the shrewdness of apes

i'm writing this from the projector tent of the Solar-Powered Film Festival where "Screen Door Jesus" is about halfway to completion. things have gone pretty well the past two weeks, though tonight's showing was sans popcorn due to some unforeseen circumstances. next week's showing is the Maysles "Grey Gardens" and the turnout should be pretty huge, so those planning to attend are advised to arrive a bit early for good seats. popcorn will be made.

those of you with ties to the music industry are invited to submit ideas for the Music Series coming up in September. we're going to try to do a rock show or two, so if you've got any bands that might be good and available, let me know - we're going to try to get the schedule set in the next few weeks. some $$$ is available to the performers, but not a ton, which is fine because we can't fit more than a few hundred people here anyway.

Posted by Jamie at 10:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

last week, Radio Free Brattleboro - southern Vermont's bastion of free-form, commercial-free, independent radio and home to brother DJ Audible's weekly adventures in thematic programming - was raided by the FCC in a pre-emptive strike that came despite the fact that a federal court judge in Brattleboro had yet to rule on the pending litigation between the two parties, and despite previous assurances from the FCC that no seizure would take place until a ruling was issued. the FCC has a class of licenses for low power, 10-watt stations, but have never solicited applications to actually grant any of the licenses, meaning rfb had no way of acquiring a license other than through court proceedings which the FCC has now pre-empted. the whole morass is all too sickeningly believable. for a bit more on this saga, and a good resource for the underground radio scene, check out diymedia.net.

Posted by Jamie at 12:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

with the workload slowly receding slightly faster than my hairline, i decided to put off the paid writing that needed to get done in favor of catching up a bit with old friend TV. unfortunately, we ended up watching the execrable premier of "Stella" on Comedy Central. if i had any misconceptions about the fact that a comedy show could leave me in a worse mood when it was over than when it started, this travesty cleared them up but fast. the previews were bad, but the show took it to a whole other plane. i can not suggest strongly enough that you avoid this show at all costs. i'd love to expound on what exactly about the show was so abhorrent, but it's already eaten too large of a hole in my evening.

while i'm aware that my opinions are sometimes out of step with wider sensibilities (see "Curb Your Enthusiasm"), if this show becomes some sort of massive hit or critical darling there will be some serious soul-searching on the agenda.

Posted by Jamie at 11:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)

anyone who counts themselves among those who are just exasperated with the current administration of this country and the direction in which it has us pointed should definitely not read this article about Bush & Co.'s continued efforts to avoid acknowledging global warming and/or doing something about it. an excerpt:

U.S. officials pressed negotiators to drop sections of the report that highlight some problems tied to global warming, warn of more frequent droughts and floods, and commit a specific dollar amount to promoting carbon sequestration in developing countries.

Instead, U.S. negotiators substituted a sentence that reads, "Climate change is a serious long term challenge that has the potential to affect every part of the globe."

also not recommended for reading is this expose by Salon and Rolling Stone (who knew they still did anything that mattered?) about the coverup by the government and drug companies concerning the effects of mercury-based additives in vaccinations administered to infants. studies show that thimerosal is the likely culprit behind the epidemic of autism, hyperactivity and other neurological disorders in this country. yet, depsite this evidence, use of these vaccines continued until very recently in this country and are still being widely used in the 3rd world. meanwhile, there have been efforts in Congress (surprise!) to protect the drug companies from prosecution. again with the excerpts:

The federal officials and industry representatives had assembled to discuss a disturbing new study that raised alarming questions about the safety of a host of common childhood vaccines administered to infants and young children. According to a CDC epidemiologist named Tom Verstraeten, who had analyzed the agency's massive database containing the medical records of 100,000 children, a mercury-based preservative in the vaccines -- thimerosal -- appeared to be responsible for a dramatic increase in autism and a host of other neurological disorders among children. "I was actually stunned by what I saw," Verstraeten told those assembled at Simpsonwood, citing the staggering number of earlier studies that indicate a link between thimerosal and speech delays, attention-deficit disorder, hyperactivity and autism. Since 1991, when the CDC and the FDA had recommended that three additional vaccines laced with the preservative be given to extremely young infants -- in one case, within hours of birth -- the estimated number of cases of autism had increased fifteenfold, from one in every 2,500 children to one in 166 children.

But instead of taking immediate steps to alert the public and rid the vaccine supply of thimerosal, the officials and executives at Simpsonwood spent most of the next two days discussing how to cover up the damaging data. According to transcripts obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, many at the meeting were concerned about how the damaging revelations about thimerosal would affect the vaccine industry's bottom line.

anyone else feeling a little pessimistic about the world today?

