May 2009
17 posts
further administrative notices
apologies as to the delay in updating. I’ve uprooted myself from washington and am currently in a suburban staging area, working on a grad school project and waiting to move my boxes into new york to start my new job. regular updating will recommence then. sorry.
on concise rejoinders to my thoughts in transit...
cec: I am driving through jersey & "thunder road" came on the radio, Bruce springsteen still sucks even in jersey, sorry
ahm: fuck ya jack... jerz rulz
neil young - “I believe in you” from...
link: the secret memoir of zhao ziyang, former... →
After I came to Beijing, my guiding principle on economic policy was not the single-minded pursuit of production figures, nor the pace of economic development, but rather finding a way for the Chinese people to receive concrete returns on their labor. That was my starting point. Growth rates of 2 to 3 percent would have been considered fantastic for advanced capitalist nations, but while our...
paul mccartney - “friends to go” from...
link: woody allen's "brief yet helpful guide to... →
one of my all-time favorite non-narrative pieces. originally published in the new york times, it was collected in “without feathers,” which also has two of allen’s plays in it and is worth every penny.
Miscellaneous methods of Civil Disobedience:
Standing in front of City Hall and chanting the word “pudding” until one’s demands are met.
Tying up traffic by...
on the concerns of late-middle-aged white men in...
overheard at lunch this afternoon, with two bespectacled white gentlemen in their late fifties as the players.
man #1: so, tell me about this spongebob thing. I really don't know anything about it.
man #2: well, you know, it's not like, not like that other one.
man #1: what, oh, teletubbies? oh, yes, I saw that.
man #2: well, no, with spongebob I don't think I can point to any one character that I'd find... you know... effeminate.
man #1: but what does "square pants" mean?
man #2: well, that's spongebob's last name. he's square. he's a sponge. he wears square pants.
gotta watch out for those hidden gays in children's television, you know.
bud powell - “tea for two” 10” -...
on the lenses through which I process all...
aw: c
aw: gotta talk to you
cec: ok
aw: what do we think about 2004 now
cec: a general disaster on all counts, a president defending a terrible war (that actually wasn't that unpopular that year) who totally fucking bombed his first debate spectacularly wound up clobbering his stiff, dumb opponent
aw: no no no no no i mean in terms of the red sox
link: short story: "before you say 'hello'," italo... →
Now that a network of automatic connections extends across entire continents and every subscriber can call every other subscriber at will without asking anybody’s help, I must resign myself to paying for this extraordinary freedom with an expense of nervous energy, repetition of movements, time-wasting, growing frustration. (And to paying for it again in the form of extremely expensive...
on the downsides to my peculiar eastern cultural...
cec: I have been corrupted thoroughly by chinese society
cec: japanese just sounds miserable to me
cec: what a gross language
aw: dude all languages are gross to robots
aw: CHEW ON THAT
cec: when china builds a robot it will be melodious and cultured
cec: or, you know, a bureaucratic nightmarish figure that runs on the blood of provincials, but who's counting
aw: RUIN YOUR FARMS TO MAKE STEEL FOR ME TO EAT
the fall - “garden” from their sixth...
administrative notes
soon after my cheeky discourse on sonic youth’s new record, my computer died. then I had a four-hour exam yesterday. suffice it to say, I’ve been out for a bit. apologies. regularly-scheduled programming will resume sometime after friday. in the meanwhile, I’ll try to at least keep you entertained.
sonic youth - “poison arrow” from the...