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February 28, 2006
Octavia Butler, The Great SF Writer, Dies at 58
Wild Seed blew my mind in college - it was the first science fiction book that showed me how SF could not simply predict the future, but help us reimagine the boundaries of the human. In the midst of cyberpunk chic, Butler was one of the few SF writers as interested in bodies as machines. Years later, Parable of the Sower was the book I had with me the night I stayed up in the recovery room with my dad after his brain surgery.
A black woman, Butler was a pioneer in the white male world of SF. Today, when almost everything on the shelves advertises itself as "hard SF" - i.e., full of blowhard white guys with science degrees and guns - her voice will be sorely missed.
Science Fiction Writers of America Memorial Page
Posted by tedf at 02:27 AM | Comments (1)
February 27, 2006
Why Oh Why Can't The iPod Alternatives Get Their Acts Together?
I love iPods. I've had three of them, and each has served me well. KT just got the Nano, which is gorgeous. And I'm sure I'll eventually break down and get a video iPod. But when my last iPod disappeared last November, I decided to take a flyer on something different: the Creative Zen Micro. The big selling point for me was the new Rhapsody To Go service.
I've been a subscriber to the basic Rhapsody service for years. It's amazing - just about every album you could want (with a few exceptions, like the Beatles and obscure indies), all streaming to your PC for one monthly fee. I've discovered so much great music I never would have found otherwise. It's a whole different way of thinking about music - as a utility, rather than a commodity. (I take this up further in the chapter on digital music in my book.)
The idea behind Rhapsody To Go is to extend the utility model into the domain of the iPod, allowing you to fill up a portable player with all the music you want for $15 a month. What's supposed to make it work is the Windows "Plays for Sure" digital rights management system, which makes sure you can only access the music on your player if your subscription's up to date.
Fair enough. Except Plays for Sure is rarely a sure thing. Sometimes, Rhapsody will claim it can't transfer a track to my player because there's no space left, even when there's plenty of space. Other times, it'll insist the music's already on the player, when it isn't. And every month, when the subscription turns over, it doesn't politely remind you to plug your player back in to prove that you've paid up - it just locks up without warning and refuses to play any tracks. Very annoying if you're away from your computer, as you're likely to be when you're using a portable player. Scans of the support bulletin boards confirm that I'm hardly the only one with these problems. And the lack of official responses to any of the plaintive posts for help confirm that Real Networks, which bought Rhapsody a couple of years ago, is blowing off its frustrated customers, either through arrogance or ignorance.
I was still so enthralled by the whole portable-subscription concept that I bought another player, the Rio Carbon. Brought it home only to discover that the reason for the deep discount was that Rio had just gone under. Unsurprisingly, it didn't mesh with Rhapsody any better than the Zen did.
I tried Napster, which is now a legit music service offering its own To Go system. Neither Zen nor Carbon could make it happy.
With so many vendors failing so completely, the fault must lie with crappy underlying code, courtesy of Microsoft. What a shock.
Actually, I'm sure the problem isn't just Microsoft, but also the record companies that demanded DRM that they thought would be airtight enough to withstand decryption. As a result, the whole system is so clunky that it takes the Zen fifteen seconds just to boot up, and another ten seconds to start playing a new playlist. That's if it works at all, of course. And the DRM can still be easily evaded by anybody who uses Replay Music, a program that can turn any audio you play on your PC into an MP3.
Apple products may be overpriced and overhyped, but they're elegant, they're easy to use, and they work. That iPod that disappeared last November turned up last week - a saint of a GSU student found it and returned it. I'm packing up the Carbon and the Zen and reinstalling iTunes. I'll still use Rhapsody on my PC - and at least now I can use it on my Mac, too, thanks to a new cross-platform web-based version. (It's buggy, but at least it admits it's still a beta.) But for now, it's back to pay-as-you-go listening again.
Actually, I just read that Amazon's coming out with its own portable subscription service this summer. I'll try not to get my hopes up too high . . .
Posted by tedf at 11:56 PM | Comments (0)
February 23, 2006
Gotham Central, RIP
One of my favorite comics just ended its run: Gotham Central, a DC genre experiment that really worked. It was set in the city of Batman, the Joker, et al, but it wasn't really a superhero comic. Rather, it followed the cases of Gotham homicide cops. Superheroes intersected their world, but the primary characters were just ordinary detectives trying to do their jobs. It was grittier than anything else at DC, but with a different tone than noir Marvel comics like Daredevil. It was more of a straight-up policier, in the mode of the TV show Homicide, but with an honesty about bureaucracy and corruption that recalls HBO's great crime series, The Wire. The superhero angle just gave it a little extra edge - these cops know they need Batman, but they also resent that they need him, and don't respect his vigilante approach. This makes them much more sensible and human than all the other cops over the years who've simply stood by as this guy in a cape has walked right over them.
