The flicker forward...

The hallway...

2009-04-28T10:15:00.000-07:00

The hallway smelled like Russia today: one part borscht, two parts sweat and three parts aged must. There must have been a cosmic confluence, a meeting of minds, a wince at the prick, something flew in through a window not yet closed but still opening. There must have been a memory apart from the one remembering it. The hallway smelled like it was running down the stairs into the lobby and out of its mind. The hallway was a minute man left standing two minutes after the battle started. Alone is a kind of memory. Apart is a kind of art. Everything must smell like the Russia of a once was childhood. There are too many factories in my imagination, not enough building blocks for a fence when neither the moon or the sun will creep into bed. But something creeps and it doesn't smell like a childhood from another Russia...

There really seems to be no justice in this world...

2009-01-22T09:07:00.000-08:00

Benjamin Button was nominated for 13 Academy Awards?! You've got to be kidding me... and The Wrestler didn't pull a nomination for Best Picture?! Did I say you've got to be kidding me? Well let me say it again, you've got to be kidding me... Forest Gump was better...

Obama, Lincoln & The Separation of Church & State

2009-01-21T12:59:00.000-08:00

It's January 21st and I'm sitting here and wondering if I feel any different now that Camelot has returned to the white house. Nope, I still feel mostly the same, mostly me and somewhat happier to be a citizen of the united states. Now I'm not so blind as to think that the wearing in of our first African-American president will solve all of our economic, political and social problems. Nope, not at all how I fell, but I do feel, for the first time in a while, that's it's OK to be American again. There were big ceilings shattered yesterday, big huge glass ceilings, not sure if this is restoration, but it is a mile stone, it does mean something beyond the scope of a new president and ending the Bush years that have eroded some of our most fundamental freedoms. I don't have any doubt that Obama will do his utmost to steer this ship as best he can, to be quite honest, I'll go so far as to say that Bush did the same thing or at least thought he was doing the same thing. He's a believer, one of those people that believes in divine mandates and metaphysical dictates from other worldly plains. This may explain quite a bit of how misguided things went during his tenure at the helm. Still, I don't think B.H.O. is the Messiah and I don't expect the blind to see, the infirm to walk and the dead rise from their graves in a messianic thriller. I am however hopeful that certain things will be better, and that the focus of this man will be on science, environment, civil rights, bringing equality to the corners of our society and improving the image of America abroad because of neo-con driven regime change. Finally a bit of regime change at home...

One thing bothers me though... this Presidential Oath we subject our elected President too. If the United States was intended as a place where there was a high and definite wall between Church & State then the entire inaugural process, the grandeur that was 1.20.09 was flawed and contrary to the spirit of what the framer's intended through the constitution. From the invocation by Rick Warren to the presence and use of the Lincoln Bible, for that matter any bible, during the inauguration is in direct opposition to the separation that is supposed to be present in our government. I think its fantastic that B.H.O. included a conservative pastor and a gay priest, however neither of them should've been included in what should be a civil engagement of state. Just as the word Marriage should be used for religious unions and civil unions be the only ones recognized by a state that purports to be truly separated from the offices of the church, so too should the inauguration of a President be free invocations by clergy or clerics, free of iconic books and oaths taken upon them. Why didn't B.H.O. swear on something like the original American flag, an Oath to the state and the people that came before, or on the Constitution itself, or better yet on the Bill of Rights, these are symbols and instruments of the state, a compact and legal contract between the office of the executive and the people that have elected him to govern the nation. Isn't this a more fitting symbol on which to stake the oath of office than a book, even as historically important as one belonging to Abe Lincoln, which carries with it the baggage of faith, division and sectarianism? Is not the constitution or the bill of rights a sacred enough document upon which to commit to the people of this great nation that you will do your utmost to steer this ship right and remain free of the influences of metaphysical deities, clerics and proselytizers? Is not the heart of the Oath to protect and defend the constitution and not the Bible? We are not inaugurating the next holy roman emperor, are we?

From My Working Life...

2008-11-12T18:30:00.000-08:00

Design with the mangle in mind: E-mail creative tips

Nov 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Ken Magill

Ahh, if only we could go back to the good old days when designing direct mail collateral involved simple decisions such as paper stock, colors, fonts and where to put the “call to action.”

Enter commercial e-mail, the only channel in direct marketing history in which the designers must make choices based on the knowledge that a significant percentage of their messages will be mangled beyond recognition by the time they reach recipients.

With images and links turned off by default as the rule rather than the exception at most inbox providers — such as Yahoo, Gmail, AOL and Microsoft Outlook — commercial e-mail designers now face the task of simply getting their copy points to appear.

And even when e-mail graphics do appear — or render, as e-mailers prefer to say — they do so differently from account to account.

“In print design, you can go any which way your imagination takes you,” says Len Shneyder, director of partner relations and industry communication for e-mail deliverability consultancy Pivotal Veracity. “Your only limitations are the size of the page and how much it's going to cost. In e-mail there is a different problem.”

For example, he says, there's no standard governing how HTML graphics are to be rendered when they are received. “Every receiving body can render it differently and choose to support different aspects of the HTML standard,” Shneyder says.

As a designer you have a standard for how to code, but that doesn't translate into how it's going to display, he says. “And this is across the board for the entire receiving ecosphere, from mobile to desktop Web e-mail clients. They're all a little different.”

But there are some fairly simple techniques e-mail marketers can use to help them get their messages across to as many subscribers as possible.

Shneyder's first piece of advice will be recognizable to traditional direct marketers: “Test, test, test,” he says. By this he means viewing the e-mail on as many platforms as possible, such as Yahoo and Gmail accounts, an Outlook address, and on mobile devices. “You cannot rely on any single e-mail account as being the basis for display,” he adds. There are even display variations within various iterations of Microsoft Outlook, says Shneyder, though getting an Outlook 2003 account and an Outlook 2007 account will cover most of the Outlook market.

E-mailers can also gain insight into which e-mail readers they should be designing for simply by eyeballing their lists.“Understanding your demographic and where the majority of your e-mail is going to land will narrow down the scope of your design requirements,” says Shneyder. Pivotal Veracity has recently published an e-mail design guide for its customers that explains the quirks at the various ISPs.

Keep it simple

In e-mail design, less is more. “You don't have to package every offer under the sun,” says Shneyder. “Make sure your call to action is clear and keep it simple. Deliver a few choices, not so many that recipients will be prone to not making a choice.”

Shneyder also urges marketers to employ so-called ALT tags, or HTML instructions that provide alternative text to appear when graphics are shut off. For example, a “50% off shoes” graphic with an ALT tag would at least display the words “50% off shoes” if the graphic came through broken.

The number of people who don't use ALT tags is shocking, says Shneyder. “It's a second line of defense and it's so easy to do.”

You don't need to do this with every image, he adds, but if you have a main body graphic that's carrying your brand name, or a call to action, give it an ALT tag that explains what it is. “That'll be your next best way of conveying the message if the image is disabled.”

Another challenge for e-mail designers is the prevalence of preview panes, those little windows that show a portion of the message when the e-mail is highlighted but unopened in the recipient's inbox. A significant percentage of people read much of their e-mail solely in preview panes.

“You always want to put your branding and your prime content as far to the left and as far up as possible,” says Shneyder. “The default state of the preview pane is either under the list message view or to the right, meaning the preview pane will cut off things on the right and on the bottom.”

He also advises marketers to “get away from delivering a Web page to the inbox.”

But this bit of advice runs counter to a recent study by interactive agency eROI.

Just over 30% of marketers include navigation tabs from their Websites in e-mails, according to eROI. But of those who use it, 15% said site navigation tabs are better than the main content of their e-mails for driving clicks, and 11% said the tabs are better at driving conversions than the main content.

“Site navigation [such as, say, ‘shoes,’ or ‘shirts’ on an apparel site] is a familiar way to browse content,” says Jeff Mills, the head of research at eROI and author of the study. “If I can get better clicks and conversions from [including] site navigation, why am I not putting it in e-mail? I just think it's an opportunity, and that marketers should be at least testing it.”

The subject of subject lines

And speaking of testing, eROI found that just 25% of e-mailers test their subject lines on a regular basis.

Mills believes marketers' lack of e-mail subject-line testing stems from a drive to create the perfect message. “People want to create the perfect e-mail, and that means a perfect subject line,” he says. “Or it's simply a case of the CMO wants that subject line in there.”

He also says marketers will avoid A/B split testing because they're afraid half their campaign will flop. “But think of it this way: Do you want 100% of your campaign to flop?” he says.

Moreover, marketers tend to create the subject line at the last moment even though it is easily one of the most important parts of the message — if not the most important part.

“People get very focused on what the creative will look like,” says Ernie Vickroy, marketing director of Time Consumer Marketing. “A lot of times, we'll get down to the wire and people will say: ‘What's the subject line?’ ”

Vickroy is a vocal advocate of spending the time to craft subject lines and test them against one another.

The reason: As is the case with traditional direct marketing, the most effective subject lines are often not the ones a marketer would predict to win.

For example, Vickroy says, his firm recently tested its control subject line, “Your Subscription Information Page,” against “Manage Your Account Online.”

“You read so much about how the customer wants control,” he says. But the control subject line won by 25%. “I don't really know why it won, but it won again.”

He adds that marketers should treat their e-mail creative as they would direct mail.

“How much time would a direct marketer spend on an outer envelope?” he asks. “Subject lines don't get the same kind of attention. Yet they're just as important.”

Brevity is also important in a subject line. Pivotal Veracity's Shneyder recommends keeping subject lines to 40 characters or fewer if possible.

As for the “from” line, Shneyder advises branding the company in it and nothing else because the majority of people decide whether or not to open an e-mail based on who sent it. And no matter how strong the urge to start pitching, the from line isn't the place to do it, he says.

“Your from line is your calling card,” he says. “Don't turn it into a door-to-door salesman.”

There are some fairly simple techniques e-mail marketers can use to help get their messages across to as many subscribers as possible.

1. Test, test, test
2. Eyeball your lists
3. Less is more
4. Employ ALT tags
5. Keep in the confines of the preview pane
6. Test your subject lines
7. Brand your company in the “from” line

R.I.P. Studs Terkel

2008-10-31T15:09:00.001-07:00

If you haven't read his book WORKING then you should, it's truly brilliant, especially the sections "The age of Charlie Blossom" & "From the Cradle to the Grave", on second thought, read the entire thing and ponder the interview with Mike at the beginning.

R.I.P. Studs Terkel

2008-10-31T15:09:00.000-07:00

From My Working Life...

2008-09-26T08:38:00.000-07:00

Youth and mobile philanthropy in Hollywood

Hollywood has a longstanding tradition of celebrity philanthropy, from Jude Law’s promotion and work in Afghanistan to Julia Roberts’ work with UNICEF.

A new campaign and foundation, launched Sept. 15, is tapping the latest mobile technology for nonprofit giving. Hollywood socialite Nicole Richie and her fiancé, Joel Madden, have announced the launch of the Richie-Madden Children’s Foundation.

The foundation’s aim is to build a playground at Beyond Shelter in Los Angeles.

The concept is rather simple. If you feel like you are in a giving mood, simply text CHILD to 90999. A charge of $5 is added to your phone bill at the end of the month and you are part of a community of texting philanthropists.

The campaign has partnered with MySpace to promote the effort. The domain at http://www.richiemaddenfoundation.com redirects to a MySpace page.

The idea here is that teens and fans of Ms. Richie and Mr. Madden may be inspired to donate money to a worthy cause without the hassle and burden of paperwork, or for that matter, a commitment.

Or is there a commitment?

Imagine you are a parent who has three high school-aged children all duly armed with mobile phones so that you can get a hold of them anytime, anywhere.

The children in turn can text themselves into happy oblivion, keeping in touch with their friends in other classrooms when the teacher isn’t looking.

Do you have that picture in your head?

Well, now imagine what would happen if at the end of the month you receive your family phone plan and realize it’s $10, $20, maybe even $50 higher than normal thanks to your children’s generosity and your pocket book.

How would you react?

Sure you can take away their mobile phones or make them get a job to pay for their own data plan.

But, in reality, shouldn’t the mobile companies offer parents some level of control to prevent their children from spending Mom and Dad’s hard-earned money, even for a cause as noble as Beyond Shelter?

Now just to be clear, I don’t believe you have to take out all the swings and doo-dads on playground parks that could give a kid a bruise.

However, I do believe in allowing parents the right to moderate their kid’s spending habits and mobile phone use.

The target audience of the foundation runs the gamut, from preteen to young adults. This is nothing new when you consider mobile usage demographics.

Encouraging the youth to become philanthropic do-gooders with Mom and Dad’s hard-earned cash runs the serious risk of a backlash from parental organizations that want to control every aspect of their children’s lives.

What is of major importance – marketers listen up – is how mobile technology is being socialized and injected into fundraising and nonprofit arenas in order to tap a young generation.

I can almost hear JFK asking us what we can do for our country and inspiring rapid thumb movement donation.

Mobile is proving yet again that it is not elitist per se, but rather can appeal to a broad base through careful contemporizing of the message, content and mode of delivery. Ask yourself: Are you contemporary, or have you fallen behind the times?

Len Shneyder is director of partner relations and industry communications at Pivotal Veracity, a deliverability services and consultancy provider in Phoenix. Reach him at lshneyder [-aatt-] pivotalveracity [-dott-] com.

We had a rumbler

2008-09-05T21:08:00.000-07:00

RIP in Mahmoud Darwish

2008-08-13T14:31:00.001-07:00

Psalm 9

O rose beyond the reach of time and of the senses

O kiss enveloped in the scarves of all the winds

surprise me with one dream

that my madness will recoil from you.

***

Recoiling from you

In order to approach you

I discovered time.

***

Approaching you

in order to recoil from you

I discovered my senses.

***

Between approach and recoil

there is a stone the size of a dream

It does not approach

It does not recoil.

***

You are my country

A stone is not what I am

therefore I do not like to face the sky

nor do I die level with the ground

but I am a stranger, always a stranger.

From my working life...

2008-07-29T09:00:00.000-07:00

Tips on designing mobile Web sites

In a world that is big on standards but short on implementation, I’m going to take a firm stand on what appears to be common oversights in the design of mobile Web sites.

During a recent hunt of large brands on the small screen of my smartphone I began to wonder if there was any consensus on the sub-domain or folder nomenclature used by companies to denote a mobile site. This shouldn’t come as a surprise when I say I was unable to find any rules. But I did notice some general trends.

The most common way of creating a mobile domain or mobile site is to create a sub-domain http://m.widget.com where m=mobile. Other variations included http://mobile.widget.com and http://www.widget.com/mobile and, in one case, http://wireless.widget.com.

All of these variations are perfectly valid and all of them fit into the general structure of “m” as the designation or commonly anticipated designator of a mobile site.

However, think small. Your users are fat-fingering words, names and numbers on those tiny QWERTY keyboards constantly. So what’s easier to spell – m or mobile?

But is there even a need to spell it correctly?

Well-coded Web sites should have the ability to automatically redirect requests from mobile browsers to the appropriate mobile site.

Mobile browsers identify themselves through a user agent string when they issue a request to pull down an HTML page at which point the site should serve up the mobile version if a mobile browser properly identifies itself.

I’ve run across several large brands that have mobile iterations, but are not automatically serving them up when called from a mobile device. Go the extra mile. It may compel users to return to your site on their desktop if they have a good experience on their handheld.

To make this a trifecta of recommendations let’s consider the <title> of your mobile page.

Again the rule of thumb here is short and to the point. Try and avoid pitching your company’s core competency in the page’s title – “Widgets.com, the market leader in all things widget.”

Do the selling or pitching of services on the site and not in the title, because if someone chooses to bookmark this page the default name of the bookmark is essentially the name contained between the <title></title> tags.

Here’s an example of a title that’s direct and to the point: <title>CNET Mobile</title>. Facebook’s title tag is fairly short but could stand to be shorter: <title>Facebook | Welcome To Facebook</title>. MySpace’s title is short but lacks any identifying criteria <title>Member Login</title>.

I doubt that with all my bookmarks that I’d remember Member Login = MySpace when I haphazardly scroll through the list to find something.

There are lots of small nuances to take into consideration.

Mobile presence is about streamlining not only your offering but a user’s experience of your mobile presence. Think down the chain of events and how each keystroke represents precious time.

Smartphones are here to help us be more efficient. Don’t be the weak link in the chain of the user’s mobile experience.

Len Shneyder is director of partner relations and industry communications at Pivotal Veracity, a deliverability services and consultancy provider in Phoenix. Reach him at lshneyder@pivotalveracity.com.

Squirming in his seat...

2008-07-23T08:49:00.001-07:00

The Original Joker

2008-07-21T12:55:00.000-07:00

The original model for the joker is Conrad Veit who starred in the 1928 silent film "The Man Who Laughs" ... just a bit of trivia on a Monday morning...

From My Working Life

2008-07-18T15:46:00.000-07:00

The Mobile Mob
July 1, 2008

Yes, you can make your e-mail advertising look like a Web page, with loads of content and complex HTML. But your mobile audience is walking around with an inbox-in-hand, reading e-mails, browsing the Web and making split-second decisions based on a screen that isn't much bigger than a credit card.

The old technique of delivering a Web page to the inbox isn't going to work. On the contrary, it'll prevent clicks rather than encourage them.

Here are five simple rules to consider when designing e-mails for the 21st century inbox — the small one.

* Focus messages and calls to action

Attention spans are short; people will navigate away from a Web page or an e-mail in seconds if it doesn't load. Whether you're targeting the young, the middle-aged, or old, stodgy business users like me, long messages with too many offers are a turnoff to fast-paced users who're scanning messages on mobile devices.

Target your offer, create clear and concise calls to action, limit text content and segment by demographic and/or purchasing habits and patterns. Mobile e-mails should be direct, brief and require little scrolling. The call to action should be moved as close to the top as possible along with identifying information.
* Use prime real estate effectively

The new fold line (the point at which you need to scroll to see more content) is at most 320 pixels down and is measured in inches that never hit double digits. The space above the fold is the new preview screen. It's prime real estate, and these few precious lines shouldn't be wasted. Simply put, what you include here can make or break your campaign results.

For example, traditional best practices typically call for add-to-address-book language at the top of the e-mail. Many mailers do this in a smaller, lighter font than the core content. But in mobile, the smaller screen means there's less room to see your message and the general lack of HTML formatting support means your fonts all appear in the same size and color. The result is that the first and only thing visible to the mobile reader without scrolling may be your add-to-address-book language. The mobile mob is a highly focused audience. Make sure you're providing enough information upon first glance to engage it.
* Use a single-column setup

Marketers often design HTML e-mail so it looks like their Web site to preserve the user experience. But many sites use multiple columns to organize information.

Most mobile e-mail readers, including those installed on Symbian devices, Palms and BlackBerries, can't display multiple side-by-side columns and will haphazardly reorganize the page into a single column. A few readers can render a multicolumn e-mail, but the limited horizontal space forces the user to scroll left to right using arrows and other physical navigation keys (remember, there's no mouse). Keep the e-mail straightforward and let it flow from the top down.
* Limit links

Mobile users don't have time to click and load every link in your e-mail; they're not casual Web surfers. The best mobile sites are created to deliver core content and functionality, so e-mails should contain only the links needed to direct users to that content.
* Think about how you link

Keep in mind that mobile users treat links differently than traditional PC-based e-mail readers. Hyperlinking text will not always render and remain clickable. Let's focus on Symbian. By all estimates, 85% of the world outside of the North American market is using a Symbian device. Symbian effectively drops all HTML tags and renders the text of an HTML e-mail. All of the formatting, image references, font sizes and other tags are dropped, including the critical A HREF of your link. But if you use a fully qualified link such as http://, it will remain clickable after Symbian parses the e-mail. Thus, if you want to ensure your links will be clickable by the broadest range of readers, make sure you use the fully qualified URL for the most critical links.

2007 marked a new era for mobile devices. There were more than 3.25 billion users, and sales of smart phones exceeded PC and laptop sales for the first time. While PCs offer a richer experience because of size, speed and extensive media support, mobile devices allow marketers to reach customers anywhere, and at any time.

All of us in marketing should re-evaluate the content, relevance and design of our e-mail communications for one very good reason: Customers are reading our e-mails on both their PCs and mobile devices. The question to ask yourself is whether your e-mail program is in accord with the latest mobile innovations or still moving to the click-clack of a rotary phone.

LEN SHNEYDER is director of partner relations and industry communications at e-mail deliverability consultancy Pivotal Veracity, Phoenix.

From my working life...

