Words’ End

MIT student arrested for wearing art that lights up from a 9-volt battery.

Truly appalling is this, by Major Scott Pare of the Massachusetts State Police:

“Thankfully because she followed our instructions, she ended up in our cell instead of a morgue.”

Beg pardon? Because she followed your instructions she didn’t end up dead for wearing a shirt with lights on it? Thank you, officer. That’s awful kind of you.

[Edit: Oh, it's worse than that apparently. Nick points to the AP release, which has Pare saying this:

Simpson was "extremely lucky she followed the instructions or deadly force would have been used," Pare said. "She's lucky to be in a cell as opposed to the morgue."

Lucky! She should thank her lucky stars.]

Boston has learned nothing from the LED-art scare of a few months past – that one, by the way, ended anti-climactically, with the press forgetting all about it, and the two young men in question doing community service in return for having bogus charges against them dropped.

I hate scare-mongering. And I’m inexplicably terrified of what happens if my husband ever wears a particular present I gave him in the wrong place. (Going back to the Star Simpson incident, the argument that she should’ve known better, wearing something like this to an airport, holds no water. She should not be held responsible for the overreaction of others: first let’s talk about how much damage any device powered by nine volts is capable of making.)

Hat-tip to Dr. Memory.

This coming Tuesday, September 18th, come to MIT for the first in the Purple Blurb digital reading series. “The readings will start at 6pm at MIT in 14N–233 (second floor of building 14, in the wing that is across the courtyard from the Hayden Library),” says organizer Nick Montfort in the announcement.

The first reader will be Robert Kendall, and I’m very sorry to miss it due to a prior obligation: Rob’s words tend to transport me somewhere familiar I’ve never been before. At the next event on October 18th, I’ll be reading from Roland^HT and talking a bit about narrative threads running through it. The other two readings this semester will take place on November 13th (Barbara Barry) and December 4th (Andrew Plotkin).

For a good time, call on Purple Blurb.

Not at the same time, mind.

There’s a review in Wired of China Miéville’s new book Un Dun Lun, which looks fun. Though I never quite got into the third book (The Iron Council) of his trilogy, I more or less swallowed up Perdido Street Station and The Scar. And, right now I’m reading Looking for Jake – a collection of his short stories that, all except one, are Miéville distilled, without the buildup. Fabulous, in both senses. He’s like a slightly more creepy Neil Gaiman, and boy does he have a way with words.

Aaand, check out these Viking-era gaming pieces that someone just dug up-and-out.

“You see, I keep thinking that what we need is a new language. Some kind of language between people that is a new kind of poetry… and I think that in order to create that language, you’re going to have to learn how you can go through a looking glass into another kind of perception, where you have that sense of being united to all things… and suddenly you understand everything.”

–André

4 February: the below is wrong. The charges haven’t officially been dropped. MSNBC, screw you for the misinformation. Everyone else, I’m sorry for spreading it further.

Here, watch this. Turner’s apologized to citizenry; they’re in negotiations as to $1M that they’re purportedly wishing to pay out (nice of them to cover costs and a little more), and the charges against Sean and Peter have been dropped. “Now,” the news anchor said (I’m paraphrasing), “all that’s left is for Boston to apologize to its citizenry for overreacting.”

I especially love the way the anchor talks about Philadelphia, where 56 of these things have been delighting audiences for “two weeks.” Ever so slight hint at “I can’t believe this is even a news story.”

Yay!!

They’re not AA batteries, they’re D batteries. And there’s a photosensitivity sensor, too. And it might not be possible to actually see through the circuit boards.

This information brought to you by eBay.

Did you hear about the Boston “bomb” scare?

Here’s a CNN article that tells about it. BBC has reported on it, too. Lots of coverage.

They were art pieces advertising Aqua Teen Hunger Force. They were put up by a member of the Glitch Crew video art collective, who was contracted to do so by Turner Broadcasting. Some people thought they were bombs; bomb squads went berserk.

A good friend of mine, also a member of Glitch, was helping Peter put them up. He’s in jail too, with a $100,000 bail on his head. Arraignment is tomorrow morning, and I hope they’ll just be let go.

They got arrested after Turner owned up. As far as I know, Turner is letting them spend the night in jail. Which, as far as I’m concerned, may be easier but is… a bit assinine on the part of one of the richest media companies in the U.S.

