Just a quick note to introduce a new member to the community. Sid and I traveled together to Europe to play music with a symphonic band when we were teenagers. We were a fearsome pair and remained close for several years, but our individual hazes in the college years left us lost to each other. We've both been trying over the years to find each other again, and when HST died it made me decide it was time to figure it out once and for all. Persistent Googling allowed me to at least find his parents, and now we are back again to conquer the universe.
So I post this to say two things:
1) Welcome Back Sid! You've been missed and I can't wait to get some time to catch up. Not sure if you'll get the time, but you're certainly welcome to stick around the blog and tell me I'm full of shit when you think it. I've always enjoyed getting your take on things.
2) Another friend once said, its never too late to write. Well, sometimes it is, and I have lost some friends before I got the chance to find them again. But don't let time hold you back. Maybe someone else out there has a phantom from their past they wish was still around. I wish I'd have done it years earlier, but I'm glad to have done it at all. Now is the time.
Do I really need to say anything about this?
I hate to link to things that make stupid people money, but really this just reveals her as incredibly out of touch. And its a classic example of confusing the symptom for the disease. "What's that, Suzie is depressed and cuts herself? Well you'd better make sure to destroy all her CDs and take her to church."
Even if the comments of Ricci have an effect, isn't that cause for concern, too? That your child is commiting acts of self-mutilation because she read about it in a magazine? Isn't that type of behavior more alarming than doing it out of depression? God there aren't enough ways to describe how wrong this whole thing is.
And of course, as described in nearly every other blog that has commented on this, this statement: There is even a new genre of music -- "emo" -- associated with promoting the cutting culture.
You mean "new" like the way the Internet is new? New as in the music a friend of mine had a radio show devoted to 10 years ago? New as in Sunny Day Real Estate a band which formed in 1993 and broke up in 1995?
Promoting? Definitely an issue between correlation and causality here. Emo in general is characterized by music designed for young people who are depressed, confused, and lonely (which describes about 95% of young people, really).
God I've got to stop, its just so stupid I can't.
It seems the rage right now in media to be talking about what the "blog revolution" really means. Fine, fine, I'll bite. (Beware potential navel-gazing)
It is important I think at this point to separate personal blogs from news blogs, as they are really different animals in their goals. Your present author finds himself in a somewhat middle ground (genetically engineered half-dragon half-rabbit?) between those animals, and several other blogs do as well. But on the whole I'd say I fall into news blog category, which is to say a blog that focuses on current (or older, forgotten) events knowingly filtered through the author's experience, opinions and biases.
Ultimately, my goal for this thing was create a regular outlet for me to write. I do hold some desire to write "for a living", and it seemed that the blog is a perfect experience to get used to writing pieces on a regular basis. I can tackle any topic, I can be in charge of my own publishing and deadlines and they can be as polished as I want them to be. And I think it has helped me to become more structured and regular in my writing. True enough, I miss many days of posting due to the vagaries of daily working life or just laziness, but I have created a pretty sizable document of text here, and it has helped me to solidify my own ideas.
I'm not certain how interesting it all is to anybody, but really, that's not my primary goal, so truthfully, I don't care. I publish all this for a few reasons:
1) Publishing is a impetus to write. By putting these articles out in the open, I create a deadline or a drive for myself that would not be the same if they were just filling up my hard drive.
2) Publishing creates a dialogue around ideas and more importantly around my writing that filling up my hard drive does not. By allowing people to comment I get criticism of the things I'm saying, which helps me to understand and define my position. And by seeing that many people are not understanding a point I was trying to make, it is clear to me that my writing was not concise enough. Sunlight is the best disinfectant.
3) It is possible that some of my ideas or articles could be interesting or intriguing or informative. I'm thrilled if they are. But that is mostly an ego-stroke whereas the blog is meant as a training exercise.
I will ocassionally use it to inform people about events in my life (or fictional events in my life) and I'm glad for its ability to do that. But the main goal is the above.
Most of the talk right now is on news blogging, and its relevance or usefullness or irresponsibility. A lot of the talk has been focused on how the blog is not mainstream journalism, which is a bit like writing an essay on why a hamburger is not an omelette. It is certainly true that most bloggers do not have the research available that the mainstream outlets do, and often their reporting is more ideologically driven. But really, that's the point. The news blogs serve as an outpouring of "public comment" in a way that opinion polls or focus groups never really could. They exist primarily to comment on jounalism, not to replace it. But they also form a new form of journalism, which is part editorial, part media-critic and part consumer advocate. The major news outlets are safe, and Wonkette or Instapundit or Andrew Sullivan will not replace the New York Times. But these blogs do represent a change in the way journalism is practiced.