2008-06-13T00:06:00.000-07:00

The iPhone factor: To Russia with love

The summer is here and I’m on the road. I have a Lonely Planet guide, a digital camera, cargo-conversion pants, rain shell, sandals, sunglasses, sunscreen, maps, money, a passport and three iPhones.

Yes, you read it correctly: not one, not two, but three iPhones.

Why am I carrying three iPhones you ask? Well I’m travelling to Russia and I was contacted by my friends who begged me to buy them iPhones and bring them back to Russia as they are going for 20,000 rubles there, or almost $900 apiece.

A few years ago Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs talked about the sea of white headphones that he would see in any major city. The white headphone was attached to an iPod, a revolutionary new device that became not only an integral part of daily life for millions of people around the world, but as my Israeli friends used to say, “the new American passport.”

Today, the new new passport is the iPhone, which in its first year of existence and at the dawn of version 2 has captured 20 percent of the North American smartphone market.

Let’s take a moment to reflect on technology: it’s the new designer handbag. Fashion couture dictates that an authentic Gucci or Coach handbag is the hallmark of the fashion and a disposable income.

However, today’s iconic status symbol is the mobile phone. People are changing phones more often than they are laptops or desktops.

My friends in Russia wanted access to the status symbol of the West. They are not rich by any stretch, but moderate and middle class. Yet they are ready and willing to spend money on the cool new gadgets such as the iPhone not only for the social identifier that they are, but also because of the practical, utilitarian application: ability to make phone calls and surf the Web.

All is not roses out there in the world. The inaccessibility of iconic technological devices in certain world markets has created an overpriced black market.

This should come as no surprise. The markup for an iPhone, however, is surprising – a 200 percent-plus market is fairly shocking. But when you consider how much less the average Russian earns a month, that markup is more like 300 percent to 400 percent, if not 500 percent. And yet they are still willing and eager to own one.

As a marketer of the 21st century I have to think that my potential market is as big as the world. Digital commerce is not necessarily local anymore; it’s global.

If I know there are users in foreign countries ready to pay for digital and specifically mobile innovations, shouldn’t I be ready to provide services and content for that specific mobile niche?

The forecast for the future is this: devices will drive service and product innovations. Savvy marketers will create custom applications for these iconic innovations of technology.

The first-to-market will have legions of dedicated users who will perceive quality through integration and customization that takes advantage of their unique digital handheld devices.

Because, really, who wants a device that looks good, but does nothing? We want to be power users. Marketers that enable users to maximize their mobile experience will be poised to reap great rewards.

Len Shneyder is director of partner relations and industry communications at Pivotal Veracity, a deliverability services and consultancy provider in Phoenix. Reach him at lshneyder@pivotalveracity.com.

T-minus 6 days and counting...

2008-06-02T14:18:00.000-07:00

Good bye bo

2008-06-02T14:08:00.001-07:00

I'll see you on the other side of that 40 miles of barbed wire...

Fight Prop 98 - Mobile Dance Party

2008-05-29T11:46:00.000-07:00

Saturday, May 31st
Reclaim The Streets! Mobile Dance Party!

- Because dancing in the streets is more fun than driving in them!
Starting 1pm at Dolores Park! From there, we take to the streets!
This event will last ALL DAY, be entirely outdoors, 100% FREE.

They're trying to get rid of rent control in San Francisco through Prop 98, so we decided we'd throw a party to get the word out and to celebrate the city we all live in! Meet us in the streets at the end of May to dance, sing, resist and take the streets!

Renters Rise Up is first and foremost a party. It is a community party, being thrown for anyone who wants to participate by anyone who wants to help plan it. And what better place for the community to have a party than in the streets?

Why are we having this party? Why does anybody have a party? To celebrate.

And what are we celebrating? We are celebrating ourselves and our communities. We here in the Bay Area live in a pretty amazing place. But it is the people of the Bay Area who make it what it is. And let's face it. We here in the Bay Area are pretty kick-ass people.

If that wasn't reason enough to have a dance party in the street, right now we need to stand up and appreciate what we have made here. Because we and our communities are under attack.

This is because rent control, the law that makes cities like San Francisco affordable to regular working people, is in danger of being overturned.

Against Landlords - Against Prop 98 - For Freedom in the Streets
--

From my working life

2008-05-15T08:34:00.000-07:00

By Len Shneyder

CTIA – The Wireless Association reported that in 2007 mobile subscriptions grew to 252 million. This means that 85 percent of the U.S. population is essentially paying one carrier or another, but it also means that 85 percent of the population is capable of receiving smart and targeted content delivered by savvy marketers.

Meanwhile, a recent BusinessWeek article reported that carriers were losing market share in the content arms race. However, according to the article, carriers such as Sprint Nextel weren’t at all afraid as the lost revenues would be made up in the growing demand for wireless Internet access. Data packages for mobile phones which rose 53 percent to $23 billion in 2007, according to CTIA.

So what does this mean for the average consumer?

Well, in one frustrated user’s humble opinion, it means that the pinch is on and we’re all about to get squeezed.

From double-dipping to surcharges on international texting, carriers have found ways of nickel-and-diming consumers.
But what does this mean for marketers? It means that consumers paying premium fees for nominal services are less inclined to pay for content and media, making it more challenging for marketers to cross the mobile divide.

However not all hope is lost. Understanding a few of the ways in which consumers are saving money may offer insights into how marketers can stay competitive in this new and important channel:

Learning to do it yourself. Media for a mobile phone is fairly simple to create. There are a host of tools on the Internet which empower users to make their own mobile desktop backgrounds and ringtones, for example.

As consumers realize the cost savings of doing-it-themselves, marketers can stay relevant by empowering end users through innovative desktop-to-mobile tools which take advantage of existing services but are optimized for the mobile audience.

Email is the consumer’s best friend, especially if his or her friends are overseas. Avoiding surreptitious fees associated with services such as international SMS is as easy as sending an email.

Consumers will eventually maximize the use of their data packages to offset per-use charges. Email is still mostly free, SMS is not.

Marketing via mobile email is also less expensive than SMS and richer so long as you understand the basic concepts of smaller and more targeted emails.

Wi-Fi to the rescue? The Apple iPhone and other mobile devices can connect to wireless networks in order to download content and media. As a matter of fact, the iTunes store on an iPhone will only work on a Wi-Fi network.

All signs point to increased wireless access of the Internet which will spur innovation and enrich available content through available packages and services.

As a savvy marketer of the 21st century, be aware of your consumer’s existing fees and needs. Find the niche where your products and services help mitigate those fees to stay relevant and on the consumer’s radar as useful tool, rather than just another fee.

Len Shneyder is director of partner relations and industry communications at Pivotal Veracity, a deliverability services and consultancy provider in Phoenix.

Father of LSD dies at 102

2008-04-30T14:49:00.000-07:00

Another from my working life...

2008-04-15T08:30:00.000-07:00

By Michelle Eichner and Len Shneyder

Social networks have evolved to fill every societal niche. There are sites dedicated to business networking like LinkedIn, special interests such as Vampirefreaks.com and monolithic sites like MySpace that have become hubs of innovation with features such as artist pages that provide struggling musicians a fast and easy means to promote their talents.

Why so much buzz about social networks? In a recent Reuters article, MySpace was quoted as having 110 million users and Facebook boasted 67 million active users.

It’s not just about size, though – social networks have mastered the art of engagement as evidenced by enviable stats such as 20-plus visits per month, 500-plus viewed pages per visitor and 200-plus minutes per visitor per month.

Mobile? You’d think these fat cats would be resting on their laurels, but they’re not ...

While most businesses have yet to embrace an increasingly mobile audience, social networking sites are setting the trend.

With the exception of Friendster, the majority of industry leading social networking sites, including Bebo, MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn (in beta), Twitter and even a Russian site called Vkontake, have firmly planted themselves as mobile-ready by creating light, sleek and relevant versions of their sites for mobile devices.

One of the challenges in mobilizing your site is adapting your content to an extremely limited environment – both in size and in functionality.

This requires trade-offs between what you want to promote to consumers and what will compel them to use your site from their smartphone.

In the case of most social networking sites, the mobile landing page tends to be the friend update section, which makes a lot of sense when you consider that people are using social networking sites as a means of keeping track of what their friends are doing.

Instead of bombarding mobile users with promotions, social networks’ mobile sites have honed-in on the core services and functions that their customers are most likely to need or want when on-the-go.

The cue we can take from the social networking world is that regardless of how popular you already are or aren’t, providing easy access via any means a user might possibly want is a critical key to retaining and growing your user base in the 21st century.

While the rest of us are repeating the mantra of targeting the right person, at the right place, at the right time, social networking sites recognize that to do so successfully today means cross-platform capabilities.

It’s not only about reaching consumers when they are sitting in front of their computer but also when they are standing at a subway stop, walking down the street or sitting on top of a mountain with their smartphone in hand.

Don’t dig social networking sites or need another reason to create a mobile-ready site? Take a look around you the next time you’re waiting for your flight: How many people have a smartphone in hand?

Smartphones are not just the mainstay of busy travelers; they are a hot-ticket item amongst consumers of all generations. The future is here: mobilize with it.

Michelle Eichner is co-founder and vice president of client services for Pivotal Veracity, a Scottsdale, AZ-based deliverability consultancy and service provider.

Len Shneyder is director of partner relations and industry communications at Pivotal Veracity.

From my working life...

2008-04-03T11:07:00.000-07:00

When less equals More
Jan 1, 2008 12:00 PM , BY MICHELLE EICHNER AND LEN SHNEYDER

Change how you're acquiring customers

The goals of those involved in acquisition are often at odds with today's e-mail reality. When success is measured on the number of new registrants and cost per registrant, marketers often rely on tactics that pose substantial risks to the health and well being of core customer communications. This is because they are likely to be adding names that have no real interest in receiving your ongoing e-mails.

Again, more is not better! One such tactic is incentive-based — the heavy use of promotions and sweepstakes to quickly and inexpensively acquire new names for your database. Folks sign up for the sweepstakes and then immediately unsubscribe or, worse yet, complain tht you are spamming them. Remember, at ISPs such as AOL if a tiny fraction of your customers complain you are spamming them, you risk having all your mail blocked (yes — that means all mail — including the mail to your active and engaged customers!).

Another tactic is what we call the “hidden-agenda method.” You may make a compelling benefit such as access to key information on your Website contingent, upon the person providing you their e-mail address.

In many cases, the customer may want access to your site, but has no interest in ongoing e-mails — so to accomplish this, he or she provides a fake address. As a result, your bad-address rate spikes for newly acquired names, and you once again risk having all mail blocked.

E-mail appends, unqualified co-registration programs, the list goes on — but the risks to your good mailing reputation cannot be ignored and should be measured. Only then can the potential impact be quantified and fully understood. Today, clarity is king. More names is definitively not better, and you should always provide a clear, unencumbered, and conspicuous opt-in to your ongoing e-mail communications.

Change what you're sending your customers

Not every customer should get the exact same thing. This becomes even more true over the course of their relationship with you. Your customers are unique individuals; providing relevant and personalized content will inspire and motivate them to visit your site and hopefully purchase your products and services.

Leverage the power of e-mail! Affordable e-mail technology allows you to provide a truly one-to-one message based on three main data sources: who they are (age, gender, geographic location, job type etc.), what they want (stated preferences at e-mail capture) and what they do (interests you ascertain by tracking what they click on — including e-mail and Web).

But too little consideration is given to the fact that your customers' interests evolve over time. The end result is that your customers, bored with your content and annoyed by the frequency of your mailings, will unsubscribe or report your e-mail as spam. Therefore, it is critical that you do not forget to revisit your segmentation strategy continuously over the course of the customer lifecycle.

Fine tune the frequency of your communications

Not every customer needs — or wants — to get an e-mail every single time you send one out. Mail smarter and to the right people. As we've discussed, there's an inherent danger in sending too much mail. Do not overestimate your customers' appetite for your e-mails — you don't want to burn out the new subscribers and you don't want to anger older ones who may have forgotten how or why they wound up on your list.

Sending friendly and gentle reminders requesting profile updates, and those such as “We haven't heard from you in a while, would you like to remain on our list?” are excellent tactics and provide a personal touch.

Another practical approach: Do not mail everyone at the same time. Send your most active names first and allow those to deliver. Then create a separate and relevant e-mail to your least active names and send that at least a full day after you've delivered your bread and butter. This may also have an added benefit of smoothing Web traffic and fulfillment.

And last but not least, remember: Although every name on your list represents incremental revenue, those names just as easily represent exponentially greater amounts of lost revenue because they can impact the delivery of your entire campaign. This is why less is truly more when it comes to e-mail marketing.

Michelle Eichner is chief operating officer/vice president of client development and Len Shneyder is director of partner relations and industry communications for Pivotal Veracity, an e-mail deliverability service provider.

Between a rock and a hard place

A client e-mails all opt-in names weekly (excluding those who have unsubscribed, bounced, or generated a spam complaint). In late 2006, Comcast blocked its IPs, preventing the client from being able to deliver any e-mail to Comcast. We contacted Comcast to ask why the client's e-mails were being blocked, and learned Comcast's filter (Brightmail) reported X% of this client's mail as spam. Based on a request from us, Comcast removed the block and the client continued mailing without changing its practices.

Business continued as usual, but so did the specter of less equals more. The client mailed its entire house file again and triggered Comcast's filters again. We again had the block lifted. But this quickly became less than ideal for the mailer, Pivotal Veracity, and Comcast; something had to be done.

The mailer's first tactic was to e-mail only subscribers with any post-signup activity, such as clicks or purchases, regardless of how long ago. Unfortunately, this also resulted in Comcast blocking the mail as in previous campaigns. The implication: Just because someone was engaged at one time does not mean they are still engaged and, as many folks do, they used the report-as-spam button to get off the list.

Rather desperate now, the mailer decided to test e-mailing only to Comcast addresses that had made a purchase; a dramatic measure but one with dramatic results. Since employing a Comcast mail strategy that includes buyers only, this client has received consistent 100% inbox delivery.

Older, inactive users were complaining, which caused the entire e-mail to be blocked by Comcast. Although the inactive names as a segment were producing incremental revenue as a small fraction purchased, the effect of sending e-mails to these users actually resulted in a net loss of revenue because it affected the ability to mail any e-mails to Comcast.

By taking proactive measures, the client has been able to successfully deliver to the inbox across all subsequent campaigns.
— ME/LS

New poem up on Sidebrow

2008-03-03T12:11:00.001-08:00

I've a new poem up on Sidebrow as part of the litopolis project. Go check it out... www.sidebrow.net... for one Mr. Armand F. Capanna II...

Ted Koozer on VD

2008-02-14T16:59:00.000-08:00

Ted Koozer was just on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED reading his little poems. He was quoted as having said that "Valentine's Day is the poet's holiday." He went on to say that Valentine's Day was all about expressions of sentiment... puhleeeeeeze... when asked why I don't think of myself as a poet it's because there are self righteous Koozers running around laying claim to hallmark holidays. It's ok, step away from the ledge, put down the pretentious boat anchor, you can still hang yourself without splitting the pavement with your gizzards.

...

2008-02-07T20:38:00.000-08:00

Somehow the dream last night had a pause button,
every traffic light was stuck
on a yellow like blood
not quite orange or what you squeezed for breakfast
not quite the color of a dress
not really the consistency of rain
or something slicker

last night this morning was fast forward
and after birth came meetings
corporate slag, so many slivers to yank
from your finger tips holding
the bleeding edge of a metaphor
caught in the weather
after something like lunch
the guy crossing the street
you couldn't help but stare at his crotch

the last dream you had post dreaming
filtered with possibilities where coffee
seemed to loose its luster
as the emotional pay cut arrived with a title.

From my working life....

2008-02-06T08:17:00.000-08:00

Trouble with Comcast? You’re Not Alone
Feb 5, 2008 2:30 PM , By Ken Magill

Dave Linhardt isn’t the only e-mailer apparently having trouble with Comcast.

The chief executive of e-mail marketing firm e360 Insight sued Comcast recently, claiming the cable and Internet service provider was blocking his e-mails from reaching recipients.

It turns out Comcast is blocking a lot of senders’ e-mail, according to multiple sources.

Comcast, however, begs to differ.

Multiple e-mail deliverability specialists are reporting that many of their clients are having difficulty getting their e-mail into Comcast address holders’ inboxes.

“I can usually tell when one of the ISPs makes some change to their incoming spam filtering just by my call volume,” wrote co-founder of deliverability consultancy Word to the Wise, Laura Atkins, on her blog. “The past few weeks, the ISP in most of my calls has been Comcast. And, what do you know, they have made changes to how they are filtering e-mail.”

This is not a small problem. Comcast is the No. 2 Internet service provider with 12.9 million subscribers, according to ISP Planet.

Comcast recently began using technology from anti spam firm Cloudmark. The change apparently resulted in heavier filtering of incoming e-mail.

Also, Comcast has been fiddling with its throttling rules resulting in fluctuations in the amount of e-mail it will accept from mailers, according to Len Shneyder, director of partner relations for deliverability consultancy Pivotal Veracity. Comcast has also limiting the number of connections any sender can establish with its servers.

As a result, e-mail is getting into Comcast more slowly.

“In general, the entire industry is experiencing problems with Comcast due to heavier filtering and rate limiting,” Shneyder said. “This is not unusual for ISPs in their fight against spam as they fine tune their systems to cope with the ever-increasing volume of spam.”

What to do? Shneyder recommends throttling, or slowing the amount of e-mail sent to Comcast addresses. He adds this may be difficult for some mailers with internal e-mail or home-grown systems, but most e-mail service providers can throttle e-mail by domain.

Shneyder said his contact at Comcast told him last week that mailers should limit outbound messages to Comcast addresses to six recipients per second.

Shneyder also said his Comcast contact told him senders should limit their connections to its servers to 10 per IP address.

Meanwhile, Jay Opperman, director of security and privacy for Comcast, said he isn’t aware of any widespread deliverability issues affecting incoming permission-based e-mail at the cable provider.

“The way I tell if it’s a big broad problem is I’ll get escalations, and we’re not seeing that,” he said. “Metrics that I have say we’re getting to the phone and answering people’s phone calls.”

He confirmed that Comcast implemented new anti-spam measures at the end of the third quarter of last year, including switching from anti-spam technology provider Brightmail to Cloudmark.

Opperman added that like many ISPs, Comcast places great weight on spam complaints from subscribers when determining how to handle incoming mail.

“Principally, a lot of actions that we take are based on feedback from our customers,” he said. “The issue that we run into with most of e-marketers is they don’t have a clean list.”

Opperman also said Comcast is considering increasingly using mailers’ so-called reputations—generally defined as the number of spam complaints a mailer gets, and the number of dead addresses and spam complaints a mailer hits—to determine how to process incoming mail.

“We’re looking at it,” he said. “We have not implemented a reputation-based filtering system at this point.”

Opperman added that when Comcast blocks a sender’s mail, the mailer will get an error message with a code and links they can follow for instructions on how to solve the problem. Mailers who experience deliverability issues should follow the links and fill out the appropriate forms when the situation warrants. They can also call Comcast’s anti-spam team, he said. The number is (888) 565-4329.

“If they don’t feel that their problem is being addressed, they can always escalate,” he added.

Le Scaphandre et le papillon

2008-01-15T07:46:00.000-08:00

Go see it... seriously... what are you reading this for? Just go see the film "The Diving Bell & The Butterfly", just be aware that you'll be emotionally hungover, as one critic said, for about a week afterward. One of the most lamentable and difficult to watch stories since "My left foot" and up there with D.D.L.'s performance in that film.

I managed to hunt down the playlist as there's no soundtrack available on Amazon...

'The Diving Bell & The Butterfly' Soundtrack tracklist
1. Charles Trenet - La Mer
2. The Dirtbombs - Chains of Love
3. Tom Waits - All the World Is Green
4. U2 - Ultra Violet (Light My Way)
5. Ultra Orange & Emmanuelle - Don't Kiss Me Goodbye
6. The Velvet Underground - Pale Blue Eyes
7. Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros - Ramshackle Day Parade
8. Paul Cantelon - Theme For the Diving Bell and the Butterfly

thanks to The Play List for posting the fabulous tunes in this film that have left me with an aural hangover when thinking about Le Mer...

Between Japan and Sea world

2008-01-13T12:46:00.000-08:00

there's the faith of dishes and die cast reflections
things in the mirror are twice as clearly mirrored
i've a finish for a first remembrance
crash-holed the story and wept a gentle rain
while the first girl we kissed and misplaced in our
hairpins and leaves of the living left slumbered
look it's not poignant if no one here dies
sit back relax, strap on your new nuclear tie
without it our intollerance grows
but that's how it works, every time
makes you just a little bit weaker
and cyring once a year is ok
but twice your a crier and that's not allowed
and all things verbotten verukt and vergessen
how can it taste more like the sea
but simple rules are simply kept
salt of the earth salt over my shoulder
salt and the bread
salt and the pepper
and some kept apart.

