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Calendar

ongoing
Hip Hop Nation (yerba buena)

May 25
Critical Mass (justin herman plaza, 5:30 pm)

May 30
Secadora Release Party (bottom of the hill)

June 1-2
We Are Traffic (red vic)

emp|ty|age

monday, april 30

Wow. Kudos to CNN for just trashing that whole journalism thing altogether and going with "Foxy Andrea Thompson," as she seems to be known online. The line between respectable journalism and tabloid titillation has already been so blurred that it makes total sense to just go ahead and admit that anchors are, well, expendable.

posted 16:59

I just added Blog Voices to the setup here. You can see the gif to the right and the "discuss" link below. (Man, the right side nav bar is just out of hand... I'm going to need to fix that before I go on vacation.) But in any case, we're interactive now. I've heard that makes things sticky, like the bottoms of my shoes.

posted 16:39

The San Francisco Examiner has not one, but two stories on Friday's Critical Mass. Go Fangzaminer.

posted 13:10

Supergreg is back.

posted 13:04

I can't say enough great things about Friday's Critical Mass. In fact, I just can't say enough good things about Friday. First there was the Mass, my first, and such a great damn time. Next, we went to see J Mascis and the Fog, with Mike Watt and Ron Asheton. It was punk as fuck. Among the Stooges songs they played were "No Fun," I Wanna be Your Dog," and "TV Eye." Afterwards, we headed to the Dovre Club at 24th and Valencia. We met some old friends, Tim, Noelle, and Julie (who we bumped into last weekend too after not seeing any of them for about a year) there, and then went over to their place when the bar closed. Just a great night out in San Francisco.

posted 11:08

Call me a conspiracy nut, but this seems like a first step in sanitizing Market Street.

posted 10:00

Capp street has been hooker central in SF for years and years. One guy changed that by hurling rebar. I wish it was so easy to get rid of an Albertson's.

posted 09:55

friday, april 27

Sweet. Sassypalm's Ask President Bush app has been updated.

posted 16:52

Not like I haven't been talking about it enough. But the Critical Mass today is going to be a big one. See you there. Justin Herman Plaza @ 5:30 PM

posted 16:09

Reclaim the Streets May 1, 2001. 6 PM @ Justin Herman Plaza.

posted 13:09

I just realized I haven't put up anything yet about J. Mascis and the fog coming to town tonight. A major oversight. J. Mascis, Mike Watt, Ron Asheton and George Berz. GOGOGOGO!

posted 10:40

I remember last year--in the midst of the Wen Ho Lee debacle--my friend Josh Parr kept talking about what a strong bias there is against Asian-Americans in the community at large. "Nonesense," I said. "People aren't generally biased against Asian-Americans. Maybe in small pockets, but not in America overall." Unfortunately, I was dead wrong.

posted 10:11

Paul sent the Guardian's take on Bush's first 100 days to the Watt mailing list today. It's a great read, proving yet again that the American pres is, if anything, a conservative flock. Why is nobody reporting on this overt bribery? Call it what you want. It's bribery, and that fuck is paying back his cronies at the American peoples' expense. I have to stop reading stuff like this, however. It just makes me too angry. I still can't believe that evil little idiot managed to worm his way into the White House. Anyone would have been better. Gore, McCain, Nader, Bucha... Well... Maybe not anyone.

posted 09:40

thursday, april 26

I should link to the Fangzaminer more often. I guess I don't because I never read it. But here's a good summary on the Chris Robertson story and Critical Mass tomorrow. Unless I've missed it (which is a good possibility) the Chron has nothing similar.

posted 16:29

From Carolyn: This Thursday, April 26, 2001 at 6 o'clock, we will be having a Joey Ramone Memorial at the Cassanova Lounge 527 Valencia between 16th and 17th. Also, cc: your friends. We don't have everyone's email address, and want everyone to know. Featured will be: All your favorite Ramones tunes (bring CD's if you have imports) * A Blitzkrieg Bop shooter special * A roped off shrine/pogo area * Original Joey Ramone poster designed by Subset with rare 1980's iconography (to be raffled off - it's free so bring your biz cards for the drawing).

