3.27.2008

Starbucks' New Frontier: Crescent City

Marion Moon, a Eureka resident, discovered Starbucks was open on her third trip to Crescent City this week. [Note: Eureka is more than 80 miles south of Crescent City.] She's a McKinleyville Starbucks regular.

"You bet!" Moon said about coming to Del Norte County more often now that the Starbucks is open. "This is the only place I can go to Home Depot and Wal-Mart. It's one-stop shopping."

I'm not a big fan of Starbucks anyway, but I can't imagine why any hot-blooded coffee-seeker in Crescent City would rather get their fix from the Corporate Beastie rather than the little drive-up hut I started referring to on my last visit as the "Java Teat," where busty young girls in halter-tops will happily work for their tips by leaning fulsomely over into your car as they deliver a steaming cup of caffeine into your trembling hands. But, then again, I'm a pervy middle-aged guy. Ah, Java Teat. . .

Full story from Del Norte County's own Daily Triplicate here.

My lovely little home town by the sea, surrounded by trees older than Caesar, and populated at least in part by some of America's most violent felons. Someday I will return to liberate you: trees, felons, Java Teat girls, Sasquatch, Starbucks coffee drinkers. All of you. Someday.

Mixwit Yo

I'm fooling around with a new website that lets you create mixtapes, assigns them a URL, and provides a widget for posting. You can see my example below. I like being able to design the face of the "tape," and I have been searching for a while for a way to post mixes here. The "Phat Bat Trax" sample below is not really themed in any way; let's call it a beta version of what I hope will be a continuing series of themed mixes.

Let me know what you think of the songs. At this point, I hesitate to call it a mix. Do check out the Mixwit site, though. It's a hoot to play with and very user-friendly. Other than searching for songs, creating the "mix" took less than 20 minutes.

Phat Bat Trax


3.25.2008

More of these over at Postmodernbarney. Enjoy!

3.19.2008

Sir Arthur C. Clarke, 1917-2008


If Arthur C. Clarke was only known for his science fiction, his death would still be regarded as a momentous loss. If Arthur C. Clarke was only known as the first scientist to propose the idea of putting artificial satellites into geosynchronous orbit, he would be remembered as a man who has influenced the daily lives of the world's population. If Arthur C. Clarke was only known for his work on the film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, many film lovers would praise his contributions to innovative cinema. But, of course, Arthur C. Clarke did all of this, and much more besides.
Much of Clarke's science fiction deals with themes of how humans are shaped by their beliefs, and how those beliefs can (or should be) challenged by scientific inquiry. My two favorite stories of his deal directly with these themes: "The Star," about a supernova that destroys one civilization and alters another, light-years away; and "The Nine Billion Names of God," about what some might regard as the ultimate computer program.
It is beyond the purview of this blog to list all of Sir Clarke's accomplishments and contributions here. Suffice it to say that he represented humanity at its best, as a man whose knowledge and curiousity led him to explore the capabilities of our species and to challenge the misguided assumptions of those who operate merely on superstition or willful ignorance.
A bibliography of Clarke's over 100 books and short stories.

Five Years

One man shall smile one day and say goodbye.
Two shall be left, two shall be left to die.

One man shall give his best advice.
Three men shall pay the price.

One man shall live, live to regret.
Four men shall meet the debt.

One man shall wake from terror to his bed.
Five men shall be dead.

One man to five. A million men to one.
And still they die. And still the war goes on.

James Fenton, "Cambodia"

Iraq Body Count
Just Foreign Policy
Antiwar.com

Bush declares U.S. is on the cusp of victory

4000 Americans. At least 80,000 Iraqis.
Fuck these guys. Fuck this war.

3.16.2008

Obama's Plan for Science Education & the Space Program

I can't find this information on Obama's official site, but SpaceRef.com has the details of Obama's policies regarding the space program. It's an encouraging list, with an emphasis on science education, but there's nothing particularly innovative here. To be fair, the space program is not an issue of great importance in the presidential campaign, and there doesn't seem to be much difference between Obama's plan and those of the other candidates.

There is one important distinction of Obama's plan, however:

Keep Weapons out of Space: China's successful test of an anti-satellite missile in January 2007 signaled a potential new arms race in space. Barack Obama does not support the stationing of any weapons in space. He believes the international community must address the issue of space weaponization head-on and enter into a serious dialogue with Russia, China and other nations to stop this slow slide into a new battlefield.

