Wow, so on my way to the DMV to renew my license, I took a short detour to millenium park. There I was swept by the fever for the flavor or world’s newest and for sure one of the coolest parks. What I liked was that the various art pieces adorning the park while different, all shared a certain aesthetic quality. While they were dramatic and larger than life, they were also personable and intimate, some of them cleverly integrating people into their very presentation.

For example, the crown fountains are really tall, they tower, a cool mist of water flowing down it sides. Yet is demeanor is inviting, kids of course made their way under the mist, cooling off on a hot day, an inviting posture magnified by the faces adorning its facade.

The pritzer pavillion is intensely dramatic, huge pieces of wavelike metal crowning the stage. It shape is sweeping yet inviting, a hovering puzzle that beckons you to stare at it, marveled at its ability to hang together.

Probably by favorite piece is what reminds me of a drop of mercury, the reflection so brilliant, and even if slightly distored, an integration of the public into the very art.

The

Today I visited the place of one of my last incarnations, the Ultimate Frisbee field to watch the final game during Chicago’s “premier” tournament held every fall outside of Chicago in the burbs.

Ultimate is usually played with a white frisbee and this whiteness is matched by the whiteness of the sport. Ultimate is really one of the whitest sports around although everyone is really quite brown because players spend nearly every weekend outdoors, playing in these marathon two days tournaments. So they are perhaps the whitest tannest athletes with the exception of beach volleyball players and surfers etc. There is always a smattering of Asians and a few African-American player but aside from that you have your pretty much white, liberal, and relatively affluent players out on the fields.

Despite the homogenity of players, Ultimate at some other level strikes me as wholly unique in so far as “types” of sports that exit out there, even perhaps bordering on the revolutionary. It has been years since I attended a large scale tournament and today I was struck at the absence of outside corporate sponorship and advertising adorning these large scale tournaments. While there might be local sponorship, corporate presence is kept more or less at bay. Advertising usually comes in the form of a motely collection of beer brands as most every player downs a brewksi (or two or three or four…) once their team has been eliminated.

Ultimate is one of these recent, ‘modern’ sports, after all, it came post the plastic age. One of the defining features of the Ultimate is that it is player run, players decide the rules, and as an extension, make calls, like fouls, picks, etc themselves during the heat of the game. They don’t rely on officials to mediate conflict. Governance comes from within, as opposed to being mediated from the outside.

The governing principle of Ultimate, which undergrids this form of self-governance, is called ‘Spirit of the Game.’ Though the name is a little dorky (and makes me wonder if a Hegelian, inveted it), it is one hell of a great concept to apply to “sports,” normally thought to be organized around a logic of extreme competition, at all costs. Instead, Spirit of the Game affirms that since players first love playing the game, a certain form of respect is required to live up to the game, a respect that carries with it responsibility.

Ultimate has traditionally relied upon a spirit of sportsmanship which places the responsibility for fair play on the player himself. Highly competitive play is encouraged, but never at the expense of the bond of mutual respect between players, adherence to the agreed-upon rules of the game, or the basic joy of play. Protection of these vital elements serves to eliminate adverse conduct from the Ultimate field. Such actions as taunting of opposing players, dangerous aggression, intentional fouling, or other ‘win at all costs’ behavior are contrary to the spirit of the game and must be avoided by all players.”

And believe me, Ultimate at the club level is not some gushy mushy feel good sport of late night home baked cookies and warm milk. It is about as competitive as sports can get, men and women literally dedicating their time and cash to play, sacrificing their bodies to the hard ground, and largely without recognition outside of the community. Everyone on the field wants to win. Yet, given the atmosphere is quite different than in most sports, (even “unconventional” extreme sports where ESPN and major corporate labels are always to be found), it reminds us that competition and desire to win does not take some universal form. It can have a different valence and in this case it its mediated by what is a fundamentally moral concept.

These folks are obsessively dedicated and yet dedicated to the idea and experience of the sport and thus as an extension to those who play. There is trust among players that translates into the idea that players can make judgements about fouls and then how to proceed. The rules are decided by the players and every couple of years they are ammended to include some new provision, clarify some other one, or eliminate one all together. Learning the rules comes from playing together on fields, working through some pick or foul or stalled count.

There was a brief period, I think in the late 1980s (it could have been early 1990s) when there was more of a corporate presence. In particular the tequila company Cuervo was running elite tournaments and they wanted to change the rules to make it more “viewer” friendly. This was not taken well and they were given the boot and since then, there has been no large scale corporate presence. It is not necessarily the presence of a large banner announcing the wonder of some alcohol drink that is a problem (these folks are not anti-corporate and certainly not against alcohol) but if the prescence of that banner takes power away from the players, then there is a problem.

In this way it strikes me a lot like free software production, which is anti-that which takes away power away from hackers as to what they can hack on. The ‘that’ happens to be IP law (among some other things) but it is not necesarily a critique that extends further than that.. I should one day right a more comprehensive comparison between the two but for now I will leave it at ‘that.’

