Richard Allan Baruz: Hostage to Crap

Thu, 14 Nov 2002 04:36:29 GMT

What was I saying? Right, Future Bible Heroes. Whenever I hear Claudia Gonson sing “I’m a Vampire” on my whatever I have playing it, I keep trying to imagine her doing it with aplomb—that is, without cracking up onstage. She does that sometimes. The song calls for an unrepentant glam-banger of a she-vamp, and I’m not sure she could pull it off onstage, with a Freddy Mercury-like presence rather than a barely-suppressed (if that!) smirk.

Tue, 12 Nov 2002 04:59:34 GMT

Da Loosh wants to be re-catapulted into fame again with his discovery of a new music search engine and its graphical representation of its...well, graphs. GNOD and Gnoosic.

Mon, 11 Nov 2002 03:31:09 GMT

Picked up the latest Tori Amos album, Scarlet’s Walk. I went the special edition route. While on the subject of Tori Amos, one thing about my (second) cousin Nina whose wedding I attended a few weeks ago. Her first dance with her husband was to a Tori Amos piano piece, a cover of Led Zeppelin. How cool is that?

Sun, 10 Nov 2002 21:45:06 GMT

The Apple Store at Menlo Park opened yesterday. I looked through it today, having been zonked yesterday. It has a smaller selection of software than both Tice’s Corner and Short Hills, but it has the same amount of hardware on display, or so I note. As with other Apple Stores, it seems to be disproportionately populated by salespeople, which means to me high margins and low pay, but what do I know? Of course within five minutes of walking in I spot three things I. Want. Now. Yet resisted the temptation, but how long can I hold out?

Sun, 10 Nov 2002 21:07:04 GMT

I heard Joseph Frame at Borders. He played that Castillan tune, Romanza, as arranged by Edgar Cruz with some personal touches of his own. My own rendition suffers horribly by comparison. I was impressed how he worked in some of the ornamentation. The question is, how much more serious with the guitar can I get without more formal instruction and theory? For that matter, how much further can I get without at least some modicum of dedication to it?

Sun, 10 Nov 2002 07:59:57 GMT

Shoot. I forgot that today was the last day of the run of Burn This, my favorite contemporary play. Er, yesterday. Sigh. I suck.

Sun, 10 Nov 2002 05:32:30 GMT

Friday, I had managed to change Netscape stations in the lab to Jazz Singers from Classic Rock that the Vietnam vets listen to. Seventies rock is not my strong suit, though I enjoy most of it. I can name many fewer jazz singers, especially male ones, than I can name seventies rockers, but I find the music to be less intrusive material in a work environment. Strangely, I remember hearing a lot of Fitzgerald, but no Holliday.

Your blogger, ripping off content for fun and, um, profit?

Sun, 10 Nov 2002 04:55:39 GMT

Dan Rydell: The story is, we had a conversation, seriously. Someone had clearly briefed her on my stuff with the public schools, and I told her about my opposition to secular programs that are publicly financed, I really spoke up and she seemed to listen.
Casey McCall: You mean nonsecular.
[beat] What do you mean?
You don’t oppose secular programs that are publicly financed, you oppose nonsecular programs that are publicly financed.
[beat] Yes.
Go on.
Wait.
I’m right.
You’re sure?
Nonsecular means, “bound to religious guidelines.” Secular means, “free of religion.”
[Thinking] Okay. I’m sure I got it right at breakfast.
Uh huh, 50/50 chance. [Sits down, sighs] So go on.
[Abstracted] I’m gonna go... I’m going to change my clothes. [drops clothes] I didn’t get it right.
I know.
I blew it.
Yes.
I mixed up. I inverted the definitions of secular and nonsecular.
Looks like that might be the case.
Hillary Clinton thinks I’m an idiot.
Either that or a religious bigot.
I went to an Ivy League school, Casey.
Proud day for Dartmouth, Dan.
I made an idiot of myself in front of Hillary Clinton.
Yeah, but at least you had to spend a thousand bucks to do it.
[Sighs] Well, clearly I have to get in touch with her.
Clearly.
I need her to know that I know the difference between secular and nonsecular.
You don’t know the difference between secular and nonsecular.
Yeah, but I do now and I should’ve then. I have to call her.
At this point I’d say it’s a moral imperative.
I’ll call her hotel.
They’ll put you right through.
I’m not saying it’s not going to take perseverance, but I’m going to make contact with this woman.
Good luck.
Thank you.

—Dan Rydell, Casey McCall
“When something wicked this way comes,” Sports Night

*Technically secular means “worldly.” You can have a secular priest*: one who goes out and preaches among the people, instead of living the monastic life. This has been extended to any priest not a member of a religious order. One of the sources of discontent with the Spanish regime in the Philippines was the limited opportunities for the native* priests, who were typically trained in the secular tradition, while the priests that administered Masses and received parishes were typically Spanish priests from the religious orders. *At the time, the term “Filipinos” referred to the descendants of the Spanish colonizers; the indigenous Malay peoples were referred to as indios and their regional affiliation*, such as: indios tagalog, indios visayan, etc. Another source of discontent. *I actually got into an argument on Moxie’s site because of this. I pointed out that Bible classes are by definition nonsecular. Someone jumped all over me writing that secular also applies to priests, pointing out a dictionary definition. I kindly refained from unleashing my thoughts on his or her ignorance, then pointed out to Moxie that she probably meant non-sectarian Bible study class. People who make silly judgments in writing about other people on the basis of dictionary definitions without the benefits of real knowledge of how the word actually is used deserve all that you can give them, but I just don’t have the energy sometimes. *I myself am the son of a Cebuano and a Tarlaqueño Kapampangan, born in Roosevelt Hospital, so I suppose I do fit in Ravenwolf’s New York Bloggers blogroll*. *Though I live in New Jersey. [update: whoops, messed up Doc Weevil’s link. There it is. Also some spelling corrections.]

Sun, 10 Nov 2002 04:48:51 GMT

Here another Saturday night and I ain’t got nobody; I got some money ’cause I just got paid.
Now how I wish I had some chick to talk to—I’m in an awful way.

—Sam Cooke, “Another Saturday Night”

Sat, 09 Nov 2002 04:48:18 GMT

I saw Spirited Away some weeks ago at the Neshaminy Mall on Route One, on someone’s advice. While browsing through a bookstore I saw the comics “adaptation” of this movie. They pretty much took cels from the movie and slapped word balloons on them. Why?

Fri, 08 Nov 2002 04:02:40 GMT

Has anyone ever noticed how on Without a Trace that in each episode, at some point in the story, Poppy Montgomery bends down to point something out to a coworker? Not flashing the audience, but almost. Just wondering.

Wed, 06 Nov 2002 17:02:42 GMT

Whoever was looking for information about Rita Dove’s “Parsley,” it’s over here. Next time, young feller, do your homework earlier at night! And check the Google caches if it’s not on the front page.

Sun, 03 Nov 2002 02:21:47 GMT

An oldie, but Paul Graham writes for the ages. Good design...

...is simple
...is timeless
...solves the right problem
...is suggestive
...is often slightly funny
...is hard
...looks easy
...uses symmetry
...resembles nature
...is redesign
...can copy
...is often strange
...happens in chunks
...is often daring

Sun, 03 Nov 2002 02:20:49 GMT

C. Wright Mills, in one (or more?) of his works on sociology, lists (listed if you consider the man in time and place, dead alas of a motorbike incident, though we are speaking of books, or more properly, writing of books, or rather a book, which is speaking or ought to speak to us from infinite time, but of course I digress) three means or routes to power—coercion, authority, and manipulation. Coercion and manipulation—force and fraud—are the basis of comedy or so I read somewhere, perhaps Maurice Charney? Or not. Anyway, if that is the case, then perhaps the exploration of authority and how characters relate to it is the basis of tragedy? Quick examples: Hamlet—yes; the Œdipus plays, yes; Romeo and Juliet—yes. Any counterexamples? Hm. Something to think on. Although, come to think of it, there is proper, condign, acknowledged power—authority—in comedy, as well. Midsummer Night’s Dream. But in such plays as those proper authority is subverted by force or fraud: say, by pixie dust in the eyes and a merry Robin Goodfellow. Twelfth Night has an authoritative power who is brought low by the power of love; its exercise never comes up. The hijinx occur due to fraud (cross-dressing, ghostwritten letters) and force (bullying and mockery). Tragedy seems to depend on some defiance or loss of authority. One thinks of one of the progenitors of the form, Prometheus Bound. In Romeo and Juliet the two warring families defy the Prince. Or perhaps tragedy originates in the violation of authority, where something is wrong with the natural order, and people try to put it right: Hamlet. Or there is a conflict between the exercise of authoritative power and the natural order: Elektra.

