mushin no shin

Goldni and Aunt B have some thoughtful posts about the omnipresent sexism (if not outright misogyny) in last night’s superbowl ads.

I don’t have anything to add really, but did have a minor disagreement with Aunt B on one tangential item:

I mean, I thought the Google ad was cute, but it seemed like a masterpiece because it was a respite from the “Women suck and they’re ruining you. Only our product can make you more manly.” bombardment.

The disagreement being that I thought the Google ad was a masterpiece on its own without regard to the shittyness of the rest of the ads. (Which is really to say I just wanted to post about the Google ad and this was a convenient segue to do so :)

I really did think it was brilliant — maybe the best superbowl ad since that iconic one from Apple so many years ago. It was simple, thoughtful, intelligent, and emotional — and with that tag line “Keep Searching”, it was even deeply existential.

I’m no marketer, but it seems to this layman that an entire ad showing nothing but the branded product doing what the product does has got to be the gold standard, at least when it can be done this clearly and effectively, and especially when the product is shown profoundly helping the user shape the very fundamentals of his life.

But more interesting to me, and this goes to the bit about it being existential — it made a provocative observation about the human condition, how we *are* all searching. We’re searching for love, for happiness, for acceptance, for fulfillment, and for billions of things unique to the individuals doing the searching.

And back to the marketing aspect, Google just humbly accepted its place as the quiet little tool helping us answer our queries in ways never before possible, and not until recently even imaginable. Without a hint of arrogance they reminded us of just how immense a cultural revolution we’ve seen in the last 10 to 15 years or so, and how they’ve become the focal point through which we find and experience so much of that revolution.

That’s some powerful shit. And they did it without actors, celebrities, dialog — hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t even use a camera, just captured it right from the desktop. In this they made a commentary, even if unintentional, about the elemental superiority of substance over style and function over form (the same commentary they began making the day they launched with their simple, no-nonsense prompt).

And then there’s something beautiful in knowing that they didn’t have to do it, it wasn’t part of some well-plotted marketing scheme — they just put it up there because they could, because they felt like participating in the cultural event that superbowl ads have become. And they used a piece they’d already released into the tubes.

It just worked on so many levels. It might be cliche to say it, but this thing wasn’t just an ad, it really was a work of art. Performance art, even.

Where ya been, guy? Well, anyway good to have you back.

Basically, it’s 140 to 1, and he mops the floor with them all, including local favorite nitwit Marsha. Basically, don’t bring a knife to a gunfight, and don’t use “truthy” talking points to attack a guy who actually knows what the fuck he’s talking about.

Well I’ve been taking it slow, just doing a few things each weekend, trying to ease my way back in, not forcing it. There’s been some waiting as I’ve had to get a few things — the new midi controller, new monitors, a new stand, a new power supply. And I’ve still got a lot to do, getting the mixer routes all patched, with the effects and gates and eq and compressors and such all wired up.

But today, I turned it all on, for the first time in — what, is it 8 years? Maybe closer to 9, going on 10?

I’ve got sound from the xp-30. And when I fired her up, I found her right where I left off, sitting on my favorite dirty organ patch with the pitch shifted down an octave, wondering where I’ve been and happy to see me.

I’m gonna grab another beer and get back to my old friend.

there’s a small set of ‘em

It’s probably too soon to write much about it, but it would suck to miss the chance to make the first entry on this date (yeah I know it’s the 3rd already, but I’m sure it’s still legally the 1st until sometime tomorrow morning).

Well, I got the upstairs unpacked. Many species of disc and tape were shelved, egg-crates of cables and widgets got sorted and stacked. The porn stash was relocated. After some thought and trying out a few arrangements, I got the station layout down: racks to my left, the xp-30 to my right, and a desk in front with the juno on the workspace, the 101key in a tray below, and the studio monitors and video monitors sharing the riser in back. Though that last one may take some finagling when the lcds actually get here. The whole rig takes up about 3/4 of the room; I have the back of the desk about two feet from the far wall. I need to work on how move a little closer to center on the other axis, without blocking an inconvenient but needed closet.

When I packed this stuff up to move, I did as much as I could to leave all the woven cable snakes intact; unplug as little as possible, catch as much as possible in the power crate. Pulling it back out now, between time and tangles I’m not having much success just plugging everything right back in, *but*, by following the various cord paths, clumps, and clusters, and picking up my patterns and some clues I left, I was able to snart snapping together some memories of how it all hooked up. I did get the power crate (an egg crate that keeps together three powerstrips of plugs and wall warts and associated cabling, external pieces, etc) cleaned out and reorganized, and all the outgoing power cables re-snaked back to the rack and re-attached to their devices. And I got a good start on running the audio cables, but that’s a bit more complicated and will take a little while.

Meanwhile, I need a new machine to run things. I take the 2Ghz athlon that I was using as a dvr-pc back in the dark days before tivo, swap the 40GB hard drive for a 320 I had laying around. Got XP installed after a few tries (old xp disc didn’t want to see >137 of that drive). Installed Gina (multichannel audio card). Then I go to install the midi card, but find it uses a really old isa connector, no way to plug it into a newer machine (well, no way that’s not more expensive than just replacing the thing). Which is funny because I could have *sworn* I remembered buying a pci card to replace this isa one under similar circumstance. I must be remembering when I had to buy the isa card to replace whatever the hell it was that came before that.

So that’s where I am. I’ve got to figure out what to do about the midi controller, and finish running the audio, and then I should be ready to start turning things on.

so here we go;

sorry I haven’t written much here lately. I have no greater excuse than simply not having been in the right frame of mind.

Well. Don’t know when I’ll be back, but I’m here. And it’s Saturday night, after Christmas. It’s been a decent one. Thursday with the dad, brother, and brother’s family, at Granny’s house, which Dad has now inherited. I think I hit a home run with the Fart Machine I gave my nephew. And another, with a most politically incorrect documentary in which the esteemed civil libertarian boundary-pusher Larry C. Flynt chronicles the accomplishments and exploits of an Alaskan pin-up queen gone rogue. We’ll leave the rest to your imagination or google-fu.

Saturday, pizza, party, and presents with the sister and her husband, which rocked. Never doubt the badassedness of four fresh diced jalapeños and a smattering of mushrooms taking a Digiorno to the next level, especially when you wash it down with a steady flow of a brew-kit bitter and a back supply of the same brew-kit’s dark ale. We backed the food with the Mr. Hankey’s Chrismas Classics dvd, and the beer with Weird Al’s videos dvd, which culminated in the main event of Christmas at Ground Zero. Then to the living room for presents, with Koyaanisqatsi muted, just for the visual, and the TSO playing on on the PC/stereo. Good Times. As far as the gift, my & my sister and I have this long running calendar gag, and I won’t bore you with the details but I think I rocked it this year.

So then today I guess is xmas for me. Cleaned up from the party, then spent the day in lazy, beer-sipping play and exploration. I finally opened up the School of Rock dvd that’s been sitting on my coffee table for months. I can’t tell you how much I love the hell out of that movie. It’s stupid, it’s sappy, but goddamn it it rocks and I love it. Of course I’ve seen it too many hundred thousand times on TBS, so I didn’t need to watch it, but watched it with the commentary from Jack Black and the director, then went back and just watched the “one hell of a rock show” chapter. Man, for a stupid movie song, they nailed it. Just enough Yes, Kiss, Bowie, and Floyd all mixed up and dished out over a plate of AC/DC — fuck yeah. And yes, I fucking cry every time when Turkey Sub struts up to the mike and belts out loud and clear how happy she is to be who she is in a glorious declaration. And though I’ve got my issues with the keyboard kid — I would have liked to have seen a little less Rick Wakeman, a little more Ray Manerik with a helping of Jon Lord (that just would have been more rock and roll to me) — I understand better after the commentary that yeah, Wakeman was probably the perfect archetype given the actor/pianist’s true to life classical upbringing and utter unfamiliarity with rock. And even still I did always like the somewhat-Wakemanesque, but almost more Come Sail Away-era-Denis DeYoung sounding portamento-drenched monotimbral solo he does there. My kinda shit, actually.

Had an awesome dinner (yellow saffron rice, with red onions, fresh jalapeños, and mushrooms, well seasoned and sautéed with a Morningstar Veggie Italian Sausage, if you give a damn), then put on Naqoyqatsi, another dvd I’ve owned for a while but been waiting for the right time to watch. Except that I still haven’t watched it, I’ve just been listening as I typed this post. Well, it *is* Glass, it needs at least one listen by itself without the visual.

And it just ended. Guess I should grab another beer and watch it for real this time.

But I should leave you with one of my favorites of the season:

(No, I’m not Jewish, but I always thought I’d make a good one. I’ve got neurotic and sarcastic down pat, I think now I just have to learn when to eat what kind of meat and I’m there.)

I haven’t had much time to pontificate here lately, and haven’t said much about the health care bill, despite it being the only thing anyone’s really talking about.

Anyway, Kevin Carson nails a few key things:

[...] The point, Welch said, is not that a socialized system is better than a private system. The point is that their honestly socialized system is better than our socialized corporate system masquerading as a “private” one. He’d prefer a genuinely free market system to either the French or American system. But enemies of Obamacare need to drop the bullshit about the American healthcare system being “the best in the world,” and defending it as “our free market system.” Anyone with direct experience of foreign healthcare systems will be more than happy to expose such lies.

[...] The fact that we’re dealing in the U.S. with a choice between two or more alternative state-private mixes is one reason I haven’t gotten too worked up about the whole Obamacare debate.

I especially don’t understand why the public option, of all things, is where self-described opponents of a “government takeover of healthcare” chose to draw a line in the sand. [...] the public option would actually have represented a net decrease in statism. The major components of the healthcare “reform” that everyone agreed on were a naked power grab by a state-enforced cartel, forcing the entire population to purchase insurance at cartel prices and taxing the public to buy it for those who can’t afford it. The public option, on the other hand, would have been entirely self-financed after the initial seed money of a few billion, and nobody would have been forced to buy it. But it would have offered price competition to members of the insurance cartel.

The only other thing I’ll say is that I agree with Freddie, I think the Wyden-Bennet plan has a lot of potential, and I’d probably be less ambivalent about the whole issue if that plan was getting more consideration, particularly in its provisions towards getting us out of our employer-based scheme.

I got glasses when I was 14 or so, and I hate Hate HATED them. I got contacts after about a month, and haven’t owned or wore a pair of glasses in the 20+ years since.

Well, now I’m finally getting my eyes zapped this month. Because contacts still suck, even though they suck considerably less, and because lasers are cool. Except that now I’ve got to wear glasses again for the next couple of weeks before the procedure.

And I still hate them every bit as much as did the last time. The heavy clunky feeling on my face, the fishbowling around the edges, the dizziness if I turn my head too fast — crap, I don’t know how you regular wearers put up with it.

These are gonna be a long couple of weeks.

I can’t link directly to it, because of the Tennessean’s god-awful web design, but on this article about the fairgrounds hubub, commenter Jablonski suggests:

Proposal: State Fairgrounds should be converted to a park for the under-parked Neighborhoods of South Nashville. Revenues to compensate for NOT putting the property on tax rolls as HCA’s new HQ, would be paid for in one simple decision: The racetrack should be converted BACK to a horse racing track, as it originally was, and the Iroquois steeplechase moved to this redeveloped land, converted back to a natural state. Finally, betting on horse-racing would be legalized for this facility on this day each year, and television rights to the Steeplechase would be sold, as the oldest and most storied such event in the nation. QED, and you’re welcome to my genius whenever you like.

I’ve never gone to Steeplechase, but just might if they did something like this.

Commenter njmccune nails it on the fairgrounds controversy:

If this place had been maintained properly and attention had been paid to landscaping and maintenance it would be a local icon and would continue to operate.

If it was making lots of money and still looked as bad as it does it would be a local icon and would continue to operate.

But it is neither… it is simply a hodge-podge collection of dilapidated buildings on un-maintained property that is at the heart of the blight in South Nashville. It looks like an old shuttered industrial complex badly in need of demolition.

Nostalgia aside… it is time for this property to become a symbol of the resurgence of South Nashville.

And in the category of Most Ludicrous Argument Ever, oh how I wish I had a link, but the current chair of the Davidson County Libertarian Party argues that we have to keep the fairgrounds open because otherwise property taxes in the area might go up. Think about that for a second. Why might property taxes go up? There’s one and only one reason — because property values might go up.

So, apparently Libertarians today believe that government should maintain ownership of rundown property in order to operate a revenue losing business on said property, because otherwise the neighboring property owners might see their property values increase, and that would be a bad thing. Yay for government intervention to make sure we keep our slums intact! Now that’s good laissez-faire capitalism!

Between that and the frothing comments you see on most articles on the subject, what’s clear is that when conservatives are presented a dilemma whereby their self-proclaimed belief in small government and fiscal responsibility conflict with their underlying and deeply psychological fear of change, you can guess which one wins.

Now, all that said, I’m not super keen on having the property sold off to HCA or other private developers. The land is a public resource, and it would be ideal if the site could be re-purposed in a way that benefits all Nashvillians while becoming a vibrant part of a revitalized South Nashville. BUT, we have to work within the parameters available, and when we can’t even get Metro to upkeep the islands in our central intersection (great thanks are due to the neighborhood volunteers doing what they can on their own to keep them looking presentable), hoping for something like a Centennial Park South is probably a pipe dream. But perhaps if some of the land can be sold in order to finance a Brown’s Creek Park project, or perhaps better yet sold on condition of the owners taking on the maintenance of such a park…