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Ben Wilson

Ben Wilson

ben wilson This is the blog of a one Ben Wilson, a Louisville, Kentucky native who enjoys baseball, beer, music, bikes, things that fly and good food. By day he pushes pixels and makes the Internet happen for a local advertising agency. His wife, Kelly is an Ironman, and his baby Amelia is the cutest thing ever.

Rowan Atkinson is a pimp.

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Oct 17 2001 ~ 2:50 pm ~ Comments Off ~
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Just got back from Cincinatti, where Ben Folds played at Bogarts. We got there about 45 minutes late, and sur-prize sur-prize, Mapquest got us a little lost. And, I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Cinci, but the “cool” part of town is really just a gentrified black neighborhood (aren’t all “cool” parts of town?), so we stopped at the local Kroger’s to ask for directions, and the people there were very congenial — apparently there were plenty of lost white kids that night looking for Bogarts.

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I hate feeling afraid to be in a “part” of town. I feel stupid, ashamed, even. These are just people.

So, the frickin’ show was sold out. Luckily, scalping is apparently legal in Ohio, and we managed to still get tickets. Sure, they were about twice face value (which was only $18), but dammit, I had driven there with Kelly, and we were going to see the piano-mosh stylings of Ben Folds. We got in after they’d played about 2 songs, and the place was packed.

Most of the songs during the hour and a half set were from the new album, with an interlude of 2 covers, a punky “Mommy Make Me” and “Sweet Home Alabama”! Now, I know Holly would have hated it. I was a little torn, myself. Believe me, they rocked it out, for sure, though thinking about that song, and the whole Neil Young/Skynyrd argument. “Sweet Home” is a rebuttal to Neil Young’s “Alabama” — an indictment of that state’s history of racial inequality, and being in a town that has a certain level of racial tension, and in a room full of white college students, and a band singing “you don’t know what it’s like to be male, middle class and white”, it was all a little strange at the time.

I saw Luke Padgett while we were down there, much to our surprise, and he mentioned that he wasn’t sure if he was going to come up from Lexington to see it, due to the acquittal yesterday. It was a thought in the back of my mind as well, but I think that that fear is only felt outside of Cinci. There was no tension in that crowd, no violence, everyone in the crowd knew the lyrics, and because there was no overdub, they would fill in the background vocals. It was nice, and they rocked it hard. I think that’s what made me feel good about the state of the city, and the people within it. “You don’t know what it’s like, being male, middle-class and white” — and do I, a white middle class male know what it’s like to be hispanic, elderly and poor? Black young and rich? No, and race, creed, and status don’t matter — I know I don’t hate those people, and I know that most of them don’t hate me.

We also happened to see Art while we were down there as well, again, much to our surprise. What is this? We go to another city, much larger than our own, and we see people we haven’t seen in years? Never under-estimate the drawing power of white-boy piano mosh rock.

It was good to see Arthur. I miss Art. A lot. I think he and I shared a lot of similarities, and quirks. We are both too emotionally sheltered and too easy to “give up” on a relationship. And never let ourselves down for it. It was good to see him. We all appreciate good Art. (tee-hee).

Well, so anyway, BACK TO THE SHOW. It rocked. HARD. The new backing band (now with guitar!) is awesome, and the encore was a lot of Ben Folds Five stuff, including a 10 minute version of “Song for the Dumped”. I felt real good after leaving, and I still do. It was okay to just do the white-boy shuffle, hear a song that made me sullen, and then turn around and rock out hard, to a guy playing a piano…

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Sep 28 2001 ~ 12:01 am ~ Comments (4) ~
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Go, and read an article about men of Arab descent being removed from flights, and try not to become enraged.

And why were they removed? Because, and I quote, “the crew didn’t feel comfortable“, or “didn’t feel safe”. One man, Ashraf Khan, a Pakistani, was removed from a flight in Texas — and missed flights to take him to his brothers wedding. None of the people removed — including a 15 year old Saudi boy — were perceived as a “threat”, and were later cleared.

Everyone right now feels uncomfortable, unsafe, and the people who feel the most uncomfortable? Americans of Arab descent.

