tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43974343865006049032024-02-02T14:22:15.288+09:00The Magnelephant Reviewby Chris Kammerudchris kammerudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04141499605179239464noreply@blogger.comBlogger224125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4397434386500604903.post-1583931861254323232014-07-02T15:52:00.001+09:002014-07-02T15:52:06.889+09:00In which I post a link I should have posted before..<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Hello, readers.<br />
<br />
If you've wondered what's happened to my posting, I have an answer.<br />
<br />
I've been posting <a href="http://chriskammerud.com/">here</a>, at <a href="http://chriskammerud.com/">chriskammerud.com</a>.<br />
<br />
That is where you can find me.<br />
<br />
Happy finding, readers.<br />
<br />
<br />
love.</div>
chris kammerudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04141499605179239464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4397434386500604903.post-52569636568251153782012-08-26T01:02:00.002+09:002012-08-26T01:02:57.068+09:00Emotional Resonance and Rocket Launchers<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Hello, readers.<br />
<br />
Three things.<br />
<br />
<br />
1) <a href="http://samjmiller.com/2012/08/14/clarion-2012-every-brilliant-piece-of-writing-advice/">Every Brilliant Piece of Writing Advice* from Clarion 2012</a> from Sam J. Miller<br />
<br />
2) <a href="http://fourgreensquares.wordpress.com/2012/08/23/clarion-2012-apocalypse-when/">Clarion 2012: Apocalypse When</a>, FourGreenSquares breakdown of their experience of Clarion and its teachers.<br />
<br />
3) Joss Whedon on what matters most:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">The two things that matter the most to me : emotional resonance and rocket launchers. Party of Five, a brilliant show, and often made me cry uncontrollably, suffered ultimately from a lack of rocket launchers. (<a href="http://www.whedon.info/Best-Joss-Whedon-Quotes-By-Slayage.html">whedoninfo</a>)</span></blockquote>
<br />
That is all.<br />
<br />
Happy Saturday.<br />
<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRXbotGu5oCR1EFZwteRogsDxiIG5x23Ga1Nr69NrIe357p1W3eytoDt1Mz9tHsgATG6gA4C64KJKOb_1rTFD5Kjhvt7woby7Okp8QUv93o7BrEQWdZRx85X51Icbpg_XqEe6viGENAYJp/s1600/buffy+rocket+launcher.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRXbotGu5oCR1EFZwteRogsDxiIG5x23Ga1Nr69NrIe357p1W3eytoDt1Mz9tHsgATG6gA4C64KJKOb_1rTFD5Kjhvt7woby7Okp8QUv93o7BrEQWdZRx85X51Icbpg_XqEe6viGENAYJp/s1600/buffy+rocket+launcher.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
ttfn.<br />
</div>
chris kammerudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04141499605179239464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4397434386500604903.post-34131346392661190232012-08-11T01:38:00.000+09:002012-08-11T01:38:32.809+09:00Some Things I Learned At Clarion<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Hello, readers.<br />
<br />
I went to India. And Dubai. I came home. I attended <a href="http://literature.ucsd.edu/affiliated-programs/clarion/index.html">Clarion</a>, in San Diego. It was amazing. All of it. Clarion most of all. Feels like I have a family and army at my back. Feels like I loved more than I've loved in some time. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin5YnuwGqIgYjNfnlQKPCcDZloY3a07_JhCp-08uy8LreKlnAtGrdfvYnL8Vu8NTU7vm-f9Z1YBn2ViTI28tpLQXhN0qYP1XsscO61JQTWj9XgwA3KV83bPV2VkyLasNoBHWWLXTSKS6PQ/s1600/2012ClarionAtGeisel-2_10x8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin5YnuwGqIgYjNfnlQKPCcDZloY3a07_JhCp-08uy8LreKlnAtGrdfvYnL8Vu8NTU7vm-f9Z1YBn2ViTI28tpLQXhN0qYP1XsscO61JQTWj9XgwA3KV83bPV2VkyLasNoBHWWLXTSKS6PQ/s400/2012ClarionAtGeisel-2_10x8.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<span id="goog_938008104"></span><span id="goog_938008105"></span><br />
<br />
<br />
Here are some things I learned there.<br />
<br />
1) Start with the goosebumps.<br />
<br />
2) Don't burden your heroes with a busload of dead classmates.<br />
<br />
3) You must kill your children.<br />
<br />
4) All stories are romances at heart.<br />
<br />
5) It's your job to save the world.<br />
<br />
6) Top four uses of Nazi's in fiction.<br />
<br />
7) Mad scientists are poised for a comeback.<br />
<br />
8) People will buy the crazy stuff if you make the really, real stuff feel real.<br />
<br />
9) Not everything has to be subtle.<br />
<br />
10) They fuck you up, your mum and dad.<br />
<br />
11) Our job as writers is not to be profound. It's to tell what happens next.<br />
<br />
12) Don't listen to the bullshit. Make your own mistakes.<br />
<br />
13) Fail early. Fail often.<br />
<br />
14) There are people out there who want to read your stuff. They just don't know it yet.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Happy Friday, readers.<br />
<br />
<br />
ttfn.</div>chris kammerudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04141499605179239464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4397434386500604903.post-26829937832875956832012-02-05T20:27:00.000+09:002012-02-05T20:37:40.944+09:00Flanerie<br />
Evgeny Morozov's opinion piece, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/05/opinion/sunday/the-death-of-the-cyberflaneur.html?pagewanted=all">"The Death of the Cyberflaneur."</a> Also, a cat.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The flâneur would leisurely stroll through its streets and especially its arcades — those stylish, lively and bustling rows of shops covered by glass roofs — to cultivate what Honoré de Balzac called “the gastronomy of the eye.”</blockquote>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKCoU98_ZJLrts6zz0ke75yqJNK3jkrct22QmOuA2hi1Np6V8oPo4ftRz5Y6t8FPwiB8j-BSmBe9T-wGjOReGb_K_PDw_VQkVGXl9x_zP9kPX-xCALvI8nG2xwDGr2I-4FC2vNomKMIGaO/s1600/FlaneurCatFrench.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKCoU98_ZJLrts6zz0ke75yqJNK3jkrct22QmOuA2hi1Np6V8oPo4ftRz5Y6t8FPwiB8j-BSmBe9T-wGjOReGb_K_PDw_VQkVGXl9x_zP9kPX-xCALvI8nG2xwDGr2I-4FC2vNomKMIGaO/s320/FlaneurCatFrench.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
...in order to engage in flânerie, one must not have anything too definite in mind</blockquote>
<br />
You may rest assured, readers, no matter what manner of frictionlessly shared future Facebook designs for us, I will remain, at heart, a flaneur (both virtual and actual), cultivating "the gastronomy of the eye," "taking turtles for a walk," celebrating "solitude and individuality, anonymity and opacity, mystery and ambivalence, curiosity and risk-taking," and, generally, making it my goal "to observe, to bathe in the crowd, taking in its noises, its chaos, its heterogeneity, [and] its cosmopolitanism."<br />
<br />
Because as much as I love listening to music with friends, sometimes it's nice to put on a pair of headphones and live alone in the music.<br />
<br />
Because as much as walking, and traveling, with friends is great, there's something necessary and nourishing, at least for me, in the solitary stroll, the one-man adventure, and the random joy of meeting new people along the way.<br />
<br />
Because, as much as I love going to see movies with friends, sometimes I love watching them alone with strangers.<br />
<br />
Because sometimes I know not everyone wants to watch that 4-hour Japanese cinematic opera of kung-fu upshots and true love I keep going on about.<br />
<br />
Because spending time alone makes being with people better.<br />
<br />
Because I don't want a single portal to the world wide web, especially Facebook, no matter how much I love my friends. You are all brilliant, lovely people, but you do not know everything. And I don't expect you to.*<br />
