A series of random sites connected by thought:
It just seems that there is never enough time in the day. Ever feel that way? Of course. The laundry list gets longer, the laundry gets piled higher, and the list bears lists.
So what to do? Well, a lot of small companies have come up with software to help you keep track of notes, dates, passwords, and boyfriends names. Other folks tend to use tons of Post-It (R) notes. Still others like to put their Palm to use.
I do all of the above and still to no emotional avail, with my lists burgeoning, my Palm bloating, and my sticky paper billowing. And the truth is, I’m one of the most fortunate people sitting on the face of the earth.
Monthly Archives: September 2003
Cash
I’m not stunned about the death of Johnny Cash, but I am deeply affected by it. I’m not sure why — I only recently converted to his music (perhaps 3 years ago when I met my wife) and I really only know his standards and his rock re-makes, which are terribly mournful. (His cover of NIN’s “Hurt” is as unforgettable as is he and cuts to the core of the man.)
In part I think my sadness about his death, which oddly coincides with that of the talented actor John Ritter, can be attributed to the fact that he deeply felt and made others feel all through his life. This is a rare feat, and one that I often wish I had truly pursued. It’s the life of an artist, of course, but it’s also the life of someone who rarely compromised, who took extensive risks with his work and personal ife, and who was faithful to his core even while trembling. Johnny Cash, unlike John Ritter, was perhaps one of the most important artists of the 20th century, up there with Picasso, Dylan, and Guston.
I actually miss him and, listening to his last album this afternoon, I hung my head.
Non-Flash Flash
This is a page of amazing optical illusions that I have never seen before. When I first clicked on it, I thought, oh, more Flash-based abstractions. But no, these are not Flash, they are still images that move because our eyes are perfectly imperfect. This site, making the rounds on many blogs right now, is a perfect antidote to the sadness and inanity around the September 11, 2001, commemorations.
Words That I Just Don't Like A Lot
Every once in a while, it’s good to use a weblog to purge oneself of natty, unfortunate ideas and thoughts. Or every day, which ever comes first.
Without further ado, here’s my ultimate short list of words that are not good. Just in case you want to find out more about each and every gem, I’ve Googlized them:
Colitis
Funsacks
Nutsacks
Supper
A Stunning Site
I know this one has been making the blog rounds of late, but this is a truly beautiful Flash website of animated photographs of London’s Streatham Cemetary taken by photographer Jonathan Clark. While images of cemetaries are generally ridiculously trite and can border on the hilarious, these lusciously and lovingly detailed miniature movies about death in life are admirably crafted and lend themselves to their subtly animated Flash container.
A Rare View of 9/11
This is an unusual piece of footage (not shown in its entirety) of the two planes going into the WTC. What’s strange about it is not that the videographer captured both planes that day but that it only surfaced a few days ago – the author, a Czech immigrant, knew he had important video contents but didn’t know how to get it to the news media — truly an indictment of today’s television programming and business.
Smooth Porn
I knew this would happen. Bill Noll, a photographer and lover of his new Power Mac G5, took some close-up photographs. The photographs are highly fashioned and they seem to touch on a new kind of techno-porn, which only Apple and VW seem to have advanced. It’s a pretty salaciouis means of selling imagery and I have yet to really understand how it works (though the advertisers don’t seem to be having a problem).
But I believe it differs from previous commodity fetishism in that both Apple and VW have taken the hair, secretions, colors and other epemera completely out of human sexuality and visualized the entirety in a way that allows us to enter and exit the technology cleanly — no effort, no anxieties, no jostling, and no orgasms allowed. Moreover, no sex. Just good, very clean fun.
Wrongfulness
I heard an interview on WNYC this morning with Joe Conason, the writer of the much-celebrated new book Big Lies: The Right-Wing Propaganda Machine and How It Distorts the Truth and it was completely disarming. Conason, not for the first time, contends that it was the Clinton administration that foresaw future terrorism coming to the U.S., that they had started to prepare the country for a 9/11-type event, and that its staff briefed Condoleeza Rice and friends about the inevitability of an attack. Bush ignored their advice and Cheny set up a terrorism task-force that never met until after 9/11.
Most interestingly, he talked about how Bush et. al. pulled together the resources, while almost all planes were grounded, to evacuate Bin Laden relatives (about 140 of them!) out of the country to Saudi Arabia on the request of Bush’s old pals in the oil-based government. This is a little featured report, but it did make the New York Times’ page 11 yesterday. The FBI, our eternal watchdog, never questioned the family members about their involvement in 9/11. Excuse me now while I throw up.
Le Blogue
I always wondered what “les blogues” looked like in Franceand I finally found a nice example of one that is as smart as it is French.
In other news, I once again tried Johnson’s Baby Shampoo after more than, perhaps, 30 years and yes, it’s formula is still “No More Tears.” Unfortunately, that same crappy formula burns the inside of my eyelids just as it did when I was 6. No More Johnson’s Baby Shampoo for me.
Crap Site
A few days ago, I posted something about “dirty design” and my pal forwarded an email from his student who designed this site:Dirt Style 101. Note that even the title is wrong. It’s absolutely terrible but worth playing with if you have any interest in what most sites looked like in 2003 (sorry, I mean 1993). Oh, and the content is badly funny.