BLOODY FINGER MAIL! This is an awesome Halloween fun thing.

JASON AND MEG FILES: The blogosphere's royal couple says goodbye to San Fran and hello to NYC, via a Paris getaway. Nice. Check this stuff out: the forthcoming Charlie Kaufman movie Adaptation -- this could be amazing. "Behind the Scenes of The Minority Report Trailer" is hilarious. Same for Letters to Wendys. Holy geez, and the Comedian trailer! Finally, someone has fun with the "In a World..." trailer voice man. [thanks Chuck T]

HAPPY DIA DE LOS MUERTOS
To the Aztecs, life was a dream and only in death did they become truly awake. So wear a wicked skull mask and dance for Paul Wellstone, Jam Master Jay (of Run-DMC), actor Richard Harris whom my mom saw on stage long ago in "Camelot", and my funny high school chum Jason Paquette, who died recently and unexpectedly. For Jason's last job he filled out a questionairre, answering the question "How did you hear about us?" with "from an angel, in a dream." My memories of him include getting yelled at from cracking each other up in 10th grade health class, his light blue Galaxie 500, watching Monty Python, and trying to learn hot guitar lixx from him. He was so far beyond. He could play Boston guitar solos note-for-note. Speaking of Boston...

80's ROCK IS DEAD (LONG LIVE 80'S ROCK)
Holy crap, I saw an ad on the teevee for a new BOSTON album called Corporate America. A new Boston album! A self-described "in your face" indictment of big business and what it is doing to our world. You'll be comforted to know that the music is still way overproduced and the political content has all the impact of Mike + the Mechanics "Silent Running." In other words — don't change a thing! It turns out all the big 80's rockers have 2002 albums, even the little king himself: Phil Collins. Testify. I'll be damned if one of his new songs doesn't sound like "Take Me Home (Redux)". Amazon doesn't have any samples, but Limewire does -- here's a tasty sample. Def Leppard's "X"? Same. Poison's "Hollyweird"? Same! Poison even does a party rock version of The Who's "Squeeze Box." Wonderful. Bon Jovi, Rush, Robert Plant — what year is this again? Who cares. Let's rock. As soon as this Family Ties is over.

P.S. - I liked this 80's revelation so much I made it my premiere Metafilter post. Please, please let me not be flamed...

CARRY IT FORWARD
I watched Wellstone's Memorial Service from start to finish, and I got choked up at least a dozen times. From the commercial news station's awkward commentary on who was filing in ("There's Paul Simon, in the bow tie. That's what he's known for, his bow tie.") to the moving remembrances from family members. The memorial turned into a campaign rally during Wellstone friend and campaign treasurer Rick Kahn's impassioned but eventually inappropriate speech begging Republicans to help win the election for Wellstone (video article) - at which point the Venturas left, shaking their heads. The highlight was undoubtedly Iowa Sen. Tom Larkin's heartfelt and rousing speech, where he took off his coat and channeled Paul, pounding his fists and shouting, "For Paul Wellstone, will ya stand up and keep fighting, for social and economic justice - say YES!" (video) Everyone get on the green bus! But who is that driving the bus... is that... Fritz Mondale?

It's hard to be real enthusiastic about Walter Mondale. Mondale, like Roger Moe, defies enthusiasm. His stiffness in previous campaigns earned him the nickname "Norweigan Wood." (tee-hee!) Few people have the fire in their belly that Paul Wellstone had. There probably isn't anyone alive that can fill Wellstone's shoes. We'll be lucky if we ever see a grassroots populist with Wellstone's integrity and passion elected to such a high office. There's always Ray Tricomo, the Green candidate. He's probably closer to the spirit of Wellstone's green bus than Mondale, who has served on corporate boards and supports free trade agreements. I'm normally pretty green in the voting booth (both politically and because I'm made physically ill) but I don't want Norm Coleman to win. And I'm afraid of Ray Tricomo's scary sunglasses.

