E-Ink is the wave of the future. I'm actually pretty psyched about this. Being able to carry a library on you with less weight than a single book. I can get down with that. Actually being able to read something in an electronic format without it being backlit. I can definitely get down with that. You should get on this shit and let me know how it works for ya so I can pick up version 2.0.
Once again the world of advertising has left me speechless. Revise the history books. It's the Credit Pimp's America, we're just visiting.
I'm leaving on a 4 1/2 month trip to Brussels on Friday. What does the mean for the quantity and content of the postings? Anyways, you should keep reading Candyvan. Who knows! But if worse comes to worse I'll just post a bunch of pictures of the different outfits of the Manneken Pis.
Things from China that will kill us all is a topic that never gets old in my book. Here's a crash test video from the Chinese auto company Chery. Apparently, the company has a deal with Chrysler to important the vehicle shown in the video--A15 (Amulet)--to the American market. The test dummy had to be removed in pieces . . .
There's been a lot of bickering going on back and forth lately regarding the prospect of China unleashing a "nuclear option" in response to American efforts to force China to revalue its currently undervalued currency. China's threat involves selling off its vast stock of American dollars ($900 billion about) on the foreign markets, causing a plunge in the value of dollar. Spooky eh? Fortunately this won't happen, at least not at anytime in the near future. Why won't this happen? Because guess which nation is the number one export market for Chinese goods? That's right, America. China's astounding growth rates are fueled by its exports. If China dumps it's US currency reserves, the Chinese yuan rises meaning, goodbye 30% yearly growth in export markets and goodbye 11% yearly GDP growth. While China's economy is currently booming, a decline in growth--such as the one that would occur by selling off all of those dollars--would bring it crashing down. Poverty is still widespread in China and infrastructure is nowhere near adequate levels. China cannot afford to destroy its growth rates since economic growth is basically the only thing holding the country together. In essence, while the American markets would certainly by hurt by China's "nuclear option," for the growing Chinese market it would be a disaster.
Daily Telegraph
CNN Money
The vast majority of children given a choice between two identical food items are more likely to say the one in a McDonald's wrapper tastes better.
This is why I'm going into advertising. It's like selling candy to babies . . . literally.
"Is that an ATM in the church lobby? Credit and debit card swipe machines in churches may startle some of the pious, but such kiosks, already present in some houses of worship, might become even more commonplace now that a new IRS regulation is in effect." - Time
It's was a long weekend of moving that has led into a few days of calm before it's back to DC and then out of the country. Posting may be slow(er than usual) for the next week or two as I still have no idea what my living situation in Brussels will be. Anyways, here's a Skittles commercial!
A recent John Dickerson piece in Slate argues the merits of Barack Obama's willingness to answer hypothetical questions:
"Fortunately, one candidate is answering hypotheticals. For the last two weeks, the Democratic political conversation has been consumed with hypothetical questions. Last week, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton engaged in a multiday set-to over whether they would meet with nasty dictators. This week, Barack Obama doubled down on hypotheticals by raising his own hypothetical situation in his sweeping speech on foreign policy. If he found actionable intelligence about al-Qaida leaders hiding out in the mountains of Pakistan, he said he would send in troops whether the Pakistani government liked it or not. When asked the next day about using nuclear weapons in Afghanistan and Pakistan, he said he never would use them."
Contrary to Dickerson, this guy is under the impression that answering hypotheticals is pointless at best and poor political strategy at worst. The entire notion of hypothetical questions is that they are based in speculation surrounding highly incomplete information. Providing absolute answers to hypothetical questions is inherently flawed as anyone could think of countless nuanced scenarios in which lines of absolutism are blurred. Answering these questions leave candidates tied to a position that can be assailed on all sides--I can't believe they would/wouldn't do that!--as the situations posed in the questions aren't real. And guess what? This is exactly what's happening to Obama.
It's 8:00 am and for some reason I'm awake. This is the only reason I'm ok with that.
"CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has praised Sean Penn for his critical stance against the war in Iraq, saying the two chatted by phone and soon plan to meet in person. 'Welcome to Venezuela, Mr. Penn. What drives him is consciousness, the search for new paths,' Chavez said Wednesday in a televised speech."
Sean Penn praised by Venezuela's Chavez.
A 9-year old British kid, living in Australia at the time, has been signed to Manchester United after his grandpa sent the club this footage showcasing his skill. Apparently around 40 kids a year are signed by the club, but this is the first to be signed based on the popularity of his YouTube video. Regardless, I wouldn't want to be the opposing coach in this kids league.
Check out Edward Lucas', British journalist covering eastern Europe for the likes of the Economist, piece "Sex for the motherland: Russian youths encouraged to procreate at camp" in The Daily Mail. The title is scandalous and is only briefly connected to the piece as a whole. However, Lucas' reporting on Russia's pro-Putin youth movements equally as distressing. The more I follow the state of Russian society, the more I find myself wary of the so-called democratic transitions that have taken place since the fall of communism. Are we moving towards new cold war? Hard to say, but the future of cooperation between Russia and the West is looking less and less bright with each passing day.
If you didn't already know--shame on you--it's Shark Week! America's version of the Tour de France, except sharks don't need 'roids to win. Turn on the Discovery Channel now.
What can be said about this one? Rumors persist in the Iraqi city of Basara that the British Army has introduced killer badgers into their environment in order to wreck havoc and destruction. And for the kicker, the Brits threw some poisonous snakes in the water supply and released rabies infected dogs. Even Iran is getting in on this action, claiming to have captured several squirrels equipped with foreign spy technology.
