7.19.2008

Couple of Astronauts

Labels: ,

Communities

What is your community? Is it those around you? Those online? Your family, your friends spread around the globe?


Warren Ellis talks about message boards as his home on the internet. I realize you can make friends and groups there, draw information, seek out your answers with some help. Global Frequency comes to life. A loose collection of associates who can help you solve and take down an problem. Coordinated team running through multiple strains of data and programs to take a down problem each bringing his or her skill and mindset to the situation.

How to make this work in an emergency? During 9.11 groups helped out by spreading info and news about what, where, and who. Most of it was just information though.Katrina the same thing. Only coordination started to become something along with a ground response. Who needs what and where. Still it was on a smaller family/friends scale than anything as I remember it.

Global Guerilla's talks about it as Resilient Community:

Local is the only choice. The ability of the global system to dampen instability and prevent failure is nearing zero. We have neither the organizational frameworks necessary for global governance nor the precise tools of global policy required (even IF we were smart enough to manage something this complex). Any chance of real global change must start at the ground level by correcting the true sources of the problem and spread virally. Resilient communities eliminate nearly all of the drivers towards global instability and mitigate the effects of instability already in the system. It's self-reinforcing.


But what is local anymore? I go outside I barely know my neighbors much less trust most of them to be able to help in a crisis. Clean up they are great at. But how many have go bags at the ready to deal with a situation (priority one when I go back to work is getting my fast action gear ready and up to date).

So who is local? Who is it I can trust? Family/friends are spread out around the globe. They will do what they can, but some will have to go to work on their own jobs when a crisis arises.

Outquistion is what BoingBoing and Worldchanging are talking about. Teams going around after a disaster and helping out. Bringing in DIY and helping to make things better and more self reliant than before. Hippie Global Frequency is what I call it. But it is a thought process. Maybe idealistic, but it is there. Bring in new skills and new projects and new ways in the wake of devastation. Make it better, stronger, faster than it was before.

Damn it. There is something there in the brain which just isn't connecting. A story, a thought piece. Trying to put it all together. Hope you enjoyed this raw piece. Had to get it out.

Labels:

7.18.2008

Future Conversations - Heat

Was talking with Handa about wanting to see Heat and this future conversation with Sean Patrick came to mind:

"Son, have nothing in your life you can't walk out on in 30 seconds or less if you spot the heat coming around the corner."

"Yes daddy. And if I see them coming, brother, they are going down."

"Good boy."

Really, I love Heat. It makes my top ten list (The Thomas Crown Affair, Heat, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Citizen Kane, James Bond Films, Wizard of Oz, Stagecoach, Smokey and the Bandit, Star Wars). So I know at some point I am going to sit Sippy down and make him watch it. But really, you know this is going to cause problems? Especially since a lot of the movies I like are pretty bleak heist or spy films. What happens when the kid is at Jesuit telling some upperclassman that if he doesn't quit his yapping he is going to walk over there and snap his neck. Or when he is outnumbered he hits the girl "because you know you are going to get your ass kicked, but they have to live with the girl."

I forsee some problems on the horizon. I see a creation unwilling to get close to anyone and who has a very amoral compass. Ah, I love creating new things.

"Do you know him sir?"
"Know him? I created him."

Labels:

Jimmy McNulty's Wake

Labels: ,

7.17.2008

Best CIA Book

7.15.2008

Books in 2008

In the Blink of an Eye
In Harm's Way
Callaghen
One Fearful Yellow Eye
Pale Grey for the Guilt
Little Brother

Labels:

7.14.2008

NOLA ONLINE

Little Brother Wallpaper

7.13.2008

Little Brother: Instructables

7.11.2008

Lisa Natoli's Performance

7.10.2008

David Simon's Treme Pilot

Wow. Very excited. Probably more excited for this than I was for the Bad Lieutenant remake here:

HBO sets drama series in Treme with focus on city's musicians

Posted by Dave Walker, Television writer, The Times-Picayune July 10, 2008 2:00AM

HOLLYWOOD -- In a move that could boost the city's psyche and pump millions into its economy, cable giant HBO is developing a new TV drama to be set in the New Orleans music community.

"Treme," named after the iconic New Orleans neighborhood where many musicians live, will marry one of television's most prestigious networks with creator David Simon, one of television's hottest series masterminds.

Simon created HBO's the "The Wire," which just completed a five-year run. While not a huge ratings success for the network, "The Wire" was one of the most critically acclaimed shows in television history.

