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November 05
November 29, 2005
Regular readers will remember our interview in April with lo-fi pop savant Daniel Johnston, and are almost certainly at least slightly familiar with his life and story. I thought I’d interrupt our regularly scheduled sexy pictures to let you guys know that he’s in the hospital for what appears to be lithium poisoning. His website has the scoop.
I must say, the article’s disclosure of Daniel’s diabetes-cheating habits and lithium intake strike me as kind of unnecessary and oddly Orwellian. Especially in light of paragraphs like:
Maintaining safe and effective levels is a weary routine, but manageable, Daniel’s father tells us. “But what can you do when he refuses to be concerned about the effects [of his eating compulsions or changes in eating habits]?” he explains.
Seems kind of cranky. The article doesn’t itself have a byline, which probably means it’s an inside job. I do hope that Daniel’s OK, but at the same time, if his parents wanted to make a press release to wish him well, they might have made a little less bitchy. And if the press release is meant to punish him or something, then, well, dude. He’s not well.
Posted by: Brian Arnot in Uncategorized | Permalink Comments
November 29, 2005
Ahh, yeah, I look like Paul Wall. I hope Noel’s sissy ass don’t come back soon.
Posted by: Brian Arnot in Uncategorized | Permalink 3 Comments
November 29, 2005
Oh sweet Jesus, yes! Noel’s out of state. This means me and Whore split blog duties, a situation with about a 150% chance of Somalianesque warlordry and about 3,000,000% chance of sexy pictures of ourselves.
Sexy pictures starting, of course, as soon as I’m not at Panera Bread.
Posted by: Brian Arnot in Uncategorized | Permalink Comments
November 29, 2005
This blurryish pic of the sunrise this morning from my plane doesn’t quite capture how completely fucking beautiful it was (white blob = toenail of moon). It looked like a sideways rainbow.
Goodbye.
Posted by: darksandal in Uncategorized | Permalink Comments
November 28, 2005
HERE is Frank Rich’s excellent Sunday column republished over at truthout.org, a non-profit site that seems to reprint most NYT op-eds.
By the way, fuck NYT for Times Select.
Posted by: darksandal in Uncategorized | Permalink Comments
November 27, 2005
What happens when you take a gang of 25 punks, sceneagers and freaks to Wal-Mart for a dance party on the busiest shopping weekend of the year?
You’ll have to bear with some of the sideways camera angles during the soul train (if anyone wants to volunteer to edit it, please email me) and the long Spinal Tap entrance, but it’s well worth getting to the end to hear the lady’s comments as the Redneck Security Tour tried desperately to shut the music off (which took them a good minute before the finally found which boom box the music was coming from).
This particular dance party was our third, last and best of the day.
Here’s our first, shortlived Dance Part at the Wal-Mart on 8th Street to the tune of “Safety Dance”:
And here’s our Dance Part at Target to the tune of Junior Senior’s “Move Your Feet”:
I have to say I’m amazed that we didn’t get arrested or at least patted down by security. We did get escorted out after our last attempt by the sides of security beef, but they didn’t do anything more than tell Brian to turn off his camera. (They later found us in the parking lot and asked to see the pics and seemed sort of amused, but I wasn’t sure they weren’t going to confiscate our cameras so we split). My video card was full by this point, but here’s one of Brian’s pics of their not funny diarrhea club:
What we learned:
We weren’t terribly organized on our first attempt. One of our friends brought an ipod w/ an iRok transmitter and a forward guard had tuned all the boom boxes to the same transmitter station. In the mean time, there was a gang of at least 25 punks, sceneagers and freaks hanging around the electronics section trying to figure out how to not look suspicious. Once all the boom boxes got tuned and we got “Safety Dance” going. they just came and shut off the power to the entire section.
Lesson 1: Don’t malinger beforehand unless you wear white trash disguises. There’s something not-so-terribly-believable about a large gathering of disheveled sceneagers and anarchists in black with mohawks, nose rings and tats on a group shopping trip in the Wal-Mart music section.
We had better luck at Target on our second stop. Amazingly, they didn’t have a section where you could listen to the boom boxes, so everyone pretty much just scattered around the electronics section, making the employees nervous. Finally, Big Balls just plugged a boom box in and wired the speakers. Unfortunately, the kid with the iPod didn’t make it, so we just put a CD in and turned it up. The party lasted longer at Target — about 2 minutes — before a lackey came and shut it down.
Lesson 2: Amazingly, even when you do have a large gathering of anarchists in black with mohawks, nose rings and tats on a group shopping trip at a big box store, it’ll probably just confuse the shit out of the staff. Also, Even if you have an iPod and an iRok, be sure to burn a CD of dance music you don’t mind losing when you get kicked out.
On our last attempt, we sent Brian in ahead by himself w/ a CD that he loaded into one of the larger boom boxes while we all waited out in the parking lot. He called from his cell phone when he was ready and we all filed in (note the Spinal Tap entrance on the VIDEO). This was, by far, the best technique. The employees in the electronics department didn’t have time to get ready for us and the party lasted for almost 3 minutes. And when they came to shut the boom box off, they couldn’t figure out which one it was.
Lesson 3: Sending someone ahead was the best method by far. Even if security sees your entourage entering en masse, they won’t really know what to do and you’re not doing anything illegal, yet. They also won’t know where you’re going, even if they suspect you’re there to steal or do something obnoxious. If your style is out of step with big box couture, it’s also likely that security will be afraid of appearing to profile you, and you can use that to your advantage. Getting apprehended by security while doing something innocuous is also a great to find out who the undercovers are just in case you need to do some shopping later.
In conclusion, I highly reccomend Wal-Mart/Target/Big Box dance parties to any and all.
