Spring Break Music

As in: In the Stereo

Columbia's on Spring Break this week.

• Django Reinhardt, The Best of Django Reinhardt
• Sugar, File Under Easy Listening
• Talking Heads, Popular Favorites, disc 2

Random: The Internet is Funny

As in: Hypertext

I leave for PCA tomorrow, to present my flash project, which I'm calling internet art. Try it out and enjoy:

Random: the Internet is Funny

Now a working link!

More Music

As in: In the Stereo

I'm alternating between the CDs in the stereo, and streaming The Current.

• Andy M. Stewart, By the Hush
• Blink 182, Buddha
• The Verve Pipe, The Freshmen
• Various, Soundtrack to the Motion Picture Rushmore

I wonder if The Verve Pipe and The Verve are mortal enemies?

Addendum: turns out the Verve Pipe CD, part of Jenny's CD collection, is actually a single.

RAM

As in: Flotsam

Things I know only because I was in nerd bowl:

• Guiteau shot Garfield (helpful mnemonic: Garfield played the Guitar, thought Guiteau).
• The Autobiography of Gertrude Stein was written by Alice B. Toklas.
• Marijuana is the United States' biggest cash crop.

A crossword clue I got yesterday because I enjoy Monty Python's Flying Circus:

• 5-letter word for "Deciduous conifer": LARCH

New Interfaces

As in: Media

We talked about Chapter 2 of Manovich in my Writing for New Media class Tuesday, and we tried to brainstorm some new interface metaphors for applications or operating systems. Other than the spatial metaphor, ala Matteo Ricci, we didn't have a lot of luck trying to suggest new interfaces. It's hard to get to the innovation side of the "consistency-innovation" combo.

So I thought I'd brainstorm some of my daily interactions that could yield interesting metaphors:

• Walking the dog. When you walk your dog, your dog is out and about, it visits the places it's interested in, leaves notes (minor and substantial), and greets other dogs. Translation: what about a web-browsing interface that allowed/kept track of current connections ala the "logged in" panel in drupal? However, it would use some sort of pop-up to allow you and the other users to interact immediately. The virtual "sniff."
• An audio tour, as at a museum. You could use a popup window that narrates (audibly) pages as you browse. This could also be understood as the virtual director's commentary.
• Library stacks. A mighty AI engine would be used to categorize websites as you view them. While their links would come into play, the sites in "stacks" next to one another would be by whatever organizing principle you wanted to see. Similar to the division of search results on Clusty. An adjustable range would allow for a minimum of one website on each side, up to many websites. Perhaps you could even click a button to close the current website and just display the surrounding stack. Here's what I'm imagining:
  
  View image in big pop-up

Music Music Music

As in: In the Stereo

A weird mix this week:

• The Moody Blues, Strange Times
• Alice in Chains, Jar of Flies
• They Might Be Giants, Apollo 18

Cooler

As in: Flotsam

So this came in the OED daily email on 3 March (read the extended entry for the full definition):

cooler SECOND EDITION 1989

({sm}ku{lm}l{schwa}(r)) [f. as prec. + -ER. Cf. KEELER.]

1. Anything that cools or makes cool.

1575 LANEHAM Lett. (1871) 53 But whoo so was found so hot in desyre, with the wreast of a Cok was sure of a coolar. 1686 GOAD Celest. Bodies I. ii. 6 Wind is a Dryer, even as Frost a Cooler. 1797 HOLCROFT Stolberg's Trav. (ed. 2) IV. xcii. 235 They do not use ice as a cooler, but snow.

. . .

3. A cooling medicine or agent; a refrigerant.

1621 BURTON Anat. Mel. II. ii. II. (1651) That the liver be outwardly anointed with some coolers that it be not over~heated. 1671 SALMON Sign. Med. III. xxii. Citruls, the seeds are great coolers in Feavers. 1744 BERKELEY Siris §7 An admirable febrifuge, at once the safest cooler and cordial. 1766 PENNANT Zool., Goat (1812) I. 46 In..cases, where coolers and restoratives are necessary.

Since I'm teaching from Writing About Cool this semester, I thought I'd play with these a bit this morning.

Having read The Professor and the Madman, I'm aware that OED sought, for their examples, the earliest use of each word available. So it becomes marginally reasonable to say 1575 is the year "cooler" emerged as a noun. Using one of my favorite techniques from the book, let's see what else was going on in 1575...

The music industry was already consolidating.

Jan 22, English queen Elizabeth I granted Thomas Tallis and William Byrd a music press monopoly. (link)

 

I'm not sure what this has to do with "cooler," but I find it odd that the dumb didn't have rights to progeniture, which I take to mean the right to have children. Perhaps you'd use a cooler to enforce that restriction (as defn 3 or 4)?

Lasso, a Spanish lawyer, concluded that those who learn to speak are no longer dumb and should have rights to progeniture.(link)

 

From a confusing entry on Answers.com, it seems a whole tribe of celts won the world Chess championship. I include this link mostly because I got a cool circular irish chess set for Christmas this year.

