The Unbearable Blogness of Steven

Testing Flash

2007-06-06T23:00:00.000-06:00

The Best Book of the Last 20 Years

2007-02-17T10:09:00.000-07:00

The Best Book of the Last 20 Years...

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace.

I've often heard the book described as "difficult." Hogwash! It's long. It's complex. It's challenging. It covers lots of weighty subject matter. But it's also funny, intriguing, stimulating, and touching.

Yes, I really meant "touching." For all the talk about how Wallace plays games with the reader, sets up many unanswered questions, leads you through a narrative wild goose chase (all those things ARE true), the book is also stuffed with fully-drawn characters who really do hold our interest, and, yes, capture our concern. The book is drawn with lots of post-modern effects, but the story is driven by Wallace's humanism.

It's not just a bunch of showing off. It's a great story, told in a masterfully experimental way.

TV Poker

2007-02-09T15:17:00.000-07:00

What the hell is up with televised POKER? Do people actually watch this stuff? Why not watch slot machines? Roulette? Bingo? Just because the people who are playing are complete jerks, doesn't mean it's worth my time. It's the end of the world!

Youtube

2006-08-18T16:18:00.000-06:00

I was just reading a NY Observer article about how YouTube really alters our relationship with television, making what was once ephemeral into a reusable and reviewable medium more like text. This inspired me to seek out some moments in television that I had actually miss. For example, in the 1980s and 1990s I was a REALLY big Fishbone fan, but not much of a Saturday Night Life viewer (it had runs its course in my opinion). So, I missed Fishbone's "almost famous moment" on SNL. YouTube to the rescue. I can now view it to my heart's content. And I have. It's MUCH better than I even thought it would be. Almost brought tears to my eyes. It's kind of touching moment in Fishbone history as well: promoting their biggest Album (Reality of My Surroundings"), inhabiting their biggest forum, with their best band in tact. A few years later, their guitarist Kendall Jones became disenchanted with the band and joined a religious group (cult to some). Bassist John Fisher tracked Jones down and attempted to abduct him away from the cult.

Jones' guitar playing on the SNL clip for the song "Sunless Saturday" is amazing. It's too bad the band is without his services anymore. In fact, I'm much less of a Fishbone fan now than I was then. Time marches on, but we still have the documents to remind us. Thank you YouTube!

Car Coffins

2006-07-27T15:26:00.000-06:00

So, what's up with all these people driving around with coffins, yes, caskets, even, on the top of their cars and especially SUVs? These big black boxes! Like they're carrying around the decease relatives or something. And all these coffins say, "THULE" on them. Is this some weird Scandinavian death cult? Enlighten me here!

ALA Conference Summary 2006

2006-06-30T14:58:00.000-06:00

GWLA CD meeting:
1. BioOne is creating a new collection (a la Muse, Jstor)
2.

Vendors:
1. Met with Sage and discussed UALC interests
2. Talked with Microsoft about OCA involvement. They implied that perhaps OCA does NOT want to come to our collections for digitizing unless there is a critical mass of materials. Might ask that we ship materials to one of their digitizing locations.

ACRL Literature in English Section:
1. Collections discussion
A. Corpora data files: how are libraries dealing
B. Cooperative collection development: what are libraries doing. California divides up geography (different region--New Zealand--for each library). Colorado is sharing an approval plan. Which library gets a title is based on circulation by LC class.

I'm on the boundary between Democrat and Socialist

2006-06-19T17:40:00.000-06:00

You are a
Social Liberal
(78% permissive)

and an...
Economic Liberal
(23% permissive)

You are best described as a:

Strong Democrat

Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid
Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

Recent Reading

2004-12-20T10:30:00.000-07:00

Books I've read recently:

Microserfs by Douglas Coupland
The Ghost Writer by Philip Roth
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
Neuromancer by William Gibson
Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon
Going After Cacciato by Tim O'Brien
Damascus Gate by Robert Stone
Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk
Q by Luther Blissett
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
A Mighty Fortress: A New History of the German People by Steven E. Ozment

More about these later.

Still trying to read, but finding it all a little boring:

Le morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory

Tried to read, but couldn't stand it beyond about 2 chapters:

Generation X by Douglas Coupland

Pick of the litter: Infinite Jest

2004-12-01T17:46:00.000-07:00

Mi perros.

Millennial

2004-11-19T14:50:00.000-07:00

My boss is harassing with BOTH email and IM these days. Says I need to be "millennial"? I can't have a minute of peace!!! Think I'll go live in a cave.

Where am I?

2004-10-27T17:21:00.000-06:00

I've been out of it for a while...I'm living in Logan, Utah afterall...it's the gateway to Preston, Idaho!

