Category: etc.

A question to Mac heads out there: I’m thinking of getting a new machine, and I want to hear how/what people have decided: I want a new laptop, that will run Final Cut Pro, obviously, but that’s easy and portable enough to take on the plane and train regularly.
I can’t decide between the 13″ black MacBook and the 15″ MacBook Pro.[1] On paper, the performance seems nearly identical, as if it’s only the screen size that differs. Frankly, I don’t feel like such a size queen that I have to have the bigger screen, but is the 13″ really just too small to run FCP effectively? What about combining it with a bigger monitor at home?
And now the real question: does the MacBook scream “cheap,” while the black MacBook screams “I paid $150 to look like a Thinkpad, but I won’t pay $400 for a much better computer!” Or does the MacBook Pro scream “I’ll buy anything Jobs tells me too, the bigger the better!”
John Hodgman is proving to be of little help on this matter.
[1] The white MacBook seems cheap to me, and a little girly [pace everyone], and the 17″ Pro just seems unwieldly. So, like an SAT question, you can eliminate A and D immediately.

I was just working with a John Cage recording on in the background which included his reading of excerpts from his journals. It included Cage telling this story, and it made me want to see what “going out of Holland backwards” meant, so I Googled it.
I still don’t know what it means, but when Cage told the story, he was the smoker, and instead of “wife,” he said “Merce Cunningham”:

In 1959 my wife and I toured Northern France and the Low Countries by traveling the intricate inland waterways – the canals that pervade this part of Europe. As we were leaving Belgium and entering The Netherlands, the fog became so thick that instead of our barge docking at a customs station, to expedite matters, customs officials came aboard the barge.
The passengers formed into several lines, and one by one were questioned. My wife was in one line and I in another. My wife was a smoker and I was not. However, I was taking five cartons of cigarettes into Northern Europe for her, and she had that number herself.
We were traveling through Holland to Luxembourg, and back through Belgium to France. The customs of all those countries varied with regard to cigarettes, For instance, you could at that time take five cartons per person into Belgium, but only two per person into Holland.
When I got to my customs officer, all of this was clear to both of us. Out of the goodness of his heart, he was reluctant to deprive me of my three extra cartons or to charge the heavy duty on them, but he found it difficult to find an excuse for letting me off.
Finally, he said, “Are you going to go out of Holland backwards?”
I said, “Yes.”
He was overjoyed. Then he said, “You can keep all the cigarettes. Have a good trip.”
I left the line and noticed that my wife had just reached her customs officer and was having some trouble about the extra cartons. So I went over and told the officer that my wife was going out of Holland backwards. He was delighted, saying, “Oh, in that case there’s no problem at all.”

Non Sequitars [sp] [rememory.com]
John Cage Featured on KPFA’s Ode To Gravity Series (December 12, 1987) [archive.org]

Speaking of the 80’s, that was the last time I remember cracking open a copy of Interview Magazine. Judging from the excruciatingly tired art and pop culture names peppering this quiz given to prospective Interview employees, I guess I haven’t missed anything.
Plus, they spelled Philip Taafe, Polly Mellen, Sofia Coppola, and Steven Hawkin wrong.
Interview Pop Culture Test [tsg via gawker]

Or, as I prefer to call it, “Let Us Now Praise Famous Men Andrew Hultkrans Would Like To Get Closer To.”

Inspired by Jason’s recent cross-country burger-thon, I’m in the middle of a back-to-back In ‘N Out/Shake Shack smackdown attack myself. [Tomorrow’s the ‘Shack.]
What would make the taste test a lot easier: an In ‘N Out Mobile Unit. Whaddya know, there is such a thing, and it was spotted last week among the other vehicular rarities at the 2006 Banks Gearhead Invitational car show. Stunning. I’m no Mister Hoopty, but I consider myself a car nut, and yet I’d never heard of such a ride.
I confess, I’m already leery of the test, though; at two visits in Las Vegas, the In ‘N Out fries were a lot spongier and less flavorful than I remembered. And even if they would drive this far, the In ‘N Out Mobile would be of no help; they don’t serve fries, only chips. Very strange.
Image: 2006 Banks Gearhead Invitational [postive ape index via hooptyrides]
“The “Minimum Charge” of $2,350.00 entitles you to 2 hours of service time”: In ‘N Out Burger Mobile Unit Agreement [pdf, in-n-out.com]
Shake Shack vs In ‘N Out Smackdown [kottke]

