IN_RAINBOWS
Many people are excited by this. It is called In Rainbows and will be self-released, sold as download only, starting in 10 days. Discbox available later Pay what you wish. WOW OMG!
Al-Qaeda = Iraq = Iran
Did anyone say déjà vu?
In a series of public statements in recent months, President Bush and members of his Administration have redefined the war in Iraq, to an increasing degree, as a strategic battle between the United States and Iran. “Shia extremists, backed by Iran, are training Iraqis to carry out attacks on our forces and the Iraqi people,” Bush told the national convention of the American Legion in August. “The attacks on our bases and our troops by Iranian-supplied munitions have increased… The Iranian regime must halt these actions. And, until it does, I will take actions necessary to protect our troops.” He then concluded, to applause, “I have authorized our military commanders in Iraq to confront Tehran’s murderous activities.”
(From The New Yorker. Read it on Kottke)
Weekly Picture 95
Thade and Spit, Highway 71 and Lamar Blvd., Austin, TX, 9.13.2007
Meet the Flockers: Kathy Hilen-Smith
I am terribly flattered Deron has asked me to join the flock. I am the Smith formerly known as Kathy Smith, but because Deron invited me to post here, I’ve decided to resuscitate my duonym, Kathy Hilen-Smith.
Like the Mercedes Ruehl character in Terry Gilliam’s The Fisher King [Anne Napolitano], I am not a modern woman. I’m not a hyphenator by choice, but I married a Smith, so try to understand. Before I contribute content relative to topics of personal interest to clusterflock, I want to take steps to ensure I will not be mistaken for some other ‘Kathy Smith’ like that Fitness Nazi, Kathy Smith. She’s creepy. The hyphenated me will never be confused with Maryland Calvert County Circuit Court Clerk Kathy Smith, or the Columbia College Director of Student Success/Matriculation Kathy Smith, or any of the other Kathy Smiths whose interests and opinions may or may not reflect my own.
Kathy Hilen-Smith is many things including: happy wife of Michael Grant Smith and mother of Andrew *challenging teenager* Smith. Additional passions include Morgan horses, other horses, dogs and cats (in that order). Next: photography, poetry, art, fiction, history, politics.
See the Flockers: Kathy Hilen-Smith
Keeneland the day after the ‘07 Derby
Overheard
“Let’s talk about everything first and then we’ll talk about the other stuff.”
Algorithm
Because you do not have a personal trainer you are fat. Because you’re fat I’m fat and this means our children are fat and our neighbors are fat. But they make velour track suits for us because they’ve heard about you.
Smoke Like a Chimney
Bill successfully smokes like a chimney. Bill’s dog tries to smoke like a “chimenny” but fails. Bill’s dog is given a nicotine patch.
The Meaning of Various Movies to Jeff Johnson (2007)
Young Road (1984)
Patrick Swayze plays “Don,” a hunky, hot-blooded truck stop employee
who must fist fight daily to ensure that his customers have the right
to drive their rigs while intoxicated, receive discreet oral sex from
swarthy Latin men who are dressed as women, and pretend they’re in a
union. Things aren’t much better at home, where Don’s parents have
been butchered by the local sheriff for extreme ugliness. Due to
poverty, Don can’t afford to give them a proper funeral, so the dogs
just sleep on top of the corpses. He also plays older brother to both
Rob Lowe “Cade,” a teenager so stupid that dumb things keep happening
to him, and whom also gets a lot of moms in their Tulsa neighborhood
pregnant, as well as a barely recognizable pubescent Paul Giammatti
“Gary” who dabbles in arson and may or may not have taken the bolts
out of a popular merry go round that even poorer children depend on
for entertainment. Vince Van Patten stars as their nemesis “Giffey” a
rich preppy teen who turns out to be having gay sex with the Senator
who wants to shut down the truck stop. ZERO STARS
Tomorrow’s Hope (1999)
Jessica Tandy stars as a grandmother to Brittney Murphy “Hope,” a
naive girl that no one thinks is particularly beautiful or funny.
