Good Night, Sweet Prince

Rest in peace, Senator Kennedy, last prince of the first "royal family" of America. Over a forty-seven year career, Senator Edward M. Kennedy (elected at age thirty to take the seat formerly held by his brother, John) had a hand in advancing some of the greatest social justice causes in the United States. Unabashedly liberal, even calling himself one long after the term became poisoned by political invective, Kennedy was always willing to reach across the divide to reach his goals, realizing that he had a chance - if he sacrificed his familial pressures to become President and instead remained in the Senate - to harness the power of the US government in ways to truly improve the lives of those least among us. Over the course of his career, he doggedly worked to fulfill the promise he gave in his 1980 Democratic National Convention speech: "For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."

His longtime colleague, Robert Byrd (D-WV, himself a lion of the Senate, and a man for whom I was privileged to cast my ballot in the 2000 election), released the following statement today, and I believe he speaks for most of us who respect statesmanship:

I had hoped and prayed that this day would never come. My heart and soul weeps at the loss of my best friend in the Senate, my beloved friend, Ted Kennedy.

Senator Kennedy and I both witnessed too many wars in our lives, and believed too strongly in the Constitution of the United States to allow us to go blindly into war. That is why we stood side by side in the Senate against the war in Iraq.

Neither years of age nor years of political combat, nor his illness, diminished the idealism and energy of this talented, imaginative, and intelligent man. And that is the kind of Senator Ted Kennedy was. Throughout his career, Senator Kennedy believed in a simple premise: that our society's greatness lies in its ability and willingness to provide for its less fortunate members. Whether striving to increase the minimum wage, ensuring that all children have medical insurance, or securing better access to higher education, Senator Kennedy always showed that he cares deeply for those whose needs exceed their political clout. Unbowed by personal setbacks or by the terrible sorrows that have fallen upon his family, his spirit continued to soar, and he continued to work as hard as ever to make his dreams a reality.

[...] God bless you Ted. I love you and will miss you terribly.


26 Aug, 2009 | Chris |

New Pearl Jam Single - "The Fixer"

Give it a listen. This is the first single from the forthcoming Backspacer album, preselling on the band's website [ http://www.pearljam.com ] right now.

Thoughts: it's a new sound, but then, every album from PJ has had a different sound, and the development is really the logical next step forward from the self-titled album released in 2006. This is a group of supremely talented musicians (Vedder's vocal range is one of the most often imitated -- and poorly -- in rock, Cameron's a legendary drummer, and Rolling Stone recently named Gossard & McCready "Pearl Jam's Four-Armed Monster"). I like it... a lot... and I'm looking forward to the album itself.



22 Jul, 2009 | Chris |

The Lost Art of The Mixtape

Once in a while, I'll put my iPod on shuffle and hear a few songs that I hadn't heard in quite some time, songs that I miss, and I wonder how it is that I fail to put them on a playlist. The problem isn't an enormous music collection -- I've had one of those since long before Napster threw the music industry into upheaval. There's a lost art to creating the perfect playlist that's been enhanced by the software creating the word. Once upon a time, I'd make mixtapes that would involve a good deal of thought, some overwriting, and in the end, a perfect ninety minute sequence of songs that would work quite well on repeat for a car trip. So how did the software help to destroy the mix?

After a while's thought, I started to remember just how I used to go about making a mix, and I think what's missing is the tactile experience. Now, the process involves scrolling to artists as I think of them, selecting the track in mind, and dragging the song to the playlist. Once upon a time, however, I'd sit in the middle of the floor, surrounded by binders full of discs, CD's in jewel cases that I hadn't put into binders yet, and records. As I'd handle the albums, I'd remember songs from them that would go perfectly, I'd remember songs I'd related to them, I'd remember influences: in general, I'd remember tracks that I'd forgotten about and I'd put them into the mix. Something eclectic, something odd, but at the same time oddly fitting into a particular mix.

It's quite different on iTunes: sure, I see the list, all the same songs are there, but ... the list doesn't do what the artifact itself did. I'm not thinking as I go through, not remembering a track, just thinking of the next artist that might work well. It's something I may have to get back to: using iTunes in the old cover flow mode was awkward, but perhaps there's something to it.

I'll be back to this subject.

28 May, 2009 | Chris |

The GOP Can Have Him...

My jaw dropped when I read a recent story in the Raleigh News and Observer, my local paper, about the Esteemed Dullard and likely Closet Case Former Mayor Tom Fetzer, a Republican running for head of the state party, who is planning to sue a Wilmington radio host for libel for forwarding an e-mail alleging that he is gay [ Link ]. I, like most of you, hate e-mail forwards as much as anyone, but this is beyond a bit ridiculous. Fetzer's comments border on dangerously unbalanced.

In a letter to the N&O [ Link ], Fetzer writes,

"The letter is a lie, written by a lying coward. I can't sue the lying coward, but I have authorized my attorneys to sue [radio host] Curtis Wright and the media outlets he works for. ... I am not gay -- never have been -- never will be. There is absolutely no evidence whatsoever to support any of the scurrilous allegations made in the anonymous attack on me. ... The fact that I'm 54 and single does not mean that I have to put up with vicious rumors that I'm gay" [now, time for the coup de grace] ""The fact that I am heterosexual is a matter of public record."

Hold on. Context cues are leading me one way, but content another. From his judicious phrasing, you'd think the man had been accused of torturing puppies while injecting heroin and stealing from orphans, not having sex with a consenting adult human being. Scurrilous! Vicious! Attack!

