11.16.08
Posted in Cinema, Music, Space is the Place, Avant Experiwhosis, Experimental Film, Online Video at 7:23 pm by Spencer
Calling Planet Earth (1986)
Video short by Bill Sebastian. Made at Mission Control, Boston. 13 min.
“Visuals performed by Bill Sebastian on the Outerspace Visual Communicator.”
Music by Sun Ra and his Arkestra: Ra-keyb, voc; Al Evans-tp; Fred Adams-tp; Tyrone Hill-tb; Marshall Allen-as; John Gilmore-ts; Danny Ray Thompson-bs; Eloe Omoe-bcl; James Jacson-bsn, perc; Bruce Edwards-eg; John Brown-d; June Tyson-voc. Dance, gesture, and Virtual Reality: Michael Ray, Barday, Eddie Thomas (Thomas Thaddeus), Atakatune.
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11.11.08
Posted in What I'm Reading, Spooks, Politics, Elections at 7:18 pm by Spencer
Here we go again. The Washington Times is reporting a behind-the-scenes power struggle in the Republican National Committee to oust the current chairman and replace him with either former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele and everyone’s best pal from the ’90s, Newt Gingrich. The paper says supporters of the ouster want “a leader who can formulate a counter-agenda to President-elect Barack Obama’s administration and articulate it on the national stage.” There’s no doubt Gingrich is skilled at psychological warfare and right-wing insurrection, and he (a co-architect of an impeachment, don’t forget) has been articulating Obama counter-strategies in recent months.
Publicly he’s been playing it cool, but Gingrich is now letting it be known (apparently at least, from the mouth of his Georgian friend Randy Evans to the ear of an Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter) that “If a majority of the RNC thought he was needed, he would accept that appointment.” It remains to be seen who will be thrown into which briar patch, especially since it all has to be done in stage whisper thanks to the official “smooth transition” party line coming out of the White House.
In the cold winter of 1998, when he retired under a damning cloud from both the Speakership and the House, some went so far as to predict Gingrich was politically finished. But after his obligatory quiet and contrite period, Gingrich has been rehabilitated within Republican inner circles and, while not a member of the RNC itself, has been playing an increasingly prominent role within what I fondly refer to as the Junta — the kinda guys that meet Cheney after work for scotch, or periodically visit him at an undisclosed location for a round of ping pong. Ultimately, whether this is all just parlor gossip and footsie or not, the fact that Newt Gingrich is being discussed in that kind of light at all is noteworthy, both in terms of the arc of the Gingrich Saga™ (will he be another Nixon?) and not least as a read on the latest Kremlin-ology.
Where has he been? Well you may ask. After he resigned from Congress, Gingrich landed in 1999 at the conservative Hoover Institution at Stanford University, rubbing elbows with the likes of National Security Advisor-to-be Condoleezza Rice. In 2000, during the lead-up to the first Bush campaign, Gingrich became a fellow of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), the right-wing think tank of choice for the Bush administration. He even started appearing as a pundit on conservative TV, and during the latest election got to where he could even show his face openly in the mainstream media again. Most recently, the day after the presidential election, he published an op-ed piece entitled “Repeal Sarbanes-Oxley”, arguing that the post-Enron accounting reforms should be wiped away because they haven’t “been enough” to stop the collapse of the housing and credit bubbles simultaneously, despite a complete lack of enforcement by the Bush administration. This, from a guy who probably went hot tubbing in the Caribbean with the dudes from Enron.
Aw yeah, the good times are back. Keep an eye over your right shoulder, folks. It’s gonna get weird out there.
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Posted in Events, Friends and Family at 5:28 pm by Spencer
In commemoration of soldiers of all nations and all ages, with prayers for peace.
The US Army Oath of Enlistment
I, (name), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.
The US National Guard Oath of Enlistment
I, (name), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the State of (state name) against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the Governor of (state name) and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to law and regulations. So help me God.
The US President Oath of Office (US Constitution, Article II)
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
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11.08.08
Posted in Whatever, Cinema, Nifty Links, Funny Shit, Sci-Fi and Horror Flix at 10:49 pm by Spencer
As if you need to know anything more than that picture, The Lost Skeleton Returns Again — the sequel to the spot-on grade-z monster spoof, The Lost Skeleton of Cadavera — just had its “Los Angeles premiere” at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood. Watch for it soon at a theater near you.
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Posted in Cinema, Events, Sci-Fi and Horror Flix, Film Festivals, 16mm Film at 10:00 pm by Spencer
There’s only 3 shows left in the Secret Sunday Matinee series presented by The Sprocket Society and the Northwest Film Forum.
Each Sunday at noon is a two hour, old-fashioned matinee, with a cartoon and/or a short film (usually old weird stuff), an episode of the classic 1940 weekly movie serial Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe, and a special Secret Feature — a classic or “classic” matinee movie from the ‘30-’60s. Since we’re showing Flash Gordon, the emphasis is on sci-fi, fantasy, adventure and horror. Nothing but good stuff, often rarely screened. All on 16mm (no video), shown with NW Film Forum’s theatrical-grade projector.
