It was hard to take the latest blaspheme hurled in the Beatles direction with American Idol contestants, by and large, butchering Beatles songs for two straight weeks. Sure there were some standouts such as Brooke White's rendition of Let It Be, Carly Smithson's version of Come Together, A Day In the Life and Across the Universe by Michael Johns, and Yesterday by Syesha Mercado but nearly all the other performances were bizarre? What do all those songs have in common? They are good. Hello? Why pick the crappiest Beatles songs to sing? If I Fell, Michelle, I Should Have Know Better, Day Tripper, The Long and Winding Road, She's a Woman, Back in The U.S.S.R., and Eight Days a Week are all terrible.
I've Just Seen A Face (Chikezie) and You Can't Do That (Amanda Overmyer) are two possible exceptions, as I thought they took poor songs and at least made them interesting.
Almost without variance the judges and the call-in voters like performances more if they like the songs being sung. That is why there are cover bands. That is also why, according to the Guinness Book of Records, "Yesterday" has the most cover versions of any song ever written. The song remains popular today with more than 3000 recorded cover versions.
As I sit in the office today listening to the songs I have heard thousands of time before, I am reminded of how good the Beatles were and how good their music still is. Here are a few achievements, feats, and fact from various Wikipedia entries on the Beatles and their music:
The Beatles are the best-selling musical group of all time, estimated by EMI to have over one billion discs and tapes sold worldwide.
The Beatles have notched up the most multi-platinum selling albums for any artist or musical group (thirteen in the U.S. alone).
The Beatles have a record six diamond-selling albums (10 million copies): Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles, Abbey Road, The Beatles: 1962-1966, The Beatles: 1967-1970, and The Beatles 1.
The Beatles have had more number one albums than any other group (19 in the U.S. and 15 in the United Kingdom).
The Beatles spent the highest number of weeks at number one in the albums chart (174 in the UK and 132 in the U.S.).
The most successful first week of sales for a double album (The Beatles Anthology Volume 1, which sold 855,473 copies in the U.S. from 21 November to 28 November 1995).
The Beatles have the fastest selling CD of all time with 1. It sold over 13 million copies in four weeks.
The Beatles have had more number one singles than any other musical group (23 in Australia, 23 in The Netherlands, 22 in Canada, 21 in Norway, 20 in the U.S., and 18 in Sweden). Ironically, the Beatles could easily have had even more number ones, because they were often competing with their own singles.
In terms of charting positions, Lennon and McCartney are the most successful songwriters in history, with 32 number one singles in the U.S. for McCartney, and 26 for Lennon (23 of which were written together). Lennon was responsible for 29 Number One singles in the UK, and McCartney was responsible for 28 (25 of which were written together).
During the week of 4 April 1964, The Beatles held twelve positions on Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, including the top five positions, which has never been accomplished by any other artist. The songs were "Can't Buy Me Love" , "Twist and Shout", "She Loves You", "I Want to Hold Your Hand", and "Please Please Me". Furthermore, two Beatles tribute records appeared on the chart: "We Love You Beatles" by The Carefrees (at #42), and "A Letter to the Beatles" by The Four Preps (#85).
The next week, 11 April 1964, the Beatles held fourteen positions on the Billboard Hot 100.
With their performance at Shea Stadium in 1965, The Beatles set new world records for concert attendance (55,600) and revenue. This was the first time in the history of popular music anyone had played in a proper stadium as opposed to a theatre or concert hall.
The Beatles broke television ratings records in the U.S. with their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show with over 70 million people viewing.
Every time I watch the Jaywalking segment on the Tonight Show I attempt to convince myself that Jay actually has to ask hundreds of people his simple questions to get the few truly stupid responses he airs - that there just aren't that many dumb Americans.
Increasingly, however, it is becoming harder to make that argument to myself. My fears are starting to be corroborated by newspaper reporters and school teachers who are saying that America's youth are getting stupider.
We are, as far as urban public education is concerned, essentially at rock bottom. We are now at a point where we are essentially churning out ignorant teens who are becoming ignorant adults and society as a whole will pay dearly, very soon, and if you think the hordes of easily terrified, mindless fundamentalist evangelical Christian lemmings have been bad for the soul of this country, just wait.
It's gotten so bad that, as my friend nears retirement, he says he is very seriously considering moving out of the country so as to escape what he sees will be the surefire collapse of functioning American society in the next handful of years due to the absolutely irrefutable destruction, the shocking — and nearly hopeless — dumb-ification of the American brain. It is just that bad.
