MetaFilter posts by y2karl.
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There's Something About Mary. Miracles fascinate me, especially stories of apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Fatima, Lourdes, Our Lady of Guadalupe and Medjugorje--the list is extensive and ever-growing. Skeptics scoff, agnostics ponder and various scientific theories are propounded.
posted on Sep-4-02 at 7:53 AM
Demythologizing The Blues. Blues reseacher and scholar David Evans breaks it down. Country blues as a living tradition tied to a rural black culture - there is something of that culture left - I think it's essentially over.--that's from this interview with David Evans--scroll past the autobiographical details for the meat and potatos. Paul Garon, of Race Traitor and Living Blues, has strong feelings about White Blues. Similarly, black writer Jesse Douglas Allen-Taylor feels a chill amidst a white blues audience and asks Whose Blues Are They? Also, n a related and timely topic, here's Elvis Presley and the Impulse Towards Transculturation. (Hint: Elvis didn't sound black. Well, duh...) Originally in the NYT--no password needed now!--The Blues Dying In The Land Where It Was Born, and as a bonus, the New Yorker profile on an outfit I love to loathe, Fat Possum. Is is this guy's fault? And if you want to make the pilgrimage, let Junior's Juke Joint be your guide! (don't forget to make that unannounced drop in on raysmj!) Added bonus: R. Crumb's Charley Patton.
posted on Aug-22-02 at 10:01 AM
The Bureau Of Public Secrets , Kenneth Rexroth and Sappho. It was while looking for this fragment of hers, translated by him--(Details within)
posted on Aug-20-02 at 11:44 PM
George Ivanovich Gurdjieff. Charismatic and controversial, infamous for introducing the enneagram, claimed by the Sufis, linked to the little known Yezidis, (More here), Gurdjieff--and his school--have their detractors, whether religious or skeptic. His ideas can be difficult , abstruse and are ultimately beside the point. His thesis can be reduced to this: We are asleep, mere machines, acting from habit rather than volition. The goal then is to wake up and stay awake. And that is where the Work comes in. ( A bit more within)
posted on Aug-6-02 at 4:49 AM
Bob Dylan Live at Newport, 1965: Maggie’s Farm. 10 MB Quicktime mp3 A notorious and historic moment, that began a legendary year of touring , stolen moments of which are available in several sometimes bootlegged formats .Sometimes, perhaps revised , stories differ at what happened, and, now, post-ironically enough, He appears at Newport again this Saturday.
posted on Aug-2-02 at 7:54 AM
Race/Music: Corrine Corrina, Bo Chatmon, and the Excluded Middle. Bo Carter is not the household name that, say, Robert Johnson is but he first recorded and most likely wrote one of the standards of the 20th Century. The essay linked deals with him, his song and the push me-pull you of race and culture in America. It's a post graduate thesis rife with postmodernist terminology--yet full of ideas and insights, not all of which I necessarily endorse or agree with--but which I've found thought provoking. (Details Within)
posted on Aug-1-02 at 6:39 AM
A ray of hope: Internet Radio Fairness Act . Disappointed in the Librarian of Congress' recent imposition of high fees on web radio broadcasters and the resultant shutdown of many web radio broadcasts (including KIRO and KMTT in Seattle), U.S. Reps. Jay Inslee [right] (D-WA), George Nethercutt [below] (R-WA), and Rick Boucher (D-VA) introduced new legislation to change existing web radio laws.
posted on Jul-26-02 at 12:54 PM
From NPR (The MetaFilter giveth, the MetaFilter taketh away...) Remembering Tuskegee
600 low-income African-American males, 400 infected with syphilis are monitored for 40 years. Even though a proven cure (penicillin) became available in the 1950s, the study continues until 1972 with participants denied treatment. Perhaps as many as 100 died of syphilis during the study (Allen, 1978). Additional resources.
Thirty years ago is not that long a time.
posted on Jul-25-02 at 8:35 AM
Alan Lomax , the legendary collector of folk music who was the first to record towering figures like Leadbelly, Muddy Waters and Woody Guthrie, died yesterday at a nursing home in Sarasota, Fla. He was 87. Mr. Lomax was a musicologist, author, disc jockey, singer, photographer, talent scout, filmmaker, concert and recording producer and television host. He did whatever was necessary to preserve traditional music and take it to a wider audience. (NY Times- Registraion Required) And... Additionally... And this. Also...
posted on Jul-20-02 at 11:48 AM
American Magus
posted on Jul-10-02 at 11:54 PM
Bang! The 4th of July means fireworks and here in Seattle we are blessed with two shows. I'll be on a houseboat on Lake Union watching the one with the truly awesome Japanese fireworks. Japanese hanabi shells are spheres rather than the cylinders of American manufacture. For more fireworks linkage--and there is an incredible amount of it on the web--try Terry Dimock's Pyro Page--it's so incredibly comprehensive that, apart from American Fireworks News, The Physics of Coloured Fireworks and and Thinkquest's Fireworks, I won't bore you with any more here. But do remember this--fireworks and pets do not mix.
posted on Jun-28-02 at 3:32 AM
Plutocracy and Politics. Paul Krugman's musings upon reading Kevin Phillip's Wealth and Democracy: How Great Fortunes and Government Created America's Aristocracy, reviewed here by Bruce Reed of the Washington Monthly. Also, Three Questions For Kevin Phillips.
posted on Jun-14-02 at 1:46 AM
Study Shows Building Prisons Did Not Prevent Repeat Crimes
(New York Times link--you know the drill)
The rate at which inmates released from state prisons commit new crimes rose from 1983 to 1994, a time when the number of people behind bars doubled, according to a Justice Department study released yesterday.
The report found that 67 percent of inmates released from state prisons in 1994 committed at least one serious new crime within three years. That is 5 percent higher than among inmates released in 1983.
