Computer Troubles And More!

I've been having computer troubles since a little over a week ago. Catastrophic failure has been averted; but I'm not sure for how long. So, in case there's a long pause here while I scrounge and scrimp and build a new frankensteinian internet terminal, I'll ramble on about my weekend at Bonaroo '09 after the fold...



Yes, yes, I went to Bonaroo. {see here, and here for generic details} We paid for the cheap-o regular tickets- roughly $270-ish after all the fees, etc. Four days of Primitive Camping, with porta-potties and a half mile walk into the center festival area. We- I went with my sister, her "wife", and some hippies- arrived Thursday night and stayed through Monday morning. It was... interesting. A bit disappointing- okay A LOT of a bit- but also vaguely cool and fun in ways that probably had more to do with the people I was with than the location.

Sunday, while firmly entrenched beneath a tarp for further protection from the sun, I wrote a little piece about the profound problems I kept running into face-first.

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Ah, Bonaroo. The heat, the mud, the stench of burning skunk, and human shit. The scantily clad women and men, the burning red glare of sunburned flesh, and the rage inducing sight of morning joggers hoofing it around the 700 acres of tents and RVs. The three women wearing only paint on their exposed chest-icles. The copious amounts of frat boys sheathed in greek letters, false bravado, and beer pong tables.

I'm forced to contemplate the dried on mud, the ants, and especially the faux hippies. Do they know they're faking it? Does everyone else? What happens at the instant they become authentic, when faking it has become making it? Do they notice? Or does it take such a profound naivety and refusal to acknowledge reality, that they will have long before convinced themselves that THEY are the real deal- while everyone else is just a hippie hater?

Afterall, they will have, naturally, gravitated to the external reinforcement of other wanna-bes. The profound stupidity of the ones who try so hard to be free, counter-cultural, and relevant while miming slogans and ideals invented decades ago, buying fake authentic organic free-range cotton blended skirts at L. L. Bean, and spending daddy's money on drugs of varying quality and quantity, goes unnoticed by those guilty of perpetrating. Instead, they see their own ideas reflected in perfect detail by a hundred thousand others and bask in their own original brilliance, convinced of their ability to effect the change that hasn't happened during the nearly fifty years of peace, love, and funky munkeys. I'm my own bi-sexual, independent, free, and proactive vector for a beter world- making a change by singing along to Ani Difranco's cover of a hundred year old Union Hymn, thirty miles north of, virtually union free, Alabama.

Hand in hand with the huge recycling, composting, and conservation intitiatives among thirty thousand gas guzzling behemoths- not a Prius in sight- and enough poly-plastics to choke every dolphin, manatee, and whale that has (or will) ever lived.

But that Grateful Dead sticker/flag/t-shirt on the car/RV/100% water resistant, non-biodegradable tent makes them a rebel- just like everyone else...

Maybe I'm being too harsh.

There are ALL kinds, and it takes them all, right?

'Cause when I think huge hippie hug music fest, I think the Neo-Conservative HEART of the bible Belt in Southernmost Tennessee. Because the many hundreds of porta-potties- serviced and chemically cleaned three times daily- and the nigh $300 cheap tickets beam wavey gravey straight into MY brains. I mean, where else would one fo to watch Bruce Springsteen and Snoop Dog and Nine Inch Nails but a peace, love, and happiness festival sponsered by FUSE, Butterfinger, and Xbox 360? Now with free, seven dollar, showers! And a tent to recharge your cellphone while you check your email and update your twitter. New Media makes you edgy, hip, and culturally relevant! (This message brought to you by Vitamin Water PLUS by Coca Cola...)

Then again, four days of primitive camping with the sounds of generators- for the RVs, the lights, pavillions, and occasional camper- that does take a certain amount of comitment. Hence the ubiquitous smell of dank stanky 'anky... or is that human shit? Best not to think about it, like that mud in front of the porta-'lets that sucked your inorganic, petroleum based, flip-flop off your foot and squished up past the blisters on your toes.

Groovy.

You tool.