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Sep 22 2001 ~ 11:12 pm ~ Comments Off ~
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Microsoft’s Frontpage 2002 has just been released — and with this disparaging piece of text in it’s EULA?:

“You may not use the Software in connection with any site that disparages Microsoft, MSN, MSNBC, Expedia, or their products or services, infringe any intellectual property or other rights of these parties, violate any state, federal or international law, or promote racism, hatred or pornography.”

Now, come on! I know that they’ll retract this after anyone who isn’t a totalitarian maniac collectively blows up about it. I know this will happen, so I don’t really care about the after-effects. What I do wonder and worry about is how in the hell could a company with so many talented, obviously intelligent people come up with something so blindingly arrogant, brash, and just plain STUPID?! That is one thing that really, really irks me about large corporations and the culture they provide.

Just think — THERE HAD TO BE A MEETING ABOUT THIS. Whenever I see a blantantly dunderheaded move on the part of a company, or even just an obviously wrong piece of marketing, i think “There had to be a meeting about this”. Where good, smart people who drive in the same cars we do, walk the same streets, breathe the same air, get together in a room, and make horribly inane decisions. Think. For. Yourself. Don’t check your intelligence, your common sense, your rationality at the door to your workplace. If something doesn’t sit right with you — object. You’ll feel better about it in the morning.

Oh, and you’ll be happy to know that this website was not edited, manufactured, or in any way touches a piece of Microsoft Technology… and I think MSNBC isn’t worth the pixels it pushes to me or the photons on my TV… and I fully promote pornography… of Matt Lauer.

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Sep 21 2001 ~ 1:07 pm ~ Comments Off ~
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New pictures are up in the gallery — mainly the cat, Karen, and of Kelly’s cake — as so noted!

I haven’t had a chance to taste said cake, but preliminary reports say that it will be tastee and yummee. In that order.

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Sep 17 2001 ~ 11:57 pm ~ Comments Off ~
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Sep12

I Feel Ill..

So ill. The last time I felt like this, I was 12 years old, and the Desert Shield had just turned into Desert Storm. “Is this war?” I asked my mom. Even though it was thousands of miles away, in a land I’d only seen in pictures, I felt this horrible pang in my stomach. I feel like that now, even though I’m older, and I think I understand the world better.

But this. This strikes at home. This enemy has no face. “No return address” as they kept saying on TV. This enemy is not military. This enemy has rules only governed by the most base human quality of hatred.

And at the same time, I can’t help but to feel that this could have been averted. Our foreign policy has gone to shit — we back a country that chooses to defend itself in manners in which we would never dare. Did we not rebel against a tyrranous empire? Did we not fight for our own scrap of land? Our own brand of freedom?

I try to stay as neutral as I can. But when such a horrifyingly scheme, so precise, so cunning, so evil is exacted upon civilians — whether they be on our soil or on anothers, that cannot stand.

I feel so ill. I haven’t eaten. My head aches with the images I’ve seen today. Boxed in. Trapped.

if any of you happened to see the story that was up here earlier — click below
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i apologize. it was posted earlier this morning, and due to a bug in the code (related to the billenium it didn’t show up until i fixed the bug. it was crude, and just plain wrong. i apologize again. thanks be to hunter for knocking some sense into me.

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Sep 12 2001 ~ 12:42 am ~ Comments (3) ~
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After a lengthy stretch of service, theLocust II (a beefy Celeron 400Mhz machine) decided to take a dive on Wednesday night, whilst I was playing Day Of Defeat on my Linux machine using Wine. Not a happy man was I! But lo! From the ashes of that little holocaust arises it’s predecessor — gone from public view for 12 months, laying idle — the original theLocust (a Pentium 100Mhz machine). All I had to do was put the network cards and hard drive from theLocust II into theLocust, and she fired up no problemo!

Methinks that the motherboard went bad in it. It was only a spry 2 years old or so (I’m guessing!), and that Pentium 100 motherboard is easily 6 or 7. They sure don’t make ‘em like they used to!

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Sep 7 2001 ~ 8:56 am ~ Comments Off ~
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Hey all you loyal theLocustRadio fans — i’m in the process of moving the radio streamer to the MP3 box, so I can do more adventurous things with the radio station. The radio widget on the right will be broken for the time being — but in the meantime, you can still listen by clicking HERE or opening “https://thelocust.org:8000″ in your favorite MP3 player!

More soon!