Simon confirmed that HBO will film the first episode of "Treme," possibly sometime later this year. If HBO gives the green light for more episodes, production would resume in 2009.

Simon, a frequent visitor to the city and a longtime New Orleans music fan, said this week that the stories told in "Treme" would reach beyond the music scene to explore political corruption, the public housing controversy, the crippled criminal-justice system, clashes between police and Mardi Gras Indians, and the struggle to regain the tourism industry after the storm.

"It's basically a post-Katrina history of the city. It will be rooted in events that everybody knows," Simon said. "What it's not going to be is a happy stroll through David Simon's record collection. It should not be a tourism slide show. If we do it right, it (will be) about why New Orleans matters."

Simon is also co-writer and co-executive producer of "Generation Kill," an HBO miniseries adapted from an account by a magazine reporter embedded with Marines during the invasion of Iraq, due to debut Sunday at 8 p.m. The seven-part miniseries is generating positive critical buzz.

Approval of the pilot episode of "Treme" does not guarantee that it will launch as a series. But HBO doesn't create pilots of as many scripts as broadcast networks traditionally do. That, combined with Simon's pedigree, makes the chances of "Treme" going to full series status comparatively high. The show, like the pilot, would be filmed in New Orleans.

Simon also filmed "The Wire" on location in his hometown of Baltimore. "The Wire" was an unflinching fictional portrayal of crime, urban decay and civic dysfunction, informed in part by Simon's former life as a newspaper crime reporter for The Baltimore Sun.

The "Treme" pilot is expected to be announced publicly today in Hollywood during the Television Critics Association summer TV tour, where Simon today also will promote Sunday's "Generation Kill" premiere.

Hosting a TV series is considered a bonanza for the local film-and-TV production community. Though a critical and ratings dud, "K-Ville," the Fox cop drama that shot 11 episodes in the city in 2007, pumped an estimated $1 million per episode in cast and crew salaries and production expenditures into the local economy.

Local production recently wrapped on the first season of the upcoming Disney Channel series "Imagination Movers," said Jennifer Day, director of the city's office of film and video, so news of a possible new series to be filmed locally would further boost the area's film-and-TV production scene.

Day has read the "Treme" pilot script and said it's less "sensationalized" than "K-Ville."

"It's a lot more realistic," she said, adding that New Orleanians "will see themselves more in the characters than they did in 'K-Ville.'

"I loved it. It's a very emotional, character-driven storyline."

"Treme" is not the first time HBO has backed a post-storm project in New Orleans. The network backed filmmaker Spike Lee in the development of Lee's award-winning Katrina documentary, "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts."

Dave Walker can be reached at dwalker@timesicayune.com or 504.826.3429.

Labels: ,

7.08.2008

Kubrick Files

7.07.2008

NEW ORLEANS - HOMICIDE MYSTERY THING

Something which has been in my head for a few days now bouncing around. A mystery/homicide show set in New Orleans. Comes out of wanting a good mystery, probably more influenced by the shows on Mystery on PBS than anything else:

CUT TO:

THE LEAD

So, let’s go over some things.

PARTNER

Ok. What?

THE LEAD

You know you are lucky to be here, right?

PARTNER

Why, cause I am black?

THE LEAD

I am sorry? Did you get stupid between the walk between in there and the car? Is that it?

PARTNER

Look man. Its cool. I am used to it.

THE LEAD

Go back in there and get the guy I brought on. Please. Can you get him out here.

PARTNER

Alright.

THE LEAD

So, here is the thing. You are lucky you are here. I picked you. I brought you in. You have a double in Psych and Sociology. You’re doing night class law school. These are things I need. Plus you went to St. Aug. I can handle that.

PARTNER

Good to know.

THE LEAD

You are lucky because you are young and you are here and you get to help. So here is the deal. I am the lead detective on everything. I don’t care if you answer the phone first. Until I feel you are ready, I take the lead. Got it?

PARTNER

Yes.

THE LEAD

You don’t like it, you can go back in there and get one of those fat, lazy, corrupt pieces of shit who more than likely will treat you based on race.

PARTNER

So, you are going to treat me differently? Everything isn’t all white withyou?

THE LEAD

This city is 67 percent black. You think I can make things all white? Fuck that. I know this city. I understand it. And since I have been here through everything and didn’t run and didn’t rob any car dealerships, you can pretty well bet on me to stay here.

PARTNER

Sounds good. So why you bringing me up into this? Why do you want me?

