Assemblage #1 is music set to a repurposed industrial video found in the Prelinger Archives that shows a 40s telephone being assembled from individual parts. I didn't edit the video at all; it is as it is found in the archives. Rather, I timed the music to follow the video. The original film can be found here.
Micronaut: Assemblage #1
streets that don't smell
I went down to The Embarcadero to see what this "Sunday Streets" business was all about. I didn't get there until it was almost over, and missed all of the events (including the mass "Thriller" dance at Peewee Herman Plaza, sadly) because it ran from 9AM to 1PM on a Sunday -- seriously, WTF? Who is out and about at 9AM on a holiday Sunday? All the fuss people were making about street closures for something that ended before lunch?
Anyway, it was very weird biking down that street with no cars. It took me a while to get it into my head that I could actually use the whole road, not just the bike lane.
The most striking part was how quiet it was, even though there were 10x as many people there as normal -- and how it didn't smell at all like exhaust. I didn't expect to notice that as much as I did, but yes, roads without cars on them don't stink! It's like when your ears finally pop and you can hear again. You don't notice it until it's gone.
It was even more noticable at 1PM when they opened the floodgates and let the noise and stink back in. Sad.
Sick Sad World
Scant Coverage of Obama Assassination Plot
Was the U.S. media admirably discreet or just plain ineffectual in covering news of the arrest of three men suspected of plotting to assassinate Barack Obama during his acceptance speech at Invesco Field?
Mandatory evacuations to begin Sunday morning in New Orleans
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin ordered a mandatory evacuation of the city beginning 8 a.m. Sunday but urged residents to consider escaping "the mother of all storms" before then. "You need to be scared," Nagin said of the Category 4 hurricane tearing along Cuba's western coast. "You need to be concerned, and you need to get your butts moving out of New Orleans right now. This is the storm of the century."
Nagin warned that all but a "skeleton crew" of city workers would be leaving the city and said local authorities could not promise help for those who choose to stay behind. "This is very, very serious, and we need you to heed this warning," he said. "We really don't have the resources to rescue you after this."
Blackwater Gears Up For Gustav
Blackwater has issued a shout-out for armed security officers for possible deployment under their DHS contract in the wake of Hurricane Gustav. Officers must have a firearms license -- and those with revolver-only status need not apply. [...] Last time out, during Katrina, Blackwater mercenaries were patrolling New Orleans in full battle dress and with assault weapons in what some called an end-run around Posse Comitatus. It looks like they're ready to do it again.
Tucked deep into a recent proposal from the Bush administration is a provision that has received almost no public attention, yet in many ways captures one of President Bush's defining legacies: an affirmation that the United States is still at war with Al Qaeda.
The language, part of a proposal for hearing legal appeals from detainees at the United States naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, goes beyond political symbolism. Echoing a measure that Congress passed just days after the Sept. 11 attacks, it carries significant legal and public policy implications for Mr. Bush, and potentially his successor, to claim the imprimatur of Congress to use the tools of war, including detention, interrogation and surveillance, against the enemy, legal and political analysts say.
The cumulative effect of the actions, Ms. Spaulding said, is to "put the onus on the next administration" -- particularly a Barack Obama administration -- to justify undoing what Mr. Bush has done.
mixtape 046
Please enjoy jwz mixtape 046. So, Natalie Portman's Shaved Head... it's like they're The Waitresses reincarnated as Devo 2.0. Disturbing. Check out the video. The rest of the album is not very good, but that track is extremely earwormy. Queen Adreena is Katiejane Garside of Daisy Chainsaw. Katastrophy Wife is Kat Bjelland of Babes in Toyland. And then toward the end, MIXTAPE GETS HARDER. These things happen. (Why is there not a Unicode character for |m|?) This mixtape contains something like 5½ bands who have played at DNA.
Banksy's in New Orleans
Tags: art, doomed, grim meathook future, katrina
Current Music: The Kills -- No Wow (Chicken Lips Remix) ♬
more nutty mail
I have myself often felt the urdent need for chainsaw:
Date: Tue, 26 Aug 2008 00:47:24 -0700 (PDT)
From: Brett Johnson <brettjohnson1955@yahoo.com>
Subject: Urdent Order
To: jwz@jwz.org
Cc: [...four random-seeming presumed-noncombatants...]Hello Good day, Do you carry chainsaw Instock For sale, Wht Brand , odel and size do you carry, and Wht payment do you accept Hope Hear From You soon
I get spam like this a lot. I don't understand it. My best guess is that this is a feeler for responses, and stage two would be check fraud.
But... wouldn't it help to send it to someone who actually sells chainsaws? If you send mail to a zillion random addresses, how many do you have to try before you happen to hit a chainsaw salesman?
Alternately... how did I get on the list of gullible chainsaw providers?
Valencia upgrade: wider sidewalks, bike lanes, more trees, less parking.
Department of Public Works:
Bloggy hand-wringing: Apparently wider sidewalks
"displace lower-class and middle-class residents."
