John Griogair Bell - Arlecchino Malbenvolio

who do you listen to
when the voices lie
and they trick
and try to fool
they survive inside
by telling lies
about desire
and identity
taking time
apart and away
from life
making death
farther away
I have to believe
there is a miracle
in the boy
and trust is the key
to the box

in the shadows
behind me
a dream image
of a time lost
and soon recovered
a shadow of
a light
in the distance
of my memory
supporting me
silently
with strength
and courage
but what of love?
this is my soul self
is my silent guide
my self inside
and above all
daily strife
giving and taking
pushing and pulling
writing runes
on my wrists
and fingertips
telling me
the truth
behind myth

I saw a poster for this and thought how cool it sounded:

“Oyá: Call the Storm
April 4-26, 2008
An original dance theatre production conceived and directed by Rebecca Martinez, choreographed by Freila Merencio Blanco, and musical direction by Isidro Valor Pérez.”

And, the description of the story is even better:

“Oyá is a feminine warrior orisha of the Afro-Cuban Yoruba tradition. Like the wind that she commands, Oyá is always changing, always moving, with the power to conjure storms, hurricanes and tornadoes. She is also guardian of the cemeteries, where the underworld orisha Ikú, discouraged by pervasive human corruption, has challenged Oyá to destroy the world. But just as Oyá calls upon her destructive forces of nature, she witnesses humanity in its fullness. Told through heartfelt rhythms of Yoruba influence, the story of Oyá and Ikú unfolds through folkloric Afro-Cuban dance and song that form a colorful language of movement to reach across geographic and linguistic boundaries.”

The show is bilingual, in English and Spanish. And, there’s even a study guide on the site for this show. Cool story and it’s even educational …

Via The Portland Cello Project website:

Announcing a show at the Aladdin Theater in Portland, Oregon on April 11, featuring the Portland Cello Project accompanying Stephanie Schneiderman (Dirty Martini), AM 970’s Rick Emerson, Weinland, and The Builders and The Butchers.

Tickets on Sale Now!

This venue has seats throughout!! Except for the area about 15 feet in front of the stage (for those who want to dance). The show will be all-ages.

Dancing? Did someone say dancing?

Also in the program will be two new pieces by Heather Woods Broderick (Horse Feathers) arranged for the group; an all-cello version of the Elgar Cello Concerto, with Sonja Myklebust as soloist; an 11 cello arrangement of Bach’s Chaconne (originally for solo violin); a piece by Australian singer/songwriter Paul Turner; a piece by The Magick Daggers, and much, much more. (Like, quite possibly Copa Cabana, if Doug can get his ass in gear and arranges it in time.)

Tickets on Sale Now! $10 advance, $12 at the door. All ages. General admission, but with seats.

It’s an all ages show at a great venue. It did sell out last time, with people turned away at the door; so, think about getting tickets early.

And, check out the new site design of the PCP website!

And, moreover, check out the new “I (heart) PCP!” tees to tickle your funny bone and maybe get you detained at the airport … or both! (Apparently, only 50 of the awesome “green mammoth” tees were made, which is a sad thing for you because they’re almost sold out; but, cool for me because I’ve got one.)

Via Boing Boing Gadgets, Cricket is going to be getting a USB version EVDO modem for their wireless broadband service, and an uncapped data package at almost the same price as dial-up:

“PC card only for now, but a USB version is coming—with truly unlimited wireless data access with uncapped usage for just $35 a month.”

Now, that’s a hell of a lot better than $80/month … Only, wait a minute. It’s $40/month in Portland? No, it’s just that if you are an existing customer, you can save $5/mo. And, the PC Card modem is a one time charge of $99. And, there’s a $25 activation fee. So, there you go.

Update 7apr08 @ 8:11pm:

I’ve started to become skeptical about this.

First off, they still haven’t gotten the USB adaptors even though they occasionally show them in the graphics on the site.

But, more questionable is the way that there’s no useful technical information about the speed of the connection, instead the site relies on marketing speak and descriptive language to talk about the “broadband-like” speed. It’s all qualification without quantification.

Also, I noticed that the requirements include dial-up networking, which means the device is not treated as a network adaptor, but rather very much like a modem. That means one has to wait for the time it takes to authenticate, and to me that means unnecessary delay in connecting to resources. Also, that makes me think this is being routed not as a fast data network but rather over the normal voice path, if that makes sense.

So, buyer beware, I think, is the order of the day for this offering. It’s sounding more and more sketchy to me.

On the other hand, if one is hanging out in coffee shops in order to get online, it’s about the same cost as a cup o’ something every day, so maybe it’s still a reasonable thing for you, if it meets your needs.

Update 17jan09 @ 3:44pm:

A bunch of people are showing up on this old post. I’m still skeptical about the Cricket service. In Portland, there’s now Clear as an option.