THE LEAD

You made that gang murder. You worked it on your own and got it done. It showed intelligence and determination. Yes, you are black. We need black homicide cops. Sorry, race is a factor.

PARTNER

I understand, I made the case because they had to somewhat trust me.

THE LEAD

So things will not be easy for you. I will ride your ass like a cowboy at the pub.

PARTNER

Can live without that image

THE LEAD

Fine, I will be on your ass like a priest on an altar boy.

PARTNER

Too easy. I expect better.

THE LEAD

Good to know.

PARTNER

And where are we going?

THE LEAD

To work young un’. To work.

Labels:

Warren Ellis is Thinking Again

He has to lay this kind of shit on the world:

Anyway. That’s been the job of half the web, for the last several years — collating links from the other half of the web. Last year, I started getting a little itchy about this.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could stand up now and say, okay, these are the post-curation years? The world does not need another linkblog. What is required, frankly, is what we’re supposed to call “content” these days. When I were a lad, back in the age of steam, we called this “original material.” Put another way: we like it when Cory and Xeni are the copy/paste editors for the internet, but we like it better when Cory writes a book and Xeni makes an episode of BoingBoingTV.

Labels:

7.06.2008

In Bruges - Reaction

Fucking go rent it or buy it. Great fucking little movie.











Full Charlie Rose interview with Colin Farrell & Martin McDonagh
.

McDonagh talking about his plays:

Labels: ,

FBI Surveillance Techniques

Something to remember for the re-write of Twenties coming up:

FBI Surveillance Team Reveals Tricks Of The Trade

by Dina Temple-Raston

The FBI has an entire army of people whose sole job is to do surveillance. Whether they are tracking a terrorist suspect or mobster or potential spy, the secret isn't about being a master of disguise. Instead, it is all about blending in.

Turn on any cop show, and the surveillance always seems pretty straightforward. There are always a couple of guys in a van and maybe another two in a car outside some apartment building. But the truth is, real surveillance is much more subtle.

The Special Agent-in-Charge of the Special Operations Division of the FBI in New York is Todd Letcher. He says if his team is doing the job right, you won't even know they are there. "When a target comes out of the bodega with a cup of coffee, they don't see where we are, or they don't see our people," he said. "Our people look so ordinary, they just look over them."

Labels:

7.05.2008

So tonight's trace

Started with looking up some Hellboy stuff which took me to pulp heroes such as The Spider and G-8 which took me to looking for old serials on YouTube to hunting down The Shadow radio serials which took me to wondering if there was an archive on Orson Welles doing Shakespeare.

I could do links for all this, but I don't feel like that.

Also, music wise, been bouncing all over the place. Joy Division, New Order, Garbage, RZA, Roar!, now some Hauntology stuff.

And all this as a way to recharge the batteries and get things on the page(s) back on track.

Of course thinking of science heroes and Doctor Who is not helping stuff and trying to think how I would do the show or do a show inspired by it and the X-files and the version of the Fantastic Four and Iron Man (Warren Ellis' version) and how would I do this: make a show of science and scientists and explorers as heroes?

Labels:

Orson Welles Radio/MP3

The Shadow Radio Serials

As it says

Labels:

7.04.2008

Bastnagel BBQ Sauce

The family recipe:

1 1/2 cup vinegar
1 cup brown sugar, packed
4 TBSP Worcestershire sauce
2 TBSP Mustard
2 cloves garlic, chopped fine
2 med. Onions, chopped
4 cans (8 oz.) tomato sauce
1 tsp. Celery salt
2 TBSP Chili Powder

In heavy saucepan, sauté garlic and onion until transparent. Add remaining ingredients. Bring to boil; and then simmer until ready, at least one hour; but it does better if you let it simmer for 2 or 3 hours.

Labels:

Guerilla Gardening

I find something very interesting about this story:

Guerrilla gardeners dig in to beautify Los Angeles


By LAURA E. DAVIS, Associated Press Writer

LOS ANGELES - More than a dozen people, some wearing orange protective gear, pulled rakes and shovels from a dingy shopping cart and started working on a parched patch of land along a busy off-ramp of the Hollywood Freeway.
ADVERTISEMENT

It was a Saturday night and drivers whooshed past on their way to the Sunset Strip club scene.

But the crew was undeterred, and by the wee hours, they had transformed the blight into bloom with green bushes and an array of colorful flowers.

