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Saturday, March 15th, 2008
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9:04 pm - Relic
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I was cleaning out my closet and came upon this old tie I've had since the '80s. I was gonna throw it my "thrift store donation" pile when I noticed the tag on the back.
Kaufmann's was a department store chain, and a Pittsburgh institution, until it was swallowed by Macy's in 2006. So as a 'burgh homeboy, I guess now I have to keep this ugly tie forever.
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(3 comments | comment on this)
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| Tuesday, March 11th, 2008
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3:56 am - Banksy's back in town
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So Arlette and I are driving back from the Ed Harcourt show, and we're passing a gas station and I'm low on gas. As I pull up to the pump my arm shoots out as though with a will of its own and I find myself pointing at a BRAND NEW BANKSY on the gas station wall. "Is that... is that...???" I stammer. "Banksy!" shouts Arlette.
And sure enough it is. And there's another one on the other side of the station, partially hidden behind the car wash canopy.
According to the attendant, two men pulled up in a car one morning and asked the station manager if it would be okay to paint some murals on his establishment. The manager said, "Sure."
The attendant was very happy to see Arlette and me running around taking pictures. I think he digs the Banksys.
More pix here.
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(6 comments | comment on this)
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| Friday, March 7th, 2008
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2:41 pm - The Worst Thing In The World
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| Thursday, December 20th, 2007
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9:34 am - Happy Birthday, Billy Bragg.
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The bard of Barking turns 50 today.
I shall celebrate by printing, here, one of his recent lyrics. Not my favorite-ever of his songs, but appropriate for a guy who has railed passionately against the injustices of the world for over 20 years, and can still crack a smile about it all.
SOME DAYS I SEE THE POINT
Never saw a meaningful tv advert, I don’t think shopping is a metaphor for life
Don’t waste my time at the gym in the morning, try to keep trim by living my life
Wanna feel the wind blowing in my hair,
Wanna hear the waves crashing on the beach
I’m not seeking easy answers or inner peace
I’m just looking for some release
I want to help to make the world better but I can’t do it all on my own
Try to keep the lid on my disappointment ‘cos cynicism’s such a cop out I know
Watch the shadows of clouds moving on the hill
Open my eyes and drink my fill
On those days that I feel dejected
I come up here for a bit of perspective
Gonna follow the path that climbs up through the trees
Walk along the cliff top and gaze out to sea
I feel free when I come up here
And if it's clear
some days I see the point
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(3 comments | comment on this)
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| Sunday, December 2nd, 2007
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4:18 pm - BREAKING NEWS: Kremlin company buys LJ -- seriously
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Breaking on the AP wire:
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Blogging pioneers Six Apart, LiveJournal to break apart
By MICHAEL LIEDTKE
AP Business Writer
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Blogging pioneer Six Apart is breaking
apart from LiveJournal, another trailblazer that helped bring
online journals to the masses.
The nearly three-year marriage is dissolving with Six Apart's
sale of LiveJournal to Russia-based SUP, a deal expected to be
announced Monday. The financial terms aren't being disclosed.
SUP, which has already been running LiveJournal in Russia as part of
a licensing agreement, plans to set up a new company in San
Francisco to steer LiveJournal's global growth.
"We are very much a 'rest-of-the-world' company," said Andrew
Paulson, SUP's chief executive. "We believe there are high growth
opportunities outside North America."
Since SUP took over LiveJournal's licensing rights in Russia,
the number of registered accounts in that country has nearly
doubled to 1.35 million. About 523,000 Russian accounts are
considered to be active bloggers, representing nearly a third of
LiveJournal's roughly 1.7 million active users.
About nine Six Apart employees who worked on LiveJournal will
move to the newly formed company. Six Apart will be left with about
150 workers worldwide.
Despite LiveJournal's robust growth in Russia during the past
year, the United States remains its largest market.
