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Showing posts from October, 2008

MAC

Jetpack Dreams Trailer from Mac Montandon on Vimeo . ...thing is what trips me out is that is this a guy who described me as "Jim—a poet or whatever..." once in a piece he got published in Modern Spectator , and I dig that. thing is.

O.K. I L-O-V-E love Facebook

Here's some guy I went to high school with who just "friended" me...how the FFF was I ever supposed to find this guy, or have him find me like ever in any other "world model"? Never. He'd've never showed up for the reunion. (Like I would have?!...) He'd've gone off-my-radar...even tho he plays a part or two in sleep-time dramas when my personal 90210 comes on in the midnight hour. Christian Barry - Teaches philosophy in the School of Humanities and is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at the Australian National University. - He also produces Public Ethics Radio, an online audio broadcast with ethicists discussing timely and important practical dilemmas. - Christian has served as a consultant and contributing author to three of the United Nations Development Programme's Human Development Reports. - He was editor of Ethics & International Affairs, and directed the Carnegie Council's progra

RSS

From Terry Heaton's PoMo Blog Report author Julie Katz goes on to make three recommendations to address the ignorance: 1. Advertise syndication as “easy information.” 2. Create RSS tutorials. 3. Collect and share customer testimonials. RSS feed images from the website inquisitr.comFor information-seekers, RSS is a life-changing experience, and let me give you an example of exactly what this report is talking about. My 27-year old future son-in-law is a manager at a GameStop store. He’s an XBOX360 guy and an expert at “Call of Duty.” He wants to make retail gaming his future and is in with a very good company. Thinking that staying informed about the online gaming industry would benefit his career, I asked him a few days ago if he’d ever heard of RSS. He hadn’t, but that’s no surprise, so I walked him through setting up a feed reader and loading it with news feeds from his industry. He faithfully uses it now, and I hear him quoting things he’s read from the feeds. He admit

Rushkoff

I make the case that Judaism was really intended as a form of media literacy. Out with the heiroglyphs (literally, “priestly writing”) and in with the aleph bet. Judaism asks, “what would a world of literate people look and act like?” Of course, over time, being a literate person got replaced with being a literal person.

Halloween in Berkeley

Oh Bondage Up Yours!

...if you don't know the title, it's the name of the Xray Spex song that helped kick off the whole punk rock movement in the 70s, so this interview's gotta have a point to it, right? I mean wasn't the whole scene a play on BDSM culture? From Vice magazine: an interview with Nayland Blake , none of which really touches on the mysterious and mercurial nature of his art, that's VERY focused on his fetishes... but I only just learned at the last interview that being a big, gay man with a BDSM and role playing fascination is a significant part of the singular and insightful nature of his works that are beyond categorization. Below's a clip from the interview (the portrait's by Richard Kern ): VICE : A lot of art films that included graphic sex had no other outlet but those places. I guess it’s a function of just being in New York City, but it doesn’t surprise me that the communities of so-called perverts and artists overlapped a lot. Nayland Blake :I have a ki

a new appreciation for the movies

For Halloween the local Piedmont movie theater played FREE cartoons at 9:45 this morning! It was awesome! Li'l E loved it, and it looks like we might be making it to the movies with him in not too long. It totally made me love movies in the theater all over again. a real wow moment. the cartoons were old and wonderfully silly, incl. Little Lulu (pictured) and something about a flying horse who went to ancient Baghdad. The last one was a Chuck Jones Bugs Bunny called Transylvania 6-5000 . And so Li'l E met Bugs for the first time.

Bancroft Dedication

UC Pres. Yudof in his first public event type thing...

twitter vs. yammer

From today's New York Times in an article entitled: Popularity or Income? Two Sites Fight It Out The founders and backers of Twitter, which has reportedly raised $20 million from venture capitalists, are just as adamant about their decision to grow first and monetize second. Like the value of the telephone network or the Internet itself, the value of Twitter increases with the number of users. So growth is its top priority, said Evan Williams, Twitter’s chief executive. “If we spent time monetizing early on, it would have meant we weren’t doing other things that made the product better for users,” he said. Registrations have grown 600 percent over the last year.

FW: I Made It!

Out of My Realm?

