Thursday, June 29, 2006

a policy of questioning the science...

Check out this piece that ran on the BBC program "Panorama" featuring an interview with a pollster and political consultant for the Bush admin in 2000.

"...they had to make their skepticism look credible..."


I don't know that I buy this Luntz fellow's assertion that there were significant legitimate scientific doubts about climate change in 2000, but I'll go with the rest of it - his advice to the administration and how to proceed with disinforming the American public about global warming. Certainly this consultant's influence is not the only factor behind the admin's policies and attitudes toward global warming and their... umm... remarkable stewardship of the environment in general, but it's a pretty frightening POV and puzzle piece.

Perhaps Global Warming, Jr. will use his 60th birthday wish to reverse the damage being done by willful corporate and government blind eye-turning and no one will have to worry about it again?

But with CO2 being life, and W's promotion of a "culture of life," will he be able bring himself to blow out his 60 candles...?


"Warmest regards..." Ha.

Bleah.

Keep on keepin on~

Monday, June 26, 2006

"Quiet, Bender!"

"A terrifying message from AL GORE!!!"

or...

"Why does the weather suck so much?"


Keep on keepin on~

Friday, June 23, 2006

weekend movie options...

A copy-paste of non-volleyball options for a rainy weekend. Originally included in an email to volleyballers sent earlier today...
-------------------------
At the Coolidge Corner theater in Brookline...

Tonight - A charity midnight screening of SERENITY! This movie rocks! Check it out if you can! Profits from this and 40-some other screenings around the world this week will be donated to creator Joss Whedon's favorite charity - Equality Now.
-------------------------
At the Brattle theater in Harvard Square...

Tonight - The Marx Brothers are in DUCK SOUP at 8 and 10pm!

And at noon on Saturday a 24-hour Anime Marathon kicks off. There's some good crack in that lineup. AND *COSPLAY!*
-------------------------
Ongoing thru September, all over Boston and a bit in Cambridge - Cows On Parade!

(There's a link to a pdf map on the front page.)
-------------------------
Now playing...

AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH. Highest-grossing powerpoint ever! =) Really, tho, some serious $hit. Check it out on a rainy day. If you're not careful, you might learn something!

NACHO LIBRE! Wide release. DYNAMITE sensibilities applied to the classic, all-too-familiar rite of passage story that every boy lives out - that time in an orphan monk's life when he must wrestle and defeat his worldly desires... with a tag team partner versus Satan's Cavemen! Ah, I remember it well...~

BRICK. At the Capitol and the Coolidge (smaller screen). Indie supercoolness in a hardboiled noir set in a suburban SoCal high school. L.A. CONFIDENTIAL meets STRANGERS WITH CANDY, and then beats STRANGERS for info on the whereabouts of VERONICA MARS... or something...

=)

Note that BRICK will be playing with HARD CANDY in a couple weeks at the Brattle. I've definitely gotta hit that sickness.
-------------------------
Keep on keepin on~
brian out

rolling thunder...

Pretty frickin awesome. =)

Got dark in our office pretty quick about a half hour ago. One wall of it is all window, which usually heats us up greenhouse-style over the course of the day. The clouds rolled in, then we got a first crash of thunder, an then the diagonal white lines of rain. Falling hard.

Speeding down to the ground.

Crashing and rumbling and rolling. All I can see in the rectangle of sky from the office is desaturated, not even really dark, just not bright, cloud ceiling. I imagine a view from far off would be like cloud tank effects from RAIDERS or POLTERGEIST, y'know?

Damn. This would amazing to be caught in.

I wonder if we'll get DAYS of this, like the weather forecasts have threatened. Or if this will spend itself today. The doom and gloom of weather.com for the weekend scared me away from planning a beach trip. Which actually works out okay (except for depriving me of some much needed physical activity : P), cuz I've got people to see this weekend, and should really put a dent in the massive packing/moving job that I've been dragging my feet on.

Just felt like trying to catch this dark and stormy moment. The view doesn't really photograph so well, not in pixels at least.


Hohum.

Back to the digital mines. Gotta put down a decent chunk of work so I can get in a movie fixx or two tonight. CARS w guitar heros Jeff and Kim, then DUCK SOUP on my own, and I was hoping to get midnight SERENITY in, but it looks like:

((3 x showtimes) + commute(foot + T + auto))/distance > hours in the evening

O well. Still, a big night. I've never Watched a Marx Brothers film before.

