a-ha: New release!

Quick news item: The iconic a-ha released a second new album since the soulful Analogue (2005) and reaching major U.K. success in the 1980s, including reaching #1 in the U.S. ("Take on Me," a significant notch in elevating art with music its new video form). "Foot of the Mountain" and its accompanying eponymous single were released in August 2009.

Video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FibJebSe-k

Horror poll: Wal-Mart voted "most iconic representation of U.S.A."

Beware of specious polls.

Story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090928/ap_on_bi_ge/us_tv60_minutes_vanity_fair_poll?ic

Is it just me, or are polls getting more and more worthless? What information does the ordinary reader take with him? That Wal-Mart is now "our top institution," or that a few lost souls perceive that? I'm no elitist; I harbor no ill-will to people that like to shop there. I also realize I am quite unable to effect any improvement in our trade imbalances, yet hopeful that globalism is feeling the lick of growing rejection.

Let's get to some reader analysis on Wal-Mart. (Credit: Fark.com).

I hate Wal-Mart. Not because I feel I'm some elitist, but because crowds, rude people, and fluorescent lights make me stabby. My husband suggested we go there this past Sunday because the thing we needed they didn't have at Target. I can shop at Target for some reason; I have no idea why. Anyway, it was terrible. I waited in the car because just getting through the parking lot and watching the unwashed masses pile in the store gave me an anxiety attack.

"America: where ruthless corporate sociopaths engage desperate, uneducated drones to sell cheap junk to fat morons, fulfilling a satanic pact with a distant communist dictatorship."

"It's a shame that's too long to effectively fit on a coin."

Is this guy trying to be ironic with his UPC tattoo? Please tell me, "Yes," because my feelings of throwing in the towel are insufferable.

"And when you snidey farkers shop at wal-Mart you do it in an ironic, sneering, post-modern way, don't you?"
"I do everything in an ironic, sneering, post-modern way."


"In skinny jeans?"

I've typed this before..
Every other country in the world has a rich, beautiful/colorful culture.
America has TV, and Wal-Mart.


Hehe, I emailed the hubby the link to the People of Wal-mart last week. When I got home from work, I was told "I'm going to get you for sending me that link." According to my hubby it was "like looking at a train wreck, you know it's going to be horrible, but you just can't stop watching." www.peopleofwalmart.com

Yes, Wal-Mart gets its own tag in my journal.

Dan Rather's tossed-out lawsuit emblematic of modern jour-nihilist greed, hubris

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A New York state appeals court on Tuesday dismissed former TV newsman Dan Rather's lawsuit against CBS Corp in which Rather claimed he was made a scapegoat in a scandal over a 2004 report on then-President George W. Bush's military record.
The ruling on Tuesday by a panel of judges of the New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division said Rather's $70 million complaint should be dismissed in its entirety and that a lower court erred in denying CBS's motion to throw out the lawsuit.

Take that Dan Rather, you jackass. I'm glad you lost time and money on your irresponsible reporting. Way to sue your former employer for $70M in "damages."

"The dispute began with a piece Rather narrated for the now-defunct "60 Minutes II," in which he reported that Bush got preferential treatment during his Vietnam War-era service in the Texas Air National Guard. Rather cited new documents CBS had obtained, but the authenticity of the documents later came under attack." - Karen Matthews, A.P.

I recall the network rushing to "Gotcha!" the sitting president. I advocate for more groups of "journalist journalists" like the Media Research Center and Newsbusters that expose these low-lives.

Media Research Center: http://www.mrc.org/public/default.aspx

Newsbusters: http://www.newsbusters.org/

Article: "Kind of Blue" by Jim Shahin

Sunday, 27 September. John Coltrane is playing. We follow the camera descending into the 'burbs... light is fading, gone.

I am only guessing what this author feels, that "it's in the air" feeling. Mild reading for a mild fall day. The author kind of "Kuralts" around for awhile, but it would be more satisfying if it were more revealing, or I better understood what he tried to impart to us in the end, what lasting impression he wanted to render. Communication...

Excerpt:

An acquaintance told me the other day that she doesn't like autumn. "I find it sad," she said. My first impulse was to reply, "Sad? Autumn? What are you, nuts? Autumn is great. There is a chill in the air. Leaves change color. And the football season is still young enough to pretend that even my beloved, heartbreaking Philadelphia Eagles might not implode." But before I spoke, she filled the empty space. "Everything turning brown, the days turning dark." She turned her gaze toward the window. "It's sad."

