Egnater

Egnater sounds like a futuristic android baby chick or something. It's really a company that makes guitar amps. Craig got the Rebel 20, a neat little 20W tube amp that has a really cool knob: watts. If you wanna be loud and clean, crank it to 20W. But if you want max overdrive but still need to hear later in life, twist it down to 1W. That's the coolest thing ever. It also has 2 tubes and a knob to balance between them, so if you want a Frankenstein hybrid that sounds like a Marshall and a Fender, there ya go. And the thing is nice and small.

I don't have that guitarist ear to easily tell the difference between American and British amps, much less tube vs. solid state vs. digital (as long as it's decent SS or digital). So my little Marshall is just fine. The only thing it lacks for my ear is low end. The little 8" just can't cut it, and it doesn't have a jack for an external cab. I shoulda got the Microstack instead. Oh well.

Halloween

We watched Rob Zombie's redo of Halloween last night. I liked it very much, but then I don't know if I ever saw the original all the way through. This one spent a good chunk on Michael Myers' childhood and what made him nuts. Dæg Færch, the actor who played him at 10 was perfect for the part. His mom was played by Sheri Moon Zombie (slightly NSFW if assless pants scare people), Rob's hot wife. She's been in his other movies, but this time was the stable one of the clan instead of a loony killer. Malcolm McDowell was the heavyweight actor of the bunch as the doctor. Sadly, Sid Haig had a very small part. I just love to hear that guy's voice.

Sorry Folks, We're Closed

Today John & I were going to visit Metro Sound and Lighting to look at LED pars and stuff. I met him after his lesson at 3:30 and we drove way the fuck over to St. Paul only to find out they close at 2:00 on Saturdays. What the hell. Open at 11:00 and close 3 hours later? Musicians don't shop on Saturday mornings! Sure, now I see it on their web site.

I left early and bought some CDs at Down in the Valley. Good lord, what an atrocious web site. At least they seem to know it and are getting a new one this Spring. You can tell it was made by stoners. Got an early OCMS that was recently released, 2 Rammstein albums, a newish one by The Offspring, and the new Pretenders album. And once again, that live Bowie album from 1972 was not in the bin. We had them order it and Kim checks every few weeks, since the music store where she and John take their lessons is right next door. When she ordered it months ago, they said that some idiot ordered a dozen copies of it on vinyl and no CDs. Brilliant. I guess I'll eventually order it fron B&N or Amazon, along with the Buckethead and Praxis albums that are also never in any store.

Apple Design and Such

There's a documentary by Gary Hustwit about design called Objectified, which includes people such as Jonathan Ive, Apple's design guru. Be sure to click the link to the trailer. Note what appear to be a couple large CNC machines on the left and some green tools in the background. (Grizzly? General? Could be anything because it's such a popular color for large power tools.) Gary is also the guy that made Helvetica, a documentary about typography in general and what is probably the most used typeface in history.

Take the Skyway… Please

Oooo, this section of Minneapolis skyway would make a cool office. Or shop. Or house. Or RV. "Get outa my way you fuckin' hippies! We gotta get to Florida cuz it's below 70° up here!" Now I have the Replacements song in my head, which is not a bad thing at all.

Ope

For TAGS fans; Ope. I like how the guy refuses to spell out the new president's name.

Spotnicks

If you're in a band and one of the guys says, "let's wear matching outfits," the first thing you do is remove his hand from your pants and the second thing you do is replace him. But not if the outfits are like the space suits worn by The Spotnicks (link fixed—thanks Leo). That's a play on Sputnik, although I don't get why they added the 'c' in there. You can also see and hear them play The Orange Blossom Special, sans space helmets, and the Spotnicks Theme, which sounds like something that Opie's group would play.

Neil Young Has Officially Flipped His Lid

Cripes. This song is pathetic. I don't even recall hearing a bridge or anything other than that same chord progression over and over with some old crotchety man words spoken over the top. I was already starting to get tired of hearing his music for 2 reasons; our ex–guitarist Jack loves him, and having to listen to Jack play the longest, most uninspired, amateurish, out of tune, and tasteless guitar solos ever for the past few years. This is the cherry on top, and it's a rotten cherry. I'll still enjoy his early stuff, but I seriously doubt if I'll ever buy anything by him again from Living with War or later.

Amazing WMD Photos

I really wish there were larger versions of these photos. They're truly gorgeous in their own big and dangerous way. And the set designers for WarGames deserve some awards—the launch control bunkers look amazing. Ha! Fun trivia found on the IMDB trivia page:

When David comes home the day after the NORAD computer break-in, the newscaster on the television is talking about a prophylactic recycling center.

Him? Really?

Not that it means a lot, but I thought it was funny how a blog named If It's Hip, It's Here posts stuff about our new president and his inauguration. It reinforces the fact that most people voted for him only because it was the hip and trendy thing to do.

Really Dumb Fucks

Why do these turds even wear pants? Their entire ass is hanging out. If you're going to live such an idiotic lifestyle and rob a 7–11, at least pull your pants up and look a little less retarded. It just gives the cops more evidence, since they can also identify you by your underwear. I dunno. Maybe doing that lets their farts escape more easily. Also, no time wasted unzipping or unbuttoning when taking a leak. They're geniuses!

Adam-12

Whoa. I never knew they swung that way. A couple unfortunate lines in this episode.



BTW, one thing cool about Adam-12, Emergency!, and S.W.A.T. is all the great cars you see on the streets.

Atari

Goddamn, I wish I still had my 2600 or Sears equivalent (I forget which mine was). The hours I spent racing a little car around a track shaped sorta like an H tipped over onto its side. I think that track was called Devil's Elbow or something like that. And the ice tracks were a shitload of fun once you got the groove. I used to have the audio from the racing game on a cassette tape. Wonder if that's still around.



This Atari ad has someone who looks and sounds an awful lot like Don Knotts in jail. (Probably slammed the door behind him when he went in to change the pillowcases.)

Gated Communities for Drums

I ordered a Behringer Multigate Pro XR4400 4–channel gate to use with my drum mics. Because I like using very live, wide open tunings on my toms, they can be a real bitch to mic. Especially the 15" and 18", which pretty much ring continuously due to sympathetic vibrations from other instruments. Those little globs of blue snot help take out some of the annoying harmonic rings that bug sound men. With the gates I'll be able to open each mic only when the drum has been struck, then give it a soft decay that follows the natural decay of the note. This also helps to keep each drum out of the other drums' mics. I typically don't like Behringer stuff. It always has that cheap, church band sort of feel to it. But Glen the sound guy out at Doc Holiday's said that's the gates they have there and he said they sound great.