Chomsky writes about manufacturing consent, as a more subtle form of propaganda, in which the powers that be make use of the media to create belief in the public. It's hard to find a more perfect example of this theory in action than the run-up to "Operation: Iraqi Freedom". I do wonder honestly if decades from now the historians will say that Democracy was a valid form of government before the invention of mass communication, which was ultimately its demise. I suspect there is something new on the horizon.
But right now, the best defense against the manufacture of consent is in an active and diverse blogosphere. Recent examples like Rather's forged memos or the Eason Jordan story are just a small part of what a healthy incredulity can bring about, and are only the beginning of the great strides blogs will bring to responsible journalism.
One criticism I see over and over is that blogs are not original. That they merely comment on existing stories and add personal bias. But this reveals the critic as criminally behind the times. We live in a cross-referenced world. The greatest invention for information storage, retrieval, and comprehension is the Internet, and it is really little more than connecting things that already exist. Google doesn't *add* anything, they merely help you find things better. Hypertext is the 21st century version of text, and soon everything will be linked. Just because blogs only serve as commentary doesn't make them unnecessary. In the future, the commentary *is* the story.
Notes:
A few words about the personal blog in practice-- While I have in the past been critical of much of personal blogging, I consider its use to be somewhat revolutionary as well. In this modern era of mass communication, even personal life can become a media outlet. And there's something pretty fantastic about being able to tell the whole world you got a new job, or an A on your statistics test, or herpes (although I haven't actually seen that on a blog yet). There is probably more to come on that front as well, although I think I used up my prophecy tokens for the day.
And just a quick note on Eason Jordan: Why do you have to be right-wing to be disgusted by someone (especially a high-level executive at a news network) making comments that the US military deliberately targets journalists? I'm all for the free exchange of ideas, but if you're going to say something so inflammatory and dangerous, you'd better have *something* to back it up.
In which the author revisits a point that he didn't quite make succinctly.
Themes: Fear, Self-absorption, Murder, SUVicide
Coherence 8/10
I believe that quite often road rage is justified, as you are watching someone through an act of selfishness commit what can only be attempted manslaughter or even attempted murder if you argue that the person involved should have reasonably understood the potential consequences of their actions. And people should understand the consequences of taking a 2-ton machine and while moving it at 80 miles per hour suddenly swerving within 2 feet of a nearby driver. That doesn't take a lot of foresight. It is an act of incredible self-absorption to think that getting somewhere 45 seconds earlier is worth killing someone.
So I offer my coping mechanism not necessarily because road rage is unjustified (on ocassion it is quite justified), but because it is not a healthy way to live. And the justified kind can lead to the unjustified kind as anger begets more anger.
I offer this delusion to distract one from the truth: There are people out there who are trying to kill you, and they're not doing it because they're evil or because they want to take your money or because they hate you. They're doing it because they're 3 minutes late for yoga class, and that, to me, is truly more terrifying than murder.
I guess we always knew it would turn out this way.
From: ish
To:HST
Going gonzo is a lifestyle that doesn't allow for growing old gracefully, and you never really could relax the full-throttle pace. And you probably always knew it would turn out this way, too, right from the first step, but you didn't hesitate or tiptoe but leapt, running full tilt onto the road which on some February day would hold your doom.
Ever the gambling man, you told Pascal to shove his wager right into his own nonplussed nether cavity and put it all onto the Hard Eight. "Let Him come and get me," you said, "in the meantime I'll be in the bar."
Somehow along the way the Bad Craziness was just too much, as surely it had to be someday. But how can I judge, Ho Ho, say I, there are worlds along the way and dusty roads full of fear and loathing that might give any man a taste for cold steel or splatter his mind upon the coffee table. You've climbed fences into the devil's asshole and camped out like you owned the joint, so walk a mile in those sandals, rube.
What will history remember, I wonder now that the frenetic wild genius of your mind has finally rested upon your own coffee table of eternity, what the hell will any of it *mean*? And wondering, I doubt it can really be understood, you were always a part of the times, always live, always a journalist more than an artist, reporting to us from the abyss from the places we were terrified to go. Without you, what can it mean, what could someone draw from it 6 or 60 or 600 years past? I'm afraid all they could draw is the story of a life, lived intensely, burning brightly into the forests of the night.
Uh-huh. But cut the shit, shall we, Doc? I'd like to feel sorry about that, but fatalistic or not, it's hard to see how it could have happened any other way. You'd proven yourself invincible to carwrecks and heroin and firearms and all the bad craziness life delivers. You'd met everyone worth meeting and if you hadn't you'd made up a story infinitely better than the real thing. Nights in dens of debauchery from across the world and in the back alleys of anytown USA we like to think don't exist. But who knows, maybe you were facing the one danger you couldn't escape, Yee-haw partner, maybe you were facing boredom.
