Thoughts on culture, politics, music and stuff by Eric Olsen, Marty Thau and Mike Crooker, who are among other things, producers.

 
Israel’s Golem?
Reviewer Bruce Webber notes the extreme resonance that a new production of H. Leivick’s 1921 play "The Golem," has with the current Middle East situation.

As Israelis and Palestinians persist in their agonizing war, the contemporary pertinence of "The Golem" is painfully apparent. And the play's awful conclusion, its depiction of vengeance turning tragically back upon the avenger, has everything to say about the perpetual cycle of violence that is stripping Jerusalem and its environs of their holiness and humanity.

....It is the slippery-slope effect the Jews in "The Golem" come to grief over: Where do you draw the line? What evils rise to the standard of deserving revenge?

The force of the play is in its refusal to answer the question. "The Golem" doesn't advocate turning the other cheek. It illustrates, agonizingly, the agony of the persecuted, the unbearable dilemma that is being so horribly played out now in the Middle East: suffer silently and live in fearful, shriveled bitterness or retaliate and invite greater suffering.

Clearly this is a summary of the current situation, but the play implies another concept that isn’t discussed in the review: is Ariel Sharon Israel’s
Golem?

One day Great Rabbi Loew decided that he should do something to help the grownups and boys and girls. He remembered a story that his father told him when he was a little boy. His father had read one of the great books in the Synagogue, a Jewish church. The story said that a Golem, a kind of servant, could be made out of a lump of clay!

....One night he was reading the Cabbala, a holy book, and learned how to make a Golem. The Cabbala said, "A Golem must be made of the sticky clay from the bank of the Moldavka River. Make the face, hands and feet out of clay. Roll it over on its back. Walk around the form of clay from right to left seven times." As you walk around the form, shout, "Shanti, Shanti, Dahat, Dahat!"

Not to overemphasize the Jungian “collective subconscious” angle, but has Israel created a great “Jewish avenger” to do what must be done while keeping the moral culpability for what “must be done” at arm’s length? Israel’s attitude toward Sharon seems to be along the lines of, “He’s vicious and crazy, but he’s vicious and crazy for our side”; similar, for example to how we felt about Patton in WWll. In the story, however, there is no moral disconnect between the creation of the Golem, and the Golem’s subsequent actions. Will Israel be able to come to terms with an all-out war to purge the Palestinians of their terrorist leadership?
posted by Eric at 2:20 PM

 
Swampland and Bridges For Sale
The only reasonable response to Yasser Arafat’s condemnation of terrorism is, shall we say, skepticism. Check out Charles Johnson’s devastating Google search result of Arafat’s terror-condemnations past.
posted by Eric at 1:35 PM

 
A Better Generation?
As even casual readers of these pages know, I’m pretty crazy about my kids; and with the oldest two deeply into their teens, now could easily be a time of bitter conflict over values, behavior, and perspective. But it isn’t.

No relationship is perfect, and we certainly have conflicts, but nothing involving fundamental worldview, or issues that could potentially involve extra-family authorities. In other words: they’re really great kids. I also like and feel a basic affinity with their friends. So, while my evidence is largely anecdotal, I have the impression that this generation of teens and young adults have their shit together to a remarkable degree - far beyond my own thrashing about willy nilly between the ages of about 14 and 30.

Steve Chapman, of the Chicago Tribune, agrees:

We adults often complain and despair over the ways of young people. Their headache-inducing music. Their drug and alcohol use. Their casual approach to sex. Their tattoos and body piercings. Their underdeveloped work ethic. Their sense of entitlement. Their attraction to gangs and guns.

So if you're over the age of 30, you would not find it surprising to learn that the crime rate among American youngsters has risen sharply in recent years. That would merely confirm what so many people suspect: Our permissive culture has failed to instill self-respect and self-discipline in our children.

But that assumption is confounded by a fact that really is surprising: Between 1994 and 2000, the total number of juvenile arrests fell by 13 percent. Actually, I'm grossly understating the good news. As the Urban Institute notes in a recent study by Jeffrey Butts and Jeremy Travis, the drop in violent crimes among children under 18 was even bigger.

....During the 1990s, teen pregnancy, drinking, smoking and drug use all became less common. For all the freedom they have, today's teenagers show an inclination toward healthy behavior and self-preservation that past generations--their parents, for example--didn't acquire until they were older.

We may never know exactly what precipitated this welcome development. But it's nice to think that maybe we're doing something right.

I hope so, Steve. But on the other hand there is
this:

The University of California at Berkeley, that bastion of sun-kissed young adults with a chip on their shoulder, was among the first to stomp the grass. Earlier this month, a sit-in for Palestinian statehood on the ramps of an interstate snarled traffic badly enough to need intervention by the California Highway Patrol.

....All told, students at some 30 universities across the country -- from the University of Nebraska to Georgetown to Rutgers -- are expressing their solidarity with a group of people who send college-age kids out to self-detonate near as many Israeli civilians as possible.

....But beyond the usual angry sputtering and name-calling, there are some signs for concern. The Jewish student center at Berkeley recently had a window smashed and "F -- ing Jews" scrawled on the garbage cans. Students coming out of synagogues got egged. And worse, near the Berkeley campus, two Orthodox Jewish men were attacked.

If it sounds an awful lot like what's been happening in Europe, that's because it is. In the ivory towers of American academia, as in Paris, Rome and Madrid, the workaday fascination with hating the U.S. and its foreign policy has been transposed to one of its allies.

Damn stupid pampered valueless kids. Oh yeah, this is America, where people are allowed to think really stupid thoughts, especially when they are young.
posted by Eric at 1:24 PM

 
Not the Same Fight?
Also in the New Republic, Peter Beinart makes the best case I’ve seen yet for the difference between our fight against al Qaeda and the like, and those of Russia, India and Israel against their own terrorists.

Russia's, India's, and Israel's "war on terrorism" is not like our own. And in order to craft wise and decent policy, the Bush administration needs to explain why.

The critical difference is that the wars in Kashmir, Palestine, and Chechnya are wars of national liberation. The terrorists seek to end a foreign occupation and create an independent state on a defined piece of land. That doesn't make their demands legitimate: Yasir Arafat's definition of a Palestinian state is clearly grandiose and dangerous (especially given that Israel is so small--and therefore particularly imperiled by such fantasies); Kashmir and Chechnya probably shouldn't be independent states at all. And it doesn't make their methods legitimate either: There's no excuse for deliberately targeting civilians. But as a practical matter, wars of national liberation are easier (though certainly not easy) to resolve politically and much harder to resolve militarily than the kind we're fighting against Al Qaeda.

....Does Israel have the same right to defend itself against suicide bombers in Tel Aviv as the United States has to defend itself against suicide hijackers in New York? Is an attack on the Indian parliament as evil as an attack on Congress? Absolutely. But the question isn't moral; it's strategic. And strategically, Israel's and India's wars against terrorism differ radically from America's because Israel and India aren't merely fighting a terrorist network; they're fighting a people. And a people can be militarily occupied, but they can't be militarily crushed. The moral right to respond to terror with single-minded, overwhelming force doesn't make such a response successful. And in the end, if a government's response to terror doesn't stop future terror, the moral clarity it provides is cold comfort indeed.

posted by Eric at 1:00 PM

 
Fascists=Islamists=PLO
Yehuda Mirsky makes a compelling argument for the similarities between Nazi Europe in the ‘30s and ‘40s, and the Middle East now:

A vital region aflame and on the march. Unresolved disputes over old imperial boundaries breeding terrible violence. A fanatical belief system stitched together from religious traditions, romantic cults of violence, and modern ideologies, then fanned by fire-breathing, charismatic leaders and propped up by timid plutocrats terrified of the masses. Genuinely well-intentioned progressives finding themselves the unwitting supporters of murderous fanatics. America and the Jews savagely attacked as the hated representatives of all that is wrong with the modern world. No doubt about it, Europe was a frightening place in the 1930s and '40s...

Mirsky sees “jihadism” as a response to globalization as communism and fascism were responses to modernization. All are based on a false, romanticized vision of the past:

The sharia society, whose return political Islam demands, is as much a historical fiction as were the primal forest of German Volkism and Marx's happily unalienated medieval craftsmen. All are romantic answers to very concrete problems, and all have proven deadly when taken seriously.

Mirsky notes the psychological connection between America and the Jews:

Blame it on America. And not without reason, as from its founding, America has been both the engine and exemplar of modernity. In Weimar, the late historian Detlev Peukert showed, the euphemism for "modernity" was "Americanism." The more things change....

And on You Know Who. There has been an astounding and historically unprecedented adoption of Nazi-like anti-Semitism not only by Arab masses, but also Arab governments, including our ostensible ally, Egypt. This results not only from the fact that the material is out there, and not only because "the enemy (Hitler) of my enemy (Jews) is my friend," but also because, then and now, Jews both exemplify and champion the Western political and socio-economic order that has given them enormous freedoms and opportunities--all while clinging to a particular and demanding ethnic identity.

I mentioned this connection in rather more subjective form yesterday. Compare this view with that of Ed Rothstein in today’s NY Times reviewing the Masterpiece Theater version of Trollope’s “The Way We Live Now”:

Modern anti-Semitism, after all, is less a matter of physical disgust than a view of the rootless, cosmopolitan Jew who was seen as a political and cultural threat to a traditional society. After the Enlightenment, ancient entitlements and hierarchies were dissolving just as they did in the face of Melmotte's enterprises. A speculative economy based on credit and commerce, rather than inherited property, transformed society, leading to corruption as well as freedom. The Jew was seen as the extreme embodiment of these changes if not their cause. And that is precisely the world of "The Way We Live Now."

....Trollope, of course, did not explicitly see modernity as a creation of the Jews, nor could he have imagined where these ideas, shared by so many others, might have led. But his novel remains resonant because some of these themes and conflicts keep recurring in contemporary crises — and not just in the world of business.

.....The hatred of Islamic radicals for the United States is also inspired by fear that their own traditions and order are being undone by alien ideas. It is no accident that anti-Semitism has also been dragged into the ideological mix. Even before recent events in the Middle East, the idea of the Jew as a power-hungry, manipulative destroyer of traditions and culture was not unfamiliar. But during the current crisis, in which a Jewish state is involved and the nature of a modern Middle East is at stake, that Nazi-like caricature has been resurrected with a vengeance — and not just in many state-run newspapers in the Arab world that have given voice to virulent forms of anti-Semitism.

The political issues, involving treaties and boundaries and rights and security, would be difficult enough on their own. But clouded by these older myths of Trollope's day, they become even more intractable. Whether acknowledged or unacknowledged, rejected or championed, used or ignored, these ideas remain an inseparable part of the way we hate now.

Mirsky’s solution is that of Horowitz, and Hanson (consistently), that these neuroses cannot be appeased or assuaged with half-measures: they must be ruthlessly defeated before compassion can re-enter the picture and help people with legitimate problems and grievances.

But first things first. Nazi Germany then, and more recently the former Soviet Union, eventually joined the family of nations--but only after they were decisively defeated. Denazification could only happen once the Nazis were gone. That victory and our victory in the cold war were made possible not only by the hard stuff of military and economic strength, but by what Joseph Nye has helpfully termed "soft power"--the attractiveness of liberal and democratic societies and the opportunities they present for human flourishing, which first effectively mobilized us against the Nazis; sustained people like Havel, Sakharov, and Sharansky behind the Iron Curtain; and, in the end, brought that curtain down. The struggle with jihadism paradoxically affords us a chance to reaffirm our own core values. Just as World War II gave birth to the human rights movement, and the cold war gave impetus to the American civil rights movement--yielding a more just society at home and a greater respect for democratic values abroad--so, too, this struggle, if waged wisely, can not only save us, but help make the globalizing community a better, if sadder and wiser, place.

posted by Eric at 12:46 PM

 
A Resume I Could Only Dream Of...

B.J. Baker, a backup singer who worked on hits with Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Sam Cooke and Bobby Darin, died April 2 of complications from a stroke. She was 74.

Baker also appeared on several 1960's television shows, provided voices for cartoons and was a regular on Dean Martin and Judy Garland TV variety shows.

Born in Birmingham, Ala., Baker sang in big bands and had her own Birmingham radio show at age 14.

She caught actor Mickey Rooney's eye when she competed in the 1944 Miss America contest, and they were married later that year, but divorced a few years later. She married Buddy Baker, who directed the Walt Disney Co. music department, in 1950, and she was married to jazz guitarist Barney Kessel from 1961 to 1980.

Among the records Baker sang on were: Presley's ``I Can't Help Falling in Love With You;'' Cooke's ``You Send Me;'' Sinatra's ``That's Life;'' Darin's ``Dream Lover;'' and the Righteous Brothers' ``You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling.''

In later years, Baker became a highly regarded vocal contractor, working to select and direct background singers for recording sessions.

posted by tofu at 11:49 AM

 
Death, Delusions and Demographics
David Horowitz argues, using the logic if not the words of Donald Rumsfeld, that the reason most Israelis back the military action in the West Bank is because it puts the terrorists on the defensive. I have been hoping and hoping that each “one more chance” would cause Arafat to snap out of his impossible, suicidal (there’s that word again) delusion that he can somehow conquer Israel, by destruction or demographic flooding:

By demanding a "right of return" to sovereign Israel for up to four million Palestinians, Mr. Arafat, most Israelis believe, effectively sought to overwhelm Israel – current population: five million Jews; one million-plus Arabs – by sheer weight of numbers.

I have now concluded that this epiphany will not occur, that he must be defeated and removed. Much, much suffering remains, but my friends in Israel will inevitably prevail. Again with the suicidal delusions of grandeur. Will they never learn?
posted by Eric at 7:06 PM

 
My Friend
So I have this friend, and he’s a real close friend of the family - almost like a brother to me. He comes from an old, tightly-knit family that used to be spread all over hell and back, but they found a place to have a reunion - ironically on the old ancestral stomping grounds - and they had such a good time in each other’s company that a lot of them just decided to stay.

Besides having a good time and telling old stories, they felt a little bit safer together. It felt really good to be able to trust people and to have some control over the situation - to be able to call the shots to a certain extent. They are a proud, tough bunch, but they have seen some desperately hard times. I’m not exactly sure why, but some people get real upset when other people “choose” to be different - not just different - but proudly different even when they’re invited to assimilate.

People get real jealous of others who work hard, value education and achievement, stick together and help each other out. A lot of people don’t have that: they have all kinds of ties, but those ties seem based in negativity and trying to be happy while holding each other down; ties based upon mutual fears, hatreds, and antagonisms. When most of your effort is going into keeping track of what your neighbors are doing so they don’t get too big for their britches or break any sacred rules, you don’t have a lot of time to concentrate on getting things done.

There is excitement in achievement, in challenging, even confronting each other to be the best we can be, a palpable energy bubbling out of individuals and intermingling with that of others - not in equations of addition, but of multiplication. The energy squares itself again and again, creating a rushing force that barrels over all in its path; not out of malice, but out of the sheer joy of riding such harnessed power, side by side with our buddies and kinsmen, pulling together, ebullient with the rush of it all. “Lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way,” and some people seem to resent that force, that giddy, interlaced and reinforced power that comes from pursuing the possible, not fearing the probable.

Some people really hate that "work together and get things done" shit because they fear it and resent it, because of their culture of mutually-reinforced underachievement: “I’ll show you what pride brings. We’ll show you what happens to those who don’t submit, who try to push the ever-shrinking circle in the other direction. We will tear you down to our level - we needn’t bother to try to rise to yours. This is the way it has always been, and the way it should always be. Change is to be feared and shunned.”

