Author: flotation device

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fiebre de la copa mundial

I’ve got it. You’ve got it. We’ve got it!

So. I’ll be the last person to write a bit about the 2010, which I’ve been enjoying enormously and am totally looking forward to Spain beating Holland. When dealing with the world cup it’s easy to figure out who I’ll be hoping for by knowing a few things.

1. I almost always go for the underdog. Either football-wise or if the country has been fucked over by colonial powers, or the World Bank, IMF, USA, etc.
2. This rule is superceded by teams from Latin America, unless
3. That team is either Argentina or Brasil. I’m tired of them.
4. I also revoke my support from any team that has proven themselves to be douchebags.

I did want the US team to do well, but not go too far, because any exposure that their success can bring to football in the US is fantastic.

So in the group stages here’s who I was going for:

Group A: Uruguay. Mexico. South Africa. France.
This was a tough one. Uruguay and Mexico are both here – Latin America. South Africa – total underdog. The only clear cut team to rule out is France. Because 1 they were a colonial power. And 2, they totally cheated their way to get into the World Cup. At least Thierry Henry apologized. And it was immensely fun to follow all the drama as their team imploded in acrimony. Who to go for? Mexico. Cuz I love Mexico! Although South Africa would’ve been cool too.

Group B: Argentina. Korea Republic. Greece. Nigeria.
Another tough group to choose from. Argentina are clearly out cuz of rule number 3. Greece? Totally bankrupt and anarchy in the streets, they’re a good team to go for. Korea Republic, meh. No opinion one way or the other. Nigeria. Yes! Nigeria!

Group C: United States. England. Slovenia. Algeria.
Here we go. England are out right away. Douchebags. Colonial power. Boring. Slovenia, no opinion. U.S? Again, I want them to do well, but not amazing. So Algeria it is! Vive L’Algérie! That’s a fairly easy group to figure out.

Group D: Germany. Ghana. Australia. Serbia.
Fucking hell! You better believe Australia are gone! Serbia? No opinion. Germany – strong European country? No thanks. Ghana! Hells yes!

Group E: Netherlands. Japan. Denmark. Cameroon.
Boy howdy. I feel like the further into the groups I go, the less interested I got. Denmark and Netherlands. No opinions, but since they have their shit together for the most part and they’re European, they’re out. Sorry to The Ex. Japan? They’re fun to watch, but I’m going with Cameroon!

Group F: Paraguay. Slovakia. New Zealand. Italy.
Less and less interesting for me. Paraguay is the clear winner though.

Group G: Brasil. Portugal. Cote d’Ivoire. Korea DPR (North Korea).
Here we go! Brasil yr fucking gone! Cuz yr Brasil! I’m tired of you. Portugal, way to fuck up South America! In this group it’s a tie! Cote d’Ivoire I’m going for you! But, I’m also going for North Korea, cuz their players need some love. I loved that they held Brasil to a 2-1 win. They held their own against Brasil! They kind of seemed to fall apart after that though. That was a drag.

Group H: Spain. Chile. Switzerland. Honduras.
Here’s another tough one, cuz we’ve got two from Latin America. Chile and Honduras. Switzerland, European country that has it’s shit together – I don’t dislike you, but yr gone. Spain – yr a former colonial power who severely fucked up the western hemisphere, but I’ve got a soft spot for ya, but in this case – yr also gone (even though I like watching yr team play).  So, Chile? Or Honduras? I wanted to see both go through, but if I had to choose one, I’d choose the Central Americans – Honduras!

How’d my teams do?
Group A: Uruguay and Mexico both got through. Alright! Alright!
Group B: Argentina got through! Goddamnit! As did Korea Republic.
Group C: The US got through on top and England followed close behind.
Group D: Germany and Ghana were both through.
Group E: Netherlands and Japan.
Group F: Paraguay, Yes! And Slovakia.
Group G: Brasil, goddamnit. And Portugal. Suckfest!

So at this point I was going for Uruguay and Mexico. Ghana and Paraguay. As well as anyone who would bother to beat Argentina, England and Brasil. And kind of sort of, the US.

The US went out in their first game against Ghana, fair enough. And England followed shortly after when Germany creamed them. Germany who would then cream Argentina, thanks for that Germany.

Mexico also went out in their first knockout against Argentina.

In the knockout stage Uruguay would prove to be nearly unstoppable and they had my support until their striker Luis Suárez totally intentionally and unapologetically used his hand to knock Ghana’s winning goal away, thus eliminating Ghana. Uruguay officially ended up firmly in the douchebag camp.

Brasil finally got beat by the Netherlands, success! They would go on to defeat Uruguay in a kind of thuggish game that made me glad that Uruguay was gone, but didn’t really bring me around to Holland’s camp.

This whole time I’ve been watching Spain. Spain, who are a colonial power, but who I kind of like anyways, have an awesome stylee of play. I know a lot of people don’t like it, dismissively calling it tiki-taka as well as anti-football. A lot of complicated passing and looking for openings where their don’t seem to be any. But I love watching it and find it totally awesome to behold! All of their games have been low scoring, but thoroughly entertaining. And now that they are in the final, I’m totally going for them!

This is the first year that I’ve cared enough to watch the majority of the games and I think I’m coming away from the experience a football convert. I was mildly interested in the game before, but now I think it’s on! When I occasionally catch myself wondering how much a subscription to GOLTV might cost, I think I’ve crossed a line. Not a bad line, but a line.

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reading watching listening

it’s been a long time. so what say we get caught up nerd stylee. here’s some stuff i’ve been into lately.

reading
michael chabon the amazing adventures of kavalier and klay
gene wolfe book of the new sun
carlos ruiz zafon la sombra del viento
arturo perez reverte el club dumas
kosho uchiyama opening the hand of thought
robert aitken taking the path of zen
lilli carré 9 ways to disappear

watching
vera chytilová daisies
rainer werner fassbinder the marriage of eva braun
angel
30 rock
akira kurosawa yojimbo
hiroshi teshigahara woman in the dunes

listening
arthur doyle live in japan with takashi mizutani and sabu toyozumi.
luc ferrari. interrupteur, tautologos 3 and acousmatrix #3 electronic works
muhal richard abrams, roscoe mitchell, george lewis streaming
kool keith spankmaster, black elvis lost in space, diesel truckers
nicole mitchell’s black earth ensemble at the chicago cultural center debuting her new mother nature suite
rova saxophone quartet with guests also at the chicago cultural center
the necks at empty bottle

miscellaneousing
yoga (who knew?)
improvising music
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awesome interview with kathleen hanna

[vodpod id=Video.3223173&w=425&h=350&fv=]

just came across this righteous interview with kathleen hanna of bikini kill and le tigre. she’s donating some of her personal materials to nyu’s fales library. as she says on her blog…

My papers will become a small part of a larger Riot Grrrl Archive that will allow scholars to access the good, the bad and the ugly as related to 90’s punk rock feminism. It is my secret dream that people who were actually involved will use the collection as a jump off point to write their own books, make their own documentaries etc…I feel pretty giddy about the whole thing.

pretty awesome! i’m stoked about this because one of the main reasons i got into the library/archival arts was my interest in documenting, preserving, and archiving traditionally undocumented communities, art, movements, etc. and i’m way glad that this is starting to happen at more and more repositories.

the video talks about role modelness, feminism, some of her experiences playing with bikini kill, etc…

ps. you should also check out the online bikini kill archive blog.

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interviews with comics types part 1 james kochalka

i recently came across some old files from my undergrad days when i was still a fiction writing major at columbia college.

way back in 1999 i conducted brief email interviews with a few different comic book artists/writers about their creative processes. it was for an essay in one of my fiction writing classes. in the essay i was going to compare/contrast the writing processes of writers of fiction/prose and that of comics creators.

the writing process info of the fiction/prose types came from anthologies of interviews conducted back in the day with stuffy old writers like hemingway, gertrude stein, etc. i did the interviews and selected relevant bits from the dead author interviews. but i never got around to synthesizing the whole thing. cuz i was a slacker and i lost interest in the project. i find that i’m more interested in what the people have to say themselves than in synthesizing and coming up with something else to say about it. oh well.

the comics people that i interviewed were james kochalka, megan kelso and ed brubaker. they were all super nice and generous with their time and i thank them for that. i also apologize to them for never finishing the project. but i thought that even after all these years, the interviews might still be of interest to people. so without further ado here’s the first of the interviews. this one, with james kochalka, is from may of 1999.

Continue reading “interviews with comics types part 1 james kochalka”

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“46 million” art auction for healthcare

hey kids. this is a quick one. pal anders nilsen put together an art auction to raise money for grass roots efforts to help influence the passing of universal health care. lots of amazing artists contributed some righteous art that you can own. artists include: anders nilsen, genevieve castree, ivan brunetti, jeffrey brown, chris ware, lilli carre, kevin huizenga, dan clowes, and tons more. original art, prints, photos, books, etc. you can go here to check it out. but check it out quick. the auction ends in a week.

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computer shit

recently. a couple weeks back. i was checking my email as i do before i get ready for work. i clicked on a link to a friend’s blog. and the computer started to slow down. took a while for the page to load, the mouse started disappearing and glitching out. i heard a couple clicks from somewhere inside my computer’s case. and then… bios. the bios screen. this is basically the mother board settings screen. you can get to it before the computer starts up, or if you don’t have an operating system installed whatsoever. this didn’t look good.

i tried starting up the computer again, but it made three clicks and then a high pitched whine. kind of a reeeeeee sound. click click click. like drumsticks counting off a song. click click click… reeeeeee. and the xp start up screen with the little blue progress bar loading infinitely. not good. couldn’t start into safe mode. couldn’t start in regular mode. all i could get to was the bios screen.

i shut it down. got ready and went to work. called a friend, who said, yeah that sounds like it’s yr hard drive. like it physically crashed. all yr data’s prolly gone.

