Wholetone Gubble

OK, I’m not Criswell (although my grandmother was an actual psychic) But I have a strong sense (hell, a tingling of a spider sense) that in the near future we will see comic book downloads on Apple’s iTunes. I have a strong feeling that DC Comics will be in the initial offering. You heard it here first. I swear, this is just my instinct and I have zero insider knowledge of this. My moving to Cupertino is also completely coincidental. I swear. Paul Levitz, if you have not already made this deal, but now know it to be your destiny, I am way teh jealous of you and that little voice in your head that is chanting ‘big money, big money’.

Oh, btw, the thing that set me off on this is, old DC animation is now available on iTunes, and at first I thought it was the comics. The exciting part for me is that the actual first season of Super Friends… Wendy, Marvin, Wonder Dog, Alex Toth, Ted freaking Knight!!! is now available for you to enjoy. You couldn’t even get those joints illegally (no torrents, no DVDs, no longer on Cartoon Central or even Boomerang, not even VHS… NOTHING!), now it’s all there in beautiful digital glory, Minimus and Maximus Mole and the trees and rocks that walk and steal air conditioners and all the rest of it. Oh, the lost weekend that awaits me.

We’ll miss you George.

I have written about this case a couple times before, and a banner to the CAE Defense Fund has been up on Wow Cool for a bit (must remember to take it down now). It had been announced that charges were dismissed, but now that the appeal option has lapsed, it is official. Rest now, Doctor. Here is the entire press release; un-quoted-out for maximum readability.

Department of Justice Fails to Appeal Dismissal
Kurtz Speaks about Four-Year Ordeal

Buffalo, NY–Dr. Steven Kurtz, a Professor of Visual Studies at SUNY at Buffalo and cofounder of the award-winning art and theater group Critical Art Ensemble, has been cleared of all charges of mail and wire fraud. On April 21, Federal Judge Richard J. Arcara dismissed the government’s entire indictment against Dr. Kurtz as “insufficient on its face.” This means that even if the actions alleged in the indictment (which the judge must accept as “fact”) were true, they would not constitute a crime. The US Department of Justice had thirty days from the date of the ruling to appeal. No action has been taken in this time period, thus stopping any appeal of the dismissal. According to Margaret McFarland, a spokeswoman for US Attorney Terrance P. Flynn, the DoJ will not appeal Arcara’s ruling and will not seek any new charges against Kurtz.

For over a decade, cultural institutions worldwide have hosted Kurtz and Critical Art Ensemble’s educational art projects, which use common science materials to examine issues surrounding the new biotechnologies. In 2004 the Department of Justice alleged that Dr. Kurtz had schemed with colleague Dr. Robert Ferrell of the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health to illegally acquire two harmless bacteria cultures for use in one of those projects. The Justice Department further alleged that the transfer of the material from Ferrell to Kurtz broke a material transfer agreement, thus constituting mail fraud.

Under the USA PATRIOT Act, the maximum sentence for these charges was increased from five years to twenty years in prison.

Dr. Kurtz has been fighting the charges ever since. In October 2007, Dr. Ferrell pleaded to a lesser misdemeanor charge after recurring bouts of cancer and three strokes suffered since his indictment prevented him from continuing the struggle.

KURTZ SUMS UP END OF FOUR-YEAR NIGHTMARE

Finally vindicated after four years of struggle, Kurtz, asked for a statement, responded stoically: “I don’t have a statement, but I do have questions. As an innocent man, where do I go to get back the four years the Department of Justice stole from me? As a taxpayer, where do I go to get back the millions of dollars the FBI and Justice Department wasted persecuting me? And as a citizen, what must I do to have a Justice Department free of partisan corruption so profound it has turned on those it is sworn to protect?”

Said Kurtz’s attorney, Paul Cambria, “I am glad an innocent man has been vindicated. Steve Kurtz stared in the face of the federal government and a twenty-year prison term and never flinched, because he believes in his work and his actions were those of a completely innocent man. Clients like him are a blessing, and although I have had many important victories, this one stands at the top of the list.”

As coordinator of the CAE Defense Fund, a group organized to support Kurtz from the beginning of the case, Lucia Sommer sees the end of the prosecution as bittersweet, and like Kurtz, is thoughtful about the broader significance of the case: “This ruling is the best possible ending to a horrible ordeal–but we are mindful of numerous cases still pending, and the grave injustices perpetrated by the Bush administration following 9/11. This case was part of a larger picture, in which law enforcement was given expanded powers. In this instance, the Bush administration was unsuccessful in its attempt to erode Americans’ constitutional rights.”

Referring to the international outcry the case provoked, involving fundraisers and protests held on four continents, Sommer said, “The government has unlimited resources to bring and prosecute these kinds of charges, but the accused often don’t have any resources to defend themselves. This victory could never have happened without the activism of thousands of people. Supporters protested, vocally opposed the prosecution, and refused to let it go on in silence. And without their efforts at fundraising, Kurtz and Ferrell would not have been able to defend themselves from these false accusations.”

