FAREWELL, NEIGHBOR
Mr. Rogers, dead at 74. "You make each day special, just by being you!" Mr. Rogers set out every day to make little boys and girls feel good about themselves. That makes him a saint in my book.

This is from an eloquent coworker of mine:

In a world filled with media images of guys who are thugs... Fred was the anti-brute. I especially loved how he was never afraid to admit he didn't know how something worked... or how he would try something he hadn't done before. He wasn't afraid to screw up. He didn't care that he looked dorky. As a producer I marveled at his ease in talking to children. They were never nervous and he never talked down to them. Equally impressive is how disarming an interviewer he was with adults on his show. One of my favorite features of his program was when he would take a tour of a workplace or factory. Fred asked the best questions and got the best answers. No one could lie to Mister Rogers. How could you when he wore that blue sweater?

It was always great over the years to hear the legion of stories from folks who had met Fred or worked with him. The theme of the stories was always the same: The Mister Rogers you saw on TV was the one you always got in real life. This morning in the CBS Radio obit Fred said: "I learned in my life that the greatest gift you can give to others is the gift of your honest self." That's his legacy. Each day millions of kids wake up to a world that is too mean and too fast and too cheap. And each day for three decades millions of kids have been treated to his show... an oasis of calm and confidence where the overall message is always "you are fine just the way you are." What a remarkable legacy.

SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL
John Perry Barlow, cofounder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and one-time close friend of Dick Cheney, has a different perspective on the motives for war. In short, he theorizes that the administration's strategy is to scare the rest of the world into a Pax Americana - to "create a world where war conducted by any country but the United States will seem simply too risky and the Great American Peace will begin. Unregulated Global Corporatism will be the only permissible ideology..."

Steven Den Beste makes essentially the same argument but in uglier terms - saying it's either war now or kill all the Arabs down the line. A strong America is not about empire-building, he says, but about keeping peace in the world. Opponents of a strong America must be defeated. That "doesn't mean they must all die" - well gee, thank you very much for that! (jerk) - "But they must be defeated. And since most of their best weapons are words, our best defense against them is to ignore them and get on with the job." Umm, so is this the kind of democracy that the Iraqi people are begging us to impose on them? Granted, totalitarianism without violence is better than with violence, but still... Unfortunately he ends with those two testosterone-laden, braindrained words that make me cringe: "Let's roll."

Meanwhile, Asscroft's war on happy people continues with this idiocy. "Operation Pipe Dream" (oh-hoo-hoo! soo funny!) even went looking for Tommy Chong. Well this is just wonderful. We're going to war, the federal deficit is at least $200 billion, and Asscroft is going after glass artists and head shops. Excuse me while I vent just for a moment. ARE YOU FUCKING INSANE?!!!

Ahem. (straightens tie)

On a lighter note, I find it somehow beautiful and poignant that Pioneer 10 has made it's last communication with us earth-bound creatures, 7.6 billion miles away and still drifting.... drifting... drifting. This is a great indie-rock song waiting to happen. Astronaut Wife, are you listening?

MY, WHAT A BIG FLAG YOU HAVE
I encourage everyone with time on their hands to read this essay by Bill Whittle called CONFIDENCE. It's about how great America is and all that - by the worst kind of conservative: the kind that was liberal in college. Rather than post an excerpt from the essay, I'm posting one of the comments that just titillates me to no end:

God bless you Bill! If there were a special award in heaven for articulating the feelings of true American patriots, well, it'd be yours.

Not that any of us are gonna be dying anytime soon mind you. It's those towel-heads that are gonna pay! We have the power we have because Jesus Christ our Lord gave it to us - and we need to use it. 911 was our wakeup call... and it left a trail of smoke all the way back to the devil's agents in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Oh, and all you leftist hippy Berkely antiwar queers can shut the hell up. Someone might take you seriously if you didn't smell so bad. Maybe you do belong in a backward-ass state like Iraq where we have to come save your ass and introduce you to soap.

Awww grandpa! And everyone laughs and goes back to eating catfish and taters.

GIRLS ARE PRETTY
This is the best blog ever, right now. Every day Prettygirl announces that today is something special, for example "Invisibility Day!" or "No One In Your Neighborhood Named Birdman Day!" I'd like to film a dramatization of "Boyfriend In A Sweater-Vest Day!" for Blogumentary. Here's "Outlet Shopping Day!"