But LiveJournal has been facing a stiffer challenge in the
United States as more of its core audience - teens and adults in
their early 20s - flocked to hugely popular Internet hangouts like
Facebook and News Corp.'s MySpace to express themselves.
More Web surfers are poring through the content on social
networks, curtailing the growth of LiveJournal's U.S. audience. In
October, LiveJournal attracted 3.9 million U.S. visitors compared
with 72 million for MySpace and 32.9 million for Facebook,
according to the latest data from comScore Media Metrix. Paulson
maintains Media Metrix underestimates LiveJournal's audience.
The rapid rise of social networking prompted Six Apart to
introduce its own twist on the genre last year with Vox.com, which
also includes blogging tools.
Six Apart's main businesses consist of its primary blogging
service, TypePad, and a popular software package called Movable
Type. Both of those products helped turn blogging from a once
quirky concept to a common communications tool.
LiveJournal established one of the first blogging communities
shortly after its then 19-year-old founder, Brad Fitzpatrick, set
up the site in 1999, about three years before the husband-and-wife
team of Ben and Mena Trott launched Six Apart. The Trotts were born
six days apart, inspiring the name of their company.
Fitzpatrick continued to work on LiveJournal until leaving Six
Apart earlier this year to work for Internet search leader Google
Inc. Paulson said he hopes to bring Fitzpatrick back into the fold
as part of LiveJournal's advisory journal under the new ownership.
Selling LiveJournal will enable privately held Six Apart to
concentrate on its strengths, said Chris Alden, Six Apart's chief
executive. "We have very ambitious and aggressive plans for
TypePad, Movable Type and Vox. We have to focus on the areas where
we really want to be great."
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
--
Hm! Well, that explains this.
current mood:  surprised
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| Tuesday, November 13th, 2007
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9:00 am - Weetabix...
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... is the best thing in the world.
What? You don't know what Weetabix is? Here is a picture, then:
I know, it looks kind of like shredded wheat crossed with dried cow patty. But here are some reasons to venture forth into a hearty bowlful:
1.) The name: "Weetabix." It's the double "e"s that make it the best. Why, it practically begins with the word "whee!"
2.) You can choose what texture you want your Weetabix to be. Pour your milk of choice on top of the Weeta-biscuits and it will soak right in -- then you can mash it up into oatmeal-esque porridge, or spoon off soggy chunks. Pour said milkstuff around the biscuits, however, and note how only the edges get damp, while the interior portion remains crispy! This is sensational.
3.) Fortified with vitamins!
4.) Organic!
5.) According to their website, each serving of Weetabix contains 537 kilojoules of energy. I think that's enough to punch through a wall!
6.) Also from the website: "Crammed with all the natural goodness of wholegrain, you can almost taste the long hot summers and gentle spring rain in every bite, resulting in the softest, plumpest grain imaginable." Doesn't that just make you want to fuck?
7.) It's made in the UK and is in fact the best-selling cereal in England, so Jarvis Cocker probably eats it.
8.) The yellow box also gives it a vaguely IKEA-esque Swedish flair that brightens up your breakfast nook and makes you feel cosmopolitan.
9.) Weetabix had a "wheat art" contest, and here is the winner, by a Yorkshire UK farmer who calls it "Naughty Puppy."
10.) Weetabix actually kind of doesn't taste like anything. It is the tabula rasa of cereals. A blank chalkboard upon which to scrawl your own individual gastronomic logarithm. An empty journal yearning only to be filled with one's florid personal poetry of milks, fruits and sugars. Whee!
current mood:  chipper
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| Friday, November 9th, 2007
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10:37 am - Fuck you, Conan.
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Hm, it's been a long time. Sorry.
