word is out now that the turkey bush held in his latest photo op (aka "visit to badhdad") was not what you'd call an "eating turkey". it was basically a prop, a "looking turkey". bush is a failure who can't do anything right except pose for purty pictures... (in fact, if you do a google search for "miserable failure" you get a bunch of stuff about bush. by the power of blogging, i have the power!)  ¶ 3:27 PM

how to censor a news organization (iraq style)

1. get authority (it helps if a foreign invasion force crushes the old govt for you & props you up with power)

2. use your authority to censor the news organization (this is the easy part)

3. take advantage of your pull in the US to get an op ed in the washington post

4. say you aren't censoring but are actually "protecting the fledgling democracy". when challenged about this hypocrisy, say something like

We are not acting against legitimate and objective journalistic activities. We are taking steps to prevent psychological warfare and, more serious, incitement to murder. No country would do less.

or more succintly,

That is not journalism; that is aiding, abetting and encouraging criminal terrorist activity.

good stuff, yeah? ashcroft would be proud.  ¶ 12:06 PM

wowza. i'm hardly a fan of marketing in general, but neuromarketing is one of the creepiest things i've ever heard of.   ¶ 1:07 PM

so after doing little more than watch tv & cruise the net during most of my weeklong vacation, eventually i started feeling guilty that i wasn't getting anything productive done (artistically, anyway). so on friday night i dusted off an old unfinished databending track & tried to figure out what to do with it next. i'd started it months ago, then gotten it stuck in a big mess that i couldn't maneuver out of. so friday night i finally came up with a few ideas how to get the track moving again in a new direction, & made a few additions. saturday i was able to get really moving & i had the bulk of the song's structure done. sunday afternoon i tweaked the ending, claimed that the track was "finished", & posted spamouflage to the site.

so i was feeling good that i'd finished a new track, especially this one, because i had a growing feeling that this was it; this was the track i'd been awaiting for months. finally, i thought, i might be able to finish up the true data 12", & maybe get the actual record out by spring 2004. wouldn't that be nifty? i chatted with connie & grey, got them to download it, & tweaked some more stuff on the site to announce its arrival into the world.

this morning i went back to work. nothing particularly exciting happened there, just catching up on email & author approval... but at the office i downloaded my new mp3. this was the first time i'd listened to it on headphones, & i was not pleased. the first minute or two were way right-heavy.

apparently the main sample in the beginning of the track has all its bass on the right channel. which meant that there was almost no bass in the first minute of the track. that's what i get for not monitoring in headphones before posting an mp3.

it's all a consequence of how the data gets interpreted into sound in the first place. most of the samples for this record are stereo. when i translate the raw data files on my hard drive into stereo samples, some information goes into the left channel but not the right, and vice versa. in this case, all the "oomph" in that particular sample ended up in the right. & i used that sample heavily, throwing the track off balance.

anyway, it was easy enough to fix. i just made a mirror version of the samples in question, then pasted it in where appropriate. now they alternate nicely. it took maybe 1/2 hour to do it all.

so if you downloaded spamouflage before about 5:30pm EST today (monday), you should download it again to get the fixed version.  ¶ 6:37 PM

the radiohead prophecies?

reports are still spilling in about the grievous police brutality at miami's ftaa protests in november, including this quote which is eeily reminiscent of the lyrics to radiohead's hit song karma police:

Miles Swanson, 25, a legal observer for the lawyers guild, was punched numerous times while being taken in by officers for pointing out undercover police dressed up as protesters. Eight of 60 guild observers were arrested that day; they wore distinctive green hats and were apparently targeted. When Swanson was grabbed off the street by three Broward County sheriff's deputies - two of whom were in ski masks - he said they told him "this is what you get when you f-- with us."

all units, be on the lookout for suspects who buzz like refrigerators or detuned radios. if you encounter these suspects, beat the holy living fuck out of them.  ¶ 1:31 PM