Velvet

I missed this thread as it happened because I was at work, so I've had to glean its meaning. My comment: The internet has a creative potential that often goes untapped. I was just thinking the other day the great creative oppourtunities afforded Dima in his persona. The rich-kid tour-rat with a sense of entitlement who flaunts his easily obtained access to all things kool on a message board of genuine tour-mad people is an unbelievable source of inspiration, and I think it only betrays Dimas creative immaturity that he doesn't take better advantage of it. Look at Alice Cooper, and Hunter S Thompson. They both created a persona that would help them create (okay, Hunter's was mainly an exaggeration). Two words: Heady Epic. Anyways, I'm glad most of us are maostly innoffensive in our online personas (by which I mean our digital selves), but I'm glad some of us (and it's usually pretty quick to figure who's who) are a bit more over the top. I don't come here just for information. I come here to read what Dima got backstage to, and for AD to correct my spelling, and for bradm to make puns and verify facts, and to see what spouts from Booche's almost brilliant fingers, and to find out details about musicI'll never hear from esau, but mostly to stroke my own ego by posting my insightfully lucid and astoundingly clever thoughts and opinions in a public forum.

Do condoms reduce the risk of std's? Stupid question, as we all know the answer. We all know the answer because we were properly informed. As this thread indicates, there are a lot of questions remaining about h1n1, which means (even if YOU have all the info) there hasn't been enough info spread around. As FBN astutely pointed out, the point was actually that while questions still persist amongst the general population with regards to h1n1, the current gov't has allocated fives times as much advertising revenue towards educating the public on how good they're doing at their job (at taxpayers expense) than they are informing the public about h1n1. And as Birdy pointed out, there seems to be better things we could be doing with those millions of dollars right now.

From this thread it looks like more money spent on educating the public about h1n1 wouldn't hurt a bit.

bradm: Ow. ollie: Oh. Booche: Ew.

Is that a stupid think to ask?

What's OP?

Government spends more promoting stimulus plan than flu awareness   The Conservative government is spending more than five times as many taxpayer dollars on promoting its economic plan than it is on raising public awareness about the swine flu pandemic. That is again raising a long-standing question: when does government advertising cross the line into partisan boosterism? Television viewers may have noticed the latest feel-good government ads about stimulus spending, including the Conservative-friendly, anti-election pitch: "We can't stop now," and "We have to stay on track." All the ads direct viewers to a Tory-blue government website that includes more than 40 different photos of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and refers repeatedly to "the Harper government" — apparently in direct contravention of Treasury Board communications policy. The TV spots are just the latest $5-million salvo in a $34-million media blitz trumpeting the Conservatives' recession-fighting budget. Meanwhile, public health officials are fretting over an onrushing fall flu season, the spread of the H1N1 virus and widespread public apathy about the need for vaccination. Government officials didn't respond to a specific query from The Canadian Press last week on whether television ads were in the works to combat swine flu. But a government spokesman said Sunday evening that television ads are to be launched Monday across the country to raise public awareness about H1N1. The official said the government had planned for some time to launch the ad campaign. The Public Health Agency of Canada said it has a total marketing budget of $6.5 million to inform Canadians about the H1N1 virus and how to avoid infection. Some $4.5 million of that was spent on ads in newspapers, public transit, and on the web that ran from April to August. The health agency has committed another $2 million to radio spots that began airing last week, just as new swine flu outbreaks were being reported. Opposition MPs said the spending disparity in the two ad campaigns simply highlights the obvious: The government is using public funds to toot its own horn. "Guys, you're spending all this money to promote yourselves. Maybe some work on the prevention of H1N1 would be helpful," Liberal critic Martha Hall-Findlay said in an interview. The Liberals first objected to government ads earlier this summer that claimed the federal stimulus funding was "80 per cent already implemented." That glossy campaign is also highlighted on the government's action plan website. Marketing experts say partisanship in government advertising is highly situational, ever-present and may or may not cross ethical lines. Unenforceable guidelines Federal advertising guidelines speak vaguely of not promoting any political party or entity, but Hall-Findlay concedes the rules are so loose as to be unenforceable. Ontario, by contrast, began screening provincial government ads in 2004 under a strict law that attempts to stop partisan messaging. Jonathan Rose, a political communications expert at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., advises the ad clearance group for the auditor general of Ontario. Rose said the Ontario law requires examination of not just what the ads say, "but also the relationship between the ad buy and the campaign imperatives." That means ads that fall close to a scheduled election — or, say, when a minority government's defeat appears imminent — will be given particular scrutiny. "One might expect ads that require citizens to do something — such as things to prevent swine flu — have a stronger reason than those ads that have no information related to changing behaviour or attitudes in the public interest," Rose said in an email. A case can be made for current government ads that promote the popular home renovation tax credit, which requires Canadians to keep receipts and actively apply for tax reimbursement. But it's harder to understand the public service utility spending millions of tax dollars to advise Canadians that their money is being spent on infrastructure projects. Tim Dewhirst, an associate professor at Guelph University's marketing and consumer studies department, said government ads may be informational, persuasive, or serve as reminders — with ads that focus on providing specific information to the public the least problematic. Dewhirst said many of the Tory economic action ads appear to be aimed at persuading rather than informing. "There's probably a lot of other issues that people would say is money better spent than trying to be persuasive about an action plan that's supposedly already 80 per cent implemented," he said in an interview. "If it's 80 per cent done, is there much of an informing purpose still necessary?" The $34-million economic ad budget is spread among four federal departments — Canada Revenue Agency, Finance, Human Resources and Skills Development, and Infrastructure Canada. But all inquiries were directed to the Privy Council Office, the bureaucratic arm of the Prime Minister's Office. Late Sunday evening, five days after receiving a written list of questions from The Canadian Press, the Privy Council Office responded by email. "The Actionplan.gc.ca website was developed to help the Government of Canada meet its commitment to providing timely, transparent and accountable information to Canadians on EAP projects and initiatives happening in their communities," said the email from spokeswoman Myriam Massabki. As for all those photos of Harper, "The Prime Minister is the chief spokesperson in the Government of Canada for the [action plan]," Massabki wrote. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/09/20/government-ads.html

