And Good Ones Too
July 31, 2006 | Life | Site Maintenance
Doug is back from vacation and has commented on many posts. Always appreciated.
Too Cool to Bluff
July 31, 2006 | Arts & Culture | Life
On today's errand walk, another sudden lyric occurrence, in isolation, apart from the song, leaving me wondering.
She was too pat to open and too cool to bluff
If you follow that link, you'll find I got a lot more than I bargained for. After some preliminaries, there's a lengthy excerpt from my old haunt The Well, where (notimetohate), writes:
My take on "She was too pat to open and too cool to bluff" is that he could tell she was satisfied with where she was at and she wasn't going to initiate a conversation/friendship with him. And he could tell if he started it, that he couldn't match what she had and would have to bluff, but knew that wouldn't work with her.
Then (mellobelle), whom I met when I visited Lexington, KY in 2004, and who is totally cool, said:
Scarlet Begonias has my favorite woman in it of all the women in the Dead oeuvre. She's cool, she's together, she's so confident and not afraid of drawing attention to herself, she wears scarlet begonias in her hair and bells on her shoes. She has no need of the singer, has that exactly right. Altho', I think she enjoys his company for the evening, but when the evening ends, she's done with him. And she doesn't fake her interest. (Too cool to bluff)
There's more, lots more. Craig Dudley starts with a poker game explanation, goes on to write 1,300 words full of interpretive wisdom, and wraps up with:
That’s what I see in the song: A description of a relationship gone bad, but also the singer’s realization that it’s okay for relationships to go bad--it doesn’t mean that one (or both) of the people had to be a bad person. Innocence isn’t lost just because we make choices and choose to be ourselves, even when it might lead to conflict or loss of love.
More perspectives than you could shake a stick at. If I try to do a gender inversion on the characters in the song my brain locks up and goes blank, pointing toward a huge opportunity for learning.
....in the strangest of places if you look at it right....
Morning Earwigs
July 30, 2006 | Life | Nature & Environment
Earwigs are disgusting in many ways, but they're especially disgusting when, on a Sunday morning, up a bit earlier than you might prefer, and slightly hung-over, you find a pack of them nibbling away happily inside the wrapper of your virtually untouched Scharffen Berger chocolate bar. Besides the waste of fine chocolate, the shock and sudden reaction made my head hurt. Might be time for an early-morning nap.
IPtables is Fun!
July 29, 2006 | Technology
Highly technical Internet practical joke. If you don't get the tech stuff at the top, scroll down to the resulting images. Very amusing.
RMA Please
July 28, 2006 | Business & Commerce | Life | Products & Opportunites
Dear Andrew,
I'd like an RMA to return the microphone stand purchased on order #L23298760, invoice #6098612.
The reason for the return is that the metal boom of the stand, when delivered, had two stickers on it, put there by the manufacturer. One was a white paper UPC bar code sticker. The other was a long silver foil sticker with a purple stripe that said, "On-Stage Stands." As it turns out, these two stickers make a difference.
The paper one tore off in tiny pieces that took nearly five minutes to remove—though, granted, using only my fingernails and sailor slang—leaving a sticky glue residue. The second one peeled off easily leaving only a lightly tacky film of glue.
I attempted to remove the glue using the spray cleaner called Fantastic and a paper towel. Much to my surprise, the UPC glue came off easily, but the foil glue became stickier. I then used Windex, which helped loosen the glue, but did not remove it. Additional elbow grease was applied and had some minor effect. Bringing out the heavy artillery, I used Clorox spray cleaner with bleach. Nor did this powerful agent have any impact on the glue.
I guess what it comes down to is that when I buy something I don't want to spend ten minutes taking stickers off the thing, and I especially don't want to own something on which the sticker glue cannot be removed using only everyday cleaners commonly available in the average kitchen.
Does anybody at On-Stage Stands ever purchase their own products and try to use them as a customer would?
It is unacceptable to me to use the stand with the glue residue as it is. It seems like my only other alternative would be to re-order the stand and use it with the stickers attached. But I don't want to use the stand on-stage (har har) with the stickers—especially the purple stripe one; the UPC one is kind of ironic and cool—hence, best to return it.
This is the sort of thing I can buy at the local guitar store and not pay for shipping. It's too bad I had to spend $15 shipping (plus return) to figure that out.
Thanks,
Michael J.
PS: If you have a staff contest for best return requests, I hope that this letter at least merits an entry. If not, please forward some examples for my study and self-improvement.
A Version of Me
July 26, 2006 | Life
The strangest thing about selling my car was the feeling I had today when the buyer drove it away down the driveway. Suddenly, exhausted. About to fall asleep right now exhausted. So at 3:30 in the afternoon I walked into the living room, lay down on the couch, and fell asleep. I woke up at 7:15, feeling remarkably similar to when I experienced that self-induced hypnosis. It felt as if a version of me had driven away, and I needed time to integrate the change. Or something. It's an extra-ordinary sense, that's for sure.
An hour and a half later, and I'm ready to crash for the night. What a weird day.
Dynamic Scenarios
July 26, 2006 | Business & Commerce
My friends Anika Schriefer and Michael Sales have published an article describing their work at the intersection of systems thinking and scenario planning, which they call dynamic scenarios. I have watched them develop their thinking over the past 18 months, and have contributed ever so slightly to some conversations along the way. I find this an excellent process for handling multiple interacting variables and focusing leadership thinking on managing outcomes.
Tesla Roadster
July 26, 2006 | Business & Commerce | Products & Opportunites | Technology
Now here's an electric car worth waiting for. Lots of new here. It will be sold over the web starting next summer. According to their blog they have engaged Lotus for key contract engineering skills.
Song of the Day
July 25, 2006 | Arts & Culture | Life
Orchestra Nodding.mp3 (3:46)
Good Work If You Can Get It
July 25, 2006 | Business & Commerce
It's all good, for BP:
The company announced a profit of $7.27 billion in the second quarter, 30 percent more than the comparable period a year ago and the equivalent of more than $55,000 a minute.
Now that's some profit! Simply amazing, this world we live in.
Cogitating Is Doing
July 25, 2006 | Life | Software
In software engineering it's common to spend much more time understanding and characterizing something than actually implementing a feature or fix. For example, we just spent almost two hours pair programming to figure out 1) if the observed behavior is correct by design (yes); 2) why the error message is wrong (null set); 3) finding where in the code the message is being reported (line 1769); 4) typing "if !=NULL" in exactly the correct place, without disturbing any surrounding code; 5) testing the change to verify operation; 6) undoing the change to verify failure; 7) making the change again; 8) verifying the final change.
In other words, 120 minutes to type nine characters. Not quite as bad as fiction writers, I suppose.... But the real idea here is that doing requires thinking, and really, there's very little difference between the two in knowledge work. Sure, if you're hunting a grizzly bear, or plowing a field with your Fjord horses, or bolting the body to the frame on the assembly line, well in these examples there's a big difference between thinking about it and doing it. But for symbolic analysis work, thinking is far harder and more time-consuming than doing and the two are so intertwined as to be one and the same.
