Welcome Back, Folks

After finals effectively destroyed any chance of keeping up with my feeds, I turned on my RSS reader for the first time in a couple weeks. I was met with over 4000 items. There’s no way I’ll be able to give these a full treatment (and to pile these all together makes for pretty scattered reading), but here are a few highlights:

• Perez Hilton responds to a negative ad by the National Organization for Marriage (of the horrible “Gathering Storm” ad fame) by sending them a near-frivolous DMCA Takedown notice. Sorry, Perez: this isn’t cool even when I agree with your message.
• My buddy Greg Whitney is featured in an Emerson student’s profile of Boston’s own Louie (better known as The Tricycle Man). Seeing this made me miss Boston more than anything else during finals week.
  Thanks to Bostonist and Ms. RDP for the scoop.
• Swineophobia hit close to home this week. My Alma Mater Northeastern opted to forgo with handshakes for commencement. I don’t think the Garden counts as a “small confined space” to avoid under VP Biden’s analysis.
• Early reports from the iTunes Music Store’s new variable pricing system are not favorable. Digital Music News reports that revenues are down, and consumers are increasingly leaving iTunes in favor of other alternatives.
• The Boston Globe did a nice profile of Justice Souter’s hometown of Weare, NH. I was a little surprised to find that Justice Souter lives relatively close to my house. He lives a few dozen miles due north of me, straight up Rt. 13 (which turns into NH Rt. 77 in Milford). To help understand his (and to an extent, my) upbringing: equidistant from our towns is Peterborough, NH, best known as the town credited as the inspiration for Grover’s Corners in Thornton Wilder’s Our Town. I feel a deep affinity for that play, and the towns in the Monadnock region that it celebrates. I have a feeling he does too. While I’ll miss reading Souter’s opinions, I’m sure he’ll enjoy his return to our figurative neighborhood.
• On a related SCOTUS note, Justice Scalia’s opinions on the “privacy right” (which GWU Law Professor Dan Solove characterizes here) were tested when Fordham University Professor asked his legal privacy class to create a dossier on Scalia. Scalia responded with gusto.
• EFF’s Hugh D’Andrade gives the Obama White House partial credit for licensing photos taken by White House photographer Pete Souza under a Creative Commons Attribution license, but suggests the fairly obvious: shouldn’t these, as government works, be in the public domain?
• Japanese designer surgical face masks. Now I’ve seen everything.
• Iron & Wine are (is?) going to release a 2CD/3LP collection of rarities and outtakes called Around The Well on May 19th, spanning the entirety of Sam Beam’s career. This week we have new St. Vincent and Akron/Family for your listening pleasure.
• Wired’s marks for Obama’s first 100 days: Copyright, D; Cyber Security, C; Science, A-; Net Neutrality, B+; Transparency, B-; Privacy, D-. Saddens me to say, but I have to agree on most of these marks. But let’s not forget that he’s getting damn close to an A on virtually everything else.
• Tripod.com co-founder Ethan Zuckerman wrote a lovely and humorous eulogy for Geocities, which officially closed last week.
• Is A&R dead? Music Think Tank poses the question, and the comments are generally in favor of the rarified profession. (I for one still prefer my old sensei Dave’s joke on the subject: “How many A&R guys does it take to screw in a lightbulb?” “I don’t know. What do you think?”)
• A lot of people complained that the  White House photo op of Air Force One over NYC could easily have been done in a matter of an hour or two on Photoshop. Scott Kelby demonstrated, creating a rather lovely shot that could have saved us over $300,000.
• And for the finale: in March of 2007 WFMU posted 79 versions of Gershon Kingsley’s “Popcorn.” Using the EchoNest API Paul Lemere was stitched them all together into a 12 minute anthem. I’m very glad I didn’t find this until after finals, as I would have listened to only this, and that probably would have done my brain in. Paul Lemere – A Big Kettle of Echo Nest Popcorn
  

I hope to be back to more regular schedule now that my 1L year is over and the summer has begun. I make my return to Boston tomorrow; can’t wait to see you all. And to my new DC friends: congrats and thanks on a wonderful year, and I hope to see a lot of you up here or down there soon.

