'Best of TBH Politoons'
Baron Dave Romm
Blogs: Part 1
By Baron Dave Romm
A while ago, I wrote about Blogs as the new Underground Newspapers, created by the same failure of the mainstream media to cover the real stories. That describes political blogs, but they are only one use of the technology. Here are some further notes and Quick Thoughts. This is Part I of an essay that will eventually cover political blogs and anything else I feel deserves exploration. Comments and suggestions are encouraged.
"Blog" is a concatenation of "Weblog". That is, a series of entries made on the web, entered on a regular basis, allowing for comments. Some blogs are updated several times a day. Some are far less regular. Some comments threads are worth reading, some are not. The blogosphere is comprised of all the blogs of varying types and intentions. It is useful to look at some of the main sub-categories of blogs, so you know what you're getting into.
Kids talking to kids Blogs as phone calls, gossiping, idle chit-chat and bonding
Not too long ago, it was reported that the self-made blog site myspace.com was bigger than yahoo.com. Geeks (notably Yahoo employees) rushed to correct the statement. Apples and oranges, is the claim. Fine and dandy. Still, 30% market penetration is pretty good for the net. I've visited MySpace (far more than Yahoo), mostly when someone links to a photo from my site, stealing bandwidth. To a very great extent, MySpace is more boring than reading someone else's chatroom posts, with more content but less personal interest than hearing about a D&D adventure. It's a bunch of kids talking to each other, sounding very much like a bunch of kids. Saying something -- being part of the conversation, part of the group -- is more important than witty repartee. The blogs reflect the personality of the blogger: Pictures, music, color, typeface, layout. Kids experimenting. Most of it is hard on the eyes of a geezer like me. That's the point, or at least part of the appeal. Much blogging is devoted to complaints about life, authority and their so-called friends.
MySpace isn't the only blog hosting site on the net. There are dozens, if not hundreds, many in foreign tongues, some with millions of users.
Young people wanting to talk to each other out of earshot of adults is not new.
An example of kids dissing authority using informal style is from circa 1230CE: Carmina Burana containing armina moralia et satirica (Moral/Satirical songs). "The pieces are mostly in Latin - though not in Classical Latin meter - with a few in a dialect of Middle High German, and some snatches of Old French. Many simply are macaronic, a mixture of Latin and German or French vernacular of the time. They were written by students and clergy about 1230, the Latin idiom was the lingua franca across Italy and western European for traveling scholars, universities and theologians. Most of the poems and songs appear to be the work of Goliards, clergy (mostly students) who lampooned and satirized the Church." Oh, those kids, ain't got no respect.
In science fiction fandom, apas and personalzines were common. SF fandom, at least sf fanzine fandom, can be traced to 1927 when Hugo Gernbach published the addressed of letter writers in his sf pulp magazine Amazing. Self-published fan magazines and Amateur Press Associations are not original with fandom, and we were fond of borrowing structures and techniques from other sources and adapting them to our own purposes. Perhaps fandom's only true invention is the Mailing Comment. In an apa, two contributors made comments on the previous mailing of the apa. Some have said that this too was borrowed; even if so, we certainly developed the technique to a high culture. Mailing comments took over many a fannish apa. The blogs of today have same dynamic of comment/response/response/response with branching, offshoots, counter-threads, flame-wars, posers and lasting friendships made. The vocabulary of blogs was developed in sf fandom, from ASCII graphics to the use of abbreviations to pictures to suggested musical accompaniment to usernames and so on. My LiveJournal blog feels very much like my first apas from 1974, but without the smell of ditto fluid.
Flash forward to the mid-1980s. Computers. The early days of the internet, with e-mails and Usenet and so on, were largely confined to businesses, governments and universities. To be sure, many university students used the net for personal communications, many of which were sarcastic or little more than gossip. The net wasn't a toy for the masses. Meanwhile, though, dungeons and Dragons led to an explosion of Role Playing Games, and subsequent RPG computer games and eventually on-line gaming. One of the D&D-style online games was Citadel. Basically, you went from room to room defeating the bad guys and picked up whatever experience and treasure was left over. Citadels had an interesting feature: You could leave messages on the walls for later adventurers to read. Pretty soon, the messages took over and the game became Citadel BBS software. Much of the terminology remained: Rooms, floors, messages, etc. Unlike the internet, one person at a time could call in (though there were exceptions) and it was a telephone call, using a modem, directly to a PC/Apple II, not a connection to the net. Around here, it attracted kids in their early teens (if not earlier) far more than the adults. I still have friends from that era, and we reminisce about those times. And we're glad we grew up. Still, BBSes (not just Citadels) felt very much like blogs: The BBS reflected the personality of the owner, the messages were preserved for anyone to read and continue the conversation (unlike chatrooms), and most of the conversation was pretty inconsequential but it was still fun to talk with your friends.
