meta-roj

guitar

Broadway’s Best Shows Too Risque for Republicans [reuters]

… Republican organizers, selling themselves as the family-values party, decided to buy tickets to tame shows like “42nd Street” and Disney productions like “Aida” and “The Lion King,” avoiding more offbeat fare.

Besides Tony winners such as the naughty puppet musical “Avenue Q” and best play “I Am My Own Wife,” about a German transvestite, other hits including Mel Brooks’ “The Producers,” were vetoed by those arranging Broadway outings.

“The Republicans were so desperate to escape Roger DeBris, the cross-dressing buffoon concocted by Mel Brooks, that they have gone and picked two shows set in France,” wrote New York Times columnist Frank Rich, referring to evergreen musicals “Beauty and the Beast” and “Phantom of the Opera.”

ah well… so the republicans are gonna miss some of the good stuff while they’re in new york….

a few days ago, i picked up the spirit of america here on the meta-roj blog without hesitating.

today, following that up a bit, i wandered into thisfrom britt blaser – a response to the “downside” of the effort. so, with that fully-evovled analysis at my fingertips, i’ve added the spirit of america button over there on the right column to go with my other blatant self-promotion and good-cause things.

and, as a nod to tim oren and the subject that brought he and i together in the first place, i just want to say that this is a good example of expanding social capital. i don’t know tim that well, but i’m comfortable using his first name here, and i was comfortable throwing my little bit of weight behind something he told me was a good thing.

this is how we can change the world.

perhaps because there are too many underemployed lawyers in texas, ap is reporting that the texas transportation department has sent 23 cease-and-desist letters to companies that use some variation of the “don’t mess with texas” slogan.

Don’t Mess With Our Slogan, Texas Warns

The slogan was created by an Austin advertising firm in 1986, and made its television premiere during the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 1, 1987.

…

The Transportation Department only recently stepped up enforcement to protect its trademark, registered in 2000.

seems like a pretty big gap to me… and what happened to “don’t mess with texas” between 1986 and 2004? lots [that’s “about 19,200” hits at the moment] only “about 1630” of which include litter.

Don’t Mess With Our Slogan, Texas Warns

“The state of Texas has a lot of money invested in the slogan, and we definitely want people to know it’s a litter prevention message, it’s not a macho message,” said Doris Howdeshell, director of the department’s travel division.

um. ok. if you say so.

ap reports [via the guardian] that the diebold board of directors has amended their ethics policy so that top diebold officials “may not make contributions to, directly or indirectly, any political candidate, party, election issue or cause, or participate in any political activities, except for voting”

it’s not clear if providing “badly designed” voting machines and compromising the integrity of elections in the united states is a “political activity” or just “business.”

You’d think that people
Would have had enough
Of silly love songs
I look around me and I see it isn’t so

[paul mccartney]

mostly in response to this comment.

It is not your content that is your advantage, but the audience your
content has created. Most people will not become icons with large
followings who can just make a statement on their site and get dozens
of inbound links for it.

can’t be. i have no audience (31 inbounds tracked by technorati at the moment). i have more posts (761) than comments (581). i’ve been at this blogging thing for less than a year. and with all that, i still manage to get some amazing googlejuice for things i think are important – at the end of 2003, i gave everyone a look.

having flirted with the #1 spot for some time in each case, i seem to be firmly placed at #2 for both hope stout and rafe esquith – and that’s important because those are inspirational people.

also important, the meta-roj blog has become a nexus for those concerned with 97 radio – so there is some community there, but it’s an exception. i’m glad i’ve saved some people the heartache and walletache by offering up an opinion and leaving the comments open, despite the efforts of blogspammers – many of whom still owe me money.

i also seem to hold the #1 spot for polyphenyls and hurricanes duration – so my credentials in the science fields are pretty solid too.

i’m not particularly fascinated with my googlejuice anymore, but it still amazes me when something prompts me to look at it again. perhaps more amazing is the sheer volume of human effort that seems devoted to search engine optimization – i have to believe that we all could be doing something more useful.

i’m not entering the contest. i’m here to throw some googlejuice on the fire. someone should send me an ipod anyway, because, i deserve one too. i am curious about where i’ll land with everyone trying to game the engine.

just because i’m a nice guy, here’s some nigritude ultramine for anil.

reported by the people for the american way, and in the salt lake tribune, senator orrin hatch is pushing, again, for an amendment to ban flag burning.

throw one on the barbie for me, while you still can.

the flag is safer when its advocates aren’t so busy defending it.

[update: title changed to limit spam targeting]

from the village voice, news of a proposal to ban photography of new york transit things… and a photo contest to go with it (contest info at the bottom of the voice article).

Forbidden Photos, Anyone?

