Since the November 2008 elections, conservatives have been feeling bit of disillusionment over the results and their subsequent relief from duty in Washington. This is a great opportunity to learn about debate techniques and tactics that may help them to win over new supporters for Sarah Palin in 2012. I'll go over a few of them here:

Start the debate with a lie

Yeah, those senior citizens are really agitators. They don't want the end of life counselin.

Your opponent has researched all manner of subjects formally and informally. He or she is knowledgeable on every possible point of debate ... except one that you have made up out of whole cloth. There is no way that they can be prepared to respond to something they have never heard about before, so be sure to surprise them with the biggest, most damning lie you can think of. It's even better if there's some small truth buried in that lie. For example, you could take real words and phrases out of a bill like "consultation" and "end-of-life" (preferably out of order) and make up a definition for it like "death panel." They'll be so confused they'll won't be able to respond and, once they've figured it out, they won't be able to say anything because nobody wants to use the word "lie" in a public debate.

Continue with words, not phrases

Have you read it and heard Barry just take a pill quote

When your opponent tries to tell you you're mistaken about "end of life counseling," just say some words. Use words that sound like you're trying to say something so your audience will just think they didn't quite hear you, but they'll think your opponent is stupid for not understanding what you said. This also raises your opponent's blood pressure by signaling to them that there is no hope for intelligent conversation any more.

Make references to a respected organization

Yes, it's in there - every 5 years or so the elderly get such converstation[sic] in the bill. Sickens me. AARP is about to lose a lot of members for their stance regarding this version of health care reform.

Respected organizations have influence regardless of which side of the debate they're on. If you can demonize people who agree with your opponent, you're reinforcing your opponent's demonic nature. In this case, you've also suggested that a large group of citizens already agree with your lie by suggesting that they disagree with your opponent's supporter. If that sentence is hard for you to follow, don't worry, just take it on faith.

Move the goalposts and lie again

Colleges are ripping us off and is[sic] to expensive.

Public sub has allowed the lib colleges to jack prices up at all our expense. This cycle keeps growing at all our expense. Sticking to bill to the people who would be hiring them after schooling.

Wow U need to diversify your info portfolio I am in a university foundation board big guy.

Moving the goalposts is a well-known strategy that, like nuclear warheads, has no effective counter. Every time your opponent gets close to showing you their faulty version of reality, bring up another aspect of reality you've been denying. This will keep their overly complicated mind working on many things at a time, allowing you to sit back and think about what you'll make up next.

Take your ball and bat and go home

No more name calling please. ... if u don't like it don't read it. Just turn me in to the nazi-like snitch govt website like a good comrade

The best way to tell someone who has the audacity to point out that you're lying and denying reality is to call them a name caller while calling them names. They'll be too busy trying to work through the hypocrisy of your statements to get to the core of what you're saying. That will make sure they won't have a decent response ready until you've unfriended them on Facebook. Because really, anyone who disagrees with your lies can't be a friend.

These tactics are sure to win over the opposition to your point of view. Once you've ignored the opposition, you won't know anyone who doesn't support Sarah Palin.

Facebook | Twitter | Reddit | Stumble

James May of TopGear got an amazing opportunity to see black sky without a rocket engine. It's 10 minutes long, but worth every second.

Facebook | Twitter | Reddit | Stumble

I was recently asked 'What makes a photograph fine art?'

To me, any object that transcends itself in communicating has become fine art. A photograph is just a photograph until it is an outstanding photograph.

Henri Cartier-Bresson arguably took a lot of dull snapshots with his new 35mm camera but many of the shots, at least of the ones we get to see, pull me into them and tell me more about the scene than just what the camera saw; they also tell me what the photographer saw. That is fine art.

Man Ray took photographs without a camera and created imagery through pattern and texture that transcends the paper media on which it is printed. His use of old techniques mixed with new to create modern design was revolutionary. That is fine art.

Edward Weston created photographs that confused the nature of shape and juxtaposed sensuality and mundanity. If it's a fruit that looks like a nude, it's a Weston. If it's a nude that looks like a fruit, it's a Weston. That is fine art.

Fine art tends to be non-commercial, but much commercial artwork rises to the level of fine art. Fine art can be simple or complex; detailed or vague; urban or natural; nude, clothed or devoid humans. It can tell a story, explore shape or form or color or tone, challenge our intellect or remind us of childhood. This list could go on forever.

In the end, the question is completely subjective and one person's fine art is another person's trash. Andres Serrano's 'Piss Christ' was railed against by Christians who felt he was maligning their faith. They were angered that the National Endowment for the Arts rewarded him with a $15,000 prize because they felt it was blasphemous rather than artistic. Ironically, one of the recognized purposes of art is to illicit an emotional response, which this certainly did.

