Calendar
Ongoing:
Ansel Adams at 100
(SF MOMA)
September 8 & 9:
Belle & Sebastian (Warfield)
Monday, September 10:
Modest Mouse (Warfield)
Tuesday, September 11:
Mike Watt (Bottom of the Hill)
October 12 & 13:
Widespread Panic (Greek Theatre)
Top Searches/ Fave Links:
Bill Hangley meets George Bush
Gorgeous Guy
@ 4th & Market
Icy Hot Stuntaz
PortaBush
Hyakugojyuuichu
Hamotam
Watt/ Mascis wreck
photos (see 06/20 entry)
That
Bitch Stole my HTML
I'm a Cow
Road to Springfield
::e m p t y a g e:: not just uncut, not just unedited... not even spell-checked.
friday, june 29
It's Friday, it's half an hour to Critical Mass (Justin Hermann Plaza) and all is right in the world. have a great weekend.
Need a place to go Saturday? Why not go here.
Half a man or twice a man? You be the judge.
This is pathetic. (thanks Andy)
Did you come here from Freakscene looking for the pictures of J Mascis & the Fog's accident in Sweden? You'll find them in the archive under June 20th. Thanks for all the referrals Jeremiah!
Well it's about time. Something that's annoyed me for years is the lack of a decent local weather site. I've tried Weather.com, Earthlink's start page, SFGate, Citysearch (which is weather.com info) and :::shudder::: a few of the local news channels sites. but I haven't found one yet that's got good information presented well. Until now. SFGate's new weather page rocks.
SF Gate's Day In Pictures is particularly good today. Cows, fires, tires, naked babies, volcanos Air Jesus and bikes. Always bikes.
thursday, june 28
The pounding of the drums to prosecute Kissinger continues. It seems to me that the old man isn't going to make it to his grave without getting nailed for something, and rightfully so. Too bad we don't have Garzon in this country.
"Omigod! That bitch stole my html!"
"This summer, Disney's California Adventure™ invites you and your family to celebrate the return of a Disney classic: Disney's Electrical Parade! That's right, Disney's most magnificent parade is returning with its dazzling lights, enchanting music and your favorite characters and it'll be making its way down the streets at Disney's California Adventure beginning July 3. So this summer, start a whole new family tradition at Disney's California Adventure, and make it a summer they'll never forget!"As Harper said, "California Electrical Parade? Do the lights all go out halfway through?" What dipshit thought it would be a good idea to have an electrical parade in California?
wednesday, june 27
I haven't written many new stories for a while, but here's one.
These Fark photoshops
are hillarious.
I shoulda known it was a hoax. But I think after the Blur email turned out to be real, my BS sensor has gone off-kilter. In any case, The Register says "A London-based dotcom has admitted it was behind a hoax involving a revenge-seeking woman and a stack of pictures of her cheating boyfriend in red knickers and bra."
Salon has a good, if too short, obituary on John Lee Hooker today.
I heard, or read, or divined sometime last week that the stick shift is on its way out. I'm not one to venerate cars, but I have to say this news made me a little weepy. It brought back memories of lurching through Montgomery neighborhoods while my dad, or mom, or both would bark things like "no, no let it out gently! I said gently!" Or that masterful feeling when I finally did figure out the clutch and my parents' 1981 RX-7 slid from first to second to third like Rickey Henderson and I knew I was the baddest sumbitch in Alabama. So yep, I'm a little sorry to hear that the stick shift is going away. It's the one thing that lets you know that you're controlling a machine, rather than cruising in a small living room. But Mark Morford eulogizes it much better than I could.
tuesday, june 26
Leave it to Fucked Company to run a picture of a naked woman standing in front of Blur.
images from j mascis & the fog - Harlow's, Sacramento, CA (thanks erinn and bott)
Tom Tomorrow on why you should subscribe to Salon Premium. If you're still not convinced, consider this, which is in no danger whatsoever.
I've been listening to the Beta Band's Hot Shots II all morning. Excellent album. But I was amazed to see that the CD was already listed in CDDB. Piracy moves fast. thanks andrew
What to do when your boyfriend cheats on you with your best friend? Why, publish images of him in ladies underwear, of course.