RIP Norman Mailer

2007-11-12T13:32:00.001-08:00

One or both

2007-11-07T13:06:00.001-08:00

Good old G. W. Bush just said, in reference to the president of Pakistan, Musharraf, that "You can't be the president and the head of the military." when asked about the recent state of emergency and martial law that Musharraf has declared in Pakistan, the US's biggest (and perhaps only) middle eastern supporter in the war on Terror... hm... what would that make GW as Commander in Chief? I wonder...

The Devil In You

2007-11-05T08:41:00.000-08:00

Last night you saw the devil in a top hat walking with a cane, or maybe sitting on a park bench, wincing whenever the wind blew. Last night the devil was in the details. Two more sad eyed nobodies no more spent than spun. Ham strung hallucinations, two birds came running to your window to find you gone, still sitting there sanitizing the past. No matter the size of the parasol over head you’re ground underfoot. These boots walked and found that hell was a form of personal innuendo when no one was laughing. You choke back a flower wanting to give birth to everything too scared to be born. It’s the manner in which temptation raises doubt how the best things won seem lost and the busses never run on time. Standing out—tearing in, silly thing to want the rain on a sunny day when you can’t stand illumination. Everything in its right place is a wrong aesthetic. Sometimes the medicine is to cut too deeply. Sometimes the devil is a little girl in a red dress with a blue face. Sometimes you can’t have been more than six or seven but when you want to be held you’re always the age you were right then. Pausing that day you thought the wind might wait for your leaves to fall by themselves. A chance reflection, the one you want to be, the one that wants to be you, the one isn’t the same as the one before. Don’t make too much trouble keeping out the stuff coming in. Dorothy Parker’s overwell wrought loves lay bare the door to hell. Last night’s last stand was lost in transliteration. There’s the metaphor you left unedited, the one where you’re at the center of it all. Then there’s last rights, the ones you take before the first kiss. Let’s pretend every last night was the devil in you.

[Unfinished]

2007-10-30T23:14:00.001-07:00

How do you fold the pages of this day into the volume of tomorrow’s night?

The book of opposites

opposes no one man

speaks no one woman

hears no one child

wears not one skin

but stretches them all

seekers and the string of [sought] revelations

have a fastening hook and the bodice of [body]

annihilations sentinels silences

where it’s cut off

while a flower

draws color: oceanic parasol

what is covered

unfolds inside

unwinds and

unstable seems

the string of sought revelations

a fastening and the body

assimilated intractable

Of Reistance

2007-10-30T23:09:00.001-07:00

Tender dream

Night’s pillow

Borrow a leg

Of meaning

From the arm

Of resistance

Resistance

Arms

Meaning

Borrows feet

At night

To dream

A leg up

Meaning

Resistance

Is arming

The dream

tonight

Tender night

Borrowed pillows

Leggy

Meaning

Arms

irresistible

Hayward fault methinks...

2007-10-30T20:24:00.000-07:00

From Panopticon

2007-10-23T23:52:00.000-07:00

The sense \’sen(t)s\ of being – alive a captive – as one dares enter into emotional contracts beleaguered of a future return except the trauma of a sensational harvest. To what end is a stone field plowed? Purloined fruit, the strangest boughs twisting through the cell’s quadrangular similarity while light draws shadows on the eyes of those to be seen. The collective’s separate fantasies dream of curtains to separate them from their presence.

the senses – as an open grave of lillies

From Panopticon

2007-10-23T23:49:00.000-07:00

The wholeness \’hōl‘nes\ of the still. Stone and stone locked in stone. The stones lock themselves. The stones lock themselves. This too is kept in stone, written in stone. Stone to stone. He felt the stones had a place for him. Every stone unturned is made of wall. Where the stones have names. Perhaps his name was stone. Seen through like so many he was dim as stone. As a stone falls in water keeping dry its secret. What splits the stone but doors. Standing in the stone cell. Sleeping on the stone. Walking on stone. Stone to stone. He’s made of something more than stones. Seen through. What might look like stone to you. Polyhedron passage lined with stone. Stone dreams sand. Here’s the perfect stone to skip. Bouncing off the stones his light. Shadowy stones. Lighted like a standing stone. His light shadow stone. He was stoned. Against the stone or thrown from or onto stones. Ancient stones to stones to stones to new ones as old as old stones. Here’s a stone. His is.

Stones. Papers. Scissors.

...

2007-09-21T11:32:00.001-07:00

Armed theives rob art museum in Nice

2007-08-07T14:56:00.000-07:00

Four paintings were stolen by armed and masked thieves in Nice. Two of the canvases were Impressionist classics by Monet and Sisley while the other two were by Flemish genius and allegory painter Brueghel. Take a gander, in case you see them at a flea market or what not...

Noise from the void

2007-08-07T14:19:00.000-07:00

Well I haven't reposted one of Jeno's announcements in a while. Besides the great tunes, I just love the posters... so here's the announcement for this week's NOISE FROM THE VOID...

Its the glasses that pull this piece together

2007-08-02T12:13:00.001-07:00

Nashi - Youth Movement in Russia

2007-08-01T10:30:00.000-07:00

I've been asked several times while in St. Petersburg why I don't move to Russia and do a year in St. Pete's or perhaps Moscow. My answer is the same every time: "I love this city (st. petersburg) but I hate this country." The article below has it's problems, but the tone is worrisome in that a lot of this is "happening" in Russia now. You might be surprised as you start reading the article you may think, oh so the Russians have turned into the Moonies and are engaging in mass weddings to promote a kind of family values. But then there was this award that the Nazis would give to women who bore the most children for Der Vaterland. This Russia is potentially more terrifying than that of Stalin, at least back then we the world was afraid and vigilant, and now, with the mounting and continuing problems of the middle east and our own War on Terror being a terror in the world, someone may not notice these small details of youth movements backed by the Kremlin and the way that a country's history is being rewritten for their youth, and the ideological exhuming of Stalin's memory. Read on...

Sex for the motherland: Russian youths encouraged to procreate at camp

By EDWARD LUCAS - More by this author » Last updated at 08:35am on 29th July 2007

Remember the mammoths, say the clean-cut organisers at the youth camp's mass wedding. "They became extinct because they did not have enough sex. That must not happen to Russia".

Obediently, couples move to a special section of dormitory tents arranged in a heart-shape and called the Love Oasis, where they can start procreating for the motherland.

With its relentlessly upbeat tone, bizarre ideas and tight control, it sounds like a weird indoctrination session for a phoney religious cult.

But this organisation - known as "Nashi", meaning "Ours" - is youth movement run by Vladimir Putin's Kremlin that has become a central part of Russian political life.

Scroll down for more

Sinister: Millions of young Russians at a youth camp discerningly similar to the Hitler Youth

Nashi's annual camp, 200 miles outside Moscow, is attended by 10,000 uniformed youngsters and involves two weeks of lectures and physical fitness.

Attendance is monitored via compulsory electronic badges and anyone who misses three events is expelled. So are drinkers; alcohol is banned. But sex is encouraged, and condoms are nowhere on sale.

Bizarrely, young women are encouraged to hand in thongs and other skimpy underwear - supposedly a cause of sterility - and given more wholesome and substantial undergarments.

Twenty-five couples marry at the start of the camp's first week and ten more at the start of the second. These mass weddings, the ultimate expression of devotion to the motherland, are legal and conducted by a civil official.

Attempting to raise Russia's dismally low birthrate even by eccentric-seeming means might be understandable. Certainly, the country's demographic outlook is dire. The hard-drinking, hardsmoking and disease-ridden population is set to plunge by a million a year in the next decade.

But the real aim of the youth camp - and the 100,000-strong movement behind it - is not to improve Russia's demographic profile, but to attack democracy.

Under Mr Putin, Russia is sliding into fascism, with state control of the economy, media, politics and society becoming increasingly heavy-handed. And Nashi, along with other similar youth movements, such as 'Young Guard', and 'Young Russia', is in the forefront of the charge.

At the start, it was all too easy to mock. I attended an early event run by its predecessor, 'Walking together', in the heart of Moscow in 2000. A motley collection of youngsters were collecting 'unpatriotic' works of fiction for destruction.

It was sinister in theory, recalling the Nazis' book-burning in the 1930s, but it was laughable in practice. There was no sign of ordinary members of the public handing in books (the copies piled on the pavement had been brought by the organisers).

Once the television cameras had left, the event organisers admitted that they were not really volunteers, but being paid by "sponsors". The idea that Russia's anarchic, apathetic youth would ever be attracted into a disciplined mass movement in support of their president - what critics called a "Putinjugend", recalling the "Hitlerjugend" (German for "Hitler Youth") - seemed fanciful.

How wrong we were. Life for young people in Russia without connections is a mixture of inadequate and corrupt education, and a choice of boring dead-end jobs. Like the Hitler Youth and the Soviet Union's Young Pioneers, Nashi and its allied movements offer not just excitement, friendship and a sense of purpose - but a leg up in life, too.

Nashi's senior officials - known, in an eerie echo of the Soviet era, as "Commissars" - get free places at top universities. Thereafter, they can expect good jobs in politics or business - which in Russia nowadays, under the Kremlin's crony capitalism, are increasingly the same thing.

Nashi and similar outfits are the Kremlin's first line of defence against its greatest fear: real democracy. Like the sheep chanting "Four legs good, two legs bad" in George Orwell's Animal Farm, they can intimidate through noise and numbers.

Nashi supporters drown out protests by Russia's feeble and divided democratic opposition and use violence to drive them off the streets.

The group's leaders insist that the only connection to officialdom is loyalty to the president. If so, they seem remarkably well-informed.

In July 2006, the British ambassador, Sir Anthony Brenton, infuriated the Kremlin by attending an opposition meeting. For months afterwards, he was noisily harassed by groups of Nashi supporters demanding that he "apologise". With uncanny accuracy, the hooligans knew his movements in advance - a sign of official tip-offs.

Even when Nashi flagrantly breaks the law, the authorities do not intervene. After Estonia enraged Russia by moving a Sovietera war memorial in April, Nashi led the blockade of Estonia's Moscow embassy. It daubed the building with graffiti, blasted it with Stalinera military music, ripped down the Estonian flag and attacked a visiting ambassador's car. The Moscow police, who normally stamp ruthlessly on public protest, stood by.

Nashi fits perfectly into the Kremlin's newly-minted ideology of "Sovereign democracy". This is not the mind-numbing jargon of Marxism-Leninism, but a lightweight collection of cliches and slogans promoting Russia's supposed unique political and spiritual culture.

It is strongly reminiscent of the Tsarist era slogan: "Autocracy, Orthodoxy and Nationality".

The similarities to both the Soviet and Tsarist eras are striking. Communist ideologues once spent much of their time explaining why their party deserved its monopoly of power, even though the promised utopia seemed indefinitely delayed.

Today, the Kremlin's ideology chief Vladislav Surkov is trying to explain why questioning the crooks and spooks who run Russia is not just mistaken, but treacherous.

Yet, by comparison with other outfits, Nashi looks relatively civilised. Its racism and prejudice is implied, but not trumpeted. Other pro-Kremlin youth groups are hounding gays and foreigners off the streets of Moscow. Mestnye [The Locals] recently distributed leaflets urging Muscovites to boycott non-Russian cab drivers.

These showed a young blonde Russian refusing a ride from a swarthy, beetle-browed taxi driver, under the slogan: "We're not going the same way."

Such unofficial xenophobia matches the official stance. On April 1, a decree explicitly backed by Mr Putin banned foreigners from trading in Russia's retail markets. By some estimates, 12m people are working illegally in Russia.

Those who hoped that Russia's first post-totalitarian generation would be liberal, have been dissapointed. Although explicit support for extremist and racist groups is in the low single figures, support for racist sentiments is mushrooming.

Slogans such as "Russia for the Russians" now attract the support of half of the population. Echoing Kremlin propaganda, Nashi denounced Estonians as "fascist", for daring to say that they find Nazi and Soviet memorials equally repugnant. But, in truth, it is in Russia that fascism is all too evident.

The Kremlin sees no role for a democratic opposition, denouncing its leaders as stooges and traitors. Sadly, most Russians agree: a recent poll showed that a majority believed that opposition parties should not be allowed to take power.

Just as the Nazis in 1930s rewrote Germany's history, the Putin Kremlin is rewriting Russia's. It has rehaabilitated Stalin, the greatest massmurderer of the 20th century. And it is demonising Boris Yeltsin, Russia's first democratically-elected president. That he destroyed totalitarianism is ignored. Instead, he is denounced for his "weak" pro-Western policies.

While distorting its own history, the Kremlin denounces other countries. Mr Putin was quick to blame Britain's "colonial mentality" for our government's request that Russia try to find a legal means of extraditing Andrei Lugovoi, the prime suspect in the murder of Alexander Litvinenko.

Yet the truth is that Britain, like most Western countries, flagellates itself for the crimes of the past. Indeed, British schoolchildren rarely learn anything positive about their country's empire. And, if Mr Putin has his way, Russian pupils will learn nothing bad about the Soviet empire, which was far bloodier, more brutal - and more recent.

A new guide for history teachers - explicitly endorsed by Mr Putin - brushes off Stalin's crimes. It describes him as "the most successful leader of the USSR". But it skates over the colossal human cost - 25m people were shot and starved in the cause of communism.

"Political repression was used to mobilise not only rank-and-file citizens but also the ruling elite," it says. In other words, Stalin wanted to make the country strong, so he may have been a bit harsh at times. At any time since the collapse of Soviet totalitarianism in the late 1980s, that would have seemed a nauseating whitewash. Now, it is treated as bald historical fact.

If Stalin made mistakes, so what? Lots of people make mistakes.

"Problematic pages in our history exist," Mr Putin said last week. But: "we have less than some countries. And ours are not as terrible as those of some others." He compared the Great Terror of 1937, when 700,000 people were murdered in a purge by Stalin's secret police, to the atom bomb on Hiroshima.

The comparison is preposterous. A strong argument can be made that by ending the war quickly, the atom bombs saved countless lives.

Franklin D Roosevelt and Harry Truman-may have failed to realise that nuclear weapons would one day endanger humanity's survival. But, unlike Stalin, they were not genocidal maniacs.

As the new cold war deepens, Mr Putin echoes, consciously or unconsciously, the favourite weapon of Soviet propagandists in the last one.

Asked about Afghanistan, they would cite Vietnam. Castigated for the plight of Soviet Jews, they would complain with treacly sincerity about discrimination against American blacks. Every blot on the Soviet record was matched by something, real or imagined, that the West had done.

But the contrasts even then were absurd. When the American administration blundered into Vietnam, hundreds of thousands of people protested in the heart of Washington. When eight extraordinarily brave Soviet dissidents tried to demonstrate in Red Square against the invasion of Czechoslovakia, in 1968, they were instantly arrested and spent many years in labour camps.

For the east European countries with first-hand experience of Stalinist terror, the Kremlin's rewriting of history could hardly be more scary. Not only does Russia see no reason to apologise for their suffering under Kremlin rule, it now sees the collapse of communism not as a time of liberation, but as an era of pitiable weakness.

Russia barely commemorates even the damage it did to itself, let alone the appalling suffering inflicted on other people. Nashi is both a symptom of the way Russia is going - and a means of entrenching the drift to fascism.

Terrifyingly, the revived Soviet view of history is now widely held in Russia. A poll this week of Russian teenagers showed that a majority believe that Stalin did more good things than bad.

If tens of thousands of uniformed German youngsters were marching across Germany in support of an authoritarian Fuhrer, baiting foreigners and praising Hitler, alarm bells would be jangling all across Europe. So why aren't they ringing about Nashi?

• Edward Lucas is author of the forthcoming The New Cold War And How To Win It.

Dappled Cities stole the show...

2007-07-24T00:20:00.001-07:00

Seriously, Tokyo Police Club was good... but Dappled Cities were amazing!!!

Fog...

2007-07-22T21:16:00.000-07:00

I'm washing dishes
and cleaning a good time.
There's a Mexican stand off
between the night and my kitchen,
sodium is at odds with incandescence
and fog visits every corner unseen
felt like footfalls on the grave.
This is summer by the ocean,
a melodious harmonium,
Shankar's raga bhimpalasi
struggling with the metronomic
call of a horn near the water.
Mythologically speaking
something wails in the glow
of a dark night illuminated within
by handfuls of tears,
floating between the building
detached from the greater body
of being heard.

The New 7 Wonders Of The World

2007-07-19T09:10:00.000-07:00

The New Wonders	The old Wonders

More fog...

2007-07-19T08:50:00.000-07:00

“There is nothing more poetic and terrible than the skyscrapers' battle with the heavens that cover them. Snow, rain, and mist highlight, drench, or conceal the vast towers, but those towers, hostile to mystery and blind to any sort of play, shear off the rain's tresses and shine their three thousand swords through the soft swan of the fog.”

--Federico Garcia Lorca

Yesteryear's achievment

2007-07-17T15:35:00.000-07:00

This is by far the best... I mean sure, Doctors are human, and I'm sure there are some cardiologists that finish a triple bypass and then step outside the hospital and have a cig, or two, but to run an add like this... wow! So the science of big tobacco, disproving that smoking leads to lung cancer, or at least creating reasonable doubt in such a ludicrous theory, was first applied in a statistical manner to determine if doctors, soon to become their worst enemies, preferred their cigarettes to marlboros. I'm glad Camel helped inform of us which smooth turkish blend to trust. Man I want a smoke...

More from yesteryear

2007-07-17T15:33:00.001-07:00

Now this one is just about being blunt, and tasteless, and if this were the modern age, where looking like Tucker Carlson was a crime, or should be, then the creator of this add would find themselves with the ACLU crawling single file, up his a$$ with a microscope and a subpoena. It amazes me how much bigotry there was, and still is, but wow, these things didn't pull any punches.

The marketing of yesteryear

2007-07-17T15:27:00.001-07:00

Maybe this is bad, well it's probably not good, but I'm thinking that this add is just anticipating the rage that would come to be known as the Atkins diet. I mean look at all the happy shiney people who went around stuffing their faces with bacon and eggs and pork bellies, washing them down with a handful of greens and watching as the miracle of Ketosis slimmed their waste and caused their cholesterol to shoot through the roof! This is the kind of future thinking that probably turned the creator of this add into a multi millionaire who started a company that is still around today, maybe... er um, maybe not...

To teach

2007-07-17T08:53:00.001-07:00

Listening to NPR: story about Cardinal Mohoney in LA, snippets of victims voices etc. "I was a cradle catholic, I waited to the 11th hour to file suite against the church that taught me how to love God." I find this strange, that a church teaches you to love God, I thought it was something that existed within everyone, or most, this concept of Love and that the act of Love itself was that of G-d? Does Love have to be focused upon the image of a bearded figure in order to realize the act of it? Or is it in the fact that one can experience love for another being, another thing, the thingness of l-o-v-e that in and of itself is a manifestation of the divine? So the church that taught her how to do it, isn't it only riding the coat tails of a capacity that exists within each person to begin with? Sure direction, focus, right-way-of-life, a sense of noble purpose etc, but really, the core of it all, the love, the basic tenets of J.C., isn't that just common sense? I don't know... maybe, but that phrase struck me as incredibly strange.

For Bert Chen

2007-07-16T22:14:00.000-07:00

Faster than a clemens curve or careening off a highway cliff because the night is so much thicker here than humid nights on Jersey shores. Bridge and tunnel bruise and fly: to experience the sensation of trust let go of the rock. Oh this is how we roll: digesting G-d in a bowl of tendon and tripe. Worshiping his knife work, commerce, a labor, let's not get crazy, but I've a lesson to learn in random geometry. Lady luck's a tough old sow that blessed few and cursed tomorrow's suckers. Listen the metro's a dirty place, but you wouldn't ever ride the bus. When the mechanics of a penis on four wheels find expression between the champs d'elysee and boulevard st. michel, it'll be the sound of pigeon wings: this is called the sauce and you get to decide if you're on or off.

More Fog...

2007-07-16T21:40:00.000-07:00

“Like a man travelling in foggy weather, those at some distance before him on the road he sees wrapped up in the fog, as well as those behind him, and also the people in the fields on each side, but near him all appears clear, though in truth he is as much in the fog as any of them.”