Energy - the energy with which all people are born - is to be stuffed and crammed, and pushed down into a little, tiny, festering black hole of hatred, resentment, self-denial, frustration and finally, destruction. For energy cannot be denied, and if it isn’t channeled, and challenged, and honed, and mingled and multiplied into a raging whirlwind of accomplishment and achievement, then it turns on its host and and consumes it from within, an insatiable parasite.

So my friend and his family are being once again confronted with this kind of negativity, with this hatred and resentment directed at their squaring and cubing people-energy. When self-hatred and resentment-based hatred of others come together, you have people stumbling upon the idea of destroying themselves and the hated-others at the same time to defend a pride so false that it cracks when struck.

And that is another difference between my friend and the others: a plasticity, a resourcefulness, an adaptability that always seeks to find the right situation for itself, and that stops at virtually nothing to preserve that situation once it is found, fighting with all of that amassed, harnessed energy pulling in the same direction with an awesome determination.

Some of my other friends resent that determination, that undeniable energy, and they would seek - not to harm my friend or his family - but to restrain them and deny them the free and full use of their combined energy, even when that energy is being used to defend themselves against a shitstorm of hatred, negativity, and denied-energy so compressed that its release could destroy the world.

I say to my friend: I am on your side, the side of energy set free and harnessed toward a common goal of achievement and prosperity for each and every soul who wants to be all that he or she can be in a world of exciting, endless possibility.

And I say to those who hate my friend, and with my friend, me: your time is short, for your negativity will consume you from within and you will collapse upon yourselves. We will cry a bit over the loss of you - you are people as are we - then my friend and I will continue on our way as your self-immolated ashes scatter on the four winds and are lost but to history.
posted by Eric at 5:51 PM

 
Bring Forth the Grapes and the Sportsmen, Garcon
My schedule is all screwed up today - sorry - had to go to the doctor this morning, then I had to go record the radio show. Normally I do that on Thursdays, but I had to do something else last night: go to the Indians game for my father’s belated birthday party.

Not only did my dad, son and I go to the game - which the Tribe won in fine style 8-4 to sweep the Twinkies and rise to 9-1 for the season - but we got to dine and take in the game from the totally stylin’ Terrace Club, a rarefied gourmet buffet in a tiered seating arrangement perched above the left-field box seats, with the napkin-snapping service of a blue blood resort.

Yes, we were cut off from most of the crowd noise. Yes, it was still 70 degrees with a placid July stillness in the air when we left at 10:20 so we had no excuse not to hang with the masses. But we went back to the 57 salads, roast pork, roast turkey, prime rib, oysters, 17 fruits that only Hawaiians know the names of, fresh-baked breads, cheeses of every hue, and desserts as big as Bartolo Colon’s midsection at least four times (clean plate each trip so as to have no lingering food pollution), and all of a sudden it was the 7th inning and we were too full to move anyway.

We felt like Romans on the cusp between the Golden Age and the headlong plunge into decadence. Our common love of the game and excitement with the Indians’ fast start provided the discipline sufficient to stave off total epicurean debauchery. We just sat there grinning at each other, nodding in approval at each fresh batch of victuals, grooving to the surroundings, digging the cohesive TEAM, yes I said TEAM - as opposed to a conglomeration of separate-but-equal All Stars as in years past - that the Indians have miraculously become.

Occasionally I would look at the ornate clock and think, “Mike’s probably playing right about now,” or “Mike’s probably done about now and having to carry all that equipment all by himself,” and feel something resembling guilt. But then Thome or little Omar would hit a home run, or Matt Lawton would make another inning-ending diving catch, and the guilt would quickly pass. A perfect April night on about 17 levels, including intergenerational male bonding of the finest kind. It was plain schweeeet.

Mike says: What? Eric wasn't at the show!?!?!?

Check out this Indians blog Mike found (when he wasn't performing alone). You want the skinny on the Tribe? Go and feel the vibe.
posted by Eric at 3:40 PM

 
Career vs. Abs
Just got back from the doctor. The verdict for my upper abdominal spasms: more Skelaxin. The reason the condition is hanging on so long - according to MD-dude - is that I don't take the Skelaxin in the day, thereby allowing the tightness to regain its icy grip as I sit at the computer thinking stressful BIG THOUGHTS about the state of the world, my bank account, etc.

As I explained to the medical man, I can't take the shockingly effective muscle relaxant in the day because it turns me into a grinning bowl of jello, unable to link thoughts, sit up straight, or speak coherently. If it weren't for these minor issues, I'd be happy to pop Skelaxins all the livelong day: eyes unfocused, brain wandering the grassy path of idle reverie, half-formed words leaking from my askew lips, fingers pushing random keys making pretty patterns on the computer screen. Yet another of life's grim trade-offs.
posted by Eric at 10:36 AM

 
"It's For the Children"
Jerry passed this story on a couple of days ago:

The Saudi Arabian government has paid out at least $33 million to families of Palestinians killed or injured in the 17-month-old intifada and in December 2001 earmarked another $50 million for the payments, according to Arabic news agencies and the Saudi Embassy's Web site.

Similar payments promised by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein have drawn sharp condemnation from U.S. President George W. Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

The Saudi Committee for Support of the Al-Aqsa Intifada distributes payments of $5,333 to the families of the dead and $4,000 to each Palestinian receiving medical treatment in Saudi hospitals. The fund is managed by Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz, according to the embassy.

The sum is far less than the $10,000 Iraq offers to the families of those killed and the $25,000 it gives to the kin of suicide bombers, but is nonetheless significant to the average Palestinian whose annual income is $1,575.

They're playing the "innocent children" card:

According to Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Washington-based Council on American Islamic Relations, the Islamic faith enjoins Muslims to take care of widows and especially orphans. The families of suicide bombers are just as needy as those killed by military attacks, he said.

"They want to make it sound like (all the money is for) the families of suicide bombers," Hooper told United Press International.

..."Sometimes I'd like to ask these people who criticize these things (the funds) to find a list of Palestinian orphans who shouldn't be fed. Give us a list of Palestinian widows and orphans so Muslims can comply with dictates of not feeding the wrong people," Hooper said. "Are you supposed to penalize some child, some widow, because of what their father did or did not do?"

Jerry replies,

A thought occurred to me last night. Someone should ask Mr. Hooper how he feels about Jews who provide money to the widow and orphans of Baruch Goldstein. (And, conversely, assuming there are such Jews, someone should ask them what's wrong with the Saudis providing money to the widows and orphans of suicide bombers.)

posted by Eric at 10:14 AM

 
Doppelganger
I must visit the doctor regarding my persistent upper abdominal issues; be back soon, but in the meantime, check out the secret photo gallery of Matt Welch (note reader comments). Layne-as-Damon eerie as well, if lacking in documentary evidence.
posted by Eric at 8:33 AM

 
.... I sleep in the daytime, I work in the nightime / I might not ever get home

OK, I'm back from the gig -- the show went great, met lots of cool folks from the SynthCleveland group, drank some beer, and I'm home by 12:45 a.m. -- time to do the collapse.

here's the setlist in full

1. Intro (original intro from "Like It, I Do Not")
2. Episodic
3. Focus On Charles
4. Bombay Pimpmobile
5. Freshen
6. Biblioteca!
7. Glocken
8. Naked Ambition
9. Golem
10. Liquid Body Punch
posted by tofu at 1:08 AM

 
High on a hillside, trucks are loading / everything's ready to roll...

All loaded up for the big rock show tonight in Cleveland The station wagon is full of obscure and ancient keyboards as well as my trusty bass. I have a large bottle of club soda, some Advil, a towel and a change of clothes. In honor of all the goths in Missouri, I will be wearing all black (as I, like Johnny Cash, always wear black).

I need to eat something, I need to get my keys, I need to drive. Report back to base 0200.

posted by tofu at 5:19 PM

 
People Finally Rid of “Man of the People”
Rep. James Traficant, Youngstown-area congressman, was convicted of accepting bribes from businessmen today in Cleveland Federal Court.

Traficant contended the government came after him because he beat the FBI in a racketeering case 19 years ago, when he was a Mahoning County sheriff accused of taking mob money. He was elected the next year to the House, where he quickly became known for his unruly hair, loud wardrobe and tempestuous floor speeches in which he railed against federal agencies, from the Justice Department to the IRS. The rants often ended with an exasperated "Beam me up!"

The trial was raucous, often comic and occasionally vulgar, with Traficant roaring at the judge, crudely questioning the prosecutor's manhood and using barnyard epithets to describe what he thought of the government's case.

This clown is one of the main reasons I distrust “populists”: men of the people who use a combination of pork and veiled threats to intimidate the “people” into keeping them in office.

Traficant represented himself, though he is not an attorney and often was chastised by the judge for not following procedure. Throughout the 3-month long trial, he shouted at witnesses, government attorneys and the judge. At one point, he stormed out of the courtroom to retrieve a witness.

"Goodbye, congressman," U.S. District Judge Lesley Wells said to his empty chair.

Thank God.
posted by Eric at 4:58 PM

 
This is why dead people vote.
posted by Eric at 4:48 PM

 
News That Matters About Matter
Big news on the matter front, reported by the thrice-named John Noble Wilford in today’s NY Times:

Observations of two stars, one unusually small and the other unusually cold [sounds like my ex-wife], have led astronomers to think they are seeing evidence of a new form of matter and a new kind of star, one possibly made of elementary particles known as quarks and denser than any cosmic object other than a black hole.

A substance more dense than a suicide-bomber’s brain!

Neutron stars are the compact remnants of dying massive stars that explode and collapse, and nothing denser had been observed.

A teaspoon of neutron star material weighs a billion tons, or as much as all the cars, trucks and buses on Earth. Matter in the suspected quark stars would be far denser.

Stranger than fiction!

Physicists know of six kinds of quarks, two of which — up and down — make up ordinary matter like protons and neutrons. Theorists have long speculated that up and down quarks can be melded with a heavier kind known as the strange quark to form something called strange matter.

"The combined observational evidence points to a star composed not of neutrons, but of quarks in a form known as strange quark matter," said Dr. Jeremy Drake...

Libertarian physics!

Dr. Sam Aronson, chairman of physics at Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, where a high-energy particle collider is being used to study quarks, said the discovery, if confirmed, could lead to an understanding of the behavior of freely interacting quarks. "No one has seen really free quarks," Dr. Aronson said.

posted by Eric at 4:43 PM

 
Be One Of Us! Be One Of Us!

It must have been a slow week in Blue Springs, Missouri, home region of Rep. Sam Graves, (R-Mo). How else to explain the $273,000 federal grant to combat Goth culture.

Reviving images of the Trenchcoat Mafia, the money will be spent on "psychological testing, therapy sessions, training sessions and town hall meetings."

Having known more than a few goths in my travels as a musician, I can only speculate that people in western Missouri are easily frightened by people wearing too much black clothing and makeup.

"When asked about spending federal money to combat the Goth subculture, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., began laughing.

He jokingly compared the project to other government-funded programs that were approved to study squirrel mating and reindeers."

posted by tofu at 1:45 PM

 
Attention: George W. Bush
I often joke about my friend Jerry, who helps us find so much of our material, but he is an extremely intelligent, perceptive, and fair-minded man. I hope the president heeds his words.

Dear Mr. President:

It is with more than a little dismay that I have read accounts of your Administration's impatience with the Israeli campaign to uproot the terror infrastructure in areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority. It seems to me that the following facts are incontrovertible:

(1) The Palestinians agreed at Oslo to abjure violence.

(2) They have violated that and many of the other Oslo pledges. The violations include, in particular, a massive weapons buildup and continued incitement to anti-Semitism in textbooks and elsewhere.

(3) They have undertaken an indiscriminate campaign of violence against Israeli men, women, and children, whether in uniform or not, whether in the Occupied Territories or inside the Green Line.

(4) Israel has made a good-faith effort to conclude its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, most recently at Camp David in 2000 and in the negotiations that followed. The Palestinian response to this effort has been unremitting violence.

(5) Despite repeated entreaties from the Administration and others, Yasser Arafat has declined to call in Arabic for a stop to the violence. Even if he were to finally make such a call at this exceedingly late date, it is far from clear that he has the ability or the will to curtail terror.

Against this background, there is no plausible scenario in which there can be peace short of an unequivocal military victory by Israel. The United States is not negotiating with Osama bin Laden or the Taliban; nor should it. The Palestinian Authority in general and Yasser Arafat in particular have revealed themselves (or, if you will, revealed themselves again) to be mobsters at best, would-be perpetrators of genocide at worst. (That they are dictatorial and corrupt is almost beside the point.) We should not expect our friends in Israel to negotiate with mobsters. We should be grateful that they are doing the dirty work of cleaning up the neighborhood -- while maintaining concern for the lives of innocent civilians, at great cost to their own safety -- without asking for American troops to help.

I know you have seen through Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority. They are incapable of leading their people to peace, let alone democracy or prosperity. Please extend no more last chances to an evil person and an evil entity that will see your kindness only as weakness. The United States must have the courage to disagree with our feckless friends in Europe, not to mention our putative allies in the Third World. History will respect you for permitting an American ally to carry on your anti-terror campaign and to face down the forces of bigotry, intolerance, and hatred. When that job is done, the people of Israel, Palestine, and the entire Middle East will be better off.
Very truly yours,
Jerome M. Balsam

posted by Eric at 12:55 PM

 
Ken Layne: Neo-liberal
In our Tour O the Blogs for Ken Layne, I identified him as a “neo-conservative.” He’s listed on the infamous "Warblogger Watch List" as a dangerous hawk as well. Ken seems bugged by this, as he mentions it here (“In the bloggy-world, plenty of neo-cons and libertarians don’t seem to believe I'm liberal. I am -- I'm just not part of the fringe academic left.”), and here (“But here on this little Web site on this warm Los Angeles night, I will stand up for informed American optimism. Can't we do that on the liberal side, now and then? Wasn't MLK Jr. an optimist? Bobby Kennedy? FDR?”), both within the last couple of days.

I hereby declare - before the assembled spirits of Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy - that KEN LAYNE IS A POST-9/11 HAWKISH, NEO-LIBERAL like his pal Matt Welch and Santa Monica-dweller Mickey Kaus. Your certificate is in the mail, you may kiss welfare as we know it goodbye.
posted by Eric at 12:36 PM

 
Do I Want to Post This? You Bet
Everyone loves Rummy, but his speaking style is a bit, arch. Charley Reese takes it step further.

A habit of conversation conducted as a form of Twenty Questions is becoming a fad in Washington. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is probably the most famous user of the Twenty Questions style of talking.

You've probably heard him say something like: "Do we know where Bin Laden is? No. Are we searching for him? Yes. Will we eventually find him? You bet. But do I wake up every morning worrying about where Bin Laden may or may not be? No."

Maybe all Americans should adopt this habit. Imagine going to a restaurant, and the waitress says, "What'll you have?"...

Thanks to all-seeing Mike at Cursor.
posted by Eric at 11:19 AM

 
Suicide: Last Resort or Portal to Paradise?
Yet another Palestinian suicide bombing yesterday: the words “suicide bombing” are beginning to lose their sting, their underlying reality, as we hear of them over and over again, dulling the internal vision like some kind of mental olfactory fatigue. We need some details to sharpen our apprehension once again:

The rush-hour bus blast scattered body parts across 250 yards of highway near the northern port city of Haifa and wounded at least 12 people in addition to the dead. It buckled the vehicle and ripped open its roof like a tin can.

I’ve been having a very difficult time coming to terms with what “suicide bombing” really means, not linguistically, but its place in reality, its ontology.

