"Undermining my electoral viability since 2001."

Happy New Year

So there's gonna be a lot of party party, and I'm not sure I'm up to it all. Feeling a little bit off today; slipping a bit from the groove I've been in for the past few days. I think it was the fact that someone stole my bike last night -- clipped through the piece of shit cable lock I was using since someone lost my old kryptonite -- which ruined an otherwise stellar evening.

But this made me laugh. Serif fonts are making a comeback I think. Happy New Year, everyone. I'll take pictures.

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Art and Politix

Right the fuck on:

Artists, through their work, sensitize themselves to the world that they
find themselves in. I think that this process is inherently political,
since it ultimately leads to an understanding of our role in the greater
whole.

This is from an interview my co-worker Dan did with a band called the Books. read it. Listen to their music.

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I (heart) NY

My mojo is coming back now that I'm in my environment. Charging around on the old steel horse -- now with huge knobby slow-down tires due to the vagaries of theft -- dreaming big and living large. There's something beautiful about this place; you can drop $50 and stay out 'till 5am and have nothing to show for it but a headache. In and of itself that's a wasteful thing, but there's a lot more to it than the signifiers of excess. Eveyone is listening to Outkast and gearing up for the next level; the friction, noise and entropy are easy distractions, but the beat is picking up. Paths of victory, we will walk.

I'm excited and hung over and caffeinated to the gills, powered by greasy pizza and the ambient energy of the capital of the world.

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Don't know how lucky you are, boy...

I'm fucking home! New York New York, and my senses are alive. The air is crisp but not frigid and the sights and smells and people spark amazing amounts of energy inside me. A few things have changed, some good, some bad -- a new bar for young locals down the block, a Supercuts where there used to be a craft center on St. Marks -- but this city remains a monument to human progress. Six months is too long to be away.

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A Google Bomb I Like

A googlebomb is when tons and tons of people link to a website with the same phrase. Because of the way google calculates page rankings, this will give it a high rating for this phrase. The top prize is to determine what comes up when the enigmatic "I'm Feeling Lucky" button is clicked (aka Google's #1 ranked page for the search term). With the latest tip from the GOP being that Karl Rove will try to paint Bush's term in office as wholly positive for 'Merica, and say that Dean's a whiny pessemist when he says that neverending budget shortfalls and a pariah diplomatic status are Big Problems.

I think Howard Dean is optimistic. If you do to, link that word to deanforamerica as often as you can. Rapid response this, fat boy.

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The 4th Estate

Just a reminder that a vigorous free press is an essential component to successful democracy. If you think the US press is being thorough and objective in its job, you might ask yourself why you'll only see Salam Pax on the BBC. One would assume that getting direct contact with the people over there is an important part of covering the story, but I can't say I've ever seen any non-exile Iraqi speaking on American newsmedia.

The US press establishment is a deeply diseased entity, dying even. For a long time I've been hoping that shame would jolt them back to life; and there's surely time for this to happen, but I'm beginning to loose my optimism on this one. People, it's bad.

Krugman's got a bit on this in todays Times, especially with regards to how it pertains to the coverage of politics. When a freakin' economist can deliver so many burns to the political journalism establishment, you know something ain't right.

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Holiday Hello

So if you havn't looked and you have some bandwidth to spare, you should check out the holiday video my co-worker/roommate Dan and I posted over on the our musical political revolutionary website.

Been in Boston the past couple of days, doing as little as humanly possible. But slowness is not in my nature, so the mind is running overtime in spite of my best efforts.

On the positive side, my sister lives in perhaps the coolest house ever: a classic piece of 3-story (plus attic) Americana out in Alston, which could easily double as a small fraternity. Eight punk, anarchist, scenster and otherwise hip young kids live there normally, all with their own rooms, all decorated in the most enviable student-slum style. They have a basement which is a semi-regular venue for shows, and the whole place is very organic and alive, even when the only occupants are myself, my sister, and one of her remaining roommates; makes me all the more chagrined at the still-barren state of my living quarters out west.