Movies

2004-10-27T16:29:00.000-06:00

Movies I need to see:

Napolean Dynamite
Mystic River
Maria Full of Grace

Isolationist Imperialism

2004-03-24T14:24:00.000-07:00

It strikes me that the policy the Bush administration is practicing is ISOLATIONIST IMPERIALISM. Sound oximoronic? Well, think of this: they are imperialistic in that they want to extend US power throughout the world. But they are isolationist because they don't want to engage other nations in a diplomatic way at all. We hate the notion of consensus altogether. "Do it our way, or forget about it!" It's as though we can't even conceive that there are other nations in the world, much less other opinions about policy. Our heads are completely in the ground about diplomacy. Rule of Law? Forget about it! We're the law, buddy! Makes me sick.

New Template

2004-03-15T11:37:00.000-07:00

Just changed the ol' blog template. Not sure how much I like it. We'll let it run for a while and see how it makes me feel. :)

Same-Sex Marriage

2004-03-11T08:09:00.000-07:00

Is there an activity that is less of a threat to our "moral fabric" than marriage between people of the same sex? NO! Yet Bush and the goons at the American Family Association are all warm about it destroying our way of life. (See also nogaymarriage.com)

They would like you to believe that same-sex marriage is just another step in the decline of our moral and religious values--a decline that drives the Internet porn industry, child sexual abuse, rape, murder, the alarming rise in "liberal" media, and bare breasts during the Super Bowl. Please.

Bush would like you to believe that a few irrational homos and a bunch of irresponsible judges are creating a crisis that can only be dealt with by constitutional amendment. All right-thinking people, he says, know that marriage is ONLY something men and women can do with each other. The American public, though, is really a lot more tolerant on this issue than the RE-PUB-LICK-CANS would like you to believe. AFA had to remove an online poll they conducted, when the overwhelming support for a constitutional amendment, which they hoped to show to Congress, did not materialize.

Here is why there should be no legislation about gay marriage, and furthermore, why it should be perfectly legal:

Marriages are "civil" arrangements anyway. You can have all the ministers, priests, and shamen you want to conduct your wedding, but you ain't married until you have that license from the state that says it's legal.

Virtually all objections to gay marriage are on religious grounds, which makes a constitutional amendment or any other legislation a de facto establishment of religion, and therefore UNconstitutional. I don't care if there are 5 million religions with scripture that says it's wrong. If there is just one religion that says it's OK, then the government oversteps its bounds by creating any prohibitiion.

What your religion does is fine with me, but your religion can't tell my religion what to do.
I thought the RE-PUB-LICK-CANS were all about states rights? How can they say the federal government has any roll here?

FREEDOM! What two consenting adults do with their lives is nobody else's business.
What values can possibly be threatened by same-sex marriage? (To steal a little from Bill Maher) Love? Honesty? Fidelity? Monogramy?

I can't help but think that part of the conservative objection is purely financial: business execs don't want to pay partner benefits to all those gay couples out there.

Whew! Glad I got that off my chest. Now, get out there and marry to your heart's content!

Solaris

2004-03-10T08:48:00.000-07:00

I just watched Andrei Tarkovsky's Solaris on DVD. It is a beautifully filmed movie. I greatly admire Tarkovsky's nerve to include such long and contemplative shots in a science fiction film. Solaris really takes its time to develop its themes, casting a loving eye across natural landscapes, taking in all the subtle nuances of a person's facial expressions, letting the soundtrack wash over us gently. Loved it.

The film has many themes and addresses many topics. One of the overarching points I get from the movie is that when we attack nature, we kill that within us that is most human. I look forward to seeing Steven Soderbergh's version, but I have grave doubts about whether it will have the same depth and subtlety.

The Da Vinci Code

2004-03-08T11:45:00.000-07:00

I just started reading this book and already, only 20 pages into it, I can say that it has given me great pleasure...laughing out loud at the incredibly bad writing! What a bunch of overblown melodrama. Some of the dialogue is so bad, I just have to make annotations on the ebook version I am reading:

"The prospect of death is strong motivation."
"So, my pupil, tell me what I must know."
(Sounds like something out of an Austin Powers movie.)

"Inside a house of the Lord," the Teacher exclaimed. "How they mock us!"
"As they have for centuries."
(I think I heard better dialogue on "The Highlander" televsion show.)

"Interpol, Langdon thought. Of course. He had forgotten that the seemingly innocuous request of all European hotels to see a passport at check-in was more than a quaint formality--it was the law."
(Just like buckling up when you drive your car! ;) )

"My French stinks, Langdon thought, but my zodiac iconography is pretty good. Taurus was always the bull. Astrology was a symbolic constant all over the world."
(Gee wiz, Mr. Langdon, you sure are smart!)