Killing oneself is forbidden by all cultures and religions, specifically the relevant cultures of Islam, Christianity and Judaism. Yet Islam, in particular, and Christianity have “out clauses” that mitigate the outright ban somewhat, or at least the culpability of the suicide-ee. Christianity doesn’t seem to be spawning an epidemic of suicides (although over 30,000 Americans took their own lives in 1998, about .01% of the population, a not insignificant number - no figures on how many were Christian), but this sad story of a Cleveland-area priest who committed suicide after allegations of sex abuse were brought forth reminds us that suicide is still far too common here as well. Here is the reference to mitigation to which I was referring:

The Catholic catechism speaks forcefully against suicide but says grave psychological disturbances or fear of suffering can diminish moral responsibility for the act. Church officials are left to decide whether to hold a funeral for a person who commits suicide.

The priest in question was given a funeral with full honors - so to speak - with a bishop presiding. The implication is that the church has forgiven Father Rooney for his act, and that perhaps God would as well.

Yet certainly no one is praising the late priest. His was clearly a desperate measure of last resort taken by a damaged man. No one encouraged him to kill himself “for the honor of the church” or some such thing. But that is exactly what is happening in Islam:

Yes, the Koran tells Muslims not to "kill or destroy yourselves" (Surah 4:29) – but only when doing so is outside the cause of Allah. Dying for Allah is not viewed as a waste of life.

This rather biased report on the religious justifications for suicide bombing nonetheless makes some hard points:

Consider these verses:
"When ye meet the unbelievers, smite at their necks," Muhammad commands in Surah 47:4. "Those who are slain in the way of Allah – he will never let their deeds be lost."
"Soon will he guide them and improve their condition," he continues in Surah 47:5, "and admit them to the Garden (of Paradise), which he has announced for them."
And look at Surah 4:74: "To him who fighteth in the cause of Allah – whether he is slain or gets victory – soon shall we give him a reward of great (value)."
And Surah 3:157: "If ye are slain, or die, in the way of Allah, forgiveness and mercy from Allah are far better than all they could amass."

All of this is open to interpretation, but the facts are there:

"The only way Muslims can have assurance of salvation and eternal life is by becoming a martyr for the cause of Islam," said Reza F. Safa, author of "Inside Islam."

"To a Muslim," he added, "dying and killing for the cause of Islam is not only an honor, but also a way of pleasing Allah." That explains how a Palestinian grandmother could proudly pose with her beaming teen-age grandson for a final photograph knowing that just hours later he would strap himself with explosives and eviscerate Israeli "infidels" – and himself – in the name of Allah. This adoring old woman was actually celebrating the boy's imminent death, as if he were about to cross the stage at his high-school graduation ceremony. But to her, a death certificate sealed by Allah meant more than any diploma. She said she was happy – overjoyed that her grandson would soon disembowel himself – because she knew he would be instantly transported to a better place.

...The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Syria, which according to Safa has helped the Palestinians against the Israelis, has this as its slogan:
"The Koran is our constitution, the prophet is our guide; Death for the glory of Allah is our greatest ambition."

Greater than land or voting rights. Greater than family or love. Above all, death.

This is the most disturbing aspect of the suicide campaign - the glorification of death. No matter what our beliefs regarding the afterlife, we live here and now on earth. We owe it to ourselves and our maker, whoever he or she may be, to give our all to this life.

Suicide is never heroism, never brave, it is always the easiest way to deal with the problems of life. It isn’t taking responsibility: it’s the absence of it, the voluntary abdication of it. We wonder why the Islamic world has fallen so far behind the West on virtually every measurable scale, an underlying cause could well be that the value of life in the here and now isn’t properly valued, isn’t held as sacred.

Life is always hard: there must be an underlying assumption that it is always worth living with all our might, for as long as possible - that the “better place” can, indeed must, wait. We can never be encouraged to hasten our departure or life - all we have for now - will not be credited with its full value. Religious leaders - and in this case Islamic leaders - must unambiguously assert the sacred value of life here on earth or their people will never put out the effort sufficient to achieve their full potentials: physical, moral or otherwise.
posted by Eric at 10:45 AM

 
Consultants to Enron and 4-Year-Olds
This quiz has appeared several places including the Car Talk site:

This short quiz from Andersen Consulting will help you understand your thinking style better.
1. How do you put a giraffe into a refrigerator?
2. How do you put an elephant into a refrigerator?
3. The Lion King is hosting an animal conference; all the animals attend except one. Which animal does not attend?
OK, even if you did not answer the first three questions correctly you can surely answer this one.
4. There is a river you must cross. But it is inhabited by crocodiles. How do you manage it?
Answers:
Question #1: Correct Answer: Open the refrigerator, put in the giraffe and close the door. This question tests whether you tend to do simple things in an overly complicated way.
Question #2: Wrong Answer: Open the refrigerator, put in the elephant and close the refrigerator.
Correct Answer: Open the refrigerator, take out the giraffe, put in the elephant and close the door. This tests your ability to think through the repercussions of your actions.
Question #3 Correct Answer: The Elephant. The Elephant is in the refrigerator! This tests your memory.
Question #4: Correct Answer: You swim across. All the crocodiles are attending the Animal Meeting! This tests whether you learn quickly from your mistakes.
According to Andersen Consulting Worldwide, around 90% of the professionals they tested got all questions wrong. But many preschoolers got several correct answers. Andersen Consulting says this conclusively disproves the theory that most professionals have the brains of four-year olds.

On the other hand, didn’t Andersen consult Enron?
posted by Eric at 10:37 AM

 
Blogatry and InstaPower
I asked yesterday for bloggers to throw some numbers at me indicating the impact of a link/recommendation from InstaPundit Glenn Reynolds: Executive Editor of Blogistan, Grand Traffic Director, The Man With the Hits (he, like George Washington, did not seek the job). Below are the most dramatic.

Professional subversive Jim Treacher relates that the first time InstaPundit linked to his Clip-Art Nonsense, he received over 6,000 hits in a single day - it had averaged 300-400 a day previously. That’s an increase of about 2000%.

John Cole's blog went up in December - 10% of his total traffic came in a single day when Glenn threw him a link. That’s InstaPower.

Regarding yesterday’s oration on blogation: Bob Sassone has some pithy comments on the blog debate:

In the end, it seems what Beam is against, really, is words. Daily writing is hard? These bloggers have nothing to say? What is he talking about? Most bloggers don't even "aspire" (ugh) to journalism, they just write. Besides, unlike Beam, I think most of us can enjoy the books of George Higgins, the New York Times, AND our bookmarked blogs about pop culture, the war, or a leaky fridge. There are good writers and bad writers, regardless of what they are talking about, how many days a week they do it, how much (if anything) they are paid, and what the medium is. I think if Beam had a blog, he wouldn't know what to say, unlike the many fine web writers. But then again, Beam does it a few times a week, in a newspaper "that people actually read," and he doesn't have anything interesting to say there either.

posted by Eric at 9:00 AM

 
Elusive Goal of 161-1 Still Within Tribe's Reach
Only 153 left to go!
posted by Eric at 8:14 AM

 
Clones Back Ban On All Forms of Bushing

In a speech evoking images of Bush farms, custom-made Bush-lings and desperate women pressured into selling their Bushes, President Clone urged the Senate on Wednesday to outlaw all forms of Bushing.

posted by Eric at 8:04 AM

 
Take It OUTSIDE the Family, Please
Both Jerry and William Saletan agree: first cousins shouldn't marry. It's icky, doubles the risk of birth defects, and most importantly, can destroy a family if it doesn't work out. As Saletan says,"There's no such thing as an ex-cousin."
posted by Eric at 9:07 PM

 
Fight Like a Brave
Charles Johnson, constantly manipulating oblong olivine sporting goods,
reports that 300 Palestinian fighters surrendered in Jenin today upon hearing the Israelis threaten to “fight like Americans” and “demolish buildings with aerial bombing using F-16's.” Made Charles’s day.
posted by Eric at 8:33 PM

 
Cruelty of April Overstated
April may be the cruelest month, but not today. Just got back from a jog around pastoral Sunny Lake Park, sun flickering off the gentle ripples, teen and tot playing together on the spanking new whole-lotta-slides apparatus, spring chasing off winter leaving acres of mud, AND a grand slam by Jim Thome sending the Tribe off to a 7-2 lead through 3. Who could ask for more?
posted by Eric at 8:10 PM

 
“But the Light Was Green”
Wondering whether 767’s have “reverse,” this one wandered out into traffic at LAX. “Mechanical error” was blamed. Brother Arne spotted this one.
posted by Eric at 6:32 PM

 
Loyal Chuck
The invaluable Jerry presents a conspiracy theory: “Maybe George Steinbrenner hired Kitaen, the way he hired Howard Spira. After all, Finley was known as a Yankee-killer.”

The stalwart Chuck Finley - who won last night taking the Indians to 7-1! - is standing by Tawny even though she looks like Linda Blair in the Exorcist in this photo. Love is blind (not to mention dumb).
posted by Eric at 6:02 PM

 
So That’s Where the Royalties Go
Black holes make music: the ancient "music of the spheres" being transformed into the "music of the sphincters," since a black hole, is indeed, a giant cosmic sphincter.

The music of a black hole is generated in the region just outside the black hole proper, where incoming matter is accelerated to near-the-speed-of-light just before being swallowed. The notes and pauses are roughly the same in faraway supermassive black holes, which can weigh more than a billion stars, as they are in comparatively puny stellar black holes, which are typically just a few times as massive as the Sun and are found here in our own galaxy.

Getting Closer
Per Mike at Cursor, who sits perched high upon his aerie surveying all of mankind: The joint Pakistani/U.S. raid that netted al Qaeda lieutenant Abu Zubaydah on March 28 missed snagging Osama bin Laden by hours, according to a Pakistani paper.

Laden stayed for three days in Faisalabad and was able to slip out of the town barely a few hours before the FBI conducted a surprise raid, Pakistan daily 'The Nation' reported today.

posted by Eric at 5:05 PM

 
V.D. and Idi
Uganda will celebrate the deposal of the deranged Idi Amin 23 years ago tomorrow.

The leaders of Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria and Burundi are expected to attend a commemoration of Amin's overthrow on April 11, 1979, at the closure of a three-day symposium on central Africa's Great Lakes region in Kampala.

Amin, a former boxing champion who once expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler, ordered the massacre of tens of thousands of people -- with some estimates putting the figure at more than 100,000.

I haven’t thought of Idi much in recent years - we have our own generation of mass-murdering “leaders” - but when I do, I always start humming this little ditty by Reggie Knighton:

VD must have got To Idi Amin
Dah dah, dah dah
Maybe that's why he like to chop
All his people's heads off
He seems to like to do that at the drop of a hat
(Chopping sound) Just like that

Good old Reggie, what ever happened to him? I forgot he had been in the Grass Roots. Christgau sure made short work of him. Christgau: great writer, cranky old fart.
posted by Eric at 4:18 PM

 
Still Time For Me
Thanks to Jerry for spotting this story in Slate about the hoariness of our most famous news anchors. Didn’t they use to give the anchors a blanket and point them toward the Sacred Mountains when they reached 65? Hasn’t Walter Cronkite been retired for about 40 years? I know he was 64 when he was forced out. Yet another baby boom issue - they just keep hanging on.

None of our network news anchors—Dan Rather, Jim Lehrer, Peter Jennings, Tom Brokaw, and Ted Koppel—is creaky or decrepit, but for all their robustness they are … old, if by old we mean eligible to receive Social Security. Rather is 70, and the others are 67, 64, and 62, respectively.

The famously ancient on-air staff of 60 Minutes ranges in age from 83 (Wallace) down to 60 (Leslie Stahl and Ed Bradley), for an average of 68—or 71, if you count 83-year-old Andy Rooney. ABC News' big star, Barbara Walters, is 70, and CNN's big star, Larry King, is 68. Koppel is 62. And MSNBC, the self-consciously "young" cable news channel, has just hired a glammy new prime-time host: Phil Donahue, 66.

posted by Eric at 3:49 PM

 
Sad, Sad, Sad
I have steered clear of the Catholic priest nightmare because 1) it’s too depressing, 2) I’m not Catholic, 3) I haven’t had anything original to add - probably still don’t - but this man was buried locally yesterday and I had to say something.

One of those women came forward last week to say that Rooney sexually abused her shortly after he was ordained and assigned to a parish in Medina County. After hearing from the woman, diocese officials immediately scheduled a meeting with Rooney, 48, but the priest soon disappeared. On Thursday, he shot himself in the head while sitting in a parked car at a drugstore in Hinckley Township.

The Catholic catechism speaks forcefully against suicide but says grave psychological disturbances or fear of suffering can diminish moral responsibility for the act. Church officials are left to decide whether to hold a funeral for a person who commits suicide. Pilla did not mention the abuse allegation during his homily yesterday, nor did he speak of any details about Rooney's life or church service. Rather, he used his talk to bolster the faith of the church during this time of turmoil.

To an outsider, the solution seems obvious, although I’m sure it is also glib: let priests marry. This will certainly not change the predilections of many priests currently serving, but at least it would draw another element into the priesthood.

Neither am I a psychologist, but it appears to me that an abnormally large number of men (yet another issue) take the vows SPECIFICALLY in an attempt to stifle their erotic impulses: impulses which many of them are subsequently unable to contain leading to disaster of one kind or another.
posted by Eric at 2:57 PM

 
Defying the Laws of the Universe
This is something you don't see every day: my site meter is going BACKWARDS. Are people un-reading what they had previously read? Are they absconding to an alternative universe sucking their "visits" with them? Undoubtedly, there is sucking of some kind going on. I can only hope the earth starts spinning the right way again before we arrive at LESS THAN ZERO.
posted by Eric at 2:13 PM

 
Used or Abused?
As an author, I admit it pretty well frosts my flakes to go to a book of mine's spot on Amazon and find them humping used copies. Per this article in the NY Times:

Authors are rebelling against new efforts by Amazon.com to spur sales of used books, a practice that has become a major source of revenue for Amazon but pays nothing to writers or publishers.

The Authors Guild, a trade group for writers, yesterday sent an e-mail message to its 8,200 members, advising them to stop helping Amazon sell books by linking to it from their own Web sites, citing Amazon's "notorious used-book service."

Jeez, I must have missed the meeting - better take back that Amazon link.

Seriously though, it all sounds like the used record debate that has been raging for decades. If information wants to be free, or deeply discounted with no royalties, it will be, and people will sell used books if people will buy them. I can only hope that a "trickle-down" effect will cause someone who buys a book of mine used to take a chance on something else I write for which I will actually be paid.
posted by Eric at 2:01 PM

 
A Final Word From John Scalzi
John and I agree that it's time to talk about something else after he gets a last whack at poor dead Trigger.

You wrote:

"I would say that the term "blog" has already slipped its original bounds and come to mean anything "blog-like." To whit: if you write online on a regular basis, and include links with regularity if not unanimity, then you are a blogger. I also dub thee "online columnist," but to the world at large - which doesn't give a fig about such intradisciplinary niceties - you are a blogger as you walk and quack duck-like."

I appreciate the concession regarding "online columnist," and I would agree that "blog" is gaining currency as a noun and a verb, even when it is being used (to my mind) inaccurately. The real question is whether the word "blog" lasts, or if it just becomes another bit of cultural detritus, like the prefixes "cyber-" and "e-". I can imagine some kid in 2008 rolling his eyes, and saying "You blog? Do you listen to disco, too?" One of the reasons I like "Online columnist" is that will never go out of style, if for no other reason that it never was in style.