The Secret Matinee series has been running since September, and it ends the last Sunday of November. There’s only 3 shows left! And yes, it’s fine to come in your PJs.
The 12th and last episode of Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe will be shown in 2 weeks. But we’re booked for 13 weeks, so the series finale will be The “13th Episode” Show on Nov. 23, with extra-special cartoons and short films that require funny glasses.
Here’s what’s coming up, with some clues about the Secret Features… 
This Sun. November 9:
Cartoons and shorts: Betty Boop’s Ups and Downs (1932) — a surreal Depression-era classic from the Fleischer brothers; and an excellent but untitled 1906 (?) French special effects short by Segundo de Chomon, a tinted 16mm print. Silent, shown with music by Sun Ra.
The Secret Feature: A rarely-shown Japanese giant monster movie from the mid-’60s, but not with Godzilla or the other usual suspects. American actor Nick Adams makes his kaiju movie debut in this negelected Toho classic directed by Ishiro Honda. In color.
AND! The penultimate episode of Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe! It all comes to a head in chapter 11: “Stark Treachery”! Ming takes over Prof. Zarkov’s mind and turns him against his friend Flash!
Sun. November 16:
Cartoons and shorts: Little Red Riding Hood (1949) — one of the last and best of the series of fairy tale stop-motion animation films made independently by a young Ray Harryhausen. A rare original 16mm Kodachrome color print.
Secret Feature: One of the all-time classics! Featuring the artistry of Harryhausen and Willis (King Kong) O’Brien. In B&W.
AND! The thrilling conclusion of Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe! Chapter 12: “Doom of the Dictator”! Sucks to be Ming!
Sun. November 23 - series finale:
THE “13th EPISODE” SHOW
Twisted cartoons & shorts
3D Short Films — an anaglyphic rarity from 1941, Third Dimensional Murder, plus digest versions of ’50s classics
And of course, A SECRET FEATURE — possibly a condensed feature-length version of one of the other Flash Gordon serials…or possibly something much different… You’ll have to come back next week to find out…
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Posted in Nifty Links, Spooks, Politics, History, Books at 9:02 pm by Spencer
Tonight I stumbled upon a pithy and entertaining (if sporadic) anonymous history blog called Historians’ Corner, which has some fascinating stuff about the Alsos secret mission at the end of World War II.
About a year ago, the blogger posted a couple times about his trip to the National Archives in Washington, DC. In “Washington DC Trip - Day 5″, he uses photos to walk us through getting obscure old declassified war records at NARA. An earlier photo post documents his visit to the Library of Congress. (I’ve always wondered what it looked like in there.)
What an official US Government box of declassified secret documents looks like:
What part of the Library of Congress looks like:
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11.06.08
Posted in Web Dev, Nifty Links, AJAX, PHP, Reference, What I'm Reading, Browsers, JavaScript, Accessibility at 8:29 pm by Spencer
On Nov. 3, 2008, the W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Working Group published Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 as a Proposed Recommendation.
WCAG defines how to make Web sites, Web applications, and other Web content accessible to people with disabilities. “Proposed Recommendation” means that the technical material of WCAG 2.0 is complete and it has been implemented in real sites. This is the last step before WCAG 2.0 becomes the official standard.
The WCAG Working Group is welcoming final comments on WCAG 2.0 through 2 December 2008, less than a month away.
I highly recommend that every single person in the web business read this stuff carefully. If you have something constructive to contribute to the discussion, now is the time.
WCAG 2.0 will supersede WCAG 1.0, which has been the operative accessibility standard since 1999. There are some important changes to the standard that all coders, IAs, and designers should take note of, and it’s worth noting that there have been periods of considerable controversy during WCAG 2.0’s adoption process.
Current official working drafts of WCAG 2.0 primer documents:
Read the official announcement. Check the latest changes and status of WCAG 2.0.
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11.03.08
Posted in Whatever, Politics at 10:01 pm by Spencer
Whatever your views, please please vote. And if I may, as someone who has provided hospice care for the dying and after careful consideration, I’d like to ask that you please vote Yes on the WA state death with dignity referendum.
If you run into problems while voting, or feel intimidated or see something strange — report it. Soberly. And mind you: in addition to the usual pranks, some partisan interests have been engaging in an extremely aggressive, nation-wide voter purging campaign. In some states, tens and even hundreds of thousands of voters have been purged from the rolls weeks past the legal deadline, and under otherwise dubious circumstances. If you should find you are wrongly purged — report it and make a ruckus. Fight (respectfully) for your vote. But casting a provisional ballot should be your absolute last resort: most often, they are never counted.