It's Not That Men Are Dumber
July 25, 2006 | People & Society
Sassy Pants is in fine form this morning:
It's not that men are dumber, they just choose to use their brain less if there is a female around. There are two reasons for this. The first is that their brain tends to be a little lower in their body when a woman is around. Second, men tend to coopt a woman's brain if they have one around to utilize. If you separate the couple after they've just been in close proximity, it takes a little while for the man to adjust, hence the lower mental acuity result.
I'm not sure I agree with everything she says, but I don't really disagree either, and it's possible I'm biased....
Things Programmers Say
July 24, 2006 | Software
Notio: There are a lot of CGI.pm flags for controlling the HTTP headers. Does our code send any of those?
P: Hang on, let me look. ... No.
Notio: For instance, it says "The -nph parameter, if set to a non-zero value, will generate a valid header for use in no-parsed-header scripts. You will need to use this if you need to create unbuffered output, for example for use in a 'server push' script."
P: [sigh] I'm going to go get a muffin.
On Sweeping
July 24, 2006 | People & Society
On my lunchtime errand walk the phrase, "Swept me off my feet" popped into mind. I decided that it's a lot easier to sweep someone off their feet once you know them—who they are, what they like, how they're motivated. Via amplification and inversion, the feeling of being swept off your feet prior to really knowing someone could be interpreted as a dangerous sign of projection or transference.
What Matters
July 24, 2006 | Arts & Culture | Life
Falling asleep last night it occurred to me that in the past few days I have
- Really gotten motivated playing guitar, reminding me how much I loved playing when I was young. It's hard to remember that in the mid-1970s I was the best guitar player in my school district, and I just walked away from it. WTF.
- Made a simple music video, reminding me that I have at least two screenplays I'm hoping to write. A couple of years ago I had good traction on the first outline. Now, a distant memory.
- Printed some of my photographs, reminding me that my grandfather taught me how to work in the darkroom and I've always loved playing with images. My photography work is on a four- to five-year binge cycle, and I'm ready for another one.
- Continued writing, currently focused on the blog, reminding me that in addition to the two or three screenplays I have at least one novel and and one or two non-fiction projects I'd like to accomplish. This is in addition to any business writing, which probably includes one or two short works.
I have a passion for many parts of my work, but really, it sure seems like the list above is what deeply matters to me. So if you see me online or in person, maybe you can ask me about that stuff as encouragement. Life goes on, plenty to do, work is busy, etc., but the four areas above are where I'm really trying to work. It's easy to forget, and life is short.
Weekend Snapshot
July 23, 2006 | Arts & Culture | Life
After seven hours of financial straightening (I'm probably one-third through the project) I offer 15 minutes of guitar snapshots.
Detective Mystery.mp3 (2:01)
Swimming.mp3 (4:19)
Dee Vee.mp3 (1:48)
Simple Chords.mp3 (2:01)
Big Noise.mp3 (3:58)
Are You Fire.mp3 (2:36)
Now it's all about dexterity and stamina (ain't that always the way) until I start to work out specific song themes. And maybe learn what the heck I'm doing. I'm going on feel here, and have little understanding of how guitar tuning works, intellectually. That's an unusual space for me, normally I think it first and feel it later. This is the opposite. There's sure to be some learning.
Rainy Ghost of the Golden Age
July 22, 2006 | Arts & Culture | Life | Nature & Environment
An impromptu music video I shot this afternoon....
Rainy Ghost of the Golden Age (YouTube, 4:35)
A mood hit and I grabbed the camera and restarted the song. The video compression makes it hard to tell how hard it was raining, and hard to see the ghost. But watch carefully and pay attention, and you might catch a glimpse.
Guitaring
July 22, 2006 | Arts & Culture | Life | Products & Opportunites
On Thursday I picked up the guitar for the first time since at least January. The last time I had callouses on my fingertips was at least a year ago. Around that time I had wanted to build a positive feedback loop with my playing, and rented a gadget that connected to the computer to record my guitar doodles. But it was too much setup hoo-ha—get the computer out, fire up software, close down other apps, plug the box in, set the levels—I just wanted something physical where I could press a button when I was hacking around and immediately capture the moment. So I didn't buy the gadget and didn't get a feedback loop in place.
But Thursday I had a lot of fun playing, and I removed some disincentives by setting up the guitar processor on top of the stereo and keeping the guitar plugged in. And then I remembered a new gadget I saw a few weeks ago. The Edirol R-09 is about the size of a deck of cards, and records high-quality sound on SD memory cards. I was able to borrow one for the weekend (thanks Chas!), and last night played around.
Here are some of my experiments, about 20 minutes total. Most of these songs don't go anywhere, they're more like chord explorations and emotional states. I'm pretty happy with them, especially given a first effort. I've sequenced them into something of a flow, for those that dare listen to the whole set.
Sweeping Birds.mp3 (1:22)
Interior Waves.mp3 (3:20)
Minor Grunge.mp3 (4:46)
Tangerine Mining Company.mp3 (4:17)
Eee Space.mp3 (4:03)
Swoop.mp3 (1:08)
The Edirol recorder is pretty sweet, and the built-in mics are better than decent. It's a complete splurge, but I think I'm going to buy this on Monday instead of returning it to the store. Add in some stealth mics, and there might be some undercover recording returning to my future.
Perfect Music Marketing
July 21, 2006 | Arts & Culture | Business & Commerce | Products & Opportunites
This whole weblog thing is pretty amazing. I wrote that post the other day on finding music – it was a toss-off, essentially, a cool service that made me think about how I used to find music and how much harder it is now (for me). Then, in the comments, this:
Hello Michael J.
I liked your post on finding music. It's funny how more options means more hassles. But here's another way to find new music. Have it come to you. My name's Kevin Griffin. I'm a singer songwriter out of Boston. I noticed you like Paul Simon. He's been one of my favorites for many years. My music's even been described as if Paul Simon and Johnny Cash were sitting around a campfire singing eachothers songs, that's me.
Anyway, I'm still not good at this self promotion stuff but I have a new song that was just named a semi finalist in the International Songwriting Contest and I'm trying to get new ears to hear it. So here's my link to Itunes so you can check it out.
Here´s the link to ITUNES and the lullaby.
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=157683341&s=143441
Thanks and I hope you like the music. If you do, let me know.
Kevin Griffin
Now, it would be easy to say, "Yo, no self-promotion on my blog!" But that's not what I feel at all. What I feel is, Cool! Why? Kevin notes my post. He references my previous post on Paul Simon. He connects himself to that lineage. He has social proof in the form of an award. He clearly states he's trying to get more people to listen to the song and his music. He thanks me. He signs his name.
Kevin, rock on buddy. Perfect music marketing. The opposite of music industry PR spin. The opposite of hype. You didn't tell me I'd love it – you said you think it's like some other things I love and maybe I'd like to check it out. You link to iTunes, the default mechanism for easy previewing. You link to your website so I can explore more.
How did Kevin find my post? Who knows? I have somewhere between insignificant and non-existent tracking systems in place on Notio. He's never commented before. I don't know if he dropped in on that post or has been following along for three years. It doesn't matter. He respects the medium, and is using it effectively. I'm happy to promote that comment to the top of the fold. Well done.
