Category: Miscellany

  • Killer serial. Dylan Tweney reports

    Killer serial. Dylan Tweney reports that Stanford is re-publishing facsimiles of the original broadsheet serialization of Charles Dickens’ novel Great Expectations. A new edition comes out every Wednesday. It’s retro tech! Read it or subscribe on Stanford’s Dickens site.

  • Which dreamt it?. Before it

    Which dreamt it?. Before it disappears, go and read Literary Devices by Richard Powers, published in cooperation with Zoetrope. Borges suggested that the reader writes Dante, Shakespeare, Cervantes. The software that drives battle scenes in the Lord of Rings trilogy approaches the kind of interactive storytelling landscape presaged in this witty, utterly engrossing tale. An…

  • ASPEN MAGAZINE interpreted for the

    ASPEN MAGAZINE interpreted for the Web. Small world department, my cousin A.P. Crumlish, who runs bend of bay, forwards me this Ubuweb announcement about Andrew Stafford’s adaptation of ASPEN MAGAZINE for the Web. Readers of this space will recall that Stafford is also responsible for the brilliant Making Sense of Marcel Duchamp. Andy has put…

  • 'Coffeehouse' reviewed five years down

    ‘Coffeehouse’ reviewed five years down the road. Wred Fright at Babel Magazine writes a round up of books derived from online e-zine publishing in From A to Zine, but finds most of the content of Coffeehouse unremarkable.

  • 'Nature Lover, or Something' by

    ‘Nature Lover, or Something’ by Richard Brautigan. If a mailing list called “The Richard Brautigan poem of the day” existed, which it doesn’t for copyright purposes, today’s poem might be this: Nature Lover, or Something I am not particular. I like whatever the sky happens to be doing at the time.

  • 'So Far, So Close' (Call

    ‘So Far, So Close’ (Call for contributors). e-critures.org sez: CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PROJECT: “SO FAR, SO CLOSE” Due to the speed of today

  • S.F office space available. from

    S.F office space available. from Watchword Press: Office space: As some of you may know, over the last year we have shared an office space complex with Bitch magazine, To-Do List, and another community organization. Sad for us, Bitch is moving to Oakland. As a result, two (quite affordable) office spaces will become available in…

  • Never explain a joke

    The usually impeccable attitude on display at The Gawker shows a slight crack today when editor/writer Elizabeth Spiers responds to an illiterate slam from some Tim Goodman groupie. The main response on the Gawker home page is just perfect, but the extended entry tries too hard: I was merely challenging his assumption that American audiences…

  • How much proof do you

    How much proof do you need?. There’s no use denying it any longer. Elijah Wood is very, very gay.

  • Worst… president… ever

    The Daily Breeze quotes veteran White House journalist Helen Thomas (whose recently exchange with Ari Fleischer about unelected leaders made the rounds of the blogosphere) on the quality of the current presiding executive: She seemed to have sympathy and affection for everyone but George W. Bush, a man who she said is rising on a…

  • When is a quota not

    When is a quota not a quota?. Mark Kleiman unpacks the Big Lie in the way the right uses the poll-tested shibboleth word “quota” to oppose any and all affirmative action programs.

  • Left-wing conservatives and right-wing liberals

    The political spectrum here in the U.S. has become increasingly muddled over the years. Conservatives adopted the lingo and some of the verities of liberal progressive thought and more recently the rump of the left has toyed with attempting to coopt the aspects of right-wing thought it finds least unpalatable. We’ve got a darling of…

  • Slip of the tongue?. Soundbite

    Slip of the tongue?. Soundbite at the top of the Lehrer show today quotes W. warning Iraqi line officers from obeying commands to use biological or chemical weapons again us (just as last time they were warned and they apparently refrained from doing so — whether we poisoned our own troops with experimental prophylaxis is…

  • Irish Catholics have long memories.

    Irish Catholics have long memories. I’m sure an unnamed political advisor from the previous Bush administration is regretting his loose lips many years ago when he confessed to Maureen Dowd that his boss was surprised to find a person with her background covering the White House for the New York Times. The op-ed (deadly serious,…

  • North Korea: What did they know and when did they know it?

    Joshua Marshall has been burning up the wires lately at his Talking Points Memo blog site, holding the administration’s feet to the fire on their utterly failed policies toward North Korea. TPM’s recent post on the subject goes to the heart of the question of how long the Bush folks have been sitting on certain…

  • Deadline city

    Once again I am into the thick of a new project, coauthoring a technical book. As is often the case, I can’t discuss the title or topic in public just yet, but of course I will do so as soon as I can. In the meantime, I expect my blogging to either drop off (as…

  • Protesters chant 'Save the Shire'

    Scot Hacker has posted a series of photos from Saturday’s antiwar protest in S.F. Great images. A fine contrast to the sourmouthing coming from the pro-war crowd. I didn’t attend. B wanted to bring a sign saying “No Bush War on the Environment” but we didn’t have it together. Let the tea-leaf readers interpret that…

  • Today's motto. "One thing at

    Today’s motto. “One thing at a fuckin’ time.”…

  • You gotta hate those tag

    You gotta hate those tag errors. It wasn’t the first time I failed to close a tag correctly (in this case the STRONG tags surrounding the song same in the template for iTunes listings), and it won’t be the last time, but I’ve fixed it now, so here’s another example: Wicked Path Of Sin, Old…

  • Locked out, loaded

    I did something very bad to Internet Explorer 2.2 for the Mac and now it crashes whenever it tries to start up. I downloaded a replacement and installed it but the problem remains. Something in the configuration or preferences must be triggering the problem, I suppose. A side effect of this is that I’m using…

  • More iTunes format tests. before:

    More iTunes format tests. before: Birdcage from the album “Shmo’s Sampler” by Stew and the Negro Problem after: Stealin’ (Instrumental), Grateful Dead (Birth Of The Dead – The Studio Sides) Pungee, The Meters (Look-Ka Py Py) Midtown (Instrumental), Tom Waits (Rain Dogs) Exquisite Dead Guy, They Might Be Giants (Factory Showroom) OK. Now to post…