<br />
So, don't worry.<br />
<br />
Flanerie lives. Tell your friends. Write it on the subway walls. Meet me at the arcade. But don't say hello. Just nod and stroll away. We'll know each other by the silly hats we wear.<br />
<br />
<br />
ttfn, readers.<br />
<br />
<br />
*Twitter, with it's original and intended emphasis on following people of interest--and not just friends--seems to encourage a certain amount of cyberflanerie, which is quite nice of them, really. It's possible that, like Twitter and now Google+, Facebook will also cultivate (will want to cultivate) such broader concepts of connection. We shall have to wait and see. One portal will always remind me a bit too much of AOL, though. I love the wander of things, and I'd rather not give that up.chris kammerudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04141499605179239464noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4397434386500604903.post-87833801624852312762012-01-31T17:33:00.001+09:002012-01-31T17:41:27.409+09:00History and Piracy: A History<a href="http://technologizer.com/2012/01/23/why-history-needs-software-piracy/">Benji Edwards writing for Technologizer</a>.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
And what about cloud software? If all of our software tools become centralized and run over the Internet, it will be hard to pirate them, which also means they won’t get preserved. That’s bad for history.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
When paleoanthropologists wonder if a 13,000 year-old Clovis point can take down a Bison, they tie one to a spear and let it fly. If spear points had been automatically cloud updated over the course of their development, however, we would only know of the most recent iteration in the design process. Clovis points wouldn’t exist today, and we’d be wondering how ancient Native Americans managed to hunt game with uranium-tipped bullets.</blockquote>
I had never thought about software and games, and the like, quite in the way of Beowulf and arrowheads before. Now I have. My brain is a better place for it, too.<br />
<br />
Also, in light of a possible, eventual, transformation of the paper book industry to e-books, there's this to think about.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Current U.S. copyright laws have good intentions, but they ultimately jeopardize the survival of digital property because they do not take into account the rapid pace of digital media decay and obsolescence.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Our body of copyright law makes a 19th-century-style legal assumption that the works in question will stay fixed in a medium safely until the works become public domain, when they can then be copied freely. Think of paper books, for example, which can retain data for thousands of years under optimal conditions.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
In the case of digital data, many programs will vanish from the face of the earth decades before the requisite protection period expires (the life of the author plus 70 years in the U.S.). Media decay and obsolescence will claim that software long before any libraries can make legal, useful backups.</blockquote>
Consider: Will an e-book of today run on an e-device 100 years from now? If only e-books are published, how will we archive them?<br />
<br />
<br />
ttfn.chris kammerudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04141499605179239464noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4397434386500604903.post-54596873700523333212012-01-31T17:17:00.000+09:002012-01-31T17:19:10.393+09:00Soon I won't be here...Hello, readers.<br />
<br />
It's snowing outside. A flat-bed truck is selling vegetables. <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/hay-festival/9047981/Jonathan-Franzen-e-books-are-damaging-society.html">Jonathan Franzen believes e-books are bad for society</a>.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The technology I like is the American paperback edition of Freedom. I can spill water on it and it would still work! So it's pretty good technology. And what’s more, it will work great 10 years from now. So no wonder the capitalists hate it. It’s a bad business model </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Maybe nobody will care about printed books 50 years from now, but I do. When I read a book, I’m handling a specific object in a specific time and place. The fact that when I take the book off the shelf it still says the same thing - that’s reassuring.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Someone worked really hard to make the language just right, just the way they wanted it. They were so sure of it that they printed it in ink, on paper. A screen always feels like we could delete that, change that, move it around. So for a literature-crazed person like me, it’s just not permanent enough...</blockquote>
<br />
Also, I will be leaving Seoul soon. This city has given me more than I could have asked for. New friends. Old friends newly made. A collection of students that have blown my mind with their hearts, their brains, and their tendency to give presents and sing songs on the last day of class. We all had a good cry that day. The Doctor couldn't have asked for a better send-off.<br />
<br />
In March, if all goes to plan, I'll be in India. There will probably be pictures. That's how these things work.<br />
<br />
love.<br />
<br />
ttfn.<br />
<br />
p.s. I have a lot of time right now. I might use it to blog. I might use it to Google+. I might watch what I've left of Community, Misfits, Mad Men, various K-dramas, and snow. It's really quite nice.chris kammerudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04141499605179239464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4397434386500604903.post-51406952779457537472011-12-31T22:30:00.000+09:002011-12-31T22:30:05.467+09:002011 in WordsHello, readers.<br />
<br />
Sometimes I read. This year was no different. Here is a list of things*.<br />
<br />
Enjoy.<br />
<br />
<b>1. Things of the Novel and Whatnot Variety Published In, or very Nearly In, 2011:</b><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5Wuons6pK3hWp5vhnhRGa60SD0xC6-AWwh9TbHeH6nL1aa3DghUsO1XQUkXkCdehb3tm2ZTBA2MD54jXQcJL_RCrVy7i9f5NxcotRnobwSo2kQYRcb82sIGCLdfjvOiwSgLWynOH7COmE/s1600/1Habibi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5Wuons6pK3hWp5vhnhRGa60SD0xC6-AWwh9TbHeH6nL1aa3DghUsO1XQUkXkCdehb3tm2ZTBA2MD54jXQcJL_RCrVy7i9f5NxcotRnobwSo2kQYRcb82sIGCLdfjvOiwSgLWynOH7COmE/s320/1Habibi.jpg" width="246" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<i>Habibi </i>by Craig Thompson**<br />
<br />
<i>Bossypants </i>by Tina Fey**<br />
<br />
<i>1Q84 </i>by Haruki Murakami
<br />
<br />
<i>Emperor of All Maladies </i>by Siddhartha Mukherjee<br />
<br />
<i>Zone One </i>by Colson Whitehead<br />
<br />
<i>Swamplandia </i>by Karen Russell<br />
<br />
<i>The Arctic Marauder</i> by Jacques Tardi<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>2. Things of the Novel and Whatnot Variety Published in the Past, in One Golden Age or Another:</b><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf5TQJyvI2WDYkmxK-n6KyR2cMWIILJMdozaAzTmveAHU8Ln31TyYhDGqddcP7pjRbkPHFizMOn9zbmI8Z7trdLn5EW099l5M_bYSdmbqz7qUvi3eJk3rzTgijVunQWBp7mFdR8-MxeGkh/s1600/InfJest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf5TQJyvI2WDYkmxK-n6KyR2cMWIILJMdozaAzTmveAHU8Ln31TyYhDGqddcP7pjRbkPHFizMOn9zbmI8Z7trdLn5EW099l5M_bYSdmbqz7qUvi3eJk3rzTgijVunQWBp7mFdR8-MxeGkh/s1600/InfJest.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<i>Infinite Jest** </i>by David Foster Wallace<br />