The comic was co-written by Greg Rucka and Ed Brubaker. They're both very talented writers - see especially Rucka's Queen & Country, and Brubaker's current run on Captain America. But Gotham Central is the best thing either of them has worked on, matching Rucka's strong characterization with Brubaker's tight plotting.
Gotham Central didn't have quite the fizz of the best stuff from Brian Michael Bendis or David Lapham, noir tyros who will eventually become Hollywood heavyweights like Frank Miller, if that's what they want. Instead, it had the more deliberate pacing and rich ensemble acting of the best TV cop shows. That probably was a hard sell to the DC demographic. It also had a grimy look that too often was outright ugly - although the art got better over time. I can't be outraged the comic got cancelled - it had a good run, including a dark, powerful final arc. But I do hope it doesn't cement in comics editors' heads the assumption that there's no room for further experimentation in the superhero genre.
Posted by tedf at 08:10 PM | Comments (0)
Lego Brokeback Mountain
SmugMug - Daniel Brown : Lego Brokeback Mountain
Posted by tedf at 05:11 PM | Comments (0)
February 19, 2006
Great Cat Photos on Flickr
Airborne Cats. This is how Moby moves in her dreams.
Fuwari. It means soft and fluffy in Japanese.
Cats on Stairs. This one uses multiple exposures to create the lap kitty equivalent of bullet time.
Posted by tedf at 11:02 PM | Comments (0)
February 18, 2006
Reforming a Broken Political System
I just joined MoveOn.com's "Action Forum", a bulletin board where members post their proposals for MoveOn's political action goals, then vote on their favorites. It's an interesting attempt to develop strategic consensus among the notoriously fractious left. Then again, having enemies as frightening as Cheney and Bush makes it easier to focus the mind and find common ground.
I posted my own suggestions, which focus on issues of political reform. I don't think anything else is possible until we fix our broken democracy. Hey, if we don't push on this Diebold thing, it's not even possible to confirm that we still live in a democracy.
Since I appear to be the 16,184th person to post a comment, it may be hard to track down on the site itself. So, here it is:
The return of true democracy to American politics requires several interconnected reforms. These are all nonpartisan ideas that any voter concerned with the state of American democracy could support:
- Voting: Replacement of all Diebold electronic voting machines with reliable machines producing paper ballot receipts. Elimination of exclusionary state practices such as the Georgia Voter ID law.
- Campaign Finance: Federal and state campaign funding to qualified candidates for major political offices, to end inequalities in fundraising which reflect the support of the wealthy rather than the people. This must include fuding for both primary challengers and third party candidates who demonstrate substantial voter support through either petitions or previous ballot performance.
- Electoral Reform: The end of re-redistricting, as in Texas and Georgia. A commitment to a redistricting policy after the 2010 census which maximizes competitive districts, rather than safe seats for incumbents.
- Influence Peddling: Strict laws at both federal and state levels forbidding lobbyist gifts of travel, food, and entertainment. Immediate online disclosure of all lawmaker contacts with lobbyists. Requirement of multi-year gaps between government service and employment as a lobbyist.
- Media Reform: The return of the FCC "fairness doctrine," requiring that all licensed TV and radio station provide equal time for opposing points of view. Additional requirements that stations provide free airtime for political candidates to address voters in increments longer than 30 seconds. Strong new laws limiting media consolidation.
These kinds of reforms in themselves won't end the war in Iraq or poverty at home. But they'll built a responsive political infrastructure beholden to the American people, rather than to powerful donors. And since the American people's actual views are much to the left of the American political elite, that's the first step towards more far-reaching reform.
Posted by tedf at 11:53 AM | Comments (0)
February 17, 2006
The View from KT's Office
A colleague of KT's took this awesome photo from a balcony near the top of the SunTrust building - just down the hall from KT's office.
Her building also has peregrine falcons who nest every spring in the moulding. I'll post a link to the webcam when they set it up next month.
