New signs seen in and around the Bouldin Creek neighborhood: “No Event Parking in Neighborhood.” I’m not sure who is distributing them or the specific events they’re targeting. Auditorium Shores festivals? City-wide Garage Sales at Palmer? Or are residents frustrated with folks choking our streets during First Thursdays? Sometimes I think we’re trying to have it both ways. We herald the unplanned mishmash of businesses, galleries, and quirks that make it unique. But then also attempt to sculpt the neighborhood– forgetting the organic nature of how vibrant communities take shape. I think I’ll put a sign in the front yard that says “Not in my backyard!”
My rule for a good skateboard video is that it has to make me want to skate afterward. So much so that even if it’s midnight, I still must go forth and get my shred on. Last weekend Sarah and I went to see “Bend it Like Beckham”. Following the movie, I was so psyched that I wanted to lace up the cleats and bust a rainbow or perhaps a nutmeg or two. But since I don’t know shizznit about soccer I chose instead to go skateboarding. After dorking around on South Congress, I cruised downtown and went to one of my favorite spots: the bank parking lot across from the library. See, when you can no longer skate, a simple waxed curb is as good as it gets. Click-clacking around under the buzzing orange lights with the shins a little bloody was rad. After fumbling, flailing, and falling, it was time to reward myself with a beer. I thought I would people-watch in the Warehouse District. As Party Boy Bueller might say, it was “off the hook.” Wow, there are a lot of girls driving the bike cabs now. Neat. That dude is so hooking up. “Ludwigs”– must be new. Don’t like the name. Cold Bud on warm evening. Hail yes boyee. Yeah yeah, you got a mini cooper, whatevs. OK, it looks dope. Honda Element. Kinda dig it. Wait, don’t like SUVs. I’m hungry, what to eat? Brat cart on Sixth Street. Skated down to Sixth Street and ended up at Lovejoy’s. It was nice going from complete anonymity in Warehouse District to finding a table of friends here. This city is good that way. A few more people randomly showed up and everyone agreed it was a perfect Austin spring night to be out. Moments later a guy from Australia joined us. He was with the Cirque du Soleil and hadn’t been home in like two years. He said Austin reminds him of Perth. We all concluded the evening by heading back to South Austin for tacos and chatting on the patio… Skated home on empty streets.
Will the beloved Mercury live on? Reports about its demise (turning into a booty club) surfaced a few months ago. But they’re booked through May according to their site.
Hole in the Wall is another mystery. They officially closed down and the marquee has been advertising shows for Beerland. But I noticed the other day that it now says “Hole in the Wall Rides Again.” Same location? What’s the story?
April 30th, 2003
Albert Camus once argued that revolutions begin with a demand for justice, but always end in bloodshed. He viewed the Soviet Union as a police state that masqueraded “as an instrument of liberation and a school for future happiness.” Fifty years later, North Korea has perfected this deceit. Although the numbers of dead under Kim Jong Il don’t touch the millions slaughtered by Stalin, the tyrant’s ability to achieve total mind control is probably unmatched in history. With its recent outbursts and threats of nuclear attack, we’re learning a lot more about the isolated country these days.
Jonathon Watts was one of the first Western Journalists allowed to check out Pyongyang and surrounding environs since the nuclear crisis began last fall. In the latest issue of Mother Jones he describes a populace religiously devoted to two things: their leader and anti-Americanism. Each person whom Watts speaks with is named Kim. Seriously. In a measured, articulate manner, they indicate no reluctance to lay down their lives for Kim Jong Il. A conversation with a beautiful Bond-esque “SMERSH Lady” leads to the current crisis: “… I note that a repeat of the Korean War, in which 4 million died, would mean terrible suffering for the North Korean people.” With a “heartbreaking smile,” Ms. Kim replies, “No problem.” A Palistinean refuge, who may have witnessed family members’ homes demolished by Ameri.. er, Israeli tanks, may rail against “Zionism” and the US with a desperate rage. You don’t sense this level of anger here. Years of propaganda and cult-like reverence for Revolution have produced a nation that is calmly ready for war with America. Surrounded by aquariums, Watts flips through the Pyongyang’s daily newspaper at a coffee shop. He reads that a member of the Socialist Youth League (named Kim of course) recently said: “Eight million Korean young people are fully ready to become human bullets and suicide bombs…” This is a place where even the hospitals are adorned with anti-American posters and pictures of atrocities allegedly committed by Americans. Sadly, you detect that even if two people were in the middle of a field, miles from the state’s watchful eye, there would be zero skepticism about what has created the miserable conditions for the country.
