Category: Miscellany

Robert Reich dissects Rove’s Machiavellian chops in “The Rove Machine Rolls On” in The American Prospect, detailing his techniques. Among them: Count on the American public’s (and the media’s) inability to remember anything from one year to the next. The Rove machine gave Bush tough talking points on corporate fraud when the newspapers were full…

Hello, this is your captain speaking.

Stirring the savage breast. A musician friend told me over lunch at LMNOP in Oakland the other day that PornOrchestra had launched. The project involves composing and improvising new soundtracks for existing porn films. There will be several live performances and the project coordinators welcome contributing musicians, composers, and artists. I contacted spokesmodel Shannon Mariemont…

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 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 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…