Why I have not been blogging much of late

Sat, 26 Oct 2002 06:37:25 GMT

Mike thinks his earthy approach is all that. And Paul thinks he has reached the heights of wordy goodness. But I have got it all over them, up, down, and sideways. I have for it. Mwu-hah-hah-ha haha snrk. On a somewhat unrelated note, did you know that spittoon and torrents are not words? Nuh uh, if they don’t show up in Bookworm, they’re not words in my book. Tripoli and Honda are words, but Jones is not. Needsleepnow. Nope, not a word.

Thu, 24 Oct 2002 00:10:19 GMT

Huh. I had never realized that it was that easy. My thanks to pinax at Goliard Dream for pointing it out to me! And here I was, thinking that I would have to learn craft! Pfft. (Is the writer, Nick Lowe, the musician, Nick Lowe? This piece was written in the eighties!)

Tue, 22 Oct 2002 04:54:50 GMT

...disgraceful...short-sighted...killers...Farscape is canceled, but you can always watch medium John Edwards. Vivendi would rather numb your brain and prey upon your frailties than make you think

Sun, 20 Oct 2002 07:13:04 GMT

Whoa! Jonathan Carroll has a new novel out? How did I not hear about this? Oh, right, general apathy and hiding in my hotel room vegging out. Thanks, Jon Hansen (the plush Cthulhu guy)! White Apples...gotta remember that one next time I go to a bookstore.

Sun, 20 Oct 2002 06:59:36 GMT

There should be a law against allowing me to drive anywhere near a bookstore. I saw the ninetieth-anniversary issue of Poetry, seems doubly thick. Lots of poets! Kenneth Koch and John Frederick Nims, both dead, alas. Stephen Dobyns, “Aphorisms”—who does he think he is, Wallace Stevens? Rachel is not in this one, though she was in the eighty-fifth; I’m sure she’ll be in the hundredth. Prominently displayed was Nick Bantock’s latest in the Griffin and Sabine series, which I had thought finished with book three, The Golden Mean! So of course I have to pick up the one before as well: so now I am loaded with books four and five, Gryphon and Alexandria. I haven’t read the original three for years, but apparently in this set, Griffin and Sabine are shepherding two new correspondents together. Or something like that. Ah the sensous feel of sifting through someone else’s prettily designed mail! Some expensive computer books that I had come in for, including W Richard Stevens (alas!) on Unix programming.

Fri, 18 Oct 2002 00:03:22 GMT

Pass the Wensleydale, Gromit! Mike Whybark points to Aardman’s W & G site where you can download a free Wallance and Gromit clip. Yay! [Thanks, Mike!]

Wed, 16 Oct 2002 22:19:28 GMT

What was I saying earlier? Oh, right, where does one get a plush Cthulhu? Here’s the answer(s), straight from the ravening, gibbering mouth of the storyteller himself!

Sun, 13 Oct 2002 22:50:25 GMT

Web opens up poetry world. A young poet from Northamptonshire is one of a new breed branching out on the internet. [BBC News | TECHNOLOGY]

Sun, 13 Oct 2002 04:50:34 GMT

Jenny points to Alan Graham’s idea to send a once-read book to your Congressman—glued shut—to point out how copyright extension hurts people. They wonder which book. I think Uncle Tom’s Cabin may be the book. It is in the public domain now, but imagine if this book had not spread the way it did. Until this book came along, slavery was a states’ rights issue. This book made the moral case against slavery, in a way that may have been maudlin, but effective. It shut up northern sympathizers (I know New York and New Jersey were strongholds for these bastards) with the Southern cause, and helped erode diplomatic support for the Southern states abroad. It was published serially 150 years ago, to a very limited audience of avowed abolitionist fanatics who subscribed to Washington National Era. Imagine if these people had not been able to pass on their used copies to their compatriots or their enemies; it would never have gotten the attention that it did, enough to catch the attention of a publisher. The book went on to sell throughout the world. I think it fair to say that the destruction of slavery was intimately tied to loose standards of copyright protection. Some more history

Sun, 13 Oct 2002 03:04:05 GMT

Perhaps the reason I don’t write more (any?) poetry is because I devote my creativity to much more important aspects of my life, such as devising interesting new excuses for being late to work. Seriously, I was brimming with ideas after the Dodge Poetry Festival 2002; in fact, I was cobbling together iambs and trochees on the way home. Two days later, driving to work, in the same echoing chamber in my head, I was trying to sound out some plausible reason for coming in forty minutes later than usual.

Sat, 12 Oct 2002 01:05:45 GMT

The redoubtable Andrew Plotkin likes Rhem. Best of all, Mac support! Bad news: I don’t have time.