Owl-Stretching Time

I miss this blog!

2009-12-04T11:25:00.001-05:00

I miss this blog!

Lunar transit

2007-03-16T10:19:00.000-05:00

Ok, this is a very cool image of the moon passing across the face of the sun, but for MAXIMUM coolness, you've got to go to NASA's site and see the video.

WOW.

Morbid | Cute

2007-03-14T21:09:00.000-05:00

The "curiosities" of Walter Potter, taxidermist, included such fantastic tableaux as The Kitten Wedding (pictured), Athletic Toads, and various freaks of nature- mostly manufactured.

Potter worked during the Victorian era, but sadly, his collection of grotesques was sold off to various buyers several years ago.

SLOW- NO WAKE

2007-03-04T19:56:00.000-05:00

SLOW- NO WAKE
Originally uploaded by lee_3dhighway.

I'm glad to see my neighbor is keeping a sense of humor about the fact that his driveway keeps flooding.

of Montreal

2007-02-09T07:59:00.000-05:00

Yes, Kevin Barnes has lost his mind. And yes, he's made the best of Montreal album thus far.

(BTW, I actually know a couple of the people in this video!)

"Elephants were not a good idea."

2007-02-07T22:57:00.000-05:00

Mr. Deity

2007-02-06T08:03:00.000-05:00

The first episode of Mr. Deity, a really funny online series about the creation of the universe. In episode one, Mr. Deity and his assistant, Larry, discuss what kinds of evil will be allowed in the new universe.

Mixed messages

2007-02-05T11:53:00.000-05:00

Nashville
Originally uploaded by alex01224.

Purple prose

2007-01-31T22:28:00.000-05:00

As mentioned earlier, Prince is performing at the Super Bowl this year, and I am SO psyched. I know it'll be great no matter what songs he decides to play, but in my wicked little heart I like to think of all the songs he's got that would make the Janet Jackson incident look like a glimpse of ankle. Here are nine naughty songs I know we won't hear this weekend...

more in the complete post, with downloads!

Erotic City His best B-side ever. I remember hearing this on the radio, actually, because some DJs insisted he was saying "funk." Heh heh... no.

Loose!

Bob George This was an unusually dark song for Prince, and may be one reason he deep-sixed The Black Album.

Housequake This James-Brown-ish song is the mildest of the bunch.

Let's Pretend We're Married

P. Control (remix) Those who think female empowerment can't be funny (or funky) will be the ones most shocked by this, I think.

Vibrator Another really funny song, this one is sung by Vanity because it was recorded for the first Vanity 6 album, but then went unreleased.

Sister

Sexy MF Another James Brown homage, with an f-bomb built right into the chorus.

The download links will be good thru Sunday. Enjoy!

Well, I'm just shattered.

2007-01-31T21:05:00.000-05:00

Syndicated political columnist Molly Ivins died of breast cancer Wednesday evening at her home in Austin. She was 62 years old, and had much, much more to give this world. She remained cheerful despite Texas politics.

Wow, I really feel like I've lost a friend.

If there's a heaven...

2007-01-30T06:47:00.000-05:00

...it looks like this.

The Palm Spring Modern Committee website has lots of gorgeous photos of modernist architecture from the American west, plus bios and info on the architects who built them.

So, so beautiful.

Dear Mister Eno,

2007-01-29T08:05:00.000-05:00

You know we love you and all, but jeez, what were you thinking?

Skywhales

2007-01-26T09:18:00.000-05:00

This is really amazing... beautiful, weird, AND haunting.

Goth box!

2007-01-25T09:54:00.000-05:00

OMG... it's my entire college years, in a box. Must have this.

They start with familiar classics from the bands who turned out to be goth's godfathers-- Joy Division, the Cure, Bauhaus, Siouxsie & the Banshees-- but the heart of the thing remains England's 1980s goth heyday, where the urge to dance comes out in grim, grinding, relentless music for the fake undead: Look to the Sisters of Mercy's steamroller "Temple of Love", or Tones on Tail's "Christian Says". They sprinkle in darker tracks from the pop bands who filled out goths' record collections: Echo & the Bunnymen, the Cocteau Twins, the Jesus & Mary Chain. They follow the aesthetic as it comes to North America (Christian Death), reunites with punk (the Misfits), meets up with electronic dance music (Skinny Puppy), and starts to become "industrial" (Ministry), and then they glance back at the acts who were the godfathers of that (Throbbing Gristle, Einstürzende Neubauten). They stop in on the kind of arty, spooky goth that was more likely to have women singing (Dead Can Dance, Miranda Sex Garden), and close off with a nice past-meets-future moment: Modern-day band AFI covering the Cure's "The Hanging Garden".

Busted!

2007-01-24T20:47:00.000-05:00

Watch Cheney pull out his Blackberry and read e-mail during last night's State of the Union address. Heh heh!

Repurposed plates

2007-01-24T20:01:00.000-05:00

Artist Sarah Cihat gets old plates from flea markets and yard sales, then re-fires them with funky new graphics on them. The best part is how she leaves bits of the old pattern showing through... so cool!

more in the complete post

Now here's a funny thing- she's got one made out of plates just like we have here at my house! :D (The cassette plate, pictured here)

They belonged to Arn's family when he was growing up, so there's no telling how old they are... from the 1960s, most likely.

While you're looking around the site, don't miss the link to the artist's personal faves... they're wonderful.

The Juggler of Nazareth

2007-01-24T15:42:00.000-05:00

I no longer work on the Dell account-- I am now on Mercedes-Benz. And one of the sr. copywriters is a guy named Phil Dingman, a guy who's so creative, so "off" in such an ON kind of way, that when we talk or just hang out or even WORK together, it's as though we transform and form an evil robot.

Phil often carpet-bombs my little cube with is creativity. "I once invented this thing that would..." is sort of the way it often starts.

Phil has an amazing voice. He does voice-overs for the A-Channel, a prominent TV channel here in Western Canada, plus a lot of radio. He's also the designer of the "Stuart Katt" line of T-Shirts.

