Off-Topic/Unrelated
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E-mail me at david_isbister@hotmail.com
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Favorite headline? Point-Counterpoint: Point: This War Will Destabilize The Entire Mideast Region And Set Off A Global Shockwave Of Anti-Americanism Counterpoint: No It Won't 01:55 p.m., Tuesday, March 25, 2003 Senate trims tax cuts by 1/2. 01:52 p.m., Tuesday, March 25, 2003 Pretty good stuff. I've never been a fan of Rage, but this beats the shit out of that horrendous Beastie Boys track from last week. thanks, fluxie! 03:57 p.m., Monday, March 24, 2003 Thanks, Salon... 03:55 p.m., Monday, March 24, 2003 Now, get your propaganda in both flavors! 01:09 p.m., Monday, March 24, 2003 I can go back to my mustard-eating without the crushing guilt. 11:37 a.m., Monday, March 24, 2003 Anyone have quicktime of this? 08:14 p.m., Sunday, March 23, 2003 No link yet, but this is unexpected. Great song, though. 08:09 p.m., Sunday, March 23, 2003 how George Bush has ruined the country 06:54 p.m., Friday, March 21, 2003 to "Fuck George Bush Fries." God bless Santa Cruz! 11:22 a.m., Friday, March 21, 2003 SonicBlue files for bankruptcy, sells ReplayTV/Rio products to Denon/Marantz of Japan. 09:34 a.m., Friday, March 21, 2003 I was curious about who exactly this "Coalition of the Willing" consists of, and how this new group compares with the "smaller" group of countries who supported Gulf War I.
Countries which took part in Gulf War I who are also coming along this time: Afghanistan (but c'mon - are they even back to being a country?) Australia Czechoslovakia Denmark Honduras Hungary Italy Kuwait Netherlands Poland Portugal South Korea Spain Turkey (barely) US/UK Countries which DID support Gulf War I who DON'T support #2: Argentina Bahrain Bangladesh Belgium Canada Egypt France Germany Greece Morocco New Zealand Niger Norway Oman Pakistan Qatar Saudi Arabia Senegal Switzerland Syria The United Arab Emirates Countries who just came onboard for Gulf War II: Albania Azerbaijan Bulgaria Colombia Costa Rica Dominican Republic El Salvador Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Georgia Iceland Japan Latvia Lithuania Macedonia Marshall Islands Micronesia Mongolia Nicaragua Palau Philippines Romania Rwanda Singapore Slovakia Solomon Islands Uganda Uzbekistan Are all of these new guys even countries? 07:30 p.m., Thursday, March 20, 2003 I have to say I'm leaning towards gross. 02:44 p.m., Thursday, March 20, 2003 Performance art meets the internet, with hella gibs! 01:54 p.m., Thursday, March 20, 2003 Well, gosh. You say that the music industry should be more consumer-focused? Where on earth did you get that idea? thanks, Paul 10:42 a.m., Thursday, March 20, 2003 Not to the highest bidder, of course - no bidding has taken place. Instead, he's giving out contracts to the usual suspects - buddies and campaign donors. Excuse me while I continue to grind my teeth into nubs. 10:00 a.m., Thursday, March 20, 2003 I hate it when "stars" (especially little tiny ones like Chan Marshall) whine on and on about what a PAIN it is to be famous, and how interviewers' questions are so tedious, etc, blah blah blah. She's whining about all this stuff while her personal photographer is snapping pictures, and her publicist is standing ten feet away. Boo-hoo. You're getting to make music for a living, Chan. 09:43 a.m., Thursday, March 20, 2003 [insert strained joke about "inventing the internet" here] 02:21 p.m., Wednesday, March 19, 2003 Set your irony blasters on "Give me a fucking break." 02:17 p.m., Wednesday, March 19, 2003 There are plenty to choose from this time around... 02:14 p.m., Wednesday, March 19, 2003 Freestylin' is taken to a new level with this clip. 02:39 p.m., Tuesday, March 18, 2003 Sars (from TWoP and Tomato Nation) explains to us why she really REALLY hates 90210. Still. 01:44 p.m., Tuesday, March 18, 2003 You can find it in my /Public/DJ Sets/Mix 3-14-2003/ folder. Use Stuffit to join the segments as usual. 09:27 a.m., Tuesday, March 18, 2003 [found via unknownnews.net] This article, from 1992, gets into the details of exactly HOW the US managed to ship chemical and nuclear weapons components to Iraq, using a scary (still active) corporation called "Wackenhut." 