Laurie Anderson, my favorite living performance artist, played her latest composition for the first time over the weekend.
The piece is called “Music for Dogs”.
…
Archive for the ‘Clippings’ Category
Art, damn it, art! watch (#10 in a series).
Sunday, June 6th, 2010Things that make you go “Hmmmmmmmmmmmm…”
Sunday, June 6th, 2010According to the Statesman, yesterday’s gun buyback brought in 343 “guns”:
166 handguns, 96 rifles, two assault rifles and 79 shotguns.
I put “guns” in quotes because it is unclear if this figure includes any BB or replica guns collected.
One of the interesting aspects of this, as you may recall, is that the gun buyback supposedly had a $10,000 budget. However, they actually spent $30,000 yesterday, according to the article; somehow, it appears that the Greater Austin Crime Commission was able to pull an additional $20,000 out of their neither regions in a matter of hours. I would very much like to know where that money came from.
Boom goes the dynamite.
Friday, June 4th, 2010Lawrence is fond of pointing out that the Astros are not the worst team in baseball (at the moment). That honor goes to the Baltimore Orioles, who are 15-39.
And they just fired their manager, in what I believe is the first firing of the baseball season. (I welcome correction if I am wrong about that.)
(So why the Astros obsession? They’re the closest thing I have to a home team, to the extent that I follow baseball. Plus, I want to see how far off the HouChron prediction ends up being.)
Morans.
Thursday, June 3rd, 2010“Identification won’t be required”? That’s interesting. Whenever someone goes to sell books or CDs at Half-Price Books, they’re required to show a photo ID before the clerk will even start processing the sale. My understanding was that this was a legal requirement; does this program get a pass?
There is no limit to how many guns a person can bring in, and Acevedo assures that no questions will be asked, unless it is obvious that a weapon is stolen. He said all guns would be tested to see whether they are linked to criminal activity, and if they are, officers would investigate the case.
I assume when he says “tested” he means ballistic tests. Will they also be checking serial numbers against a list of guns reported stolen, and returning any recovered guns to the rightful owners?
A $100 gift card will be given for each handgun or rifle, and a $200 gift card will be given for each assault rifle. Even air guns, BB guns or replica guns can net $10 apiece.
How much for zip guns?
Acevedo said if the gun buyback is successful, the Police Department will look into having two a year.
Not with my tax money, you clueless bag of crap.
(In this case, I should point out, it looks like the money is coming from private donations raised by the “Greater Austin Crime Commission“, an organization I was previously unaware of, and with a web site that is less than informative. I do like this, from their “Programs” page:
“Supplying equipment to create the nation’s first K-9 chembio and radiation detection programs”.
Yeah, here’s your K-9 chembio and radiation detection programs: you send the dog in and wait five minutes. If it keels over, you don’t go in after it. This is much like AD‘s recommended procedure for dealing with chemical spills, except the K-9s don’t go through as many doughnuts.)
I’m halfway tempted to pull some money out of the bank, go down there, and offer cash money for old S&W revolvers. The only thing that’s stopping me is that other people seem to have had the same idea.
(Subject line hattip, just so people don’t accuse me of being unable to spell.)
Quote of the day.
Thursday, June 3rd, 2010The problem isn’t that this needs to be said. The problem is that it isn’t being said where it needs to be said; in a 9-0 decision by the United States Supreme Court, written by Antonin Scalia.
(Hattip: Insta.)
The “Say WHAT?” project.
Tuesday, June 1st, 2010The LAT has a feature story on Burkittsville, Maryland. Ten years ago, Burkittsville was (partially) the setting for The Blair Witch Project, and the town has been dealing with fallout from that ever since.
…their town was in a movie — actually just the graveyard and a two-second shot of one of the gray and blue welcome signs posted at the four entrances.
The moral of this story, according to the LAT writer:
Never let Hollywood make a horror movie in your town.
The very next paragraph after that statement begins:
The independent filmmakers never asked Burkittsville’s permission.
Sigh.
Tuesday, June 1st, 2010I just found out (by way of Rob Balon) that the local outpost of Roy’s has shut down.
While I regret the loss of jobs among the staff, this does not fill me with a great sadness. However, I did want to single out a quote from Mr. Balon for comment:
A few of the dishes might have been a bit too sophisticated and nuanced for that portion of our city that loves Tex Mex, steak, and BBQ. But diversity of dining is what makes a great city. At some point, we’re going to have to figure that out!
“too sophisticated and nuanced”? With all due respect to Mr. Balon, let’s try this as an alternative explanation: Austin is experiencing tough economic times, and the food at Roy’s was expensive relative to what you got. In addition, that Roy’s faced tough competition from the Flemming’s right next door, as well as Fogo de Chao and The Melting Pot across the street.
