A sampling of the spam "names" in my email inbox right now:

• Hartquist Langlands
  
• Rothbart Rodeen
  
• Alden Livingston
  
• Liza H. White
  
• Larochelle Asbury
  
• Charlyn Chang
  
• Stefanie Summers
  
• Rosario C. Wilkerson
  
• Stram Hoots
  
• Layla Fox
  
• Chima Bendlage
  
• Maryanne Bravo
  
• Irwin H. Aguilar
  
• Essie Fitzgerald
  
• Luis Sutton
  
• Thaddeus Dodge
  
• Lenore Kemp
  
• Lydia Cantu
  
• Litvin Michelman
  
• Mark Xiong
  
• Melisa Beal
  
• Sue Mock
  
• Terrance Terich
  

The Davis Enterprise 10/29/03

"Nancy Servis watched the demolition of the Pence Gallery this morning with the mixed emotions that often come at the end of one stage of life and the beginning of a new one."

There Is No There There, Part XXVIII

mrjeff3000`s Fotolog

Fotolog

CNN.com - Solar burst could scramble phones, power lines - Oct. 24, 2003

Freaky Sky Friday: Not only is the local atmosphere looking like another planet, what with the smoke from the San Bernadino fires to the east and the fog coming off the ocean, but now we hear that a giant magnetic storm ejected from the sun is about to hit the earth.

Everything is orange, and there's a faint smell of smoke.

I shoulda stood in bed.

Guardian Unlimited Books | By genre | Behind the masks

Philip Pullman, in The Guardian, on Maus.

Shut UP!

If you have access to Apple's iTunes Music Store, you can purchase -- or at the very least, preview -- Bill O'Reilly's Those Who Trespass... (read by the author!)

"..did not want to be recognized. The man staring at Costello wanted complete anonymity. The ferry from Woods Hole on Cape Cod had carried this observer to Vineyard Haven just three hours prior. He checked into a small bed-and-breakfast house a few yards away from the ferry terminal, and soon after, took a cab to the media center located in an elementary school just outside of Edgartown. Telling the cabbie to wait, the man circled the media center while staying close to the wall. He wanted no one to see him.

Then he was handed his first stroke of luck. On the door outside the center, a posted sign told of that evening's party in Edgartown. Knowing how Rod Costello operated away from home, he suspected Costello would be there. He was about to do something he had never done before. It had taken him more than a year to decide to act, but now he was determined and apprehensive. The man in the shadows watched patiently as Costello began speaking to a well-built brunette. Though much too far away to hear the conversation, he sensed what was going on.

"Let's get out of here. I have some really good weed back at the hotel."

"Ron, you know I don't smoke. Beside, what would your wife say?"

"We're separated."

"Oh, bullshit, Ron."

"She's in D.C., and I'm here. That's separated, Suzanne."

The young woman silently sighed, her brown eyes darting to the floor. She wanted no part of the disagreeable Ron Costello. Her friends at GNN had warned her about the lecherous correspondent..."

CNN.com - Dude, where's my endorsement? - Oct. 19, 2003

Shibby!

The recent trip up to Bellevue and the Seattle area reminds me, in conjunction with one of the staff favorites on the Apple iTunes Music Store, of the last time my family went up to Washington, when my aunt and uncle and cousins were brand new to Bellevue in 1986. The main things I remember about that trip were an image - the sky, overcast, as we passed through Tacoma near the end of our journey north toward Lake Washington, past 255th (or some other incredibly high number) Street; and listening to Suzanne Vega's eponymously titled debut album on my cassette player.

Every so often, as I realize that the music of my youth is turning twenty, or twenty-five, it reminds me that I'm not just a grown-up. I'm those people who, when I was younger, were remembering the "summer of love", and Woodstock, and disco. That was my senior year in high school, the year that Sgt. Pepper came out on CD 20 years after its original release. Now I'm the one reminiscing about Suzanne Vega and Stop Making Sense and Men at Work (Business as Usual was voted top album of 1982-1983 by my seventh grade class).