North Dakota wants to change its name to Dakota. "The Greater North Dakota Association, the state's chamber of commerce, is behind a plan to cut the state's name to 'Dakota.' Proponents insist the name change would help alter the state's image as a frigid prairie." Well that's all well and good, but what are you going to do about the fact that it's a frigid prairie? Isn't that going to contribute to its image as a frigid prairie?
Minor Demons, my favorite technology company in the whole world wide whatevah, now has T-Shirts for sale designed by one of the coolest fucking people on the planet, Mike Dougherty.
A beef I have with most libertarians is that they can't see the forest for the trees. Most seem like they have not evolved at all since 1990. They cry about freedom and liberty, yet fail to notice who it is usurping all that liberty. Put down your obligatory Ayn Rand crapfest and open your eyes. The government isn't stealing your liberty, Dow Chemical is. And Coca-Cola. And Exxon, and on and ona and on. Why don't people see this? Systematic corporate brainwashing and propaganda.
monday, june 25
If you enjoyed the MySimon email, but still feel like you need to get your voyeur on, check out this exchange between Jennifer Lopez' (or is it J. Lo?) publicist and a Warner Brothers executive.
Matt Welch has a great story on Suck over at OJR. Brought all the sadness back.
If you came here looking for the Watt/Mascis images, here they are:
13 minutes before the wreck
The van on its side
Watt Self-portrait just after wreck
Watt looks down after wreck
J in Hospital
J's first steps the next dayTo see Watt's email, look under the June 20th entry.
Programs Like Napster 30 of 'em -- I think the title of that URL says it all.
sunday, june 24
"Be the person who reports the most offenders to the Net Authority databases and you too can study the Bible in style with your very own copy of Compton's Interactive Bible! " I don't know. Stuff like this makes me think this site must be a fake. But if not, I'm afraid I've probably been "added to the database" as well.
Zero tolerence in small town America: The newly-online Eufaula Tribune has a cautionary story about the ridiculous extremes of zero-tolerance policies.
This time it's Exxon. So I'll ask the same question I asked the other day: Why do oil companies like to kill people?
saturday, june 23
Erinn sent the wattlist a link to one of the greatest political action sites I've seen in a while changingtheclimate.com. Get yourself the PDF file, watch the video and have fun.
friday, june 22
Learning to Fly, Strip, and Vomit on a 727 Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top and Penn Jillette floating in an antigravity airplane. Even better than it sounds. (thanks Dave & Andy)
I saw this on metafilter, had to comment. Is it just me or is this product blurb overtly racist?
Salon picked up the My Simon story and talked to Tim @ Blur.
Whew! Good news, for a change. Bush's efforts to rape and poison our land are being beaten back for now.
thursday, june 21
Jeremiah posted the latest Watt story and photo on his freakscene.net BBS. You've to see the image. Classic Watt.
Some great shots of the Fog in Manchester and Sheperd's Bush Empire. I have no idea where Sheperd's Bush Empire is.
I don't quite understand this whole fake man-on-the-street scandal that's hit the studios. (You know: you see a shot of two grinning idiots standing in front of an Atlantis poster, and excitedly chattering about "how fun" the movie was and how it just "blew me away" and they're "definitely going again," because they're "soul suckingly devoid of taste" and they're "the kind of people who would have cooperated with the Nazis because, hey, who am I to rock the boat? Just look at me, my clothes all come from Old Navy. Does my hair look Okay?") Whatevah. Hasn't everyone always known that these people weren't really doctors but played on on TV? I always assumed that there was no way in Hell that such effusive, Prozac-happy hordes could actually exist. That anyone ever thought these people weren't actors is depressing as hell and probably explains why there aren't daily street riots demanding an end to the illegitimate presidency of George W. Bush. See? It always comes back to Dubya.
I sent the mysimon email that Bart sent me to my friend Andy, who sent it to Pud from Fucked company. Pud posted it on the front page, and put up a dedicated page for it. I'd say Tim @ Blur is about to get an email or two.
wednesday, june 20
The email exchange between Frank and Tim @ Blur about MySimon is one of the funniest messages I've ever read. It's another lesson in not writing anything you don't want to become public. (thanks bart!)
I've never read a more biased news article than this one in my entire life. I can't believe fox news editors can look themselves in the mirror in the mornings.
