| My noughties 2: The Heliogabalus of Orchard Street |
[Nov. 16th, 2009|12:00 pm] |
To get totally into the themes on my 2000-recorded, 2001-released Folktronic album I should really be an urban ethnomusicologist with a robot assistant like the one you hear in my hour-long audio documentary Fakeways: Manhattan Folk, made just before the album and still the best piece of scene-setting for it. This Alan Lomax figure would probably have to start with the basic facts: Folktronic is an album made by a 40 year-old Scottish musician who moved to New York in March 2000. He records the album at 38 Orchard Street, at the Chinatown end of the Lower East Side. He's been in New York just a couple of months when he starts, but already he's absorbing a lot of the local zeitgeist, and particularly the idea that America is a nation with plastic roots where you can be whatever you want to be -- as long as it isn't authentic. He lives with his Japanese girlfriend.
Books and people influence this record. The people are new New York friends like Steve Lafreniere, a journalist who interviews me for Index magazine, the singer Stephin Merritt, or the multimedia designer (and friend of Fischerspooner) John-Robert Howell. As for the books, just as the prog-medieval direction of the Kahimi record I'd made in 1999 (most of which is glommed onto the end of Folktronic) was influenced by Paul Stump's book The Music's All That Matters, the "Fake Americana" material that comprises two thirds of Folktronic is influenced by Nicholas Dawidoff's book In the Country of Country: A Journey to the Roots of American Music. But a much more important source is a copy of German sexologist Krafft-Ebing's Psychopathia Sexualis I buy at the New Museum bookshop.
In a website thought published in April 2000 I have "a great idea": "Why not make an album of folk songs about sexual fetishes, set to synthesisers? Folk songs are usually about mining disasters or clipper mutinies, but why shouldn't they be about archaic hysterical sex fetishes too? The songs should have a childish gaiety, be light and celebratory... They would play with the associations of the words Folk, Fake and Fuck. The Folk (ballads, reels, laments, shanties, forebitters) would be Fake Folk, of course, played on early monophonic synthesisers. But the Fuck would also be Fake Fuck, because that's what fetish is. It's an evasion of the 'real thing', which is fucking. It's a fake fuck... A world in which the authentic was not prioritised over the fake, and 'healthy' fucking had no precedence over fetish, would be a rather splendid one, it seems to me."
And so I set to home-recording, alone in my tiny apartment, and often naked. In proposing inauthenticity as America's authenticity, I was making Manhattan -- a city of Jews, gays, Chinese and the art world -- the centre of all authentic inauthenticity, and in proposing deviance as the most universal sexuality I was merging Alan Lomax with Alfred Kinsey. Steve Lafreniere -- who heard most of these songs before anyone else did, and was in a sense their ideal listener -- started referring to me as "the Heliogabalus of Orchard Street". Other people influenced the album: Gavin Brown, whose art gallery in the Meatpacking District featured Jeremy Deller-like garage sales and a great scenester bar called Passerby. Spencer Sweeney's distortion-noise band Actress, which I heard at Passerby, blasting over the speakers. A conceptual folk band called Centuries, who came in from Coney Island to play weird gigs in tribute to Bruce Haack and Klaus Nomi. The records of Raymond Scott, which I'd buy from Other Music or Kim's. The bizarre school operas of Ford Wright. The scene around Fischerspooner, Bobby Conn, Ukrainian and Polish folk rituals in the East Village and Williamsburg. Thrift stores and painted Easter eggs.
( So let's take a quick canter through the tracks. ) |
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| Mikhail Lezin - Nulla dies sine linea (2009) |
[Nov. 16th, 2009|01:48 pm] |
1. Graphit auf Papier 1
2. Graphit auf Papier 2
3. Graphit auf Papier 3
4. Graphit auf Papier 4
5. Graphit auf Papier 5
6. Graphit auf Papier 6
7. Graphit auf Papier 7
8. Graphit auf Papier 8
9. Graphit auf Papier 9
total time: 33 min. 15 sec.
recording: 2009
self-released, 2009
© all tracks by Mikhail Lezin
download 320Kbps MP3
experimental; post-rock; noise; lo-fi; glitch; idm; minimalism; other
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myspace.com/mikhaillezin |
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| Mikhail Lezin - Nulla dies sine linea (2009) |
[Nov. 16th, 2009|01:10 pm] |
1. Graphit auf Papier 1
2. Graphit auf Papier 2
3. Graphit auf Papier 3
4. Graphit auf Papier 4
5. Graphit auf Papier 5
6. Graphit auf Papier 6
7. Graphit auf Papier 7
8. Graphit auf Papier 8
9. Graphit auf Papier 9
total time: 33 min. 15 sec.
recording: 2009
self-released, 2009
© all tracks by Mikhail Lezin
download 320Kbps MP3
experimental; post-rock; noise; lo-fi; glitch; idm; minimalism; other
*************************************
myspace.com/mikhaillezin |
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| ~*~Trip to Mahon Park~*~ |
[Nov. 15th, 2009|06:53 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  chipper | ] |
I visited Mahon Park on Saturday and have never before encountered so many different kinds of fungi in my life. It was pretty exciting and I was able to recognize a few of them as well.
