:: Archipelapogo ::

:: 30.4.03 ::

Again, not being able to post from work causes delay

I meant to post this earlier too, but here it is, for those that aren't MeFi readers ... with the switch from subway tokens to MetroCards full-time in NYC comes the end of the fascinating story of the token-suckers (via MeFi).
:: Scott [+] ::
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I guess I'm much more neutral than I thought

It's been, well, forever, so long as I can remember, so, for the hell of it, which country are you, anyways?
Me?

Switzerland -
A neutral power for as long as most can remember,
it has avoided war for several centuries.
However, it is still considered highly advanced
and a global power.


Positives:

Judicial.

Neutrality.

World-Renouned.

Powerful without Force.

Makes Excellent Watches, Etc.


Negatives:

Target of Ridicule.

Constant Struggle to Avoid Conflict.

Target of Criminal Bank Accounts.



Which Country of the World are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

:: Scott [+] ::
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Nonplussed

So via the most recent issue of the Nation*, I find out that Russell Simmons (this one, not to be confused with the drummer from this band that spells his name Russell Simins) has his own new magazine out (warning: 100% flash-based). It's funny, because looking at the site, it appears to be a cross between Vibe and GQ or something, yet the copy on the back of the Nation has a picture of Che Guevara and a tagline saying "The Revolution Will Be Published". Needless to say, I'm not too inspired to buy a copy. If I happen to see one at a record or book store, I may flip through, but I see nothing special going on. I've had a wierd issue with Simmons for some reason that I can't quite put my finger on. I don't know if it's his desire to seem like the guy that's fought against all odds and is basking in glory now (see his episode of MTV's Cribs for example) or his seeming guilt about succeeding. But something with him just clicks wrong with me. I have a lot of respect for what he did with Def Jam and his part in bringing hip hop into the mainstream (much to my white ass's glee), but I really don't think I like him as a person. Anyways, just to let anyone who may be interested know, it's out there.

*yeah, I'm a current subscriber to the Nation. I subscribed kind of in a panic last early Winter with what was going on in my world and in my country. I'm not saying that I regret it (their subscription rate is really cheap, especially for a weekly) but I probably won't renew due to the fact that about 95% of it is editorials vs. actual news reporting. I don't know if it's always been this way, and granted, there's a lot of room for criticism right now, but I don't really need to pay for that. Anyone that has some advice for a good weekly/bi-weekly news rag please feel free to share. I subscribed to NewsWeek for two years in college and enjoyed it, but I was looking for a little more depth. I got the depth without the actual coverage. Feel free to discuss.
:: Scott [+] ::
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Some stuff of note

1.) Congrats to Sean on getting a job offer. I know he likes the Carolina area and wish him all the best. I hope to get to have a lunch with him before he moves out of Tulsa. And I anticipate his return to more frequent activity in the blogging area once he's gotten a little more stable.

2.) Jack Osbourne is in rehab now. I think you can blame a lot of things. First, yeah, you have to blame him. Personal responsibility lies to the person first and foremost. Then you can blame the parents (although if you've watch the Osbournes a few times, you can tell that Ozzy and Sharon seem to be pretty good parents, on camera at least). You can also blame society for being such voyeurs. I'm hoping that this reality TV trend is on the way out. That much pressure on an adolescent can lead, unsurprisingly, to chemcials for coping (I'm looking at you, Haim and Feldman). I'm not saying "Oh, won't somebody think of the children! We must protect them at all costs! No more kiddie celebs!". After all, where would our society be without little Raven Symone going in to ruin the Cosby Show? Or the winners of the "proof that evil exists and is actively fucking with our society" Award: the Olsen Twins and their muli-million annual dollar enterprise (ten bucks says they do a joint spread in a "gentlemen's magazine" in the next 15 years). It's not surprising to see kid celebs drawn to substance abuse like moths to a bug zapper, but it's never fun to watch.

3.) I meant to mention this the other day, but 4AD, who was contractually bound to Elektra for a very long time, is finally re-issuing their Pixies catalog. Bad news: all the packaging is going to be the same and no new materials. Very Good News: Pixies DVD!

However, the label is currently planning two final Pixies releases for September: the current two-disc best-of/live release Death to the Pixies will be discontinued to make room for a brand new best-of compilation, and an as-yet-untitled DVD featuring multiple concerts in their entirety, along with all the band's videos, and exclusive interview footage.

