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Ampersand Pilcrow



Last Updated: 3/18/2009

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Gender: Male
Status: Single
Age: 27
Sign: Virgo

City: ASHEVILLE
State: North Carolina
Country: US
Signup Date: 8/7/2007

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January 22, 2009 - Thursday 

Good news in these changing times comes via this fun little article in the Atlantic:

For me, the best aspect of these bars isn’t that they’re essentially theme parks where you can drink, but that the drinks highlight rather than mask the tastes of the spirits. This is as it should be. Lading drinks with overly sweet mixers, thick juices, and fruits amounts, in a way, to a continuation of Prohibition. During the 13-year drought, Americans applied considerable creativity to hiding the taste of bathtub gin and bootlegged liquor, and then never really broke the habit. Seventy-five years after Prohibition’s repeal, we’re returning to the basics at last.

Amen to that. Going through ancient bar books (like the 1941 edition that resulted in that Rum Swizzle recipe a few days back) one of the major differences I noticed was that the oldest drink recipes within used the taste of the liquor -- even when it was just average booze -- and a few simple ingredients to create a good combination. I'm of the firm belief that this beats the hell out of the alternative, and it's fairly simple (also cheap, importantly, to do). I enjoy the buzz of drinking, but like food, the taste is also meant to be savored.
7:01 PM 
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January 19, 2009 - Monday 

We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity. The tide in the affairs of men does not remain at flood -- it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is adamant to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words, "Too late." There is an invisible book of life that faithfully records our vigilance or our neglect. Omar Khayyam is right: "The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on."

We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent coannihilation. We must move past indecision to action. We must find new ways to speak for peace in Vietnam and justice throughout the developing world, a world that borders on our doors. If we do not act, we shall surely be dragged down the long, dark, and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.

There are no unbeatable odds.
6:19 PM 
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January 17, 2009 - Saturday 

That's me, savoring the newly arrived issue of Coilhouse and my own article, ruminating on mechanical/cybernetic hands through the ages. You should get a copy. You should also follow the blog.

Issue 02 is absolutely stunning. The first issue was damn brilliant, but this one exceeded even my expectations. The writing is of the highest caliber, the interviews superb and visually it destroys just about anything on the market today.

Nadya, Mer, Zoe and everyone else who participated: well done. You've crafted something that I'm extremely honored to be a part of -- and one that leaves me with a desire to make my own work much, much better.
4:22 PM 
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January 15, 2009 - Thursday 
11:49 PM 
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January 6, 2009 - Tuesday 

That's according to the long-awaited, $170,000 Downtown Master Plan:

In the future, Asheville's downtown might be managed by a powerful independent board, with different types of development for each neighborhood "core," better support for the arts, more green building, a shuttle system and police cameras on street corners. Those are some of the many initiatives presented in the draft of the long-awaited Downtown Master Plan.
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The management entity would be made up of, to begin with, an ad hoc group including representatives from groups like the Downtown Commission, the Preservation Society, city staff, the Tourism and Development Authority and the Council of Independent Business Owners. It would be funded by annual fees on all downtown properties, a percentage fee on large projects as well as other sources like half the money from sales of city-owned parcels downtown and matching funds. The entity could then use that cash to fund affordable housing, business promotion, development incentives and downtown-workforce training.

In the long run, the plan says, the ADD would be completely independent and would have powers rivaling City Council: It would have its own redevelopment authority and it could broker deals, manage downtown construction, buy and sell real estate on the city's behalf, license downtown events and performers and oversee "all things 'clean and safe' in the public realm," including "coordinating security patrols" and "install[ing] pole cameras for the APD."

How its leadership would be chosen, and by whom, is not discussed in the draft plan.

Ashevillains, or those with an urban design fetish, can read the full master plan over in the Xpress Files.
1:24 PM 
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January 6, 2009 - Tuesday 

The legs of the body of one of three Palestinian siblings from the Al-samoni family, killed by an Israeli tank shell, are seen in the mortuary of Al-Shifa hospital, on January 5, 2009 in Gaza City. Seven members from the Al-samoni family were killed including the mother, three children and a baby, when an Israeli shell struck their house south of Gaza city. By Abid Katib/Getty. (via Andrew Sullivan)

Glenn Greenwald sums up my thoughts about the tragedy
12:21 PM 
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December 30, 2008 - Tuesday 

My take on futurist John Robb's call for a Great Reboot is up on The Breaking Time.

The urge for increasingly local society and economy is a natural reaction to the culture of our day and there's a lot of good that can come out of it. However, as a natural reaction, it's also somewhat knee-jerk, and can potentially miss the significant drawbacks of increased local reliance that we've mostly forgotten.

What's missing in this particular diagnosis is a step beyond. Going local won't save us. New, innovative forms of linking and directing masses of people across vast distances as well as, yes, checking local powerhouses will have to be developed or the would-be reboots will just be heralds of the end.
10:31 PM 
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December 24, 2008 - Wednesday 
Guinness (or Newport Blackstrap Stout) tastes really good when mixed with a shot of peach schnapps.
6:58 AM 
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December 20, 2008 - Saturday 
My Coilhouse piece on this ancient underground city (a social collapse and wartime refuge with capacity for 30,000 (!) people) is up:

Massive millstones would be rolled in front of the entrance in time of attack, and there were, reportedly, many attackers, with Derinkuyu’s labyrinthine rooms serving as a refuge for early Christians persecuted by the Roman Empire (including other Christian sects), Byzantine Greeks fleeing Arab raids. Going back much farther, it’s not hard to imagine the site being used by fleeing Hittites in the nigh-total social collapse of the first dark age.

The sheer engineering prowess necessary to create and maintain something like this is even more incredible when you think about the primitive technology and limited resources available (Cappadocia’s never been a rich place). Derinkuyu had a large church, many separate living quarters, space for livestock, a winery, a religious school, wells, ventilation ducts that doubled for communication purposes (the original system of tubes)
5:39 PM 
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December 17, 2008 - Wednesday 

Stemming from the array of academics, lawyers, etc. now endorsing widespread "cognitive enhancement" meds, my thoughts on our drugged future are up at The Breaking Time.

As the pressure to test and market new medications increases, so does the number of perceived disorders. Naturally, the push from a generation of status-driven parents makes similar regimens available as the child proceeds through school. This goes hand-hand with a "for your health" nanny state tendency that cuts across the normal political factions, manifest now in small things like banning transfats or smoking (full disclosure: I've never smoked and eat healthy, but some things aren't properly the state's business).

Cash-strapped governments rapidly conclude that drugs are cheaper than cops (or social programs) and start distributing them for a minimal charge to poverty stricken areas. After all, at least someone makes a profit off it, and it's an easy, quick fix to a number of current drug epidemics.

There will be pills for more focus, pills for increased IQ (fickle a beast as that is), medications for any type of perceived intellectual deficiency, all culminating in another regimen to make sure that the citizen makes it through school with flying colors. Nor does it end there. Jobs are stressful, and there are pills for the attendant anxiety, depression, sleep disorders. When the mid-life crisis comes, there will be pills to make it all better. A million little friends to get you through the night.

Read it.
11:08 PM 
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