Feeling obligated to see what she was seeing, I looked out the window, too. If you're into sun and warmth and daylight, then, okay, she had a point. "Yeah," I replied. "I guess it is."But sadness may be exactly what I like about this time of year. I live in the Washington, D.C., area, a place that gets a pretty good autumn. Big, old maple trees line the sidewalks and canopy the streets, splashing color everywhere. But for years before we moved here, I'd pined for autumn like a cat pawing at a screen door to go outside. I was stuck in Texas, where fall is bypassed on the way from an endless summer (not what the Beach Boys had in mind when they wrote that phrase, believe me) to the rainy season, Janu­ary, then onto summer again.

http://www.americanwaymag.com/texas-philadelphia-eagles-maine

The true meaning of life

Depeche Mode/Construction Time Again/...and Then

All that we need at the start's
Universal revolution (that's all)
And if we trust in our hearts
We'll find the solutions

To put it all down and start again
From the top to the bottom and then
I'll have faith, or I prefer
To think that things couldn't turn out worse

Took a plane across the world
Got in a car
And when I reached my destination
I hadn't gone far

Let's take the whole of the world
The mountains and the sand
Let all the boys and the girls
Shape it in their hands

To put it all down and start again
From the top to the bottom and then
I'll have faith, or I prefer
To think that things couldn't turn out worse

Link to cover: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGWX-IKAHBQ&feature=related

The grey complex: a follow-up

Tireless searching yielded a new candidate to be the grey complex.

Dull concrete, crisp air.

Its face is so plain, but I shouldn't personify it. I don't know what it is, don't ask what it does. Just know that I've seen it before and it still exists.

Dictionary.com word of the day: Lucubration

lucubration \loo-kyoo-BRAY-shun; loo-kuh-\, noun:
1. The act of studying by candlelight; nocturnal study; meditation.2. That which is composed by night; that which is produced by meditation in retirement; hence (loosely) any literary composition.

Intermission

Time for a few breaths of night air...

Image from the liner of the New Order album "Republic"

Article: "Acorn's a Creature of the CRA"

"As proof that Washington is a looking-glass world where basic values and logic get perverted, proponents of the new legislation claim we need more CRA to rein in the bad practices of the housing bubble, which is sort of like arguing that the cure for alcoholism is another martini. Any review of the history of the affordable mortgage movement in America demonstrates the power that CRA had in helping to shred mortgage underwriting standards throughout the industry and exposing us to the kind of market meltdown we've experienced."

by Steven Malanga

URL: http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/09/16/acorns_a_creature_of_the_cra_97409.html

Article: "The Media and Medievalism"

"Today the global media make demands on generals and civilian policymakers that require a category of perfectionism with which medieval authorities would have been familiar. Investigative journalists may often perform laudatory service, but they have also become the grand inquisitors of the age, shattering reputations built up over a lifetime with the exposure of just a few sordid details. When the staff of a show like 60 Minutes decides which stories to pursue and which to leave half-finished on the cutting room floor, the destiny of any number of people is quietly being determined. That is actual and not virtual authority, however responsibly it may be employed: more authority, often, than any congressman or senator has. And as the editorial tastes of the tabloids dissolve into those of the mainstream media, the pace of character destruction quickens. "


by Robert D. Kaplan
URL: http://www.hoover.org/publications/policyreview/3432216.html

Retro Trapper Keeper images from the 1980s

Fascinating to look at what was hip! Neon, grid-like Tron inspired landscapes, pastels, Ray Ban Wayfarer sunglasses, Lamborghinis... Love it love it love it!

Retro arcade stickers from 1980s

A recent trip to a dimly lit beach arcade had be awash in 80s sentimentality, from the bleeps and bloops down to the smell of the carpet cleaner. Presented for your viewing pleasure: a selection of 1983 arcade themed stickers from the Scholastic Inc. publishing company.

There was a big time sticker craze (and not to mention, a lapel button mania) in school those days. So without further ado -

From the private collection of Cagey: "1983 Scholastic Inc. BLIPS stickers" (SN 0590-32986-3)





See also:

http://i31.tinypic.com/2mnrucp.jpg

http://i27.tinypic.com/73h34w.jpg

http://i25.tinypic.com/2eewk0x.jpg

http://i25.tinypic.com/2efj803.jpg

I'm thinking $300 on Ebay?

Quote of the day: Slogan approved for National Day!

"Uphold the basic economic system with public ownership playing a dominant role and diverse forms of economic ownership developing together, and with the practice of distribution according to work being carried out as the mainstay alongside other forms of distribution."

- One of 50 officially approved slogans issued to citizens to mark national day in the PRC.

- Source: The Economist, 5 September 2009

Composition inspired by birds

Birds on the Wires from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.

Transmissions of many forms connect, educate us

I love radio as a medium. I love fishing for interesting things on the airwaves, fishing for signals far and near. I always thought the nationally broadcast Coast to Coast was middle-of-the-night E.T./conspiracist tuning (but I don't have an issue with that). Although I'm not an enthusiast, when I have tuned in, I've occasionally enjoyed guests reasoning with wisdom and discernment on human behavior - not just fluff or whipped topping - and resonating with truth. "Peeling back the onion" is a clever way to describe this. Using one's own intuition, I believe it's important to "hit record" and hold onto these words and hear them again. Like horoscopes, you start out with a message with broad general appeal ("You are good." "You be careful." etc.) and deduce its personal meaning to your station in life, its worth to you in the way you carry on.