Wellstone's Memorial Service (3+ hours, from TPT)

A SMALL TRIBUTE TO PAUL WELLSTONE
Saturday was International Protest Day. There was an anti-war rally at the Capitol. Unfortunately we got there just as it was wrapping up, but it was energizing to see people coming together to oppose the war. People drummed and danced and laughed. Finally got a "No War in Iraq" bumper sticker. Didn't buy a copy of The Militant. Yes, this was familiar and nostalgic territory for me. This loud energy turned suddenly quiet and soft when we saw the memorial to Paul Wellstone. I don't know why it was so unexpected, but it was and we were sobered and moved. I brought my video camera. The footage isn't too good but I did the best with what I had.

Here is my small tribute to Paul Wellstone. (Quicktime, 3.5 MB, 85 seconds)

LIFE GOES ON, CYBERPUNK STYLE
In spite of being depressed about Wellstone's death, I had an absolutely splendiferous time at Nora Paul's dinner party for Experience Design guru Nathan Shedroff. What a fine and lovely crowd of geek culture-types. Naturally blogging was a conversation topic. I met the owner of Fimoculous - a most excellent (local) blog with many items I intend to follow up on. Nathan was a super cool guy, very down with the blogumentary concept and had some good ideas for me.

PLEASE DON'T DESCRIBE THE REST OF YOUR WEEKEND, DUMBASS I hooked my mom and myself up with Mac OS X "Jaguar" upgrade -- so far it's great. I hope to have mom blogging soon. Lori and I went to a Halloween party dressed as cyberpunks. I must dye my hair black and spike it all the time. We were deft consumers this weekend. Winter wardrobe enhancements and lots of nu musik, including new Thievery Corporation, gusgus, E.S.T., 12 Rods, Flaming Lips (1989-1991), Kings of Convenience, Blip Hop, and who knows what else. Current fave: the Swedish ambient jazz sounds of E.S.T. We also saw Bowling for Columbine. The few issues I have with it pale to the fact that Michael Moore is a vital force, fucking with the systems of power we have become acquiescent to in this country.

Sen. Wellstone Dies in Plane Crash
This is so shocking and sad. Here is my comment from the MetaFilter thread:

I work on a public TV public affairs show in the Twin Cities, and Wellstone used to stop by the bar where the crew hung out after the show and have a few laughs. He was an upstanding guy, one of the very few people in politics that I've been really really excited about on a gut level. This is a sad day.

You can watch a crappy low-bandwidth version of Wellstone's legendary "Where's Rudy?" campaign commercial here.

A NIGHT OF EGGHEADED BAFOONERY

Oh! It was McSweeny's vs. They Might Be Giants (here's a review) and I think TMBG won. But part of the equation is missing. If I were to make it a math equation, it would be TRACHTENBURG SLIDESHOW PLAYERS vs. (McSweeny's vs. TMBG) = Hooray for post-whatever, this is fun! Plus pi! The Trachtenburg's are a real live family with a kick-ass 8 year old drummer named Rachel. Space Waitress talked to her and found out she's been drumming for 2 years. They create a quirky pop song narrative to accompany odd estate sale photos they've found. Found-art slide show rock. For the big finale, they played a 6-part rock opera spawned from a 1978 McDonald's corporate report in which various vinyl-collared execs explain why they need more weight. Which I think has something to do with advertising. The important thing is it all rhymes and all ya need is a good idea and some spunkajazzmo to be an awesome band. Spunkajazzmo.

Who am I kidding though, TMBG were the real highlight of the night. The first (and until now, last) time I saw them was with my TMBG scholar amigo Andy at First Avenue in 1990. Why oh why haven't I seen every show since, when they are the Way and the Light? Oh... let's not forget this was a night of literature. Dave Eggers won me over with a passage from his new book, You Shall Know Our Velocity. It was about two friends driving through Estonia, listening to a bad 80's station and reminiscing about their Champagne Snowball junior high dances. He's no David Sedaris on the mic — who is, really? — but baby he's got the goods. There was also a fellow, whose name I forget, reading his comics while simultaneously showing the comics on a slide. THIS IS A VERY BAD IDEA. I liked him, and I liked his comics, but having them read to us while we are reading along on a screen is a pretty pointless act I'm afraid. There was also a hobo fellow and probably more I'm forgetting. The important thing is to pickup your phone and call Dial-A-Song at 718 387-6962, or just go to dialasong.com. Good day gentlemen.

