The Day Jazz Died in Harlem? – New York Times book review
February 20, 2010
“Some people still scratch their heads, for example, about why jazz in Harlem went off the boil. The answer is more than 60 years old, and Fletcher tells the story well: It was the Police Department’s temporary closing of the Savoy in 1943, and the subsequent Harlem riots that year — ignited by a white cop’s shooting of a black soldier, but foreshadowed by a growing frustration with institutional racism in the wartime economy. These events ruined many businesses along 125th Street and made white customers stay away; club owners sought surer business downtown, and that was the end of a scene.”
All Hopped Up and Ready to Go; Music from the Streets of New York 1927-77 by Tony Fletcher, reviewed by Ben Ratliff, New York Times Sunday Book review
James Arthur Ray “Spirit Warrior” Misled Public About His Wealth?
February 20, 2010
“Many participants have said Ray chided them for wanting to leave, even as people were vomiting, getting burned by hot rocks and lying unconscious on the ground.”
— by Felicia Fonseca, Associated Press Writer
James Arthur Ray in 2008
- Tells Fortune magazine that his goal is $21 million a year
- Claims to be “not aware” of any limits to his financial success
James Arthur Ray in 2009
- Claims an estimated $10 million in revenue
- $1,000,000+ advance for book, “Harmonic Wealth” a New York Times Bestseller, May 2008
James Arthur Ray in 2010
- Held on $5 million dollar bond for manslaughter charges for the deaths of three people in a “Spirit Warrior” sweat lodge therapy session
- Faces 12 1/2 years for each death
- Has a net worth of negative $4.2 million
- Has liabilities of more than $8.5 million — and you have to love this —
- “much of which was unexplained in a statement of net worth.”
Dog’s Amazing Hearing from Bark magazine
February 7, 2010
Even during the quiet hours of the night, the world is a noisy place for dogs, who can hear the high-frequency pulse of the crystal resonator used in digital alarm clocks and the bodily vibrations of termites in the walls.
— Bark, Feb./March 2010
New Treatment Options for Dogs with Obsessive-Compulsive Behaviors?
February 4, 2010
Katie Drummond reports on AOL News that a gene for obsessive-compulsive disorder may have been located in certain dog breeds.
My initial reactions are these: 1.) The concept that a gene “causes” a behavior is, at best, an over-simplification (see Richard Dawkins, et. al). So Ms. Drummond’s lede follows the incorrect pattern of most science writing on this subject. 2.) Surely there exists a more pleasant, more flattering photo of Katie Drummond (left). And 3.) I didn’t know that AOL was still around. Amazing.
But I am a huge fan of Dr. Nicholas Dodman and a long-time subscriber to the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University’s newsletter Your Dog. If you’re serious about keeping up to date on issues of canine health and training there is simply no better monthly newsletter out there.
What this really means is now that a relationship between the existence of this gene and the obsessive-compulsive behavior in some breeds has been identified it will open up more treatment options. And the possibility that this link may lead to a similar finding in the human genome.
This is, potentially, a breakthrough achievement and it doesn’t surprise me in the least that it comes from Dr. Dodman and his colleagues at the Cummings School.
James Arthur Ray “Spiritual Warrior” and promoter of “Practical Mysticism” Arrested and Charged in 3 Deaths
February 4, 2010
We’ve written about James Arthur Ray previously here and should add that our disgust for this class of New Age hucksters and con-men (and women) knows no bounds. We’re glad that criminal charges have been filed.
You don’t have to be a medical doctor to dispute his attorney’s claim that “no one could have foreseen” this possible outcome when you read the details leading up to these three deaths.
[After spending 36 hours in the desert without food or water, a buffet breakfast was served and 64 people were packed into a “Sweat Lodge” 24 feet wide and 4 1/2 tall for two hours. 21 people were taken to hospitals after this ‘re-birthing’ ceremony ended. Three people died.]
There is no indication that Mr. Ray put himself through the same ordeal he charged his clients $10,000 for.
People like James Arthur Ray are the moral equivalent of child predators in that they exploit emotionally vulnerable and intellectually weak-minded individuals who are genuine in their desire for self-improvement but lack the critical thinking skills to see through the con.
Let me be clear: these self-proclaimed gurus prey upon adults and no one has accused Mr. Ray of molesting children. But for me, personally, this is a difference without much of a distinction. Exploitation of the vulnerable is reprehensible and those who do it, knowingly and for profit, deserve the severest sanctions society can mete out.
A defense attorney might make the case that a child molester suffers from a psychological disorder but the James Arthur Ray’s of the world are simply greedy and have developed a good line of patter.
A measure of blame and complicity should also be laid at the doors of Rhonda Byrne (author of The Secret), Larry King, The Today Show and Oprah Winfrey for their uncritical promotion of Ray.
Let’s remember that when Winfrey turned on fraudulent memoirist James Frey (A Million Little Pieces) no one died as a result of his duplicity. Will Oprah take a public stand on James Arthur Ray?
State of the Internet 2009 by the Editors of FOCUS
February 3, 2010
The editors of FOCUS have produced their annual infographic on the State of the Internet for the year just past and it packs a great deal of information in a very compact space.
Although we have to gag over the self-reporting by bloggers, 75% of whom describe their style as “sincere.” Right. And pigeons are flying art critics who only poop on bad public sculpture.
FOCUS is a a site where you can find expert advice and read research briefs on a wide variety of business topics like information technology, sales, marketing, customer service, human resources, and small business ideas. If you need targeted info in any of these areas their site is well worth checking out. You can even ask your own question of their experts.
Plus, we have to give props to their graphic team for this cool design. Click on image for larger size.
