http://blogcritics.org/ A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously. en Copyright 2005-2007 by the authors Wed, 25 Jun 2003 00:20:49 EDT http://backend.userland.com/rss Blogcritics.org custom software http://blogcritics.org/ Phillip WinnSunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. 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Administration0@blogcritics.org Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/06/25/002049.php BJ JohnsonIn this excellent Tom Waits interview by Keith Phipps for the Onion AV Club, we learn the origins of the phrase "Today you will play jazz, tomorrow you will betray your country," that honey doesn't spoil, and that his kids turned him on to Blackalicious (but he can't attend shows with them because that would be too embarassing). For example:O: What's your collaborative process like with Kathleen Brennan?TW: [Chuckles.] Oh! Well, you know, "You wash, I'll dry." It all comes down to making choices and a lot of decisions. You know, are we gonna do a song about our cruise ship, or a meadow, or a brothel, or... just a rhapsody, or is it a parlor song or a work song or a field holler? What is it? The form itself is like a Jell-O mold. It's like doing anything that you would do with someone. "You hold it right there while I hit it," or the other way around. You find a rhythm in the way of working. I trust her opinion above all else. You've gotta have somebody to trust, that knows a lot. She's done a lot of things. I'm Ingrid Bergman and she's Bogart. She's got a pilot's license, and she was gonna be a nun before we got married. I put an end to that. She knows about everything from motorcycle repair to high finance, and she's an excellent pianist. One of the leading authorities on the African violet. She's a lot of strong material. She's like Superwoman, standing there with her cape flapping. It works. We've been at this for some time now. Sometimes you quarrel, and it's the result of irritation, and sometimes it comes out of the ground like a potato and we marvel at it. She doesn't like the spotlight. She's a very private person, as opposed to myself. [Laughs.]O: You have kind of developed a reputation as a recluse. Does that bother you?TW: Hell, no. I think that's a good one. It wards off strangers. It's like being a beekeeper. [snip]O: What are you driving these days?TW: Oh, I got a beautiful 1959 Cadillac Coupe DeVille four-door. No one will ride in it with me.O: Why's that?TW: It's unsafe. But it looks good. I take it to the dump. We spend a lot of time in our cars. You know what I really love? The CD players in a car. How when you put the CD right up by the slot, it actually takes it out of your hand, like it's hungry. It pulls it in, and you feel like it wants more silver discs. "More silver discs. Please." I enjoy that.O: Do you have one in the Cadillac?TW: No, I have a little band in there. It's an old car, so I have a little old string band in the glove compartment. It's grumpy. You know the average person spends two weeks over their lifetime waiting for the traffic light to change?Waits also talks about his views on using songs in advertising, covers of his compositions, and knowing your audience. "You don't really know. I guess one should not even assume that one has an audience, and allow it to go to your head," he says. Music6478@blogcritics.org Wed, 25 Jun 2003 00:20:49 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/06/21/133744.php BJ JohnsonIf yer planning a roadtrip, bring along Ennio Morricone. Especially if it's a roadtrip across the desert. There's really nothing like a Spaghetti Western soundtrack to make crossing some high desert pass or windswept plain sound appropriately heroic. That's what we did recently when we mounted our trusty steed (we call her "Camry") and headed out for an epic backpacking journey through the pinnacles and gorges of the Utah canyonlands. This is my mix from the CD I created for the trip. It's culled from about 150 tracks I downloaded (legally) from Emusic.com. It starts with a classic Morricone take on Flight of the Valkyries from My Name Is Nobody.That song worked equally well as we emerged from our driveway as for our descent at dusk into a red rock canyon. Come to think of it, this might do wonders for your commute. Ennio Morricone - Piu' Delle Valchirie Ennio Morricone - Con I Migliori Auguri Ennio Morricone - La Favola Dell 'Uccellino Ennio Morricone - Mucchio Selvaggio Ennio Morricone - Non Fare L'indiano Ennio Morricone - L'ultima Tromba Ennio Morricone - Sfida All Ultima Forchetta Ennio Morricone - Vaohanana Manitu Ennio Morricone - Prima Dei Pugni Ennio Morricone - Marcia Degli Accattoni Ennio Morricone - Addio Messico Ennio Morricone - Tepepa E Price Ennio Morricone - Tradimento Primo Ennio Morricone - Al Messico Che Vorrei Ennio Morricone - Uno Rosa Ennio Morricone - Vamos a matar Companeros Ennio Morricone - Night Search Ennio Morricone - The Ballad of Hank McCain Ennio Morricone - March in F Ennio Morricone - The Unholy Three Gianfranco Di Stefano - Shango: Jeff Bloom Gianfranco Di Stefano - Shango: Fiesta, Fiesta! Gianfranco Di Stefano - Shango: Pistole Che Scottano Francesco De Masi - Quanto Costa Morire: Quanto Costa Morire Marcello Gigante/Alessandro Nadin/Aristide Bascerano - Wanted Johnny Texas: Main Titles Marcello Gigante/Alessandro Nadin/Aristide Bascerano - Wanted Johnny Texas: M 22 Gianni Ferrio - Los Desperados: Tema Per Una Vendetta Wolmer Betrami-Fisarmonica - Uno Straniero A Paso Bravo: Main Titles-Single Version Marcello Gigante/Alessandro Nadin/Aristide Bascerano - Pray To God And Dig Your Grave: Main Titles Augusto Martelli - La Collera Del Vento: M 9 And M 15 V Franco Bixio/Fabio Frizzi/Vince Tempera - Sella D' Argento: M 34 Roberto Pregadio - Granco E Ciccio Sul Sen-Tiero Di Guerra: Fantasia Western Other vintage Spaghetti Western soundtracks are available at Amazon, via the links below. Music6395@blogcritics.org Sat, 21 Jun 2003 13:37:44 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/05/12/002505.php BJ JohnsonWe were on the way to punk rock karaoke at Annies, the "best bailbond bar in town." Our cabbie wanted to know. "Real punk rock" or merely "punk-influenced pop?" "I mean, are you gonna sing Black Flag?" Then, perhaps following up on an unspoken question about the authenticity of Talking Heads, "I heard a great one yesterday on KALX," he said. "Tom Jones and the Cardigans doing Burning Down the House." "Man, I've GOT that album," I said. My cabbie and I both recommend it. (Other good songs include Lust for Life with the Pretenders and Motherless Child with Portishead.) Music5223@blogcritics.org Mon, 12 May 2003 00:25:05 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/01/20/213417.php BJ JohnsonHardly anyone went to see Human Nature when it appeared in theaters last April. The kind critics suggested it was an admirable experiment by a talented team that didn't quite work. Others just said it stunk. It's not Citizen Kane - or even Being John Malkovich - but I think it got a bum rap.The film was written by Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation) and directed by Michel Gondry, the French video director (Bjork, Massive Attack). It stars Patricia Arquette, Tim Robbins, Rhys Ifans, Miranda Otto and Rosie Perez."Do you know what truly separates us? Civilization."Ifans (Notting Hill) plays a man that grew up naked in the woods and thinking he is an ape. Robbins plays the repressed researcher who, along with Arquette, discovers him. The researcher specializes in teaching mice table manners (if they use the wrong fork, they get shocked). Arquette plays a nature writer with a hormonal defect that results in hair growth over her entire body. The two bring the ape-man back to civilization and he begins to learn about human culture. (View the trailer.)"Remember, when in doubt ... don't ever do what you really want to do."The film, of course, is about human nature - and the clash between civilization and basic human desires. It's also a memorable comedy sprinkled through with enough funny lines to keep college students quoting them for months. Ifans also does good physical comedy, especially with the electric training collar (although he learns to use the proper fork more quickly than the mouse).But for the critics, it was too philosphical to work as a screwball comedy, but too much of a screwball comedy to be deep. One Hollywood.com reviewer wrote, "This is what you would call a "problem" movie--one that doesn't really fit into a particular genre." (It also pointedly ignored the obvious cliche happy ending. We know how the executives love that.)And I suspect that is the real problem with this film: they didn't have a clue how to market it.For those of us that like offbeat, even bizarre films - including those that don't completely succeed - Human Nature is a find.(A version of this entry appears on the author's home weblog, Robbed By A Fountain Pen.) Video2748@blogcritics.org Mon, 20 Jan 2003 21:34:17 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2002/12/19/153921.php BJ JohnsonI am neither an expert in architecture nor a New Yorker, so I could be wrong. But I'll bet the new designs for the ground zero site in lower Manhattan will be a hit. Browsing the slide shows for the designs this morning on the web, they literally took my breath away. And that's exactly what is needed for this place.Both the New York Times and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation have good slide shows available. The NYT has a beautiful interactive presentation from each of the seven teams with audio explanation from representatives of the architects. (Go to the NYT article, located here, and click the "Interactive Feature: Envisioning Downtown.") The LMDC site, located here, has extensive background information and even more slides.Click these links when you have some time. They take more than a moment to absorb - but they're worth it.