September 2001 Archives
Interactive Story... I used to run this software here until one smart ass hijacked the story. Might start it up again.
Oooh, Mr Giles!
Anyone catch the interview with Bob Geldof last night on Parkinson? I'd just been reading an interview with him in Marie Claire, or whatever, gasping at his sudden bare all/tell all mood. Not sure what to think of it. Does the world need to know where he was (I don't mean physically) when his wife left him? Perhaps it's good for other men in the same situation. To know they're not alone, or something to that effect. Very Ophrah. I can't help but cringe at the revelations. Yet I'm also curiously impressed and grateful with/for his candour.
depth of field is taking an indefinite break.
The first public release of MOVABLE TYPE :: Personal Publishing System will be released on Monday, October 8.
"You know what -- that's what it's really all about. Forget story lines. Forget actors. This show has great asses.'' Buffy in a nutshell.
I could explain why I'm a big ole' Buffy addict, but I won't. It's actually too personal. I can't believe I'd say that about a TV show.
Anam Cara... tacky page, beautiful concept.
Dust to dust.. Heather's Burning Man shots.
Gav's spinning discs on RTE radio 1 and I'm listening on the web. The show hasn't even finished yet and I've already hit the '1-click' button at Amazon four times: Al Green: I'm Still in Love With You, Human League: Dare, and Shuggie Otis: Inspiration Information, Felix Da HouseCat: Kittenz and the glitz... and I almost got Suicide's first album too, but it was a bit pricey.
That man's got a lot to answer for.
If you're interested, I recorded the stream and uploaded it to an ftp server in two parts, both around 12mb. The first part is Kurt Weill music only, the second part a range of stuff from Gav's record collection: [ 1 ] , [ 2 ] .
Help. I've a voicemail message on my mobile that I wish to preserve. I tried recording it by holding a mike to the phone but the MD picks up a shitload of pulsing static from the phone. Anyone know how I get around that? @
I'm so jealous. When do we get the show?
Are You Smarter Than Miss America?... I got 5, but hey, I'm Dutch.
There's yet another LOTR trailer available.
Vidiot's Enterprise Web Pages: download ST:ENT opening and closing credits. Um... are those real??
Star Trek: Enterprise video clips.
Belgian weblogmeet planned for November 17.... not just for Belgians.
Ah, yer only a young 'un. 10 years my junior, happy birthday Jason.
Oh bloody hell just spell out the entire first epi for us.
Images from the upcoming Buffy season six premiere...
Now that health concerns are keeping me away from my job, I've got time (too much time) to think.
This is not a good thing. When this mind gets rolling, I start listening to maudlin songs, reading maudlin stories, thinking maudlin thoughts.
From the rubble of the attacks I seem to have emerged in full 'Ich Liebe Dich' mode, preparing, planning, looking forward to a week in Dublin with nothing else on my mind but: 'get to the venue, see the show, meet up with likeminded people, score a couple of pints... and then do the same thing all over again'.
It is, as I have probably mentioned before, 100% pure escapism with a touch of hedonism. A willing sybarite, I will be basking in the spotlight that's not even pointed at my own head.
I'm jonesing for the eerie hollow silence of a venue just after the sequencers quiet, just before the punters arrive. Anticipation high, a final cigarette stumped out beneath a trembling foot, the last few glimpses of the nervous artist before he turns and hides backstage. My own tummy painfully contracting in a mixture of fear and excitement.
And afterwards the joy and sheer exuberance, the speechlessness, the 15 minutes wait the artist needs to come down.
And I keep thinking: why on earth am I working in the internet business, when I so obviously prefer to be close to the stage?
And then after a while, life goes back to normal. Only it doesn't.
I keep coming back here: this is my d.n.a., hoping he's back.
Matt's writing a lot of "nothing, and lots of it" the last few days.
"How much longer?" "Until you've proven you're ready . . . to look beyond your provincial attitudes and your volatile nature." Dialogue from "Enterprise". The New York Times previews.
