Barbotian Ocean 2.0

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Thu Jun 25

Farrah was never really my favorite Angel - I went for Kate Jackson, who was much more of a nerd. But she certainly looked good on a skateboard.

Farrah Fawcett made skateboarding a girl’s sport. Here’s how to respect that, in NYC this weekend.

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Sun Jun 21

Father’s Day 2009: Nothing of interest comes to mind, so TV Pics it is: Thom Yorke, the agony and the ecstasy of being Radiohead. I’m sorry to report that in this shot, he looks unfortunately a little like - alright, a LOT like - Clay Aiken. Will that enhance or diminish his street cred with teenyboppers (who, in the case of Mr. Aiken, are most likely pushing 60)? Time will tell, Thom, time will tell.

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Tue Jun 16

I haven’t even watched or listened to it yet, but it’s gotta be good, I love these nutjobs.

White Denim - ‘I Start To Run’ (via FullTimeHobbyRecords)

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Fri Jun 12

Media conservatives claim Holocaust museum shooter a "leftist" | Media Matters for America

I think what disturbs me most about this piece (rather, the Glenn Beck program discussed in this piece) is not the simple-minded assertion that somehow James von Brunn is a “leftist,” but that the media continues to insist on the absolutely false dichotomy of a binary world in which one can only take political action from a position of either the left or the right.

The truth and America’s political reality are far weirder. If you investigate some of von Brunn’s writings, and try to develop some reasonable assertions from the rantings of an apparently unreasonable man, you will find that, for example, he feels an affinity for the “libertarianism” espoused by noted kook, John “The Birdman” Bryant (see the links page from his now-defunct “Holy Western Empire” web site here; one would assume he’s linking to Bryant’s site because he sees something he likes there), and that according to the Arsenal of Hypocrisy, von Brunn also believes that “the JEWS” control the Catholic Church). Neither of these positions aligns in any way, shape, or form with a neat categorization of von Brunn’s philosophy as either liberal or conservative. And don’t let the “libertarian” tag fool you - check out The Birdman’s site and you will see that his variety of Libertarianism ain’t no Ron Paul.

If we are to believe the evidence gleaned from his web site and anecdotal quotes provided by those who knew him from his hometown in Easton, MD, James von Brunn acted from a place of sociopathy, not one of deeply held, neatly classified political philosophy. He is not a leftist. He may be a neo-Nazi, but that likewise doesn’t cleanly and neatly make him a rightist. The sum total of his writings can only lead one to believe one thing: he’s a nut.

If only the pundits on either side of the conversation would wrap their heads around a world that is far more gray area - in all its rich, beautiful, puzzling, confounding, and sometimes frightening shades - we could stop this ludicrous and positively damaging desire to color the world with two colors of crayon and recognize it as the far more nuanced, interesting, terrifyingly complex place that it really is.

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Tue Jun 9

“ Peace means bankruptcy for us. Arms dealers revel in Somali war business | International | Reuters

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Thu Jun 4

TV on the Internet ... or, Something Like That

In my time spent home sick over the past two days, I installed Opera for Wii and started exploring the brave new(ish) world of web/tv convergence. We knew it as “WebTV” back in the nineties, when what at that time seemed like a great idea soon petered out into a ball of Microsoftian nothingness now known as “MSN.TV” (always a good marketing ploy to tag your technology product with MSN!). Set-top boxes seemed like an extra piece of unnecessary hardware in the household, hampered by an idiosyncratic browser, extremely limited bandwidth for delivery of rich content, lack of robust plug-in support, etc. Besides, who wants a keyboard stuck between the sofa cushions?

But yesterday as I installed and began using Opera on my Wii console (been available for ages, just took me a while to get around to it) I caught a glimmer of the future in a whiff of nostalgia for the days of WebTV. Here I was, on my sofa, looking at a specially designed interface (in this case, for YouTube XL), waving my WiiMote at the screen to clumsily navigate and even more clumsily “type” URLs and search strings into a specially designed browser. Huh. They - along with Hulu and their new “Hulu Desktop” app (curiously designed primarily for computer use instead of set-top-box deployment) - call it a “lean-back viewing experience.” Note: “lean-back,” not “laid-back.” They have a ways to go yet on that particular usability front.

