War, sir, is raw. But here mostly cooked.

This is brilliant.

I have dengue fever

Don't worry, it's just the musical kind.

This LA-based, Cambodia-inspired band is a lot of fun. The sound (maybe just the singer's voice) kind of reminds me of Dadon, the Tibetan pop-rock group (which I can't find a link to).

Enjoy!

BAD RALPH

Nader Announces New Run for President - AP

No! No no no no no no no no no no! No! No! No! No! No no no no no no! No! BAD. BAAAAAAAD. BAD.

Do we not remember Florida 2000? The final count was:
Bush: 2,912,790
Gore: 2,912,253
Meaning Bush "won" by only 537 votes.

How many did Nader get in Florida? 97,421.

It is truly remarkable that not even the unprecedented horror of the last eight years has dampened Nader's self-righteousness. He is just as much a zealot as Bush, utterly sure of himself and his mission, heedless of the consequences of his actions.

The U.S. needs a Green Party (and other small parties too), but until the Green Party gets strategic it is a serious impediment to progressive causes in this country. Instead of running protest candidates in the Presidential election, the Green Party should focus on state and local elections to build a broad grass-roots base. It should also run candidates for Congress in "safe" districts that are not at risk of falling into the hands of right-wingers. This would give it a much larger influence on policy than it has now. But EVERY time a Green Party candidate runs a risk of helping a Republican defeat a Democrat by dividing the progressive vote, s/he needs to join forces with the Democrats. The self-righteousness of the Greens is just not worth the poverty, war, torture, etc., that comes with Republicans.

It's probably too late for Ralph Nader; the man is fossilized as he is. But I hope those who consider voting for him ask themselves if their moral vindication is worth a war in Iran!

El mamut chiquitito

This is old, but I recently came across it again and remembered how awesome it is. A classic.

RI Matters!

On March 4th, Rhode Island's 32 Democratic delegates will actually be in play! As Wonkette notices:

It turns out that Rhode Islanders, in spite of their legendary venality, corruption, and love for coffee milk, are still allowed to vote in presidential primaries. [AP/AP]

Damn right they are! So my vote might be slightly less meaningless than usual.

Gin Club Sneak-Peak

The official Gin Club blog is in the works, but, due to overwhelming demand/impatience, I'll post some evidence of Saturday's meeting now.

The match-up:



















Morale begins high:















Degeneration....














Degeneration....














Degeneration....



















You can see where this is headed. Stay tuned for more GC and also the best pun EVER.

Sock puppet agitprop

Finally, a neomarxist explanation of affective capitalism I can relate to.

PLUS a visit from the online porn monster!

Reflections on Man's BFF after spending some time with the species

I am typing this with one hand because the other one is being licked/gnawed by my charge for the weekend, the lovely Habibi, a concentrated bundle of fur, pee, and energy. She is somewhat smaller than Myla, my fourth roommate at my new place, and where Myla is deranged, "Bibi" is merely manic.

In totally unrelated news, today the BBC reports that people are increasingly shooting pets with air guns for sport. This is wrong. I mean, an air gun is just going to piss them off. Take a lesson from China, where municipal governments send toughs into the streets to club the curs like baby seals.

But don't worry, if your pet gets bludgeoned by vigilantes you can pay some Korean scientists $50,000 to have it resurrected. Unless it gets put in one of these.

Poor dogs. They should be roaming the wilds in hunting packs, and instead we have made them into little fluffy toys to use and abuse for our own pleasure. I say: free them all and let evolution work things out.

Now, must go mop up the pee.

What Google thinks of me

First is was Russian mail-order brides. Then a lot of things in Hindi, I know not what. Now, Google's much vaunted ad targeting system wants to sell me this:

Animal Incinerators - www.masterburn.com - Animal & Waste Incinerators Animal Carcass and Waste Disposal

Ummm....


UPDATE: Now they want to sell me this:

NY Eyelid Surgery - www.AsianSurgery.com - Preserving Ethnic Identity Through Cosmetic Surgery. 2 NYC Locations!

WTF GOOGLE?!!!

ME CAN HAZ 600 MONNEYZ!?!!!

Free money for everyone! This should certainly fix all that ails the US economy. Now we can continue borrowing money from China to sell each other houses with nary a care in world! Why are you sitting here reading this??!!! BUY SOMETHING!!!