Anyway. Both Phil and I brainstorm a lot. It's what we do. Phil is a member of the Actor's Guild here in Calgary, where I live. He also writes, I suppose, in order to keep his mind sharp for work (or rather, to keep his mind sharp, period), little "fake movie plots", including, it seems, one about the presumed life of Jesus entitled, "The Juggler of Nazareth."

Please make sure you have made the right decision.

2007-01-23T10:19:00.000-05:00

If this was real, I'd get one to keep in our bathroom. (Scroll all the way down to read the instructions and the rest of the packaging.) I love dark humor that involves cute ducks.

The Wyoming Incident - YOU WILL SEE SUCH PRETTY THINGS

2007-01-22T21:19:00.000-05:00

Via Google Video. A LJ friend of mine posted this and it's really interesting. Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything else about this incident (otherwise I might post it to MeFi). Fortunately, however, there is a good article running down the side of it. Check it out.

2007-01-20T19:40:00.000-05:00

Snakefinger - The Man In The Dark Sedan

Snakefinger is REALLY awesome. I wish his albums would come back into print... I've got all but the "History Of The Blues" one, but they're all outstanding. This is perhaps his only promotional video(?), for "The Man In The Dark Sedan", from... Chewing Hides The Sound, I think. One of the first two, anyway. God, Snakefinger was great.

2007-01-16T03:24:00.000-05:00

Pachelbel Rant

This one's really good -- particularly if you stay through the end.

"The Black Parade"

2007-01-12T08:19:00.000-05:00

I'd never heard the band My Chemical Romance until today, but this video makes me think I need to hear more of them. I love this clip- kind of funny and kind of creepy at the same time.

A Year in Comics

2007-01-11T21:22:00.000-05:00

The First One
Originally uploaded by johnralston.

John Ralston plans to blog every day of 2007 in comics form. (I sorta know him online, from places like Metafilter.) I like his style of drawing, and his sense of humor, so this should be fun. More fun for us, the readers, than for him! ;)

Ruh-roh...

2007-01-09T09:14:00.000-05:00

Animator IWAO TAKAMATO, who created cartoon dogs SCOOBY-DOO and MUTTLEY, has died of heart failure at the age of 81.

Interstella 5555

2007-01-05T22:56:00.000-05:00

In 2001, the French electronica band Daft Punk released their best album to date, Discovery. It was only a year or so later that many fans (incl. me) found out the album was also the soundtrack to an anime called Interstella 5555, a story about a band of aliens captured and "reprogrammed" to perform on earth as the "Crescendolls." Now thanks to the magic of YouTube, you can see Interstella 5555 online.

NOTE: That last link goes to a YouTube playlist... when one segment ends, wait a minute and the next segment should begin.

2007-01-02T20:23:00.000-05:00

The Pipettes - Pull Shapes

OH MY GOD. This is AWESOME. Even without the _Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls_ parody-ness. It's just an OUTSTANDING song. As the Teen Tycoon of Rock, I'd like to hear them, and I'm sure you would too.

Guess who's giving the Super Bowl's halftime show this year?

2007-01-01T18:33:00.000-05:00

This'll be the first year I've ever actually looked forward to a football game. :D

Danielson "Did I Step On Your Trumpet?"

2006-12-27T19:29:00.000-05:00

From the brilliant Ships album comes this just-as-brilliant video.

Flying dogs! Lasers!

2006-12-14T13:02:00.000-05:00

OK, I don't know what it is with me and music videos lately.

I like the song a lot, too.

Pepakura: Unfold Anything

2006-12-12T10:48:00.000-05:00

Now this is cool. Lee, since you have previous 3D experience, would you try out the unfolding program "Pepakura"? The demo is free. Open a polygon model and it will create a pattern for a cardboard fold-up. It looks like it could be sooooo cool. Great for quick, visuals in real 3D. You just cut them out of cardstock or matboard.

Why not me?

2006-12-08T21:21:00.000-05:00

OK, I know this makes three video posts in a row, and I apologize for that... I'll try to stop spending so much time on YouTube.

BUT THIS IS SO GREAT! :D

I was born in 1965, and this is what the world looked and sounded like back then. Erm, if you were in France, which I wasn't. Mareva Galanter might be in France, but she wasn't alive in 1965, so that makes us about even, I think.

"Pourquoi pas moi?" means "Why not me?" although I don't think a French person would ever say it that way.

If you like this kind of music, called "ye ye" (searching for that term is a logistical nightmare, BTW) I also recommend April March, who besides being a ye-ye revivalist is or was an animator for SpumCo, the folks responsible for Ren & Stimpy.

Kiwi!

2006-12-07T20:41:00.000-05:00

Another wonderful animated short, this one pointed out to me by my friend Lee G.

Sometimes dreams do come true... this is about living the impossible, even if it's just for a moment. A very sweet, (darkly) funny short, with really cool music. It makes me laugh and also kinda made a tear come to my eye. This one was posted by its author, so enjoy!

Rocks

2006-12-06T21:37:00.000-05:00

OMG... this animated short is one of the most brilliant things I've ever seen.

The short is in German, with Portuguese subtitles(!); I can't find it in English, but stick with it and you'll figure out what's going on. So, so cool.

AFTER you've watched it, check out the official site for the film.

MEGA pixel camera

2006-12-05T17:28:00.000-05:00

OK, so I don't care that I bought my 8mp digital rebel XT six weeks before the 10mp Rebel XTi came out. After all, with the new 160mp camera now out, hey, we're all obsolete. I guess compared to these professionals, we should all just resign ourselves to forever being rank amateurs.

Hey, y'all want some PORN?!?!?!?

2006-12-05T08:37:00.000-05:00

...then you'll be sadly disappointed.

