DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

I stumbled across MusicPlasma [update 2007-03-28: now called LivePlasma] — “the music visual search engine.” Type in a band name and it draws nifty diagrams of related bands. The graphs are navigable, sort of. (My experience indicates that the company hasn’t worked out all the kinks yet.)

Physical proximity within a map indicates musical “closeness.” Also, bands are clustered by genre and epoch: a search for REO Speedwagon lists every band I heard on the radio when I was in grade school. (I once saw Supertramp in concert. And Styx! That was my favorite band in 1977.)

Next I entered “Camel,” a band I’ve been digging for 20 years. The resulting diagram contains nearly every band I listen to regularly, and several I should be. It contains every major progressive rock band I can think of.

Some of the bands are surprising — the “Beatles?” Who are they?

These charts remind me of the Family Tree diagrams drawn by Pete Frame in the 1980s. The one I remember best is from the 20th Anniversary Box Set for Jethro Tull. Here it is, in glorious grayscale mid-fidelity complete with JPEG artifacting: Pete Frame’s Family Tree for Jethro Tull, 1968-1988.

Frame’s family trees are dense with the chronology of rock history; the charts show the incestuous development of the best bands of the 1970s and 1980s. The first book, Rock Family Trees, traces Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, Genesis, The Police, King Crimson, Fleetwood Mac, the Yardbirds, and many more. If you’ve ever pored over liner notes while the record was playing, you need to see this book.

The second volume, More Rock Family Trees, contains Jeff Beck, Black Sabbath, CSN&Y, The Cult, Bob Dylan, Buddy Holly, Iron Maiden, Ozzy Osbourne, Pink Floyd, Santana, Sex Pistols, Siouxsie & The Banshees, The Smiths, Spirit, The Velvet Underground, and about a thousand more. Cool, cool, cool.

The Chronicle reports on new laws about GMail: Bill puts limit on ads in e-mail:

In an effort to protect user privacy, the state Senate voted Thursday to place limits on Google’s new e-mail service and its controversial advertising policies.

Seems like an overreaction, doesn’t it? I mean, Google’s offering a feature-rich web-based email service for free… who cares if they show some ads alongside the messages?

But maybe Google is not so innocent after all. The print version of the Chronicle article claims:

Google … had originally planned to save deleted messages indefinitely and collect information about individual users to create databases of their preferences for marketing purposes.

The above passage does not appear in the online version of the article. The online version has apparently been revised:

Because of the wording of Gmail’s terms of service, some privacy groups were concerned that Google would save deleted messages indefinitely and collect information about individual users to create datatbases of user preferences for marketing purposes. Google denies any such plans.

Well, never mind then!

I needed to get a fresh nylon cord for my QLink. There’s a bead store downtown that although on previous visits seemed awash in negative energy — in fact my departing thought my first time there was “I’m never coming back in here!” — would certainly have a supply of suitable cord.

Sure enough, the store had a spool of precisely the material I wanted.

“How much is this?” I asked, motioning at the specific spool.

“It’s a dollar per yard,” replied the clerk.

“I don’t need a yard,” I said. “I just need enough to hang this thing around my neck.” I was thinking that about 24 inches would do fine.

“We usually sell it by the yard,” said the clerk in a tone suggesting the customer is never right.

So, chastised, I cut off one yard of material, slightly annoyed that before the end of the day one-third of it would be sitting in a trash can. I fished a dollar bill out of my wallet and laid it on the counter. The clerk poked at her register and said, “That will be $1.08.”

And I thought, I didn’t need a whole yard. I didn’t want a whole yard. I very nearly cut off twelve inches’ worth of cord and asked her to refund me 33¢, rather than break a dollar to pay the tax.

But no, I’m far too kind and patient with people in general, especially retail salespeople, especially retail salespeople already burdened with a lack of common sense, not to mention business sense, not to mention fashion sense, not to mention a dead-end job in a bead store. I noticed a little dish of coins on the counter and began reaching for it. I sensed an immediate defensiveness, an aura of palpable tension encasing the dish of coins like a force-field. I paused.

“Can I dip into your penny jar for the 8¢ tax?”

“No, that’s our change.”

Well, of course it is. That’s how penny jars work.

She made me break a second dollar, though. I left with too much nylon cord and 92¢ change in my pocket. My departing thought? “I’m never coming back in here!”

Here’s a handy tool for your inner health fanatic. (Yes, you have an inner health fanatic. It’s down inside there, behind the brownies.)

CalorieKing.com offers a searchable database of nutritional information for produce as well as packaged foods… everything from amaranth to zwieback.

The search engine is nice. Enter ‘trader’ to see a selection of Trader Joe’s products. Enter ‘avocado’ to see a choice: California or Florida? Enter ‘Subway’ to see a 5-page list of what appears to be the restaurant chain’s entire menu.

The database contains basic stats on protein, fat, calories, fiber, cholesterol, sodium, etc.

On a related note, I found a great quote about the role of the food industry in American society’s obesity epidemic, in a Harvard Magazine article called The Way We Eat Now: Ancient bodies collide with modern technology to produce a flabby, disease-ridden populace. (linked from Kottke.org)

There’s the incessant advertising and marketing of the poorest quality foods imaginable.

Something to think about when the next Cheetos or Taco Bell ad comes on.

MoveOn sent me an email claiming The Day After Tomorrow is “the movie the White House doesn’t want you to see.”

That’s just dumb. It’s clear to me that the folks in the White House are naive, or deceitful about the dangers of global warming, but do I think they really care whether I see the latest Hollywood blockbuster? Um, no. I think — well, I hope — Bush & Co. are thinking about Iraq and the economy and national security, and not about whether I go see some celluloid fantasy about tidal waves and icicles.

I think MoveOn has done an amazing job of engaging citizens in the political process, and I hope they never stop. But this, in my opinion, is a misstep; they’ve apparently overlooked this important lesson from history. I’d rather they go a day, just one day, without emailing me about some damn perceived emergency or other, than bother me about a movie. Sheesh.