Straydogz

2006-07-11T21:54:00.000-07:00

The Problem with T-Shirt Rhetoric . . .

In some cases, they are pithy mostly they are trite. And in some cases, they are provactive in ways the person wearing one couldn't have foreseen.

A t-shirt like this one, for example. No, not that one, the one that says "Your PC is a POS."

I was wearing one of those today...When I had to go into the Apple store...To visit the "genius bar" because I'd managed to screw up my iTunes library when transferring it to a new MacBook. (Oh yeah, one of the black ones...)

My afternoon? Freighted with irony, my friend.

2006-06-20T10:20:00.000-07:00

SonyBMG Goes Viral

The same company who brought you the infamous "rootkit fiasco" (copy protected CDs which actually launched rootkits into the PC registries of consumers who actually paid money for the CD)is now looking for consumer-creators to help them flog their music.
Despite my cheap shot doubling as an intro, you have to give SonyBMG credit for recognizing the power of viral-sharing amongst consumers. I've noted a similar attitude with other SonyBMG folks such as Scott Dinsdale, who gave a very solid presentation at Qualcomm's BREW Develpoers Conference in San Diego earlier this month.
Yet, I've gotta question music videos. Songs? I believe there is an absolutely empirically provable benefit to enabling taste-sharing etc. by allowing folks to virally share songs. And, yes, I believe it can be done in a controlled manner so that music label execs won't have to spend more time in group therapy/strategy sessions wondering how P2P came to pass. Music videos, however, have always struck me as something more like a temporary amusement sitting on top of the thing with lasting value -- the song.

2006-06-05T13:23:00.000-07:00

History Repeats Self . . . Again

This approach didn't work for the Christians back in the days o' the Coliseum either -- and they were forced to go in with the lions...

2006-06-05T13:17:00.000-07:00

Mobile Music and Media . . .

So things are operating somewhat smoother this week than in the past few weeks. Few changes here and there in terms of work. . .
But here are my new questions:
a) what is really the revenue-positive role of the mobile and wireless channel for the music industry? (Besides ringtones. I believe ww revenue for those has plateaued and will soon start to decline. Despite being embraced by record label execs and ringtone service providers, it appears ringtones have jumped the proverbial shark.)
I think SonyBMG's approach -- outlined at the BREW developers Conference last week --is the clearest-eyed appraisal of the opportunity. For the most idealistic and remarkably uncool: Verizon.
b) Search and mobile content: This is the newest frontier, in my opinion. I'll be looking at this more closely in the coming months.

2006-04-14T08:41:00.000-07:00

Don't Know What's the Matter with Me, Haven't got Much to Say. . .slsl
OK, maybe you could call it an extended hiatus. Whatever you want to call it, not much of anything has been posted here. So, heeding the advice of my mom, I've been keeping my hands away from the keyboard.
Don't have much to say today, but will be forcing myself to make a few posts. Gotta get the chops back.
So, the next thing you'll see is a new tool I've been playing with.

2005-11-16T10:39:00.000-08:00

Noted Management and Performance Expert Randy Moss Weighs in on TO

So in this article Randy opines that even the whack-job Raiders couldn't handle Moss and TO on the same team.

What's even more interesting are the folks supporting TO. Look at this 'graph and tell me you'd ever think you'd see these three coming together to protect the interests of a multimillon dollar athlete-/adolescent.

"Gene Upshaw, the NFL Players Association union chief, as well as the Rev. Jesse Jackson and activist Ralph Nader are joining forces in asking that the Eagles release Owens outright."

2005-10-15T19:22:00.000-07:00

Relative Importance of Art and Commerce to Society: Question for the Day...

Samuel Coleridge took some laudanum and conjured "Kubla (or Kublai)Khan."
Planners for Walt Disney imbided in spreadsheets and real-estate parcel maps of central Florida and "Disney World" erupted.

Does weighing their relative importance to society matter? (I say, yes, and Coleridge's effort is more valuable.)

Discusss.

As a matter of fact, yes I am within the boundaries of the Magic-Kingdom South. I'm here for work.

2005-10-07T12:32:00.000-07:00

Definitely a case of "The Wrong Trousers"

I dare you to read this and not think to yourself, "Is the best writing on the web to be found on eBay?"

2005-10-05T16:16:00.000-07:00

My Solemn Promise (The Rich Really Are Different than You and Me)

God forbid I ever amassed enough money to build my own house, but if I do I hereby promise not to build one that's bigger than the White House.

2005-08-15T20:32:00.000-07:00

The Power of TV Crawling across the bottom of my TV right now:
"Paula Abdul Cleared"
Of what?
Talking head: "No, I don't think the scandal will hurt her career."
What career?

2005-07-07T09:23:00.000-07:00

Village Voice and Time . . .
Here's a very good synopsis of Time/NYT/Valerie Plame case and why Time's manifestly cowardly decision is going to make it very hard for investigative journalism.
A free country needs a free press.

2005-07-06T13:33:00.000-07:00

It's a Sad Day . . .
When you're a former newspaper reporter and you pick up your paper and read this. It's an even sadder for Ms. Miller and her family. At least she's doing the right thing. Society is definitely the worse for this.
And all two people who might be reading this, if you have one, I'd suggest you cancel your subscription from TIME. All you'll be reading is what the government has decided is appropriate for you to read...
It's very odd to be a middle-aged old goat these days. Odd and scary. Odd to have grown up in the 60s and 70s with all its vital social and political movements, to have been encouraged to participate in these movements by my parents and others, and to look around and see the apathy.
I mean, the Supreme Court basically said, property rights schmoperty rights. Oh yeah, we're all about the constitutional right to own property without fear of an illegal taking by the government. We're a real "ownership society." Unless, of course, some rich white folks could make a lot of money if only they could OWN your property by buying it for less than market value. In that case, the rich(er)white folks should get your property for dimes on the dollar. There's your ownership society for you...
And now, a federal prosecutor says that reporters don't have the right to grant confidentiality to their sources. Actually he said "no one in America" has that right. Wow. What about my doctor, dentist, shrink, teacher etc. No one, huh?
Maybe everybody's just too worn fucking down to protest. Worn down by govermental incompetence (iraq war), or malfeasence(irag war), political incompetence (iraq war), or malfeasence (Tom Delay and the Irag war), tenuous job markets.
Protest what? One single thing? Just one?

2005-06-01T18:05:00.000-07:00

Mick and a Christian Broadcaster Battle for My Soul!

I'm driving home from a long day at work. I've got my ipod hooked to the not-so-great (manufactur's name omitted) radio-tuner link. (I really don't care for this set-up but I'd emptied my CD changer.)

The wonder of "shuffle" had popped up "Sympathy for the Devil" from the Stone's "Love you Live" albums/CD (from the infamous '75 tour). It's a mixed bag of of tunes. Rough, not terribly "polished" like the current Stones efforts, so it's wonderful as far as I'm concerned.

But just as Keith and Ronnie crunch the opening riffs, a voice that can only come from somebody who once sold life insurance is riffing on about how "christianity" and the "bible" are "confronted by these other religions.

This signal fades out as Mick yells "...stole many a man's soul..."
"Jesus is the savior..." replies the preacher as the signal fades.
"...when the blitzkreig raged and the bodies..."

This goes on for several miles. The frequency is 88.1FM in the south bay. I wonder if this broadcast is licensed.

There are lessons here somewhere. First, these radio-tuner connectors for portable music players, including the iPod, suck (I mean, I ripped the damn CD at AIFF for better audio quality and this damn tuner-connectors makes it sound like a BAD radio.) Second, what the heck is the FCC doing? Third, a lot of preachers could learn a thing or two about DELIVERY from Mick.

2005-05-23T18:17:00.000-07:00

"Ahnold" Must be Feeling the Heat . . .

Noted thespian turned semi-elected official (remember the recall) Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger must be hitting bottom. First this , and then the "opinion poll" call I mistakenly agreed to take. (Hey, we should all participate in the process. At least that's what I told myself when I started the call.)

Lots of questions starting with "The Legislators of California have blocked . . . " and "...The Legislature for years has blocked reform of teachers salaries..." and "California's unions have for years..." Or "Gov. Schwarzenegger wants to save the children of the state from a rapacious state legislature more interested in paying off their 'special interests...' "

It was really lame. And tedious. I let it go on for 20 mins. before throwing in the towel. I normally love being involved in the early stages of a propaganda campaign, but this was just painfully boring. I mean, it so unabashedly lame that even diehard Orange County republicans should be embarrassed.

How strongly do you agree or disagree with the statement that the California State Legislature is populated by a teeming bunch of greedhead morons doing the bidding of nefarious corporations?
a) Oh hell yeah (strongly agree)
b) Somewhat agree (I have an opinion but I don't want to upset anybody)
c) Not sure (I only read the sports section of the SF Chronicle and watch "Sportscenter")
d) I opted out of the "power structure" in 1972, man...

2005-05-01T10:18:00.000-07:00

Unholy Alliance: Local Police Bureaucrats and Promo-types

It's Friday and the wife and I are headed to our favorite local sushi restaurant (Bonsai, in the same building as Cafe Barrone and Kepler's in Menlo Park; there's also a new Bonsai in Redwood City on ECR).
We're heading south on ECR when the traffic slows, slows and finally stops. Not long-stoplight-stop, but accident-ahead-type stop. My wife sticks her head out the window and sees the flashing lights of a Redwood City PD SUV.
"Must be an accident," she says. I turn up Beck's "Guero." We chill. Good thing, too, because it takes us several minutes to go 100 yards.

When we finally get up to where the coper's SUV is just a few yards ahead of us, we see what's REALLY going on and a string of epithets -- many of them coming from the mouth of my small, petite blonde wife.

Turns out that an entire lane of traffic on ECR -- one of if not the main thoroughfare's on the Peninsula -- is shut down. Closed. Why? So that the brand new Ferrari-Lamborghini dealership can allow potential clients to park their cars. There are kids in t-shirts running around so it appears the dealership is allowing the hoi-paloi in. (Probably just to give the impression of a big crowd.)

My wife and I are incensed. As cynics know, publicists believe all PR is good and that crowds tend to grow geometrically if even a small crowd can be formed and a cop SUV with flashing lights is added. My wife and I are cynics. We both instantly recognized that the dealer called the Redwood City Police ahead of time, saying they expected a big crowd. RCPD respond by actually sending uniformed officers to "handle" this situation. (The cops were probably sitting inside drinking espresso.) Outcome: a big crowd forming to see why a big cop SUV has its lights flashing. All the beautiful rich white people inside feel special because they actually part of an "event."

Coincidentally, that same day we received ballots for an upcoming local election with a measure seeking to tack on $85 a year to our property tax in order to boost funding at local schools.

Perhaps the backers of this measure should seek out the publicist for the new Ferrai dealership.

2005-04-28T09:14:00.000-07:00

They Missed One . . .

NBC joins the "please-won't-somebody-save-us-from-ourselves" movement by putting little letters next to show listings to indicate whether the content is (mindlessly) violent, sexually explicit(boring) etc. I'm confused by "fantasy violence." What the hell does that mean? Smurf-on-Smurf violence? Tinkerbell blowing away Bambi with an AK-47? I wonder if these content ratings are used by cynical advertisers? ("Heavy ads on all 'v', go light on 'fantasy violence' because nobody watches 'StarTrek' shows anymore...)

I want "I" for "insipd -- content you wouldn't inflict on the comatose..."

2005-04-27T12:51:00.000-07:00

Finally, some ink on a major annoyance . . .
Today's SFGate has a story highlighting one of my pet peeves. Check it out here.

Our humble household receives, on average, three catalogs a month from Victoria's Secret. What's really interesting is that I don't think my wife's ever bought anything from the catalog. She's an in-store type shopper.

But, hey, anything that helps educate the direct marketers of the world is OK by me. I hope they're deeply embarassed and ashamed. As they should be...

2005-04-22T09:02:00.000-07:00

Apple's "Trade Secrets"

Much ink has been spilled in the name of journalistic hand-wringing regarding Apple's legal efforts to find out who leaked information about a forthcoming product called "asteroid."

Nice provocative article in the LA Times. Hiltzik makes some interesting points in defending the online journalists in question and arguing that they and their sources deserve protection under the state's "shield law" and should not be forced to ID their sources for their stories.

While he, the judge, and Apple focused on the question of whether PowerPage's editors and reporters are journalists, I think the real issue is whether news/information about unreleased products is "in the public interest." (I oversimplify, but that's generally at the heart of these kinds of cases.)