From Mike Watt:
folks,
we survived a van crash in falkenberg, sweden on sunday, june 17 at about ten of six pm. j cracked two of his vertebrae but no spinal injuries. he will heal well. I saw him take his first steps yesterday. tour boss david had a big scrape on the knee that need to be stitched up. george hurt his wrist and it's wrapped up, kind of spraned. he was bracing against the dash. noel, the soundman, who was driving, had scrapes on the abdomen and a sore neck/shoulder. I had no injuries at all. only me and george were wearing seat belts, him in the front passenger and me in the back, driver's side (it was an english style right-hand drive van, mercedes 'sprinter').we were on our way from oslo, norway (where we played saturday night) to bielefeld, germany (for next gig on monday) when in falconberg, sweden we tried to pass a vehicle and another vehicle sped up into the fast lane, we swerved to avoid him, back into the slow lane and swerved, an over-correction the other way sent us over on our side and we skidded across the highway and hit a cable and post center divider. the rescue people were there just like that, minutes. they popped the front windshield out to get j out. we came out through the side door. the side j was on, sitting back w/me. we were taken to a hospital south of the accident in halmstad w/a brand-new, two year old emergency room. the swedish people were very nice to us and helped a bunch.
the dick who jammed past us sped off as the accident was happening. david, noel and myself are in nyc now, j and george are flying in tomorrow.
I consider us all very very lucky and am very grateful things weren't much worse.
the tour got cut short, of course (all the german gigs).
shook-up bass from watt but still bass
Watt also sent out some pictures of the wreck and recovery.
13 minutes before the wreck
The van on its side
Watt Self-portrait just after wreck
Watt looks down after wreck
J in Hospital
J's first steps the next day
tuesday, june 19
This post was going to be about Leo the Bichon Frise poodley white dog thing that got thrown into traffic. But after following the link Brad sent me, I've got a new complaint. Why do all the "ode to my pet" sites have the obligatory cheesy midi files embedded in them? The angrylioness site that hosts the Leo page is particularly guilty of miditrocities (not to mention that it’s also pretty much exclusively about dead house pets and it’s really creepy in much the same way that I imagine Miss Haversham would have been).
But in any case, every cheese-ass pet site online has midi these days. What on earth started this trend? (And another question: what the fuck is the Rainbow Bridge anyway? I keep on seeing references to pets crossing it. Sounds vaguely psychedelic. Does it lead to hell? Let’s hope so.)
Pet lovers, here’s the deal: nobody cares about your stupid cats. But when you litter your pages with awful midi and worse poetry, they become targets for mockery and deservedly so.
Oh yeah, Andrew Burnett? Here’s hoping you’ve got a long career as a prison bitch ahead of you buddy.
There is what looks to be an excellent program tonight on PBS taking a look at the Boy Scouts.
I’ve got a dilemma. A few years ago, I was in a MARTA station in Atlanta, where I saw an ad for The Cherokee Kid, a Sinbad western. Sinbad. In Atlanta, you tend to spend a lot of time in traffic, sitting there, staring at the cars and busses around you. So when you’re at a light for 20 minutes, with a MARTA bus in front of you, you tend to notice the ads on the back of the busses. They always seemed to be for movies, movies that suck. Typically, the bus-advertised movie falls into one of three categories a) the mega-action blockbuster b) the wacky comedian vehicle, or c) the heartfelt story of a woman, her sister, their mutual lover and a feisty Jack Russell terrier that just won’t quit when the chips are down.
Whatever
In any case, The Cherokee Kid was the last straw. I vowed to never, ever, see another flick that appeared in any sort of mass-transit advertising campaign. This held true when I moved to San Francisco three years ago. I don’t care where you are in America, if you see a movie advertised on the side of a bus, that movie fucking blows. And I’ve remained loyal to my oath, somewhat. I haven’t seen a bus movie in the theater, at least, since 1996 or 97.
So imagine my displeasure this morning when a bus rolled by me with a giant advertisement for Planet of the Apes. Shit. I’ve been looking forward to this for a while now. But there it was, on a bus. Which means that either I’ve got to violate my transit-ad credo, or that the movie is going to utterly suck. I suspect the latter. Say it ain’t so, Tim.
