Thursday, April 01, 2004
I Ignore the Important Stuff For Your Entertainment
I guess blogging has been light the past few days, but I've been busy not doing my schoolwork and drinking gin and tonics, so fuck off.
It was a rather horrible day in International Events today, and I don't care to go into it that far, because my snarky commentary does not do justice to the image of pure hatred on display in Falluja. If you'll notice, the Serious Guys didn't touch it either. I think it was even more important than it seems, because it was a disaster and a tragedy with powerful, simple images that explained everything. The AP video footage and the photo on the bridge are probably the most powerful war-related mass media images since Vietnam. They are complex, though -- while the little girl burned by napalm helped define that war in terms of our own complicity in acts of horrible brutality, this is an event that implicates just about everyone involved in a horrible, negative light. There are no heroes in this story. I think Iraqis of all ethnic groups and political backgrounds have a right to be extremely pissed off at Americans in general, and contractors in particular -- these are the carpetbaggers and the ones doing a half-assed job of repairing the schools and a wonderful job of selling off Iraqi industries and utilities to foreign price-gougers and oligarchs. But jesus christ, the brutality of it... unforgivable. So I refuse to interpret it further and I refuse to simplify it and I refuse to attach it a meaning.
Watch, I'll do the TV anchor tone shit:
On the lighter side, April Fools is upon us and Google has their annual prank up.
NOTE TO THE INTERNET: The "Google Email" story is not a joke or a prank. It is a business venture that they announced at precisely the wrong time for a company with a history of clever April Fool's Day gags.
Fark has some sort of filter that turns half of all comments into Homestar quotes. If you're into that kinda stuff. The main page is also periodically replaced by one in which every bit of text refers to beer. Oh, those funny kids love beer, don't they?
Here's some reading material to keep you occupied.
And, in a truly wacky prank, New York State Legislators pretended to have been late delivering this year's budget for the 20th year in a row. What cards, they are! Oh, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver! What crazy gag will you come up with next? |
It was a rather horrible day in International Events today, and I don't care to go into it that far, because my snarky commentary does not do justice to the image of pure hatred on display in Falluja. If you'll notice, the Serious Guys didn't touch it either. I think it was even more important than it seems, because it was a disaster and a tragedy with powerful, simple images that explained everything. The AP video footage and the photo on the bridge are probably the most powerful war-related mass media images since Vietnam. They are complex, though -- while the little girl burned by napalm helped define that war in terms of our own complicity in acts of horrible brutality, this is an event that implicates just about everyone involved in a horrible, negative light. There are no heroes in this story. I think Iraqis of all ethnic groups and political backgrounds have a right to be extremely pissed off at Americans in general, and contractors in particular -- these are the carpetbaggers and the ones doing a half-assed job of repairing the schools and a wonderful job of selling off Iraqi industries and utilities to foreign price-gougers and oligarchs. But jesus christ, the brutality of it... unforgivable. So I refuse to interpret it further and I refuse to simplify it and I refuse to attach it a meaning.
Watch, I'll do the TV anchor tone shit:
On the lighter side, April Fools is upon us and Google has their annual prank up.
NOTE TO THE INTERNET: The "Google Email" story is not a joke or a prank. It is a business venture that they announced at precisely the wrong time for a company with a history of clever April Fool's Day gags.
Fark has some sort of filter that turns half of all comments into Homestar quotes. If you're into that kinda stuff. The main page is also periodically replaced by one in which every bit of text refers to beer. Oh, those funny kids love beer, don't they?
Here's some reading material to keep you occupied.
And, in a truly wacky prank, New York State Legislators pretended to have been late delivering this year's budget for the 20th year in a row. What cards, they are! Oh, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver! What crazy gag will you come up with next? |