:: Scott [+] ::
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Hand me a broom

Mavs are now up 3-0 over the JailBlazers. This is very, very good. Do I think they can beat the Kings in the second round? Yeah, they can, but I don't think they will, but it will be one hell of a series none-the-less. And how good will Dirk Nowitzki be in three years? I've been a bit of a critic of his this season. Not so much out of disrespect, but for his panicking and taking really crappy shots at really bad times when he's not playing well (something Steve Nash and Nick Van Exel do as well, but not as frequently). But Dirk's been great so far in this series. Sunday's game will be watched (or at least listened to on the radio, depending on how benevolent Denise is feeling) very closely.
:: Scott [+] ::
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Set it on Spin Cycle

You know, a lot of us have been ranting and raving for a long time about the reasons for the invasion of Iraq. We sat through the flipping of reasons from Hussein's possible support of the 9/11 attacks (which even Colin Powell admitted there was absolutely no evidence of, much to 40% of the public's chagrin) to his horrible track record of exploiting his citizens (which we all the sudden gave a flipping fuck about) to the whole weapons of mass destruction and biochem warfare thing. That sealed the deal. Boogada boogada boogada. They have weapons that can't even come within 2000 miles of our borders. THey won't disarm. But wait... now that it's over we see the truth begin to leak out.

Officials inside government and advisers outside told ABCNEWS the administration emphasized the danger of Saddam's weapons to gain the legal justification for war from the United Nations and to stress the danger at home to Americans.

"We were not lying," said one official. "But it was just a matter of emphasis."

Officials now say they may not find hundreds of tons of mustard and nerve agents and maybe not thousands of liters of anthrax and other toxins. But U.S. forces will find some, they say. On Thursday, President Bush raised the possibility for the first time that any such Iraqi weapons were destroyed before or during the war.

If weapons of mass destruction were not the primary reason for war, what was? Here's the answer officials and advisers gave ABCNEWS.

The Sept. 11, 2001, attacks changed everything, including the Bush administration's thinking about the Middle East — and not just Saddam Hussein.

Senior officials decided that unless action was taken, the Middle East would continue to be a breeding ground for terrorists. Officials feared that young Arabs, angry about their lives and without hope, would always looking for someone to hate — and that someone would always be Israel and the United States.

Just goes to show that the cause doesn't matter, it's the effect, the point that we spent all this time, money, and lives to make. I don't think many will be surprised, but dammit, is there any reason to trust this administration any longer? Really?
:: Scott [+] ::
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Yeah, I'm around

I went to Tulsa for Easter and now I'm back at work again and I leave for Florida in ten days to visit my sister and the lovely white sand beach of Ft. Walton so I'm feeling a little blase, but here are some links for you anyways, strictly out of love.

-- Yesterday being Earth Day I thought I'd make a nice post over on the 'Filter for people to share some links. Needless to say, it didn't go over as well as I had intended, but I (and a couple of other people) threw in some quality stuff that I don't feel like copying and pasting here, so check out the thread and find them there.

-- Jaquandor posted a great "Are You an American?" Quiz.

-- For the first -- and likely only -- time ever, I'm linking to Kottke, and, specifically, his post about advertising in books. I, oddly enough, don't find it too disturbing of a though, provided that the conditions that j.ko lays out are actually met. If it led to much cheaper, or even free, copies of books, then that's quite fine by me. That doesn't mean I'd never opt for ad-free normal priced books, but I can see a lot of "shrug and pick up just for the hell of it" books falling into this category for my own life. And, for book collectors, this would be a very interesting aspect and snapshot of society decades from now. How fascinated are we already by adverts from the 19th and early 20th centuries? My main stipulation would be that the adverts had to be in black and white and that they weren't in the middle of pages with text both above and below. I dunno, maybe I'm so desensitized by magazines and the web that the thought just doesn't terrify me. What do you think?

:: Scott [+] ::
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Public Service Announcement

Don't forget: A Mighty Wind, the new Christopher Guest film starts today in most major cities. I probably won't go tonight, but I'll go very soon.

:: Scott [+] ::
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It's a Plant Exchange!

That's the sign I've been seeing everywhere for two weeks now. Apparently there's some kind of Plant Exchange going on here amongst the employees of the county. At least twice a day we've received Broadcast e-mails. There are fliers on the bathroom doors, the elevators, and attached with our paychecks. All screaming "It's a Plant Exchange!" which, of course, runs through my mind in a Homer Simpson "It's a ring-toss game!" voice.

I can only imagine what this entails. People gussying up ferns and building towering topiaries. I can imagine poor Agnes, the clerk in the Auditor's office, going to Hobby Lobby and spending $75 on ribbon, paint pens, and decopage supplies. Just for the pot. She'll spend her evenings actively listening to Wheel of Fortune and gumming on some Mac n' Cheese with little hot dogs cut up and stirred in as she scours the pages of the AARP for ads featuring cartoon catepillars to paste onto her pot. She may even burn her fingers with her glue gun, the soreness of which will only reverberate each time she transfers a call the following day. But in the end she'll have a damn fine exhibition that she can be proud of and set on the corner of her balcony only to become the envy of that hussy Martha in the building across the courtyard. You know the one who flaunts her tummy tuck and shamelessly flirts with the gardener. I hate that bitch.

So Agnes will carefully load her work of art into her Buick, buckle it in with the safety belt, and drive ever so carefully to work. She'll parade her plant through the building and into the office, where she'll set it on her desk basking in all the praise and attention she'll get. Compliments she never received for overhauling and color-coding the files back in '84. Flattery that went unspoken when she lost ten pounds in the first two months of '92. Attention that instead went to Jeanette, the buxom young secretary with her blonde hair and embarassingly low-cut shirts while Agnes struggled to set up a Hotmail account so she could e-mail her grandchildren in Arizona. Finally, vindication!

Three short hours later, she'll cautiously take her plant to the conference room on the fourth floor, protecting it from the wild tots in the elevator who shriek way too much. Her children were always well-behaved, she'll tell herself as she curses the woman who holds the elevator on the third floor so a sweaty man wearing sweatpants can hustle on and make everyone squoosh together a little more. Finally she'll carefully weave through these wretched folk at the doors open at her floor and take a deep breath and fix her hair before entering the room, fashionably late, so that everyone can see her and her majestic creature, this product of hours of sweat. She'll register at the table and take a number, and then set her plant carefully down on a placemat, making sure to adjust the leaves and blossoms to offer the best view for those walking by.

As the numbers are called she eyes the other entrants. It may not be a competition, but if it were, Agnes would doubtless be crowned victor. She can picture herself wearing a tiara, glowing suddenly and appearing half her age as the crowds adore her. She finally hears her number, 48, called. She prances up to receive whatever paltry entrant is assigned to her, that she'll take home and try to nurse to something civil. She slowly jaunts up to the table to recieve, what the hell? A chia herb-garden? Are you fucking kidding? My grandson could've done better than this, and the poor bastard received most of his genes from my dumbass son-in-law. I spent well over $70 and three evenings on the pot alone, and I get a the useless bastard child of the chia pet? Look at this mint! It's brown! Who the hell can't even grow proper mint this time of year! This is worthless! I spit on this sage! I puke on this parsley! I want my plant back! I'm taking her home, the only place she'll be properly treated and appreciated! What? It's already been given away? To who? Jeanette?!? That whore! She'll give it herpes! You can only surpress herpes! There's no cure!

Agnes begins to sweat a little, forces a cracked smile while she tries to get her heart rate back to a healthy level. She mouths a thank you to Mae, the woman behind the folding table that organized this fiasco. She takes her chia herb-garden back to the elevatore, where she does a quick scan to make sure nobody's around and promptly deposits it in the garbage can, taking the time to cover it with the discarded styrofoam lunch container to that nobody would see it and have their feelings hurt. She boards the elevator and pushes the button for floor number two where she'll return to her desk largely unnoticed and continue to work until 4:30 when she'll shut down her computer, board her Buick, and drive home in time to make a casserole for the old widower Veteran downstairs before his blood-sugar gets too low.

So yeah, I'm boycotting this plant exchange as I can envision nothing good coming out of this nefarious "social event". As I type this, another broadcast comes in through the county e-mail server. Apparently the plant exchange is tomorrow. Good riddance, foul beast.

:: Scott [+] ::
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Wordplay

Some time ago, I began subscribing to the A Word A Day e-mail list. It's free and has two main benefits: 1) I use it as kind of a futile attempt to increase my vocabulary and ability to breakdown words, which is a skill essential for things like the GRE (which I'll be studying for and taking sometime in early Fall, for the second time really, but the first was almost two years ago and without any knowledge of what I really wanted to do in grad school). 2) The man behind the list, Anu, often offers some very interesting insights behind the history of the words. Not just the breakdown, which is awfully nice, but some historic contrasts as well. Case in point: Today's e-mail contained the following:

After a recent week of words from law, where many of the words are of French
origin, I received this email from a reader:

"I propose you no longer feature words which have a base or stem from
the French language. I no longer see that as a positive e-mail."

