Joey

"I'm filling up your H...ehm, SD card...heh heh heh..."
"Thanks!...and killing the battery all at the same time."

Strike terror into their hearts

I realize i'm coming in late on this but...

On 18 May 2011 here at Rome's Termini Station, a statue of Pope John Paul II was inaugurated to not a small amount of controversy and various polemics. I'll leave the search up to you if yr really interested. "Google is your friend," said the idiot who keeps a blog on Google's servers.

Strangely enough, even though i pass near Termini quite frequently (i live within walking distance) i hadn't seen the statue until many weeks later, while i was on (probably) the 75 bus. And this is what i saw (click the pics for a larger view)...

...coming from Piazza dei Cinquecento onto viale Enrico De Nicola...

...and from viale Enrico De Nicola.

Well...! It seriously took me minutes to realize who this new statue was supposed to be, even though i'd seen all of the fuss on the TG and the newspapers/websites. I seriously was thinking of another equally famous personality. And after my brain made the necessary connections, i still said (like many others had), "it doesn't even look like him!" But what i wanna know is what's with the cape?

Anyway, after weeks and weeks of threatening a little guerilla art, i have been dissuaded by two things: i could never pull it off physically and even if i could it's surrounded by surveillence cameras. It wouldn't have been a simple tag-and-run. So without further ado, i present the virtual version of my little piece of urban sabotage...



Works much better in this context, don't you agree?

Selected photos

I dreamt...

...of a song last night/this morning. Upon waking i had the phrase "...hide your madness in jar..." repeating in my head. My brain ran through its semi-vast index of songs, artists and lyrics...and nothing. For some reason i kept thinking it was something off of the "White Album," specifically Dear Prudence, but i knew that was wrong (for some reason i kept playing the Siouxsie and The Banshees version in my head). I then branched off into other territory, hoping to find the answer.

Nothing.

It took the "Answerer of all questions" to relieve the nagging. How sad.

Hard news

FLASH! -- This just in from the Detroit Free Press website...

Detroit bomb squad investigates suspicious garbage bag, finds it's just garbage

And just in case, as in the past, the article "Symes", here's a screenshot of the page...




DFP Staff, i'm sure that Pulitzer is being giftwrapped as we speak! I have got to stop reading the Free Press so often.

Borders Group in liquidation

I just read that Borders Group has filed for liquidation in US Bankruptcy Court yesterday (via the Detroit Free Press). Which i find sad. I remember i loved going to Borders bookstore. I mean it was always a near-religious experience for me. Seriously. I can't explain why. It's not as if it was the first bookstore i'd ever encountered (that would probably be recently-defunct mall staple B. Dalton). Maybe because of its size: from my first visit to the Ann Arbor location in the early eighties to my semi-regular visits to the Southfield bookstore, it just seemed like acres of books! And it seemed as if they covered the gamut of the printed word (which they probably did for the most part). Like some kids going to the ice cream shop, that was me going to Borders. Barnes & Noble?! Why, they're just an imitation of the Borders look and feel!*

The last books i'd bought from a physical bookstore were from a Borders franchise in the Atlanta (i'm pretty sure) airport. At the urging of the cashier i'd even signed up for their emailings. But that was in 2006 and a pretty generic experience, not the Borders experience i'd remembered. Obviously, being on the other side of the world for the last 15-ish years made it difficult to visit them. I eventually found their mailings with their exclusive offers and e-coupons pointless and i eventually unsubscribed. These last few years of books came from an online presence...another online presence...not Borders. Borders without walls, without a physical presence, made no sense to me. It was to be experienced, not just ordered from like a pizza joint. And maybe that was part of the problem.

The article also mentions how changing reading habits (i.e., eBooks) played a part in Borders' closing. Whereas i think this is just management not moving in step with the times, for many years now i've had this...fear...for the future of the printed book. While i can appreciate all the advantages of delivering media in electronic form, it also raises the bar of entry, especially in the matter of books...and reading...and literacy. Not that the closing of the Borders chain has anything to do with that. But i can't help feeling how one is just a signpost for the other.

* I honestly don't know in this case who copied whose style. I was first introduced to Borders before Barnes & Noble had a presence in the Detroit area...and i'm stickin' to that! :P

I did not know that!

As the late Johnny Carson used to say. According to this article on the Detroit Free Press' website, Detroit's People Mover, well, moves about 3,500 riders daily...5,000-6,000 on weekends and even more during special events. (emphasis mine)

Nine tells me (as well as our friend Wikipedia) it costs 50¢ to ride. 50 cents! That's nothing! According to Wikipedia, ...in fiscal year 1999-2000, the city spent $3.00 for every $0.50 rider fare, according to The Detroit News. That's ten years ago and it's still 50¢! I mean, would it be that big a deal to raise it to, say, a dollar? I mean, a dollar! That's still nothing! It's not as if the city couldn't use the fiscal help right now.

Nine says don't give them any ideas!

Cookies

Direct Hit Warning: heavy geekiness ahead.

Okay, there're utmas and phpbbs and apaches, and a plethora of others but...what the hell is this?!...