Monthly Archives: October 2010

zero history

Posted on October 30, 2010 by blaise

Recent­ly fin­ished William Gib­son’s new nov­el, Zero His­to­ry, dur­ing the no-elec­tron­ics phase of a plane’s ascent to 30,000 feet.  It feels like I’ve read half of this book dur­ing take­offs and land­ings. I have a soft spot for Gib­son.  A … Con­tin­ue read­ing →

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ten thousand things

Posted on October 24, 2010 by blaise

Last Fri­day brought an unex­pect­ed sur­prise.  Ear­li­er in the week, Michelle Ger­ling had accost­ed me in the mid­dle of a con­ver­sa­tion about GPS traces and aer­i­al imagery at the Vovi­to cof­feeshop in Belle­vue, where a cou­ple of us were rude­ly … Con­tin­ue read­ing →

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a reduction of pants

Posted on October 17, 2010 by blaise

This is a sort of minor rant-begets-anoth­­er-rant.  I found myself writ­ing “pant” in the pre­vi­ous post, and this remind­ed me of an irri­tat­ing ‑ism which I think must be made in Amer­i­ca.  I want to call it sin­gu­lar­ism, but this … Con­tin­ue read­ing →

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in praise of pockets

Posted on October 17, 2010 by blaise

I’ve been told by sev­er­al friends that this par­tic­u­lar rant of mine is get­ting tedious and I should drop it, so con­sid­er this post a kind of purg­ing.  I promise not to bring it up again.  Unless you do first. … Con­tin­ue read­ing →

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sibylle baier

Posted on October 10, 2010 by blaise

Shar­ing a new dis­cov­ery, an unex­pect­ed trea­sure cour­tesy of the hip priest.  Sibylle Baier was a minor film actress in the 70s, appear­ing in Wim Wen­ders’ Alice in the Cities (1974).  She also wrote songs for her­self and those close to her, … Con­tin­ue read­ing →

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wprb

Posted on October 7, 2010 by blaise

I just got a very nice mes­sage from our old and long-unseen friend Greg Lyon, ear­ly mod­ernist, wry North Car­olin­ian, and above all, hip priest.  Greg DJ’d a free­wheel­ing and bril­liant radio show at WPRB in Prince­ton, with just the … Con­tin­ue read­ing →

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agora

Posted on October 3, 2010 by blaise

While we’re at it, Ale­jan­dro Amenábar’s 2009 movie Ago­ra is pret­ty great.  It was dis­may­ing how late and how lit­tle dis­tri­b­u­tion it got in the US, one sus­pects because of its anti-reli­­gios­i­­ty.  While seem­ing­ly get­ting screen time only in a … Con­tin­ue read­ing →

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atheism

Posted on October 3, 2010 by blaise

What expres­sion of style could be more vio­lent than reli­gion? Accord­ing to our friends at the Pew Forum on Reli­gion & Pub­lic Life, about six in ten adults in the US con­sid­er reli­gion to be “very impor­tant” in their lives.  … Con­tin­ue read­ing →

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