Xark!

BRUNCH OF THE LIVING DEAD

BRUNCH OF THE LIVING DEAD from Dan Conover on Vimeo.

I held off on releasing this in hopes of getting the audio sweetened by May 27, which happens to be International Zombie Day. When that didn't happen, I decided it was time to make a few little fixes and put this baby out!

Look for the polished version -- complete with the documentaries "The Making of 'Brunch of the Living Dead,'" and "The Making of 'The Making of Brunch of the Living Dead,'" on the special DVD director's cut, which should be available to anyone who asks me for one later this summer...

Why we're not blogging here

Today my mother wrote to see if we were OK, because we haven't been blogging much. This, then, is the 21st century: "Now be sure to eat right. And wear clean underwear and a nice hat. And be sure to blog every day."

In fact, the reason we're not blogging much at Xark is because Janet and I are blogging/vlogging and podcasting our collective asses off at SpoletoToday 2008. Janet's in charge this year, which means her dream has finally come true: She gets to tell me what to do, and I have to do it.

Here are the videos I've put up so far...

Monkey: Journey to the Grocery Store

Monkey: Journey to the Grocery Store from Dan Conover on Vimeo.

The second (better) Amistad video

Amistad: Race, art, history and opera from Dan Conover on Vimeo.

Just plain scary

This is written to have strong emotional impact, but is definitely something to think about:

Bruce Schneier's latest Wired essay:  Our Data, Ourselves.

21 accents

Actress Amy Walker does a bunch of different accents in this video, including one that purports to be from Charleston, SC. It's the only one that didn't sound quite right to me.

A big day for cartooning

Today was my day to get ahead on my caption contest cartoons through the middle of June...

"Gentlemen! I believe that your investigation will determine... THAT THIS MAN WAS KILLED BY AN ENORMOUS PROJECTILE!"

"Actually, I bought us tickets to the ballet so we could have a little private time."

"On second thought, maybe it's time we reconsidered our priorities."

"You think you're very clever, don't you?"

'You don't know what you're talking about'

Chris Matthew's talk-over-the-guest interviewing style on Hardball has always been nails on a chalkboard for me, but this might be the first time it ever came across as utterly appropriate. Kevin James, a right-wing talker from California, came on the show Thursday after President Bush's Knesset speech to talk about Israel, appeasement and Barack Obama, and his aggressive platitudes prompted Matthews to run a history check on his ass.

It immediately becomes clear that James doesn't have a clue who Neville Chamberlain was, or what happened in Munich. Partition of Czechoslovakia and dialog with Palestinians the Iranians? "It's the same thing!" he says.

What follows might be the greatest smack-down of a self-important, shallow idiot ever witnessed on national TV. Listen to the high-school essay-test evasion ploys and the empty wingnut counter-attack maneuver ("Thirty-eight or 39, Chris? Which one do you want?").

You've got to be morally and intellectually bankrupt if Tweety makes you look small in comparison.

Friday Morning Paranoia

Customs agents in the US, UK and several other countries can search your laptop, your cell phone, your PDA, etc.   

Here's an essay on dealing with it.

David returns to Europe

(from David Quick)...

After a short tour of the United States, Michaelangelo's statue of David has returned to Europe...

(Click through to see...)

Obama and "consolidation" of power

Matt Stoller wrote an excellent piece last week about Obama's quiet consolidation of party and grassroots power, based largely on the nominee-in-waiting's unprecedented ability to raise money.

I think the Stoller piece marks the beginnings of our noticing the forest instead of the trees: While Obama opponents continue to paint his success as some Svengali-like personality cult, a more grounded view reveals a hyper-competent modern organization that has managed to integrate multiple campaign efforts (fund-raising, various levels of community organizing, mass media, alternative media,  online, intra-party relations, "the ground game" and yes, the candidate himself).

To me, Obama's campaign represents a great selling point for his abilities as an executive, and I have no doubt that political scientists will be exploring its practices and principles as the first major case study in 21st century American politics. But to Democrats with a long-time stake in the party, Obama's success is both welcome (who wants to live in the wilderness forever?) and intimidating.

Why the angst? Here's a commenter on Stoller's follow-up piece:

The anti-authoritarian impulse common in a lot of liberals, and which I share, is definitely visible on both the pro and anti Obama sides.

Re: the movement, from glancing at other blog comment threads, I'm reminded of a very gut-level, "It's happening without ME, I am NOT included....therefore they will screw ME...."they" have decided I'm worthless...I don't want anybody having power over ME/My favorite orgs" self-absorbed reaction.   

And this reaction is disguised in a "but what I really care about is the party" pose.  It's really a paranoid fantasy.  It's all fear.

"Lies we tell kids"

I'm a big Paul Graham essay fan.  I don't always agree with him but I do consistently find his essays very thought provoking and often learn something new about myself or the world by thinking about them.

Here's his latest:  Lies we tell kids.

It's not only useful if you're interested in kids but also if you're interested in figuring out how the lies you were told growing up might still affect you.