Sommer added that the next step for the defense will be to get back all of the materials taken by the FBI during its 2004 raid on the Kurtz home, including several completed art projects, as well as Dr. Kurtz’s lab equipment, computers, books, manuscripts, notes, research materials, and personal belongings. The four confiscated art projects are the subject of an exhibition entitled SEIZED on view at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center in Buffalo, NY, through July 18: http://www.hallwalls.org/visual_shows/2008/show_seized.html.

BACKGROUND TO THE CASE

The case originated in May 2004, when Kurtz’s wife Hope died of heart failure as the couple was preparing a project about genetically modified agriculture for the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. Police who responded to Steve Kurtz’s 911 call deemed the Kurtzes’ art materials suspicious and alerted the FBI. Kurtz explained that the materials (legally and easily obtained basic life science equipment and two harmless bacteria samples) had already been displayed at museums throughout Europe and North America with absolutely no risk to the public. However, the following day, Kurtz was illegally detained for 22 hours on suspicion of bioterrorism, as dozens of agents from the FBI, Joint Terrorism Task Force, Homeland Security, Department of Defense, ATF, and numerous other law enforcement agencies raided his home, seizing his personal and professional belongings. After a federal grand jury refused to charge Kurtz with bioterrorism, Kurtz and Ferrell were indicted on two counts of mail fraud and two counts of wire fraud concerning the acquisition of of harmless bacteria for one of Critical Art Ensemble’s educational art projects. (Critical Art Ensemble is the recipient of numerous awards for its projects, including the prestigious 2007 Andy Warhol Foundation Wynn Kramarsky Freedom of Artistic Expression Grant, in recognition of twenty years of distinguished work.).

The Department of Justice brought the charges in spite of the fact that the alleged “victims of fraud”–American Type Culture Collection and the University of Pittsburgh–never filed any charges or complained of any wrongdoing, and the fact that in bringing the charges the Department of Justice was acting completely outside its own Prosecution Policy Relating to Mail Fraud and Wire Fraud
(http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/eousa/foia_reading_room/usam/title9/43mcrm.htm).

For more information and extensive documentation, including the Judge’s dismissal, please visit: http://caedefensefund.org

Here is an excerpt from the most brilliantly scathing review of anything I have ever seen:

This is the most torturous, pretentious, incompetent mess of a movie I have ever seen. Don’t believe the reviews that suggest this film is visionary or a classic. The songs are ridiculous: the groans at the beginning of each one were deafening. The “Piccadilly Lily” song must have been done 15 times. There is nothing visionary (or even mildly interesting) here, only a long string of poorly-done Fellini ripoffs — actually, that’s the whole movie. It was like a train wreck. This was by far the longest hour and 45 minutes of my life. The movie made me long for death. My fellow audience members screamed and screamed as minute after endless minute and song after horrible song beat us into the ground. People were pleading for other audience members to kill them. Other kind-hearted viewers tried to distract the crowd by juggling and reading Moby Dick. Some, like myself, simply attacked the screen. Watching this self-obsessed piece of garbage was like having sharp nails scraped along the chalkboard of our souls.

It’s on the IMDB for Anthony Newley’s 1969 auto-onanistic auto-biopic Can Hieronymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness? Wow.

Need more convincing? Here’s a clip on You Tube of Newley with then-wife Joan Collins from the film with the charming title Chalk and Cheese.

I became re-introduced to Newley because of his one collaboration with my major hero Delia Derbyshire and her comments about him. He now holds a special fascination for me similar to that with the ever erudite Prince Philip (who sadly lacks Newley’s gift for alliteration).

The Percy Thrills Thrillington masterpiece, Thrillington, is now available in the DRM-free Plus format on iTunes for just 9.99USD. Awesome arrangements, super smooth bass by session legend Herbie ‘Walk on the Wild Side’ Flowers, Easy to listen to. Um, I guess you could always get it from Beware of the Blog or buy the CD, but, honestly I thought it had only ever been available on vinyl or torrent (sounding pretty bad) until now. Here’s some background (of varying accuracy.. I think) on the project.

Guiltcology. A cute little portmanteau neologism that stabs right at the heart of the green zeitgeist. Long overdue, I think. Has that same beautiful illogical quality as Irangate and chocoholic. Coined this day by Marc Arsenault. Guiltcology can be loosely defined as an approach of argument that focusses on blaming individuals for causing grossly disastrous effects on the environment. You shower too long, you drive too much… change these selfish habits and everything will be OK, and better yet, you’ll feel better about yourself. ‘I hugged the earth today. I walked to the corner store (instead of driving the 2 blocks) to buy (mercury laden) CFLs to replace the bulb I broke last night stumbling around in the dark (because I’ve been keeping the lights down to save energy).’ A classic example is US President George W. Bush’s speech about how Americans are addicted to gasoline.

Many examples are directly tied to the crassest and most misleading forms of advertising, like a recent example in the Gardener’s Supply Company catalog (Late Spring 2008 edition, page 68… nothing against them, really, they’re a fine company, but this is just plain stupid) that begins “Americans throw away more than 300 million tires every year.” Well, surely, this is the responsibility of that industry? I don’t get my old tires back when I replace them. (I didn’t get my wisdom teeth either, even though I practically begged for them. Who knows what they did with that hot commodity?)

