connecting*the*dots

The New York Times pens a well-written article about the life of Steve Gilliard.

Mathew Ingram: […] “In other words, the Internet is a reflection of humanity in all of its variety, both good and bad, and ultimately we find in it whatever we are looking for. Keen looks for the cheap and crass and useless, and he finds it. It’s too bad he isn’t helping us find the good stuff.”

If anyone sees me wearing one of these SMS enabled shirts, I hereby grant you permission to kick me in the grill.

So I’ve been working off of Angela’s iBook G4 and a backup drive for the past week, ever since I turned in my Powerbook G4 to the Apple Store in Knoxville, TN to replace a fried DC/Input Sound Board. Well, I just got off the phone with Apple — the part is on back order and they may not receive it for months. So before I got heated, they go ahead and offer me a new MacBook Pro instead. I paused for a few seconds and asked for the catch. Tom, the manager, chuckled and said there is none. Wow. Thank you, Apple. What a nice way to start a vacation.

My eye is starting to twitch… again.

Nick Gonzalez: […] “EMI Music just announced they have reached terms with Google’s YouTube both to distribute music videos from EMI artists on YouTube and to enable consumers to leverage the EMI music library in their own YouTube video creations.” […]

Dr. Walter Greason: […] “Hip hop – the only social force to create an equitable, participatory, democratic, and global system of politics and economics over the last three decades – will vanish into history under a fascist backlash, consume the soul of our generation with consumerism, or evolve to inspire greater intelligence, creativity, and faith among ourselves, our children, and our grandchildren. The crossroads we face is no less than the choice about the direction of our species and our planet. This essay hopes to open a conversation about the tools of culture hip hop may provide for our uplift and empowerment.” […]

Derek Powazek: […] “Here’s where the whole “not lyingâ€? thing comes in. I just could not agree to this new story. It didn’t, and still doesn’t, make any business sense to me. Good publishing companies embrace their founding editors and community, not erase them.” […]

jay: oh, so both sympathy and blockages. gotcha. i had forgotten about the teletubbies thing. and i had no idea that the antichrist was already alive and had taken the form of a male jew. what i find really sad is that it took jerry falwell’s death for me to learn that he sounded a lot like borat.

In a nutshell: Why I despise Microsoft and CEO Steve Ballmer.

John Perry Barlow: “Governments of the Industrial World, you weary giants of flesh and steel, I come from Cyberspace, the new home of Mind. On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone. You are not welcome among us. You have no sovereignty where we gather.” […]

My Sony Cybershot DSC-S85 circa 2002 still works like a charm, but I’m looking for an upgrade along a few lines — better mega pixel resolution (my Sony tops out @ 4.1), solid zoom lens, streamlined design (I don’t want to lug around a large camera anymore), high quality video capture (if possible in low light) and any other top-notch features for a 2007 digital camera. I want to be able to pull it out of my pocket at a show or a party and take high quality pictures/video. Did I mention that my price range is ~$350? Any ideas?

Wild conjecture is just that, but If Disney builds out downtown Greensboro into a freakier version of Celebration, Florida, I’m outta here like last year.

Seven months ago, when David Weinberger told me that I already “got” his latest book, Everything is Miscellaneous, I immediately walked outside and sat patiently by my mailbox, waiting for its arrival. Hours turned into days, days into weeks, weeks into months and still, no book. I’ve long since given up hope for a freebie since those bitter days of Winter — my ordered copy is bound to arrive either today or tomorrow. Even though resentment is firmly nested in my soul like the frostbite that took root in my toes as I sat patiently on my front porch for a full-season (ok, there, that’s why I missed SXSW), I do plan on being the bigger man and forgive David’s reneging ways. I’m also still looking forward to breaking down his text into a manageable number of granular nodes and information objects and re-arranging the digested bits into a knowledgeable review by the end of the week.

Oh, and you’ll “get” this review, David. You can be sure of it. ;)

Molly reminds us that Mr. Rogers invited Hip Hop into his neighborhood way back — when biting was still considered creative sacrilege, long before the commodification of misogynistic, bling (c)rap hit its zenith of popularity.

Well, my Twitter setup is finally optimized to the nth degree. I’ve now installed the TwitBin Firefox extension and I’m getting Tweets from friends as I work in my browser. It’s much better than subscribing to the RSS feed and eons better than Twitterific (sorry, Anthony, but the damn chirping started driving me bonkers).

NYOIL: […] “[W]hen we speak about hip hop it is less a culture we are speaking about in some instances but a time span that we have had the opportunity to live in. Even if you never tried to break dance or write graffiti you and your life and the people around you have been greatly influence by this music and culture.. it has shaped your means of communication, your fashion, and in some cases your very values systems.” […]

Manny’s spot has the De La Hoya - Mayweather fight tonight. Come on down!

Pigs are gliding over middle-America and the Devil has frostbite. CNN has decided to work the interests of all Americans into their bottom line by releasing all rights to the video of the Presidential debates they host in the beginning of June. Talk about forward-thinking marketing; I probably would’ve watched the debates anyway, but now I’m thinking about creative ways to mashup the output. Andy?

