January 2004 Archives

Most every one of the Amazon Listmania lists I've ever seen has been boring and useless except for this one I found today: "Anti-Zombie Survival Gear" by Max Brooks.

I think I'd add three things to it though: some sort of super padded outfit, a good pair of plastic googles, and a speedy car with great gas mileage (hello 28 Days!). Then again, what do I know? Brooks is, after all, the author of The Zombie Survival Guide : Complete Protection from the Living Dead.

Speaking of zombies, Resident Evil: Apocalypse's current release date is September 10. Can't come soon enough for me because I'm dying to see it and trying to remain spoiler-free, but those of you who are spoiler-friendly should check out its ComingSoon.net page. Milla Jovovich + weapons + scary things = my kind of action horror movie.

Best. Gift. Ever.

It's my birthday and I'll post dogs if I want to, post dogs if I want to, post dogs if I want to... Apologies for the Lesley Gore earworm though.

Jaguar magically disappeared the first six months of 2003 from my iPhoto library this afternoon. Apple said, look for the directory. I did, nothing. Then I searched for a filename that should've been in the directory, in case it changed names. Nothing. And no, it's not in Trash.

Fortunately I have many, many photos from those months online. Unfortunately I've lost everything I didn't put up there including many photos of Jarvis, which is what really breaks my heart.

The irony^* is that I was planning to back up all my photos to cds tonight. I was copying the folders to another location, only I moved 2003 by mistake and when I realized that I pressed cancel. And then POOF! Not only was 2003 not in the folder I was moving it to, it wasn't in the iPhoto Library anymore either.

I'm sure this would be less traumatic for me if I'd ever lost any of my data before, only I haven't ever in the near decade that I've owned and been responsible for my own computer. There's always a first time for everything, and there's always a first time to feel horrible about something.

Yes, I'm going to buy an external FireWire drive tomorrow and back ALL my files up. Yes, I have learned from my mistakes. And no, I am generally not so opportunistic but surely, given the circumstances, I can be forgiven for pointing out that my birthday is this coming Sunday and there are many affordable items on my Amazon wishlist guaranteed to help bring a smile back to my face and make me want to start taking pictures again?

^* For extra credit irony, consider that I was moved to start backing my photos up after reading Rannie's piece on the importance of backing up your digital files, which he begins by talking about—you guessed it—the time he himself lost a few months worth of digital photos. *sigh*

From fleetwoodmac.com:

We can confirm that the street date for the reissues of Rumours, Fleetwood Mac & Tusk is 3/23/04. Each historic album digitally remastered and expanded with rarities. Deluxe packages feature restored LP art, previously unseen archival photos, extensive new liner notes and complete lyrics.

1975’ FLEETWOOD MAC, the realigned band’s #1 debut album, is a quintuple-platinum smash! Original track listing now expanded with bonus single versions of the hits “”Say You Love Me,” “Rhiannon,” “Over My Head,” and “Blue Letter.”

19-time platinum in the U.S. alone, RUMOURS is the sixth-biggest-selling album of all time, with sales upward of 30 million worldwide. 1977’s Grammy® winner for Album Of The Year, it spent 31 weeks at #1 and delivered four Top 10 hits. Specially packaged reissue now an expanded 2-CD edition with 18 unreleased tracks!

1979’s experimental double-platinum TUSK, newly restored to its original 2-CD format, is now inside a specially redesigned package and includes 21 unreleased tracks! Bonus tracks include a wealth of rare demos and alternative takes plus the restored, unedited, full LP version of the Stevie Nicks classic “Sara.”

So basically even if I wasn't going to SXSW Interactive in March, I'd still be broke.

Stevie Nicks has said in recent interviews that she didn't think remastering was a big deal until they asked her to go in and have a listen, and she cried because they sounded exactly like what the tracks had sounded like to the band in the studio instead of what the rest of us got to listen to because of the limitations of vinyl. The unreleased tracks and archival photos are a nice touch, they should get people who maybe wouldn't be interested in buying things they sort of already own into the stores, but I'd be happy to buy the cds anyway. I'm just looking forward to hearing my favorite tracks now that they've been remastered, especially Lindsey Buckingham's songs from Tusk.

If you've heard about Dogster, the social network for dogs, and have wondered, "Is my pal Jarvis on there?" The answer is yes, yes he is.