Things Managers Say
July 20, 2006 | Business & Commerce
I can't exactly read what it says on that flip-chart over there but I disagree with it.
cmd-tab
July 20, 2006 | Life | Software
Trivial Mac tip: I just figured out cmd-tab for application switching. It's great. The default selection is the last app you used, so it's easy to switch back and forth between two apps. You can arrow between any open apps, but the UI design to order them based on recency is brilliant.
Modern Business Realities
July 19, 2006 | Business & Commerce | Life
Lunchtime banter:
You can buy better but you can't pay more.
This [$300] pen works as well as the cheap ones.
We're not happy until you're not happy.
The food was bad and the portions were much too small.
Hope and Joy
July 19, 2006 | Life
I'm in Boston again, ninth or tenth time this year. This morning's check-in question was, "How are we experiencing hope and joy in our lives?" It took 14 people an hour and fifteen minutes to go around the circle. Two interesting thoughts came up:
1) Love is the only emotion that contributes to intelligence. (Fear, anger, et al don't.)
2) Joy is a place you come from not one you go to. (It's internal, not external.)
Nice to be here again.
Finding Music
July 18, 2006 | Arts & Culture | Business & Commerce | Products & Opportunites
Finding enjoyable new music is hard. [Is that "is" of predication or "is" of identity?] Radio gave up the ghost years ago due to industry consolidation. Now all we have on the dial are programmed playlists driven by payola. I can drive for hours and hear the same manufactured songs over and over regardless of the city, state, or region. So let's agree: Radio is a cultural wasteland, only slightly better than TV. Yes, there are exceptions, especially around colleges, but even then a lot of them suck.
The iTunes Music Store is a bit better, if only because I can drive my choices, and I can bail out of the 30-second preview whenever I want. Plus you get the browsing-helpful "customers who bought X also bought Y." And, one-click instant gratification. What's not to like? Well, Apple's DRM I suppose, but it hasn't gotten in my way so far, and the terms are reasonable IMO.
Today comes MusicLens a graphical dashboard which allows you to set musical parameters and then returns a list of songs that match your criteria. You can preview the songs, and I suppose there's some way to buy them. I like this better than Pandora because I can change the settings, myself, on the fly. Worth playing with.
Update: Fred Wilson posted today about music discovery too. Must be in the air.
Three Hours Later
July 17, 2006 | Life
Three hours after posting the bit below on Korzybski and E-Prime, I suddenly found it amusing that given everything going on in my life I should now have an interest in General Semantics. As if I don't have enough other intellectual hobbies.... I think this is one I can let go, but I'm still going to try to avoid using is, am, are, was, were, be, being, and been, just for the heck of it.
E-Prime
July 17, 2006 | Arts & Culture | Nature & Environment | People & Society
From The Sourcebook of Magic, pg 351ff:
Alfred Korzybski (1933/1994) warned that the "is" of identity and the "is" of predication present two dangerous linguistic and semantic constructions that map false-to-fact conclusions. The first has to do with identity—how we identify a thing or what we identify with. The second has to do with attribution—how we project our "stuff" onto others and things without realizing it.
E-Prime empowers people to not fall into the "is" traps of language. E-Prime refers to English-primed of the "to be" verb family of passive verbs (is, am, are, was, were, be, being, been).
Writing, thinking, and speaking in E-Prime contributes to "consciousness of abstracting" so that as we make our maps of the world we recognize how they differ from the world. E-Prime enables us to think and speak with more clarity and precision by getting us to take first-person.
The Adventures of Anybody
July 16, 2006 | Life
Lately I have a renewed interest in Neuro-Lingustic Programming (NLP), about which I'm sure there will be future blog posts. I read most of the core material available in the early '80s, and paid a bit of attention in the '90s but I didn't pursue it much. As I looked through the books I own I was surprised at how much the language mirrored my world-view. I think NLP was even more influential in my approach to being than I recognized. I recently ordered a few of the newer books, which appear excellent, and I'm excited to dive into them.
I started with an odd little book, The Adventures of Anybody, by Richard Bandler. It's not so much about NLP as it tries to tell the story of NLP in action. It's about 100 pages long, and set in a script italic typeface that changes the reading style, making it both casual and difficult. In essence, this book is a fable about our internal representation of "reality," written by a master hypnotist.
Yesterday morning, instead of my "morning papers" blog scan, I started reading. A few things happened along the way—the Verizon guy came and fixed the static on the phone line, I ran down to the post office, WBZ-TV called with an automated poll about the November elections, I ate breakfast—but by around 11 AM I had finished the first half, "How Anybody Got His Name," and decided I could finish this off in less than an hour, so I started on the second half, "Anybody and Time." Because of the way the light was coming into the room I decided to lie down on the couch to read. And I read about eight pages. And then, I fell asleep.
And not just any kind of sleep, but over three hours of rock solid, don't move, wake up stiff with all limbs tingling asleep. I was zonked. And when I woke my mind was reeling in slow motion—it seemed like I had travelled the universe and was suddenly surprised to find myself back on the couch, with my cat ultimately happy and curled up at my feet, in the middle of the afternoon, shortly after I had gotten out of bed at 7 AM that morning. Hours of "real time" had gone by in a flash, yet even more infinite time had elapsed in my experience. I don't even really remember the rest of the day, except that I did get my car listed for sale on eBay (please spread the word!).
Now, at the time, I didn't quite connect the idea of reading a fable about representing reality written by a hypnotist to my falling into a deep sleep for several hours, but when I picked up the book this morning I found my bookmark where I had left off and—I kid you not—the last thing I read was:
Presently Anybody fell asleep, and though he could not quite remember his dreams, he saw a tremendous fountain that sprayed the most wondrous water. He felt himself lifted into the air and floating through space. He saw the sorcerer in the purple robes and heard him whisper in his ear, but he could not understand.
Can you believe that? The guy hypnotized me through a book, and despite my highly tuned ability to go meta and abstract up and read between the lines, I was a goner. I'd like to read this again, but I can't spend today sleeping.
More Philling Photos
July 13, 2006 | Arts & Culture | Life | Travel
Executive summary: Wednesday July 12 at the Champlain Valley Expo near Burlington, VT. Live music mid-week and the guilty irresponsible feeling that comes with. Pouring rain all day and night. Dancing in the mud. Crowded covered grandstand. Happy happy people.
The Benevento/Russo Duo opened the show at 4:00. This was the scene during the middle of their set. We got there early enough to take third row seats in the grandstand. Most of the dirt you see will soon turn to mud and then be filled up with people.
Phil Lesh & Friends, first set. Songs: Good Lovin', They Love Each Other, Rubin and Cherise, Desire, Suraree.
Kathryn has seen a lot of live music, but none of the Dead- and Phish-related jamband variety. She is however a sociology grrl, and in addition to enjoying the music, high-quality people-watching ensued. The character in the foreground wearing the orange hat was dancing in the aisle, him bad, and as he noticed the usher coming he danced up three rows and into his section as she walked by. As she walked past he danced back down into the aisle. He was invisible as far as she was concerned.
Phil's second set. Songs: You've Got to Hide Your Love Away, Scarlet Begonias, Viola Lee Blues, Phil & Mike Gordon Bass Duo, Help On the Way, Slipknot, Franklin's Tower, Not Fade Away. Midnight Hour.
Full house. Not sold out, but comfortably full. You can see in the foreground the grandstand has become much more crowded in the aisles. Trey played onstage for the whole set. During Help I remembered walking across Main Street last week, crossing between the Post Office and Molly's, and suddenly, in the middle of the crosswalk, the startled opening of Help On the Way popped into my consciousness. I remember thinking, "That's probably the one song I'd like to hear Wednesday." So, I got my wish, even though I forgot I had one.
Remember that "dirt" we saw earlier? A fond memory. Dancing, walking, running, and standing in the mud. I think you get the idea.
Trey and Mike, with the Duo. Songs: Drifting, Trouble, Tuesday, Hap-nappy, Goodbye Head, Something for Rockets, Shine, Mud City, Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey, Dragonfly. Who Are You (with Page).
Two things seem to happen at rainy outdoor shows: 1) The band plays really well, being sympathetic with the audience outdoors in the rain; and 2) They play it loud. I don't know why this is, but it was damn loud during this set. The music was driving, rock electronica, with many minor chords and dissonant sounds. Some of the light show was beautiful, rainbow fingers playing over the audience for instance, but some was a blinking brutish barrage of colors and intensities. The music was assaultingly loud, and when I found myself wincing and twitching every time this one particular drum was hit (every few seconds), I dug around the backpack for hearing protectors. We smiled. We could listen now. Even wearing hearing protectors it was plenty loud enough. And this was 200 feet from the stage. I can only imagine up front. People seemed to like it, but my left ear was ringing a bit even 12 hours later when I woke up. Ugg.
When we left after the "first" Trey and Mike set, we thought there might be a big jamed-out second set with the hometown boys – Page McConnell had already joined Trey and Mike onstage with Phil's band for Midnight Hour and there might be more. But we decided to beat the traffic and it's good we left early because it rained hard for much of the drive home, slowing us down. And it turned out they only played the one encore, so we missed almost nothing and saved an easy hour, maybe more, getting out of there. The audience had a great time. The rain was an annoyance but didn't affect the mood. People were happy, smiling, dancing. Top-notch live music in northern New England doesn't happen every day, so let's enjoy ourselves.
The one downside: "I tell 'ya sonny, back in the day, I could stay up until 2 or even 3 AM and still go to work the next day. Now, I go to bed at 1 AM and I'm a-wiped out the whole next day. I am not getting any younger for these things."
AI@50
July 13, 2006 | Arts & Culture | People & Society | Software | Technology
Meg Houston Maker is doing some fantastic live blogging of the Dartmouth AI@50 conference.
This gathering celebrates, explores, and, to an extent, reprises the original Dartmouth Summer Research Project in artificial intelligence of 1956, which proceeded "on the basis of the conjecture that every aspect of learning or any other feature of intelligence can in principle be so precisely described that a machine can be made to simulate it." John McCarthy, then a Dartmouth mathematics professor, and his colleagues Marvin Minsky (Harvard), Nathaniel Rochester (IBM), and Claude Shannon (Bell Labs) coined the term "artificial intelligence" in their funding proposal to highlight the role computers may play in simulating (or bettering) human intelligence.
It's some of the best live blogging I've ever seen — she could do this for a living.
Strategy is a Commodity
July 13, 2006 | Business & Commerce | Products & Opportunites
Umair on strategy and creativity:
In a world where strategy is a commodity, creativity becomes the vital factor from which value flows. When everyone can think strategically about everything, the locus of value creation shifts from out-thinking everyone to out-creating them. The prime mover of value creation becomes putting the ability to create (goods, services, processes - even strategies) at the heart and soul of the firm.
The low cost of building web applications means creative startups have many golden opportunities in front of them.
Nine Lives Is Nine Too Many
July 13, 2006 | Arts & Culture | Business & Commerce | Technology
If the Internet turns into this, then I'm switching it off. Please, god, no.
That Sinking Feeling
July 11, 2006 | Life
The seashells are next to the soap.
Yes, that's true.
Don't you want the seashells on the other side of the sink? Or move the soap to the other side?
No, not that I'm aware of.
When you use the soap you have wet hands. So water splashes around the soap. The seashells might get wet.
That's okay. They're seashells.
Examples of Categories
July 11, 2006 | Arts & Culture | Business & Commerce | Life | Nature & Environment | People & Society | Products & Opportunites | Science | Software | Technology
Art: Leonard Cohen and Sonny Rollins on live TV. (Thanks Jon.)
Commerce: Do Patents Encourage or Stifle Innovation?
Culture: On media elitism and the "derivative" myth
Technology: On playing with my Holux GPS unit...
Cool: Velcro Being Pulled Apart
Wishing for Skirts
July 10, 2006 | Life
After wearing shorts for nine full days, wearing slacks to work today feels so constraining. Oh, if only men could wear skirts in the summer.
Make Something People Want
July 9, 2006 | Business & Commerce | Products & Opportunites | Software | Technology
I hesitate to point to every Paul Graham essay that comes along, but these links are useful for future research. Excerpts:
The idea of building something popular then figuring out how to make money from it was born in the Bubble. It sounds irresponsible, but it works. Requiring founders to have a carefully worked out plan for making money is not hard-headed business sense. It's what hackers call "premature optimization." The really important thing is to make something people want.
Startups will be ever more common because they're now so cheap to start. In most of the startups we fund, the biggest expense in the first year is simply food and rent. It costs little more to start a startup than to hang around doing nothing. And instead of having to go work in a cubicle in some office park, you get to work with your friends on your own project. If you succeed, you get rich.
We look for two things in startup founders: brains and commitment. One thing we've learned in this past year is that commitment matters more than we thought, and brains less. The founders can't be stupid, but as long as they're over a certain threshold, the most important thing is commitment.
A sense of design is also a big advantage. Big companies treat design almost as if you could paint it on after the fact. A hacker with design sense is really dangerous, especially as a startup founder. We don't care too much about the initial idea, except as evidence of brains and commitment. The idea will change. What matters most is that the founders really want to do a startup.
A lot of the most characteristically lame startups of the Bubble were that way because they were started by business guys, who then went looking for hackers to implement their ideas. That model may have worked in 1960, but it didn't work so well in 1998, and it gets more obsolete every year. I think the future belongs to the hackers. Technology is an ever larger component of business, so of course power is shifting to the people who are experts in that, rather than management or finance.
As always, there's more via the link.
Activity Recommendation: Vacation
July 9, 2006 | Life
A couple of weeks ago, when I was laid low with the flu, under deadline stress, and finally hitting my limit of multi-tasking, I decided I better take a week off before I burned out. I looked at my calendar for the week of the 3rd, already a short week with the holiday, and with no appointments booked I blocked it out completely.
Well, by Wednesday, after a weekend of naps, a live music show at my favorite venue, and another day of naps, I decided that I already was burned out. Holy cow do I feel better now! Of course, after six months of rain, it's nice that it was sunny and warm and with a cool breeze every day. Pat myself on the back for getting the weather right. Also pat myself on the back for minimizing expectations about getting things done. Yes, I managed to get some major housecleaning in, and wow was the lawn ever long and mangy after all the rain and my travel schedule, but mostly I sat around enjoying the birds and trees, and hardly even reading.
For me "relaxing" means a lack of obligations – making the holiday season far from enjoyable – and this week I managed to reset my body, my mind, and my spirit by minimizing the "shoulds." I wish I could extend this another week, but there are a few things I have to do this week. I think I will make it to a mid-week concert though, and then there's another weekend coming up soon.
Recommendation: Take some time off and do nothing. I promise: You'll love it.
We Must Disenthrall Ourselves
July 9, 2006 | Governance | Nature & Environment | People & Society
There's a good interview with Al Gore in the July 13 issue of Rolling Stone. Some quotes:
I believe there is a hunger in the country to be part of a larger vision that changes the way we relate to the environment and the economy. Right now we are borrowing huge amounts of money from China to buy huge amounts of oil from the most unstable region of the world, and to bring it here and burn it in ways that destroy the habitability of the planet. That is nuts! We have to change every aspect of that.
But the debate over oil reserves misses the point. We have more than enough oil, not to mention coal, to completely destroy the habitability of the planet. The real constraint on oil and coal is not supply, but global warming. There's a saying: "The Stone Age didn't end because we ran out of stones."
As Lincoln said in the darkest days of America's darkest passage: "We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country." Our biggest challenge, our biggest foe, is thrall. The word sounds ancient, but it means anything that imprisons our thinking and prevents us from seeing the reality of our situation. We're in thrall to oil. We've got to break out of it. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we will save our planet.
I like Al Gore as a vocal citizen, devoid of political consultants and triangulation. A true leader, a public servant, an honest man.
Paul Simon's Live Surprise
July 8, 2006 | Arts & Culture | Life
Vacation, Friday night. There must be some live music around here. Oh, Paul Simon in Burlington. That sounds good. Bought a single ticket the night before the show and got dead center last row before the soundboard. A perfect seat for this event. Although most of the audience was sitting down the whole night, I could stand and dance without bothering anybody.
I'd never been to the Champlain Valley Exposition, in Essex Junction, VT (one exit north of Burlington). It's a farm fair summer venue, and as these things go, it's not too shabby.
It doesn't have the luxe that SPAC offers, but it's a big step up from a hockey rink. Outdoors in the cool night air of Vermont, high-quality lights and sound, with birds flying above and a light breeze, world-class musicians, a fine performance in a beautiful setting.
It's good to go to a non-Jamband concert every once in a while to see how the other half dances. Before the gates opened I asked a ticket taker, "What are the rules?" She said, "Rules??" I replied, "You know, can we bring in water bottles, cameras, food, or backpacks? What about beach balls, glow sticks, and laser pointers?" She said, "No one has told me about any rules, normally you just walk in." This got an eyebrow raise out of me—maybe she hasn't been told, but usually there are rules.
But it turns out she was right: No apparent rules! No pack search! No body search! There wasn't even anyone there to check my backpack or pat me down. They tore my ticket and I walked in.
Of course, there were rules, they just didn't announce any of them in advance. For instance, right after I took this picture:
An usher walked over and said, "The artist has requested no photos of any kind." Oh, okay. I know what they're really trying to prevent are flashes, and people with cameras acting like killjoys to people just trying to enjoy the show. It's unfortunate that the only way to avoid those two bad behaviors is to ban all forms of the behavior. I know how to set my flash to 'off' and I only take a few pictures a set. But, as we know, rules are rules, (unless you're the President).
Here's my annotated setlist:
- Gumshoes
- Boy In The Bubble
- Slip Sliding Away—Very dark and slow and smokey.
- You're The One—Nature gives us shapeless shapes, Clouds and waves and flame. But human expectation, Is that love remains the same. And when it doesn't, We point our fingers, And blame blame blame.
- Me & Julio
- How Can You Live In The Northeast—Weak as the winter sun, we enter life on earth. Names and religion comes just after date of birth. Then everybody gets a tongue to speak, And everyone hears an inner voice. A day at the end of the week to wonder and rejoice.
- Mrs. Robinson
- Love Me Like A Rock—[I note here that this show is very song-oriented, which is a departure from the Jamband scene, where they, well, jam more.]
- That Was Your Mother—Along come a young girl, She's pretty as a prayerbook. Sweet as an apple on christmas day. I said good gracious can this be my luck? If that's my prayerbook, Lord let us pray.
- Duncan
- Graceland—And she said losing love, Is like a window in your heart. Everybody sees you're blown apart. Everybody sees the wind blow.
- Father & Daughter
- Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes
- Still Crazy After All These Years
- Cecilia
At this point we were headed for the encores, and I decided to take another photo.
First encores:
- You Can Call Me Al—A man walks down the street, He says why am i soft in the middle now, Why am I soft in the middle, The rest of my life is so hard. I need a photo-opportunity. I want a shot at redemption. Don't want to end up a cartoon, In a cartoon graveyard.
- The Only Boy Living in New York
- The Boxer
Second encores:
- Wartime Prayer—I'm trying to tap into some wisdom, Even a little drop will do. I want to rid my heart of envy, And cleanse my soul of rage, Before I'm through.
- Bridge Over Troubled Water—Sail on silver girl, sail on by. Your time has come to shine, and all your dreams will run their way. See how they shine, oh, if you need a friend, I'm sailing right behind
At the end of the show a solid 10 minute firework display.
The promoter of this show is a friend of mine. I saw him and his wife backstage before and after the show, and unfortunately only 4,000 attended. The capacity was something like 13,000, so they took a bath; very unfortunate. The promoter puts up the financial guarantee for the artist, rents the facility, hires the stage and security, etc. They earn out based on ticket sales. In this case, it's possible they wrote a very big check so that Paul Simon could play for the first time in Vermont. Since the show was a Friday night, I'm assuming the $80/$50 ticket prices were the deciding factor.
And he told me that, yes, there would be entrance searches for the upcoming Phil show Wednesday. So there you have it, audience profiling and discrimination even right here in Vermont.
The big surprise for me was that Simon only played three songs from the new album, Surprise. I love Surprise, so I was surprised to read in a review from an earlier show in Montreal:
If there were lulls in last night's set list, they came with three songs from Simon's recent disc, the disappointing Surprise. In future years, it's hard to imagine any of that album's songs staying on the set list.
We'll see about that. Certainly there aren't the dance numbers that Rhythm of the Saints had (a career peak work of his). But both You're The One and Surprise were critically panned when I think they're very thoughtful and contemplative albums.
The local show review was favorable, save for the fact that the author has no friggin' clue about how sound reinforcement works:
Why do some touring acts (including Simon) postion the key sound-mix decision-makers onstage, where they don’t have a prayer of hearing what the crowd is hearing?
Uh, dude, check it out: There's this big white tent in the middle of the floor in the audience? It's called the "soundboard." And the guy there, in the middle of the audience, is mixing the "house sound." He controls what you hear. What you see on stage is the "monitor mixer," who provides an individual stereo mix for each of the on-stage musicians. He's on the side of the stage so they can yell over, or point, to make something louder or softer. He's got nothing to do with the sound in the hall.
Sheesh, editors, please fact-check. Or use Google. Are you trying to emulate bloggers or something?
Dishonest Could Still = Nice?
July 8, 2006 | Life | People & Society
Heard last night: "Joe's a nice guy, but he's not honest."
Hearing this I noted my current understanding of nice already included honest. But apparently that's not true for everyone....
