Monsters From The Id

Wed, 26 Feb 2003 04:45:35 GMT

On Ice For Now

The realization that there's a real world out there forces me to put Monsters from the Id on indefinite hiatus. #1, the Sputnik Web site relaunch looms. Sputnik is *this close* to shipping Release 2.0 of its suite of 802.11 software products. Everybody contributing to this awesome startup is pouring all available energy into getting the product out the door. #2, I've just begun a full-time job at the Council on Foreign Relations running the Web site for Foreign Affairs. The Foreign Affairs site is close to launching a design refresh of its own.

In other words, Tommy is a very busy boy and, while blogging is a novel diversion, not to mention God's own gift to procrastinators, I have to admit it's not the most rational use of one's scarce time. Blogs only work -- blogs only deserve their audiences -- when they are updated frequently, at least daily. I can't do that. So, if and when I am able to blog again, I imagine that Monsters will return with a specific topical focus -- international relations? classical music? -- that should even better repay the reader's time.

Thanks to all who have visited!

Mon, 24 Feb 2003 05:02:49 GMT

Koufax and Take Me Out

Saturday I saw Richard Greenberg's Take Me Out, now in previews at the beautifully renovated Walter Kerr Theater on W. 48th. The comedy explores the decision by a baseball superstar to announce in mid-season that he is gay. An interesting premise, weakly developed. The play's very serious structural problems include an essentially pointless first act. Some actual dramatic conflict gets going in the second but nothing fully connects with the bat. I scuff the mound at the thought of the better play this could have been.

Take Me Out is already a bit notorious for its faithful representation of locker room nudity. These baseball players take several team showers right on stage, buck nekkid, under real water splashing patrons in the front row, earnestly delivering their lines while vigorously soaping their crotches. I guess director Joe Montello knew the script was weak. And so the stage craze for the full monty continues; I've written about it earlier regarding Peer Gynt and Metamorphoses.

By coincidence, I saw Take Me Out on the same weekend that LA Dodgers Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax, the most dominant pitcher of the 1960s, became embroiled in a gay outing controversy. See this curiously elliptic LA Times story about Koufax's hissy fit regarding a gossip item in the New York Post. Koufax to New York: Drop Dead.

Mon, 24 Feb 2003 01:06:15 GMT

If Hans Blix Worked At Microsoft . . .

. . . he'd surely tweak the standard Internet Explorer 404 error page.

Thu, 20 Feb 2003 17:24:18 GMT

A New Score for News Junkies

Newsquakes.

Scan the map of the world and hover your mouse above the seismic ripples. Headlines appear. Click to read the story.

I've been using this for a few days and it seems like most of the world's news comes from a few predictable places: European capitals, the US, and of course Iraq. A function of the news feed?

The real delight here would lie in seeing newsquakes from central Siberia, or Paraguay, and turning up stories you wouldn't otherwise.

Update 2/23/2003: Ronan Cremin writes in:

I'm the guy behind the newsQuakes site -- thanks for the link. The reason that no news appears from the countries that you mention is, simply, that none of the news sources I scan deems them newsworthy! I made quite an effort to get as broad a list of sources as possible, but inevitably, most of the news publications available are focused on the western world, though these countries sometime do figure.

If you know of good RSS news feeds, do write to Ronan and let him know.

Thu, 20 Feb 2003 04:34:20 GMT

Trimalchio Lives

A friend in the UK writes in with these highlights from "Spend! Spend! Spend!", the James B. Stewart article in the current New Yorker profiling Dennis Kozlowski of Tyco, the "CEO who personified executive greed."

. . . He used the firm's money to pay for his home, lavish offices, numerous paintings and so on. As the article puts it: ". . . the fact remains that the richer he became, and the less he actually needed Tyco's money, the more he felt entitled to take it."

A party he gave for his wife's 40th birthday was of unheard-of lavishness, not to mention excess. The centrepiece was a huge ice sculpture of Michelangelo's David: waiters poured vodka into its back so that it would emerge from the penis into crystal goblets. There was a cake in the form of a naked woman, and at a certain moment the breasts exploded. A Roman Saturnalia doesn't even come close.

Truly the rich are different from most of us -- especially when they have their hands in the till . . .

