By David Pescovitz at 6:48 pm Sunday, Dec 17
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Dustin "
UPSO" Hostetler told me about his friend Patrick O'Brien, a young filmmaker who is suffering from a terminal disease called Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, AKA Lou Gehrig's Disease. Given just 2 to 5 years to live, Patrick decided to start a 35mm film documentary about his experience in the hopes of making "a difference in the way our government and our world sees this ugly, spirit punishing, insidious illness." He's launched a foundation to seek financial help in finishing the film and support ALS research. One way to donate is to buy this poster of Patrick, made from a photograph by
Timothy Saccenti, for $20. "And yes," Dustin says, "they really poured beer in his feeding tube."
Link
By David Pescovitz at 2:56 pm Sunday, Dec 17
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Photographer
Misty Keasler's book Love Hotels documents the curious, strange, and kinky theme rooms inside the Japanese
hotels that are usually rented for short times and a very specific purpose. Inside, you'll visit the Hello Kitty S&M Room (image right) and the High School Room at Osaka's Hotel Adonis, the Arctic Room at Snowman's Hotel in Kobe, Subway Room (image left) at Hotel Loire in Osaka, and my favorite, the Alien Abduction Play Area also at Hotel Loire. Reminds me of San Luis Obispo, California's
Madonna Inn only, ummm, different. The book's editor at Chronicle, BB pal Alan Rapp, tells me that prints from Keasler's Love Hotels series will be exhibited early next year at Chicago's
Museum of Contemporary Photography (1/25-3/24),
Jenkins Johnson Gallery (1/27-3/3) in New York City, and
Photographs Do Not Bend (2/16-3/24) in Dallas.
Link to buy Love Hotels,
Link to Love Hotels gallery at Photographs Do Not Bend
UPDATE: bOING bOING buddy
Jim Leftwich says, "When I imagine an S&M Hello Kitty, it's a little bit more like
this."
By David Pescovitz at 9:24 am Sunday, Dec 17
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in the new issue of GOOD Magazine, Gideon Lewis-Kraus comes to terms with machine gun love at the Mustang Ranch's bi-annual Machine Gun Shot in western Nevada. It sounds like, well, a blast! From Gideon's travelougue:
Aside from war, however, machine guns do not seem to lend themselves to utilitarian purposes. A detached investigation of this prima facie absurdity is at least part of the reason I have been dispatched here, to shoot guns in the desert. I am now no longer detached; this no longer feels so absurd. The next range officer on the line hands me a full-auto Glock 18 and I fire before his fingers are off the gun. These firearms enthusiasts find it amusing that this model is de rigueur for the fashionable rapper; it is the most obtuse and imprecise weapon on the submachine-gun range. (Although for me, given that I could barely hit the desert with the Uzi, this seems an invidious distinction.) I crouch forward and am heavy on the trigger. There is a Winnie the Pooh doll crucified on sawhorse stocks; he is untidily aerated. Crane, a gentle man with a dog called Pigglepug, generously defends himself against a poster of an anonymous jihadi with a Palestinian kaffiyeh. Nearby a 12-year-old wields an M1 Thompson at a Mr. Happy doll. "This is better than Disneyland," he says.
"Obviously," Crane says.
Link
By David Pescovitz at 9:07 am Sunday, Dec 17
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On Friday, the FCC entirely eliminated the requirement that amateur radio operators know Morse Code in order to obtain
General Class and Amateur Extra Class licenses, the only amateur licenses that until now still required applicants to pass a 5 word-per-minute test. (
Link to PDF of the FCC news release.) Long live Morse Code!
In his online journal, Paul Saffo looks at this dead language's bright future. From his post:
I passed the Morse exam years ago while getting my ham license, but I never used -- or even considered using-- Morse on the air. Then back in July, with full knowledge of Morse’s obsolescence, I decided to learn it well enough to be able to actually carry on a radio conversation. To celebrate my modest progress, I ordered a top-line GHD telegraph key (the Rolls-Royce of keys) as an early Christmas present to myself. With exquisite irony, UPS delivered it yesterday afternoon, only hours before the FCC announcement was released.
It is tempting to conclude that the FCC’s action spells the end of Morse, but I am certain we will see a very different outcome. Freed from all pretense of practical relevance in an age of digital communications, Morse will now become the object of loving passion by radioheads, much as another “dead” Language, Latin is kept alive today by Latin-speaking enthusiasts around the world. Latin fans eagerly tick off the practical benefits of speaking a dead language, but of course they pursue their study because it is fun and challenging, gives them a sense of accomplishment and links them to a community of other passionate speakers.
Link
By David Pescovitz at 8:50 am Sunday, Dec 17
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Over at Cryptomundo, Loren Coleman has posted his Top Cryptozoology Books of 2006. I like the looks of his pick for kids,
Tales of the Cryptids: Mysterious Creatures That May or May Not Exist. My son is only eight-months-old, but I'm going to get this for him anyway. Gotta start 'em young.
Link to Loren Coleman's list,
Link to buy Tales of the Cryptids
