Banana-skin Pirouette and Collapse

"Once we have surrendered our senses and nervous systems to the private manipulation of those who would try to benefit from taking a lease on our eyes and ears and nerves, we don't really have any rights left. Leasing our eyes and ears and nerves to commercial interests is like handing over the common speech to a private corporation, or like giving the earth's atmosphere to a company as a monopoly. Something like this has already happened with outer space, for the same reason that we have leased our central nervous systems to various corporations. As long as we adopt the Narcissus attitude of regarding the extensions of our own bodies as really out there and really independent of us, we will meet all technological challenges with the same sort of banana-skin pirouette and collapse."

- Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media (1964)

I was thinking, you know what the best part of Batman (1989) is? . . . and then I looked on youtube and was pleased to see that someone else felt the same way.

Anywhere I Lay My Vomit

Surely one of my least favorite celebrities is Scarlett Johansson. I don't care what anyone says: She's ugly, a bad actress, and her name is hard to spell. So there.

I'm downloading her new album of Tom Waits covers. I'm only curious why David Bowie participated on a few tracks.

Okay, download done. Give me a few minutes to listen to this trainwreck.



Okay, I only played "Falling Down" and "Fannin' Street" (the Bowie tracks) and they're so-so. Sounds kind of over-produced to hide Scar's mediocre vocals (mediocals). Whatevs. Maybe I'll play it again and love her and wonder what I was thinking before! Doubt it!

Some books I've read or listened to lately and gotten something out of:

The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin - Gordon Wood
Big Sur - Jack Kerouac
A Whole New Mind - Daniel Pink
Bonk - Mary Roach
Naked Greed of the Flesh - me (an old novella I wrote)

EDIT: I googled "naked greed of the flesh" ten minutes after posting this and it was already indexed (and the only use of that phrase besides the April 27 entry).