Facebook | Twitter | Reddit | Stumble

I'm not much for speechifying and all that stuff. Others have wished FreeDOS a happy birthday better than I. The "benevolent dictator" who created the project has a post at the FreeDOS blog. Greg Laden, from whom I stole the term "benevolent dictator" has a little item at his blog. Stephanie has a character piece on James Hall, the "benevolent dictator" at her blog. I don't mean to leave out The Lousy Canuck and others, but these are the ones that really matter.

I've seen the future and the geeks were right

Facebook | Twitter | Reddit | Stumble

You ever notice how some music videos don't really make any sense? Some don't even fit the music that also doesn't really make sense.

I just thought I'd mention that I like Cake.

I also like Morphine.

Facebook | Twitter | Reddit | Stumble

Ah, The Crystal Method...

Scott Kirkland and Ken Jordan have a new album out now called "Divided By Night." Like the rest of their music, it's very good. I've been told that "Vega"s was a great album to listen to stoned. I suspect "Legion of Boom" and "Divided by Night" come in close seconds. The new album is loaded with collaborations between the Method and other artists, including the nerdcore LMFAO and Justin Warfield of She Wants Revenge fame.

Anyway, I'm not reviewing the album, I'm reviewing the tour. Check The Crystal Method website for tour dates.

If you're a fan in Minneapolis and you missed it, I'm very sorry for you. You should have gone. The light show was great. The performance was great. All during the tour, they were tweeting that people should carpool or take public transportation to "offset the massive light show." A lot of it was done with LEDs so there's already a carbon savings from that.

There were two exceptionally cool things they did with lights. One was the fully gimbaled led light disks that acted as spots and displays at the same time. The other was the multi-colored spots that cut through the smoke in a crazily cool way.
The most challenging was the four giant strobe lights that seem to be getting popular these days. I'm getting very good at changing the settings on my camera very quickly.

Scott Kirkland is always the outgoing one; playing the audience and the songs at the same time. He stands on top of things, sometimes not very stably. He throws out up the devil horns when he has a free hand (he uses both hands when they're both free. He's the one everyone's eyes are on all the time because he's the one who wants it that way.

Ken Jordan is the quiet one. He plays the music and watches Kirkland take the front stage but he rarely hams it up for the audience. He also seems to be the more coherent one, since he was the one who did all the "thank you Minneapolis" stuff. He patiently distracted the crowd when one of Kirkland's keyboards died and had to be replaced during the encore too. This show, he spent quite a wile hamming and smiling. Clearly they were both enjoying the tour.

Buy "Divided By Night" on iTunes.

More photos on my Flickr stream.

Facebook | Twitter | Reddit | Stumble

This isn't as bad as what Northwest Airlines did when they were cutting jobs and salaries, but I just got an email this morning suggesting ways to save money.

Set up automatic withdrawal to your savings account. This is the simplest and most effective technique of all. If you set up $100/month to your savings account, you will save $100/month.

All I can say is that I hope Captain Obvious there isn't getting a raise this year either.

Update: I just read farther in and they have another great suggestion:

Check your local library for other learning opportunities that will help you and others in our New Economy.

I love how it's 'our New Economy' and not 'the crappy situation created by greedy capitalists abusing the system.'

Facebook | Twitter | Reddit | Stumble

94 years ago, on June 28th, 1914, Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was visiting Bosnia to observe military maneuvers and open the state museum in Sarajevo. Rising against the perceived oppression of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, assassins killed the Archduke and his wife Sophie as they crossed the Latin Bridge. This event is widely regarded as the beginning of World War I or at least the final straw. The war started less than two months later.

Seven years ago, in Glasgow Scotland, the band Franz Ferdinand formed to create a unique mix of electronic, rock, pop, and punk music. This event is widely regarded as the beginning of Franz Ferdinand's musical career. The first single from their first album reached number three on the UK charts less than two years later.

My introduction to the band was playing "Burnout 3", crashing cars and listening to "This Fire." I wasn't quite hooked on the band until I played "Burnout Revenge" a year later and heard that first single "Take Me out." Since then, I have purchased all their albums on iTunes, some more than once as iTunes converted to iTunes Plus (non-DRM music is much easier to deal with.)

It's been a while since I have seen a sold-out show at First Avenue; actually, I think this might have been the first time. I arrived just as the opening band was finishing their last song and the place was already packed. Making my way up to the stage was tricky to do without inadvertently groping people along the way but after several apologies and people moving back to get drinks between bands, I made it up to the barrier. 

I'll skip over the part where I was waiting for the crew to reset the stage for Franz Ferdinand and the woman leaning over the railing telling me to go get the security guy because she had "goodies" for the band. I'll also skip over listening to the stage hands checking the mics in Glaswegian. Oh... Oops.