BBSes, Usenet, FidoNet, Guestbooks, Message boards, e-mail lists, etc etc. Computers, the internet, the World Wide Web, Instant Messaging. All ways for people to talk amongst themselves. Some of the easier to use than others; some simply more convenient.
Now we have blogs. The only new aspect is the technology involved. In this case, blogs are replacing and/or supplementing the phone. Anything that gets kids talking (and practicing useful skills like typing and reading) is basically a good thing. More power to 'em, I say.
The trick to dealing with kids is to take them seriously and teach by example. Don't talk down to them, but don't sink to their level. Too many blogs -- especially the right-wing political blogs -- are little more than scatological playground taunts thinly disguised as commentary; insults taken as journalistic proof. Too many right-wingers simply never grew up. Their parents never taught them manners. Sad.
In High School, then and still now, kids keep diaries, write notes to friends, make dramatic yearbook entries that seem foolish at the time but spark memories. Most blogs continue this tradition. Blogs, however, have several major differences that kids should keep in mind.
First, is that everyone can read what you write. If you thought you were embarrassed when the teacher caught you passing notes in class and read it out loud, imagine how much worse it is when everyone you know can read it. They probably won't, but they might. And they could. One of the strengths of blogs is just how easy it is to connect to many, many people from all over the world. One of the weaknesses is that you have no (or very little) control over who reads it.
Second, it will be around forever.
Third, there's a lot more of it. Chances are pretty good that the average kid will write a lot of entries. Sort of like a the continuous phone conversations of years past, but in print, forever, for everyone to see.
Again, I think this is mostly a good thing. The technology is out there, and I like the idea of youngsters cutting their technological teeth on communication that forces them to master techniques we boomers didn't have to deal with until much later in life.
Still, there are dangers. F. Scott Fitzgerald said, "There are no second acts in American lives." He was referring to the standard three act structure of plays, where the first act sets up the characters and situations, the second act shows how they interact and change, and the third act is the resolution. By saying there's no second act, he meant that there isn't room to grow, and that your youth is expected to blossom directly into adulthood without allowing for changes in direction. In America, past is prologue and we are expected to take over from our parents, or at least establish our life's work fairly early. Since people do grow and change as they get older, it's only the expectations that have no second act.
To paraphrase Fitzgerald: People are bad readers. They don't understand that a post from last August (much less a post from a decade ago) was not written by the same person as today. Words are written in stone, people are not.
What will become of the dentists/CEOs/presidents of the near future when you can read all about first loves or rude remarks about movie stars or drug use? You can go the George W. Bush route and refuse to talk about it, claim you were Born Again and that What Happened Before Doesn't Matter Now. We can see how well that worked politically, but also how big a lie it turned out to be. Bush has ruined politics for Born Agains (though I don't think they've realized it). You can try to dismiss it, claiming Youthful Indiscretions. That might work, depending on what you're doing and who wants to throw mud at you. You might try Moral Outrage, saying you were wrong then but fixed the problems and you have no right to judge now from what happened then. Might work, but won't if there's a crack in your story, ala Bill Clinton.
Basically, society is much more transparent, and we're going to have to learn to live with it. Today, what you say as a kid -- if you say it online -- assumes greater import than a note from the principal.
What are your favorite blogs? Personal, political, gardening? Let me know!
Baron Dave Romm is a conceptual artist and a noble of Ladonia who produces Shockwave Radio Theater, writes in a Live Journal demi-blog, plays with a very weird CD collection and an ever growing list of political links. Dave Romm reviews things at random for obscure web sites. You can read all his music recommendations from Bartcop-E. Podcasts being reworked. Recent radio programs can be accessed on the Shockwave Radio audio page.
Thanks to everyone who has sent me music to play on the air.
--////
Filling In For Jay Marvin TODAY
Erin Hart
Join Erin Hart as she fills in for Jay Marvin on Monday July 24th from 6am to 10am (MDT) .[5am - 9am PDT] on
AM 760 in Denver, internet listeners can tune in
on Progressive AM 760.
The Middle East is in crisis. Secretary of State Condeleeza Rice will
finally be in transit--will she be able to do ANYTHING? She meets with
Israeli and Palestinian leaders and then head to Rome.
Why has the U.S. Government waited so long?
Hezbollah continues to fire missiles; Israel is poised to invade to protect
its borders and people. Lebanon is spiraling into humanitarian disaster.
Iraq and Afghanistan are also in trouble.