Keep on keepin on~

Thursday, June 22, 2006

midnight SERENITY Friday@the Coolidge!

Writer-creator-director Joss Whedon is sponsoring charity screenings of his FIREFLY series film SERENITY this week and weekend. Ticket sales go to support Equality Now.

In the Boston area, midnight Friday at the Coolidge!

And, playing at other locations around the world...

Also, check out Friday night Marx Brothers at the Brattle =)
-------------------
I'm way overdue for a hit of Coolidge goodness. I've been away from the Brattle for weeks as well. Both have some great options this weekend!


SERENITY - one of the best gor-am frackin honorable thieves movies ever. It also happens to be one of the biggest-hearted sci-fi flicks I've ever seen. This is what you SHOULD get in a sci-fi flick today. Effects that are dazzling AND subtle, but at no point feel like they overpower the important, timeless, bits - the characters, their relationships, plot and conflict, and the very snappy space-dialogue.

=)

This is a big screen "sequel" to the brilliant killed-in-its-wonderful-infancy-by-Fox-surprise-surprise TV series FIREFLY, created by Joss Whedon (of BUFFY, ANGEL, and lately, ASTONISHING X-MEN). If you've never seen FIREFLY, you'll get caught up real quick in the first 15 minutes of the movie. If you've got the time and some ambition, you might try to rent the FIREFLY 2-part pilot on disc one of the series on DVD as a very enjoyable prequel.

And, if you don't hit this big screen SERENITY opp, well, you should definitely get FIREFLY and SERENITY dropped into your netflix queue. It is some of the best space-crack, I'm tellin you.

Keep on keepin on~

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

What happens in the barn...

...stays in the barn.

Or so says the promotional material for an upcoming CG animated feature - BARNYARD. I'm not in any rush to go out and see it, altho I do appreciate a good kid-tipping. (Sorry, this isn't about THE SHIELD. =)

Have you seen any ads, or the trailer, for this? Do you notice anything... peculiar?

I started a wee ramble on this while scattin on the Parade o Cows currently hittin Bostonia, and then harassed my friend Jess about it via IM, and finally had the 1am-thought that I should try spooling the scattin out at a more sensible pace here.

Okay, so! The main characters of BARNYARD are cows, see? They lead hidden lives, see, all smart and walking upright on hind legs, and apparently gifted with an opposable thumb-hoof... or something..., see? Which allows them to participate in that activity which we consider to be unique to humans, and demonstrates that we are apart from and better than other beasts... And what is this mark of higher intelligence, of civilization and culture, that proves that among all of the spaghetti monster's creations, we are blessed?

Partying, apparently.

Hey, it's not my movie. I might've said volleyball, or canning salted meats, or foleying martial arts films, or 10-sided dice, or banjo playing, or disgruntled teens, or deciding it's a good idea, once our naturally provided source of it disappears, to continue to consume milk for many many years, taken from another species...


Okay, I'm rambling away from my ramble, sorry. Have you checked out the trailer?

Okay, so, you see how the stars are the cows? And the cows, they're these rambunctuous guys, right? Okay. Think about that...

COWS.

GUYS.

They're standing up on their hind legs and if they were talking at you, I would understand if you might miss a word or three as you are a bit distracted by their flapping udders.

Now, I know cartoons and animated worlds are not the places to visit for realism or consistency (except perhaps for FANTASTIC PLANET, or the leg-warmered bird and fishiness of the Don Bluth animated segment of XANADU =). I mean, how do Mickey and Minnie get away with bossing around their dog Pluto? And if Pluto's a pet, what the heck is Goofy? And how the heck does Donald go pantsless without making the police blotter?

I suddenly wish I had the multimedia power to replace Jar Jar Binks with Goofy in all the prequels.

But, c'mon! Nickeloden is gonna push boy-cows (not bulls - you do see the udders, right? Well, we HOPE they're udders...) as their main characters in a feature film? Doesn't that just seem... irresponsible? Wrong? Maybe... MAYbe they do something really smart and clever and self-referential in the movie, to acknowledge/explain this TRANSAMOORICA strangeness... Or maybe, it just seemed funny, absurd, and it's cartoony, so, why not? No one expects reality on this screen, right? Still... This just makes me wish I could divert all box office bucks from this movie to PBS.