12:53 p.m., Monday, March 17, 2003 Ever read a news story, and want some background or follow-up info to get a better picture of the REAL story? For example, what's the deal with the captured Al Queda guy? Who got the million payoff? Or, how much financial aid did Turkey lose by defying us? Well, UnknownNews.net has the extra bits you're looking for. 11:23 a.m., Monday, March 17, 2003 Sorry about the Windows Media link - not sure if it will work on a mac. 10:16 a.m., Monday, March 17, 2003 Let's see... Bechtel, Halliburton, Brown and Root... It's crony time! 09:44 a.m., Monday, March 17, 2003 Fortune magazine explains to us tech fetishists exactly how alone we are in our quest for the "connected home." Good stuff, and a scary wake-up call to the valley. 09:22 a.m., Monday, March 17, 2003 I don't know why I would ever want or need these, but dammit, I DO! Now that I have my BT-enabled cellphone, I'm looking for new fun uses for it. I already got the Sony-Ericsson Clicker to control my Mac. Hopefully I can score a Bluetooth headset here at work. Anything else I should know about? Email me. 09:14 a.m., Monday, March 17, 2003 A traveler who had the audacity to pack a anti-war sign in his bags found a note from the TSA telling him they "don't appreciate your anti-American attitude." 11:35 a.m., Saturday, March 15, 2003 Men's sweat, when applied to the upper lips (uh... ew?) of Women, reportedly "helps reduce stress, induces relaxation and even affects the menstrual cycle." Can we just put the sweat in the water supply, already? Not sure how I'm going to sauvely manage to convince my fiance to kiss my armpits. 06:21 p.m., Friday, March 14, 2003 More on this revolutionary idea. 11:29 a.m., Friday, March 14, 2003 A new Hamtaro Gameboy game is coming out. Time for a celebratory ham-ham dance. 10:20 a.m., Friday, March 14, 2003 Listen up, America. 09:27 a.m., Friday, March 14, 2003 This seems to be the path to losing all the wires on the back of your AV rack. Neat stuff. Wonder when chipsets will start sampling. 09:24 a.m., Friday, March 14, 2003 It is really obnoxious how corporations will take money from malt liquor companies and junk food purveyors, but show a few kids on the street talking about protesting the war, and they won't touch it. 09:14 a.m., Friday, March 14, 2003 Geez. You just throw one of these onto your device, connect up the serial port, and you can now control it over the web. Of course, your device needs serial control in the first place... 09:45 a.m., Thursday, March 13, 2003 Link will disappear, so here's the story: Bush Eats the Press by Michael Crowley Sam Donaldson is long gone from the White House beat, but as he watched President George W. Bush’s prime-time press conference on Thursday, March 6, the wild-browed shouter they nicknamed "Leather Lungs" itched. Mr. Donaldson—who, for all his booming caricature, didn’t hesitate to ask Ronald Reagan about Iran-contra or Bill Clinton about Juanita Broaddrick—winced as he saw deferential reporters trying to question a scripted President in a rare, potentially historic media availability that sailed into autopilot as one of the all-time stage-managed White House electronic events. "People ask me, ‘Do you wish you were back at the White House?’" Mr. Donaldson said. "And I say, ‘No, not really.’" But, said Mr. Donaldson, inflating his supersized larynx up to indignant, mega-bass proportions, "there are moments like Thursday night when—yeah—I want to be there!" It wasn’t just Sam. Somewhere Mike Deaver, Ronald Reagan’s media-fixing P.R. king, was smiling. But reporters on-site were alternately flabbergasted, flailing and embarrassed by the experience. None seemed to have the legs to get into the game. Mr. Bush ran out the clock on his hour of prime time, using it with the focus of Jimmy Dean selling sausage, snubbing tough reporters while calling on buddies, issuing one-size-fits-all talking points to all comers, giving the answers he wanted to the questions he didn’t. He even openly taunted one correspondent, CNN’s John King, for daring to ask a multi-part question. "I don’t think he was sufficiently challenged," said ABC News White House correspondent Terry Moran. He said Mr. Bush’s hyper-management left the press corps "looking like zombies." Mr. Bush worked from a podium-pasted pre-determined list of acceptable reporters to call upon. USA Today’s Larry McQuillan, on the White House beat since Jimmy Carter, said Mr. Bush’s homeroom-proctor sheet of preferred questioners managed to insult those didn’t appear on it—and make those who did seem like Karl Rove’s brown-nosers, the camp kids who got the best desserts. "The process in some ways demeaned the reporters who were called on as much as those who weren’t," Mr. McQuillan said. "They completely played us," added a correspondent for a major daily newspaper. "What’s the point of having a press conference if you’re not going to answer questions? It was calculated on so many different levels." But to what extent where the reporters themselves to blame? Although some asked reasonably pointed questions, most did with a tone of extreme deference—"Mr. President, sir …. Thank you, sir …. Mr. President, good evening"—that suggested a skittishness, to which they will admit, about being seen as unpatriotic or disrespectful of a commander in chief on the eve of war. Few made any effort to follow up their questions after Mr. Bush’s recitation of arguments that were more speech-like than extemporaneous: Saddam Hussein is a threat to America, Iraq has not disarmed, Sept. 11 must never happen again. It was a missed opportunity. From the media’s perspective, the purpose of a press conference is to hold a President accountable, to see him work on his feet, to understand his priorities, to give viewers insight into his character, to make a little news, or to allow the President to speak to the people in a responsive and human voice that a formal address doesn’t allow. That didn’t happen. On Thursday night, Mr. Bush reinforced an image of a scripted man on a tightrope who followed his handlers’ cue cards: Here’s a synopsis of the event: Question: Why not give Iraq more time to disarm? Bush: "This issue has been before the Security Council … for 12 long years." Question: Why don’t our allies want war? Bush: "Saddam Hussein has had 12 years to disarm … Saddam Hussein is a threat … Sept. 11 changed the strategic thinking … Sept. 11 should say to the American people that we’re now a battlefield …. " Question: Why has world opinion turned on you? Bush: "Saddam Hussein is a threat … 12 years of denial and defiance …. " Question: How is your faith guiding you? Bush: " … the tragedy of September the 11th … the lesson of September the 11th …. " Question: How much will war cost? Bush: "Three thousand people died." And so on. One suspects the reporters could have informed the President that his daughters had appeared on Girls Gone Wild! and still gotten some answer interchanging the lessons of 9/11 and Saddam’s years of defiance. Former Clinton press secretary Joe Lockhart later called the event "a perfectly acceptable performance for a re-election press conference." In other words: They … wuz … used! The press corps seemed mainly to serve as a prop, providing Mr. Bush with an opportunity to deliver another pro-war speech while appearing to bravely face the music. The White House sprung it on them at the last minute: The press conference was announced that very day, giving reporters little time to prepare. That’s fair; after all, if it’s a game, and Mr. Bush is in charge of the playbook, he doesn’t need to reveal it. But nevertheless, there was still a faint whiff of Marshall Tito about the whole thing. When the time came, reporters were escorted into the East Room in pairs, apparently to ensure they adhered to a careful seating chart. During his appearance, Mr. Bush answered what he wanted, no matter what the questions were, and there were no follow-ups. When Mr. King of CNN asked a somewhat multilayered but utterly reasonable question about the costs of war, Mr. Bush scoffed in the midst of his response: "The rest of your six-point question?" In fact, the event’s only moment of candor may have come when Mr. Bush admitted during the conference that he was calling on reporters according to his pre-arranged list of names, which his press secretary, Ari Fleischer, later copped to preparing. "This is scripted," Mr. Bush joked. Strangely, many reporters laughed at this remarkable joke, which