Hiltzik argues that any information about any matter of interest to any sector of the "public," no matter how trivial, is in the public interest. He also argues that Apple's product plans and their release dates do not constitute "trade secrets." Neither Hiltzik nor I are lawyers (at least his bio in the LATimes does not indicate that he is an attorney), so I'd say it's rather specious for either one of us to make serious legal arguments.

As a matter of personal opinion, there is no public benefit for information about unreleased products save for those who would seek to gain unfair advantage by its release -- competitors, stock traders, for example. Exceptions: for information about products that might actually effect human health and safety e.g. genetically engineered crops etc.

Bravo for Hiltzik's defense of fellow journalists. (Disclosure: I was a daily reporter for 8 years and was threatened multiple times with being hauled into court to ID sources or turned over notes; and once I actually was hauled into court.)

In this instance, however, I can't buy his argument.

2005-04-19T15:43:00.000-07:00

Casual Censorship, Vandalism or Protecting the Children ???

It seems that various "family values" politicians and a few clever technology companies managed to get the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005 passed today. (Many stories but this is very good.) The bill essentially kills a lawsuit brought by directors against a company called ClearPlay. They sell software that skips through profane, violent or sexually explicit content being played on a DVD. Nice. Maybe ClearPlay can design some glasses for folks who walk through the Louvre or the Prada -- wouldn't want folks to get upset by any nekkid statues...Note: what's really at play here isn't so much the freedom to innovate with technology (the EFF's position), an important point, but not nearly as important the issue of a creator's "moral right." (A concept of copyright law, which is very narrowly applied in the U.S., that holds that a creator has some say about how his/her work is used by others.)

Innovation or tool of the anti-art, religious fundamentalists? Is there any difference between the "sanitizing" of "Saving Private Ryan," "Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down" (still one of the sweetest, funniest movies I've seen) and the Taliban blowing up the enormous ancient statues of Buddhas? I mean, dynamite aside... I've heard the folks at ClearPlay give their spiel at various industry conferences. If you don't watch movies with your kids, or you don't trust them, or you don't talk to them, then I suppose ClearPlay will make you rest easier. I suppose, also, if you want somebody else's art to conform to your particular world view, then I suppose a ClearPlay-enabled DVD is for you. I personally find it objectionable that our legislators find it important to get involved in a case that is already with a judge. And why am I not surpsied that Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, is involved?

(What I really want is for somebody to give me ClearPlay-For-Reality. I just want the Bush Administration to be skipped over, as long as the next one isn't Dick Cheney. Or Bill Frist. Or Rick Santorum. Tom DeLay can never be elected president, right? It's just not possible, is it?)

Oh, and piggybacked onto this was a bill that makes it a felony to take a camcorder into a theater and create a "screener" copy of a movie. Fine with me. That's definitely an act of piracy that can't really be defended. However, five years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine? Wow.

2005-04-18T22:14:00.000-07:00

Jon Carroll was Right . . . about "24"

Despite his predilection for inflicting on readers pointless and cloying columns about his cats, I really enjoy Carroll. Always have. This column which talked about our increasing tolerance of tools of control such as torture and the endless "torture-o-rama" that is "24" was particularly incisive. "24" is a marvel of pacing and editing. And it's almost completely ridiculous. (I suspect it is probably Donald Rumsfeld's stroke show...But I digress.)

I was reminded of Carroll's column after I watched "24" tonight. In this episode, all hell's broken loose, again. The protagonist, Jack Bauer/Kiefer Sutherland, decides to resign in order to question (read "torture") a suspected terrorist. (Of course, stolen nuclear weapons are at stake.) Bauer/Sutherland does this because the terrorist suspect has legal counsel, the bastard. If Bauer/Sutherland were still working for the government, he'd have to adhere to certain annoying constitutional requirements like not hooking electrodes to a suspects private parts while his attorney is in the room. Bauer resigns, runs out of his office, follows the suspect into a darkened parking lot. When the suspect's commie lawyer drives away, Bauer accosts the suspect, throws him in a car and proceeds to snap the suspect's fingers until he gets the information. Amazingly, all of this happens in less than a minute.

As Carroll points out in his column, almost everybody who gets tortured turns out to be a dupe or, surprisingly, innocent. In this episode, I'm pretty sure the victim/terrorist is probably not innocent. And this is where I get worried.

I really do think the producers of "24" are trying to soften us up. You know, make us feel the righteous indignation of an all-pervasive victimhood, of being fearful of terrorist attack. All the time. They want to reinforce the notion that organizations like Amnesty International and the ACLU can't stand in the way of a red-blooded American on a mission to protect all of us from the "evil doers." Even if he or she has to violate virtually everything the U.S. Constitution stands for...

My problem with that is that not every single FBI agent, CIA agent, DIA agent, etc. etc. is Jack Bauer who seems to be able to find almost all the bad guys all of the time.

From now on, it's "sports center" and Giants games on TV. Period.

Harold Reynolds for President!

2005-04-18T16:03:00.000-07:00

...And the Music Industry Sees Wireless Carriers as Important Allies ???

An confluence of stories today. First, this article on c:net about the record label's industry's fear of Jobs' growing influence over their business is driving them to rely on the mobile phone carriers as a counterbalance...Second, this interview with Verizon's CEO the SFChronicle wherein said CEO comes off as taking a dim view of what he thinks are unreasonable consumer expectations. Like having their mobile phones work at, of all the unexpected places, their homes.

So we have record labels anxious to use the mobile-wireless channels to create a compelling new distribution channel to blunt Jobs+Apple's power and at least one head of a mobile-wireless carrier that wants to lower customer expectations?

What an interesting pair of dynamics...

2005-04-16T11:38:00.000-07:00

More Evidence that Incumbent Media Leaders Just Don't Get it . . .

Read this and wonder. Why would shareholders actually allow top executives of Viacom, let alone any other publicly traded company receive multimillion bonuses when the company's stock price -- a key metric perhaps the only real metric that matters to investors -- is stagnant or falling? How can executives who fail on this metric take a multi-million dollar payout when the past performance is flat to negative?

(All I'm going to say about this is: Steve Jobs takes a salary of $1/year. Last year, he got something like $75 worth of stock. The year before, instead of a bunch of $$ he asked for a Gulf Stream V. Extravagent? yeah, maybe, but not compared to the viacom folks. Most importantly, just look at Apple's performance since he returned in 1996.)

My humble opinon is that folks like Redstone, Chernin and Moonves actually think they deserve it. Just like they deserve charging their company tens of thousands of dollars because they "stayed in their own houses" in NYC instead of a hotel. (They're based in LA. I thought the whole idea of staying at your "other" house in NYC, or for those of us with more modest incomes, our friends or relatives, when traveling on business was to save the company money. Is it possible that these guys could have run up hotel bills of $40K or more? I mean, even in a year?)

I'd have to say these guys are quickly becoming the new white-boys-on-welfare. (A term coined to describe folks who've spent a lot of time in Silicon Valley, getting VP titles and then maintaining them for years at various companies without really ever having to do anything.) What's really galling, and I'm not even a shareholder, for chrissakes, is that these guys are the "stars" of an industry staring down massive changes to their industry and their reaction? Their strategies? Continuing their unhealthy addiction to mass advertising, reality TV and buying each others companies (consolidation) in order to maintain the lifestyles to which they've become acccustomed. ('Cause, you know, it's hard to find a foursome comprised of mega-rich white dudes who understand each other.)

For God's sake, will somebody pay off these dorks to get rid of them? It doesn't appear that they're going to innovate to actually earn their paychecks/stock options/ lodging expenses/lunches/cars etc. Head off to your undoubtedly comfortable retirements, guys. You need to let the next generation of companies like Starbucks, Yahoo, Apple and others can get down to re-building the "media" to function more efficiently in a digital age.

2005-04-12T16:44:00.000-07:00

What I did on my sabbatical . . . Besides ski, I mean.

What’s happening at the intersection of creativity, the commerce of creativity and copyright was the focus of the one-day conference, “Signal/Noise 2k5 Creative Revolution?” put on by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School (http://cyber.law.harvard.edu). The conference focused on the state of copyright law in relation to the reality of the digital media era, especially with the developing of collagist art forms including digital video collaging, audio “mash-ups” and “samples” where bits of content – pictures, video and pre-recorded music – become “source material” for new works. (My work partner Allen and I have written extensively about how the development of digital media tools is contributing to the evolution of consumers from passive recipients of content to active participants. While much of our commentary and research is concerned with shifts in consumer behavior and the development of consumer-facing digital media technologies, how copyright evolves, or doesn’t, is crucial to the media and technology industries. )

Over the course of three panels and remarks made by Berkman moderators is that the tension between copyright holders, the artists who created the copyrighted works and consumers who want to both consume and “use” copyrighted material is growing. While professionals pay for “samples” (some of the time), should consumers or are they protected under the “fair use” doctrine? The key forces at work are:

o Creators/copyright holders seeking greater control in the form of longer copyright terms and deploying technological protection measures to restrict or more tightly proscribe how consumers can use digital media.

o Consumer-creators taking advantage of a constant stream of technological innovation for consumption and manipulation of content – both their own and copyrighted material they’ve acquired. For what purposes?
o Commercial – Mash-ups, remixes (Danger Mouse, DJ Shadow), but less likely for direct purchases of the content but perhaps more for helping drive traffic to a blog or website.
o Non-commercial – personal expression, satire and other political commentary. Essentially, every thing else that isn’t commercial.

Lot of interesting back and fourth on the topic. Lots of interesting points (check http://cyber.law.harvard.edu for “official” recaps…). One topic that was touched up on a couple of times was the area of “moral rights.” This is a narrow area of copyright law that applies primarily to visual (paintings etc.) art wherein the creator exerts some control over how and in what context her work might be used by others. (as opposed to being able to exert control over the sale, public performance, reproduction etc.) DISCLAIMER: yep, I’m not a lawyer.

Musicians and copyright holders don’t have a lot of say over the “context” or in what type of work their music might be used. As a practical matter, there are cases where the sampling artist does contact the original tune’s creator, but it’s not codified. I think it’s bound to be one of the most contentious areas of copyright law during the next several years. If you believe that digital media tools are giving everybody the ability to create their own forms of digital “found art,” then I think you’d agree.

Anyhow, most surprising thing I heard came from John Perry Barlow, co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, retired cattle rancher, cognitive dissident and former lyricist for the Grateful Dead. I’ve always found Barlow an extremely thoughtful observer of music, the business of music and copyright – almost all of which can be found all over the Web. While he’s known for arguing the futility of restrictive copyright and DRM (he claims there’s a real thin line between “digital rights management” and “political rights management” – he confessed to currently being concerned about what can happen to a revenue stream he and the rest of the Grateful Dead enjoy.

The situation is not a little ironic. As everybody knows, the Grateful Dead were one of if not the first band to allow their audiences to tape the live shows. This was a practice the band accepted and encouraged almost from the beginning of their professional careers. (Not only was it a clever bit of audience-building, it reflected a belief that once the music left the speakers at a show, the music belonged to the audience, not the band. (However, the group did NOT allow audience tapes to be sold. In many instances, the GD community enforced this rule.)

Back to the present: In the past decade the Grateful Dead enjoyed a very nice profitable income from the sale of Grateful Dead performances, the very same performances that thousands of fans recorded themselves and then exchanged with even more fans. Why? The band (more or less professionally) recorded virtually every show with the advantage of recording directly off the sound-, mixing board, resulting in much higher quality versions of the shows. Knowing that the music counted, and that true music lovers will always go for higher quality, the Grateful Dead have released 30-something of the “dick’s picks” series which have done quite well, thank you very much. In effect, the Grateful Dead figured out a way to compete with “free.” A question to which most of the major labels are still trying to find an answer.

Well now, what’s happened is that deadheads or others are ripping copies of these high-quality recordings and, you guessed it, started posting them on Archive.org, and making sure that they told every other deadhead on messageboards etc. I give Barlow credit for being honest and admitting that this latest development bothers him because he, and the other band members, their families, estates etc. could actually lose money.

“The band’s manager asked what I thought we should do,” Barlow said, “I told him I’d have to get back to him.”

I think the answer’s going to be complicated and will be a while in coming.

2005-04-02T11:43:00.000-08:00

Message to Sen. Bill Frist:

Please shift your focus, and if you have any real political clout, the Senate's resources on stopping this "regrettable loss of life" instead of this "regrettable loss of life" that is of no concern to any elected official, save the judges who are handling the cases.