Perhaps it's not so fantastic. These cows are just a little bit different thanks to the GM corn that's been mixed into their feed...?

Man o Mantooth. What am I going on about here?

I'll chalk it up to some sleep deprivation and stress and time crunch brought on by closing on a condo with my sister and brother-in-law, visiting parentals, and choked up bandwidth at work.

My parents' visit was a good time. Low key and all. I paid for lunch at S&S. (I remember Carol M. once saying, "S&S, that's the place you take your parents when they visit.") They paid for dinner (bulgogi and sushi! =). We toured the new condo-homestead and they deemed it Good. We watched some WINTER SONATA (the Korean melodrama sensation) I recorded on a whim but hadn't yet found a right time to watch on my own. And, oh yes, how could I forget what was, no doubt, the high point of their visit? I took them grocery shopping with me, cuz I needed to get some supplies for volleyballing at the beach the next day, when I kicked them out of the apartment. Heh.

Allright, I've gotta finish up some workywork. I was working on it earlier this evening, at a slackerly pace, between visits to the laundry room and a bedeviled ham sandwich dinner, but around midnight was feeling pretty loggy. I went to bed, but after a half hour, couldn't drop off into slumber. Typical. I was yawning HARD around siesta time at the office this afternoon, but come midnight, I can't settle down enough to sleep.

So, I watched some JUSTICE LEAGUE (the one with Supergirl and the Legion of Superheros =) and started typing this.

And aren't you just so lucky I did?

Boy-cows... WTF?

Keep on keepin on~

p.s. I'm not in a hurry to see BARNYARD, but it doesn't mean I won't. =)

p.p.s. But definitely not before I see CARS. So... Were there, like, dinosaur-cars in the prehistoric world of CARS? Wiped out by a meteor-car strike so that millions of years later their remains could become the oil that their Paul Newman and Owen Wilson voiced descendants would run on...?

p.p.p.s. WOW! I can't believe I found "Don't Walk Away" from XANADU on Youtube! I went looking for it a year or so ago and didn't find it. I suppose Youtube and Google video might not have been up back then, eh? Or at least, not yet enough of a destination to be primed with "kitchen sink" material. I just listened to "Xanadu" on Sunday on new my summer 2006 drive-to-the-beach mixx CD.

Ah, XANADU. Greek mythology, Solid Gold dancing, roller skates, Olivia "Sandra Dee" Newton John, Michael "Megaforce Warrior" Beck, and Gene "Gene Kelly!" Kelly! Such Goodness! I walked into it under duress when I saw it lo, those many years ago. It was one of my sister's "picks," y'know? But I came out of that theater with a new appreciation of peasant dresses, leg warmers, and ELO. I do love that movie. =)

Monday, June 19, 2006

Father's Day (post)secrets...

Dunno how long the Pop's Day post will be up. Check it out.

Keep on keepin on~

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

free TRUTH screenings at select theaters!


AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH is playing for free at seven locations across the country this Friday! Click to jump over my babbling to the listings!

Alas, no Boston area theaters are among the free INCONVENIENT TRUTH screening venues, but who can tell where any "next blog" arrow that lands here was launched from, right? So, if you've arrived at this posting from out-of-state, please do read on and see if you might be able to hit a free show of the TRUTH this Friday!
-----------------------
The following is copy/pasted from an email from AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH at mySpace.com. That's right, the FBI is unfair for thinking Homer's insane for writing fan mail to DIE HARD (to tell him, in case he wasn't sure, "You rock!" and also to ask if he knows MAD MAX). No, he just should have gone digital instead of analog.

Ayep. Movies are just like any other mySpace member. You can email, befriend, leave dumb comments for, invite to party, send dirty pictures to, make a date with, and stalk them. Isn't that just super?

Innit?

Right, well, here's the goods... SEE THIS MOVIE!
-----------------------
Jun 14, 2006 5:42 PM
Subject: Exclusive MySpace Screening
Body: Hey guys,

Did you know the average American generates about 15,000 pounds of carbon dioxide every year?

We feel really strongly about the environment and how the Earth is changing. The movie, An Inconvenient Truth, is one of the most compelling and eye-opening Ive ever seen.

AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH offers a passionate and inspirational look at what's happening and how to help save the planet from irrevocable change. We can no longer afford to view global warming as a political issue. Rather, it is the biggest moral challenge facing our global civilization.

