Google Sees Everything; Lawyers Pounce
I thought I’d seen it all but then I didn’t have Google in mind. The Sun is there. To be fair, Google probably photomaps urban streets once a year at most and I’m not sure it will hold up in court.
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One Dead Zine Scene
The Ding Dong Lounge hosted a ‘zine fair on Saturday. They didn’t do a very good job of promoting it as it seemed like only ‘zine publishers were in attendance slapping each other on the back and outnerding each other. If you want bar regulars to come in and hang around, you may not want a naked old guy with distended testicles and large man boobs walking around your zine fair. I know it’s a pagan sort of act, but it’s really grody.
I didn’t take notes but a couple of the zines I looked at were interesting and some had great color graphic work. I also looked at a couple that might’ve been done by fifth graders. You shouldn’t charge $8 for your zine if it looks like it was done by fifth graders. Given the proliferation of blogging, publishing a zine is sort of like making yourself breakfast every day and tossing it in the garbage. I threw out all of my friends’ zines from the 80s and 90s. They’re not worth anything.
Unless you’re Dave Eggers and can produce something as slick (or nearly) as McSweeney’s or n+1 or… you know what I’m talking about– don’t bother. Definitely do it in color. Maintain a nice website/blog and pass out cards with the URL. Take it multimedia people. Once you’re hipper than Dave and get an audience, you might consider charging Kindle subscribers.
The band Wolfhaven performed and Chet messed up by introducing them as Wolverines. They played really nice blues rock sort of like Masters of Reality. I like that they have “333″ in their myspace URL. That means they’re half-evil.
Best Place for a Party in San Diego
And you know the owner is a professional. (i.e., xo9wuf98)
Best Line I Heard Tonight
“I was in a band called the Silent Humphrey Bogarts and we used to open for the Loudmouth Charlie Chaplins.”
World’s Most Alienating Airport
Let us praise The Onion.
Prague’s Franz Kafka International Named World’s Most Alienating Airport
Winners in a Slow Economy
What can you say about the food sold at the 99¢ store? They got my 99¢, I got some food that tastes different, and the big guys with the obnoxious website did not get my $3.99. These are the same guys voraciously taking over the packaged organic food industry.
From Richard’s Forewards and elsewhere:
- Tom Engelhardt lives in my neighborhood!! I’ve been observing these same buildings lie fallow since 2007, also hoping the influx of rich fresh blood would also help the Ding Dong Lounge.
- Dean Baker pessimistic that Timmeh’s plan will help anyone outside the banking industry.
- Via Atrios, Yves at Naked Capitalism: “Given the lack of any mention of a special resolution regime, or intent to develop one, the point of this bill is NOT, appearances to the contrary, to be able to put more firms into receivership. It is to get broader authority to bail them out.”
- AIG’s ace in the hole?
My Stupid Bike
So what if it’s made of steel and weighs 35 pounds and cost a hundred dollars at KMart.
It’s a Set Design After All
This photo is courtesy of Disneyland. Greatest … um.
A Short Review: The Fall (2006)
I agree with the Ebert assessment of The Fall: Definitely see it for the eye candy. The behind-the-scenes stuff on the DVD don’t do justice to the numbing number of shots in exotic locales that were set up — some for a two-second scene or less. From the opening credits which depict a rescue effort unfolding in slow motion to the final denouement, the visual artistry (costuming, cinematography, locales, special effects) gets in the way of the problematic story which turns out to be a good thing as there’s no way to turn it off. The director is quoted on one of the extras saying something like “Either this movie works or it’s going to be a long, bad music video.” This tautology is clearly on display and interestingly, Tarsem Singh got his start directing fantastical music videos and TV commercials. Possibly to prevent the latter from occurring to the audience, Tarsem chose Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony for much of the soundtrack.
It’s about an injured stuntman in a hospital telling a story to a little girl which is fine, however, I generally don’t like movies with narration for the usual reasons cited by critics for liking the director’s cut of Blade Runner over the theatrical release. The story the stuntman tells is fraught with errors in fashioning a proper hero story namely, too many heroes with too many moral ambiguities. It’s a pleasure watching the girl actor, Catinca Untaru, bring the story within the story back to the child’s realm sort of knowing the stuntman is going to screw it up again with the bile from his misanthropic unrequited soul and broken body.
Well, hm. The more I write about it, the more I like it. 4/5 stars.
A Boat on Columbus
When you see this, you say “where’s my camera?” So I had it and I got the shot; not the best shot but still. Why do people need to drive boats onto an island? The simple answer is easy but the real answer is: ferfuksake.
Three Hits from the Intertubes
Even though I’m mostly Irish, I usually end up hiding out on St. Patrick’s Day. I’m just not a big fan of the kelly green plastic crap, “kiss me I’m Irish” buttons, Irish sports bars, or fake Irish accents.
WFMU has launched its video podcasts with this stunning debut. I hope you donated to the station if you ever listen.
Video Quest from WFMU Episode 1
If they’re blooming everywhere, maybe we should eat jellyfish! Asians specialize in clear or white base foods that don’t taste like much: cellophane noodles, tofu, and rice, so you also have all the great spices, sauces, and pickling techniques. It’s only a matter of time before I order some jellyfish in chinatown though the texture scares me. Full disclosure: I got stung pretty badly by jellyfish as a kid which resulted in my shunning the ocean altogether for a few years. Nobody peed on me.
If the AIG executive bonus scandal has been good for anything, it’s brought what’s been wrong all along with how the Obama administration has handled the bailout / stimulus by putting faces on the corporate welfare recipients. Over at kos, barbinmd has proposed some simple policy guidelines for executives who remain with bailed out institutions: “Executives at a failing company don’t get a bonus. Executives at a failing company don’t get a raise.” Simple answers to simple questions.