It is very fortunate that one can find a large collection of text from an author on the Internet in one place. One ususally has to look through multiple websites. H.P. Lovecraft is one of the great mythologists of the modern era. His collected works deal with unimagined worlds, and is therefore good for those who need a little legal mind expansion. An interest in ancient religious anthropology also helps for those who are experiencing Lovecraft for the first time.

 
Tomorrow is the Virtual March on Washington. I view it as a complement to the physical peace protests that have occurred on the 26th of October, the 18th of January, and the 15th of February. The specific nature of this form of direct action is to coordinate repeated calls and faxes to Senators and Congressmen to such a degree that it is continuous all day on the 26th. Beyond this is the leafleting campaign that is encouraged by MoveOn.org. But this should be an encouragement for those who have not yet to go to the physical gatherings and be counted as part of the large numbers of people dissenting a war agenda.

 
Consumer products from Japan not only illustrate how their cultural past is expressed through commodities, but also their present with its distinct traits that are ingrained with issues of capitalism and technology. It is both similar to and very different from United States commercial products. Bright colors and catchy slogans predominate, but the grammer is hard to directly translate into something comparable in English. And on top of that, their snack food looks interesting.

 
The connection between peer to peer filesharing and the open source movement is the ability of individuals to engage in direct associations that create works for the public domain. The witchhunt against Napster believed that total control of music was required in order for there to be the use of that music by the public. But the sharing of music files to later be burned on CD's created new compilations that was possible for an original purpose, much like mix tapes. At a certain point, the music becomes public domain and the only compensation left to the artists is a reputation as the creative origin. This does not mean the creator is the total master, however.

 
Last night I saw again the early Stanley Kubrick film Paths of Glory. It stars Kirk Douglas and is about three soldiers in World War I tried for cowardice during a fruitless and dangerous military manuever. In these times with an impending war in Iraq, the anti-war sentiment of the movie became much more clear. Of course, any good war movie is ultimately an anti-war movie, and this is one of the great ones.

 
After a week of pondering, I have finally made my predictions for who will win the Oscars. It is already known my disappointment that many movies were ignored in the nominating process, and Chicago ended up having so many nominations it does not deserve. Hopefully my friends are willing to put money down on a couple of bets.

Best Picture: Gangs of New York

Best Director: Roman Polanski

Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis

Best Actress: Nicole Kidman

Best Supporting Actor: Chris Cooper

Best Supporting Actress: Julianne Moore

Best Foreign Film: The Man Without a Past

Best Documentary: Bowling For Columbine

 
Peer to peer file sharing is a part of the overall open source philosophy. It is connected by way of individuals creating their own flexible structures of relationships. It is nonhierarchial, allows pluralism, and sponsors democratic attitudes. The profit motive has nothing to do with this new paradigm that seems so natural to the Internet. Rather reputation, personal reward, and bonds of affiliation that is seen in gift economies is the driving force behind open source actions.

 
I am very excited to hear that Congressman Dennis Kucinich has started an exploratory committee for running for president in 2004. As a Green, I believed that the only time I would vote for a Democrat again would be a Paul Wellstone/Dennis Kucinich ticket. Add to this the 300th episode of the Simpsons and I have had a very pleasant day. It seems that we can have a progressive in the White House after all.

There has been only very little coverage of the peace protests of yesterday. Estimates for the New York City event are around 200,000 to 500,000. I was not able to attend this one, but will definitely commit myself to future protests, whether or not they are organized by International A.N.S.W.E.R. or United for Peace and Justice. It is not important who organized the event as to the direct action of a diverse group of people who do not want a continual state of war. It is about people and not the name-brand.

 
In relation to the subject of movies, I am very grateful to be able to get the Independent Film Channel on my cable service. It and the Sundance Channel, which I used to get, show the type of interesting and compelling movies that are pushed aside during the Oscar season by such gilttery monstrosities as Chicago. In fact i have often said that there should be an independent film category at the Oscars, allowing for more film diversity. Last year, the winner of such a category would proabaly have been Memento.

 
I am going to rant a bit more about the way the Academy is screwing up the Oscars. Instead of looking at and appreciating movies with a good plot and interesting characters like About Schmidt, Adapatation, and others we have this record breaking nominations for a musical that is nothing but flash. Over-the-top musical performances that break into a courtroom scene disrupt any good acting that could possibly exist in such a mess. I myself have only liked two movie adaptations of musicals: Fiddler on the Roof and Godspell. And on another category, Diane Lane is nominated for Best Actress for being in a lukewarm romantic suspense with no substance. The big business movie poison that affects most movies during the year really should not invade the Super Bowl of movie awards. Hopefully the final winners will be the real films as opposed to everyday movies.

 
I really do believe that the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences is retarded. With Chicago being nominated a record 13 times, it must be a sign of the apocalypse. Adaptation, About Schmidt, Far from Heaven, and Punch Drunk Love were all ignored for the lion's share of nominations. Which just goes to show that the people doing the voting have absolutely no sense of taste in film. While Chicago is nothing but a flashy bunch of musical cliches, there was a bunch of films worth viewing and a couple of big epics that should have been the first ones considered.

 
One of my guilty pleasures in terms of television is a block of shows on the Cartoon Network late every Sunday night called Adult Swim. I am probably not the first one to know of these shows, but I find the original shows funny in a slightly twisted way, and the syndicated reruns a chance for short lived primetime animated shows to have a second try. The latter were usually set in competition with the Simpsons and inevitably failed after about a year. There is really nothing on late Sunday night anyway, so it is a great diversion.

 
Ever since college I have considered myself a postmodernist. I view postmodernism as an intellectual and psychological reaction to the mechanical modeling of modernism, and its emphasis on function and order. One example of an influential philosopher of this strain of thought is Jean Baudrillard. I am slowly working on writing a book about postmodernism, hoping to put it in its historical context. With a book of this subject, it is hard to determine at what point you have a completed project.

 
I just saw the movie Groove on the Independent Film Channel last night. Though I am not part of the rave scene, the movie was very entertaining and illustrative of that tribalistic culture. It is quite interesting to observe a subculture play itself out completely. You admire it even though you have never felt part of it.Think of it as anthropology of the information age.

 
Lawrence Lessig is one of the main proponents of P2P file sharing which is, I believe, a component of the open source movement. It is both about a decentralized system of individuals creating their own works, whether that is trading procedures or software programs.