You like pussy, right? I thought so. Even though you're only eleven, you have the look of a girl who likes pussy. Well, unfortunately, today has nothing to do with pussy.

Today is about Brand Name Bargains! So, why not head out to the farthest outskirts of the state in which you live or one within the tri-state area and drop by a seven mile expanse of Outlet Shopping Strip Mall and you might just be able to pick up a plaid American Eagle shirt for five dollars cheaper than you would normally pay for a plaid American Eagle shirt. Also, there are socks!

Happy Outlet Shopping Day!

OLIVER WILLIS ASKS: WHERE TO , NADER VOTERS?

"For eight years the far left complained and whined that Clinton governed from the center, that he listened to their concerns but went pragmatically to the middle in a 'pander' to political reality. So in Election 2000 they went to Nader, I guess assuming that Gore had the election in hand or that a Republican president wouldn't be that bad.

But for liberals (and even a moderate swath of Americans) - it has been worse. Here we have a president who wears his fundamentalist Christianity on his sleeve proudly, bowing to the altar of his church or his corporate cohorts the first chance he gets. He's a president who thinks nothing of deficit busting tax cuts in the face of a recession. Not to mention the drive toward perpetual war in multiple theaters.

Where do the Nader voters go from here in Election 2004?

Here's my response. What do you guys think?

I don't think people that voted Green in the past are going to follow their conscience to the polls. Some scoffed when Paul Wellstone warned lefties that they'd better vote Democrat, because a Bush presidency would be too damaging to the underserved, the environment, and so on. Now they're wishing they'd listened, because the nightmare has come true.

Even though the Democratic Party is in disarray, many lefties will vote Dem out of fear in "important" races -- congressional, gubernatorial, obviously presidential. I think where you'll still see the Greens thrive is in local politics. The Green Party holds 2 seats on the Minneapolis city council, and I believe the party had 71 victories nationwide in 2002. As long as people are fed up with the 2 party system, and with the Democrats in particular, the Green Party will capture votes.

BLOGS GO TO THE MOVIES... AND GET PAID
You've heard about people losing their jobs because of their blog? Well. Here's someone who got a job because of hers. Helen Jane Yeager is blogging on the set of "I Love Your Work" with Christina Ricci, Franka Potente, and Vince Vaughn. And getting paid for it. Of course, the Hollywood machine is interfering with the natural blog process - it has to go through the director, various producers, and Christini Ricci's publicist before anything gets published. So I'm sure all the juicy stuff gets scraped off the fine mesh screen and all we see is a transparent liquid faux-blog. But, it's a start. [ via Blogroots ]

Can a brother get a paid blog gig in this town? How about... I'll spend a day with a different broadcast anchorperson for a week. I'll be there moblogging when Diana Pierce is getting her makeup on. I'll have dinner with Paul Douglas and his family. God that sounds boring. Okay, how about different strip joints. Who's getting thrown out of Shiek's? How many kids is that Skyway Lounge stripper trying to support? How much did those cost? Yeah, that's more like it. No way I'd do that for free, nossiree. Operators are standing by. Will blog for money.

BUSH AND BLAIR: ENDLESS LOVE

George Bush and Tony Blair express their true feelings the only way they know how. Through Lionel Richie.

It was only a matter of time: Ready.gov parody site

We helped Space Waitress move into keen new digs this weekend. A few pics on the hiplog.

LINKIN' LOGS
My cheeks are swollen like a rabid chipmunk, which makes even less room for my brain than before. So how can I feed my hungry little baby chipmunks? Regurgitate, of course. Ready? Hruu... bluughghh.... BLLOOOOERGGHH!

First and foremost - LIAM LYNCH RULES! Why? Well, first off he's responsible for Sifl & Olly, the awesomest show to ever somehow get on MTV. Next off, not only did he direct the Tenacious D video for "Tribute" but he's directing the NEW TENACIOUS D MOVIE, "The Pick of Destiny"! What could be better than that, you say? I answer this to you, my fine motherfucking friend: The United States of Whatever. ( thanks to Kate Sullivan for pimpin' this song! )

Whew. Okay, when you've wiped up that mess and you're hungry for more:

BlogStreet: Visual Neighborhood shows you a little diagram of blogs related to yours.