Criminologists generally agree that the prison-building binge of the last 25 years, in which the number of Americans incarcerated quadrupled to almost two million, has helped reduce the crime rate simply by keeping criminals off the streets. There has been more debate about whether longer sentences and the increase in the number of prisoners have also helped to deter people from committing crimes. The new report, some crime experts say, suggests that the answer is no. (More inside)
posted on Jun-2-02 at 10:28 PM
On Soul, Character and Calling: An Interview with James Hillman Therapy, or analysis, is not only something that analysts do to patients; it is a process that goes on intermittently in our individual soul-searching, our attempts at understanding our complexities, the critical attacks, prescriptions, and encouragements we give ourselves. We are all in therapy all the time insofar as we are involved in soul-making.
And here is a link to all things James Hillman. Having just picked up a copy of The Soul's Code, I thought I'd post something about Hillman here. Here's yet another interview. See what you think.
posted on May-17-02 at 3:03 AM
Cyril Connolly , who once quipped, with himself in mind, Whom the gods wish to destroy they first call promising, wrote The Unquiet Grave, of which Ernest Hemingway wrote, A book which, no matter how many readers it will ever have, will never have enough. For one, I am curious what smilar books you would add to Hemingway’s nascent list, and for another, what you may have regarding Connolly. (More within)
posted on May-10-02 at 4:51 AM
May 1st Day of Silence Hundreds of Internet radio stations and channels across America are shutting off their music streams on Wednesday, May 1st, in a "Day of Silence" to highlight their concern over the upcoming U.S. Copyright Office ruling on royalty rates that may shut down or bankrupt the vast majority of the nascent Internet radio industry. Write your senators and congressmen and women--Here's how--the Copyright office (info here) and the press. Please note: Letters to the editor (which must be entirely original and not contain any pasted material) can also be sent to your local daily & weekly papers. In both cases we recommend that you send a copy of your message to all of your congressional representatives. See congress.org for email addresses. A copy via fax is also recommended, since faxes often carry more weight than email. Snail mail to Congress these days is very slow, due to the anthrax screening. Please write, this is important. And thank you, Su, for reminding me.
posted on Apr-29-02 at 2:31 AM
Obligatory FadeToBlack Unintentionally Funny Site Post #3 Collect them all while there's still flesh on the bones of this decomposing Equine! Really though, Amazon can be so precious--check out the customer reviews: One day it just happened... I realized I was at a dead end. My job, my finances, my relationships - DEAD END. Surfing the net one evening, I was strangely drawn to this book on Amazon's site. Though the anal constriction theme was a bit odd, I thought, "Hey that goodbye depression thing is for me!" It suddenly came to me - what better way to pull myself out of a "dead end" than to liven my "end" up through this boot camp for the bootie? Whew! Almost as good as the ones for The Ultimate Guide To Anal Sex For Women, for example. No, I'm not linking that one!
posted on Apr-23-02 at 10:10 PM
Soulwalking , John Ponomarenko's Soul Review--two sites with some serious design issues on the topic of Soul music. As to the who, what. when and where of Soul Music, I direct you to Peter Guralnick's simply wonderful Sweet Soul Music. It's still in print and should be at your library or a better used bookstore, if you are near a larger urban center. (more inside)
posted on Apr-18-02 at 6:10 AM
Quark Star Observations of two stars, one unusually small and the other unusually cold, have led astronomers to think they are seeing evidence of a new form of matter and a new kind of star, one possibly made of elementary particles known as quarks and denser than any cosmic object other than a black hole. (NYT link: yada yada) Here's a related link on neutron stars and quark matter. I rather like the phrase strange quark matter... Anybody else hear about this?
posted on Apr-11-02 at 9:03 AM
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.
posted on Apr-10-02 at 1:42 AM
Margaret Wise Brown. Margaret Wise Brown, the author of Goodnight Moon and dozens of other children's classics, all but invented the picture book as we know it today. Combining poetic instinct with a profound empathy for small children, she knew of a child's need for security, love, and a sense of being at home in the world—and she brought that unique tenderness to the page. Yet these were comforts that eluded her. Brown's youthful presence and professional success—as an editor, best-selling author, and self-styled impresario—masked an insecurity that left her restless and vulnerable. My favorite children's book author. The Runaway Bunny is my favorite title of hers that I've read--I've run her name in Search before but never saw this site before:I had no idea she'd written so many titles. Nor how important she was to the genre. A biography. An autobiographical essay. Margaret Wise Brown: Awakened by the Moon by Leonard S. Marcus looks interesting, too. And here's a fan page. And, just for the heck of it--a 1957 Little Golden Books display.
posted on Apr-8-02 at 10:15 PM
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.
posted on Apr-7-02 at 3:18 PM
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.
posted on Apr-5-02 at 11:10 AM
Holi . Now Ruz. The Hindu Festival of Colors. The Persian New Year. Easter and Passover are not the only religious holidays associated with the first full moon of spring. Both appeal to me—in Holi people go about splashing each other with colors, powder and paint, and in Now Ruz I see Halloween--Last Tuesday night in March before Ruz is Chahar-Shanbe-Soorey in Iran... Children wear masks, and go door to door to get candy. People jump over bon fires while wishing for good health--surely the greatest religious festival we celebrate. And, ancillary topic, polytheism fascinates me: so, let me get way way pre-medieval on your collective ass and drop some James Hillman on you via Marc Fonda (you may have to scroll down to III. Polytheism as an Alternate Paradigm for Psychology). Hillman, author of Dream And The Underworld and co-author of We've Had a Hundred Years of Psychotherapy And the World's Getting Worse, among others, is, of course, a name no stranger to these pages. Both Holi and Now Ruz seem to celebrate a victory of by a legendary king over demon sources, and both celebrate Spring. Both I know little about—so enlighten me, please. A belated happy Holi to all you real brahmins, Boston or otherwise, and a belatedly same happy Now Roz to all you Teherangelenos here on MetafFilter. And do play Virtual Holi.
posted on Mar-31-02 at 5:16 PM
Welcome to Planet Dobro! – The origins of bottleneck blues, bluegrass dobro and the pedal steel guitar all begin in Hawaiian steel guitar, popularized by the Panama-Pacific Exposition of 1915, the 78 rpm record and the introduction of the National, and later Dobro guitars, invented by two wild and crazy Czechoslovakian brothers. But wait—the mystery deepens! Is there a Hindustani connection involving a Portuguese-Indian sailor? The arcane story of the first World music and how it changed American vernacular musics. Details within, along with tunings, tabs and the universe of resophonic, lap and pedal steel guitars…
posted on Mar-26-02 at 10:59 PM
Mel Lyman 1938-1978. Mel Lyman was controversial. He was the brilliant folk musician who soothed the Dylan-ruffled crowd at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, the Fort Hill guru whose prose in the undergound newspaper Avatar shocked conservative Bostonians of the late 60s... Many years of collecting, and help from numerous people has resulted in the large collection of articles reproduced here.Some say Lyman was God... others that he was a devil... but most of these articles show him as a charismatic individual somewhere between those two extremes.
An exhaustively authoritative page about a very interesting harmonica player who became God. And, man, does this bring back the 60s...(Details within)
posted on Mar-24-02 at 11:28 PM
John Fahey - American Primitive Guitar. I got an e-mail from a listener about a John Fahey song I played on my show today and it prompted me to revisit his website. I've been listening to him ever since '67 or so. He died last year due to complications during a coronary bypass operation--I realized again today how I miss him. (more inside)
posted on Mar-22-02 at 11:44 PM
The Sybli's raving mouth, according to Heraclitus, speaks without mirth or adornment or perfume: with the help of the god her voice continues for a thousand years: Plutarch - Why The Pythia No Longer Prophesies In Verse... So, what kinda gas was she huffin'? The Sybil on solvents--an archeological update on the Oracle of Delphi (NYT: you know the drill...)
posted on Mar-19-02 at 7:07 AM
The Minstrel Show The Minstrel Show presents us with a strange, fascinating and awful phenomenon. Minstrel shows emerged from preindustrial European traditions of masking and carnival. But in the US they began in the 1830s, with working class white men dressing up as plantation slaves. These men imitated black musical and dance forms, combining savage parody of black Americans with genuine fondness for African American cultural forms. By the Civil War the minstrel show had become world famous and respectable. Late in his life Mark Twain fondly remembered the "old time nigger show" with its colorful comic darkies and its rousing songs and dances. By the 1840s, the minstrel show had become one of the central events in the culture of the Democratic party.. The image of white men in blackface, miming black song, dance and speech is considered the last word in racist bigotry for some. And yet, standing at the crossroads of race, class and high and low culture, blackface minstrelsy is one fascinating topic in academic circles. It’s history is intertwined with the rise of abolitionism, the works of Mark Twain and the histories of vaudeville, American vernacular music, radio, television, movies, in fact all of what is called popular culture. Details within.
posted on Mar-13-02 at 1:57 PM
I've been accused in the past of only posting clever and astonishingly cynical quips - so just to prove that I'm no fly-by-night-non-serious-funster here is an informative link. It requires no flash plugins of any sort..... ladies and gentlemen I give you.... What Is Cynicism? thank you.. As usual, details within.
posted on Feb-3-02 at 2:33 AM
The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, as caused by the Child Slave Rebellion.
posted on Jan-25-02 at 6:03 PM
!Surréalisme! Home of, among many wonders, The Surrealist Compliment Generator--May clinging breasts always come to your aid in the kitchen, was mine--and you can talk to ESMÉ, Cadaveric Enigma Engine Generator*, visit The Department of Objects and Delusions or the cool links page.--and I quote: USENET: For those willing to brave the endless morass of asses, alt.surrealism... Now there's a tagline for here embedded in that there sentence!
posted on Jan-20-02 at 9:07 PM
O: What sounds like a minature smoke alarm with a dying battery and has a tongue half as long as itself?
posted on Jan-13-02 at 5:44 PM
Alt.Xmas.Music.Lyrics. I've never been accused in the past of only posting serious news item type links - so just to prove that i'm no stick-in-the-mud here is a fun link. It apparently requires no shockwave plugins..... ladies and gentlemen--and especially you cosmopolite European members--I give you, after a wee scroll down and download.... Walking Round In Women's Underwear!! please enjoy this during work hours.
posted on Dec-19-01 at 6:29 PM
Rufus Thomas 1917-2001 Since the 11th of September, I've left the radio off a great deal of the time, so it was only today, while listening to Terry Gross's Fresh Air, that I heard Rufus Thomas had died. A performer since he was child comedian and tap dancer with the Rabbit's Foot Minstrels, he also was a famous dj on WDIA in Memphis, the first all-black radio station format in the country, recorded Bear Cat, an answer song to Big Mama Thornton's Hound Dog that was an early hit for Sam Phillips' Sun Records and enjoyed a brief second career as the World's Oldest Teenager--singing Walkin' The Dog and Funky Chicken and many duets with daughter Carla--for Stax Records. From minstrel show to medicine show to dj to elder statesman of Memphis soul, his life and career spanned history. I, for one, will miss him.
posted on Dec-17-01 at 8:40 PM
Athena Parthenos, the cult statue made by Phidias, once in the Parthenon: here rendered by the Franch Beaux Arts architect Benoit Loviot. Slow but worth the wait, with more inside.
posted on Nov-30-01 at 5:56 AM
On Nov. 18, 2001, sky watchers somewhere will see a dazzling storm of Leonid meteors. And Leonid Observing Tips. It's the rainy season where I live so I'm pessimistic about my chances but maybe some of you have a shot at seeing them. Posted here as a PSA.
posted on Nov-13-01 at 7:24 PM
Laws of Form In 1969, George Spencer-Brown published a mathematical book called Laws of Form, which has inspired explorations in philosophy, cybernetics, art, spirituality, and computation. The work is powerful and has established a passionate following as well as harsh critics. This web site explores these people, their ideas and history, and provides references for further exploration. I read this then, didn't understand much of the math due to my innumeracy, but was struck by a passage in passing... I especially am curious to see what the numerate in MetaFilter have to say.
