Hiliarty ensues.

June 14th, 2011

Remember the “Gay Girl in Damascus” story we linked on Sunday?

If you clicked through to the WP link, you may have noticed, but not thought much about, the mention of Paula Brooks, editor of “Lez Get Real”, a lesbian news Web site based in Washington.

In several interviews, the editor — who spoke on condition that she be identified only by her pseudonym, Paula Brooks — said she encouraged Amina to write more, first on Lez Get Real and later on a new blog, titled “A Gay Girl in Damascus.”

You probably see the punchline coming at this point, but we have to carry on.

“Paula Brooks” is actually a 58-year-old male construction worker from Ohio.

We’re kind of wondering if the WP is going to make outing lesbian bloggers who aren’t lesbians (or female) a trend, or if this was just, as “Paula Brooks” puts it, “a major sock-puppet hoax crash into a major sock-puppet hoax”. We kind of hope for the former, as it provides more entertainment than the WP‘s gun coverage.

Posted in Clippings, Guns, Media | 2 Comments »

Art, damn it, art! watch. (#23 in a series)

June 14th, 2011

Ben Wilson is an artist in England.

His medium is acrylic enamel…and used chewing gum stuck to the sidewalk.

He developed a technique in which he softens the gum with a blowtorch, sprays it with lacquer and then applies three coats of acrylic enamel. He uses tiny brushes, quick-drying his work with a lighter as he goes along, and then seals it with clear lacquer. Each painting takes between a few hours and a few days, and can last several years if the conditions are right.

I’m not mocking Mr. Wilson: the few examples of his work shown with the article are rather pleasing to me, particularly the Millennium Bridge one.

Posted in Art, Clippings | Comments Closed

We’re going down the rabbit hole here, people.

June 13th, 2011

Jeff Ward hosts a popular talk show in the afternoons on one of our AM radio stations. I was a pretty regular listener to Mr. Ward’s show for a while (until the AM radio in my car stopped working).

Jeff Ward was also arrested Thursday night and charged with DWI.

Mr. Ward allegedly failed a field sobriety test. It’s not clear if he had blood drawn or was given a breath test, like the 37 people who were arrested on Friday or Saturday night during “no refusal” weekend.

But here’s what makes the story blog worthy, in my opinion. Today, the Travis County DA announced he’s dropping the charges against Jeff Ward.

“Based on their internal review, APD expressed concerns about significant weaknesses in the arrest, specifically whether probable cause existed to file a DWI charge,” Escamilla said in a statement today. “After our review of the evidence, including the officer’s in-car video, we confirmed to APD that there was not sufficient evidence to support a DWI charge. Therefore, the Travis County attorneys office will take no further action.”

Either the APD falsely arrested an innocent citizen, they arrested a citizen who was guilty but botched the arrest so badly that the DA didn’t feel like the case was prosecutable, or they dropped a DWI charge against a prominent local citizen for political reasons. There’s no way to spin this so it looks good.

Edited to add 6/14: Second day coverage in the Statesman.

Interesting points:

  • He failed a field sobriety test, but refused to take a Breathalyzer. The no-refusal weekend started Friday according to previous Statesman coverage.
  • He called Police Chief Acevedo at least twice; once during the arrest, and once from jail.
  • Mr. Ward says he had the standard “two beers” (police will tell you that everyone ever arrested for drunk driving had “two beers”) over a four hour period, and was originally stopped for doing 10 MPH over the speed limit.

Posted in Clippings, Cops, Law | 2 Comments »

Shade-Tovo watch: June 13, 2011.

June 13th, 2011

Here’s a mildly interesting set of facts.

Austin’s cab companies have donated $17,500 to three City Council candidates, including $4,550 to Randi Shade for her runoff election (and a total of $10,350 to Shade overall, which the Statesman implies came from cab companies).

Kathie Tovo has received $6,500 total, and $4,500 for the runoff election, “mostly” from cab drivers for one company.

I was not aware of this, but there’s apparently a movement by the drivers for “legacy permits”: that is, after five years of experience, drivers could get taxi permits directly, rather than the permits being issued to cab companies. Tovo says she supports this, and Shade has expressed opposition.

“That was an important thing because the cost the drivers pay to the companies make it hard for them to earn a living wage,” Tovo said. “And Randi Shade did not make that commitment.”

Neither candidate, nor (as far as I know) any of the previous candidates in the race, have come out in favor of abolishing the permit/franchise system and letting anyone who wants to pick up passengers for money.

Posted in Austin, Clippings, Politics | Comments Closed

On the Internet, nobody knows if you’re a…

June 12th, 2011

…40 year old man from Georgia posing as a lesbian in Syria.

...Scott Palter, a boardgame creator from Minnesota, corresponded regularly with Amina on Yahoo message groups. In a telephone interview, he said he asked her several years ago for a mailing address to send her Christmas cards. He said she gave him the address of a house in Stone Mountain, Ga. A search of local real estate records shows that MacMaster has owned the house since 2000 and lived in it until he left for school in Scotland in September 2010.

Dude, that’s just sloppy work.

Posted in Clippings, Stupid | 1 Comment »

Coffin’s got the dead guy on the inside.

June 10th, 2011

There’s just really not a whole lot going on. You good folks are probably as bored and fed up with Shade and Tovo as I am, and most of you probably don’t care that much about fireworks or plumbing.

The NYT does, however, have a short piece on a recent altercation at a chamber music concert in San Francisco.

The musician John Eichenseer, aka JHNO, was performing a piece for viola and electronics, called “Untitled”, when one of the audience members became disruptive. Eventually, JHNO “threw down his instrument and stormed off the stage”, cracking his viola in the process.

It turns out the audience member who disrupted the performance is also a viola player, Bernard M. Zaslav:

…at intermission, Mr. Zaslav remarked that the piece was “a desecration of the viola,” a quotation that was also captured on a video recording.

Later in the article, Mr. Zaslav is quoted as blaming his reaction on literal physical pain the performance caused him, and it is noted that he apologized to JHNO and the concert organizer.

Bonus: Joan Jeanrenaud, formerly of the Kronos Quartet, was there and is quoted relatively extensively.

(Subject line hattip: the old joke about the cello (4th one down) and one of the greatest book titles ever. Yes, I am aware of the differences between the viola and cello, believe it or not, but I wanted to give a shout-out to Keith Snyder, even if I had to stretch a bit.)

Posted in Books, Clippings, Music | Comments Closed

A-.

June 9th, 2011

Bob Geren out as manager of the Oakland A’s.

Under Geren, who was the best man at Beane’s wedding, the A’s have lost their last nine games and have been swept in three consecutive series.

Oakland is currently 27-36, and in last place in their division.

Posted in Clippings, Firings, Sports | Comments Closed

Let the bodies hit the door…

June 9th, 2011

Lawrence was all over the mass grave that wasn’t in Liberty County, but I wanted to note an update or two.

HouChron interview with the “psychic” who says “she never wanted any attention and fears the worldwide interest in the case will destroy her life if her identity is known publicly.”

She strongly denied telling officers that they needed to search for bodies or that anyone was dead.

“They did not act on what I told them,” she said. “My biggest concern is definitely the children,” she added. “I think they are hungry and thirsty. They are still alive.”

Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t that a standard fake psychic trick? “Oh, no, I never said {X}. I said {Y}. It’s their fault if they thought I said {X}.”

From the WP: “How the story of dismembered bodies at a Texas farmhouse fell apart”. “dismembered bodies”, “fell apart”. Someone at the WP was having a bit too much fun.

In other news, can we say that this story marks the official start of Silly Season 2011? When are we going to get the next shark attack?

Posted in Clippings, Stupid | Comments Closed

Shade-Tovo watch: June 9, 2011.

June 9th, 2011

Oh, look! Randi Shade’s got a new TV ad and a new web video bashing her opponent, Kathie Tovo!

Oh, look! Kathie Tovo and her people say that Shade’s claims are “misleading and hypocritical”.

Oh, look! Water is wet!

Stay tuned for more stunning news on the campaign front.

Posted in Austin, Clippings, Politics | Comments Closed

Make no little plans.

June 9th, 2011

That’s Daring Fireball on the Apple campus plans, quoting Daniel Burnham.

Bear with me, please, as it is about to get geeky in here.

Here’s an image of the proposed Apple campus, hotlinked from TechCrunch:

 

This is the best regular image I could find of the General Atomics campus in San Diego:

Slightly better overhead shot:

I think there’s at least a superficial similarity. But so what, you ask? Well, General Atomics was the company that brought us Project Orion.

