Blog

  • Off to the races

    To begin with, I have to note with some sadness that Saul Bellow has died. It’s perhaps not necessary for me to mention that he was a great writer, since he actually won the Nobel prize in literature (rather than just being nominated by some insane senator from FL). It was in 1989 that I…

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  • In their own words

    The events of the last few weeks have brought a whole slew of political topics to the fore: the separation of powers, state’s rights, the role of religion in America, the meaning of conservatism. Here, with no commentary, editing or emphasis, are some interesting statements on these topics. I have backed up a few months…

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  • Friday Cat Blogging!

    Here are the cat-stars on their latest shoot… Billie is pretending not to notice that bud of catnip before her: Billie is not allowed on the dinner table, especially not when we’re eating. So, what she does is very clever, she hides behind this vase. See if you can spot her! Zachary doing some hunting!…

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  • Another sad day for NYC

    Bobby Short died this morning. Just two weeks ago I wrote a short list of things I needed to do right away; seeing Bobby Short play his gig at the Carlyle was number 1 on the list. Number 2 was to see Les Paul do his show at the Iridium; we’re hoping to do that…

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  • Sunday bobble-head blogging

    1) Rummy the lizard-man on Stefanopoulis. (Note, we only call him the lizard man because he has the heart, soul, and mind of a reptile. And he eats flies.) What does Rummy think of the ABC poll that shows 53% of Americans now think the war in Iraq wasn’t worth fighting, and that 41% think…

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  • Friday Cat Blogging!

    From the “brght,-bright-sunshiny-day” department: Da thoid week. It’s spring in NYC and the kitties are loving it… Zachary getting some window time: Billie doing some sun bathing: This is about as close as they can get before they start wailing on each other:

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  • Cascading Style Sheets: some web design evangelism

    From the “It’s-worth-the-drive-to-Acton” department: It’s been a long while since I’ve had religion about web design. But the project I’m undergoing to revamp the cyberkrunk main web site has made me see the light. For several years, my main web site had languished in a cypherpunk-esque anti design. The idea was simple: no graphics, just…

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  • New York: Thursday St. Paddy’s blogging

    NYC: Guinness, Jameson’s, fish ‘n chips, malt vinegar… Before: After:

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  • Last call at the Oak Bar

    From the “paging-George-Kaplan department.” My first trip to the Oak Bar was way back in the twentieth century, during a trip to New York, before I lived here. It was an evening of contrasts: stuffy old expensive midtown, followed by hip, cheap downtown. The three of us had two rounds of cocktails and the tab…

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  • Covert Propaganda

    There’s a substantial piece in today’s NY Times about the current Bush administration’s unprecedented efforts to sway public opinion by distributing fake news reports to the major televsion networks, and by putting pundits on the payroll. Fake TV news in particular seems to be a favorite ploy of this administration–remember the RNC last summer when…

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  • The Rice Filibuster

    Seeing Condi on MTP this morning reminds me of the method preferred by the current administration for dealing with the press, namely to avoid any direct answer to questions, but instead to filibuster them with long responses peppered with talking points. Condi is one of the true masters of this technique, owing to her ability…

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  • Friday Cat Blogging!

    action-cat edition! Part the second… Billie: Zachary: And now for the bonus round, Friday antique Noguchi Akari lamp blogging:

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  • CBGB MBGBB

    From the “things-that-make-Joey-Ramone-cry department…” After the Plaza closes, what’s next? Well, CBGB Might-Be-Going-Bye-Bye. This due to a long-standing rent dispute with the current owners. The Bitter End went through similar gyrations recently, but managed to save itself at the last minute. Let’s hope we see a similar miracle here… This from the NY Times story:…

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  • Remember Googlezon?

    Dexter writes “…you don’t think I really believe you work for a drug company, do you? EPIC 2014 Now, Dex, I assure you that I have nothing whatever to do with EPIC <evil-laugh src=”muahaha.mp3″>. But like many people, I am anxious about what seems to be our current trajectory towards one mega-monopoly controlling everything. When…

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  • New York: The Plaza closing its doors

    So we were sitting in the Oak Bar, having cocktails with friends who had traveled from Toronto to see the Gates, when B. said, “it’s a shame about the Plaza closing, isn’t it?” “The Plaza closing?” I replied with my trademark incredulity, “no, you’re probably thinking of the Gramercy Hotel, which just closed to go…

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  • Friday Cat Blogging

    Here’s the first installment… Billie: Zachary: And now for the bonus round, Friday Vancouver Sea Otter Blogging! (Props to Prof M. for this shot.)

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  • Sweety Das Küken and other weird iMemes

    On my last few working trips to Europe, I would tune in to German MTV from time to time. Somehow inanity dubbed or subtitled into German is more engaging than plain old English inanity. But if you watch for more than a few minutes, you will see, endlessly repeated, these bizarre little commercials for special…

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  • There and Back Again

    From the, “Then again, maybe I won’t… department.” Cyberkunk industry insiders have known since December 2004 about plans to re-locate the global headquarters of cyberkrunk Labs, Inc. to Paris. The cyberkrunk corporate communications department reports that cyberkrunk will actually remain in midtown Manhattan. This decision came after detailed analysis of a contract proposal that centered…

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  • (ex-) Sedrick fan #1

    From the “The inverse square law is your friend, department…” Silly Lilly writes “OK, Here’s my little news piece about someone who did a search on our drummer’s name because he liked “Spankdriven”, a band she played in a couple of years ago. He has an obsession with the bass and contacted me because of…

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  • Les Paul at Iridium

    From the “good-things-come-from-Waukesha” department: Not to be ghoulish about it, but the death of Bobby Short yesterday created a real sense of urgency about seeing Les Paul do his regular Monday night gig at Iridium. I had lost my chance to see Bobby, and wasn’t going to miss out on seeing Les. As soon as…

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  • 10 great movies

    From the “There-are-better-things-to-watch” department: I’m marking the occasion of America’s annual celebration of mediocrity at the movies known as the (trademark, copyright, I’ll probably be sued just for mentioning them without the express written permission of Major League Baseball) Oscars, by writing about some great films. These are all films worth seeing again if you’ve…

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  • Gates of heck

    New York is the best city in the world, and I don’t mean just to visit. If you don’t already know this, then I’m not going to try to explain it to you. The importance of Central Park to this wonderful equation can hardly be overstated. We sometimes refer to the park as the “lungs”…

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  • Composer John Sherlock declared Leader and/or Dreamer

    Toronto composer John Mark Sherlock will be featured in an upcoming issue of Maclean’s magazine, which is roughly the Canadian equivalent to TIME magazine in the US. This issue, part of a series celebrating the 100th anniversary of the magazine, will profile 100 Canadian leaders in fields including the Arts, Sciences, Business and more than…

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  • George Tsontakis wins Grawemeyer

    George Tsontakis has been awarded the 2005 Grawemeyer award in composition. This is very nice to hear. I, along with half a million other student composers, studied with George at the Aspen school; in my case back in the summer ’89. In addition to being a brilliant composer he is a brilliantly funny person–and he…

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  • Welcome to the new site

    From the “wow-this-took-longer-than-I-thought-it-would” department: Welcome to the new home of cyberkrunk! As you can see, we have gone completely from one extreme (simple html) to the other (a full-function blog~portal). I hope that everyone finds useful and entertaining stuff here… What should you post here? Well, how about news, upcoming gigs, CD releases, reviews (music,…

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