March 2017

we need your card, because we... just... do

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11:45 am
Rebel sits down at the bar in the neighborhood yuppie restaurant and orders brunch.
He's the only customer sitting at the bar; about six people are seated at various small tables, and otherwise the joint is empty.

Rebel: I'd like the Asian Marinated Skirt Steak Salad, please, and sweet potato fries, and coffee.
Waitperson: Cream or sugar?
Rebel: Black is fine.
Waitperson: OK, I'll just need your card so I can start a tab.
Rebel: I'm paying cash.
Waitperson: Well, I still need your card.
Rebel: What for?
Waitperson: So we can get you in the system and keep track of everyone.
Rebel: There's no one in here!
Waitperson: It usually gets crowded around 1:00. Card?
Rebel (obviously lying): I don't have one.

Waitperson pouts and begins keying something into the register.

new-ish vimeos

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Have been neglecting my Vimeo account, mainly because I hate video and think there's too much of it in our world. Yesterday I posted a couple of laid-back efforts from late 2014 I had been sitting on:

Ambient Bro Environment

Walk to Liberty

Was sort of briefly interested in the idea of home movies as art -- taking that trope of ultimate boredom and elevating it to festival material, as a form of protest or Dada or what have you. I even went as far as to submit Idyllic Bike Ride to the festival "Migrating Forms" (where it was rejected). What happened was, I get a lot of press releases going back to my years as a pundit. Some are welcome and some go to spam. Migrating Forms sent me an announcement with a call for entries. It took about five minutes to submit Idyllic Bike Ride -- I thought a dude's bike ride might be an amusing break or palate cleanser in several hours of heavy identity exploration. It was rejected, and also lessened my spam traffic because I stopped receiving Migrating Forms announcements! Unlike moi, they do not hate video.

MIDI Users' Group performance

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MIDI Users' Group performs at an electronic music event, Oscillate:Pittsburgh 2017 [YouTube]

Travis Hallenbeck tweeted: "my set in Pittsburgh was described by the organizer as like being stuck in an office"

On the other hand, it was kind of refreshing not seeing an Apple laptop or a rack of modular gear. These not-quite-ancient MIDI devices have their own unique sound and seem to have their own mind. Hallenbeck treats them like a flock of erratic sheep, letting them go where they will and savoring their little bleeps and hums as events in themselves. The caretaker approach to (dis)organized sound.

chicken little for real

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When lab-grown meat was first announced a few years ago, science fiction fan Paul Krugman (whose economic theories in support of the Clintons have also been called science fictional) mentioned the "Chicken Little" episode in Pohl & Kornbluth's book The Space Merchants. That was P&K's name for a monstrous mound of non-sentient chicken flesh, filling a small underground cavern, flensed off in strips to feed the populace. The meat Krugman was comparing to it was pork, or perhaps nu-pork, but last week the feat was achieved in San Francisco startup-land with actual chicken, or nu-chicken. (hat tip m.po)

Since the source is Business Insider they don't call it Frankenfood, but rather a form of venture-capital-funded disruption. If brainless meat ever becomes economical, the idea is, its various purveyors will do to chicken farmers what Uber does to cab drivers. Or, as BI puts it:

They're all hoping to disrupt America's $200 billion meat industry (and $48 billion poultry industry), by offering foods that mimic meat but are more environmentally friendly.

The details are pretty disgusting, even if you aren't excited by a food that is "eerily similar" to real meat (BI's telling phrase):

...lab-grown meat still requires fetal serum, which comes from unborn calves and chicks, to start the cultivation process. Memphis Meats told The Wall Street Journal in 2016 that it expects to replace the serum with something plant-based soon.

Right, sure. It's the nu-ethics: Disrupting baby cows is bad, disrupting family farmers is OK.