Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Phonecam Photoessay #2
Phonecam Photoessay #2
A sign in one of my favorite local supermarkets—I admire the typography. I have no idea where they get these made, but they always look like a million bucks.
My dog destroying an empty dog food bag, showing his contempt for the natural order between Man and Beast.
Sam and Dave, a mated human couple.
Lawrence Lessig giving a brilliant talk before and after an insipid documentary.
A massive IKEA advertisement threatens a lowly human worker, who has been paid in Swedish meatballs and is beginning to regret that salary negotiation.
An improbable IKEA device, probably called a STARKOMEMKA, that absolutely no real human would buy and mount in their home. Nevertheless, it is attractive.
When I am performing MONOPOLY! and talking about corporate rule, this is sometimes what I think of.
An attractive groomsmen at the most lavish wedding I have ever attended.
***
A sign in one of my favorite local supermarkets—I admire the typography. I have no idea where they get these made, but they always look like a million bucks.
My dog destroying an empty dog food bag, showing his contempt for the natural order between Man and Beast.
Sam and Dave, a mated human couple.
Lawrence Lessig giving a brilliant talk before and after an insipid documentary.
A massive IKEA advertisement threatens a lowly human worker, who has been paid in Swedish meatballs and is beginning to regret that salary negotiation.
An improbable IKEA device, probably called a STARKOMEMKA, that absolutely no real human would buy and mount in their home. Nevertheless, it is attractive.
When I am performing MONOPOLY! and talking about corporate rule, this is sometimes what I think of.
An attractive groomsmen at the most lavish wedding I have ever attended.
***
The Stranger | Seattle | Slog: The Stranger's Blog | Holy... Shit... Harper's... Oh... My... God...
On Simple Human Decency:
Am I allowed to write that I would like to hunt down George W. Bush, the President of the United States, and kill him with my bare hands?
Let me be clear that I have no wish to perform such a deed in fact…. I seek only to gauge what level of discourse is still acceptable in this country by asking, in the hope that I might someday participate in that discourse, whether I am free to posit that it would probably be great fun, and a boon to all mankind, if i were to slaughter the president of the United States with my bare hands?
….In place of the initial question I might ask instead, “Am I allowed to write that I would like to kidnap George W. Bush and fly him to a prison in some faraway land where his ‘rights’ are no longer an issue, there to put a bag over his head and making him stand for hours on one leg while I defecate on his New Testament before chaining his arms to the ceiling until he dies of a heart attack, after which I will claim that he never existed?”
Sunday, May 28, 2006
Namibia 'bowed to pressure' from Pitt and Jolie over birth - 29 May 2006 - Lifestyle & Leisure
Namibia 'bowed to pressure' from Pitt and Jolie over birth - 29 May 2006 - Lifestyle & Leisure:
The Republic of Namibia - the impoverished country of 1.8 million known for its wild remoteness - not only welcomed the movie stars, it handed over control of its international land borders and airspace to them.
As the world awaited the birth of the child at a luxury villa complex on the coast, Namibian authorities said they had bowed to pressure from Jolie and Pitt and granted them the right to ban foreign journalists from entering the country - a remarkable move for the Government of any sovereign state.
The Republic of Namibia - the impoverished country of 1.8 million known for its wild remoteness - not only welcomed the movie stars, it handed over control of its international land borders and airspace to them.
As the world awaited the birth of the child at a luxury villa complex on the coast, Namibian authorities said they had bowed to pressure from Jolie and Pitt and granted them the right to ban foreign journalists from entering the country - a remarkable move for the Government of any sovereign state.
Saturday, May 27, 2006
Croatia apologizes to Tesla for not recognizing his talent Update
Croatia apologizes to Tesla for not recognizing his talent:
Zagreb's city councillors have delivered a posthumous apology to their compatriot Nikola Tesla, one of the pioneers of modern electrical engineering, for failing to recognise his genius, officials said Thursday.
The city council met on Wednesday, exactly 114 years after Tesla presented Zagreb's then mayor with the idea of introducing electric street lightning to the city.