City workers on overtime? Nope, no budget for that. These were "guerrilla gardeners," a global movement of the grass-roots variety where people seek to beautify empty or overgrown public space, usually under the cover of darkness and without the permission of municipal officials.

"What we're fighting is neglect," said guerrilla gardening guru Richard Reynolds of London, founder of the Web site guerillagardening.org.

Labels:

Citizen Kubrick

7.03.2008

Portishead - To Kill A Dead Man

Labels: ,

7.02.2008

New Links - Intelligence

New section added under links: Intelligence. This is probably going to grow, as I check out more and find the ones I like and give me information. I will be sifting through this to find more.



The ones listed I have already used/stolen for research with Corruption/Care Forgot. After I finish that and Twenties I think Spooks will be next and it will be drawing heavily on blogs for up to date info.

Look at the US Intelligence Community. And that doesn't include the DEA which does a lot of work overseas or the ATF or Secret Service or any of the other US law enforcement agencies.



Spooks I am looking at as a series in the tradition of The Sandbaggers, Queen & Country, John Le Carre (the British do spies and mysteries so well). Also inspired by shows The Shield and The Wire.



Labels:

Hellboy II Viral

Hellboy on Inside the Actor's Studio:







Hellboy and Chuck from NBC:



Hellboy PSA:



Hellboy and American Gladiators:



Hellboy and Something else:

Labels: ,

7.01.2008

Social Networking in Post-Katrina New Orleans

Found through Digg:

How social networking saved New Orleans

Powered by community, New Orleans residents exposed city hall and the power of social software

By John Fontana , Network World , 06/27/2008

If there is any doubt to the power of social media, social networking and social software, then nonbelievers may need to Think New Orleans.

In a powerful presentation on the marriage of software tools and crowds of people in desperate need of organization around a cause, Alan Gutierrez of the nonprofit group Think New Orleans detailed an inspiring post-Hurricane Katrina story of how a crash course in social networking helped people emerge from the rubble; find their voice; fight the government; solicit help; and save their neighborhoods, schools and each other.

At the annual Burton Group conference, Gutierrez, a self-described underemployed programmer looking to lend his considerable talent to nonprofit causes, told a story he entitled “Innovating Your Way Out of Total System Failure” to highlight how residents in a handful of the hardest-hit neighborhoods used ingenuity, creativity, digital cameras, Flickr, WordPress, Google Maps and Yahoo Groups to bend rebuilding efforts to the will of the people and away from the wrecking balls swung by city government.

"We had to find a way to divide and conquer," Gutierrez says. "Citizens became our knowledge workers. We were able to collect experts and to use their viewpoint as a home owner to help do the job that the government was supposed to do. People reached out to these tools because they were compelled to."

Labels: ,

OAR - Black Rock Lyrics

The black rock is where I spend my time
Writing a memory or writing a rhyme
Thinking about what is right or wrong

On the black rock is where I like to go
After a long night coming home from a show
And that's where I write my song, all day long, the black rock

Sometimes I just look around to take in the feeling coming out from the ground
But that's just something I do sometimes
And then I just step out the door to take in the wind coming off of the shore
And that's just what I'm doing tonight

The black rock is where I spend my time
Writing a memory or writing a rhyme
Thinking about what is right or wrong

On the black rock is where I like to go
After a long night coming home from a show
And that's where I write my song, all day long, the black rock

And when you are on your own, not speaking out is like fighting alone
And that is the worst damn way to fight
And when you are scared no more, reach your hand out and just open the door
And that's just what I'm doing tonight

The black rock is where I spend my time
Writing a memory or writing a rhyme
Thinking about what is right or wrong

On the black rock is where I like to go
After a long night coming home from a show
And that's where I write my song, all day long, the black rock

Labels:

BOOKS IN 2008

In the Blink of an Eye
In Harm's Way
Callaghen
One Fearful Yellow Eye
Pale Grey for the Guilt

Labels:

So what am i doing?

Well, lots of free time. Hitting the pool of course. The odd movie. Books, magazines, lots of online time spent reading.

And lots of research and writing. Corruption/Care Forgot is coming along nicely. Not sure if it is the down times, the red bull, or the time to read: but lots of pages are being written; a lot is being added and figured out. Who knows, I might even get around to a soundtrack eventually for it.

Twenties is up next on the block. Already seeing the changes and additions. Still gonna have that Snatch/Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels feel; but it is also going to reflect someone a little sharper and more in tune with things in the world. And yeah, the soundtrack will get some modifications as well.

That is what my time is like. And sleep is highly overrated.

Labels: