Culture

Welcome to the 1st International Love Hotel Moblogging Conference. ( Snooze finds the coolest links.) You sort of missed it, because it was yesterday. A bunch of people independently sought out love hotels, took pictures, and blogged the whole thing. It reminds me of the Lessig Starbucks weekend (original), but with a single centralized blog. I wanted to do a central blog for the NBA draft, but I thought of the idea too late. I still want to do my nomoblog, too.

I was just browsing around the Apple iTunes Music Store, contemplating the new Liz Phair album. Despite the warnings of friends, yeah. I was all geared up for the experience of buying the thing and being hugely disappointed by a sellout. Then I noticed a Clean Lyrics badge on the album. Clicked it, and discovered that the album was an expurgated version. (Didja hear about the expurgated Liz Phair concert? “Hi, thanks for coming out! It’s gonna be a great night! I hope you enjoyed my show, and have a safe drive home!”) ...

Katharine Hepburn, rest in peace.

It’s a victory for masked politicians everywhere! The Great Sasuke just won the right to sit in the Iwate Prefectural Assembly while masked (original). Good on him.

Some musicians are peeved about single song sales (original) from the Apple iTunes Music Store. An attorney who works for the firm that represents Will Smith and Alanis Morissette claims it’s an artistic issue. “The fear among artists is that the work of art they put together, the album, will become a thing of the past.” Alas, Yahoo Shopping lists 26 singles from Mr. Smith and another 26 from the divine Ms. Morissette. I’m sure the attorney will be attending to this breach of artistic integrity immediately. ...

MSNBC scores the first review of Warren Zevon’s upcoming album. Eric Olsen says it’s a masterpiece. And the review made me sniffle.

BookSense allows you to order books online and pick them up at your local independent bookseller. Unfortunately, it’s dog slow, and I’m a bit perturbed by their offer to sell me a book named simply Harry Potter — seems to me that there aren’t enough words in that title. Also it would be better if they did not direct me to a bookstore in Canton when I live in Somerville.

This post is pretty old, but Dave Winer just linked back to it today and I picked up on something new; also, it ties in nicely to the recent discussion from the Dead Parrots, and if you aren’t reading the Parrots you ought to be. So, discussion ensues. Here’s the money quote from Dave: OK, let’s deconstruct a myth. Someone says that weblogs aren’t journalism. OK, suppose a journalist has a weblog. When that journalist writes something on the weblog, therefore, it must not be journalism. Suppose the journalist writes exactly the same words on her weblog that she writes in a column in the newspaper she writes for. In one place it’s journalism and in the other it’s not? Hmmm. ...

Those prone to suddenly gifting me with an all-expenses paid vacation in New York City should be aware of the Library Hotel (original). Their application of the Dewey Decimal System is slightly flawed, but only slightly. Map the thousandths digit in the room numbers to the tens digit in the DDS, and pretend that any floor number above 1000 subtracts 1000, and you’re close enough. Besides. Books. I can forgive much, for books.

Cory Doctorow just posted an excerpt from an upcoming novel. “An urban fantast/magic-realist thing about community wireless networking.” It’s a fun read; kind of a Charles de Lint vibe filtered through the transfictionalist nerdcore point of view. Hm, or maybe vice versa. Definitely vice versa. Imagine one of those Charles de Lint scenes where we get to know a somewhat fey stranger, except instead of all the folk music he’s into wireless networking. There you go.