Entertainment Cartridges

Our Protector

noreply@blogger.com (Me) — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 14:54:00 +0000

Steal This Book

noreply@blogger.com (Me) — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 21:45:00 +0000

Artwork by David Foster Wallace's wife, Karen Green

Conspiracy Theory Rock

noreply@blogger.com (Me) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 19:21:00 +0000

Springsteen on Wal Mart: It was a mistake

noreply@blogger.com (Me) — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 13:46:00 +0000

Partial quote:

"But Mr. Springsteen said the decision was made too hastily. “We were in the middle of doing a lot of things, it kind of came down and, really, we didn’t vet it the way we usually do,” he said. “We just dropped the ball on it.” Instead of offering the exclusive collection to Wal-Mart, “given its labor history, it was something that if we’d thought about it a little longer, we’d have done something different.” He added, “It was a mistake. Our batting average is usually very good, but we missed that one. Fans will call you on that stuff, as it should be.” "

My cynical side says, yeah, sure, it's still for sale, and given that it usually takes 2 years of editing before an album comes out, disingenuous, or worse, calculated... but my Obama side says, oh look, he's human, could have been worse, could have been a McCain supporter.

First National Bank

noreply@blogger.com (Me) — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 20:19:00 +0000

Obsessive Obama Supporters - The Onion

noreply@blogger.com (Me) — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 19:09:00 +0000

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

The Last Carnival

noreply@blogger.com (Me) — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 18:17:00 +0000

Fan video. Wonderful tribute to Danny.

Chihuly at Desert Botanical Gardens

noreply@blogger.com (Me) — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 23:39:00 +0000

This is a must-see exhibit. The opulent glass is the perfect counter-point to the desert. I don't even want to ruin it with inadequate descriptions. Here are some photos.

Hunter S Thompson Motivational Posters

noreply@blogger.com (Me) — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:47:00 +0000

Click title to link to more posters.

Favorite Flicks of 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Me) — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 15:21:00 +0000

The Fall
Cloverfield
The Dark Knight
Milk
Be Kind, Rewind
The Edge of Heaven
Dark Matter
Persepolis
Son of Rambow
Slumdog Millionaire

Can't say enough about The Fall...

Also too ...
I've Loved You So Long, Rachel Getting Married, Encounters at the End of the World, The Reader, Burn After Reading.

Haven't seen Benjamin Button, the Wrestler, or Synecdoche yet...

Favorite Quotes of 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Me) — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 14:38:00 +0000

Quotes may be from other years, but I just heard them this year. So don't quote me!

"It was the best of times... it was the end of times."
David Haan (brother)

"Incompetence is the default setting for the universe."
Tim Ferriss (4-Hour Workweek)

"Adversity doesn't build character; it reveals it."
Unknown

"We believe that the best of America is not all in Washington, D.C. ... We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard working very patriotic, um, very, um, pro-America areas of this great nation."
Sarah Palin

"You know that old Beach Boy song, Bomb Iran. Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran."
John McCain

"Who is Barack Obama? Contrary to the rumors you have heard, I was not born in a manger. I was actually born on Krypton and sent here by my father Jor-El to save the Planet Earth. Many of you know that I got my name, Barack, from my father. What you may not know is Barack is actually Swahili for "That One." And I got my middle name from somebody who obviously didn't think I'd ever run for president. If I had to name my greatest strength, I guess it would be my humility. Greatest weakness, it's possible that I'm a little too awesome."
Barack Obama

“I feel your scorn and I accept it.”
Jon Stewart

"There's a more important reason to keep NASA's programs going strong ... to achieve that greatest of discoveries, the thing we as human beings need most: space oil."
Stephen Colbert

“I don't need drugs to make my life tragic.”
Eddie Vedder

Couldn't have said it better

noreply@blogger.com (Me) — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 13:36:00 +0000

So I will just re-post what IvyTodd posted on Daily Kos.

Springsteen + Wal-Mart= Oh No!
by IvyTodd

Sat Dec 27, 2008 at 08:50:46 PM PST

Bruce Springsteen released his Born to Run album six weeks after I was born, but there is hardly a musical artist I love, respect and seen more in concert. Its a coin flip between him and my hometown boys, Pearl Jam for my favorite artist. I even talked my wife into having Thunder Road as our first dance song at our wedding reception.

