it occurs to me more and more often that my best projects are the ones that start out as a clear vision. start, middle, end. where it's less like I'm wandering creatively and keeping what works, and more like I've got this singular whole my mind, and I'm telling you about it through whatever medium.

wait, not in my mind -- more like, I have a clear memory of something, something external and apart from myself, and I'm telling you its story.


"well, everything's wrong, and my patience was gone, when I woke one morning and remembered this so-o-o-ong."
  - self-referential lyric, "here I go", syd barrett


I often refer to "freeing the statue from the marble", as in, you see the object inside the stone and you methodically chip away everything that isn't it. or, in this case, I see the update box of livejournal and I'm removing all the white pixels that are not my entry.

all too often, I create by having a vague idea of my destination, and rambling stepwise gradually until I somehow get there. but the results are never as good as the times I feel like I know a song and I'm just copying it down. or like I have a clear idea of where an essay is going to go, and what it needs to pass through to get there, before I write it.

or the times when I know exactly what I want a completed music piece to sound like before I start recording it. so when the result comes up, I can tell clearly if I got it right.

what's too often been going wrong with a handful of the album's songs is, I do some, listen, and then add some other stuff, then listen, then change something, then listen. I don't really know what the final result is going to sound like, and while that sometimes leads to pleasant surprises, it's also likely to come out a bit chaotic and uneven. vague. is this song about the guitar, the piano, the voices, or if it's a combination, what is each one saying? all the pieces need to fit into place in this fractalline way that communicates a shape.

it's an elegance that I strive for, but things always flow best when I don't push them too hard. when I have the complete idea in mind and just let it slide onto the platters.


"please leave us here, close our eyes 'til the octopus rise."
  - misheard lyric, "octopus", syd barrett


this holds just as true with computer programming. if I know what all my variables, all my user interface objects, are likely to be ahead of time, it's a snap. all this upgrading and reverse-engineering is a nightmare, where all the pieces which used to hum together in a glorious octopus network start becoming disjointed, and disjointed stuff clutters and obfuscates until I realize that most of it is no longer necessary, or is just plain broken.

I even find myself looking at a building, or a meal, and asking myself, "sure it's fine, but where is this sandwich going? what is this typeface with this color on this kind of concrete for this kind of business really trying to say?"


bad examples I like (things that don't have a clear and elegant story to tell)
the latter seasons of Buffy,
most early episodes of Dead Like Me,
most progressive rock,
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (the movie itself),
most of the movie version of Hedwig,
Café Brasil's and Tandoor-A-India's labyrinthine add-on seating areas as their popularity grew,
The Empire Strikes Back,
the spiderhyphenman movies, and most movies like them,
The Goat,
myspace.

good examples I love (you can sum them up in a simple sentence)
seasons 2 and 3 of Buffy,
the best episodes of Dead Like Me and Battlestar Galactica for that matter,
Abbey Road side 2,
American Beauty,
livejournal,
Into the Woods,
the play version of Hedwig,
the Japanese Breakfast special at Rutt's (sole, rice, two eggs, orange juice, coffee, if memory serves).

good examples I dislike
Starbucks
most billion-dollar pop music
baseball


so that's my life's lesson at this time. my lesson for me. to let myself stand far enough back that the big picture becomes clear, and then to pursue that all the way down to the bits.

to veer away from obsessing on small but lovely pieces of what I want, and turn more toward stories. I want to tell a song, a program, an essay, create a show, decorate a room, like I'm relating a complete story that I already know and you should too.

so as you watch or hear the myriad pieces of it unfold, on some level you are, all the while, learning the singular story inside it.

Current Mood: re-visionary
Current Music: one sweet dream

I just do not understand this.  Kabila has made a deal with Uganda to purchase electricity?  What about investing in the DRC's infrastructure instead, perhaps getting that dam up to speed so that excess electricity would be an asset that could be used domestically and sold to other countries in the region?  I am no economist or electricity expert, so it's possible that it is logistically impossible for hydroelectric power produced farther west on the Congo river to be transported to the northeast, but still - it seems that the DRC government should consider where to invest and think about investing in its own resources.

