Obama '08 Vinyl Car/Window Decal

instead of going for those tiny overpriced paper things on eBay, check this out:
MAX GRAPHIX will make you a large vinyl window decal for your car, postage included, for ten dollars. he/she is also an OBAMA SUPPORTER so some of the funds will go to the campaign.

he ships very quickly and it arrives in a paper tube so it doesn't get damaged.

Better(?) Timewasting Through Morphthing

ok so as if i don't have other things to do, i discovered a new site, thanks to my friend JoSo.

it's called MORPHTHING and you can even upload your own photos, cos there aren't a lot that i'd like to morph... i've found Benicio del Toro doesn't go so well with the other faces.

and in case you're wondering, this is Yoda with the Dalai Lama:

MUSIC: TV on the Radio - Dear Science

The new TV on the Radio came out this week. The album, "Dear Science", is great from the first listen. (Is that what they mean by 'accessible'?)

You won't be disappointed if you're looking to hear their characteristic guitar effects, electronic percussion and accents, multi-layered vocals and falsetto loveliness [try the first single Crying]. A few tunes have string and horn in arrangements, sounding very afro-popesque, with long breaks like Manu Dibango. The whole thing sounds a lot more, um, POP. (Is THAT what they mean by 'accessible'?) When i mean by that is, they've always had harmonies and melodies, but these songs just sound way more structured, more light...less abstract and not so bleak or somber...but there ARE a few tunes like that as well [Love Dog].

i've liked the last two records "Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes" and "Return to Cookie Mountain" a lot...and i've yet to catch them live. Hopefully, i will this time around. If you know my husband AlSto you know how much he likes them, too. Please give a listen and let me know what you think...


SeeqPod - Playable Search

Bruce Weber, obituary writer

This is a cool Q&A with New York Times' obituary writer Bruce Weber.

Now, after reading this, i'm going to read more than just the famous people's obits in the NYT!

Pan AKA Panguingue

over the weekend, i attended a wedding in Valley Village, and sat with a wonderful group who knew the bride primarily through her mother. some of the men sang in choir with the bride's mother, and some of the women played a card game with the bride's mother in a large group. the game they all played was called PAN, short for PANGUINGUE.

Pan was supposed to be a pretty big game in old school Las Vegas. i don't know if any casinos offer it any more. in any case, here are the RULES OF PAN, and the US Playing Card Company RULES too (scroll all the way down to the bottom).

i love Aaron Sorkin.

OBAMA So what about hope? Chuck it for outrage and put-downs?

BARTLET No. You’re elite, you can do both. Four weeks ago you had the best week of your campaign, followed — granted, inexplicably — by the worst week of your campaign. And you’re still in a statistical dead heat. You’re a 47-year-old black man with a foreign-sounding name who went to Harvard and thinks devotion to your country and lapel pins aren’t the same thing and you’re in a statistical tie with a war hero and a Cinemax heroine. To these aged eyes, Senator, that’s what progress looks like. You guys got four debates. Get out of my house and go back to work.

Read the entire conversation between Barack Obama and President Josiah "Jed" Bartlet, written by Aaron Sorkin and courtesy of Maureen Dowd at the New York Times.

MEH: Bar Louie Anaheim and Anaheim 300 Bowling

my friends DoGre and AlPa and i were looking for a place to have a drink. in our quest to find a bar, can you believe, we were THE FIRST customers in Bar Louie at the Anaheim Garden Walk? in fact, at 6pm, they were having a staff meeting, which we walked in on...so we had to kill time at the Anaheim 300 bowling lane.

Anaheim 300 had crap music but cool atmosphere, and a fairly friendly bartender and staff. it's eerie to be in any establishment where the staff outnumbers the number of customers...but it's also eerie to be in a bowling alley where there is no characteristic ==CRASH!== of bowling pins in the background. drinks were decent, but expensive. they had a menu, but we decided to pass cos we were going to go back and grab some food at Bar Louie...

Bar Louie had crappier music, and overly-friendly employees. with websites and local newspapers originally declaring a June/July 2008 start, months and months of delays led to this evening's rather soft opening. in fact, one bartender made a statement as to how we were 'popping his cherry' as his first drinks customers. gross.

silverware and menus abounded on each table, but SURPRISE! there is no food being served until next week. also, i liked seeing the Stone brewery coasters on each counter but SURPRISE AGAIN! there was no Stone beer brew anywhere on the menu.

the few other customers stopping by appeared to be friends of the working employees, or perhaps they were off-duty employees themselves. in any case, they were all chatting away amongst themselves like it was a big ol' get-together. with us sitting in a corner booth.

neither bar offered any drinks specials, nor any bonus for us being the only and/or first customers of the evening.

yeah, this entire area was pretty freaking dead on a Wednesday night. but if you go to the Anaheim Gardenwalk, you'll see the potential of the place, which is reminiscent of the Hollywood and Highland setup of upscale boutiques mixed with bougie-ass chain restaurants (in this case: Cheesecake Factory, Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., California Pizza Kitchen). there are a lot of pretty lights and blah blah blah.

there's even a totally independent but blatant rip-off of Jamba Juice who grants parking validation. but whatever you do, beware of the parking! none of the elevators take you to all the levels you want to go to. most of the shopping area is ABOVE the parking. and the signs are not very helpful. oh, and the garage is quite conducive to one's re-enacting the parking garage episode of Seinfeld, whether you are drunk or not...but if you are drunk, pay very close attention to where you started and where you want to go or you'll never get there.

