Bruner Blog
All Bruner, All the Time
Beth Goza, the Ellen Feiss of Blogs
Funny article from The Register for blog junkies about Beth Goza, a marketing manager at Microsoft who created a sincere, sappy blog "to wrestle with her conscience over whether it was OK to cheat at XBox games." The result?
Now a satire of Beth's blog is raging like a contagion on the web, and this could have all the makings of the Ellen Feiss cult. If that doesn't mean anything to you, Ellen Feiss is the Xanaxed-out Apple switcher who has spawned a host of tribute sites.
Ha, ha. Microsoft just can't catch a break.This whole Switch thing is really getting under their skin.
- 10/19/2002
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Iron Blogger
Iron Blogger is the most inspired new idea I've seen in the blogosphere in a quite a while: pitting bloggers into a week of open debates (the rules) on a topic of their readers' choosing (the revenue model). Brilliant! This will be a must-read site. An idea born, appropriately enough, out of a drunken orgy.
I'd pay $5 to read Elizabeth debate Nick about Iraq.
Sadly, looking at it all more carefully, I fear it may never amount to anything more than a wild night's folly. The present homepage does not exactly bespeak the idea's real potential. I do hope they follow through and bring it to fruition, as I'd definitely be a regular reader.
Rereading the rules, I'd offer two additional suggestions (bearing in mind I've never seen an episode of Iron Chef myself):
- Only readers who have paid the fee (of, I would recommend, a minium of $1-2) would be eligible to vote on the winner of the debate (perhaps that's what you had in mind, tho it's not entirely clear).
- Let readers suggest debates they'd like to see, but to do so, they'd have to pay a higher fee, say $20. If not enough people get behind the proposal to raise the pot to something worth fighting over, then the person would get their money back. I.e., not much risk, but enough to filter out too many proposals yet at the same time enable readers to control the entire process, if they are willing to put their money where their mouth is. One of the debaters could also thus challenge another, urging his posse of readers to come pledge enough money to tantalize the other party.
The whole idea makes a blogger's reader loyalty that much more engaged. You'd have to have a separate open peanut gallery where all the readers could attack each other with running meta commentary about who was winning the debate, etc., but separate it from the main debate thread (to avoid the signal:noise problem perfectly illustrated by Iron Blogger's historic first drunken attempt at debate).
It's a crazy idea, you kids, but it just might work!
- 10/19/2002
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NYC Bloggers, Tequila Shots and Girl-on-Girl Licking
A friend once said to me that he wanted to use me as a barometer for the next big cool trend of our generation, after my luck being part of Generation Expat in Budapest in the early '90s followed by San Francisco for the second half of that decade on board the dot-com wave. Well, Erik, I'm pretty sure I'm living it again: the NYC Blogosphere.
After last weekend's excitement, I laid low last night, but you can't get away from the frenzied beat of the party that just continues to drive this town wild. Elizabeth mentioned something yesterday (Friday) about a hangover (in the context of explaining why it wouldn't hinder her from planning to hit the Bulgarian club last night regardless) owing to some impromtu blogger party, but I didn't ask questions. Then I came across the link on her site about the rules of Iron Blogging, which took me to Jim's Objectionable Content, where he lays out the details for this excellent new concept (see post above). What really caught my eye, however, was the last paragraph:
I had to leave just as the tequila shots and girl-on-girl licking were getting into full swing...
Hmmm. Then, back to Elizabeth's site, where I see this:
And This One Goes Out To: Megan, Jim, Tim, Asparagirl, but most of all--Amy Langfield
Jose Cuervo
You are friend of mine
I like to drink you with
A little salt and lime
Did I kiss all the cowboys
Did I shoot out the lights
Did I dance on the bar
Did I start any fights
["Jose Cuervo" Shelly West]
"...[B]ut most of all--Amy Langfield"? There is a great story here not being fully told. Amy downplays the whole thing on her blog. (Come to think of it, Jim keeps referring to her as "Evil Amy Langfield.") AspraGirl briefly notes the night, but offers no other interesting details. The other participants are mum. I'll probably get the story out of Elizabeth off the record.
I'm telling you, NYC is a fun place to be right now. But if you can't afford the rent, at least you can read about it and imagine the rest.
