Monthly Archive for October, 2008

Studs Terkel, RIP

Published
by
emptywheel
on 10/31/2008
in Culture and Studs Terkel
. Closed

From Working:

No matter how bewildering the times, no matter how dissembling the official language, those we call ordinary are aware of a sense of personal worth–or more often a lack of it–in the work they do. Tom Patrick, the Brooklyn fireman whose reflections end the book, similarly brings this essay to a close:

The fuckin’ world’s so fucked up, the country’s fucked up. But the firemen, you actually see them produce. You seem the put out a fire. You see them come out with babies in their hands. You see them give mouth-to-mouth when a guy’s dying. You can’t get around that shit. Tht’s real. To me, that’s what I want to be.

[snip]

I can look back and say, "I helped put out a fire. I helped save somebody." It shows something I did on this earth.

Where am I? and Shellstates.

Published
by
logickal
on 10/20/2008
in General, Logickal and Podcast
. 0 Comments

Hello loyal feed followers… things have been awfully quiet here of late, and for that I apologize.

I’ve been knee deep in a ton of projects, all of them quite challenging. I’m quite excited and think that the end results will be worth the blood, sweat and brain cells that have been poured into them, but in the meantime it means I’ve had very little time to perform even the most basic upkeep here at the blog. I have a number of things that really need doing around here, and I’m giving serious consideration to moving off of Wordpress to a fresh install of Drupal, which (again) requires some bit of time investment to accomplish properly.

So, with all of this in mind, I’d like to direct your attention to the netlabel Pelican Dump, run by former Nophi proprietor Randy Garcia (RIP, Nophi). I’ve been promising him some material for release for what must be over a year now, and I’ve finally come through for him. Entitled Shellstates, it is a 41-minute collection of somewhat lowfi abstract ambient/noise improvisations. Thanks to Randy for giving these orphaned tracks a home as well as for providing artwork for the release. It’s totally free as in speech, and can be downloaded from the Pelican Dump website. To give you a taste, here’s a short “sampler” style podcast, but again: the release is free - what are you waiting for? I hope you enjoy it!

Now, I’m off to the Lisp50 event at OOPSLA. I have a feeling my brain will hurt by the time it’s done.

(Speaking of things that I need to do around here, apparently Podpress’ built-in inline media player isn’t working. To listen to the podcast, either download using the link below, or play in the pop-up media player.)

 
icon for podpress  Standard Podcast [10:20m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (204)

It’s Johnny’s Birthday…

Published
by
logickal
on 10/9/2008
in General
. 0 Comments

Hey White Boy!

Published
by
(author unknown)
on 10/4/2008
in General
. Closed

Shared by Jeremy

My friend Vlad has a brief inspirational encounter in SF….

Entering a MUNI station in downtown San Francisco, I pass an Obama election swag table.

“Hey white boy!”

“…”

Big smile: “Are you voting for Obama?” He’s over 60, hair and beard sharp white on dark skin, several million mischievous twinkles in each eye.

I smile big in return: “Yes, I am! And what’s my being white have to do with it?”

“Nothing! But we…” hand pointing back and forth between himself and me, “…need more white boys to vote for Obama.” He hands me an Obama ‘08 button. I pin it to the strap of my Monome bag.

“Looks to me like there are plenty already.” I gesture down the line of people of all shapes, sizes, skin tones, genders and ages picking up Obama buttons, stickers and posters from the table. A majority of those present at the moment are Caucasian.

“Yes, but we need EVERYBODY to vote for Obama…. HEY! Asian boy!”

I love San Francisco.