An Evil Genius With the Personal Touch

I received my Evil Genius stuff package from Dave Slusher today. If you’re not familiar, Dave’s selling the Gentle Readers’ HiHoney and EGC t-shirts to support both his podcast and the band.

This month, he’s donating $25 of the $35 to the Red Cross. How could you not support that.

Opening up the package; yes, there’s a t-shirt and yes, there’s CD. Neatly tucked in the shirt are two pleasant surprises.

  1. August 27/28 from Dave’s George Carlin Quote of the Day calendar. Entertaining in itself. Flip it over and there’s a personal, handwritten note from Dave.
  2. Dave’s business card promoting Evil Genius Chronicles and Voices In Your Head. Again useful and hand in itself. Flip it over, and it’s one of Hugh Macleod’s gapingvoid blogcards. You know I’m a big fan of Hugh. Yeah, that really made my day.

Thanks Dave and yes, there’s photo forthcominghere’s the photo:

Evil Genius Style Council - Van Buren Branch

Hugh Laurie on KCRW’s the Treatment

Elvis Mitchell interviewing Hugh Laurie from Fox’s House – my favorite new show. It’s a great listen. I was completely taken aback by Hugh’s extremely British accent. I think that’s a mark of a fantastic actor – being able to remove yourself from the character completely.

On a slightly related note, Cayenne Chris‘ voice does a marathon of identities in the latest Teknikal Diffikulties.

This reminds me that in this week’s episode, where House admits he still loves his ex, he attempts to walk without his cane.

Honestly, if he would have succeeded in making that first step, I would have stopped watching. House is a great character because of the contrast of this most obvious weakness and his bitter, curt, authority. If he ever loses that weakness, the show will jump the shark.

Katrina – Timeline of Events

Think Progress has a comprehensives Katrina Timeline. I thought it could use as much Google Juice as possible.

Two sections are good to remember.

Friday, August 26

GOV. KATHLEEN BLANCO DECLARES STATE OF EMERGENCY IN LOUISIANA: [Office of the Governor]

GULF COAST STATES REQUEST TROOP ASSISTANCE FROM PENTAGON: At a 9/1 press conference, Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré, commander, Joint Task Force Katrina, said that the Gulf States began the process of requesting additional forces on Friday, 8/26. [DOD]

Saturday, August 27

5AM — KATRINA UPGRADED TO CATEGORY 3 HURRICANE

GOV. BLANCO ASKS BUSH TO DECLARE FEDERAL STATE OF EMERGENCY IN LOUISIANA: “I have determined that this incident is of such severity and magnitude that effective response is beyond the capabilities of the State and affected local governments, and that supplementary Federal assistance is necessary to save lives, protect property, public health, and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of a disaster.”

FEDERAL EMERGENCY DECLARED, DHS AND FEMA GIVEN FULL AUTHORITY TO RESPOND TO KATRINA: “Specifically, FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency.”

Wednesday, August 31

PRESIDENT BUSH FINALLY ORGANIZES TASK FORCE TO COORDINATE FEDERAL RESPONSE: Bush says on Tuesday he will “fly to Washington to begin work…with a task force that will coordinate the work of 14 federal agencies involved in the relief effort.”

Thursday, September 1

8AM — BUSH CLAIMS NO ONE EXPECTED LEVEES TO BREAK: “I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees.”

I believe Amazon’s Free Shipping estimated delivery is 4 days, even then you get a tracking number.

George Lakoff on Katrina – Failure of Moral Values

In a nice follow up to my earlier There’s No Helping the NeoCons post, George Lakoff comments that Katrina was not only a natural disaster and federal failure, it was a complete failure of the Republican moral and political philosophy.

(emphasis is Lakoff’s)

“The [right-wing conservatives] central principle: Government has no useful role. The only common good is the sum of individual goods. It’s the difference between We’re all in this together and You’re on your own, buddy. It’s the difference between Every citizen is entitled to protection and You’re only entitled to what you can afford. It’s the difference between connection and separation. It is this difference in moral and political philosophy that lies behind the tragedy of Katrina.”