I also ordered a backrest for my new throne. The one gig I used it at, I sure did miss being able to lean back and relax on the boring songs. Plus I've found it helps me play certain types of double–bass rhythms.

WALL•E

We watched WALL•E tonight. Very good. Animation and rendering gets more amazing all the time. Attention to details, like the way his tracks vibrate and respond. Even when he was in his "house" and had his tracks off and was rolling slowly over diamond plate, they made it move like it was really rolling over the small bumps, almost imperceptible. I loved the little cleaner guy (MOP?)? See the "Foreign Contaminant" clip on their site. The 2 shorts were very good too, BURN•E and especially Presto, a very clever nod to classic Warner Bros. cartoons, including a quick hillbilly tune reminiscent of Bugs' Hillbilly Hare. It's all over the web, so go watch it! The credits list Jay Ward as the associate producer, but that must be a different Jay Ward than the famous one, since he died 20 years ago.

More Power to the Confusionerator!

Obamaladingdong wants to delay the analog TV cut–off date for another 6 months. Holy shit. If people don't know about it by now, after it's already been delayed for years, they sure as hell aren't watching TV to begin with. Knock it off and get to the important presidential shit, stuff that will make the economy not suck and that sort of thing.

Any Idea What PCL Stands For?

Pretty Cool Links? I dunno.

2 cool things from PCL LinkDump tonight. Google Earth now has some ultra hi–res paintings and there's a Japanese movie called Big Man Japan that looks really weird and possibly funny, maybe something we'll have to see. NetFlix doesn't have any info for it yet, even though it will be probably be released on DVD in the US in March of this year.

(Took me a while to find it, but you should search for "Museo del Prado" in Google Earth to get to it, then click on the building or the hovering tile to get the list of paintings. Too bad there aren't any really cool ones—them Spaniards love themselves some religious paintings.)

Vehicle

The Dial Tones' cover of Vehicle never sounded like this!

The Opposite of L'eggs

Anybody remember Big Mama pantyhose? I shit you not. L'eggs still has one of the coolest logos around. See how the g's look like baby birds? And there was this great Wacky Package.

Hydraulic Hybrids

The biggest drawback to electric hybrids or even plain electric cars is the batteries. They're heavy, cost a lot, use toxic stuff, wear out, and need to be disposed of properly. A cheaper, less complex, less toxic, more efficient, and less pollutive solution is the hydraulic hybrid. Here's a neat video showing how they work. UPS has been working with the EPA to innovate and build prototypes and working units. One source states a 60–70% increase in fuel economy. Put that in your Prius and fuck it.

One caveat is that things like headlights, big ass stereos, and climate systems will quickly drain the existing battery when the engine shuts off (and AC would stop). So why not add a 2nd tiny engine that would power an alternator and store the energy in the battery, which would be shared with the main hydraulic–pumping engine? It could also stop when the battery is not being drained quickly.

Country Roads - Jason & the Scorchers

Speaking of John Denver…

"You were, like, sooo speeding and stuff."

Here's a cool picture from what might be the mid '70s in SoCal, from the look of the Caddy and the Camaro SS down the street, and the guy's suit. I think an early '60s Ferrari America is getting the ticket. Click it for big.

Keine Lust

With most Rammstein videos being pretty dark, this was a surprise.

Feuer Frei

This cracks me up. A Lego version of Rammstein's Feuer Frei video. I love the way the audience all start headbanging when the chorus starts. And having Darth Vader in the crowd is always good.

The Dark and Boring Knight

We watched the latest Batman movie this weekend. Yeah, Heath's Joker was pretty good, but Christian Bale's Batman was the pits. I kept waiting for him to start acting. It was like the entire movie was him rehearsing his lines while his mind was focused on texting his friends or something. And that Batvoice he did was so fucking annoying. As soon as Aaron Eckhart (the DA) appeared onscreen, Kim shuddered because he's so creepy looking. Michael Caine is good, like always. Maggie Gyllenhaal was ugly. What the hell happened to her? I guess she was only bordering on cute 7 or 8 years ago, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. And once again, Morgan Freeman was the same character as every other movie and pointless to the plot. Bruce/Batman has Alfred; he doesn't need another person who helps him and knows his secret identity. I thought that the was the stupidest thing they did in the previous movie, and then they keep it going. Jesus christ, man, learn to do things with your voice to be different characters in different movies. Kim fell asleep during the last 40 minutes of something like that because it was getting so boring. Don't get me wrong—we don't need car chases and explosions to keep our interest, just some interesting dialog is enough. Watching Richard Farnsworth drive a lawn tractor from Iowa to Wisconsin in The Straight Story was a helluva lot more interesting than this movie.

All in all I give it a mighty "bleah".

Pictures of Animals Wearing Clothes

These are pretty weird. Some are pretty cool. Others make you wonder about the artist's sanity. The one shown here definitely popped out at me as a favorite.

Snow & Wine

We had about 3–4" of snow today. I got t' plowin' at 4:00 and did ours and 2 others' driveways; people who don't have snowblowers, including the new couple across the street, Shawn/Shaun/Sean/Shonn/Tiauwn and Sarah I believe. He was very happy about that and brought me a bottle of merlot and some chocolate chip cookies. I'm hip to the cookies, but I ain't a wino. We'll have to take it to the next neighborhood party if they aren't there, or something. It must be pretty good wine, because it has like a grey flannel sock–like thing around it, tied with a cord.

But damn it, I must dress too warmly or something. I even made sure to wear a proper high–tech long–sleeve shirt under my sweatshirt. Either I overdress, get hot, and sweat a lot, or the thing I have wrapped around my face funnels all the moisture I exhale down into my coat. There's got to be a way to bundle up and not get all sweaty and keep my face warm without breathing all over myself.

Chevies

If I had to drive a Chevy, it'd probably be this '71 shortbed pickup painted just like you see (no wax, please), or this '71 Blazer in that exact green. Note, in the close–up of the bowtie, that he has an oil or tranny cooler attached to the grill with a boot lace. That's cool. That Chevy green have always been a favorite of mine. Brent, didn't you have a Nova that color? Or was it blue?

Let's Move to Denmark

Their weather men have long hair and they let cats roam the set.

