September 2007
40 posts
Kroger Recalls Potato Salad On E. Coli Concerns →
Always seems to happen just prior to a holiday barbecue weekend, doesn’t it? Coincidence…? Hmm. More like free-market competition at the genetic level.
(Suspected E. coli bacteria under magnification)
Dallas Stars Hip-Check NFL, NBA, MLB →
NHL franchise calls out the big boys with latest billboard campaign for ‘07-‘08 Season. Seen as folly by some. Frankly, hockey needs its balls back. A good start, IMO. (via ESPN and the Dallas Morning News)
(Look for PDF link to entire campaign in DMN article)
August 2007
46 posts
Cash or Credit? Church Now Takes Plastic →
Life Sin takes VISA.
Sale of indulgences meets 21st Century.
Martin Luther: ‘PayPal next logical step toward damnation.’
NHL's Next "Ice Bowl" Game on Jan. 1 →
While I love the idea of an outdoor hockey contest - especially when this iteration will feature my beloved Buffalo Sabres - who was the genius in charge of scheduling the event opposite the nexus of college football bowl games?
Jesus, Bettman (NHL Commissioner)… Does anyone on your staff have a clue about how any other sports work? This is really gonna help bring in new fans.
FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps →
Excellent interview on Bill Moyers Journal this past Friday. Net neutrality advocate. Bane of the media consolidators. Why isn’t this guy FCC Chairman?
“Alberto Gonzales is the first Attorney General who thought the truth, the whole...”
– Rep. Rahm Emmanuel (D-IL) - On the 8.27.07 resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez (via TPM Election Central)
“A story should have a beginning, a middle, and an end… but not necessarily...”
– Jean-Luc Godard
Myrna Loy →
Have always had a crush. A rare convergence of beauty, craft and activism from Hollywood’s Golden Age. Bless you, TCM.
No coincidence The Thin Man series, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, and The Best Years Of Our Lives are three of my favorites.
Regression
I am on a scavenger hunt for the toys of my youth. eBay, you are the cloven-URL’d demon!
Ron Mueck →
UK-based Australian artist. Creates magnificent, hyperrealistic (albeit creepy at times) sculptures. A one-time model maker and puppeteer for films (‘Labyrinth’) and TV commercials. (via Weezer)
‘Mask II’
‘Untitled (Boy)’
‘In Bed’
WatchLive from Congress: The Skullfucking Bill of 2007 (via The Onion)
Stressed Opera Singers Turn To Drugs →
‘Look, Maestro… No, it’s not just me. Alright? It’s not. It’s Pagliaccio… the Castrati… We’re all concerned. And you know we wouldn’t say anything if we didn’t care, so… You gotta lay off the Cosi fan Tootski.’
Miller Lite: 'Break From The Crowd' TV Spot
Wonder if anyone on the creative team at Crispin Porter + Bogusky read Clive Barker’s ‘In the Hills, the Cities’ ?
T-Y-P-E-W-R-I-T-E-R
From the ‘I Did Not Know That’ Department… Overheard this tidbit during a recent NPR interview with Darren Wershler-Henry, author of my next Amazon purchase: The Iron Whim: A Fragmented History of Typewriting:… in the QWERTY machines, all the letters contained in the word ‘typewriter’ are included in the top row of letter keys; most likely a well-thought-out...
Kiva.org →
Web-based, person-to-person microfinancing non-profit that provides entreprenuers in developing countries access to flexible loans to build their businesses. (via Stickems)
Action Star Seagal Wants An FBI Apology →
‘Use of his name in investigation hurt his career,’ he says (via the LA Times).
Uh. Sorry, Steve… the damage was done by:
Hard To Kill Marked For Death Out For Justice On Deadly Ground Under Seige 2: Dark Territory The Glimmer Man Fire Down Below My Giant The Patriot Exit Wounds Ticker Half Past Dead The Foreigner Out For A Kill Belly Of The Beast Clementine Out Of Reach Into...
Legendary Jazz Drummer Max Roach Dies At 83 →
Bebop/Hard Bop master. Played with everybody who was anybody. Personally think the sessions with Clifford Brown represent his most robust work.