Remember Project Orion? If you don’t, there’s a pretty good book on the subject: Project Orion: The True Story of the Atomic Spaceship. (Don’t pay those prices. You should be able to find this used.)  The basic idea was: let’s build a giant spaceship on top of a pusher plate, then set off atomic bombs under the plate to drive the spaceship.

“Make no little plans”, indeed. Can you imagine Apple building their campus on top of a giant metal plate, and then one day when the trans-humanist revolution comes, launching the entire site and all the employees into orbit? Of course, there’s minor details to work out in advance, but isn’t this the kind of plan that stirs the blood?

Is this what Jobs has in mind? Probably not, but a boy can dream, can’t he?

Posted in Apple, Clippings, Geek | Comments Closed

Tovo-Shade watch: June 8, 2011.

June 8th, 2011

The bars on 6th Street have decided to cancel their “vote for Randi Shade” promotion. (Previously.)

I guess without the drink specials, they’re going to have to attract folks to the bars with the usual lineup of stellar bands:

  • Infinite Piehole.
  • $10 Beer.
  • Horrible Pudding Accident.
  • Poetry Night.
  • and the legendary Puppet Show.

(Credit where credit is due: 1 and 3 are stolen from the Scalzinator. 2 and 4 are stolen from Lawrence. 5 should need no explanation.)

(Edited to add: Lawrence points out that I forgot Austin’s other legendary band, “Closed For Remodeling”, as well as the up and coming “Amway Meeting”.)

Posted in Austin, Clippings, Politics | Comments Closed

Obit watch: June 8, 2011.

June 8th, 2011

Lilian Jackson Braun, author of the “Cat Who…” mystery novels.

They weren’t exactly to my taste, but I know my mother read them for a time.

Posted in Books, Clippings, Obits | Comments Closed

“I am familiar with the works of Pablo Neruda.”

June 6th, 2011

But did Agustin Pinochet poison him?

(Mostly I wanted to throw this up for the excuse it gives me to link to possibly the greatest Simpsons’ episode ever. You guys can argue over the validity of that statement in the comments.)

Posted in Books, Clippings, Geek, TV | Comments Closed

The size of their toys.

June 6th, 2011

I am planning to go out to Vegas for DEFCON this year. (Look for complete coverage on the blog.)

My plans do not include driving a bulldozer, though. Not because I don’t think it would be fun. (Oh, yeah, it would be.) But $400 is an airline ticket. Or a substantial portion of that really nice S&W 586 my gun shop has at the moment. Or the “Shoot the Wall” package at The Gun Store.

But tastes differ, and my hat’s off to the clever people who thought this one up.

(Hattip: Marginal Revolution.)

 

Posted in Clippings, Geek, Guns, Travel | Comments Closed

Shade-Tovo update: June 6, 2011.

June 6th, 2011

The Statesman threw the weight of their coveted editorial board endorsement behind Randi Shade. In other news, there’s a crying need for a <SARCASM> tag in HTML.

Meanwhile, the Austin Chronicle has, not surprisingly, thrown the weight of their coveted editorial board endorsement behind Kathie Tovo. I believe that and three dollars will get her a large coffee at some hip local coffee shop.

(I think the AusChron endorsement is probably more beneficial for Tovo than the Statesman‘s would have been. At this point, though, I don’t think it matters; I’m pretty sure the people who are going to vote have made up their minds, and the people who could possibly be swayed by these endorsements are unlikely to turn out for the election.)

The Shade endorsement is interesting, though, in light of this lengthy article from Sunday’s Statesman about the possibility of a Tovo win:

The race’s outcome could have consequences beyond election day — subtly shifting the dynamics on the council, possibly making it tougher for [Mayor Lee] Leffingwell to push an agenda, and shaping next year’s race for mayor, according to interviews with two dozen people who follow city issues.

Basically, the Statesman depicts Leffingwell, member Mike Martinez, and Shade as a core voting block that allows Leffingwell to push his agenda; without Shade as a reliable vote, Leffingwell’s position becomes more difficult.

What is Leffingwell looking to push?

In November 2012 , for example, he wants to put to a public vote a plan for urban rail and several changes to city government, including adding district representation on the City Council.

Hmmmmm.

Posted in Austin, Clippings, Politics, Sarcasm | Comments Closed

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