New in Ephemera: Mexico
Just a thought from 29 February 2004 about .

What he said
Just a thought from 29 February 2004 about .

Christopher Hitchens in Slate: "Now, as the dollars begin to flow from this front-loaded fruit-machine of cynical publicity, he is sobbing about the risks and sacrifices he has made for the Lord. A coward, a bully, a bigmouth, and a queer-basher. Yes, we have been here before. The word is fascism, in case you are wondering, and we don't have to sit through that movie again."

Copyright is not evil
Just a thought from 26 February 2004 about .

Once again, I'm the curmudgeon. I think I'll have "bah humbug" etched on my tombstone.

Just for balance, I'd like to point out that I do, indeed, enjoy using a Creative Commons license for the Fray Audio, where the ownership is shared and the intent is noncommercial from the get-go. I'm a big supporter of what Creative Commons is trying to do.

But I'll never use a CC license for my photos, for example, because even their most restrictive license only "forces" people to attribute the work ("Photo by Derek Powazek"), use it noncommercially, and not alter it. By that logic, a religious right group could, say, take a photo like this and use it in some sort of awful anti-gay propaganda. Worse, the license would make sure my name was attached to it. No thanks.

I'm no copyright prude. I get what CC is trying to do, and I'm all in favor it. But I also still believe in traditional copyright law. It's there to protect artists. And, in the example above, protect the unspoken trust of people who I've photographed to use their images appropriately.

The thing to remember about traditional copyright is that it does just what it says: It protects an artist's right to copy the art they make. But the copyright holder can always, always, always allow others to copy their work with permission. So Cory can allow people to copy his books en masse, and I can choose to let some people use my photos and not others. That's our prerogative as the artists who made the work.

Three Things
Just a thought from 26 February 2004 about .

This is where a post used to be. The post was probably ill-advised, definitely mean-spirited, and possibly also a little deserved. But, whatever. It was probably a bad idea, a few people pointed that out, and the last thing I need is a big fuss, so away it goes. No big.

But before I go, I wanted to mention three things:

Continue reading “Three Things” »

And we're back
Just a thought from 25 February 2004 about .

Thanks so much for all the calls and emails of support. It helps.

Also listening to a lot of The Decemberists. That helps, too.

I still have Mexico on my shoes.

Unplugged
Just a thought from 21 February 2004 about .

Outta town and offline for awhile. Muchly needed. If you're trying to reach me, I'll be back late next week.

Sad
Just a thought from 20 February 2004 about Cole Valley.

Heather and I have lost our best friend. Tigger was Heather's Chihuahua. And when we moved in together, he became mine, too. We've lived together here in Cole Valley for the last few years, along with our other Chihuahua Chieka, my cat Spoo, and a whole bunch of plants named Fred.

Tigger lived in a world of love. No matter where he went, people swooned over him. It was impossible to walk him without stopping for a child, or a parent, or, really, anyone. It got so much, we began to wonder about the small percentage of people who didn't stop to say hi to him.

Tigger died yesterday in Yerba Buena park. Some other dog, off-leash ... some other dog that I hope I never, ever meet ... grabbed little Tigger in his mouth and bit down hard. He licked Chieka one last time before he died.

Tigger lived in the world of love, and he took a bit of that world with him when he left.

I really, really miss him.

Justly Married Update
Just a thought from 20 February 2004 about .

I'm in awe of what's happened with my little photo collection. Since I put up my photos and made the poster ...

• We've raised $894 as of now for DontAmend.com. I've been contacted by CafePress, and I've asked them to donate their take from the poster to charity, too. Stay tuned.
• Traffic has spiked on Ephemera so much that I'm in danger of going over my monthly hosting allotment. But I'm just happy that the photos are getting seen.
• Don from Blah3 put the photos to Lenny Kravitz and juxtaposed them with quotes from Chicago Mayor Daley. The result is this powerful flash movie.
• I wrote a personal story about the experience of planning my wedding and watching the revolution in San Francisco at the same time called Weddings on the Brain. The feedback it's generated has been almost totally positive. (Confidential to the one poopy person: I'm not the one who sounds bitter.)
• One of the photos has been picked up and featured, with permission, by Tolerance.org. The photos may appear in other news outlets, too.
• Of course there's a MetaFilter thread going. 113 comments at last count, mostly flameless. Mostly.

I have to say: I really feel like we're at a historic crossroads. San Francisco, Vermont, Toronto ... and now Chicago, New Mexico, New York ... we're at the crest of the wave. All the arguments against same-sex marriage fall apart under any kind of scrutiny.

Some have asked why some straight guy cares about all this. It's like my grandma says: Always look out for others, because next time it could be you. This is coming from a woman who survived being Jewish in Poland in the 1940s, so when she talks about tolerance, you listen.

I feel like I'm watching history happen, and I've never been prouder of my city.

Justly Married poster
Just a thought from 18 February 2004 about .

Because people asked, I've made a poster of one of the Justly Married photos.

All proceeds (minus the cut CafePress takes) will be donated to DontAmend.com.

Let's never fight again
Just a thought from 15 February 2004 about .

{ Read the story and see the photos. }

I admit it: I had my doubts about Mayor Newsom. I called him a "Ken Doll" more than once. I might have made a joke at his expense once or twice. And, okay, once I called him a "greased up weasel with a mansion in the Marina who's claim to fame is two failed attempts to make the homeless go somewhere else."