Picked up Brown and Roach, Inc. years back, which was intended as my intro to trumpeter Brown, Two birds, one stone with that disc.
“Do illiterate people get the full effect of Alphabet Soup?”
– Anonymous (via Melissa’s forwarded email)
HBO Orders More 'Entourage' and 'Conchords' →
Funniest stuff on TV, premium channel or otherwise.
“Foux Da Fa Fa” from Flight of the Conchords Season 1, Ep. 8.
Definitely a toss up between this and Episode 6’s “Bowie’s In Space” for best bits… so far.
Melanie Morgan: "You're Going To Look Super In A... →
Okay, remind me… Who the fuck is this banshee?! Hate speech for the sake of hate speech. No nutritional value. (via Crooks and Liars)
(Image via Crooks and Liars)
Jenna Bush To Marry Ex-Rove Aide →
Dear God, they’re breeding!
Chinese Toy Company CEO Kills Self →
What is referred to as the Golden Noose in disgraced corporate executive compensation.
Merv Griffin Dies At 82 →
Creator of some of the best daytime remedies for being sick and home from school.
R _ S T I N P _ A C _
“I’d like to buy vowel, please.”
Lovin' That Baseball Terminology
Eephus Pitch (via Wikipedia):
“…is considered a ‘junk’ pitch with very low speed. The delivery from the pitcher has very low velocity and usually catches the hitter off-guard… is thrown overhand like most pitches, but is characterized by an unusual high arcing trajectory and corresponding slow velocity, bearing more resemblance to a slow-pitch softball delivery than...
Magnitude 4.5 Rumbler
Nothing like some late-night instability in LA’s lithospheric plates to interrupt the descent toward sleepy time. Have to circle around for another approach…
Not in “Sensurround”
Eight-Million-Year-Old Bug Is Alive And Growing →
This will not turn out well. (via New Scientist)
Study: Baby Vids Make You Dumber →
Something to be said for Junior’s unprovoked, honest curiosity toward the box the toy came in rather than the toy itself. Face it: TV will make oatmeal of his brain soon enough. Why rush things?
And, honestly, there’s only gonna be one baby Einstein. (via Stay Free! Daily)
Video Games Live →
Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark (Castle). Get some culture with your “Wiiitis”. No selections from Contra though. Where is my old Playstation…? (via NPR)
The computer-generated voice coming over Phoenix’s Sky Harbor International Airport passenger paging system slurs certain words as if he’s on the first leg of a peyote trip.
From The Fabricated Punctuation Department...
The mark’s creator, Torque Marketing Intelligence, claims: “No punctuation mark currently exists in the English language that connotes a feeling of mild joy, vague happiness or heightened indifference.”But the Chicago Tribune notes, in comparing the mark to its closest relative, the Emoticon:“If you look at it correctly, :-) looks like a smiling face tipped on its side....
Bonds Is Baseball's Home Run King →
So we’re done with this now…?
Happy 50th, Pink Flamingo! →
Nice piece in the Chicago Tribune interviewing the 71-year-old designer of the kitschy wonder.
Make-up Maestro William Tuttle Dies →
From Morlocks to Young Frankenstein, and everything in-between, Tuttle influenced generations of make-up artists. But the work of his that I remember most were his normal facial appliances for the classic Twilight Zone episode, ‘Eye Of The Beholder’, which were actually re-purposed Morlock pieces. Creepy.
Cubs Climb To Tie NL Central Lead →
From worst to first ain’t too shabby. But it’s unwise to abandon reality for reckless abandon, as skipper Lou Pinella points out: “You can’t make too much out of it on the first of August.”Well, maybe it’s okay to savor tonight’s feat and make just enough out of it until the second of August rolls around. (via The Chicago Tribune)
Why People Have Sex →
Top 9 reasons make enough sense, though there were a few more general themes referenced by the test subjects, including:…using sex as a means to a seemingly unrelated end (such as relieving a headache)Something to be said for just powering through one of the more popular reasons for not having sex.
Interstate Bridge Collapse in Minneapolis 'A... →
Is this how the End Times begin, from within?
Italian Film Legend Michelangelo Antonioni Dies →
Sucky week for International Cinema.