Posted by Jamie at 02:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

it dawned on me in about the 4th inning of today's softball game that one of the guys whocame out to play was Paul Lukas of Beer Frame and Uni Watch fame. then i noticed that he was the only person playing who was wearing stirrups. they were pulled up to his calves, which fits right in with his fetish for the more traditional style of uniform as opposed to the abomination that is the modern pajama-style, full-length pants. his shirt, however, was untucked so i have to deduct some points for that (the fact that no one else was tucked in is beside the point). he was on the opposing team, so i didn't get a good look at some of the smaller details of his outfit, but i'll try to sneak a glance next time to see whether he has any visible logos, patches or bad color combinations.

***UPDATE*** looks like i shoud have read to the end of his column before posting this, as he included a link to a picture of himself in his softball regalia.

Posted by Jamie at 04:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

when we last left off, our intrepid men of the pitch had rebounded from a disheartening 2-1 loss to MExico to dispatch Guatemala by 2-0. like most other things around here, the two matches played in the past week did not get my full attention - i saw maybe 30 minutes of the two games combined. fortunately for the US team's chances, my presence in the television audience falls somewhere below a solid attack and Kasey Keller's brilliance on the scale of deciding factors.

first came a 3-0 victory over the Ticos of Costa Rica led by Landon Donovan's two goals (his first tallies in this final qualifying round) and polished off by Brian McBride's late goal to ice it. i caught the first goal, which came nicely off of a loose ball and also saw an equalizing goal that was waved off for offsides. Keller reportedly had a brilliant stretch to preserve the lead in the first half, and after witnessing more of his heroics in Wednesday night's 3-0 triumph at Panama, i can easily believe it. with the US up 1-0 early in the Panama match, he made a series of 3 saves in 5 seconds that were among the most inspired i've ever seen. and they inspired the American side as well, as they went on to score two more goals in the first half to avenge the ugly almost-loss from last year when they needed a very late goal in the rain to salvage a point from the Panamanians. now, with two months off before a match against Trinidad & Tobago in Connecticut, the team has all but clinched a spot in Germany 2006.

elsewhere, the field is starting to take shape. a quick rundown by continent:

South America (4.5 spots) - Argentina, Brazil, blah blah blah. the real excitement here is the battle for the other two qualifying places, currently occupied by Ecuador and Paraguay. Colombia and Chile are lurking but face tough games in September @ Uruguay anf @ Brazil repsectively. if Uruguay can win, they would put themselves into 5th place and in line to take on the Oceania winner for the right to go to Germany.

Asia (4.5 spots) - Iran, Japan, Saudi Arabia and South Korea are all in while Uzbekistan, Kuwait and Bahrain are still alive for a playoff with a North American team. North Korea is eliminated, to which the world can only say "thank you" given the political climate there as well as the rioting that took place during a loss to Iran that forced the recent match with Japan to be played in an empty stadium in Thailand.

Africa (5 spots) - group leaders include the usual suspects of Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa as well as moderate surprise Ivory Coast who are currently in ahead of Cameroon and Egypt. other potential surprises lurking beghind the leaders are Togo (a personal favorite), Zambia, Tunisia and Angola. the series of games next weekend will help shake things out a bit.

Europe (13 spots + host) - virtually no surprises here whatsoever, with the exceptions of Ukraine who are on the verge of clinching a spot in their group over Turkey, Greece (the 2004 European champion) and Denmark and France, the 1998 World Cup champions who currently sit 4th in their group (behind Israel!). battles between Poland and England, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic, Spain and Serbia, Ireland and Switzerland and Croatia and Sweden are mildly compelling but the real action here won't take flight until some teams other than Andorra and Liechtenstein start getting near elimination.

Oceania (0.5 spots) - this region has been quiet for over a year awaiting this September's 2-game playoff between Australia and the Solomon Islands for the right to play a South American team for possible entry into the World Cup. Solomon Islands qualified for the playoff after tying the Aussies in the final game of the previous round, leaving them 1 point ahead of New Zealand who had a loss to Vanuatu to blame for their downfall. and yes these are real places, and yes i had to look them up to find out where they were. at any rate, this is Australia's last hurrah as the big fish in the little pond as they join the Asian Football Confederation next time around.

host: Germany
in: Saudi Arabia, Japan, Iran, South Korea
virtually in: Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Ukraine, United States
open spots: 22

Posted by Jamie at 03:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

"We've arrived at the Ramada Inn in Quantico, Virginia and my father-in-law has already described the place as a 'shithole' twice before we check in. Domestic beer resides in the hand of every adult striding through or sitting in the lobby, and as we are introduced to a circle of veteran Marines swapping war stories (the real kind), I suddenly notice that I have started bleeding from a spot on my forearm for no discernible reason."

more stuff to follow as i endeavor to get back on some sort of moderately regular publishing schedule.

Posted by Jamie at 06:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)