The city authorities told the young inventor they did not understand his vision and turned down his project, before introduced electric lighting 15 years later.
Friday, May 26, 2006
TONIGHT! ONE NIGHT ONLY! TOTALLY SOLD OUT!
(Come early—standing room and wait list available at the door, and we'll seat as many as we can!)
G R E A T
M E N
O F
G E N I U S
Friday, May 26 ~ L. Ron Hubbard
"No man who is not himself honest can be free — he is his own trap."
Bigamist, occultist, and charismatic science fiction author-turned-guru who took 1950's popular psychiatry by storm and went on to create the Church of Scientology: the most celebrity-driven and litigious organization on Earth.
8PM SHARP AT GALAPAGOS ART SPACE
Located at 70 North 6th Street between Kent and Wythe
In Williamsburg--take the L train to Bedford
For tickets and information call 212.868.4444 or click here.
(Come early—standing room and wait list available at the door, and we'll seat as many as we can!)
G R E A T
M E N
O F
G E N I U S
Friday, May 26 ~ L. Ron Hubbard
"No man who is not himself honest can be free — he is his own trap."
Bigamist, occultist, and charismatic science fiction author-turned-guru who took 1950's popular psychiatry by storm and went on to create the Church of Scientology: the most celebrity-driven and litigious organization on Earth.
8PM SHARP AT GALAPAGOS ART SPACE
Located at 70 North 6th Street between Kent and Wythe
In Williamsburg--take the L train to Bedford
For tickets and information call 212.868.4444 or click here.
The Stranger | Seattle | Slog: The Stranger's Blog | Your New American Idol
Your New American Idol:
Last night’s finale to the fifth season of American Idol was like some Croation’s television-fueled image of the United States, where bouncing bubbles of cleavage harmonize with quakey fat men who hold hankercheifs; where singers-turned-psychics-turned singers again are serenaded by the morbidly obese and the nearly illiterate; where the only thing rewarded more than mockery of the socially disenfranchised is the cultural advancement of soullessness, marketed with the knowing phrase “Soul Patrol,” and brought to you by Coca Cola.
Last night’s finale to the fifth season of American Idol was like some Croation’s television-fueled image of the United States, where bouncing bubbles of cleavage harmonize with quakey fat men who hold hankercheifs; where singers-turned-psychics-turned singers again are serenaded by the morbidly obese and the nearly illiterate; where the only thing rewarded more than mockery of the socially disenfranchised is the cultural advancement of soullessness, marketed with the knowing phrase “Soul Patrol,” and brought to you by Coca Cola.
Enter Stage Right: Live Advertisements - New York Times
Enter Stage Right: Live Advertisements - New York Times:
The advertisement, which is itself advertised as the world's first live theatrical commercial, is a creation of Visit London, a tourist organization. There have already been performances of the live commercial on stages in Dublin and Hamburg, said Ken Kelling, Visit London's communications director, and there is to be another on Friday in Pittsburgh. "They're a captive audience," Mr. Kelling said. "They can't switch channels or change over or walk out once the thing is started."
The advertisement, which is itself advertised as the world's first live theatrical commercial, is a creation of Visit London, a tourist organization. There have already been performances of the live commercial on stages in Dublin and Hamburg, said Ken Kelling, Visit London's communications director, and there is to be another on Friday in Pittsburgh. "They're a captive audience," Mr. Kelling said. "They can't switch channels or change over or walk out once the thing is started."
Thursday, May 25, 2006
A new interview with me is up at Souldish, focusing on L. Ron Hubbard and the GREAT MEN OF GENIUS series.
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
THE PUBLIC EDITOR; There's No Business Like Tony Awards Business - New York Times
THE PUBLIC EDITOR; There's No Business Like Tony Awards Business - New York Times:
UNLESS I acquire some unexpected clout around here in the next 48 hours, Times readers will wake up on Tuesday morning to read a prominent story announcing the nominees for an artistically meaningless, blatantly commercial, shamefully exclusionary and culturally corrosive award competition.