Posted by tedf at 09:07 PM | Comments (0)
Backyard Bird Count
Guest post from KT:
The Great Backyard Bird Count is an annual event co-sponsored by the Audubon Society and Cornell's ornithology lab. The idea is to get regular people throughout the country to help survey bird populations, and it's actually produced a lot of useful research data in prior years. For my part, I've found that it's both fun and easy. I got hooked on it in 2001, when I became the first person to log a formal report of peregrine falcons in my particular "back yard"--i.e., downtown Atlanta. I had to work that weekend, and I saw them, so why not?
If you're interested, participation is very easy and doesn't require much bird knowledge at all. All you have to do is this: (1) See a wild bird, or several birds, wherever you may be this Friday, Saturday or Sunday. I think the site has some identification tips if the bird is a mysterious one. (2) Enter the information into a handy online report form by sometime early next week. (3) Enjoy the interesting maps and info generated by thousands of comparable reports. (Or, just congratulate yourself and log off.)
Posted by tedf at 08:12 PM | Comments (1)
digby on Cheney
"He saw his friend get wounded (by who?) right before his eyes. He was traumatized and profoundly affected. It was horrible for him.
And I think we now know that when confronted with such issues, one should stonewall for as long as possible, blame the victim and only agree to take questions from sycophants. That's how real men handle it when they've accidentally shot an old man in the face."
"What To Tell The Children" by digby
Posted by tedf at 07:48 PM | Comments (0)
Let's Hear It for GSU Filmmakers!
Georgia State just rocked the Atlanta Campus MovieFest, one of five international locations for "The World's Largest Student Film Festival." All of the films are five minutes long and available online. Check out this list of winners.
GSU is also the proud alma mater of the makers of Dig!, the best rock'n'roll documentary ever made. For those who haven't seen it, it's about the rivalry between two good-not-great indie bands, The Brian Jonestown Massacre and the Dandy Warhols. It was the recent subject of a very entertaining tribute episode on The Gilmore Girls, featuring a cameo from Joel Gion of the Brian Jonestown Massacre, as well as Sebastian Bach, who plays a deli owner/guitarist. Their band, Hep Alien, gets their big break to perform in front of A&R scouts, but the lead singer has an epic meltdown onstage in a scene straight out of the movie.
Posted by tedf at 12:44 PM | Comments (1)
February 16, 2006
Judaism and Buddhism
My friend Mark just emailed me this article from the NYT: "Reform Jews Hope to Unmix Mixed Marriages."
I wrote back:
Hey - we've made some valuable converts over the years. What are Rod Carew and Sammy Davis, Jr., chopped liver? I don't know whether we should take credit for Madonna, though . . .
Seriously, this has to at least be an improvement over browbeating single Jews to only marry within the faith. Talk about being on the losing side of history. Nothing like replaying the villains' role in romances from Romeo and Juliet to Albie's Irish Rose to My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
But the more import issue for Judaism's survival must be to develop a vision of Judaism worth converting for - or staying Jewish for, for that matter. In the last few years, I've found in Buddhism a much more compelling spiritual vision than anything Westchester Reform Temple ever taught me in all those years of useless conversational Hebrew, bowdlerized Bible stories, and one-sided Israeli history lessons. And the irony is that most of my favorite Buddhist writers are "Jew-Boos" - Jack Kornfield, Mark Epstein, Shinzen Young, Alan Ginsberg, Sylvia Boorstein, the list goes on and on. Kabballah appears to be the attempt to find a synthesis of these ideas within the Jewish tradition, but actually, I have to say I'd just as soon stay a spiritual tourist in Buddhism, where I have so much less baggage.
Of course, if I had been schlepped to a "Buddhist Reform Temple" all those years in Scarsdale, I'd probably feel much the same way about Buddhism at this point. The real problem may just be organized religion, per se. I don't go to a Buddhist temple at all - I just meditate on my own, and listen to and read individual writers. I don't know that there's any way to pursue that path as a Jew today. And I don't know that I've ever been to a synagogue that's ever made me want to come back.
Probably more than you all wanted to know about the state of my spirituality, but if you're curious for more, I taught a class on Buddhism and contemporary culture last year. I recorded it, and it's online at http://www.tedfriedman.com/archives/2005/04/buddhism_and_cu.php. This semester, my media and technology class is reading the Dalai Llama's new book about science and spirituality, which I highly recommend - especially the audiobook version, read by Richard Gere. (Thankfully, he doesn't try to put on a Tibetan accent.)
Posted by tedf at 10:54 PM | Comments (0)
Jay Rosen on the Sorry State of the Press
PressThink: Dick Cheney Did Not Make a Mistake By Not Telling the Press He Shot a Guy
Posted by tedf at 07:52 PM | Comments (0)
Glenn Greenwald on the Bush Cult of Personality
Unclaimed Territory - by Glenn Greenwald: Do Bush followers have a political ideology?
Posted by tedf at 01:12 AM | Comments (0)
February 14, 2006
I Always Thought of Myself as More of a Trekker, But . . .
You scored as Babylon 5 (Babylon 5). The universe is erupting into war and your government picks the wrong side. How much worse could things get? It doesn't matter, because no matter what you have your friends and you'll do the right thing. In the end that will be all that matters. Now if only the Psi Cops would leave you alone.
Babylon 5 (Babylon 5) | 88% | ||
Moya (Farscape) | 75% | ||
Millennium Falcon (Star Wars) | 69% | ||
Serenity (Firefly) | 69% | ||
Andromeda Ascendant (Andromeda) | 63% | ||
Deep Space Nine (Star Trek) | 63% | ||
Enterprise D (Star Trek) | 63% | ||
Galactica (Battlestar: Galactica) | 63% | ||
SG-1 (Stargate) | 56% | ||
Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix) | 56% | ||
FBI's X-Files Division (The X-Files) | 56% | ||
Bebop (Cowboy Bebop) | 50% |
Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Profile II: which sci-fi crew would you best fit in? (pics)
created with QuizFarm.com
I'm basically a left libertarian, but I guess there are no shows that fit that bill. Fair enough - there aren't really any governments that match up, either, although I guess Holland comes the closest. The big problem is that I've always hated those Bab 5 uniforms . . .
For more on the politics of Trek, check out this piece I wrote years ago for a long-defunct webzine called Stim, "Capitalism: The Final Frontier." I also talk about the utopian economics of Trek in the intro to my book, Electric Dreams: Computers in American Culture. Here's the chapter. You can buy the book here.
Posted by tedf at 06:14 PM | Comments (0)
February 12, 2006
Not Wal-Mart, But . . .
This place is on Lawrenceville Highway in Lilburn, GA, in the same shopping center as my comic book store. It captures where the real creativity in the American economy is today: hybrid retail for immigrant communities popping up out of the husks of abandoned bigboxes. I've heard there's also a great converted ice cream joint on Buford Highway run by Indian immigrants called Basket Rabbit. And the best pastries I've had in years came from a Korean-owned "French bakery" in Norcross. They didn't taste like any croissants I've ever had, but they had this sweet, nutty center. They were an amazing amalgam of French, Korean, and American tastes.
UPDATE: I almost forgot to mention Madras Saravana Bhavan, the amazing Indian restaurant also on Laurenceville Highway, in Decatur. They serve these incredible six-foot-long dhosai that managed to convince a skeptic like me that vegetarian food can make a satisfying meal. (Screw the Enchanted Broccoli Forest - this will be what I'll eat every day if I ever listen to my guilty conscience and go veggie.) MSB took over an abandoned Folks - you can still see the faux Southern kitsch bleeding through the Hindu decor.
Posted by tedf at 03:19 PM | Comments (2)
February 11, 2006
My Ballot for the 2005 Village Voice Rock Critics' Poll
My top albums are Common's Be and Loudon Wainwright III's Here Come the Choppers!
Be is in the classic soul tradition of Marvin Gaye's What's Going On, De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising, and A Tribe Called Quest's The Low End Theory: rich, coherent musical statements, full of both humor and outrage, but far too humane to fall for gangsta posturing. It's produced by Kanye West, and West's new record is great, too, but I think Common has him beat as a wordsmith. Together, they're an amazing combination.
Here Come the Choppers is the latest from one of America's smartest singer-songwriters. Wainwright's music sounds better than ever before, thanks to brillaint guitarwork from the amazing Bill Frisell. The title track works up a level of dystopic menace that reminds me of Warren Zevon's overlooked 1989 cyberpunk classic, Transverse City (which featured similar guitar from guest Jerry Garcia).
My top single of the year, hands down, is "George Bush Doesn't Care About Black People" by The Legendary K.O." It's a remix of Kanye West's "Golddigger," with new lyrics about New Orleans. It's both a withering indictment of the Bush administration, and a tribute to West's act of political courage for criticizing Bush in front of a national audience on the Katrina telethon (an act that may have cost him several Grammies). The brilliant music video - unplayed on MTV, but one of ifilm.com's top downloads - is available here.
