Twice this past weekend, I was asked who I was going to vote for in the upcoming presidential election. Both of my interlocutors were laboring under the assumption that I simply must choose between either the Democratic or the Republican candidate.

Nonsense. “If I actually voted,” I replied, “I’d go third party.”

Now, I figured that flirting with a third-party nominee would raise some eyebrows. But what really rubbed someone’s rhubarb was the first part of my answer: “If I actually voted….” See, the offended party subscribes to the notion that, unless I vote, I cannot complain, and that my opinions related to politics are therefore invalid.

Admittedly, I was taken by surprise. Not only was she in thrall to a logical fallacy, she’d apparently never heard George Carlin’s take on the subject:

“I don’t vote. On Election Day, I stay home. I firmly believe that if you vote, you have no right to complain. Now, some people like to twist that around. They say, ‘If you don’t vote, you have no right to complain,’ but where’s the logic in that? If you vote, and you elect dishonest, incompetent politicians, and they get into office and screw everything up, you are responsible for what they have done. You voted them in. You caused the problem. You have no right to complain. I, on the other hand, who did not vote—who did not even leave the house on Election Day—am in no way responsible for what these politicians have done and have every right to complain about the mess that you created.”

Boom.

The way I figure it, if either party wants my vote, they damn well better run a candidate worthy of it. Until then, I’ve got far better things to do with my time.

We now return to our regularly scheduled (and decidedly non-political) programming.

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: random thoughts  |  comments(6)

Famoudou Don Moye, drummer and percussionist for the Art Ensemble of Chicago, turns 70 today. What better way to celebrate than with a little funk from the group’s 1985 album The Third Decade?

Funky AECO

From his bio over at allaboutjazz.com:

“His recordings have won him the praise of critics at such esteemed publications as Rolling Stone, Down Beat, Melody Maker, The New York Times, Audio Magazine and Stereo Review. He was the winner of the Downbeat International Critics Poll in 1977, 1978 and 1982, and the New York Jazz Poll in 1979 and 1980. He received performance grants from the National Endowment for the Arts in both 1974 and 1981. He lives in Chicago, with his wife, Gloria, and their son, Bongo.”

Many happy returns, Mr. Moye.

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: random thoughts  |  make a comment

Big news here at helveticka world headquarters: a MacGyver revival is in development. The setup from CBS Studios is almost as over-the-top as the original:

“A reimagining of the television series of the same name, following a 20-something MacGyver as he gets recruited into a clandestine organization where he uses his knack for solving problems in unconventional ways to help prevent disasters from happening.”

As the great aphorist Stephen King once said, “Sooner or later, everything old is new again.” Except, of course, for CK, who’s gonna have a pretty full plate if this thing gets green-lighted.

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: random thoughts  |  make a comment

“There are no two ways about it,” wrote John C. Abell in a 2011 article over at Wired. “E-books are here to stay.” Sure, they were “fundamentally flawed,” but that didn’t stop him from poking fun at the “ambiguous tactile argument” from some “late-to-never adopters.”

At the time, I thought Abell was full of it. Reading between the lines, he seemed to be predicting the demise of print. On the one hand, he acknowledged that “books are legacy items that may never go away”; on the other, he wrote that they “have been forever marginalized as a niche medium.”

Well…it looks like we’ve already hit peak digital. The publishing industry “suffered a bad attack of technodazzle,” writes Simon Jenkins. “It failed to distinguish between newness and value.”

Tech isn’t always the answer, it seems—particularly when there was never a question in the first place.

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: the design life the writing life  |  make a comment

I know what you’re thinking: that I’m about to take these poor folks to the woodshed for hyphenating a compound formed by an adverb ending in ly plus a participle (“publicly-traded”).

But you couldn’t be more wrong.

No, I’m taking them to the woodshed for hyphenating a compound formed by an adverb ending in ly plus a participle (“publicly-traded”) while ON THE SAME FRICKIN’ BILLBOARD not hyphenating another compound formed by an adverb ending in ly plus a participle (“locally owned”).

“Consistency,” wrote Oscar Wilde, “is the last refuge of the unimaginative.” Perhaps. But it ought to be the first refuge of the proofreader.

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: the writing life  |  comments(2)

… nah, I love quilting. I grew up quilting and sewing and surrounded by beautiful quilts and fabrics. I also grew up around a lot of ugly quilts and ugly fabrics. I acknowledge that we each have our own tastes, but brown country quilts are just not my thing. These are.

Melt my heart, ladies. Ya’ll just made my Friday.

posted by: Courtney Sowards  |  category: random thoughts the design life  |  make a comment

So the missus and I went on a date last Saturday morning. (Actually, it wasn’t really a “date,” since we’re far too old for such nonsense.) Anyway, we parked our butts in the super-comfy recliners at Regal Northtown Mall Stadium 12 and watched the Metropolitan Opera’s live HD broadcast of Strauss’s Elektra.

Director Patrice Chéreau’s austere staging added nuance to the story; soprano Nina Stemme owned the title role; under conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, the Met orchestra never sounded better.

Interested in catching the next broadcast? Next season’s HD Live schedule has already been set. And no, not all operas are expressionist takes on early-20th-century Freudian psychology with a side of blood sacrifice and a lust for vengeance. Sometimes there’s illicit sex, too.

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: random thoughts  |  comments(1)