Spotted dick. [ was: 'Ketchup', via MF ]
The press for Gav's 'Ich Liebe Dich' starts rolling. I love it. Festival director Fergus Linehan in the Irish Times: "It is an "unsanitised" account of the world of Kurt Weill which promises to bring him "back into the gutter where he belonged" And the man himself today in the Irish Times supplement: "I'm a theatrical whore born with a spotlight on my head.". I wish I could be at the rehearsals. Alas.
Went to the hairdresser's. Said the girl: 'Enjoy your hair!'.
The Blog Twinning Project : Prolific... it keeps growing and I feel I'm in good company.
"I'm in the Palace. What? The Palace! [ ... ] THE PALACE. Yar. Yar... could you pick up some fags for me?" Her Royal Highness goes mobile.
Can't get enough: Spoiler Whore Zone
Angel series III is, of course, premiering tonight, and here's a written preview and a brand new article in the New York Times.
Bloggin' Buffy... there are a couple of Buffy blogs, but so far, I haven't come across one for the Angel series.
Surreal picture of the young Osama Bin Laden and (some of!) his siblings. [ via MF ]
Funny thing about soaps is... they never sit around watching soaps, like normal people.
... and oh, my, the new Trek series begins very soon. The official site has lots of stuff...
... and related info: Spoilers for the upcoming Star Trek movie.
Real Audio interview with Patrick Stewart. Wallow in those bass tones, baby.
If you've never seen the Buffy unaired pilot, www.Buffyweb.com has screenshots.
Picked up a second hand Canon 50mm prime for 40 bucks. Woohoo.
LC-A // don't think. Rachel's Lomo shots.
The Blog Twinning Project : Prolific. I've been twinned. So far so good.
I should have done this a week ago... but couldn't. Ich Liebe Dich promo page. Love the cute ciggie picture.
The first exquisite corpse I had a hand in is up, and I like it: I am God / tired and jaded / parkes v. parrish / that's merely a / fem fatal.
Got a proper lense for my EOS today: COSINA MF 28-105, f/2.8-3.8. This is better suited for indoor/concert photography. Cosina could do with a better website.
If you watch Room 101 on BBC you may remember Stephen Fry's brilliant rant on what now seems to be called uptalking or HRT.
{fray} hope - missing pieces... new stories added by Anil Dash, Cameron Barrett, Edward Klink and Jeffrey Zeldman.
Oh good, I'm not the only one.
I find all this spam I'm getting REPULSIVE these days. Before it was just annoying. Now it's just callous and wrong.
Light a candle: 09.11.01 - no words
Poynter.org: Color Contrast & Dimension in News Design... interesting tutorial in Flash.
Author Frank McCourt in the New York Times: ...there are a thousand broken hearts for every light on Broadway.
And there's more: Hugh Laurie Illustrated
Stephen Fry's comic half: Hugh Laurie [ via Gorjuss ]
Cumbersome Flash site to promote the HIQI Film series, 'where music meets film'... slowly. Radiohead's involved.
Terra's Canadian, living in the Netherlands. And she's reading one of my all time favourite books. Keeping an eye on her blog.
Lance sent this out on his mailing list earlier in the week. Now it's on glassdog.HOME
... any musicians out there that can tell me what 'we don't have separate monitoring' means? (or something to that effect). Tell me.
Noah Grey: depth of field - #267: American Flag (06.24.01). Look. And look again.
Current audio treat: the very smooth Talvin Singh - Traveller, off a Cafe del Mar CD. Heard this at a friend's, asked for it, then was shown pictures of Ibiza, the cafe mentioned, and other 'party' pictures. It's a world I know nothing about.
Pulp announce UK tour... Europe next, boys?
BBC have started an e-mail news service.
What Do I Know. One to remember.
Le Cadavre/Exquise/Boira/le Vin/Nouveau: a 3rd Exquisite Corpse is done. I've yet to complete my piece for EC0019, but the EC0021 is almost done.
Enterprise: trailers of the new Trek series.
The Hoopla500: I don't want to be a cowboy, Mom. I'm not even a hat person.