The point of this little tale is more a question: are we happy to see the Web, for which we have long clamored for the the standardization of interface design conventions and technology, turning back into something that requires a different design for every device on which it is viewed (we’re already doing it for iPhone and non-iPhone mobile, why not keep rolling)? Will the ubiquity of Internet-connected gaming consoles - not to mention Slingbox, Roku, and Tivo units, Internet-connected TV sets, et al - create a new opening for the Big Screen (formerly known as the Small Screen) to overtake, or at least match, the computer screen as a viable, common means of accessing content (particularly video, for which these devices were, duh, made)?

Are we going to start seeing more of Lewis in the loft, testing our sites on the Wii and the Playstation3?

It’s clear that the Forces of Internetocracy (Google, anyway, assuming they at least blessed YouTube’s decision) have decided to throw their design money behind the idea. And when Google says “jump” … Well, you can guess what’s coming next.

I’m not saying this is necessarily a bad thing. We’re in the communications business, and as communicators, designing interfaces to bring our content to more people in different ways is generally good for business. But our clients may beg to differ, as they watch costs for developing a comprehensive Internet-based communications strategy creep ever northward as we design and build them sites for PC, mobile, and now, TV. Not to mention special interfaces designed for MySpace, FaceBook, Twitter, and whatever next month’s flavor happens to be.

FWIW, any text smaller than 14 point was blurry on my 46” TV. YouTube videos looked like they were all shot on a Mattel PixelVision camera. And Flash: forget about it, at least on Wii. Back to the future, at least for now.

Article: YouTube Loses a Little ‘You,’ Adds Some ‘Tube’

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Wed Jun 3

“ Little by little it all goes to hell. Ain’t that the truth, and yet, ultimately, the redemptive qualities of rock (and life) shine their meager light through the darkness of adversity, while Curt’s guitar gently weeps. Cris Kirkwood, from Meat Puppets (SXSW Session): Little By Little It All Goes To Hell recorded May 11, 2009

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Tue Jun 2

Sonic Youth is streaming their entire new album, The Eternal, via ilike.com (and probably some other sources as well). The album, clad in the rags of another generation, is properly “released” in a week’s time (June 9), but the old-fashioned definition of a “release date” hardly means a thing anymore. But the confluence of two releases is what has me going: two collections by two very influential bands in my sphere, coming out years after I had frankly ceased paying attention to either of them. A fair-weather fan of sorts, I’ll admit, but sticking with a band for more than 10 years or 8 records has always been a tough prospect for me. AC/DC … Rush … Rolling Stones … all played an enormously potent role in my early musical formation, but I admit that I abandoned each of them as they and I aged, writing them off as no longer relevant as I moved from passionate, nerdy grade-schooler to angst-ridden, wish-I-was-cool-and-Rush-is-not-cool-like-the-Clash teen.

Likewise, in my thirties, I left Dinosaur, Jr. and SY behind … for a time. The clamor of Indie rock moving into the main stream, for better or worse, opened up a universe of great music that in years past was hard to find and as a result, unsustainable for the artists in question. The blitz of great new bands in the post-SY era (remember, 1991: The Year Punk Broke was about SY, not Nirvana) made SY seem dated, formulaic, predictable. The love affair was over.

I’m pleased to report that what I have heard from both records (both, perhaps not coincidentally, recorded with volume and panache by John Agnello) re-uncovers what first captured my imagination about both bands back in ‘85-‘86. More guitars. Better song-writing. Lou Barlow.

Here’s Mote, featuring J Mascis with backing vox on one of Lee Ranaldo’s best-ever compositions.

Mote by Sonic Youth

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Thu May 21

Complete with an assassination-attempt-by-airborne-Reagan scene!

Miss D. Boon. That was one pissed-off big man. And Hurley always gets points for hair.

Minutemen “This Ain’t No Picnic” (via BVMHardcorePunkTV)

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Mon May 18

Never let it be said that Gyorgi Ligeti is not a composer of substance and terror.

TV pics: Dave in in the stargate.

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