In these times when emotions run high, it's understandable why someone would
say that, why US lawmakers would rename French fries and French toast in
their cafeteria menus. Or why some German professors think they need to
exclude English terms from their vocabulary.

This is not the first time linguistic revisionism is being attempted. During
World War I, in the US, some had tried to rename sauerkraut as "liberty
cabbage", for example. But we're all so interconnected, as are our languages,
that any such attempt quickly falls flat on its face.

"Freedom fries" they say? Well, there's still some French remaining, as the
word fry comes from Old French frire. "Freedom toast"? What about toast which
comes from Middle French toster. Thinking along these lines, we may even have
to rename the US (from Old French estat). Estimates vary, but one-quarter or
more of words in the English language have a French influence. In the two
lines that the above-mentioned reader sent us, at least six words have
French connections (propose, feature, base, language, positive, mail).

A language isn't owned by a country. French belongs as much to France as to
Senegal or Canada or anyone else who speaks it. To celebrate the diversity
of the English language, this week we'll look at five words that have come
into English from five different languages.

I may not agree with his understanding of where someone wanting to spit on the French is coming from (maybe he doesn't really feel this way and was just trying to be civil) but what a factual punch to the face. Good on you, Anu.

:: Scott [+] ::
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Stupid Fucking Government, Indeed

I'm very irritated this morning at this shit. The House of Representatives passed a bill that permits drilling in the ANWAR region* last night 228-197.

Siding with the Bush administration on one of its top energy initiatives, the House defeated on a 228-to-197 vote an effort to strip the drilling plan from the measure. Lawmakers did support limiting development to a 2,000-acre "footprint" in the 1.5 million-acre coastal plain of the refuge on the North Slope of Alaska.

Sponsors of the bill said that the nation needed to tap more of its own energy resources to decrease its reliance on imported oil and that the Alaskan drilling would help stimulate the economy and was supported by the Native Americans in the area.

Opponents of the drilling, who include Democrats and moderate Republicans, said the refuge was a national resource that needed protecting. They said the drilling vote was particularly wrong-headed given that lawmakers defeated an increase in auto gas mileage standards that its authors said would save more oil than the refuge could produce (emphasis mine).

Critics said the measure was full of "industry goodies" while giving short shrift to energy conservation and undercutting some important environmental restrictions. The bill provides $18.7 billion in a wide array of tax breaks, many of them for oil and gas companies, besides opening the refuge to oil exploration.

I can't see how people can read about this and not think two things: One, our federal government does not have the people's best interest in mind. Two, we need Campaign Finance Reform desperately. We need our politicians to be out of the control of big business to get elected and to be accountable to the people. Yeah, I'm pissed. You should be too. Why are we cutting veteran's benefits to get a stupid tax cut but giving more tax cuts to the oil industry? Why are we fucking over the environment yet permitting the auto industry to not have to research better methods for building vehicles? Why are the people too glued to the War™ to pay attention to the what's going on in the rest of the country? I don't mean to say that we shouldn't pay attention to what's going on in Iraq, because we should, but we can't allow Congress to pay attention to the public's inattention to pass controversial measures without an outcry.

*I've heard that using the archives.nytimes.com link instead of www.nytimes.com will bypass the need for registration. If for some reason it asks you to register and sign-in, a) please let me know that it didn't work and b) feel free to use Username: ufezapogo Password: archipelapogo.

More Stupid Government over at SixDifferentWays.

:: Scott [+] ::
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Road Trippin'

Okay, I'm back from my road trip of five days and nearly 800 miles. Houston treated me well and Austin was great as always, especially since it hosted the Subhumans show that I attended on Monday night. The show was great. Emo's has expanded quite a bit since the last time I was there nearly a year and a half ago. It was pretty damned packed, but that was cool as I still was able to make it pretty close to the stage without getting pounded. Lots of great mohawks, which was to be expected. Apparantly the Casualties (who have great hair themselves) are the band of the times to sports shirts by as I saw a ton of them. Maybe they played in Austin recently, I don't know for sure. I even saw a kid about six years old sporting an Anti-Flag shirt and buzz-hawk of his own (yes he was there with his parents). I'm sure he's going to grow up to run for the Republican nomination in 2034 or something. I just hope he doesn't get picked on too much at school for the way that his parents dress him.

