January 30, 2006

The NBA stinks...

I'd be much happier if they'd simply bring back the ABA - now there was a league.

The red, white, and blue ball....the introduction of the three-point shot...loads of space for the fans to spread out...and stylish coaches like those pictured here...

The league had to have been a blast to follow and to be a part of. Heck, for some owners, it's been a blast and windfall to not be a part of it.

I've said it before...

Go watch movie trailers...and then go see movies...good ones...

today's recommendations...
  • The Notorious Bettie Page
  • Dave Chapelle's Block Party *
  • Ultraviolet
  • Brick *
  • The Wendell Baker Story
  • The Illusionist
  • Silent Hill
  • London
  • 16 Blocks
  • Down in the Valley *
  • Don't Come Knocking
  • Chaos *
  • Click
  • Manderlay
  • Thank You for Smoking
  • Tenacious D "The Pick of Destiny"
  • Think Tank
  • Tideland *
  • Lonesome Jim
  • Romance & Cigarettes *
Special shout-outs to the ones with *

And another warning...none of these are actually red band trailers, I just had used the green band one a while back and thought I should miz things up...all trailers are appropriate for all ages...

January 29, 2006

Kinda cute...and interesting...

One of my students had this story in his folder when I was checking homework this week, so I took a look. Simple enough - lost hippo befriends tortise. Nothing there but a feel-good story about two cute animals.

Until you get the the part that the hippo is behaving as a tortise would. Apparently, nurture's taking nature to the woodshed here. Then, it becomes something a little more interesting. Give it a check, folks...

Ah, fat memories...

I was searching around a Louisville restaurant review website to send some interesting suggestions to Prof. John Fischer - retired from Wabash, my alma mater - and happened across a quick review of Emery's Ice Cream, a long defunct ice cream parlor of my youth. Only a block from my chilhood home, Emery's was the site of many of my early caloric indulgences - particularly the peach ice cream.

Once Mrs. Emery passed away, however, the business pretty much faded away very quickly. I know you can never go home again - especially now that the family has moved elsewhere in N'Albany - but at least I can revisit the memories from time to time...

PS - apparently, Emery's has been recreated to some extent (I haven't been there yet) in nearby Corydon at a new location

Um...guys...

Didn't I already see this movie last year as this movie?

January 28, 2006

A better SNL skit...

On the same show as the below-mentioned Pirate Convention skit, was the Fly High Duluth skit...which I'd recommend much more highly...

Oddly, I can only find it posted in two parts...don't know if there's some sort of weirdness in the file sizes or what, but it's a great parody of over-wrought bands...nice stuff...

Part One and Part Two - admittedly there's some overlap between the two, but it's worth watching them both...

PS - There's also a good Young Chuck Norris which is relevant pretty much because there's another website about Chuck Norris Facts that I can't quite link to (dirty words, you know) that's been mentioned to me of late and is absolutely hilarious - and informative. I, for example, didn't know Chuck Norris's tears cure cancer 'til I saw that website. I do now, though.

And possibly the best SNL skit in a long while - Lazy Sunday. High quality...

'Cuase I'm up at 5:29...

And have been up for an hour...this is what I get for scheduling a cornhole tournament. I'm thinking the same sort of thing might happen next weekend for the 5K.

If you haven't checked Sunday's blogged blog yet, let me please recommend three links that Technically Overboard has posted up today...

There's the story of three glow-in-the dark Taiwanese pigs - very cute. Glowing bacon...that's just what we need in the world...I love science, really I do...

I don't care about most of the UPN and WB programming that's going to be lost in the merge, but I do hope that the WB Saturday morning cartoons get to hang around because they're easily the best stuff of their kind on broadcast television right now, and I'm too cheep to pay for cable just to get the Cartoon Network.

Last night I was discussing a recent Saturday Night live skit about a pirate convention from last weekend. Good stuff...

January 27, 2006

Let me again mention...

I have mentioned Bill Simmons, right?

Because you really should be reading his stuff...because he's really just about the only reason to read ESPN's page 2, and with the switches to putting a lot of ESPN's content going behind the Insider wall, nearly the only reason to read ESPN at all...

January 25, 2006

It's been good to know you...

For Christmas - you know, the holiday for which I still haven't written my thank you notes - I got a plug-and-play Atari with like thirty games built in. Loads of fun, but as I told my wife, I'd be okay and wouldn't become obsessed because I wasn't an Atari kid when I grew up. If they came out with a a plug-and-play version of Sega hockey - my college obsession - however, I'd pretty much be done.