We need to talk. And talk we will to Cassandra Nelson of Mercy Corps who is
in Lebanon delivering food and water; and with Rabbi Daniel Weiner of Faith
Forward who just returned from Israel with his family.
We will review the news with Ed Schultz on the Monday Take at 8; and most
importantly talk about what this means to all of us around the world.
Bravo to you for demonstrating against GW on his fundraising visit to CO;
bravo to Congresswoman Diana DeGette who will give the Democratic response
on Saturday to Bush's devastating veto of the stem cell bill she helped
sponsor.
Can we please have our country and and our world back from the hands of
those fanatics who would drag us back to the Dark Ages???? NO MORE.
Please check out
erinhartshow.com
and Bartcop.com's Entertainment page
for
more details.
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Charles Barkley: John Mellencamp's right, "Conservative means discriminatory"
"The Democrats have done a horrible job," [Charles] Barkley said. "A really crappy job. They spend all this time and energy getting on George Bush. They're going after a guy who's on the way out in two years no matter what they say anyways. He can't run again. He can't get fired. Why are you worrying about him? Democrats have wasted the last two years going after this guy and two years from another election, we don't have a frontrunner or a plan." Hearing Barkley saying "we" with the Democrats would be surprise to many. For years, the NBA Hall of Famer was a very public card carrying member of the Republican party. "I was a Republican until they lost their minds," Barkley said.
Karman Kregloe: Maxine Lapiduss: From Roseanne and Ellen to Variety With a Twist (afterellen.com)
"All this gay-bashing started happening, and I was hearing these butt-f***ing jokes, endlessly, for days and days and days. Finally I just said, 'Guys, I have something to tell you. Could we ease up on the butt-f***ing jokes, cause I'm a big queer too.' So once that was out, it was great. It relieved all the tension."
Christie Keith: Paris and Nicole's "Simple" Lesbian Wedding (afterellen.com)
"It's surprising how many people are not okay with the lesbian marriage thing. Get it together America, they are doing nothing to you! They're just raising two sexy bitch daughters in addition to being happy with one another." --Nicole Richie (The Simple Life: 'Til Death Do Us Part)
Peter Galvin: David Johansen: Still a Doll (Advocate.com)
The New York Dolls-a cross-dressing rock band who were glam and punk before punk even existed-are back, led once again by David Johansen. Music, he still believes, should be "campy and sexy and fun."
Sarah Sorensen: Ember Swift: Making A Deep Connection (afterellen.com)
It's amazing what a little digging turns up. For Ember Swift, digging is a necessary process that is integral to uncovering truths that are "too-often buried". It was this sort of thinking that helped out queer activist and artist Swift create her ninth album, The Dirty Pulse, which hit stores in April earlier this year.
Stephanie Sellars: Sex IN THE Workplace (nypress.com)
In 1971, my mom was one of two secretaries working for 13 men at Citibank on Park Avenue. Peter noticed the pretty, innocently charming 19-year-old blonde answering the phones, but he was too shy to ask her out. One day he gave her a memo to type with the question "Would you have lunch with me?" at the bottom of the page. My mom typed the memo and gave him the finished letter. He said to her, "You know, you need to retype this, because the question at the bottom was meant for you." She blushed, answered the question, and Mr. Sellars took his secretary out to lunch.
Lydia Marcus: Director François Ozon Doesn't Shy Away From His Dark Side-Or His Gay One (afterelton.com)
Sexuality, gender, relationships, and crime have found a home to flourish in the dark, cinematic world of French filmmaker François Ozon.
Robert Urban: Queer Duck: The Movie is Sooooo Gay! (afterelton.com)
"Queer Duck! He's intellectual! Queer Duck! He's homosexual!"
Tully Satre: Confirmed as a solitary Christian (Advocate.com)
Our high school diarist recalls his unceremonious ejection from his church just as he was ready for confirmation-excommunication without ritual. It shook his faith in the church, but not in God.
FAQ: Christians and the End of the World (beliefnet.com)
Q: Are Christians who believe in the End Times "rooting" for chaos and violence in the Middle East because they usher in the last days?
A: No. Most Christians who believe the last days are imminent would see increased wars and violence as inevitable but regrettable signs of the end of the world. Because of their end-times beliefs, some evangelical Christians strongly support Israel and Israel's right to defend itself. For these Christians, losing the Jewish homeland would be a step back in terms of Christ's return.
Circus Smirkus (circussmirkus.org)
America Needs A Babe In The White House
Avery Ant
Hubert's Poetry Corner
MISTER RICKY AND HIS ELECTRIC SHAFT
DO YOU SMELL THAT UNIQUE PUNGENT ODOR BLOWING IN ON THAT HOT, DRY STIFLING TEXAS WIND?
YEP, IT'S THAT INFAMOUS TIME ALRIGHT!
Concert Report
The Dixie Chicks at Joe Louis Arena
This was one of my highlight events of the summer. Despite the bullshit media reporting, that venue was better than 90 percent full. My guess was about 12,000 out of a capacity of 14,000. For the first stop where the band didn't get much radio support, I think it was an impressive turnout. And I thought it ironic that the country radio that ignored the group had their little displays set up outside. I guess having a number one album despite lack of same-genre airplay might have made those stations think twice about not having a display out side the show.
It was, as the Free Press critic noted, an interesting mix of typical country fans, anti-Bush people, and just regular folks out for a good show. And there is not one person, IMHO, that walked out of that arena disappointed.
The surprising part in the beginning was the warm-up act, a woman by the name of Anna Nalick. She had a beautiful voice, and had a pretty tight, hard-nose band behind her.
In case some of you did not know, "that song," as I call it (Not Ready to Make Nice) has struck me very personally. It's not just the reason they wrote it---a position I fully support-but it also struck a chord as to things I have experienced in the four years since that tragedy on I-69, which I will not go over again. I have written to people in the past when they wrote something that touches me in such a way, and I will probably get up the courage one day and write the Chicks. As someone who has dabbled in songwriting, I can tell you that this piece of music speaks volumes…to me anyway.
They did a very fair blend of old and new stuff, and as expected, the musicians in the core group, as well as the backup band, were totally top drawer, This is not my favorite venue to see a concert from the standpoint of acoustics, but it wasn't bad. I would have much rather them do the show at The Palace or DTE, but you cannot have everything.
I wasn't as energized as I was after sitting second row for say, Roxy Music or Emerson, Lake & Palmer, but the feeling I had as I left Joe Louis Arena was pretty darn close.
- Maddog
Thanks, Maddog!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Still hot & humid - had a thunder & lightning show this morning, but no rain.
KABC's young female reporterettes-in-the-field are all dressed like Ann Coulter.
Yes, I realize it's hot - OTOH, there's nothing like slutware to emphasize your commitment to presenting an accurate report.
So, has anybody else seen the Hummer commercial with the tagline "Restore Your Manhood"?
Guess that offically makes it the vehicle of flaccid, poorly endowed men who don't mind the world knowing their shortcomings.
No new flags.
$225,000 A Bottle
Tequila Ley .925
Forget about the kind of tequila you slam down on the bar or knock back at parties in throat-burning shots with salt and lemon. If you're paying six figures, you might prefer to savor it in small sips.
An impossibly upmarket brand of tequila -- 100 percent blue Agave lovingly aged for six years and sold in a limited edition platinum bottle with fancy artwork on the label -- went on sale in Mexico on Thursday night for $225,000 a bottle.
Tequila Ley .925 has produced 66 bottles of the "Pasion Azteca" tequila, half of them pure platinum bottles and half of them gold and platinum-decorated bottles that sell for the slightly less extravagant price of $150,000.
For those on a smaller budget, there are 999 bottles of the same tequila in silver and gold bottles priced at $25,000.
Tequila Ley .925
Watch Your Back
Faux News
If someone at Fox News Channel wishes you well, watch your back. The seemingly benign sentiment is a creative signature of Fox's public relations, usually accompanied by a kneecapping. It's something like a kiss from a Mafia don.
MSNBC host Keith Olbermann was the latest to visit the wishing well. When The New York Times recently asked Fox its opinion of Olbermann, who has repeatedly used Bill O'Reilly as a pinata on his nightly news countdown, spokeswoman Irena Briganti replied:
"Because of his personal demons, Keith has imploded everywhere he's worked. From lashing out at co-workers to personally attacking Bill O'Reilly and all things Fox, it's obvious Keith is a train wreck waiting to happen. And like all train wrecks, people might tune in out of morbid curiosity, but they eventually tune out, as evidenced by Keith's recent ratings decline. In the meantime, we hope he enjoys his paranoid view from the bottom of the ratings ladder and wish him well on his inevitable trip to oblivion."
Plainly, public relations is a contact sport at Fox News Channel.
Faux News
Kin Plan Bio-Pic
Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee's family plans to produce a film on the late martial arts star, the first such movie it has actively supervised, the Chinese company making the motion picture said Sunday.
The film, which will be made by the Lee family and the Beijing Jian Yongjia film company, will be based on an upcoming biography of the late actor by Lee's brother, Lee Chun-fai, Beijing Jian Yongjia said in a statement.
"Bruce Lee died young, but stories about him haven't stopped surfacing for 30 years. A lot of them were rumors fed by rumors and exaggerated. Bruce Lee's family didn't make its opinions known because they understood people's passion about Bruce Lee," the statement said.
Bruce Lee
Wins Hemingway Contest
Chris Storm
Singing a takeoff of Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues" helped a Texas commercial property developer win an Ernest Hemingway look-alike contest during a festival honoring the author that ended Sunday.
Sporting a khaki hunting outfit, white beard and bushy eyebrows, Chris Storm, 55, hit Cash-like low notes as he sang a plea for contest judges' votes during the highlight of the six-day Hemingway Days festival.
The competition drew 130 other bearded entrants who paraded across the stage at Sloppy Joe's Bar, the author's favorite watering hole.
Chris Storm
Dog Dinner Bribe
Karma
A Chinese headmaster, who tried to buy off colleagues by cooking dog meat for them after secretly selling off trees around the school, ended up setting fire to classrooms when the meal burst into flames, a Chinese newspaper said Friday.
Ten classrooms containing televisions, computers, printers and textbooks burned down, leaving nearly 100 children unable to go to school, the Beijing Youth Daily said.
The headmaster, in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang, sold off a 1,000-tree arboretum surrounding the school on the sly, the newspaper said.
The plan went awry when the dog being cooked burst into flames and set fire to the school's main office and then the classrooms.
Karma
Europe Loves His Singing Talents
David Hasselhoff
David Hasselhoff's superstar status as a singer in Europe hasn't carried over to America but he says "if it happens, it happens." "I'm a big punching bag," he told the Television Critics Association's summer meeting Friday. "I just kind of go with the flow. I never really desperately tried to break this market."
Hasselhoff said his new single "Jump in My Car" is headed toward the top 10 on the British charts.
Hasselhoff is still recovering after severing a tendon in his right arm last month in an accident in London. He was shaving when he hit his head on a lamp and it broke.
David Hasselhoff
Sells Sensitive Surplus
Pentagon
Undercover U.S. government investigators purchased sensitive surplus military equipment such as launcher mounts for shoulder-fired missiles and guided-missile radar test sets from a Defence Department contractor.
Much of the equipment could be useful to terrorists, said a report by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress.
Thousands of items that should have been destroyed were sold to the public, the report said. Much of the equipment was sold for pennies on the dollar.
Pentagon
1,500-Year-Old Byzantine Port Discovered
'Port of Theodosius'
It seems a typical scene of urban decay: abandoned buildings, crumbling walls, trash and broken wine bottles.
Yet it's more than 1,500 years old. Engineers uncovered these ruins of an ancient Byzantine port during drilling for a huge underground rail tunnel.
Like Romans, Athenians and residents of other great historic cities, the people of Istanbul can hardly put a shovel in the ground without digging up something important.
But the ancient port uncovered last November in the Yenikapi neighborhood is of a different scale: It has grown into the largest archaeological dig in Istanbul's history, and the port's extent is only now being revealed.
Archaeologists call it the "Port of Theodosius," after the emperor of Rome and Byzantium who died in A.D. 395. They expect to gain insights into ancient commercial life in the city, once called Constantinople, that was the capital of the eastern Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman empires.
'Port of Theodosius'
She Said Yes
Marriage Proposal
A plane chartered to help a man propose to his girlfriend crashed, injuring the couple and the pilot, authorities said.
Relatives holding a sheet with "Erica, will you marry me?" painted on it watched from the ground as the Cessna 127 circled low over the airport, stalled and then crashed Friday evening.
The couple, Adam Sutton and Erica Brussee, and the pilot were taken to a hospital with injuries that did not appear to be life threatening, authorities said.
As Brussee was loaded into the ambulance, she said: " 'Tell Adam I said yes,' " said Joshua Willis, Sutton's cousin.
Marriage Proposal
Cat Loves Gloves
Willy
A pink-and-white gardening glove was missing Thursday morning from Jeannine Goche's front porch. But there was absolutely no mystery about who had taken it. Willy, the cat who loves gloves, had struck again.
As if the gardeners of Pelham don't have enough to worry about, with the rocky soil and the slugs and the big trees casting too much shade, a feline felon has been sneaking into their back yards and carrying off gardening gloves.
Goche's flower-patterned number may soon take its place on the clothesline that's strung across the front fence at Willy's home, which he shares with Jennifer and Dan Pifer, their 19-month-old son Hudson and a mutt named Peanut Chew.
Above the line is a sign that says, in words and pictures, "Our cat is a glove snatcher. Please take these if yours."
Willy
Thanks, Marianne!
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