Blog Archives
Rocktober – Ten Nights From Hell
Rocktober is in full swing and Halloween draws closer. Night Sky Radio will be broadcasting directly from Hell. \m/
Those with delicate sensibilities are advised to go here instead.*
* Some would say – and i would not argue – that this is more hellish by far.
The IHOP Is Full
Friedman looks back at the first decade of the 21st century and wonders, “in a world of limited resources, how did I eat that much?”
Thomas Friedman writes for the International House of Pancakes Menu –
In the hyperconnected world we live in, nothing is off limits, which is to say that when the phone rang at the Beijing Hilton I picked up and knew it was one of my Arab friends immediately. “If you have something good,” he said to me, mysteriously, “You can always have something better.” I tapped the message into my notepad app. It was only later, playing golf in the fuzzy green indoor 18 hole arena reserved for visiting businessmen from Europe and America, that I realized what the proverb meant. If you have French toast, stuff it with strawberries and vanilla frosting. If you stuff your French toast, put whipped cream and fruit sauce on top. It’s as simple as that and investments work the same way. I call it the Bettering.
A leading cause of population growth. Taiwanese “big ‘n’ tall” factories are ramping up production
Nobody’s gonna get this but me, probably, but so what?
H/T to Kids Prefer Cheese
Kicking ‘S’ For 75 Years
[Or: “Two Minutes Cape”]
Superman from 1938 to 2013 in a two minute animated video by Bruce Timm (of animated DC Comics works) and Zack Snyder (Man Of Steel director).
They skip over a lot – they have to – but they worked in a lot of cool stuff from over the years.
Good Heavens Miss Sakamoto!
The Pew Research center and Smithsonian magazine have a 13-question Science & Technology quiz.
Going by their own statistical brackets, I am a white male between 30 and 49 with a high school education. I answered all 13 correctly, doing better than 93% of the public and the same as 7%.
How’d you do?
Famous moon rock star Buzz Aldrin records in Doubly.
Turn On, Tune Up, Drop D
[Or: “The Good Kind Of Pain”]
My wrist and fingers are hurting from taking up guitar again. Not just my fingertips, from sliding them up and down the strings – my fingers, from the knuckles down. My back acted up for the first couple days, but it’s getting used to this again.
I’m starting to get back the feel for chords and chord changes. Still sloppy – “C” is a pain in the ass chord – but improving. I can almost work my way through “Pennyroyal Tea” again. However, my amp isn’t handling too well when I switch the pedal from clean to distortion. I’m thinking I can find one on craigslist relatively cheap – anyone had any experience buying used amps? All I need is a 15-watt crate amp.
Bonus points to anyone who gets the triple whammy pun in the title.
Far Off Broadway
After some trial and error (less than I thought there would be, honestly), I restrung my guitar. I haven’t played it in 2 or 3 years, and it’s painfully clear that I have a lot of relearning to do. Still, I remembered a number of the basic major/minor chord structures and was close on the ones I missed. So it’s not exactly time to catch the Greyhound bus for home, as it were.
Night Skies
Last night I went with Allamagoosa and her brother to watch the Perseid meteor shower. We took a few mats out to a field and kicked back while watching shooting stars. The only manmade lights I could see were a faint light by a barn or something and some radio towers way off in the distance. I can’t recall the last time I was able to see so many stars.
After about a half hour, clouds started moving in and obscured our view. We waited a little to see if they would clear, but no luck, so we called it a night and left. Fun times.
Girl Is A Danger!
[Or: Allamagoosa Unleashed]
“I stun and amaze in my ability to harm myself” – Allie
Allamagoosa and I have long joked about her needing a leash so she doesn’t wander into traffic. A couple days ago, she was getting into my car and must not have ducked low enough because she banged her shoulder on the roof edge. Her right shoulder. Getting in the passenger side. Not quite sure just how she managed that one.
The leash is sounding less like a joke and more like a necessity. Even non-moving traffic is a risk.
Pacific Rim
I recently saw Pacific Rim with Allie and her family. They asked if I wanted to go along, and explained that it was about “giant monsters fighting giant robots.” I decided it would be a fun lark, expecting a sillyass popcorn flick with good special FX. To quote director Guillermo del Toro, “We cannot pretend this is Ibsen with monsters and giant robots. I cannot pretend I’m doing a profound reflection on mankind.”
If you haven’t seen it yet and plan to, you might wanna stop reading here.
Even though it was live-action, this was the biggest, baddest, most hardcore anime ever. Giant monsters and robots, explosions, cities being razed, incredible effects, insane weapons, and a battle cry of “This is for my family!” Some of the action scenes are a little too dark, but the colors are so vivid it almost doesn’t matter. Amazing camera work as well. There’s minimal blood and guts – children around 8 years old or older should be able to handle the movie just fine.
But what surprised me a little was that there was an actual story, and how it was handled. Del Toro said, “I shot about an hour more of material than is in the movie. Every character had a bigger arc, the characters were more complex. But I was really trying to strike the balance where I said,… let me try to get each character to its minimal requirements to have an arc that has a beginning, middle and end, and a payoff.”
I think this helped the movie quite a bit. None of the navel-gazing or handwringing that can be found in nearly any other movie these days. No overblown soliloquies about courage, duty, or sacrifice – they just do it. If a movie with themes like this can be made (by a pacifist, at that) and do well, then maybe Western civilization isn’t totally down the crapper yet.
This is the movie that “Man Of Steel” should have been.
Random Static Emissions II: Daddy-O In Hell
Mann-made dis-ass-ter
Men hunted the dildo to extinction. Women angry, yet dating more.
“Dildo Extinction” is the greatest name for a hardcore nihilistic death metal band that I’ve ever heard.
The Thigh’s The Limit
Women in Tokyo sell advertising space on their thighs.
Men can finally claim a legitimate excuse for staring. Truly, a major advance in capitalism.
I’m thinking of designing a logo and corporate-branding Allie.
Bringin’ Da Movies
Allamagoosa showed me the movie “Surf Ninjas.” Rob Schneider (who may or may not have a superpower), a cyborg Leslie Nielsen, and Tone Loc on a surfboard [Would that make Nielsen a surfborg?]. Allamagoosa continues her campaign to try to “pay me back” for all the spine-melting music* I make her listen to.
*View at your own risk.
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