I am about a third of the way through the late David Foster Wallace's "Infinite Jest", as part of the Infinite Summer online book club. My feelings so far: brilliant, self-indulgent, tedious, funny-in-that-darkly-comic-way, clever, inconsistent. I both love and hate the fact that DFW pretty much makes up words when the occasion calls for it (1). Which gets rather confusing when he also happens to summon his rather prodigious vocabulary of not-made-up words in the same context.
I love his vision of a dystopic near future. Years named after sponsors (2009 would be the "Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment"). Quebecois Separatists fighting U.S. experialism. Apres-Garde cinema. Very funny, very sardonic, very cyberpunk (in the way that modern fiction writers overtly eschew SF, while ingratiating themselves to it at the same time).
At the same time, he could have really used an editor. I mean, all the ultra-detailed chemical and physiological descriptions of real and/or fictional drugs that you will pretty much forget right away? The pages upon pages of tennis scores interspersed with the occasionally interesting bit of information? And those sentences that last forever (some brilliant, some just plain long). I read somewhere that part of the motivation for the digressions and the footnotes was to control the pacing and flow. But seriously - you could have easily had a 700 page masterpiece instead of a 1000 page flawed work of genius.
What else - There is a strong element of the meta throughout the book, where many of the themes and elements play out in other unrelated parts of the book. His use of language mixes formalisms with, like, the causal patois of the 1990s twenty-something. I like this a lot.
Overall, my enjoyment of this book is similar to how I feel about a lot of experimental art/music. The process is just as important as the work. An indulgence that seems hit-or-miss, but is perhaps necessary to this process. Parts of it are very frustrating, parts of it are confusing, parts of it tickle the cerebrum and parts of it just flat-out blow your mind away.
I am very glad I am reading it as part of a book club, since it provides context and discussion for the overall process. It lets me get through the harder parts knowing that there will be some kind of payoff on the discussion boards - some little connection contained therein that makes you go a-ha. Keepin' on keepin' on for now.
1. "Experialism" isn't a word? Well - it should be. I mean how else would you describe the forced expulsion of territory into foreign hands.(a)
a. Sorry - I promised myself that I wouldn't use footnotes, but it is simply too tempting this far into the book.
Aug 16, 2009
Jun 28, 2009
not a bad day
started waaay too early. someone decided that 6am was a fine time to be up and about.
brewed up some ikea instant cappuccino which turned out to be surprisingly good.
lego time!
family outing at the farmer's market on our bicycles, with the sea-of-clouds clan.
a very thrilling confederations cup final.
hatching a dinner plan - some masala corn, some cliantro tofu ...
brewed up some ikea instant cappuccino which turned out to be surprisingly good.
lego time!
family outing at the farmer's market on our bicycles, with the sea-of-clouds clan.
a very thrilling confederations cup final.
hatching a dinner plan - some masala corn, some cliantro tofu ...
Mar 30, 2009
post punk post
The Mae Shi / PRE - Pretty rad show last night. Haven't been out to see live music in what seems like forever. Random musings from last night:
At this way underground warehouse. I had to drive around the block 3 times before I could find it. The venue is tiny. And very punk rock. This is either going to be fucking brilliant or fucking awful. Either way "fucking" will be the adjective-du-jour.
Everything smells like stale sweat and cigarette smoke. And I could have sworn that the dude in the mosh-pit looked just like my buddy Paul McGrath, if Paul were 19 and had a goatee.
And everyone here is really young. The weird old dude with the bald patch on his head - wait - that's me. Ack! Being friends with someone in the band mitigates things, but only ever so slightly.
OK - this show is fucking radical. As in rad. Both bands are raw and scream-tastic, but have lots of harmonizing and synthy goodness to mix things up.
And seriously Hillyh totally needs to be retroactively included in my fave records of 2008. So good.
Even have time for a midnight Thai food run. That hit the fucking spot.
At this way underground warehouse. I had to drive around the block 3 times before I could find it. The venue is tiny. And very punk rock. This is either going to be fucking brilliant or fucking awful. Either way "fucking" will be the adjective-du-jour.
Everything smells like stale sweat and cigarette smoke. And I could have sworn that the dude in the mosh-pit looked just like my buddy Paul McGrath, if Paul were 19 and had a goatee.
And everyone here is really young. The weird old dude with the bald patch on his head - wait - that's me. Ack! Being friends with someone in the band mitigates things, but only ever so slightly.
OK - this show is fucking radical. As in rad. Both bands are raw and scream-tastic, but have lots of harmonizing and synthy goodness to mix things up.
And seriously Hillyh totally needs to be retroactively included in my fave records of 2008. So good.