Silent Raving Not Only LOOKS Stupid...

...but i bet it sounds pretty idiotic.

i just heard this story on NPR about people who are getting together to dance to their own music, while listening to iPods or whatever... some 17 year old said something about "all dancing together, but individually..." what's the point? aren't we all dancing around to our own music together, but individually at work, home, school, etc. at any given time?

i remember, how at the Glastonbury Festival, they had a silent dance tent. i LIKE this idea, where everyone listened to the SAME MUSIC but had headphones on so it was totally quiet for everyone who didn't have the headphones:


call me old-fashioned but yeah, i'm the idealist who thinks that raves are for bringing people together...through the communal experience of music. otherwise, there is no difference between listening to music in your own bubble of an automobile, and what they did in NY/Boston's silent rave.

MUSIC: Friendly Fires

It's taken a while, but i am happy to report that i think i've found the next CD that will not leave my player for the next few weeks.

Once in a while i get a record that sits on my desk for weeks cos i keep overlooking it, and then when i finally pop it in, it's pretty damn good. It sounds REALLY good when you read the album info states they laid down each instrument at a time on a laptop, with a "crappy microphone gaffer taped to a mic stand".

Friendly Fires are from the UK. It's happy sounding indie pop with some electronics. You may recognise 'On Board' as the song from the Wii Fit commercial?! Looking forward to seeing them play live!


SeeqPod - Playable Search

Barracuda ban!!?

The band Heart has issued a cease-and-desist order to stop the Republican national campaign from using their song 'Barracuda'. It was played last week at the Republican convention, after Sarah Palin spoke, cos she used to have that as a nickname in school.

Jackson Browne also raised a fuss over the use of his song, 'Running on Empty'.

Menudo ain't fine cuisine...is it?

While staying in Paris at the Plaza Athénée recently, Ricky Martin reportedly turned down ALAIN DUCASSE's cooking, a fine dining offer made by the hotel. He brought along his personal chef, instead. The story has a nice ending, though:

"Rather than some arrogant American health freak, a lovely, rotund, 60-something Puerto Rican lady arrived and knocked them all off their feet with her Latin charm. And not only did the chefs share the kitchen, they also sourced nothing but the best ingredients for her feasts. "

Read the article courtesy of KITCHEN RAT.

Lament on the Cheesecake Factory

So last night, i went to the Cheesecake Factory in Brea with AlSto, JaHe, FraKa and ChriPre. Food was good, service was decent, everything else was pretty blah...which is what bummed me out enough to write this complaint letter:

Sorry for the tone of this letter, and if it sounds like a complaint, i suppose it is, although i just wanted to express my disappointment more than i wanted to actually complain. Last night, there was an issue with your computer system and this prevented our orders from being fulfilled in a timely manner. The restaurant had only a few tables of diners at 9.30pm. Our server was pleasant enough, keeping us informed of the reason why it took over twenty minutes to get our food. ...and it took a WHILE to get our drinks from the bar, too. There were lots of smiles and seemingly heartfelt apologies, but i couldn't help but notice that in the end, our table of six was forced to shrug off the issue and go 'oh well'. Bummer. i understand you are no longer the 'old' Cheesecake Factory. CF used to be a special experience, a place where i wouldn't mind if we had to wait nearly two hours for a table, cos i knew the restaurant would take care of us in most every aspect. i just wanted to let you know how much i miss the 'old' CF, where the manager would come over and offer a free appetizer, or at least make sure we had plenty of bread (no, we didn't ask for more but we weren't offered any, either...). Thanks for listening, or at least reading.

oh yeah, and the music sucked about 85% of the time. (and i know i counted the number of people wrong. i just noticed that.) it makes me sad to sound old and complain about stuff.

Page Not Found on Obama website...

i like this!

The Bechdel Rule is new to me

if you know me, you know i love TiVO. or rather, watching TV on TiVO.

so... have you ever made up rules about the things you will and will not watch on TV? i think it would be difficult to come up with rules and exclude shows before you ever see the show, because you have to see the show to find out it doesn't adhere to your rules...but i know i have STOPPED watching shows, for whatever reasons. i never systematically laid out the reasons why i stop watching a show, but maybe i should and see if any of the characteristics fall into any subsets???! nah. too much work. but this 'BECHDEL RULE' is interesting to think about, at the very least. the comic is below, and if you want to hear a radio take on this phenomenon, listen to this story on NPR.

oh and if that was too difficult to read, i think there's a bigger version of it HERE.