Disqus - Latest Comments for scrawledinwax

Re: What Rob Ford and His Critics Have in Common

scrawledinwax — Wed, 23 Jul 2014 13:34:38 -0000

Thanks for the feedback. This is an excellent comment, and spot on, I think.

To be clear, though, the "rabble of commenters" was said ironically. I wouldn't want people in general to stop venting their frustrations, criticizing Ford, or pointing out his many many flaws as a mayor. As you point out, sometimes the only place to see an honest look at Ford is outside the constraints (self-imposed or not) of media and mainstream discourse. I wouldn't mind, however, some of the more baseless, uninformed speculation to be pared back a bit. There's a vast chasm between the former and the latter.

What I think you very cleverly point out however is that what we want is a public proxy for our frustration - someone who stands in for us in the public sphere to enact our views in a cathartic, meaningful way. I think this is why the original "shirtless jogger" so resonated - because he was a visible public expression of our private feelings - something that 'the media' is supposed to do, but has generally not. In that sense, it's not that Rob Ford is so much cyborg, as he is avatar or online persona for his supporters - but we who, for various reasons oppose him, don't have a similarly public proxy for our own feelings.

Re: Rob Ford’s Other Accent is the One to Worry About

scrawledinwax — Wed, 29 Jan 2014 17:18:31 -0000

Yes, you're quite right, Sheena. An oversight on my part that missed how some Canadians are (quite prejudicially) read by others. Thank you for the correction and insight.

Re: Nav

scrawledinwax — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 18:39:51 -0000

I think you're being a bit (heh) black and white here, Bert. My point is that it is the tension between conscious and repressed desire that keeps us wanting. What straight men want and what straight tell themselves they want (and therefore seek out) are not necessarily the same--and the worst thing to do would be to argue one side of that equation is the 'true' one. The same can be said for artifice and authenticity in Hollywood: it's not that we 'really' want one or the other, but that the dialectic produced between the two is what Hollywood feeds on.

Re: The New Android Phone is Prose, Not Poetry, and That’s Why It’s Good | Toronto Standard | News, Media, Art, Business, Technology, Fashion, Events

scrawledinwax — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 18:19:44 -0000

Well that sucks. I do think it's unlikely that the same thing will happen to the Nexus, though. While I can't speak to battery life in the long term, it's quite powerful and it's tough to imagine Google changing the next version of Android so radically that a fast dual-core phone couldn't run it well.

Re: Windows Phone Is Failing Because It’s Great | Toronto Standard | News, Media, Art, Business, Technology, Fashion, Events

scrawledinwax — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 19:15:05 -0000

Thanks, fixed.

Re: Are Books Bad at Spreading Ideas? | Toronto Standard | News, Media, Art, Business, Technology, Fashion, Events

scrawledinwax — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 14:43:01 -0000

Marx? Darwin? Pfft. Like *their* ideas spread at all... ;)

No, that's a great point. But they're also examples of the heights of print culture; both Marx and Luther relied on the pamphlet to skirt around established structures of power.

What I'm wondering though is, given all the noise of the contemporary world, the web isn't also good at distributing smaller chunks of information. To be sure, a work on, for example, the current economic troubles, would likely be best served by the length and focus of a book. But it seems that the back-and-forth nature of developing ideas online could also be fruitful in spreading certain types of ideas - say the seeds of a critique of the current economic structure - maybe more so than books. So maybe it's that the web = modern pamphlet?

Of course, the other question is how you get people to read new, unfamiliar ideas when you can use Google/Twitter/Facebook to shape your exposure to news.

Re: Piss-take Captions, Celebrityhood, and the Future of Capitalism | Toronto Standard | News, Media, Art, Business, Technology, Fashion, Events

scrawledinwax — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 14:17:09 -0000

Single quotes there, double quotes here... so much divides us! What I think we can all agree on, though, is that 'copy editing advice' just isn't the same unless it comes with just the slightest touch of xenophobia.