Case in point today: Dr. Les Carter. I liked this clinician's way of analyzing aspects of anger and fear, both some of the most powerful of human emotions, and an important charge at the end.

On conflict and respect: "Anger creates more disrespect: you don't end up getting what you want for expressing your anger, you [risk] an opportunity of what you want for more disrespect, which keeps anger alive... [and you have a] whole cycle going of unhealthy anger."

"Suppose you're in a relationship, and somebody displays some disrespect for you, there are healthy ways you can respond to that. Anger can work on your behalf. Example: You can stand up for what you believe is right in that, but you can do it in such a way that shows dignity and the worth toward that other individual, as you stand your ground and treat that other individual with genuine goodness, there's the good chance that that the other’s vision is going to diminish some of the things coming your way, and you don't perpetuate ugly behavior."

"Is there a measurable physiological response when you get angry?"

On fear: "What’s the emotion that drives pretenses? It’s very easy. Fear! The person who lives with pretenses is thinking, 'Well I’m threatened by the possibility of being seen threatened, of being seen as something other than wonderful. So, I’ve gotta keep up these false fronts because it’d be awful of people made a wrong interpretation of me.' The link to anger saw something else. Certainly the individual that drops the fear and learns to have a certain inner trust you know, it’s o.k.: To be what I am. Sometimes you’ll find that - 'I’m a mixed bag.' Sometimes I make wise decisions, sometimes I don’t. Drop the pretenses and learn to live without the fear. That’s where emotional cleanness starts to occur."

"There's nothing wrong with thinking, 'I’m a good guy who tries to go to work and help people.'"

"If you have a certain giftedness, I believe it’s wrong to hold that back. To not live in a forward way without using that gift in a forward way is not making good use of the life that’s been given you."

"Clara talked about pretenses – trying to pretend much more than you really are – you don’t have flaws, weaknesses or fears. There are lots of things you can do with a nice, moderate level of self-identity, not saying 'My underarms don’t stink, etc.'" :)

"Admit and acknowledge when you don’t have good moments!"

80s video of the month: Johnny and Mary

Struggling, why, oh why couldn't I remember the name?

.......................Something I can't put my finger on

Set in motion a series of thoughts and flashes

That somehow had me humming the bars to

One truly rad 80s song today

Outside a pet store?!

Of all unlikely places

Until I was home

And I knew

Inbound:

Relieving the iconic Tina Turner, uncontested for several months with the extended anthem of "We Don't Need Another Hero" ( "Thunderdome"), is Robert Palmer's "Johnny and Mary."

Robert Palmer, 1949-2003, like many of the legendary 1980s musicians, was a dressy, Britain-born performer who uniquely epitomized New Wave style and jazzy swagger. He did this perhaps most memorably in "Simply Irresistible," the music video (in the dawn of the video era) capitalizing on the pastel red, black and alluring flourishes often associated with Patrick Nagel and the general artistic zeitgeist of the time.

Please see this excellent online bio: http://www.biographybase.com/biography/Palmer_Robert.html

Outgoing:

"Thunderdome": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TViZKt-AX6E

Fare thee well, great diva Tina.

Quote of the day: On unruly children in public

From a forum post about an unruly child who was slapped in Wal-Mart by an unrelated adult, by "Worldwalker." I really love the last paragraph.

"Speaking of kids crying really loud, no, you do not have a right to allow your kid to scream in a store, a restaurant, a movie theater, or anywhere else where civilized behavior is expected. You have no more right to do so than I have to play the bagpipes there. Of course a 2-year-old isn't mature enough to be responsible for his own behavior ... which is why it's your job to see that he doesn't do uncivilized things. That goes with this whole "parent" thing. Having a child is a major responsibility, and part of that is accepting that taking proper care of that child is going to require some changes in your lifestyle. You can't go on as if nothing has changed and demand that other people endure the consequences."

"If you've got a child who's too young to behave in public places, then don't take him into those places until he's old enough. Leave him with Grandma for the afternoon. Get a babysitter. Shop online. Get the movie from Netflix, with the added bonus that you can watch it without being distracted by the heavy breathing three rows back. Get take-out."

"Your right to swing your fist in the air stops where my nose starts. Your right to let you child do whatever it wants stops where other people's rights -- what's called "quiet enjoyment" start. It's like we're starting into a social tragedy of the commons, where people take a little bit more, and a little bit more, until eventually have a world with all the charm, pleasantness, and civility of a cage full of poo-flinging monkeys."