Message to Rep. Tom Delay
Keep it up!!! Your amazingly melodramatic threats and completely transparent politicking of a family's tragedy is some of the most macabre entertainment I've seen. I think Dante wrote that there was a special ring in hell for people like you.

2005-04-02T11:27:00.000-08:00

Traveling . . .

Thoreau said most folks lead lives of "quiet desperation." That might have been the case in 19th century America, but in 2005, we lead lives of loud banality.

Getting ready to fly home from a conference last night, a bunch of us standing on the jetway heard this guy before we ever saw him..."What, oh, Barbara? No, we haven't met but how are you girlfriend? Well, a bunch of his are going to see U2 this weekend..." This engrossing one-sided dialogue continued for a bit, when suddenly it was clear the call with Barbara ended and the guy was on another call. (The guy hadn't reached the end of the boarding line, so we still hadn't seen him. But the amazing acoustics of an older jetway, we certainly heard him.)

"Hey, dude, I just got off a call with that hottie Barbara...No fucking kidding..." This goes on and on, when suddenly he pops around the corner of the jetway. He's maybe 6 ft., in his mid-20s and resplendent in a VanStussey baseball hat and a blue t-shirt with a bold Harley logo framed by a blue-flame pattern.)

In short, a loud, lame walking billboard.

2005-04-02T11:25:00.000-08:00

Spring Training Notes

Spent the past two days in sunny and warm Scottsdale, AZ, with my work partner Allen, his wife Kathy and their daughter, Carly. (Being a vivacious young teen-ager, Carly was only glimpsed in flashes between school, bat mitzvah training and, well, more school. We did share some pizza and had a great conversation.)

I went down to attend my first spring training. Since I haven’t really been closely following the Gi’nts off-season machinations, but as a fan, this would be a good chance to see the team. Allen and I took in a Gi’nts-D-backs game on Tuesday, followed by a Cubs-Rockies game on Wednesday. (Giants won 9-5; Cubs beat the Rockies 5-4.) (Work-related note: another reason for the trip was to try out a new MPEG-4 video camera and the iMovie editing tool to see how we could put together our own post-game show. You can see the results here.)

The team looks decent in all areas and might even be fun to watch even if it does have to go Barry-less for a chunk of the season. Who looked good? Happy Pedro. I still don’t know why this guy isn’t starting. I mean, really. He was in left for the game I saw against the D-backs and it looks like he’ll stick there until Barry gets back. Rather, if Barry gets back. Anyhow, Sabean has to get his priorities together and sign this guy and give him a full-time starting gig.

I’m not dwelling on Barry much. If the ‘roids or his girlfriends don’t get him, the IRS will. Cheating at professional sports is one thing; messing with the IRS is really serious. While his petulance is tiresome, at least he’s not coming off like some inarticulate coward like Mark McGwyre. I mean, Jesus Christ, Jose Canseco is coming off like the captain of the Harvard Debate Team when compared to (Not-so) Big Mac.

Hmm. I’ve apparently gone off the rails…

Good news: Jerome Williams looks sharp. So does Jim Brower. Omar Vizquiel looks to be a total all-star – for a guy who is like, what, 50 years old? Alfonzo looks to have shed some pounds and played solidly at third on Tuesday, save for a total muff of a hard but playable shot from one of the d-backs. Davi Cruz was filling in for Durham and was almost serviceable.

Best part of the trip: Being fortunate enough to hang around Allen, Kathy and Carly for 24 hours in their beautiful house full of great art!!! Thanks, guys!

2005-04-02T11:11:00.000-08:00

Spring Training Notes

Spent the past two days in sunny and warm Scottsdale, AZ, with my work partner Allen, his wife Kathy and their daughter, Carly. (Being a vivacious young teen-ager, Carly was only glimpsed in flashes between school, bat mitzvah training and, well, more school. We did share some pizza and had a great conversation.)

I went down to attend my first spring training. Since I haven’t really been closely following the Gi’nts off-season machinations, but as a fan, this would be a good chance to see the team. Allen and I took in a Gi’nts-D-backs game on Tuesday, followed by a Cubs-Rockies game on Wednesday. (Giants won 9-5; Cubs beat the Rockies 5-4.) (Work-related note: another reason for the trip was to try out a new MPEG-4 video camera and the iMovie editing tool to see how we could put together our own post-game show. You can see the results here.)

The team looks decent in all areas and might even be fun to watch even if it does have to go Barry-less for a chunk of the season. Who looked good? Happy Pedro. I still don’t know why this guy isn’t starting. I mean, really. He was in left for the game I saw against the D-backs and it looks like he’ll stick there until Barry gets back. Rather, if Barry gets back. Anyhow, Sabean has to get his priorities together and sign this guy and give him a full-time starting gig.

I’m not dwelling on Barry much. If the ‘roids or his girlfriends don’t get him, the IRS will. Cheating at professional sports is one thing; messing with the IRS is really serious. While his petulance is tiresome, at least he’s not coming off like some inarticulate coward like Mark McGwyre. I mean, Jesus Christ, Jose Canseco is coming off like the captain of the Harvard Debate Team when compared to (Not-so) Big Mac.

Hmm. I’ve apparently gone off the rails…
Good news: Jerome Williams looks sharp. So does Jim Brower. Omar Vizquiel looks to be a total all-star – for a guy who is like, what, 50 years old? Alfonzo looks to have shed some pounds and played solidly at third on Tuesday, save for a total muff of a hard but playable shot from one of the d-backs. Davi Cruz was filling in for Durham and was almost serviceable. Almost.

Best part of the trip: Being fortunate enough to hang around Allen, Kathy and Carly for 24 hours in their beautiful house full of great art!!! Thanks, guys!

2005-03-28T09:19:00.000-08:00

Extended Break from Work -- One Week Gone

My day job has a policy that let's us take a month off after four years of service. It's a fairly generous policy given the type of company that empoys me, where it's headquartered etc. Unlike the "sabbaticals" in academia, this sabbatical is shorter and far less demanding. It's basically a month off.

So, being who I am, and that my wife's work schedule wouldn't allow for her to take a full month off, I really didn't plan to do anyting other than ski (no surprise to anybody who knows me) and start, and maybe even complete a job or two around the house.

Well, so far so good. Been up for a few days of skiing. Though stormy, the snow was good. To get a couple of "good" days of skiing during the first week of vacation, however, required paying a fairly steep price. Like close to 10 hours in my car for trips that should have taken a mere 4 hours each.

I live in the Bay Area and grew up skiing. As a result, I have a reasonably high tolerance for 3.5 to 4-hour drives in the Sierra Nevada which can be fairly serious affairs if there's a storm. Nothing prepared me for Sunday, March 20th. On that day, I left the Cal-Neva loddge in Stateline at 2 p.m. I didn't get back to Redwood City CA until 1:15 a.m. Just under 11 hours for a one-way trip. Why? I don't know. It was snowing on Highway 80 but it wasn't awful. (At least by my standards which have developed over 30 years of either driving or being a passenger in a car headed to or back from a ski resort.) Why the road was "closed" isn't important. What is important is that I was stuck on an on-ramp to i-80 for nearly 6 hours. Didn't move. Couldn't turn around, couldn't go get a cup of coffee. Nothing. Sigh.

OK, I figured this was the season's "bad driving day." I believe that anybody who skis or snowboards regularly has at least one of these days per season. might be an accident. Might be car trouble. Might be a simple matter of too much snow and not enough plows. Whatever the cause, most of us kind of treat it as one of the costs of skiing.

I really did feel this way even after after getting home about 8 hours later than I should have on Sunday the 20th. I felt that way right up until Wednesday, march 23rd. Here again, I was skiing. I was skiing powder with my friend Tom, a man of manifold skills and a truly big-hair skier. Before we started, we knew it would be a low-light day of powder and promised each other that, no matter what, we'd stop at 12:45 or 12:50. Me, so I could get home and cook dinner for my wife and a friend who was visiting. Tom had to do a work-related con-call back at his home office in Truckee.

We ski powder and have great fun. At 12:50, we're at the top of the mountain and agree to head back to the car. I'm in my car at 1:15 p.m. driving home. I"m feeling good 'cause I left on time and the highway looks open and cars are moving westbound -- my direction. I feel so confident in my progress and the road, that as I'm approaching the chain-control guys, I call my wife and my friend, leaving messages that I'm well on my way, traffic looks manageable and that I should be home by 5:45 or 6 p.m.

As I hang up my mobile phone, I notice that I'm only two cars away from the open road. I fully expect to be waved through as I have a Subaru with snow tires. Suddenly, a raggedy-assed gloved hand of the yellow-storm-suited CalTrans worker shoots up in the univeral "halt" sign to the first of the two cars in front of me.

"Hump," I say to myself, "You're supposed to put the chains on before you get to chain control."

Then the first car's brake lights go dark and the driver gets out. He talks to the Caltrans guy. he points up the hill towards the highway. The Caltrans guy points out towards the highway, shaking his head slowly. We wait. I figure we're waiting for a snow-plow to come through and get a head of the line of traffic that's building up.

One hour later, my snow-plow has not arrived. Nobody's moved. The CalTrans guy says there are a bunch of spin-outs and accidents up on the hill. It's closed indefinitely.

I'm not happy. Neither are the hundred or so other folks hanging around. Stuck.

Three hours later, I completely snap. I pull out of line, tell the Caltrans guy to let me out. I'm going to get off at the off-ramp by which we're stopped and go back to the North Shore. He lets me through, warning me not to try anything funny and try to get back on the road a few hundreds yards west of where we are. I promise not to. I get off and immediately disgregard his warning and try to shoot back onto 80 from the on-ramp we'd discussed previously. However, another Caltrans guy in a truck cuts me off. After being threatened with arrest, or at least an expensive ticket, they let me go and ESCORT ME DOWN THE FRONTAGE ROAD to the on ramp to eastbound 80.

Pissed and embarassed, I drive all the way around Lake Tahoe to Meyers where I catch westbond 50. IT's open, but barely.

The rest of the drive home is through weather of biblical proportions: snow, heavy snow, sleet, high wind, lightening (near Meyers, I swear to God), more rain and, to top it off, about 30 miles of low ground fog on 50 between Echo Summit and Placerville.

I got home to RC by 9:30 p.m.

2005-03-16T09:57:00.000-08:00

Does Fiona Apple Know Something Big Labels Don't?

Probably. This column regarding the "leak" of songs from an album Ms. Apple finished two years ago is fascinating for a couple of reasons:
a) Damn, fans are certainly an industrious lot. If you've got fans, and you've got songs, and you work for a label that doesn't want to market it, the fans will find a way to get it. Can anybody in any other industry that sells discretionary items even dream of this kind of demand? Can anybody in any other industry even understand WHY Sony execs sit on an album by an artist who apparently has a solid fan base? Are their legal questions? Whatever. Why are Sony execs giving the appearance that they are leaving money on the table?
b) As these sorts of stories proliferate, and artists go quiet (probably because they might be near the end of their contracts???) one has to wonder what the investment community must be thinking about making any bets with current record labels. More to the point, should current investors of record labels be wondering whether or not label execs who engage in such behavior (sitting on albums because they don't think it will sell) are actually working against their interests?
Let's think about this (and accept that Mr. Morford's column is generally correct). Sony doesn't think they can "sell" this album. Of course, they're thinking within the standard label context of justifying millions in advertising, promotional efforts etc. On the other hand, if you've got a fan base that's Internet-enabled, and the fans like the material, why the hell wouldn't you release it online immediately?
Oh, I'm sure a label lawyer would tell me there are many, many, many complex reasons for the label taking such action. Some of those reasons might even be logical -- at least to them.

2005-03-10T16:47:00.000-08:00

The Mobile Music Opportunity: Part 1

Fight or flight. Only the strong survive. The biological imperative. All those catchphrases we remember from psychology and biology classes. When do we get to start throwing them at mobile carriers? Yesterday.

This item in the Register gives us more evidence. (Not the piece. I happen to think very highly of Mr. Orlowski's particular style. Notice how he cops to a misapprehension in a previous story. Very smoove, as they say...And I like the Register's particularly catty take on things.)

But anyhow. I mean, really. Do the carriers want a piece of iTunes transactions before they approve of the Moto handsets that have a version of iTunes preloaded? Of what transaction? Since this scheme doesn't involve an over-the-air download (from the network directly to the phone) but is simply a reaction to existing consumer desires (many folks have growing libraries of music on their PC hard drives and want to spread some of those songs onto other devices), there's no "transaction" involved. I'm trying to be understanding here, but is this just simple greed?