Ahem.

Okay, so, I might have let the ol' mouth wander a little too far from my brain there for a moment. I admit it.

The guy still creeps me out a bit. I think it's the hair. But he, like me, watched the President's State of the Union speech. And he, like me, thought: This means war.

Only, yaknow, I have a website, and he has, well, a city. So he wrote a letter. Basically it said, the California Constitution says it's illegal to discriminate based on sexual orientation, and we don't let gay and lesbian couples get married, and that's discrimination if you ask me. So, yaknow, fix that.

And they did. And this weekend hundreds of happy couples were married, and San Francisco raised a giant middle finger to George W. Bush.

I'm starting to like this Newsom guy. If he goes a little lighter on the product and actually does something about the homeless, I may just vote for him next time.

Happy V-Day Y'all
Just a thought from 14 February 2004 about .

I'm celebrating today with my sweetie offline, but there's plenty happening online today. I posted some flowers for Heather on Ephemera and there's lots of Valentine's related stuff going on in Fray, too, including a few Storyblog posts and a whole buncha stories. Enjoy!

Friday the 13th strikes
Just a thought from 13 February 2004 about .

All I know for sure is that, one moment, I was holding this boombox in my left hand and a glass in my right. And then next moment, I had the boombox in my right hand, and there was all this glass everywhere. And then I noticed my hand.

It's been a long time since I've seen my own blood anywhere but in the very controlled context of a hospital. Probably since I was thirteen, actually. But there it was, coming out of my hand in four places.

It's funny. When I was a kid, my little sister and I used to have a joke that our mother's answer to everything was: run it under cold water. And it's amazing how often this is actually the right thing to do. But this time all it did was hurt more and bleed more.

The blood kept coming even after I held paper towels to the wounds for a few minutes. In between, I could see a paper-hole-punch-sized bit missing from my palm. I'm sure it's still on the kitchen floor somewhere.

The bleeding finally stopped after I put Band-Aids on tightly in three places. It was then that I sighed and looked up at the calendar: Friday the 13th.

The dishes can wait until tomorrow. And, if anyone asks, I'm going to tell them that there's a madman running around out there with a three hole puncher.

Jezebel.com for sale
Just a thought from 13 February 2004 about .

After 8 years of personal website goodness, my sweetie Heather is selling her jezebel.com domain. She put it up on Afternic today.

As you probably know, Heather and I are engaged, and the wedding is later this year. And as you may know, weddings are expensive. Part of the reason Heather is selling the domain is fund our wedding and, hopefully, honeymoon in some faraway place where the drinks come with little umbrellas in them.

So help us out. Spread the word of this fantastic piece of net real estate far and wide. We'll send you a postcard!

Considering Flickr
Just a thought from 11 February 2004 about Geek.

Top three jokes I keep wanting to make about Flickr:

1. Flickr? I just met her!
2. It's like FilePile meets Friendster!
3. When the inevitable backlash comes, I hope the parody site is called Lickr.

Got my vote
Just a thought from 10 February 2004 about .

Crazy like a fox
Just a thought from 9 February 2004 about .

Not that it matters, but I am never stepping foot on an American Airlines flight again unless they fire his ass.

That'll learn 'em.

But, seriously, if you're offended by a pilot proselytizing from the cockpit, please say so.

New in Ephemera: Sets
Just a thought from 8 February 2004 about Photos.

Thanks to the inspiration from Heather's Furthermore and the sweet software goodness from Noel's PhotoStack, I've added a new section to Ephemera: Sets! The first one to go up includes 35 photos from Saturday night's Chinese New Year Parade, which was a blast. Happy year of the monkey!

Welcome, Froggy!
Just a thought from 6 February 2004 about .

Congrats to Heather and Jon and their new baby Leta who, in addition to the coolest parents ever, has the coolest birthday ever.

Let the iPod backlash begin!
Just a thought from 5 February 2004 about Apple, iPod.

With the iPod love-fest that's been afoot in the mainstream media for the last year, the backlash was inevitable. It's just too bad it's taken root in a paper I usually respect.

Bleeding-heart Bay Area rag, The San Francisco Bay Guardian, has a cover story this week on our beloved iPod: What-why-where Pod. The story is critical of Apple and the iPod for not being sexy like Mick or rock 'n' roll enough (what-ever).

Usually I enjoy a good rant, but the article is just plain wrong in several places. For example: The iPod does not require the internet to work, only to download music and CD titles, both of which are optional.

But the allegation that's the most annoying is that there are no independent artists in the Music Store. Hogwash! I've personally produced two CDs of spoken word storytelling that, thanks to independent music pioneer CD Baby, are now available on iTMS (here and here, if you're curious).

Next time, do your homework, Guardian. Or just stick to bitching about PG&E.

Push! Push!
Just a thought from 3 February 2004 about .

If you've been enjoying Heather Armstrong's writings about pregnancy, it looks like the time is nigh. Good luck, Dooce!

New in {fray}: Skidmarks
Just a thought from 1 February 2004 about Fray.

Skidmarks: An inside look into the life of a crash test dummy, um, tester. And of course, a question for you to answer: What has your job taught you?

People keep asking me:
Just a thought from 1 February 2004 about Fray, SXSW.

Is there going to be a Fray Cafe at SXSW this year?

Answer: Yes, oh yes.