Xark!

Filling that Gap, People-style

The band Radiohead has released their new album, "In Rainbows", via digital download, as I'm sure many of you have heard. I received my download pass last night (about 2am), and was impressed by how smoothly and efficiently the whole experiment worked. Within a few cyberseconds, the album was on my computer.

But one thing immediately struck me -- no cover art! This pretty much blew my mind. It's almost impossible now to find a product that doesn't pay close attention to its packaging, but in the world of music, the album cover is a sacred and inseparable part of the whole; often equaling and sometimes surpassing the experience of the music itself. What other medium can do a minimalist gesture like the Beatle's "White" album and have it recognized as an artistic statement? Sure, there are good and bad album covers -- but no cover at all? That seems to go against the soul of music consumerism as I've come to know it.

And the technology has followed this trend. The first generations of iPods were music-only, but subsequent models brought the ability to show the cover art, to the point now where the latest iPods let you navigate solely by album art, demonstrating how the technology has finally caught up with listeners' sensibilities. We need our cover art.

No no, Radiohead -- this will not do.

Left with this gaping gap in my new music experience, I did what any thoughtful person of my generation would do, which was to Google around and see if someone had solved my problem for me. I was thrilled when I came across a site with tons of homemade cover art for "In Rainbows." Some of these designs are incredible, and all clearly are labors of love. Now I'm spoiled with choices as to which one I want to pick for my iPod!

And this leads me to wonder: Although there are claims that official cover art for the album is coming soon, was Radiohead a bit cleverer than I had given them credit for? Releasing a pay-what-you-want album to the masses, and then encouraging fans to produce and distribute their own cover art.... Could this be the most participatory music experiment of the digital age? Stroke of genius, or happy coincidence? Either way, I got to experience an album and my thoughts about music in general from a new angle, and am thrilled by the creativity and energy of those others out there on the other end of my Wi-Fi.

Rockin' good news.

Photocopied Nostalgia

Over the last several years, I had been looking for an old friend—Scott Whipple--through occasional Google searches and other internet sleuthing, all to no avail. Whenever I talked to someone with whom I attended undergraduate school at Appalachian State University in the early 80s, I would ask if they knew what had happened to him. Outside of the odd rumor or two, no one seemed to know what had happened to him.

Two weeks ago, I was tipped off that Scott was mentioned in an advertisement for a poster for sale over on eBay (believe me, this wouldn’t be the strangest way that I have found an old friend). When I opened the link I had been provided, I found a poster for sale, with a description provided by an early roommate of Scott’s, describing the circumstances under which the poster had been made. Exchanging information with the seller, I found another dead end when I was told that he, too, hadn’t heard from Scott in over 20 years.

Nonetheless, I was absolutely charmed by what he had for sale: an old mimeographed piece of paper advertising an R.E.M. show at PB Scott’s Music Hall in Blowing Rock, NC back in 1983. It was a show that Scott had sponsored and organized, early in the band’s career (when you could book them for a thousand dollars), and Scott had done it on guts alone, as he didn’t have the money to cover the fee if it had failed.  (Sidebar:  the show was in Blowing Rock rather than Boone, the home of ASU, because Boone was in a dry county).

OK, so I’m looking at the so-called “poster” (pictured above), and I can’t help but smile at a large array of memories , of R.E.M., of who I was at the time. Ultimately, I decided to bid for it, even though it is literally a Xeroxed sheet of typing paper. While my resources are limited, I stupidly didn’t expect it to go for much. Afterall, we are talking about a Xeroxed copy of a copy of a copy. And, as we’re repeatedly told, authenticity is dead. If so, I could make my own poster. Why do I bid? I supposed I did feel that nostalgia was a bit more warranted in my case, as this is a material piece of my own history. I was there, in Boone, when those posters were hung. Like everyone else, I have something of a soft spot for my own mythical past.

While I felt a bit silly bidding what amounts to a full tank of gasoline on a sheet of paper, I was absolutely stunned when the bidding went to almost $250.00.

Thor, circa 1976

From the "Sometimes you just have to let art flow over you" department (and Firedoglake) comes this bizarre cultural artifact, a video so strange that it currently defies my powers of description. I'm actually a little worried that it may have subtly rewired what's left of my brain. Watch it at your own risk...

Overheard Southern Gothic

From our friend Ellen, who teaches journalism down yonder:

Overheard in a convenience store in Duck Hill, Mississippi:

One of the attendants was sweeping up and talking to a customer seated at a table. They were discussing someone who had died.

"It's what they call a 'memorial service' It will have a big picture of her there." the attendant said.

"Won't be no open casket?" the customer said.

"No, the casket won't be there. It's still in Jackson."

The customer continued to ask questions about the burial until the woman sweeping up dropped her dust pan, straightened up, put her hand on her hip, and said loudly to him:

"Well, she can't be buried without her head, now can she?"

"Nope, I guess not," the man said.

Then he went back to drinking his coffee, and she went back to sweeping.

Eudora Welty always said that to be a writer in Mississippi, you don't
have to know how to write, you just have to know how to listen.

Amen to that, sister...

E-mails from the new "Know-Nothings"

When American nativism first crawled out of the sewer in the 19th century, its targets weren't always so easy to spot: fellow Europeans who had the disqualifying characteristic of having arrived after the "real Americans" who had been born here (often to immigrant parents). Their approach to the problem? Violence, discrimination and bad government policies. With their penchant for thuggery, the group took on the name of its standard response when confronted with evidence of crimes: members would say they "knew nothing."