Among the many options for reporting election anomalies, may I suggest that one avenue might be:
Election Protection - call 1-866-OUR-VOTE or online at www.866ourvote.org — “The nation’s largest nonpartisan voter protection coalition.” Read more about them. They explain your rights in Elections 101. Endorsed by the NY Times.
And of course, know your rights:
Washington State Voter Laws (via WA Secretary of State)
The “Help America Vote Act of 2002″ (HAVA) Explained (WA Scty. of State)
And as the sun begins to set…at…long…long…last…on the 2008 election and thus — thank all the deities there are or might be, all the demi gods and bodhisatvas and saints and loa, Allah, Jehova, Yahweh, Zoroaster, John Coltrane and Mother Teresa, Tim Russert and Bill Moyers, Abbie Hoffman and William F. Buckley and most of all, brothers and sisters, thank you Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. — the ignominious end comes at last to the bottomless, relentless, soul-wrenching, unholy abomination of the last 8 years, as this horrific epoch in our society’s history comes to a dismal close I’d just like to say to everyone (including numerous beloved friends) who voted for Ralph Nader, a man I have respect for, in 2000…I’d just like to mention one little thing I’ve not brought up before…
I FUCKIN’ TOLD YOU SO. Didn’t I? Yes, I did. Now you see the difference, right? Okay then.
Ahem. Thank you for your indulgence. That’s been a small stone in my shoe for a while now. No really, I’m good.
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10.24.08
Posted in News of the World, What I'm Reading, Politics, Elections at 10:47 pm by Spencer
As reported today in “Bush Orders DOJ to Probe Ohio Voter Registrations” on the news site, The Public Record:
President George W. Bush has asked Attorney General Michael Mukasey to investigate whether 200,000 newly registered voters in the battleground state of Ohio would have to reconfirm their voter registration information, an issue the U.S. Supreme Court weighed in on last week.
The unprecedented intervention by the White House less than two weeks before the presidential election may result in at least 200,000 newly registered voters in Ohio not being able to vote on Election Day if they are forced to provide additional identification when they head to the polls.
House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, sent a letter to Bush Friday asking that he order the Department of Justice to probe the matter.
…Boehner said in his letter: “Unless action is taken by the [US Justice] Department immediately, thousands, if not tens or hundreds of thousands of names whose information has not been verified…will remain on the voter rolls during the November 4 election; and there is a significant risk if not a certainty, that unlawful votes will be cast and counted….”
…Boehner wrote to Mukasey Monday and wrote to Bush when his query to the attorney general went unanswered, he said.
…A federal appeals court recently ordered Ohio election officials to help counties set up a computer system to ensure the veracity of voter registrations. [See story on CNN.com] …Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court took up the case and dismissed the lower court’s ruling. [See story on CBSNews.com]
And speaking of such things, the Brennan Center for Justice is maintaining an ongoing investigation of “the voter suppression tactics unfolding as America faces another presidential election.” It’s called 2008’s Voter Suppression Incidents So Far, and it’s hosted over at AlterNet.
Look sharp, fellow citizens — this is just the tip of the dirty tricks iceberg. The Republican war on voting has been decried in recent editorials in august papers like the Christian Science Monitor and the New York Times, which went so far as to issue a call to “fight for their right to cast a ballot” and gave the toll-free number of the voter rights group Election Protection to call if you discover you’ve been wrongly disenfranchised. (The number is 1-866-OUR-VOTE, by the way).
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Posted in Web Dev, AJAX, JavaScript at 7:58 pm by Spencer
Those of you who care may well already know since it was announced about a month ago now, but Microsoft has announced that it will be including the excellent JavaScript library jQuery in future releases of their main development tool, Visual Studio. Best of all, MS says they won’t fix what ain’t broke — jQuery (and its documentation) will be included 100% as-is, with no modifications and with the MIT open source license intact, and intellisense will be fully functional with it. Any proposed changes, enhancements, or bug-fixes will be submitted to the jQuery team, just like everyone else does. Even more incredibly, later this year jQuery will be supported 24×7 by Microsoft’s Product Support Services (PSS) just like any MS product.
This is pretty much gob-smacking news, especially given Microsoft’s open hostility to open source. For those who have sworn like grizzled sailors trying to use the ASP.NET AJAX stuff in something resembling a decent cross-browser fashion, this announcement will no doubt prompt dancing and screams of joy.
jQuery will not be replacing the ASP.NET AJAX libraries but augmenting them, and moving forward the VS crew will be using jQuery to “implement higher-level controls in the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit” and other such like. The new ASP.NET MVC download will also distribute it, and add the jQuery library by default to all new projects. Fortunately, since jQuery is so well architected it already plays very nice with the existing ASP.NET AJAX gizmos.
Updating the jQuery library will reportedly be as simple plopping the new one over the old, though as always you may need to tweak your code slightly or write a compatibility module or something.
Don’t pinch me, I don’t wanna wake up.
Here’s some relevant linkage, lest you think I’m smoking crack:
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