I want to think that today's teenagers will merely "learn on the job" so to speak but I am not so certain. While my experience with Gen Y in the workplace is limited, it seems that some fears are well-founded. Initiative does not tend to be a strong trait while entitlement does. Couple these characteristics with a less learned mind and we could be in for some rocky times in the good 'ol U.S. OF A. It is perhaps not an overstatement that it could be these internal forces rather than anything coming at us from the outside, that brings about our demise as the last of the superpowers.
But most of all, he simply observes his students, year to year, noting all the obvious evidence of teens' decreasing abilities when confronted with even the most basic intellectual tasks, from understanding simple history to working through moderately complex ideas to even (in a couple recent examples that particularly distressed him) being able to define the words "agriculture," or even "democracy." Not a single student could do it.
There are plenty of iPhone reviews out there. This is not another. This post is just an observation as to why the iPhone is so different and inspires such goodwill from those who use it. It is simple really, but Apple has taken tasks that on most (all?) other phones are cumbersome, non-intuitive, and often just plain crappy and made them a joy. I am not really over stating this, the iPhone is really fun to use. Browsing the web is not reminiscent of the "real" real web, it IS the real web (ok a web without Flash - for now). Google maps works just like Google maps should. Email is great, not some crippled version, and the phone, despite what some have said, is very nice too. Almost all the interfaces are easy to use and it is easy to know where to go and what to do to make things happen. My previous Windows Mobile phone and my Palm PDA phone before that, took a while to master and it was only because I learned their backwards way of doing things was I able to manage on those devices.
This should serve as yet another lesson from Apple that design matters. Make interfaces (both physical and virtual) that are fun and intuitive and people will enjoy using them and tell their friends.
A couple other observations - No wonder there is a 10% restocking fee if you return an iPhone. With the amount of plastic they use - wrapping everything multiple times in their way. It would take a while to wrap all that stuff back up, I imagine. And what is up with the industrial glue used on the bags they put the phones in when you buy them. Not sure if it is the same at Apple stores but at the at&t store the clerk put the phone in this bag and then pulled away a strip between the two insides and the bag sealed up tight - had to use keys to rip a hole in the bag to open it. When we asked him about it, he said Apple was making them do that. Think different, I guess.
Two new series on VH1 really have gone a long way in justifying my decision several years ago to drop cable. As if Rock of Love: Bret Michaels in which women compete for the affections of the former (current?) front man of Poison wasn't bad enough there is also the incredible (in a bad way) series, Scott Baio is 45 ...and Single, aimed, I am sure, at all the women of my era who have loved Baio since he was in charge as Charles. When will Nicole Eggertget her own reality show?
FNB politics can be tricky to write about, and to pin down, because it relies on surfacing deep-seated anxieties and archetypes that, when revealed to the light of day, appear ridiculous.
To a large extent my perceptions of public figures is based only upon how the news media (a term used very loosely here) chooses to present them. I have been too naive to realize or too stubborn to admit it, but I just have not known the extent to which political parties use back-channels and media-types to conduct swift-boat style attacks on the character of their "enemies" and just how effective such attacks have been. While I admit to being oblivious to Edwards' manhood being called into question (for the most-part), I have known about the attacks on Hillary as far back as before she was first lady. The attacks on Barrack are a little more covert, but comments by Rush Limbaugh (shown below), while appearing humorous at first, are no doubt attempting to bring up (in some people) antiquated fears of black men "stealing" "our" white women. It is outrageous!
One of Limbaugh's ongoing jabs is that white female reporters find him sexually irresistible. "Snerdley is convinced Maureen [Dowd] wants Barack Obama," he sighs. "I don't even want to go there." He depicted Time's Ana Marie Cox as helpless before Obama's overpowering sexuality, putting the following thoughts into her head: "Well, there's no question the power is crackling through his jeans!"
Last night I watched the last episode of the TV series, The OC and afterward, felt is was time for a more personal diary-like post here on Alt Text; a post where I get to provide a bit of a window into my soul, however embarrassing that may be. It has been a while and that isn't good.