Letting Go of Outcomes
July 7, 2006 | Governance | Life | People & Society
Over the past ten years I've become much more "process-oriented." Part of this learning comes from my work—as a consultant I'm often in situations where I don't know very much about the specific content, but contribute to change based on looking at the larger system. I used to say that a focus on process leads to a better outcome.
In the past year I dove even more deeply into process and facilitation, especially through participating in and leading Open Space and World Cafe sessions (and couples counseling, a longer story). Now I'd go further about the value of process: When I participate in the design and iteration of a process, I am comfortable with whatever outcome arises. Focusing on how something is decided allows me to let go of what is decided.
One way to think about this is using my favorite phrase from the past year, abstract up. Take a specific situation, then generalize it a bit and work at that level. Then generalize that, and go up one more level. Continue, until you can't make a general case that still contains the specific situation you're dealing with. At that point apply the rules you've learned from the general case, and see how the specific case plays out.
Simple example: Say you're going to buy a house from a friend. It's not listed on the market, and it's a private sale without real estate agents. How do you set the price? One way is to pick a number that feels good and fight for it trying not to compromise too much. Doesn't usually work out too well. Another way is to let the buyer get an appraisal, and use that number. If that doesn't seem quite right to either party, have the seller get another appraisal, and split the difference. At this point you will have two opinions by professionals, and you can choose to use them, or walk away from the deal, but it's not going to make much sense shooting for a number a lot higher or lower than the bounds of the two appraisals.
It's worth noting that letting go of outcomes is non-trivial, as they say in engineering. I would not yet say I am expert at this, only that when I am able to abstract up it works out, usually better than when I'm obsessed with "what's going to happen."
Backup Brain
July 6, 2006 | Software | Technology
So I don't have to spend twenty minutes with Google-fu the next time I'm looking for this, here are two in-depth articles on Mac OSX backup.
1) The State of Backup and Cloning Tools under Mac OS X
2) Mac Backup Software Harmful
Summary: 1) It's a complicated problem. 2) Use SuperDuper.
USA, Today
July 5, 2006 | Governance | People & Society
Long Sunday deconstructs the meaning of 9/11 in the US psyche.
Billmon compares current US politics to those of Spain in 1936.
Brianstorms reminds us of the Bill of Rights.
Great Bass, Lesh Philling
July 4, 2006 | Arts & Culture | Life | Technology
Right up until Sunday, the day of the show, I wasn't sure if I'd go to see Phil Lesh & Friends at SPAC. I'd been sick for two weeks, the first week full-blown, with all symptoms known to (wo)man, and a second full week with the phlegmish hacking cough. Symptoms had died down by Saturday, but I didn't want to travel unless I was going to have a great time – I could have a good time at home.
When I woke up I felt good, and balancing continued R&R vs. dancing until midnight, I decided to let the hotel decide. If I could easily get a reasonable room the morning of the show, I was good to go. Let's have fun. First call, at the Super-8 over by the big Wal-Mart – across from the Home Depot and Target, right off the exit, before you get to the Best Buy, Bed Bath & Beyond, and EMS – the Super-8 had a room for the in-season typical $125. Therefore, it's a deal, we're on the road, pack it up. Figured on a 3-hour drive in holiday weekend mid-day traffic. It was 11 AM, and the show started at 5.
I arrived at about 4:15, after stopping at the hotel to change. Surprisingly, I got a great parking spot in the VIP area just off the back entrance by the reflecting pool. One reason might be that as I drove down Avenue of the Pines and hit the traffic directors, there was a sign that said, "Main parking lot [arrow right]; VIP parking [arrow left]." Everyone was going to the main lot, but I just turned left, no one seemed to care, and drove into a shaded parking spot. Got out of the car, stretched, looked around. No one was walking after me or hollering, and people of the tribe were grilling and chilling so I decided: Parked.
The reason to see concerts at SPAC is that if you get there early you have a very nice State Park scene for hanging out.
I've been coming to concerts here since 1983, when those trees were a lot shorter. There's a lot more crowd control now. Back in the day they'd put 34,000 people here, with multiple delay towers for sound, and it was crazy spinning sweating hippies even at the way-back of the lawn. Now they top out more like 25,000, and there's never any delay towers beyond the house system hung on the back of the balcony. And instead of a couple dozen ushers and a virtual autonomous zone, there are hundreds of ushers and you can hardly go visit a friend across the aisle without answering for it. But it's still SPAC, a New York State Park, manicured for our dionysian pleasure, with its marble stall dividers, lush green lawn, old pine trees, brick outbuildings, waterfall, bridge, and ravine. It just doesn't get much better than this for rock 'n roll, so stop complaining already. We're lucky they let fools like us in the place with the terror alert at Code Yellow (soon rising again as we approach November).
June 30, 2006 – The United States remains at an elevated risk, Code Yellow, for terrorist attack. The Department of Homeland Security continues to analyze intelligence and closely monitor events as they unfold overseas. At this time, there is no credible intelligence to suggest a specific or imminent threat to the homeland.
Back in the real world, sans propaganda, people were enjoying themselves at a cultural event. First up was the Benevento-Russo Duo, who I'd never heard, or heard of. They seem pretty young, so I think this is a big gig for them:
Keyboard player and drummer. I would call the music I heard intense, pattern-oriented electronica. Driving, tight, cranked. Very well-played. Enjoyable, and a pretty danceable 45 minute set. Worth exploring.
Next up were Trey Anastasio and Mike Gordon, former Phishmates. What I didn't realize is that they're playing with the Duo. They set up as a foursome and played a little over an hour:
Those guys totally rocked out. After the second tune, which contained more than one killer jam and a spectacular close, the guy next to me (who I didn't know) looked over and said, "Dude! That was totally like the old days!!" Indeed it was. When those guys hit the groove they nearly got the gold ring. Surprisingly good, and not just a nostalgia act. The Duo adds a modern element that takes Trey and Mike into the 21st century. Recommended.
Here's a wider shot to get a sense of the indoor scene:
Toward the middle of the set a guy named Blake showed up in the aisle in front of me. A little while later he turned and asked, "Did Mike play the acoustic [guitar] yet?" No, not that I remember. A few minutes later they jumped into "Who Are You?" by The Who, a classic-rock surprise prize, and along the way Mike did then pick up the acoustic for that little ditty in the middle of the song and the guy Blake turned around and high-fived me. "Psychic!," he said. Of course, he had been on the road and this was his third of four shows, so he might have had some sub-conscious low-frequency pattern-recognition going on there.
Above, in the left of the frame, you see Leigha, who's currently working as a bartender in New Paltz, NY. She was with a couple who drove up for the day. We had talked a bit during the set, I don't remember how it started, I think maybe I asked her something, since one of the things I'm doing these days is learning how to talk to random people. I'm more of a closer, not much of an opener, so I'm practicing. At the break her friends went to get water, so she and Blake and I talked for a while.
Blake was having a good time, as they say, and Leigha and I were pretty much drinking water and hanging out. We talked some facts like wherefrom, schools, tour plans. Blake had been to Bonnaroo last month, and Leigha had been for the past three years but not this year. I asked them what they liked about it. He said, "Good bands." Leigha? "I think the community, the feeling you get when you're there." Like how? "Well, like when you're walking by a campground and some people are cooking eggs and you say, 'Oh, that smells good!' and they say, 'We have extra, do you want some?' Stuff like that happened all the time." [Well, this is a lot better than talking about college.]