I’m not buying the diversity argument.
Obit watch.
Friday, May 28th, 2010Is it just me…
Friday, May 28th, 2010…or do other people read about the Sestak affair, and see “Sestak” as “Sleestack“?
Then again, Congress would be vastly improved with a larger population of Sleestaks.
Then again again, there are those who would say that Congress already has an excessively high population of lizard people.
Edited to add: Lawrence’s response: “Did you just miss the last six months of Sleestak jokes on Fark?”
My response: “I don’t read the Politics tab. It makes me stabby.”
Honor.
Friday, May 28th, 2010Obit watch: John Finn, the last of the 15 Navy men who were at Pearl Harbor and received the Medal of Honor for their actions on that day, and the oldest living Medal of Honor recipient.
When Chief Finn arrived at the hangars, many of the planes had already been hit. He recalled that he grabbed a .30-caliber machine gun on a makeshift tripod, carried it to an exposed area near a runway and began firing. For the next two and a half hours, he blazed away, although peppered by shrapnel as the Japanese planes strafed the runways with cannon fire.
While I hate to say anything negative about a Medal of Honor recipient, his taste in movies left something to be desired:
In 1999, Mr. Finn was among Pearl Harbor veterans invited to Hawaii for the premiere of the Hollywood movie “Pearl Harbor.” “It was a damned good movie,” he told The Boston Herald in 2001. “It’s helped educate people who didn’t know about Pearl Harbor and what happened there.”
“I liked it especially,” he said, “because I got to kiss all those pretty little movie actresses.”
At the same time, the NYT also has an article asking why so few Medals of Honor have been awarded for service in Iraq or Afghanistan. The article is tied to the case of Sgt. Rafael Peralta, who may (or may not) have thrown himself on a grenade after taking a bullet in the head.
Sgt. Peralta was recommended for the MoH, but that was downgraded to a Navy Cross; however, his family has refused to accept the award and is campaigning to have him awarded the MoH. It seems to me that they have a strong case; yet, it also seems to me (as an outside observer) that refusing the Navy Cross looks bad.
Three men say they’re Jesus, one of them must be wrong…
Thursday, May 27th, 2010Slate has an interesting summary/review of Milton Rokeach’s book, The Three Christs of Ypsilanti
Rokeach’s book is one of the more fascinating works of psychology I’ve read. I’d put it up there with When Prophecy Fails: A Social and Psychological Study of A Modern Group that Predicted the Destruction of the World
Basically, Rokeach found three men in an asylum, each of whom believed he was Jesus Christ…and then put them together to see what happened.
Well, we fired our Canon til the barrel melted down…
Thursday, May 27th, 2010The NYT, of all places, has taken notice of one of my favorite projects: the Canon Hack Development Kit (CHDK).
CHDK is basically alternative firmware for the Canon PowerShot cameras that allows you to expand the camera’s capabilities. For example, you can store images in RAW format rather than JPEG, set the camera up to do time lapse photos, or do motion detection…or even write your own software in the CHDK development language.
Even better, CHDK isn’t a permanent modification; if you want to put the camera back the way it was, all you have to do is take the CHDK firmware off the SD card, or swap in a different SD card.
The CHDK Wiki is here. I’m hoping to spend some more time working with CHDK now that school’s out. I’d be interested in hearing from folks who are already working with CHDK.
Have you seen me?
Tuesday, May 25th, 2010No, not Kyle.
Hattie McDaniel’s Oscar, which appears to be gone with the wind. (Sorry.)
Continuing our regular “Crimewatch” community service feature, here’s what to look out for:
Oscar
Little metal guy, on a stand, about yeah high. If you see something that resembles this, please contact The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Edited to add: Lawrence has pointed out that Ms. McDaniel’s Oscar is actually a plaque, not a statue, as the supporting actor and actress didn’t get statues in 1943. In my hurry to make a cheap joke, I overlooked that minor detail. My apologies; unfortunately, I am unable to find a photo of the plaque anywhere online.
A long strange trip.
Tuesday, May 25th, 2010I also wanted to link to this post over at Houston’s Clear Thinkers about the strange history of Landry’s Restaurants, Inc., and their stock.
I realize I may be one of only about three people in the world (excluding Tilman Fertitta and Landry’s stockholders) who find this interesting. But then again, I knew the job was dangerous when I took it.
Ring-ers.
Tuesday, May 25th, 2010The LAT has an interesting comparison of various recordings of the Ring cycle. (The article is slugged May 16th, but I did not see it on the LAT web site until it hit the front page today.)
One reason I find this article noteworthy is that it was written by Ethan Mordden, noted Broadway historian (among other accomplishments).