Advice for Roland Emmerich

This guy sure loves disaster movies (Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow, Godzilla, 2012...)




For his next film, I suggest he try his hand at adapting this classic Calvin and Hobbes strip.

Dear Madison, I love you. Let's never fight again.

It turns out, much to my surprise, that I really miss Madison. Especially Madison summers.

It's was so easy to get back into the rhythm of this city: the jaywalking, the constant detours due to construction, the young moms and their double strollers getting in everyone's way at the farmer's market...















Of course, it's not the same as when I lived here: I didn't bring my bike, so I couldn't ride around the lake when it was really sunny out after the farmer's market, and I don't really know very many people that still live in town...
Still, if there were a way that I could be happy professionally and live in Madison, I would be mighty tempted.

huh?

npr guy:

"Arlen Specter speaks of winning election to the Senate in 1980 — the year of Ronald Reagan — in the big-tent Republican Party. Is it fair to say that today's Republican Party is actually narrower and much more conservative than the GOP of the Reagan era?"

RNC chairman for the time being, Michael Steele:

blah blah blah... "So there's been no change from 1980 or 1964 or 1856."

Scandal-gate

I can't be the only one that finds it incredibly irritating to hear ever political scandal described as "something"-gate. Please, MSM, put an end to this!

On the other hand, Fitzmas is a political phrase I can get behind, and would love to see in wider use: e.g. Specter's defection = Fitzmas came early this year.
Also: Fitzmas would be a good title for a movie, or a band.

Specter

Arlan Specter switched parties a few minutes ago. That's great news for Norm Coleman's legal fund. Also, it will be interesting to see what Chris Matthews has to say about this - maybe this is the real reason that he decided not to enter politics.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and predict that Lieberman will switch to the GOP restoring their ability filibuster (perhaps he'll cite his opposition to Obama's Iran, Iraq or torture policies (embedded parenthesis side note: how weird is this headline?)).

Actually, I think this could make the Senate less liberal, since reconciliation would look bad for a filibuster proof Dem party, and Specter opposes some liberal priorities.

Anyway, enough politics. Here's some good music:

april2009

Testing LALA's playlist embedding

embed1

Lala is a online music store, that also features an optional music trading feature for members. The trading is why I joined in the first place: I sent out CDs I no longer wanted (everything from MC Hammer, to an extra copy of OK Computer that I had for some reason), and got CDs in the mail from other members (a bunch of U2 and Bjork singles, other gaps in my collection like Sinatra, G'n'R, AC/DC, QOTSA... but also some new bands I discovered through lala like Material Issue)

...blah blah blah... point of story is: I'm testing their playlist embedding feature.

Update: it works ok. Lala makes uploading music faster by scanning your mp3s, and "automatically" adding songs that are in their database, and that you already own. There are three big flaws I've run into, so far: a) if your mp3s are not tagged the way lala has them tagged it won't recognize them (especially problematic for compilations), and b) if you listen to a lot of music that's not in their database, then you're also out of luck. (e.g. music that's not sung in English, British girl groups, European electronic music). Also, c) they automatically add clean versions of songs with bad language.

You can also *upload* songs but obviously that takes a long time.

This here playlist is just a bunch of random songs I uploaded and a couple I bought from lala. A few highlights: Sabali is an awesome French House song created by a blind Malian couple and the guy from Blur. I Know is some amazing Italo-Disco from Sweden. Baby Blue is the greatest song Dennis Wilson ever wrote.

Top Chef - why does it exist?

Seriously.

The people are the usual reality show types... and unlike the Top Model show and whatever show Heidi Klum is on... you can't really properly appreciate their talent by watching tv.

You can't taste their food. They don't teach you about cooking... It's like having a radio show about painting.

Shimmy Shimmy Ya

Obama's presidency may not be as memorable as the moment that was last night. The celebrations in Madison were boisterous and spontaneous. Strangers hugged strangers, grown men wept, and everyone had an additional degree of earnestness when congratulating the African Americans among us.

Starting at 8AM, and during the day I volunteered to "get out the vote" (I kept it nonpartisan, not wearing any campaign buttons or t-shirts). I canvassed the University's dorms (making this the first time I've ever seen the inside of those rooms).

At night we watched the results come in at the Majestic, where I made many new friends. Among them a fellow Canadian, who clapped along with me as McCain spoke (there were some boos from the crowd), and an African fellow who summed up the feeling of the evening: "Shimmy shimmy ya, shimmy yam, shimmy yay!"

Afterwards we walked through the excited State Street crowd to Amy's, and then joined a spontaneous march from the Capitol to Lincoln when we heard the roar from inside the bar.

