My Morning Jacket on Conan

Just in case you missed My Morning Jacket's fantastic performance of "Touch Me I'm Going to Scream, Part 2." This off of their album Evil Urges:

A Moment of Modernity

I was in the restroom at work today. While in the stall, I began to hear, to my left, the distinct tapping of someone typing an e-mail on a smartphone. Immediately thereafter, I began to hear, to my right, the sound of someone tapping away on another smartphone. About ten seconds later, from the far left, I heard yet another person typing. There I was, sitting in complete silence, and all I could hear is typing.

When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions

Discovery Channel has done it again. I'm addicted to its new six-part series, When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions. And while the imagery is absolutely haunting, unlike Discovery's previous series "Planet Earth," this series doesn't simply rest on its "Hi-Def" laurels. It isn't content at simply showing us some cool scenes, but combines fantastic interviews with above-average narration to create a compelling story of the personalities involved. It is epic.

Revisiting Chappelle's Show

On Seeking Leave

Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth (1969)

When I think of Alexander Portnoy -- a 33-year old American Jew who grew up in Jersey City -- I imagine Woody Allen and Lenny Bruce rolled into one. Portnoy is the main character in Philip Roth's exquisitely vulgar 1969 novel "Portnoy's Complaint."

What exactly is Portnoy's "complaint"? Given that the entire novel is Portnoy's monologue with his psychoanalyst, Dr. Spielvogel, understandably the novel begins with a clinical definition:

Portnoy's Complaint n. A disorder in which strongly-felt ethical and altruistic impulses are perpetually warring with extreme sexual longings, often of a perverse nature. Spielvogel says: 'Acts of exhibitionism, voyeurism, fetishism, auto-eroticism and oral coitus are plentiful; as a consequence of the patient's "morality," however, neither fantasy nor act issues a genuine sexual gratification, but rather in overriding feelings of shame and the dread of retribution, particularly in the form of castration.' (Spielvogel, O. "The Puzzled Penis," Internationale Zeitschrift fur Psychoanalyse, Vol XXIV p.909). It is believed by Spielvogel that many of the symptoms can be traced to the bonds obtaining in the mother-child relationship.

So, to put it plainly, Portnoy's Complaint is that he is somehow prevented from enjoying any of his impulses and this -- at least he says -- forces him to the extremes.

I'm sure you can imagine that Portnoy, Assistant Commissioner of Human Opportunity for the City of New York, is not married and is not not particularly interested in getting married. He's terrified at the prospect of getting bored with his mate -- and considering his frank, mechanical, vulgar descriptions of sex, it isn't surprising why he's terrified of settling down.

Roth's novel has a real shock-and-awe feel to it. Roth is deliberately trying to unveil subject matter that would otherwise never see the light of day -- and amazingly, almost 40 years after its publication, the novel has more urgency, depth, and electricity than any of our sophomoric, campy, "Sex and the City"-ish counterparts.

I finished the novel about two months ago and I've had a hard time trying to mull it over. Obviously, there are some passages that are "shocking," but the excitement is as fleeting as -- well, you know. I find myself wishing now that Roth had spent more time exploring the most exciting themes in the book: guilt, family, and identity. Portnoy's description of his parents -- "These two are the outstanding producers and packagers of guilt in our time!" -- are brilliant. And the way in which Portnoy describes his peculiar sense of alienation when visiting the 'homeland' reminded me of my trips abroad.

"Portnoy's Complaint" is an exploration of guilt (of the middle-class, American-Jew variety). And in comparison to the fleeting impact of Portnoy's escapades, experiencing Roth's part-fictional caricatures of his upbringing and realizing that they were not that far off from my own is lasting.

Father's Day

Here is an ad that never gets enough airtime.

Legal / Industry News Index

When I started work in October 2007, I wasn't aware that my firm had subscriptions to several high-end legal news resources. I found out about each one accidentally -- and it often took a few days to figure out who had the login information to access the site. I came up with the brilliant idea of writing those resources down and distributing them to my colleagues, but it got me interested in tackling a broader problem.

I've noticed that the most effective attorneys are generally up to date on current events. Obviously this includes world news, politics, and sports, but they are also well-versed in what's going on in various tech sectors. They constantly use this information to inform their work. I really think this is a critical aspect of professional development, and I think I've been kind of lazy about not keeping up to date.