Protest pictures from around the world.

Make Your Own Bush Speech - it's fun!

Lost Memorandum to Walt Disney via McSweeney's

"New York was like I'd never experienced it before... Everything felt like apocolypse. Except for her."
   - Layne meeting Ione in New York for Valentine's Day

Also: I had a great time meeting kelly, my favorite canadian blogger pal. more on that later!

ARRROUUUUWRRRGAAAHH
That's the sound I'll be making Tuesday. Actually I'll be out cold getting my wisdom teeth out, probably not making any sounds until I wake up drooling and confused. Please tell me it's going to be a fun painless experience.

UPDATE: I did post a few pics to my hiplog. WARNING: There is one kinda gross one. Blair Witch-gross.

I wanted to take more "before" pics but things moved fast, and they didn't quite understand why I'd want to take pictures. I'd never had surgery before. As they were about to stick the IV into my arm, they said I might not want to watch, but I was too fascinated not to. It's not every day you see a long syringe getting stuck into my arm. (Well, you know, except for my daily smack shootup.) Deeper and deeper, but something wasn't working right so they had to pull out and try another spot. Right about the time they were sticking it again, I got suuuuper light-headed and dizzy. They could tell I wasn't well and lowered me slowly down and raised my feet up. I've never felt so much like I was going to pass out in my life. They put oxygen on me (mmm, sweet sweet oxygen) and a cool damp rag on my forehead, and I was better in no time. They were all super nice and helpful, and I was telling them about the time there was an "oxygen bar" at a Walker After Hours with a variety of scents to choose from. "Well, I'm afraid all we have is rubber scented." Ahh, classic rubber scent - the original.

Soon I was floating through a heavenly psychedelic circus - riding on the giant furry balloon surrounded by my harem of whispery angels, their naked bosoms heaving oh-so-close... oh, wait. It wasn't like that at all. Why do they lie to me??? Contrary to what I'd heard, I wasn't put completely out. I was just conscious enough that they could say, "Charles, can you turn your head this way?" and I would apparently respond. I have a vague recollection of seeing them gathered around my head, "sectioning" my wisdom teeth, which sounds much nicer than "hacking my teeth into little chunks with buzzing power tools so's they can yank the little bastards outta my mouth." Now here I am with endless hunks of bloody gauze in my mouth waiting for Lori to return with more liquidy foods: strawberry kefir, an emerald smoothie, applesauce, juice, tofutti. Play is work and work is play! Tofutti break today!

I'm ever so thankful to my dear friend Cori for driving me there, waiting, picking up the meds I'm not supposed to sell on the street *, and taking me home. Where would I be without my friends? Turns out I'd be in Thailand. Not sure why.

UNRELATED THING, I THINK: Vote for Reverse Cowgirl as the weblogger you'd most like to see naked. You see, Wil Wheaton is winning. While I think that's funny on many levels, there is something fundmental and unchanging deep inside me that does not want to see Wil Whaton naked. (Yes, there are other things deep inside me but I won't discuss those right now.) Oh, did I mention Reverse Cowgirl is a total blogolicious babe? Please daddy, please let the karma reverse flow so I don't cry anymore, okay daddy? Daddy? Ohmigod, dadddeeeeeee nooooooooo! Ooops, daddy was just napping, I have to run away now.
 
* One of my new drugs is Hydrocodone (pronounced hye-droe-koe-done). It's a narcotic that can produce a calm, euphoric state similar to heroin or morphine and is 6 times stronger than codeine! Yessssss! And it gets better: When ingested orally, Hydrocodone undergoes complex hepatic metabolism via O-demethylation, N-demethylation, and 6-keto reduction to the corresponding 6-alpha- and 6-beta-hydroxy active metabolites! Tell me I'm dreaming, folks. Or at least really high.

HOLY SHIT! GOOGLE BUYS PYRA.

I just got done watching and listening to LIVE FROM THE BLOGOSPHERE and Ev Williams announced that Google bought Pyra, the company that runs Blogger. I can't even begin to comprehend how huge this is. More on this, and the whole event, later. (Maybe a little on my romantic weekend, too.) (Dang, I shoulda scooped this on MeFi!)

