infobong.com

highways of knowledge

Earlier today, I was at the gym, watching President Bush speak in Albuquerque on CNN. At first, the speech was the usual laundry list of big-business handouts that masquerade as an economic policy these days, but he turned to a topic particularly interesting to me:

I can't argue with that. (OK, I guess I'd contend that he treats the technology as a panacea for larger issues of literacy and cultural access.) Hmmm, but maybe this is just a handout to established carriers?

Universal access to broadband? Presuming he means universal access to broadband in the same sense as "universal access" to POTS, he's advocating some crazy regulatoriness. But what's even crazier is that I actually agree with the president on something for once. I find it a little hard to see this as a handout to the incumbent broadband players, when he's advocating competition in the market, especially in light of the DC Circuit's ruling this month lifting rules requiring carriers to share lines with competitors. But there is a little catch,

Its seems a reasonable trade-off to give broadband carriers tax break if the government will compel them to wire poor, remote areas like Farmington, but the tax-breaks should be temporary, so the big, rich carriers don't get a long-term handout.

entitled ridiculously easy

I'm sure I'm behind the curve posting this cartoon, but it echoes an item I posted during SXSWi.

crystalline, lovingly remastered

Its about time I mentally return from Spring Break and start blogging again. With that in mind, here's a news item that got my attention. Pitchfork reports next month will see the release of a new My Bloody Valentine compilation of old material. The first disc has remasters of four EPs - You Made Me Realise, Feed Me With Your Kiss, Glider and Tremolo - while the second disc contains the proverbial "rare, unreleased material." I own Feed Me With Your Kiss, Glider and Tremolo, but my copy of Feed Me With Your Kiss (on import CD) is pretty muddy-sounding, so a remaster of that and the unreleased material will make this worth the money for me. Of course, I still haven't gotten around to purchasing The Quine Tapes.

recommitted despite rumblings

At the gym this morning, I saw something on CNN's newscrawl about The Daily Show." I felt a pang of anxiety at the prospect Jon Stewart would be leaving one of my favorite TV shows. I think he's way better than Craig Kilborn on the news analysis program, and I was like, "First Bill Moyers, now this?" It seems my fears were unfounded, the Gray Lady says, Stewart has re-upped his contract for four more years

rinse, lather, repeat

I'm sitting in on a panel at SXSWi entitled "Blogging, Journalism and Politics," and the discussion is starting to sound something like this:

As fascinated as I am with blogs, I think I've heard too much about blogs in the past few days.

users and fans

Here at the SXSW Interactive Conference, I noticed a clot of techno-elites conversing. This is, of course, a common sight at the conference, but what was different was that all the conversands were carrying German bike messenger bags. I wondered if they were some kind of underground German messenger bag crew. I own a loverly Ortlieb messenger bag, so I hoped that I could perhaps join their crew, but social anxiety got the better of me, and I didn't walk up and talk to them. However, perhaps I will become part of their posse now that I've created a "German Messenger Bags" community on Orkut.com.

west buy south

I'm at South By Southwest Interactive this weekend, and while some folks are blogging the conference, I'm just taking it all in. Yay, spring break.

point in the near future

The first concert I ever saw as a teenager was The Dead Milkmen at Tulsa's late, lamented Ikon. I had to sneak out of the house with Jay and Eric because of some tensions with my mom. It was good guilty, fun. Now it seems kind of embarrassing to say they were the first band I ever saw live, but I know plenty of people who claim dorkier first shows. With that context, I'll say I am sad to learn that Dead Milkmen bassist Dave Blood committed suicide Wednesday.

dr. m4dd4wg

I learned today that I've been accepted as a doctoral student in UT-Austin's celebrated Department of Radio-TV-Film. Yes, it seems a little ludicrous to study television and Slashdot and whatnot in graduate school, but, hey, somebody's got to do it. But what seems even more ludicrous is the language used in the acceptance letter.