Uganda to earn Shs119billion in power export to Democratic Republic of Congo

 

Tags: africa, dr congo, news

The accusations never went away and Roma are arguably the most abused, derided, discriminated against and maligned group of people in Europe. And they're not ignored in the USA either, with accusations of 'Gypsy gangs' and racial profiling being commonplace. The use of racist terminology abounds, and we don't even think about it: being "gypped" is just one example. This article mentions an old accusation often thrown at Gypsies that of 'stealing babies'... that a crowd applauded this kind of behaviour, the behaviour of alleged 'civilised people' is no less than appalling.

A fellow member of roma_andfriends posted this article to that group, and I thought I'd share with this group.

Italian tolerance goes up in smoke as Gypsy camp is burnt to ground

By Peter Popham in Rome
Friday, 16 May 2008

In cruel and unusual concert, Italy's new government, its police and paramilitary carabinieri, and even its gangsters, have turned their joint might against the nation's enemy number one: the Gypsies.

Yesterday Pope Benedict XVI and a small number of left-wingers raised lonely voices in central Naples against the national hardening of hearts towards Europe's perennial outsiders. To little avail: the Pope's appeal for a spirit of welcome and acceptance was met with a hail of angry rejection in blogged comments on news websites. ( Read more... )

Current Location: Dzielna, Warszawa, Polska
Current Mood: contemplative

What do you say to someone... who doesn't understand why he's possibly offended another person (a stranger) by asking him in front of other people on the train "Do you mind if I ask what that is called?" in reference to something the other person is wearing (the piece of clothing is likely attire traditional to his culture).

I got into this discussion with a friend of mine, after he did ask this question to and seemed to offend a man wearing something I think might be from India, as I recognize it as something I've seen worn by my friend's father, who regularly dresses in traditional Indian attire. As soon as he'd finished asking the question, I tensed up because something just felt wrong about it, and I've seen the mistake happen in the past. The man got quiet and seemed embarrassed and annoyed, as he answered. This seemed perfectly understandable to me but I couldn't fully articulate why I thought this was so. My friend completely didn't comprehend why he shouldn't consider his action offensive and why he should not do something like that again in the future. He says he has the right to ask what he wants so that he can learn. Usually he never tries to defend himself against the claim that he has white privilege, so I was suprised, but I guess it's one thing to admit we have a systematic privilege and another to fully understand everything that entails---and thus to take responsibility when you offend someone with an ignorant personal action.

I told him I wanted to put our discussion on hold until I got more information/opinions on people who know better than I do about the topic, because I know I also have white privilege and can't understand this first hand. I could speculate more about this and share what I said to my friend, but instead of trying to believe I really know what I'm talking about for sure, I'll leave the discussions for the the comments? 

edit--- something I should say, I know that this man's reaction isn't representative of how every person of color would feel or respond. And maybe his reaction could have had to do with some other reason, like he was tired or shy. But this is something I've observed happen in the past, and it isn't just this particular case that is troublesome to me as much as it is my friend's reaction to the general context of the situation, in other words not acknowledging why this might be offensive and that there is a time and a place for certain questions.

The following is a very disturbing article about the drugging of INS detainees, which I will repost below. It reminded me of a similar story I heard yesterday on Talk of the Nation about the criminal neglect and low medical "standards" being supplied to people in INS detention. Here is the link to that.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/specials/immigration/cwc_d4p1.html

Some Detainees Are Drugged For Deportation
Immigrants Sedated Without Medical Reason
by Amy Goldstein and Dana Priest | Washington Post Staff Writers
Page A1; May 14, 2008

The U.S. government has injected hundreds of foreigners it has deported with dangerous psychotropic drugs against their will to keep them sedated during the trip back to their home country, according to medical records, internal documents and interviews with people who have been drugged.