Look, I know being a wireless carriers is only kind of profitable, but this is silly. And it's just bad business. Why? Because all it's going to take is one of the carriers to step out of line and say "yes" to Moto/iTunes.

2005-03-07T13:48:00.000-08:00

Back from Canada Music Week . . .
An interesting couple of days in a frigid Toronto. (For more info, go check out my post here.
Flying back on Air Canada. Perhaps it’s too many flights on too many airlines staffed by fight attendants who have borne the brunt of cost-cutting measures levied by unimaginative management, but Air Canada crews seem much friendlier than the crews for American-based airlines.

Yet, I am not annoyed. I am not harried. I’m just kind of basking in aural whirlpools and eddies. Through the magic of shuffle on the big-dick 60GB iPod Photo I’m toting around, my mellon’s been simmering: Outkast’s “vibrate” into Charlie Mingus’ “Tijuana Gift Shop – Alternate Take -- off the excellent “Tijuana Moods” – thanks, Chris –into Warren’s “Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner” into Dolly Parton’s “Coat of Many Colors” into a tasty “Ramble on Rose” (grateful dead, Redrocks Amphitheater, 7-8-77).

Multiplicity, thy name is shuffle.

My use of the compound adjective as applied to a piece of technology is not mine alone. I must admit that in a prior life, I came to meet and know Penn Jillette of “Pen and Teller.” (He’s the tall, loud one.) I got to know Penn because the company I worked for at the time, GRiD Systems, was considered a design leader portable computers. We made products used by the Department of Defense, U.S. Navy, Marines and various industries that really needed portable computers. And could afford the $10,000 per unit. Anyhow, Penn was apparently a fairly proficient DOS coder at the time. And given his travel schedule, he pretty much needed a portable computer. Somebody at my company was smart enough to let Penn have loaners whenever he wanted. Hey, celebrity endorsements work.
All was going really well for me. I got to hang with Penn at his apartment in New York, he got free machines and was not shy about singing their praises. Then came a radio interview in SF, I believe, and Penn was the guest on the Alex Bennett show (this was back in the 1991, and Bennett had a regular segment on technology.) Penn was giving GRiD products major props when Alex asked him how he would simply describe his latest GRiD product. “Alex, this is a totally big-dick machine.”

Needless to say, the value of Penn’s endorsements suddenly plummeted in the eyes of GRiD’s executives…

Penn also has interesting stories about this guy . . .

2005-02-24T15:36:00.000-08:00

Think of the Child, Think of the Child...

This item just cracked me up. I was particularly amused the the defendant's lawyer who thought the complainant was being hard-hearted and indifferent to the child's pain that she would most certainly occur when she found out her biological dad was disturbed and upset by her birth.

True, so very true. Of course, the potential pain and suffering might be relatively minor compared to the existential pain she'll feel when she finds out how she was conceived...

(I was also able to come up with at least two or three tasteless joke ideas...)

2005-02-22T09:28:00.000-08:00

Fearless, and often slurred, Speech: Hunter S. Thompson

Yes, i was one of those punk high schoolers who started writing for the school paper at about the same time as I was reading "Fear and Loathing." (Interestingly, I was also riding motocross bikes in the desert -- the "assignment" that serves as some sort of central conceit for the book was HST covering the "mint 400. I gave up defacing the earth soon after graduating from high school.)

What did Hunter mean to me? Fearless speech. Fearless questioning.

I grew up wearing hawaiian-print shirts, I worse sunglasses at all hours. I didn't inhale everything and anything that came my way. And I didn't smoke Dunhills in a cigarette holder. But, man, did I love Hunter's sentences. His visions/hallucinations could be tedious. His obvious love of language and the fact that he was a very intelligent man, was the foundation upon which all the weirdness was just slathered on like so much peanut butter.

I read in some typically superficial "media" blog that HST was "down" about the country's recent shift to the right. What cheap intellectual jerk-off. If we know anything about HST, we know that he probably was incensed about the turn to the right, especially since it has little to do with morality and much more to do with a sort of religious fundamentalism that plays off peoples fears, not their desire to be "good" people. Rather, I tend to believe a small element of the story link above: he was getting old and infirm. He was in pain. I buy that.

To think that Bush and Rove and DeLay et al drove him to his final end is not something I want to believe.

2005-02-17T14:33:00.000-08:00

Maybe I really do need help...

I mean, look at this excerpt from my currently playing Rhapsody playlist RHAPSODY Link">here.
Johnny Hartman/John Coltrane's "Lush Life" "into" Iggy Pop and "lust for life?"
I'm sitting here at work trying to write something coherent and that little coupling popped out of the speakers.
Oh great, now the list has jumped to CVB's "Mao Reminisces about his days in Southern China."
Where's all my music from artists who might actually be considered new???
Green Day ("American Idiot" really is the work of an uncommonly good group)? No, they're not new. Maybe My Morning Jacket will come on soon...they're in one of these damn playlists...maybe they're on one of my iTunes lists...

2005-02-16T10:26:00.000-08:00

Reporters being Reporters Under an allegedly Totalitarian Government...

"totalitarian" is defined by the Encarta dictionary as " . . . relating to or operating a centralized government system in which a single party without opposition rules over political, economic, social, and cultural life."

Do we live under a totalitarian government? Well, no, compared to what many folks consider totalitarian regimes, we've still got it pretty good. Running water (that's mostly clean), broadband, cars that can be bought with "...no money, no money down," credit cards and free pizza delivery. Hey, it's all good, right?

You tell me. Here we have a case where reporters doing their jobs are threatened with jail for not revealing sources. Haven't we gone over this one enough? As a former newspaper reporter who was threatened at least twice with subpoenas and who actually had to get up on the stand at a murder trial and refuse to hand over my notes, I was nervous but proud to invoke the shield law. And this was over a rather standard drug-related murder case.

Judith Miller et al were investigating the manipulation of intelligence data for base political reasons. Shouldn't she be protected? What, we're more concerned that Cheney and Bush will be thrown in a bad light? I mean, really , isn't lying to the world and manipulating intelligence data in order to invade a sovereign country at least as bad as having an intern give you a hummer in the Oval Office and then lying about it?

Throw her in jail and watch it hit the fan folks. It will be ugly.

While Miller has been hassled for being too eager to buy Cheney and Bush's (what are now obvious) prevarications about WAND, at least she and the Times were trying to make that right by closely looking at the screwed-up intelligence system. She SHOULD be protected.

Democracy is messy with a thriving fourth estate. Without it, it's not really a democracy, it's more like a totalitarian regime. Bring out the pearl-handled revolvers and the not-so-secret detention areas under sports stadiums!!!

2005-02-13T19:04:00.000-08:00

Modern Living, Feb. 12, 2005
-Or-
It's official: I'm an old guy

It's Saturday night and, well, we're not looking to go down to the nightclub. We just want something better than take-out food, but not something that requires anything dressier than chinos, a short-sleeve tropical-cut shirt and flip-flops.
So we decide to go to the California Cafe, near the Stanford Mall. (White tablecloth, but they consider flip-flops "shoes."
We want to chat. We want to enjoy conversing in a restaurant, accepting of all that can arise or be involved in such an environment.
Apparently our perspective on the restaurant-going experiece is not shared by at least one family. They'd found what they believed to be an adequate solution to what must be a universal parental challenge: taking the single-A kids (0-10-year-olds) to the restaurant: letting their x-year-old (I'd say 4-6 year-old) fire up the old portable DVD player and watch his favorite movie/show/whatever precious little pink-cheeked little boys watch these days. At least double-A kids (11-18-year-olds) either insert themselves into the conversation or just sulk.
Well, when I was a kid . . . Part of the test of being old enough to do whatever it was your parents wouldn't let you do at the time, was to act like a grown-up. To try to listen. Engage in conversation. Maybe just ACT YOUR F_____G AGE!
I guess parents these days really don't want to talk to their kids. Or pass along simple social cues/responsibilities.

2005-02-09T13:54:00.000-08:00

File Under:
"The thing about high places/is sometimes it's a long way down/And you feel like a big shot/so what happened to the big shot?"
(Los Lobos, "High Places")

Here's the thing, in my day job I've been able to watch Carly's progress at HP. I won't bother to pretend I have any inside knowledge about the merger etc.

What I found fascinating was that she developed a set of pathways for HP to follow that were aimed at moving to logical market adjancencies. In particular, I was impressed with her attempts to push the company into the digital entertainment space. Kind of like Apple.

Lots of folks apparently didn't like those pathways. And the merciless Wall Streeters -- who only care that a stock MOVES (doesn't matter which way because they have all positions covered) -- didn't seem particularly enamored with new direction and the expenses sometimes involved in following those new directions. And they really weren't happy with a stock price that hadn't delivered much. For them.

What I'm curious about is whether this is an indication that other tech companies are going wimp out in their attempts to move PC platforms etc. into the digital entertainment space.

My research partner, Allen Weiner, and I have been charting these directions in "media titans" work. Should continue to be interesting.

2005-01-27T13:46:00.000-08:00

Other Things Relating to the 21st Century Music Industry . . .

So, I'm content-less at the moment. Instead I'll turn towards things music.
I'm perusing the Times today and see this. Literally a few minutes later I'm checking my press feeds and I spot this item:

"ASCAP Launches Infringement Actions against Establishments Performing Copyrighted Music without Permission
Monday January 24, 1:27 pm ET
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 24, 2005--Today, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers filed 24 separate copyright infringement actions against nightclubs, bars, and restaurants in 15 states and the District of Columbia. These establishments (listed
below) have publicly performed the copyrighted musical works of ASCAP's songwriter, composer and music publisher members without receiving their permission to do so, resulting in lost income . . . " (snip)

Amazing timing, no? Let's all hope that the publishing side of the music industry wakes up and sees what's going on here. Methinks they won't, however. My god, a relatively cheap, flat-rate fee, that's not painful, that allows your favorite bar or restaurant to have a couple of nights/week available to let patrons "share" their favorite music? This is, like, a total no-brainer.

'course my limited experience with the "music industry" is that potential for really knotty problems is going to come from the publishing side of things, not the artists or distributors.

2005-01-26T09:15:00.000-08:00

Greetings...

Among other things that I do at my day job is to track larger media trends. This development was one of those "trends" my cohort, Allen Weiner, and I wrote about last year.
This move is a no-brainer. Yahoo's got an important, but not unique, set of attributes that make them a clear candidate for what Allen and I call "media titanhood."
The mere fact that the company was smart enough to cut an exclusive with jibjab is more than ample evidence that Yang and Semel (despite what many say he did to Warner Music etc.) are moving into important new territory...
What I'm really curious about, though, is what Yahoo's going to do with its music properties???

2005-01-18T09:42:00.000-08:00

The Beast(s) Must be Fed

No, no, no. We liberal types have to understand what an enormous sacrifice POTUS-on-a-Stick and his hench-people are making by forging ahead with inauguration/coronation festivities. Even though taste, decorum, a sense of proportion and budget might dictate otherwise, it's very important that the good folks at Haliburton, various media potentates, Wall Street types all get their money's worth by having a great time. No matter what.
Yes, there will be Marines, Army personnel, Navy personnel, AirForce flyboys/flygals, many folks working with NGOs in Irag who are likely to be shot at, bombed etc. while happy shiny people in tuxes and gowns cavort in D.C. But it's important that the world sees that our leaders -- political and business -- are pressing on.

Remember, if Bush girls and Laura can't wear Dolce Gabana or Versace on innauguration day/night, the terrorists have won.

2005-01-18T09:13:00.000-08:00

File this Under: Crow, Eating OR Clue, Can't Buy One

My job is interesting. I get to mingle with designers (hardware, software), entreprenuers, academic researchers and the like. In my past life, I used to have to hang around computer company executives. Many were very interesting. Some brash. Most were/are just process-wonks. You know the type: if they could save $.02 on a screw and then turn around and screw a supplier they'd been with for xx years, it was a great day. If the old supplier even cried or yelled when they were given the heave-ho, it was an even better day.

Now the new CEO of Dell (who is actually not named Dell) says the iPod is a fad. Just like the Walkman was a "fad." Um, Kevin, the Walkman (cassette and CD versions) had shipped a cumulative 206 million units between 1979 and 1999. Has Dell shipped that many PCs in its existance? I suppose it's possible, but I doubut it.

Then again, he could be correct. I suppose Apple could screw up the iPod and Mac. That's possible, too. I'm sure that's what Kevin is really hoping.

2005-01-17T13:10:00.000-08:00

If I actually cared about the 49ers anymore . . .