What happened in front of the White House today

Because I know Taylor loves it when I do this stuff, I put the press flag back in my fedora and hit the street today. Finding some time between classes, I rolled by the White House to see the Tea Party / Tax Day protests today. As I noted during the election, I’m always curious as to how journalists estimate the sizes of crowds at these things. Here’s what I saw:

By my estimation, there were about 500-750 people when I walked by (around 1PM or so). At most there were maybe 1000. From what I’ve read, apparently the crowd directly in front of the White House was dispersed shortly after this, after one protester threw a box of tea over the fence and on the White House lawn. This might have been as big as it was all day.

I couldn’t glean a coherent message from the crowd. A lot of the signs showed federalism messages, and a few were criticizing the Federal Reserve banking system. Most of the speakers were talking on rather empty platitudes, so I couldn’t get any more from the rally. If you’re curious, there’s a growing Wikipedia page outlining the protests with further details.

I for one reject the whole idea of today’s events. The message of the Boston Tea Party is inapposite to this discussion, and I don’t think the Obama tax policy does what they are accusing it of.  And as I said yesterday, the gall of those to come to DC from neighboring states and start whining about “taxation without representation” is rather offensive.

Or, as Colin put it: Teabagger protesters – ESPECIALLY in Boston – should be rounded up and forced to attend 6th grade math and history classes.

I’ll be curious to see the numbers tomorrow. For now, here’s the best I could do at giving an accurate picture of the size and scope of the protest.

On Tea Parties, and DC

Apparently there’s some sort of coordinated effort to protest government spending or taxation or some such matter going on in DC and elsewhere tomorrow, using the meme of the Boston Tea Party. To mark the event, DCist posted up a short and sweet article keeping this protest in perspective:

The whole idea of using the Boston Tea Party as a rallying cry for people who aren’t happy with how the government is spending their money is a little strange, especially for those of us who qualify as both taxed and unrepresented. Back in late 2007 D.C. voting rights activists had their own tea party, symbolically dumping leaves into the Potomac to make a point that has stood for far too long — District residents pay federal taxes yet have no federal representation. If anyone can yell “No taxation without representation!”, it’s us.

As noted in the DCist article, Matt Yglesias found some humor in hearing a tea-party rally in Nebraska yell the old “taxation without representation” line:

Here in Washington DC, your humble blogger and about 600,000 other people are living and paying taxes to a United States government that does not allow us to elect representatives to congress. Whether you think that’s fair or not, what we’re doing is paying taxes without representation. The 1.8 million Nebraskans are very much represented in congress. There’s Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, Rep. Lee Terry, and Rep. Adrian M. Smith in the House of Represenatives along with Senators Ben Nelson and Mike Johanns. Indeed, with a mere 0.6 percent of the nation’s population, Nebraska gets to elect fully 2 percent of the Senators. If anything, Nebraskans have taxation with overrepresentation.

And so, protestors coming to DC tomorrow, consider the fact that your “taxation without representation” is neither (a) a net increase in taxes, nor (b) done without representation. And don’t forget those in DC that get all the tax, and none of the representation.

The Walgreens Nationals

Humor blog TotallyLooksLike.com made a quality observation today:

The Washington Nationals logo totally looks like the Walgreens logo. Considering my nearest convenience store is a Walgreens, well stocked in Nationals gear, I’m a little surprised I never picked up on this before. Are we preparing for a major brand takeover a la The New York/New Jersey Metrostars Red Bull New York?

Joe Biden’s keeping me from taking home my groceries

So there I was, just returning home from a pleasant trip out to Trader Joe’s, bags full of food for the week, when the Secret Service tells me I can’t cross my own street to go home! Turns out this had to happen first:

done

What’s the matter, Joe? Too cool to ride the Metro these days?

Actually, I hear the Vice President come home from work most weekdays. It’s fairly hard to miss.