So I asked, "What do you think creates that sense of community? The world needs more of that, what can we do to create that, to bring that out in people?" She thought for a minute and said, "I think it has to do with being open, and being nice to people, and helping people along the way." I said, "So, if we can be open and vulnerable in more situations, just engage without preconceptions, then maybe it rubs off on other people or something?" She replied, "Well, at the least it's a couple more open and engaged people in the world, and that can't be all bad." At this point Blake suddenly blurted, "Man, you guys are deep! I am in no shape to talk about stuff like this." [No wonder guys get a bad rep.]
Leigha smiled. I winked at her, and thought, "Is this the state of competition for dates these days? Blake, dude, have something to talk about!" We chit-chatted to include him. Turns out Leigha has a master's in literature and the environment, a program she heard about when she was teaching English in China. I asked her if I could take her picture. She wasn't comfortable with that. She asked me where I lived, and why I liked it there. She asked Blake what he did for work. Turns out he's a mortgage broker in the sub-prime sector – "We help people save their homes, even if they have bad credit; We loan them the money ourselves for 7% a year for two years, then it converts into a regular loan; I mean, yeah, at that point it's 13%, so I guess that's why they call us the predatory mortgage market, but I can sleep at night, at least these people have their houses, they wouldn't otherwise."
Okay. Time to go get some water. Handshakes all around. Good eye contact.
Placed a bet with myself: When I return either Leigha is with her friends and Blake is gone, or Blake is there and she's gone. Zero probability of anything else happening. I walked up through the lawn, and it had filled in quite a bit:
Bought four waters, two liters to drink and two 16 oz to give away. Went to the men's room. Wandered around the vending and food options. Considered the beer tent and skipped it. Took some crowd pictures, but that seemed to generate slightly bad vibes. Makes sense. Headed back inside. Blake was there alone, natch. I won the bet. Gave him a water. "Wow, thanks!" "Just building community. Leigha split?" "She said she'll be back."
When Phil came out, I was surprised to see Joan Osbourne with them. She had played with The Dead, but never with Phil & Friends. I didn't know she was on the tour. When Chris and I saw this band in December, I remember thinking it was early in the tour, and they would get a lot better. Now it's three tours later, and it's the lineup we saw in Boston, plus Joan on vocals, and Greg Osby on sax. They were a lot more together, and Joan adds an important vocal component for this band.
The show had something of a slow entrainment for me. Good Times, okay soundcheck opener. Sittin' on Top of the World did get a nice groove going with some jazzy fiddle and horn jams. I usually dig Direwolf, but this was kind of poppy. It didn't have any kind of deep or thick or fur-lined groove happening. Then Joan sang Peaceful Valley, a Ryan Adams tune. Slow and sweet, southern bluegrass country. Maybe too slow that early in the set.
Then I'm not sure what happened, maybe a bus came by and I got on, that's when it all began. Suddenly we were in Fennario, and everyone—band, audients, Audience—was locked in. Bang, in a heartbeat. Best Peggy-O ever, no doubt about it. So beautiful. Then a slow solid stomping Althea. Can't talk to you without talking to me, We're guilty of the same old thing. Thinking a lot about less and less, And forgetting the love we bring.Very deliberate and smokey. Magic is possible when you take the time to rehearse. Some of the sax solos and improvisation sounded more like a baroque ensemble than a rock band.
I heard a lot of interesting tempo changes, perhaps micro-tempo changes, in Peggy-O and Althea. Subtle shifts in the pacing, slight changes in the exact placement of the one, stretching and compressing the elasticity of time. Very skilled and polished, I thought. But there's a guy on the Internet who seems to think they didn't have it together:
Everything was well performed, but the band had a tough time getting on the same page during Peggy-O, which was to bad condisering how well I heard them play it in February. Althea was pretty smoking to close the set and featured some great playing from all, even Osby. This was my first time seeing and hearing this band with Osby and I really have to say that he did not add to much. He sounded like he was struggling at times and like he is trying to figured what key the songs are in for the entire performance of the tune. I really wasn't impressed with him at all. But in his defense he is still getting to know the material and he hasn't spent much time with the band, and I'm sure it will get better as it goes along.
Huh? Greg Osby is a master player. What he was playing during those two songs probably went over the heads of most of the audience. It's more likely our critic was listening to his expectations and not open to the brand-new, fresh, never-before-heard music in the room. Greg Osby trying to figure out the key? Get a grip.
Thus ended the hour-long first set. Seemed super-short, since I only connected deeply with the last two songs. I stayed in place for the break. I wore my new favorite t-shirt and stood up and showed it off whenever I could.
When I first saw someone wearing this shirt at Dairy Day I laughed out loud. The day before I'd seen a "got democracy?" t-shirt on a friend and this was even better. More direct. Cutting. But then I realized the back of the shirt shows the seven cooperative principles and it's a co-op movement t-shirt! Happy happy joy joy!
A 60-something usher glanced at the shirt and as he checked my ticket said quietly, to himself, "Ok, got principles, that's a good one." Smiled and pointed down the aisle and handed me my ticket. Mostly the hippies laugh and the crew-cuts look away. Meme injection project continues apace.
One thing I don't like about the new and improved well-managed SPAC are video ads played during intermission. Granted, they're silent, so it's not too intrusive, but you can't really escape the video screens. The variety was amazing. Here's a sampling, so you can avoid these merchants that leech off the good vibes of counter-culture rock 'n roll: Jeep, Hinekin, GE, State Farm, Marriott ("be treated like a star"), fye, Fetzer wine, Appleby's, Verizon, livenation.com, Rockstar Energy Drink, Best Buy, Dunkin' Doughnuts ("iced coffee in nine flavors"). Etc. You'll notice they get no link love from Notio.
Okay, second set opened with New Speedway Boogie. It's unlikely I will ever forget Joan's inflection delivering One step done and another begun, in I wonder how many miles? Spent a little time on the mountain, Spent a little time on the hill, Things went down we don't understand, but I think in time we will.
Three rows in front of me there's a woman in her late-20s or early-30s. She's wearing an erotic asian art t-shirt. Not exactly like the art linked (I didn't yet find a copy online) but similar. A guy could never wear this shirt. And, doesn't she get hit on constantly wearing that? Maybe it's a way to separate the men from the boys, so to speak. It's certainly a conversation starter, and possibly an immediate ender too, all rolled into one. Maybe it intimidates people so they don't approach her?
Nice lengthy and considered jam going into He's Gone. Nothing left to do but smile, smile, smile.
Into Uncle John's Band. It's a Buck Dancer's Choice, my friend, better take my advice. You know all the rules by now, and the fire from the ice.
They're teasing Truckin' during every jam between songs, so I wonder if it will be the set-closer payoff. The show is error-free at the level of the song. They're remembering the lyrics or using the monitors—and not a decade too soon. There may be a musical faux pax here and there, but I don't hear anything obvious and it's probably at a level that most won't notice. I don't think anyone missed a lyric all night, nearly unheard-of in the land of the Dead.
