Author Archives: Jason Olshefsky

Thoughts on Steve Jobs "Lost Interview"

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I decided to check out Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview at the Dryden. I think it was something to do with semi-morbid curiosity, and I feel like I have a connection somehow — what with being 10 years younger, but with a similar hunger for electronics and computers. We had Apple II's in our high school, and I learned machine programming and did some hacking, although my main expertise was with the TRS-80 Model III (and later Color Computer) we had at home. What I mean to say is that the seeds of how we lived our lives were rooted in the same kind of stuff.

Anyway, Robert X. Cringley, "during the making of his TV series Triumph of the Nerds about the birth of the PC, … taped an hour-long interview with Steve Jobs who proved witty, outspoken, and visionary." This was in 1995: 10 years after Jobs was ousted from Apple, during the time when he was developing NeXT computers on his own, a year prior to selling NeXT to Apple (which became the foundation for OS X), and 18 months before returning to Apple to take over as CEO.

From the film, I gather interviews Steve Jobs almost never gave interviews. In fact, I can't recall ever seeing him do one, knowing his presence only from the Apple shareholder meetings he was famous for. So it was a rare treat to see not only the interview, but also getting to see pretty much the whole thing without being edited down for television.

At one point, Jobs says he thinks computers are the greatest invention ever made. I reflexively agreed — I do everything with computers, and my job is centered around them — but I think I also agree more deeply. It's one of only a few tools ever invented that improve upon the qualities of the mind (akin to language, writing, books, etc.) rather than as a tool for saving labor or for improving health and safety. For instance, after the film, I noted that Joseph Fourier developed his Fourier analysis in the 1800's, but at that time, it was little more than theoretical math — worthless to everyday society. But with computers, we exploit it all the time, using it as a foundation for JPEG image compression and MP3's.

Also, I always seem to be surprised that someone had made a claim about the impact and significance of the Internet from its early days, as when Jobs claimed we'd be doing everything on the World Wide Web and the Internet. I remember, though, that it was pretty much obviously a big deal. Heck, even I had my first website sometime in 1996, although I didn't know exactly how it would manifest (nor did anybody else).

Overall I found it to be a fascinating time capsule, well worth seeking out.

About JayceLand's New Look

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Well times change and so do I. In the last few years, I've transitioned further from going out to live music all the time to seeing mostly movies and only a handful of shows a month. So I decided to further pare down the number of events I list on the site.

My standing rule is that this site should be as easy for me as possible. I had toyed with a user-generated site and all kinds of fancy databases (which may still come) but that is most certainly not easy. And then there's the whole fragile way I generate the site each week — pretty much unchanged since 2001 — using FileMaker Pro 5 databases on a Macintosh Classic, exporting the data, and using some Unix scripts to make a HTML file. The workflow is quick (i.e. easy) although it's fairly convoluted.

So I decided the new site would be a weekly blog post with highlights of things-to-do — things I will very likely do (rather than "have a passing interest in doing" as it stands now). If you're only interested in the events lists, you can link straight to the events category and skip all my regular blog posts. The JayceLand home page will now redirect to the normal blog. To keep my sanity, I'm going to stop numbering them — the last numbered update was #705 on July 12, 2012. (And even then: 705 weeks of posting events … enough is enough!)

In addition, I'm dropping most of the internal links. You can Google a band just as well as I can. And I don't think I need to remind everyone the address of the Bug Jar (along with a link to Google Maps.) So it'll all look a lot more vanilla. And be much easier for me which, well, is the whole point.

Events for Thursday, July 19, 2012 through Wednesday, July 25, 2012

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Thursday, July 19

  • I don't get out too often to the lunchtime shows, but I do enjoy the very good bluegrass from the String Theory Bluegrass Band, performing today at 12:15 p.m. at Granite Mills Park (at High Falls). [source: RocWiki Events Board, 2012-Jul-16]
  • Tonight at Highland Park Bowl is the Free Movies in the Parks series with The Artist at "dusk". [source: Freetime website, 2012-Jul-16]
  • More likely you'll find me at the Dryden to see Miracle Mile (Steve De Jarnatt, US 1988, 87 min.) at 8 p.m. The Eastman House calendar sells it thusly:

    Greatly admired by the few people who saw it upon its initial release, this unsettling boy-meets-girl romantic comedy unfolds over the course of a single night — the last, it may turn out, of life on earth. Tangerine Dream provides the dark, dreamy soundtrack.