Someone posted these scans from the May, 1963 issue of Playboy. Mostly, it's advertisements, which are all really interesting not only being older design-style type stuff, but also typically for an Older Audience, or, rather at least one where they're guaranteed to have a particular demographic. There's also a kind of disturbing cartoon, and one nude photospread (which is interesting because, as the poster points out, the model -- who has a great body -- would definitely be called "fat" today and would probably be nowhere near the pages of the magazine, which is sad).

So, it's technically NSFW, but it's not too awfully bad. Really, the nude part is almost Cute in its quaintness. (Man, it's weird thinking of stuff from the 1960s as quaint. I just get weirded out by time, I guess.)

Wonderful Graffiti

2006-12-04T23:00:00.000-05:00

Besides paint and pictures, what do you want on your wall? What do you want your wall to SAY? It seems the people at "Wonderful Graffiti" have figured it out. What would some of our most famous or infamous people have put on their walls? "Helter Skelter" (Charles Manson), "Bring it on" (George Bush) or maybe "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Martha Stewart), maybe?

A Christmas Story

2006-11-30T11:04:00.000-05:00

Man, if you love the movie "A Christmas Story" so much, why don't you just buy the EXACT house it was filmed in and REPRODUCE the set EXACTLY? Yeah. Then, if you think you're so clever, why not turn it into a hotel or maybe offer tours or something? So this guy did just that.

2006-11-29T20:18:00.000-05:00

Alcohol, chlorine, and stupidity...

DO NOT MIX.

2006-11-28T21:42:00.000-05:00

Sinead O'Connor's '92 "SNL" performance

I wasn't aware that NBC never re-broadcast the infamous episode where Sinead O'Connor shredded a picture of the Pope (to protest the cover-up of child abuse within the church), but apparently in reruns, the dress rehearsal of this song is shown.

But now, there's YouTube. :) (We'll see how long this clip stays up...)

Paul Simon (the song)

2006-11-25T00:10:00.000-05:00

OMG... who would have ever thought that a guy who wrote so many bad pop songs would inspire such a brilliant pop song.

This is a single by the Russian Futurists who are, in fact, from Canada. Since Boards of Canada are from Scotland, I guess it all works out somehow.

The Nietzsche Family Circus

2006-11-24T08:25:00.000-05:00

There are no eternal facts, as there are no absolute truths.

This site pairs a random Family Circus cartoon with a random Nietzsche quote every time you refresh the page. Awesome.

Winning Concert Posters!

2006-11-17T10:58:00.000-05:00

I think it's cool for the Nyon/Paleo Music Festival to put up an archive of all their winning posters. Looks like they've been around a while... So this got me wanting to stumble around for other COOL poster sites, too, including this one which seems to be an index to all the best artists. AND-- this really cool link on HOW to take pix at concerts. Not that we ever go out.

The world in your hands

2006-11-16T22:05:00.000-05:00

pisa italy
Originally uploaded by michael_hughes.

This pic is from an incredibly clever set of pics that play with perspective... a few make me wonder if they haven't had a bit of Photoshop help, but even if they have, the whole set is EXCELLENTLY done.

Without cheese, there is no Inland Empire.

2006-11-10T23:44:00.000-05:00

OK, I think these guys are in cahoots with Lynch, but still, I love it. :)

Two things from the SLOG!

2006-11-10T09:23:00.000-05:00

The first thing is a bit of good news, kinda. Dan Savage dug up an article that suggests that in the Virginia election, the anti-Gay Marriage Amendment (which did pass -- BOOOOO -- though, apparently Arizona's failed magnificently, and is the only state to actually shoot down this particular type of foul legislation) cost Allen the election. Which is pretty funny/rad, considering that the standard idea is that you put on heinous measures like that and the PsychoCons come out in droves and vote, which also benefits the Republican candidate and all. So, basically, Mwomp Mwomp on that. Too bad that the actual amendement passed, which is terrible. I just _cannot_ understand that mindset. Most of the time, I can see the other side of an issue, even if I'm squarely on the opposite side -- this one? I really can't. I think it's about the only situation where I can say that if you don't agree with me on that issue, you ARE an idiot. Not being for gay marriage is less an ideological stance as it is a character flaw.

In other news, this gave me a chuckle:

(via)

"I am Dennis's smirking revenge."

2006-11-09T11:01:00.000-05:00

Dennis meets Fight Club.

Thomas Dolby is AWESOME

2006-11-08T22:36:00.000-05:00

I have used that subject line before, but, man, it is so true. Not only has he recently just started a blog that he actually updates rather frequently, but he's just started a new podcast series which will feature stuff from his brand new live CD/DVD. (From his recent mind-blowing tour.) So, um, yes! Check it out! He is a dude who knows everything and has fun with it. I love Thomas Dolby.

Stop the madness!

2006-11-06T16:41:00.000-05:00

Well, election day is tomorrow here in the States... y'all who are watching from abroad, please keep your fingers crossed for us.

Here's some appropriate music for the day:

Mad World

Gary Jules version
(from the movie "Donnie Darko")

original Tears For Fears version

The music links will work for seven days. Enjoy! And if you're in the U.S.,
VOTE, DAMMIT!

Despair 2007

2006-11-03T11:40:00.000-05:00

Despair.com now has a build-your-own Demotivator calendars for 2007. Fill it with your 12 favorite Demotivators and custom calendar dates. This is what on-demand publishing was MADE for!

Amazing Timewaster: LineFlyer.org

2006-11-03T11:18:00.000-05:00

OK, let me see if I can keep this post simple. You've seen the now-classic falling sand game, not to mention its upstart little brother, pyro sand (where you can do some really cool things by making the sand act like gunpowder!), but... add to this, Line Rider, where this little guy goes down a line on his sled. FUN. So... anyway, LineRider.org saves little movies people have made of him doing his thing! Even one that reminds me of a cat playing with a mouse! They're fun! And even brilliant when it all finally JUMPS THE SHARK.

Toshio Matsumoto 2: THE REVENGE!!!!!

