:: Archipelapogo ::

:: 30.6.04 ::

Zoinks!

The Bush Dynasty, in handy diagram format, according to American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush by Kevin Phillips.

*note to self, you've been at this for over three years, shouldn't have learned to close tags properly by now?
:: Scott [+] ::
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Breakfast of Champs

It's long been proclaimed by the Healthy People of the World that eating anything, no matter how bad for you, for breakfast is better than nothing at all. Like usual, I acknowledge the statement, file in the "probably true" part of my brain, and then promptly ignore it. This is mainly due to the fact that my mornings are spent hitting the snooze button 5-7 times, thinking "oh, shit!" and running to the shower, praying I can find a pair of matching socks, and then speeding to the train station.

I actually, somehow, managed to find time to grab a bite to eat this morning before leaving. I'm putting them to the test.

1 slice of reheated chicken, bell pepper, and tomato pizza
2 sticks of pumpkin pocky
1 glass of tapwater.

I'll either have a heart attack or the figure of Thurston Moore.
:: Scott [+] ::
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eco-links

As I was perusing the latest Sierra Club Magazine over lunch on Friday, I noticed there were quite a few cool links included as further resources. Here they are:

..::Sprawl-Busters - tips for keeping your 'hood Wally World (and others) Free::..

..::the Rainforest Action Network has been pressuring large banks to go green and succeeding::..

..::Spring into Science, run by the BA (British Association for the Advancement of Science) and the Woodland Trust, is a nationwide investigation into phenology, the study of the timing of natural seasonal events.

This year’s challenge, running from January to March 2004 is to record the first signs of spring. By recording when buds first burst, flowers bloom and when tadpoles first appear we can further our understanding of the changing seasons. The plants and animals we want you to look out for have been carefully chosen so that wherever you live you will be able to take part. Even if you just make one record. You could investigate the trees that line the road, the plants on the school field or the pond in your garden or local park::..

..::The Bluewater Network - keeping an eye on pollution caused by unregulated Cruise Ship travel::..

..::The Sierra Club guide to conscientious clothing::..

..::Republicans for Environmental Protection::..

..::Sierra club found John Muir is going to be permanently emblazoned on the California State Quarter::..
:: Scott [+] ::
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At least this time, it's not in the CrimeWatch section

My listing of newspapers to publish my name is now up to a whopping three*.

Does this mean I get groupies? I could use some groupies.

(Thanks to leia, for both tipping Aman to my story and for pointing me to the article once it ran.)

*Tulsa World (twice), some Australian paper.
:: Scott [+] ::
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ROFL! OMG!

I highly recommend that you find a friend with the Independent Film Channel and watch Slasher. If only to witness this little speech, which I'm about to ruin for you. They're talking to a guy in a car dealer parking lot in Memphis, presumably asking him about cars and whatnot, and he spouts out:

"I like to go to the drive-in with my woman, you know. Put the speaker on the window, roll it up all the way and the windows get fogged up. And then it gets dramastic!"

Not a dry eye in the living room.
:: Scott [+] ::
...

Here, Read some more

The Economist on the population of Mexico is getting fed up with kidnappings:

Until recently, kidnappers would target very wealthy victims, in military-style operations. Now they are preying on the middle classes. Having moved to a mass market, they are settling for smaller ransoms: $100,000 is now deemed to be a worthwhile haul. The government has had some success in dismantling some of the prominent kidnap gangs, but smaller, amateurish outfits have proliferated.

In addition, kidnappers have become more violent. In the past, victims were rarely molested. Now female captives are usually raped, and men are often beaten and mutilated. Ears and other body-parts are sent to the victim's families. One security consultant speculates that this is a kind of class warfare. He says that the kidnappers, usually poor slum-dwellers, “hate their victims, and so this contributes to the violence.”

Police collusion, and the consequent fear of reporting kidnaps, mean that this crime epidemic has failed to receive the kind of relentless media coverage given to drug trafficking. The protesters argue that politicians, too, have ignored kidnapping because its victims make up a relatively small middle-class constituency. But its cost to Mexico goes much wider. Who wants to invest money and effort in building a business if their reward is to risk losing their life and/or their money?