FANATICAL APATHY: FELBERLICIOUS
Like I was saying, y'all are sending toooo many awesome blogs my way. Case in point, writer/comedian/radio guy Adam Felbers is making me quack with laughter. Shhhhhh.... listen now. Listen. Shhh.

(small fart sound)

See? He ran for President of Iraq and is launching himself into space to get rich (Internal motto: "Achieve the Excellent, Reward the Stars"). Simply wonderful. Helpful Fantasia cartoons really cleared up this whole Middle East thing for me. Oh, I also learned of Saddam Hussein's election theme song: Whitney Houston's I Will Always Love You. It's true. [thanks to his comedienne sis for the linko to the izzay.]

WORD OF THE DAY: Sesquipedalian.

SOMETHING IN THE WATER IN ATLANTA
Being featured on Blogger.com has brought a lot of interesting folks my way, and I’m still digesting it all. A peculiarly inspiring find is one JS Associate: Applied Poetics who puts on an event called INFO DEMO wherein people present and lecture, and drink and cry and perhaps win prizes. A past event included an audio montage from RadIoRocKstArs.com - a site with cool audio interviews and awesome mixtapes with titles like “The Unkempt Sadness of Yves Tanguy”. Then there’s Pop Transit - simply a collection of stuff for and by people like us. For example, I found a lovely short film set to music by The Clientele and a Nerve.com article about how XXX porn is the new heroin.

Anyway, I’m very inspired by the live presentation idea and wonder if we might replicate something here in Minneapolis. Howard & Chauncey Present? I'd like the first theme to concern food. Especially the recent disturbing trend of extreme food. I reached into a bag of BlowPops at work and pulled out Extreme Lemonade. How far will this trend go? Extreme meatloaf, anyone?

LEFTOVERS TASTE BETTER
Ordinary Boy: "my name is alex and i'm manic depressive. who the fuck are you?"
Manties, panties for men. When you want to feel special and naughty.
And even better, what's the weirdest thing you ever ate as a kid?

HELLO BLOGOSPHERE. IT'S ME, MARGARET.
Well, my name isn't really Margaret, but I need your help. You see, I'm doing this documentary on the blog phenomenon. You might say that's like dancing about architecture, but I'm convinced that blogging is revolutionary and the story needs to be told. But, whose story should be told? Let's face it, it's a vast wasteland out there. There are lots of, you know, so-so blogs - but what stands out? I'm trying to find the most compelling people with the most compelling blogs, be they representative or super gonzo wacko. Leave me your comments and URLs and make your case.

WEIRD SEX BLOGS: Whilst looking for True Porn Clerk Stories I ran across The Exiled Existentialist, a self-described "submissive painslut." Very apropos after seeing Secretary this weekend. Maggie Gyllenhaal, yum! Also Trials of Chastity: "I am a 22 year old male virgin in America." Good luck, dude.

GOV. VENTURA MAY RESIGN EARLY to give Minnesota its first woman governor. I actually thought this was a fine gesture at first, but quickly realized it's incredibly stupid. Lt. Governor Mae Schunk says, "That's not the way Minnesota should have its first woman governor. It's not honorable that way."

