Genius

Pure Genius... (NSFW)

Illness and Linguistics

I’ve spent the last week and a half laid out on the couch. I wish I could say this was a good thing. In reality, it just sucked. All I had the energy to do was surf the web and watch movies. On the upside of that, I can definitely recommend All About Eve, anything ever directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and almost anything written by Billy Wilder; I once would have said any Billy Wilder but then I saw Seven Year Itch. Most of the new movies we rented were crap including, sadly, the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (though The Island was a fun bit of escapism).

Before my debilitating illness, I was going to do a thoroughly insightful and thought provoking post on my inexplicable love of critical theory. Though the mood is gone, there are still a few links I want to put down in wax so that I don’t forget them.

First, is Daniel Chandler’s Semiotics for Beginners. For those baffled by post structural linguistics, this is a most excellent place to start. He really does an excellent job of covering all of the bases and even provides something of a textual analysis cheat sheet. Yes, Virginia, the site has apparently been there since time immemorial, but it’s new to me damn-it!

As I got ready to blog the second of them, Dougie Bicket’s Kiss of the Panopticon, I discovered (much to my horror) that it was gone! ACK! This thing was a really well done survey of all things “cultural theory.” Well, here’s a link to an older version so that you can get the idea. I really hope that he gets it back up.

Dig the new tunes

Found a couple of new interesting bits of music this week (both via Boing Boing [1, 2]).

First, I have a new festival to dream of going to (along with Montreaux, Newport, and Burning Man): behold Chillits. MP3’s (and torrents) are available of this year’s participants. I particularly liked DF Tram’s set, but I haven’t made it through them all yet. I also liked his quote about the festival: “This is music best enjoyed horizontally.”

Secondly, CultureBully has posted his ten favorite mashups of the year. There was a healthy smattering of dj BC stuff in there as well as some cat’s I’d not heard of. I’m not sure all of them would land on my personal “best of” list, but they're still very definitely worth your time.

Pictionary takes an odd turn

Pictionary takes an odd turn,
originally uploaded by skippytpe.

Happy New Year all! (or at least "Happy New Year!" to the three of you that read this). After a rather turbulent Christmas vacation it was nice to return to what passes for normalcy in the McGregor house. On the very definately up side, Tim, Elizabeth, and Mary made it over for a New Years Eve shindig which featured fireworks, Scategories, and Tim's Belly (a must at any party).