Just in time for Christmas – my top five books of 2000.*

At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O’Brien
Wherein very strange things happen, such as the characters within a story within a story incapacitating the story’s author so as to be able to lead their own lives. Almost as strange as it is good.

Our Dumb Century by The Onion
Because they are more angry, bitter and sarcastic than you can ever hope to be. Because they produce better and more meaningful work than 95% of the “real” newspapers out there.

The Bubble Star by Lesley-Anne Bourne
Her first novel, and a damn fine one. I am not, I assure you, recommending this book because I know the author. Not even because she is my proffesor. No. Simply because it is good.

Four Ways of Dealing With Bullies by Richard Lemm
I am extremely picky about poetry as I find most of it a waste of time. This is not. You could not hope for time better spent. There are no ulterior motives in this recommendation either.

High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
A good movie but a better book, as is often the case. Steven thought the ending was too cliched, but he is wrong, as is often the case.

*Top five would require remembering all the books I read, so it’s really just five books. Good ones though. “2000” refers to the year in which I read the books, and not in which they were published.

Also, I’m not putting goddamn links to Amazon.com for each book, OK? Type it in yourself.

Earlier in the year I was talking with a co-working about the hype surrounding e-commerce and the more recent m-commerce (“mobile commerce” – cell phones, PDAs, etc.). I put forth a proposition that soon enough, we’ll be able to buy anything we want in the context in which it arises. For example, if I’m watching TV and Chandler has a nice Gap sweater on (a scenario that arises more often than you’d think), I will be able to buy it right then, right there. If you are walking down the street and someone rides by with a kitbag you like, you’ll be able to order it, right then, right there (don’t ask me how, that’s not important).

While I’m sure this isn’t a particularly original idea, I thought I was quite clever at the time and semi-sarcastically coined the term u-commerce (ubiquitous commerce). While browsing Signal vs. Noise today, I discovered that VISA has appropriated my idea, and called it “universal” commerce.

I suspect their focus groups probably said, “males and females ages 7 to 58 don’t know what ‘ubiquitous’ means”.

The dark side:

• Top 100 Corporate Criminals of the 1990s
• Ten Worst Corporations of 2000

The bright side:

• explodingdog.com (don’t worry, it’s not exploding dogs, it’s great illustrations)

Registering your-own-name.com is something we’ve all thought about it. I think matt even tried once, but was too late.

Kirby Ferguson, formerly of IslandEdition.com fame, will now be referred to as KirbyFerguson.com.

Keep an eye on the site over the next while.

The phone rings at my house. On the first ring everyone in their separate rooms and separate activities goes silent. Will someone answer it? It rings a second time. You could hear a pin drop as everyone holds their breath waiting to hear footsteps marching to answer. By the third ring it’s obvious that no one else is going to answer it and a stampede erupts (I suppose that would be a mixed metaphor). Every member of my family performs dangerous leaps over couches and lazy-boys. They stub toes on floor-board heaters. Anything to get to the phone before it goes silent. What if it was for me? Of course, if it’s missed (a situation that, as you can imagine, seldom arises) it’s everyone else’s fault.

The phone rings at a friend’s house. It rings again. And again. A few of them look up from their activities in the direction of the phone then back to whatever it was they were doing. A few more rings pass and the answering machine picks up.

Her family owns a phone. Our phone own us.

For some reason it seemed important to write this at the time (4:45am).

The Barn was only midly interesting. The person I was hoping to see most did not show. The Groove Gurus were incredible (especially their lead singer) and had a much smaller audience than they desrved.

The party afterwards (unlike the party before) was slightly less interesting.

Odd to have your faith in humanity restored by a cab driver who had nothing but common sense to offer (fuck the money, and do what makes you happy). A fitting paradox somehow, as he obviously did not want to be a cabbie.

I swear, this is the last of the self indulgent posts for the near future.
Cheers.

The first of many eventual permanent features on aov, we present to you: Mike Lecky: an aov interview.

One thing has become apparent to us since the inception of aov: there are legions of talented artists out there. Though we should have known better we were prone to fits of despair and the occasional throwing of our hands into the air. “Nothing happens here. This place is dead.” But we know better now. And rather than shamelessly promoting only ourselves we will attempt to lift the community as a whole upon our broad shoulders and present it to the world.

Mike Lecky is the creator of the mighty Boxlor, as well as an artist, man-about-town, and generally clever person. Read the interview »