<br />
<i>Complete Shorter Fiction**</i> of Oscar Wilde
<br />
<br />
<i>40 Stories**</i> by Donald Barthelme
<br />
<br />
<i>A School for Fools </i>by Sasha Sokolov<br />
<br />
<i>Brothers Karamazov</i> by Fyodor Dostoevsky<br />
<br />
<i>Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose </i>by Flannery O'Connor<br />
<br />
<i>Meet Me in the Moon Room </i>by Ray Vukcevich<br />
<br />
<i>Sense and Sensibility </i>by Jane Austen<br />
<br />
<i>The Drowned Life</i> by Jeffrey Ford<br />
<br />
<i>Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell</i> by Susanna Clarke<br />
<br />
<i>River of Gods </i>by Ian McDonald<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>3. Some Selection of Things of the Longform or Longreads or What-Have-You Variety</b><br />
<b><br /></b><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4IBNOvOHB9sC_Xq0uX1GB_8NtTt9ZlP_doppoPrYA-2unbODtW3jWCHOX0iE2_jtFPPmyKNAB_VzegN98ISVjXRhyI3dhDuvdyuPNwtVyHI1Z_5R5lVsPo6fBXz2AFsRH7QFUKYNI4PiR/s1600/Ray+Kachel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4IBNOvOHB9sC_Xq0uX1GB_8NtTt9ZlP_doppoPrYA-2unbODtW3jWCHOX0iE2_jtFPPmyKNAB_VzegN98ISVjXRhyI3dhDuvdyuPNwtVyHI1Z_5R5lVsPo6fBXz2AFsRH7QFUKYNI4PiR/s1600/Ray+Kachel.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Ray Kachel (photo by Wayne Lawrence)</div>
<b><br /></b><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/12/05/111205fa_fact_packer?currentPage=all">"All the Angry People"</a> by George Packer (one man, among many, at #OWS)<br />
<br />
<a href="http://io9.com/5856158/why-science-fiction-writers-are-like-porn-stars">"Why Science Fiction Writers are Like Porn Stars"</a> by Charlie Jane Anders<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2011/06/christopher-hitchens-unspoken-truths-201106">"Unspoken Truths"</a> by Christopher Hitchens<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/11/28/111128fa_fact_schwartz?currentPage=all">"Pre-Occupied"</a> by Mattathias Schwartz (on the origins of #OWS)<br />
<br />
<a href="http://nplusonemag.com/outsourcing-jobs">"Outsourcing Jobs"</a> by Gary Sernovitz (on Steve Jobs, China, and Apple)<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/owss-beef-wall-street-isnt-winning-its-cheating-20111025">"Wall Street Isn't Winning -- It's Cheating"</a> by Matt Taibbi<br />
<br />
<a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203893404577098730827733806.html">"The Last Movie Maestro"</a> by John Jurgensen (a profile of John Williams)<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/01/02/120102fa_fact_talbot?currentPage=all">"Stumptown Girl"</a> by Margaret Talbot (a profile of Carrie Brownstein)<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/magazine/2008/12/star_wars_special200812">"The Han Solo Comedy Hour"</a> by Frank DiGiacomo<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.observer.com/2011/culture/al-goldstein-pornographer-winter?show=all">"Al Goldstein: The Pornographer in Winter"</a> by Lili Anolik<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/04/11/110411fa_fact_miller">"Just Write It"</a> by Laura Miller (on George R.R. Martin and fans)<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/style/2012/01/prisoners-of-style-201201">"You Say You Want a Devolution"</a> by Kurt Andersen (Except he's wrong. Mostly. Partly. The world of fashion, technology, and art has changed. Take the ten year old me and zap him 20 years into the future, and he would notice a difference. Trust me. He was a sharp kid. But, the article is an important one to remind you that some people's eyes go old before their time).<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/10/books/review/the-writer-as-detective.html?_r=2&ref=books&pagewanted=all">"The Writer as Detective"</a> by Roger Rosenblatt<br />
<br />
<br />
<hr />
<br />
<br />
ttfn, readers. Happy reading.<br />
<br />
<br />
*Note, that ** will be used to indicate these books may have changed my life and/or will probably be returned to, or thrust upon people, for a variety of well-intentioned reasons, as time goes on.<br />
<br />
**See above.<br />
<b><br /></b><br />
<b><br /></b><br />
<b><br /></b><br />
<b><br /></b><br />
<br />
<br />chris kammerudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04141499605179239464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4397434386500604903.post-57114350916693944032011-12-30T14:03:00.000+09:002011-12-30T17:39:27.225+09:002011 in SoundHello, readers.<br />
<br />
In 2011, I listened to things. Here is a list to that effect.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">1. Things named after themselves</span></b><br />
<br />
Bon Iver, <i>Bon Iver.</i><br />
<i><br /></i><br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/0KrmxavLIRM" width="560"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
Cults, <i>Cults</i><br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/9i1MXHGB8g0" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">
2. Songs more beautiful than their name would lead you to believe</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b><br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ze6rg4ixjOI" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">3. Bands that reaffirmed their awesomness</span></b><br />
<b><br /></b><br />
<i>The Whole Love</i> begins and ends with different sorts of long, meandering, wonderful. Well done Tweedy, and company. Well done.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/yWP4bI37mCE" width="560"></iframe><br />
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<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/PwNgoNg5cmY" width="560"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
<b><br /></b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">4. Bands who reaffirmed that they're just having a bit of fun at this point.</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b><br />
<b><br /></b><br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/cfOa1a8hYP8" width="560"></iframe>
<br />
<b><br /></b><br />
<b><br /></b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">5. New friends</span></b><br />
<b><br /></b><br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/pRa5NfJpfVc" width="560"></iframe>
<br />
<b><br /></b><br />
<b><br /></b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">6. Best use of a suicidal squirrel</span></b><br />
<b><br /></b><br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/SOyPg5p-k-A" width="420"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div>
<b><span style="font-size: large;">7. ttfn, readers</span></b><br />
</div>chris kammerudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04141499605179239464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4397434386500604903.post-67257754528704709852011-12-28T18:55:00.000+09:002011-12-28T18:55:14.146+09:00AetataureateHello, readers.<br />
<br />
Happy Christmas. And New Year. And/or what not.*<br />
<br />
As we reach the end of the year, you might be interested to know that several people are lamenting and debating as to whether or not our culture has become a prisoner to nostalgia or our nostalgia has blinded us to the new ways of being encultured.<br />
<br />
