I just met this really fantastic artist from Bellingham, Washington. Okay, so I met him on myspace, but that still counts, right?. Here is where I stick in some line about using the oppressor’s tools to justify the fact that I’m sitting here at a computer pretending to meet and like people whom I’ve never seen face to face. This is all ironic when you actually see the sketches of Richard Olmsted. It seems to me anyway, that the way in which the comforts of a technological society hamper our ability to connect with others in a meaningful way is one of the central themes of his work. On his webpage, click “art” on the left column. It was impossible trying to choose which one to place here, so check them all out.
This one is called “Remembering Tomorrow.”

word. Finally some good news. I have to say, I really wasn’t expecting this.

From the AZ Daily Sun

The operators of Arizona Snowbowl cannot use reclaimed wastewater to make snow, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today.

In a unanimous decision, the judges said there is no evidence that denying the operators of Snowbowl the ability to use sewage for artificial snow would force the facility, located on U.S. Forest Service land, to shut down. They said there is no “compelling governmental interest'’ in having artificial snow on the San Francisco Peaks.

From San Diego
From the Sierra Club
New York Times
North Country

Spring break is coming up. I’m aiming to get my thesis finished during this time, but during the final weekend of break, I’m hiking to Havasupai Falls.

Some friends of mine, cats I’ve known since 4^th grade, are flying in to join me. I can’t wait; I’ve wanted to do this hike ever since I moved here. I’m glad they’ll be able to enjoy it with me. I actually tried to go last year, but I couldn’t get a reservation for the campgrounds. This year, I booked reservations a month in advance. For summer hiking, it’s recommended that folks book their stay 2 months in advance to guarantee a spot to throw down a sleeping bag. Courtesy of a birthday gift certificate from my brothers, I was able to buy a sleeping pad and a pock rocket igniter so I can cook food.

I need a couple small pots, but other than that I think I’m covered. I was wondering if anyone who has done the hike before might be able to offer me some words of wisdom. Maybe one of you out there did the hike and wished they brought something, or wished you left something at home that wasn’t needed. I understand there is a natural spring there where folks can get water….is a water purifier of filter recommended?

I also understand there is a uranium mine close to the falls (as there is all over the southwest…mostly on reservation land, of course). Where is it? I’ve heard the hike is long, but for the most part, not very difficult. Would you agree?

I’m also assuming the water will be too cold, but I’m very excited about this trip.

I’m interviewing Derrick Jensen over the phone for the April issue of The Noise. I was trying to figure out how I can record our conversation so I don’t misquote him. Chuck’s letting me borrow a cord that I can hook up to my minidisc player that has a phone jack on the other end. All I would have had to do is buy a splitter for the piece that goes into the wall.

The bass player from an old roommate’s band broke the attachable remote control for the MD player years ago and it doesn’t seem like I am able to erase discs without it. Also, I can’t find blank Minidiscs anywhere in Flagstaff…..I just grabbed some off ebay. Did they stop making these?

I have to say, MD Players/recorders are probably the most underrated piece of audio technology out there. Andy and I used to record music with them. I went back and listened to some to see how much time was left on the discs. Not enough on any of them. I taped over some good stuff when I went to Europe and I regret that; what did hear, though, was mostly terrible. We used to stay up until four playing songs with titles like “the country song,” “the spooky song,” and probably the greatest song ever written,“4:34.”

I’m starting to think of how technology becomes part of our lives. The MD Player holds a great deal of aesthetic appeal to me because of the way in which I used it. But my good memories are of making music with a close friend, so that’s where the emphasis is, not on the technology. The MD Player is, more adequately a symbol that has tokenized my experience (that’s my tribute to you, Jeany B!). Maybe this is all too deep right now. I just came back from my Grandfather’s funeral and I think death makes people feel kinda strange for a while.

My roommate suggested that I look into recording it through a free internet site. I wouldn’t even need a phone if both parties have microphones on their computers. I have this thing though about third parties that I don’t know. I think that is the way technology is moving though. I think before we know it, there will be a technological business that acts as the mediator between nearly everything we do. I guess, to an extent, that’s already the case now. I mean, I certainly didn’t make the clothes I’m wearing (if I’m wearing any at all! Oops, did it just get creepier in here?), but it’s getting weirder than that:

A new study shows that 20 percent of human genes have been patented in the United States, primarily by private firms and universities.

Yikes!

On a side note: I broke down and ordered that part I needed for the MD player. This is the first time I saw this disclaimer though, written in “ATTENTION-red”:

IMPORTANT NOTICE TO CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS - California requires a Recycling Fee to be added to all orders for products or parts that include LCD screens and/or picture tubes larger than 4 inches. The fee varies based on the size of the part. This fee will be automatically added when your order is invoiced. The order total above does not include the Recycling Fee. The amount of the recycling fee will be noted on your confirmation email and packing list. It will be included in the tax amount noted on your order.

What can I say, they’re changin’ the world out there in California.

Superhero Captain America has been killed off after appearing in US comic books for 66 years.
The character, who appears in the Captain America comic book, was created in 1941 to build up patriotic feeling during World War II.

Co-creator Joe Simon told the New York Daily News: “It’s a hell of a time for him to go, We really need him now.”

Publisher Marvel Entertainment has confirmed it is developing a film based on the character.

Fans may not have seen the last of the character in print either, as the comic’s editor-in-chief, Joe Quesada, refuses to rule out resurrecting him in the future.

The latest edition will show the superhero dying on the steps of a courthouse in New York, after he was shot by a sniper.

Captain America first appeared nine months before the Pearl Harbor bombings, punching Hitler on the cover of the comic’s first issue.

Since then, Marvel has sold more than 200 million copies of Captain America magazine in 75 countries.

Hey hepcats. I’m presenting the first chapter of my Master’s thesis at the Peaks Conference, Saturday @ 1:30 in the Havasupai AB room of the Union (I think). So if you’d like to come and try to embarrass me with pretentious questions, please come!

For my thesis, I wanted to figure out a way to analyze rhetoric, masculinities, and the environment. I’m using the rhetoric and visual rhetoric of pickup truck advertising as a framework to explore the way in which these three topics intermingle. So far, it’s been pretty fun.

The first chapter is called: Under the Hood: Pickup Truck Ads and the Driving Forces behind Male Domination

But, I think I’d rather be going to this conference.

PARIS–

French philosopher Jean Baudrillard, whose provocative, paradoxical style was reflected in the title of his 1991 work “The Gulf War did not take place”, has died, his publisher Galilee said on Wednesday. He was 77.

Well-known in the United States, and reportedly courted by the makers of “The Matrix” who wanted help in their futuristic film trilogy, Baudrillard was usually classified as postmodern. But he did not belong to any clearly defined school.

He had an iconic status in certain sections of the French intelligentsia, illustrated by the left-wing Liberation daily which carried a full front page photograph of Baudrillard on Wednesday, and covered his death over three pages inside.

Baudrillard argued that mass media and modern consumerist society had built up such a complex structure of symbols and simulated experience that it was no longer possible to comprehend reality as it might actually exist.

His dense, allusive style, peppered with expressions such as “hyperreality” and “simulation” was typical of the rarefied world of French cultural theory, but a mordant sense of humour underpinned his criticism.

He said that the 1991 Gulf War had been so artfully and comprehensively filtered and interpreted by television that the event apparently unfolding before the eyes of CNN viewers was a “simulacrum” (another favourite word) rather than an actual war.

His works on cultural theory and consumer society from the 1970s are still widely read and respected, but he attracted more criticism with later works.

These included “America”, a high-speed travelogue seeking to lay bare the “banality” of American culture, or articles on September 11, 2001 in which his theoretical reflections seemed to display a lack of sympathy for the victims.

March 8, 2007, 7:00 pm in Prochnow Auditorium

Exposing sexism, racism and corruption in politics, art, film and pop culture with facts, humor and outrageous visuals, the Guerrilla Girls describe themselves as “feminist masked avengers in the tradition of anonymous do-gooders like Robin Hood, Wonder Woman, and Batman.

Yes, your eyes aren’t deceiving you. I updated the design of my site. I did this for a few reasons. It is imperative that my site be compatible for folks who, for some reason, still use Internet Explorer. I tried as hard as I can, and it still doesn’t look right with IE, but it’s much better than the last one. I loathe IE. It takes the work of great designers and makes it look junky. Thank you Microsoft.
I really like this three-column approach. If you use IE, you get two columns. This isn’t an elitest thing, I really just don’t know how to make it happen. The site looks best on Safari, but you can Download the latest version of FireFox here.

Anyway….this design allows me to display more information up front, such as rss info, recent posts, comments…etc. In short, this page allows me to make better use of my space and lets me display my text as clearly as possible.

Also, my dog really wanted to be in the spotlight.

What do you think?

The Long Emergency: Surviving the Converging Catastrophes of the 21st Century

March 5, 2007, 7:30PM
Cline Library, NAU Campus
Free Admission

With his classics of social commentary The Geography of Nowhere and Home from Nowhere, James Howard Kunstler has established himself as one of the great commentators on American space and place. Now, with The Long Emergency, he offers a shocking vision of a post-oil future.

Kunstler explains that the last two hundred years have seen the greatest explosion of progress and wealth in the history of mankind. But the oil age is at an end. The depletion of nonrenewable fossil fuels is about to radically change life as we know it, and much sooner than we think. As a result of artificially cheap fossil-fuel energy we have developed global models of industry, commerce, food production, and finance that will collapse.

The Long Emergency tells us just what to expect after we pass the tipping point of global peak oil production and the honeymoon of affordable energy is over, preparing us for economic, political, and social changes of an unimaginable scale.