Anyways, so this morning I'm driving to work listening to one of the local public stations, and Governor Arnold Schwarnzenegger's on. After the requisite few seconds where I say to myself, "Jesus Christ, I live in a world where Arnold Schwarnzenegger runs my state," I realize he's talking about the Writer's Guild strike that's hobbling L.A. right now. I'm in the Guild (albeit as an "Emeritus" member, meaning I haven't worked a Guild-covered job for so many years that I've lost my voting rights, but I'm still bound by strike rules should a studio miraculously come a-callin' for my services), so I'm interested to hear what the Governator has to say. And I hear him say this (I'm paraphrasing):
"The producers won't be hurt by this strike, the writers won't be hurt by this strike. They've got money. The people who'll be hurt are the electricians, the drivers, all those people who depend on Hollywood for a living."
And that's when I start yelling "fuck you" in my car.
Writers, as a whole, have money? Fuck you, Conan! A huge chunk of Guild members couldn't find a writing job last year. Most writers of any stripe barely work. In Hollywood, when they do work, yes, they generally get well paid. The reason is the folks who get work are getting the very very few jobs that exist. A screenwriter might get paid 200 grand for a screenplay if he/she's exceedingly lucky, sure. And then there's a good chance he/she will never get another film made again. TV writers can and do go months or years between high-paying gigs.
Also, big-budget films and network TV pay well, but low-budget film, cable, animation? Even in the rare instances those shows allow themselves to be covered under Writer's Guild contracts, the pay can be paltry. At one point, I was working on a Guild-covered MTV show. 14-hour days, 7 days a week. Salary: $700/week before taxes. To put this in perspective: the lowest-ranking worker on a film set, a Production Assitant, generally gets around $500/week. I make more money in my current job, working for a public non-profit, than I ever made in a year as a writer. I also have something now that no writer ever has: job security.
This idea that the Guild is a "Gucci Union" of the wealthy is absurd. And to compare the wealth of writers with that of the studio producers the Guild has struck is downright idiocy.
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| Thursday, July 19th, 2007
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8:32 am - The end is nigh.
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In honor of the publication, tomorrow, of the final Harry Potter book, I bring you this trip down One_11's-Live-Journal Memory Lane.
From June, 2003...
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As you have no doubt heard by now, last night thieves in Britain absconded with a trailer containing 7,680 copies of "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," the new J.K. Rowling opus which isn't officially available until this Friday.
An awesome quote from a New York Times article about the heist:
"The truckload of books had an estimated retail value $220,000 -- but advance copies would have a much higher street value."
"Street value!" Like heroin!
Picture the scene. A SHIVERING CHILD approaches a SHADY GUY in an alleyway:
SHIVERING CHILD
Hey mister... I need a fix real bad... You got some Potter?
SHADY GUY
Do I got some Potter? I got some serious "Order of the Phoenix" shit right here, my man.
SHIVERING CHILD
(drooling at the thought)
Ph... Ph... Phoenix? What's the tag?
SHADY GUY
For valued customers like your bad self? Fitty dollars.
SHIVERING CHILD
Fifty?! But that's three months of paper route money!
SHADY GUY
Perhaps you didn't hear me correctly, bitch. This ain't no punk-ass photocopy abridged bullshit. This baby's uncut and opened zero times. Most motherfuckers ain't even gonna see this motherfucker until motherfucking Friday -- you think I'm in the mood to bargain with your ten-year-old ass?
SHIVERING CHILD
(counting out fifty dollars in singles and change)
Okay, okay, be cool. Here's the money.
SHADY GUY
(grabbing the cash, handing over the book)
A'ight, now get outta here before your Mama catches you out late on schoolnight. And don't do it all at once -- that sucker's 768 pages. Shit'll fuck you up.
current mood:  nostalgic
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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| Wednesday, May 16th, 2007
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10:50 pm - Misdirected anger
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Why the FUCK has this lame yuppie bullshit video been sitting on the NYTimes digital Opinion page (scroll down to "Op-Ed Specials") for almost five fucking months?
Seriously, nothing has ever been so prominently and perpetually placed on that site as this video. How many people per day must still be watching it to merit that placement? And how many of those people, like me, watched it only after months had passed, figuring, shit, if its been there for so long, it must be something truly marvelous! Only to discover it is, in fact, horseshit?