( extremely photo heavy ) |
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| The Future of Energy. |
[Nov. 15th, 2009|11:58 pm] |
Last week I was in London, and at a Tube stop I found a Financial Times supplement called The Future of Energy. It had basic articles on all different sources of energy and energy issues and talked about the crunch between rising demand and climate change, but some of the information was new and interesting. You can see a pretty good summary of them at that link above. The FT website only allows you to view two articles a month (!?) but you can register for free if you want to read more. As a whole it's coming from a pro-free market business perspective, so raised my eyebrow a few times, but I respect that its factual. Here's a little from an article about peak oil and oil supply, which again features some interesting facts about new drilling technology and finds on the part of the oil companies, but I cant copy and paste any more because I've used up my two article quota. But you should be able to read it all!
Crisis averted?
A number of factors will determine whether the supply of oil can match future demand, writes Carola Hoyos
The drop in oil demand due to the world economic downturn, and recent oil exploration successes in Brazil, the US and west Africa, may have allayed fears that the world is running out of oil, but prices could rise once again as the economy recovers and demand outstrips supply.
That is exactly what happened in the summer of 2008, when oil prices surged to records of $147 a barrel as oil producers pumped as much oil as they could, but still failed to quench the thirst of the growing Chinese economy. |
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| Thinkpad R61 drivers for Ubuntu |
[Nov. 16th, 2009|07:40 am] |
Hello everyone,
I just bought a Thinkpad R61 and since I've been a satisfied Ubuntu user for some months already, I'd like also to use it on my R61. My big problem is looking for R61 drivers compatible for Ubuntu. Lenovo's website and it does not really support many drivers for Linux OS and it's really difficult to search around Google.
So if anyone here can help me (any Thinkpad-Ubuntu users), I would really, really appreciate it.
Thanks.
x-posted to computerhelp |
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| David Revoy |
[Nov. 15th, 2009|06:11 pm] |
David is a specialist in the areas like: Concept Art, Illustration, Storyboard, Digital Painting, Matepainting, Webdesign(Php/Css/Flash), Design, Packaging, Print, 3D. |
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| [Wireless] D-Link DWL-G122 on Ubuntu 9.10 |
[Nov. 15th, 2009|04:20 pm] |
Hi everyone,
I'm having issues with wireless after installing (with a clean installation) Ubuntu 9.10.
I have a D-Link Dwl-G122 wireless pen adapter which worked fine with Ubuntu 9.04.
It sees the wireless network available and tries to connect. I enter the WPA key, it tries for a while but ends unsuccesfully and asks for the key again. Any idea?
Thanks! |
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| Peter Principle saves Japan |
[Nov. 15th, 2009|11:55 am] |
I'm fascinated by ideas, and how they change the lives of the people who come up with them. It seems to be an interest that runs in the family; my mother once had a flirtatious correspondence with Cyril Parkinson, a man made famous by the simple observation that work expands to fill the time allocated for its completion.
The other day I came across another such idea, one I hadn't heard before. It's called The Peter Principle, was first described by Dr Laurence Peter in 1969, and states that in a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence. Basically, the principle states that people get rewarded for things they can do well by being promoted to the point at which they're doing something they can't do well. At that point the promotion stops, and there they stay.
There are some corollaries:
1. In time, every post tends to be occupied by an employee who is incompetent to carry out his duties.
2. Work is carried out by those employees who have not yet reached their level of incompetence.
3. Anything that works will be used in progressively more challenging applications until it fails.
This has mind-boggling ramifications; it could account for a world in which everyone is basically incompetent, because they've all been promoted to "the position of first failure", and left there to keep failing.
As often happens when you encounter a new idea like this, I immediately started applying the Peter Principle to real world situations. I happened to watch a documentary called Kublai Khan's Lost Fleet, which examines how a Mongol navy with superior weaponry and 4500 ships was destroyed while attempting to invade Japan in August 1281, with the loss of 130,500 Mongol soldiers and sailors.