Thanks to everyone who showed up and danced!
Here are some more pics by Brian:
Posted by: darksandal in Uncategorized | Permalink 99 Comments
November 26, 2005
Is this for real?
(via SLOG)
Posted by: darksandal in Uncategorized | Permalink 5 Comments
November 26, 2005
I fucking love John Powers. If you’ve heard him on NPR’s Fresh Air, it’s true: His voice is eerily similar to “Where’s My Stapler?” man from Office Space. But don’t hold that against him as he’s hands down one of the funniest political writers on the left these days. If you haven’t read his book Sore Winners, do so now.
Anyway, here he is ripping The NY Times overrated Thomas Friedman (not to be confused with NYT’s overrated Maureen Dowd or John Tierney, of Bob Herbert).
Powers on Friedman:
The right’s political jockeying finds an echo in the bad-faith fiesta thrown by liberal hawks who must deal with the fact that they promoted an invasion that’s turned out badly. None has been more egregious than smug, gee-whizish New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, who always seems like the sort of high school history teacher who couldn’t finish his doctorate but wows 16-year-olds by calling Brazil “amazon.country.” Although he served as the war’s most prominent liberal fig leaf, he’s still trying to have it both ways, taking credit for his visionary ideals in supporting democracy and a remade Middle East, then faulting other people for their incompetence in executing the master plan. What did he think he’d get from George Bush and Dick Cheney? They didn’t exactly turn Afghanistan into the Switzerland of Central Asia (with opiates instead of chocolates); in fact, they mocked the idea of nation-building during the 2000 campaign, and, in the run-up to war, kept claiming that the whole Iraq operation would be a piece of cake.
Read the rest of Powers piece here.
Posted by: johndicker in Uncategorized | Permalink 3 Comments
November 25, 2005
The Toilet Paper is hosting a dance party at Wal-Mart in Colorado Springs on 8th Street at 3 p.m. on Saturday, November 26 in the technology section. Please help us get as many people out for the dance prank as possible. Just show up between 2:30 and 2:45 p.m., work your way to the tech section and wait for the jams. We’ll have video cameras and such and will dance till they shut us down.
Posted by: darksandal in Uncategorized | Permalink 2 Comments
November 25, 2005
I’m not one who’s ahead of the technology curve, but it seems to me that while many people are “aware” of podcasts, few actually listen to them. And of the minority that does, few are savvy about the Podcastosphere. Including me.
And by savvy, I mean possessed of a general knowledge about what’s out there and what’s worth listening to.
Anyway, it’s hard to remain savvy about something that’s blowing up so quick. Like the Internets itself, the podcastosphere can be overwhelming. What’s good, what’s crap? That’s what I’m trying to find out.
The best source of podcast recommendations I’ve seen is a biweekly Podcast Roundup column in Slate. My only criticism is that it doesn’t include enough podcasts in each column. But maybe that’s cause there’s not enough worth mentioning. Who knows?
I apologize if this is redundant or simply too obvious, but to me the coolest thing about podcasts is that you don’t have to waste time sifting through the archives of various radio shows. Instead, the shows automatically download into your computer. What’s more, the better ones come with text on what that show is about. If it’s a guest driven show like, say, Fresh Air (which does not yet offer a podcast dognabit) you’ll get a bit of text about who the guests are.
At any rate, I’m going to drop my recommendations down below. Make of them what you will, and if you’re a fellow podcast dork, please post your recommendations below. Thanks.
Left, Right and Center: excellent political chat show out of LA’s NPR affiliate KCRW. It’s kinda more like, left, left, center and right, but who cares? Show airs on Fridays, podcast is usually available same afternoon.
Bookworm: Another good one out of KCRW. Excellent author interviews and highfalutin literary discourse. Dude gets great guests: Rushdie, Joyce Carol Oates, Jane Smiley, etc..
The Leonard Lopate Show: Great arts/politics show out of New York’s WNYC. Lopate’s a great interviewer because he’s a committed generalist, doesn’t upstage his guests, asks tough questions without any sort of macho posturing. Because it’s New York, he gets some amazing guests.
The Brian Lehrer Show: Another great talk show out of New York. Tends to lean more political, often times it’s intensely local focus makes it less interesting but he also scores some excellent guests.
Open Source Radio:: Boston Brahmin Chris Lydon’s hour-long gabgest is usually, but not always, political. What I love about Open Source is that it keeps s the conversation fresh by bringing in numerous guests during the hour, rather than just going back and forth with one. They also do a great job plucking folks from the blogospher e for solid analysis. It leans left, but our rightie friends will find their views represented fairly on most issues.
On The Media: Yet another great show out of WNYC. General media analysis and coverage. They smoked Judy Miller’s ass a few episodes ago. Broadcasts on Friday, podcast available same day.
RadioNation: From the eponymous organ of Upper Manhattan leftism, this show can be great or dull, depending on the guests . The host is Marc Cooper, whose blog I highly recommend. His radio voice would have you imagining he’s the world’s biggest pencil necked dweeb, but everyone knows that honor goes to Noel Black. (Hi Noel!) Miller’s a good host and knows enough to mix it up and not just have on the usual suspects as far as guests go. If you can find it in the archives, he did a great show with George Carlin awhile back. Only beef with this cast is that it doesn’t download with a text description. I know, boo hoo.
Obviously, my interests skew towards politics, literature and hardcore bestiality. And I mean hardcore, none of this petting zoo shit. Again, please post any good podcasts in the comments, especially anything from Colorado. Oh, and Noel wants Plushies /NASCAR Podcasts.
Posted by: johndicker in Uncategorized | Permalink Comments
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