Don’t Mention the War!

Posted on April 26, 2004 by ken

The New York Times yesterday had a hilarious article on Richard Desmond, the publisher of the Daily Express in London, responding to a potential offer by German publisher Axel Springer Verlag’s offer to buy the competing Telegraph. In a meeting with Telegraph executives, Desmond goose-stepped Cleese-like around the room with his finger under his nose, invited the Telegraph’s publisher to “step outside,” and finally led his executives in singing the banned first verse of “Deutschland Uber Alles” as the other group walked out of the meeting.

The Journal’s edit page today followed up with an uncommonly amusing piece, perhaps defending Desmond, though it’s hard to tell, but outlining the history of anti-German English humor.

It quotes ads by Spitfire Ale, made in the county of Kent, that feature slogans like Goering, Goering, gone and Spitfire — downed all over Kent, just like the Luftwaffe. (The beer company’s web site calls it “quirky World War [Eleven]-themed advertising,” which is amusing although the thought of nine more of them is a bit bleak.)

Amusingly enough, the front page of today’s Daily Express blares “Stop Le Nazi,” responding to the UK visit of Jean Le Pen.

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Out-Drudging Drudge

Posted on April 19, 2004 by ken

I think it’s implicit in the way that a Web site is produced that our standards of accuracy are lower. Besides, immediacy is more important than accuracy, and humor is more important than accuracy.

— Nick Denton, founder of the gossip blogs Gawker and Wonkette

So that one’s going in the quote server. Not much more you can say about the level of political “reporting” nowadays. Wonkette’s odious editor, Ana Marie Cox, said proudly, “They accused me of trying to out-Drudge Drudge. Which I love, and I’d do it if I could.”

This was Slashdotted the same day that Romenesko pointed out a column by William Powers saying that people increasingly do not get their news from any single media outlet, but from referrals by friends, blogs, and the like:

Do you prefer The Washington Post, The New York Times, or The Wall Street Journal? Feeling strongly about such choices has become an eccentric affectation, like wearing a bow tie. Curious people see all of these outlets — now and then, when they have a moment. But that’s not how most of us get our news.

I guess I’m a bow-tie wearer; I still get a large proportion of my news from The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. But on the other hand, I (obviously) also read things like Slashdot and Romenesko. In the end, I think it’s less the type of medium (blog versus newspaper) than the quality of the journalism. People who think what they read on Drudge is “news” probably also consider The New York Post a reliable newspaper.

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The Banjo Is My Enemy…

Posted on April 19, 2004 by ken

Here’s an insightful comment on practicing your instrument, which probably applies to lots of other things as well. Pete Wernick, who does banjo instructional materials for the indispensable Homespun Tapes, describes two modes of practicing:

  • The Banjo Is My Enemy: Seriously goal-oriented practice, mostly doing exercises slowly in rhythm, “based on the weak spots in your playing, repeated as slowly as necessary to play them perfectly, then faster as they lock in. That is a very efficient way to deal with sloppiness and bad habits in your playing, or to master any new technique.”
  • The Banjo Is My Friend: “Completely free-floating bonding with the instrument … Reward yourself by just enjoying the instrument and having a conversation with it.”

This is very wise. You need to practice the things you can’t do, or you’ll find yourself stuck in a rut. But you need to have fun with the instrument too, and not just as a antidote to the hard work. The “fun” playing is where you find your groove with your instrument, allow it to become a part of you, and get comfortable enough to really express yourself and take some chances.

And of course, it’s about the best summary of the love/hate relationship with your instrument I’ve ever heard.

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The Brooklyn Museum

Posted on April 19, 2004 by ken

We went over to check out the new entrance plaza for the Brooklyn Museum on Sunday, and we were absolutely thrilled. It’s one of the best new public spaces in the city, and a rarely successful modern addition to a classical building. It’s welcoming, open and airy, with many places to sit, and lots of grass and trees.

Best of all, though, is the fountain. a playful series of about 20 water jets that perform an endlessly interesting set of moves, synchronized to an almost unnoticeable percussion soundtrack. It’s hard to describe in writing, but the moves are paced and choreographed like fireworks: small little waves go back and forth, or sudden spurts go off in sequence, using the slap of the water on marble as a sound effect, and then the whole thing builds up to a crescendo with water going fifty feet in the air and all the kids running away laughing and screaming as they get soaked by the spray.

The fountain itself is set at the foot of what the museum calls “Brooklyn’s largest front stoop,” a wood-and-concrete amphitheater that will be a great performance place (especially once they finish the project, since the corner of Eastern Parkway and Washington Avenue is still a big pile of dirt, or actually mud, given the nearby fountain).