Also: audblogs let you dial a phone# from your mobile phone, then talk or hold your phone up to whatever and make it into and audio blog entry! More about audblogs. Ev announced this as well, right after panelist Doc Searls said gee - I wish I could listen to blogs when I'm making my coffee in the morning instead of NPR. Well, it's right around the corner folks.

UPDATE: Reverse Cowgirl confirmed my suspicion that Xeni, host of LIVE FROM THE BLOGOSPHERE, opened with a question I posed to them: How different are weblogs from the personal home page craze - what more do they have to offer? Cool. As soon as my head is out of this oral surgery action daze, I will consume myself with this question again,

Here's my very very rough transcript of LIVE FROM THE BLOGOSPHERE.

"CANE" AH BE YOUR VALENTINE?

I Googled images for "vintage valentine" and looky here! Racist Valentine's day cards! And good ol' Popeye sez "Gosh you're awful." Looks like he's gonna hafta put Olive Oyl in her place agin. Makes mah heart go pitter-patter. The lovely lady Lorika and I are away for a short romantic weekend along the St. Croix. Much love to all my single friends out there. Tonight I want you to light a candle and saddle up to your favorite Internet porn site with a relaxing hand puppet.

Here's a really sweet story involving Chinese food.

ANTI-WAR PROTEST
Anybody go to the U of MN protest? There will be an anti-war protest Saturday 2/15 @ 1pm at Hennepin & Lagoon Aves in Uptown, Minneapolis - and in cities around the world. Douglas Rushkoff has some thoughts on dissent, Al Gore and the 'distraction' of Iraq, and how voting machines are robbing us of democracy. Cheery! I know, protests can be awfully annoying. Peter Bagge nails why in this comic.

HATE-TALK HOST MICHAEL SAVAGE HIRED BY MSNBC
From Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting:

Savage routinely refers to non-white countries as "turd world nations" and charges that the U.S. "is being taken over by the freaks, the cripples, the perverts and the mental defectives" (San Francisco Bay Guardian, 9/20/00). In a recent broadcast he justified ethnic slurs as a national security tool: "We need racist stereotypes right now of our enemy in order to encourage our warriors to kill the enemy," he explained (San Francisco Chronicle, 2/6/03).

I have to concede, the country *is* being taken over by mental defectives...

On a lighter, nakeder note: The Nude Weblog Awards

Live from the Blogosphere is going to have a RealVideo feed Saturday. Yay!

THE BLEAT GOES ON
Someone just discovered Lileks and posted it to MetaFilter. Aww. There's something really cute about that, and yet it makes me feel old. Someone posted a link to the Lileks doesn't like us anymore thread from his public MeFi departure one year ago. "If you combined Noam Chomsky and Emily Post at age 22 and set them in front of a computer after their 89th consecutive dateless Saturday, you’d have a perfect example of the recent MeFi member." Today Lileks pontificates on American song-poems, the railroad marriage of desparate composers and starry-eyed amateur songwriters. Here are a few samples.

If that floats your boat, you'll want to check out the upcoming PBS special Off the Charts: The Song-Poem Story. The promo (cut together by my man Carl) tells you everything you need to know about this bizarre subculture. Twin Cities fans, tune into TPT2 Sunday, February 16 at 11 PM. Oh - and if you want a tasty lil' musical nugget you'll treasure for the rest of your life, treat yourself or your honey to a custom song from "Hand Crank" Kelly Lee. At $25, it's the best entertainment value for your dollar. Guarantee.

OSAMA BIN LADEN TAPE: SPIN AND HYPERBOLE
The Star Tribune's huge front page headline: Bin Laden urges Iraqis to attack Americans. Alarmist much? These stories downplay bin Laden' denouncement of Saddam Hussein's government as "infidels." American Politics Journal reports that MSNBC deleted part of their story reporting bin Laden calling Iraqis to rise up against Hussein - apparently a mistaken translation. In any case, the U.S. has seized this as an opportunity to beat the drums of war, calling the tape proof of an unholy partnership. "Unholy "meaning, I suppose, Muslim. Germany, of course, finds no proof in the pudding, nor do I. It's all marketing. Osama bin Laden dropped a PR bomb on us and the U.S. is spinning it like hell. "See! See! He's summoning his Iraqi brothers to kill us! He is the puppetmaster of the entire Muslim world!"