posted 14:09

From Julie: i'm recruiting people for the boat party sunday.. it's from 8 to midnight, and darren emmerson from underworld spinning. should be pretty fun. see this for details.

posted 14:06

I love the weather here in San Francisco. It's been really warm the last several days. Gorgeous. Then last night the fog came barreling in from the ocean like Barry Bonds headed for home plate. Today it's chilly and breezy, just in time for the weekend and the Chronicle's article on places to eat outside.

posted 12:32

ALERT: The San Francisco Bike Messenger Association has organized a day of peaceful protest and mourning in Chris Robertson's name, and in the names of all of those who have lost their lives to the "convenience" of the automobile. Come to Justin Herman plaza tomorrow, April 27 for Critical Mass. Other events will be taking place all day long as well.

posted 09:22

wednesday, april 25

Wow. After reading this sad piece about Strom in The New Republic I feel sorta bad about all the things I've said about the old guy over the years. And I definitely feel bad about that pee link (see below).

posted 16:56

Good night! When I signed up to let Ramon stay for a day a couple of months ago, there were like twelve or thirteen locations signed up. Now there are scores. He's going to be on the road for years if he's to stay at all these palces.

posted 16:21

Taking Stock of Gen X: It's Fallen Sharply (washingtonpost.com) This article has been getting a lot of buzz. I avoided it earlier, but after reading it, I realized it's pretty much the same article I've been wanting to write: "We are latchkey kids, children of divorce, a generation raised in a time of rising crime and a widening gap between rich and poor. Far worse is the belittling we've endured along the way."

posted 14:54

Salon's In-Box for both yesterday and today had items on Hyakugojyuuichi!. Today they linked to several other Flash files, which reminded me of something that I was thinking about yesterday afternoon. Have you seen the new Fatboy Slim video with Christopher Walken? It's brilliant, but don't expect to hear anyone talking about it. People don't talk about music videos anymore. We've been there and done that too much. Instead it's the D.I.Y. Flash video that captures our imaginations. Has anything on television this year equalled the Water Cooler factor that All Your Base generated? From Whassup Elian, to Radiskull, to All Your Base to Hyakugojyuuichi! to the kung fu stick figure thing, Flash is rapidly overtaking TV. This is good. TV is corporate, Flash is individual. It's open to anyone with a computer and an idea. It isn't test marketed or distilled for our viewing pleasure. I think iMovie is going to achieve the same thing over the next couple of years--opening video up to the masses. This is probably also why the big media conglomerates are all scrambling to control delivery. They are losing control of the creation process, but are gaining control over distribution.

posted 12:18

I found this on Fury, but I've got a different take on it than Fox does (probably because I wasn't inconvenienced by the protest). But it seems to me that if Berkeley students are protesting Cal's involvement with Israel over the Palestinian occupation, that those seeds of discontent will spread to other campuses. I've got a feeling that unless Israel dramatically changes the way they handle Palestine, these kind of protests are going start springing up everywhere--just as students protested all over the nation to demand that Universities divest from South Africa in the 1980s. It's interesting, I think that my generation is not going to give Israel the free pass to do whatever it wants in Palestine that the Boomers and WWII generations did.

posted 11:24

"The environment has never been better for oil companies." Chevron's profits soar, as millions in California try to figure out how they will make ends meet due to rising fuel and power costs.

posted 10:54

tuesday, april 24

When namby-pamby lefties get upset over bricks crashing through a Starbucks' window it makes me sick. We are past the point of negotations, and the only recourse left is to fuck shit up. Our public spaces are being given away wholesale to corporations. Manufacturing flows wherever labor is cheap and unrestricted by cumbersome human-rights rules. The only way to grab attention today is to go out and raise hell. I was very happy to see Ted Rall--one of my favorite cartoonists and social critics--seems to feel the same way. Destruction of property isn't violence. Particularly not when that property has intruded on public space. Space that is meant for us all, but is controlled by a nauseating few.