Typically it then leeds in to full-on guiltvertising (neologism no. 2 for today). Continuing on in the Gardener’s listing… ” The good news is that today, almost 80% of those tires are being recycled into road surfaces, building materials… and our exclusive rubber mulch! Our customers alone have purchased enough recycled rubber mulch to keep 896 tons of rubber out of the landfills.” Really, OK, don’t hurt your head too much thinking about how that works… Like how many tons are 300 million tires and what percentage this mulch that will just hang around forever represent.

Far worse are the many examples of ad copy out there for how buying a plastic water bottle or coffee mug is so awesome for the environment because it saves X amount of bottled water bottles or coffee cups. And that makes it green as all get out, no matter what it is made out of.

UPDATE: Excellent piece on AdFreak tears apart Wall Mart’s loathsome green campaign that

…instead of showing that it’s following through on serious, long-term corporate commitments to eco-friendly practices, the company is just tossing the job back in the consumer’s lap.

It was amazing. Pere Ubu tore it up. I am in fucking awe. They did Sonic Reducer and I completely went fucking mental. It was all a million times better then I deserved to expect. Best damn Easter basket ever. See my choicest shots here.

Happy Easter and Equinox from Optiplex the Divine, protector of the universe, eater of gamma rays and organizer of the sublime dark matter.

The other day, there was a link in the Random News Round Up section of Tom Spurgeon’s always great The Comics Reporter to an essay in the New Yorker by art spiegelman on revered EC Comics artist Bernard Krigstein. I came to a total stop in my light reading of it at this sentence…

…Krigstein was a true intellectual. He would have had more in common with the staff of Partisan Review or Commentary than he did with his colleagues on Nyoka the Jungle Girl, Space Patrol, and Strange Tales of the Unusual.

No, not because I’m not familiar with the Partisan Review (uh, I’m not…); it was the list of then contemporary comicbooks. The last one in particular. Strange Tales of the Unusual! You’ve got to be putting me on. art snuck that in there in a mischievous fit after too many slices at Ben’s Pizza. No freaking way. That’s like having a comic called Exciting Stories of The Spectacular… except much, much more dull. It might have well have been called Interesting Anecdotes of the Peculiar.

OK. Sure enough, after a little searching I find out that “Strange Tales of the Unusual” had a dozen or so issues from one of Martin Goodman’s 50s comicbook imprints. You can see the covers on The TIMELY-ATLAS Cover Gallery : Blake Bell’s Visual Tour Of Marvel’s “Horror” Books. Here’s the first one:

At first they’re kinda funny in that lame ironic sort of way. Many of the covers repeat these type of not very interesting teases, with such snoozer titles as “Man Afraid!”, “Those Who Plan!”, and “The Long Wait!”… always with the quotes and exclamation point. I’d guess they’re tales of people driven to such heights of paranoia by the cold war that the slightest irregularity in the daily routine would drive them to the brink of madness, sort of like the situation of the housewives in countless infomercials who shake their heads in disgust that performing the most common of household tasks invariably causes embarrassing and messy accidents.

Eventually it had to dawn on me the climate of the times, and I realized just how sad this all was. The strange and unusual situation of trying to make a horror comic without any horror. The seal of the Comics Code Authority was in effect, and zombies, decapitation and injury to the eye motifs were a thing of the past. After a time the creators of these tepid thrillers realized that they could go a long way with the weird and monstrous, and some innovation was forced to occur. At EC they were lucky to have Krigstein, who produced his comics masterpiece ‘Master Race’ under the code.

Given much of our current cultural climate it seems timely that we now have a more detailed record of those times and the factors that led to comicbooks coming under the scrutiny of the US Congress, David Hajdu’s new book The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America. I haven’t read it yet, but I’m sure it’s pretty good!

I have this deep conviction that, given the chance, most Americans would take anything that smells like art or an artist and ship it to the giant island of plastic waste in the middle of the Pacific. With that mindset it should come as little surprise the events in Troy, New York during the last week involving RPI’s visiting artist Wafaa Bilal. Except things reached a point of the truly wrong. That the storied engineering school with the slogan ‘Why Not Change the World’ should have a hardcore club of republican students with apparent connections beyond campus (or whatever the case is) should also come as little surprise. Still, the whole thing leaves a bitter taste in the mouth as a supreme ‘what the fuck’ moment. Although officially written out of US law in 1973, federally protected free speech still held a shimmering veneer, that, in practice, anyway, seemed secure. Secure until what the application of “community standards” really amounts to in a former industrial center of the American northeast became apparent. Welcome to the scene in Troy, New York. Early March, 2008.

Across the river, mansion hill burns with the emerging scandal of now former New York Governor Elliot Spitzer’s indiscretions. In the historic district of downtown Troy an untarnished hero of the people is roasted for doing what was clearly the right thing at the right time. Steve Pierce is a saint. A champion of the empowering possibilities of media placed in the hand of the common man. He should be held in the same regard as other such far-thinkers as Rick Prelinger and Kevin Kelly. His most recent passion, The Sanctuary for Independent Media was callously shut down by the City of Troy, New York this week in a blatant flexing of cronyism.

