Journal Entries
Mac OS X
Posted Mar 28, 2001
I installed OS X on my office G4 yesterday, for testing purposes you understand. I backed up all my stuff first, reformatted my drive, divided it into 2 partitions, then made a clean installation of Mac OS 9.1 before installing X.
All that went well, and I booted into X, but as soon as I tried to connect to the network to collect all my backed up files, everything went fruit-shaped. What a pain in the bum. Because our servers aren't running AFP (Apple File and Print) over IP (or something), there's no way for X to see the servers, though it was possible to ping them with the console in X.
So after an hour of messing around with that, I rebooted into 9.1 and went about my work. But this first experience has filled me with overwhelming negative feelings, which I didn't experience with the public Beta. I think the thing with the Beta was that you didn't expect everything to work, but with the final release you kind of do. And it's not that OS X had anything wrong with it, simply that it demands higher-level stuff to be installed on your servers for networking to work.
So I don't know. I'll take another look later, but I'm not keen on it at the moment.
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Latest reply: Mar 28, 2001
(The Real) Generation X
Posted Mar 23, 2001
I just had a trawl through the Guide for entries about Generation X, but the only one so far is "hidden, pending moderation." It would be interesting to see.
I first read Douglas Coupland's book "Generation X" in 1992. Whilst I could hardly recognise the lifestyle of its Californian characters, I definitely could recognise the feeling of being invisible, summed up in the book's title.
What has fascinated me in the ensuing years is the way Generation X remains invisible to the media and the marketeers, just as Coupland suggested it was. I've even noticed another Guide entry talking about "Generation Whine," referring to a mythical generation, born between 1956 and 1964, that exists between Boomers and Xers. But in fact, this "Generation Whine" is Generation X, give or take. X is the generation immediately after the boomers. That's the point. They had all the fun, and earned all the money. They're the ones tying up the economy with their pension funds which keep massively over-investing in silly dot.com stocks and volatile technology companies.
My siblings and myself are all X-ers: my oldest sister being born in 1958-ish, and my youngest brother being born in 1970. I was born in 1962. The important thing to remember about Generation X is that it is, generally, old enough to remember the 1960s, but not really old enough to have participated in it. In other words, we watched the Boomers having a good time, and we were left with the afters, which, in X mythology, don't amount to much. And we're all, more or less, underachievers, or very slow starters. I went to University at 28 and ended up with a Ph.D. 7 or 8 years later. All my sibs have degrees but none of us have really hit paydirt in the job market.
On the other hand, "X" as (mis)identified by the media and targeted by the marketing men, is the generation that comes after, born somewhere between 1972 and 1980-something. This is the origin of the young things portrayed in such television series as This Life and Ally McBeal: young professionals willing to work ridiculous hours and thus overly interested in the romance and relationships they miss. On the other hand, "Friends" is a pathetic attempt to suck up to X-er concerns. But, you know, unemployed actors and coffee bar employees can't really afford loft apartments in New York City, and Gen. X is too ironic to believe in romantic love (qv, Hal hartley's film "Trust"), which is why Gen X remains invisble to the media. We're not there, in Friends, but what the hell. We watch it anyway, because it's funny, and the people in it are beautiful.
There is a line in the novel that sums this up, a bit that goes, OK, your marketing message is hopelessly off target, but I'll buy your stupid product anyway if only you'll leave me alone. I had a similar reaction to the TV series "thirtysomething." I didn't watch the first season and a half because UK channel 4 made it look so bad in the trailers.
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Latest reply: Mar 23, 2001
Imaginary Beatles Album - Continued
Posted Mar 21, 2001
So this is what I thought might be the imaginary late-1970-released Beatles album, consisting of tracks from the first solo efforts by the mops.
Imaginary
Side 1
1. Kreen-Akrore -- Paul
2. Instant Karma! -- John
3. Man We Was Lonely -- Paul
4. Isolation -- John
5. Every Night -- Paul
6. Love -- John
7. Isn't it a Pity -- George
Side 2
8. It Don't Come Easy -- Ringo
9. Oo You -- Paul
10. Remember -- John
11. That Would Be Something -- Paul
12. I Dig Love -- George
13. Maybe I'm Amazed -- Paul
14. God -- John
The only problem with having God as the final track is that John makes a point of saying, "I don't believe in Beatles," but I would guess that's in character. He was not above iconoclastic statements about the Beatles even whilst still a member.
The exercise has been interesting to me, because as a teenager I was very pro-John and anti-Paul, like a lot of adolescents, attracted by iconoclasm and sarcasm in equal measure. But listening to Plastic Ono Band now, it is all so personal, solipsistic even, that it's clear that it wasn't just Paul that was weakened as an artist by the absence of John. There is nothing here even half as good as a late-model Beatles B-side, apart perhaps from George's tracks.