Microsoft Has Officially Gone Insane Even More and Turned 113% Gay

Witness this demo for Microsoft Songsmith. Not only is it rated S for Songtastic, it's also rated C for Corny, L for Lame, and UMGaG for Ugly Middle-eastern Gay Guy. Put it all together and it has a total rating of SCLUMGaG, which sounds exactly how horrible this video is. I think they've now surpassed the idiocy of the Ballmer fake commercial or whatever it was supposed to be, and the unfunny and unclever dumbass Seinfeld ads. And they have such a knack for picking goofy looking actors for their ads. But you know the old saying; monkey see, monkey do. Something like that.

Big Ass Clamp

No, not a big clamp for your ass. A big clamp for making wooden legs. It's sitting on the floor near the bottom–right bench, with a large hand crank wheel to open and close the jaws.

Knob Twiddler

I was asked to run sound for DNA, which is the other band that Craig is in. We played with them at a fire station last year. They practice every week, so they're pretty tight, but they only play live a few times a year. They've usually rented a PA, but have been buying their own piece by piece. They have a new Allen & Heath mixer, but rented a snake. Their old board must've only had 1/4" outs, because they got a snake with only 1/4" sends. Oddly, the board has 1/4" aux outs, XLR main stereo outs, and a 1/4" main mono out. So the snake ended up working by using the mono out (which is all you need anyway). The mains are self–powered JBLs like ours (they even borrowed our subs), but the monitors are powered by some little Peavey 6– or 8–channel mixer/amp. Lame, but it works. They had one actual speaker cable for the monitors—the rest were regular shielded patch cords. One guy went back to their place and got another one—a 50–footer—to connect the last monitor a foot away from the other one. They keyboardist had a small 4–channel powered speaker on a stand. He placed it right in front of his keyboards at face level, coincidentally, also right in front of his mic. When I couldn't give him a level that didn't include brain piercing feedback, he said, "it always works in the studio." Studio ≠ live.

Prior to that day, Craig says they were going to set up at 3:00 in the afternoon. "What?!?" was my response. They wanted to be able to do a sound check and go home and eat, shower, etc. I told them I'd be there around 4:00 to plug in the PA and do a sound check. I stopped by John's to pick up the subs, and he drove over with me. Nobody was there. Craig showed up within a few minutes, then another guy with a van. Over the next 3 hours or so, the rest of the band eventually arrived. By 6:00 it was obvious I wasn't going home to eat supper with Kim and drive back together, so I ordered a cheeseburger and she drove herself. We managed to do a sound check at maybe 7:30, then everyone left. They reappeared between 8:30 and 8:55, and went on maybe 10 minutes late. At one point John said that he now understood why Craig is surprised at and has mentioned multiple times how organized we are. I told John that if Turnstyle was that unorganized, I wouldn't be in it.

John & Kim joined them onstage for a couple songs. Before their last set, they talked us all into playing a couple Turnstyle songs. The drummer uses a cheaper Roland electronic set with 4 real cymbals, which sadly doesn't include a hi–hat. It sounded OK, but way too canned. The snare was probably the worst, very reminiscent of something with the name Casio on it. He's the one with the kick trigger mounted inside an acoustic bass drum. His kick pedal is probably as tight as it can go, so I had a hell of a time playing it, even after taking off my right Caterpillar boot, very similar to these. Not so good for playing the bass drum, even if Terry Bozzio does wear Doc Martins when he plays. He also uses a fairly small keyboard type amp for his drum monitor. Small enough that he has to crank it way past a usable level, so every loud note is horribly distorted. That was probably the worst drumming experience I've ever had.

I finally left the bar over 9 and a half hours later. I love doing that stuff, but god damn, let's get the shit together, boys. Had Lodin been there, I'm sure I would've heard his "can't stand incompetence" or whatever phrase more than once.

Steve BallMe[r]

This just in: Software is what Microsoft does best! That's according to Steve "Butthead" Ballmer. If that's the case, let's hope our cars don't start relying on Microsoft OSs to do cruise control, or anything else for that matter. Imagine the burst pipes you'd get if you had a Microsoft-controlled thermostat on your furnace, followed by a cozy mushroom cloud of fire after you rebooted it.

Elvira and Her Wondertwins

Without a doubt, we've all seen Elvira in something low–cut. And most of us have seen some of her pre–Elvira nudes. Here are some I've never seen, courtesy of Celebrity Sleuth magazine. They're below the Adrienne Barbeau nudes, who was pretty chunky back then. Arg, nothing like a photo of Bette Midler to ruin a mood. Ignore the top–left photo in the 4th image from the top if you also throw up a little when you see Bette. Thank god for sleuths.

Rusty Licks

While Kim was at her lesson tonight, I went down to work my feet some more after I readjusted my pedals again. I played along with Pantera's Walk to get warmed up a bit, then a couple Primus tunes to get the feet going, then my old standbys Moving Pictures and Permanent Waves, finally ending with The Trees. I've forgotten which fills go where! Used to be, back in high school, I knew all the Rush songs note for note. But these days I'll start a certain fill and within a few notes notice that Neil's playing a different fill, let out a "shit!", and come back in somewhere. It's aggravating! But I guess back then I was playing almost every night and listening to those albums constantly. And after hearing this Italian guy (thanks, Greg) play some amazingly precise polyrhythms and very busy stuff, well hell if I don't feel old! At least I'm almost better than Mr. Bean on an invisible drum set.

Sexy Gay People

This entire scout troupe should call these cousins and Tom Cruise's identical twin and ask them to join. "All hands on Dick." (Assuming the scout leader's name is Richard.)

More Movies

A scene from Fast Times at Ridgemont High. No class room scene for these characters, so the locker room will have to do.



I visualized this scene from Firesign Theatre's The Further Adventures of Nick Danger. They didn't have a more private eye looking guy for Nick, and Catherwood could be quite a bit older.

Make Your Own Movies

Here's a fun little site, still in beta. You can make your own animated movies, although character animation is limited to expressions and hand gestures. No walking around or fighting or boinking or anything like that. These characters didn't really match the voices, age-wise. Either the characters need to look older or the voices need to sound younger. So it ended up looking like teenage girls with their voices overdubbed by older actresses. But maybe that adds to the comedy of the whole notion, since the funniest part is the computer generated voices in the first place. They always have that dry, stoic steadiness, very little sense of excitement, just spitting out their lines the same way in every scene, like a Keanu Reeves wanna-be. Maybe they'll add more voices or characters as they progress.

Purdy People

New favorite blog; Sexy People.