posted 20:22

Is everyone at Coca Cola on ecstacy? The last three ads I've seen for Coke have all been, fundamentally, about ecstacy. There's this one (kids dancing in the woods) which is actually named "bliss comes from within" and two others that I can't find on adcritic. One features a bunch of blissed-out, wide-eyed kids watching the sun come up on a rooftop. The latest shows several tweaked-out subway riders on the way home from a concert. Even Red Bull doesn't pump up the Ex association. Why does Coke? Have they added MDMA to the secret formula? I don't get it.

posted 16:18

Looking for Mac Os Rumors? the official URL is dead, but you can still find it here. Should be back before much longer. I hope...

posted 14:22

Guess the Dictator or Sit-Com Character is just the coolest and creepiest thing I've seen online in ages. I can't imagine what kind of database is behind this. It successfully guessed Opie Taylor, Castro, Suharto and Klinger. It is weird, however, to be thinking of yourself as Suharto and to get questions like "do you live with your three nieces," and "are you from Hazzard county."

posted 11:47

Launcher III 2.0 is out. If you have not used this before, it's a remarkable Palm app that greatly improves your GUI.

posted 11:32

Imagine growing up in Bland county. Where the top story is a missing Jesus. Fortunately, Bland county sherrif Melvin Cox is on the job. No, really. Melvin Cox.
On Good Friday, Bobby Jones of Bland awoke to find that his 4-foot-tall, approximately 400-pound concrete statue of Jesus was missing from his front yard.
Fortunately, Cox is on the case.

posted 10:49

Oil prices go up in California. The nation follows. The market "corrects" and the economy teeters. Due largely to natural gas shortages, a power crisis ensues. The economy begins crashing. Oil industry insiders are elected to lead the country. We are urged to drill untapped reserves. There's no public support for it. The process repeats itself.

posted 09:45

I'm not quite sure how I feel about this. Although sanitizing Market Street's porn-junction sounds nice, I think that the seedy, urine-soaked stretch adds a little flavor to an otherwise heavily-branded street. Admittedly, it's the flavor of pee... But isn't that better than unrelenting Gappiness?

posted 09:24

monday, april 23

of Montreal has a new album out called Coquelicot Asleep In The Poppies. It also looks like they will be touring the left coast in May and June. No SF date yet.
A little trivia, their drummer, Derek Almstead was one of my next door neighbors in college.

posted 15:02

Just like all the best practical jokes you dont quite get it until its too late. That's for sure. Some great reviews of Pavement's "Slow Century" on Amazon.com.

posted 14:34

friday, april 20

The Holiday Band performs tonight as The Tea Bags @ The Odeon. Come join the fun.

posted 16:55

This allegedly leaked FTAA document has been making the leftie rounds like wildfire today. (Erinn was the first person I saw sending it, via the Mike Watt mailing list.) I have no idea if it's genuine or not, and you've probably seen it by now anyway, but considering it hit my inbox six times today from various people, I thought I should link to it.

posted 16:36

The Flower Power Journal I wrote for Macworld. I wrote it a few weeks ago, but it has just been posted. Check out the iTunes screen shots.

posted 12:42

Cool, it looks like I was the 10th highest referrer for SassyPalm's Ask President Bush app.

posted 10:48

(CNN) -- The new comedy from Tom Green, "Freddy Got Fingered," is quite simply the worst movie ever released by a major studio in Hollywood history.

posted 10:38

thursday, april 19

"It seems like the fat cats have won again." -- Lawrence Ferlinghetti, on the latest blow to Indie bookstores.

posted 21:54

Looking for something to do at lunchtime tomorrow? You could always protest Internet blocking in schools and libraries. Remember, the first ammendment is your friend.