I really enjoyed watching the final game today. For me, it is just a fun game to watch, bringing back memories of years and years of running around, always out of breath, simply because I wanted to catch and throw a disc. Beyond my personal experiences with the sport, I really do appreciate Ultimate for its broader example of the respect that comes from self-governance enshrined in a ethical principle that is realized in the very practice of the game (Can you tell, I am dying to do a small ethnographic project on this…) More notable is that the ways in which principles of respect and self-governance can be applied to places and contexts that otherwise might seem inimical to those principles. And that is why it is a poweful example. It is not just that they have successfully integrated self-governance but have done so in a context, “sport” that is usually associated with extreme competition.

If there is one thing I learned in Vermont is that hippies still know how to make Puppets like No One Else on Planet Earth. Before leaving Vermont last week, we were able to catch one of the last summer shows of Bread and Puppet in Glover, Vermont. True to the style of the Carnivalesque, they had one festive part of the show held in an open field and the other, somber, held among the rows of tall trees in the forest. Larger than life puppets are just one of those things that I think always draws your full awe-like attention from deep within, awakening the spirit of laughter and wonder that is always part of us, yet sadly dulls and dampens for too many of us as we age. You need puppet and hippies to get that fire going and I recommend a side trip to Vermont just to check it out, even if it means an insanely long drive, like you know 17 hours on no sleep.

Here are some more pictures from my trip which was truly a ++++ in so many ways. I am now back out the door tomorrow to attend the 4S Science Studies Conference in France. I have yet to attend a European academic conference so I am sort of intrigued to see if there is anything different about it. I managed to get on two panels though I hear that is illegal. I sort of wish now they had kicked me off of one because I still need to finish one presentation so… I mean, the paper is written because I wrote it last month with Rexter and I really like the paper a ton. But I am not sure how to convey a 40 page paper in 20 minutes. Anyway, that is the headache for tomorrow.

So, I yet again I will be an absent blogger most likely although I did hear there is wireless in the place where I am staying which is a real plus since I have a feeling I will be glued to the computer during the RNC convention to keep with the protest action. I was really torn about whether to go to the conference or the protests and I am not sure I really made the right choice. In the end, it was a matter of finances. The trip to Paris was free, and I am so broke right now that well, yea, we won’t even go there

Anyway, I imagine like the great puppets of Vermont, which have also graced so many protests in recent years, the RNC protest will be joyful, tense, beautiful, solemn….

I will remember the summer of 2004 as the summer of storms. Chicago has had some stunning storms of thunderous lightning and brilliant thunder. I am now in Plainfield, Vermont and the storms have followed bringing along cool air, lightning, and thunder making it feel a lot more like a New England fall than summer. I’ve enjoyed the storms, funny enough, feeling like they put me in a state of calm. Of course, I have shelter which always helps when there is pelting rain but it is like the storm gives allowance for me to just sleep in, not have to worry about going out and “getting stuff done.”

And I decided to be like the French and take most of August off, doing the bare minimum I need to do to fulfill prior committments. This includes blogging and hence the sparse or just non-existent postings. I have had a lot to write about but just feel somewhat unmotivated to transform what are musings in my head into something a bit more coherent and tangible. My thoughts have little desire to go anywhere I guess. I am sort of burnt out on writing and was most of the summer but until now, I pushed through most of the summer to get some done but I think if I want to be more effective with it in the fall, I just need to give it a full fudged break.

I came to Vermont to present a talk at the Institute for Social Ecology. The talked compared free software to indymedia in terms of their stated politics, their political impact, etc..

It made me realize or confront again how hard it is to convey the geek world of free softwar to those who know very little about hackers, technology, or intellectual property law. To present the subject matter effectively either requires some really good metaphors, or time to explain some of the basics of law, technology, and geek culture. I am glad next year I have a whole quarter to teach a course on hacker culture, though I still am not crazy it is a quarter and not semester… I always felt jilted after a 10 week course, feeling like you know, we just got everything on the table and now were at the place where we could wrap things up.

During the talk we got in a big, at points contentious discussion about women in technology. It is rare this question does not come up among activists, and I always flounder when it comes to give an adequate account of “why” there such few women in the tech sector. It is not that there are not explanations, it is just there are many, and it seems like very little empirical work has been done on the subject (correct me if I am wrong though, I would love to read more about it)

Today there was an interesting article in US News and World Report which published some recent and scawy figures:

That sense of isolation and inadequacy is one reason the number of women earning computer science degrees in this country has plummeted over the past two decades–with women dropping from 37 percent to 28 percent of graduates–at the very moment their presence in other scientific and engineering disciplines has soared.

Sigh.

