watching expired appliances align

my nose is growing

Flak gets it right again with today’s review of BLUE CRUSH.

The movie kind of reminded me of that time in 11th grade Physics class when the teacher brought his surfboard to class. It was a longboard, of course. He was graying and all. He propped it up between two of the fixed desks and proceeded to climb on top of it to demonstrate some sort of balancing act or suspension concept or something. I think he just brought it in because he wanted to prove that he’d been ‘cool’ at some point in his life. We all gathered round and a few of the students in class even got on and pretended to surf. I think. But probably not. Yeah. Life in Physics class never got more exciting than when we broke out the Van Der Graaf generator.

i saved that chewing gum you gave me

I hate having a crush that just won’t go away. It’s freakin’ silly. There’s no explanation for it. And I’m not even sure when it started or what it’s about. And this silly crush is on someone I don’t even know. That’s the worst part. There’s just something about her that I find captivating in a quiet, look at me kind of way. And I want to share in whatever’s going on with her. Of course, it’s always easy to get a crush on someone you don’t know. And lately these crushes have been frighteningly similar. I’m not suggesting that I have a new crush every week. That’s certainly not possible. It’s been a good eight or ten months since I’ve had one of these unhealthy sorts of crushes. Now I’m rambling and not really saying anything. Perhaps it’s time I return to blogging about human/computer interaction or about that time in high school when I started crying in Latin class.

Cookie It Up!

I missed my 10 year high school reunion. I was in Boston. (to digress, I’m currently enjoying a chocolate chip cookie or two from Cookie It Up!) The plans to visit Boston this past weekend were made before I knew about the reunion, so instead of visiting Virginia, I visited Massachusetts. It looks like I missed some of the fun at the reunion, but Keefe was kind enough to post photos from the various gatherings.

I don’t have too much to say about my high school days. It was during those years I came to the conclusion I had ten total hours of conversation in me. I figured that after talking with someone for about ten hours (spread out during a few days or weeks, of course) I would be out of things to say. I came to this conclusion as stage manager for one of the drama productions at school. There wasn’t too much for me to do as stage manager except talk with the extras in the play – their small roles allowed them plenty of time to chat. I remember getting to know a few of them fairly well. But after eight hours of conversation, I’d start to realize that I was running out of things to talk about. Being the meta-conversationalist that I was at the time I’d always mention that I only had ten hours of conversation in me and I think that would bring the conversation to an end. Perhaps all my thinking about my conversation skills was just a defense mechanism to get out of getting to know people better?

you know who you are

some people should just learn how to use the 'unsubscribe' option.

(this is really only directed at those who are part of group emails that complain about being a part of that group)

gone fishin'

It’s been a month during which I’ve spent more time reading the blog entries of others than writing my own. Too much time spent at the office doing real work. Weekends spent traveling or resting. Rest assured, I’m taking photos, just not posting them. Labor Day weekend looks to be busy (filled with photo opportunities, I’m sure). I’d spoken about putting balgavy.com on hiatus for the month of August, and I think I’ve come pretty close. There’s catching up to be done, and I’m intent on doing it soon.

e. feiss

it's confirmed. any skills i once had at tracking down cool cultural items have disappeared. i'm embarassed. i had to read about the great "ellen feiss" 'switch' ad in the new york times. the paper of record had to tell me what all the kids are getting hooked on!

but, wow...what a great ad. errol morris is at the top of his advertising game!

a beautiful freddy

somehow my saturday consisted of watching two movies from 2001. early evening was spent watching a powerful performance by russell crowe in "a beautiful mind." i managed to follow that up with an average performance by tom green in "freddy got fingered." my mind has been blown. the tom green movie has left me speechless. i didn't expect to laugh as much as i did. it's amazing that two movies can be so completely different, yet both be so terrible and great at the same time. neither of them was good, but they each had their own merits. i'm now sitting here in shock and afraid of what the rest of the night will bring.

one of a series

i just want to take a moment and give a shout-out to a guy named eddie i knew in elementary school. i think his name was eddie, but i don't totally remember. he moved out of town sometime after fourth grade, or maybe even before then.

i do remember a birthday party at his house that involved games of skill. one of those games involved dropping clothespins from nose level into a target. the prize? some sort of james bond edition matchbox car with - get this - an ejection seat!

now that i put some more thought into it, it may have been a party my parents threw for one of my birthdays. but it was held indoors, and my birthday is a summertime event. it wouldn't have been indoors. anyway, here's a shoutout to eddie, even though it was his birthday and i won the ejection seat james bond matchbox car.

loitering, eh?

bar closes because owner doesn't like clientele.

r.a.

i saw a guy on the subway this morning who reminded me of rene auberjonois of 'benson' fame.

AI (and this isn't Kubrick)

After letting the hype fill my bloodstream I finally tuned into American Idol this past Tuesday. Kevin's keeping track of how things are going down.

i like wearing contacts.

it's that sort of day. i've got nothing. (link from xplane's visual thinking linking)

copying myself

I'm a participant in a college radio email group. I got a little long winded today and posted the following comments about copyright law. It all started with someone innocently referencing an article about music bootlegging posted on Salon.com.

Here are some of my disjointed thoughts:

Do you envision the future the author suggests where:

"Bootlegging may even evolve into something of a hobby for tens of thousands of desktop producers who will spend their free time splicing together the latest top 40 hits for kicks, like model-airplane builders. The record industry could even respond by selling its own do-it-yourself bootleg complete with editing software and authorized samples. In a sense bootlegs are music fans' response to the disposability of pop culture."

To me, that all sounds quite fun (I can already see the package of the ‘do-it-yourself bootlegging kits’ in the aisles at Sam Goody). I think recontextualizing music and art is a positive thing – as long as it isn’t the only thing people are doing with music, art, film, etc. Is it too much to suggest that remixing songs and squashing them together is just a fad (ie, model-airplane kits)? Will this sort of thing just become another music subculture five years from now?

I’m sure we’re all sick of reading articles about the music industry falling apart and losing revenue and looking to blame the internet and filesharing. But I agree with the thoughts that we’re just in the lull of a music cycle. Tuesday’s Salon article about the current state of MP3’s is one of the best technology articles they’ve posted in a long time.

The author of today’s article makes a comparison to ‘pop art’ of the last few decades and I think that’s a valid point. The visual arts have been around for thousands of years whereas recorded music hasn’t been with us for nearly that long. I’m not really sure what I’m trying to suggest…but I think it’s an interesting time to watch as copyright issues are discussed and muddled through.

While in college, I was a big proponent of a film I programmed called "Sonic Outlaws." It was about Negativland and culture jamming and copyright law. It played on a Thursday night in April. Less than ten people paid to see the film – and it screened twice that night! As much as I wish the rest of the population cared about copyright law, I just don’t think they do.

Obviously there are more interesting things going on in the world than copyright law conversations and the questions discussed in this article and others are so hard to answer. I’ve given occasional thought to the issue during the past 12 years (from the time I started creating home videos) and have yet to resolve my feelings on the subject.

As an author and creator, I want to be compensated for my work. The copyright system is one that holds the outright theft of work in check. As someone who desperately wants to own a PVR (be it a TIVO or ReplayTV) I don’t want anything standing in the way of trading copyrighted television shows with someone who remembered to record something I didn’t.