Even have time for a midnight Thai food run. That hit the fucking spot.
Feb 24, 2009
state of the wub
i think we're approaching some sort of tipping point with facebook where it will simply implode under its own weight. a lot of very smart people have blogged about the life cycle of social networks. once there are enough "undesirable" people entering your social network (the creepy co-worker, the jackass classmate from your high school, the random stalker you met at a party, the homophobic distant relative), you quickly start to lose interest in wanting to share links and post updates because of the potential for an interaction that you would rather avoid.
all social networks have this problem (see friendster, myspace, orkut ...), given that the success of a social network is directly proportional to its size. of course, the fundamental weakness of a social network is also directly proportional to its size. facebook managed to bypass some of these issues by offering an application rich environment, and operating a closed network with advanced privacy settings. but that is quickly starting to catch up with it. most people don't have the time or the energy to fine tune their settings to their desired level of privacy. managing several "groups" of users is a full-time job.
i'm already starting to see a decline in the quality of interesting links and postings on my facebook feed, where interesting is defined as something that pushes the edges of our socio-cultural norms. and the "25 things" meme might just be the beginning of the end i.e. the high-schoolization of facebook culture.
the sad part is that facebook has really done a fantastic job in terms of developing a rich and usable social platform by opening up their API to the public. allowing users to contribute their own applications was a stroke of genius (though one that was effectively negated by the scrabulous fiasco, but whatever).
i think a number of us are waiting to jump to a facebook like platform without the baggage of a an overbloated network. in other words we're waiting for google to dump orkut and reinvent this particular wheel. we'll see how it goes.
all social networks have this problem (see friendster, myspace, orkut ...), given that the success of a social network is directly proportional to its size. of course, the fundamental weakness of a social network is also directly proportional to its size. facebook managed to bypass some of these issues by offering an application rich environment, and operating a closed network with advanced privacy settings. but that is quickly starting to catch up with it. most people don't have the time or the energy to fine tune their settings to their desired level of privacy. managing several "groups" of users is a full-time job.
i'm already starting to see a decline in the quality of interesting links and postings on my facebook feed, where interesting is defined as something that pushes the edges of our socio-cultural norms. and the "25 things" meme might just be the beginning of the end i.e. the high-schoolization of facebook culture.
the sad part is that facebook has really done a fantastic job in terms of developing a rich and usable social platform by opening up their API to the public. allowing users to contribute their own applications was a stroke of genius (though one that was effectively negated by the scrabulous fiasco, but whatever).
i think a number of us are waiting to jump to a facebook like platform without the baggage of a an overbloated network. in other words we're waiting for google to dump orkut and reinvent this particular wheel. we'll see how it goes.
Feb 18, 2009
Feb 3, 2009
neglected
i guess i've been neglecting the whole blog thing in favor of a more hyper-kinetic short-attention span driven medium.
for whatever reason, i've stopped reading blogs these days. which has also translated into lack of updates on my own blog. i guess one has to be a living, breathing part of the blogosphere - a producer as well as a consumer of the bloggywogs for it to work. and with twitter offering the buzz of instant gratification, well, we have little time for the long-form blog.
all this just to say, we're still around, but our attention has been diverted. hopefully not for much longer.
for whatever reason, i've stopped reading blogs these days. which has also translated into lack of updates on my own blog. i guess one has to be a living, breathing part of the blogosphere - a producer as well as a consumer of the bloggywogs for it to work. and with twitter offering the buzz of instant gratification, well, we have little time for the long-form blog.
all this just to say, we're still around, but our attention has been diverted. hopefully not for much longer.
Jan 5, 2009
Top 10 Records of 2008
- M.I.A. - "Paper Planes [Single]" (XL)
- The Dodos - Visiter (Frenchkiss)
- The Terrordactyls - The Terrordactyls (Pankof)
- TV On The Radio (Dear Science)
- The Cool Kids - Bake Sale (Chocolate Industries)
- Flying Lotus - Los Angeles (Warp)
- She & Him - Volume One (Merge)
- MGMT - Oracular Spectacular (Red Ink)
- Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend (XL)
- The Bug - London Zoo (Ninja Tune)
More here ...
