Frank Luntz struggles with political climate change
Frank Luntz, the Republican Goebbels who encourages such phrases as "death tax" instead of "estate tax," "ANWR" for Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (when talking about oil drilling), and most insidious, one you've probably used, the inevitable sounding "climate change" instead of "global warming," has a crop of new phrases designed to keep a lid on public anger at the current state of things:
1. Instead of capitalism, use "economic freedom" or "free market." Hey, what about "free enterprise"? We aren't supposed to use "entrepeneur" now, though, the term is "job creator." Luntz is funny.
2. Don't say that the government "taxes the rich," Luntz says. He prefers "takes from the rich." Right, same thing, people love hearing about it.
3. Instead of "middle class," Luntz prefers "hardworking taxpayers," presumably to distinguish them from lazy good-for-nothing taxpayers.
4. Instead of "jobs," use "careers." But don't you need one to have the other?
5. Don't say "government spending." Call it "waste." An oldie!
6. Republicans shouldn't say they "compromise"--call it "cooperation." ("If you talk about 'compromise,' they'll say you're selling out," Luntz says. Which you are.)
7. The three most important words you can say to an Occupier, Luntz says, are "I get it." That's especially convincing when accompanied by a billy club to the spleen.
There are more (click through to Yahoo story), equally lame. The man is losing command of his dark art.
Update: People don't really object to capitalism so much as "crony capitalism" and "corporate welfare." Luntzian terms for those might be, respectively, "good neighbor policy" and "bleeding the beast."
"Crickets II"
"Crickets II" [mp3 removed]
Demo of the delay and pitch-shifting functions of the Doepfer A-112 module. Was trying to keep the beats minimal so I could hear better what the effects are doing. The delay is not an echo, with multiple steps (you have to use another module--a mixer--to create feedback). It's a simple time lag. But if you patch in the original beat you get two beats and a kind of unpredictable slurring and distortion that the voltage-controlled sampling adds. Pretty nice stuff. The pitch shift can be heard in a tom-tom that starts dropping a few semitones about halfway through. Very noisy and dirty track overall, atmospheric (hence the title).
titled
by Lolumad
my talk topic next week is going to be "Concrete Poetry vs 'Doing Internet'" (or words to that effect)
am scouting around for examples of work that might superficially prove Kenneth Goldsmith's thesis that concrete poetry anticipated the internet but in fact proves nothing of the kind