Holy cow, more good news: HBO has signed on the dotted line for a fourth season of The Wire! Production is late this year for 12 episodes to air early 2006, no word on the story line, and Dominic West may or may not be back though everyone else is signed. Excellent!

Workbench: Friday, March 18, 2005

Rogers Cadenhead said: “They are admittedly a largely white and male group, but I assuage my liberal guilt by linking often to Bill Lazar, who as you may not realize is a transgendered teen-aged Cuban-American evangelical whose mother was a notch baby.”

Now Rogers has always seemed like a nice enough guy to me and so where he came up with this terrible filthy slander I have no idea. But I like it, totally, I was laughing out loud so hard that my wife came running over to see what was wrong. Paralyzed with hysterics, all I could do was point to the screen.

My preference is to stay away from blogging tempests in teapots, as I have until now on this one, but I think the whole argument is hooey. If you look at the main page blogroll on this site, at least as of when I’m writing, there are 13 personal blogs. Four are written by women, three of whom are white, the other nine by white males. I do have a link to Oliver Willis’s Brand Democrat up above in the semi-political section and he’s a person of color, though male as far as I know.

You know what? So what. Has no bearing at all on my attitudes about how people ought to relate to and deal with each other. Search the zillion and one gay marriage threads sometime on MetaFilter for my username, billsaysthis, and you’ll get a much more useful answer than a blogroll. Search this site for the phrase Bushinations.

Rogers hit it on the head. I’ve been hiding behind this middle aged Jewish facade for too long. The real me is yearning to be set free, and TS1 is in a panic. Too far from anything she’s dealt with before.

But Rogers, how come you haven’t come out yourself? Easy to point the finger at this little transgendered Cubano to hide that spaceship in your second bedroom. That’s right, folks, Rogers Cadenhead is an alien here to prepare us for the ranchers–Soylent Green is people and Rogers and his friends are going to eat us all.

Blockaged

I’m supposed to be at work already, a half hour into the day, but instead am sitting hear for a second morning in a row while a plumber attempts to clear a blockage in the main pipes in Ol’ 67. Particularly annoying because the plumber sent yesterday by the dolts at American Home Shield wouldn’t go on the roof, which seems necessary to correct this. When asked why a plumber wasn’t sent from a company which would do roof work, the AHS rep claimed it wasn’t their responsibility.

I really need to research home warranty companies to see if I can find one better rated than them when the policy is up for renewal in the fall. This reminded me of a recently posted Forbes article, Top Corporate Hate Web Sites, and so I see there is no shortage of discontent towards American Home Shield from others. The biggest problem I have with the company is the way they adhere to some internal rulebook like robots but refuse to share the rules with customers and second is the rules governing work done outside of normal business hours.

This problem happened on Saturday and we’ve been on pins and needles ever since that the next toilet flush or hand wash will put things over the edge and cause a big flood. Something similar happened a few years ago and we had to replace a big chunk of carpet and install some new pipes. The plumber’s still got his power snake working, I hear it up on the roof, just keep your fingers crossed.

p.s. This plumber did the trick and in very little time. If only AHS had sent the call to his company in the first place, I’d be much happier.

Book review: Singularity Sky

Charles Stross, a fellow MeFite, is, it turns out, an awesome science fiction writer. Even though I’d heard his name previously, it was just recently when he turned up on MetaFilter that I decided to try and grab one of his books from the library. What a great premonition that was. Singularity Sky has to be one of the best finds I’ve made, along with Kage Baker, in recent years.

This novel has an amazing amount of creativity. The basic concept is something like this: Not too far in our future the intertwirling development of ubiquitous connectivity, increasing processing power, genetic engineering and globalization drive us into a Vingean singularity and moments later a deity-like entity named the Eschaton reaches back into its own past to plant 90% of humanity on a spread of suitable worlds. The Eschaton also warns humans not to mess with the timeline, now possible with another of Stross’ creative takes on SF tech, under pain of serious slapdown. Delivered via, say, planetkilling asteroids or worse.

Several hundred years have passed as we meet our new friends. Some planets are more or less technological dreams, others have chosen to turn their backs and stick with a 19th century-ish lifestyle. People are still people, except for those who’ve uploaded into one of any number of systems, and so emotions continue to drive their actions regardless. Then Stross throws in a wildcard: the Festival, a multi-species aggregation of uploaded entities, who travel from solar system to solar system to connect up off the grid worlds, as they do Novy Petrograd on the first page.

I’m trying to find some words that aren’t just more plot explanation and simple fanboy fawning but it’s difficult. This is really good. The characters are interesting people, given good dialog and interesting changes. Sometimes, just briefly, I did feel like there might have been a bit of just showing off stuff because he thought of it, just a bit.

definitely recommended

BTW, I “ran into” Charlie in a blog way three years ago

Sunday’s movie: Runaway Jury

At the time of its initial release two years ago this John Grisham novel-sourced film got such bad reviews that even though I’m a big John Cusack fan and had enjoyed the novel quite a bit I completely ignored it. Silly me. So early evening Saturday and late afternoon Sunday I finally sat down and watched Runaway Jury.