posted on Nov-11-01 at 1:50 PM
Terrorism…American Style. Once some of us Americans thought such barbaric acts of human sacrifice were the perfect place to take the kids, wear our Sunday best. For all the talk of a ‘color blind’ society by anti-affirmative action proponents and all the whines those who decry the tyranny of political correctness, there remains this fact: a lot of us not so long ago practiced political terrorism on our fellow citizens. I don’t think the moral high ground we claim is that moral or that high and nor do I think we have repaid the debts we owe to our fellow citizens. These pictures alone are an argument for reparations to my mind--and something we must never forget are part of our history. Which is why my skin crawls when I see epithets like ‘towelheads’ or ‘ragheads’ bandied about these threads…
posted on Nov-8-01 at 9:28 PM
The Iranian Secular Opposition Movement. I came upon this via another item I found on Plastic.com. (Where, BTW, one of the more cogent comments in the related thread was by one MayorBob) So, I'm wondering where does this lead to? The first line of that wretched 60s hit Eve Of Destruction does come to mind... Has anyone else heard anything about this?
posted on Oct-25-01 at 8:12 PM
Look to the skies, kids - Geomagnetic Activity Alert. Auroras anyone?
posted on Oct-21-01 at 1:18 PM
Osama Bart Laden This is from the Simpsons Folder, simply the best of its kind, in my opinion, and home of my favorite wallpaper. The Bert Is Evil post has inspired me: What I'd like to see are your links to any and all the other post 9/11 cartoons, jpegs, gifs and so forth.
posted on Oct-9-01 at 8:42 PM
MetaFilter in six lines. In order to know things well, we must know them in detail, and detail, being infinite, makes all our knowledge superficial and incomplete. François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld
posted on Oct-9-01 at 9:17 AM
Now Winter Nights Enlarge Thomas Campion Rocks! ( In the 17th Century spellcheck, even) ..& Luminarium Rules!
posted on Oct-8-01 at 11:59 PM
The Player Piano Randall Jarrell's last poem, perhaps...The pancakes made me think of famous MeFi android Buster Friendly--er, Miguel Cardoso. From The Wandering Minstrels, a poetry log, a plog, I guess...The Death Of The Ball Turret Gunner has a certain timely resonance.
posted on Oct-4-01 at 10:54 PM
A veritable potpourri of je ne sais quoi : so, I'm just dinkin' around, looking things up from my wish list, compiled before I got online at home, tonight's quest was 'Virgil Finlay,' and I back into this incredible virtual theme park devoted to the greatest living American science fiction author (that lifted straight from my show's, ahem, links page, that), imo--no humble here and now--and it's got starcharts of the Oikumene and maps and meals...gee, did I say it was a French site? And Rpgs and on and on and on...You 'could her nipples be any harder?' Klingon forehead hair splitting color TV babies have no idea: the technology does not exist to take his work to screen. The man is the premiere prose stylist of the genre and this concept has merit, I tells ya...
posted on Oct-2-01 at 11:19 PM
Susan Sontag's getting bashed royale--ala Bill Maher--in the New Yorker forum (oh, you'll have to register to read them) and various over-the-top op-ed pages for the piece she was asked to write for Talk of The Town right after the attack. I don't know, she didn't say anything about the hijackers that Dinesh D'Souza didn't say on Politically Incorrect the same night Maher got himself in trouble. And as for me, "Let's by all means grieve together. But let's not be stupid together. A few shreds of historical awareness might help us understand what has just happened, and what may continue to happen," is not the most inflammatory thing I ever read. Especially, the 'let's not be stupid together' part.
posted on Oct-1-01 at 8:53 PM
Track Records Don't Count in a Town that Likes Pretty Faces --Comment #: 427 In a thread from Defense In The National Interest’s Fourth Generation Warfare page Also interesting is the Federation of American Scientists ' Intelligence Resource Program , where there's a long list of Para-State Entities
posted on Sep-30-01 at 11:00 AM
From the essay by Ziauddin Sardar: Scroll 2/3 of the way down--it's from I.S.I.S. The Institute For Islamic Secularization A Call for Caution and Prudence * We need free inquiry of the religious premises of the growing conflagration. * We need rational debate of the questionable premises of a "holy war" or jihad. * We need a rational debate of the biblical call for retribution. * We call upon the United States not to act unilaterally and to petition the United Nations to establish a peace-keeping force. * All terrorists when apprehended should be brought to the World Court at the Hague and put on trial. * The basic constitutional civil liberties of America should not be abrogated. --Perhaps we're all best off with the godless making the rules?
posted on Sep-30-01 at 12:03 AM
21st Century Warfare I've been waiting for the new issue of G2mil The Magazine of Future Warfare to be posted to get Carlton Meyers' line on all things post September 11th and it's an all-you-can-eat buffet chock full o'links from a former Marine Corps officer--an anti-imperialist, anti-military/industrialist contrarian extraordinaire. Check out the special war supplement and assess the military options in Afghanistan before you launch into a by jingo paean to what he refers to as Tom Clancy fantasies about the Rangers. Do some extensive research in the magazine's back issues to read articles like Demobilize The US Army, 21st Century Battleships - the U.S. Navy's greatest need, why China can't invade Taiwan--not to mention the $$$ saving concepts like the B-747 bomber...& his line on National Missile Defense? The irony is that, if a workable NMD system is ever fielded, it only guarantees that a better method of delivery would be used, like a civilian airplane, ship, or truck. Tons of drugs are smuggled into the USA each year, can NMD stop that dangerous cargo? Almost two million people illegally cross America's borders each year with un-inspected luggage, can NMD stop them? Why spend billions of dollars each year on NMD while ignoring the real dangers? That was from July...
posted on Sep-29-01 at 12:41 AM
posted on Sep-4-02 at 7:53 AM
Demythologizing The Blues. Blues reseacher and scholar David Evans breaks it down. Country blues as a living tradition tied to a rural black culture - there is something of that culture left - I think it's essentially over.--that's from this interview with David Evans--scroll past the autobiographical details for the meat and potatos. Paul Garon, of Race Traitor and Living Blues, has strong feelings about White Blues. Similarly, black writer Jesse Douglas Allen-Taylor feels a chill amidst a white blues audience and asks Whose Blues Are They? Also, n a related and timely topic, here's Elvis Presley and the Impulse Towards Transculturation. (Hint: Elvis didn't sound black. Well, duh...) Originally in the NYT--no password needed now!--The Blues Dying In The Land Where It Was Born, and as a bonus, the New Yorker profile on an outfit I love to loathe, Fat Possum. Is is this guy's fault? And if you want to make the pilgrimage, let Junior's Juke Joint be your guide! (don't forget to make that unannounced drop in on raysmj!) Added bonus: R. Crumb's Charley Patton.
