All posts by Dan

Octavia Butler, RIP and dammit

Books

The enigmatic Octavia E. Butler has left us, and before her time.

Science fiction was her home turf, but she’d have done any field she chose proud. She inhabited the uncanny valley: she had a knack for coming up with premises that could make your skin crawl, and then spinning them, credibly, into something ultimately life-affirming. Her work often had the quality of dreams about it, and by that I mean that it could be both wondrous and disturbing, sometimes in the same breath. But then, that stands to reason: she never flinched, and she never cheated, when it came to following where the story led. The world could use more like her.

She will be missed, and I will now read the recently-published Fledgling, the first new work of hers to appear in seven years, with a slightly heavier heart, knowing that it will — barring the discovery of some lost manuscript — be the last new thing to appear under her name.

Ave adque vale, Octavia. Dream well, as you always did.

Be My (Dick) Valentine

Humor, Music

After nearly a year in which it was available only abroad, Electric Six‘s sophomore effort, Señor Smoke, has finally been released domestically. Those of you already familiar with Electric Six who didn’t feel like ponying up $30 for the import will know this is a time for rejoicing, and an album purchase.

Those of you who aren’t familiar with Electric Six will have to be convinced, and this will take a certain measure of doing, because while Electric Six are a hoot and a half, they defy categorization. (I suspect that a causal relationship between these two facts exists, but I’m not sure in which direction.) It might help to imagine a band that does for a certain variety of pompous, chest-puffing, late-70s rock what Elvis impersonators do for Elvis — poking fun and showing a certain kind of backhanded respect all at once, through a sort of exagerrated homage. There’s a definite degree of ridicule directed toward the most egregious excesses, but there’s an undeniable measure of affection, too. I’ve always thought that you can’t really parody something effectively unless you secretly love it, just a little, and I think Electric Six offfers proof.

In any case, they’re going to be playing at The Independent in March. I’m going. I’ve never seen them live before. I cannot wait.

Yes!

Books, Humor

Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me! my favorite NPR program, has added a podcast; not just of selected highlights, but of the entire show. Now I can take Peter, Carl, Charlie, Paula, and the rest of the gang on the road without being tethered to a PC running RealPlayer. This is a fabulous thing.
In addition, my favorite of the regular panelists, Adam Felber, is apparently in the process of publishing his first novel, Schroedinger’s Ball. Fortunately, since it appears that it won’t actually appear in print until August, I have a little time between now and then to wear down the rest of my queued reading so as to make room for it.

An Open Letter to Blue Note, Sony, and EMI

Music, Software

Diehard jazz aficionado Volkher Hofmann is mad as hell, and he’s not going to take it to the register anymore.

Read it. All of it. It’s a thing of beauty. Years from now, when the scavengers are picking over the bones of the major labels, we’ll look back and say, “This was it. This was the moment when they passed the point of no return, the beginning of the end. When people who spent thousands of dollars on, and arranged the rest of their lives around, recorded music decided that they’d finally had enough, and were no longer going to be apologists for a bunch of indifferent, cash-grubbing corporate tools.”

PostSecret

Books

A few weeks ago, NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday ran an interview with Frank Warren, creator/proprietor of the PostSecret project.

It’s essentially an anonymous postcard confessional, with the most compelling submissions displayed on the site every week. Some are funny; some are haunting. One of the latter is one I haven’t seen yet, which Warren selected to read on the air:

“I’d give anything for the opportunity to show even the smallest kindness to my ex-wife.”

I’d like to see that one. I suspect that I’ll have to buy the book to do so. I can think of worse things.

But it and the one reproduced below seem like flip sides of the same coin. It’s strange how kindness can sometimes cut deeper than cruelty.

I'm trying to forget every kind thing you ever said to me

Evening the Odds

Computers, Idiots

My friend Greg is in the process of being shafted by Verizon, who have at this point basically admitted to bald-facedly lying to him when they quoted him his original DSL installation dates, as well as conceding that they may lying now when they quote him new ones. This, therefore, seems like a good time time to mention two key resources that can help level the playing field when dealing with a faceless corporation’s customer-“service” system: Rob Levandowski’s excellent guide to The Art of Turboing, and Paul English’s Interactive Voice Response (IVR) cheat sheet.

(As an aside, Greg’s experience seems sadly typical of DSL-provider stories I’ve heard lately. This contrasts poorly with cable-broadband companies, who make it much easier and quicker to get on-line with them. I’m a DSL user myself, and like the service, but I don’t see how the telcos are going to keep the cable companies from eating their lunch if they don’t get their act together fast.)

Update 2006-03-08: Apparently Paul English’s IVR Cheat Sheet has sparked enough of a response to instigate what  could wind up being a full-blown movement. If this turns out to be an actual consumer rebellion, historians may wind up saying that HQ was located at gethuman.com.