-Benjamin Franklin

Containment

2007-07-15T17:00:00.000-07:00

The fog is a pressure chamber into which you plunge headlong. There's the mystery and the mystery of things left unsaid. The fog is a destination. Outside there's this cool summer day and then there's the fog, a welt on the land, gray, a pustule to be filled with brooding if you so choose. The fog's characteristics are quite plain: to be filled by your mood. The fog is filled now with something somber, something like the book I'm reading. I should stop reading this book as it's depressing me in a strange way, but then I can't quite put it down and want to get through it hoping that by the time I do the sun will have burned a pin sized hole through the fog on the spot where I'm sitting by the window where half my body is cold from exposure and the half that is resting against the leather of my reading chair is warm. I'm feeling a little like mercury racing through the pages of Observatory Mansions, but this flight isn't heraldic, I'm not bringing Zeus any lightning bolts from Vulcan, I'm sitting and have decided to make a cup of tea. I'm no longer sitting in my chair, I've moved, and the tea will help warm me from the inside and ease the scratch in the back of my throat. The scratch is deeper than the soft pink skin of my esophagus and extends into something like my spine. My spine is a conduit that radiates memories to all parts of my body. I'm remembering my time abroad which has already started to become a kind of dream. My body is remembering my time abroad and the scratch and the cough are reminders that death in dreams can be similar to the death of dreams and that each has a toll in the real world. My spine is reminding me that there's a place and time for things and that fog brings them to bear on my consciousness. My spine feels fatigue in the form of weight; when the limbs of my body, the matter of my person, and the fact that weight is a measure of gravity, when the gravity of the fog being filled with memories and things is weighing down on my limbs, and they are tugged from below by the nature of things, this is when I know that my fatigue is two sided, twice the burden, twice to bear things born once. This is the nature of fog, sitting in it, keeping it out by closing a window that has never kept it out, that never closes that wills itself open even when you know you never closed it, because the act of closure is a dogged one. This is how fog creeps into everything, every little space, a crevice of uncertainty. The fog is a reminder that every black and white construct can make a gray area, this is a place where choices don't have to be made but one can sit with one's own thoughts for a spell, relics borrowed from the fog and due to be returned once they've been processed and addressed. This too is a kind of fog...

From the Abbey

2007-07-05T20:08:00.000-07:00

How many to be judges
so few and a debt
for each to pay
in tomorrow's currency:
stock and bone
flesh made stone
which earthly
remains remain
as the dead knowing
it's better to be
alive.

DVM SPIRITUS HOS REGET ARTVS
So long as breath controls my being.
-Giovani Batista Moroni (portrait of a man)

London Fog

2007-07-05T17:31:00.000-07:00

I wish I could say that it's just fog, I mean that would be grand, but I get enough of that back home in San Francisco. No, this is much worse, much, much worse; this is rain and it's been making a mockery of me and my camera gear. I take it out, it starts raining, I put it back in, it starts raining... what the bloody hell is going on? I'm being chased by a big fat gray cloud that is dumping on me wherever I go... it's not fair I tell you...

So now that I got that out of my system let's get down to brass tacks... how much for the pint?

Before I left Russia Nellman said to me: "London will drain your bank account faster than any other city on Earth." Guess what, he was right. I've had to stop myself from computing the cost of things. I mean 2 quid for a cup of joe, sounds great, right? Wrong that's 4 bucks! I mean I don't think it's that expensive at a baseball game even. I pulled 200 pounds out when I arrived and realized I was grabbing 400 hundred dollars, oh well, that's how it goes. Maybe I'll win the lottery when I get home. Ha!

My first full day in London, and Erez's birthday was a long affair. We started the morning by walking to Westminster Abbey which is about five blocks away, or somewhere there about. What can I say about a house of the dead? I've never seen so much art in service of the dead. Well that's not entirely true too, but I swear the British are like the Egyptians in that they glorify their pharohs in one house rather than building a separate one for each and every single one of them. This is probably good as the whole of London would be nothing but one big graveyard otherwise. Westminster Abbey is an amazing place. It really is in that it houses world famous writers, poets, in the poet's corner and monarchs that have defined not only English history, which ultimately affected most of the world if we're to believe in the old addage: "the sun never sets on the British empire." I was a little disappointed to find out that photography was verboten in the abbey. I would've very much liked to have taken pictures of some of the graves and monuments. I remember pausing for a long while when I reached the coffin of Elizabeth and then Henry the 5th. These figures are not only the stuff of history and myth in the western world, but they're also a kind of literary icon considering that Shakespeare wrote two of the most stirring speeches in the English language when he penned Henry the 5th (St. Crispen's Day and Once More Unto the Breach) but that he wrote in Elizabethan England. It's a wonderful place, and frustrating as well. Every nook and cranny of the abbey is filled with a stone to someone or other. There are modern figures like Laurence Olivier and Winston Churchill and of course obscure generals and what not that earned their rights in the afterlife by dying gallantly in battle. Yet, there's this put on air about the whole thing, a kind of over romanticism about the building and it's contents which are naturally invaluable to the character and spirit of England, but somehow over wrought and now thought of as invaluable. I think most monuments fall into this category in one way or another. The austerity of Arlington isn't that far off from this place, but maybe the open space creates a kind of quietness about it, that the containment of the abbey, filled with tourists, can't quite create, or mute their over zealous and rude footsteps on the heads of so many defining personages from history. It was a mixed bag and I'm not sure why, but I thought back to a book that Boobar had with him on Benjamin and Monuments. I have a feeling I'll be looking to my dear friend Walter Benjamin for advice on this one. I did find one thing slightly curious, it was a stone in one of the chapels near Elizabeth's grave and it was a curious stone that had a crescent moon on it that looked more like something you'd see on top of a mosque than an icon in a Christian church. I asked a priest about it who flashed me a smile and said hello outside the chapel and he didn't know why it was there. Eventually, after walking out of the Abbey i asked one of the robed guides and he couldn't remember the exact significance of the stone, so he called his manager over, a man named "Eddy" and he too couldn't quite remember why that stone was there. He postulated that it might be part of the family crest of whoever was buried in that chapel. After some more discussion I proposed that this person's family might've been involved in the crusades and possibly had a stake in the Jerusalem of the 12th/13th century thereby bringing that bit of iconography into his or her family crest, which he thought was possible. He was a nice fellow and I enjoyed talking to him. I went on to ask him if any of the bodies had been removed or bones moved and he said they're all there, except for one, a high protectorate of England who was exumed and then disposed off following the Reformation and that whole debacle with Bloody Mary. He had fallen out of favor, postmortem, and had been forcibly removed from his honored resting place.

After the Abbey we walked along to see Big Ben, Parliament, then along the Embankment where I shot a few pictures of the monument to those that fought and died during the Battle of London and the air raids. The words "Never has so much been owed to so few by so many" is etched into the stone of the memorial from a speech delivered by Winston Churchill. It's a rather beautiful memorial. Pictures are to come.

From there it was off to Picadilly and then Trafalgar as we contemplated buying tickets for Fiddler on the Roof. We've been toying with this idea for a couple days now and I'm just not in the mood to sit for a musical, I much rather be walking around. Yeah, great walking I'm doing thick with insomnia now. Poor Erez will be waking up in like an hour to head out to Aberdene in Scotland on business. He's had the last couple days off and has been wandering around London with me, but alas, it's back to the grind for all of us at some point, he's coming back tomorrow night... but man... it's going to be a long day for him.

Back to the day though... it was off to Covent Garden, I saw St. Paul's church, a lovely small church on the edge of the market with a beautiful garden wet from the rain. The trees here are majestic and seem to be as old or older than the castles. No telling how many survived the fires and German bombs that fell on this city during the war years, but nonetheless, they are truly regal. From Covent we found our way back to a small corner restaurant where we dined on Fish and chips (you have to once, right?) and then went back to Trafalgar which is being prepared for the Tour de France kick off in London. Not sure about that to be quite honest, but hey whatever floats their boats. You know Tour de France, France, I know I know, the British have always laid a claim on the French throne, but aren't we past that yet?

The national gallery was free and open late so we hopped in queue and found ourselves facia tu facia with Leonardo's Madonna of the Rocks. WoW. What a marvelous work of art that shows off his three masterful skills: contraposto, sfumato and chiaroscuro. All three of these are at work in this painting. He has done small things that are completely out of character for other works of this period and earlier, the Christ child is not being held by Mary, quite the contrary, the baby next to mary praying makes you think is the Christ, but on the contrary that's John the Baptist praying to the Christ child which is closer to the Foreground and is being attended too, or meditated upon by an angel. To think that human hands found a way to glorify myth with such passion and force of conviction as to create a work of art that takes into account all of Da Vinci's amazing talents for physiology, science, graphic art etc is to really be impressed by the power of faith as the corner stone of art through most of human history.

There are some wonderful Titian's in the collection including the very dark Allegory of Prudence that features 2 three headed figures one composed of the face of 3 men representing past present and future and one of a wolf lion and dog representing prudence in an allegorical fashion of those that may consume the imprudent. A little message is included for the obtuse that might miss this powerful visual symbol in latin on the canvas: "learning from yesterday, today acts prudently, lest by misaction he spoil tomorrow."

Above and beyond the museum has a wonderful collection of modern art that includes Seurat and Monet, Van Gogh's sunflowers are on loan from the Van Gogh museum in the Netherlands and I was happy to see them again.

From the national gallery we went back to wandering around a bit and finally returned to Westminster to shop for groceries. We cooked dinner at home and drank beer and wine. I fell ill at this point, something didn't quite agree with me. I'm still not sure what it was, either old mayo that I had with my chips or maybe the tap water, who knows. I tried to rally and we went back to Covent Garden to make merry for E's 29th, but I had a devil of a time and started to sweat and go through the rigamarole of fending off a foreign intruder. I held it together long enough to make it to a Brazilian club called Guanabara that had fantastic music, a thin crowd that night, but some great dancers. A couple in particular, really caught my eye and I watched them for a long time. He was obviously the stronger dancer of the two, she wasn't half bad either, but you could tell he was definitely in charge and would make corrections to her moves when they were not in line with his intentions. It was the bosa nova mate, and it was good. He would push and pull her and she had a radiant smile on her face. I grew nostalgic for our somewhat drunken dance sessions at Achtung Baby, that cavernous cellar in the back of some 19th century building that we couldn't quite stay away from. It was far less graceful than what I saw that night, but it was just as passionate and at times unforgettable in the sheer bliss of the moment as we all of us, madmen and women, writers and all, glided across the dance floor.

Well I'm going to call this a night for updating the blog. I'll tell you about the Tate and the southbank tomorrrow or some other time, It's four in the morning, Erez is up, and I'm going to hit the sack... once he leaves, so maybe I'll post some scribbles from my notebook before I go though... adieu...

London calling

2007-07-03T18:01:00.000-07:00

It's the clash and it's not the clash, it's something alright. All the cars are moving in the wrong direction and you have to mind the gap. I pulled money out of an ATM today and realized that the sum I pulled out is double what I actually received. As Josh said before I left St. Pete's "London drains your bank account like nothing else!" Well that's fine... sorta... I don't know... it's a beautiful city. I'm sitting here a block away from Scotland Yard feeling very secure, sorta.

I arrived in Heathrow to find that the authorities had shut down Terminal 4. All the connecting flights, international I believe, were cancelled and passport control was a mess! We sat on the plane in what I can only describe as total gridlock. There were five other planes trying to get into their slots when we touched down. When we finally entered our docking slot off the runway the captain announced that the mobile stairs hadn't arrived yet. This was nothing compared to the 10 switchbacks of the line to get through passport control. After walking through, finding my luggage in a sea of bags I walked into the terminal building and there was Erez pretending to be the paparazi with his camera out taking pictures. I could've strangled him, the last thing after dealing with a massive hangover from the night before, that I wanted, was to be photographed looking like death warmed over.

Saying goodbye to friends in Russia was painful. I can just imagine them right now going to bed and or wandering in from Achtung Baby after having danced the night away to bad mixing and tall cold beers. Boobar and I woke up shortly after 10 in the morning. I think it was close to 5 when we finally went to bed. The boat ride was the perfect thing, or method of exiting that city. To see the Winter Palace and Hermitage from the water, along with the opening of the bridges is how the city was kind of meant to be seen. The buildings aren't terribly tall in St. Pete's but their massive size, big fat constructs hiding even larger and more spacious courtyards makes for deceptive sense of distance. On the river things are put into a little bit more perspective. Everything in St. Pete's is massive, and then you get to London and the sense you get here is that everything has shrunk and has been packed in tightly. The streets are tiny and the facades of the buildings remind you of Amsterdam except that nothing is leaning quite in the same way as those old Dutch buildings, falling and being supported with metal tie rods and all kinds of hacked engineering to keep them in place. I'm in total withdrawal, I dropped a coin in the Nevya last night, and made a wish... I was as I am now a little nostalgic... ok, a lot.

So anyway morning started out painful, really painful. My normal state of being in the mornings is one of slow moving, stale breath from too many cigarettes, beer vodka and whatever else we had for dinner that night, and I can usually shake the haze in a matter of minutes. I wish that was the case this morning. No, the haze lasted for most of the day. I don't remember who it was, maybe Jessie, but someone handed me a shot of cognac on the boat, this ontop of two different kinds of beer (the boat had warmm bud on it, disgusting) and then there was the vodka we had at Kilikia, about 700 grams of it... between friends, toasting to an absent comrade in arms, the cognac did not do me good, or the beer I had when I got Achtung Baby. That was a really bad idea, achtung baby... it was absolutely unnecassary, we should've just gone back to the mini hotel and drank the good vodka boobar had in the fridge, but no, we went, and we left quite quickly. I feel a little bad, at one point I saw Boobar get up to go and without saying goodbye to anyone, as I had sad many goodbye's before we embarked on our river/canal ride, I left, ran out of the place, I was feeling quite drunk and just had to get home... self preservation instinct I suppose. Shaking the fog was tuff, but I managed to shower, finish packing and then Boobar and I headed off to Zoom. Now this was a monumental moment for Mr. Dostoyevksy himself, James is never awake before noon on the day of one of his walks, but for me he was up and out at 11 am to go have breakfast. Mariya joined us for a quick bite and I was able to say goodbye to her then. She left and then Sasha joined us. Casey came through Zoom and she took down my email addy to keep in touch and so forth and so on. Boobar and I sat with thousand yard stares, like Sheen and Dafoe in Platoon, we were completely indifferent to those that crossed our path for any number of reasons. We finally disembarked from zoom and headed back to the mini to get my crap. From there it was a walk to the 301. Nastia, young Tanya, Gleb, Timur were all in the office. Low and behold here comes Igor up the stairs... "let's go eat" I just ate, "nah, tam yeda na hooya blat! let's go have real food" Igor, my cab is coming in 20 minutes. "ladna, ok, I'll see you off" I miss that crazy bastard... so he did just that. I had a throng of well wishers seeing me off, it was sweet, touching and made me want to change my ticket, but maybe this place will be good for me, a little decompression, a little something different... maybe just a breath of air... but I miss the stench of ladas and moskvitches, the thick summer air of the swamp on which the city sits and the stale breath of good friends drinking well into the night... mostly I miss them all...

So tomorrow, it's erez's birthday, we'll walk the town a bit, shoot some pics, if I can, I'll rouse myself extra early to try and catch the london eye which is a five minute walk from here, in the morning light, and then go to the tate and or british museum, not sure which yet, but we'll figure it out... I think we'll take a walk arouund Westminster and visit the churches in the neighborhood... and hopefully, nothing will blow up while we're out and about... a big cheers from fish and chip land...

From that night in Fort Ross or Grand Cafe Nevsky when I was called as backup because two very drunk Russians were harassing an equally drunk Igor and company... this is what happens when Igor takes pictures... that's the right logic, right?

Leaving...

2007-07-02T08:49:00.000-07:00

I'm leaving to London tomorrow... I'm all set, not packed yet, but mentally girding my loins for the trip... I'm not ready to go... went to Banya with the boys... tired as all hell... had vareniki with sour cherries in them... a little slice of heaven that's full of aroma and memory... now I'm just killing time waiting for the boat ride and trying to relax a bit... definitely not ready to leave quite yet... maybe I'll write a poem later called "Not Yet" and it'll be about all the things that we do that we aren't ready to do, but still feel the need to have done because we know they are what is necessary even if we're not feeling that way... or maybe I'll just close my eyes for a bit and wander around the streets of St. Petersburg in a dream... in either case... nu vot... eta kak skazka konchayitza ve etom momente...

Migration Control - Welcome to Russia!

2007-06-29T07:39:00.000-07:00

Or maybe we can call this post "London Calling"? The Clash, the only band that matters! So I've been running around like a chicken with my head cut off today. We have a staff meeting, then there were issues with the mini hotel where I cam officially captian minni. Arrivals for the second session have begun to trickle in but the majority of them will be arriving tomorrow. We will have over 40 people leaving and almost 50 arriving! Yikes! The stellar and free wireless connection at the Mini Hotel has been severed. I don't know why. At first I could reach the router and hack into it and reset it, but the DSL line it was plugged into stopped working. As of yesterday the router was unreachable and we are now in a wasteland of NO INTERNET. It really really really really sucks. The 200 some odd photos I shot of fire dancers by the Dvoretskey Bridge will have to wait until I reach a stable location, like London, and have Wireless or something like it at Erez's flat.

Quick summation as I have more work to do and a few things to take care of before tonight's boat ride and other festivities... I did go on my annual walk to the embankment with Boobar. We were sitting in the office and really feeling a bachic call to drink. He looked at me said "wanna get out of here? I said, sure. I knew the score at that point, we were going to relive our epic stumble from the Cynic bar near St. Isaacs along the embankment to the bridges and back along Nevsky. This time we just left the pub and went stright up Kazanskaya and down Nevsky past the Hermitage where I took a good nightshot of the palace floodlight and over to the embankment where firedancers were performing. After watching the dancers and pretending I was some national geographic photographer on safari we crossed the street and stood waiting for 1:25 AM to strike when the Dvoretsky Bridge would open up allowing larger boats down the Nevya river. A local struck up a conversation with me and told me that in 1989 a girl made the jump across the bridge from the Peter Paul side as it was openning on a motorcycle. It's funy to watch as people run like mad across this very long bridge which literally traps you on one side of the Nevya or the other. The problem is that there's only bridge that stays down because it's high enough above the water to allow ships thorugh, but all the historic bridges are low and as such have to open and that bridge is a haul from the center of town. Men in camoflauge with bright green vests set up road blocks and cars come flying through gaps in the blocks as they avoid the setting up of the block and manage to cross to the side that they need to be on. It's really kind of wild and disordered yet it all works, amazingly, somehow, miraculously, it just works.

Last night was a night of complete tom foolery. I stopped drinking early but my poor room mate continued down the road of destruction. Folks were quite hammered and we managed to usher them into Sukawati, an Indonesian restaurant on Kazanskaya instead of letting them go back to the beer garden or Datcha once the office bar closed. I think the folks working at the restaurant thought we were insane, I wouldn't blame them... not one bit... we were all acting a bit nuts. I had tea and we sat and watched as one table of particularly drunk fools kept challenging us to toast and back and forth. It was fun, mostly, until two women picked a silly arugment fueled by booz and ego and then it no longer was a good time and I wound up leaving with a few others. I finally made it home and to bed around 4:30 in the morning. James stumbled in an hour later and almost repeated the face plant into the door, or was it him just unable to take his pants off again this time? I can't judge, I was in that state once last year... you fall over taking off your pants to go to bed, that's a sure fire sign you should've been in bed before reaching such a plastered state.

The days are now counting down to my departure I'm going to help get this second session under way then mozy on out of here on Tuesday London bound. Sasha has been tossing around the idea to go camping with a few folks on Sunday night, an hour or two outside of the city to a lake she says is quite beautiful. Since I won't be here for Edward's Datcha party at the end of the year, one of the best afternoons I've ever had in this country, I don't think I would mind spending a white night on the bank of a river, so long as it isn't pouring miserably because the weather, although not the record heat wave of last summer that cause most of us to break out in all kinds of nasty rashes and not sleep, walking around like zombies, has been wet as hell and limited the number of decent photos days I have. I leave the camera at home because its raining, walk around, it clears, go home grab gear, then it clouds over and begins to pour arctic rain on us again... so bloody unpredictable...