- 10/19/2002
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Meepzorp: So Many Blogs, So Little Time
Just stumbled on the Everlasting Blort, with the great domain Blort.Meepzorp.com. Very good use of pics. Which in turn lead me to RateMyKitten.com.
UPDATE: I didn't notice the Meepzorp Network Operation Center last night. Meepzorp's Yooha News is also quite amusing. Also, the MetaFilter paroday AnusFilter (motto: "squeeze through this"). Anyone passing by my window just now would think I'm totally insane, howling with laughter staring at the computer in an otherwise silent, dimly lit room.
- 10/19/2002
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Note to Self: Don't Streak at Hockey Games
 Nice to know Canadians can be jackasses, too. Like this guy, who ran out onto the ice naked during
an NHL game in Calgary, only to fall, knocking himself unconscious and leaving himself splayed on the ice belly
up to the bleachers. You rock, dude.
- 10/19/2002
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How to Take the Fun Out of Medical Marijuana
Turn it into a suppository. I'd love to see the High Times centerfold on that one.
- 10/19/2002
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For People Who Love to Photocopy Their Butts
Le Monde reports on the full-body copier. I'm hoping something was lost in translation here, as I can't possibly understand the point of this. (Via bOing bOing.)
- 10/19/2002
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Woman Bites Husband to Death Over Sex?
Mark writes, "Who said women were the gentler sex?" (Reuters story.) Yeah. She sounds like a real man-eater.
- 10/18/2002
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What Is This Decade Called?
The mainstream media really sucks. One thing that struck me at the dawn of 2000 was how lame the retrospectives were in most media outlets on looking back at the accomplishments and history of the past millennium. I mean, how often do the media get to reflect on the millennium just past? What I remember, instead, was a bunch of reflections on the past decade, a few (very few) looks back on the past century, and virtually no truly big picture stuff making sense of the past 1,000 years.
Another way the media has totally let us down has been coming up with something to call this decade. I remember lots of idle speculation about whether it would be called Os or the Aughts or the Naughts or the Naughties or whatever. I had friends in San Francisco who set up an online poll to let "the people" decide NameThatDecade.com, instead of leaving it to the media. Predictably, the site is now defunct. But the media hasn't picked up the slack.
Here we are almost three years into this decade, and as far as I've noticed, people don't refer to it as anything. We still talk of the '90s, the '80s, etc., but I simply don't hear people in conversations or in the media refer to this decade by any nickname. Is it just me? Do the rest of you actually know what to call it and you're just not telling me?
UPDATE:
Olivier writes: "Well, it's simple, we call it... the '00s (mwahahah)"
Yeah, I know, I saw your post with that, which is what set me off on this (it doesn't take much). I'm just wondering how to pronounce that.
- 10/17/2002
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Geraldo Signs Hooters Waitresses' Asses
You know any story with "Geraldo" and "Hooters" in it has got to be good.
- 10/17/2002
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German Zoo Keepers Eat the Animals
Reuters reports:
Two zookeepers in a small northwest German town have been suspended and put under police investigation for allegedly eating the zoo's animals, according to police.
- 10/17/2002
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Marijuana Politics
Incredibily, marijuana would appear to be emerging as an issue in the NY governor's race.
On Monday, I listened to the debate among the candidates for NY governor on WNYC. Or at least I had it on in the background while I did other stuff. The whole thing was kind of a circus. There were seven candidates debating: Republican incumbant Governor George Pataki, Democrat hopeful Carl McCall, Independence Party challenger Tom Golisano and then the really fringe candidates from the Right to Life Party, the Libertarian Party, the Green Party and the Marijuana Reform Party. While the two major party candidates sounded like what you expect in a debate -- avoiding the questions and sniping at each other -- the fringe candidates were hilarious.
The Marijuana Reform Party candidate was the best, in that he was able to bring every issue thrown at him back to pot. Health care? Pot cures all. Crime? Decriminalize pot and free up judicial resources. The economy? Tax pot, stop wasting money enforcing pot laws, build huge industries on hemp production, etc. The Mid-East crisis? Switch to hemp oil and be done with the dependence on petrolium (I'm not making this up). The family farm? Let them grow pot! Etc.