Boi and Leonardo da Cutri (link)

 

How does someone decide to make a "history of the world" list, and why include this? The battle served as a cooler in the arms race.

In Japan two armies meet. The side with guns wins for the first time, yet by mutual agreement, guns are outlawed 100 years later.(link)

 

The beginnings of psychology? The sixteenth century's answer to Freud.

In his book Catalogue of Common Places, Johannes Thomas Freigius [b. (Switzerland), 1543, d. 1583] uses the term psychologia ("mind study"). He reintroduces the term in another book in 1579.(link)

For you philophiles, here's the whole entry:

cooler SECOND EDITION 1989

({sm}ku{lm}l{schwa}(r)) [f. as prec. + -ER. Cf. KEELER.]

1. Anything that cools or makes cool.

1575 LANEHAM Lett. (1871) 53 But whoo so was found so hot in desyre, with the wreast of a Cok was sure of a coolar. 1686 GOAD Celest. Bodies I. ii. 6 Wind is a Dryer, even as Frost a Cooler. 1797 HOLCROFT Stolberg's Trav. (ed. 2) IV. xcii. 235 They do not use ice as a cooler, but snow.

2. a. A vessel in which anything is cooled or set to cool; esp. one used for cooling the wort in brewing, or for similar purposes in other manufacturing processes.

1616 SURFL. & MARKH. Country Farme 589 Boile it very well the second time with the hops, then..put it into the coolers and coole it. 1641 FRENCH Distill. i. (1651) 34 A great Alembick, with its cooler or Copper Still. 1741 Compl. Fam. Piece I. vi. 279 Shift your first Wort out of the Coolers into a Working-Tun. 1798 BLOOMFIELD Farmer's Boy, Spring 217 Streams of new milk thro' flowing coolers stray. 1820 W. SCORESBY Arctic Regions II. 398 On a little lower level than..the copper, is fixed a square or oblong back or cooler..capable of containing from 10 to 20 tons of oil. 1861 WYNTER Soc. Bees 211 The boiling beer is now pumped up to the coolers.

b. spec. A vessel into which syrup is poured to crystallize into sugar, a crystallizer.

1790 Penn. Packet 6 Jan. 4/2 Two large copper coolers, and two Boilers for Sugar-Bakers. 1819 BRANDE Chem. 355 The fire is instantly damped, and the boiling sugar carried off in basins to the coolers. 1853 URE Dict. Arts (ed. 4) II. 766 From the..cooler, the syrup is transferred into wooden chests or boxes,..also called coolers, but which are more properly crystallizers or granulators. 1921 Dict. Occup. Terms (1927) §449 Heater man (sugar refining); cooler hand, cooler man.., adds water to heaters, receivers, coolers or crystallisers.

c. A water-cooler; a place where cool drinking water is available. U.S.

1838 N.Y. Mirror 13 Jan. 229/1 The peculiar philosophical effect of this cooler..we are unable to explain. 1905 F. H. SMITH At Close Range 250 ‘I'll go to the cooler and wash up what I can,’..she said. 1947 S. BELLOW Victim i. 6 He walked out of the office..halting in the anteroom to draw a drink from the glass cooler.

d. U.S. An insulated picnic-box; an insulated jug or similar container for keeping beverages cool.

1958 Ward & Co. Catal. Spring/Summer 806 Portable coolers{em}keep food fresh on outings. 1959 N.Y. Times Mag. 21 June 35/3 Capacious cooler, an insulated oak barrel..holds two gallons of beverage. 1962 Ibid. 1 July 33/2 (caption) Coolers, shown from left to right are: wicker and leather-trimmed basket with plastic liner..; large vacuum bottle with a shoulder-strap handle..; insulated metal ice chest. 1976 Mechanix Illustr. June 8/2 Spigoted coolers allow you to make beverages like iced tea right inside them. 1985 New Yorker 14 Oct. 69/1 On the table a cooler and provisions.

3. A cooling medicine or agent; a refrigerant.

1621 BURTON Anat. Mel. II. ii. II. (1651) That the liver be outwardly anointed with some coolers that it be not over~heated. 1671 SALMON Sign. Med. III. xxii. Citruls, the seeds are great coolers in Feavers. 1744 BERKELEY Siris §7 An admirable febrifuge, at once the safest cooler and cordial. 1766 PENNANT Zool., Goat (1812) I. 46 In..cases, where coolers and restoratives are necessary.

4. fig. Anything that cools emotion, excitement, or ardour, or damps the spirits.

1592 BP. ANDREWES Serm. (1843) V. 527 The Law, we know, is a great cooler to presumption. 1600 ABP. ABBOT Exp. Jonah 27 This is a cooler both to the Pharisees and Novatians, who were wont to despise sinners. 1608 HIERON Wks. I. 718 What coolers of zeale, what clogges in the way that leadeth vnto life. 1781 CRABBE Library 58 See coolers here, that damp the fire of rage. 1824 ‘P. QUIZ’ (title) Fashionable Bores, or Coolers in High Life.

