Author: Nick

The Code4Lib Journal

The code4lib folks have launched their e-journal! I first heard about this project, and the group itself for that matter, at ASIS&T’s 2007 Annual Meeting. Although the whole conference was beyond excellent, code4lib was one of the top five highlights for me. Enough of my blather though, here’s the link:
The Code4Lib Journal

I found the article on the development of an OPAC API to be most interesting.

Stormy and the Like

The ice wasn’t too horrible out here and the snow has been nice. Then again I didn’t clean off the driveway before heading off to work. Work that started at noon.

Feeling really mellow and listening to a lot of Brubeck today. It’s nice.

Last night was an interesting night on the desk. Was propositioned by some lady who looked like my mother’s peer to come to [bar’s name] on Friday so that I could meet her mid-thirties-ish, single friend. All well and good—who doesn’t like to be found attractive, right? I deftly parried the request by alluding to my present girlfriend, with whom I live. Perhaps it was too deft because the request turned into some kind of hard sell. She wasn’t going to take no for an answer all the while I’m trying to help her locate some obscure article. Thank FSM the reference librarian wandered back to the desk so I could pass her off. Seriously weird moment in the life of a geekular wall flower.

Told Elz about it and she asked if she needed to mark me every morning before I head off to work. I replied that I think that could be kind of fun.

heh.

Holiday Sucktacular

Certainly ranking in the top five shows ever, the Holiday Sucktacular was a really fun one for me. I’m not the biggest fan of Christmas and especially Christmas with the families. Everyone expects you to be at their celebration and if you travel home for the holidays you end up running yourself ragged just to say hi to everyone. Add in the heavy consumerist tones that reverberate through every single media vector and it the holidays become one giant suck.

So taking the piss, as it were, I tried to get a slight handle on things. The show is completely silly and irreverent. There’s a noticeable lack of technical glitches and I was able to drag out some tunes I’d been sitting on for nearly a year.

Here’s what I had to say about things at the time:

Fezboy! is on a mission to take the holiday season back from the commercial interests and bring it home to the silly, goofy, festive folks who make the season bright. To that end I bring you intriguing recorded oddities for your holiday listening pleasure. I hesitate to call it good, but I will call it interesting tossed in with a bit of fun.

As most of this was procurred from on-line sources, I offer links with this playlist. You can download your own copies, download the audio file of this show, or load up the podcast in your favorite podcasting application.

Playlist after the jump… Continue reading “Holiday Sucktacular”

De-evolution

I’ve always loved Devo. Even when they, or what they’ve since become, strike an odd chord I knew what they were after. It’s always better to reach and fail than to not play at all. I’ve also annoyed friends and family and co-workers by pointing out Mothersbaugh or Devo bits that get injected into the sea of pop culture in which we try to keep our sanity afloat.

They came at the mainstream from a revolutionary angle. When the mainstream co-opted their position (as the mainstream always will when an angle attracts a following) they appeared to fold. I hate to use Iraq as an analogy, but it is apt here. Hussien’s power structure meekly folded in the face of obviously overwhelming force. The dispersal wasn’t a show of weakness however. It was a paradigm shift. The conflict moved to an asymetrical, insurgent / gorilla phase.

I think Devo pulled a similar maneuver whether consciously or not. By fading into the fabric of pop culture they are able to comment on and manipulate it in ways that are unavailable to someone on the outside. Mothersbaugh, in particular, seemed visionary in his creation of Mutata Muzika. De-evolutionary influence pervades all aspects of media these days. By ‘selling out’ Devo actually went all in. And it looks like they’re way ahead in this game.

Don’t believe me, read this article in the LA Weekly. The in-depth look at Mothersbaugh post-Devo and what that group of people have accomplished belies the treatment the band gets as a one-hit wonder.

Oh, and if you’re suitably impressed, there’s an appropriately de-evolutionary fan club that offers fun and gifts and the opportunity to ironically commercialize art through mass consumption of crafted oddities. I’m proud member 1221.