had the additional benefit of being true. They then buckled in for a happy hour of snubs. Correspondents there were particularly startled by two. Mr. Bush failed to call on Washington Post White House correspondent Mike Allen in the front row. Given that it was the second straight news conference in which the hometown paper of record—both Mr.Allen and the other Post White House correspondent, Dana Milbank, have particularly irritated the West Wing—was chilled and chopped, it was hard not to see it as punitive. Mr. Bush also passed over Helen Thomas, the 82-year-old Hearst News writer who has customarily asked the opening question at White House press briefings since John F. Kennedy was President. It is true that Ms. Thomas has become something of a crank in recent years—Fox News’ Brit Hume recently referred to her as "the nutty aunt in the attic of the Washington press corps"—and that she may have made the impolitic mistake of telling one newspaper that Mr. Bush is the worst President in her lifetime or American history (whichever, as Ronald Reagan said, is longer)—and that, as the White House notes, she is now a columnist and no longer a wire reporter. Nevertheless, plenty of people—including Mr. Donaldson—considered this a particularly gratuitous break with tradition. "If I’m the President and I can’t handle reporters’ questions, I don’t have any business being in the office," he said. A call to Ms. Thomas found her uncharacteristically subdued. "That was his privilege, I guess," Ms. Thomas said. "I think he had a right to do that." Ms. Thomas’ prepared question: to ask Mr. Bush "if there’s any way to preserve peace and not kill thousands of people in their own country." Those granted the opportunity to ask questions seldom seemed to raise the President’s blood pressure. For every pointed query, there were several softballs that could have been capably handled by a press-office deputy. There was a question about Mr. Bush’s faith, which allowed him to hold the floor on the topic of prayer—a good topic for another day—and another reporter asked whether Mr. Bush would allow journalists and arms inspectors time to get out of Baghdad before the hostilities began, a question that allowed the President to assure the public that his war plan would not cause the death of Hans Blix or Geraldo Rivera. It should also be noted that no one asked Mr. Bush about anything besides Iraq and North Korea—crucial topics both, but a question about the struggling economy might have taken Mr. Bush at least temporarily off-message. A lack of follow-ups was also problematic. "In that room, one of the things a questioner has to do is create a moment, a confrontation with the President," said Mr. Moran, who got in a question about world opinion—but now regrets not following up more forcefully. "Not to showboat, not to draw attention to yourself, but to bring the President back down to what he is: a citizen President who needs to be engaged in a normal, ordinary conversation about these issues. So you almost have to issue a challenge to him up there. The point is to get them to answer questions, not just to stand up there and use all the majesty of the Presidency to amplify his image." Some correspondents said they had a fear, for all their desire of "the moment," of appearing disrespectful—even unpatriotic—by confronting a President about to lead troops into battle. Reporters also said that Mr. Bush, for all his locker-room jocularity—referring to reporters by last names or nicknames—subtly intimidates them on a personal level. His aides let it be known that Mr. Bush sneers at the way reporters sculpt their hair and apply makeup for their prime-time appearances, a disdain that shows. "He’ll laugh at your questions," said a White House newspaper correspondent who has suffered that fate. Others said Mr. Bush will glare at a reporter whom he likes personally for asking an unexpectedly tough question, as if it were a betrayal. Viewers of Alexandra Pelosi’s 2000 campaign documentary, Journeys with George, will recall Mr. Bush icily, if briefly, turning on her after a grilling about the death penalty. Of course, Mr. Bush is not the first to exploit press conferences for his own ends. Even when Franklin Roosevelt was gathering