In a piece on Slate posted yesterday, John Dickerson delves into the Achilles Heel of the Barack Obama campaign, inexperience. I for one am rather skeptical of Mr. Obama's attempts to overshadow his relative lack of both international and executive experience with his claims of bringing change to the White House. So far, he appears to be basing the brunt of his campaign against Hillary Clinton, focusing on her vote for authorization of the Iraq War in contrast to his continual opposition to the conflict. Yet the facts that he wasn't faced with a vote on war authorization and that in his time in the Senate he has been able to position himself as a leader against the war--or on any foreign policy issue for that matter--leaves something to be desired. As Dickerson's piece points out, recent history contains a series of presidents with little to no foreign policy experience: Bush, Clinton, and Kennedy specifically. However, as the piece also points out, foreign policy created sticky situations for those presidents. Many of which we continue to suffer the consequences of.
Winner of the most best musical analysis of a revival movement thus far in 2007 goes to Jude Rogers "Diamond Gazers," piece about the new-wave of shoegaze--nu-gaze?!--bands!:
"At the start of summer 2007 a supple, shimmery thread started darning itself through a long line of euphoric-sounding albums. From Maps to Blonde Redhead, Mahogany to Deerhunter, Asobi Seksu to Ulrich Schnauss, you could hear the heady, woozy influence of a style of music that had been a byword for naffness and overindulgence for the past 15 years; a type of music that Richey Edwards of the Manic Street Preachers had said he "hated more than Hitler". Names like nu-gaze, stargaze and shoetronica were used to describe it, names that couldn't quite hide the scene that dared not speak its name. For shoegazing was back - the sound of jangly indie fed through layers of distortion, overdrive and fuzz; of delicate souls turning themselves up to 11. In Summer 2007, bands, clubs, Mercury prize-nominated albums, films, and novels are all proud to claim it as an inspiration."
People still like shoegaze? People still hate shoegaze? People still don't know what shoegaze is? Amazing!
Yesterday Nina brought to my attention the work of Ladislas Starevich a Polish, Russian, and French stop motion animator from the early 1900s. Starevich tended to use insects and animals as his protagonists and is credited with being the first filmmaker to make animated films with actual plots. The Cameraman's Revenge (1912) is a story of infidelity among insects and is a prime example of his bizarre and often darkly amusing work.
Here's the trailer for the upcoming Wes Anderson film The Darjeeling Limited. Anderson co-wrote the flic with Roman Coppola and Jason Schwartzman, and it stars a familiar cast of characters including Schwartzman, Owen Wilson, and Anjelica Housto. Also, Adrien Brody is coming along for the ride this time. The film also includes guest appearances by the familiar Billy Murry and Natalie Portman as well.
Thanks to Ace over at Oh Stewardess, I Speak Jive!
Take an obesity tour of the USA with Sanjay Gupta's Great American Obesity map! It's kind of like a presidential election map, except ya know, with fatties.
A great Carlsberg spoof ad to start off your day. Yes, I know 1:30pm is the start of you day.
Relief from high gas prices may be on the way as "experts" say the worst of the recent gas woes are over. Barring any hurricanes or explosions of course, the two Achilles' heels of American life:
"We still have a hairy five weeks to go where something could go wrong, but wholesale prices for unfinished gasoline in California have dropped 26 cents since July 10. Barring a hurricane in the Gulf [of Mexico], it looks like the worst is over, said Tom Kloza, chief analyst for the Oil Price Information Service in New Jersey."
This has to be the worst campaign commercial of 2007 thus far. At least Gravel's were endearing.
After 8 years in captivity, 4 of them on death row, 5 Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor were released by the Libyan government. The 6 were accused of purposefully infecting over 400 children with HIV as part of a joint American and Israeli intelligence operation to destabilize the Libyan state. The most outrageous part of this story? The EU is paying over $400 million and numerous member states relieved Libyan debt in order to free these prisoners. In essence, Libya is being rewarded for hostage taking.
The latest issue of Wired goes inside a can of Red Bull to tell us what exactly is inside. In a complete shock to this guy, it turns out that Red Bull probably isn't going to kill anyone anytime soon. In fact, most of the ingredients listed have some sort of positive benefit to human health though probably not in the levels found in one can.
What's Inside: Red Bull
Over the weekend Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki responded to the latest White House report on progress in Iraq, stating: “We say with confidence that we are capable, God willing, of taking full responsibility for the security file if the international forces withdraw in any time they wish.” Based on the NYT reporting of the story, I'm not so sure:
Iraq Chief Says His Forces Are Able to Secure Country
EUTube, the official YouTube space of the European Commission wants you to know that when your hanging at the beach and grandma calls you to tell you grandpa broke his hip your mobile roaming charges will be reasonable no matter what EU country you're in!
That and European people love doing it.
So Beckham is in LA. Savior of soccer in the USA? Doubt it. This guys just hoping for some hilarious trick plays.
An attempted robbery of a family enjoying dinner at their Capitol Hill home the past week took an odd turn of events when as opposed to taking the money and running the would be robber took a brief wine tasting and round of group hugs.
The NYT reports that all the cool kids want to be librarians. Tattoos and the dewey decimal system, rad!
