http://bobostertag.com/writings-blog-news.php en-us CuteNews http://bobostertag.com/writings-blog-news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1258434402&archive=
http://fundamentallysound.org/2009/10/04/creative-life/]]> 1258434402 Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:06:42 -0700 http://bobostertag.com/writings-blog-news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1251160977&archive= Creative Life: Music, Politics, People, and Machines (University of Illinois Press, 2009). It is a collection of essay covering all of my pursuits.
Here is a link to the publisher's page where you can read about and order one if you like. ]]> 1251160977 Mon, 24 Aug 2009 17:42:57 -0700 http://bobostertag.com/writings-blog-news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1207332494&archive=
Here

Note that Huffington Post has a feature where you can click to make yourself a "fan" of my blog. If you do this, you will get an email alert every time I make a new posting.

Also, Huffington Post keeps track of how many "fans" each writer has, and the more "fans" I have the more readers will be likely to find my blog.

Thanks!]]> 1207332494 Fri, 04 Apr 2008 11:08:14 -0700 http://bobostertag.com/writings-blog-news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1207332236&archive=
Here

Note that Huffington Post has a feature where you can click to make yourself a "fan" of my blog. If you do this, you will get an email alert every time I make a new posting.

Also, Huffington Post keeps track of how many "fans" each writer has, and the more "fans" I have the more readers will be likely to find my blog.

Thanks!]]> 1207332236 Fri, 04 Apr 2008 11:03:56 -0700 http://bobostertag.com/writings-blog-news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1205367271&archive=
The Salmon fisheries of California and Oregon have no collapsed, on a scale "suggesting a broad-scale ocean survival problem."

How does one grieve for this?

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/12/MNSLVHTM5.DTL]]> 1205367271 Wed, 12 Mar 2008 17:14:31 -0700 http://bobostertag.com/writings-blog-news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1203179804&archive=
here:
http://bobostertag.com/writings-election-blog.php

or here:
http://think-harder.dailykos.com/
]]> 1203179804 Sat, 16 Feb 2008 09:36:44 -0700 http://bobostertag.com/writings-blog-news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1199835693&archive=
100,000 new voters! for Democrats in a white state for a black candidate! I have been waiting all my adult life for such a thing.

More than health care, the environment, or the way, as of election night in Iowa the issue has become the "movement" that has exploded around Obama. The Obama campaign has become more of a movement than a campaign, and this is profound. If this can be moved to New Hampshire, then the sky is the limit. This could be a real transformational moment.

There is still the nagging question of why his policy proposal for health care is not better, and the even bigger question of exactly how his "neither blue state nor red state but united states" thing will play out, in terms of what compromises he is really willing to make, and who will actually get a seat at his table. But all of that is secondary now. and at any rate, the more left the movement underneath him goes, the more it will pull him in the same direction.

I am planning on spending a good deal of time volunteering for Obama.

I am also very happy about Huckabee as well. Yes, he is awful on gays, and abortion, and a long list of things. His economics are quack. And I certainly would never ever want him to be president. But he is not going to be president, so we don’t have to worry about that. Nevertheless, his victory is a major development. Since 1980 (all of my adult life), American politics has been heavily skewed by the alliance between evangelicals, big business, and the far right of the Republican Party. This coalition has profoundly shaped American politics for nearly 30 years. Huckabee is the end of that politics. He is an evangelical with populist economics, and he won with no money and no party support. He represents the fact that the coalition of evangelicals, big business, and the far right has run out of gas. Huckabee genuinely cares about class. And hey, why shouldn't Christians care about class?!? Combined with recent evangelical activism on global warming, this is really a sea change for the country.

Hooray!

When was the last time I had something this big to cheer about in this country? Nixon’s resignation comes to mind, nearly 40 years ago…]]> 1199835693 Tue, 08 Jan 2008 16:41:33 -0700 http://bobostertag.com/writings-blog-news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1199349207&archive=
Here

So global warming and all other environmental issues are all well and good, but when it comes to getting votes, to "real" politics, it is not even in the building. Despite all the books, articles, prizes, movies, and activism.]]> 1199349207 Thu, 03 Jan 2008 01:33:27 -0700 http://bobostertag.com/writings-blog-news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1197440903&archive=
NASA climate scientist Jay Zwally says: "The Arctic is often cited as the canary in the coal mine for climate warming," said Zwally, who as a teenager hauled coal. "Now ... the canary has died. It is time to start getting out of the coal mines."