Also, this excellent speech by Bill Moyers at the Inequality Matters Forum, held earlier this month at NYU:

I don't have to tell you that a profound transformation is occurring in America: the balance between wealth and the commonwealth is being upended. By design. Deliberately. We have been subjected to what the Commonwealth Foundation calls "a fanatical drive to dismantle the political institutions, the legal and statutory canons, and the intellectual and cultural frameworks that have shaped public responsibility for social harms arising from the excesses of private power." From land, water and other natural resources, to media and the broadcast and digital spectrums, to scientific discovery and medical breakthroughs, and to politics itself, a broad range of the American commons is undergoing a powerful shift toward private and corporate control. And with little public debate. Indeed, what passes for 'political debate' in this country has become a cynical charade behind which the real business goes on -- the not-so-scrupulous business of getting and keeping power in order to divide up the spoils.

...

It's why we can't put things right. And it is the single most destructive force tearing at the soul of democracy. Hear the great justice Learned Hand on this: "If we are to keep our democracy, there must be one commandment: 'Thou shalt not ration justice.' " Learned Hand was a prophet of democracy. The rich have the right to buy more homes than anyone else. They have the right to buy more cars than anyone else, more gizmos than anyone else, more clothes and vacations than anyone else. But they do not have the right to buy more democracy than anyone else.

:: Scott [+] ::
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Anal Fristing

The United Nations' Law of the Sea treaty, which governs the world's oceans, is supported by environmentalists, the oil and mining industries, the Defense Department, the State Department, the full Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 145 countries, and Bush administration officials. However, because it involves cooperation with other countries (the horror!), it is opposed by ideologues on the far right. Guess which constituency is getting its way.

Read the article. Then, go see the best headline I've read in a while.
:: Scott [+] ::
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62% True

The phone of the gentleman behind me rings as I sit down and pull out my book.

"Hey. Yeah, I'm on the 6:04 train. Fifth car. Number 134. Okay see you in a bit."

She gets on two stops later and as he wriggles over to the seat by the window, she sits down with a sigh. Before he can ask, she begins her shush-voiced tirade:

"You know that meeting that I was supposed to have with Jim and Yvette today? Well, it got postponed again and it's setting me back on the Privada Proj..."

He tunes out her voice and looks past her face to the scrolling red adverts on the lit sign.

"Torn Earlobe? Get a free piercing with repair!"

"Current Time: 6:11"

"Need a Change of Pace?"

He feels the urge to jump out of his seat and scream an emphatic "Hell Yes!". Instead, he lets it scroll by, continuing to read the ad for the Community College.

All the sudden he hears her voice again:

"Doesn't that seem ballsy to you?"

He ponders it for a bit. Figuring she's probably being oversensitive and dramatic and is probably in the wrong, he, again, opts for the safe route, clicks his tongue, and shakes his head in disbelief.

The train enters the tunnel, exactly at 6:17. Just like the schedule on the "Love Calendar" that stupid therapist had them make.

"Shit," he thinks, "today's Wednesday isn't it?"

Another three hours wasted for what amounts to about thirty seconds of pleasure. Thirty seconds he could do better himself, alone, in the shower. At least this way he gets to have a few more glasses of wine with dinner. He's consoling himself in a bout of self-pity as she continues her hushed rant.

The train pulls to my station as I tuck my book back in my satchel and excuse myself past the leggy brunette that sat next to me after boarding the train the previous stop. I can feel the sweat balling up on my legs as I climb the stairs back to the parking lot. As I pull the keys out of my pocket, I pass a disabled veteran, smoking as he whirs past in his motorized wheelchair.

On the short drive home, I pass three hybrid billboard-hookers, each brandishing t-shirts far too small for them advertising a beer product and a taut slogan across their breasts that reads "Trust me: You want both of them."

I enter my empty apartment, peel off my sweaty clothes and exchange them for a t-shirt and shorts, sit down to the computer, sigh, and try to think of something, anything, to write about.
:: Scott [+] ::
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Oh....Oh, Yes!



Burn LA. I throroughly enjoyed watching your flaming tailspin into oblivion. This summer will show how petty and greedy all of your players are. Rot. Bitches.