Well, folks, it's been good to know you...

Anybody know where Salvo is? Or Smack? Or Googs?

I'm gonna need some competition...

January 24, 2006

Watch the birdie...

One of my classes this semester is Designing Multimedia - a course that's supposed to teach us (or have us teach ourselves, I guess) Macromedia Flash. In last night's orientation, Prof Wooley showed off a few of his favorite flash-based sites. I'm going to throw a few of his faves here in case any of you folks are looking for something to occupy your time.

January 23, 2006

Trapped in northern Ohio...

And, I'm paying to do it...arrgghh...

In case you weren't aware, I've signed my life and first born child away to get my masters degree through an online program at Kent State Uni a scant four hour drive from my lovely home in West Chester, Ohio. It's a beautiful master's program through their Instructional Technology program in which I drive eight hours once a semester in order to get my orientation information so I can then do the rest of the work from the comfort of my laptop at home. It's actually not too bad a setup except for today when I'm in the middle of those eight hours driving and now sitting in the KSU computer lab killing time until orientation starts in about fifteen minutes.

And, of course, I am - in the course of the courses - producing some phenomenal pieces of work...a professional portfolio, for example...and explorations in design...

Honestly, through all my crabbing caused by the lone day of driving three times a year, I do find the topics interesting, but the concept of distance learning does seem to fall on deaf ears sometimes since I'm the only student in the program who's more than about an hour and a half away from campus...that first orientation session when the prof said that the tests would be available from any computer on campus on test day, I just about schvitzed myself...

January 22, 2006

Let's go overboard...

Looking for a way to kill some time?

Head over to Technically Overboard and their daily - at least weekdaily - updates of entertaining links from Rob.

January 21, 2006

More music recommendations...

Last.fm seems to be a slightly more social version of Pandora which I'd recommended earlier this year.

The process on last.fm is simple enough: you sign in and list artists that you like. From that, last.fm comes up with a playlist/radio station of music that they think you'll like. The feature that last.fm touts is that you can connect socially with people who have musical tastes similar to yours. They are working on becoming an online community of people connected via their musical tastes.

I'm started setting mine up yesterday, listing Wilco, Yonder Mountain String Band, Richard Thompson, U2, Ashley MacIsaac, Johnny Socko, and Ryan Adams. If anybody's interested in checking my musical tastes out, I'll be posting my profile as a playlist once I'm happy with it.

January 19, 2006

News from the church people...

Because I'm sure everybody checking into this blog is at least as church-going and devout as am I, I thought I'd take a moment from the typical innanity and get my liturgical learn on for just a moment.

First up, please note that intelligent design is not science - and it's not just me, regular Joe Schmoe non-expert, saying things here, but rather, it's the Vatican semi-official newspaper. Just in time for tomorrow's edition of Odin's Word.

And secondly, apparently the religious right is mounting a clear and open attack on Roe v Wade. And apparently from the photo found on that website, they're employing tactics by taking advantage for our weaknesses for a certain look that could be kindly described as Ned Beaty-ish or like the salesman from Green Acres

Thank heaven for the devout and blind...

January 18, 2006

The future is here...

Ah, the future...or at least the future of the past...lemme just mention that I'm still waiting for my personal jetpack...and this whole lack of a car that folds up into a briefcase is kinda getting to me...

Today, however, I am looking at a future that's likely to happen, the future of movies as compiled by Ain't it Cool News's Harry and MiraJeff - I'd link to it, but there are a few not-so-school-appropriate words used to describe how excited he is about some of the upcoming movies. Harry lists the eighty-five movies scheduled to come out this year that he's excited about, and I thought I'd take a minute to mention some of them in case you were wondering what might be coming to my other blog this year.

#3 - Hail Caaesar - Coen Brothers, George Clooney, 1920 theater group putting on Julius Caesar. I'm smelling a whiff of O, Brother, and that's a smell that could be mighty tasty...

#4 - Scoop - admittedly, I haven't seen Match Point yet, but Scarlet Johansson and Woody Allen can't be too bad...

#8 - A Prairie Home Companion - Robert Altman's a studly director...love the ensemble work...and with a cast like this, it's something that should be fun to see...hopefully we'll get a whiff of Riders in the Sky...

#8b - The Fountain - possibly the coolest trailer of the year...

#9 - X3 - have I mentioned the whole I'm-a-comic-book-geek thing before?

#13 - V for Vendetta - amazing graphic novel, phenomenal story, rockin' preview...

#22 - Thank You for Smoking - black (lung) comedy about a cigarette spokesman...

#26 - American Dreamz - I wish I'd get to meet Mandy Moore through the Pasta for Pennies campaign, but I'll settle for the movie mocking American Idol and the president...

#79 Casino Royale - I've seen every Bond movie so far - the last half dozen or so in the theater...hopefully Daniel Craig can reverse the tragectory of the last two or three...they stunk...

And ones that I really don't want to see...The DaVinci Code, Superman Returns - even though I'll certainly be seeing it because I'm a big comic book goober geek//

January 17, 2006

Schweet...

The things that I bump across when playing on the web...and often, I haven't a clue how I dropped onto the sites I visit, but I do manage to find them anyway...such as Candy Blog, but I'm kinda glad that I bumped into it and its reviews of gorgeous candies like the weirdo varieties Kit Kat from Japan and such...

And then once I found the candy blog, I of course had to look for others so I would be in the know on all the candy goodness around the world. My next find was candy addict with its currently cool apple computers logo recreated in kissables - a new candy that clearly deserves a try on my part.

From those two I found another titled candy blog that looks like it might be interesting, but then it appears to be a corporate schill - a new type of advertising that tries to draw people in for some free content and then deliver them along to the company's website. Booger 'em...

I then got hooked onto some semi-artistic candy photos over on flikr - from which I found another photo album of colors of the world.

It's a sweet internet out there, folks...take a lil' taste...

January 16, 2006

Three planty things...

First off, there appears to be a sequel to the weirdest game ever. I haven't played it all the way through - just through the first screen so far, but it looks to be of the same type. Very strange but gorgeous stuff...

I found this new one when I found a link to a music video done by the same designed. Loads of pretty plant/tree images with a bunch of animated beasties moving around. Kinda cool but not as cool as the games...or maybe it's just a lot more passive.

And, to pass the time, another plant-based game wihout a lot of explanation. Seems easy enough to get your plant to grow...but I haven't played it all that far.

January 15, 2006

Requiem for a mix tape...

I was cleaning out part of our storage room - you know, finally putting the Christmas tree away - and bumped into a mix tape that a friend of mine who was with me in Aberdeen. The tape was a snapshot of her musical tastes during the summer that we came back to the States. It reminds me of her and of an entire year of my life, and it's one of the last mix tapes that I've got. There are a half dozen or so mix tapes that I've got from my now-wife, then-girlfriend, and the sight of the tapes sitting there together in my memory tub (a big, green Rubbermaid, in case you were curious) made me sad.

I've watched movies with my parents and seen chracters explain things that I've asked the 'rents about, knowing the the words meant something to them but that the emotional weight was lost on me, and the loss of the mix tape reminds me of Rob's (from High Fidelity) explanation of the work and time and planning that went into making a quality mix tape. For me, those words bring back floods of memories, tryng to ensure that the mix had the right pacing, that one song worked well with the next, worrying about whether there was enough room left on the tape, adding times, judging tempos. Those days, however, are gone.

The perfect quote comes from a Salon.com article,
Putting together a home-brewed compilation of songs used to be an act of love and art. Now it's just too damn easy to be worth caring about.
At first the mixtape evolved into the mix cd which still took some planning. Less work went into it, admittedly, because some computer graphic showed you exactly how much time was left on the cd, and you could polish things a bit by fading in and out (depending on the program), but if done right, the mix cd showed feeling and had some weight.

Then came the playlist. Typically slapped together in five or ten minutes, little thought given to the progress and ordering of the songs, able to be changed at a whim, likely to be listened to in an order different than the giver's plans if there were any. It's emphemeral. It's mutable. The playlist will likely be chopped up, added into other playlists, and its permenance, its emotional investment is gone.

I'm sad about it...sorry, folks...but it's my blog, and I'll be maudlin if I want to.

Luckily, there are a few other people who are trying to keep the memories alive.

January 14, 2006

Back to the top fives...

Back to the old favorite top fives...

Five favorite Randy Quaid films...
  1. Vacation
  2. Kingpin
  3. Brokeback Mountain
  4. Christmas Vacation
  5. Caddyshack II
Five Quinten Tarantino films (actor)...
  1. Desperado
  2. Pulp Fiction
  3. Four Rooms
  4. From Dusk to Dawn
  5. Reservoir Dogs
Five Quinten Tarantino films (director)...
  1. Kill Bill: Vol 1
  2. Sin City
  3. Pulp Fiction
  4. Four Rooms
  5. Reservoir Dogs
Five Sequels...
  1. Chasing Amy
  2. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
  3. Toy Story 2
  4. The Godfather, Part II
  5. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkahaban
Five Benecio Del Toro films...
  1. The Usual Suspects
  2. Sin City
  3. Snatch
  4. Traffic
  5. 21 Grams

January 13, 2006

Today's random iTunes from home...