Yesterday, I was quite surprised to hear that the series was ending. Not only that, but the series finale was on that night. Now, I haven't watched The OC in a while - at least two or three seasons - but I will admit that it made its way into, an albeit guilty, region of my heart. Yes, despite being the type of cheesy, teen drama that I so often ridiculed I couldn't stop myself from caring about these (mostly) rich Orange County residents, many with very few redeeming qualities. I could try to play it cool now and say that I like the show for the hot girls and great soundtrack* , but the truth is, it was more than that. Mind you not much more, but in almost every episode I saw, there were moments of honesty and emotion that seemed so very contradictory to the backdrop and to the personalities of the characters.
Like so much of seasons' past, however, the finale had many gag worthy moments, actually many more than the average episode. This is due in part because the show, more even than it usually did, mocks itself mercilessly. The writers and creators of The OC know what it is. They know they aren't creating art. That is part of the reason they ended the show after 5 seasons (undoubtedly another part is ratings drops though I haven't checked into that). They understand that the show is cheesy and, for most viewers over 18 (a vast majority) a guilty pleasure.
In this, the final episode, the ridiculous builds upon the plain stupid toward the crescendo ending that isn't. Part of the plot supposed the viewer feel sorry for this wealthy family because their mansion on the ocean is deemed unsalvageable after an earthquake. They even cut to each family member's face as this news is delivered, creating the ultimate in cheese. Other plot points, try to draw out drama from whether a serial adultery and marry-er decides to marry her second 60 year old, husband, or the guy who player Hercules in that UPN show of the same name. Clichés and inside jokes fly out of the character's mouths for about 40 more minutes until they they settle into a series of flash-forwards to see what becomes of our heroes and heroines. All of this is quite predictable and rather boring until, in classic OC style (if not somewhat predictable as well), in the last scene the troubled kid from the wrong side of the tracks (who is now all growed up) is leaving his job site and sees a kid who was just like himself when The OC began. He knows where he is and he asks him if he needs help. This moment, too, is high on sappiness, but, with the music in the background and the history I have with this show, I can't help but feel good about it and even though I gave up watching years ago, I couldn't help but mourn a little for the loss of The OC. Just knowing it was there has been a comfort to me I guess. Ugh.
* For a while, the show provided me with a lot of exposure to new music including introducing me to some of my current favorites: Imogen Heap, Rouge Wave, Death Cab for Cutie, Matt Pond PA, Keane, Super Furry Animals, and many more, and was honestly one of the primary reasons the show resonated with me as it did. They did a great job finding songs that really matched and enhanced the emotions of the scenes with which they were coupled.
iPod, phone, camera, computer running OSX, bluetooth, wifi, and no buttons*. I am glad my Cingular contract is up in May, just in time to pony up for this amazing phone.
* A fact that I am sure will get a whole cadre of usability professionals crying foul, but you know what, its all about sexiness and by and large buttons are not sexy.
I was ready to get behind and support the Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Album list, after all the top 10 are hard to argue with. But then I go through the top 20 and 50 and even 100 and I saw no Radiohead! I have to get to 110 to find The Bends and then all the way to 162 to find OK Computer a full 10 spots AFTER the f'ing B-52's, that's right, the B-52's
It is surprising how much interest there is in this cake. Several photos are nearing or have surpassed the 25k view mark and there are 127 people who call one a favorite. I have seen this on Digg, Reddit, joystiq, and TotalFark.com, among many others. It really makes me wish I had done something more than snap some photos of this great cake. In case you didn't see it, this was made by Robin of Gateaux Inc. Hit her up for your next wedding cake.
At perhaps the best wedding (congratulations Brent and Annette) I have been to, there was by far the best wedding cake I have seen. Other people tend to agree as the photos have been linked to from Boing Boing and Wonderland to name just two. That explains how some of the photos have nearly 7000 views and over 50 people calling one a favorite.
UPDATE: The creator of this cake, Robin, from Gateaux Inc which is located in Plymouth, MN. "was amazing to work with and of course is amazingly talented" according the the bride and I can't say that I could disagree. Just look at some of her other work.
The cake toppers were very hard to find. The bride looked for months and months and finally found a set on eBay.com; they were from Japan's "Nintendo Club"
Here is the whole set (with more to come as I get some closeup macro shots I took, uploaded.)
They are combing the movie screening with other activities, too. You can play street hockey before the Clerks showing (not on the roof though), go to prom after watching Ferris Bueller's Day Off, or participate in a scavenger hunt in the subways of New York before the showing of The Warriors at Coney Island. Some screenings will also include cast reunions and question-and-answer sessions with the filmmakers. Pretty cool.