WHEN LIFE MOVES FAST, BLOGZ MOVE SLOW
Hola, amigos. What's up? It's been a long time since I rapped at ya, I know, but I been real busy these days. A quick review: (1) MACRO LENS HAPPY SHOWER is a selection of photos taken with a borrowed 5 megapixel Sony camera. This is on the very top of our Xmas list, I guar-un-tee. (2) Sunday I meant to go to an "aesthetics of digital video" workshop, but accidentally ended up in a music video class with Phil Harder of Harder/Fuller Films. You know, the guys who did the cool new Target ads, and GAP ads, and music videos for Matchbox 20/Incubus/Foo Fighters. You know. Anyway, I walked into this class and slowly realized it wasn't where I wanted to be, then slowly realized it WAS where I wanted to be. In this video clip (MPEG file, 1.5 meg), Phil talks about how he wanted the end of the Foo Fighters "Learn to Fly" video to be all bloody but the label nixed it. (3) I managed to see both Amon Tobin and Arcwelder on the same night. Life is good, what with the computers and the rock shows.

A NIGHT OF SUPREME EXALTATION AND IDIOCY

Tonight began with me running into the Walker Art Center and seeing "Mixtape Genius" already playing on the giant screen. The place was pretty full. There were a few chuckles here and there. Then it was time to go onstage with Melody Gilbert and take questions. Suddenly I realized wasn't alone... Grad Wombish was beside me. I don't exactly remember what we said -- something about 'we see this as a documentary piece' and 'grilled cheese sandwiches' -- but I'm pretty sure we made total idiots of ourselves. And it felt pretty fucking good. I was most embarassed for the crappy production value, painfully exaggerated by the exquisitely shot film that followed ours, but oh well. Our film had spunk and daring-do where others seemed stiff and cold. I'll take spunk over production value any day.

We ditched the DIG.IT gig halfway through for the BECK/FLAMING LIPS show. Holy... mother of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. It was like walking in on the best party ever. Ohhhhh! Balloons, and disco balls, and and, strobe lights and big puppets! And music! I was filled with the tingliest of tinglies, spurting with glee, and a little jack-n-coke didn't hurt things. It was probably during the song "Do You Realize?" that I was in fact brought to tears. I was communing with the universe and my deepest insides and Flaming Lips was the conduit. Singer Wayne Coyne says "Whenever I analyze the scientific realities of what it means to be living here on Earth - in this galaxy - spinning around the sun - flying through space - a terror shock seizes me!!! I'm reminded once again of how precarious our whole existence is..." Everyone you know, one day, will die. My friends, my family, me. It just made me glad to be alive, to have friends, that my mom is surviving cancer. Also I want to be a disco party puppet and throw confetti and totally spaz out for the rest of my life. Is that a job?

MOVE YOUR FEET TO THE SQUIRREL BEAT!
I was watching crappy videos on M2, supposedly chosen by David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar to promote the rumored Van Halen reunion tour, when the most ass-rockin video around comes on: The Hives' Hate to Say I Told You So. You know the one... all black and white and no bullshit. The guitar player freezes in the air while the other guys kick it. It was directed by Henry Moore-Selder who has also done a Komeda video. After poking around this music video database I ended up on Shynola's site where I found the new BEST THING EVER. It's an Atari soopafunk blitzkrieg of pop music and video, it's JUNIOR SENIOR and the song is MOVE YOUR FEET. I knew I was in for something good when I saw a bad computer graphics squirrel smoking and drinking to the "Cheers" theme song. Get funky here. They also have a video game with squirrels, dynamite and zombies. What's not to like?

BAD NEWS NEEDS COMFORT FOOD: It's stressful to be well-informed these days, what with the imminent war and North Korea admitting it has secret nuclear weapons. Perhaps the cause of all this strife is the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy, slowly sucking us toward cosmic disaster. Oh well, everything is better when Lori whips up a fabulous meal. Inspired by our recent delightful visit to Marimar, Lori cooked up some Copper River wild salmon on a bed of garlic mashed potatoes with lemon-spritzed green beans, squash, mushrooms and pesto. Damn. It was so good I had to take a picture. So, chin up everyone! There's a new planet on the horizon.

