Re: Recent bit recommendations:

I Find Karma (adam@cs.caltech.edu)
Tue, 27 Aug 96 01:35:39 PDT


> Now, it's probably unfair to bury it here in the middle of this long
> thread, but this is the appropriate point to discuss _Out Of Control_
> by Kevin Kelly, of Wired Fame. I'll do a longer article some other
> time detailing some of its key insights (and I'm sure some of you
> FoRKers have already read it), but all I'll say here is that it may
> have changed my life. I've been harboring the insight that distributed
> systems must learn from biology, so I picked up this book for its
> emphasis on "the new biology" : evolution, cybernetics, complex
> systems, swarm behavior. It has been a complete success: I am
> astonished by the range and aptness of his examples in proving how
> much we have to learn in marrying the domain of the born and the made.
> At the same time, this book should be the subject of how-to lessons
> for book editors everywhere: it's repetitive and understructured. The
> short, episodic structure makes it perfect for interrupted readings,

Looking forward to reading it and/or hearing more of your analysis.

> > PUNK MELODIC: Goldfinger - Goldfinger. The best punk album this year.
> The first single -- "Here in your Bedroom" -- does show off these
> qualities. I'll have to investigate this one.

If you're at the listening bar, also check out the songs "Mable"
and "King for a Day."

> > POP MELODIC: Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - She's the One
> Well, on a first listen, only "Walls" leapt out at me as a keeper.

Tom Petty is subtler in this album; give it a few listens before judging.

> > POP ANGRY-YOUNG-FEMALE: Ani Difranco - Dilate
> The video is *such* a riot, trapped inside a tv set... something out of a
> Harlan Ellison story: I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream.

No, you're thinking of Tracey Bonham. Ani DiFranco takes Tracey Bonham
one echelon further. This is a great album, but not for the faint of heart.

> > ALTERNATIVE COUNTRY: Lyle Lovett - The Road to Ensenada
> Just got this last night. Excellent. Of course, now I'm worried about
> what precisely you see in him, Adamn...

Just a really smart guy who writes country songs that aren't about
losing one's job, one's house, one's wife, and one's dog.

> > "I'm not a bitch, but most of the girls in New York are
> > just idiots. Airheads. They can't even carry on a
> > conversations. They don't know which fork to use. They
> > don't know how to tip the maid at someone's country
> > house."

They don't know which FoRK to use? Isn't it obvious??? ;)

> > "The only thing that's left is work," said Robert,
> > forty-two, an editor. "You've got so much to do, who has
> > time to be romantic?"

This is a problem????

> > I'm gonna put Tom Clancy's new novel _Executive Honor_ in here even
> > though I've only read about 50 pages of it. It shows how even though
> > he has a simple formula for books -- carry on multiple action-packed
> > threads, and describe technology to the very last detail -- he can
> > still make them compelling reads. Would that I had a day to chew on
> > the 875 pages therein!
> Would that Archetypes had taken off... Design Patterns for fiction!
> Oh, wait, most OO application designs *are* fiction... hmm...

Hey! Watch where you point that thing!

> Book that doesn't fit anywhere: Inside the Harvard Business School.
> Yes, trite, but it was $3.99. About as much as *I*'d ever pay again
> for a Harvard education... :-)

Heh.

> > Escape from LA is a total ripoff of Escape from NY. I liked the
> > basketball scene, and Peter Fonda was cool, but the part of the
> > president's daughter was totally miscast, and Snake doesn't get
> > nearly enough interesting things to do.
> This was the perfect film to go see *in* LA, though. Wonderful stuff,
> that basketball scene: "Snake Plisken, you may have survived New York.
> You may have survived Cleveland. But this is L. A. and this town can
> fuckin' kill *anybody*!!"

The man knows of what he speaks.

> Theater audience: "L.A., L.A., L.A...."

You're right, this must have been a totally different experience IN Los
Angeles.