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3.26.2003  

reading & war thoughts

reading lately:
two really insightful articles at The War Against Silence, ostensibly a music-review site by glenn mcdonald, but one that frequently ventures into bigger ideas about life, art and tech:

1. switch (1/09)
2. 5:21:28:11 (1/16)

war thoughts:
why is it that war makes tv news so much easier to watch? is it possible to avoid the info-tainment aspects of the media coverage, big swooping chrome and gold banners and all? i suspect that even the adamant anti-war side has trouble not getting caught up in the spectacle of it, the dramatic imagery, the way they've perfected keeping you sitting there, clicker in hand, expecting something else to happen so soon that you dare not change the channel. or, god forbid, turn it off and do something else.

jeff greenfield did an interesting piece last night on CNN on the way the media's access to the battlegrounds is redefining public perception of what war is; and that it may even affect policy and the outcome. wild and crazy times, indeed.

3.20.2003  

To War or Not To War*

war blog

it seems so strange to have a country at war, one that i support at the least through inaction, at the most through monthly taxes and a willingness to go along to get along. i told cindy the other day that during the election 2000 fiasco i thought to myself "something big is going to happen in the next 4 years where the outcome will be decided by who slips through this thing as the winner." Iraq is it.

non-war blog

and so here's the rest. as much as i feel the strangeness noted above, and while i'll keep a window open on the new york times today, the main focus is on me; on things happening within sight and grasp. my mind's been on the pots so much lately that everything else seems so distant, despite the media barrage which seems to nearly equal the real ones going on.

unloaded the first firing of '03 last night, with mixed results, sad to say. perhaps i got a bit too confident in thinking i had this kiln figured out, or that i'd done the whole glazing process so diligently that it would turn out great. unfortunately, not. but i'm sure i'll be able to see the good ones as i get back to them - the disappointments always jump out first, especially for a perfectionist like myself, who hates to lose even a single pot. my 'reliable' glazes did great, good teadust and celadon, good ol' "reliable as death" temmoku... it was mainly that carbon trap shino, which had been so great for many firings in a row but failed to carbon trap this time. application too thin, not enough reduction is all i can think. some investigation will be required. all in all, though, it's a good start towards the pots for the upcoming spring sale, which calms my nerves significantly. breathe in, breathe out.

in other news, my old friend Wade (he's quite young, but i've known him since 9th grade) turned me on to this band Death Cab for Cutie and about four songs in to the first listen this morning i already know, like with American Football and Modest Mouse and Whiskeytown before, that this will be one of the bands i really, really like. thanks, Wade! i'll link here to my SHR-it list in the interest of promoting cross-pollination of good media.

* Yes, this is a shitty Shakespeare pun, which is in clear violation of the Geneva Conventions on treatment of captive audiences, not to mention bad taste. Sorry. Won't happen again.