Now, the main reason was that, just as had happened the last time the Mongols attempted to invade Japan, a kamikaze or "divine wind", in the form of a massive typhoon, whipped up and destroyed the invading navy.
But there were other factors. Kublai Khan promoted a general called Arakhan to lead the naval invasion. He'd distinguished himself in great on-land campaigns, but on the sea he was... all at sea. In terms of the Peter Principle, as a nautical commander Arakhan had reached his "position of first failure". Not just because former successes had led to his promotion to a post he was incompetent for, but because geographically Japan was the Mongol Empire's "position of first failure".
For Arakhan, though, "failure was not an option". He couldn't head home, having failed to crack Japan, and report his failure to Kublai Khan. He'd have been killed. So the biggest single maritime loss of life in the history of the world unfolded off the coast of Takashima, produced by a timely typhoon, samurai bravery, poor boat design (in their impatience the Mongols had seized flat-bottomed river boats to supplement their navy; their indentured Chinese boat-builders had also done deliberately shoddy work on the sea boats)... and the Peter Principle. |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 14th, 2009|05:59 pm] |
MEXICAN WAVE
Around 200,000 workers, teachers, students, unionists, farmers and social campaigners shut Mexican cities down on Wednesday (12th) in a national strike against the military backed privatisation of a national power company.
On October 10th, 6000 federal police and soldiers occupied various sites of power company Luz y Fuerza around the country and summarily sacked the 44,000 strong workforce. Martín Esparza, leader of the Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME) said, “They came by night, like bandits, like cowards, and barked an order. They thought that they were going to wipe us out, but here there is the conscience of more than 100 years of the SME movement.”
In Mexico City the day’s 12 hours of action began with a rally outside Luz y Fuerza. With thousands of other protesters assembling around at points around the city, most of the main roads were shut down and blockaded. Students occupied buildings at several universities, provoking an aborted attempt to flush them out by police.
...
Since the plants came under police control, localised blackouts have left parts of Mexico City and other cities and towns without power for hours at a time, with hundreds of factories unable to function.
The government claims Luz y Fuerza was economically non-viable - a financial black hole - with bloated payrolls, inherited jobs and massive pension payouts responsible for $42billion a year subsidies.
The claim is denied by union leaders, who say CFE, which produces 95% of Mexico’s electricty - 45% for private companies, was selling electricity to multinational companies and to Luz y Fuerza at a profit. The government was then forcing Luz y Fuerza to sell that electricity on to other companies and domestic consumers at a lower price. |
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| MY RANGE ANXIETY RANT |
[Nov. 14th, 2009|10:48 am] |
Real High Anxiety
i was just reading all week-- a lot of folks in dark blue suits writing about green shit, er, "clean tech." And i gotta say most of it was so L-A-M-E. I mean this stuff was in top notch pubs, like James & James whose R.E. World has been a close friend forever-- until this guy from Merrile Lynch pooped all over it. I mean he had one cool concept in his screed; an economic look at carbon and hydrogen in a really novel way, how we keep moving from greater coal-to-hydrogen ratios to much greater H-to-C. Like from Wood (10:1 carbon for every hydrogen molecule), to coal 2:1, to oil 1:2 to natural gas at 4:1.It was a cool idea, but he got two more pages after that, which he basically filled with sophistic diarrhea. And it goes all over the map-- from how climate change might lead to the melting of the snowcaps of Kilimanjaro (really, is that the worse that's going to happen?) and of course, how we need much more nuclear power (at least that was parenthesized by a shout out to solar/wind. Zzzzz... But then I woke up because all of the sudden there was this din of chatter equal to a heated cackling on The View. And it was all these ev specialists, and consultants, and writers going on and on about Range Anxiety
And I think really, it's the silliest thing. To begin with, even 20 lead acid batteries (esp. if u add a small 400watt ultra-capacitor) is more than enough for 75% of commuters. That costs, what, 15-25% of the cost of the Volt's batteries. And the fact that the price of batteries keeps going down annually, new batts keep showing up (zinc air, metal air, carbon nanotube, vanadium redox, all that stuff we've already talked about). So Range Anxiety is not really going to be an issue.
But at the same time, we all wanna go on a road trips, or follow our favorite band across the country (not to mention the traveling sales people, and others who have to drive for 14 hours a day), so being able to drive long distances in an EV without having to wait 4 hours to recharge for every 2 hours of driving is an issue. That's why people are like mad into stuff like BetterPlace (or the betterplace clones already out there), eEstors...