Mystery Jump

I was out scraping the ice/snow crusty mix off my driveway today when I heard Geoff trying to start his daughter's Ford minivan. It was plenty cold this afternoon, like 2°. It had previously been in the garage for a few days so we could figure out which door was causing the dome light to stay on. It was the sliding door. It has 4 contacts, 2 of which were quite dirty/greasy. I got out my can of Foamy White tuner shower from the mid '80s to help clean the crud off. He also took some very fine sandpaper to both sides. That fixed it. So later, he parked it outside. Then today it wouldn't start. It had plenty of battery, as it was cranking just fine. It just wouldn't light. We tried letting it sit, holding the pedal to the floor (I don't remember if that's a trick to get fuel injected engines to "choke"), etc. Finally, he wanted to try jumping it. I thought it was getting plenty of juice, but thought what the hell. Either that did the trick or the engine was finally ready to ignite. So what do y'all think? Could extra juice cause the electronic ignition to fire hotter? Or the injectors to squirt harder and make a more vaporous spray?

Acme Tools

Neighbor Geoff and I went up to Acme Tools today (wow, slow ass site). What a cool fuckin' place. Had a whole herd of Powermatic shop machines. I opened the side wart door on the tablesaw that covers the motor and was greeted by a huge goddamn motor and parts designed and machined with care. The hand crank for the blade height is so smooth as you spin it. Shit, I wish I had the space. They also sell Stiletto titanium hand tools which are all locked in place with big security cables. Why? Cuz the framing hammers reach into the $300 range. They do feel nice, and so light. The hickory handled ones were super light and easy to swing. It's amazing how light titanium is when you feel a big hunk of it like that. They even sell some Rockler stuff, which I thought was odd.

We also made the trek up to a Hennepin County recycling place up on 169 north of 694. Busy place. Between the 2 of us we had his trunk fairly full of old monitors, prints, and assorted electronics. Then on the way back he pulled into this water softener place where you honk and drive in around back to buy salt. They load it up. 7th bag is free. I got a couple bags, which was good because Kim was going to mention that she thought the water felt a bit hard. Turns out she was right—no salt at all left in the softener.

IMCDB

Did you know there's an Internet Movie Car Database? Neither did I. They cover lots of ground, from an AMC Ambassador limo to a John Deere 4020 in A Perfect World to Killdozer (the D9 was Killdozer).

Ravi Hasselhoff

I was watching the Concert for Bangladesh today and was amazed at Ravi Shankar's sitar playing. It got me wondering how sitars work, which led me to the electric sitar, which led to Hooked on a Feeling. Most people know the original by B.J. Thomas (see electric sitar played live) and the nifty cover by Blue Swede. But how many have wrapped their brain around the David Hasselhoff version and the video (which looks as if it were made for purt near thirty dollars, most of which was booze and cheeseburgers)?

Ketchup Tater Chips

It sounded gross to me, but something urged me to try the Ketchup flavored potato chips from Old Dutch. The first few chips you try instantly make me think I'm eating some plain chips, and the ketchup from my burger dripped out onto them, so it's kinda gross because I think it's going to be soggy, like the ketchup had been on the chip for a while. But then they grow on you and I've bought them more than once. Still trying to find a vinegar and salt chip somewhere between the seriously mouth–puckering ones I had at Pot Belly and everybody else's that are a bit too light on the vinegar flavor, which end up being less sour than the fantastic Old Dutch dill pickle flavored chips.

Electronic Shower

Within the last year or two I've seen a Kohler commercial for a digital shower control with presets for each user. I had that idea back in 1991, and I made a q&d app to illustrate the concept. I guess I didn't know how to do color QuickDraw at the time (which seems odd), so I used patterns of various darkness to correspond to temperature, and the spray width corresponds to water pressure. It also looks like I spent more time on the About box than the UI. Heh. Ah, SuperPaint, how I miss thee.

See, I've always been annoyed by shower controls that are really touchy and have to be turned in the slightest increments to achieve your desired water temperature. I want to be able to punch a button, and within a couple minutes (it's a long run from the water heater) be able to step into the perfect shower. If it's much colder in the bathroom that day, a couple clicks of the Temp+ button would fix that. Anyway, the smart bastards at Kohler beat me to the final product. And theirs is in color.

Pussy Fight

Wanna see something pathetic? Look at these losers acting tough. Is this a gang fight? Looks more like 8-year olds throwing tantrums. Most of them run in, throw something, then run away. Watch the guy in an orange shirt, starting about 17 seconds in; he picks up a trash can that was laying on its side, runs to center frame, puts it down upright, runs back, picks up something else, shuffles around like he's playing basketball, picks up something else, runs back, etc. Maybe he's the closet homo in the gang that likes to tidy up.

Flesh Ripping Weasels

Holy shit! Could this magazine illustration be the source of the Frank Zappa album title Weasels Ripped My Flesh? By gummy, it is! The things you find out on the webberlink.

Well Duh!

That's my response to this post about cell phones causing tumors in your head. And in your crotch/guts if you carry it around in your pocket/on your belt all day. At least use a damn headset. Fucking cell phones.

This Bug Will Kill You

Holy dipsticks, talk about yer hot VWs. Cramming a turbo'd V8 into the trunk is one way to get the heater to work. I can't imagine a nicer job of plumbing the turbo piping into such a small space. Don't miss the 2 videos to hear its beautiful voice, and a short and very unassuming 2nd gear tire chirp that made me smile.

Practice

We had a good practice this afternoon, although John is still in Florida, so we were just a 3–piece. Craig is so humble about his playing. He's been learning our songs at a pretty good clip, and when he plays something a tiny bit wrong—like 1 wrong note in a big mess of fast 16th notes—he apologizes like crazy. Compare that with Jack playing nearly everything with the wrong rhythm, missing half the notes, and having absolutely no feel or technique. It's no wonder we're giddy about playing now.

I mentioned the Guess Who and we were all agreeing how much we like them, so we might end up doing No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature. We were kinda dinking around playing along. Emily & I automatically did the vocal harmonies and all that. It should come together quickly.

It's Ice Coated!

We were in Des Moines Saturday morning when we woke to a nice thick coating of ice on everything. Kim's mom got DSL hooked up last month, so at least I was able to check the interactive weather maps and see how things would be the rest of the day up through Minnesota. I figured we'd just wait and let the DOT trucks and the salt do their thing. Kim's sister and family took off earlier and called to let us know the roads were pretty good and they were doing 55 on I–35. We left after lunch and could do 70 or 80 because it was completely clear.