. . . I might have actually cared about this item.
Since I don't really care about professional football or the Niners, about the only thing I can think of saying: wow, another underappreciated white guy gets another head coaching job? One that his father held, no less.

2005-01-12T13:19:00.000-08:00

Vegas

Had to go to CES last week for work. Vegas is a tough town for me to like, let alone love. When they tore down the El Morocco, the last vestiges of any sort of funky coolness the town had were ground into so much dust.

It's now just too weird, too big, too antiseptic and too lame. No riverboat gamblers in Vegas. Just a bunch of pasty, pudgy 30-ish WM who think they can make a living at the tables. It's really just depressing.

But entertainment can be had. If you're into vocalists you can choose between Celine "Lungs of Leather" Dion here or you can really expand your mind by going to see Paul.
Me?
There's no way I'd ever listen to Celine Dion let alone pay $87.50. Believe it or not, that's the cheapest ticket you can get to see her at Caeser's. The most expensive? $225 for front orchestra seats. I have seen Paul. Two-drink minimum is not bad a bad price to pay for a glimpse at a crowd that I consider the soul of Vegas. And I mean that as a compliment.

2005-01-12T13:18:00.000-08:00

Why 'blogs matter, Part 235

Guys like Williams are doing their part to undermine what little trust in the media the citizenry might still have. Read the piece and you'll see a reason my work partner, Allen Weiner, and I are pursuing our research. 'blogs as megaphones for the collective voice of the citizenry will be how we as a society fight for some cultural and social equilibrium.
The irony is that now that Tribune Media Services gave Williams his pink slip, the guy will probably start using 'blogs and RSS tech to deliver his unique view of the world.
Just like us...

DSCN0586

2005-01-10T20:52:00.000-08:00

Where was I ? ? ?

South of Poipu, Kaui
Originally uploaded by m2mcguire.

Here's the jottings from the trip...Promise, the next entries will be a bit more, ahem, timely. Like the picture?

Dec. 11-12
The two days days leading up to our trip to Kauai, HI . . . Things are winding down at work. It’s been a mixed years in some respects. I guess mixed years are all they’re ever really are…But soon we’ll have a week to lose ourselves.
In the meantime, I’ve been able to catch two Los Lobos shows at the Fillmore. Although both were strong shows, the second show was definitely the stronger of the two. Real variety.
Dave Alvin and his new band, including D.J. Bonebreak on drums, opened the first night with an all-Alvin (+ blasters) show. As one might expect, he did a version of the song “Somewhere in Time” that he co-wrote with Hidalgo. Turns out it’s on Alvin’s new album (forgot the name. Sorry, dave) and Lobos’ new album, “The Ride.” As a native Californian, Alvin’s mix of Texas blues, western Swing/The “Bakersfield Sound”, and straight roots rock resonates with me directly. I “see” or have seen every image Alvin uses in his work.
Lobos? Friday night was a very good show – great by any other band’s standards – but not a GREAT show. Good mix of song, heavier on the straight-ahead rock. Pulled out the metal – “Viking”(w/ david’s sons on a third guitar and drums) and a full-on breakdown on “Manny’s bones.”
Second night was by far more energetic. Few more Mexican folk/traditional songs, great “Cumbia…” etc. The wife didn’t want to go that night – she was performing the second night of the annual two-night San Francisco Skating Club “holiday” extravaganza. Of course, this being SF, there could be no real direct references or evocations of the biblical Christmas – or even the result of 20th century marketing, “Xmas.” So instead there was my wife dancing to an Egyptian folk song she typically used in here belly dancing act in a hot little red number and, I’m not bullshitting here, her finger cymbals. (Yes, finger cymbals. For something like 15 years before I met her, my wife made spending money as a professional belly dancer at restaurants and private parties given by Arab-American families. She’s won contests and everything. She used to have a business card with a full-color picture of her in one of belly-dancing outfits.)
So, she didn’t want to go. Called my friend Dave – a 7th grade teacher. His wife Katie is about to give birth and, as a result, Dave’s been cutting back on the live music and wisely sticking close to home the past few months. This was a real break for him. Katie, being the trooper she is, gave the OK.
Dave got to see a great show. Great mix of songs, high energy and the boys seemed to have a great time. Culminated in two encores, the second being an excellent cover of “Cinnamon Girl.”
On our way out, Dave blurted out something I’ve felt for the past 25 years of Lobos shows: “Los Lobos, perhaps the most underrated GREAT band going.”
Amen.

Dec. 13-16 –
At the Kiahuna Plantations, Poipu, Kauai, HI

Just been hanging. A little surfing, snorkeling. Hiking around, but nothing like last time. My ankle’s still sore and weak from the horrendous sprain 1.5 months ago as a result of a mountain bike crash. This means we’ve been keeping to the flat hikes.
Kauai is great this time of the year because it’s in between busy seasons. There’s a slightly greater chance of moisture, yes. On the other hand, that moisture can create some beautiful mist-swirled views of the “sleeping giant” and other mountains on the island.
Trips like these, where we’re just together without a schedule, make the inevitability of our marriage SO obvious to me.

I’ve been reading a terrific new non-fiction book, “The Hammer” about Tom DeLay. Why I never thought reading about a right-wing idealogue would be important is beyond me. If any of my two readers wants to really understand just what the fuck is going on in Washington, D.C. right how MUST READ THIS BOOK. If you’re worried about POTUS-on-a-stick, or Condi or Rummie, that’s all well and good. What DeLay is doing will keep you up for weeks on end. To call him a WBSPOS (weasely, back-stabbing pieces of shit) would cast grievous aspersions on all the WBSPOS you’ve ever known.

Why read the book? One of DeLay’s objectives is to transform the Democratic Party into a permanent majority. The redistricting fiasco of 2003 and 2004 was almost entirely his doing and it had nothing to do with creating “more equal” voting districts. It was to marginalize the Democratic Party wherever possible.

There are many examples of DeLay’s simple idiocy, inarticulateness, piousness, treachery, but mostly what you come to realize is the guy’s just mean, petty and vindictive.

My favorite DeLay-ism is found early on in the book when, while attacking Clinton as a draft dodger, somebody asked him why he managed to get deferments to avlid serving himself. His response: he felt that he could not in good conscious take a spot that was so important to so many African-American and Hispanic who were lining up in record numbers to serve their country and get a well-paying job etc.

So, let’s see if we’ve got a clear picture of the Republican leadership’s military service achievements:
a) POTUS-on-a-stick: didn't feel the same need to serve as his dad, so he got Poppy and associates to get him a slot in the Air National Guard. After getting in, there appears to be some discrepancies regarding his actual service. Or lack thereof. Whatever.
b) The Antichrist, aka Vice President Swingin’ Dick Cheney: “I had other priorities.”
c) Powell – Though no longer a member of the Bush Reich, he did serve with distinction.
d) Condi Rice – Too young? Or was she too busy learning classical piano pieces, figure skating and overachieving?

More hanging around. Every time I come to any of the islands, my sense of “place” is fully integrated into the physical surroundings. The water. The air.

We ran over to Hanalei and Kiluea, where the brother of my brother-in-law owns a bakery/pizzeria. It is, by the way, a tremendous bakery. If you like scones, if you like éclairs, or if you like unique bread – such as Tom’s Hawaiian sourdough – you have to go to the Kiluea Bakery. It’s in the xxx-Lung Center in Kiluea, right next to the XXX Candle Shop. Nice lunch. Briefly stopped in to say “hi.” (No forewarning. Knowing how busy Tom and Katie are with the business and two teen-aged daughters, but mostly keenly aware of how vacation exacerbates our inability to adhere to any schedule, I didn’t call ahead. I’m hopeful it wasn’t too inconsiderate.)

Anyhow, we kayaked up the Hanalei River. Very mellow. We do these sorts of things – running (my wife), surfing (me) and kayaking early in the morning. Like between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. The only other people up that early are parents with kids. Fortunately, not many parents are capable of, or interested in, taking their kids on a kayak trip. Doesn’t matter how mellow/flat the river might be, most parents just don’t think any good comes from putting together the phrases “kayak trip” and “the kids.”

I recommend the trip if you’re looking for a couple of hour diversion that let’s you sit in a vehicle you’re powering w/ your own body parts, listen to the wind slap the water against the hull of your kayak while you stare at cloud-shrouded mountains in a comfortably moist 74 degrees. Oh yeah, and after you turn around past the bridge (heading west out of the rental shop hard against the Hanalei) and head east towards the ocean, you can hear the waves knocking down out in Hanalei Bay . . .

When we got the bay, we pulled up on a sand bar where a young man and his daughter were fishing and frolicking, respectively. She was maybe 3 or 4 years old and running around, splashing, talking to us, asking us to go swimming with her, talking to her dad, checking the line of her fishing pole, all while running in a sort of circle formed by the points of our kayak, her dad’s truck (which was pulled up onto the sandbar along with several other trucks), the river and the spot where the river meets the ocean. We stared at the beautiful 8-10-foot waves out on the bay – a few of the locals were really lighting it up – the glassy cool river and the mountains. Moments like this make me prone to thoughts such as “OK, so I quit my current gig, convince my wife to sell the house and move to Hanalei and . . . Do what besides get better at surfing? Or identifying the flora and fauna of Kauai?
‘Course, I tend to think those two things are fairly honorable life goals, all and all.

Dec. 19 – Headed back tomorrow.
So, for all two of my readers, here are the very fine restaurants on Kauai:
 breakfast:
o Baked goods, coffee, ambiance (Hanalei/Kilauea) = Kilauea Bakery—XXX Pizzeria
o Eggs and Stuff (Hawaiian style): Oki Palace, Lihue. Really, if you want a really well-prepared breakfast with things like fried rice instead of hash-browns and fresh mango-orange juice or passion-mango juice, avoid all the big hotel brunches etc. Just go to the Oki Palace. It’s the best. And they actually have a functioning juke box!
o Lunch: Brenneke’s in Poipu Beach. Kilauea Bakery (Hanalei).
o Dinner: Gaylord’s (between kapaa and Lihue, out by the Kauai Community College) for outstanding presentation, ingredients, execution and a very good wine list; Coconuts, Kapaa (seafood with Pacific Rim overtones, very well done); Casa Blanca (btwn. The “east” and “west” entrances of the Kiahuna Plantation resort in Poipu) for unique Meditteranean takes on local seafood, with a few Morroccan dishes thrown in.

Dec. 17-20
Small-world episode: Out with a surf instructor the other day. (Yeah, a surf instructor. Despite growing up around “surfers” I really only got proficient at body surfing and kneeboarding. While I was able to “really surf” in a technical sense, I always went back to kneeboarding when the surf was REALLY good. By the time I was trying to teach myself how to surf, which takes as much practice and concentration as anything like tennis or football or golf, I got distracted by other things. Tennis, for one, football, for another, and snow-skiing, and all the people that went along with each.)

Anyhow, my surf instructor and I are out sitting in the water yakking. Conversation turns to our respective backgrounds. Turns out that he used to come to Santa Cruz, CA, to hang out with a family that owned “Sweet’s In-the-Nude Furniture Store.” Of course, I knew the family members because they belonged to the same tennis club as mine.

Frankly, he and I chatted as much as we surfed. He was a very good instructor, however, in that he was able to always drop some point about surfing into our conversations. We had plenty of time to chat as the intervals, or lulls, between sets was about 15 minutes. That and the fact that the only other member of class – a nice young man named Jeremy hailing from Arkansas – was overcome by seasickness. (It happens more than you might imagine.) So Ross and I chatted away.

He grew up on Kauai, HS etc. then went on to the Bud or some other major pro surfing tour. In Hawaii, this guy is a very good surfer but to draw a shakey parallel, he’d be a Triple A journeyman baseball player. The difference is, this guy is involved in a sport where you don’t break down, you actually get better with age and experience; and “standing around” in surfing is sitting on your board staring at the ocean and the sky in Kauai, HAW, not the cityscape of, say, Salinas, CA, Modesto, CA or South Philly. Oh, my mistake, one of the two major league team in Pennsylvania has a stadium that overlooks South Philadelphia. The Triple-A team is probably in someplace nice like (fill in the name of a nice place in Pennsylvania here…)

2005-01-10T20:41:00.000-08:00

Well now, it's been a long time since my last post.
I'm still recovering from a work roadtrip. It was long. It was in Las Vegas. I don't think I really need to say anymore.
Anyhow, as I'm in recovery mode, and it's been a bit, I'll catch you up. Holidays. Kauai. I'm attaching a bunch of text that's more or less chronological. And you'll notice some pics. above:

Pretty cool, eh?