Global warming is the greatest crisis facing our planet. If we dont act now we could drive one million species to extinction within 25 years. You owe it to the future to see the truth.

I worry about my kids and my kids kids and Im sure you care about the Earth too. So how do you get involved? Its easy the first step is coming out and seeing An Inconvenient Truth.

MySpace has bought out 7 movie theaters so you can COME SEE IT FOR FREE and spread the word! Here are the details:

THIS FRIDAY June 16th, 2006:
Landmark La Jolla Village
Cinemas - La Jolla, CA
7:00 PM

Bijoux Theatre
San Antonio, TX
8:00 PM

Tivoli Manor Square
Kansas City, MO
8:00 PM

Drexal Gateway Theatre
Columbus, OH
8:00 PM

Ballantyne Theatre
Charlotte, NC
8:00 PM

Landmark Guild 45th Theatre
Seattle, WA
7:30 PM

Spectrum 8
Albany, NY
7:00 PM

Arrive Early! Seats are limited and tickets will be on a first-come first-served basis.

You have the power to make a difference.

Hope to see you there
-----------------------
Keep on keepin on~

freshmaking!

Just watch. =)


Nucleation! Whee! I eagerly await further research in this field. Alternative energy? Whaddyathink?

Thanks to Jessie for the linkage! =)

Keep on keepin on~

Save NPR and PBS (again)

Man, I love these guys! Yip yip yipyip yip I do =)

-----------------------
This message brought to you by the letters "W," "T," and "F..."
(Copy/pasted from MoveOn.org)
-----------------------
Subject: Save NPR and PBS (again)

Hi,

Everyone expected House Republicans to give up efforts to kill NPR and PBS after a massive public outcry stopped them last year. But they've just voted to eliminate funding for NPR and PBSunbelievably, starting with programs like "Sesame Street."

Public broadcasting would lose nearly a quarter of its federal funding this year. Even worse, all funding would be eliminated in two years--threatening one of the last remaining sources of watchdog journalism.

Sign the petition telling Congress to save NPR and PBS again this year:

http://civic.moveon.org/publicbroadcasting/

Last year, millions of us took action to save NPR and PBS, and Congress listened. We can do it again if enough of us sign the petition in time.

This would be the most severe cut in the history of public broadcasting. The Boston Globe reports the cuts "could force the elimination of some popular PBS and NPR programs." NPR's president expects rural public radio stations may be forced to shut down.

The House and Senate are deciding if public broadcasting will survive, and they need to hear from viewers like you. Sign the petition at:

http://civic.moveon.org/publicbroadcasting/

Thanks!

P.S. Read the Boston Globe story on the threat to NPR and PBS at:

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=1864
-----------------------

THANK YOU FOR SUPER-SIZING...?

Coming this fall...


FAST FOOD NATION, a movie that tells a story built around the facts presented in Eric Schlosser's book of the same name, an excellent read (now with a companion book for young readers). I remember enjoying knocking off a chapter or so while putting away a super-size number one a couple years back... I'm perverse like that.

=)

Tracing the birth and growth of the fast food industry really does give you a surprisingly comprehensive cross section of modern American business, politics and regulation, technologies, lives, and culture. A narrative built around this should be pretty interesting, but a documentary would probably be stronger...

Then again, how much cooperation would any documentary film get from any of the parties involved, right?

I really like most of what I've seen by Linklater (SLACKER, DAZED AND CONFUSED, and BEFORE SUNRISE, in spite of ratboy Hawke), so there should be some good crack in here. Guess he's been pretty busy - A SCANNER DARKLY should be out soon. Although I did NOT love WAKING LIFE, I think that the use of animation effects in SCANNER will be more in line w the storytelling, and not so much about pushing or proving a style and technology.

That's how I took most of WAKING LIFE, a choice of topic, or non-topic, that gave the film license to play with some techniques. I might retroactively give it more points if I think of it as proof of concept for SCANNER...

=)

And a bunch of earthlink ads... :P

Y'know, like RADIOLAND MURDERS was for all the STAR WARS prequels, and PLUTO NASH was for some-movie-but-I'm-not-knowing-which... Cuz I don't know how else to justify that one.

... Which I saw in the theater...

Keep on McKeepin on~

Monday, June 12, 2006

umbrella ad/d...

Snapped this on my commute this weekend...