Getting into the car was the hardest part—trying to pound the ice with the heel of my hand without denting the metal or breaking the plastic, slowly fracturing it enough around the edges to allow the door to open. Turned the defrosters on high and loaded everything up before even trying to scrape the windows, then it came off easily all around the car. Her sister didn't do it that way. She was out there scraping like crazy. Which brings me to my annual Bad Steve story. He's her husband. She went through cancer this past Summer/Fall and is currently suffering a cold. When it came time for them to leave, he said, "why don't you pack up the car," which is what he says every xmas or other visit, but at xmas there's lots of extra shit to load up. He finally did go out and help with something after she yelled at him, but then he came back inside after just a few minutes, leaving her to finish scraping for 10 minutes or so. What a catch he was. Even if you're a lazy chauvinist, in this day and age, wouldn't you at the very least try to act civil around your wife or girlfriend's family? I've never been able to understand why he wants to look like a dick to her mom and the rest of her family. He'll even laugh about it, as if to say, "ha ha! See how I've turned your daughter into my slave! I make her do everything for me!" I humbly accept being known as Good Steve, which is how Kim's brother differentiated between the 2 Steves.

Scary Shit

Ya gotta wonder what the hell some people are thinking when they make a Santa Claus. Actually, they aren't scary at all compared to this:



I'm not sure which freaks me out more; the masks or the Glico food glop substance. This stuff courtesy of PCL LinkDump.

Xmas and Stuff

We sold our weight machine, which freed up a bunch of space in the basement. We'd thought about getting rid of it for the past few years, but since some of the band complained about not having enough space (how much space do you need to sit around and play a guitar?), we actually made a half–hearted effort to find it a home. A guy that Kim works with bought it. $100. Cheap. I eventually want to insulate and panel a couple walls in that area. It'd keep it a tad bit warmer in the Winter and give me something to tack my old posters up to. Give it sort of a retro feel down there.

I also threw out the old Peavey speaker cabinet that I'd used as my monitor for so many years. It was part of the Black Diemond PA back in high school. It was stored in the shed at our old house and the mice ate most of the speaker cones and deposited it back as mouse poop. Here it is in the mid–80s still with one (possibly) working piezo tweeter. It fit perfectly into our garbage can. Still had remnants of an "I brake for beer at The Pub" bumper sticker on the back. *sniff* I wonder where its mate is. Anyone?

Got maybe 3" of snow last night, so I did the majority of the driveway entrances and mailboxes again. I thought about doing the new neighbors' driveway, but I thought I'd better not in case they're the type who are all anal about it and don't want it scratched up, so I just did the snowplow pile at the end.

Kim & I had xmas tonight. She got me some things I'd had in my Amazon wish list for quite a while, including this cool Emergency! book and a new Joe Jackson live album. I saw a bit of the performance on a "coming attractions" segment on HD–NET I think, and wanted to hear more. It also includes the DVD. Bonus! She also picked out a nice Nikon camera bag. No more broken UV filters for me. I still have my aluminum camera case, but that's not something I want to carry around these days; too bulky.

I also baked and decorated a cake for Dad's bday, which is the 31st. We'll celebrate it during xmas. Perhaps I'll take a picture of it, if I think it won't damage the image sensor because of its horribleness. A cake artist I ain't.

Merry ho ho and stuff.

Rolling Love Shack

Nothing says 8–tracks and CB radios like a custom van with crushed velvet upholstery and a trippy space–themed airbrush paint job. ("Whoa, dig that giant frog, man!") Yeah, it has a CB, but sadly a cassette deck was chosen. Since it's wider than the custom mounting plate it's on, perhaps it replaced an under–dash 8–track deck that previously fit in that space. The 2 Sanyo EQ/amps are in their period–correct V configuration, which was the only way to make speakers of the day sound worth a shit. They look really familiar—I think somebody I knew had one of those.

The Slauson Cutoff

Roy Fern and the Tea Time Movie.



"…and Spurt the sperm whale in Journey to the Center of Gidget." Comedy gold. The "Bob's Dead Boy" sign just kills me.

eBay Goodies

The eBay collectable decades categories are so much fun to look through.

I have one of these GI Joe Action Team trucks! The satellite launcher thing was pretty cool. It just spun a propellor shaped thing, which took off and landed about 2 or 3 seconds later. Some satellite.

Cripes! $50 is the starting big for an old banjo pick?

Remember the last time the environment was trendy? They had a cool green flag.

Snow

We have maybe 6" of snow so far. The wind is picking up now. I went out put the snowblower to work. Man, it sure it easier to do the driveway without my truck in it now. Did all the mailboxes and the end of everybody's driveway, but that won't last long because the snow plow only went around the outside of the cul de sac and left the middle. Plus there were a bunch of cars parked around it. So he'll be back later on to finish the job of re-packing large heaps of heavy snow at the end of everyone's driveway.

I've Been Drinking Beer!

Well, half a Heineken in 1.25 hours. We had a neighborhood Winter Solstice get–together in the cul de sac. 2 fire pits, hot chocolate, and cookies. We finally got to meet the new neighbors across the street. Just a couple in their 30s, no kids, and a wiener dog that they let out into their back yard every morning at 6:30 so it can bark, which wakes up Joe & Heather and their kids (who live next to them), and then their 2 dogs wake up and start barking. At least we don't have to hear that. Other than that, the girl's pretty cute, so woohoo. We'll have to assign Joe the duty of snapping shots out their bedroom window if she does any sunbathing this Summer. Some of us headed into Geoff & Caroline's house after the rest went home, and it was there that I opted for the Hiene. I probably haven't had one of those since, I dunno, '86? '88?

Man, it sure is nice to be able to not have a limited talent pool in the band like we did when Jack was with us. When adding songs to our "songs to learn" Google doc, I had to listen carefully to see if there was anything too complicated, ya know, like an off–beat. My turn to pick is coming up, and I really didn't want to pick anything I'd previously added, so I went looking for other stuff. I added these to choose from:

Free Ride - The Edgar Winter Group
Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) - Sly & the Family Stone
Sneakin' Sally Thru the Alley - Robert Palmer

We do well at funky–ish stuff with bluesy/scatty vocals, so Sneakin' would fit us nicely. We'll see how the rest of the band votes.

Charger GT

As seen in these renders, the new Charger would make a great looking GT racer. I especially like the Gulf motif, although somebody needs to give the artist a lesson in motion blur. OK, I could cut him slack if only front and rear were blurred, as if the camera lens was being zoomed in quickly as the shutter was released (but the blur would be linear from none in the center to max at the outside edges). But even that perception is thrown out the window when you notice the big Gulf logo on the door, half of which is totally in focus and half of which is horizontally blurred. Is the door made of rubber? Is there a drop of water on the lens to cause that distortion? Is the artist a talented dumbass? Did he accidentally click on that area with Photoshop's blur tool right before saving? I'm going with the dumbass theory.