(A version of this entry will appear on the author's site Robbed by a Fountain Pen.) Culture2353@blogcritics.org Thu, 19 Dec 2002 15:39:21 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2002/12/02/032512.php BJ JohnsonWe fried four turkeys Thursday. I think they're digested by now. There were about 12 of us eating off and on from 2 PM to midnight, with about as many people coming and going along the way. We ate 48 pounds of turkey, we did. That seems like a lot, but then this turkey was really, really good. We also fried twinkies. (Here's the recipe, which was originally published in the St. Petersburg Times. The name of that last URL is "The Twinkie Transform." Indeed.) Anway, you freeze the things, then powder them with flour, then roll them in a batter made of milk, flour, baking powder, oil, vinegar and salt. Toss them in the fryer and a few minutes later you've got a donut with a twinkie filling. This being Northern California, several of our company had never had a twinkie before. The rest of us were from the rest of America (or as my Republican friends call it, "America"), so we were familiar with the twinkie. But these were better.(Somehow, the twinkies we fried before the turkeys and the twinkies we fried between the third and fourth turkeys tasted about the same, even though the oil was black with turkey stuff by then. Weird. I also hear pigeons won't eat a twinkie if it's left on a sidewalk. Hmmm.)Since we still had several gallons of hot oil, the real question was, What else can we fry? The answer: garlic mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie. The potatoes were inspired. My friend rolled them into a ball and rolled the ball into the batter, then tossed it in - and predicted it would look like a potato when it came out. He was right. It tasted like a hush puppie with garlic mashed potatoes inside. In other words, excellent.We weren't sure how to fry the pie. Pumpkin pie doesn't roll in batter very well, although we tried. Finally, we just dropped the pie on the frying rack and poured the rest of the batter over the top. Presto - hot pumpkin pie with a layer of fried on top! Not bad.Next year I'm going to try and freeze some pie and cut it into cubes so it can be battered properly. I'll let you know how it goes.(A version of this post appeared on the author's home page, Robbed by a Fountain Pen.) Culture2076@blogcritics.org Mon, 2 Dec 2002 03:25:12 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2002/11/09/220000.php BJ JohnsonFor the San Francisco Jazz Festival, Ornette Coleman brought his violin, his trumpet, his electric turquoise suit - and a slate of new songs written for the occasion. The adoring crowd greeted him with a standing ovation and then coaxed him out for a curtain call after the lights came on at Davies Symphony Hall. In between, we hung on every note.Coleman and the SF Jazz Fest have made history before. The last time Ornette appeared at the festival, in 1994, he and his funky band Prime Time debuted the music that later became the album Tone Dialing. In addition to the band, he had a slew of video artists and contortionists, and some on-stage body piercing. (The description I saw called it "notorious," but sounds like fun to me.)Thursday, in only his second live appearance of 2002, Coleman again debuted new music, but this time with a trio. Ornette's group included his son and longtime drummer Denardo Coleman and upright bassist Charnett Moffett (whose father Charles played drums with Coleman in the 1960s). The musicians were loose but the music was tight. Although the material was new, it came fully to life. Unlike some of Ornette's sidemen over the years, this rhythm section more than held its own. Some songs moved along at a headlong pace - with the rhythm section moving at a speed usually measured in BPMs - but the trio never sounded frantic or rushed. Moffett and Denardo Coleman were clearly having fun - laughing and grinning and gesturing back and forth during the set. I've never seen Moffett before, but he's a virtuoso. And he's got a dozen ways to make the bass come to life: he plucked it, played it with a bow, slapped the sides, and even tapped it with the end of the bow so that it sounded almost like a drummer hitting wood blocks. At times, he turned on a wa-wa effect and sounded like Jimi Hendrix's long lost little brother. He had the crowd eating out of his hand.For his part, Ornette is sharper at 72 than most of us will ever be. After walking slowly on stage and fumbling with his stool (what, they couldn't afford to get him a stable one?), smiling slightly (almost humbly) and saying