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an opened lettuce to sodd runtlestuntle from dr. winston o'boogie
"John Lennon ain't no revolutionary. He's a fucking idiot, man. Shouting about revolution and acting like an ass. It just makes people feel uncomfortable."
comment posted at 8:30 AM on Apr-17-02
comment posted at 9:50 AM on Apr-17-02
comment posted at 11:01 AM on Apr-17-02
comment posted at 12:36 PM on Apr-17-02

Is it unique, or is it just water? This has caused an unseemly fuss over here.
comment posted at 10:44 AM on Apr-16-02
comment posted at 11:57 AM on Apr-16-02

Why it's a Good Thing (tm). I can't resist. I just got my copy of the new "tell-all" on Martha Stewart, and it's a great book. Being a fan of hers, I keep hearing people call her a bitch for dominating her sphere of the business world, and making what appear to be some sound business decisions, even if she makes the mistake of neglecting some of the social niceties. Is that a double standard? Probably so. I say more power to her - my MSO stock goes up, and I always enjoy reading "behind-the-scenes" business books. Anyone else reading this?
comment posted at 2:02 PM on Apr-15-02

Good Riddance to Oprah's Book Club, and Her Literary Amateurism Norah Vincent says Oprah's opinion in matters of literary taste is amateurish to say the least and she presumed where she should not have, and wouldn't want her sticker on his/hers book either.
Just for fun adds People who dislike Oprah's Book Club dislike it for the same reason that they dislike Barnes & Noble. The fact that the two do a brisk business isn't accidental, and the two represent the same pernicious homogenization of American life that makes existential despair all but unavoidable.
Pompous?
comment posted at 2:12 PM on Apr-12-02

Grouchydude to you: piss off. Grouchydude hates everything. (Lots of swears.)
comment posted at 3:00 PM on Apr-12-02

Some say the Taj Mahal pre-dates Shahjahan by several centuries and was originally built as a Hindu or Vedic temple complex. Fascinating theory or a crackpot...more inside >
comment posted at 11:18 AM on Apr-11-02

Lucas: Powerful reteller of myth - or galactic gasbag? Salon has a scathing review of Lucas' claim that the basis of the Star Wars saga is in "man's oldest stories" and that he was guided by Joseph Campbell.
"With 'Star Wars' I consciously set about to re-create myths and the classic mythological motifs," Lucas says. "I wanted to use those motifs to deal with issues that exist today."
Hogwash, says author Steven Hart. Star Wars is based not on "The Odyssey" or the "Upanishads", but on Asimov, Heinlen, Herbert and other 20th century S.F.
comment posted at 10:18 AM on Apr-10-02
comment posted at 10:24 AM on Apr-10-02
comment posted at 7:20 AM on Apr-11-02

Can't sleep at night, I can't eat a bite / When you were mine, I didn't treat you right
o< A little treat for everyone on their lunch break.
comment posted at 10:30 AM on Apr-10-02

A little bit country, a little bit rock ’n’ roll: Dolly Parton’s upcoming Halos and Horns CD features her version of “Stairway to Heaven” (and, from the other end of the rock spectrum, Bread’s wimp-rock classic “If”). Ironically, country singer Irene Kelley was kicked out of a high school Led Zeppelin cover band for suggesting they do a Dolly Parton song.
comment posted at 10:38 AM on Apr-10-02
comment posted at 11:09 AM on Apr-10-02
comment posted at 6:41 AM on Apr-11-02

A Few Words About Jack Vance. Gersen entered a hall with a floor of immaculate white glass tiles. On one hand was the display wall, characteristic of middle-class European homes; here hung a panel intricately inlaid with wood, bone and shell: Lenka workmanship from Nowhere, one of the Concourse planets; a set of perfume points from Pamfile; a rectangle of polished and perforated obsidian; and one of the so-called "supplication slabs"* from Lupus 23II.

* The nonhuman natives of Peninsula 4A, Lupus 23II, devote the greater part of their lives to the working of these slabs, which apparently have a religious significance. Twice each year, at the solstices, two hundred and twenty-four microscopically exact slabs are placed aboard a ceremonial barge, which is then allowed to drift out upon the ocean. The Lupus Salvage Company maintains a ship just over the horizon from peninsula 4A. As soon as the raft has drifted out of sight of land, it is recovered, the slabs are removed, exported and sold as objets d'art.