I don’t know if Cricket will end up re-selling Clear service. As I understand it, the wireless broadband service that they’ve been re-selling has been Sprint, and Clear is partly Sprint also. Apparently the USB device is actually available now. But, Cricket’s uncapped really means limited, as it always seems to in the small print:

“Throughput may be limited if use exceeds 5GB per month. Internet browsing does not include: hosted computer applications, continuous web camera or broadcast, automatic data feeds, machine-to-machine connections, peer to peer (P2P) connections or other applications that denigrate network capacity or functionality.”

When compared to the Clear plans, Cricket’s limit of 5GB is actually pretty generous, although it would take a lot longer to suck that down over Cricket’s unadvertised speeds. Clear offers 200MB, 2GB, and unlimited plans at a variably 4 Mbps/384 Kbps connection. The same $40 bucks as Cricket will only get you a soft 2GB limit plan at Clear, and they will automatically charge you for overages. But, $50 will get you the “Unlimited” at Clear, but of course: “* Restrictions may apply.” Actually, the TOS and AUP at Clear seem to be pretty reasonable to me and don’t seem to include the small print limit, except of course for clauses which contemplate excess use that damages the service, but it’s not the same artificial ceiling.

Oh, and Clear is really pushing the special offer, but I think it’s totally bogus. From my reading you have to sign up for a 2 year contract and you only get a few bucks back for your voluntary lock-in. You save activation and $10/month for 6 months. That means you’re tied to the service for 2 years and only get a price break for 6 months? Meh. You save a total of $95 bucks and saddle yourself with 2 years and an early-termination fee? Long-term contracts are poisonous for technology, that’s one thing that Cricket has done right. Stick with Clear’s month-to-month, especially for something like broadband service.

The faster home service isn’t available in my area, apparently, so the bundles don’t apply to me yet; but, they also seem like a bad deal to me – just pay once for the service, not twice. You can use your mobile service at home, after all.

So, at least in this area, it seems like now Clear is a better option than Cricket’s service.

Oh, except for the fact that it isn’t for me. Cricket’s USB device works with Mac OS X. Cricket claims they aren’t compatible with Linux. Clear is only compatible with anything via their home although initially the rep I chatted with said neither. There’s no timetable for supporting Mac OS X over the USB device, and nothing said about Linux; and, apparently there’s some reason the connection manager software is required, which I find odd and worrisome:

[redacted] [5:29:36 PM]: There are some was to work it so the USB will work with Mac OS X. WinE or BootCamp. However, we don’t support troubleshooting the Connection Manager software when using these work arounds.

John [5:30:28 PM]: Right-o. Well, I’m out then. Is there a timetable for Mac drivers? Or, a mobile router the USB device can be plugged into?

[redacted] [5:31:35 PM]: I don’t have a projection for when we’ll have the Mac support finished, but we are working on it. As to a mobile router, nothing I’ve heard about or recommend at this time

John [5:31:42 PM]: (Wouldn’t home also be compatible with Linux? Doesn’t it offer ethernet?)

[redacted] [5:32:09 PM]: Home is plug and play, and currently works on all OS’s that we know of. Only the USB has issue currently, and that’s because it requires our Connection Manager to work correctly.

Ideally, I would want a mobile router with either and then it wouldn’t matter what devices I was using or how many. But, you know, of course they probably don’t want people to use those … Yeah.

Over at the Doug Fir Lounge is a show that might be cool, but on the same night as the show over at Rotture …

An evening with pioneering UK electro-duo
AUTECHRE
plus
DJ PARSONS
and
ROB HALL
and
MASSONIX

Sunday April 6
Doors 8pm, Show 9pm
$20 advance, $20 day of show

I don’t actually know much about these groups, except that I know some people in at least one of these bands who recommended this show at Rotture:

Sunday, April 6
CACOPHONY
Soriah
Nezzy Idy
Lux Occulta
Power Circus
Scard
Cult of Zir
9pm.
$6.00 at the door.

Portland Reclaiming brought a “hope” banner to the M15 march. We also brought fabric and pens for people to make their own peace flags in the theme of “hope” and marched with over a hundred in a long tail behind the banner.

Photo of Portland Reclaiming’s banner and peace flags linked to photoset:

Additionally, we got many, many anonymous pictures taken of us and might appear on the TV too, as part of the march. And, I had someone from KBOO interview me briefly.

A picture of Portland Reclaiming by someone else:

I regret that I did not get pictures of the March Fourth Marching Band, but I will be seeing them in my dreams …

Update 16mar08 @ 10:28pm:

Here’s a video of the march. The “hope” banner starts going by around 0:15 and the peace flag tail continues until around 1:25. That was pretty early on, just after the start because we were still in front. That was before we slowed up in order to fall back toward The March Forth Marching Band, so we could listen: