one more thing...

...I had never really considered.

David Byrne talks a little about how the venue influences the music, both on the spot and over time.

Killing Ourselves

I've purposely avoided this entire fiasco from the beginning (how many years ago?) because it scrapes at the bottom of the sun-starved belly of the American Dream, actually digging us down deeper into the slime just by our repeated voyeurism of it. It's all come to such a monumental letdown right when it should have been the peak of the story, such a Wagnerian tease, that I want to be one tiny part of the arena as the crowd 'Awwwws' in disappointment.

First, the meta-analysis of the release of this Karr character. It's not enough for the NYT to report that he's being released back into whatever small life he may have had, adding only the ignominy granted to those who dare trick the system, but it actually had the gall to ask how prosecutors could have been tricked by the chilling, sweaty guy.

The announcement by the Boulder County district attorney, Mary T. Lacy, incited
a storm of questions about why Mr. Karr, 41, had been believed in his admissions
and how he could have led prosecutors into what became an elaborate global
farce. Hordes of reporters had tracked Mr. Karr’s journey, from his apprehension
in Thailand nearly two weeks ago to his return to the United States.

I hate that old shpiel about not pointing the finger at anyone because there are three more pointing right back at yourself, but in this case it's appropriate. The "storm of questions" did come from the "hordes of reporters" that had been tracking the story for weeks, right? That horde is a credulous and recursive aid to growing the global farce and was as taken in as anyone desperate to continue, or end, the story.

Which brings me to the question, and the main point that's stuck in my craw ever since that poor little girl was killed in the first place: why did she become seen as a victim only once she was murdered? It's obvious why this case has been the darling, milked for years, amongst all the other child murder and disappearance cases that crop up every week. I just wish we would recognize that reason for what it is and shout it from the rooftops in the hopes that it would engender more change than increasing our paranoia. She was targeted because of the way she looked and acted, and she looked and acted that way because her parents thought it was appropriate to make her do so. Being a beauty queen, vamping it up for the camera, and being dressed and primped like a doll might be accepted as the nutty obsession of parents just trying to help their daughters win at something they can be good at, but why aren't those parents called out for the crap they're shoving on these kids? They're setting those girls up for being objectified, tying their self worth to their looks and sexuality, and for being the absolute creme de la creme for pedophiles. I haven't followed the case closely enough to have an opinion on the parents' potential guilt in the actual crime but my knee-jerk reaction is that they were at the very least abusive and partially responsible, by fattening the calf for the slaughter. Jon Benet became a victim in the truest sense of the word as soon as it clicked in her three- or four-year-old brain that by acting that certain way she would be loved, and she likely would have been a victim for the rest of her life because of it. By not pointing out this type of accelerated, warped conditioning for what it is, we condone it and set up our daughters to be even less ready for the image-driven meat grinder we already decry. Unfortunately, as with terrorism, we will demonstrate our shock and sadness, kill the obviously guilty, brand the sideliners, refuse to take a second to question what led to the act, and carry on with business as usual, like cows to the slaughterhouse.

good news for corktown

Not everyone there may agree, but it'll be good for the neighborhood and good for the city that the FBI will be getting a new facility built for them in southwest Detroit. The kicker is that it will be privately owned and leased to the federal government ($11 million/yr is the reported max rent that will be charged), meaning tax dollars will be generated by their presence, rather than the current situation, in which Detroit FBI facilities are in a federal building, on which no taxes are paid. Plus, even though the new location won't be so far from their current home, it will spread people out a little more, increasing opportunity for smaller accessory businesses like restaurants. To top it off, the two empty buildings on the site (previously used by the state) will be torn down and replaced with a tower, annex, and parking structure that should conform to new federal standards of appearance (MUCH improved) and environmental sustainability (still a ways to go, but improving, and better than the private sector).

Granted, the FBI won't fit seamlessly with the funkier, grassroots image of Corktown, but this is an opportunity to celebrate diversity, isn't it?

thanks a lot

no, really, I needed one more way to mainline flickr content straight into the pleasure zone in my brain. Why don't you just throw my children into the street and hock my car since all I'll want to do is stare at pretty pictures all freaking day.

(running a search on 'bicycle, bike' offers up some great pix. There are few items more filled with style while being so useful as bikes.)

social network stratosphere

Artist Mark Lombardi investigated social networks, particularly those of the uber-powerful. He diagrammed the relationships between players and events that allow one to look at the whole and recognize the tangible reality that we normally only describe as shady back rooms. This article says:

To track these events in the context of the drawings is to experience their import freshly, to undergo a shock of mixed recognition and surprise.

