Not Your Mama’s Audio Tour

A visit to a museum, any museum, is a pilgrimage for me — it is time to commune with the greater fabric of existence not easily viewable in the everyday, mundane and often too literal. There, in space and time, you and the massage of a medium coexist with few distractions. What a prayer. What a relief. Never once have I strapped on an audio-guide contraption to convey me through the art-decked halls as if I were making my way through dance steps drawn on the floor. Art tells me its own story and I seldom care about its context; that you can glean from an art history book. Besides, the inner Monk would compel me to spend hours disinfecting my ears after donning the funk of god-knows-who. (I have severe problems with hospital waiting-room magazines; just the sight of them causes me to retch. Strange pathology, but it is mine).

My iPod is going to journey with me to NYC in less than two weeks, but now it may have more purpose than offering me musical solace in the CNN- and cellphone chatter-filled concourses of the American airport. In With Irreverence and an iPod, Recreating the Museum Tour, the NYTimes sheds light on a replacement for the authority-sanctioned audio tour offered at New York’s and, I hope, more of the nation’s art museums. “Hacking the gallery experience” through podcasting offers an alternative with the help of your own iPod. Even if you’re not a tour lover, this is a great way to get children and adults excited about art, and rekindle the passion for others who are more familiar with these museums. All in the form of the funny, the risqué and, most importantly, the interchangeable.

At Marymount [Manhattan College], on the Upper East Side, Dr. [David] Gilbert said he was partly inspired to create the unofficial guides after listening to the museum’s audio tours for children, which he found much more entertaining and engaging than the new ones recently introduced for grown-ups.

But Dr. Gilbert said his larger point was to try to teach his students to stop being passive information consumers – whether through television, radio or an official audio guide – and to take more control …

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May 31, 2005 | culture-society-history, music, new orleans, travel | 7 Comments »

The Ditto Society

Interesting fact from the Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter (ok, so the website hasn’t been updated since March; sue us. Get on the mailing list!):

The media continue to be gobbled up by “Merger Mania.”

Ever wonder why so much of North American media content looks as if it were all written by clones?

There are ~1,800 newspapers, ~11,000 magazines, ~11,000 radio stations, ~2,000 TV stations and ~3,000+ book publishers in the United States.

Companies owning a controlling interest in the major players:

50 in 1984
26 in 1987
10 in 1996
6 in 2002

Today about 90% of the media voices have been silenced by takeovers, just compared to the number we had 20 years ago.

Source: NOW with Bill Moyers. Politics & Economy. Massive Media | PBS

There are seven major players, if you count Bertelsmann, which has lately been into American acquisitions.

In this age of the internet, how hard can it be for the average news-absorbing American citizen to get an outside perspective? The question is: Does he/she want to?

May 25, 2005 | computing & internet, culture-society-history, movies/tv, project gutenberg | 7 Comments »

Meet Me At The Corner Of America’s Choice And Dr. Thunder

Fox News reports on a new dating service brought to you courtesy of WalMart. No, this isn’t a story about America’s favorite cement block and Neil Cavuto in bed with one another; that’s so 5 minutes ago.

Wal-Mart stores are hosting weekly singles nights, where shoppers looking for romance tie a red ribbon to their carts as they browse for laundry detergent, lip balm and, yes, love.

Can you believe that the idea for “WalMart singles night” was birthed by the company’s German executives? It seems Home Depot is quite the swinging hot spot, too. Before you begin entertaining visions of 2 for 1 pre-made margarita nights, getting jiggy in the Frozen Foods section and hot mommas dancing in the bargain bins, get a load of the setup:

Greeters at the entrance [offer] singles a large red bow (or a smaller one for shyer shoppers) to put on their carts to advertise their availability. Bachelors and bachelorettes then go to “flirt points” around the store, in which a Wal-Mart associate or a supplier has a set-up station with singles-oriented products, like prepackaged meals. Singles sample the items — and find an excuse to approach a possible Mr. or Miss Right.