According to aid workers with the World Food Program, the humanitarian crisis in parts of North Korea are worse than places like the horn of Africa and Chechnya. Could these Koreans be suffering more than any other group of people in the world? One worker says, “The growth of children has been stunted to such a degree that 11-year olds look like six year-olds. Generations of North Korean will be mentally retarded.” Without noting the irony, Watts mentions that until recently, the United States was the biggest donor of aid to North Korea. Let that sink in for a minute. A country that forces its citizens to oppose the US, has, according to the author, received more assistance from the US than any other country. To put some numbers on just how many people are in need of aid, consider that the World Food Program is feeding more than a quarter of the country’s 22 million people. Koreans who have escaped to China in the late 90s have reported that people were “dropping dead in the streets” due to malnutrition.
The intro to the article features a half-page photo of a massive rally (easily hundreds of thousands) in Kim Il Jung Square. It looks like all of Pyongyang turned out to “prepare for nuclear war with the United States.” It is a strikingly joyless scene. No one is smiling. Most appear to have their right arms extended, fists clenched in solidarity. And along with an enormous painting of the leader, there is a beautiful piece of revolutionary art rising up above the marchers. The artwork depicts a proleteriat superhero stomping on American imperialist invaders. Oddly, there are several instances in the same issue of Mother Jones that uncritically display similar artwork. For example, on page 24, there is a spotlight of the 22-year-old director of MoveOn.org. The accompanying photo shows Eli Pariser sitting below an image of the immortal red, revolutionary fist. The same fist could be found in and around Pyongyang. Now, I in no way think supporters of MoveOn are sympathetic to Kim Jong Il, or the suffering that is currently happening in the name of Revolution. But I wonder, why wouldn’t you want to distance yourself from this sort of thing? It might be fair to ask, “Exactly what is the ideological connection between the revolutionary images that appear in pop culture now and the revolutionary images distributed by leaders of the most totalitarian, fascist country in the world?”
April 26th, 2003
Albert Camus once argued that revolutions begin with a demand for justice, but always end in bloodshed. He viewed the Soviet Union as a police state that masqueraded “as an instrument of liberation and a school for future happiness.” Fifty years later, North Korea has perfected this deceit. Although the numbers of dead under Kim Jong Il don’t touch the millions slaughtered by Stalin, the tyrant’s ability to achieve total mind control is probably unmatched in history. With its recent outbursts and threats of nuclear attack, we’re learning a lot more about the isolated country these days.
Jonathon Watts was one of the first Western Journalists allowed to check out Pyongyang and surrounding environs since the nuclear crisis began last fall. In the latest issue of Mother Jones he describes a populace religiously devoted to two things: their leader and anti-Americanism. Each person whom Watts speaks with is named Kim. Seriously. In a measured, articulate manner, they indicate no reluctance to lay down their lives for Kim Jong Il. A conversation with a beautiful Bond-esque “SMERSH Lady” leads to the current crisis: “… I note that a repeat of the Korean War, in which 4 million died, would mean terrible suffering for the North Korean people.” With a “heartbreaking smile,” Ms. Kim replies, “No problem.” A Palistinean refuge, who may have witnessed family members’ homes demolished by Ameri.. er, Israeli tanks, may rail against “Zionism” and the US with a desperate rage. You don’t sense this level of anger here. Years of propaganda and cult-like reverence for Revolution have produced a nation that is calmly ready for war with America. Surrounded by aquariums, Watts flips through the Pyongyang’s daily newspaper at a coffee shop. He reads that a member of the Socialist Youth League (named Kim of course) recently said: “Eight million Korean young people are fully ready to become human bullets and suicide bombs…” This is a place where even the hospitals are adorned with anti-American posters and pictures of atrocities allegedly committed by Americans. Sadly, you detect that even if two people were in the middle of a field, miles from the state’s watchful eye, there would be zero skepticism about what has created the miserable conditions for the country.
According to aid workers with the World Food Program, the humanitarian crisis in parts of North Korea are worse than places like the horn of Africa and Chechnya. Could these Koreans be suffering more than any other group of people in the world? One worker says, “The growth of children has been stunted to such a degree that 11-year olds look like six year-olds. Generations of North Korean will be mentally retarded.” Without noting the irony, Watts mentions that until recently, the United States was the biggest donor of aid to North Korea. Let that sink in for a minute. A country that forces its citizens to oppose the US, has, according to the author, received more assistance from the US than any other country. To put some numbers on just how many people are in need of aid, consider that the World Food Program is feeding more than a quarter of the country’s 22 million people. Koreans who have escaped to China in the late 90s have reported that people were “dropping dead in the streets” due to malnutrition.