At this rate, I may never finish the book for all the notation I'm doing. This stuff really cries out for a Dan Brown/Da Vinci Code BAD WRITING contest. Please, somebody, start one soon.

The Road to Mecca

2004-03-08T08:00:00.000-07:00

Just saw "The Road to Mecca" by South African playwright Athol Fugard, done by the Clarence Brown Theatre at the University of Tennessee. It is an incredibly textured played. Each character has numerous positive and negative characteristics. And the play takes up many significant social issues--abortion, apartheid/racism, religious intolerance, feminism--without actually being "about" those issues. Most of the drama of the play falls along two axes: faith--freedom and love--trust.

It must be a very strenuous play for the two main female characters. They are on stage and speaking virtually throughout. The CBT production was done with South African accents (though none of the actors is from there). They did an admirable job--not 100 per cent convincing throughout--but better than many English accents we've heard at CBT recently.

2004-03-05T13:35:00.000-07:00

I don't like...

Rush Limbaugh...blowhard, rightwing whacko

Ann Coulter...vile, lying, rightwing whacko

Fox News...a veritable hive of vile, lying, blowhard, rightwing whackos

There are other things I don't like besides rightwing whackos, I just can't think of them right now.

2004-03-04T19:08:00.000-07:00

What kind of masochism is procrastination? Putting things off--like I always do--creates the most exquisite of pain, but it's something that I continually inflict on myself. I could stop. I have "free will," don't I? But I come back again and again.

Technology (like this stinking blog) just offers more reasons to avoid doing what I should be doing. Stop the cycle of violence!

2004-03-04T17:59:00.000-07:00

On a completely different subject...I Like...

Feta cheese
Hummus
A big huge steak with Marsala sauce
That really far away look the clear sky gets on an early Fall day.
The catch-me-if-you can game my dogs like to play.
Paul Thomas Anderson films
Noisy jazz (think Threadgill...think David Murray)
Prog rock (Gong, Gentle Giant, Happy the Man, maybe a little Phish on the side)
Big huge postmodern books with sprawling plots, a pageant of characters, political intrigue: The Satanic Verses!!!
IPA and ESB
Edinburgh, London, Austin, NYC, San Fran's Disco, Philly, and even SLC!
Dark roast coffee...I know I know...you coffee mavens are saying, "but the medium roasts have more subtle flavors." Subtle smubtle! Bring on that sick dark roast!
Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi
24
Post-impressionist paintings

2004-03-02T08:20:00.000-07:00

Mar and Venus are close
together in this night's sky
Love and war cheek to cheek

2004-02-09T08:31:00.000-07:00

I didn't feel much obligation to watch the Super Bowl, especially since I could care less about either team in the game. So, I was watching a DVD of The Italian Job a couple of Sundays ago. After the movie, the little lady (who hates football) went to bed, and I felt free to switch over to the game. The 4th quarter was just starting. Wow, that was a helluva quarter of football.

I didn't feel like I missed a thing until I went to work the next day and heard all the hubbub about Janet Jackson's breast! (Can I say "breast," as long as no "nipple" is involved?)

I think the whole prank by Jackson and Timberlake was a childish and stupid play for publicity. But really now, our whole national "outrage" about this is equally childish and stupid. Here I am talking about it now, but don't we have better things to do than go on and on about this? I am especially perturbed to hear that M. Powell, head of the FCC, is going to investigate. Investigate???? What the...!

Did the performance violate some FCC standard? If so, what's to investigate? We all (well those who were watching) saw it. Even if CBS and MTV didn't know beforehand, they are still responsible. Let's just fine everybody and be done with it! Here's my suggested fine schedule:

Timberlake: $100,000

Jackson: $1,000,000

CBS: $5,000,000

MTV: $10,000,000

Do we really need the US government to expend untold millions of dollars to investigate this? NO!

Really, it's almost beyond my conprehension that anybody is even offended by the incident. What kind of idiotic prudes are we? I'll bet Europeans watching the game saw an average of one breast per commercial break. The prank was childish but the reaction is equally so. I wish America would grow up.

2004-02-07T14:38:00.000-07:00

This is the first post to "The Unbearable Blogness of Steven." I'm really just testing the blog waters here. What can I do with a blog? What good is a blog anyway? What the blogging hell is it all about? Maybe I'll answer those questions, or maybe I'll slink away to gnaw at my own viscera in anguish and envy.

My own greatest interests are cultural and artistic. I will likely make posts about things literary, cinematic, and artistic. But can these things exist outside of the social and political? Not really. Thus, expect the occasional foray into the political realm, to slash and burn the idiotic creations of our elected (and some un-elected) officials. Blog on!