June 03, 2008
Garfield-free Garfield
Simply brilliant: photoshop the main character out of one of the most insipid and un-funny comic strips and you get Garfield Minus Garfield, a delightfully existential exploration of the mind of a mildly insane man. I'm torn between thinking that it reveals a depth to Garfield's characterization that I hadn't previously given the strip credit for and thinking that making the strip better by removing the main character reveals just how crappy Garfield really is.
Now the New York Times has gotten hip to Garfield Minus Garfield
Posted June 3, 2008 05:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
April 11, 2008
Best Game Ever
Improv Everywhere pulls public stunts that usually have a tinge of the bizarre. They're probably best known for their annual -- yes, annual -- No Pants Day where, at a pre-determined time on a pre-determined date, thousands of people worldwide drop their trousers in major subway systems and ride the trains in full pants-free glory. Frequently, their pranks poke fun at corporate targets, e.g. getting 80 people to dress up like Best Buy employees and loiter around a specific Best Buy answering questions and being friendly or having 100+ shirtless men pose in an Abercrombie & Fitch store that had a shirtless male model as a greeter.
But the Best Game Ever prank is by far the best prank ever. Not only does it create a public spectacle, but it brings joy to a bunch of kids by turning a random, everyday little league game into a major league event covered by NBC Sports, complete with Jumbotron, Goodyear blimp, and chest-painted fans.
[via Kottke]
Posted April 11, 2008 06:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
April 03, 2008
Shover Robot in 2008!
If you don't get the reference, it's from this, which as we learn here is derived from this. Thus ends this week's lesson in old school Internet memes.
PAK CHOOIE UNF!
Posted April 3, 2008 07:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
February 05, 2008
My Theory on "Lost"
I'm not a huge Lost fan, especially since it employs such a painfully slow and opaque storytelling technique. But I'm enough of a fan (and, apparently, enough of a geek) that I've got a theory on why the castaways are on the Island. This theory came together watching the final episode of last season, titled "Through the Looking Glass," which was re-broadcast last week. I twittered about it right before the season premiere so as to cement a public record of my interpretive and prognostication abilities.
So here's the clues I picked up on.
First clue: Jack mentions his father twice in the episode: once at a pharmacist when he tries to fill a prescription ostensibly written by his father, and a second time when, after the new chief of surgery asks Jack how much he's had to drink, Jack tells him to get his father down here to see who's more drunk.
We know Jack's father to be dead; picking up his body from Australia was the whole reason he was on the plane that crashed. Both references could be explained away by of Jack's decline into drinking and drugs.
Or . . . Jack's father is alive when he shouldn't be.
Second clue: Several episodes back in last season, in the episode titled "The Brig," Naomi falls from a crashing helicopter with a parachute. When it's explained to her that the island's inhabitants are the survivors of the crashed Oceanic flight, she says that's not possible because the crash site was found and submersible robots confirmed all the bodies were on the plane.
Again, you can explain that in various ways. Maybe it's a cover up, maybe Naomi has a reason to lie, etc.
Or . . . our crew on the island appears to be alive when they shouldn't be.
Two instances last season that reference people who shouldn't being alive as alive.
Third clue: The last episode of last season was called "Through the Looking Glass," a reference to the Lewis Carroll's indentically titled sequel to Alice in Wonderland. In Looking Glass, Alice passes through a mirror into an alternate world where everything is backwards or at least off-kilter. At least so far, the "Through the Looking Glass" episode marks a turning point in the Lost narrative structure, specifically the replacement of flashbacks of the castaways life before the island with flashforwards of some of the castaways life after the island.
Fourth clue: At the end of the "Through the Looking Glass" episode, Jack meets with Kate. Both have been rescued, and Jack is apparently not dealing with it well. He tells Kate they weren't supposed to leave and that he's looking for a way back to the island.
Conclusion: the island is some sort of nexus between parallel worlds. In the castaway's world, their plane got caught up in . . . well, whatever the event was that Desmond triggred, and that caused their plane to crash on the nexus/island. In Naomi's world, Oceanic 815 crashed into a trench and all the bodies were identified. In the world that Jack, Kate, and Hurley escape to Jack's father is still alive. And so forth and so on.
