Month: March 2005

Commerce and Revenge

Zoning laws be damned, porno is returning in Times Square. I’m all in favor, as I’ve said many times before, of sleaze. These stores are managing to open by being technically non-adult businesses: they have less than sixty percent of their store space dedicated to porn, so they count as regular old video stores. Still, if I was running a video store in Times Square, I’d try to run it as a good independent video store: lots of neat directors, good wacky TV series, employee recs, and, yes, an Adult section. But if you’re going to dedicate 41% of your store to something, you might as well have it be something that will sell, not a thousand copies of “Worlds Greatest Golf Swings.”

It’s a weird strategy of revenge, in which the porno vendors take that economic hit more or less to insult the point of the law. Take that, battleship! they seem to say.

OK, that didn’t fit at all, but I really wanted to link to the shirt because it’s so cute.

Under the Lion’s Paw

So we’re moving April 1, although our lease ends June 31. That means that unless we find a new renter for our landlord, we’re stuck with two leases. Most sane and reasonable landlords will let you out of a lease with a one-month-rent penalty. Not these: they say we’re responsible for April, May, and June unless we find someone else. Also, that someone else must be willing to pay $150 more per month than we’re currently paying.

I think they’ll have a hard time finding someone to pay $1350 for a 500-square-foot 1BR facing College Ave, with no keys to the mailbox (you can jimmy it open with a paperclip, as M. does, although I never got the hang of it) and with paint and plaster falling off the damn ceiling in the bedroom and the linoleum in the kitchen peeling up from the damage caused by the sink’s periodic episodes of bulimia.

But we signed the lease. So we’re stuck with it. M. and I can handle this, and can find a new lessor, but they’re certainly not going to bother trying. But this reminds me of Under the Lion’s Paw, a story of economic exploitation and the origins of the sometimes-violent populism that shook this nation to its core back when people thought they had some kind of right to things.

Respectable Journalism

A journalist and writer that I truly admire and respect, John Fleck, has the following comment:

“One of the things that smart journalists learn… is intellectual humility. The thing I love about [former tech journalist, now media commentator] Dan Gilmor (who I thought was a good tech journalist) was the way he honestly believed that his readers frequently knew more than he did.”

The notion of a journalist thinking she is in a position to tell the people she’s covering how they ought to do what it is that they do is just frankly bizarre.

He’s right, as usual. There are good tech journalists– usually good writers who cover technology. Most, however, are just uninformed and baseless opinions masquerading as thought. In other words, they’re like this blog– except they demand to be taken seriously and get paid for it.

Technology Journalists

Sometimes, I read articles in the technology press, and I think, hell, I could do better than that in my spare time. And then I think, oh, I have.

In technology, people who can’t or don’t invent or build things can work on assisting, researching, documenting, translating, illustrating, managing, integrating, debugging, or promoting them. If they can’t do any of those things, they have one last resort.

There are many words for this activity, none of them positive. If there were any legitimacy to it, perhaps it would have attracted greater talents. But it seems that most people that have some sort of communicative talent and an understanding of technology become technical writers, marketers, PR flaks, even (ugh) advertisers or science fiction writers. Those without a talent for words or numbers become technology journalists.

Pity them.

From the Mawrtyrs

My friend Petra points me to a scathing editorial about the latest recklessness from our dear leader: Which leaves us wondering what Mr. Bush’s next nomination will be. Donald Rumsfeld to negotiate a new set of Geneva Conventions? Martha Stewart to run the Securities and Exchange Commission? Kenneth Lay for energy secretary?

I’m sure the right has some defense for this. If you hate the very concept of international cooperation, have no respect for the aftermath of the world wars, and never really got the point of consensus or negotiation when it should be obvious God is on your side, it seems perfectly logical to appoint someone who has no respect for the job he’s about to do. Or, I guess, not do. Sounds like a good gig to me, really: “Hi, I’m an international gesture of ‘Fuck You.’ My job is to point out how much I don’t care about this position and this organization. Nothing you can say to me will ever make it back to my boss, and even if it did, it would have no effect on my boss or on our actions. So let’s just skip the negotiations and seminars and go right to the golf course, OK?”

Bad Show Ideas

From the NYT on a new show about death-match style craft competition: Ms. Honig added: “That poison and babies idea we had really hasn’t gone anywhere yet.” I’m waiting for the one on people struggling with the newly oppressive bankruptcy law. Or do they already have that one?. Apparently the whole money makover concept is quite a hit. Financial stability sounds boring, but on the other hand, you can really pitch it as “escape from financial doom” and it sounds so much better. At least it beats begging.

Up to Twice as Much or More

Secretly Ironic, now updated up to twice as much, or more, as other blogs. Spring is coming. I walked to work in the drizzle today and it felt good.

I am determined to finish my projects on time, both extracurricular and otherwise. Hence the posting as much as half, or perhaps less, or more, frequently than usual.

Today’s Lesson

When trying to convince someone of something, use the following format:
Tell them what you’re going to tell them.
Tell them.
Tell them what you just told them.

In other words, audiences learn from repitition. In Spanish they say “con sangre, entra la letra,” or “learning comes in with blood,” meaning that you have to beat the lesson into people.

So the literal beating doesn’t work these days but you can still hit them with your endlessly repeated message.