BUT! I don't want to rent/lease robot-changeable batteries just because the batteries are too expensive ....or to placate one's range-anxiety. And you don't need eEstor to get a 5 min charge! imagine if Exxon Shell et al deployed posicharge chargers in all their service stations. Now! But then again, do we really need gas stations? even if they all somehow morphed into EVcharging, even with robots who change the batteries for us? This may sound crazy because no deal is even in place yet, but i already know who is going to have a big part of the charger business up here in Canada. It's a company called Tim Hortons. Right now they sell donuts and coffee.
And they are more than a Canadian institution, almost canonized for some reason. But mark my words, in Canada during phase one of vehicle electrification, "Timmies" will be the #1 place to charge your EV while driving from city to city, or to just 'top up' while driving around the suburbs doing errands. They won't be the only one (McDonalds is already leading the way), but they are dotting the highways and everywhere in the burbs.. And they won't be alone, and they wont be the first-- McDonalds already started, WalMart will get in on it, and you're going to see more of this everywhere.
But i don't really care all that much about whats going to be in 2-10 years, I'm way more curious about the next 8-20: Gimme my wi-power!! and send it to my charger from antennas! And/or gimme inductive strips along a quarter of the streets, and highways (and bill me for what i use!). At the very least, put the inductive strips on the street where parking is permitted (and new parking meters, usually with solar panels, are all wifi-enabled) and let me pay for my parking and a charge at the same time. Cause just because you can make a battery pack that will give you 300km on a charge doesn't mean you have to be all hoggy with those rare materials. If/when we have wi-charging and inductive strips, everyone would be just as happy with $4k of LiFePO4's as with one of these 'fully charged' EVs. So that's what I want us to do: envision inductive charging strips in the roads (just like those fancy new inductive mats for your pda, psp, ipod...). Imagine dotting the highways on an electric car or electric motorcycle with an unlimited amount of electricity! Because it's just as possible and just as real as any of these other techs we know of. And probably a lot cheaper in the long run...
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| A license to look strange, with the blessing of Bless |
[Nov. 14th, 2009|11:44 am] |
"The typical Bless shopper," reports Unlike Berlin, "is usually from Japan, subtly dressed in avant-garde from top to bottom and thrilled to spend about 500 Euros for a handbag that can also be turned into a sweater." I've been looking into the Bless store on Berlin's Mulackstrasse for six years and, yes, usually with a Japanese person. I even know Japanese Berliners (like jeweler Naoko Ogawa) who've interned with Desiree Heiss and Ines Kaag's conceptual clothes company.
What I've never done -- not until yesterday, anyway -- is bought an item of clothing at Bless. As the Unlike text suggests, it's absurdly expensive. You tend to go in there as you'd go to an art gallery, to admire the ideas. Bless is a master of eccentricity. Here you'll find outrageous combinations of things: a graph-paper shirt with a hood tucked into a little packet under the collar, another one with a sari-like scarf sewn onto the back, an enormously heavy chunky-knit sweater, a sort of toddler's garment with a huge middle-section that you have to scrunch up, accordion-style, by lacing braces around tabs. They also do decorated USB cables (a big influence on Hisae's Mizutani Cable Knit Company cottage industry, now discontinued because it was taking her a month to produce each cover), stools made of hollowed-out wood, and other curiosities. It's basically all stuff you've never seen anywhere else, though once you glom onto the ideas, you could probably go and do your own knock-off for a fraction of the price.
Yesterday, six years after starting to visit Bless regularly, I actually bought my first garment from them, the... well, the thing you can see in the photo (not the shaggy hood, which would have doubled the price). It's a pair of very wide felt trousers which dangle at the bottom of a tight woolen boob tube thing. Instead of being held up by a belt of some kind, the trousers are kept in place by the boob tube clinging to your chest.
I was only able to purchase this weird garment with the justification that I'll wear it on stage when I play my first-ever gig in Warsaw next weekend at the Song Is You Festival (my gig is on Sunday evening). And because it was in the Bless Workshop sale, where prices are deeply slashed. The sale is held in a different location, up in a wilderness of housing estates at the top end of Ackerstrasse, a place usually used to construct the clothes.
It was lots of fun trying improbable outfits on there yesterday with Emma and Joe and various strangers (we all shared one big dressing room). The thing about Bless clothes is that they're so bloody peculiar that putting them on is also dressing yourself in the permission to look that odd -- Bless' blessing, if you like. It's this legitimation of complete visual eccentricity, this implicit license to deviate, that interests me. It suggests a parallel world in which we're all allowed to look like kindly monsters on the street, like characters from Maurice Sendak. |
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| Power Trip |
[Nov. 13th, 2009|04:33 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  calm | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Angel- Massive Attack | ] |
This was inspired by, and to some degree ganked from, a post by ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) shadowthorne
I have several questions about the nature of power. I'm interested in your opinions on the subject.