See, for example,<a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/style/2012/01/prisoners-of-style-201201"> Kurt Andersen's "You Say You Want a Cultural Devolution" in Vanity Fair</a>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Ironically, new technology has reinforced the nostalgic cultural gaze: now that we have instant universal access to every old image and recorded sound, the future has arrived and it’s all about dreaming of the past. Our culture’s primary M.O. now consists of promiscuously and sometimes compulsively reviving and rejiggering old forms. It’s the rare “new” cultural artifact that doesn’t seem a lot like a cover version of something we’ve seen or heard before. Which means the very idea of datedness has lost the power it possessed during most of our lifetimes.</blockquote>
<a href="http://www.salon.com/2011/12/18/is_2011_really_just_1991/singleton/">Maria Russo's response at Salon</a>,<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
New technology, he [Andersen] writes, has reinforced the nostalgic cultural gaze. He’s not the first to note that nostalgia is pervasive at the moment, with virtually everything ever produced in any medium so easily accessible, so primed for re-discovering, that it’s tamping down our desire to produce and consume newness. But there’s more going on than that. Hasn’t technology also made HBO and Showtime and AMC possible? Cable television has made what we watch in 2011 dramatically different, and dramatically superior, to what we viewed 20 years ago.</blockquote>
and this new entry, also at Salon, <a href="http://www.salon.com/2011/12/27/nostalgic_for_everything/">"Nostalgic for Everything" by Matt Zoller Seitz</a><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“Nostalgia is denial — denial of the painful present,” says a philosopher (Michael Sheen) in Woody Allen’s surprise hit “Midnight in Paris.” “The name for this denial is Golden Age thinking**: the erroneous notion that a different time period is better than the one [that] one’s living in. It’s a flaw in the romantic imagination of those people who find it difficult to cope with the present.”</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
If nostalgia is indeed a flaw, it’s one that many 2011 films and TV programs shared...</blockquote>
Andersen's article, while being in some ways completely wrong (mid-90s Wilco is the same as <i>Ghost is Born </i>Wilco? Neal Stephenson's <i>Snow Crash</i> is in no way dated? Erm...), remains a fascinating entry into the conversation of how current cultural production is being perceived by those above and below a certain age.<br />
<br />
In commenting on lifestyle and fashion, Russo seems onto something in her wondering as to whether or not, with so much of the conventional mores abolished as far as fashion (no pants for women, no piercings for men) and so much of our interactions occurring in virtual space (with our iPod, iPhone, Macbook, Android thing), fashion might have necessarily paused in the sort of fast-forwarding that occurred through the 20s, 40s, 60s, and on. People can wear whatever they want now, for the most part. And so they do. Or they don't. It's no big deal.<br />
<br />
Generally, I find myself recognizing the intense, crafted nostalgia of things, especially music and film, of current chillwave, beach garage, and certain trippy, 80s relic, synth dance tunes. But, then again, I'm not confusing Josh Ritter with Dylan (as Andersen does), or Gaga's transgender anthems with Madonna's now (as Ms. Russo points out) almost passe (but still catchy, "Like a Prayer," anyone?) odes to a a more generalized sort of sexual freedom. Nor, am I worried that <i>Midnight in Paris,</i> or <i>Super 8</i>, or any of the other nostalgically flawed gems mentioned by Mr. Seitz, signal any kind of death of artistic evolution.<br />
<br />
Most likely if you looked at any year's list of cinematic or televised product, you'd find plenty of nostalgia. 1981, for example and also the year of my birth, included such nostalgic endeavors as <i>Chariots of Fire </i>and Spielberg's <i>Raiders of the Lost Ark</i>.<br />
<br />
What interests me, more than anything else--as a boy on the cusp of emerging into a displaced generation--is the loss of tangibility Mr. Seitz talks of, as marked by the end of film and records and, one day, perhaps, books.<br />
<br />
It is not a bad or good thing. It is just a thing. And it is interesting. And if, in my old age, I gather around me a library of smelly, crackly, nostalgia, or curl in a chair-bubble with a make-believe paper copy of Michael Chabon's latest ode to the latest Golden Age***, I imagine I'll just be happy to still be kicking about.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
ttfn, readers. <a href="http://www.nerdist.com/">Enjoy your burrito</a>.<br />
<br />
<br />
*If your holiday is not listed here, please also enjoy it. If you are not a holiday person then, as <a href="http://www.wtfpod.com/">Marc Maron</a> suggested, at the very least try to enjoy a sandwich. If you are gluten-issued, there are <a href="http://glutenfreegirl.com/gluten-free-ice-cream-sandwiches/">sandwiches for you (and me)</a>, too.<br />
<br />
**Actually, according to Michael Chabon in <i>The</i> <i>Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay</i>, it would more accurately and nonce-ly be referred to as, "the usual hallmark of the aetataureate delusion."<br />
<br />
***See above.<br />
<br />chris kammerudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04141499605179239464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4397434386500604903.post-60586918819892800362011-12-23T23:18:00.000+09:002011-12-23T23:18:32.679+09:00Nice.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_URWrLuRaAj_cf79pDlCoc6UoP5yfkF7N6x9gQFZKNs33-NXjJXc08obMucfKEti7dvEfKur_haM8YScpXbG5vHRTbugMGkUSOTMxEWMYJDe8uDRhOgLV3ZfsIQFAPFML1ZhgQ90U2D4G/s1600/Red.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_URWrLuRaAj_cf79pDlCoc6UoP5yfkF7N6x9gQFZKNs33-NXjJXc08obMucfKEti7dvEfKur_haM8YScpXbG5vHRTbugMGkUSOTMxEWMYJDe8uDRhOgLV3ZfsIQFAPFML1ZhgQ90U2D4G/s640/Red.jpg" width="433" /></a></div>
<br />
Art by Christian Jackson. More pictures and interview <a href="http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/minimalist-fairy-tale-posters">here</a>.chris kammerudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04141499605179239464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4397434386500604903.post-31966367810985591152011-12-17T23:20:00.002+09:002011-12-17T23:20:29.646+09:00It's Only a Paper MoonHello, readers.<br />
<br />
A singer in Korea, ALi, wrote a song about a young girl being raped. This young girl was named, or at least known as, Na Young. You may read about Na Young's story <a href="http://www.koreaherald.com/national/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20091001000072">here</a>.<br />
<br />
It seems that many people criticized Ms. ALi for writing such a song. The song's lyrics are as such:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The sound of the light and wind, falling from the sky<br />
It rides the leaves and it rides the snowstorm
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The deep sounds of the ocean from the ends of the earth<br />
It shines on the sun, it shines on the sky</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
It's hard even to be alive and to breath<br />
So she waits for the sun to set<br />
She doesn't try to run away anymore<br />
She stands there and waits for the moon to rise
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The gray light that seeps out of a young girl's wet eyes<br />
You threw away your youth, selling your body, selling your soul
<br />
Your pitiful life has been taken away from you
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
In this dizzy world, when you hope for a warm and brilliant love<br />
Can you feel - can you feel it?<br />
In the soiled heart, when you want a true and pure love<br />
Can you do that - can you do that?
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Looking here and there but you still can't believe in this world<br />
Even if the world flows by so quickly, even if time leaves us<br />
Trust your mind, trust your mind</blockquote>
<br />
It was unclear from the discussions and posts at <a href="http://www.allkpop.com/2011/12/ali-gets-criticized-for-lyrics-in-her-song-na-young">allkpop </a>or <a href="http://lancerlord.blogspot.com/2011/12/of-korea-singer-ali-gets-criticized-for.html">lancerlord</a>, whether more criticism was directed at Ms. ALi for "disrespecting" the victim by bringing up painful memories, or because her lyrics ("you threw away your youth...") implied the victim was at fault.<br />
<br />
Many commented that Ms. ALi should have asked permission.<br />
<br />
Perhaps.<br />
<br />
Ms. ALi held a <a href="http://www.allkpop.com/2011/12/ali-gets-criticized-for-lyrics-in-her-song-na-young">press conference to apologize</a>. This wasn't enough, apparently. So, she held<a href="http://www.allkpop.com/2011/12/ali-reveals-she-is-a-victim-of-rape"> another press conference</a> where she could apologize some more, disclose and discuss how she was raped at around the same time as the young girl, and then ask for forgiveness, once again, for "causing so much worry and trouble..."<br />
<br />
You should take a moment to read what she said. It is translated, so it's hard to say, precisely, what may be getting lost. That said, here are some quotes from <a href="http://www.allkpop.com/2011/12/ali-reveals-she-is-a-victim-of-rape">allkpop</a>:<br />
<br />
On being raped:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
In June of 2008, I was raped by a <a href="http://www.soompi.com/news/confusing-girl-group-geneaologysunbae-and-hoobae-relationship-explained">hoobae </a>I knew from a group I was a part of. I was cruelly abused. I was hit in the face with a fist and suffered a broken cheekbone, needing four weeks of rest to recover. I was taken somewhere in a cab while unconscious, and I was raped. That hoobae, that criminal was arrested and taken to court. During the 1st round, he received a prison sentence of two years (suspended for four years) along with 200 hours of community service. However, due to the fact that there were no witnesses and evidence, he was deemed not guilty on the charges.</blockquote>
On how she felt:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
At the time, I was going to keep it a secret for the rest of my life like my dad had said. However, the bitterness in my heart was not erased, and I believed that ‘Na Young’ (who had become a victim of rape around the same time) would share the same thoughts as me. So, I wanted to console ‘Na Young’, and I wanted to raise awareness about the crime of rape. That is why I put this song, which I had made during that time, on this album.</blockquote>
On what she wants from the man who raped her:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I still haven’t received a single word of apology from that person, so there is currently a civil suit going on. I believe that the best treatment for rape is to receive an apology.</blockquote>
An appropriately indignant commenter wrote a very long comment. You can read it on the tumblr of <a href="http://ancientrelic.tumblr.com/post/14343854500/a-lot-of-people-say-they-feel-sorry-for-ali-but">ancientrelic</a>.<br />
<br />
Here's what Kurt Cobain had to say:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
What else could I write?<br />
I don't have the right.<br />
What else should I be?<br />
All Apologies.</blockquote>
I hope Ms. ALi does not blame herself for what someone else did to her. I hope she doesn't blame herself for what a society of people is doing to her. But, it seems she does.<br />
<br />
I wish, perhaps, she had talked to the family before naming her song what she did. But, then again, perhaps she wanted to tap into the shame and silence of a story that her country's people, for good or ill, very much would rather forget.<br />
<br />
Many people, of course, would rather not be reminded that such things occur in their society--especially that they might be endemic, generally glossed over, and often only focused on in the most grisly of moments when said society might feel free to dip into their reservoir of han, that pool of suppressed anger and raging powerlessness, and righteously direct it at that one true, obvious horror, as in the case of Na Young, and, having done their duty, shut their ears, eyes, and hearts, ignoring the all-too-frequent and mundane horror of a woman being ignored because no one but her witnessed the "shame" done.<br />
<br />
Alas, they must be reminded. You cannot look away. Things happen whether you believe in them or not. They continue to happen mostly because people choose to not believe in them. Or to ignore them--which amounts to the same thing. It's enough to make a girl wonder what's real.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Looking here and there but you still can't believe in this world<br />
Even if the world flows by so quickly, even if time leaves us<br />
Trust your mind, trust your mind</blockquote>
<br />
<br />
ttfn.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />chris kammerudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04141499605179239464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4397434386500604903.post-10860518371927686562011-11-05T15:14:00.000+09:002011-11-05T15:15:24.115+09:00Home Cinema Doesn't ExistGod bless you, <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/cinema/2011/11/07/111107crci_cinema_lane?currentPage=all">Anthony Lane</a>. And by God, I mean one of those black and white Bergman numbers where heaven is strawberries or some such.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
There’s only one problem with home cinema: it doesn’t exist. The very phrase is an oxymoron. As you pause your film to answer the door or fetch a Coke, the experience ceases to be cinema. Even the act of choosing when to watch means you are no longer at the movies. Choice—preferably an exhaustive menu of it—pretty much defines our status as consumers, and has long been an unquestioned tenet of the capitalist feast, but in fact carte blanche is no way to run a cultural life (or any kind of life, for that matter), and one thing that has nourished the theatrical experience, from the Athens of Aeschylus to the multiplex, is the element of compulsion. Someone else decides when the show will start; we may decide whether to attend, but, once we take our seats, we join the ride and surrender our will. The same goes for the folks around us, whom we do not know, and whom we resemble only in our private desire to know more of what will unfold in public, on the stage or screen. We are strangers in communion, and, once that pact of the intimate and the populous is snapped, the charm is gone. Our revels now are ended.</blockquote>
He also has some very funny, Freudian things to say about Brett Ratner's <i>Tower Heist.</i> It is the New Yorker, after all. And tower is in the title. There was no choice, really.<br />
<br />
Oh, and actually, I'm quite happy with carte blanche. I want, as the subtitle up there says, everything ever. I want Pandora and Spotify and Grooveshark and podcasts curated by DJs. I want Mubi and Netflix and old, obscure, Spanish neo-realist films beamed to my brain, and I want, on occasion, to put on a coat and scarf, walk down a sidewalk in the fall, with yellow leaves falling and that smell in the air, and then enter into some dark room, sit down with a bunch of strangers, and watch something grand and silly, preferably with, of late, the involvement of Emma Stone or Wong Kar-Wai.<br />
<br />
Happy 5th of November, readers. Remember, remember.<br />
<br />
<br />
ttfn.<br />
<br />chris kammerudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04141499605179239464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4397434386500604903.post-28062589315958557822011-11-04T22:04:00.000+09:002011-11-04T22:56:57.743+09:00Porn stars and science fiction writers don't really care what you think of them.The other day, I read a thing in the New York Times that annoyed me. I decided to not bother thinking about it overly much, except that I was glad I read it all the way through. We'll get to that in a minute.<br />