Here’s Steve’s official statement from last night:

Hi-

Perhaps you’ve heard the news that the City of Troy, citing code violations, has shut down The Sanctuary for Independent Media effective immediately.

This happened the day after a top Troy official, who is also a Rensselaer County legislator and a constituent liaison for Senator Joseph Bruno, organized a protest condemning Wafaa Bilal’s work and our decision to present it on Monday night.

We have been working on our building since we first occupied it and throughout have been in close communication with the city about our plans, so this sudden closure-following the censorship of Wafaa’s work by RPI last week-came as quite a shock.

You can hear the phone call from the City of Troy at www.MediaSanctuary.org, along with a clip from Wafaa Bilal’s talk, and make up your own mind about the motivation behind the City’s action.

We have contacted the Center for Constitutional Rights, the American Civil Liberties Union, and private practice attorneys for assistance on the First Amendment aspects of this situation.

This crisis has created an urgent need to raise funds for building improvements: if you can manage it, it would be greatly appreciated if you could make a secure online financial contribution at www.MediaSanctuary.org, or send a check payable to The Sanctuary for Independent Media to PO Box 35, Troy NY 12181.

Under the circumstances, the remaining three programs in our “Art, Freedom, Democracy” series are in jeopardy as is the rest of the Sanctuary season. We will let you know shortly whether our presentation of The Yes Men next Tuesday, March 18 will proceed as planned, and if so, where.

Many thanks for your support in the past; if you can offer further help in this moment of need, please let us know by emailing info@MediaSanctuary.org.

Hope to see you soon!

–Your Friends at The Sanctuary for Independent Media

Here is Wafaa Bilal’s videotaped statement on the incident:

Interview with Wafaa Bilal on We Make Money Not Art

Virtual Jihadi main page

Article on Wired

Wikipedia entry on Bilal

YouTube Channel with coverage of the event

Still on the fence? Cast your vote… would you waterboard a dog or this Iraqi?

Fox again dips into the pool of slightly odd to fill space in their schedule, this time dragging Mr. Scott Smallwood (beard, glasses, sitting in the center) along with them. This clip is a tad old, but, hey, it was new to me. For those unfamiliar, Mr. Smallwood is pretty much the central unit in music at Wow Cool, being 1/2 of Evidence and a member of Brown Cuts Neighbors and nickname: Rebel. Check his stuff at the DeptEx shop.

Screen grab of the ad section from one of those ridiculous themed RSS aggregator ad farm sites (or Splog). The interpretations of this juxtaposition (and the potential for resulting humor) are endless. Way to go, 1st Tenn!

I wasn’t really going to do one of these, but basically had done most of the pieces elsewhere, so I’ve compiled it all here.

Five Comics or Comics-Related Publications You Enjoyed Reading This Year (originally on The Comics Reporter)
* Scott Pilgrim, Vol 4: Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together - Bryan Lee O’Malley
* Daybreak Vol. 2 - Brian Ralph
* The Escapists by Brian K Vaughan & company
* UnInked edited by Chris Ware (Scroll way the heck down the page)
* The Comics Journal 285 - the Darwyn Cooke Interview

Best LPs of 2007
Radiohead - In Rainbows
Unkle - War Stories
Cold War Kids - Robbers & Cowards
The Go! Team - Proof of Youth
Hot Fuzz OST (UK Version)

Top five tracks that came out in 2007 after I’d already done my Festive Fifty List (Artist links are home pages, song links are videos)
Friendly Fires - Paris
Malcolm Middleton - We’re All Gonna Die
The Octopus Project - Ghost Moves
Ebony Bones - We Know All About You
Black Kids - I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You

Web Comics I Actually read every day (originally on BKV.tv… updated)
Scary Go Round by John Allison - updated 5 days a week - full 5 year archive online!
American Elf by James Kochalka - usually updated daily
Daybreak by Brian Ralph - more or less bi-weekly (search the archives)
Cul de Sac by Richard Thompson (I think this is an actual comic strip)
And I just started reading We The Robots… pretty good so far.

OK… that’s it. There was also favorite TV, food, moments, etc. this last year, but those are a bit more easy to come by, especially as top 5 categories go, and I am here primarily to promote music and comics… so there you go.

We are all made out of star stuff. For those of us who remember a time when Pluto was a planet, Australia was a continent and Vegetable Soup was a tv show… there is one magic, authoritative voice that has always sent a shiver of awe through our collective spine as it delivered a sense of cosmic awe and wonder. Yes, it is true… I stumbled upon this randomly tonight, but, really… no… I’m sitting here with that same sense of awe and wonder I had 25 odd years ago. Yes. The original Cosmos by Carl Sagan is being shown on the Discovery Science Channel. It really is just so good (and, to the best of my knowledge, with super string theory, and cold dark matter still not being all that in the cosmic theorem realm… still, um maybe 90 odd percent accurate on this cosmic scale stuff). Carl Sagan was just so, so good at this. He is much missed. Relive the wonder now (or for the first time) Cosmos page on Discovery Science.

