Jimmy Guterman's Jewels and Binoculars

Moving to blog.guterman.com

2008-04-20T08:20:00.001-04:00

Jimmy Guterman's "Jewels and Binoculars" is moving to http://blog.guterman.com.

I've had it with the Blogger blogging software. It feels like Google has abandoned it: no development and certainly no support. It has become too unreliable to use anymore. Also, after many years of the same structure, it's time to try something new.

The new blog will be at http://blog.guterman.com and it will open some time in June. When that happens, I will note its both via Facebook status and whatever the kids are calling a Twitter transmission nowadays. Before I depart, I want to share with you a clip of a cat playing a theremin.

See you in June...

They worked together on The Sandinista Project and now they're...

2008-04-13T12:38:00.001-04:00

...getting married. Hooray for Amy and Eric!

Which Sandinista Project contributors will be next?

Novel update

2008-04-10T06:05:00.003-04:00

There's been none over the past few weeks. None.

The novel, of course, is a hobby, a side project, a creative endeavor, far from my reason for existence. It's not my pay-the-mortgage work and it never will be. I really enjoy my paid work, but there's a lot of it to do and I have to do a lot of it to be any good at it. Something has to give. Recently, it's the novel that has given. I hope to have renewed progress to report next week. But I don't guarantee it. Especially when there's eelgrass everywhere.

Public service announcement: Vote Yes for Brookline on May 6

2008-04-09T12:46:00.001-04:00

I recognize that no one visits this humble blog for political advice, but I urge readers of Jewels and Binoculars who are residents of Brookline to join me and Vote Yes for Brookline on May 6. This Proposition 2-1/2 override will help maintain some crucial services, particularly those in the schools, that are in danger of being cut due to decrease in state aid. Go here to learn more about the campaign -- and go here if you haven't yet registered to vote.

Greatest song of all time of the week: Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, "Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel"

2008-04-09T07:52:00.002-04:00

As digital sampling becomes more and more pervasive as a recording technique in pop, the belief that anything is possible in a studio nowadays is also on the rise. But "Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel" took the cut-and-paste-sound approach used covertly on many records today and the scavenging of other songs as its very subject. The number asks: How smart can you steal? How slick can you mix? This technical apex of one of rap’s leading disc-spinners is tremendously influential—many of today’s dance-music and rock productions are unimaginable without it.

Grandmaster Flash started as a South Bronx dance-hall disc jockey whose trademark was taking his favorite rock and rap songs and repeating their hottest elements for heightened effect. "Wheels of Steel," despite being credited to the full Furious Five, was a solo shot by Flash designed to show off the wizardry that knocked 'em out live. After a stuttering intro, Flash lets Blondie’s "Rapture," Chic’s "Good Times," the Incredible Bongo Band's "Apache," and Queen’s "Another One Bites the Dust," as well as snippets from earlier Flash/Five singles glide in and slam out of the unwavering beat. These songs of different tempos all fit without being forced. Spoken sections, boasts, and song apexes are finely woven into an amazingly seamless whole. Before the serrated-edged righteousness of "The Message" and "White Lines (Don't Don't Do It)" turned attention to rapper and writer Melle Mel, the group was a showcase for Flash. This is why.

Visually pointless, but the only way I can point you to this song:

Speaking of visually pointless, but another song I love:

If this doesn't destroy Wal-Mart, nothing will

2008-04-08T16:04:00.001-04:00

Wal-Mart Secures Bryan Adams Album Exclusive (Billboard)

No kidding

2008-04-08T11:33:00.001-04:00

Survey finds rockers Coldplay help you sleep (Reuters)

I have no use for this band, but the headline cracked me up

2008-04-08T11:21:00.001-04:00

Stone Temple Pilots Rock Houdini Mansion

Al Gore at TED

2008-04-08T09:55:00.004-04:00

Al Gore's talk the last day of TED is worth seeing. Unlike his Inconvenient Truth talk, which was quite slick and professional by the time it became a film, his new presentation is still quite raw. But it also moves forward the story he told in the film in a hard-headed, open-hearted way. To think we could be at the end of a second Gore administration right about now...

What not to eat (part 2)

2008-04-07T06:05:00.000-04:00

Cucumber maki + ketchup + the remains of your youngest daughter's chicken nuggets = no.

What not to eat (part 1)

2008-04-07T06:01:00.000-04:00

For much of the '90s, I tried (and, ultimately, failed) to live as a vegetarian. In recent years, I went through a pescatarian transition period, and now -- even though I choose fish or no meat whenever I can -- I'll eat pretty much whatever anyone puts in front of me. The rationale for that is that my ethical obligation to the people closest to me -- i.e., anyone who would cook for me -- is greater than my ethical obligation to lower species.

But now I wonder. The ecological arguments against meat may be more powerful than the ethical arguments against meat. They're also arguments wrapped in self-preservation: eat less meat, save your body, save the planet.

I knew I had food issues, but these are issues.

The wrong spokesman

2008-04-06T21:35:00.002-04:00

Is it me, or should Lance Armstrong NOT be doing advertisements for drugs?

Just saw this ad on CNN.com:

Listening to the east

2008-04-06T06:46:00.000-04:00

Over the past two months I think I've listened to more Asian rock'n'roll than in the previous 45 years combined. I highly, highly, highly recommend the following:

Look Directly into the Sun is a collection of Beijing punk bands, recorded last year by Martin Atkins, who fellow oldtimers will remember as the drummer in the original PiL lineup. This magnificent compilation of punk, pop, and rock'n'roll bands is the sound of a revolution about to happen. It feels like a London 1977 roundup. No matter the culture, the political system, or the economic framework, young people everywhere wanna scream and some of 'em do it brilliantly. Like the ones here.

Friend, colleague, and esteemed Sandinista Project contributor Jim Duffy alerted me a while back to Dengue Fever, a California band that started out specializing in covers of Cambodian rock'n'roll of the early '70s and has subsequently delivered a number of tough garage rockers that extend the tradition. I wanted to hear what inspired this inspired band so I've picked up a number of CD compilations of the original performers, stirring and alive, before the Khmer Rouge got their hands on them. Some of the selections on these sets may not be quite legit -- I doubt that synthesizers and syndrums were available in pre-Pol Pot Phnom Penh -- but some of the performers here, like Sinn Sisamouth, are secret giants most American rock'n'roll fans have never heard of, let alone heard. Jewels & Binoculars readers, can you direct me to your favorite Cambodian rockers? If you're new to the band Dengue Fever, any of their three full-length sets -- Dengue Fever, Escape from Dragon House, and Venus on Earth -- offer exhilarating ways in.

The wages of blogging

2008-04-05T17:17:00.002-04:00

1: In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till They Drop (New York Times)

2: Blog Mogul Denton's Reward To Valleywag Drones: 33% Pay Cut (Silicon Alley Insider)

The blogosphere rejoices!

2008-04-01T11:36:00.001-04:00

No blogging this week. Too damn busy. Seeya next week. I hope.

Living like savages in Chestnut Hill: an update

2008-03-28T09:18:00.004-04:00

Either 20 or 21 Septembers ago, my younger brother moved into a fifth-floor apartment in Back Bay. We dragged the first of his stuff up to the top floor of the elevator-free building. He turned the key in the door, opened it, and discovered that none of the five people living in very close quarters in that studio apartment had even begun to move out. They were all still asleep, in beds spread across the room.

I thought about that this morning as I looked across the living room of our house:

Eli, the model here, still has his own room for now (it's the only unaffected room on the second floor, but he still has to move eventually because it'll be Grace's room when we're done). The other four of us are stretched across the living room. After more than 20 years together, Jane and I are back in a one-bedroom place ... with two other people!

For a more meaningful report on the way we live now, see Jane's latest report.

