The Inkbottle

Moving to WordPress

I've moved The Inkbottle from TypePad to Wordpress, so I can have more control over it (and hopefully contribute more posts).

I've also moved all of my older posts to the new site.

So if you want to read more, please join us at The NEW Inkbottle!

Working Assumption

I'm working on the assumption that Leopold Bloom in Joyce's Ulysses was the inspiration for Twitter (if not in reality at least in theory). Read Ulysses, read the stream of consciousness rambles that Bloom spews out in that novel, and you'll notice that his thought are short and compact yet very complex--just like twitter messages.

Tweets, as they are called, are limited to 140 characters in length. Why 140? This is the explanation at the Twitter website:

It also just so happens that 140 characters is the perfect length for sending status updates via text message. The standard text message length in most places is 160 characters per message. We reserve 20 characters for people's names, and the other 140 are all yours!

Bloom's thoughts seem to follow along these rules. Bloom was also really into the latest technologies of his time and would, no doubt, be a regular rambler on twitter if he were walking around Dublin circa 2009 (a regular Stephen Fry or Ashton Kutcher). So it makes sense to see Bloom as a big twitter fan.

I'll say more about this once I go back into my copy of Ulysses and dig around for good "tweets." Who knows--perhaps there's an essay here.

Final thought: Molly Bloom, unlike Leopold, would HATE Twitter. She'd need her own blog.

Top 10/Bottom 3 for June 2009 (Part I)

Top Ten

1. Water
2. The Beta Band's The 3 EP's
3. The Vaselines
4. Planning trip to London in January
5. New Squidbillies
6. Feedly
7. Top Gear (and I'm not even a car person)
8. JG Ballard's Vermillion Sands
9. Touch
10. Flickr

Bottom Three

1. Grading essays
2. Eating too much junk food
3. Heat

The House Painting Ordeal Slideshow

One picture wasn't enough, so here's the whole story.

Our patio, newly painted (cat is optional)

House Painting ALL DONE, originally uploaded by Commodius.

We spent 3 months getting out house repainted. It was costly and stressful, but it's nearly done. Here's some proof. The cat on the lawn is Steve. He loves the lawn and the fact that the guys painting the house are now out of his back yard.

Top 10/Bottom 3: May 2009

Top 10

1. 30 Rock
2. Easy Star All-Stars, Radiodread
3. Jeremy Davies on Lost
4. Kode9 & the Spaceape, Memories of the Future
5. Venture Brothers 3rd Season on DVD
6. JG Thirlwell, The Music of JG Thirlwell, Vol. 1 (Original Soundtrack)
7. King's Hawaiian Sweet Rolls
8. Ableton's Live 8
9. Dub Echoes
10. JG Ballard's Vermillion Sands

Bottom 3

1. Republicans
2. Hysteria over Swine Flu
3. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (sorry, guys)

RIP

Radiohead is Too Good for the Music Industry

So I sat through 2.5 hours of the Grammy telecast in order to see Radiohead perform. Radiohead was awesome, and their 4 minutes on primetime in the US revealed something that, I'm guessing, most of the music industry didn't want to be let out: that everything in the regular music industry (from Kenny Chesney to Coldplay to MIA) is crap. It's easy for mildly talented artists to shine when put in a spotlight with other mildly talented artists. But throw a great artist into the mix--one who creates complex and interesting music that defies most of the standard pop cliches--and everything else pales by comparison.

No wonder the audience provided lukewarm applause after their number (which came accompanied by the USC marching band--brilliant idea). Radiohead just revealed them for who they actually are.

Ten Things I learned in 2008

1. That I can support a winning candidate for President. With one exception, before this year, the person I supported and voted for in the primary either wasn't nominated or lost in the general election [the one exception? 1996 when Clinton was the only choice.] I decided to support Obama back in 2007, and I stuck with him all the way, and somehow he won. It was a great year, but it was an election grounded in my support of sports teams that always go to the brink before crashing and burning (Angels, Seahawks). Hence, I never took anything for granted--up to 7:59 (my time) on election night, just before the results of California and Washington put Obama over the top. The elation that I felt at that moment, when the victory was confirmed, equaled anything that has ever happened in my life. Right now, it can't be January 20th fast enough.
2. That Sigur Ros is an awesome live act. Well, I knew that, but I'd never seen them live before. I went to their show in San Diego this year, and was blown away. Amiina wasn't even with them to provide all their beautiful ambience, but the band still rocked. I rarely go to concerts any more, but that was an exception I'd be happy to make over and over again.
3. That I really, really want to finish writing the book I've been writing for the last four or so years (on and off). I'm getting there. I have a few chapters done, and I like where I'm headed.
4. That Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is actually one of the best albums of all time. Seriously. Check it out, please, and read my post here at the Inkbottle.
5. That most people liked The Dark Knight more than I did. I still liked it, but I preferred Batman Begins because the creation of the myth is (to me) more interesting than its execution.
6. That I'm pegged by my friends and family. When a birthday or Xmas comes around, what do I get? Books and DVDs and that's it. No one ever gets me music because my taste is too weird for them to fathom. But that's cool--I can buy THEM CDs.
7. That the smartest purchase I have made in the past five years is my Prius. When gas was $4 a gallon in California, I barely blinked when going to fill up. I rarely paid over $20 per visit, and those visits were very infrequent. Even when my wife and I drove up to San Francisco, we didn't pay more than $120 or so for gas the entire way.
8. That Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are two of the smartest people in television (okay, I knew this before 2008, but 2008 reaffirmed it).
9. That I really, really like 30 Rock--more than The Office, even. Tina Fey, yay!
10. That I am happy and fortunate to have a job at a time when so many people are struggling. Unemployment in my area is over 25%, so there are a lot of people struggling around here. I'm glad to not be one of them, and I hope my job as a teacher at a community college can help others dig out of their own dire predicaments and make their lives better.

Happy 2009, everyone! Just a few more days and we'll finally have a REAL president!!!!!

President-Elect Obama

Other than the day I got married and the day that the (then) Anaheim Angels won the World Series, this is the greatest day of my life.

I am 40 years old. I was born a few months before Nixon took office, so I have seen my share of horrible, horrible Presidents, from Nixon and Carter to Reagan and Bush and worse Bush. Clinton was all right, but he was always too interested in himself than anything else, and his infidelities and the problems that ensued led directly to the last eight horrible fucking years.

Obama, however, is different. He is a President to be proud of. I'm already proud of him, and he just finished his victory speech! He is a symbol, yes, but he is a humble symbol, capable of leading the world through a difficult time and capable of transforming the way Americans look at each other and the way the world looks at America. He was the only choice for President this year, and he has the opportunity to change the world in a real and fundamental way. I cannot wait to see what happens next.

But today, I just want shed a tear and thank Jeebus for the opportunity to live to see this wonderful, amazing moment arrive. Finally, I am going to have a President I will be proud of.