[ via Caterina.net ]

No one I know is a fan of hers besides Ernie so the probability that any of you are going to care about this is really low, but Utada Hikaru's US website is finally up! Apparently Island Def Jam is going to be launching her as Utada—not just not reversing the order of her names, but dropping her first name altogether.

Me, I don't care what they call her, I can't wait till her new album comes out.

Isagani Cruz on Fernando Poe, Jr's citizenship:

It is suggested that Poe's father was already married to another woman in 1936 before he contracted another marriage with Bessie Kelly in 1939. Absent proof of the antecedent marriage in 1936, the second marriage in 1939 should be presumed legitimate. The results of the bigamy complaint allegedly filed by the first wife should clarify this matter and determine FPJ's filial status.

If the second marriage was valid, then FPJ, as a legitimate child, would follow his father's citizenship. This must be established by incontrovertible evidence like his sire's birth certificate or baptismal records. Military service, recognitions of valor, and even exercise of the right to vote can be claimed even by non-citizens and are not conclusive proof of citizenship.

If it is shown that FPJ's father was a Spaniard, then the son must also be Spaniard. But if the second marriage was bigamous and therefore invalid, then FPJ would be illegitimate and should follow his mother's, not his father's, citizenship. As Kelly is concededly an American, FPJ should therefore also be considered American like his mother.

Documents taken from the National Archive microfilm point to FPJ not being a natural-born citizen of the Philippines and therefore ineligible to run for president. I can't say I'm not happy about this since I was appalled by his decision to join politics (and dismayed by all the people supporting him, but that's a whole other rant right there).

All that said, I think I like Gerry Kaimo's take on it best: Actually, I do not see what the entire brouhaha is about FPJ's US passport. The guy is just making sure that in case he wins, he can immediately move to the USA and migrate, as 19% of Filipinos are wont to do in the event of a Poe victory.

pesty: wah wah wah wah-wah wah. wah wah-wah wah wah-wah.
lia: that was exactly how we (kathryn, brad and myself) reacted when david and grant barrett were talking about xml specs last night over dessert.
david: In defense of Grant Barrett & I, while we were talking about XML, Brad, Lia, and Kathryn were making Princess Leia jokes.
pesty: Because talking about a movie that everybody's seen is way geekier than talking about XML.
david: princess leia jokes are very dorky.
lia: as i said at the time, get back to me when xml looks hottt in a metal bikini. dork.
jonah: Actually, XML can look hot in a metal bikini right now! I've written an assortment of parsers and XSL Transforms to take an ordinary standards-compliant XML document and convert it to XCFML (eXtensible Carrie Fisher Markup Language). One could then add on the MSW (Metallic SwimWear) namespace and use a custom DTD or the premade DADSADF (Dungeons And Dragons Standard Attribute Description Framework) to describe her comeliness!
lia: you know i'm gonna have to blog this, right?

From Martin Luther King's 1964 Nobel Lecture:

I am not unmindful of the fact that violence often brings about momentary results. Nations have frequently won their independence in battle. But in spite of temporary victories, violence never brings permanent peace. It solves no social problem: it merely creates new and more complicated ones. Violence is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding: it seeks to annihilate rather than convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends up defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers.

Excellent posts on both Body and Soul and Negro Please explaining how the state of the U.S.A. today is a great disservice to Dr King's legacy. As Patrick W. Gavin says in his piece in the C.S. Monitor, More than ever this year, we ought to rediscover the life of Martin Luther King Jr. in its entirety - both the easy and the challenging parts. We may find that, once again, the man has a great deal to teach us.

I first saw the fabulous Wau Wau Sisters in December when they opened for Kiki & Herb at Bowery Ballroom and loved them so much I resolved to take all my friends to see them sometime in the near future.

Well, the near future turned out to be last Wednesday when they headlined at Knitting Factory. Alaina, David and Adriana were my posse, and good fun was had by all. Highlights of the evening (apart from the gorgeous Tanya and Adrienne, of course) were crazy accordion man Corn Mo's cover of Queen's "We Are The Champions" and Neal Medlyn's striptease. Not only is he the Paris Hilton of performance art, but his milkshake is better than yours. Also his legs would put any supermodel to shame.

My photos of the Wau Waus: see their Knitting Factory show or as Kiki & Herb's opening act.