Truly the only thing more terrifying than being bored is being *boring*. That's a mindfuck, and Amen! Enough. You'll be missed, but there's a price for traveling into the darkest places, paid in blood. Good travels, Doc, whether you've moved into the haze or out.
From: HST
To: ish
Blow it out your ass. You attempt to psychoanalyze me is laughable. I cannot be understood. I am eternal. Or I suppose I shall find out. Ho Ho. In any case, I can't see my feet and I'm done.
Notes:
Fear and Loathing in Elko
Shotgun Golf from the Page 2 Column
It's hard to say anything else. You'll just have to read for yourself. Start Here
UPDATE: Actually, this is a pretty good article.
So about a year ago I was in Hawaii. I would really like to be in Hawaii right now. Hell, I'd settle for just being in the Honolulu airport for a few days.
I'd love to go somewhere. I've been on several great trips in the last couple years, from Dublin to Germany / Italy to Hawaii. Alfie is going to the UK soon. But I'm trying to save money I remind myself all over again.
Shawn is trying to get me to head out to Frisco and see his swanky Bachelor Pad right near Golden Gate Park. Chris wants me to come hang out in New Mexico. But I'm trying to save money I remind myself.
Sigh and ah well. There is a remote possibility that work will send me to Arizona to the proving grounds (in a C6, no less!) which would be the first actually cool trip I've been on since working here. (The low point of course being drive testing in Florida during 9/11 with lots of angry Germans and then having to drive home because a hurricane shut down the airports the day after they reopened post-911).
So, feeling envious that I'm not in Hawaii, I went to the Maui Wowi coffee joint today instead of 'Bucks and got some Kona. It was good, but it didn't even come close to feeding the urge to move, to cover miles upon miles and see something new, breathe some different air for a while.
I am, by nature a pretty mellow person. And I've been able to take almost everything in stride. But there is something about traffic that makes me totally insane.
Really, the entire act of driving is insane. There are over 40,000 people killed each year in highway fatalities. Really take a full minute to think about that, instead of just looking at the number and saying: "40k? Yeah, that seems right." This is dying, ceasing to be, exiting physical reality because you wanted to go from one place to another.
It's funny, we live in such a culture of fear, where we are terrified by every little thing, from Anthrax (5 deaths in the last 3 years) to urban snipers (<50 deaths in the last 3 years) to murder (roughly 17,000 a year, many of whom engage in high-risk professions, like stealing from drug dealers), and yet we aren't afraid of the things that really are dangerous. If you wanted to live in fear rationally, you'd run in terror from McDonald's, Marlboros and automobiles: that's what's doing all the killing in this country. (Perhaps the only one we properly fear is tobacco, but then we fear it irrationally too, in the form of "secondhand smoke" which still has never been solidly shown to have a serious effect on cancer rates.) In fact, among 24-34 year olds, more people kill themselves than are murdered by someone else. So statistically speaking, you have more to fear from the person in the mirror than anyone you see on the street.
In any case, I've developed a new coping mechanism that might help others as well as its helped me, and I thought I'd share. I imagine that every other person driving is my mother. I still will get upset, and I've even been known occasionally to yell out, "Screw you, Mom!" but that only helps me get back to how silly the whole thing is. And that's enough to defuse it, and get me back to sanity.
Its official, there is no 2004-2005 NHL Season.
I love hockey. Most of you know that, and know that I've been watching or playing since I was a kid, and know that the lockout is killing me. Its a stupid nobody wins game of chicken that could result in the first time ever that a professional sports league has canceled and entire season over a labor dispute, from which professional hockey will never recover. I also happen to think it's the best thing for the game.
There was some assface economist on Day to Day yesterday that said that the hockey lockout hasn't had an effect on the local economy. People are still going to the mall, or the movies, or the NBA, so the money is staying in the community. This is typical of the overly simplified thinking of economists (see yesterdays post). While that may be true in some areas, it is definitely not true in Detroit, and I would guess the situation is similar in other areas.
1) Detroit is (at least for the last 10 years) Hockeytown, and there are many businesses whose livelihood is pinned to the success of professional hockey. From Mac's on Third, right near the Joe, to the many downtown restaurants that offer shuttle service, to the parking lot and garage owners, the emptyness of Joe Louis Arena is backbreaking. Many of these businesses have made changes to try to stay alive, but the fact remains that 20,000+ people suddenly not being around is not something you can just adapt to.
2) This is equally true for the city of Detroit. There are no movie theaters in Detroit. There is no NBA in Detroit. Shopping is just starting to pick up, but the plain truth is that Sporting events are still the main draw that brings people out from cowering in the suburbs to support their central city. In a year that finds the city in gigantic budget overruns and massive layoffs (brought upon themselves, say true), you cannot misunderestimate the effect of all the parking, tax, and gate income from Red Wings games. To say that a dollar spent in Auburn Hills is equivalent to a dollar spent in Detroit is asinine.