But it turns out that I have no idea what resources my colleages use to stay up to date. So I came up with the brilliant idea of asking them. I sent out a quick e-mail asking for feedback, and I was amazed to discover an array of fantastic resources I wouldn't have known existed otherwise. And in the spirit of sharing the wealth, here's the list.

Feel free to suggest others:

General IP
Intellectual property Owners Association: http://www.ipo.org
IP Law360: http://www.ip.law360.com
JurisNotes: http://www.jurisnotes.com
Managing IP: http://www.managingip.com/

Patent Law
271 Patent Blog: http://271patent.blogspot.com/
CAFC: http://www.cafc.uscourts.gov/
E.D. Tex. Blog: http://mcsmith.blogs.com/
Hal Wegner's Newsletter (request via e-mail to hwegner@foley.com)
JurisNotes – Patent Extra: http://www.jurisnotes.com/
Last Month at the Federal Circuit Newsletter: http://www.finnegan.com/contact/index.cfm?register=true&newsletter=true
Patent Docs: http://patentdocs.typepad.com/
Patent Lens: http://www.patentlens.net/daisy/patentlens/patentlens.html
Patently-O: http://patentlaw.typepad.com/)
PATNEWS Newsletter: http://www.patenting-art.com/clients/patnews.htm
PHOSITA: http://www.okpatents.com/phosita/
Promote The Progress: http://promotetheprogress.com/
The Patent Prospector: http://www.patenthawk.com/blog/
The Prior Art: http://thepriorart.typepad.com/the_prior_art/
USPTO BPAI Decisions: http://des.uspto.gov/Foia/BPAIReadingRoom.jsp

BioTech Law / Industry
BioWorld Online: http://www.bioworld.com/
FDA Law Blog: http://www.fdalawblog.net/
Orange Book Blog: http://www.orangebookblog.com/
Patent Baristas: http://patentbaristas.com/
Patent Docs: http://www.patentdocs.net/patent_docs/
Pharmalot: http://www.pharmalot.com/
Wall Street Journal Health Blog: http://blogs.wsj.com/health/?mod=WSJBlog

Tech Law / Industry
ArsTechnica: http://www.arstechnica.com/
Bay Area TechWire Newsletter: http://bayareatechwire.com/
BNA Internet Law News: http://www.bna.com/ilaw/
Chilling Effects Clearninghouse: http://www.chillingeffects.org/index.cgi
CNET News: http://www.news.com/
Geek.com: http://www.geek.com/
IT Wire: http://www.itwire.com/
Silicon Valley News: http://www.siliconvalley.com/
Silicon Valley Wire: http://www.siliconvalleywire.com/
The Dean’s List: http://home.earthlink.net/~deankay/DeanKay_TheDean
VentureBeat: http://venturebeat.com/

General Legal
ABA Section of Antitrust Law: http://www.abanet.org/antitrust/
AboveTheLaw: http://www.abovethelaw.com/
Adam Smith, Esq.: http://bmacewen.com/blog/
American Lawyer: http://www.law.com/jsp/tal/index.jsp
Cal Law: http://www.law.com/jsp/ca/index.jsp
California Lawyer: http://californialawyermagazine.com/
EvidenceProf Blog: http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/evidenceprof/
FindLaw: http://www.findlaw.com/
HG.org: http://www.hg.org/
How Appealing: http://howappealing.law.com/
Jurist: http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/
Law.com: http://www.law.com/
Mondaq: http://www.mondaq.com//
New York Lawyer: http://www.nylawyer.com/
NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/
SCOTUSBlog: http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/
Wall Street Journal Law Blog: http://blogs.wsj.com/law/
Wall Street Journal: http://wsj.com/

International
Braina (Japan): http://www.braina.com/
IN-Law Newsletter (Japan): http://www.mag2.com/m/0000096485.html
Patent Salon (Japan): http://www.patentsalon.com/
Potent Potions (India): http://www.moneycontrol.com/pharma/
Spicy IP (India): http://spicyipindia.blogspot.com/

The Moviegoer by Walker Percy (1961)

"What is the nature of the search? you ask. Really it is very simple; at least for a fellow like me. So simple that it is often overlooked. The search is what anyone would undertake if he were not sunk in the everydayness of his own life."

Winner of the National Book Award in 1961, Walker Percy's "The Moviegoer" revels in the space between the routine and alienation of the post-War era. I wasn't expecting it, but Binx Bolling, a successful stock broker living comfortably in the suburbs of New Orleans, reminded me of Ed Norton's character Jack in Fight Club.