The intro to the article features a half-page photo of a massive rally (easily hundreds of thousands) in Kim Il Jung Square. It looks like all of Pyongyang turned out to “prepare for nuclear war with the United States.” It is a strikingly joyless scene. No one is smiling. Most appear to have their right arms extended, fists clenched in solidarity. And along with an enormous painting of the leader, there is a beautiful piece of revolutionary art rising up above the marchers. The artwork depicts a proleteriat superhero stomping on American imperialist invaders. Oddly, there are several instances in the same issue of Mother Jones that uncritically display similar artwork. For example, on page 24, there is a spotlight of the 22-year-old director of MoveOn.org. The accompanying photo shows Eli Pariser sitting below an image of the immortal red, revolutionary fist. The same fist could be found in and around Pyongyang. Now, I in no way think supporters of MoveOn are sympathetic to Kim Jong Il, or the suffering that is currently happening in the name of Revolution. But I wonder, why wouldn’t you want to distance yourself from this sort of thing? It might be fair to ask, “Exactly what is the ideological connection between the revolutionary images that appear in pop culture now and the revolutionary images distributed by leaders of the most totalitarian, fascist country in the world?”
April 25th, 2003
I think my favorite thing about Kazaa is that if a random, forgotten song finds it way into a dream of mine, I can hunt it down in the morning. Today I woke up with beats on the brain. The one part of the dream that I remember is that I was slushing through snow near my childhood home, and listening to the Utah Saints. I didn’t have headphones on or anything– the sizzaints were just doing their thing off in the stratosphere. You may remember the song that inspired my predawn Roger Rabbits and waving of glowsticks in the shower: “Something Good.” With the looped Kate Bush sample, “Ooooooh I, Ooooooooh I, just know that something good is gonna happen” (For the record, I think this is like the tenth time I’ve written about Kate Bush on my web site. She is certainly worth remembering). The Utah Saints’ music, if I am not mistaken, was simply described as “rave.” Before electronica, and all its sub-genres (drum n’ bass, house, garage, etc.) there were few household name DJs or electronic music groups. I remember seeing a lot of compilations with names like “Rave til’ Dawn!”. 
Cheesy, yes, but this was an era that saw far more innovative and interesting events and happenings than can be found today.
“Rave” had not yet earned all of its stigmas, such as the sad spectacle of thirteen-year-olds on E, sporting ridiculously oversized britches, and wearing surgical masks. But the most profound difference is that the events were spontaneous and unpredictable. You often called a secret phone number or picked up a map somewhere and spent hours finding the location of this unique party. There was no established uniform yet. DJs were not idolized as the point was that the attendees created the magic. They weren’t yet neatly classified into their sub-genre and were not only free to play different kinds of music, but were expected to. Kids often passed out these amazing fliers to other events. Yes, basically they looked like the ones you see now. Lots of colors, 3-D images, and futuristic text. It was mind-blowing then. Now, every kid and her arsenal of Photoshop filters can produce roughly the same thing. Again, back then it was all about pushing limits and challenging preconceived notions. But once it became an established “scene,” the music, promotion, dress code, etc. was regulated. All signs point to the rave scene gasping its last breath. I’m sure ravers know the myriad reasons that their scene is over. I wonder if it is even possible to gather such large numbers of people together anymore, for an unscripted celebration.
April 23rd, 2003
I just installed Dragon voice recognition software. Right now, I’m dictating into microphone and text is filling up a Web text box. In I’m not a going to edit this entry at all. What you are reading is what I have dictated. This is sweet exclamation! So far, so good. But the microphone is a little too sensitive. When my chair squeaks it may enter text and. I did not mean to include the word and. How cool it be, to have a laptop and why 5 and voice recognition software can be able to block anywhere without using a keyboard. I guess it doesn’t recognize Web block. I’m just going to move keep talking and see what gay rights. I meant to say wipes gay rights. What it writes!!! (I had to type that in!!!) Wipes gay rights and I can’t believe it said that! Oh man… Okay I’m going to attempt to tab down and can click fee submit button. Here we go
April 17th, 2003
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