- This was a while ago but I forgot to share it and would like to now:
Papa John’s PR Firm Targets Bloggers. So remember when Papa John’s founder John Schnatter said that because of the “Affordable Care Act” said pizzas would have to go up in price 10-15 cents and that stores would have to close down and that people’s job’s would be cut? Well… a PR firm called Sitrick and Co. is now claiming Schnatter never said anything about the closures or lost jobs, and that the price thing was a mischaracterization of a quote from an investor call Schnatter made. Here’s the Politico article. I would never presume to tell anyone what to think about anything, especially this bill cause it is massively complicated. That’s not what this is about. This is about that ongoing struggle of power vs. freedom of information. A struggle that has been happening for a long, long time, though the internet has certainly amplified it like never before.
Aaron Swartz believed in the freedom of information.
“To call someone “deranged” or “mad” is to marginalize them, to declare that they are “not one of us.” Indeed, it is to say that he or she is not really human at all. As an adult with Asperger’s syndrome who has been marginalized all her life, I feel very uncomfortable when anyone, even someone unsavory, is summarily written out of the human race. I wonder if these sanctimonious pundits realize that the most devastating instances of mass carnage (a.k.a. “wars”) have been planned and executed by neurotypicals just like themselves who were perfectly sane—unless you consider “drunk with power” a cognizable mental disorder.
Recently it was reported that Adam Lanza, the shooter in the Connecticut elementary school massacre, may have had Asperger’s syndrome. Now it is the autism community’s turn to recoil in horror and declare that no, he could not have possibly been one of us; the Autism Society has issued a press release stating that “it is imperative to remove autism from this tragic story.”
- The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historiais, shockingly, the number one book on Amazon right now. It’s also number one on Barnes & Noble’s website, and something called Indigo. Here’s the BleedingCool post about it. I remember reading about this when it was announced, being that Dark Horse put it out and I’m pretty in-tune with what’s happening with the mainstream comic book publishers. Here’s the book’s official website.
- The classic P.O.S. album “Audition” turned seven years old yesterday. Just to give you an idea of what we’re dealing with here:
-Apparently Facebook, which as you know went public (in a much hyped disaster), made 2 cents per user last month. There’s of course a lot going on there with all sorts of complexities to a social networking giant like FB… but it does not seem like a viable business model.
- All this Jenny/Jimmy Olsen stuff is hilarious! Go ahead, google “jenny jimmy olsen” and watch the news feed explode. I’ll wait. Comic Book Resources – who I follow on Facebook — recently took a leap into the deep end and asked their “friends” how they feel about it. The cries of outrage were astounding. It’s as if The Supreme Court decided to strip the Constitution of the 4th Amendment. Now, to CBR’s credit they recently posted an article supporting the idea… or at least one of their writers did. I do see some amount of irony (granted, it isn’t exactly the same thing but it’s close; race and gender are just barriers) in that the fanboys unequivocally came to the aid of Idris Elba when white supremacist groups lost their shit because he was playing Heimdall, a Norse God, in Thor. Having Jimmy Olsen be a chick isn’t much different than having the gatekeeper of Asgard be a black dude: she can have the exact same personality, she can do the exact same things as before. I know, I know, “then why change it??” Well I’m not one of the screenwriters or filmmakers so I can’t really answer that. But I’m sure they have some reason. These things aren’t just random.
- Perhaps Blade Runner should have taken place in future Bejing, not L.A:
Here’s a good article about China’s government facing resistance in their efforts to cut emissions. Resistance from, of all things in a “socialist” society, state-owned corporations, private corporations, and “local interests”. Doesn’t sound much like Communism to me.
- Even when the major television networks or film studios aren’t directly adapting comic book properties, they’re often times stealing them. Such is the case with a new show set to debut on ABC. Funny thing is, they passed the option to adapt the comic they’re lifting from. Heavily, to say the least. Just another way for the people with the ideas to get screwed, I guess. And ABC has a history of this too, they borrowed (again, heavily) concepts from Bill Willingham’s “Fables” to create a show called “Once Upon A Time”. Oh yeah, and that was after they declined the “Fables” pitch. This new show I shall not name, but it seems to be ripping off a great new comic series from Image called “Revival”.
- Just woke up to this is my Twitterfeed:
RHYMEFEST:
“If all y’all think the Mega Church is so bad how does it fill it’s seats with do many people if it has no value?”
Yep, cause the value of things is always directly dependent on the amount of people that like said thing. Annnnnd unfollow.
I’ve been going on an unfriending, unfollowing, fuckin’ delousing tear of late. It’s great! Instead of getting in pointless and dumb arguments with people over social networking for the stupid shit they say, or share, or like, I just hit that one button. Problem solved. The people I debate with are people I care about and don’t want to unfriend.