IvyTodd's diary :: ::

Part of what makes Springsteen what he is, besides being perhaps the greatest songwriter of his generation (performer too? though I know I missed his prime by far), is he has never fallen far from his blue collar roots. Its evidenced in his songs (most of the Born to Run and Born In The USA albums...you know the lyrics "And boy these jobs ain't comin back") as he writes often about the working man. The acoustic Ghost of Tom Joad album is filled with songs about the working class. Joad was inspired by the book "Journey to Nowhere, the Saga of the New Underclass." What song other than "Youngstown" better symbolizes than what's happening in the Rust Belt:

Seven hundred tons of metal a day
Now sir you tell me the world's changed
Once I made you rich enough
Rich enough to forget my name

Lately Springsteen hasn't been at all shy about pushing his political agenda after he publicly stumped for John Kerry in 2004 and often for Barack Obama this year. Springsteen discussed the importance of "truth, transparency and integrity in government, the right of every American to have a job, a living wage, to be educated in a decent school, and a life filled with the dignity of work, the promise and the sanctity of home...But today those freedoms have been damaged and curtailed by eight years of a thoughtless, reckless and morally-adrift administration."

So imagine my shock, my horror, my dismay, my utter disbelief when I read that Springsteen's new greatest hits CD would be available only at...Wal-Mart?

It had to be a typo. But no there it is on backstreets.com and other blogs.

I won't dare link to the Wal-Mart page, but trust me its there. You can pre-order it now.

Why Bruce why? A career singing about and standing up for the working man, and now you give Wal-Mart a monopoly? Please tell me it isn't so. Everybody with any heart and any gray matter between their ears knows that Wal-Mart is all that is unholy. Wal-Mart is the reason so many people have lost their family wage jobs. Wal-Mart is the reason so many Youngstowns are spread across America.

My hope was that some record executive cut a deal and Springsteen found out about this when we did. That like the backwardness that the record business is, the artist has no say in his own music. I hope, I hope.

But maybe the first stanza of Badlands says it best...

Lights out tonight trouble in the heartland
Got a head-on collision smashin' in my guts man
I'm caught in a crossfire that I don't understand
But there's one thing I know for sure girl I don't give a damn
For the same old played out scenes baby I don't give a damn
For just the in-betweens honey I want the heart I want the soul
I want control right now you better listen to me baby
Talk about a dream, try to make it real
You wake up in the night with a fear so real
You spend your life waiting for a moment that just don't come
Well don't waste your time waiting

Augmented reality, indeed

noreply@blogger.com (Me) — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 13:45:00 +0000

Using a combination of google sketchup, which is free, and an augmented reality plugin (free trial version), and your webcam, you can placc 3d models in the real world. You can even move them around. check out this video.

Fear, a popular 4-letter word

noreply@blogger.com (Me) — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 21:48:00 +0000

Fear is a weird topic for Christmas, but it's been on my mind a lot. In the past two weeks, I made two decisions based on fear, conscious of what I was doing, and taking the easy road anyway. This is not typical for me - I usually just feel the fear and go ahead and do the thing anyway.

So I'm wondering, what is it about fear that makes us live our life in safe little cages? Why do we bypass opportunities, or flat out not do the right thing b/c it may lead to something bad? I've had more failures in my life than most, which I attribute to trying more things than most, a statistical thing; my chance-taking has rarely had horrible repercussions, just mostly annoying or almost horrible ones, like the time I went parasailing on an almost deserted beach in Zihuatenejo and was almost choked on the line while airborne.

I went parasailing again, a few times, in fact. But lately, if I have a horrible or almost horrible experience after taking a risk, I tend not to try anything again for awhile. Obviously, this tosses good experiences out with the bad.

One of my long-time friends is taking a huge chance to improve her life - she is risking way more than I ever have, and she is being brave about it and remains philosophical even when pretty down in the dumps. Compared to what she is facing, I feel ashamed about my fear-based decisions this month. And I went to see Yes man the other day, which is just a light-hearted Jim Carey flick, but its message is sound - you have to be open to things to have things happen, bad or good. It's easy to shut down, to say no, to say, uh oh, and to stay in your routine and your safety zone. But will that make us look back with satisfaction on our lives? I think not.

So I am going to set one of the decisions right, and consider the other one before it is too late.

Merry Christmas to the brave and the not-so brave. Remember to have compassion for those that operate from fear; their old age may be filled with regrets.

Love the Questions

noreply@blogger.com (Me) — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 15:54:00 +0000

Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart
And try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms
and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue.

Do not seek the answers, which cannot be given you
because you would not be able to live them.
And the point is, to live everything.
Live the questions now.
Perhaps you will then graduallly, without noticing it,
live along some distant day into the answer.

