Thanks for Reading

English class has ended and with it so has this blog. Check me out at my personal website.

Wired on DJ Spooky

DJ Spooky Raps about Remixing

Bottle Rocket

Just watched Bottle Rocket, another Austin Texas film like Slacker. I found that Bottle Rocket was filmed in Texas after watching the film, I originally picked it up because it is directed by Wes Anderson.

Poetry

McSweeney's on poetry. Number five is my particular favorite.

Even More Quick Links

• Guess the Google Images search term game
• Newspaper profile on the writers of The Onion. (via Kottke)
• Wilderness survival using a coke can and chocolate.

Quick Links

• Sites that Suck
• Chomsky Torrents

Rhythm Science

I'm not sure if I can recommend Paul D Miller's book, Rhythm Science. I bought Miller's DJ Spooky album, "Riddim Warfare," a few years ago and found it difficult to listen to. While the music can be considered ambient, DJ Groovy Slug has a good point when she says that certain elements in the mix of DJ Spooky's music distracts from the listening experience, the same applies to the CD included with Rhythm Science. I also had a problem with the plethora of grammatical errors in Rhythm Science. Here's a rundown of what I found listed by page:

• 57, first line, "...even the direct connections you make speaking before an audiences..."
• 64, fourth line, "...away from the melting pot model to becomes a frequency centrifuge..."
• 80, 16th line, "...yet another attitude we inherit form the past century..."
• 85, third line, "...Man Ray's shorts explored portray human subjects..."
• 112, 15th line, "...so much so that things change to quickly..."

The above being said, I know that this book may interest many music fans and academics. The book can be read in one day, and I have a healthy respect for Paul D Miller's role as hip-hop historian. My personal tastes prevent me from getting behind his music or writing.

Quick Links

• Movie vs Comic comparisons in Sin City. Certain parts borderline worksafe.
• The above link was taken from Drawn!, a consistently good blog about illustration.
• Night Watch, this looks like one of the few innovative horror films out there, maybe.
• Trendalicious tracks what's popular on the social bookmark site del.icio.us
• Google map blog
• Although IceRocket web search has a somewhat phallic quality, it has some unique search features.
• Yahoo vs. Google
• Wired on Blogger being bad. For the last month or so Blogger has been giving me and many other people a hard time.
• Web designer Jeffrey Zeldman on the merits of Minima, the blogger template I use.

Mixing Analog and Digital

I stayed up all night developing negatives and printing photos. I took a nap today and slept through Monday's class. At least it was a good nap.

Quick Links

• Mark Cuban, businessman and owner of the Dallas Mavericks, has a blog.
• Sony wants to make "iTunes for Movies." My prediction? Sony can't to do it right.
• "Quick Online Tips," a blog with helpful hints for your computer

Commercial Remix

I remade the page the MPAA puts up if they take down a filesharing site.

Visiting Writers Spring 2005

Here's a list of all the Spring 2005 speakers. I got this list emailed to me from Stacey Remick-Simkins. For the English majors out there who get emails from her all the time, wouldn't it be convenient if she had a blog? It would make checking for events easier than rooting through old email.

Flash I

This Thursday I went to a STARLab computer workshop for introductory Flash. I was afraid that the instructor was going to be intimidating, but I was relieved to find that he was very nice and well prepared. By the end of class I was able to make a simple animation. I don't know why I didn't learn Flash sooner, now I don't have an excuse not to. Here is the nautical animation I completed in class.

Writing Exercise #1, a Small Hypertext

My final project is an inquiry into alternative Internets. I made some small examples of what this will involve and have posted it as my first Writing Exercise.

Alternative Hypertext Project

I came upon Ted Nelson's deep linking simulator when I was looking for alternatives to the HTML Internet as we know it now. While I was in English 343 over a year ago, the topic of alternative Internets seemed both absurd and remarkable, but a frightening possibility and a warning for the future. My final project for English 344 was going to be a hypertext essay that explores Internet freedom. But when I considered that I couldn't improve on Lawrence Lessig's work, and that an essay might be dull. I plan now to make a simulator of what the Internet could have been. What if Tim Berners-Lee didn't help make the Internet? What if the phone company monopoly still existed? What if Microsoft was the only company authorized to give you Internet? What if the government provided the Internet? I hope to illustrate these possibilities in my final project.