The Subhumans set was great. I got to hear "Rats" which is probably my favorite song by them. They also played "Work, Rest, Play, Die" which is a great sing along. I was surprised that they didn't play "Subvert City", which is also a good singalong and the song that I most often hear people chanting for at the Citizen Fish shows. The eight dollar ticket price was a bargain, especially when you include the fact that you can also pick up a 27 song official bootleg album for $5 at the merch booth. Makes for a great cheap night.

I ran into the brothers Himstedt from this Waco band down there. They seem to be doing well. I'm hoping that they'll play Dallas again sometime soon so I can check them out. It was good to see them though.

The rest of my trip consisted of meetings and hanging out with some friends that I hadn't seen in too long. All told, I quite enjoyed myself. And now that I'm back in the office, hey, it's almost the weekend anyways.

(I found out today that the Burn/Galaxy game that I'm attending will be on ESPN2 on Saturday at 4pm EST. If you're slick and have any clue what I look like, maybe you'll see D. and I.

Also, D. deserves major congrats for being accepted to grad school at UT. She's going to study Public Health (although maybe not necessarily in Austin as she applied to several schools). She's a smart one.)

:: Scott [+] ::
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New Addiction

Of all of the various flash and java games that I've seen on MetaFilter over the past year and a half, none of them have grabbed me as bad as this one with it's very simple gameplay and bouncing snake (leech? eel? slug?). Try to beat my top score of 13,404.

:: Scott [+] ::
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More damage to my ears

Concert season is officially starting. I'm (most likely) going to the Drums and Tuba show up at Rubber Gloves in Denton tomorrow night. Rubber Gloves steals a lot of the smaller indie shows from Dallas, and for that they get the middle finger. But I'm hoping it's a cool place. (Plus, they have a Mr. Goodcents in Denton. Lord I miss that place. Dinner!)

Then, on my previously mentioned business/pleasure road trip this weekend and early next week, I've got a ticket waiting for me at Emo's for the Subhumans show. I haven't anticipated a show this much in a very very long time. Then on Wednesday the 16th, Bright Eyes are playing at Tree's. Three shows in three weeks. I haven't done that in far too long. There's also a Hagfish/Swingin' Utters show that I may wind up going to, but I'm not exactly sure when that is. I've seen them both before, so it's cool if I don't make that one.

And by the way, there may not be much in the way of bloggage on here until next Wednesday. There may be time for me to sneak something in at some point in time, but if it's silent, don't worry too much.

***Update:*** The aforementioned Hagfish/Swingin' Utters show also features the almighty Youth Brigade, so I'll definitely be going (April 18th, Gypsy Tea Room). Plus, just saw today, the Buzzcocks are playing June 1 at Trees. So there's another bonus. That sound you hear is me cooing in the heart of a city that actually attracts shows.
:: Scott [+] ::
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Why I have damaged ears (yes it's a slow day at work)

I just typed out in an Excel file every non-local band I can remember seeing (and we're talking club shows only). I rounded off at sixty (not counting doubles, triples, or quadruples) when it got too painful trying to google little things I remembered about opening bands to no avail. Add in the 30 or so local bands I've seen throughout the years, and I fully understand why I have trouble hearing people when there's a lot of background noise. Maybe someday I'll publish my list, but I know for sure that there are an awful lot of bands that I'm missing on there.

:: Scott [+] ::
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Kick-off!

Screw baseball, the MLS kicks off the 2003 season this Saturday. I've resolved to get back into the MLS this year. I watched rather closely the first four or five seasons, but that fell by the wayside while I was in college. Now that I live in a MLS city and everything, I'm actually getting pretty pumped for it. I scored some tickets to the (South Lake) Burn's home opener on April 12 against the L.A. Galaxy. Even if I have to drive an hour each way. Fortunately, many of the games are on Saturdays or Sundays, so attending is a little more feasible. Either way, Go Burn!

:: Scott [+] ::
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Sic 'em Lady Bears

In the quest for the title that people care least about in the whole March Madness spectacle, the Baylor Women's b-ball team is playing Auburn in the Women's NIT final Friday night. They even have home court advantage. Not too shabby for a re-building year after they lost two stars (that are both now in the WNBA). The game is even in Waco. In the battle for who could care less, I bet it won't even be half capacity.

:: Scott [+] ::
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