The MTA isn’t slated to vote on the measure until at least mid June, when a 45-day public comment period ends. Also included in regulation 21 NYCRR 1050.9c are stiffer penalties for hopping turnstiles, walking between cars, and using seats as footrests. Ostensibly designed to counter terrorist attacks, the new rules clearly extend to ordinary—and artistic—activity.

the actual proposal is:

Amendments to NYCT, MaBSTOA and SIRTOA Rules and Regulations

In order to further enhance passenger security and safety, photography and videotaping would be prohibited except for members of the press holding valid identification cards issued by the New York City Police Department or where written authorization has been provided by NYCT. [Section 1050.9(c)]

so, we’re in the public-comment period, and that means it’s time to comment. neat thing about blogs – you can link up those forms real quick-like. i dug around enough to find you the page, now all you have to do is use it.

oh, the sweet irony… just a couple months ago, the mta put this out….

MTA UNVEILS PHOTO EXHIBIT CELEBRATING SUBWAY CENTENNIAL

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority today unveiled a special centennial photo exhibit titled, The New York Subway: A Centennial Celebration. The photographic exhibit of images selected from the archives of the prestigious photographic agency Magnum Photos is located in the window-shaped lightboxes at the Lower Level Dining Concourse of Grand Central Terminal and is part of the MTA Arts for Transit Lightbox Project.

The New York Subway photo exhibit offers a peek into the lives of New Yorkers throughout the decades, from quiet moments reading on a crowded train to grandstanding youths on an elevated platform. The 16 images included in the exhibit were captured by renowned photographers Henri Cartier-Bresson, Bruce Davidson, Elliott Erwitt, Leonard Freed, Bruce Gilden, Thomas Hoepker, Constantine Manos, Inge Morath, Lise Sarfati, and Ferdinando Scianna.

The Photography Lightbox Project provides quality photography exhibits to a broad audience of mass transit users and is one of the many visual and performing arts programs administered by MTA Arts for Transit to increase the attractiveness of transit facilities for customers. Other Lightbox locations can be found at the 42nd Street subway station at Sixth Avenue and the Atlantic Avenue subway complex in Brooklyn. The Lightbox project is made possible through the generous support of Modernage.

MTA New York City Transit operates the largest subway system in North America, moving over 4.5 million customers each day.

a couple calls-to-action….

Photographer’s Rights Protest, June 6, 1pm
nycsubway.org

and here are a couple terrorist photos from my personal collection…

this is an empty subway platform, showing the location, spacing, type and assembly of structural members used to support the 86th street station:

this is a highly secret piece of equipment, known by the code name “vaktrak” – rarely seen even by native new yorkers. it was captured photographically on one of my previous reconaissance excursions to the big apple:

i wonder how they plan to tell all the new york tourists about this one…

[via boingboing]

the democratic national convention has an official blog. that’s not a big deal. what is the big deal is that several days ago, they posted this:

Three, if by WiFi

But we also hope this blog will be more – specifically, interactive. Consider this as version 1.0. As we get going, we’ll add more features like a comment board because we want to hear from you. We’ll have trackbacks and blogrolls that include, among others, our credentialed bloggers. We’ll offer links to interesting articles. And we’ll even have “guest bloggers” contribute their musings now and then.

emphasis is mine.

what makes that a big deal, you might ask? well, not too long ago, i said this about a little visa trouble that a particular journalist got into here in america…

read the fine print: you might be a terrorist

for you journalists, i guess this is the fine print. not sure where blogs fit into the journalist spectrum. i can’t very well get a “letter from my employer” as i’m unemployed.

which is a reference to this requirement from the state department web site:

I (Media) Visa Revalidation

A comprehensive letter from the journalist’s employer on the employer’s letterhead identifying the journalist and describing in detail the nature and function of the journalist’s position. The letter must be addressed to the Visa Office, Department of State. If the employer is abroad and the journalist is the only U.S. representative, the letter must be signed by the employer and give the journalist’s U.S. office address and telephone number.

lately we’ve been talking about banning cell phones in north korea, then a little trouble with visas for journalists, and bloggers as journalists. can blogs save the us constitution from ourselves, or are we just a little bit better than north korea? is this anything like how we’re a little bit better than saddam when it comes to abusing prisoners, because when we get caught, we “investigate”?

i thought we were supposed to be orders of magnitude different in this country. i thought we were supposed to at least attempt to live up to the ideals we try to bomb into other countries. i thought we were better than this.

the dnc thinks that bloggers are journalists now. does that mean i need a visa before i post this? i guess it’s probably not a visa, since i’m already technically in the united states. maybe i need some other paperwork. if you don’t hear from me for a day or so, i’ve probably been detained for failing to file the required forms and pay the required fees to be a journalist in the united states.

i doubt they’re offering wifi in the detention facilities yet…