3) Two sample sets with the same mean are not the same if their standard deviations are wildly different. To restate in non-mathspeak: Even if the exact same number of dollars are being spent, if half the business are doing better than usual and the other half are going bankrupt, the conclusion is not that "there is no impact on the economy". Assface.
So it has been terrible for Detroit. However, that's part of the problem, in that Detroit is one of the only clubs that actually makes money on the hockey season. For many of the other owners, they are actually making more money by not playing. Hockey is a northern phenomenon. Truly a Canadian sport, it has adapted to the cold border areas much like Canadian beer, or donuts, or saying "eh". And in Minnesota, Michigan, and upstate New York (maybe Mass. too, can't say), it truly is a part of the culture. In fact there are at least three NHL teams owned by Detroiters (Red Wings, Hurricanes, and Lightning) and there could be more.
Canada has nearly lost it. CBC is running movies during the hockey night in Canada time slot, while Ron McLean plays with his pickup league, leading into the commercials. They showed that curling comedy, "Men with Brooms" a couple weeks ago. I'm not sure how much longer they can hold out. They're on edge. I'm staying away from Tim Horton's, just as a precaution.
But that doesn't mean the same thing in Florida or the Carolinas. And the continued attempts by the NHL to become the NFL can be safely called a failure. And if this lockout can concretely make that point and get the league back to a manageable, reasonable size, it will have been the best possible thing for the game.
I heard an interview with Chelios a couple days ago. It's clear he's older now than the last labor dispute, in which he threatened Commissioner Gary Bettman's family. He spoke about the possibility of them never coming to an agreement, and the player's association creating their own league starting with 5-6 teams, mostly Canadian. Starting back over at the beginning with a new original 6 would be sad, but it might be one of the best ways to make things work. The game will live on. If it takes a year or so without hockey to get back to sanity, it will be well worth it.
Note: While writing this, news has shown that the players have agreed in principle to a salary cap, but that talks broke down anyway over the proper amount. If an agreement isn't reached by tomorrow, the season will be canceled.
Long time since the last update, and I don't even really have anything to say. I sprained my knee for my birthday (Happy Birthday to me) and have been limping and swearing ever since. And I definitely haven't been of a mood to sit at a computer chair for several hours writing a well-researched entry. I really do need to lower the standards I place on myself for this thing. But why start now?
For now though, I'll remain content with a quick list of updates.
The Superbowl came and went. My Eagles managed to do a pretty good job against the thoroughly average and boring, yet somehow unbeatable Patriots, despite a pretty poor coaching job (again) by Andy Reid that got worse as the clock ticked down. I missed the Halftime show (I wouldn't say I'm "missing" it, Bob) as I was driving from Andy's back to my house. All in all, a decent game, all things considered.
That same weekend I also got to drive a 'dozer at my friend Lee's, which was an experience I'd recommend to anyone. The best part: It was driving a dozer at night into an enormous bonfire to keep the pile from spreading. It is possible that there was drinking involved.
I've been watching a series on world economics that is quite interesting. It is told from the fairly biased point of view of the modern free-marketeers, which results in statements like:
But the market reforms worked, bringing prices down and stopping inflation. Some were concerned by the unemployment above 30% and the collapse of several national industries, however, the economy grew strongly.
That is one of the main problems with a market-centric view, is that it ignores the existence of people. If the market is healthy, then things are good, even if there are thousands of displaced workers. I certainly agree in theory that protectionism over national industries is a losing proposition in the long run, and that globalisation isn't only inevitable, it's also essential. But we need a better solution than "If it isn't competitive it dies" because the real people who work in these industries need jobs, and those who have dedicated their lives to one occupation don't rearrange their lives as neatly as it happens on a spreadsheet. It's always the people who's jobs *can't* be outsourced who are so gung-ho: Politicians, Economists, CEOs. It's easy to tell people to learn how to adapt when you yourself don't need to spend over a year without an income, learn completely new skills, and relocate your family. The only adaptation required of a CEO is to have an occasional conference-call at Bangalore local time.
Pure capitalism is state-of-nature survival of the fittest and nothing more. It isn't utopia, it doesn't arrive at the utilitarian greatest good and it is NOT self-regulating. It delivers the best bottom line to the best competitors. The question is: Do we as a species aspire to something better than wolf/moose populations? Aren't we advanced enough to allow something more?
I'll have more to say on this topic in a full article, but its part of what I've been thinking about so I wanted to throw it out there.
From now on I'm carrying beer with me everywhere