Neighborhood Blogs

Neighborhood blogs seem to be a web-based vanguard of the meatspace phenomenon of young, affluent, tech-hip people who are populating the once industrial-decayed parts of Brooklyn. Seems to be a sort of mild spinoff of Gothamist, same idea, but more localized. Examples:

Ditmas Park Blog
Brooklyn Junction
The Gowanus Lounge

These are just the ones I've actually browsed; each has links to more.

The times are-a-changin'.

RIAA Case Roundup

- The RIAA (boo! hiss!) won a significant judgment in the case of the first file-sharer to take their case to court. Jammie Thompson was found liable by a jury for making downloaded music available for sharing, and was fined $9,250 for each of the 24 songs on which the plaintiff's attorneys focused the case. I am wishing I had known about RIAA radar, a great tool for evading paying these buggerers with my redundant dough.

I happen to be one of those people who buys more music as a result of downloading, due to my constant, insatiable need for new shiny things and my less rabid but still relevant attention to recording quality (my grado headphones are where these desires met). So this just pisses me off, because it means I could be punished for behavior which, in my case, often gets me contributing more to pocket lining than I otherwise would. So I will stick to grabbing non-riaa tunes and paying those hardworking people for their non-collusive efforts.

and a thought:
These kinds of lawsuits are a pathetic attempt by the industry to make up for the losses it incurred by being so far behind the market that the demand was met by quasi- or illegal providers (e.g., allofmp3.com).

Also, Ryan sent out a link to this (entirely relevant but completely Bizarro) Graphic Novel on Internet Piracy (from Underwire blog)

The 20th Century Project Begins!

I have decided that, for no particularly good reason, it would be nice to know some stuff about...everything. In pursuit of that meager goal, I am going to have a look, over the course of the next 100 days (today is day 1), at the major events of each year of the 20th Century, jolly time that it was.

Wikipedia is a convenient enabler - there are single page writeups of the significant events, births, and deaths for (at least) every year in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. Turns out there are more stretching back, but that's just so many grains of sand, right?

I am not quite sure what I am to get out of this little endeavor, other than a whole mess of semi-reliable world-knowledge. Perhaps a daily summary of the good stuff, a map of the tangents I ride out, and some kind of completion counter? Some posting of media finds or inspired content-filled inspired creations? Internets the limit, I suppose. Up up and away!

A note: So, in hindsight, I have realized that today I read 1900, which is of course, in the 19th century of that crizazy Gregorian Calendar. So let's just call it background. As such, no full entry (also I am tired and aching). But a quick summary:

• The big deal events were the Boer War and the Boxer Rebellion. Brits v. Dutch-Africans, chinese peasants vs. everyone else.
• Also, lots of strikes across Europe, workers seeming to think they have "rights", speak out, etc etc. No email, so no flashmobs.
• British Labor party formed, wins 2 MP seats, and Winston Churchill got in for the first time.
• Future Admiral Hyman Rickman born. Without him, no successful US nuclear sub fleet. Go figure.

So there's probably more but I'm tired so, c'est ca for now.

Flickr Learns Me Again!

I have become a bit of a Flickr junkie. I take an inordinate number of amateurish but devoted photos, and load many (though not enough) right onto the tubes through Flickr. I've even got it going through the Curve (though I load through the web, which is oddly more effective than email). But I have not only been attention-whoring with Flickr, giddily lapping up views and comments; nay, I have also been learnin'!

One fine day, browsing the groups on flickr, I noticed a neat featured group, emergence. Well, here I am, massive dork and flickr junkie; what else could I do but join the group? I send the admins my plaudits as well as qualifications, and bangarang, they let me in. Now, some of my favorite pictures are of the fractured remains of subway advertisements that have been removed, and I decided I could cook up an adequate explanation of how the patterns formed by the strips of paper and glue can be recognized as faces or other objects of daily life. But wait! That is nay emergence! What is emergent is the layering, the overlapping colors and forms. But not what we perceive them to be - that is in our heads.

And it has a name.

And a Flickr group.

Pareidolia!

Magical perception, I am not a loony!! Others see the faces, and the buffalo, and the funeral in which the fish jumped over the moon, and so on...

So I have learned a new thing, and it is a thing that is always present in my life - any malformed or corroded object is fodder for my tendency towards pareidolia. How exquisite to find out there are whole online groups devoted to this fancy, and how interested a subject. But wait, there's more!

Posting one of the face-ridden ad scars netted a fair number of views, 50 at last check. And one of those views came from the founder of yet another group - Tachism. Who said "Boy! Yo photo be Tachism! Hook us up!"

And what is Tachism? Hoh hoh, silly Americain! It is a European Abstract painting movement of the 1940's/50's, perhaps the Euro-equivalent of Abstract Expressionism. You know, the silly Americans. In any case, its sweet, fitting, bizarre, and a whole new bag of fun to learn about. So there.

Tonight in NYC

Forget the Pubs, Clubs, and Scrubs: I saw random things on the street.




So what has I seen tonight?

- This was technically this evening, but the line stretching out of DiFara was highly amusing. Longish styled hair, scruffy beards, tight pants, apathy, timbuk2. Hipsters and BoingBoingers, I guess? I wonder if the variety joint next door got as much business...after I saw that bull statuette in the window (more on that soon), I knew fame had to follow. P.S. The bus and I were talkin' college.

- Hot Ghetto Mess/We Got to Do Better: The 4 train to manhattan was attended by a group of "youts" (I'm guessing they ranged from 10-16) who saw fit to show off all of their underwear - as opposed to the tasteful little bits peeking through the holes in my jeans...

- The Dying Soldier Shot through the his screaming, modern head, his World War I/II/III fatigues imploring, "Bring Me Back" - perhaps asking us to do so now, anyway...

-I Love You, a Coconut and a Crate: Drink on a wall.

-The Bowery Shoe: It puts its foot down. Nice contrast with the shiny new clubs, cars...People really loved seeing me shoot this one...

-Kicked a cork in some park. Better than a needle. Thought it was a pill vial.

-Fleurie "Domaine des Grands Fers", 2005, Beaujolais, France. $8 at Jadis. Spicy nose, smooth up front, heavier spice on the way down. Body stays with you. Is this the proper way to describe wine? Who knows, don't care. Something about legs. I like legs.

P.S. the 16" of navel from the hostess is highly fashionable. coming back.

Now: tea and ridiculous comments from the passerby at teany. I like tea. and the wifi (from somewhere). and the juice. LOVE JUICE.