Dec 30, 2008
coming soon
more to force me into writing here again, but i'm planning on:
- updating my annual music lists
- waxing poetic on the joys of ruby
- documenting my adventures in home-brewed beer (assume I get around to the brewing part)
- proclaiming that twitter will kill the blog, just like the internet killed your television, or video killed the radio star
- proclaiming that twitter is dead
Dec 8, 2008
i'm actually a huge animal collective fan
Nov 20, 2008
Fan Boy
Ok - I'll admit it. I am completely obsessed with all things M.I.A. It all started with her completely brilliant single, Paper Planes. Then I started getting into her Bollywood cover of Jimmy (I posted the videos here on Oct 10th). Now I find out that she has covered Tom Waits' fantastic intro to "The Wire" - another current obsession of mine. And she is having a baby - gotta respect a fellow parent, innit? South Asian massive represent.
Nov 3, 2008
The Ballot
Here is what you need to know:
For more, read the SF Guardian:
http://tinyurl.com/59lqbl
- Barack Obama
- Yes on 1A (bullet train baby!)
- No on 4 (no to right wing anti-abortion fundies)
- No on 8 (no on hate)
For more, read the SF Guardian:
http://tinyurl.com/59lqbl
Oct 31, 2008
"the young voter"
so the other night, this hippieish lady comes a-canvassing to our door, telling us about the importance of the election, and not letting up in these waning days of the campaign etc, etc ... donate money to the DNC ... help make calls ... get out the vote. so far, so good - i'm with her and i've even pulled out my checkbook.
then she talks about how young voters are key to the obama campaign, and how important it is to get the youth vote out. and then she adds - "you know how those young voters are: whoa, duude - i totally needed to do something important today, but i can't remember what it is".
umm - wtf? i realize that young voters have traditionally been a flakey demographic, but to think that they aren't voting because they are too stoned/hung-over to remember the election??? i think you've missed the point of the obama campaign which has inspired millions of young people. believe me - they won't be "forgetting" to vote. i have yet to meet a so-called young voter that wasn't voting because they "like forgot and stuff". perhaps, back in your time, you were all too busy tripping on acid and "forgot" to vote against nixon. ok - no more quoted "forgetting". seriously though, folks like this are completely missing the reasons that guide the youth vote. young people often don't vote, because they feel that the issues aren't relevant to them. because they feel alienated and disenfranchised. it is a good thing the obama campaign as a whole understands this and has taken a more respectful approach towards younger voters.
of course, like most polite and slightly confrontation-averse people, this monologue only happened in my head, so that i could blog about it later. i quietly wrote her a check and wished her luck. i wonder how many blog posts stem from exactly these types of unspoken discussions where you badly want to say something but ...
then she talks about how young voters are key to the obama campaign, and how important it is to get the youth vote out. and then she adds - "you know how those young voters are: whoa, duude - i totally needed to do something important today, but i can't remember what it is".
umm - wtf? i realize that young voters have traditionally been a flakey demographic, but to think that they aren't voting because they are too stoned/hung-over to remember the election??? i think you've missed the point of the obama campaign which has inspired millions of young people. believe me - they won't be "forgetting" to vote. i have yet to meet a so-called young voter that wasn't voting because they "like forgot and stuff". perhaps, back in your time, you were all too busy tripping on acid and "forgot" to vote against nixon. ok - no more quoted "forgetting". seriously though, folks like this are completely missing the reasons that guide the youth vote. young people often don't vote, because they feel that the issues aren't relevant to them. because they feel alienated and disenfranchised. it is a good thing the obama campaign as a whole understands this and has taken a more respectful approach towards younger voters.
of course, like most polite and slightly confrontation-averse people, this monologue only happened in my head, so that i could blog about it later. i quietly wrote her a check and wished her luck. i wonder how many blog posts stem from exactly these types of unspoken discussions where you badly want to say something but ...
Oct 27, 2008
Oct 9, 2008
jimmy
The original:
The remix:
Two years too late, but I'm really hearting M.I.A.'s second album (Kala).
the wire
seriously - if you haven't checked out the show yet, add it to your netflix queue. NOW.
the first couple of episodes scared the crap out of me, because it felt a little too close to home. i live in a fairly diverse neighborhood, with a large african-american population. i have heard those shots, seen kids getting into some bad shit. but i persisted. and there is both hope and despair as you go along. it really becomes pretty riveting by the time you hit episode 6. the show is full of flawed characters flirting with redemption. redeeming characters riddled with flaws. it gets a little coarse at times, but the writing is fantastic.
and once you are well into it, inspire yourself with this 43 folders piece on the wire and creativity.
the first couple of episodes scared the crap out of me, because it felt a little too close to home. i live in a fairly diverse neighborhood, with a large african-american population. i have heard those shots, seen kids getting into some bad shit. but i persisted. and there is both hope and despair as you go along. it really becomes pretty riveting by the time you hit episode 6. the show is full of flawed characters flirting with redemption. redeeming characters riddled with flaws. it gets a little coarse at times, but the writing is fantastic.
and once you are well into it, inspire yourself with this 43 folders piece on the wire and creativity.