posted on Aug-22-02 at 10:01 AM
The Bureau Of Public Secrets , Kenneth Rexroth and Sappho. It was while looking for this fragment of hers, translated by him--(Details within)
posted on Aug-20-02 at 11:44 PM
George Ivanovich Gurdjieff. Charismatic and controversial, infamous for introducing the enneagram, claimed by the Sufis, linked to the little known Yezidis, (More here), Gurdjieff--and his school--have their detractors, whether religious or skeptic. His ideas can be difficult , abstruse and are ultimately beside the point. His thesis can be reduced to this: We are asleep, mere machines, acting from habit rather than volition. The goal then is to wake up and stay awake. And that is where the Work comes in. ( A bit more within)
posted on Aug-6-02 at 4:49 AM
Bob Dylan Live at Newport, 1965: Maggie’s Farm. 10 MB Quicktime mp3 A notorious and historic moment, that began a legendary year of touring , stolen moments of which are available in several sometimes bootlegged formats .Sometimes, perhaps revised , stories differ at what happened, and, now, post-ironically enough, He appears at Newport again this Saturday.
posted on Aug-2-02 at 7:54 AM
Race/Music: Corrine Corrina, Bo Chatmon, and the Excluded Middle. Bo Carter is not the household name that, say, Robert Johnson is but he first recorded and most likely wrote one of the standards of the 20th Century. The essay linked deals with him, his song and the push me-pull you of race and culture in America. It's a post graduate thesis rife with postmodernist terminology--yet full of ideas and insights, not all of which I necessarily endorse or agree with--but which I've found thought provoking. (Details Within)
posted on Aug-1-02 at 6:39 AM
A ray of hope: Internet Radio Fairness Act . Disappointed in the Librarian of Congress' recent imposition of high fees on web radio broadcasters and the resultant shutdown of many web radio broadcasts (including KIRO and KMTT in Seattle), U.S. Reps. Jay Inslee [right] (D-WA), George Nethercutt [below] (R-WA), and Rick Boucher (D-VA) introduced new legislation to change existing web radio laws.
posted on Jul-26-02 at 12:54 PM
From NPR (The MetaFilter giveth, the MetaFilter taketh away...) Remembering Tuskegee
600 low-income African-American males, 400 infected with syphilis are monitored for 40 years. Even though a proven cure (penicillin) became available in the 1950s, the study continues until 1972 with participants denied treatment. Perhaps as many as 100 died of syphilis during the study (Allen, 1978). Additional resources.
Thirty years ago is not that long a time.
posted on Jul-25-02 at 8:35 AM
Alan Lomax , the legendary collector of folk music who was the first to record towering figures like Leadbelly, Muddy Waters and Woody Guthrie, died yesterday at a nursing home in Sarasota, Fla. He was 87. Mr. Lomax was a musicologist, author, disc jockey, singer, photographer, talent scout, filmmaker, concert and recording producer and television host. He did whatever was necessary to preserve traditional music and take it to a wider audience. (NY Times- Registraion Required) And... Additionally... And this. Also...
posted on Jul-20-02 at 11:48 AM
American Magus
Without Harry Smith I wouldn’t have existed!
Bob Dylan
… I put Harry Smith with the three most dear to me GRAND INTELLIGENCE!! Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Harry Smith…These were sharp motherfuckers… and heavy… talk about heavy!!
Gregory Corso
Harry Smith, a central figure in the mid-20th-century avant-garde, was a complex artistic figure who made major contributions to the fields of sound recording, independent filmmaking, the visual arts, and ethnographic collecting. Along with Kenneth Anger, Jordan Belson, and Oskar Fischinger, Smith is considered one of America’s leading experimental filmmakers. He would often hand-paint directly on film creating unique, complex compositions that have been interpreted as investigations of conscious and unconscious mental processes. Smith began as a teenager to record Native American songs and rituals. He is best known for his Anthology of American Folk Music, a music collection widely credited with launching the urban folk revival.The Anthology is the focus here, but Harry Smith, the artist, avant garde film maker, polymath, musicologist and quintessential hipster must be mentioned, too. Details Within
posted on Jul-10-02 at 11:54 PM
Bang! The 4th of July means fireworks and here in Seattle we are blessed with two shows. I'll be on a houseboat on Lake Union watching the one with the truly awesome Japanese fireworks. Japanese hanabi shells are spheres rather than the cylinders of American manufacture. For more fireworks linkage--and there is an incredible amount of it on the web--try Terry Dimock's Pyro Page--it's so incredibly comprehensive that, apart from American Fireworks News, The Physics of Coloured Fireworks and and Thinkquest's Fireworks, I won't bore you with any more here. But do remember this--fireworks and pets do not mix.
posted on Jun-28-02 at 3:32 AM
Plutocracy and Politics. Paul Krugman's musings upon reading Kevin Phillip's Wealth and Democracy: How Great Fortunes and Government Created America's Aristocracy, reviewed here by Bruce Reed of the Washington Monthly. Also, Three Questions For Kevin Phillips.
posted on Jun-14-02 at 1:46 AM
Study Shows Building Prisons Did Not Prevent Repeat Crimes
(New York Times link--you know the drill)
The rate at which inmates released from state prisons commit new crimes rose from 1983 to 1994, a time when the number of people behind bars doubled, according to a Justice Department study released yesterday.
The report found that 67 percent of inmates released from state prisons in 1994 committed at least one serious new crime within three years. That is 5 percent higher than among inmates released in 1983.
