Author: shacker

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Waits

Watched our friend Matthew Sperry playing with Tom Waits on Letterman last night. Thought he might be hidden in the background or something, but he was right up close, on the left, very visible, exciting. Hope this turns into some kind of major career break for Matthew. If you watched the video I posted a few months ago – the birthday song we wrote for Roger’s 40th – Matthew wrote the music and I wrote the words for that.

Adamation just sent me a $75 gift certificate to Tower, which was really cool of them. Spent it yesterday on:

Orchestra Baobab – Pirates Choice (double CD)
Tom Waits – Blood Money
Tom Waits – Alice
Elvis Costello – When I Was Cruel

Pirates is considered to be the best Baobab ever laid down, in ’82. So loose and rubbery and easy soulful organic funk of the earth. Amazing. Listening to Wait’s Alice now – all throaty, pensive, half-drunken s – a return to the tempos of Nighthawks or Closing Time, but with the messed up xylophone percussion styles of Swordfish Trombones.

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Global Currency

Attention globalization fans (you know who you are): The Global Country of World Peace has released its own currency, called the Raam. One Raam = around US $10. According to the Maharishi, the appearance of the Raam marks the onset of a harmonious, peaceful world. One love, one heart, one wallet. Yay!

See also: The Popup Ad Campaign From Hell : “It’s the latest in Web marketing innovation: Hijacked Web surfers, exploited Web browser vulnerabilities and malicious spyware all wrapped up together.”

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Paranoia, Stupidity and Greed

Very good article by SiliconValley.com’s Dan Glimor on how the information and entertainment industries are trying to control the ways in which the public consumes content. Note to stupid dinosaurs: fighting with your customers is generally not considered a good business model.

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Tiannemen

So there’s this professor here with a bad back. As in *really* bad. He lectures laying down on a mattress, and walks really slowly and stiffly. I always assumed it was a more or less temporary thing he was working through. Today I got to talking to him and discovered that he was nearly beaten to death by Chinese cops in ’89 for trying to cover the 3rd anniversary of the Tiannemen Square riots. It was a small piece he was preparing – 10 seconds of video for the evening news. And he was brutalized for being there with a camera.

No matter what my complaints about America are sometimes, I am grateful not to live in so many places in this world.

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Wasabi Peas Verdict

After lunch, purchased one pouch of Royal Orchids Wasabi Coated Green Peas — “A Happy Present from the Earth.” Recent controversy in LiveJournal indicates that people either view wasabi peas as some form of hell-spawn or as a simple tasty treat.

After failing to open the packet via the provided tear-off mechanism, resorted to scissors. Inserted one green and beige wasabi pea into mouth and sucked. First, brief impression was of sweetness. This sensation lasted approximately one second but was quickly supplanted with the familiar “blinding sheet of pain racing up the front of my face” sting of wasabi. However, unlike wasabi paste sting, the sting of the pea was extremely short lived. After crunching into the pea, its own nutty, bready flavor combined with both the sweetness and the wasabi. The combined flavor experience was very pleasant.

I have now eaten several dozen of the suckers, and will likely consume the entire bag by 3:00 if someone doesn’t stop by to share them with me, and if I don’t start bleeding from the gums (whichever comes first).

Verdict: Wonderfully intriguing mixed flavor experience, recommended either as a zesty snack or as a plucky conversation starter.

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Phones Dead

My Grado SR-60s* died. Had them since the early 90s. Re-soldered the connections in the right phone twice this morning, but nothing. And so into the dustbin (oooh, how British!). Will live with the AKGs for a while (though I must say, those RS1s sure look tempting ;). They make me look like an air traffic controller, but I’m okay with that.

* Heh – the same ones I’m wearing in my current LJ icon photo.

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Emergency Procedure

Was reading up on emergency umbilical handling procedures – if you’re more than two hours from a hospital, tightly tie off the cord 6″ from the navel, then tie another knot 2″ farther out. Cut between the knots with a sterilized knife or scissors. If less than two hours from a hospital, just leave it.

Whether expecting or not, you never know when you might need info like that.

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Chrissy Caviar

This is one of the more interesting art projects I’ve seen in a while – mock marketing of human eggs as consumer item – human caviar – as commentary on reproductive pressure on women in their late 30s. Provoked a pretty good discussion between Amy and I. Read article before forming opinions.