Seriously, it's horseshit! You wanna know what's in the video? Read the title! "Calvin trillin Gets Parked." That's the whole video! Calvin Trillin sits in a car that parks itself. Every now and then he lets loose with some old-person quip -- one of them during a conversation with...get this... a young black man! Haha! What a true flavor-of-New-York this video delivers! A rich old white writer sits in a Lexus and then quips with a negro!
Fuck! I just vomited!
Seriously, I can understand why this video might've been made. It's exactly the sort of inoffensive "literate" drollery that often passes for humor in magazines like the New Yorker and papers like the Times. And as a newsman, I can also imagine the editorial meeting that led to the video's creation:
"Okay, everyone; pitches for today?"
"Well, Lexis has unveiled the first self-parking car."
"Enh... the tech magazines and local nightly news'll be all over it."
"Hey, wait... I think Calvin Trillin wrote a novel about parking!"
"Hey, why don't we get him to test the car!"
"Hey, that's a 'creative' way to cover the story!"
"Hey, and we like to encourage 'creativity!'"
"Hey, and it's also 'smart!'"
"Correct! Calvin Trillin writes for the New Yorker, so anything in which he appears is by definition 'smart,' no matter how lame it is!"
"Hey, and let's make it a web video!"
"You mean 'multi-media?'"
"Yes!"
"Awesome! Because 'multi-media web elements' are always desirable even if they suck!"
Really, it makes total sense. But what is NON-sensical is how this video could be so popular that the Times can afford to leave it on the Opinion page for the web equivalent of centuries, when they could be selling ad space there to, like, Houghton Mifflin or something. Seriously, do that many people give a fuck about Trillin? Are that many people dazzled by the self-parking car at this point? Is the combination of Trillin + car truly so tantalizing as to draw in viewers by the billions?
I'm gonna lose sleep over this. Wait, it's 11pm? I already have.
current mood:  infuriated
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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| Monday, February 5th, 2007
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12:16 pm - Oscar Cliffs Notes.
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OK, so I've been using my WGA card to full advatage and scoping as many Oscar-nominated films as possible over the last few weeks -- for free! And thank God they were free, because lemme tell you, overall I'm far less impressed than I thought I would be. I can't remember an Oscar season when so many movies got such great buzz AS "SERIOUS films" and had such obvious flaws. Sure they're more or less entertaining, but is this the best film can do? Really?
Nevertheless, as we approach my annual Oscar gathering, I thought I'd sum up and get a conversation going. Maybe I'm just being a curmudgeon and you can all set me to rights.
( DREAMGIRLS )
( CHILDREN OF MEN )
( NOTES ON A SCANDAL )
( LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE )
( THE DEPARTED )
More later, I gotta work.
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| Wednesday, January 10th, 2007
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1:54 pm - Yoi and double yoi.
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| Monday, January 8th, 2007
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12:00 pm
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Today is my birthday, and here is what I just bought myself on eBay:
It's a first edition hardback copy of Ray Bradbury's 1962 short story anthology "R is For Rocket."
This is the exact edition of the book I read in, oh, I'd say 1980. My Dad brought it home from the library, along with Bradbury's "The Martian Chronicles." I had never heard of Bradbury and I'm really not sure what inspired Dad to pick these particular books up... but I devoured "Chronicles" immediately in one intense, life-changing afternoon. "Rocket" I read on a road trip to my Aunt and Uncle's house a day later. I could actually feel those two books change my brain chemistry -- they had the biggest impact on me and my life of any artwork ever, with the possible exception of "Star Wars" and maaaaybe The Beatles' "Abbey Road."
This copy originally belonged to a library. It's got a library check-out card in it and dewey-decimal spine stickers on the dust jacket. That makes it almost valueless to collectors. For me that makes it perfect.
current mood: nostalgic
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(26 comments | comment on this)
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| Friday, November 10th, 2006
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3:36 pm - Believer.