2006-10-24T18:31:00.000-05:00

This weekend, I _THOUGHT_ I made a post of one of Toshio Matsumoto's short films from YouTube. But apparently it didn't make it. Weird. But that's OK, because thanks to WFMU I GOTS SOMETHING BETTER.

You might be thinking, man, what's better than a YouTube link to a Toshio Matsumoto short film?

How about DOWNLOAD LINKS TO A BUNCH OF THEM.

MANG.

(And for what it's worth, the one I was gonna post was Phantoms, which is available there. It's non-narrative with some really great colors, and is in the "It actually kinda gave me a headache, but I CAN'T STOP WATCHING" bin.)

Also, here's some shorts by Terayama Shuji, some guy who like hung out with Stereolab or something.

(And if you want to be a good spud, here's where you can actually buy the Toshio Matsumoto shorts.

Five Things You Probably Didn't Notice In The Shining

2006-10-17T20:49:00.000-05:00

Here's an article about five small, easy to overlook (ha ha!) details about Stanley Kubrick's amazing movie The Shining. I'm happy to say I HAD noticed one of them (number 3) over years of watching the movie, but the others I want to go back now and check out for myself.

Stumble!

2006-10-15T15:47:00.000-05:00

I could use the Stumble! Firefox plugin as some sort of secret weapon to make me look SOOOO "cool" here on the blog! The plugin is amazing-- install it, get an account, and begin stumbling around. Find something you like, and rate it, thumbs up or down. Want to contribute your own? The ratings process is easy and works. I pressed it just ONCE so far today and found this cool MC Escher-type page about 3D perspectives. Fascinating! You gotta try this.

Shove this up your mind.

2006-10-11T22:53:00.000-05:00

Politicians sell terror and fear; pharmaceutical companies sell disease. Every state and stage of existence has become a pathology in need of pharmaceutical "intervention," and life itself is a petri dish of biochemical deficiency and need. Shyness is now "social anxiety disorder." A twitchy tendency has become "restless leg syndrome." Three decades ago the head of Merck dreamed aloud of the day when the definition of disease would be so broad that his company could "sell to everyone," like chewing gum.

That day is rapidly approaching.

Project Post-Mortem

2006-10-08T12:37:00.000-05:00

..since I apparently have nothing to post other than my stuff that I've written, this is a post-mortem of a project that I just started and abandoned this morning that'd been in the planning for something absurd like 5 years! Hooray! It was a little story about a Man, his girlfriend, his baby, another woman, and a little place called ~~Evening Shade~~ Heaven.

Also -- been listening to the Daniel Johnston tribute record/best of compilatoin The Late Great Daniel Johnston: Discovered Covered today, and MAN it is excellent. If you can't get past Daniel's singing, it's great because the other artists provide a really great venue to see what a EXCELLENT songwriter Daniel is. And, after listening to that and going to the disc that's got the originals, you really grow to appreciate Daniel's original versions quite a bit more, too. It's made me really go away from being a mere appreciator of his talent into much more of an actual Fan, which is pretty cool. Highly, highly recommended!

Lame Plug Of Fiction.

2006-10-07T20:05:00.000-05:00

I just have decided to master the furry form of erotic fiction.

I am the king of words.

(LIES)

100 Years (with The Sims)

2006-10-01T01:08:00.000-05:00


I can't believe I actually got misty-eyed watching a Sims video, but I did. This is a fan-created music video using the Sims 2, and is probably the best one of its kind that I've seen.

Relocation!

2006-09-30T00:13:00.000-05:00

Well, temporarily... as of Monday I'll be living at The Hotel George in Washington, DC, for most of October. It's about 3 blocks from the Capitol building (look for the little green arrow indicating the hotel). Could I be any more excited? I don't think so.

more in the complete post

CNN is sending me to spend three weeks helping to edit a political series called Broken Government that's going to run up until the November election. I'm told that this project is kind of in chaos (what else is new?) and that I can expect to work 7 days a week towards the end of the project. This will be my first time in Washington, a city I've ALWAYS wanted to visit, and so I'm going to make the most of whatever sightseeing time I do have. I'm hoping to buy a laptop tomorrow so I can stay connected, and if I manage that, you can expect a blizzard of pics of our nation's capital to be uploaded shortly. I'm slightly freaked out about being away from home for so long, but I figure it'll be an adventure. :)

2006-09-25T15:24:00.000-05:00

Flickr has long been a haven for all things cute, but... are Americans even approaching the hieghts cuteness can scale? Not hardly. And "Cute Overload will be there to chronicle it all.

This site has the cutest pics of animals and even grossly cute products, often with funny captions to go along with.

It also has this strange lexicon of its own, such as:

"Ehn!" The sound every living creature makes when it
can't... quite... REACH...

...and other terms like muzzlepuffs, snorfing, and sea urchin belly.

There are The Rules of Cuteness, including small ear-to-head ratio; you're cute if your furniture doubles as your meal; and less obvious ones like "eye capsules."

It also gives examples of the Japanese out-cute-ing us at every turn (like the Japanese woman making freakishly realistic-looking cute fluffy dogs out of crysanthemums).

Ben Folds covers "Such Great Heights"

2006-09-22T18:00:00.000-05:00

Cool.

Flickr cards!

2006-09-19T13:14:00.001-05:00

Ever wanted to give out your Flickr address? How about flickr meets biz cards... What else is there to say about this? Cool (and cheap). I'm on it... I'll report back.

Hey, give that back!

2006-09-18T04:16:00.000-05:00

This is a simple idea, but I like how it's done.

Textured wall panels

2006-09-18T01:09:00.000-05:00

Holy cow... I want to re-do my whole house with these!

OK, maybe just the dining room or something. But I love them.

Unintentional humor

2006-09-16T15:55:00.000-05:00

Heh heh!!! This is from a British game show called "Catchphrase," where they show bits of a cartoon image that will depict a common phrase. In this instance, the bits they show give the impression that they're very naughty bits.

United we stand?

2006-09-11T19:14:00.000-05:00

"Five years have come, and five years have gone, and still we stand together as one."