C'mon, what would we expect bin Laden to say? "In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Beneficent: A Message to our Muslim brothers in Iraq. I am very sorry. You guys are gonna get creamed. Please run very fast from the infidels, and Prophet speed. See you on the other side. Peace Out, Broseph."

REAL LIFE BLOGGER ENCOUNTERS
As Space Waitress reported, we had a real-life blogger encounter with famed keeper of Minnesota blogs Ian Whitney at a coffee shop last weekend. How cool is that? Next time you're in a public place, try blabbering about Lileks and see if it summons a nearby blogger. It doesn't even have to make any sense: "Yeah man, I heard Lileks totally got horked by the blogosphere man--" *DING!* A blogger will appear, as if by magic. Next week I get to meet crazy white girl with a keyboard - aka kelly - allllllll the way from Edmonton, Canada! (Or as I like to say, "Canadia") If I'm lucky she'll let me follow her around with my camera, talk blog, drink beer. Drink blog blork, blork blog? Blork blog. Noooo, BLORK BLOG!!! ARRRRRRRR! (applause)

Why is InstaPundit so popular and I'm not? (1) My porn is subpar. (2) Weblogs & power laws.
   Kottke and Shirky explain. Excellent Blogumentary fodder.

Most bloodthirsty blog? The First Annual Warblogger Awards from Right Wing News.

Blast from the past: 80's commercials

Ever wonder how ketchup is made? The answer is simple. And hilarious.

ASHCROFT STRIKES AGAIN
'PATRIOT II' LEGISLATION IN THE WORKS: The Bush Administration is preparing a bold, comprehensive sequel to the USA Patriot Act passed in the wake of September 11, 2001, which will give the government broad, sweeping new powers to increase domestic intelligence-gathering, surveillance and law enforcement prerogatives, and simultaneously decrease judicial review and public access to information. Read about it at the Center for Public Integrity.

Secret subpoenas? Check. Web surf-spying? Check. Incremental shift of power from elected representatives to appointed megalomaniacs, hoping nobody will notice until it's too late? Check! More on Ashcroft's worrisome spy plans from C-Net. [ via Sassafrass ]

The public aim of this sort of legislation is to protect our country and our people, especially against terrorist organizations. Who isn't for that, right? The problem is when the door is opened to spying on and detaining anyone associated with a suspected terrorist organization. Who's on that list? Let's turn back the clock to the Reagan years (they feel awfully familiar, don't they?). This is paraphrased from Liberty Denied by Donna Demac, first published in 1988:

When Reagan took office, he issued an Executive Order stating that domestic intelligence-gathering did not have to be linked to a criminal investigation, thereby removing the need to observe constitutional and statutory procedures. So long as a person or group could be put under the heading of "foreign intelligence," "counterintelligence," or "terrorism," you could be a target of spying and more disruptive tactics. Soon, the FBI emarked on a campaign of close surveillance of groups opposed to U.S. policies in Central America.

Traditionally, Americans have strongly believed in their right to privacy and their right to speak out against government policies. Today, however, the existence of terrorism and instability throughout the world has given government a pretext for unprecedented security measures and incursions against civil rights... It is vital to distinguish government programs aimed at criminals and truly dangerous groups from the unjustifiable surveillance of law-abiding citizens, including political dissidents. A free society cannot be a heavily controlled society. In their zeal to supress real and imagined anamies of the status quo, the intelligence agencies tend to leave democracy behind and move in the direction of the totalitarian societies they abhor.

REPUBLICANS CONTINUE TO TURN BACK THE CLOCK
Gays, lesbians could lose state protections:

A bill to remove protections for gays and lesbians from Minnesota's human rights law was introduced in the House on Thursday, and proponents say some form of repeal stands a better chance of passage than at any time since discrimination based on sexual orientation was added to the law in 1993.

Supporters of the bill say that they don't want people to be persecuted or harassed but that the law is doing just that to Christian conservatives and others who consider homosexuality a violation of God's law. [ via Stitzel and Eschaton ]

Oh, brother. Can someone let these people know - again - that their God's law doesn't mean squat in a democratic government that separates church and state? To prevent things like, you know, religious persecution? Stop the madness. Who wants to go GLBT Lobby Day at the Capitol?