Let's get right to it...I'll comment along the way...
"Rita Ballou" by Guy Clark
Nice outlaw country, upbeat tune...got turned on to Guy Clark thanks to Lyle Lovett's Step Inside This House album - one of my favorite cds
"The Rocky Road to Dublin" by Dropkick Murphys
I like the combination fo Celtic punk...these guys are out of Boston and have some nice takes on old folks tunes
"Stir it Up" by Bob Marley
Marley always makes me think of college spring days with the fratenity music system dragged to the front porch and blasting across campus...I remember the days fondly, but most of the Legend album kinda leaves me cold
"She Answers the Sun" by Paul Kelly
Kelly doesn't get a lot of play here in the US, but his Words and Music album was one that I picked up from the library at random...it's a great listen, and this song is especially good
"Night Herding Song" by Don Edwards
Don Edwards came to me from the tune "Coyote" from the preview for Grizzley Man...grabbed a greatest hits...I love the western songs, and his voice is great
"Dirty Laundry" by Don Henley
It was the 80's, what can I say?...it's got a nice beat, you can dance to it, I give it a 75, Dick...
"Rastaman Chant" by Bob Marley & Busta Rhymes
The modern trend of taking dead singers and laying tracks over the top of them sometimes works...on this album, it's a little hit or miss...this song's okay...others are better...
"The Summer Wind" by Frank Sinatra
Ol' Blue Eyes...I'm not a massive fan, but I can't imagine that anybody's music collection could be complete without a little ring-a-ding-ding...
"To Beat the Devil" by Kris Kristofferson
There was a time when he was - apparently - the biggest thing in the world...movie star, country star, songwriter of the times...his Kristofferson album is a nice snapshot of that time and includes some knockouts...
"Kick Some A**" by Stroke 9
The real title doesn't have those stars, admittedly, but this is linked from my school page...the soundtrack to Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back has some real kick butt songs...great stuff...
Perhaps tomorrow there'll be fun links here...For now, it's off to see Brokeback Mountain...have a good long weekend, folks...

January 12, 2006

Still going strong...

Yes, my castle game is still going okay.

Thanks for asking...

It just says Cincinnati...

There are all sorts of things that people comment just say Cincinnati - from three-way chili to Graeter's ice cream, Montgomery Inn ribs to the serpentine wall.

But now there is a new sight to see that truly says Cincinnati. The new Cinergy Center convention center is just freakin' cool to see from the expressway coming into downtown. It's got a bunch of angled panels that if not seen from straight on just look like a bunch of random angled panels. But when the lgiht and the angle are just right, it's an impressive bit of advertising.

Sure, it's been a few years in the making, and I haven't a clue what it's like on the inside or anything, but it just looks cool.

I'll admit it, I'm a sucker for architecture and for cool design

January 11, 2006

Winter lovin'...

Everybody needs somebody to love, and there are always options of how to find that somebody. Thankfully, the internet has provided us with tons of new options.

Today's suggested love-finding engine is Love Monkey. It's a simple enough thing. You list people you're attracted to - including their email addresses. The Love Monkey site sends them an email saying somebody - not you, not a friend, not anybody except an anonymous somebody - is attracted to them and invites them to make the same kind of list. If they happen to list you, you both get an email. No muss, no fuss, no going out on a limb and actually talking to them or taking a risk.

Effectively it's how I started dating my now wife. (I know you care, so I'll relate the brief version.) I called into WNAS - our high school radio station - chatting up Jennifer who asked - innocently enough, I guess - who I liked. The answer was pretty simple: two girls, Karlen (my now wife) and Jennifer. Apparently the Jennifer comment wasn't reciprocated, but she took the other half and played Love Monkey with Karlen. Lucky me, things were reciprocated on that front.

And I'm not talking about the new show with Tom Cavanagh. That's a different Love Monkey.

January 9, 2006

A quality blonde joke...

No pics today...just a nice little blonde joke...

Enjoy it, folks...

PS - the broken link I'd originally posted has now been fixed. Sorry 'bout that.

January 8, 2006

A good idea?

In the last year or two, I read - well, listened to, honestly - the entire Dark Tower series by Stephen King. It's an impressive piece of literature, and it does an amazing job as a capstone to King's literary career, tying together so much of what has gone before it.