It turns out that Nicholas McCarthy (first photo) had injured his foot while on tour and had to walk out with crutches. Alex Kapranos (second photo) led him out and made a big show of ushering Nick to his place, surrounded by synthesizers and microphones.

Not only was this the first time I'd seen First Avenue so packed, I'd never seen the front of the barrier so packed. Sharing the cramped space with me were two staff members and four other photographers. We managed to share the space, but I think the other photographers had to be kicked out for staying up there too long. It wasn't surprising since none of them seemed to have remembered to bring real cameras, just plastic toys with lenses on them.

Since I skipped over the Scottish accent part earlier I'll mention that, while I have a terrible time understanding anything that is said with a Glaswegian accent for the first several minutes of exposure, I love listening to anyone with an honest Scottish accent; I think it's because I'm distracted by the pure lyricism of the words. Alex said, in his accent, something about being back to the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, which immediately endeared him to me; it's one of life's little annoyances for me when people call the place I live "Minneapolis St. Paul."

I have to be honest, I hadn't heard their new album "Tonight: Franz Ferdinand" before going to this show. I hadn't realized that, in the three years between "You Could Have It So Much Better" and "Tonight," the band had started playing with their synthesizers more. During the break between sets, the crew brought out a couple extra synths, one of which I recognized from The Faint's musical tool set but couldn't identify. When they started hitting the keyboards hard during "Lucid Dreams," I could have sworn I was listening to a different but just as excellent band.

Franz Ferdinand's music is a great listen, but their live show is a submersive experience. Watching them on stage, it was clear to me that they were there to play the music just as much as the audience was there to hear the music. The show ended with everyone in the band, and some guy from stage right banging on the drums with distorted video from an in-house camera projected onto them and the screen behind them. Once again, First Avenue keeps its place as the best place to hear music in the Twin Cities.

Facebook | Twitter | Reddit | Stumble

Back in February, I found out that The Faint would be playing a show at First Avenue at the beginning of April. Some band called Ladytron was going to be opening and they would also be bringing along an act by the name of Telepathe.

Okay, so I've been musically sheltered the last couple years. The best alternative station went away and was replaced with the almost-as-good The Current. I also changed careers about three years ago and don't spend nearly as much time in the car as I used to.

So... Telepathe...

Telepathe is two girls, a couple of keyboards and some drums and sample pads. It took me a little while to warm up to their music, but it grew on me. I thought they could really go somewhere if they were given enough time. On the other hand, once I started to mentally classify their music as "experimental," I really started to enjoy it.

Would I recommend them? Maybe, but I'd recommend listening to a few tracks first. I suspect they are, like many good things, an acquired taste.

Next up was Ladytron. I did some research before the show and thought I wouldn't really be into Ladytron. I was completely wrong about that. From listening to the 30 second samples on iTunes, I got the feeling that all their songs sounded alike. As it turns out, those samples are not representative of their music. Ladytron's music is rich in variety, creativity and presence.

Ladytron's stage show is not so much energetic as it is intense. They all have a look of total concentration on their faces as they work to play their music, sing their lines, and change the settings on their keyboards for the next verse. I didn't feel that they were disengaged from the crowd because Helen Marnie, the lead vocalist, kept energy flowing our way for the whole set. The lighting was a thing of wonder that can only be properly described in photos. 

Like a typical nightclub crowd, most of the people really only knew one song. In this case, that song was Seventeen which, despite having only 29 words, lodges in your head and makes you pay attention to the social commentary it delivers wrapped around a pounding bass line. When Helen said "it's time for seventeen" the crowd unanimously cheered.

When the digitally enhanced electronic lighting of Ladytron gave way to video imagery and their smooth synthpop tones and dissonant vocals gave way to harsher sounds and raised voices it was clear that The Faint was the reason many of those audience members were there and they rocked the house from the moment they stepped on the stage. The Faint projected frenetic energy into the house from the stage; they were all constantly in motion and constantly working the crowd.

Next to The Crystal Method, this is the most active I have ever seen a Minnesota audience. Sure, they were still mostly pogo dancing, but they were really putting something into it. There was even one brave crowd surfer.

Of course, I have to give a lot of credit to First Avenue. Of all the venues I've been to in the area, it remains the finest place to see any show. The staff is always polite and patient and somehow they manage to attract audiences that are there for the music rather than the nightclub scene.

Photo notes: The photos are, of course, Telepathe, Ladytron and The Faint in that order. No, not all the pictures I took are backlit, I just liked the way these looked together.

Facebook | Twitter | Reddit | Stumble

Gizmodo pointed out that there's a Google map of the swine flu pandemic. It's a little spooky.

View H1N1 Swine Flu in a larger map

Facebook | Twitter | Reddit | Stumble