Re: Why White Scenesters Hate the ‘Burbs | Toronto Standard | News, Media, Art, Business, Technology, Fashion, Events

scrawledinwax — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 16:40:39 -0000

Huh, that's a really good way put it, Jackie - that a lot of the appeal of the suburbs is about having more control over personal space, an issue which obviously isn't limited to immigrants or 'visible minorities'. So I guess a question is whether there is a way to promote urbanism or sustainability that takes into consideration that desire for autonomy - and perhaps how being an immigrant can inflect or colour that wish.

Re: Why White Scenesters Hate the ‘Burbs | Toronto Standard | News, Media, Art, Business, Technology, Fashion, Events

scrawledinwax — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 15:37:51 -0000

Great point, Cory. Maybe I am conflating two separate issues: a cultural one and economic one. But though this anecdotal, I've often found many immigrants I know to remark that downtown is messy and crowded and unpleasant, a view very different from my own. So though I think you're spot on with the question of house prices, I wonder if there's also another aspect to this too.

Re: Why White Scenesters Hate the ‘Burbs | Toronto Standard | News, Media, Art, Business, Technology, Fashion, Events

scrawledinwax — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 15:35:45 -0000

Thanks for the great comment, Gary, and I totally agree. I think you've clearly articulated why I and many others left the suburbs for the city and how messy and complex the issue is. All I'm trying to point out here is that part of the dismissiveness that often accompanies discussion of the suburbs seems to gloss over where cultural difference fits in. And utlimately, because I believe urbanism is a better solution, we should all think about ways to build and change cities that, as much as is possible, accommodate different values and ideals.

Re: Why Nerds Should Stop Complaining and Let George Lucas Keep Tinkering With Star Wars | Toronto Standard | News, Media, Art, Business, Technology, Fashion, Events

scrawledinwax — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 18:56:55 -0000

Thanks for the comment! Totally understand where you're coming from, and I agree with a lot you've said. I think you're right that many of the changes don't add anything, and may even take way what was previously good.

Here's where I disagree. I think it's arguable that the good stuff about Star Wars was largely a fluke (*ducks*), and one that was enabled by Harrison Ford. Most of the plot and acting in the film is (IMHO) average. Luke is a blank character who's about as stereotypical as you could get. It's only Leia and Hans that are interesting because they slipped out of the tight constraints of Lucas' otherwise poor characterization.

So, though I know this is an unpopular opinion, I think it's possible that Star Wars was a stroke of luck and timing. Harrison Ford gave the series a bit of heart and spontaneity, while its techno-spiritual fetishism hit the right mix in its belief in both technology and the supernatural for a time of historical transition. People were embracing technology and yet scared of it; the 'Jedi' were the right response.

Generally, though, I don't think changes to the canon denigrate previous versions. If anything, watching those on a VCR, it makes the nostalgia all the more rewarding.

I do, however, believe that Lucas is completely at fault for not also including the original versions of Blu-Ray. He says it's too expensive, but I think he's just being stubborn and greedy. Fans should have the option of watching the unaltered trilogy in high-def if they want to.

Re: The Web and Wellbeing | Toronto Standard | News, Media, Art, Business, Technology, Fashion, Events

scrawledinwax — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 12:08:38 -0000

Whoops: those statements are from the report itself. It also suggests that playing certain types of games, rather than increasing aggression, causes a boost in empathy.

Re: Five things about Google+ Facebook should worry about

scrawledinwax — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 19:32:08 -0000

It's a good question, but I'd guess it's for the same reason Gmail was a beta: they want to convey the idea that it's an ongoing, expanding project rather than a finished product.

Re: Gucci, Gucci, Virtual Blackface, and the Aesthetics of the Web | Toronto Standard | News, Media, Art, Business, Technology, Fashion, Events

scrawledinwax — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 23:44:12 -0000

Thanks for the comment.