-New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg

"We feel that the homosexual agenda is trying to take advantage of the tragedy. We're treating them like they're married, and in doing that, we're destroying marriage because you're lowering it to a homosexual level."

-Rev. Lou Sheldon, criticizing the drive to treat gay survivors of the 9/11 attacks as spouses

For a really, really moving account of several of the gay families who lost loved ones that day, including one picture which will bring tears to your eyes, check out this long, but excellent, article.

Lorem Ipsum

2006-09-10T22:06:00.000-05:00

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Mauris varius. Maecenas semper suscipit justo. Phasellus condimentum nisi vel sapien. Aliquam elementum fermentum urna. Nam vulputate orci. Nullam rhoncus neque vulputate ipsum. Duis felis lectus, congue ut, hendrerit varius, dignissim sed, lacus. Nunc accumsan orci sit amet lectus. Duis egestas velit in felis. Vestibulum lorem turpis, molestie nec, commodo eget, consectetuer eu, arcu.

Go, David!

2006-09-08T18:21:00.000-05:00

Enigmatic US director David Lynch has presented his first movie in five years at the Venice Film Festival, where the 60-year-old becomes the youngest recipient of a Golden Lion for lifetime achievement.

2006-09-07T08:48:00.000-05:00

"Have you no sense of decency, sir?"

Wow.

glitch browser

2006-09-07T06:33:00.000-05:00

DDo not ajust your se t.

Flamethrower car (Drive-Invasion 2006)

2006-09-03T18:17:00.000-05:00

Whoo hoo! :D We spent part of our Labor Day Weekend the way we usually do... hanging out at the drive-in for the Drive Invasion festival. CHECK OUT this video I recorded with my digital cam, which I almost dropped when the car fired out The Mother Of All Backfires. Heh heh!

Lots more in the complete post
Tons of pics from the event are here. Some highlights:

Getting to see Rocket From The Tombs, who I wanted to see so badly that I gave up the chance to see Blue Oyster Cult on Sunday. (There are two RFTT clips linked off that photo page, BTW.)

The inflatable Godzilla (one of the movies on Sunday, due to BOC playing).

The Dunk A Rollergirl booth.

The sights. 8)

All those wonderful toys!

As for the movies, we saw 2001 Maniacs, which sucked, and I Drink Your Blood, which was good in that "drive-in movie" kinda way.

Now, I'm going to spend the rest of the weekend in recovery mode! :)

We

2006-09-01T09:45:00.000-05:00

I'm a big fan of dystopian novels and stories, so I'm really surprised I've never heard of this author nor his novel (which predates 1984 and Brave New World) called We:

As the novel opens, it's the 26th century A.D., and the Earth is under the power of the government of the dictator known as the Benefactor. A Two-Hundred-Years War has killed all but .02 percent of the world's population, giving rise to the One State, which was partly created out of the need to ensure that there could be no more revolutions. The One State has discovered the equation for "mathematically infallible happiness," which mostly consists of eliminating ego and desire. People no longer have names but numbers, and they're taught to think of themselves not as individuals, but as parts of a whole, a unified "we."

I'm going to have to get a copy of this.

VOX

2006-08-31T15:02:00.000-05:00

I suppose it might sound a little weird to be plugging an alternate blogging service on a blog, but VOX actually seems pretty neat for, well, what it is. And, well, what it's treated as. Basically, I just got one, and I'm using it as an MP3 Blog.

So far, the weird thing with it seems to be that it's only streaming mp3s, rather than downloadable ones. I've been trying to figure out how to actually get them _downloadable_, since that kinda seems the whole Point of an mp3 blog. So far, I _have_ discovered that if I put a VOX blog in Safari's RSS reader, at the bottom of each post, it provides a download link. I tried this is Livejournal's RSS Feeder Thingy (for Mine), and it just provides the content, but no download link. So, hm.

(more in the complete post)

It's one of those things where I would be totally in love with it (after all, it's an mp3 blog where they not only provide hosting for said mp3s, but it appears to be unlimited) if it weren't for that one tweak. (Well, that's not true -- I don't like that VOX's compose bit doesn't seem to like HTML and just spits out the raw code, and that VOX doesn't seem to be remotely as customizable as Blogger, or, hell, even LJ is (though it is a step above MySpace, which basically seems to let you put the sidebar on the right side or the left side, and you get your choice of goddawful, unreadable backgrounds and hideous music videos and mp3s that auto-play).) But it is kinda neat, and it's great as a media-blog. Particularly if there's a work-around/tic-mark/SOMETHING to get it to let folks download the damn mp3s.

(If any of you find out how, let me know.)

Also, right now it's in one of those happy-snappy Invite Stages, and as such, I've got some invites (prolly five, I dunno), so if you wanna do your own Mp3 Blog (or whatever), let me know and I'll hook you up. (Though if you do an mp3 blog like mine, it'd be really wicked nice if you mirrored your notes at Your Subculture Soundtrack like I do.)

I just like the whole Free Space Mp3 Blog With Notes Kinda Thing that they seem to be encouraging (or at least amenable to).

Life imitates The Onion, yet again

2006-08-31T12:49:00.000-05:00

Actually, this is more like something from a Todd Solondz movie

Welcome to the ``Flat Daddy" and ``Flat Mommy" phenomenon, in which life-size cutouts of deployed service members are given by the Maine National Guard to spouses, children, and relatives back home.

The Flat Daddies ride in cars, sit at the dinner table, visit the dentist, and even are brought to confession, according to their significant others on the home front.

It's like the human equivalent of baby birds being fed by a puppet that looks like the mama bird. Only much, much more pathetic.

Misprinted Type (.com)

2006-08-30T20:56:00.000-05:00

Misprinted Type is a site that has a lot of GREAT grungy fonts for download, most of them free. He has both handwritten and machine-style fonts represented... great stuff.