Nothing all that remarkable about the scene, right? Sometimes I'll get the camera out for some bit of oddness on the street, graffiti, fiberglass livestock... But really, there's nothing all that Zazz about this, right? Why shoot it?

Cuz of the only legible thing in the frame (well, besides the giant "7"). "Eddie Bauer" in the top left corner. I was walking along, umbrella'd (I've recently given in to umbrellas after a decade or so boycott), and just alluvasudden noticed how the Bauer tag/strap is always "in frame" and, except for pauses at corners, in motion.

Frickin frackin advertising. Maybe it's ad-serendipitous, sure, umbrellas have been around for, what, at least 20 years, now?

Heh.

And that's definitely a smart place to put your logo. It wraps around the umbrella when it's closed. Looks sharp hanging on the rack in the store, no doubt.

And maybe there's, like, some very sensible factory production line reason that the strap should be sewn on at just that panel of the umbrella skin, too. Sure.

And hey, if it's bothering me, having the "Eddie Bauer" screensaver burned into my retinal CRTs, I should just turn the umbrella, right? Let the poor sap who's following me get branded by the swinging tag. He won't know exactly why his next umbrella, or beach chair, or rain slicker, just HAD to be picked up at the Bauer outlet...

But, hey, look at the umbrella handle! So nicely grooved for the fit of my hand, but only on the one side so that when I'm using the umbrella, and not playing THAT'S INCREDIBLE Yogi-in-a-box, it has to be held so that the tag hangs down in front of me!

Bastards!

It IS a really good umbrella, tho.

=)

Keep on keepin on~

p.s. It's got that vent thing going on, y'know? So that it blocks the rain, but to a degree will let wind pass thru? To a degree - last week it did go all hyperextendy in a severe wind tunnel. But, y'know, nothing snapped and it's still all umbrella! And I got it on sale at the Bauer outlet at downtown crossing.

p.p.s. Media-soaking sponge that I am, I hafta admit that on another level, I thought, hey, this is an ad concept right here, isn't it? Y'know, cosmopolitan city-in-the-rain scene/s, delivery whatnot, pedestrian splash, ticketing cop, framed by the umbrella edge and the tag, with something like - "Eddie Bauer - also for the not-so-great outdoors." Or some blah-de-blah about the (urban) wilderness... or whatever...

weekend weak end

You can work for yourself, but if you've got clients, and you're hungry, and you're not, like, in the top 100 of your field, able to rule your clients by ego and reputation, then you're not necessarily your own boss...

I ended up missing two birthday windings - well, technically, it was one wingding and one shindig - this weekend cuz I was putting in day and night hours at the office. I managed to clear some room earlier in the week to make RENT, but this week there were only so many hours to shuffle around. Nuts.

HbB to JP and RA~

Two weekends earlier, I missed connecting w my college roommate, Ross. He was in town from Maine to play a gig in Allston w his band, OGRE. It was short notice, but I told him I could work it out. He was gonna be rockin on Friday night, and the work I was busy on was to be buttoned up by the end of the day.

Just thinking of making plans probably jinxed me. I had to stay late as Joe and I hammered out some revisions/fixes to the project on the phone w the client. I did take a time-out after the call, but only to get some quick dinner-like eats to fuel the rest of my night at the office.

Fracktacular.

Can I lament my priorities?

What with the need to $urvive and all, work comes first in almost every situation. Of course, on a good summer weekend in New England, a beach volleyball day CAN trump work. Didn't hafta face that particular dilemma this time around.

Socializing, spending time with human beings, enjoying the company of my friends... that typically comes in after work...
...
... Okay, okay. The socializing thing will sometimes come in after those beach volleyball days, too. But, c'mon, you've gotta understand - a beach day in New England! Those are precious!

Okay, maybe my priorities ARE screwed up.

Bleah.

I remember telling Kristen sometime last year before she left Bostonia - I didn't get to spend all that much quality time with her, in the grand scheme of things, but when we talked, we really did talk - And in coming up with and uttering the words, I actually formed the thought for the first time, y'know? Figured out the fundamental of it... The words went something like...

I *know* it's naive and unrealistic, but part of me believes that the people I like will always be around. That there's always time.

Maybe that's my rule of social alchemy...

Not the best guiding principle if you want to Make Things Happen...

Some snapshots from my late night commutes home from work...

Red light in the rain...