"Regarding USENET - I could never figure out how to use that nonsense back then, and still find it cumbersome and elitist. THAT'S the significant difference between Blogger software (and its ilk) and previous venues with similar kinds of interaction: the ease of use on both ends, writer and reader. There is no way in hell I would be putting the kind of time I put into blogging if the physical act of posting wasn't idiot-friendly on every level."

Maybe you simply had the wrong newsreader (may I suggest Forte Agent). The most recent estimate about blogs I've seen is that there's 500,000 of them
out there; I have no doubt as many people populated the USENET in its heyday. Certainly the blogger demographic has the potential to be more diverse than the USENET back in the day; net access is more widespread today than ever, and it is indeed easier than ever to get online and vent (or whatever one would like to do), thanks to Blogger and other HTML-handlers. But ultimately this is difference of degree, not kind.

I would invite you to head over to Google (speaking of things that make the Web easier), fire up their "groups search" function, enter any keyword you want, and scan 15 years worth dialogue on the subject. Not all of these people were tremendously computer savvy (AOL has has had newsgroup access for years, and AOL is intentionally as idiot-friendly as it gets), they just wanted to communicate with others about subject they were passionate about. Just like bloggers. The tools are different but the dynamic is the same (this entire back and forth between the two of us, in fact, reeks of newsgroup-osity).

The MAJOR advantage blogs give over newsgroups and other earlier community and self-publishing attempts is that you don't have to wade through 15,000 spam messages to get to one message worth reading. This is not at all insignificant.
posted by Eric at 1:28 PM

 
Zapped
Great Mother of Pearl! I don’t know what freakish kind of atmospheric conditions conditions or alignment of the poles are in effect today, but I can’t shuffle two steps without receiving a massive jolt of static electricity when I touch ANYTHING AT ALL.

I’m getting volt-shy: I won’t touch anything without stuffing my hand down my sleeve and I flinch if anyone comes near me. Curse you Magneto!
posted by Eric at 1:07 PM

 
Right Of Return
Reader Bob agrees with Scalzi on the daily return issue, which I have pretty much conceded:

Hi, Eric

Scalzi scores with this observation...

"Yes, actually, I do. I visit USS Clueless, Instapundit and VodkaPundit several times a day, as well as MetaFilter and MediaNews. All of these sites refresh constantly over the course of the day, so I go back frequently. I suspect that many people who also work with a computer and/or have all-day net access do the same thing."

I think that this pretty well describes the core blog audience: news junkies like me who sit on the web all day and do a lot of moving among sites. I can hit Drudge and InstaPundit a dozen times or more each every weekday. But Taranto only once, since he gives it to you in one big bite with no updates.

So maybe the key to counting readers on a frequently updated site is to look at the thing they are likely do only once in a day, ie, click on a particular link. If you get, say, 2 thousand hits above normal on a day when Reynolds links to your site, then multiply that 2 and say Reynolds audience that day was 4000 readers more or less. Which jibes pretty well with a 40,000 daily hit count. Rough, I know, but probably closer to reality than other estimations I've seen. 4000 readers of whom 3900 are conservative males. Looks to me like all choir and no congregation.

Scalzi misses the mark on the Usenet comparison, though. Usenet is about give and take, and good moderator keeps himself scarce. Not much of that in blogistan.
Regards,
Bob
Marietta, Ga

posted by Eric at 12:41 PM

 
Bloggers Check In
Chris writes:
Eric,
I think Scalzi's off on his last point:

"Blogs are essentially personalized, Web-formatted versions of moderated newsgroups, up to and including response threads. The same interactivity you see in blogs is what I saw back in '94 and '95 in newsgroups like alt.society.gen-x and misc.writing. Blogs are surely the latest iteration of instant communication and interaction, but they are by no means sui generis."

Yes, blogs are similar to newsgroups, but the fact that they are personalized sets them apart right off the bat. When you go to a newsgroup, you have to deal with flamers, incoherent postings, and idiots (OK that's a judgement.) But as Steven Den Beste pointed out recently, Instapundit is an editor and we go to his site because we like his taste and his judgement. When we go, we know that most likely we'll be interested in what he's linking to and what he has to say - there's a consistency of quality there not present in newsgroups. Also, I'd bet the viewership of blogs, and the consistency of the viewership is much higher than newsgroups ever were. Unless there was a particularly interesting discussion, I used to check newsgroups maybe once a week, if that often.
Chris Kerstiens
Austin,Texas
posted by Eric at 12:22 PM

 
Even More On Blogging
Check out Jeff Jarvis regarding the future of blogging.

Glenn Reynolds has a vision of the future of news that I've been playing with for sometime (and I know a few other very smart people who are playing with variations on the same theme... and you know who you are): Blogs as a new generation of online national newspapers.

Essential to this vision is the assumption that news is becoming a commodity. News is not a commodity when you get real reporters doing real reporting and uncovering real news; witness the Pulitizers this season and how the big boys with the big resources managed to tackle the 9.11 story and truly inform us.....

posted by Eric at 12:13 PM

 
Post and Riposte
I reply to John Scalzi's reply to my reply to his commentary on my post.

John wrote:

As I've mentioned elsewhere, I believe one of the fundamental hallmarks of true "blogging" is that the blog is essentially a conduit to other places or other writing -- the blogger adds his or her own commentary to the article linked, but that commentary largely does not stand alone -- i.e., a blog is all about context.

Of course the question of “blog” or “not blog” is one of semantics, not that semantics is a trivial matter. I would say that the term “blog” has already slipped its original bounds and come to mean anything “blog-like.” To whit: if you write online on a regular basis, and include links with regularity if not unanimity, then you are a blogger. I also dub thee “online columnist,” but to the world at large - which doesn’t give a fig about such intradisciplinary niceties - you are a blogger as you walk and quack duck-like.

I wouldn’t call someone like Tony Pierce, who largely writes about his own exploits (or those of a libidinous, wondrous alter ego) - and for whom links are secondary to the three-way relationship between self, projected self, and observer/reader - any less of a blogger for it. His context is himself: blog on brother.

I sometimes write about personal experiences with relatively few links - sometimes the links are a form of commentary upon the statement at hand, and may mitigate or intensify the statement as the case may be (I’ve noticed Ken Layne often uses links this way as well) - but this doesn’t mean those posts aren’t blogs. In fact, the flexibility to careen between link-based commentary, life-based essay/stories, random musings, published professional pieces, and verbal excreta is exactly what blogging means to me. A blogger may also be someone who simply uses Blogger-like software: again with the walking and quacking.

Regarding daily site visitation - I somewhat misspoke myself (where is that damn editor?). There are sites I visit every, or nearly every day, but there are many I visit less often: not because they are less worthy, but there are only so many hours in the day and sometimes I have to, you know, work. I’m sure you are correct that the most visited sites would tend to be the ones that get the most multiple-daily visits, but it is my hunch that the most voracious repeaters are still canceled out by the less-than-daily visitors. I will generally concede your point, however.

Regarding USENET - I could never figure out how to use that nonsense back then, and still find it cumbersome and elitist. THAT’S the significant difference between Blogger software (and its ilk) and previous venues with similar kinds of interaction: the ease of use on both ends, writer and reader. There is no way in hell I would be putting the kind of time I put into blogging if the physical act of posting wasn’t idiot-friendly on every level.

Back in the mid-’90s people used to talk to me about “USENET”-this, “list serve”-that, and “HTML”- so and so; I would just stare glassy-eyed, wipe drool from the corner of my mouth, and clean my fingernails: not worth the learning curve stress and strain. Our hamster can blog, and so can I. This is why a major factor in the recent exponential growth in blogging is related to 9/11 and its aftermath: people who care about politics, and culture, and blowing things up like Glenn and Andrew, rather than the previous blog generation that mostly came from the digerati community, such as Doc Searls and Dave Winer. You don’t have to know HTML from Esperanto to blog, which is why thousands of people who would be otherwise intimidated by the technical aspects of computing are blogging like MoFo’s. This, I believe, is sui generis.
Best Wishes, Eric Olsen
posted by Eric at 11:57 AM

 
Peepers

Lying in bed, late in the evening, and all I can hear is peepers singing. Spooky.


posted by tofu at 11:04 AM

 
Take That! I Say
John Scalzi writes back - I am contemplating my response.

You wrote:

>But you have blog, and therefore you are a blogger. This doesn't preclude you from being other things: but if you blog, you are a blogger.

Well, no. Merely linking to an article and discussing does not constitute a blog, nor does writing online, otherwise, one could say ALL writing online is a blog, which it is not. As I've mentioned elsewhere, I believe one of the fundamental hallmarks of true "blogging" is that the blog is essentially a conduit to other places or other writing -- the blogger adds his or her own commentary to the article linked, but that commentary largely does not stand alone -- i.e., a blog is all about context. What I and a number of others do does not typically rely on linking -- by and large you can read most things on my site without the need to link out for the full picture. Believe me, I understand the desire to associate what I do with a particular online writing form -- a couple years back, most online journalers demanded I recognize that what I do is an online journal, and I passed off that description as well. If you ask me what I do, I say I write an online column.

>Regarding numbers: consider that InstaPundit and Sullivan's 40,000+ per day ARE NOT the same people every day. I'm a hardened blogger, but I don't go to the same sites every day, do you?

Yes, actually, I do. I visit USS Clueless, Instapundit and VodkaPundit several times a day, as well as MetaFilter and MediaNews. All of these sites refresh constantly over the course of the day, so I go back frequently. I suspect that many people who also work with a computer and/or have all-day net access do the same thing.

>I believe the number of people these figures represent may even be larger than the daily totals. It is my guess that those who visit a site more than once per day are counterbalanced by those who don't visit every day. I think the 40,000+ numbers represent a like number of individual bodies.

I disagree; I think the number represent a committed core who check in several times daily, a number of less frequent visitors who visit daily, and then some occasional viewer. Those in the committed core will visit several times daily, which inflates the numbers. It may be possible that the lower orders of bloggers (relating to visits, not mental abilities) have traffic patterns as you describe, but I would propose that the more well-known a blog gets, the more frequently people check in, because they like the blogger and want to know what he/she has to say next.

>These people are interacting with their information providers in a way that has not been possible in close to real time before. Thus far the evidence is largely anecdotal and subjective, but I have been writing professionally for over 20 years (and have had my own web site since '96) and I've never seen, nor felt anything like it.

You must have missed the USENET, then. Blogs are essentially personalized, Web-formatted versions of moderated newsgroups, up to and including response threads. The same interactivity you see in blogs is what I saw back in '94 and '95 in newsgroups like alt.society.gen-x and misc.writing. Blogs are surely the latest iteration of instant communication and interaction, but they are by no means sui generis.

Be sure to post these responses as well.

All best,
John Scalzi

posted by Eric at 10:49 AM

 
Open Call to Bloggers
Consider this an open call to all bloggers: with all of the fuss over visitor count, I am very curious as to the status of your count when you have been linked by the magnanimous Glenn Reynolds. Although I have not yet been linked by Andrew Sullivan (information and ideas, yes; link, no), I find a link from Glenn swamps all other determinants regarding my count.

We have been up since February and have made steady progress from daily dozens into the three-digit range, but a link from Glenn guarantees a four-digit day in and of itself; and also, depending upon the general appeal of the story, may also create a ripple effect of links that causes my site counter to toss a gonad in excitement and dismay. I will post your replies. Thanks.
posted by Eric at 10:33 AM

 
Zeiting the Geist
Regarding blogs, trustworthiness, and the benighted Old Media, see InstaPundit Glenn Reynolds’ excellent new piece at Tech Central Station.

And for more on the blog visitor-count controversy, see Jeff Jarvis here, Rebecca Blood and Glenn (he is ubiquitous) here. See Rebecca's thoughts on the history of blogging here.
posted by Eric at 10:11 AM

 
Letter From John Scalzi Regarding "Of Hits and Influence"

You write:

"blogger (not more self-loathing) John Scalzi"

It's incorrect to describe me as a blogger, since I've been writing online on my site in one form or another since 1994 -- i.e., long before anyone thought to label such things a 'blog. In short, I'm too old-school for that blog thing. Therefore, it's not a matter of self-loathing, or even of loathing, since I like blogs just fine. I merely think their influence is often overstated by those who blog. Which brings me to this:

"The actual numbers are much less important than the fact that they are indisputably growing very quickly, and are the single most important block of media consumers extant."

Well, no. Norah Vincent (whose LA Times piece was the impetus for the piece) specifically used numbers a metric for their influence, so apparently numbers do matter. They are growing, but since the numbers are low, again, it's not difficult to register impressive growth that far down the growth tree. Finally, there's little empirical evidence at that bloggers are the "most important block of media consumers extant." At this point they are merely one of the most talkative. As I mention near the end of the article you link to, this sort of phenomenon has happened before on the Web in the form of the personal journal: Same media write-ups, same quasi-celebrities, same prognostications of influence. While I certainly don't think it would be all bad if bloggers improved upon this record, I
think any intellectually honest blogger also has to consider the possibility the blogs are just the traditional media's latest flavor of the week.
Best,
John Scalzi

I replied:

John, Thanks for taking the time to write. Regarding your points (see this, wherein I give you credit for pointing out that the best bloggers are all "real writers"), I appreciate the fact that you have been writing Online since the Neolithic and therefore predate blogdom, but you have blog, and therefore you are a blogger. This doesn't preclude you from being other things: but if you blog, you are a blogger.

Next, with caveats mentioned by all re "visits," "page views" and the like, the numbers are what they are. I don't much care if the same person comes back more than once, that means he/she is so engaged as to be making the effort "X" number of times. The fact that your estimable number of readers are likely discrete due to the fact that you post once a day, isn't really different from the same person coming back repeatedly to gather more information. It takes the same effort each time and reflects a separate, discrete desire for information. People coming back is a good, not a bad, or even misleading happenstance.

I also appreciate the fact that your long history with the Internet leads you to view the "blog explosion" with a rather more jaundiced eye - but I do think this is different. Though I often differ with Andrew Sullivan, I believe his "Bloggers manifesto" essay is right on in its (somewhat self-serving) analysis of the situation. The combination of information, opinion and personality have never had a forum such as this.

Regarding numbers: consider that InstaPundit and Sullivan's 40,000+ per day ARE NOT the same people every day. I'm a hardened blogger, but I don't go to the same sites every day, do you? I believe the number of people these figures represent may even be larger than the daily totals. It is my guess that those who visit a site more than once per day are counterbalanced by those who don't visit every day. I think the 40,000+ numbers represent a like number of individual bodies. This is not insignificant, and when combined with the volume of correspondence that Sullivan, Reynolds, and the like receive each day, represents a true new species of passionate, engaged citizen, hungry for information AND the exchange of ideas.

These people are interacting with their information providers in a way that has not been possible in close to real time before. Thus far the evidence is largely anecdotal and subjective, but I have been writing professionally for over 20 years (and have had my own web site since '96) and I've never seen, nor felt anything like it. I respect your opinion, but must conclude that this is something new, different, and here to stay as both writers and readers (the intersection between the two is large, incidentally) will refuse to give up the immediacy and interactivity.
Best Wishes,
Eric Olsen

posted by Eric at 9:51 AM

 
Tour O the Blogs - Matt Welch
Laurel and Hardy, Sacco and Vanzetti, Gilbert and Sullivan, Romulus and Remus, Ben and Jerry, Welch and Layne - not necessarily in that order - are some of the most famous pairs in history, but only one pair are world-famous bloggers. We’ve already talked about Layne (Tour O the Blogs is alphabetical by shoe size) - it is high time we met Welch.