1. How do you define "power"?
2. Is there something inherently divisive about power?
3. Are those who seek power destined to experience a certain amount of isolation, as mystics and writers do?
4. How do you feel about the romanticization of power? What about the vilification of power?
5. Do you believe people should reach for power?
6. Do you believe a group of individuals who all fully express their power is doomed to fall apart?
7. On the same token, do you believe it is possible for a group to reach for power and NOT fall apart, instead maintaining unity?
( My views ) |
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| Trans Siberia - Message from the MODern girl |
[Nov. 13th, 2009|07:32 pm] |
Hi all!
Thought I was dead, didn't ya! Well, no.
Since the fellows at Six Apart bought Livejournal way back in early 2005 then sold LJ relatively soon afterwards in 2007 (were the guys at Six Apart watching re-runs of Wall Street?) to the Russian media co. SUP, our Russian friends list has grown along with the rest and no surprize, many posts appearing in Russian language.
Russian posters, if you would to be able to include an English translation, this would be helpful to the majority of community members who are in the main English speakers and readers.
Thank you! |
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| Looking for a new roommate |
[Nov. 12th, 2009|10:17 am] |
I just posted ads in the Stranger, Weekly and Craigslist last night. Let me know if anyone needs to rent a room.
$550 Available Dec 1st: 1 room in 3 bed 2 bath town home (Central District)
Looking for open-minded, clean, respectful, responsible, non-smoker with no pets (already have a maximum number of animals). You would share the home with one girl and two guys, in our 20s-30s.
We occasionally socialize together: movies (independent, sci-fi and alternative), dancing, concerts, and gaming. Otherwise, we are fairly independent and quiet. We look forward to meeting you to see if we're a good fit!
The home is close to downtown Seattle, in Judkins Park/Central District area. The neighborhood has several commuter routes, grocery stores, restaurants, parks, hiking trails and many other amenities.
Highlights of the home include: washer & dryer, gas stove/oven, microwave, dishwasher, gas fireplace, private patio area, wireless internet, movie projector, ample street parking, some shelf storage in the garage.
$300 refundable deposit + $550 (1st month's rent) to move in. Your share of monthly expenses not included in rent will currently be about $60.
Bonus option: park your car in the warm, dry garage for $100/month. |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 12th, 2009|05:44 pm] |
Death Denial
Why the sudden surge in climate change denial? Could it be about something else altogether?
...
Such beliefs seem to be strongly influenced by age. The Pew report found that people over 65 are much more likely than the rest of the population to deny that there is solid evidence that the earth is warming, that it’s caused by humans or that it’s a serious problem(9). This chimes with my own experience. Almost all my fiercest arguments over climate change, both in print and in person, have been with people in their 60s or 70s. Why might this be?
There are some obvious answers: they won’t be around to see the results; they were brought up in a period of technological optimism; they feel entitled, having worked all their lives, to fly or cruise to wherever they wish. But there might also be a less intuitive reason, which shines a light into a fascinating corner of human psychology.
In 1973 the cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker proposed that the fear of death drives us to protect ourselves with “vital lies” or “the armour of character”(10). We defend ourselves from the ultimate terror by engaging in immortality projects, which boost our self-esteem and grant us meaning that extends beyond death. Over 300 studies conducted in 15 countries appear to confirm Becker’s thesis(11). When people are confronted with images or words or questions that remind them of death they respond by shoring up their worldview, rejecting people and ideas that threaten it and increasing their striving for self-esteem(12).
One of the most arresting findings is that immortality projects can bring death closer. In seeking to defend the symbolic, heroic self that we create to suppress thoughts of death, we might expose the physical self to greater danger. For example, researchers at Bar-Ilan University in Israel found that people who reported that driving boosted their self-esteem drove faster and took greater risks after they had been exposed to reminders of death(13).
A recent paper by the biologist Janis L Dickinson, published in the journal Ecology and Society, proposes that constant news and discussion about global warming makes it difficult for people to repress thoughts of death, and that they might respond to the terrifying prospect of climate breakdown in ways that strengthen their character armour but diminish our chances of survival(14). There is already experimental evidence suggesting that some people respond to reminders of death by increasing consumption(15). Dickinson proposes that growing evidence of climate change might boost this tendency, as well as raising antagonism towards scientists and environmentalists. Our message, after all, presents a lethal threat to the central immortality project of Western society: perpetual economic growth, supported by an ideology of entitlement and exceptionalism. |
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