It doesn't wrap up everything in a neat little bow. Like it doesn't explain the wacky smoke clouds, the polar bears, Jacob, Locke's healing abilities, the original inhabitants, etc etc etc. But it is an operating theory. I'm now interested in going back and watching some of the old episodes to see if I can pick up on other clues.
Ah, good old, narrative analysis. It's like being an English major again. ;-)
Posted February 5, 2008 08:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
April 29, 2004
Free Wireless on the National Mall
Open Park is a Washington, DC, non-profit setting up public open wireless Internet access points on the National Mall.
Coverage is pretty limited now, but maybe soon I'll be working from the sculpture garden at the Hirshorn. :-)
Posted April 29, 2004 09:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
April 20, 2004
Prison destroys inmates writing
firstamendmentcenter.org: news:
HARTFORD, Conn. -- Prison officials destroyed computer files containing inmates' personal writing days after a prisoner won a national writing award, best-selling author Wally Lamb said.Heinous! The PEN American Center should do something in response.
Lamb, who teaches a creative-writing workshop at the York Correctional Facility in East Lyme, said yesterday that 15 female inmates lost up to five years of work when officials at the prison's school ordered all hard drives used for the class erased and its computer disks turned over.
Posted April 20, 2004 12:43 PM | Permalink
April 15, 2004
Clothing Without Sewing
Given that I can't sew or knit, this might be the only way I can ever "make" my own clothes.
Posted April 15, 2004 06:13 AM | Permalink
April 06, 2004
Messing with a Good Thing
The new Schwinn Sting-Ray is an abomination.
This is what a Sting-Ray should be. Okay, technically, that's a Sting-Ray Junior which was my ride back in the early 70's. (The photo's not of my own bike, but of one I found listed on eBay, pretty nearly the same model that I had, except mine had a white seat.) Sure, I took some flack for the slightly smaller chopper bars and lower profile of the Junior, but I was a small kid and it fit.
And, better yet, six or seven years later every kid in the neighborhood was eating their hearts out when I stripped my candy apple red Sting-Ray Junior down to its frame and rebuilt it as the coolest damn BMX bike in the Brighton Green subdivision. New wheels, new seat, new handlebars, new pedals, new front forks, and I even kept the rear coaster brakes.
Ahh, I wish I had a picture of that tricked out BMX Sting-Ray now. Classic!
Posted April 6, 2004 06:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
February 05, 2004
Jimmy Carter Blog
Former President Jimmy Carter is blogging his trip to West Africa. It's a bit dry and stat-laden and mostly about Guinea worm disease, but it's nice to see that the idea of recording thoughts publicly is catching on with former presidents. Bill? George the First? Anything to say?
[link via BoingBoing]
Posted February 5, 2004 07:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
A Wonk Too Far
Wonkette is Gawker for DC. I'm still not sure we needed Gawker-for-DC, and Wonkette seems to have the beat-a-dead-horse syndrome that won't let her stop trying out new angles on semi-stories that weren't really compelling in the first place.
Posted February 5, 2004 07:38 AM | Permalink
Superbowl Ads of Yore
Evan has a great "where are they now?" entry on all the dot-coms that bought Superbowl 2000 ads. Surprise: many, if not most, are still operating and some are profitable.
Posted February 5, 2004 07:30 AM | Permalink
December 17, 2003
French President Proposes Ban on Religious Symbols
From the Washington Post, Chirac Urges French School Ban on Muslim Headscarves:
French President Jacques Chirac asked parliament on Wednesday for a law banning Islamic head scarves and other religious insignia in public schools. . . "Secularism is one of the great successes of the Republic," Chirac said in an address to the nation. "It is a crucial element of social peace and national cohesion. We cannot let it weaken."Chirac said he would push for a law to be enacted in time for the school year that begins next autumn. Islamic head scarves, Jewish skullcaps and large crucifixes would fall under the ban.
Sigh. Just when I thought we might be able to refer to "freedom fries" as "french fries" again, Chirac has to go make an ass of himself.
