I've updated my book and bike blogs recently.
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Burning, burning
It seems like all of the West is burning, including Alaska. There is a fire just outside of Yosemite, that killed three firefighters. There's a fire just outside of Durango, Colorado, where my Cousin lives. There are fires outside of Denver where my other Cousin lives. The fires in Arizona are burning a 50-mile swath.Welcome to Global Warming. Drive Safely.
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6.22.2002
Where I've Been:
click for desktop version
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Horseshit
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6.19.2002
I read an article in the New York Times Sunday magazine not long ago on the cattle industry. The author of the piece (which is mentioned in the article) bought a calf, and followed it through its lifecycle. I came away from the piece with two overwhelming thoughts: cows should never, ever, *ever* be fed corn, and that I'm eating nothing but free range, drug free beef from now on (when I eat red meat at all, which is very rare).
Now it seems that grass-fed beef is at the forefront of healthy cooking here in Bay Area restaurants. Man, I hope Niman Ranch goes to grass-fed. It's the only drug-free beef I can regularly find. Oh. And. "Why care about what a handful of fancy Bay Area chefs and boutique ranchers have to say? Because when it comes to food, the trends that start here end up affecting how the rest of the country eats. The Bay Area's early embrace of locally grown organic products, for example, is a large part of the reason organic vegetables and goat cheese are sold in grocery stores across the country."
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SLO Ride
Last weekend Harp, Jeff and I drove down to San Louis Obispo to see Mike Watt. It was the greatest road trip I've had in ages. Thanks for a hell of a good time, Watt, Jeff and Harper.PS: I took pictures
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Marijuana and Macroeconomics
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Hmmm..... Let's see... Skin game, driving iron, hole in one, hooded club, mixed foursome, pin, rub of the green, shaft, shag bag, shagging, stroke, sweet spot, tee marker, Texas wedge, twosome or woodie?
Nahhh... I'll just go with LPGA
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'Roid rage?
(For the record: it doesn't matter to me if Bongs is on steroids or not. Sports medicine and training techniques being what they are, all modern atheletes have an advantage over their predecessors. Records are made to be broken. The only thing taht matters is how long they stand.)
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6.18.2002
I'm 9/9. Um. So, can I , like, get my diplouma and stuff, dude?
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My cousin Sherri had a frend in college named Chantal. Chantal moved to Indonesia, and now this is her life. Oh. I wanna go.
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And so my father is in town visiting and we're tromping all over San Francisco and related areas and generally getting to know each other because we don't really see each other too often and so as you can imagine I'm quite busy and hip hip hurrah and all that and, hell, I'm going to Thailand in a few months anyway so you'll have to start reading something else then, and maybe you should get to doing that now and why not make it the deputy's site, a multimedia extravaganza if ever there was one. Peruse. Look. Listen. Read. It's a real labrynth over there, with plenty of content.
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The Webbys? Are those things still around?
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6.17.2002
Are women more likely to be whistle-blowers? An interesting piece in the Chron.
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2-0!
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You'll enjoy this one.
" A lot of people that don't know anything about soccer, like me..."
Guess who said it?
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HERE ARE A FEW WAYS TO WELCOME RICH PEOPLE TO THE MISSION
No comment.
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5 suspects my ass
Holy frickin' hum, Batman- l i n k -
6.13.2002
Project Mersh?
I went to go see The Shins and Mercury Rev at the Fillmore last night. Thanks Jim!The Shins, where do I start? Last year, while decrying bands like the Strokes for being too mersh, I told everyone and all how much I loved The Shins album, Oh Inverted World. How it was one of my favorites last year, in fact. Not only did I think it was an album full of beautiful pop, but I was also taken by the video for The New Slang, which recreates scenes from album covers by Husker Du, Cat Power, The Replacements, Slint, Squirrel Bait, Sonic Youth and The Minutemen, among others. With a SubPop label behind. Indie cred all around. And the song. Oh that song! The lyrics were incredible, and it came built in with a sense of nostalgia and melencholy. I just coldn't imagine a better pop song.