The First Time Ever I saw Your Face

Frankie Avalon, William Shatner, Zsa Zsa Gabor and the Carpenters... ...thing is, this video's like hearing or seeing Michael Jackson or Stevie Wonder for the first time. Karen Carpenter is, to use a phrase from Elvis Costello... Beyond Belief . Good night sweet, Karen. Revel in it. You are beyond belief.

IMPORTANT EVENT

As part of the MATRIX 30th Anniversary Events : (Hoping I can make this one...) Artist and Curator in Conversation Nayland Blake and Lawrence Rinder Sunday, October 19, 3 p.m. Museum Theater Admission Free! As per BAM/PFA web blast -- "Our yearlong celebration of the thirtieth anniversary of the MATRIX program continues with a public conversation between artist Nayland Blake, who was featured in the program in 1989, and Lawrence Rinder, MATRIX curator from 1988 to 1998 and current director of BAM/PFA. Don’t miss this exciting opportunity to see Nayland Blake, whose work explores the complexities of identity, race, relationships, and representation, and has revealed a diverse set of interests and concerns—from popular culture and Camp to the queer body in the age of AIDS and the legacy of racism in America."

Philanthropy Forward

David Friedman : The earthquake engineer is a member of the San Francisco Foundation's board of trustees and sits on its investment committee. Together with his wife, he has directed up to $3 million over the past two decades to fight poverty through donor-advised funds. Point-and-click giving From the Chronicle this past Sunday , October 12, 2008: The San Francisco Foundation created its donor-advised Web portal in 1999, at a time when only five other community foundations had point-and-click giving. Since then, Web-based giving has become ubiquitous, and San Francisco donors have used the site to send $152 million to Bay Area nonprofits. "Technology has helped keep donors philanthropically informed," Hernández said. "If there's a hurricane, they can go on our site, see the places we researched to give and - boom! - make a grant." Dr. Sandra R. Hernández (CEO, San Francisco Foundation) also maintains a medical practice at S.F. General Hospital where she is

Shriver's Not behind Palin

FROM SFGATE.org (SF Chronicle) And, Shriver said, Palin has clearly evoked passions on both sides. "I've been at dinner tables, and people start screaming about Sarah Palin ... and they don't scream that way about Barack (Obama) and John McCain, and I find that very interesting," she said. "Let me just say the debate swirling around her, and around women in general, has been heated, confusing, conflicted, interesting, emotional. It has been, in many ways, a thought-provoking year for women of all ages and all choices." Shriver, a Democrat, has endorsed her party's presidential candidate, Obama; her husband, a Republican, has endorsed McCain. She said she remains impressed with Obama, particularly "his temperament." "I found him from the beginning to be a man of calmness, very collected, introspective and really steady temperament ... and I think it's important in life and particularly important in a leader," said Shriver, who i

No Profile Picture

Robt. Williams Lecture at Oakland Museum

"I see this as conceptual realism, you can think whatever you want..." "...his head becomes a hole...but he only has a small penial devise to satisfy himself with."

open museum

Francesco Spagnolo presents in MemoryLab at MAGNES as an introduction to John Fox of memoryminer . All very much in-line with yesterday's presentation at UC . Gotta blog this all together.

FW: okapi

The Scholar’s Box is a four-year U.S. Department of Education project to develop models for creating and sharing open and reusable digital collections to improve campus scholarship and K-12 education. The Scholar’s Box is supported in part by the US Department of Education’s Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE Grant # P116B040739). Leah Wittman, Project Lead Amy Kimball, Finance Manager Elizabeth Ha, Media Production Manager Links: Raymond Yee’s Scholar’s Box Software An early inspiration for this project Mankita, Isaac et al. “A Handful of Things:Calisphere’s Themed Collections from the California Digital Library” D-Lib Magazine. May 2006. Describes data gathering and design process of Calisphere Themed Collections. Scholar’s Box eLiterature Review Case Studies of Digital Collections Use Focus Group Report: Catalia Digitization Lab: Created to pilot digitization and digital asset management services Curiosity Box An effort to collect feedback and “prized resear

FreeCulture Conf 2008

david@globallives.org

The End, the living end.....

