Accept no substitutes

Category: Amusements (Page 28 of 31)

Things that are amusing

Moog in the Mountains and in Movie

Moog logo
Bob Moog invented modern electronic music with his synthesizers and his theremins. But in a bad business deal, he lost his name for a while. He has it back and he’s the subject of a new documentary. Sally Greene notices that Moog has kindred spirits, of all sorts, in his current hometown of Asheville NC. She also has the links to a Guardian interview and to the movie trailer.
Moog, as you will find, has a looser idea of what autonomic computing might mean.

Django on WCOM

I had no idea who was singing this catchy song, “American Romeo,” on WCOM tonight as I was driving home. I missed whatever the DJ said except that they were from here in Chapel Hill. Luckily Google came through for me and I discovered Django Haskins and The Old Ceremony. Pop Noir indeed. Good music even on their rough cuts.
This is one reason we need community radio. This guy is good and he’s been playing around town and I’d never heard of him — of course I’m too old and tired to be a scenester.

Jones-mania (literary version)

Just got email from Jan Hensley who is doing a photo display of writers from North Carolina saying that he, his camera and my old buddy poet Ann Deagon would be coming here next week so’s he can add my photo to his show. He’ll be putting together a show of photos and first books for the North Carolina Writers Conference in July. My only book, What the Welsh and Chinese Have in Common, has some age on it, but it’s also been sold out since it was published in 1990. You can read it online where it’s been since 1992.
Some more recent poems are “Unapproachable Edens,” “Birds and Fishes,” and “Dividing Waters (1954)”.

Geek’s Guide to Understanding Women

One of the amusements of being on the staff/board of the Linux Documentation Project is that we get documents that proport to be of interest to Linux folks that are actually odd looks-into the undeveloped minds of the authors. Often I cannot tell irony from confusion, humor from confession, insight from misstep.

One such document arrived today from (confused, confessing, or comprehensive) Canadian author, Dustin Harriman.

This 25-page HOWTO is called:
“Female Protocol HOWTO: A Geek’s Guide to Understanding Women”
Download the OpenOffice Document here
…or, alternatively there is an online HTML version here

This somehow syncs with the “meet-up” and “life on Mars” articles today.

Meet-up in Space?

Fred alerts us to a Space.com exclusive, “NASA Researchers Claim Evidence of Present Life on Mars .”
The article begins:

A pair of NASA scientists told a group of space officials at a private meeting here Sunday that they have found strong evidence that life may exist today on Mars, hidden away in caves and sustained by pockets of water.

The scientists, Carol Stoker and Larry Lemke of NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, told the group that they have submitted their findings to the journal Nature for publication in May, and their paper currently is being peer reviewed.

What Stoker and Lemke have found, according to several attendees of the private meeting, is not direct proof of life on Mars, but methane signatures and other signs of possible biological activity remarkably similar to those recently discovered in caves here on Earth.

Must Have H2G2

I am being programmed to desire all things relating to The HitchHiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (H2G2) as panicy race to the April 29 release of the movie approaches.
Today, the (err a) trailer was released on the front page of Amazon.com! The movie blog procedes apace.
Unfortunately it will not be as corny as the BBC TV version or the wonderful radio show. I maybe an old codger, but there was something about sitting in the dark imaging the characters as Douglas Adams described them that no special effects can replace.
I do love the BBC sponsored website designed like the legendary Guide that preceded wikipedia by several years and is almost as amusing.

P2P radio okayed – Mercora gets a nod

I wrote about Mercora, the P2P radio application, back in September when I got a tour of it during FOO Camp. I was impressed then and remain impressed. They suck in that they don’t support Mac or Linux, but they are good in that they allow real micro-radio stations on the net interationally.
The Wall Street Journal just published an article (subscription only) covering Mercora and other P2P radio offerings. The big news is that some solid agreements have been worked out with the RIAA.
Disclosure: I was introduced to Mercora by James Lussier, who’s Norwest Venture Partners just ponyed up $5 million in new funds and appointed Jim to the Board of Directors of Mercora.

Jones-mania in NandO

So the News and Observer didn’t cover the Triangle Bloggers Conference (that I can see) despite the 150 folks showing up (see conference blogging notes — they are all over now). Great feedback and surprising folks. Who knew that Henry Copeland lived here now (he of blogads) or Blog for America‘s Matthew Gross — just for starters.

But the News and Observer did take about 1/2 a page and dedicate it to my Valentine’s poem, Unapproachable Edens, in the Sunday Reader section.
The online version doesn’t preserve the stanza breaks so I made an improved version (the copyeditor in me insists on it being right).

Conis = Jones

For dinner last night, some of us from the the Triangle Bloggers Conference went to a great Turkish restaraunt in town called Tallula’s. I had made reservations in advance (you have to and still you are likely to wait a while). The person taking my reservation asked me to spell my name. I did.
When we got there, we had no reservation! But someone did named “Conis” and that person had my same phone number.
I reminded myself that Turkish is a phonic language. The C in Turkish is closest to our J. Made sense to me, but the hostess was confused. “I am “Conis” and you can call the number and I will answer.”
We had a great window seat.

Dr. John set list n pix 2/20/05 Carrboro

Dr John and friend on the Piano
His piano is done up like a casket and he has his mojo working.