<br />
The thing in the New York Times was <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/books/review/zone-one-by-colson-whitehead-book-review.html?_r=2&hpw=&pagewanted=all">Glen Duncan's review</a> of <i>Zone One</i>. It begins like so:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
A literary novelist writing a genre novel is like an intellectual dating a porn star. It invites forgivable prurience: What is that relationship like? Granted the intellectual’s hit hanky-panky pay dirt, but what’s in it for the porn star? Conversation? Ideas? Deconstruction?</blockquote>
Which, you know, is a perfectly fine and dumb way to begin a review, and designed, more or less, to get people to mention it on blogs so that the people reading those blogs will click the link to the review and so drive page views and advertising dollars to the New York Times.<br />
<br />
This is, among other reasons, why I didn't bother mentioning it.<br />
<br />
But, <a href="http://io9.com/5856158/why-science-fiction-writers-are-like-porn-stars">Charlie Jane Anders at io9</a> could not resist. And I'm glad she didn't.<br />
<br />
She attempted to contact Glen Duncan for an interview. To ask him, for example, if he had ever dated a porn star, or if, perhaps, he had run into trouble with readers of his own foray into genre, <i>The Last Werewolf; </i>or if he had read <i>Dhalgren</i>? <i>The Female Man</i>? <i>House of Leaves</i>? <i>The Wasp Factory</i>? <i>The Dispossessed</i>? <i>Air</i>?<br />
<br />
Glen Duncan did not respond. So, Ms. Anders went ahead and posted her questions for him and avoided any pointless ranting, saying "..it really feels like we're mostly past that by now, when places like the Atlantic <a href="http://io9.com/5851205/more-proof-that-the-book-worlds-literarysf-division-is-increasingly-meaningless">are celebrating the trend that Duncan decries</a>."<br />
<br />
Instead, of a rant she closes with an inspired list of "how genre writers are like porn stars" which does great justice to both "slums" and includes, among other things, this:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Porn stars and genre writers are both trying, in very different ways, to satisfy a basic human need for a transcendent experience, something that takes you out of yourself. People — who feel imprisoned in these bodies, these lives, these surroundings — crave escapism and fantasy, but also a feeling of connection to a world where implausible things happen.</blockquote>
Go read the <a href="http://io9.com/5856158/why-science-fiction-writers-are-like-porn-stars">article</a>.<br />
<br />
Before you go though, I should say that Glen Duncan's review of <i>Zone One</i> manages to not completely go downhill from it's beginning, as it does manage this paragraph near its end.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The shape it makes is a love story. More specifically, a story of lost love, at first glance contemporary America’s for its own cultural protocols — from sidewalk etiquette to sitcom vectors — but beyond that, humanity’s love for ritual, its dependence on ways of imposing meaning on the void; for religious trinkets or scientific models or personal superstitions or long-term financial plans; for every gimmick, brand preference, boxed set or mumbled prayer that helps us deny the absurdity of our predicament and the certainty of death. Some “Zone One” humans are still at it, post-Apocalypse, framing the plague as God’s righteous reboot or the planet’s eco backlash, but for the antiheroic Mark Spitz the framing days are over. What happens happens, and there’s nothing behind it but a random biological swipe. Philosophically, the novel’s as existentially hard-line as they come. </blockquote>
It's a nice paragraph and, to a certain extent, shines some light on why, perhaps, Glen Duncan made such a fit about genre throughout--thinking, maybe, that genre also demonstrates humanity's love for frames and rituals.<br />
<br />
Which it does.<br />
<br />
The thing is that the term "literary" houses its own generic tropes, as much as science fiction, mystery, romance, and so forth, and really the distinction for readers comes down to whether, as a wonderful lady once told me, you crave comfort or surprise.<br />
<br />
This, presumably, is what China Mieville was going on about in The Guardian concerning, "<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2011/oct/17/science-fiction-china-mieville?newsfeed=true">the literature of recognition versus that of estrangement</a>."<br />
<br />
You can find whatever you want, readers, wherever you want to look.<br />
<br />
And, here's one more thing.<br />
<br />
The reason <i>Zone One</i> succeeds, the reason <i>The Soprano</i>'s was awesome; the reason <i>Dhalgren </i>exists; the reason the very blonde Buffy Summers walks down a dark alley and proceeds to kick demon ass, is that genres exist, and the creators of those works of art are in love with genre, almost as much as they're in love with surprising themselves, and us, by bending their beloved frames into new shapes.<br />
<br />
Shapes which matter, which resonate, because we, as readers, recognize what the original frames looked like, what view of the world they allowed, and what this new frame, made by this new creator, has done to our way of seeing the world through their stories.<br />
<br />
Genre is dead. Love live genre.<br />
<br />
Happy reading, readers.<br />
<br />
<br />
ttfn.chris kammerudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04141499605179239464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4397434386500604903.post-90984650362346205132011-11-04T21:13:00.001+09:002011-11-04T21:13:46.417+09:00All Books Are WeirdKelly Link writes a particularly wonderful brand of odd.<br />
<br />
<blockquote>
Look. All books are weird when you think about it. I just read a terrific quote from an article by Edward Docx, “Among the Russians,” in which he and a group of Russian writers are talking about writing. Out of that conversation comes this description:</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Deciding to write a novel is like visiting an obscure, half-forgotten and slowly-evaporating planet entirely comprised of swimming pools and deciding that what is needed is… yes, another swimming pool! But, for obscure reasons, a swimming pool that must be built single-handedly from scratch and then filled using only a syringe.</i></blockquote>
Read the rest of her interview at the <a href="http://weirdfictionreview.com/2011/11/an-interview-with-kelly-link-%E2%80%9Call-books-are-weird%E2%80%9D/">Weird Fiction Review</a>, wherein you will learn she's currently being disturbed by old, North Hampton farmhouses in Colson Whitehead's <i><a href="http://magnelephant.blogspot.com/search?q=zone+one">Zone One</a>,</i> and she was once an editor with The Greensboro review.<br />
<br />
I had forgotten she was, like so many of us*, once an MFA student..<br />
<br />
Of note, she will be an instructor, along with Gavin Grant, at the next <a href="http://www.clarionwest.org/">Clarion West</a>.<br />
<br />
ttfn, readers.<br />
<br />
<br />
*And by us, of course, I mean me and other people I know who were once MFA students. If you are not a former MFA student, that's okay. There's still time.chris kammerudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04141499605179239464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4397434386500604903.post-74924531494442951922011-11-02T22:49:00.000+09:002011-11-02T22:58:55.988+09:00Ancient SumeriaFrom <a href="http://occupywriters.com/works/by-jonathan-lethem">Jonathan Lethem</a> and <a href="http://occupywriters.com/">Occupy Writers</a>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Dahlia Lithwick says, “Occupy Wall Street is not a movement without a message. It’s a movement that has wisely shunned the one-note, pre-chewed, simple-minded messaging required for cable television as it now exists. It’s a movement that feels no need to explain anything to the powers that be, although it is deftly changing the way we explain ourselves to one another… We are the most media-saturated 24-hour-cable-soaked culture in the world, and yet around the country, on Facebook and at protests, people are holding up cardboard signs, the way protesters in ancient Sumeria might have done when demonstrating against a rise in the price of figs. And why is that? Because they very wisely don’t trust television cameras and microphones to get it right anymore. Because a media constructed around the illusion of false equivalencies, screaming pundits, and manufactured crises fails to capture who we are and what we value.” </blockquote>
