Aku Aku

tokyo i-go-go

In less than 6 hours I'm heading off for Tokyo. I looked at my ticket this morning and realized my flight was Monday AM, not Tuesday (I'm glad I checked).

Some friends and I were going to go see Peaches tonight at The Fillmore, but it ended up being sold out (none of us considered this possibility, bummer).

I'm really tired. With the clock rollback Saturday night after I flew back from the east coast, I'm 4 hours off already. And pretty soon I'm flying west again and I don't even know how many hours that will set me off.

Well, Sayonara.

barrister's ball 2002

Photos from My friend and ex-housemate John Ray's annual Barrister's Ball in Raleigh, NC.

Saturday, October 19 THE BARRISTER'S BALL The third annual Barrister's Ball promises to be the feel good event of the second year of the new millennium! To get in you must must be dressed as a Cop, Robber, Pimp, Prostitute, or Catholic school girl. Entertainment provided by: Zuexeus - A musical phantasm who must be seen to be believed... Mullet Revolta - Amazing new wave phenomenon from Wilmington. Raleigh debut! Logical Sound Discovery - Space age disco with modern lounge appeal. Amazing, electrified music coupled with blinding computer visuals... All original! Check out their MP3.com Web Site. D.J. Mad Cow and the Black & Mild Crew - Can they spin funk? Is 7 Up?

startups ain't sexy

Just got back from a three week business trip to North Carolina (mostly) and Boston (for a few days). Three demanding and stressful weeks. Tuesday I go to Tokyo for a week or two, for what will hopefully be a mostly pleasant trip to visit a lovely girl I met at Burning Man this year. I'm bringing a laptop and plenty of work with me ...but work is less stressful and more productive when I don't have to deal with other people and politics.

I should be blogging some stuff. I've seen a couple of movies and read two books that I oughta review. But I'm kinda tired right now and my main PC seems to have died on me while I was gone so I got that headache to look forward to fixing. Hence I'm just going to go to sleep. Well maybe I'll post the Barrister Ball photos first. There's a great photo of my ex-girlfriend and some guy's ass.

digerati and the world

I ran across this 1995 essay "Mondo 2000 vs. Wired" which examines the differences and history of these two seminal publications of the digital zeitgeist (authored by an editor of the now defunct Mondo 2000).

I particularly liked this quote describing the author's feelings about the technological elite, which I think is just as spot on now as 7 years ago:

I have ranted and raved at many hackers and people who are part of the "A" list of cyberculture. I have asked for their help. They are passionate about liberty. They are passionate about privacy. But try to talk to them about hacking the economic marginalization of the majority that leads to intolerably Third World living conditions and they'll only look at you quizzically as if you just dipped your beef jerky into the wine. This shouldn't surprise me. The techno-elite are perhaps the only group advantaged by the new economy. They will be the new lords of the terrain in a Dickensian world of beggars and servants. Just because they think of themselves as hipsters doesn't mean we should expect them to share the wealth.

soundtrack of your life

My friend Laura asks on her blog: Suppose a movie producer wants to make a film about your life. What song or songs should be on the soundtrack? Think about it, and go answer on her blog :)

lawrence lessig

Lawrence Lessig, the most inspirational fighter in my world. How do any of us manage to sleep? Pleasant dreams, Professor Lessig....

Every night since Wednesday I have awoken in the middle of the night, to spend the rest of the night reanswering Justice Ginsburg, or asking Chief Justice Rehnquist just how he could distingiush Commerce from Copyright. The kind words of so many notwithstanding, I know and have always known I am not Larry Tribe, or Kathleen Sullivan. And if, after getting this so close to the right result, I have lost this by not being them, then I am not quite sure how I will live with that fact.

So please, no more of the bullshit about "rockstars" or "visionary." I've lived this struggle every moment of the last 4 years; it will take a long time for me to escape it, especially if we don't prevail. I want to turn my head elsewhere, and my heart elsewhere too. So I apologize if I don't follow up on this, or the arguments this might begin. Please, in the spirit of the best of this sphere, carry these argument along, and correct the many mistakes I have made. But I need a night when the limits of this lawyer don't keep this lawyer awake.

fax from sarajevo

I recently read Joe Kubert's "Fax From Sarajevo," a graphic novel which tells the story of Kubert's friend Ervin Rustemagic who was trapped with his family in Sarajevo during the war. Rustemagic was able to communicate with the outside world only through fax during this time (and only when the electricity was working of course).

The artwork was nothing special, and the story/dialogue was a bit melodramatic and over-dramatized for my tastes, but the story itself was compelling and interesting. I would have preferred a more sober telling though. The Serb characters were one dimensional and the entire story was obviously one sided to the point where it smelled of propaganda. I don't think that the story's assignment of bad guys" and "good guys" labels are off base, but one-sided stroytelling detracts from the story's believablity. Basically, the whole thing read like a comic book which I think is an awful way for a graphic novel to be.

goa gil birthday 2002

I'll be gone the rest of the weekend. Going to Goa Gil's birthday trance party way out in a secret wooded location about 3 hours from San Francisco. Here's the party flyer/info. This one's a true camping party I think. No bathrooms/showers ...just nature and music. Leave no trace.

dj beauxvinyl

I was googling for some alt.country bands in Tokyo (in preparation for my upcoming trip) and found this page: DJ BeauxVinyl webcasts alt country downtempo music. It was too good not to blog, lots of great streaming real audio down-tempo trip mixes. Patsy Cline! Johnny Cash!

ghost world

Ghost World (2001): I had some problems finding the rhythm of this movie at first, but once I fell into it turned out to be a great film. I think part of my initial troubles were due to inaccurate preconceptions I had of the story and characters. Filled with great coloring and long pensive shots. Loved the ending.