Today's "know-nothing nativists" aren't the violent brawlers their ideological forebears were. But if you want to see the racist mindset behind the moderate media face of the anti-immigration movement, consider these e-mails that I've received in the past week (I wound up on some interesting mailing lists after subscribing to multiple conservative newsletters)...

THE ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS' POEM
I cross ocean,
poor and broke,
Take bus,
see employment folk.

Nice man treat me
good in there,
Say I need to
see welfare.

Welfare say,
"You come no more,
We send cash
right to your door."

Welfare checks,
they make you wealthy,
Medicaid it keep
you healthy!

By and by,
I got plenty money,
Thanks to you,
American dummy.

Write to friends
in motherland,
Tell them 'come
fast as you can.'
 
They come in turbans
and Ford trucks,
I buy big house
with welfare bucks

They come here,
we live together,
More welfare checks,
it gets better!
 
Fourteen families,
they moving in,
But neighbor's patience
wearing thin.

Finally, white guy
moves away,
Now I buy his house,
and then I say,
"Find more aliens
for house to rent."
And in the yard
I put a tent.
 
Send for family
they just trash,
But they, too,
draw the welfare cash!

Everything is
very good,
And soon we
own the neighborhood.
We have hobby
it's called breeding,
Welfare pay
for baby feeding.

Kids need dentist?
Wife need pills?
We get free!
We got no bills!
American crazy!
He pay all year,
To keep welfare
running here.

We think America darn good place!
Too darn good for the white man race.
If they no like us, they can scram,
Got lots of room in Pakistan.

SEND THIS TO EVERY AMERICAN TAXPAYER YOU KNOW!

Dan's Friday links, etc. (2.10)

NEWSFLASH! ONE WEEK OF ROCKETBOOM ADS SELLS FOR $40K ON eBAY: And the winning advertiser is someone named Starfinder5, whose bid bested a $31,200 offer by an unknown eBay nube called 6520brad. There were 105 bids.

We'll expect detail in today's episode, but for those of us wondering how these new media forms are going to shake out, this bears watching.

RANDOM FIND: I have found the Greatest Book Critic Writing in The English Language Today, and his name is Noel Hurley.

WHICH VIBRATOR IS RIGHT FOR YOU? Via Alternet: "Kat's on-the-job training had taught her a trick to determine which vibrator might be right for you: Touch it to the tip of your nose. It's also right there on Sue Johanson's website, episode #036: Try the nose test -- if it makes you jerk your head back, these vibration are too strong for your genitals." (Freelance writer Liz Langley)

AFRICA TOO WEAK TO FIGHT H5N1 (BBC): A reminder that bird flu doesn't have to turn into a human pandemic to have profound effects:

Officials at the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) say Africa's monitoring systems simply are not adequate to cope effectively with outbreaks... "The reason we've been so concerned is that veterinary systems throughout Africa are weak," said Samuel Jutzi, director of the FAO's Animal Production and Health Division.

WE'RE NOT THE ONLY ONES TALKING ABOUT CARTOONS: Via Steve Outing's E-Media Tidbits (Poynter Online), the CEO of Topix.net blogs about what happens when they put a geo-locator on the IP addresses of commenters on the Danish cartoons controversy. Answer: They're coming from around the world.

And here's George Friedman writing in Tuesday's Stratfor Geopolitical Intelligence Report:

The explosion in the Muslim world over the publication of 12 cartoons by a minor Danish newspaper -- cartoons that first appeared back in September -- has, remarkably, redefined the geopolitical matrix of the U.S.-jihadist war. Or, to be more precise, it has set in motion something that appears to be redefining that matrix. We do not mean here simply a clash of civilizations, although that is undoubtedly part of it. Rather, we mean that alignments within the Islamic world and within the West appear to be in flux in some very important ways.

SPEAKING OF CARTOONS: These days its not uncommon for more than half of our daily traffic to be people who come to Xark via image search engines. The most popular image? World's Ugliest Dog. Second most popular? "Growing Up Hippie No. 4." Probably a dozen people a day download this image.

For the record, there are actually only three published cartoons in the "Growing Up Hippie in the 1970s" series (No. 5 here). And the first one was No. 3. I never drew a No. 1 or a No. 2. Why? Because I'm just not hung up on that whole consecutive order thing. I grew up hippie, remember? Anyway, traffic counts seem to suggest I should write less and draw more, particularly if I'm drawing cartoons that have popular image search terms in the filename.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: WaPo reports that what Gonzales told the Senate about the secret eavesdropping program ain't what the White House told the FISA judges. Can't say I'm surprised at this point. By the way, was anyone else unimpressed by Bush's non-informative claim (well, actually, it's not even that -- more of a nudge-wink inference) that his illegal spying program somehow thwarted shoe-bombers from stealing a plane and flying it into some building out in Los Angeles? Excuse me, but how do you hijack a plane, post-9/11, with a shoe bomb? "OK, let me into the cockpit, so I can crash the plane and kill all of you, or I will make my shoe explode, and maybe put somebody's eye out. Allah akbah!" It's just not very convincing.

WELL, DUH: Newsflash (National Journal): "Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, testified to a federal grand jury that he had been 'authorized' by Cheney and other White House 'superiors' in the summer of 2003 to disclose classified information to journalists to defend the Bush administration's use of prewar intelligence in making the case to go to war with Iraq, according to attorneys familiar with the matter, and to court records."

CHUCK NORRIS: The whole Chuck Norris meme is now officially dead, according to our oldest son, a junior in high school. Apparently it's just soooo December 2005. So throw out your Bustedtees "Hero" shirts and try to keep up. (Actually, I don't care -- I'm far too old to be hip, and I still think the "Young Chuck Norris" music video is pretty funny).