Tue, 18 Feb 2003 15:06:40 GMT

And It's Snowing Right NOW Too

After yesterday's storm, it's hard to believe there's any snow left in the sky, yet as I write this on Tuesday morning it's snowing hard in NYC. Doesn't seem to be sticking, though. Here's what the National Weather Service's Forecast Discussion Page has to say about yesterday's snow totals. Breaking records right and left. And there's still ten days left in February.

EXTREMELY IMPRESSIVE STORM! PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT WITH FINAL 
TOTAL FROM STORM WAS ISSUED AT 1221 AM FEB 18. MANY THANKS TO OUR 
SPOTTERS AND COOPERATIVE OBSERVERS FOR THEIR EFFORTS.

NOTABLE AMOUNTS:

JFK AIRPORT........ 25.6 INCHES
EWR AIRPORT........ 22.1 INCHES
CENTRAL PARK....... 19.8 INCHES
LGA AIRPORT........ 16.5 INCHES
NWS UPTON OFFICE... 15.7 INCHES

HIGHEST REPORT FROM...
CT... 24 INCHES NEW FAIRFIELD (FAIRFIELD COUNTY)
NJ... 26 INCHES WEST MILFORD (PASSAIC COUNTY)
NY... 30 INCHES MONROE (ORANGE COUNTY)

CENTRAL PARK CLIMATE RECORDS BROKEN...

THIS STORM CAME IN AS THE 4TH LARGEST IN TERMS OF SNOWFALL SINCE 
RECORDS HAVE BEEN KEPT SINCE 1869.

THE TOP THREE ARE AS FOLLOWS...
1) 26.4 INCHES ON DECEMBER 26-27, 1947
2) 21.0 INCHES ON MARCH 12-14, 1888
3) 20.2 INCHES ON JANUARY 6-7, 1996

THE DAILY SNOWFALL FOR FEBRUARY 17 REACHED 16.3 INCHES. THIS BREAKS 
THE OLD RECORD OF 10.0 INCHES SET BACK IN 1902.

FEBRUARY 2003 STANDS AS THE SNOWIEST FEBRUARY ON RECORD WITH 29.6 
INCHES. OLD RECORD WAS 27.9 INCHES SET BACK IN 1934.

ALSO AS OF RIGHT NOW...FEBRUARY 2003 WITH ITS 29.6 INCHES IS TIED 
FOR THE SECOND SNOWIEST MONTH ON RECORD FOR CENTRAL PARK. IT IS TIED 
WITH DECEMBER 1947. THE SNOWIEST MONTH ON RECORD IS MARCH 1896 WITH 
30.5 INCHES.

Tue, 18 Feb 2003 00:57:17 GMT

Big Weather!

I join the mass of bloggers who noted the blizzard today. This transplanted Californian loves it when it snows. It really came down. Below, the view from my fourth-story living room window, looking down on 103rd St. just west of Broadway, at about 10:00 am. A few hours later those cars were buried, but by then my camera had run out of batteries and I wasn't about to go out and get new ones. Hey, you can die out there!

Mon, 17 Feb 2003 04:52:59 GMT

The World Protests

As Josh Marshall puts it, the worldwide antiwar protests this weekend are clearly a "big deal." Backed up by polls, the demonstrations show that a war in Iraq would be deeply unpopular, little less so in the U.S. than elsewhere. I didn't observe New York City's antiwar rally at the U.N. in person, but I was riding the Metro North to Connecticut yesterday afternoon and the Saturday trains were running full, packed with people returning from Manhattan with their handmade signs and other paraphernalia of democratic dissent.

I am under no illusions that the protesters have actually read Security Council Resolution 1441 or hold the slightest clue about the real issues of Iraqi disarmament. I am convinced that Iraq is a convenient symbolic umbrella for collecting all manner of miscellaneous anti-American sentiments, many quite justified, Kyoto et al. And it's easy to dismiss these protesters as the same kind of naive lefties who turned a blind eye to Stalin and the Gulag, to the Wall and the Stasi, because communism's ideals were so noble. In other words, I didn't see one sign proclaiming "Iraq is a totalitarian police state" or "Free the Iraqi 22 million."

Yet, I also wonder if my incomprehension is not similar to that of McNamara and Rostow, baffled that the Vietnam War aroused such passionate opposition when goddamit a whole stack of policy analyses showed that the war was right.

