] Douglas Rushkoff, author of eight books on media and
] culture, as well as the novels Ecstasy Club and Exit
] Strategy, marks his graphic novel debut with Club Zero-G.
] Teaming with Canadian independent comic artist Steph
] Dumais, Rushkoff has delivered America's answer to
] Japan's animé: a mind-altering journey into a universe
] where consensus reality is up for grabs.
]
] The story follows Zeke, a gangly, unpopular, 19-year-old
] college student-a townie who also happens to attend the
] elite college in his community-who has discovered a
] terrific new club where he is accepted and popular.
] There's only one catch: everyone at the club is dreaming.
] It only exists in the shared dream consciousness of its
] participants. If at all.

This sounds like it might be cool...

Amazon.com: Books: Club Zero-G

What if you could file-share someone's consciousness? Would it be a violation, or the ultimate communication therapy?

Obviously the sort of thing that ought to be recommended frequently on MemeStreams. Can you really spend reputation...

Salon.com | Truncat by Cory Doctorow

] "They made the machines. That's what I'm trying to tell
] you. Meat made the machines."
]
] "That's ridiculous. How can meat make a machine? You're
] asking me to believe in sentient meat."
]
] "I'm not asking you, I'm telling you. These creatures are
] the only sentient race in that sector and they're made
] out of meat."
]
] "Maybe they're like the orfolei. You know, a carbon-based
] intelligence that goes through a meat stage."
]
] "Nope. They're born meat and they die meat. We studied
] them for several of their life spans, which didn't take
] long. Do you have any idea what's the life span of meat?"

Before The Matrix, There was Only Meat

I like military surplus clothing. I like it because its drab... not flashy. I like it because its got a lot of pockets. I like it because its made for a purpose rather then a market. I like it because it doesn't have a brand. Military surplus clothing is the closest you can come to wearing something that isn't an advertisement for itself. Something that exists outside of the ever shifting moods of fashion.

Of course, I don't really own any military surplus clothing. The reason is that actually buying it is a pain in the ass. You have to order it out of specialty catalogs that cater to gun fetishists and shell shocked Vietnam veterans or travel out during banking hours to run down little outlets in the worst parts of town. Putting a huge amount of effort into avoiding fashion is exactly the same as putting a huge amount of effort into following it. I don't care and I don't want to care.

So I shop at Abercrombie and Fitch. A&F sells knock off military surplus clothing. It looks right. Its comfortable. Its available in any shopping mall in America. Its conveinient. I shop there for exactly the same reason that all geeks hate radio shack and yet slip in there on a regular basis. Because even though it sucks, its the easiest way to get what you need.

A&F is an extremely strange establishment. They sell clothing that is supposed to look like it came from a thrift shop and is 5-10 years old. But they put their logo on all of it. Promimently. So that everyone knows you bought it at an upscale store. You want to look like you shop at the thrift store but you want everyone to know that you shop at an expensive place. Quite an absurd paradox.

Fortunately, the logos on the pants aren't prominent. Thats what I usually buy there. Pants. The logos still annoy the hell out of me. I've considered cutting them off, but they are well attached, and they are subtle enough. Again, putting a huge amount of effort into avoiding fashion is the same thing as following it.

So I was there two months ago. I was with my sister. I needed a coat. I was out of luck. So I went across the hall into another store, which was literally an A&F knock off. Tommie Hillfiger to my Ralph Lauren. My sister warned me not to go in, but I insisted. It was so bad in there that it literally made my skin crawl.

Thats what this book is about.

The fads that rise out of the ether that you identify with because they mean something real, and the fads that are handed down by the Gap which you shudder at because they are inhuman. The way you can usually FEEL the difference, on sight.

This website is a grand experiment at figuring out if we can find those real fads at their source and make them move faster. And at the same time an attempt to escape those Gap fads that Americans want free of so desperately that the emotions manifest as protest movements against international finance bodies. And this website even has its own fake fad now, four strange looking boxes in the corner of your screen. And really the only way this site will be able to support itself is through advertising. Quite an absurd paradox.

I've only just started reading this book, but I think its likely to be required reading for MemeStreamers. I'm finding it full of rich observations on the subjects at hand.

] George Bush doesn't sound as mean and stupid as I would
] have expected. Or maybe I'm just in a frame of mind to
] cut him slack. There are three armed Secret Service men
] here in my bedroom/Dogyears-World-Headquarters.

I love Rudy Rucker. This is basically Robert Wilsonesque nerdcore. Its fast and fun.

The Infinite Matrix | Rudy Rucker and Rudy Rucker, Jr. | Jenna and Me

Gibson's novel succeeds in being both up-to-the-nanosecond and also, in Cayce's highest praise, "curiously difficult to date."

NYT reviews the new Gibson novel. You can also listen to audio of Gibson reading an excerpt from the book (approximately 13 minutes).

'Pattern Recognition': The Coolhunter

] Wi-Fi radio and Indian sovereignty make for a potent mix
] -- even without antsy venture capitalists mucking things
] up.

Liberation spectrum - Another Doctorow short story online

] Yeah, there are legal problems. Yeah, it's hard to figure
] out how people are gonna make money doing it. Yeah, there
] is a lot of social upheaval and a serious threat to
] innovation, freedom, business, and whatnot. It's your basic
] end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it scenario, and as a science
] fiction writer, end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it scenaria are
] my stock-in-trade.

Is scenaria a word? Anyway, Cory Doctorow's new novel is available today, and for FREE on the Internet. Download here.

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom - Free Download

] So welcome, and special thanks to those of you who
] arrived early and started colonizing the place before it
] was even completed. That really cheered me up, a couple
] of weeks ago. I don’t have to feel I’m moving into an
] empty (and dishearteningly brand-new) structure. There
] is already some human space here, the start of that
] sense of duration and habitation, and soon there’ll be,
] I hope, more.

] In spite of (or perhaps because of) my reputation as a
] reclusive quasi-Pynchonian luddite shunning the net (or
] word-processors, depending on what you Google) I hope
] to be here on a more or less daily basis.

Its live now!

William Gibson's Blog

logickal wrote:

] I'm currently adding to my list of things to add to my library
] in 03, and am accepting suggestions and recommendations. Got
] any?

Some things on my list:

SmartMobs: www.smartmobs.com

Linked: The new science of networks

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom: Cory Doctorow

JLM recommended the new Michael Crichton book, Prey, which is about Nanotech disasters.

And of course I'm trying to keep my reading ahead of the LOTR movies.

RE: Pattern Recognition, by William Gibson