something softly to the crowd (your guess is as good as mine) Coleman played a two-hour set with no intermission, no chitchat, and hardly any pauses between songs. The music was soulful, atonal, avant-garde and catchy, sometimes all at once. Coleman describes his style as harmolodic, and if I were a better writer, perhaps I could describe what it sounds like. But I can't put it in writing, and frankly, I've never understood anyone else's description of harmolodics either. In any event, starting in the late 1950s, Ornette Coleman crafted a unique method of mixing tone, harmony and rhythm that remains distinctly his own. While they're often tuneful, his songs don't really have a melody in the traditional sense - not a hummable My Favorite Things kind of melody anyway. The new songs sound like classic Ornette Coleman - similar in emphasis to his vintage small group jazz performances rather than his later excursions into world music, symphony pieces and funk.But don't mistake it for a retread of stale ideas. At 72, his music sounds fresh and new, and edgy as ever - but never self-consciously so. To many 1955 ears, it would probably be unlistenable, but for those of us that grew up in Ornette's world, it was music to our ears.The second hour was especially strong. Ornette played his trademark sax and also a few bits of trumpet, but he brought down the house with his violin. Coleman's self-taught, left-handed violin sound is a natural for his musical themes. If anything, his violin is even more unconventional than his saxophone, but it's hardly a gimmick - and he's clearly no amateur. (I read today that he's been playing it for 40 years.) I have only one minor complaint: I don't know what any of this new music might be called. The program didn't provide titles for either the set or any of the songs, and if they were in the press kit, the SF Chronicle reviewer didn't mention them.That said, it was one of the best shows I've seen in a long time. With any luck, Ornette Coleman will play more live shows next year and we'll hear this music on CD. If he comes to your town, you know what to do.(A version of this review also appears on the writer's home blog, Robbed by a Fountain Pen.)Further listening: for an introduction to Coleman, start with 1959's The Shape of Jazz to Come. It's not just famous and "important," it's good listening that gets better every time. For an introduction to his funky band Prime Time, try Tone Dialing. Music1760@blogcritics.org Sat, 9 Nov 2002 22:00:00 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2002/10/21/005420.php BJ JohnsonThis is a music review with an agenda - to promote online music services that work. It is possible to design a downloadable music business in which the artists get paid royalties and the fans get what they want - quality downloads, no hassle and a fair price.At the moment, unfortunately, Emusic is the only service I've found that fits the bill. For about 10 bucks a month, you get unlimited mp3 downloads. Once you've saved them, they can be transferred to a portable player or burned to CD, and they will still be available if you leave the service. Best of all, you can download an entire album with a click of a mouse. The service doesn't have much of anything available from major labels, but it's great for indie rock, jazz, electronic music and underground hip-hop. My favorite downloads from the past month:Mississippi John Hurt - Revisited & 1928 Sessions. If you like American music and don't already listen to John Hurt, consider this a recommendation. Call it country-blues, call it folk, call it genius. The 1928 Sessions disk is probably better than Revisited, and it certainly has more historical significance. Of course, it was recorded in 1928 - so it cracks and pops. The songs on Revisited were recorded live in 1965 and have decent recording quality.Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights. Do the hipsters like Interpol because they sound good, or because it reminds them of that freshman year cutie, the one with the Joy Division poster?Ornette Coleman - The Music of Ornette Coleman: Something Else! & Tomorrow is the Question. Ornette's first and second albums as a bandleader and already he's changing the world. With Don Cherry on trumpet, these two albums sound fresh 40 years later.Blackalicious - Nia. These underground rappers and producers hail from the Bay Area and hang out with Latyrx, DJ Shadow and other nonconforming musicians. This is a great find for any fan of smart, inventive hip-hop.Big Star - #1 Record / Radio City. This download filled a gaping hole in my music collection. Each of these records (combined on one CD) is as good as it's cracked up to be. I really dig Radio City.Tom Waits - Alice & Blood Money. Tom Waits is perfect for an independent label. The only thing a major can do for a band is get them exposure. But