- Quick Warren Ellis brain dump on the current state of social media, and where it might be heading in the immediate future. The recent Instagram ordeal (probably a mostly imagined ordeal) and the applied changes to Facebook seem to be the first steps in a new paradigm for social networking. One that Uncle Warren describes as the entire network “calcifying into Big Media”. Which is kind of a problem and counter-intuitive. It feels good to read that the interest in blogs continues to grow, even if the active number continues to decline. Blogging is the constant, it has always been there and always will. Even after the major news media outlets (print, online, and everything in between) declared it dead more than a couple years ago. Less blogs, more blog interest, good for me. Even if I suck at it.
- I’m hearing really bad things about The Hobbit. Often times I get more of an idea of whether I’ll like or not like a movie based on its BAD reviews. Rotten, if we’re talking RT lingo. The Rotten reviews of The Hobbit could be easily summed up as: “long, overstuffed, and tedious”. Which really makes sense when you think about the fact that it’s a relatively short children’s/young adult novel stretched into a 3 motion picture trilogy, the first of which clocks in at nearly 3 hours. And everyone that enjoyed it keeps saying “it isn’t fair to expect another Lord of the Rings”, while a bunch of critics who think it’s terrible keep saying “it seems Jackson is less interested in telling the story of The Hobbit and more interested in making another Lord of the Rings”.
- Speaking of Smaug the Dragon, I’M ADDICTED TO SKYRIM. Alduin’s way cooler anyways. World eater.
- When it comes to movies, Ethan Anderton of SlashFilm posted his 5 biggest disappointments of the year. I can’t say I agree or disagree because I have not seen literally any of those movies.
- Last night I made the mistake of beginning to watch the Lance Bangs Pavement documentary “Slow Century”. A mistake because I should have known it would’ve been too fascinating to turn off, no matter how late the hours got. If you’ve got the time, here it is:
- Sage Francis has resurrected the Tumblr Hello There, Racists after an apparent shut down. I think it’s outrageous to say it isn’t fair to publicly chastise these people, knowing full well that Twitter and Facebook are publicly viewed domains (they’re basically the 21st Century “public square”). It also serves to remind us of some very important things, two of which: you’re not invisible on the Internet, and if you want to say outrageous shit you’d better damn well be posting anonymously (then again anyone with half a brain can trace an IP address), and yes… racism definitely still exists. Some of this shit is just disgusting.
- Very interesting article, that very well might go over your head a little (went over mine at least), on the nature of dark energy. Is it static or dynamic in its existence. If it’s dynamic… yeesh, the philosophical implications of such a thing are astronomical; a form of matter whose density and composition and structure changes as it shifts though space time??
While hypothesized dark energy can explain observations of the universe expanding at an accelerating rate, the specific properties of dark energy are still an enigma. Scientists think that dark energy could take one of two forms: a static cosmological constant that is homogenous over time and space, or a dynamical entity whose energy density changes in time and space. By examining data from a variety of experiments, scientists in a new study have developed a model that provides tantalizing hints that dark energy may be dynamic.
The results are still far from conclusive, but the scientists hope that future data might narrow down the models with greater accuracy. They hope that observations by the Planck spacecraft (launched in 2009; first data available in April 2013) and the Euclid spacecraft (launch date is 2019) could help pinpoint the dark energy models that most closely describe our expanding universe.
- Great piece of street art (graffiti, if you prefer that term; I really could care less what it’s called) from GOIN, who I believe works out of the UK:
- Holy shitballs, hello! I got back from Europe last week and have been sort-of slowly getting back into my life in MN. But that’s not the whole story. Another part of it is I thought after dedicating myself to a almost hour-long album for around 10 months I would take some time off of making music. This is not the case, as I’ve got a whole slew of new beats in the pipeline already, and a remix project that’s a whole boatload of fun to boot. Long story short: I’M ADDICTED to it. Anyways…
- 8 Epic Heroes Who Committed Mass Murder at IO9, apparently in honor of Judge Dredd and the new film version. Supposedly the movie is a faithful to the original 2000AD strip, and John Wagner (creator) endorsed it. I’m guessing this is true, considering Karl Urban (who was probably initially hired at least partially for his looks) does NOT take the helmet off through the entire run time. But this article is getting it wrong in a sense: Dredd is not a hero. He’s a fascist who’s so dedicated to law and order he puts that ahead of the people he supposedly serves. Like Rorschach (also very much so not a hero).
- I’m on Twitter. I have been since the Spring(?). Twitter’s cool because you don’t get all these damn graphic memes that have become a staple of Facebook. eCards stand as notoriously annoying. If someone posts a picture, you’ve got to click to see it. Also, you don’t get these rambling rants that drift into nowhere fast. My feed consists mostly of comic book artists and writers, and musicians. It works.
