Wizzing on the 700 mile Fence
So yesterday Son George signed the bill making the 700 mile fence a reality. Whose reality is it though? The price tag for the fence is estimated at $2 billion to $7 billion, and the new law only gives them $1.2 billion. The new law actually says that they don't need to spend the money on the wall at all. Maybe we spend the money building Taco Bells every 20 miles or so and introduce Mexican cuisine to the newly arrived Mexicans.
Gee, maybe this isn't about building walls. Maybe it is about what "is" is all over again.
And how do the Mexicans feel about the wall. The Washington Post had the following quote, "a unilateral measure that goes against the spirit of understanding that should characterize how shared problems between neighboring countries are handled and that affects cooperation in the hemisphere."
If I were the Mexicans I would call the cops. "Our fuckin' neighbors are too loud and they are building a fence too close to the goddamn property line".
13 Tzameti
I have been waiting a long time for this movie to come out in theaters. It starts tonight for one week only at the lagoon theater in uptown.
It is the story of a hard working, clean living, young family man who takes a chance to make some extra money for his family when one of his customers dies. His customer has an envelope that leads our hero to eventually participate in some underground gambling games where people bet on lives of other people who are put it dire circumstances.
Watching the trailer for this it looks both intense and surreal.
Have you ever been really scared?
I've always enjoyed getting scared. It is the one emotion that really is trilling. I try to watch horror movies when I am alone. I especially like them when there is a storm going on and of course all of the lights need to be turned off.
The idea of a haunted house has always intrigued me. There are so many ways to set the right mood. You can use lighting, music and the building materials. Pure darkness works as does very tight constricted spaces. I have been to many of these but none have ever lived up to their potential. They usually end up being funny or geared towards kids.
The Soap Factory in Minneapolis is using their basement space this year to put on what they promise will be a real scare. A real haunted house for adults. I want to go so badly and I want to go with someone who really scares easily. My wife fits this perfectly but she would never go with me.
Welcome To My New House
So this is it. I have a new look. After 8 years of online blogging I thought it was time for a little sophistication. I will slowly be adding my archives and rss feed. Please leave comments and we can disagree to agree.
At first I wasn't sure about using blog software, but I got sick of having to to use an ftp program to upload my updates. Hopefully this software will workout.
Now get on with it.
CyberDudes
USA Today exposes the online wars between hackers.
"It's like Iceman created the Wal-Mart of the underground," says Dan Clements, CEO of CardCops, an identity-theft-prevention company. "Anything you need to commit your crimes, you can get in his forum."
Puppies
I will confess right up front, I am half deaf. A big thank you to all the drummers in my life (Cymbals will get you every time). I half hear any conversation that isn't right in front of me.
So today I was dropping my daughter off at school and overheard the overly happy school crossing lady having a short conversation with a small girl named Brianna.
Crossing Guard: Good morning Brianna! How is that puppy?
Brianna: He's dead.
Crossing Guard: That's great! Have a great Day!
Sqeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeze Me
I've written 2 or 3 times about how great Slim Devices SqueezeBox is. For those who don't know, the SqueezeBox is a wireless box that you add to your home network and plug speakers or your stereo into it. From there you stream all of the music that you have on your home computer to it wirelessly. The box works flawlessly. It is simple and they work with the open source community to improve their product. I have had the SqueezeBox for 2 years and Slim Devices has made many, many improvements to it at no cost to me.
Well now they have been bought by Logitech. I've also written 2 or 3 times about them. They completely suck as a product manufacture. They put out products that don't install well and then put out even worse driver updates that foul up your computer even more. This might be stretching things as they have improved their mouse products significantly as of late, but on the whole they blow.
So as you can see I am a bit nervous by this news. It is an old story. Awesome small garage company gets bought out by large company and slowly gets ruined. For now the news says that Logitech is going to leave Slim Devices alone, but I give them about 9 months before greed will kick in. After all it is the American Way.
Cave Dwelling at the Walker Art Center
Like a total eclipse of the sun, once in awhile 2 art exhibits cross paths that bring the world into perfect harmony. It is the grudge match of the year. Cave vs Cave, Cameron Jamie vs. Thomas Hirschhorn. It's this Saturday and Sunday only. It's at the Walker Art Center. Please Go.
Cameron Jamie's "Maps and Composite Actions 2001-2004" closes on Sunday, October 22nd.
Thomas Hirschhorn's "Cavemanman" is part of the "Hearts of Darkness" exhibit that opens Saturday, October 21st.
The Walker Art Center keeps upping the weirdness factor by bringing in artists who push the boundaries of what art is and what the limits of the art going audience will appreciate. I say keep going.
Califone vs. Elizabeth Smart vs Arianna Huffington vs. Suicide Girls
My friends Tim and Ben of the musical group Califone wanted me to ask you all to spread the word that they will be performing this Friday night (10/20) at the 400 Bar, in Minneapolis. Please go see them, say hi and give them love. Also please pass this message on to every music loving person you might know in the conjoined Twin Cities area.