Over the past 13-weeks my home metro area DC has been waiting with baited breath to find out if it's female panda Mei Xiang is pregnant. Panda's apparently are notoriously difficult to accurately diagnose pregnancy in. As it turns, out it was all a false alarm, the 4th false alarm for Mei Xiang. As female pandas only ovulate once it year, we'll now be spared about 40-weeks until this nonsense comes up again. I say nonsense b/c pandas have to be one of the least impressive creatures on the face of the earth. With only 1,800 left on earth they're clearly too stupid to continue to live. This is probably due to the fact that 99% of their diet consists of bamboo, a food that they can barely digest and offers little energy or nutrition to them. Correspondingly, pandas are extremely lazy. For this, American zoos pay China--owner of every single panda in the world--$2 million a year as part of 10-year contracts to put the animals on display. As "living fossils" they've had a long run, it's time to let them out into the wild and let nature take its course.
Top Picks of the Weekend for Summer Heat Madness:
1. Live Free or Die Hard
2. Krzysztof Kiewlowski double feature of Camera Buff & A Short Film About Killing
3. Ridley Scott's Blade Runner
4. Jan Svankmajer's Alice
As you can tell, I spent a lot of time indoors this past weekend. Though this is likely a good thing as after the Die Hard experience I probably would've over exhausted myself crashing cars into helicopters.
Here's some Josef K:
The International Herald Tribune is reporting that we can now add cellphones to the list of scary ass things from China that will probably kill us all. In some Spy vs. Spy time nonsense a 22-year old man in western China was killed when his cellphone exploded in his shirt pocket. I was cool with bootleg DVDs, poison pet food, and lead paint tainted children's toys, these things happen, but when electronic objects that are made to be held up to your head start exploding I have to draw the line. I'm starting to suspect some sort of plot by the Chinese government to kill international competition through the use of exploding PDAs.
Former Vice President Al Gore's son, Al Gore III, was arrested in Southern California on early Thursday morning after being pulled over for pulling some 2 Fast 2 Furious type stunts on the San Diego Freeway in his Toyota Prius. Upon smelling marijuana the deputy that pulled Gore over searched the car and found a hodgepodge of unprescribed pills ranging from Vicodin to Adderall.
Now for the weird part of this story:
"More than 10 hours after his arrest on drug charges, the younger Gore remained in a Southern California jail because no one had showed up to post his $20,000 bail."
A spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff's Department noted that it "seemed unusual" that the young Gore remained in jail. If anyone out there wants to help out Gore III, the NYT piece on the arrest points out that: "The sheriff’s department accepts personal checks and credit cards."
An upcoming book by Princeton economist Alan Krueger argues that perpetrators of terrorism are more likely to be upper class and well educated as poor and uneducated:
"Backgrounds of 148 Palestinian suicide bombers show they were less likely to come from families living in poverty and were more likely to have finished high school than the general population. Biographies of 129 Hezbollah shahids (martyrs) reveal they, too, are less likely to be from poor families than the Lebanese population from which they come."
Most studies regarding the links between poverty and terrorism are only in the initial stages. However, early indicators appear to show that conventional wisdom doesn't quite add up in this case.
Candyvan is calling you out Mayor Fenty for ordering your aides to return the iPhones they jumped the line to get on Friday at the downtown DC Apple Store. After awarding your staff the haterific award for the day, I now have to rescind that award. As my grandfather would say, "show a little leadership!" Fenty and stick to your guns. You don't get anywhere in the world by having aides ignore lines and flip people off only to turn tail and give back the goods when the heat is on. That's not haterism, that's flip-flopping.
Proving that learning can be fun, an online "game" from Students for Sensible Drug Policy to test how well you'd do as a high school principal in understanding constitutional law on student free speech when it comes to drug policy.
This latest campaign from the New South Wales Roads and Traffic Authority plays on a man's love of the ladies and love of speed, tugging at the heartstrings Australia.
It being Sunday and all I've found some time for one of my favorite Sunday activities, catching up on new advertising!
Here's a Cannes award winner from TBWA Paris for Amnesty International:
Unlike mayors of other cities--looking in your direction Philly--DC's Adrian Fenty, an Oberlin alum, sent forth his most haterific aides to jump the line and get him a few of those newfangled iPhones. My favorite part about this story being when an onlooker challenged Fenty's man to"fix the schools first," Fenty's elite hater corps member flipped the man the bird and sneered "there's only 15 left." This is why I love DC.
For the past week Oberlin has been invaded by dozens upon dozens of campers, from soccer camps, to baroque music camps, to Scottish arts camps. Basically what this means a combination of things, one being that sitting in my office--always the wrong office--I'm barraged by lost children who make random requests that I have no business helping them with; the other being that there are bagpipe sounds coming from everywhere.
Fortunately, last night I had the good fortune of stumbling upon a yearly conference of violin and violin bow makers. I was attracted to this even based upon the sheer level of ruckus they were causing from Tank, more commotion than the hardcore/folk punk show--which they later ended up attending--was turning out. Some of us decided to walk over to see what all of the fuss was about and discovered a porch laden with smashed violin pieces, boozed up craftsmen from across the globe, and a badminton court with the racquets replaced with violins. That's right, badminton played with actual violins as racquets. After playing a few matches with our inebriated hosts we extended in invite to come get their ho-down across the street to a folk-punk band from Minneapolis (where else?). All-in-all the night proved yet again that the kids and the grown ups all love to get wasted and dance to some fiddlin.
What with democratic debates at Howard and attempted car bombs causing chaos in London what we all need now is a hot summer jam. You pretty much can't go wrong with Daft Punk and when you have someone who's made his whole career off of making beats that are basically just the original song you have a great combination for a summer hit:
I recently discovered that summer has officially begun! Thus it's time to bring you blazin' hot summer jams! The first installment in this series is from Ms. Mariah Carey with her slow jam classic "Always Be My Baby." Kickin' it off slow so nobody gets heatstroke.