Sep 18, 2008
make it stop
i think i have a problem. i might have an addiction to pre-election polls.
every time there is a poll that shows obama ahead, i get this heady short-term high, even though i realize that it means nothing and that another poll could show a completely different result tomorrow. and every time i see a mccain leaning poll, i seem to cast myself in a pall of doom and gloom. i become anxious and twitchy, constantly checking the news sites for a new poll that has a more favorable result. these short-term swings are complete rubbish, and i should know better than to get caught up in the ebbs and flows of a chaotic system. and yet i can't help myself. just one quick peek ... maybe it will say something i like. and then the inevitable self-loathing, the paranoia, the fear of racism. the occasional wave of excitement and feeling of invincibility; the "yes we can".
all because of the stupid polls. and where are we now? back to the pre-convention pre-bounce deadlock. all that back and forth ... for what?
i need to move on with my life. please!
every time there is a poll that shows obama ahead, i get this heady short-term high, even though i realize that it means nothing and that another poll could show a completely different result tomorrow. and every time i see a mccain leaning poll, i seem to cast myself in a pall of doom and gloom. i become anxious and twitchy, constantly checking the news sites for a new poll that has a more favorable result. these short-term swings are complete rubbish, and i should know better than to get caught up in the ebbs and flows of a chaotic system. and yet i can't help myself. just one quick peek ... maybe it will say something i like. and then the inevitable self-loathing, the paranoia, the fear of racism. the occasional wave of excitement and feeling of invincibility; the "yes we can".
all because of the stupid polls. and where are we now? back to the pre-convention pre-bounce deadlock. all that back and forth ... for what?
i need to move on with my life. please!
Aug 29, 2008
friday
It's friday, which means I get to drop some of my freshest links at you:
OK - so "freshest" was a bit euphemistic. Still ... enjoy!
- Ubiquity - the freshest firefox extension since sliced_bread.xpi
- RAD
- POP! menus using jquery
- Gravity games
- hmm...
- Obama rickrolls America - this was funnier a couple of weeks ago
OK - so "freshest" was a bit euphemistic. Still ... enjoy!
Aug 20, 2008
water conservation for the rest of us
here is what I came up with for my guest-blog spot on andromeda*arts. enjoy:
we’re in the middle of a water shortage and conservation is the hot new buzzword this summer. so i figured i’d do a post on creative water conservation tips you won’t find elsewhere. yup …
we’re in the middle of a water shortage and conservation is the hot new buzzword this summer. so i figured i’d do a post on creative water conservation tips you won’t find elsewhere. yup …
- drink imported beer instead of water. this way you don’t waste our precious local water reserves (or the precious water reserves that go into local beer). and if you get drunk enough you can conveniently pass out, and forget about all our problems
- shower at the gym. many gyms have actually turned down the water pressure to deal with the water crisis. also, there is something about public showering that really makes you get in, tend to the essentials and get out. i mean, how many of us want to take ponderous, lingering showers in the company of smelly strangers? and for those of you that like ponderous, lingering showers in public - burning man starts next week.
- use the toilet at home. that way you can avoid the flush and “keep it mellow” as long as possible. keeping it mellow in public restrooms is not considered polite.
- if you have a child, use an inflatable bath tub. much less water consumed than filling up a regular bath. if you do not have a child see tip 1.
- vote obama, support open source software and ride a bike. haven’t quite figured out how to tie these in to water conservation, but i figured it couldn’t hurt, and it gets me up to the magic number of 5.
Aug 18, 2008
tar-jay
Best kept secret in hella-stylin' clothes for guys? The Target women's section. Seriously, I've scored a multiple awesome jackets, hoodies, hats and other miscellaneous accouterments here. The men's section seems to be dominated by lumpy looking midwestern crap that looks like it has been recycled from the 90s. Where the men's S (if it exists), is designed to fit a "small" football player.
The women's section on the other hand seems to have a much better pulse on hip. Fashion has gotten androgynous enough that plenty of the stuff here works irrespective of your gender sensibilty (which was outmoded to begin with). And the sizes are better suited for my smallish frame anyway. Why - I just picked up this sweet patterned hoodie with birds and skulls and keys and anchors and shit.
The women's section on the other hand seems to have a much better pulse on hip. Fashion has gotten androgynous enough that plenty of the stuff here works irrespective of your gender sensibilty (which was outmoded to begin with). And the sizes are better suited for my smallish frame anyway. Why - I just picked up this sweet patterned hoodie with birds and skulls and keys and anchors and shit.
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