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William Safire, in yesterday's NYTimes, came out of hiding to write a pick-me-up column for conservatives. Among other things, he he talked about "the limited scope" of the Democrats' win on Tuesday. He also reminded readers that the Dems had only picked up about the average number of seats you'd expect for an opposition party in year six of a two-term presidency.
Safire's old, so I'll forgive him for completely missing why, in the new era of politics Bush et al ushered in circa 2000, the stats don't reflect the true scope of the Dems' victory.
See, for we Democrats and independents, the exact number of seats gained is less important than the fact that Democrats were allowed to win at all. We've been living, since '00, in a country where, on some level, we truly believed that corruption, fraud, cronyism and gerrymandering had made it virtually impossible for non-Republicans to ever again have any control of our national government. I know I felt that way. And I had good reason. Remember that time when George W. Bush lost the election, but then his Supreme Court buddies bent their own state-ist rules to hand him the presidency? Remember last time 'round, when Texans -- with the almost certainly illegal help of Tom DeLay -- bent their own state's rules to redistrict 7 democrats out of Congress? Remember how, as of just a few months ago, pundits all over TV and print told us that the GOP had so much money, and had so successfully redrawn the district maps, that it was going to take an act of God for Democrats to take back the Senate, despite the overwhelming anti-Republican sentiment sweeping the country?
That the Dems could overcome such massive obstacles shows that their win was far greater than Safire and his numbers suggest. But this election didn't just put Dems back into power. For a significant chunk of the country, it restored faith that our deomocracy still works. The Times ran an interesting blurb the other day, showing Americans have far less faith in the accuracy of vote counts than do their counterparts in other Democracies around the world. Only 60-some percent of us actually believe our votes are even fucking counted. I bet if that poll were taken today, those numbers would be significantly better. I know this American's response has changed.
current mood:  hopeful
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(10 comments | comment on this)
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| Thursday, November 2nd, 2006
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8:16 pm - Description least likely to get me to attend theater:
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| Thursday, October 12th, 2006
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3:46 am
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I don't wanna write here right now. I want to do some fiction writing I've been meaning to do forever. But I've decided to do said fiction writing here at the Nova Express, and at the table across from me something interesting is unfolding. When I got here there was a lone girl alone at a table. Now several more folks have arrived. They're all apprently here for some kind of Hollywood meeting -- the plain-looking T-shirted guy congratulated another ponytailed guy on his "music video," which was, apparently, "very funny." More interesting, though, is the blonde girl who arrived and spoke sympathetically to the girl who got here first. "When you meet Ryan, be cool," she says. "Your first instinct will be to tell him to go to hell, but he doesn't react well to that. I've had a talk with him about how he can be really rough with people when he first meets them. He can be mean. He's been calling me 'dumbass' all day. You sit here -- I know he'll want to sit by you and talk to you..."
Who is Ryan? Why are these people all in his thrall? Why are they willing to put up with him? Is he some kind of star, or a big director? Why then, would he hold a meeting at Nova Express? It's no good for talking 'cause there's kinda loud music here most of the time, and anyway it's not exactly Spago. And who is the girl, and why is she the guest of honor? I can't hear their conversation now. It's driving me crazy. I wish I had a spycorder, and I don't even know what a spycorder is. I will post here shortly if Ryan turns out to be, like, Ryan Seacrest or something.
-- TWO MINUTES LATER --
Ryan... or is it "Brian?" Why don't they turn down the fucking music?... has arrived. I don't recognize the face. He's wearing a dapper enough greyish suit and tie, and the de riguer Hollywood-exec almost-shaved head. the blonde is obviously his handler, she keeps watching him with concern. They move near me and I hear him say, jocularly, that he wants a martini. He darts out the door (they don't serve martinis here, but they do across the street). She watches him go, worriedly. A minute later he's back, martiniless, and looking almost comically, little-boy sad. Now he's taken a seat across from the guest-of-honor-girl, who is putting on her best cute face. Almost flirty. And totally fake.
