Consuming

I can’t sleep. So this post will probably just make you crinkle your nose, particularly if you’re sober. No worries.

This is a chapter of a book, Sound Unbound, edited by DJ Spooky (who besides being a most interesting musician working with the broadest imaginable range of artists, majored in French lit and philo and is a long-time friend of Shepard Fairey). I recommend that you read the chapter; don’t be a-skeerd of it even though it looks dense. That just means you’ll get through more coolness in less time.

The essay’s like a series of TED talks on speed for people who are in to technology and art and architecture and geography and music and film and the all-consuming fastness of the speed of life in which all of these things articulate … it pulls together a plethora of things, people, and ideas I’m interested in at absolute warp speed.

But that’s the point. He’s sampling history and books and philosophers and programmer-speak and art exhibits. He’s filtering them, finding the patterns, trying to decipher a system that makes sense in his (and, since I know who’s reading this, it’s safe to say our) world. And the common denominator for him is the archive as the dominant form. The web as an archive, his music collection as archive, ftp having the potential to be the ultimate communication tool so far.

He tells a story of how a clock maker invented the modern system of latitute (as in longitude and latitude), and the moral of the story is that time is the archival system for the measurement (and thus understanding) of space, and that time is also the archival system for the measurement (and thus the understanding) of music (rhythm). Presence and absence of material. Well … I take it back. It may not have a moral. That’s okay, though. It gets me worked up, and that’s about all anyone can ask for from ideas.

Due to the political debate and all things related to field dressing a moose, this came up in my gmail RSS feed today. Gentlemen, start yer field dressin’. Please take careful note of the instructions for this one.

Worst. Mental. Image. Ever.

Field Gutting Tool

I’ve been eyeing my Nalgene suspiciously lately, and though I love that bastard I fear it’s poisoning me.

Nalgene’s website does a great job of talking about BPA and which of its products are already in a BPA-free version (the classic, the on-the-go with the flip top lid, one that looks like its for bikes, and one for kids). More designs come out this month and next.

I’m sure Sunflower sells the BPA-free “Everyday” line. (Everyday is code for not-the-poison, and even though one of the Everydays has the number seven recycling number on the bottom, it’s still not-the-poison.) However, I have no bike shop close, so I’m buying it from the site. I found a coupon code (simply the word choice) that offsets some of the shipping cost.

Hello, all. I am traveling to Morocco, Tunisia, and Sicily next month. I have an acquaintance, Ahmed, who lives in Tunis, with whom I have been corresponding regarding my itinerary. He is going to show us around the city, drive us to our next city, and arrange for “cultural events.” I would like to bring him a gift from the U.S. for his generosity. He is intently interested in politics and international diplomacy.

I am trying to think of a gift that would be very American. Ideas?

http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/14/crab-fus-flapper-fish-bot-creeps-us-the-hell-out/

This is so cool. The Eye-Fi photo card looks like an ordinary memory card for your digi camera, but it stamps your pictures when you take them and wirelessly uploads the time stamp, geotag, and picture to your computer when you get home via wi-fi.

or perhaps idiot culture^2?

I’m not sure what to say about this, but it is amazingly stupid.

How come plane tix are so expensive? 360 minimum. Makes the game tix look affordable : )