Binx has been content to float along in life and subsist on material enjoyment, often noting his appreciation for his secretaries' backsides. He calls this life of routine the 'malaise.' And on the eve of his 30th birthday, Binx recalls a fleeting moment experienced during the Korean War. Wounded and lying on the ground, he recalls watching a beetle and experiencing a moment of clarity. When I think of this moment, I can easily imagine one of the many masterful scenes from a Terrence Malick film (like The Thin Red Line).

What made that moment so captivating for Binx was its profound immediacy. Binx notes the immediate again when he talks with his cousin Kate about a traumatic accident in which she was involved: “Have you noticed that only in time of illness or disaster or death are people real? I remember at the time of the wreck — people were so kind and helpful and solid. Everyone pretended that our lives until that moment had been every bit as real as the moment itself and that the future must be real too, when the truth was that our reality had been purchased only by Lyell’s death. In another hour or so we had all faded out again and gone our dim ways.”

Kate, who is suicidal and unstable, seems to share Binx's fear of the ordinary. But unlike Binx, Kate can only deal with these moments of alienation with destruction and the manufacture of drama. Binx is more reserved, but is perhaps more afflicted -- and Kate can tell: "You're like me, but worse. Much worse."

And for Binx, the unreality of his modern life is only amplified by the movie screen. At one point during a movie, he realizes that the movie was shot locally and describes a phenomenon called certification: "Nowadays when a person lives somewhere, in a neighborhood, the place is not certified for him. More thank likely He will live there sadly and the emptiness which is inside him will expand until it evacuates the entire neighborhood. But if he sees a movie which shows his very neighborhood, it becomes possible for him to live, for a time at least, as a person who is Somewhere and not Anywhere.”

Percy's writing is unique and mesmerizing -- and is quite philosophically informed. Many critics have traced the existentialist influences of Kierkegaard and Sartre, but not having read too much of either, I'll take their word for it.

I'm sure you can guess that the storyline (if there is one at all) develops rather slowly. But the writing is just epic. Each sentence feels uncrowded, pure, reflective, and not weighed down by the responsibility of spoonfeeding the reader plot developments. Nor is Percy concerned with showing you how smart he is or run circles around you with how witty he can be. To me, Percy's style and tone match up perfectly with Binx and Kate.

It is a seamless work.

10 Awesome Songs for TV Ads for Birth Control Pills

1. The Avalanches - Since I Left You


2. Salt N' Pepa - Push It


3. The Band - The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down


4. 2 Live Crew - Me So Horny


5. NIN - Closer


6. Peaches - F**k the Pain Away


7. Beck - Nobody's Fault But My Own


8. Tool - Prison Sex


9. Rick James - Give it to Me Baby


10. Ben Folds Five - Brick

Deadliest Catch - Season 4 (All New)

The fourth season of the Deadliest Catch premiered on the Discovery Channel tonight. Along with Ax Men on the History Channel, this is the closest thing to 'reality TV' that I'll watch.

Brilliant premise, real personalities. If you haven't seen it, give it a try.

Collective Soul (4/11 - At the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom)

Do you remember Collective Soul? Me too.

I found out just two weeks ago that Collective Soul -- most-known for their 1994 album "Hints, Allegations, and Things Left Unsaid" and their self-titled album in 1995 -- released an album called "Afterwords" last summer. I haven't listened to the album yet, but I've spent some time over the past week re-listening to their other albums. I am amazed by how many hits they have.

I recently saw them play at the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom for a mere 25 bucks. The two opening bands, Josh Kelley and The Whitest Light, were pretty forgettable, though not terrible.

I really wasn't expecting a great performance from the band; I was expecting to see an aging band to play a handful of their hits, surrounded by a crowd attempting to relive their not so distant youth.

But man -- they were awesome! Ed Rolland really brought the energy and worked the crowd. There was a little something for everybody. Great guitar solos, good vocals, some semi-acoustic songs, some interactive songs, and a general feeling that this band not only enjoys touring together, but also likes playing for the crowd. The best way to describe the show is "balanced."

Collective Soul has largely been successful because of their straightforward, consistent, mainstream brand of rock and roll. At the same time, their lack of a niche musical style or a mystique has held them back. I'm not sure if it is by choice, but Collective Soul seems to have avoided the edgy, counter-culture brand of rock and, instead, embraced the world of adult-contemporary. It isn't a bad thing, but it has affected the band's perceived pedigree and snob-appeal.

