Monday, April 25, 2005

Albums of the week



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



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



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

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

Abuse chambers of the stars

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



(click to see the original)

Monday, April 18, 2005

Sightseeing via Google Maps

Click the images to see the originals in Google Maps.



Grand Canyon:



Good Marketing = You Can See It From Space:



Disturbing fandom:



The aliens are among us:





Lots more here:

Google Sightseeing

McFreedom

This pic says it all.

From a photoshopping contest on Worth1000.com:


Wednesday, April 06, 2005

Fun with Google Maps

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



Click the image above to show the real thing.

Monday, April 04, 2005

Movie of the week

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



imdb | rt

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

Funny quote from Clint Eastwood


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


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

Fahrenheit 451, the local version

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


Sunday, April 03, 2005

Choose your fate wisely


Friday, April 01, 2005

Spamtrick

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


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


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

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