A friday escape — a long Flash movie — an official summer fling (Happy Summer) is our feature this week. I liked this little work of art a lot — special thanks to Jeff Night for sending it my way. Pull up a chair, a long island iced tea, and take a looksee.
my life my life my life for the sunshine

Apparently I was somewhat unclear a few days back about Apple’s new Switch campaign, targeted to attract new users. As I said, I wish Apple luck but it’s almost as if they can’t help marketing to the hipster types. All of their ads feature somewhat cool-looking adults who are just happy as hell they went Mac. I don’t doubt either the individuals featured or the ad-makers’ hipness integrity. But what Apple really needs is a bunch of 57-year old adults to leave the Microsoft world and join the iMac club and not be embarassed by their friends next door while mowing the lawn on Saturday. What about teaming up with Microsoft and touting the new version of Office X for Mac OS X, which was designed from the ground up to be even better than Microsoft’s Office XP? Well, maybe not. Enough from Mr. End User.

I’m in the first part of this brand new book by Michael Oren that details with quiet rigor how Israel and its Arab neighbors became “involved” in the 1967 war. I felt like it was high time that I understand not only the prose and the poetry but the historical details of the events that shaped where we are today, with 7 Israelis killed, and yesterday, with 19 (or so). The lives that these young semi-scholars have taken is becoming extravangant. And while I’m continually sympathetic to the Palestinian need for statehood, I still do not see the historical precedent for suicide bombing as a path to peace. Is that what the black Africans did in South Africa? Is that what Indians did during British colonial rule? Is that what Soviet Jews did in the 1970s in the USSR? Is that what African-Americans did in the 1960s in the US? Where can this possibly lead? Where?
I strongly recommend picking up a copy of this book, which, while written by an Israeli, is as nonpartisan as one could probably get. He shows the travails and secret dealings that Egypt and Israel and Lebanon and Syria and the US and the USSR and England and France all had with one another in 1967 – no hands were clean. None.

Here are pictures of Yasser and Ariel having fun together in Israel P.S. It’s a gas. Found on Metafilter today, I found the need for this Photoshop levity this morning. I guess the coffee wasn’t strong enough.

It’s quite interesting that Apple, the brilliant little engine that could, has messed up yet another marketing strategy. In the most recent MacWorld, the magazine touts Apple’s new eMac but goes on to say that it will only be available for schools. Apple reversed this offer, allowing anyone to buy it, and now what we have is the eMac listed on its Web site. But wait, there’s more. The company is apparently having difficulty explaining to most people what the real difference is between its eMac and its new, 1950s looking iMac. I mean, what’s the difference between an “e” and an “i” anyway? At least with an “m” you can be pretty sure it stands for “mobile.”
I wish Apple a ton of luck because they actually do make some of the best technology out there. In fact, their latest ad campaign is touting the switch. I remember way back (oh, ten years ago) when people couldn’t quite say what the difference was between an Apple and a Mac. I hope they “switch” their VP for Marketing and Naming for someone else.

I saw this on a Yahoo! feature story. It’s pretty remarkable that the Web may be poetry’s best friend at this point. While the Web may in general be great for fast information, poetry may be our great hope in slowing us down, making us breathe through the screen and into awareness. (Full disclosure: I’m a big a fan of poetry in theory but find most contemporary poetry poor in practice.) Poetry.Com: Free Poetry Contest, Poems, Publishing, Links and Chat

I had the privilege today of walking in Prospect Park today with my daughter. The air was very cool and the wind breezed through and around my sandals. She slept under a warm pink blanket while I listened to something DJ Shadow piped over loudspeakers in the park, as theatrical workers were preparing an opera for tonight.
The music combined with the beatifically coolish air, a sleeping baby, and green for as far the eye could see set me alift. New York, for all its attitude, can also be a place of phenomenal public complexity, an unfixed arena that befits Frederick Olmstead’s vision of popular playgrounds. I was amazed at how well some of the pitchers were pitching to little leaguers. I was sorry for the poor guy selling ice cream and cold drinks outside today. And I felt like I was the only one in the park listening to those shadowed tones.
I got the new Moby. It’s quite good. As we all expected. I understand that it is his policy to NEVER turn down an interview, no matter the size or quality of the publisher. Hmm…..

Okay, folks. It’s pretty much set. The page is pretty ripe for reading and I’m thrilled to have a whole new format for publishing my insane banter.
About one month ago, I stumbled on this awesome site that logs NYC-based Web logs and geographically defines them via subway lines. It’s quite a marvel to behold.
I look forward to your comments about this new Deckchairs format.

Sometimes I think it’s as if the terrorists and the feds and the cops and the media and the Arabs and the rest are all acting like they’re supposed to act in some bad science fiction movie.
Do you think that Hollywood is to blame for all of this? I think it’s an interesting conceptual / cultural dilemma — have we exported the possibility of Die Hard-type violence to violent-prone cultures?
I see that MIB II is coming out soon. Who planned that? And will the new Office of Homeland Security have uniforms that look like that worn by the Fresh Prince?

Even as I become more obsessed with the potential of Blogger, I’m realizing its limiations. I’m seeking a way to re-publish my months of archives on a new blog and it’s not working all that well. I think the folks at Moveable Type have it going on but it’s just slightly beyond my technical reach at the moment.
I’m fascinated with the way that the media has been handling blogs lately. The New York Times, et. al., are really looking hard for stories about the Web’s usefulness when it’s all around us. Look at any magazine – where did the author get his facts, and how did the author do her primary research? How did a technology developer get an initial idea going? How do you think terrorists of the near future and past present are communicating? Blogs, while wonderful, are only part of the Web’s beauty.