I think I'm starting to get it now...

Time-lapse photography is really cool. And kind of creepy.

iCrack

Well, it's the talk of the blogosphere, so I figure I might as well get on board. The much-anticipated iTunes for Windows is out, and it's pretty darn good. One of my favorite things about the program is the crossfade feature, which fades out on one song as the next fades in -- it makes me feel like a classy big shot radio station!

And, of course, there's the famous iTunes Music Store, now open to a much, much wider customer base. And there's some good deals to be had there, too. $9.99 for Los Lobos' Just Another Band from East L.A. (41 songs!) $9.99 for Elvis: 30 #1 Hits (31 songs!) $6.93 for Miles Davis's Bitches Brew (7 tracks, originally on two albums!)

And - here's what I can't wait for - in the early months of next year, Pepsi will be giving away 100,000,000 iTunes songs! (Send your winning Pepsi bottle caps to: MRJEFF3000, c/o mrjeff3000.blogspot.com, kids!)

mrjeff

DO NOT DILUTE THE MRJEFF3000 BRAND.

You have been warned.

Our most recent Plastic.com QuickLink:

States' Rights Screws Democrats
Not only did Al Gore lose the presidency to George W. Bush despite Gore receiving half a million more votes, the Senate's representation is even more lopsided.

Thanks, TAPPED's Matthew Yglesias!

Happy Halloween, y'all.

STRIKE!

Well, the supermarket workers are on strike down here in Southern California, home of the MRJEFF3000 organization. We thought about unpacking our megaphone and black armband (oh, the memories, of Seattle and the WTO, and before that, occupying the dean's office in '69. And, of course, that unpleasantness in Haymarket Square. So don't you question our credentials, Mr. Establishment!), but instead settled for shopping at Trader Joe's. The People! United! and all that. (All kidding aside, I'm going to have to look around for my grocery shopping in the short term. Official MRJEFF3000 policy is: don't cross the picket line.)

I dunno. I like the proletariat, sure, but my cultural values are solidly with the bourgeoisie. Anyway. To make up for the guilt I downloaded several versions of the Internationale.

So come brothers and sisters
For the struggle carries on
The internationale
Unites the world in song
So comrades come rally
For this is the time and place
The international ideal
Unites the human race

Can I get that in Esperanto?

Point and shoot

On a lighter -- and sexier -- note, New York Magazine's website notes that Spike Lee, Mike Figgis, Neil LaBute, and Kevin Smith will direct photo shoots for Playboy's 50th anniversary issue.

"But it’s not the first time that directors have taken the bunny dollar. For the January ’78 issue, Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni, and Louis Malle directed shoots that 'illustrated what they thought was erotic,' says a company mouthpiece, who adds that Hugh Hefner wasn’t involved with the project: 'He only deals with the Playmates.'"

CA Secretary of State - Vote2003 - Map - - Shall Gray Davis be recalled?

As of this posting, both Yolo and Los Angeles counties are at 51% pro-recall, says the map.

I'll have a much better time of accepting the recall if only these two can swing back across the 50% sane line again...

UPDATE -- Okay, that's better.

Silver linings

Okay, so let's look at the bright side:

• Gray Davis, California's version of Al Gore (only without the people skills) is finally out of politics. Forever, if we're lucky.
  
• Whatever his faults (and many they are) Ahnold is a pro-choice, pro-gay rights, socially liberal Republican-in-name-only.
  
• Just as with the 2000 national election, there is now a very angry, very committed, very vocal bunch of people who will make absofuckinglutely certain that we elect a Democratic governor at the next election.
  

You know who I'm really disappointed by? Larry Flynt. What happened to him? All through the Clinton impeachment days, Flynt was popping up with Fun Facts about the hypocritical Republicans. And then he announces his candidacy and then he falls off the face of the earth. Why didn't he uncover all these women who Arnold groped months ago?

