Do ya like listening to tunes while at your computer? Bored of your own music stash? Interested in finding new music that would probably not otherwise be revealed to you? Well then. Have I got a site for you. (Infomercial voice = off)

Check out Pandora.com. GREAT site. Start by entering a favorite song or artist name. It'll play the song or a random tune by that artist, and then proceed to present you with tunes that it thinks you'll like according to that baseline aesthetic. It works amazingly well. Smooth streaming, minimal clicking....as you hear each song, the album cover and tell it if you like or dislike the song. It will use that information to include and exclude other artists as it creates a "genome" of your musical taste.

It's free, it's cool, and it works. How many things can you say all that about?

It used to be that The Simpsons was the funniest show on TV. Consistently hilarious. Nobody was safe—everyone was lampooned. The way it should be. But the writing has gone downhill in a big way. It's still funny, but it's not as smart. And that accounted for half the hilarity. I dunno...maybe I just caught a few bad episodes.

Iran has us over a barrel, pun intended. I wouldn't be surprised to see $5 gas again at some point in 2006. The U.S. reserve is only a temporary supply bandage. Israel is not going to let Iran develop a nuclear anything, so unless that Ahmadinejad guy is taken down and a more moderate and sensible leader replaces him, this is going to get a lot worse. There's so much internal dissent in Iran, it's amazing that U.S. policy doesn't try to exploit that. Then again, I'm not surprised.

Nawlins Mayor Nagin is an idiot. Who the hell are we ELECTING in this country? To get up in front of your constituents and declare, "surely God sent all these hurricanes to punish us..." {Sigh...} Shouldn't there be a baseline IQ requirement of 90?

If this isn't the most underplayed news story of the year, I'm not sure what is. It's simply amazing. But I'll bet that less than 5% of the population gives a damn.

I finally caught an episode of Jason Lee's My Name is Earl. Made me laugh harder than most shows do. Jason Lee hits that role perfectly. I liked him in Mallrats, too. I'm starting to feel bad for poking fun at him for naming his son Pilot Inspektor.

Another mine disaster? WTF? So you ask, is it coincidence? Is this just like a blue collar shark week or something? Or are there safety problems in the mining industry? Then you learn that Bush loosened mine safety regulations. Hey, I'm as pro-business as anybody, but why the hell would you want to go backwards in terms of safety in anything—particularly when it comes to the dangerous job of mining? Bush will probably get stuck in a PR morass for this, and I can't say it won't be deserved.

Labels: commentary

If I tend to poke fun at celebrity "culture" and the starfugger types who would line up at red carpet events and scream "I LOVE YOU" hysterically to anyone who walks by...well, I think this is a good reason why. Yea, a lot of this sorta thing is harmless, I understand that. And I consider 1960s Beatlemania "cool", so you might think this is an unbalanced opinion...but no. Beatlemania made sense. Screaming and crying for Tom Cruise or Madonna or P Diddy seems sad and pathetic. Right? Back me up here.

Presenting...the most dangerous man in the world. But I hope he keeps talking about this "holocaust as myth" thing, cuz that'll all but guarantee his failure, ultimately. It's amazing what hate can do to a human mind. And this guy wants to build nukes? Shudder...

Um...does it occur to anyone else out there how scary this could be if exploited? And you KNOW it will be....A few potential abuses spring to mind immediately. Maybe we should just stick to counseling, huh?

As I've said many times, anyone who breathes should care about the Earth. Care for the planet should come as naturally to all of us as self-protection does. But I can't stand all the assumptions and finger pointing and politicizing of the global warming phenomena. It doesn't matter what administration was, or is, or will be, in charge. The Earth doesn't change because of the activities of a 12-year period or whatever. The Earth has always had its cycles. The real problem is that we tend to look at changes through too small a prism of time. And we tend to want someone to blame.

Meanwhile, we're still constantly learning new things about Earth science. Discoveries keep popping up about the nature of climate change and the evolution of atmospheres, the shifting of magnetic zones and poles, and now...now we learn that a major source of global warming gasses is...plants. CUT 'EM DOWN!

So you know how insects see the world differently from most other creatures...with their Buckyball-like compound eyes, some bugs see things in multiple or as blotches of color. Instead of seeing a singular stand of a tree as we do, a particular species of insect might see a mottled blue blur instead. Then there's the butterfly. Their vision extends to the ultraviolet wavelength. Some of the flowers they pollinate have ultraviolet patterns that guide them into the flower. Without ultraviolet instruments to "see" these guides, we humans would have no idea that they exist. But they're there. So what else is out there that we can't see?

It made me think, "we don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are." I thought that might make an interesting aphorism...y'know, something to be credited with. But then I learned that Anais Nin said it first. Dang.

Oh, and RE: King Kong: Good, but over the top. No salty cheeks for me. The 'effects' (are we still calling them that?) were impressive but the action lacked the subtlety of the Lord of the Rings films. There were simply too many improbabilities stacked on top of improbabilities. Yes, yes...I know...we're talking about a mysterious unmapped island where a single giant ape lives along with giant spiders, centipedes, bats, Brontosauruses (Brontosauri?), T-Rexes, and a host of other nasty unnamed things. So the suspension of disbelief thing is written right on the ticket. But still...you can't have an old man carrying a film tripod, running through unfamiliar jungle AND NOT LOSING GROUND TO RAGING DINOSAURS RIGHT BEHIND HIM. You just can't.

And I know that Peter Jackson wanted to remain true to the spirit of the 1933 original, and that's great and all...but the last line of the movie just didn't work for me. "Twas beauty that killed the beast...!" That line worked great during the Great Depression, but in 2006 it just sounded stilted and corny, like the dialog of so many old movies. It's either that, or the great Jack Black, who I find hard to accept in a serious role. The guy is just too damn funny as a comedian to deliver a line like that.

Creating a "Doomsday vault" with the seeds of all known crops is a good idea, but doesn't it sorta give you the creeps?

Labels: commentary

Nikki is about ready to burst. Ripe, man. Ripe. And I too am changing in odd but predictable ways. For the first time in my life I don't wince when I hear gobbledygook babytalk. Now I listen eagerly, smiling. The mysterious program that forces high-pitched nonsense out of the mouths of otherwise mature, intelligent adults, which typically installs itself shortly after the birth of one's first child, has been installed in me ahead of time and is calibrating my vocal settings on the dog.

"Is Abby hungwy? Are you hungwy? Yyyyyyeees you ARE!"
(rub rub rub)
"Yyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeaaa....I'm a happy puppy dawg...."

I never used to talk to the dog that way. It's happening automatically.

Famous For Being Famous

Scanning through some news sites today I was stopped, as I often am, at CNN.com. I like CNN's presentational attributes and a few of their anchors and pundits, but that's about it. Today, looking at their front page, I was reminded of a skit from Sesame Street. No, not Near......FAR!, or Yupyupyupyupyupyup.... Nope-nope-nope-nope-nope-nope.... Yupyupyupyupyupyup.... BBBBbbbbbwwwiinngggg! (one of the very best, by the way)...no, I'm talking about that little game with the ditty that goes:

One of these things is not like the others,
One of these things just doesn't belong,
Can you tell which thing is not like the others
By the time I finish my song?

Sing this while looking at their headline box from 1-5-06, 5:00 p.m.:

It's not just that this fascinating find was listed below an article on Paris Hilton's lifestyle, it's that Paris Hilton got yet another headline. Hey CNN: You're part of the problem. Stop propping up Paris Hilton into the category of important, and maybe...just maybe, society will too in time.

Indeed

"If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven played music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well."

- Martin Luther King Jr.

Labels: at home