UPDATE: Pawlenty responds to the bill. He wouldn't say much more than "I'm for civil rights, I can't say more until I see the bill." But he did say he thought the cross-dressing issue was a problem. Watch the Almanac clip

Gov. Pawlenty on Almanac 2/7/03 [ RealVideo ]

IGNORANCE WINS AGAIN
At the end of the first week of January, the Princeton Survey Research Associates polled more than 1,200 Americans on behalf of the Knight Ridder newspaper chain. They asked a very simple question: "To the best of your knowledge, how many of the September 11 hijackers were Iraqi citizens?"

Of those surveyed, only 17 percent knew the correct answer: that none of the hijackers were Iraqi. Forty-four percent of Americans believe that most or some of the hijackers were Iraqi; another 6 percent believe that one of the hijackers was a citizen of that most notorious node in the axis of evil. That leaves 33 percent who did not know enough to offer an answer. [ Salon article via Steven Johnson ]

CRUISING DAYPOP

UCLA Study: Internet superceding television as source of information. [ article study ]

New Kids On the Blog or "another journalist discovers blogs" which is just fine by me.

How can Time-Warner make more money on The Matrix between movies? The Animatrix.

From AnaNova: Dustin Hoffman blasts Bush and a real cloak of invisibility!!!

PIONEER PRESS 'YOUR TECH' BLURB
A Sidekick-toting Minnesota moblogger hits the road. That's me alright! If that's how you found me, Here's more info on Blogumentary.

UPDATE: Looks like I'm also mentioned on the SiliconValley.com home page, right next to Dan Gillmore's eJournal. Swoon!

I should give you a little update actually. I've been in touch with the SXSW Interactive folks, who have been very supportive and are excited about the project. They've been kind enough to grant me a press pass so's I can wander about with my DV cam uninhibited. And I do mean uninhibited as in wearing no pants. So far, I will be taping the Bloggies and interviewing: Bloggy-founder Nikolai Nolan, fray storyweaver Derek Powazek, expressive photowebber Heather Champ, Metafilter kingpin Matthew Haughey and the self-explanatory Rannie the Photojunkie. Hopefully more on the way! How am I going to manage all this by myself, and still party? Duh -- cloning, hello?

BLOGUMENTARY CHAPTER 1: CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES
At the last second I decided to lurk in the Radio K studios while Confederacy of Dunces made its live debut webcast (and soon to be FM broadcast). Joel Stitzel, of Cosmic Slop fame, hosted Space Waitress, G.R. Anderson of City Pages, and Dan Grothe to lively discussion about the Columbia disaster, Gov. Pawlenty and the budget, Iraq, voting machines, and - of course - blogging. I've edited together a "chapter" focusing on blogging and voting machines. This is actually some of the best commentary on the significance of blogs in the political mediascape I've ever heard, a credit to the sparkling intelligence of all involved:

Blogumentary Chapter 1: Confederacy of Dunces [ 13.6 MB QuickTime ]

I was having a problem with permanent linking on my posts, now fixed! Just click on the timestamp whenever you want to permalink.

HOLIDAY IN DIRT SHOWING AT SXSW FILM FESTIVAL. WEIRD.
There's this film, see. Naysayers may call it a collection of music videos, but no -- it's a bonafide film. Holiday in Dirt: 14 short films from the music of Stan Ridgway is the name, and it's the brainchild of my man Chris Strouth and his man Rick Fuller. They had this idea to give 14 filmmakers $500 each to have total artistic freedom making a short film based upon a Stan Ridgway song. I was enlisted to create the opening credits and stylize some odd little vignettes of Stan going about mundane yet suspicious activities, using my mad After Effects skillz. Chris just gave word that it looks like the film is playing SXSW Film Festival. I say, I just might have to see it again while I'm there! Even cooler -- Robert Rodriguez, one of the ass-kicking DIY indie filmmakers of the 90's, is making an appearance and probably dropping some inspirado on our sorry asses. Let's hope he still has the indie mojo after doing Spy Kids.