As an aside, I'm going to hop in here and point out that anyone who is surprised at an e-mail forward (or anything originating online) accusing someone of being "gay" -- EVEN LIFELONG BACHELORS AT 54 WITH ODDLY ACUTE FASHION SENSE AND A NOTED VANITY ABOUT PERSONAL APPEARANCE -- should not be running for head of anything at all. He shouldn't be running. He should be wearing a helmet, like that weird kid who used to wear a Starfleet uniform to school, just after he got new headgear for his orthodonture.

I can't think of anyone in the present day - particularly someone who managed to rise to the esteemed position of Mayor of the City of Oaks (way back before everyone moved here for all the cool jobs in RTP) - who would take this so far. Honestly, the better part of valor would be to ignore the e-mail and tell the Republican party why you're the better candidate for leader, not to engage in a pissing match over who can pretend to be the most out of touch. This isn't even an election of consequence, and if your opponent for state GOP party chair is desperate enough to point fingers at you and yell, "He's gay! I read it in an e-mail forward," then he's already lost.

Then again, so do the rest of us. Dragging the already wounded right wing further right when they seem to be doing that well enough on their own is NOT a good idea.

Again - a side note, do you think it's because they lost the election that this is happening? For the decade or so, Republican strategy seemed to dictate that whenever danger lurked, a candidate needed to run to the right, and this might explain why the party seems to be selecting Rush Limbaugh -- drug addict and college dropout (after two failing his first two semesters at the oh-so-prestigious Southeast Missouri State University) -- as its ideological and intellectual leader over former Secretary of State, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Former Four Star General, MBA from George Washington University-holding Colin Powell. God forbid that someone with the wisdom of Powell's experience and proven track record should actually take the party somewhere slightly left of Genghis Khan.

Indeed, if our electoral process has become so flawed that a minor campaign for a meaningless position should deviate into this stark a revelation of hate spilling onto the landsacape, then our republic is in greater danger than I've ever thought.

I digress (again). The most stunning bit of the whole Fetzer note is his final statement, which I will type once more because it will serve as a perfect summary representative for the entire debacle, encompassing the scope of pure hate, mindless spin control, and complete stupidity: "The fact that I am heterosexual is a matter of public record."

How? There isn't even circumstantial evidence you're straight or gay. For those not in the know about something called privacy and something else called freedom, there shouldn't be, and there should not have to be For it to be a matter of public record, I suppose you took your penis and a woman (with her vagina) to a Notary Public for a documented act of sexual congress, then ensured that everyone signed the "Witness" fields, paid the notary his going rate, and got an official, notarized document of your Straightitude. Still, though, I wanna know how it was done. How did your sex life become public record? OH YEAH -- YOU made it that way with your ASININE babbling about scurrilous attacks...

Ahh well... I suppose someone should notify him that falsely accusing someone of homosexuality is not grounds for libel (1994, NC US Court of appeals), Oh, and while you're at it, that the internet will call you bad names (monitor one active web forum for an hour or two and see how many times the word "faggot" or "fag" is hurled by one poster at another). Finally, that, above all else, I you should know that nobody likes you. That's a matter of public record.

If this is the best the GOP can do to lead their party (and my former party, I might add), perhaps we're better off without them in charge for a while.

23 May, 2009 | Chris |

MPAA Vs. RealDVD Update: The Arguments

I already posted my rant about the DRM wars, but I thought I'd update the discussion by addressing the arguments being made in the case that sparked that entry, the Motion Picture Association of America vs. Real Networks, creators of Real DVD, software that allows users to create a perfect copy of a commercial DVD. Arguments by Real insist that movie studios are trying -- through litigation -- to prevent fair use, which allows digital content owners to create a backup copy of that content. The MPAA's contention? Fair use is not a defense against the DMCA's anticircumvention provisions, since the law makes no reference to such.

This is - like much of the ill conceived Digital Millenium Copyright Act - an untested area of the law. The DMCA, which was, unfortunately, the product of a media frenzy mad Congress ("Downloaded music will destroy the American capitalist system! Aaaaiiigh!") and entertainment lobbyists, has proven itself disturbingly conflicted with many existing laws, especially those pertaining to the rights of the content purchaser.

Real's specific argument is that, by creating a complete archive of the protected DVD on a hard drive, without bypassing CSS encryption [ Wikipedia ], indeed, keeping the encryption intact and adding an extra layer of protection - locking the created files to the user and system on which they were created - all RealDVD does is allow users to create a backup, archival copy, which is permitted under the DMCA.

The MPAA's argument is that this method of copying and archiving is circumvention -- handily bypassing the copyright argument altogether -- fair use rights be damned. In fact, their argument seems to indicate that there can be no fair use of content taken directly from a DVD. This is in line with their previous statements in which they showed government officials how teachers could create a legal clip for a classroom by pointing a camcorder at a video screen that was showing a DVD - for more on this, see the article on ArsTechnica detailing the absurdity [ Link ].

Watching this unfold could make you ill, and the end result could have dire implications for anyone with a DVD, CD, or other digital content collection. What remains to be seen is if the computer savvy Obama administration will keep its head in ways the Bush folks never could - this could be the test case.

22 May, 2009 | Chris |

This is NOT the Twilight Zone

From Jeffrey Goldberg at The Atlantic comes a most interesting story from the September 1, 1926 issue of The Washington Post, concerning what had to be the most difficult-to-umpire baseball games of all time. Goldberg's receipt of this clipping, from the archives at the Baseball Hall of Fame, was at least third hand, likely because everyone involved knew it was a ripe opportunity, but the content seems more like something from The Family Guy than 1920's America.

One wonders who won... but I'm betting it was the Hebrew All Stars. The ongoing antipathy of the Klan for the Jewish population might be a clue: as far as I know, only baseball fans can hold a grudge for this long.

12 May, 2009 | Chris |