reporters around his desk for freewheeling chats, he was buying their good will. John F. Kennedy began to have press conferences televised at least in part to show off his looks and charm. But Ronald Reagan set the previous standard for demeaning White House reporters. His media adviser, Mr. Deaver, tried to phase them out. And he infantilized the press corps by instituting the so-called Deaver Rule, which held that anyone jumping up and down with his hand in the air would be passed over for the polite correspondent quietly awaiting his turn. Mr. Reagan’s conferences were so scripted, Mr. Donaldson recalled, that he would choose questioners based on a seating chart. "One night he called on someone who wasn’t there—Joe Ferguson," Mr. Donaldson recalls. "He didn’t come, and someone had taken his place. ‘Joe, Joe Ferguson,’ the President said. Well, of course it wasn’t Joe!" But it’s not as if a leader on the eve of war can’t risk departing from his script. Just look at how British Prime Minister Tony Blair does it across the Atlantic. At a Downing Street presser in January, Mr. Blair took one blunt question after another, including this killer: What he would say to a mother who has just waved her young son goodbye, knowing he may never return from Iraq? Yet rather than retreat into dogma, the Prime Minister spoke like a real—yet intelligent—person. "I understand, of course, my people think it’s a very remote threat, and it’s far away, and why does it bother us…. Now I simply say to you, it is a matter of time, unless we act and take a stand, before terrorism and weapons of mass destruction come together. And I regard them as two sides of the same coin." Mr. Blair was so intellectually honest that he even raised the complicating question of North Korea unprompted. Mr. Bush probably would have insulted the reporter. But in keeping with tradition, Mr. Bush’s conference last week was of a piece with his Presidency, which has always been a masterful exercise in message control. "They’re very strict and disciplined," says one wire-service reporter who was present. "But it’s not normally that galling." You may reach Michael Crowley via email at: mcrowley@observer.com. 04:47 p.m., Wednesday, March 12, 2003 Sweet! 04:27 p.m., Wednesday, March 12, 2003 Ha ha. Go GLAAD! 03:08 p.m., Wednesday, March 12, 2003 Don Johnson was stopped in Germany, where he was found to have a suitcase "stuffed with billion worth of share certificates, bonds and credit notes." He said he was going to "look at a car." 02:45 p.m., Wednesday, March 12, 2003 Weren't we supposed to close these loopholes last year? Ugh. 02:39 p.m., Wednesday, March 12, 2003 Oh goody. Could they get a forties-style announcer to narrate them? That would be great. Lance O'Connor, a partner in Santa Monica, California-based American Rogue Films, which trained and equipped soldiers with new high-definition digital cameras to shoot the video, said the reels will be made in the same vein as documentaries. "It's not about propaganda, it's about documentary work. If it were propaganda, it wouldn't work," he said. [Marine Lt. Colonel James ] Kuhn agreed. "It's not being done to create a statement on policy one way or the other," he said. Sure it isn't. 01:51 p.m., Wednesday, March 12, 2003 Wired looks at how we could develop a hydrogen economy in ten years, if we threw 0 billion at the problem. This could be a panacea for many things: dependence on foreign oil, environmental destruction, and even our lagging tech economy, which could use a nice BIG PROBLEM to sink its teeth into. 12:44 p.m., Wednesday, March 12, 2003 Guess telemarketers didn't contribute enough to the Bush campaign. 10:21 a.m., Wednesday, March 12, 2003 Look in the Public/DJ Sets/Mix 9-11-02 directory. For instructions on how to join the files together, read the READ ME in Public/DJ Sets/ 10:12 a.m., Wednesday, March 12, 2003 Gizmodo has the scoop on two rival cellphone hackers who each claim to have "invented" the old-school handset. 09:30 a.m., Wednesday, March 12, 2003 Crazy story of how one of South Korea's leading filmmakers was kidnapped by Kim Jong Il and forced to make an awful movie. 