September 30, 2007
Please, Not Another Kid A
Radiohead has a new album coming out. The rational side of my brain knows that it will be another cryptic, atonal, self-indulgent disappointment. But the other side of my brain--the side of my brain that wants to believe in fairies and time travel and nurses who are former porn stars--keeps hoping for another OK Computer.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 07:23 PM | Comments (1)
September 29, 2007
Naturally Speaking
When I'm speaking--especially to larger audiences--I tend to sprinkle my speech with 'ums' and 'ahs'. I've always regarded it as a bad habit and I try to suppress it as much as possible. My use of the ventilator requires me to pause every few seconds and there's probably some element of my subconscious that feels the need to fill in the pauses with these verbal commas so that I don't lose the attention of my listeners. But now there's a study offering evidence that these "disfluences" help listeners focus their attention on the speaker. That may be, but I still find them irritating when other people use them in abundance and I need to reduce them in my own speech. People may find my pauses awkward, but I like to think that it adds a little suspense to words that are otherwise woefully banal.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 02:00 PM | Comments (1)
September 28, 2007
Maybe Next Year
My parents are visiting and my dad and I watched the Brewers lose to Padres. I hardly ever watch sports unless it's with my father, but it was still disheartening to see the playoff dreams of Milwaukee fans go up in smoke. Unless I'm mistaken, the Brewers haven't made it to the postseason since 1982. I was nine and I remember watching the games with a fervor that seems comical to me now. They lost to the Cardinals and I'm pretty sure that's when I stopped caring about baseball.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 11:58 PM | Comments (0)
September 27, 2007
Critic At Large: Metric @ First Avenue
I'm such a predictable hipster. I get crushes on all the indie music divas. Shirley Mansun. Jenny Lewis. And last night at First Avenue, Emily Haines of Metric had me wrapped around her little finger. She and her bandmates put on a solid, vibrant show that highlighted Haines' sweet vocals and the foursome's effortless musical synergy. My only disappointment was that Haines didn't do any of material from her beautiful solo albums. But this was Metric's gig and there are no piano solos in a Metric song.
I judge a lot of concerts by how much I regret being shortchanged sleep the next morning. When I woke up today, I felt no such thing.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:52 PM | Comments (0)
September 26, 2007
Democracy Now
I'm leaving shortly for a concert, but I wanted to suggest some reading on the government crackdown on the nonviolent protests in Myanmar (formerly Burma). The story isn't getting much play in the States, both because of our parochial disinterest and because Myanmar's military junta kicked out the foreign press. Here are pictures that somebody uploaded to Flickr. It's difficult to say whether these protests will continue, but it's reassuring to see people power in action inside one of the most authoritarian regimes on the planet.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 07:55 PM | Comments (0)
September 25, 2007
Comparison Shopping
I've spent the last hour exploring the public beta of Amazon's digital music store. One of big selling points of the store is that its tracks are recorded at 256 kbps (the iTunes standard is 128 kbps) and they are DRM-free, which means they can be played on any music device without restrictions. The few songs I downloaded sound crisp and vibrant, but it's difficult to distinguish any difference in quality on my mid-range computer speakers. The interface isn't as polished and the selection isn't as extensive as what you'll find on iTunes, but I suspect that will change in time. Amazon's entry into the music download business should offer some competition to Apple and force it to drop the higher prices for its DRM-free songs. In the best of all possible worlds, DRM will become a thing of the past and these stores will compete on price and selection alone.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 09:42 PM | Comments (0)
September 24, 2007
Winning Bid
I picked up a couple nice pieces at yesterday's VSA Silent Auction, including a matted and framed black-and-white photograph that goes quite nicely with the color scheme of my living room. I also brought home a porcelain vase that brightens up the dead space beside my sofa. Bets are currently being accepted on how long the vase will survive intact.
I remember hearing local raconteur Kevin Kling read an essay that contained the line "It feels good to buy art." And it does.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:01 PM | Comments (1)
September 23, 2007
Ideological Battles
Bush, at this point, is the Republicans' worst ally. On no issue is this more evident than in his sustained threat to veto the reauthorization of the State Children's Health Care Program. SCHIP is due to expire at the end of this month and it seems likely that the president and Congress are headed towards a showdown. As this report from the policy research group Mathematica illustrates, SCHIP has been instrumental in boosting access to health care for disadvantaged children. The administration recognizes the program's unmitigated success, but it is that success that has inspired the GOP's opposition. SCHIP's success undermines the conservative rhetoric that public health care programs are a red menace that will turn Americans into communist layabouts. A veto would be deadly to GOP electoral hopes in 2008 and I really can't understand the president's strategy. His efforts to blame the impasse on Democrats are weak and ill-advised. He's playing to a base that is quickly becoming marginalized from mainstream American politics.