The government's forced use of antipsychotic drugs, in people who have no history of mental illness, includes dozens of cases in which the "pre-flight cocktail," as a document calls it, had such a potent effect that federal guards needed a wheelchair to move the slumped deportee onto an airplane.

"Unsteady gait. Fell onto tarmac," says a medical note on the deportation of a 38-year-old woman to Costa Rica in late spring 2005. Another detainee was "dragged down the aisle in handcuffs, semi-comatose," according to an airline crew member's written account. Repeatedly, documents describe immigration guards "taking down" a reluctant deportee to be tranquilized before heading to an airport.
( Read more... )

For Mother's Day, we watched Waitress, which was completely and utterly adorable. Of course, there's an element of sadness in watching it, given Adrienne Shelley's murder, but it's still such a wonderful, happy movie. Andy Griffith and Nate Fillion are both a delight, but it was Shelley, Keri Russell, and Cheryl Hines who really drive things. The ending is a tad pat, but I'm still pretty happy with the movie overall. And given our Pushing Daisies obsession, all the pie stuff was a blast, too. And for us Jericho fans, there was even a brief Darby Stanchfield moment!

Earlier this week, we (sans Elayna) watched Michael Clayton, which we're requested from the library after watching Tilda Swinton win the Oscar. Other than wondering why, exactly, she was even nominated (nothing against her performance, but it simply wasn't a role with a lot of juice, and "she'll give an awesome acceptance speech" really isn't a good reason to vote for someone).), I liked it. Clooney continues to be an underappreciated actor, and Tom Wilkinson simply stole every scene he was in. The movie took a mostly-predictable plot and still made things entertaining, but it's not something I feel any pressing need to own.

Current Music: Rush Hour - Drivin' N' Cryin'

My boyfriend has been making LOLCAT versions of some of my comics, I thought this would be the appropriate venue to share them, and it would be a good excuse to post while I sort out my complicated scanner issues. I have not abandoned you, god has just forsaken me. Enjoy!














NOW IF THAT AIN'T LOLSOME, I DON'T KNOW WHAT IS!

The Geek Flowchart, from earlier this year in the New York Times.

Current Music: Confession Part III - Weird Al Yankovic

...was made of pure, enriched, farm fresh, weapons-grade Awesome. And the previews for 2 weeks from now? SQUEE!

I've been seeing some interesting phenomena lately around the idea of 'Black by choice'. Specifically, this fascinating notion that Blackness is something that white people in particular can lay claim to by way of intention, rather than ethnicity, race, culture, ancestry, ancestors, etc.

It seems to be kinda like generic Pretendianism to me, but I do have my moments of unforgiving essentialism.

If only because it seems to be very much invested in everything but the burden. Claiming Blackness conveniently in terms of art, culture, expression, etc., but not in stuff like hypertension, dying more of asthma, incarceration rates, police harassment, general stereotyping, etc.

Discuss?

Current Mood: cheerful

Link

A California nanotechnology research lab says it has created the first 3D material able to bend light in the opposite direction to natural materials. But some other specialists in the field remain sceptical about the claim.

Physicists have in recent years made it possible to bend, or refract, light in the opposite direction to any natural materials. These metamaterials make it possible to create invisibility cloaks that hide an object by steering light around it.

The refractive index of a material is a measure of how it bends light and for natural materials it is always positive. Metamaterials, though, can have negative refractive indexes.

This is achieved with tiny periodic structures that interact with the electric and magnetic fields that comprise light. The repeating structures need to be smaller than the light waves themselves, something that has limited them to long-wavelength light, or microwaves.

I'm starting to see the appeal of this whole blogging thing. It was so neat to get a few great comments about my post, and now it's great to be able to respond. It's like having a conversation with all of the coolest people you know AND all the coolest people THEY know. Forgive me if I run a little long, but I want to respond to what was said:

In response to my Gay Marriage comments, erg wrote, passionately:



Sigh.

Always a bridesmaid, never a bride.