So that's most of the news that I have for you... guess I'm going to have to watch my ass in London, looks like a car bomb plot was thwarted near picadilly... imagine that, Petersburg has been quietter and calmer than London... insane. Maybe it's because this city is getting so bloody expensive that it's calmed down from the days of the wild west and rampant bribes and coruption. It's still corrupt, but not that corrupt. The migration control thing was odd, some officially decided we weren't paying enough per night at the mini hotel and was going to come and do a migration control check. I had to warn our occupats with a good story that they don't know each other and that this isn't a group buying out the hotel, I don't know why, but that's what had to happe. I had to sneak from room to room, warned by the woman at the desk, who was sitting there with the owner, because the owner speaks english, and this woman at the desk, well she's been nice to me as I speak the lingo and I don't give her grief. She hates Burke though... which cracks me up... oh well... can't win them all.

Police avert car bomb 'carnage'

Police say the area will be closed for some time

Reaction to car bomb
A car bomb planted in central London would have caused "carnage" if it had exploded, police sources have said.
A controlled explosion was carried out on the car, packed with 60 litres of petrol, gas cylinders and nails, in Haymarket, near Piccadilly Circus.

An ambulance crew saw smoke coming from the green metallic Mercedes, near the Tiger Tiger nightclub at 0130 BST.

"International elements" are believed to be involved, Whitehall sources told the BBC.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, head of Scotland Yard's counter-terrorism command, said: "It is obvious that if the device had detonated there could have been serious injury or loss of life."

The ambulance had been called to the nightclub - where up to 1,700 people were inside - when they spotted smoke, now believed to be vapour, inside the car.

Bomb experts manually disabled the "potentially viable explosive device".

The car bomb has echoes of other terrorist plots. Five men were jailed for life in April for a UK bomb plot linked to al-Qaeda that targeted a shopping centre and a nightclub with a giant fertiliser bomb.

And Dhiren Barot was jailed for life last November for conspiring to park limousines packed with gas canisters underneath high-profile buildings before detonating them.

DAC Clarke told a press conference that it was too early to say who was responsible but the incident "resonated" with previous terrorist plots.

"The threat from terrorism is real. It is here, enduring. Life must go on but we must all stay alert," he said.

Mr Clarke also specifically mentioned nightclubs as a potential target.

Following the discovery, police patrols in central London were stepped up "to provide a visible reassurance", rather than in response to a specific threat.

Officers will visit licensed premises to reiterate ongoing crime prevention and safety advice, said a police spokesman.

The Muslim Council of Britain, the largest organisation representing Muslim groups in the UK, urged people to help the police find the perpetrators.

Secretary-General Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, said: "It is now a duty upon all the rest of us to help the police so that they can bring whoever was involved in this plot swiftly to justice".

On the trail of Raskolnikov

2007-06-27T06:07:00.000-07:00

Spark and Dust

1.

to the living and the dead
inevitably dust inevitably
man’s most frightening invention
strikes a devil’s third
withering the land of people
to return the impossible
act of having been alive

2.

to the dead and the living
inevitably collide inevitably
the return is a fiction for its self
and certainty mocks the mirror
to be made in image
disassembled in the course of fire
but still a spark in passing

Switching stones

2007-06-26T15:19:00.000-07:00

The switch in stones
stepping into such spaces
is air and the economy of cigarette butts

blue tomorrows carried in a brown paper bag
a left over acidity when a single shot darkened 70 years
we can't be sure but the devil stalks the moscow metro

there's something about the plan
then planned and executed with care for details
derails all other options when this too is uncontrollable

you might say go to the devil
and ask for a blessing to be had for success
this is neither feather nor down

publicly speaking
what if we set this town on fire
it's as much a birth right as it was wrong to be born

silenus ends silence
breeding myths and rivers
best to forget solutions and concentrate on the moment

the question is asking itself an answer
another way to break the surface of it all
and what exists excites and enters the skin to be remembered

The days are bleeding togehter...

2007-06-26T08:10:00.000-07:00

I could swear that the days are melting together. The separation between night and day, or more accurately, the lack thereof, makes it impossible to keep time "straight". Time here is not time, I've said that before. JD made an interesting observation at one point, he said that distance is disconcerting in that you can't trust what you see or that you're always surprised by the distance of things because the buildings are so massive and you can't really tell how far something is. The scale of these 19th century giants makes a seemmingly short walk seem like a million miles of unpredictable "ulitzi." This has been a remarekably different trip for me. I'm not sure how to categorize it. I've done nothing cultural, I haven't stepped foot in a single museum. I've been to all the big ones multiple times. I've simply "been" here. Does that make sense? I've spent a bit of time walking around but mostly talking with an international cast of friends who I'm fortunate enough to see once a year in this magical place. I've had some bloody great conversations and enjoyed the company of good people while sleeping in till the afternoon and coming home between 5 and 8 in the morning. Does it seem like I'm throwing this whole trip away? I don't know, maybe, but I think I've been ready for a "vacation", one of those things where you lay your ass down on a sandy beach and spend a week causing the depression of your bum to become a permanent fixture somewhere in the tropics. I haven't had something like that in a long time. I did my exploring while I was in Israel, a madman on the run trying to take in as much ancient history and modern "stuff" as possible. Here I'm just in a state of being. I did some serious drinking over the past week but it's slowed down. We had some binge nights that featured waaaaaaaay too much vodka, beer (not an alcoholic beverage here) and a giant bottle of Johnny Walker Green Label that Tanya brought James and left in our room, so yeah on that front, I've worked my muscle, I mean liver like a hooker in the tenderloin.

Last night was James' birthday, let me rephrase that, last night James and fellow degenerates, including myself, marked his Birthday by collecting ourselves near the Defense of Leningrad museum at a flat inhabited by Ryan and Scott, quasi participants, former alums of the program who are just hanging out in "the burg" and playing Peter Bjorn and John's Young Folks over and over and over again. There were like 5 trips to the market for beer, no matter how many we would buy they seemed to be gone in the space of 30 minutes. 2 bottles of vodka and about 25 liters of beer later we were all quite happy and once again, out of beer. So the decision was made to move the entire crowd to Marstal. Marstal is one of those terrible places that I'd say is a strong argument against capitalism. The place is essentially a brothel that happens to have strippers. 90% of the women in that club are "working girls" and if you have a foreign passport you can get in for free while locals or people carrying a Russian passport pay a cover charge of 50 rubles. We stayed in there for another hour, I sat down feeling no real compunction to dance to terrible Euro Trash techno and guarded our group's things. It really is a terrible place considering that down the street and around the corner is a great new club called Achtung Baby where the music is good (mixing is crap) but the music is danceable, the lights aren't obnoxious and cheaply arranged club strobes, and the space itself is this wonderful high ceilinged brick room. We've gone there a few times for drinks and to cut some rug and it has always been a beautiful time. This is the kind of join that feels unpretentious and the locals get down with the foreigners without trying to take them home for a price. The place really is a melting pot and I dig that about it. I've heard everything from US3 to Sinatra, David Byrne and Oasis in Achtung Baby.

Going back a few days...

We sat around and enjoyed the celebration known as "The Last Bell" where a historic 3 mast schooner is sailed across the Nevya river and the main drag, Nevsky Prospekt is shut down so the throng of recently graduated teenagers and military cadets can get stupidly drunk and break their beer bottles. In past years we would charter a boat and cruise the Nevya but this year we couldn't get a boat and wound up hanging out near the cathedral watching the madness unfold. As the day waned the streets became bloated with people frolicing. I walked out into the middle of the street to shoot some photos of the crowd. I was a little nervous about having my camera out, feeling a little vulnerable, but I wouldn't have missed it for the world to be quite honest. Pictures are now up here.

So this town has become very expensive. 3 years ago I could get a business lunch for 3 dollars, 90 rubles and the excahnge rate was like 33 to the dollar. Now it's 25 and I can't find one for under 250. It's insane! Beers at the beer garden are now over 2 bucks, the store is still cheap, but we used to score them for just over a buck! Everything here has become ridiculous including my favorite Uzbeki place, but I don't care the cost, it's still one of my favorite things. I went to Banya today with a couple guys and it was 360 rubles for 2 hours unlike 300 for the last two years. So this place is changing something fierce... and I'm not sure I like the changes...

There are a few things I'm planning on doing still, there's an exhibit of courtyard photography at a gallery next to Nabokov's house that I'm going to go too, and probablly pop over to Nevsky's Monastary for a little photo shoot of the other graveyards I didn't have enough film for 3 years ago. I want to also finally get inside of the monastery and see Nevsky's grave... there's also the siege museum at Moskovsky Metro Station... so maybe on Thursday... the weather is crap and I'm unmotivated to go anywhere. I've been sitting here in the office bar writing and uploading photos, seems like a successful day for me... the tea is good and I have a fresh pack of smokes, so I'll be here for a bit until it's time to go to Il Patio for James' official birthday. That man hasn't celebrated his birthday in the states for 7 years, not such a bad way to go about it, what do you think?

Hope everyone is well...

All things cultural

2007-06-23T02:01:00.000-07:00

I think I've sworn them off... seriously... I'm tired of this cities cultural what nots and I've done very little of it last week. I've been bumming around, reading and sitting in coffee houses having good conversations. There's been a bit of work since Timur, one of our local assistants broke his leg in a scooter accident. This group has been mellow and amazingly enough the cops have been very mellow. The locals have told me that there's been a crack down of sorts on the police. I haven't had a sideways glance from the cops yet. When we did go to Datcha/Fidel's that one night with the nazis dwarf and his amazonian companion, I didn't see but one or two cop cars rolling by the joint, and there was the one parked near the hotel with the two cops that looked to be more asleep than on duty. It's strange I tell you, maybe after that McDonald's was bombed the cops finally realized that there's more to be done in protecting the public good than shaking down tourists for money... then again that's probably just wishful thinking.

So tonight the French group AIR is playing in an outdoor park called Stereoleto. The decision is between this and a group called Pepsi, Russian group, which I've been told is quite good. The other uncertainty is that tonight is "The last bell". Nevsky prospect will be closed this evenning for the mass "march" of cadets and high school graduates up and down the street. There will be lots of broken glass, lots of singing, lots of pubescent hormones ragining, fireworks, red sails and other nutiness ALL NIGHT LONG. Kind of one of those magical nights really... I just wish there was a high up perch from which I could photograph this stupidity rather than from the thick of the crowd. No matter where we go, we will ultimately run into this bunch of crazed young lunatics.

We did a boat ride the other night, it was the night before the solstice. Parker mixed up the dates of the actual solstice, bbut technically we were on the water when the solstice happened, or started, something like that, it was a Solstice boat ride god damn it. One of the whitest nights i can remember, really marvelous. New touches have been added to the Peter Paul fortress, they've put lights along the walls that transition in rainbow colors... PRIDE? Not likely... but it's nice to think that this city might some day develop an open mind. The fountains in the middle of Nevsky were booming and booming, it was great.... just great... lots of beer, cuban cigars and more beer...

Oh I did have my grudge match with Igor, it was a Tie, no winners no losers. The bastard was cheating like a bastard! I mean really cheating, he was twisting that wrist, I think he knows that I'm the superior male and will destroy him this year... we're going to go at it once more I'm sure, most upsetting his less than noble/honorable approach to our annual grudge match.

Mmonday I'm heading to Nevsky's Monastary and maybe the Nicholevsky church on Fontanka to see if they rebuilt it. Tomorrow is a farewell dinner for Jenya who will be taking the morning train back to Moscow. I'm off to have breakfast wiith the Gusev sisters at Zoom. At the moment all my compatriots and cohorts are having a board meeting at The Office and my cell phone hasn't once rang, so this is a good thing... maybe I'll go sneak around the city. I've already been to the camera shop, no cheap wide angle lenses... *sigh* I've been completely anti shopping, even the idea of goingg and buying liters of vodka seems like too much effort... I've just been sitting a bit... strangne times I tell you friends, strange times indeed....

Shislivo..

Status Report Spock

2007-06-21T01:11:00.000-07:00

Not too shabby, not too great. That massive blister that always seems to find me has found me and taken root on the right side of my foot. I've started my diet of mole skin and oxygen which helps the sucker harden and then fall off as quickly as humanly possible. My throat however is wrecked. I've been smoking so much I'm loosing my voice. I know, just what you wanted to hear, right mom? Well that's the sad fact of what's happening... I'm trying to slow down a bit, but well, it's Russia... it's healthier to breathe smoke than it is the air!!

Speaking of Air, did I mention they're playing on Saturday in the park known as Stereo Letto? There's a possible trip to see them, other plans include a group called Pepsicola that I've never heard off but have been told are quite good, so we'll see. Found out that Aerosmith is coming later in the month, but I won't be here to enjoy them. Oh well. Tonight or tomorrow night there's going to be a huge concert in the plaza outside the Hermitage, BONY M is doing a 30th anniversary concert. I saw the stage that was being built as I was walking around yesterday....

I've been to a couple readings... quick run down of things in that dept:

Fannny Howe: pretty great reading, I mean she's a very well known poet and as Jeff said in his intro, had this reading taken place in NYC there would've been a charge for tickets at the door. Fanny's work is one of quiet, it bespeaks an understated silence. The new work that she read from had an element of the pastoral which I don't normally like but I found extremely refreshing as I sat in the Mayakovsky surrounded by the enormous buildings of the anti-pastoral. I kind of wanted to talk to her abobut Tis of Thee, an earlier work, but she seems very shy and when I shook her hand and gave her greetings from the bay area, she somewhat shrank away in a reclusive state of writerly shyness.

Gary Shteyngert on the other hand is a madman, he's like Phillip Roth on steroids. His work isn't quietly humorous, it's loud and in your face nuttiness.

George Elliot Clarke: what can I say about this one, I wasn't crazy about his work. He read too long, the material just wasn't interesting, and he keeps winning awards, is he the sole Black voice in Canada? I can only take so much rhyme and rhythm and verbal dance that meanders to a message that isn't at all new, or interesting, or even merritous. part of the work smacks of showmanship and the whole event was more spectacle than reading. I've never been told "to thank you I want to read 3 more poems" smells of a kind of narcissism to me. The occasional bits of humor in what he read were refreshing, but it didn't make up for a constant and seemingly unmeasured verbal assault. This kind of linguistic orouborous gets very old very quickly.

more later....

The neo-nazis midget and the amazonian hooker

2007-06-19T01:36:00.000-07:00

I don't think I mentioned this in my previous post, but there was the incident of the neo-nazis midget pimp and the amazonian hooker... so before I left for St. Pete's I began to correspond with a guy named Jenya who was a friend of Jenya's (Mariya's sister) that she met online. This Jenya was her male doppleganger as he too was born in St. Petersburg and was returning there for the first time in 15 years. She suggested he contact me for some Visa troubles so I could give him some advice on places and ways to deal with the Consulate. Anyway, the three of us all met up one night, this was the night of the bar fight described in the previous post... and after the bar fight ended the night at the office pub early we few, we happy few and too awake and slightly intoxicated few, who don't sleep a wink in this town, decided it was time to go dance. Now that I look back on it, it was just us Russians, the participants went to bed and we quietly slithered to that corner of the city where we tell them never to go. instead of the usual, Datcha, we went to Fidel's. Fidel's is the new bar openned just a year ago by the former half owner of Datcha, to compete with that bar. Normally it's a mellow place, from previous experience, but tonight the people there were in rare rare form.

As we made our way through the crowd and to the back dance floor we came upon a sight stranger than anything I could remember. There was a very short bald headed guy, hard to make out his sleaves of tats but they looked to be of the I've been around the block variety. He maybe came up to my shoulder and wasn't what I would call a handsome lad at all. He sat at the counter along the wall with his back to it. Leaning into him and making out with him was a 6'3" Amazon wearing a g-string and a PVC jacket. Her legs were painted with strange animal designs and other sundry patterns. He barely made her shoulder. They stood around the dance floor as he would get off on how people stared at her. I couldn't decide if he was pimping her out or just insane, but in either case, it was, um... well, bizarre. The night ended well enough and we all got the dancing shtick out of our system and then went back to our respective hotels to retire... but I'm telling you dear and gentle readers, this town is getting really strange!

The boat ride was awesome, happily, it stopped raining just as we stepped out of the hotel to make our way for the Moyka 43 landing. the sad part was that I didn't take my camera because it was raining cats and dogs... this is a strange and funny place...

pozhe...

Broken Locks, Bar Fights and Hijacking Internet... this is Russia!

2007-06-18T11:02:00.000-07:00

Well, this won't be terribly long, not that anyone wants to listen to my drunken ramblings anyway? Wait? Did I say drunken? No, not quite yet, but it's in the mail for sure. Tonight is our first boat ride and as I've said in the past, it's one of my absolute favorite things to do in this city. I'm not sure if Igor will be on the boat, he already felt my biceps to see if I was lifting waits during the year in hopes of toppling the mighty Russian, little does he know of my climbing endeavors. Then again, he's younger and quicker, bastards... "starast ne radast" as the saying goes in Russia.

So I'm not going to sit here and type out quite everything that has transpired since my less than glorious arrival to St. Petersburg through Munich after missing my connection in London. Let's just say it was a bloody long trip, however, this was the easiest time ever dealing with passport control, and cutest I might add. She just stamped my migration form and passport and sent me on my way, done. The trouble began then. Did I say trouble?

My luggage arrived almost 3 days after I did. I did laundry in the shower while I washed the grime from a full day of travel then hung my quick drying REI shirt to demoisten in the breaze of white nights. We've had a good day here, maybe two, there was some wind and today it's been raining most of the day. The weather is supposed to be wet on and off all week. This means two things: 1) less opportunity for pictures and an absolute necessity for the banya 2) when there is an opportunity, with the way that the wind blows these arctic storms around, there should be some really dramatic cloud scapes for some nice HDR stuff... wooo hooo...

Sergei, remember him? My young driver with the fantastic stories, the Mario Andretski of ST. Pete's is off to do some kind of military training. He actually told Katia he wanted to go on a tour around St. Pete's with me again, I would've happily paid him double this time and spent a couple more hours driving around with him. He's a totally sweet kid, he'll be back on the weekend, I might hit him up this coming weekend or maybe the weekend before I leave for a little bit of his time... hopefully the weather will cooperate.

So let me see, in summation, it's been rough, a couple 5 am kind of nights filled with friends I've missed terribly over the year, some really good conversations, catching up with Olmstead who I haven't seen since my 1st year here as a student, late nights/early mornings in the beer garden, a bottle of whiskey while waiting for lock smiths to break into my room as the lock in my door at the hostel stopped working. I tell you, it was ironic that just after I get my suitcase, change, spend less than 12 hours with the joy of clean clothing and stuff, I get locked out the minute that Boobar arrives and I'm taking him to our den of iniquity that we've inhabited for the past 2 years. JD is staying here in the mini hotel with me, it's really great to have a friend here from the bay area, just a nice touch from home. Poor guy isn't able to withdraw cash from his ATM his credit union says no dice in Russia, so he's been taking out a marker from the bank of len.

Yes, so last night there was a bar fight, not clear on the details, someone spilled a beer and one of our folks got punched. First time in the history of SLS, 9 years strong that it happened. An open fight in a bar can happen in any country, I suppose this might color your opinion of the locals, but let's face it, I don't care if you're from tibet or from timbuktu, drunk is drunk is drunk. It was resolved quickly and we ushered our guy to the hotel and I was able to rustle up a bag of ice to replace the ice cream msandwhiches that were applied to his very bloody nose which left a clear trail for me to follow through the inn to his room on the 4th floor. Poor sod...

Alright, the combination of Indonesian food, vodka and beer made me sleepy and I lay down for a spell but I just stared at the ceiling thinking if I fall asleep I will completely miss the boat and or feel like crap from when I wake up to catch the boat... so with that, I'm waiting for the camera battery to charge and then I'm off to the store for bottles and bottles of beer for the boat to go with the cuban cigars that Tom is bringing... STOGIES!

Shislivo vsem... more very soon now that I've hijacked another working internet connection that's fast enough to post pictures on... go check em out.

It started like a three hour cruise...