posted 15:35

By now I think we've all heard that unfortunate phrase "your employees are your brand." But today I saw that concept taken to an uncomfotable extreme (as if working at a TGI Fridays is not). I was picking up some lunch at Briazz when I noticed that the person behind the register was wearing a button with the words "Quiet Period." In looking around a bit more, I noticed every employee in the joint was wearing an apron pimping Briazz' upcoming IPO. I certainly hope all those advertisements--excuse me, I mean employees--are getting stock options.

posted 13:38

I'm really happy with the new Board of Supes (formerly the Bored of Dupes). Matt Gonzalez continues to impress me, as does the the SF Bay Guardian.District supervisors: the first 100 days is a fine example of why this is a community publication, whereas the others are all just localized versions of big conglomerates. They alone are fighting the good fight against PG&E here in the city by the bay. It's nice to have an activist publication looking out for you. Even if their web log isn't the most frequently updated thing in the world.

posted 12:35

Pollutions Starts Here. An unbelieveably clever photo of Greenpeace demonstrators in front of the White House.

posted 12:20

These games are pretty similar, but both are fantastic little time-killers. Space Trader and Dope Wars. For all your bus-riding needs

posted 12:04

wednesday, april 18

In today's power news, the state's spending on power has increased 50% since PG & E declared bankruptcy. Perhaps this is why Gray Davis is getting behind a San Jose power plant, despite intense local opposition. Meanwhile, a Berkeley man is suing PG & E for fraud.

posted 12:10

Chris Robertson's killer was essentially let off the hook with misdemeanor charges yesterday. The judge in the case dropped manslaughter charges. Apparently there was not enough evidence. Let me see... 18-wheeler truck driver and cyclist get into argument at red light. Driver runs over cyclist and kills him. Yeah, I can see how that could go either way.

posted 09:53

tuesday, april 17

Spielberg to quit Scouts board over anti-gay policy. Well it's about damn time. Unfortunately, I don't think that his resignation, or other well-intentioned movements are going to have much of an effect. As long as the Boy Scouts are bankrolled by the Church of Latter Day Saints--who have threatened to pull support if the BSA repeals its hateful policy--the anti-gay rules aren't going anywhere. It's sad. This organization is allegedly about building better youth. I'm an Eagle Scout, which is embarrasing to me now. I would rather not be associated with a hate group, which the BSA is well on its way to becoming.

posted 13:43

Wow. Just looked at my server statistics to see what yesterday's Salon traffic was like. Turns out it was nothing compared to Hyakugojyuuichu search requests. If you came here looking for Hyakugojyuuichu, you can find it here. Be warned, that site is slower than a half-pound of keilbasa winding its way through Strom Thurmond's colon.

posted 12:19

PortaBush Wildly Popular in China. Go figure.

posted 11:56

I'm a pretty leve-headed guy; I don't lose my temper too often. In fact, I think most people would consider me pretty laid back. But I was riding my bike to work this morning, enjoying the spring weather, listening to Propagandhi, pedaling hard, and thinking all is right in the world.

And then, this asshole pulls up behind me and starts leaning on his horn. Now, obviously, the lane is as much mine as his. But he either doesn't know or doesn't care. what really irks me is that he has not even been behind me for a block. He just pulled up right behind me in his planet-destroying Lincoln Town Car and decided I should move immediately because he's got, like microwave dinners, cell phone connectivity and pay-per-view porn on the brain. I stayed where I was. I wasn't about to pull over for this horn-blowing asshole. As he passed me (on the right, no less), he made a motion with his hand indicating that I should be over on the side of the road. I also made a hand motion.

The guy was a giant fat fuck whose belly was mashed against his steering wheel. He probably doesn't walk 100 yards in a day. Overfed, white, impatient American in a gas-guzzler. Hurry up and consume. Consume consume consume. Thanks, asshole. How about leaving some Earth for the rest of us?

posted 10:15

monday, april 16

CBGB.com changed its front page to a Joey Ramone Memorial.

posted 16:35

Salon published a piece on The late, great Joey Ramone with thoughts on him from musicians, journalists, fans, etc. They accepted my entry (and my buddy Dave's too, see the one just above my own). They spelled my name wrong, originally, which normally would have made me mad. But I'm so bummed out about Joey, and so glad that my thoughts were made public that today I just don't care. Bam bam ba-bam ba-bam bam ba-bam I wanna be sedated. We're gonna miss you Joey.