Thanks to the organisation at the DTF (who are probably the reason all of Dublin is booked out in the first place) I now have a room in nice looking place in Temple Bar, in Dublin, with a view of the river Liffey. Can't wait for that trip. Not too long now.
Wil Wheaton: Everyone returns my greeting, even Kate, who I don't know, at all. Never even been introduced. Everyone, that is, except WILLIAM FUCKING SHATNER! Old toupee-head won't even look at me!
Someone just did something for me, eventhough being 'up to his tits' in work. So out of character, so sweet, I wish I could plaster it all over the web, but I can't.
Hume steps down as SDLP leader. He'll be missed.
Tom's still stuck in SF while my parents only had one day delay.
... and in the meantime, a close friend who is a flight attendant, is already having to learn new, stricter, safety procedures.
If I told you what some folks down here are preoccupied with right this moment, while the rest of the world cries bitter tears, you wouldn't believe me. You honestly wouldn't.
CMT wishlist: internal message board for editors/bloggers.
Note to self: history was never your strongest subject, read this: Needed: a new age of enlightenment to find out more about the background of the 'mess'.
Someone took pictures while escaping from the WTC building.
Just a song: Rock on... freedom. Yes that's David Essex's Rock on covered by Howie B. on his new album 'Folk'. To make things confusing he's called the song 'Duet'. Vocals by Gavin Friday and Karmen Wijnberg. I find it uplifting. But then I would, wouldn't I.
Belated gratitude to Martijn for getting me this book: Yeats Is Dead! off my wishlist. It's going to keep me company in my week off work.
She seemed genuinely relieved to find that she still had an ex-husband. Author, New Yorker, Jay McInerny writes:
Brightness falls.
"Holes in the skyline,
holes in our spirit."
Nine stories of Tuesday's attack
from people who were there,
and a place to share our stories.
{ missing pieces } - new in {fray}
Art helps. Sometimes. REM streaming promo CD: no less than 6 audio tracks and 6 video with an introduction by Michael Moore.
A friend from Ireland phoned. He tells me there are 20,000 people outside the American Embassy in Dublin queueing up to sign the book of condolences. All the shops are closed. He told me he couldn't get sweets, or cigarettes or newspapers. It's all closed. It's a day of mourning and people take it seriously.
Ireland's got a very different relationship with America than we do over here in Holland. Obviously.
We spent a good while slagging off the Dutch for a laugh and I vented some frustratration. He said he'd use my words against A.C. the next time he saw him. Everything I say can and will be used against me.
Then he told me about the friends stuck in New York, safe, but desperate to get home. About so-and-so, who's a twat. About pain and how to take it like a man. Or a woman. About a Warhol on the wall. About painting and redecorating. About the backdrop that wouldn't have worked. About trust. About masks and how to wear them. About voicemail messages and crying. About strength and vulnerability. About life.
I was on my back on the couch, with the mobile pressed to my ear, smiling, laughing, indulging, teasing, loving.
God, I needed that.
Roger Ebert: Make it green.
WTF. Trying to book a hotel for a week in Dublin, October 8 - 15 - every hotel I've checked is fully booked. That can't all be for the Theatre Festival, can it?
In Utrecht Central Station, at the start of the 3 minute silence, some kid threw a fire cracker. Police went after him, lost him, but found out his name. He'll be punished for disturbance of the peace and possession of illegal fireworks.
Oh, to be young and stupid again.
I have been having serious RSI problems. They don't manifest in my arm/fingers that much, it's located in neck/head/shoulders area. I guess it's this muscle that's playing up the most at the moment. The pain radiates througout my neck and face, from the back of my head to the front of my face, around my left eye and cheek. It's a constant ache, with on going flashes. It's bad, but I'm used to migraines which are more debilitating, so I can cope and do my work.
I can make it go away (another difference with the migranes) by taking painkillers. 400mg Ibuprofen keeps me reasonably painless for 4 hours. I don't want to take them all the time though.
Any advice? I'm thinking of calling in sick next week, to give my body a rest.