09:29 a.m., Wednesday, March 12, 2003 If you can stomach a little anti-semitism (or rather - anti-Sharonist Israel), Buchanan puts himself squarely in the anti-war camp. 09:05 a.m., Wednesday, March 12, 2003 A nice summary of the issues facing us. As much as this stuff gets me fired up, it's hard to get too worried about it right now when we're facing armageddon in the REAL world. 01:21 p.m., Tuesday, March 11, 2003 How goddamn pathetic is this? WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The cafeteria menus in the three House office buildings will change the name of "french fries" to "freedom fries," a culinary rebuke of France, stemming from anger over the country's refusal to support the U.S. position on Iraq. Ditto for "french toast," which will be known as "freedom toast." 10:47 a.m., Tuesday, March 11, 2003 Yeah, it's a little horn-tooting-ish, but here's a nice big review of our latest album. 10:05 a.m., Tuesday, March 11, 2003 Sony's new version of the 9000ES receiver and SA-CD player will use Firewire (they call it iLink) for connectivity, reducing the need for cables by... one cable, I guess. However, it should sound good. I would imagine older versions of the 9000ES, which don't have firewire, will NOT be firmware-upgradable. 09:38 a.m., Tuesday, March 11, 2003 They seem to have found 150 signals that could have come from intelligent life. 09:05 a.m., Tuesday, March 11, 2003 Listen up, shrub. Bush Senior advises his son to stick with the UN. And at my alma mater too! 03:40 p.m., Monday, March 10, 2003 Oh dear. Somebody's gone and done it. And it's FREE! 02:31 p.m., Monday, March 10, 2003 Head to your Software Update Preference Panel, Mac users! 02:26 p.m., Monday, March 10, 2003 We'll see... 01:18 p.m., Monday, March 10, 2003 In this great piece in the New Yorker, by Seymour Hersh, we see how business/diplomacy is being handled by Richard Perle, part of the REAL cabal running our Standing up for the Northern (non-Hollywood) half of California, Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren has co-sponsored the Balance Act, designed to alleviate some of the more obnoxious uses of the DMCA. 10:11 a.m., Friday, March 7, 2003 This article details how the old-boys of the Valley were the only ones making good money during the dot-com boom. 03:07 p.m., Friday, March 7, 2003 They have challenged Ann Coulter and Bernard Golberg to debate Eric Alterman. 09:34 a.m., Friday, March 7, 2003 A succinct summary of why a "stupid" internet is a good thing, and why all attempts to privatize pieces of the internet have failed and will continue to fail. 09:10 a.m., Friday, March 7, 2003 Bling Blizznizzing! 03:47 p.m., Thursday, March 6, 2003 I have finally figured out a way to post my mixes online, but it involves a few annoying steps, since Yahoo doesn't allow files bigger than 10 megs to be posted into their "briefcases." First, go over and get Stuffit Expander, and install it (you may have to reboot). Then, go to my briefcase and browse to the "Public" directory. There will be subfolders for each mix. Inside the subfolders are a series of files, with numbers for extensions. Download them all into one directory. Then, open Stuffit Expander (or just "Stuffit.exe" in Windows), and drag the file with the extension ".1" onto the Expander window. It should automatically find and join the files together, creating the original large mp3. Please let me know if this doesn't work for you. 01:51 p.m., Thursday, March 6, 2003 [thanks Robin!] After "pranksters" bid up his find to over a million dollars, a frustrated Mike Evans (no relation to Shimmer Kids drummer Mike Evans) donated the oversized chunk of orange-smegma-covered corn meal to the town of Algona, Iowa. Quoth Tom Straub, owner of Algona's Sister Sarah's Bar: "This giant Chee-to could be a boon to our local economy." 11:28 a.m., Thursday, March 6, 2003 Like your candy with a side of indoctrination? Boo-ya! [From the Village Voice, via boingboing] The Super Wrriors (sic) Battle Set and Placekeepers (sic) Military Men Play Set bristle with toy assault rifles and machine guns, tanks, troop transports, bomber planes, commanded by armored men with shaved heads and sunglasses. The assortment also includes a space-age ray gun and other imaginary hardware for orbital combat. Packets of jellybeans are tossed in as if an afterthought, nestled in the cellophane underbrush like anti-personnel mines. 