Heads I'll take Great Lake Swimmers, tails Joel Plaskett.

What album is Reelin' In The Years on?

I'm stupid at pictures.

It's looking like this ain't real (ie TML are at home 12-09-09), but it sure looks nice: http://livephish.org/forum/download.php?id=2106

uber heavy

Hello D rawk.

I've actually been trying to make my body pear-shaped for years now. I think I approached this project from the wrong direction.

Camping!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1211141/Behold-latest-addition-novelty-fruit-market--5-pear-looks-like-baby-buddha.html

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hLZbD5UJiAogEt4y-Y7Jzj-p-fZw

While singing Bird On A Wire. Just heard it on cbc radio.

Of the men's washroom.

Monopolies offend people. Let's say Bell was the only cell phone provider in Canada; if you lived in Canada and wanted a cell phone, you could only do so through Bell. Then they start to increase their fees, with a service fee to every call. The fee is sometimes a dollar, sometimes it's five dollars. There is no rhyme or reason, just the option on whether or not to pay for the service on a call-by-call basis. And then you hear that they are having secret meetings with other companies in an effort to divert your calls and make them only available by paying $50 service fees. Wouldn't you think something was wrong with that? That's how I view ticketbastard.

First I've heard about Norm being there.

http://newyork.timeout.com/articles/hot-seat/78303/phish-guitarist-trey-anastasio-interview#ixzz0ROXVA5Tq After almost five years in retirement, veteran jam band Phish came back in March of this year to play sold-out shows from sea to shining sea. To many a hater’s chagrin, not only has Phish resurfaced live, but the quartet has a new studio album, Joy, and Festival 8, an upcoming three-day festival in Indio, California, centering on Halloween. TONY talked to the band’s guitarist on the phone about his show this week with the New York Philharmonic and the vagaries of product placement. My dad worked at the Rocky Mountain News, and the music writer took me to Red Rocks in eighth grade to a Phish show, and I’ve seen some 30 shows since. Oh, cool. Then you can have an eighth-grade son and take him. So I’m kind of a nerd about Phish. Welcome to the club. So even though I’d rather ask about that version of “Icculus†I just caught at the Hartford show, how about this gig with the Philharmonic? You’ve got to have your act together when you play with these orchestras, because they really only practice a couple of times before each show. So I’m finishing up practicing on my own and finishing up the last bits with my collaborator Don Hart. He’s doing the last touches of the last stuff we’re going to do there. So we’ve been on the phone a lot talking through this thing. But I’m really excited. And he’s the guy you did “Time Turns Elastic†with? So you’re gonna play that and other Phish songs? Yeah. It’s been a slow process, which started about seven years ago, when I played with the Vermont Youth Orchestra. I orchestrated “Guyute†with the conductor of the Vermont Youth Orchestra. So that took about four months of really hard work to get that going. And then we performed that a few shows, but my dream was to have a repertoire of performable pieces with an orchestra that really worked and to have the music be challenging—not like a pops concert. The problem with a pops concert is that, in general, the musicians in an orchestra don’t feel like they’re being challenged or respected to the level of their talent. It’s like window dressing. The goal was not to do that. I want it to be a valid night of interesting music. Are we going to get a 45-minute “You Enjoy Myself†or what? No, but you are gonna get a “YEM,†and that’s what we’ve been working on for the past few months. It’ll be 13 minutes or something. But are there going to be some vocals? There will be some vocals, yeah. My goal was to get the five or six big or major pieces together. I think we may have accomplished that goal, because by the time we get to Carnegie Hall we’ve got “First Tube,†“Guyute,†“Divided Sky,†“Time Turns Elastic†and “You Enjoy Myself.†And we did it in Baltimore with Marin Alsop and it went really well. So that was great. And then the idea is that once you have that core of the bigger tunes, you can then—bit by bit—keep generating a repertoire of the other ones. So we did a couple songs in Baltimore like “Brian and Robert†and “Let Me Lie.