new york city diners
pbs frontlines newswar - 9pm est
Anybody want to help further my education?

When I was in Paris I saw the Rauschenberg Combines show. These are some weird pieces, made out of unusual materials (like, say, a goat,) and my understanding was that this was seen as a pretty radical departure at the time (late 50's.)

Last Saturday night I went to MOMA, and was struck by some Miro work from the 1930's. (Would be good if I could remember the name's of some of the pieces, but alas....) To my admittedly untrained eye they seemed at least as weird and sculptural and unpainterly as the later Rauschenberg's. Ropes and parrots and hats and all sort of objects.

So I'm guessing my understanding of why Rauschenberg was so radical needs some deepening. It's not just that he used found objects in his work. But what more?

Hopefully this doesn't seem too stupid or too impossibly broad.
Was hanging out long with a raw food person's life mate and her dad is a hard core 40+ year raw-head.......while I will never be a raw-head (raw eggs YUCK) cause I think cooking is good for the digestion etc, it was a learning experience and will be very healthy for me......"take in the sunshine"......need to switch my coconut water frenzy to fresh baby coconut's (pasturizing isnt good for the sunshine factor), so luckly I am good with the machette(sp) from my long trips in the carib in the 80's 90's......soaked raw nuts to release sunshine NOPE, eat raw meat that was alpine grass fed NOT.....my sunshine will have to come from wheatgrass, coconuts, greens (lightly sauteed), etc......GO SUNSHINE!!!
Photoshop tutorial for turning a photograph into fake miniature environment.

Discussion thread from a remote controlled toy airplane board where the members take aerial photos from their planes and then use the above technique on them. Tons of examples.

fake miniature environment - docks
this is making the rounds today. brutal oped assessment from a former reagan national security intelligence officer.
(for tom) history of mp3 players.
The head of Cartoon Network resigned today over the marketing stunt that caused a terrorism freak-out in Boston last week. Jim Samples sent a memo to staffers today about his resignation, saying, "It's my hope that my decision allows us to put this chapter behind us and get back to our mission of delivering unrivaled animated entertainment for consumers of all ages."
"The Republic Party" [YouTube] (via that Trios guy)
Long Tail My Ass

When I gave away all my vinyl, I gave up the 1981 League of Gentlemen album (Robert Fripp, et al), which I've never found on CD. Well, it's not on CD. I haven't seen any legit MP3 outlets, including dgmlive.com. It's a really good album by an artist who is still very active. But my only legitimate route is to find a 26 year-old vinyl disk. I'd buy a friggin flac ... right now. But nooooooooooo!
The Parts Left Out of Chicago 10

from paul krassner's blog at huffpo
Guest Blogging: A Bourdain Throwdown

NOBODY ASKED ME, BUT……

via jaschw
stepford pundit
E. EDWARDS: There are not that many politicians who are actually very good at jokes. John spoke one time and I said I wouldn‘t even go because it was—he was supposed to be funny and I didn‘t think he could carry it off.

CROWD: (LAUGHTER)

MATTHEWS: I love it. You‘re great. Behind every great man, there‘s a woman trying to kill him.

CROWD: (LAUGHTER)

E. EDWARDS: He has great characteristics.

MATTHEWS: What is it? Does she do this? Does she bust your balls like this when you come home? When you get (INAUDIBLE), does she do that?

CROWD: (APPLAUSE)

E. EDWARDS: My children are watching this.

CROWD: (LAUGHTER)

MATTHEWS: What‘s this with the equal marriages? Why do people marry their equals? It used to be different? What happened to the Stepford wives, the good old days? What happened?

CROWD: (BOOING)

MATTHEWS: Oh, how P.C. How—why don‘t you hiss?

Oh, thank you. Finally, the freaking hiss. I needed it. It was the hiss. I needed that.
Publisher Arthur Sulzberger on the future of the NY Times print edition:
"I really don't know whether we'll be printing the Times in five years, and you know what? I don't care, either," he says. He's looking at how best to manage the transition from print to Internet.
"Internet is a wonderful place to be and we're leading there," he adds. The Times has doubled its online readership, and now has 1.1 million subscribing to the print edition - and 1.5 million readers online, each day.
The New York Times is on a journey, Sulzberger says, and its end will be the day the company decides to stop printing the paper. That will be the end of the transition.
litebrite
Century Of The Self

episode 1
episode 2
episode 3
episode 4
Miracle Fruit
The miracle fruit party was last night. I arrived to find a group of twenty-five or so curious people, a spread of citrus items, and, wrapped up in a Ziploc bag in the refrigerator, a bunch of little red fruits: the understated star of the show, miracle fruit.

They're bright red, about the size of an olive, odorless, and just a little bit soft. The center is mostly pit. To get the most of them, David explained that we should chew the pulpy part for about a minute and coat as much of our mouth as possible with it. Then we'd be free to spit or swallow and experience the magic of miraculin.

