You May Be Able to Get There From Here

Writer and Novelist Johnathon Lethem was on PRI recently discussing copyright and plagarism.

Awhile back, Lethem wrote are great article in Harpers arguing for the importance of remixing and reusing artistic works. To display the power of reuse, he wrote the article in a mosaic style, reworking the work of hundreds of other writers to produce new ideas.

Wolf Blitzer is the CNN new anchor’s real name, and it is a Jewish name.

Update:

Holy Fuck: Stone Phillips is the Dateline NBC anchor’s real name.

Also, Anderson Cooper really does, among intimate friends, refer to himself as “The Silver Fox” of cable news.

Watching post-debate coverage of the Democratic party in South Carolina, the format/misenscene of the CNN news floor– young, attractive, female reporter; laptop-as-product-placement; HD TV in the background– looks like the set-up of a video blog (see below).

this set-up does look much different than rocketboom and other shows.

This sure seems sinister to me, but perhaps the confluence of alternative media and cable networks cannot be entirely negative. It also may workout that the surface design of these programs has more to do with the influence of the creative people, designers and so forth, who work on these programs. (I have no idea if the big networks relinquish this sort of control.)

Last night, I also noticed, watching the actual debate, how gratuitously CNN uses their logo, branding, and the colors red, white, and blue. The Daily Show, and others, have noted how absurdly often CNN’s Wolf Blitzer (is that his real name), and the other network anchors say that they “have the best political team on television”: the current frequency is twice per minute. Yet, in CNN’s case, the repeated use of their logo is even more outrageous. It looks as though they may also be going for the myspace tiled background look (also see below).

Compare CNN’s logo use with some guy’s cute myspace background.

The ostensible plan here is to make sure that every shot of the candidates contains a CNN logo. Of course there’s always the logo in the right-corner of the scroller, as well. Maybe CNN could get some attention grabbing ideas from the Web’s Worst Backgrounds

I found this at-first-cheesy, interesting interview with Morrissey. I love the myth that he is celibate.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PDHQgJ8oQM&rel=1]

Journalist Michael Pollan has a new book, In Defense of Food.

Pollan’s previous book, the Omnivore’s Dilema, a highly enjoyable and insightful look of the U.S. food system and the philosophy of how we eat. The book moved me to believe in a higher standing for food writing and new journalism. So I can’t wait ot read this new book.

Slate has a review.

Pierre Bayard has compelling argument for discussing books that you’ve never touched in a Guardian Op-Ed.

I have often found myself in the delicate situation of having to express my thoughts on books I haven’t read. Because I teach literature at university level, there is, in fact, no way to avoid commenting on books that I haven’t even opened. It’s true that this is also the case for the majority of my students, but if even one of them has read the text I’m discussing, there is a risk that at any moment my class will be disrupted and I will find myself humiliated.

Bayard does not exactly say one should lie about the books they’ve read, but he does offer that we can no many thing about books unread:

Between a book we’ve read closely and a book we’ve never even heard of, there is a whole range of gradations that deserve our attention. In the case of books we have supposedly read, we must consider just what is meant by reading, a term that can refer to a variety of practices. Conversely, many books that by all appearances we haven’t read exert an influence on us nevertheless, as their reputations spread through society. Reading is not a simple, seamless process; it has fault lines, deficiencies and approximations.

 Fittingly, Bayard has authored How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read.

The greatest television show ever will begin airing tonight of it’s final season.

A Year of Linux
This year I have resolved to primarily use a Linux operating system for my day-to-day tasks, or really for all of my computing tasks. This will be a gradual process, but its already underway (and its been pretty painless so far).

While I would favor a clean transition to Linux, I’m still bound to Windows for a few reasons. Primarily, as a part-time web and graphic designer, I use Adobe products everyday. (While I’ve tried open-source alternatives, such as the GIMP, I’ve not found any programs that offer the sophistication of Photoshop, Illustrator, and Indesign versions CS2-CS3.) Similarly, I’ve become attached to some newer, Vista-ready, applications, and I’ve really had a positive experience with Vista overall.

Plan of Attack
Ubuntu – Through one, we are many

I’ve be experimenting with both the Fedora and Ubuntu distributions of Linux, which I’ve been running as virtual machines, and at this point I’ve sided with Ubuntu. Both distributions seem well supported and both seem to work will with my computer’s hardware (I have a HP Pavilion dv9000). I’ve arbitrarily decided to go with Ubuntu because it seems more convenient to install along side Vista. (Hell, if the entire French government can go with it, why can’t I.) The Debian ancestry also seems handy.

Simple Installation of Ubuntu
An application, Wubi, makes it possible to run a Windows installer that handles the partition of the drive(s), dual-boot configuration, and even makes it simple to un-install/re-install Linux from within Windows. Using Wubi you can select from several variation of Ubuntu. I’ve selected a stable, standard build using the GNOME windows manager. The installation Ubuntu using Wubi took about an hour, but this also included about 30-some-minutes for downloading the latest Ubuntu release.

Getting Started
With the book Ubuntu Unleashed (and a few other generic Linux books) as my guide, I’m looking forward to getting dirty with Linux…

Although… 15 minutes after installation, I realize something that I’d read but didn’t quite believe– Ubuntu is pretty clean out-of-the-box. Without any customization of the system, my on-board wireless/network, blue tooth, and sound devices work; battery management works; and any USB device that I’ve have handy connects well. It looks like the only immediate drivers I need to install/configure are for my monitor (The Invidia drivers for my monitor are present, but must be explicitly enabled).

Related, but Not Safe for Work:

I noticed this bit of fan-art within the top 10 Google search results for “Ubuntu.” (Did the Art Director for American Apparel previously work for Ubuntu in the UK.)

Update: More Ubuntu porn: