links for 2008-11-30
Sunday, November 30th, 2008-
The reporter's kid talks to the pirates of holding the Sirius Star.
Archive for November, 2008
links for 2008-11-29
Saturday, November 29th, 2008Shepard Fairey on Obama Hope
Friday, November 28th, 2008There’s an interview on current.tv with Shepard Fairey about his Obama posters. I already mentioned my growing disillusionment with Fairey. While I didn’t explicitly say it in that post, I thought he’s on his way to becoming Paul Frank. I now think he’s on his way to becoming some sort of new Warhol / Paul Frank. Hackish, yet acclaimed, and ubiquitous.
Something new I learned about Fairey is that he’s into to DJing. He even brings up the parallels between his approach to art and DJing. I agree. There is a big connection. After all, Henry Rollins, “DJ Fuckface puts on a record of someone else’s music and calls himself a musician.”
links for 2008-11-28
Friday, November 28th, 2008-
Nice reference containing the unicode for non 8859-1 and 8859-15 characters.
Last Temptation of Christ
Friday, November 28th, 2008So after 20 years, I finally saw Martin Scorsese’s Last Temptation of Christ. I’ve wanted to see this ever since it was made because of the boycotts, and the accusations of the sacrilege. It’s not a bad movie, but it’s not a good one either. It’s thoroughly forgettable.
He gets crucified with 45 minutes to go. And here’s the thing I found odd about the scene. In the opening scene of the movie, Jesus is making a cross beam for a crucifix (he’s the only carpenter that will make them for the Romans), and then he has to carry the cross beam behind the condemned all the way to Golgatha, where he helps the Romans crucify the man. As a nice touch, the Romans nail a board reading “SEDITIO” to the crucifix. Now when it comes times to crucify Jesus, Jesus has to carry his own crossbeam (no word if he had to make it, or if they’re reusing the one he made before. The two thieves are nailed to trees.), and the Roman board listing the crime reads “I·N·R·I”. What? So which is more likely: Scorsese not realizing that INRI means “IESVS·NAZARENVS·REX·IVD& AElig;ORVM”, or that audiences wouldn’t get it because they’ve never seen the depiction of the crucifixion that was larger than two inches?
It’s the remaining 45 minutes that caused the most controversy. Jesus’s British guardian angel comes and shows him his life if he wasn’t the messiah. He marries Mary Magdalene, then fucks her while the preteen British girlguardian angel waits outside. A pregnant Magdalene “is killed by God” for unknown reasons. Jesus goes back to Nazareth, grows old where he becomes a bigamist with Lazarus’s two sisters. Jesus and two wives and multiple children go out and meet a preaching Paul who tells the canonical Jesus story, and when Jesus says he’s lying since he didn’t die, Paul says it doesn’t matter because his story is better. Jesus goes to Jerusalem where it catches on fire and he grows old, and on his death bed meets his disciples, and Harvey Keitel as Judas calls him a traitor for skipping out on the crucifixion. Jesus then realizes that the angel is really the devil (You had know she was evil. She’s British!), and then is magically transported back to the crucifix, where he dies and the film becomes overexposed.
That’s it. Sure Jesus is more interesting and not a two-dimensional superhero, but really… Maybe if I actually cared about religion, it mean something more, but as it is I just don’t care.
The New Day The Earth Stood Still
Thursday, November 27th, 2008Now I’m not a fan of remakes, especially when it’s a remake of a classic. When I saw the first trailer the remake of Day the Earth Stood Still, I was willing to give it a try. Keanu’s typical stoner acting (I’m convinced that every character he plays is just alternate versions “Ted” Theodore Logan.) fits well with Klaatu’s otherworldly presence. It looked cerebral and cool. Yeah, it was going to be different, since Gort attacks in it. (And what a weapon! Grey goo!)
The new trailer makes the movie look completely asinine. Predator drones attacking Gort in formation? Sounds like someone in Holywood said, “What’s cool? Let’s get some of those drones I heard about on CNN? Get some of those! I want hundreds!”" It looks like Independence Day. It just look horrible.