5. A prison or gaol. slang (orig. U.S.). Also, a prison cell (see quots.).

1884 Milnor (Dakota) Teller 8 Aug., Arrested on the charge of drunkenness, lodged in the cooler over night and then fined $5 in the morning. 1884 C. B. LEWIS Sawed-off Sketches 117 If you utter one profane word..I'll put you behind the cross-bars of the cooler. 1885 Milnor 25 Apr., Now, then, I'll give you a chance to keep out of the cooler! 1899 ‘J. FLYNT’ Tramping with Tramps (1950) 392 Cooler, a dark cell. 1909 W. H. DAVIES Beggars vii. 52 We wanted a night's lodging at the police station. ‘What!’ he cried in amazement; ‘what: not in the cooler?’ 1919 DOWNING Digger Dial. 17 Cooler, prison or guard-room. 1926 J. BLACK You can't Win ix. 114 The cooler or dark cell was the same as other cells, except that there was nothing in it and the door was solid, admitting no light. 1943 ‘C. DICKSON’ She died a Lady ix. 73, I am not at a time of life when one enjoys being chucked in the cooler for telling truths. 1946 G. MILLAR Horned Pigeon vii. 81 Next day I was sent to the ‘cooler’. 1962 John O'London's 25 Jan. 82/2 The police station..is sometimes called the cooler, although the last word is also applied to a cell inside the nick.

6. One who uses the rhetoric of cool to write hypertext in new ways.

Zombie Text list

As in: The Living Dead

I'm kicking around a class about zombies. Perhaps a J-term for 2007 or a proposed special-topics course. Here begins the list of things I might use.

• Films: Dawn of the Dead (both), Shaun of the Dead, Night of the Living Dead, 28 Days Later, The Serpent and the Rainbow, Carnival of Souls, The Hills Have Eyes, Dead Alive, Evil Dead, The Beyond, Resident Evil
• Films I haven't seen yet: House of 1000 Corpses, Resident Evil Apocalypse, Cemetary Man
• Comics: E.C. comics from the 50s, Dawn of the Dead (Niles' adaptation), Lenore
• Games: Resident Evil series, Stubbs the Zombie, Zombies!!! (the boardgame)
• Books: The Serpent and the Rainbow, The Zombie Survival Guide

The big question is whether this would be a traditional cultural studies class, or whether I can find a heuretic method to engage with Zombies. On one hand, the appeal of teaching a cultural studies class that approaches Zombie texts from a variety of theoretical positions appeals to me. On the other, I find experimental classes most interesting and challenging. So, perhaps I can learn from Writing About Cool—look at many different aspects of zombie-ness to see what we can learn about writing about zombies. Another approach: zombies emerge as primary figures in horror with Night of the Living Dead; perhaps 1968 is the answer to the question of why zombies?

It has been a pet theory of mine that the emergence of "fast zombies" in 28 Days Later and Dawn of the Dead signifies a cultural response to the speed of the digital age. If Night of the Living Dead worried about our zombification, the new films use the trope of a (computer) virus to suggest that the numbing process is signficantly shorter than we'd first thought.

Music for March

As in: In the Stereo

• The Allman Brothers Band, A Decade of Hits: 1969-1979


• Cake, Prolonging the Magic


• Hüsker Dü, Warehouse: Songs and Stories

Blog-sanity

As in: Blogistry

My morning spam deleting session:

1. delete all the spam entries; save the IP addresses in a separate email.
2. open the IP banning window. ALT-TAB to email. Cut. ALT-TAB to blog. paste. click "add". Repeat ten times.

As I drudged my way through step two this morning, Chris Cornell wailed out of my stereo: "I can tell you why people go insane. I can show you how you can do the same."

I already know, Chris.

Dylan

As in: Media

So I've been listening to Dylan quite a bit in the past two years (as opposed to before that, when I only had his acoustic greatest hits). As I cycle through the five albums I have, "Motorpsycho Nightmare" consistently pops up as a favorite. Here are some lyrics:

There stood Rita
Lookin' just like Tony Perkins.
She said, "Would you like to take a shower?
I'll show you up to the door."
I said, "Oh, no! no!
I've been through this before."
I knew I had to split
But I didn't know how,
When she said,
"Would you like to take that shower, now?"

Well, I couldn't leave
Unless the old man chased me out,
'Cause I'd already promised
That I'd milk his cows.
I had to say something
To strike him very weird,
So I yelled out,
"I like Fidel Castro and his beard."
Rita looked offended
But she got out of the way,
As he came charging down the stairs
Sayin', "What's that I heard you say?"

I said, "I like Fidel Castro,
I think you heard me right,"
And ducked as he swung
At me with all his might.
Rita mumbled something
'Bout her mother on the hill,
As his fist hit the icebox,
He said he's going to kill me
If I don't get out the door
In two seconds flat,
"You unpatriotic,
Rotten doctor Commie rat."

Well, he threw a Reader's Digest
At my head and I did run,

It's the mix of Americana that I like in this song. Evoking Psycho, the classic "farmer's daughter and the traveling salesman" jokes, the fact that the farmer would be rabidly anti-communist, and that he throws a Reader's Digest. He also says things like "ten thousand miles today I drove."