In John Scalzi’s impugnation of blogdom, he did make one point that hit home: all of the best bloggers are actual WRITERS - that is, people who have or do make a living from writing. Well, that makes sense since blogging IS writing, and even people with really great ideas are at the mercy of their ability to convey them in print. But even among the REAL writers a few stand out, and among a munchkin’s handful of the very finest writers in blogland is Matt Welch. If blogger/columnist James Lileks ever starts his own paper, he wants Welch to be his “roving-reporter.” Andrew Sullivan has declared, rather enthusiastically, that “Matt Welch kicks ass.”

When I was first showing my wife some of my favorite blogs, we quickly lit upon Matt’s site. “I didn’t know Ben Affleck had a blog,” she said innocently, looking at the picture in the upper left corner of MattWelch.com. “No, no - that’s Matt,” I said in a calming tone. “Well, tell him he looks like Ben Affleck,” she replied, and now I have.

They say experience makes writers and Welch, 33, has had a shitload of that. Per his online bio:

Before 1998 I lived for eight years in Central Europe, where I co-founded the region's first post-communist English-language newspaper, worked as UPI's Slovak correspondent, and managed a Business Journal in Budapest. My Prague newspaper, Prognosis, was profiled and praised by dozens of newspapers around the globe, including the Wall Street Journal, Editor & Publisher and International Herald Tribune.

In greater - if random - detail of that era:

Managing Editor, (10/95-7/97): Budapest Business Journal Ran newsroom of best English-language business weekly in the region. Edited all copy, wrote most headlines, managed newsroom of 10.
---------------
Founder, Owner and Editor, Prognosis Prague
November 1990 -- March 1995
Launched the first independent English-language newspaper in the former East Bloc. In star-crossed, four-year run, the paper won raves for its fearless writing, gripping coverage of the Yugoslav wars, devastating photographs ... and for being in the right place at the right time. Sat on the board of directors until the company's demise, and served in several positions, including: Eastern Europe Editor, Gossip Columnist (8/94-1/95) Managing Editor (11/93-8/94) Bratislava Bureau Chief (11/92-11/93) Staff Writer (11/91-11/92) Culture Editor (11/90-7/91)

(excerpt from an article written for Details about Matt in ‘92:

"Matt and I are on our way to Ivana Trump's ball at Prague's opera house. Our tickets say 'black tie or tails,' so Matt has washed his shoulder-length blond hair, shaved, and put in a conservative earring. He's wearing a rented set of tails with sleeves that reach his thumbnails and a pair of white wing-tips shoes that belong on a putting green. I've spent all day acquiring the last rentable pieces of clothing in Prague that look like a tux: a blue suit that is tight in the crotch, along with a black vest and six-by-three-inch tie, circa '73.

"Matt Welch, twenty-four, is covering Ivana's ball for prognosis, an English-language newspaper he helped start a year earlier in Prague. There have been rumors of an anarchist 'action' planned for the evening.)

The foreign affairs continue:

-----------------

Correspondent, United Press International
Bratislava, Slovakia
November 1992 -- January 1994
Covered the breakup of Czechoslovakia and the first year of Slovak statehood. Wrote series on the Slovak media, profiles of Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar and President Michal Kovac, and analyses of NATO expansion.

In a Yellow Pages of important publications, Welch also writes or has written for Reason (including the brilliant "The Politics of Dead Children"), ESPN.com, Los Angeles Daily News, Online Journalism Review, Wired News, Salon, NewsForChange.com (including covering the 2000 Nader presidential campaign), Ken Layne’s Tabloid.net, and The Yo-Mama Times (I made that one up). In June 2000, he was named (along with Layne, but of course) one of the Net's Hottest Columnists.

Proving that he can speak as well as write, Welch “had a three-month stint as commentator for the Australian Broadcast Corporation in 2001” (with yet another blogger, Tim Blair), and does “frequent guest spots on ‘Deadline L.A.,’ KPFK 90.7 Los Angeles,” which he is also scheduled to guest-host starting this month.

And just to pile on the polymathic versatility, Matt has also dabbled in the demimonde of ROCK ‘N’ ROLL. His accomplishments:

Backing vocals, Tsar (Hollywood Records, 2000)
Backing vocals, The Ballad of Bobby McStone by Gregory Vaine (McIlvanity Records, 1998)
Songs, (with Michael Lindsay and Daniel Langenkamp), lead and backing vocals, guitars, percussion, accordion
"The Golden Penetrators" (Small World Records, 1997) Songs (with Jeff Whalen), lead and backing vocals, guitars,
"Meet Van Diamond" by Van Diamond (Jett Records, 1995) Songs, lead vocals, rhthym guitar,
"Slip Disco" by Matt Welch and the Froggy Peat (Big Dwarf Records, 1994)

Besides writing the blog, Welch’s primary consumption is the L.A. Examiner, which he co-founded and runs with Ken Layne. The LAEx, launched in April 2001, is described well in an L.A. New Times feature (New Times also gave LAEx the “Best New Web Site Covering Local Media” award for ‘91, a category which would seem to have limited competition, but an award is an award, buddy) :

LAExaminer.com is intended to evoke the memory of the departed L.A. Herald Examiner, the scrappy daily that closed in 1989, leaving the second-largest city in America a one-newspaper town (the Valley's Daily News notwithstanding). Irreverent and clever, LAExaminer.com's daily blurbs about the city's news and news gatherers is catching on with the city's writers and thinkers. "I think it's a great site. I find myself every morning, like a lot of people, checking their log," says Catherine Seipp, a media critic who contributes to American Journalism Review and writes a weekly column for UPI.

...as Seipp points out, what makes this "blogger" stand out from the rest is its creators: two real reporters posting more than simply daily musings. "After September 11 a lot of people have started logs as hobbies," she says. "But these guys are real journalists. They're very smart."

...Welch says his initial plan was simply to provide scribes and others who care about local media links to the area's many news organizations. But Web log software -- which makes it easy to compose and post daily updates to a Web site -- encouraged the founders to make it something more.

...Layne and Welch say they're just counting the days until their own wealthy industrialist with an itch to take on the L.A. Times comes calling. Welch wants to create a magazine similar to The New Yorker but with an L.A. focus. Layne thinks there's a market for such a publication in a town that too often looks eastward for its news and opinions.

In the meantime, Welch will continue to write about

events connected to Sept. 11, media, politics, international affairs, baseball (particularly Cuban baseball), L.A. and California history and current events, economics, Internet-related business and music.

Okay, okay, let’s look at some actual writing. Welch won 1st AND 2nd place from the Greater Los Angeles Press Club for Online Story or Column for 2000. 1st place went to the now-famous "Time In the DEN of Iniquity: A report on six weird weeks spent at the infamously mismanaged Digital Entertainment Network,” which begins:

This column is being written on the theory that Non-Disclosure Agreements can be ignored once the involved company declares its intention to file for bankruptcy and its founder is busy fending off sexual harassment lawsuits from teenage boys.

For six bizarre and lucrative weeks last year I was a consultant for the Digital Entertainment Network (DEN), which during my tenure exemplified and embraced every possible New Economy buzzword then fashionable -- it was a "broadband" company right as high-speed Internet access was supposed to take off, it was aimed at "Generation Y" (15-24 year-olds) just as that huge demographic's buying power was beginning to attract notice, and it was a cutting-edge "convergence" company blending dot-com trendiness with Hollywood pizzazz.

Zounds. Of course, it was a total disaster.

The first indication that I didn't exactly belong came even before I set foot in the office. I arrived 20 minutes early for my job interview, so I parked and took a couple of laps around the block to kill time. When I returned, a half-dozen unnervingly confident and well-dressed twentysomethings were gathered around my 1988 K car, pointing and talking as if regarding an alien spacecraft. I glanced around the parking lot for the first time, and realized why: not a single car besides mine dated back later than 1998, convertibles outnumbered SUVs, and easily half the vehicles had sticker prices higher than $50,000.

Welch descends the circles of hell, before concluding,

I'm guessing we will look back at DEN 10 years from now as a symbol of an era that will then seem unreal -- when any old teevee idiot could spout New Media cliches at least five years out of date, put together a staff of sycophants and plotters, and be rewarded by investors with $65 million to waste on 12 months of Webcasting, all because people back then placed monster bets on business buzzwords rather than on the people or products pretending to operate by them.

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to see what Rome must have looked like as it burned.

Welch has evolved into a post-9/11 hawk neo-liberal, a position he defends with grace and vigor daily on his War Blog, but my favorite recent blog of his is this, "Opening Day."

I remember vividly going to an Angels game with my Dad about 11 years ago, in April 1991. I was visiting from Prague to watch a friend get married, and the Gulf War had just ended. It was the only baseball game of the thousands I’ve either attended, played in or coached when I didn’t feel comfortable being there. Looking back, I’m sure I was exaggerating. It was the first time I’d experienced the ’s shock of re-entry, and I probably interpreted some dirty Orange County looks at my hippy-hair and various earrings much more personally than was warranted.

...At the time, I was ambivalent about the Gulf War, but I was certain that the Saddam-as-Hitler frenzy whipped up on the homefront was cynical, totally ignoring the U.S.’ previous support for the Iraqi dictator (not to mention April Glaspie’s vague diplomacy), and was symptomatic of Americans’ shallow grasp on foreign policy. As such, the display of patriotic war-whooping made me feel as alienated as I’ve ever remembered – uncomfortable at a baseball game? Would I ever feel like a normal American again?

...Still, I think another important difference that doesn’t get enough play these days is that the country’s response is significantly less xenophobic and scary, somehow. Some smart person should conduct a study of the reactions to the Iran-hostage crisis, the Gulf War, and Sept. 11, and I would bet anyone that the number or rate of crazy-racist incidents is by far less this time around, when a bunch of freakin’ A-rabs actually did try to blow us all up. What I see, instead of blanket condemnations of nationality or religion, is rather specific critiques of individual countries, their leaders, their venal press.

Matt thinks there is something different in the air now than there was when he went to an April Angels game 11 years ago. He thinks we are a better, more nuanced people now. He may well be right, but more importantly, he THINKS and also feels. Deep thinker and baseball fan - my kind of guy. Classic blog.
posted by Eric at 8:17 PM

 
Bong, Your Honor?
This per the eagle eye of Mike over at Cursor. The NY Times reports

The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws Foundation said yesterday that it was beginning a $500,000 advertising campaign featuring Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg paired with a remark he made praising marijuana to a magazine reporter last year before he announced he was running for mayor.

...The ads will feature the mayor responding to the question of whether he had ever tried marijuana by saying: "You bet I did. And I enjoyed it." The quotation comes from an interview the mayor gave to New York magazine last year.

This may be hilarious (and it is), but there is also a serious side to it: the mayor of the nation’s largest city is an admitted dope-smoker and as such the hard-line “just-say-no,” neo-Reefer Madness, all-drugs-are-bad-drugs mania of the “War On Drugs” is just about done. Marijuana isn’t cocaine, or LSD, or heroin, or methamphetamine, or even Ecstasy. It’s just pot, and for adults, about the worst that’s going to happen is that you will fall asleep. Decriminalize for personal use now (Right on Homer!).
posted by Eric at 2:38 PM

 
How South Is Your Paw?
I am proudly left-handed but don’t think much about it until someone says, “Oh, you’re left-handed,” with the same tone Barbra Streisand might say, “Oh, you’re Republican” (which I’m not, but that’s immaterial). Unless you are talking about playing sports, at which point left-handedness suddenly becomes an asset, people still, in 2002, view lefties with suspicion and even trepidation, as if you perversely use the WRONG HAND just to annoy and confuse them.

There is a new book about handedness and asymmetry reviewed here, which sounds interesting but confusing, even for a left-hander. More interesting is this site, where being left is right. I only hope that someday I can become their "Lefty of the Month" and join the ranks of Robert Redford, Nicole Kidman, Goran Ivanisavec, Father Christmas, Paul McCartney, and George Michael.....on the other hand...
posted by Eric at 2:01 PM

 
Of Hits and Influence
Andrew Sullivan and Glenn Reynolds have noted this assault on blog-influence by blogger (not more self-loathing) John Scalzi, who questions the meaning of hits and/or page-views vs. actual numbers of readers. He suggests that star bloggers like Sullivan and Reynolds may have 1/5 the readers their numbers imply.

Andrew says:

It seems to me the right comparison for opinion bloggers like Instapundit or yours truly would be either visits to individual columnists online or visits to opinion magazines. I'm pretty sure National Review Online beats us all. But I'd be interested to know if the online versions of the Nation or The New Republic beat individual bloggers by a large amount. And remember that our pages are staffed by one, rather than around a dozen or so. When you look at it that way, bloggers' contribution to the debate - in a matter of months, really - is pretty astounding.

The last sentence is really the point isn’t it? That in a very short period of time, bloggers have come to a strong position of influence upon the mainstream media (see my story here - how’s that for freaking zeitgeist?), and upon a quickly-growing core of demographically desirable readers who passionately care about what is going on in the world around them. The actual numbers are much less important than the fact that they are indisputably growing very quickly, and are the single most important block of media consumers extant.
posted by Eric at 12:24 PM

 
Never Again, More Than Ever
Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day. Take some time to remember with a visit to Remember.org, a sobering, painful site loaded with interactive information including maps, photos, art, and the stories of witnesses.

The Tracing Families section helps people search for Holocaust survivors in their family line. There are at least 6 million excellent reasons why Jews require a secure homeland - maybe by this time next year they will have it.
posted by Eric at 11:36 AM

 
$Buck$-eye
This fine public servant makes you proud to live in Northeast Ohio.

The prosecutor said that while Traficant may have been an effective congressman, he is not above the law. "He can't use his public office as a trough to feed his personal appetite," Morford told the jury.

When the spell is finally broken, Youngstown will wake up like Snow White and say, "We elected this man how many times?"
posted by Eric at 11:19 AM

 
New Media In the Old - A Chronological Survey of Blogs in the Press
Part 1: From Personal Sites to September 11

Blogfather Doc Searls, best known as one of four authors of "The Cluetrain Manifesto," presented a cogent case for the uniqueness of blogs back in
February:

On the Web, we are not distributors of Information. What we give and gain is not a commodity. It's what we know. And when we share what we know with each other, we get improved knowledge and far more well-qualified opinions. Much different than what we get from your average business pub piece about Company X with a quote from Analyst Y.

Big-time Journalism will never go away — not should it. But thanks to what we're doing here, it will never be the same. The big crossover will happen when one or more BigPubs starts treating blogs as sources, and not just feature fodder. Sooner or later, they'll have to. We know too damn much, and we're too damn good at telling each other about it.

InstaPundit Glenn Reynolds is clearly already a “source.” His traffic has blown up over the last few weeks - topping over 40,000 visits per day with regularity recently, peaking at 47, 334 last Thursday, April 4. Last Friday he relayed a message on his site from DailyPundit (many are the pundits) William Quick, who had seen his traffic triple over the previous ten days, “for no apparent reason” (a report on the 5th indicated that traffic had been up on all news sites over the last few weeks).

Quick wondered whether “the cumulative effect of all the mainstream attention the warblogosphere has been getting the past few weeks suddenly [has] pushed us past a tipping point?” Just this last week, an attack on the “blogosphere” (term coined by Quick) by Boston Globe columnist Alex Beam generated gales of controversy (and mirth amongst the blogerati).

Picking up notable steam over the last few months, articles and columns about blogging have been popping up with ever greater frequency in the straight press. They have veered wildly between contempt and hagiography, if nothing else generating curiosity and familiarity. Maybe all press is good press: the old adage of “just spell the name right,” now changed to “just get the URL right.”

Before we survey the mainstream press output regarding blogs, a little blog history: Rebecca Blood, the Thucydides of early blogdom, wrote "Weblogs: A History and Perspective" in September of 2000 on her site, Rebecca’s Pocket.

