Aug 31, 2007
Aug 29, 2007
Jimmy Justice
An article about a cool guy. Basically, he films cops breaking laws. This article discusses whether his is true journalism. I'm sure cops are discussing how they can arrest him. I think he's great, yay for watching the watchers!
Aug 28, 2007
Boxsweeper
This site is so cool! It basically just points you to places on the net where the latest movie/show/whatever is up. Now, I would never use such a site, of course. But if, for example, a person were eating dinner at the dining room table, and that person did not have a TV nearby, nor any interesting things to watch on his or her computer, and that person did not have time to download a bit torrent of something to watch, then that person might flip to this site and watch something random and low quality, but good enough for the dinner table. It might happen, eh?
Aug 23, 2007
Aug 21, 2007
PayPlay.fm
So, not sure if I've mentioned this site before, but there's this great site called PayPlay.fm. It's like itunes, but not shitty. All their music has no DRM. That means you can copy, burn, or transfer it as much as you like, which is good, seeing as how you own it. $0.88 per song too! It doesn't have huge people, anyone on a big label isn't going to be here. But for smaller acts, or indie types, it's great. I got a bunch of irish and latin music here. Plus, they've started this cool "karma" system. For signing up (25 points) and logging in (1 point a day) and buying music (1 point per song) you get karma points, and every point earns you one free karma song! Every other band (or so) on payplay offers one song per album as a karma track that you can get for free with your points. It's a totally slick way to try out other bands to see if you like them.
If, however, you insist on using itunes, EMI (this is old news) now has DRM-free music there. So buy lots of EMI music to tell apple that DRM = unhappy customers = less money. Universal is also going DRM free, but they don't really like itunes, so their stuff is on Rhapsody, a couple others, and a new service with Google called G-Box. They are doing it as a trial, so people should buy that to convince them as well. Amazon is supposed to have a DRM-free store at some point too, but it hasn't appeared yet.
So, go buy DRM-free music! fight the man! fight the power! viva la revolution! I'm sure I spelled that wrong!
Aug 16, 2007
Aug 13, 2007
Aug 9, 2007
Aug 8, 2007
Starving in the Belly of a Whale
Funny, I didn't think I liked this, but as it went on I liked both the song and the animation more and more, until I was singing along at the end!
Babes and B-52s
This art is sorta cool. Sorta the militaristic version of chicks on dragons, and as such a little creepy, but I like the style.
Movie Reviews
Rattatoullie: Very sweet and charming and funny and everything Pixar does right. Not the best ever, I don't think, but up there. However, the short at the beginning is my favorite short ever. I cannot remember the last time I giggled like an idiot for 5 minutes straight!
Little Children: Umm.... meh. I had a weird state of mind for this movie, as I had heard from two people how genius it was, and two others how horrendous it was. I ended up in the middle. It was just a little boring, a little mishmashed. The announcer was occassionally the only source of humor (wry, of course), and sometimes completely ruining the drama by narrating emotions. People did an ok job, it just was so long and drawn out and not really about all that much. The football scene was amazing, though. I desperately searched for a way to connect that amazingness to the rest of the movie, but I can't think of a way!
Saw 3: Zzzzz. You are boring, Saw! It's not novel anymore to tear people up in interesting ways. Inserting a lame story of redemption/forgiveness doesn't help. Inserting a lame "twist" doesn't help. Inserting lame backstories doesn't help. BORing.
[typed a few days later]
Hostel 2: I take it back! Saw 3 was great! Jeez, at least Saw 3 pretended it was deeper than blood and guts. It failed utterly, but it tried. Hostel is just about torture. It's not about anything, and no it's not interesting that people want to watch or participate in torture. It wasn't interesting when the first one came out, it's defintely not for the lame sequel. And even if you only want blood and guts, Saw 3 does it better. Damn you, Hostel 2, I hate you for making me elevate Saw 3!
Shrek 3: Y'know, I don't really know. I fell asleep on the plane cuz the movie was boring and I was tired. Don't really care to find out what happened either. *shrug*
The Fountain: Weird and silly. Pretty, I guess, but mostly fluff. Extraordinarily slow and boring fluff. Newagey/buddhist ideas with fancy graphics, meh. B said it was like an hour and a half long music video.
Sunshine: Woooooooo! Oh em gee I love this movie. It was soooo great. So beautiful and suspenseful and awesome. The science is a little thin (restart the sun?!), but it's not The Core, trust me. It was really great, and I don't understand people's complaints about the ending either, it was fine. Man I wanna go see this movie again.
Harry Potter 5: Well, hm, it's a Harry Potter movie? I mean, it's not bad, it's a harry potter movie. But it's not good, it's a harry potter movie. Much like the books, the longer they go on, the less charming and more dramatic they get. If you care about the drama, it's interesting, if not... meh. And even still, this movie was thin on drama, it mostly advanced the plot for the 6th and 7th. I thought the wizard battles were cool. B said they were like star wars, but hey, I like star wars. Maybe 6 will be awesome.
----------------
As a side note, I saw Sunshine in Robert Redford's Sundance Theater. One of those new fangled theaters that are supposed to reinvigorate the movie going experience. I was excited for this, as I think it's an interesting development in movies and media. People hate going to movies, shitty seats, crappy food, annoying people, etc etc. And our home systems are getting so much better, the only reason some of us go out is for the blockbusters. So this idea interested me. Unfortunately it wasn't all that fancy. They have a cafe and a restaurant and a lounge in front, I guess that's nice. You have assigned seats, that's cool. And some stooge introduces the movie on a microphone before it starts. That all adds up to an $11.50 ticket price. Don't get me wrong, it was a nice experience, but it wasn't really the wave of the future, as far as I'm concerned. Maybe there are other theaters that go all out, dunno.
Book Reviews
Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali: This book is SO GOOD. Besides being a captivating story. And besides being an interesting/horrifying exposure of a woman's place in islam. The most important message is not for conservatives who don't care, it's for liberals who can "care" too much. We liberals are sometimes too willing to defend a culture blindly in the name of multiculturalism. Some cultures ARE better or worse. We feel guilty telling all the dark skinned people that their beliefs are wrong. But when those beliefs allow the torture, rape, murder or half their population, they are wrong, plain and simple. This seems obvious, but I notice the inclination in myself as well. The inclination to give a group of people a pass because we are too worried about being racist or intolerant. Anyway, if you need another reason to read it, check out the intro:
Breakpoint by Richard A. Clarke: Oh Richard Clarke. I really loved his first two books. The first one for exposing Bush bullcrap before 77% of the country was onboard with that practice, it was awesome. The second one because it theorized in a very realistic feeling (though what do I know) sense what could happen soon in the world, I loved it. This one is a little bit more extrapolation, and it is stretched a little thin. He's got us with a world wide self-regulating internet, and fully integrated and interfaced (with the brain) robolimbs, and brains that go on the internet, and genegineering, and all this other stuff, in like 5 years! This is all cool stuff to talk about, but it seems more like 30 years away, or 50 years away. So anyway, he's not SUCH a great writer that it's worth listening no matter what he says, it was his understanding of the current and near-future political climate. Without that understanding and relevancy of the subject matter, it's just an OK near-future scifi book.
Lion vs. Crocodile vs. Water Buffalo (x50)
I'm back from vacation, Wisconsin was coo'. This is coo' too'.