At the same time, Collective Soul manages to never sound generic. The albums aren't empty, slavish attempts to emulate the least common denominator of the genre. Although slightly anachronistic, examples of bands like that seem to just mirror whatever the hell everyone else is doing would be Creed, Nickelback, or basically any band caught between post-grunge and pre-"Indie" revolution. And you know what, we've already got a whole boat load of so-called indie-pop bands who are beginning to flood that genre as well, making it even more difficult to figure out what is authentic and what is junk.

Although not unique, Collective Soul is authentic.

The Black Keys (4/2 - At The Warfield, SF)

Last night I went to see The Black Keys play at The Warfield in San Francisco. I haven't been to a concert in awhile, so it was nice to get out. I had very high hopes for this concert because the band released its new album -- Attack and Release -- on April 1.

Apart from some technical difficulties, the show was kind of a letdown. It wasn't bad, just pretty average. And when you have high expectations, it feels even worse. I think my main gripe was that they played for just about an hour, which is kind of stingy, especially if you've just released a new album! More importantly, their timing in general was off. Or, something was off and it didn't quite sound right. This was especially true when Pat Carney's uncle, who is featured on the album, came on stage to play.

The one caveat here is that the new album is actually very good.

This brings me to a broader topic, one that began nagging at me mid-way through the show. Does it seem odd that compared to live music I prefer listening to music that is engineered and packaged in some studio and then reproduced on a lifeless machine for my personal enjoyment? Is that sacrilege? Am I a terrible person for preferring the lifeless reproduction to the real deal?

Whenever I go to a show, I look out at the crowd rocking out. And I have a very good hunch that they would rock out to just about anything just as long as it was loud. Frankly, it doesn't even have to resemble a song. And this seems so odd to me because I'm sure most of these people would be quite discerning if they were listening to the song in the car or at home. They would be candid whether a song sucked or not. But for some reason, the collective music IQ takes a sharp nosedive when you are at a live show.

It's not about the music. It has more to do with being there, at a show -- it feels, collectively, more alive to know you are at a place, a gathering, where it is. And you know what, I'm done with that. It is fool's gold and I'm not interested.

I think this observation of the crowd, and its collective dumbness, poisons my experience of live music in general. I have been to only a handful of shows where the performer's musical skill and talent were on display and transformed an otherwise great recorded track into a completely new emotional experience. But that is more the exception than the rule.

Discern!

Catch 22 by Joseph Heller (1961)

As I continue my two-decade quest to complete the Modern Library's 100 greatest English-language novels of the 20th century, I'm already trying to keep track of the wildly different characters I have come across, and can only imagine those who I will meet in the years to come. Captain John Yossarian is one of those characters that will endure in my memory. He's not particularly heroic. What draws me to him his sanity of weakness and fear.

I finished Heller's scathing, ironic, humorous attack on bureaucracy a few weeks back. In fact, in the interim period between finishing Catch 22 and writing this short review, I have completed The Moviegoer by Walker Percy and begun Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth. The reason I've been waiting to write about Catch 22 is because I hadn't made up my mind about it -- well, I don't think I've really ever made my mind "up" about any book. I just needed time to digest the material and work through how I felt about the book. I find the act of reading less satisfactory than the two-week period after finishing a novel where I can try to understand it in its entirety.

Yossarian is a WW2 bombardier stationed in Pianosa, Italy. He not particularly interested in fighting in the War. We are told that his job, as a soldier, is not to win the war, but to survive. And more importantly, anybody who stands in the way of his mission to stay alive -- is his enemy: "The enemy is anybody who's going to get you killed, no matter which side he's on, . . . And don't you forget that, because the longer you remember it, the longer you might live." He's not ashamed of this statement either. In fact, he's afraid to die.

At first, this might seem cowardly, unpatriotic, or self-interested -- especially in a novel set during WW2, where everyone, according to modern folklore, served in the company of heroes. But Yoassarian gave me a jolt of consciousness. Who wouldn't be afraid to die? And especially when surrounded by equally mad commanding officers hell bent on making a name for themselves by sacrificing their squadron?

I think the hallmark of Catch 22 is its mastery of the paradox. Yossarian won't have to fly more missions if he's declared insane; but not wanting to fly more missions is totally sane. And, well, off he has to go to fly some more missions. Catch 22 is full of these paradoxes and, although repetitive and a bit tired in some passages, the overall effect of this repetition pays off. After the first 1/3 of the book, the peculiar, hilariously unique logic starts to make sense. The bureaucracy itself is mad, and the only way to deal with it is with even more madness.

