Saturday, July 03, 2004

Today was my last day in Boston after a week of goodbyes, I'll hit the road bright and early tomorrow heading south and west. Thanks to New England for hosting The Dave Winer Show for 1.5 years. I mastered Boston weather and Boston driving. And I made enough friends to give departure a rich and meaningful feeling. I'm leaving a lot of love in Boston. I hope to be back soon, before the end of the month, to cover the Democratic convention. Until then, thanks to Boston, and onward ho! 

I saw Farenheight 9/11 today. I could enumerate all the cheap shots, all the emotional arguments that, when you follow them through, end up meaning nothing. But I won't waste your time or mine. Now I remember why I, for so many years, refused to label myself a liberal or even register as a Democrat. It's because even when the Democrats have right on their side, they don't stop there, they have to throw in the emotional bullshit, the senseless stuff, and reduce the argument to its most petty level. The war is wrong, Bush is incompetent, that's all I need to know to vote Democratic in 2004. I don't need to hear that mothers of dead soldiers' grief is unspeakably horrible. I don't care that they didn't get the full month's salary for the dead soldier's last month, and I know that the President had nothing to do with that. I hate Americans who politicize the most sacred unpolitical things. It doesn't matter to me if they are left or right-wing. But I think Americans who resort to bad arguments when they have a winning case are the most despicable of all. They aren't fighting for a better, more just, smarter country, they just want to win, even if they turn off people with minds. I have no patience for that.  

I also saw Spiderman 2, and I laughed, I cheered, I cried and it made me feel happy. The ending scene was, I told my female companion, a chick's ending, except then I realized it was a guy's ending too. What a great line she ended the movie with. Every guy's dream. A very sweet movie, and after seeing Farenheit 9/11, I was glad to see a movie that doesn't try to manipulate me into being stupid.  

My review of the first Spiderman, from 2002. Spiderman 2 still gets a 1 on sex, but #3 promises to be better.  

AKMA, who initiated the audio barn-raising for Lessig's book, says it's not likely to happen for the Cluetrain, because the book isn't published under a Creative Commons license, and because there already is an abridged audio version of the book. Still an interesting idea, imho, worth discussing perhaps. I'd be surprised if the audio version is generating huge sales, and it might be something the authors would permit, given that the full text of the book is already on the Web.