it's a ship, it's a star...

 I saw a stream of 6 to 8 pink / firework-looking comet tails streak across the night sky directly above my driveway, flying from West to East (that's the direction of my driveway... unless you're pulling in)

At first, I thought it was a large airplane, flying low above us (as if coming in for a landing), but the path was flying straight East - toward the lake rather than south toward the airport. Also, when I opened my car door and stepped out there was no sound at all coming from the phenomenon.

On further inspection, the lights were not coming from the ends of a vessel (tail and wing tips, etc.), but it was lines, in the shape of a long hull (thus thinking I saw something like a plane - a tube of some sort).  The brightest lights came from the center of the 'vessel', so I thought in the end maybe the shape was just made up of comet trails themselves.

I had stepped out to pull the Hyundai into the driveway (just over an hour ago), and happened to look up through the sunroof.  It appeared, and I tracked it, and stepped out of the car (remembered to put it back in Park!) to get a better look at it through the branches, and then between the treelines in the middle of the road.

*   *   *   *   *   

29 January 2025 - 10:24am

Ok, mystery solved - it was a falling satellite: Starlink-5693

Elon is hacking my night sky now...

Parallel (time) Lines

I have had an evening (early morning, really) of sci-fi, but in looking back I found that on this date in history, I was thinking apocalyptically as well.  Just a short while ago, I was writing about how future progress (toward a Star Trekkian world) required a historical or apocalyptic break.

Now watching in the Star Wars Universe (The Force Awakens is on Starz! of all places), and it seems that TIM! (Domhnall Gleeson, it turns out, is this fellow's name - but to me he's always a Tim) is an actor portraying a First Order leader.

It's odd hours - so thoughts are hard to coordinate - but 8 years ago today, we were heading into what was a historic election.  We're on the precipice again today.  And whatever happens, this election will be historic as well.  Assuming one of the two major party candidates wins 270+ in electoral votes: either 1) we'll elect the first woman to the presidency, or 2) America will elect a fascist regime - and a historical moment will be upon us.

"We can't keep"... is the theme here.  It seems that Hillary will most likely be elected, and though I don't expect I will vote for her (Green Party currently holds my vote unless Hil starts changing her tune), I will be happy when she wins.  And that win will continue the path of incremental, mildly left-leaning progress.  And I think that means a slowed-down, incremental move toward economic and ecologic disaster. 

It's hard to think historically and think well about the present - that is, I know intellectually, that Western humans need a breach in order to regulate.  Changing tactics (re-instituting a progressive tax system, joining the rest of the world with a single payer health care plan, cap & trade {or any number of ecological half measures}) won't fix the world.  There needs to be a shift in strategy.

Matt Damon

The LA Times has posted a video history of the spectacular feud between Jimmy Kimmel and Matt Damon in celebration of Matt Damon's takeover of Jimmy Kimmel Live.

It's a quick relive of a pop culture phenomenon that offers a smart critique of Hollywood pomposity.  Enjoy!

C'mon you Party People

In support of the overall sentiment of today's Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear and with the looming Mid-Term Selections, I've decided that now was the time to come out of my self-imposed Cone of Silence and/or Ambivalence.

Plus, Halloween is upon us again.  As some friends and I make our way around Milwaukee in T. Party garb (T-een Wolf, the Plain White Tees, Aarti Paarti, _____________), we will be working toward some of the same goals as Team Stewart-Colbert.


*   *   *

May 2019

Ah, 2010 - back when the conservative political insanity was fun...

I stand by this 2010 Halloween pub crawl theme, though our compatriots were less political in their costume and messaging than Brooke and me (although if you look closely at Grant's sign, it's a Christine "I'm not a Witch" O'Donnell reference!). 

Rex was a bit confused and just dressed up as a pumpkin... maybe he's a pumpkin spice tea?

I do recall in seeing this picture that Bethany was going as "Sal-T-Hit Girl" (the Morton's Salt Girl crossed with Hit Girl from Kick Ass).  I have no recollection of what Grant's costume is.

against My better Judgement...

i'm watching Jimmy Fallon's premiere episode as the new Late Night host. I gotta say, it's not terrible. Ever since David Demarco helped me realize that Jimmy Fallon sucks as a Saturday Night Live player because he cracks up & laughs during almost every skit he's in, i've assumed i hated the guy (Fallon, not Demarco) himself.

But i'm beginning to suspect that late night talk show host may be the perfect setting for Fallon's sputtery, clodding style. Assuming that his guests are entirely uninteresting, at least his awkward-ness might be somewhat distracting. Sure he's no Craig Ferguson, or David Letterman, or Conan O'Brien, or Jimmy Kimmel really & hey, that's a second Jimmy. That seems, perhaps, overkill.