In 1998 there were just a handful of sites of the type that are now identified as weblogs (so named by Jorn Barger in December 1997). Jesse James Garrett, editor of Infosift, began compiling a list of "other sites like his" as he found them in his travels around the web. In November of that year, he sent that list to Cameron Barrett. Cameron published the list on Camworld, and others maintaining similar sites began sending their URLs to him for inclusion on the list. Jesse's 'page of only weblogs' lists the 23 known to be in existence at the beginning of 1999.

Blood relates early steady growth until an explosion in ‘99.

growth continued steadily until July 1999 when Pitas, the first free build-your-own-weblog tool launched, and suddenly there were hundreds. In August, Pyra released blogger, and Groksoup launched, and with the ease that these web-based tools provided, the bandwagon-jumping turned into an explosion. Late in 1999 software developer Dave Winer introduced Edit This Page, and Jeff A. Campbell launched Velocinews. All of these services are free, and all of them are designed to enable individuals to publish their own weblogs quickly and easily.

Blood attributes the blog big bang, which has resulted in hundreds of thousands of active blogs, to the ease of Blogger, and concludes:

We are being pummeled by a deluge of data and unless we create time and spaces in which to reflect, we will be left with only our reactions. I strongly believe in the power of weblogs to transform both writers and readers from "audience" to "public" and from "consumer" to "creator." Weblogs are no panacea for the crippling effects of a media-saturated culture, but I believe they are one antidote.

An early blog story from August 2000 in the Chicago Sun-Times is a how-to for Blogger, cheerily summarizing, “My only disappointment with Blogger is that I really can't find anything to snark about.”

In November 2000 Rebecca Mead wrote a story on blogging for the New Yorker, although it is largely a bio of Meg Hourihan.

Meg is one of the founders of a company called Pyra, which produces an Internet application known as Blogger. Blogger, which can be used free on the Internet, is a tool for creating a new kind of Web site that is known as a "weblog," or "blog," of which Megnut is an example. A blog consists primarily of links to other Web sites and commentary about those links. Having a blog is rather like publishing your own, on-line version of Reader's Digest, with daily updates: you troll the Internet, and, when you find an article or a Web site that grabs you, you link to it--or, in weblog parlance, you "blog" it. Then other people who have blogs--they are known as bloggers--read your blog, and if they like it they blog your blog on their own blog.

The NY Times did a feature on Hourihan and fellow Pyra/Blogger founder Evan Williams in late-December 2000. Notable was the mention of “75,000 registered users,” a number which has grown radically since then.

One of the best early blog stories was written by Glenn Fleishman (see below) for the Seattle Times in April 2001, the savvy being attributable to the fact that Fleishman had been blogging since November 2000.

Every time Net users discover a resource or site of interest, they link to it. Over time, links aggregate and accumulate, and the most linked-to sites become the most popular.

An interesting side effect of this kind of laser-beam pointing has grown into a mature phenomenon in the past year: Web logging, known as "blogging." Blogging is the art of turning one's own filter on news and the world into something others might want to read, link to, and write about themselves.

[Blog, blogging or blogger: Take the phrase "Web log" and apply the linguistic behavior known as false splitting - move a letter from one word to another (as "a napron" turned into "an apron") - and you get the phrase, "We blog." Coining generally attributed to Peter Merholz...

Fleishman even makes note of the term “blogrolling” -

“Blogrolling: Derived from logrolling, a habit of trading favors or praise among artists, critics, or academics. Noted blogger Doc Searls, claims credit for spreading the meme; several other bloggers agree.”

- the first mainstream media of the term I have been able to find.

Jordan Raphael’s "Blogged Down In the PR Machine," originally published in Online Journalism Review in May ‘01, is notable for viewing blogs as serious journalism and detailing a confrontation between Apple’s PR firm and blogger Joe Clark. It also contains the earliest reference to AndrewSullivan.com I have found in the press.

Later that May, J.D. Lasica continued the blog tales in OJR with a two-part series: "Blogging As a Form of Journalism," and "Weblogs: A New Source of News." Lasica was unambiguously positive.

Back around 1993, in the Web's neolithic days, starry-eyed Net denizens waxed poetic about a million Web sites blooming and supplanting the mainstream media as a source of news, information and insight.

Then reality set in and those individual voices became lost in the ether as a million businesses lumbered onto the cyberspace stage, newspapers clumsily grasped at viable online business models, and a handful of giant corporations made the Web safe for snoozing.
But a funny thing happened on the way to the Web's irrelevance: the blogging phenomenon, a grassroots movement that may sow the seeds for new forms of journalism, public discourse, interactivity and online community.

Between the two articles, Lasica interviewed six prominent (at the time, anyway) bloggers: Paul Andrews , Deborah Branscum (showing how much things have changed, Lasica writes

Like most bloggers, Branscum updates her Weblog sporadically, averaging twice a week [emphasis mine]. She blogs mostly about media matters, from the state of entertainment journalism to a rant on rude reporters.),

Glenn Fleishman

(Fleishman came to the same conclusion as Branscum: that Weblogs are taken more seriously than a static Web page. 'It's this gem, this nut, that people interact with differently,' Fleishman says. 'A Weblog gives off a patina of credibility and authoritativeness that you don't find in other corners of the Web.'),

Dan Gillmor

(Gillmor rates the interactivity with readers as one of the most striking features about blogs. 'I frequently hear from readers after a column, saying, 'That was interesting, but have you thought about this or that angle?,' and often the answer is no, I hadn't, so the next time I return to the subject the missing piece makes its way into the article.),

Doc Searls

('Weblogs are personal journalism. For real journalists who aren't used to writing without a net, Weblogs have a self-informing and self-correcting system built into it. When Dan Gillmor published an item whose source said it wasn't ready for public dissemination, Dan apologized and took it off his Weblog, and that increased his stature. You can't do that with a regular paper — you'd get a retraction instead.'),

and David Winer

(Winer might well be the godfather of the blogging movement, but a better term might be agent provocateur. His blog is peppered with musings, pointers to other sites, and Molotov cocktails that he lobs in the hope of sparking a lively debate. 'We're all players in Uncle Dave's court,' Searls says. Adds journalist-blogger Glenn Fleishman: 'When you look at your stat sheet and see that your traffic spiked by 900 percent, you know that Dave has linked to you.'

The need for links from high-volume hubs like Winer, InstaPundit, and Andrew Sullivan has not diminished. As the volume of blogs has ballooned well into six-figures, the need for links from “star” blogs has become an absolute requirement to be noticed.

While blogs were humming along nicely through the summer of 2001, they had not yet found a compelling topic to thrust them into mainstream awareness. September 11, 2001, unfortunately, provided that thrust.
CONTINUED IN PART 2
posted by Eric at 9:38 AM

 
Brain Fever in Brooklyn?
Marty sends over this provocative message:

EO:
Gonna be Yankees vs. Cleveland somewhere when it counts and you must know who's gonna win. Injuns are a good club for sure but Skankees are better than usual ... and Giambi hasn't even settled in yet. Ventura deal a real 'sleeper' Skankee purchase. Bernie, Jeter, Soriano, Posada all will have a good year. You think Skankees are as good as they are because they spend so much money getting players? Wrong!!! They have great baseball men in their system who know what they're doing. Clemens, Pettite, Mussina,
El Duque, Mariano Rivera, Boomer. C'mon, this team is g-r-e-a-t Olsen!!!

And while you're watchin' ... gonna be another subway series. METS are good, too.
MT

posted by Eric at 8:41 AM

 
And You Wonder Why There Are More Home Runs?
Sean Forman at the great Baseball Reference.com site sends over this table of Major League baseball players’ average height and weight at the beginning of their careers.

In 1901 the average rookie was 5’ 10” and weighed 146 lbs. 100 years later, the average rookie was 6’ 1 1/2” and weighed almost 195 lbs. This doesn’t make a difference? This bolsters my argument from yesterday that increases in players’ size over the years, plus a marked increase in strength training over the last 10-15 years have contributed to the increase in power numbers. Thanks to Sean!

| Year    | HT      | WT       |

+---------+---------+----------+

|    1871 | 64.7000 | 128.3130 |

|    1872 | 63.1974 | 105.4375 |

|    1873 | 62.1406 | 108.3279 |

|    1874 | 62.0492 | 110.4034 |

|    1875 | 60.5510 | 108.8836 |

|    1876 | 65.8167 | 129.3719 |

|    1877 | 67.5652 | 135.3261 |

|    1878 | 67.4634 | 141.9610 |

|    1879 | 64.6753 | 149.2437 |

|    1880 | 67.7051 | 151.7638 |

|    1881 | 66.4714 | 155.9833 |

|    1882 | 65.6439 | 134.3114 |

|    1883 | 66.6014 | 137.1602 |

|    1884 | 64.9046 | 116.2070 |

|    1885 | 68.7049 | 137.3656 |

|    1886 | 68.4974 | 137.6123 |

|    1887 | 69.3650 | 149.2413 |

|    1888 | 69.8733 | 150.5121 |

|    1889 | 69.2706 | 143.0872 |

|    1890 | 69.2917 | 136.7921 |

|    1891 | 69.4958 | 142.7354 |

|    1892 | 69.3529 | 151.6264 |

|    1893 | 69.7340 | 155.3077 |

|    1894 | 69.9946 | 153.2319 |

|    1895 | 69.7376 | 150.9718 |

|    1896 | 70.0483 | 155.3934 |

|    1897 | 69.5208 | 151.9122 |

|    1898 | 70.3990 | 141.8194 |

|    1899 | 69.5360 | 143.6097 |

|    1900 | 70.3287 | 156.9628 |

|    1901 | 70.1821 | 146.4367 |

|    1902 | 70.1748 | 147.0410 |

|    1903 | 70.4342 | 156.0924 |

|    1904 | 70.3447 | 156.6171 |

|    1905 | 70.5556 | 157.2211 |

|    1906 | 70.6847 | 158.7105 |

|    1907 | 70.7183 | 152.7524 |

|    1908 | 70.6722 | 161.6629 |

|    1909 | 70.6743 | 162.6978 |

|    1910 | 70.4861 | 166.4407 |

|    1911 | 70.7213 | 173.2052 |

|    1912 | 70.6568 | 170.5811 |

|    1913 | 70.8279 | 173.2388 |

|    1914 | 70.7555 | 170.2030 |

|    1915 | 70.9419 | 171.9973 |

|    1916 | 70.9572 | 171.4240 |

|    1917 | 71.0838 | 171.7837 |

|    1918 | 71.0368 | 171.9466 |

|    1919 | 71.1243 | 171.4656 |

|    1920 | 71.1485 | 170.6417 |

|    1921 | 70.9631 | 170.7520 |

|    1922 | 71.0747 | 172.3831 |

|    1923 | 70.9514 | 172.7930 |

|    1924 | 71.0499 | 173.1572 |

|    1925 | 70.8358 | 173.1162 |

|    1926 | 70.7974 | 173.0996 |

|    1927 | 71.0204 | 173.8477 |

|    1928 | 71.3059 | 175.1287 |

|    1929 | 71.0000 | 174.5953 |

|    1930 | 71.0645 | 175.7276 |

|    1931 | 71.2162 | 176.6423 |

|    1932 | 71.6135 | 177.5112 |

|    1933 | 71.5731 | 178.4205 |

|    1934 | 71.6719 | 178.7881 |

|    1935 | 71.5104 | 179.2199 |

|    1936 | 71.5770 | 180.1649 |

|    1937 | 71.4604 | 180.5513 |

|    1938 | 71.3505 | 180.6667 |

|    1939 | 71.6524 | 180.9361 |

|    1940 | 71.8219 | 182.2090 |

|    1941 | 72.0174 | 183.2000 |

|    1942 | 71.9696 | 183.1742 |

|    1943 | 71.9176 | 182.1680 |

|    1944 | 71.6930 | 181.6453 |

|    1945 | 71.7089 | 181.6545 |

|    1946 | 71.9545 | 183.6313 |

|    1947 | 72.1303 | 183.7698 |

|    1948 | 71.8720 | 184.5195 |

|    1949 | 71.9143 | 184.8809 |

|    1950 | 72.1028 | 185.0474 |

|    1951 | 71.8858 | 184.4657 |

|    1952 | 71.9010 | 185.2929 |

|    1953 | 71.8498 | 185.5763 |

|    1954 | 72.2948 | 185.8820 |

|    1955 | 72.4137 | 186.1474 |

|    1956 | 72.1968 | 186.2291 |

|    1957 | 72.2927 | 186.8732 |

|    1958 | 72.2886 | 187.2561 |

|    1959 | 72.3813 | 188.0316 |

|    1960 | 72.4404 | 188.6981 |

|    1961 | 72.4485 | 188.2156 |

|    1962 | 72.4940 | 188.2933 |

|    1963 | 72.6444 | 189.2251 |

|    1964 | 72.7025 | 188.8326 |

|    1965 | 72.7663 | 189.5649 |

|    1966 | 72.7588 | 189.4516 |

|    1967 | 72.7693 | 189.4310 |

|    1968 | 72.7527 | 189.9571 |

|    1969 | 72.7735 | 189.6702 |

|    1970 | 72.8540 | 189.5018 |

|    1971 | 72.8670 | 189.4903 |

|    1972 | 72.8791 | 189.3915 |

|    1973 | 72.8417 | 189.2328 |

|    1974 | 72.8977 | 189.3068 |

|    1975 | 72.9587 | 189.0993 |

|    1976 | 72.9863 | 189.2562 |

|    1977 | 73.0124 | 189.4212 |

|    1978 | 73.0494 | 189.7475 |

|    1979 | 73.0158 | 190.1624 |

|    1980 | 73.1372 | 190.2319 |

|    1981 | 73.1394 | 190.5714 |

|    1982 | 73.2311 | 190.9612 |

|    1983 | 73.1582 | 190.7460 |

|    1984 | 73.2419 | 191.2793 |

|    1985 | 73.2495 | 191.5474 |

|    1986 | 73.3221 | 192.2922 |

|    1987 | 73.2767 | 192.1942 |

|    1988 | 73.3275 | 192.8824 |

|    1989 | 73.3854 | 193.6535 |

|    1990 | 73.3654 | 193.8049 |

|    1991 | 73.3259 | 194.3576 |

|    1992 | 73.3837 | 195.0437 |

|    1993 | 73.4547 | 195.3342 |

|    1994 | 73.4475 | 194.8818 |

|    1995 | 73.3648 | 193.8640 |

|    1996 | 73.4544 | 194.0088 |

|    1997 | 73.3431 | 193.6747 |

|    1998 | 73.3588 | 194.2588 |

|    1999 | 73.4677 | 195.0613 |

|    2000 | 73.4858 | 195.1456 |

|    2001 | 73.4619 | 194.6464 |

posted by Eric at 8:33 AM

 
Where Is the Scandal?
Jerry notes this AP story and wants to know if anyone will notice:

In one rubble-covered alley, gunmen were trying to pull a seriously wounded comrade to safety. One rescuer was shot in the leg and fell over the wounded man before both were carried away, as helicopters fired from machine guns. The incident Sunday was witnessed by APTN cameraman Nazeeh Darwazeh, who also saw two bodies in the streets.