“Innovation” Microsoft Style
Thursday, November 27th, 2008I ended up downloading New Xbox Experience. (Why MS Marketing insists on putting “New” in the name, I don’t know. When they upgrade this, will it be “Newer Xbox Experience”? How about when the 360 gets replaced? Will the new interface (and there will be a new interface; there always is) be just called “Xbox Experience”, even though it’s actually new, or will be forced to talk about “the new New Xbox Experience” and “the old New Xbox Experience”?)
I haven’t bothered messing with the interface to actually make any judgements on how well it works compared to the old blades format; and given that neither Andrew nor I actually use XBox Live(!), I doubt I ever will. I did do one thing with it, since it was strongly hinted that I should. I made an Avatar. (Yeah, MS Marketing apparently capitalizes it.)
It’s a Mii, but only suckier. Mii’s are cute. Avatars aren’t. Mii’s aren’t just cute. They’re kawaii. They’re adorably Japanese. Avatars, are clearly American, not that that’s a bad thing, but these are clearly a knock off.
links for 2008-11-27
Thursday, November 27th, 2008-
Now scrapped(?) 1950s cruise ship
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2222 2nd Ave Suite 100, Seattle, WA 98121
206.905.7775
Mon-Fri 12:00pm - 6:00pm -
8414 greenwood avenue, seattle, wa, usa, earth, sol, via lactea
awesome! If only they shipped.
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8415 Greenwood ave N Seattle, Wa 98103
Hours: M-F 6:30a - 10p. Sat 7a - 10p. Sun 8a - 8pWas close to where I lived in Seattle. Not bad.
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My favorite coffee shop in Carbondale, but since the remodeling, it seems somewhat lacking.
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Of the 30 coffee shops in Santa Cruz, this is my favorite. Reminds me Long Branch.
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4505 University Way
Reminds of Pergolesi for no real reason. Went there all the time. Got decent at Ms Pac-Man there. Recommend the Mocha Mlkshake.
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Bar with an amazing number of pinball machines. Very cool.
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2312 2nd ave
206 374 8977
wed - thu 1pm - 6pm
fri 1pm - 7pm
sat 1pm - 6pm -
252 Fillmore St.
San Francisco, CA 94117
Phone: 415.252.9144
Gallery Hours: Tuesday through Friday 12-6 -
111 Minna (2nd St Between Howard and Mission) San Francisco
main: 415.974.1719
Tuesday - Friday 12pm - 5pm
Saturday 1pm - 5pm -
839 larkin st san francisco
open tues - sat 12pm - 7pm -
251 balboa street, san francisco, ca 94118
415 221 5012
gallery hours: monday to friday 1-5PM -
Restored Cold War anti-aircraft missile battery, now a park.
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Zima lasted 15 years? Really?
Office of the President-Elect
Thursday, November 27th, 2008
Now this is only my sixth president, but I do find it (refreshingly) strange that there’s so much emphasis on Obama. It’s almost as if he is president.
Granted, these are some extraordinary times given the financial crisis, but this is strange. He’s already announced his economic staff, and he’s going to officially announce his national security staff next week. He’s been holding regular press conferences.
I don’t remember anyone doing this, at least to this degree, ever.
Wrong Place Google
Thursday, November 27th, 2008So I was going back and adding bookmarks to my favorite coffee houses and whatnot, because… well, I don’t know. Anyway, I turn to google to find the link to Longbranch Coffeehouse in Carbondale, Illinois. The don’t seem to have a really official page, but there’s enough review pages that it’s all the top hits. The top hit is strange though. Google scraped the pages for the address to place it on the map (which they did correctly) but inexplicably, they also found a link(!) for a completely different place in Carbondale. Now here’s where it gets really weird. Nowhere on Cousin Andy’s page does the word “Longbranch” appear, and for the life of me I can’t really figure out how their algorithm went so wrong.
