Onomatomaniac

In college radio drama, Prunella got a letter:

Blank and Bland are writing once again to ask you not to play any more noise wall during your show. We have discussed the situation with the executive staff, and the consensus reached was that though noise wall does not violate FCC policy, that does not mean that it is appropriate for airplay on WWWW. Our primary purpose is to provide eclectic programming that reflects the interests of the students and the WWWW community. It is up to the program director and general manager to decide what programming best satisfies this purpose. Because noise wall can be misinterpreted as WWWW being off the air, we have decided that playing it does not align with our primary purpose. Additionally, WWWW is owned and operated by the Man, and we are responsible to them for our programming. WWWW is not an appropriate platform for this genre. The executive staff has backed us on this decision. 

Additionally, you asked me why I was taking the side of a listener over the side of a programmer. Please be mindful of the fact that over 50% of our operating costs are provided by the generous donations of our listeners. Without them, WWWW would not be what it is. We program for the listener. 

We appreciate all of the subbing you do for the station, which is why we respectfully ask that you refrain from playing noise wall on your show. If you continue to play it, we will need to give the slot to another programmer. If you decide you would no longer like to do the slot, please let Bland and Blank know so the slot can be filled.

To which she responded:

To: Bland & Bland

i will NOT be censored for programming that does NOT violate fcc policy.

find a programmer that agrees to be censored, for your no-longer("absurdly")-eclectic station.

sincerely,

medium d

Another reason to cherish and support WFMU.

Prunella's playlists are always welcome and uncensored here, proof of my non-censorship policy evidenced by the fact I've linked to some of her playlists that have had Alice in Chains and/or Soundgarden songs.







Within twenty-four hours of purchasing tickets to a March 14 Xiu Xiu show in DC and within four hours of posting about purchasing tickets to a March 14 Xiu Xiu show in DC the following appeared in my email box:

The Xiu Xiu show at Rock & Roll Hotel on Friday, March 14, 2014 has been canceled.

From the band:

"I am disappointed and very sorry to say that Xiu Xiu will have to postpone our upcoming tour. I have been having increasing  trouble with my throat for years, and this week my doctor advised me not to sing for at least two months, or risk losing it permanently. Hopefully, as soon as possible, we will be able reschedule these dates. Thank you to our fans for continuing to support us. We love you all and look forward to seeing you all soon."

Oh well. If and when Xiu Xiu comes around again perhaps I'll know enough about them and like their music enough to change that oh well to oh fuck.

• The Fall of the USSR: The advantage of capitalism v. central planning, is that information is sent through prices, supply and demand.  This information feedback, however, is still gameable by power blocs.  The exact strategies are different than in a command economy, but the end result is the same.  The West and America are currently undergoing this exact problem.  The entire financial crisis was about inaccurate feedback, and broken feedback loops: it was about the financial and housing industries deliberately damaging the feedback system.  Then, when it finally went off a cliff, they destroyed the capitalistic feedback system, which when properly operating, makes companies go bankrupt, by obtaining bailouts due to owning western governments.
• Bleggalgazing, not mine.
• Bleggalgazing, mine: This was going to be tomorrow's monologue but tomorrow, if there is a post, and who am I kidding, of course there's going to be a post, will be, barring KABOOM!, music (music is CRUSHING me these days, and I mean CRUSHING me in a deliciously overwhelming and vaguely scary - a good vaguely scary - way) and poetry (not mine, don't worry). Earthgirl has hired the boyfriend of Planet's bestfriend to help her set up her website for her artwork: it's hard to get shows and sell product without one. (The link will be added to me and mine when the site is done.) He was at our house late afternoon yesterday. I had mentioned to Earthgirl a couple of weeks ago that I wondered if guy could help me with two projects I've long thought about here, the first rotating blog-headers, say a dozen, that rotate each time a person accesses the blog, the second rotating music, say a dozen, that play automatically each time a person accesses the blog. She must have mentioned it to the guy, because he said he could do both for me. I said no thanks.
• Hate sinks: This complex tension—between voice and civility, eyeballs and deliberation—is one that future-of-news enthusiasts are good at waving away, but that comment moderators must bear. Within representative democracy, we can think of moderators’ bodies as being like that element of an electronic circuit that dissipates excess energy and allows it to function. They absorb the excess affects in a period of political dysfunction, and allow institutions to appear stable and unchallenged. They maintain the semblance of civility after older infrastructures have fallen into disrepair. They suck up discursive heat so that political communications systems can keep flowing according to their archaic fantasies of civil, public discourse. If computers have such heat sinks, moderators are hate sinks.
• This week in water.
• SeatSix gives you a theremin.
• Potentially my next flash obsession. 
• UPDATE! Hamster emails to say we say Angel Olsen open for Bonnie Prince Billy at Birchmere a couple of years ago, I've no recollection. I confess, I've probably never given opening acts the attention they deserve, will work to fix in future.
• UPDATE! Hamster emails to say Angel Olsen sang in Bonnie Prince Billy's band that night, didn't open. Also that she's coming to R&R Hotel in May - depending on when and whether I'm around I'll go, but not going to buy tickets for a least a couple of months.
• Fifteen word sonnets.
• Beckett and animals.

ONOMATOMANIA

Thomas Lux

the word for the inability to find the right word,
leads me to self-diagnose: onomatomaniac. It's not
the 20 volume OED I need
not Dr. Roget's book, which offers
equals only, never discovery.
I accept the fallibility of language,
its spastic elasticity,
its jake-leg, as well as prima ballerina, dances.
I accept that language
can be manipulated towards deceit
(ex.: The Mahatmapropaganda, i.e., Goebbels);
I accept, and mourn, though not a lot,
he loss of the dash/semi-colon pair.
It's the sound of a pause unlike no other pause.
And when the words are tedious
and tedious also their order - sew me up
in a rug and toss me in the sea!
Language is dying, the novel is dying, poetry
is a corpse colder than the Ice man,
they've all been dying for thousands of years,
yet people still write, people still read,
and everyone knows that nothing is really real
until it is written.
Until it is written!
Even those who cannot read
know that.