Bush continues to follow the Rove playbook, but Republican legislators in suburban districts know that the game is changing. And denying kids health care is not going to make these lawmakers terribly popular in their districts.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:01 PM | Comments (0)
September 22, 2007
Prurient Interest
A recent visitor to the blog ran a search for "naked disability lawyer". Unfortunately, I had to take those pictures down a while back when I realized that certain unscrupulous business owners were appropriating the images for use as cover art on DVDs with titles like The Adventures of Rod Ramjet: Size Matters and Pipe Swingers 6: Working Overtime. My body is not to be exploited for commercial purposes, at least not without suitable compensation. But stay tuned for the launch of my next website: The 19th Floor After Dark. it's sure to be your one-stop location for all things naked and disabled and lawyerly.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 05:55 PM | Comments (0)
September 21, 2007
Spinoff
After seeing two episodes of Torchwood, the Doctor Who-inspired science fiction series that has made its way onto BBC America, here's my verdict: pretty bloody cool. I mean, how can you not like a show featuring an episode about an alien that, well, fucks people until they turn into little piles of dust? Mulder and Scully never investigated anything this interesting. The program's writing is sharp and clever and somewhat edgier than the more kid-friendly Who. Oh, and did I mention there's a hot lesbian make-out scene in the same episode? This is a show that understands what its audience wants. You Brits are so much more sophisticated than us simple Americans. Our broadcast networks still get the heebie-jeebies about showing two guys holding hands.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 07:43 PM | Comments (0)
September 20, 2007
Roots
"Siegel" is such a common Jewish name which can be traced to numerous families in Central and Eastern Europe, but it seems likely that my ancestors emigrated to this country from Lithuania sometime in the early twentieth century. While I'm not a genealogy buff and I'm not inclined to map out the minutiae of our family history, I occasionally speculate about whether I have any distant relatives remaining in that part of the world. I think about what it would be like to track one of them down and make the trip over there to visit him or her. I think about whether we would have anything in common besides a shared heritage. And what would this hypothetical cousin think of me? And even if I don't have any surviving kinin the country, it might be interesting to see the town or village that my great-grandparents left behind. Maybe I could write a novel based on my travels as well as the circumstances of my ancestors' emigration and somehow intertwine the two stories. I'm sure nobody has thought of that idea before.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:36 PM | Comments (1)
September 19, 2007
Continuing Education
Tomorrow is my first day of the Emerging Leaders Institute, a work-related program that is prepares participants for future leadership roles in state government. You know what this means: my transformation into an instrument of The Man is nearly complete. Actually, I'm looking forward to it, but I did have a flashback to my student days when I asked one of the other participants if I could get copies of the notes she'll be taking during the program. She agreed and assured me that her handwriting is perfectly legible. I didn't bother telling her that she could have the penmanship of a drunken first-grader and my practiced eye could still decipher it.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:29 PM | Comments (3)
September 18, 2007
Risk Assessment
Wired has a cautionary article about the potential dangers of thought-controlled games. It appears that some scientists are concerned that such games could cause attention deficit disorder, but the main point I took away from the article is that I won't be playing Bioshock with my mind anytime soon. Whatever. You just know that the military perfected this technology years ago and it's sitting on a shelf in some gargantuan warehouse, right next to the desiccated remains of the Roswell aliens and a second-generation cold fusion generator. They'll keep the technology secret for another ten years or so until they think we're "ready" for it. Condescending bastards.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:35 PM | Comments (0)
September 17, 2007
Too Little, Too Late
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:41 PM | Comments (0)
September 16, 2007
I Prefer "Indiana Jones And The Last Gasp"
The next adventure of the fedora-wearing archeologist will be titled Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Hmm, I don't know what I think about that. It doesn't have the zazz of Raiders of the Lost Ark; it has the feel of a title that was written by committee. Let's hope the script for the movie itself isn't quite as awkward.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:46 PM | Comments (0)
September 15, 2007
Act Local
The city of San Francisco is now getting into the act of providing health care to the uninsured. The new program, Healthy San Francisco, provides a decent set of benefits, including coverage for preventative care, hospitalizations, and prescription drugs. It's a novel approach, but I doubt it could be easily replicated in other cities. San Francisco has a strong tax base, a wealth of medical providers, and a population that already has a high degree of health care coverage. Places like Oklahoma City and Biloxi don't have the same resources available to them. But it's another example of states and municipalities implementing creative stopgap measures to the health care dilemma while waiting for a paralyzed Congress to come up with a more lasting solution.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 03:22 PM | Comments (0)
September 14, 2007
Flea Market
If anybody is interested in buying a used computer, I'm going to be selling mine in the next few weeks as I prepare to build a new system. The specs:
- Athlon 2500+ XP
- 1.5 GB RAM
- ATI 9600 All-in-Wonder Video Card (with TV Tuner)
- 120 GB Primary Hard Drive
- 200 GB Secondary Hard Drive
- DVD Burner
- CD Burner
- Sound card
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:37 PM | Comments (0)
September 13, 2007
Nothing To See Here
I'm in the midst of backing up data to my new external drive, but I've posted some light reading over on the BBC. It is guaranteed to give you the warm fuzzies. Enjoy.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 07:52 PM | Comments (0)
September 12, 2007
Mrs Whatsit Lives On
Madeleine L'Engle, author of A Wrinkle in Time and many other books, died last week. Wrinkle was one of my first tastes of science fiction and I remember being seriously creeped out by the Man with the Red Eyes. The book had that funky late-Sixties psychedelic vibe that you just can't find in Harry Potter. I have the urge to go to the library, find the book, and shove it into the hands of the first awkward preadolescent I see.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:34 PM | Comments (1)
September 11, 2007
Coming On Strong
When Al Franken first decided to get into the Senate race, one concern that many living room pundits (including myself) expressed was that he might have difficulty connecting with the good folks of this state. While I think those concerns still have validity, the latest Rasmussen poll shows that Franken has substantially closed the gap with our incumbent senator. Coleman's numbers are under fifty percent against both Franken and Mike Ciresi, an attorney with deep pockets, which clearly marks him as endangered. With the election still over a year away, Coleman has to be thinking that his best shot of winning is to tack left of Bush. He's already backing away from the president's "war now, war forever" strategy. Before the year is over, he'll probably make some carefully modulated noises about health care reform. But Coleman lacks something that his DFL opponent, whether it's Franken or Ciresi will have in ample supply: conviction.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 07:28 PM | Comments (0)
September 10, 2007
And You Are...?
Tomorrow, I respond to the gentleman who e-mailed me requesting that I prove that I'm not, in fact, a rogue artificial intelligence living inside his computer.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 09:14 PM | Comments (6)
September 09, 2007
Critic At Large: 3:15 To Yuma
3:10 to Yuma wastes no time in reminding the viewer that the Old American West was not a pleasant place. And for the next two hours, the movie treads even further into the bleak places of the landscape and the human heart. Dan Evans (Christian Bale) is a struggling Arizona rancher and wounded Civil War vet who decides to earn some much-needed cash by joining an ad hoc posse to escort notorious bad guy Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) to a train that will take him to Yuma to face trial and certain execution. Wade is a charming sociopath who's fond of quoting Scripture and sketching the women he beds and he wastes no time in plotting various ways to escape his captors. Both Crowe and Bale do a fine job here, giving nuance and depth to the stereotypical archetypes of the Western hero and villain.
The ending is something of a foregone conclusion, especially if you're familiar with the conventions of the modern western. But it's difficult to resist the movie's gritty take on the genre's familiar trappings. Stagecoach robberies. Cold-hearted bounty hunters. Gunfights in desolate little towns. None of these carry the odor of been-there-done-that. In fact, I'm willing to bet that this movie will spark a revival of the big-screen western, but any successors will be hard-pressed to match this film's pitch-perfect mixture of plot and performance.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:13 PM | Comments (0)
September 08, 2007
Pale Imitation
A few of my conservative friends (okay, one) are rejoicing at Fred Thompson's official entry into the presidential campaign. Many conservatives are hoping that he can channel Reagan's ghost and bring salvation to a foundering political party. I'll say this right now: if Thompson gets the Republican nomination, I'll eat my die-cast model of the starship Enterprise. Reagan's success had as much to do with post-Carter malaise and a swing in the political mood of the country as with the man's own considerable political skills. Thompson may know how to mimic Reagan's stage presence and bonhomie, but the illusion is shattered as soon as he opens his mouth. Get this: he claims that Iraqi Sunnis are turning against Al-Qaeda because Al-Qaeda won't let them smoke. Come again?
Thompson is the candidate for those voters who think that the policies of the last six years have worked out just fine. For Republicans who are leery of the current front-runners and who are searching for someone to lead into the final skirmishes of the culture wars, Thompson is probably their man. Unfortunately for Thompson, those voters are a dwindling minority.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 10:18 PM | Comments (1)
September 07, 2007
Putting The "I" in "iPod"
"Finally," I thought as I read about the release of the massively endowed and oh-so-very shiny iPod Classic. "Something that can hold my complete collection of Eastern European post-electro-neo-punk/emo bootlegs, which will serve as a nice soundtrack while I employ said iPod's Coverflow function to browse through my extensive photographic library of scorching hot granny porn. I might even have room for a couple episodes of Battlestar Galactica. You know, just in case I get bored."
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:49 PM | Comments (1)
September 06, 2007
Without Lifting My Little Finger
New Scientist has news of a wheelchair under development that can be controlled by measuring brain impulses sent to the larynx. The user simply has to think the word "forward" and the chair moves forward. I dare you to watch the embedded video of the chair in action and not be at least a little impressed. The neckband looks a little uncomfortable, especially for those of us with trachs and ventilator tubing in the near vicinity, but I'm sure that can be miniaturized before too long. This technology seems like it could be adapted for other uses. I'd love to be able type these blog entries just by thinking of the words.
On the other hand, I can also think of hazards that might accompany such an interface. Imagine: you're in your tricked-out wheelchair, cruising down the sidewalk, when the lyrics to Jesus Jones' "Right Here, Right Now" pop into your head. And off you go into oncoming traffic.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 07:16 PM | Comments (1)
September 05, 2007
Redirect
Not tonight, love. I have a headache. If you need a quick fix, my alter ego-the smarter, better-looking one, just posted at the BBC.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:41 PM | Comments (0)
September 04, 2007
Literary Ambitions
I see that my arch-nemesis, Stephen Hawking, has published the first in a series of children's science fiction books. The man will do anything for a bit of good PR. To the children of the world: Dr. Hawking is not a nice man. During our last phone conversation to finalize the details of our zero-g deathmatch, he threatened to do things with my corpse that even the Dark Lord himself would consider beyond the pale. But for a man of such bravado, he seems to have no problem coming up with excuses to delay our face-off. "I have to papers to grade." "I have relatives coming in from out of town." I suppose the next time I talk to him, it will be "I have to finish my book tour." Coward.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 07:39 PM | Comments (0)
September 03, 2007
If You Can't Say Something Nice...
I was going to write something about the MDA Telethon, but I can't even summon the energy to care. Do people even watch that thing anymore? I get the feeling that the telethon and the Miss America pageant probably share the same dwindling audience. But I suppose the telethon gives B-list celebrities like Charo and Dionne Warwick a chance to feel useful, so who am I to criticize?
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:07 PM | Comments (0)
September 02, 2007
The Great Minnesota Get-Together
I'm recovering from post-State Fair fatigue. Note to self: in the future, it's probably a good idea to avoid going to the Fair on the last Sunday before Labor Day, especially when it's hot and an odious melange of fried grease, sweat, and livestock flatulence permeates the whole place. But I still go once every year because I get a kick out of playing "Spot the Abusive Relationships" and eavesdropping on the profanity-laced conversations of others. It's enough to re-affirm my faith in the basic goodness and decency of humanity.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:37 PM | Comments (1)
September 01, 2007
Double Standard
The steady stream of Republican sex scandals, besides providing plenty of schadenfreude, serves to highlight the true bankruptcy of the GOP's family values agenda. They show no hesitancy to purge a gay man from their ranks. But when Senator Vitter openly confesses to soliciting prostitutes, his Republican colleagues shrug, wink, and call it a private affair. Josh Marshall has it right: If you're a Republican and you want to misbehave sexually, make sure it's with a chick.
Christian conservatives may claim to love the sinner and hate the sin, but a comparison of the treatments Vitter and Craig received seems to undermine that motto. Homosexuality strikes a deep chord of revulsion in a significant minority of conservatives, to the detriment of the party. The GOP would be better off if it jettisoned its rabid homophobic wing and focused on things they can all agree on, like denying health insurance to kids and demonizing Hillary Clinton.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:25 PM | Comments (0)