I’m still trying to figure out what Queens of the Stone Age have to do with Slow Food and why they were on Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations tonight… but I am much more excited about Tuesday night’s debut on the Sundance Channel of the film Strange Culture. I’ve been following the strange and tragic case of Steve Kurtz pretty much since day one and have tried to be an outspoken supporter of his case in my limited ability. If you get the channel, I urge you to tune in tomorrow night at 9:30pm. Here’s the description from the Sundance site:

What does it take to fall under suspicion as a terrorist in contemporary America? Experimental filmmaker and artist Lynn Hershman Leeson (CONCEIVING ADA) tells the disturbing Kafkaesque story of Steve Kurtz, a conceptual artist/college professor who was suspected of bioterrorism after FBI agents found harmless microbes in his house. Breaking from documentary convention, Hershman Leeson uses comic strips and actors (Tilda Swinton, Thomas Jay Ryan and Peter Coyote) to tell the tale. “A scary testament to the power of fear” — Seattle Times.

The details are a bit more bizarre and disturbing. Read the background at the Critical Art Ensemble Defense Fund site. The American public is only just starting to wake up to the abuses perpetrated since 9/11. The recent revelation of the destruction of torture videotape documentation by the C.I.A. (New York Times story - registration required) and the condemnation of this by Senator Edward Kennedy has set this issue in fresh relief, but the case of Professor Kurtz… so much closer to home… should have the resonance many people need to start giving a shit about the abuses being perpetrated on U.S. citizens in the name of our security.

I was very sad to hear this evening of the passing of the German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen. I’ve found he is someone who more people have heard of then have listened to his works. Often, at best, they know of the connection from Holger Czukay and Irmin Schmidt of Can. A few years ago I became very serious about music and sound theory and read just about everything that Stockhausen had written that was available in english.

Krebstar: Barry Morse
So… by way of tribute… Under the influence of Stockhausen I created, through a destructive process (no intermediate copies saved, no notes taken) a suite of structuralist/serialist/what have you, pieces, grouped together on a CD named after the beloved character actor Barry Morse (The Fugitive, Space: 1999). Various formulas were applied. A favorite, at the time, was one simply titled FM that set two wacky bits of modulated FM synthesis against each other. The piece was designed so that one or the other passage would be much louder than the other, depending on the playback system’s range response. On some, the bit that is a bit quieter on most stereos, is quite shuddering. Listen to FM

I lost track with Stockhausen somewhere after his helicopter work a few years ago. I like to think he’s somewhere up there with them… spinning.

At long last I’ve managed to go through some more of my shots from the intense photo-overload in Florida last month. Some of my favorites are these from the Disney Martial Arts Festival night-time show performance by the Tiger Claw Elite Champions. Now I’m off to Raleigh-Durham in the morning for more martial arts action and to hopefully catch a Bryan Lee O’Malley’s book signing.

See the full set.

You can also watch the whole thing on YouTube.

More info at TigerClawElite.com.

I gleefully tracked the poetry of spam this past summer (or spoetry) in a couple of posts (Thing 1 | Thing 2). Now, Yale School of Art MFA candidate Tom Manning has gone one better and turned them into cartoons. See the results on the excellent (if far too infrequently updated) Design Observer.

I’ve been in Florida since Tuesday. I’m leaving on Monday. Too much to process right now. Cocoa Beach… the Kennedy Space Center… survived the SGIA in Orlando today. The Disney Martial Arts Festival is the next two days. Stay tuned for a flood of word and image from this strange trip.

Ah, well.. trumped by Radiohead… The recent series of untitled sketches on their Dead Air Space blog may be even more stupid then our Stupid Pages. But, I guarantee we are capable of getting dumber.

Even the brute called Chickenwire treated Teatime with caution, if not respect, and the monster called Banjo just followed him around like a puppy. Worse, he was found to be smart and weird and crazy, intolerably so on all these counts and several others besides. Pink fires of histamine spurted from Lee’s glowing core and covered his raw periphery. 

–Today’s massive spam headers
William S. Burroughs would’ve been proud 

So, yeah, the usual dose of spam today… but there was something different, something a little… I dunno… special. The occasional poetry of spam subject lines was exceptionally strong. I want a new word to describe it… “spamsy” is the best I’ve come up with so far. “Words don’t mean a damn thing” is a pretty exciting subject to see in the inbox. This particular batch has been a bit more obscure that usual, too… with nearly every other letter separated by a plus or minus sign, making the actual content of the message almost impossible to decipher. Anyway, here are some highlights:

The goal is to make the image as bright as possible, without oversaturating it (washing it out, often to bright pink or white)

Boomzilla sucks on the ice in the bottom of his big drink    

I was looking at myself by a second vision 

Enable the Open menu item and gray out the Save As menu item  

The track table passed in the call determines the sector number, which is passed to the disk controller for the operation

I will remove my call to FreeLibrary too 

Photo courtesy of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review 

His chest was snowy white and his eyes were moist and brown and wise

You’re just a figment of my imagination

In other news… does anyone else think that “Keep the Car Running” on the new Arcade Fire disk sounds way too much like Eddie and the Cruisers?

