swift comeuppance

a more fitting name than knave could not be found

2009-07-07T15:19:00.000-07:00

“If I am required to enter a remedy that is ‘consistent with the jury’s findings,’ I cannot order remedy that ‘disregards the jury’s implicit finding’ that Professor Churchill has suffered no actual damages that an award of reinstatement would prospectively remedy,” Judge Naves wrote.

When a plaintiff states remunerative compensation is not his goal and a jury finds in his favor but only for $1, to read sub silentio into the jury's award of "only" $1 that no harm was done exhibits either a paucity of fealty to the rule of law (which I suspect is the case in this situation) or strong desire to be overturned by a higher court rather than taint one's POLITICAL career as a judge in the future.

plastic lawn chairs in times square

2009-06-11T05:56:00.001-07:00

I had no idea of the story behind the lawn chairs, I just liked them.

now, I like them even more.

I love the kitch, I love that they're in the street, I love that they're being used by people who like them, I love that they're a temporary, stopgap measure.

I certainly wouldn't want cheap stuff that needs to be scrapped and replaced permanently, but it is a great idea for a short period of time.

They could probably sell them off for a profit at the end. and should.

I also worry that what they will be replaced with won't offer the same opportunity for abject relaxation that a cheap plastic lawn chair will. you cannot allow youself to collapse on a cafe chair, it's just not possible.

I would really like to see photographer and furniture maker Andy Gregg from Blackstone Bikes (where I briefly volunteered back in the 1990s) or some local (to NY of course) equivalent take this opportunity to make bike furniture for times square to encourage people to see reuse (and cycling) as fun and reasonable.

is there a more disgusting headline

2009-06-10T14:42:00.000-07:00

than "Crews Recovering Bodies From NC Slim Jim Plant"??

The only thing that would have made it nastier would be if they had rats doing it instead of crews.

the sun never sets on the british empire

2009-06-08T08:21:00.000-07:00

and never rises in england.

actually overheard on the Beeb:

DJ 1: "they say there is a place in norway where the sun shines for 14 days in a row"
DJ 2: "you know for some of that time the sun is actually in the sky and never sets"

Now, there was no hint of humor here. some might suggest this is because english humor involves a lot of deadpan, but they had been being "funny" quite a bit through their show.

we've actually been pretty lucky with weather whilst here, which included two nice days out of doors with no rain.

see, economists can be funny

2009-05-31T10:40:00.001-07:00

albeit a bit pathetic at the same time...

this from the obit of nobel laureate Clive Granger:

"Clive William John Granger was born in Swansea, Wales, in 1934. He developed a strong interest in mathematics as a child but ambled into a career in statistics haphazardly. As a grammar school student in 1946, his teacher instructed him and his classmates to stand up one day and announce the careers they wanted.

“I preferred to use mathematics in some practical fashion and thought that meteorology sounded promising,” he wrote in his Nobel biography. “In those days I stuttered somewhat and when my turn came to stand up, I tried to say ‘meteorology’ but found I could not get the word out, so I just said ‘statistics,’ thereby determining my future path.”"

symmetry in industrial design

2009-05-07T08:11:00.000-07:00

heat extraction does not necessarily mean state change.

finally some resolution

2009-05-03T08:30:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago A group of us happened to be in Oakland for a concert (Fleet Foxes actually) and decided to meet up at Radio (in our old neighborhood) before the show now that they actually prevent people from smoking in it. In a funny world sort of way the Green Day boys were there as well (Mary and I had just seen their surprise Independent show a week earlier). They were there with someone I couldn't place but who was familiar looking to me and the uncertainty was driving me crazy (I kept thinking "horn player" for some reason which was just confusing me to no end).

Well, it turns out in was Jon Pareles (duh I says, kicking myself) which became apparent upon reading the nytimes yesterday.

Pareles is good, always has been; he nailed this piece. I think though, that it helps to have such good material to work with, which the Green Day boys of course owe to being themselves and staying themselves as much as possible over the years. I was surprised to see that Butch Vig was behind the console for the upcoming album (insert Killdozer version of a "you've come a long way, baby" Virginia Slims advert here) and I think that was a great idea (no offense to Cavallo).

If the boys are going to play secret shows along the tour, as suggested by the article (and of course common sense), I am pulling for Fireside Bowl over the Double Door in Chicago, but I suppose that'd be more like playing Gilman over the Indpendent.