Good patriot that I am, I of course spent my rebate right away (yes, I know, it remains hypothetical and wouldn't even come till May, but I have FAITH -- and credit cards), on a ticket to San Francisco! That's right, I'm going to see, the one, the only, the inestimable....

Mitzi Mock.

California here I come.

Music and words and letters and meaning

Language has a dual character. We can write/read it, a silent process that happens in our heads. Or we can speak/hear it, an aural process that happens in the air around our heads. In non-pictographic languages (sorry,中文！), even the little elements we call letters are both pictures, sounds, and, when grouped together, meanings. These staying-up-late-freshman-year-of-college reflections prompted by two songs I recently came across that delightfully play with this duality.

Rockist Pt. 1 by School of Language

Letters Make No Meaning by AGF

Accelerate to summer

Out of Time was the first tape I ever bought, largely because my older cousins told me it was cool. And they were right. These guys have stayed with me ever since, and so I am very excited about Accelerate. And they will be touring this summer! Must track them down. Who's in?

Magisterial

You are no doubt familiar with The Idea that Is America, a work of staggering genius in which I played some role. Well, today we got an email from a famous Hollywood celebrity with the following to say about it:

I have just finished reading 'The Idea that is [sic] America [sic] and am absolutely gob-smacked. I would like to convey my gratitute [sic] and awe to Anne Marie [sic]. Her writing is thrilliing [sic] -magisterial.

And it's one of the smartest famous Hollywood celebrities! She is muse to Woody Allen, and has actually made an impact on Darfur, unlike some people. Our ears are burning!

Look, in the sky, a cover of coots!

It is very important to call things by their proper names. For example, groups of birds. Most of us would settle for "flock" to describe a bunch of avians. But that is boring and imprecise. Instead, try matching the following types of birds with the proper name for a group of them:

1. bitterns
2. crows
3. eagles
4. lapwings
5. magpies
6. owls
7. peacocks

a. convocation
b. parliament
c. deceit
d. murder
e. tidings
f. ostentation
g. siege

Answers: 1g; 2d; 3a; 4c; 5e; 6b; 7f
complete list

This makes me want to be an ornithologist again! Thanks Dave!

Gusto confuses virture for gusto

Ate at new place Gusto with N-dog last night, after failing to get a table at Merkato or Soto. It is meant to be Argentine (which we like), organic (which we like), and low-key (which we often like).

But we no like. The place is nice, spacious but cozy. They are very excited to explain to you how virtuous everything about the restaurant is. The water is "99.9%" pure. The chairs are sustainably harvested. Flowers blossom in the wake of the waiters as they pass, which are then harvested, compressed in poultices, and sent to orphans in Darfur. But they seem to have forgotten that virtue does not taste very good.

Pizza was wheaty, soggy, and bland. The empanadas lacked grease, spice, salt, and soul. The best thing was my strawberry smoothie (to which I was forced to resort after discovering they did not have a liquor license yet) but even this was pretty boring. I was interested in the concept of iced mate, but when I learned it was literally just cold mate tea--which sounds absolutely disgusting--it was confirmed for me that this place has no concept of gusto at all.

I think they know this in their hearts. The (attractive!) waitstaff and owner were uber-solicitous, handing out complimentary gooey pastries and constantly asking how we like the food, almost apologetically.

Bottom-line: sanctimonious hippies are just squares by another name.

Movie posters from communist-era Poland

Some of these are truly amazing.

Rat King

Oh shit look at this.




Rat kings are cryptozoological phenomena said to arise when a number of rats become intertwined at their tails, which become stuck together with blood, dirt, and excrement. The animals consequently grow together while joined at the tails, which are often broken.

Bro asks the right question:

how would you rather deal with one of those:
A) samurai sword
B) flame thrower
C) acid beaker
D) pledge eternal allegiance to your new multi-headed overlord

El Guincho

Cool one-man band from Barcelona. Afro-latin-y but not in the obnoxious way one might expect. Check him out on stereogum.

The start

La línea consta de un número infinito de puntos; el plano de un número infinito de líneas; el volumen, de un número infinito de planos; el hipervolumen, de un número infinito de volúmenes… No, decididamente no es éste, more geometrico, el mejor modo de iniciar mi relato. Afirmar que es verídico es ahora una convención de todo relato fantástico; el mío, sin embargo, es verídico.

-Jorge Luis Borges, El libro de arena