IT'S A MOD, MOD WORLD
Now that the leaves are turning fiery colors (it's better to burn out than to fade away, bro) and freezing-ass cold is around the corner, we Minnesotans turn our attentions inward. To that... inner world. Yes, to our apartment. Theater Antiques is having a sale + we just got paid = we're screwed. We got an awesome Danish-style lamp, super cute/tacky kitty art made from rocks, and FORUM architectural journal - my new design inspirado. Hold the phones, we also found what we hope will be our new couch. Don't go there and buy it cuz it's ours. It was custom made in 1959 for the daughter of the Brown Photo clan, and it's all orange and mod and super comfy. Alas, it's also a bit pricey so we must sell our old couch. Our old couch rules. Buy it. Free nonsensical story with or without purchase.

It turns out legendary Minneapolis drum god Dave King (Happy Apple, 12 Rods, Love Cars, etc.) is all into the midcentury furniture. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I like to hang out at GOMOD.COM - all the pop furniture porn you can handle + articles about your favorite designers.

FILM: The Komedy Koven screened Grandma's Super Elixir and our Bad Date documentary at the Low Voltage FilmFest this weekend during the St. Paul Art Crawl. It went well, people dug our stuff and we dug theirs, oh -- EXCEPT FOR ALL THE LONG BORING CRAP THAT SHOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN MADE. This is coming from me, Mr. Everyone Should Be A Mediamaker. Please, amateur filmmakers everywhere. Cut it in half. Great. Now cut it in half again. You can make your friends watch the raw footage and convince them of its greatness, but if you're going to show me more than a minute of blurry driving around on a dark road you'd better have a damn good reason. On a happier note, the winner was the incredibly funny (and more than a little Kovenesque) Gas-n-Fuel employee training video. From the fine folks at CineMagic Productions.

BLOGLAND: Ian Whitney has a list of Minnesota bloggers and I see there's an awesome new blog from Radio K alum Chris Bahn called Incoming Signals. He says he's not going to "yammer on about politics or music or my cat." Umm... nobody told me you could have a blog without doing that. Crap. Anyway, it's just a bunch of really, really groovy links. Like Leonard Nimoy's Nude Photography.

DO ONTO OTHERS BEFORE THEY DO ONTO YOU
Or as someone on Metafilter said, "An empire has been born." The House and Senate have both approved the resolution giving Bush permission to attack Iraq. For the record, both Minnesota senators voted against it. In the House, Sabo voted against it. Ramstad for it. The resolution isn't as bad as it could have been... Bush has to try other avenues of making Iraq comply before he can use force. Still, if we start dropping bombs I'll be looking for a protest. A couple of places to keep informed are the Twin Cities Independent Media Center and Students Against War.

Click on the cute mouse picture... see how many corporate logos you can find going to war! A coworker of mine found this pasted to a mailbox. Hooray for anarchists.

SYNERGY IS ALSO STILL A WORD
I had a fantastic brain candy lunch with Nora Paul. I knew we would click. It was refreshing to talk to another new media geek. We also came up with some really really cool (and for now, top secret) ideas pertaining to blogumentary, and we're going after some funding. Stay tuned. She's also playing host to Nathan Shedroff, author of Experience Design, later this month. This is the guy who, when he was creative director of vivid studios, had a great web page of creative inspirado that turned me on to the brilliant + quirky 1968 Saul Bass film "Why Man Creates" and also led me back to Charles and Ray Eames' "Powers of Ten." Perhaps I can thank him personally.