At 2AM, on the walk home my new Canadian friend (and almost neighbour, it turns out), discussed the Obama policies that we don't like, and the McCain ones that we do like (nuclear energy, for one). It was a full day.

Blowout

Diego's prediction: expect a blowout tomorrow.

The polls don't take into account Obama's organizational edge. Kerry might blame Bin Laden's tape for costing him the 2004 election, but Bush's get-out-the-vote effort probably also had something to do with it.

The Day Before

It's gorgeous out today. Madison is enjoying t-shirt weather, and a light breeze is causing yellow and red leaves to rain down onto the sidewalks; people seem to be upbeat. We just had a fun halloween weekend, it's unseasonably warm, and there's real political excitement. Tomorrow looks good to most Madison residents. In a poll a few weeks back Obama led McCain by 45 points in Madison's county.

It feels like such a great day that I went off my diet and bought myself an ice-cream at the Union for the first time in 2 months.

"Keep hope alive, and we'll see you on the other side of Tuesday."

Just came back from a Wilco concert / Obama rally, at Memorial Union. It was pretty amazing. Only half the band was there: Jeff Tweedy, John Stirratt, and Pat Sansone. They did acoustic renditions of some of my favourite Wilco songs.

Beforehand I had been joking around that the one thing they shouldn't do is play "Christ for President" from the Mermaid Avenue album. Critics already think Obama has a Christ complex. Anyway, they did play that song for some reason. The rest of the set was amazing though.

The theatre was packed. There were Obama buttons everywhere. I had decided to dress up, so I was wearing my awesome Ice Cream shoes that look like some sort of Sesame Street thing, or like clown shoes. I was looking pretty hip.

There were lots of students, of course, but also some adults and some children. Some people came from other parts of the state (I heard someone say they were from Kenosha, which is about 2 hours away).

Things started out with an Obama campaign guy talking about how people should vote early, and then volunteer to get the vote out over then next 3 days. Then Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold came out and shouted a few of Obama's catchphrases. This wasn't an event designed to win over new voters, these were Obama fans.

And then came Wilco. Jeff Tweedy had an acoustic guitar, Stirratt was on bass, and Sansone sat at a keyboard. They started with a Sky Blue Sky song that I didn't recognize ("What Light"), and then played their not very good Woody Guthrie song "Christ for President." Then they did "Passenger Side" from their first record. Then they got to the good stuff.

They did a beautiful version of "Jesus, etc." and followed with the A Ghost Is Born highlight "The Late Greats." If you look over their catalogue, Wilco has a lot of depressing songs. Tweedy joked about Obama's message of hope and the "hope gap" with Wilco's songs. Then they launched into the greatest of all Wilco Songs: "California Stars." The first time I saw the (whole) band live was at one of the Royal Vic shows (recorded for their live album), but they didn't play this song. So I was especially glad to hear it played today.



The theatre was dark, and people were seated, but during this middle part of the show a little kid kept getting away from his mother and sitting down in the aisle a few rows in front of me. I think he might have been bored.

"California Stars" was the highlight, but the rest of their set was also excellent. They covered Dylan's "I Shall Be Released," then played their excellent new song "Wilco The Song" (first played two days ago on the Colbert Report). From their banter, I guess it has something to do with "Joe the plumber." It's the better than anything on their last album.

Due to some mixup with the guitars, there was a long awkward wait before they played their last song. While Tweedy was talking with his guitar tech someone shouted out a request, (or question, I couldn't quite make it out), and someone else yelled "that's what she said." The crowd had a good laugh, and then someone asked Tweedy if the band was staying in Madison for Freakfest (Freakfest is Madison's official city sponsered, neutered version of the traditional UW halloween party). Obviously they had no idea what the fan was talking about... "Freakfest" was only introduced two, maybe three years ago. The band closed with "I'm the Man Who Loves You."

After Wilco left the stage, Madison's Congresswoman, Tammy Baldwin, spoke for a minute or two directing people to march to the capitol where they would vote early. As we left a small army of Obama campaign volunteers tried to get people to volunteer for campaign activities.

Since I can't vote, I didn't march with Baldwin. However, last week, I did volunteer to be a poll watcher on election day. It's not a partisan thing; I won't be selling independent voters on Obama, or anything like that. I think it will just entail handing people registration forms, and telling them what they need to have with them in order to get a ballot (proof of residence, ID, etc.). It should be interesting.