I didn't mean 'blackface' literally - that's why I said 'vaguely virtual blackface'. You're right, though: I should have chosen a less over-the-top way to phrase that. What I did intend to imply, however, is that a white person rapping, wrong or right, is always going to be bound up in issues of cultural appropriation. I think white privilege means being able to 'put on' or 'take off' other cultures without suffering the downsides of 'owning' that identity - or skin colour. Kreayshawn doesn't seem to address that concept at all, and I think people are right to be a bit weirded out by that.

As for the necklace being the Blackhawks logo, I don't see at all how that makes it okay or better, especially given what I've said above. It just seems to reaffirm that issues of race and privilege in this video are, well, "icky".

A long time ago in an interview, KRS-One said that hip hop isn't and never was 'black music'. At the same time, that doesn't mean issues of race and culture disappear. This was meant to be a slightly light-hearted way of saying "oh hey, this video does some interesting stuff, and is seems sorta feminist - but there's also this other weird thing with race going on too".

Let me know what you think.

Re: Unconcealing the Future | Toronto Standard | News, Media, Art, Business, Technology, Fashion, Events

scrawledinwax — Fri, 20 May 2011 08:08:04 -0000

Thanks for the thoughtful, insightful comment, Steven.

Though I seem to have failed in making this clear, the contradiction between the first and final sections is deliberate. I mean to say that we are suspended in tension between both the productive nature of our imaginings and our inability to imagine what's to come (or l'avenir, to invoke Derrida). The logical incompatibility between the two does not diminish their equal 'presence' in our lives.

The admittedly wishy-washy language was, thus, a performative gesture to what we cannot know. It seems in the face of 'known unknowns' (sorry!), one can either, as you ask, speak with precision about the past or the present, or circumlocute with something (kinda, sorta) poetic to point to the hope that what may come may be better. I chose the latter because doing so feels optimistic, and to hold off making judgements in one article does not assert a quasi-categorical imperative that one must always do so. I cannot make judgements about what is to come because I don't know, particularly because the epistemological constraints of the present - subejctivity, capitalism, democracy etc. - likely foreclose any prediction of the things that may (or may not) supersede them.

I guess I just disagree with your final point - sometimes vagueness is precisely the responsible thing to aim for. That said, though we may have differing opinions, I sincerely appreciate the engagement and thoughtfulness with which you wrote this.

Re: http://sodisarmingdarling.tumblr.com/post/1066883822

scrawledinwax — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 23:54:33 -0000

But, now that I think about it, here's the other side (and this has bothered me for the longest time).

Near the end of Serenity, when all the danger is done, Mal asks Inara whether she wants to leave, and there's her *great* reading of the simple phrase "I don't know". BUT - and this is what has always annoyed me - at the point that Inara may make some sort of covert overture towards Mal, her hair, instead of being done up, is soft and relaxed, and she isn't wearing lipstick.

So, it's like suddenly, a woman who had this real control over her sexuality has become a demure woman, giggling slightly when the handsome captain pays her some attention. It was this tiny thing, but it kinda' stuck out in a film that I otherwise love.

/end baseless rant.

Re: http://sodisarmingdarling.tumblr.com/post/927579352

scrawledinwax — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 12:57:02 -0000

Do people leave comments here? Or do they reblog? Anyway, I don't really use Tumblr, so I'll comment.

Anyway, spot on. It's been creeping me out too. Also getting under my skin is that this feels very endemic to the way something like Buzzfeed works. Privileged, largely white hipsters make fun and 'ironize' (I'm pretty sure that's not a real word) some aspect of difference they find 'weird' or 'kooky' ("look at how the dark skinned fella' talks! It's high-larious!") Combine that with what you point out is a very strange glossing over of AN ATTEMPTED RAPE, and this really is the dark side of the viral, hipster web.

The thing I've been thinking about is how you go about talking about this through those same Buzzfeed-esque channels. After all, one of the things viral culture has made people most suspicious of is sincerity, particularly if it's the kind of sincerity where people are "taking things too seriously". It's so often supposed to "just be a joke", right? Alas, I don't think I'm the one to make a YouTube clip making fun of people who autotune what are actually really disturbing events.