    [source: Dryden calendar, 2012-Jul-16]

  • I'm not going to get out there, but I do appreciate the humor of comic Jim Gaffigan who'll be at CMAC tonight at 8 p.m. [source: WBER website, 2012-Jul-16]
  • I forgot about it, but the Hill Cumorah Pageant concludes this weekend, daily at 9 p.m. through the Saturday. [source: Freetime website, 2012-Jul-16]
  • After I get out of the movie, I'll likely get a chance to catch rockin' rockabilly from Krypton-88 at Star Alley, probably starting sometime around 9 p.m. [source: flyer, 2012-Jun-19]

Friday, July 20

  • Update: Over at the new 1975 Gallery (89 Charlotte St. where the Little Bakery was) is the WALL\THERAPY Kickoff from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. See the events later this weekend for a litte more info. [source: The Yards e-mail, 2012-Jul-19]
  • I'm probably not going to see Boss Tweed at Abilene for Happy Hour around 6 p.m. but I may get over there late for Bear Bones, and my friends in Anonymous Willpower. Although, you know, see also Sunday at Boulderfest … [source: Abilene e-mail, 2012-Jul-16]
  • The Dryden is showing Jaws tonight at 8 p.m. and again on Sunday at 2 p.m. [source: Dryden calendar, 2012-Jul-16]

Saturday, July 21

  • At 8 p.m., the Dryden will be screening Stilyagi (Hipsters) (Valery Todorovsky, Russia 2008, 115 min., Russian w/ subtitles). Curator Paolo Cherchi Usai will introduce the film described by the Eastman House calendar:

    It's a comedy! It's a musical! It's Russian! The unlikely match of these words finds a buoyant realization in this rip-roaring mix of Grease and Moulin Rouge, with a gentle touch of political undertones. A sure-shot crowd pleaser, artfully blending virtuoso camerawork, rock 'n' roll, and a dispassionate view of Soviet society before the glasnost.

    [source: Dryden calendar, 2012-Jul-16]

  • Over at the Bug Jar is the reunion of long-time favorite rock band The Priests with The Bloody Hollies, and St. Phillip's Escalator all starting around 10:30 p.m. [source: Bug Jar calendar, 2012-Jul-16]

Sunday, July 22

  • Update: The Yards is hosting a WALL\THERAPY Street Art Block Party today from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Pennsylvania Ave. north of the Public Market. [source: The Yards e-mail, 2012-Jul-19]
  • Although going on all weekend, I'm just highlighting some of my favorites playing today at BoulderFest: good country-based rock from The Josh Netsky Band at 5 p.m., nice sounding acoustic duo Dave & Marissa at 6 p.m., Anonymous Willpower at 7 p.m., new-to-me Epilogue at 8 p.m., and finishing with wicked fun, saxophone-driven, percussive groove-rock band The Buddhahood at 9 p.m. [source: Boulder Coffee calendar, 2012-Jul-16]

Monday, July 23

  • Auke de Boer and Adolph Rots (Groningen Duo) of the Netherlands [despite that I stumble to pronounce their names] will be leading a performance of the University of Rochester Carillon in Eastman Quadrangle tonight starting around 7 p.m. [source: University of Rochester Events Calendar, 2012-Jul-10]
  • Since the Dryden's closed, I often head to the Little on Mondays since the films are five bucks. I hear Your Sister's Sister is pretty good and I was kind of intrigued by the trailer, so I might stop by. It's playing at 7 p.m. and 9:20 p.m. tonight. [source: Little Theatre e-mail, 2012-Jul-18]
  • Just because I like the name, I'll consider checking out Vince Dynamic with This Life, and Kneptune at the Bug Jar starting around 8:30 p.m. (doors at 7:30 p.m.) [source: Bug Jar calendar, 2012-Jul-16]

Tuesday, July 24

  • The Dryden will be screening Straw Dogs (Sam Peckinpah, US/UK 1971, 118 min.) at 8 p.m. tonight in which:

    Pacifist American mathematician David Sumner (Dustin Hoffman) gets a lesson in local customs when neighborhood thugs assault his wife Amy (Susan George) in their Cornish farmhouse. A politically explosive demonstration of the dangers of standing on the sidelines in a violent age, Straw Dogs remains controversial for the havoc it wreaks upon conventional notions of feminism, pacifism, and art.