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Having said that, it wasn't all bad. It's an interesting experience, and if you're an upwardly mobile recent college graduate, or a frat boy, or attracted to either of those, you'll probably love it (assuming you can stand the opressive heat of the southern summer). But the line-ups are kinda stupid, and the hour to hour and a half sets that stagger means there will be many times where you watch one show for thirty minutes, catch the last thirty of another, and the final thirty of a third before waiting an hour or three for the next set. Just check to make sure you have ample amounts of portable shade, sunblock, hydration (and electrolytes), and resolve. Ensuring that you give a crap about the line-up, optional...

But don't expect it to be anything like what the advertising material claims. (Maybe if you fork out the $700 for the cheapest VIP tickets... maybe...)

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From BoingBoing:


I love this guys lectures. I watched both of his on primate sexuality, and highly recommend them. (They are linked towards the bottom of the Boing Boing article, linked above.)
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Warren Ellis

Seriously one of the best authors of entertaining, often thought provoking, word pictures today. Warren Ellis' third column for Wired UK is online, and it's a great read:

"UK booksellers are not yet reduced to the condition of their American cousins, who have gone beyond firing staff and are now using their bodies for food and heat. They fear the Kindle like it was the breath of the devil’s cock on their shoulder – despite the fact that Mr Bezos’s clever little board has probably not sold a million units yet. Because, as any American bookseller will shriek at you while gouging their own forearms open with Stanley knives, only 34 Americans actually buy and read books. As far as they’re concerned, the Kindle emerged directly from Satan’s mangina and will doom them all.

We have no such fear here in Britain. Here, the threat to reading comes only from our education system – and the fact that most children are born to 15-year-old foetal-alcohol-syndrome cases."

(first seen at WarrenEllis.com)


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Displayed to EVERYONE...

Hidden, except for interested readers.
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200

Arbitrary title of convenience; also: true.

Which reminds me... Who was it that first noted it was "Harry Potter and the Adjective Noun"?


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Bill, Killed.

David Carradine Died. Looks to be suicide.
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The Body Politik

I'd like to have my own country, somewhere. Not a super power, per se; but a big chunk o land where I could rule as the benevolent dictator. I assume this is something of a common fantasy. And fantasy it is, because I'd want it to be America; but right... and Ruled Solely by ME.

A perfect place I could escape to every 4-8 years when the others take back over.

In a fantasy world, where everyone would instantly recognize and worship my obvious brilliance.

But, eventually, I'd never come back. I mean a lot of the time, my side is just as stupid as theirs.

But at least it'd be a constant 76 degrees, night and day, on my utopian isle of MINE-ness...
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The Daily Show

Bob Woodward was on Monday.

Douche.

l2 not be a fear mongering idiot.
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Sotomayor (OVER 9000 DAYS AND PARTS!!!1)

I'm putting this here as much for me, as I want to read these, but have other things- currently. I'll make some comments on them, later...

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/06/high-court-nominee-adopts-riaa-stance/
High-Court Nominee Mirrors Industry Copyright Stance — Update


http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/29/1822251&tid=123
Supreme Court Nominee Sotomayor's Cyberlaw Record
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Tomorrow

20 years, tomorrow- June 4th. 1989. I was 8.

20 years since students tried to take what was, in this country is considered inalienably, theirs. And a lot of them got shot for it.

20 years, since protesters around China stood in defiance for what was only being paid lip service, The People. 20 years since people had to keep quiet or disappear. 20 years. And the youngest don't even know. "Lot of people in the streets then, I hear." 20 years since hard choices, and blood won the expansion of the cage.

4 essays: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/31/opinion/31tiananmen.html?_r=1

Even twenty years ago it took blood sacrifices to force the hand of The Powerful. If they can't remember it there, we should do them the honor of remembering it here.
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News flash

Good News:
I finished a story whose ending has been troubling me for months. The key? "If you're stuck on a scene, the problem is in the scene before it." That was and wasn't the case; but it helped me figure out the solution.

Bad News:
Probably not going to post anything else today; and more stuff to get done tomorrow means the same for then, too. We'll see.
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