Being tasered isn’t a pleasant experience. Darts are launched into your skin, penetrating the flesh; they’re followed by a 50,000 volt shock, enough to make your muscles contract uncontrollably, causing you to collapse. The result is extremely painful—as one victim told the Associated Press, “It’s the most profound pain I’ve ever felt in my life. It’s complete submission. You can’t move. You can’t even blink.” It can be lethal as well. As Amnesty International reported in their 2007 Annual Report, “More than 70 people died after being shocked with tasers…bringing to more than 230 the number of such deaths since 2001.”
Archive for November, 2007
Ride the Lightning
Thursday, November 29th, 2007Nowitzki in the Outback
Wednesday, November 28th, 2007The Dallas Observer has a fun story on Dirk Nowitzki’s walkabout in Australia after the Mavericks were bounced from the playoffs. My favorite part:
“They hiked the canyons and mountains of Central Australia, and then they flew back to Sydney, where they spent a few days washing clothes.”
We also find out that Dirk and his mentor “went to Northern Australia, where they hiked near waterfalls and bathed in streams, even when signs warned them it was the wet season and crocodile danger was high.”
As someone who studied abroad there, let me caution that ignoring those signs is a very bad idea. They’re there for a reason, and it’s generally to prevent tourists from being munched on.
They Don’t Mean To, But They Do
Tuesday, November 20th, 2007The latest New Yorker has an article on poet Robert Hass. Reading it, I was struck by this excerpt, which follows a passage reflecting on the embarrassment induced by his alcoholic mother.
When we say “mother” in poems,we usually mean some woman in her late twentiesor early thirties trying to raise a child.We use this particular nounto secure the pathos of the child’s point of viewand to hold her responsible.
The sharpness of his childhood is reversed into an acknowledgment of his mother’s own struggles, one that forgives her. It’s a neat trick.
The poem is called Dragonflies Mating and could be found here in its entirety.
Glitter and Grandeur
Sunday, November 18th, 2007“Jackie is just speeding away/thought she was James Dean for a day/then I guess, she had to crash/valium would’ve helped that bash”
Life and art were indistinguishable for Jackie Curtis. The playwright, actor and drag artist was constantly on a stage of his own making, sometimes for two to three days straight thanks to the input of copious amounts of speed. A New York native, Curtis sought the glamour of Andy Warhol’s Factory scene as a high schooler, bringing in plays conceived in amphetamine fits and starring in some of Warhol’s early films—Flesh and Women in Revolt—with fellow drag star Candy Darling. While Warhol’s films and Lou Reed’s tribute in song may be Curtis’ best-known efforts, Craig Highberger’s documentary Superstar in a Housedress reveals the actor’s ultimate impact on the New York avant garde scene as well as gender-bending stars such as David Bowie.
Mockery Is All That Remains (well, and maybe two more losses)
Thursday, November 15th, 2007One good thing about the worst season in Notre Dame football history? It’s provided some good fodder for the Onion.
U.S. Military Wasting All Its Victories on Notre Dame
“It’s important to realize that our young men have been fighting pitched battles against religious fanatics who have been brainwashed into a culture that seeks to destroy all other ways of life,” Air Force head coach Troy Calhoun said Monday. “That’s just the way Notre Dame football is, the way it’s always been. You can’t reason with people like that. You destroy them as completely, remorselessly, and quickly as you can.”
Past articles from the top sources of fake news: Notre Dame Football Team Having Worst Season Since Corinthians, Notre Dame Football Announces Improvements To Its Storied History, and Notre Dame Unveils New “Holding Jesus”
The Grisly “Science”
Tuesday, November 13th, 2007Sherlock Holmes would be tumbling beneath his waterfall! Malcolm Gladwell has an article in the most recent New Yorker detailing how the supposed science of criminal profilers is pretty much a collection of the carny tricks favored by fortunetellers and “douche of the universe” John Edward.
Ambiguous statements (“I would say that on the whole you can be rather a quiet, self effacing type, but when the circumstances are right, you can be quite the life and soul of the party if the mood strikes you”) and “Fuzzy Facts” (“I can see a connection with Europe, possibly Britain, or it could be the warmer, Mediterranean part?”) paint a uselessly broad picture of rapists and serial killers. It’s only after the criminal is caught that profilers highlight their hits, or, as is often the case, ignore their misses.
Perhaps this article can stem the eruption of network TV shows that get off on bloodstain patterns and hazy flashbacks. If not, though, let me pitch a new twist—an FBI profiler profiles rogue profilers whose past profiling has made them go crazy and, well, you know.
The Socialist Scare
Monday, November 12th, 2007Jonathan Cohn of the New Republic provides an effective rebuttal to the idea that the United States adopting a universal healthcare system would stifle innovation. Universal coverage would also cost less and insure everyone…but haven’t you heard about the lines?
He Lost Control
Sunday, November 11th, 2007The central question in Control, the new biopic by Anton Corbijn, is whether Ian Curtis is capable of holding anything is reserve, or whether he holds far too much. Curtis, the troubled lead singer of Joy Division, would argue the former. “Don’t they know how hard this is for me?” he asks as he hears the clamor of a crowd demanding his presence in his first show back after a failed suicide attempt. “They keep wanting me to go further, and I don’t know if I can.” A riot erupts, but only after he closes himself down, unable to continue on stage.
Make ‘Em Laugh
Thursday, November 8th, 2007Steve Martin has a wistful piece in the October 29 New Yorker looking back at the origins of his career in comedy. It progresses through his first employment at Knott’s Berry Farm through the “avant-garde” excitement of the 1960s, complete with stops to lose his virginity, date Dalton Trumbo’s daughter (setting up the article’s hardest-hitting joke), and develop his theory of humor. It is infused throughout with the presence of a young man who was older than his age, and an older man struggling with the passage of time.
Only the abstract is available online, but comedy fans should try to track down the piece in print.
Read Classic Comics Online
Tuesday, November 6th, 2007It’s always bittersweet when you hold an idea for a long time and then see that someone else has acted on it before you had the chance. In the case of the Comic Strip Library, however, it’s a bit of a relief, seeing as it was probably a lot of work! The web site, hosted by Zachary Chavez, features full scans of classic U.S. comic strips that have entered the public domain, namely Winsor MCay’s gorgeous Little Nemo In Slumberland and George Herriman’s oddball Krazy Kat. (Later Krazy Kat strips can also be found at Peter Campbell’s Coconinio County.)
All are worth a read, but there are also plenty of other classic comics in the public domain that can’t be found on the web…maybe there’s room for me yet!