“Oh, honey, do you remember our first date and how the perfect combination of Nabisco and Dow products made it so special? I still remember kissing you with microwaved mini-weiner and Grapette soda breath! Teehee!”

Flirt points?! Who’s this for – Mary Kate and Ashley wannabes? This is just one more reason for me not to shop at WalMart, but the Grapette has spilled over to Home Depot, my favorite place to get a Maitri “Tool Time” V-R fix. I may not be the biggest advocate of meeting your future spouse at a bar either, but this is ludicrous. Shopping dates? These people are going to try and find love while deciding which brand of detergent is cheaper by the gallon? WalMart and Home Depot as the local pickup joints?

Face it, I hear you cracking up.

May 24, 2005 | culture-society-history, food & drink | 1 Comment »

Illinois Library To Use Fingerprints

Public libraries in the Illinois suburb of Naperville will require a fingerprint scan before a patron may use a computer terminal. The message: No unauthorized users. Who could possibly be forbidden in a public library? Why, people who don’t have Stamps Of Approval emblazoned on their heads, of course.

Library officials said they wanted to tighten computer access because many people borrow library cards and pass codes from friends or family to log on. The technology also will help the library implement a new policy that allows parents to put filters on their children’s’ accounts, officials said.

As predicted, the ACLU jumped into action at the smell of stored fingerprints and the threat of a breach of citizen privacy.

While the library insists the fingerprint data will be kept confidential, [Ed] Yohnka, [IL ACLU spokesperson] warns the technology will create a database of personal information that could be used in unintended ways.

Naperville library spokespeople argue that the fingerprint is more unique a barcode than that of a library card. Also, according to them, “the technology cannot be used to reconstruct a person’s actual fingerprint.”

The furor over fingerprints and privacy aside, why is there no equivalent anger over the barrier to information access? Personally, I don’t understand the necessity of such “clamping down” in a venue as free and sharing-friendly as a public library. So what if people share their library cards with friends and family? Heavens, we simply cannot have unauthorized reading, can we?

This is not akin to loaning an ID card to someone who wishes to make an illegal liquor purchase; the end desire here is to have access to as much information as possible. As for the protection of children, here’s a solution: set aside a special section for kids’ computing, sanitize those machines and maintain the bastion of free access to information that a library should be, fingerprints and authorization be damned. Use the barcodes for books exiting the library.

There is already so much that we can’t do in modern society. Leave the public library alone.

May 23, 2005 | books, computing & internet, culture-society-history | 2 Comments »

Machelle’s Grandparents With Their Progeny

A lovely late-70s picture of my great friends, Machelle and Tim, with their siblings, cousins and grandparents.

| general | Comments Closed

Kuwait: Progress With A Caveat

VatulBlog proudly announces that Kuwait Approves Women’s Political Rights.

An admirable 35-23 vote gave Kuwaiti women the right to vote and stand in parliamentary elections. No parade is memorable without some rain; traditional archconservatives successfully tacked on a caveat to the law which requires the newly-empowered women to adhere to Islamic law.

What an ambiguous statement. Ix-nay on the champagne at campaign headquarters? No rock music on the tour bus? Holding hands at voter registration verboten?

[Rola] Dashti, a U.S.-educated economist, said the clause probably meant separate polling stations and not an imposition of a strict Islamic dress code.

Ms. Dashti will run for parliament in the 2007 election.

As objectionable as a lot of women find the “abide” clause, I think it is nothing but grandstanding by Kuwait’s patriarchy – the last menacing growl of an old lion that knows his time has come. A few honestly fear the loss of traditional ways at the hands of a younger and more progressive generation, but this is the way of old and new.

Three cheers for the women of Kuwait – Hip hip hooray! Hip hip hooray! Hip hip hooray!

May 20, 2005 | culture-society-history, government, kuwait | 1 Comment »
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