It’s a relief to see a project like this built on a human scale for people to use and enjoy. I hope the Ground Zero memorial people are paying attention, so we don’t repeat the mistakes that created the dreadful World Trade Center plaza. Obviously they’ll be looking for a different mood, but hopefully not as forbidding and unfriendly as the original.

And yes, it’s back to being called the Brooklyn Museum, not even ten years after changing its name to the Brooklyn Museum of Art. It’s part of a little-known Brooklyn aid program for underemployed branding consultants.

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The End of the iPod

Posted on April 16, 2004 by ken

I suspect that in a few years, people will identify Apple’s rebuff of Real Networks as the beginning of the end for its dominance in online music. It’s sad that Apple still has not learned that closed platforms always lose to open ones, even if the closed platform is better.

Jobs was quoted in today’s WSJ saying, in response to Rob Glaser’s offer,

The iPod already works with the No. 1 music service in the world, and the iTunes Music Store works with the No. 1 digital-music player in the world. The No. 2s are so far behind already. Why would we want to work with No. 2?

Nice, Steve. Start a fight with one of the only other industry leaders who’s been a steadfast opponent of Microsoft’s monopoly. That sort of arrogance is exactly what sent Apple into a tailspin two decades ago.

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I’m Sick All Right

Posted on April 15, 2004 by ken

The Victoria’s Secret commercial featuring Bob Dylan is just silly. Clearly the ad was much less important than the press coverage it generated. The model looks ridiculous in her pasted-on angel wings, Dylan looks like a demented lecher, and for some reason it’s set to the tune Love Sick, not the first song you’d associate with intimate apparel. Why not use Wiggle Wiggle?

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Borderline Disloyal

Posted on April 14, 2004 by ken

The New York Observer’s press column this week contrasts New York’s two tabloids in how they handled Condoleeza Rice’s testimony before the 9/11 commission. The News’ front page said HOW COULD SHE NOT KNOW? while the Post cried THE LADY IS A CHAMP!.

Daily News editorial director Martin Dunn told the Observer, “I was going around the newsroom saying ‘That’s the difference between the News and the Post—we’re a newspaper, they’re a propaganda sheet!’”

Post editor Col Allen said the News is “becoming more and more determined to attack the Bush administration. They are doing so with increasing shrillness. … Frankly, I think it’s borderline disloyal.”

Sir, have you no … never mind. Stupid question.

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Segregation, Alive and Well

Posted on April 13, 2004 by ken

Clyde Haberman writes this morning that most big cities continue to be “about as blended as a bottle of single-malt Scotch,” and quoting one of the last lawyers still alive who argued the cases that became Brown v. Board Of Education.

It’s funny, but what’s integrated more than anything else is small-town rural South,” [Columbia Law professor Jack Greenberg] said the other day in his office in Morningside Heights. “What’s not integrated are the major metropolitan centers, where most black people live. It’s a function of residential segregation, essentially city versus suburb.”

We New Yorkers often view ourselves as sophisticated progressives, swearing we’d never live in the South and deriding the narrowness of small-town life. But the fact is that I went to segregated schools from kindergarten through high school — New York City public schools where black and white students were rigorously separated except perhaps in gym class.

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RIAA To Invade Iraq

Posted on April 13, 2004 by ken

According to today’s New York Times, soldiers in Iraq have “a communal computer where 12.8 gigabites of tunes had been downloaded for sharing on MP3’s. The rule was simple: Take some music, add some music.”

This is clearly illegal file-sharing, so one assumes the RIAA is already moving to shut it down?

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Your President is on vacation…

Posted on April 9, 2004 by ken

…and the terrorists are working overtime.

Bob Herbert mentioned this in his column this morning, but how much vacation exactly does a President get? Bush derides European socialists at every turn, but he seems to be represented by a German labor union. He gets at least six weeks of vacation a year, he seems to work a seven-hour day at best, and every time anything significant happens, he’s out where the buses don’t run.

The WSJ said today that

Intelligence officials presented [the infamous briefing paper], “Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States,” to Mr. Bush on Aug. 6, 2001, while he was vacationing at his ranch in Crawford, Texas.

No wonder he ignored it. He’s got his boots up on the rail with a beer in one hand, and those annoying nerds are calling from Washington again. Screw ’em!

Thanks to his incompetence, troops in Iraq who thought they’d be coming home soon now have to stay even longer, but Bush can’t even get his sorry ass back to his desk in Washington. As Herbert said, “Mr. President, there’s a war on. You might consider hopping a plane to Washington.”

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