†You can add those songs. So my dream is to take this thing on the road, like a Phish kind of thing where you do two nights in two different towns and play different material. Oh, really? [Laughs] Yeah, that’s the goal, and it’s taken eight years to get there, but we’re really close now. If you really look at it, it’s been quite a long process, because there was the Youth Orchestra and that was played at Carnegie Hall with Vermont Youth Orchestra. And there was the orchestra at Bonnaroo where a couple other pieces were fleshed out for that performance. “Pebbles and Marbles,†you know? At the Ryman [Auditorium in Nashville] we did it, and that was a real step forward, because we were getting the electric guitar to really work. And then Baltimore was the first time I felt like it really became cohesive. So you’d want to do that and also Phish? Yeah, Phish is… Yeah. I’m having so much fun right now. We’re really having a good time. We want to keep playing as much as possible. This is kind of something to do in between Phish shows. [Laughs] I’ve always loved the idea of having an option. I don’t go to much other music. Occasionally I’ll go to another concert in the city, but I go Lincoln Center and see the Philharmonic all the time. I’m a big fan. My wife and I go and we get dinner and we’ll go a number of times. It’s my favorite thing to do, I just absolutely love it, so I can’t believe I’m going to have the opportunity to play with these guys. I’m really pretty nervous about it. I’m their biggest fan, you know? Nervous like I was nervous talking to you on the phone? Yeah, even going to the rehearsal is going to be a huge thrill. So Phish is back for a long time? Definitely. For as long as we can do it. Do you have a fall tour mapped out? Yeah, we mapped out most of the rest of the year. I can’t tell you where, but we do have a plan for a New Year’s show. The next thing we’re thinking about is that Festival 8. I waited for 36 hours in traffic for the last Phish festival, at Coventry [in Vermont]. Do I win a medal? Oh my God. May I put this forth, sir: The first conversation that came up for Festival 8 was about traffic. We felt like we had always spent a lot of time and effort talking about how we could make people comfortable. That was a huge part of the reason we picked the spot that we picked. They have great traffic flow. There should not be a traffic problem. That was the number-one concern. You can call me back the day after the festival to report. Coventry was just a nightmare, so I apologize for that. I still enjoyed myself. I was crying because you were retiring and my girlfriend told me to get it together. Well, ya know. Today’s a new day. The other thing I wanted to ask you about Festival 8 is the hilarious FAQs on the website. Who wrote those? [Laughs] The way those things usually go is everybody talks on the phone and will chime in and come up with funny ideas. It was kind of being written as it went along. So it ends up being a fluid idea…you know what I mean? So can I get a clue on the album that you’ll be covering in full at the Festival? [Laughs a lot] Yes, I think I know what it is. That’s the only clue I’m gonna get, isn’t it? The only clue I can give you is that it’s an album I truly love. I can’t wait. That’s kind of a boring clue. My wife gives me a hard time all the time because I like everything. I like too much. Saying it’s an album that I like doesn’t really narrow it down very much. No, it doesn’t at all, but I can’t blame you. You’ve got to have the element of surprise. She wants me to predict my prejudices. Is there any music you don’t like right now? There’s one guy I can’t stand but I’m not gonna tell you who it is. [Laughs] Oh, come on! I’m not. I don’t want to get into it. I like strange things. Do you listen to a lot of pop music? I really liked MGMT when that record came out. I like Band of Horses, you know, [singing] “I could sleep, I could sleeeeeep.†That song really got inside me for a while. I was listening to Panda Bear. Oh yeah, man. He’s the best. I couldn’t stop listening to that record for, like, five days. I had it on my headphones…that “Comfy in Nautica� Yeah, man. Are you familiar with his band Animal Collective? I didn’t even know who it was! I heard one of the songs, maybe on Pandora or something, and I bought the album and I really liked it. I would be cooking in the kitchen and listening to “Comfy in Nautica.