Re: How to Capture an Idea

scrawledinwax — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 22:14:18 -0000

Thanks for this - it really helps to hear how others deal with the issue, particularly when the results of your approach are so clearly full of awesome. I think that I'm still quite invested in some notion of 'control', or a vaguely OCD approach to 'reading everything'. It's hard to shake the feeling that you might miss something, even though you know you can't possibly capture it all.

That's why I really like the idea of the searchable digital archive you mentioned. Both Evernote and Instapaper have become so central to my digital life (if, perhaps, I don't use them as efficiently as I might) as they form this vast repository of information, almost like a strange database/narrative of my thinking. It's kinda' cool.

And I think you're quite right - how you organise the information is key. I'm bad at that. I still have 'tech' and 'gaming' and 'food' folders in GReader. I think it's a holdover from the earlier parts of my education.

Oh, you probably know this, and it's less than ideal, but you can 'Send To' Instapaper from GReader. If only there was a script that would push all your starred items instead.

Anyway, sorry for the rambly comment on a great post.

Re: Sony Playstation 3 Slim Rumors; Debut On August 18th?

scrawledinwax — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 19:31:56 -0000

The Amazon listing was just a user submission. Later the picture was changed to a fan-made mockup and then a 360 Elite. Not that it's not coming, mind you. It's just that the Amazon story was bogus. Everything else just points to a question of when and not if.

Re: Apple iPod Touch large: I want one

scrawledinwax — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 13:09:12 -0000

Late, but... You know who would *love* this? My 70 year old Dad. He was blown away by the iPhone recently, especially Google Earth. If there were an option bluetooth keyboard and an easy way to wirelessly connect it to a stereo, this would be amazing. It's the perfect mix of the iPhone/Touch interface and size. I think a slightly faster processor would help - things like Google Earth are just too much for the iPhone - but... consider me intrigued.

Re: Michael Robertson: Thoughts on Lala.com

scrawledinwax — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 21:30:45 -0000

Mathew, mymp3.com leads to a hardcore porn link farm... Thankfully, I live alone, or that could have been awkwaaard! ;) And my.mp3.com just leads to CNET's mp3.com.

Re: Who do you want to see at mesh 2009?

scrawledinwax — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 20:46:19 -0000

I think Rex Sorgatz would have a lot of interesting things to say about the cult of personality online and what he calls 'making public fodder of the private' (though I freely admit I partly want him to come to Mesh so we can get drunk together). Waxy is always cool, especially on seemingly obscure, arcane stuff and the Web as cultural archive. And Clay Shirky always seems interesting.

Last year, it was also cool to have some Canucks who had 'made it' - though I guess that does tend to make the crowd more entrepreneur/VC heavy. Regardless, I'll be there!

Re: A new theme: Defending my Thesis

scrawledinwax — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 23:20:17 -0000

Heh - I thought you were about to embark on a new approach in which you would be more argumentative! But I like the new theme - very clean, and the rotating photos are cool.

Re: Wrong — Steve’s health is my business

scrawledinwax — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 18:10:51 -0000

I agree. Giz put up a post today with the usual libertarian 'it's about personal freedom and privacy' argument. Fair enough. But as you and Leigh said, when so much of the company's reputation rests on one man, then stockholders deserve to know what's going on. Claiming a right to privacy sounds like wanting it both ways - maintaining the Jobs cult of personality as a marketing tool but not living up to the responsibility that very tactic entails.

Re: Joss Stone: “Music should be shared”

scrawledinwax — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:27:36 -0000

I'm not suggesting it invalidates what she says. It's just that there needs to be an acknowledgment of the dynamic at work where it's only Stone's participation in the music biz's 'old model' and reaching a sort of critical mass of fame/success that resulted in you writing this post. I agree with what she's saying. I just also believe that the new model will mean that there will be no Joss Stones in the future as the mechanisms of marketing/distribution etc. becoming radically fragmented i.e. Rex's idea about microfame will become the only sort of fame there is for musicians.