Some people may think that LOST is just a hit show on ABC. Those people don't know about the huge amounts of fans that debate its theories - yes there are LOST theories. LOST is actually something of a phenomenon. Just take a look at the number of sites out there - there are over 40 million results in Google for "LOST ABC". There are several very thorough sites like LostPedia and, …and found. LostPedia has over 6,000 total pages in its database. There have been a total of 12,214,121 page views, and 48,231 page edits since the wiki was setup. That comes to 8.02 average edits per page and 253.24 views per edit.
Major new sources have got into the act, furthering the theory frenzy and speculation. Here is one of the best (according to some) but certainly one of the most elaborate.
In addition to the TV series, there has been a real concerted effort by the shows producers to fan the flames of these fans (or fanatics). There is a real novel: Bad Twin, written by fictional Gary Troup, one of the passengers on Oceanic Flight 815 (the flight that crashed in LOST. It is even read on the show by one of the characters and fans believe there are clues hidden in its pages.
Not only that, but there are websites set up for companies in the series, such as the Hanso Foundation and Oceanic Airlines, each with plenty of intrigue and speculation of clues contained within them – seriously, view the source of the Oceanic site and really explore and interact with the Hanso site – there was some real time put into those.
4, 8, 15, 16 ,23 or 42 – this is the ever-present sequence of numbers from the show totaling 108 - this post was made today because LOST Season 3 will begin in exactly 108 days just one day after the October 3rd release of Season 2 to DVD.
I finally succumbed and put all the recent posts "inline" here on the homepage of Alt Text. While I work through some more kinks regarding how to best post one off links and such (like the one below, feel free to check out some of my latest ratings of some media I have consumed (at right).
Well, David, that’s the dark little secret that only your Grandpa and a few others knew. These people weren’t anti-religious as much as they were anti-Christian: anti- the majority religion that made America, America. They weren’t against Allah or African gods. They hated the Christian God. Many simply despised Christians of Faith, hated them as people.
I want to make sure no one thinks I have any problem with Christmas. I love the secular celebration known, now, as Christmas. I love the secular spending spree it has become. Actually I am not crazy about the consumerism of the season (much like these guys who showed up at the Church Mall of America last week) but I admit I do get into the "spirit" of it and time I get to spend with family and friends. I am just tired of people getting on their high horse about things - this time of year especially. This writer has a few (coarse) words for those same people at - ahem, pardon my French, fuckchristmas.org
Here is an excerpt:
Christmas isn’t fucking Christian. Ok, now we’re talking.
That’s right, that Yuletide cheer you’re spreading? What exactly do you think Yule is? It's the fucking Pagan celebration of solstice. And those “Christmas” traditions? They’re not just like Pagan rituals, they fucking are Pagan rituals. Way before your Jesus got all magical with the bread and fishes, the Romans were celebrating the birth of Mithra on . . . guess? Go on – guess. December fucking twenty fifth. What a weird coincidence. Practically the whole thing is ripped off from the fucking Druids and the Romans. Twelve days? Check. Exchanging gifts? Check. Mistletoe? Check.
I'm against the new proposed Minnesota Vikings stadium but not for the obvious reasons (corporate welfare sucks, etc.). Nope the 0.75% tax on stuff sold in Anoka County doesn't bother me, it is the god-awfulness of the stadium's design that has me bothered. I actually kinda like the development concept in whole, but I just can't support a stadium that has no soul (we already have the MetrodomeTM) and has a roof like this one - its like marble cake, it doesn't satisfy anyone, most of the crowd will still feel like they are sitting inside. Lose the roof or make it better.
Here's a few bits of news and links I have been collecting the past few weeks, relating to my home state of Minnesota. Don't ever say I don't represent!
I almost forgot. MNSpeak is a great (new?) website that pulls together a ton of news pertaining to Minnesota. Who would have thought there would be so may posts to peruse?
The Chicago Tribune has a great article comparing downtown Minneapolis with the Mall of America. "Minneapolis has 30 live theater venues, including two that have won Tonys...The Mall has 32 shoe stores." People who get upset by the those visitors guides to the U.S. that mention only one stop in our poor "fly-over" state, will take heart in this article.