What was more surprising was that he was not alone among the candidates advocating a pro-pot platform. The Libertarian also had several policy stances that similarly came back to pot. In one memorable exchange, the Marijuana Reform candidate was saying how taxing pot would be the answer to the state's economic woes, and he suggested "This is one tax that every pot smoker would be happy to pay," to which the Libertarian responded, "Well, I'm one pot smoker who doesn't want to pay more taxes."
It was confusing who was speaking some of the time, as the order of speakers changed with each question and I was only half paying attention, but it seemed that even more of the candidates might have also held pro-pot positions (possibly the Green?). I haven't seen the transcipt or I'd get my facts straight. In any event, for each question the panel of journalists asked about any topic, there was guaranteed chorus of marijuana-related perspectives in the replies. The result made it seem as if pot were the most burning issue of the campaign, if you will.
Now I see that the Independence Party candidate, Golisano, who actually sounded halfway intelligent during the debate, today has continued to make pot an issue, pledging in a new TV ad to legalize medical marijuana if elected.
As if that weren't enough, the federal government has its knickers in a twist over Canada's new proposal to decriminalize the herb.
- 10/16/2002
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Mecca Cola
It may be a while before Muslims boycotting U.S. products will come up with an Arab alternative to Intel, but Coca Cola is apparently an easier target. Iran's Zam Zam Cola already cannot keep up with demand across the Middle East, and now a French Muslim entrepreneur is launching Mecca Cola. Uh, I'm no expert, but doesn't that name seem a bit sacrilegious?
- 10/16/2002
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New Episodes of Wallace & Gromit Available Online
 The first new Wallace & Gromit claymations from Oscar-winning Nick Park and Aardman Animations in seven years are now available on AtomFilms. The new animations are part of new a 10-part series known collectively titled "Cracking Contraptions," which will be released in full to AtomFilms subscribers for $10. See also WallaceandGromit.com. If you don't know Wallace & Gromit, where have you been? Here's a starter.
- 10/16/2002
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Fight Breast Cancer, Click Here
Mark points out that the CIGNA Foundation is donating $1 to Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation for every person who clicks on the pink ribbon at CIGNA's site (up to $100,000). Nice way for them to measure the web's pass-along effect while doing public good. Do click.
- 10/16/2002
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Apnea, Not a Laughing Matter
 The CPAP device used to treat apnea, on the other hand, is pretty amusing, as this photo illustrates. My friend Glenn Fleishmann recently mentioned on his blog he was diagnosed with apnea, which is a sleep breathing disorder characterized by lapses in normal breathing.
I was also diagnosed with apnea, tho not really. I snore like hell, so to appease Adrienne I went to a ear-nose-throat specialist to weigh my options. Did a sleep study about two years ago. Most uncomfortable night's sleep ever, on absurdly uncomfortable bed for a sleep lab, plus my sensors (which cover the head and body) kept falling off, so I was constantly being awoken by an attendant sticking them back on my head. According to my doc, the study suggested I had apnea at around the lowest level at which they measure it, but that was apparently enough that he could compel my health insurance to pay for pallet-shortening surgery to reduce my snoring, a procedure that would otherwise be deemed "cosmetic."
In the end, Adrienne has agreed that surgery is a bit radical for now regarding my snoring, so for the time being we manage with a combination of allergy medicine, nasal spray, nose strips, sharp elbows and the couch.
Because I don't have apnea seriously, I don't take it seriously for myself, but I don't mean to belittle the condition, of course. It is serious for those who suffer it worse than I do. While the idea of someone simply stopping breathing and suffocating in their sleep is rare, apnea does mean its sufferers have a hard time getting a good night's sleep. In the long term, apnea can contribute to heart disease and other life-threatening conditions.
But I have to admit the whole point in my bothering to write about this (not the kind of personal details I normally feel compelled to publicize) was to have an opportunity to post the photo of the Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) mask. When I first researched apnea on the web, Adi assured me that if it came down to wearing one of these to bed, I should consider my sex life over.