Here's <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2011/10/how_ows_confuses_and_ignores_fox_news_and_the_pundit_class_.html">Dahlia's article from Slate</a>.<br />
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ttfn, readers.chris kammerudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04141499605179239464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4397434386500604903.post-67468095302986665442011-10-28T17:54:00.001+09:002011-10-28T17:55:34.226+09:00Adventures in DepressionThis made me smile.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzjlIivviWnYQcaQE8s_Li8nnJLy_Uqq9xaXvqrs51DpteAb9fN5QmdkY_xl0eIjlcskvlJQONNr2stoB_qQqDGij7-QmjRir_Sz6bInqqKsLCp-Tv77glJWx3PKNbfMRHvC9zjJuDT7qh/s1600/JudgeMeAllYouWant.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzjlIivviWnYQcaQE8s_Li8nnJLy_Uqq9xaXvqrs51DpteAb9fN5QmdkY_xl0eIjlcskvlJQONNr2stoB_qQqDGij7-QmjRir_Sz6bInqqKsLCp-Tv77glJWx3PKNbfMRHvC9zjJuDT7qh/s320/JudgeMeAllYouWant.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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Visit <a href="http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2011/10/adventures-in-depression.html">Hyperbole and a Half</a>, for more. Hyperbole is the blog of one Allie Brosh, who you can watch tell her blog's story on <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzLPsgfOzXs">YouTube</a>. Spoiler: It involves, among other things: Calvin and Hobbes, physics, procrastination, and a fish.</div>
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Myself, I am inclined to wind my way back through Hyperbole and a Half's archive. </div>
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Happy Friday, readers.</div>
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ttfn.</div>chris kammerudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04141499605179239464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4397434386500604903.post-11944848825443687552011-10-27T22:03:00.000+09:002011-10-27T22:03:54.220+09:00Neil Gaiman PresentsHello, readers.<br />
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Neil Gaiman writes scary, lovely things. Very often he reads these things out loud to an audience. You can listen to him read the Newberry winning, <i>The Graveyard Book* </i>at <a href="http://www.mousecircus.com/videotour.aspx">The Mouse Circus</a>.<br />
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He loves the act of storytelling so much, in fact--and audio books in particular, that he and Audible have joined in launching something called <a href="http://www.audible.com/mt/Neil_Gaiman_Presents?source_code=NGAOR0002WS101911">Neil Gaiman Presents</a>. Gaiman will pick books, work with the authors where not entirely dead, and recruit the perfect voice for the story.<br />
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In his <a href="http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2011/10/neil-gaiman-presents-is-open-for.html">blog post</a> on the opening, he mentioned a future release being that of "John Hodgman reading Robert Sheckley's hilarious pre-Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy galactic travel fantasia DIMENSION OF MIRACLES."<br />
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So, excitement +2.<br />
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Happy Thursday, readers.<br />
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ttfn.<br />
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*I read <i>The Graveyard Book</i> while road-tripping around the southern U.S.. I finished it in southwest Louisiana, at a house shaded by banana trees. It inspired me to wander one of the above-ground cemeteries nearby. I brought a dog along with me. We looked at many old things together. On the way home, a man carrying a brick and walking with a slight tilt, followed us for a time. Eventually, he stopped, which was nice.<br />
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<br />chris kammerudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04141499605179239464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4397434386500604903.post-61650615338186188782011-10-26T21:36:00.001+09:002011-10-26T21:37:51.112+09:00Don't Look Now<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Maybe because I grew up in Britain, the opening almost seemed like one of those absolutely nightmarish PSAs that you would see. There were some extremely dour ones in the UK that implored you “Don’t play near ponds. Don’t throw your ball into the pond. Do not go near the dark water.” Once you’ve seen it a couple of times, you can start to see the allusions, too, the bad omens and the flashes forward to significant images and colors, and all that amazing cross-cutting that Nicolas Roeg does. It’s such an incredible sequence. </blockquote>
<a href="http://www.avclub.com/articles/24-hours-of-horror-with-edgar-wright,63920/">Edgar Wright</a> writing in the A.V. Club on the merits of <i>Don't Look Now</i>, as part of a 24-hour Halloween horror movie marathon.<br />
<br />chris kammerudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04141499605179239464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4397434386500604903.post-68321896851591744282011-10-25T21:39:00.000+09:002011-10-25T21:39:07.291+09:00Small HorrorsDana Jennings in <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/24/books/caitlin-r-kiernan-geoff-ryman-and-tim-powers-tales-review.html?_r=2">NYT</a>.<br />
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The best work in dark fantasy and horror fiction these days is being published by small presses, haunted literary boutiques established (mostly) in out-of-the-way places.</blockquote>
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There’s <a href="http://smallbeerpress.com/">Small Beer</a> in Easthampton, Mass., and <a href="http://www.subterraneanpress.com/">Subterranean </a>in Burton, Mich.; <a href="http://www.centipedepress.com/">Centipede </a>in Lakewood, Colo., and <a href="http://www.cemeterydance.com/">Cemetery Dance</a> in Forest Hill, Md.; <a href="http://www.tachyonpublications.com/">Tachyon</a> in San Francisco and <a href="http://chizinepub.com/">ChiZine</a> in Toronto — and many more. They’re all devoted to the weird, to the strange and — most important — to good writing.</blockquote>
Interesting that with the stated love of the little wonders out there, only three authors, and their respective presses, get much mention (Geoff Ryman with Small Beer, Caitlan R. Kiernan with Subterranean, and Tim Powers with Tachyon). I would've liked a little more on what the others were up to.<br />
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Still, it's nice to see the small presses ballyhooed in the big press.<br />
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ttfn.<br />chris kammerudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04141499605179239464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4397434386500604903.post-29456936174920701012011-10-25T21:18:00.000+09:002011-10-25T21:18:33.951+09:00Seoul Mayoral Election, Now with More Flash Mobs!Hello, readers.<br />
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Elections in Korea, and perhaps Seoul in particular, often involve a lot of coordinated dancing, rolling truck sing-alongs, and men wearing both cowboy hats and sparkly pants.<br />
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This video, though--so far as I know--is the first evidence of flash mobs being used in Seoul to turn out the vote. <br />
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Enjoy.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/JOCKjvcgjJc" width="640"></iframe>
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via (<a href="http://globalvoices.tumblr.com/post/11902533201/a-flash-mob-encourages-young-people-to-vote-in">Global Voices</a>) and also this <a href="http://wikitree.co.kr/main/news_view.php?id=48464">Korean description</a> which I cannot read.<br />
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ttfn.chris kammerudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04141499605179239464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4397434386500604903.post-55862858663403439132011-10-24T23:23:00.003+09:002011-10-24T23:27:50.329+09:00Much Ado About Nothing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://muchadothemovie.com/images/image001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="628" src="http://muchadothemovie.com/images/image001.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Throughout <i>Buffy</i>, Whedon hosted the cast at his home for regular Shakespeare readings. Perhaps this grew out of that. Perhaps it is not Shakespearean, at all. Maybe it's about pool cleaning.</div>
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The real question is, how will it be distributed? </div>
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ttfn, readers.</div>
<br />chris kammerudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04141499605179239464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4397434386500604903.post-77880983844734664872011-10-24T19:12:00.002+09:002011-10-24T19:59:58.802+09:00The Lion and the Unicorn<blockquote>
The underlying fact was that the whole position of the moneyed class had long ceased to be justifiable. There they sat, at the centre of a vast empire and a world-wide financial network, drawing interest and profits and spending them--on what?</blockquote>
...<br />
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Although there are gifted and honest <i>individuals</i> among them, we have got to break the grip of the moneyed class as a whole.</blockquote>
...<br />
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Patriotism has nothing to do with Conservatism. It is actually the opposite of Conservatism, since it is a devotion to something that is always changing and yet is felt to be mystically the same. It is the bridge between the future and the past. No real revolutionary has ever been an internationalist.</blockquote>
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Quite soon it will be possible to say definitely that our feet are set upon one path or the other. But at any rate it is certain that with our present social structure we cannot win. </blockquote>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Why-Write-Penguin-Great-Ideas/dp/0143036351">George Orwell</a> writing in 1940, as "highly civilized human beings [flew] overhead, trying to kill [him]." It was difficult not to read certain passages without hearing some resonance with the present now-type happenings.<br />
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I wonder what he would have said if he were alive. Hopefully, he would've refrained from calling India "backward", which he does at some points. Silly, English man.<br />
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ttfn, readers.<br />
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<br />chris kammerudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04141499605179239464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4397434386500604903.post-49716409560298089492011-10-22T22:14:00.001+09:002011-10-22T22:27:26.808+09:00Haruki Murakami<blockquote>
“I live in Tokyo,” he told me, “a kind of civilized world — like New York or Los Angeles or London or Paris. If you want to find a magical situation, magical things, you have to go deep inside yourself. So that is what I do. People say it’s magic realism — but in the depths of my soul, it’s just realism. Not magical. While I’m writing, it’s very natural, very logical, very realistic and reasonable.”</blockquote>
From Sam Anderson's "<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/magazine/the-fierce-imagination-of-haruki-murakami.html?hpw">The Fierce Imagination of Haruki Murakami</a>" in The New York Times Magazine.<br />
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It's a introduction, and trip, through Murakami's particular brand of reality. As well, Anderson--in visiting Murakami in Tokyo--visited several places in Tokyo made famous, or somehow actual, by the power of Murakami's imagination. You can see a slideshow of those places, and accompanying passages from Murakami's books, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/10/23/magazine/20Mag-Murakami-Tokyo.html">here</a>.<br />
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Some bookstores in the non-Asian parts of the world are planning on opening at <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/oct/17/murakami-1q84-midnight-openings">midnight </a>for the non-Asian release of <i>1Q84. </i><br />
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Sometimes the world pleases me.<br />
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ttfn, readers.chris kammerudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04141499605179239464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4397434386500604903.post-45320547101426884952011-10-21T22:45:00.001+09:002011-10-21T22:53:31.163+09:00Zone OneVisit Strange Horizons for my<a href="http://www.strangehorizons.com/reviews/2011/10/zone_one_by_col.shtml"> review of Zone One</a>, the zombie-tastic novel by <a href="http://www.strangehorizons.com/reviews/2011/10/zone_one_by_col.shtml">Colson Whitehead</a>.<br />
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The zombies have won. After wizards, vampires, and a brief fling with the possibility of werewolves, the results are in. Shaun of the Dead. Generation Dead. The Walking Dead. Zombies vs. Unicorns. Etc. Popular culture has arrived at a point where it craves a monster both overwhelming in number and completely devoid of spirit. Our world, for better or worse, belongs now to the dead and to those that love them. #yay.</blockquote>
Also, TIME has this <a href="http://entertainment.time.com/2011/10/15/origins-colson-whitehead-on-pop-culture-zombies/">video </a>of Whitehead discussing Zone One's influences, including <i>Death Wish</i>, <i>Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things</i>, and other horribly wonderful bits of pop culture.<br />
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ttfn, readers.<br />
<br />chris kammerudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04141499605179239464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4397434386500604903.post-90842029243408496502011-10-21T20:01:00.000+09:002011-10-21T20:04:47.879+09:00Dropbox: The Inside Story<a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/victoriabarret/2011/10/18/dropbox-the-inside-story-of-techs-hottest-startup/">Victoria Barrett writing in Forbes</a> on the matter of the cloud-syncing wonder-storage-thing called <a href="http://db.tt/Mbo33kL">Dropbox</a>. Much is made of the meeting between Drew Houston (Dropbox founder) and Steve Jobs, as well as the increasingly present cumulus-oriented competition of Apple, Google, and Amazon.<br />
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What Houston does is Dropbox, the digital storage service that has surged to 50 million users, with another joining every second. Jobs presciently saw this sapling as a strategic asset for Apple. Houston cut Jobs’ pitch short: He was determined to build a big company, he said, and wasn’t selling, no matter the status of the bidder (Houston considered Jobs his hero) or the prospects of a nine-digit price (he and Ferdowsi drove to the meeting in a Zipcar Prius).</blockquote>
I use <a href="http://db.tt/Mbo33kL">Dropbox </a>to transfer presentations from my office computer, to my laptop, to the computer in the classroom where I teach. It's also where I backup my writing and share pictures and things with my far-away sister.<br />
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It's a kind of magic*.<br />
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ttfn, readers.<br />
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*Queen reference (cue whooshy wind sound effect).<br />
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<br />chris kammerudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04141499605179239464noreply@blogger.com0