Fri, 14 Feb 2003 04:32:19 GMT

Shirky's "Power Laws" Bumped to a Higher Power

Dave Sifry has a killer entry on Clay Shirky's Power Laws, Weblogs, and Inequality. Dave's item not only provides links to most of the relevant discussion since Shirky's post came out, but adds some remarkable ideas of its own. Dave is the creator of Technorati, by the way, so he knows whereof he speaks. Great stuff.

Thu, 13 Feb 2003 04:43:47 GMT

Jordan Says Saddam Will Blow Out His Brains As Hitler Did

See the key paragraphs below from John Burns's fascinating story in the New York Times today: Jordan Pressing U.S. to Offer Exile for Hussein. I am in admiration of these tough-minded Jordanians.

Outlining King Abdullah's proposal for an amnesty for Mr. Hussein and other top Iraqi leaders, one official here who has met Mr. Hussein said he was almost certain to choose a fate akin to Hitler's death in his bunker in 1945 Berlin if American forces arrive at in Baghdad.

Other top Iraqis, including both of Mr. Hussein's sons, Qusay and Uday, would be likely to choose personal survival over a cataclysmic end, these officials said.

"Uday might be the first to shoot his father if he refused an amnesty," one senior Jordan official said. He added that Jordan's estimate of the Iraqi leaders was that many in the top 50 who might be included in an amnesty offer, including high-ranking generals, might summon up the resolve to kill Mr. Hussein if he refused an amnesty that was the last lifeline available to them. In his 23 years in power, Mr. Hussein has survived numerous assassination attempts, mostly by disaffected generals, and has executed dozens of alleged plotters.

Senior Jordanian officials say they believe that a "quick war," with limited casualties and damage to Iraq's infrastructure, might lead to an equally rapid reversal of popular opinion across the Arab world. Scenes of Iraqis hailing their liberation, these officials reason, could send a powerful message to Arabs outside Iraq who until now have supported Mr. Hussein.

In discussions with these Jordanian officials, there is barely any reference to the dispute between the United States and European nations over the best way of containing Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. These officials cite the American resolve to get rid of Mr. Hussein in saying the issue in Iraq is "regime change," not weapons, and they make clear they favor the switch.

These officials say that most Arab leaders would be happy to see Mr. Hussein overthrown, despite the Iraqi leader's popularity with many ordinary Arabs.

The Jordanian officials speak in unvarnished terms — similar to those used in the reports of Western human rights groups — of the terror they say Mr. Hussein has imposed on Iraq's 24 million people.

Wed, 12 Feb 2003 04:29:34 GMT

By Any Other Name

Pretty much my favorite Web-only magazine is Slate, created by Michael Kinsley and disliked by some too-cool-for-you types because it's backed by Microsoft. Slate periodically runs quirky consumer pieces distinguished by hands-on research answering questions that we all want to know, like what's the best toothbrush? Today it informs us, just in time for Valentine's Day, which are the best and worst on-line florists, with photos to prove it.

Mon, 10 Feb 2003 04:39:00 GMT

"So People Change"

I'm delighted to have just received an email from distinguished blogger and gay ex-pat Brit conservative Andrew Sullivan, who surely must receive hundreds of messages every day. After reading his blog item Brent Bozell's Gay Problem, in which he thrashes Bozell for stereotyping all gays as political liberals, I sent Sullivan this:

Well, Bush as late as the 2000 campaign had the same problem you're dinging Bozell for, at least according to Mark Shields at cnn.com:

On February 17, Bush was asked on Columbia's WMHK, a Christian radio station, whether he would hire gays. Bush's reply: "An openly known homosexual is somebody who probably won't share my philosophy." This had to surprise gay conservatives who favor tax cuts.

Sullivan wrote me back within the hour:

and yet he's now praising the openly gay head of his AIDS commission. so people change. andrew

Point taken. However, read the repulsive Mr. Bozell's piece for yourself. Stereotyping gays as liberals is hardly the worst of it.

Sat, 08 Feb 2003 22:04:07 GMT

Tone Deaf at the History Channel

Today the home page of the History Channel is running a needlessly provocative poll question: "Should Confederate symbols be removed from modern state flags?" The poll is running directly opposite promotions for Black History Month!