"Valuable and responsible"? I keep waiting for them to write back and say, "Oh, sorry, we were drunk when we sent that out. We're keeping you for our own personal amusement."

only want me for my

Walking down The Drag one day, I spotted a poster for “Pimp Juice.” Remembering Nelly’s song from last year, and noting how the poster’s palette was ripped straight from a Miller High Life can, I assumed the poster was a joke or an old poster for the single. Yet it looked suspiciously like an advertisement for a real beverage.

A few days later I was in the bodega across the street from my apartment building. On the counter sat a stand-up card extolling the virtues of “Pimp Juice.” I asked, “Is this for real?” The men working burst out laughing and pointed to a cooler filled with the “premium energy drink.” I shocked, exclaiming, “Goodness gracious, there really is a product called ‘Pimp Juice’!”

I suppose Gruv, the high-energy drink with alcohol, has failed to slake the enervated thirsts of America, and pop-hopper Nelly has had to get into the mix. In the song, he notes, “Pimp Juice is color-blind/you find it work on all colors and kinds,” so perhaps Red Bull and its ilk failed to appeal to certain demographics.

off the heezay

As I was listening to KOOP's "Urban Assault" show today, I heard something that reminded me of a thread going on Prentiss' blog about hip-hop slang. One of the DJs was exhorting listeners to pledge money to the commnunity radio station and said, "If you've got that wireless Internet - the Wi-Fi - go ahead and get your log on."

"Get your log on"? Oh, hell yeah, "Get your log on!" I'm going to have to use that, even if "get your groove on" is played out.

chemistry lesson

Earlier today, I microwaved a potato and stuck it in the fridge to cool. I just stuck it in the door without paying much heed to where it was situated. Later, I grabbed it out of the door, sliced it up, and made papas fritas. Mmmmm, they were tasty.

I just looked in the fridge for some orange juice and noticed a stick of margarine in the door had a big dent in the middle. I picked it up to investigate further, and there was melted-then-congealed margarine dribbled across the shelves of the refrigerator door. I was like, "How did the margaine melt inside the refrigerator?" Then I remembered the potato; I must have sat the hot & steamy spud on top of the margarine, which caused it to melt. I felt real smart.

eyes dark and exploding

Noting how the face of Marxist martyr Che Guevara has popped on all kinds of consumables, The Christian Science Monitor asks, "How did an avowed Marxist become, literally, the poster boy for conspicuous capitalist consumption?" It makes for an interesting news story, I suppose, but it seems like a given in "Cultural Studies" that capitalism has a knack for co-opting subversive ideas and commodifying them. (witness major-label wankstas Rage Against the Machine) Maybe reporter Elizabeth Armstrong slept in on that day in college. Of course, when we live in an era when Urban Outfitters can pass off shirts like these as "hep," Che's face on a Vuitton handbag is all the more striking.

not those kind of bears

Apparently, the editors of Baylor University's Lariat weren't speaking with the institutional voice when they came out in favor of gay marriage in a recent editorial. Baylor President Robert B. Sloan Jr. said in a written statement that he is "Outraged over this editorial," contending gay marriage "undermine[s] foundational Christian principles upon which this institution was founded and currently operates."

shaking trapeze artist

FlakMag has an essay up which discusses the role hobbies or "enthusiasms" play in the construction of personal and social identities for many, particularly men, under late captialism. The author Patrick Quirk divides enthusiasm into two stages, level one, where said enthusiast begins acquiring equipment and engaging in the hobby, and level two, which leads to compulsive acquisition and self-criticism. I can certainly relate the article to my own bicycle-mania: I actually bought two bicycles during my freshman year of college. Shoot, I bought three bikes in the course of the calendar year. Quirk compares acute level-two enthusiam to jail, and imagines performing an intervention for a cyclist he sees in a coffeeshop:

That said, this is the 400th entry on the ol' Infobong. I wonder if I've descended into level-two blog enthusiam?