5 Songs by Warren Zevon — “Enjoy Every Sandwich”
February 3, 2010
I Dreamed I Conquered the World in my Maidenform Bra
January 31, 2010
I rarely remember any of my dreams, unless I’m woken up unexpectedly during the night and I don’t place any stock in them as predictive or even especially insightful. The latest word on them from scientific research is that they are somehow connected with the consolidation of long-term memory. Consistently interrupt someone’s dream cycle and their ability to learn new skills plummets. Click on images for larger size.
Still incompletely understood, dreams may be the by-product of a shuffling and filing system that the brain uses to store information. The symbolic analysis promoted by that cocaine-addicted doctor from Vienna, among many others, has been thoroughly demolished by recent fMRI studies and the explosion of information in brain research in general over the last 15 years. Like anyone ever really believed that a dream about a train going into a tunnel was about fucking.
For some reason I’ve been waking up around 4 or 5:00 am for the past several nights. As a result I’ve been able to recall what I was just dreaming about. Here’s one of them:
I’m a background player on Saturday Night Live in 1977. Buck Henry is the host and we’re rehearsing a sketch about a naive young couple, Buck and Gilda Radner, who’ve walked into an underground head shop, mistaking it for a store selling religious paraphernalia.
The jokes are along the lines of the owner, played by Dan Ackroyd, explaining that the black light poster of Jim Morrison is Jesus before he grew his beard, etc.
It has the feel of the classic SNL Greek Diner sketch — Cheeburger, Cheeburger, Cheeburger, No Coke, Pepsi — funny in an observational way, without punch lines. When John Belushi pulls out a huge baggie of pot from behind the counter, the “joke” is that you’ll need “a pretty big incense burner” to use up all that incense. Apparently, “a pretty big incense burner” is a running catch-phrase.
At one point I ad lib a line, a bold move as I don’t have a speaking part, and Ackroyd and Belushi crack up. My personal comedy gods have smiled on me and I’m in Seventh Heaven. “We’ve got to keep that in, it’s great!” says Danny. Life does not get better than this, I’m thinking.
Running through the sketch for the umpteenth time, Belushi fumbles the ‘pot as incense’ gag and angrily exclaims, “Ah, what the fuck! It doesn’t matter. I’m going to OD on this or something else, anyway.”
For the second time, I speak up and say in a completely straight and somewhat sad voice, “Yes, that’s right. That’s exactly what’s going to happen.” This stops everyone in their tracks. They all look at me uncomfortably, including Belushi. Somehow it’s understood by every person on that stage that what I’ve just said is absolutely true.
At that moment I wake up and find that I’m crying.
“You Are Not a Gadget” by Jaron Lanier – the first Must-Read book of 2010
January 29, 2010
“Children want attention. Therefore, young adults in their newly extended childhood can now perceive themselves to be finally getting enough attention through social networks and blogs. . . Separation anxiety is assuaged by constant connection. Young people announce every detail of their lives on services like Twitter not to show off, but to avoid the closed door at bedtime, the empty room, the screaming vacuum of an isolated mind.” — Jaron Lanier
I don’t normally seek to force feed my interests and obsessions on others but I’ll make an exception in the case of Jaron Lanier’s You Are Not a Gadget.
If you want to hang with me, you’ve got to read this book. (Just like Eric Clapton who explained that, back in the 1960s, if you didn’t know who Robert Johnson was, he didn’t want to talk to you).
In a just and equitable world You Are Not A Gadget would reach an audience the size of the one for Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point. As much as I enjoyed Tipping Point, I think this is a more important and profound book. Perhaps Lanier has made a tactical error by subtitling his work as “a manifesto,” a billing that will likely cut down his readership. Personally, I would file this under ‘cogent analysis’ rather than ‘manifesto.’
“. . . popular music created in the industrialized world from the late 1990s to the late 2000s doesn’t have a distinctive style—that is, one that would provide an identity for the young people who grew up with it. The process of the reinvention of life through music appears to have stopped.” — Jaron Lanier
Read this to understand important concepts like “lock-in” as it relates to software development and the “hive mind” aspect of Web 2.0 social media. Find support here if you, like me, can’t stand Twitter and FaceBook.
If you question the recently promoted idea of ‘the wisdom of crowds,’ as I do (strenuously), rest assured that Lanier knocks the intellectual under pinnings of that concept into a cocked hat. I think events like the Internet bubble (and subsequent bust) of the early 2000s and the housing bubble and bust of the late 2000s are great examples of ‘the ignorance of crowds.’ Keep in mind that 50% of the adult American population is below average in intelligence. It’s no surprise that when the majority of them gather online they have nothing interesting, insightful or useful to say.
Read the NY Times review here (quick! before it disappears behind the pay wall) and an essay about it by John Tierny here.
Incredible realistic miniature model landscapes by Matthew Alabanese
January 26, 2010
In stereo photography there is a term, hyper-stereo which means taking two images with a lens separation greater than the normal interocular of about 2.5 inches. Ortho-stereo refers to images taken with a lens separation that approximates the normal human-sized view of the world. Hyper-stereo images are what it might be like to view the world from a giant’s perspective, or even greater.
Two cameras can be set up several feet or even many yards apart to take a landscape view like one of the Grand Canyon. The depth effect is very pronounced but it makes it appear as if we are looking at a miniature model of the Grand Canyon.
None of this has anything to do with the amazing miniature landscapes created out of ordinary materials like sugar, corn syrup, paprika and tile grout by model builder and photographer Matthew Albanese. Except that they remind me of many hyper-stereo views I’ve seen over the years.
Below are two samples of his work showing a Martian landscape and how he achieves a realistic cloud effect with just lighting and cotton wool. For the complete gallery at the Telegraph UK go here. Click on images for larger size.