Stan's buddy Phil Spector was arrested on a homocide charge at his L.A. mansion, as I'm sure you've heard. He's probably wishing about now he hadn't brandished his gun so many times recording with The Ramones and who knows when else. By the way, have you ever brandished anything but a gun? Hmm... 1. to shake or wave (as a weapon) menacingly. 2. to exhibit in an ostentatious or aggressive manner. Don't make me brandish my penis at you, people, I swear to God I'll do it.

BLOGUMENTARY FULLY JUICED
I'm not normally up at 8am goofing around on my blog unless I've been up all night, but I woke up just swimming with ideas. Oh, I should say that my best little chum Liberry Boy has been saying "juiced" lately, and I like that so much I'm doing it, too. Liberry Boy's girlfriend just went back to NYC, so let's all wish him happy times until her next visit. Anyway, back to me. I need money. For postcards and stickers and bidness cards to dispense at SXSW. And I need a logo. An anti-corporate logo. I realized that when I link to this blog in an email, I say, "Enjoy Blogumentary." That's it! I need a snazzy pizazzy pop-brand logo, like Tide or SPAM or something. But more. I want to go Adbusters on the mofo. Make Blogumentary resemble and undermine corporate logos, like Pepsi or Enron or what have you. And, and. For the open, I want several false starts parodying different films. After seeing NAQOYQATSI I giggled to myself thinking about the slow, somber cello, the red text coming on screen....

BLOGIQATSI blog i qatsi: Hopi Blog out of balance.

Then maybe, Blogging John Malkovich or Lord of the Blogs or something. Help me out here people. It's gonna be friggin' hee-larious.

SO, YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT BLOGUMENTARY
Things have been moving very fast. I'm lining up all kinds of people to interview and follow around at SXSW and hopefully will be filming the 2003 Bloggy Awards. I realized I don't really have anything on this here blog about the documentary itself. Oops! I really need to get a new domain, and fix the design to allow for much more documentary info and collaboration, but for now... this About Blogumentary page:

We live in an age where everyone is a mediamaker. Blogs empower us to tell our story, spout and debate our politics, and share ourselves with the rest of the world – or at least the 5 people who read our blog. What compels us to blog? How does it affect us, each other, our work, the mediascape, the world? Do bloggers have anything in common? Does the blogosphere have a life of it's own, like the emergent behavior of an ant colony excited by the discovery of food? These are just some of the questions I want to address with this documentary. More...

BEYOND THE TRAGEDY
I found out about the space shuttle Columbia disaster over breakfast with Space Waitress yesterday morning. I remember being a little obsessed with drawing the Columbia when I was in grade school. A plane and a spaceship in one! The USA flag, the white contours. It's destruction, along with the 7 lives tragically lost, didn't have the impact of the Challenger disaster of my youth. The space shuttle launches were a much bigger deal back then, and there was the terrifying visual shock of the explosion. Over and over in science class. Still, it was creepy hearing the lost contact. You can't help but imagine what's happening at that moment.

What now? In spite of the religious overtones, I'm encouraged by Bush's pledge to continue supporting the space program. We are, as Doc Searls said, "in the zygote stage of our development as space creatures." Do we need to be space creatures? Don't we have enough problems here on Earth that deserve our attention? I think the answer to both questions is "Yes." Here's a stab at why, from a review of a book called The Millennial Project: Colonizing the Galaxy in Eight Easy Steps written back in 1994:

The Millennial Project begins with the premise that mankind may very well be the only life in the universe; it is therefore our duty to see that life spreads and flourishes, that we fill the universe and make it live and breathe. As long as we are stuck on just one little clump of mud hurtling about the sun, all our eggs are in one basket. A single large meteor, nuclear war, or virulent plague might wipe us out. Even barring catastrophe, population density and longevity are increasing. Eventually we'll have to either stop breeding or find new places to put people. This book is an eight part, 1,000 year plan to solve these problems.

I don't really think of Earth as "one little clump of mud hurtling about the sun" but I think there are valid points there. Nuclear war, overpopulation and environmental destruction loom larger than ever. And, I suppose, the threat of a large asteroid or meteor - something I sure can't devote energy to thinking about but am glad other people do. To see what these space folks are envisioning, visit The Living Universe Foundation.