September 18, 2007 archive

Soundtrack to a personal archaeological dig

The simple task of reorganizing a CD collection, punctuated with stops to listen along the way, affords your humble essayist the opportunity to honestly identify a long-crusted-over, never resolved, and wholly destructive inner inconsistency. Wow. Who knew?

Let’s get right to it. The conflict is so apparent, it’s astonishing only in how long seeing it for myself has proven elusive:

I’ve got plenty of java
And Chesterfield Kings
But I feel like crying
I wish I had a heart like ice
Heart like ice

The Nightfly
Donald Fagen, The Nightfly, 1982

Take a knife
Cut out this heart of ice
Hold it high
Walk into the sun

Heart of Ice
Joe Jackson, Body & Soul, 1984


These are lyrics that spoke to me. I felt them. I let them stick around. And it’s only now that I reckon the sentiments expressed don’t play well with each other. There’s just not enough room in this town for the both of them.

on fences

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The Locker Room

Welcome sports fans!

It is my fondest wish and the deepest desire of my heart to see the Flyers win a Stanley Cup have a weekly sports discussion essay.  While I’m not well-versed in every sport at every level, I would love for us to have a forum to discuss professional, college, amateur, and even our own involvement in local sports, as well as the personalities that people them.  And while I’m clearly posting such an essay right at this very minute (or, have posted, if you’ve come later), I’m not particular on who posts it, or when…only that we know where to look for it so we can all participate.

You could liken it to the current training-camp sitch the Philadelphia Flyers find themselves in, as described in the Yahoo!News story: Flyers have several candidates to fill vacant captaincy.  Here it’s a lot like in that locker room.  The person wearing the “C”, or posting the essay, won’t be doing all of the work.  Sami Kapanen sums it up well, I think (from the above-linked article).

“If you have a C on the jersey, it’s not just up to him,” he said. “It’s a team game and everybody needs to bring something in. You can’t ask for too much from one player.”

The Locker Room

Welcome sports fans!

It is my fondest wish and the deepest desire of my heart to see the Flyers win a Stanley Cup have a weekly sports discussion essay.  While I’m not well-versed in every sport at every level, I would love for us to have a forum to discuss professional, college, amateur, and even our own involvement in local sports, as well as the personalities that people them.  And while I’m clearly posting such an essay right at this very minute (or, have posted, if you’ve come later), I’m not particular on who posts it, or when…only that we know where to look for it so we can all participate.

You could liken it to the current training-camp sitch the Philadelphia Flyers find themselves in, as described in the Yahoo!News story: Flyers have several candidates to fill vacant captaincy.  Here it’s a lot like in that locker room.  The person wearing the “C”, or posting the essay, won’t be doing all of the work.  Sami Kapanen sums it up well, I think (from the above-linked article).

“If you have a C on the jersey, it’s not just up to him,” he said. “It’s a team game and everybody needs to bring something in. You can’t ask for too much from one player.”

The Dem/Rep Candidates React to Gore’s Emmy Award

By this evening, millions of emails messages, flower bouquets, and phone calls had flooded Al Gore’s Nashville, Tennessee office.  Tens of thousands of Gore fans gathered outside on West End Avenue shouting, “We want Gore! We want Gore!” Long known for his Churchillian and graceful command of the English language and consistent with his upbringing, even George W. Bush sent a personal video congratulating Gore on winning the second leg of the Triple Crown 

“There’s an old saying in Tennessee – I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee – that says, fool me once, shame on – shame on you. Fool me – you can’t get fooled again.”

The country’s newspaper of record, the Washington Times, noted Mr. Bush’s magnanimous gesture and hailed it as an example of his “impeccable New England manners.”

Let’s Introduce Ourselves

I know that many of you “know” each other from your various on-line participation. But I don’t know most of you and I’ll bet there are others like me out there who want to participate, but don’t feel comfortable yet because they feel like outsiders. So, I’d like to introduce myself a bit and then ask you to do the same in the comments. You can decide what you want others to know about you and what needs to stay private.

Peer to Peer Networks

from MLW
I talk a lot about peer to peer politics and when I do I am referring to a very deep cultural framework, that is, the framework of an extended sub-culture which helped fire the net to life. The culture does not have a single name but it is one I consider the kernel of the net, it is the original source of the online culture as we know it, the origin of many of its traditions and standards (netiquette? obviously mostly forgotten). The sentiments of this culture explain many of the mysteries of the net. It is part cryptoanarchis, part geeks that matter, and part realization… the realization that distributed networks are needed in place of traditional centralized ones.

Whenever people gather throughout history, you have had human networks, the internet only speeds that up and gives us a venue, virtual community, with which to experiment.

It is my history in this culture which is the source of my fascination with virtual cultures as well as with wherever the edge of the peer to peer fire has rearranged the landscape. This phenomenon of peer to peer networks has struck, stunned, and subtly reformed many public debates. These debates are allowed to extend beyond the experts, many of whom were charlatans in industries whose internal debate needed the reform. When peer to peer networks take on a subject, more than anything else they shine a light on the proceedings.

Hobby by hobby this phenomenon spread, starting with things of interest to early adopters, things like Monty Python, Star Trek, and News for Nerds. It has progressed through a list of hobbies for shut-ins and want to be shut-ins (no offense intended) and subsequently through to politics, politics as a hobby.

Breaking: Giuliani Campaign Consults Kama Sutra in Effort to Craft New Position on Iraq

MANCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE — Having been cornered on several recent occasions to clarify his position on the war in Iraq – beyond “I was there on 9/11” and “we should kill bad guys” – the Giuliani campaign has chosen to take a novel approach.

(continued below)

Song for 9.17.2007

So, for today, I thought I’d share a song which is one of my all-time favorites, from one of the great lost bands of the 1990s – Carissa’s Wierd.

For those of you who don’t know, Carissa’s Wierd (misspelling intentional) was a fantastic group from whose ashes the currently popular (but far inferior) Band of Horses emerged.  This is one of their best songs ever, “Die”.

Why Things Are Like They Are. Vol. 1

.

Information filters.

One of my central thoughts about the world we live in.

It is beyond actual comprehension.

Certainly comprehension by any one person. And VERY certainly beyond the comprehension of George Bush! This means that in spite of all the posturing that The Powers That Be do in pretending to be on top of things and in charge and competent is just that….pretense.
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The main example that comes to mind is from what I have read of Sybil Edmunds and the whole translating situation with the FBI. From what I recall they had huge back logs of intercepts that had not been translated. That means that no matter how fast they got information, how soon they received anything that needed action….no action could be taken. Having a great system to collect information does you no good….unless you can understand that information and act on it.

Pony Party: Pickle Monday Part II

Hi again! Light Emitting Pickle here to bring you the most recent open thread. First, a few words about Pickle Pony Parties:

Please do not recommend a Pony Party when you see one.  There will be another along in a few hours.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, I’m looking for inspiration for what to post next week in my contribution to the Pony Party threads. Because, in the unlikely event that it is not painfully, excruciatingly obvious, this isn’t much of a diary. So, check out the poll and feel free to give other ideas in the comments!

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