Call Letter Origins

I need to break my web-silence for a minute to put up this website that BoingBoing wrote about yesterday (for the 0.5% of you out there that read my website and not theirs). OldRadio.com has put together an awe-inspiring list of radio call letters and what they stand for. They even have my wee little 12-watt WRBB on the list. (“(R)adio (B)ack (B)ay”). Check it out. Here are some MA favorites and their meanings:

WRBB – Radio Back Bay
WBCN – Boston Concert Network
WGBH – named for its transmitter on Great Blue Hill.
WFNX – radio station partner of the Phoenix magazine.
WCVB – (might be my favorite) – Channel V (as in five), Boston
WMBR – Walker Memorial Basement Radio (basement of the MIT building where the broadcast is produced)
WXRV – “the RiVer”
WBUR – Boston University Radio
WEEI – Edison Electric Illuminating, company predecessor to ConEdison (there’s one to pull out at a bar)
WXKS – “KiSs” 108
WMJX – “Magic” (which is weak)
WBOS – I think you can figure this one out on your own…

A few are conspicuously absent – WZLX, WBZ, WAAF, WUML, and WZBC, for example – but overall, this is a pretty impressive list.

A few DC favorites, for my District friends:

WCSP – CSP-AN
WASH – WASHington, DC
WSMD – Southern MD (as in Maryland)
WETA – Washington Education Television Association
WAMU – American University Radio
WPGC – Prince George’s County, MD
WJFK – named for JFK. No joke.
WGTB – GeorgeTown university Broadcasting

Not on the list is WRGW, but I imagine it’s “Radio George Washington.” Just guessing, here.

DC’s fog advice: “add_protective_actions_here.”

On Monday I poked a little fun at a direct message I received from Boston Police via Twitter. Not to be outdone, DC’s emergency information network AlertDC sent the following warning via email today:

I’m not sure how bad the fog is in DC (apparently it merits a “WARNING”), but I’ll be sure to take_appropriate_actions_vis_à_vis_this_fog_situation when I head out today.

I think this is how Agent Cooper would celebrate birthdays

Today I turn older. I decided to celebrate by doing something which is beyond mundane up in New England, but a rare treat in my corner of DC:

Yum.

If you happen to be up in Boston today, celebrate my birthday by going to the Middlesex Lounge (Mass Ave just outside Central Square in Cambridge) tonight and seeing my dear friend Michelle spinning up a storm under the handle DJ Smokestack. I can’t say enough about her music selection and DJ skills. It will be awesome. 9PM is the time.

Tim Fite has done it again.

(Fite, from the 43 Songs for the 43 U.S. Presidencies event during Inauguration Week)

Every Halloween for the past few years, the incredibly awesome Tim Fite has posted an Halloween-themed album to download for free (most recently Ding Dong Ditch). Now he takes that tradition to this Halmarkian holiday with Change of Heart. Today and today only, you can go to his website and download a special Valentine’s Day album made by one of the strangest guys in the business. Be warned – the website servers are currently running very slow, so it’ll take some time to download. Depending on how good this is, this might join My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless and the Magnetic Fields’ 69 Love Songs on my many-years-running annual V-Day playlist.

Tim will be at the Black Cat in DC February 28th. You should go.

DC getting “tough” on snow

(Rock Creek, last Tuesday, from Flickr user Daquella manera)

After getting a trash talking from the 44th President, DC has decided to take substantial steps toward a cohesive snow removal policy. It came not a minute too soon, as we actually had a dusting here today. Combined with last weeks 2 inches of snow, that’s almost 3 inches on record this winter. How are we still alive?

But help is on the way: DCist reports, off a story from DC Wire, that the D.C. Council unanimously approved emergency legislation that requires drivers to remove snow and ice from their vehicles.

Three things strike me about this:

1. The Council removed the $50 fine that used to go with this sort of action. So, the worst thing that can happen is a DC cop will talk real angry at you.
2. This is apparently the first time DC has put together such a bill. What did they do before this if people had snow on their cars?
3. I have to confess, the only criminal citation I have ever received was a citation for “failure to clear snow off window” in 2003. This hits close to home for me. (I think my fine was $25.)

I think my favorite part of this was the concern expressed by Councilor Mendelson (DC at large) – “It seems very, very…subjective on the part of a police officer… If a police officer doesn’t like me, I’ll get a ticket.”

I’ll admit my perspective on these things is far different than many down here. But buddy, it has to snow enough to stick on cars before you can start to worry about arbitrary enforcement.