9 skinners
Keep it simple
Don’t Mean a Thing (If it ain’t got that swing)
Black Widow
Cotton Fields/Good Night Irene
Makin’ Whoopee
Dis, Dat or D’udda
Holdin’ Pattern
Tell Me You’ll Wait
The Monkey Speaks
–break–
One 2 am 2 Many
Witchy Red
Shadows (the Shadow Knows)
Barber Blues
Right Place, Wrong Time
When the Saints Go Marchin’ In
Glory, Glory Hallelujah (When I lay my burden down)
Ain’t My Fault
So Long
–encore–
Such a Night (If I don’t do it, Somebody else will)

Looking for Senior Citizen Discounts

I just received a box of socks from my parents. At least in their minds, I may celebrate birthdays, but I remain stuck in my teens and in need of assistance in maintaining my stock of acceptable personal apparel.
In the mind of the White House, I am among the last to be entitled for Social Security benefits.
In the mind of AARP, I should have joined 5 years ago.
In the mind of the intelligent treadmill at the gym, my heart rate should not exceed 165.
In the mind of my son, I am already in my dotage and have been since he had his 10th birthday.
In the mind of the North Carolina Employee Retirement System, I have to keep working if I want full benefits.
What I want to know is: where do I go to collect those famous senior citizen discounts?

Ossie: I’ll remember him as JFK

Ossie Davis died at age 87 still acting and still an activist. He’ll be remembered for his part in bringing new black movie making to us in “Cotton Comes to Harlem,” for advising Spike Lee on “Malcolm X,” for his parts in “Malcom X” and other Lee films, for his long marriage to Ruby Dee (1948 – present) and more. He was a tireless worker in his art and in politics and social change. He gave eulogies at the funerals of both Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.

For me, oddly enough, his turn as John F Kennedy in the wonderfully touching story of aging, dignity, and Egyptian Soul-sucking mummies, “Bubba Ho-Tep” is the most memorable. The story could not have been carried off without Ossie’s ability to bring something deep out of something potentially so shallow, something surprising out of something so potentially predictable. He has great help from the main lead, Bruce Campbell as a man who might be Elvis, writer Joe R. Lansdale, and director Don Coscarelli. But for me Ossie is the presence that keeps Bruce/Elvis on his toes, that keeps you believing when it’s obvious you shouldn’t be believing, that takes the movie where Lansdale’s story wants to go. Ossie like his character in Bubba Ho-Tep was active to the end, never stopping to be involved, Unlike his character, Ossie was never confused about who he was. He never accomodated and never wavered.

Jumpin in the Garden of Eden

One of the joys of working with the Folkstreams Project, in which we are digitizing nearly 40 documentaries shot mostly in the mid to late 20th century, is that I get to watch and listen to a lot of wonderful music and stories that I have managed to mostly miss out on or only pay scant attention to.
Right now, as I’ve cleaning up some smaller tasks and getting ready for a doctor’s appointment, I’m listening and watching “Jumpin’ in the Garden of Eden” about the rebirth of klezmer music in the USA. Shot in 1987, the film focuses on two bands major to the klezmer revival, Kapelye and Boston’s Klezmer Conservatory Band.

M$googleKiller released

Microsoft announced their long anticipated Google Killer today. Announced as Beta, the search’s has several small innovations — you get to search your desktop and Encarta from the same bar the way on Google you can search for text, images and news (which you can also do on MSN Search).
I ran a little search, singing of myself as Walt would, for paul jones (no quotes). Below are the results.

Paul Jones MSN Search Google Yahoo
web 14,288,684 (0.19 seconds) 14,700,000 (0.21 seconds) 9,510,000 (0.08 sec)
news 1,982 (0.10 seconds) 8,010 (0.34 seconds) 6,822
images 840 (0.68 seconds) 16,000 (0.08 seconds) 13,069 (0.08 sec)
encarta 150 (0.01 seconds)
n/a
n/a
groups
n/a
677,000 (0.23 seconds)
n/a
froogle/products
n/a
7,590 confirmed / 223,000 total results (0.19 seconds) 1,424
video (test)
n/a
110 (0.02 seconds) 44 (0.32 sec)

Let’s Trim Our Hair According to Socialist Lifestyle

Proof that I am not a Communist:
North Korea’s formerly pompadoured leader Kim Jong Il declares war on long hair (on men only). An AP article on Salon reports:

Among the campaign’s hairdos and don’ts: Hair must be kept no longer than two inches. The only exception is for older men, who are given an extra four-fifths of an inch to hide baldness.

The dictum claims that long hair hampers brain activity by taking oxygen away from nerves in the head.

North Korea’s campaign does not mention any rules for women and gives no explanation as to why their long hair would not result in reduced brain activity.

The last Korean opponent of long hair, the South’s Park Chung-hee, managed to hold the hair down for a few years in the 70s, but as the AP story tells us:

Park was murdered by his own spy chief in 1979, and long hair — dyed in a variety of colors — is now widely accepted in South Korea.

So hands off the hair there, “Dear Leader”

Boing Boing beat AP to the story having a long piece on Jan 10.

I am not a Communist, but I am a member for the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists. Brain oxygen must be overrated.

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