Let me put it another way: unless Times editors have overcome several decades of their own inertia, readers on Tuesday will find a prominent story serving the pecuniary interests of three privately controlled companies whose principals have earned the right to convene in what Damon Runyon once called ''the laughing room.'' That was Runyon's term for the sound-proofed chamber where he imagined that the proprietors of the ''21'' Club gathered to set the day's menu prices. Today's version would be the sanctum where the men who run the Shubert Organization, the Nederlander Organization and Jujamcyn Theaters gather to toast The Times and its generous support of their efforts.
UNLESS I acquire some unexpected clout around here in the next 48 hours, Times readers will wake up on Tuesday morning to read a prominent story announcing the nominees for an artistically meaningless, blatantly commercial, shamefully exclusionary and culturally corrosive award competition.
Let me put it another way: unless Times editors have overcome several decades of their own inertia, readers on Tuesday will find a prominent story serving the pecuniary interests of three privately controlled companies whose principals have earned the right to convene in what Damon Runyon once called ''the laughing room.'' That was Runyon's term for the sound-proofed chamber where he imagined that the proprietors of the ''21'' Club gathered to set the day's menu prices. Today's version would be the sanctum where the men who run the Shubert Organization, the Nederlander Organization and Jujamcyn Theaters gather to toast The Times and its generous support of their efforts.
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Hastert tells President Bush FBI raid was unconstitutional
Hastert tells President Bush FBI raid was unconstitutional:
House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) told President Bush yesterday that he is concerned the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) raid on Rep. William Jefferson’s (D-La.) congressional office over the weekend was a direct violation of the Constitution.
Hastert raised concerns that the FBI’s unannounced seizure of congressional documents during a raid of Jefferson’s Rayburn office Saturday night violated the separation of powers between the two branches of government as they are defined by the Constitution.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) told President Bush yesterday that he is concerned the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) raid on Rep. William Jefferson’s (D-La.) congressional office over the weekend was a direct violation of the Constitution.
Hastert raised concerns that the FBI’s unannounced seizure of congressional documents during a raid of Jefferson’s Rayburn office Saturday night violated the separation of powers between the two branches of government as they are defined by the Constitution.
With a thickness of only 9.9mm, compared to the 11.5mm of a Motorola SLVR L7, this LG is thinner than Nicole Richie after a three-day hobo-killing, dog-strangling, Herbie-the-Love-Bug-stealing coke binge.
Via Gizmondo.
LA Daily News - Seller hopes model behavior will give homes lived-in appeal
LA Daily News - Seller hopes model behavior will give homes lived-in appeal:
SANTA CLARITA - The scent of baking scones wafts through the house as children's feet pound the floors.
"Dad" rushes to get things ready as "Mom" lounges on the couch.
It's a birthday party for Camille Chen. "Husband" Jaason Simmons has breakfast in the oven and there's about to be a surprise: He and the kids remodeled the den into a game room and won't Mom, a notorious poker fiend, be pleased.
Except Chen and Simmons aren't married, the kids aren't theirs, they don't really live in the house and they're all Centex Homes marketing director Amanda Larson's employees.
They've been hired to lounge around a model home, read magazines and occasionally pretend like they're having breakfast.
Welcome to the new reality of real estate.
SANTA CLARITA - The scent of baking scones wafts through the house as children's feet pound the floors.
"Dad" rushes to get things ready as "Mom" lounges on the couch.
It's a birthday party for Camille Chen. "Husband" Jaason Simmons has breakfast in the oven and there's about to be a surprise: He and the kids remodeled the den into a game room and won't Mom, a notorious poker fiend, be pleased.
Except Chen and Simmons aren't married, the kids aren't theirs, they don't really live in the house and they're all Centex Homes marketing director Amanda Larson's employees.
They've been hired to lounge around a model home, read magazines and occasionally pretend like they're having breakfast.
Welcome to the new reality of real estate.