Economist.com has published "Highs and Lows: An alternative annual report on the drug industry," and it looks likes sales are down for fiscal year 2007!
"As troubling for the industry, many consumers in the extremely important American market are turning up their noses at cocaine. By 2005 cocaine use in America was down to 2.3% of the general population, more than 50% lower than the rate two decades ago."
Supply chain problems are increasing as regulatory agencies tighten their grip on industries across the board. Soon, organizations may need to diversify their holdings in order to turn a profit. Market analysis indicates that, "other forms of contraband such as cigarettes, pharmaceutical drugs, endangered animals, or human slaves," are ripe for diversification by firms with established infrastructure and competitive advantage.
On first listen, the "Our Love to Admire" is a synthesis of Interpol's previous output. It fits somewhere in the middle of the atmospheric gloom of "Turn On the Bright Lights" and the more straightforward groove pacing of "Antics." There a few tracks that lean heavily on an orchestral sound--Pioneer to the Falls in particular--and a few that rely on anxious pacing such as the 1st single The Heinrich Maneuver. Nothing has really blown my mind thus far, but I have a feeling this is the kind of album to grow on me and all-in-all this guy is satisfied.
According to MTV, Greg Gillis--the sweaty, shirtless, laptop partier that is Girl Talk--is suspicious of artists in the rap community biting his style. Most specifically Kanye West:
"I've opened for Kanye this year in Vegas ... and I'm sure he showed up a second before he had to play and didn't see me or know I was playing, but you have to wonder about [the similarities]," he told MTV News hours before rocking the stage at at Bonnaroo. "Because no one has gotten back to me with positive support, but I've played in the same building as so many celebrities, and [2006's Night Ripper has] gotten around enough that I'd think you'd probably hear it."
Reality check Gillis, you bit your style from any 1990s Friday night party DJ on any random local top-40 hits radio station. Basically you are the reincarnation of the 60-minute-mega-party-mix. To try to insinuate a claim to originality b/c other artists sound similar to you is laughable at best. This is why I can't respect mash-up artists.
The latest Intepol album "Our Love to Admire" has made it's way onto the internet. The rest of this guys afternoon will be spent checking it out with a Great Lakes sampler pack. Initial impressions soon to follow.
According to a recent article by the NYT, first-born children have been shown to have higher IQs than their younger siblings.
The average difference in I.Q. was slight — three points higher in the eldest child than in the closest sibling — but significant, the researchers said. And they said the results made it clear that it was due to family dynamics, not to biological factors like prenatal environment...Three points on an I.Q. test may not sound like much. But experts say it can be a tipping point for some people — the difference between a high B average and a low A, for instance. That, in turn, can have a cumulative effect that could mean the difference between admission to an elite private liberal-arts college and a less exclusive public one.
The study, undertaken by a team of Norwegian epidemiologists also indicates that middle children whose older siblings die gain the benefit of increased IQ in becoming the new eldest. So far all of you middle children out there trying to get into Harvard maybe your best bet is if your older sibling has an "accident."
This past weekend Nina and I attended the Vermillion Ohio Festival of the Fish. While generally a wholesome event with fun for the whole family there are just a few points that should be addressed for festivals in the future:
1. As far as I can tell the primary purpose of this festival was to raise the self-esteem of the local girls by including just about every one of them as a pageant queen or princess. I may not know a whole lot about pageants myself, but the last I checked there was supposed to be some level of competition involved in the process. As the festival's site notes:
"On Friday young girls vie for the coveted title of princess or queen in one of the largest festival pageants in the county."
The key phrase in that sentence being "vie" but as far as I can tell they weren't vying nearly hard enough as almost every girl I saw was in a prom dress with a sash touting their mystique as "Ms. Lorain Bean Curd Factory" or "Princess 2007 - Joe's Firewood Shack." With so many winners the whole event became absolutely boring. All I'm going to say is no one was glaring and nobody got tripped on stage.
2. The annual Firefighters Waterfight. Sounds like a great idea in theory right? Firefighters go all out by turning there high-powered hoses on one another with the last man standing after the onslaught declared the victor. However, this "long-standing" tradition actually involved a bucket hanging from a rope elevated over the street towards which teams of firegihters sprayed their hoses in an attempt to push the bucket across the line to their opponents side. Kind of like tug of war, except in reverse and more reminiscent of civil rights marches in the south.
3. Speaking of which, I've noted this time and time again, note to Ohio: You were NEVER part of the Confederacy. Hell there's a whole book about Oberlin being the town that started the Civil War. I know you guys might not like black people, and the government is totally trying to hold you down, but let's not get it confused, waving confederate flags around and talking about protecting your heritage doesn't make sense. Why? Because it's not your heritage. This makes about as much sense as me wearing a Canadian flag t-shirt around all the time and talking about how proud I am of Wayne Gretzky. Trust me, I live in Virginia where I can often be found driving down Jefferson Davis Memorial Highway--which remains baffling to me still, but that's for another day--don't do yourselves a disservice by pretending to be something you aren't.
Take these changes into mind Vermillion and we'll be back next year. Oh and be sure to add more catfish stands. Shit was dope.
So I've been "house sitting" (trying to make sure the neighbors don't see me in the house that Nina is house sitting) for the past few days. This involves a cat named Mr. Tangey who never comes out from under the bed, a disturbing amount of half-eaten food left by the owners scattered throughout the kitchen (like we're talking spoiled mayo and a dozen open jars of olives here), and an even more disturbing lack of internet access. This means that posts will probably be intermittent for the next few days (weeks?). Not that it matters since I'm pretty sure only AC reads this (note: AC I'm not dead). In the meantime though you should read AC's blog (which you should be doing anyway b/c he is unemployed and lives in the middle of nowhere). When I can find a steady connection I promise to regale you with stories of: Juneteenth, the Vermillion Fish Festival, and why Arnold Swarchenegger is actually right about something.
Catch you on the flip.
Time to kick back and see what The History Channel has to say about my arch-enemies: Hippies.
Go out and get your summer on kids. To get your night started I'll leave you with a video from the most partyrific dude to rock the Baltimore scene in years, Mr. Dan Deacon:
Madrid's Publicis Lado C ad firm has come up with a spot for Renault Megane that brings hazardous road conditions to a point of no return. Watch out for those reproducing rocks.
What with the ongoing chaos that is the Gaza strip I'm glad that someone out there is throwing some humor into the mix:It's summertime. Life is easy. News is rampant.
*Breaking News!*
4 of 6 Computers Back On Line On Space Station
See what I mean?
Time to bring back this blogging project. I'll keep this short and sweet.
Mission Statement
Candyvan is all about reaching into that mixed grab bag that is modern media and pulling out the choice bits so you don't have to get all scratched up by the razorblades that may be lurking at the bottom.
Got it? Good.
Bringing it back soon. In the meantime ponder the exercise in duration that is one of my favorite pieces of avant-garde cinema: Michael Snow's Wavelength.
Ok so Steve Irwin the Crocodile Hunter died from getting stung in the heart by a stingray. As sad as it is for anyone to die at such a young age, I can't say that we all didn't see this coming for a very long time. Also, fucking ay man, stung in the heart. I don't think you could go out in a more extreme way than that. I know who I'm drinking for tonight.
Jibbs has the late-summer jam on lock. In other news, the rundown on the weekend trip to Chicago:
Hip:
"Stoner Voice" ("Grab the wheeeelll duuuude"/"Whooooaaa Sluuuuts!")
DJ Battle in which DJ's weren't that nice but maintained hilarity through overuse of mouthed lyrics.
Accompanying hipset dj party with cast of characters including Theo, duo of bikini clad girls controlling the keg (dollar bills in the bikini strings included), and fashion dopplegangers
Babeasarus Rex's
Indiana rest stops*
Reckless Records
DJ Mavis
Gunner on the road
(* see babes)
Square:
3 people sleeping in Ace's tiny ass room
Sasha's berry wheat beer
Ace's mugging housemates
Chicago drivers
Dusty Groove Records
Saw it about 12 hours ago after being totally late due to my flawed driving schemes and the theatre never having adequate directions. What to say . . . if you're reading this you're probably a friend of mine and thus will already be going to see this movie (otherwise I fail to see how we could possibly even speak).
I guess all I have to say is "wang biting."
Note to Self: Buy 9-Year-Old-Girl Costume to Wear to Art Openings
9-year-old girl: Mommy, please can we leave? This doesn't even make any sense! It's stupid.
Mommy: Sweetie, it's not supposed to make sense. It's senseless art. They're making fun of real art.
--Dada exhibit, MoMA
Oberlin summer 2k6 dig this and dig it good.
Hip:
Surf-and-Turf BBQ
Bike-in-Movies/Cemetery Rides
Uncrowded Feve/Great Lakes
Ella Fitz
5 Across the Eyes House (projector, george the cat, friend's parent's basement appeal daddy-o)
Edmond T. Graville's 1961 classic "Beat Girl" starring Gillian Hills ("It's all so dreeeeaaary. I'm soooo boooooorrreed.")
Gunner
Square:
The constant threat of fleas
Just read this article in the NYT regarding the Ohio governor's race and the overreach of the new voter registration policies passed in May. Though I sincerely hope and expect Blackwell to crash-and-burn for his shady politicking of late clearly the true importance of the story is Mr. Jive Turkey Sr.:
"Backers of the new regulations say they were needed, pointing to the fake names that appeared on voter registration cards in 2004, like Jive Turkey Sr.
'The new regulations have everything to do with preventing Jive Turkeys from showing up on cards the way they did last time,' said John McClelland, a spokesman for the state Republican Party. 'They’ve got nothing to do with suppressing voter participation.' But elections experts and liberal grass-roots organizations say the new rules go too far."
The word is out Jive Turkeys! Stay away from the Ohio polls!
Pros:
Sasha back in town (one day only event)
John Baldessari works and the Francis Alys black box @ the Hirshorn
Art history is finished
Yankees win/Red Sox lose
House comes with a ton of dishes
Cons:
Art history final
Your heat is like a lovewave
Straight outta Lo-Cash
Rhino Bar = Wannabe Boston
Room is painted yellow (though Sasha says it's a good color)
Wonkette had an amusing link to an interview with Ann Coulter regarding her love of The Grateful Dead. It's as if the hippies and the ultra-convsevatives have overcome their obvious hatred of one another solely for the purposes of haunting my dreams. . . hippiecons!