Like any premiere episode, the lineup is very good. Robert DeNiro - funny, but made less so by Jimmy Fallon. Justin Timberlake - i'm waiting to see if there will be any nipple jokes. My guess is yes. And, possibly the only possible more interesting musical guest than Letterman had tonight (U2), Van Morrison.

Also, the 'lick for 10' bit was sort of funny. Not great, but fairly Letterman derivative (which is a place to start). So, as you might have guessed, tonight has been a 'late nite' night. Just thought i'd get an early review out there... Overall, the final word on Fallon's Late Night, not bad, but really, why aren't you watching Craig Ferguson.

Damn it, I need to yell sooner

After watching Obama's 'not-a-state-of-the-union-speech', i stuck around for Bobby Jindal's "Republican Response" and had a thought, as The Daily Show suggested, Jindal sounded like he thought he was addressing a class of 1st Graders, rather than the general American public.

Now, i've never been one not to talk about the American pubic as if they were pre-pubescent spoiledRotten children, but, seriously, when he followed up Obama's speech, the first serious (if a bit pie-in-the-sky) speech coming from the white House in at least a decade, Jindal just sounded embarrassing.

It's hard work, though, being the arbitor of all that is prescient & cool. The Daily Show takes at least a full day for news to filter down and while i'm sure there are blogs and other 'significant thinkers' satirically stating the state of the state for us, they aren't, i think, quite as sweet-ass-cool as i am.

In other news...
I've got a sense of what my 'prelim areas' will be... Finally. So, evidently, people in my "situation" need to choose 3 'areas' that define their areas of knowledge so that they can then, in turn, sell those areas to future employing universities...

Anyway, i've 'recently' becomed obsessed with the idea of "the fragment" and until today i wasn't quite sure what i meant by that. I mean, i know that i want to think about ideas of the archive and the aphorism and 'the fragment', but so far i wasn't sure how to fit that into a (sort of) system of thought. But i think i've got it... (Prelim 'areas' consist of 3 categories of thought that overlap in your area).

The Fragment
the two areas i've had pretty well sorted out until now are:

1. Fragmented Bodies - This is an area i've been interested in for some time. As a fundamental area, this is related to zombies, as well as 're-constructed bodies' (like Frankenstein stories & cyborgs) and dead, dying, and decomposing bodies (i'm thinking here of things like Brakhage's Act of Seeing With One's Own Eyes, or similar {ha})

2. Fragmented Cities - Looking, similarly, at decomposing cities, first and foremost through the lens of Urban Exploration, the practice of exploring (and to some extent explaining) industrial spaces that have been abandoned or remodeled. Additionally, the idea of 'fragmented spaces' comes into play (though i'm not sure what those spaces might be)... Places that are, essentially, altered (or 'othered'?) in their experience. Places like tourists sites might be a good place to start

finally, i've figured out a 3rd area that actually makes sense to these other areas and i connect it to particularly the Urban Explorers in area 2, through the idea of 'supermodernity' - which i've discussed before.

3. Fragmented Narratives - Looking at an updated 'narrative theory' that follow's up on Robert Bird's ideas of 'all is narrative' by looking at abstract art and postModern narrative, exploring the way 'time & narrative' is explored in things that might consider themselves 'non-narrative'.

Now, for something completely different...

Jim Carey has totally stolen my life...

or at least much of my philosophy.

I'm flipping around as i read student papers ("the horror, the horror") after Colbert & Jim Carey was on Letterman...

but first, a bit of background. I totally had the idea for The Truman Show when i was, like 9, and then the movie came out... and nothing. Suddenly, he doesn't return my calls, it's like nobody's ever heard of me...

...anyway, tonight Jim Carey tells this story about knowing Frank Sinatra and asking him to come up to a table he's at with some beautiful woman to impress her... point is, it's a Don Rickles story... what this has to do with me, you may be asking, well, i have this dream... it's what i call continuing the oral tradition... here's how it works.
I love stories, good stories, person(al) stories, anecdotes, if you will... stories about something that's happened to you, well, in the interest of continuing the telling of great stories, i think we should be able to tell other people's stories as if they're our own... The reason being, is that nobody cares about a story of what happened to your college roommate's high school friend, so you turn that friend into your friend, suddenly (if it's a good story) that story lives on...

Anyway, just wanted to let you know who was stealing from me today...

a brilliant idea...

...that's what we need, a brilliant idea.

working a part-time job as a corporate sellout, part-time teaching English 101, being a full-time grad student, keeping/setting up a new house, and working on side projects, i don't have a lot of time.

