Thursday, September 01, 2005
Energy
"The aim here is efficiency, not austerity. We all remember the energy crisis of the 1970s, when people in positions of responsibility complained that Americans just used too much energy.
Well, it's a good thing to conserve energy in our daily lives, and probably all of us can think of ways to do so. We can certainly think of ways that other people can conserve energy. And therein lies a temptation for policymakers -- the impulse to begin telling Americans that we live too well, and -- to recall a 70s phrase -- that we've got to "do more with less." Already some groups are suggesting that government step in to force Americans to consume less energy, as if we could simply conserve or ration our way out of the situation we're in.
To speak exclusively of conservation is to duck the tough issues. Conservation may be a sign of personal virtue, but it is not a sufficient basis for a sound, comprehensive energy policy. People work very hard to get where they are. And the hardest working are the least likely to go around squandering energy, or anything else that costs them money. Our strategy will recognize that the present crisis does not represent a failing of the American people." - Dick Cheney in Toronto, April 31, 2001
Music
From Fat Possum Records:
R. L. Burnside
November 21, 1926 - September 1, 2005
We at Fat Possum are sad to announce that R.L. Burnside died today at his hospital room in Memphis.
Blues artist R.L. Burnside, who redefined the blues genre by incorporating indie rock acts and hip-hop production, died September 1, 2005, at St. Francis Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. Burnside was born November 21, 1926, in Harmontown, Mississippi, and spent most of his life in the north Mississippi hill country, where he worked as a sharecropper and a commercial fisherman and played guitar at weekend house parties. In 1968, noted folklorist George Mitchell recorded Burnside for the first time. In 1991 Burnside was the first artist signed to then-fledgling Fat Possum Records in Oxford, Mississippi. His debut, "Too Bad Jim," was produced by former New York Times pop critic Robert Palmer. Along with his friend, neighbor, and label-mate Junior Kimbrough, Burnside was one of the most popular and important blues musicians to emerge in the last two decades. He recorded the crossover collaboration "A Ass Pocket of Whiskey" with the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion in 1996 and became a cult hero. In 1998, music from "Come On In" was featured in several movies and television shows, including The Sopranos. Burnside sold hundreds of thousands of records in his lifetime. He is survived by his wife Alice Mae, twelve children, and numerous grandchildren.
Those wishing to help should send donations to:
Freeland & Freeland Trust Account
Burnside Memorial
P. O. Box 269
Oxford, MS 38655
(662)234-3414
All proceeds will go directly to RL's widow, Alice Mae.
Saturday, August 27, 2005
Sunday, August 21, 2005
Old People Food
Saturday, August 20, 2005
Music
Do They Know It's Hallowe'en? from the North American Hallowe'en Prevention, Inc. (NAHPI) (courtesy of The A.V. Club)
Thursday, August 18, 2005
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
Monday, August 15, 2005
Column
Atlantic News Perspective #154 (Aug 15, 2005)
The "Racino" opens in Charlottetown, students build a house using phonebooks and the Canso Causeway turns 50.
By: Iain K. MacLeod
The "Racino" opens in Charlottetown, students build a house using phonebooks and the Canso Causeway turns 50.
By: Iain K. MacLeod
Thursday, August 11, 2005
Column
Atlantic News Perspective #153 (Aug 8, 2005)
Beer Bandit on stage, a horse named Drop Off dies and breaking accordion records.
By: Iain K. MacLeod
Beer Bandit on stage, a horse named Drop Off dies and breaking accordion records.
By: Iain K. MacLeod
Film
"After the film debuted on January 24, 2005 at Sundance it was picked up by Warner Independent Pictures for distribution. The Warner Independent website had shown that the limited Fall release (I didn't say 'full release') was scheduled for October 21st-with a wider release planned for the following weeks-but their Strangers With Candy page has since been removed. One of my contacts has informed me that his inside source at Warner Independent told him that Strangers With Candy 'is no longer on our slate'. If you want to help, you and your friends can send email to press@warnerindependent.com to tell them that you want Candy!!!" - from jerriblank.com
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
Column
Atlantic News Perspective #152 (August 2, 2005)
Emergency bikes, voting my mail and Chapel Island goes national.
By: Iain K. MacLeod
Emergency bikes, voting my mail and Chapel Island goes national.
By: Iain K. MacLeod
Monday, August 01, 2005
Saturday, July 30, 2005
Fake News
"In terms of who I channel, my natural inclination was Stone Phillips, who has the greatest neck in journalism...and then I also used Geraldo Rivera, because he's got this great sense of mission. He just thinks he's gonna change the world with this report. He's got that early-'70s hip trench coat "busting this thing wide open" look going on. So those two guys. And Peter Mansbridge, obviously." - Stephen Colbert (A Super Straight Guy | AlterNet WireTap)
Oct-olbert: "Strangers With Candy" will be released on October 21 and Colbert Report debuts on October 17.
Photo
"I'm so pleased to be coming to Halifax. I should be in Bermuda. But who cares? I'm home," said Nancy Shakleton (CBC Nova Scotia)
Film
"Michael Moore and Mel Gibson are the same person, except for a few sit-ups. Moore thought his cheesy political blooper reel was going to tell people how to vote. Mel thought that his little gay S&M movie about his imaginary friend was going to help him get to heaven. George W. Bush is president and there’s still no god. You failed boys. Someone should have told Mike that the bad guys are smarter than him and someone should have told Mel that the Three Stooges were Jewish." - Letter from Penn Jillette (Official Site)
"A work of painstaking and penetrating scholarship...one of the most original and rigorous pieces of criticism in any medium I have encountered in quite some time...also possibly the filthiest, vilest, most extravagantly obscene documentary ever made." - A.O. Scott on The Aristocrats (New York Times)
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
Column
Atlantic News Perspective #151 (July 25, 2005)
Playing chicken with chickens, knifed in church and lending a harp.