Congrats, Pistons. Great to see a capital-T Team win.
:: Scott [+] ::
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A Night at the Tea Room: A Three-Act Performance

aka: Scott takes the piss out of six whiny emo-kids

Act I: Beans

The first song Beans performed was an acapella rap that sounded a bit disjointed. I was really afraid that his whole set was going to be this way. Thank god it wasn't. Acapella rap is kind of the median between slam poetry and hip-hop. While I'd never seen anyone really attempt it before (other than freestyle, which this wasn't) Beans kind of looked like a stray dog trapped in that median. Fortunately, he busted out the beats, which are probably his strong suit.

The guys got spittin' skills, don't get me wrong, but the beats were fantastic. He's got a style somewhere between Del Tha Funkee Homosapien and Charlie 2na (of Jurassic 5 fame). Humorous couplets like "Picked up two girls at the club so they could double-team me/Caught 'em trying to take off with my TeeVee" and final lines like "Let my vinyl kiss your fingers" (which for some reason I thought was bloody brilliant) kept you entertained. But then he did another acapella rap, complete with a chorus. It's got to be tough to go out and spit your shit at a bunch of wiry/doughy indie kids*, night after night, but he had full confidence. He even shared a nice little rhyming story about falling into drug addiction and emerging from the streets, fully embracing the life that is, um, drug-free.

Part II: The New Year

Warning: If you're a fan of the New Year, or in the New Year, or just don't flat out hate the New Year, you may wanna skip to Act III. Caveat Lector and all that.

Oh. Oh, Dear. Make it end.

I just don't get borecore (yeah, I know the proper term is "shoegazer" or somesuch nonsense, but let's just call a spade a spade here, allright?). Why did these guys waste 40 minutes of my life. Forty minutes that felt like two hours. Watching this band was like Eddie Izzard's description of British Cinema in Dressed to Kill. You know what I'm talking about, right?

“Oh, I’m – oh, what? Well, I, ve – oh.”

“What is it, Sebastian? I’m arranging matches.”

“Well, I - I thought you – … I’d better go.” “Yes, I think you’d better had.”

And then Eddie kind of takes a few pieces of popcorn from his bucket, begins to take them to his mouth, stops, sighs, and just puts the bucket to the side. You know that bit right? That's how these guys made me feel with my beer. Seriously.

I'm a pretty easy guy to entertain for the most part. Even if I don't like your band, I'll still applaud the effort. But the effort exerted to clap for you guys would exceed the effort the six of you collectively put forth, well, I'm sorry I just can't be arsed.

Seriously, if you look that bored on stage, doing your "passion" thing, how the hell is the audience supposed to feel?

And on those 4-5 songs, you needed that fourth (4th!) guitar like I need to jump from a plane at 11,000 feet and land 110mph taint-first on a Saguaro Cactus.

"we're like two peas in a pod, but two fingers stuck in a Chinese finger-trap". Are you kidding me?

Um, just so I'm not completely negative on these kids, they did get the opening gig for Tortoise, so that's got to say something for them. Or Tortoise. Not sure which.

Act III: Tortoise

Thankfully, Tortoise came on and played a blistering one hour and forty minute set (including two(?) encores). I've liked Tortoise's studio work to varying degrees over the past couple of years, going through phases where I can't get enough to phases where I'm just kind of impatient with it. I guess it all depends on the mood. That said, I always attributed a lot of their sound to studio goofery and a ton of editing.

Well, they just shut me the hell up. Any time you take two trap kits and stick them on the front of the stage facing each other, you know you're going to have an easy time winning me over. Add a couple of keyboards, a couple guitars, a bass or two, an electric xylophone, and another xylophony type instrument, and 5 talented guys, and you get some of the most exciting and interesting experimental music being made today.

And yes, the talent. With the exception of the shaved-head guy that played bass most of the time and a little guitar, I think the other four guys all played at least 4 instruments, significantly well, at that.

I heard tracks off of both Standards and Millions Now Living Will Never Die, plus a few tracks that I was unfamiliar with, probably off of the new album, which I've yet to purchase.

But the drums. Fuck, man. Those drums. They just beat the everliving hell out of them. The times when both sets were being played, they'd slip in-sync, then a few bars later, switch it up and compliment each other, then a few bars later, back in-sync. It was truly amazing.