Tandy must cope with really awkward feelings when the untalented Hope
tries out for her high school’s Sass Line (a combination Pom Pon +
Krunk unit) but ends up getting stalked by pervy janitor Gordon Jump
“Dutch” who mops most of the hallways at school with a mixture of old
toilet water and his own semen. ZERO STARS
Dinky (1985)
Phil Collins stars as a jewel thief with a cock so small it can pick a
lock. His brother “Louie” Bob Hoskins is married to a poodle that
farts. ONE STAR
Calypso (1997)
Hugh Grant stars as a millionaire douchebag “Oliver” who is cuckolded
by his supermodel wife “Tammy” played by Posh Spice and is given even
more millions in the subsequent divorce settlement. He promptly sinks
the money into a Caribbean bar that has live reggae and stuff. He
hopes to reclaim his dignity by bonding with his subservient colored
employees, but behind his back they agree that he is a fucking
asshole, and when he eventually kills a teenage boy by jet skiing
drunkenly, trying to impress “Vicki” Minnie Driver a cosmetic dentist
from L.A. who is in the midst of a divorce herself and whom sometimes
plays an acoustic guitar on the beach and sings original songs that
have no choruses or bridges–there’s a riot and the town burns down
the tavern, accidentally killing the island’s beloved oldest resident
Patchy, and a cynical drunken Australian ex-pat played by Bryan Brown.
ZERO STARS
Recommended
-Punkrocker (Iggy Pop) – Teddybears
-The Return of the Player – Michael Tolkin
Forget it.
“We used to have a system in which we forgot things easily and had to invest energy in remembering,” says Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, an associate professor of public policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. “Now we’re switching to a system in which we remember everything and have to invest energy in order to forget. That’s an enormous transformation.”
Amy in Drag
Talk Like Troy Aikman
Julius Jones isn’t as dominant a runner as Marion Barber.
Becomes:
Julius Jones isn’t as dominant a runner as what Marion Barber is.
Oh no, he’s back
Yep, just got back from Switzerland. There’re some photos now at the Travel Log, but not much cogent information. I hope to start writing up my notes tonight and get some “narrative” done soon.
In the meantime, may I encourage you to give a listen to Ten Years After’s Ssssh!?
Blade Runner
Ridley Scott: The director’s cut removed the voice-over and that silly ending and put in the unicorn daydream, but the disc didn’t look that great. And it should look great, because Blade Runner at the time was pretty formidable — it’s pretty formidable even now, actually. A lot of people don’t notice whether they’re watching something beautifully technical or not, but it’s important to me. So that always got in the way of the director’s cut being the final version. I think it’s final now because I’ve done all the nips and tucks and tidied up one or two of the visual areas that we couldn’t do properly at the time because we didn’t have the technology.
The Real Michael Jackson (R.I.P.)
Sun Tattoo
Photographing the Taliban
In December 2001, Thomas Dworzak arrived in Kandahar, Afghanistan. The Taliban banned photography, but some photo studios had been allowed to take photos for identification purposes. Locals went to the studios to have their portraits taken clandestinely, often asking if they could pose for a more flattering portrait. Taken in early November 2001, the images were never retrieved by their sitters because they were forced to flee the ensuring advance of the opposition.
LOLSECRETZ
The meeting of two of the internet’s most famous memes– PostSecret and LOLcats.
Uncle Sam Wants You!
The MySpace generation is a “somewhat alien life force,” a Navy recruiting presentation contends — with a language and lifestyle that’s almost unrecognizable to adults. And because the kids are such “coddled,” “narcissistic praise junkies,” they’ll be beyond tough to bring into the military. Propensity to join the armed forces among these so-called “millennials” has dropped to as little as 3%; that’s down from 26% in 2001.
Pasteurized Process Swiss-Flavored Travel Log: Wilhelm Tell Festival in “America’s Little Switzerland”
A New Glarus Labor Day weekend tradition since 1938.
Join us as our community continues its 70-year tradition of telling the story of how Wilhelm Tell, his crossbow, and an apple helped Switzerland gain independence from the Habsburg tyrant, Herman Gessler. The story was told by the famous 18th century German playwright Friedrich Schiller. See and hear how frisky goats, mooing cows, and whinnying horses bring the story to life on the natural outdoor stage to create a unique theatrical experience.
My New Baby Boy!
My son, Ian Wade Sebastian, was born on 9/26/07. He weighed 6 lbs, 14 ounces.
Errol Morris
As I’ve said elsewhere: Nothing is so obvious that it’s obvious. When someone says that something is obvious, it seems almost certain that it is anything but obvious – even to them. The use of the word “obvious” indicates the absence of a logical argument – an attempt to convince the reader by asserting the truth of something by saying it a little louder.
Die Hard Rolodex at Inside/Outside in Jersey City
1000 Days – One Minute
Some Friday fun.