finslippy: More about what pisses me off.

Ahhh. I like angry people (who can write):

finslippy: More about what pisses me off. :

"1. Drivers who reluctantly slow down at stop signs and give the pedestrian a testy little wave, as if to say, %u201CI am doing you an enormous favor. Now scurry along before I change my mind and mow you down.%u201D There needs to be a new obscene hand gesture that indicates, %u201CHey, jackass, guess what? I don%u2019t need your permission. Stop signs aren%u2019t optional so don%u2019t act like you%u2019re so very generous and I should be grateful. And you%u2019re a jackass. Jackass.%u201D I must begin work on this gesture immediately. To the laboratory!"

stephenson on star wars

Turn On, Tune In, Veg Out - New York Times: "If you have watched these cartoons - or if you've enjoyed some of the half-dozen 'Clone Wars' novels, flipped through the graphic novels, read the short stories or played the video game - you will know that the battle cruiser in question is owned by the New Droid Army of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, which is backed by the Trade Federation, a commercial guild that is peeved about taxation of trade routes. And that is not the only aspect of 'Episode III' that you will see in a different light. If you watch the movie without doing the prep work, General Grievous - who is supposed to be one of the most formidable bad guys in the entire 'Star Wars' cycle - will seem like something that just fell out of a Happy Meal."

david byrne is a genius.

Man, I wish I had this kind of shit running around my brain, rather than the mundane stuff I do have in there. Like making pizza for lunch. :)

David's Journal: March – May 2005:

David Says,
"I was reminded of a discovery that Jane Jacobs made about urban parks and the quality of urban life. She determined that the size of parks was not so important a factor in how successful they are. Sheer amount of greenery, she claims, is irrelevant, which seems at first glance counter intuitive — don’t we all think that more parks and bigger ones will make for a more habitable and pleasant urban life? What was more important, she discovered, was only partly a result of the quality of the park itself. In a way what is more important to the success of a park is what surrounds it. What is outside the boundaries of the park does more than what is inside to determine what it is and what if can become.

It is more important, for example, that the surrounding community have mixtures of residential, business and leisure activities. And that these activities take turns using the park. That secretaries and assistants take their lunches there in the middle of the day, that moms take kids there in the mornings and that couples and the elderly might stroll there in the evenings. Then the park isn’t ever empty at certain hours of the day, a condition that often leads to its eventual decay. She also states that the multiple uses and activities in the surrounding communities must lead people to walk through the park in order to get to work, to school, home, or to a movie or restaurant that lies on the other side. The park has to be something you need to pass through, not go to, and definitely not go around. If it is placed on the side or edge of a community, for example, it runs the risk of becoming a scary unused place. It needs to be more than someplace to make special trip to. (Except if there is a destination on the far side like a lakefront or riverside to draw people into and through the park.)"

can ya dig it?

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FlickrBlog

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David's Journal: Current

David's Journal: Current:

"Read an article in The New Yorker about how recording has transformed music over the last 100 years. It’s written by a classical music guy (Alex Ross) so it comes from that POV, but he does widen his discussion to include John Cage and Chuck D.

The writer says John Phillip Sousa thought that recording would be the death of music. Well, of live performance was what Sousa meant. To some extent I think he was right, but not entirely. He was right in that people now often think of music as something you buy, that you possess and consume — rather than something you experience and possibly even make yourself. Even live shows are sometimes thought of as something you consume — certainly they are something done by professionals. To a large extent what is desired in a live shows is weighed against recordings, not just the recordings of that material, but recordings in general. Audiences have come to expect that a live performance will be a reproduction of a recording they are familiar with, but with a kind of visual enhancement. And a bit louder that your home stereo, too."

Later, in this journal entry, Mr. Byrne says this, which is EXACLTY how I feel sometimes:

"I find this overwhelming. Probably as a musician I find music either one or the other — completely invisible, inaudible — even sometimes when it’s playing loud — or completely intrusive — impossible to ignore. As a musician there are times when even quiet background music in a bar or restaurant is completely distracting and impossible to ignore. It’s like the effect of having a TV on in room is for most people — it tends to demand attention. All conversation either stops or has to deal with the TV program. Music is like that for musicians."

MyIrony.net � Illiberal wisdom for liberals

MyIrony.net � Illiberal wisdom for liberals:

"1) Hate is a choice. Education does nothing to help adults who choose to hate.

2) Every liberal should know how to raise hell at city hall. Look where it got the Religious Right.

3) Unless you’re a pacifist, you need to know what you’re willing to fight and die for.

4) If you are a pacifist, you should be able to explain to your loved ones why you wouldn’t have fought for the Allies in WWII, knowing what was at stake."

Coffee Hour

Coffee Hour: "Boy in the Bands is making a SimChurch to test some software. So please, go over there and invent some UU church members. Don't forget the little old lady who runs the social action committee, the Republican old guy who dominates the humanism discussion group, the recently divorced guy using the church for a dating pool and the Pagan single mother with seven children who complains about the President at every joys and concerns."