All that being said, I don't see how a comic book series of anything short of phenomenal length could do it justice. Marvel Comics, however, is going to give it a try. Don't know whether I'll be going along for the ride or not. Most likely, I'll check out or try to find the graphic novels once they're released, collecting the comics.

If you're interested in The Dark Tower, there are a number of excellent resources out there...

January 7, 2006

More frivolity...

CLearly, our society has advanced to the point where we need not only video games to occupy our excess time, but we need to enact those video games on the streets on Manhattan. Some folks in NYC have noticed that their streets can be redone as a Pac-Man board. As if they couldn't just write a blog or something...

January 6, 2006

A cute little guy rocks you...

More fun video entertainment... This one's like "a cartoon version of the water cycle" - according to my department chair. I just think it's hilarious and cute. Nice choice of songs, too...

January 5, 2006

Make it stop...or not...

Stupid, stupid game...my high is 531 (as shown in the pic)...

And I apologize, in advance, for some of the other stupid photos that folks have posted on the site with the copter game...

Fifty pounds of silly putty...

It's so simple that it's brilliant... fifty pounds of silly putty dropped from a roof - with video recording why happened.

Genius...

January 4, 2006

Mounting a comeback...

Martina Hingis was a beast... an absolute beast.

True, she wasn't the three-grand-slams-in-a-year winning beast for a very long time, but for that year, at least, she was an absolute beast. Her shot-making was genius, her defense and creativity absolutely brilliant, and she was a blast to watch.

I remember first seeing Hingis play at Wimbledon against Steffi Graf in 1995, maybe, and she lost to Steffi, but I was in awe of the things she could do, the shots she was willing to attempt from any position on court, any angle, any spin. Such a joy to see on court as she had absolutely no fear, none what so ever. Gorgeous tennis.

And she's back - for now, at least - and that's about all that women's tennis could ask for. If she's able to return to even a glimpse of her old magnificant form, it'll be one of the biggest stories of the women's tennis year. Honestly, I'd be happy with seeing glimpses of that fearless, guile-filled teen of a decade ago. Cute kid, gorgeous game.

If, on the other hand, you'd rather find out what to expect from the men's game (other than continuing domination by Roger Federer), head over here.

January 3, 2006

What to do with your money...

Just some options...

You could play the lottery...

You could try to save it...

You could make art with it...especially if you use colorful currency...

Me, I like to spend it frivolously...

January 2, 2006

Happy birthday...

My how things have changed in those fifteen years...

Waiting for the third...

I got my email from Amazon that my shipment is on the way. It'll have Beck's Guerolito, the new sports almanac, and Ryan Adams's 29 cd - his third release of 2005 - just in under the deadline.

I dig Adams's music enough that he's moved into the automatic buy category for all of his new releases, but I really wish that somebody would get ahold of him, kick his backside, and force him to edit his work output. He's got aural diarrhea, an odd condition in which the artist records tons more than he should and releases it all instead of keeping it back, choosing the best tracks, shaping them into a great alum, and releasing the rest in drips and drabs on odds and sods albums.

C'mon, Ryan, just because you record everything doesn't mean you have to try to sell it.

Unless there are a whole bunch of schmucks like me who'll buy it...

January 1, 2006

More money than sense...

I am learning so much about the emerate of Dubai.

The first thing that ever brought them to my attention was the Burj al-Arab hotel, the tallest hotel in the world. It's a gorgeous building with some amazing architectural details and prone to stunt athletics to get some press for the hotel.

Then came the plan to build the three largest man-made islands in displays called The Palms. The three islands are each in the shape of a palm tree, but a really big palm tree, complete with homes and roads and shopping and boat docks and everything. All created from rock and sand dumped into the ocean to bring land up where there was previously no land.

Now, though, there is a project that tops them all in terms of sheer ego and disposable income: The World. The World is a project to create a world map made of islands (each around two to four acres in size) which will be sold to allow multi-millionaires to create their own dream island - perhaps a golf resort, a recreated 18th-century Scottish castle, a personal rain forest, an African safari island, a cullinary resort, anything they can dream of. It's just so ridiculous in terms of money and scale that I find it almost hard to understand or believe, but it's so freakin' cool...

I was going to open this entry with some comment about the people of Dubai having oil coming out of their wazoos and more money than God, but in researching this entry, I found that Dubai's oil reserve is dwinlding and that only about 10% of its revenues come from oil nowadays, and that was without even once consulting the CIA factbook on Dubai.