major label or no, Waits will never be a radio star. He gets his fans through word of mouth and favorable reviews. And people like me will buy everything he makes. These two are instant classics.Merle Haggard - If I Could Only Fly. Three decades after Okie from Muskogee, Haggard signs with a punk label and makes one of the best records of his career. Is this a great country of what?Duke Ellington - The Carnegie Hall Concerts: January 1943. This two-disk set captures the first of Ellington's historic series of concerts at Carnegie Hall in the 40's. It's also the first full length live performance of Black, Brown and Beige. (And perhaps the only - Ellington afficionados please correct me if that's wrong.) Most of my favorite jazz dates from about 1959, but this concert is really something.Ray Charles - The Essential Collection. There must be a dozen good Ray Charles collections, so this one may or may not be "essential." The essential thing is to listen to Ray whenever you can.The Hives - Veni, Vidi, Vicious. Take away the hype and what do you get? A good band with a fun record. I'll take it.(Visit the author's blog Robbed by a Fountain Pen.) Music1417@blogcritics.org Mon, 21 Oct 2002 00:54:20 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2002/10/13/232258.php BJ JohnsonDan Bricklin, co-inventor of Visicalc, discusses how copy protection could "break the chain" of archival techniques that has existed for thousands of years:With ever changing technology, in order to preserve many works we will need to constantly move them ahead, copying them to each new media form before the previous one becomes obsolete. Also, as we create new media, we need to preserve the knowledge of the methods of converting from one media to another, so we can still access the old works that have not yet been moved ahead. This is crucial. Without this information, even preserved works could be unreadable. ...There are things happening that make me worry that the future may not be bright for preserving many of the works we create today. For example: Companies are preparing to produce music CDs that cannot be copied into many other formats (something allowed by law as "fair use"). Most new eBooks are copy protected. A new bill may be heading to Congress that will require all digital devices to enforce copy protection schemes for copyrightable material. An existing law makes it a crime to tell people how to make copies of protected works.I believe that copy protection will break the chain necessary to preserve creative works. It will make them readable for a limited period of time and not be able to be moved ahead as media deteriorates or technologies change. Only those works that are thought to be profitable at any given time will be preserved by their "owners" (if they are still in business). We know from history that what's popular at any given time is no certain indication of what will be valuable in the future. Without not-copy protected "originals", archivists, collectors, and preservers will be unable to maintain them the way they would if they weren't protected. (Many of these preservers ignore fashion as they do their job, because they see their role as preservers not filters.) We won't even be able to read media in obsolete formats, because the specifications of those formats will not be available. To create a "Rosetta Stone" of today's new formats will be asking to go to jail and having your work banned.This is different than encryption or patent protection. With encryption, as long as the keys for reading survive, and a description of the method of decryption, you can recreate the unprotected original. It's even better -- you can prove authenticity. Patent protection just keeps you from creating and using your own unlicensed reader for a limited period of time. After that, the legal duty of the patent is to teach you how it works so you can make your own. For long-term preservation of works (as opposed to short-term quick advancement in some fields) patented techniques are good because they discourage secrets and eventually put things in the public domain. (A version of this entry also appears on my blog Robbed by a Fountain Pen.) Culture1281@blogcritics.org Sun, 13 Oct 2002 23:22:58 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2002/10/04/015140.php BJ JohnsonLast month, I tried a trial subscription for AudioGalaxy's Rhapsody service when I got a promo email. I used to like AudioGalaxy, so why not?With this service -- apparently Listen.com's Rhapsody with different branding -- subscribers pay $9.95 per month for access to about 18,000 albums by something like 8,000 artists. Musicians and songwriters get paid for each listen.I will not be continuing the subscription. Here's why.When I first signed on, I quickly found a CD I wanted to hear. It took me a few moments of searching for the "download" button before I realized there is none. This is a streaming audio service only. So ... there is no way for me to listen to the music on my stereo, in my car, or on a portable player. In short, it's a $10 per month jukebox ... chained to my computer. And I'm just not going to pay for a jukebox unless it comes with the saloon. The experiment almost ended there, but I quickly found myself wondering, late at night and in the shower, whether Rhapsody had other CDs I've been meaning to try. I started looking forward to getting to work to find out. Thinking maybe I'd been too dismissive, I decided to continue the experiment. (Footnote: when I went back to write this review, I learned that it is possible to buy a subscription that allows you to download 10 tracks a month, at least on the Listen.com version. That's an insult.)I soon ran into two other problems. First, the software has glitches. Specifically, the buffering system sucks, so songs were continually interrupted while the network caught up. This glitch ruins the experience, and would be reason enough not to subscribe. But presumably it can be fixed.The second problem is more fundamental. Like all online services I've tried, Rhapsody has some glaring gaps in selection. Most critically, it does not have most of the new releases I looked for. Especially for a service that is listen-only, that's a real downer. If I could be persuaded to pay $10 a month to dial up CD's on demand, it would have to be for new releases.On September 11, I decided I wanted to start the day with The Rising. It wasn't there, so I listened to Darkness on the Edge of Town instead. (Footnote: that record is every bit as good as I remember it, but it seems younger than it used to.) Rhapsody had back catalog, but not new releases, for many other artists I tried -- Spoon, Tom Waits, Warren Zevon, David Bowie. Other artists were either missing entirely (Aimee Mann), or were represented by only a tiny slice of their music (Brian Eno). Some of the acts missing completely, like Captain Beefheart, probably won't bother much of their audience. But they're also lacking anything by the Beatles.Annoyingly, a number of the CD's that were available were missing two or three songs. For example, DJ Shadow's latest was available, but with only 3 songs. I dialed up Charles Mingus' record Epitaph, a "unified, 18-movement work" scored for 30-piece jazz orchestra. But it was missing a few key songs -- an omission that in context pretty much ruins the point of putting it online at all.Still, the music Rhapsody did have turned out to be good promotion for the record industry. After listening to a long list of records on my wishlist, I'm going to buy all but one of them. (Here's a sample: Epitaph, You Are #6, Stereo, and Black Brown and Beige.) Of the records I heard, only one got demoted to "buy later, if at all." That's why it is so frustrating that the industry seems unwilling to let me hear things online before buying them -- it's great promotion.After all that, what online music service would I pay for?Let the record show that I am willing to pay for music online. Sure, I can get a free version of most songs on a file sharing network. But the quality is inconsistent, and putting together an entire album is a huge pain in the ass. For my money, the record business can compete with free. They can give me consistent and easy.There are two models that seem to make sense. First, they could charge a monthly fee and allow downloads. That's the emusic.com model. (I'll review that next; I'm a fan, despite its flaws.) Second, they could have a free or nominal monthly charge for a jukebox service like Rhapsody, plus an option to pay for each download. Given that the label wouldn't have to pay for distribution or producing the disk, they could probably charge far less than retail and still make money. (Footnote: for either model, I'm assuming that file compression will continue to get better, so a download really is "CD quality." Right now, mp3's and the like really aren't.)Finally, once I get a song, I need to be able to move it to CD or an mp3 player. That's only fair. And if I make a mix for a friend, consider it promotion.Here's my deal: if the industry offers me a good online product at a fair price, I promise not to put the files online for the world to copy. Sure, a second group will always seek out free, but given the hassle involved and a genuine desire on the part of most fans to see bands get paid, I'll bet more people would join me.In their quixotic quest to eliminate the second group, the industry is throwing away an opportunity to make money off the first, and in the end, all of us are poorer for it.For more information see the Blogcritics posts here and here.A version of this entry first appeared on Robbed by a Fountain Pen. Music1069@blogcritics.org Fri, 4 Oct 2002 01:51:40 EDT