- 10/16/2002
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Mrs. Jonathan Franzen
I think Elizabeth is starting to crack. She told me the other day she's quite confident she can write anything she wants about Jonathan Franzen on her blog because, unlike Arthur Phillips, Franzen would never Google his own name. He's apparently somehow above that. Good thing. Check out #18 on her un-to-do list. (And she's got a restraining order against Enrique Iglesias? I think not.)
I do agree, as an aside, the "Things I Won't Get Done Today" concept is inspired, but the irony is too visceral. As if the act of blogging were in and of itself not enough evidence that you are a total slacker, using the blog to spell out what it is you should be doing instead is just too painful to confront.
- 10/16/2002
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601am.com
Spot a typo, get linky love. New policy. Thanks to Aaron in Brooklyn (601am.com) for an email. Another blog worth reading. And for the NY ladies out there, he's apparently still fertile.
- 10/16/2002
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Iraqi Election Update
Letterman said that in the Iraqi election today, Saddam won 99% of the vote and 1% went to last-minute candidate Frank Lautenberg.
- 10/16/2002
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Lebanon and Israel Threaten War Over Water
Water will be the future of many wars. The Middle East is no exception.
- 10/15/2002
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Giuliani and a Posse of Cowboys to Fight Crime in Mexico
Former NYC mayor Rudolph Giuliani has been hired by Mexico City to help bring down its crime rate (Guardian story). The NPR piece I heard on this ended with a totally bizarre comment I don't see picked up elsewhere: that another Mexico City crime fighting tactic is police dressed as Old West sherrifs, "to help make tourists feel more comfortable."
- 10/15/2002
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I Will Always Love Saddam
No, not me. It's just that his "campaign song" for today's Iraqi presidential election is "I Will Always Love You" by Whitney Houston. Why, I'd like to know, did he decide to go with an English-language American pop song for his one-man campaign? That had to be his own choice. Could you imagine someone else proposing that to him? "Yes, the Americans are Imperialist Dogs From Hell, but you do have to admit the song is pretty catchy...Your Evilness...Sir."
UPDATE:
Always a step ahead, Nick points out the Arabic (?) language video, "Saddam Our Father," one of several that frequently end TV broadcasts. I like the bit where he hands the little kid a soda pop. Looks like it could be a Pepsi, but hard to tell.
- 10/15/2002
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Disabling Video Cameras With a Laser Pointer
Jay writes: "Put This in your blog and smoke it: Big Brother is wa-owww! my eyes!!!!!!!!!"
- 10/15/2002
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McPorno
McDonald's experiment with Internet terminals in its restaurants ends badly with predictable results.
- 10/15/2002
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Momentary Musical Obsession
Up late, saw a rebroadcast of Leno from a week ago with the Queens of the Stone Age performance that has me obsessed with their hit song No One Knows, as I blogged the other day. I've been replaying the MP3 several times a day. Can't get enough.
One of the things I liked about the performance on Leno, seeing it again reminds me, is that lead singer/songwriter Josh Homme is chewing gum while he's singing, which is so inappropriate for your big TV moment, not to mention his coordinating that with reasonably complicated lead guitar licks, fairly rare for lead singers.
Found the band's official site, which is a bit weak, but it does feature the ratther silly music video for the hit song, as well as a funny backstage photo from the Leno appearance. To round out the infatuation, here's the band bio on RollingStone.com.
- 10/15/2002
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Gaby's Moving to NYC
Yay! But she still doesn't have permalinks on her site, so I can't point to the specific post. Oh well, we'll be happy to have her join us among the growing camp of SF refugees here regardless.
- 10/15/2002
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Movies: Rules of Attraction, Previews
 Saw Rules of Attraction the other night with Elizabeth. Co-written and directed by Roger Avary (writing credits include Pulp Fiction and Resevoir Dogs), based on a novel by co-script writer Bret Easton Ellis. I enjoyed it, despite lukewarm reviews. Here's what I wrote about it in an email to Adi the aspiring film editor:
It was pretty good. You'd probably like it. For you, it might be interesting alone to see it for the editing, which is fairly flashy and gimmicky (e.g., a bunch of backward scenes that then play forward again, as well as some interesting split-screen stuff). Beyond that, it was cute, a nihilistic drug and sex-laden college nothing story. Tragic suicide, flamboyant young gays, violent drug dealers, and a menacing lead character played well by James Van Der Beek (of Dawson's Creek fame), which must have his fans all talking (includes a gay make-out fantasy scene that Leno wouldn't stop teasing him about the other night). Some good dialog and basically well acted by people I've never seen before, but overall a bit shallow in the end, tho I guess that's Brett Easton Ellis's whole schtick. Entertaining.