"People are often incorrectly surprised that there are a lot of conservative dead heads. I’d mentioned that in an interview, and actually on the ‘Tonight Show,’ that one of my friends — who was a fellow Deadhead — would get up in the morning, smoke a bowl, turn on Rush Limbaugh, and start making his candles for ‘Grateful Dead’ merchandising." - Ann Coulter
Saw "A Scanner Darkly" the other day which, contrary to it's generally positive reviews (thanks metacritic.com), turned out to be horrifically convoluted and dramatically flawed. Perhaps the most blatant failure was Linklater's inability to portray the mental split between Bob Arctor and Agent Fred and the character's inability to distinguish between the his two personas. Because of this, throughout most of the film it appears that the Bob is entirely aware that he's playing the role of Fred and that Substance D, as opposed to causing and increasing incapability of combining the memories/knowledge of each persona, merely causes a generalized sense of confusion and psychosis. The viewer is left confused as to Bob's actions (why would he knowingly spy on his life and the life of his friends even after it's made clear to him that he's specifically is suspect?) without adequately revealing the critically specific effect Substance D is creating.
Added to this failure of dramatic emphasis is the fact that the overarching plot of the attempt to discover the manufacture of Substance D is presented at a point in the film well beyond it having any discernible effect on the events that, up until the last 10 minutes, had been the main focus of the plot. We're left sitting through 3/4th of the film waiting for the conflict between Reeves and Downey Jr. to come to a head yet when it does it's played of as a minor detail only to be replaced by a painfully underdeveloped "plot twist" of negligible relation to any previous conflictual issues.
Concurrently, the final revelation regarding the character Donna was meaningless as Linklater failed to portray her relationships with Frank in any but the most shallow of depths and thus created little emotional resonance regarding the betrayal. Surprises such as this are dramatic largely because they necessitate a fundamental alteration in the plot. Yet, this development could have been entirely stricken from the film and absolutely nothing regarding the endpoint of the plot for Arctor/Agent Fred would have to have been modified.
All-in-all, the ideas of "A Scanner Darkly" are fairly interesting and for the most part the performances are enjoyable. I can readily understand those who have had previous experience with the work in it's literary format to appreciate seeing it's cinematic development, but for those of us with little previous experience with the Philip K. Dick story, Linkalter's adaptation was a muddled disservice leaving us unnecessarily more confused then the drug addled minds of the characters within.
Back in VA after large chunks of The Twilight Zone in marathon form, a New Orleans benefit show that almosst turned into a roof collapsing disaster in and of itself, Russian accents, sparks at the strangers with candy movie in chelsea,$5 milkshakes, a million billion trillion stars, numerous looks of confusion, ordering only beverages at restaurants, 45 minutes of gawking at the sheer absurdity of trying to softly massage a passed out person back to consciousness, and fireworks.
Glad to see NYC is just how I remembered it.
The power is out yet again, the 3rd time in about a week, a fact that showcases the obvious technical wonder that is the DC Metro Area power grid.
Anywho, it’s been a busy past few days. Thursday was my first experience with Fort Reno, an annual staple of the DC summer music season that showcases local talent for free each Monday and Thursday at the eponymous named park. I didn’t quite catch the name of the band that performed this week as we showed up nearly two hours into the performance. The band was composed of teen-something high schoolers and the songs I did catch ranged in topic from the passé “I wanna drink a bottle of Jack and kiss your neck in the field,” to the creationist myth inspired “back when the earth was young and purple lava spewed from the mountaintops.”
Taking the metro on the way back to my house I was privy to an obviously wasted Ghanaian blatantly hitting on one of the only 3 other passengers on the train at that point. In fact, on an otherwise empty train, this man made the decision to sit next to the woman who appeared shocked at his misguided train etiquette. The situation only become more amusing when a group of 4 teenagers got onto the train and proceeded to run around showing the increasing number of passengers the erotic Simpson’s pictures stored on one of their cell phones: “I bet you never seen the Simpson’s do that!” They then proceeded to have a 20-minute conversation with the Ghanaian Romeo on the topics of hookers, drugs and attempts to exploit money from in order to see one of the girls’ asses, somewhere in which the frightened woman who was being hit on managed to escape to another car.
Friday was a fairly typical night of Georgetown area socializing with Vicky, her housemates and her friends from her semester in Hungary. “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead” was the definite highlight of the night and it provided essential lessons such as: 1) if your going to leave a dead old lady in front of the morgue in a box be sure to leave a nice note saying she died of natural causes and run her pockets for that money your mom left you for the summer 2) tweens should never buy diamond rings for their girlfriend and 3) the best way to clean dishes is to throw them off the roof and shoot them mid-air with a shotgun.
Saturday offered it’s own fun provided by a surprise visit by Stefan and Mary who, due to Stefan’s always busted ass phone, I had assumed had fallen into a well somewhere. One bottle of Riesling at Bilbo Baggin’s later I joined up with the G-Town kids for Bosnian food at a carryout around the corner from my house that previously had previously gone unnoticed to me. I didn’t even know my area had enough of an ex-pat community to sustain such a place though I’m glad to discover it as the food was excellent, the world cup was on, and there was a full-on European grocery attached. Goal number 1 achieved it was on to the second goal for the night, The Brickskeller. For those not familiar with the DC area, the Brick holds the Guinness World Record for the largest variety of beers served. The menu was easily a dozen pages long, categorized by country and held over 1,000 different beers ranging in price from $3.25 to $149.95. I’m still in awe and expect numerous visits in the near future as it’s my new life goal to complete a world conquest of beer.
Sunday was filled with the joy of waking up at 5:30 AM to drive my mother to the airport. A joy that was matched only by that of my Mother’s towards having to fly to Idaho to teach for a week. After that I made it up to Baltimore to try and entertain Tara in her new city and, though it was Sunday and we were broke so we mainly watched TV, it was exponentially more amusing to watch TV with other people. Her living situation is pretty fucking spectacular as she has a nicely sized apartment (right next to the monument) with exposed brick walls and a balcony. It also gave me a great excuse to not study for the statistics test that I would’ve failed anyway since we apparently learned everything on the single day of class I couldn’t attend due to my car trouble. Thus, I may in fact have to actually study for the remaining two tests in order to gain my C, a notion that displeases me greatly.