†Really weird and layered. You should check out Animal Collective. They’re really creative…big Deadheads. Really? Wow. I found it kind of to be a little Eno circa 1973. I just like the sensibility of it. That Band of Horses record really lodged itself in my ear for about a week. That “Ode to LRC†and all that. [singing] “In the logbook of the LRC…†[Laughs] Wow. I’m always looking for a new band to fall in love with. I went through an MGMT thing for a while there. You heard that record, right? I love discovering new stuff. Oh, you know who I was listening to for, like, another week? It usually lasts like a week with me. Todd Snider. You ever listen to him? I’d never heard of him till somebody mentioned his name. I got two of his records. Peace Queer? I couldn’t stop listening to that one for a while...like Panda Bear. So you’ve heard of Todd Snider? Yeah. People have heard of him? These things are all news to me. Publicist: Hi, you guys have about ten more minutes. No, we’re good. I could talk all day. Don’t give me any ideas. Oh, you know who else I’ve been listening to? M. Ward. Oh, yeah he’s all right. Transfiguration of Vincent? I didn’t fall in love with that. I was trying to fall in love with that. That’s pretty much it. I was crackin up driving down the road listening to… “Will Rogers never said he met a man he’d never like!†Yeah, so you should get that new Animal Collective. It’s called Merriweather Post Pavilion. Which is the name of the venue you guys just played in Maryland. I will, I’ll get it right after we hang up. Well, if you’re talking to those guys, tell them I said hi and I really like the record. So your new record, Joy. I keep getting caught on the Clif Bar line in “Stealing Time from the Faulty Plan.†Yeah, it goes, “Got a blank space where my mind should be / Got a Clif Bar and some cold green tea.†Is that a product placement? I wish! If Clif Bar wants to give me some money for saying that, I’ll take it. The only reason I asked that question was to get this in print so that Clif Bars will send me a case. There was a period a little while ago where I wasn’t eating anything but Clif Bars. I think that line actually really comes from Tom [Marshall, who writes Phish’s lyrics] working in a cubicle at Prudential for the last few years. [Laughs] I went through a period for a couple months there, but I can’t keep eating them. I stopped. Unless they’re gonna give me some money and then I’ll start again, Speaking of food, does it make you smile that there are millions of grandmas around the country eating Phish Food and have no idea who you guys are? What makes me smile is that we actually designed the flavor. They asked us if we wanted to make a flavor and then Ben and Jerry shipped out these Styrofoam tubs of dry-iced-packed, white unlabeled pints of various kinds of ice cream. And we got to smoosh all the stuff together and pick the flavor that we wanted with [ben & Jerry’s cofounder] Ben [Cohen], who came out for some shows. And he was so much fun. Ben & Jerry’s would advise us—like, we almost put raspberry in it, too. Fish [Jon Fishman, Phish’s drummer] wanted raspberry in it. It was too much; it was almost vile. So they didn’t let the raspberry stay in it. It was supposed to be rocky road with no nuts. And then the marshmallow thing was really cool because we got to go into the factory and watch them design the marshmallow. They had this special machine with a pole that tested the density of the marshmallow by poking a hole into it. It’s very scientific. That’s not just any old marshmallow in there. It’s special marshmallow. Yeah, I haven’t had it in a few years. It’s a PMS food. Right? [Laughs] This is a nerd question: It was hard for people to get tickets to the shows this last time around. Is there any hope of Doniac Schvice coming back and tickets by mail? Old-school style? Or are we all Internet now? I can’t honestly answer that question right now except to say that, other than traffic, that’s the question that’s being given the most time. How can we improve the ticket situation? You know, obviously with the scalpers and the Ticketmaster and all that stuff, it’s a big issue these days. I haven’t heard anything about going back to that old system. All right, that’s just one fan’s point of view. Old school. Well, it’s tough because the venues have contracts with the ticketing companies. And that’s what happened to Pearl Jam. You can’t play in a lot of venues, and it’s gone a lot further since they got into that whole deal. I think we’re doing a pretty good job, though. Yeah, I think it will get a little less hectic. I think everybody wanted to come to these shows. Including me. They had to tear me off the stage. Read more: http://newyork.timeout.com/articles/hot-seat/78303/phish-guitarist-trey-anastasio-interview#ixzz0RR8NdzPz

Excellent. It's like out-takes from the Star Wars cards.

I had to work otherwise I woulda been all over it.

Consistency is the key to my success!