For the record, I'm a bleeding-heart liberal secular agnostic. Effective separation of church and state requires the government to stamp out government-mandated or -sponsored religious symbology (the Ten Commandments do not belong in courthouses, for example).
However, governments shouldn't require individuals to stamp out their own personal expressions of faith in public settings.
Posted December 17, 2003 01:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
December 10, 2003
Global Attention Profiles
Global Attention Profiles maps the attention paid to each country on the planet by different US media outlets on a daily basis.
Posted December 10, 2003 12:41 AM | Permalink
December 06, 2003
Prescience (Or The Lack Thereof)
So back in the late 80's, when I was an undergraduate with aspirations of being the Great American Novelist and cable television was 40 channels instead of 500, I was greatly amused by the fact that CNN had launched a second 24-hour news channel called Headline News. Why in the world would we need two 24-hour news channels, I thought. Certainly just the one is already overkill.
Ahem.
Anyway, so amused was I, that I began a draft of a satirical novel about the absurd fragmentation of the television industry into narrow niche channels. Said novel (which I never got more than about 40 or so pages into) was to track the lives of two characters at CCN, the Cable Cooking Network. Har har har, I chuckled to myself, pleased with my satirical genius. Sports? News? Sure. But certainly there would never be an entire network devoted to cooking shows!
Ahem.
Fast forward to the turn of the century. Survivor debuts and I am briefly fascinated with the absurdity of the so-called reality television trend. Again, I toyed with the idea of writing a satirical take on this, something so ridiculous that it would never be done, like, say, a reality show that has its contestants running for President of the United States. I even seriously considered timing said satirical story for the 2004 elections to maximize marketability.
Oh ferchrissakes. Friggin' ahem, already!
So what are the lessons I should take away from this?
- I'm a prescient genius who should be in California making a bazillion dollars "developing" the Next Big Thing.
- I'm a damn idiot for not being that prescient genius.
Posted December 6, 2003 07:57 AM | Permalink
November 30, 2003
Signs of Civilization's Collapse
Yesterday, I departed my parent's house at 3pm to drive back to my home in Capitol Hill in the District. Six and a half hours later I arrived there. That might not have been phenomenal if my parent's lived in Wilmington, NC, or Providence, RI. But my parents still live in the same house I grew up in on the southside of Richmond, VA, a scant 114 miles, door-to-door, from my current abode. At almost exactly 6.5 hours that gives me an average speed of about 17.5 miles an hour through the eastern seaboard parking lot formerly known as Interstate 95 North.
In all likelihood, it could have been much worse than that. I took almost two hours and fifteen minutes to get from Richmond to Doswell, VA, barely 30 miles. At that point, I got off of I-95 and hopped on US Route 1 North which moved at a pretty normal pace until Fredericksburg, where Route 1 North turned into a parking lot as well. After it took me more than an hour to get about eight miles through Fredericksburg, I turned back south (the southbound lanes being virtually traffic free) and caught Route 3 east to 301 North, crossed the Potomac on 301 (the only bridge across the Potomac east of DC) and came into DC through southern Maryland.
The detour tacked an extra 40-45 miles onto the trip and may not have saved me any time in the long run (Fredricksburg to DC via 3 and 301 is just under 90 miles . . . and it still took two and a half hours, thanks to having to merge to single lane for the bridge and passing through the shopping center hell of Waldorf, MD). However, it did at least allow me to actually drive at over 20 MPH for a good portion of that leg, which did wonders for my sanity.
The emergent properties of traffic are kind of interesting: small perturbations at one point (merging, single accidents, even rubbernecking) can result in jams at that or even other areas on the road.
On the other hand, when you've been stop-start inching along the interstate for four hours, never getting above 15 miles an hour for more than 30 yards, it's really very uninteresting.