Some girls go wild for the Cow Parade...


Hey, they're mooltiplyin! They're mooltiplyin!


Keep on keepin on~

Sunday, June 11, 2006

Harvard... giggaty...

FAMILY GUY creator Seth MacFarlane (and friends) spoke at Harvard U.'s Class Day this week...


Not all that much to take to heart as far as "entering the real world" goes. He keeps it entertaining certainly, with a few thoughtful nuggets thrown in, including some commendable political jabs and references, a very honest (albeit, channelled) concession to SOUTH PARK's brain trust, and a great little roast of bad boy Colin F, heh. Probably the most amazing aspect of the address is not about the words at all, but the voices - hearing Peter, Stewie, and Quagmire coming out of Seth's head.

=)

Keep on keepin on~

Saturday, June 10, 2006

wuzzon...

Last night I left the office after midnight. When I got to the red line platform at Park Street, I'd just missed a train going my way. So, I settled in about halfway down, at a spot that would get me onto the train in pole position for the escalator exit at Central, and cracked open my PASTORALIA, which I'm totally digging, with a solid absurd-as-everyday coolness and a frightfully high (sadly) reading-my-inner-thoughts factor. I almost sat at a bench, but in general, I feel like I'm cheating a bit if I sit when I could stand. There are always other commuters who need it more than I. Besides, Big Red takes up another spot if I put it next to me.

A pretty dainty girl in black sits in the bench. My reading slows a bit as I do my delusion thing. She looked at me. She's looking at me now. She wants me to sit down next to her. Probably because I'm harmless (which I'm not)...(Okay, I am)... And there are loud and wobbly fellas on the platform now, too. She wonders what I'm reading. She thinks Big Red is weird. Now maybe she doesn't want me to sit down, because what would I be carrying in that bag...? Now...

Some guy - who's not me - sits down next to her.

Minutes pass. This late at night, trains hit these few-and-far-between zones. I think I slide back into my reading. Then, I'm hearing them talking to each other. How did he DO that? She's got a soft little voice. He gets her to laugh a few times - tinkling bells. No $hit.

When I see her later, she reminds me of Tracey S., from journalism class in high school. Only, petiter.

I wonder if she's pissed at me for letting this happen.

But, she laughs some more.

I back step behind the column beside the bench to leave them be.

Backing up, timewise. Across the tracks, a woman has slumped down against the wall, tired, and wanting to sit (see?) she's made herself a spot on the ground. I'm a little concerned about her, but can't see my way to doing anything to help.

Of course, this works its way into a scenario w the dainty girl, before the guy. In it, I get her attention, point out the woman across the way, and ask if, when the train finally comes, do you think maybe you could go thru the train and see if she's allright. I saw her arrive -maybe you did, too?- and she looked pretty beat. I'd do it, but, y'know, I'm a boy. I figure it'll be less of an intrusion...?

Geez, that sounds pretty good, doesn't it?

And to make it really work, really real, when the train arrives, I'd step onto a car one car ahead of the one that dainty and beat girl get on.

I'm a real clod, tho. When the train DID arrive, I got on the train, looked around a little bit, just figured, w the sound of the train and the crowd (it was a long wait), the woman on the other side would be roused...

When we left, I spotted her thru the windows, still sitting on the platform concrete. Passed out? Damn.

And... I thought about it for a While as I tried to read again...

Maybe she was waiting for friends...

Frack.

Dainty got out at Central, just ahead of me. She said some pleasant goodbye to the guy. The escalator wasn't running, so we were diverted to the stairs. I got caught behind a big slow guy w a big bag and let her beat me up to the ground on the left. When she got out, she turned sharp right, back towards the Middle East.

I kept on walking...

Oh! Backing up again. I didn't realize it until Kendall, I think, but sitting across from me on the train, I'm pretty certain, was J-'s stylish gorgeous tough-girl friend, whom I met and promptly ran away from at her bbq last year (almost exactly a year ago, according to iPhoto).

She was at Park Street with a friend. They came down to the platform high on energy, but seemed to lose it all during the wait. I was mostly into PASTORALIA, and hit a moment that made me really really sad (and just a page before I was laughing), so I wasn't looking up or around, but I thought I caught something in her posture that said she didn't want me to recognize her.

Which could've just been, simply, end of a long night-ness...

And what would I have said anyhow?

Was she going to R-'s shindig?

...