Criminologists generally agree that the prison-building binge of the last 25 years, in which the number of Americans incarcerated quadrupled to almost two million, has helped reduce the crime rate simply by keeping criminals off the streets. There has been more debate about whether longer sentences and the increase in the number of prisoners have also helped to deter people from committing crimes. The new report, some crime experts say, suggests that the answer is no. (More inside)
posted on Jun-2-02 at 10:28 PM
On Soul, Character and Calling: An Interview with James Hillman Therapy, or analysis, is not only something that analysts do to patients; it is a process that goes on intermittently in our individual soul-searching, our attempts at understanding our complexities, the critical attacks, prescriptions, and encouragements we give ourselves. We are all in therapy all the time insofar as we are involved in soul-making.
And here is a link to all things James Hillman. Having just picked up a copy of The Soul's Code, I thought I'd post something about Hillman here. Here's yet another interview. See what you think.
posted on May-17-02 at 3:03 AM
Cyril Connolly , who once quipped, with himself in mind, Whom the gods wish to destroy they first call promising, wrote The Unquiet Grave, of which Ernest Hemingway wrote, A book which, no matter how many readers it will ever have, will never have enough. For one, I am curious what smilar books you would add to Hemingway’s nascent list, and for another, what you may have regarding Connolly. (More within)
posted on May-10-02 at 4:51 AM
May 1st Day of Silence Hundreds of Internet radio stations and channels across America are shutting off their music streams on Wednesday, May 1st, in a "Day of Silence" to highlight their concern over the upcoming U.S. Copyright Office ruling on royalty rates that may shut down or bankrupt the vast majority of the nascent Internet radio industry. Write your senators and congressmen and women--Here's how--the Copyright office (info here) and the press. Please note: Letters to the editor (which must be entirely original and not contain any pasted material) can also be sent to your local daily & weekly papers. In both cases we recommend that you send a copy of your message to all of your congressional representatives. See congress.org for email addresses. A copy via fax is also recommended, since faxes often carry more weight than email. Snail mail to Congress these days is very slow, due to the anthrax screening. Please write, this is important. And thank you, Su, for reminding me.
posted on Apr-29-02 at 2:31 AM
Obligatory FadeToBlack Unintentionally Funny Site Post #3 Collect them all while there's still flesh on the bones of this decomposing Equine! Really though, Amazon can be so precious--check out the customer reviews: One day it just happened... I realized I was at a dead end. My job, my finances, my relationships - DEAD END. Surfing the net one evening, I was strangely drawn to this book on Amazon's site. Though the anal constriction theme was a bit odd, I thought, "Hey that goodbye depression thing is for me!" It suddenly came to me - what better way to pull myself out of a "dead end" than to liven my "end" up through this boot camp for the bootie? Whew! Almost as good as the ones for The Ultimate Guide To Anal Sex For Women, for example. No, I'm not linking that one!
posted on Apr-23-02 at 10:10 PM
Soulwalking , John Ponomarenko's Soul Review--two sites with some serious design issues on the topic of Soul music. As to the who, what. when and where of Soul Music, I direct you to Peter Guralnick's simply wonderful Sweet Soul Music. It's still in print and should be at your library or a better used bookstore, if you are near a larger urban center. (more inside)
posted on Apr-18-02 at 6:10 AM
Quark Star Observations of two stars, one unusually small and the other unusually cold, have led astronomers to think they are seeing evidence of a new form of matter and a new kind of star, one possibly made of elementary particles known as quarks and denser than any cosmic object other than a black hole. (NYT link: yada yada) Here's a related link on neutron stars and quark matter. I rather like the phrase strange quark matter... Anybody else hear about this?
posted on Apr-11-02 at 9:03 AM
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)
posted on Apr-10-02 at 1:42 AM
Margaret Wise Brown. Margaret Wise Brown, the author of Goodnight Moon and dozens of other children's classics, all but invented the picture book as we know it today. Combining poetic instinct with a profound empathy for small children, she knew of a child's need for security, love, and a sense of being at home in the world—and she brought that unique tenderness to the page. Yet these were comforts that eluded her. Brown's youthful presence and professional success—as an editor, best-selling author, and self-styled impresario—masked an insecurity that left her restless and vulnerable. My favorite children's book author. The Runaway Bunny is my favorite title of hers that I've read--I've run her name in Search before but never saw this site before:I had no idea she'd written so many titles. Nor how important she was to the genre. A biography. An autobiographical essay. Margaret Wise Brown: Awakened by the Moon by Leonard S. Marcus looks interesting, too. And here's a fan page. And, just for the heck of it--a 1957 Little Golden Books display.
posted on Apr-8-02 at 10:15 PM
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.
posted on Apr-7-02 at 3:18 PM
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.
posted on Apr-5-02 at 11:10 AM
Holi . Now Ruz. The Hindu Festival of Colors. The Persian New Year. Easter and Passover are not the only religious holidays associated with the first full moon of spring. Both appeal to me—in Holi people go about splashing each other with colors, powder and paint, and in Now Ruz I see Halloween--Last Tuesday night in March before Ruz is Chahar-Shanbe-Soorey in Iran... Children wear masks, and go door to door to get candy. People jump over bon fires while wishing for good health--surely the greatest religious festival we celebrate. And, ancillary topic, polytheism fascinates me: so, let me get way way pre-medieval on your collective ass and drop some James Hillman on you via Marc Fonda (you may have to scroll down to III. Polytheism as an Alternate Paradigm for Psychology). Hillman, author of Dream And The Underworld and co-author of We've Had a Hundred Years of Psychotherapy And the World's Getting Worse, among others, is, of course, a name no stranger to these pages. Both Holi and Now Ruz seem to celebrate a victory of by a legendary king over demon sources, and both celebrate Spring. Both I know little about—so enlighten me, please. A belated happy Holi to all you real brahmins, Boston or otherwise, and a belatedly same happy Now Roz to all you Teherangelenos here on MetafFilter. And do play Virtual Holi.