TALK AMERICAN, DAMMIT
A fellow I work with was recently on a journalistic visit to Thailand and India. In India he witnessed the new breed of international call center, where the employees are highly trained. To speak American. You may think you're talking to Nancy in Nebraska, but you're really talking to Mahithama across the globe. They even study geography and current events so they can make small talk. This planet is getting weirder every day. He went to Thailand to visit a Buddhist monastery that cares for people dying of AIDS. The economy and stigma associated with AIDS makes it difficult for AIDS sufferers to get any help. Apparently the coffins were stacked up outside the back door of the monastery. AIDS is rampant in Thailand because of drug use and prostitution. Thank Buddha for the Condom King Mechai Viravaidya, whom they interviewed. "We were able to make condoms sort of a girl's best friend," explains Mechai. "Why should you be embarrassed to buy a condom when you're not embarrassed to buy Nike shoes, which have more rubber in them? "

DIGERATI IS STILL A WORD
Doc Chameleon notified me of the Emerging Digerati series put on by Nora Paul and the Institute for New Media Studies. Got there late but saw some cool stuff, particularly Jamason Chen's 3-D video (and his democratizing views on video) and a scintillatingly creative collection of web art by Kessie Wheelock called ruinedeye. A wonderful and sometimes disturbing land of Peter Pan, dead fairies, snowflakes and vagrants awaits.

Hmm... in fact only 8 hours until I'm having lunch with Nora Paul. All my mojo went into this discussion at Space Waitress on a bit of evil perpetrated by the FDA, and whether blogs make a difference. I think I'm going to paint "blogmobile" on my car.

WE ARE ALL MADE OF STARS
I had a strange dream this morning. I was talking to a cousin of mine and we were drinking, and he made a joke about praying hands. So I made some really crude joke about God and he laughed, but then he got super pissed and dumped his drink on me. Later I was in this field, very embarrased about it. People, my family I think, were going after HUGE red frogs with their dogs. One jumped out by me and the dogs were barking. I tried to shoo the frog away because I didn't want to be discovered. A trolley came by with my mom and brothers in it and they invited me in. They were all laughing and having fun, but I was afraid they knew about my bad joke and was embarassed and ashamed.

When I awoke this got me thinking. I don't call myself a capital-C Christian, nor do most of my friends, because we associate Christianity with a lot of ideas that don't represent us. Some of my friends are atheists. I think most of us are caught in between Christianity and atheism. I think my generation is afraid to say "I believe in God." I shouldn't generalize, but I think we like talking more about religion and politics than actual spirituality. I think it's easy to go off on what's wrong with Christianity and religion, but it's hard to talk about what you actually believe and why. It's a sensitive and private little grotto. Perhaps it's not my generation so much as anyone with too much (non-religious) university education. Or curiosity about Eastern religions. Or that's been to Burning Man. Anyway, I'm still sussing it out myself.

Hmm... here's today's Recipe for God:

(1) Low record
(3) Physics equations, ripe
(1/2 teaspoon) Mel Brooks nail clippings
(19) frozen frogs
1 slice of Lori's banana bread, fresh out of the oven
some rainbows and unicorns and crap
the blog of a child

WARNING: Don't actually eat this, you'll totally puke.

TIME MARCHES ON
Happy 30th to homeboy Justin. We were on board for the first leg of an apparently all-nite karaoke/punkrock fest, details may be appearing at 52carwashes. Justin is known to have magical bargain-hunting power, acquiring rare olde-tymey musical organs and things for next to nothing. This is one of the best superpowers to have. I hope Justin is happy co-running his label and studio and makin' music and stuff. I sure would be.

FROGS MAKE ME HOPPY
Saturday we made a final visit to the ol' cabin. The dock was already out but we helped rake leaves. I haven't raked leaves in years. It was actually kinda fun. The wheelbarrow had at least 20 ladybugs on it. Did you know that ladybugs hibernate? We saw a couple northern leopard frogs in the leaf piles. Apparently they chillout on the bottom of ponds and rivers and hibernate over winter. We didn't see our tree frog friend Herman. Perhaps he found a cozy leaf pile in which he'll turn into a delicious frogsicle. About 65% of a tree frog's body fluids freeze but glucose antifreeze keeps them from completely freezing. For neat! Frozen frog technology could help preserve human organs awaiting transplant. Frozen frogs are also a nutritious treat for kids on the go.

