Hacking My Way To Stardom

This is storyboard art for a movie called Nightmask, with the interesting property that I will probably get a speaking part in it if it’s actually produced. “Whoa!” you may well ask. “How does a middle-aged geek with no showbiz history beyond a few singer/songwriter coffeehouse gigs in his college days land a part in,… Continue reading Hacking My Way To Stardom

The Revenge of the Nerds is Living Well

Grant McCracken has argued in his book Plenitude that one of the defining characteristics of the last fifty years is an explosion of subcultural variety — people creating new lifestyles and new identities around occupations, sexual tastes, hobbies, genres of art and music, religions, and just about any other investment of time human beings have… Continue reading The Revenge of the Nerds is Living Well

The Racist of Earthsea

In Slate magazine, SF author Ursula LeGuin complains that the producers of the new Earthsea miniseries have butchered her work. One form of butchery that she zeroes in on is by casting characters who she intended to be red, brown, or black as white people. I have mixed feelings. LeGuin has every right to be… Continue reading The Racist of Earthsea

Free Falling

My friend Howard Tayler, the cartoonist behind Schlock Mercenary, invited me to post this.

Condoleeza Rice in 2008!

So Condi Rice is going to replace Colin Powell as Secretary of State. I have to think this means she’s being groomed for the Republican ticket in 2008. Well, I hope so anyway. I know very little about her, but I’ve discovered that I really want to have a ringside seat on the farcical hijinks… Continue reading Condoleeza Rice in 2008!

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Hurray for Dollywood

Hot damn! I wonder if this here post by Iowahawk means I’m gonna git me someplace near here in Pensylvay-ni-ay that can serve up a decent mess of Texas barbeque? Put me down as a proud purple-stater. I like guns, but I hate country music. I love burnt-ends sandwiches, but I despise chewing tobacco. I… Continue reading Hurray for Dollywood

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Predictability, Computability, and Free Will

I’ve been reading some philosophical discussion of the free-will/determism question recently. Quite a number of years ago I discovered a resolution of this question, but never did anything with it because I assumed I had simply reinvented a well-known position and could not really contribute anything to the debate. However, the research I’ve done recently… Continue reading Predictability, Computability, and Free Will

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The Far Side of Irony

Having seen Team America: World Police last Friday on its opening night, I’m amused by the mainstream-media spin that this movie is an anti-right-wing satire too subtle for the yokels to get. In fact, I think it’s it’s something much more peculiar and interesting — a movie that hides a strong fundamental patriotism and appeal… Continue reading The Far Side of Irony

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Software vs. Art

Jamie Richards asks an intelligent question in response to my essay on deadly genius in the arts: I’m not programming-savvy at all, so maybe this is crap… what do you think about the idea that computer programming is a cultural area operating under the same conditions that set up the “Modernist disruption”? As I understand… Continue reading Software vs. Art

The Terror War Comes Home

For the first time in my life, I find that I am seriously considering voting Republican in a presidential election. What has pushed me to it is this report of shots being fired into a Bush-Cheney campaign HQ in Knoxville. TN. It’s not the first shot fired at the Republicans. And it comes on top… Continue reading The Terror War Comes Home

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The Art of Science

One of my earliest blog essays (Terror Becomes Bad Art) was about Luke Helder, the pipe-bombing “artist” who created a brief scare back in 2002. Arguably more disturbing than Helder’s “art” was the fact that he genuinely thought it was art, because none of the supposed artists or arts educators he was in contact with… Continue reading The Art of Science

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What Did Dan Rather Know, And When Did He Know It?

Dan Rather’s just-released statement just begs to be fisked: Last week, amid increasing questions about the authenticity of documents used in support of a 60 MINUTES WEDNESDAY story about President Bush’s time in the Texas Air National Guard, CBS News vowed to re-examine the documents in question—and their source—vigorously. And we promised that we would… Continue reading What Did Dan Rather Know, And When Did He Know It?

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