Go see 'em given the chance.

*I'm sorry, but by the crowd last night, if you were in a fight, my lanky ass would be in the top 5% of people you'd want on your side, and that's just sad



:: Scott [+] ::
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I'm with the band...no, really

So I worked the Music For America booth last night, which was the final date on this year's Plea For Peace tour. I showed up at my appointed time, 6:00, thirty minutes before doors opened (it was an all ages show), and had a bit of hassle getting in the door, but it eventually worked itself out. Mike Park, a legend (and rightfully so) in some scenes, organizes and manages the Plea For Peace show each year, and he and his trusty assistant, a tiny, heavily accented guy named Hiro, were running late. About an hour late. But that's okay, it all worked out in the end.

I had a blast though, hanging out with Mike and Hiro and Jerry, who I later found out is the trombonist for MU330. They shared their beer with me and were very genuinely nice, positive people.

Planes Mistaken for Stars also played, and in spite of the fact that the three frontmen look disturbinly like a skinny version of Jonathon Davis, they put on a pretty good show.

Saul Williams performed, and by performed, I mean the man motherfuckin' testified. Slam Poetry, being like a lot of popular culture, is about 95% garbage. Saul's the real deal. I guarantee that at least a third of the registrations we got last night were within 7 minutes of the end of his set.

Cursive headlined, and pardon me for sounding old and ignorant, but when the hell did they become the band du jour for jaded high school kids? Right when the doors opened, there were tons of kids clamoring for their t-shirts and other merch. It kind of reminded me of the Holiday Season I worked at Hobby Lobby, except with Parliament smoking 16 year-olds instead of crafty grandmas.

Cursive actually put on a much better set than I'd figured they would. I've heard some of their stuff in the past and been kind of *meh*. When Mike Park and Jerry busted out their horns for a couple of Cursive songs, the kids went wild, and their cover of "the Milkshake Song"* got a fanatical response.

Anyways, I had a really pleasant time in a postive atmosphere and got to experience one of those rare nights that's like a breath of fresh air. Also, I remembered why I should feel no nostalgia for high school at all. Ever.

Oh yeah, 67 kids registered to vote, including three bouncers. Not too bad considering there were probably around 700 there.

I may wind up working the Tortoise show tonight, even though I'd already bought my ticket. They don't have anyone signed up yet, so I made an offer to people at MFA. I imagine that'll bring a bit older crowd though, so the registrations will probably be minimal.

*at least, I think it was the Milkshake song. I've never actually heard the song, just heard it alluded to. But I caught the word "milkshake" in there somewhere.
:: Scott [+] ::
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New Warnings

So I dropped by a local record store on my way home today to pick up Sonic Nurse and Louden Up Now*. It wasn't until I got home that I looked at the back of Sonic Nurse and saw an Anti-Piracy FBI warning. It reads "FBI Anti-Piracy Warning: Unauthorized copying is punishable under federal law". There's also a crazy logo**.

Weird. So I dug around and found this Press Release from February. Apparently we're going to see a lot of these in the future: That's the official FBI Anti-Piracy seal, just unveiled today... and you'll be seeing a lot of it in the days to come. Not just on the warning screens of videos and DVDs, but on the millions and millions of CDs, games, software packages, and other digital media that are produced each year.

FWIW, the !!! album, released on Touch and Go, didn't have one, so I'm guessing that it's a voluntary thing, like the Parental Advisory labels***. Be on the lookout, though.

So in the spirit of, well, something, anyone that wants a free copy of Sonic Nurse, just holler my way.

*I'm just linking to Pitchfork's reviews b/c I'm lazy
** I tried to snap a pic, but my camera wouldn't focus well enough, it's pretty small, but very noticable
*** Louden Up Now, however, does carry a PA warning, oddly enough. I figure it may be part of Touch and Go's distro deal.
:: Scott [+] ::
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Love is Leaf-like

..::Loving Day - via::..

..::But you know, 'love' can be a bit strenuous at times - A man upset that the person he brought home from a Dallas bar turned out to be a man is accused of shooting at his date early Sunday, police said Monday. His date fled an apartment but returned a few minutes later to retrieve his purse, which prompted more gunfire from the man, police said. Ah, the beauty of the H-E-B triangle. Bedford, represent. via::..

