Monthly Archives: April 2005

Nine Inch Nails: With Teeth: I got a chance to listen to a preview of this album. It makes me miss Trent’s glory days (Pretty Hate Machine and The Downward Spiral seem much more inspired to me, probably because I was much younger when I heard them. Listening to TDS instantly transports me back in time to my more care-free college days). The single The Hand That Feeds, however, is the gem of this new album.

Chingon, Mexicon Spaghetti Western: At the very end of Kill Bill Volume 2, the first part of the credits roll showcasing the actors in a montage of scenes from both movies. The Chingon song Malagueña Salerosa plays during this, and it is one of the best songs from both movies. Chingon is a Robert Rodriguez side project – basically the result of traditional mariachi music slapped around into a rock and roll format. Great stuff! The Chingon version of Malagueña Salerosa is a rock-ified version of an old mariachi song. After hearing it the first hundred times, I was desperate to find more Chingon songs but alas at the time nothing was available. Until now!

Easy Star All Stars, Dub Side Of The Moon: Not a new album, but new to me – before listening to this album I naturally chalked it up as a novelty tribute album (a la Fade To Bluegrass: The Bluegrass Tribute to Metallica). But the mixture of reggae/dub music and the classic Pink Floyd album Dark Side of the Moon goes way beyond the novelty of mere tribute by becoming a damned perfect blend of styles and standing very firmly on its own.

More fun with Google Maps: Apparantly, this is Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch:

(click to see the original)

Click the images to see the originals in Google Maps.

Grand Canyon:

Good Marketing = You Can See It From Space:

Disturbing fandom:

The aliens are among us:

Lots more here:

Google Sightseeing

This pic says it all.

From a photoshopping contest on Worth1000.com:

Someone noticed the word “Dave” on one of Google’s satellite images, which Google now includes in their amazing “Google Maps” service. It was mentioned on Google Blogoscoped, an interesting blog of Google-related news.

Click the image above to show the real thing.

In the last few weeks there have not been very many good movies to choose from, at least not until Sin City opened (which I’m looking forward to seeing). So when Kathryn and I had a date night on Saturday, we chose to see The Upside of Anger. It kind of sneaked into theaters without a lot of fanfare – presumably for not being very marketable blockbuster escapist fare.

imdb | rt

It is a sort of suburban aristrocrat-angst white yuppie dark comedy but with a thoughtful screenplay that contains a lot of humor and interesting dramatic tensions. The performances by the actors are fantastic, especially Joan Allen’s performance. Despite the sort of contrived implausible ending, and the inevitable “character redemption” arcs, the movie was a mesmorizing blend of fine acting and a dramatic, poignant, and humorous story. It definitely satisfies my need for a feel-good family story, at least until I can utterly destroy any remaining warm-fuzzies by basking in the debauchery of a blood-soaked revenge movie such as Sin City.

“Extremism is so easy. You’ve got your position, and that’s it. It doesn’t take much thought. And when you go far enough to the right, you meet the same idiots coming around from the left.”

Admittedly, posting someone else’s thought in this blog did not take me much thought either.

I used to work in Fincastle, VA, so the following comic got my attention:

This one’s been around for a while – spammers are now using ASCII art in an attempt to get past our spam filters.

 wwb      aap                                                        ge kvb
gof       ihl kby                                                  hsisaswp    qfurtjk          etgbmosgc
 hg      eae                                                      meo oy cbh  jvk   xdv         tw
 ynx     hy   qnv    buqki      pmkw ln   tb swd   mysah           pu wa      n      qc         pvmqmjr
  kkr   cmb   sbd  dxx   lep  kegm ywwg   trd    kwc   sbr          yakr            gs         vkhcmlqyt
  xbw   cvh   ctd        hkq  wp     dp   oy           qxp            ffjbe      fxcb                  ev
   lkv xfb    kst  tnxptmwbi  jj     ut   gy     mkjqjqwkh            wd wmd   kqd                     th
    ud bf     udj pha     pj  hq     yn   er    hvk     hy        av  pa  ir  srn             teq      aa
    vcdpt     gvu  kw    bth  ueqj  ehb   wx     pa    ngv        ufr nv shk pja  vmuqty  jx   javyvugoj
     fyq      qno  wicdlk  yq   htyy yp   gq     hucsdg  fpt       mrdvtar   iphpfvlfcqs  duw    kwqnb
                                     qa                               cc
                              accq xukb
                                 hmj

With all of these tricks at their disposal, you’d think spammers would be able to find a more legitimate purpose in life. Alas, it shall not be.