You should read this
Go read Dahlia Lithwick's piece on Clarence Thomas, Sarah Palin, and diversity. She writes about the disgusting liberal obsession with (or fetish for) what she calls Benetton diversity (I like to call it Captain Planet diversity) and how conservatives have adopted some of the same thinking. I don't even want to get started on the UW's diversity plan and their attempts to import diversity by accepting more out of state students...

We will use our ability to recruit out of state to further enhance the racial/ethnic diversity of the campus.

I could go on about how offensive and racist that is for hours. I'll save it for later.

Also, Montreal had 2 Benetton stores within walking distance of my apartment. I miss that.

"That just makes me want to puke all over your head, sir!"

Thinking about this puts me in a fiery rage: some jackass principal decided that the turbulent home-lives of some poorer students might be putting them at an unfair disadvantage, and that the solution should be to remove the advantage of parental involvement that other students have.

"...we don't know what the family life is like. We had a student, a girl who at 12 went home from school, took her siblings home and her mom was passed out on the floor.

"Her job was to make sure the younger ones didn't wake mom up. She had to feed them, she had to get them to bed, and the next day she's in detention because she didn't do her homework? That's where we are coming from with an inner-city school.

"We've got kids with a certain home life and we are making it worse by sending work home ... We have to accept the responsibility that we are perpetuating and extending the gap between the have and the have-nots."

Why stop there? Those kids with good parents still have an unfair advantage. I say, the school should start giving them beatings. Life is cruel and it's high time our school started teaching that to our kids. Give the teachers a bottle of tequila and have them go off on their kids. Break a few ribs, have fun! Physcially harming the children from good families is the only way to ensure that life treats everyone equally.

Nevermind that students learn more at home than at school:

...the growing consensus among researchers, on both the left and right, that the home environment, especially in the earliest years of a child's life, is crucial to future achievement. Cognitive ability is not an inherited trait. It can be taught—although increasingly researchers have found that it's taught not in schools (as most people assume) but in the home and during summer months, through middle-class parenting practices and attitudes. Schools can then build on this base, but they can't do it alone.

The Slate article that this quote is from is about an educator who actually has good ideas to back up his good intentions. His last name is Canada. Maybe we could import him and give him a job in Barrie.

Students return to campus






This is from the farmer's market 2 weeks ago.

This is from the most recent farmer's market.

More construction photos

Secchi Disc

Some of my frisbee teammates

From Secchi Disc 2008

 

Don't live here

I used to live at this apartment building, later inhabited by Madison's youngest murderer, and only a half block from the scene of a still unsolved murder. When I lived there, I rarely spoke to my neighbours, though I did meet most of them on move out day. They were student-looking types for the most part and certainly didn't look like crackheads. Apparently things have gone downhill since then:

Take 431 West Main St.

The address is the apartment building where accused murderer Peterson lived. It's a three-story structure that has three separate street addresses, 427, 431 and 437 West Main Street. Police responded to 282 calls in the past year in connection to the three addresses. While close to half of the calls were for parking violations, the reports indicate chaotic or criminal activities are ongoing, including loud parties, drug activity and theft.

In the search warrant issued for Peterson's arrest, a Madison police officer states that the tenants of a second-floor apartment are known cocaine-base users. In an interview shortly after Peterson was arrested, another building tenant said most of the apartment's tenants are middle-age and suspected they either use or deal crack cocaine.

Calls from 427 West Main included a frantic call from a mom who believed her son may have attempted suicide by overdosing on drugs; a woman threatening to kill a male caller because he didn't buy her cigarettes; and a request for police to check on a homeless man who is outside the building and appears to be cold, drunk or both.

Some photos from July

After a farmer's market.





Frisbee sometimes lasts until sundown


Interesting decorations on a car over the Maxwell Street Days weekend.



Construction was paused for a few days due to the "Maxwell Street Days" summer sidewalk sale on State Street.




Construction resumed.

ATT: Worst service ever

How is it possible that when you call the 1-800 number listed on your internet bill, you get a service center for a different area of the country? My bill says to call 877-722-3755 for "AT&T Internet Services." But if you call that number and work your way through an idiotic voice menu you end up at a service center for the southeastern USA. Then they transfer you to 888-274-9056, which connects you to a service center that is only able to transfer your account to a new address, not to disconnect you entirely. Seems pretty dishonest to me; I specifically said I needed to disconnect my account, why the hell are they connecting me to some annoyingly faux-cheerful high-pressure sales guy?

These jerks have been nothing but trouble. It took 9 months and more than 30 phone calls to get an equipment rebate, and almost every call involved being transferred more than once. How can it be so difficult to set up a competent service center?

ATT: worst customer-service ever.