Friday, October 7, 2005

Not yet Double sigh. . . Content is King No More: Web 2.0 is About Interaction. "(...) the thing that is most glaring and poignant to me is the seismic shift in importance from a focus on content and information to behavior and interaction." (Dirk Knemeyer) - Like interacting with other humans, a combination of structure ('parts and wholes'), content ('thoughts'), and form ('behaviour') is what makes a digital environment 'tick'. [InfoDesign: Understanding by Design] Um, yes, the interaction is important, and may be the difference between success and failure; but without content there's no "there" there. Content is still king. 9:12:13 PM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

Best give up now. . . Clapton's afraid that he's become a dirty old man? "I Was Also Concerned About Whether I Was A Dirty Old Man".... Eric Clapton claims women don't fancy him now that he's turned 60. The former womaniser said he even feared girls may think he's a "dirty old man" if he flirts with them. . . [The Huffington Post | Raw Feed] Sigh. I have no future. . . 9:02:06 PM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

50 years of howling Fifty years ago tonight, Allen Ginsberg read "Howl" to a crowd at the Six Gallery in San Francisco. "Howl" remains one of my all-time favorite poems. I can't read it silently, it demands to be read aloud, shouting, growling, wailing, howling: "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness. . ." My ragged copy of the book is now more than 35 years old; the copyright page says it was the 20th printing—20 printings in less than 12 years since its publication in October 1956, a year after its first reading. I bought my copy while preparing a paper and presentation about the Beat poets for a high school English class. Writing that paper changed my life: I learned about Ginsberg, and Kerouac, and Ferlinghetti (". . . and I am perpetually awaiting a rebirth of wonder"), and Gary Snyder, who I had the privilege of meeting three years later. I wanted to read "Howl" out loud to the class, but the teacher wouldn't let me—too many naughty words. Two years later, another teacher let me come back and read it to his class. I don't remember the students' reaction, but I do remember the elation I felt at reading it aloud. Shazam! what a poem! Today, I want to read it in front of Congress, and make those sorry excuses for governance WAKE UP! "Carl Solomon! I'm with you in Rockland. . ." 8:50:13 PM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

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