posted on Mar-31-02 at 5:16 PM
Welcome to Planet Dobro! – The origins of bottleneck blues, bluegrass dobro and the pedal steel guitar all begin in Hawaiian steel guitar, popularized by the Panama-Pacific Exposition of 1915, the 78 rpm record and the introduction of the National, and later Dobro guitars, invented by two wild and crazy Czechoslovakian brothers. But wait—the mystery deepens! Is there a Hindustani connection involving a Portuguese-Indian sailor? The arcane story of the first World music and how it changed American vernacular musics. Details within, along with tunings, tabs and the universe of resophonic, lap and pedal steel guitars…
posted on Mar-26-02 at 10:59 PM
Mel Lyman 1938-1978. Mel Lyman was controversial. He was the brilliant folk musician who soothed the Dylan-ruffled crowd at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, the Fort Hill guru whose prose in the undergound newspaper Avatar shocked conservative Bostonians of the late 60s... Many years of collecting, and help from numerous people has resulted in the large collection of articles reproduced here.
posted on Mar-24-02 at 11:28 PM
John Fahey - American Primitive Guitar. I got an e-mail from a listener about a John Fahey song I played on my show today and it prompted me to revisit his website. I've been listening to him ever since '67 or so. He died last year due to complications during a coronary bypass operation--I realized again today how I miss him. (more inside)
posted on Mar-22-02 at 11:44 PM
The Sybli's raving mouth, according to Heraclitus, speaks without mirth or adornment or perfume: with the help of the god her voice continues for a thousand years: Plutarch - Why The Pythia No Longer Prophesies In Verse... So, what kinda gas was she huffin'? The Sybil on solvents--an archeological update on the Oracle of Delphi (NYT: you know the drill...)
posted on Mar-19-02 at 7:07 AM
The Minstrel Show The Minstrel Show presents us with a strange, fascinating and awful phenomenon. Minstrel shows emerged from preindustrial European traditions of masking and carnival. But in the US they began in the 1830s, with working class white men dressing up as plantation slaves. These men imitated black musical and dance forms, combining savage parody of black Americans with genuine fondness for African American cultural forms. By the Civil War the minstrel show had become world famous and respectable. Late in his life Mark Twain fondly remembered the "old time nigger show" with its colorful comic darkies and its rousing songs and dances. By the 1840s, the minstrel show had become one of the central events in the culture of the Democratic party.. The image of white men in blackface, miming black song, dance and speech is considered the last word in racist bigotry for some. And yet, standing at the crossroads of race, class and high and low culture, blackface minstrelsy is one fascinating topic in academic circles. It’s history is intertwined with the rise of abolitionism, the works of Mark Twain and the histories of vaudeville, American vernacular music, radio, television, movies, in fact all of what is called popular culture. Details within.
posted on Mar-13-02 at 1:57 PM
I've been accused in the past of only posting clever and astonishingly cynical quips - so just to prove that I'm no fly-by-night-non-serious-funster here is an informative link. It requires no flash plugins of any sort..... ladies and gentlemen I give you.... What Is Cynicism? thank you.. As usual, details within.
posted on Feb-3-02 at 2:33 AM
The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, as caused by the Child Slave Rebellion.
The story recounts the wars between nations on an enormous and unnamed planet, of which Earth is a moon. The conflict is provoked by the Glandelinians, who practice child enslavement. After hundreds of ferocious battles, the good Christian nation of Abbiennia forces the 'haughty' Glandelinians to give up their barbarous ways. The heroines of Darger's history are the seven Vivian sisters, Abbiennian princesses. They are aided in their struggles by a panoply of heroes, who are sometimes the author's alter-egos. The battles are full of vivid incident: charging armies, ominous captures, alarms and explosions, the appearances of demons and dragons.Details within.
posted on Jan-25-02 at 6:03 PM
!Surréalisme! Home of, among many wonders, The Surrealist Compliment Generator--May clinging breasts always come to your aid in the kitchen, was mine--and you can talk to ESMÉ, Cadaveric Enigma Engine Generator*, visit The Department of Objects and Delusions or the cool links page.--and I quote: USENET: For those willing to brave the endless morass of asses, alt.surrealism... Now there's a tagline for here embedded in that there sentence!
posted on Jan-20-02 at 9:07 PM
O: What sounds like a minature smoke alarm with a dying battery and has a tongue half as long as itself?
posted on Jan-13-02 at 5:44 PM
Alt.Xmas.Music.Lyrics. I've never been accused in the past of only posting serious news item type links - so just to prove that i'm no stick-in-the-mud here is a fun link. It apparently requires no shockwave plugins..... ladies and gentlemen--and especially you cosmopolite European members--I give you, after a wee scroll down and download.... Walking Round In Women's Underwear!! please enjoy this during work hours.
posted on Dec-19-01 at 6:29 PM
Rufus Thomas 1917-2001 Since the 11th of September, I've left the radio off a great deal of the time, so it was only today, while listening to Terry Gross's Fresh Air, that I heard Rufus Thomas had died. A performer since he was child comedian and tap dancer with the Rabbit's Foot Minstrels, he also was a famous dj on WDIA in Memphis, the first all-black radio station format in the country, recorded Bear Cat, an answer song to Big Mama Thornton's Hound Dog that was an early hit for Sam Phillips' Sun Records and enjoyed a brief second career as the World's Oldest Teenager--singing Walkin' The Dog and Funky Chicken and many duets with daughter Carla--for Stax Records. From minstrel show to medicine show to dj to elder statesman of Memphis soul, his life and career spanned history. I, for one, will miss him.
posted on Dec-17-01 at 8:40 PM
Athena Parthenos, the cult statue made by Phidias, once in the Parthenon: here rendered by the Franch Beaux Arts architect Benoit Loviot. Slow but worth the wait, with more inside.
posted on Nov-30-01 at 5:56 AM
On Nov. 18, 2001, sky watchers somewhere will see a dazzling storm of Leonid meteors. And Leonid Observing Tips. It's the rainy season where I live so I'm pessimistic about my chances but maybe some of you have a shot at seeing them. Posted here as a PSA.