And then, one day, during the Olympics, I hear that haunting yodeling coming from... a McDonalds commerical. McDonalds! Of all the multinational corporations you could sell a song to, few would raise my ire more than McDonalds. McDonalds is, for me, the epitome of much of what is wrong with western society. And here's this intellectual, bookish band, obviously steeped in Indie music and indie philosophy hawking Big Macs.
And it infuriated me. It ruined the fucking song for me. It became, in my mind, immediately associated with Chicken McNuggets and McFucking Whoppers, or whatever. With fast food, factory farms, and fossil fuel pollution. I tend to agree with what Bill Hicks said about artists and commercials. Even if it is more and more prevalent these days. I mean, I'm getting used to this commercial shit. But McDonalds? Too much.
And when they came on last night, I was prepared to hate them. I'd said I was going to see Mercury Rev and "that band from the McDonalds commercial." And the were good. And then Jim and I went upstairs, and the Shins went into The New Slang. And I remembered all the reasons I loved the song. And the memories of listening to it as I was dealing with my grandmother's death and September 11 all came flooding back to me. And it was gorgeous. And they were superb. And after they went off--while I was hanging around outside with Jim while he smoked a cigarette, talking to Harpoer on the phone--I saw that the DIY thing wasn't just lip service, as I watched The Shins haul their gear to their van from the Fillmore. An Econoline no less. Get in the van. And the thing is, can I really hold it against a band just beacause they aren't political in the same way I am? Indie music is all wrapped up in politics. It's inherently political. But first and foremost it's music. It's art. Why do I have to intellectualize everything so much? why must everything be philosophical?
I still don't know how I feel. But before I went back in to see Mercury Rev, I stopped. And I said, "Hey, great show. And your album, it was one of my favorites last year." And I didn't add even if you did sell your song to McDonalds, although I wanted to. Instead, I just went inside, and wished the world was simpler.
new slang when you notice the stripes, the dirt in your fries.
hope it's right when you die. old and bony
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The Times Regrets the Error
An article on Tuesday about the arrest of a man suspected in 10 murders around St. Louis misstated the term for an Internet identification that was used to trace the source of an online request for a map that was mailed to The Post-Dispatch and led investigators to a body. The clue was an Internet Protocol number — the unique identifier of a particular computer — not an internet provider address.- l i n k -
6.12.2002
Conspiracy theorists rejoice
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Oh wow. What a great site. San Francisco-local too.
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Irresponsible fearmongering? You be the judge.
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Scooby Doobie Don't
"We played on all those things," said actor Matthew Lillard, who portrays creaky-voiced Shaggy. "Is Velma gay? Is Shaggy high? Are (Fred and Daphne) hooking up? All those jokes were in there, but we found at the end of the day it was more important to go the other way ... and that was to be more family oriented." Translation: "All those jokes were in there, but we found at the end of the day it was more important to make kaboodles of money than risk a PG-13 rating."Oh Scooby. Wither the ascot?
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WiFi to the People!
Annalee has a great article on local free WiFi neteworks being set up around the city. Do I need to point out that--like the mouse, the GUI, FireWire, and portable computing--Apple pioneered 802.11b? I thought not.- l i n k -
There should be a word for this
Is there a word for a bad link, where you can tell what the intended target is? For example, yesterday, Dave sent me the following email:Thanks for the shout-out!!! (Ah, NetBelly.) Er, but the Dave shout-out points to.... http://honan.net/destinyland.blogspot.com Think we're looking for diffferent droids.... :)
I meant to link to http://destinyland.blogspot.com. But when I typed the link, I left off the http://, like so: <a href="destinyland.blogspot.com">. What I meant to do is fairly obvious. And there are all sorts of similar typo links. For example, I might link to google.com, but instead I link to google.xom. Or Yaho. Or Bloggger. You know what I mean, but you have to type it in yourself.
Is there a word for this? If not, may I suggest "Walking Wounded?" Or do you have a better idea?
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Quick Links
California Sea Otters: Population continues to declineCalifornia Rabbit lovers: get a grip.
San Francisco Police Investigators: just as effective as any other city employee
Naked People: I love you.
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6.11.2002
826 Valencia, a writing workshop where I'll be volunteering this summer is having a money-raising shindig this evening. Stop by. Bring your friend Alexander Hamilton.