Posted November 30, 2003 02:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
November 24, 2003
Zombie Butchers in Aisle 5
After some analysis of California supermarket strikes and a not-too-far-off-topic (but-still-kinda-self-indulgent) digression into Where I Shop And Why, Evan finally drifts into my favorite topic of the week and makes a few excellent points:
Wal-Mart is simply on the leading edge of a very large price signal, and the ultimate end of this process isn't Wal-Mart's current $9 per hour with no benefits, but zero dollars per hour: ten years from now, no matter where you shop or whether the management is good or evil or indifferent, there will be no such thing as a human bagger or checkout clerk in any discount store....one trivial application of universal radio-frequency tags in products will be taking a cartful of goods and rolling it through a radio scanner with a credit-card slot on the side. Human baggers are going to vanish much faster than human telephone operators did.
and
[T]he very notion of a "supermarket" rests on the destruction of a long list of what once were lifelong professions: all those small bakeries now replaced by machine-made loaves of bread trucked out from a central factory in the dead of night; all those butcher shops, delis, pasta-makers, crafters of sauces and pickles, photo-development booths, and all the other specialties now rolled into one building with fewer people in it. I'm guessing that each job of "supermarket bagger" is built on the grave of a dozen or more former jobs.
I can't help but think that this is a great premise for a very wonky horror movie. The Wal-mart is built on the economic graveyard of long-dead professions . . . that now rise from the dead as zombie butchers, zombie bakers, and zombie checkout clerks with a taste for brains!!
Posted November 24, 2003 11:30 AM | Permalink
November 23, 2003
The $245 Billion Stealth Weapon
Okay, is it just me waking up to the phenomena, or is Wal-mart getting a lot of fairly negative press from multiple directions all of a sudden.?
The Los Angeles Times started a three-part series on Wal-Mart today: An Empire Built on Bargains Remakes the Working World (no-cost registration required).
What was the tipping point that triggered all this examination of Wal-mart's impact?
Can it be that big honkin' warehouse-size stores full of gallon jars of pickles and cheap jeans aren't as sexy as operating system monopolies?
Posted November 23, 2003 06:28 PM | Permalink
November 18, 2003
Forget Microsoft, Forget Vampires
Want something to be afraid of? Try Wal-Mart. This article, "The Wal-Mart You Don't Know," from Fast Company, sent chills along my spine.
Addendum: Interesting comments on the article from Dave Pollard of the ever-so-humbly-titled How to Save the World blog.
Posted November 18, 2003 06:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
July 01, 2003
Whoa! Canada!
For my Canadian and Canadia ex-pat friends who sometimes read this weblog (Darren? Ev? Deb? Celine?) but may not read the Washington Post, I give you this story: Whoa! Canada!
"Just when you had all but forgotten that carbon-based life exists above the 49th parallel, those sly Canadians have redefined their entire nation as Berkeley North."
Posted July 1, 2003 08:13 AM | Permalink
June 21, 2003
The shizz, you say!
Beck has a weblog [link via Anil's sidebar].
It's full of incomprehensible but beautiful statements like this one about their show at Wolftrap, right outside DC:
"the show was our best so far. the audience was throwing down, much more raucous than the tour with the lips. we even had people throwing up their hands and representing acid wash daisy dukes. tomorrow I plan to see who will represent some lavender cucumber exfoliating scrub. shizz...if we come any harder somebody might have to bust some apricot hazelnut foot gel." []
Apparently in Beck's world "young grungites" are frequently "throwing down" or are "on the punkmetal tip" and "representing" various objects. Lingo that my thirtysomething ass don't understand aside, there are, as you might expect, some beautiful lyrical gems in his writing, especially when he talks (all to infrequently, though) about songs, songwriting, and performing.
P.S. If you want to get all tricked out with the lingo, try Snoop Dog's Shizzolator
Posted June 21, 2003 09:18 AM | Permalink
May 05, 2003
The Book of Virtues Vices
Oh, how many times is that headline gonna get used today?! Bill Bennet, self-proclaimed expert on virtue, fesses up to a seven-figure gambling habit.
Evan K. analyzes Bill Bennett's slots problem. Smart & funny. If (a) Evan would write more and (b) more people would notice, Evan could outpundit the best of them. Someone gives this man a job as a columnist.
Posted May 5, 2003 04:29 PM | Permalink