the Mark Pike

For those of you who keep track of me via this blog, I am currently in DC. I’ll be working all summer for the Electronic Privacy Information Center as a clerk.

If you’re interested in the type of work I’ll be doing, check out the job description. Also, I’ll post links to our work product when it’s appropriate

After a fun 2 years, I packed up all of my belongings into a 14 foot U-Haul and headed down 14th St.

I’m back home in Virginia Beach now, base camp for the rest of the summer. Stay tuned, though. I might be taking a big road trip in the near future.

It’s my last day of work at the Center for American Progress.

Now, I’ve got about 6 weeks of vacation before Law School.

I’m hoping I don’t wake up at 7:42AM every morning this summer out of habit.

Lawrence Lessig swung by our office on Friday to give a lecture on “How D.C. pathologies are undermining the growth and wealth of the Net.” Lessig is a very dynamic speaker and was highly entertaining to see in person. I’ll update this post with links to a video of his talk for anybody who wants to get their geek on.

It was great to get the chance to meet him in person, and I’m even going to have the opportunity to send him some questions for a featured interview on Campus Progress. If you have any burning questions to ask Lessig, send them my way ASAP.

Pasted below is the first paragraph of my essay I sent out for Law Skool applications:

“On the eve of the 2004 presidential election, I remixed a C-SPAN speech given by a Congressional representative from Ohio. I spliced a hip-hop beat behind his words and then I posted it on my blog. Soon thereafter, Lawrence Lessig, “the Elvis of Cyber Law” and one of my heroes, somehow found it online and wrote me to say that he thought the video was great. He encouraged me to put it up on a new website he had created that enabled people to disseminate political videos. I posted it and the movie clip spread across the Internet; I began receiving correspondence from folks all over the globe. The experience heightened my awareness of how technology will reshape the face of democracy.”.

Here’s a pic of me and Lessig. I sarcastically told him I’d send him doubles, and by that I clearly meant check out my Flickr feed. I also got a book signed to put on the shelf next to the Yochai Benkler autographed book. Sheesh, I’m a dork.

“My face is melting!” I found myself repeating that phrase throughout the Wolfmother concert last evening at the Black Cat. The throwback guitar solos and power riffs and soaring vocals and the outrageous grandeur of every song left you with no other option but to throw up your hands and fists in approval. I even played air guitar on several tunes much to the amusement of the folks in my vicinity. It’s possible I tore a hamstring.

Sounds like? Black Sabbath. Led Zeppelin. Jack White. Franz Ferdinand. Like Tolkien touring with a rock band in the 1970’s. Yeah, it’s a bit derivative. But aren’t we all? Eh, forget this existentialism. I just want to rock.

I even managed to get a limited edition special print to commemorate 6.6.06 by the amazing El Jefe Design. I highly recommend checking out his posters…

The Ongoing List of Reasons Why I Love the Internet…

454) Decided that my room was becoming unbearably hot. Decided to e-mail stranger on Craigslist to inquire about their advertised AC unit on sale for $30. One hour later, my room is air-conditioned and I am cool.

455) Yochai Benkler and his thoughts on The Wealth of Networks. Got him to autograph my copy of his book today (I am a huge dork). He wrote “To A Better Future” and signed his name, but I think he misspelled “Better”, but he probably did it on purpose. He’s really smart and gave a great lecture at our office.

456) Somebody informed me that the open letter I wrote to Wilmer was forwarded to his personal e-mail address. I’m eagerly anticipating his response.

An open letter to the host of MTV’s celebration of bigotry.

Originally published in Campus Progress…

Dear Mr. Wilmer Valderrama,

Congrats on making Yo Momma the hit #3 television show in MTV’s lineup! I’ve been a huge fan of your show ever since I stumbled across it on Mother’s Day when I was looking for a new episode of Date My Mom. And, no, I don’t have an Oedipus complex.

There’s one thing that bothers me about Yo Momma (the show, not your maternal unit): some of the things the contestants say are really offensive. Sure, part of the game is hurling the most unique, cutting, and sometimes degrading insults they could possibly imagine, as is the format when “playing the dozens” (a term which is deeply rooted in the lexicon of slave auctions). But what if the show took a different approach and all the contestants attempted to smother the other’s mother with kindness?

Instead of “your mother is so fat, her blood type is Ragu” (which, according to the American Medical Association is not medically possible), how about a gentler approach? “Your mother is sooo well-rounded, and I’m not talking about her body type. She genuinely has a wealth of skills and knowledge. I respect her a lot.”

There’s more….

Read the whole thing in Campus Progress…

Thanks for the shout out, Wonkette! “Wilder Valderrama is single-handedly setting mixed-race people of indeterminate ethnicity back 20 years.”

This is a meta-photo of our Preakness experience. We were on the outside looking in, but it was amazing people watching.

Faced with the choice of standing in the muddy infield, or rubbing elbows with the hat-wearing air-conditioned box seat ticketholders for cheaper; I went with the hats.

My grandmother called me to ask if I could place a bet on her and my grandfather’s behalf on the horse Platinum Couple to show. The horse was getting between 25 and 50:1 odds.

The picture you see was chosen as DCist’s photo of the day.

“In 1984, I was hospitalized for approaching perfection.”

The Silver Jews haven’t toured in nearly 17 years of existence. Lead singer / poet / goofball, David Berman just hasn’t really felt the need to get in front of an audience. I had the pleasure of watching from stage right the other night.

Want to see them perform the song “Random Rules”? Click here to see the video I recorded on my digi-cam.

Their album American Water is one of my all-time favorites.

Silver Jews Lookin’ At Ya
Originally uploaded by themarkpike.