Also on the plus side, she and my mom and I are staying in a nice hotel in downtown boston for two nights, taking a load off. There's a gas fireplace and a bathtub big enough for me to submerge my whole lanky self, and this morning I'm munching on a neapolitan from the North end and sipping a very decent cup of joe. Being with family is a uniquely rewarding and annoying experience. There no one else on earth who can understand your issues or push your buttons the way family can. It's good to get back in touch with that

On the down side, air travel continues to be an awful experience. It's not the LEVEL ORANGE that bothers me, it's the way airlines are so passive-aggressive in the way they tell you what to do. "Because your safety is our first concern, your seat belt should remain fastened whenever you are seated..." Parse that language; it makes so fucking sense whatsoever. The whole experience seems vaguely facistic to me, all the pre-written language. The reason they want you to keep your seat belt buckled is so on the off chance the plane hits a big air pocket and drops 40 or 50 feet, you drop with it instead of hitting your head on the celing and maybe filing a lawsuit. Yes, this happens. I would feel better about the whole thing if they started it off with "Because avoiding legal liability is our first concern..."

Also on the down side, I've been slogging around in the regular world (air travel, rather unsuccessful shopping excursions; not New York or San Francisco) and what I see makes me afraid. I now worry at night about whether or not the country is totally doomed or not, and have begun again to countinance figments of a pirate utopian backup plan. Madagascar, here I come? Well, not yet. I still think it's worth a shot to try and turn 300 million of the world's richest people -- posessed of the greatest arsinal of death-dealing instruments in human history -- into enlightenened, thoughtful, generous, world-conscious souls. I mean, how fucking cool would that be?

One of these years I'd like to do something alternate on Christmas, like go out to one of the big Jewish party events on Christmas eve, or camp out in the wilderness or something. Anyway; I hope wherever you are you're having a nice day. Don't forget to breathe.

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I'm on a plain/I can't complain

Tomorrow I am in Boston. The 27th I'm back in New York City. The 10th I return to SF. See you all around.

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Build Me A Culture List

I leave tomorrow night for holiday time, in spite of the fact that I've yet to purchase a single gift. It'll be ok. One of the things I'm gonna do on vacation is read some books. Can you think of any I should hit up? I'm down for great literature as well as anything I should know about for where my life is taking me over the next year. I'm certainly going to plow through Emergence and Code -- though I think I largely get it in terms of what they have to say -- but are there any others I should me acquainting myself with? Anything older (or newer) that I don't know about? Any blogs I should pay attention too, archives I might want to paruse?

It's a long way to the top if you want to Rock and Roll. I'm also down for music to turn on to. Leave me a comment here with your suggestions.

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Huah

You know, I was just sitting in my bathtub, contemplating a reading list, thinking about how to start spreading the word about what's wrong with the way the Bush administration deals with the rest of the word... and here comes my man Dean with some serious ammunition.

I aussme a lot of my readers probably don't follow the campaign super closely. Myself I've been a bit out of touch with the daily media stuff; dead trees and talking heads don't get a lot of attention from me anyway, and I've been pretty busy. But the Washington Post ran a very critical editorial of Dean's foreign policy speech yesterday in which they suggested that his views were outside the America mainstream. This is his response.

A critical presidential campaign is now underway. Americans face a choice between two very different views of our role in the world. My agenda returns security policy to its fundamental course: protecting Americans and advancing our values and interests -- democracy, freedom, opportunity and peace -- through effective partnerships and global leadership, as well as military strength.

The current administration strays wildly from this course and from the time-honored manner of pursuing it. In the end, I believe it will be clear who is in the mainstream and who is swimming against the tide of history.

I've been so caught up in movement politics, I forgot the spark that started it all for me. The doctor is IN!* Can we bring that one back, 'cuz e're getting down to it now people; this is how you win the 2004 campaign air war. Two-fists and don't back down. We are right and Bush is wrong, those are the facts.

* by that I mean he's here and present and giving us his A game, not that he's already the nominee or anything

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