SynthCoke

This is one seriously messed up ad from the 80's.

Beccause nothing says I love you like fake cocaine.

(via Boing Boing)

Blogito, Ergo Sum

So true and so sad.
(In other news, I am getting pretty annoyed with Blogger's erratic acceptance of pictures.)

(via Neatorama)

Log

Just because.

Jen Wang

Someone recently directed me to comic artist Jen Wang. I am in love. If anyone is looking to get me an expensive gift that would make me swoon, try getting me one of her originals. The above picture is "Post-mortem mate." Also be sure to check out the beautiful "Dance of the Flight Attendant."

(via Boing Boing)

It would be pretty except for the vomit

Here is a wonderful Flickr set of upholstery pattern from public transportation from around the globe.

(via Boing Boing)

Barbarically Brilliant Spectacle

The Idiotarod is always hard to explain to people. They tend to get way too caught up on the "race" part. Flavorpill NYC has decent discription.

If Alaska's Iditarod is a competition of endurance, then NYC's annual Idiotarod is a competition of lunacy, if not idiocy. Replacing dog sleds with shopping carts, frozen wilderness with city pavement, and physical stamina with high alcohol tolerance, this is a barbarically brilliant spectacle to both see and experience. Teams of five costumed, cart-bound participants must reach checkpoints throughout Brooklyn and Manhattan while avoiding officially sanctioned sabotage and the occasional cop. Part Halloween parade and part roving, drunken food-fight, the Idiotarod questions the integrity of natural selection with shameless delight. If Darwin could only see us now.

I would say some of us would rather that there was less food fight... or at least food that was less wet, but what are going to do?

Science!

Note to self: If someone has spent more than 6 months following The Dead or Phish, don't stand close to them when they perform any experiment with fire.

Thought of the Month

I doubt anyone actually gets to the bottom of this page, but I just realized I never changed the though of the month for January. Well, I did. Since it will only be up a week or so, think of it as my pre-Idiotarod thought. It is fitting.

Bruce Campbell's Old Spice Commercial

One more reason I love Mr. Campbell.

Blogger weaves story out of most searched-for words.

Ken Levine performs a wondeful little experiment. I shall be trying this at some point. Sadly, I rarely include thinks like the celebrity fest that he has. Mine will end up being about the Idiotarod, Ellie Kemper, daisy sour cream, mythbusters slash, laide crazy sex fucking, all hail hypnotoad, csi:ny, scrotal swelling, swedish sausage, man vs bees, cute chacha guides, joe wengert, elmo, halo 3, banana proves god, and "want a potato."

Star Wars: Mummenschanz style

The final Star Wars: A New Hope space battle done with hands.

The amount I love this is demostration of how much of a nerd I am.

(via Neatorama via Boing Boing)

So I did what now?

Yesterday I decided to make some more Goggle Alerts. "Idiotarod," "Thank You, Robot," some other junk. But also my name. Hubris? Perhaps. Vain? Oh, most definitely. The problem is that my name is a fairly common one. So the first thing Google Alert does is info dumps a bunch of old news stories and blog entries. A lot are about a singer/song writer in Long Beach, CA. I've heard a few of his songs... not my cup of tea. Luckily the gay porn actor appears to have stopped working a few years ago, so none of his stuff came up.

But this morning I get "C— S— Pleads Guilty To Attempted Rape."

There was a slightly nice spin to the story. Apparently I was planning on pleading not guilty and have a long grueling trial where the victim would have to testify and all of that. But then I saw a TV program dramatising how traumatic rape trials can be, so I decided to show some compassion and pleaded guilty. See? Even my rapist doppelgangers are considerate.

EDIT: Oh, great. Now I am getting Google Alerts about my post on Googe Alerts. I need to change it to once a day as oppossed to As It Happens.

Andy Taylor hates America

Man, who knew Mayberry was a terrorist filled, troop hating, liberal whine fest.

Damn you, Andy.

MC Chris

I've never been to an MC Chris show but I've always heard good things. I'm going to his Mercury Lounge, Feb 13th show. It's tha one the record label big wigs are coming to. So get your nerdcore on and come join me.

Idiotarod - Jan 27th.

Remember The 4th Annual NYC Idiotarod is this Saturday.

Time is running out. Pre-registration only lasts until Thursday. Go to the site. Do it.

The lives of small fluffy critters count on it.

If, for some god awful reason, you are too lazy to run (shame on you!), the after party shall be an event to remember.

WHEN: Sat., Jan. 27th, doors open at 6pm.
WHERE: 21-03 44th Ave (corner of 21st Street), Long Island City, Queens, NY
HOW MUCH: $10 (free with race registration)
WHAT: $5 Booze, $4 Beers
Kickass bands! Peelander-Z, Golem, Robert Urban & R.U.B., Flaming Fire, The Impulse, Gowanus Corral.
Jaw dropping Burlesque! Blackie Deuce, Moxie Block & Meatfingers, Runaround Sue.
Amazing! Dirty Finger (Black Label), James Stacher (Black Label), Rench.
Live Video Mixers!
Award ceremony!