She keeps Moet and Chandon in her pretty cabinet 'Let them eat cake' she says, just like Marie Antoinette A built in remedy for Khrushchev and Kennedy And anytime an invitation you can decline Caviar and cigarettes well versed in etiquette Extr'ordinarily nice She's a killer queen gunpowder gelatine, dynamite with a lazer beam Guaranteed to blow your mind... (anytime) Recommended at the price Insatiable an appetite (wanna try?) To avoid complications, she never kept the same address In conversation, she spoke just like a baroness Met a man from China went down to Geisha Minah Then again incidentally if you're that way inclined Perfume came naturally from Paris (naturally) For cars she couldn't care less, fastidious and precise She's a killer queen gunpowder gelatine Dynamite with a lazer beam, guaranteed to blow your mind (anytime) Recommended at the price, Insatiable an appetite (wanna try?) Drop of a hat she's as willing as a playful as a pussy cat The

Gwanna cry an' cry an'......

Main Entry: ba·thos \ˈbā-ˌthäs\ Function: noun Etymology: Greek, literally, depth Date: 1727 1 a: the sudden appearance of the commonplace in otherwise elevated matter or style b: anticlimax. 2: exceptional commonplaceness : triteness. 3: insincere or overdone pathos : sentimentalism.

RUIN

RUIN -- an old Philly Hardcord band that gigged down in Baltimore a coupla times in the 80s. "He Ho, the world's on fire..."

Nobel Prize for Bunny

File under "Life Imitates Art" Artist Eduardo Kac writes, "My transgenic artwork "GFP Bunny" comprises the creation of a green fluorescent rabbit, the public dialogue generated by the project, and the social integration of the rabbit. GFP stands for green fluorescent protein. "GFP Bunny" was realized in 2000 and first presented publicly in Avignon, France. Transgenic art, I proposed elsewhere [1], is a new art form based on the use of genetic engineering to transfer natural or synthetic genes to an organism, to create unique living beings. This must be done with great care, with acknowledgment of the complex issues thus raised and, above all, with a commitment to respect, nurture, and love the life thus created." Yahoo! News reports 2008, MBL scientist Osamu Shimomura wins Nobel Prize for discovery of green fluorescent protein MBL, WOODS HOLE, MA — Osamu Shimomura, a senior scientist emeritus and Corporation member at the Marine Biological Labora

really, really not sure what to think...

jeanz Fri, Oct 10, 2008, 9:25 PM I would have to say..its not the old britney. Its def. BETTER AND SEXIER! this time it isnt so force like how it was when she was 17!She's on her way back to the top..lets hope she stays there this time!! popis Fri, Oct 10, 2008, 9:36 PM IT'S BRITNEY B*TCH!!!!!She's totally back!!!!...like...for real!!!!Biggest comeback EVER!!!!! BlueEyedBitchyGirl Fri, Oct 10, 2008, 9:37 PM I love Britney! SHES BAAAA-aaaCK! Go girl! Dulcie Fri, Oct 10, 2008, 9:39 PM LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! definetly back Fri, Oct 10, 2008, 9:40 PM she's def back. so fierce. YOU GO GIRL

Great Show in Milwaukee

All the News that's Fit to Print

According to Chris “Long Tail” Anderson, Christopher Hitchens wrote in his Letters to a Young Contrarian that he “checks his vital signs by grabbing the front page of the New York Times ." Always sweet and irascible, Hitchens notes, “All the News that’s Fit to Print,’ it says. It’s been saying that for decades, day in and day out. I imagine that most readers of the canonical sheet have long ceased to notice the bannered and flaunted symbol of its mental furniture." In fact "All the News that's Fit to Print" has been the slogan since some time around the Civil War, which is even more damning, and a lot of folks are keenly aware of the slogan since the paper's an American icon but anyway... Hitchens goes on, "...I myself check every day to make sure that it still irritates me. If I can still exclaim, under my breath, why do they insult me and what do they take me for and what the hell is it supposed to mean unless it’s as obviously complacent and c

...and i KNOW this guy?!!

Here's John Maccabee looking fantastic, doing amazing things and getting profiled in Smithsonian Magazine ! No, c'mon, really? I know this guy?! check out the article and his company .

Yellowjackets

I DUG it! The Chronicle wasn't overly enthusiastic. (l to r) Amaya Alonso Hallifax and Ben Freeman star in the world premiere of Itamar Moses’ Yellowjackets at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Photo courtesy of kevinberne.com

Memories of Shanghai

Robbie Cohn called the other day asking about Karen's and my trip to Shanghai (2005). Man, what a great trip. Here I visit the Center for Jewish Studies, Shanghai . I am posting now, so I can share with Dr. Pan Guang there.

magnes gets cwf for bowls!