SUPER FURRY ANIMALS rock the mufuhn' house



Good god I needed to have my ass rocked by SFA tonite, and here I am after the show... my ass is rock hard baby. There are so many reasons why SFA are the best thing on the planet, but some of them are: * the singer had a "NO WAR" button on. ** One of their videos sez "If you talk to God, you are praying. If God talks to you, you are schizophrenic." *** Another one of their videos sez ALL GOVERNMENTS ARE LIARS. **** They rock a camel's ass. They rock a donkey's dick. ***** Their singer, Gruff Rhys, sings his heart out and means it. ****** They fuse FAT chunky satisfying rock guitar with weird explosions of techno, acoustic feel-alongs, and is-this-a-movie-or-your-life videos that quite simply make it happen for me in a big, big way.

Incidentally this was at The Quest, which everyone disses but what the hell? It's a great club. If you went to The Quest in another city you'd think it was awesome. The sound and space are so so much better than the 400 bar, where I last saw SFA. Okay, there can be some attitude at Quest and that's it's main drawback. Otherwise, get over it. Esthero, St. Germain, Transglobal Underground.... all great Quest shows of the past. Coming up - Azure Ray, Sasha, The Donnas, Beth Orton. P.S. I'm kinda drunk.

Keep yours eyes open for my next class project, new opening credits I'm doing for CONAN THE MOTHERFUCKING BARBARIAN. It involves Garage Days-era Metallica. It also involves your ass getting kicked by CONAN THE MOTHERFUCKING BARBARIAN. Word on the street is KING CONAN: CROWN OF IRON is in the works, written + directed by John Milius and produced by the Wachowski Brothers (Matrix)!!!

HOLY NEON FROG BOOBIES
This is the best drug trip I've ever had. [via ThoughtViper]

If you still haven't reached nirvana, reload. relive. relove.

THINK YOU HAVE A BLOG IN YOU? THINK AGAIN
A recent New York Times article (try login: blogspotting pass: blogspotting) says 81% of Americans think they have a book in them, and that they should write it. The author says there are enough third-rate books on the heap - "keep it inside you. where it belongs." One might say the same of blogs. Or documentaries.

There's a nice quote attributed to Samuel Johnson: "There lurks, perhaps, in every human heart, a desire of distinction, which inclines every man to hope, and then to believe, that nature has given himself something peculiar to himself." Or, as my stepdad once said when he was drunk, "Everyone has a sign around his neck that says 'I want to be special." Yes, I want to express my delicious fruity Chuckness and leave my mark on the world. But if everyone foisted their, err, Chuckness on the world, wouldn't we be drowning in mediocrity?

Nu-uh, I don't buy it. (My hand is all up like, "nu-uh! no you di-unt!") True, it's easier than ever to publish your bad writing in a blog, or make a bad movie with your DV camera. But that's a GOOD thing! As with the desktop publishing revolution, those with talent and skill will persevere in time. Those without will only subject their friends and church group to their bad newsletters/writing/movies. That's why guides will be important - in a world where everyone is a mediamaker we need smart guides that know what we're looking for. Blogs are definitely one possible solution.

BLOGUMENTARY I had dinner with my friend Nikki tonite. She's a real honest-to-garsh documentary filmmaker. She gave me all kindsa info on looking for blogumentary funding and tips on writing proposals. I'm super excited knowing that this project is real, and it's going to be a long haul but I'm up for it. Right now I need to focus on research, and finding good stories and honing in on my thesis. So, dear blogosphere, if you know of any particularly unique and interesting bloggers please email me or leave a comment.

NUNS FOR PEAS, err... PEACE
Some of you may have arrived here by my email proclaiming, "The ultimate in naval gazing!" My pal Media Mike reminds me that "Chuck, Naval gazing is looking at warships. Push the belly button for navel grazing." D'oh!

Media Mike is doing a documentary with kids from Southside Family School about a group of peace activist nuns who are both sisters and... sisters. Each of them has spent some time in the slammer for civil disobedience. Right on sistaz!