Noon. 3 minutes silence in Europe.
A request was sent to one of my sites to 'do something constructive' and black out for A WEEK and put a white ribbon on it. I think providing news, links to aid organisations fits me better and seems more constructive.
Shreveport Stories: Attack on America by John Ecklund.
Reclaiming the city: NYC Weblogger Gathering.
I take the metro to work every morning. The last few days, I keep getting off at the wrong stops. I'm clearly not with it.
Muslim man's account of his day at the WTC: “Brother, if you don’t mind, there is a cloud of glass coming at us, grab my hand, lets get the hell out of here”.
Jeffrey writes: 911.
David Bowie, New York resident: The streets are empty downtown except for the few who live there, trancelike, going about their day to day lives, walking their dogs, going to work, or just walking. At some ghostly unseen signal everyone turns his or her heads, crane their necks, looking to the patch of sky where, twenty-four hours ago, the mountainous peaks of those two towers stood. The sunrise was seen earlier today. No obstruction.
I came home from work today to find a postcard from my parents. They have been travelling in the USA since early September. I cannot contact them, I don't know where they are. You'd expect them to call or send me an e-mail, just to touch base. But they're not like that.
When I was younger and still living at home they used to get angry with me for not letting them know where I was every minute of the day. If I went to a friend, and we later decided to go to a sports event, they expected me to call and tell them. I never did. I thought it was ridiculous.
Now I am older, and perhaps I feel differently.
The postcard, stamped September 4, is of Hovenweep National Monument in Utah, and it features the ruins of two towers. On the back, my dad, in his classic, neat handwriting so similar to mine, wrote:
'These towers were built by Native Americans, some 800 years ago. Everything's ok, but it's awfully hot.'
Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967)
The Dragon and the Undying
All night the flares go up; the Dragon sings
And beats upon the dark with furious wings;
And, stung to rage by his own darting fires,
Reaches with grappling coils from town to town;
He lusts to break the loveliness of spires,
And hurls their martyred music toppling down.
Yet, though the slain are homeless as the breeze,
Vocal are they, like storm-bewilder'd seas.
Their faces are the fair, unshrouded night,
And planets are their eyes, their ageless dreams.
Tenderly stooping earthward from their height,
They wander in the dusk with chanting streams,
And they are dawn-lit trees, with arms up-flung,
To hail the burning heavens they left unsung.
Have finally heard from a 3rd friend in NY I initially forgot about. So often with Net-friends I tend to forget where they're physically located. But he's ok. He was on West 168th Street when it happened. I had not realised he had had jobs in 3 of the buildings involved: "I will never forget the sights I used to see from the upper floors of the building, especially at sundown, when New York Harbor and the Statue of Liberty were bathed in a golden light. It was one of the most breath-taking sights and it made you feel at one with the city. That will stay with me forever."
My parents are still somewhere in the USA. You'd think they'd send me an e-mail just to get in touch. Nothing.
IHT's Publishinjg Parnerships: papers around the world, in pdf format.
Radio Netherlands Press Review: what the Dutch papers said.
Something else: ClandestinePrinting in the Netherlands. Presses were established in the Low Countries within 25 years of Johann Gutenberg inventing the printing press in 1450, and it wasn't long before The Netherlands was the publishing capital of Europe.
World New York... I've linked it before, but you'll find many many familiar webloggers there telling their story.
All of Europe will observe 3 minutes of silence tomorrow at Noon. {Dutch}
Photojournalist James Nachtwey's photoessay: Shattered 9/11/2001
You can now donate to the Red Cross relief fund via PayPal.
Blogger on the scene: The Fine Line
Last night, while music channels changed their regular programme, most stations covered the events in America. But some were showing that evening's football matches. I looked at the score, PSV were down 2 goals. I couldn't be arsed and wondered if anyone was watching this. Today, I find it hard to concentrate on work and the day seems like the longest ever. A friend of mine is very worried about his many mates in NY. I keep thinking of him.
Barbelith talks about 4 planes shot down?
