kmazz

I once heard an amateur field recording ornithologist mimic the song of a few tropical rain forest birds he had identified on various scientific expeditions. He was the late, great Ted Parker, and his passion for birds was such that he had memorized the distinct songs of more than 300 different bird species. Of all the voices of the earth, those of birds, as Ted demonstrated, carry an enormous power to delight us if we listen and hear.

All I have to compare is the ordinary cacophony of early morning wake up calls coming in my open window but I’m happy for it. The wonderful sound binds me to the natural world, and its ritualization of spring is a comfort. I wake, listen and strain to make sense of the chatter. And sometimes I wonder if the finches, jays, flickers and bushtits are raising their voices to be heard over the distant roar of the highway, airplanes and other unnatural sounds.

So does scientist Bernie Krause, according to Clive Thompson of Wired magazine. Krause says biophony — the pristine sound of the world — is being drowned out by anthrophony, or man made noise. It isn’t just that birds and other animals need to shout, it is that the spectrum on which their calls operate is being interfered with and the flow of information among and between species is interrupted. This can mean life and death for these creatures.

To my mind, this situation isn’t just a matter of what we lose. Given our altered ecology, what will arrive to take their place? More red ants?

I’ve mentioned before how much I like being around designers and tech people. Their enthusiasm is infectious and their optimism seems of an appealingly innocent nature. So I really enjoyed BarCamp Portland, now in its second year. Here’s what I noticed:

*More women this year. Yeah! There are a lot of gals who love to code, not just knit.
*More men in skirts this year. Seriously, the Utilikilt company in Seattle is getting a real following with geeks and, I’ve heard, with Burners (as in Burning Man).
*OpenID needs to build some steam. Last year, I succumbed to Twitter. This year, I’m checking out this tech to make my life signing on to web easier much easier. But there is no groundswell yet.
*Speaking of Twitter — I thought I really knew about this stuff. Apparently there is advanced Twitter use of which I can only stand in awe.
*I got a new way of looking at Twitter, Google Reader, YouTube and feeds. They represent the rapid fragmentation of the Web and perhaps the rise of widgets as a means to content.

Next up: Ignite Portland 3.

I’m a little late posting this thought. It’s been with me for a few weeks, ever since the news reports started appearing on Americans’ lack of interest in Iraq themed movies.

Some say that’s because Americans are so upbeat about the war’s progress that any whiff of criticism doesn’t resonate. Others seem to gloat about how patriotic Americans are snubbing the anti-mainstream, un-patriotic Hollywood depiction of a military behaving badly.

Pesonally, most of these movies I am not the least bit inclined to see, but not for a lack of interest in the theme but because they got bad reviews. However, “Stop Loss” received mostly good ones and it’s on my list for when it is out on DVD or On Demand. I can’t bear the ads and trailers at the Cineplex so tend to stick to HD at home.

At the same time that Americans are rejecting the Iraq war movies, they are rejecting horror porn. Any connection?

In the mid to late 1940s, a new genre of cinema emerged in post-war Italy that would influence filmmakers from France to Japan. The neo-realists shot films that were so raw in their depiction of the poverty and hard scrabble lives of society’s powerless that few people could bear to watch. After WWII, upbeat American musicals made them feel better. And how could it have been any different?

Hollywood’s body of work on Iraq is at this point far from the art and achievement of the neo-realists. But maybe the phenomenon of audiences staying away is the same. Spiderman, Pirates of the Caribbean, Harry Potter — those are the winners at the box office today. No gore, all fantasy.

I wonder if there is something else going on. If there is any morality in this world, it would provide us with a collective guilt for sending so many to their deaths for no apparent good reason and with virtually no sacrifice of our own (yet). God forbid we should want to be reminded about that at the movies.

(Painting: Goya’s Saturn)

Spent the day Saturday at the local Startupalooza, a social/business event showcasing small start-ups based in Portland. Lots of tweeps I’d never met before were there along with old pals from my old enterprise software PR days.

Observation: we will have a golden age of tech in Portland soon enough. There are more and more small companies producing ingeniously useful software being created by young and passionate people who move here to be Portlanders and who then intend to stay instead of shipping out to the Bay area, NYC or Boston.

I’ve already started using this creation and will soon download this one for my Facebook page.

This is a recurring theme here. We overreact on security and apply tough measures in the wrong places, we scapegoat immigrants for our economic ills and crises of identity, and we risk ending up poorer and isolated. With any luck we’ll have a President of USA in 2009 who will see the folly of the current situation and apply progressive policies to fix it.

Recently I spoke with the dean of a highly regarded business school in Canada, who has ambitions to raise the school’s standing so it is at a level with the best of the US schools. He said the best thing that has happened to his plans to recruit internationally was the Bush administration. Students from all over the world who are accepted by Harvard and Stanford are told by INS that visas cannot be expedited. They give up and go to Canada or other countries. Their gain, our loss.