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Sep 3 2001 ~ 11:32 pm ~ Comments Off ~
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I just read a really good article over at Kuro5hin regarding one’s trip through detox. ‘What drug?’ you ask. It’s not one that many would consider worthy of the gut-wrenching soul-crushing ordeal that we’ve come to see in movie-detoxes.

An interesting perspective on drugs and excess in general. The comments to the story are nearly as good as this little anecdote itself. The “geek” culture isn’t know for it’s heavy use of “normal drugs” (i.e. pot, coke, LSD, etc) — not for drugs not for mind expansion, but drugs to enhance concentration, elongate the short hours of the day, etc.

What makes a “drug”? Well, it’s anything really — sex, toast, coffee, pot — whatever. The outcome is the same. The body, the person, the mind craves whatever it is, even to do the smallest tasks. Bored? Do it. Just ate? Do it. About to eat? Do it. Waking up? Do it. Going to sleep? Do it. Party? Do it. It’s all the same, really. Some drugs are worse than others, for sure, but the mental position is essentially the same.

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Aug 30 2001 ~ 8:50 am ~ Comments (4) ~
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So do real, competent D.J.’s ever do weddings as I side gig? I wasn’t sure. Would it be an affront to their musical sensibilities? Are they willing to slum for a gig that pays the occasional fat bag of cash money?

I guess it’s analogous to the question — do web developers/designers ever do the occasional porn site? Do they ever throw up something for the local barber? Where do taste/morals/ethics collide?

Below is a short conversation on that very subject — a promising local DJ, skilled in the arts of the ambient, the trance, the “weird” — offered the job of DJ’ing a wedding. An affront? A sack of cash? Where is the line drawn?!
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BenCorvus: hey there!

weird*@%!: howdy

BenCorvus: i’m going to ask you a question which may undermine your entrie indie credibility

weird*@%!: heheh

weird*@%!: go

BenCorvus: you ever do weddings?

BenCorvus: hehe

weird*@%!: like dj at weddings?

BenCorvus: yah

weird*@%!: i have before

weird*@%!: it’s not the most glorious gig

BenCorvus: no, it’s not — but it’s good for the cash

weird*@%!: exactly

BenCorvus: well, Kelly and I are going to be married next spring

weird*@%!: and you need a dj…

BenCorvus: and i thought “who is the first dj who pops to mind?”

weird*@%!: superstar dj jason clark

BenCorvus: and then i thought “oh my, no! he’s TOO COOL”

weird*@%!: heheh… ya got that right, mister

weird*@%!: ;-)

BenCorvus: “it would undermine his indie cred, and he would scoff”

BenCorvus: hehe

weird*@%!: sheeeeesh

BenCorvus: hehe

weird*@%!: hmmm….

BenCorvus: well, give it some thought — i don’t even know how much money would be appropriate

weird*@%!: yeah… i’ll think about it… just don’t make me play the electric slide

BenCorvus: all i know is that NORMALLY, and by NORMALLY, i mean all the goddamned time

BenCorvus: OH NO!

BenCorvus: it’s funny you mention that

BenCorvus: kelly’s mother LOVES the electric slide

BenCorvus: i hate it

weird*@%!: kill me now

weird*@%!: ;-)

BenCorvus: i said “any self-respecting DJ would shoot themselves, or at least make a feeble attempt to wash away the dirty feeling”

weird*@%!: ha ha!!

weird*@%!: let me mull it over

BenCorvus: well, like i said, I didn’t know if you even did this, and if you did, if you still would.

BenCorvus: aight

BenCorvus: well, the opportunity is there — and thanks for the backup on the Electric Slide

BenCorvus: no duck dance, though! i managed to squeeze that one in.

weird*@%!: sometimes things like that are a blast, but then again sometimes they are _scary_

BenCorvus: true

BenCorvus: i’m attempting to avoid the “scary”

weird*@%!: gimme a couple days to think about it… is the date set?

BenCorvus: April 26th 2002

BenCorvus: yah, mull it over

BenCorvus: like Martin Mull

weird*@%!: alright… congrats either way!

BenCorvus: why thanks!

BenCorvus: you can go by a codename

BenCorvus: Dr. Octagon

BenCorvus: we’ll keep it on the hush-hust

BenCorvus: the QT

weird*@%!: yeah right

weird*@%!: ;-)

filed under General and then tagged as
Aug 27 2001 ~ 1:17 pm ~ Comments (1) ~
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