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Archives for July 2003
What A Country!
Rich sent me this link for an organization that wants to “turn the 2004 Democratic Primary into the most bizarre political circus in history.”
Republicans for Sharpton! Don’t you just love the American electoral process?
The new version of Macromedia Contribute introduces yet another web design travesty. It’s called [FlashPaper][1] and it’s a printer driver for Windows 2000 and XP that “lets Contribute 2 customers transform any printable document into a compact, web-friendly Macromedia Flash format and then embed the document as an intrinsic part of a web page.” As far as I am concerned, this is truly bad shit. FlashPaper does not allow text to be searched or selected, and unless your operation somehow sees this as a benefit, you should probably not use this product. As usual, wait for the next rev. [1]: http://www.macromedia.com/software/contribute/productinfo/flashpaper/
We’re On A Mission From God
Ladies and gentlemen, it is with great pleasure that I announce the reunion of Spontaneous Order. Expect the first show this coming November.
Jake: Matt, me and Elwood, we’re putting the band back together. We need you and Blue Lou.
Matt: Oh man. Don’t talk that way round here. My old lady, she’ll kill me.
Elwood: Ma’am you gotta understand that this is a lot bigger than any domestic problems you might be experiencing.
Aretha: Matt, what the hell is he talking about?
Matt: Don’t get roused sugar.
When The Generals Talk
There’s a fascinating article in the August issue of Esquire on General Wesley Clark.
With a Republican legislature to keep him from pushing social programs, he’s an intriguing option for 2004–if he runs.
If I Only Had An Eye Patch
My wife and I just returned from Las Vegas, which has developed quite a respectable fine art presence. While we were there we saw:
- Steve Wynn’s personal collection, which includes works by Cezanne, Renoir, Manet, Monet, Picasso, Matisse, and Warhol. It used to be at the Bellagio, but is now housed on the site of his new resort, which is currently under construction.
- An exhibit of Andy Warhol’s celebrity portraits, with the audio tour narrated by Liza freaking Minelli. I expected her commentary to be annoying, but she knew Warhol quite well and it was actually quite informative.
- Another Pop Art exhibit at the Guggenheim Hermitage Museum in the Venetian. I particularly liked the soft sculptures by Claes Oldenburg.
- A stunning Dale Chihuly installation at the Bellagio, which is pictured below.
Viva Las Vegas
It’s my parents 30th wedding anniversary next week and they will be renewing their vows in Las Vegas at the Graceland Chapel with an real-live Elvis-impersonator officiant.
The sisters and my wife and I decided to commission a kitsch black velvet painting to commemorate the event. The painting is based on my parents’ original wedding photo, with a few not-so-subtle changes. I hope they like it. I’m sure it will look great over the mantle.
Area Man Is An Idiot
The lead from this article on CNN.com seems like something right out of The Onion:
Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson urged his nationwide audience Monday to pray for God to remove three justices from the Supreme Court…
Nothing Robertson could say would surprise me.
Remember a few years ago when an email was circulating that challenged readers to distinguish passages from Al Gore’s book Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit from similar passages in the Unabomber’s manifesto? I think someone should create a similar quiz comparing Pat Robertson quotes to those of Fred Phelps.
I Hate Your Taste In Music
Somehow I doubt that this music review site is what the people at Amazon had in mind when they released APIs for accessing their site content.
Top 10 Birthday Singles
I now bring you the Cash Box Top 10 Singles for the week of my birth (8/12/78):
- “Three Times a Lady” - Commodores
- “Grease” - Frankie Valli
- “Miss You” - Rolling Stones
- “Last Dance” - Donna Summer
- “Love Will Find a Way” - Pablo Cruise
- “Life’s Been Good” - Joe Walsh
- “Hot Blooded” - Foreigner
- “Shadow Dancing” - Andy Gibb
- “Baker Street” - Gerry Rafferty
- “Copacabana (At The Copa)” - Barry Manilow
No More Chin-Cam
MacMice is now selling after-market plastic mounts for Apple’s new iSight camera.
The mounts that are included with the iSight blow. I don’t want adhesive on the back of my display. It’s beyond all cognition that someone could have possibly thought adhesive mounts would be a good solution.
I think I’ll get the shelf mount.
Now I’m Cooler Than You
I just received my International Standard Serial Number for this blog from the Library of Congress:
ISSN 1545-3480
You can get your own ISSN number here.
Get A Job
Metafilter has a thread on a script for The Rocky and Bullwinkle Horror Picture Show, once again proving that some people have way too much free time on their hands.
I Want My Crawling Tiger
The always-brilliant Philip Greenspun discusses an article in The Economist regarding the future of the auto industry:
Within 10 to 20 years the Chinese will be able to sell a car that is very similar to today’s rental car: 4 doors, 4 seats, air conditioner, radio, new but not fancy. It will cost between $2000 and $3000 in today’s dollars. With cars that cheap it will be unthinkable to manufacture in the U.S. Consumers won’t bother to finance a $2000 purchase separately (maybe they’ll add it to their credit card debt). Drivers will still carry liability insurance but won’t bother with collision or theft coverage. With cars that cheap it won’t make sense to advertise. If Ford or Toyota tried to sell the average person a $25,000 car they would simply laugh, much as a Walmart shopper would think you’re crazy if you tried to persuade him to spend $2,000 on a TV.