All in all it’s been a decent week. I still don’t have a job and my car is causing me all sorts of grief, but I’m finally enjoying being in DC for a summer. Now if only it would stop raining and the power would come back on, then I could finally stop using my cell phone as a flashlight.
"Gabriel Whitney says he did not plan to nearly suffocate President Bush in a bear hug. In fact, he did not plan to hug him at all. . . But after six years of undergraduate school and 4,872 demerits, Mr. Whitney, 25, of Nashua, N.H., could hardly restrain himself."
"Pamela Anderson is planning to strip naked in a shop window - for an anti-fur protest."
From femalefirst.co.uk, because Pamel Anderson getting naked is doing wonders for women around the globe. Perhaps if you're planning to do something outrageous (so as to, you know, cause an outrage), it shouldn't be the one thing you are famous for doing?
"Shusaku Arakawa and Madeline Gins, whose moto is Architecture Against Death, unveiled a few months ago a small apartment complex in the Tokyo suburb of Mitaka that is anything but comfortable and calming. 'People, particularly old people, shouldn't relax and sit back to help them decline,' Arakawa insists. 'They should be in an environment that stimulates their senses and invigorates their lives.'"
Please note for whom these lofts are dedicated to the memory of.
"In that old battle of the wills between young people and their keepers, the young have found a new weapon that could change the balance of power on the cellphone front: a ring tone that many adults cannot hear. "
Yeah this sounds like a good idea, minus the whole, "hey jackass turn off your deafeningly pitched squeal" factor.
What a crazy week of news stories. A Chinese baby with three arms, a languishing debate still ongoing about the "stolen" 2004 presidential election, the eternal battle between sticks and carrots for Iran, and how could anyone forget about the looming Haditha saga?
Alright, I threw in the Chinese baby for good measure but I think it's just what we need these days, an little pinch of mutant baby in a world where US policy both domestic and international is facing a rough road ahead.
Iran, arguably at the necessary forefront of our international focus, poses an intriguing dilemma. With forces stretched to capacity as it is and opposition from Russia and China on the Security Council front, a diplomatic answer is exactly what the administration needs at this point. The very nature of the Iranian government (with behind the scenes power resting in the hands of the unelected Supreme Leader and Guardian Council) leads to problems of diplomatic relations as it's a consistent question of where the shots are being called from.
Matters are further complicated through the regime of Ahmadinejad who is currently attempting to increase the powers of the presidency (with the apparent backing of Ayatollah Khamenei), and thus views the propaganda gains of nuclear enrichment as a viable means of power consolidation.
A solution may not present itself from the option of direct talks between the US and Iran as the latter may likely be simply vying for time and the former may likely be going through the motions to appease the international community before pre-emptive strikes. What, in my mind, cannot be argued is the notion of a nuclear capable Iran is diametrically opposed to stability within the Middle East.
- adam
Apparently it's no longer acceptable to hit on people at fitness clubs. Unlike the glory days of the 1980s in which only the prime hardbodies even thought about going to the gym and stayed for 3 hours just to chat, America's gyms are now filled with fatties and people actually care about physical health. LAAAAAAME. This guy says bring back the leotard thongs with flesh colored tights and throw in some dudes with crotch hugging shorts thrusting their manliness in the air for all to see. It's fitness dammit, and we all now that 90% of excercise is fashion and 10% is ennui filled desparaging of others while you stand smoking in the back of the room.
- adam
With the substance fueled week long siesta created by commencement finally at an end I'm left to settle into a mellowed Virginia summer. The question promoted within my mind being, will I suffer from bouts of boredom and ennui regarding the fact that I'm never actually here enough during the year to know of anything to do or whom to do it with? Oh the allure of a pre-staged social environment.
- adam
Off to Nashville tomorrow for Liz's graduation from Vany Law, which of course means. . . going to see Kool & the Gang tomorrow night!!!
- adam
Gadabout went really well yesterday, the best turnout IFS has had this year thus far. Personal favorites included the "Tales of Mere Existence" series by Lev and "I Oversee the Maintenance of a Tool Shed" by the folks at Funtime Entertainment. Eric, Dom and Eva also did a short performance of some of their Halo Fauna tracks which was pretty enjoyable especially in regards to sharks being evolutionary winners.
It was really rad to get to hang out with those kids for the day as well as it had been a year give or take since I had seen any of them. It's always really refreshing to have people from outside of Oberlin come and provide a fresh perspective on this little town that I inhabit. Also, the fact that they've been traveling around the country for months on end put a little spark of travel romanticism in my mind.
A few days back I stumbled upon a series of French Mod sites with some sweet jukeboxes, making my show a) hella psychedelic as the French totally electric organ apparently and b) unpronounceable as I refused to butcher French and say the names of what I was playing. All-in-all though I found it to be a pretty uplifting show, though I wish I had the money to actually buy a lot of the albums in non-electronic form.
Such is life.
- adam
The Gadabout Film Festival
Monday, April 24th @ 8pm
The Cat In The Cream
Totally Free
Back for the 2nd Year
"The Gadabout is a nationally touring film festival that screens a program of 20+ international short films. Independent in every sense, these films share the same willingness to challenge the conventions set for filmmaking. The Gadabout is a distribution avenue for truly indie filmmakers that distrust Hollywood and the commercial film festival circuit. We are NOT a competition, rather a celebration of what is possible in independent film and video.
