Blogging About
Wondering how far the state of digital music has come? Go back a few years, to early 1978, when the call went out for hobbyists belonging to the Philadelphia Area Computer Society: Who wants to put on a concert? "Many of the computer musicians were reluctant or too shy to perform at a computer music concert, something they had never heard of before," writes Dick Moberg, the society's president. But word spread, and on August 23, 1978 an over-flow crowd piled into a large ballroom at the Sheraton Hotel for a three-hour concert. RCA had a "flute engineer" play on some of the tunes. An album, First Philadelphia Computer Music Festival, captured the excitement. Downloadable Highlights are posted on the Web at vintagecomputermusic.com. Try "Hey Jude" to hear the cutting-edge of computer music 28 years ago. Then click here to hear what the modern era can do with "Hey Jude" and a computer. (via, Phillyist.)
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Dave Ralis at PhillyBurbs blog has a primer for the important visitors touring Philadelphia today - What To Tell Those Olympic Folks. They're scouting locations for the 2016 Summer Games. By that time the Delaware Riverfront should be done. Example:
IF THEY ASK: "Why is there a long line of cars leading to the airport?"
WHAT TO SAY: "We love pigeons in this city. Those folks are bird watching."
WHAT NOT TO SAY: "Do you really want to pay $20 for short-term parking just to pick somebody up?"
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Kiko's House goes on a 1,450-word rant about New Jersey: Say "Iowa" and you think of cornfields. Say "Texas" and you think of the Alamo. Say "Florida" and you think of Disney World. But say "New Jersey" and you think of . . . Smelly oil refineries? Toll roads? The 1932 Lindberg kidnapping? Tony Soprano? Blogger Shaun Mullen riffs on corruption, image problems. He's proposed a new motto. And invites comments, suggestions. I'm thinking a lot could be done by simply changing the exit numbers to colors. Burnt Sienna. Soylent Green.
Maybe Suzanne from Metroblogging Philadelphia can send in this post from today: New Jersey or Communist Country? You make the call! Something about crossing guards from Canton.
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Peter Mucha at Early Word has a poll for the biggest "outta here" athletes precipitated by the return of the prodigal pellet-thrower Billy Wagner.
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The Washington Post is blogging E3, the video game expo in Los Angeles. Game Days has SIX contributors, including two staffers. God bless that SAT-prep money.
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At Informed Comment, U. Michigan Professor Juan Cole gives a history lesson on the occasion of Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad letter to President Bush, one in which Ahmadinejad insists on his country's right to research uranium enrichment under the Non-Proliferation Treaty:
It should be remembered that then Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh angered Washington in the early 1950s by nationalizing Iranian petroleum. Eisenhower slapped sanctions on Iran and destroyed its economy. Washington at that time thought Mosaddegh was a pinko, though in fact he was a relatively conservative aristocrat. At the height of the crisis, Mosaddegh wrote a letter to Eisenhower, which was ignored. Ike had the CIA overthrow the elected, parliamentary government of Iran and install the Shah as a megalomaniacal dictator. So the tradition of letter-writing by Iranian leaders at times of tensions with Washington isn't replete with successes. Of course, the Iranians took revenge for the heavy-handed US interference with their form of government. They made an Islamic Revolution in 1978-79, and more recently elected Ahmadinejad. What Washington wouldn't do to have that nice Mr. Mosaddegh back.
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Wonkette to be sued for linking. Ana Marie Cox, the original Wonkette, is to be added to an invasion of privacy suit filed against Jessica Cutler, the former Senate aide whose Washingtonienne sex blog got a rise out of much of the capital city, and led to a book deal. The Washington Post reports that papers filed in federal court state Cox will be added to the case, filed on behalf of plaintiff Robert Steinbuch, a former Senate committee counsel. Before Wonkette's link, Cutler says she'd shared her online writing with only four persons. The suit is a juicy read, by the way. Can I say that? Yes.
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A satirical group in Leipzig, Germany, has a new strategy to discourage local neo-Nazis: strength through fresh fruit. The sunglasses-wearing, American-rock-blasting troupe shows up where Hitler youth are marching and runs a counter-demonstration, in opposition to foreign-grown fruit. They're called the German Apple Front. No word if they've heard from lawyers representing the Beatles or Steve Jobs.
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What to get Mom for Mother's Day, which is Sunday. Remember? Definitely not an e-card from any of the sites flagged by McAfee., the anti-virus company. Unless you want your mom's inbox to swell with 29 spam e-mails a week, info about auto loans and tax refunds, "free" tool bars, pop ups, porn, etc.... Check out McAfee's hit list by clicking "to continue reading."