np: Loudmouth

posted 12:41

There will be a 5% PG&E surcharge added to all food served.

posted 10:02

friday, april 13

Our Fake Energy Crisis: What Really Happened in California. God bless Molly Ivins.

posted 11:06

Science (subscription required) has a story today offering fairly substantial proof that greenhouse gasses are causing global warming. Two teams, working independently, came to the same conclusions. Both groups combined millions of ocean temperature measurements made over the past 50 years by observers all over the world. Then they looked for what could account for their dramatic rise with and without the presence of the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Read a nice summary here.

posted 11:04

I rode the bus today. Thank God for Palm Pilots (or Visors in my case). I thought I'd mention two games for the Palm that I really love. Strategic Commander by ZindaWare has been hours of fun. It's similar to Civilization, but in space. I think I've played it out now, but I can't say enough good things about it. Another is Ackeron. Ackeron is similar to Kyle's Quest. Great game.

posted 10:14

I'm not sure why, but I've been absolutely enchanted by Bruce Wilson's MIDI page. I stumbled across it while looking for Lawrence Welk's cover of "Mrs. Robinson." If you have a copy of theat, please send it my way.

posted 09:43

thursday, april 12

"Technology is our word for stuff that doesn't work yet." And more bon mots from Douglas Adams at the Embedded Systems Conference 2K1.

posted 12:56

I helped my friend El Destino a.k.a. Destiny a.k.a. Lou... (well, okay, I won't reveal that one) win the Plastic Karma Contest by sending him a bunch of quirky stuff to submit. Say what you will about Plastic, and mock them because they're popular, but they handed out a $150 gift certificate as a prize. So in return for helping him get the cert., he sent me one of the dopest CDs I've heard in years.
Thanks Destiny!

posted 11:51

Curt Hebert, chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, told California that the solution to our power crisis is to "start digging." No, no, we're not going to look into price-gauging, or anything like that. Instead let's just build more plants, and while we're at it, I've heard taht you can generate a lot of power from burning Condors so let's try that. Gosh, these Bushies have all the answers, don't they. Guess I'll be checking this site frequently for the next four years.

In other energy news, Enron, a.k.a. the People Who Brought You Bush, were told that they couldn't cut electricity to schools. I'm sure this won't go over too well with our edumacation president. "It is unreasonable that a publicly traded company like Enron would not try to manage its risk by squeezing California for every Goddamned dime we can," said one nasty little man who works for Enron. "Besides, rich people can pay for their power and that's all that we really care about anyway."

posted 11:02

wednesday, april 11

Hyakugojyuuichu is back! Check it out with along with the rest of Neil Cicierega's animutations at: Animutation Central.

posted 14:57

Hey kids, like Radiohead? Sure you do. Want the new album? Well why not. Here it is: Radiohead - Amnesiac Act fast, I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that this won't be up too long.

posted 13:29

Okay, let me get this straight...
Gale Norton, our Secretary of the Interior, was wearing a fur hat?? I mean, when you're essentially annoucing that you're going to fuck the last American wilderness like it was a drunken sorority girl; you wear a FUR hat? I thought the only people who still wore fur were old ladies and pimps.

Maybe she was on the way to meet Trent Lott at a cockfight....

posted 11:52

tuesday, april 10

I've been riding my bike to work lately. It's one of the best things I've done in ages, swtiching from mass-transit to Mat-transit. My route is pretty simple. In the mornings I take Fulton Street to VanNess to McAllister to Market to Beale. In the evenings, I take Market to Page to Scott to Fulton. 3.5 miles, according to Yahoo maps.

Going to work is great. It's downhill almost the entire way. I can make it from my front door to the office in about fifteen minutes. That includes red lights, stop signs and traffic dodging. Pretty fast. By way of comparison, the bus usually takes anywhere from half an hour (on a good day) to 45 minutes (average) to an hour (bad mood bus day).

When I hit the top of Alamo Square Park, on my way to work, I've got a downhill stretch ahead of me that is (I would guess) roughly one mile long. With my bike in high gear I still can't pedal fast enough to get any resistance going. If the lights are green, I pass cars all the way down.

When I hit Market Street it's really invigorating. For starters, I'm usually still pretty keyed up from the speed. But the traffic is what really makes the ride interesting. When I ride the bus to work, I feel like I'm helping to do my part for the environment--but I'm doing nothing for myself. On Market, I dodge doors and cars, I meander through traffic, I make snap decisions, and I'm exercising. Exercising! I don't exercise...

But my point is that it's invigorating. It's a whole day before 9 a.m. Do I go to the left of the open 18-wheeler truck door, or do I dodge under it? (under) Do I agressively pedal past the bus, or hang back and let it go by? (hang back).

Going home is another story. It's fucking hard to make it uphill. I've got a graded map from the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition that helps some. I take Page Street instead of Fulton. But man, it's a bitch.

But the thing is, if I can do it (pack a day smoker for 13 years), anyone can. I live in a part of the city that's impossible to get to without negotiating one of San Francisco's worst hills and busiest streets. But there I am.

I have no sympathy for drivers anymore. Car Commuters are evil little fucks as far as I'm concerned. This city is seven miles by seven miles. Ride your bike.

"but... but... I live in the East Bay." You can take your wheels on BART. Ride your bike.

"but... but... I live in the Penninsula." Ditto for CalTrain. Ride your bike.

posted 11:28

First they went after Ralph Nader for having the audacity to run the only advertisement during the entire presidential campaign that made any sort of point. And now the happy funtime Mastercard legal team is fucking with rec.humor.funny over yet another Mastercard parody. What part of parody don't they understand?

posted 09:11

monday, april 9

Email from Neil Cicierega, creator of Hyakugojyuuichu:

NBCi shut down my site as far as I know, as well as all my animutations, so I'm in the process of being hosted by mixnmojo.com. I'll re-register the nbci site and add a redirecting page.

posted 15:20

So Hyakugojyuuichu is down, at least for now, on nbci/xoom or whatever they're calling it today. Thanks to James for letting me know. I've taken down the link, and I'm looking around for a mirror. If you see one please let me know.

posted 14:51

This was in my referrer logs twice for some reason. Not sure why, there's no link, but hey, I'm glad to know that there really is a World's Largest Ball of Twine. And it's in Kansas, no less. America's heartland. Cawker, Kansas, that is.

posted 11:04

friday, april 6

One thing that really appeals to me about California is that it is a great place to check out raptors. I love watching raptors fly. They can float and dive like nothing else in the sky. And the skies here are just full of them. Even here in San Francisco, I see hawks on a regular basis and owls on occasion. When driving the coastal roads, it's highly unusual to not see several raptors.

So I was really happy to see the article today about the
Condors released into the Ventana wilderness. My wife and I spend several weekends a year in the Ventana area (not at the Inn/spa but camping and hiking in the Ventana Wilderness ). So I'm really excited to go down there again. We were going to go this weekend, but things came up... In any case, maybe I'll get a glipse of one on the 28th.

posted 10:19

thursday, april 5

Well it's about time. Someone finally released a George Bush virtual pet, PortaBush. This will make the perfect companion for my magic 8-ballesque Ask President Bush app.

Speaking of Bush, was I the only one who was incredibly disappointed with Comedy Central's That's My Bush?

posted 16:21

An email on China from Brad. I thought it was worth repeating, so to speak:

The military/party/civilian thing is all pretty complex there. But the more interesting aspect of internal Chinese politics has been generational. Jiang Zemin took over in 1997 after way too much Deng Xiaoping (25 years) and Mao was the guy before that. These guys stick around a while. So change is hard.

Remember 1989? Little scuffle with some students? Well, no one under 25 in China does... or they don't care. They may hear about it from their parents and on the internet. But that was their parent's thing. It's a little like how we used to hear about anti-Vietnam war protests in High School. Not our thing. 

Before 1989 there was a lot of pro-American sentiment, we'd been trading with them for 15 years, the former US Ambassador to China was working in the White House, and we had a common enemy: the Soviet Union. But after the crackdown, the leadership did a great job of killing or jailing or expelling anyone who gave a damn. And a few years later they opened up the economy, albeit not in the Soviet way... free markets cold turkey, which caused the Russian economy to collapse.

When Jiang came in... he was the free market guy ... more Western... younger guy. A lot of the old folks were pretty pissed and Deng even stuck around a few years before it all got settled. But the US was doing all this "Human Rights" shit and keeping China out of the WTO and interfering in Taiwan and honoring the Tiananmen dead and they just seemed out of touch with Chinese sentiment which is... "fuck off."

Then we held PNTR over them for years... and they were like... "fuck off." Then we accused them of not being able to control copyright laws: "fuck off," then we bombed their embassy: "fuck off" and then we accused them of spying and arrested an innocent man at Los Alamos whose eyes were just a bit too narrow "fuck off" and then we raised shit when someone legally sold missile technology to their aerospace unit "FO" and then we raised Cain when Chinese Americans gave to the Gore campaign "FO" and then we started going back to referring to them as "Red China" and the "last Cold War enemy" and the like. You notice this? Suddenly the rabid right in Congress is always like "Red" China? What is that shit? Didn't we win the Cold War?

Anyway... the Chinese youth, who have been brainwashed for years that the Americans are a bunch of bastards are now all on board with the government line... hence back in control. Kind of like reverse of when Clinton and Blair and Shroeder and all those guys who protested in the 60's are/were now in charge of the world economy.

So... Jiang.. who could have been a further element of change, no longer has real like "popular" support to be more Western. But Mat's right... they need trade. Still... it's a seller's market. The US has like a $100 billion defect every year with the Chinese, just so that they can sell them the $50 billion they do, and maybe more later... cause remember the real enemy in the 80's were the Japanese and THEY were getting a jump start on selling to the Chinese.

SO... actually, even though China has more to lose, the US acts like they do, because if China closes its markets (more) then Japan or Korea or Germany or fucking Brazil steps in... and making money is our thing... so we'll tolerate Human Rights abuses, not because we're making a profit in China, but because we don't want Tokyo to.

The military? Hmm. Yeah, like Mat said.. it's interchangeable. But the threat is not the military, it's markets.

posted 16:11

The Chicken Breeding Game is even more fun than you'd imagine.

posted 09:20

wednesday, april 4

Thought of the Day:
"Our national defence will be consolidated and no imperialist will be allowed to invade our territory again. Our people's armed forces must be maintained and developed with the brave and steeled People's Liberation Army as their foundation. We will have not only a powerful army but also a powerful air force and a powerful navy." --Mao Tse-Tung

posted 16:29

tuesday, april 3

I love field recordings/ found sound. I picked up a pretty cheap portable DAT recorder on ebay recently. Although I want to use it for some film projects, and to record shows, I'm primarily interested in using it for interviews and field recordings. Most of the coolest interviews I've heard have been unplanned and unscripted. Similarly, the natural sounds around us have always been as apealing to me as is music when I'm looking for some ambiant background clutter. And are obviously the best of the bunch.

But listening is one thing. I can't wait to take the DAT out this weekend and start making my own. If this kind of stuff interests you, Aquarius Records is a great place to build a collection.

posted 14:19

monday, april 2

I'm redesigning here. So if you happen to stop by (and Lord knows I can't imagine why one would) and notice the furniture seems a bit mussed and the rugs are all hanging over the railing, please pity me. I'm just learning my way 'round Dreamweaver after years and years of BBEdit and very basic HTML.

And for those of you who asked (er... make that the one of you who asked), yes, the tattoo idea is still very much on, but is on hiatus for a week or two until I get a few other aspects of my disorganized life under control.

posted 17:08