He asks, "Would Palestinian gunmen cease firing to allow Israeli soldiers to rescue wounded comrades? Would the AP expect them to?"


posted by Eric at 6:06 PM

 
Blasphemy
Tim Noah takes apart a April 5 Washington Post op-ed by Bandar bin Sultan, the longtime Saudi ambassador to the United States, wherein Bandar compares Yasser Arafat to George Washington. Here's the relevant passage:

I acknowledge that the Palestinians' greatest crime is their insistence on resisting the military occupation of their country. This strange principle of resistance to military occupation of one's country seems to be difficult for many American political, intellectual and media elite to comprehend--even though it has been practiced by others in the past, such as Nelson Mandela in South Africa under apartheid and Gen. George Washington during British colonial rule, and even Menachem Begin during the British Mandate of Palestine.

These leaders from different countries and different continents share one thing in common. They were all labeled as terrorists by the occupying military force at the time. So what is the real crime, when the Palestinians resist the Israeli military occupation of their country?

Noah summons a litany of convincing reasons why “Arafat” and “Washington” shouldn’t be uttered from the same mouth, let alone in the same sentence. He misses one important difference, though. Washington accepted power very reluctantly: he didn’t want to be president, but realized he was needed by the country at a very delicate time. There was even a movement to make him king, which Washington rejected with disgust. Arafat has clung to power into his dotage and seems determined to cling to it unto death. (article per Jerry)
posted by Eric at 2:38 PM

 
Saudi Saddam
Our honorary fourth "producer" Jerry offers this interesting suggestion.

Here's an idea that I have not seen discussed. We know that Saddam Hussein is, to put it mildly, a difficult character. We also fear that he has weapons of mass destruction, and we are concerned that he will use them if he knows that the US is coming after him, come hell or high water. Why can't our putative friends in Saudi Arabia offer him a deal? "Come here, we'll give you asylum and a nice villa, and that way you don't have to be killed at the end of the US invasion." In a just world, he deserves to die, but it's worth trying to preserve thousands (or maybe hundreds of thousands) of lives and sparing him.

posted by Eric at 1:35 PM

 
The Internal Game
Tribe home opener today! With the new baseball season comes renewed moaning about the state of the game. Bill Simmons devotes an entire online column to the alienation of his affections. Simmons gives six main reasons why his feelings for the game aren’t what they once were, all of which are valid points, but only one, his “getting old,” says anything meaningful about his personal relationship to the game.

Simmons’ complaints, in his descending order of importance:

6) “The Game” - He feels the product is “crummy.”

Expansion has ruined every professional sport to a degree, but only baseball has been ravaged by it. When only one-third of your franchises have a realistic chance to win the world championship every season, that's beyond ludicrous.

I agree there are too many teams and the quality of talent has been diluted. I’m in favor of contraction: certainly there is no sane justification for the Montreal Expos, who draw worse than most Triple A teams. His second sentence sums up the REAL problem with baseball: “only one-third of your franchises have a realistic chance to win the world championship every season.” I don’t have a final solution to this one, but I don’t think it has anything to do with expansion and everything to do with the vast revenue disparity between the teams. Here is a very interesting take on the problem.

As to whether the product is “crummy,” that’s purely subjective. My guess is that fans like, in this order: Winning. Power Offense (“If we can’t win, at least it’s exciting”). Power Pitching (same comment). Yankees fans are the happiest right about now because they keep on winning.

5) “The Stats” - Simmons is offended by the dramatic increase in offensive production, especially home runs, over the last several years. He is appalled by the fact that Richie Sexson hit 45 home runs last year, that Barry Bonds hit 73.

What used to be the most fun thing about following baseball -- keeping track of the stats, understanding when someone or something deviated from the norm -- has been completely thrown out of whack, and all sense of historical perspective has been demolished.

Offense is up, but the teams with the most offense don’t win in the playoffs where pitching still dominates. Look at Texas and Cleveland. The big winners - the Yankees, Braves, Mariners and Diamondbacks last year - have been balanced teams with great pitching and varied offense, same as always. Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds haven’t won anything. Until Luis Gonzalez hit 57 home runs last year for Arizona, no team had won the World Series with a player hitting more than 35 home runs since Steve Balboni hit 36 for Kansas City in 1985. Think about that one.

4) Simmons’ wife doesn’t like baseball. Can’t help him there. Weep. My wife does.

3) “Robo-Journalism” - Simmons doesn’t like the highly technical statistical analysis of baseball now popular with the Sabermetrics crowd, as pioneered by Bill James the ‘80s.

Here's what really bothers me: These guys make me feel inadequate as a baseball fan. Either you throw yourselves into this stuff and know everyone's OPS and EqA's and DT's, or you have to take a step back and say to them, "You know what? You win. You know more than me. I can't compete with this. If it's OK with you, I would still like to be a baseball fan, though. Good luck and God speed.”

Easy solution: ignore them and enjoy the game.

2) “Getting Old” - Here is the crux of the matter. What has really changed is Simmons’ personal relationship with the game. He calls it “getting old” but age is only indirectly involved.

when you reach your 30s, your Tolerance Level drops dramatically, your Responsibility Level increases, and it becomes much more difficult to subject yourself to the day-to-day grind of a professional sports season -- there simply isn't enough time in the day. I find I'm choosing sports over each other. The first one to go was college football (early '90s). The NHL quickly followed (mid-'90s). College hoops was next (late '90s). Now I'm down to the NBA (my favorite sport), the NFL (a close second) and baseball (a distant third), although I love the Red Sox, Patriots and Celtics equally, if that makes sense.

Again, personal decision. I went through the same thing, but opted for baseball as my professional sports indulgence. No contest. He says, ”And when you get older, you never care quite as much as you used to care.” Speak for yourself: in some ways I appreciate the game more now than when I was a kid. I understand and value its subtleties more, and since I have to make a genuine effort to follow the game now, I have more invested.

It’s just like music: some people never like any as much as the music from their formative years, and others adapt with the times, appreciating different music for different reasons. That’s why the majority of oldies and classic rock radio listeners are older, and the majority of contemporary music listeners are young. But there are plenty of people who don’t follow the demographics - it’s up to the individual.

1) “The Length of the Games” - This is Simmons’ top reason for “falling out of love” with baseball? The games are about a half-hour longer than they were a generation ago? This relates directly to more offense, which many fans like. The teams with the best pitching have the shortest games. Also, the time between innings allotted for commercials has gone up over the years as virtually all games have come to be televised. Do you want to go back to the ‘60s when you could watch a game or two per week on TV? There are trade-offs in real life. Don’t blame the game for what are really internal changes. That’s not very grown-up. (Thanks to Jerry for spotting this one.)
posted by Eric at 1:20 PM

 
The Last Waltz
Jerry (who notes, “I still remember where I was when I heard of Richard Manuel's suicide”) and I both noticed these stories in the NY Times yesterday on the Band’s The Last Waltz, which is getting the 25-year anniversary treatment (a year late) with a new print and limited theatrical release of Martin Scorsese's film, a new DVD coming out in May, and a new box set Rhino out at the end of April.

The film, reviewed here by Elvis Mitchell, is a classic of the concert film genre.

Part of the pleasure of watching the new print of "The Last Waltz" is to see Martin Scorsese fall in love with his subject, the Band. And part of the pleasure is in watching Robbie Robertson, the group's leader, seduce Mr. Scorsese.

Mr. Robertson's heavy-lidded predatory charm is unlike that of any performer Mr. Scorsese has ever worked with. In interviews that are woven into the film - a rueful valedictory released in 1978 that records the Band's last performance, on Thanksgiving two years earlier - Mr. Robertson is supremely comfortable in his own skin, and this makes him a different kind of creature to Mr. Scorsese, who is the kind of guy who'd probably start twitching in a room full of nitroglycerin. Mr. Robertson is the director's dream version of himself.

The great Anthony DeCurtis also takes on the film and the band’s legacy.

Whatever its flaws, "The Last Waltz" returns at a moment in which it can be received far more generously than it was in the mid-70's. However self-serving "The Last Waltz" might have seemed back then, no one familiar with the meretricious spectacle that the music industry has become in the last two decades can seriously criticize the film and album for glitziness. And at a time when audiences both young and old are discovering music with a connection to something more meaningful than a record company's bottom line, as shown in the success of the soundtrack album "O Brother, Where Art Thou," the artists in "The Last Waltz" represent a rare integrity.

Coincidentally, Muddy Waters makes a key appearance in the film.

A 61-year-old Muddy Waters, his cheeks quivering and his fists pumping, storms through "Mannish Boy." And Mr. Dylan's 20-minute set, framed by a searing "Baby Let Me Follow You Down," is incandescent. His stops, starts, improvised transitions and lurches force the members of the Band to play by their wits, not just their skills.

Maybe this time the Band will get its due.
posted by Eric at 11:49 AM

 
Cool Tunes - Muddy Waters
Cool Tunes is a radio show in a magazine format Saturday nights at 10pm (Eastern) on WAPS, "The Summit," in Akron, Ohio. I play new music, reissues, and preview shows coming to town each week. Musically it is among the widest-ranging 2 hours in the country: modern rock, punk, electronica, jazz, reggae and ska, roots rock, Americana, blues, world, funk, hip hop, avant garde, etc. - if it's cool I play it. Cool Tunes has been proudly serving humanity since 1990. Each week we also do a written feature on Tres Producers about an artist played on that week's show. This week: Muddy Waters.

MCA/Chess has just put out four classic “two-for” blues collections originally released in the ‘60s under the titles The Real Folk Blues and More Real Folk Blues, by Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Sonny Boy WilliamsonSonny Boy Williamson, and Howlin' Wolf: the very heart of the Chess blues roster.

Muddy Waters is the greatest of the Chicago bluesmen, and arguably second in importance in blues history only to Robert Johnson, but the Chess label was also crucial to Waters’ success. The Chess brothers ruled Chicago blues in the pivotal ‘50s and ‘60s and helped facilitate the transition from the rural acoustic blues of the Mississippi Delta to the urban electric blues Waters pioneered and perfected.

Lazer and Philip Chez, aged 11 and 6, were herded through Ellis Island on Columbus Day 1928 from their village near Pinsk, Poland, and transformed into Leonard and Phil Chess. They joined their father, who had been running a junkyard in a Jewish neighborhood near the South Side of Chicago.

Leonard's childhood polio left him with a limp, ineligible for military service. During the war he pursued various business interests, including liquor stores and dive bars. Eventually, he moved up to the Macomba Lounge, an upscale jazz and blues club at the heart of the South Side. The club featured major national acts like Billy Eckstine, Ella Fitzgerald, Lionel Hampton and Louis Armstrong. The predominantly black crowds were regular and enthusiastic, and as label talent scouts sniffed around the back door, Leonard realized he could sell records as well as drinks to his customers.

The Chess brothers bought into a local label called Aristocrat in 1947. Early releases were a hodgepodge of jazz, pop and blues. Aristocrat also generated controversy early on with the release of the single, "Union Man Blues/Bilbo Is Dead," by Macomba house singer Andrew Tibbs. "Union Man" angered the Teamsters in the North, and "Bilbo Is Dead," an ironic lament about the passing of Mississippi segregationist Senator Theodore Bilbo, riled those who cared about such things in the South.

For his first Aristocrat session, "Johnson Machine Gun," veteran Chicago blues pianist Sunnyland Slim brought in a youthful guitarist, Muddy Waters, fresh from the Mississippi Delta. Waters recorded "I Can't Be Satisfied" (not in this collection, but “Screamin’ and Cryin’,” “Canary Bird,” “Gypsy Woman, “Little Geneva,” “Sittin’ Here and Drinkin’,” “Down South Blues,” “Train Fare Home Blues” and “Kind Hearted Woman” from the same era are) in April 1948 and the first issue sold out in 12 hours. Reeking of the country funk of the Delta, Waters' single is a violent shout into the void that laid the foundation of the Chess sound: heavy on vicious electric slide guitar, thumping rhythm and unadulterated blues wailing.

Leonard reportedly couldn't understand what Waters was singing in the studio, but he understood the sales and somehow grasped that the records sold because, not in spite, of the track's rawness.

This insight was of such importance that American Heritage magazine (December 1994) selected the Chess brothers as among the 10 most important agents of change in America since 1950 with the following comment:

"The Chess brothers made records that helped transport African-American culture, especially its language and music, to its central place in American culture...The Chess brothers' story is one in which greed and inspiration swirled together in a characteristically American pot where the ingredients did not so much melt as alloy in a metallurgical sense: steel guitar, electricity, and vinyl transmuted into a wholly new cultural substance."

Waters came to Chicago from the famous Mississippi Delta - the birthplace of the blues - which stretches from Vicksburg, Mississippi in the south, to Memphis, Tennessee in the north, and from central Mississippi in the east, to the Ozark Plateau of Arkansas in the west.

Though largely uninhabited until the 1840’s, the Delta proved to be fertile ground (due to regular flooding, much like the Nile) and cotton plantations boomed throughout the region. After the Civil War many former slaves remained tied to the land in the South through the sharecropping farming system, whereby the farmer pledged large shares of his future crops to the landowner in exchange for use of land, seed, tools, clothing and the like. This system remained very powerful at least until WW1, and often the farmer was unable to get out from under the crushing debt accumulated under it.

Often, the only way out of debt and into possibly better conditions was to move, which many black families did often: thus the themes of suffering, oppression, and the road-as-salvation were the themes of many blues songs. The blues, like gospel, derived from a blending of African rhythms and tonalities with European songs structures, and evolved out of work songs and field hollers.

The Delta was also home to the notorious levee camps, another oppressive system where mostly black workers were hired to build and maintain the levees that kept the Mississippi River in check, and were often abused, underpaid, and overcharged for necessities. Many Delta blues musicians first performed professionally for Saturday night dances at the camps.

Though the banjo was probably the original blues instrument, the guitar had largely replaced the banjo by the turn of the 20th century, probably because the banjo had become associated with the racist minstrel shows. The harmonica also became very popular because it was a melody instrument that could be played along with guitar by the same person.

The slide guitar technique, using a glass bottle or curved metal piece (typically attached to the pinky finger) to slide up and down the high strings while the fingers plucked out the rhythm on the low strings, became the instrumental foundation of the Delta blues sound, and combined with rough, almost shouted vocals became blues at its most elemental.

This is the tradition in which Waters grew up. He was born McKinley Morganfield (1915) into a family of Mississippi Delta sharecroppers and learned his craft emulating masters like Son House and Robert Johnson. He earned his nickname playing near a muddy creek as a child. Waters’ first recordings were made in Mississippi for Alan Lomax and the Library of Congress in the early-’40s, and he first went to Chicago in the mid-’40s backing up Sonny Boy Williamson. Waters changed to electric guitar in ‘44: one of the most important instrument switches in popular music history.

The Real Folk Blues/More Folk Blues consists of recordings Waters made for the Chess brothers between 1947 and 1956 (with two from ‘64 tossed in), first for Aristocrat label, then for the Chess label. Besides hearing the evolution of Waters’ music from pure Delta style to the early rockin’ Chicago band sound with the addition of second guitar, drums, bass, and the great Little Walter on
harmonica, here are also the first recordings of such blues classics as "Honey Bee" and "Rollin’ and Tumblin’." The collection is also a testament to Waters’ great slashing, shivering slide guitar style and ample charisma.
posted by Eric at 10:26 AM

 
"I get the time too often on AM radio"*

On my long drive back from Indiana last night, I got a chance to listen to the last two innings of the St. Louis vs. Houston game on KMOX/St. Louis. Usually on these long drives I'll bring a bunch of Funk CD's for the trip out, and one of the first four Queen records to sing along with on the way home to stay awake (yes, you don't want to drive very long distances with me).

The game ate up a lot of miles from the Indiana border to Toledo and kept me alert and focused -- it was either that or Dee Snider's syndicated House Of Hair metal show out of Toledo. While it was great to hear Iron Maiden's "Children of the Damned", the phrase "small doses" did come to mind.