Basic plot: New Orleans stockbroker (Dylan McDermott in a cameo) is shot, along with 10 co-workers, after a recently-dismissed colleague goes postal first thing one Monday morning. Two years later his widow’s (Joanna Going) civil suit against the manufacturer of the gun used to murder her husband is coming to trial. Dustin Hoffman is the old-fashioned southern lawyer who will plead her case, with a bit of support from jury consultant Jeremy Piven. The corporate defense is much more extravagent, with Bruce Davison as lead counsel and Gene Hackman leading a high-tech, low integrity team of jury consultants. Cusack is the fly in this ointment, a member of the jury, in cahoots with girlfriend Marlee (Rachel Weisz) to throw the verdict to the highest bidder.

Director Gary Fleder is the hero in my book. Although highly criticized for changing the industrial villain from Big Tobacco, this seems a reasonable choice to me given the way that industry began losing lawsuits, and losing them badly at many levels, between the book’s publication and the movie’s production. Gun makers, on the other hand, are still nearly always victorious at court. And Fleder moves what could have translated into a plodder, with lots of talky court scenes, into a well-paced thriller. With a twist ending, with only a hint or two as to the outcome, just enough so that one wouldn’t feel cheated by something pulled out of thin air.

recommended

Yes, well, the potential work-related thing did turn into a real paying position at a new company founded by one of the NetDynamics founders. Very early days, very small, lots to do, lots of ways to contribute. First day, today, was very enjoyable in this sense. Tiring, long too. Not much more I can really put out at this time, will blab all over when that day comes. Of course have already proposed a blog for the company.

Bushinations: The value of one’s word

President Bush and his supporters have stressed two key concepts since at least the beginning of his re-election campaign: a return to traditional family values and the development of an ownership society. In two recent articles in today’s New York Times alone, though, we see that these policies are more “do what I say, not what I do” when applied to the people who supply Republican electoral efforts with cash and other useful resources. One wonders how these individuals resolve such conflicts privately, especially those espousing religion-based personal moralities.

In Sorry, I’m Keeping the Bonus Anyway, reporter Jonathan Glater demonstrates that many American corporate executives would rather keep their piles of money rather than their integrity by keeping bonuses paid to them for financial performance results later proved wrong. In the editorial Mr. Bush’s Stealthy Tax Increase the lopsided impact of the Alternative Minimum Tax explicitly undermines Bush Administration claims that its policies further the ability of middle class families to secure their financial futures.

The Glater article begins by stating that over 400 corporations restated previous year earnings in 2004 alone yet the reporter can only find one situation, at Nortel Networks, where executives returned performance bonus compensation; then again, Nortel is a Canadian company (though subject to American financial laws). Mainly, it seems, corporate directors shy away from pursuing this issue for fear of further sullying the company’s reputation as well as the cost and length of litigation. The Securities and Exchange Commission, the primary regulator, is so swamped by the workload of investigating the malfeasance of recent years that it cannot reach this far down the priority queue.

So my question to corporate executives, paid dozens or hundreds times the earnings of the mass of people working at the base of their corporate pyramids–and to officials in government agencies and departments that oversee them as well–is where are your values? Specifically, where is your integrity and willingness to live by the code which you publicly claim to support?

Laws, regulations and employment contracts aside, to fallen executives: Humbly accept your shortcomings and supply us instead with examples of the leadership and honor claimed while working up to your exalted (albeit, generally former) positions rather than hiding in silence behind lawyers who take advantage of boards of directors unwilling to face their own responsibilities. Don’t wait for lawsuits and SEC investigations to disgorge the ultimately unearned monies paid in good faith, just go into the den and get out your checkbook.

The Times’ editorial lays out some simple facts: tens of millions of American families, particularly those earning between $75,000 and $150,000 annually, will lose any benefits from the first term tax cuts as the AMT, not indexed for inflation, chews away deductions for state income and property taxes over the next decade. Meanwhile, the richest Americans will avoid most of the AMT impact because the tax rate on capital gains doesn’t come into play.

To President Bush and the members of his Administration: Speak honestly and consistently while spending the political capital you claimed to have won in the November elections. Don’t travel around the country generating support for Social Security reform on the one hand while quietly implementing tax changes on the other that are more likely than not to wipe out any potential gains from such reform. Show confidence in your proposals by meeting opponents in public and answering their criticism directly and comprehensively.

Last night’s movie: Thief

After seeing Heat again the other day, I noticed Mann’s 1981 similar themed Thief coming on one of the movie channels and put it on the Tivo’s to do list. Yesterday I sat down to watch the movie and was surprisingly disappointed; so much so that I deleted it after only 40 minutes.

The elements that Mann would go on to develop in Miami Vice, Heat and most recently Collateral are all present: dark but sharp visuals, quickly cut; ambiguously good or bad man as protagonist; and pulsing, pounding synthesizer music. One significant improvement in his later productions was adding a substantive contrasting character, here James Caan has no real mirror to work off and so is left dangling like a boxer alone in the ring punching at air.

Further, even at the 40 minute mark I wasn’t even sure of the movie’s central conflict. James Caan’s character is the titular criminal and is his problem the fact that a bigger fish in the Chicago criminal scene (Robert Prosky) wants to assign Caan work? If so, Mann made a big mistake devoting a single scene to this after a full third of the movie has passed.

Further, what’s the story with the waitress Jesse (played by Tuesday Weld) relationship? I turned off the film after Caan’s long autobiographical soliloquy to her in a coffeeshop. Perhaps we’re being told that Caan wants to get out of a life that has given him little pleasure but setting it up by having Caan physically drag Weld out of a bar–he’s two hours late and she’s lost interest–and throw her into the car completely destroyed my sympathy/empathy for him.

Enough. Mann’s made better and spend your time watching those. One good thing, can’t finish without mentioning, is the soundtrack. Though he turned to Jan Hammer and a smoother, more commercial take for Vice, German art rockers Tangerine Dream deliver a great soundtrack to Thief.

not recommended

Obligatory MIA entry

So, I haven’t written too much here this week, though did have a little Haiku battle with Garret that was amusing. Not intentionally slacking as some potential work-related things came up, more on that later, and I chose to spend more time reading a couple of actual physical books. Also, the weather has been just gorgeous, mid-70s up into the 80s and clear skies; after so much rain and grey skies this is tough to concentrate on writing.

Now I’m going back to my book, at least until Stargate SG-1 comes on. LOL!

Book review: Skinny Dip

Carl Hiaasen is a funny writer whose novels tell tales of people losing touch with real values amidst the monstrosity that is modern South Florida. I previously read and wrote up his Double Whammy and Native Tongue though looking back on the reviews I think I like Skinny Dip best of all. Maybe he’s got the outer stuff, the collision with humanity’s inhuman attack on nature, down well enough know that his characters and plots get more attention.

At the start of Skinny Dip, Joey Perrone is on a cruise to celebrate her second wedding anniversary with Chaz. Or so she thinks until the last night when, despite a light rain that’s keeping everyone else inside, he urges her to take a walk out on the back (stern?) deck with him and he picks her up by the ankles and tosses her over the side. Into the drink. Not looking good but, of course, she manages to survive until Mick Stranahan, an ex-cop now living the solitary life on a tiny little island, rescues her.

By this point, though, Chaz has reported her missing with a cover story designed to misdirect the search and rescue teams as well as any copy who might think her disappearance had anything to do with him. The rest of our story is how Joey and Mick attempt to drive Chaz nuts as police detective Karl Rolvaag (who yearns to escape back to Minnesota) picks at the pieces from his own angle.

Plotwise, things end up more or less as you’d expect. This is not a bad thing, though, because Hiaasen only uses plot as a framework to expose the foolishness, insecurity and self-delusion that clouds so many minds from finding happiness. Joey, for instance, despite having a substantial pile of inherited money convinced herself that Chaz loved her and was worth marrying despite plenty of warning signs, Chaz has slid through life on a haze of good looks, sexual prowess and charming lies and Nick, well Nick has six ex-wives. We get mirror characters scattered throughout that illuminate other paths, such as Joey’s brother Corbett who spent his inheritence on a sheep farm in New Zealand and Chaz’s mistress Ricca shows us something of an anti-Joey, plus other well-drawn actors such as Rolvaag, Red Hammernut and Tool. Maybe especially Tool, one of the best drawn, most interesting barely thinking muscle men I can recall.

recommended, lots of fun

Modern anti-marketing

The most expensive $94 Orbitz will ever make. Maddox, well you either love or hate his style and he’s been posting rants to the web longer than blogs have existed (hey, not that his site is a blog, just sayin’), but in his latest posting he gives us a great lesson in how our little websites can cost big companies plenty of business. We can hardly verify the stories in the emails he’s posting but there must be enough people sending his message to Orbitz that the travel site has written a form response to them. That $94 of his they hung on to, well, you have to figure Orbitz has spent a heck of a lot more just for the staff time to respond to his and his readers’ emails and to come up with this custom response.

Scoble, this seems like something you and Shel might want to investigate for your book. How can companies respond when customer issues have exploded on a widely-read website to minimize damage or even turn it around, especially when the writer is not generally known for being easy to deal with?

Yay Reds!

Great result for Liverpool, another 3-1 victory over Bayern Leverkusen, in today’s Champions League matchup and now Rafa says “We can go all the way”. Would be nice to see just a bit more consistency, there’s little room left in the EPL standings to reach fourth place and guarantee a return to this competition next season. Chelsea was the other English side to move to the Quarterfinals, along with AC Milan, Juventus, PSV Eindhoven, Lyon, Bayern Munich and the winner of the FC Porto/Inter Milan pairing (second leg is next Tuesday); Arsenal lived down to their European reputation again while Manchester United could never get van Nistelrooy or Rooney unleashed and ended their round with no goals at all. The draw for the last eight is next Friday and there is not a single easy matchup for the Reds, in fact I’m sure just about all the other teams are crossing their fingers to draw us. We’ll see how that goes, next game is in early April.