Lazy days in Asheville

Thanks to Malaprop’s Bookstore for the Internet access here in Asheville.

I was wondering about the difference between tourism and adventure as I rode the bus and hussled between stations. I think it’s a matter of planning. Adventure seems to require a lack of it, and I’ve got plenty of that to spare.

“Transmission fell off.” Those were the words shortly into the bus trip to Nashville. It rolled across the interstate into the median. The bus had a spare for some reason. Met a real estate magnate bumming around the square last night. He’s friends with the Schlitterbaun folks. Stayed with the inestimably jovial, friendly and smart Plaid Ninja in Knoxville.

The cost of war

What does President Bush have to say to this mom who lost her child in Iraq? A devastating new ad.

It's about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness

Policy decisions at the organizational, corporate, and governmental levels should be more heavily influenced by issues related to well-being — people’s evaluations and feelings about their lives. Beyond Money: Towards an Economy of Well-Being from American Psychological Society.

Y Tu Mama action figures!

Gael Garcia Bernal, star of Motorcycle Diaries, vents some frustration in an article in the Detroit Free Press.

What does that mean, ‘art house hit?’ Nothing. It still means that most people in your country will never even consider seeing them. These films do not get the chance to compete with the Hollywood films. They get tossed off as foreign and independent films like they are somehow not ready to compete with all that crap that Hollywood produces. Hey, where’s my action figure?That’s how I will know we are taken seriously, when I get an action figure.

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"The delusional is no longer marginal"

Jim Gilliam has an extract from a recent Bill Moyers speech. He quotes a huge chunk about the power Dispensationalists have been able to amass. Bill Moyers doesn’t use that term in his speech but he’s talking about Dispensationalism. It’s a way of looking at Christianity from the back-end. Start at the Rapture and work your way backwards to figure out what you’re supposed to be doing now. Based on hermeneutic study this means supporting the state of Israel so it can be destroyed and thus bring about the Second Coming, the Rapture, the Tribulation and so forth.

Place dJemaa el-Fna in Marrakech, Morocco

Picture taken in February 2004.

The Place dJemaa el-Fna is one of the most amazing places I’ve ever been. I had always heard about the medinas of Morocco but this is the place that blew me away. At night the square fills with vendors, story tellers, snake charmers, pick pockets, drug dealers, acrobats and all sorts of other folk. The atmosphere was intoxicating and I meandered in open-mouthed awe around the square. I was lucky to be there right after the Moroccan soccer team had won second place in the Africa’s Cup. The whole country was going nuts, and especially in that square.

Preparations

I’ve been trying to come up with a way to solve two problems to this bus adventure. Where can I keep my backpack, and where can I sleep? I haven’t been able to find places to store stuff, especially big things like backpacks. I haven’t been able to find urban campgrounds either. I don’t want to hide out in hotels.

It looks like I’m getting an Hostelling International card.

I have a feeling I’m not being creative enough. At any rate the hostelling thing is new to me, and it should afford opportunities to get more perspectives on the country.

How to handle bogus documents

Charles has a nice summation, cribbed from elsewhere, comparing and contrasting the handling of intelligence by President George W. Bush and CBS News anchor Dan Rather.

Does Netflix penalize frequent renters?...

Does Netflix penalize frequent renters?

Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence

I went up to Nashville tonight and caught a showing of the latest anime, Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence. As the story lines in anime are not very diverse you can probably guess what the movie is about by imagining a movie with a mix sci-fi/cyberpunk/police/megacorp elements. Like many anime series and movies, most notably Lain, it provides a philosophical look at humanity by building stories and observations around humans replacing body parts with mechanical enhancements. I was not a big fan of the original and was quite surprised by the huge following it developed. While the visual look was a stunning blend of 2D/3D techniques the story was obtuse and full of the overplotting so prevalent in the genre.