(isn't it cute, when i think i'm busy)

So, in the interest of the betterment of humankind, will offer up some great ideas, nearly* free of charge here, for anyone who wants to take them and adapt them (p.s., if anyone knows where these ideas already exist and are in action, please point me to them):

1. ok... so the first idea is one my former roommate, nathan & i came up with during the death throes of the dot-com burst. He was working for wwwrrr, i for Padco and we came up with a pair of 'sister websites' called http://www.wheretogo.com/ & http://www.whoyouknow.com/. Both of these sites have since been co-opted, but back in the Gau Haus days these two sites were going to revolutionize the internet. Aside from the annoying classmates.com and the kevinBacon-y sixdegrees.com social network wasn't anything, yet and dexonline couldn't really find you what you wanted. The site was going to conjoin these services, in a way that frappr really didn't. The idea would be that people would submit there 'cool places' so you could find cool places anywhere, and write 'Let's Go' style reviews of them, but the sites included, first, an access level (so only those who you want to know can know the info you post about places, but also about your itinerary {see what follows}). There was also a calendar feature that would allow you to, say, submit that you were going to be in Orlando from, say, hypothetically, March 19-23, so that people you know, but don't really keep contact with will also know you're in town... I think google probably does (or can) already do this, but i can't figure out how to make it work...

2. My whole idea for this post came shortly after the primary election in Wisconsin last week. I was terribly disappointed in Nebraska's level of online election info, but somehow Wisconsin is almost worse. It doesn't seem too difficult to construct a website where we have every election and every race listed with at least the names (infinitely google-able) and maybe cursory descriptions. This is the bare bones of what should be a much more useful site. They may or may not be ideologically motivated, but at least one that has all of the candidates.

C. (2.5). The Utne Reader had an article several years back about putting the 'party' back into politics. Here's a study that suggests something similar, but the general idea was that we try and increase voter turnout by throwing parties on election day (hell, having a holiday), giving free drinks to folks with "I Voted" stickers, and having a million dollar lottery for everyone who voted...

3. somebody ought to buy the empty building that was Geneva Lakes Kennel Club (which may be some sort of simulcasting place now, but it ought to be empty). Anyway, i hate greyhound racing as much as all of you should, but since they have a big track there, here's what i think we should develop... Amateur Dog Racing. The place becomes a doggie day care/vacation getaway for dogs (and perhaps other animals, i'm just into dogs lately), and then they have the dogs race... if they want to. No training, no mistreatment, just good dog fun. You let the 8 dogs who are going to race against each other hang out for a while in a room (supervised) and let them get to know each other... then you bring them out to the track and send "Bucky" coasting around the track and have amateur dogs race... Maybe people come and bet, maybe they just come watch (sounds cool to me)... Mostly, i want to see this, because i totally think Rex Grossman will beat any of your dogs asses in a footrace...

4. Teleportation (please see footnote)

5. ...i think we should keep adding to this list. Whenever you have an idea that you want to "give" away (you can make .001% of any profits made off of your ideas added in the 'comments' section {idea submitters, please don't bother to read the footnote, it's not important}).

6. More people should stay up and watch Craig Ferguson. I think the world would be a better place if everyone watched Craig Ferguson. Seriously. How 'bout he host the Oscars next year?

7. Rent-a-lemon: I currently own a shitty car that I don't want to own much longer.  This is my second such car that I've just come to the point where I no longer want to own it, but my thought is, we could (as the commune) all hold on to our old shitty cars and rent them, discount, to people coming to our town.


* any future profits made off of these ideas will hereby (that means it's legally binding) entitle me, joel seeger, to .003% of said profits. If individuals, corporations, or organizations adopt any of these ideas in the future and create a business or organization that gets in the habit of employing people in the implementation of these ideas, i, still joel seeger, am entitled to request a cushy, cool job from said individual, corporation, or organization.

the man who Should be king...

Stephen Colbert is a comic genius... not only that, but he's got a a pair made of pure titanium. I saw a short piece on him last night on 60 Minutes & was musing today on just how funny he is. When i got back to Chicago tonight MSNBC was running a piece on his speech at the White House Correspondents' Dinner... The stuff coming out of his mouth, even though he was on the screen with 'Dubya,' i thought it had to be a 'fake news' story (my favorite line was 'He believes the same thing Wednesday, that he believed on Monday... no matter what happens on Tuesday.') but for some reason, he really was invited to speak at the annual presidential roast... The 'double "Dubya"' got a lot of press play (ha, ha, here's a guy pretending to be the president) probably because nobody knew what to do with Colbert's material... But it is biting. Mean and cruel and true.So good...