China's pursuit of a moon-landing is indicative not just of their increasing technological capabilities, but a kind of chess move reflecting their arrival as a superpower, a global force with enough economic and military might to change the face of world politics for many decades to come. It is no coincidence that the U.S. Apollo program came at the zenith of America's power, just as we were exercising that power in all the wrong ways during the Vietnam War. Whether or not China's moon landing serves as a contribution to scientific knowledge will be of far less symbolic import than the moment a Chinese astronaut plants his/her nation's flag in the desiccated soil of our satellite, representing a true majority of this planet's inhabitants.

One of the great failures of our own space program is that we did not follow up on the achievements of the Apollo program by establishing a permanent presence on the moon or in orbit. The International Space Station is, as its name suggests, a "global" rather than a nationalistic endeavor, but if China has learned anything from us, they will pursue an idea that we abandoned and become the first nation to establish a property claim on another planetary body.

China's anti-satellite weaponry is, as Obama's plan suggests, the first step in another vital claim: the dominance over artificial satellite technology, the technology that makes cellphones, information distribution, and global communication possible. The new Cold War will be be one not only of political chilliness, but the literal coldness of the next global battlefield, near-earth orbit.

On a more prosaic note, the Obama plan, like those of the other candidates, expresses support for the completion of the ISS, but offers no explanation of how the station will be completed or maintained if the shuttle program is, as planned, mothballed in 2010. The lack of regular shuttle visits will have enormous implications for the staffing, maintenance, and stability of the station, and none of the presidential candidates have yet offered any solutions to that problem, science education support notwithstanding.

3.13.2008

Pachelbel Rant

Ladies and gentlemen, the musical insights of Mr. Rob Paravonian.

3.12.2008

Esta Tierra Es Tuya

Been meaning to post this for a while (at least before the Texas primaries took place). But remember: He's only popular because he's black. Right, Hilary?

Beatles Quote of the Week

May Pang, who lived with John Lennon for 18 months in the early 1970's (before he reconciled with Yoko Ono), has released a collection of her photographs of Lennon during that time, a period which included Lennon's signing of the agreement that legally "dissolved the Beatles' partnership." Pang's book includes her photo of Lennon signing the document, and Pang relates Lennon's surprising reaction:

“When John hung up the phone,” she writes, “he looked wistfully out the window. I could almost see him replaying the entire Beatles experience.”

Given that Lennon had been particularly militant about leaving the Beatles in 1969, it might seem odd to learn that he did so wistfully. Not to Ms. Pang.

“Everybody changes,” she said. “With John things changed on a daily basis. It’s a question of time. Five years earlier was not the same situation. In 1974 he had just seen everyone. The friendship was still there. They were brothers. There was no animosity. And even though they all felt they had to break up to get to the next level of their musical careers, John had started this band that changed the world. It changed pop culture. It changed how we live and how we dress. And he knew that. So when he sat down to sign, he knew that this was it. His was the last signature. As he had started the group, he was the one to end it.”

Full story from the New York Times here.

3.11.2008

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 2008

I was going to write a bit about this year's inductees, but, conveniently, I came across this great little audio & photo essay on Time.com that covers the bases pretty well. I suppose it's becoming easier to be cynical about the Hall of Fame and its mission--after you've inducted Dylan, the Beatles, the Stones, what's left to do, right?--but I am, ultimately, pleased that an organization like this exists.

A nephew of mine is beginning to discover classic rock and has asked me and another of his uncles who enjoys music to burn some CDs for him. His parents are both devout Mormons and have pretty much prevented their kids from bringing anything resembling rock and/or roll into their home, which is a great tragedy and a sure way to ensure that your kids will either grow up hating you and defying your teachings or ending up in intensive therapy (or both). At one point, this kid's mother found some old Loverboy cassettes that her husband had carted around since his own teenage years. She let him keep the cassettes, but threw out the cover art from the cassette shells. Apparently, close-ups of asses in tights were too much for her fundamentalist sensibilities.

I remember as a kid taking great pleasure in songs like the Eagles' "Life in the Fast Lane," which blatantly introduced lines like "Haven't seen a goddamn thing" to the otherwise sedate rock station I listened to (now a "classic" rock station, of course). It was only much later that I figured out that song was about a bunch of sex-crazed coke addicts, which did nothing to diminish my appreciation for the song. Listening to songs like that as a kid, though, made me feel subversive and edgy and cool, even if my dad listened to the same music. My father, for all his faults, had an excellent record collection and did much to encourage my enjoyment of music, and I still occasionally find myself buying a 1970s-era album he used to own: Boston, Fleetwood Mac, Foreigner, etc.

