i heart GREEN PORNO?!??

SO bizarre! you have got to watch these freaky original film shorts from the SUNDANCE CHANNEL, starring, and apparently written and directed by the lovely Isabella Rossellini. and, she's dressed up as each of her insect subjects: a worm, a praying mantis, and even a snail.

Venture Brothers preview...

i dunno if i'll be able to watch this on the Wii, but i hope you can watch this online! the new season starts on 1 June 08!!!

i like GraphJam.com

For my friend WaDi.

Courtesy of Graphjam.com, thanks to my friend JoMa.

narcissism, NY Times and emily gould

i guess i like to hear about people making mistakes, and i suppose it's best when people learn from them. in this case i'm not exactly sure what was accomplished, but you can read as blogger emily gould talks about the regrets and triumphs (but mostly regrets) of being a blogger, who is actually read by more than half a dozen people, in this week's New York Times magazine.

AlSto called her a moron this morning, when we heard a brief interview on NPR. she certainly lacks/lacked foresight and common sense.

for your reference, i have found a site that fleshes out some of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of mental disorders criteria for narcissitic personality disorder.

MUSIC: i like Scarlett Johansson, but i don't get this song.

i like Tom Waits. apparently, so does Scarlett Johansson, because she has a new album of Tom Waits covers.


the first single is FALLING DOWN and although the video is kind of, um, interesting, the song itself is just really, really bad. i really do like her as an actress! and i hate to write about stuff i don't like...but this song just sucks.

MUSIC: Rob Dickinson

the name sounds familiar, doesn't it? he's the singer from the Catherine Wheel.

and now he has a new album coming out called Fresh Wine for the Horses. here's the first single from the record:

me & richard b...again.

the music promotions company U.N.C.L.E. features a music director or programmer each week. so here's my fifteen minutes, or a fraction thereof: KISS KISS BANG BANG

MUSIC: M83

Think music, with sounds à la Psychedelic Furs, New Order, etc. etc. There's occasional vocals from people who sound like Human League's Phil Oakey and the muffled background voices from...god i can't remember...which is why i could never be a music writer...


Then, imagine production headed by Ken Thomas of Cocteau Twins fame, and Ewan Pearson, dance music guy... sounds pretty freaking cool.

Also, this time i have a new feature i'd like to try out. Let me know if it works:

brought to you by...

"CHALMSKINN!!! "

ANOTHER crazy Japanese game show...

"...The goal: To make it through a Japanese tongue twister without screwing up. The penalty: A swift wack to the groin with the slap-o-matic 2000." Thanks to my friend JePaJu for this one.

Nathaniel

thanks to AlHo for yet another fascinating video i can't stop watching... please note the change at :29, as AlHo was considerate enough to point out!

i may be a vegetarian, but i still love the smell of bacon.

thus begins an article on SLATE.COM by Taylor Clark. i agree with every word in that sentence, so i read more. he goes on to say:


"Believe me, if obtaining bacon didn't require slaughtering a pig, I'd have a BLT in each hand right now with a bacon layer cake waiting in the fridge for dessert."

agreed.

"...allow me a quick word with the hardworking chefs at America's dining establishments. We really appreciate that you included a vegetarian option on your menu (and if you didn't, is our money not green?), but it may interest you to know that most of us are not salad freaks on a grim slog for nourishment. We actually enjoy food, especially the kind that tastes good. So enough with the bland vegetable dishes, and, for God's sake, please make the Gardenburgers stop; it's stunning how many restaurants lavish unending care on their meat dishes yet are content to throw a flavorless hockey puck from Costco into the microwave and call it cuisine."

absolutely!

"As you're enjoying that pork loin next to me, I am not silently judging you. I realize that anyone who has encountered the breed of smug vegetarian who says things like, "I can hear your lunch screaming," will find this tough to believe, but I'm honestly not out to convert you. My girlfriend and my closest pals all eat meat, and they'll affirm that I've never even raised an eyebrow about it. "

AMEN! except change 'girlfriend' to 'husband'.

and just as i thought the entire article would speak for me, i read about how Mr. Clark wears leather. bummer. it's still pretty close.

you found WHAT in there???!

if you know me, you know i work in inflight entertainment, which is the 'industry' way of saying media and stuff that goes on airplanes. my department puts music on planes, for example. however, i find myself more often a passenger or consumer on an airplane, rather than a person who is researching stuff for my work. and passengers put their own stuff on planes...

all this because i heard a crazy story on NPR today, about what was found in seatback pockets of airplanes. an interesting thing of note was that the grossest stuff was usually in the pocket behind the middle seat...

the story interviewed writer Scott McCartney. "You'll never look at, or reach into, an airline seat-back pocket the same after reading this. Besides being a repository for magazines, newspapers, books, iPods and air-sickness bags, seatback pockets get stuffed with all kinds of disgusting trash, from toenail clippings to mushy meals."

read about what other nastiness you can find, courtesy of the Wall Street Journal's 'The Middle Seat' column.

two weeks ago or more...

it's all a blur pretty much, but i figure it's worth jotting down a few things just so i can have a record of the events for when i completely lose my memory. sorry if there's not enough detail, and sorry for not using more punctuation...but i wanted to get all this down as quickly as possible, and halfway through i didn't want to write so much any more.

love and rockets at the glass house in pomona: 22/4/08 - very cool, lots of old songs, bad sound but it was fixed, lyric cheat sheet during 'Haunted', LOTS of forty-somethings (i think) dressed in black, friendly drunk people in the parking lot and outside of the venue

san francisco/burlingame & VA: 24/4/08 - flew up at 8.30, plane was dark and had no inflight entertainment (IFE), drink coupon, took sheraton shuttle to VA office, meeting with new IFE content director, mexican food & mole enchiladas, return flight had IFE, used drink coupon, met writer Benji 'from Rolling Stone' (who i did see at Battles at Coachella the next day), came home at 5pm, nearly lost my ticket for parking lot, paid maximum of $30 anyway.

portishead: 24/4/08 - 'rehearsal show' at the Mayan, talking to guy in line (Dustin) who ended up being a Chapman student and turns out went on choir tour with me years ago but who is now super cool and funny and a writer, met people from DMX in line: Ken/Kenkai, Dave, cute English guy who replaced Boris, show was good but sounded pretty much exactly like the records, good crowd.

14th wedding anniversary: 25/4/08 - i love you, alx!!! we spent it at the first day of coachella.

coachella: 25/4/08 - BATTLES was awesome and i can't believe they pulled off what they did cos they played everything live but it was hot and hard to see cos we could barely get inside the tent, FREELAND was great as you have read in my previous posts, it was really difficult to find/connect with BriKa and his g/f Da because they didn't get inside until quite late, the RACONTEURS were freaking fantastic and i wish we had stayed for their entire set, APHEX TWIN played a sick sick set with some abstract stuff then classic acid house and then super dark noisy breakbeat for nearly an hour!!!!

coachella day 2: ...

you gotta sign a contract to join the church of scientology

i was turned on to this post by SLATE.COM today.

at the end of the article, there was a link to this Church of Scientology Religious Services Enrollment Application, Agreement and General Release . i haven't read the entire thing yet.

crazy. my next question is, what about children who are born in to it? at what age do they have to sign it themselves?

100 Worst Album Covers?

YOU decide...but there are some pretty hideous ones here...