- More great news for Warren Ellis while I was away: he’s been signed to write his first non-fiction book! The book will be based on a very interesting talk he gave at something called Cognitive Cities Conference in Berlin last year. It has to do with the “haunting of what hasn’t happened yet” as it relates to futurism and science fiction. Here’s the original talk:
I actually find myself weirdly nostalgic for the authentic monsters of politics. Even the sly, hollow hustling of Tony Blair would be preferable to the callow bafflement of Nick Clegg, the unnaturally shiny forehead and beta-male posturing of David Cameron, and the… well, whatever Ed Miliband is. There’s Vince Cable, whom lots of people seem to like the idea of, but his presence, unfortunately, is that of Gravedigger #2 in one of the less successful Hammer Horror films.
- Finally, a little magical sigil from Deviant Art. Not sure what it means, but I am fascinated by this stuff for some reason.
Ah the joys of social networking. Late last night El-Pwrote:
i have finished recording cancer for cure. now its getting mixed.
To many, this probably isn’t that big of a deal. But for me — and if the reaction is any indication, lots of other people too — this is a huge deal, and probably one of my most anticipated albums of the past 5 years. I’ll Sleep When You’re Deadopened my eyes, to a lot of things. In my opinion, that album epitomizes the post-9/11 life in America theme we’ve seen in so many different forms of media and art since the early 2000s. It is a perfect album. The production itself is mind-blowing, with melodies weaving in and out and popping up here and there throughout the entire disc. Plus it features samples ranging from Kill Bill to Anchorman and Twin Peaks; and performances from Trent Reznor to Mars Volta, with the omnipresent cuts of Mr. Dibbs. If you haven’t heard it I suggest getting it ASAP and listening to it straight through when you have the time (it’s about an hour long).
[Speaking of Mr. Dibbs, he's going through some medical complications and his insurance isn't covering the necessary surgeries he needs. He has a Facebook page setup: Pay It Forward 2 Mr. Dibbs. And for people who don't use Paypal, anyone who wants to give to him can mail a check to (payable to Kristin Rose):
Brad Forste
4830 Poplar St
Cincinati, OH 45212
Dibbs, for those who don't know, essentially re-revolutionized turntablism. He'll go down as a legend.]
El-P’s next album should be a treat. Throughout last year, he’d been updating a blog for the making of the album, with some very eyebrow-raising pics and statuses popping up now and again. In a good way. Here’s to hoping he’ll be playing Soundset this year.
I found this list at HipHopSite.com (great name guys!) detailing 60 reasons “to live another year” in 2011. It’s a list of albums that were slated for release that year. Problem is, not all of them came out in 2011, like Cancer For Cure. Which means we (or… I) have the pleasure of getting these hip-hop albums into our greedy hands in 2012:
El-P – Cancer For Cure
Slaughterhouse – Welcome To: OUR HOUSE
Dr. Dre – Detox
Madlib & DOOM – Madvillian 2
Q-Tip – The Last Zulu
Cage – ???
Aesop Rock – ???
Ghostface – Supreme Clientele 2
Ghostface & DOOM – Swift and Changeable
Talib Kweli & Mos Def – Blackstar 2
Brother Ali & Jake One – Mourning In America, Dreaming In Color
Freeway - Diamond In The Ruff
Busdriver – Beau$Eros
Kristoff Krane – ???
Kill The Vultures – ???
I Self Devine – The Sounds of Low Class America
J Dilla – Rebirth of Detroit
Tyler, The Creator – Wolf
Wu-Tang – ???
Public Enemy – Most Of My Heroes Don’t Appear On No Stamp/The Evil Empire of Everything
Is the Egyptian government serious? Their counter-measures to massive, country-wide protests (citizens spitting upon the President and the whole control system, sheer chaos in the streets) are simply shutting down the Internet and limiting cellular communication? For real??
Apparently, it is NOT WORKING. And why would it? The Internet — Twitter, Facebook, the “blogosphere” — is not the cause of civil unrest. Neither is any US President, past or present. Or the global media machine. Or fucking Che Guevara t-shirts. The cause of civil unrest is and always will be: despots, corruption, militarism, religion, poverty, etc. The social-networks of today perhaps play a role in dissemination, as we witnessed with the Iranian election protests a couple years ago, but they are irrelevant when it comes to that fire inside you. Burning hot. That shit doesn’t come from Twitter.
I can’t believe they even tried… thinking it would have any sort of law-and-order effect on those protesting. If anything, it’s having the total opposite effect on the country: government shuts down your communication for being pissed off and it instantly pisses you off more. Some hash-tag was floating around out there — “#Jan25″ — which was used for organizational purposes on a local and global level. The Egyptian Government ended up taking out a huge chunk of internet access (some 88%) in the aftermath. But the government can’t afford to black it out forever, they rely on it to run the damn place.
It doesn’t matter anyway. Have Egyptians ever had a better networking tool than the offline one: mosques?
This isn’t ending anytime soon. Especially not with a simple flick of the Internet switch.
