==pla|\|ing lakes==

Saturday, January 25, 2003

Nice review of John Szwed's new Miles bio

It may be that this is the best one book to read about Miles (there are quite a few), just as David Thomson's book about Orson Welles is the best one book about him.

Since this book points to his work in the 50s as his best, I suggest Paul Tingen's Miles Beyond: Electric Explorations of Miles Davis, 1967-1991 as an accompaniment. It's the one I've read, and whether jazz aficionados like it or not, Miles work in the 70s is important to me and a lot of other people right now.

Not to say what's best or anything. Just that Miles doesn't just belong to the jazzbos.

NOTE: As you may know, salon has changed their access policy. You can view the whole site now (without paying or Premium access), if you click through a 4-pane Mercedes ad (that's what it is today anyway). You'll have to do this to get the whole article linked above. I discovered this just now because they've walled off Tom Tomorrow's comic -- hilariously, since the first time I've encountered this was the time I read his luxury American gas-guzzler toon.

1:11 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Somehow I don't really want Nick Hornby's Songbook to be relevant to me, but there it is

Probably just borrow it though.

Maybe it's a generational thing. Hard to admit music can mean that much to you. Or that it doesn't often enough.

12:05 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Friday, January 24, 2003

73-year-old Chuck Barris muses on his um checkered past

I admit it -- I thought he died years ago. He survived lung cancer, apparently, though the article doesn't go into the details of that.

3:49 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Some nice pics of Mayan ruins on the northern peninsula, Guatemala and Belize [Earth Alchemy message board]

None of Palenque or Chichen Itza though. But the sites shown are less well known, and harder to find.

3:20 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

I have to admit, despite my general aversion to tall buildings, it would be hilarious and cool to see a Gaudi building erected in Manhattan

Doesn't look dated at all. And about a 1000mprovement on the design of the original WTC.

Not sure how practical it is but I don't give a damn either. That would be good too -- something impractical on Wall St.

3:10 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Tuesday, January 21, 2003

We're all going to jail

Verizon ordered to turn over name of file downloader

8:19 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

2002 Top Ten albums by artists on the experimental fällt label

I listen to some stuff like this, but there's way too much to hear, never mind afford.

I do like what I've heard from Mileece, Eliane Radigue, some of Tomas Jirku, Janek Schaefer is very good -- his Above Buildings is on my wishlist.

2:41 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Monday, January 20, 2003

R.I.P. Al Hirschfeld

99 years!

An American Institution.

1:41 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Dan Gillmor on the Supreme Court's pro-racketeering copyright decision

Swipe a CD from a record store and you'll get arrested. But when Congress authorizes the entertainment industry to steal from you -- well, that's the American way.

We learned as much Wednesday when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Congress can repeatedly extend copyright terms, as it did most recently in 1998 when it added 20 years to the terms for new and existing works.

The law, a brazen heist, was called the Copyright Term Extension Act. It was better known as the Sonny Bono act, so named after its chief sponsor even though Disney and other giant media corporations were the money and muscle behind it.

Who got robbed? You did. I did.

2:34 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Key archaeological find in Ireland: huge underground temple under Tara Hill [incublogula]

1:53 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Ernest Glitch's experiments and other um revisionist science at Lateral Science [Incublogula]

1:43 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Sunday, January 19, 2003

Warhol and Ballard would be proud

Combination bonsai trees and "crashed" model cars = Crash Bonsai [Undernews]

7:03 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

The end of anonymity: product-embedded RFIDs (radio frequency identification) [Undernews]

...RFID tags...typically include a 64-bit unique identifier yielding about 18 thousand trillion possible values. KSW-Microtec, a German company, has invented washable RFID tags designed to be sewn into clothing. And according to EE Times, the European central bank is considering embedding RFID tags into banknotes by 2005.

It becomes unnervingly easy to imagine a scenario where everything you buy that's more expensive than a Snickers will sport RFID tags. That raises the disquieting possibility of being tracked though our personal possessions. Imagine: The Gap links your sweater's RFID tag with the credit card you used to buy it and recognizes you by name when you return. Grocery stores flash ads on wall-sized screens based on your spending patterns, just like in "Minority Report." Police gain a trendy method of constant, cradle-to-grave surveillance.

You can imagine nightmare legal scenarios that don't involve the cops. Future divorce cases could involve one party seeking a subpoena for RFID logs--to prove that a spouse was in a certain location at a certain time. Future burglars could canvass alleys with RFID detectors, looking for RFID tags on discarded packaging that indicates expensive electronic gear is nearby. In all of these scenarios, the ability to remain anonymous is eroded.

6:54 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Cries from the Asylum

Mad Hillary demands ISPs pay for customers' downloads [drudge]

11:20 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Deer in the headlights

Apparent insider says Muzik biz saw online music & file-sharing coming and let it go [og]

He also claims the labels are jamming the networks with junk, though I'd heard of this a while back and figured it was tried for awhile and abandoned.

1:54 AM - [Link] - Comments ()