Joe Strummer (aka John Graham Mellor) died Sunday, of a heart attack, at 50. His first and greatest band, the Clash, was the band of my teenage years, and for me it was the Only Band That Matters; the Clash took “punk” and redefined its boundaries, subverting pop standards and other musical forms and bending them to their will. Ironically, on Saturday night, my conversation with a neighbor turned to the Clash and their collaboration with Alan Ginsberg (“Do the worm on the Acropolis/Slam-dance cosmopolis/enlighten the populous”).
Archive for December, 2002
Dec
11
2002
Glazed and confused
It's raining ice here in Mobtown; the main roads seem ok, but it's a skating rink elsewhere. The kids have the day off from school, and it's a good day to hunker in the bunker.
Dec
10
2002
Last night, my wife Paula's grandfather passed away after a long illness. Keep him and the Hnasko family in your thoughts and prayers today. Thanks.
Dec
10
2002
Last night, my wife Paula’s
Last night, my wife Paula’s grandfather passed away after a long illness. Keep him and the Hnasko family in your thoughts and prayers today. Thanks.
Dec
09
2002
The other kind of Radio
I'm going on Baltimore's Marc Steiner Show (on WYPR) tomorrow to talk about consumer gadgets. This ought to be entertaining; I haven't talked about consumer electronics since the last time I wrote for the Baltimore Sun (how long ago was that? Hint: it was about a 3Com consumer Internet appliance)…
Anyway, if you're in earshot, and want to hear me listen to how great I sound on radio (heh), tune in. It should be streamed live by WYPR and by the Baltimore Sun website as well.
Dec
06
2002
Rationalization
IBM is acquiring Rational Software. I guess if you can't make good tools, you buy them. Okay, that's a little catty, I admit; Visual Age doesn't suck *that* bad, and adding Rational's tools will help a lot with IBM's target market–institutionalized, methodology-driven, architectural software development.