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Jury awards Earth First! activists $4.4 million
Twelve years after they were arrested in the bombing of their own car, two Earth First! activists were awarded $4.4 million Tuesday in a federal suit claiming they were framed by Oakland Police and FBI agents.- l i n k -
We just bought our tickets.
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Geoff says: What is "haircutty". Can you use it in a sentence? So. Haircut blog, defined. Still confused? See an example here.
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6.10.2002
New York Times Article on the Blogger Rift
"It's like being the punk-rock fan who was into punk rock before everyone else" I understand this sentiment, perfectly, and I understand the resentment. For the record, I began keeping a blog (@ netbelly.com) with Dave and Dave in late 99 or early 2000. Moved onto blogging @ Savenapster.net, and wound up here. I'm also a journalist. I'm also a Web pro. And I'm old school, my first Web paycheck came back in 1996, when a lot of today's bloggers were considering getting an AOL account because they'd heard something about this email thingie and gee wasn't that "You've Got Mail" movie just dreamy? I've been Web publishing, professionally and personally, since not long after the Web itself was created. Let me put it this way, when I began farting around with the Web, my big question was if it were possible to be employed full-time writing for it. I say this only because I feel that it qualifies me to speak to this issue (if only somewhat).Jason Kottke is the ultimate weblogger. He is, in fact, probably my favorite weblogger. He's astute, he's a great writer, he includes personal tidbits without getting too haircutty. I've exchanged an email here and there with him. He's nice, he's sharp, he is, by all accounts, a good guy. I'd love to keep a weblog as good as his. Jason, you're the bomb. Likewise, Ken Layne is a thug. Tabloid.net was already old school when I started working with Ken at GettingIt.com, where I edited some of his articles and got to know him via the electronet marvel of email. He is, likewise, a standup guy. He's a great writer, he's sharp, he's opinionated. I wish I were half the writer he is. Ken, thanks for keeping it real, yo.
But I can see both sides of the argument. The warbloggers, for the most part, have no sense of history or appreciation for the medium they have entered. Since most journalists were apparantly ignorant of blogs--and sure as hell weren't keeping them in the numbers they now do--before 09/11, the "warblog" was their first experience with the, er, blogosphere (to use a completely gay term). Likewise, I think most of the older bloggers are pissed about the warbloggers for the attention they have brought to weblogging, and the misperceptions of the phenomena warbloggers have perpetuated--including the perception that weblogs are in any way new. But neither side is at fault, per se. It's just tat one side looks at the other as uncouth philistine interlopers, while the other side sees the first as a bunch of snooty intellectual elitists. And both are prone to telling each other such with great fervor.
Fellas.
Can't we all just get along?
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Check out Apple's new marketing program, Switch. And be sure to peep Mark Frauenfelder!
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Don't forget today's eclipse
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The Week Ahead:
06/11: 826 Valencia fundraiser @ 826 Valencia
06/12: Mercury Rev and that McDonalds commercial band @ Slim's
06/13: Mike Watt @ Slim's
06/14: Mike Watt @ SLO Brewing Company, San Louis Obispo
Show all the hepcats will be jabbering about for the next week/month/year: NERD at the Fillmore on 06/14
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Ways you can tell it's going to be a bad movie
- Bus Ads
- Mel Gibson
- "My twin brother was CIA?"
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6.08.2002
I'll be on the radio tomorrow at 2:20 PM EST
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Hell yeah. Thanks Lennox.
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I'm going to be on the radio tomorrow at 2:20 PM EST.
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Wait a second. You mean it's not illegal to urinate in public? Capital news!
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6.07.2002
Zsuzsanna has some really cool wallpapers
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Scenes From Home
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53v3n 50n65 4nd 4 c0nfe5510n #8
Remember, not forever, just for now.- Ramones--Beat on the Brat
- Ramones--I Wanna Be Sedated
- Ramones--Judy is a Punk
- Ramones--Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue
- Ramones--Blitzkreig Bop
- Ramones--Sheena is a Punk Rocker
- Ramones--Rock & Roll Radio