Vee Dub

If I had to drive a Beetle, it would look like this. Too bad the Germans of those days didn't think like the Germans who came up with this amazing looking Mercedes, then the Beetle would've always been cool.

Toy Commercials

Here's a nice collection of '70s toy commercials, including 2 for SSP and 1 Smash-up Derby, and most notable is Screech!—starting at 5:30—probably one of the lamest games ever sold. I remember seeing that commercial as a little kid and thinking how fucking stupid it was.

Space Food Sticks

With a name that doesn't fuck around, Space Food Sticks were the snack for the modern space cadet, circa 1970s. With a unique and unforgettable flavor and texture, they were one of my favorites. I'm guessing I liked the chocolate and peanut butter flavors. I guess you can still get them online, like from Australia. One of these days I'll have to order some.

Sketch Guy

I made a Genius Bar appointment to see if they could tell me what the problem is with the trackpad in our MacBook Pro. Kim is the one who uses it most, but she'll get an unresponsive trackpad for maybe 5—15 seconds at a time, maybe a few times an evening. The keyboard still works during these times. People on the Apple discussions board seem to think it's the little ribbon cable that plugs into the track pad, which is directly beneath the battery, and the battery can push on it and cause the connector to not make contact. I dunno. Sounds iffy. That's a pretty tight little connector.

The Genius mainly checked lots of system prefs for 15 or 20 minutes, and suggested we run in a brand new user account to rule out 3rd party software. I'm sure it's not software. Plus, that won't rule out stuff that's installed in /Library, which I always do so it'll be available for all users. I have a feeling it was a big ol' wasted trip to Ridgedale. Not to excited about my first use of the Genius Bar. But yeah, trying to figure out an inconsistent problem that you can't duplicate at will can be a bitch that's best left to methodical methods. Still, it's a hardware problem, sure as snot.

On the way out, in the food court that leads out to the south–east parking lot, there was an old guy—maybe in his 80's—sitting there with a small sketch pad, sketching some guy in either pastels or colored pencils. I thought that was really cool. Then as I drove home I started wishing I would've stopped and talked to him. Does he do that to get out of the house and keep is art alive? Is he lonely? Gives him something to do while the wife shops?

Update: Running with a virgin account still showed the problem, like I knew it would.

Garbage Bear

I like the Japanese a lot, but man they can be weird. Here's reason #682; a garbage bag shaped like a teddy bear. I can hear Junior now: "Make more garbage so I can have a new toy to play with!" This one even has the bonus of some wonderful Jenglish.

Arnold Ziffel, USAF

I was at the Chanhassen post office today. They're a friendly, lively bunch there. The customer next to me was asking if there were any restrictions when mailing to a serviceman overseas. The clerk helping me told her that you can't ship pork to middle–eastern countries because if they touch it, they think they'll go to hell. He was wearing a black Santa hat. Then he said quietly to me, "so if we fill some bombers with pork and drop it on them, they'd pretty much scatter, right? Sounds like a quick solution to me." I laughed.

Factory Teams Dropping Out

Well fuck! Quite a few factories have dropped their teams from rally, LeMans, and F1 racing. That sucks, especially with Suburu gone from WRC and Audi gone from ALMS, as they're made the most exciting racing cars in the last few years, especially the diesel Audis making all others their bitches. Stop blaming the economy and carry on.

Photorealistic Painting

Holy cripes, this guy is good.

Tail Assembly Desk

Here's a cool use for an old airplane tail assembly. I don't know why they didn't leave the elevators on the H–stab for an adjustable arm rest. Just attach a pad to it and voila.

Step Stool

I started a quick & dirty project yesterday, a little step stool for our closet so it's easier to stack the clothes on the top shelf without everything falling back down. They key feature is that the bottom is smooth and the edges are rounded over so you can easily slide it to where you want it with your foot. The problem is, the carpet and pad give quite a bit, so it might be too. But like I said, it's just a Q&D with the top and bottom made from pieces of scrap 3/4” oak glued up into a panel that I've had around for years, and some shitty 1/2" plywood forming the vertical sides. That way, if it sucks, I can have fun busting it up with a hammer and throw it out. What might work better is if the each corner had a large, smooth foot. Cuz the way it is now is more like a single huge center foot. Unicycles don't stand up so good.

God damn it's cold. I shoveled the little bit of very dry snow we got yesterday. It was up to -3° when I did that before lunch. Tonight's low will be -17°. I should go xmas shopping tomorrow and/or Wednesday. That'll suck, but at least Eden Prairie Center has that little ramp now, which is a good place to park to avoid most of the wind. It's insane to build malls in cold climates without parking ramps. Old Capital Center in Iowa City has a fantastic ramp, is centrally located to all the students and residents, and has been there for decades. The new and stupid Coral Ridge Center out in Coralville has no ramp and is out in the middle of the fucking sticks, so it must be colder'n hell if you have to park way out there. Dumbasses. Tear it down.

Robots in da Skies with Diamonds

I was never into Transformers, probably because they started after I done growed up, and because I thought they were pretty gay. Although I do respect the people who actually designed the toys. I messed with one of the large plastic figures quite a few years ago when Kim's nephews were little, and I couldn't figure out how to fold it up into its car form or whatever it was supposed to be. Those were some pretty complex dealy–bobs.

Anyhoo, after reading Home Theater magazine's review of the Blu–ray, we added the movie to our NetFlix queue. We watched it tonight. I thought it was pretty entertaining. Sure, there were a half dozen or so scenes that were super corny and childish, like something right out of a cartoon for 5–year olds. But all in all, it was good action, fully developed characters, and even some pretty good humor here and there. Megan Fox and Rachael Taylor were the hot chicks, and were really quite good for this genre. Shia LaBeouf was pretty funny too.

The CGI is simply amazing. All those parts moving fluidly, and—according to the IMDB trivia page—were all unique movements every time. No cut and paste for the transforming sequence animations. They were formed from between 2000 and 10k pieces. I don't think I ever created a 3D model with more than 100 pieces, much less animate all of them. And I love little details like this, even if I didn't notice it in the movie:

When Frenzy transforms to the CD player after shooting his discs, the display of the CD player reads "NO DISC".

The Blu–ray looked and sounded amazing. The Dolby TrueHD soundtrack truly delivers what the audio people put into the movie. And not once did I see any video compression or motion artifacts, but the Elite helped out there.

Woman Naked Good!