I'm fascinated with social networks and how those with influence pass it around. Who are these people? Did the vast majority of them just dumb into their lives in which they now wield tremendous influences over the lives of others, and are only some of them the select few who paved the way for their friends and families due to hard work and seizing opportunity, or are money, opportunity, and intangible inherited traits or outlooks contagious, weaving a web through some families strong enough to turn them into dynasties? The Bushes are a good example, and were one of Lombardi's favorite foci as he charted the sheiks, senators, and anonymous movers with which they moved.

For me these diagrams are like cotton candy mixed with heroin. That they transcend sketching without losing its familiarity, and resemble the easy perfect arcs of daVinci is icing on the cake.

It's things like this...

...that make the Navy so freaking cool.

A Navy diver just set the record for deepest dive off La Jolla, CA.

“At 2,000 feet, I had topside turn off all the lights, and it was like a star show. The phosphorescence that was naturally in the water and in most of the sea life down there started to glow," Jackson said. "When I started to travel back up, all the lights looked like a shower of stars going down as I was coming up. It was the best ride in the world.”

Chief Jackson, the diver, played up the teamwork involved in making a dive like this happen, saying "I was just a guy tied to a rope." A half-mile long rope hanging him into the depths of an environment so hostile it may as well be Pluto (which isn't a planet anymore but is still pretty unforgiving).

Not that I ever did anything even remotely as cool, but those kinds of opportunities are there for the taking.

indexed

I'm trying to dole these out to myself, one per day. I'll likely fail miserably.

UPDATE: Didn't even make it five minutes. But check out 'Pricey' - ju-heezus this lady's funny!

Who ever said cycling wasn't a contact sport?

See this series of photos on Smithers Minneapolis for the obvious effects of watching too many Jackie Chan movies.

hear, hear.

This is spot on.

I've been disgusted with our (humanity's, not the US', or the West's, or just us ping-pong champions) flexible approach to the culture of life since I was about old enough to be smarter than George W is now (it's been a really long time), so I'd increase the scope of Mr. Glucksmann's point to non-Muslims, as well (he does have a very good and timely point, though).

800,000 dead in Rwanda in a few months? Eh.

Millions dead and orphaned from AIDS they did nothing to contract (as opposed to those who did know enough to avoid it - they shouldn't be discounted, but maybe not as much outrage over their suffering should be trotted out)? Hmmm... well... eh.

Some completely undifferentiated cells in a womb? Call out the dogs and bomb a clinic.

The fact is, we all pick our grey area when it comes to the energy we're willing to expend on a pet set of abused people. The problem is that almost every damn one of us, the 'culture of life'-ers most definitely included, believes firmly that one set of murdered is more grievous than another, and that something should be done to end that violence but not this violence. Three thousand dead innocents are the same, whether they're under smouldering rubble in NYC or smouldering rubble in Baghdad.

Once in a great while a group of people has it coming (the Taliban springs to mind) and some of them should be wiped from the earth with unremitting and decisive finality. Cooler heads must prevail, though, and help us realize that even then, some of those people are just dumb bumpkins told a lie by a zealot, and maybe they shouldn't be dealt with violently if it can be avoided.

We must recognize violence for what it always is: the failure of us all to do more than we did.

ever have...

...one of those days?

see the little animated goof type his head off.

fotD 7

Not-so accidental flowers

A good post from detroitblog that illustrates what I think is an overlooked opportunity in Detroit that is more often seen as a deficit.

Detroit has an abundance of what could be generously referred to as greenspace, it just happens to be shaped into city blocks and peppered with telephone poles, abandoned buildings, and burned out cars. I don't have the time to really sink my teeth into the city like detroitblogger, but driving beyond my usual commute I've seen a red fox, pheasants, hawks, and expanses of land covered by nothing but tall grass and trees.

It's no secret that the cities that have been most successful in drawing the demographic that is moving them forward (21-40 y.o., college-educated) have been those that actively pursue open policies of preserving greenspace, increasing density, and encouraging outdoor activities. Any region that wants to thrive is going to have to offer more than suburbs and freeways, no matter how nice they are. There needs to be a central hub offering jobs in a diverse economy, higher-density neighborhoods, cultural attractions, and parks or greenspace.

By tying Detroit's already emptied spaces together into contiguous bands, the city could build a trail network to attract the outdoor-oriented (aside from those that already live outdoors), increase property values of homes bordering them, cool the city, help to educate children, and beat up on the image of Detroit as the post-industrial rust belt failure that it too often is. The open space, previously-grand boulevards with wide medians, and even abandoned railbeds are there for the taking back. I would love to see a Detroit known for its urban trail system, accessible waterfront, and *gasp* carless commute.

fotD 6

culture waits

for no man.