Dateline: The ‘Bu — Holy Moses. Oh wait, no, not Moses. Seems he was a Jew. Holy Frank Rich. D’oh. Holy–
Never mind. Just sayin’, Mel Gibson. WOW.
Gibson’s Anti-Semitic Tirade — Alleged Cover Up [tmz]
Previously: Mel Gibson and his Passion[ate hatred of Jews, apparently]

The Primer was compiled by the Utah State Attorney General as a resource for state agency personnel who deal with polygamist groups and individuals. It details the known polygamist groups in and around Utah and Arizona and provides background on the particulars of their beliefs, culture, practices, and terminology.
Most of my family’s been Mormon for generations, and I have polygamist ancestors along many branches of my family tree, but in the modern Mormon culture, polygamy has been treated almost entirely as a long-past historical oddity. People who practice it today are not considered to have any relationship or relevance at all to the LDS Church, even though they often see things otherwise. And even though their culture and beliefs are almost always a derivative of mainstream Mormonism.
The result is, I have never heard or seen any of this stuff–except for one word, “polyg”–even if some of the religious terminology is familar, it usually means something different [and it’s different between and even within contemporary polygamist communities.
Anyway, here is some polygamy-related slang:

Of course, it’s actually called a yukata, and it’s for wearing on summer evenings or hot days.
And of course, it’s actually Marc by Marc Jacobs, the bridge line, but still. It is the only authentic Marc Jacobs logo kimono on the market right now. Women’s sizes only, I’m afraid.
Marc Jacobs yukata, 48,300 yen [marcjacobs.jp via jeansnow]

Dear Representatives of,
I visited you site as was interested in film “Black Book’s riotous Inside the Actor Love/Hate Studio session…” by Screenwriter Paul Thomas Anderson. I was very surprised and disillusioned to find out the link to the cigarettes web-store ptanderson.com on the page as I’m a non-smoker.
This whole situation is disappointing because the subject of this film is against smoking.
That’s why I kindly ask you to remove this link from your site! With
hope for your cooperation and understanding to this matter!
Best regards,

Sure enough, the URL for what I once called “the blow-away best ‘unofficial’ filmmaker fansite around”, Cigarettes & Coffee, [after his first short], has been taken over by a cigarette retailer.
Perhaps there was a trademark dispute with Mr Anderson, or perhaps the bigtime studio lawyers behind Jim Jarmusch’s Coffee & Cigarettes muscled them into changing it. You know what a Hollywood monkey Jarmusch is.
In any case, the fansite is now called Cigarettes & Red Vines, and can be found at cigarettesandredvines.com. Can’t imagine any trademark problems with that one.
PTAnderson.com is now Cigarettesandredvines.com. Please adjust your links accordingly. Thank you.

Back in the day, Spy sent phony letters and checks for piddly amounts to various rich and famous New Yorkers to see what the response would be. Trump cashed that one, too, for thirteen cents.
Trump v. Trump, Bryan Singer’s grateful tale of having Trump hate on his book in public. [newyorker.com]

How ’bout that, TMZ looks the blog it’s screwing, too.
How Brad morphs into his lovers [1/30: tmz via rw]
Brad Pitt is a Chameleon [1/27: the superficial via kottke]

Football team owner Gigi Becali [aka the Woody Johnson of Bucharest]’s car got sideswiped. So he and a henchman opened the door like they do in the old country: with a couple of crowbars and a sportsnews camera crew watching on.
A Maybach hasn’t been subject to this kind of mitteleuropische humiliation since the Bulgarian-born Christo wrapped himself in one during “The Gates.”

Video: Maybach schadeherstel [autoblog.nl via jalopnik]

For the autumn sports festival season, many schools and kindergartens sang out “oh-ha!” and danced along to Shingo Mama’s song. The word was awarded a grand prize for trendy word of 2000. In the twenty-first century, “oh-ha!” just might become a standard morning greeting among the Japanese.

First shiny mud balls and now oh-ha. The near-instantaneous global dissemination of Japanese flashtrends is one of the hallmarks of the new Internet Century.
Meanwhile, between Shingo Mama and Turner Prize winning potter Grayson Perry, I predict large, doll-like cross-dressers will rule the world by 2010 at the latest
Shingo Mama no Oh-Ha [google video via tmn]
WHAT’S COOL IN JAPAN: July-September 2000: Shingo Mama [web-japan.org]

Because there have been helicopters flying over the house in DC every five minutes for the last hour, apparently. Maybe we’re in the flight path to Camp David, or maybe we’re too close to Cheney’s house, which is where I’d imagine any coup would start.