By: Iain K. MacLeod
Playing chicken with chickens, knifed in church and lending a harp.
By: Iain K. MacLeod
Monday, July 25, 2005
Doppleganger
Looks like I have another person to add to my mistaken identity list. Someone I met on the weekend thought I worked at Neptune Theatre in downtown Halifax.
I posted this to a messageboard awhile ago, but I thought I would share some reasons to switch from HoTMaiL to Google Mail.
* ever-increasing storage space
* completely free
* speed (page doesn't have to reload to sift through messages)
* forwarding ability (works well with another account)
* POP downloading (you can use an e-mail program if you want)
* amazing searchability
* GmailStatus (Mac Os X)
* interesting hacks are popping up all the time
* you can read mail with an aggregator
* to me, Google is innovative and inspiring...Microsoft is stagnating. I cringe when I see a somethingorother@hotmail.com on a business card or on a band web site. I guess I am an e-litest!
Thursday, July 21, 2005
Monday, July 18, 2005
Column
Atlantic News Perspective #150 (July 18, 2005)
Salmon cams, backyard wrestling and the gay market.
By: Iain K. MacLeod
Salmon cams, backyard wrestling and the gay market.
By: Iain K. MacLeod
Sunday, July 17, 2005
Music
Windom Earle's "Ode To Greg's Cat" is being used to close the weekly national CBC Radio One show "Lost & Found" hosted by Matt Rainnie.
Quote
"If you are a lonely sort, as internet folks occasionally are, you will be relieved to know that, as always, there is someone on the internet a hundred times worse off than you are." - Drew on the Insane Clown Posse Personal Ad Site (Klepto Pepto | .net)
Quote
"Some choice is better than none, but more choices don't make things better," - Carl Honoré (Time to switch off and slow down | BBC News)
Thursday, July 14, 2005
Nerd Alert
I called the Paper Garden in Barrington Place a couple weeks ago looking for a Fisher Space Pen and they said "oh yeah, we carry those but we are sold out right now." I said, "OK" and then hear *click*. Nice. Why is it so hard to give money to some companies? Anyway, I started to look elsewhere and couldn't find any evidence of the pen around town and began to think that the US Amazon store was my best bet. Then, carrying an armload of crap through Staples, I saw they had just started stocking them in the pen section out of the corner of my eye. Only available in silver, but I was able to get over my current pen fixation (sparked by this somewhat illogical testimonial: "The Space Pen writes upside down, underwater, and—yes I’ve tested it— through a pat of rich, creamery butter.") and can safely move onto some other empty, meaningless obsession.
Note: Even though Primer sums up the ridiculous nature of such an object, I still love it.
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Event
alFresco filmFesto 5.0 has been announced. You can vote for your favourite John Hughes movie here.
Monday, July 11, 2005
Column
Atlantic News Perspective #149 (July 11, 2005)
Strawberries in New Brunswick, an iceberg controversy and a broken down ambulance.
By: Iain K. MacLeod
Strawberries in New Brunswick, an iceberg controversy and a broken down ambulance.
By: Iain K. MacLeod
Sunday, July 10, 2005
Post (Halifax Locals)
http://podcast.ckdu.ca/
Featuring: Popped Culture, Let's Get Baked & What's New Mitsou?
Featuring: Popped Culture, Let's Get Baked & What's New Mitsou?
Saturday, July 09, 2005
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
Monday, July 04, 2005
Column
Atlantic News Perspective #148 (July 4, 2005)
Harnessing tidal power, a drug bust off the coast and lightning strikes a church.
By: Iain K. MacLeod
Harnessing tidal power, a drug bust off the coast and lightning strikes a church.
By: Iain K. MacLeod
Sunday, July 03, 2005
Saturday, July 02, 2005
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Column
Atlantic News Perspective #147 (June 27, 2005)
Gross National Happiness, drive-by paintballing and attack of the ants.
By: Iain K. MacLeod
Gross National Happiness, drive-by paintballing and attack of the ants.
By: Iain K. MacLeod
Sunday, June 26, 2005
Music
Ween are releasing "Shinola Vol. 1" (a collection of odds, ends, and leftovers from around our studio and contains killer new mixes of a lot of songs that have been floating around the web in really crappy fidelity for a long time...12 songs deemed "too brown" to be put on any of their commercial CDs) on July 19th on their own Chocodog label. The CD can be Pre-Ordered here and will be available through their own site shortly.
Quotes
"So I broke both his ribs." - some girl on Spring Garden Road commenting on how she handled it when her boyfriend called her a stunned cunt.
"It's not a boob job. It's a boob career." - me commenting on the latest incarnation of Pamela Anderson on the cover some men's mag.
"Buckle tuckle." - Beth's description of a guy wearing a t-shirt that is only tucked in such a way that you can see his belt buckle.
"Who has more fun than people?" - a co-worker recalled this phrase from his youth.
Magazines
50 Best Magazines | Chicago Tribune
Note: Local magazine focusing on "Buddhism, culture, meditation, life" comes in at number 29.
Saturday, June 25, 2005
Comic
Toothpaste for Dinner | Slate
A slide-show tour of the most addictive comic on the Web. By Sam Anderson
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