Rainer Maria Rilke

Tragedy up North

noreply@blogger.com (Me) — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 14:01:00 +0000

Flying Bitchslap

noreply@blogger.com (Me) — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 17:19:00 +0000

Yikes

noreply@blogger.com (Me) — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 13:08:00 +0000

Crazy weather in Seattle!

At Twit's End

noreply@blogger.com (Me) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 13:27:00 +0000

Cara Scissoria makes fabulous cards - holiday and otherwise. Check out the site by clicking on the title link.

Big 3 Bailout

noreply@blogger.com (Me) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 19:25:00 +0000

Don't forget to read the fine print!

(RED)Wire

noreply@blogger.com (Me) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 13:02:00 +0000

An extension of Bono's program, RED, (RED)Wire is an online music magazine delivered weekly to your email, which automatically places songs into your iTunes. At $5 a month, half your fee goes to buy medicine keeping people living with HIV in Africa alive.

You get two free issues for signing up. Every week you get:

EXCLUSIVE — An exclusive song from a major artist.

SHOWCASE — A song by an artist we want everyone to hear.

EXTRA — A fun or inspiring piece that's not music – a short video of someone telling a story, a slideshow of great photography, someone reading something they love.

IMPACT — Frequent updates from Africa – a window into the culture of the people receiving the medicine.

All the music is in unprotected digital files. Play them on your iPod, burn them to a CD and enjoy.

Click the link above to join.

Thankful

noreply@blogger.com (Me) — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 18:37:00 +0000

Thankful for President Elect Obama, stressful yet paid work, freezing rain and hot chocolate, funny and talented friends, fab family members, and not-so-fab family members, and the depression, which is the only reason this country's greed and ethnocentrism will ever change, even just a bit, and pumpkin pie Blizzards. Also, good health and the very expensive health care premium that has only gone up 75% in the last year.

OK, that I am not grateful for. But, at least I can still pay it without hardship.

And grateful that my little Bella and Deighv are living long, healthy lives and still kicking some ass in the neighborhood. And I'm thankful for a handful of my neighbors, and that the others are leaving me alone for now.

Songza

noreply@blogger.com (Me) — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 15:27:00 +0000

This site is great - type in the song you're looking for, and it serves up multiple versions, including rare recordings, which you can listen to immediately - it starts streaming as soon as you hit Play.

How do they do it? I have no idea.

You can build playlists too.

If you can't think of anything to search for, you can peruse the Top list, which, amazingly enough, featured Snow
Patrol and Kings of Leon songs. So the Brits must use it a lot. The Featured list is sponsored by Songza, and has both new and slightly esoteric choices as well as standbys.

Rate the songs, send them to friends, or create a playlist just by clicking on a song. Super simple site to use, dynamic functionality.

Colbert Defines Bailout

noreply@blogger.com (Me) — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 13:26:00 +0000

In honor of President-Elect Obama's anticipated announcements of Timothy Geithner for treasury secretary and Bill Richardson for commerce secretary, here are some guidelines to help you better understand the bailout, courtesy of Dr. Stephen Colbert.

Bailout (financial plan)
1. (verb) a prudent and necessary act which governments take to save innocent corporations that somehow fell victim to over regulation.
2. (noun) a special type of stock that tax payers (or their children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc.) can purchase to get the feel of what it's like to be a stock broker.

FAQ

What Causes A Bailout?
Minorities

Who Calls For A Bailout?
Hard working salt of the earth capitalists whose stock brokers have told them they're about to lose everything.

How do Bailouts Work?
Real Americans don't ask that.

How Do You Know When The Bailout Is Finished?
When the Republican party says so.

How Much Do Bailouts Cost?
Nothing. You get a tax cut, and the $700,000,000,000 is borrowed from China.

Prayer Of Laissez-faire Capitalists!

noreply@blogger.com (Me) — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 13:17:00 +0000

by Dr. Stephen T. Colbert

Hear me O children of capitalism!
Thou shalt not abandon the One True God for the false idols of Socialism!
That way lies Eternal Damnation
We must believe even harder!
Our god demands sacrifice!
I do not mean regulation, but human flesh!
Lo, for the true believers hath already thrown Lehman Brothers, AIG, WaMu, Wachovia into the mouth of the beast
it hath devoured Wall Street firm by firm!
Yet it still hungers!
Let it also now feed upon Main Street!
True believers would rather lose their lives to the market than admit government should have any role.