the pod bay door

:: One of the interesting books I read this year is Amusing Ourselves To
Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, by Neil Postman, a professor at the Department of Culture and Communication, Steinhardt School of Education, NYU, and a well known critic and analyst of media and pop culture and their effect and impact on society. Despite having been published in 1985, pre-Internet days, I found “Amusing” to be quite relevant in 2003. In the book, Postman discusses the impact of television on society, and believes that, as one reviewer put it, “TV teaches us to live a decontextualized life.” Postman is the author of 17 books, including Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology, and The Disappearance of Childhood.

While driving home tonight, I was channel flipping on my car radio, and when I changed the station to the CBC program As It Happens, I realized I was listening to a segment of a speech Postman gave in Toronto a few years ago at a conference. I knew it was him because I recognized about what he was talking. When the segment ended, the announcer said that Postman passed away last week from lung cancer.

Here’s the weird part: despite my best efforts, I can’t find a single web site or news item on the Internet to verify this. Even Postman’s departmental web pages make no mention of his passing, although I noticed that the faculty page from his department removed the hotlink from his mini-bio. I searched CNN and NYTimes – nothing. Yet on the As It Happens web site for today, Oct 7, 2003, you can hear the complete segment, a short tribute to Postman, and an extract from his keynote address at a May 1998 conference sponsored by the North American National Broadcasters Association. (Note the entry at the bottom of the page: “FTR-NEIL POSTMAN (MU) Duration: 00:03:06.”) The program can be heard here, requiring Real Player (the file is a .ram file). The segment about Postman begins at 42:30 minutes, or so.

This is one of those mysteries of the Internet – for someone so well known in the media itself, that there would be no mention his passing anywhere on the web is, well, bizarre.

:: Ahnuld is the new governor of California. Happy Tuesday!

:: When Michael Moore‘s book, Stupid White Men, appeared in print after some post-Sept 11 delays, it shot to the top of the NYTimes Best Seller List, remained there for weeks, and was the best selling non-fiction book of 2002. Nonetheless, the NYTimes never published a review of the title (I’ve never found one on the web site, and a review never appeared in their book review section). Al Franken’s new book, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, has been #1 on the list for five weeks, having been bumped to #2 this week by none other than Franken’s drinking buddy and book cover subject, Bill O’Reilly. A review of Franken’s book appeared recently, written by former NYT chief film critic, Janet Maslin. Oddly enough, Moore’s new book, Dude, Where’s My Country?, goes on sale tomorrow, and what do you find in the Times this morning? Well, hush my mouth – a review by Janet Maslin!

This fascinating observation suggests the NYTimes Best Seller list is revealing that, after perhaps a decade of domination by right wing authors, the playing field has been levelled by an equally successful number of writres from the left. I bought the Franken book on the weekend, it’s next on my list of must reads. I hope to buy the Moore book later this month.

:: I had a strange run-in with a woman at the YMCA today. After my workout, I did a few stretches and such on the large mat, and when finished, proceeded to spray the area I was on with the cleanser found in bottles throughout the workout centre. However, there was no cloth, usually with each spray bottle, that I could use to wipe the mat afterwards. I looked to my right, where this woman was working out vigorously on the mat, and noticed two cloths. I stepped behind her (she was on her back) to grab one of the cloths, and she stopped and said to me, “that was really rude.” I started to apologize, and she interrupted me, saying, “Get lost, and don’t talk to me.”

I was more nonplussed than anything, and mumbled a couple things under my breath. I was finished anyway, and left to go shower and get dressed.

A friend of mine has an expression she applies to people like this, and it goes something like, “Gee, who sh*t in your cornflakes this morning?” Yes, her reaction rattled me a bit – certainly I had no intention of being rude or getting in her way (which to me, I didn’t do anyway.) Afterwards I thought of a witty retort, but at the time, just decided to walk away and leave things be. But to me, in her own way, she was the one who was rude.

Why do people react the way they do? We can never really know.

:: The first time I saw Jessica Owen (then known as Jessica Schoenberg) play was at a folk club in Edmonton in 1992. I was very impressed. At the time, I was playing guitar in a local band, and we decided to call Jessica to ask if she would open for us at an upcoming gig. She agreed, and we met sometime later at my office at the U of Alberta. Some months later, I was playing and jamming with her whenever I could, and eventually became her guitarist during the mid-90s (although to be honest, I chose to play with her as well – playing with her was too much fun to pass up!) In February 1994, we spent two cold nights at a recording studio in a house in St Albert, laying down 9 of 10 tracks for her first album, Sounds Like A Plan! In April of that year, we played to a full house at The Next Act to celebrate the release of the album, which was available on cassette only.

I was and remain very proud of the work we did on her first record. I realized afterwards that I had strong arranging skills that hadn’t been utilized before, to that degree, anyway. So why am I telling you this? Jessica has a new web site, redesigned from scratch, and within you will find Jessica’s Story, which includes mention of the album.

That’s not all. I’ve had requests over the years from people who wanted to listen to my guitar playing online, and to date I’ve uploaded no tunes that featured me performing. Jessica has solved a bit of that for me by uploading three of the ten tunes from Sounds Like a Plan! One of those tunes is Heartbeat, which remains for me one of her most powerful and dynamic tunes ever, and one that I play from time to time when I play one of my acoustic guitars. (NOTE: You will need Windows Media Player to listen to the .mp3 files.)

If you want to hear my guitar. backing up one of the best singer/songwriters around, go to Jess’s site and listen. When you’re done, be good to yourself and support an incredible independent artist by buying her latest album, Ever So Slightly Rearranged. My (very objective) review might help you decide!

:: the pod bay door will be closed for a little while…but not too long. I’ve spent some time smoothing out the edges after the move to a new hosting service, and am going to take a couple of days off from blogging. I’m working a six-day week, and want to squeeze in some movies before they leave town. I can report that I’m starting to like the new workout routine suggested by the trainer I met with recently, and am feeling that I might be on the edge of some progress – good news all around. The tennis elbow condition in my left arm hasn’t improved, so I may need an MRI. I’ll learn more later this month when I meet with a sports physician again. The hearing aid jury is still deliberating – I have a few weeks to decide whether or not to purchase the Aero 211 AZ I’m using now.

This evening was particularly satisfying: I helped friends choose a starter electric guitar and amp for their daughter, who is rapidly becoming a good musician and songwriter at 15 years old. We were at Avenue Guitars, and studied two starter kits (amp and guitar), and settled on a Godin SD (black colour) and a Roland Cube 30 guitar amp. The guitar has a very sweet sound, and the amp has 8 guitar amp model channels. Everyone walked away happy, and now I want to borrow the new equipment and test it out!

I’ll be back shortly. See you then.

:: Some kind soul has posted these pictures taken in Halifax, in the aftermath of Hurricane Juan.

:: Tim Berners-Lee is credited with inventing the world wide web in 1989. He shares his ideas of a more “intelligent” web in this interview from the BBC.

:: Spider Robinson asks, “Why are our imaginations retreating from science and space, and into fantasy?“