Joan leaves the stage, and Phil and Greg lead a free jam which issues a transfer to Unbroken Chain. I love this song, and they seem to play it a lot when I'm in attendance, and I like that. November and more as I wait for the score, They're telling me forgiveness is the key to every door. A slow winter day, a night like forever, Sink like a stone, float like a feather.
We forgive Phil for singing because he wrote the song and it's so good. His voice has been shot for years, and he's kind enough to hire other singers for most of the tours, but there are a few songs he still sings. Tonight was very strong, with some sort of Eleven-ish jam in the middle. Totally sick, as my college buddy Bug would say. Then back into Chain. Amazing.
Long pause. Band resets. Joan returns. We wait quietly. Count off, click click click pause. Morning Dew. Please god let Joan sing it. Yes. Thank you. Beautiful. Calm. Strong. Respect.
Short pause. Trey walks out and plugs in. Quiet free jam to start. Trey in the lead. The band is trancing, hypnotic, looking nowhere, listening everywhere. Trey might already be drooling. Thought it was going to be Tomorrow Never Knows because of Joan's throaty vocalizations during the intro. She sounded like a sax, then Greg came in to carry it on. Suddenly:
Into The Wheel. You can't go back, and you can't stand still. If the thunder don't get you, then the lightning will. Unlike any previous Wheel ever. Trey and Phil are in the lead; the band is supporting Trey. Harmonic, soaring, waves crashing, round and round, then back to the song. Exit jam sounds like TNK again. Smokin'.
Into Not Fade Away. Rock out closer. During the jams Trey is playing hard and Joan is standing in front of him dancing with him, smiling. I'm laughing; they're having a great time. She's got her back to most of the audience, he's an audience of one. She spins around to sing her verse and then turns back to him. Joan and Trey trade places, Joan dances with Greg while Trey jams across Phil with Larry. Rock 'n roll, baby. At the peak Joan is vocalizing at the top of her game, totally putting out for that song. While the band brings it home to land she steps back and looks left, looks right, and smiles with satisfaction. Her boys done good.
Rap for organ donors, then Casey Jones. House lights. I sit for a while and listen to the crowd. Happiness. I stand near the aisle for a while and show off the t-shirt. One nice thing about staying inside for a bit is the interior view glowing gently like a spaceship.
Leigha never came back. Next time I'll invite her to come with for water, not leave her with the sub-prime mortgage broker.
Rather than sit in traffic I walk around the park for a while. Men's room. Wash up in the cold water. Some trash pickup. Drink some more water. Take in the post-show view. Walk on the grass under the tress to the car. Drive to the hotel. Eat some peanuts. Look at the photos. Twelve hours earlier I was packing, now it's over.
Thanks to Rob Clarke, who recorded, mastered, and uploaded the show before I even got home to download it. You can also buy an official soundboard recording.
Stadium Arcadium
July 3, 2006 | Arts & Culture | Life
The new double-album by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Stadium Arcadium, really rocks. People were raving about it, and I liked the single I heard on the radio (Dani California) , so I splurged and bought an actual physical CD – made of atoms no less. None of them ephemeral DRM encrypted bits for the Peppers!
This is a great summer rock and roll album filled with screaming guitar, power chords, great harmonies, narrative lyrics, and danceable dance rhythms. It's outrageous how much fun you can hear in the music. They are just rockin' out the whole hour and twenty-two minutes.
After four listens I notice there are half a dozen styles on the work. Rock, disco, rap, hip-hop, funk, ballad. Maybe more. Very diverse, held together by the drive. A brief review of the lyrics indicates that at least some of the songs are related to a major breakdown of some sort. I've never listened to the Chili Peppers before, so I don't know the history. Very well-composed music though. Great piece of work.
Concert Etiquette
July 3, 2006 | Arts & Culture | Life | Travel
Overheard at SPAC:
Why do you carry a lighter to rock concerts? You don't smoke.
—Sometimes people ask for a light.
But smokey rooms suck. Why would you help smokers by offering them a light?
—Because if, at a rock concert, someone asks for a lighter, the chances are good that you'll have the option of getting a toke on a joint, should you so desire one at that particular moment in time.
But don't people smoke cigarettes at concerts? You don't want a toke on a Winston. Don't the chimneys ask for a light more often?
—Well, that happens sometimes, but not that much.
That doesn't make any sense. A lot more people smoke cigarettes than smoke pot.
—Yeah, but, cigarette smokers are addicts. They usually have their kit prepared to keep the juices flowing. Pot smokers are, by definition, stoners. And stoners usually forget stuff like lighters back in the van.
That's kind of funny you're gaming them like that.
—No gaming here. It's all about catalyzing the win-win.
Finds Neither Support nor a Passive Population
July 3, 2006 | Governance | People & Society
Former Special-Ops guy John Robb writes Global Guerrillas, "an open notebook on the first epochal war of the 21st Century." The latest post, An Attack On Iran = Catalyst Of Chaos summarizes his current thinking on Iran, and the implications for the US.
The economic/societal wave: state failures. A gulf monarchy falls. Successful terrorist attacks on oil production systems have deepened the global energy crisis (and it appears it will continue indefinitely). The global economy goes into a severe and prolonged contraction. The worst finally happens: China's export oriented economy collapses. Protests, currently running at 200 a day, spike to thousands and they are increasingly violent (as protesters clash with domestic militias). The government attempts to crack down with the army but finds neither support nor a passive population during this attempt. Further, the scale of the unrest is too vast. Lacking legitimacy due to a decade of rampant corruption and an inability to deliver rapid growth anymore, the country fragments.
Summary: Possible return to states as the organizing principle, without much left of the federal government. The scary part: John really knows his stuff. Always nice to have a worst-case scenario in mind, if only to attempt avoidance.
Nano-Enabled Advances
July 1, 2006 | Business & Commerce | People & Society | Products & Opportunites | Technology
Email from Amazon alerted me to this new book: Nanotechnology Applications And Markets, by Lawrence Gasman, $79.
Discover nanotech opportunities the smart way with the first "down to business" market analysis that separates commercial reality from hype and gives you the tools you need to forecast nanotech’s impact on any company. This professional-level book spotlights the most viable R&D now taking root, what nano-enabled products will likely emerge in what industries first, and what timeframes you can expect before market rollout. You get a rich understanding of technical, business and legal essentials, and a solid framework for assessing commercial potential without either overheated expectations or overcautious pessimism. This indispensable resource focuses on the best nanotech-driven opportunities arising in the computer/electronics, medical/biotech, and energy industries — from nano-engineered microchips and fuel cells to nano-enabled drug discovery and delivery. You see where the "low hanging fruit" will be and won’t be in each field, and how nanotech will change each industry. The book also highlights nano-enabled advances taking place in such diverse industries as textiles, specialty chemicals, automotive, aerospace, agriculture, and building materials. What’s more, a unique and well-detailed "impact assessment audit" helps you identify how nanotech may soon change your company’s products, R&D, and production processes, and what new opportunities or threats to your business may emerge as the result of nanotech. Rounding out the coverage are extensive resource lists for further research in this up-and-coming sector.
This is going to have a major impact on society over the next 10 to 30 years—in other words, in our lifetimes. Bigger than personal computers.