Davey D: […] “While I agree that artists should be responsible for what they say, I also believe music industry executives need to be held accountable for what they promote and play. There are dozens of Snoop Dogg wannabes in every community. There’s only one Sumner Redstone, whose Viacom is home to VH1, MTV and BET, which reach millions of people daily.” […]

Google vs. Viacom: Nothing at stake here. Well, except for the business model of every user-generated video community site moving forward. It’s about time someone stood up to and challenged the manner that DMCA notices are served to “protect” copyright. My personal take is that if you create the content, then you should have to make the case of copyright infringement for each instance the content is used. Otherwise, what the hell is the use of the fair use doctrine in the information age? Middle ground needs to be found.

This is by far my favorite time of year. It’s when boys become men and men are exposed as having hairless scrotums. Speaking of bare nads, Dirk Nowitzki is proving to be a big game stiff, as he’s all but disappeared in this Golden State series. It’s not over yet, but it looks like DWade was right to question his leadership skills. The look on Nowitzki’s face prior to tip-off last night was a pure mixture of nerves and fear. My money is on him hitting the bottle way sooner than last year. Also, I have to say out loud that my New Jersey Nets squad looks pretty damn good, even without their starting center, Nenad Krystic. Why? Two reasons: 1) Because the anorexic Predator, Mikki Moore, has turned out to be a pretty decent player and is serving as a great compliment to The Big Three. Who knew? and 2) Bostjan Nachbar is the real deal and the reason they’re playing Toronto in the first round and not Detroit. He’s earned his 30 minutes per next year.

After discovering LAFCO the other day, I happened upon a handful of Tao Ruspoli’s shorts — inspiring work to say the least. So much so that his New York Skyline short inspired me to go back five years in my archives and embed it into a poem I wrote about my former hometown (and a good friend) called love letter.

Ashleigh Banfield: […] “As a journalist I’m often ostracized just for saying these messages, just for going on television and saying, “Here’s what the leaders of Hezbullah are telling me and here’s what the Lebanese are telling me and here’s what the Syrians have said about Hezbullah. Here’s what they have to say about the Golan Heights.” Like it or lump it, don’t shoot the messenger, but invariably the messenger gets shot.” […]

My man, Clement Mallory (A.K.A. Universal Mathematics) is hosting a spoken word poetry slam, this Friday night, from 7:30 - 9pm at the Greensboro Historical Museum. Come on down and be moved, schooled and entertained… for free!!

David Hoggard: […] “I am convinced that the discipline disparities showing up in school have a lot more to do with wealth than race. I am just as convinced that, on the whole, black parents want their children to be just as successful as any other student. But the difficult-to-tackle reality is that there are many more poor black families in our community than other ethnicities. Until that changes, progress on improving overall school behavior will be difficult.” […]

[…] “I have this suggestion: the soldiers should demand to be returned home, using any means necessary to make this happen,” Boots blogs. “This would lead to a swift end to this war, saving countless lives, both U.S. and Iraqi… Congress hasn’t done more than give lip service to wanting the war to end. The people that are directly affected by this war are going to have to act.” […]

The Duke Lax guys were picked up, proven to not have raped their accuser before hitting trial and the charges were dropped. Some people are calling for apologies, others are calling for them to sue to get their good names back. My take is why don’t we all save our righteous indignation for some other folk currently going through the hell of our justice system? Maybe for someone like Genarlow Wilson, who’s already serving a mandatory 10 years, with no parole and labeled a sexual predator for the rest of his life for consensually receiving oral sex from a girl that was only two years younger than himself at 17. A “Romeo and Juliet” law is in effect in some states for this form of consensual statutory offense when Genarlow was convicted, but Georgia didn’t update their books until last year with a misdemeanor offense. Now a retroactive measure is having a tough time getting passed. What say you?

Andy ran a great interview with Adam Zucker, whose film Greensboro: Closer to the Truth premiered in Greensboro the other night. It’s an interesting conversation, particularly when they talk about the obfuscating attitude of city leaders regarding 11/3 in order to promote the city to outside businesses in recruitment efforts. You know, because CEOs considering relocation of their multi-million dollar businesses love communities in denial…

Cara Michele Forrest: […] “Rankin assured me that there would be “a strong police presenceâ€? for this weekend’s events. Rankin didn’t discuss the team’s plans, nor would I expect him to do so.” […]

Come on down! A little truth never hurt anyone.

Jay is working on a realistic plan for state-wide Universal health care insurance. If you’d like to add your thoughts, he’s looking for feedback.

Joel Landau, the manager of Deep Roots Market on Spring Garden, is considering a new location for their co-op. Being a resident of downtown Greensboro with zero local markets to speak of, I’m doing my best to pitch this area as a smart move. If you live in the area and feel the same, please email Joel now as they’re in the middle of deliberations as we speak.

David Weinberger: […] “As for encouraging civility: Absolutely. I like civility. Truly. I encourage it on this blog’s comment pages, and I even try to model it on occasion. But I also like a good fart and a high five now and then.”

I’ve submitted The People, Yes to NetSquared’s Technology Innovation Fund competition. There are a bunch of really interesting projects over there for you to check out, but make sure to provide feedback on TPY as you browse about. Also, if you could spread the word — by phone, email, blog, Emergency Broadcast System, etc. — I’d greatly appreciate it. Voting opens up on Monday, and if we place, we’ll end up with some seriously needed resources and cash. And then things will get interesting around here.