2006-08-24T18:55:00.000-05:00

Cardiacs - Tarred and Feathered

via WFMU's Blog -- I checked it on a whim and OH MY GOD this is SO WICKED AWESOME. Such a great song. I really dig this. They claim it's "Drums & Wires era XTC with more synths on Acid", but it strikes me as a bit more like Madness jammed through Renaldo & The Loaf. Either way, it's wicked good.

The world's rarest PEZ dispenser

2006-08-19T21:29:00.000-05:00

(maybe)

But would you pay $100,000 for a PEZ dispenser?

Awesome contrails

2006-08-18T19:53:00.000-05:00

Tenn Sky Streaks_8
Originally uploaded by cyclewidowpatti.

I'll never understand why some people are so freaked out by them.

Jefferson "Hal" Harold.

2006-08-15T22:00:00.000-05:00

So, on Saturday, I adopted a puppy! He's a rat terrier, and his name is Hal. We got him after neutering and all that fun stuff yesterday afternoon, and today's the first full day he's been with us. He's definitely in the Exploring Everything stage, which is pretty rad, though kinda tiring, since he likes to run. He still needs a bit of help with minding, but, well, he's not quite a year old and we've only had him for a day. Though, oddly enough, he knows to obey my mom but good. Me, so far, not quite so much. But he sure does miss me when I have to go to work.

Here are some pictures, taken by my SO of J. Harold.

McMini Mansions

2006-08-15T10:38:00.000-05:00

They're modern and chic, but... tiny!

Georgia Aquarium pics

2006-08-11T06:12:00.000-05:00

Manta Rays
Originally uploaded by matildaben.

My friend Kathleen was visiting from Seattle over the weekend, and we went to the new Georgia Aquarium together... wow, what an AMAZING place! Check out her photoset on Flickr. Wow.

We Have A Technical.... Difficulty

2006-08-09T20:06:00.000-05:00

Uh, looks like the Yahoo-Group-Forwardy-Thing isn't working right now. I'm trying to figure it out as to how to make it go, but, um, yeah, if you're wondering why comments on the posts have been relatively quiet, they're not necessarily, it's just not comin' through. Getting strange messages about bouncing messages, which is odd since the forwarder account isn't set up to receive email....

Two things, one brief, one less so.

2006-08-08T10:47:00.000-05:00

The brief one -- from this article, a complete "I'm not a cattle rustler, and besides, you got lousy cows" moment:

She said Hausner never hit her, but constantly belittled her. "I was really miserable," she said. "He'd tell me, 'You can't cook, you can't clean. You're ugly. No one wants you.'"

In a jailhouse news conference Monday, Dale Hausner challenged Karen Hausner's claims.

"That's just ex-wife stuff," he said. "That's just character assassination. She is just looking to get her ugly face in the paper."

The Less So: So, anyway, this weekend I finally got to see Mr. Freedom, William Klein's French-Though-Made-In-English over the top satire of Ueber-Patroitism and Jingoism. GREAT visual design in this film, which I suppose you'd expect from a photographer and all, and really amusing, absurd lines ("You want one piano? You got it. You want two pianos?"), though it IS a bit muddled (though things kinda-sorta fall into place as you go forward). The film's a superhero parody starring Mr. Freedom, a football-uniformed, well, cretin, trying to save France from Communism and Anti-Freedom Forces. There's a few other Superheroes, for example, Super French Man, a balloon caricature of a "Hohn hohn hohn" type Frenchman -- er, literally a balloon, Moujik Man, the representation of the USSR, and Red China Man, an inflatable dragon.

It's intended to be a parody of the United States' role in Vietnam (and works pretty clearly as that), though it, sadly, hasn't exactly become terribly outdated in its message. It's still surprisingly current, though in ways you probably wish it weren't, if you catch my meaning, seeing as, well, the US-Stand-In is a cartoonish bully who tries to do the right thing without any regard for consequences, methods, or whether or not it's actually, well, right.

The film was lost for a long time, and according to the DVD (available in France only, sadly, on Arte Video), they had to do a full-on restoration job, and even then, some of the reels were STILL kinda scratchy and faded, and the soundtrack muffled (it doesn't help that a lot of the actors are French speaking in English, so you've got an added level of difficulty to understand with the accents and all -- if you know French, it might help to turn on the French subtitles -- I don't though, so...). Sadly, no bonus material on the disc either -- it'd be great to learn more about this film (especially since I've heard that the producer cut it without Klein's knowledge (which might explain some of the muddledness), and that it was banned in France for a while) -- seems that there's a lot of story there that'd be ripe for a documentary.

Other highlights -- the Mr. Freedom theme song, the closing credit painting (!) and the fact that Serge Gainsbourg's in it! (For REALS. He also does the music.)

Apparently, it's pretty easy to find bootleg-wise, too. I'm not necessarily sure if it's worth buying sight-unseen (it's the only Klein film I've seen, but from reading other reviews, it seems that "Pretty cool, but kinda muddled and flawed" is his leitmotif), though the more I think about this movie, the more I think it actually IS worth picking up. Maybe I should.

F-R-Double-E-D, D-O-M spells BOOM BOOM!

giant farming machine

2006-08-03T23:13:00.000-05:00

Giant Machine
Originally uploaded by caffeineguy.

Holy crap- seeing this thing in real life would freak me right out. Apparently it's in Russia somewhere.

Rev. Me, since you're getting into Coil lately, you KNOW what this made me think of: Horse Rotorvator

"On the Eve of the Apocalypse - (the air choked with horsehair) - the Four Horsemen betray their steeds - slitting open the animal throats - and in doing so release the Second Great Deluge - Horsegore - Infinite Divisibles Split - an infinity of open sewers - the Four then fashion an immense earthmoving device from the collective jawbones - The Horse Rotorvator - with which to plough up the waiting world - (ROTA turns through 180° to TARO) - wheels replace horses - Dark Horses Run - Dark Horses Run Deep - and Hell is paved with horseflesh... (we plough the fields and scatter Our Dead Steeds on the land)".

Awake

2006-08-03T16:04:00.000-05:00

My roomate and one of my favourite couch occupants just sent me the "latest" cut of their "trailer" to their movie. It'll be on MovieCentral, TNN, and Showtime by the end of the year. I've sent something around about it before, possibly, but I figured, if you like watching things evolve and don't mind seeing something before it gets "finished" (or watered down, in a lot of cases) you might enjoy this.

The movie is called "Awake" and has an interesting premise. Starving writer stumbles upon another starving writer's suicide. He becomes curious about what people would say at the writer's wake, wondering what people would say about his own life. The film follows his journey of self-discovery as he attends many more wakes...

awesome music video: OK-GO

2006-07-29T17:00:00.000-05:00

This is the best music video I've seen in AGES. (Also, don't miss this earlier example of their dancing prowess.) I like both of the songs, too- I picked up the album these came from, called "Oh No," and it's pretty much great throughout.

2006-07-26T22:16:00.000-05:00

Timmy and the Accordion Player

Because we all love the Residents!

The source material for this one is awesome, too -- it's available on one of the AV Geeks "Educational Archive" DVDs (well worth getting).

Bear Cam!

2006-07-26T13:29:00.000-05:00

I guess this might have been on MeFi, but I missed it, but then Steve sent it to me -- and it's pretty rad.

It's BEARS! In Alaska! It's particularly neat since someone's there controlling the camera (remotely, from Homer), so you get some pretty good shots. And, well, hey, who doesn't like bears, huh?

(Also, Steve told me that he actually met Timothy Treadwell -- kinda; he came to the station where Steve was working for an interview, and Steve probably said like two words to the guy -- he didn't even listen to the interview, but apparently everyone else at the station said he was completely batty. Which, um, isn't too far of an imaginative leap if you've seen Grizzly Man.)

Coil - Tainted Love Music Video

2006-07-25T21:06:00.000-05:00

I posted this in my own LJ a few days ago, because it is an amazing video, but it's sorta seeped into my brain and I know (or am at least pretty sure) Lee's a Coil fan, so I was thinkin' perhaps a place to start might be interesting. I love what they do with the eerie-creepy buzzer.

(The funny thing is, when I went to Everyday Music yesterday, I checked for Coil stuff, and they had a traycard, but no discs. The tray card said, roughly "also see Throbbing Gristle, Nurse With Wound, Foetus". My girlfriend read this aloud in a way of sorta mocking the HARDCORE!!!111-ness of the band names, and I don't think she was expecting me to talk about how, say, I kinda like Foetus, but find a lot of their-or-rather-his stuff tends to sound the same. I'm more into Industrial-ish stuff than she is, though, and this shouldn't be read as a mocking of tastes or anything, because she's gotten me into a bunch of cool stuff, like, say, Nilsson, New Order and the Posies.)

Colbert Finds Signs of Rapture in Mideast Crisis

2006-07-25T12:57:00.000-05:00

Speaks for itself, I think. Get yer t-shirt before it's REALLY too late!

For those of you with iTunes installed...

2006-07-23T14:28:00.000-05:00

This album is HILARIOUS.

Don't actually buy it, of course, but just listen to the samples. They're awesome and terrible. It's "The Very Best of: Pet Shop Boys" by Various Artists. And it's basically Karaoke backing tracks of PSB songs as sung by a guy who doesn't really seem to know english very well doing his best Neil Tennant. Which, well, really isn't very good.

I recommend "West End Girls" and "What Have I Done To Deserve This".

pincushion macro

2006-07-22T21:17:00.000-05:00

P7222929-01
Originally uploaded by selfnoise.

I don't know why, but this photo just fascinates me. The needles and pins look like big iron spikes.

Brawny Academy

2006-07-20T12:14:00.001-05:00

Girls, do your boys need some relationship schoolin'? Send 'em to Brawny Academy, where they'll learn everything they'll need to learn about how to make your relationship work: Communication, consideration, team work, and cow-towing to your ever-widening ass. Ha ha, no, just kidding on that first one.

Anyway, guys, seriously, check out the episodes. And I normally hate this shit. But I can't wait for the rest. BRILLIANT viral marketing, and some meaty, worthwhile content that's funny. Worth checking out.

Reed concedes

2006-07-19T18:18:00.000-05:00

Ralph Reed misses Diebold payment, has electoral service cut off.

“I’m obviously disappointed,” said a tearful Sadie Fields, head of the Georgia Christian Coalition. “The state lost an opportunity. But he will be back. He has far too much to offer.”

Gosh, I sure hope not, Sadie. I like watching you cry.

2006-07-19T07:28:00.000-05:00

Gnarls Barkley - Smiley Faces

This is AWESOME. Dennis Hopper, Dean Stockwell, Gnarls Barkley, and a really great song. Check it out.

Doggy IQ Test

2006-07-18T12:35:00.000-05:00

Go ahead, give your dog an IQ test. You want him to get into the best obedience schools, right?

The Big Snit (and other stories)

2006-07-15T23:22:00.000-05:00

The National Film Board of Canada has put fifty animated shorts online... what a bonanza this is.

Not only does it include one of my favorite shorts ever, The Big Snit, it has shorts I'd heard of but had never seen, like The Cat Came Back.

Monty, prepare to re-live bits of your childhood, I suspect. :)

I do wish they'd included Pigbird, though.

David Cunningham's New Project

2006-07-15T10:07:00.000-05:00

WFMU just did a post about David Cunningham (the guy behind The Flying Lizards!) and his new project... A Piano In A Gallery. No, he's not actually PLAYING the piano -- the visitors are. It's a sort of similar thing to both Brian Eno's gallery work with ambient tape loops on different time cycles, creating an ever-shifting collage of sound and David Byrne's recent Playing The Building. The room is mic'd, and the sound is run through a piano, and amplified, both bringing background noises to the foreground AND creating feedback-style loops, as those sounds are also run into the mics and so forth. So... if you happen to be in London....