(Not for season ticket holders to The Short Attention Span Theater -More within)
comment posted at 10:54 AM on Apr-10-02
comment posted at 10:49 AM on Apr-11-02

Is American "Roots Music" here to stay, or will it peter out like the "folk revival" of the 1960's? The recent PBS series, as well as re-issues of classic bluegrass sets, portend well for those of us who love bluegrass. But is it just a flash-in-the-pan? What was the magic behind O Brother, Where Art Thou? Does anyone remember the old masters like Doc Watson, Merle Travis, or Vassar Clements? (Not to mention the Queen of the genre, Mother Maybelle Carter.) Or maybe you prefer the newcomers like Alison Krauss/Union Station.
comment posted at 2:13 PM on Apr-9-02

Real World Studios If you were a recording musician, how could you not want to record here at least once? A gorgeous environment that's inspiring on mulitple levels. Peter Gabriel deserves more credit than he gets. He's a forward thinking, decent guy who never stops trying. Now - release "Up" dammit.
comment posted at 6:56 AM on Apr-9-02

Mindvox: The original cooler-than-thou online community. What is it now? What was it then? Anyone else here still searching to discover the person ahead of you in the grocery store line is 3jane or Simonmoon?
comment posted at 10:09 AM on Apr-8-02

The Red Hot Jazz Archive - Louis Armstrong, Frankie "Half-Pint" Jaxon, Ma Rainey, Don Redman, Trixie Smith and all the other household names are here. Essays, biographies, discographies, filmographies and sounds--It's your one stop shopping source for the Potato Head Blues in its entirety--truly one of the high points in Western Civilization--for example, among many, many other classics. I ran this sucker through here and Google and it doesn't show up--so pardon the double-post if it is so. I mean, it ought to be. It's just one of my favorite sites. A little hard on the eyes but a delight just the same.
comment posted at 7:04 AM on Apr-8-02

Robert Jr. Lockwood is alive , well and still playing and recording. He learned guitar from Robert Johnson when the latter was hanging with Robert Jr’s mom—hence the Jr—and cut his first 78 in 1941. Yet he’s just 2nd generation. From the first, Henry Townsend is still alive and playing, but at 91, doesn't travel that much anymore. Then there is David "Honeyboy" Edwards —and he knew Robert Johnson as well--and Tommy McClennan and Robert Petway, too, which is way more impressive to me. He still plays and records, too, in very recent times in the company of Lockwood and Townsend. And in the third generation, you have Johnny Otis , still alive and kicking, complete with virtual mall. Ike Turner was Howlin’ Wolf’s A&R and piano player when the Wolf cut his first sides for Sam Phillips’ company before Sun, RPM. A helluva a piano player coughAudionotfarfromherecough—apart from the sordid details of his personal life, Ike Turner is, as the aforementioned, a giant in the history of that nearly dead style—the Blues. Alive, playing and recording. Hell, writing, autobiographies, too—Edwards and Turner, at least. (and whew, Turner’s is, well, explicit…) If this were Japan, these guys would be registered as cultural treasures. So why’s everybody wasting their money on some overproduced, overhyped mere johnnyonenote journeyman (if not hack) like R.L. Burnside? Not an obituary, by any means, but a heads up and props to the surviving masters—and you may have a chance to see the real thing someday soon. But note that, all in all, offer ends... sometime.
comment posted at 12:02 PM on Apr-5-02
comment posted at 12:34 PM on Apr-5-02
comment posted at 1:58 PM on Apr-5-02

E Street Band guitarist and erstwhile Sopranos star Little Steven is launching a syndicated radio show to be centered around garage rock of the '60's plus latter day punk as well according to this story. Steve's own site includes some great live reviews and excellent garage rock links . I, for one, am really looking forward to hearing this show. Good luck, Steve.
comment posted at 9:33 AM on Apr-4-02
comment posted at 9:51 AM on Apr-4-02
comment posted at 1:06 PM on Apr-4-02

Literary lynching, the practice of attacking authors who make statements against the U.S. government or engage in dissent, gets a comprehensive overview with a book in progress. As 72 year old author Dorothy Bryant puts it, "More than ever, we need free exchange of facts and opinions. I hope that looking back on a few cases that have had time to cool off will help us to understand the psychology of literary lynching, and to resist it — not only in others but in ourselves." But in today's world, is there any distinction between a thoughtful response and a downright ugly rejoinder anymore? (via Moby Lives)
comment posted at 1:59 PM on Apr-2-02

Looks like Cobb County, Georgia, wants to raise a whole generation of idiots. (By way of The National Center for Science Education) I'm distressed and amazed that this kind of thing still goes on in the most technologically-advanced nation in the world. Can a sane and undeluded adult still think that evolution is a securlar humanist lie? Given the comprehensive and unambiguous evidence that has established evolution as a cast-iron fact, why do school boards and other government entities still lend an ear to this kind of right-wing extremist crap?
comment posted at 7:29 AM on Apr-2-02
comment posted at 8:57 AM on Apr-2-02

AOL Time Warner Was A Mistake. The stock price is in the toilet (relatively speaking), and analysts are proclaiming the Biggest Merger Ever to be a thundering dud. Are huge mergers like this unsustainable?
comment posted at 2:05 PM on Apr-2-02