Flickr

2005-01-10T20:39:00.000-08:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

2004-12-10T15:43:00.000-08:00

Attention, Attention, all 2 of my readers...

What's that weired thing to the right??? Hit the play button and check it out.

2004-12-09T15:10:00.000-08:00

Most Understated (or Misleading) Job Title of the Week . . .

Coast Guard Rescue Swimmer

Read down to the last two paragraphs to see who was left on the ship as it started to founder..."Rescue swimmer." Not lifeguard. Not "rescue diver." Rescue swimmer. Sounds kind of relaxing, doesn't it? Oh, the job description includes having to jump out of a f___g helicopter in the middle of a raging storm with 25-foot swells into really, really cold water? And, if the captain's still with the ship, you have to stay with him? And then what?

Talk about tough. I thought I'd read where the CG's "rescue swimmer" training program is tougher than the Navy SEALS program. In fact, I think I read that in SEALS frequently wash out of the CG's "rescue swimmer" progam...These "swimmers" have to be able to, like, parachute out of a plane at some god-awful altitude and plummet straight into the ocean. I guess that's when they start with the "rescue swimming."

Having grown up in and around the surf and lifeguards in Northern California, I only have the slightest understanding of what "rescue swimming" must be like. Off the coast of Alaska. In December . . .

2004-12-08T18:12:00.000-08:00

Modern Life's Little Stress Inducers . . .

Contractor comes to house to perform a job. Satisfied with the job, I write check and hand to contractor's representative.
About 10 days later while balancing checkbook using my bank's phone system. System says check to contractor cashed. I mark as paid. Yay, the checkbook balances. All is well in my little corner of heaven.
Three weeks later I get a letter from the contractor's business office saying I haven't paid the $500 bill. Perturbed, I use my bank's phone system to see if check had REALLY been cashed/posted like the system told me it had been a couple of weeks before. There are clouds on the horizon of my little corner of heaven...
System says check has not been posted in past 45 days. I go online to use the bank's "search" tool to see if check posted. It says it has not. My stomach starts to churn as puzzlement gives way to concern. There's now a chill wind and sleet in my little corner of heaven.
I decide to talk to a meat-space teller.
Teller gets on. I repeat tale of woe. He says, no, his system doesn't show the check has having been cashed in the "...past 30 days."
"Dude, you're a teller," I say. "You're supposed to be able to go back years."
"Actually, my system goes back 30 days," he replies. Concern is quickly joined by anger. This little process is starting to take time. And $500 is $500.
I hang up.
I call contractor's business office promise to pay check because, well, they haven't been paid. Contractor's business rep is pleased to hear of my integrity.
I call bank, again, this time to stop payment on first check. Teller on phone checks and says, "Mike, this check got cashed and posted seven days after you wrote it." Now I'm really confused. I pass along tale of woe.
Just as I'm getting to the part about checking the bank's many online and telephone-based systems, I pull out the monthly bank statement from my file cabinet and, lo, there's the statement showing a photocopy of the cashed check. (So much for my previous examination of the paper statements.)
So, I came THIS close to writing a second $500 check. Righteous indignation sweeps across Mike's little corner of heaven.
I call contractor's business office. Somehow a second "account" for this transaction had been set up in my name. Conversation follows the well-worn so-sorry-these-things-happen-have-a-nice-day-and-happy-holidays path.
My question is this? How long would it have taken for the contractor to realize I'd paid them twice? Is this an actual business practice? A vast conspiracy by America's service providers? Probably not. More like a combination of human error and poorly designed computer systems. At least I hope that's all it is...
Thank God for paper statements. I'm still trying to figure out why my bank's online search tool didn't return the correct result.
This little episode does nothing to lessen my suspicion of financial institutions and contractors...

2004-12-02T09:55:00.000-08:00

Who is Brian Williams? What's a "News Anchor"?

So some guy named Brian Williams -- apparently he's in the news business -- is not happy with bloggers. His reference to being "in a bathroom with a modem" is odd. It's almost amusing. Perhaps I should actually watch TV news?
Then again, I read this and I think, nah, no good reason to do that.

2004-12-01T17:04:00.000-08:00

Armando Benietez? For 7 Large/year?

Um, isn't Bobby V. in exile in Japan because of Armando's, er, lack of focus in the playoffs? Yah, he kicked butt and put up big numbers for the Fish last season. Did the Fish play in any real tight games last year?
Between April and August, Armando will be fine. We'll find out if he's the same ol' headcase so familiar to Mets fans during any of the Giants-Dodgers games that come after the all-star break. Oh, right, there's a stand in LA July 14-17 immediately following the All-Star break. That should be interesting...

2004-12-01T16:56:00.000-08:00

When this little ol' blogger's lazy, this is what he does...
Unfortunately, for some, this is playlist from my Rhapsody account...
RHAPSODY Link On the other hand, if you're not a Rhapsody user, go check it out. They might have a trial offer you can use. As subscription music services go, it's very fine, indeed.
They, like all the subscription services, face a number of challenges, the thorniest having to do with getting the average online consumer to start thinking of music as a service instead of a product. And without portability -- like being able to toss songs onto an iPod or something else -- there are some limitations.
Implicit in the notion of subscription that permanent ownership of a song or album doesn't really apply.
But multiple choice is what digital media markets are all about...

2004-11-18T17:19:00.000-08:00

In other Music-Related News...

Creative to Take on iPod with $100m marketing campaign

Straydogz say: Aaahhahahahahahahahahahah!!!

ahhaha. Whew. Anyhow, I think it's great Creative is being this aggressive. It's really very good "for the market," as they say whenever "they" are being polite.
My favorite Quote: "The mp3 war has started and I am the one who has declared war," Creative Chief Executive Sim Wong Hoo declared in a recent media event. "We`re
targeting (sales of) more than 1 million mp3 players a month in the current
quarter and we are on track. It`s our target to beat iPod in this quarter."

I see this as an extension of POTUS-on-a-stick's "pre-emptive war" doctrine to the digital music space. I fear the results might be similar. I predict $30m of that $100m will go to pay rebate/discounts retailers offer...No, make that $50m...

Seriously, the Touch is a nice WMA-file-based portable music player. Very solid. Very engineering-driven. It's UI doesn't match the iPod's -- either the mini's or any of the gen3-gen4 products. It's screen is as difficult to read as the gen1 iPods. It's touch "strip" or whatever they call it is useful but hard to control. And what's with the preloads of all the Bejing Symphony tracks? (Not that they're bad, they're actually quite good. Especially the Shoshtekovich pieces. Just wondering if this is, like, tribute to the mainland or something...)

2004-11-18T16:40:00.000-08:00

Weirdness in Radio Space

So Mel Karmazin, who apparently can't take an 82-year-old "business man" is going to make Sirius a blazing beacon of revenue generation and artistic freedom via the wonder that is satellite radio? OK. I give it a year. (I think of Mel and I think of "What good are you anyway, if you can't stand up to some old businessman?", from Dylan's "Summer Days" on the "love and theft" album/CD/collection of files.)

Howie Stern and Mel, teamed up again! As mi amigo de trabajo, Allen Weiner has said repeatedly, Howie's essential appeal on radio was the frisson that occurred when he would run his patter right up to the edge of the FCC's "rules." Now, with no FCC schoolmarms to work against, Howie's going to be like every 12-year-old who learns a new oath or curse word: it's funny hearing it the first time. The second and 2,256th time, it's just bleedin' annoying.

Instead of screwing around with boneheads such as Stern, I think Mel should run over and cut a deal with Rhapsody. For some incremental bump to my Rhapsody subscription, and possibly my Sirius subscription,m I think it would be very cool to be able to play via my Sirius channel, the Rhapsody-based playlists I created on my PC. Challenges: making sure Sirius' catalog of content matched Rhapsody's. No small feat. Second challenge: the interactivity I get on Rhapsody (skipping forward, skipping backward etc.) would have to be shut off. However, I believe users would put up with that because, presumably, they created and sequenced the playlist in a way they found pleasing.

To me, that sort of user-defined programming would be the only way satellite radio is anything but the new "videoconferencing." (Anybody remember ProShare?

2004-11-04T13:34:00.000-08:00

And, yes, I'll put my own "remix" up in the next little bit. Or hours. Or days...

2004-11-04T13:23:00.000-08:00

M2 Contributes to the Creative Source-Material to Preserve Clever Satirical Works...

Intel and Microsoft -- both shining examples of companies that have mastered well-mannered, simple user-interfaces and consumer devices -- are joining forces to spread the joy of digital media. They're tossing "tens of millions" of dollars to promote "Digital Joy."

My contribution: Here's the original Libretto of the fourth movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, his adaptation of Schiller's "ode to Joy." Feel free to mix/match and poke good, clean satricial fun at the WinTel effort to own the digital living room.

Libretto:

Oh friends, no more of these sad tones!
Let us rather raise our voices together
In more pleasant and joyful tones.
Joy!

Joy, thou shining spark of God,
Daughter of Elysium,
With fiery rapture, goddess,
We approach thy shrine.
Your magic reunites
That which stern custom has parted;
All humans will become brothers
(Schiller's original:
What custom's sword has parted;
Beggars become princes' brothers)
Under your protective wing.

Let the man who has had the fortune
To be a helper to his friend,
And the man who has won a noble woman,
Join in our chorus of jubilation!
Yes, even if he holds but one soul
As his own in all the world!
But let the man who knows nothing of this
Steal away alone and in sorrow.

All the world's creatures drink
From the breasts of nature;
Both the good and the evil
Follow her trail of roses.
She gave us kisses and wine
And a friend loyal unto death;
She gave the joy of life to the lowliest,
And to the angels who dwell with God.

Joyous, as His suns speed
Through the glorious order of Heaven,
Hasten, brothers, on your way,
Joyful as a hero to victory.

Be embraced, all ye millions!
With a kiss for all the world!
Brothers, beyond the stars
Surely dwells a loving Father.
Do you kneel before Him, oh millions?
Do you sense the Creator's presence?
Seek Him beyond the stars!
He must dwell beyond the stars.

2004-11-04T13:02:00.000-08:00

Do you want to join me in legal-music-sharing experiments?

If so, let me know. Disclaimer: some of this will involve "beta" software.
For example, I'm building a group on Grouper Networks (www.grouper.com). You'll be able to "listen" but not download bits from my music library.

mail: mdmcguire41@comcast.net

Disclaimer II: Grouper doesn't have a Mac client. (Much as I'd like them to...)

Disclaimer III: I don't work for Grouper.

c'ya

2004-11-02T21:46:00.000-08:00

What? Fox is Already Declaring Bush the Winner???

What a surprise. It's only 9:45 p.m. Ohio is it.

Should POTUS-on-a-stick actually, gulp, win again, it will be testament to our society's desire for "stability" -- not matter the long-term cost. I find it amazing, and sad, how many people will vote for the perception of security in the face of the reality of pure avarice and incompetence.

I wonder if at some point in the future political scientists are going to look back at this election and note that the conventional wisdom -- that a country shouldn't change president in the middle of a war -- was once again overtaken by reality.

If the generation that fought WWII was the "greatest generation" then this generation is the "arrogant-empire" generation: the meek and the greedy led by the mendacious.

Or I suppose I'm just completely out of touch with the "mainstream"? Fine with me.

I think I need to go learn the words to "O Canada."

2004-11-02T21:11:00.001-08:00

The "endolphins" Are Still Working So I am Not Discouraged . . .

Go work out for a couple of hours and everything goes to hell: "Sam Malone" (not my line, it's from a friend who is a native of Cambridge, MA) can't get it together in Ohio. The ">media are reporting that POTUS-on-a-stick is "ahead." I'm watching our fair state's two senators, Babs Boxer and DiFi.

My wife likes Boxer because she is a "small woman who has managed to get into high places." Great, the short-peoples contingent is representin' and being represented.

(DiFI doesn't count in my book because she's essentially a republican in Democrat's clothing. ) Both Babs and DiFi don't rate high on my list -- aside from their reasonable environmental work -- because they are just too happy to take big bucks from hollywood and the music industry to write/support copyright-lockdown legislation.

But let's really hope for a Kerry rally...

(* the "endolphins" line was an Annette Benning's big line from her early role in "Postcards from the Edge." )

2004-11-02T14:15:00.000-08:00

It's Official: Wonkette.com is an Official Real-Deal-No-Kidding Heavyweight

God knows we all need a few dick jokes to brighten our day, and all the better that they come at the expense of politicans, journalists, would-be-journalists etc. But Wonkette's so much more than that. Ok, not much more than that but, hey, the "pool reports" are worth my employer's bandwidth..
The site's officially bigger than, well, anyhow...It's the real deal media-wise because I haven't been able to get to her page at all in the past 1.5 hours. By comparision, CNN.com, fox.com and other media stalwarts seem to come right up.
Oh, I know, CNN's a big-time site with lots of servers etc. I know, CNN's bigger, but wonkette is where the cool, intelligent and vulgar people go for important information...

2004-11-02T13:42:00.000-08:00

Should Anybody Actually be Reading This Today...Cool non-partisan electoral vote tracker...

We can be entertained by tonight's tallying process run by a bunch of overpaid dweebs in suits feigning humility in the face of the grandeur that is the democracy in action...Or we can do it ourselves. Find sites with RSS feeds. Bloggers aren't the answer, just an alternative set of voices. Then check this out! Talk about the "democritization of access to consumers..." This is a U.S. ex-pat teaching computer science in Amsterdam !!!! (And I mean the Netherlands, not N.Y.)

Is he dependent on some of the same data-feeds that the NETWORKS are using? sure. There's just not a lot of blather and bullshit that is our so-called "political discourse" from the established media dinosaurs.

I love this country -- as long as somebody's keeping an eye on the foxes running the parties...

2004-11-01T19:41:00.000-08:00

Was it Just Me...

Or did I notice a little bit of editorializing-via-edits on "fox" the other night? The network has a "Campaign Minute" or some such thing where they have the two candiate addressing a single subject. (It doesn't appear as if the segments were taped at events.) It sure seemed like Kerry's was, well, cut short. It was like he'd violated the time limit and they simply cut it.
POTUS-on-a-stick seemed, however, to end right on time and he even got a second-and-change to smile/smirk beningly. (OK, I guess beningly in the same way Humbert Humbert ever smiled beningly at Lolita.)

2004-11-01T19:30:00.000-08:00

Annoying Political Campaign Item # 1

I understand the importance of political speech. Really, I do. And I really understand that politicians and the money behind propositions will always use technology to get a bigger megaphone.
But really, do I have to put up with automated voice messsages that, for some reason, are completely unintelligible? No kidding, I got one on my home voicemail system. I think it was Jerry Brown. And he was "for" something. All I could make out was "...yes....(interrupted by static, various aural anomolies etc.) ...on Proposition ...(interrupted by static, various aural anomalies etc.)"

I'd have tried to capture it to share with you but I couldn't stop myself. I deleted it.

2004-10-20T19:17:00.000-07:00

Just a Friendly Reminder that We Live in a Police State . . .
Two accounts of the same thing. The ">first from what some might call a "alternative news source" e.g. a first-person account. The second comes from what some would call a "legitimate" news source. I haven't found any reports of the police busting up Kerry hecklers. If anybody knows of any, please send them my way.

As America's Own Oligarchs lie, cheat and steal their way towards Nov. 2 (while a few more soliders and civilians keep getting themselves killed in Iraq), things are only getting weirder here at home. Both sides continue to scare the bejesus out of everybody. And that is not good. To paraphrase Jon Stewart, "it's hurting America."

Oh and Powell's definitely one of America's Own Oligarchs . He hasn't resigned, so as they said in the '60s, he's part of the problem.

I just wish Kerry was as loose as the Red Sox. I would suggest that Manny Ramriez and David Ortiz give Kerry a hug. Or give him hugging lessons. Or something.

Then again, he's smart, he has experience and I think his heart's in the right place.

2004-10-20T17:27:00.000-07:00

Career Choices: Either an Entertainer or a Journalist Be . . .Just Don't Try to Be Both (aka another reason why TV shows labeled as news/infotainment should be banned...)

As a former print journo/hack who was conditioned by years of (print) journo school to be dismissive of TV "news shows" promising "infotainment" (I really hate that non-word word), it was heartening to watch Stewart's paroxysm of truth and well-timed scorn. It was marred only slightly by his calling Carson a "dick" (yeah, it's true, and I'm not a prude, but it undercut what was a very well-reasoned dismantling of the show), is apparently catching. Even the NYT got in on the act...
To be sure, shows like "Meet the Press" are actually useful. The guests at least have to answer real questions about newsworthy topics. And the questioners are actually informed -- or at least well prepped.
What astonished me, and apparently everybody else in the world, was just how inept and juvenile the "Crossfire" boobs were in their reactions. These guys were actually journalists? Or have I not read their respective bios closely enough?

2004-10-19T13:50:00.000-07:00

Back from LA. Conferences -- especially the ones where I have to actually work, if one can call moderating panels work -- oy. Did get written up,however, by the Hollywood Reporter. Here's an excerpt: (yeah, yeah, I'd link you to it, but the Reporter's one of those "paid content" sites..)
"Oct. 14, 2004
Panel: P2P can be good for biz
By Paul Bond
The power of peer-to-peer technology can be
harnessed for the good of the entertainment
industry, a panel of experts concluded Wednesday.
"We're not in trouble," said Sony Pictures
Entertainment executive vp Mitch Singer, who
compared P2P to other disruptive technologies the
film industry has faced in the past.
Singer recalled meetings with Sony Music shortly
after the proliferation of Napster, the file-sharing
service that brought digital piracy to the masses.
"What do you do with a Napster? License content to
them or sue them," he said."

So, there you go. Mitch Singer. Mark Ishikawa. Fascinating panel.
The upshot of my panel -- one of the day's highlights, if you ask me -- was that P2P can be an efficient distribution channel. It was particularly interesting to hear Singer's take a much more positive approach towards technologies such as p2p. In fact, I think he started using our "it's-an-opportunity-not-a-threat" line of reasoning.

2004-10-07T21:15:00.000-07:00

I finally get it
It used to be you watched the news or "news magazines" to learn, to be informed.
Now we live in an age of "infotainment" -- a bullshit word if ever there was one.
One of the kings of "infotainment" is Bill O'Reilly. (I say this because his ratins are apparently fairly high.) How this fellow somehow gets away with calling himself a "journalist" is amazing. (Even more amazing is that he claimed to be inspired by Mike Wallace when Wallace interviewed him on "60 Minutes" last week. He's either amazingly cynical or just likes to suck up to real pros.)
I digress. So I'm reading about last week's weirdness when O'Reilly went after Jon Stewart when Stewart appears on the "No Spin Zone." You know, the whole "stoned slackers" rant. That's when the epiphany -- OK, the minor insight -- flashed across a few of my operating synapses:
Stewart's show depends on an informed audience to work. Satire is hard work and it requires an audience willing to pull their weight.
O'Reilly's show is dependent on an audience that's blinkered, scared and angry. His show is about consecrating anger.
Me, I vote with the "stoned slackers" for laughter.

2004-09-29T10:28:00.000-07:00

Baseball Fans as Money-grubbing Greedheads

I've always enjoyed baseball, though I'm the first to admit that I'm no expert. Nor did I play a lot of it, aside from sandlot games and, later in life, old-guy softball leagues. (If you think CFOs and lawyers are aggressive and obnoxious in their professional lives, wait 'til you play softball with them...)
Anyhow, baseball fans always seemed to be truly appreciative of the game. As opposed to soccer hooligans and Oakland Raiders fans... Then there's this story.
My personal opinion is that each and every one of the dorks in this story needs to be pummeled. Give the ball back to Barry or MLB to put it in hall of fame.

2004-09-28T21:49:00.000-07:00

Just Pure Ego or is There a Method to This Errant Knight's Madness?
So, in the same week, Virgin announces its long-awaited online music download service. This is a big deal for the online music industry because it is the the only entity in the online music space that has any, well, experience in the music industry. In fact they are quite smug about this. More than once in a recent conversation, a Virgin exec, who shall remain nameless, drew a sharp distinction between Virgin -- a company who started in the music business -- and "...our competitors who come from the technology industry." Like that matters any more for God's sake?
Anyhow, so like I said, within a couple of days of announcing the service, Sir Richard decides to announce a space-flight service for really rich folks. Somehow, that just seems to undercut Virgin's "street cred." A "digital music revolution" followed by pictures of a rich white guy playing with a model of a "virgin" space ship?
Maybe it is possible to have too much money AND too much time...

2004-09-03T13:55:00.000-07:00

Some days, your past seems to be all around you. Other days it's simply overwhelmed by being "in the moment."
After seeing this notice, I feel like it's in front of me. Yes, I, too am an alum of the San Jose State University journalism department -- a fact that I'm sure the school would just as soon I didn't highlight. Funny how the mind of a 23-year-old is blind to the history of the institutions he sashays through. I know I was then...

2004-09-03T08:06:00.000-07:00

Music's latest evolutionary step...

Microsoft finally entered the online music biz with this week's "soft" launch of its MSN Music store. When you ask a Microsoft person what a "soft" launch is, they typically respond with, "Think beta." When you ask if consumers get "soft" money or "beta" money to use on their "beta" service, the reply is typically a shakey chuckle.

The world's largest software company is squaring off against Apple, one of the world's smallest major PC brands (as measured by market share). In this case, however, the stakes aren't domination of the OS market. That game's over. The game's shifted now into a race to own content delivery tools and media-consumption/usage tools. These will be devices and applications that must be able to link back to a PC, but that's about it. MS's OS dominance of the PC isn't a guaranteed free pass to dominance in the era of what my compadre Allen and I refer to as consumers-as-content-foragers. On the other hand, Apple must guard against becoming too cool for its own good.

2004-09-03T07:56:00.000-07:00

Yikes...Where have I been?
Travel, dealing with work. No excuse. Must string words together. Must string words together.

The semi-alleged president of the U.S. gave an "acceptance" speech wherein he wrapped himself in the quilt of 9/11. A quilt of horror, desperation and failure. A move so cynical as to make Tricky Dick look like Gandhi or the Dali Lama.

Speaking of desperation and failure, our Giants are flailing in a last ditch attempt to get a wildcard slot. The one true "ace" Jason Schmidt is getting tired. My guess is it's more mental than physical. The bullpen has been in tatters since, oh I don't know, July of 2003. St. Sabean's reaction? A re-tread. We waited this long to get a journeyman reliever? Time to start "appreciating the game of baseball" instead of seriously pulling for the playoffs.

At least this didn't happen in June.

2004-07-11T17:56:00.000-07:00

Hey,
Traveling, sick, work etc. Haven't been able . . . That's not true. I haven't felt like posting.
Much going on. In NYC currently for a couple of work things. The upside is that I'll have a couple of hours in the hotel tomorrow a.m. to do so some work. I might actually get some writing done.

m2

2004-06-19T09:54:00.000-07:00

Re: Previous posts about the passing of a friend: Clyde is the fine specimen on the left. Cookie and Bingo are the others.

Posted by Hello

2004-06-19T09:36:00.000-07:00

The Past is Prologue or In the End, We're All Just Waiting for the Recycling Dudes: My first tech-related newspaper story back in, er, 1984, was about a machine that was going to change the world. Some guy who wore bow ties on dress shirts with the sleeves rolled up told me all about it. Twenty years later, I found this just sitting on the sidewalk, waiting for the recycling dues.

Posted by Hello

2004-06-16T22:25:00.000-07:00

In the three years he'd been a vet, Mark was pretty sure he hadn't yet seen it all but was pretty well on the way. Standing in front of him was the person who was going to convince Mark that today, he'd seen it all.

"What's really important for the script is that the monkeys --" said J. Michael Donnelly, a petite man wearing what Mark assumed was supposed to be au currant movie-maker garb because everything was black. Donnelly had called after one of Mark's sisters, who "worked in Hollywood" recommended the director call her older brother for advice on some scenes for a movie about to go into production.

"Chimps. Chimpanzees," Mark blurted, his nose wrinkling and his brows furrowed. "You said you wanted a monkey like 'Cheetah.' Cheetah was a chimpanzee. An ape. Not a monkey. Curious George? Chimpanzee."

"Chimps, yes, right," Donnelly said. "Anyhow it's really important that they really look they, you know, smoke. Not like monk-, er, chimps who are pretending to smoke."

"And so you want me to give you pointers on how to train a chimp to look like a 'natural' smoker, is that it?" Mark said, looking directly at Donnelly.

"Exactamente," Donnelly said, exaggerating every single syllable in that way that gringos do when they're pretending to speak Spainish.

Mark turned and walked out of his small office and into reception area of the shared office. It was past 8 p.m., long after closing. Donnelly had insisted on coming by at 7:30. Mark couldn't figure out why the guy needed to come by. Didn't they have assistants do this sort of thing. Young, female assistants.