    [source: Dryden calendar, 2012-Jul-16]

  • Tonight at the Bug Jar is Tony Nelson, friend, and all-around excellent musician Ian Downey is Famous, great multi-faceted "gypsy folk" band The Pickpockets, and A.K. starting around 9 p.m. (doors at 8 p.m.) [source: Bug Jar calendar, 2012-Jul-16]

Wednesday, July 25

  • Update: WALL\THERAPY continues at School of the Arts with a Community Dialogue with the Artists tonight starting at 6 p.m. [source: The Yards e-mail, 2012-Jul-19]
  • I haven't seen Julie Donofrio perform comedy in a while, but she'll be hosting the Young Comedians' Open Mic (featuring 11 to 18-year-olds) tonight starting around 6:30 p.m. at Writers and Books [source: Writers and Books website, 2012-Jul-16]
  • Tonight at 7 p.m. at the Little is another screening of short films in the NY Filmmakers' Quarterly. It's also playing on Saturday at 2 p.m. [source: Little Theatre e-mail, 2012-Jul-18]
  • Meanwhile, the Dryden will screen Treasure of the Sierra Madre (John Huston, US 1948, 126 min.) at 8 p.m. From the calendar:

    A band of desperate gold prospectors — including the director's father, Walter Huston, in what is arguably his greatest role — head for the remote Sierra Madre where they come face to face with bandits, federales, and their own basest instincts.

    [source: Dryden calendar, 2012-Jul-16]

Good Luck to Tieson

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Back in January I got a dog named Tieson. Even back then I knew he'd be a handful. But, over the last 5 months or so, I worked on his quirks. I took him to an obedience class at Dogs At Play (75 Howell St.) which helped a lot. I figured out how to keep him from peeing in the house: I just kept him confined — at first to his travel crate (which he didn't seem to like too much) and then to the foyer which gave him a little more room to move around (which he seemed fine with.)

But there was always his Jack Russell Terrier tendencies. His high energy level was not a problem for me, nor was his desire for play and attention. But he needed someone who was always dominant. And that was the problem.

Any chance he had to take his "rightful spot" as alpha dog, he took. For instance, if I was sitting on the couch to watch a movie and I invited him up, after a while he'd snarl a bit if I tried to pet him. If I persisted he'd eventually bite me. He was, however, a good and obedient dog, so I could just say, "get off" and he'd get off the couch (with a begrudging growl sometimes) and then I could call him over and (as long as he was on the ground and I was on the couch) I could pet him without any problem.

But I want a dog that is a companion, not a servant. And after he tried to attack a neighbor who came to trim the hedge row on my side, and after he attacked Ali and Lucy (the dog she and I have joint-custody of) I decided enough was enough.

I looked on the Internet and found Russell Rescue, Inc. who specialize in rescuing and adopting Jack Russell Terriers. There are only three contacts in the northeast and one happens to be in Irondequoit. I sent an e-mail and called but I got no response, so tonight I took Tieson to The Humane Society at Lollypop Farm (99 Victor Rd., Fairport).

Because of his history of biting, he's got an uphill battle. I think he'll get to a behavioral evaluation, but then it's up to him to not growl or bite. He's a pretty smart dog, but I hope he figures out that it's do-or-die.

Literally.

The house is now much more quiet with just me and my cat Pumpkin. But I am overall relieved. As I described to a friend, it was like living with a roommate you barely tolerate. Even though the good times were nice, there was a lot of tension and stress. And now I'll be able to sleep in when I want to because I'll actually be able to set the alarm clock rather than this:

6:30 a.m. wake-up call from my dog

The Tieson Alarm Clock

Good luck, buddy.

The Fraud that is Truthland

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So I heard about this film Truthland which is purported as a response to GasLand by Josh Fox. While I think Gasland barely scratches the surface of the issue of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas extraction (hydrofracking or fracking) — and promotes the most sensational aspects — I think it is overall a service that it raises awareness and encourages people to explore further.

So having "drank the Kool Aid" so-to-speak, I was skeptical of Truthland. I watched the trailer and it looked pretty good. But then I was thinking, "I wonder where the website is hosted" so I looked into it. It came back "clean" in the sense that it wasn't hosted at a gas company like I expected but by Linode.com. But then I thought, "man, that website looks really good". It'd probably be around $5K to $20K to make something that looks that good. That seems kind of unusual for a family to be able to afford (and without even a mention on IMDb.com, much less media attention or even a Kickstarter campaign.)