2007-06-14T09:16:00.000-07:00

I'm not quite in St. Petersburg, I'm most of the way there, but not quite there. It all went awry in New York. The flight to London was delayed by 2 hours. I knew then that I'd miss my connection in Heathrow to St. Petersburg but I had no clue that it would add a fourth flight for me to get to Russia. I'm now in my 4th airport in less than a day drinking a half liter of Weissbier (have you guessed where I am?) viva la Munich Deutschland. The lounge here is quite lovely and the music and natural light that fills this seemingly endlass expanse of glass and polished steel is quite lovely. Had I more energy I'd definately photograph it but breaking out the camera gear is more effort than I have energy for. I've been nodding off in strange places, but we don't have long to go now, not long at all, just another 3 bloody hours! I've no clue if my luggage will be getting off the plane with me in St. Petersburg, I really hope it does, I could use a fresh change of clothing and oh how lovely does a bar of soap sound? I'm due to arrive in St. Petersburg at 12:40 in the morning, so it should still be light out, *snicker snicker*. My rusty German has come in handy here, I remebered how to say, entschuldigung, wie spate ist es? Which got me the time, and a few other words and decoded bits of conversation. This is one of two accomplishments thus far. I'm bumed, I should be just finishing dinner at Suliko and sucking down shots of vodka or maybe just a few beers under the arms of Katuzov near Kazanskay Cabor, but alas, I'm in Munich. To be perfectly honest I'm half tempted to just go through customms and explore. The weather is brilliant here, warm and lovely and I could use a hotel bed. I've a feeling I'm going to be sleeping on the couch in the office tonight as we won't be able to assume ownership of the mini hotel until Friday night or Saturday morning. No rest for the wicked I guess. Zach and Beth, if you're reading this, your vodaphone sim card saved me! When I arrived in London I quickly switched out sims to my megaphone and found there was no signal, big surprise, then I swtiched to Vodaphone and saw mega bars. There was exactly 1 penny on the card so I topped it off at the Vodaphone counter in Heathrow and began to scrible numbers out of my phone on my palm with appropriate country dialing codes of folks in St. Pete's. I managed to get a hold of Katia: who took down my flight number and said she'd make sure someone would meet me. I saved her or whoever was going to be waiting for my non arriving ass at the airport a trip to Pulkova, there'll be plenty of that over the next few days. Right, so that's where things stand now... The master plan is still in full effect, meat on a stick and white nights, it just had to wait nearly six hours and a few stops... bloody hell... I've been the geriatric crusader since I landed in NYC. I've been helping old people get their luggage off of moving belts and just before I deplaned in Munich I had to help an elderly woman undo her seat buckle. She was very sweet, telling me about going to Bavaria where she lives. She said she doesn't like cities, the air is cleaner where she is and it suits her pace of life. I think I would very much like to see where she lives, like right now, I'm sure there's excellent beer and a soft feather bed that smells of light starch and cedar if not birch. Then again, I'm only 3 hour flight from a really hot sauna and all the birch that my tuchus can tolerate. Other strange folks encountered on my sojourn thus far, I sat next to a girl over the Atlantic who was coming home to the UK after traveling for 4 1/2 months through Japan, Australia, Fiji and New York. She said she was bummed as she would have to find a job, but only for a few months as she was going back to the university. I was jealous. Then there was the south african Indian chap I had a smoke with in London who had been to SF and talked about our sourdough bread bowels filled with clam chowder. Sounds like he got a good dose of fisherman's wharf. Then there were the two German chaps that I met here in Munich who were also heading for this massive Terminal 2 to catch a connection to Munster. We found the gate to the bus stop and we were the ONLY people there, it was very strange, they said they had never seen it so abandoned. We all laughed when the bus driver finally opened a door and called for us to come out. I tell you I feel lost on the road without a watch. I know I'm in Germany where all the clocks run perfectly but my cell phone is kaput here and I'm timeless... I've been popping into Duty free shops in 3 countries looking for a resonably priced time piece, but alas, nothing that I like under 1300 quid. There were a couple nice cell phones in the UK that caught my eye, but that's as far as I went with that. Kris if you're reading this, Observatory Mansions is quite good, I'm totally digging it, it reads a bit like a Jean-Pierre Jeunet film plays, odd and slightly uncomfortable. The illustrations remind me of Edward Gorey, connection? The author's name is Edward Carey... who knows... or maybe like the Ralph Steadman illustrations in Fear & Loathing, just less ink splatters. Ah the beer is helping, a lot, beer, helping perpetuate the human race since the garden of eden and all that begetting and begatting. Oh one more odd duck that I rubbed elbows with: when I got off the plane in Heathrow I had to find the "connections" desk to figure out my future. A Russian woman was behind me and she kept inching up. Everytime I leaned against the snaking rail that guided the line she crept up to be nearly equal with me. I waited for her to try and pull a NASCAR like drafting move on me, at which point I would've unloaded as I was in no mood to be trifled with or surrender my position in line. I swung my backpack to which is strapped my tripod in her general direction a couple times like a stegasaurus warning her that there be spikes in this hump, and she finally got he message. This Soviet pushiness would not be tolerated, well I'm heading for a right fill of that Soviet rudeness, it's in my future, can't say I'm sad about it, but it one always needs a small does of it to remind one that this isn't Kansas anymore. The music in this airport is quite good... I'm digging it... Right, time to hit the WC and then find a squat by the gate. I'll bbe in touch soon... take care and auf wiedersehen.

Just hours now... Shislivo vsem!

2007-06-12T17:38:00.000-07:00

Can't sleep

2007-06-11T00:33:00.000-07:00

Thinking to much about where I'm heading in a mear 54 hours...

Man vs. Leopard

2007-05-30T06:51:00.000-07:00

By ARON HELLER, Associated Press Writer Tue May 29, 6:03 PM ET

JERUSALEM - A man clad only in underwear and a T-shirt wrestled a wild leopard to the floor and pinned it for 20 minutes after the cat leapt through a window of his home and hopped into bed with his sleeping family.

"This kind of thing doesn't happen every day," said 49-year-old Arthur Du Mosch, a nature guide. "I don't know why I did it. I wasn't thinking, I just acted."

Raviv Shapira, who heads the southern district of the
Israel Nature and Parks Protection Authority, said a half dozen leopards have been spotted recently near Du Mosch's small community of Kibbutz Sde Boker in the Negev desert in southern Israel, although they rarely threaten humans.

Shapira said it was probably food that lured the big cat. Leopards living near humans are usually too old to hunt in the wild and resort to chasing down domestic dogs and cats for food, he added.

Du Mosch's pet cat was in the bed with him at the time, along with his young daughter who had been frightened by a mosquito in her own room.

Shapira said the leopard was very weak when park rangers arrived at Du Mosch's home after the surprise late-night visit. He said nature officials would likely release it back into the wild.

Du Mosch said he probably would not have been able to control the big cat were it in better health. As a nature guide, he said, he was familiar with animals and did his best to hold down the leopard without harming it. He said he took it all in stride, "but the kids were excited."

Jeno - Wicked & Wild

2007-05-29T18:03:00.000-07:00

T - minus 14 days and counting...

2007-05-29T17:59:00.000-07:00

It's that time again...

2007-05-22T08:12:00.000-07:00

Brillaint T Shirt Design

2007-05-21T13:01:00.000-07:00

The Wreck of the King Phillip

2007-05-20T11:13:00.000-07:00

My pictures of the wreck... finally made it out to the beach at a very low tide... sadly not enough of the sand has been washed away to reveal the aft and full outline of the hull, only the bow pokes out of the sand. You can almost see it heaving, trying to clear cement like substrate of the beach so it too can go to neverland... (read: not michael jackson's cassa)...

Googling One's Self

2007-05-17T16:56:00.000-07:00

In a moment of boredom and curiosity I decdied to Google Myself and stumbled across this old article I had written for ComFusion magazine (RIP). Something about it still seems salient today... now that Comfusion is no more, I thought I'd repost it here...

The Definite Article

It’s been ages since I sat down and really poured my thoughts out onto paper, or the digital equivalent thereof. I ran across something today that sparked a train of thought -- or, if you will, this rant.

My company, which will remain unnamed, is involved in the “news clipping” business. We sell select news clips to PR companies/ departments/ agencies and other advertising-oriented institutions. We have a database of closed-captioned text from newscasts, both local and nationally syndicated, from better than 80 markets around the country covering all the major networks in those markets. Our database is searchable by keyword, like Google. For kicks, I did a search today on the word “Iraq” and came up with 1,657 hits within our notes since midnight. I then decided to run the word “war,” which came up 1,796 times. To set a baseline, I chose a simple word, “the,” and that word came up 2,365 times.

Now you don't have to understand the Boolean logic behind the search engine or how it handles multiples and so forth and so on. What you have to recognize is that the words “war” and “Iraq” are as almost as likely to be used as the word “the” and are thus equally as invaluable. Where would we be without, excuse the pun, definitives?

As this very basic statistical analysis shows, the words “war” and “Iraq” are used nearly as frequently as the definite article -- for every four "the"s, we find three "war"s. For every definitive, or mention of something in “the” real world, our real world has become synonymous with the notion of war, of Iraq, a place very few of us have ever visited, and only see now ablaze.

So why is it so important that we understand the preponderance of the word “war” in our vernacular? Let’s contemplate for a moment the manner in which we realize the world around us. We see it, but when we interpret that world and attempt to describe it, we use language. Language is our way of recreating our local reality and disseminating it to others. Given that there's a finite amount of words, a finite amount of meanings, a finite amount of possible sentences -- ways of stating the beauties, horrors, joys and frustrations of this world, and our mortal coils -- I find it somewhat terrifying that a great part of our daily life is predicated on war in a place called Iraq. Despite both distance and time from the actual conflict, the word “war” and the reality of it enters into the language of local realities worldwide, creating a meta-reality that defines the event as a definite mainstay of our local reality and our language.

As responsible adults, we choose not to teach our children foul language. We scoff when an adult forgets his or her tongue and blurts out “shit” or “fuck” or “goddamn.” “Don't curse around the baby!” is a standard and acceptable response when protecting a child’s innocent ears. This practice is a common way to socialize our children and hope that they pick up the tools with which to accurately and civilly communicate their local realities. We know that many of the problems in this life stem from difficulties in communication. It can be said that our president suffers from a difficulty in communicating through the channels established to ensure a stable and civil world order. However, what happens when the definite articles before us, and surrounding us, and internalized by our children, constantly point towards the words “war” and “Iraq”?

War and the implements of war are not the only technological innovations being featured on the battlefield today. Information, intelligence, and visual and audio media are more potent than ever before. It’s possible, at any moment and through any medium, to join into the chatterbox of war footage, dialogue, live news, images, and stories, either by going online, turning on the television, tuning in the radio, or reading the newspaper. It’s even possible to set up a service on your WAP phone or PDA to receive up-to-the-minute updates on how the war is progressing in Iraq.

If we wish to consider the importance of language and how it shapes our reality, we have only to turn to the Old Testament and read the first few lines of Genesis: “And God said let there be light and there was light.” In a metaphysical sense, to speak is to invoke something; we all join in a God-like act of creation through our speech. That which is spoken and invoked takes root like a seed in the mind. It’s scary to think that creation casts such a shadow. This is a form of socialization and enculturation -- the vestiges of war constitute our daily bread that the new generation is being force-fed. The circus side-show of media coverage and verbiage that is spilling out from our “media-access-boxes-du-jour” (TV, radio, web, print) bears with it a frightening trend that will incorporate the word “war” like a self-fulfilling prophecy into, I dare say, our future.

Let’s turn back to the Good Book for a moment ...

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
-- John 1:1

Let’s play a game of substitution, replacing “Word” with “War”:

In the beginning was the War, and the War was with God, and the War was God.

This time, let’s replace “God” with “War”:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with War, and the Word was War.

If we bear God in our words and our hearts -- be it the God of the Old Testament, that fiery angel, or the more forgiving God of the New Testament, or Allah, or Adonai, or Jehovah, or Yahweh, or the many unnamed and unspoken faces of divine transcendence that pepper the annals of human knowledge -- whatever the face or the name, the Word is sacred and held as such in the heart. Language has a certain sanctity, as the vehicle through which we attempt to explain the ineffable by way of metaphors and similes. Our abstract notions of divinity are compartmentalized by a finite language. Our new tongue is filled with war; it is filled with both image and metaphor for war, leaving little space for the sacred or divine.

The words are not a single manifestation. The word “war” is a three-letter word dating back to the 12th Century, of Middle English origin with an etymological root in the north Franco-Germanic werre(1). The word, in essence, is benign as a word. However, the word is not alone: it’s a multidimensional representation complete with image and sound. These images are hand picked vis-à-vis the news media and the instructions given to them by the government. The instructions are simple: Don’t show anything that would hurt morale here at home. Show the war like an action movie-the more green night vision pictures the better. Make the sensationalism as sterile as possible so that “war” is sterile and the grim realities are kept a distant thought until it’s time to build a memorial or celebrate a new holiday. Show the war in good taste.

I was chatting recently with my friend in Spain. He said to me, “You’re missing out!”, referring to what he saw on the news in Madrid. Al Jazeera is broadcast in Europe uncensored and unedited. It’s amazing to think that the land of Free Speech, founded on the freedom to express differences of opinion, is exercising good taste by carefully censoring the minority voice, the unpopular sentiment. Perhaps the only amazing thing about this realization is that it’s nothing new. Free speech is a relative term here.(2)

If you say it, it may come; if you utter it, it may happen; if you fill your language with it, it will fill your reality with itself. Perhaps this more agnostic stance on the abstract notion of words better explains the importance of choosing your words carefully. As we use our many subtongues to speak the languages of international politics, religion, law, philosophy, love, hate, and so many emotions, let’s not forget that everything boils down to a simple fact: we create our world one brick at a time, one word at a time, and so too can it be just as easily undone through careless words.

**FOOTNOTES**

1.) Merriam Webster Dictionary Online:

Main Entry: war
Pronunciation: 'wor
Function: noun
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Middle English werre, from Old North French, of Germanic origin; akin to Old High German werra, strife; akin to Old High German werran, to confuse
Date: 12th century
1 a(1) : a state of usually open and declared armed hostile conflict between states or nations (2) : a period of such armed conflict (3) b : the art or science of warfare c : (1) obsolete : weapons and equipment for war (2) archaic : soldiers armed and equipped for war
2 a : a state of hostility, conflict, or antagonism b : a struggle or competition between opposing forces or for a particular end: a class war, a war against disease c : see Variance, Odds

2.) From the files of Dave Ross, KCBS Radio Transcript -- March 24, 2003 HOW MUCH TRUTH?
“Central Command sent the correspondents here a frosty e-mail asking that this footage not be aired, and the networks themselves have sent out memos: do not show anything in poor taste.
Interesting concept, covering a war in good taste ...
It's certainly not a consideration for the Iraqi military leadership who were like kids at Christmas:
IRAQI INFORMATION MINISTER Muhammad Saeed al Sharif: ‘They are suffering from shock ... and awe.’
In the end, CNN showed one still photo of a dead marine. No face, no wounds visible, just a corpse in a uniform.
Very tasteful.”

From my working life

2007-05-15T08:58:00.000-07:00

News Release
Tuesday 15 May 2007, 9:30 GMT

Tuesday 15 May 2007 Date
Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group

E-Marketers, Senders, ISPs Fight Spam With New MAAWG Sender Best Practices Endorsed by Industry

SAN FRANCISCO, May 15 /PRNewswire/ --

In a major milestone toward industry agreement on how senders can distinguish their legitimate volume email from unsolicited spam, the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG) has issued the MAAWG Sender Best Communications Practices (BCP) with collaborative input from both volume senders and Internet Service Providers. The new best practices recommend sender email technologies and subscription methods to improve deliverability rates for newsletters and permission-based email marketing.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070124/CLW180LOGO )

Developed by MAAWG, the best practices involved the industry's largest ISPs, network operators and vendors approving recommendations that were also endorsed by sender firms and other trade associations. Immediate support for the MAAWG Sender BCP has come from CAUCE (Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email) and the Email Sender & Provider Coalition (ESPC), according to Dennis Dayman, MAAWG senders subcommittee co-chair and StrongMail Systems, Inc. director of deliverability.

"Both senders and ISPs are allies fighting the same battle, but in the past there has been a language gap between them," Dayman said. "The senders were asking, 'what should we do to work more closely with the network operators?' so MAAWG tackled the issue on a global basis. In these best practices, we have outlined very specific steps that senders can take to reduce the accidental tagging of legitimate email as spam while still protecting consumers from the eighty percent of email traffic that is abusive."

A Different Technical Approach; Supplemental Information for Marketers

The MAAWG Sender Best Communications Practices also includes a supplemental Executive Summary for marketers who often manage volume email projects, which was edited by Len Shneyder of MAAWG member company Pivotal Veracity. The summary explains some of the technical recommendations to improve email deliverability and provides a questionnaire marketers can use to determine if their Email Sender Providers are operating within industry best practices.

The complete BCP addresses five topics of concern to both marketers and operations professionals:

-- Obtaining email consent
-- Recommended unsubscribe options
-- Sender accountability and reputation
-- List maintenance
-- Resolving messaging disruption issues

The recommendations are based on reputation management techniques that help identify the sender as the genuine source of the email. This approach differs from the content filters already used by many ISPs to tag messages containing suspicious words or phrases as spam. For example, the MAAWG Sender BCP recommends that service providers managing email for multiple companies, online marketing agencies and other vendors that send large volumes of emails for multiple clients use a separate IP address for each company so that ISPs can determine that a message has come from a verifiable entity. The best practices also include methods for managing subscriptions and improving consumer relationships.

Collaborative Industry Efforts

The document is gathering momentum. In the United States, CAUCE Chair Scott Hazen Mueller said, "This is a remarkable first step. Coordination between the sending and receiving communities is critical toward mitigating the scourge of spam on the Internet."

The CAUCE Chair in Canada, Neil Schwartzman, recognized the importance of the MAAWG best practices as, "a logical evolution" of the BCP document submitted to the Canadian Minister of Industry by the Federal Task Force on Spam that was developed in part by CAUCE Canada.

The Email Sender & Provider Coalition also provided input into the document and supports the best practices. "Both senders and receivers have a stake in preserving email as a channel for legitimate communication and commerce, and only by working together can any real change take place," said Trevor Hughes, ESPC executive director. "The MAAWG Sender Best Communications Practices reflect this shared commitment. The ESPC is pleased to have participated in its development and we look forward to working with MAAWG and its members to instigate further positive change in the future."

The complete Sender Best Communications Practices document is available at the organization's Web site, www.MAAWG.org.

Noise from the void

2007-05-15T08:17:00.000-07:00

I think I like updating my blog with Jeno's posts from myspace because the damn flyers are amazing! Well I'll be here, finishing up my final project for my playwriting class and kicking Jeno's almighty grooves... come join me, you know the score... 9pm pst (21:00 GMT -7)...

129 Year Old Ship on Ocean Beach

2007-05-12T13:35:00.001-07:00

I'm going!!! Tonight!!!

The bones of a 129-year old shipwreck that surfaced on San Francisco's Ocean Beach this week appear and disappear every 20 years or so, like Brigadoon, the mythical Scots village that appears out of the spring mist.

The wreck is of the clipper ship King Philip, which appeared out of the sand Monday. The King Philip was wrecked at high tide in January 1878 and shows itself on very low tides every so often. The last time the ship showed up was after storms in 1985.

The King Philip's latest appearance has drawn hundreds of people, who come and stare at the old ship's timbers, which are awash where the foamy surf meets the shore at the foot of Noriega Street.

"It's wonderful,'' said Stephen Haller, a National Park Service historian who is one of the authors of a book on shipwrecks of the Golden Gate region. "People can see history right under their feet.''

A small piece of wood no bigger than Haller's foot was all that poked though the sand at the stern of the ship. The bow, 174 feet north, was much more impressive. Its pointed prow rose several feet out of the wet sand, exposing vertical ribs, a double row of sealing planks on the interior of the hull and wooden pegs called trunnels holding exterior sheathing planks.

Ocean Beach is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, so the wreck is federal property, like Alcatraz, or Half Dome in Yosemite. "I would hope the public treats the ship with respect,'' Haller said.

So far people have treated the relic with curiosity and awe.

Mila Zinkova and George Kaskanlian live nearby. They'd taken sea trips to Antarctica and the Galapagos Islands. And here was history on their doorstep. "It's just amazing,'' said Zinkova. "I put a picture of it on a Wikipedia site for Ocean Beach history.''

Like most artifacts from the past, the King Philip comes with a story.

The vessel was built as a full-rigged, three-masted clipper ship -- one of those long, lean ships that historian Samuel Eliot Morison called "the noblest of all sailing vessels.''

American clippers were built to sail from the East Coast to San Francisco around Cape Horn at the tip of South America. They carried high-value cargo and were built for speed, as the 19th century defined it. The fastest of the clippers, the famous Flying Cloud, made the trip from New York to San Francisco, 14,500 miles, in 89 days, eight hours, a record that stood for 135 years until a yacht broke it in 1989.

The King Philip -- named for the Indian chief who was involved in King Philip's war in 1675 -- was not as fast as the fastest clipper. It was launched in 1856, in Alna, Maine, and was advertised as "a strictly first-class clipper ship with quick dispatch.''