Donnelly followed him, stopping occasionally to look back down the hall towards the examining rooms, then double-timing to catch up with Mark.

"Well, to create a 'natural smoker' out of a chimp, you'd have to give him or her plenty of cigarettes, a source of flame and let him or her smoke a lot, get them hooked," Mark said without turning around as he took off his white vet smock and hung it on the door knob of his small office. "Pretty much like how we humans get hooked and look so 'natural' while we smoke."

"Really? How long do you think it would take for you to get a couple of them hooked?" Donnelly said, squinting one eye and tilting his head back while looking at Mark.

"I beg your pardon," Mark said.
"How long would it take you to get me two chimps who look like they've been hitting sticks for a long time?" Donnelly said.

"Like humans, probably two to three packs but I'm not going to help you," Mark said, sitting at this desk and proceeding to undock his notebook computer in what he hoped was an obvious indication that he was leaving. But he couldn't help himself.
"Why do you want smoking chimps, let alone 'natural-looking' smoking chimps?"

Instead of refusing to answer or archly saying it didn't matter, Donnelly grew still.
"It serves the story," he said.

2004-06-05T10:38:00.000-07:00

Lambchop
Down-tempo country? Hillbilly ambient? Some of the possible genres I was coming up with to describe this band to my wife and friends. To my surprise, neither my wife nor my friends were particularly compelled to see/listen the band.

So, hitting the road solo I drove up to the Fillmore last night to check ''em out. This was my first time seeing them live, though I have most of their studio output in plastic or in files on various computers.

I'm glad I did. Kurt Wagner's lyrics and voice have always entertained me. The band, on the other hand, blew me away. First off, any band with 5 guitarists that doesn't make my head hurt after five songs gets my seal of approval. The guitarists -- two electric guitarists, one guy who alternates between pedal steel and electric, an acoustic player (who also plays baritone sax) and Warner with an electric-acoustic -- play in these amazingly spacious arrangements that not only twang but also squawk and honk via generous use of wah-wah pedals and other effects. (They alternate between these very quiet, down-tempo songs and then break into these loping lightly Southern-fried instrumentals.) Terrifically subtle drummer and bass player along with very tasty and strong keyboards.

Then there's Wagner. He wears a baseball hat, Buddy Holly glasses and sits while playing and singing and delivers his lyrics in an oddly compelling voice somewhere between a baritone and a tenor. And he's the author of some of the most wonderfully twisted and visual lyrics I've heard. A sample from "I Hate Candy":

"And I hate candy
But I like rain
And I like substance
To tickle my brain
And I'd like to see you
And I'd like to say
that I can't wait
To see you today
Wheres my little trouble girl?
Theres no real trouble girl
Cmon cmon cmon..."

And ya' know what, two hours of very good music for $20? Live music can still be exhilarating, fun and reasonably priced, people. Check some out. Lambchop, los lobos, your buddy's weekend band. Anything. Just keep supporting live music.

2004-06-02T07:52:00.000-07:00

My work co-hort, Allen, sends me an item about a Spanish broadcast news show in which the newscasters are naked. Decline and fall of Western Civilization? Nah. And I hope the signs of the fall are a little more, I don't know, foreboding?

As lame as naked newscasters might sound to some, we should be happy to know that U.S. businesses aren't falling behind in the how-much-dumb-money-can-we-get-from-people-desperate-for-any-kind-of-diversion sweepstakes.
Check it out

I just got off the phone with an LA Times reporter asking my opinion about SprintPCS's new mobile content program: the Spot
The Spot is a "reality" image/text show for your mobile phone. So, if I understand the concept properly, I pay $3.95 for what amounts to a hi-tech slide show sent to my mobile phone, about bartenders and their social circles? Thank God it's going to be serialized so they can build up multi-layered, nuanced story lines. Character development is so hard in old-school art forms like, say, literature. How difficult it must be for the mobile-phone-slide-show medium! My hat's off to the creative geniuses behind the "Spot," but the real kudos must go to the sales person for "The Spot" who pitched this nonsense -- and got somebody to actually buy it. Let's not forget the bold risk-takers who make the content deals at SprintPCS. Wow.

2004-05-27T11:23:00.000-07:00

My day job has many pleasures. One of the greatest things it has given me is a chance to work with the amazing team at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School -- go here -- to check out the very important work they are doing.

2004-05-27T09:25:00.000-07:00

Just when I thought the world was safe from Pat Boone's neutered music and saddle shoes, he pops up with
this
Pat Boone: song stylist, geopolitical expert, neo-con toady. It's great to live in America. And it's even better that people like Pat, and me, have vehicles for our perspectives.

I wonder if Pat's been asked to perform on any USO tours lately? I bet he'd be the first guy to volunteer to head off to Faluja.

2004-05-26T21:38:00.000-07:00

An elegy to a friend who got away

Clyde is gone.

Every time Clyde entered a room, my first thought was never "My, there's Clyde, part terrier and whatever, and a very nice dog." No, when Clyde showed up, my thought was "This is who Dylan was describing in "Tombstone Blues" when he talked about the doctor "who walked with a swagger and shuffled inside."

A classic terrier-mix, Clyde was built low to the ground with a salt-and-pepper coat, Clyde had that classic bounce-step that is particular to short-legged dogs. Clyde and my dog bonded pretty fast. And that meant a lot to my wife and me that this happened simply because our dog was a rescue project and was pretty skittish around humans, cats, authority figures and, well, me. (My only beef with Clyde was that I believe he introduced my dog to the joys of wallowing in cow patties, a diversion they shared running around on the mesa.)

My friend's hurting right now 'cause her buddy's gone. Clyde saw my friend through a lot in the past 13 years he gamboled around SF, Menlo Park and Bolinas. I do believe Clyde deserves a nod.

To Clyde, long may you run, amigo! (picture tk)

2004-05-26T21:31:00.000-07:00

The preternaturally chipper voice of one of our local radio reporters cut through the hazy space between sleep and wake-state coherency with a question: "What's up with ring-tones?" (Note to self: write angry listener-e-mail to KCBS. Meandering "features" at 5:45 a.m. PST are NOT good content.)

What is up with ring-tones, indeed. They've matured from gratingly awful facsimiles of songs and music to what some vendors call "truetones." These are snippets of actual songs. Oh good, now they're morphing into higher-quality annoyances.

Does the fact that most of the active ring-tones are polyphonic renditions of songs de-value the art? Probably no more than when a truly iconic rock song -- one that captures the sentiment of a large number of people pushing for major social change -- gets used to flog running shoes. And that's to say, yes, I think it does de-value the art.

At one level what I find disturbing is that I view it as this weird little trophy, for lack of a better term. "Listen, I've got "Sympathy for the Devel" or "Mountain Jam" as my ringtone!" Great, you've got your little trophy. Does it make you want to listen to the actual song or is that 10-second burst, well, enough?

Ring-tones -- the refrigerator-magnet of the music world: it's like having tiny two-inch refrigerator magnet's of Van Gough's "Starry Night." Yeah, it reminds of "Starry Night" but then so does going out on a full moon and looking at my nice little post-WWII suburb.

The beauty of a song is that it can be a transformative experience in 3-5 minutes. (longer, of course, if you're a deadhead like me. Or shorter in the case of the greatest two-minute rock song ever, the Clash's "White Riot.")

How might I ever achieve peace with ring-tones? I don't think I will. That said, I think it's perfectly appropriate for consumers to use some tools to create their own ring-tones from their personal music collections. Taking a snippet from one's hard-drive-based music collection, packaging the snippet into a five-second burst that plays on one's phone would appear to be the perfect "fair use" of my content. (And, yes, if it's on my hard drive, it's mine.) But actually paying some gi-normous phone companies or music labels any money to get a snippet of a song that may or may have any emotional resonance to me, or anybody else, seems like just the most egregious waste of money since the "pet rock." And I liked pet rocks.

In the audio ether around m2 (and, no, none of these will ever emminate from a cell phone I own):

"Where is My Mind?" Pixies, from Surfer Rosa. (Frankly, I'm beginning to think this should be the theme song for the entire United States.)

"54-46" (the version with Toots, the Maytals and Jeff Beck. It's from an album that I initially dismissed as another "duets" album ("True Love.) But if you love Toots and you love Jeff Beck, and really who doesn't love both of these geniuses, then this little album is worth it.

"Hello Walls", Willie Nelson, off "Yesterday's Wine."

"Red-headed Stranger," Willie Nelson, "Red-headed Stranger." This entire album is a collective memory/nightmare in M2's family. My sisters and I know virtually every song word for word. Honest. If there was a guitar or a piano in the room and somebody played the first bar, my sisters and I could probably do the entire song. Aside from that passing along that biographical detail, I say that this is an iconic work. Note that most of those acoustic-sounding leads on guitar are Willie himself. Nobody gives Willie the credit he deserves as a damn good guitar player. (Anybody who has seen him in the past 2 years should note that he is recovering from surgery to try and repair damage done by carpal-tunnel syndrome.) Also note that this is one of the world's truly honest, clear singing voices. Period.

(Everything) from "Greendale." Listen to "Red-headed Stranger" and "Greendale" back to back. Universal truths or just audio Americana?

"Giving up the Ghost" DJ Shadow. Hey, I used to make fun of DJs (not the kind you hire for your wedding). Then I heard this guy. It's pretty dank stuff, to say the least.

2004-05-20T21:24:00.000-07:00

What will you find here?

A collection of opinions, observations. At times it will be stream-of-consciousness at times. On other occasions it will be straight prose. There will be no poetry. Especially no haiku. There will be occasional mentions of the San Francisco Giants. My guess is that most of the space will be devoted to music.

What's on the playlist right now?
That always depends on what system/service is in use. There's Rhapsody playlists, Napster Playlists and eMusic-based playlists for the WindowsPC. On the Mac side of my desktop there are more than a few playlists. On both the Windows and Mac there are also heaps of off-the-conventional-'Net-based-music services playlists generated from lots of "live" tapes from various artists. Not illegal, mind you, just not available "officially."
The Mac's online at the moment:

Vibrate 6:38 OutKast Speakerboxxx/The Love Below Hip Hop/Rap
Velvet Sky 4:41 Los Lonely Boys Los Lonely Boys Latin
New Minglewood Blues 6:56 Grateful Dead Red Rocks Ampitheatre, 7-8-78 set 1 Rock 1 2/7/04 2:21 PM
Rebel Music (3 O'Clock Roadblock) 5:27 Spearhead Chocolate Supa Highway Hip Hop/Rap
Track 14 Bad luck streak in dancing school 2:59 Warren Zevon I'll Sleep when I'm dead
Positive Vibration 5:48 Bob Marley & The Wailers Babylon By Bus (Live) Reggae
Africa [first version] 14:07 John Coltrane The Complete Africa/Brass Sessions Jazz 1 5/2/04 1:33 PM
Willin' 3:50 Little Feat Waiting for Columbus Rock
Spanish Bombs 3:19 The Clash Story of the Clash, Volume 1 (Disc 2) Alternative & Punk
No Communications, No Love (Devastating), Street Corner Symphony Mix. 7:50 Charles Schilllings Pschent Sampler 2003 Electronica/Dance 1 5/20/04 2:44 PM
Excitable boy 2:41 Warren Zevon I'll Sleep when I'm dead
Windscreen Wiper 5:45 Shade & DJ :Terry Pschent Sampler 2003 Electronica/Dance
100% Dundee 3:53 The Roots Things Fall Apart Hip Hop/Rap
Fire On The Mountain 16:36 Grateful Dead Dick's Picks Volume 6 (Disc 2) Rock
Track 11 Suzie Lightning 4:04 Warren Zevon I'll sleep when I'm dead
Simple Twist Of Fate [Live] 4:17 Bob Dylan & The Rolling Thunder Review Live 1975 - The Rolling Thunder Revue (Bootleg Series Vol. 5) (Disc 1) Rock 1 5/1/04 3:58 PM
Red House 3:49 Buddy Guy Stone Free: A Tribute To Jimi Hendrix Rock 2 5/14/04 10:41 AM
Drums> 4:09 Grateful Dead Dick's Picks v29 Lakeland, FL 21 May 1977 Rock
Standing In The Doorway 7:43 Bob Dylan Time Out Of Mind Rock 1 5/2/04 11:27 AM
The Guns Of Brixton 3:10 The Clash Story of the Clash, Volume 1 (Disc 1) Alternative & Punk
Estimated Prophet 12:42 Grateful Dead Red Rocks Ampitheatre, 7-8-78 set 2 (Disc 1) Rock