I’ll post again after I know what happens at the arraignment. Meanwhile, here’s a link to a Grand Text Auto post that mentions other instances in which artists have gotten in trouble because we’re now scared of EVERYTHING.

Edited to add: no, wait. I’m taking issue with some stuff in the CNN article. (I’m sure other news sources are no better, by the way, just picking up on their wording.)

Peter Berdovsky, 27, a freelance video artist from Arlington, Massachusetts, was facing charges of placing a hoax device in a way that results in panic, as well as one count of disorderly conduct, said Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley. The charge is a felony, she said.

According to his Web site, Berdovsky is a graduate of the Massachusetts College of Art and a founding member of a video artists group called Glitch who goes by the nickname “Zebbler” and sings in a band called “Superfiction.”

Authorities believe Berdovsky was “in the employ of other individuals” as part of the marketing campaign, Coakley said. “How exactly this was executed, we are still investigating.” Berdovsky is scheduled for arraignment at 9 a.m. Thursday in Charlestown District Court.

“In the employ of other individuals”? YES, YOU DIPSHITS, HE WAS IN THE EMPLOY OF TURNER. And also, stop calling them “suspicious packages.” They’re not packages. They’re CIRCUIT BOARDS WITH LIGHTS AND THREE AA BATTERIES IN THEM. If you hold them up, you can see through the holes in them. Nothing was ever hidden from view in them. So stop fucking scaremongering now that you know what they are.

Gah. News media.

Edited again: Oh, good. Now CNN has updated the article to include “Sean Stevens, 28″ in the two-name list of the people arrested. Now I don’t feel quite as weird about talking about Sean by name.

Also, ha! NOBODY IS SAFE. CNN again: “Turner Broadcasting said the devices had been in place for two to three weeks in Boston; New York; Los Angeles, California; Chicago, Illinois; Atlanta, Georgia; Seattle, Washington; Portland, Oregon; Austin, Texas; San Francisco, California; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.”

My beloved bought Guitar Hero II. Note the time stamp on this post. And I’m not even into video games much.

It is crack. Also, it’s hell on my left arm, all the way from the forearm to the shoulder.

But oh, the sweet sweet reward for having gotten work done. Dissertation, we have a PLAN.

James Brown has died. Long live his music!

(Via WorkBook, who also posts a link to “Santa Claus, Go Straight to the Ghetto”.)

Oh man, I do wish they hadn’t gone on permanent hiatus. Moxy Früvous is one of my favorite bands. They’re fun, they’re talented, they put on one hell of a live show.

Früvous started out busking on the streets of Toronto, and quickly gained fame in Canada with their “Independent Cassette” (a demo tape, sorta – you haven’t heard Green Eggs and Ham until you’ve heard them sing it) and their first album “Bargainville.” They got huuuge! And then they released “Wood,” which was very different from “Bargainville,” and many of their fans say, wtf? And Früvous said, bitch, we’re multifaceted!, and went touring in the States. Their fans, of whom I’m one, call themselves Fruheads and have driven ridiculous distances to see them. Yeah, I’m not kidding. This band, and the Fruhead phenomenon, were responsible for my meeting Colleen, who moved up to Boston from Florida in 1997 and never left, and who is one of my dearest friends.

And you can see a bunch of their videos on YouTube! Check out especially “King of Spain” (recorded, as far as I know, at their first busking spot, and easily their most famous song), “Fell in Love” and “Fly” – oh, and “My Baby Loves a Bunch of Authors”! – but there’s a lot of good stuff there. The video quality isn’t that hot, but I suspect the person who posted their actual videos (as opposed to fan videos) digitized them from the VHS tape of videos that they had at one point. I should have a copy of that somewhere… I think…

Nowadays they’re all doing their own thing. Jian Ghomeshi is into TV and producing and politics. The slightly outdated website for Dave Matheson, wizard man who can play ANYTHING including my heart strings, has a link for buying his self-titled solo album, which I highly recommend. Murray Foster has played bass with Great Big Sea, and appears to be playing with Tory Cassis (another Canadian musician I love) in a band called The Lesters. Mike Ford sings about Canada to school kids: here’s a CD of his on Amazon.ca. Oh, and just by the way, he is (his website says) “a contributing editor to McGraw-Hill’s new Secondary School textbook, Defining Canada.”

Ahh, Früvous.

(Edited to add:) Hey, if nothing else, see/hear the Gulf War Song.