Because "more people live in a revitalized downtown Minneapolis today than, we're told, live in downtown Denver, Dallas, Houston and Indianapolis combined" (quoted from ChiTrib article above) this will be needed: The Nicollet is a huge new residential building set to go up downtown Minneapolis soon. It will still be a foot or two shorter than the IDS Center. Come on!
hourcar is up and running in the Twin Cities and with prices as low as $2.95/hour and
$0.39/mile it may just convince a few to forgo the cabs or sell their second car.
A Prairie Home Companion is filming now so there have been several Lindsay Lohan sightings in the cities. I can't believe this is being made into a movie! But with Robert Altman and now Paul Thomas Anderson taking the directing roles can it be less than good?
The Minnesota Center For Photography has, what looks like, an amazing exhibit that opened this weekend called: Musicapolis: scene & seen 1965-2005 that chronicles the rich musical history of the Twin Cities from performances by the Beatles and Bob Dylan to Prince and Snoop Dogg. Here is an accompanying story from the Star Tribune
Battleground Minnesota is "hip hop documentary musical starring Chris "Shakademic" Johnson, Glenn Scott, former Vice President Walter Mondale, Senator Norm Coleman, Senator Mark Dayton, and Governor Tim Pawlenty." If that description doesn't get you interested, this preview will.
If Fiona Apple's new video (click free link) is any indication of her new direction, I am thinking the Free Fiona campaign may free her from any future record deals once and for all. I am a Fiona fan but if her new sound is 20's retro, I won't be listening to much of it.
Having cancelled my DirecTV service some months back and with the summer network schedule lull I have had a good deal of time away from the TV. Because shows like Lost, 24, and Arrested Development don't resume again until fall, there is nothing to watch, which is generally good, it being summer and all. This break has given me a chance to rediscover some of the great PBS programming that I have been neglecting. In addition to some excellent travel and cooking shows, and of course NOVA, there's the weekly news show: NOW - previously NOW with Bill Moyers - currently just Now.
Last week's show, NOW: The Design of Dissent was an interview with graphic designer Milton Glaser - famous for designing the I (heart) NY imagery, the buttons created for The Nation (and shown at right) and more. Amidst some political waxings, Glaser mostly discusses how graphic design can and does change people's perspectives.
That's the thing that makes you most crazy the idea of this passive acceptance of an authority. We thought we weren't that kind of people.
I think it's a rather simple-minded idea that if you examine government, those that have the least dissent are those that are most totalitarian. That is, in fact, the manifestation of dissent that defines democracy, (because) it means that there are oppositions to power that are freely expressed and that minority opinion is also considered to be worthwhile. Generally speaking, dissent comes out of a sense of fairness that something is wrong. Power is being used unfairly, and there has to be some manifestation or complaint about it.
I'll try not to quote the entire interview and instead encourage you to read the full interview transcript. I will mention however, that this is what I have always believed - that dissent does not equal disdain. On both a national level and in terms of jobs I have had, I always felt the greatest need to voice dissent, when I cared the most. It isn't worth arguing for thing A to improve, if you don't give a damn about thing A. It surprises me upon how many people this point is lost.
While I was searching Corbis yesterday for the dreaded stock photo of people at a conference room table (just for the comp I pray - hoping to get a photo shoot done) I noticed a feature called CorbisOutlineTM on the portraiture section of their site. They have a ton of photos of celebrities in various poses and stages of undress, some grouped by new movies that are coming out. There are some good photos there and I would suggest checking them out. The photo browser is unfortunately in Flash as so I cannot link directly to my favorites. The two photos below just really make me smile (I don't think it is a coincidence that they were both in one of my all-time favorite movies: Rushmore). If you happen to be looking ofr this sort of photo for your commercial work I would suggest giving these a look. All rights to these images are reserved by Corbis and the photographers listed below.
On a loosely related note (Tom Cruise is pictured on Corbis' Portraiture section home): Tom Cruise is an ass. There is just something wrong with this quote:
"I think every little girl dreams about her wedding. I used to think I was going to marry Tom Cruise."
Especially when you think she was just 8 years old when she saw Top Gun for the first time. Plus she is at least 2 inches taler than him! [Source: IMDB]
Yahoo! buys Flickr - doesn't this seem like a defensive move for Yahoo! It's like they said, "If we don't, Google will." I wouldn't be surprised to see some shadow business models of basically, let's build something cool that these two behemoths will get in a bidding war over.