And then I thought, you know, the footage in the trailer looks really good too — like too good. I mean, I think it's possible that a mom in Pennsylvania knows how to produce a top-notch documentary, but it seemed kind of unlikely. The quality demonstrated in the trailer ain't from some off-the-shelf Canon no matter how much money you spend: shooting obviously included a recording engineer, someone with fill lights and reflectors, a good cinematographer, and at least two cameras. For instance, at about 1:30 in the trailer interviewing Joseph Martin: note the gap between Shelly DePue and Martin where you can see the tree trunk between them, then in the close-up, the camera is to the left of the first and zoomed, obscuring the tree? A digital zoom after-the-fact would show the same angle. Plus there's obviously wireless microphones to record the interview and reflected light to key their faces in the shade of the trees. These are not things the average person thinks of — only an extraordinarily exceptional person would.

So way at the bottom of the page are two links: one to Energy In Depth, and the other to The Independent Petroleum Association of America. Well gee, that seems weird. Most documentaries give thanks to friends and relatives who ponied up the thousands of dollars it would take to shoot it, but this one cites a couple industry groups.

So I Googled it and a few links down is Fracking Industry's Answer to 'Gasland': Devised by Astroturf Lobbying Group and Political Ad Agency. And that pretty much puts a lock on it. I don't mean to just make an ad hominem fallacy of it all: there is big money at stake, and the central deception (that this started from DePue wanting to find the truth) calls into question everything that is said. And if everything that's said can't be believed, why say it at all?

God Bless America at the Dryden

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Curiosity got the best of me, I guess, and I headed to the Dryden Theater at George Eastman House (900 East Ave.) to see God Bless America. It's billed as a black comedy "revenge fantasy" although I think the philosophy runs deeper than that. Yes, it's a story that threads the needle of disbelief so we can have a "hero" who takes it upon himself to successfully go on a killing spree of people who, well, annoy him — "revenge fantasy".

Early on, Frank meets up with Roxy — a disaffected teen who hungrily insists on joining him. The mechanics of the plot force the revenge killings to continue unabated, but there's bound to be at least one that's just a little too close to the viewer's own behavior. That, and as Frank and Roxy discuss their guidelines of who to kill, it's clear that it's all way too subjective: each individual has jeir own set of behaviors that jee deems wholly intolerable.

But there is one common thread in it all — one thing that I think everyone can agree on: those people are most responsible for irresponsible and immoral behavior today. You know who they are.

See, the thing we all have in common is the "problem" is with "others", not ourselves. And if we identify some behavior that is part of the problem, we are certainly not the worst offender: we have a plausible justification for our behavior.

So that leads me to three questions: how can I tell if it's me?, are you sure things are bad?, and why am I even thinking about this?

One thought experiment is to ask, "if everyone in the whole world behaved as I do, would that be okay?"

  • If everyone in the whole world used 4,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity in a year, would that be okay? Hrmm … probably not.
  • If everyone in the world didn't own a car, would that be okay? That would probably improve things a bit.

Another experiment is to think of how complicated an explanation is necessary to defend your argument. I mean, I don't even see a need to justify holding the door for someone behind me. Or how about, "the other day this guy just walked out into the crosswalk and he almost got himself killed — I mean, what was he thinking? Didn't he know to look both ways before crossing the street? It's not like I could have stopped to wait for him because I was in a hurry because my presence is critical at my destination." And don't you think it's more consistent and straightforward to think that greed is more to blame for the problems in the world than some convoluted logic that somehow leads to homosexuality?

But a lot of times we should step back and think, "are things that bad?" I remember going on the highway with my parents in the 1970's. When traffic was moderately heavy, the whole highway stunk of gasoline, oil, and smoke. I mean stunk — like if you spilled some gas in your garage, only it was hot in the summer and the vapor just lingered there making everyone just a little queasy. But you can barely smell them now (except on a steep race track like the steep grades on I-70 west of Denver) even though there are literally twice as many cars now as in 1972.

And finally, what's the deal with finding someone to blame anyway? Why is our culture so hell-bent on doing that? It seems entirely counterproductive: it's so bad to be "ruining the world" that we are compelled to create convoluted explanations for our own behavior rather than just going, "yeah, that thing I'm doing is doing more harm than good so I'm going to change it."

See, the only way God Bless America makes any sense is if we are fully committed to shame so we feel absolutely justified in targeting someone else to blame.

Thoughts on Heist: Who Stole the American Dream?

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I decided to head to The Little (240 East Ave.) to see Heist: Who Stole the American Dream? Filmmaker Frances Causey, and author David Cay Johnston were there to discuss the film with moderator Julie Philipp.

Of course, because I can't remember facts, I'm heading to Heist's Official Website with this outline of the central point:

Beginning with background on the New Deal, HEIST explores how Franklin Delano Roosevelt's progressive policies were derailed by Ronald Reagan and subsequent presidential administrations, benefiting only the wealthiest investors and CEOs. HEIST exposes the full story: how corporate leaders worked with elected officials of both major political parties to create the largest transfer of wealth in history, looting the economy to create a gap between rich and poor previously seen only in impoverished colonial nations. The film is structured as a political thriller, showing the shift from FDR's New Deal reforms to an ideology where the free market reigns. It reveals the impact of the infamous Powell memo of 1971 entitled "Attack on American Free Enterprise System," which was a call to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for American business to defend its interests against criticisms of unregulated capitalism. The Powell Memo and the 1000 page Mandate for Leadership document published in 1980 by the conservative Heritage Foundation, which were written to promote business interests and deregulation, serve as the starting points of the story to show the roots of the class warfare unleashed by big business, and how wealth in the U.S. was transferred from workers to corporate interests over decades of policy shifts.

I walked in there brimming with confirmation bias. The facts presented in the film and the theories behind them fit exactly with my own experience and observation of corporate expansion of scale and power, the behavior of the media, the exploitation of journalistic standards, government, and taxation — pretty much everything.

The other day I was in a restaurant with a TV on some news network, and the on-screen personality was presenting — as news — changes to the contract plans of one of the cell phone companies. To me, this was just the flat-out reading of a press-release generated by that company. I argue this isn't news (but I think I'm more likely to get people to agree that it's the reading of a press release so I'll stop while I'm ahead). This doesn't violate journalistic standards per se — where the goal is to accurately represent statements from an individual or organization. But there's something there that misses the spirit of journalism … perhaps the spirit that journalists are the watchdogs of democracy rather than the lapdogs of the aristocracy [a phrasing that is not exactly right, but far too clever for me to omit].

Heist, however, confirms my suspicions. One of the goals of the 1971 Powell memo was to control the media in exactly this way. Modern journalists don't just go out and pick their own stories: morning e-mails outline the stories they are to cover. Those e-mails are sent by the managers which are driven by their managers, and so on, until you get to realize that there are only a half-dozen media companies making these decisions. A few years ago, I recall watching the nightly news and flipping between channels — horrified that every single story was being reported on the other stations in exactly the same order. The simplest explanation was that the schedule for all three stations came from the same source.

I thought Heist presented a solid case, but it's also affirming what I believe already, so how can I be confident that the theory it presents is an accurate one? I was thinking that people bring their own biases, and they're more likely to be swayed by something that agrees with their established ideas than by something that does not. So why would someone be influenced by this film? I muddled my way through asking a question of the panel and got most of it across.

Frances Causey made a point to say that she had been a journalist at CNN, but left to work on more in-depth projects like this one. She said she spent an extraordinary amount of effort confirming that every fact — especially the most sensational ones — were verifiable and accurate.

What's omitted in all the discussion, though, is the underlying theory. I'm going to take as given that the facts are true, and the sequence of events is as depicted (i.e. corporations are using the 1971 Powell memo as a playbook). But Heist answers the question, "is this good?" with a resounding "no." In fact, it basically presumes that this is not good.

Individually, I think this kind of world sucks. I hate having to constantly be an outsider simply because I observe the world directly and draw my own conclusions.

Working outward, I also think that centralized power and wealth creates an inhospitable society for people to live. I think the core argument opposing that opinion is that the system we have at present provides slightly less than what people want, and that encourages them to work more and work harder, propelling progress. It doesn't actually let people starve (for the most part) but it does ensure people are in a constant state of indebtedness.

What I mean that it's inhospitable is that it could be much better. If all the wealth and power tied up in making more wealth and power were instead used to foster individual household energy independence, health care for all, true theoretical scientific research, elevating everyone's education, and so forth, I think we'd be far better off.

There is a fear — and rightfully so — that this may lead to a bunch of idle hands that become the devil's playthings, but it's entirely possible to get back to some of the good parts of the 1950's: particularly the possibility of income from a 25th percentile individual providing all that's needed to raise a family. Is it not absurd that two college graduates must both be employed to earn a decent living?