The one album I wished I'd ranked higher is Wilco's new live record, Kicking Television - it kept on growing on me after I sent in my ballot. At first, I figured it was just another live greatest hits package, like Radiohead's disappointing recent set. But it's a lot more than that. I've always admired Wilco, but (as with Radiohead) sometimes their studio albums come off a little too cold - making them feel perhaps less heartfelt than Tweedy intended. The band's new live lineup reimagines their entire catalog, turning experiments like "Misunderstood" and "Ashes of American Flags" into off-kilter anthems, and "At Least That's What You Said" and "Via Chicago" into self-lacerating confessions. Along with Dylan & The Band's Before the Flood, the Stones' Get Your Ya-Ya's Out, James Brown's Revolution of the Mind, Johnny Cash's Live at Folsom Prison, Marvin Gaye In Concert, Maxwell Unplugged, and maybe Frampton Comes Alive, Kicking Television is one of the handful of all-time great live records.
Posted by tedf at 03:02 PM | Comments (2)
February 10, 2006
Transcipt of WashingtonPost.com Webchat
Thanks to all of you who dropped by today's webchat at WashingtonPost.com. If you didn't get a chance to follow it live, the transcript is available below. And if you'd like to continue the conversation, please join us in the Comments section.
Posted by tedf at 03:22 PM | Comments (2)
Friday Catblogging
Here's Moby in her natural habitat.
Posted by tedf at 12:20 PM | Comments (2)
My New Grad Class on the Past, Present and Future of Media
You can check out the syllabus here:
Comparative Studies in Emerging Media: Spring 2006 Syllabus
Posted by tedf at 04:22 AM | Comments (0)
Comments Are Back Up!
Feel free to join in on any post! To kill comment spam, I've set up a simple sign-up form through Movable Type's Typekey system. That way, you can prove you're human, and not an online-poker/viagra-selling robot.
Posted by tedf at 01:43 AM | Comments (0)
February 09, 2006
Even Scarier News About White House Surveillance Programs
This Christian Science Monitor article shows how the warrantless wiretapping scandal is just the tip of the iceberg. The whole reason the Bush administration couldn't go through the FISA court is that their plans go far, far beyond surveilling people who are "talkin' to Al Queda." The goal pretty clearly is to sweep up as much information as possible from all available sources, with no regard for "probable cause," then use "data mining" technology to sift through it. This technology can be used to keep track of terror threats - or to spy on and harass political opponents, just as J. Edgar Hoover and the Nixon White House (home of Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld) did to Martin Luther King, John Lennon, and many other civil rights and anti-war activists.
This system is more or less what John Poindexter proposed in 2002 with his "Total Information Awareness" program. (Poindexter is the same guy who was convicted in 1990 for lying to congress and destroying evidence about the Iran-Contra program. The conviction was overturned in 1991 "on the grounds that the prosecution's evidence may have been tainted by exposure to Poindexter's testimony before the joint House-Senate committee investigating the matter, in which Poindexter's testimony was compelled by a grant of 'use immunity'.") At the time, the TIA program was publicly shot down and disavowed. The creepy Illuminati-esque logo couldn't have helped:
But now, it seems pretty clear that behind the scenes, the Bush administration has continued to work on this plan all along.
This should scare Republicans as much as Democrats. Eventually, there will be a Dem in the White House again. Would Republicans want Dems to have that kind of power? Hopefully, the libertarian wing of the Republican party - the Cato Institute crowd - will come to their senses and conclude that this kind of stuff is far more dangerous and frightening than their usual bugaboos like environmental regulation and higher marginal tax rates.
US plans massive data sweep | csmonitor.com
Posted by tedf at 01:57 PM | Comments (0)
February 08, 2006
Live Online Chat at WashingtonPost.com This Friday, Feb 10, 2-3 PM
I've never done one of these before, so everybody should feel free to log on and lob me some Jeff Gannon-style softballs. In fact, you can submit a question or comment any time between now and Friday.
Here's the URL, both for posting questions ahead of time and following the chat live on Friday:
Posted by tedf at 05:54 PM | Comments (0)
February 07, 2006
You Gotta Love Russ Feingold
"This administration reacts to anyone who questions this illegal program by saying that those of us who demand the truth and stand up for our rights and freedoms somehow has a pre-9/11 world view. In fact, the President has a pre-1776 world view. Our government has three branches, not one. And no one, not even the President, is above the law."
Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall February 7, 2006 11:57 AM
Posted by tedf at 09:38 PM | Comments (0)