All the lip service that the announcers gave to Randy Moss' display of...ahem...his posterior (albeit a pantomimed display) was ridiculous and I remember thinking that they were acting like bigger idiots than Moss. But the ensuing brouhaha over this event is mind-blowing. I cannot believe there are people like Howie Long (arguably one of the dirtiest players ever) saying that it just shows that "talent and class don't always go together" and Michael Irvin who got busted for having a separate house he would go to snort coke and cavort with prostitutes. These people and in fact the entire NFL and even the networks are the definition of hypocrisy.
To decry the loss of class and integrity caused by someone pretending to moon a crowd (a crowd, by the way, which has a long-standing tradition of mooning the visiting team busses as they leave the stadium), while neglecting to mention that their networks air shows like Desperate Housewives,The Swan, and Who's Your Daddy (not to mention all the cheerleader shots and beer ads) is contemptible.
Now I am not saying this works, and I am not saying I want one for Christmas, but I know one wife who would be very happy if the Bow-Lingual Dog Translator (by Takara) made its way under our tree. You read that correctly, and there is "science" to back Takara's claim's up (PDF), that it can analyze your dog's bark and determine its emotions from that analysis. They are lucky this amazing breakthrough in interspecies communications happened just before the holiday shopping season!
It is strange that Jason would post about selling out the same day that topic is stirring around in my mind. I was taken a back the other night when I heard a Modest Mouse song in an ad for a Nissan minvan. It is a great song: Gravity Rides Everything
My shock wasn’t that great artists want to get paid but rather that this was Modest Mouse - the epitome of the indie band - the last band I would expect to "sell out". And this wasn't the first time.
Here's a question: Why is it ok for artists like Moby and Fatboy Slim to have "commercial" success but not bands like Modest Mouse and Smog? Is it because so much of the identity of these groups is wrapped up in being independent? Most likely something like that.
American's like sleaze. This is evident by the succsess of shows like Jerry Springer, the countless dating reality shows, and Rush Limbaugh. But apparently American's are also less willing to accept lying and cheating when it comes to sleazy/sexy subjects than for those that actually matter. Theseideas are explored in this Boston Globe article.
But none of that explains the outrage over perceived lying about whether a wife knew about her husband's infidelity. And it doesn't explain the absence of outrage when it comes to possible dishonesty about an administration's reasons for going to war. One issue seems a lot more important to the country and its future than the other. And the more important issue does not involve the tawdry story of an intern, a president, and a pizza delivery.
Reebok signs 3-year old to shoe contract. Yep. 3-year old Mark Walker has a shoe deal, and while it is reportedly not as large as the deal Nike inked with High School phenom and #1 draft pick Lebron James' $90 million it does mark a trend towards marketing to youth with youth, and the signing of athletes at younger and younger ages.
TiVo really has changed my life. The people interviewed in this NY Times article are not made up nor are they on some new designer drug that alters their perceptions of reality. What I can't believe is that it is claimed that 70% of TV watchers have yet to hear about TiVo or its ilk. What? Where have you people been? TiVo regularly get s mentioned on shows like The Tonight Show and Late Night with Conan. More importantly. what are you people waiting for? TiVo can free you from watching shows when networks deem you ready for them, it allows you to watch a 2 and 1/2 hour sporting event of your choice in under 50 minutes, and ensures you don't just sit down in front of the TV and watch whatever crappy reality show happens to be on.
To save you all much time and humiliation (at watching Fox's American Idol) I will publicly humiliate myself (by admitting I watch the show) and give you a rundown on the last 8 contestants and what title they *should* win:
Joshua Gracin - Private First Class Idol; see also: Country Idol, Wet Blanket Idol
Clay Aiken - Band Camp Idol; may also be known as Broadway Idol
I am sure that highly sexualized images of teens scare the dickens out of many parents - and that is just the boy/girl stuff. Now that Russian Electro-Pop artists t.A.T.u. are about to break onto the scene, U.S. parents (i.e. the most puritanical of western countries) will be faced with highly sexualized images of two teen girls who are into each other.
Despite my skepticism at first hearing about this duo (via Idle Words) I have found that their first single All the Things She Said is catchy.
The influence for good that Mister Rogers had on people cannot adequately be measured. I would hazard to guess that it was easily more than almost any U.S. president has had, however. He will be missed.