Above all, the Gadabout is super cool. We tour in a van, and show amazing films to our new friends we get to meet while traveling.
We have completed 3 national tours and have screened the works of filmmakers from all over the country, and the world (India, Singapore, Australia, Argentina, Isreal, and the U.K.). Independent in every sense, these films share the same willingness to challenge the conventions set for commercial filmmaking.
This is filmmaking as art, entertainment, and fun."
Sponsored by the Independent Film Series
The rundown on "spring break" (what exactly is it that I need to take a break from?) 2006:
I have to say that I didn't really expect much from this past weak except for a break in the cycle of watching tv at AC's house to createa a new cycle of watching tv at my mom's house. I did in fact manage to accomplish a great deal of this, however, I also left my idyllic setting of hardwood floors and a balcony with beach furniture.
My arrival on Monday evening involved nothing of note, Tuesday being where all the fun begins. After waking up with my usual mid-afternoon timing I made a trek over to the cinema with mother dearest. This, of course, meant going to Hoffman Center, the very same complex where many high profile government court cases are held (Moussaoui and Miller of NYTimes fame for instance). Needless to say this was fairly prevalent in my mnd when half-way through Spike Lee's new picture "Inside Man" the fire alarm system goes blaring off. 45 minutes and a free movie ticket later, we come to discover that "hey, we can't find the car!" To our surprise, this is not because of my family's penchant for poor memory, but b/c our car had been towed. This led to a two hour journey of misery in which i learned that, among other inconvieniences, tow companies only take cash.
A brief trip to visit Mason frends later that night (for stress relief purposes of course) led to the discovery that as unfortunate as the legal troubles of other's may be (snitches get stitches), one can benefit through the inheritance of $400 glasswork. Further, in NoVA laws of sobriety apparently run opposite to those of typical society. More on this later.
And that, my friends is Tuesday. Wednesday to follow when I feel like typing more.
- adam
While laying out on my balcony earlier I had this weird moment in which I realized that moving to a new place where you don't know anyone a) enables you to act with an air of alluring mystery towards anyone you see on the street and b) totally bosts your self-image.
Found a job the 1st day back. May even find a better job; cheap clothes being a better perk than books. Yet I have a subtly increasing fear of walking into Urban Outfitters and being eye-mugged by the faux-hipster staff. Then again, at least it wouldn't be Barnes and Noble.
In summation, Georgetown is hilarious and come this summer I'll be seeing a hell of a lot more of it, whether I like it or not.
- adam
Exausted from my life of 9am work and 2am Madden 2k5. This calls for one thing and one thing only. SNAKES ON A PLANE!!!!!!!
Get your copy of the player here
Been broing down consistently these past few weeks, it's almost to the point that I feel the need to hide in my room and read books. It's not even that I feel like I miss things anymore, that's bound to happen, but that as much as I get excited about "adam time" whenever I sit down by myself to read or watch a film or some such activity I'm totally ADD'ed within 30 minutes. I can't tell whether it's a positive or negative phase but I figure I'll ride it through until break when I'm back in Virginia at "Telegraph Estate."
- adam
Guerrilla News Network turned out to be quite interesting, especially the segment from the "Battleground" documentary. Anthony from GNN turned out to be a really amusing guy to hang out with at a bar as he regalled us with the trials and tribulations of his career and journalism while at the same to managing to put up with/contribute to our wise mouthed haterism.
Found the Aa in Cleveland to be hella boring though everyone else seemed to be in to various aspects of the show. All-in-all I agree with AC in the notion that noise music is very difficult to reproduce live in an engrossing manner.
Still waiting for my manager to send in her letter of recommendation so I can get started on figuring out how my finances and whatnot are going to work out next semester. It's utterly tiresome to have to wait for someone to complete a simple task that they agreed to finish with a finite period of time. I even wrote up a complete draft of the letter for her 2 weeks ago, yet the process remains stalled.
Think I'm gonna go back to VA for break though I very well may venture up into NYC for at least a few days as I'm inexplicably drawn there after a period of a few months.
- adam
Had a lazy day yesterday and ended up watching "Peeping Tom" through no volition of my own. Either way, it's an amazing film that has a creepily amusing aspect throughout. The sense of unease you get from watching the images that the character films is transposed onto yourself as you end up feeling like the one who is spying. It really makes you question the nature of audience when it comes to cinema; why are we so entrance with watching the lives (scripted or not) of others? In essence all cinema is vouyeristic and there's a peeping tom in all of us.
- adam
The cinemateque in cleveland was pretty rad. Saw "Once Upon A Time In the West." It kind of seemed like a dudes club since I sat in like the 3rd row and all these random dudes who were by themselves were seated all around me. If you sit in the front row you can even put your feet on the stage and luckily the screen is still a decent distance away. One dude even cried when the little boy got shot by Henry Fonda. Willie says he wishes he cried more at movies. I said i'd call him a wuss.
Overall I think what last night proved once again was that Charles Bronson is a bad enough dude to save the president. Or just mean-mug the shit out of him, while playing his harmonica and bustin' a cap. Also, Henry Fonda will totally pull a Wayne Brady and choke a bitch.
Word.
- adam
Dance parties are weird. I need to come up with a playlist for a jet-set themed radio show. Freeform? This should be interesting.
- adam
After watching the Grammy's last night I've come to the conclusion that if one simply picks up a musical instrument they are nominated for an award. Put out an album and you're a shoe in. Fall off or die within the past 5 years and bam! Lifetime acheivement award baby!
- adam
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