 –Marc 

ps. Has anyone else found that the post editor in WordPress 2.2.2 is buggy as shit? 

2 stoned to death on resort island
Talking urinal cakes preach against DUI
Oregon snorkeler mistaken for rodent, shot in face

And you read the stories… and the headlines don’t even seem nearly as weird as the reality…

School bars hearing-impaired teen’s dog
SI.com: Brainy school ends 207-game losing streak
Scientist: NASA found life on Mars - and killed it
Man returns book overdue since 1960

“It’s all about you and your high-quality, stylish needs.”

Oh yeah. Drop out of society. Create your own fucking system man. You know the one reason that doesn’t work? Well, you can blame the fucking Dutch East India Company, man. Because one day, you can be happily walking along in YOUR society and turn around to find out that you’ve been FUCKED by the larger system. So, it is your fucking right, duty, and priveledge to get out there, and, yes, participate in this mess, to make sure that you, and us, and all our friends out there don’t get fucked. To not let all that we have created get destroyed, or worse, taken over and compromised.
-Marc A

btw. Check out Mouth to Mouth

But, Michael Ironside and John Saxon have never appeared together in a film…

News Letter of the American Nuclear Society- Oak Ridge/Knoxville Section
February, 1998 Vol. 98-1

BORON NEUTRON CAPTURE THERAPY

Dr George Kabalka and George Dillworth spoke to the Local Section about Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT). BNCT is a radiotherapy technique utilized to treat victims of glioblastoma multiforme, a virulent and lethal form of brain cancer.

BNCT was first tried as a treatment for cancer in the 1950s. It involves the injection of a non-toxic boron compound into the body. The boron is attached to sugar, which is attracted to areas of the body with high metabolism, which includes cancerous regions. The earlier tests were unsuccessful as it was difficult to focus the neutron beam, hard to localize the boron in cancer cells, and it was not possible to

image the boron compound while in the body. I These shortcomings have been overcome. Today it is possible to focus the correct energy neutron beam onto the tumor site, there are better boron agents which localize in the cancerous cells, and it is possible to image the boron agent inside the body using boron MRIs.

American reactors currently conducting experimental treatments of patients utilizing BNCT are the Brookhaven Medical Research Reactor (BMRR) at Brookhaven National Lab and the MITR reactor at MIT. At the BMRR, treatment is initiated by injecting the patient with approximately I-liter of boron phenyalaline (BPA). After I hour the patient is treated with neutrons from the reactor for about 20 minutes. The treatment is completely painless. The peak dose administered is 10.5 Gy-eq.

There are approximately 5,000 glioblastoma multiforme cancers diagnosed each year in the US. The median survival time without treatment is 3 months. With conventional treatments, such as chemotherapy and surgery, the median survival time is increased to 13-14 months. With conventional radiation treatments (not BNCT), the patient receives 30-40 radiation treatments; the median survival time is 9 months. Also, with conventional treatments the patient is sick most of the time.

The Brookhaven patients treated to date with BNCT may be segregated as follows:
9/94-2/96, 15 patients treated, median survival time 14.7 months, I side of. brain treated, 2 still alive and well;
6/96-1/97, 15 patients treated, exposure times were increased 20 %, I side of brain treated, 4 patients with large tumors died, I I still alive after 6-8 months;
5/97-present, 3 patients, irradiated both sides of brain, all still alive.
Generally the patients who had recurrence had the tumor grow back on the opposite side of the brain from the side which was treated. The quality of life for the treated patients was generally better with BNCT as compared to conventional treatments.

As has been noted in previous Acorns, the Tower Shielding Facility is being investigated for use as a BNCT Treatment Center. Cancers being investigated for treatment include glioblastoma multiforme, melanomas, colon cancer, prostrate cancer, and lung cancer.

Hubble director to speak
By Mike McNeney

Dr. Robert Williams, Director of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, brings the Gubble’s stunning view of the distant universe to UVic as a part of the President’s Distinguished Lecture series, Jan. 24, 7:30 p.m. in the David Lam Auditorium (MacLaurin A144).

As the man ultimately responsible for observations made by the Hubble Space Telescope orbiting Earth, Dr. Robert Williams has a front row seat on the distant universe.

Williams brings the Hubble story and “lots of slides” to the University for a President’s Distinguished Lecture, Jan. 24 at 7:30 p.m. in the David Lam Auditorium (MacLaurin A144).

Williams’ team of 400 astronomers and support personnel at the Space Telescope Institute in Baltimore is responsible for conducting and coordinating the Hubble’s science operations. The institute calibrates, edits, distributes and maintains data from Hubble for the world scientific community.

“Two things have surprised me most about the Hubble,” wrote Williams in response to questions sent via email by The Ring. “First is the superb way in which it has revealed very faint, distant galaxies. Before launch (in 1990) there was serious doubt that the Hubble would be able to see the most distant galaxies very well.

“The second is the extent of the structure that has been revealed in every type of astronomical object observed by the Hubble. It has been remarkable in its ability to discern structure in objects where none had been seen before.”

Last month, Hubble delivered spectacular images of intricate clouds of glowing dust and gas thrown off by a dying star similar to the sun. The pictures are causing astronomers to re-think previous theories of stellar evolution.

The patterns spun into space resemble pin-wheels, jets in the shape of lawn-sprinklers and elegant goblet shapes. The outbursts send heavier elements, mostly carbon, into interstellar space as raw material for new stars, planets and, potentially, life, according to Dr. Bruce Balick of the University of Washington.

It’s impossible to predict discoveries that may be made by the Hubble, but Williams says there’s a good chance it may detect very faint stars that are only marginally more massive and larger than planets.

The Hubble’s capabilities would increase even more with the possible addition of an interferometer, Williams says.

“With the right instruments installed the Hubble could possibly detect large planets around some of the nearest stars. The actual detection of an extra-solar planet would be a milestone in our exploration of the universe, and I believe it is quite possible that Hubble might accomplish this.”

The space-based observatory&emdash;equipped with three cameras, two spectrographs and fine guidance sensors&emdash; produces high resolution images about 10 times sharper than the best ground-based telescopes.

Astronomers world-wide apply for access to the Hubble, but only one of every 10 proposals is accepted.

<A href=”http://woostercollective.com/”>Big ups to Banksy</A>. Too fucking funny. And he did it so well.

In the perfectly normal town of Santa Mira, California, residents seem to be suffering from a mass hysteria: certain people feel that their relatives are not actually their relatives, even though by all objective counts they are. Things become more suspicious when Miles’ friend Jack Belicec finds an unformed, unmoving body in his house that later disappears. Jack and his wife decide to stay at Miles’ house, along with Miles’ former girlfriend Becky who is showing a renewed interest in him. At night in Miles’ greenhouse, the four find giant pod seeds that begin to sprout duplicates of all of them. Jack and his wife leave to find help, but they return transformed into emotionless replicas of their former selves. Most of the town has already been converted, and Miles and Becky are chased by a mob of pod people. They elude them temporarily, but Miles leaves Becky for a moment and returns to find her transformed. He escapes to a highway and tries to warn passers-by who think he is crazy or drunk.

‘Exotica’ music man Denny dead

HONOLULU, Hawaii (AP) — Martin Denny, who recorded 38 albums that defined a genre of tropical mood music, dubbed “Exotica,” which reflected tiki lounge culture, died Wednesday (March 2, 2005), his daughter said. He was 93.

Denny created a sound that he described as a fusion of Asian, South Pacific, American jazz, Latin American and classical. His relaxing compositions were frequently punctuated by wildlife nature sounds.

Denny’s original “Exotica” album was recorded in 1956. Several albums by Denny played off the Exotica theme, such as “Exotic Sounds from the Silver Screen,” “Exotic Sounds Visit Broadway,” “Exotic Percussion” and “Exotica Classica.”

His other albums include “Forbidden Island,” “Primitiva,” “Hypnotique,” “Afro-Desia,” “The Enchanted Sea,” “Romantica” and “Hawaii Goes A-Go-Go!”

Born in 1911 in New York City, Denny studied piano as a child, and as a young man toured South America with a six-piece band, picking up the Latin elements that would later influence his Exotica sound.

During the 1950s and ’60s, Denny was a fixture in Waikiki.

His music was rediscovered by a new generation of fans in the 1990s, when most of his early catalog was reissued on CD.

You can really call Gonzo now, requires the presence of a man’s hand up his felt ass to make him talk. We’ll be toasting you at the Palais, Hunter, old man. Hey. Anyone still have Bill Kennedy’s number?

TORN FROM THE HEADLINES

Poll: Nation split on Bush as uniter or divider

“You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common. They don’t alter their views to fit the facts. They alter the facts to fit the views. Which can be uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that needs altering.”

-Doctor Who

you need to actually re-apply the established process

this involves train tracks and test patterns/test cards

tune in to the missing channels

overload the inputs

oversaturate as needed

refine your diet

make lists

Overlay with lines and xeroxes on the landscape through physical and electronic means

record source material on-site — remix — replay at site

employ scrambling, dish technology (parabolic receivers, fine china, snow sleds

Leave a trail

document sporadically

leave vague clues

find clues

if you drop a penny, do not pick it up! It could be someone else’s lucky penny! How dare you abuse this power!

report back to me only through the post office

destroy this letter after you have printed it and applied as needed

was born in Brooklyn, New York on November 14, 1919 (some sources say 1922) with the birth name of Constance Frances Marie Ockleman. Her father worked for an oil company as a ship employee. While still a child, Veronica’s parents moved to Florida when she wasn’t quite a year old.

By the time she was five, the family had returned to Brooklyn. She was expose to acting early when she starred in a primary school play. It was to be her only stage outing, at least for a while.

When Veronica was 12, her father died in an explosion on the oil ship. One year later her mother wed Anthony Keane and Veronica took his last name as her own. From that point on the family moved around a lot, living in Canada, New York State, and Miami, Florida.

By the time Veronica had graduated from high school in Miami, she was already known as one of the local Miami beauties. She felt that she was ready for films. Her mother and step-father moved to a small home in Beverly Hills, California in 1938 where Mrs. Keane enrolled her lovely daughter in the well known Bliss Hayden School of Acting in Hollywood. She didn’t have to wait long for a part to come her way.

Her first movie was as one of the many coeds in the RKO film, SORORITY HOUSE in 1939. It was a minor part, to be sure, but it was a start. Veronica quickly followed up that project with two other films. ALL WOMEN HAVE SECRETS and DANCING CO-ED, both in 1939, were again bit roles for the pretty young woman from the East Coast, but she didn’t complain. After all, other would-be starlets took a while before they ever received a bit part.

Veronica continued her schooling, in 1940, while taking a bit roles in two more films, YOUNG AS YOU FEEL and FORTY LITTLE MOTHERS. Prior to this time, she was still under her natural name of Constance Keane.

Now, with a better role in 1941’s I WANTED WINGS, she was asked to change her name and Veronica Lake was born. Now, instead of playing coeds, she had a decent, speaking part. Veronica felt like an actress. The film was a success and the public loved this bright newcomer.

Paramount, the studio she was under contract with, then assigned her to two more films that year, HOLD BACK THE DAWN and SULLIVAN’S TRAVELS. The latter received good reviews from the always tough film critics.

As Ellen Graham, in THIS GUN FOR HIRE the following year, Veronica now had top billing. She had paid her dues and was on a roll. The public was enamored with her.

In 1943, Veronica starred in only one film. She portrayed Lieutenant Olivia D’Arcy in SO PROUDLY WE HAIL! with Claudette Colbert. The film was a box-office smash. It seemed that any film Veronica starred in would be an unquestionable hit.

However, her only outing for 1944, in THE HOUR BEFORE DAWN would not be well-received by either the public or the critics. As Nazi sympathizer, Dora Bruckmann, Veronica’s role was dismal at best. Critics immensely disliked her accent because it wasn’t true to life. Her acting itself suffered because of the accent.

Mediocre films trailed her for all of 1945. It seemed that Veronica was dumped in just about any film to see if it could be salvaged. HOLD THAT BLONDE, OUT OF THIS WORLD, and MISS SUSIE SLAGLE’S was just a waste of talent for the beautiful blonde. The latter film was a shade better than the previous two.

In 1946, Veronica bounced back in THE BLUE DAHLIA with Howard Da Silva. The film was a hit, but it would be the last decent film for Veronica. Paramount continued to put her in pathetic movies.

After 1948, Paramount discharged the once, prized star and she was on her own.

In 1949, she starred in the Twentieth Century film SLATTERY’S HURRICANE. Unfortunately, another weak film. She was not to be on the big screen again until 1952 when she appeared in STRONGHOLD. By Veronica’s own admission, the film “was a dog.”

From 1952 to 1966, Veronica made television appearances and even tried her hand at the stage. Not a lot of success for her at all. By now, alcohol was the order of the day. She was down on her luck and drank heavily.

In 1962, Veronica was found living in an old hotel and working as a bartender. She, finally, returned to the big screen in 1966 in FOOTSTEPS IN THE SNOW. Another drought ensued and she appeared on the silver screen for the last time in 1970’s FLESH FEAST a very low budget film.

On July 7, 1973, Veronica died of hepatitis in Burlington, Vermont. The beautiful actress with the long blonde hair was dead at the age of 53.

the dead sea: no fish, weedless, sunk deep in the earth. A dead sea in a dead land, grey and old. Old now. It bore the oldest, the first race. The oldest people. Wandered far away over all the earth, captivity to captivity, multiplying, dying, being born everywhere. It lay there now. Now it could bear no more. Dead: an old woman’s: the grey sunken cunt of the world.

-Joyce

Ulysses

Recording engineers operate and maintain sound recording equipment. They may also work special effects equipment. These engineers install, test, repair, set up and operate the electronic equipment used to record and transmit radio signals. They regulate the signal strength, clarity and range of sounds and colors of recordings or broadcasts. They also operate control panels to select the material’s source.

SKILLS 
Sound/recording engineers must have manual dexterity and an aptitude for working with electrical, electronic, and mechanical systems and equipment. Beginners learn skills on the job from experienced technicians and supervisors.

EDUCATION
The best way to prepare for a sound/recording engineer job is to obtain technical school, community college or college training in broadcast technology, engineering or electronics. Certification by the Society of Broadcast Engineers is a mark of competence and experience. Prospective engineers should take high school courses in math, physics and electronics. Building electronic equipment from hobby kits and operating a “ham,” or amateur radio, are good experience, as is working in college radio stations.

OUTLOOK
People seeking beginning jobs are expected to face strong competition in major metropolitan areas. Prospects for entry-level positions are generally better in small cities and towns. The overall employment of broadcast and sound technicians is expected to grow about 9 percent through 2008.

FACTOIDS:
• In the 1870s, British professor James Clerk Maxwell mathematically proved electric waves could be sent through the air.
• When on tour, U2 uses a sound system that weighs 30 tons.
• Tourists to Elvis Presley’s Graceland mansion can listen to an audio tour in English, Spanish, Japanese, German, Italian, Dutch, French or Portuguese.