Who knows, maybe Henry will be able to go then after getting stiffarmed at the door to the Indepedent for being underaged (by about a dozen years). And guys, custom small show posters - make it happen now that you've got more warning...

keepin' it local with muh science education

2009-04-30T07:43:00.000-07:00

Bio-rad is rad. I point out that the main part of the shoot is in "hour park" which was/is a favorite haunt of mary's and mine.

specter mixes it up

2009-04-28T09:18:00.001-07:00

well, it will be interesting to see what happens with specter's move to the Ds. can't wait to see the press release on this one.

poland attacks US air infrastructure with piano

2009-04-27T07:54:00.000-07:00

This article is mildly interesting, until you get the part that says this:

Zimerman has had problems in the United States in recent years. He travels with his own Steinway piano, which he has altered himself. But shortly after 9/11, the instrument was confiscated at JFK Airport when he landed in New York to give a recital at Carnegie Hall. Thinking the glue smelled funny, the TSA decided to take no chances and destroyed the instrument. Since then he has shipped his pianos in parts, which he reassembles by hand after he lands. He also drives the truck himself when he carries his instrument from city to city over land, as he did after playing a recital in Berkeley on Friday.

WHAT THE FUCK?!!>?

About the most retarded thing I think the TSA has ever done, which is saying a lot.

very well done

2009-04-27T05:13:00.000-07:00

and

love the part about working with animation in real time.

Coachella

2009-04-21T10:27:00.000-07:00

So, coachella. There it was again, the hot desert.

Some thoughts:

1) I do not know if it was a result of the talent budget being short or a deference to the quiet of some of the acts, but there was a real crowd flow problem at Coachella this year. This created two problems:

a) it felt way more crowded than it actually was as a result of everyone migrating from one area to the "next" instead of wandering from one show to another as it were.

b) this really created a problem at the bathrooms. For the first time that I've noticed there were people pissing all over the place from rows of dudes pissing on bales of hay that appeared to be placed there just for that purpose to drunk girls standing around giggling trying to provide a visual obstruction to their friend copping a squat against anything that seemed okay to them to pee near. This is seriously bad form and seriously preventable. It always seems obvious to me that more women's restrooms are needed (every year I have seen women using the men's facilities because their lines are too long), but this is the first time I've seen women peeing in random places because lines are too long or the conditions of the crappers are unacceptable.

2) greater diversity in the lineup. I for one appreciated the older, more traditional performers' presence. for me music has always been about understanding music history and the influence of earlier performers on later ones. So it's fine to see some great songsmiths from other eras still doing it, this applies as much to booker t and leonard cohen as it does for throbbing gristle (who are decidedly not more traditional) and paul weller.

3) highlight sets for me:

a) fucked up are good live. the blood was funny. the song "no epiphany" is great.

b) I saw Johnny Marr in the VIP area and thought it was remarkable that he was here with no modest mouse at the same time morrissey was playing. it was extra funny to me because I thought to myself that whoever is playing for morrissey was playing those totally unique and necessarily identifiable with only one person guitar parts and then probably ran into the creator himself in the audience. that would suck, given the dynamics I am guessing - who knows, it'd be hard to not be a fan so maybe it'd be good. But why was mr. marr there at all? was it just because there was good music at coachella? We may never know, but it sure did surprise me and put me in an awesomely good mood when he came out and played town called malice with paul weller - I was just getting ready to head off dejected about not hearing any jam songs when weller announced his good friend johnny marr will be joining on guitar for this song. it was a bit sloppy, so I'm guessing it was a last minute thing, especially given the communication between the two guitarists about who should do what during the song, but it was a real joy for me to experience.

c) Busy P. dude can spin. awesome taste in music no wonder he's an (h)ed banger.

d) If you kill my dog I'ma slay your cat - PE - as a band that never played their entire album and honestly never impressed me as totally awesome live back in the day (they were good, but not great) it was great to hear all of nation of millions, and with terminator x back on the wheels is was pretty choice to say nothing of flavor being a better spazz than I've ever seen him be (at 50!). I am increasingly conflicted about the don't look back phenomenon, (it was the meat puppets performing II that really turned me) but I suppose it's nice to see a forum for bands to play the old stuff without feeling like they've got to play the same 3 hits off of each old album ever time. It was interesting that Chuck said coachella specifically asked for the don't look backesque performance, it's the first I am aware of them asking such. It was surprising to see professor griff on stage (apparently he has been forgiven for being a racist) and I was bummed that none of yo bum rush the show got played. my uzi weighs a ton remains an all time favorite.

e) devandra burnhardt has a pretty great band. I don't know any of his stuff, but they looked like they were having a great time and they were awesomely tight while being loose at the same time - in a way that reminded me of crazy horse.

f) peanut butter wolf - never seen him before - was GREAT.

g) the hold steady (who I know nothing about) were great. lead singer sounds like steve albini!

h) hank rollins spoken word.

i) MIA - no matter what anyone says she rocked the main stage. I think people that think she was unprepared etc are just wrong - she was great.

j) superchunk - why? because I love the song slack motherfucker and I always will. wish they would have played sick to move.

k) no age - these guys are good. anyone willing to play baseball with a guitar as a bat and a stuffed dinosaur as a ball deserves respect.

there were of course many other enjoyable sets, but these jumped out for me.

J.G. Ballard

2009-04-21T10:23:00.000-07:00

Salim pointed out that, while I was in the throes of Coachella, J.G. Ballard died.

I owe a great deal more attention to his body of work than I have given it, but will point out that the nytimes article linked to above does not reference the sugarcubes song which I think is better than the Cronenberg film based on Crash.

In any event, the man's life story and his approach to art, as well as his willingness to push both boundaries and buttons in the name of creativity, is something I have long admired.

marianne faithful

2009-04-10T11:58:00.000-07:00

yo. I was pretty psyched to see mark ribot on the marianne faithfull letterman appearance - but who was the drummer? damn dude is GREAT. turns out it's none other than Naked City's own Joey Baron. Now that's a band I miss. Apparently so does letterman - it's weird to see him so excited for the band and the drummer in particular - they must be friends from back in the day.

also, marianne faithfull is awesome.

RAISE THE BRIDGE!!!

2009-04-10T11:21:00.000-07:00

Roger Ebert, most famous for nearly running me and my bicycle over on wacker drive (well, maybe most famous to me for that) or maybe secretly having good if not great taste in movies if you're willing to go down to Champagne-Urbana to see them, or maybe not being able to stand the completely intolerable baffoonery of Gene Siskel on some really, really funny outtakes of their old tv show is now locked into a heated battle with bill o'reily (not sure on teh spelling there.

Mad props are due for telling the squeeky the mouse story.

this is nuts!

2009-04-10T10:44:00.000-07:00

insert rimshot

okay okay I'm dying to know what the pinback on the doctor's lab coat is.

i prefer the term hand farter

2009-03-31T07:37:00.000-07:00

but I suppose manualist will do in a pinch.

I can't tell if the reverb is because he's sitting on the toilet or what.

I was here but now I'm guyana

2009-03-31T07:16:00.000-07:00

This article in the nytimes shines a little light on a dark corner of my knowledge of international history and foreign intervention (was that redundant?).

What an interesting life mrs. jagan lived.

the ecstasy of god did not start in toronto

2009-03-24T01:43:00.000-07:00

nope. it started, well, shit, what was I talking about again?

oh yeah, john crowder, on the mount of olives or something.

i found this rather interesting

2009-03-18T08:03:00.001-07:00

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Woah, those numbers are a little worse than I thought they'd be

2009-03-10T13:33:00.000-07:00

"Trade is forecast to fall to its lowest point in 80 years in 2009"

80 years? WTF. As a percentage of the global economy or in inflation adjusted currency volume or what?

This quote is from the World Bank (as reported by the increasingly mediocre reporting of the AP news service).

I mean, for all intents and purposes that is as close as you can get to NO trade. You'd think this would have to be a typo. Maybe you meant in 29 years and got confused.

it was only a matter of time

2009-03-09T20:42:00.001-07:00

before someone went and made youtube even cooler than it was all on its own.

thanks for being so damned rad kutiman

Gde Nest of Ninnies?

2009-03-05T10:40:00.000-08:00

Mr. Seth Sanders' awesome pulp-based zine (featuring my favorite interview of Bundy K Brown EVAR) is now in web(log)alo format.

Nest of Ninnies

because sometimes you need your music rag to come with a strictly marxist-leninist perspective comma damnit.

I only have ice for you

2009-03-05T09:23:00.001-08:00

in other news: the album Deserter's Songs is GREAT, but mostly because I don't think there's a way to put the song "holes" on an album and have it not totally kick ass.

film at eleven.

the ignominy of the minority

2009-03-05T08:46:00.000-08:00

a nice piece in the nytimes on the pied noir struck me for a few reasons:

1) I love the work Jacobin and all its derivations. There is no word to me that better calls into question what democracy is, means, should be, has been.

2) For some reasons French nationalists will always be associated with the last of the violent throes of colonialism (I shall not suggest colonialism is gone, that would be naive, rather I think, for France at least, the war violence associated with colonialism is gone) and Algeria in particular. Pontecorvo is owed a debt of gratitude for this I suppose, though I suppose Camus is as well. Le Pen and his ilk are racists first I think, and nationalists second, but I think the period of colonialism was more complicated.

For me the otherness of the pied noir and really the south of France - Provence I suppose more than anywhere else is perhaps the easiest for an American to relate to - to have some sense of familiarity with.

In any event:

3) The line that struck me was the reference to the French, mostly French but not entirely French (but still French), pied noir as minorities. It got me to thinking how we as Americans are moving this direction and how we will look at each other and to others over the next decades.

What I appreciated from the tone of the comment was the implication of awareness that there is a paradigm shift occurring and that some react differently than others to it.

I guess my take away from this is that people who currently think about things in terms of "minorities" are likely stuck there and always will be, but they're also already nearly inconsequential to the next status quo.

As such the ignominy of the minority is that there is failure to recognize the majority of 21st century America will not recognize the term. Or put another way the ignominy is that there is a desire for the term to continue to mean what it means to people now.