You know what would be awesome? If I had some sort of fantastic telephoto camera phone so I could surreptitiously take (B)ryan's picture, and post it here so you guys could ID him. But my guess is he's just another mid-level development executive prick, and man, watching this scene go down makes me glad I'm not playing that game no more...
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(7 comments | comment on this)
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| Friday, September 8th, 2006
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8:19 am - Banksy...
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| Thursday, August 24th, 2006
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9:33 am - Dear scientists: fuck YOU.
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This is fuckin' bullshit.
Pluto is so a planet! Is so, is so!
Here's why, you stupid dumb scientist fucks:
1.) Because there is a Walt Disney character named after it. He's not named after the Roman God of the underworld, bitches; he's a fuckin' cheery-assed dog, for Christ's sake. He's named after the PLANET PLUTO. So does he have to change his name now? Are you gonna tell millions of children to scratch out Pluto's name from their Pluto lunchboxes and replace it with... with what exactly? Fuckin' nothing?
2.) NASA launched a probe at Pluto that's gonna get there soon. What did we spend however many billions of bucks on that shit for, if Pluto's not even a fucking planet? So we could take X-rays of a chunk of fucking ice? Don't you fucking tell me that shit, assholes!
3.) Earth is rapidly approaching total environmental meltdown, and you motherfuckers are sitting around ejecting planets from the solar system. That shit is millions of light years away, goddammit! How about we clean up our brown air first?!
4.) Hm... what's the first planet to ever get evicted? Oh, the dark one. You fuckin' racists.
5.) Hey, fuckers, did you ever hear of something called a metaphor? Well, hello, Pluto's a big beautiful fucking metaphor. It's the mysterious dark cold netherworld. It's the gateway to oblivion. It's fucking death, morons! Now then; you wanna explain to the world's storytellers that you just decided to eliminate death from the celestial poem? Go ahead -- they'll tell you to go fuck yourselves in the heart.
And P.S. I want Ceres, Charon and Xena back, too, bastards. I was just getting used to their company and after just a couple of days you yank them. I want them back, and then I want you to get back to doing what you do best: finding us more planets. More, more , more!!!
Now get outta here before I kick your geek asses from here to PLUTO.
current mood: infuriated
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(26 comments | comment on this)
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| Tuesday, August 22nd, 2006
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10:53 pm - What a bargain! That is a bargain for me. I think I will download some.
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Attention all tweesters who somehow haven't already been hepped to this:
There's a wonderful FREE tribute compilation of various bands covering Belle & Sebastian, for FREE download here.
I'm rarely one for tribute comps, but there's some gorgeous work here, including an impossibly lovely redux of "Get Me Away From Here, I'm Dying" sung in Italian, and a sweet ukelele-and-violin take on "I'm A Cuckoo."
Download the .rar file and get a .jpeg of cover art and .pdfs of the front and back covers, for if you wanna decorate a burned CD. Someone out there was feeling VERY generous to lavish this on the world for the low low price of FREE. Thanks, someone!
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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| Wednesday, August 16th, 2006
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8:44 am - Today there are more planets...
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...which is the best thing in the world (or rather beyond it), because that means there are more of them to visit one day.
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to our solar system Ceres, Charon and Xena: Warrior Princess.
current mood:  excited
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(9 comments | comment on this)
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| Friday, August 11th, 2006
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12:02 pm - This photo...
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...is the best thing in the world.
Here are the reasons for the phto's bestestness:
1.) Look at that smile! But not for too long if you value your heart, because it's sure to melt.
2.) Look at the toad! It's not smiling at all. It's just being a toad, and doesn't have any idea how awesome that is.
3.) Doesn't it look like it was a nice day that day?
4.) Okay, now look at the smile one more time. Now feel your face. Look, you're smiling too! It's like magic.
I have never met this person, nor do I know who she is, but I sure am glad someone with a camera handed her that toad.
current mood:  happy
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(13 comments | comment on this)
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one_11's journal
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