I’ve been around journalists my entire life, since I was a little kid, and I haven’t met more than five in three-plus decades who wouldn’t literally shit from shame before daring to say that their job had anything to do with truth or informing the public. Everyone in the commercial media, and that includes Hitchens, knows what his real job is: feeding the monkey. We are professional space-fillers, frivolously tossing content-pebbles in an ever-widening canyon of demand, cranking out one silly pack-mule after another for toothpaste and sneaker ads to ride on straight into the brains of the stupefied public.
One friend I know describes working in the media as shoveling coal for Satan. That’s about right. A worker in a tampon factory has dignity: He just uses his sweat to make a product, a useful product at that, and doesn’t lie to himself about what he does. In this business we make commodities for sale and, for the benefit of our consciences and our egos, we call them ideas and truth. And then we go on the lecture circuit. But in 99 cases out of 100, the public has more to learn about humanity from the guy who makes tampons.
Arts
06
Jul 04
Editorial on journalism and Hitchens
02
Jul 04
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando is dead. I found out today. Another legend of the silver screen gone. Who will be tomorrow’s James Dean or Marlon Brando? My favorite Marlon Brando role is still Don Vito Corleone in “The Godfather”, but I also enjoyed him in “On the Waterfront” and “The Wild One”. One thing I always appreciated was his quietness.
01
Jul 04
For extra credit:
Can you identify the following Spiderman villain? Leave your answer in the comments.
01
Jul 04
Spiderman 2: Quickie Review
Spiderman 2 was very enjoyable although I amped myself up so much before I saw it that I couldn’t help but come away the tiniest bit hungry for something more. The best part was Alfred Molina as Doctor Octopus. He was a lot more likeable, and therefore more tragic, than Dafoe as the Green Goblin. Being in the same theatre with the rest of your coworkers was weird in that you realize when you have to sneak out in the middle of the movie because you have to go to the bathroom really, really bad due to drinking the large Cherry Coke everyone knows exactly who you are. It’s like being a celebrity without all the good parts.
26
Jun 04
Fahrenheit 9-11
You need to see this movie. There are scenes that will grip you, not because of anything said, written, or done by Michael Moore, but because of the unadulterated and undeniable reality of what you are seeing. In one scene an older Iraqi woman walks amidst the rubble of her uncle’s home pleading with God to save them from the Americans, and asking where is He in their moment of need? When she cries out in anguish that “God is great” “Allahu Ackbar!” because she is scared and powerless to do anything else to protect her family and herself, you understand in an instant what the Iraqi people are going through. Exhorting God is the only way to keep your head up and your spirit from collapsing. It is powerful stuff and that’s just one small taste of it. Much of the rest of the film is the typical Moore ambush clueless politicians with a camera stuff, or talking to the average joe. Undeniably, Fahrenheit 9-11 will have a considerable impact on the election, especially if just half the people who see this movie vote in Novemeber.
Continue reading →
24
Jun 04
What’s with BoingBoing?
I’m starting to wonder if some of the folks at BoingBoing.net haven’t made some sort of deal with Nick Denton (the notorious blog advertising minimogul) and Gawker media. All I ever see on BB lately is fleshbot, fleshbot, fleshbot (not safe for work) or gizmodo crossposting. Is Wired News journalist and third member of Roxette, Xeni Jardin, working for them now? Does anyone know?
- Exhibit A: Best actual adult film title ever
- Exhibit B: What’s in Your Gadget Bag Xeni?
I actually like Gizmodo and Fleshbot a lot. I think they have a good format going for disciplined blog coverage without a lot of navel-gazing (like you’d find here, faithful readers). I check Gizmodo and BoingBoing several times a day. On a related note: Nick Denton et al are working some deal with Nike, since, you know, Nike likes to be on the cutting edge of cool. It’s called… . Maybe inner city kids aren’t buying enough Air Jordans anymore and they want to start reaching out to bloggeurs. I’d hate to think that all those Indonesian sweatshops are sitting idle.
24
Jun 04
Seeking Dick Artists
Detour Seeks Dick Artists Dept.: 
Flat Black Films (Waking Life) has sent out word that they’re seeking fine artists and illustrators to work on Richard Linklater’s adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s A Scanner Darkly. Says the press releases: “Applicants need to be highly skilled in fine drawing, particularly of the human face … experience with computer animation such as Flash is a plus but not required.” Send portfolios or examples of artwork to: Scanner Darkly, c/o Sara Johnson, Detour FilmProduction, 3109 N. I-35, Austin, TX 78722. Or, e-mail online portfolio info to bob@@flatblackfilms.com.
On a related noted, here are some photos from the set of A Scanner Darkly.
23
Jun 04
Cat and Girl
Cat and Girl, the best comic strip online, is officially five years old. Yay! Here’s a little tribute I drew in a two minutes and scanned in. See if you can make out what it is. The idea isn’t so great but I was trying to go to bed since I’ve been in this bad habit of going to bed too late. And, judging by the way things are going tonight won’t be any different.
I’ve been toying with the idea of doing handwritten blog entries. Do you think that’s a good idea? I think it would dovetail well into the idea of the site being named “Letter Never Sent” and besides the way someone writes can be as expressive as the content of their writing. It’s an idea.
12
Jun 04
Brown-out
This old place is plagued by brown-outs. Any time it’s just the least bit nasty outside the power hiccups for a split-second and down go all the clocks and computers, all appliances flashing midnight. During the last bout a few hours ago I was in the middle of writing down another one of my navel-gazing, micro-epiphanies for this humble website. Losing everything I wrote didn’t bug me so much since I was writing on a subject I’ve almost got beat to death…me, and how I fit into the universe. It was specifically about fear, security, and habit. It’s not that what I was writing was bad or boring, just that I knew I didn’t have to worry about covering the same ground again later.
The thing that is bothering me is that my computer doesn’t want to boot up completely. It gets to a certain point and seems to just black out again. That’s frustrating, but I don’t have time to dick around with it now.
I’ve been reading The Prince of Tides off and on all day today. When I have a book that grabs me I will keep a vigil of reading until I finish it. I did finish it, twenty minutes ago. When I finished reading, I closed the book and sat there for a while feeling all the emotions and people I had experienced in some small way, feeling also a mixture of happiness and longing. When you get involved in a story that touches you down deep, a part of you hopes that the story and characters are somehow real because then everything can live on even after the small part you shared has been played out. Realizing that the story was created by another person diminishes its magic.
This may sound arrogant and overly exhuberant, but I think this is the book the more talented version of myself would write. So many feelings about childhood, love, and family rang true. This is the kind of book I would give to someone who wanted to understand me better. I have rarely felt so much like an author has captured so much of the person I am. In many places I felt like it would be impossible for the author to fabricate these experiences he was describing because they reminded me so perfectly of insights and experiences from my own life. So much so that I would have been able to detect the slightest hint of artifice. It’s amazing to me that powerful books have this knack of coming along just when you needed them.