The Gorgeous Guy' makes the big time, USA Today. Remember, kids, you read about him here first. Take that, Yahoo! Internet Life.
monday, june 18
Looks like my alma mater is going straight to hell.
Salon was delisted form Nasdaq over the weekend. Bad news. (via kenlayne.com) But don't worry too much, news editor Joan Walsh tells USAToday, "It's not possible that we'd go out of business."
Some web sites (logs, blogs, etc ad naseum) have purposes, others are just exercises in vanity. Here's a pretty cool one that's actually useful to a segment of our population.
Imagine if this were Clinton:We'd need a special prosecutor to sort it out.
Jeremiah reports that J. Mascis & the Fog were in an automobile accident yesterday in Sweden. Mascis apparently got the worst of it with two broken vertebrae, the others only suffered cuts and bruises. The rest of the European tour is cancelled. Read more details on Jeremiah's bulletin board. Between this and the incident with the mic stand it's been a hell of a tour.
We were looking to get rid of an old machine recently, and you wouldn't believe what a pain in the ass it was. If you have an older computer--one that isn't going to fetch more than $100 if you were to sell it--it's nearly impossible to get rid of the damn thing. We contacted several goups who we thought could use a free computer, but no dice. Even those in a position to acept charity seem to have system requirements these days. Finally, I wound up removing the hard drive and putting it out on the curb. It disappeared within ten minutes. Kurb Karma.But still, PC recycling is an idea whose time has come. Particularly in light of all the toxic waste those old machines produce.
Protesting clear-cut logging practices isn't just for smelly hippies anymore.
friday, june 15
I'm a Cow is a hillarious Flash video. It's somewhere between PG-13 and R rated, however, so be warned. (via memepool)
Have a look at the redesign and let me know what you think. Error reports always appreciated.
I was looking for a G.G. Allin video. Instead, I found Hated.com - Anti-George W. Bush links, information, protests, and web sites. Ain't the Web lovely?
It occurs to me that as you are on the other side of the window, the ?MARRY ME? sign that I created by cleaning those letters into your window (I watch MacGyver) looks more like ?EM YRRAM? to you. Hopefully you are dyslexic. Or foreign and ?em yrram? means something really nice in your language. -- Missed Connections.
Looks like India's Moneky Man is getting transnational on your ass. Pravda reports that the Monkey Man, who went apeshit on a Russian airliner "has already reported of an outrageous behaviour presumably displayed in the Indian capital city’s outskirts by some huge and impudent apes. One starts to involuntarily believe in such things in the light of the recent incident aboard a Aeroflot airliner flying from Delhi to Moscow."Word.
Square melons.
Cool.
Colombia: Vietnam V 2.0 Brought to you by Occidental Petroleum? Why do oil companies like to kill people?
Get ready California. Here comes another shortage your president won't do anything about.
thursday, june 14
When I started voting in the road to springfield, the number of ballots cast tended to be in the double digits. Today's ass-whipping saw Dr. Nick Riviera overtaking Edna Krabappel by a margin of 2727 to 1250. PS: please vote for Kang and Kodos, two of my favorite Simpsons' characters, over Skinner, one of my least favorite.
The Haight Street missed connection posts are amusing me to no end. Be sure to read all of the followups.
"Doh!: expressing frustration at the realization that things have turned out badly or not as planned or that one has just said or done something foolish. Also implying that another person has said or done something foolish." -- From the Oxford English Dictionary.
wednesday, june 13
mac put up some cool pics of a Manchester show with Creeper Lagoon and J Mascis and the Fog (with Ron Asheton)
Ken Layne has a new book out called Dot.Con. It also has an associated Web site that's slickerr than monkey shit. Check it out. As soon as I find out where to buy this fine work, I'll post it. Hopefully, it'll be available on Amazon, so that I can make a nickel or two from Ken's hard work.
Apple gives satanists hell
This is kind of cool. The American Council on Science and Health published a report on tobacco, and the divide between the left and the right. They quote one of my articles on page 24, just above Ralph Nader. Ralph Nader!
I would be a liar if I were to deny that mockery was a part of what I was doing. A big part. But there is more to it than that -- there must be. There is something truly admirable about a "guy" who puts his photo and his thoughts on the World Wide Web, the most powerful technology for the distribution of unflattering photos with pointedly unself-conscious captions ever created in human history, a "guy" who stares down the behemoth of this new medium and leaves upon it the imprimatur of his own idiosyncrasy, the oddness of his particular existence, the unmistakable mark of his freshness! From howfreshisthisguy.com
Bike Polo
Foxnews' slogan is we report, you decide. Many Americans like them because they are "unbiased."The European press is livid right now, having Dubya in their backyard. The Guardian is openly mocking him. The BBC is more staid, but the tone there is definitely one of "He played a crinky game of cricket, if you ask me, but let's give the old boy a chance, wot-wot?" But the interesting coverage is here in the States.
::You Decide::
CNN notes that: Bush warns Europe of 'new' threats. Note the quotation marks around the word new (a thread on metafilter discussing the marks drew my interest in the first place). The subhed: U.S. President George W. Bush began his first European visit seeking to deflect criticism of his stand on global warming and plans for a missile defense system.
The story relies almost exclusively on direct quotes. It is not prominently displayed on the front page of cnn.com. Not too much mention is made of the European peoples' deep distrust and resentment of Bush, although there is this:
Asked about criticism from some European countries over his refusal to back the Kyoto protocol on global warming and his plans for a national missile defense system, Bush said: "There is a lot that unites us -- trade, common values, great opportunities."
and this:
But he repeated his criticism of the Kyoto Treaty, which he has rejected much to the consternation of European allies.These are, I believe, statements of fact (see European press coverage for confirmation). The top related link: Skeptical leaders await Bush on European trip.
Now let's look at Foxnews
The front page, in very large type, proclaims: Bush Aims to Help Spain Fight Terrorism. The subhed: President kicks off European trip in Madrid, heads to Brussels next to sell NATO allies on missile shield
When you click on the link, you get this headline: Bush Refuses to 'Isolate America From Europe'
The subhed: President Bush kicked off his first official trip to Europe in Madrid on Tuesday, eager to get beyond trans-Atlantic differences and assure U.S. allies they have a friend in Washington.
Direct quotes are used, but only in about 50% of the time. Literally no mention is made of the Europeans' anger with Bush, or damage we are doing in relation to our allies. None.
The top related link: Kyoto Is a Waste of Money, Environmentalist Says.So who's more obviously biased here? You decide.
California Attorney General Bill Lockyer said yesterday he will convene a criminal grand jury to investigate whether power generators illegally manipulated energy prices.
I need to update my calendar. There's so much good stuff going on in the next few weeks. The Doves are playing at the Fillmore tonight. Built To Spill will be at the Bottom on the Hill this weekend, the Blake Babies are at the GAMH on the 15th, Guided By Voices will be at the Fillmore on the 24th, and Live Nude Bands (Zen Guerrilla, the Hail Marys, Black Kali Ma, Bonfire Madigan, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Gun & Doll Show, the Pre-Teens and PBR Street Gang) will play the Fillmore on the 22nd.
tuesday, june 12
LEVERS! (thanks Andy!)
A problem with running an interview with "media pranksters" is that you very well might get pranked yourself. They're all named Ray Thomas, Glen. but you knew that, right? Which is why you identified Ray Thomas as a pseudonym, right? Or will the Chronicle be running a correction?
What!?! Where's my damned rebate check?
Bush, being a dumbass, is wary of them fancy European politicians with their learnin' and morals and convictions and whatnot. He wanted to ease into Eurpoe (like a cold can a Pabst Blue Ribbon and a half gram of cocaine on a hot Texas morning), and chose thus chose Spain as stop numero uno on his EU tour '01. The Spaniardish PM, Jose Maria Aznar, is a fellow conservative, and like out leader, little more than a front for monied interests, so they had that in common. But before old Dubya could even get his drink on, he began to mangle the Spanish language, mispronouncing words and calling Aznar by the wrong name . "I have to practice this very lovely language," Mr Bush told the interviewer. "If I don't practice I am going to destroy this language." It wasn't immediately evident if he was talking about Spanish or English. And if you think that's bad, wait until he gets to Ljubljana. I wonder which White House prankster put that stop on his itinerary. Meanwhile, oil magnate Dick Cheney is runnin' things back at the White House, as usual, while Dubya goes diplomatin'. I joke about Dubya, but seriously folks, he's not a big bumbling rube. He's an evil puppet installed by his father's cronies against the will of the majority of the American people to serve at the behest of monied oil corporations and to subvert the Democratic process, making a joke of the Constitution. Give him hell, Europe.