posted on Nov-13-01 at 7:24 PM
Laws of Form In 1969, George Spencer-Brown published a mathematical book called Laws of Form, which has inspired explorations in philosophy, cybernetics, art, spirituality, and computation. The work is powerful and has established a passionate following as well as harsh critics. This web site explores these people, their ideas and history, and provides references for further exploration. I read this then, didn't understand much of the math due to my innumeracy, but was struck by a passage in passing... I especially am curious to see what the numerate in MetaFilter have to say.
posted on Nov-11-01 at 1:50 PM
Terrorism…American Style. Once some of us Americans thought such barbaric acts of human sacrifice were the perfect place to take the kids, wear our Sunday best. For all the talk of a ‘color blind’ society by anti-affirmative action proponents and all the whines those who decry the tyranny of political correctness, there remains this fact: a lot of us not so long ago practiced political terrorism on our fellow citizens. I don’t think the moral high ground we claim is that moral or that high and nor do I think we have repaid the debts we owe to our fellow citizens. These pictures alone are an argument for reparations to my mind--and something we must never forget are part of our history. Which is why my skin crawls when I see epithets like ‘towelheads’ or ‘ragheads’ bandied about these threads…
posted on Nov-8-01 at 9:28 PM
The Iranian Secular Opposition Movement. I came upon this via another item I found on Plastic.com. (Where, BTW, one of the more cogent comments in the related thread was by one MayorBob) So, I'm wondering where does this lead to? The first line of that wretched 60s hit Eve Of Destruction does come to mind... Has anyone else heard anything about this?
posted on Oct-25-01 at 8:12 PM
Look to the skies, kids - Geomagnetic Activity Alert. Auroras anyone?
posted on Oct-21-01 at 1:18 PM
Osama Bart Laden This is from the Simpsons Folder, simply the best of its kind, in my opinion, and home of my favorite wallpaper. The Bert Is Evil post has inspired me: What I'd like to see are your links to any and all the other post 9/11 cartoons, jpegs, gifs and so forth.
posted on Oct-9-01 at 8:42 PM
MetaFilter in six lines. In order to know things well, we must know them in detail, and detail, being infinite, makes all our knowledge superficial and incomplete. François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld
posted on Oct-9-01 at 9:17 AM
Now Winter Nights Enlarge Thomas Campion Rocks! ( In the 17th Century spellcheck, even) ..& Luminarium Rules!
posted on Oct-8-01 at 11:59 PM
The Player Piano Randall Jarrell's last poem, perhaps...The pancakes made me think of famous MeFi android Buster Friendly--er, Miguel Cardoso. From The Wandering Minstrels, a poetry log, a plog, I guess...The Death Of The Ball Turret Gunner has a certain timely resonance.
posted on Oct-4-01 at 10:54 PM
A veritable potpourri of je ne sais quoi : so, I'm just dinkin' around, looking things up from my wish list, compiled before I got online at home, tonight's quest was 'Virgil Finlay,' and I back into this incredible virtual theme park devoted to the greatest living American science fiction author (that lifted straight from my show's, ahem, links page, that), imo--no humble here and now--and it's got starcharts of the Oikumene and maps and meals...gee, did I say it was a French site? And Rpgs and on and on and on...You 'could her nipples be any harder?' Klingon forehead hair splitting color TV babies have no idea: the technology does not exist to take his work to screen. The man is the premiere prose stylist of the genre and this concept has merit, I tells ya...
posted on Oct-2-01 at 11:19 PM
Susan Sontag's getting bashed royale--ala Bill Maher--in the New Yorker forum (oh, you'll have to register to read them) and various over-the-top op-ed pages for the piece she was asked to write for Talk of The Town right after the attack. I don't know, she didn't say anything about the hijackers that Dinesh D'Souza didn't say on Politically Incorrect the same night Maher got himself in trouble. And as for me, "Let's by all means grieve together. But let's not be stupid together. A few shreds of historical awareness might help us understand what has just happened, and what may continue to happen," is not the most inflammatory thing I ever read. Especially, the 'let's not be stupid together' part.
posted on Oct-1-01 at 8:53 PM
Track Records Don't Count in a Town that Likes Pretty Faces --Comment #: 427 In a thread from Defense In The National Interest’s Fourth Generation Warfare page Also interesting is the Federation of American Scientists ' Intelligence Resource Program , where there's a long list of Para-State Entities
posted on Sep-30-01 at 11:00 AM
From the essay by Ziauddin Sardar: Scroll 2/3 of the way down--it's from I.S.I.S. The Institute For Islamic Secularization A Call for Caution and Prudence * We need free inquiry of the religious premises of the growing conflagration. * We need rational debate of the questionable premises of a "holy war" or jihad. * We need a rational debate of the biblical call for retribution. * We call upon the United States not to act unilaterally and to petition the United Nations to establish a peace-keeping force. * All terrorists when apprehended should be brought to the World Court at the Hague and put on trial. * The basic constitutional civil liberties of America should not be abrogated. --Perhaps we're all best off with the godless making the rules?
posted on Sep-30-01 at 12:03 AM
21st Century Warfare I've been waiting for the new issue of G2mil The Magazine of Future Warfare to be posted to get Carlton Meyers' line on all things post September 11th and it's an all-you-can-eat buffet chock full o'links from a former Marine Corps officer--an anti-imperialist, anti-military/industrialist contrarian extraordinaire. Check out the special war supplement and assess the military options in Afghanistan before you launch into a by jingo paean to what he refers to as Tom Clancy fantasies about the Rangers. Do some extensive research in the magazine's back issues to read articles like Demobilize The US Army, 21st Century Battleships - the U.S. Navy's greatest need, why China can't invade Taiwan--not to mention the $$$ saving concepts like the B-747 bomber...& his line on National Missile Defense? The irony is that, if a workable NMD system is ever fielded, it only guarantees that a better method of delivery would be used, like a civilian airplane, ship, or truck. Tons of drugs are smuggled into the USA each year, can NMD stop that dangerous cargo? Almost two million people illegally cross America's borders each year with un-inspected luggage, can NMD stop them? Why spend billions of dollars each year on NMD while ignoring the real dangers? That was from July...
posted on Sep-29-01 at 12:41 AM
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