fuck. i felt sick. panicked. angry. freaked out. scared. what about all the music files for all the recording i’ve done. the ones that i wasn’t done with. the ones that i still needed to finish up the last rories record. or the ones of other friend’s bands that i was still working with. and all the zine files and photos and layouts, etc. fucking hell.

this happened on a wednesday. i sent emails and made calls to friends to see if anyone had had this happen or knew of someone else and if they had any recommendations on where to take the hard drive to. i looked into how much it would cost to crack the fucker open and physically remove data, if a software extraction didn’t work. fbi stylee. at least a thousand.

then it was off to new jersey to visit h’s family for four days. i did my best to relax. to not worry about it. to not think about it. to come to grips with it. to be at peace with the fact that all that info, all those files, all the stuff i was working on, was gone. i was able to resign myself to the fact and relax. it was a good visit out there. and beautiful weather. and my first hoagie from wawa. and first water ice. yes water ice. like italian ice, but slushier.

when we got back, h helped me find some places to take the hard drive to. and to make this long story short. the place i went with, was able to get everything except for like 20 gigs off of it. hooray! i don’t know how i got so lucky that the physical damage occurred where there wasn’t crucial data stored. but i don’t care. i’m just stoked that i’ve got back the files i need to work with.

so now i’m all about backing shit up. two internal hard drives set up so that they are basically mirrored clones of each other. an external hard drive to back up again. and prolly a second exernal hard drive to make further back up. never again! hopefully! or maybe less catastrophic in the future!

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futbol, sonic youth, collectors…

a couple of things.

1. the united states beat spain in the confederations cup. that’s crazy! spain was/is this invincible juggernaut. i have mixed feelings about this, cuz the us dominates in so many other ways, soccer was one of the few things where most other countries could walk all over the states. but, now united states soccer is ascending. which is good, cuz then soccer might start to get taken seriously here. which would be nice. this is not to say that the us is the best in the world at this point. far from it. they will prolly face brazil in the final and will prolly get creamed. but as an underdog story, and i love to root for the underdog, i’m into this.

UPDATE of course I posted this late. the us did lose to brazil. just so you know.

also, if anyone knows any good soccer blogs, let me know.

2. just listened to the new sonic youth album, the eternal. really not feeling it. i know it’s easy to slag on them at this point, and i’m not slagging, cuz it’s still a decent record, but I think my mega love affair with them is kinda over. which is cool. it lasted a long time. it is interesting that the most out stuff they do now is when they do their side projects. and now when they get together as sonic youth, it’s like this mellow indy rock vibe. occasionally there are the slight noise departures, but on the whole, it’s just mellow. which is fine, they’re allowed to be mellow after 30 years. it’s pleasant enough to listen to. but so not crucial. i wanted to love it, feel what i used to feel when i listened to them, as recently as sonic nurse, but i had the same feeling as when i listened to rather ripped (how was that three years ago already?).

oh, but the thing i will slag on is the $30 price tag for the vinyl of the new record. what the fuck? either what the fuck matador? or what the fuck sonic youth? or both. no extra tracks or anything, just fancy packaging and nice vinyl. but 30 dollars. no thanks. i bought the cd. 12 bucks. little packaging. minimal. barebones. production credits, thank yous. that’s it. and then i’m told there were 2 other pre order packages one for 40 and one for 50 dollars. with either one you get more shit (a live vinyl) and i’m guessing some other swag. at first i thought it was a decent idea, getting people interested in the upcoming release, by offering extras to people who preorder it, but I totally didn’t realize it cost more. that’s just collectorism and exploiting a nerdy fanbase. and I’m so not into collectorism. way to encourage that lame pasttime matador/sonic youth.

ps no offense to collectors, i know it’s a condition that you can’t help and that you are still good people.

pps if i’ve gotten my info wrong about how matador released this record, also let me know.

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bike riding

this is a shorty outtake from flotation device 12. i eventually took it out cuz i felt it didn’t add anything. and i didn’t want to contribute to the glut of zines that feature bike riding in them. and anyways, i’ve prolly already made my fair share of contributions to that glut anyways. on the bike riding note – i am looking forward to warm night bike rides again. tonight was one of the first of the year. so i’m especially stoked now!

One of my favorite things in the summer is to ride my bike late at night. Alone on the street only a few cars passing occasionally. Cool air. Sometimes heavy with humidity. But always cool and caressing after the heat of the day. The buildings pass by lazy. Trees that line the roads. Dark branches against dark night sky. Leaves green rustle whisper in the night breeze. Coming home from wherever I was. A show. A movie. A friend’s house. A diner. A bar. The city quiet for the night. Slowed down. Feeling like a hometown. A comfort zone. A pocket of safe from the world. Float and glide on rubber tires past mail boxes and street lights stoplights intersections. Cool air on my skin through my t shirt through my hair. My city. My town. My home. Trees overhead. Stars through the leaves and branches.