05:01 p.m., Wednesday, March 5, 2003 Testify! 02:45 p.m., Wednesday, March 5, 2003 I like this. Perhaps integrating the cellphone INTO the handset would be even cooler. 01:51 p.m., Wednesday, March 5, 2003 Miss Alli sums it up: "So basically, it's like a pageant. Crossed with The Bachelor. Crossed with prostitution, extortion, bribery, and much of the book of Revelation." I love TWoP! 12:32 p.m., Wednesday, March 5, 2003 Well he did - it was just never built. Wild stuff. 09:32 a.m., Wednesday, March 5, 2003 Upholding the ridiculous "three strikes" law in California, the Supremes have continued to erode the power of courts in the USA. I almost feel like there's this "not my job" mentality that has swept the court. They are sick of being a political tool for when congress passes a dumb law knowing the court will strike it down. The court seems to be saying that they won't take the heat anymore. Problem is, when congress, or in this case, the voters in California, make a stupid, unconstitutional law, the only place to turn IS the courts. When you have an appointment for life, you're SUPPOSED to make the tough decisions, and take the heat. 09:19 a.m., Wednesday, March 5, 2003 Sony is at it again. Last time, it was the "Emotion Engine." This time, it's a "hive" processor, with 72 PowerPC cores on one chip. You thought it was hard to program for the PS2? This thing looks like a BEAST. 09:14 a.m., Wednesday, March 5, 2003 After seeing the over-the-top self-aggrandizing of the skaters in Dogtown and Z-Boys (a movie I still recommend, despite the boastful tone), I wanted to read a bit more about skateboarding history. Being from Santa Cruz, I was proud to see that our own Derby Park was the first outdoor skatepark EVER. I also came across this article, which describes the first skater to do an ollie, Alan "Ollie" Gelfand. Here is Stacy Peralta's account from the article: "Standing alone atop the three-foot cement bowl was a small Jewish kid skating in long pants." Peralta watched as Gelfand dropped into the bowl, and when he reached the top of the other side, "his board suddenly popped off the cement lip, lifted off the ground, and in mid-air switched 180 degrees and then landed... I was dumbfounded. It happened so fast. I wasn't sure what I'd just seen and thought for a moment that it was some kind of an illusion." Gelfand performed the trick again for Peralta. "When he reached the top of the bowl he used his back foot to horse-kick his tail, this act shot the tail of his board, almost crashing it into the concrete lip. It seemed the harder he kicked it, the higher his board would pop, or 'ollie.' I was amazed. I'd never seen anything like that before, and he did it so fast and effortlessly," writes Peralta. 03:52 p.m., Tuesday, March 4, 2003 It's a little kludgey, but the links should work. Yahoo doesn't allow DIRECT links, so you'll have to click twice to get the file. Boo-hoo. 01:33 p.m., Tuesday, March 4, 2003 I'll try and fix this after lunch... 11:57 a.m., Tuesday, March 4, 2003 A few months ago, our friend Mark got us a deal on a session at Hyde Street Studios, and we re-recorded "Tell Your Story Walking," the song which we had released as a demo version for the Grand Theft Autumn compilation Soak Your Shoes In Red Wine and Strike The Angels Dumb. The new version is to your right, complete with fancy drums, and a real Wurlitzer. 11:43 a.m., Tuesday, March 4, 2003 Well, Yahoo only lets you upload 10 Megs at a time, so until I either get them to change (yeah...), or figure out a relatively painless way to segment/join large files, I'm stuck with posting one track at a time. How is this good for the Recording Industry, again? First track? A Hardkiss mix of the F'Lips' "Do You Realize" Sick of your kids' smarty-pants science books? Agree with Ned Flanders that "Science is like a blabbermouth who ruins a movie by telling you how it ends?" Well, the people at Discovery Magazine ("Scripture and Science For Kids") will add the mystery back into basic science, and answer every question with a reference to god! 10:23 a.m., Tuesday, March 4, 2003 You've probably already seen or heard this. Skip ahead to around 28-30 minutes in (the last two minutes) to watch everyone's least-favorite shill run from the room in embarrasment. Update: I made an mp3 of the end of this conference here 09:35 a.m., Tuesday, March 4, 2003 Guess what? She doesn't like it. Owning DOA Xtreme Beach Volleyball seems like the videogame equivalent of painting the word "dork" on your forehead in 6-inch tall red letters. 09:11 a.m., Tuesday, March 4, 2003 Yikes. Has the market already reacted to this? 07:27 p.m., Monday, March 3, 2003 It's pretty sad that it is taking a coalition of the richest people in America to get anyone to reconsider repealing the estate tax. It seems like everyone in the US is still clinging to their own personal American dreams of riches, even as our economy continues to tank. Perhaps facing up to reality would be even more soul-crushing than trying to get behind leveling the playing field. 02:39 p.m., Monday, March 3, 2003 Is this where they keep the Akira project? 11:46 a.m., Monday, March 3, 2003 Wanna play MP3 and WMA audio files that are sitting on your computer, and hear them on your stereo? Wanna watch MPEG1 and MPEG2 VIDEO that is sitting on your computer? SonicBlue has the product for you. How long until this thing can stream video from a ReplayTV? Will this be the diskless "thin-client" video player we've been waiting for? 09:42 a.m., Monday, March 3, 2003 Shigeru Miyamoto gave an interesting interview over at IGN.com. I've posted a link, but you have to be a subscriber to read the article. He mentions a new Donkey Kong, and a Metal Gear game for the Cube. But what is he most proud of lately? Shigeru Miyamoto: I was very surprised by the turnout for the public appearance and autograph session at the [London] Virgin Megastore. Actually, Britney Spears had done one just before I did and 1,000 people came to mine, which was more than she attracted. That was very flattering. I'd be too embarrassed to do it in Japan though. 08:30 p.m., Friday, February 28, 2003 Great. Just what we need. Bush doesn't like regulating air or water quality, or out-of-control corporations, but he makes some time to f*** with the unions. 01:23 p.m., Friday, February 28, 2003 Of course, it has to be the 9th Circuit court of appeals, as usual. You know, I have yet to hear any decent argument for why the phrase "under god" in the Pledge of Allegience is NOT an endorsement of religion. New link NYT 11:48 a.m., Friday, February 28, 2003 I'll let Rob, from B3TA describe this: "I was reading the news about the hammer-based killings in the UK, and I wondered who would be the first to make a crass, exploitative game? Then I thought fuck it - I'll do it." 10:57 a.m., Friday, February 28, 2003 Story about new developments in music technology, including quater-tone flutes, self-tuning pianos, and "hyperinstruments." 10:50 a.m., Friday, February 28, 2003 Do you want your computer to have one of those Hollywood-type interfaces, with transparent little data-displays and snazzy graphics? Well, if you do, the guys who made the Konfabulator have the toys (and the tools, too) to make your desktop hum with dynamic activity. New widgets are being created every hour. Caveat - Add too many of these on a slower Mac, and your system will slow to a crawl. Best to pick a couple of the most useful, and hoard the rest for when you want to show off to your PC-owning friends. 10:42 a.m., Friday, February 28, 2003 Sebastian and Co. (including folks from Pitchfork, Lost at Sea, and members of the FMBB) have finished their Top 100 Albums of the 90s list, and one thing is for sure - they are way more indie than you! Lots of great suggestions and reminders on this list. 10:34 a.m., Friday, February 28, 2003 Yeah, I feel like a dork for posting this, but I actually dug the 'stick when they were on Bands On The Run. Now, they've put out a live album, and it actually gets a good review over at popmatters. 10:10 a.m., Friday, February 28, 2003 Wanna use the sweet Junk mail filter in Mail.app (OSX) on your out-of-control Hotmail account? Look no further than this handy, now open-sourced plug-in from Daniel Parnell. I've had some issues with some of the versions of this plug-in, but it seems to be pretty stable at this point. 09:37 a.m., Friday, February 28, 2003 |
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