'the [New York Times] paper's policy on "Ethical Journalism" states: "Staff members may not accept gifts, tickets, discounts, reimbursements or other inducements from any individuals or organizations covered by The Times or likely to be covered by The Times. (Exceptions may be made for trinkets of nominal value, say, $25 or less, such as a mug or a cap with a company logo.) Gifts should be returned with a polite explanation."

Most reporters at the Times make between $60,000 and $80,000.'

I am still feeling out this blog medium, and I think I ran into a personal boundary recently. I created an art criticism monster thread and the experience is nagging at me. At first I loved it that so many people got involved, but in the end it was unweildy and for some reason, that I can't pin down yet, disatisfying. Partly, the heavy, abstracted subject matter just got to be too much. Maybe I should have moderated more? Or maybe its a technical thing. I changed it from flat comments to threaded comments part way through, thinking it would help to lend clarity, but I think it actually broke up any coherent trains of thought that had been developing and made the whole exercise feel more futile. I'm trying to figure out just what I am getting/want to be getting out of this project, and having tons and tons of people post to a thread no longer seems like a big goal. Any thoughts or past experiences from Tree-ers would be much appreciated.

Have you people heard about Howard Stern being taken off the air in six different cities? The reason seems to be because he was talking about how much Bush sucks.

You might invoke Olivier or Greer Garson or Hugh Grant, but I'd nominate Cushing as Britain's paradigmatic movie personage: icily superior, eminently reasonable, self-deceivingly amoral, and capable of untold ruin.

pullquote

dont have a cow, man.

DLC approved: Kerry's hair.

Oscar Wrap
I don’t usually care about the Academy Awards, but I must admit I was rooting for LOTR, for sentimental reasons, so it’s nice to see my misspent youthful intelligence justified by prizes (and millions of dollars, which of course justifies anything.) Still, the reflexiveness of the voting came out in the Best Song category, where the Annie Lennox number was easily the least of the nominated tunes, not even near as good as the Mighty Wind parody. Both of the aging rockers’ fake folk tunes were superior, and if you go by the live performances the cartoon should have won, but this was not the year to be French. I’m not sure whether the fact that LOTR set records without a single acting nominee is testament to the director’s prowess or failure, but I think Smeagol/Serkis might have warranted a nod. As it was, Sean Penn’s scenery chewing was a predictable winner, but I did feel sorry for Bill Murray, who looked genuinely crushed. They’re doing the Silmarillion next year, right?

i think this is an ad

am i the only one still watching debates?

Before I suffered brain damage and stopped reading anything that didn't have the word 'manual' in the title, I would have loved this: Grey Lodge Occult Review. Issue number 10 just went online, with pieces by Korzybski, Artaud, Burroughs, Dick, Baudrillard, Huxley, Battaille, etc....

The NY Post’s Sean Delonas has produced some powerful political cartoons, mostly on the basis of sheer grotesquery rather than wit, like his famous image of Cuomo and Giuliani literally “in bed” together. But I thought this one was actually a good pun.

my dvds

Nice. Preview is the top link right now on memepool.

Can you see your hits over there Joester? Does that drive much traffic?

Richard Box is an artist in residence in the Department of Physics at Bristol University. I've never heard of him before (no big surprise) but this looks pretty interesting to me:

FIELD represents a considerable development in Richard's work, whilst previous projects have included ambiguous glass objects much of the outcome has been photographic. FIELD is a major undertaking which will include the installation of several thousand ready- made glass fluorescent tubes. The bulbs will be 'planted' across the site at the foot of an electricity pylon, and will pick up the waste emission from the overhead power line. The piece is simple yet spectacular, making visible what would otherwise go unnoticed. The FIELD of tubes will flicker into life across the hillside as the early evening light fades. The performance each evening is hard to anticipate since it is heavily dependent on the weather. In all the best traditions of land art it is conditional on the variations of the great outdoors, and requires its audience to be patient. Here a parallel can be struck between FIELD and Walter DeMaria's, Lightning Field sited in the Nevada Desert - many visitors travel for days to see it, camp beside it and are lucky if they experience the sort of storm that will make the lightning dance across the 'field' of conductors.

Here's the Bristol University press release. And here's the slashdot story.

Anybody here seen the DeMaria in person? I'd really like to go there someday (although I think it's in New Mexico, not Nevada as the quote above says.)

as much as i loved chocolate and milk as a child, i was not a chocolate milk fanatic, in fact, i rarely had it. in the past few weeks, ive had a little chocolate milk flare-up. and today in a moment of weakness, i reached out in the aisle for the hersheys syrup. got me wondering what other people drank while growing up. we usually had quik for hot chocolate, or occasionally swiss miss. my cousins had bosco which was always the best part of those visits. any ovalteeners out there? what if they had called it roundteen? would it have tasted as good?

bird sighting

Wish I could post a picture, but I was going 65 mph at the time. I saw a pair of hawks (?) perched on a light pole in the middle of the US 101/ I-880 interchange. Very cool. Nice to know that some predators can coexist with us.

the slot: a spot for copy editors

in case you weren't keeping notes...last night's tasting menu at wd...

Wow. 500+ hits from August J. Pollack's link to "closed captioned war president".

based on the book
950 book titles, short stories and plays that have been made into films (thx maud)

architecture: from bad to worse

if theyre going to call it moynihan station, i might be just as happy if it doesnt happen.

anybody see City of God?

if not, do.

So, how bad is the O'Reilly thing?