A bittersweet day for naked women. First, Betty Page died. She could do it all; pinup, cheesecake, raunchy, sultry. There will never be another like her. (NSFW from here on out, but you probably guessed that.) Here are just a couple shots of America's slutty sweetheart.

Now to help cheer us up, Jennifer Aniston is pretty damned closed to naked in and on the cover of GQ. That's the luckiest necktie in the world. (Ugh, why'd they ruin the moment by mentioning Obama.) I wish she'd just get on with it and do the world a favor and pose nude. When you have the world's greatest nipples, it's only right to share them with the people.

Tiny Tank

Max Schaaf went to the Mooneyes dealie in Japan. A couple far out things in his photos. The multicolored metalflake tank in this set, and in this set, dig that tiny gold gas tank and that bitchin’ ’55 gasser behind the bike. Oh yeah, and I’ve been totally loving the picture he’s been using as a header lately. No pants and a simply amazing body.

Smelly Cat

Last night our singer Emily had her first gig as a member of an acoustic duo with Gina Frances from Orange Whip. The rest of Turnstyle showed up. I moved a slider or twisted a knob here and there, but with only acoustic guitar, keyboard, and 2 vocal mics, there wasn't much engineering to do after the first few songs. Their voices blended very nicely together, even though they have radically different styles.

They played in a bar/restaurant (Oak City in Bloomington) in the first floor of a office tower. Nice atmosphere and the sound system is even tied into the dozens of ceiling speakers. It actually didn't suck, sound-wise. But seeing a female acoustic act like that instantly made me think of Phoebe on Friends, so I had Smelly Cat going through my head between songs. And now—if my plan worked—it's in your head too. Mwuhahah.

I remember this one like it was on yesterday.



Anybody ever see these Kiss commercials? I never did.

I miss Madge. I always thought it was strange that the little cup she's soaking her fingers in had that paper liner—it seemed to be in every one of their commercials.

God 2.0

Never heard of Buckethead? Shame on you. He's one of this era's better and most inventive guitarists. He played with Guns & Roses for a while, done a few things with Primus, and lots of other bands and projects. Lots of his own albums too. What else? He wears a white mask and KFC bucket on his head. It's art. Here he is just sittin' around the back yard, doing what only Buckethead does (and he's wearing a plain bucket instead of his usual KFC bucket with a Funeral sticker on it). I like how at 4:00 he switches to a clean sound and does some classic yet reinvented country pickin' at about six-billion MPH.

Windoze Sucks

Quite the revelation, eh? Here's today's reason why this is true. I had to edit some source code files on my PC. After every few changes I habitually hit control-s to save my changes. You never know when a Windows app is going to hang itself by its own nuts. Anyway, I'm working away in a fast manner and all of a sudden I noticed that I had a system file in front when I hit Save, a file that is in the standard Windoze development folder, not one of our own files. Oddly, the Save worked, even though I had not changed that file in any way. I guess this means that Windoze doesn't think it's a problem that anyone can edit and save system source files. And it's stupid enough to go through with the Save even though it doesn't need to with an unchanged document. The result is that I now have to build everything again, because that system file is used by everything under the sun. Thanks, Bill. You're an idiot. Die.

Mouse Made from Mouse

While not the most ergonomic mouse I've ever seen, this steampunk mouse sure does look neat.

Venus Flytrap's Web Browser

Twist open a Colt 45 and light up a Kool Filter King, baby, it's time to surf the web with your very own web browser made just for blacks. I don't make this shit up. Way to spread the "we're all the same" message.

Solenoids

I wish I was 14. Seems like I had the time to do stuff like this then. Time I should've spent doing homework. Now I never feel like messing with stuff like this. Dunno why.



That little demo is very close to what I wanted to do with my drums. I wanted to mount solenoids (I called them doorbell ringers back then, cuz I saw how they worked when I took Mom & Dad's apart) on every drum and cymbal, then trigger them from a wireless controller, possibly with triggers mounted in clothing. Mick Fleetwood did the clothing–as–instrument thing. I was so disappointed when I saw him do it—why not somebody good? But my idea came before electronics and MIDI was widespread. Can't find a video of him doing it. (Golly darn!) But this kid made DrumPants! Too bad his timing sucks. Maybe he's Jack's nephew.

Vintage Racing

I caught 2 shows on Speed yesterday that featured actual vintage cars racing on my favorite track, Laguna Seca. Looks to be a short series of 4 episodes, with each incredibly short half hour episode featuring one type of racing: Trans Am, F1, FIA Sports Cars, and IMSA GT. I saw the first 2. The TA race featured early '70s American pony cars, including around 5 Javelins in the old Penske Racing colors. Fuckin' cool. The F1 race included tons of old jaw–droppers, including that wacky racer, the amazing/cool/weird Tyrrell P34 6–wheeled beauty that Jody Scheckter drove. It won easily, making the rest of the field look like they were towing boats. Below is an amazing video of Jackie Stewart testing a P34.

This might be a link to a schedule listing upcoming showings. It's worth a look.

Not Stud… Dud

Watch this prick try to get out of a ticket by flirting with a hot judge. And make sure you stick around until the very end of the video. It's so, so good when douchebags make themselves look like the giant idiots they really are.

Adobe Layoffs

In a SF Gate article, Adobe's CEO said:

Narayen said the chief cause of Adobe's problems is weaker-than-expected demand for the company's latest software, Creative Suite 4, which began shipping in October.

No shit. You take a handful of great apps that people like and bundle them together with a whole shitload of apps that very few give a shit about, sell it for 6 arms and 3 legs, take away the icons that people have been used to seeing for years and give all the apps idiotic icons, and you're surprised that nobody wants to buy it?

Bitchin' 'board

Dig these tuck 'n' roll skateboards.

Whee

Band practice today. Emily had other commitments, so it was mostly just to get Craig more familiar with our arrangements and work that sort of stuff out. To keep us from getting lost, I did the lead vocals. Or maybe "lead blahs" is more correct. Maybe "lead scatting". I don't know the lyrics to most of the songs we do. Plus, with my cold, I didn't want to push it and lose my voice. At one point I was singing about the various cars that were showing up on the Mac's screen saver.

Craig got a new little tube amp, Fender Blues Jr. I just noticed that all of the knobs go to 12 (click the little thumbnail in More Photos area). He's a sound freak, and he didn't like practicing through the little solid state amp he was using before. Me, I'm a drummer, so I can't hear that tube vs. solid state difference—maybe if I A/B'd two very similar amps. He only uses 4 pedals (a Sonic Stomp is always on) and uses a Quadraverb for reverb and delay, sometimes some flanging. He's also constantly tuning because he hears when something is the tiniest bit outa whack, which is nice to hear again. Jack would tune once at the beginning of practice, but it didn't matter since his technique was so bad, also bending shit outa tune any way.

