April 2002

Christina Update
Longtime readers know that I’m a Christina Aguilera fan, and follow what’s up with this young popstar. This recent interview with Allure Magazine is a nice update. Nice to see her realizing that she got overexposed, and overworked last year. I remember for a while that any time she’d appear on TV she looked so tired. I would note this to Jenny; now, Jenny’s not particularly interested, but she generally agreed. My hope is that Christina will get a rational schedule for the promotion of her new record. The new record, which I’m looking forward to. The inclusion of an Etta James cover can’t help but be a good sign. Hey, Xtina can sing, aiight?

Though I am appalled that she mentioned her 11 piercings (ugh!), it is sort of interesting to ponder where they all might be. chuckle

Sign O’ The Times
One of the funniest, saddest things I’ve seen in a while is Bill Rini’s photos from Internet World 2002 in Los Angeles.

Splash Page Redesign!
And it was very fun. I hope it works well for you. about the redesign, I use kottke’s silkscreen font. I also did work in Painter drawing with a virtual brush to do the lettering. The CSS and xhtml works well in Netscape 6/Windows and IE6/Windows, there will be inevitable tweaks when I check other browsers and platforms, but I’m pretty happy with it.

Now, I’ve had “kitties thinking” in my sig for a while, but the kitty that was featured on the previous splash is gone, so I need to update my sig on all my various mail programs. Where’s the kitty that was here, do you ask? She’s in the portfolio.

I’m still not sure if I should archive the old splash pages publicly. Anyway, I hope you like it.

In Brief
Tired. Need to get up early. Why am I still up? Stupidity. Big pitch for work tomorrow. Wish us luck. And wish me good-night.

PMRC Too-Redux’d; Read More About It!
Last night there was a thing on VH1 about the PMRC hearings called Warning: Parental Advisory. My hopes had been low for this, but I was hopeful that at least Frank Zappa might be characterized interestingly (I am a fan). But it was pretty much awful all around. It also made Dee Snider (who played himself!) and John Denver look buffoonish, and seemed to miss the seriousness of the affair. I understand that in drama you tweak things for dramatic effect, but the film was full of mischaracterizations and nonsense.

The wonderful thing about the web is that you can find the full testimony online. Dee, Frank, and Denver all have great things to say in their testimony. So go ahead and read the transcripts, they’re really fun reading, as it happens.

Zappa Testimony: [51] [52] [53] [54] [55] [56] [57] [58] [59] [60] [61]
Frank Zappa Statement: [61] [62] [63] [64]

John Denver Testimony: [64] [65] [66] [67] [68] [69] [70] [71] [72]

Dee Snider Statement: [72] [73] [74] [75] [76] [77] [78] [79] [80] [81] [82]

Random Thought Last Night: I was at the store and thinking that the key people to think of when trying to raise awareness as an online activist are Ralph Nader (consumer advocacy, serious research); Gandhi (tolerance, love for fellow man); and Edward Tufte (obsessive focus on communicating effectively).

Site Tweaks: The Ronny Vardy Fansite was updated, I added even more lyrics (Stew’s Giselle) to the Smorgasborg, and I also tweaked that page a bit, adding dates to many items, and trimming away a thing or two. As I add dates to it, it starts looking like older blog entries. Lyrics, noteworthy items, links, quotes.

But then any site ordered by time starts looking like a weblog, I think. Maybe it’s this, weblogs are just like the best websites, where you pack lots of loosely related stuff together, and the result is an interesting hodgepodge.

I’m watching Tammy Bruce (discussing her book)on C-SPAN and she’s really good. I disagree with her a lot, but you have to love pro-gun pro-choice feminists who can count Dr. Laura as a colleage and friend. Her argument is excellent. She’s standing for individual, personal, civil liberties. She argues that if you have a cause, then do the research to back up your cause. If your personal beef is with “liberal bias in the media” then you should be prepared, in public debate, to come up with the details and specifics. If you can’t, you look like a clown. Just saying something does not make it so. You must be able to back it up!

I like how she puts it—

I want you to be able to own why you think what you think.

Amen. Do your homework, whatever your pursuasion. Everything else is whining.

“The fact that inhumanity is coupled with so much stupidity makes one feel almost optimistic in a dangerous way.”
  - Erich Hecke

How kooky is it that my San Diego Bloggers page is #4 in a google search for bloggers?

Quotes of the Moment
The point is, stop killing people
&nbsp - Mitch Wagner

If you don’t speak up and let yourself be heard, you lose the power to shape the debate
  - Oliver Willis

Mike says, “the equivocation and silence of the non war bloggers is deafening.” I fail to see equivocation in standing foursquare against killing. But I do agree that the silence is deafening, or at least creepy. Frankly, it’s fearful. These are not safe times to oppose war. Blogging is personal. All of us, regardless of our opinions, are highly exposed.
  - Doc Searls