At the moment the "No" votes are winning with 73%. But of course the poll is meaningless. Neo-Confederates smelled a propaganda opportunity. They're stuffing the ballot box, maybe with scripting but more likely by hand. I just voted twice myself. Some poll.

However, I am pleased at the opportunity to recall Hank the Angry, Drunken Dwarf, who in 1998 overwhelmingly won People Magazine's Web poll as "Most Beautiful Person of the Year."

Thu, 06 Feb 2003 14:57:14 GMT

All the John Cage You Can Eat

Back in December I wrote about "something extraordinary," a recording of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony electronically manipulated to last twenty-four hours.

Kid's stuff! This BBC story tells of John Cage's composition As Slow As Possible, the performance of which will take 639 years. The first three notes are now being played on a German church organ. These three notes will last . . . a year and a half.

The performers are taking matters seriously indeed: "The performance has already been going for 17 months -- although all that has been heard so far is the sound of the organ's bellows being inflated." By my reckoning, the piece is scheduled for completion in 2640.

Thu, 06 Feb 2003 04:20:54 GMT

More Nonsense Over the Stars and Bars

The Washington Posts's Terry Neal runs a curious column today about the fact that the Confederate flag is still flying over the South Carolina Statehouse. In the 2000 presidential campaign, the flag gave the Republican candidates fits as they danced around the issue. As Neal reports, it's now the Democrats presidential hopefuls getting in trouble. After some prodding, they uniformly condemn the flag but are squirming over the NAACP's call for a economic boycott until the flag comes down.

I fail to see why this should be a partisan issue at all. If both parties simply say the truth -- that the Confederate flag is a symbol of white supremacy that has no business flying over any public building in the United States -- then the issue is neutralized to no party's disadvantage. And I suspect that, in these post-Lott times, even President Bush -- who uttered weasel words about the flag in 2000 -- will fall in line with that.

Thu, 06 Feb 2003 03:05:26 GMT

Debating Iraq at the Council on Foreign Relations

Some real brainpower on display at this event, which I watched via a Webcast. Look here to see who participated. Predictably, Bill Kristol was the first to launch an ad hominem attack when one of the opposing panelists made a funny crack about turning Iraq into a "gas station."

The thing about the debate that really surprised me is that neither side made mention -- not a word, subject didn't even come up until an audience question at the end -- about enforcing the UN resolutions as a justification for war. Clearly, both sides regard the UN as irrelevant to US security interests.

Legalistic me, I've always felt that enforcing Security Council resolutions against rank defiance to be something worth doing in a world we'd like governed by the rule of law.

Anyway, I can't say that the debate helped me much. We're all just conjecturing about consequences. How can you know if you're replaying August 1914, or Munich 1938?

Thu, 06 Feb 2003 02:38:40 GMT

His Fifteen Minutes of Fame Begins

My old college acquaintance Tardon Lawrence appeared on the front page of the Wall Street Journal today in (yet another) story about the real-estate bust in San Francisco. Tardon was a DJ at KUCI, the UC Irvine radio station. I worked down the hall at the New University, the student newspaper. Let's just say that Tardon was an original. For example, he long ago abandoned his actual last name in preference to "Feathered."

I can't link to the Journal story (requires a log-in), but see the relevant passages below. Here's the Web site of his recording studio, Mr. Toad's, situated in a magnificent live/work loft on Bluxome Street He gave me a full tour one memorable day in 1998 just as he was moving in.

While Soma's economic frenzy may be gone, in its place are survivors such as the businessman on nearby Bluxome Street who calls himself Tardon Feathered. Sitting in a 7,200-square-foot loft cluttered with microphones, drum kits and speakers, Mr. Feathered (the name he has gone by for decades) considers the change in fortunes of his business, Mr. Toad's, a recording and video-production studio.

During the boom, many of his aspiring-musician clients disappeared, nabbing steady paychecks instead from Internet companies. Adding to Mr. Feathered's strain two years ago: a threatened tripling in his rent. After the real-estate bust, that never materialized. In Soma, in fact, average annual rents for a common class of offices South of Market run only $17.08 a square foot, roughly a quarter the price several years ago, according to real-estate-brokerage firm Grubb & Ellis Co.

Mr. Feathered's business has since picked up. Artists and musicians are "society's economic equivalent of cockroaches," he says, able to survive during meltdowns.