However the King Philip was advertised, it seemed to have been a hard-luck ship. There were at least two mutinies -- one in Honolulu in 1869 and one off Annapolis, Md., five years later. In both cases, the mutinous sailors set the ship on fire, seriously damaging it twice.

"They worked the ship hard in those days,'' said James Delgado, a maritime historian, "and they worked the crews hard, too."

After its glory days as a clipper, the King Philip went into the lumber trade, working for Pope and Talbot, a San Francisco lumber merchant.

The King Philip was old for a wooden ship, and the best cargo went to newer iron and steel sailing ships, and steamers. The King Philip carried grain and even guano, a fine name for bird droppings used as fertilizer.

On Jan. 25, 1878, the King Philip left San Francisco without cargo -- in ballast, sailors call it. It was customary in those days for steam tugs to tow sailing ships out of the Golden Gate.

There were two other sailing ships in the area, and one of them -- the collier Western Shore, had a serious accident in which the captain was killed. The tug went off to help the other ship, and the King Philip dropped anchor. The seas were heavy, the ship rolled, and the anchor did not hold.

The King Philip ran up on Ocean Beach at high tide and was stranded there, high and dry. No one was killed but the ship was a total loss. The next day, the wreck was sold at auction to a San Francisco businessman named John Molloy for $1,050.

He salvaged the metal fastenings, cut down the masts and sails, and blew up the hulk with black powder.

Storms and human activity -- like building the Great Highway or the San Francisco sewer outfall, changed the beach.

Now the King Philip has appeared again. Haller says the low tides from now until the weekend, will make the ship visible most afternoons for at least a while.

"I thought it was really romantic,'' said Darla Bernard, of San Francisco, who stopped by with her dog, Kodi, to see the ship. "Until I learned that the Philip used to haul manure.'

STOLEN from the blogs of John & James Sakkis:

Here's the tide chart for the next few days. Since the moon is near the New Moon phase, it's pull is waning. In two weeks the tide will get lower and the wreck will become more visible.

2007-05-10 12:31 PM PDT -0.07 feet Low Tide
2007-05-10 7:59 PM PDT 4.78 feet High Tide
2007-05-10 8:08 PM PDT Sunset
2007-05-11 1:30 AM PDT 2.30 feet Low Tide
2007-05-11 6:03 AM PDT Sunrise
2007-05-11 7:04 AM PDT 4.45 feet High Tide
2007-05-11 1:24 PM PDT 0.19 feet Low Tide
2007-05-11 8:09 PM PDT Sunset
2007-05-11 8:33 PM PDT 5.18 feet High Tide
2007-05-12 2:29 AM PDT 1.47 feet Low Tide
2007-05-12 6:02 AM PDT Sunrise
2007-05-12 8:24 AM PDT 4.39 feet High Tide
2007-05-12 2:15 PM PDT 0.54 feet Low Tide
2007-05-12 8:10 PM PDT Sunset
2007-05-12 9:08 PM PDT 5.61 feet High Tide
2007-05-13 3:21 AM PDT 0.55 feet Low Tide
2007-05-13 6:01 AM PDT Sunrise
2007-05-13 9:40 AM PDT 4.44 feet High Tide
2007-05-13 3:03 PM PDT 0.94 feet Low Tide
2007-05-13 8:11 PM PDT Sunset
2007-05-13 9:43 PM PDT 6.04 feet High Tide
2007-05-14 4:11 AM PDT -0.34 feet Low Tide
2007-05-14 6:00 AM PDT Sunrise
2007-05-14 10:49 AM PDT 4.54 feet High Tide
2007-05-14 3:50 PM PDT 1.39 feet Low Tide

Something to break the silence...

2007-05-09T08:39:00.001-07:00

Noise from the void

2007-05-01T11:03:00.000-07:00

Tune into Noise From The Void, Jeno's weekly Radio Show on www.90hz.org from 9pm PST till around midnight, for a cosmic smattering of acid house, interstellar rock and whatever else the shaman dishes up...

From my working life...

2007-05-01T10:23:00.000-07:00

Authentication And Online Trust Summit
by David Baker, Monday, April 30, 2007

I THOUGHT THIS UPDATE FROM Pivotal Veracity from the Authentication and Online Trust Summit (AOTS) was quite valuable to share with the MediaPost audience. As background, Microsoft started AOTS in 2004 to foster adoption of Sender ID and promote email authentication through the industry. I will warn you, if you are a novice to deliverability and authentication, you will be completely lost in this article, so I recommend you read a few things before you dive into this. Authentication: http://www.deliverability.com/resources/emailAuthentication.php DKIM: http://www.dkim.org.

Thanks to Len Shneyder, director of partner relations & industry communications at Pivotal Veracity, for writing this very timely update.

AOL & AIM. Not much new to report except that they plan to incorporate Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) into the reputation model in the coming months. By late summer they hope to be actively using both as a means of authentication and reputation checking for connecting IPs as an added data point to help them determine the final disposition of email. As is always the case, they advocate being responsible with your sending patterns and trying to limit your email to "active" customers who have purchase patterns or some form of response-based relationship.

Comcast. Ninety-one percent of all inbound email to Comcast, the largest broadband provider in the United States, is flagged as spam. Comcast monitors the quantity of hard bounces, specifically unknown users, sent to their domains. They use this as a measure of list quality and maintenance. By the end of the year, Comcast announced, they will adopt DKIM as an extension of their reputation check, in addition to launching a feedback loop.

MSFT, Hotmail, Windows Live Mail. Hotmail receives 4.5 billion emails a day, of which 90 % is flagged as spam. Statistics show that 35% of all spam today is "image spam," or messages comprised solely of one or multiple images. Microsoft advised mailers to use the hard fail flag in their SPF/SenderID records (-all), in addition to covering every sub domain with its own SPF/SenderID record. If you are lost at this point, contact your ESP or one of the delivery auditing companies and they can help you understand how to set this up. It is important to note that IPs sending a low volume of email at infrequent intervals will most likely be flagged as "suspect" by this filter as they have similar characteristics to spammers. Because of this, new IPs with no mailing history will have a harder time getting their email to even the junk mail folder. Microsoft is relying heavily on an IP's mailing history as one aspect of reputation in order to determine where email should be placed. Further insights from Microsoft personnel included information on mailing volumes: It's better to email smaller volumes more often rather than larger volumes at infrequent intervals. Consistent mailings of 5-10K emails per day have been documented as performing well.

Implications. ISPs use a variety of filters, including third-party filters, blacklists, whitelists, reputation metrics, volume filters, and content filters. There are many reasons your message may not make it to the recipient's inbox. Reputation metrics consist of one or all three of the following, depending on the ISP: spam complaints (the number of recipients complaining you are spamming them); unknown user bounce rates (bad addresses), and spam traps (emails you send to email addresses harvested from the Web or purchased). Managing feedback loops (spam complaints), good bounce management (removing bad addresses), and carefully governing your email acquisition methods will remain crucial to sustaining a good delivery reputation with the ISPs.

Authentication will become increasingly important as well. If you are not already authenticating with a combination of SPF, SenderID, and DKIM now is the time to get started. Whereas Microsoft adopted SenderID, many others adopted a combination of SPF + DKIM or SenderID + DKIM. Yahoo is even requiring DKIM in order to sign up for their feedback loop (spam complaint reporting).

I've published an extended version of this article with comments and links to some valuable sources and partners that you may find useful, on my blog.

David Baker is vice president of e-mail solutions at Avenue A/Razorfish. Visit his blog at http://whitenoiseinc.com

Nu Stakan... Shislivo!

2007-04-23T08:03:00.001-07:00

Achiote Press!!!

2007-04-22T20:16:00.001-07:00

Sunday April 29th at 3PM
Canessa Park Poetry

Help us welcome Achiote Press into the world
with two new chapbooks:

"the immaculate autopsy" by Todd Melicker &

the chap-journal "Achiote Seeds" featuring work
by Barbara Jane Reyes, Rebecca Mabanglo-Mayor
& Rich Villar.

& readings from:

Oscar Bermeo
Todd Melicker
Barbara Jane Reyes
Rebecca Mabanglo-Mayor
& Alfred Arteaga

and possibly echoes of Antonin Artaud

DISCOUNTED chapbooks will be available!!

$3-5 suggested donation at the door

curated by Tiff Dressen

Can you Canessa? Come to 708 Montgomery Street (X-Street Columbus)
tucked among the inner organs of North Beach
***************************************

Achiote Press was founded by Craig Perez, Jennifer Reimer, and Len Shneyder in 2006.

Born in Ecuador and raised in the Bronx, Oscar Bermeo is a BRIO (Bronx Recognizes Its Own) award winning poet, educator, literary events coordinator who now makes his home in Oakland, Califas, where he is the poetry editor for Tea Party Magazine.

When not writing, Oscar devotes his time and energy towards new culinary experiments, working admin at a local charter school
and enjoying the bliss of married life with his wife, poeta Barbara Jane Reyes.

***

Todd Melicker is a graduate of the MFA in Writing program at the University of San Francisco. His poems have appeared in Switchback, Five Fingers Review, Volt, and the Colorado Review. He currently lives in Santa Rosa, California.

***

Barbara Jane Reyes was born in Manila, Philippines and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. She received her undergraduate education at UC Berkeley, and her MFA at San Francisco State University. She is the author of Gravities of Center (Arkipelago, 2003) and Poeta en San Francisco (Tinfish, 2005), for which she received the James Laughlin Award of the Academy of American Poets.

Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in numerous publications, including 2nd Avenue Poetry, Asian Pacific American Journal, Chain, Interlope, New American Writing, North American Review, Notre Dame Review, Parthenon West Review, and XCP: Cross Cultural Poetics. She is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Mills College, and she lives with her husband, poet Oscar Bermeo, in Oakland, CA.

***

Rebecca Mabanglo-Mayor received her MA degree in English with honors from Western Washington University in 2003 for her thesis “Notes from the Margins,” a mixed work of memoir and fiction. Her poetry and short fiction have appeared in the Katipunan Literary Magazine and the online magazine Haruah. In addition, she has served as a freelance writer and editor for several trade journals. Currently she is working on her first novel, tentatively titled Maganda’s Comb, and she performs regularly as a storyteller in her local area. Her blog Binding Wor(l)ds Together can be found at http://wordbinder.blogspot.com.

Bar Rooms after Claudia Rankine

2007-04-22T14:48:00.000-07:00

The friend I made in a random bar while on the road said ‘I was a history major.’ So why are you in marketing? ‘Well marketing is the history of human desire. I love seeing how desires change.’ [people I thought] The history of human desire is a cotter pin in the wheel of tragedy. I didn’t say this to her, but I’m sure she was aware of it. Looking back we were probably drunk enough to explore every desire that was firing through our synapses like electrical storms [this too is supposition]. Distanced from each other’s original desire, maybe in the form of someone– there was a truth in the wine– the word– wine– desire– what is desired.

The history of the cocktail has its roots in the XVIII Amendment. There was a shortage in the supply of good alcohol. Soda Jerks found they had a new life as mixologists watering down the unpalatable taste of bath tub gin with sweet syrups and juices in order to make desire as sweet as possible. This kind of history is a vice.

The vice squad patrols history and recently it has taken to revising, in so many liberal forms: revisionist, revisiting, reinventing the winners and losers to find out if the golden rule holds water.

In the 15th century, modern Gaul, or the Iberian peninsula had a rampant desire for G-d. Social engineering rendered flesh into ash. It seems this is a history of viciousness. Still, desire works itself into the equation, on both signs of the operand, there is the fact of intervention: one man hand god hang man the other. Burning things isn’t new in human history.

There’s the quest for fire, to burn is to control, maybe Benjamin meant the burning bush instead of Adam’s power for bringing things to life in the garden, to life is to be burned, man’s a weatherproofing. Without fire we’d still be living in mud huts.

Fire is a chemical change– raw energy desires fuel and renders it into carbon. We refer to ourselves as carbon based life forms.

Celan uses the term black milk in his poem Todesfugue. Being poetic means being misread. The black milk of Celan’s Todesfugue isn’t a metaphor, it is the fact that milk with ash turns black. This is a concrete fact in an openly metaphoric body.

There’s room for intervention: what does desire have to do with it? Without spending too much time describing unfathomable reasons– there was the desire of history running into the desire for scapegoats.
I wonder if marketing can be applied to human tragedy – how’s it possible to sell destruction? It’s the 21st century and the sale is on for
ribbons–
flags–
experts– resolutions–
plan(e)s–
chiefs–
panels–
reviews–
committees–
alert levels–
supply–
budgets–
support–
bases–
effort–
(extraordinary) rendering–
combatants (invented or otherwise)–
parliaments–
constitutions–
G-d (wholesale desires)–
elections–
distance–
[the] dream (A- or otherwise)–
medals–
the ____ of one–
____ strong–
fliers–
literature–
[paul] wolf[ensohn] [blitzer]

‘you sending the wolf?’
‘Oh– you feel better– motherfucker?’
‘Shit negro– that’s all you had to say.’

There was a debate in the poet circle that [we]’re responsible for the war. Curiously this is a desire too. However a stretch for the poetic imagination – or otherwise engaged consciousness – the poet’s desire for a space in society to be more than fanciful abstraction – a heart ache in prosody – it is the control of language that makes commodities of destruction in short supply. Price figures – a return on investment – only if you collect every soul. What is the return on the written word?

Ancient societies believed their language was sacred and that writing it down would kill the word. Word is telling me that I’ve written 620 words (now 623). Being a writer is bloody work.
Alcohol as interlocutor presents a simple challenge: how honest should we be with each other?
‘You’re Jewish?’ Yes. ‘Look, I don’t mean any disrespect, but believe me when I say some of my dearest friends are Jewish.’ It’s ok, I get that a lot. ‘What?’ Sounding like a Jewish father from Brooklyn. ‘Have you been to D.C.?’ You mean the Holocaust museum. ‘Yeah, did you love it?’ No. I’m not sure that’s something you can love. ‘Well that’s not what I meant’ Of course not. ‘But how moving, I took my oldest daughter and she cried by the end of it.’

This presents a certain challenge in regard to memorials. What is to be their intended effect? I don’t think that tears are the end all and be all of a memorial. If A desire to lubricate our eyes exists, then history is full of wasted tears thanks to repetition.

I really didn’t like it. ‘Why?’ It’s like the Disneyland of Holocaust memorials. ‘That’s terrible.’ I know, but go to Yad Vashem. ‘Why? Well I mean why do you like it more.’ It’s not a question of like, it’s a question of breath. I’ve never felt, even when drowning in the ocean, that this was the first breath in my life, until I walked through Yad Vashem, and had to learn to breathe again.
Paul Klee gave Benjamin a painting called Angelus Novus

Benjamin went on to write about this angel: ‘A Klee painting named “Angelus Novus” shows an angel looking as though he is about to move away from something he is fixedly contemplating. His eyes are staring, his mouth is open, his wings are spread. This is how one pictures the angel of history. His face is turned toward the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage upon wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet. The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and make whole what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing from Paradise; it has got caught in his wings with such violence that the angel can no longer close them. This storm irresistibly propels him into the future to which his back is turned while the pile of debris before him grows skyward. This storm is what we call progress.’
Benjamin went on to say ‘To articulate the past historically does not mean to recognize it the way it really was. It means to seize hold of a memory as it flashes up at a moment of danger.’ Maybe marketing is about creating a moment of danger between need and desire. The hapless instant when what you have isn’t enough and that which is desired is all there really is. The materialism of historic desire can be then understood as that which makes man most emptiness when destruction is the only satisfactory response bridging the gap between desire and need.

When J-‘s father was alive he would call me his white son. I had then as I do now my own father. I took comfort in knowing that I was a white son to a black father. In Last of the Mohicans Chingachook says ‘where are they taking my white son?’ when Hawkeye is being lead away. Where is my black father today? I’ve never had the desire to be black or even a white son to a black man. However, there was a certain comfort in knowing that the chasm between black and white could be bridged by fathers and son. I’ll extrapolate this to include mothers and daughters. Finally let’s just say people. This too is in my imperfect past.

I’ve slaughtered 1244 words now, twice that which came before. Writing is a bloody preoccupation.

When I was 19 and working in a law office I began to do drugs with a Jewish lawyer from Canada that had a penchant for speed which he called super lawyer juice. This wasn’t good. This wasn’t even enjoyable. He wasn’t all that sane. One day while driving to get a burrito he started the car and the radio came on. ‘You know you’re getting older by how much talk radio you listen too.’ I was glad to be young.

The dictionary defines Commute as ‘to give in exchange for another.’ Solitude for the road. Time for money. Imagination for servitude. During commutes I started listening to talk shows. This was how I exchanged the road for people. I didn’t know it then and I deny it now but it’s not always my preferred state of being – alone. This he probably didn’t know. Just as well he might’ve tried harder to keep in touch when I was done with such a dangerous pace of life.
‘The dead only know one thing, it’s better to be alive.’ Of the lines from Full Metal Jacket (unofficially the official film of the marine core) this one sticks out to me. There’s a lime pit full of corpses executed. Eddie Adams snapped this photograph

During the Vietname war. He won the Pulitzer for this image and it became a firebrand during the 60’s. He never hung this it in his office. As a matter of fact he wanted to forget it. Kerouac said I spent half my life writing On The Road and the other half living it down. No one took anything he wrote quite as seriously as On The Road because it didn’t have the same spiritually charged experience for them. It’s dangerous to come out swinging.

Of that which is forgotten about images, the prisoner being executed had just blown up a building filled with the executioners family. This is a desire for biblical justice. Hamurabi would be proud.

My grandmother had a twin. Besides the memory of a twin that she was too young to remember and only exists through the stories her parents told her while they were alive she has a scar that serves as an umbilical cord. Hades would be proud. A man claiming to be a doctor came to immunize the two of them. He injected something in their backs, close to the spine. My grandmother survived her twin died. My grandfather hunted this man down and shot him in the middle of the village square. This went unnoticed by authorities. Hamurabi is proud. I’m here because of chance.

Desire works itself into everything. Everything can be placed in two buckets: needs and desires. When needs are commodified into variant grades then they become desires. We desire a better toaster, more stylish than the one we have. We desire a faster car when there’s no reason for having such because there are restrictions on the speed at which we can travel. The need to move from point A to point B is a natural phenomenon. We require the freedom, however limited and imperfect to extend beyond the confines of our locality. We’ve given ourselves the ability to do this imperfectly. The degree to which this imperfection is refined and marketed is the extent of human desire’s ability to sustain a marketplace comprised of false needs. The history of such needs crafted through carefully selected words. Market tests must be conducted in order to establish linguist predispositions of the human desire. That which we fundamentally need can be turned into an expensive commodity by exemplifying the cost savings of our desire, should we act on it today, we’ll get a second one free, in four easy payments of 99 99 99 99 99 9 9 9.

9 is the last digit of a base 10 counting system. In the beginning was the 0. 1 is the first occurrence of anything or materiality in the necessary tools we use to create multiplicity in the world. What can be multiplied can ultimately be sold and counting is perpetuated.
Genesis begins with the act of creation. John begins with the logos. These are both places of departure. A desire for reinvention. Euphemisms – to restate how something began and then like Adam we create our world through language. Through language desires are understood as historical materialism. Back in the bar this all seems inconsequential when slurring becomes an involuntary act. This too seems inconsequential because Billy Joel is on the juke box and we’re all staggering through own libidos singing only the good die young.

2022.

Rondellus - Sabattum

2007-04-05T10:51:00.000-07:00

2007-04-02T14:18:00.000-07:00

In place of wind speed I’ve

become an object of myself in order to carry you to completion

to break the skin of the road

I grapple with tying

the four corners of

the Earth around

your fear

‘leave your finger there until we’re done…

in a saying to myself,

a half conversation

what not to do

is doing itself,

END DETOUR

the pluralism of highways – open hand gesture: (finger-freaking-love-bitting-ass-licking-shit-stabbing-motherfucking-useless-man) – double strung-out lanes – order of convention – cineplexes – “son, u iz in Kentucky now” – the despair of middles – masterminded speedtrap – “how fast you think you were going?” – nothing faster than empathic turpitude – the jesus mall – p.t.a. in a carrows – on the road or off – lost destinations ample thoroughfare FOR $ALE – “you’re lucky, I never got to go nowhere” – flaggers | flagstaffers | flagfire | fallow … P A Y / T R E E / A U T I S M

we’ve created confession

around our conversation

Maybe its as simple as Willie Nelson and his lonesome dove where we last saw the ghost riders in the sky, yeah Johnny ‘n me riding the million mile gesture in styrofoam cups, the ash pot deluxe, we dramatics dream impossible directions, a troika of desire in me the devil and mr. Johnson always make three, or maybe its Dylan – 61 to see if there’s another 9 to make 10 heavens of 7 – jesus saves crumbles station-wagon bumpers, bright full stop in Redding: read the nothing sounds in between clouds to create the means of imagination: for the two selves that recognize each other, a mirror chrome gas tank smiling back – your eyes are always on the back of my head looking forward where I can see their gravity – the calcified church steeple barn door stands on patriotic terms, we’ll only have 20 minutes to go, the way of the dead on the side of the road, we’re mending the absence to fill the world.

VII

[I’ve seen myself pass me by :: a weary smoked glass specter]

sssssssaying something snake-like

bite through to the back of my own lip

chewing miles

burning sign posts in each drag

every mile for you

[from you :: toward you

as much you in the road ::as a road to you]

hung me from the crosses like Ape-ing rebels

NO ROME

we roam to find home

alone :: is a passenger for himself

as darkly drawn curtains

as around the hem of a star

as a bejeweled saturnine

as worshippers living in code

as where the west has no name

as spoken coldly at dawn

as midday sun as rational

as an approval as an ablution

as parts of speech called body

as language remains the chief

as objective art form at dusk

as the dreariest days are failing

Dear ______,

I’m calling this a pilgrimage in absentia—

sincerely,

[When in doubt please forward replies to true believers]

The road’s a postcard affair

we call our best intentions

mailed it yesterday.

Back at the rest stop

I tried to spot a bird

at rest in the tree atop

the hill back there

where I stopped and

saw the rest of this

playing out not quite

how I had intended

Hemingway to Dietrich

2007-04-02T08:49:00.000-07:00

"What do you want to do for a life's work? Break hearts for a dime? You can break mine for a nickle and I'll bring the nickle."

-Hemingway

This is customer service...

2007-04-01T19:16:00.001-07:00

Your CDs have been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with
sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow.

A team of 50 employees inspected your CDs and polished them to make
sure they were in the best possible condition before mailing.

Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over
the crowd as he put your CDs into the finest gold-lined box that money
can buy.

We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party
marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of
Portland waved "Bon Voyage!" to your package, on its way to you, in
our private CD Baby jet on this day, Sunday, April 1st.

I hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. We sure did.
Your picture is on our wall as "Customer of the Year." We're all
exhausted but can't wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Sigh...

Noise from the void

2007-04-01T17:34:00.000-07:00

For those fans of psychadellic acid-tribal-house music out there... there'll be a very special noise from the void on Tuesday night. Noise from the Void is hosted by Jeno, one of the pioneers of the Wicked Full Moon party that reigned supreme for five years and has been reborn, off and on (like last night), throughout the years. This comes from a bulleting he posted... if you can, turn on, tune in and drop out!

This is from a bulletin Jeno posted:

This week's noisefromthevoid show falls a day after the full moon, and will therefore be a triumphant tribute to it's enduring magic, mystery and power..

I'll be digging out some old classics for y'all including plenty of dirty tripped out psychedelic acid house - a perfect selection for an unforgettable ride in to heart of the void..

And as we are right on top of the wickedfullmoon anniversary - I wanna say thanks to Markie, Garth, Alan, Trish (RIP), Malachy, Emma, Miles, Ernie Munson, dj Noel, dj Tracy, CB and the bus posse, Cosmic Jason, Craig Valentine, Gina P, and the many other folks who all helped create and/or sustain the full moon party with their energy and contributions over the 5 glorious years it reigned. Nuff said.. : )

The immutable Armand Capanna...

2007-03-27T23:59:00.000-07:00

Elad's in town...

2007-03-24T19:03:00.000-07:00

So Elad is in town and I've found cause to snap a few photos of places I've been... so here they are... it's good having a reason to be out of my hovel... a break from my hermit like living style of the last few months...

The case of the infamous exploding whale...

2007-03-17T20:42:00.000-07:00

If anyone wants to get me a birthday present this year...

2007-03-16T14:05:00.000-07:00

Bugatti Veyron at top speed
Uploaded by Flabber

Beware the Ides of March

2007-03-15T08:30:00.000-07:00

And if only our friend Julius had listened, who knows what he might've accomplished with a longer lease on life. As some know, and maybe some don't, today is the MML anniversary of Julius Caesar's death... happy death day JC!

7 Plays in 7 Days

2007-03-14T22:15:00.000-07:00

[Because of Suzan Lori-Parks]

7 Plays in 7 Days

by Len Shneyder

Wednesday 3.07.07

BEYOND

Silver Surfer – Cosmic Entity and Super Hero

The Beyonder – Cosmic Entity and Opportunist

(The stage is dark, very dark, the only light comes from above in the form of constellations. The floor of the stage reflects the constellations as if the entire stage has become the night sky, or the cosmos as it might be carried in some galactic being’s pocket. Silver Surfer and Beyonder enter from opposite sides of the stage at the same time. They walk very slowly. Each appears to be roughly in his mid 20’s. Silver Surfer, not surprisingly carries a silver surfboard. The Beyonder is dressed very poorly like a Floridian tourist in Havana during the 1940s complete with calf high black socks, shorts, a tasteless Hawaiian shirt and carries a pina colada in his left hand and is smoking a big fat Romeo & Julieta cigar in his right. They approach one another, slowly. Silver Surfer is walking slowly, with comic book like drama. The Beyonder doesn’t seem to care and is looking about him as if he’s lost something unimportant like an ash tray.)

SILVER SURFER
Insofar as origins…

BEYONDER
During the creation of space something was misnamed and called emptiness.

SILVER SURFER
Insofar as multipliers…

BEYONDER
It’s dangerous to be one’s own accomplice.

SILVER SURFER
Insofar as danger…

BEYONDER
While creation was defined something was left unnamed and this too was called intrinsic.

Silver Surfer
Insofar as…

BEYONDER
Look, I don’t mind, it’s a stretch but I don’t mind.

SILVER SURFER
Insofar…

BEYONDER
(Throws his drink in SILVER SURFER’S face.)
Let’s not go down this road.

END

Thursday 3.08.07

CHESS

Setting: Hell

Emperor Hirohito (In full Samurai regalia)

Harry S. Truman (in a sear sucker with straw hat)

Franklin D. Roosevelt (Wearing a tutu)

A host of men and women dressed as chess pieces, white behind Hirohito, black behind Truman.

(The two historical figures are sitting across from each other, table is covered in ornate Saki glasses and bad Canadian Whiskey. They’ve been drinking since the 60’s and there’s no letting up. Neither one of them is drunk and they both have to piss constantly, but there isn’t a urinal in sight for at least 4 levels of hell. The floor is a collection of 40+ years of broken saki glasses, cigarette buts, confetti, old newspapers, every issue of playboy ever published, the entire score to The Ring week bladders before the invention of depends. After the delivery of the 1st line they get up and take 3 steps to the right of their chairs, any chess piece can sit down and continue speaking for them, even though they are silent, the audience still knows that it's Hirohito and Truman's lines. The audience knows this as they’re telepathically connected inside of Hirohito and Truman’s minds. The whole time, in the back, Roosevelt is dancing to Gershwin, badly but without crutches.)

HIROHITO
We knew it was going to happen.

HARRY S. TRUMAN
We knew it too.

HIROHITO
You wanted it to happen!

HARRY S. TRUMAN
No more than you.

HIROHITO
See what you’ve done?!

HARRY S. TRUMAN
Much of what’s been done is you

HIROHITO
The issue isn’t me, it’s you

HARRY S. TRUMAN

HIROHITO

HARRY S. TRUMAN
I couldn’t agree more.

HIROHITO
Then you agree it’s your fault.

HARRY S. TRUMAN
No more than yours.

HIROHITO
These denials are useless!

HARRY S. TRUMAN
As are the accusations.

HIROHITO
We didn’t start this.

HARRY S. TRUMAN
Your denial is accusatory.

HIROHITO
But I’ve said it wasn’t us!

HARRY S. TRUMAN
Your responsibility is absent
HIROHITO
This is going nowhere!

HARRY S. TRUMAN
You’ve said nothing new.

END

Friday 3.09.07

SHAVING

He – male bearded

She – Female waxed

(A couple is lying in bed, they just finished having sex. There’s an ashtray between them and HE is smoking. It’s summer and the windows are open. The heat makes the smoke linger and dangle like so many lines of lazy ocean waves in the air. She is slightly annoyed to be swimming in a sea of Phillip Morris and is visibly shortening her post coital bliss.)

SHE
Mmmmmm.

HE
Yeah

SHE
So you think you could-

HE
What?

SHE
Shave?

HE
Why?

SHE
Maybe I’d like to kiss you.

HE
So kiss me.

SHE
Maybe I’d like to kiss you without the beard.

HE
Nah, I don’t think so.

SHE
Listen, last week you said you wanted to role play.

HE
So.

SHE
So I went out and waxed my twat so I could be your cheerleader.

HE
And?

SHE
Well maybe I’d like you to be my little boy. And for a moment let’s pretend it all grew back in and I can be an older woman.

HE
I’m not into that.

SHE
WHAT?!

HE
Yeah, doesn’t appeal.

SHE
How about some give and take here.

HE
I did, I gave you the money to get waxed, what more do you want?

SHE
A little compromise would be nice.

HE
It’s too dangerous.

SHE
You’re joking right? Compromise? Dangerous?!
HE
Well think about it, we’d have one crack at it, and then…

SHE
Then what?!

HE
Stubble: I need the beard.

SHE
What does stubble have to do with anything?

HE
If you could grow a beard you’d understand.

SHE
Understand you’re afraid of compromise?

HE
No, what it’s like to kiss your dad. The beard’s Switzerland, and you’re Lolita where you need to be.

END

Saturday 3.10.07

Moving Day

Jake – Early 20s

Molly – Mid 20s

Karen – Mid 20s

Bill – Mid 20s

Dealer – Mid 40s

20 or 30 random people dressed like bums

(There’s the latter half of a UHaul protruding from the left side of the stage filled with boxes. Jake is standing is leaning against the side of the truck. Molly Karen and Bill are very slowly taking a box and from the truck at random intervals, walking across the stage and placing them somewhere in the wings. There’s a Signpost behind and above the truck which reads HAIGHT ST, the cross st. isn’t visible.)

DEALER
Buds, buds, green buds…

JAKE
Yo, how much?

DEALER
Twenty a gram.

JAKE
Le’me see.

DEALER
(hands JAKE a sack)
Sure.

JAKE
This ain’t worth no 20!

DEALER
How much you want to give me for it?

JAKE
I’ll give you five.

DEALER
(ponders)
Ok, deal.

JAKE
(Rolls one on the spot after DEALER leaves and begins to smoke.)

Who said this was a fucked up neighborhood? Don’t look too bad to me, I mean shit, what a deal?! A twomp for a nickel! Moving security my ass… “Jake go watch the truck, Jake, don’t let the truck out of your sight. Jake. Jake. Jake.”

(As he enjoys his cannabis, a host of bums sneak around from behind the truck and begin to empty it of boxes passing them down a line every time the characters are off stage and placing boxes in the wings.)

END

Sunday 3.11.07

Giving Up The Ghost

Man – Mid 50’s

(A man dressed in his mid 50’s is wearing white. The entire stage is white and bathed in cool white light. The surfaces are all painted white, but a flat white so there’s no glare anywhere. He begins by lying on the ground in the middle of the stage, sleeping on a white pillow with a white thin sheet. He wakes slowly and sits up. He takes a long look around rubbing his eyes. The sheet begins to lift off him, seemingly of it’s own volition. He doesn’t notice it at first. Soon he has a puzzled look on his face as he comes to the realization that he is not in his bed. As the sheet lifts further off him he sees a projection of his ghostly self in the sheet. Shocked he reaches for the sheet and catches a corner and begins to struggle with it. He forces the sheet into his pajama pockets, down his pajama pants, he tries tying it around his wrist, anything not to let the sheet get away from him, which is moving this way and that, up stage, down stage, house right house left, off stage, back onto the stage, higher lower. This continues until the man reaches complete exhaustion and collapses dead, on stage.)

END

Monday 3.11.07

The Episode Of The Cosa Nostra’s Tiramisu

Diego – Early 20’s Venezuelan born in the states.

Carter – Early 20’s suburbanite

Old Man – mid to late 60s with giant hands made of leather.

(There’s the façade of a café and tables and chairs on the stage. It’s night time, the café is open and filled with silhouettes insides. The tables outside are empty, or full. Carter and Diego are on the corner of the stage, looking over their shoulders and smoking a pipe. Once they’re done they move toward the tables. Carter sits down and Diego goes inside.)

CARTER
What took you s long?

DIEGO
(Walks out with 2 cappuccinos)
Huh? What?

CARTER
Huh, what? I said what took you so long…

DIEGO
(Walks back in)
Oh, um, there’s more.

CARTER
(Calling after him)
What more?

DIEGO
(Coming back out with a large Tiramisu)
See.

CARTER
See what?! Where’d you get the money? We only had enough for the Caps.

DIEGO
Money? oh, um, we didn’t pay.

CARTER
What do you mean we didn’t pay? Did you offer to pay?

DIEGO
Um, yeah, I did, but he wouldn’t take my money.

CARTER
What do you mean he wouldn’t take your money?

DIEGO
He just wouldn’t take it.

CARTER
Oh I see, did he think you were cute?

DIEGO
No it wasn’t like that, he’s old.

CARTER
Who’s old?

DIEGO
The Barista.

CARTER
So an old man could’ve thought you were cute. You get hit on by men all the time.

DIEGO
It wasn’t like that.

CARTER
So what was it like oh stoned one? Did you just take the cake and walk out assuming it was Plymouth rock?

DIEGO
Dude, I handed him money, he said no, shook his head, well he didn’t say no, he just shook his head. He reaches into his pocket and takes out a fat wad of bills and puts a 10 in the drawer.

CARTER
How fat?

DIEGO
Scary fat.

CARTER
Ok, so then what?

DIEGO
He hands me the Tiramisu and smiled, but I couldn’t carry it cause I had the cappuccinos so I left it and came back to get it.

CARTER
It doesn’t make any sense.

DIEGO
I know.

(At that moment the old man walks out of the café door, saunters up to them. He’s wearing a short sleeve short, old man polyester pants but has a heavy gold ring on his finger, a heavy gold chain and matching bracelet. He comes up to them with two spoons, shakes each of their hands and saunters off stage while he dawns a Fedora. As he’s walking away the theme to the godfather begins to play.)

CARTER
Wonder what’s gonna happen now.

(Gunshots ring out, fade to black)

END

Tuesday 3.12.07

AGENT ORANGE

Two Allen Ginsberg impersonators in their early 70s

(The two impersonators, complete with glasses, wearing suits with orange ties and carrying a small daisy walk down the aisles of the theatre through the audience and mount the stage from either side. On the stage are two podiums that are lit from above with a single spot. One podium is yellow, the other podium is red. Either Ginsberg can begin reading. The poem is a modified [lifted] version of Ginsberg’s poem “Who Bomb”. The reading goes in a round and then eventually they start randomly spitting lines without any formal meter or circular rhythm. This goes on while the house lights, which should be down when this starts, slowly start going up and turning to orange until the entire house is bathed in a bright, agent, orange. At this point, and with both speakers slowly loosing their voice, the temperature of the house is raised until it becomes uncomfortable, not terribly hot, just uncomfortable. This continues, degree by degree until the Ginsbergs begin to undress one article of clothing at a time. This continues until the audience leaves and or collapses from heat exhaustion. The Ginsbergs eventually pass out and die on stage from heat induced strokes. The lines are to be repeated as many times as necessary for desired audience and actor effects to happen, or until someone spontaneously combusts.)

GINSBERG 1

People roast!
History toast!
People roast!
History toast!
People roast!
History toast!

He say carry a gun!
Sacrifice is fun!
He say carry a gun!
Sacrifice is fun!
He say carry a gun!
Sacrifice is fun!
He say carry a gun!
Sacrifice is fun!
He say carry a gun!
Sacrifice is fun!

Burnt to the floor!
Let’s even the score!
Burnt to the floor!
Let’s even the score!
Burnt to the floor!
Let’s even the score!
Burnt to the floor!
Let’s even the score!

GINSBERG 2

How did they burn?
Why did they burn?
How did they burn?
Why did they burn?
How did they burn?
Why did they burn?

How was it done?
Why was it done?
How was it done?
Why was it done?
How was it done?
Where was it done?
Who made a buck?
Where was it done?
Who made a buck?
Where was it done?

Who was it for?
Where did it start?
Who was it for?
Where did it start?
Who was it for?
Where did it start?
Who was it for?
Where did it start?

Imitation...

2007-03-12T01:24:00.000-07:00

Is the sincerest form of flattery...

I am now

2007-03-11T00:22:00.001-08:00

Kurtz...

...almost

coming soon...

300

2007-03-08T14:58:00.000-08:00

It's coming, tomorrow... and the speculation and reviews are flooding in. The film made the A-list on Rotten Tomatoes, 60%, hoping this will climb. Just today, on NPR, heard a discussion how folks are already saying that this film is a metaphor for the invasion of Ira(qn). The Iranian community is up in arms as the Persians are the bad guys, the feminists are on the rampage proclaiming its a hyperviolent display of machismo and testosterone... alright... I can't bloody wait! Leonidus = Lion Leonid = Look of the line... my beard is scruffy.

The alarm bell

2007-03-08T00:37:00.002-08:00

I don't mean to sound the fire alarm to get out of class, cry wolf or raise the siren two say two if by land or one if by sea, but we had another one yesterday and I do think, looking back on it now, that I might've felt it. You have to understand my building is old, the passing 5 bus rattles it something fierce at times... and I've come to know that vibration quite well... here, look for yourself...

so I'm not crazy, but I am becoming paranoid... now's a good time to cash in those frequent flier miles.

two by two by two

2007-03-07T10:47:00.001-08:00

Visitors to my building's rooftop.

The Chronicles of Telecommuting: III

2007-03-06T18:40:00.000-08:00

My advice for anyone attempting to work from home is to get to know your iTunes, intimately. Maybe get to know is the wrong word, as surely you know your music library, but I gaurantee you there are bits and pieces of that library that will surprise even you. I've taken to creating folders for music that I like as I listen to it... so far there are only two: sad songs and electronica. Both folders will eventually be compilations once they've accumulated enough odds and ends. A word of caution: DO NOT SURF AMAZON AT HOME!!! If you thought that Amazon was a nice distraction while you waste your day at the office, well kiddies, at home, its down right dangerous. As a matter of fact, set it up as an untrusted site, disable your one-click, block in a host file or at the router. Just don't do it, seriously. Sure, you may think that you have to have those 10 new CDs as every single piece of music in your 80 gig baracuda hard drive is totally old, boring and been played a million times, but honestly, is that the case? Have a come-to-jesus moment with your iTunes library and say to yourself, yes, this is good, and make it so. And then order from CD Baby instead!!!

Noteworthy picks from the library for today:

Chicago Sound Track - Cell Block Tango - just a fantastic piece of musical writing...
My Elastic Eye - Chemical Brothers - kinda spooky, like robert plant with a 303
Vibratonik - Moodswings - oddly haunting
My Drug Buddy - Evan Dando & Juliana Hatfield - bloody good songwriting!

A snippet from the NY Times

2007-03-06T08:48:00.000-08:00

This appeared in an article on media post, and fankly, I'm not sure how I feel about this... on the one hand what Google is doing isn't so different from say one's ability to open a book at a bookstore and read a few pages. I think the central question that needs to be asked is: how many people would or do actually read an entire book online?

Microsoft Attacks Google's Copyright Policy
The New York Times
Microsoft Corp. Tuesday launched a major offensive against Google, its closest rival in the Internet business, according to Reuters, saying the search giant takes an arrogant and possibly illegal approach to copyright protection. In a series of remarks, Thomas Rubin, Microsoft's associate general counsel, told the Association of American Publishers that Google's move into new media had essentially come at the expense of book, video and software publishers. "Google takes the position that everything may be freely copied unless the copyright owner notifies Google and tells it to stop," Rubin said, adding that his client Microsoft asks copyright owners for permission first.

"In essence, Google is saying to you and to other copyright owners: 'Trust us, we'll only show snippets (of copyrighted text), we won't harm you, we'll promote you,' " he added.

Indeed, Google is holding publishers hostage by taking control of their copyrights; the question for the court to decide is whether Google is allowed to copy, display and profit from pieces of copyrighted content (as it does with Google News) without consent as long as it doesn't profit outright from the whole. The AAP will welcome Rubin's comments, especially as the organization sits on a 16-month copyright lawsuit it filed against Google for digitizing copyrighted book content without gaining prior consent.