..::SCOTUSblog brings us this: A new layer of constitutional dispute within the Court emerged today in the decision seeming to allow foreign governments to be sued in American courts for stealing private assets from Holocaust victims during World War II (Republic of Austria v. Altmann). Interesting::..


..::Viagraholics Anonymous - via::..

..::Finally, my random sighting of the day: A Chevy Yukon converted into a Hearse. Even in death you can be ridiculously wasteful and polluting!::..
:: Scott [+] ::
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Linkage

..::How would you do on the U.S. CCitizenship Test? Me: Your score was 10 out of 10. Congratulations! You are qualified to be a U.S. citizen! My eighth grade Civics teacher would be so proud::..

..::The Cluster Balloon Flight Page - childhood fantasies realized::..

..::66 Unflattering Things about the Gipper, (via)::..

..::Dust on the computer in front of you right now contains toxic chemicals that can lead to long-term neurological and reproductive health problems, according to a new study. So really, you should stop reading this, back away from the keyboard, and go take a walk::..


:: Scott [+] ::
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Unclean! Unclean!

So I spent quite a number of hours this weekend shilling some magazine out at the Zoo, part of some massive corporate propaganda thing to sell cars that have Hemis. But let's face it, I've got a car payment, and for $18 an hour, I'll sell meth on an elementary school playground*.

So take the oppressive heat and humidity that comes with Dallas in June, add in little kids, and the following conversation:

me, shilling: Would you all like to color an animal today? We've got lions, tigers, and monkeys

parent, thinking they're clever: Oh, My!

some 15,000 times, and I'm surprised I'm not in the pokey this Monday morning.

It actually wasn't too bad, considering my adeptness at dealing with kids is somewhere between a starved Hyena and a rather dodgy kitten. Most of them behaved themselves and I managed to oppress my more assholey tendencies of outright mockery and ridicule. Plus, I got to point to some woman and say to a friend "Look, Zooslut!"**, which was priceless.

I also learned a thing or two:

On a Saturday, kids are likely to choose which animals to color in this order of popularity: Tiger, Monkey, Lion. On a Sunday, it's more likely to be: Lion, Monkey, Tiger. I'm sure this has something to do with Jesus, but I can't quite say what.

Kids, in all of their naivety and inexperience, still have pretty decent natural instincts, choosing to approach the pretty tall lady versus the scary, curmudgeonly, bearded misanthrope, at an approximate ratio of 14:1.

Even after four years in business school, and a summer internship at an advertising agency, hearing people use the phrase "markets" to refer to cities still gives me the fucking shivers.

That's research you can bank on, baby.

*not really. glances to side, nods quickly
**yes, I still maintain that it's all one word.
:: Scott [+] ::
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Release

After enduring night after night trapped in my apartment avoiding stormage and staving off cabin fever, I flew the coop like Jabari, and finally made my escape.

It's kind of tough to turn down the trifecta offer of cheap drinks, no cover charge, and not having to drive.

Regardless, I can rest easy with the knowledge that I've now seen a fiddle-laden version of "Where Is My Mind?", thanks to the Boys Named Sue.
:: Scott [+] ::
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Fifteen Years Later

June 3rd, 1989. I was watching The Price is Right and enjoying the beginning of Summer Break from school. I remember the station interruption and then Ted Koppel or Peter Jennings or whoever it was begging pardon. I was livid. I wanted my Barker's Beauties, dammit. Then they started describing what was happening in China and I did my best to wrap my brain around it. I couldn't completely understand the situation, but I knew for sure that it was bad.

Two months of protests and hunger striking, thousands of students, intellectuals, workers, and freedom fighters seeking a more open government, failed negotiations, a demeaning editorial, and the death of up to 2,600 people*. Fifteen years later, things aren't looking much better. T-square linkage:

..::Tiananmen Crackdown Continues

Chinese police yesterday kept known dissidents under house arrest before an overnight closure of Beijing's Tiananmen Square to prevent any public commemoration of the massacre of pro-democracy demonstrators here 15 years ago.