Seriously, kids. How can you miss this?

This is definitely one of those times that I should probably not blog. Let us take that as a given.

Tonight was very curious, as is any time I get to spend time with my 'rents and their friends. The realization that the divide of time between us has become minute, almost negligible, is a hard concept to grasp. I am unclear at what the difference between 35 and 65 is any more. Maybe there is nothing.

Wisdom is such a strange thing. I am fully aware that I have none or little. But I was realize that I am an expert at processing the wisdom of others. I can, with little thought, restate, clarify, calcify the words of others.

I have, for the first time in my life, realized that I have a huge amount of strength. That seems insane to me, as I often feel so weak and confused. But tonight it suddenly became clear that EVERYONE feels that way, and that I am, in my own messed up way, more on a path than so many others. And I now know that my own knowledge of theat path gives me a huge amount of control.

I can clearly see half a dozen very clear roads before me. Each has an intriguing aspect. Some roads intersect with others, bu t with distinct secondary players. And the fact is that I am somewhat torn. I am insanely curious, but I know that to open some doors closes off others.

But, for the first time in my life,. I can see all of the doors, and I get to consciously choose which door to pass through. And that gives me a huge amount of control... control that I am somewhat uncomfortable with.

401, Thank You Robot, Gravid Water & Cage Match

My 401 improv class this week felt like a mini breakthrough moment. Certain things that had seemed contradictory in my brain just started to fit together. Things that seemed like constraints are now opening up, giving me freedom. I might be deluding myself but I think I'm making progress.


The lovely performers that I have been working with on Sunday practices have formed into a true improv team. We even picked a name: Thank You, Robot. Okay, admit it. That is an awesome name. Go make us your MySpace friend. We have lovely pictures of robots.

Last night I went to see Gravid Water at UCB. As always, it blew my socks off. Again, I never know how that show is viewed by non-actors and non-improvisers. There is so much of it that tickles me on technical/intellectual level. Last night they did the same scene twice, switching which character was player by the improviser. Fascinating to watch the subtle changes in tone and content. Gravid Water just reminds me how slippery words are and how poor humans are at communicating. That sounds like a back-handed compliment. It is meant as a true compliment. I think some of the truest character work I've seen in improv.

Anywhozits, it was fun to watch Dan Bakkedahl be an actor this time.

The Cage Match finals were last night too. Reuben Williams went up second and they were great. But they had a hard fight because of the stellar set Hot Sauce put up. Normally only a three man team, they were short on because Adam Pally was off exploring the Amazon (or something). So it was only 2/3rds of Hot Sauce but they put out an amazing amount of work. They are known for very quick scenes and they upped it with just Ben and Gil. It was like watching, well, a tornado of ideas and characters. Amazing callbacks and connections. So it didn't surprise me when they won. Props to you, boys. When Adam gets back and if he hasn't succumbed to malaria, I am sure he will be darn proud.

I also bruised my hip and ankle while performing acrobatics on the poles and overhead bars in an empty 1 subway train last night. My fellow acrobat apparently missed me falling four feet onto my back. But she had circus training so it wasn't a fair match up. Not that is was a competition. Either way, I feel like I got hit by a train... which is basically what happened.

CEO's Love No Pants

The story goes that back in 1997 Airbus CEO Jean Pierson dropped trou to seal a deal with US Airways.

At the last minute, US Airways' then-chairman Stephen Wolf started arguing for a 5 percent discount on the selling price.

"Pierson began slowly lowering his trousers and saying 'I have nothing more to give.' He then allowed the trousers to fall around his ankles."

I think Improv Everwhere should send an invite to him to be the Master of Ceremonies at the 7th Annual No Pants Subway Ride.

The Battle of Brooklyn Reeactment Post-it Tag

I have had a dream of reenacting the Battle of Brooklyn in Prosepct Park for a while now. Originally it was conceived of as a water balloon fight, but I have always been worried about innocent bystanders getting hit and then the clean up of a few hundred burst water balloons. Also it is hard to decide when you have actually been fatally hit. So I have been stymied for almost two years.

But tonight, just as I was trying to go to sleep, it hit me: Post-It Tag. Each person starts with a certain amount of Post-Its on them. Players grab Post-Its off each other, sticking them to them selves. If you lose all of your Post-Its, you're dead. The Post-It also allows some other tricky things. See, I want to do the Reeactment RIGHT, and that means not restricting it to the standard Revolutionaries and Red Coats. I want to include the French... the Ninjas... the Robots... the Pirates... the Zombies... But how can a Zombie makes someone else into a Zombie? Easy! Slap a green Post-It on someone's forehead!


Some times the brillence of my brain amazes me.

Expect it this spring.

Blogger Makes SixSIder Angry

Blogger is having issues... or at least I am having issues with it. It has been very spotty on photo uploading for weeks and it has been insanely slow tonight. Grrr.

BUT I did just see an ad fr the Bedazzler. I haven't seen one in years. It was so nice to see.