I think Isn't it a Pity sounds the most Beatle-ish, and I Dig Love has very Beatles-like drumming (hmmm... what could be the reason for that I wonder?). But John's stuff lacks that extra something that lifted it out of the ordinary, and Paul's has an unfinished feel, because he clearly hadn't lost the habit of half-writing something and then finishing it in the studio with some or all of the others.
It's a good album, but not a great album, and that's the way it is with the true Spaniard.
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Latest reply: Mar 21, 2001
Imaginary Beatles Album
Posted Mar 16, 2001
A few weeks ago, I was talking with my friend Roy via email about The Re-release of George Harrison's album "All Things Must Pass." In passing, Roy mentioned the "Imaginary Last Beatles Album," meaning the one they would have made had they not released all their solo efforts in 1970.
For some reason this had never occurred to me before, but I realised that with a CD writer and a good colour printer you could make your own, so I set about doing that. It was quite a difficult task. Most of Paul's first record seems unfinished (like he forgot to write the words); most of John's first is unacceptably personal; Ringo's was a collection of old standards (though his first single was OK); and of course George's effort makes them all look mediocre. Realising this could be a controversial subject, I'm holding off the listing of the record, though the title, of course, is "Imaginary."
After creating "Imaginary," I thought I ought to create an alternative to "1", which is a compilation that misses out some essential tracks (like Strawberry Fields), so I created "2", which had the following criteria for inclusion.
1. Should not have been on "1"
2. Er... that's it.
Here's the track listing:
1. all my loving (lennon/mccartney)
2. i should have known better (lennon/mccartney)
3. if i fell (lennon/mccartney)
4. no reply (lennon/mccartney)
5. i don t want to spoil the party (lennon/mccartney)
6. she s a woman (lennon/mccartney)
7. you ve got to hide your love away (lennon/mccartney)
8. i ve just seen a face (lennon/mccartney)
9. norwegian wood (this bird has flown) (lennon/mccartney)
10. nowhere man (lennon/mccartney)
11. taxman (harrison)
12. rain (lennon/mccartney)
13. i'm only sleeping (lennon/mccartney)
14. strawberry fields forever (lennon/mccartney)
15. a day in the life (lennon/mccartney)
16. back in the u.s.s.r. (lennon/mccartney)
17. dear prudence (lennon/mccartney)
18. while my guitar gently weeps (harrison)
19. rocky raccoon (lennon/mccartney)
20. helter skelter (lennon/mccartney)
21. here comes the sun (harrison)
22. two of us (lennon/mccartney)
23. for you blue (lennon/mccartney)
Finally, because "Imaginary" just didn't seem good enough, I decided to create a cheat's mix, allowing myself to go as far as 1973 or 4 in my attempts to plunder something decent.
"Imaginary" (Cheat's Version):
1. Mind Games John
2. Let Me Roll It Paul
3. Crippled Inside John
4. Jet Paul
5. I Dig Love George
6. Photograph Ringo
7. Give Me Some Truth John
8. Maybe I m Amazed Paul
9. Remember John
10. Band on the Run - Paul
11. My Sweet Lord George
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Latest reply: Mar 16, 2001
Driving to work
Posted Oct 10, 2000
I've been arriving at work feeling sort of mellow for the past couple of weeks. After an inexplicable delay, I only recently purchased Bruce Springsteen's 4 CD set "Tracks", plus the edited version "18 Tracks." If anybody knew me 10 or 20 years ago they wouldn't believe how long it took me to get around to buying these records.
But I'm not keen on nostalgia, and the truth is that I had heard most of the "Tracks" collection on bootlegs years ago.
When I was in my early 20s, I had a friend called John McLeod who had a friend called Paddy. Paddy was the bootleg guy, and he would supply me regularly with cassette tapes of Springsteen recordings and outtakes, so that most of "Tracks" is very familiar.
For some reason, the last half of 2000 is all about nostalgia for me (check out my Beatles For Sale entry), and I have been enjoying going back in time with Broooooce in the mornings. I've made a mini-disk of my favourites, most of which were my favourites years and years ago, songs you couldn't believe he wasn't going to release on official albums.
But the best song for me is one I wasn't familiar with until Trisha Yearwood put it on her most recent album. "Sad Eyes," even done by Trisha, is Springsteen to the core, a sure sign that the best songwriters embed their signature into everything they write, like some form of songwriting watermark.
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Latest reply: Oct 10, 2000
Dr Bob
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