Several critics of the Government line on Tiananmen have disappeared in recent days and are said to be confined in hotels outside Beijing. Among them may be retired army doctor Jiang Yanyong, who rocked official circles in February with a letter that detailed the bloodshed and called for an official review.

Dr Jiang and his wife Hua Zhongwei were taken away on Tuesday morning in a car sent from the military hospital where he still works part-time, and have been out of contact with family since. "They are safe," hospital officials told relatives. "You should not go beyond the authority to which you report."::..

..::Yet, at least one man was able to stage a brief protest before quickly being taken away by police::..

..::The Economist weighs in: Where are they now? - Fifteen years after the Tiananmen massacre, organised dissent is non-existent::..

..::An Interactive Tour of Tiananmen Square::..

..::A Timeline of 20th Century China which features a focus on the events of 1989::..

..::The Time Magazine profile of the Unknown Rebel (tank guy) - Part of their 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century special feature::..

..::The demand for a retrial of one of the (now imprisoned) student leaders, Zhang Ming. Also see Amnesty International's press release on the subject::..

..::Speaking of AI, here is their fat-file on China::..

..::Newsweek: Tiananmen Now; Did the 1989 uprising matter?::..

..::Tiananmen Square 1989: The Declassified History - A National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book - cumbersome but deep::..

..::The Tiananmen Victory - an optimistic Op/Ed from the NYTimes, written by a witness (you can use username: ufezapogo password: archipelapogo if you need a login)::..

..::A new documentary defends the 1989 massacre

China has ordered officials to watch a new documentary on the Tiananmen Square demonstrations to persuade younger cadres that the 1989 army crackdown could not be avoided, government sources said on Thursday.

The four-hour documentary has been shown to people holding a rank of ministry department director or higher since March in order to convince a new generation of government officials who may disagree with the government line on the June 3-4 massacre.

``Young cadres need to watch it because many think the crackdown was unnecessary,'' said one government source who spoke on condition of anonymity.::..

..::Chinese Students Have New Priorities, 15 Years after Tiananmen Square Protests - "The government says, 'If you do any political activities that's very dangerous.' On the other hand, they encourage people to do business, make money, and forget the poor people and forget the other political issues, and especially forget the June 4 massacre,"::..

..::EU-China: How much has the relationship matured in 15 years? - Dick Oosting, Director of the EU's Amnesty Int'l office chimes in::..

..::The BBC - Dealing with Tiananmen's Legacy::..

*Most sources will cite around 2,000, with an additional 7-10,000 injured, but we'll likely never know for sure.
:: Scott [+] ::
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Vitriol

As I was making the drive up to Tulsa on Friday evening, after going literally 14.6 miles in the first hour*, I finally broke free and settled in a comfortable position and cruising speed. Somewhere in between Atoka and the Stringtown Medium Security penitentiary, I pulled up behind a truck from Big Red's trucking company, which, according to the truck, is based in Wilburton. It wasn't until I began hearing the thumping on my car that I realized that I was being attacked by Big Red himself.

It was one of those big rigs that they use to haul around construction equipment, but it was empty. Except for the roughly two tons of rocks sitting squarely on the ramp and tire areas. Well, they weren't sitting there for long. After hearing about a half dozen pellets hit my car with the force of a Randy Johnson fastball, I decided, hey, this isn't cool, I better pass this guy toot sweet. So up I go into the mid-80's hoping that if a Highway Patrol car happened to see me he'd be sympathetic. So I almost pulled even with the guy when I see a big one heading straight for me. So big it actually made me flinch something fierce. And yeah, it got me square in the windshield.

I managed to get in front of the guy and resume my normal speed while checking for cracks in the windshield amidst all of the dead bugs I'd acquired in the previous two hours. Sure enough, there was a nice little hunk taken out. For some reason, the truck got all pissy and decided to start hauling ass. As he pulled over to the left lane to pass me, I just said, fuck this, and slowed down to 60 until he was well ahead of me. I don't know if he has something against Subarus or cars with Texas plates or what.

Anyways, Fuck Big Red's Trucking Company of Wilburton, Oklahoma.

*seriously. 14.6 miles in one hour. Traffic was pretty much bumper to bumper all the way into McKinney city limits.
:: Scott [+] ::
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