get busy

Get Busy

Oh hey there - How you been? Me, I'm waist deep in social activity these days - so I've just a brief minute to say hello and give you a few articles. Sorry I can't stay and talk, but you know me these days... On. The. Go! My life is so double booked and my personal assistant (Seela) is working overtime to make sure you and I get, you know, Catch-up time. I'm sure she'll find something soon, lunch or possibly just a 5-minute exchange of phone texts, but regardless - she'll be in touch. Oh sorry - can't get into conversation now... No talk! Just wave!!! (yelling from cab) IF IT'S TRULY IMPORTANT - CALL MY ASSISTANT! SHE'LLL SET EVERYTHING UP!! (cab drives off and leaves the following artifacts in it's wake):

Ann Coulter Slash Fiction: Does anything say eww (but elicit laughs) than this way inappropriate blog or this site exposing Coulter as a former arab-lovin' trannie?. (Note - not appropos for the workplace).



Atheist Article in Salon: this interesting Richard Dawkins interview in salon shows that America has fallen off the flat earth and into the dark ages. Granted, he's on the extreme end of atheism (and says agnosticism is a cop-out), but he does have interesting points about religion as a virus...



Celebutante: The Value of Nothing: Paris Hilton can appear and do nothing and earn more than I could make in two years. Read about it here.

Summer

Lists of the upcoming summer

A compilation of scenes from the upcoming months (to the tune of "That's Entertainment" by the English band, the Jam).

• Walking along a semi-busy street at night and feeling the heat wash over you in waves. The sound of approaching cars and people doing things outdoors that are normally done indoors.
  
• The smell of propane and pulled weeds. A woman cursing in her backyard at either dogs or small children.
  
• "Out of Office" Notices from personal distribution lists.
  
• The completely failed-to-notice idea of not wearing sunscreen.
  
• Plants wilting on hot porches. Yellowing newspapers. A half-consumed beer bottle and partially full long island.
  
• Citronella candles in obscene colors.
  
• Vintage Polyshirt-sweat smelling of old cigarettes and old man sweat (not yours).
  
• Not just cold refreshing cola, but throwback soda that you've not had in a while.
  
• No really good movies until September. Only theater to see is Bald Face Lie and late night drag somewhere obscure.
  
• Things with Mayo going bad really quick.
  
• Late night TV with your door wide open and the sound blaring away.
  
• Sitting on the floor in your underwear in front of a fan, watching the last rays of sun going down.
  
• Wishing you were in Iceland.
  

Crap

Crap, Double Crap

A few days passed and I've been negligent in my blogging. There was quite a few articles and opinionated things I was going to discuss...

• The fact I just finished "The Underminer" and found it hilarious yet terrifying real.
  
• The fact that I bought the new iDN Mag from Uwajimaya and have been turned onto all these great new euro-bands (and the Morr label).
  
• The fact that I saw a Leigh Bowerey documentary and found him to be completely original (even 20 years ago) and we're sorely missing that element of whimsey and outrage that was the 80's.
  
• The fact that Ann Coulter had an explosion on the Cover of Time as looking like an insect in drag herself.
  
• The fact they've just elected a really super scary uber conservative ex-nazi Pope to really make sure we go back to the dark ages.
  
• The fact that RIchard Florida just published a new book "Flight of the Creative Class" where he goes on to discuss the impact of our unfriendly and near-fascist immigration policies (along with hating any minority for that matter) and our bloated arts community is still cow-towing to conservatives for funds.
  

No - I was going to write all about those things, but then I got forwarded this article and find myself dealing with alot of questions and issues, which immediately came after reading the Senate outcome of HB1515. As much as I don't want to lapse into a trail of expletives and hurl things at pictures of various bigoted, stupid senators from Hok-wee-uhmm (wherever that is) - I am on the verge of forming a cultural fatwa on the scary individual who got this whole mess turned up... Ken Hutcherson. He probably had more impact on the Senators than Microsoft, but that he had this impact on Microsoft is terrifying to say the least. Previous zealots (Phelps, Falwell, Roberson) are rhetorical and simply do the money dance for the cameras... This guy could walk into a corporate office and change a policy, like the Gestapo coming into a place of business and doing pretty much the same thing in prewar Germany. Chilling... Maybe I'm overreacting and the allusion is a bit extreme - but something about this powerplay is bigger and deeper than we're seeing at the moment. But then again - now MS is lying and saying he didn't have an impact. Indeed.

Well - I thank the god I believe in (the nice one that accepts all people) that I have a Mac.

There's more interesting debate here and hereif you're interested.

Shaw-nuh

It's Pronounced "Shaw-Nuh"

And because this has been a Rock-n-Roll week - my coworker Mark forwarded this hilarious life-illustrating-art gem: the real New Romantic 80's band that the Office's(UK) Ricky Gervais was in: Seona Dancing.

I don't think he's the bottom one with crimped hair, and I am hardly one to through stones for the totally 80's-ness of having crimped hair and that euro-fey fashion, but mine never made it to vinyl (just bad yearbook pictures)... Also - Gervais went onto manage Suede, so there's more to the man than brilliant comic timing I guess. Oh and hey - they were big in the Phillipines also!

Giant Shoutout

Giant Shoutout

In honor of the Giant premiere (first gig ever!), I am giving a shout-out courtesy of recent photo's from the first fateful and memorable Joy Division gig:

"“It’ll be interesting to see how many people claimed to be there on the night though. I’d really like to meet other people who genuinely were there, but this could end up a bit like the Sex Pistols at the Free Trade Hall which everyone seems to claim to have witnessed.”

You can see the collection here...

I'm sure we'll be saying the same about Giant (altho' no suicides - please!!) Good luck tonight to Giant! You can see their gig here...

J.D.

Working out the particulars with iDVD

I fooled around with iDVD over the weekend. Using the short dogme film we created as my test. I want to do something that I can easily assemble in 2 minutes but looks quality and not something I slammed together. The tools are incredibly cheap and easy, but at the same time, I want to make it look well worn. As Jonathan Caouette proved to us – you can use simple Mac tools and have it be festival-ready. I will commit to writing a script this weekend for a short and then seeing if I can grab some motley volunteers to help me impliment it.

See more progress on: make a film

Quick Shout Out For Giant

Quick Giant Shout Out

Here's a quick plug for anyone reading this (yes, all three of you) and in the Seattle Metro area: My friend's band (Allen and Lyle) are going to premiere on Wednesday April 13th at 9:00pm, at the Rebar.



Check them out via their oh-so-slick website...



And yes, it's also the same day that we're finally getting folks together for the book club (so I can cross that off one of my 43 things... So far, my choices that I'm going to bring: this Safran Foer, this Albo, and maybe, just maybe, this classic since he just died...