The MAGNES just received the Creative Work Fund grant to work with Jewlia Eisenberg on a project based on ancient incantation bowls! The grant's highly competitive. The project will kick off with an installation at Djerassi Program - the 1st collaboration of its sort between Djerassi and another Bay Area Arts organization. Much to be proud of here. (image: an incantation bowl in George Blumenthal's office n.y.c. Thanks, Francesco for all the hook ups....photographer: j.g.l.)

conspiracy theory

Right now listening to Jello Biafra and V. Vale at 924 Gilman . It's a real trip to be in the same room as Jello Biafra. He sounds so much like Jello Biafra, it's eerie. Both Vale and Biafra are still so grassroots, it's astounding. Really FFFin' fantastic actually. Vale came in with a box of RE/Search and his OWN tablecloth . I loved that. If you ever do any kind of pamphleteering or promotion you'd understand that your own tablecloth means you are ready for anything. I bought the Modern Pagans book. It's got a recent profile of Genesis P-Orridge. The night was a real recharge. Really small crowd. Mainly kids into the punk scene c.2008. Jello did some great rants in all his voices. Jello says: Don't hate the media: be the media. We all believe what we want to believe. About kids on the internet and self-publishing -- You don't exist unless you advertise yourself [and I'm not sure that's good]. That creeps me out. He wants to " sp

Chris Anderson

"One of the features of powerlaws is that they are 'fractal,' which is to say that no matter how far you zoom in they still look like powerlaws. Mathematicians describe this as the "self similarity" at multiple scales, but what it means is that the long tail is made of many minitails, each of which is its own little world." Chris Anderson's Little World, Long, Long and Longer Tail ......... love, J

With Best Wishes for Rosh Hashanah - #1 in Heaven!

Sparks : Number One Song in Heaven (Ron & Russell Mael, Giorgio Moroder) It's number one, all over heaven It's number one, all over heaven It's number one, all over heaven The number one song all over heaven If you should die before you wake If you should die while crossing the street The song that you'll hear, I guarantee It's number one, all over heaven It's number one, all over heaven It's number one, all over heaven The number one song all over heaven The one that's the rage up here in the clouds Loud as a crowd or soft as a doubt Lyrically weak, but the music's the thing Gabriel plays it, God how he plays it Gabriel plays it, God how he plays it Gabriel plays it, God how he plays it Gabriel plays it, let's hear him play it The song filters down, down through the clouds It reaches the earth and winds all around And then it breaks up in millions of ways It goes la, la, la...... In cars it becomes a hit In your homes it becomes advertisemen

RE/Search: I am a kid all over again...

I DID NOT KNOW! RE/Search grew out of Search & Destroy, which Jello Biafra, Dead Kennedys founder, called “the best punk rock publication, ever. It combined art and photography with in-depth interviews and articles.” Every RE/Search book continues the Punk Rock Cultural Revolution, but strives to provide permanent inspiration to artists/cultural scientists of the future, providing careful editing, reference sections, photos, art and anthropological history. The books in the RE/Search library are a constant source of imagination, curiosity and challenge to all preconceived notions of the world. Vale’s love of literature and particularly his obsession with the novelists JG Ballard and William S. Burroughs, the prophets of the twenty-first century whose mission inspired Vale’s own, to, in Burroughs’ words, “Wise up the marks.” The paranoid visions of these two writers could never be more timely or accurate. RE/Search offers an excellent volume on Burroughs and Gysin as well... Re/sear

Support DJ Luscious

I am going to an event at 924 Gilman tomorrow. First time at 924 Gilman . First time meeting Jell-O Biafra . First time at an East Bay, grassroots political event. First time for Jesse Townley who has taught me that getting involved, even if you ain't got time or money, means something over lunch at the Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe . His hockey stats rock.

everything old is new again...

..and I'm sayin' this hip Jewish thing's old; but my sermon today about Reb Luria of S'fed...who I googled, who Madonna's got a song called "Isaac" about, got me lost at Jewliscious , which is "old." ...new again? I read the lyrics, by the way...they're sorta 'ouch,' really bad..I don' wanna post 'em.