<

p>With rights come responsibilities. You have the right as an American citizen to express yourself (short of ways that directly endanger the health or safety of others, see judicial decisions as necessary) as you see fit. With this right comes the responsibility to live with what you say and deal with the consequences. No one has shackled you, gagged you, or censored you — no one is preventing you from saying what you wish. In fact, your employment as entertainers and celebrities offers you a somewhat greater access to spread your piece of mind over a larger slice of the population. (My apologies for the mixed metaphor.) You are free to speak your mind free of any reprisal that would violate your inalienable rights to life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness.

<

p>However, no one is obligated to pay heed to anything you say, or for that matter, to accept it blindly. I, also as an American, am free to censure you, to boycott you, to decry you, and to encourage others verbally to do the same. This is not censorship, it is the price of free debate and thought. Any private individual or group is entitled to the same rights as me and you. You are not free to speak your mind without the chance of any reprisal whatsoever. Neither economic reprisals, nor vituperative disagreement, nor widespread public disapproval deny you any of your inalienable rights. You are still free to practice any of our cherished freedoms, but what you are not free to do is to escape the consequences of your actions.

<

p>Let us not confuse the pursuit of happiness with the achievement thereof. Any person who has a difference of opinion with the majority risks their disapproval, their disdain, or their outright hatred. (Actually, it’s not just the majority from whom a dissenter risks this; it’s anyone with whom one has a difference of opinion.) They are entitled to their opinions as well, and are free to convince others to side with them and against the lone voice of dissent. This may make the dissenter’s goals (i.e. happiness) more difficult to achieve in the long run, but does not affect his ability to pursue them.

<

p>So in short, feel free to exercise the rights guaranteed you in this great nation of ours; but while we must, and do, tolerate that exercise, we are free to shout you down. Free speech guarantees you a voice, not an audience.

I’m practicing guitar yesterday, and Evie wandered in and started dancing and singing as she tends to do nowadays, anytime there’s music in the air. When I got to a particularly loud and raucous part full of power chords, I admit I “dug in” a little. Evie responded by stopping in her tracks, throwing up her arms as if she was participating in “The Wave” at a stadium, and shouted at the top of her little lungs, “YEAH BABY!” General hilarity ensued.

You must check out the many musical masteries of an old acquaintance of mine, Mr. Brad Derrick. I am especially fond of plink; their music has a gently hypnotic quality, which doesn’t fully disguise the taut emotional undercurrents. And yes, I’m plugging this just in case you stop by, Brad. Aren’t you glad you sent me such a nice reply? I’ve just single-handedly brought my entire readership to your doorstep. Hell, that could be two, maybe even three people! No no, really, that’s enough gratitude, I’m blushing already.

Dr. Nina Simone
High Priestess of Soul
Feb. 21, 1933 – Apr. 21, 2003

<

p>A woman of singular talent, presence and courage. Her music was a gift to the world of jazz and pop, whose voice expressed the most exquisite joy, sadness, longing, languor, and pain. She was an outspoken social critic but a musical eclectic, a great songwriter who also covered songs by artists as diverse as Bob Dylan, the Bee Gees, Cole Porter and Hoagy Carmichael. R.I.P.

<

p>A great fan of hers does maintain her official Web site, but I prefer the far more informative Nina Simone Web. Better yet, go buy a bunch of her records and realize what you’ve probably been missing all your life.

Seems to me that BitTorrent offers an easy opportunity for the BSA, RIAA, MPAA and others to pursue pirates. Since a torrent tracker has a record of IP addresses that are participating in swarming downloads, it would seem like an ideal solution, if you were one of those groups, to set up a torrent “honeypot” to capture IP addresses that are trafficking in pirated material. Of course, if you use BitTorrent only for downloading ISO images of Linux distributions, you have nothing to worry about.

Sunday my friend Ellen and I went to see the Signature Theater’s production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Two words: simply outstanding. Rick Hammerly was captivating as Hedwig, and the rest of the cast, which consisted mainly of Hedwig’s bandmates, did a great job in their supporting roles. My good friends and former bandmates Steve McWilliams and Mike Kozemchak were musically amazing as always; the band was tight (as expected, since this is after all a revival run) and the songs were energetic and rousing. I was very happy that I had seen the movie last year before seeing it on stage, because being primarily a rock show, occasionally the lyrics get muddied or lost in the music, and they are worth savoring. However, Hedwig’s narration between and in the middle of songs helps clarify the storyline somewhat, so one could see this show as a “virgin” and still fully appreciate it.

<

p>Hedwig is a bundle of rock-and-roll mania early on, literally kicking out the jams and swinging herself acrobatically around the set — which is itself a perfectly-designed piece of underground rock club dinginess that serves both the story and the mood. Images are projected, like “supertitles,” above the stage as she speaks and sings, which emphasize some of the motifs of the play — the Platonic myth of the origin of love, Hedwig’s loss of self, and her search for a soul mate — her “other half.” The older audience members seemed not quite sure of what to make of this ode to the “crypto-homo rockers,” but those of us who appreciate David Bowie and Lou Reed were knocked out by the power of the music and Hedwig and the band’s delivery. The audience hollered and cheered after every loud punky number, well deserved! And when the lights dropped down to nothingness for the climactic reunion of Hedwig and Tommy Gnosis, I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who got goosebumps. If you see one show this year in the D.C. area, this needs to be it. Runs through May 25; tickets available through the Signature Theatre web site.

Now I have mplayer and its associated plugin working properly as well, I am enjoying pretty much full-on feature compatibility with you poor suffering Windows users. Evie likes watching QuickTime trailers for kids’ movies on the computer, so this is very much a Good Thing(TM).

My mom got remarried on Saturday, so we had a fun time at the reception. Evie was pretty well-behaved too, which was a real plus. Having overindulged (very slightly) at the reception, I spent much of Sunday just watching Beatles: Anthology that I just got on DVD. Still the world’s greatest band, 40 years later, depending on where you start counting.

Red Hat Linux 9 is out! One of my coworkers and I managed to get it via BitTorrent yesterday. Some real improvements, mostly in the “user-transparent” area. The menus incorporate the improvements from the betas, as well as the new Native POSIX Threading Library (NPTL). This may be invisible to the casual user but has resulted in a real performance gain — and the system was already pretty fast as it was. Definitely worth a try for anyone interested in Linux!