Since I've just come back from a hiatus, I think it's time to point an accusatory finger at a few sites I love that really should start updating again. In alphabetical order:

1. calamondin.com was one of my very first favorite blogs and Judith's still one of my great inspirations—she makes me want to read more books and always make art. I swear I would, if she would just update more than twice or thrice every month.

2. Eclogues has been silent since November 2003 and you can bet your life that I blame Canada. I'm sure their higher education is benefiting from Juliet's blog hiatus but who cares? Give me my Eclogues back.

3. If you haven't been reading weblogs since the very beginning in 1999, you probably don't know the pleasures of metascene, especially since it hasn't been updated since October 2003. Where art thou, o MetaFred? Come back to us, your adoring public.

4. I first stumbled onto Moonmilk in 1995 while searching for information on kinder eggs. Moonmilk's been around even longer than Justin Hall's links.net and doesn't get the props that it should for that. I'm not sure why exactly but I bet the fact that Ranjit posts less and less every year has something to do with it. Ten cents says he updates Moonmilk less than twice a month until it turns eleven at the end of the year.

update: Aha, first post of the year! Extra points for including a shot with Jarvis in it. One down, four to go.

5. Where is solipsistic.org? First it moved to another domain and then it moved back, and now it's just a blank page. Bring it back!

Page 30 of Get Your War On is now up for your reading pleasure.

If the dead tree edition isn't available in your local bookstore, Amazon has it for less than ten bucks. It makes a great gift and the proceeds go towards landmine relief in Afghanistan.

Friend Johnny Thirteen says I should get these boots that look like Jarvis:

I'd be tempted, if I didn't know that they would get FILTHY and SOGGY in New York slush. Maybe if I lived somewhere very cold and very dry... and had no fashion sense.

Margaret Cho judged MoveOn.org's Bush in 30 Seconds contest and did some stand up at the recent awards night. Matt Drudge picked out two minutes of her twenty minute set and posted them, Free Republic picked that up, and then Drudge readers and Freepers started sending Cho tons and tons of nasty emails.

I'm not sure what I like more, the fact that some of those people have emailed apologies in an effort to get their email addresses removed from the site, as if we are supposed to believe that they aren't ignorant racist homophobic misogynistic scumbags, just people who were, uh, just really angry (Especially the one who said "I am a Christian and it was so wrong of me to say those mean things.—cause you know, Christ would be totally okay with you thinking someone should "take their slant-eyed ass back to the orient", just as long as you don't actually say it. Whatever.) or Margaret Cho's responses to them, especially the latest one which includes this:

We have not been impressed by the insults. They haven't been mean enough, because they don't make sense. They are all about how I don't belong in this country, how I am ugly and fat, how my eyes and pussy is slanted, how all us gays and lesbians gonna burn in hell. It is kind of repetitive. Boring. I see that being crucified in the eyes of the right wing don't mean shit. It don't hurt at all. No thorn in my side, just boring in my side. It is funny. What I love is that the people that have love for me are showing it right now. I feel bathed in love, like Paula Abdul in that video where she was in a tropical waterfall. Love is coming down on my little life like manna from heaven, and God is telling me, "See? You tha bomb gurl!" SO many mails saying "thank you" and "bless you" and "I love you" and "You are Beautiful" and "you are me".. People saying "thank you for letting me be myself again," for representing, for being me, telling my story, being my voice, because mine ain't loud enough. That is what I hear. I can't hear the hate anymore, because the love has drowned it out. Love is the big booming beat which covers up the noise of hate. Thank you. I need you. I love you. All y'all.

The neat thing is that on the day she started getting all that hate mail, I went out in my Cho Revolution shirt to see The Wau Wau Sisters again, an act crazy conservatives would go apoplectic over but Margaret Cho would probably adore. Freedom and love, no two things are sweeter.

New York is cold cold cold but it's always easier to brave the weather because I know how happy Jarvis is going to be at the run.

He's in there, I promise. Just so you know where to start looking, his nose is near my thumb.

In other news: the cheesedip.com holiday hiatus is over, regular posting resumes tomorrow. Nothing to make a blogger feel quite as loved as when people keep emailing and im'ing to ask why she hasn't been updating (except maybe when people buy stuff on her wishlist, hint hint).