It's been a while since I've listened to a game on the radio, and one of the things I noticed was the addition of shotgun field mikes that really pick-up every pitch, from the sound of the ball pounding into the catchers mitt to the difference in the crack of the bat on a pop-up or home run. And credit announcers Joel Meyers and Mike Shannon (steee-rike) for keeping it moving but not cluttering it up.

In Cleveland we've got Tom Hamilton ("...a swing and drive to deep left, a wayyyyy back.... Home Run!") Mike Hegan and Matt Underwood. Solid guys, although every once in a while you almost miss Herb Score ("...sliding into second with a stand up double").

* Bonus points for lyrical trainspotting

posted by tofu at 1:16 AM

 
Damn Lies and Statistics
Just heard a commercial on the radio during the Indians game (they won, now 5-1, yeah!), where Continental airlines pledged that their employees (like the Indians, of course) give “110%, 100% of the time.” How to deal with such a blatantly absurd and false statement? Perhaps its absurdity is meant to counteract its falsehood.

Must it be restated? 100% is the totality - there is no more. To give 110%, one would have to give one’s all - an impossibility in itself - then bring in someone else to contribute the extra 10% on your behalf. This would make for a lot of very confused employees. But even this wouldn’t work because if all employees are giving their all, who is left to give the extra 10%? Nonemployees? I’ve heard of part-time, but not part-of employees. Patently impossible.

100% implies every single bit of available effort - literally giving one’s all. Wouldn’t this inevitably lead to the fate of the famous ancient Greek runner, who after running all out from Marathon to Athens, said, "Rejoice, we conquer," and fell to the ground dead? Now that’s 100%. The constant turnover and steady stream of death benefits would seem to demand that a logical company require that their employees NEVER give 100%, let alone give 110% all the time.

I will spend immediately with the first company that has the guts to tell me that their employees give 70% effort 70% of the time, because at least I would know they were trying to be 98% honest.
posted by Eric at 7:44 PM

 
Poets For "Peace"
Andrew Sullivan (dude, fix the permanent links - it’s irresponsible) has been getting all worked up over this ambiguous poem, which appears to me to be a dialogue between the terrorists and the poet himself, or at least the voice of someone representing the Western perspective. This seems clear by the alternation between standard and italicized print:

May breath for a dead moment cease as jerking your

head upward you hear as if in slow motion floor

collapse evenly upon floor as one hundred and ten

floors descend upon you.

May what you have made descend upon you.
May the listening ears of your victims their eyes their

breath

enter you, and eat like acid
the bubble of rectitude that allowed you breath.

May their breath now, in eternity, be your breath.

*

Now, as you wished, you cannot for us
not be. May this be your single profit.

Of your rectitude at last disenthralled, you
seek the dead. Each time you enter them

they spit you out. The dead find you are not food.

Out of the great secret of morals, the imagination to enter
the skin of another, what I have made is a curse.
—Frank Bidart

In addition, Bidart explicitly refers to the process of empathy: “the imagination to enter the skin of another.” So this appears pretty clearly to be a dialogue between dramatic personae cursing each other.

Little in the mainstream press, though, and nothing I have seen from the blogoshere, has been made of a poem, written by an American, which is not ambiguous at all and is clearly an attack upon our civilization from the poet’s own perspective: Amiri Baraka's "Somebody Blew Up America"

They say its some terrorist,
some barbaric
A Rab, in
Afghanistan
It wasn't our American terrorists
It wasn't the Klan or the Skin heads
Or the them that blows up nigger
Churches, or reincarnates us on Death Row
It wasn't Trent Lott
Or David Duke or Giuliani
Or Schundler, Helms retiring

It wasn't
The gonorrhea in costume
The white sheet diseases
That have murdered black people
Terrorized reason and sanity
Most of humanity, as they pleases

They say (who say?)
Who do the saying
Who is them paying
Who tell the lies
Who in disguise
Who had the slaves
Who got the bux out the Bucks

Who got fat from plantations
Who genocided Indians
Tried to waste the Black nation

Who live on Wall Street
The first plantation
Who cut your nuts off
Who rape your ma
Who lynched your pa

Who got the tar, who got the feathers
Who had the match, who set the fires
Who killed and hired
Who say they God & still be the Devil

Who the biggest only
Who the most goodest
Who do Jesus resemble

Who created everything
Who the smartest
Who the greatest
Who the richest
Who say you ugly and they the goodlookingest

Who define art
Who define science

Who made the bombs
Who made the guns

Who bought the slaves, who sold them

Who called you them names
Who say Dahmer wasn't insane

Who? Who? Who?

Who stole Puerto Rico
Who stole the Indies, the Philippines, Manhattan
Australia & The Hebrides
Who forced opium on the Chinese

Who own them buildings
Who got the money
Who think you funny
Who locked you up
Who own the papers

Who owned the slave ship
Who run the army

Who the fake president
Who the ruler
Who the banker

Who? Who? Who?

Who own the mine
Who twist your mind
Who got bread
Who need peace
Who you think need war

Who own the oil
Who do no toil
Who own the soil
Who is not a nigger
Who is so great ain't nobody bigger

Who own this city

Who own the air
Who own the water

Who own your crib
Who rob and steal and cheat and murder
and make lies the truth
Who call you uncouth

Who live in the biggest house
Who do the biggest crime
Who go on vacation anytime

Who killed the most niggers
Who killed the most Jews
Who killed the most Italians
Who killed the most Irish
Who killed the most Africans
Who killed the most Japanese
Who killed the most Latinos

Who? Who? Who?

Who own the ocean

Who own the airplanes
Who own the malls
Who own television
Who own radio

Who own what ain't even known to be owned
Who own the owners that ain't the real owners

Who own the suburbs
Who suck the cities
Who make the laws

Who made Bush president
Who believe the confederate flag need to be flying
Who talk about democracy and be lying

Who the Beast in Revelations
Who 666
Who know who decide
Jesus get crucified

Who the Devil on the real side
Who got rich from Armenian genocide

Who the biggest terrorist
Who change the bible
Who killed the most people
Who do the most evil
Who don't worry about survival

Who have the colonies
Who stole the most land
Who rule the world
Who say they good but only do evil
Who the biggest executioner

Who? Who? Who?

Who own the oil
Who want more oil
Who told you what you think that later you find out a lie

Who? Who? Who?

Who found Bin Laden, maybe they Satan
Who pay the CIA,
Who knew the bomb was gonna blow
Who know why the terrorists
Learned to fly in Florida, San Diego

Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion
And cracking they sides at the notion

Who need fossil fuel when the sun ain't goin' nowhere

Who make the credit cards
Who get the biggest tax cut
Who walked out of the Conference
Against Racism
Who killed Malcolm, Kennedy & his Brother
Who killed Dr King, Who would want such a thing?
Are they linked to the murder of Lincoln?

Who invaded Grenada
Who made money from apartheid
Who keep the Irish a colony
Who overthrow Chile and Nicaragua later

Who killed David Sibeko, Chris Hani,
the same ones who killed Biko, Cabral,
Neruda, Allende, Che Guevara, Sandino,

Who killed Kabila, the ones who wasted Lumumba, Mondlane,
Betty Shabazz, Princess Margaret, Ralph Featherstone,
Little Bobby

Who locked up Mandela, Dhoruba, Geronimo,
Assata, Mumia, Garvey, Dashiell Hammett, Alphaeus Hutton

Who killed Huey Newton, Fred Hampton,
Medgar Evers, Mikey Smith, Walter Rodney,
Was it the ones who tried to poison Fidel
Who tried to keep the Vietnamese Oppressed

Who put a price on Lenin's head

Who put the Jews in ovens,
and who helped them do it
Who said "America First"
and ok'd the yellow stars

Who killed Rosa Luxembourg, Liebneckt
Who murdered the Rosenbergs
And all the good people iced,
tortured, assassinated, vanished

Who got rich from Algeria, Libya, Haiti,
Iran, Iraq, Saudi, Kuwait, Lebanon,
Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Palestine,

Who cut off peoples hands in the Congo
Who invented Aids
Who put the germs
In the Indians' blankets
Who thought up "The Trail of Tears"

Who blew up the Maine
& started the Spanish American War
Who got Sharon back in Power
Who backed Batista, Hitler, Bilbo,
Chiang kai Chek

Who decided Affirmative Action had to go
Reconstruction, The New Deal,
The New Frontier, The Great Society,

Who do Tom Ass Clarence Work for
Who doo doo come out the Colon's mouth
Who know what kind of Skeeza is a Condoleeza
Who pay Connelly to be a wooden negro
Who give Genius Awards to Homo Locus
Subsidere

Who overthrew Nkrumah, Bishop,
Who poison Robeson,
who try to put DuBois in Jail
Who frame Rap Jamil al Amin, Who frame the Rosenbergs,
Garvey,
The Scottsboro Boys,
The Hollywood Ten

Who set the Reichstag Fire

Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed
Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers
To stay home that day
Why did Sharon stay away?

Who? Who? Who?

Explosion of Owl the newspaper say
The devil face cd be seen

Who make money from war
Who make dough from fear and lies
Who want the world like it is
Who want the world to be ruled by imperialism and national
oppression and terror violence, and hunger and poverty.

Who is the ruler of Hell?
Who is the most powerful

Who you know ever
Seen God?

But everybody seen
The Devil

Like an Owl exploding
In your life in your brain in your self
Like an Owl who know the devil
All night, all day if you listen, Like an Owl
Exploding in fire. We hear the questions rise
In terrible flame like the whistle of a crazy dog

Like the acid vomit of the fire of Hell
Who and Who and WHO who who
Whoooo and Whooooooooooooooooooooo!
Amiri Baraka, October, 1991

Baraka, in the lines, ”Who is the ruler of Hell?, Who is the most powerful,” would appear to be equating America with Satan, remarkably echoing bin Laden and the radical Islamist’s own characterization of America as the “Great Satan.” The poem is also deeply anti-Semitic:

Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed
Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers
To stay home that day
Why did Sharon stay away?

Interestingly, though the poem was spread throughout the Web without preface immediately upon its composition last October, by a January 23 appearance in NYC, heard recorded live here, Baraka (formerly LeRoi Jones) had added this slightly mitigating introduction to the work:

All thinking people oppose terrorism both domestic & international…But one should not be used To cover the other

I’m all for freedom of expression and am willing to grant Baraka artistic license to be as provocative as he wishes, but consider this profile of him written in the Eugene (Oregon) Weekly, previewing a January Baraka appearance:

In October, Baraka published a long poem, "Somebody Blew Up America,"... that outlines his anger at oppression and his understanding of the role American Imperialists played in the Sept. 11 attacks.

"The Bush family and Bin Laden were in bed together for awhile. It was Bush 1 who recruited the Taliban and Bin Laden to overthrow the Russian backed government in Afghanistan. They are merely what the CIA calls 'Blowbacks,' i.e., agents recruited by the CIA who later turn on the U.S.," he says.

Ah, that makes it okay then: bin Laden is “merely” a blowback. We deserve what we got because the CIA exerted its corrupting influence over these innocents.

For Baraka, turning a penetrating eye on politics and social issues is nothing new. In fact, the world-renowned writer and speaker has been at it for a long time.

...Baraka is a mentor to many and his informal style and humor makes him popular with students. Steve Morozumi, program advisor at the UO Multicultural Center, which is hosting Baraka's visit to the UO, was approached by Lord Leebrick's Artistic Director Corey Pearlstein, who wanted to collaborate in bringing Baraka to Eugene in time for this weekend's opening of Baraka's play, Primitive World.

As it happens, Morozumi had met Baraka back East when he lived in New York City. "He opened up my world and that of countless others to understanding the experience of African Americans and the rich cultures of oppressed peoples globally," says Morozumi.

That’s rich indeed: this black separatist Marxist/Leninist has opened this man’s world to an understanding of the “experience of African Americans and the rich cultures of oppressed peoples globally.” First, how many African-Americans does Baraka represent? Secondly, this white man is equating the lives of black Americans with “oppressed peoples globally”? Perhaps 150 years ago. Where have you been, pal? And who oppresses black Americans more: the U.S. government, with two African-Americans in the “ruling junta,” or the terrorists who killed them on 9/11?

...Baraka ponders the future of America under the Bush administration. "Where are we going? Where we've been going, with some brief and very compromised respites ... further and further to the right. The depression was in motion before 9/11. Bush is working feverishly with the rest of the right to pick the U.S. treasury clean, giving money to the big corporations under the very ugly lying rhetoric about 'giving people their money back.' It makes you think he believes Americans are without any mental apparatus at all."

On the current war on Afghanistan, Baraka explains, "The Bush Right wants to make a 'gas station' out of the Middle East. It's no coincidence killer Sharon (removed from office by Israelis after the slaughter of Palestinians in Lebanon in '84) surfaces at the same time Bush does. Nor that Clinton's peace process 'spa' is eliminated simultaneously. The invasion of Palestine, the contemplated attack on Iraq and perhaps Somalia is simply to clear the way for U.S. imperialist oil interests. Not to see this is to be duped," he says.

It would seem to me, a much greater “duping” has taken place of those who equate all of American, and apparently Israeli, foreign policy with making a “gas station out of the Middle East.” It’s simplistic, utterly indiscriminate conspiracy theory: on par with the “Elders of Zion,” Jews baking with blood and being warned away from the WTC on 9/11 because it was the Israelis who blew it up. This is the voice of “oppressed peoples globally”? This is the voice of an anti-Semitic totalitarian communist, along the lines of, say, Saddam Hussein.

But Baraka doesn't point the finger of blame and leave it hanging in the air. His Marxist-Leninist beliefs call for action. "The society will continue to move to the right until the great majority that opposed Bush and his far right agenda can pull together a national people's democratic united front to oppose this right wing terror -- as Toni Morrison called it the other night on TV, 'the Nazification of America' -- to oppose it with word and deed. By demonstration and organization, and becoming a strident force in local, state and national politics."

Baraka defiles the word “democratic” by paying cynical lip service to it. In our democracy, a figure approaching 90% of the people are in favor of the war on real terror, as opposed to some illusory “right wing terror” that has been unleashed upon an innocent world. See, here in the U.S. we have an actual democracy. There is no “united front” in a democracy, in fact the term is an oxymoron. Baraka’s “people’s democratic united front” smacks of North Korea or China, where “the people” are construed as a monolithic entity subsuming the needs and rights of individual persons within it, and is a euphemism for “totalitarian dictatorship.” And by the way, the last hundred years have amply demonstrated that this "dictatorship of the proletariat" never “withers away,” but is simply an excuse for connected elites to draw all power and resources to themselves. Ironic, don’t you think?

The problem is that there is still a substantial subset, especially among the young, who believe this grim horseshit. Damn, I sound like Andrew Sullivan.
posted by Eric at 3:28 PM

 
Going to Indiana With A Banjo On My Knee... or something like it

Saturday was my annual trek to AHMW '02 in NW Indiana. This is the 4th year we've been doing this and, as always, a groovy time was had by all... Lots of vintage and rare keyboards were taken out of their homes (many for the first time) and set up on display, as well as being hooked up to the PA and photographed at all angles for later inclusion in our little synth geek websites.

If you've seen my gear list, this get together doesn't seem strange at all...

Highlights include the Roland System 700 (a huuuuuge modular from the 70's), a monolithic MOTM modular setup (I kept wanting to get a large animal bone and slam it repeatedly on the ground) and the equally cool walnut rack holding the other modules. The jam session was also a great deal of fun, with our host Andrew, Chris and myself syncing up and laying down an hour of 120 bpm hard techno...
posted by tofu at 3:41 AM