I was talking about something being really broken with my niece and her boyfriend the other day, and I threw out the 'I can fix it, my dad's got an awesome set of tools' variation (of the more traditional 'Dude, my dad's a TV repairman; he's got an awesome set of tools, I can fix it.') and was met with polite smiles. They may have thought my dad really was a TV repairman.

They didn't make the connection because they'd never seen, and had almost never heard of Fast Times at Ridgemont High. My wife explained to them that it was the American Pie of the 80s, prompting nods and the boyfriend to observe, 'oh yeah, that guy that was married to Madonna's in it, right?'

I think all the time about the exponential growth of targeted media available to us, and the increasing rate at which it can be propagated, and mashed up, but I don't think it was made so obvious to me before how quickly it will now also be forgotten, if only because there's something new banging on the door of our attention. A hundred years ago, songs lived for generations because their method of propagation was so slow; families sang in church and at home, and that's how people learned them. Aside from the songs themselves, that 'residue' of cultural solidity has carried forward, and is likely what people in this country often feel tugging at them when they ponder the societal changes rushing toward them now, even if they can't articulate what it is they're afraid of losing. We hear all the time about external forces like demographics changing American culture, but we should probably consider our own actions that do so, and if concerned about baseball being supplanted by soccer, or the push for Spanish signs in public buildings as well as English, than we should think how we can make choices that reinforce what we want instead of grousing about how it's all going away. In an onslaught of new content, only that which is actively tended will remain, though that too will inevitably change.

Things I want woven permanently into our cultural fabric:
Sigmund and the Sea Monsters
Parachute pants (purely as a warning)
Oingo Boingo

What will they think of before?

This is incredible:

Bird-Electron EZ-TAKEGTF2 Portable Bamboo Speaker Price: $199.00 USD Features Bird-Electron Japan proudly presents the all new 2006 EZ-TAKEGTF2 portable speakers made from all natural bamboo. Utilizing the natural resonance of bamboo, this Japanese engineered speaker not only projects quality sound but also is an stylish interior design deco. The TAKEGTF2 model uses a special Japanese SuSu bamboo which is smoked and aged for close to 100 years, and hand selected and crafted to meet Bird-Electron's standard. Unit can be used with any audio device through its stereo-mini plug. No power source needed.

How the hell did they know to start aging that bamboo so that speakers could be made for iPods 100 years later? I bet they bought stock in Apple in '98.

Posted: Beware of Doug

I've known him more than twenty years, and almost from the get-go I've been thunderstruck by what he knows about what could only be termed quasi-history. From calling a car's make and year from eighty feet away to ticking off not just the Presidents, but what they actually did, he continues to be a source of amaze- and amusement to me. It's not like he was actually alive when some of those cars rolled off the line, so how does he internalize their lines as well as any 50s teenager? Here's his latest, an emailed answer to one of my as-usual befuddled requests to know what he was casually talking about:

D: After having a WONDERFUL time chasing a funny little ball in the 100 degree heat I found myself at home watching VH1 classic as it reaired videos from the earliest years of MTV…back when a shitty garage band with $150 could have a video produced and the station would show it. A few items of note... in the Cars video for Dangerous Type Ric Ocasek could be brother to both Dan John Miller and Marilyn Manson, and that the video for Calling All Girls was mislabeled as a Who song… I initially thought that the singer was Ian Hunter, well..because he looked like him, but I was wrong…it was Hilly Michaels. Hilly having played with Ian in the past an obviously stolen his look. I’m still waiting for the Joe Walsh video with Joe tooling around a dump in a tank.

J: ?!

D: Ian Hunter was in Mott da Hoople and went off on his own briefly in the 80’s…I’d never heard of Hilly Michaels until I googled calling all girls ian hunter and found that hilly did the song. I just looked up Joe walsh stuff and the video that I’m patiently waiting for is for Life is an Illusion from There Goes the Neighborhood.

Oh. Mott da Hoople. That clears it up.

J: I continue to be astonished by your grasp of things strangely historical.

D: Speaking of strangely historical….for some reason when it’s hot like this I grab my book The Pessimists Guide to History and read about the Great Fire of Peshtigo, Wis.

http://www.library.wisc.edu/etext/WIReader/WER2001c.html

http://www.rootsweb.com/~wioconto/Fire.htm

Happy Birthday TreeHugger

This 2 year old site is my caffeinated crack.