Day: June 5, 2001

~ FmH

Time to Beta Test the New Wetware: an interview with Paul D. Miller, a.k.a. DJ Spooky. “Basically, as an artist, my work is an

investigation into how culture gets made. I guess you could say its process

oriented… That doesn’t mean I’m going to sit down everyday and write “cultural

crit” stuff. Folks who I like to call “low level cultural bureaucrats” do that… it’s a

false and ultimately sterile way to try to beat culture into some kind of formula

that they then try to stamp their name on to make some kind of “career” and it’s

a modus operandi that disgusts me….” frontwheeldrive

~ FmH

Humble Pie: “As Bush dusts off the Reagan cowboy hat, there’s a growing consensus among even our

historical allies that America’s leadership role is neither inevitable nor advisable. If the

president doesn’t tread more carefully, he’ll find himself inflaming old animosities and, worse,

instigating new ones. It’s one thing to antagonize potential enemies–but do we really want to

antagonize our friends?” The American Prospect

~ FmH

California’s Progressive Mosaic: “Does California’s shift leftward signal

progressive change nationally?

California is more than just the Democrats’ electoral anchor, however. Increasingly, a number

of its cities are coming to look like Justice Louis Brandeis’s “laboratories of

democracy”–enacting minimum wage, health care, and worker-rights ordinances that would

normally be the responsibility of the federal government (if only the feds could be interested in

the conditions of working-class life). In city after city, a civic left has emerged in California,

with the state’s new-model labor movement–the most dynamic in the country–at its core.” The American Prospect

~ FmH

We’re Just Dying to Work with You: “(M)any of the greatest (deceased)

actors in history are as busy as ever, toiling overtime, doing

everything from celebrity endorsements to cameo film roles.

Humphrey Bogart, Clark Gable, Marlene Dietrich, James

Cagney: all are proving veritable cash cows for their respective

estates, digitally reanimated for a whole new audience. And,

with the Screen Actors Guild strike threatening to paralyse

Hollywood, this year could be boom time for dead thesps.” Sunday Times of London

~ FmH

India to Levitate Flying Car: “An Indian boffin appears to have got the jump on his US counterparts

with a 12-rotor jambusting flying car.

Engineer Rakesh Goel expects the vehicle will be in production by

2004. He claims it is safer than a helicopter and ideal in crowded

cities.

Mr Goel does seem, however, to have overlooked the

consequences of giving the subcontinent’s legendary drivers access

to something which, in addition to left, right, forwards and

backwards, can also go up and down.” The Register