Oh yeah. At the previous practice, I asked if he knew any Rush. He started playing The Temples of Syrinx from 2112. I joined in. That made my year. Later, Kim said I was smiling the whole time.

Who the…

Last night at 10:30 I heard a rhythmic scraping sound outside. It sounded like it was right outside our front door. Ah, it was the unmistakable sound of a snow shovel. At 10:30PM. Neighbor Paul was doing our driveway for some reason. At 10:30PM. It's a nice thought, but 10:30 is a little late to be making that annoying sound outside. But I guess I'd rather hear that than his pressure washer, which he uses about 73 times every year. He washes the deck, the cars (Clear coat? What clear coat?), the driveway (no shit), and more. Multiple times. So our neighborhood has that lovely RRRRRRrrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRR going on and on for anywhere from 15 minutes to hours at a time. I'd rather have him take off his shirt and fish in the pond like Brent's fine neighbor.

Cats Crack Me Up

All or most of these clips have been around the webonet for a while, but it never hurts to watch cats being goofy too many times. The clip at 0:37 with B&W and tan cats looks like Wolfie and Gordo, and exactly something they would've done. Wolfie would be all "I'm gonna git ya! C'mon! Play! Whee! Wap-wap-wap!" and Gordo'd go "yeah? How 'bout this… *tackle*"

What the…

Chiropractors must've loved this thing. So many new clients!

Found it while looking for a card for my brother's bday.

Lego My Jihad (or something like that)

These made me laugh. Little terrorist "Lego" men, complete with hood/mask/towel thing, AK-47, and rocket launcher. Just what little Johnny wants for xmas, or for hanukkah even.

Cute but Stupid

Just because you're extremely hot (well, the one on the left any way) doesn't mean you're well balanced. These girls were probably ignored and/or abused by their parents, or they both have the same mental condition that makes them think it's funny to sexually abuse old people. So much for "Minnesota nice".

Old Eames Manufacturing Film

This is cool on so many levels. Watch how they made classic Eames fiberglas chairs in the '60s. Long, but well worth it, especially the part near the end where a guy pours molten aluminum into a thingy and then a press casts the upper and lower bases onto the center support tube. I don't recall seeing them upholstered with leather, or anything else for that matter. I've only seen them in sleek bare fiberglas of assorted colors.

Cuz God Said So!

A man rammed into a woman's car who wasn't driving like a christian. He did so at over 100MPH. He'll undergo a psychiatric evaluation? Ya think?! Let's keep the religious nutjobs off the roads please.

Could be worse though. At least god didn't tell him to drive with his feet.

Wendy O'Hathaway?

So Anne Hathaway is either a weirdo sort of prude or very funny. If you're going to wear a shirt that is see–through under the bright light of a camera flash, a woman's choices are A) wear a bra or camisole or B) give everyone a thrill. But Anne chose to put tape or Band–Aids over her nipples. I've never been a woman with big luscious tits, but I'm pretty sure sticking something to your nipples would be far less comfortable than a good quality bra, especially when it comes time to remove it.

Or, maybe she did it as a joke, because she knew the cameras would be out (this was taken at some premier, award ceremony, or other type of public appearance), kind of a "ha ha! You thought you'd see my nipples!" Or she's a big Plasmatics or Missing Persons fan.

Or maybe she didn't think her shirt was see–through and only did it to keep her nipples from popping out? Naw. Black usually hides the pokies.

Click for big tits. And I still say she mostly looks like a nerd. OK, only above the neck is nerdsville.

What's Yer Pantone?

Got a favorite Pantone color? Still carrying your first Rubine Red color chip that you got as a kid? Have you memorized the CMYK process equivalents for your family room wall paint? Have no idea just what the hell I'm rambling on about? Well, get your color geek on and buy some Pantone–ish stuff, like cufflinks or a coffee cup.

Idiots

I've been working with some a guy at some company that paid us to write a script that will help them batch process thousands of Creator documents. First off, the dumbass keeps top-posting his replies. I just hate that, and it wastes storage space and internet bandwidth. At least learn to trim, dipshit. Second, he never answers all of my questions about what is happening when he runs the script. I can't see his fucking computer. If I send a message with 3 question marks in it, I'd better get 3 fucking answers back. Arg. I can't stand incompetent people. I hope we charged them a buttload of money for this. It's taking far too much of my time, because the guy's an idiot.

Oooo, sorry. I'm bitching and moaning again! It's all I do!

Star Wars, but Without Ewoks or Jar-Jar

or storm troopers or blasters or even outer space. George Lucas' senior thesis film is a short that shows Peter Brock driving a Lotus around Willow Springs. It's cool if you like vintage racing cars, racing cars that turn both left and right, or car racing films from that period in that documentary style. If you're expecting THX 1138 or American Graffiti or anything with a Wookie, well, stop that.

Saul Bass

Saul Bass was the guy behind those movie opening title sequences that are cooler than you or I will ever be. These sequences steal our dates and beat us in drag races. Turns out he's also the one responsible for the Bell Telephone logo, the one that has adorned every phone book, repair truck, and phone booth you've ever seen. Well, except the stupid ones that came along after they broke up Ma Bell into a bunch of crappy companies with annoying ads and jingles.

He did movies like Anatomy of a Murder (always liked that movie, and it has a killer soundtrack by Duke Ellington), It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, and, my favorite of the bunch, one inspired by Bass, Catch Me If You Can, which also has amazing backing music.

Cocktail Napkins - Humor Under Glass (ha ha)

This flickr set has some cool old cocktail napkins. They range from the Confucius Say variety (“He who feed lemons to cat have sour–puss.” “Lady who swallow floor polish have fine finish.”) to the typical adult humor of the bar–set period. And no collection is complete without the heavy drinker funnies.

Steve Vai, Genius

And he's been cloned!

Alex & Neil

Budokan

Kim got me the 30th Anniversary release of Cheap Trick at Budokan. Haven't had a chance to put the DVD in yet. Just now ripping the Friday night concert, and the pair of discs that make up The Complete Concert, which I already have. But according to the liner notes, that release contained tracks from both nights, so maybe that means that this release has everything from the 2nd night. More likely, it's the same thing as the previous release. That's how these things usually go; you have to buy the same stuff again just to get the new stuff.

Caught a damn cold from a niece and/or nephew on turkey day. Last year's xmas was the same deal. Ack. Holidays.