As I watched the Martin Bashir "documentary" on his 8 months of following Michael Jackson, I found myself, on more than one occasion, feeling sorry for the King of Pop - not because of the abuse he took as a child or because he obviously has some serious issues resolving his own looks (not to mention his mortality), but rather because he had to deal with Bashir (and all the Bashirs everyday of his life). At times the axe Bashir had to grind was nearly blocking out everything else. What I found especially annoying was his incessant sensationalism and desire to make everything out to be of much greater import than it was.
I admit I believe Jackson when he says he has only had innocent, loving affection towards children (his own and others') and has not harmed anyone intentionally. I think he may be one of the most misunderstood media figures of all-time. I also think that despite having lived for 44 years, Jackson is much closer to the mentality of a 12-14 year-old and cannot adequately defined himself from "grown ups." Though I tend to not believe him in his assertions that his only plastic surgeries were 2 nose jobs, I will give the guy the benefit of the doubt. He is such an easy target that I feel its the news media that are truly the problem.
Though I would like to believe I am watching an anthropological experiments when I watch shows like Frontier House, 1900 House, and the new BBC production Surviving the Iron Age, I know they will all soon most closely resemble Jerry Springer. I even have the same dirty feeling after I turn off the set. [Related site]
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Men's Fitness Magazine recently ranked Minneapolis, MN as the 11th fittest in the nation, which leads me to believe that we are one fat country. In Minneapolis, according to their findings, people watch less TV than in any other city, and have the highest levels of exercise and sports participation.
I think this is a great idea: Servas (U.S. Affiliated site). You can host travelers in your home and build "credit" for when you want to travel. This will resolve a huge issue for me when I travel –not meeting local people and learning about their culture. Tourist attractions are all well and good, but I would like to at least get a small hint of what it would be like to live in the place I am visiting.
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I am primarily linking to this site now so that I remember the URL when I actually get around to updating and ranking my Amazon wish lists. The original source of this was Kottke.org but I do not like Jason's new Weekly remainders idea as the links tend to be gone when I go back to look for them.
I rode my first Segway today. And rode is the right word. You don't really drive it at all - just let it go and ride - or as they say in training think about going forward and you go forward.
I have heard they are banned in San Francisco. Can anyone verify that? Minneapolis has said that they are fine for use on its city's sidewalks and skyways - until there are more and accidents begin to occur.
I guarantee that kids recreating things they see in the movies and on TV is not a new phenomenon. I am sure plenty of kids tried to emulate the cowboys in the old westerns and ended up getting hurt, or others mimicked the stunts on the Dukes of Hazzard, jumping cars, and sending homemade explosive arrows into sheds and whatnot. The difference? Media coverage today makes everything seem like and epidemic. Scare tactics and sensationalism are supposed to get you to tune in to channel X over channel Z. I don't really have a point - just an observation.
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I am just now starting to recover from a cold I got this weekend due, in large part, to the fact that our furnace went out. At times it got to be 52-54 degrees in our house and both me and my dog got our first colds of the season.
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If you can get past the horror of these photos you can actually feel sorry for the man behind the mask.
Halloween may have been originated in Scotland among the Celts, bastardized by the Romans and the Christians, but it was first celebrated in its current form in Anoka, Minnesota.
"Modern day Halloween did not get started until around 1920. Anoka, Minnesota, held the very first yearly city-wide Halloween celebration in 1921 with two parades, a Pumpkin Bowl and a huge costumed square dance. In 1922 Allentown, Pennsylvania followed suit, with New York City joining in, in 1923." {source]
This photo should be used in D.A.R.E. pamphlets. And I don't care how drunk you are, there is no excuse for that shirt.
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Worthwhile research is finally underway into the name of carbonated soft drinks. A
recent CNN article sheds some much-needed light on this important research. While this site lays out the study in fine detail.
While I do live in Minnesota I have been trying very hard to call it soda. Pop sounds ... I don't know, kinda giddy, and calling all soda Coke is just plain wrong - sorry Tennessee.
More research (and maps) on differences in regional dialects can be found here.
I can't turn away from this Leonard Nimoy video. I don't know whether to thank Jason or curse his name. I had a hard enough time with the old Shatner songs.
I apologize for bringing old news, I have been without internet access at home have stopped watching TV, and do not get the paper. Even so I would have thought news of a proposed (passed) group of citizen spies equaling nearly 1 in every 24 U.S. citizens would have made it to me somehow. Why wasn't there larger coverage of this in the news media or among bloggers?
The focus of the recruitment efforts for this, STAZI-like new citizen "watchdog group" will be people with regular access to people's homes, businesses, and transport systems -people like mail carriers, utility employees, house cleaners, and truck drivers.
