Stay F---! | September 21
Carrie McLaren
stay.free at verizon.net
Wed Sep 21 18:21:31 EDT 2005
Recent highlights from our blog, Stay Free! Daily. Full text, images,
and links can be found at http://www.stayfreemagazine.org
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PERSONAL MATTERS
I haven't had much time to blog lately. For one thing, my part-time
job ended two weeks ago and so I've been scavenging for freelance
design work. But, more importantly, Charles (Stay Free! "Vice
President") and I have decided to get married. Since I'm a classic
Type A personality, I immediately started to look into reception
sites and expenses, even though the wedding is a good year away....
and, to make a long story short, the experience has been such a rude
awakening that Charles and I have decided to document it on a new
wedding blog. Maybe you'll enjoy it.
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/09/personal_matter.html
AN INTRO TO NEWS READERS FOR TECHNOPHOBES
After reading the stats that over 90% of web users don't know about
RSS, I figure a little education is in order. If you are one of the
people who read web sites regularly but don't use an RSS "news
reader," trust me when I say that it would make reading online a
whole lot easier. This is especially true for sites like ours that
update sporadically. A news reader will tell you when your favorite
sites update and allow you to keep track of articles that you intend
to read when time permits. First, you'll need a news reader...
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/09/rss_for_technop.html
DOCTORS FIGHT ONLINE CRITICS
A while back I posted about RateMDs, a website that lets people
review doctors in their area. The Wall Street Journal reported this
week that, surprise, the medical world is outraged about it and
similar sites. Several doctors have complained and filed lawsuits
against online critics.
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/09/rate_doctors_lo.html
NOT SO WILD ANIMALS
Via Monkeywire, we learn that zoo administrators across the country
have been doping exotic animals that show signs of distress with
their environment. I don't want to get all PETA about this since I'm
lying naked on a bearskin rug and eating chicken salad while typing,
but this sounds a lot like experiments are being done on animals just
to keep the show entertaining.
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/09/not_so_wild_ani.html
PAPER WORK: AN INTERVIEW WITH LIBBY BLACK
Libby Black is a San Francisco artist who recreates high-end retail
products and environments by hand. The first work I saw of hers was
a life-size, convertible Mercedes Benz 280SL made completely out of
paper. She also recreated a Louis Vuitton retail store in a local
gallery, making all the store details and Louis Vuitton product line
out of paper, paint, and glue. Most recently, she recreated a Kate
Spade store inside the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts' "Bay Area Now
4" show...
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/09/interview_with_.html
KATRINA, KATRINA
Artwork inspired by the disaster:
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/09/katrina_art.html
WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOUR LOCAL BUSINESSES SUCK?
You might think I'm lucky to have a video store twenty feet away from
my apartment. I barely have to put on pants to rent a movie on a lazy
Sunday afternoon. It would follow that I should be upset that it's
closing after 20 years, but I'm more interested to see what comes in
to take its place. You see, this video store sucked. It could quite
possibly be the worst video store I've ever been in and yet I kept
coming back only because it was so damned convenient. There's another
video store three blocks away, and it too is a prince in the court of
Suck. The next closest option is a Blockbuster (8 blocks) and after
that a really excellent hole in the wall (16 blocks) which is where
I've been renting my videos ever since I decided it was worth the
half hour round trip. I don't even consider the Blockbuster as an
option, but I can say that because I live in a place with a plethora
of video stores. My question to you is, what does somebody do when
they only have one local choice and it totally sucks?
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/09/what_do_you_do_.html
THE ALL-CONSUMING CENTURY
Via Adfreak, I just found out about a four-hour BBC documentary
showing here in New York through tomorrow: Century of the Self, a
four-hour series about Freud, Bernays and the rise of consumer
culture and mass persuasion in the 20th century. I had never heard of
the documentary before, which is a bit surprising because it's from
2002, but not when you consider that the series wasn't made available
commercially on VHS or DVD. And why might that be? Because, like a
lot of BBC documentaries, the producers couldn't clear the rights to
historical footage and images for commercial release...
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/09/century_of_self.html
TV MAKES YOU SMARTER, HUH?
More fodder for our Steven Johnson file: The Archives of Pediatrics &
Adolescent Medicine, a JAMA journal, has several studies documenting
the negative relationship between TV viewing and educational
achievement.
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/09/tv_makes_you_sm.html
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