Saturday, December 29, 2001

PRINT UPDATE: Subscribers to the print MISC should get their copies the day after New Year's or shortly thereafter. Seattle dropoff distribution is almost complete.

Work begins immediately on the spring issue, with the "Science vs. Science Fiction" theme. We're still looking for writers who know about written science fiction and can explain its subgenres, cliches, and occasional joys to an audience of intelligent outsiders.

posted by clark 5:21 PM

THE FOLLOWING is not necessarily aimed at our regular readers, but at people trolling the search engines in need of a particular piece of help:

When you're trying to play a DVD movie in MacOS 9, and the Apple DVD Player software only gives you a blank screen and occasional split-seconds of sound, your computer might be mistaking the disc for one of a different format.

To solve this, try the following sequence:

• Launch Apple DVD Player before inserting the disc.

• Simultaneously press the logistically difficult but possible combination of the Command, Option, and I keys with one hand.

• Re-insert the disc with the other hand.

This will make MacOS read the disc in the "ISO" rather than the "UDF" format, and should make many previously Mac-unfriendly DVDs play without any further hitch.

If that doesn't work, open your Extensions folder to make sure it contains only one system extension with "Volume Access" in its name. And make sure you have the current version of DVD Player (2.7 for OS 9, 3.1 for OSX).

posted by clark 5:18 PM

Thursday, December 27, 2001

PASSAGE (Edna Gundersen in USA Today on Jennifer Lopez's J. Lo CD): "If Lopez ever selects material suitable for her vocal range, she'll be a mime."

posted by clark 10:29 PM

Wednesday, December 26, 2001

A HAPPY BOXING DAY TO ALL, and a prog-report on print MISC distro: Local Seattle dropoffs are two-thirds done. Subscribers should expect their copy any day now, depending on the vagaries of post-Xmas mail. National alterna-bookstore copies will arrive next Monday at the Last Gasp warehouse (ask your local cool-book or comix dealer to order it).

MARK YR. CALENDARS: There's not one but two (count 'em!) live MISC events comin' yr. way in future weeks:

• The gorgeous, spectacular MISCparty on Saturday, Jan. 26 in the lovely Rainier Room at 2nd Avenue Pizza, 2015 2nd Ave. at Virginia. DJ Superjew and DJ EZ Action will spin much fun, tasty Europop and other loungy tuneage. Novel drinkables and eatables will be served. Curiously odd video footage will be screened. Fun will be had. You can have some of it; be there.

• The opening of our upgraded Signifying Nothing photography show on Thursday, Feb. 7 at Zeitgeist Kunst & Kaffee, 171 S. Jackson St. at 1st Ave. S. This is a revamped, re-curated version of last summer’s exhibition, with images of decayed urban signage that are now hauntingly beautiful, semi-abstract forms of shape and color.

OUR NEW NATIONAL readership may also enjoy these silent messengers at our new Signifying Nothing online gallery, which will be accessed at this link. Images can be viewed; prints can be purchased in many sizes and formats. Images from our next book after that, City Light, will be up soon.

And remember, we’ve also got a line of (luscious) T-shirts, mugs, bags, mouse pads, etc. for sale at this link.

posted by clark 11:05 PM

FROM SRI LANKA ("a world where suicide bombings are so routine they don't make a ripple in the international news"), ten lessons in how not to fight terrorism.

THE GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: The corporate record labels are reeling in major losses, due mainly to the collapse of their longstanding business plans (the incessant hyping of a few bland superstars).

DESPITE THE TALIBAN'S FALL, there are still places on Earth where the simple enjoyment of pop music and nightlife is met with stern rebuke.

THOMAS FRIEDMAN, the NY Times's second-most-anointed right-winger, facetiously proposes an all-nude airline, "Naked Air," as a potential security solution.

If Friedman had been more of a journalist and less of a think-tank ideologue, he might have remembered that during the '70s first wave of skyjackings, the unjustly forgotten humor columnist Arthur Hoppe wrote a much more entertaining piece based on the same premise. Hoppe proposed a Jaybird Airlines, in which not only would all passengers board the plane naked as a jaybird, but the male passengers would be assigned comely Seatmates to "entertain" them whilst in-flight. (Female passengers, in Hoppe's piece, were expected to merely sit back and listen to the stewardesses (dressed in designer shoes and smartly-fashioned hats) explain the procedures for the unlikely event of a water landing.) The piece ends, of course, with a passenger attempting to take control of the plane--to prevent it from landing.

posted by clark 10:54 PM

ARCHIVES:

• Past weblog entries.
• 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995, and 1986-94 columns.
• Reviews of literature & art, nonfiction & culture criticism, movies & videos, and music & noise.
• Longer articles and essays.
• Some slightly weird little fiction pieces.
• X-Word crossword puzzles, now with on-screen solving.
• Cyber Stuff, links to cool and/or useful sites.
• A listing of many Things I Like (and a few things I hate).
• The origin and future of MISCmedia.