A memorable line. Our anti-hero Sean Bateman is staring blankly at the back of the bus carrying away the gay kid who's not-so-secretly in love with him, while narrating the unrelated thoughts in his head (to the best of my recollection): "I wonder if she cums easily, or at all. I won't sleep with any girl who can't cum. That's like asking questions in a letter."
Also saw previews for a few films that look interesting, including:
- 25th Hour, a new Spike Lee joint with Edward Norton. Great quote from the trailer, Norton toasting his old buddies: "Champagne for my real friends, and real pain for my sham friends."
- Adaptation, a new Spike Jonze joint with Nicholas Cage playing against type as a schlub of a screenwriter and Meryl Streep.
- House of 1,000 Corpses, by Rob Zombie
- 10/15/2002
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Don't You Feel My Leg
Dedicated to L.: Dirty Dozen Brass Band MP3
- 10/15/2002
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Dave Winer Is a Weirdo
I have subscribed to Dave Winer's Davenet email newsletter for years, but I have to admit rarely reading it or is his various blogs. I know he's a god (in his own mind, anyway) of the blogosphere, but he was never my cup of tea. Consider this recent post, in which, in the course of talking about the new changes to how Google calculates PageRank, he links to Dictionary.com definitions for "iconoclast," "quirky" and "vagaries." What is he now, an English-as-a-second-language teacher? An SAT prep tutor? What reader of blogs doesn't have those words in their vocabulary already?
- 10/14/2002
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Normal People Scare Me
 Adrienne at the Blue Angels airshow in SF this past weekend.
- 10/14/2002
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Bruner Out of Bounds
It would appear Nick doesn't have the stomach for gossiblogging. Unless I'm misinformed, he apparently removed a post to his blog with veiled references to a wild Saturday night. I gather I was a bit of a cad in yet another sensitive soul's opinion. Whatever. Call me a new-millennial, post-everything-has-changed, NYC lover of life, but if a man can't party at a party or grope an ass at the Bulgarian disco, what's the point? Anything less and the terrorists have won.
MORE:
Oh. Turns out the missing post wasn't really much about me, after all. Damn. I wonder if he took it down under pressure from P.
And lest there be any lingering doubt, the cigarette in the eye was an accident. M. asked me yesterday, on seeing the bruise, "She did that to you?" (He was referring to the other one.)
- 10/14/2002
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Terrorists Attack Young Travelers in Bali, For What?
In the unlikely event that you check the Bruner Blog today before the TV or other major media, a terrible act of terrorism in Indonesia today. Bombers killed nearly 200 with a huge explosion at a dance club popular with young foreign back-packers. What I find immediately remarkable is a horrible irony that those international travelers the terrorists targeted are likely to be young, open-minded, international thinkers who were probably more sympathetic to the same causes of frustrated minorities of the world, opposing "globalization," American empirism, etc., compared to the average Westerner. Yes, this hideous act will get the terrorists on the international news, but how could it possibly win them supporters?
- 10/13/2002
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Personal Details Aryze
An industry friend posts an erotic poem from his own pen to his Ryze page. Plus a cool Fonzie-like photo. Interesting how Ryze brings out sides of people you never knew.
- 10/13/2002
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Gogol Bordello on the Radio
Gogol Bordello is not the kind of band you'd expect to get much radio airplay. But I notice they got a plug (and a web photo) on WNYC's Sunday art program "The Next Big Thing." Unfortunately I missed it and the show doesn't appear to have an audio archive.
- 10/13/2002
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Eyeballs
Earlier in the night, a gruff, bustling New Yorker opened a taxi door into Elizabeth's eye. Later in the night, on the frenzied dance floor of the Bulgarian disco, Elizabeth nearly extinguished a cigarette in my eye. Thankfully, vision is still working all around and bruises are less pronounced than they ought to be.
- 10/13/2002
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