"People can eat Godzilla and become energetic and powerful. It's got dreams mixed in with fun," Takara spokeswoman Yoko Watanabe said Tuesday. "It's like Popeye and his can of spinach."
monday, june 11
Why are monkeys so damn funny?
"No black flags with skull and crossbones, no cutlasses, cannons, or daggers identify today's pirates. You can't see them coming; there's no warning shot across your bow. Yet rest assured the pirates are out there because today there is plenty of gold (and platinum and diamonds) to be had. Today's pirates operate not on the high seas but on the Internet, in illegal CD factories, distribution centers, and on the street. The pirate's credo is still the same--why pay for it when it's so easy to steal?"Huh. That's funny. I always thought the pirate's credo was "arrghhhh!"
To: Stunninglingus@yahoogroups.com
From: Hampton
Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2001 13:47:16 -0400
Subject: stunninglingus- OKcitybomberSo is anyone glad McVeigh is dead? Sad? Sorry? Indifferent?
I'm theoretically against the death penalty, but I found it hard to get all worked up on this one. If we've already covered this ignoreme.
To: stunninglingus@yahoogroups.com
From: Mat Honan
Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2001 11:29:18 -0700
Subject: Re: stunninglingus- OKcitybomberA bit of trivia: The only news story that has ever made me cry was the coverage of the Oklahoma City bombing. I was living with Steve at the time, and I came in from work to see all of that horror on the screen.
I'm very against the death penalty. but I too was hard pressed to get worked up about this one. I wasn't out there on the street with my "stop the execution of Timothy McVeigh But I did think it was wrong to kill McVeigh. wrong, wrong, wrong. And I also, quite frankly, think Timothy McVeigh, not Mumia, should be the poster boy for the anti-death penalty movement.
I think if you're against it, you have to always be against it. Even when it's someone like McVeigh. It's easy to oppose the death penalty when it's some poor schmoe who has been rammed through the Texas justice system, but McVeigh makes it difficult. Which is, I think, a good thing.
I think executions are abhorrent. The last vestige of 19th century society in America. But we need people like McVeigh to be executed to remind us why we are against the death penalty on its most basic level: no human being has the right to take the life of another. Ape shall not kill ape. Thou shalt not kill: 3 religions, same message. If you can't be against the execution of McVeigh, you aren't against the death penalty; just the way it's applied.
NY Times piece on Feed and Suck . This is on the SFGate site, so if you arent' registered for the Times, you can still read it here.
Timothy McVeigh is dead. Now what?
saturday, june 9
As you would expect, a lot of the weblogs and webzines are commenting on Suck & Feed. Here are some of the best I've seen:Matt Welch
Pigdog
Flak
Steven Johnson (on plastic)
Netslaves
I helped launch GettingIt. I was a section editor there, from the start. I noticed Suck mentioned us on it's "gone fishin," message. Now, Mr. Bad is also talking about us in the same breath as Cuk. As in, "sing me no GettingIt 2.0, Suckbuddies. You're outta here. Face the facts and move on." Did I mention unemployment is up? Mr. Bad makes some great points.
I'd kinda like to go here. I saw a news program on television about Axel Erlandson, the guy who made these trees.
Inside's take on Automatic-Media (Suck, Feed, Plastic, Altculture) thanks dave
Harp's bike was stolen last night while we were at our friend Jeff's apartment on Page Street. It's how she gets to work every day, and she can't afford a new one. Sometimes you forget how many fucking assholes there are in this city.
friday, june 8
Genius vs. Genius. It's like Spy vs. Spy, but with Apple Genius bar workers. Enjoy, you mac geek you.
Automatic Media, Inc. went out of business today. I don't know what that means for Suck, Feed, altculture, and plastic... But it can't be good. I took a screenshot of the front page, where quotes scroll past the "we're out of money" announcement, as there's a peculiar juxtaposition.I never wrote for Suck, and I only sent them one pitch (for a hit & run), but it was, for a long time, one of my favorite places on the Web. In fact, Suck was what made me sit up and realize that I might be able to make a living writing for the Web. I haven't read it regularly since 1998 or so, as the proliferation of content sites inevitably drew me elsewhere, but I'm going to be really sad if it goes away. It will be missed.
The very last Britt and Tiff post:I've gotten entirely too involved with Britt and Tiff. But, here's a short summary of the drama, to date. There were two different people posting Britt and Tiff entries on Craigslist. The first was brittandtiff@hotmail.com (BTH), who started off posting in women seeking men before moving to missed connections. The second was brittandtiff@diaryland.com (BTD), who began posting on missed connections after BTH dropped off for a while. When Craigslist started filtering out the Britt and Tiff posts, BTD set up a Web site to continue the fun.
I came in in the middle of this, at first unaware that I was dealing with multiple Britt and Tiffs on Craigslist. But, I've been in touch with both, and both have valid points as to who Britt and Tiff really are. As for me, I'd rather not get involved with figuring out who the real slim shady is. However, I will be posting some of BTH's earlier craigslists posts later today, as well as an interview with BTD that goes over the same topics as the one I did with BTH.
Personally, I'm starting to think that one is Britt, the other is Tiff, and they're both just pulling my leg.
This is just an odd little story.
Macs make good Java: Apple has big presence at JavaOne
thursday, june 7
Okay... I really should go all the way through my inbox before I go tearing off into htmland. Check it out the first britt and tiff post on Craigslist.
The plot thickens... Okay... I can't believe I just typed that. I'm never looking at Missed connections again because I'm taking it entirely too seriously.That's from an email I just sent Tim. Why the recriminations? Because a response to my email to Britt and Tiff just came into my inbox, and now I just have no damn idea who the real Britt and Tiff are. And I'm not going to try and figure it out, either, not my job.
Whatever... I've got an interview with Britt and Tiff on the site now and it rocks. This Britt and Tiff seem to predate the other Britt and Tiff (not that they are the only other Britt and Tiffs). This is all too confusing for me. But I'm enjoying it immensely. I'll leave it up to the various Britt and Tiff factions and other Webmonkeys to figure out who the real deal is.
My friend and former coworker (boss actually) is doing this week's Today's Papers. Be sure to check it out.
There are multiple Britt and Tif's posting to CraigsList. I don't know who started the thread, and I'm not sure anyone does. No matter. Here are the best of the bunch. I just can't get over how brilliant these are.
Bankrate.com reprinted a story called I've Got a Secret that I sold to the late, great Green magazine. I'd love to get a couple of dimes for the reprint, but I'm sure I won't. In any case, I'm glad the story is surfacing elsewhere. I wish, however, that they picked up the story I wrote on GettingIt's demise. Media News, Online Journalism Review, and multiple weblogs. I even got a job offer out of it (which would have required a move to NYC, no thanks)... But today you can only find it on Google's cache or other archives. What a shame.
WWJD? w h a t w o u l d j o u r n e y d o ? (thanks Dave)
May's total for company closures is the third-highest since January 2000. The most lethal month was February 2001, when 59 companies shut down.
Last night, we did some volunteer work at the bicycle coalition. We handed out postcards and gathered signatures at 7th and Market to urge the board of supes to allocate $250,000 for Market Street improvements. Later we labeled and stuffed envelopes. Boring work, but I enjoyed doing it.It got me thinking about bikes again. How much more free I am on a bike than in the bus or in a car. This morning, a beutiful day, I was riding down Fulton Street in the bike lane, passing all the cars. I wasn't pedaling even, nor was it a steep grade. Traffic was just at a standstill
At the top of Alamo Square, I can look down all the way to City Hall, and see the sun peak over its golden dome. It's an amazing thing to see in the morning, and something you probably would not notice in the morning--just as the beutiful weather would not be as significant. By the time I hit Webster, I had caught all the lights. I was going too fast for pedaling to do me any good. It feels like flight. It's the same sensation that I love when I'm skiing. As I approached Webster, the light was still Red. I'd been watching it. It had been red for a while; I kept going. Coming into the intersection it's still red, and I'm going entirely too fast to stop without going over my handlebars. So I closed my eyes, and I just went, trusting God and everything else in the world that the light would change. I felt my stomach come up as I entered the intersection, and there I was, in the dark, flying. I opened my eyes, the light was green, and I was through. It was beautiful.
wednesday, june 6
This is by far the oddest search request that's ever brought someone to my site. Poor Justin. This is definitely one for disturbing search requests.
Skip this post unless you're incredibly bored...
I'm using Blogger again for updates to the front page. It's been quite frustrating. I never did resolve the 104 error, and based on what I read on the Blogger message boards, nwither has anyone else.
So what do you do in a situation like that? Well, it was either ditch Blogger, which wasn't going to happen, or create a new blog, which I did, with all of the old one's settings. All this means, in the short term is that the front page is only going to have posts on it starting with today. It also means I've got to redo the archives, but that won't be a big deal.
Phew...
Flash! Journey! America! Amazing!
Sucess! for previous June entries, go here.
Another "tatoo" search request: Yahoo! Search Results for tatoo removal pricesI assume that, thanks to my poor spelling, I'm going to get every dipstick who can't spell tattoo properly sent my way.
And yes, I'm a dipstick too...
Employment is weird.Another friend was laid off the other day. I can't even count all of my friends who've been laid off and are presently unemployed. I'm a distinct minority. This is thee future we were promised after all. This is what they told us in middle school and high school, what we were taught in our early college years, when a Bush was in the White House and the economy stank to high heaven: your prospects are limited. I always accepted this. It wasn't until '96 or so that I began to think that maybe--just maybe--I might be able to cash in now baby.
One thing I hope, is that this downturn will teach GenXers that we are not our jobs.
"What do you do?"
"I light things on fire and paint slogans on freeway underpasses. Then I smoke some weed and play Oni for hours on end. Oh yeah, then I go to work."
I hope that ours will be the generation that refuses to accept the notion that our employers own us. So many people I know were selling themselves wholesale to worthless ventures, putting in 70 hours a week for paper riches that never materialized, for false promises. Ours was the first generation to really assert our right to look freaky and wear T-shirts, why not take it a step further? If we are to have a revolution of our own, I hope it will be one where we truly reclaim our lives, rather than just the appearance of having one.
Four weeks vacation and a thirty hour work week, that's my goal. Technology has advanced to the point that our productivity doesn't have to take a major hit were we to reduce the amount of time we spend at work. I've polled most of my friends who work long hours--some of these are the same people you read about in New Economy magazines a year or two ago, people working all night for some oppressive Silicone Valley startup that took away all of your basic rights and gave you a foosball table in their stead. Most of these people seem to feel like they have a duty to put in long hours--even if they aren't actually doing anything.
This is the great piece of horseshit floating in the soup of the American economy: our assiduous knowledge workers are all slacking off on the job. Now, by that, I don't mean that they aren't working hard, they are. But many of them also feel that they've earned a few hours out of the day to play Quake, or surf the Web, or design their own Web site, or maintain a Web log... Horseshit. If everyone agreed to give up the canard and just go home, we could reclaim our lives. Get off your ass, get to work, and then go home early.
Last night I was talking to my friend Rob. We have been friends since high school, and still keep in touch regularly, even though he's in Atlanta and I'm in San Francisco. He just sent me copies of The Kinks' Are the Village Green Preservation Society and Shuggie Otis' Inspiration Information, out of the blue for no reason other than that he's a nice guy. Rob is an actor and a comedian. His theater company has just filmed a pilot for the fox network, and he's suddenly on the verge of easy money. On the verge. As of now he's still broke, and may have to get another job to supplement his theater income until he gets another check from Fox.
But in any case, he's close to achieving the highest honor one can in American society: he's going to be on TV. This will be his job, being a television personality. Had you told me this in college, on a night when we were going from gas station to gas station, writing bad checks in order to raise enough money to go see Primus, I would not have been surprised. In any case, of all my friends, he seems like the one most likely to escape the hamster wheel. Good luck, buddy. I hope a life of leisure awaits you.
I think that BushCartoon.com is probably pretty old (the domain was registered on March 1), but it's hillarious, nonetheless. (thanks ezra!)
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