If you have problems with the link above please use this one.
This is all part of the administration's development of the Citizen Corps and I just do not like it. Look at that site, full of propaganda and "patriotic images." The breadth of potential involvement opportunities is unnerving. I can imagine neighbors reporting neighbors, or old women reporting "those suspicious people with darker skin" and I fear that not much is going to come from this that will be beneficial- just more fear, suspicion, and less community among neighbors.
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I was quite surprised to hear it when an otherwise rational, mostly intelligent (except of r that whole Republican thing) friend of mine told me that the closest thing he has to religion is what he sees on the John Edward show. He was actually planning to fly to the show to be on it - to surmise if it was real or not.
Now, this friend of mine claimed Mr. Edward doesn't do the whole "pshycic"-asking-vague-quesstion thing. But my research into him tells me otherwise. This article covers an appearance on Larry King Live in which Mr. Edward uses the tried and true "I am getting an 'S' or maybe a 'T' type thing. I just cannot respect his "powers", sorry Jeff.
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A family was kicked off a plane for asking if the pilots were sober. [from MetaFilter]
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It seems the folks working on MIT's Blogdex project are remaining busy. I don't know how long they have been working on the Social Network Explorer, but it seems that it is still a work in progress. It is somewhat interesting though with the whole concepts of "friends" of sites and then recommendations for surfers based on those friends most likely.
Soon we may not be able to say that about a few other shows:
The Family Guy has already been cancelled. I am just hoping beyond hope that it gets picked up by the WB or something - I mean come on! What on the WB or UPN is better than the Family Guy?
Futurama is on the block next, though it does have more than a season of episodes completed that have yet to air.
In happier news the Simpsons movie is scheduled to come out sometime next year. Details are hard to come by though. www.thesimpsonsmovie.com and
www.simpsonsmovie.com have been registered, probably by FOX.
I should be doing my timesheets right now, but I just can't bring myself to do them. I haven't been too terribly busy the this past week and it is very hard to figure out how I should record my time. Ugh!
I should probably be looking for a company where I will be busier. Inertia.
I think Mark and I are having a conversation here. Though I am not sure if he knows it. In his post on April 23rd, Mark gave a quote by Richard Dawkins that I mentioned far less eloquently in my post on the 20th. Here is the quote:
"Out of all of the [religious] sects in the world, we notice an uncanny coincidence: the overwhelming majority just happen to choose the one that their parents belong to. Not the sect that has the best evidence in its favour, the best miracles, the best moral code, the best cathedral, the best stained glass, the best music: when it comes to choosing from the smorgasbord of available religions, their potential virtues seem to count for nothing, compared to the matter of heredity. This is an unmistakable fact; nobody could seriously deny it. Yet people with full knowledge of the arbitrary nature of this heredity, somehow manage to go on believing in their religion, often with such fanaticism that they are prepared to murder people who follow a different one." - Richard Dawkins
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Fun Friday time killer:
If you haven't heard these Budweiser Real American Heroes Radio Spots you should go there now. Favorites? Mr. Really Bad Toupee Wearer, Mr. Pickled Pig's Feet Eater, Mr. Driving Range Ball Picker Upper, and of course Mr. Garden Gnome Maker.
I am still up. It is after midnight and I have done a bit of surfing. That's really something I do not do a lot of any more. I used to feel quite bad about that, but now I am not so sure. From now on, I may just go to my dozen or so sites that I like to read and call it a day
It was hard to take the latest blaspheme hurled in the Beatles direction with American Idol contestants, by and large, butchering Beatles songs for two straight weeks. Sure there were some standouts such as Brooke White's rendition of Let It Be, Carly Smithson's version of Come Together, A Day In the Life and Across the Universe by Michael Johns, and Yesterday by Syesha Mercado but nearly all the other performances were bizarre? What do all those songs have in common? They are good. Hello? Why pick the crappiest Beatles songs to sing? If I Fell, Michelle, I Should Have Know Better, Day Tripper, The Long and Winding Road, She's a Woman, Back in The U.S.S.R., and Eight Days a Week are all terrible.
This break has given me a chance to rediscover some of the great PBS programming that I have been neglecting. In addition to some excellent travel and cooking shows, and of course NOVA, there's the weekly news show: NOW - previously NOW with Bill Moyers - currently just Now.