KHAAAAAAAANNN!

The Philadelphia Inquirer corrects an error:

In Sunday's Arts & Entertainment section, an article about the film Kill Bill erroneously referred to Ricardo Montalban's character in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan as a Klingon. Khan was an evil human bent on universal domination, though he does quote a Klingon proverb.

which, of course leads to this exchange:

From FRANK AHRENS: I suppose a generous reader would allow the spirit of the Philadelphia Inquirer's correction re Ricardo Montalban's role as Khan Noonien Singh in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan," and would appreciate, as doubtless would Mr. Montalban, clearing up the fact that he played a human rather than a Klingon, a mistake that is an insult to both species. But the letter of the law would insist on clarifying that Khan, while indeed human, could hardly have been labeled "an evil human bent on universal domination." Rather, he was a product of his times, a superhuman who was bred to be smarter, stronger and more aggressive during the Eugenics Wars of the 1990s. And universal domination? I think not. Rather, Khan is propelled by the entirely sympathetic motivation of avenging his wife's death after he and his people were marooned on a planet that proved barely habitable by Capt. James T. Kirk, who failed to check on their progress, leaving them victim to sandstorms and nasty little creatures that deposit their larvae in victims's ears and wind themselves around the brain stem, bringing madness and a yearning for the sweet relief death would bring.

* * *

From FRANK HAYES: Subject: Frank Ahrens' letter. I was shocked -- shocked! -- to see Frank Ahrens' obvious distortion of history in criticizing that Philadelphia Inquirer correction. As a little research with Google easily turns up, Khan Noonien Singh is hardly just "a product of his times" who's merely avenging his wife's death, as Ahrens suggests. The guy started World War III, for petesake! This is clearly another example of a Beltway insider attempting to bury the sordid past of one of his neofascist heroes. Or maybe it's a typical media liberal making apologies for a notorious terrorist. It's so hard to keep these things straight these days.

All via the ever-informative Romanesko at Poynter.org...

Fanatical Apathy: Transcript of Call to Bob Novak, 7/13/03

The ever-intrepid Adam Felber has actually obtained a transcript of the infamous Robert Novak/senior administration official phone call of 7/13. They give out Pulitzers for this kind of work, don't they?

New York Daily News - Home - Rush Limbaugh in pill probe

No, honestly. Pity is what I have for Mr. Limbaugh. Nothing but pity for his addiction to illegal drugs.

It's sad, really. Here's hoping he avoids prison time. I mean, "clandestine handoffs in a Denny's parking lot"? But that's just my bleeding heart. If only I were conservative. Then I could just say that he got what he deserved.

Women Say Schwarzenegger Groped, Humiliated Them

"Did he rape me? No," said one woman, who described a 1980 encounter in which she said Schwarzenegger grabbed her breast. "Did he humiliate me? You bet he did.""

Our next governor.

DRUDGE REPORT 2003®

This evening's drudgereport.com:

"BLITZ ON RUSH LIMBAUGH TO INTENSIFY ON THURSDAY WITH CHARGES OF DRUG ABUSE...

AFTER DAY OF INTENSE MEDIA BASHING ON LIMBAUGH SPORTS QUOTES /// NATIONAL ENQUIRER TO ALLEGE IN BOMBSHELL REPORT: 'RUSH LIMBAUGH IN DRUG RING'... HOUSEKEEPER WORE WIRE IN SET-UP, SUPPLIED PAIN PILLS TO DEAF TALKSHOW HOST... ENQUIRER ALLEGES ABUSE OF TENS OF THOUSANDS OF PILLS...

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS SET TO SPLASH PAGE ONE THURSDAY, NEWSROOM SOURCES TELL DRUDGE. "

Plus, the big fat idiot has resigned from ESPN in the wake of his people-are-only-saying-good-things-about-Donovan-McNabb-because-he's-a-Negro comments of the other day.