What's Up With dk? » The Fever Of Phineas

U.S. Soldiers Bathroom Graffiti

Posted: March 27th, 2008, 12:03pm EDT by Phineas

Steve Featherstone reports on bathroom graffiti on bases in Afghanistan and Iraq.

( link )

Château Briot Bordeaux 2005

Posted: March 25th, 2008, 4:40pm EDT by Phineas

Wine Spectator | Editors Picks | Daily Wine Picks | Under $15 | Château Briot Bordeaux 2005

Mmmm, “lead pencil aromas”. For those with a pica-influenced palate, such as myself…

The Thrill Of It All

Posted: March 22nd, 2008, 1:30pm EDT by Phineas

I’m enjoying the heck out of the Roxy Music DVD “Thrill of It All: A Visual History 1972-1982″

I read about it in The New Yorker and don’t have a whole lot to add to that. But it’s just beautiful. I love Eno’s various machines, hairstyles and blouses. I also enjoy how incongruous the low-tech video production quality is juxtaposed with these energetic, brilliant, outrageous musical compositions and performances. The songs all rock. Plus I think Bryan Ferry is flirting with me.

Wottled Butter

Posted: March 21st, 2008, 12:35pm EDT by Phineas

Just another unnecessary untimely and incorrect rant on the bottled water controversy. I may be writing this because I feel compelled to defend myself. The problems with bottled water are many. So let’s identify a couple main ones:

bottled water is expensive
production of bottled water is environmentally damaging in terms of energy to produce and the waste byproduct of the bottles, even though they are “recyclable”
much bottled water marketing is deceptive in appealing to perceptions that it tastes better or is healthier than tap
people who drink bottled water are therefore dupes who foolishly believe bottled water is different than tap; and, paradoxically, selfish litterbugs unconcerned with the damage their lifestyle causes the environment.

There are more objections but I think those are the main ones which you see restated in one form or another.

I agree with all of them in principle. Things that are too expensive compared to cheaper things of equal quality suck big time - agreed. Things that have horrific and entirely avoidable environmental damage way do suck. Marketing which is fraudulent or deceptive can go off and suck for all I care. Selfish dupes are such dicks.

But I’m here to say, but on the other hand… just cause I’m ornery. On the other hand, every single statement above could be said of many other things. Butter is more expensive than gasoline, that does not make the dairy industry criminal. Lying marketing scams occur in every retail sector. Waste is inherent in consumer life. It’s bad, it’s all bad.

But I think it goes way too far to claim that people who drink bottled water are fooled, duped, and somehow the same as bird-flipping Hummer drivers. I know for a fact, as much as I know anything for a fact, that the bottled water I buy (San Pellegrino, Aqcua Ferrarelle, Perrier) is NOT bottled at the local Podunk municipal water source. Perhaps worse than that, it’s imported all the way from Europe. I know for a fact that it tastes better and is healthier than what comes out out of the many tap sources I pass buy in the course of my day (the tap from the BART station bathroom? No thanks!). I do drink tap water at home, as well as expensive bottled water. When I stay in hotels I usually drink their tap water. But there are lots of places in between whose taps I won’t trust, so I’ll carry my own. I do bottle my own from my tap, but I’m not going to dehydrate if I run out. I’ll not hesitate to buy a bottle at the convenience store.

There’s plainly a difference between crappy bottle water marketed by liars, and good bottled water not marketed by liars. I just hate blanket generalizations, and I hate moral posturing. I am certainly guilty of it myself (fuck Hummers and the arrogant assholes who drive them!). I recognize that spending a lot of money for water is unsustainable — most people cannot afford it, so that’s a bit of a clue of how out of whack things are. Water is like air and should be cheap and available to all. The evil in question is not necessarily perpetrated by the consumers (although consumers can have a huge impact on the industry).

What would you say if the bottling of water could be done much more efficiently? And the recycling of the bottles were 100% effective (no landfill)? And all liars were marched off to Liar’s Island, so only truthtellers remained. Then would it be OK to drink bottled water? What if municipal water supplies could improve to produce much higher quality of water? Just saying bottled water is the same as tap is not quite the same thing as saying tap water is the very best that water can be. Even then different kinds of water have different qualities. It’s the same as wine or air or butter. It’s not all exactly the same. Sometimes I like a sparkling water, sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I like mineral water and sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I feel like a nut. How will these pleasures be satisfied if we’re not allowed to bottle the different varieties of water? I totally recognize how elitist that sounds, but again, it’s absolutely no more true of bottled water than it is of wine. Wine could be delivered to local innkeepers in barrels and only served from there, eliminating the bottling of wine. Maybe the difference between bottled wine and bottled water is scale. You could just drive to a nearby farm and have the butter dumped into your reusable tupperware container instead of buying it at the supermarket. Etc.

My main gripe is really the confusion between the problems of the industry and the consumers who participate in it. If there’s cynicism, deceit, waste in the industry, is it really necessary to demonize the consumer? Isn’t it possible all those statements about the industry per se are true, yet a given consumer could still be making an informed, ethical choice? I feel the same way about cigarette smoking. I am so glad we finally purged that horrible habit from mainstream public space. I am glad we have exposed the cynicism and corruption of cigarette manufacturers and the lobbyists who helped them profit by killing their customers. That said, I sometimes enjoy a cigarette. It’s still possible in spite of everything we know about tobacco, nicotine, and the tobacco industry, that a given individual is making an informed, ethical choice when they smoke. These two things are not incompatible.

How about everything in moderation, (except no Hummers)?

View from my cube

Posted: March 12th, 2008, 3:17pm EDT by Phineas

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View from my cube, originally uploaded by kimbojava.

Not as fun as views from my hotel rooms.

View from my room

Posted: March 9th, 2008, 11:22am EDT by Phineas