Curiously, I had difficulty picturing the characters in my head while reading the novel and after finishing it as well. For instance, if you were to ask me how I picture the story of Catch 22 being told in film, I can't really think of any I've seen that would be appropriate. I can see WW2 in color, but not in the grainy, muted colors of Saving Private Ryan or Band of Brothers. Nor would the faded, 70's-greenish color palette of M*A*S*H really work for me. The world of Catch 22 only exists between the covers.

And now comes my dilemma. By virtue of picking a "Top 100" list as my syllabus, at times I wonder whether I should feel compelled to prove why each book belongs on the list -- which would be my way of justifying canon I've chosen. But where's would be the fun in that? What good is experiencing something if you can't even trust your own instincts?

Even a cursory review of the criticism of Catch 22 reveals that it wasn't universally well-received when published. In fact, the New York Times panned it while others foreshadowed its complete irrelevance.

But here's an opportunity for a knee-jerk reaction that I hate. Usually when someone finds out that a critic disliked a book that eventually becomes a "classic," you'll get the standard line about how dumb these critics must have been at the time not to appreciate the book as a masterpiece. I really can't stand that hindsight bias because the later-acquired fame seems to blind people into justifying why something is great as opposed to just giving their honest opinion about the book and letting the chips fall where they may.

In fact, I have no real qualms about saying that the first 1/3 of the book doesn't appear to be cohesively written and offers little by way of character development; the chapters are so episodic that the book loses whatever momentum it gains the previous chapter, which is pretty frustrating and makes the book hard to get into. The middle 1/3 of the book does a lot of that legwork and begins to build a framework in terms of a plot line, but for the reader, the array of characters and different story lines still don't quite gel together in any meaningful way.

But the last 1/3 of the book makes up for all of this -- and then some. It is stunningly good literature. While reading those last set of chapters, I kept wishing that the earlier portions of the book were as gripping. The sentences tighten up, the paradoxes deepen in meaning by leaps and bounds, and the book gains traction as it embraces a more linear timeline. But the real key for me was that, towards the end of the book, I could actually identify some motivating forces behind Yossarian's attempted rebellion.

With that said, I think over the last two weeks I have been able to think more about the earlier chapters and their extensive use of flashbacks to disrupt time. I'm starting to appreciate that aspect of Heller's writing, especially when he doubles back to describe certain aspects of the same event, which ends up giving the reader an explanation as to why a joke, partially explained earlier in the book, was funny or not. It takes a lot of patience to create something like that. And more importantly, it shows that Heller trusted his readers to do the work to get to the humour.

Yeasayer - 2080

This is a fantastic song and a perfect video to accompany it. Lyrics posted below.

I can't sleep when I think about the times we're living in
I can't sleep when I think about the future I was born into
Outsiders dressed up like Sunday morning
With no Berlin wall what the hell you gonna do

It's a New Year
I'm glad to be here
It's a fresh spring
So let's sing
In 2080
I'll surely be dead
So don't look ahead
Never look ahead
It's a New Year
I'm glad to be here
It's a fresh spring
So let's sing
And the moon shines bright
On the water tonight
So we won't drown
In the summer sound

If you find me I'll be sitting by the water fountain
Picket signs, letdowns, meltdown it's Monday morning
But it's alright, it's alright, it's alright, it's alright
It's alright
Cause in no time, they'll be gone, I guess I'll still be standing here

It's a New Year
I'm glad to be here
It's a fresh spring
So let's sing
In 2080
I'll surely be dead
So don't look ahead
Never look ahead
It's a New Year
I'm glad to be here
It's a fresh spring
So let's sing
And the moon shines bright
On the water tonight
So we won't drown
In the summer sound

Yeah yeah we can all grab at the chance to be handsome farmers
Yeah you can have twenty-one sons and be blood when they marry my daughters
And the pain that we left at the station will stay in a jar behind us
We can pickle the pain into blue ribbon winners at county contests

It's a New Year
I'm glad to be here
It's a fresh spring
So let's sing
In 2080
I'll surely be dead
So don't look ahead
Never look ahead
It's a New Year
I'm glad to be here
It's a fresh spring
So let's sing
And the moon shines bright
On the water tonight
So we won't drown
In the summer sound

Yeah yeah we can all grab at the chance to be handsome farmers
Yeah you can have twenty-one sons and be blood when they marry my daughters
And the pain that we left at the station will stay in a jar behind us
We can pickle the pain into blue ribbon winners at county contests