As I am sure many of you will agonize over the decision of which to do, watch 20/20 and the local news or go see Califone at the 400 Bar. Let me just tell you that 20/20 this week is a mash up of John Mark Karr claiming to have abducted Utah Teen Elizabeth Smart and selling her to Neverland Ranch as a Carney. Then when Neverland Ranch closes down Smart and other gifted and beautiful carnies start their own online site to compete with Suicide Girls. The site, called Carney Girls, is financed by Arianna Huffington and is a complete failure when it was exposed that all of the models teeth were photoshoped to resemble Shannen Doherty. The reason behind the teeth was a ridiculous idea that instead of tattoos, Carney Girls would be smokers.
All that I'm trying to say is that this will be on YouTube forever and ever. As for the local news, you might want to set up your VCR, Tivo and have your parents record it because it should never be missed.
Now go see Califone and tell your friends to go.
So what if you got a DUI when you were 17? It’s not on your record now, or is it?
That joint you got busted for 7 years ago or the open bottle that got you a night in the clink may be now expunged from your record but those records were sold to a database clearinghouse years ago and will be around to haunt you when you least expect it. The NY Times blows the lid off this baby.
Book Reading and Other Contact Sports
I went to the Twin Cities Book Festival yesterday. There was a nice crowd and lots of small publishers and retailers including my local haunts Big Brain Comics and Micawbers Books. I went to see a reading by Mark Z. Danielewski. I've been struggling with his new book which comes off more as Beat Poetry or the 60's experimental verse of Ishmael Reed then as text in a fictional story.
After listening to the question and answer period things are a little more clear. The 2 characters are forever 16 years old and forever in love. They are experiencing events together at different times in history. I will read on.
Home Again, parked on the couch, watchin’ the tube
The reason that I write about TV is that my wife tells me that I watch so much TV that I should be a critic. Well I think that my grammar needs to be better, but yes I do watch way to much TV.
So now we are a few weeks into the new season and yes my record from last year of enjoying shows that get cancelled is probably going to carry over to this year. I like Vanished which airs Monday nights on Fox. It has lots of freemason and government conspiracy crap. I like that stuff. The show has now vanished. Maybe it is the baseball playoffs that has Fox screwing with their schedule but I smell a dump.
There are 2 other shows that I really like that are new this year. Dexter, which airs on Sunday nights on Showtime, is about a serial killer who hunts other serial killers. He himself is being stalked by a serial killer so it has some good round robin playoff type thing going.
My other favorite is Heroes, which is about a group of people who suddenly start having super hero like powers. There are all kinds of weird things going on, like a painter who paints the future and has painted a nuked out New York City. There is also someone hunting down the people with these new powers.
Of my shows that I from previous years that I still watch, here is a list: Battlestar Galactica, Criminal Minds, CSI (original), Dr. Who, Extras, Frontline, Lost, My Name Is Earl, The Office, Prison Break, The Wire, Veronica Mars, Weeds and Without a Trace.
Louisville: Day 4 or is it 128
I think I have finally seen everything this city has to offer by way of paid culture. Now I could start going neighborhood by neighborhood but hell I'm not moving here or anything. It's a nice town and I'll leave it at that.
I did find a great comic book store by the name of "The Great Escape". I think they are a chain around the Kentucky Tennessee area, but they had the feel of a mom and pop store. The people were friendly and the store was packed. They also sell used cds, vinyl, video tapes and dvds. It is always nice to know that in the age of incompetent government we can still get the comics out on Wednesdays.
Louisville: Day 2 and 3
I've done a bit more exploring in Louisville and this seems like such a nice town. The people are friendly and the wi-fi is plenty. Nobody seems to mind that I am an anti-Bush, anti-War, Blue State, NY Times reading, Left Winger. I didn't even get comments when I wore my "One Nation Under Surveillance" t-shirt.
Yesterday I went back up Bardstown Road and did a little shopping. I went to a great little bookstore named Carmichael's and a cool underground toy/art store called Kopilot.
Carmichael's was a small store that is packed to roof. They are also next to a great coffee shop called Heine Bros Coffee. They had free wi-fi and their coffee was actually good!
Today I stayed mostly downtown and the highlights were 21C Museum Hotel and the Muhammad Ali Center.
21C is a high price hotel but in it is a first class free contemporary art museum. This is at the top of my list of things to do in Louisville, even if it only takes 45 minutes to an hour to see everything. Just the fact that this city has this gallery and the New Center show that this is great art town.
The Ali center is a nice enough place although I won't say it was great. The introduction documentary was entertaining and the video footage that you see as you walk through the museum are great. What I didn't like was that they put everything up in a collage like manner and they used a hundred different font types and font sizes. If made it very hard to focus and just follow through from beginning to end.
The part that I did like was that you could watch any of his fights. They had them all available and they were edited to just fight time. If a fight was 5 rounds then it was 15 minutes to watch.
There were two parts of the museum that were just artistic in nature. The first was a room of Howard L Bingham photos. Howard took many pictures of Ali and they were friends. The photos in this gallery are not boxing related but more to do with the struggles of the nation during the sixties and seventies.
The second gallery was painting of of LeRoy Neiman. He had worked with Ali through most of career. I have always disliked his work but I will admit that these were better than any of his other pieces that I have seen.
Do You Love Slides?
I have always loved slides. This year for Thanksgiving my whole family is going to the Dells to ride all of the water slides we can find.
But this is nothing compared to what they have at the Tate Modern in London. The Unilever Series is by German artist Carsten Holler. He is installing slides all over the Turbine Hall with the tallest one being 5 stories tall.