Federal Ineffectualness Self-Fulfilling Prophecy?

If you’re trying to show the value of and need for a small government, what better way to do it than bog it down in red tape, heel-dragging, target-less finger-pointing, and ignoring the pre-existing plans.

By cutting funding, acting slowly, and otherwise sabotaging success – whether in the public education system or the New Orleans recovery – the belief that “big” government “doesn’t work” is proved.

Unfortunately, the reason we have a federal government is to handle situations larger than any single state and important to all states; highways, commerce, disaster response, citizen education, and a handful more.

Best we can hope for is that dead at the bottom of Lake George is the conniving, budget-cutting, nihilism that caused it.

Until Audio Hijack Pro for Video, Videoblogging Won’t Take Off

Before I made my first videoblog, I assumed there were 2 challenges video-blogging had to overcome before it could be as be as hot as podcasting

  1. File size for video are a magnitude larger than audio, so bandwidth is that much more precious. Without something like BitTorrent, each additional download is money out of the producer’s pocket.
  2. Videoblogs aren’t portable. Unlike podcasts, I can’t catch up with my videoblogs while on the bike or in the car. For video, I’m tied to my laptop. Less fun for me.

Both of those are somewhat strawmen arguments, I was able to compress my 17 minute video down to something acceptable even by podcast standards. So the bandwidth is less of a concern. The second point will be mute as soon as more portable digital video players get on the market (any day now really…yes, really…holding breath).

The biggest challenge facing videoblogging is the production effort. In podcasting, if I don’t feel like doing any post-production, I have Audio Hijack Pro handle everything for me; recording, ID3 tags, mp3 conversion, and FTP uploading (via an Automator script).

When I’m done recording, the podcast is up.

Over on the video side it was 36 hours from when I shot the video to when I uploaded it. Much of that waiting for the laptop.

I’d love to see something like Audio Hijack Pro for video.

P2P is the Same as Used – What You Want Isn’t Always There

Inspired by We Jam Econo screening by MN Film Arts, I thought I’d blow out my fIREHOSE and Minutemen collection.

Now, I haven’t set foot in a cd store since I stopped doing secret shops for Cheapo Discs and buying CDs from Amazon seems like a step backwards. Today, I thought I’d check iTunes and mp3.com – nothing except “Flying the Flannel”. Not one of Watt’s better albums.

Nothing over in the torrents either.

Moments like this make me wonder where in the long tail I need to look for digital versions of late 80s punk.

This reminds me, Jen got into Lost a little late this season, and we’ve been trying to catch up before the new season starts. This experience has proved to me that unless bandwidth speeds dramatically increase tv and movie producers shouldn’t worry about “piracy”. According to our calculations, by the time we would have waited for the entire season to download, the DVDs were available in stores – for $40. I spent more than that just figuring out how to do it.

Now, I’m all for simultaneous release dates across multiple medias; TV, DVD, Theater, P2P networks, Netflix. Each distribution channel has their own strengths, weaknesses, costs, and benefits.

It all depends on what’s going to work best for the individual fan.

To entertainment producers: Personally, I prefer .mov in my backyard.

You Don’t Piss Off Mayor Daley

While we were living in Chicago, a ComEd tripped up and a good chunk of the Loop was without electricity in the middle of the day. People stuck in elevators, the business day ground to a halt.

I have vivid memories of Mayor Daley reaming out ComEd on tv that evening. The problem was fixed promptly and ComEd took responsibility. His dad was the same way. Daleys get shit done can’t tolerate hemming and hawing. I always respected that.

I can only imagine the steam coming out of his ears as the Fed’s decline his offer of assistance in cleaning up Lake George.

“We are ready to provide more help than they have requested. We are just waiting for their call,” said Daley, adding that he was “shocked” that no one seemed to want the help.”