We started out by taking a quick taste of lime, just to get a fresh impression of what lime tastes like. Then we passed around a plate of miracle fruits, all of us taking one like eager cultists taking punch. A minute went by as we swirled the stuff around in our mouths.

The fruit itself is mostly tasteless, though slightly sweet. The pit is surrounded by a weird, slick layer of pulp. It's not bad to eat, but one would get bored with it pretty quickly. The true test came next, as we again sampled the lime. The result? Utter astonishment. The very same lime we'd tried moments before suddenly tasted like it had been dipped in sugar. All the stinging acidity was gone, leaving only the pleasing citrus and an amazing sensation of sweetness that left us craving more.

Our sense of taste completely transformed, we orgiastically began sampling everything we could get our hands on. Lemons tasted like lemonade. Meyer lemons tasted like the sweetest oranges. Grapefruits tasted awesome, and I don't even like grapefruit. Goat cheese tasted like candy. Brooklyn Brewery's Black Chocolate Stout tasted bigger and sweeter than ever. (One of us had never had a stout before. After drinking stout with miraculin, every other will probably be doomed to disappoint.)


Post rapture recap.
For Steve: Ikonoskop readies new Super 8 "movie camera". Looks very cool, although the "main downside is that relatively few film stocks are available in the format."

Do you still shoot with yours?
SUPER BOWL XLI RANKS AS THIRD MOST WATHCED PROGRAM in Television History Behind the "M*A*S*H" Finale and "Super BowL XXX"

CBS Sports' coverage of Super Bowl XLI featuring the INDIANAPOLIS COLTS and the CHICAGO BEARS on Sunday, Feb 4 (6:27-10:04 PM, ET) scored an average fast national household rating/share of 42.6/64, up +2% from last year's 41.6/62 (Pittsburgh-Seattle), making it the highest-rated Super Bowl since a 43.3/63 in 2000 (St. Louis-Tennessee).

Super Bowl XLI was the second most watched Super Bowl of all-time, averaging 93.15 million viewers.

CBS Sports' coverage of Super Bowl XLI is the third most watched program in television history behind the series finale of M*A*S*H and Super Bowl XXX.

Nielsen estimates that 139.8 million viewers watched-all-or-part of CBS Sports' game coverage of Super Bowl XLI. On an all-or-part basis Super Bowl XLI is the third most-watched Super Bowl, trailing the 2004 and 2006 games.

The Super Bowl rating/share peaked at a 45.0/65 from 9:00-9:30 PM, ET
thurston moore collage artist
Just came across this ...

Profiles in Wankery


Juan Cole Pests [Jonah Goldberg]

As I've mentioned before, in my spat with Juan Cole way back when, I challenged him to bet me on Iraq's future (the winner would donate $1,000 to a relevant charity like the USO). He sanctimoniously declined, claiming even the suggestion made him sick (even though he made a similar bet before). Well, the deadline for the proposed bet is looming and various leftwing pests are clogging my email box saying if I have any honor I will pay up for a wager Cole refused to accept and denounced me for offering. Well, guess what? The baiting doesn't work. I will give money to war-related charities, as I have done in the past, on my schedule not that of these goads or Cole or anyone else. I will not announce it when I do it, which I have never done in the past because it's not anyone's business (even this post is somewhat sickening in that I'm even responding to these gadflies).

As a matter of intellectual honesty, I'm perfectly willing to admit that, had Cole had the courage to accept the wager, he would have won and I would have made good on it. But, since he didn't, I won't be jumping through hoops for this crowd beyond this post.
Artful dodge of the word "wrong", as in "I was not only wrong, but absofuckinglutely wrong."
Giuliani Files 'Statement of Candidacy'


Awesome! New York is contributing to the presidential sweepstake a "raging lefty" who's really a pro-war centrist and an "effective leader in times of crisis" who's really a momumental clusterfuckster with good marketing.

If we could only change the constitution, California could contribute a "steadtfast" windsock.
Day 1 of 5 of the detox juice fast. What have I gotten myself into? Breakfast was, uh... interesting. And green. I'll keep you posted here because I have no one else to whom I can complain.

Actually it sort of started yesterday because I had to get ready. Only ate brown rice and vegetables yesterday. I had a coffee in the morning, but no alcohol. I will continue the no alcohol thing all week, but will maybe drink a little bit of coffee if I get bad headaches.

This afternoon I go for my first ever colonic, and of course that is completely freaking me out (I'm from New England, what can I do? We're weird about stuff like that.)

Hopefully I'll have as positive an experience as Skinny, but at this point, to be honest, I'm just hoping I make it to the weekend.
Animal Planet has been running Puppy Bowl III all day. The Kitty Half Time Show is coming up.