I got a nasty sensation of futureshock when I read this piece from The Economist detailing a pop music optimizer that creates hit songs based on a combination of algorithms tweaked-out to generate a market-ready ‘musical product’ (my phrase).
The software uses a process called “spectral deconvolution” to isolate and analyse around 30 parameters that define [...]

It’s not fair. While Michael Ballack gets to sell for Sony (even as that electronic Godzilla’s status slides by the day), Bastian Schweinsteiger has to shill for Unilever meat snacks, the kind you only see at gas station cash registers–since they have the shelf life of, well, nobody really knows yet. Not to mention that [...]

The end of June is real hum-dinger for the birthdays in my family. This one goes out to my other brother from the same mother, Micah (מִיכַיְהוּ). I trust that you’re having a happy one over in the Windy Windy. Or whatever the word for ‘happy’ is in underground Chicago. Don’t forget to get [...]

I’ve been on something of an Einstürzende Neubauten kick lately. I don’t know all that much about the band (yet), but the more I learn/hear the more I love. Genre-wise they fit neatly into the category of don’t-fit-anywhere, rather undefinable like Captain Beefheart or GYBE!. To my mind, they are distinctly and eminently Berlin with [...]

Lidl is Germany’s fifth largest supermarket chain and arguably one of Europe’s fastest expanding–they’re in 17 European countries already. What they lack in selection (I was shocked when I visited Kroger in Murray, Kentucky last April to see 30 (!) kinds of orange juice) they compensate with way-low prices, a Walmart-modelled* “deep discount” joint, one [...]

All is well in Deutschland. At least as far as Fussball goes and for the moment, myself now being fully absorbed into the FIFA hive mind, for the life of me I can’t think of anything more important. I could swear there was something else going on in the world, something even more important, possibly [...]

That’s all I want to say. It’s too nice outside to waste any more time blogging today.
Here’s to you Sam. I don’t actually know if you’re in Toronto or Murray at this exact moment, but I’m pretty sure that you’ve gotta be in northern North America, possibly somewhere near a Cabela’s. Regardless, I hope there’s [...]

so called ’cause of the black star in the flag.
Well, Italy did their part with a 2-0 Czechmate (ha ha, get it, ok, nevermind). But, alas, the US didn’t manage to keep up the heat or avoid the fussy refs. Yeah, like I thought (being the soccer expert that I am, ha) they had more [...]

That’s the intro from the the WWF’s Royal Rumble, right? I think it is, but goodness knows I can’t be bothered to look it up. I’ve had a bad case of the football (soccer) fever for a coupla weeks now. And it’s getting worse. So, Ghana is playing the US in 20 minutes and I’m [...]

Is that Latin? I don’t know. This blog is in transition, though, that’s what I’m trying to say, however esoterically. If you’re wondering why your link is not showing up at the right, that’s because I haven’t figured out how to get the CSS to jive with this new WordPress theme (Kiwi). Yet. I didn’t [...]

via villagevoice.com / here, the Rolling Stone joint by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Hey, did you catch the US-Italy game on Saturday? Goddamn. I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t tell if I was watching a soccer game or Bloodsport 5. I’m guessing US forward Eddie Johnson’s pre-game comments comparing the upcoming showdown to war (after visting troops at Ramstein Air Base the day before) didn’t help [...]

Thank you ALA. I, like, couldn’t agree more. (via neatorama)
- Check out my bruva, JP, putting it down for the man (scroll down) thx Micah, Jesse
- Jay-Z is boycotting Cristal (I should have a Jay-Z category, huh)

exists. I swear it does.
First off, I have never, ever before seen so many German flags flying around on cars, hanging from store fronts or painted on faces (or soccer balls on, well, everything), ever. It is somehow gratifying finally see this kind of sudden, socially permitted, light-hearted patriotism (?) and pride (?) the likes [...]

Not to sound all emo but I’m, like, kinda hurting a lot right now. About, like, my data that, like, died last night. Now, mind you (luckily) it wasn’t personal in the sense of me creating it but it was in the sense of collecting and organizing it, a helluva lotta good mp3-based music (approx. [...]

I should have known. But 0-3, that’s just mean. Hopes were so high, El Presidente Bush even personally telephoned the coach/team with well wishes just before the game. “Give ‘em hell,” he said. (Maybe he jinxed ‘em.) Too bad he already used, “Smoke ‘em outta their holes.” The Texas hillbilly jargon lexicon only has so [...]

Today. At 18:00 World Cup Time. See ya @ Brandenburger Tor / Gate. There are eight massive screens posted up and down the Strasse der 17. Juli, which is blocked off from traffic, lending the avenue something of a Straßenfest feel. Sun is blazing. Hooligan activity low. Roaming tourist activity high.
Beer costs €3.50 and is [...]

Warning: this entry is somewhat coherency-deficient

I guess me posting this is proof positive that the world as we know it did not, in fact, get split in half or end in horrendous apocalypse yesterday. Whoo ho! That’s a relief. I did get a little worried, though, when the sky turned dark at 16:00 yesterday. And [...]

Like 800,000 other people this weekend, I was on the streets of 61 Kreuzberg watching the Carnival of Cultures wind through the streets. It’s always a good time, a kind of chaotic mashup of African dancing, Asian sashaying and South American (read: Brazilian) footballing. It was crazy: seven different Brazilian groups, nearly all participants looking [...]