Billy's Balloon

2006-07-13T20:50:00.000-05:00

I can't believe it took me this long to think of looking for this animated short (NSFKind-hearted souls) on YouTube... I have a framed postcard depicting a shot from this film hanging over my desk.

I still find myself completely cracked up by the end of it. :D The subtle expressions, the ridiculous escalation of violence... it's priceless.

The Ballad Of C.T.

2006-07-13T18:52:00.000-05:00

I've got some sad news -- one of my cats, C.T., died today. He'd been having seizures for the past year or two; they'd been increasing, and the past week, they'd been near constant; on Monday, he'd had four or five, same with Tuesday, when he had one at the top of the basement stairs and fell down (when Dad ran to see him, he wasn't moving, and Dad thought he'd killed himself; he was just stunned, though), and yesterday, he'd had the same amount, and fallen off the bed. Previously, during bad spells, he'd have about one every other day, for a few days, maybe a week, and then he'd be good for a while. He also hadn't been eating for the past two days.

(more in the complete post)

We've had C.T. for a long time -- about 12 years. Mom figured out that he was about 18-20 when he died, since he spent 12 years with us, about 2 or 3 years as a stray, and about 5 or 6 in the house at the opposite corner of this block, who had gotten him as a kitten.

This part of the story is very sad; the people who originally got him were terrible people. Some of the worst kind of people. The reason we called him C.T. comes from his days as a neighborhood cat -- he was "That Crooked Tailed Cat"; his owners thought it was great fun to slam his tail in the door, and as such it was broken in 3 places. They'd also beat him and find new and innovative ways to abuse him. When they moved, they just abandoned him.

C.T. was one of the strongest cats I'd ever known - he was incredibly muscular. At first, C.T. was the really strong, mean cat who would beat up our cats -- but as we got to know him, we knew how gentle he truly was. Mom spent a lot of time getting C.T. to trust her, and, well, any people. After all, all the people he'd known had thought it was funny to break his bones. One of her favorite stories was when she was talking with my grandfather about how she felt she was really making strides in getting close to C.T. -- she'd said she'd been able to pet him. She offered to show Grandpa, and they went outside, and Mom had a can of cat food for him, and reached down to pet him... and he got scared and clawed her a good one; Grandpa howled in laughter.

Of course, it was shortly after this that C.T. got enough trust to move in with us. For a long time, my parents were the only ones he trusted. He kind of trusted me, but it was warily. I think his main problem with me was that I brought other people home who were loud and he wasn't sure what to make of that -- of course, we had no intention of EVER doing ANYTHING to harm him, but at the time he didn't know that. Whenever anyone came over, he'd run and hide.

Finally, he got used to other people, and in his last 5 years or so, he was actually a bit of a social butterfly; he still had moments where he'd get really anxious, and might run away kind of skittishly and worry that Something Bad would happen (that, of course, never came), but for the most part, he had finally grown used to and comfortable around people. That was a big step forward for him, and a lot of people realized that (particularly since they'd inevitably ask about his tail, and so they'd get the whole story) and really encouraged him. I know that C.T. felt loved, because he was. And that's one thing that I'm very glad for in his life.

He was also one of the smartest cats I've ever known -- he really understood a lot; he knew, almost innately, that I've got hypersensitivity to pain, and I always have -- and he would ALWAYS be very, very gentle with me, never scratching, and when he play-bit, it was always very light. With Dad, he knew that not only did he have the proper number of nerve cells, but also that his skin was rougher and calloused, so he could be rougher without worrying about hurting him (though, occasionally, C.T. would, accidentally, be too rough with Dad, but then immediately would act ashamed and sorry).

When he was happy, he would wag his tail -- it wouldn't be a standard cat's tail waving, mainly because he couldn't, but instead, his tail would vibrate rapidly back and forth over a small span; I think this was due to his abuse (which also resulted in his back and legs being sore and painful as well), but it was pretty cute anyway.

He was also overly conscious of making a faux pas; he'd always defer to our other cats since they'd been there first, and he was just grateful for a home. They'd occasionally pick fights with C.T., and he'd just take it... even though he could have cleaned their clocks handily. Sometimes we'd even tell him he could without fear of reprisal from us, but he'd never take us up on it, though he'd occasionally get into friendly-antagonism matches with Henry; speaking of which, Henry's been wandering around all day looking for C.T., wondering where he is, and wondering why they haven't gotten to antagonize each other today.

Strangely, as my parents started watching Rodeos again on TV, C.T. really enjoyed watching them as well, and playing as if he was a Bull as well. This morning, when he refused to eat the Turkey we'd given him (Turkey was his favorite food, but also, sadly, a food he was allergic to), to make up for it, they showed him some of the Bulls on the official Rodeo Website, and that really perked him up; so, I suppose if he didn't get or want an actual last meal, he got something similar. C.T. also loved to watch the raccoons that would come on our deck that we'd feed. We joked that he had a crush on the mother raccoon who would come to our deck both with her babies and without to get away from same. He would watch her with rapt attention, and then, during the day when she wasn't out there, drink from the tub she bathed in. (I'm not sure what allure filthy raccoon water had for him, but why deny him one of life's many joys?)

It's one of those things where I am very sorry for all the abuse he had to suffer early on, and I wish we would have been able to afford the resetting of his tail and ribs and other broken bones to perhaps stop his day-to-day pain. Although there's nothing I could do to stop the abuse, or help him earlier. I'm glad that he got to know a house of true love, which we all gave him, as did everyone who came in did as well. C.T. is a wonderful cat, one of the best I've ever known. I will miss him greatly, and do now. He was one of the smartest, most loving and giving cats I've ever known.

I love you, C.T.

Goodbye.

Mouse rides frog

2006-07-12T17:55:00.000-05:00

This will probably expire soon, since I think Yahoo news kills out old items, but holy cow:

Fri Jun 30, 5:15 AM ET

A mouse rides on the back of a frog in floodwaters in the northern Indian city Lucknow June 30, 2006. REUTERS/Pawan Kumar (INDIA)