So I am more than happy to provide my deprived nephew with as much classic rock as he can handle, or as much as he can hide under his mattress, as the case may be. If anything will get him out of that repressive household, it will be rock & roll. It's a trite and corny sentiment, perhaps, but I still believe that some music--even corporate over-commercialzed rock--can change hearts and minds and show otherwise miserable children (as I once was) that you should only put up with so much bullshit.

Here's a list of this year's bullshit detectors. Leonard Cohen and Madonna are the giants here; I like Mellencamp quite a bit, but he's always struck me as a kind of low-rent Springsteen. Despite the Time narrator's claim, I listen to AND enjoy surf music, so it's nice to see the Ventures get a nod. I have problems with the Dave Clark Five, though. Their main claim to fame, as far as I can tell, is in being the first band to ride the coattails of the infinitely superior Beatles, but there isn't anything particularly memorable about the DC5's music, certainly nothing that needs to be preserved by an entity that calls itself the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

But I can't deny that somewhere out in the sticks of middle America, there might have been some kid in the mid-1960s who thought the DC5 kicked the Beatles' asses, and liked them because they represented something that his parents hated or feared. More power to you, kid.

3.07.2008

Recently Viewed

The Gleaners & I ***
Runnin' Down a Dream: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers ****
In the Shadow of the Moon *****
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly *****

The Gleaners & I is a quaint and often charming French documentary by noted director Agnes Varda. The film, made with digital video, follows a number of what we would call "transient" individuals through the cities and countryside of France. Among these are gypsies, the homeless, the mentally ill, and alcoholics, but Varda also presents several people who live their vagrant lifestyles by choice. One man in the film claims to have lived entirely off of other people's trash for the last ten years. Varda incorporates herself into the film as someone whose age has made her relatively invisible to contemporary society and a stranger even to herself. The film's charm largely comes from Varda's first-person perspective, her musings on the French tradition of gleaning after the farm harvests, and her sincere interest in the people with whom she speaks in the film. The film wanders in conjunction with Varda's interests and sometimes veers away from her theme, but her diversions are always interesting and occasionally enlightening. (The DVD of the film is accompanied by a shorter documentary that revisits some of Varda's interview subjects two years after the completion of her original film.)

I suppose one should have some prior interest in Tom Petty and/or the Heartbreakers before plunging into Peter Bogdanovich's nearly four-hour overview of the band's career. And anyone familiar with the usual narrative trajectory of VH1's Behind the Music will soon recognize the pattern of this film: band struggles for several years before achieving sudden, overwhelming fame; band struggles to reconcile their goals with the demands of their fan base; band members succumb to the temptations of sex and/or drugs; band comes together in the face of criticism and/or declining sales; band returns to form with standout album; rinse and repeat. Still, anyone who has a love for Petty's brand of American rock & roll will find much to enjoy here, including rare performance clips, insightful and occasionally painfully honest interviews, surprise guest commentators, and, of course, a lot of fine music. The sound mix on the DVD is superb, even with my meager stereo speakers. Four hours at one sitting was too much for me to handle, but I found the film quite engaging over the course of two evenings.

Anyone who reads this blog regularly knows that I am a sucker for astronauts and shiny spaceships, so it's perhaps no surprise to learn that I absolutely loved In the Shadow of the Moon, a documentary that incorporates interviews with nearly all the surviving Apollo astronauts (Neil Armstrong, true to form, continues to avoid speaking about his experience). It is also perhaps not surprising to learn that I teared up several times while watching this. Shit, I even get teary watching the trailer for this film! But the film offers many unique perspectives on the Apollo program, not the least of which is extended footage taken by the astronauts themselves on the surface of the moon. Viewers will also learn what it was like to fly in a craft behind the moon, out of range of any human communication; why some of the astronauts experienced profound religious conversions after returning from the moon; and learn that the second man to set foot on the moon paused on the ladder of the moon lander to urinate before touching the surface. In short, this is probably the best documentary we can expect about one of the most extraordinary human achievements in history. One of the finer points of this film is the way it helps the viewer to appreciate how the Apollo missions were much more than an expression of nationalism through technological superiority, and were part of a truly human endeavour, one that represented us at our best as a species possibly worth preserving.

I initially regarded The Diving Bell and the Butterfly as a homework assignment, part of my annual obligation to familiarize myself with the films nominated for Best Picture by the Academy Awards. Withing the first ten minutes of the film, however, I was completely drawn in to the film's fascinating story and mesmerized by its unique camera work. The camera is employed to provide a first-person perspective of a man who has suffered a completely debilitating stroke, and this perspective is achieved with such skill that I am still wondering how some of the camera shots were taken. The story itself is moving, but the real triumph here is one of cinematography and direction. A truly unique work of art.