Trolling is a lot like flirting. It can be very hard to identify, and when the beloved perpetrator is confronted, he or she may become a little mushmouthed or downright rude. Nevertheless, many still adore these people and their craft, even if we are a bit afraid of them. And for those lucky, wonderful few, it's all just a game....*sigh*...
comment posted at 7:16 AM on Apr-2-02

According to this editorial, April Fools hoaxes violate a fundamental trust between readers and the media and undermine the mission they're supposed to serve. Though opinion polls have never put "The Media" high on anyone's list of favorite organizations, I probably have to disagree in that April Fools hoaxes actually do more to help the media by revealing their sense of humor and giving them a touch of the everyman.
comment posted at 9:37 AM on Apr-1-02

Immortal classics I remember as if it were today when I first listened to Marvin Gaye's "Whats Going On" when it first came out. This album has never tired. "What's Going On was the first album out of Motown to include the printed lyrics of the songs in the album liner. Marvin Gaye had something to say and he wanted to make sure people got the message. Thirty-one years later, we're still getting it." Always bewildering why an album becomes immortal.
comment posted at 11:35 AM on Mar-29-02
comment posted at 3:26 PM on Mar-30-02

About Sydney Poitier Something one of my professor's brought up. He said, "I'm tired of everyone being politically correct in Hollywood. They say African-American because they are afraid to say Black." His point being that Mr. Poitier is from the Bahamas and not Africa. What do you think?
comment posted at 10:11 AM on Mar-29-02

Offended academic smashes German doctor's "Plastination" exhibit in London "I decided I would walk into the exhibition with a hammer and smash up the most expensive exhibit to make the point that you cannot turn bodies into commercial exhibits." This exhibit was discussed on March 21.
comment posted at 8:10 AM on Mar-29-02

Our future lies . . . with eugenics??? "The useful and intelligent classes should be allowed, indeed encouraged, to breed, and the murderous morons, who are never going to contribute anything except misery to themselves and others should be discouraged. No one need be killed." If this wasn't published in the London Telegraph, I'd think it was from the lunatic fringe. Is A. N. Wilson attempting satire or auditioning for the lead in Springtime for Hitler?
comment posted at 7:16 AM on Mar-28-02

Sleep. "With pop culture so willingly providing countless numbers of prepackaged lifestyles, people no longer feel a need to truly think for themselves and do not bother to take the time to question the true origin of their own ideals and desires. Nothing can be taken for face value. Everything that portrays itself as one thing, turns out to be something else. Enter Slumber Inc."

An Atlanta-based culture-meme, more akin to Obey than Toynbee. But really, aside from drawing the occasional amused or confused glance from passersby, can pasting a poster actually accomplish anything revolutionary?
comment posted at 11:18 AM on Mar-27-02

The Onion's lead story this week is about as succinct an indictment of the drug war as you can get. "If you are paying taxes and keeping your yard tidy, we're not going to hassle you if you come home from a hard day of work and want to enjoy a little pot or blow. But if, on the other hand, you're one of these lazy, shiftless types hanging out on the street all day looking for your next high, we're coming after you."
comment posted at 11:25 AM on Mar-27-02

Clean air? We don't need no stink'n clean air. "The White House firmly defended Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham on Tuesday as newly released documents showed he held at least eight private meetings with industry leaders -- but none with environmentalists -- while the administration crafted its energy plan." Is this really a surprise?
comment posted at 12:23 PM on Mar-26-02
comment posted at 12:56 PM on Mar-26-02
comment posted at 2:01 PM on Mar-26-02

50 foot long single spar crystals found in a Mexican cave 1,000 feet below the surface! Smithsonian has links to other related sites. This one has pictues. More pictures can be found in the April 2002 print issue of Smithsonian.
comment posted at 10:19 AM on Mar-26-02

okay, stop, now you're just talking out of your... ahem... well, i guess it is a logical next step for a company that promoted hiphuggers with singing navels, at least for their european consumers.
comment posted at 10:36 AM on Mar-26-02

Mathematical beauty in science (NYTimes) Though I can't say I've seen a moment of God's glory in finding a balanced checkbook (on the first go), I have been in academia in physics and math enough to know the almost mystical pleasure its practitioners get from the "unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics", and the simplicity and elegance of the equations at its core. I was wondering -- are there other fields where this occurs, where people get the feeling they've tapped into some bare beauty of nature? Philosophy? Art? Architecture?
comment posted at 8:18 AM on Mar-26-02
comment posted at 10:25 AM on Mar-26-02

Space, Here We Come! The Chinese make significant progress in their quest for the stars. A good bit of background from Wired explains that they're leveraging off of Russian tech but China still considered the program their #1 sci-tech advance last year. As an aside, some nice spy pictures are available of the Jiuquan Space Facility although I imagine it's been a developed a bit since then.

So, will getting a man into space signficantly change the world's opinion of China as it slowly evolves in a major world player? For Americans, will it be 1957 all over again except the little beep beep is replaced by a Chinese man waving back at them?
comment posted at 8:25 AM on Mar-26-02