I was also able to also take a couple of the courses offered during thier summer session called Theoretical Inquiries in the Age of Globalization. I took one class on Foucault and Anarchism taught by Todd May and another on History and Revolution in Anarchist Thought taught by Chuck Morse. Both were really interesting and it was great to revisit Foucault who I had largely chose to leave in the closet after some farily intense exposure to him starting as an undergrad. I appreciate his perspective on power, but I still feel like he is fairly limited in what he has to offer in terms of a politics and hence he is not the first one I turn to when it comes to those things. He offers a nice slice but if you start making that into the pie, you are in for some pretty depressing baked goods.

It was great to be on the student side of the classroom which I have not really done since 2001. It made me wonder why more teachers or professors don’t take a class every now and then. Is it time? Or just socially unacceptable? I think you learn so much more when some other teacher has taken the time to complie a class and when you actually deal with some material over weeks with a group of people.

Along with class, sleep, great food, lots of cute animals climbing all over my computer, people playing “scawy” DOOM 3 in the house (yes there are still geeks in rural vermont), I have been also jumping a lot on a trampoline. I have really enjoyed that prolly more than anything aside from the great sleep I have been getting.

All right back to my summer R and R, hope everyone is having an equally nice time

Who would have known…. There is thie Greek Orthodox priest I know, yes, I know… And so he is a pretty cool guy so I invited him to join my home away from home, #techfed, an irc channel on the indymedia network where I can be found most days, most waking hours. So alas, a few hours later he shows, and once there reveals his ex life as a hacker, and a cracker, phone-phreaker type! Woah, I love it, phreaker–> priest. Yes, it is quite the natural progression…

So below, I re-transmit a comment from my entry that touches among other fine subjects, my favorite pen, the UniBall Signo extra fine:

“…. But my favorite thing about them is what it says on the little UPC label on the cap. I don’t know if your friend Joe explained this to you, but each of these pens has a little message on the cap that reads..”

“Kyappu wa PA-CHIN to on ga suru made shikkari shimete kudasai.”

Which means,

“Please close the cap tightly, until it makes the sound PA-CHIN.”

Somehow I think that’s just adorable.”

You are right, that exceeds adorbale, that is adorably wholesome: seriously why don’t all pen manufacturers tell us how to deal with our pens accordingly and give us a sonorous lingustic representation of the sound that we will hear when we do? Pa-CHIN. Music to my ears…

If I were 10 and living with my parents and I had found this factoid out, I would spend the next 10 days saying PA-CHIN whenver possible…. Now I just think it (PA-CHIN, PA-CHIN, PA-CHIN, PA-CHIN, PA-CHIN, PA-CHIN…) and keep it to myself..

Some might say I have an unhealthy love for 70s (and 80s) rock. In fact, I have an unhealthy and somewhat inexplicable love for all 70s music from AC/DC to Abba. Well, I don’t think it is all that inexpicable because it was the music that I listened to as a little kid. No, my parents did not buy me the latest Black Sabbath or AC/DC or even Abba when I was 7 years old (I could only wish for such a fortunate childhood) but my best friend did have 3 teenage sisters and we were merciless about breaking into their rooms where we would, among other travesties, listen to thier records. We were pirates before we even knew of such a concept, wanting the music that was locked away by “evil” big sisters.

We also listented to music during thier truly massive parties they held on the rooftops of thier house. Parents dead asleep, we would invite ourselves, discretely sneaking out of bed to hide under a table and enjoy the tunes and gossip about all of the boys, romances, and drunkards till we could not hold our little eyes open.. During our own slumber parties (less alcohol and more screaming) we would stage our own rock concerts, screaming our hearts delight because at 2 am in the far corners of her house no one could hear us. It was a child’s dream.

So whenever I hear music from that era, it really strikes this chord of illicit fun. And frankly there is no one that strikes a chord like AC/DC. Born the same great year of my own birth, 1973, AC/DC has seen many incarnations, the Young brothers a steady state of outrageousness. AC/DC did not acquire the master of the melodic and metabolic shrill, Brian Johnson, till 1980 and it is he who I think lit an already fired AC/DC, on fire.

Today, for some odd reason, I heard 3 AC/DC songs on the radio in the span of 3 hours while running otherwise really borning errands in Chicago. Cutting into my boredom it brought me back to that “state.” What can I say, I love AC/DC… Among other things, I think I finally realized why I like them so much and it is all Brian Johnson’s voice. I mean, listen to the guy, he is one shrilling machine, a maniac of the the scream. But despite the shrill, despte the fact that part of you thinks, “lord, that is the most shrilly, annoying sound in the world, I am not supposed to like that voice” you nonetheless fall deeply for it (or at least I do). It is that disjuncture, in other words inexplicable attraction, which makes AC/DC what it is, rockin…

So it might be a little tawdry and kitschy to publicize this but hell, I have wanted to use the words “tawdry” and “kitschy” to describe myself for the last six months and why not let folks know that Mako and I have a little piece on the politics of free and open source softwarein the latest issue of M/C?

It is a short and simple argument:

he ability of FOSS to act as an

[enrico] I admire the capacity of the antropologists to build a complex narration over anything!

Every once in a while I like to take a moment for retropsection and ask