Albert Hoffman died today at 102, and the dwindling tribe of Deadheads, already devastated by Jerry’s death (umm, over a decade ago now), turn their sorrowful eyes toward Terrapin Station (and, one assumes, the technolibertarian utopia assured by John Perry Barlow, whose new agey marriage of Milton Friedman and George Gilder has spawned thinking most [...]
Entries from April 2008
April 20, 2008
campaign strategists call it a “major debacle” and a “can’t win”
The very people in charge of the campaign is now admit that it’s turned into a “major debacle,” the outcome “in doubt,” despite a buildup of ground support in the most critical parts of the countryside. The “long term impact” of what has become a internecine war “has not been calculated.” Of course, many blame [...]
April 18, 2008
danny schecter ain’t fooled by the appearance of dissent & debate
Last night I made the mistake of clicking between the Yanks-Sox slugfest (final: NY, 15-9) to attend to the so-called “debate” between the Democratic rivals, summed up by media critic Danny Schecter as the “most despicable” presentation ever of mediated-politics, or political theatre, or however you want to label the spectacle of two “respectable” pundits, [...]
April 15, 2008
hillary clinton will drink you under the table, bag you a duck, and tune up your tractor, Pennsylvania
In mycountrytisofthee, we’ve hit that sweet spot in the campaign where all those details about healthcare mandates and biofuels are forgot as the genuinely silly season begins and the last vestiges of any kind of mock-seriousness are replaced by Pythonesque displays of hyperbole, shape-shifting, vitriol, and a steady stream of mis-speakings followed by either [...]
April 10, 2008
Quick & Dirty Site Guide
If you’re new here: this column consist of traditional blog posts. At right: PHOTO GALLERY links to NST Flickr pages. ABOUT justifies my ways to man; background on the site, amplifies what’s here. DECALOGUES are annotated “best of” lists. “Ten Things to Do in Boston” is indispensable. ESSAYS are longer. “The Devil and John McCain” [...]
April 10, 2008
sometimes, paul robeson felt like a motherless child
On this date in the year 1775, the most prominent Man of Letters of his era, Dr. Samuel Johnson, “dined at a Tavern, with numerous company,” according to his biographer James Boswell, who was among the company. The conversation turning to wild animals, Johnson announced that “we are told, that the black bear is innocent; [...]
April 6, 2008
charlton heston wants you to pry his rifle from his cold, dead hands
I prefer my heroes and villains to be easily painted in stark monochrome; the subtleties of human nature only confuse me, and I wish I had the fortitude of a Dante, who assigned seemingly everyone who ever afforded him even the slightest affront their own particular place in Hell without any apparent reservation whatsoever. But [...]
April 6, 2008
mike gravel wants to know whether you want him to make you
When Mike Gravel injected some genuine life into the Democratic primaries by throwing down zen-like videos–the equivalent of streaming cinema nouveau into a midwestern family room–even I was confused, and my cosmological viewpoint is disturbingly akin to the former Senator’s. But I found his heartfelt explanation, his genuine enthusiasm for the project, downright heartwarming, even [...]
April 4, 2008
the pipettes want you to dance with them
Since I can feel in my bones that much herein will comprise confused alarms of struggle and flight /where ignorant armies clash by night, I wanted to introduce this site on an uplifting note before letting it plummet of its own weight into the Slough of Despond through which I spend my waking days [...]
