Month: January 2002 (Page 2 of 5)

Today I found myself checking the Blogger page, actually wondering, “Will Ev be releasing Blogger Pro today?” (see yesterday’s post) I guess years of getting the rug pulled out from under you will do strange things to your psyche.

Someone should do a weblog equivalent of David Letterman’s Oprah Log, where Dave details his non-existent contacts with the talk show diva.

Day 1
1/23/02
No Blogger Pro.

Day 2
1/24/02
Still no Blogger Pro.

It’s funny the way things happen sometimes. After years of crying wolf, Evan Williams is now demoing Blogger Pro. Now we just wait to see if it actually gets launched.

I was talking to Clint by e-mail the other day about the lack of good blogging tools, despite how popular the activity has become. Blogger is unreliable in the extreme, Greymatter and Movable Type are hard to install and maintain, Radio is too techie (although it has potential), and CityDesk is on the right track but lacks some essential weblog functions.

Within a few months of the “personal web page” craze reaching the shores, there were tons of professional programs designed to help you make your own web page. But nothing similar happened with weblogs, even though the basic task is much simpler than even a webpage builder. I hope that situation changes in the next few months.

I am a liberal.

I believe that freedom of speech is essential to our democracy, no matter how unpopular or “unpatriotic” that speech is.

I believe that self-interest doesn’t make a family, a company or a society. All groups, if they are to succeed, need to sacrifice some things for the good of all.

I believe that “national security” is just another way of saying “military-industrial complex.” And even Eisenhower warned us about that.

I believe arming a society is not the way to preserve it.

I believe public education for all citizens is a vital component of a free and productive society.

I believe the state does not have the right to kill a person as punishment for killing.

I believe the state does not have the right to dictate to a woman how she manages her reproductive system.

I believe that religious freedom is preserved by the strict separation of church and state – not threatened by it.

I believe there is a big difference between being a liberal and being a Democrat.

I believe the “war on drugs” has helped no one and harmed many.

I believe in the space program, because without frontiers, without challenges, we die.

I believe questioning the government isn’t traitorous – in fact, it’s the essence of what it means to be an American.

I am a liberal, and these are the things it means to me.

Let me just say that any news story containing the phrase “writhing orange bundle” is guaranteed to give me nightmares.

Top Ten Blog! is no more. And when my friend Xkot passed this graphic along to me last night, I knew immediately that I wanted to use it to celebrate the life of a great group blog.

(For those not familiar with TTB!, hirsute porn star Ron Jeremy was a frequent joke line on the site.)

Haidi of the also defunct Haidi.org did something great by inventing Top Ten Blog. The web needs all the funny, creative endeavors we can possibly come up with to stem the tide of online casinos and spy camera ads. Here’s to you, Haidi.

Because there’s been some confusion, and it is Martin Luther King Jr. day today, I was going to publish a “How to Tell James Earl Jones from James Earl Ray” guide. But then I realized it was in bad taste.

When Richard Roeper of “Ebert & Roeper” gave a thumbs-down to “The Lord of the Rings,” I should have known that it was time to call it quits watching that show.

But after last night, I’m definitely packing it in. Gene Siskel, rest in peace. We miss you.

The funny thing is, I can’t point to anything specific. I just sat there listening to Roeper’s banal dronings, and I felt my soul die a little. The show is now evidence that traditional movie criticism should just throw itself off a cliff and let the rest of us alone. Watch the previews, read Premiere or Entertainment Weekly if you must, but otherwise, decide for yourself whether you want to see a movie.

Or even better, swing by Ain’t It Cool News and see what real movie fans, not whiny self-important critics, think of the upcoming releases.

There. I feel better. Go in peace.

It’s quite the cosmic coincidence that “Series 7” is finally out on DVD, and I saw it on the shelf just days after my diatribe against “The Chamber.” Series 7 is an unspeakably brilliant satire, not so much of reality TV (that already satirizes itself, thank you very much), but of the amusing-ourselves-to-death mentality that has permeated the culture.

How far are we away from a society that picks people through lottery to take part in a deathmatch contest on national TV? Way closer than we would like to admit.

Some of the most chilling footage in the movie is the commercial lead-in promos, which look and sound exactly like reality TV promos. Director Daniel Minahan was a producer of reality programs for Fox, and it shows on the screen.

I don’t think a lot of people saw this movie in the theaters, but it’s especially good on video anyway, since it’s about TV. Get the DVD, if you can, but watch this movie however you can get your hands on it. On the DVD, be sure to watch all the deleted scenes – there’s something that looks like the “lost” footage from the end of the film that adds a whole new disturbing edge to the entire experience. Highly, highly recommended.

Philips now says that people who make those stupid copy-protected CDs shouldn’t be able to use the “Compact Disc” logo, since they aren’t really CDs at all. This is encouraging – if people know beforehand that a CD is copy-protected, hopefully they won’t buy it.

The whole Napster thing sort of amazed me, because I believe people would be willing to pay a small amount for each song they downloaded legally, so the record companies and more importantly the artists could be compensated for their work. There are new pay services starting up, like RealOne and pressplay, but to me they seem needlessly complex, with special software and lots of limits. Just allow me to pay $1 or whatever for a downloaded file and be done with it.