Amazing how someone can have the steady nerves/hands to take pictures like this.
I'm a cool customer when it comes to disasters, often feel removed from things shown on TV. I must say reading people's blogs, eyewitness accounts not filtered by media, unedited, true, all brings it home. I wanted to tell my co-workers yesterday, don't watch Dutch TV. Watch CNN, watch closer to the source. Better still, read the stuff on Metafilter, read people's blogs. But there's no way I could have explained. An office full of people working on the web... and they turn to TV for their information. Strange.
Eye witness coverage and news updates at: World New York.
D. mailed to say J's safe. U2log.com editor Chris mailed to say he's okay, but can't go back to his dorm, the area is sealed off - he's writing about it on his blog. I have no idea where my parents are, travelling somewhere around Salt Lake City. I'd like them to come home.
Amazon has set up a Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. Contribute anything from $1 to $50. Amazon is waving its usual fees.
Jason writes: All this talk of America vs. the world by our politicians is making me sick and uneasy. This is a human issue, not an American, democracy, or a freedom issue. Someone attacked us all, all of us on the Good Earth.
Sweetheart, I hope all your loved ones are safe, too.
If you are in the New York area, please donate blood.
We're watching CNN at work. Some people continue working. I don't know how they do that. News on the mailing lists and Metafilter comes in faster than on CNN. I wonder if Chris is all right. Jeffrey. Those are the only people I know in NY, I think. I suppose they are, they shouldn't be anywhere near the WTC. I hope. My parents are in America, I think, not sure. West coast, they should be ok. I have no way of contacting them. I think I'll go home.
I feel sick.
2 planes crash into the WTC in New York: Metafilter users are on the scene: A plane impacted the top of one of the WTC towers at about 10 minutes to nine this morning. While everybody was still trying to figure out was was going on, a second plane flew in a straight line into the second tower and impacted it at a height a little lower than the first collision. Both buildings are clearly on fire. The USA government has apparently received no warning or claims of an attack.
Yup, that's me: Generation Jones. Don't feel a baby boomer and definitely amn't a GenX'er.
Charming: Bebe Buell: "Todd would always be fucking these nondescript road tramps," she writes, "whereas I would be fucking major icons."
U2log.com editor Chris Schmitt seen during the day job at WEB2001 Show Gallery.
First we had bookmarklets, now there are: Favelets. Nifty.
I've been wanting to say something about the kindness of people. Because it's out there. A lot. Often quiet, unnoticed, lost in the barrage of ugliness and downright nihilistic meanness of the few. It's going to look stupid, but I'll do it anyway. So to Jeffrey, Derek, John S., Tom B., Walter and Stuart a big heartfelt T.H.A.N.K. Y.O.U.
Ooh, look at the pretty MOVABLE TYPE screenshots!
I've moved afterthefloods here. Things are beginning to make sense.
I'd left the venue in Brussels with my friends in search of a bar and found one three doors down. A large room with high ceilings, bare brick walls. An old building, nicely done up. Trendy. But real.
We sat down with our Belgian friends, ordered large glasses of White Beer and talked about the show first before drifting on to other topics. The company was good, the beer tasty, but I was restless. I couldn't concentrate.
It was always a hard choice between my friends and the lure of the backstage area. This time I had decided not to try my luck. We weren't really talking anyway, had not been for a long time. No longer enemies, but not yet friends either. Politely keeping our distance. I was 31, more cautious, less trusting.
I tried to listen to the banter but something wasn't right. I felt the pull.
Twenty minutes later I could resist no longer. Excusing myself, I went back to the venue, making up a story to be let back in. A small group of people had gathered at the backstage entrance. Fans waiting to get stuff signed. They looked disappointed. I crossed the lobby and someone called: 'Are you Caroline?'
Surprised, I nodded. 'I am, yes, why?'
'He's asking for you,' the Belgian - a venue employee - said. I wondered if I'd picked up the vibe subconciously.
Bluddy hell. Belgium is brewing a new CMT too: Karma Universe :: Nucleus.