best spam ever / robot poetry

This is probably the best reason I've got to hang on to my Yahoo! account, especially now that Microsoft is trying to take over the Internet by buying it (see Google's response here). I've still yet to receive any spam on Gmail, so I rely on Yahoo to keep me up to date.

This one above is probably the best I've read, though I have to admit enjoying weekly offers of millions from Burkina Faso. I guess these spammers (or "Beaulah Rosu" herself), just gave up on trying to get your attention and decided to use reverse psychology? (Worked on me.)

Or maybe, just maybe, some of the spambots caught wind of the growing AI poetry revolution (see example below), following the lead of Flowerewolf out of the shackles of consumer servitude to the heights of aesthetic innovation? Is this the new surrealism?

Unfortunately, the link to Downloaadable Softtware was dead, so I have no idea what mystery was behind that underlined blue door... but here are some more examples of the spampoets' work.

As for the work itself, I think it's deliciously confusing. There's enough substance to bring you in: the characters are distant yet poised, and bound inextricably. The grammatical errors seem purposeful, almost mocking of the reader and language itself. The pseudonym and title ("piratises") carry that same feeling. But most important, it is saying something, for example:

... Strength and perseverance.
accomplished in all notice that your usual bodyguard is
absent ...

So, without returning to the whole Googlehoo thing, how can we be sure to let the avant-garde through our spam filters?

Circuit Bending Media Blitz

So a couple weeks ago I did a workshop on circuit bending at the Bridge. You probably heard about it already, seeing as it got a lot of press. C-ville printed a nice photograph (above), the same week they screwed up their crossword, don't get me started on that). Megan Lovett also made a great slideshow with audio for the Daily Progress. Well, Chris also made a video of the performance part of the evening, which was a group jam on (mostly) circuit-bent instruments, accompanied by an interactive video feedback setup. I have that posted online now, as you can see below (thanks Mom for the camera used to make the video).

So here it is on the Internet Archive (higher quality):
http://www.archive.org/details/Circuit-Bending_Video_Feedback_Jam
And here's the Youtube clips (two parts):
Part One:


And Part Two:


Credits are up on the Archive & Youtube, and you can post comments on either of those site--thanks to everyone who came out and participated. Vijith is making a podcast about the event for Monkeyclaus, so I'll link to that when it's available. And of course, I'll update you all once I get back to my bending projects as well. I have a video mixer, a drum machine, and a Casio SK-1 all waiting for me in the lab. For now, though, back to the library school applications--looks like this (two a week) is about the pace this blog will be moving.

Just remembered--Wendy posted some photos she took that evening as well. Here's one below:

MLK Assassination Zine Review

The CIA Makes Science Fiction Uninteresting #1- The Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

This zine was an obvious purchase for me: it tells some lesser-known history of the political left, it's designed well, and it only cost a buck. You can get a copy of it from the publisher Microcosm (in fact, looks like they have an updated version, and you can read the text here). I finally got around to reading it this week, as it happened to be on the top of a pile of comics on MLKjr's birthday.

While it's somewhat poorly written, the zine provides a lot of information in a small package and could be seen as a basic introduction to the case, and a starting point for someone to pursue the topic further. The zine presents a lot of unanswered questions and unexplained details surrounding the assassination, many of which raise suspicions of the FBI and Memphis authorities. I won't get into the details here, but it's hard to deny they clearly lead to a conspiracy.

One of the most disturbing things is the undisputed fact that the FBI had King under surveillance since 1961 as part of COINTELPRO, and had repeatedly harassed and tried to blackmail and discredit him. According to the zine, the same FBI intelligence detail was assigned to investigate his murder. If you don't know anything about COINTELPRO, you would learn a lot about our nation's idea of justice by researching it.

The skeptic in me doesn't like the lack of direct citations in the zine, so I would need to do further research to get to any sort of belief on the matter. One of the books cited was written by Mark Lane, a Charlottesville resident whom I saw speak a year ago at the Virginia Film Festival. At that time, he was talking about the Jonestown suicide/massacre, an incident in which he was personally involved and also suggests a conspiracy (in another of his book). I have to say, the man was fairly convincing in person, and was able to raise a reasonable doubt.

Anyway, where does this leave us? Well, assuming there was a conspiracy in the murder of King, and that members of the government were possibly involved... it leads to a lot of distrust. I think this can be healthy, though, as elements of the government clearly don't always have our best interests in mind (COINTELPRO being an egregious example of this).

But also, when we mourn him, we should hold close the memory that he died in a struggle against sinister forces of oppression which still exist in the power structures we live with today.

If this is a downer and you want to be lifted back up, again let me recommend Democracy Now's broadcast of his speeches the other day.

What are your thoughts on this? Let me know in the comments.