Blogumentary [chuck olsen]

LAYNE HARDCOPY

(Click to enlarge)

MPR's Future Tense interviews Michael Bazeley: Listen

HAPPY BLOGIVERSARY TIM!

It feels as though Tim - aka "Angel of the Blogosphere" - has always been with us. Where would we be without a bite of Reality Sandwich? We'd be rolled up in a filthy ball of lies, crying. That's where. Whew, good thing we're not there.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PDD

Where, Oh Where would we be without Perfect Duluth Day? In a crying pit of dirty-ass shame, that's where.

I festively drop my trousers and salute Starfire [MP3], Barrett, Paul, Nick, Ca-Chee, C-freak, Lumpy, and all ye chilly northern brethren whom we have come to know and love and smell funny with.

Paul Lundgren, Starfire, Lumpy G. NOT PICTURED: Everybody else

AHH, LILLET

Lorika emailed me at work today and said "Bring home some Apricot Ale! It's hot!" Well, I did better than that. Not only did I procure some Pyramid Apricot Ale, but: Stoney Creek Vanilla Porter, Old Foghorn "Barleywine style" Ale, a Belgian Peach Lambic, and the delicious treat pictured here, Lillet. Lillet Blanc is a refreshing, fruity but not-too-sweet aperitif, made from sauvignon blanc and semillon grapes.  Hinting of honey and orange, it's meant to be sipped about a half hour before dinner. I started sipping much earlier. In fact - why not? - I might just have Lillet for dinner.

Here's Lorika trying to fill our newly-and-amateurishly constructed raised garden with dirt. Yeah, we're gonna need about a jillion more bags.

BUCKLEY RETIRES

William F. Buckley, that playful purveyor of circumlocution, is handing over the National Review reigns. Along with George Will, Buckley is another old-school conservative not fond of the current president:

"With the benefit of minute hindsight, Saddam Hussein wasn't the kind of extra-territorial menace that was assumed by the administration one year ago," Mr. Buckley said. "If I knew then what I know now about what kind of situation we would be in, I would have opposed the war."

Asked whether the growth of the federal government over the last four years diminished his enthusiasm for Mr. Bush, he reluctantly acknowledged that it did. "It bothers me enormously," he said. "Should I growl?"

GREAT SADNESS

Ruminator books, formerly The Hungry Mind, is closing. [via Sharyn]

But hey - you can still save the iPod!

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There are only a few times in my life I've felt truly magical. One of those times was in the early 90's, a beautiful warm snowy St. Paul night in January (let's say), everything cushioned-quiet except the crunch crunch crunch of white snow under my feet. For some reason I absolutely had to go to The Hungry Mind. I think I was just aching to expand my mind, I was open to everything, and on this night The Hungry Mind was the vortex of being open to everything.

There isn't more to the story. The feeling of magic hits me before I even step foot in the door. I'm sure I bought a 'zine or a comic or something - but really, it was the anticipation of expanding consciousness. An intellectual promise, blanketed in the romance of a snowy St. Paul night.

GIRL, INTERRUPTED

Rex's lovely City Pages article on Plain Layne is up now: "I never went to cool parties. With Plain Layne, I was meeting the coolest people--people I would never have met otherwise." Hmm... I guess we were, too.

CP: Did you ever feel deceitful about interacting with people using Layne's persona?

Soli: Most of the time the interactivity was a wonderful challenge, since every exchange forced the character to evolve. Just think about all the conversational questions that most literary characters never confront, or only at the preplanned behest of the author. What did Layne do today? Could she share a recipe? Was she going clubbing this weekend, and if so, where? What did she think of the Pawlenty administration? Why didn't she pull her head out of her ass and quit the girlfriend du jour? It was fiction in a hurry.

I empathize completely with how hurt people feel by the Layne hoax, and it's totally justified. But reading this just tickles my brain. I must know more.

STUART KEPT HIS LEG, AND HIS HEAD

BBC journalist Stuart Hughes, who some may recognize as one of Blogumentary's subjects, broke perhaps the biggest news in the history of blogs yesterday: the accelerated handover of sovereignty in Iraq. Bravo, Stuart! At the end of the day, in front of President Bush and Tony Blair, Stuart has a confession:

And as I sat there, headphones clamped to my ears and listening to the news conference, the temptation to speak out was overwhelming. What would happen, I wondered, if I removed my artificial leg, waved it in front of Bush and Blair, and proclaimed "See this. This is the outcome of your war. Iraq may have been liberated, but I -- and hundreds of others like me -- will be burdened with this artificial limb every day for the rest of my life because of the conflict you created."

PLAIN LAYNE UNVEILED (AGAIN)

San Jose Mercury News: `Plain Layne' and Odin Soli: an Internet hoax

Rex should have his City Pages piece published this week, too. I think I can say now that I've finally communicated with Odin, and hope to squeeze my interview in with all the traditional media. Odin hasn't agreed to an on-camera interview yet, but I think he of all people appreciates how much more impact the Plain Layne story would have in film, free of cold journalistic confines.

Mitch has more.

Plain Layne is gone... - looks like Odin is starting something, maybe just a summation of the Plain Layne experience.

EMITTER: Episode Two - Odin posts a few representative samples of Layne's stories.

POWER LINE ON F 9/11

We saw Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 on Friday night. Judging by the longest movie line I've seen in my life and incredible box office numbers, you all did too. I found it deeply saddening, aggravating, funny, ocassionally boring, ocassionally informative, and often manipulative. I believe the heart of the movie is the story of Lila Lipscomb, an "All-American" Flint, MI mom who loses her son in Iraq. [ more at Tacitus ]

When I was setting cameras up to interview the guys at Power Line, I believe it was Scott who said, "You're not going to Michael Moore us, are you Chuck?" I'm sure this isn't the last time I'll hear that. I didn't think to mention this at the time, but it's actually impossible for me to "Michael Moore" anyone, because Blogumentary is an open-source documentary: all of the footage I shot will be released. So if you suspect I'm up to some trickery with my editing, or simply want to know more, you'll be able to simply download the whole interview and judge for yourself. That's transparency, and that's exactly what Michael Moore should be doing.

Naturally, I couldn't get through the interview without a little F 9/11 discussion. They haven't seen the film - in the spirit of John Stuart Mill, I strongly urge all conservatives to see this film - but Hinderocket has plenty of ammo for Michael Moore:

Power Line on Fahrenheit 9/11: Quicktime, 6 MB | Windows, 5 MB

UPDATE: Ralph Nader is critical of Moore too, although for radically different reasons.

By the way? Too many people are saying "This is not a documentary." People call it a political ad, propaganda, a visual Op-Ed piece — all kinds of things. PEOPLE. A film can be all of those things and still be a documentary. Documentary has never ever been "objective", even from the early days of Nanook of the North. Documentary film is big umbrella, and there's plenty of room for the likes of Fahrenheit 9/11.