Author: Glenn Hauman

essays & effluvia points to an interesting piece on American attitudes on free speech. Yeeesh…

I was at the Subway Series game today at Shea, thanks to the kind auspices of Peter, Kathleen, and Caroline, who took ill and had to stay at home. Hence, Brandy and I got the tickets for Kathleen and Caroline.

In the stands, however, the crowds showed the true meaning and best case scenario of free speech.

First, some misguided souls would shout, “Let’s Go, Yan-kees!” Others would reply, “Yan-kees SUCK!” And on it would go, back and forth, each side shouting loud and clear and giving the other point of view equal time to rebut. No overlapping, all perfectly fair.

If only our political debates were so civilized.

UPDATE: Contrary to reports, Ariel and Peter were yelling “Yankees Suck!” to Keith, not me. I try not to be excessively rude to people that I owe stories to and that have proposals of mine in hand.

Just lost my Eudora In box, and all recovery attempts have failed. So if you sent me email in the last six months, there’s a good chance I’ve lost it if I didn’t already sort it.

If you sent me any change of addresses or other important stuff, please drop me a line.

Grrrr…

Not too bad, thanks. Spent it up in Connecticut at the graduation of one of the smartest kids I know– Katie’s going to be heading off to George Washington University in the fall, and she’ll do great. (yes, I feel like I’m contributing, I’m helping her dad sell off his comic book collection to pay tuition– and yes, it’s one of those collections that can pay for a college education. Plus some.)

As you might expect, this led to a number of us grousing about kids today (you mean these high school graduates have no memory of the Reagan Administration?!?) and flashing back on our own high school days– which naturally led to discussions of high school reunions. (Ironically, one of the people in the discussion was Keith DeCandido, the editor of the book that I brought back to my reunion, Urban Nightmares, and I got to tell him the reaction of people when they saw that I named the protaginist in my story after the name of the high school. Great reunion cred.)

I figured I should take Katie aside and warn her about high school reunions, to wit: there are dozens of liars at the things. People will come up to you and swear that they were in your English class, and you know they couldn’t possibly have been. Also, you know darn well that there weren’t that many bald guys in your entire school, let alone so many pregnant women. But alas, you still have to go to your reunion, if only to prove that you’re unafraid and/or out of prison.

I didn’t get to see everybody I wanted while I was in the Nutmeg State, but I’ll be in touch with them soon enough. And then I may even be allowed to talk about them in public, instead of being coy and coded. My partners in crime might not like what we’d be discussing…

I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time looking in the rear-view mirror lately. I suppose I could chalk it up to immersing myself in a whole lot of old comic books recently for two major projects I’m working on, and one of the characters spends a lot of time dealing with past hurts and trying to balance karmic scales– but that’s not quite it either.

It’s having lots of people coming back into my life at strange times, and lots of old ghosts that come along for the ride. It’s the sound of a voice, or the smell of old paper, or the image of an old ad– and it triggers cascades of memories.

(You’ll forgive me if I’m a touch evasive in the particulars. It’s just that this is an open publication, where anybody can be reading what I’m writing and a number of things shouldn’t be associated with any one person, lest bigger problems emerge– the people involved already have big problems of their own. So I will hem and haw, or occassionally tell outright fabrications here in order to get to a larger truth.)

Someone told me once upon a time that I seem to make a better friend than lover*. (* Not in the technical sense, mind you; I understand my technique is quite exemplary, capable of melting icebergs, healing the sick, perverting the well, and curing virginity.) I think, upon reflection, I know why that was said to me now.

It’s that the passion cools. For me, it almost has to– not out of lack of desire, but of necessity. With unchecked passion, I tend to do dumb and stupid things. Greedy things. Mad things. Obsessive things. If I let my passions go completely untempered, it will go wild and damage myself and those around me.

So I temper it. With love, with intellect, with self-sacrifice and self-restraint. And usually, it makes me a better person, if occasionally a tad aloof and superficial.

It’s also worthy to note that when my friends are messed with, a lot of that goes out the window, and then trust me, I am not a person you want on your bad side.

Why do I bring all of this up? Because I’ve just had the occasion to sit on a metaphorical grenade, to take a few in the chest to help someone who was hurting, to help carry a load that’s too big for one to carry alone, and in one case, to take the blame for one thing to cover for someone else.

And through it all, I remain steadfast to all involved, as best as I can. Because I know, deep down, that they remain steadfast to me, as best as they can.

But some days, it hurts. And some days, I don’t feel much of anything. But I go on, the best I can. As do they. As do you.

Here we go again. (And it’s so nice to see AFTRA cave as long as it doesn’t affect them.)

Senate Passes Broadcast Indecency Bill

In a vote of 99-1, the U.S. Senate on Tuesday approved a bill that would fine broadcasters as much as $3 million a day for airing indecent content. The measure was tacked on to a larger Defense Department spending bill that was passed without debate. A similar bill has already been passed by the House. While the original bill would also have fined performers who aired racy material, the Senate bill was limited to radio and TV station owners. The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) welcomed the decision to exclude artists from the measure. In a statement, AFTRA said, “While legitimate concerns still exist about the possible chilling effect that large broadcaster fines may place upon free speech over the airwaves, we are gratified and relieved that the legislation avoids the pitfall of fining individual performers.”

(yes, that’s the title of a long-forgotten Harlan Ellison story, let him pull a Bradbury on me)

A while back, I was grousing (shock!) about wanting to watch TV at double speed, with sound and/or closed captioning. Lo and behold, some folks are already on it.

Enounce, Incorporated – Time Scale Modification of Audio : Products

The Enounce 2xAV plug-in adds a “slider bar” to the RealPlayer and RealOne Player that let’s you change the playback rate of Video and Audio from 1/3 to 2.5 normal speed without pausing playback. Patented Signal Processing keeps audio sounding natural (not “chipmunked”) at all speeds; and allows users to comprehend and remember the information.

Now if they can get it on my satellite receiver or a Mac, I’ll be pleased.

The American Sentimentalist: A bargain at half the price

And such a deal it is. Welcome back, Mark.

Forget power outages in California. Forget Mad Cow striking U.S. beef. Forget even oil peak. Try this on for nightmare scenarios:

MSNBC – West drought could be worst in 500 years

The drought gripping the West could be the biggest in 500 years, with effects in the Colorado River basin considerably worse than during the Dust Bowl years, according to scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey.

On Friday, the U.S. Climatic Data Center added its voice, saying that 67 percent of the western United States was in moderate to extreme drought at the end of this spring.

The Colorado River in particular has been in a drought for the entire decade, cutting an important source of water for millions of people across the West, including Southern California.

And just to make matters interesting, all the water agreements were drawn up four generations ago, during what was a very damp time. Now, with ten times the population and half the water… hoo boy.

There’s a new comic book out called EX MACHINA, and it deals with the superhero turned mayor of NYC. I’m about to give a spoiler for the end, but it should be worth it.

Continue reading All that is required for evil to flourish is for good men to sit idly by and do nothing