Good News for People Who Love Carson
After rocking out with Modest Mouse on Wednesday, Carson Daily continues his string of surprisingly good musical guests with Death Cab For Cutie tonight. Past musical guests have also included Sonic Youth and Candy Butchers and many others whose homepage addresses I am too tired to type in right now. The point is that the one time terrible Last Call has nearly become almost watchable by catering to the snotty rock hipster set - something MTV, MTV2, and just about every other music venue on TV has given up on. Not to make a tired argument, but putting interesting music (even if its not popular) on TV can actually draw a sizeable audience.
And they'll even put up with Carson Daily.
Input by Andy at 3:47 PM
Let's Get Political
If just for a second. Techno popster Moby (who created the very stellar album Play and many par-for-the-course electronic records) suggests lying on political-oriented message boards to incite dissent in Bush's presidential campaign.
The can says "Disgusting Worms" but Moby is too busy looking for the perfect sample that he never notices what he's opening.
I can only hoping he was joking.... but if this were to catch on, you could basically write-off the relevancy of democracy. I am not shitting you. I've seen Moby get tied up in a few political strangles recently, and what he absolutely does not understand is that your own weapons can be use against you. Basically, this kind of thing would start a war of disinformation in the New Media, and the Old Media would be too busy salivating over the maggots to actually fact-check.
Is it true that the ends can justify the means? Yes. Absolutely.
But we cannot actively endorse unsavory means to get our dessert. Just can't.
Input by Mike at
11:47 AM
Record Round-Up
After spending one of my morning walks to work planning an elaborate independent shop review / database site, I discovered that one has already been made. At least for record stores. It's a neat resource and I'd like to see it expanded. The problem is that by focussing on user reviews, the whole thing could turn south in a second. We've seen it happen on practically every other major database; individual reviews would be less than meaningless if it weren't already a suffix. So, the major sites generally either favor the Top Reviewer awards to those who consistently write well (or, well, write consistently) or just create a giant database giving average ratings and demographic stats. Smaller sites don't have the traffic to do the latter effectively, so they must rely on the former but don't have the traffic to effectively run "review the reviewer" scripts. Even on larger sites, the most interesting subjects and reviews get ignored or thrown into a giant
Maybe the large question is how do you effectively filter democracy? I haven't yet seen a system work extremely well at sorting out cheese from the deli meat (our own government included). This, incidentally, has been the subjct of talks between politicians and video game designers in the past week, as the two discovered their problems and solutions are almost identical. (I will link as soon as I can find it, but the story after being everywhere yesterday is buried today). A site I thought would filter well was Plastic. Plastic automatically assigns moderator status to frequent, registered readers which allows them to endorse the quality of individual posts. Two major problems have befallen Plastic. A. The left-leaning readership majority mods up liberal bitch-fest sessions, while conservative participants struggle to get "karma" points for even the most well thought out posts... (A well-recognized issue which generally frustrates the community's most active members.) B. As posts build up in popular conversations, readers use karma points to decide what to read, so fresh posts--no matter how astute--are ignored.
But.
Plastic is a pretty fair system and is one of the best, if not the best, mass public message boards on the internet.
I'm realizing I'm getting way too long with this post, so I'm going to stop for now and continue on specifically how an early era Plastic model could help sites like RSR from drowning in their own democracy.
Input by Mike at
11:11 AM
Tuesday, February 10, 2004
Cheese Blog
I think of a lot of good ideas for blog entries on my walks to and from work, but with all the crazy stuff that happens on those walks.... I generally forget them.
I did remember this item though.
Someday if I ever get steenking rich and I feel like being mean, I'm going to go into specialty stores and ask for a clerk's advice on purchasing... say, a new ottoman or digi-cam. In order for this to work, I will also need them to suggest some really expensive luxury item. Then. I will mock it. But the trick is, I will demand to buy it because it is so hideously awful. "I never want to forget how horrible a thing this is," I might say as I chortle up the twenty dollar bills that will line my stomach.
Pause. Unpause.
This would completely crush the self esteem of the sales clerk because of their role in the exchange. If I call something "ugly" and leave, I've created a barrier of conflict. The clerk will think I'm a jerk and be on with his/her life. But if I patronize the clerk while insulting him, I force him to in some way agree with my statements in order to make the sale. In sales, we often become convinced by our own sales; at my store, we generally distrust Canon cameras because Canon pays us the least amount of money for selling their goods. Clerks often buy the things they sell because they've convinced themselves that it's something they need. It's something that can be turned back on them/us. And with it you can demolish their/our aesthetic taste.
Input by Mike at
8:50 PM
Monday, February 09, 2004
Segway into Disney
I'm categorically against the Segway scooter, that crazy gyroscopic upright personal transport, as a means of transportation, especially to be used around pedestrians. In the words of Gregg Easterbrook, getting hit by one of those things would be like getting tackled by an NFL linebacker at full speed. I don't trust people's focus on navigating it enough to feel at all comfortable with them zipping around me. Maybe I should... But I know the way people are in crowded and/or interesting places, and motor vehicles aren't good to add into the mix.
Regardless. Disney World employees use them; I saw them a lot around Epcot when I went last spring, and I'm pretty sure I saw one or two at the other parks. Disney, I also seem to recall, was one of the major buyers of the Segways when they were first introduced.
I am not certain if Disney's ban on patron usage of the scooters instead of wheelchairs is straight out hypocrisy. But I do know that this really doesn't say much about Disney's confidence in the product. Another sign of the tremendous flop the Segway was/is. I remember that in the expo portion of Epcot, a staff member was showing it off... and you could tell everyone gathered around was waiting for a chance to try it. No such luck. Why? Because. They're friggin' dangerous around groups of pedestrians.
So, in Disney's defense, if someone came up to the front gate in a golf cart (which staff do use inside the park) I probably wouldn't let them in either. Those complaining about their rights to the Segways use could just as well be saying, "Not letting me drive around Disney World in my pick-up truck makes me feel more crippled".
Input by Mike at
11:34 AM
Sunday, February 08, 2004
Sometimes, news from Mars is exciting and stupid at the same time.
Input by Mike at
5:27 PM