If, in the space of a few years, climate modelers go from saying the ice will melt in a century or two, to a few decades, to 2040, and then to five years from now, an intelligent person who was not intellectually invested in defending the models would have to conclude that there are feedback mechanisms at play that the modelers do not comprehend. And that the "worst case scenarios" they talk about are not really "worst case scenarios" but simply the outer limit of the models they currently have. To call such scenarios "worst case" is deeply misleading. The only rational conclusion is that the real "worst case scenario" is that everything will happen much faster and be much worse than anything the present models anticipate.

Washington Post article here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/11/AR2007121101347.html

This graphic pretty much tells the story:
http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003400/a003464/yearly_composite.mp4
]]> 1197440903 Tue, 11 Dec 2007 23:28:23 -0700 http://bobostertag.com/writings-blog-news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1196144197&archive= All the Rage, my string quartet recorded by the Kronos Quartet, is now available for free download from this web site.

This makes a total of 15 CD's now available from free download.

All the Rage was originally released in 1993. The composition was created by transcribing the sounds of a queer riot in San Francisco into string parts. It was premiered by the Kronos Quartet at Lincoln Center. In its review of the concert, the New York Times wrote:

"Bob Ostertag's "All the Rage" turned the evening on its head with a devastating roar of gay anger. Of recent concert pieces having to do with AIDS, "All the Rage" seems by far the most powerful example. Mr. Ostertag's stern, purifying gaze has swept away the sentimentality and melodrama that have compromised more famous compositions in the genre."

I hope you enjoy the music.]]> 1196144197 Mon, 26 Nov 2007 23:16:37 -0700 http://bobostertag.com/writings-blog-news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1193962269&archive=
Now, I am a pretty open-minded guy, and all kinds of sexual activity which seems to disturb most Americans is just fine with me. But a politician who pays a young street hustler to have unsafe sex, trying to use the guy's need for money for the opportunity to possibly infect him with HIV, that is sick. I hope is all the hubbub about Republican hypocrisy this fact is not overlooked. It is the one part of the story that actually is criminal.

Of course, I have no idea whether Curtis is HIV+ or not. But given what we now know about how reckless and irresponsible his sexual activity is, the odds of him having HIV have got be to pretty good.

The other thing that gets me is how stupid Curtis is. I mean, this guy is a Republican politician, who hires a hustler to have kinky sex in a hotel room, offers the guy $1000 for sex unsafe, and then, when the hustler takes his wallet when Curtis won't pay up, Curtis goes to the police to try to get his wallet back, thinking this will not become a media story.

Forget about the whole issue of closeted homos voting against gay rights, how did this guy ever become a politician? He is an idiot! What Republican party hack recruited him to run for office? Who ran this guy's campaign? Didn't anyone notice he was a moron? How do people in the state of Washington feel about having a dunce writing the laws under which they will live?

CNN's coverage of it is pretty funny:
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2007/10/31/costello.gop.sex.scandal.cnn

MSNBC coverage is here:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21568392/]]> 1193962269 Thu, 01 Nov 2007 17:11:09 -0700 http://bobostertag.com/writings-blog-news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1193255284&archive=
Clearly, the music industry and British law enforcement believe that the only way to stop people from using the computers they legally own for such an obvious and compelling purpose as sharing music is not only to prosecute music-sharers as hard core criminals, but also to present them as such to the media.

All musicians who continue to sell recordings of their music should take note that this is being done on their behalf. Even if you are nog signed to a major label and do not approve of this, it is this sort of action that is preventing peopel from sharing all music freely, and you are thus a direct beneificiary of these draconian police actions.

BBC video here ]]> 1193255284 Wed, 24 Oct 2007 12:48:04 -0700 http://bobostertag.com/writings-blog-news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1192687512&archive=
http://gaygamer.net/2007/10/w00t_a_sound_collage_of_game_s_1.html"]]> 1192687512 Wed, 17 Oct 2007 23:05:12 -0700 http://bobostertag.com/writings-blog-news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1192668421&archive=
This is the mirror link:

http://rapidshare.com/files/63288151/w00t.mp3

Thanks to Sascha.]]> 1192668421 Wed, 17 Oct 2007 17:47:01 -0700 http://bobostertag.com/writings-blog-news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1192668331&archive=
This is the mirror link:

http://rapidshare.com/files/63288151/w00t.mp3

Thanks to Sascha.]]> 1192668331 Wed, 17 Oct 2007 17:45:31 -0700