Keep on keepin on~

more CRAZY happy...

Meet Gnarls Vader...


The song is just frickin beautiful. On top of the music, the lyrics (which I hafta admit, I haven't completely sussed out), and the mystical vocals, these guys know how to put on a show! Or three, even!

I want to believe that the lyrics would be perfect for expressing Mannequin Skywalker's post Episode 3 state.

Yeah, I want to believe a lot of things.

May the Force be with Jessie for pointing me to this crazy eMpTyVee non-crapiness.

Keep on keepin on~

p.s. Didn't you just KNOW that Chewie would be the drummer? =)

Friday, June 09, 2006

John Hodgman on the World Cup...

It's like the Olympics, *plus* the World Series, *plus* the birth of your first child, all multiplied by x...

...where x equals AWESOME.

=)

Keep on keepin on~

a summer RENTal...

Observation. I'm seeing more and more of my soda can tops with schmootz in the little metal-pressed rim, y'know? Ick.


Went to see RENT at the Schubert Theater in Boston tonight. I'd never seen it before, but thought I'd heard most of its music here and there. Turns out the only song I really knew was "Seasons of Love," which the movie trailer nearly killed for me. The live performance of it tonight saved it.


Very enjoyable, and maybe a little extra poignant in my mind, given recent media/news buzz regarding "AIDS at 25." My favorite lingering bits of the show are "Viva La Vie Boheme" (or however that's spelled), the twisty subplot involving the contract on the dog, "Tango Maureen," Roger's song about his song, "I'll Cover You," both times, and the multimedia/film finale. Oh, also, the lyrical fun in "America At The End Of The Millenium" - I think it's "I don't own emotions, I rent" - I really enjoy. Oh, also also, Maureen's overly performance-artsy performance piece which has gotta be entitled something like "Cow... Over The Moon" was much appreciated.

I love how, within performances, actors portray acting, and artists radiate... umm... arting. How to explain it...? It's like... the second derivative of the craft. Like doing the impression of something, y'know? It FEELS like when I experience MONTY PYTHONers doing American accents, y'know? You can hear what they hear in what we'd consider accentless speech... "Schopenhauer has an 'S' in it."

I think it's something of a loss that the Cow Parade route doesn't go by the Schubert Theater.

A bit of fun fun crazy talk that hit me during the second half - I would LOVE to see the cast of BSG do "Seasons of Love" as the opener to next season's premiere. Or maybe included as a dream sequence inserted in the black of Balthar's bowed head during the one year flash forward. How crazy perfect would that be? C'mon. Can't you just see the cast of that show being born to dance?

Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes... (centons? =)
How do you measure, measure a year?~

=)

Glen got the Tuesday 24 crew together for RENT tonight in honor of Miss Rachel's birthday, which actually came earlier this week. I cobbled together a little digital silliness as a present for her. You might be able to figure out her birthday from the gifty...

Heh.

Keep on keepin on~

Thursday, June 08, 2006

Monday, June 05, 2006

Remember this?

If my mess of mentally collected televisional pop hasn't failed me, I believe I saw (and heard) a sneaky-cool ad for PEE-WEE's PLAYHOUSE, coming back to the little screen this summer on Cartoon Network! I caught it during an Adult Swim block tonight, so I figure maybe it's coming back as an AS show, but don't quote me on that.

The button-pushing ad was a nice Saturday morning sentimental/"insider" treat. On screen, it's just the words "Remember this?" in white type on black, and the mellow tune that leads into the raucous Playhouse theme song plays behind it... Check out this video clip for a refresher. The CN cool kids have the ad and the audio cut out before the wild bits start up, just to be sly like that. Heh.

Hrmm... I think it was "Remember this?" Maybe it was "Do you remember this?" Frack. It was late, y'know...

Anyhow...

Mecka-lecka-hi! Mecka-heiny-ho!~

Keep on keepin on~

* Also, check out KORGOTH OF BARBARIA! That is some mighty rock-n-roll dismembering barbarian action =)

Sunday, June 04, 2006

BTIES: "...and then just web the bejeezus out of him!"

Relive the prologue to the Marvel Masterpiece known as "Rocky Grimm: Space Ranger" in the geek-week re-enactment of the Jim Shooter-Mike Zeck tour-de-force, Marvel Superheroes' SECRET WARS!


I really hope the Beyonder doesn't rise again, again... bleah.

