I had my belated birthday party last night at mi casa. A shared party with JRW and LRL, so there was a nice diverse group of folks. I, personally, had a great time and I sure damn hope everyone else did.
I have to say on the the best things was waking up hungover to discover that certain fantastic folks had cleaned up for you. YAY!
Thanks again to all who came last night. I haven't had a birthday party in seven years and this one was awesome.
But the wisdom of this promotion seem dubious. One of Kwik-E-Marts key factors is its wild over pricing. But, hey, I give them props for having a sense of humor.
Teammate JR was going to the PIT last night to do Beyond Improdome. It's an open mic, 3-person improv competition thing. Only 7-ish minutes, audience votes by ballots at the end. I said, "Sure! I'll come." Just the two of us so has we walked up to stage a random third person (Cole) stepped up to join in.
And we just attacked it. Played very aggressive, fast edits, being physical, looping back, making connections.
Seemed to work. We won. Apparently a blowout. Woot.
(We won't have a picture up on the MySpace page because they didn't have a camera.)
So I'm watchin' some tv and see an ad with Justin Timberlake. He is hosting this year's Nickelodeon Kid's Choice Awards. As soon as the ad comes one I think to myself, "Oh, I bet he won't be doing Dick in a Box on Nick." The ad continues to play, exhorting Justin's numerous skills... one of which is "gift wrapping." And there is a shot of him holding out a gift wrapped box.
In other random tv related notes: -LOST has finally kicked into high gear this season. Now there is a magic box that allows you to conjure whole people... that you can then torture. -Battlestar Galactica's season 3 ended last night and it was a doozy. No new episodes until 2008, but we get a tv movie so that's something. -The This American Life show has started on Showtime... but I don't have Showtime... BUT the first episode is streamin' on the web here (for a limited time)... AND I now have an inside conection to TAL, so I'm gonna get hooked up. -Joss Wheadon is writing the new Buffy the Vampire Slayer comicbook which is being called "Season 8." The first issue was great, like coming home.
If you couldn't give a crap about basketball and love music, head on over. Or if you just like music. Or whatever reason you want. The ultimate music bracket ever. Work it.
YouTube didn't even become public until May 2005. It didn't officially launch until six months later. I am not saying that YouTube is a real source of political change, but it is hard to ignore its impact on the distribution of ideas.
Most of it is fluff and ignorable. But the fact video editing is now simple and easy and cheap, and the fact that you can now deliver it to the world almost instantly, has changed things.
The amount of attention being given to the pro-Obama/anti-Clinton Apple "1984" ad mashup is pointing towards something.
This was posted two weeks ago. There are numerous video responses to it. It is being covered by much of the mainstream press. Obama's people have even made a statement about it.
This "ad" isn't by any official campaign. Who really knows who is responsible. If can be made for practically nothing. And these "ads" can say anything they want. As the campaign moves forward we will be awash in these things... and many will get very ugly. Sure, a lot will be creative and witty and even intelligent. But we are going to get a lot of what we once referred to as "attack ads"... except that there will be no limit on what will be said in them.
And many will be ignored. But certain once will be mentioned in the press. Some will be mentioned because they are just good. Others because they are extreme. Blogs will cover them and then the media will cover the fact that blogs are covering them. People will see them and talk about them and campaigns will have to think about whether or not to give a response.
Sure, in 2004, the Internet was around. Sure, there were bloggers who could say whatever they wanted. But, let's be honest. People, in general, don't like reading all that much. But they like videos. We complain and complain about how television has changed how national campaigns are run. About how tv plays too big a roll. How campaigns are now geared towards sound bites and images.
Well, this time around that may, in some part, be taken out of the campaigns hands. For better or worse, it is going to be in the hands of the people.
I have a birthday coming up. My parents, being super super thoughtful, gave me a bunch of artto hang on my bare walls.
Eight stills from Bashki's Lord of the Rings that MamaSix found in our old stuff. Pretty cool. I need to group them all together somewhere. I think the yellow room.
A bunch of PapaSix's photos. He's getting pretty darn good. Some amazing stuff. I have no idea where to put them or how to group them. I have hung on over the bed already.
But the most mind blowing piece they gave me has a bit of a back story... a back story very related to this blog. Months ago I made a post about the artist Jen Wang and how much I dug her work. In fact, I even said that if someone wanted to get me something super cool, I would love one of her originals. Well, Papasix contacted her and commissioned her to do something based on the ol' blog. He sent her links to some posts and she also took a gander around. And she settled on one from last February. Well, one sentence from that post:
Going out to dinner with 2 couples tonight. There will actually be 7 people at the table as both women are "with child." Ah, the world of bumps.
And here is the amazing piece she made for me.
(Sorry the picture isn't better. It is already very nicely framed.)
Isn't that just wonderful? I love how the two men are just shadows and how the "bumps" are little hearts... and how the whole composition approximates a heart. Now, I've haven't worn a sweater vest in probably 20 years, but I think it is a good look on me. And, anyway, the look on my face is priceless... and very very accurate.
Again, thank you Papa & MamaSix. And thank you, Jen Wang.
(I also got a Nabaztag/tag. I'm still trying to figure out what it is. It's cool... just weird... and, um, buggy.)
You Don't Know Jack was just a magical computer trivia game. It was around for awhile and then disappeared. Now it is back. Yeah, it is only web-based and single player and super short. They are doing daily DisOrDat questions and now weekly "episodes." Still high quality fun stuff.
I can only hope they can get enough backing to start doin this for realsies again. Maybe a console version with regularly available downloads available. Seems like a good opportunity for a continual money maker. Sell me a retail disc with 500 questions and then do monthly downloads for $4 t0 $5.
Mega64 is just wonderful videogame/guerrilla theater goodness. Most of their sketches will make no sense without a relatively deep videogame knowledge (for example if you are unfamiliar with Ico, this video will make no sense). The Tetris one will make sense to most people at this point (and is somehow oddly touching).
I've finally gotten around to playing Dead Rising so the following video is very funny to me.
But the reason I bring them up today is their special GDC (Game Developers Conference) Super Mario Bros. video.
While the chance that Mario is familiar to you is pretty high, your recognition of the Japanese fellow* is slight... and in there lies all of the humor. That and Link. *He is Shigeru Miyamoto.
I'm a touch sick today. I think it is just the fact that it has been brutally cold and all moisture has been sucked out of my body. I don't know where it goes when it is this cold. But clearly my body it trying to lube myself up with mucus.
To sooth my soul PapaSix link me to The Comics Curmudgeon. Basicaly just some simple daily commentary about newspaper comic strips. Fun stuff.
This was just announced by Sony for the PS3. It's hard to understand how neat this game is from watching this little clip... especially if you haven't been playing platformers for 20 odd years. But watch the video... and then realize that this isn't just the game. The game is actually a complete level editor. In fact you could re-edit that level on fly. All four of you.
