Am I a Luddite, or Just Sad?

I am an emphatic advocate for the ability of technology to improve our lives, but I found this paragraph from Jonah Lehrer's January 23 New York Times book review of Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other, by Sherry Turkle, incredibly depressing:

"Just look at Roxxxy, a $3,000 talking sex robot that comes preloaded with six different girlfriend personalities, from Frigid Farrah to Young Yoko. On the one hand, it's hard to argue with the kind of desperate loneliness that would lead someone to buy a life-size plastic gadget with three "inputs." And yet, as Turkle argues, Roxxxy is emblematic of a larger danger, in which the prevalence of robots makes us unwilling to put in the work required by real human relationships. "Dependence on a robot presents itself as risk free," Turkle writes, "But when one becomes accustomed to 'companionship' without demands, life with people may seem overwhelming." A blind date can be a fraught proposition when there's a robot at home that knows exactly what we need. And all she needs is a power outlet."

Most studies have shown that despite fears, technology has not destroyed our social framework. Social networking actually appears to strengthen already existing relationships. It is a tool, not a menace. Indeed, even a sex robot is, to my mind, no different from regular old masturbation. I'm not convinced that a person with that kind of "desperate loneliness" would not still feel intense social anxiety if no such robot existed.

More concerning, and saddening, to me is that such desperate loneliness exists, that there is a market for $3,000 sex robots. I'm not going to try to offer any solutions, or claim that there even are solutions. I'm just going to feel bad, and be thankful that I don't have to experience that.

Steve McQueen Steve McQueen

I submit that this is the coolest picture of all time:




"I'm half farmer and half street people. I've been in jail, in reform school. I get goose pimples every time I think of going back to jail...I haven't done bad for a kid from an orphanage."
-Steve McQueen

On Knowledge of Beauty

"He turned and came up beside her. She was standing beside a tall, overgrown hawthorn heavy with red berries. From its top bough there cascaded a white froth of traveller's joy, delicate as a veil, through which the berries shone like jewels. Looking at her rapt face, he thought: 'I only know it's beautiful; she can feel its loveliness.'"

-P.D. James
The Children of Men

This Was 2010

The internet has given me the power to put my favorite music of 2010 out there for at least three people to see.

First, the songs that didn't make the cut but were damn close:




The single song that tugged right at the heart strings:




Second runner-up video of the year: The Black Keys - Tighten Up:




Runner-up video of the year: Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - Bottled in Cork:




My favorite video of the year: Das Racist - Who's That? Brooown! Das Racist are deadly serious about not taking hip-hop seriously:




A special award for amazingly bizarre album of the year that somehow works: Here Lies Love, a disco-opera collaboration between David Byrne and Fatboy Slim about Imelda Marcos; featuring Steve Earle, Cyndi Lauper, Sharon Jones, Martha Wainwright, Tori Amos and many more. I'm not making this up, it's completely ridiculous and awesome:




Second runner-up album of the year: The Hold Steady - Heaven Is Whenever:




Runner-up album of the year: Meursault - All Creatures Will Make Merry:




Album of the year: LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening:




Second runner-up song of the year: Hot Chip feat. Bonnie "Prince" Billy - I Feel Bonnie:




Runner-up song of the year: The National - Bloodbuzz Ohio:




Song of the year: Los Campesinos! - A Heat Rash in the Shape of the Show Me State; Or, Letters From Me to Charlotte:




And the moment you've all been waiting for, my discerning taste in music combining like Voltron with my mind-blowing mix making skills, kids, This Was 2010:




If you want a copy of that CD, let me know and I'll drop it in the post or bring it to your house or break into your car and put it in the CD player so you'll have perhaps the best of all possible surprises upon getting in in the morning. A broken driver's side window!

There Has to Be Something Wrong With This

OK, please tell me not to buy this. There has to be something terribly wrong with it.

1991 Jeep Comanche Runs - $600 (43204)

Good on gas
4 cyl
5 spd
Only used for work and back.

Willing to neg on price.

The truck has been in his family since 1999.

2 Wheel Drive

The miles read 208,855. However they rebuilt the engine 3 years ago and unfortunately i don't know who much is exactly on the engine itself. And i do not have the proof of it being rebuilt he didn't save any of the receipts.

There are some rust, if you can look closley on the photos i presented they are located at: The lower part of the passenger door, a little bit on the tail gate, some on the bumper, and a smudge on the lower part of the driver door.

We never got in any accidents with the truck and the only thing i can think of that is wrong with it is the gas meter dont work and it needs an oil change.

Recent Driving Songs

I do a lot of driving for work. Thousands of miles of driving. These are some songs I've been listening to obsessively recently.

The Weakerthans - Relative Surplus Value



I really need to see these guys live. They're Canadian.





Bibio - Lovers' Carvings



Don't really need to see Bibio live, to be honest with you. But still excellent.





Los Campesinos! - This Is a Flag. There Is No Wind.



Another band I badly need to see live. They're Welsh!





Frightened Rabbit - Nothing Like You



Need to see them live too. They're Scottish.

More Owls

Owls are fucked up, Japan is fucked up, everything is fucked up.