Archive for 2009
« Older Entries | Newer Entries »Don’t Start The Revolution Without Me
[ 8 Comments ]Posted on June 14, 2009 by admin in Politics
Sunday, June 14th, 2009Are you happy with the way things are? If not, are you brave enough to change them?
Are Americans Too Apathetic To Do This? |
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about our social contract, and how the Right of Revolution is written right into the second paragraph of America’s Declaration of Indpendence. Why has this been on my mind? Because I honestly think our system of government is broken. I mean, broken from a citizen’s point of view; from the point of view of those who rule, everything’s pretty much how they like it. The masses are busy watching TV and laboring to buy things they can’t afford, and the power structure is resistant to anything short of a lobby group that’s backed by millions of dollars, or an all out revolution. And things are failing. Education is failing, health care is an atrocity, financial institutions have failed, major industries are collapsing, and even basic civility has taken a major hit over the last 20 or 30 years. So when will we as a collective react? I was inspired a little bit recently when a friend pointed me to a bunch of information about Situationist International, the French movement of the 50′s and 60′s that is credited with motivating the May 1968 wildcat strikes that literally brought France to a standstill. Why? Because in my view, nothing has been more Read the rest of this entry »
Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
[ 1 Comment ]Posted on June 13, 2009 by admin in Music
Saturday, June 13th, 2009They’re not Grizzly, and they’re not bears. Patrick Daughters’ new video for the Grizzly Bear song Two Weeks is pretty clever though.
If Godley & Creme – whom you would probably only know from their tear-jerking 1985 hit Cry – got together with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and consulted with Depeche Mode and the Decemberists about how to be intellectual and moody, you might end up with something like Grizzly Bear’s latest release “Veckatimest”
Royal de Luxe – Amazing Giant Mechanical Marionettes
[ Comments Off ]Posted on June 12, 2009 by admin in Popular Media
Friday, June 12th, 2009The French performance troupe Royal de Luxe is at it again, this time with a three-story tall deep sea diver in the town of Nantes
This clip gives a sense of the incredible scale of a Royal de Luxe performance |
I often think that I might have been much happier if I had run away to be a carny when I was sixteen, which I very nearly did. My fear of rejection at that age prevented this; I had far too many teeth and didn’t smell funny. But seriously, I’ve had a love of theater, puppets, the circus, the carnival, and the macabre from as early as I can remember. Which is why I instantly fell in love with Royal de Luxe the first time I encountered them in 2006, when I saw this magical clip of a giant puppet girl (I honestly almost weep every time I watch that) from their production The Sultan’s Elephant, set to the song “Décollage” from Balayeurs Du Désert’s Jules Verne Impact. The troupe is still at it, with a new production The Giant Diver (Le scaphandrier géant), which is being presented in their hometown of Nantes at Estuaire 2009 (both of those sites are in French). The picture below is from this nicely assembled overview of the story of the giant diver and his niece. There are many more fantastic photos here on Flickr. Apparently, even when Royal de Luxe does smaller works they’re big; although their show La Révolte des Mannequins had no giants in the cast, it was presented in several cities, in 13 shopfronts, and over 10 days. I can’t say enough about my admiration for these artists, just ponder the scale, impact, and magic of what they’re doing. I hope someday they tour the states; so far they’ve only toured parts of Europe, Chile, and Australia.
♫ Happy Birthday To Us ♫
[ 2 Comments ]Posted on June 11, 2009 by admin in Holidays
Thursday, June 11th, 2009Dissociated Press turns one year old today. Join the party by helping us pick a Best Of. So far, the only person at our party is that macabre animated teddy bear.
Hey, guess who turns one year old today? Yes, it was one year ago to the day that the first post appeared on Dissociated Press, a little blip about the Moog Electric Guitar. Which pretty quickly established one of our first style guide rules: No gratuitous YouTube links! We pondered doing a “Best Of” piece to celebrate today, but after one full year of daily updates, we’ve decided to leave that up to you. Feel free to tell us what you’ve liked or disliked over the past year; we’re about to do a redesign, and value your input. You could browse the sections or archives in the left-hand navigation, or go backwards through all the posts of 2009 or 2008. If you’re a writer or developer, we also recently expressed some wants and needs in the “Editorial & Opinion” section. And of course, we welcome Birthday Donations; so far the only person at our party is that macabre animated teddy bear pictured here. By the way, it’s also my friend Eric’s birthday, check out his amusing and occasionally cryptic site, Physician Heal Thyself.
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Real Men Don’t Twitter
[ 2 Comments ]Posted on June 10, 2009 by admin in Technology
Wednesday, June 10th, 2009Is Twitter a vast nation of sheep led by a handful of loud-mouth marketers and celebrities?
Take any large group of people, say, a cocktail party. Inevitably, there will be one or two loudmouths that draw a circle of listeners, while most people wander and mingle, maybe forming small, more civil two-way conversations. In my view, this remains Twitter’s biggest obstacle to broader adoption: it’s a huge herd of sheep. 80 Percent Of Accounts Have Fewer Than 10 Followers, or as this Harvard Business blog puts it, Men Follow Men and Nobody Tweets. The article also points out that Twitter reverses the usual social network pattern in which men mostly follow women they don’t know, and women follow women they do know. Additionally, since Twitter is mostly a one-way broadcast medium, it draws a tremendous number of multilevel marketing and tech guru types who spam the system. I’ve been saying for a while that Twitter would max out somewhere around the number of Blackberry users, who number around 21 million users as of May 2009. These numbers seem to indicate Twitter is at least leveling off, and guess what? It’s just under 20 million users. I chose this number a little arbitrarily based on the idea that Twitter is such a perfect fit for mobile device users. I personally have used Twitter as an MLM tool, as mentioned above, but otherwise would only find it useful if I worked with a large, mobile work force of some kind. For personal use, it just has little appeal. Don’t listen to me though, Twitter to your heart’s content. In fact, here are 10 tools to help you do it better. Do you use Twitter? I’d love to hear about how and why.