I say that now, but I think I've got doubles of every issue except the first. And really, the "bleah" is for SECRET WARS II...

Now that I've written that out, I feel it actually deserves a doubleah.

12-issue limited series thanks to my sister for pointing me to geek-week's report on this! (Better quality than the youtube link, but you'll want to jump ahead about one-third of the entire video get to the good stuff.)

Keep on keepin on~

Saturday, June 03, 2006

convenient truthiness...

I saw INCONVENIENT TRUTH last night, the documentary that follows Al Gore on the latest leg of his decades-long journey to educate the world about the threat of global warming to humanity and its home.


(You can click the pic, here, or here for better written blurbs on the film. =)

I pushed the movie in an earlier blog . Please have a look at it if you haven't already. In that post I also pointed to some ads that aired as part of a pro-CO2(!?) campaign put together by the ummm... interestingly named... Competitive Enterprise Institute.

Did anyone actually catch one of these re-educational minutes on the telly? I am so frickin annoyed with the spin these "competitive enterprisers" (aka ExxonMobil and friends) are attempting to put on melting glaciers and increasing CO2 levels, citing very particular scientific research in an attempt to discount the observed changes in weather and climate caused by global warming.

On the other hand, it IS kind of backhandedly heartening that they feel they need to embark on this "CO2! U! S! A!" program.

After seeing the movie, I took another look at those CEI propaganda droppings, did a bit of googling, and learned that one of the cited researchers objects to the use and implication of his study as proof against climate change.

Please go see AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH. If you're looking for someone to go see it with, well, check in with me and I'll definitely try and work it in again. =)

I was hoping for some more ((science + nature) x economics) in the documentary, but I think now that by going light on that, the movie keeps the education on the phenomenon in focus, and very approachable and accessible. Pay attention and you'll learn some pretty remarkable things...

Do you know that we've actually succeeded in slowing down the rate of ozone depletion and shrinking the Antarctic ozone hole? This thru international cooperation and regulation of the creation and use of products that release CFCs into the atmosphere.

This success was news to me. WTF? Why was that? Good news doesn't make the news, does it?

It once was true that we, humanity -the ants that scurry across the hide of this massive elephant of a planet Earth- couldn't do a thing to be noticed by or disturb the life of our home. We simply didn't have the power to affect the course of nature and the behavior of the world's climate. However, with the technologies at our fingertips today, in use every day by the largest and most rapidly increasing human population ever, that is no longer the case. We can impact the planet, and its most vulnerable and sensitive component, the atmosphere, in ways that were never before possible.

The scientific community acknowledges that science, data, and research all support this. However, an ad/disinformation campaign as sinister and calculated as that employed by the tobacco industry has the general public doubting. It's the skeptics' goal to get the public to attach the word "theory" to the words "global warming," even though the phenomenon is real, manifest now, and can be measured against data observed over millenia.

How is it that we are so easily manipulated?

You'll recognize how that question pertains to many different sectors of life and knowledge and belief in today's world, eh?

*sigh*

I'm rambling.

Grab some friends and GO SEE THE MOVIE!

Keep on keepin on~

June 14. Check out some observations on polar bears demonstrating a "brutal downside of global warming." I'm still waiting for a festive upside that doesn't resemble Lex Luthor's play for new beachfront property in the first SUPERMAN movie. Random synapse trigger - I seem to recall someone -maybe Kevin Smith?- talking about a SUPERMAN script bouncing around Hollywood for years, and some producer's input being to have Supes go up against killer polar bears... Wack.

meanwhile...

Some digital photographic highlights (yarr) of my so-called life over the past dozen or so days...

Paris Jen took me to get some dee-licious Lawton's deep fried(!) foot-long hot dogs...


So frickin tasty, w some excellent fries on the side! Go get some - Lawton's Famous Frankfurts in Lawrence, MA...


Followed by a visit to a sad -but not quite KFC-sad- dollar store... Does this "whale boat" look like "wet-n-fun" to you...?


Learn your A-B-Cs magnetically! A... A... A...?


I said sad... Did I mention creepy?





The day I broke down and hauled my A/C unit out of storage and put it in the window...


(Note the Lego shims propping the accordian side-seals =)


A volleyball Memorial day at the beach...



And Closing day...




Mmmmm... liquid sugar... rarrrrrrr...

Keep on keepin on~