Greatest song of all time of the week: Junior Senior, "Can I Get Get Get"

2008-03-27T13:39:00.003-04:00

The user-generated video below ain't much (listen to it with your eyes closed if you wish, though it has charm), but this song offers endless pleasure. It's like Chic and Abba had a baby! (That's a compliment, by the way.)

The U.S.P.S. can be a slow medium

2008-03-27T12:11:00.000-04:00

Both of these arrived the same day:

Three fictional characters, each equally equipped to discuss our nation's predicament

2008-03-27T11:35:00.003-04:00

I haven't offered much political commentary since I came back to Jewels and Binoculars, but I can at least point out trenchant observations when I spot them elsewhere:

Chinese Democracy When?

2008-03-26T12:55:00.002-04:00

In my TED talk, I went after Axl Rose for not releasing Chinese Democracy. This amusing stunt takes matters into its own hands.

I've been known to keep weird work hours, I know...

2008-03-25T09:46:00.003-04:00

...but today was the first time ever I was almost late for a 9 a.m. meeting because I was in the car listening to the ninth inning of a live Red Sox game. Happy spring!

Farewell to print

2008-03-25T09:25:00.003-04:00

I love The New York Times. I've read it almost every day of my life since I was in high school. For all its recent flaws -- the weirdo profiles of the major presidential candidates are the most high-profile -- it is still full of the most outstanding reporting. And, on the days that Gail Collins files, it offers up the most penetrating and entertaining opinion.

What's that? It's the last print copy of the Times I'll ever have delivered to my front door. Over the years, I've slowly weaned myself off subscriptions to physical newspapers, but it was hard to say no to the Times. The quality was high, the thump of the paper on the sidewalk was a pleasant sound to hear first thing in the morning, I liked the serendipity of walking through a print section, and I felt obligated to pay for the paper at a time when print subscribers were becoming an endangered species. But, after years of wavering, I'm done. The environmental argument alone should have been enough for me, but the simple fact is that I do more and more of my reading on a screen (the only holdouts: fiction and poetry). And plenty of that reading has been from the Times. What finally made me give in to the inevitable was realizing, one barely-dawn morning last week when I was reading the paper at our kitchen table, that I had already read much (most?) of it online. For all the pleasure of holding and print, the Times on paper is just too late. In 2008, today's paper is yesterday's news.

So now I'm a freeloader, although you could argue that my personal information, sent to the Times in return for a username and password, may have some value. I rarely, if ever, click on an ad on the Times's website. I would gladly pay for the pleasure and convenience of reading the paper online, just as I do for The Wall Street Journal, but I don't have that option. In this era of advertising-is-the-only-business-model, management at the Times Company has decided that I've decided that the value of what it sends to me is zero. I disagree -- and I'm not going to pay a premium for the proprietary and little-used Times Reader to make my point.

I'll miss the paper on paper, and I bet I'll buy it when I'm on vacation, as a treat, an indulgence. But if even people like me -- who adore The New York Times -- can no longer justify a print subscription, how can its print version survive, except as a high-priced, scarce product for an increasingly elite audience?

(This originally appeared on the O'Reilly Radar.)

"The saddest, stupidest sentence I've ever read"

2008-03-25T06:06:00.001-04:00

Nick Carr calls out a whopper by Michael Arrington. It can be a pleasure to witness Carr best an inferior mind, but I have a question: If Carr is so smart -- and he is -- why does he read Arrington?

Jewels and Binocular readers: create your own recipe

2008-03-24T16:48:00.004-04:00

I made the greatest turkey burgers of all time a few weeks back. I was about to write down the recipe (yes, I realize I should have done this then; don't go all GTD on me) when I realized I don't remember whether my secret ingredient was soy sauce or teriyaki sauce. Would anyone out there like to make a suggestion as to which I should try next time?

David Weinberger, master of all trades

2008-03-21T11:26:00.002-04:00

Turns out David Weinberger is as astute an observer of politics as he is of everything else. Everything may be miscellaneous (hence the "random" tag below), as Weinberger has written, but when there's a mind as bold and open-hearted as Weinberger's at the center of an idea, sometime everything makes sense, too. Read.