Park Displace

I was kind of thinking that Oakland was OWS’ Altamont. What with the nearby murders and all. Maybe that’s just Welcome To Oakland behavior?

Damn. I had to be in the city yesterday for an appointment in Chinatown. My plan was to walk over to Zuccoti which plan got updated to a subway to Cortland St. However, I got on the wrong train and ended up in Brooklyn. I was not afraid because I have been to Brooklyn at least twice before. However, I was over sight-seeing and got the D train to W4 then changed to the C to Port Authority. So I guess I missed my chance to mingle with the 99%.

I did sit beside a representative of the Angry Wing of OWS on the bus down who gave me a very hard time before she cleared her seat of knitting paraphenalia and let me sit down. Then she kept jabbing me with her elbow as she knitted furiously. It was like sitting next to Mme Defarge.

In other breaking news I have finished the Jobs bio which I thought very second-rate. Highlights? The four quadrants on the whiteboard after his return and his own words at the end. Worst part? The biographer inserting himself into the story without admitting that’s what he was doing. Most surprising aspect? Jobs wasn’t very intelligent and had no culture it seems. Although that could be an aspect of the book. And also, the much-vaunted pursuit of perfection comes to seem utterly trivial. The iPad, it would seem, was designed to destroy our ability to concentrate. Most glaring omission? No mention of Bang & Olufsen whose design team, I would suggest, are responsible for the look of Apple’s anodized aluminum line. Most tiresome aspect? The temper tantrums and obsession with money. Most irritating? Branding equated with art, designers designing the spelling of their name, and invocations of Zen as one is mowing down the staff coupled with the thought that one is somehow defining oneself by the habitual wearing of black mock turtlenecks. Funniest? Bill Gates’s complete lack of comprehension and predictions of disaster each time Jobs drags us all off on some expensive new adventure.

@Benedick:
Ever considered writing for the NYT Book of Reviews?

Welcome to Nerdville.

I kind of understand Jobs’ obsession with “perfection” after the Newton Fiasco, but I have to say that the aesthetics never attracted me as much as it was the non crashing PC without as much a taint of Gates’ OS on it but then again I am an engineer who prefers functional over good looking (for the most part.)